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Apocalyptic Trilogy scenarios

During the Apocalyptic Trilogy, one of the villains will attempt to erase the Archive's memory.

  • Given how big of a deal has been made about messing with people's minds (It's the only Law of Magic that's ever really had any focus.), and how important the Archive is, it's plausible that one of the various villainous factions would attempt to destroy all human knowledge. 
    • Smart money's on the Denarians. Nicodemus has destroyed previous knowledge of his actions. 
      • Of course, that begs the question of why he's never tried to take out the Archive in his possibly 2000 year lifespan?
      • Presumably because while Nick is incredibly powerful in his own right, the real reason he's lasted those 2000 years is because he's clever and cautious. He'd not move openly against a heavyweight like the Archive unless he had a particular set of circumstances and a really good plan- as seen in Small Favor. 
      • Or he HAS, but there's no record of it, and the Archive can't actually say anything about it. But it's more likely that you're correct.
      • As the Archive is only a child in the series due to an unlikely series of tragedies, this may well have been the first time an Archive has been as physically or emotionally vulnerable as Ivy in the last 2000 years. It was probably Nicodemus's first chance in all that time to try to take her on without getting himself creamed by a full-grown, mentally-prepared adult.

The event that causes the Apocalypse in the final trilogy is the Stone Table breaking

The Stone Table is the one item that regulates the seasons. We will see the stone table breaking and Harry become free from Mab's controll as the Winter Knight.


Harry's going to unite all the good/neutral races we've seen so far himself

At the end of the series, Harry will wield Winter Ice, Soulfire, Hellfire, Summer Fire, stand with three Knights of the Cross (Murph weilding Fidellachius, Daniel wielding Esperrachius, and Thomas/ someone else wielding Amorrachius), have the White Court (Led by Thomas), White Council, both of the Faerie courts, the Venators, and an army of ghosts on his side. Against him will be the Formor and an army of Outsiders. And it will be epic.

    • Epic probably. Impossible certainly. The Winter/Summer thing is on the edge of possibility, but Hellfire is EVIL. You literally cannot wield the two at the same time.
    • In regard to Winter/Summer, when asked if someone could hold both mantles at once, Butcher's answer was, "Very. Briefly. Matter and anti-matter reactions come to mind."
    • And he will STILL start the book by getting his ass kicked!

The series will end with a Big Damn Heroes moment for humanity

No, not an individual mortal, like Murphy or something.

So, here's the setup: partway through the apocalypitc trilogy WOJ says will cap off the series, the Black Council will take over and the masquerade will fall, revealing the supernatural to the world. The world governments reel as people start panicking. Stuff happens, and in the last book, Harry's gathered some sort of army (FOR TEH PIZZA LORD!), but they're on the verge of defeat against the Black Council's horde of outsiders (or something equally dangerous). The enemy stretches out to the horizon. All of a sudden, a shadow falls across the field. Harry looks up to see a volley of artillery shells so thick that they BLOCK OUT THE SUN.

The conventional mortal muggles will ultimately be the deciding force that will defeat the series's big bads.

For added support, see comments made by Harry In-Universe and the scene with the Mules in First Lord's Fury. Clearly, Jim is fond of the concept that regular people can be just as dangerous as anyone else.

  • Look at how often the supernatural use human/mortal weapons even when there is no reason for a to hide magic Magic has its advantages, but one has to wonder why so many non-wizards of the supernatural community prefer automatic weapons and military grade explosives.

The title "Empty Night" for one part of the apocalypse trilogy means that the stars will go out.

"Quietly, without making any fuss, the stars were going out." It worked for Arthur C. Clarke, you know Dresden will make it a thousand times better. Which is saying quite alot.

The antagonists of Backup will try to destroy Ferrovax, and kick off the apocalyptic trilogy.

It's part of their stated agenda, but you can't really kill and destroy one of the last couple of dragons, a Freeholding Lord, without someone (a lot of someones) noticing. My guess? Dragon's lifeblood desanctifies the curséd athame. Two birds, one stone. Maybe three, if they can wrangle the energy of his death and the destruction of the athame's bindings into breaking something big, say, the Stone Tablet?

    • And how do they aim to do this?
    • Also, Ferrovax is not one of 'the last couple Dragons.'

Queen Mab will be one of the final enemies Harry must face in the apocalyptic trilogy

  • Just a hunch, but it seemed to fit the style of the books. In Changes, Mab says that "The stars will rain from the sky before she fulfills not her word." Now, what do we KNOW is the title of one of the books in the trilogy? Empty Night.
    • Ooo, that's a good point. I wonder how it ties in with the White Court, though, as it's their curse? Also, Butcher commented that there's a reason those three phrases ("stars and stones", "hell's bells", and "empty night") are used as curse words.
      • Stars and stones= meteors. Shooting stars that turn to stone where they land. Empty Night is the dust cloud causing the stars to go out. Hell's bells call the stars. It's happened before, and Sue narrowly stopped it happening a few million years before it actually did. (I highly doubt everything but the possible meaning of "stars and stones" and possibly the stars going out, but it would be epic, and this series Runs On Epicflonium.
    • Seems likely that she'll be one of the first enemies Harry will face in the Apocalyptic Trilogy. But, remember, Mab isn't served by the world ending. He'll almost certianly have to fight her, but I'd guess she'll end up on his side by the second book. 
    • Strong Disagree. Read the line again. "The Stars will rain from the sky before she fullfills not her word." That means she keeps her word to the end of the world. She'll be an Ally. Which is why it'll be a twist because Harry's spent most of the series viewing her as an enemy.

The Black Council wants to summon Outsiders to destroy the universe, and that's what the "Apocalyptic trilogy" will be all about.

