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Messages - CallSmith

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DF Spoilers / Re: Battle of Hastings was a Stone Table fight
« on: December 06, 2018, 03:44:21 AM »
Was the use of the word 'shard' an intentional Brandon Sanderson reference? And so basically there's no reason I'm right but also no reason I'm wrong?

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DF Spoilers / Re: Dead Beat Question
« on: December 05, 2018, 07:03:19 PM »
Additionally, I would think that the Council didn't have any idea about the Darkhallow based on Luccio and Morgan's reactions to it and Harry's explanation of it. If they had killed Kemmler during a Darkhallow, they would have known what was going on before Harry got there and explained it. Also, they would have known that they needed necromancy.

Tsar Bomba was the largest nuclear bomb that humanity ever unleashed. It was unleashed on October 30th, 1961 in our world and in the Dresdenverse. Whether it was used to kill Kemmler and that's why it was so big, or whether it ended up being bigger due to other powers being used to kill Kemmler cannot be determined at this time.

What this tells us is that Kemmler was killed the day before he could perform the Darkhollow. Whether Morgan and Luccio knew anything more than "We found Kemmler, it's all hands on deck lets end this SOB" is not known at this time.

However there are three fun historic facts about the Tsar Bomba that could tie in to Kemmler's death and other lore stuff. 1.) The island it detonated near/on is one of the northernmost land masses on the planet. 2.) It is in Archangel (the district that Archangel the capital of, so it was in Simon's backyard) 3.) You can make a pretty cool line from ground zero of the Tunguska even to the Tsar Bomba site.

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DF Spoilers / Battle of Hastings was a Stone Table fight
« on: December 05, 2018, 06:50:24 PM »
So I've been caught up on the series for a few months, had some issues getting back on the site for weird reasons, but I'm back with a fun theory, and I want to know what you guys think. Spoilers up to the latest Anthology below.

So it's mentioned (I believe in Summer Knight, but it could have been Cold Days or Small Favor) that Titania and Mab haven't talked since the Battle of Hastings (1066) and then Cold Days establishes that Mab and Titania aren't the first to hold their mantle (the same holding true for Maeve and Aurora.) I've also seen a bunch of places that Mother Summer isn't the first Mother Summer but Mother Winter is. (I must have missed this in my reading but ok).

WOJ says that the clues for the Blackstaff/Mother Winter's walking stick are from Celtic lore c. 1065. The two interesting things that happened in Great Britain around that time are that the High King of Ireland was deposed and supposedly died in Rome and the Norwegian and Norman Invasions. Since Stamford Bridge hasn't been mentioned yet it would suggest that the Norman one was more important.

My theory is: Whoever stole the Blackstaff did it around 1065, and this imbalance in power caused a Stone Table battle that took place on the 14th of October. During the period of time around the Blackstaff being stolen, and possibly during the battle itself the OG (presumably) Summer and Winter Queens died and were replaced by Mab and Titania (Who were presumably the Lady's). This also when the OG Mother Summer died and was replaced by the current one (if someone could find me the source for the current Mother Summer not being the original that would be great.) presumably as a sacrifice on the Table to balance out Mother Winter being weak.

This also creates an interesting idea for who Lea actually is (since her name is more of a title for Fairy God Mother) that she was originally the spare Mother Winter and that the current Mother Summer could be her sister.

What do you guys think?

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DF Spoilers / Salic Law and Harry's Understanding of Magic Genetics
« on: August 08, 2018, 04:24:33 PM »
I've not doubt this topic has already been covered in pretty great detail somewhere, (seeing as the book came out eleven years ago) but on a binge reading through the series I noticed a plot hole between Proven Guilty and White Night.

In Proven Guilty, when Dresden is in an elevator with Murphy and she asks him how many kids he wants he thinks about how any kids he would have would inherit all kinds of problems through him. The way he discusses it could be taken as either meaning just his enemies, or it could mean his magic and his enemies, or some variation thereof. It's not explicitly stated that his children would not have magic.

