Serack's Proven Guilty workup [Spoilers for the whole series]

[Serack]

Proven Guilty is possibly the most enigmatic book in the series, and as such, it has been the subject of many excellent discussions, many of which are archived in the DFRC, and indexed in elegast's theory index under Proven Guilty.  My direct contributions to the group discussion have mostly been confined to isolating particular details and picking them to bits.  This topic will be a thorough rehashing of the entire story. 

The first section will be laying out all the questions we have about the book and all the pieces of evidence we have from outside the books, as well as what we know happened before the curtain went up at the beginning of the book.  The second section will be my current thoughts on what may explain things best with the best evidence and fewest loose ends.

Required reading:

• The Book itself.  Duh.
• External Source Material:
  • (click to show/hide)

    This WoJ is informative and yet enigmatic.  Emphasis added by me. 

    Mab as orchestrator of all is just a little much for me to swallow.  Seems like she loses a lot more than she gains, and I don't think Mab is big on coming out behind in her negotiations. 
    

    
    Yeah.  It sure looks that way from here, don't it.
    
    But to correct some minor stuff:  the fetches aren't even /close/ to her strongest servitors.  They're her couriers, harassers, spies and occasional assassins.  Captain Kudzu was a being that was deemed more-or-less sufficient on the badassometer, but nothing to write home about.  The fetches main use, to Mab, isn't as battlefield thugs.  She's got /plenty/ of other things for that.  Another mild correction:  who says Mab /lost/ the battle at Arctis Tor, before Harry and Company arrived?  At the end of the day, the Winter Queen was still in her fortress--but you didn't see anyone standing around assaulting the place, did ya.   Also, it has probably occurred to more than one of you that if Mab was /really/ in trouble, she could have had the entire military might of Faerie back at the fortress in moments--exactly the way they *did* come back when Harry smacked the Winter Well with the fires of Summer.
    
    (Which goes to show that while Mab may be canny to an inhuman degree, she isn't infallible.  Just way closer to infallible than us.)
    
    See above regarding "the question is *why*?" 
    
    Ask yourself why Mab had Molly brought in.  What chain of events did that set in motion?  What secondary effects came about because of it?  Ultimately, Mab can always go to the Wyld and draw in more muscle to replace fallen thugs.  If worst comes to worst, with just a few "seed" fae, she could rear up enough Changelings to repopulate her cadre within a human generation or two--nothing, to a being thousands of years old. 
    
    As far as she's concerned, everyone and everything is expendable, including herself, when it comes to adhering to her (seemingly irrational and inexplicable) priorities. 
    
    (And by the way--don't think Titania is much better.  When push came to shove, she let her own daughter be murdered rather than upset the balance of the Faerie Courts.  At least Mab is up front about it.  Usually.)
    
    Sacrifice her best troops?  Mab would sacrifice every creature *in* Winter, every one she could bring from Summer, and every single mortal on planet Earth if that's what she thought was appropriate.  And she wouldn't even need to add extra sugar to her cup of tea afterwards, much less lose sleep over it.
    
    But no one does cold-blooded like the Queen of Winter.  Mab's been in the business a long time, she's got a balance sheet, and she is *not* going to come out in the red--
    
    --unless, of course, she really *has* stripped a gear, as Lily and Maeve believe.  In which case there's a stark raving bonkers demigoddess whose powers are no longer being held in check by the Escher-esque code of Sidhe behavior.  And that's all kinds of bad.
    
    But hey.  It's probably not that.  I mean, not *everything* that happens can be the absolute worst possible possibility, right?
    
    Jim
  • (click to show/hide)

    Who fixed LC is a topic that typically gets a lot of mileage around here.  Especially since LC is a pet theory hot topic for some around here *looks significantly at the quacker.*  So sorry if this has already been thoroughly rehashed, and sorry that I dedicated this to it's own topic, but I spent a bit of time klobbering it together so I wanted it to stand alone.
    
