Discontinuity = clue? [GS sample ch spoilers]

[Airborne248]

Butcher said in an interview it was something like the transition between Back to the Future II and III. 

There could be time travel, or it could be that time moves differently in the afterlife.  Maybe Harry Sam Beckitted himself into that particular time to resolve the issue before it happened?

Watch him come back to life and have the White Council on his ass for violating the policy on changing history

[Kettu]

Another discrepancy: the bonsai. I'm not an expert on them or anything, but I do know enough to know that it takes considerably longer than just a few years to grow them to look like miniature trees if you start with a seed or even a little sapling. Like decades, at least.

Maybe the japanese garden is a ghost, too.

[itari]

Another discrepancy: the bonsai. I'm not an expert on them or anything, but I do know enough to know that it takes considerably longer than just a few years to grow them to look like miniature trees if you start with a seed or even a little sapling. Like decades, at least.

Maybe the japanese garden is a ghost, too.

I thought about it, too, but Morty could just keep the bonsai trees in his backyard until they're fully developed or something.

I'm not discounting it. I just think the blood of one vanilla mortal isn't enough to significantly alter the balance of the Faerie Courts, even when sacrificed at the stone table.

Well, it the balance is an unstable equilibrium, any amount of power could disrupt it.

[Kettu]

I thought about it, too, but Morty could just keep the bonsai trees in his backyard until they're fully developed or something.

Sure. Or he could have bought them ready-grown over the Internet. I just thought I'd mention them since they may point to Harry not perceiving things as they really are in the world of the living.

[derrick]

Looking back on Small Favor, the lack of fire magic, his missing blasting rod, and his treatment of Michael is totally out of character for Harry.  If the discontinuity of some things in Ghost Story is anything like the way JB messed with our heads (via Harry's) in Small Favor, then I'm going to have a few headaches fitting everything together.

[Niarlan]

Just a point I noticed, Stu didn't invite Harry in to the house over the threshold. He took him prisoner...now if Stu is the designated guardian of the home he would have the power to bring Harry into the home but without power inside.

Nia

[knnn]

Hey Serack.  Nice compilation!

Just to add another something to the mix (this is not quite a discrepancy, but hey), at the end of chapter one, Harry casually talks about "saying goodbye to his grandfather".  Since he only found about this specific familial connection rather recently, and given how much importance Harry places on family (re. contrast with the effect of finding out he has a brother), this seems a little out of character.

[Duke Blue]

Serack,

First I want to say that I was very impressed by your catch of the inconsistent descriptions.  I just had a thought of a possible explanation that I thought I would throw out to see what your take was on it.  I really don't know about the house but as far as the descriptions of Mort here it goes... Mort appears to look pretty much like he did in Dead Beat but Harry is saying that this is the first time that he has seen him like that with the weight loss and the shaved head.  That could mean that someone or something has caused Harry to completely forget his meeting with Mort in Dead Beat.  If you couple that with the sudden recent attacks on Morty both ghostly and now physically it could mean that someone is trying to make sure that Harry can't be reminded by Mort about that meeting either.

Now as I recall, during their conversation in DB, Mort had ghosts show on a map locations where necromancy had been used around Chicago recently. Now Harry never got to check out more than a couple of those locations before he got caught up with other leads but could it is possible that one of those other locations that Harry never visited will actually be a vital clue to resolving the current situation.  Its a bit speculative but there you go.

[knnn]

That could mean that someone or something has caused Harry to completely forget his meeting with Mort in Dead Beat. 

Thing is, it's more than just forgotten memories.  If you look at Serack's OP, you'll find that Mort had moved away from his California-style house by the beginning of DB.  So either Mort moved back so the place he had previously sold - just in time for Harry to go there (remember he writes down a specific address, not just "take me to Morty"), or *something else* is going on. 

My current take on things is that's it's an "Enterprise C" sort of scenario, i.e. Harry has been transported to a sort of alternate universe where "history" is different:

effects so far:

1) Mort never moved.
2) He's known about his grandfather/daughter for a while.
3) His hand never got burned.

Following this logic down a rabbit hole, all this suggests that the point of change took place between chapter 10 of Dead Beat (when he visits Mort) and the story of Death Masks (when Maggie is conceived).

So why?

- One possibility is that the "timeline shift" is actually an attempt by Uriel et al. to help Harry (i.e. make it easier for him to solve his murder and thereby get back).

- The other possibility I am currently playing with is that the murder weapon itself was a sort of Entropy Curse (possibly pointing toward Lord Raith as the culprit - which matches the timeline):

Consider that a turkey falling out of an airplane flying at 30,000 feet can take around a minute to hit the ground.  This means that in order for a falling turkey hit a moving target (especially when the target gets changed at the last moment), you need to somehow know in advance where your target will be standing.  Assuming we accept this, it means that an entropy curse can somehow reach back in time to achieve the currently desired effects.  Yadda Yadda.

[Serack]

Thing is, it's more than just forgotten memories.  If you look at Serack's OP, you'll find that Mort had moved away from his California-style house by the beginning of DB.  So either Mort moved back so the place he had previously sold - just in time for Harry to go there (remember he writes down a specific address, not just "take me to Morty"), or *something else* is going on. 

My current take on things is that's it's an "Enterprise C" sort of scenario, i.e. Harry has been transported to a sort of alternate universe where "history" is different:

effects so far:

1) Mort never moved.
2) He's known about his grandfather/daughter for a while.
3) His hand never got burned.

