I think a blasting rod is a given considering his demonstrated skill with wood. I cannot wait to see some more arctic fire balls. I think a shield bracelet would be a top priority for Dresden because I do not think his staff is a good focus for that. Plus freeing up his staff for other purposes makes sense. However, somewhere Harry mentioned that he needs access to metal working tools to make his bracelet (SG maybe?). I doubt that a bracelet will be ready to go. I full anticipate his Duster to be back up to snuff on all the protective enchantments. Finally, I would love to see Harry take a page out of the carpenter handbook and invest in a little armor for when he knows he is going to throw down (ex during the raid on Hades vault). As someone mentioned above, forearm guards would be an excellent idea considering all the hand to hand combat he engages in. I think this actually has a chance given Harry just had his forearm broken from a staff blow.

Eh. I really can't see Murphy ending a fifteen-year friendship and newish relationship because Harry spoke to her dead father three years ago. It isn't like Cap'n Jack is alive and in hiding; the guy is dead and remains dead, and nothing Harry can say or do would change that. If he was a ghost like Sir Stuart and Harry knew about it, or was otherwise contactable for Murphy to have a talk with him, it'd be different, but even the local ectomancer isn't willing to do that to Jack. She could get irrationally angry, but not to the "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEE?!"-level Cassius did. If she did react that way, then it'd read like a total relationship cop-out, like Jim was just trying to end things without killing anybody.

I completely agree. I don't her being too upset. Only a little frustrated that Harry didn't tell her sooner which he can easily sidestep by pointing to the circumstances/events surrounding his return making communication difficult. I doubt Jim would do that to her as it would be a regression in character/trust (IMO).

Some misunderstandings here are the Arbiter position.   

To be an arbiter, you must be an member of the accords.  Which means either you are a representative of a supernatural nation or a individual freeholding lord like the Archive or Marcone.   By definition, you are either a power, or backed by a power in the supernatural community.

In this context, the arbiter will enforce the conditions of the arbitration.  By that I mean Keep the Peace while negotiating and/or enforcing the terms of a dual.  In this they are backed up by the weight of public opinion (at least the public opinion of the other accorded powers) who have an interest in enforcing the rules.  This is a dangerous commitment at times, which is why many of the lesser powers do not try to act as arbiters. 

The arbiter is NOT signing up to enforce the agreements that are the result of an arbitrated negotiation.  In the real world, if the US hosts peace talks between France and Vietnam, they are not signing up to force the two participants to do what they promised to do.   The supernatural world is no different.   

If Marcone is hosting the peace talks, then all he signed up to do is provide a suitable venue, protect the participants and severely punish/kill any that disrupt the peace talks (in some way contrary to the agreed procedures).  That might be a commitment beyond his capability to deliver on, but the presumption is that --- as a free standing lord - he can deliver it.  If he fails, his status as a free standing lord would be put at serious risk.  Of course if he succeeds, then that also lends a lot to his reputation.

Nice summary of an arbiter.

For fun, I tried to figure out how much money Harry made off of Skin Game. I calculated using realistic, optimistic terms, as far as I know.

1. We know that the diamonds were split into "brand new, metal cash boxes." I pulled what looks like an average, cheap one from Staples to get dimensions: https://www.staples.com/MMF-Industries-STEELMASTER-Cash-Box-with-Locking-Latch-Sand-4-H-x-11-W-x-7-3-4-D/product_916553
2. This cash box is 4x11x7.75 inches, giving it a total volume of 341 cubic inches. I'm assuming that the box is at least half full, because I doubt Anna managed to get enough to fill five, but judging from Charity's reaction and Harry's brief, inexact description, I'm assuming that it's somewhere around half. I'll round down to be more pessimistic. Assume Harry has 150 cubic inches of diamonds in his box. This is then halved again, down to 75 cubic inches, as he shoves them into two knotted off socks (which is super romantic).
3. Diamond weight by volume is 2.03 ounces per cubic inch. That gives us a staggering weight of 152.25 ounces, or 9.52 pounds (they're obviously very dense, so the weight-to-volume ratio is pretty dang high).
4. 1 carat=.200 grams. If the above assumptions are right, Harry has—wait for it—21,591 carats worth of diamonds.
5. Prices for diamonds vary by things like clarity, cut, and the value-per-carat is affected by how many carats remain in the finished diamond. For highest pessimism, I'm going to assume that they are the WORST clarity, and raw diamonds. Commercial rough diamonds retail, on average, for $1,500 per carat. I am going to further assume that Harry can get 35% of that value, because I assume he's bad at negotiating.
6. This returns a value of... $11,335,275.

