jeno:
1) How old were Eb and Maggie Sr when they first manifested a talent?
2) How many sisters does Thomas have?
3) How does one become the Merlin?
These ones have already been answered.
This one was also answered, the senior council pick out a new Merlin from amongst themselves.
I have a bunch of questions in the relevant thread, but only one of them got asked, I'd want it to be whether Talos is still alive after the end of SK, because that is one that for some reason irrationally nags at me and seems unlikely to connect to anything that would lead to an "I'm not going to tell you".
Okay, stricken from the record.
You mean the Questions for Jim 2012 style 2 (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,33234.0.html) thread? Yeah, that'll work, too. The reason I started this thread, though, is because that one has 22 pages, and a whole lot of random questions in it that no one's going to care enough about to ask at a Q&A. I didn't think most people were likely to spend that much time on the subject. And one of the Q&As is tonight, so a short thread to put the questions we care about most into seems easier than sifting through the other thread looking for ideas. I guess I wanted a distilled version of the QfJ2012 thread.
2) Would you(Jim) please clarify exactly who the Faerie Queens can personally kill and who they can't? At various times in Summer Knight and in the rest of the series, we've been told or seen evidence that:
-- The Sidhe Knights are the only ones allowed to act in matters not directly related to the Faerie Courts. (SK, Ch. 10)
-- The Queens are not allowed to kill anyone who isn't a member of their own Court. (SK, Ch. 10)
And yet:
-- We've seen fae servants of the Faerie Queens kill and attempt to kill mortals many times.
-- Aurora was able to try to kill Harry just fine, but was unable to harm Murphy. (SK, Ch. 20-21)
-- When Harry is preparing to deal with Mab to become the Winter Knight, he thinks to himself that Mab can't kill a mortal, only make them wish they were dead. The implication seems to include the Winter Knight. (Changes, Ch. 30)
So which mortals can the Faerie Queens kill? Bob tells us one thing, but evidence in the books indicates something else.
Re: Your three points:
-- We've seen the fae wreaking mayhem on multiple occasions, but the only real bodycount was in PG, where they were acting via Mollys' choice. It was, essentially, Molly's decision to indulge in black magic that opened the way for the horror movie fetches to go wild at the convention, while at Arctis Tor, anyone present had clearly chosen to involve themselves in the events, I. E. become involved in matters directly related to the dealings of the court.
-- In Summer Knight, Harry as Winter Emissary was an open target, since he was - temporarily, to hear him tell it - a part of Winter, while Murphy was, as a vanilla mortal who happened to be standing nearby, not a legitimate target, and therefore the Chlorofiend had to pull its punches.
-- Take 1 part wishful thinking, 2 parts assisted delusion via [GS thing], and 1 part not-thinking-straight-due-to-having-just-been-permanently-injured. Garnish with inaccurate phrasing and unreliable narrator to taste.
The question I'd enjoy having an answer to the most at the moment is
Do all faeries have a weakness to iron and if so, has it always been that way or is it more like wizards and murphyonic fields? What is considered iron/cold iron (i.e. is it the amount of iron that matters or some sort of metahysical signifigance)?
Do wizards gain power (not just skill) with age (i.e. is a 300 year old wizard more powerful than at 20 years old?) like every other supernatural group seems to?
What did the Red Court use Chichen Itza for when Cortez was there?
What are Harry's specialties in magic (there have been some inconsistencies about what he is skilled at)? How skilled is he with evocation?
How old are the senior council members?
1)Who taught Fix swordplay after he was Knighted?.
2) If a White Court vamp became a Knight for one of the Fae Courts, would the power boost and new magic affect/overlap with their vampire powers?
3) Does being a Winter/Summer Knight mean you still have to follow the Laws of magic?
4) What is Ancient Mai's specialty since you've said before that she's never been one for physical combat
5) How different is rune magic in terms of function and effect from the regular magic we've usually seen in the series?
6) How highly ranked were the Eebs in the Red Court Hierarchy since they weren't True Mayan and would they have stood a better chance against Susan and Harry if they decided to fight instead of sending in the scrub and the Ick ?
7) Where did Madrigal Raith acquire those ward cloths as they seem to be rather convenient for participating in a duel he didn't know he'd be in.
