If you were a Minor Talent?

[g33k]

... Harry wouldn’t make a sword.

He would make a gun capable of doing the same.

I don't think so:  I believe the bullets would have to be enchanted, to do the Warden-swords' anti-enchantment trick.

I mean... obviously, the rules work however Jim decides they work.  But I think we've seen that Jim has enchanted-ammo as his vision.

You could enchant a gun, but it would just be magically-better at firing whatever ammo gets loaded into it.

Enchanted gun + enchanted ammo would be pretty scary, though!
 

[Fcrate]

I don't think so:  I believe the bullets would have to be enchanted, to do the Warden-swords' anti-enchantment trick.

I mean... obviously, the rules work however Jim decides they work.  But I think we've seen that Jim has enchanted-ammo as his vision.

You could enchant a gun, but it would just be magically-better at firing whatever ammo gets loaded into it.

Enchanted gun + enchanted ammo would be pretty scary, though!
 

Enchanted AK-47 with a bayonet. Problem solved. Although from Even Hand, we know that sufficiently enchanted bullets are hard and expensive to make.
@Conspiracy Theorist: thank you.. Phew.

I completely agree. Especially about the swords! Ever since Luccio told Harry she can't make them any more, I am convinced she would someday teach him how.
Probably she will leave the White Council some day soon. At the latest, when it is destroyed or self-destroyed. Then she could start to teach him. Together they can found a new council with wardens who defend it's members with their new swords created by Harry.

Or Harry might be able to use his talent without Luccio's help to make himself a sword. He is a knight after all 
And I believe he would be able to do so, if he learns how to make normal swords first. And every castle needs a smithy, doesn't it?


@ original post 

If I were a minor talent, I would like some ice powers. But foresight would be cool, too. Or illusions and veils. That's what I would like.

What I think I would get:
Random mind reading and reading of emotions through other people projecting their emotions on me.

Ice powers like always getting ice for your drink or like never missing in a Snowball fight?

[Regenbogen]

Ice powers like always getting ice for your drink or like never missing in a Snowball fight?

Ice for my drink, of course. And for the snowball fight: they wouldn't even notice I was actually in the fight, because I would be sitting with my icy cocktail just twitching my finger a little and yay snow inside their clothes down the nape and the back. Or if someone pissed me off a little deeper and on the front side... LOL

[forumghost]

Actually, Harry is exceptionally good at magical craftsmanship.  Bob says most other wizards couldn't have created Little Chicago, for example.  And most of Harry's substantive magical growth (tutoring Molly... being trained by Mab...) happened after he created LC!

I bet (for example) that if Luccio trusted Harry -- and Harry would put in the time -- she could tutor him to make new Warden Swords; in fact, once his mundane skills as a smith were good enough, I bet Harry's swords (even without Soulfire) would be at least as strong as Luccio's... of course, just getting the skills would probably take well over a decade of devoted work.

He's just usually too busy, with higher priorities (although that's likely just a lack of judgement).


But no... Luccio isn't likely (nor Harry) to be able to duplicate Angelic-caliber Soulfire!  If she were that strong, Peabody would have fried his own brain when he tried to mentally-coerce her.

It doesn't really matter that Harry is talented at enchanting if he never does it.

Harry has this super cool ability that theoretically lets him do all kinds of shit and he's just like "What if my fire did more damage?" "What if my ice was harder?" "What if my illusions were slightly more realistic?"

He could be using Soulfire to do shit no other Wizard can do, but instead he just uses it as a crutch to make up for the fact that he sucks at being a Wizard because he's more interested in practicing his Parkour or building up his thews.

[Ed0517]

Like, Luccio is a master Smith, I bet she could use Soulfire to give everyone a lightsaber instead of just Butters.

Do we know she's a smith or does she simply enchant blades? We've seen different people carrying different sorts of blades - if she were forging them all, I'd expect more uniformity, even if just for the manufacturing setup.

Harry probably does not MAKE his magic rings, he makes regular rings magic. His duster was a gift. He enchanted it. Elaine likely does not make her chain, she just plugs it in.

