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Messages - KurtinStGeorge

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616
DF Spoilers / Re: Cowl is Justin reboot
« on: May 03, 2018, 08:55:43 AM »
Quote from: Snark Knight on May 02, 2018, 02:26:11 PM

Way back in Summer Knight when Ebenezar was introducing Harry to Martha Liberty and LtW to ask for their support in the vote, didn't Martha say something to Eb along the lines of "You know what he was meant to be"?

That reminds me there was one thing I left out of my summary about what we know and don't know and Justin.  It's something will all know, but I think it's easy to forget; Justin was Simon Pietrovich's apprentice.  Those readers who think Justin is still alive see him as the likely culprit who told the Red Court how to disable or defeat Simon's wards.  Of course, because Harry had been Justin's apprentice it was suggested by Senior Council member LaFortier that Harry was the guilty party.

However, to get to your post, I don't think we know what Martha Liberty meant by that statement.  I don't think she meant that Harry was meant to be Justin's enforcer.  The fact that Harry rebelled against Justin would seem to weigh against that interpretation.  Also, even in a worse case scenario, if Harry had gone bad at a young age, how is one more Warlock a danger to the White Council?  The Council must have been afraid that Harry was something special, but in a very bad way.

One more thing to consider.  If the White Council learned that Harry is starborn, we don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing from the Council's perspective.  Past starborn individuals may have catalysts for great destruction or seen as enemies of the Council, or at least enemies of the established order.  I keep thinking about Mother Winter referring to Harry as a weapon, in Cold Days.  Maybe the Senior Council saw Harry that way too, only they thought he was a major weapon that could be pointed at them, not just at Outsiders.  Now that I think about it, the Senior Council might not even know Harry; or any starborn individual, can wield power over Outsiders.  Just because Lash and Margaret LeFey knew this, it doesn't mean it's general knowledge in the magical world.   

 

617
DF Spoilers / Re: Cowl is Justin reboot
« on: May 01, 2018, 07:12:31 PM »
What we know and don't know Justin DuMorne; and what we may assume about him. 

Maggie tried to get Ebenezer to join in an unknown (to us) scheme with Duchess Arianna and Lord Raith.  Justin DuMorne was also one of her associates.  However, we don't know if Justin was associated with Margaret LeFey at the same time she was working with Lord Raith.  She could have made different allies at different times and in different circumstances.

Justin removed Harry from an orphanage shortly after Harry's magic ability started to emerge.  We can assume something similar for Elaine, but we don't know for certain.  There might be important differences in how and why Justin selected each of them, but we have nothing to confirm this possibility.

We can assume Justin wasn't on the run from the White Council when he adopted Harry and Elaine.  If he had been on the run it seems unlikely he could live in one place very long with any degree of safety and raise two teenagers at the same time.  From this we can also assume that whatever his true relationship was to Harry's mother, from the White Council's perspective it couldn't have looked nefarious, at least as long as they didn't look too closely.  Many wizards must have known Margaret before she had broken any of the Laws of Magic, and Justin might have claimed that he hadn't been in contact with her after she went rogue, even if that wasn't true. 

HWWB knew Justin DuMorne or knew enough about him to drop his name when the Walker was talking to Harry the first time they met.  Harry assumed Justin called HWWB behind to go after Harry after he ran away.  That was a logical assumption for Harry to make, but we don't know with certainty if this was the case.

We don't know how the events played out that lead to Justin's death.  (Assuming he did in fact die.)  The early books are a little vague on the details.  We know Elaine hit Harry with a binding that he was eventually able to break.  There was also an attempt to force Harry to drink human blood in some type of ritual which we can assume would have enthralled Harry to Justin's will.  Elaine was chanting and her body was painted with swirling patterns which seems to confirm that a ritual was being used.  At some point Harry is free and all we really know is Harry vividly remembers seeing Justin burn to death and that he continued to watch Justin's corpse blacken and shrivel in the flames. 

