New Dresden Files podcast interview.

[TheCuriousFan]

I think Jim was saying a lot of smaller characters died off screen.
I think I missed this reference (Airavata).

Thomas could level up by studying magic. If he gets out before Justine returns, that could be motivation for him to up his magic game significantly. He might be the White Court equivalent of a wizard level talent who never put in the work.

I say maybe Airavata because there was a distinct lack of a giant Naga tearing through the Fomor ranks in the big battle scene.

[Dina]

Thomas could level up by studying magic. If he gets out before Justine returns, that could be motivation for him to up his magic game significantly. He might be the White Court equivalent of a wizard level talent who never put in the work.

Besides, as Thomas can still become the WK when Harry leaves, he really does not need to level up now.

[TheCuriousFan]

Besides, as Thomas can still become the WK when Harry leaves, he really does not need to level up now.

That's kind of an immediate bad end if he ever slips up and feeds on a fae.

[Dina]

Nah, his hunger will be killed or put to sleep by the time. Sort of Harry's back.

[bigdangmoose]

Nah, his hunger will be killed or put to sleep by the time. Sort of Harry's back.

That's actually exactly what I was thinking about when I talked about Thomas evolving, leveling up. When he gets out, he won't have his demon anymore since it is going to kill him now. He will need another source to fight like he did. The WK mantle would be a suitable replacement.

[Mira]

That's actually exactly what I was thinking about when I talked about Thomas evolving, leveling up. When he gets out, he won't have his demon anymore since it is going to kill him now. He will need another source to fight like he did. The WK mantle would be a suitable replacement.

Except that doesn't change Thomas all that much, does it?  He'd not have the demon, but a lot of what he did before would remain the same.  No, if Thomas gets out of jail, he isn't going to be the same, instead I think he will become that rather ordinary mortal with glasses that Harry saw back in Blood Rites in the soul gaze.  Why?  Demon killed or removed, no more need to feed off of passions etc.. He will have had to have faced all the pain and suffering he caused all the years he has been alive.  I think that latter will compel him to want to become very ordinary and try to redeem himself if he can.

[Bad Alias]

That's kind of an immediate bad end if he ever slips up and feeds on a fae.

I think it'd only be a problem if only fed on the fae. If he only did it once, it be like he skipped a meal. If he was otherwise well fed, I think he'd be fine.

Now if he only fed on the fae in Faerie for long enough, then returned to the mortal world, I think it would either put him in the situation we saw in PT or kill his hunger by a rapid starvation.

[TheCuriousFan]

I think it'd only be a problem if only fed on the fae. If he only did it once, it be like he skipped a meal. If he was otherwise well fed, I think he'd be fine.

Now if he only fed on the fae in Faerie for long enough, then returned to the mortal world, I think it would either put him in the situation we saw in PT or kill his hunger by a rapid starvation.

Oh being hungry would be the least of his problems. The real trouble starts when after feeding on a fae he goes back to Earth and gets hit with the mental version of dissolving fae food since he fed on "false" emotions.

[morriswalters]

Nah, his hunger will be killed or put to sleep by the time. Sort of Harry's back.

It wold be nice to see Thomas settle down with his wife and child somewhere away for death and violence.

[Arjan]

Oh being hungry would be the least of his problems. The real trouble starts when after feeding on a fae he goes back to Earth and gets hit with the mental version of dissolving fae food since he fed on "false" emotions.

Which seems to contradict The Who could hurt Mab woj from 2009:

The entire White Court–very, very long odds on that, but if they actually pulled it off, whoever took Mab would effectively control her power.

What did the woj say? I remember about eating fairy food and matter being matter from the spirit world and that might be a problem for a red court who eats blood but the white court eats power, spirit.

[TheCuriousFan]

Which seems to contradict The Who could hurt Mab woj from 2009:

What did the woj say? I remember about eating fairy food and matter being matter from the spirit world and that might be a problem for a red court who eats blood but the white court eats power, spirit.

Priscellie: Jonathan McGee asks "what would Thomas look like if he took Mab's offer to be her backup knight? And can the white court feed off of fae the same way they do humans?"

