ParanetOnline
The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: SerScot on July 30, 2018, 04:20:59 PM
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I really hope we see Daniel (I want to know what happened after he was wounded), Fitz (I want to know who he is), and Agent Tilly (I want to see what he's creating to fight supernatural threats).
:)
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I agree for Tilly, I want to see him again. Fitz, eh.
I also want to see Nick Angel, Harry's mentor. And I want to know what happened to Lydia.
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Playing devil's advocate here, while I too would like to see these characters again, they take up page space. They also can take away from the main characters. I think the series is arriving at a time when the story needs more focus which means paring down not up, characters. Devote a page or two to Nick Angel and that may take away from Maggie, Mouse, Bonnie, etc...
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Lara Raith... She was a fascinating character to me. Same with Lord Raith. I feel like he had such a deep impact on Harry's life, and it's really not been addressed like it should have I don't think. He murdered Harry's mom which ultimately resulted in him being orphaned later on. It's never really gotten much attention.
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I want to find out what the hell happened to Abby! Two books since Ghost Story and nobody's so much as mentioned whether she survived getting shot.
Playing devil's advocate here, while I too would like to see these characters again, they take up page space. They also can take away from the main characters. I think the series is arriving at a time when the story needs more focus which means paring down not up, characters. Devote a page or two to Nick Angel and that may take away from Maggie, Mouse, Bonnie, etc...
Dresden lives in a big world, and Jim doesn't have an upper limit on pages. If he writes about Nick Angel, that doesn't mean he has to cut something about Mouse. Books don't work like that.
Dresden's world is believable because there are minor characters who live their own lives, then pop in and out of Harry's. Having the series focus just on Harry, Murphy and his immediate household would make the world smaller and that's clearly not the direction Jim's been taking things.
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Cat Sith
Mavra
Deirdre
That ordo lebes woman with the little dog
Tessa
The naagloshii (as long as it gets to eat more people)
Vadderung’s receptionists
Stevie D (but only if he’s with Kenny G and they do an amazing interpretive dance/musical number)
Oh, and the fluffy bird denarian. How much would it suck to pick up the coin to get awesome super powers only to be transformed into a stinky bird? That guy oozes pathos. There could be a whole book just about him.
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Cat Sith
Mavra
Deirdre
That ordo lebes woman with the little dog
Tessa
The naagloshii (as long as it gets to eat more people)
Vadderung’s receptionists
Stevie D (but only if he’s with Kenny G and they do an amazing interpretive dance/musical number)
Oh, and the fluffy bird denarian. How much would it suck to pick up the coin to get awesome super powers only to be transformed into a stinky bird? That guy oozes pathos. There could be a whole book just about him.
Haha, yes. The receptionists who use steel office desks as scratching posts. Imagine the horrible sound it makes *shudders*
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Dresden lives in a big world, and Jim doesn't have an upper limit on pages. If he writes about Nick Angel, that doesn't mean he has to cut something about Mouse. Books don't work like that.
Dresden's world is believable because there are minor characters who live their own lives, then pop in and out of Harry's. Having the series focus just on Harry, Murphy and his immediate household would make the world smaller and that's clearly not the direction Jim's been taking things.
Eh... Jim has said that was the reason that Harry didn't bring in every single possible ally for the raid on Chichen Itza. That he just couldn't manage that. So in a way, there is only a finite amount of people Jim can use.
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Harry usually invites a some guests to his last-battle-of-the-book party. I think the first book is the only book where he went into battle alone.
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Cat Sith
Mavra
Deirdre
That ordo lebes woman with the little dog
Tessa
The naagloshii (as long as it gets to eat more people)
Vadderung’s receptionists
Stevie D (but only if he’s with Kenny G and they do an amazing interpretive dance/musical number)
Oh, and the fluffy bird denarian. How much would it suck to pick up the coin to get awesome super powers only to be transformed into a stinky bird? That guy oozes pathos. There could be a whole book just about him.
Half that list are major antagonists, not minor characters.
Eh... Jim has said that was the reason that Harry didn't bring in every single possible ally for the raid on Chichen Itza. That he just couldn't manage that. So in a way, there is only a finite amount of people Jim can use.
There's a difference between not being able to handle more than a dozen characters in one ongoing sequence and what Mira was describing.
