Agreed. The Skinwalker just tortured him to near death and allowed him to feed himself back to health. He wasn't actively trying to talk him into something he was just training him. I liken it to taking a recovering alcoholic, trapping him without water, waiting until her was dehydrated, and giving him only alcohol to drink. The alcoholic will walk out thinking that alcohol is what has freed him from his prison and i necessary for his ongoing life.

First of all if you gave an alcoholic only alcohol to drink, he would die of thirst.  Second what the Skin Walker did to Thomas goes deeper than feeding upon those girls to survive.. Thomas confesses to Harry that he began to enjoy it. You don't just undo something like that, that's what is missing in my opinion, the struggle and Harry coming to terms or not with it.

No, the Whamps' spellcasting &c is only Paranet-caliber magic, sub-WhiteCouncil stuff.  They can use it in conjunction with their Hunger to pull off some pretty potent tricks (presumably in the realm of mind-magic).

Now -- in addition to that -- his father may have "discouraged" Thomas from exploring his magic.  It's a reasonable theory, for sure!

Yes, but the point remains, during the year he lived with Harry, Thomas made no effort to learn any magic.. Nor on page anyway discuss with Harry the possibility that he may have talent.  Since whether a kid has talent or not just seems to pop up, i .e. Harry discovered at age 11 that he could out jump etc beyond what would or should be possible all the kids he came in contact with.

Oh, you might be correct. I just looked up the timeline. I always thought that she met Malcolm after her escape. Now it makes sense: she needed to escape and leave Thomas, because she was pregnant with a non vampire child in a vampire household.

That's the one thing Eb does tell Harry about Margaret in Blood Rites, that after she met and fell in love with Malcolm,she found the strength to leave Lord Raith.

My thoughts on Harry being planned are from IIRC two comments somewhere in the books: I can't remember who said it, but it went like "what they bred you for" (was it Nicodemus or Dracul?) and "what he was meant to be" by Martha Liberty or Listens-to-Wind in Summer Knight. This implies that Harry's existence didn't seem to be random.
@Talby16: so, Thomas wasn't planned. What a relief.

Lash spells it out for Harry in White Night, his conception was no accident, a lot of factors go into it.  Now not clear was this something that Margaret thought up on her own?  Doubtful since everyone but Harry seem to know what Harry is and why he was conceived, so a given that a star born would be conceived.  However who, or what planned this is a bit more of a mystery.  If the White Council planned it, it's doubtful they would choose Margaret, an outlaw basically, to be the mother of their star born.. Martha Liberty did say to Listens to Wind that they knew what Harry was meant to be, or more accurate they suspect, or believe, dangerous and not nice, i.e. Listen and Drakul..  However Margaret seemingly on her own again, if Lash is to be believed in White Night decided to do this after she fell in love with a truly good man, Malcolm.  I think the plan was always out there, i.e. the year was right, we know now star born happen every so many years, in her usual rebellious way, Margaret chose to throw a monkey wrench into everyone's plans by conceiving a star born with a truly good man.  This is what sets Harry apart from the rest of the star born, it is significant and no accident that it is repeated constantly though out the series that Harry inherited his father's good heart among other things.  So there most likely was a plan out there for the conception of a star born, but when Margaret conceived Harry with Malcolm, it backfired.  However I think a huge clue as to why ultimately the White Council elected to throw Harry out, is they know what Harry was meant to be, as Martha Liberty said, but they, with the exception of Eb never knew Malcolm, so they have no clue who Harry really is.

As to whether or not Thomas was planned, if we go by the information in Peace Talks he was born in the wrong year to be a star born unless there is a lot of wiggle room say plus or minus a decade.  I still think Margaret knew that having sex with Lord Raith, most likely unprotected sex meant she could or would become pregnant by him, which happened.  However I still think she found a way for her talent not to be passed onto any child she conceived with Lord Raith.  And yes, Thomas could still have some talent, I seem to remember either Harry saying it or it could be a WOJ that everyone, even vanilla humans are born with some magical talent..