    Having read through PG a couple weeks ago, I had something jump out at me during this most recent reread since I was thinking about LC.  This is a rather Doylist analysis (TvTropes warning)
    
    (ch. 15) Harry takes Mouse and Bob with him first thing in the day after his interrupted attempt to use LC to track black magic.  However, Harry doesn't take Bob out of his pack until he sets up the spell to tag the phage summoner in his hotel room shortly before sundown(ch. 23).  And all Bob does is offer an opinion on the spell, nothing big.  Harry has only taken Bob along on a case 3 other times.  In GP, Bob is crucial in leading Harry through the NN.  In Changes, Harry took Bob out to help guard against the will of the LotON, and significantly from a Doylist perspective, he took Bob out to Murph's in DB only to have him become vulnerable to being stolen by Cowl. 
    
    Here's the thing though.  In chapter 15, Murph gives Harry a ride to the hospital to examine the victims of the previous night's phage attack only to bring him right back to the apartment in chapter 18.  From Harry's motivations the only thing accomplished by going back to the appt. is the chance to walk Mouse before having to call a cab to go right back out to Mac's to visit with the Summer Knight.  Really there isn't much good reason for Harry not to just skip the cab fare and get Murph to drop him off at Mac's in the first place.
    
    So here's the Doylist conclusion: 
    Either Jim removed a laundry list of potential hurdles to having someone come in and fix LC at the beginning of the day's events, and then as an afterthought had Harry come back for the sole purpose of catching Thomas on his way out, with the return having nothing to do with the timing of LC's fixing...  Or Jim had Harry pick up Bob (and Mouse) early in the day and lug him around the hospital despite him planning on coming right back to the appt because he deliberately wanted LC to get fixed while Harry was at the hospital.  The only reason why I can think of for needing it to happen during this time frame is because Thomas was in the appt while Harry was at the hospital, and thus Thomas was involved in the fix (probably by letting whoever did it in). 
    
    [Edit:  Don't fixate on Thomas letting the perp in.  That's a /possible/ reason.  The true theory/conclusion is that Jim needed Thomas there when it happened, letting the perp in is a resonable guess as to why]
    
    P.S.  Thanks wyltok for giving me a term for "theorizing from a writing perspective rather than from an in story perspective"
    
    Edit:
    Some extra thoughts posted in follow up posts (mostly mine unless otherwise noted):
    
    

    • Looking at Thomas's actions in Backup, my secondary conclusions are that if Thomas let the "fixer" in without explaining it to Harry, he did it for very good reasons, and with good intentions.
      
      
    • This gets me thinking... Whoever Thomas could have let in would have to be someone that doesn't care about a WCV living with Harry or flat out knows their relationship.
      
      

    • Still, Jim is pretty good at keeping his books lean and relevant.  If something isn't necessary for a book, why put it there?  The Doylist argument of "He just figured this [time travel] out and wanted to show it off" doesn't hold up to me.  I don't think he'd contrive to include a "this is how time travel works" treatise in PG if time travel wasn't crucial to the events of that novel.
      

      
      
    • Also, the fact that Thomas greeted Harry with the sawed off Shot Gun at the beginning of Ch 18 when he is coming in the door made me think that maybe he was particularly jumpy at the time, and wonder how that flavors this theory.  I started going down the train of thought that maybe the perp was still in the appt at the time, but if so, Mouse would have probably keyed in on a veiled exit.
      
      
    • Super Summary:  The doylist point isn't necessarily that whoever did the fixing needed Thomas to let him in, although that was said to be a possible conclusion.  The doylist point is that Jim needed Thomas in the appt when the fixing was done
  • (click to show/hide)

    I remember discussing this when the WoJ came out, but I can't find any of my posts on the topic so I'm starting a new topic to use as a reference in another theory topic I'm generating.
    
    Jim said about a year and a half ago on twitter:
    
    

    Question among my @HarriedWizard RPG group for @longshotauthor : would changelings be sterile? and if not how would the genetics work?

    @DeusSolis @HarriedWizard No, not at all.  And cautiously.
    @DeusSolis @HarriedWizard Consider it a dormant gene group that could potentially be activated by environmental exposure.

