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The Dresden Files/Archive/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
The Dresden Files/Archive/Headscratchers (view source)
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== Archive continuity of consciousness ==
* If the Archives have all of the memories of the previous Archives, why would any Archive ever bother to kill herself if she knew the only difference would basically be transferring to a younger body and gaining her daughter's memories? [[Fridge Horror|Was Ivy's mother biologically unstable, and hoping that Ivy's infant brain would be more suited to handling everything emotionally than her own?]] Or is there no [[Amnesiac Dissonance]], and the Archives know it, which means ''Ivy's mother intentionally subjected her baby daughter to having no personality buildup while still unaffected by the Archive's knowledge'', as has been strongly implied in a "we don't actually know firsthand, but it's our best guess" way in-series? If the former, Ivy's mother should have known both academically ''and'' emotionally that it wouldn't change anything, whether she was the first Archive to commit suicide (which I doubt) or not, and would have had to have been [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|literally]] [[Fridge Horror|insane]] to even try. If the latter, Ivy's mother did something even more horrible than it seemed at first glance.
** The mind of the previous Archive doesn't transfer to the new one. Only the memories transfer. Ivy's mother is dead and her consciousness ended the moment she killed herself. Ivy herself makes this fairly clear, as she's a completely seperate person from her mother. Thus, its quite clear its the latter case, that Ivy's mother knew firsthand what she was going to do to her daughter and didn't care. Presumably, the pain of possessing the Archive's knowledge broke her mind, and Ivy has udnergone some sort of counseling or therapy to control it. Either that or her lack of personality served as a better insulation than an actual personality; prior to meeting Harry and getting a name, she was literally nothing ''but'' the Archive, and this didn't seem to bother her all that much.
*** If Ivy's mother committed suicide while pregnant shouldn't Ivy have died?
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** Er, no it's not. Harry knows a good drive-in theater and can sit at the front of a theater to avoid shorting out the electronics, as noted already.
** It's in Aurora, about 75 - 90 minutes from downtown Chicago. He took Bob there to see Pirates, after all.
** On a completely unrelated note, this editor saw "It's in [[The Fair Folk|Aur]][[
* A related, but less obvious concern: Why is Harry's ''memory'' for pop-culture trivia so accurate? He quotes movies that haven't been in theaters for years or decades, yet even if he goes to every film Hollywood cranks out when it's released, he's unable to re-view them on TV or DVD and refresh his recollections. So how come he can remember things like the exact layout of the train station scene from ''[[The Untouchables]]'', when it's almost 20 years since he could've seen that picture?
** Harry doesn't need to have a DVD player. He games with the Alphas every week and likely watches movies with them. In such a case, all he has to do is draw a chalk circle on the floor, will it closed, and sit back in the circle and watch the movie.
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** What confused me about the Asian factor is that they never tried to ask for help in their supernatural circles. With the exception of Ebenezar and Harry, there is almost no element of this in the series, being firmly rooted in the Christian/Norse Mythology. I mean, is there really not other contact in the Never/Never than the Sidhe?. Other organizations that could help against the Red court beside The Venatori Umbrorum?. It just seems... a little off that the Asian hemisphere, possesing some of the oldest Cultures and religions in Humanity, would have so little influence in a World wide campaing.
*** This has actually been discussed already on the page. Look further down to the folder marked "The Fae, Nevernever, and Deities." Short version is that A) Faerie is important because mortal culture and belief makes them more widespread and thus gives them more power and prominence, B) Faerie is the closest realm to the mortal world in the Nevernever and thus the most strategically important, and C) Faerie incorporates most of the creatures from ''everyone's'' mythologies.
*** Is not the same discussion, since here its stating about ''mortal'' influence and low level spirits/supernatural entities; associations like the Venatori Umbrorum or regional creatures that should exist, in one way or another from some of the oldest parts of the world. Or that the Wizards from the Asian bloque don't show a lot of influence in the books (but could it be the case of protagonist provincialism) and that most actions and World wide conflicts come from the Western part of the planet. About the Faeries: isn't the closeness to the mortal world and incorporation of mythologies in fact just [[Fanon]] speculation. Don't remember had ever read a post where [[Word of God|Butcher]] say it was so and it was stated that while there are thousands of races of Faeries, it doesn't mean all the spirits are Faeries or in their circles. Take for example the [[Magical Native American|Naagloshii]], [[Evil
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== Margaret's name on DF wikis ==
* Less a problem with the books and more a problem with[[The Wiki Rule|the fandom information sharing archives]]: Why is Margaret LeFay/Margaret Dresden (nee {{spoiler|1=Margaret McCoy}}) registered in every wiki I could find that had her in it as Maggie Dresden, an obscure nickname used only by her husband and father? Her given name is Margaret, her [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|title]] is Lefay, and the name by which the viewpoint character knows her is Margaret Dresden, so why has the fandom latched onto the name "Maggie Dresden" instead of one of the names searchers are more likely to use? Particularly annoying since {{spoiler|Maggie Dresden is now the usual name of Margaret's granddaughter}}).
