Something Occured to Me as to Why the Senior Council is so Afraid of Harry

[Mira]

I just wanted to link to this description from some time ago, which I think is a good reason why the senior council is concerned about Harry
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amp.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/2ae1p5/spoilers_all_harrys_warden_file/&ved=2ahUKEwiZ-_zylLzuAhVjmYsKHTWYDPAQFjABegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw32jFcp6LuC8KG2wlWQ18-O

The opening paragraph is a total exaggeration in my opinion.  If half of that were true, they should have cut his head off long ago before he grew in power.  If that paragraph is true, the Senior Council shows itself as being more incompetent then they are now.  1] Harry shouldn't been declared a full
wizard at sixteen. 2] The Doom should never have been lifted, heck he should have lost his head instead of being put under the Doom. 3] Someone should have figured out that Eb was his grandfather, ergo prejudiced in judging him, Blackstaff or not. 4] Have never gone along with him being made a Warden, not just a Warden, but one in a position of command..   Concerned?  That is a very wimpy word describing a group that doesn't intend to do anything because it might make waves.. It is like saying one is saddened by mass murder but even though in a position to take action, do nothing.

[TheCuriousFan]

Wait Kemmler was Warden?  Is there a WOJ on this?  I never heard this before

Priscellie: Who was the warden of Demonreach before Harry?

Jim: Lemme think, I know who it is, and who the guy before that was, but the guy before /that/ was Kemmler so...

Priscellie: Oh god. *laughs*

Jim: Yeah, I mean, half of that entire thing was just the white council trying to keep Kemmler from getting back to the island and opening it up. Which is why they had him being hounded by the wardens all through the wild west and so on. It was to stop him from being able to set things up even more. Kemmler is sort of in the Dresden Files universe he's sort of the Dresden Files version of WWI where it was actually the biggest most epic most incredible conflict the world has ever known but we're all used to seeing WWII because they got some of it on film but we didn't get nearly as much of the great war on film but when you actually go and study it and study all the troop numbers and resources involved WWI was really the great war and WWII was kind of a follow-up. A softer echo in many ways.

Priscellie: In terms of how long someone is a warden, I'm sure it varies from case to case but how long does wardenship typically last?

Jim: It depends on how quickly it gets you killed.

Priscellie: Is that the only way out?

Jim: I'd say it's not the only way out. You can definitely walk away from it or be dragged away from it or driven away from it. And then if somebody else comes along and challenges Demonreach then it's their island if your influence isn't there anymore. By the time Harry got there nobody had been there in a good long while because amon the people who are in the know on the council it would be suicide to go try and do that. If one of the senior council guys got it all the other senior council guys would be like "yep he's the bad guy he's definitely corrupt and serving evil". And then Dresden walked into it and it was just such a stupid move they all kind of looked at him and went "I thing he was he was being dumb? Do you think he was being dumb? Yeah it looks dumb. It looks like he was just being stupid, oh my god, we do need the firepower", you know, like that. The poor council, they find themselves so strapped for resources in so many ways that they keep having to tolerate Harry Dresden.

Priscellie: Did his (Kemmler) wardenship end when he was killed after WWII?

Jim: It ended during one of the times they killed him. Kemmler got killed a bunch of times. He was one of those fun villains who just kept getting back up again just kept Napoleoning his way back into being a problem for the white council.

Priscellie: Pop goes the weasel for necromancers.

Jim: Exactly.

[BrainFireBob]

Blackstaff didn't judge Harry, he wasn't Senior Council then. He did probably offer testimony on DuMorne.

[Bad Alias]

McCoy was put in a position to judge Harry when Harry was put in McCoy's custody. McCoy was ordered to kill Harry if he stepped out of line.

[morriswalters]

The Council is afraid of him because of what he was designed to be.  The first bread crumbs were dropped in Summer Knight and Jim spent an inordinate amount of time throwing it in your face in the last two books. Lea told you part of the tale in Ghost Story. If you want to understand what Jim has been hinting at about Harry, read the fight with the Knights after Murphy is killed. Harry is no longer in the drivers seat, someone else is.  As in a completely different personality. He attacks Rudolph with lightning. Here's Butters, telling you directly.

cheeks. “We need you. You, the good man. I can’t let you hurt that man. Too many of us need him. Your daughter needs him.”

Butcher, Jim. Battle Ground (Dresden Files) (p. 213). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[Mira]

The Council is afraid of him because of what he was designed to be.  The first bread crumbs were dropped in Summer Knight and Jim spent an inordinate amount of time throwing it in your face in the last two books. Lea told you part of the tale in Ghost Story. If you want to understand what Jim has been hinting at about Harry, read the fight with the Knights after Murphy is killed. Harry is no longer in the drivers seat, someone else is.  As in a completely different personality. He attacks Rudolph with lightning. Here's Butters, telling you directly.

True, though I think Harry's reaction was normal, emotional, and given his power very dangerous and if he had succeeded in killing Rudolph would have led down a very dark road.

[morriswalters]

We have different concepts of normal.

[Arjan]

We have different concepts of normal.

Wanting to kill the man who just killed the woman you loved is quite normal. Not doing it because of other considerations is also quite normal.