    @longshotauthor @HarriedWizard So a half-elf changeling could have kids that when exposed 2 faerydom, child could exhibit faery qualities?

    @DeusSolis @HarriedWizard Yeah, though they'd need more exposure the wider the generation gap was. It would be impractical at some point.

    
    Many of us crack theorizers seized on this to explain how Molly was eligible to be the Winter Lady.  Probably through her mother she had changeling blood, and her exposure in Arctis Tor and later training from Lea served as the catalyzing "environmental exposure."

Things we can tease from required reading #1, the PG WoJ that I generally take as givens:

• A battle did indeed occur before Harry and Company arrived.
• Molly was “brought in” to Arctis Tor on Mab’s orders.

Things I think are strongly implied by reading #1, but admit are subject to some interpretation.  In order of least to most subject to different interpretation.

• Mab won the battle that occured before Harry and Company arrived.
• ”Captain Kudzu” was working under Mab’s orders.  Having been deemed “sufficient” and since she ordered someone to bring Molly in. (This tilts my theorizing away from the theories that he was a nemesis agent, since Mab was actively trying to recover from nemfection in her ranks when she assigned him.  But that's not a given.)
• Mab’s fallibility was in not anticipating Harry blasting the Winter Well.  (shakiest, but it certainly reads that way)

Major Outstanding Mysteries from Proven Guilty:

• Who fixed Little Chicago and Why?
• Who assaulted the Arctis Tor gates and slaughtered so many of Mab’s troops?
• What happened to those assaulters by the time Harry got there?
• Who rammed Harry’s car at the beginning of the book?
• What was the Gatekeeper’s angle?

Detail Mysteries from Proven Guilty:  These aren’t as huge as above, but insight on them might shed light on the others.

• Who locked up Pell’s theater?
• Who threw down the Ward(s?) that impeded Harry’s getting to the fetches?

The Pregame Setup
There were some things being set into motion before the curtains went up at the start of Proven Guilty, and this section will discuss those things.

• Molly probably had distant changeling heritage that gave her potential to be one herself.  Separate discussion
• Sandra Marling proportedly started setting up Splattercon!!! a year out from the event.
• Darby Crane was booked a year out from the event, presumably by Sandra Marling through his Jin, Glau.
• Molly was serving community service under Sandra Marling at a homeless shelter (potential connection to Mavra)
• Sandra Marling keys Molly into fear as an agent to use to fight addiction, setting her black magic usage into motion.
• Gatekeeper sends a letter to Harry about 10 days of Black Magic occurrence in Chicago before the curtain goes up.

Speculative Pregame Setup

• Griff does a pretty good job of arguing the possibility that the assault on AT was concurrent with the events of Dead Beat here

link fixed 3/37/2019

• Mab qued into Lea's having a problem before Harry summoned him in DB, but if her eyeball hemorrhaging rage was from finding out Maeve got Nemfected from her, she didn't know about it until after that, probably before the PGH raid on AT. 

Time Travel Harry did it.

(click to show/hide)

To keep things straight, from here forward, I will refer to the Harry in the events of Proven Guilty as PGH, and the theorized Time Traveling Harry that travels back to PG and mucks with things behind the scenes in a future book as TTH.  Also AT = Arctis Tor

I am reluctant to rely on the TT card for a theory because it usually seems cheap to me, and yet also tends to end up overly convoluted.  So I rarely devote energy towards theories that utilize it because the effort seems too large and hypothetically fragile compared to the likelihood for a payoff. 

The main thing that broke this barrier down for PG is Priscellie’s observation in my LC fix timing topic (Required external reading #2) that since Jim spent ink on explaining temporal issues in PG, something in that book required a temporal anomaly.  Yet we didn’t see the temporal Chekhov’s gun get fired, so if the reasoning is sound, it happened off screen.  So with this thought matriculating in the background, I’ve lined up the edges the TTH explanation puzzle piece against the holes in the PG mystery over the intervening 3 years and more and more I like how the overall picture fills in.

