What weird dynamic in the mirror verse do you want to see?

[Cats_are_evil]

I have 3
1st. Morgan was actually Harry's mentor and father figure.
2nd. Harry meets Luccio that didn't switch bodies and he explains by accident that he dated her.
3rd. Toot has become a full fledged fairy and is a psycho.

[Mira]

  The White Council was never able to kill or stop Kemmler.. Actually Kemmler is now the Merlin.

[Con]

The one I'm most looking forward to is seeing what equivalent upgrades darkside Harry got that lets him take on the Winter Knight in a duel

[Mira]

The one I'm most looking forward to is seeing what equivalent upgrades darkside Harry got that lets him take on the Winter Knight in a duel

  I still think that this book will turn out to be one of the most disappointing books of the series simply because there is no way Jim can match the various expectations people seem to have for the book..  That's not to say that many of the fans won't be happy with it, but I think just as many will be pissed..

[Nooneofconsequence]

If I recall correctly the "point of divergence" is supposed to be some event towards the end of Grave Peril.  So things like Morgan being Harry's mentor won't happen unless he became that mentor  after Grave Peril.  And I don't see that happening.   
 I think "Evil Harry" is Harry without his allies, at least the allies we have seen him with: KoTC, Alphas, Murphy, Waldo etc....  Harry isolated and on the run from the council, making the bad decisions out of desperation. 
 Perhaps something like this.  Harry trades ammorachius and Michael to save Susan.  Susan is freaked out, still human, and wants nothing to do with Harry because PTSD.   Michael is dead / turned.  Charity and the rest of the family want nothing to do with him since Michael never came home from the vampire ball.  The war happens later when the red court is better prepared, council doesn't blame Harry for the war, but he wasn't recruited into the wardens.  Harry learns the wrong lesson and doesn't clue in Murphy and the others , trying even harder to protect them ,so Murphy keeps distrusting him, etc.

[g33k]

The one I'm most looking forward to is seeing what equivalent upgrades darkside Harry got that lets him take on the Winter Knight in a duel

IIRC there's a WoJ saying that mirror!Harry is closely-allied with Mavra.
Suggests to me that he likely leaned-in on the necromancy.

If I recall correctly the "point of divergence" is supposed to be some event towards the end of Grave Peril.

I'm pretty sure this is correct, yes; specifically, it's a choice Harry makes.

Exactly what choice Harry makes -- the critical divergence -- is, I think, an important issue.

Suppose he takes Bianca's deal -- having "cost" Bianca her playmate, he lets Bianca take the (already half-turned) Susan from him.  Immediate consequence -- Susan is a fully-turned Rampire, and Harry's self-image is "I traded-away the woman I loved, to be safe."  Note this choice is actually foreshadowed in the book:  Jim wrote how hopeless and defeated Harry was feeling.

He didn't expect to win that fight; it was a last-ditch moment of inspiration to summon all the shades of the Rampire victims to get revenge (and a startlingly powerful act of necromancy, given how untrained / unpracticed Harry was; he's clearly a natural with necromancy!).

I'm sure many of us can project all sorts of futures from that divergence.

On the other hand, let's take the choice at the very end:  after all the action's over, Harry tracks Susan to a beach.  They talk; she leaves.

Suppose he didn't let her, argued/persuaded/cajoled, "let's just try, for a bit, you can always leave if it's not working," and half-Ramp Susan stayed in Chicago.  But, without going down to Latin America, she likely never came to the attention of the Order of St Giles, never got their specialized half-Rampire training, etc.  No Maggie Jr, no Red-Court Takedown at Chichen Itza.  I bet the Reds won the war against the White Council; maybe (probably) a few WC wizards survived... they likely all hate Dresden's guts for starting the war.

Etc...  I think I've seen at least half a dozen different "critical choices" proposed, with more or less convincing arguments.

[Mira]

Or he allowed the Sword of Love to be broken by allowing the sacrifice to go forward..  A couple of things may have followed that, Susan would never have been half turned and her and Harry may have simply broken up over her forging of that invitation.  He and Thomas might not have gotten together until later which might have changed several outcomes.  He and Michael might not have remained friends because of what happened to the Sword of Love and Molly's fate might have been much different.  Little Maggie might not have been born, so no show down at CI which ended with the demise of the Red Court.. Bianca might have lived and the Red Court may have won their war because without Bianca's death prematurely precipitating it, the Red Court would have had time to get ready to battle the White Council. ..

Actually the turn of events in Grave Peril are important because if they had gone another way, Harry as a star born could have turned out like the other two star borns we have met, Drakul and Listens.. That would be very significant and a cool way to reveal to Harry just what he is and what he is supposed to do, by showing him what he shouldn't do, why he is so important, and to be thankful he turned out the way he is and gives him a better sense of purpose for the rest of the series.

