Just finished a reread. I know it's been discussed, but Cowl's scarred arms...Any ideas? Was there ever confirmation about Talvi Inverno having scarred arms? If not, okay, but over time, wouldn't the scars have faded or even disappeared (a la Harry's hand healing)?

Good question.  Maybe those scars were relatively new.  Maybe using necromany can screw up or delay wizard healing ability.

If Harry meets Cowl again, will those scars have gone away or be significantly diminished?  I guess we will have to wait and see.

As much as those here wanting a resolution to the question to Cowl, do we really have one?

Nope.  Harry thinks Cowl and Kumori are both White Council, but even if he was right, that doesn't tell us much.

I don't know if Langtry is on the Grey Council.  In fact, I hope he isn't.  I like the idea of several wizards on the Council having to run everything behind Langtry's back.  However, he could be Grey Council.

I do not think we will see any members of the Grey Council through most of Twelve Months.  The exception might be a scene between Ebenezer and Harry, as Eb will lose it when he hears Harry and Lara are making public appearances together.

Here is where I think we could be introduced to a new; for us, member of the Grey Council.  We know that LTW agreed to talk to unspecified others, to speak for Harry, to ask permission to tell Harry more about being Starborn.  LTW told Harry he would have an answer in a year.  That puts this meeting near the end of Twelve Months.  I think it is a good guess the others LTW will speak to are the Grey Council. 

Much was made of LTW and Matha Liberty's advancing age in Peace Talks and Battle Ground.  River Shoulders specifically said that LTW was nearing the end of his journey.  So, either LTW shows up with another member of Grey Council and introduces him or her to Harry; because LTW knows he won't be around much longer, and together they tell Harry what it means to be Starborn or LTW passes away, leaving Harry thinking he will never learn about being Starborn only to have this unknown member of the Grey Council show up and introduce him or herself.  I suppose if Arthur Langtry is a member of the Grey Council, this would be a near perfect way to show us.  It would shock the hell out of Harry; plus, my guess is the knowledge Harry will learn should be jaw dropping as well.  It has to be to be such a secret.     

We also have this from a conversation Harry had with Thomas in Blood Rites:

"The last time you were with anyone, it was with Susan. You love each other. Her touch, her love is still upon you, and still protecting you."

"If that's true, then why I am still adjusting my pants every time Lara walks by?"

Thomas shrugged. "You're human. She's lovely and you haven't gotten any in a while. But trust me, Harry. None of the White Court could wholly control or feed from you now."

In this instance, Thomas could be an unreliable narrator.  Then again, maybe true love inspires hope and faith to the degree that Harry could at that time and now, resist both Skavis and Malvora, though perhaps not to the same degree as House Raith. Also, maybe Harry’s touch wouldn’t burn them.  Maybe it would burn them as well, but not as bad as Wamp who was a member of House Raith.  I’m just guessing here, but I’m trying to apply some logic to this as well.

If you want to bring up what happened at the end of the duel in the Raith Deeps, you have to factor in that Vito’s ability to crush Harry and company with despair was turbocharged by an Outsider.  Perhaps one of the Walkers.  In fact, I would bet it was one of the Walkers, but that is a different discussion.  In any case, Vito was given far more power to throw around than a normal White Court Vampire.

Hooray! 

I have two questions to ask everyone about John Marcone.  The first is probably just a yes or no question but the second one; well, if you want to take a stab at it, you may have to make a wild ass guess or perhaps you might prefer to call it, an educated hypothesis about future events.

Rereading the rant Nicodemus went on in Skin Game in Hades vault, when Nic claimed that Anduriel wasn’t controlling him, that in fact it was Nicodemus who led the Fallen, not the other way around, it got me thinking about Marcone.

We learned in Battle Ground that John Marcone is also a denarian and has probably been one since he was rescued by Harry and company in Small Favor.  Both Nicodemus and Marcone are smart and highly driven characters, and they both like to be in control.  They are used to getting their own way, most of the time.

Here’s my first question.  Do you think Marcone might be falling into the same error Nicodemus has made, thinking that he is in control of his partnership with one of the Fallen?  Sure, Marcone is very smart and careful, but a creature that has been in existence since near the very beginning of time itself might be able to slowly mold Marcone in ways the Baron of Chicago wouldn’t notice.

