This I Believe

[DonBugen]

I’ve got a lot of wild, crazy theories about where the Dresden Files will end up, and what’s going on with each character.  Most don’t deserve to really be fleshed out and defended.  Some, I think, are interesting just in their own right.  A few are downright nuts.

This post is, in itself, kind of a ‘statement of belief’ about what I think Jim’s hidden behind the curtain – what was, and is, and will be.  I’m not going to go crazy into detail on any one thing here, at least not on the initial post.  If any of the below theories look interesting to you, or you want to ask me why on earth I think this thing, go ahead and ask.  If you think I’m flat out wrong, then point it out.  I want to temper my theory into something resilient, and that doesn’t happen without whacking something a ton with a hammer.

Plus, if I’m right about something, this’ll be my immortalized “I told ya so.”

So, without further ado, my theories.

•   Malcolm Dresden works in Chicago Between.  When he speaks about being “allowed” to contact Harry in Dead Beat, it’s Uriel who had allowed it.
•   Cowl and Kumori are Harry and Molly, from an original timeline in which Harry went down the left-hand path.  Harry’s habit of barely scraping through every major fight by the skin of his teeth is in part because he’s following Cowl’s path, roughly, and the Law of Conservation of History tends to save his bacon.
•   Mac is a former angel who chose to transubstantiate thousands of years ago.  Most likely, this was due to a love interest.
•   Andi suffered brain damage in Cold Days, and isn’t able to eat, walk, or take care of herself without assistance.
•   The Blackstaff is not, in fact, an actual role within the White Council.  Ebenezer simply allowed Harry to come to that conclusion and didn’t correct him.
•   Ebenezer is still lying to Harry.  He doesn’t have his best interests at heart.  I highly suspect that he is, in fact, Nemifected, and may be the original carrier of Nemesis from beyond the Outer Gates.  Furthermore, I doubt that there’s much difference, if any, between the Gray Council and the so-called “Black Council.”
•   The English-sounding bloke stuck in Demonreach is the original Merlin.  50% chance that Harry’s related to him.  30% chance that Merlin was the REAL target of the bloodline curse in Changes.
•   Donar Vadderung also is lying to Harry.  He has some use for him planned, something not at all nice. 
•   Harry will wield Amoracchius again, at least for a time, though he’d be a “one-off Knight” at most.
•   The one choice that the evil Harry in Mirror, Mirror made differently back around Bianca’s party was being straightforward with Susan and inviting her as his plus one, rather than Michael.

[kbrizzle]

Some really interesting WAGs!

Here are the ones that I had some questions about:
•   Andi suffered brain damage in Cold Days, and isn’t able to eat, walk, or take care of herself without assistance.
•   Ebenezer is still lying to Harry.  He doesn’t have his best interests at heart.  I highly suspect that he is, in fact, Nemifected, and may be the original carrier of Nemesis from beyond the Outer Gates.  Furthermore, I doubt that there’s much difference, if any, between the Gray Council and the so-called “Black Council.”

Very interested in why you think this

[Slowpool]

Okay.  Here we go.

1:  Malcolm probably wouldn't be working in Ghost Chicago.  He doesn't have any particular skills that seem to be ubiquitous for the people that work there.  Not only that, but it's implied that it's a kind of Purgatory; a place people go when they don't feel comfortable moving on.  Malcolm was, by all accounts, a good man.  Maybe he chose to stay in between for Harry's sake, sure, but I think him communicating with his son isn't related to spirit detectives.

2:  I'm uhm-ing and ahh-ing about this.  I've read a lot of theories and this one pops up every now and then.  One thing to consider- how tall are Cowl and Kumori?  I can't remember if it was ever mentioned, but I would think one of the first things Harry would describe is how Cowl is very nearly as tall as himself.  He mentions it whenever Rashid appears for the first time in a book.

3:  This seems likely.  Sharkface calls him "Watcher"- which just screams to me that he's one of the Grigori, angels sent to watch over humanity in the Book of Enoch and fell for one of a few reasons.  Probably for begetting the Nephilim with human women.  Maybe siding with Lucifer (or someone named Satanail).

