Not maybe as we have known him, but Harry will survive.  But then again, Jim is now successful enough that if he loses some readers because he kills Harry off it won't hurt him that much.  Also consider, Jim has already "killed" Harry off once and brought him back, and he isn't the same Harry he was before, nor is his world.

I mean, unless Harry becomes immortal...which has been hinted at. But I think Harry might go the Vadderung model if he does, rather than the Mab one. Something a bit more flexible. That said, after everything Harry has been through I think it would almost cruel to have to live more in the mortal plane (whether he is immortal or otherwise). Harry deserves to find peace and be with his family again.

Yes, young Harry rejected authority in a lot of ways, corrupt authority especially.  I disagree, Harry is no libertarian, not in the classic sense.  Up until they rejected him outright, Harry had a lot of respect for the White Council from just the way he talked about it.  No, he didn't follow all the rules all of the time, but more out of nessesity rather than disregard for them or belief that they didn't have merit.  Go back to his debate with the Merlin in his defense of Molly in Proven Guilty, that wasn't argued by a libertarian, it was argued by a future Merlin wanting the White Council to follow it's own rules.  Carlos maybe still young but he still represents the old guard, Harry is the new.

Well, it's just a philosophical position. Which doesn't mean he follows every tenet of it. But he does surely hold the central tenet of liberty (the freedom from oppressive restrictions imposed by an authority on one's life) is a core value of his. So, even if he isn't a Libertarian in the sense of a political movement (and I was a bit unclear on that, I apologise) he is a follower of the philosophy.

But I am not suggesting he believes the world would be better without the White Council, yet. I do think he thinks the world is better off without a corrupt one, though. Which I think it could be argued the current one, is.

The latest book doesn't simply put Harry outside the White Council, he's on a collision course with it. Harry and the White Council are gearing up for a fight with each other. Harry is simply saying his boundary is his home, and they need to live him and his alone. The Council is saying they don't recognise his boundary, and will not leave him alone. That will lead to a conflict. I remind you that the Gatekeeper did once tell Harry (back in Proven Guilty I think) that it is not yet his time to challenge the Council. But, I think we have reached that inflection point now.

Ultimately though, Harry himself admits openly his distrust and disdain for authority. Every single book has had him clash with some sort of authority. I would even go so far to say it's a core part of his character - to clash with authority. He has improved a lot since the early days, is a bit wiser about how he goes about it and understands the issues better now. But he doesn't want to rule anyone, because he himself doesn't wish to be ruled.

Carlos is the new wave, but yes he ultimately follows the philosophies of the old guard. But he wants to control and restrict others, he won't compromise himself so much for the greater good. It's a fundamental difference to Harry. Harry will "sell off pieces of his soul, so that someone who won't know his name can live" as Mab put it. As evidenced by his many deals - hell, he used to sell pieces of his Name to Chauncy. Carlos doesn't do that. He sticks to the rules.

As Harry is quite the rule breaker (having broken many of the Accords himself, and several Laws of Magic and purportedly from Jim will break them all eventually) he hardly is the right candidate to be Merlin. Above all, the Merlin must have ultimate integrity otherwise the whole thing cannot be trusted. Harry is more like Ebenezar (no surprise). If he doesn't become the Blackstaff, I would say he is lining up for the next Gatekeeper role. Both of those long before the Merlin position.

But as I say, I don't really see him forming another White Council. Something else, more free, if he had anything to do with it. Not so archaic and restrictive. As g33k suggested, probably something built out of the Paranet.

Harry didn't leave the White Council, the White Council left him.  I also disagree that Harry likes being an outsider, he cannot afford to be with the BAT coming.  He has to learn to play well with others and become a leader.  This is what makes the series interesting, Harry has to evolve and is evolving, he has had to learn to play nice with some and reject others, watching him grow up is what makes the series compelling.

Well, they kicked him out. A small but important difference, I think. For breaking their rules too often, mind you. I mean, the very first book says Harry is on probation for breaking one of the main rules.

I think Harry IS an outsider, a loner. Whether he really likes it or not. He never really fit in with the White Council or the mainstream. He openly advertised himself in the phonebook - this was so far outside the ideas of the mainstream wizarding community he was ostracised (not to mention whatever monstrous nature he may have).

As Ebenezar has pointed out, Harry is being isolated. By his own choice, to a degree. But also by his new allies like Mab. From Harry's perspective, he is making the best choices he can. But that doesn't mean he isn't being isolated.

But Harry has allies, through his various deals and favors and friendships. The question is, which of them will come to his aid voluntarily and which will be forced to when the chips are down and he takes on the White Council? Winter? Vadderung? Ebenezar? River Shoulders? Lara and the White Court? The Knights of the Cross?

It reminds me of another wizard...