Seriously. One member uses the phrase "the end is nigh" as a passcode? Sounds like an apocalyptic cult to me! Harry has power over/against Outsiders, hence the Black Council's interest in him. The reason so many folks, both evil and not-so-evil, want to give him power is both to make sure he's strong enough to prevent The End and to have control over him before/while/after doing so. Oh, and Demonreach is a place where the walls between the world and the Outside are thin, and will be the site for at least some of the major final battles.

  • Seems unlikely in my book. The Black Council seem more like they'd end up being pawns for someone else trying to release the Outsiders.
    • Possible, there's definitely an Outsider or some sort of high power being behind the Circle, you get the feeling the Skinwalker wouldn't work with just any group of evil wizards, regardless of how powerful they are. 

Regarding Harry's death; he will be brought back to life as... The Pizza Lord!

My reasoning? He has the respect and admiration of 600 pixies (stated in Changes- 100 regulars, 500 part timers), who have a massive amount of devotion, belief and faith in him. We are told repeatedly throughout the series that belief and faith are a type of power, and that they can give things power, so if that many magical creatures are devoted to you it's got to do something. The effect on Harry? The combined force of their belief will break the universe, and resurrect Harry as the God of Pizza!

  • So basically, the opposite of what happened with Tinkerbell.
  • As kickass as this would be, creatures from the Nevernever don't have souls, so they probably can't empower Harry through faith. 
    • Jossed by Ghost Story.

The Big Bad of the entire series is (or will be, by the time we reach the apocalyptic trilogy) Gentleman Johnny Marcone

  • In the first two books of the series, Marcone has an amazing amount of control over the world of the mundanes. Supposedly he's got other crooks, cops and politicians and all levels in his pockets. Then he starts making inroads into the supernatural world. He's part of that community now. And at the rate he's made inroads into the supernatural world, it could very well be that by the time we get to the apocalyptic trilogy, he's a big enough player to be... you know... apocalyptic.
  • Something that recurs is the fact that the reason why Dresden is so effective is because he's an investigator, who thinks and reasons and puts the facts together, as well as a wizard. It would compliment this idea if the ultimate Big Bad, the one who out-evils every necromancer and monster and threatens every crusty old wizard and sword-weilding paladin, is the ordinary man who is extremely smart and logical about the way he conducts his business of world domination.
  • It would harken back to the roots of the series. Who's the nemesis of the hardboiled detective? The crime boss with his fingers in all kinds of pies.
  • He's awesome. So, Rule of Cool applies.
    • Assuming this is true, the apocalypse of the trilogy will be Ragnarok. That's the only thing I can think of that would let him be a Big Bad and retain the support of Odin, and therefore Gard, and therefore Hendrick's Love Interest.
    • You forget, Ragnorak is where Odin dies.

The Big Bad of the entire series will end up being someone no one expects:

  • Mac. Consider: He's perfectly positioned as someone on Accorded Neutral Territory to get information on both sides to play one against the other. He's notoriously silent so as not to give himself away. He makes one of the best beers on the planet, which everyone, on both sides, wants to get.

The Apocalyptic Trilogy will be, or include as part, Ragnarok

We've already got Odin, a valkyrie, and we've seen Einherjar. As Odin is alive, Ragnarok can't have happened yet, and it certainly fits the description of an apocalyptic battle.

John Marcone will give a Heroic Sacrifice towards the end of the Apocalyptic Trilogy

Jim Butcher has spent a heck of a lot of time building up the antiheroic rivalry between Dresden and Marcone. "Marcone is scum, but he doesn't hurt kids", he's a civilizing influence on crime, et cetera, et cetera, Bueller, Bueller... Anyway. He spends a lot of time outlining the fact that, despite being a criminal overlord, he's basically a positive influence in the world. So after the Black Council is defeated, the Outer Gates sealed for all time, the Formor crushed underheel...Gentleman Johnny dies, sacrificing himself to save the world. Which, of course, causes Harry to think better of him, a la Morgan. Hendricks and Gard aren't the same force-of-personality to keep the organization together.

One can just see Dresden describing this: "I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to miss Marcone. Much as he was a criminal scumbag, he kept things at a simmer, not letting them boil over. Sure, I've got power to burn. Hell's be-... for crying out loud, I just stopped an Apocalypse. But I can't be everywhere at once. Without Marcone watching the other side of the fence, the world's going to get a little bit darker. Magic doesn't solve problems; that's what the person using it is for. Time to get to work."

The Apocalyptic trilogy will be the three main villains

Hells Bells: the Denarians, possibly joined by the Big Man himself.

Stars and Stones: the Fairies, probably Mab going to war with everybody and breaking some oath(as she swore to Harry that the stars would fall from the sky before she broke her word).

Empty Night: the Oblivion War, probably vampires, necromancers and everybody who was anybody will be back here.

The apocalyptic trilogy will remake the world.

Not (just) destroy it. Individuals from the series may even exist in some better form (for them) in the new world. "Empty Night" means (possibly in addition to "The Stars Are Going Out") "that which was before there was anything" (i.e., "Let There Be Light").


During the Apocalyptic Trilogy, Harry will suffer a HRROD and possibly performs a Heroic Sacrifice

During the second or third book of the Trilogy, Harry is forced into a battle that, despite his power creep, causes him to burn out (possibly against Ferrovax or another Dragon), leaving him unable to use magic. However, Harry being Harry, he doesn't quit, but struggles to save the world, using only his wits, and all contacts that he's gathered during the years. It will serve as to showcase the huge development he's gone through, and he manages to save the world, but at the cost of his life. The chapter after that will be from Molly's POV, saying something along the lines of while the world is saved, Harry's dead and the world is still far from safe, and that she will follow in his footsteps. The series will then end with a nice callback.