4:  That seems like something that Butters would have mentioned during Skin Game, don't you think?

5-6:  Also unlikely.  The first thing Eb would do is spread the corruption to Harry, who trusts Eb implicitly.  Most of the time.  Or enough, at least, to get the job done.  And even if he weren't able to taint him, Eb has the raw power to sabotage Harry at any point.  All he'd need to do is nudge him just the wrong way.  Leave him to die at Chicken Pizza.  No need to play the long con at that point.

7:  Doubt it.  I used to think the same thing, but WoJ is that Merlin sounds so British that you wouldn't be able to tell he was speaking english.  Granted, he's said you can't always trust his statements, but there's no real reason to think otherwise besides "but what if he's lying?"

8:  Okay, I'll bite.  What exactly does he want?

9:  Eh.  I wouldn't bet either way.

10:  That seems extremely specific.  But I'll bite again; why that exact choice?

[DonBugen]

Oo!  People are actually interested!
OK, so I'm going to reply to your points, Slowpool - and I figure that at the same time, I'll probably cover what Kbrizzle was curious about.

•   [Malcolm] - So far, we've only seen Carmichael, Papa Murphy, and Sir Stuart halfway.  I'm not sure that being in Chicago Between has anything to do with either not being good enough or bad enough for What Comes Next, so much as it has something to do with having a will that's not satisfied with being done with the mortal world.  And at the moment, Chicago Between is the only force we know of that holds deceased spirits which also acts to counteract an enemy but has its actions restricted.
•   [Cowl] - No.  In fact, Harry *never* really remarks at all about either's physical appearance.  Neither tall nor short nor fat nor thin.  Which is really, really conspicuous for a PI that notes EVERYONE'S physical appearance.  My best guess is there's some sort of magic protecting him from noting it.  However - Dresden is ALSO able to identify Cowl *at a glance* later on, so presumably he's subconsciously aware of his physical appearance, even if he's not consciously aware.
•   [Mac] - *taps nose*
•   [Andi] - Really?  To the person he's extremely angry at and wary of?  You think that Butters is going to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the person who was too gosh-darned important to let him make sure his girlfriend wasn't bleeding into her brain after getting a concussion and being stuck under freezing water for so long, and then left Butters and co. to fend for themselves?  You think that he wants to open up to Dresden about how he pretty much made his girlfriend a vegetable and make him pity Butters?  Or worse, not? 
I'll tell you what I see - I see Andi being extremely injured, getting hit on the head, being deprived of oxygen, and the only person at the end of Cold Days who needs to be rushed to the hospital.  She's not talking.  We never hear how she's doing.  In Skin Game, she's always out of the room, out of sight.  She doesn't help Butters in any of his activities, even though she would be far more dangerous and more capable than him, even in his Batman-mode.  Better able to spy on Dresden, too.  Her absence is EXTREMELY conspicuous, given the dire condition she was in a the end of Cold Days.  And none of Butters' dialogue implies anything of Andi, other than that she's passively somewhere, waiting for him.
•   [Ebenezer] We don't exactly know how Nemesis transmits from person to person.  Presumably, it's not something as communicable as a normal disease.  There would, after all, be no reason why it needed to try to manipulate Lily and Fix if Maeve could have infected them just as easily.  With that being said, you're correct that Nemesis would have recognized Harry as a threat, even if Evil Eb didn't.  So I'm backing off on him being nemefected.
However, I don't believe for a second he's not still lying.  He pretty much says so at the end of Changes.  That's twice that he's concealed something huge and important and critical to Harry.  Lies by omission are still lies, and Eb DID say in Blood Rites that everything was out in the open.
•   [Merlin] I wasn't aware of that WOJ.  Can you point to it?  My reasoning for why Merlin was speaking in something that Harry could recognize as British was due to Merlin purportedly living backwards in time; i.e. "born at the wrong end of time, and I have to live backwards from in front", per The Once and Future King.  It makes sense for why something that sounds mostly normal and human would be understandable.
•   [Vadderung] - Not sure, to be honest.  But the being Odin is not well-known for being a nice, kind, helpful old soul.  He's an extremely complex character, and while Loki is the characteristic 'trickster god' of the Norse pantheon, Odin is also a trickster and not 100% good.  Yet, he's the only side character who has ever appeared to be 100% benevolent to Harry, offering advice and services and aid without requiring anything but a nickel in return.  No one gets a free lunch, and Harry and Vadderung aren't friends.  He's in it for something.  I trust Grey's wary attitude towards Vadderung far more than the All-Father's general pleasant demeanor.
•   [Amoracchius] - Cool beans.
•   [Mirror Choice] - To be honest, it's nothing more than a hunch, and far less developed than any other idea that I've listed here.  But as far as I can reckon, it's the one decision that Harry could have made that would be at once more good and intending positivity (i.e. being honest with Susan) but would have had far more disastrous consequences.

