Mab/Murphy Ironies

[wardenferry419]

   I usually considered the difference between genius and crazy is how much odd behavior other people will tolerate.

[raidem]

From Reddit:

CSMED: About the Mab/Murphy connection, I thought we had multiple quotes from Jim saying Murphy will not receive any kind of supernatural power up - that she stays just badass vanilla mortal. Even if it's nkt a theory I personally believe, I love the theorycraft that goes into it and I'm just curious how that is taken into account.

Raedem: Ooh, I'm glad you pointed that out. I had forgotten that WOJ. I think the woj was "Murphy already has a job, and she won't get any more powerups." I deal with that by saying, yes she already has a significant powerup; so Jim is being truthful from a point of view depending on where he stands on a timeline saying it. If Mab=Murphy, then that has already happened so, Murphy has a job and has already got her powerup even though she has yet to travel to her fate into the past. Jim is speaking faerie in the WOJ. I think the rest of your recall regarding Murphy "not receiving any kind of supernatural power up, that she stays vanilla mortal" follows from potential error in translating and perceiving his woj.

Can someone help me find the WOJ that looks like this...
"Murphy already has a job, and she won't get any more powerups."
This was a prior post I made with reference to the woj

(click to show/hide)

I do recall the bit about no more power ups. And that if she needs one, she will get a bigger gun so it sorta contradicts prior statement. 

In talking about this woj before, I mentioned that it is possible she already got a PowerUp and won't get any more.  I believe we may not be fully aware of all of her powers and Jim in some of his statements may be talking about a Murphy we haven't seen yet, i.e. a future Murphy that from that point doesn't get any more powerups.  There is also a woj- about Murphy already having a job, with that job not being clearly defined by Jim.  In addition, Jim talks about Harry's crew growing in power along with him so I don't think it is likely that Murphy's advancement dead ends.  I think Jim wants to preserve the story about Murphy, or so I hope.

My favorite Murphy advancement lies in obtaining a large mantle, preferably Mab's or something similar in power to it.  Again, I like for Murphy to be involved in a TT and/or MM story where Murphy gets lost in past assumes something and comes back to the present via the hardway (normal time) to takes steps on screen as some other character, like Mab, Titania etc.

I use Ms. Duck's theory about TT Molly going into past, participating in rise to power to come back to us as Mab.  I just twist the theory and have that focus being on Murphy instead of Molly.

[peregrine]

It's not about her job, it's that if she needs more power, she can always find a way to get a bigger gun.

And no, being Mab is not a gun.

[Cozarkian]

From Reddit:
Can someone help me find the WOJ that looks like this...
"Murphy already has a job, and she won't get any more powerups."

That WOJ was likely after the first time she touched a  sword, but it had to be before she lost her job. Since losing her job she has trained with Einherjar, which is a power up. Therefore, either JB lied, changed his mind, briefly forgot his plans for Murphy, or has a very narrow definition of powerup.

If JB's plan was to make Murphy into Man as a big reveal at the end of the series but he wasn't planning on giving her any powerups until that key moment, I can easily envision him giving that answer as truth "from a certain point of view."

[Talby16]

From Reddit:
Can someone help me find the WOJ that looks like this...
"Murphy already has a job, and she won't get any more powerups."

Tried finding that WoJ for you. Failed miserably. I do seem to recall reading it though which means it most likely exists.

[Talby16]

If JB's plan was to make Murphy into Man as a big reveal at the end of the series but he wasn't planning on giving her any powerups until that key moment, I can easily envision him giving that answer as truth "from a certain point of view."

I know exactly what you meant to say, but all I could think when reading your post was: Murphy into a Man, thats a huge freaking plot twist.

[raidem]

Peregrine, there are multiple woj's or at least multiple parts of the woj.
Mine is true. There is in fact a woj that "Murphy already has a job." and that "she won't get anymore powerups." Yours I recall too is true.
"If she needs more power, then she can always find a bigger gun."
So yes, there are at least two, maybe 3 woj's that comment on Murphy.

This first:
"Murphy already has a job and she won't get any more powerups." [this may be a mash up between two separate woj's but I remember watching this "Murphy already has a job" at least in a video because I recall the audience's 'surprised what' reaction. But I also distinctly remember the second part that "Murphy won't be getting any more powerups."
Then this:
"If she needs more power, then she can always find/get a bigger gun."