But your primary instinct is to kill him. The rest is a result of a civilization process that is sometimes so successful that you have lost some contact with your primary instincts. 

That is ok. Living with so many people would be impossible otherwise.

[Mira]

We have different concepts of normal.

  Consider, violent situation, battle, your emotions and adrenaline at the highest levels, your lover
is murdered before your eyes stupidly.. Would you lose it like Harry did?  Or collapse in a puddle of
grief? Or say,"oh my, he killed her, call a policeman to arrest him."  All are possible normal reactions here, I am not saying his reaction was a thought out thinking reaction.  It wasn't.  That is the whole point, once Butters got Harry back to thinking sanely again, and yes, it took a lot because Harry is a dangerous powerful person, Harry was ashamed of his reaction.  However not at all a shock that he reacted that way, nor does it make him a bad person for reacting that way.  If he hadn't been stopped, yes, then the complexion of his reaction changes.  But he was, and he reverted back to the basically good man that he is.  Because he wasn't fully responsible for the emotional violent response he had to Rudolph stupidly and deliberately murdering Murphy before his eyes.

Wanting to kill the man who just killed the woman you loved is quite normal. Not doing it because of other considerations is also quite normal.

But your primary instinct is to kill him. The rest is a result of a civilization process that is sometimes so successful that you have lost some contact with your primary instincts. 

That is ok. Living with so many people would be impossible otherwise.

Yes.  And why we are very lucky when we have friends like Butters who will try to stop us in those
moments from doing something we'd really regret later once we calm down.

[TheCuriousFan]

Wanting to kill the man who just killed the woman you loved is quite normal. Not doing it because of other considerations is also quite normal.

But your primary instinct is to kill him. The rest is a result of a civilization process that is sometimes so successful that you have lost some contact with your primary instincts. 

That is ok. Living with so many people would be impossible otherwise.

Basically this, a lot of people are only alive because it's illegal to just shank them and breaking laws gets very annoying very quickly.

[morriswalters]

This passage doesn't reflect normal behavior.  And the passage doesn't reflect blind unreasoning anger. It's calculated,  and anybody who gets in the way is dismissed as worthless.  He pounds Sanya unconscious and would have done worse to Butters. I'd attribute it to the Winter Mantle if it hadn't happened before in Grave Peril.

However this is point on to the OP's question, why does the Council fear Harry and think he's a monster.

“Is that the lesson you took from the memory?” Lea asked, her smile spreading. “You were clearly being prepared to be an enforcer.”

Butcher, Jim. Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, Book 13) (p. 353). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

“Quite. Because convincing a young mortal to believe that it is right and proper to use magic for violence is a delicate process and one that cannot be rushed.”

Butcher, Jim. Ghost Story (The Dresden Files, Book 13) (pp. 353-354). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Now people like to call out to Norse lore here's some for you.

In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word berserk (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.

[Arjan]

Basically this, a lot of people are only alive because it's illegal to just shank them and breaking laws gets very annoying very quickly.

For people raised in a civilised and law abiding society it is often more than that. They are conditioned against the use of violence. Some more than others but all more than people raised in say the dark ages were a lot of the current supernaturals came from.

[groinkick]

Oh my gosh that Kemmler info is gold!!  I hope he has more books on it!  So much awesome

[Mira]

This passage doesn't reflect normal behavior.  And the passage doesn't reflect blind unreasoning anger. It's calculated,  and anybody who gets in the way is dismissed as worthless.  He pounds Sanya unconscious and would have done worse to Butters. I'd attribute it to the Winter Mantle if it hadn't happened before in Grave Peril.

Normal times, you could be right, but that wasn't normal times. In this case it doesn't fit with the passages you sighted either.  There was a major battle going on, everyone was fighting for their lives or about to, including Harry.  This does stuff to your adrenal glands,flight or fight, seeing your beloved murdered in a stupid manner by someone you are not fond of to begin with, could set one off.  He was a walking tinderbox, that bullet to Murphy's neck caused him to explode.

Blind unreasoning anger?  Hardly, he witnessed a careless man just blow his true love away... Don't you think that would piss him off just a wee bit?  Anger of that kind tends to be blind, all Harry wanted to do was get to the guy and go through anyone trying to stop him..  Blind yes, because Harry was full of pain and rage over what he had just witness, uncontrolled,yes, once the adrenal glands kicked in, but it wasn't anger without reason, Harry had a very good reason. 

[Arjan]

Normal times, you could be right, but that wasn't normal times. In this case it doesn't fit with the passages you sighted either.  There was a major battle going on, everyone was fighting for their lives or about to, including Harry.  This does stuff to your adrenal glands,flight or fight, seeing your beloved murdered in a stupid manner by someone you are not fond of to begin with, could set one off.  He was a walking tinderbox, that bullet to Murphy's neck caused him to explode.

Blind unreasoning anger?  Hardly, he witnessed a careless man just blow his true love away... Don't you think that would piss him off just a wee bit?  Anger of that kind tends to be blind, all Harry wanted to do was get to the guy and go through anyone trying to stop him..  Blind yes, because Harry was full of pain and rage over what he had just witness, uncontrolled,yes, once the adrenal glands kicked in, but it wasn't anger without reason, Harry had a very good reason.

I think you playe here with different meanings of the word reason.