[Slowpool]

•   [Malcolm] - So far, we've only seen Carmichael, Papa Murphy, and Sir Stuart halfway.  I'm not sure that being in Chicago Between has anything to do with either not being good enough or bad enough for What Comes Next, so much as it has something to do with having a will that's not satisfied with being done with the mortal world.  And at the moment, Chicago Between is the only force we know of that holds deceased spirits which also acts to counteract an enemy but has its actions restricted.

  The exact words from Ghost Story:

  Uriel smiled.  "Collin, like the others, is with me because he is not yet prepared to face what comes next.  When he is, he'll take that step.  For now, he is not."

  Granted, that could mean that he simply felt there was work yet to do, but to me it implies he is not comfortable moving on- that he's trying to come to terms with his choices in life.  Or something along those lines.

•   [Cowl] - No.  In fact, Harry *never* really remarks at all about either's physical appearance.  Neither tall nor short nor fat nor thin.  Which is really, really conspicuous for a PI that notes EVERYONE'S physical appearance.  My best guess is there's some sort of magic protecting him from noting it.  However - Dresden is ALSO able to identify Cowl *at a glance* later on, so presumably he's subconsciously aware of his physical appearance, even if he's not consciously aware.

  I'll admit, that lack of information does seem interesting.  More pieces to consider:

A:  Does Harry actually recognize Cowl at a glance, or does he suspect it's Cowl?  I seem to remember he only had confirmation when Cowl spoke, or when he called up his magic and Harry recognized the feel of it.

B:  If Cowl is Future Harry, why does he need Kemmler's book?  Harry memorized the important bits in his own timeline.  I'd think the Conservation of History would be stretched to the snapping point by all the what-ifs and wizzle-wazzles involved in Cowl changing his own history so drastically.  But hell, maybe that's exactly what's happening.

•   [Mac] - *taps nose*

  *exaggeratedly winks eye*

•   [Andi] - Really?  To the person he's extremely angry at and wary of?  You think that Butters is going to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the person who was too gosh-darned important to let him make sure his girlfriend wasn't bleeding into her brain after getting a concussion and being stuck under freezing water for so long, and then left Butters and co. to fend for themselves?  You think that he wants to open up to Dresden about how he pretty much made his girlfriend a vegetable and make him pity Butters?  Or worse, not? 
I'll tell you what I see - I see Andi being extremely injured, getting hit on the head, being deprived of oxygen, and the only person at the end of Cold Days who needs to be rushed to the hospital.  She's not talking.  We never hear how she's doing.  In Skin Game, she's always out of the room, out of sight.  She doesn't help Butters in any of his activities, even though she would be far more dangerous and more capable than him, even in his Batman-mode.  Better able to spy on Dresden, too.  Her absence is EXTREMELY conspicuous, given the dire condition she was in a the end of Cold Days.  And none of Butters' dialogue implies anything of Andi, other than that she's passively somewhere, waiting for him.

