[BG spoilers] A defense and requiem for my favorite character . . .

[morriswalters]

I

I think the narrative structure of Twelve Months is going to be more like that of a fix up novel i.e. in the Golden Age of SF a writer would publish a number of connected short stories in the monthly magazines but would then republish them as a novel with additional and connective material. We have already had Christmas Eve.

Jim doesn't seem capable of something like Foundation. I like him, but his latest outing isn't at anywhere near that level.  The editors on those magazines would have smacked Jim silly. Twelve Months seems more like, I need to pay off my construction loans, then I need to write a book about Harry dealing with trauma.

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

No, whatever is inside MM Harry soul is not the same that is in OG Harry.

WOJ is - and I do not like it, but it is - that what's revealed by soulgaze is almost never changing. If Dresden has potential to become Darth Dresden but also Sir Harry we know - it will be shown in his soul - like Molly soul showed her potential of multiple fates, not just her current state.
So maybe it's not be 100% identical but quite probably 99%.

And I will say it again, I dislike the idea that Harry can change so much, so we better have an scenario where Harry does one or more bad decisions and that makes him vulnerable to dark forces that possess him. Not that he himself become evil.

Nah, if we go for AU it has to be him, and I hope it will be well shown how and why.
Hopefully not some big possessions but small steps, lot of small steps and moral compromises that just turns into a monster after 15 years.

And of course we gonna hate it, and of course Jim's gonna torture us with it.

Jim doesn't seem capable of something like Foundation. I like him, but his latest outing isn't at anywhere near that level.  The editors on those magazines would have smacked Jim silly. Twelve Months seems more like, I need to pay off my construction loans, then I need to write a book about Harry dealing with trauma.

Dunno. I think if he wanted to pay off construction loan he would just invent extra book later dealing with some thrilling but not necessarily useful for metaplot shit - rather than delving into new risky territory of book unlike others. That's would be just bad and risky business decision - when Mirror Mirror is concept cool enough - he should write it on his usual speed.

And since Twelve Months sort of answers my overreaching problem with series - which is fact it's series of ultra-fast episodes between which universe is weirdly stagnant around Dresden, and character growth happen almost exclusively within novels, not between them - I think after 20 years Jim could get to simmilar conclusion.

So I take his claims positively - even if I have no idea if he can pool such book off.

[morriswalters]

Dunno. I think if he wanted to pay off construction loan he would just invent extra book later dealing with some thrilling but not necessarily useful for metaplot shit - rather than delving into new risky territory of book unlike others. T

I'd be careful assuming anything about a book that hasn't been written.

[Dina]

WOJ is - and I do not like it, but it is - that what's revealed by soulgaze is almost never changing. If Dresden has potential to become Darth Dresden but also Sir Harry we know - it will be shown in his soul - like Molly soul showed her potential of multiple fates, not just her current state.
So maybe it's not be 100% identical but quite probably 99%.

I am pretty sure I've read very different WoJ years ago. So, I don't buy that.

[Mira]

I'd be careful assuming anything about a book that hasn't been written.

Yeah, just look at Peace Talks... 

[Wicked Woodpecker of West]

WOJ about soulgazes:

Ah, but is it a process of pressure and change, or is it a process of polish and refinement?  One could argue that the events that “changed” you in actuality only revealed a truer facet of your soul than had previously been perceiveable–that those events only changed you inasmuch as a rough diamond is changed by a master jeweler’s tools.  The diamond doesn’t become an emerald–it just becomes a more beautiful and quinessential diamond.

(Just Devil’s Advocating here, for the most part, and throwing that thought out.)

In any case, it may just be possible for a person to change enough for a soulgaze to reveal something else–but it would have to be an utterly incredible kind of change.  Something along the lines of the billionaire executive who, after a near-death experience, gives all his worldly goods to charity, leaves home in his pajamas, and takes up a life of underwater basket-weaving and meditation.  And even that seems a little mild to me, thinking of it.

Anyway, it’d take a truly epic change of heart and mind–to the point where you would practically *be* a whole different person, and not just a person who happens to be you with a lot more life experience to inform his outlook.

(And, in fact, there’s all sorts of theories about people who this happens to after a near-death experience, regarding “walk-in” souls who come and inhabit a person near death, changing them and becoming a kind of inner Yoda to the “native” soul.)

All of the above, of course, is more or less a discussion of angels dancing on the heads of pins, but it’s fun.

[Dina]

About the fateful moment, a reddit user mentioned this

In Changes, cap 34 there is a whole scene where they spoke about terrorists, as in, "ok, no vampires but terrorists" and all that jazz, but there is also an interesting foreshadowing.
Rudolph says "They aren't paying you any more slack, bitch. You are gone." and then Harry thinks
"Something dark and ugly stirred in my chest, and the sudden image of Rudolph pinned to the wall by a ton of cristalline ice popped into my brain."

Not only foreshadowing but...could it be a wizard premonition?

[forumghost]

Nah, I think he was just feeling the begining of the Winter Knight's Mantle affecting his hindbrain and making him fantasize about turning him into Rudolph the brown nosed popsicle for trash talking his lady friend.

[Mira]

About the fateful moment, a reddit user mentioned this

In Changes, cap 34 there is a whole scene where they spoke about terrorists, as in, "ok, no vampires but terrorists" and all that jazz, but there is also an interesting foreshadowing.
Rudolph says "They aren't paying you any more slack, bitch. You are gone." and then Harry thinks
"Something dark and ugly stirred in my chest, and the sudden image of Rudolph pinned to the wall by a ton of cristalline ice popped into my brain."

Not only foreshadowing but...could it be a wizard premonition?

Possible, or just speaks to what a jerk Rudolph is.

[kat7]

Seriously, perhaps in MM, Harry can soulgaze Murph?

I share this wish fervently (in MM or whenever)! I'm not the kind of reader who tends to theorize/look ahead (hence, absentee forum member), but I've definitely imagined the Harry-Murphy soulgaze.

I've always thought it might be more profound/interactive than a "default" soulgaze, since they know each other so well as it is.  Actually my pet idea (hidden so it's elective reading) is:

(click to show/hide)

Murphy sees younger Harry (scared kid having lost his father), who in turn sees younger Murphy (already toughening up after the same trauma). She comforts him, which is profoundly healing, if awkwardly raw for both of them . . . then blinks and observes "hey, I'm taller than you."

Anyway, it's nice to not feel alone in mourning Murphy.