Once Harry Prime is gone Merlin will appear.  Mab will be revealed as Harry's true love and will meet the fate of his other loves when she is back stabbed by Molly who will complete her trip to evil. And so on.

And of course Molly then becomes MAB later. So she killed herself, somehow, and later travels back in time. At which point early-Harry/Merlin will cast her out to become the cold Mab from the current still-human Molly.

I am going to go with a cheesy one. Murphy at Chichen Itza, I think the angelic pronouncement and her actions really drove home just what a crazy amount of power was there, to have 3 potential angelic sockpuppets on hand for team-Harry (of course they already had a wizard or two and the second most powerful of the active Winter Fae, but still).

And of course, from there until Susan's death. It's Harry's first real supernatural battle, not ambush/raid/skirmish. And did it ever deliver. Battle Ground feels sameish in comparison, been there, seen that.

That's true, but the Fallen aren't chumps either. Arguably the Fallen (not just the Denarians, the whole lot of them) are a far scarier threat than Winter, Odin, Hades etc.

So it's a risk-reward problem. If the Denarians were determined enough I don't think they would care one iota about Hades or Odin or Mab. Depends on what the value of such items were to them. World-ending apocalypse stuff, especially if it was the only way or if it was a sure-fire victory, seems like it would  something they would do anything to get.

I see it quite differently.

Yes, the Fallen COULD try that. But then the un-fallen Angels would be able to come out and play at full strength, too. Blow for blow, hit for hit, and they would probably counter them about exactly.

Only about exactly, of course, but this rounding error is where people like Mab and Odin WOULD make a difference. Angels vs Fallen is probably about a 50:50 fight; Angels+Mab+Harry vs Fallen is 50+1:50.

I recall, but can't find back, a quote about the Queens being able to extract more warm bodies from among the wyldfae if they so require.

So perhaps the whole wyld serves as a kind of backup for the actual courts, and ergo, the Erlking's power is supposed to be a backup for the Queens in matters directly related to the Queens' purpose (and not say for Winter-Summer powergames).

As interesting as that sounds, it might just kill Dresden to attempt to use the Eye. It's not just the corruption effect. It's also the sheer power. It would be like handling nuclear energy.

Millions of people handle nuclear energy, through the system of protection known as the power grid. Who says the Blackstaff can't do the same?

I agree that a question is whether the Turtlenecks qualify as human.  As we know, they don't seem to consider the White Court vampires as human, even though they are very nearly human.

But, there definitely is a self-defense exception to the First Law.  Given that, I cannot see how opposing armies in actual combat situations would not be considered within that exception. 

Here's Storm Front:

Butcher, Jim. Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) (p. 75). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Summer Knight:

Butcher, Jim. Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, Book 4) (p. 39). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I would say instead that that all shows there's a current of WC thought that such an exception exists, but there's serious pushback against it (hence why Harry was on harsh probation and not cleared; the hardliners needed to be appeased).

I think Jim said that Twelve Months will be about Harry dating Lara, and having to survive attempts on his life.  Do you think any of these attempts will actually be done by wizards of the White Council?

I doubt it. The Council is filthy rich and cowardly, much better to hire disposable assassins. Sure, it's Harry Dresden they're going after, so any one assassin won't be cheap, but still.

Dunno how, but just send him to jail or other protective custody, he's gonna be ever more insane as reality becomes ever more supernatural. And it's starting to strain credibility that such an obvious lickspittle gets good enough at sucking up to survive it all.