In White Night when Harry is explaining magical inheritance to Murphy (In the Blue Beetle on the way to kill the Skavis, after nearly melting Molly's face off.) Murphy says that Harry said that magic is inherited, Harry says "Salic Law" to suggest matrilineal (Forum isn't recognizing this as a word, I know Harry says he's chauvinistic but that's a bit much lol) descent. He uses his inheriting his magic from his mother as an example, and looks at Molly to imply to remind the reader that Molly inherited hers from Charity. It is also a driving point of the villains' plan that killing off twenty+ weak practitioners would cripple magical growth in the Post-War world. Something that everyone's actions suggest would eventually be true.

Now I have not read past White Night, but I have an addiction to TvTropes that has spoiled some things for me so don't feel bad to show me how this gets fixed later if it does, but i feel like this is a pretty big plot hole in Harry's understanding of magic, which could be explained by that if he wasn't using logic a lot in this book.

The Plot hole is as follows

1.) Harry doesn't seem to have the consideration that any children he had with Murphy or Susan, or any other normal mortal would be a normal mortal.
2.) The White Council is an egalitarian organization that has had such connections throughout the world for at least 5 millennia (Judging from the Wiki's page on the Oblivion War.)
2a.) This includes a probably equal period of time interacting with the Sidhe Courts who are led by females of incredible power
2b.) That the Council is egalitarian and inclusive can be judged from the composition of the Senior Council at the time of Summer Night a Chinese Woman, a Middle-Eastern man, an African-American woman, a Great Lakes Native American man, a Russian of non-specified background man, and a French man who is said to speak for the minor nations and is later replaced by a Greek Man speaking for the same nations.
2c.) Just of the people on the Senior Council we have 3 different people that are part of or related to cultures that have practiced matrilineal or matrilocal social systems (Great Lakes Native Americans, Several minorities in China, and Greek)
3.) Despite magic apparently being passed from mother to child, and magic users having connections across the globe, and through realms for thousands of years the Senior Council at first appearance looks very much like one would expect given who created it, when it was created, and where it was a created. (Clarification it looks like a white male American created a 'diverse' ruling body. Since I am also all of those things I'm not critiquing it just pointing it out.)
4.) So despite magic apparently being passed through the mother, and it being common knowledge that this is so, the Council can't seem to keep track of young wizards who keep becoming warlocks because no one is there to teach them.
5.) Thomas can't use magic, maybe it's canceled out by WC Demon but it seems like something that should be explored. (Maybe the wizard whose talent was all things genealogy geek got taken out early because Outsiders.)
6.) Despite taking a pretty big ravaging in the past century, and apparently knowing for a long time that magic is passed through mother to child, the Senior Council and the White Council behave primarily like our modern American society does, white man is in charge, men are more common than women in power, but there is some movement to diversify and chauvinistic tendencies are going away.
7.) Despite transitioning from this patriarchal system, while losing a lot of population, there's no "Female magic users have a DUTY to have a ton of magic using kids" movement that we see.

I'm in no way criticizing Mr. Butcher or anything here. I'm just a guy, with a degree who really likes these books and enjoys over thinking and analyzing them if anyone else wants to join in.

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DF Books / White Night Edition Issues?
« on: August 08, 2018, 03:43:26 PM »
Hello all,

So I've been binge reading through the series and have gotten to White Night and I noticed some issues that I was wondering if others have found, and whether it might just be an issue with my edition of it.

The Issue: Ramirez gets called Rodriguez a LOT. The most egregious example is during the climatic fight scene.

For reference I bought my copy off of ebay, it's hard cover still has a "As seen on SciFi" sticker on the cover doesn't have any of the Dresden books passed it as being listed, and has the first three of the Codex Alera books listed but no other things published. Does anyone have the paperback version or a later edition and know if these things got fixed? Because I found another type of plot hole in it that I wonder whether that was adjusted either.

Thanks.

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