That's about it other than other people and not people's opinions of Justin.  Ebenezer called Justin a "son of a bitch."  Bob told Harry that Justin got what he deserved.  Lea told Harry that he wanted to give Justin the benefit of the doubt, but he was wrong to do so; in other words Justin got what he deserved.  From this, all we can really be certain of is that Lea didn't tell Harry a direct lie about Justin.  There may have been, and probably was much she didn't tell Harry about Justin, because Harry was only drawing upon his own memories of Justin, Lea wasn't sharing any of hers.  I suppose we can also trust Bob's opinion because he didn't have any reason to lie to Harry, but Bob doesn't have a strong grasp of morality so his opinion on when it's right to kill someone can be somewhat shaky.  We really don't know when and how Ebenezer formed his opinion of Justin. 

There is one last tiny bit of information which possibly links Justin to Lea.  From time to time young Harry was visited by a beautiful women with red hair when he was at the orphanage, Lea.  (I don't remember which book Harry had this memory in.)  It's easy to assume Lea was simply fulfilling her bargain with Margaret to look after Harry, but she was probably also there to check if Harry's magic had stated to manifest.  She could have detected magic far more easily than any mortal could have.  This also could have also been part of her bargain with Margaret, Lea might have agreed to find someone to teach Harry how to use magic, but Lea might also have made a separate agreement with Justin.  There is a huge gap in our knowledge here.

I'm hoping Peace Talks will give us more information about Margaret LeFay and by extension Justin DuMorne.     

618
DF Spoilers / Re: Shapeshifting and size-changing
« on: May 01, 2018, 01:54:04 AM »
So is it explained how someone gets smaller, like when LTW turned himself in to a bird when he was fighting the Naagloshii?  I mean it's one thing to add mass by grabbing some ectoplasm from the nevernever and magically animating it as part of your chosen form, but how do they do it in reverse?  That seems problematic to me.   

619
DF Spoilers / Re: Dear Jim
« on: May 01, 2018, 01:15:59 AM »
Quote from: wardenferry419 on April 30, 2018, 11:05:11 PM
When was the last time Butcher has posted on Twitter? Months?

Jim hasn't posted in months, but he used to do regular posts giving his audience rough updates when writing past novels.  I understand why Jim got off off twitter, because he took the time to make many other posts, and that can get time consuming.  However once he gets into the home stretch; meaning finishing the next to last chapter, I think it would nice to get an update from Jim.

620
DF Spoilers / Re: Dear Jim
« on: April 30, 2018, 07:03:40 AM »
Quote from: Ineptwizard on April 28, 2018, 07:05:22 PM
As long as Jim's books continue to b as entertaining I'll keep reading.
I'd rather have quality stories.

I don't think anyone would disagree with getting quality stories, but it would be nice if Jim would do an update on Twitter when he finishes the big boss battle chapter and only has the denouement chapter left to write, or when he starts the final big boss battle chapter.  At least when he used to make those kind of announcements you had the feeling real progress was being made and that it would only be a few more weeks.  About six weeks ago Jim said he might be finished around the end of April.  Now if it takes until (for example) the end of June, then so be it, but it would be nice not to be so in the dark as we are now.

621
DF Spoilers / Re: Cowl is Justin reboot
« on: April 30, 2018, 06:52:57 AM »
One problem with Justin=Cowl is Harry was around Justin for years.  As his powers came in; and especially whenever Justin did even the slightest magical thing, Harry would have gotten a feeling for Justin's magic.  He mentions that Cowl's magic feels different.  He even describes it.  Don't you think Harry would have noticed that it felt at least somewhat similar to the magic his old master used?  B'cause I'm not buying the idea that Justin's magic could have changed so radically in the time between the time Harry saw Justin die and Dead Beat.   

622
DF Spoilers / Re: Could Jim use current movies to influence books?
« on: April 27, 2018, 06:59:11 PM »
Because of the copyright issues involved I wouldn't expect more than a passing or offhand mention of some Norse deities gaining power because of recent movies.