Charity was actively denying/suppressing her powers out of shame. Thomas spent time and effort to learn how to at least do a tracking spell and has used it actively. We don't know how often. We don't know what other spells he may know. If his vampiric nature is stripped away and he is fully human, I agree that it would make sense for him to explore his magical talents more. This would allow him to still fight the good fight and not shift away from the supernatural completely. It sets up an interesting scenario of Harry having to train him and them butting heads.

It's a hard call at this point.  Yes, Thomas learned some elementary or rudimentary spells, but on the surface anyway, he didn't seem interested on learning more.  Was that because as a vampire he didn't think he needed to know more?  Did he fear his father would kill him outright if he did?  Remember Thomas was very into playing the dumb playboy type to stay alive, when we first meet him because of his father.  Or is this in fact as far as Thomas can go with his talent?  He has had his chances to learn more, he lived with Harry for a year and he was a protector of the Paranet and had contact with Elaine.  Was he also afraid of the Wardens if they figured out how talented he really was?  One problem with that if I remember correctly, Harry seems to have a "spidy sense" vibs when he is around someone with considerable magical talent, he has never mentioned it as far as Thomas goes.. But then again I could be remembering that wrong, and Harry also has been clueless at times. One more question, and it may be elementary because Thomas was very young when Margaret left him for Malcolm..  Surely she would have known that as her son, Thomas potentially had talent, maybe lots of talent.  She had to also know how dangerous a WCV wizard would or could be.  So knowing this, why did she leave him behind?  Yeah, maybe roll of the dice, no talent, little talent, potential kick ass wizard, worth the chance?  Or did she have ways of blocking that aspect of her genes when she conceived Thomas with Raith?  Or did she have another way of knowing her six year old son's magical talent would be limited at best?

A great question. Ebeneezer as both the previous Warden Captain and a member of the Senior Council has a greater knowledge of both the events impacting the White Council and those impacting the wider supernatural world. I'm sure there are more dots that could be connected to the dots Harry has personally come into contact with that give greater depth to the Black Council Threat. Heck, our knowledge of the war with the Red Court is fairly limited given that it comes from Harry. We know there are events happening off page and we know that a large number of baddies (Nemesis, Black Court, Black Council, Necromancers, etc) like to make movies during the chaos of war. How many events slipped past the Council's notice or couldn't be responded to because of the war? There are probably a lot more dots out there than we are aware of.

Or the White Council hadn't really been challenged in so long they couldn't conceive that they could be attacked, especially from the inside.

Thomas taking up the sword after becoming human is in my opinion the only solution for him to stay in Harry's world, to become "useful" again. From the story's perspective.
The other would be becoming a wizard, but I don't think his talent would be relevant in future events, meaning the BAT, Outsiders breaking through the Gates and so on. But the Sword of Love will be.

I agree, and that will be good, but I am still disappointed because the first part of that story is missing.  I think too much page time was wasted on the Harry/Murphy romance that could have spent on Thomas.. I know I will get slammed for that, but Murphy had very good reasons for her and Harry not to get together and she stated them back in Proven Guilty.. She might have still be alive even if she had continued as one of Harry's best friends and kick ass supporters, actually that was refreshing! 

Maybe we can get a short story along the lines of what you said or maybe he has to pretend to be the full predator to throw Lara off his scent and we could still get a glimpse of the White Court nightlife.

I think it is a bit late for a short story, not that it wouldn't be nice but now it would have no impact. 

I agree that Turncoat brought about a change for Thomas, but we still see glimpses of who he was before that book. His relationship with Justine being a prime example. If he had truly gone all the way back into the fold and become a "good little vampire" then he should have kicked Justine to the curb and gone to disposable lovers.

  I understand that, and that is what I find disappointing!  We never saw that developmental progress in Thomas!  I would have loved to have seen Thomas as a full hard assed predator for at least one full book, and Harry and Justine trying to deal with that!