"Harry taught me a lot of things about magic. About the value of life. And while his death saved us all, there are still threats out there. I don't want to see any of those try and destroy what he gave his life to save. I'm not going to let any nasties, ghoulies and creepies run around spreading terror and fear. I'm going to do what he would have done. My name is Margareth Katherine Amanda Carpenter. Conjure it at your own risk. When things get strange, when what goes bump in the night flicks on the lights, when no one else can help you, give me a call. I'm in the book."

The death of Ebenezer McCoy will be one of the pivotal events, if not starting point, for the Big Apocalyptic Trilogy.

My vision for the end of the series' "case files" will involve Ebenezer falling in combat to a member of the Black Council, most likely Cowl himself. This will create a political meltdown within the White Council during the BAT, forcing the Merlin to make three declarations:

1. The Black Council does exist. They've been working in secret for years to sabotage the White Council's protection of non-magical humans. The Vampire War was most likely a ploy to leave both factions too weak to oppose them in preparation for declaring themselves openly.

2. In times of emergency, a member of the White Council has been given the power to break the Laws of Magic without fear of consequence. The Blackstaff is the next best thing to an assassin: when a situation arises that might force the Council into violating the Laws of Magic, the Blackstaff is dispatched to resolve it. Ebenezer McCoy was the most recent holder of that post.

3. The current crisis demands that this office be immediately filled, so Harry Dresden is hereby appointed as the new Blackstaff. He has experience fighting the Black Council, along with determination and strength that dwarf any other potential candidates. Plus, as Ebenezer's pupil, it's likely he was being unknowingly trained to fill this post someday.

Naturally, the strain of hearing that Harry is now above the Laws of Magic pushes the Council toits breaking point. A faction lead by Cristos breaks from the White Council, many of those defecting to the Black. On the other hand, the wizards who remain with the White Council are encouraged now that the Senior Council is being open about the threats they face.

Character Theories

Who cares who wins in the Fomor infighting in Chicago?

  • Because they're all fucked when Harry gets back.

Malcolm Dresden was murdered, and when Harry finds out and confronts who/what did it...

...He will say. "My name is Harry Dresden. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Because it would be that awesome, and Harry is an incredibly pop cultured badass.

  • And he'll say it in a poor imitation of Carlos' accent

The Black Council has been a Stealth Mentor for Harry this entire time

Possibly even being directed by Leanansidhe. Remember her methods of training Molly? Subject her to potentially lethal test after brutal potentially lethal test! Well, what has been happening to Harry for almost his entire life? Antagonists come out of seemingly nowhere, all of them seemingly insurmountable for Harry, but just barely defeatable when he stretches himself to the limit. They're setups, they're tests, they're intentionally lethal training sessions for the express purpose of forcing Harry to grow more powerful.

Victor Sells and the Hexenwulfen were deliberately chosen and trained for this purpose. After this, Harry had gotten too powerful to deal with minor talents created for the purpose of training Harry, so they began to manipulate events from behind the scenes to force Harry into conflicts that they knew he'd just barely be capable of surviving. This would necessitate Mab herself either being in league with the Black Council, or manipulated by it. I'm not sure which option is better.

  • I opt for the notion that the Black Council is out to get Harry, there might be an infiltrator that is on Harry's side that's manipulating the Council into giving Harry just enough that he can handle. 

If the woman in a coma Marcone is taking care of is really dead (ie: her soul has moved on) even if her body still works, then Lash will wind up with it.

It seems like an empty body would be a perfect host for a spirit, and if she's dead for all spiritual purposes then it's even morally acceptable. Plus it would make an enemy of Marcone for a time, and we've never seen him really go after Dresden.

Odin is Santa Claus, aka the Winter King.

Word of God already says that Santa Claus is stupidly powerful and the counterpart to the Erlking, and that Harry wouldn't even think of summoning him. The All-Seeing Eye, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. This also explains how he's still able to operate when many gods are hibernating; while there's enough pagan faith to keep his serious demeanor; he's able to multi-task the Santa Claus legend to bolster his power.

  • Not so wild as you might think, since this is pretty much built into Santa Claus by default. Santa Claus is derived from an amalgamation of folkloric figures, many of which come more or less directly from Odin. Still, Odin played it a little straightforward with Harry during their meeting, so its hard to imagine him as a Sidhe. (Compare Odin's demeanor with, say, the Erlking)
    • Multi-Tasking. He's a Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie; doing a balancing act between his deity status, his Fey-lord status, and being Santa Claus.
  • If he is Santa he is not the Winter King. The RPG rule book holds Santa as the leader of a Wild Court on par with the Erlking.
    • See the Headscratchers page for the series. Santa is the Winter King, and leader of a Wild Court on par with the Erlking (who is the Summer King). It's complicated.
    • Actually, in one of the books, the one where Harry is almost sold on Ebay, states that the Erlking is a Winter Fae. He is leading the other Winter Fae to attack Harry when Harry melts the fountain thing with Summer's Butterfly.
      • That'd be Proven Guilty. And I always saw that as the Erlking either tagging along with the Winter Fae or trying to keep them fron stealing his kills. Wasn't his only appearance his horn blowing, anyway?
  • The Erkling and Santa Claus are the leaders of the Wyldfae, each analogous to Titania and Mab. Erkling is the Wyld Summer King and Santa is the Wyld Winter King. This information is the Word Of Jim. He explained it at either a book signing or a convention that someone recorded and I watched online.

Harry and Thomas have more siblings out there.

Way back in Fool Moon, Harry's Demon Informant all but directly states that Harry has family out there. Later, in Death Masks, Nicodemus states that Harry is his mother's "youngest" child. In the next book, we find out that Thomas is his older brother. However, you don't use youngest and oldest in a set of two, implying that Harry and Thomas have at least one older sibling. 