So here is how the puzzle pieces line up for me.

The 3 tropeish TTH goals
In a future book, TTH finds himself either stuck in the PG time, or having to travel to PG time to accomplish some task.  Either way, while in PG he has to accomplish a few things of three possible, but not exclusive natures. 

• Accomplish whatever mission/goal was foisted on him by the situation that thrust him into the past (possibly for Mab)
• Line up the Delorian to pass under the clock tower at just the right time to get back to his home time,
• Make sure his mother and father kiss in Proven Guilty to preserve his temporal existence.  I.E. Perform certain necessary acts to preserve the temporal timeline necessary for PG to have happened the way he experienced it.  In Harry Potter terms, he has to summon a patronus.  (oh, and this also means he has to retain PGH's ignorance of TTH's presence)

I think it is likely that the possible issues he has to contend with end up being effectively the same thing, in that his primary reason for being there, or primary goals to accomplish in order to leave end up filling the holes in PG that are a result of temporal muckity muck. 

So the mysteries above possibly attributable to a TTH in order of least likely to most are:

• Lock up Pell's theater (and other acts at Pell's)
• Summon the Murk during the Phage attacks
• Rear End PGH
• Probably something big at AT before the PG dungeon crawl party showed up.
• Fix Little Chicago the morning of the 2nd day, while Harry was out of the Appt. at the Hospital with Murphy, Bob, and Mouse.

So I'm going to give reasons why or why not each of the above was perpetrated by TTH, then conjure up a hypothetical scenario where all of this happened.

1)  Lock up Pell's theater
By itself, this is the least likely thing Harry did because there isn't really any evidence or evidence of motivation.  However, if he did #2, he probably did this too.  But going out on a limb, it seems to me that the Phages had no trouble fading back to their home realm on their own, but to carry Molly off, they apparently needed this real-estate, and they probably needed a cooperative, winter affinity, mortal practitioner to open the Way to drag her through.  Which would probably describe TTH pretty well.

2)  Summon the Murk during the Phage attacks
A, the cold nature of the Murk wards in these attacks screams Winter
B, Harry does briefly sense something familiar about the magic involved when he reaches out towards it

Negative:  It's hard to imagine Harry submitting to casting a spell that would facilitate the carnage the phages were wreaking, and also the blowby damage that was done by the confused people.

3)  Rear End PGH at the beginning.
I'm not sure what this accomplished.  The scene describes multiple impacts.  Possible results I can identify are:

• Murph getting called in on the case early
• Delay's Harry's being able to get onto the case
• Makes Harry miserable early.

This seemed like an act of opportunity and desperation.  It was violent and not very precise.  The main reason why I pin TTH for this is because if he was indeed around he would probably have the opportunity, and maybe need the above 2 things accomplished, and also because I remember being lead to believe that we would get resolution to this mystery and seeing the scene from TTH's perspective ramming PGH would certainly give us closure. (the last is red because I'm not happy that I don't know where that memory comes from)

4)  Probably something big at AT before the PG dungeon crawl party showed up.
To be honest, the main reason why think TTH was involved in the battle PGH saw the aftermath of is because I really want some closure on what happened here, and this is the ideal way to get it.  I WANT I WANT I WANT.  There maybe if I say it loud enough I'll get it.  (Griff has pointed out to me that Jim has promised us more story about what happened at AT)

5)  Fix Little Chicago the morning of the 2nd day, while Harry was out of the Appt. at the Hospital with Murphy, Bob, and Mouse.
Evidence for TTH kinda stacks up, not that there aren't alternate possibilities.

• See my LC fix timing topic linked in the background post above for the evidence as to the timing
• TTH was intimately familiar with LC.  And had the chops.  And knew it was there.  And could get in (not as big a deal).  All those things listed at the end of PG.
• I have felt deep down for a long time that if TTH did it, he did it because a functional LC was absolutely vital for him to do something HE needed to cast a spell for.  This binds LC's fixing tightly to the "tropish TTH goals"
• The Mystery of who fixed LC becomes necessary to preserve the space time continuum!