I'm fairly certain that the following were answered by Jim at one point or another:
I have a bunch of questions in the relevant thread, but only one of them got asked, I'd want it to be whether Talos is still alive after the end of SK, because that is one that for some reason irrationally nags at me and seems unlikely to connect to anything that would lead to an "I'm not going to tell you".I asked him that for you a couple of years ago and got a half answer. He said that Maggie didn't have enough time to set the deal up as well as she could have if she'd had more time. So while that's not a direct answer to it, it is close. And I think the gist is no, that she didn't close all the loopholes and for help he didn't really need anyway he had to ask himself.
I'd also really like to know
1) When was Kemmler's last stand, 1961 as per DB or WWII as per GS ?
2) If Harry had known about Lea's bargain with Maggie, could he have just demanded her help against Justin instead of selling himself for it and:
2b) if the answer to 2) is yes, is Harry ever going to find/figure this out ?
but I suspect that 2) might well get an "I'm not going to tell you", and there have been rumblings that some of the apparent series inconsistencies are part of a larger plan so 1) might as well. Indeed, I can see 2) being resolved in CD.
7) Where did Madrigal Raith acquire those ward cloths as they seem to be rather convenient for participating in a duel he didn't know he'd be in.
I know this isn't a definitive answer to the question like a WoJ would be, but I think I can answer the "rather convenient" part of the question. Madrigal Raith was basically a member of the White Court nobility. His uncle is King of the White Court. Members of nobility are bound to collect objects like those warded armbands, because they can afford them and they're in a position to come across such things, due to their prominence within the structure of the ruling House. I see it as something like the way wealthy families often collect antiques or expensive works of art; only, in this case, the armbands had practical value in a duel.House Malvora could have provided them as well. Winning this duel was crucial to them and Madrigal was not really up to the task and needed some help.
The Wizards gaining power one has been answered by select book quotes, the rest, no.
I recall Jim saying in one of the audio Q&A's that the senior council members were around Harry's age at the time of the French and Indian War. Some day he may even go back and write about that period.
On evocation I recall Jim saying in an audio interview that Harry is one of the most skilled WC members at evocation, although the senior council members have been doing it for far longer than he has, and have the skill to back it up. The Merlin is the Merlin for very good reason.
As for Chichen Itza, my memory has fogged over from time, but I believe that at some point Jim said something along the lines of it being put to the same use in the old days as it was in Changes, magical rituals involving human sacrifices.
For his exact words, you'd have to dig through the audio interviews.
For the senior council, their ages are all over the map, Langtry and Eb are the same age, LTW and Martha unknown but appear to be same generation, Mai's over 400, Pietrovich and Cristos unknown and nobody freaking knows how old Rashid is, he was running around in 700A.D.
And the possibility of Harry being one of the best evocators makes me want an official clarification even more, in early books he was supposed to be pathetic at evocation and good at thaumaturgy, in later ones he's skilled in both with a talent for evocation in particular.
And the Chichen Itza thing, the only one who said Chichen Itza was used for that was Odin in Changes.
Actually he tried to use the sight on an angel in GS... not soulgaze. Different and distinct actions.
Yep, Pietrovich and Cristos are unknowns, although Cristos must be the youngest of the bunch given the rules of seniority, and Mai is over 400. The rest sound as if they are somewhere around 250-300, judging from the French and Indian War remark.
Do you have the citation on where he was supposed to be pathetic at evocation? I recall something along those lines in the very first book, although I don't think "pathetic" was the word used. Given that this series spans 2 decades of supernatural bad guys trying to kill him, his evocation skills have been forced to improve greatly in order for him to survive, kind of like what Molly is now going through now with Lea & the Fomor, so it may well have been accurate for the Harry of that time, but no longer accurate for the Harry of today. Otherwise he wouldn't have been drafted to help teach evocation to young wardens.
Do we have reason to believe that Odin was mistaken?
I gripped my blasting rod so hard that my knuckles turned white, and struggled to work out an evocation on the fly. I'm not much of an evocator. That's, the whole reason I used tools like my staff and blasting rod to help me control and focus my energy. The very thought of spontaneously trying out a new evocation was enough to make sweat bead on my forehead, and I tried to remind myself that it wasn't a new evocation. It was just a very, very, very skewed application of an old one.
I want more specific ages than just "alive back in the french and indian war".
The most recent quote on him being bad with evocation.
And we know What it was used for, I'm asking about Who it was used on in that time and Why.
Harry has come a long way since the first book in the series.
