Butcher lies via obfuscation. For instance he's been telling you in bits and pieces what it is that Harry is. He's a nuclear bomb if you will. In Changes everybody just believes that the Red's curse did the deed, except The Merlin. He called the dance back in Scotland.
So this is how Butcher lies. He does this kind of thing a lot so my working assumption is that he lying whenever his lips are moving.
One thing that I'm not buying on any level is that Malcolm was just Malcolm.
I'm confused. Didn't the Reds curse wipe out the Red Court? Didn't Harry just aim their weapon back at them and fire it?
I think that's true in some respects, but I would argue Jim (especially in his earlier interviews) gave away a lot more than he intended to.
Fair enough. I don't see it myself but it's your theory to play with. I would say though I think Malcolm became something more than he was, I think the hint for this is when he enters Harry's dream to have a conversation. But I don't know what and I don't think it's clear yet.
Finding Malcolm while Margaret is on the run is like finding a 3 pound gold nugget in a pile of random sand. I don't believe it. It assaults my sense of how stories are constructed.
I get why you might think like that but I believe it misses the point of Malcolm's character i.e. that he is a vehicle for Jim's own thoughts about his own father (read some of the things he says about his own father and you'll see - not that he does speak much about him publicly). This is also clear in that Dresden was built on Jim's own personality originally, so it's natural his father shares similarities with Butcher's. Beyond that, I think the character is meant to showcase (just as Michael is) a really good person. Sometimes what's special about a character (particularly in fantasy) is how good they are of a person despite not having any real power (especially in the magic sense). Think Garrow in Eragon or Sam in LOTR (more to the point - hobbits in general) or Jonathan Kent (Superman's adoptive father) or perhaps most classically Uncle Ben (and to some degree, Aunt May).
The purpose of Malcolm in the narrative is to help explain where Dresden's values come from. They didn't come from Margaret (he never knew her). Justin warped and changed him but he was more than that before. Ebenezar did his best to undo Justin's damage and developed him further. But the original stuff (apart from his most core personality traits that perhaps come from his soul) is the work of Malcolm. Malcolm is one of Harry's best moral benchmarks.
Also, we don't know exactly when Margaret and Malcolm met. She could have bumped into him at the grocery store while still being with Raith, and then gone on the run. We don't have any facts. We only know that they ended up meeting and having a child together, only for Margaret to die during childbirth and Malcolm followed several years later.
Sure it does, we are talking "potential." To put it another way, thousands of babies are born every minute, all have potential, but to reach it takes something more. It is clear that when Margaret met Malcolm she chose a different path, and then she chose and he agreed to conceive a star child. What we've seen of star children so far and what it looks like Justin was after, star children are not exactly nice.. The series is also about the importance of "balance" as well as "choices." It looks like Harry is that balance, he isn't perfect and he has made some poor choices, but most of the time he tries to do the right thing, it's on his tombstone.
Sure it does, Harry is special and set apart, he resisted a Shadow of one of the Fallen, he is Custodian of the Holy Swords, it is a privilege given to him to know who and who shouldn't be
a Holy Knight be it for a minute or for life when needed. Something you just cannot declare for yourself even if you happen to have the Swords as Murphy found out. He has Soul Fire, this sets him apart, he passed the exam that Hades set up and now has possession of the Holy Relics/weapons, he passed the exam at the island and now is Warden.. He is a whole lot more than a wizard with power to resist Outsiders, he was meant to be a whole lot more, this is hinted at all through the series.
For starters, I don't think there is such a thing as "a normal" star born. We know how Drakul and Listens act, bad is bad, Harry is mostly a good person, so what are you trying to say? Nothing special about star born except the Outsider bit that most will never know about because they are just normal people? So what is the point of making it such a big deal in the series?
Yes, he would, but there is more to it than that.. Page 337 Death Masks..
Harry says it should have been him instead of Shiro, but dying Shiro tells him;
Then he handed over his Sword to Harry to take care of.. A whole lot more Harry doesn't understand even yet.. Harry is special.