Something else to consider. If the White Council had an enemy or group of enemies out there, who wanted to remove them, who found them inconvenient - one of the best and oldest tricks to do it is divide and conquer. Now, what enemy might the White Council have? A shadowy organisation with links to eldritch demon gods...? If, say, that organisation knew of a powerful, rebellious wizard and knew that by isolating him and playing into his fears and pressuring him it might send him on a collision course with the White Council, how might they go about that?

Would they just tell him to attack the White Council, make some offer for power that he wouldn't take? Or would they turn his allies against him? Misconstrue his actions and best intentions to look as bad as possible? Create an environment of fear and distrust in order to push people to act in certain ways, say, kicking a White Council hero off the team? Target his friends and family in order to get him to act rashly? Perhaps even put years of work into him just to get him to the moment he might act?

Whilst simultaneously preparing more direct assaults against the White Council, the largest defence humanity has against the supernatural?

I think that's exactly the kind of thing Cowl & Co. might do.

Great post EBRIEN! Love the positivity - and I agree, Butters has really developed from a bit of a goofy comic relief character into an intriguing and courageous character, who is prepared to call Harry out even when Harry has trouble seeing what is right and wrong.

Ever since Justine's reveal, I have always assumed she got infected by Nemesis early on working for Lara. How that happened is a mystery, but I would guess it was while Cowl still had agents in the White Court (assuming he doesn't have them any more..)

Lara seems more like Drakul, in that now she understands the Game, she is playing at a higher level. She isn't so worried about small stuff like merely ruling the White Court. So I can't see her allying with Outsiders or whatever. Not for the moment. But she does want to gain a lot more power, and it seems she has a strategy (given how apparently she is going for power "in a big way" according to Thomas).

Nemesis we still know frighteningly little about.
We know:
- It can possess/infect/corrupt other beings both immortal and mortal (although there might be limits on more powerful beings).
- There is a limit to how many it can "infect" although we don't know what that limit is
- It can't be detected except through the Sight (presumably only mortals and certain immortals can see it), but this is dangerous
- It's better to try and guess who it has infected as it's more "art than a skill" according to the Gatekeeper
- It's very powerful and has a lot of reach
- It is less of a planner and more an "agent of chaos" like the Joker in the Dark Knight, or Jack Sparrow (if you're feeling cheeky). It simply does "things" and sees what end it creates. It all furthers it's long term goal.
- Its long term goal is "Empty Night" "the unravelling of all things"
- Even the Gatekeeper at the focus of his power cannot always be sure
- Even Uriel might not always know given how power from the Outside works, according to WOJ
- If He Who Walks Before (Sharkface) is the harbinger and vanguard leader, and He Who Walks Behind is the assassin and ruling knight, then He Who Walks Beside (Nemesis) and is the infiltrator and sapper and agent of sabotage and espionage.
- We have no idea what a "Walker" is but that title keeps coming up, and suggests even among Outsiders the Walkers are special. The current theory is they are some sort of planeswalkers which gives them special powers in the multiverse. But we don't have any confirmation of this.
- Nemesis seems to have caused a LOT more destruction currently than his brothers/peers. It will be interesting to see if they are saving their strength or simply play far different roles (or are perhaps just a lot less effective).

From the way Corb talked I'd more suspect her to be Nimue? Morganna wasn't a mewling child in Arthur's day, Nimue tho.. an I don't think even Merlin would have authority to cast out the kings sister. I took it more under the context of dismissing your apprentice, and as the court mage casting her out of the court.

I know traditionally Merlin had the romance with Nimue...but as a Fae, Nimue was old when Merlin (OG) was young. Unless Jim is rewriting Nimue to have been human originally at the time...

Now, a mortal witch who was a "mewling brat" around the time of William the Conqueror? That could well have been Morganna, depending on how Jim is incorporating Arthurian myth into history. There are indeed many stories of Morganna and Merlin being connected, both as master and apprentice, but in some cases lovers too.

As for Merlin casting out Morganna - he was Merlin. He built Demonreach, created the White Council, reformed the Vatican, rescued important knowledge from the Library of Alexandria when it fell, and jumped over tall buildings in a single bound. The guy did what he liked. Who could really stop him? If you read the stories, he essentially comes and goes as he pleases and tells Arthur (even as King) what to do all the time. He is an adviser, but he doesn't really see himself as a subject. And Arthur highly respected Merlin (as did all the Knights). If Merlin said Morganna was to be exiled, I think they would hurling her out the door before he finished his sentence. Not to mention, consider why Morganna was exiled? Likely dark magic - which is even hinted at much in the old tales, and I can't see Arthur giving his half-sister a pass for that. Arthur wasn't Michael Carpenter in nature - just read about how he takes Guinevere cheating on him. Guy could be pretty wrathful.

