Author Topic: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach  (Read 3318 times)

Offline dspringer1

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Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« on: January 14, 2021, 11:27:56 PM »
I get why Harry hid Thomas on the island.   But I do not get why Dresden put him into the prison as opposed to just stranding him on the island.   Especially as that gave him the opportunity to question Thomas.   Even if he had to imprison him initially, why not release him as soon as he identified Justine as the culprit. 

I am also puzzled why Dresden confronted possessed Justine while on the waters.   He could easily have docked, stepped on the island while having Justine stay aboard.   He then consults with Demonreach and arranges mentally to have Justine imprisoned as soon as she steps on the island.    Probably not good for Justine's body or the body of the baby, but leaving he possessed by the outsider is probably equally bad for both. 

It just feels like the author is deliberately making demonreach less useful to Dresden.  For the same reason, Dresden's reasons for not having his normal foci by this point are also pretty weak.  While I can get it that the author does not want Dresden to be too overpowered to be challenged, peace talks and battleground seemed to be stories where overpowered was not a problem as the enemy was so greatly overpowered to begin with.   

Offline forumghost

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2021, 12:13:49 AM »
Thomas was fucked up so badly that his Demon had begun to cannibalize him to sustain itself, he was dying and Harry had no way to stop it, so he froze him in Carbonite Demonreach until he could figure something out. He didn't try and take Justine to Demonreach and imprison her because between the battle itself and the effort required to bind Ethniu, he was running on fumes. He could barely stand, let alone throw his Will against a Walker.

This is all pretty explicitly stated in the text.

Dresden not having any of his gear remains dumb as hell though. He spent like, a year and a half dicking around on Demonreach practicing Parkour post Cold Days, and then ever since Skin Game he's been whinging about how he misses his Shield Bracelet and such, because Jim wants him to struggle against ghouls and pixies despite now being the Winter Knight.

Offline b4utoo

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2021, 12:18:45 AM »
Don't forget Dresden is human not just a wizard. And not perfect. And shit happens. He was up late on an Xbox that you haven't seen yet..  yes that part was a joke but other things can transpire that wasn't stated while on the island

Offline TrueMonk

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2021, 08:43:43 AM »
To be fair he made his staff and the skull for Bonnie while he was on the island. And he has made a shield bracelet, just not a great one.

Offline Mira

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2021, 12:35:26 PM »


The shield bracelet and stuff made life easier..  The island has a lot of stuff but it isn't exactly the local
magical Ace Hardware store, Harry made due with what was at hand.  So maybe not a great bracelet, but considering, pretty kick ass.

Offline dspringer1

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2021, 05:00:41 PM »
Quote
He didn't try and take Justine to Demonreach and imprison her because between the battle itself and the effort required to bind Ethniu, he was running on fumes. He could barely stand, let alone throw his Will against a Walker.

This makes no sense because he was willing to confront the outsider on the boat where he had access to none of the resources of Demonreach.  If he was too weak, then he should have made up some excuse to stash Justine somewhere else.  Not confront her on the boat. 

Quote
The shield bracelet and stuff made life easier..  The island has a lot of stuff but it isn't exactly the local
magical Ace Hardware store, Harry made due with what was at hand. 

This also makes no sense.  He had a number of visits from Thomas and Murphy while on the island.  He could easily have asked Thomas to acquire a set of tools and some raw materials.    Yet he scratched his staff out with a nail or something instead.     I get that after skin game he was highly distracted and seemed reluctant to get back in the game which may be a natural human reaction, but the time between cold days and skin game is inexcusable. 


Offline Mira

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2021, 06:25:25 PM »
Quote
This also makes no sense.  He had a number of visits from Thomas and Murphy while on the island.  He could easily have asked Thomas to acquire a set of tools and some raw materials.    Yet he scratched his staff out with a nail or something instead.     I get that after skin game he was highly distracted and seemed reluctant to get back in the game which may be a natural human reaction, but the time between cold days and skin game is inexcusable.

He didn't have all that many visits, neither felt comfortable there.  There may also be some components that wizards have access to. 

Quote
This makes no sense because he was willing to confront the outsider on the boat where he had access to none of the resources of Demonreach.  If he was too weak, then he should have made up some excuse to stash Justine somewhere else.  Not confront her on the boat. 

Oh but he did, when he let himself fall overboard, Alfred was there to catch him and pull him, the eye, and the spear to safety, the placard as well if he had it on him.  However since he had no blood sample from Justine, he couldn't have Alfred imprison her.

Offline morriswalters

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2021, 06:26:48 PM »
Jim is trying to simplify.  Too many characters and too many gadgets. Thomas no longer serves a purpose. Neither does Murphy. So he cached them.  If he needs them then they are there but in the interim he doesn't need to devote resources to them. Same thing with the Foci, if he needs them then they will turn up but otherwise just the iconic ones, his staff and shield bracelet. Or maybe just his staff.

Offline Kindler

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2021, 07:17:10 PM »
This makes no sense because he was willing to confront the outsider on the boat where he had access to none of the resources of Demonreach.  If he was too weak, then he should have made up some excuse to stash Justine somewhere else.  Not confront her on the boat. 
I think his thought was "I cannot let Justine set foot on Demonreach." The idea was for the Island to imprison her without taking her there. That's my reading of it, anyway.

As for Thomas, Harry's reasoning is that Thomas's Hunger is turning inward and he is about to turn feral, or die. If Harry brought someone to feed Thomas's Hunger, Thomas would undoubtedly kill that person in his current state. So stasis was the solution to prevent anyone from dying until he can figure out a way to keep Thomas alive.

But for meta reasons, it's to remove some characters and trim things down a bit. Murphy and Thomas out of the picture for a few books will make things leaner and leave more room for new players (or for older characters to take on a bigger role, like Lara). I mean, they're both in most of the books pretty extensively.

Oh, and also it gives Harry something to be sad about that is also a solvable problem.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Why imprison Thomas in Demonreach
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2021, 07:11:51 AM »
Isn't it stated in PT that Thomas is beyond feeding?