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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: jbmdw45 on April 24, 2018, 09:39:48 PM

Title: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: jbmdw45 on April 24, 2018, 09:39:48 PM
Why is Harry surprised to see Goodman Grey transform into a racehorse when he's already seen Injun Joe transform into a bear the size of a minibus back in Turncoat? Is this just an oopsie due to Jim losing track of what happened during which draft of Turncoat?
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: jonas on April 24, 2018, 10:46:31 PM
From what I understood, the Bear is an actual sized animal(check out the size of the one that terrorized Japan in early 1900's, minibus indeed) where as Harry immediately knew from the size of an otherwise normal race horse that he basically just expanded upon what was there to create more mass for it?
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: groinkick on April 25, 2018, 01:46:01 AM
Why is Harry surprised to see Goodman Grey transform into a racehorse when he's already seen Injun Joe transform into a bear the size of a minibus back in Turncoat? Is this just an oopsie due to Jim losing track of what happened during which draft of Turncoat?

Harry knew Injun Joe was using magic while Goodman wasn't a wizard, and trying to figure it out...  Also Jim may have been explaining to the reader how it was being done ;)
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Mira on April 25, 2018, 03:04:50 AM

    I think Harry was still getting his head around everything...
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: peregrine on April 25, 2018, 03:48:14 AM
Did Harry know he could do more than just change into other people?  I could easily imagine him thinking Grey is just a one trick pony who can only go from human to human rather than having the whole animal kingdom available.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Lost Merlin on April 25, 2018, 11:38:18 AM
iirc and its been a while for skin game for me, up to that point Grey had only just did a blood for appearance type swap correct?
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Mr. Death on April 25, 2018, 04:35:44 PM
My take on it is that Harry had a long day, he was a little loopy and had a brainfart. I think Harry himself even comes to the conclusion about the nevernever mass, and Horse-Goodman's reaction is a non-verbal, "Duh. Idiot."
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: RobReece on April 25, 2018, 04:36:15 PM
Did Harry know he could do more than just change into other people?  I could easily imagine him thinking Grey is just a one trick pony who can only go from human to human rather than having the whole animal kingdom available.

just a little while before the change into the horse, Harry had seen Grey change into animalistic shapes during his fight in the vault.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: groinkick on April 25, 2018, 06:05:16 PM
just a little while before the change into the horse, Harry had seen Grey change into animalistic shapes during his fight in the vault.

But the size was roughly the same fighting in the vault (kinda like the Alphas going from human to wolves.) while becoming a horse Grey put on a lot of mass.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Quantus on April 25, 2018, 07:07:22 PM
According the passage itself, he'd previously never actually noticed that the shapeshifters he knew were increasing their overall mass and had assumed the visible differences were due to expansion/compression effects.  Had he thought about it a little harder he'd have realized that wouldnt explain how any of them had been able to fly as ordinary sized birds, but then at the time I think he was a little loopy from repeated head injuries. As is a typical day for Harry
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: kazimmoinuddin on April 25, 2018, 10:28:18 PM
I think the alphas transform into a kind of dire wolf, the huge bear a type of dire or Kodak bear. When they change they add mass from the never never to assume an animal form.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Mr. Death on April 26, 2018, 02:03:34 AM
I think the alphas transform into a kind of dire wolf, the huge bear a type of dire or Kodak bear. When they change they add mass from the never never to assume an animal form.
They're really not that big. Larger than normal wolves, yes, but that's largely because they're human-mass, not wolf-mass. The average weight of a male wolf is 66-180 pounds.

Someone as built as Billy's described is probably at least 225 pounds.

