WAG: Mirror! Mirror!

[123Chikadee]

Oh, ok, so Lara wouldn't necessarily die. Though I do wonder how well she'd survive in the earlier books due to how she seems weaker there. Not so say that she needs Harry at any point, but he was a pretty big factor in her rise to power. I do think that Thomas will still be alive though.
Yeah, what to do with Susan since her being dead really would be a good way to send him spiraling down but I feel that it would be crueler if she lived and Harry had to see her become monstrous and no longer a person he loved.

[g33k]

... I doubt that Susan staying and surviving is going to make Harry evil. Now if Susan stayed and Harry had to kill her ...

Well, a whole bunch would obviously happen to Mirror!Harry, and it'd be a DIFFERENT whole bunch of stuff; and yes, having to kill Susan might blow his gasket...

Or kill to protect her... increasingly dubious killings to protect an uncontrolled half-vamp...?  But she's the mother of his child(ren) so what's he gonna do?

But Susan alive and living in Chicago would mess worse with Harry's mind, so I think that's what Jim would do.

[123Chikadee]

@g33k: Oooh yeah it would so mess with Harry. Maybe its b/c she gets away but doesn't know how to help Harry, so they could have gone their separate ways?

[Snark Knight]

Oh, ok, so Lara wouldn't necessarily die. Though I do wonder how well she'd survive in the earlier books due to how she seems weaker there. Not so say that she needs Harry at any point, but he was a pretty big factor in her rise to power. I do think that Thomas will still be alive though.

Most people seem to think the choice is going to be related to Susan and / or Bianca. But Harry made another very consequential choice that flies mostly under the radar. When Thomas brought Amoracchius back, Michael's initial inclination was to kill him out of hand before even opening the package. Being a vampire and apparently playing both sides at the ball was reason enough. The choice to spare him and trust him was Harry's.

If he hadn't, think how some of the real villains - say, Nicodemus - might have been able to mess with !Harry's head just by revealing that the KotC had murdered the unknown brother who was genuinely trying to help Harry, and doomed Susan in the process. That his 'friend' was no better than that judgmental ass Morgan, and Harry sat by and nodded. That would wreck him.

[Bad Alias]

That's really good. It raises a lot of questions.

What would have happened immediately after? The Nightmare possesses Lydia. It took Thomas's help to "defeat" him. Would they have been killed? Would they have been forced to kill Lydia to survive? Would Harry have figured out that the Nightmare was Kravos? Would they have attempted the rescue of Susan? Thomas was the one with all the intel. If they still went through the Nevernever, would Harry have been able to escape Lea? I don't really recall if Thomas was crucial there. What would have happened if Harry attempted a rescue? When would he? What if he didn't try the Nevernever and ended up killing the human guards with magic, violating the 1st Law?

[123Chikadee]

I thought that could be a diverging point too, but poor Thomas. Yeah, I imagine Nicodemus could get a lot of mileage of that. I think Thomas actually was a bit crucial to the finale. If Thomas dies, there's a domino effect of all the times that Harry needed him.
That's a good point about the first law. He'd be pretty against killing humans, magic or otherwise. Thomas getting killed is a pretty big diverging point, so it'd be cool to see.

[g33k]

Most people seem to think the choice is going to be related to Susan and / or Bianca...

The specific WoJ (and Jim is known to deceive his fans, so it must always be taken with a grain of salt) is that it's "the big decision at the end of Grave Peril".

I don't think the earlier choice-points qualify.  Obviously, "the end of" is only approximate, and relative; but I'm guessing it's something from the Nevernever portion (en route to Bianca's), on through Harry entering Bianca's to be captured, the imprisonment scene, Harry breaking out, summoning the dead to kill Bianca, his post-adventure recovery, and then tracking down Susan.

I think the "big choice" is somewhere in there.

The thing where he takes Destroying Angel?  Yeah, maybe he doesn't do a near-suicide.  The thing where he DOES suicide (temporarily, he hopes) so he can get his ghost to help?  Yeah, maybe he doesn't kill himself.  Etc etc etc ...
 
Earlier on in the book... probably isn't "at the end of" the book.

Your Book May Vary.
 

[123Chikadee]

Yeah true. I still think the biggest change would be if Harry was the one who became a half rampire.

[morriswalters]

My pick.

And I am going to take away someone dear to you. After that, all will be equal.” She gave Ortega a very small smile and then glanced at me and asked, “Well? What say you? If you prefer to remain with her, I’m sure a place could be made for you here. After suitable assurances of your loyalty, of course.”
I remained silent for a moment, stunned.
“Well, wizard?” she snapped, harsher. “How do you answer? Accept my bargain. My compromise. Or it is war. And you will become its first casualty.”
I looked at Susan. She stared blankly, her mouth partially open, caught in a trance of some kind. I could probably snap her out of it, provided a bunch of vampires didn’t tear me limb from limb while I tried. I looked up at Bianca. At Ortega. At the hissing vampire cronies. They were drooling on the polished floor.
I hurt all over, and I felt so very damned tired.
“I love her,” I said. I didn’t say it very loud.
“What?” Bianca stared at me. “What did you say?”
“I said, I love her.”
“She is already half mine.”
“So? I still love her.”
“She isn’t even fully human any longer, Dresden. It won’t be long before she is as a sister to me.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” I said. “Get your hands off my girlfriend.”
Bianca’s eyes widened. “You are mad,” she said. “You would flirt with chaos, destruction—with war. For the sake of this one wounded soul?”