When he was conceived and born alive.. It isn't about that it is about the special mix of genes! Malcolm is the key, this is what motivated Margaret to have a child by him and he agreed.. They both tell Harry it is unfair the responsibility and trouble they put upon him by conceiving him. We are repeatedly told all though the series that for the most part Harry inherited his father's good nature and good heart.. This is the difference that Margaret was looking for in her star born, this is what sets Harry apart from the likes of Drakul and Listens. Yes, I agree to a point, though I think Malcolm was just a vanilla human, but some of them are saints.. If Malcolm wasn't, he came very close to being one.
Well that's not Jim's wording. His wording wasn't there were 50,000 potential star born this cycle originally. He said there were 50,000 star born. As in, they had already become star born. Whatever that truly means.
People aren't necessarily nice. I don't know that we can judge how nice star born are relative to most humans as we've only met Harry, Listen and Drakul (and possibly Rashid and Elaine). Drakul is clearly more than just star born, and both he and Rashid are from older cycles.
I didn't say Harry wasn't special. In fact, I said he was special relative to most humans. But he isn't special relative to most star born (at least from what we've seen). What's one instance of Harry doing something specifically star born related that no other star born can do? Each star born can resist Outsiders, and potentially have power over them (and perhaps more besides). Which is the point - we don't even know the extent or limits of regular star borns so it is literally impossible to know how much more special Harry's star born specific powers are relative to the base line star born, because we don't even have a baseline. All those hints about Harry being "so much more" are about his star born nature, not Harry being some sort of chosen one.
That's fair enough, if there weren't so many star born. Normal implies an average of some sort and with a large enough group there are bound to be certain shared characteristics. 50,000 in Harry's cycle, let alone all the star born that have ever existed (considering it has been going on since the start of Creation). Even with the variations between Outsiders we can still establish a baseline (and there are potentially an infinite amount of them with infinite combinations).
Is the evil that a human commits somehow not as evil as a monster? While Angels (and Fallen) are held to higher standards (by Heaven and presumably TWG), it's harder to say with the rest. Does having choice make an act more evil than a being that has no choice but to perform evil acts?
That said, star born could well have evil origins (which I have guessed at before) which could make them intrinsically more evil than most beings, and that would make Harry more special relative to his peers if he was unusual in how hard he works to fight his nature. But we don't know the real origins of star born. We don't know if they are more evil or not. We don't know if Harry is unusual in fighting against his inner nature or whether other star born fight too. We can only speculate.
The quote you provided about Shiro I believe is referencing Harry's star born nature, not a prophecy or a chosen one thing. Do you believe otherwise? That does seem to confirm that Shiro did know about Harry's true nature I would say (although how he knew and not the other Knights is interesting).
But was Shiro handing over Fidelacchius because of Harry's star born nature or because of some prophecy, or was it because of Harry's character and values? I think he entrusted them to Harry because he believed in Harry's judgement. But I could be wrong.
So we agree that Harry became star born when he was born in the Light. That makes sense to me. Which then says that Harry's conception doesn't play a major role beyond conception itself. You say it isn't about genes...and then say Malcolm is the key. Which is it? But we don't know that Margaret chose Malcolm, or that she even was the one to propose a child. Given that she was older than Malcolm significantly, I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't even considered it. We don't know anything about the circumstances of them meeting, or their decision to have a child.
Look, it's a fair theory that she chose Malcolm for his personality, but this assumes she knew she was going to have a star born child. Which we don't know that she knew. We don't know that she planned it at all. Even if she did intend for it, did Malcolm know before the conception? Which would be highly questionable, ethically speaking. Even if she did plan it, we don't have any evidence that the White Council or anyone else on the "good guys" wanted Harry to exist. She could just as easily have tried to take on her enemies alone.
What cost Margaret her life was running away from Lord Raith. He was a toxic, horrible monster who doesn't part with his "possessions". I wouldn't undersell her intelligence either. She was a intelligent and formidable wizard in her own right. She didn't require Mab or anyone else's help with her death curse, imo.