  Looking back on their first discussion in Skin Game, I'll say this much- Butters asked Murphy to "go hang out with Andi".  That alone is suspicious, I'll admit.  I don't know that she's in such bad shape as you claim, since Murphy didn't mention it when explaining Butters' apprehensions, and Butters doesn't mention it at any point after he's recovered his faith in Harry.  And then there's this line:

  "I heard quiet talking going on in the living room, between Butters and Karrin and another female voice- Andi, presumably.  A moment later, the door opened and closed again.  The quiet of an emptier house settled over the place."

  It's a stretch to assume the third voice would be anyone other than Andi.  It COULD be, certainly, since he doesn't specifically recognize it, but my money is on her.  It's possible she may have suffered damage that reduces her mobility, but that's about as far as I'd take it for now.

•   [Ebenezer] We don't exactly know how Nemesis transmits from person to person.  Presumably, it's not something as communicable as a normal disease.  There would, after all, be no reason why it needed to try to manipulate Lily and Fix if Maeve could have infected them just as easily.  With that being said, you're correct that Nemesis would have recognized Harry as a threat, even if Evil Eb didn't.  So I'm backing off on him being nemefected.
However, I don't believe for a second he's not still lying.  He pretty much says so at the end of Changes.  That's twice that he's concealed something huge and important and critical to Harry.  Lies by omission are still lies, and Eb DID say in Blood Rites that everything was out in the open.

  I could believe that he's lying, by omission if nothing else.  He's a wizard, and wizards don't often share all their secrets.  Still not convinced that it's out of malevolence.  Old and stubborn as he is, he might consider his secrets essential.  He may even be operating under the good old "If they don't know the thing, then the thing can't hurt them" bullshit that Harry's had so much fun with. 

•   [Merlin] I wasn't aware of that WOJ.  Can you point to it?  My reasoning for why Merlin was speaking in something that Harry could recognize as British was due to Merlin purportedly living backwards in time; i.e. "born at the wrong end of time, and I have to live backwards from in front", per The Once and Future King.  It makes sense for why something that sounds mostly normal and human would be understandable.

  No yeah, I agree, I figured that Merlin being an ongoing part of Demonreach was essential to its construction.  Not only does he have to build it in several points in time, but he has to keep it together through all of them.

Alas, I can't be sure exactly which Q&A had Jim debunk the theory.  I remember I found it in one of these threads, and there was a link to the video when I asked for it, but I can't seem to find it in my post history.  As best I can recall:

Question:  "Does the original Merlin sound British?"

Jim:  "Does the original Merlin sound British?  He probably sounds so unintelligibly British you wouldn't be able to tell he was speaking english.  But uh, no, he's not the guy in Demonreach, I've said that already."

•   [Vadderung] - Not sure, to be honest.  But the being Odin is not well-known for being a nice, kind, helpful old soul.  He's an extremely complex character, and while Loki is the characteristic 'trickster god' of the Norse pantheon, Odin is also a trickster and not 100% good.  Yet, he's the only side character who has ever appeared to be 100% benevolent to Harry, offering advice and services and aid without requiring anything but a nickel in return.  No one gets a free lunch, and Harry and Vadderung aren't friends.  He's in it for something.  I trust Grey's wary attitude towards Vadderung far more than the All-Father's general pleasant demeanor.

  I'd buy that he's playing a game.  I can't think of any reason to suspect Odin of outright treachery, though.  I think his willingness to assist Harry is straightforward- he don't give a damn about what the bad guys think of him, and they're playing out of the same dugout.  He's also not 100% benevolent, and Harry never really thinks he is.  Odin runs a grade-A mercenary group, selling his services to the likes of Marcone and God only knows who else.  Then there was when Harry got in his way, trying to demand more help from him.  Vadderung told him to move, with just a hint of "don't fuck with me" thrown in.  Harry showed a drop of wisdom and moved.  Granted it's not much malice, but enough that I think Odin would be smart enough not to show it if he intended to string Harry along with the nice guy routine.

•   [Amoracchius] - Cool beans.

  Thank you, I worked hard on that one.