The Why seems obvious, and maybe I've missed something, but I don't see what's so special about the Who.
I haven't seen the WoJ talking about Harry's skill at evocation, so I'm just guessing here, but I'd bet that a statement like that would need to be qualified with, "for his age" or "of his generation." I can see Harry being considered very good at evocation for someone of his age, but not for, say, a wizard who's 150 years old and has been a Warden for 100 years of that time. It seems like any Warden who's 150 years old or so is going to be way better at evocation than Harry is, just by dent of skill gained through an extra 100 years of experience.
Well Carlos was said and shown to be much more skilled at evocation, less powerful but still more talented.
That's not book 1, that's a quote from book 8.
Really, what ritual was used that required Chichen Itza? what did they do to piss the Reds off that much? Who were the targets?
And this is all just a piece of irrelevant background information I'm asking about.
I read that passage in Changes a bit differently. It wasn't that they used the very same ritual when Cortes came through, but that the Reds haven't used the location since Cortes conquered the Aztecs. Do we know what supernatural group Cortes was associated with that the Ramps weren't able to stop his conquest?
That's not book 1, that's a quote from book 8.
Well Cortez was a Spaniard so I am presuming that the christian powers were backing him up. According to changes the Rampires are one of the most vulnerable beings to faith magic, so maybe a bunch of christian Spanish soldiers were enough to cause grief to even a bunch of Rampire turned gods.
He has come a long way from that to, mainly because of Molly.
It might also be that he underestimates himself. He grew up with Justin, I can very well see him being bad at praising people. Then he has mostly fought things far bigger than himself. He has never (as far as I know, except Elain a long time ago) had a change to test himself against someone in his own league. Morgan seems to consider him good, and I would value that testimony way higher than Harrys own judgment (he is after all not a particularly smart man, when it comes to himself).
Well Cortez was a Spaniard so I am presuming that the christian powers were backing him up. According to changes the Rampires are one of the most vulnerable beings to faith magic, so maybe a bunch of christian Spanish soldiers were enough to cause grief to even a bunch of Rampire turned gods.
Michael's faith was only enough to get him victory against 3 or 4, and faith doesn't stop spells, they probably needed to have supernatural backup of some description if they were trying to take on Red Court forces.
Michael's faith was only enough to get him victory against 3 or 4, and faith doesn't stop spells, they probably needed to have supernatural backup of some description if they were trying to take on Red Court forces.
Can you show a quote on that? Because Michael's faith sans Sword at the very least was able to block Mavra's spell.
"I'm told that He helps those who help themselves," I said. "We've got to get out of here."
Michael's armor clinked as he looked around. "They've blocked the exits."
"I know. How many of them can you handle without the Sword?"
"If it was only a question of holding them off ..."
"But it isn't. We may have to punch a hole through them."
Michael shook his head. "I'm not sure. Maybe two or three, Lord willing."
A vampire lurched toward Thomas, while another reached out to grasp Susan. She thrust her cross in its face, but unlike with Mavra, the wood did not blaze to light. Faith magic isn’t always easy to work, even on vampires, and the Red Court, creatures with a more solid hold on reality than the more magical denizens of the Black, were not so easily repelled.
Faith is a power of its own, and one even more elusive and difficult to define than magic. A symbol of faith, presented with genuine belief and sincerity, is the bane of many an otherworldly predator—and one of the creatures most strongly affected were vampires of the Red Court.in Changes.
Sorry TCF, I should have been more clear. I was asking for a quote on Faith not stopping spells because as I stated Mavra's spell is blocked by Michaels glowing cross.. I agree that Michael doesn't seem able to punch a hole in them with his faith.
Actually we have a bit of a conundrum regarding faith and the Rampires.
We have
in Grave Peril
vs
in Changes.
Questions:
1) When Harry Soulgazed Molly he saw that in one of her possible futures she was no longer human with yellow eyes. Is there somebody in the Dresden Universe that has the same yellow eyes? How can you become such a creature (inhuman with yellow eyes)
Oh no, Molly possessed by the Yellow Eyed Basta**! (let's see who gets the reference. :P)
But in all seriousness, I can't remember anything with yellow eyes. Rampires had dark ones didn't they?
Oh no, Molly possessed by the Yellow Eyed Basta**! (let's see who gets the reference. :P)
But in all seriousness, I can't remember anything with yellow eyes. Rampires had dark ones didn't they?
