Unsolved Mysteries Version II

[Powderkegger]

I think Harry C will still be a little young but Daniel is, what, sixteen? He'll be in his mid to late twenties by the BAT. He's definitely my pick for Amor. He tried to stand an fight the Fetches so his family could take shelter, takes care of all the younger kids, probably never misses Sunday mass, and his parents are Micheal and Charity Carpenter. Sounds like a future Fist of God to me.

I do think little Harry will have some relevance, however minor, somewhere in the series. Well, he already has. He was the bait for Nic's Lash-trap.

[The Fish]

I find it interesting that little harry has aid maybe 3 words the entire time we've known him, and those were usually his name. All the other carpenter children have been a bit more social. We don't actually know much about harry yet. I think i agree that he has Things To Do. I dunno about amoracchius though

[Lubi]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and maybe this question has come up before. (But I don't think so, I searched). Or maybe I'm just too dumb to see the obvious answer.
Anyway, at the end of Small Favor, chapter 46, there's this scene where Harry's in the hospital chapel and Mab comes up to speak with him. I think it is heavily indicated that Mab performs some more "brain surgery" (as with removing the memories of his fire magic earlier in the book) on Harry. I'm talking about the passage

I scowled at her. “You will not. I do not belong to y—”
The next thing I knew I was on my knees in the center aisle, and Mab was walking away from me, toward the door.

Clearly, here's a gap of at least some moments, because he was sitting in a seat before. Also, when Mab is gone, he reports to be bleeding from nose and ears, exactly like when Mab erased the memories of his blasting rod.

I realized a minute later that I had a nosebleed. A minute after that, I realized that there was a trickle of blood coming out of my ears, too.

So, the actual (unresolved) question is: What was the missing part of the conversation with Mab about, and why did she erase Harry's memories of it?

[The Fish]

ooooooh, i completely missed that one.

[LogicMouseLives]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and maybe this question has come up before. (But I don't think so, I searched). Or maybe I'm just too dumb to see the obvious answer.
Anyway, at the end of Small Favor, chapter 46, there's this scene where Harry's in the hospital chapel and Mab comes up to speak with him. I think it is heavily indicated that Mab performs some more "brain surgery" (as with removing the memories of his fire magic earlier in the book) on Harry. I'm talking about the passageClearly, here's a gap of at least some moments, because he was sitting in a seat before. Also, when Mab is gone, he reports to be bleeding from nose and ears, exactly like when Mab erased the memories of his blasting rod.So, the actual (unresolved) question is: What was the missing part of the conversation with Mab about, and why did she erase Harry's memories of it?

There was a good deal of speculation some time ago about the headaches Harry was having between the action of Small Favor and Turn Coat, and the fact that Little Chicago is not seen in Turn Coat (the one scene where the basement lab is described in detail only mentions "a long central table covered in a heavy tarp", which is similar to the description Harry uses for his blasting rod memories as he is in the process of regaining them in Small Favor.

Quite a few folks are of the opinion that Mab made Harry forget about Little Chicago so that he wouldn't be able to use it to find Thomas and would be forced to use Demonreach as he did. It's something of a stretch, but does kind of hang together.
Ghost Story Spoiler:

(click to show/hide)

The more so for their apparent collaboration at the end of the new book.

And welcome to the boards, Lubi!

LML

[Lubi]

Thanks, that actually makes a lot of sense. Although I can't quite figure out Mab's motives. But then I guess no one really can. We'll see.

[KurtinStGeorge]

FOOL MOON

There is more going on than Rudolph being ashamed of Harry seeing Rudolph's cowardice in Fool Moon.  In GP Rudolph threatened to kill Harry if Harry couldn't help Murphy after she had been attacked by the Nightmare.  So it appears Rudolph cared about Murphy; he was still one of the good guys then, albeit an unbelieving, ineffective and cowardly good guy.  In Changes FBI agent Tilly calls Rudolph a dirty cop.  The Red Court Eebs send the Ick to kill Rudolph. 

