What is Lara's problem? [PT Spoilers!]

[vultur]

So - Lara just outright charges Harry with a knife?

Yeah, I know, "people are irrational about family" is one of the themes of the book. But Lara's White Court. She's been surviving in a really deadly society for a long time. She really ought to be more controlled than that.

Even without Demonreach, there wasn't much chance of that working out for her.

She was there in WN. She's seen what happens when a White Court vampire goes up against a combat-capable wizard; it ain't good for the vampire. Sure, she had Valkyrie backup, but Harry could have fried or frozen her just as quickly as he told the island to grab her - before Freydis could have done anything.

[Yuillegan]

Could be that it was an act. Trying to play into Dresden's expectations about her - caring about family, straight-forward, still one of the "good" guys etc.

When taken from that perspective it suddenly isn't so strange an act.

And then one day, she'll pull the rug out from under Dresden.

[Mira]

   Testing maybe?  Perhaps she wanted to see what Harry could really do on the island?  She might
even have ancestors in the prison. 

[Arjan]

   Testing maybe?  Perhaps she wanted to see what Harry could really do on the island?  She might
even have ancestors in the prison.

She was either completely out of it or she did not know what Harry could do with the island. I really think both because there are so many ways she could have played this better. Maybe Harry’s true love protection played a role too, they both knew he had it.

[Mira]

She was either completely out of it or she did not know what Harry could do with the island. I really think both because there are so many ways she could have played this better. Maybe Harry’s true love protection played a role too, they both knew he had it.

Even if she succeeded in killing Harry, did she realize that she'd then have no hope in hell in ever getting Thomas out?

[Mr. Death]

She was nearly drained, too -- when people are hungry, they don't necessarily think as rationally as they would otherwise.

Lara is near a breaking point -- Thomas nearly dead, the whole city about to be plunged into Chaos, and a mortal world aware of vampires is one that will kill her.

She's not acting like she normally would, which is the point -- this is an extraordinary circumstance even by her standards, and everyone has a breaking point.

[Bad Alias]

Harry, who is almost always very straight with everyone he deals with, saved Thomas in a manner that gave him serious leverage over Lara. Sure he's outplayed her before, but it's always worked out to benefit her a great deal. This time it didn't. This time it was pretty one-sided in Harry's favor. And that was when he was working for her paying back very valuable favors. I'm pretty sure that would have been enough to have her off balance. With everything else mentioned by others, she was bound to let her emotions get the better of her.

[Mira]

Harry, who is almost always very straight with everyone he deals with, saved Thomas in a manner that gave him serious leverage over Lara. Sure he's outplayed her before, but it's always worked out to benefit her a great deal. This time it didn't. This time it was pretty one-sided in Harry's favor. And that was when he was working for her paying back very valuable favors. I'm pretty sure that would have been enough to have her off balance. With everything else mentioned by others, she was bound to let her emotions get the better of her.

  However when you come down to it, how many choices did Harry have?  He and Lara are just lucky that he is the Warden of Demonreach.   I guess if this was an earlier book with nothing else but the Accords and the life of Thomas at stake, Harry would have spent the three hundred and fifty pages teasing out who was behind the crime in the first place and maybe get Thomas off that way...

[Bad Alias]

  However when you come down to it, how many choices did Harry have?

Doesn't matter. Lara still feels like she got played.

[RulesLawyer]

What if it was a good way for Laura to learn what he can do while on the island now? There's probably not many that know. Could just be old fashioned rage regarding family. That's been in Turn Coat with her sisters. And the Puck comic book.
Probably a little column A, little column B.

[Mira]

Doesn't matter. Lara still feels like she got played.

Of course she does, nothing went her way, she isn't thinking.  I also think she felt a bit humiliated by what happened to her.  She wasn't prepared for the complete control a Warden of the island would have over her on that ground.  Lara is used to always getting the upper hand, a humiliated vampire is a dangerous one..  Remember Harry said that Lara gave him very much the same look Bianca did when she realized she wasn't going to win against Harry.

[Arjan]

Monsters don’t like to feel helpless.

[vultur]

She was either completely out of it or she did not know what Harry could do with the island.

Even if she succeeded in killing Harry, did she realize that she'd then have no hope in hell in ever getting Thomas out?

She didn't know about the island (and may have thought that Thomas was dead - it probably looked like Harry was sacrificing him.)

But my point is that even without Demonreach, attacking Harry that way is pretty unlikely to work out for her. She charged him with a knife drawn; he had time to react. Without Demonreach, he could have just destroyed her with a big blast of magic. Harry ten books ago when he first met Lara might have been slow enough for that sort of thing to work; but even then I doubt it. Harry the Winter Knight as of PT, basically no chance.

We saw in WN just how badly suited the White Court is to direct conflict with powerful supernatural beings. Harry and Carlos are blasting uberghouls left and right, and the White Court are pretty helpless against them.

[Mira]

But my point is that even without Demonreach, attacking Harry that way is pretty unlikely to work out for her. She charged him with a knife drawn; he had time to react. Without Demonreach, he could have just destroyed her with a big blast of magic. Harry ten books ago when he first met Lara might have been slow enough for that sort of thing to work; but even then I doubt it. Harry the Winter Knight as of PT, basically no chance.

Unless, somewhere along the way she made the same deal her father had made.  In that case magic cannot kill her.  You will notice that the island buried her in the ground up to her neck so she couldn't move, it didn't try to disarm her or kill her by magic.

[Bacail]

I don't think Lara knew the purpose of the island.  Keep in mind that most people don't know, including the late Summer Lady.  All Lara saw was her brother being magiked into nothingness.  If Lara had known beforehand, she might not have let him go to the island in the first place.  Just an observation.