623
DF Spoilers / Re: Pea Stalks - Will this Character Die?
« on: April 27, 2018, 08:45:49 AM »
My money's on Ebenezer joining the choir eternal.  He's Harry's real mentor.  Justin just taught Harry magic while Eb taught Harry what it means to be a wizard.  So I'm looking at the basic hero's journey.  At some point the hero losses the mentor and has to finish the journey on their own.  Ebenezer has given Harry political cover from the Merlin and others on the Senior Council for decades and he's explained to Harry how the Council works.  Harry's learned from other sources as well, but Eb gave Harry a basic understanding of the White Council's (stated) philosophy, values, and a basic understanding how it works on an everyday basis.   

If I wanted to flesh this idea out a bit more, I would add Harry will once more be working for the White Council; obstensiviley, helping Warden Ramirez with security for the upcoming talks with the Fomor, but we know his role will be involuntarily expanded into more than just being a high power security guard.  Also, Harry hasn't had anything to do with the Council for a couple of years, at least.  The last time we saw the Council it looked like it could split apart and we have no idea if the turmoil we saw in Changes had any lasting effect.  So right about now would be a good time for Harry to first be shocked by whatever changes he sees in the Council and then have the rug pulled out from under him by having the one person he could count on to always be in his corner in Council matters no longer be there for him.   

624
DF Spoilers / Re: A new, bigger pistol for Harry
« on: April 23, 2018, 03:52:23 AM »
From what we saw in Skin Game I get the feeling no gun is big lethal enough for Harry to use effectively against his most dangerous foes.  He might be able to take out a fomor servitor or human flunky, or at least lay down some suppressing fire, but against major supernatural threats any gun Harry can carry isn't going to be much use.  Also, remember that Harry is still a bad shot.  In Cold Days he had to lay his winchester across a flat surface on the tugboat bridge in order to shoot people coming up the stairs from below.  So he couldn't have been firing from a distance of more than 20 ft and probably less than that, but it was the only way he could fire accurately. 

So Harry might be able to continue to use guns in duels against lower level threats.  He might even be able to shoot a wizard who is distracted and not putting up a shield, but as Harry faces larger threats guns are becoming secondary weapons for him to use.  They have specific but very limited uses.   

625
DF Spoilers / Re: Dear Jim
« on: April 20, 2018, 07:14:16 AM »
This isn't aimed at any one person.  In the immortal words of HAL 9000:

"I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over."  ;D


626
DF Spoilers / Re: Dear Jim
« on: April 19, 2018, 08:41:12 AM »
Slightly unrelated topic, but not really.  Jim was scheduled at a writer's conference in Colorado starting on April 27th.  I just checked the conference website and Jim isn't listed as attending.  That may be disappointing for aspiring writers who are also fans of Jim's work, but it suggests he his concentrating on finishing Peace Talks which I think we can all agree is a good thing.

I do miss those times when Jim would go on twitter and announce "I just loaded (fill in the blank) and I'm at 75% of my expected word count."  Plus, those times when he would announce "I just finished up the final battle and now have only to write the denouement chapter," let us know he was getting close to finishing.  Also, I agree with the OP on one subject.  Unless it would be super spoilery, I'd love to see Jim do a reading of the first two or three chapters several months before publication.  He hasn't done that in ages. 

627
DF Spoilers / Re: Describe Each Novel's Plot Badly
« on: April 18, 2018, 08:59:57 AM »
Harry and his Shadow
Harry and the canines
Harry goes ghostbustin
Harry does a favor
50 shades of Harry
Harry, the stunt porn double
Jurassic Harry
Harry goes to a cold place
Harry gets knocked up
Harry with lots of goats
Harry collects coins
Harry and the buddy cop
Harry in old Mexico
Harry has a ghost of a chance
Harry’s new boss
Harry breaks the bank

628
DF Spoilers / Re: The way male writers describe women
« on: April 13, 2018, 02:06:53 AM »
The only thing I can add to this conversation is the Dresden Files, and particularly the first three books, are very much influenced by 1940's detective fiction.  In Storm Front, Jim lifted the basic plot structure of "Farewell My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler and made a few clever twists and then added magic.  (Though a very well thought out magic system.)  In both books the detective starts investigating a murder, there is a criminal who is not the murderer but for his own reasons doesn't want the investigator getting involved, there is another murder of someone who knows too much and in both novels it's a women.  I almost forgot the best part; in both books the investigator is involved in a separate investigation, looking for a missing person, but in the end both investigations are really the same investigation.