I believe Rudolph is more than a dirty cop holding a grudge against Harry and Murphy because he is ashamed they have witnessed his cowardice, though that is part of his motivation.  He has been influenced by some dark powers; the RC obviously but possibly someone else as well, somewhere between GP and Changes.  It may not be a major plot point in DF universe, but I think Rudolph's story is a little larger and darker than many people suspect.   

[Ona]

Believe it or not, I just read all 26 pages of this thread.  You guys are amazing!

I also looked for a version III because all kinds of issues from GS were not addressed, but couldn't find one.  So if there is one, someone please redirect me...

I noted a few things down as I went through the thread:

Maybe the demon in the Sight is his old employer Drakul, metaphorically holding Kincaid, much like viewing Harry with the Sight shows HWWB.

Do we know this - that viewing Harry with the sight reveals HWWB?  I'm doing a another re-read, so perhaps I'm missing something from the later books, but it seems to me Harry has always been really clear about not knowing, and not asking, what people see in him during a soul gaze.

So far, the general consensus has been that the Erlking is the most likely culprit for the hexenwulfen belts, but we're not sure.

Is it just me, or does this just seem like a really odd thing to happen?

It seems to me also that this doesn't ring true.  I just can't see the Erlking taking that kind of interest in FBI nobodies.  And I don't see anything in the text to support the theory - especially as the books go on.  At the end of Proven Guilty, Eb & Harry agree that something is behind all these things...  the hexenbelts being one of 'these things'.  I just can't see the Erlking fitting into the rest of it, and if he doesn't, he can't be the one to supply the hexenbelts. 

Was Rudolph being influenced by anyone other than the eebs/before the eebs?
I recently re-read GP in which he's explicitly and vocally supportive & protective of Murphy.

I also just re-read GP, and Rudolph, scared as he was, was clearly protective of Murphy.  He even, through his terror, threatened Dresden if anything happened to her.  He seems to have gone through a major character shift, and I can't see embarrassment being the entire cause of it.

So I agree with you here, totally.  It's an unexplained character shift.

which reminds me, there are some notions that Harry is meant for a mantle like the Warden (singular), which we don't know much about, or Blackstaff (for which I personally consider Harry to be supremely unsuited), but what about Harry as Gatekeeper?

When I first read that entry in McCoy's journals, that was exactly what I thought.  Later on in the series, there were a whole lot of other choices - but first impressions are important.  And that was definitely my first thought, the Gatekeeper's mantle.

As to why Mouse didn't bark at the fire...  I have to say I had the same idea as

Because then Jim would have had to come up with some other way to break Harry's back...

    I mean an author is just an author, he has to get things in their places one way or the other.  (Sorry, sorry, flees flying tomatoes).

It's gotta be an enchantment in some sense, because Harry believed he could have cured Susan by using the unravelling cloth.

This is what Harry thinks.  What he hopes to do with it.  It's entirely clear that Mother had other plans.  So I don't think Harry's fantasy solution here bears much weight.  We, the readers, knew, from the moment Mother gave that to him, that he would have to use it in the current situation.  And so he did.

Whoever Victor was working for, they knew about the heart-ripping curse used by the Red Court as well.

This is one that keeps coming up and keeps bothering me.  Yes, I know it's been mentioned that someone tells Harry the Red Vampires blood curse tears the heart out, but I don't remember seeing that happen at CI.  And Victor Sells was using simple thaurmatogy - super powered by the storm and the sex ritual - but there was a live rabbit with Harry's hair and a sharpened spoon.  Presumably, had he had time, he would have dug the rabbit's heart out with the spoon, and just like the Snoopy and the Loup-garou, it would have worked on Harry.  It just seems totally different than the blood line curse.  (To me, naturally, no offense meant).

Re the person who hit Harry's car from behind. 

Thomas mentions it at the end of that book as a loose end.

If you're talking about the end of Proven Guilty, it was Eb who mentioned it as a loose end.

