I've been away from the forum for a while (nothing personal, it's just been a hectic year since the Plague broke out); I've gone over most of the threads from the past few months (at least the titles and first page or two), but please forgive me if this has been asked and discussed ad nauseum previously. Since it's still new, I'm prioritizing this over finishing a lengthy post about Hastings.
Personally, I think a lot of people may have overlooked this bit; I think it's more important than it appears at first glance.
1. At the end of Battle Ground, Harry performs a ceremony during which he knights about fifty of his volunteers from the Battle of the Bean (those who were willing to attend the funeral/memorial). He names them "The Knights of the Bean and Defenders of Chicago."
2. He gives each of them a pin with a lima bean on it, and makes this precise promise to them: "If you or anyone you love is ever in danger, come and find me. If it isn't you, tell them to show me this. I will help. No questions asked."
There are a handful of ways to interpret this—meaning the consequences of giving them favors, not really his motivation for doing so. I think his motivation is pretty clear: Harry wanted to repay them for their help; I don't think Chicago would've survived without them. It makes sense that he'd want to do what he could to help them out after they gave (and lost) so much.
But I think there are more consequences (and implications) than Harry promising a favor to fifty-ish people.
1. He balanced the scales. They rendered him a service, so he must fulfill his end of an unspoken bargain by offering one in kind. The implication here is that Harry is becoming more Fae than he was at the start of the book; sure, that's kind of obvious, and there are blatant signs starting in Cold Days about this exact thing happening. But this is the first time we've seen something like this from Harry at this scale (which is fair, because we've never seen ANYTHING like the Banner, either).
2. He gave himself an obligation. He promised to help them, no questions asked. Harry can't turn them down (not that he would unless it was something REALLY bad), or he'll face consequences.
But as Lea pointed out in Ghost Story, Harry's obligations are Winter's obligations too; Mab herself may be thereby bound to fulfill the promise if Harry is unable to. I don't know how she'll react to it if it comes to that, but regardless, this could get messy somewhere down the line.
3. Harry has set himself up as a kind of... I don't even really know. A Champion?
In my head, this promise is similar to what Harry's done with Toot Toot since Storm Front. One of my favorite scenes in the duology was everyone coming to a dead stop when Harry called up the 'Za Lord's Guard and the sky was blanketed with the Little Folk.
His relationship with them was originally based on obligation and payment; as Harry continued to keep his promises with the Little Folk, Toot Toot got bigger and more Fae joined the Guard.
It's not exactly the same—humans aren't going to double in size because someone kept a promise—but I think that there is some kind of exchange of power taking place here.
I've mentioned many times on this forum over the years that Mother Summer's words in Cold Days—"Power has purpose"—has made me wonder if the inverse is true: "Purpose has power."
It's literally true for the Fae: they can gain power literally by bargaining (in other words, by acquiring a purpose and fulfilling it). We saw it with the explanation of Fidelacchius's transformation in Peace Talks—it gained power by limiting the ways that power can be applied.
In other words: I think that Harry did more than he intended to with this Knighting ceremony. I think he not only gave those fifty people a bit of power (I don't mean literally; for them, the power they received is the ability to ask a guy who can throw fire around for a favor), he received some in return, beyond what he was given by their service on the battlefield.
I don't know how this power will be expressed in the future. It may be something as (relatively) small as a part of the Legend of Harry Dresden—the rumors and whispers spreading about the "Mad Wizard Dresden," who very well might show up and burn your house down if you kick the wrong puppy. It's been stated that Harry's reputation is a big part of what has made him effective in the past; he's almost a Terror Hero at this point. Maybe this is just going to spread that reputation even further, and that'll be it.
Maybe some of these Knights of the Bean will show back up in the future, too. Maybe we'll find out later on that being called by the Winter Knight's Banner once makes it possible to be Called once more. Maybe they'll join the base of Power Harry is working on from his Scottish-by-way-of-Chicago Castle.
Or maybe they'll be used as a framing device for the upcoming Twelve Months piece that I've seen mentioned. If it's one story per month, it could be narratively useful for Harry fulfilling twelve favors, or something (and it'd be nice if it didn't require any incineration or flash freezing).
Does anyone have any other thoughts? Am I overthinking this to begin with, and is this mostly something Jim put in there because it was cool?