And then there were arguments on this forum that there was some slight contradiction between the two as having a bigger gun can indeed be construed as a powerup.  Sadly, those arguments most likely were shredded by the yearly delete monster.

[raidem]

Even though you write all these characters, have you ever had one that refused to do what you wanted it to?
No, because those people work for me.  There are times when the characters don’t seem to be going as easily in a direction I want them to go.  Often I will have to stop and take a look at what I’m doing since maybe the story has squirreled off in the wrong direction.  Which is sometimes the case and I’ll have to rewrite.  Often what I will do is I’ll go back and I’ll play Time Lord and go back and retool the character’s past to give them a good motivation to do what I want them to do.
   Murphy was continually too much in the way in Fool Moon, for example.  She kept trying to participate in what was going on and not in the adversarial way I needed her to, because she was essentially a minor villain in Fool Moon.  It was not working out at all until I went back and tinkered with her backstory and Murphy has a paralyzing fear of big dogs.  That was changing her opinions and put enough brakes on her that I could get her to slow down enough to let other people get killed instead of her.
    But it also means that she wasn’t too sure about Mouse the first time she met him.  She’s OK with him later on, because he’s a big dog that she doesn’t have to be afraid of, she trusts him despite that fear.  But that’s all under-the-table stuff that I can’t write about because Murphy is not going to go up to Dresden and say, “I’m terrified of big dogs.”  Because Dresden would make fun of her for being short and it’s not going to happen.

This is why Lea has so many hounds. The Murphy in Mab/Murphy is scared of big dogs.

[raidem]

http://griddaily.com/jim-butcher-qa

Q: Whenever Harry’s had a relationship it hasn’t worked out.  Is there something big coming?
A: When you say ‘something big’, do you mean that in a positive sense, or…?  Yeah there’s something big coming….poor Murphy…

https://twitter.com/longshotauthor/status/621483946556162053?lang=en
I hope something big drags her back in time, or fakes her death and does so. Ooh, that will be great .

@longshotauthor what part of peace talks are you writing RIGHT NOW!
@BigBentley15 Murphy's funeral.

Will we see Mrs. Murphy again?
Maybe?  Maybe.  We’ll have to see.  That might work out.

[raidem]

An interesting note, not necessarily germane to Murphy but I like it anyway.

What kind of magic does Chandler specialize in?
Chandler does a lot of Divination, and a lot of stuff that is involved with time.  Which puts him in a very finicky spot, a very high profile spot on the council.  It's one reason why he's a Warden where they can keep an eye on him.  He can actually do things to screw with the flow of time and look back in time and find things out, and occasionally to look forward in time and see things.  Although that's very unreliable because of the whole free will nonsense.  He's an information gatherer for the most part.  He's not as much of a punch you in the face type, but he's really really useful which is why he has got a lot of status among the young wardens.  He's got access to what the old wizards think is valuable, which is information. 
(Jim also says here that Chandler's hat and bowler look is based off of John Steed of the 1960's British Avengers show)

This is Second Arsith proposing that Chandler may accompany Harry on time traveling trip, and that Chandler may be the imprisoned British guy in Demonreach. Here is the explanation.

Quote from: Second Aristh on July 10, 2016, 04:00:36 PM
This is one of the more interesting new WoJ from yesterday.  It's only fitting that the most British character in the DV so far is associated with time magic.  In hindsight, we could have probably guessed this based off Doctor Who, Big Ben, and Jim's sense of irony. 
So, based on this I'm going to make a WAG that Chandler will be Harry's companion/sidekick in the time travel book (crosses fingers in the hopes that it's titled Second Chance).  While we're at it, it seems that Chandler as the British prisoner in Demonreach is a valid possibility as well if Chandler needed to wait out some time shenanigans.

Am I the only one that didn't realize that Chandler was part of the young faction of wardens?

[raidem]

Mab's identity hidden behind a mask?

You’ve introduced a couple characters that wear different faces and show up, and it’s not always easy to tell that they’re the same person such as Odin/Vadderung/Kringle.  Are there other characters that you haven’t yet revealed that are wearing multiple faces that we have already seen multiple times?
I’m shocked that you would suspect such a thing of me sir!  *I’m not gonna tell you*
Those are pretty much scattered all over the Dresden Files cosmos.  You’ll see more as we go.  There are a lot of characters that are there right now that aren’t who you think they are.  We’ll have to see how it turns out, though.