I wouldn't say never got burned, because he does remember it being burned. 

I looked at my left hand and saw that it was no longer covered in scar tissue from the burns I’d received years ago. It was whole, as if it had never been harmed.

Following this logic down a rabbit hole, all this suggests that the point of change took place between chapter 10 of Dead Beat (when he visits Mort) and the story of Death Masks (when Maggie is conceived).

So why?

- One possibility is that the "timeline shift" is actually an attempt by Uriel et al. to help Harry (i.e. make it easier for him to solve his murder and thereby get back).

- The other possibility I am currently playing with is that the murder weapon itself was a sort of Entropy Curse (possibly pointing toward Lord Raith as the culprit - which matches the timeline):

Consider that a turkey falling out of an airplane flying at 30,000 feet can take around a minute to hit the ground.  This means that in order for a falling turkey hit a moving target (especially when the target gets changed at the last moment), you need to somehow know in advance where your target will be standing.  Assuming we accept this, it means that an entropy curse can somehow reach back in time to achieve the currently desired effects.  Yadda Yadda.

He also remembers his duster falling appart:

I noticed idly that I was wearing jeans, a plain black T-shirt, and my black leather duster—which had been torn to shreds and consigned to the waters of the lake an hour or three before I got shot. I mean, my duster had died.

I haven't reread everything so I'm not confident, but it seems as though the events of changes have happened to him...

meh, I've speculated enough, I'll wait another week+ so that I can just read it...

[Mira]

Yeah, that bit really bugged me too! In Death Masks as well, Mort was described as "...A dumpy, balding man in his late forties..." which also does not translate to "self-destructively obese." Could it be that Harry was just trying to be nice in his descriptions of him before, and that now that he's dead he doesn't care as much about the potential for offending someone with an honest description? Or maybe now that he's dead he's seeing and remembering things with less self delusion. (Of course that doesn't in any way cover the house changes, but whaddaya do?)

Here's another thing: Every person that Harry has encountered since he died seems to have become a sort of idealized version of themselves. Take a look at the descriptions of Carmichael and Captain Jack, as well as Mort. (Obviously, since we've never met Sir Stuart before we have nothing to compare him with.) It made sense to me when we were just dealing with the dead guys; you've got that whole frozen at 30 thing going on and all. But it seems like he's seeing Mort (and Mort's yard, and Mort's house and its furnishings) in idealized forms as well.

If it isn't just one huge continuity flub (and it seems as if it's much too big to be one) then I'm guessing it's a 'dead' thing.

LML

  No one has taken Harry's age into account when we first meet Mort.. Harry was still in his twenties, his body type runs to thin and runner, even if his diet was crap.  So he sees Mort though the unforgiving eyes of a twenty something year old, so being a little heavy is " "self-destructively obese." " to someone who has never gain an ounce.  The whole bald thing and trying to hide it to look younger etc may not be seen in a charitable manner by a twenty something wizard who might live to the age of 300 and beyond.  

Harry was pushing forty at the time of his death, that waist of his is now or was harder to maintain, and in the last two books before he died Harry is suddenly aware that he is no longer a kid..

[toodeep]

Hmmm, what if Jim is pulling a "sixth sense" kinda thing?  What if Mortie is dead already and Harry's ghost is talking with his ghost?  We never saw Harry interact with the cookie jar, but maybe the reason Mortie could physically interact with the door he came in and out of was because it was painted with the ghost stuff to make it solid to him.  Thus a ghost can turn the handle and open it and walk through and close it, appearing normal, compared to the other walls that Harry can't actually touch.

For this to be true though, I got nothing on what is going on with the cookie jar.  Why would he paint a jar with the ghost paint, and even if he did, how would he eat a cookie if he's a ghost...?

[Joefoe]

another theory, Harry after his death has rewound his own life line. He is visiting Mort prior to Dead beat, and will flit around time. However Ghosts not being subject to this time stream see things differently. Perhaps one of the spots with high necromantic energy is in fact Harry being revived and he lives a life as winter knight parrell to his current one until the events of changes and then steps in.

[Serack]

Hmmm, what if Jim is pulling a "sixth sense" kinda thing?  What if Mortie is dead already and Harry's ghost is talking with his ghost?  We never saw Harry interact with the cookie jar, but maybe the reason Mortie could physically interact with the door he came in and out of was because it was painted with the ghost stuff to make it solid to him.  Thus a ghost can turn the handle and open it and walk through and close it, appearing normal, compared to the other walls that Harry can't actually touch.

For this to be true though, I got nothing on what is going on with the cookie jar.  Why would he paint a jar with the ghost paint, and even if he did, how would he eat a cookie if he's a ghost...?

I believe ghost dust is too heavy for a ghost to manipulate.  Remember how Agatha had to rip her arm off to move?

another theory, Harry after his death has rewound his own life line. He is visiting Mort prior to Dead beat, and will flit around time. However Ghosts not being subject to this time stream see things differently. Perhaps one of the spots with high necromantic energy is in fact Harry being revived and he lives a life as winter knight parrell to his current one until the events of changes and then steps in.

SHAZAM!!!! I think  you got it, especially cause of bob's eye color!!!!!

Edit:  Hold up... on second thought, I was thinking you ment he was in Dead Beat's time line, but that doesn't quite work...  I'm a little wierded out here, but I think you might be on to something.

[IIIMarconeIII]

^ um wow