  • Can we really trust a Fallen, though? Furthermore, it's not always incorrect to use "oldest" and "youngest" in a set of two, especially "oldest", and especially when the actual set size is left vague. This editor is his mother's parents' oldest male grandchild, and there are only two male grandchildren.
  • Considering the fact that we aren't entirely sure how old Margaret Le Fay really is (only that she's young enough to have been tutored in magic by a guy who fought in the French and Indian war and fathered by him, but that doesn't really add any significant minimum considering how old McCoy is), or if she's had any less emotionally-invested relationships than with Malcolm Dresden apart from Lord Raith, Harry could easily be a seventh. A whole mess of volatile power combined with living for probably at least a while before decent non-magical medicine and having something to do with the Fae could account for five children (death by being born, bartered/stolen [possibly as part of a deal to prevent any death occuring during the birth], living in the Nevernever with the other parent, etc.).
  • I'm betting on at least one changeling sibling; she's called "Le Fay" for a reason, after all. I'm also betting on a brother named Richard.
      • Tom, Dick...and Harry. Oh God. If Margaret was anything like her sons it's possible.
  • Combining this with the "Johnny Marcone isn't his real name" theory elsewhere on this page, I'm going to have to suggest that Marcone is yet another lost brother. Margaret just didn't leave a message in his head for Harry...though there's no saying she didn't leave one in Harry's head for Marcone. Maybe why he hasn't had our beloved wizard killed yet?

Why the Leanansidhe is on the outs with Mab

Mab purchased Harry's debt from the Leanansidhe. When Lea's year and a day was up, she intended to enslave Harry anyways, debt or no debt (after all, she does care deeply for Harry, even if in an insane psycho Sidhe way). Her increased status given by the (thus unnamed) athame gave her a minor chance of coming out victorious in the matter, thus Mab preemptively froze her in a block of ice until Harry's debt to Mab was paid in full.

  • Also, that athame drove the Leanansidhe insane, and is doing the same to Mab who thought (wrongly) that she could control it.
    • Maybe it's like the 30 Dinarii, the question is what/who is inside it? While the nickleheads can dominate a mortal, the Leanansidhe and Mab are among the strongest willed beings in the books to date. Maybe it's Satan inside a reworked spear, maybe once held by a soldier by the name of Longinus.
      • A spearhead could be reworked into a dagger pretty easily. Furthermore it would tie into the whole Apocalyptic Trilogy Ending Butcher has planned. Ol' Scratch was bound to show up sooner or later.
  • Alternatively, Lea's on the outs because she thought the Antheme would give her enough power to usurp Mab, and she was crazy for the same reason that every other winterfae went crazy, Harry used Summer Fire in the heart of winter, which being the inherent opposite power drove the winterfae into a frenzy, Lea included. Given that this all unfolded in the wake of Tessa and the Black Council attacking Arcis Tor, it's highly possible that Lea is/was either a member or agent of the Black Council and the whole thing was one large coup attempt. 
  • As of Changes, Lea is back in favor. She is out from under the mountain of ice and Mab refers to Lea as her handmaiden.
  • Or as the books say, Lea is on the outs because she thought the Antheme gave her enough power to face That Which Stalks Us All. Which given it's name is probably an Outsider sealed away in the Never Never. Needless to say it didn't work and Mab had to smack Lea down hard. Hence why Mab was curing Lea as opposed to punishing her.

The headaches spoken of in the excerpt is residual from Lash's death

Murphy says that even if a real friend took a bullet for him, he would probably go loopy for a while, let alone an imaginary one in his head, but he experiences none of these side effects. It makes me think she hid the effects, but she couldn't have hid them for forever. She probably hid some knowledge too. It makes me think these things will come back to haunt him. I like the idea of lash growing back too.

  • This Troper personally took them to be from the brain damage caused by Lash's death in the first place. If not that, then perhaps residual damage from Mab's messing with it in Small Favor.
    • Probably a mixture of these, especially since Butters confirmed that, when Lash kicked it, she took a major part of Harry's brain with her. Either Butters or Bob did this.
    • The sheer number of supernatural entities who have gone prowling through Harry's psyche, starting with Molly and working up to Mab and Uriel, I think the man is entitled to have the occasional migraine.
    • This Troper seems to recall reading a statement by Butcher that we haven't seen the last of Lasciel. Take as you will.
      • He has said this about both Lasciel the Fallen and Lash the shadow on different occasions. Remember what they say about a woman scorned.
    • Remember, wizards cells make perfect copies. Presumably, this happens even with brain cells, which just die in normal humans. The Headaches are from his body making perfect copies of something that just isn't supposed to do that, even more so than everything else.
  • The first time Harry complained of an ache in his head was after receiving his mother's "insight," which looked suspiciously like the gem of knowledge she left with Lea we saw in Changes. He always says that acquiring knowledge has a price. Could be a contributing factor.
    • This Troper remembers at least two mentions of them in Turn Coat, before Harry was given his inheritance. 

The headaches are an early sign of Harry's precognition.

And also an indicator of how powerful it'll be.

Mac is Merlin

THE Merlin. Original. And we will find out when Harry asks him to store Amoracchius for a while, and he makes some cryptic comment about deja vu.

Ancient Mai is going to be revealed as a dragon

Margaret Le Fay was a changeling

Possibly planted specifically with Ebenezer as part of a plot by Mab or Titania or even the older Queens. Treating being a changeling as ending up some sort of strange blend of faerie and human, because she's born a faery and raised to be human, it would explain

  • her name - she changed it from McCoy to Le Fay when she found out.
  • how she was a "wizard" in the first place - it's explicitly stated that magic is passed down from the mother, but Word of God said Margaret's mother was a plain vanilla mortal. "Mother" could mean "biological mother"...or it could mean "woman who raised her".
    • Actually, I believe it was said that magic "usually" passes down through the maternal bloodline, but didn't have to be. I could be incorrect and I can't find the passage in Proven Guilty regarding it, aside from his comment to Michael, where he's likely covering for Charity. But I recall there being another, more specific conversation about it.
  • her proclivity for working with fairies - that deal with Lea.
  • her status as a sort of outcast, exploring the Nevernever alone - changelings are often not really accepted by either humans nor faeries.
  • her questionable morals - have you met any faeries recently?
  • the "special circumstances" surrounding Harry's birth that give him whatever Outsider-related power he is revealed to have. The son of a changeling and a human? That's gotta be rare.
  • Kincaid's "human as you are" comment.

