Snoopy, Loup Garou, and Mouse

[raidem]

Knnn Linked the video and I transcribed the WOJ:

Back in Cold Days we had a certain revevation that tied the plots in the earlier books into one cohesive thing, Did you have that in mind when you were writing those earlier books? Or did you tie those later on when you were writing Cold Days.

You are talking about Nemesis right. No, that was there from the get go, and has been showing up, on stage from Grave Peril.  There is Nemesis characters showing up in Grave Peril doing things. And there are more of them happen along the way which you don't know about yet  Which is why it is such a great threat, it can be completely invisible and transparent and you don't know it is there until later when you work it out and Ooo.  My whole point in writing a lot of these books is I try to write it so that you can get a different sense of it later on after you go back and read it again and go Ooo. 

And I try to do it in little ways and little things like with Mouse and you eventually work out what Mouse really is and you go back and all of a sudden the scene where he is ferociously attacking Harry Dresden Snoopy doll is a lot different because its the Snoopy doll that has the Loup Garou's blood on it from several books ago and that is what he is smelling and that is why he is assaulting it.  He is instinctively good and awesome. There is a lot of stuff I don't bring out. I try not to shove things in everybodys face.  Hopefully you get a different sense of it if you go back and read it again.  I like rereading books.  I like rereading a book and going now that I know the ending this line right here is a lot funnier than it was before.  The writer must have been laughing his ass off when he wrote it and hopefully I can give that experience to readers too.

(Pheonix Comic con, 2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH1nwP9r6-U
At the ~49:50 minute mark.

I remember a WOJL where Jim talks about the importance of rereading the series and talks about once the series is done and we reread the scenes with Mouse playing with the doll with Loup Garou blood on it, it will have more meaning.  Given that. I'm wondering if anyone knows in which video I stumbled across this WOJ.  It is likely the video was pre 7/14/2016 as Knnn makes a posting on Reddit about the same passage Jim refers to.

It looks like Knnn was aware of the WOJ as she commented on the pointed out passage that Jim talked about in the video.

knnn 32 points 1 year ago
From Fool Moon (trapping the Loup-Garou):
I slapped the Snoopy down in the middle of the circle, then smeared the beast's blood over its eyes and mouth, over its ears and nose. "Thaumaturgy," I said.
From Blood Rites (baby Mouse was left with Murphy):
One of them, a plush Snoopy doll spotted with old, dark stains, lay on the floor. The puppy stood over it, tiny teeth sunk into one of the doll's ears. He shook his head, his own torn ear flapping, and dragged Snoopy in a little circle while letting out small, squeaky growls. The puppy looked up at me. His tail wagged furiously, and he savaged the doll with even more enthusiasm.
...Mouse is smelling the Loup-Garou blood, which is why he is savaging the doll.

[3:45 PM] raidem: So Knnn most likely was aware of either my postings on the topic of the WOJL, or the video with the WOJ.  She posted that 7/14/2016.

This repeats somewhat what Knnn already quoted.

I opened the door to SI and stepped inside. The main room was maybe fifty feet long and twenty wide, and desks were packed into it like sardines. The only cubicle walls in the room were around a small waiting area with a couple of worn old couches and a table with some magazines for bored adults and some toys for bored children. One of them, a plush Snoopy doll spotted with old, dark stains, lay on the floor.
The puppy stood over it, tiny teeth sunk into one of the doll's ears. He shook his head, his own torn ear flapping, and dragged Snoopy in a little circle while letting out small, squeaky growls. The puppy looked up at me. His tail wagged furiously, and he savaged the doll with even more enthusiasm.
"Hey," I told him. "Murphy's supposed to be watching you. What are you doing?"
The puppy growled and shook Snoopy harder.