[raidem]

In several books he’s been pierced with iron and it seems as if the mantle goes away but doesn’t actually.  He’s in incredible pain because he’s been beaten up, but with long term exposure would his back go back to being normal?
Well, somebody asked something similar a couple of nights ago.  They pointed out that when Harry crossed Mab and Mab took the mantle away from him when he broke Winter Law that his back collapsed too, but his back didn’t collapse when he got pierced by iron.  And I looked at him, and I said, “You’re right.  That seems like an inconsistency.  Like someone is lying or doesn’t understand the exact situation of things or something like that.”  Then I said to him what I said to you, next question.

This occurred in the presence of Murphy.  Mab viewing things through the eyes of Murphy?  It should be noticed that as soon as Murphy and friends touched Harry to help him up, the Mab gave him the mantle back.

[jonas]

This is why Lea has so many hounds. The Murphy in Mab/Murphy is scared of big dogs.

Erm? Lol, that's a good point for entirely other reasons.... I think Lea's scared of Murphy's judgement. She already had a tendency of shooting, Damning or otherwise pushing the perspective that rules the day(Butters in SG and Harry in WN to name a couple) even before Mab let Murphy Decide the day vs Maeve. I think people who have done wrong that even they can recognize have more to fear from Murphy than Harry.... and I think Lea, with all her 'be wary even of your protector' may have overstepped her bounds in insuring Harry had a Wintery upbringing, by killing Malcom O.o

[raidem]

"Murphy's still undergoing surgeries (plural) and so on to get fixed because when you get hurt like that, it takes a long time to get better. When you're not some kind of superhuman, "I work for Queen Mab" " Peace Talks only occurs a couple months after Skin Game.  Murphy and Harry may/may not have had much time to have lots of sex given her condition.

Q: Cool, I think a lot of us will be excited to read that then. What, if any, tease can you give us for Peace Talks?
A: Peace Talks is all about the various signatories of the Unseelie Accords are having a convocation in Chicago to try and work out a way to settle down all the discord that's been happening due to the Fomor seizing power in the vacuum left behind by the Red Court. So, I believe what's going to happen is they're all going to get together, they'll have a nice dinner, they'll hash things out, and then have a coupla beers and sing some songs, and everything will be FINE. Cause, you know, I want to surprise everybody. Everybody's just looking for it to explode, and so on. This book is only set a couple of months after the end of the previous one [Skin Game], so, you know, Murphy's still undergoing surgeries and so on to get fixed because when you get hurt like that, it takes a long time to get better. When you're not some kind of superhuman, "I work for Queen Mab", living punching bag... Let's see, we'll get to see a lot of, more of Harry and Maggie; Mouse will be in this one, we'll get to see the White Council getting involved with things again, so we'll have them on stage.

Jim just can't constrain himself from including references to Mab when talking about Murphy. And again that "you know" reference at the end of "I was mortal once, you know" answer Mab tells Harry in response to Harry asking her if it was hard to kill Maeve.

[raidem]

WHERE DID YOU GET THE INSPIRATION FOR BOB ?
The inspiration from Bob mostly came from me wanting to […] my teacher's notes.  I told her - after I'd written the first series of the DF - or the first chapter of the first book - she read the chapter and said - Well, I think you've done it!   I said "What?!"  She said this is sellable.  I think this will sell.  What are you planning for next?  And I'm like uh -uh - he's got to go talk to his - I've got to give him this assistant so that when the cops are around they'll be the dummies that he can explain things to - cause that's one of the principles of writing - it's the joy of idiocy - you always keep one dummy around to ask questions and have things explained to him and that's how you get the information to the reader in a more entertaining fashion.
So sometimes Murphy will be the dummy and then when there's something that Dresden needs to know he can go to this more nerdy assistant and the assistant will be the dummy - errr - and he'll be the dummy and the assistant will be the smart guy.  And she's [i e his teacher] like okay - that works.  Just dont make him a talking head.

This is confirmation that Murphy would often lead Harry with questions, Harry answers them. This was how Harry started writing his books. It was one tool he used in his toolbox.