[g33k]

Or he allowed the Sword of Love to be broken by allowing the sacrifice to go forward ...

I think that's too early.

IIRC, the WoJ says it's a choice Harry makes "near the end" of the book.

But I suppose how near to the end is always open to interpretation...

[Mira]

I think that's too early.

IIRC, the WoJ says it's a choice Harry makes "near the end" of the book.

But I suppose how near to the end is always open to interpretation...

Yes, and what happens at the party is critical because that's when all hell breaks loose, Susan is taken, and Harry chooses to go and rescue her.  All the rest flows from there.

[g33k]

Yes, and what happens at the party is critical because that's when all hell breaks loose, Susan is taken, and Harry chooses to go and rescue her.  All the rest flows from there. 

I halfway expect Jim to write the choice as something that seems really really minor, from our current POV; not one of those obvious, high-drama moments.

I'm hoping he brings in Uriel (cosplaying as Clarence) to explain things; that likely won't happen until the very end (when he tells Harry to click his Ruby Slippers three times).

(yes, I'm crossing the streams pretty severely here)

[Mira]

I halfway expect Jim to write the choice as something that seems really really minor, from our current POV; not one of those obvious, high-drama moments.

I'm hoping he brings in Uriel (cosplaying as Clarence) to explain things; that likely won't happen until the very end (when he tells Harry to click his Ruby Slippers three times).

(yes, I'm crossing the streams pretty severely here)

It is possible and I like it when Uriel shows up.  What came to my mind a bit ago after I posted, was that moment when it was Thomas that pushed Susan towards the vamps that is critical.  It doesn't have to automatically be something that Harry chose that set off a whole avalanche of consequences.. It could be what others chose which caught Harry up in the fall out which then forced him down different paths.

[g33k]

... It doesn't have to automatically be something that Harry chose that set off a whole avalanche of consequence ...

No; but it's WoJ that the Mirror mirror book would be based upon a choice of Harry's (and makes good sense for a Harry-Protagonist novel, after all!).

My own headcanon is that the choices of a Starborn often carry extra weight, even up to generating whole new  branches of the multiverse.

[Mira]

No; but it's WoJ that the Mirror mirror book would be based upon a choice of Harry's (and makes good sense for a Harry-Protagonist novel, after all!).

My own headcanon is that the choices of a Starborn often carry extra weight, even up to generating whole new  branches of the multiverse.

Possible, but here is a little tidbit easily missed that maybe significant.  Remember Lydia?  The one with the Casandra tears that Bianca was going to use the Sword of Love to sacrifice with?  The little thing that set off the riot at the party..   Well, Harry, Thomas, and Michael are gathered at Harry's place trying to come up with a plan to save Susan and Justine... Lydia is also with them, still sound asleep from her ordeal.  Harry thought it might be a good idea to wake her up, that she might have some useful insights.. Also Harry begins to think their escape from the party was too easy... Anyone smell set up?

Anyway, they proceed to wake Lydia and this is what happens, bolding and italics are mine; page 298-299 Grave Peril

I started to push myself away from Lydia, but her fingers reached out and dug into the sweater I was wearing.  I jerked against them, but she held me, easily, not at all moved.  The pale girl opened her sunken eyes, and they were flooded with blood, all though the whites, scarlet.  She smiled, slow and malicious.  She spoke, and her voice came out in a low, harsh sound totally unlike her natural tones, alien and malevolent."You should have kept her from sleeping.  Or killed her before she awoke."

Now supposedly it was Nightmare that was possessing Lydia's body... But what if Nightmare is just another name for Nemesis?  What if the decision to let Lydia live had repercussions that extended beyond?  Harry did have a choice, he chose to wake Lydia, he chose to let her live, but what did he turn loose by doing that?

To further build on that, we need to go back to near the beginning of Grave Peril where Lydia actually tells Harry her vision.
page 30 Grave Peril;

"Fire," she whispered.  "Wind.  I see dark things and a dark war. I see my death coming for me, out of the spirit world.  And I see you at the middle of it all.  "You're the beginning, the end of it. You're the one who can make the path go different ways."