•   [Mirror Choice] - To be honest, it's nothing more than a hunch, and far less developed than any other idea that I've listed here.  But as far as I can reckon, it's the one decision that Harry could have made that would be at once more good and intending positivity (i.e. being honest with Susan) but would have had far more disastrous consequences.

  It took me a good five seconds to wonder why things would have ended WORSE with him being positive and open, when it hit me-  if he'd taken Susan as his +1, then Michael would never have come along.  And it's for that exact reason that I don't think Harry would have survived the night to go on and become NegaHarry.  Unless NegaHarry is actually a Red Court vampire... which didn't even make the top five of my list of suspicions.  But that would be interesting.

[peregrine]

Jim has said that the blackstaff is known about to the Council.  And if Kincaid knows about what he's up to, surely some of the Council, even if not the rank and file, will be aware of that.

Also, pedantically, you can absolutely temper something without hammering it, you just toss it in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour or so.

[BobbyWac]

I'll just add a thought about Eb being infected.

In my mind, more than a few of those infected with Nemesis have tried to infect him, but, because he's starborn, he's immune.

Just a theory.

[Snark Knight]

Andi might have taken some sort of lasting injuries in CD, but from the brief mention of her in the Butters short Day One, she's not by any means vegetative.

[Con]

Butters mentions in his short story that Andi and He haven't held back the newbs in their Guild for World of Warcraft. I doubt he'd say that if Andi was in a coma.

[morriswalters]

The branch in Mirror, Mirror, would most likely be Harry leaving Susan to the Vamps when Justine tells him Susan has been turned.  A WAG based purely on it being the  biggest bang for the buck moment.  For obvious reasons.

The guy with the English accent has been disavowed by Jim.  He is really Tom Cruise in disguise.  More seriously, he speaks modern English but doesn't have the phrase "bugger off" as part of his vocabulary.  Accent as disguise?

[Slowpool]

Andi might have taken some sort of lasting injuries in CD, but from the brief mention of her in the Butters short Day One, she's not by any means vegetative.

Butters mentions in his short story that Andi and He haven't held back the newbs in their Guild for World of Warcraft. I doubt he'd say that if Andi was in a coma.

  Good catch.  I had forgotten she was mentioned in Day One.  Yeah, there's no way she's completely out.  There might be some physical issues, maybe a touch of brain damage, but there's not much to suggest even that.

[kbrizzle]

@DonBugen

•   [Ebenezer] We don't exactly know how Nemesis transmits from person to person.  Presumably, it's not something as communicable as a normal disease.  There would, after all, be no reason why it needed to try to manipulate Lily and Fix if Maeve could have infected them just as easily.  With that being said, you're correct that Nemesis would have recognized Harry as a threat, even if Evil Eb didn't.  So I'm backing off on him being nemefected.
However, I don't believe for a second he's not still lying.  He pretty much says so at the end of Changes.  That's twice that he's concealed something huge and important and critical to Harry.  Lies by omission are still lies, and Eb DID say in Blood Rites that everything was out in the open.

Just a point about the last sentence about Eb saying everything is out in the open. At the end of Changes, Harry specifically asks Eb if everything was out in the open (after finding out that Eb is his grandfather) & Eb responds that everything is never out in the open. But unlike in Blood Rites, Harry understands that Eb needs to keep a few secrets (just like Harry is keeping things from him). Given that Eb is Harry’s grandfather, I don’t see him leading Harry down the left-hand path out of malevolence.

On a separate note, how has the info Eb has kept from Harry caused Harry to come to harm? I assume the points you’re referring to are in Blood Rites, when he didn’t tell Harry that he was Margaret Le Fay’s teacher & that he was the Blackstaff, & in Changes when he didn’t tell Harry that he was his grandfather.

