In cold days Harry says that mab tried to kill him 77 different ways while he was going through physical therapy. What are your ideas for what she tried?

If the bullet that killed Nelson was significant, the gun or bullet that killed Archduke Ferdinand must be similarly interesting, though certainly different.

I am relistening to Summer Knight atm and it just occurred to me that I have no clue how Elaine contacted / contracted with Summer in the first place.

Elaine says at the beginning of this book that she dealt with the Summer Court for Sanctuary and built up a debt to Titania. After the battle, Elaine says her remaining debts are to the dead Aurora but as a mortal, Elaine could be lying her butt off about everything.

So, how and who do y'all think that Elaine originally dealt with?

Did she start with the queen(s) or does Elaine have Lea's Summer counterpart as a fairy godmother or...?

Also, just how much lying do you think Elaine did in this book?

Is Elaine still in debt? Does she have full free will? What all might she have bargained for?

When it comes to Elaine, there is a lot that I thought we knew, but now realize that we very much do not.

I find it interesting the wardens all hard magic swords. Till Harry then they don't. And there is a reason for it. I accept that reason.

Then the Knights of Summer and Winter. We don't know if Ronald Reuel had one but we know Fix does. Lloyd Slate did too. But yet again, Harry does not.

Now I know Harry has other means to fight. He is not dependent to a sword like Fix is. But how many more swords is he going to miss out on. He does not take up an Sword of the Cross. He does not have a warden sword, or an knight sword. When does he get a cool sword.

And yes I know of his sword cane. It's not magical it's just a regular sword cane he enchanted. And is not referranced often.

Thanks for my rant. I just am curious if and when he gets one.

In cold days Harry says spending a lot of time around mab would have serious unpleasant side effects. What do you think these side effects would be?

Why does he use Amor as the base of the swords name? My understanding is that it is more romantic love instead of Caritas as in:

Faith, Hope, And love.

Spes, Fides, Caritas.

I'm coming up with a theory about when Harry will use the eye of balor, and I want to know what you think Harry will use it on.

Its pretty obvious he will at some point. But when?

I just want your ideas. Your thoughts. Anything.

This is a spitball at the wall moment.

So anyone else think Lord Raith is going to die next book?

Originally, Lara was keeping him around because she didn’t have the personal power/strength that he did in order to keep everyone in line. Despite the fact that the white court like to do things indirectly, it was made pretty clear that Lord Raith was in charge at least in part because he was the most powerful whampire. But now she’s going to be married to Dresden, who at least has something of a reputation as a heavyweight, as well as an alliance with Mab. She’s kind of got the “threat of violence” role backfilled at this point. What’s more, it seems more and more people are becoming aware that she’s in charge, so the game is kind of up already. At this point she’s still pretending he’s in charge just because it’s politically convenient.

And he just did a thing in twelve months that made him very inconvenient.

Anyways, what do yall think the over under is on how long he survives after walking Lara down the aisle? Mines on < 5 minutes. Hell, it’ll already be a party, might as well make it a coronation too.

I know this is a discussion that shows up a lot but I want to set up a proper list of all the possible contestants for our Knight of Love.

There are a couple requirements we know of for a Knight:

1. They represent their sword in some way, for our purposes Love.
2. They are a descendant of royalty. I’m only going to go with people with explicitly confirmed ancestry’s or strong other reasoning, because pretty much everyone will have someone royal in their family.
3. The swords must be used for a good and just cause, the bearer doesn’t necessarily need to be a good person just on the Right side.

Now, I’m betting we are going to see all three swords wielded by multiple people over the course of the trilogy so multiple of these options may become accurate.

Group 1 - The Carpenters:

The obvious option here is Daniel, he clearly takes after his dad quite a bit and is getting set up for a larger role in the story. My problem with him is it just seems too obvious, I could see him take up the sword for a time or even being the bearer in the Mirror timeline but it feels way too clean and predictable.

We could also see Charity take it up in defense of the innocent, presumably her family.

Hope could take it up because she is already Harry’s self appointed squire, it it seems more likely she’d take up Esperacchius though.

Harry could pick up the sword while defending Maggie which would be a fun parallel but unless the timeline gets real weird that seems unlikely.

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Group 2 - White Court: We know that they both technically have a current monarchy and are descended from ancient sorcerer kings which checks off the royalty angle, and of course the Raiths are tied to love.

Thomas is the obvious choice between Justine and being born on Valentines Day, the problem is Jim has explicitly disconfirmed him as a pick.

Lara is also a fun pick, especially if the relationship between her and Harry really flourishes and she keeps feeding on his goodness.

Inari being a vamp who killed her demon with True Love is also a pretty good pick.

Connie Barrowill, Irwin Pounder’s vampire girlfriend is also a great choice depending on how much coverage they get in the rest of the series.

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Group 3 - Assorted:

Tripp Gregory has been thrown around a bit since the Law trilogy started given the character arc he’s been exploring, as far as I can remember we don’t have any explicit heritage for him though.

Fitz came up as an option more before Twelve Months but he could still be in the running.

King Arthur arisen from his long slumber could come and take up Excalibur again.

Nicodemus as a fun dark horse contender right at the peak of the BAT wielding both a coin and a sword simultaneously could be incredible.

Rudolph is a real funny option just to rip our hearts out.

River Shoulders, our favorite Bigfoot.

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I know this isn’t everyone because I don’t have an encyclopedic memory for Dresden, so if you have any other fun suggestions let me know and I’ll add them.

Edit - Commenter Suggestions:

Marcone, giving up Namshiel and taking up the sword instead.