: I felt the spell grow and prepare itself, and when it was ready, I released the power and broke the circle, feeling it flow out into the night, following the blood back to the loup-garou, winding itself about the creature, blinding its eyes, fouling its ears, lashing around its jaws and forcing them shut, crippling its taloned paws. The spell would hamper and confuse the beast, hopefully drive it to ground where no one could disturb it, keep it from venting its rage upon the people of the city. And it would last until dawn.
[10:41 AM] raidem: "Magic," I clarified grimly. "Make a symbolic link between a little thing," I nodded at the Snoopy doll, "and a big thing. Make it happen on the smaller scale and it happens on the larger scale, too.

[raidem]

I've watched two videos so far but haven't found it yet.

It isn't... 10/26/2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wregxGQDL4

Nor: 7/9/2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gmu76ritoQ

Need to watch this one, I remember having watched it...  8/30/2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR6RCDkmH1I#t=734

[KurtinStGeorge]

I'm not sure where you're going with this.  So the next time Harry has to deal with a Loup Garou and gets some its blood, but doesn't have time to do the same ritual he did in Fool Moon, he'll smear the blood on the snoopy doll or something similar, and tell Mouse to chew it up which will drive the big werewolf nuts?

[raidem]

No. This already happened in the text. Harry placed a binding spell on the loup garou via snoopy in grave peril.  Mouse was playing with blood stained snippy at police station when he was a puppy in blood rites.

There is a wojl where Jim responds to a question about the importance of rereading the series.
Jim, paraphrasing, says that it is important to re-read the series. For example, once you've read the series and go back to read the passage with mouse and a doll with loup garou blood on it, it will have more meaning.

What I'm asking is if anyone knows which video this is in. 

Also, what might be the meaning we get on a reread when the series is finished that we don't get now.

My guesses are that it may relate to mouse foo dog abilities and he was sensing something particular about the loup garou with the Snoopy.  There may have been some trace residue left on snoopy from being magically tied to the loup garou.  Mouse may have injested trace residue of the dried loup garou blood which may result in something. Could someone have meant for mouse to play with that snoopy doll as it was an important event we just don't know why yet.

[peregrine]

I figure it's mostly just Mouse recognizing the blood of the Loup as being connected to a threat, as foreshadowing of Mouse's general Foo Doggy  powers.

[raidem]

Yeah. I think that was where he was going.  Once we finish the series and get familiar with what exactly is a Foo Dog, an Ice Demon from the Land of Dreams, and Mouse's semidivine heritage, we will get an appreciation for exactly the metaphysical something that may have been going on between the puppy mouse and the stained Snoopy. Something that is a bit more than met the eye.


He may have been deriving some absorbing some powers, though slight during that process.  You are what you eat.  And Mouse was drooling and chewing on dried Loup Garou blood.

[Quantus]

Yeah. I think that was where he was going.  Once we finish the series and get familiar with what exactly is a Foo Dog, an Ice Demon from the Land of Dreams, and Mouse's semidivine heritage, we will get an appreciation for exactly the metaphysical something that may have been going on between the puppy mouse and the stained Snoopy. Something that is a bit more than met the eye.


He may have been deriving some absorbing some powers, though slight during that process.  You are what you eat.  And Mouse was drooling and chewing on dried Loup Garou blood.

Pretty sure we'll also see that puppy mouse actually spent the whole first book trying to Audition for his future job

[jonas]

Yeah. I think that was where he was going.  Once we finish the series and get familiar with what exactly is a Foo Dog, an Ice Demon from the Land of Dreams, and Mouse's semidivine heritage, we will get an appreciation for exactly the metaphysical something that may have been going on between the puppy mouse and the stained Snoopy. Something that is a bit more than met the eye.


He may have been deriving some absorbing some powers, though slight during that process.  You are what you eat.  And Mouse was drooling and chewing on dried Loup Garou blood.

... what your saying is mouse used divine thaumaturgy to attack the creature behind the Loops power by attacking his simulacrum? Cause that'd be funnier than just attacking an old scent trail.

[raidem]

Hah. That is a different take than what exactly I was thinking.  It is close to an option though. I was thinking more along the lines of fighting left over energies left on Snoopy from the dried blood.  I had wondered if Mouse was trying to free Snoopy from Loup Garou binding, etc.  Though it has been argued the binding Harry tied into Snoopy and Loup Garou should have been wiped away after so many sunrises, sunsets.  However, since the Loup Garou curse is so powerful, and we know that blood can keep magic operating, it is possible that some link continued to exist due to the dried blood on Snoopy.