Really, the question is not so much whether or not she was a changeling, but how many people knew.

Luccio likes, perhaps even prefers, the girls.

  • Which would deepen her confusion and frustration after that whole brainwashing with the killing and the hot monkey sexing thing. And it'd make "I saw you dance in Naples" a lot more interesting...
    • I took the "I saw you dance in Naples," thing that way, as in yes, Luccio has played for both teams, all across the field, down the court and possibly some street hockey. "Your tastes used to run differently," indeed.
      • Ditto. I was stunned that this was actually in here: it's not ambiguous, it's nearly out-and-out stated.
        • Welcome to WMG: Where most people have only skimmed the books before coming up with stupid theories.

Harry's father was someone special

Maggy thought that he was some nice normal guy, a really dumb move in this world. Also, they've played out Harry's moms side of the family, and if they want to get another child, why not throw in someone from the other side of the park? Also, it would be awesome.

  • Why does it HAVE to be someone special? It's been intimated she ran away from the Dark Powers and met one of the truly nice people in the world and fell in love. Ever thought of that?
    • All things considered, that alone is enough to render Dresden, Sr. someone special.
  • Don't forget that Kincaid, who is probably half-something-else, once says that Harry is "as human as he is."
      • There is very little that we know about Malcolm Dresden. What we do know comes from Ebenezar (who has hidden the truth from Harry on multiple occasions) and from Harry's memories and dreams. He died when Harry was very young. (Six years old, IIRC) Not to say that Harry's an Unreliable Narrator, but memories are sketchy stuff, especially a six year old's. There's no proof that Malcolm Dresden had any magic abilities, (if Ebenezar is to be trusted, but then again he's already lied multiple times to Harry) but there's also no proof for the opposite. He could have had magic, but it simply withered away like Charity's did. Hell, for all we know he could be a changeling who chose to be mortal (which might account for the 'as human as Kincaid' bit).
      • Just how trustworthy is Kincaid, anyway? In one scene in Blood Rites, he says "I'm as human as you are", but in that very same scene, he also claims to be a vanilla mortal. Which is a lie. Who's to say he didn't lie about the "as human as Harry" part?

Harry is more attractive then he lets on.

Harry is the only person to ever consider himself unattractive, and its not out of character to practice Self-Deprecation, and it'd be weird for him to gaze into his reflection and stare, spellbound. Also Harry has an enormous amount of women falling for him, yes they admire him because he's a good man, or he's devious, or they want to manipulate him, but some of that must be do to good old fashioned sex appeal, and he managed to wrangle a date out of a preinformed Susan. And you'd think if he was a fugly as he let on, somebody would call him on it. Oh, and who's ever heard of an ugly hero?

  • He doesn't say he's ugly. He says he's less pretty than Thomas. Everyone is less pretty than Thomas. Jokes about his appearance are nearly always in a Thomas-related context. And I think it's more that Susan wrangled a date out of him...
  • If the cover of the books are any indication, then Harry is obviously quite attractive. Also, the way he describes himself probably stems from lack of self confidence due to his lack of social skills. Accentuate the Negative
  • In the novelette 'Aftermath,' Murphy describes Dresden as other vanilla mortals see him, and as he appears while . Typically, he holds his limbs in close, moving with 'the exaggerated caution of someone who was several sizes larger than normal' and speaks softly, 'as if apologizing for the resonant baritone of his voice.' This, combined with his avoidance of eye contact because he doesn't want to soulgaze dudes causes him to come off as quiet and somewhat autistic. Contrast that with his full wizard mode where he just sort of unfolds and starts shouting latin and throwing fireballs everywhere. Murphy herself feels completely threatened by how dangerous he is- to the point where she describes her gut reaction to that level of threat as 'kill it, immediately.' Of course, in the next paragraph she woefully laments not getting to hit that before the end of Changes.
  • Being in the business of a wizard hero saving the world on a semi-regular basis, Harry has acquired many allies and some friendly enemies over the years, many of them female. Being the chivalrous if old-fashioned powerhouse who won't hesitate to put his life on the line for doing the right thing that he is, not to mention having good-standing relations with most if not all of the said female colleagues, it isn't hard to imagine a lot of them liking him for more than professional reasons.
    • Case in point, when Lara thought that she and Harry would surely parish when the explosives were about to go off near the end of "White Night", she kissed him with a burning passion unseen before, even before Harry finished telling her why the kissing would be relevant in securing their bodies coming out whole. Another example would be the subtle (the fireplace at his apartment) and not-so-subtle (the laundry room scene) moves Anastasia put on Harry throughout "Small Favour", and even though we later (regrettably) find out that the attraction was supposed to be partly based on mind control, it is absurd to think that she would do so without at least thinking of him as more than a capable and heroic warden after the many grim situations they had faced together.

Harry using Canis Latinicus for his spells was part of a Xanatos Gambit by Justin.

DuMorne figured that if Harry managed to become strong enough (both will and magic) to defeat him without using any Black Magic himself (maybe get Bob on his side), he would pretty much be up for a spot on the White Council. Having to converse in Latin within official White Council meetings, and without the constraint and finesse that Elaine had, Harry would stand a decent chance of accidentally frying the entire council the first time he had to report on a Pyromancer while stressed (and who wouldn't be stressed when in front of 200-some-odd enforcers of the Doom of Damocles and their guards?).