Jim: Oh my god they can and it would be such a nightmare. Here's the thing about being in faerie. And remember that we're talking about "you are what you eat" that's sort of one of those lines that goes all the way through the Dresden Files universe. So when you're in fae the reason you don't accept food from faeries is because the food you're getting isn't actually food it's the stuff of the Nevernever. The material of the Nevernever is basically an augur you can form into whatever you want and so the fae have formed it into food but your body will still take it and take it in but when you leave faerie it turns back into ectoplasm it goes away on whatever level it was so if you've been in faerie for a month eating food you're gonna have a month's worth of your body just slough off because even though you ate the food and processed it and made it part of your body it was never actual material it was just the stuff of the Nevernever.

Priscellie: So in all that time when Harry was getting rehab.

Jim: They were bringing in mortal food for him to keep him whole because otherwise he would have been bound and been unable to leave. That's why you don't eat food when you're in fae sort of the same rule that goes around for other realities like that as well. That was the first part of the answer but now I've forgot the first part of the question.

Priscellie: So even if Molly were to shed her current mantle one assumes she has probably had enough fae food at this point that that's an issue.

Jim: Unless she has protected herself from it which she could have done because her mantle comes with a bunch of intellectus about how the rules work because she has to have to have that because she's in charge of it. But at the same time if Thomas did that he'd be devouring essentially false emotions in the same sort of way and so he when he went back and all that stuff peeled off and he ate nothing but faerie food that would just leave him bonkers insane until he got back. It would turn him into a /monster/ if that happened and Mab would be in favour of that because that would be to her advantage in many ways so she would be into that. Because that way she could essentially get a Winter Soldier out of it that way, she gets to send him out and essentially as soon as he he leaves he's empty and just her terminator killing machine and when he comes back she can fill him up with whatever she needs for the next mission *Priscellie winces*. I know, it's awful, I'm bent to be thinking of these sorts of thing.

Priscellie: *laughs* You're not a nice human being.

Jim: I'm not a nice human being but I'm channeling it in as healthy a way as I possibly can so...

Priscellie: We are your therapy.

Jim: Yeah exactly. Wow I feel so bad to say that but it's true.

[Arjan]

Jim compares fairy food with fairy false emotions. I do not think that connection is necessary but if Jim thinks so....

[Bad Alias]

From what Jim said, it seems like he would be emotionless when he returned to Earth. He keeps the power, but looses the emotions?

I think feeding on faeries can be done in a way that doesn't have the results Jim is talking about if it's balanced with feedings on beings with "real" emotions. That might have been how it worked when he was feeding on Svartalves.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The issue for development of Thomas character would be to grant him his wish and not make him a Vampire, but a plain vanilla mortal no. Make him an Avatar of Erus (Eros, Cupid) the Etruscan god of love. Have him feed on and propagate love rather lifeforce, evolve from hunter gatherer to farmer, keeping his strength and speed and durability but being linked to something like Cupid’s Bow, a mythological artefact. Oh and the Sword of Love.

We only know the White Court are Etruscan in origin, we have no idea how they came into being, what they were originally. Maybe in Twelve Months Harry will find this out. Perhaps when he sits down and watches “The Father of the Bride” with Papa Raith. Thomas becomes an archetype for the evolution of much of the White Court, their redemption arc.

Foreshadowing, in Grave Peril, Thomas is effectively portraying Erus when we meet him. In Changes he is designated as Legolas, the beautiful youthful archer.

Jim has known Thomas’ story arc since Grave Peril I don’t believe him when he says he doesn’t know. He knows, it’s just how to gets there.

[forumghost]

Jim compares fairy food with fairy false emotions. I do not think that connection is necessary but if Jim thinks so....

I just wonder what that means.

Are Sidhe actually faking emotion the entire time, just really well, and so the fake emotions stop existing outside of the Nevernever?

Is it that emotions have physical mass, and so emotions fed on from the Nevernever are made up of Ectoplasm like all physical matter from the Nevernever?

Like, how does that work? How many grams do love/hate/fear/etc weigh?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!