One was an emaciated version of Molly, as though she’d been starved or strung out on hard drugs, her eyes aglow with an unpleasant, fey light.
The eyes weren't actually yellow. Here's the description from PG:
"...her eyes aglow with an unpleasant, fey light." I'd guess that any number of supernatural creatures might be capable of crawling inside a human and causing them to look like that. We might even have seen one or two in the books already, if the creatures can cause different changes in the appearances of their victims. That look could even be the result of a bargain or series of bargains with some of the fae. Probably Winter fae, maybe even Lea.
The eyes weren't actually yellow. Here's the description from PG:
"...her eyes aglow with an unpleasant, fey light." I'd guess that any number of supernatural creatures might be capable of crawling inside a human and causing them to look like that. We might even have seen one or two in the books already, if the creatures can cause different changes in the appearances of their victims. That look could even be the result of a bargain or series of bargains with some of the fae. Probably Winter fae, maybe even Lea.
Were means Man, actually. Tera would be a wolf-wo, I think. This has been your etymology lesson for the day.
I've got a question, but I'm not sure on the formatting.
Do the Fae have souls? Harry has claimed that they don't, but was he right? Did Harry deny Aurora both a normal life & an afterlife to boot?
If not, what happens to their soul, does it move onto the afterlife when a Changeling chooses, or is it converted into part of the new being.
(Angels don't have free will, & are all soul, so if Harry is making the assumption that the Fae have no souls based on the lack of free will, I just assume its a mistake.)
Wordy, right? If I get a chance, I plan to just really ask the first bit, but I figure I should put out my entire thinking here. It was something I wanted to know, back with Aurora & Meryl, but now has come up to the forefront of my thinking.
I've got a question, but I'm not sure on the formatting.
Do the Fae have souls? Harry has claimed that they don't, but was he right? Did Harry deny Aurora both a normal life & an afterlife to boot?
If not, what happens to their soul, does it move onto the afterlife when a Changeling chooses, or is it converted into part of the new being.
(Angels don't have free will, & are all soul, so if Harry is making the assumption that the Fae have no souls based on the lack of free will, I just assume its a mistake.)
Wordy, right? If I get a chance, I plan to just really ask the first bit, but I figure I should put out my entire thinking here. It was something I wanted to know, back with Aurora & Meryl, but now has come up to the forefront of my thinking.
There are some seeming inconsistencies surrounding this subject. Are sidhe who are not faerie queens immortal? or only the faerie queens? How can Lily be the first "mortal" to become a faerie queen when the same thing occurred with Maeve? and much, much earlier Mab? How can a mortal non-fae become an immortal fae? Does she still have her soul? Or free will? Can such a state be forced on her against her will? What percentage of new fae aredue to fae-fae breeding, and what percentage are due to fae-human breeding? Can fae even breed with each other?
Therefore he isn't so good at little evocations that take a lot of pinpoint control, although he is getting better at them as the series progresses. It's big evocations that involve massive destruction and take down entire buildings that he's a natural at. :PGecko insurance only covers Acts Of Harry and not Acts Of God.
Presumably, Lily was the first individual to become Lady without having Chosen or already been a Sidhe.Mab was mortal too
We already know Fae can lie, if they don't know that they're lying. And given how grief stricken Aurora was feeling, I expect that Lily didn't get much specific info out of her.Who says Harry needs a brand? It could have been some sadistic Maeve thing.
New suggested questions...
When: Exactly was Evil Bob created & Maeve infected?
Where: is Harry's Winter Knight brand located? Slade had it on his neck, Fix went looking for it on Harry's wrist. So where is it?
Who says Harry needs a brand? It could have been some sadistic Maeve thing.
Do all Wizards have a portion of Scion blood in them, which explains their talent?
Something that has been bugging me and I haven't seen it discussed much since Ghost Story:
Are we supposed to have figured out who said, "Hush now" and was it in response to the "Die alone!" death curse?
I would also like to hear other people's ideas on this. I remember possibilities being: Harry's mother, Lash, Mab, & Leah. For some reason I'm leaning toward Lash.
Tera West, a wolf had no soul.
Is a being without Free Will worth less than a being with Free Will? If you do bad things to a being without Free Will, is that okay? How should they be treated? Like humans? LIke animals? If you have a choice between saving either an unrepentant serial killer or a friendly being without Free Will, is it immoral to save the friendly being since the mortal could have changed his ways?So kill Mouse if he attacks the serial killer?