** First three hits of a DF wiki found through Google: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Dresden_Files_characters#Margaret_Gwendolyn_LeFay_McCoy_Dresden Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay] {{spoiler|1=McCoy }} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Dresden_Files_characters#Margaret_Gwendolyn_LeFay_McCoy_Dresden Dresden], [http://dresdenfiles.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Gwendolyn_LeFay_Dresden Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay Dresden], [http://dresdenfiles.wikidot.com/margaret-lefay Margaret Lefay]. None of the three have "Maggie" in the article's title or opening line.
*** There were three (aside from the Wikipedia page), and I couldn't find any others. It's possible that the wikidot page was changed to reflect new information, and they added a page, unless it was the other way around.
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** Since Harry burns down a building that has humans in it and is not promptly executed, I think that one's been answered. Maybe since he wasn't deliberately directing it at mortals, it didn't corrupt him the same way. White Court are human until they feed/kill for the first time, and then they become Succubi and Incubi, and I think they are not considered human. They may be immortal at this point, and they are supernatural predators and killers as well. Half-turned Reds may well be the same deal; human until first vampy kill, then fair game. Of course, that's moot at this point and we may never get a canon answer.<br />...It's really not clear to me why black magic is corrupting and addictive when used deliberately against mortals, while some of the same exact spells can be used on animals and supernatural creatures with no such ill effect. Harry, for example, deliberately uses necromancy, but he isn't addicted to it because the target was a T-rex? Really? That's the part I wonder about.
** If it isn't a pure-blooded human, it's fair game as far as the White Council is concerned. The White Council only cares if magic is used by humans against humans. The prohibition of using destructive magic does not apply to White Court; no one batted an eye when Harry killed Madrigal using magic. In addition, killing humans in and of itself using magic does not appear to be corrupting; that is an act that is specifically attributed to mind-controlling magic. Ditto for necromancy. Rather, using necromancy or lethal magic against humans is generally tied to the fact that you can't work those things without believing in them, which indicates a very twisted (or, in Harry's case, very desperate) person to begin with. Necromancy probably also gets a general round of condemnation because of associations with Kemmler. Of the other Laws, going beyond the Outer Gates and messing with time are Bad Things in general for the whole of reality, so they're right out, and I suspect changing someone else's form is as self-destructive and corrupting as enthralling or invading others' minds, which is why it is outlawed.
** The RPG rule book ''Your Story'' gets into a bit more detail with the laws. It admits that there's some fuzzy areas where mortal/not mortal is distinguished, but the one solid thing is that humans are off limits. In the first book, Morgan tries to get Harry for 'enthralling' Toot, who's not human, but that could just be Moran being [[Inspector Javert|Morgan]].<br />That said, the book breaks them down as the first four deal with the victim's life and soul, and the last three are ones that are "just wrong" from a cosmic sense. The way I look at it, the first four are the ones that really stain the soul, because you're directly negatively affecting a person's life and soul with magic. I believe that the Necromancy falls in the last one: It's a perversion of life and death, but the victim is already dead, so you're not messing with their life and soul.<br />Harry getting away with Sue was basically rules-lawyering/[[Loophole Abuse]] taking advantage of the [[What Measure Is a Non
** It's entirely possible that the White Council is simply wrong about the Laws of Magic. (Based on the novels and short stories, at least. This troper hasn't read the RPG sourcebook or several other sources of [[Canon]] outside the books themselves, so if they are more authoritative about the Laws of Magic, I wouldn't know.) They believe that Black Magic is literally, physically corrupting, and if someone uses any of it then they're more and more likely to use worse forms of it. But is that true? Well, we've seen enough in the story to say with pretty good certainty that mental magic actually does screw you up, like the teenage warlock in ''Proven Guilty'', and the many similar instances we're told exist and just haven't been seen. Beyond that, it just makes sense, given the very personal way magic works in this setting, that messing with someone else's mind would be very dangerous to your own. But as for all the other stuff that's against the Laws of Magic - killing, necromancy, time travel, transforming others and seeking "beyond the Outer Gates" - it's entirely possible that they're dangerous simply because they're hard to control, and they're only corrupting in the general psychological sense that power corrupts. The White Council might know this and maintain the official line about Black Magic being inherently corrupting because it's a convenient excuse to keep such dangerous practices banned, or the White Council might not have done enough research into Black Magic to even know it.
*** Keep in mind that the White Council didn't just establish the Laws of Magic to keep individual wizards from being corrupted. The Laws were established to protect mortals from wizards (Luccio explains this in Turn Coat). The fact that mental magic corrupts the mind of the user was probably incidental, and the Council's concern is that mental magic harms the victim first and foremost. Magic that directly harms mortals in any way (at least directly) is banned.
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== Carpenter Angelic Defenses ==
In Ghost stories it shows that the Carpenter house is the [[One Piece|Impel Down]] of the Dresden verse. Around two dozens of angels (each a [[One
* The angels are part of the Knights' "retirement package." Simply put, they weren't there until Michael was forced to give up the Sword. As for the events of The Warrior, as I recall the guy never assailed the house direction, which is what the Angels were protecting. He grabbed Michael's daughter from softball practice, and when he tried to jump Harry he wasn't in the house.
* Also, I'm pretty sure it's been stated that the angels will only protect Michael from supernatural threats.
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