All this time, I thought anyway, Lydia's vision was about the war with the Red Court, that the fire was what took place at Bianca's party.  But what if that was a bit of a red herring?  Yeah, the whole fricking war with the Red Court including the attempt to sacrifice little Maggie which led to the demise of the whole Red Court.. Lydia's death did come from the spirit world, Nightmare killed her and took over her body, or was that Nemesis?  At what point did that happen?  Because when they tried to sacrifice Lydia with the Sword of Love it tinged out in objection about killing an innocent... So at some point between that moment and when Harry made the decision to bring her sleeping body back to his place, Lydia was murdered and her body taken over by Nightmare... Or was it Nightmare? Isn't that the M.O. of Nemesis as well?  The war Lydia spoke of wasn't the war with the Red Court, yeah, Harry was at the beginning and the end of that, but he, as a star born is very important to the BAT to come..

"You should have kept her from sleeping.  Or killed her before she awoke.

That has huge ramifications, if it indeed was Nemesis speaking, Harry chose to save who he thought was Lydia, but instead he turned Nemesis loose on the world.. How could Harry have known? He couldn't, he didn't have the knowledge at the time.. He made a choice, and it was the wrong choice, maybe Mirrormirror won't be evil Harry so much as Harry trying to fix the error he made that  is causing the world to go to hell.

[LordDresden2]

The problem with alternity is that the question:  "What would have happened if Person X chose Decision X differently?" has multiple answers, all valid.  That is, because a different chain of events proceeds from that moment, subsequent choices also have to be made, both by Person X and other people too, and each one of those subsequent choices makes a different world.

If all possibilities happen (which is the usual assumption behind diverging timelines), then there are endless worlds springing from whatever different Choice Harry made.  Worlds where Michael lives or dies, worlds where Harry and the Council are at odds and standing firm together, worlds where Karrin is married to Harry and worlds where Karrin wants Harry dead, all springing from that same Choice, because subsequent Choices also get made.

[Mira]

The problem with alternity is that the question:  "What would have happened if Person X chose Decision X differently?" has multiple answers, all valid.  That is, because a different chain of events proceeds from that moment, subsequent choices also have to be made, both by Person X and other people too, and each one of those subsequent choices makes a different world.

If all possibilities happen (which is the usual assumption behind diverging timelines), then there are endless worlds springing from whatever different Choice Harry made.  Worlds where Michael lives or dies, worlds where Harry and the Council are at odds and standing firm together, worlds where Karrin is married to Harry and worlds where Karrin wants Harry dead, all springing from that same Choice, because subsequent Choices also get made.

That was the clever bit about "It's a Wonderful Life,"  the hero of that story wishes he'd never been born because he feels that his life is screwed up and that he has screwed other people's lives up.  So the angel Clarence shows him what it would have like had he never been born.  No choice, he is taken completely out of the picture because he had never been born.  Since he had never been born there is no moment when if he chose A then B,C,and D would have happened and so on.   In the original Trek story, it wasn't about choices either, a transporter accident sends Kirk and company to an alternate universe where things are the same but not..  As per usual Kirk tries to set that right by his eyes by handing the assassination device over to that reality's Spock and tells him to assassinate that Kirk and change that world to what our Kirk believes is the better.  If you think about it, you know that will fail because that isn't how that alternate universe works.. That was a bit of a ramble, but my point, the story was never about what if Kirk had made another choice... It would only be so if there was a Mirrormirror part 2 and we actually see the repercussions from our Kirk choosing to hand that assassination device to the alternate Spock.. Would the alternate Spock kill the alternate Kirk?  If he did, would it really change the nature of that alternate universe? Or for all his appearance of having the same integrity as our Kirk's Spock, the alternate Spock would become no better than the Kirk he killed..

If I understand what Mirrormirror is going to be about, is Harry finds himself in an alternate universe where that Harry isn't what our Harry thinks he should be... Not much said about the rest of it though.. Who knows, Murphy may never have become a cop at all and stayed married to her first husband happily and have six grown kids...  It isn't about choices so much. Now apparently Harry in one of his moods and decides "if only," over a decision he made in Grave Peril.  I can see time travel coming into the picture, but I don't see evil Harry unless our Harry is successful changing something and then becomes evil Harry..  Then what would be the incentive to change back?  Don't know if I want to continue to read about the adventures of evil Harry.

Actually I think Harry will have difficulties with little Maggie because she is getting to the age where kids do become difficult.. Harry wishes Susan was still alive to handle it because little Maggie needs a mother, and somehow Lara just doesn't fit that role... That would put us back to Grave Peril and decisions he made about Susan,then he decides to travel back in time to change things.. However taking that a step further, what about Susan's decisions? She made her own bed on that one when she chose to forge the invitation, disregarding Harry's warnings about the dangers at that party.  So maybe Harry thinks if he destroys that invitation after he decides not to go, Susan couldn't have forged it and been at the party in the first place.  Then I think Harry will discover by doing that Susan breaks up with him with real anger, and the results are there would be no little Maggie at all.... Then what does he decide to do?