Mea culpa on calling Alfred the Warden.
Well, we all make mistakes.
That would presume they can reach a consensus. The entire point is they don't agree on who a good candidate is. I imagine some think that no one is a good candidate. The entire point of the White Council is to limit power. The position of Warden gives too much power to an individual.
Doesn't the fact that they allow one of their members to hold the Blackstaff and be the Council's assassin contradict that? Basically they are trusting Eb's character to limit the real damage he can do with that staff. In Battleground Eb has shown himself to be a bit shaky emotionally, there is no guarantee that he won't go rouge. The Merlin himself has shown some inclination towards abuse of power for political reasons.
True enough. But my rebuttal was to your argument that private journals don't have general statements, and as the entire series is full of general statements I think we can make a reasonable assumption that private journals do have general statements in them. Not to mention that the specific bit Harry reads was intended by Ebenezar for Harry to read. So while it might not be for public access, the section we are discussing was meant for more than just Eb to read (in point of fact it was intended for someone else specifically who is discussed in the passage).
The fact that Eb meant for Harry to read it, or that is Harry's assumption he was meant to read it, since the book just happened to be open, doesn't make what Eb wrote a general statement.
The specific bit you quote here ("I sometimes can't help but think there is such a thing as fate") is Eb's opinion specifically on how he feels the Council is getting in it's own way. He quite literally says right after the "I" statement "We, in our ignorance, do to thwart it". So it's Ebenezar's ("I") opinion about how the White Council ("we") are subverting themselves.
Both can be true at the same time. Eb is giving a personal opinion that the Council is getting in it's own way by it's ignorance, and as a member of the Council, he includes himself. We see it everyday in Congress, a member can say in his or her personal opinion that a proposal is right or wrong, but at the same time not excluding himself or herself from the general proposal put forth.
Exactly right, it is different. Hence why Jim says that the Senior Council's only thought is that Harry must have been really stupid because they don't think he knew what he was doing when he signed up. Which is exactly why they didn't execute him straight away (that, and the fact they really need a weapons stash right now). Except all bets are off since Battle Ground because he clearly knows how to defend his Island far better now AND has shown he can take on major heavy weight hitters. All he needs to show now is that he can compel those beings into giving him power and/or knowledge, and even perhaps potentially commanding them as his personal weapons and he will completely terrify the White Council. It's the equivalent of showing he can build, defend, and deploy nukes.
As I said in another post, rereading what Rashid told him in Turn Coat, I don't think it is about commanding any of the inmates to do his bidding, it is about tapping the power from the Leylines that emirate from the island and it's inmates. The scary bit is Rashid left that open, he said that Harry wasn't ready yet to attempt such a thing.
I think you've misunderstood Morris's point. The two-year old Morris is referring to is Harry, not Alfred. Hence why he points out Rashid choking. So did Eb when he found out (although there are clearly other reasons he thought Harry was crazy i.e. who would want to bring that much stress on themselves?) Morris is incorrect in saying that Alfred was made Warden by the original Merlin. Alfred isn't the Warden. He is the interface, the guards, the monitoring systems, the punishment provider etc. He literally says so himself, and we've seen some of his limits. He doesn't have free will as he isn't mortal. He cannot choose to imprison or release a being. He can only act in accordance with the will of the Warden. That said, he clearly has some scope in how to operate within his limits...and so it probably a very good case study of certain types of immortals. I might have said angels but they seem to be a special case, same with gods.
Morriswalter has to be the one to clear that up. Yes, one could argue that Harry is like a two year as you say. However if you read what Morgan says about beings of intellectus, you will understand better why the island needs a Warden. First of all Alfred is the island, so you can say the island has it... Here are a few things Morgan says about beings with intellectus; Turn Coat page 278
Morgan spoke. "A being with intellectus does not understand, for example, how to derive a complex calculus equation--because it doesn't need to process. If you showed him a problem and an equation, he would simply understand it and skip straight to the answer without need to think through the logical stages of solving the problem."
Alfred knows the island needs a Warden, skips to the end when Harry comes along and does the genius loci, makes him Warden. Alfred isn't thinking through whether or not Harry would be a good one or a bad one.. Problem, island needs a Warden, skip to the end, Harry.
Molly asks Morgan if being an intellectus is omniscient? Morgans tells her they are not the same thing. An intellectus has to focus in order the know something. Omniscient knows everything at all times. Then on page 279 he gets to the crux of why the island needs a Warden and why the island to use Morriswalters example is like a two year old being in charge without one.
"Intellectuswouldn't save you from an assassin's bullet if you didn't know someone wanted to kill you in the first place," I said. "To know it is coming, you'd first need to consider the question of whether or not an assassin might be lurking in a dark doorway or on top of a bell tower.
In other words the island without a proper Warden cannot properly defend itself because it cannot imagine what to look for to prevent it.
Morgan nods in agreement and adds a metaphor of his own. Again page 279
Morgan grunted agreement. "And since beings of intellectus so rarely understand broader ideas of cause and effect, they can be unlikely to realize that a given event might be an indicator of an upcoming assassination attempt." "Though that's a terrible metaphor, Dresden.
Now comes the part that really fits the example that Alfred/the island is really like a two year old;
Most beings like that are immortal. They are hard-pressed to notice bullets, much less feel threatened by them."
Because he is immortal he has a hard time understanding that the island is being threatened. Like a two year old doesn't understand that a hot stove will burn, he needs an adult to explain it.
Is that the case with Demonreach though? It knew the Outsiders were attacking it from the water in Cold Days. It also knew that it was being attacked through time as well. It's only "confusion" was in the case of the faeries which Dresden hypothesized as it being connected through nature to them...but Mab seems to indicate that Alfred had the option of defeating them and held back as a curtesy to Mab. Harry didn't tell Demonreach it was being attacked at all in Cold Days, if anything it was the reverse. Alfred is similar to current AI programs in that it's really just a bunch of predetermined responses to certain stimuli, and while capable of "learning" that doesn't mean it makes choices in the way most people seem them. There is a simplicity to it. Another way to look at it might be like asking the AI to capture specific computer viruses in a "vault". It can do as you ask, but it's up to the user (and initially the programmer) to decide what the AI recognizes as a virus in the first place.
Yes, it does apply to the island... Going back to the assassin metaphor... As Morgan says;
Most beings like that are immortal. They are hard-pressed to notice bullets, much less feel threatened by them."
In other words, without a Warden, the island might know it's about to be attacked, but would have a hard time imagining how it would be attacked or that it is vulnerable to being attacked.
And yes, with a fully engaged Warden after Harry's been there a year, he says in Skin Game. Page 6
I'd spent the last year acquainting myself with the island's secrets, with the defenses that I hadn't even known existed---defenses that could be activated only by the Warden. If the Walker tried that play again, I could shut him down single-handed. Even Mab as powerful as she was, would be well-advised to be cautious if she decided to start trouble on Demonreach soil. Which is why she was standing on the dock
Mab could prevent communication going to and from Harry, she could prevent him leaving or going, but without his leave, she could not step on the island now that he was fully installed as it's Warden.