Break:  I wrote all the above (both sections) months ago and got back to this theory only recently.  Next I'll provide some more thoughts that can serve as building blocks for a complex and flimsy projection of what could have happened in PG/what will happen in a future book.

Projecting forward to project back:
Ok, as of writing this, the most recent book published is Skin Game, book 15.  We know that book 16 is Peace Talks, about an accords peace summit in Chicago.  Book 17 is supposed to be Mirror Mirror, where Harry is drawn to an alternate reality by an alternate Harry.  Book 18 hasn't had a name provided but it's supposed to involve professional wrestling.  For numerology reasons, Book 20 is likely to involve Denarians.

The presumptive TTH book is going to be pretty involved.  I kinda worry that Jim is going to have to work extra hard stressing that he tiptoes through the plot of PG making sure he doesn't accidentally crush things.  Thus I think it's unlikely that he can squeeze in those intricacies into the MM book on top of the alternate universe theme (not that it's impossible).  The same goes for the other books 16 and 18, so that only leaves books 19 and 20 (and the possible extension to the files, book 21) as possible case files for the presumptive "TTH book."

What mechanism/motivation sends Harry back?
Likely causes for TTH to end up in PG would be: (not mutually exclusive)

• Malevolent actor boots him back in time
• A Winter Queen tasks him with the job
• Harry follows a Malevolent actor to the past
• Harry follows a victim of a Malevolent actor into the past to save them*

*Doylist thought:  From a writing perspective, GS showed it would be a very difficult 1st person story to write and draw the reader into if TTH is all alone on his mission in PG time.  This generates another really important question that I want to address:

Who Could TTH interact with in PG time?

• TTH could bring a side kick.  This has its own hazards because it's now 2 elephants in the temporal china shop, but may be doylisticly necessary. 
• Some analog of "Doctor Emmett Brown" might be able to be recruited for help.  There's more than one variation of "Doc" though:
  • BTTF1 Doc:  PG time "Doc" whoever he is has to be convinced somehow that TTH is lagit, and convinced to help.
  • BTTF2 Doc:  Someone else recruits Harry to come with them to PG time.
  • Some character that's already temporally experienced like Doc in BTTF3 and is already in PG time and needs help getting out.  (woah, that actually could really work)
• Powerful Temporally cognizant beings like Vadderung or maybe the Gatekeeper.  This is tricky because these beings tend to be so circumspect in dealing with Harry anyways, and they would probably take this to the nth degree with a TTH.

Ok so if TTH did it, then how and why?
First, it should be understood that this is Conjecture, and very likely to be WRONG, but it is a swing for the fence, an attempt to line up all the balls and hit them with the que just right that they all sink in in one shot.  Or go down in flames.

Hows that for mixed metaphors. 

Summary of the Conjective WAG on PG: 
TTH Did it.  When did TTH travel back?  Book 20, to follow/travel with a Denarian or group of Denarians.  Why?  To save PG (and possibly DB timeline) AT from a Nemesis/outsider (possibly hell backed) coup/attack, presumably that was also temporal in nature.

The theoretical details:
In book 20 a nemfected agent of Hell time hops back to Arctis Tor (using the nemfected Lea as an anchor to gain entry) to subvert Mab's attempt to remove nemesis' influence over Lea, temporarily holding the fortress while trying to free her from her bonds.  Nick and or the new wielder of Thorned Namshiel convince TTH to time hop with them to help Mab retake AT with the assistance of a legion of the Erlking's goblins.  Thus it is actually Mab with Denarian backup that assaults AT before the PGH dungeon crawl shows up. 

While there, TTH finds that he is responsible for the vehicle accident against PGH and thus completes the circle and perpetrates the accident.  This sets off a chain of events where he also has to lock up Pell's Theater, fix LC (possibly to use it to track down an agent of Hell), and throw down the wards to impede Harry at the convention.  I think it is likely this ward also held the fetch in stasis minimizing the havoc it wreaks until PGH could deal with it. 

