Mirror Mirror Next?

[Smaug with OCD]

I've seen several posts that claim Mirror Mirror will come directly after Battle Grounds. And, given what is implied to happen in the next book I can't help but feel the timing is extremely poor. If magic is revealed to mortals, wouldn't it be better to see the implications of that, rather than the parallel reality where Dresden made a different Choice?

Is it true that Mirror Mirror is next? Why the... I don't want to use the word distraction, but it seems appropriate while unaware of the finer details...? Thoughts?

[Grifter]

Power is out all across the city.  My guess is that cameras will be out of commission.  So it's going to be a very dark night with explosions and screams and people sheltering inside.  And come the morning, there will be no trace of any of the participants.  Just damage and victims and rumors with very little evidence.

And by the end of next day, the story on the news will be about the city water supply being tainted with a drug previously known in the streets as ThreeEye, which caused a lot of hallucinations.  The damage will have been caused by those hit with higher doses that rampaged through the city, and by the drug dealers that fanned the flames.

And they'll hope that no-one in the Dresdenverse watched Batman Begins.

Who knows, maybe we'll even get a mention of Larry Fowler blaming Harry. Imagine how that would feel, having saved the city, only to have the citizens think he's involved because he's been stoking the 'supernatural' subculture for years, which encouraged these poor youngsters to try this supposed magical drug.  Just thank goodness the effects wore off so quickly without side effects.

It's not like Chicago in the Dresdenverse isn't ready and willing to accept the lies.

[Yuillegan]

I have been wondering about this a bit. Each book in the series serves a purpose in the greater story, and each book has a somewhat strategic placement because of that. Each book has opened the doorway for new possibilities and developed things further (although some do this better than others). Some are more pivotal, some less so.

My theory is that Mirror Mirror will be about teaching Harry that he had to make the choices he has made, as he will be feeling intense loss and questioning himself. Somewhat like Ghost Story perhaps, but through a different lens. But like Ghost Story, it will also reveal a larger part of the cosmology.

And I wonder how much time will have passed by the time he returns? No time at all wouldn't be very interesting. I'd say he comes a few months later at least. If not a year.

[ClintACK]

I'd guess Harry will have a heck of a lot of regrets following Battle Ground.

Mirror Mirror could be like It's a Wonderful Life -- Harry's chance to see how much worse it could have been.

[KurtinStGeorge]

There's our time and there's time within the Dresdenverse.  It's quite possible the time it takes for Harry to get sucked into the Mirror Mirror world, have his adventure and then find a way back, may only take a few seconds in the Dresdenverse.  However the readers will have to wait a couple of years until Harry's next book comes out.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The likelihood of exposure has been set out on other threads, but thousands die, more are injured and their medical bills and funerals are paid by Mab

Harry has made it clear that this is too big to dismiss, and he took the Placard with him, a communications device.

It is presumed that Harry is sucked into the other universe, but we don’t know for how much of the book, as first person narratives the books happen over a couple of days. I suspect evil Harry will look at our Harry and think he has the best of it (he won’t fool Mouse).

In Grave Peril Harry was able to take back the part of himself stolen by The Nightmare, it may be that the two Harry’s end up in a battle where they are fighting for their joint power, winner takes both as there are not supposed to be two of them in the same world. That would give Harry a major power up. Something similar occurred with memories in Ghost Story, so I suspect Harry ends up with twice the power and two sets of memories.

WOJ is that it was a decision in Grave Peril which changed the course of history, since that WOJ we know that alternate worlds are created by time travel from Vadderung/Kringle. Could alter Harry have time travelled back to save Susan and the Dresdenverse be the other leg of this particular pair of the trousers of time creating the split.

If Murphy dies in Battle Ground does he bring alter Murphy back with him? At this point In Grave Peril Murphy was a lieutenant at SI, Harry hadn’t brought her into the supernatural world, she may without Harry have been cashiered much earlier in her career (Rudy) and have very little in her life, no career, two failed marriages, Chicago gone to hell from the two times their Harry didn’t save the world. They end up having to re-start their relationship all over again. Jim gets to have his dead Murphy cake and gets to eat it. Always go with what will make Harry suffer the most. He will get to see Murphy, his old Apartment, the Blue Beetle

The alter Bob would still have the Kemmler memories. Kemmler was suspected of timetravel so that alter Bob may be have the info Harry needs to get home, so I suspect alter Bob will also come to the main continuity. This may explain why Kemmler got so powerful, he had the power of several Kemmlers.

If alter Mister is left without a Harry then Jim will never be forgiven.

[The_Sibelis]

I think MM will also be the TT book, because of the way string theory works mostly. So I was thinking, what if the reason the timeline inconsistencies are so great in PT is because, like the Attack through time on DR, the echo's are getting greater the closer to the actual event it get. So closed loop fluxuations are greater closer to the event horizon? 🤔

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The event should be Grave Peril era, our Harry wouldn’t travel back, he would lose Maggie and Bonea, unless it is alter Harry seeking to travel back to that time to undo a decision which created the reality we know. Alter Harry should have returned back to his time in his continuity and not the new continuity, but seeks to travel across time to replace our Harry, in doing so swapping places with him? This would make sense from what we know of timetravel in the Dresdenverse, it also fits in with the sophistry of Harry breaking the laws of magic, he didn’t timetravel the alter Harry Dresden did.

