C'mon guys it's not anything complicated.

The other Swords aren't active because Heaven outsourced recruitment to some asshole in Chicago that was too busy wallowing in self pity/sleeping at the wheel to find any more knights to weird them.

That lazy fool spends half his weekends sleeping off hangovers in the sub basement, and the other half getting drunk on a boat in the middle of the lake...  Then spends the rest of his time carving wood or jewelry but doesn't even try to sell them.

Always seems to have enough money but never really makes enough... Underworld connections if you ask me... illicit for sure.

But I understand that a missing person isn't usually declared dead for 7 years. But I think the bullet hole and blood splatter is different from a simple missing persons report.

Missing and presumed Dead...

But that grave stayed open against the law and after the person who arranged it died.  Harry being missing and presumed dead doesn't put a body in the ground and none of his friends spent their time chasing paperwork to 'prove' he died... they held a funeral at the grave, but didn't file the paperwork for it, they just showed up like you do when you put flowers on a grave...

Even if the city declared him dead and authorized the disbursements of his will and what not City Hall wouldn't have thought to send paperwork to a random local graveyard that it was now okay to close the grave they had held open (illegally) for the last few years.  Remember the graveyard isn't a part of the government and the government doesn't need to worry about closing a grave because graves can't be left open...

around a suitable focus (Mister)

Really, I wasn’t aware of that, maybe you’re right.

But wasn’t there something about Mab not being the first winter queen? So Winter and therefore faerie courts existed before that. I think Titania is still the first one but Mab had a predecessor.

With the greek undertones of Maiden/Queen/Mother I always assumed that the greek/roman guys handled the defense before that.

So I thought the dominant (ok that’s really western centric) pantheon gets the responsibility. Greek civilization, then Middle Ages represented by faerie tales/Vikings/Anglo-Saxon/ etc. Pantheon. Which would mean now its Christianism time. So „humanity“ is probably the wrong term.

The Summer Crone changed, so Titania can't be the original summer queen.  Only the Winter Crone hasn't changed, the other five all have.

I agree, Christianity is likely the next guardians of the outer gates.  It is also possible the outer gates are sealed and there will no longer be active guardians or that there will be a new round of myths to generate guardians.  The fey are the brothers grim stories, that isn't the equivalent of Christianity, but rather campfire stories (Bloody Mary, the Hook Handed Man, etc).

Remember -- the WC was losing the Rampire War.

They had lost so many Wardens & other combat-wizards, they were training up kids as combatants.  That is a desperation move, right there.

Then the Ramp's pushed Harry Dresden too far, and it cost them everything.

All of the powerful wizards have a few "OMG" tricks up their sleeves... the Blackstaff showed up with a private army of Kenku, fer cryin' out loud!  Not to mention Mother Winter's Walking Stick...

But Dresden arrived with *ALL*THREE*SWORDS*OF*THE*CROSS* .  Remember, just *one* Knight with *one* Sword was able to take out a (capital-D) Dragon.

If the Ramp's had just kept up their same campaign, they very-likely would have won; or if not an outright victory, done sufficient damage that other predators would have moved-in and taken their own bites.

Yes exactly... the organization is trying to collapse and the absurd power level of some of it's individual members just says "No." so it doesn't... for now...

Harry with the Swords and Eb with the Kenku or a defunct Soviet satellite are three great examples.

The White Council is strong enough to face most of the foes we know of.

I dunno about that... in fact, I kinda doubt it.

We have multiple voices saying that the WC is teetering on the edge.

Being strong enough to face most foes and being rotten in the core and collapsing are not mutually exclusive.

I think the WC is both strong enough to face most of the threats out there AND teetering on the edge of collapse.  It comes back to the fact that there are individual members of the WC that are absurdly powerful.

If you give the WC a target and let them bring the Sr Council to bear on it... they will take that target out.  There are exceptions to that, but even then... they might.  That doesn't mean that the Council isn't actively collapsing. It doesn't even mean that the war with the Red Court didn't EXTEND the life of the Council.  Having an external enemy may have kept the council together through a time it would have fallen apart in without that.  Infighting and political maneuvering are likely to end the council within Harry's lifetime.