So kill Mouse if he attacks the serial killer?
How do you come up with the bounds between Characters free will and the Divine Hand?
For the Dresden Files, the whole point of The Almighty positive good forces that are out there is that free will is important and they respect that and you've gotta have it and use it. That's the entire point. They are a force of freedom. And it's the bad guys who are going around doing whatever they can to abrogate free will. So for me, where you draw the line is what defines where good stops and evil starts is by how much you're taking away free will and how much you're enabling it.
You've said before that human beings are the only beings that have Free Will. However we have since learned that angels are all soul and so presumably have Free Will (plus how did Lucifer Fall if he didn't have Free Will?). Can a Fallen be redeemed or do they lose their Free Will after they Fall?angels don't have free will they hav to act with in set pramiters, countering the fallen is one thats why uriel can only wisper 7 words to harry
angels don't have free will they hav to act with in set pramiters, countering the fallen is one thats why uriel can only wisper 7 words to harry
could be :D maybe they had it before motals came about and since they had so much power they had to have restriction on there abilty to effect the mortal world
if this hlp...
i sveral actully uriel said clearly amused all designed for your protection but there are som thing i can tell you
so angels are bound by laws at the very least
I don't know. That's why I'm asking.Or maybe the serial killer attacked Mouse because he likes killing beings without free will.
If I had to take a stab at an explanation that I think Jim would give, I would say that presumably Mouse is attacking for a good reason (the serial killer is trying to kill someone or Harry or whatever). Normally Harry's Free Will and The SK's Free Will are equal and so their lives are both of equal worth. However, if the serial killer kills Harry or Mouse or some other being that Mouse deems worthy of protecting, the total Free Will and/or potential for enabling Free Will (this is why beings without Free Will get a pass. Sometimes they can enable Free Will) goes down (not to mention he'll probably do it again). In order to preserve maximum Free Will the serial killers Free Will must be taken away (in an ideal situation this would never happen but the Dresdenverse is not an ideal world).
Now if Mouse just attacked the serial killer for no good reason than you might be justified in killing him. Ideally you would just subdue him because he has potential for enabling Free Will though.
Keep in mind that I'm tired right now and I'm probably forgetting some things.
At this point in time, can you give us a general rundown of Harry's strengths as a magicican? He was especially skilled at thaumaturgy in the beginning, not so much evocation. Has that changed with a decade or more of being in novels? Are his multiple necromantic feats evidence of any special skill in that field, or just stuff he gets away with because of special circumstances/it's awesome?
I hadn’t used much fire magic lately, obviously. You don’t go messing around conjuring up flame when you’re at the heart of Winter. There are things there that hate that action. But fire magic has always been my strongest suit. It was the first fully realized spell I ever mastered, and on a good day I could hang around in the same general league as any other wizard in the world when it came to fire magic.
I'm not crazy though, right? In the beginning, his evocation wasn't so hot, because even though he used it in fights, he only had a small handful of spells he actually used. Or that's how I remember it.
Twice in earlier books; in Storm Front and Proven guilty, Harry has talked about unleashing an attack based on animals or insects. He thought of sending a flood of rats into the Varsity Club when he confronted Marcone in Storm Front and in Proven Guilty he joked with Karrin that he'd like to send a torrent of cockroaches in City Hall and watch "the suits" come running out of the building.Because it is cruelty to animals :)
Will Harry ever use such an attack? Would he be summoning actual rats and roaches or would they be something from the never-never that just looked like the real thing? If he has had this ability since SF why hasn't he used it yet?
If Harry had had the presence of mind to throw a Death Curse, would that have caused problems for him re: meeting Jack, and setting the plot of Ghost Story in motion? Or would it have progressed the same, + changes from the affects of his curse?yea i've always thought that a death curse was a wizard unwittingly putting every last drop of soulfire into a last spell. idk if this means the soul is gone though, i tend to think of it as the glass(soul) being emptied(life gone). the shell of the soul is still left but lacks the substance of life? makes me wonder who cast the first death curse, what its DV origins are?
