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Messages - LordDresden2

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1
DF Spoilers / Re: RNT Episode 5: What Changes (Mentally) When a Person Goes Full Red Court?
« on: Today at 02:45:42 AM »
Quote from: Bridger on April 16, 2025, 12:01:37 PM
This question will be discussed on the next episode of Recorded Neutral Territory, with the most insightful answers being featured on the show. More information at the bottom of this post.


So we know that fully turning into a Red Court Vampire comes with clear and obvious physical changes (you're not a leathery bat-thing that can pretend to be human), but what, exactly, are the mental changes?

Butcher's world seems to imply that RC Vampires are automatically evil when they fully change. What changes cause this? Is it possible that a small number of them managed to hang on to their humanity somehow? Like "Angel" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

I doubt it...wait, no.

We've seen that Red-Ortega retained some of real Ortega's adoration of Arianna.  But like Mira, I still think a full Red Vampire is not the person who existed before.  I think that person dies in the transformation.

But the brain is still there, still full of information and data and habits and skills.  It's just that the soul that once used them has departed, and been replaced by this thing from the Nevernever.  So a Red Vampire might retain most or all of the knowledge, some of the habits, but like a Black Vampire, it's still a different entity from victim it replaced.

The White Vampires are different, the original human soul is still there, grafted on to the parasite.

That's why, among other things, WVs produce techbane when they use magic, and Red Vampires don't.

2
DF Spoilers / Re: And another thing...Justine
« on: Today at 02:36:52 AM »
Quote from: Mira on April 15, 2025, 12:07:12 PM
However the original cause of her insanity isn't addressed, so you'd think that without the vamp sex, Justine would revert because she'd be like any other mentally ill person who reverts when they are off their meds..

It's not the sex itself that helps the condition, it's the feeding.  Sex is just bait and the channel the Raiths like to use to get the energy.  They can feed in other ways, like Skavis and Malvora do.  (IIRC, JB once said that in theory a WV could feed on the warm and fuzzy feeling from petting a kitten, though he added that the WV would probably sparkle if they did it, so he might have been joking about that).

The White Vampires feed on emotional energy, which is also life energy.  Justine in her manic state generates too much positive energy, in the depressed state too much negative.  The emotions are the energy and vice versa.  When Thomas feeds on Justine, it takes away those excess energies, leaving her more or less 'normal'...as long as he doesn't take too much or too often, of course.  In that respect, a manic depressive is the perfect prey for a WV with enough self control to limit their take, because they can be fed on without hurting them, and even to their benefit.

(Ignoring the potential issue of supersex addiction, of course.)

And yeah, once Thomas couldn't feed on her any more, one would expect that she would either revert over time to her manic/depressive state, or have to use medication to control it.  Which might be where Nemesis got its hooks in.

3
DF Spoilers / Re: Twelve Months - What our you expecting from it?
« on: Today at 02:29:08 AM »
I don't necessary _expect_ to see this in Twelve Months.  But I think it would be interesting it JB went that route.

Imagine if on the other time line, because of Harry's choice, the Red Court managed to get enough of an advantage to break the White Council.  So there's either no Council over there, or it's weak and in disarray and can't fulfill its purpose.

It could serve as an illustration to Harry why the Council is so important, why even his allies like Eb and Injun Joe and so on refuse to risk disrupting it.  Seeing a world without the Council might give Harry a little different perspective on this world.

4
DF Spoilers / Re: One of the most White Court things I've seen ...
« on: April 26, 2025, 04:23:52 AM »
Quote from: g33k on April 26, 2025, 12:45:43 AM
Probably NSFW, in case you're at work; tho neither X- nor R-rated.
Music video, so not quiet, either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxzBCr2zNM

So yes!  I could almost imagine Lara and her sisters setting up a party like that...

Or alternatively, a touch of Winter Fae inspiration.  The look of combined exaltation and exhaustion on his face suggests the legends of Lea's victims...


5
DF Spoilers / Re: Does anyone think Harry isn’t the original Merlin?
« on: April 26, 2025, 04:16:04 AM »
I really doubt Harry is literally a younger version of THE Merlin.  I don't want him to be that, either.  It's too simplistic, it's almost the classic time travel time loop story.

But I do think that there is some strong connection of some sort between Merlin and Harry, and I suspect that Harry might, way down the road, master magic at Merlinian levels.  But that would probably be off-stage and post-story.  I suspect Harry will eventually meet Merlin, too, either because he's still out there somewhere or through time travel.

(Another possibility that I've toyed with, though I don't think it likely, is that the culmination of the series will end with The Magic Goes Away, i.e. the world becomes non-magical and the supernatural powers fade away.  But I don't expect that.)