Just for argument sake, a couple of points;

1] The prisoner has been in that cave for a very long time.. It is very possible that he learned modern English form the various Wardens. Though admittedly why he'd have a British accent is a mystery.
2] Corb might not know that Merlin is in the cave on the island, unless told, he wouldn't know. 

I get what you mean, but Jim was asked about the BP being Merlin - and the answer he gave was that it wasn't very likely given Merlin would still be speaking old Aenglish/Welsh. Whoever that being is on the island, I wouldn't necessarily consider him a good guy particularly given he was much further in than Naagloshii.

I mean, he might not. But given Mab's reaction to Corb's words...I'd say she thinks he is dead too. And I'd say it's less likely she wouldn't know that Merlin is on the Island, if that's were he was. Beyond that though, most of the supernatural community believe Merlin (OG) is dead. Hence the entire need for a replacement one on the White Council. Which isn't to say that he is dead (or completely gone beyond the veil), necessarily speaking.

I think this is key.

A long while back, I proposed that the Red Court where initially meant to do what the Fomor ended up doing. The Fomor where not being held back because of the Red Court being powerful, as has been speculated (largely due to a misconception that the Red Court were holding back other scary supernatural nations, rather than others simply playing a longer game). The Fomor simply were waiting for the right time to attack the Sidhe, and perhaps were "aimed" at the the Fae Courts by some of those players like Cowl operating in the shadows, or rather spurred into action on the Black Council's timeline.

After all, the incredibly not coincidental timing of the Outer Gates coming under heavy assault just as the Fae are fighting an ancient enemy that might have destroyed them seems to indicate a level of planning.

The Red Court (along with the other Vampire Courts aiding them) were simply the weapon the Black Council wanted to use to end the White Council.

But it's all the same goal. Anything that weakens the defence of reality so that the Outsiders can get in.

Why the Black Council want that is another question, and there is plenty of speculation around that for another topic.

Had the Red Court succeeded in wiping out the White Council, my guess is that the Fae wouldn't have lasted much longer as without the White Council I don't see Ethniu being stopped. Once she had crippled or destroyed Winter, the Outsiders would have eventually got in. And perhaps then the others would have got a chance to rule, somehow. gg

It's one of the Red Court nobles who uses the word, which makes sense given some of them would have been conquered by (or perhaps themselves were) Spanish invaders. It irritates Harry a bit irrationally as he has a foolish sense of ownership of the word, even though it's quite likely there would be other magic users that use Spanish as their magic words.

I won't get into how using a live-language would have so many problems (not to say the least if he actually learned Spanish, it should in theory diminish the protection provided by those words). Which seems to be why a lot of wizards use older languages (many of which are no longer in use) e.g. Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, etc.

The Grey Council had indeed arrived by this point.

Cowl isn't Justin.
Evidence in verbal exchange with evil bob
Zero familiarity in my opinion.

And yet, Cowl knew about Evil Bob in the first place. I doubt Cowl and Evil Bob would have a similar relationship to Harry and normal Bob, so if you're expecting that sort of familiarity you would probably be disappointed.

The relationship is a very clear one of master and servant. What would such a conversation sound like if it was more "familiar"?

I don't doubt Harry's actions made a lot of noise ... but I don't think the Walker was making a serious shot at his life at that point. From the unclouded memory flashback in GS, it was pretty clearly trying to goad him into using magic for violence.  It got more than it was bargaining for with setting a gas pump on fire, but if it had wanted him dead, it could have done it easily.

I'm also not even sure Justin was really the one who sent it, for that matter. I think Harry might have that assumption wrong.

I think that's clear from Lea's hints in Ghost Story. Justin may have summoned HWWBh, but I doubt he was calling the shots. More likely reporting back to his superiors...

I do quite like the theory, although I think it's unlikely.

The main problem is that I don't see how Nemesis could do such things as possession (which is a fairly powerful thing) and grant free will to immortals (or at least a version of it) from inside the Island, given how many layers of defences are between what would be the "core" Nemesis and it's puppets. It has to get through the crystal coffin, and then whatever wards are on the hallway, through that super-max magical door that leads to the corridors of prisoners, up and through the earth and wards of the Tower, and past Alfred this whole time and any other defences of the Island, plus the water of Lake Michigan...

It just seems implausible.

Unless...Nemesis had off-shoots. Little avatars or clones, which might explain why it can only possess a limited number of people.


More likely though, I think Nemesis wants to release all the other horrible monsters (which likely includes some nasty Outsiders) that reside in Demonreach, given that would kick off the End of the World for humanity. That's goal enough, in my opinion.

I am not sure I see that Nemesis hates Harry more than the others, or more than most other people hate him except that Harry is a starborn and seems to be constantly ruining Nemesis' various plans (confirmed by the Gatekeeper in Cold Days).