Having Billy and Georgia along for the raid might have made it harder for Jim to keep track of things in that sequence; but having Harry stop by there for a beer and a quick cameo doesn't mean Jim has to later cut a scene involving Mouse and Maggie.
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Half that list are major antagonists, not minor characters.
There's a difference between not being able to handle more than a dozen characters in one ongoing sequence and what Mira was describing.
Having Billy and Georgia along for the raid might have made it harder for Jim to keep track of things in that sequence; but having Harry stop by there for a beer and a quick cameo doesn't mean Jim has to later cut a scene involving Mouse and Maggie.
Wasnt Georgia pregnant by then anyway?
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Wasnt Georgia pregnant by then anyway?
Well, yeah, but we didn't know that until the story published afterward, so thanks to the murky way cause and effect works in fiction, Georgia might not have been eight-months pregnant until Jim decided to write Aftermath.
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I really wonder why Harry didn't try to get Elaine to come to CI. She would have been a huge help. I've thought about Carlos, but clearly he was already otherwise occupied. But not seeking Elaine's help has always puzzled me. She would have been able to stand in for Molly had Molly stayed behind to "man the phones" as she should have.
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I really wonder why Harry didn't try to get Elaine to come to CI. She would have been a huge help. I've thought about Carlos, but clearly he was already otherwise occupied. But not seeking Elaine's help has always puzzled me. She would have been able to stand in for Molly had Molly stayed behind to "man the phones" as she should have.
She's based in L.A. for a start.
Plus, it was weird and awkward enough for Harry to have one of his exes on the mission. Two of them would've been a nightmare.
More seriously, though, I'm not sure Harry fully trusts her enough for something like this.
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Harry got ti Nevada lickty split how much harder would a crossroads like LA be? As for trust I see your point but he works with her on the Paranet which has sensitive information and he does seem to trust her to some degree.
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Harry got ti Nevada lickty split how much harder would a crossroads like LA be? As for trust I see your point but he works with her on the Paranet which has sensitive information and he does seem to trust her to some degree.
Harry might be able to get there quick, but there are always risks in moving through the Nevernever and Southern California, being as close as it is to Mexico, might be a place the Red Court are keeping an eye on as a matter of course. And that's assuming Elaine is even in LA at that time -- she's a wizard too, who knows where she might be or what she might be doing.
Harry's under a time crunch, so a side-trip to LA that might be nothing more than a fruitless delay is not what he's looking for.
Looking at the allies he does gather, everyone he does go to for aid is already a part of his daily life (Thomas, Molly, Murphy, Mouse), is based in Chicago (Marcone), started the whole mess (Susan and Martin) or literally had God reroute them to be there (Sanya). It was less about him gathering allies and more him grabbing whomever happened to be around. Honestly, his brain's so scrambled with worry over Maggie for most of it he probably kinda forgot there were other people to call if they weren't at the forefront of his mind.
The exceptions, of course, being Lea (who Harry could summon instantly) and Ebenezer (who Harry had had a pre-arranged meeting with that all this business interrupted).
And I'd venture to say Harry ain't exactly putting Maggie's existence on the Paranet. That's a more detached level of, "I trust you to help this bunch of largely anonymous people," that doesn't reach nearly as deep as, "I trust you to do this secret, super personal thing with me."
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Harry might be able to get there quick, but there are always risks in moving through the Nevernever and Southern California, being as close as it is to Mexico, might be a place the Red Court are keeping an eye on as a matter of course. And that's assuming Elaine is even in LA at that time -- she's a wizard too, who knows where she might be or what she might be doing.
Harry's under a time crunch, so a side-trip to LA that might be nothing more than a fruitless delay is not what he's looking for.
Looking at the allies he does gather, everyone he does go to for aid is already a part of his daily life (Thomas, Molly, Murphy, Mouse), is based in Chicago (Marcone), started the whole mess (Susan and Martin) or literally had God reroute them to be there (Sanya). It was less about him gathering allies and more him grabbing whomever happened to be around. Honestly, his brain's so scrambled with worry over Maggie for most of it he probably kinda forgot there were other people to call if they weren't at the forefront of his mind.
The exceptions, of course, being Lea (who Harry could summon instantly) and Ebenezer (who Harry had had a pre-arranged meeting with that all this business interrupted).
