Could Dresden have been wrong about Thorned?

[Mira]

No, I don't at all believe Mab was worried about herself being infected.  Ordering fetches to bring Molly in is WoJ confirmed, and that kind of action isn't any more drastic than ordering her forces to teach the Reds a lesson.  The idea that Mab needed healing from Nemesis doesn't work.

Sure it does, those infected with Nemesis don't act irrational all of the time.  If they did they'd be too easily spotted.. Take Justine, totally infected when she worked to get pregnant then black mail Thomas into an assassination plot, she almost had Harry completely fooled when he went to break the news to her, then he couldn't put his finger on it, something seemed a bit off, is all.  However he didn't have time to figure it out.  Lea was mostly rational, rational enough to realize what had happened to her and appealed to Mab for a cure, but not before she had spread it to Maeve.  Mab wore the Knife also for a time, so it is completely logical that she also suffered a degree of infection or feared that she had to go in for prophylactic treatment.

[morriswalters]

I frowned a little and thought about it for a minute. Then I asked, “Theoretically speaking,” I said, “what kinds of things might prevent Winter and Summer from reacting to an incursion by another nation?”

Lily’s eyes sparkled, and she nodded to Fix. The little guy turned to me and said, “In theory, only a few things could do it.  ”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “Go on.”

“A much more serious reason would be an issue of the balance of power between the Courts of Summer and Winter. Any reaction to the invasion would alter what resources one would have at hand. If one Court did not act in concert with the other, it would provide an ideal opportunity for a surprise assault while the other had its strategic back turned.”

Now if you read the rest of the passage they talk about the balance of forces.

“Whatever,” I said. “There’s a Summer Knight. There’s a Winter Knight. What’s unbalanced about that?”

“He isn’t exerting his power,” Fix replied. “He’s a prisoner, and everyone knows it. He has no freedom, no will. He can’t stand on the side of Winter as its champion. So far as the tension between the Courts goes, the Winter Knight might as well not exist.”

Then Harry talks some BS about Mab attacking and suggesting that she isn't that crazy.  Enter Maeve who suggests that Mab is that crazy.  You know this isn't true, Harry on the other hand is clueless. It's part of Maeve's plan. The reality is that the imbalance is worse than anyone at that point in the book is aware of, because Mab is down 3 of her starting four. Then some random Denarian walks to her front door and huffs and puffs and blows in her effing door with Hellfire. Mab being made of sterner stuff than me doesn't wet her panties.  She does wonder which, of the small number of people who could open a portal in that close, did so, with Summer in the running for Mab's a--hole of the week award.

[Second Aristh]

Now if you read the rest of the passage they talk about the balance of forces.Then Harry talks some BS about Mab attacking and suggesting that she isn't that crazy.  Enter Maeve who suggests that Mab is that crazy.  You know this isn't true, Harry on the other hand is clueless. It's part of Maeve's plan. The reality is that the imbalance is worse than anyone at that point in the book is aware of, because Mab is down 3 of her starting four. Then some random Denarian walks to her front door and huffs and puffs and blows in her effing door with Hellfire. Mab being made of sterner stuff than me doesn't wet her panties.  She does wonder which, of the small number of people who could open a portal in that close, did so, with Summer in the running for Mab's a--hole of the week award.

Mab being down her top three agents is getting closer, but Mab didn't know she was down her top three agents at that point.  Maeve's actions in PG revealed that; after Mab didn't act against the Reds.  She was down Lea, but Slate was voluntarily down.  At any point, Mab could have appointed a fill-in Winter Knight while she convinced Harry to be their replacement.  That temp Winter Knight would have been Fix's match very quickly.  Temp knight can be sacrificed on the Stone Table just as much as Slate when Harry is cornered to take the mantle.

In any respect, if Mab was worried about bluffing against weakness, playing everything like normal seems to be the way to preserve the balance instead of making Summer and everyone else extra curious about what was wrong with an erratic Mab.

Sure it does, those infected with Nemesis don't act irrational all of the time.  If they did they'd be too easily spotted.. Take Justine, totally infected when she worked to get pregnant then black mail Thomas into an assassination plot, she almost had Harry completely fooled when he went to break the news to her, then he couldn't put his finger on it, something seemed a bit off, is all.  However he didn't have time to figure it out.  Lea was mostly rational, rational enough to realize what had happened to her and appealed to Mab for a cure, but not before she had spread it to Maeve.  Mab wore the Knife also for a time, so it is completely logical that she also suffered a degree of infection or feared that she had to go in for prophylactic treatment.

No, if Mab was herself enough to order Molly brought in, she was herself enough to give the order to retaliate against the Reds.  Mab wasn't worried about herself being Nemesis infected.