Part 2:  We know Nicodemus has a long term goal or endgame in mind.  Deirdre told Harry that she and Nicodemus were, “fighting to save the world.”  In Death Masks or Small Favor when Harry said to Nicodemus, “You’re a saint, Nic,” Nicodemus replied, “One day.”  The guy has a long-term goal in mind, which brings me back to John Marcone.

Before we knew that John Marcone had taken up one of the blackened Denarius, we thought of him as just a crime lord.  A very ambitious crime lord who was expanding his territory into the supernatural world, but in the end, just a vanilla mortal with at best twenty to forty years of life expectancy remaining.  Even if Marcone lived into his 90’s; generally speaking it’s real hard to be intimidating when you are in your 80’s or even your 70’s.  But theoretically, Marcone is functionally immortal now.  He can be killed, but it is very hard to do so.

So that leads me to my second question.  What is John Marcone’s long-term goal?  With the knowledge he must have received from Thorned Namshiel, John Marcone is probably thinking long-term now, well beyond the power he acquired by becoming the Baron of Chicago.

We know that Marcone has it in for Nicodemus, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t share; or come to share through the influence of his business partner, the same goals as Nicodemus.  Maybe Marcone sees himself or will see himself as the next leader of Denarians.  Maybe John Marcone will come to believe that he has to “save the world” the same way Nicodemus does.

In a really dark turn, maybe John Marcone becomes convinced to join forces with Nicodemus.  Harry and the KoTC have to face both Denarians, plus whatever cannon fodder Denarians Nic or Marcone can convince to join them.

On the other hand, it seems likely that in Mirror-Mirror Harry will meet a different version of John Marcone.  There has been some speculation that this alternate version of John Marcone will have radically changed after Dresden made a different decision in Grave Peril and travelled down a darker path.  I’m not sure where this idea came from; a WoJ that hinted at it or just an idea that has become popular with some readers, but this redeemed version of John Marcone might reveal something to Harry that he might later use to do what Michael couldn’t do with Nicodemus, get the John Marcone of his own universe to repent and redeem himself, perhaps helping Harry to stop Nicodemus once and for all.

I don’t know where John Marcone is going, what his long-term goals are or what they might become, but I don’t think John Marcone has the goals of a typical crime lord any longer.  He wants something more now.  What do you think? 

 

There are different conversations for different purposes.  So I don’t have one favorite conversation; or I might have a favorite, but it might be different if you asked me tomorrow or a week from tomorrow.

I enjoy conversations where you get to learn something important about a character.  Sometimes what you learn is funny, sometimes poignant and sometimes creepy as heck.

I’ve always been impressed by the conversation Harry and Michael had over what to do with “Snake Boy” Quintus Cassius, in Death Masks; after Cassius had surrendered his coin, because it showed us Michael’s core beliefs and true character.

Harry - "You've seen these things," I snarled, stalking over to face Michael. "I've seen the corpses they've left. They would have killed me, Susan, you-hell, all of us-without blinking an eye. God only knows what they have in mind with that curse they're putting together."

Michael - "All power has its limits, Harry." He shook his head. "This is the limit of mine."

Harry - "They might already have killed Shiro. And you're going to let this bastard walk?"

Michael - "I know that," he said in that same deadly quiet voice. "I know they've hurt him. That they're going to kill him. Just as Shiro knew that Nicodemus would betray his promise to set you free. It's one of the things that makes us different than they are, Harry. The blood on their hands does not make it right to bloody my own. My choices are measured against my own soul. Not against the stains on theirs." He looked at Cassius, and the Denarian flinched away from the silent flame in Michael's expression. "It is not for me to judge his soul. No matter how much I might want to."

If you didn’t know who Michael was before that conversation, you certainly did after it.

Seeing as the OP asked what our favorite conversations; plural, are, here is one other one.

The conversation Harry had with Murphy in Summer Knight, when Harry finally came clean and revealed the inner workings of the various supernatural powers and conflicts that were raging and Harry’s role in them. 