I can't help but draw parallels with Issac Asimov's Foundation and Empire... Spoiler warning for a 75 year old book... The Galactic empire is DEAD... it has been collapsing for hundreds of years when the story starts... its another 200 years later that the Foundation (the colony that the story follows) first encounters the empire and when the two get into a struggle the Empire wins EVERY fight... and just before the empire wipes out the Foundation it withdraws it's forces... and this is all as the mathmatics of history predicted 250 years earlier... if the emperor is weak then strong generals would attack the emperor, if the general was weak then the foundation could defeat him or he would be held in check by other generals and governors... only a strong emperor and strong general could possibly threaten the foundation, but in that case the emperor would be forced to recall, accuse, and execute the general or be deposed by him (the conquering hero).  The Empire was stronger than any other faction in the galaxy... even stronger than the Foundation, but it was already dead and had been for 500 years.  Once the empire had directly governed every planet in the Galaxy, now it governed less than a third and much of that only indirectly.  Once the Empire had built fleets of warships stronger than anything ever seen before or since, now they couldn't even fix them when they broke, much less make new ones.  Oh, the knowledge was in books, but no one had the technical understanding to read those books and put them to use. And more often than not the books themselves were hidden and guarded.

The WC is a lot like the Empire of the Foundation series... Including the Merlin kicking out Harry for being too successful out of fear.  Arthur Langtry is the most powerful mortal practitioner alive, but he isn't a great leader, which is what you would expect from an organization that promotes members based on personal power/skill not ability to lead and make decisions.  He seems to be driving the WC off a cliff for fear of not being the guy in charge...  He is too defensive, too inactive, too afraid.

Why are we not assuming Elaine is alive? Last she was seen was helping the Paranet.

I was talking with someone who thought Kumori was dead and had died in Deadbeat in the backwash of the failed Dark Hallow, we have seen Elaine since then, but I just wanted to avoid any conversation in that direction...

If Harry learns Elaine is Kumori, it will only add to his trauma. Given Harry's history...that makes it more likely.

This is the piece of evidence that most points to it being Elaine to me, there just aren't that many women who are tall enough to hold a knife to Harry's throat and he cares about enough to be hurt finding out they are Kumori...

I am not sure I agree that she is shaping the Paranet into some sort of weapon, except perhaps in terms of information gathering (which is powerful enough in it's own right). Not to mention, she clearly has the names and locations of the members (which gives her plenty of power over them, and could sell them out or have them eliminated if she chose).

Not a weapon, but something to steal the Council's secrets and work against them with... yes, that seems the best use of the Paranet to hurt (or help, but lets be honest...) Harry.

My personal theory is that Elaine is Enthralled in such a complex series of spells she hardly knows she is a thrall (this was explained by Bob when discussing how Enthrallment works in Blood Rites I believe, where Harry specifically likens fine Enthralling to what Justin did to Elaine...the second book Elaine shows up in - a long-term hint). This of course is lends further weight to the whole Cowl = Justin theory, given Justin was the first to Enthrall her.

My Personal theory at this point is that Simon had Enthralled Justin, Justin did Elaine and tried to do Harry but it wasn't truly who Justin was, so he was fighting against it and that tipped the scales when Harry fought back, Justin's heart wasn't in the fight so his magic didn't quite work right and that gave Harry enough advantage to win. Simon may not be the head of the snake either but I think Simon survived (caused) Archangel and is Cowl.

Further, I think Elaine would likely be trying to warn Harry and reveal herself in the process. But it would cost her. I think Harry would be further torn between trying to save her (Harry's biggest weakness is his white knight tendencies) and being angry at her. Long term I suspect he probably ends up killing her like Susan, or she dies to save him. I can't see her surviving the series. She might help him kill Cowl though, so there is something in that potentially.

Agreed, especially if she is enthralled, she likely breaks that and protects him, dying in the process.