Series Spanning Plot Threads

[Serack]

No time now, but Elaine first gets mentioned in Book 2 by Harry's inner jerk. There's quite a discussion about it, actually. So I would move her appearance to that book.

Are you sure she hadn't been mentioned in SF as a regret he has to live with?

I'm often good with all these kinds of details, but ATM I'm juggling a LOT of them

[TheCuriousFan]

Are you sure she hadn't been mentioned in SF as a regret he has to live with?

I'm often good with all these kinds of details, but ATM I'm juggling a LOT of them

She was mentioned as probably being alive by his subconscious since the Wardens never found a second set of bones at Justin's house, Harry denies the possibility.

[Serack]

She was mentioned as probably being alive by his subconscious since the Wardens never found a second set of bones at Justin's house, Harry denies the possibility.

"by his subconcious" implies to me that you are referring to events in FM.  I'm asking about narration in SF.  Hmmm, leme clarify...

Are you sure she hadn't ALSO been mentioned in SF as a regret he has to live with?

I'm often good with all these kinds of details, but ATM I'm juggling a LOT of them

[TheCuriousFan]

"by his subconcious" implies to me that you are referring to events in FM.  I'm asking about narration in SF.  Hmmm, leme clarify...

True, I'd have to do a real long search through my copy of Storm Front to find a quote like that, I don't have the e-books.

[Serack]

True, I'd have to do a real long search through my copy of Storm Front to find a quote like that, I don't have the e-books.

There are others that might know off hand, and once I'm done producing for the other books I'll be sure to go back and figure it out on my own if I have to.  This is one of the ones where I am not sure what to search for using the e-book.

Edit:  Oh my, this one is already up to 12.5k+ characters...  Some of that accounts for the intro and pregenerated bulleting for the rest of the books... back of the envelope calculations show I should run over 17.5k

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

True, I'd have to do a real long search through my copy of Storm Front to find a quote like that, I don't have the e-books.

I think there's an allusion to having killed his first love in SF, in or around the chapter where Harry meets Susan in Mac's, but Elaine is not named there.

[TheCuriousFan]

I think there's an allusion to having killed his first love in SF, in or around the chapter where Harry meets Susan in Mac's, but Elaine is not named there.

I've checked, there is.

[Serack]

*fishes for comments/compliments on the formatting*

All these sub bullets make the formatting a little tedious...  I origionally wanted the book bullets to be numbered, but It appears that adding the horizontal line code between them broke that. 

Edit:  It appears that keeping the books bulleted retains the lack of spacing between the book and it's sub bullets though...  Remove the bullets for the books and they get a significant dead space added there.

[Cozarkian]

Wow, awesome effort Serack.

I'd like to propose a revision to the "Morgan's animosity" in the Storm Front section. That's actually just a subset of possibly the single most important theme we've seen so far - Harry's different moral outlook than the Wouncil.

Harry, Eb, LtW and Rashid all believe in the possibility of rehabilitation for young wizards that have made one or two mistakes. This puts them directly in conflict with the views of other members of the Wouncil, notably the Merlin and Morgan. Harry goes even further than Eb and actually expresses the belief that the Wouncil has a responsibility to identify and educate young talent regarding the Laws of Magic before they have a chance to become warlocks.

This theme is introduced in SF with Harry's background and directly reoccurs in PG with the story of Molly and appears to be a major theme of GS (both Molly and the sorcerer's gang). It's also explored in Dead Beat with Harry's use of necromancy and in the characters of Cowl and Kumori. It's hinted that Maggie Sr. shared Harry's opinion that the Wouncil is shirking its responsibilities toward minor talents, which means this theme may reoccur when the mystery surrounding Harry's mother is explained (it's potentially what drove her to the Fae and/or Black Council). Harry's differences in opinion are what cause him to let Elaine go free in SK, it's partially responsibility for his involvement in WN, and it's what encourages him to help set up the Paranet so the minor talents can protect themselves where the Wouncil has failed. Finally, the answer as to whether Harry is right regarding the ability to rehabilitate emerging Warlocks is rooted in another core theme of the book - free will.

I'd write it like this:

Harry v. White Council

• Rehabilitation of Warlocks
• White Council's responsibilities toward new and/or minor talents
• Morgan's animosity toward Harry
• Morality of necromancy

[Serack]

Wow, awesome effort Serack.

I'd like to propose a revision to the "Morgan's animosity" in the Storm Front section. That's actually just a subset of possibly the single most important theme we've seen so far - Harry's different moral outlook than the Wouncil.

Harry, Eb, LtW and Rashid all believe in the possibility of rehabilitation for young wizards that have made one or two mistakes. This puts them directly in conflict with the views of other members of the Wouncil, notably the Merlin and Morgan. Harry goes even further than Eb and actually expresses the belief that the Wouncil has a responsibility to identify and educate young talent regarding the Laws of Magic before they have a chance to become warlocks.