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DF Spoilers / Re: Mab is Morgana le Fey. Discuss.
« on: April 26, 2025, 04:09:16 AM »
Quote from: Con on April 10, 2025, 05:43:26 PM
Morgana's Athame mentioned so prominently in the early books, connection to OG Merlin. Fit's with Arthurian Fae Lore.

Makes sense.

My first thought was that it was a stretch...but then it occurred to me that it might depend on which myth has the story right.

According to several sources, Arthur was more-or-less raped by one of his sisters using witchcraft, and this was how Mordred was conceived.  (The version I heard most often is that the spell made him have a dream that he was making love to his wife, when he was actually with a witch.)

Now which sister varies.  Some accounts have it being Morgan, others Morgause. 

There's also a story that Nimue (in most of these versions a student and lover of Merlin) trapped Merlin (the original) in an enchanted slumber, too.

Now we know from recent DF works that Mab was 'involved' with Merlin, and is still sensitive on the subject...

The thing is that the myths conflict, but somewhere in the tangle is whatever actually happened back then in the DV.  So while I doubt Mab is Morgan...I'm pretty sure she knew Morgan well.  I wonder if Mab might not be Nimue, though.  IIRC one of the enemy taunted Mab about being cast out by Merlin, maybe he broke out of the enchanted sleep and was in a bad mood or something.

7
DF Spoilers / Re: The Erl King a Vassal of Winter?
« on: April 26, 2025, 04:03:44 AM »
Quote from: g33k on March 28, 2025, 06:52:07 PM
That's a fantheory I've read, but IIRC WoJ has explicitly denied it.  In particular, there is only one Winter Queen & Summer Queen, and there is no corresponding singular King for either.  The Erlking is a king (who is Summer(ish)), but not the king -- except of the Goblins.

I don't even think Kringle is a "King" per se; but (as a part of Winter) he is in fact subject to Mab (something she's careful about, since the current Kringle is only part-time, and the rest of the time he's... rather more than that).

It would be interesting to see how Kringle interacts with the Mothers.  JB said at one point that pretty much everybody in Faerie is subordinate to the Mothers, but is Odin?  I mean he's not exactly 'of Faerie' in his own identity...

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DF Spoilers / Re: The Erl King a Vassal of Winter?
« on: March 25, 2025, 05:26:19 AM »
Quote from: SerScot on March 25, 2025, 01:55:26 AM
But the discussion explicitly states that the Erl King is on par with the queens of Faerie… that he’s a peer of Mab.  If he randomly joined Winter between Dead Beat and Battle Ground that would be a huge shift in Winter’s favor… it is an unbalancing of forces.  That doesn’t make sense.

The Erlking is of Summer.

He's only a 'peer' of Mab/Titania in a legalistic sense, that is, he's a sort of 'King of Summer'.  His raw power is far less than either Queen.  I don't know how he would stack up against the Winter/Summer Lady.

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DF Spoilers / Re: Questions for Mab
« on: March 15, 2025, 06:31:05 AM »
Quote from: SerScot on March 13, 2025, 03:26:58 PM
In “The Law” Harry mentions how he only has funds to run the Castle for 18 months… that must be his Skin Game loot.  At some point Harry’s constant money problems are just ridiculous.  Can our Author not just addess that?

I'm pretty sure the Author has no wish to do so.

Money is power.  If Harry has access to lots of cash on a regular basis, his life gets easier, his options more extensive, it gets harder to wrap him in plot difficulties.

Remember back in Turn Coat:  Harry was hiding Morgan from the Council and almost everyone else, but he had only a handful of places he could use.  Luckily for him, most of the people hunting him were used to having lots of resources and didn't fully grasp how limited Harry's options were.

Binder did get it, and he actually said at one point "Money never gets it."  Binder is working class background and he understood exactly why Harry was doing things they way he did them.

10
DF Spoilers / Re: What weird dynamic in the mirror verse do you want to see?
« on: March 15, 2025, 06:25:55 AM »
The problem with alternity is that the question:  "What would have happened if Person X chose Decision X differently?" has multiple answers, all valid.  That is, because a different chain of events proceeds from that moment, subsequent choices also have to be made, both by Person X and other people too, and each one of those subsequent choices makes a different world.

If all possibilities happen (which is the usual assumption behind diverging timelines), then there are endless worlds springing from whatever different Choice Harry made.  Worlds where Michael lives or dies, worlds where Harry and the Council are at odds and standing firm together, worlds where Karrin is married to Harry and worlds where Karrin wants Harry dead, all springing from that same Choice, because subsequent Choices also get made.