IMO this sets the tone going forward as to who Harry is.  His willingness to "die doing the right thing."

[123Chikadee]

That's a good diverging point. It's probably this one, out of all the other choices, but I think Harry offers himself up to Bianca in exchange for everybody else.

[g33k]

Half-Ramp Harry... now that'd be something terrifying indeed.

So the WAG would be Bianca half-turns Harry, and ... I dunno, maybe Thomas/Michael rescue him before he fully-turns?

So Mirror!Harry gets some o' that St. Giles training (that uber-practical "hard choices must be made" St.Giles training)?  From a theorycrafting perspective, being emotionally out-of-control is bad for both wizards and half-Ramps; more than once, Harry has "expended" his emotion on magic.  Could he do the same and get Ramp-urges under control?  Go from all-tattoos to none, via one emotion-fueled spell?

Maybe learning-to-Ramp alongside Susan?

I still think a living Susan would be all kinds of fuck-with-his-mind & torment for Harry-Prime, so I expect Jim will do that thing (and several other f-w-h-m torments, of course).

I like this theory!  This moment -- the Bianca showdown -- is actually my #2 pick for Harry's choice/decision point, though I can point to a bunch more maybe-this/maybe-that choices.

I still like that latter on-the-beach-with-Susan moment even better, because it's all about love (and loss), with no violence or combat clouding the issue; also, it's the very-very end of the book.  As we increasingly see as the series develops, "Love" is a critical element of the Dresdenverse, possibly THE critical element (possibly alongside Free Will).

So, a choice made strictly and purely around the issue of "Love" has enough metaphysical weight to create a whole new parallel...

[123Chikadee]

Exactly! And a definite game changer. Yeah, I think Michael and Thomas do get to brute force heir way in for a rescue. So Mirror!Harry is half-ramp.
Yeah, but I feel like it'd be a retread, narrative-wise, if both Susan and Harry were vampires together and enhancing their negative natures. So either Harry rejects a fully turned Susan, tries to save her by finding a cure(just in a more mad scientist way if he gets Butters' help), or he ends up killing her to save Justine.
My WMG is that Harry may or may not get to hang out with the Fellowship. Michael and the Church helps Harry out with this and that's what keeps both the fey and the vamps at bay.
I agree that having a Susan living and happy would wreck Harry in all kinds of ways, but I'm not sure how Jim can swing that if it's a diverging point so late in the book. So I just transfer that idea to Molly instead.
That beach scene is wonderful. I dunno, maybe Harry does manage to cure Susan and that's how she gets to live. 

[wildone654]

" All I had to do was let Michael die,  laim the protection of hospitality for Susan, and walk out."

This is the decision. He chooses to let Michael attempt to reclaim the sword on his own
 He gets himself and Susan out.

What happens from there? I have no idea. Michael might die, maybe he gets the sword back anyway and kills Bianca and the Nightmare on his own. Maybe he does just walk out but it sets him on the path to making sacrifices for what he cares about. Michael vs Susan. Killing tonprotect himself and those he cares about. And after all, if you have to kill to survive isn't it better to kill YOURSELF, especially when you hate yourself as much as Dresden does after ma and ing that decision.

And thus Harey falls down the slippery slope, willing to gather power and make sacrifices as needed. As he often reminds us, the bad guy rarely sees himself as such. Just like Nicodemus is the hero of his own story.

[g33k]

" All I had to do was let Michael die,  laim the protection of hospitality for Susan, and walk out."

This is the decision...

I don't think so, because the WoJ says it's the decision "at the end" of the book.

I expect your chain of logical and emotional consequences is pretty close to spot-on, though; whichever the actual choice-point is.
 

[dspringer1]

There are only two decisions at the end of the book that were "major".   

1) Did he say "I love you" to Susan when trapped in the room

2) Did he accept or refuse the vampire's offer at the end "to walk away" at the price of leaving Susan behind. 

Both would most likely have led to Susan's death (or becoming a blood thrall) and both would likely have delayed the war with the Red Court.  In the first Susan's death would have made it acceptable for Dresden to accept an adjudicated settlement and the chance for later revenge.   The 2nd required that same outcome. 

No war would have prevented the mass extermination of Wardens and delayed the actions of the Kemlerites quite a bit.  So the events in Dead Beat would not have happened and Harry would never become a warden.  As his warden status and relationship with Lucio went a long way to reconciling Harry with the White Council, it is easy to speculate that Harry's interactions with the council get worse rather than better, especially with the "negotiated settlement" likely to really piss Harry off.  Enough worse that when Molly exhibited power, he would not have trusted them to judge her correctly.   

And at some point the war with the Red Court will start up -- with Harry's help- but this time the White Council really will blame Harry. 

At that point, I suspect plots have diverged significantly and I will have to wait for Mirror Mirror to see what ended up.