  • Potentially jossed: Changes seems to indicate that he picked up his tendency to use Dog Latin for incantations from Ebenezar McCoy, since he's shown using such incantations himself (even using Harry's signature "Fuego").
    • Farther jossed by a flashback in Ghost Story; Harry only manages to light a candle when he comes up with his own incantation "Flickum bicus" as opposed to him trying to use Justin's "Sedjet".
      • Not only that, but it reveals that Harry adopted "Fuego!" because he was taking Spanish class at the time he first used that effect. If anything, Ebenezer probably picked up "Fuego" from Harry, perhaps because it's quicker to say than whatever he'd used prior to that.
    • Except that wasn't McCoy, but a random voice from the Gray Council.
      • Mix this with the Gatekeeper = Future Harry WMG from above, and assume he is one of the Gray Council and was at the battle at Chichen Itza in Changes - and that was Harry himself using his own signature spell in the background.
      • More likely one of the Big Bads of a future book time travels to this fight to try and change the outcome, and Future!Harry comes back too to oppose them.
      • Or one of the younger wizards who thinks realizes Harry's badass incarnate is using Harry's incantation as a sign of respect.
      • Or, you know, one of the mooks ordering the other mooks to fire. Harry does say that immediatly after hearing somebody scream "fuego", people started firing weapons. They are in Latin America, after all.
      • The quote isn't someone in robes, it was someone "on the wall." And, as per several people on the Dresden forums, "Fuego" is, in fact, the Spanish word for "fire" as in "Ready, aim..." So that seems to be it.

Cowl is actually Harry from the future.

They are the only two characters to use the phrase "Thrice will I ask and done," unusual given that both tend to speak more casually otherwise. They both have huge amounts of power, are willing to dip into dark magic for the greater good, tend not to bother explaining themselves in a crisis, favor escapes and entrances via the Nevernever, and like long black garments. And why would Butcher have mentioned Thou Shalt Not Walk Through Time if it were never coming up?

  • And The Gatekeeper is both of them in the future. He's only allowed to time travel in order to help his past self stop his less-past self, and keep things happening in order. Kumori is a post-Heroic BSOD Molly, who provides disguise for all three-ish of them and is trying to keep Cowl from going full darkside. The time travel is how and why she revived that exact person.
    • Molly or Thomas will end up raising this point in a future book as a joke, and while this wont be true, Cowl will hear about it and attempt to convince Harry of it as a way to give him a headache.
    • Why would Cowl (future Harry) need the instructions to summon the Erlking? Harry had already committed the ritual to memory and had performed it once. Unlikely he would forget something as important as this and need to go attack his past self to get the book.
    • Cowl and Kumori were the only necromancers who weren't looking to claim the book, only to prevent their rivals from finding it. At least, that's what Cowl claimed, and Kumori's suggesting that Harry simply destroy it rather than hand it over suggests it's true. (Of course, if Cowl's in the Black Council, he wouldn't need the book because the author, Peabody, is also a Black Council member and could just tell him the instructions if he needs them. So this doesn't prove he's Harry.)
  • A little more evidence: at the end of White Night, Harry calls Cowl "Darth Bathrobe". Remind me, what did Harry wear to the Council meeting in Summer Knight...?
    • And yet he never comments on Cowl or Kumori being very tall, even though he routinely mentions if a person is of above- or below-average height when he describes them. Both he and Molly are very tall, enough-so that you'd think he'd have said something about if Cowl and Kumori were, too.
      • Well, Kumori is at least tall enough to comfortably hold Dresden with a knife to his throat, and Harry's gigantic.
  • I don't actually think this is true, but to entertain the notion... Harry is above all famous for giving a tremendous amount of snark to anything and everything he encounters. After being called 'Dark Master of Evil Bathrobes' and asked for a name, doesn't responding 'Call me Cowl' seem like the trademark Dresden snark rendered dryer by age and necromancy?
  • Or Molly is in fact Kumori. Following Dresden as Cowl isn't too far out of the picture for Molly, given her crush for Dresden and Molly's habit of breaking the laws of magic. Also Kumori is a Japanese sounding name, and what language does Molly use for her spells again?
    • further supported (in this troper's opinion) by Kumori's name: Molly Carpenter said with a Japanese accent=Mori Carpenter. Switch the names around to proper Japanese order and it's Carpenter Mori. Take the first name to just an initial and it's C.Mori. Said phonetically...
    • According to the RPG, Kumori is Japanese for "cloudy." Hmm, cloudy as in concealment, as in veils, as in Molly's specialty....
      • Doesn't Molly cast in Japanese?
  • Borrowing the Alpha Timeline concept from Homestuck, the Gatekeeper and Cowl could both be Harry. From different timelines. Cowl is from a timeline where things went wrong, very wrong. Cowl may even be a Harry that accepted every dark deal, bargain owed, etc. Kumori is much kinder as she is Cowl's Molly who followed into the past. When they encounter Harry, she is reminded of her old Harry before whatever went wrong happened.
    • Expanding upon this. Cowl is Harry gone down a dark path in one timeline, come back deciding he needs to go even darker to make it work this time. Gatekeeper is from a timeline where he was less of a wild card? He fought Demonreach in that timeline, in this one Harry made it his sanctuary. So that is why Rashid was surprised.

Harry was born on Demonreach.

That would explain the familiarity he feels the first time he goes there, and maybe account for the "circumstances" Lash mentions surrounding his birth.

  • I agree that Demonreach had at least something to do with Harry's birth. Though what he knows about the island (the bad step, the back door getting stuck in the rain...) the first time he arrives is to much for just some old vague memories. The only explanation for that is that the genius loci was letting him access it's intelectuce before he made a pact with it, which makes this theory even more likely.
    • This was explained in the book, as Harry's precognitive abilities (which all wizards develop to some degree) beginning to awaken.
  • I reckon Demonreach has something to do with Maggie Snr.