Alter Harry has then yet to timetravel in his continuity but is just about to, causing the ripples. This would mean since Grave Peril we has been watching the wrong Harry Dresden.

[The_Sibelis]

I mean, yea. That's almost spot on my theory right there.. which imo makes MM Harry the original timeline. As we're watching the one with TT adjustments play itself out..

[vultur]

The likelihood of exposure has been set out on other threads, but thousands die, more are injured and their medical bills and funerals are paid by Mab

Harry has made it clear that this is too big to dismiss

Well, the very last lines of PT sound to me like Harry and Murphy are going to try to prevent that. (That also seems to be Odin and Ferrovax's argument as to why the Accorded nations should fight Ethniu rather than hide... if the supernatural world going public anyway was inevitable, then their argument doesn't really make any sense.)

I think something will definitely change with regards to the mortal/supernatural relationship, but maybe not full publicity. (My WAG is more involvement from secret federal agencies, which Murphy joins, and that "Murphy's funeral" tweet from Jim refers to Murphy faking her death to join up.)

[morriswalters]

I've seen several posts that claim Mirror Mirror will come directly after Battle Grounds. And, given what is implied to happen in the next book I can't help but feel the timing is extremely poor. If magic is revealed to mortals, wouldn't it be better to see the implications of that, rather than the parallel reality where Dresden made a different Choice?

Is it true that Mirror Mirror is next? Why the... I don't want to use the word distraction, but it seems appropriate while unaware of the finer details...? Thoughts?

It doesn't matter.  It can take place in zero time.  He gets plucked and returns in a moment, so no time passes here.  But most books only span a couple of days anyway. The bigger problem is that time is flying in the real world and crawling in the Dresden Files.  His current event fetish is going to bite him.  And there are some hints that he is retconning that.  He refers to Notre Dame.

called Notre-Dame to mind. You know, before the fire.

Butcher, Jim. Peace Talks (Dresden Files) (p. 126). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

So he's already time traveling.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

There is one thing exposing the Accorded powers them having lost which is Ethnui’s plan, but for the Accorded Nations to be exposed as the protectors of mortalkind is quite different, it would be to engage the mortal police and military as partners, not antagonists. Harry has lived openly as a wizard aiding CPD, he is merely taking what he does to a much greater level. It would explain why Mab picked up the bills.

If you look at Jury Duty the judge knew about the supernatural shenanigans. She just wouldn’t acknowledge this officially. That’s the very least which will happen.

I suspect the placard can be used to communicate to the citizenry to stay in their homes and take other steps to mitigate the loss of life, but explaining the message is going to be very difficult. The Placard can provably do what the Merlin did, in Turncoat but for the entire City, allowing direction to forces, warning citizen, coordinating attacks.

If you are familiar with the Peter Grant novels, that may be how things go, the authorities accept the supernatural but don’t like it, but do allow the Folly (equivalent of SI) a pretty much free range so long as they follow procedure, keep the paperwork up to date, and at least try to keep the magical property damage to a minimum. They don’t advertise the supernatural, they just get on with the job.

[ClintACK]

Where are you getting the idea that the placard is a communication device?

Is there a WoJ or something in the text, or something in the pop culture or medieval lore about that?

[Conspiracy Theorist]

It’s a placard, placards are used to communicate things such as “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews” and all mortal communications are down.

We know the function of the Athame, and we know enough about the Shroud and the grail to ascertain functions of resurrection and purification, that is established lore.

The Crown of Thorns I suspect are Thorn Manacles for a god, Nicky is supposed to have created thorn manacles for practioners and he dates from that period.

That leaves the placard, all we know is that it announced a message the world over which has held for two millennia, sweeping away worship of a host of other gods. Not powerful at all.

If you had a major Nemfected entity you wanted to contain, cure and anounce the cure of to the world those five objects plus three nails are what you need to do the job. The other four objects nullified Nemesis victory, the Placard turned it into a defeat.

[vultur]

I really don't think this has anything to do with Nemesis - especially if you're suggesting they were originally used to cure Christ from Nemfection. I'm pretty sure that there's a WOJ that Archangels are far too powerful to be Nemfected, so...

I think Nemesis is more of an Outsider weapon against the Fae. There are hints that it can infect non-Fae, but all the definitely Nemfected beings in the books so far have been Fae (Aurora, Lea, Cat Sith, Maeve). I doubt Nemesis has any relevance to the Heaven/Angels/Knights of the Cross vs. Hell/Fallen/Denarians side of things.

The placard might be used for communication, but it could also be tied to judgment/trial/punishment... which would fit Harry imprisoning a Titan.

Or Harry might be using it more as a power source, or to "reinforce"/strengthen the binding the way he used various items in the circle to summon/bind the Erlking in DB. (The specific forms of the items might be less relevant than their connection to the Crucifixion; there isn't really an obvious connection between nails and a Sword. Even the reference to the spearhead as an 'Athame' is a bit odd; I would expect it to be used as a weapon, but an athame is typically a ritual instrument, not a weapon.)