My crazier WAG's involve Snoopy becoming an ancestor of the Foo Dog line due to Time Travel shenanigans involving Harry.  Harry bound Snoopy to Loup Garou and cut off some of the Loup Garou's ability to cause harm after police station incident.  Then Harry killed Loup Garou with his mother's silver amulet.  I estimated that there may have been feedback into the Snoopy doll, and back into whatever entity holds the Snoopy mantle.  Human belief in effect creates mantles so there ought to be some mantle of power out there of some 'Snoopy' character.  The unlikelier part is the future=>past bit where this event becomes entangled in an origination of the Foo Dog line, the semidivine entity that gave up its divinity to better affect the world.

I wonder when that Snoopy doll will make a reappearance.


Your suggestion that Mouse used a thaumaturgical link to attack the Loup Garou creature is different than what I've alleged.  It could fit.  My wag's would be small perspective, yours would be a broader perspective.  In any event, Mouse was 'attacking' Loup Garou energies I believe.  That or the binding on both Snoopy/Loup Garou.  I do like the idea that Mouse as a pup was attacking the Loup Garou via thaumaturgically linked Snoopy doll now.  It very well may have helped power him up.


It would also fit with the reported WOJL of why the passage would have more meaning on a Reread.

[peregrine]

Why does it need to be something even more than meets the eye?  At that point, Harry didn't know there was anything all that special about Mouse on a supernatural level.  Maybe it could tell the danger of the blood from the Loup and was attacking the "Loup" and that's it.  The "Loup" in this case just being the Snoopy with blood on it.

Though that is us rereading it now, after the relevant book came out and then some.  If Jim is saying there's something more to come once the series is done, then yeah.

[forumghost]

Personally I think it's just symbolic of how Mouse is awesome enough that he could totally use the Loup as a chew-toy.

[Snark Knight]

What it makes me wonder is why SI is so gross as to keep a blood-stained doll around the office. I mean, biohazard much?

[jonas]

What it makes me wonder is why SI is so gross as to keep a blood-stained doll around the office. I mean, biohazard much?

Plus this was actually the beginning of Rudolph being a tardstick. I blame the thing that was stuck using Snoopy as it's greatest mirror image in reality, so he slowly bled into Rudolphs personality.

[raidem]

I'm was thinking it was probably Murphy that kept the Snoopy around.

Jim has admitted to being a lazy writer.  He has written the Snoopy into the story in GP. Then brought it back for no particular reason on first glance except for a puppy to be chewing on it. There is more to be had.  Now, it could be that the 'more' was just the first inkling that there was more to Mouse even back then.  But if that was so, what exactly was Mouse doing that a regular Pup wouldn't be doing. I mean a regular Pup probably would be doing the same thing to a 'blood' stained stuffed animal. So, for it to be saying something magical about Mouse then he would need to be doing Foo Dog stuff with it.

I've already stated some of the thoughts that came to mind.

If Jim is saying there's something more to come once the series is done, then yeah.

That was my impression. It was rereading the series after we learn everything. I believe this WOJL comes from around 2016 so that is long after BR. The WOJL is what pointed me to the 'doll' which he referred to that had Loup Garou blood on it which Mouse was playing with. So, I had to figure out what doll it was, why it had Loup Garou blood on it, and when was Mouse playing with it.  Those details were the passages I included in the OP.

Not likely but, if it was really important that Mouse play with a blood stained Snoopy, we could have a time traveler drop it off or at least someone arrange the events such that the Police Station kept that doll.

[forumghost]

I mean tbh it seems unlikely. Remember SK? Maeve got all mad at Slate because the blood he brought her from Elaine was dried and useless. And Magical energies naturally bleed off with every sunrise.

That sort of thing tends to be very time-sensitive, and snoopy had been there a long time before Mouse found it.