And Soulfire seems more material than energy field like a lightsaber. Now, can Harry use Soulfire in his shields? Maybe it would not transmit heat?

[Ed0517]

No, nor is Soulfire a gift that archangels hand out willy nilly...

No. Have we seen anyone else using it? At all? Although.. could it be in one of the Nails? Did that propagate the lightsaber blade? Butters just pulled teh trigger, it was not in him.

Is it generally known Harry HAS Soulfire? Might mark him as someone who has friends in REALLY high places that you might try to avoid messing with.

[Ed0517]

Harry wouldn’t make a sword.

He would make a gun capable of doing the same.

I'm wondering if you could have a gun - does a magic sword work for anyone, or does it channel their magic power? You might need to be touching the item. Otherwise I'd assume Luccio would have made a gun - she carried one in the West...

[Mira]

No. Have we seen anyone else using it? At all? Although.. could it be in one of the Nails? Did that propagate the lightsaber blade? Butters just pulled teh trigger, it was not in him.

You could say it is in the Holy Swords since there supposedly an angel in the hilt of each of them.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The circumstances were correct in the creation of the Faithsaber, Butters Faith allowed the sword to reshape itself into its new form. It should noted both Harry and the even more powerful Spear were there, acting as catalysts on Butters and the Sword.

One tends to forget how much Harry reshaped Butters to make him the Knight he is, and the Spear I think selects a probability where the wielder wins, creating the Faithsaber, or showing Harry Maggies ‘death’ was fake strengthening Harry’s will and undermining Ethnui’s. It gives a path to victory but you have to take it, free will.  Perhaps that path to victory one day will be by Mab’s death, or Maggies, or Harry’s. Hard choices to be made.

[Mira]

The circumstances were correct in the creation of the Faithsaber, Butters Faith allowed the sword to reshape itself into its new form. It should noted both Harry and the even more powerful Spear were there, acting as catalysts on Butters and the Sword.

One tends to forget how much Harry reshaped Butters to make him the Knight he is, and the Spear I think selects a probability where the wielder wins, creating the Faithsaber, or showing Harry Maggies ‘death’ was fake strengthening Harry’s will and undermining Ethnui’s. It gives a path to victory but you have to take it, free will.  Perhaps that path to victory one day will be by Mab’s death, or Maggies, or Harry’s. Hard choices to be made.

  I don't think Harry reshaped Butters, he always a man of courage.  He would not change his findings on an autopsy, saying that the supernatural was involved in a death. Sorry I cannot remember if he said that the death was caused by the supernatural or that the corpse wasn't exactly human. Either way he stood by his findings even though he was considered mentally ill for saying so and even spent time in a hospital.  His career suffered a huge set back because of it.  Harry always respected him for that and respected his intelligence, though Thomas judged him to be a coward.  In Dead Beat, he did his best to pull Cassius off of Harry when he was trying to kill him until Mouse intervened.   It was that scene that was the tip off that Butters would become a Holy Knight some day.  Harry actually prayed for God to send someone, and who showed up? Butters.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Butters didn’t know he was a man of physical courage, Harry showed him he was. The Butters always had courage in his intellect, and morality. The man he is now has physical, mental and moral courage.

[morriswalters]

In the space of one book Butters goes from zero to hero. Betraying Harry,  becoming a sexual superstar, to getting a  light saber. By the next book he has to carry his gonads in a wheelbarrow because they  have become so big they drag the ground. He's challenging crazy wizards and standing up to dark Gods. I expect in the  next book he will romance Mab and give Harry relationship advice on how to  handle vampire  spouses, and will be on personal terms with the White God. Maybe the White God will abdicate and Butters will  become the Butter God.

I feel the need to keep this worship of the Butter God to sustainable levels through humor. Had Harry progressed this rapidly the Formor would have stayed under the lake shivering in fear and  Chicago would be pristine.

[Fcrate]

In the space of one book Butters goes from zero to hero. Betraying Harry,  becoming a sexual superstar, to getting a  light saber. By the next book he has to carry his gonads in a wheelbarrow because they  have become so big they drag the ground. He's challenging crazy wizards and standing up to dark Gods. I expect in the  next book he will romance Mab and give Harry relationship advice on how to  handle vampire  spouses, and will be on personal terms with the White God. Maybe the White God will abdicate and Butters will  become the Butter God.