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DF Spoilers / Re: Blood Rites foreshadowing
« on: March 05, 2025, 06:10:40 AM »
Quote from: Mira on February 27, 2025, 05:34:24 PM
I concur with this theory..  It fits with my theory that Justine had been infested from the beginning.  Lord Raith knows full well who the half brother of Thomas is, he may even know what Harry is, so Justine infected thrown together with Thomas as a way to control him.  Also knowing that Thomas and Harry will get together at some point so eventually a way to get at Harry.  And as we saw at the end of Battleground it almost worked.

My only problem with that idea is that it has a lot of moving parts that have to play out just right.  Sort of like the theory that Martin wanted Harry and Susan to get together in Death Masks.

Yeah, LR, Lara, Nicodemus, Marcone, Mab, Martin, etc. are all chessmasters, but there are still limits to how far ahead they can calculate and how many moving parts they can juggle.  If Justine has been nemfected all along, that would mean lots of opportunities for someone to detect it.  Suppose a rival WV offs Thomas and claims Justine?  Suppose some circumstance forced her to handle a Sword?  If Harry is her target in LR's plot, suppose he happens to be with Rashid at some point when she's near him?

That's a lot of variables that he just can't control.

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DF Spoilers / Re: Blood Rites foreshadowing
« on: March 05, 2025, 06:06:58 AM »
Quote from: g33k on February 27, 2025, 03:06:29 PM
There's Papa Raith's immunity, Vitto's Outsider-summoning (that disabled dozens of potent Earthly minds),
and the fact that Justine seemingly got Nemfected from hanging around Lara (and thus, Raith's Outsider Library) ... once (they say) is bad luck; twice is a coincidence; three times is enemy action.

The Outsiders have deeply-infiltrated the Whampires.



Have they?  Or were the White Vampires always closely tied up with the Outsiders?

Remember that a favorite swear term among them is 'Empty Night'.  IIRC, that's the title of the last book in the series, too.  Harry and Elaine picked up 'stars and stones' from Justin, and IIRC Ebenezar at one point rebuked Harry for using it, too.  Justin and Margaret were mixed up with the Court, too.

I wonder if the phages themselves are some kind of outsider.

13
DF Spoilers / Re: Is there something that would happen in a Dresden book that will make you quit?
« on: March 05, 2025, 06:03:02 AM »
Quote from: Mira on March 03, 2025, 10:37:16 PM
THAT! Would end it for me right then and there!

Not for me, not in itself.  That is, as long as alter-Murphy and alter-vampire-Susan are appropriately different from our universe's verisions of them.  Different live experiences would cause them to be different people.  Obviously in the case of vampire-Susan, but alter-Karrin would not reasonably be our universe's Karrin, either.

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DF Spoilers / Re: What region of the world would you want to see in Dresden Files World?
« on: February 11, 2025, 05:23:13 AM »
Quote from: g33k on December 30, 2024, 04:06:04 AM
As a place for Harry to go adventuring, I think he's likely to remain very-Chicago-centric (plus of course sundry Nevernever adventures!)

Personally, I would like to see a little less Faerie and a little more Real World.  I've commented before that I miss the days when Harry was a local Chicago PI, and even now, I'd like to see Harry spend a little more time in the Real World and a little less time Out There.  I miss the gritty real feel of the early stories.

Where in the Real World would I like to see Harry visit?  I'd kind of like to see Harry pay a visit to Ebenezar at the farm in the Bootheel.  I'd maybe like to see Harry visit a few famous magic places, like Loch Ness or some of the sites in Britain associated with the Arthurian tales.

I think it might be fun if Harry visited the St. Louis Arch and it has some magical significance.

The Pentagon is a five-sided building shaped like a...pentagon.  Something tells me that that probably means something supernatural in the Dresdenverse.

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DF Spoilers / Re: Molly’s trial… what if…
« on: February 11, 2025, 05:05:53 AM »
Quote from: Mira on January 20, 2025, 03:05:47 PM
Or in other words Langtry is for throwing the baby out with the bath water, which isn't really the best solution.  However since he doesn't have enough resources to deal with either the bath water, baby, or the tub at the moment, he is okay with sacrificing the baby.


To be honest, we don't really know how 'ok' Arthur is with that choice.  We see that he's prepared to make that choice, but we don't know what's going on in his head as he does it.  Maybe he's coldly calculating the best interests of the largest number of people, like an idealized Vulcan.  Or maybe, in the privacy of his quarters in Edinburgh, we knocks back a big shot of whisky to help him sleep after ordering the death of some pleading 13 year old warlock.  We just don't know, and Arthur isn't going to show public weakness if it does get to him.

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