Lots of victories come at great cost, but not all are pyrrhic.. They are only pyrrhic if it turns out that the battle and the price for winning it wasn't worth it. In this case it was worth it, so it wasn't a pyrrhic victory.
Well that's fair. Then again, we haven't seen all the fall out either. It might become not look so good in a few years when it become clear that battle was a turning point. Which I think Harry even says in Peace Talks, as a sort-of aside to the reader.
So we have the lightning/Gungnir that points from Odin to Zeus. I think it means more because it is something he pulled out when he was under pressure.
There is also the company logo which was made up of Greek letters, but I cannot remember which. The one that Dresden concluded meant every last detail (among other things).
Is there anything else that neither fits Odin nor Kringle?
That his way is made from green lightning? Or am I mixing things?
The company logo could have been made of Greek letters. It was a possible interpretation of the symbol that Harry saw. The omega and iota combined. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a connection. Good pick up!
I concede that she is above Mab. I'm not sure about Fero though. He was weakened in his Earth form (I think). He is a celestial Being, not a Mantle holder. I think that if he had been say in the NeverNever at his full power, she'd have been less able to mess with him.
Here is a guess, and it's only a guess. The Hundred Hand armor did more than just protect her. It allowed her to keep her entire Being in reality without crazy warping it. So she was bigger than Ferro in reality, but not if he was here in his entirety....
It's probably just because I want to believe it, but when Jim said that the Dark Hallow would make Cowl a full on equal to Mab, he was just giving a comparison to one of the most powerful, and recognizable characters... I mean the Titan hadn't even been shown yet. I don't think Cowl would have been at one of the Mothers level, but maybe it was just because Ethniu didn't display much personal power. She didn't even do magic when she wanted the Eye from Harry and Marcone.
I just picture a Wizard with the kind of juice Cowl would have obtained melting Ethniu with something like Bane Fire.
I have found a few times in the series that Jim sets up expectations which then are subverted, but not for plot purposes. Things like we are told x character is really powerful, and then Dresden dunks on them. It can make things a bit jarring.
I agree that Ferrovax would have been stronger in the Nevernever, in some ways. I feel there are always trade-offs for being on the Prime plane and in the Nevernever. But against Ethniu on a fairly neutral territory, I suspect you're probably right that Ferro would have been more of a worry for Ethniu. Especially without her toys.
I suspect you're right. My theory with the armour is that it centralizes a being, forcing all their power to bear in one point of space-time. Which makes them incredibly strong, yet vulnerable. The line about how in the light of the Swords of the Cross that Ethniu's armour made her looks stiff and slow seemed to suggest it limited her in some way. I think it made her less agile. Not in terms of athletics but in terms of her ability as a god to be in more than one place or something along those lines.
I think you're theory about the armour stopping her from collapsing reality with her presence also makes sense. Because I have wondered why reality didn't just shatter altogether when she showed up. We know Ferrovax helped with that by going to the Nevernever to keep the door closed, but that doesn't account for her very first appearance. I don't know if Ferro is bigger in the Nevernever than Ethniu...because I don't believe we have seen either of their true forms. But I'd say it's fairly close, but Ethniu had the edge in the Prime material plane.
I don't believe Ethniu was on the Mother's level though. I don't really think anyone other than the Archangels (and possibly the Walkers) are on that scale. I am entirely unsure of why the Walkers appear so weak yet Jim classed them at Uriel's level. Best to ask him. But I do think Ethniu was heading for that level, and she was doing everything she could to get there.
Cowl would never have been at the Mother's level. Not without doing a super-Darkhallow I suspect, assuming it was even possible. I agree that Ethniu didn't show much personal power, which was frustrating in hindsight. I put it down to Jim's writing choices. He didn't feel the need to show her full gamut of power, he was try to just show the power of her Eye and physical power. He also was just trying to show that she was tactically still a bit of a noob. An overpowered noob, but a noob nonetheless. Then again, I also feel Jim hasn't shown enough of Ferro's power, or Drakul, or any of the gods. Maybe my expectations are too high. But even the Lords of the Outer Night and the Red King (which someone else pointed out recently) felt a bit weak and it was see why they were a threat. That's one of the challenges of writing of course though.
Cowl using Bane Fire...would be intriguing. Assuming he could of course. I wouldn't mind learning more about the stuff and its properties.
Well he did have the chops in the end, he just went and tried to keep Harry alive yet again for some reason and that mercy cost him.
A very good point. We know the stated reason is that his death curse might spoil the workings of the spell...but I am not so sure that was it. He clearly could handle death curses. One way of doing it would simply be to create a circle around the wizard after poisoning them or something that would inevitably kill the practitioner whilst also giving enough time to put a circle around them to contain their magic. Or immerse them in running water assuming they're not a water mage.
