Instinct, short stories for puppy rescue

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Maybe, but I think it's just that, as you say, Jim is a lazy writer.  "Misplaced politeness & and a touch of formality" is Jim's signifier for the really dangerous villains, the ones who think:
_{- Nicodemus Archleone, addressing Lasciel's Shadow (unbeknownst to him, now gone); Small Favor ch.45}

OMG Chandler is actually Lucifer…….

[g33k]

OMG Chandler is actually Lucifer…….

<sighs patiently>

No, no.

Chandler is Cowl.


(new WAG -- Jim has been reading fantheories obsessively.  When we get the Big Reveal...  Cowl is all of them, all the Cowl-ID WAG's (by way of body-hopping a la Capiorcorpus, mental domination a la Peabody (or Nemesis), etc).)         

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Are you mad? Chandler wearing that ensemble? Preposterous!

Besides Chandler is kept close to the Senior Council in Edinburgh, no time for shenanigans in Chicago.

Unless he is time travelling.

I think the use of the British accent is mostly Harry having seen far too many movies with British actors as the villains - his mind interprets a villains voice as British if it is telepathic, the British prisoner, the walkers etc. We also have Binder and The Merlin antagonists of Harry. Chandler is most likely a diversion.

The rest is that it makes a comparison to Harry himself, the Blue Beetle, the T-Shirts, one entire novel has EVERYONE commenting that he badly needs a haircut. We don’t see villains who look and act like Harry (except the Nightmare)

[vincentric]

Chandler is missing and presumed dead at the end of BG. If he is Cowl and capable of time travel, he has a perfect cover story.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

I think we are due to meet Chandler again in Mirror Mirror, Harry needs someone who can give him exposition about the multiverse, and that was recently added to his cannon in Battle Ground, so I suspect Chandler will be called upon to be Basil Exposition.

[Dina]

I know it is being a while with nobody posting here, but I've just finished the short story today and I want to comment about it.
I liked the story a lot, I think it was one of Jim's best. It was epic, with Cowl and legendary monsters fighting together. But it was also super cute. The way Mouse thinks about Harry, Maggie, Mister, Michael, Marcone was perfect. I also adored that Mouse thought the vest was magic.
Mouse learning a lot of things at school including reading 

Will and Michael talking about Harry and his emotional status...so tender and sad.

Cowl mentioning Harry so casually, familiar...I think I am beginning to like the idea of Cowl being Chandler.

I thought several theories about who the 4 powers were. Mine is Harry, Butters, Mort and Marcone. Obviously Mac too but I do not think Cowl was imagining Mac involving in a "simple" case of murders. Perhaps Gard, Lapland?

Mouse powers are depicted with more detail here. I liked that. And I think he will be instrumental in the BAT.

But I am not sure what the plan for the children was? Feed him to the Lion, so Harry will be destroyed when he found that Mister had been the one doing the killings? I think that is a little weird. And Cerberus said Maggie was in danger but I do not see it in the story, There is no mention of any plan to hurt Maggie.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The vest is magic, it’s Neuromancy (what  Mab concludes about Harry’s use of Pizza in Battle Ground) Granny Weatherwax would be proud (she would call it Headology). Do you disagree with Mab and Granny Weatherwax? It’s a second instance of Harry using that form of magic.

Yep on the schooling, something which myShadow/Ash doesn’t know, giving Mouse a power up over his siblings.

By this point Harry should have met Nameless in The Law (the timeline hasn’t been updated suspiciously) I believe it is set after the first part of the Law, and it is Cowl/Nameless taking a rather petty personal revenge on Harry. Chandler was exceptionally well watched by the WC due to his field of study, and Cowl already had Peabody inside the WC.

I don’t think Cowl/Nameless knows about Namshiel. I don’t think he told either Gard or Hendrick’s. Mab didn’t know. Only Harry knows, and now Mab. So not one of the four. Molly would be the fourth I think,  she is doing a lot of work in Chicago at this point. Not Mac retired. Not Gard - different pantheon, and contracted to Marcone, Not Lapland, she is bound to Nameless.

The plan I think was to power up the Lion with human souls utterly corrupting Mister and kicking Harry when he is down, that he loses another emotional support which would cause him to isolate from Maggie and put her at harm. As I said this is a petty revenge thing, not some grand plan to manipulate the WC or Vamoire Courts. Harry has personally embarrassed Cowl/Nameless now. A lion controlled Mister would also be a direct threat to Maggie who cuddles Mister in her sleep when she stays with her Dad.

The chickens, pigs and cows do not count, I believe Mister pre-Lion had already partaken of such livestock. If Harry had a cat flap he might have seen Mister trying to drag a dead cow through it. At 3 am.

[Dina]

As far as we know, Chandler is MIA since the Drakul attack. And Peabody could be the proxy he used before because he knew he was under constant surveillance. Peabody was responsible of a lot of administrative things, who is not to say he was responsible of the measures about Chandler? By having him, Chandler could avoid do some things himself and also create some blind spots in the watch, allowing him to create his Cowl persona. His "field of study" fits very well in what we know about Cowl's plans for the future.
All that is just a WAG. I actually like Chandler so I would not like that he is Cowl.

About the 4, I do not think Molly was one. She is not "in Chicago" anymore and she is in another league. I do not think Cowl would have included her with the others. Your objections about the others are valid, I do not know.

Ok about the plan.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Chandler also as a full backstory with the WC. He was apprenticed as a child and is an age of the other wardens in Carlos group. The timeline has Carlos  born in 15 BSF so Chandler would expect to be born around the same year, which means that by Cowls first appearance in GP, Chandler still would have been an apprentice himself.

Drakul most likely saved Chandler because he was privy to all sorts of forbidden knowledge in the WC library. Harry on the other hand appears to have been restricted to the Children’s Section.

[Dina]

Yes, I admit you are right in that.
Harry really should have been more curious. He is very aware that knowledge is power.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Yes, I admit you are right in that.
Harry really should have been more curious. He is very aware that knowledge is power.

Mouse is.

[Dina]

  Most everyone is.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

As regards the four other practitioners in Chicago, you have to include Nameless. Unless of course Nameless is Cowl.

[Dina]

I think Cowl was not including people who would not care for innocent people being murdered.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

But Marcone would, and Nameless works for Marcone.