Edit:  A response below reminded me that required reading #2 above when applied to this theory practically requires that PG Tomas interacted with TTH during the fixing of LC.  Thus it is possible that he helped out TTH significantly.

[Serack]

Doh, I just realized I forgot to work in the LC fix into the final wag... ok editing to try to squeeze that in...

[raidem]

I really like it.

I think Mac gets involved in things after the meeting with Harry, Maeve, Lily.  It's likely to me that he didn't reopen the bar after that meeting.  So, it allows him to be involved in some capacity.  Perhaps this knowing Mac is involved in some way with the TT Harry that goes back.

If Harry has a choice to choose someone to go back in time with, I like Murphy for it.  He has chosen her time and again when he needs a sidekick.  It also allows precedent of Murphy getting involved in some time shenanigans which I always like.  I also think Murphy will end up with a Denarian, there is more to Harry's dream in Skin Game than what was apparent.

I'll note there isn't any "there you are" comments in PG so from my reasoning before, PG would be TT Heavy as opposed to simple brush with some of the earlier events that coincide perhaps with the "TYA" I've talked about previously.

[Second Aristh]

Very nice Serack.  I like the formatting.  For your red portion, wasn't there a Q&A where someone asked Jim about the wreck and Jim gave a cutesy response?  I'll have to search for it, but that could be what you're remembering.

Also, do we have a record of the first time Mab made the statement that Harry would be her knight?  Not just her offering him the job, but saying that he would take it one day.  If it's after the start of PG, that might be a nice thing to note here.  TTH as WK is an easy source for that kind of fact for a faerie.

Edit:  Going back, here are the times I could find where Harry declined Mab's offer of knighthood.  The only definitive time she stated that Harry would eventually accept her offer was in SmF, after PG. 

(click to show/hide)

Mab's lovely, dangerous mouth curled up in a smile. "First, let me make you an offer."
She gestured, and the thorns parted. Maeve stood there in her white armor, and Mother Winter stood behind her, all shrouded in black cloth. Before them on the ground knelt Lloyd Slate, broken, obviously in pain, his hands manacled to a collar around his throat, the whole made of something that looked like cloudy ice.
"We have a traitor among us," Mab purred. "And he will be dealt with accordingly. After which there will be an opening for a new Knight." She watched me and said, "I would have someone worthy of more trust as his successor. Accept that power and all debts between us are canceled."
"Not just no," I muttered. "Hell, no."
Mab's smile widened. "Very well, then. I'm sure we can find some way to amuse ourselves with this one until time enough has passed to offer again."
Slate looked up, blearily, his voice slurred and panicky. "No. No, Dresden. Dresden, don't let them. Don't let them take me. Take it, please, don't let them keep me waiting."
Mab touched my head again and said, "Only twice more, then, and you will be free of me."
And they left.Mab's lovely, dangerous mouth curled up in a smile. "First, let me make you an offer."
She gestured, and the thorns parted. Maeve stood there in her white armor, and Mother Winter stood behind her, all shrouded in black cloth. Before them on the ground knelt Lloyd Slate, broken, obviously in pain, his hands manacled to a collar around his throat, the whole made of something that looked like cloudy ice.
"We have a traitor among us," Mab purred. "And he will be dealt with accordingly. After which there will be an opening for a new Knight." She watched me and said, "I would have someone worthy of more trust as his successor. Accept that power and all debts between us are canceled."
"Not just no," I muttered. "Hell, no."
Mab's smile widened. "Very well, then. I'm sure we can find some way to amuse ourselves with this one until time enough has passed to offer again."
Slate looked up, blearily, his voice slurred and panicky. "No. No, Dresden. Dresden, don't let them. Don't let them take me. Take it, please, don't let them keep me waiting."
Mab touched my head again and said, "Only twice more, then, and you will be free of me."
And they left.

(click to show/hide)

Mab tilted back her head and let out that nerve-searing laughter again. "I have time," she said. "And you mortals find life to be very sweet. Two favors you yet owe me, and make no mistake, I will collect. One day you will kneel at my feet."