I feel the need to keep this worship of the Butter God to sustainable levels through humor. Had Harry progressed this rapidly the Formor would have stayed under the lake shivering in fear and  Chicago would be pristine.

Thank you for saying it. I liked Butters much better in small doses. I didn't like his quick upgrades (especially since he'll probably be a council level wizard by the next book) and his geekdom is a bit overstated.

[Mira]

Butters didn’t know he was a man of physical courage, Harry showed him he was. The Butters always had courage in his intellect, and morality. The man he is now has physical, mental and moral courage.

 The physical finally caught up as well, it takes intellect and morality to have real courage.. There is a difference between being brave and merely reckless.

[g33k]

In the space of one book ...

Ummm... not really?  We've been seeing Butters "brave up" for several books, beginning with his attack on the un-Coin'ed Cassius, and being Harry's drummer for Sue.  Harry has been cheering him along, mentoring him, lifting him up.  "His nerd penis is bigger than all of yours."

But remember:  that moment with Cassius is the scene where Waldo Butters was the answer to Harry's prayer that he be saved by a Knight of the Cross.  He was a "Chosen One" figure from then onwards!  Even if, literally, he was an ankle-biter there.

Yes, he is rather a fanservice character... began, honestly, as comic relief / nerds' nerd, but he was surprisingly popular, so Jim gave him more and more role, more and more agency.

But Changes represented more than one kind of "Change," and one of the things that has happened is that Harry's now working at the power-scales where un-boosted mortals can no longer survive (not even with a bit of Harry's attention on shielding them).  If Butters is to continue, he needed a major power-boost.

in Ghost Story he has stepped up to being a really-active member of the Chicago Alliance, working the streets; and also their conduit to Bob's magic-theory & supernatural knowledge (taking over (that part of) what Harry had been doing for Chicago... if you don't have Harry, it takes a magical village! ).  This is, I daresay, braver & more daring (on a daily(?) basis) than most people manage to be  even once  in their lifetimes (of course, most people aren't facing the kinds of threats and risks that Butters has, and don't have the opportunity for that kind of daring...) .  But he's already an "action hero" in this book!

But you know what?  Being a magic-geek (with Bob to mentor & to be the needed "magic battery" for Butters' toys) isn't the kind of power-boost demanded by Changes.  In comics' terms, Butters is only a "street-level" hero; but Harry dying & coming back is 2-3 notches up from there.

I think his scene at the end of GS (getting CPR, where he wakes and -- on death's doorstep & in tremendous pain -- nevertheless makes a nerdy-yet-gallant compliment) is what flips the "loverboy" switch on; who wouldn't be flattered to be told they are someone's "dream," to be worth the effort to compliment... when most people would just be worried if they were even going to survive?

In Cold Days, we see "loverboy" already switched-on, from the first interaction.

Then, Skin Game.  And the lightsaber... ah, the lightsaber...  Butters (already menage-a-trois'ing with 2 (hot, younger) women) gets the nerds' ultimate fantasy toy; and becomes a Jedi Knight (of the Cross).

Face it:  everybody's jealous that Butters gets a lightsaber... even the fans!
 
###

The thing that I think many don't realize is what the Swords actually do.

People talk about the "superweapons" (from Hades' vault) and say they're "stronger" than the Swords.  That's not (at all) the case.

If one of the Angels inside one of the Swords had stepped forth to do battle with Ethniu & the Eye, they could have put Ethniu over their knee, spanked her like a child, and given her another 3-4 millenia timeout.  Or, y'know, just killed her out of hand.

But that's not their job.

The Angels in the Swords have a very specific role:  they even the odds.  No matter how potent the adversary, the otherwise-merely-mortal Knight of the Cross is on more or less even footing with ANY foe.  The power-up from a Sword scales upward to whatever is needed, without any meaningful limit; but it's not delivering Drakul-facing power when a Knight is only facing a single junior Blampire.