You're not crazy, he's changed from a shoddy evoker to a rather good one.almost. he went from shoddy invocator to shoddy invocator with quite the ammopack, to shoddy evocator on steroids (hellfire), to somewhat skilled evocator without steroids but with aimbot (exchange hellfire for soulfire), to skilled evocator with aimbot (training Molly), to nothing (ghost), to very skilled again with aimbot (Mab's training plan, and retaining the soulfire) and yet again increased ammo (WK mantle). what I want to know is:
"Will the event of harry invoking his own name to use against the outsider signify an increase, or realization thereof, of power for Harry?"i feel this in someway invoked his starborn status. notice he uses it to perfectly command an outsider?
yea i've always thought that a death curse was a wizard unwittingly putting every last drop of soulfire into a last spell. idk if this means the soul is gone though, i tend to think of it as the glass(soul) being emptied(life gone). the shell of the soul is still left but lacks the substance of life? makes me wonder who cast the first death curse, what its DV origins are?
Explain to me why Harry having Soulfire is a big deal if every wizard can use it? Personally I write off what's used in a Death Curse as life energy like Harry says it is.soul fire IS life energy, thats my point. and every wizard can't just use it, they have to throw their lifeforce(soulfire) into it, hence "unwittingly". i pointed out i don't believe this negates the soul because the shell still exists. your misinterpreting me.
soul fire IS life energy, thats my point. and every wizard can't just use it, they have to throw their lifeforce(soulfire) into it, hence "unwittingly". i pointed out i don't believe this negates the soul because the shell still exists. your misinterpreting me.
Explain to me why Harry having Soulfire is a big deal if every wizard can use it? Personally I write off what's used in a Death Curse as life energy like Harry says it is.
Explain where you get the idea that Soulfire = life energy.explain to me where you get your death curse=life energy? :o
explain to me where you get your death curse=life energy? :o
because harry references things associated with living life to things that create more soul. meaning experiencing life feeds the soul. (soul food anyone lol?) its a small logical leap from there.
Which left me with one last spell to throw. I closed my eyes for a moment, reaching inside, gathering up the magic, the life force within me. Any wizard has a reservoir of power inherent in him, power drawn from the core of his self rather than from his surroundings. Aurora's circle could cut me off from drawing upon ambient magic to fuel a spell - but it couldn't stop me from using the energy within me.
Granted, once used, there wouldn't be anything left to keep me breathing, my heart pumping, and electricity going through my brain. But then, that's why they call it a death curse, isn't it?
Sounds less like using the soul up and more like using everything the body needs to keep running.same difference is my point, the fire(life) leaves the body and simply leaves a diminished soul behind. actually for all we know a death curse causes the wizard to cease to exist. :o it would be kinda hard for anyone to figure it out anyway, except a necromancer?
i feel this in someway invoked his starborn status. notice he uses it to perfectly command an outsider?Which is exactly why I ask the question. I just lawyered around it a bit to not force Jim to spoil the beans, but still answer a little ;)
Which is exactly why I ask the question. I just lawyered around it a bit to not force Jim to spoil the beans, but still answer a little ;)my goal is to spoil as many of jim's beans as possible to force him into developing his ability to create cryptic clues and ongoing mysteries. nothing like a little motivation to develop talent ;)
my goal is to spoil as many of jim's beans as possible to force him into developing his ability to create cryptic clues and ongoing mysteries. nothing like a little motivation to develop talent ;)Granted, but I like what he is doing now. I only want to satisfy my curiosity a bit (however impossible that is), not force ijm to change completely. Besides, if the clues are too obscure it will seem like retconning, and I'd like slightly more forewarning then just 1 word wich may or indeed may not indicate whatever... ;)
Granted, but I like what he is doing now. I only want to satisfy my curiosity a bit (however impossible that is), not force ijm to change completely. Besides, if the clues are too obscure it will seem like retconning, and I'd like slightly more forewarning then just 1 word wich may or indeed may not indicate whatever... ;)i'm not forcing him to change. just to grow as a great author and mystery writer. if we all prove his books too easy to decipher and predict he'll know to step it up a notch.
a little motivation s cool, but don't overdo it :D
i'm not forcing him to change. just to grow as a great author and mystery writer. if we all prove his books too easy to decipher and predict he'll know to step it up a notch.but then again, the collective mind of the DF community makes those things easier then a person on his or her own. and I think a balance must be maintained where a person on his/her own shuld stay able to do these things.
not to say we've been doing a terribly good job deciphering clues so far...
Or maybe the serial killer attacked Mouse because he likes killing beings without free will.