I really felt like the series took a dramatic turn at that point.  Because Harry had been pushed to his limits he was finally bringing Murphy fully into the picture.  Even though Harry was doing so because at that moment he needed all the help he could get, you knew it would have major ramifications going forward.

Harry - "One last thing. If you come in on this, you have to understand something. You have to promise me that you won't haul SI and the rest of the police in on everything. You can dig up information, use them discretely, but you can't round up a posse and go gunning for demons."

Murphy - Her eyes narrowed. "Why the hell not?"

Harry - "Because bringing mortal authorities into a conflict is the nuclear assault of the supernatural world. No one wants to see it happen, and if they thought you might do it, they'd kill you. Or they'd pull strings higher up and get you fired, or framed for something. They would never allow it to pass. You'd get yourself ruined or hurt or killed and it's likely a lot of people would go down with you." I paused to let the words sink in, then asked, "Still want me to tell you?"

Murphy - She closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded, once. "Hit me."

Harry - "You're sure?"

Murphy - "Yeah."

Harry - "All right," I said. And I told Murphy all of it. It took a while. I told her about Justin and about Elaine. I told her about the supernatural forces and politics at play in and around the city. I told her about the war I'd started because of what the Red Court had done to Susan. I told her about the faeries and Reuel's murder.

And most of all, I told her about the White Council.

Murphy - "Those spineless, arrogant, egomaniacal sons of bitches," Murphy growled. "Who the hell do they think they are, selling out their own people like that?"

That was the moment when Karin Murphy went from a sometime antagonist to full ally and it was glorious.

Maybe there should be a separate thread for what are our favorite joke lines and conversations in the Dresden Files, because there are certainly a good number of those.

The last time I remember that Jim posted percentages for a book’s completion was for Ghost Story.  He might have also done so for Cold Days, but I am less certain about that.

In any case, Jim did this on Twitter and in one post he said that the percentage of completion was based on the expected word count Jim had calculated before he started writing.  So in a simple example, if Jim calculated; or guesstimated based on past experience, that a particular novel would take 100,000 words to complete, when he reached 90,000 words, he would post that he was 90% completed.

However, there was a problem with Ghost Story.  Jim needed an extra ten or fifteen thousand words to wrap up that story in the way that he wanted.  So when Jim got to 100%, he wasn’t done.  It only took a few more days for Jim to complete, but it was annoying having to wait, no longer having a clue how long it would be.  I don’t think Jim ever posted anything that told us how far past 100% of his expected word count he went.  I just recall a post that was so short and to the point about Jim sending the manuscript to his publisher that I had to read it twice to be certain.

As of today, Jim has been stuck on 89% for the past two weeks, which does surprise me a bit.  I thought he would really be pushing hard to finish before year’s end.  Of course, I have no idea what is going on in Jim’s life that could have forced him to put the brakes on. For example, there is a nasty flu going around in North America at the present.  In fact, I have heard there are two separate strains of flu currently making the rounds.  This might be true as I was vaccinated near the end of November and still got the flue a week later.

Hopefully, whatever slowed Jim down will be resolved and hopefully he has a much better estimate of his percentage of completion than he did with Ghost Story.   

And I think 13 is too high a number.  Simply because too many major support characters could be Nemesis agents at any one time to allow Harry to have any realistic chance of opposing them.

I think three is a much better number for Nemesis to be able to control at one point in time.  Three is not only a magic number and a prime number, but it also equals the number of queens in either Summer or Winter and it is also equal to the triple headed goddess.  But what really makes me think three is the right number is there are only three walkers.  Each can control one individual.

Three is also a good number from a practical level.  For example, we know both Cat Sith and Justine are nemfected.  My guess is Nemesis is holding Cat Sith in reserve for a future operation.  In any case, if Nemesis can only control three individuals at one time, it could have a third agent that is close to Harry or isn’t usually close to Harry but can gain access to him, like Elaine or is someone within the White Council.

To put it another way, Nemesis has already had agents in Summer and Winter and Justine was their plant in the White Court, so my guess is the White Council is the most likely organization for Nemesis to want to plant an agent within, unless they already control of Elaine or one of the Alphas.