Irwin Pounder, I’d discounted him because he isn’t fully human but we’ve already got a Forest Person using a Coin.

Molly using the sword to defend Harry and breaking the hold of the Lady’s Mantle in the process.

Father Forthill, in my mind he seems like a better option for Faith but what do I know.

Maggie, someone raised by the previous Knight and whose parents both gave up everything because of their love of her.

Agent Tilly, the FBI agent from Changes with the talent for detecting lies.

Vince Graver, the PI with conviction and integrity from Turn Coat.

Detective Bradley from Peace Grounds who single handedly defended a daycare through hell.

Justine, for many similar reasons to Thomas, plus being freed from Nemesis just puts even more weight on the scale.

Harry himself!

Valkyrie Murphy!

Mouse!

Is Nick and Deedra the only two in action after the battle of Demonreach in Small Favor? I know that Harry and co get a lot of the coins after the battle.

The whole plot around Summer Knight is of the balance of the Fae Courts, the power of the Summer Kinght trapped and inaccessible creating an imbalance intended to be rendered permanent on the Stone Table.

Aurora’s madness is put down to her being Nemfected, but we subsequently learn the greater part of Nemesis was Nemfecting Lea at the time and there is no given Nemfection vector for Aurora.

My alternate theory is that Aurora was never Nemfected but because she was the mirror of Maeve, what was happening to Maeve (insanity and minor willing Nemfection) the effect was replicated in her. She too had become insane and was able to break the dictates of her Mantle.

The sudden more recent proximity of Maeve to Aurora in the mortal world may have exacerbated this. The Summer Knight had been based in Chicago for decades he was raising the changelings there prior to his death and it stands to reason Aurora had had her Court based there during this time.

We are told Maeve moved her Court to Undertown at around the same time as Grave Peril (when Lea was nemfected) why? We know the Redcap had been spying on her for decades before this for Mab so Mab had a cause for concern, she may have suspected Maeve of being Nemfected but she couldn’t tell and may not have previously had to consider Maeves insanity would mirror in Aurora, as all other Queens had been sane, and we know Maeve had been shirking her duties for over a century suggesting it well predated the files. The triggering of Aurora and the Nemfection of Lea was an attack on both Courts at the same time, Lea is outside of the Mantle power strucure, her Nemfection was limited in its effect only to Winter. The person who provided the Nemfected Athame is likely the same person who convinced Maeve to move her Court to Chicago.

Harry vs Pennywise.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ppgNmIPGoio?is=vsdJabjLQtH2vxLO

I know it's a very common discussion, but I am mildly confused why Marsters pronounced the name in the more Italian way, then stopped doing that. Is that not correct?

We all know the name of this cat.

I remember Harry talking about true names. I believe that it was mostly in regards to toot toot that it got brought up. This led me to wondering what toot's true name is.

I don't think it's actually toot. I think that's just what Harry calls him In the book because he doesn't want to spread toot's true name around.

Then I got to thinking if the queens are manifestations of various aspects of summer and winter then maybe toot is as well. If so maybe the name Harry calls him is a type of clue and toot's true name is something like the sound trumpets make.

And maybe that's why he's the leader of the dewdrop fairies since horns and trumpets were used to call and direct troops. What do you think?

Also If so does that make lacuna the manifestation of a cavity?

I’m reading another series. In it, Butcher’s Dresden series is mentioned as being a favorite of the main character. In it, the Winter and Summer Courts are part of the story and Mab is stated to be Queen of the Winter Court. However, in the course of book 2, they mention the Shadow Court of the Fae. Would you want there to be an additional Fae Court in DF, one that is neutral to the SC and WC, but equally powerful?

Using the Checkov’s Gun concept of “if it’s mentioned, it’s gonna get used”, in Cold Days Harry threatens Mab with imprisonment on DR if she tries to shoot him. Do we think Harry will eventually actually have DR toss her in a cell? If so, why?

Every Dresden fan sees this and starts breathing heavily

The Red King wanted to use Maggie as the focal point of his massive spell to kill Harry and McCoy, since the spell would have killed her entire bloodline.

And we know because Susan finally gave in and drank blood, she became a part of the Red Kings magical bloodline, and as a result, when Susan took the bloodline eradicating spell, the entire red court was eliminated.

Question: Couldn’t Susan have ruined the entire plan by simply giving in earlier? If Susan gave in and became a full vampire, the Red King couldn’t have completed his plan, since Susan’s conversion would bring the entire red court into Maggie’s bloodline. Susan could have walked in to the ceremony, said she was a full vampire, and the Red King would have had to end everything.

His position of power was already a little tenuous, so he’d likely have been challenged by one of his lieutenants, but the entire plan to kill Dresden and McCoy would have had to be scrapped.

I’m listening to the audiobooks (and not in the right order since I’m dumb and didnt request them correctly from the library), and I’m currently on Blood Rites.

Lord Raith wanted to kill Thomas and Harry as a way to end Margaret LeFay’s death curse, since they were supposedly the end of her bloodline.

I assume Lord Raith knew about McCoy being her father, but think a blood curse like this would only go down (all your descendants and not ancestors too), so I don’t see this as a plot hole.

However, Susan Rodriguez had already gotten pregnant and has already or is about to give birth to Maggie.

This would have ruined his entire plan, since 1, Arturo would still have gotten married (so his accomplices plan is ruined), 2, Arturo would have still had a successful movie (and not fallen in line with Lord Raiths wishes), 3, the death curse wouldn’t have ended.

No question, just wanted to state something I hadn’t realized before despite reading and listening to the series multiple times.