List of Headaches [CD spoilers]

[syntagmaton]

I've got questions concerning the parasite. As it is the source of Harry's latest headaches I thought this may be the correct thread to ask them? (otherwise please tell me were to ask).
1. What exactly is the parasite doing in Harry's head? (beside causing headaches) Can it control Harry? Is it just eating his brains? Putting eggs in it?
2. Why is it in his head and not in his heart? It is mentioned as the heart-beating-part of Harry's live-insurance.
3. Demonreach says that the parasite will "burst forth from his skull". In what form? As a material being? Is it something with an outer form? Molly/Grasshopper being able to help suggested that it is something only a mind-reader can detect?
4. Is there a connection between the specific thoughts Harry is thinking and his headaches? Does the parasite react on thoughts by biting his nerves, if it doesn't like the thoughts? Maybe it is eating thoughts and just doesn't like every flavour? When it spits them out again, Harry feels ice picks dugging into his skull?

[Cenphx]

@Vairelome-theres a fairly good discussion of some of your points (not answers per se, but discussion) in the 'crazy HWWB theory revisited', but I just wanted to address your part my idea that Lash isnt the parasite necessarily means that im saying the person who talked to Jim is lying. I definitely do not want to be implying that. Im not saying it nor do I beleive it. Here's what I do think--thats an unambiguous statement by Jim. It doesnt fit, for me, with the kinds of ways he usually tells us things, so I wonder if he is being 'tricksy.' the evidence used to support the idea that the parasite is Lash is not as strong as it seems as first blush. The implications for Harry and the DF if the parasite is a walker are really interesting and have the kind of ramifications Jim seems to like in these books. Best of all we should have our answer about the parasite in the next book, so it wont be a unanswered proposition for long. Thats why I am keeping open the idea that the parasite is someone other than Lash while I accept the veracity of the person who talked to Jim.

[syntagmaton]

the evidence used to support the idea that the parasite is Lash is not as strong as it seems as first blush. The implications for Harry and the DF if the parasite is a walker are really interesting and have the kind of ramifications Jim seems to like in these books.

If there is a He-who -walks-behind and a He-who-walks-before, there should be a possibility of a He-who walks-in ... in your head ... or better: between (your ears), as it starts with a "b" 

[Cenphx]

Regarding why the parasite is in Harry's head and not his heart, when its described as being able to keep his heart going-i think the parasite is in the lower portion of bis brain and spinal column which regulates the nervous system and your heart beating (and matches up to where Harry was first injured by HWWBh).

[Cenphx]

After reading the list, what does everyone think about the theory that Lash is causing the headaches? It doesnt seem like a pattern of a type of headache actually matches up to when Lash dies/would be regenerating. I am alone in that feeling?? (before this list, I thought the headaches DID match up to Lash)

[Snaps At Fireflies]

After reading the list, what does everyone think about the theory that Lash is causing the headaches?

That's pretty much the most widely accepted theory on this forum.  That Lash is still inside his head.   I personally don't agree with it since it makes her entire Heroic Sacrifice in White Knight null and void, and I think from a storytelling standpoint that it's more moving to have the shadow of a fallen angel be redeemed through an act of Sacrifice for another.  But hey, both theories are theories so we'll see when it gets published.

It doesnt seem like a pattern of a type of headache actually matches up to when Lash dies/would be regenerating. I am alone in that feeling?? (before this list, I thought the headaches DID match up to Lash)

Actually to me personally it lines up more with what happened in Small Favor, when Mab stirred up Harry's brain.  Because before that book, his comments about headaches were usually very minor mentions, frequently after being hit in the head by a badguy, and were as I like to call them, his Obligatory Head Trauma for the book.  It's only in the beginning on Turn Coat that Harry takes the time out to really describe to the reader in intense detail that he is having mind numbing migraines that are causing him really really major problems.  And IIRC he mentions that those level of migraines have only been going on for a few months.   To me personally, all the mentions of headaches before could easily be attributed to the OHT of the book, or having his mind mucked about with by people like Corpsetaker.   