[morriswalters]

I somehow think that cutting a temps throat just to replace him with Harry would violate Winter law.

[Second Aristh]

I somehow think that cutting a temps throat just to replace him with Harry would violate Winter law.

Mother Winter nearly did it to Harry.  The queens can do whatever to court affiliated mortals.

[Mira]

Mab being down her top three agents is getting closer, but Mab didn't know she was down her top three agents at that point.

She knew she was down a Knight, and her right hand go to Fae, Lea... That is two out of the three.

At any point, Mab could have appointed a fill-in Winter Knight while she convinced Harry to be their replacement.

Could she? I doubt it is that simple, 1] the new Knight would have to be willing to kill Slate,2] the new Knight would have to handle the power of the mantle and take orders,3] I doubt the new Knight would resign, so someone would have to be willing to kill him or her.

“A much more serious reason would be an issue of the balance of power between the Courts of Summer and Winter. Any reaction to the invasion would alter what resources one would have at hand. If one Court did not act in concert with the other, it would provide an ideal opportunity for a surprise assault while the other had its strategic back turned.”

There is your answer..

[morriswalters]

I never said she couldn't, it just doesn't fit my internal picture of Mab.

[Second Aristh]

She knew she was down a Knight, and her right hand go to Fae, Lea... That is two out of the three.
Could she? I doubt it is that simple, 1] the new Knight would have to be willing to kill Slate,2] the new Knight would have to handle the power of the mantle and take orders,3] I doubt the new Knight would resign, so someone would have to be willing to kill him or her.
There is your answer..

One and a half.  Finding a real piece of work to be temp Winter Knight wouldn't be hard for the scary queen of faerie.  It wouldn't even have to be a good candidate to be as good as Fix.
Your excerpt is just the explanation on why Summer couldn't act without coordination of Winter.  It doesn't answer why Mab ignored the Reds at the time.

I never said she couldn't, it just doesn't fit my internal picture of Mab.

Mab is efficient and probably wouldn't act like that without a strategy, but the point is that being down a knight was voluntary on her part.  SK was a crisis because it risked losing the Summer Knight mantle permanently.  Mab icing Slate for a while is an imbalance on a much smaller scale.  It makes the bluffing against weakness theory less likely.

[Mira]

One and a half.  Finding a real piece of work to be temp Winter Knight wouldn't be hard for the scary queen of faerie.  It wouldn't even have to be a good candidate to be as good as Fix.

She already had that in Slate and he was a traitorous disaster, no, though it was Maeve that picked him, Mab would make certain that mistake wouldn't be repeated.

[Second Aristh]

She already had that in Slate and he was a traitorous disaster, no, though it was Maeve that picked him, Mab would make certain that mistake wouldn't be repeated.

But things would have been even.  Knights are like paper cups.  Use them and replace as needed.  Mab was holding out for a really good one in Harry, but push come to shove, a temp works just fine until then.

[Mira]

But things would have been even.  Knights are like paper cups.  Use them and replace as needed.  Mab was holding out for a really good one in Harry, but push come to shove, a temp works just fine until then.

Would they?  They weren't when Slate was Knight..  With the kind of power the mantle has, Knights are not like paper cups at all, a bad Knight is a lot worse than no Knight at all.

[Second Aristh]

Would they?  They weren't when Slate was Knight..  With the kind of power the mantle has, Knights are not like paper cups at all, a bad Knight is a lot worse than no Knight at all.

Sure they are.  Some of the faerie knights only get sent on one mission total before they need replacing.  You don't need anyone special to be an equal to Fix.  All he has going for him beyond a bit of bravery is the mantle's instincts.  Anyone of the caliber of Marcone's troubleshooters could be Winter Knight, and he finds enough of them in Chicago.  Mab isn't a worse recruiter than Marcone.

[morriswalters]

As a Doylist the text is the text. If the passage I cited isn't meant to enlighten the reader, what exactly is the point?

Would they?  They weren't when Slate was Knight..  With the kind of power the mantle has, Knights are not like paper cups at all, a bad Knight is a lot worse than no Knight at all.

Well, in the practical sense killing the Knight just because you can would be a bad recruiting tactic. On the other hand keeping him alive under torture sends a massage that says, being a traitor has it's cost.

[Mira]

As a Doylist the text is the text. If the passage I cited isn't meant to enlighten the reader, what exactly is the point?Well, in the practical sense killing the Knight just because you can would be a bad recruiting tactic. On the other hand keeping him alive under torture sends a massage that says, being a traitor has it's cost.

 Be it a bad Knight,incompetent Knight, or no Knight, makes no difference really it upsets the power balance.