As far as Kincaid saying Harry was as human as he was...  Personally, I'm fascinated by Kincaid.  And I'm quite sure that comment had meaning - and not just that being a Wizard is enough to differentiate himself from a vanilla human. 

I read that as a pretty straightforward comment calling Dresden out for throwing stones from his glass front porch.
 He doesn't need to be a scion of something from the nevernever to be less than human.
A lifespan of a couple centuries and the ability to harness the forces of creation and destruction with your mind makes you pretty darn inhuman.

Mortal practitioners.  Kincaid is a scion.  We know that now.  And that he made his choice a long time ago.  I really can't see him throwing out a comment like that in reference to something they both knew - that Dresden was a Wizard. 

Not to say I know what it means.  But I'm pretty sure it's important.

Anyway, after more than an hour reading this thread...  that enough from me. 

Again, you guys are just amazing!

Ona

[Magnus]

Believe it or not, I just read all 26 pages of this thread.  You guys are amazing!

I also looked for a version III because all kinds of issues from GS were not addressed, but couldn't find one.  So if there is one, someone please redirect me...

I noted a few things down as I went through the thread:

Do we know this - that viewing Harry with the sight reveals HWWB?  I'm doing a another re-read, so perhaps I'm missing something from the later books, but it seems to me Harry has always been really clear about not knowing, and not asking, what people see in him during a soul gaze.

He talks about HWWB having left a mark on him, after that junkie in Storm Front sees him on the policestation and mentions HWWB.

[polkaneverdies]

The someone who tells harry about the nature of the curse is Odin. You don't remember seeing it at CI because harry blacks out for a couple of minutes immediately after killing susan. Its hard to remember what harry can't describe seeing since he himself forgets.

[professorpoole]

Maybe someone else has mentioned this -- it's hard for me to believe otherwise -- but to me, the biggest and most critical mystery of all is: who was Ebenezer's wife? Ebenezer was Maggie (Sr)'s father ... so who was her mother?

Remember, Sir Jim is a very close-mouthed soul, so I've no doubt that this is going to be a rather interesting revelation. It seems like it'd be very important, especially considering that it is well-established that magical abilities more often follow the *female* bloodline, rather than the male.

(Mab?)

(Leah?)

(Someone else entirely?)

(heh.)

[King_Luffy_91]

Maybe someone else has mentioned this -- it's hard for me to believe otherwise -- but to me, the biggest and most critical mystery of all is: who was Ebenezer's wife? Ebenezer was Maggie (Sr)'s father ... so who was her mother?

Remember, Sir Jim is a very close-mouthed soul, so I've no doubt that this is going to be a rather interesting revelation. It seems like it'd be very important, especially considering that it is well-established that magical abilities more often follow the *female* bloodline, rather than the male.

(Mab?)

(Leah?)

(Someone else entirely?)

(heh.)

Going with the end of Changes, I'd rule out Leah going with Eb's statement of it being a family meeting/discussion... pointedly meaning that Lea isn't in any way related to Harry except as Godmother...

[Sydna]

Maybe someone else has mentioned this -- it's hard for me to believe otherwise -- but to me, the biggest and most critical mystery of all is: who was Ebenezer's wife? Ebenezer was Maggie (Sr)'s father ... so who was her mother?

Remember, Sir Jim is a very close-mouthed soul, so I've no doubt that this is going to be a rather interesting revelation. It seems like it'd be very important, especially considering that it is well-established that magical abilities more often follow the *female* bloodline, rather than the male.

(Mab?)

(Leah?)

(Someone else entirely?)

(heh.)

There is a WOJ which said she was mortal. So probably not interesting.

[OpticChaos]

-Who cast the spell that stopped Harry from entering the screening room?

When/What is this question referring to?

[uncanny]

As to why Mouse didn't bark at the fire...  I have to say I had the same idea as

I don't recall Mouse being there?  I thought he'd sent him with Molly.