And I seem to recall in one of the most recent Q&A's that Jim flat out says that "The Headaches" start at a very specific timepoint in the series.  Which would imply that before that he was having your vanilla mortal headaches from stress, sleep deprivation, trauma, etc.

[syntagmaton]

After reading the list, what does everyone think about the theory that Lash is causing the headaches?

I don't see why Lash should cause headaches. She sort of likes Harry. She even got sort of killed for him. There is no reason (I can't see any reason) why she would like to make his head explode. And if it would be Lash, Demonreach wouldn't have had real amunition for a deal with her -- Harry knew about Lash, but he doesn't know about the parasite. So it is most likely not Lash. I'm afraid I have to say goodbye to that theory, even if I liked it since the end of GS ...

[Vairelome]

I don't see why Lash should cause headaches.

The headaches could easily be caused by Lash, but unintentional.  They could be unsuccessful attempts to communicate.  They could be an artifact of the brain-healing process that Lash may be trying to accelerate, with pain as a byproduct.  There are any number of non-malicious explanations for the headaches that would be consistent with Lash as the parasite, and Lash having no intention of causing gratuitous harm to Harry.

@Vairelome-theres a fairly good discussion of some of your points (not answers per se, but discussion) in the 'crazy HWWB theory revisited', but I just wanted to address your part my idea that Lash isnt the parasite necessarily means that im saying the person who talked to Jim is lying. I definitely do not want to be implying that. Im not saying it nor do I beleive it. Here's what I do think--thats an unambiguous statement by Jim. It doesnt fit, for me, with the kinds of ways he usually tells us things, so I wonder if he is being 'tricksy.' the evidence used to support the idea that the parasite is Lash is not as strong as it seems as first blush. The implications for Harry and the DF if the parasite is a walker are really interesting and have the kind of ramifications Jim seems to like in these books. Best of all we should have our answer about the parasite in the next book, so it wont be a unanswered proposition for long. Thats why I am keeping open the idea that the parasite is someone other than Lash while I accept the veracity of the person who talked to Jim.

I don't understand how JB could be being "tricksy" by saying "Lash is the parasite."  That doesn't seem capable of multiple interpretations to me.

The best circumstantial evidence aside from JB's reported statement are the parasite's location, description, and evident motivation, all of which are consistent with Lash = parasite.  Beyond that is the verified statement by JB on multiple occasions that Lash appeared in GS, though not under that name.  Lash = parasite is consistent with that statement.  If Lash is not the parasite, then you need to propose a more plausible theory of where Lash did appear in GS.  Without that, I don't really see the point of investigating non-Lash theories.

[Ms Duck]

After reading the list, what does everyone think about the theory that Lash is causing the headaches? It doesnt seem like a pattern of a type of headache actually matches up to when Lash dies/would be regenerating. I am alone in that feeling?? (before this list, I thought the headaches DID match up to Lash)

its my belief that many of the SmF on headaches were caused by Mab, and that after she promised not to mess with Harry's head again she made a deal with Lash to mess with it for her. The headaches are just to convenient for Mab for her not to be involved somehow.

[syntagmaton]

The headaches could easily be caused by Lash, but unintentional.  [...]  There are any number of non-malicious explanations for the headaches that would be consistent with Lash as the parasite, and Lash having no intention of causing gratuitous harm to Harry.

Ok, I would like that to be true. So there is still to be seen what exactly she was doing in his head all the time that is causing him headaches. And, more urgently, why she would finally stop doing it (whatever she is doing) and "burst forth" from Harry's skull. Why would she do that? Parasites normally like to stay with/in their hosts?

[Haru]

I think the real headaches start in WN. Everything before that can be directly linked to someone clobberin' Harry over the head.

More specific: I think the cause for the headaches happened in Camp Kaboom. Mainly because of the one quote in WN, when Harry gets a headache when he remembers New Mexico and is abruptly stopped in his thought process. To me, it has the same feel to it as the "Sight-hickup", he talks about when meeting Rashid. Like something is triggering a memory, but it gets blocked. SmF headaches are similar to that. Maybe Lash blocking a memory of the Sight, where Harry asked her to do so. Or Harry cut of a part of his soul, that held the memories, kind of like Bob did.