Harry is Demonreach.

Metaphorically, he's somewhere between the Lash/Lasciel situation, and the vaguely symbiotic thing that I assume happens when a person below a certain mental age becomes a denarian and grows past that age.[1]

Thomas wasn't nearly as shaken by the events of Turn Coat as was suggested and was faking his Face Heel Turn to become a spy in the White Court

Spoilers for Turn Coat & Changes. At the end of Turn Coat, it was suggested that the tortures Thomas suffered at the hands of the Skin-Walker had caused him to completely give into his Demon, turning completely amoral save where Justine was concerned. But in Changes, Thomas is willing to help Harry out even BEFORE he finds out that his own life may be at risk. And he tries (and succeeds for a time) in resisting the obvious charms of a more than willing Molly Carpenter as he's bleeding to death. He even tries to warn her away from him. This suggests that Thomas wasn't as badly warped as he said in Turn Coat and that he may be playing up his dark side taking over in order to get back into the good graces of Lara and The White Court.

  • I thought the same thing! During Changes, while he does act more savage at times, he does resemble the old Thomas. So that's interesting. Grey Council spy, perhaps?
    • Possibly. But for that to be true... hmmm... that gives me an idea! (See Below)
  • In Changes, Thomas's eyes were completely blue. The sign of a well-fed white vampire. (It greys out as they get hungry)
  • Well duh. Seriously, readers have to be as dense as Harry to miss this. Thomas practically spells it out multiple times. That said, he's still being much more White-Court-y than he used to be, and is feeding again. He may not have lost his moral compass, but he's certainly buried it under a heavy layer of rationalization. 
  • My theory, from below: Read what he says carefully. All he decided to do was go back to playing ball with the other Raiths. He said that he was tired of playing mortal. He specifically stated he wasn't going to kill anyone, and clearly kept his scorn of vampires. Yes, he attacked Molly, but he'd just been brutally tortured. He was in a Hunger-Frenzy. During Changes, he's had the time to cool down. Thus, he's back to normal, if still hanging with the family. 

Ebenezar McCoy is aware of Thomas and that he is Harry's brother.

  • We find out near the end of Changes that Harry's mother - Margaret Lefay - was McCoy's daughter and, therefore, Harry is McCoy's grandson. When McCoy confirms this, he tells Harry about how at some point in the past Margaret came to him along with Lord Raith of the White Court, so he obviously knew about their relationship. Odds are that if he knows THAT much and knew that Harry was his grandson this whole time, he probably kept tabs on any other children that were born of his line.
  • McCoy is also clever enough to have put two and two together as to what it would take for someone as naturally distrustful as Harry to partner up with a White Court vampire on a regular basis.
  • He definitely acts like he doesn't know in Turn Coat, but then again it's not like he hasn't lied to Harry before. Word of Jim says that Harry doesn't know either way, and if McCoy did know, it would be "very bad" for Thomas. On a related note, who else knows about Harry and Thomas? Remember that Luccio found out while she was under the influence of the Black Council. It might have gotten back to anyone without her even knowing.

Mab has ulterior motives for trying to get Harry to become Winter Knight.

She doesn't really seem to like him much, but has been obsessive in her pursuit of him and only him as Knight, even though it upsets the power balance of faerie, and not in her favor. This started even before he'd really started getting more powerful, when there were presumably more dangerous people who would be easier to tempt, so she probably wants Harry for some special reason, possibly a unique ability he doesn't know about/think matters.

  • Probably for his child. After all, sleeping with him is the first thing she did, and Maeve has been getting a bit uppity. Hello New Winter Lady. 
  • If by "before he'd really started getting more powerful", you mean that he had managed to sneak through an arym, disable several of Summer's strongest warriors and then kill a fairy Lady, the first time anyone had managed that in centuries, then yeah. He was weak enough to singlehandedly devastate Mab's archrivals at that point. It's not like that's one of the main skills she'd want in her Knight. There must be another reason for her to chase him.
    • It's been stated that the Knights tend to not last that long. Consider what Harry's been through. Victor Sells, werewolves, the Nightmare, the Summer Lady, Nicodemus (TWICE), do you really need me to re-list the big bads? Harry can beat opponents way out of his weight class. And that's when Harry was running off good old Human-level magic. Add to the damn near super Saiyan strength of the Winter Knight? You've got yourself a One-Man Army, right under Mab's personal control. As of Changes, she's holding the reigns on one of the most potent destructive weapons in the Dresdenverse, and what she has said (via Lea) flat out states that she's going to flick those reigns, point her finger, and yell "giddy up."
      • That, and Harry seemingly has an endless supply of sheer dumb luck, and Mab wants to capitalize.
      • Except that Harry isn't the type to respect authority and the chain of command. Especially given Uriel's Seven Words.
    • We know that Harry has power over outsiders which, while unspecified, required a large number of factors to coincide (requiring a presumably equivalent number of Gambit Roulettes by his mother) to acquire. Margaret 'Le Fey' Dresden hung out with the fairy courts, Maab learned what she was up to, and wanted to capitalize on someone else's hard work.

Nicodemus is Judas Iscariot.

He's treacherous, understands the Denari better than anyone, and has Judas' noose. Clearly, after hanging himself, Judas gave up his last shreds of virtue by cutting the noose (and act of turning from grace so potent it allowed Satan to interact with the world for a moment, enchanting the Noose), then chose one of his demon-infested coins to bond with and spread the rest around the world.