At most, they're maybe Mouse's size.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Quantus on April 26, 2018, 01:09:01 PM
I think the alphas transform into a kind of dire wolf, the huge bear a type of dire or Kodak bear. When they change they add mass from the never never to assume an animal form.
I dont think they really have to, on the basis that the largest actual Wolves alive today hit the mass range of a small to mid-sized human (Mackenzie Valley Wolf, between 110 and 175 pounds) so even if the alphas are doing a direct mass conversion they would still be qualifying as notably oversized for an average wolf, and quite possibly record breaking for anything alive today. BUt they'd not be reaching the Twilight-sized ridiculousness   

PS The actual prehistoric "dire wolves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_wolf)" were (speculated since they only have skeletons) smaller than the Mackenzie, averaging 150 lbs and having a skeleton that wouldnt function above 240.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Kindler on April 30, 2018, 01:02:21 PM
Fun side note about dire wolves; there's a breeding project out there somewhere that is trying to bring them back. They can't really make one from mixed descendants, but they can make something that's close physically, if not genetically.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: KurtinStGeorge on May 01, 2018, 01:54:04 AM
So is it explained how someone gets smaller, like when LTW turned himself in to a bird when he was fighting the Naagloshii?  I mean it's one thing to add mass by grabbing some ectoplasm from the nevernever and magically animating it as part of your chosen form, but how do they do it in reverse?  That seems problematic to me.   
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: RobReece on May 01, 2018, 02:39:29 AM
So is it explained how someone gets smaller, like when LTW turned himself in to a bird when he was fighting the Naagloshii?  I mean it's one thing to add mass by grabbing some ectoplasm from the nevernever and magically animating it as part of your chosen form, but how do they do it in reverse?  That seems problematic to me.
Actually, I think that would be much easier, since  if don't need to conserve it for when you enlarge again, just convert it to energy and let it dissipate as heat.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Fcrate on May 01, 2018, 07:40:38 AM
Actually, I think that would be much easier, since  if don't need to conserve it for when you enlarge again, just convert it to energy and let it dissipate as heat.
Too wastefull. Besides, that would leave you without a good chunk of your energy reserves. I had thought it was like Ant-Man's shrinking while maintaining his mass, but that doesn't work. So... no clue.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: jonas on May 01, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
So is it explained how someone gets smaller, like when LTW turned himself in to a bird when he was fighting the Naagloshii?  I mean it's one thing to add mass by grabbing some ectoplasm from the nevernever and magically animating it as part of your chosen form, but how do they do it in reverse?  That seems problematic to me.
No, but I hypothesize that it basically becomes part of the NN around the person's aura/ their personal sanctum on the other side to slough off parts of themselves without truly separating.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Quantus on May 01, 2018, 10:27:38 AM
No, but I hypothesize that it basically becomes part of the NN around the person's aura/ their personal sanctum on the other side to slough off parts of themselves without truly separating.
That was my image as well, but admittedly I defaulted there because that's how the Animorph books I read as a kid explained it (I think they called it Z-space or something). 
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Mr. Death on May 01, 2018, 03:06:23 PM
So is it explained how someone gets smaller, like when LTW turned himself in to a bird when he was fighting the Naagloshii?  I mean it's one thing to add mass by grabbing some ectoplasm from the nevernever and magically animating it as part of your chosen form, but how do they do it in reverse?  That seems problematic to me.
The RPG goes into this a bit (one of the sample characters turns into a mouse), and the extra mass is shunted into the nevernever temporarily.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: jonas on May 01, 2018, 11:14:55 PM
That was my image as well, but admittedly I defaulted there because that's how the Animorph books I read as a kid explained it (I think they called it Z-space or something).
Same reason lol. But considering how ways work on resonance with the opener and the ability to create personal sanctums on the other side seen from typical ghosts to Lea's garden it seems a reasonable hypotheses.
Also Z-space was based off of early science into 'warp drive', but it's becoming more applicable now.
Title: Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
Post by: Mr. Death on May 01, 2018, 11:36:28 PM
From the game book:

Bob: The wereraven example reminds me, William—shapeshifters of the sort that can change their mass are a very rare breed. If they shift into something smaller, they have to store part of their intellect and mass in the Nevernever, so they can retrieve it when they change back. If they shift into something bigger, they can get the extra mass by way of ectoplasm, so in that respect growing is easier than shrinking.

Billy: Yeah, I thought I remembered seeing something about that. Still, we figured it’ d be more fun if we just allowed folks to go for bigger or smaller forms if they could find the points for it. And the whole thing about storing parts of themselves in the Nevernever is rife with story hooks.