And I'd venture to say Harry ain't exactly putting Maggie's existence on the Paranet. That's a more detached level of, "I trust you to help this bunch of largely anonymous people," that doesn't reach nearly as deep as, "I trust you to do this secret, super personal thing with me."
Personally i think Harry would trust Elaine, but at the same time as you said harry had a lot on his plate and things were really mental. He just didn't really have the opportunity to even consider calling her in. It's the same deal with a few other potential allies. He probably would have trusted them with the info, but he wouldn't have been able to get them there in time and was abbit out of it mentally to think to call them.
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I hope we get to see what has become of Mort.
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I really wonder why Harry didn't try to get Elaine to come to CI. She would have been a huge help. I've thought about Carlos, but clearly he was already otherwise occupied. But not seeking Elaine's help has always puzzled me. She would have been able to stand in for Molly had Molly stayed behind to "man the phones" as she should have.
Maybe subconscious Harry stopped Harry because.....dum, dum, Dum; He suspects Elaine is Kumori!
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Tilly. Warden Chandler. Maybe Rudolph or Larry Fowler - I'd like to see Harry deal with a minor nuisance by making a few inches of frost grow off the walls.
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Half that list are major antagonists, not minor characters.
Great feedback, thanks!
The only one I see as possibly a major character is Mavra. I’m viewing it from the entire arc of the series, not by book.
The way I see them is:
Deirdre- an accessory to Nicodemus like a handbag that matches Nic’s shoes. Her entire usage has been to further Nic’s story.
Tessa- a sort of side plot for Nic to add conflict and tension to his story.
Naagloshii- a one time side plot to make you oo and ah a little and laugh when he eats finger food at the white court house. He’s not the borg, but someone Janeway fought in one episode on her way to the borg base. For the book, he may not be minor, but, for the series, he definitely is to this point. He wasn’t even the A plot in the book he was in.
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I'd like to see the mail man from the very first book. He was kind of a jerk. Would be funny if he was in just a small scene where he has the realization that Harry is in fact a real wizard.
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Tilly. Warden Chandler. Maybe Rudolph or Larry Fowler - I'd like to see Harry deal with a minor nuisance by making a few inches of frost grow off the walls.
I wanna see Rudy in a looney bin with Harry taking a few moments to mess with him. But, that is the sadist in me.
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I wanna see Rudy in a looney bin with Harry taking a few moments to mess with him. But, that is the sadist in me.
Id be open to a mild redemption arc where Harry turns a corner and discovers that he finally had the CranioRectal Extraction procedure and is now volunteering at the BFS, doing something entirely non-threatening like Day-care.
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In Mirror Mirror there are all kinds of wonderful things that can happen when it comes to returning characters. Crossing fingers Jim really tries to have some fun with that one. Especially bad Harry. We can finally see a Dresden that gets the women he desires, and can really let go in the ass kicking department without needing the "nerf stick" which Jim needs to keep Harry from being too powerful.
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Id be open to a mild redemption arc where Harry turns a corner and discovers that he finally had the CranioRectal Extraction procedure and is now volunteering at the BFS, doing something entirely non-threatening like Day-care.
Hah. CranioRectal extration. :D :D :D
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I want to know how Sarrisa is getting on as Summer Lady and if her blood relation to Titania means she better treated than Lily. Also what happened to Fix.
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I want to know how Sarrisa is getting on as Summer Lady and if her blood relation to Titania means she better treated than Lily. Also what happened to Fix.
Ehhh from what JB said in past WoJ and what Titania had to say to Harry in Cold Days i suspect that Titannia isn't helping much of anyone. I'd bet Eldest Gruff has largely been keeping things running recently. Hell Mab probably knows what the Summer Ladies job is herself and might well be pitching in to help in her own way. Mab may be Mab, but she loves her daughters despite that.
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Ehhh from what JB said in past WoJ and what Titania had to say to Harry in Cold Days i suspect that Titannia isn't helping much of anyone. I'd bet Eldest Gruff has largely been keeping things running recently. Hell Mab probably knows what the Summer Ladies job is herself and might well be pitching in to help in her own way. Mab may be Mab, but she loves her daughters despite that.
Well that certainly sounds like a “balance” problem.
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Tilly. Tilly, Tilly, Tilly. He's too good an opportunity to leave behind forever (a decent man who is connected to federal law enforcement, who has a touch of the supernatural, and who is confronted with the reality of monsters and doesn't crumple under pressure). I suspect he'll have a presence in Peace Talks, or I hope so, anyway.