Malcolm was just human, that is to say just the best distilled of all human qualities that makes a Father Forthill, a Nick Angel virtual living saints or a Knight, he is a champion of humanity, free will and the White God, just by being him. That makes him incredibly rare, a human being with only the positive virtues and not the negative vices of humanity, which was why he was such a breath of fresh air to Margaret dealing with a White Council very much steeped in humanity’s vices.
Harry is not that, he has anger aplenty, but kindness, love etc in greater or equal measure, as a Starborn he can turn either way, but he has been lucky in the people he has sought or received guidance from or who have been there at time of crisis. His father an enduring influence, Nick Angel after coming to Chicago, then Murphy, then Michael and Father Forthill, Shiro, Sanya, Butters.
Chicago has a population of 2.7 million, Chicagoland larger 9.5 millionit has produced Malcolm Dresden, Father Forthill, Michael Carpenter, Karin Murphy and Waldo Butters
If you think about it the odds are better than one in a million.
I agree. Saints in the series are the result of ascensions, similar to becoming a god. Powerful beings indeed. The Catholic Church liked it until it became a problem for reasons unknown. I doubt Malcolm is a literal Saint. Otherwise, the bar has lowered considerably. Not to mention, that would imply that there are Saints humanity isn't aware of, unless there is a Saint Malcolm Dresden that I don't know about.
Nope Margaret figured curses etc weren’t working against Raith when targeted directly at him, she made her death curse surround him instead and anchored it in the blood of her children to keep it going to have time to work. That’s why STARVE, it wasn’t cruelty, it was the only way it would work to kill him.
I wonder in Next Book whether Papa Raith will still be around, he isn’t needed due to the alliance with Mab any longer to support Lara’s power.
Finding Malcolm was a boon for Margaret, but it could have as easily been Father Forthill Nick Angel. The White God is a big believer in Free Will, and will only intervene in the most indirect of ways. Therefore whilst TWG may have put Malcom in Margaret’s way, to have Harry was her decision. TWG only created the possibility of a Harry Dresden Starborn, that Malcolm just by being who he is convinced her that humanity needed a champion, that it should not just fall prey to the monsters and the end of time and she made that decision even knowing it would cost her life.
Mab came along later, Lea had already cut her own deal with Margaret, for the future Maggie and wasn’t interested in a Starborn. Although TWG is working with Mab, Odin and Hades, and has been for some time, they are not mortals and TWG doesn’t care about THEIR free will. Mab is constrained by the laws of Winter, Odin gave up his immortality to stay in the mortal world and Hades is restricted to the Never Never. Harry as a mortal is allowed to exercise free will for good or bad, and the battle inside his head is perhaps more important than the ones going on outside of it in the real world. Butters and Sanya were not in Chicago to defeat Ethnui, they were there to help Harry make a decision not to kill Rudy, not to become the monster he secretly feared.
Agree with all of this.
Although I wouldn't be surprised if some cruelty wasn't a part of her thinking.
Margaret had the opportunity to examine Raith up close for a good period of time, and no doubt witnessed at least one major magical attack on him (for example Eb’s visit) slowing her to figure out how it was working. That doesn’t mean she needed Lea or Mab’s help, she easily could have done this on her own. What Lea did was shield Margaret from being located (not just by Raith) and protect her from harm until Harry was born.
I always thought Elaine cut a similar deal with Summer, in her case until the child reached its full majority, 21. Jim has said there is no third child, but things come in threes and Jim lies. Elaine has kept her distance from Harry for perhaps a good reason and any such child would have hit 22 by Battle Ground.
Agreed, although did Eb attack Raith before he killed Maggie?
Not sure about the third child theory, but it's interesting.
That pretty much covers it for me although your mileage may very. Margaret attacked Raith though Thomas's link to his demon. She can hear him speaking. She either came to it independently or she learned from the Fey.
I think this provides a hint as to how Harry will free Thomas from his Demon.
Why couldn't she attack Lord Raith's Hunger directly? Why would she need to go through Thomas?
Agreed, this is the hint on how to free Thomas...assuming Butcher ever wants that to happen.