Now however Harry might have gotten infected, I don't think he himself actually is infected. Instead, I think Lash has been infected by the Nemesis that somehow got into Harry's head. Her infection would have happened at the end of WN in my eyes, when she sacrificed herself to safe Harry. But contrary to what Harry believes, she was not killed, she was severely injured and weakened. Nemesis used that to catch a ride out of the Cave, and has since healed and turned Lash.

So this is the parasite: a Nemesis turned Lash.


But I was thinking along a different angle, too. We know that someone or something is causing Harry to have headaches. The time seems to be set somewhere in WN or SmF. The question remains, who is causing them?
And then I thought of the people we know have been in Harry's head. There's Mab and Lash of course. Lea I'm not sure of, I don't think she actually did some remodeling like the others. On the other hand, she could just as well have, if her contract with Maggie sr. allows for such a thing. Then again, since Mab took over Lea's duties and she could meddle in his head, we can't exclude her entirely.

But there is someone else who got into Harry's head. Two actually, now that I think about it:
First, there's his mother. I'm still not sure how she managed to link herself to both Harry and Thomas. Thomas, sure. She probably had plenty of time after he was born to put a spell on him. But on Harry? She died when she gave birth to him. And unless she put it into her death curse, I don't see how she could have done it. But she was definitely in his head, however she may have done it. One possibility would be, that she somehow put part of herself into the pentacles ahead of time, and when Thomas and Harry touched them, that part of Maggie went into them, just as any of the Denariens do. But however she did it, she was in Harry's head. We know of one thing that she did there, confirm that Thomas is his brother, but she could have done all kinds of things there. Hell, maybe that's part of what made Lasciel's shadow transform into Lash.

And someone else who got into Harry is Kravos. I think it was established that he had been infected by Nemesis, and if it hasn't, I will just assume so anyway. How did Harry defeat Kravos? He friggin' ate him. He ate Kravos power, his essence, his soul. If Kravos was infected by Nemesis, how likely do you think it is that Harry did not get that, too? I know, there aren't any signs that he has been infected that early on, but nonetheless, that's something to think about. In the light of CD, and looking at how inside-Harry had dressed her in a prison jumpsuit, maybe inner-Harry has locked away Nemesis inside of Harry's brain, too. As a prelude to Harry's responsibilities as the Warden, so to speak.

[KurtinStGeorge]

true. that she showed up at all considering she existed only in now burnt out parts of harry's mind does make it hard for her to exist elsewhere.

Seeing that the ice pick like pains are first mentioned in SmF, I wonder if when Mab messed with Harry's memory she also began the process of healing Harry's brain damage.  I had assumed that occurred when Mab healed his back injury, but if she began the process in SmF that is when Lash started to return, assuming that regrowing the burned out areas of his mind where Lash resided would also bring Lash back. Perhaps its a minor point, but it might have greater significance. 

[syntagmaton]

Seeing that the ice pick like pains are first mentioned in SmF, I wonder if when Mab messed with Harry's memory she also began the process of healing Harry's brain damage.  I had assumed that occurred when Mab healed his back injury, but if she began the process in SmF that is when Lash started to return, assuming that regrowing the burned out areas of his mind where Lash resided would also bring Lash back. Perhaps its a minor point, but it might have greater significance.

Harry doesn't need anyone to help him healing. He is a wizard. Wizards heal, given enough time. Btw, Mab didn't "heal" his back injury, she just made his body forget it and work anyhow (as long as he is respecting Winter law).
Perhaps Harry's natural healing process helps Lash to heal, too?

[Snaps At Fireflies]

Harry doesn't need anyone to help him healing. He is a wizard. Wizards heal, given enough time. Btw, Mab didn't "heal" his back injury, she just made his body forget it and work anyhow (as long as he is respecting Winter law).
Perhaps Harry's natural healing process helps Lash to heal, too?

Well by that logic, Harry doesn't need any kind of treatment or physical therapy.  But it helps  If it looks like Harry might need that extra mental capacity in the next 10 years, as opposed to the next 25+ years, it would be in Mab's best interest to quicken his healing process.   