I've been missing Tera West. I want her to come back and check on the Alphas after all the Fomor nonsense.
Not in Peace Talks (too soon), but in the future, I want to see what became of Jordan. Ditto Fitz and Zero. I'd actually get behind Fitz and Zero interning for Nick Angel, but that's a little much.
Might be interesting to see Molly confront her handiwork with Boyfriend Nelson, and try to use her Winter Lady mojo to fix what she screwed up.
I'll also echo Mr. Death's wish to see Lydia again. Cassandra's Tears is sort of the ultimate low-hanging fruit of plot devices, if nothing else, and I always thought it was odd that we never heard ANYTHING about her, especially now that the Paranet is a thing.
I'd also like to see Wild Bill break things with Texan aplomb.
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Might be interesting to see Molly confront her handiwork with Boyfriend Nelson, and try to use her Winter Lady mojo to fix what she screwed up.
I'm pretty sure trying to fix the damage to Nelson would be outside of what she can use any power from Winter for. Even summer and wyld need a deal before they can do much for a human, and winter is especially not into altruism. Remember how disturbed Harry was in GP at Lea healing his concussion because of what it meant about how thoroughly she had him over a barrel in terms of obligations?
I suppose she could take a shot at fixing him with her own personal reserves of power and what knowledge she's gained since messing him up, but it's been probably 6-8 years in universe since PG. With whatever the council could do to treat him and time to heal, he's probably either broken through what she did and relapsed, or stabilized to the point where further interference wouldn't serve his well-being. Besides which, interfering further would still be dangerous for Molly's own self-control.
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Yeah, I don't think it'll work either, for a host of reasons, not least of which because it would be a terrible idea to try. That's why I said it'd be interesting if she tried to do it. Both because she'd be frustrated at not being able to fix her old mistakes, and hurt because of what she'd done. This is assuming Boyfriend Nelson is still pretty insane.
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Molly could justify it to the fae part of her by arguing that Molly (not the Winter Lady) owes Nelson a debt to fix the damage she did against his will.
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Eh, I think by now, Molly would realize that trying to "fix" things will only make things worse.
After all, she caused the situation by trying to "fix" things in the first place.
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Very possibly. Of course, the Molly now is a lot different from the Molly of then.
Depending on various circumstances, the Molly of now may be a bad idea for repairing psychological damage, though for an entirely different reason than the Molly of then.
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Molly could justify it to the fae part of her by arguing that Molly (not the Winter Lady) owes Nelson a debt to fix the damage she did against his will.
Then Molly the individual can pay her personal debts without leaning on Winter power. The mantle is for debts to the office of Winter Lady.
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Then Molly the individual can pay her personal debts without leaning on Winter power. The mantle is for debts to the office of Winter Lady.
Molly as a Sidhe feels a real obligation to protect her human family and acts accordingly. Lilly was in debt to Harry for things he did before she became summer lady. These debts carry over and the ladies can freely use their power to meet them.
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Evelyn Derek. Fitz. Mike the Mechanic.
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Since I've been commuting for the past year and have listened to every podcast I've ever wanted to multiple times, I decided to buy the Dresden Files audiobooks to make the several hours in traffic more enjoyable. I'd been meaning to do a full reread anyway, and thought I might like to listen instead for a change. I tend to pick things up differently when listening rather than reading. (For the record, James Marsters was great from the start, but he really stepped it up in Grave Peril (and someone also appears to have given him a note on how "writhe" is pronounced, for which I am grateful); his Agatha Hagglethorn was excellent.)
Anyway, I noticed that Jim went as far as naming the baby Harry saves in the opening sequence—Allison Ann (or Anne; I was listening, not reading) Summers. In-universe, it's been, what, twelve, fifteen years since then? I assume Baby Allison is now Teen/Tween Allison, and it might be interesting if she pops up again, even if it's just to give Harry an emotional shot in the arm.
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(and someone also appears to have given him a note on how "writhe" is pronounced, for which I am grateful)
Never mind.
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Allison Ann Summers, Like Allison Hannigan and Buff Ann Summers.. :D
No idea on the Anne, Ann distinction off top of my head.
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Tilly, now as a member of the Special Collections unit of the Library of Congress (the Loup Garou tape et.al.)