• Family relationship: Eb doesn’t mention to Harry that he was Margaret’s father & teacher for a few reasons. When Eb first meets Harry, he is unsure if Harry has been Nfected by DuMorne (this is presumably why Eb is supposed to kill Harry if “acts rebellious”). Additionally Eb feels that it was his fault that Margaret went on to lead the life she did, & in BR one can feel his shame about the souring of the relationship. Eb also didn’t want Harry to go gunning for Lord Raith, who he knew to be beyond Harry’s powers, or in general inherit Eb’s enemies. Regardless, Eb has been a rather grandfatherly presence in Harry’s life post-DuMorne.
• Blackstaff: A lot of things in the wizarding world seem to work under the “once you’re wise enough, you’ll know” principle. In BR, Harry clearly wasn’t ready to see why such a position would be a necessity given the meta-events (Outsiders) that he’s unaware of. Given Harry’s reaction to the news, it seems to me that Eb was right to keep this tidbit from Harry until a later time

[Yuillegan]

Interesting ideas all. I agree with a few and the rest are just as unlikely as any other theory here. I will note that Harry always talks about height so unless Cowl is magically concealing his height (which is damn impressive considering what we know of magic) is probably enough of a factor to rule out Harry. Also Harry does describe just two features of Cowls (apart from his robes and magic). His voice (distorted by magic) and that he has old scars on his arms (in Dead Beat at the climax). I have my own theory on who it is, and I think it is rather obvious but time will tell.
Merlin has been ruled out.
Vadderung might be running a game on Harry, but remember he is tempered by his benevolent side (Kringle). So I suspect it is more a Dumbledore type game - best of intentions, designed to cause maximum damage to the enemy and probably will cause Harry a whole lot of grief. Harry has always been somewhat of a tool/sacrificial lamb.

[Bacchus]

as far as the Odin angle goes lets see
"Odin runs a grade-A mercenary group, selling his services to the likes of Marcone and God only knows who else."
seems to me that Marcone is the closest thing to a viking king that we have in modern times.
protect your own and declare war on the rest of the world and build up your kingdom stuff.
its not some fluke that Odin is helping Marcone.
also from the sagas Odin was from  my point of view wandering around looking for power and knowledge more than to help people.

id say helping/nudging Harry Dresden might be the best way to gather a few more powerful objects or magic knowledge sets. 
          tons of directions Jim could go
IE the skin games items being in play now were reason enough to help him and now Dresden sorta owes him a favor. Also Jim hints at Odin having problems with the rest of his pantheon and maybe once he has enough leverage Mab style he will get Dresden to deal with it.

as for Ebeneezer i feel that starting the grey council is telling of his overall motives.
Hes done some bad stuff, hes probably darker than we think but still mostly fighting for the good and is on harry side unless he has good reason not to be.

[DonBugen]

Thanks, guys! I'll write more when I can (prolly this weekend) but in the meantime, thanks for setting me straight on the WOJ for Eb and the Blackstaff, as well as Andi. I still haven't gotten to read the new anthology yet (I know, long year...) so that pretty much rules out most of the brain damage thing.

Also, wow, Andi and Butters still play WoW?

Also, to Slowpool on the Cowl thing - Cowl's not after the Word. He grabs Bob instead, something that the heirs don't even realize Harry has. Somehow, Cowl knows.

I detailed my Cowl theory on the below linked thread; it's a novella-sized post. I still stand by it and think it's the most literarily-sound theory.  I've also pasted the "tldr" for conveniences' sake.

https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,48590.msg2284102.html#msg2284102

TLDR:  My evidence is this:  the structure is there, in the Dresden Files, to suggest that such a reveal involving alternate universes, an alternate timeline, and time travel exist.  It is suggested that the only way to start such a thing is to have a person travel through time and create a paradox.  Butcher has already suggested Grave Peril as the point of paradox, and Harry as the catalyst, in the synopsis of Mirror Mirror.  Creating this paradox by means of time travel would mean that there was a second older, more powerful Harry Dresden who would have to be hidden from the reader.  Cowl is a more powerful wizard whose identity is hidden from the reader.  He has many suspicious similarities to Harry and has no critical inconsistencies that would make it impossible for him to fulfill this role.  Finally, Cowl being an alternative version of Harry would have major emotional significance to the main character.