And I disagree that Mab didn't "heal" his back injury.  I'm assuming you are referring to the part in CD where he says "Screw Winter's Rules" and suddenly felt himself paralyzed again.    I don't think she's making his body "forget" that it's got a severed spinal cord.  She actually healed it.  It's been established that the Fae can do real healing on those they have power over.  Leah did it to Harry in Grave Peril, and there is no reason to think Mab would be less capable.  Also it was worded in Harry's agreement to her that she heal his body, and Mab is a stickler for the letter of the agreements she makes.   Besides, his body wouldn't keep working normally with a severed spine, it would still need to be repaired before it would function for him.  It's more likely (to me) that his sudden paralysis in that scene was Mab's way of reminding him to obey her rules, that she owned him, and he better not forget it.

[Cenphx]

I don't understand how JB could be being "tricksy" by saying "Lash is the parasite."  That doesn't seem capable of multiple interpretations to me.

Yes, exactly. The fact that it is so completely, unambiguously, a straight outright conclusive answer to an ongoing mystery is UNLIKE any other answers I have seen Jim give. It seems un-Jim-like to hand us the answer to a mystery that will not be resolved in writing for another few books (at the time he made the statement). I could be wrong about that, but it is out of character for Jim, as far as I can tell. Therefore I do not trust it.

Jim also said “Justin is dead” over and over again yet how many times do we hear theories that Justin may be alive? People are not convinced simply because Jim says “A is B” that it necessarily is so. For the longest while, I thought this was a waste of time. Then we got the recent WoJ wherein someone asked Jim if we should trust his answers and he said something along the lines of “I wouldn’t trust me if I were you, I tell you great big lies for a living” which leads me now to believe that a WoJ should be considered good evidence of a given fact, but not used to conclusively refuse to consider other potential theories. Those other theories should be considered highly speculative, but I am not willing to ignore or discount them, so long as they have some evidence, reason or logic on their side.

The best circumstantial evidence aside from JB's reported statement are the parasite's location, description, and evident motivation, all of which are consistent with Lash = parasite. 

The parasite’s location is also consistent with the area of Harry’s back where HWWBh injured him in the flashback we see in GS and then the pain he immediately feels in his head.

[context: confrontation starts at about page 277 of Ghost Story (hardback edition)). Harry receives some injury to his back/neck/spine BEFORE he is struck for the first time by HWWB (p.281)]

I turned back to the reflective surface of the video game’s screen, and just as I again found the shape inside it, FIRE ERUPTED ALONG MY SPINE. I was slammed forward into the video game and my head hit it hard enough to send a spiderweb of cracks through the machines glass screen. Pain, sickening and harsh, flooded though my skull, and I staggered.”

The parasite’s motivation is unknown, so I am not sure how you conclude that it is consistent with Lash. I could and have argued that some of Harry’s behavior is consistent with him fighting the effects of having an outsider parasite in him and some of the other characters’ reactions to him is due to the outsider parasite.

Beyond that is the verified statement by JB on multiple occasions that Lash appeared in GS, though not under that name.  Lash = parasite is consistent with that statement.  If Lash is not the parasite, then you need to propose a more plausible theory of where Lash did appear in GS.

Before we learned towards the end of DB that Lash could project herself enough for Harry to believe she was an independent person, it appeared to us as the reader that Sheila was an actual character. Could Lash similarly be a different person in GS than we currently believe? Maybe, but not likely. Could she be Inez in the cemetery? Again, it’s possible but not likely. Where in GS Lash appears has always been an acknowledged problem with the idea that Lash isn’t the parasite. [http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,35072.msg1676177.html#msg1676177] I personally think the solution is going to be a surprise or a twist from Jim that we have not yet hit on.

So I agree that “Lash = Parasite” is the theory with more evidence to support it. I agree that there are open questions raised by the theory that Lash is not the parasite. I just don’t agree that "Lash = Parasite" is so conclusively proven that any other option is a waste of time to consider. YMMV, of course.