This theme is introduced in SF with Harry's background and directly reoccurs in PG with the story of Molly and appears to be a major theme of GS (both Molly and the sorcerer's gang). It's also explored in Dead Beat with Harry's use of necromancy and in the characters of Cowl and Kumori. It's hinted that Maggie Sr. shared Harry's opinion that the Wouncil is shirking its responsibilities toward minor talents, which means this theme may reoccur when the mystery surrounding Harry's mother is explained (it's potentially what drove her to the Fae and/or Black Council). Harry's differences in opinion are what cause him to let Elaine go free in SK, it's partially responsibility for his involvement in WN, and it's what encourages him to help set up the Paranet so the minor talents can protect themselves where the Wouncil has failed. Finally, the answer as to whether Harry is right regarding the ability to rehabilitate emerging Warlocks is rooted in another core theme of the book - free will.

I'd write it like this:

Harry v. White Council

• Rehabilitation of Warlocks
• White Council's responsibilities toward new and/or minor talents
• Morgan's animosity toward Harry
• Morality of necromancy

This is a great point!  I'd like to amend that your list of wizards is a rival faction that is at odds with a seperate old guard faction WRT this subject rather than with the the Wouncil as a whole.

I think I will slog through the rest of the books before going back to this, but you are right that this is a "SRT" that spans the series!

Edit:  I'm thinking of labling this thread "Harry Fights for Rehabilitation & Empowerment" (HFfR&E)

[Second Aristh]

*fishes for comments/compliments on the formatting*

All these sub bullets make the formatting a little tedious...  I origionally wanted the book bullets to be numbered, but It appears that adding the horizontal line code between them broke that. 

Edit:  It appears that keeping the books bulleted retains the lack of spacing between the book and it's sub bullets though...  Remove the bullets for the books and they get a significant dead space added there.

I know you've put a lot of work into this already, and I'm not sure how painful it would be do change, but in the end, this kind of thing might be more readable if it was organized from the other direction.  Have a large plotline as a main bullet point; then put the details from each of the books where that plot was extended.  For example

White Council Vampire War
Storm Front

• Harry uses the sunshine hankie on Bianca, causing her to lose control and kill her assistant
  

Grave Peril

• Bianca teams up with Mavra
  
• more stuff...
  
  • Harry starts vampire war by saving susan
    
    etc...
    
  
  
  In order to keep it from getting quite so bulky, each of the plot lines could be done inside a spoiler type tag so people could just look at the one they are interested in.

[Serack]

I know you've put a lot of work into this already, and I'm not sure how painful it would be do change, but in the end, this kind of thing might be more readable if it was organized from the other direction.  Have a large plotline as a main bullet point; then put the details from each of the books where that plot was extended.  For example

White Council Vampire War
Storm Front
 

• Harry uses the sunshine hankie on Bianca, causing her to lose control and kill her assistant
  

Grave Peril
 

• Bianca teams up with Mavra
  
• more stuff...
   
  • Harry starts vampire war by saving susan
    
    etc...
    
  [/l][/l]

I like the merits of my current system enough to stick with it (Plus the amount of effort and momentum it already has).  This is a pretty good idea, however it would have to be done very carefully to avoid it bloating into "The Exaustive Topic of Every Theory Possible Through the Ages"

I expect that I will probably a bit fatigued out by the time I finish this reference, but that doesn't mean you can't start working on your own 

In order to keep it from getting quite so bulky, each of the plot lines could be done inside a spoiler type tag so people could just look at the one they are interested in.[/q]
[/list]

Edit:  Forgot to respond to that last bit:  That sounds like something I should have thought to incorporate with this topic.

Also, if you do chose to start working on your own reference and want to dig for insite on how I hashed out my own bullet formatting, the Quote tool will allow you to view my code.

[AcornArmy]

The word "Elaine" does not appear in the ebook of Storm Front. The comment neurovore mentioned is this:

I had been a miserable failure in relationships, ever since my first love went sour. I mean, a lot of teenage guys fail in their first relationships.

Not many of them murder the girl involved.

I shied away from that line of thought, lest it bring up too many old memories.

[wyltok]

I've checked, there is.

And neuro gets an award for best recollection of Storm Front! So yeah, Elaine would also fit in "Threads briefly introduced in Storm Front". Which is quite impressive, since she doesn't actually appear on screen until the 4th book of the series. I have a bit more time, so let me catch up on the topic before I say anything else. Awesome work, Serack, and well done to all those others who've chipped in as well.

[AcornArmy]

And great format, of course, Serack. 

Looking at even just the bare structure of it that's been outlined so far in the first post, I feel like this is one of those times when the cross-connections are so many that we almost need a three-dimensional model to make sense of them all. Or four-dimensional, really, representing not just the cross-connections but also the changes between the connections over time. If we had more details, we might be able to find the major vectors, like determining the spread of viruses across the world in those "outbreak" movies.