Even if I'm off wildly, I think I'm within 50% of the total value. Harry has, at a bare minimum, five million dollars worth of diamonds, and so does Murphy. It's likely considerably higher than that.

All he has to do is stick into a high div-yield stock. Say he bought $1 million of AT&T, which has a historically high dividend yield per share. Harry can have recurring income, every quarter, of $12,500, and that's with no additional investment. If he reinvested for, say, twenty years and just lived off his cash assets? Harry will never have to work another day in his life. Even the ludicrous lifespan of a wizard. Simple compounded interest on that amount of money, assuming inflation holds below 1.5%, will ensure that he can basically retire if he so chooses.

Do I think he's likely to invest it wisely in safe, boring assets? No. I think Harry is going to start spending money on insanely expensive, but insanely cool magical gear. Plus, with all those diamonds, I'm sure he can find uses for them as focus items. He will have the blingiest foci of any wizard of his generation.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I don't think he'll open up shop again. He doesn't have to (though he might want to), and, honestly, that line of work was bad for his health (not that Winter Knighting is any safer), and he's got a couple of daughters now. I think he's going to try to live quietly (ha!), and spoil Maggie rotten with all of the things he never had. I expect bouncy castles. And Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots. And teddy bears that double as bodyguards. And a tracking anklet that alerts Harry to changes in Maggie's heart rate. And...

Anyway, you get the joke. I do still want to know how he's going to live, but the amount of money Harry made (off of what I consider to be Harry's first total, unimpeachable, straight-up victory in the series) in Skin Game, he's got the option to do pretty much whatever he wants.

Nice work-up on the diamond value. I admit that I was curious at the end of Skin Game. Harry is going to do some interesting things with the money, unless he donates it all or sticks it under his mattress.

I'd honestly be most afraid of them turning the Canim into dumb beastmen. It'd be a horrible mistake, but I can see some executive going, "But they're big and furry. Audiences don't want clever beast enemies, they want something to hate so they feel smarter."

The Canim culture is one of my favorite things about the Codex Alera series. Cursor's fury is my favorite book due to the battle between the Canim and First Aleran. I want to see Varg in all his glory!

Maybe there can be a medium between the two; limited series developed by Netflix or HBO or something, that can take however long is appropriate without overstuffing an already full concept with frivolous stuff.

The only way I would want to see Codex on the TV is as a limited run series. Only make the number of episodes needed to tell the story. I prefer a limited run series over a movie because I would hope that the bare minimum would be left on the cutting room floor. Movies cut parts out to maintain pace and spacing of plot elements. If you have an 8 or 12 episode tv series pacing and plot spacing can be handled easier without resorting to cutting things out.

My argument against Codex being a series is that you will inevitably have to stretch it to fill each season. You will have filler, and I do not have confidence that it can be as good as the books. It's the opposite problem that film adaptations have (which is that they cut too much). I don't want a series about Tavi going to the Academy and learning that it sucks to not have furies while he makes unlikely friends like Max (for example). There's a reason that all of that stuff happened in the years between the books.

As far as filler goes, throw money at Jim Butcher and ask him to write some short scenes (doesn't even need to be short story length) detailing things like the battle of Seven Hills, Septimus meeting Isana, Septimus courting Isana, First Calderon/Death of Septimus, Fidelias between Academ and Cursor's Fury etc. Heck, most of them wouldn't even require a story treatment, just an outline of the locations, events, and actions.

Anyway, I just want there to be good, high production value adaptations. I think it'd be best served as a set of movies. If the meat isn't cut, I won't argue about the fat; I don't want another Harry Potter fiasco, which, in my opinion, should be an example of how not to faithfully adapt a story.

I think we have had this discussion before, but I agree completely with the mistreatment of the Harry Potter Book series. To me, this is the biggest example of the shortcomings of using movies to adapt a multi book series. Use HBO or Netflix limited series just to cut out meddling studios.

Peter Jackson did it right. He didn't lose much aside from Tom, and didn't mess up much aside from Faramir.

Peter Jackson did the LOTR trilogy right. I agree completely. I don't even mind the greater prominence given to Arwen. The Hobbit series is another example of a poor book adaption, but that cannot be laid at Peter Jackson's feet IMHO.

Whoever is the arbiter would need to have enough Power to be able to actually do something about anything that neccesitates involvement.

/Ulfgeir

Yes and no. I would argue that respect of the involved parties is most important. The accords were set up by Mab and thus she has a big investment in seeing them remain intact and accepted. If the arbiter reaches a decision or endorses a certain action/view point then she would lend her power to the fulfillment of that outcome.