So all the conventions Jim used to create and animate Harry can't just go away.  They remain integral to who Harry is and how he relates to women in general.  Now if you see the same or very similar descriptions of women in the Alera series or in the newer Cinder Spires book (books whenever we get more), then the criticism leveled against Jim's writing is a much more valid argument. 

Of course, it might be argued that those two series are modeled after genres with a particular take on the world and the people in it.  For example, Jim has said the Cinder Spires is basically Horatio Hornblower sailing ship adventure with a steam punk twist.  I've never read any Horatio Hornblower books so I can't go any further than that.  The beta readers who have read samples of other types of novels Jim has played around with; like a hard scifi X-Files on the moon concept that his beta readers weren't that hot on, might have better insight into this question.       

629
DF Spoilers / Re: Call for help
« on: April 08, 2018, 12:28:30 AM »
I'll have to re-read the scene where Harry first met HWWB but I don't remember him beating the Walker with his own magic.  HWWB was stupid enough to stand between two gas pumps.  Harry was PO'd which allowed him to generate his first big fire spell (Fuego!) which destroyed the safety mechanisms on the pumps to create a huge explosion and fireball.

It's not until Cold Days that Harry is shown to have real influence over an Outsider (Shark Face) by using his full Name as a mental weapon to force the Walker to reveal his own Name.  It was a very intuitive move by Harry because Lash didn't give Harry a hint about how he could have influence over Outsiders, just that he could do it.

If Elaine could do something similar, doesn't she have to know in advance that it's possible?  Wizards as a rule don't like handing anyone their full name, though Harry and Elaine know each other's.   Even though I strongly suspect we will find there are other ways a Starborn may exert influence over Outsiders, if they don't have any idea they have such power why would they even try?

630
DF Spoilers / Re: Call for help
« on: April 05, 2018, 07:25:43 AM »
Look at the last conversation Lash had with Harry. Lash - "...because of the circumstances of your birth - because of why you were born, Harry.  Your mother found the strength to escape Lord Raith for a reason."

The italics or emphasis on the words "why" and "reason' are in the book.  While we don't know if a starborn can come about by chance; I suppose it might be possible, this certainly isn't the case with Harry.  Harry's mother was a powerful wizard in her own right.  So some magical heritage might be and probably is a prerequisite to become a starborn, but more important is that Harry's abilities in this regard were planned in advance Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay.

The second sentence suggests Harry's mother discovered something; something about Outsiders certainly, and more specifically about their connection to Lord Raith.  She wanted to her unborn son to have the ability to defeat Outsiders and possibly the ability to beat Lord Raith's immunity to magic.  This is a WAG.  We know Daddy Raith was more or less invulnerable to magical attack but we don't know how he gained that knowledge.  There's a red herring (IMO) about Raith's secret magical library but what if LR learned, was taught or was granted some limited type of Outsider magic; specifically the kind that makes someone or something more or less invulnerable to magic that most wizards use.  You might think this isn't relevant because Lord Raith is hors de combat, but he might make a comeback or Lara mighty oneday get the same invulnerability her father had.  If Harry realized that invulnerability was powered by Outsider magic, he might, one day, discover he can pierce that defense.

Final point is what Lash said next.  "There was a complex confluence of events, of energies, of circumstances that would give a child born under them the potential to wield power over Outsiders."  To me, this sounds like a formula or more likely a ritual was involved in Harry's birth and maybe even his procreation.  I may have more to say about this sentence later.

Question: I assume we know Elaine had the potential to be a starborn from a WoJ, because I don't remember reading this in any of the books.  Jim might be pulling a fast one on us.  Maybe the circumstances of her birth gave Elaine this potential, but perhaps the other elements, like the correct ritual to infuse the energies needed to make her a starborn were lacking.  Or maybe Elaine is a starborn because someone else wanted a starborn individual they could manipulate.  At the moment, I don't think there is anyway for us to know exactly what Elaine is beyond a mortal wizard.

         

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