In Changes, when Harry goes in to meet Vadderung at his office Vadderung laughs. And it gets described as how Harry imagines Santa Claus's laugh would sound if he were younger. I just thought it was a cute foreshadowing of Vadderung's other mantle.
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Or in Small Favor when he says that Molly “looked natural in the snowy setting”
Lea painted a pretty target on Molly before we'd even met the girl back in Grave Peril when she tried to strike a bargain with Michael. Going through that after Cold Days was trippy.
It’s been a while since I read the books- what happened?
I may be a little off but I believe the deal would have been Michael's first born for the return of Amoracchius.
You are not off in the slightest.
Also note Molly's being taken to Arctis Tor in Proven Guilty as another example of winter fae interest in the padawan.
I was always so confused by that. Why Molly? Why kidnap her and bring her to Arctis Tor? Why is Mab bringing out her muscle just to kidnap Molly and take her to Arctis Tor?
That whole book is odd to me. No matter how many times I re-read it, I stumble through it like it's a bump in an otherwise smooth floor. I read the words, but I'm not 100% sure I understand the meaning.
Basically Mab used the fetches as an overreaction. They typically hunt people like molly but only after they go warlock due to the insane amount of fear they project. Them going after her and bringing her to Arctis Tor set up the chain reaction that let the summer Fae help the White Council. It also spared Molly's life due to Michael aiding the Council and having divine (hehe) timing
Ah, ok that makes sense. It's basically Mab setting up the chess pieces. That's why it doesn't feel like the other books in some ways.
And as a bonus it gets Harry aware of Nemesis by letting him see Lea in 'therapy', aware that one of the Denarians attacked Mab's stronghold, and puts the fear of Mab into Harry by letting him see what Mab's wrath looks like when she is disobeyed.
Basically Grave Peril 2.0
Maeve also warned Harry of a Mortal contagion in that book, the first time someone actually spoke of the infection to him as such.
I think there was more going on but letting Summer take the brunt of the attack on the Red Court was probably one of the things she wanted to accomplish. Don't forget there was an assault with Hellfire that cleared the way for Molly's rescue and for some reason Mab felt the need to masquerade as a statue.
That was just a quick summary. If you look at it in the new light you can piece together other points
Man it's taken me until my most recent reread to finally make sense of the fact that it's Mab sending the Fetches. That book just confuses me. I'll wait on piecing together other points until Jim decides to explain it to dummies like me.
Like was it Molly who runs out of the Theater with Hammer Hands? And who the hell put up a ward to try to stop Dresden right before that, and why?
The fairy queens and Mab in particular seem to show a certain amount of knowledge of the future. It's never been spelled out but they seem to have some ability to see the future.
I don't think they can see the future, more like they have some intellectus over how certain actions can influence the future. It's by no means perfect which is why Mab has backup plans for her backup plans
I still expect the time travel book to return to this book and clear up a lot of mysteries.
Oooo that's an interesting thought. Wasn't hellfire Lasciel's speciality exclusively? I always wondered if that was the case, why did Harry smell it when he was rescuing Molly?
I don't think it's Lasciel's specialty, just a denarian thing. Isn't it used in the aquarium by at least one of the other denarians? I know the big ward (placed by Lucifer) is crafted of hellfire.
Plenty of it in Small Favor beyond that.
Murph has appeared as a Broken angel and a Valkyrie. I feel like the Broken Angel has happened in Skin Game, but the Valkyrie bit is a possible huge clue.
There is not a doubt in my mind she's going at LEAST Einherjar before the trilogy, if not full blown Valk. She needs the upgrade to stay relevant to the grade of evil the series is spinning towards.
Or maybe she'll just die of mortal means such as a hospital induced infection or an aneurysm or something. Harry losing Karrin to vanilla means would defeat him more than if something spooky got her. He would have no righteous fury to direct and just have depression.
I mean she'd have to die before becoming an Einherjar. I put the odds of her dying in the next few books at 80% with the odds of her then returning (probably in the BAT) at like 60%
Which, to wax Doylist, is why it won't happen. Him being depressed isn't interesting reading.
That would be the best way to hurt dresden, but it would be horrible for the series.
It would take Karen out of the picture. That would be the best thing to ever happen for this series.
Kinda agree. She’s already getting older to be doing what she has too, she’ll be 50 by the time the BAT happens I bet.
I'm not saying that her dying would be bad, I'm saying that her dying due to something vanilla would lead Dresden into a funk that would take him a long time to recover from (if he did), and that would be bad for the series.
I can't see Jim taking Karen out in anything but a blaze of glory. Which would land her in a job proposal with Vanderung.
Jim has said that he always tries to torture Harry as much as possible and that would be the worst thing for him. It's also a bit stereotypical for the badass cop best friend to die in a battle, but a hard left turn (which Jim loves) to have her die to something boring. Hell maybe one of the books just opens on her getting crushed by a drunk driver and the subplot of the book is Harry battling with his grief while solving a case,
I think her becoming an all but immortal battle maiden in service to a god, essentially taking her away from Dresden for whatever constitutes eternity in dresdenverse, would hurt harder them then her just being dead.
If she just died, he'd still get to Happily Ever Afterlife with her.
Her going valk? Not only is she bound to the Norse pantheon, but she basically becomes Fae. This is waaay worse than her just keeling over for no reason. ESPECIALLY if she takes the wings to save him.
It's the Winter Mantle all over again, only this time it's not Harry bearing the burden.
I could actually see her becoming the Summer Knight. That would complicate thing for Harry.
I'd say it's possible but they basically did that with Elaine and I think the Summer Court has suffered enough.
As a best case though, I'd say summer knighting her would be a great idea. If Einherjar are still considered mortal, they could do both which would be hilarious.
Thing is, we're winding up towards the finale at this point. Each book has to take big steps to move things into place. We can have Harry Grief stricken, but only if her death is his fault on some level.
Also, stereotypical isn't always bad. Stupid meaningless deaths aren't interesting or groundbreaking storytelling. Game of Thrones came out in 1997 and Fantasy has adapted to that style in the intervening two decades. It stopped being a meaningful trope twister a long time ago. We can stop acting like all we ever get is happy endings and heroic moments. That hasn't been true in a long long time.
Then there are examples of foreshadowing that haven't been proven to be foreshadowing yet...
Theres another part in ghost story. Butters and harry just finished watching Murphy and a viking fight in a boxing ring and the viking asked when butters is gonna get in. Butters says he will when he gets a functional lightsaber. And now he does.
To be clear the synchronization of Woden/Odin into St. Nick is well documented.
Syncretization?
There are some similar examples of subtle foreshadowing scattered throughout the books. For example in Cold Days when Harry first sees Sarissa. As he takes in her appearance and simple blue hospital scrubs, he thinks to himself:
"Wow. Any woman who could wear that and still look that good was a freaking goddess."
[deleted] 11 points · Jul 2019
I never really got that line. I've always thought scrubs were kinda hot.
MartianPHaSR 1 points · Jul 2019
So do i. I guess Harry isn't in to scrubs.
Stryker7200 1 points · Jul 2019
Yep, hot girl in scrubs is still hot and can make them look real good.