(click to show/hide)

I gritted my teeth. “The part of me that wants it doesn’t get a vote,” I said. “I’m not going to take the job. Period.”
She tilted her head to one side and stared at me. “One day, wizard, you will kneel at my feet and ask me to bestow the mantle upon you.”
“But not today.”
“No,” Mab said. “Today you repay me a favor. Just as I said you would.”

[Foxed]

I would recommend looking into whether Harry had any off screen time in PG. My theory was that TTH was mentally time traveling*. This clears up a little bit more of the mystery, although it's possible that Harry doesn't spend enough time off screen to believably be participating in a separate plot with TTH at the wheel.

First, the crash becomes blindingly obvious as we meet TTH's first accomplice... Lash. That very scene makes a very important point about how good Lash's illusions are, and nobody can definitively prove that another car hit Harry. As to why, I deduced that the concussion PGH suffers prevents him from noticing any oddities during TTH's visit.

Second, obviously TTH needs to fix Little Chicago with Lash's help. Her act about how it's broken is an act, nothing more.

* Mentally projecting himself into his past body. See Slaughterhouse Five. Listen. Harry Dresden is unstuck in time.

[Foxed]

Also, as for other accomplices, I nominate Thomas. He shadows Harry for much of the plot, and when he joins the party, it is noticeable how apart from the group he is. Thomas doesn't really do anything to affect PG.

[KurtinStGeorge]

Also, as for other accomplices, I nominate Thomas. He shadows Harry for much of the plot, and when he joins the party, it is noticeable how apart from the group he is. Thomas doesn't really do anything to affect PG.

Except rescue Harry from Darby Crane/Madrigal Raith.  Harry had run out of tricks when Thomas showed up with Mouse to pull Harry's chestnuts out of the fire.

[KurtinStGeorge]

I like the OP, but it doesn't ask or attempt to answer what the Black Council; for lack of a better term, was trying to do by attacking Mab's home or why Mab put all her troops on Summer's border which made it impossible for either Summer or Winter to attack the Red Court.  We know what the effect was, not why she did it.  My guess is Mab was paying off a debt, not completing a deal she was forced to make.  I mean Jim made it very clear that Mab didn't lose the battle at Arctis Tor so it seems unlikely she was forced into a deal not to attack the Red Court.  I think Mab's tirade at the end of Small Favor about paying off all her debts was partly referring to a debt she had paid off by not attacking the Red Court after they crossed into Sidhe territory back in Dead Beat, as well as about paying back Nicodemus for breaking her accords. 

[Bergi]

Well I have to agree with this theory. I have some ideas on possible fixes for problems with this theory.

First an idea that contradicts some of the points: Harry was the attacker on Arctis Tor with Lasciel's coin, which he fetched from the circle.  While doing this he realised that LC isn't fixed and that he has to be the one who did it. Sadly I don't have a good reason why Harry attacked.

For the alternative with Harry being part of the defence I came up with the following reasons: Something, which feeds on blood, is sealed under Arctis Tor, more precisely the court room. I think most of Mab's big scale rules are pure logical and so there has to be a reason why only blood shed is forbidden in her court room. When the blood of the ogre hits the ground in CD the whole ground begins to tremble, at that moment it seems logical as a mirror of Mab, but if a sealed something would be revealed, it still fits. If nemesis is really interested in freeing this being, the whole court room scene might be seen as a attack too. If Harry would have snapped and splattered the ground with the ogre, it would have been game over right there. One last hint at something under the court room is the trapdoor and Harry wondering what is down there.

About Thomas being the assistant I think it might be possible. I (and I think some others here too) have played with the idea of angels being wardens working across time lines. As hinted in Changes mouse belongs to this group too. So when Mouse and a time traveling Thomas (Alliteration so it has to be true) they are allowed to do so by the time wardens.

[Serack]

Also, as for other accomplices, I nominate Thomas. He shadows Harry for much of the plot, and when he joins the party, it is noticeable how apart from the group he is. Thomas doesn't really do anything to affect PG.

Oh yah!  I'd actually already concluded that it was likely that Thomas was there when LC was fixed.  I'm more inclined to say they had a few conversations, but I'm reluctant to think they interacted more than that

[beetnemesis]

Awesome writeup, and basically fits with what I've believed for a while.  A few points:
First:

2)  Summon the Murk during the Phage attacks
A, the cold nature of the Murk wards in these attacks screams Winter
B, Harry does briefly sense something familiar about the magic involved when he reaches out towards it

I don't suppose you have a quote of that bit? I don't remember Harry finding the murk familiar. Also, I thought it was discussed that the murk was just something these phages can do?

Second: To go along with your Thomas thing, I seem to remember a post from a while ago that pointed out that Thomas was pretty spooked when Harry returned, that day. Like, "Point a shotgun at Harry for a second" spooked. It could just be fear of a Black Court attack, but it also could be that something weird happened that day.

Third: The Calvin and Hobbes book! Granted, this actually takes place in the third chapter of the following book, Small Favor, but seems like it should count. Harry has a bunch of books he uses as a reference. While he's not the neatest guy in the world, he isn't absent-minded; he doesn't just randomly lose books, especially with Bob acting as librarian. So, here's what happens:

I rubbed my hand against the back of my neck. It didn’t make it hurt any less, but it gave me something to do. “I’ve seen these goat guys, or read about them before,” I said. “Or at least something close to them. Where did I put those texts on the near reaches of the Nevernever?”

“North wall, green plastic box under the work bench,” Bob provided immediately.

“Thanks,” I said. I dragged out the heavy plastic storage box. It was filled with books, most of them leather-bound, hand-written treatises on various supernatural topics. Except for one book that was a compilation of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. How had that gotten in there?

Bob knows EXACTLY where the books are. Even books like these, which it sounds like Harry hasn't read in a while (else he wouldn't have to ask Bob where they were).  And yet... Calvin and Hobbes? What?

What I think is likely is that TTH needed a reference of some kind, took a book, and the C&H book either got put in there by mistake (rushing to leave the basement for some reason) or on purpose (for some esoteric reason).


Like you said, DF books are pretty lean. The C&H book is random as hell, and has the feel of something that was deliberately placed.

[Sydna]

The Calvin and Hobbs book has been discussed before. Not familiar with it myself. But others have described the last comic having C & H wandering off into a winter wonderland. Possibly a cluebat.

[Second Aristh]

Awesome writeup, and basically fits with what I've believed for a while.  A few points:
First:
I don't suppose you have a quote of that bit? I don't remember Harry finding the murk familiar. Also, I thought it was discussed that the murk was just something these phages can do?

Here it is:

He gave me an odd look, grabbed an older woman who was passing blindly, and sent her off to follow the wall to the door out. He shivered then, and when he exhaled his breath came out in a long, frosty plume. The temperature had dropped maybe forty degrees in the space of a minute.
I struggled to ignore the sounds of frightened people in the dark and focused on my magical senses. I reached out to the cold and the gloom, and found it a vaguely familiar kind of spellworking, though I couldn’t remember precisely where I’d encountered it before.
I spun in a slow circle with my eyes closed, and felt the murk grow deeper, darker as I faced back down the hall to the hotel’s front desk. I took a step that way, and the murk thickened marginally. The spell’s source had to be that way. I gritted my teeth and started forward.

[peregrine]

Re: Harry travelling back in time, it could also be a major fuckup on someone's part, a magical accident that nobody actually planned on.

[Serack]

Second: To go along with your Thomas thing, I seem to remember a post from a while ago that pointed out that Thomas was pretty spooked when Harry returned, that day. Like, "Point a shotgun at Harry for a second" spooked. It could just be fear of a Black Court attack, but it also could be that something weird happened that day.

One of the most absurd and hilarious things I've ever seen on these forums, is the theory that Thomas pulled the shotgun on Harry because he was overly skittish after having just been subjected to coitus with the Burger King.