  • Seems unlikely, the 30 pieces of silver are supposed to either be, or represent, the 30 pieces Judas got. There's no way the Denarians were bound in their coins at that point in time. If Nicodemus is Judas, the coins predate the whole 30 pieces of silver thing. And in that case, there could be far more than just 30 Denarians.
    • Why would that be the case. Judas is given the coins, then sells out Christ, which grants the opening for 30 Fallen to enter said coins, then goes to hang himself... the time line works out.
      • Because simply betraying Christ wasnt enough? The Blackened Denarius's were created through powerful magic, they didn't just spontainously become fallen-angel-filled-coins. A lot of the ritual probably relied on the betrayal, but it wasn't enough to have happened just from that. 
        • No, but that doesn't rule anything out. Think of it this way; the devil is looking to capitalize on Jesus' sacrifice, and finds that the way it is to play out works well in his favour. Judas is given the coins, which are then used for the ritual on the basis of him being given potentially the most powerful of all the Fallen. He'll have little need for thirty silver pieces with that kind of power, which accounts for them all being taken from him. So, ritual goes through, which involves said cutting and turning from grace, which has the added benefit of laying the power over the noose. In this case, things click rather well.

Nicodemus' "companions" are mostly failures among the Order Of Denari.

The most dangerous Fallen we've seen him give to another was Lasciel, who was not among his usual escort. Those who were consist of Deirdre (actually competent, probably kept around as security/Nick's squeeze), Ursiel (mocked by the other Denarians), and Siluriel (by all accounts the weakest Denarian we've seen in single combat).Nick's movements seem like a sure lodestone of the Knights Of The Cross - Nicodemus' greatest allies stay distant from him, to be less observed.

  • Not necessarily. It's been confirmed repeatedly that most of the Denarians do not get along very well. Nicodemus has his group of 4-8 or so, Tessa has her group of 6-10. That leaves almost a third of the order unaccounted for. We know they don't work together well, if at all, as pointed out by Forthill when Harry brings up Lasciel. Lasciel and Nicodemus work at cross purposes much of the time. It's entirelly possible that the 'missing' Denarians have their own plots going on, or that they're just not very evil at all. 

Ivy's father has already appeared or been mentioned.

I'd like him to be a plain vanilla mortal, maybe even Butters because that would amuse the hell out of me, but he could be almost anyone in the whole huge male cast. Except Harry, because that would just be silly at this point.

Harry's grandmother was one of the Summer Court, maybe even one of the Queens.

No reference has been made to Margaret's mother, and that can't just be omission. Margaret was familiar with the Fae and even went by the name "LeFay". Harry's favourite element is fire, and it would give Mab a hell of a reason to want him, specifically, as Winter Knight...

  • Might explain why Harry's met every queen besides Titania...
  • Nope. Jim said that Harry's maternal Grandmother was a plain old vanilla mortal.
    • Where did his nonhuman heritage came from, then? Kincaid says that he's as human as Harry, and Kincaid is definitely part nonhuman.
    • Yeah, either Jim's got his facts mixed up, or he's lying. That would explain why Mab wants him so badly. What better way to stick it to your mortal nemesis than getting one of her descendants to be your right hand man? Totally something Mab would do.
      • Or Kincaid was lying. Why would Kincaid tell Dresden the truth? The truth of Kincaid's lineage could easily lead to finding a weakness of Kincaid's, so if anything Kincaid's going to take every opportunity to insist he's just a plain old human.

Harry is descended from Merlin.

Those journals that Ebenezar had during Turn Coat? They weren't just passed down from master to apprentice. As Ebenezar was Harry's grandfather, and also taught Harry's mother, it's possible that his family has a tradition of master and apprentice being parent and child. Since the earliest journals in Ebenezar's collection belong to Merlin, that would mean that Ebenezar (and by extension, Harry) are descended from him. Plus, all those links made between Harry and Merlin have to mean something.

Odin and Rashid are the same person

I don't know the tropename for it, but it seems like sloppy narrative to have two characters in the same story who both call out to the Odin myth by being one-eyed humorous precog badasses who help out the protagonist when necessary. Either Odin is pretending to be Rashid, or vice versa.

Demonreach is (or used to be) an Outsider.

This would explain why he would have crossed paths with the Gatekeeper (taking on Outsiders is basically his job description), and why everyone is all WTF about Harry taking the island as a Sanctum. It would also explain why Harry was even capable of taking it as a Sanctum: its Genius Loci is an Outsider, and Harry has some undefined power for the express purpose of whooping Outsider ass.

Justin DuMorne is Cowl

Yeah, yeah, Jim says he's D-E-D dead, but as of Changes, he's saying the same thing about Harry. Despite the fact that Ghost Story is told from Harry's POV.

That aside, think about it. The first time Harry meets him, he mentions that Cowl was distorting his voice somehow, and chalks it up to him being an insider in the White Council and not wanting to give himself away. But it could have just as easily been because he didn't want Harry to recognize the voice of his old mentor.

On top of that, he knew about Bob, or the-air-and-knowledge-spirit-currently-known-as-Bob, at any rate. Not even Grevane, favored Disciple of Kemmler, knew about Bob, or at the very least never thought to use him. What's more, Cowl knew exactly how to get the spirit to teach him the Darkhallow ritual, previously thought only to be contained in the Word of Kemmler. And besides Harry and Kemmler, only one other person has ever owned Bob and known how to make use of him: Justin DuMorne, the Warden that pulled the skull from the wreckage of Kemmler's most recent lair.

Harry's career will parallel Merlin's.

Not Arthur Langtry, of course, but the Merlin. We already know that he's a wizard with an apprentice of the opposite sex, and he's currently looking for the rightful owner/user of Excalibur. However, it occurred to me that Harry's apprentice has dabbled in Black Magic, so it would be entirely plausible for her to betray him for power or just for some greater good. Given the general style of the story, this makes me think that we can expect more Arthurian elements as the story goes on.

Dark Harry is what happened when Adolescent Harry grew up, and what's left of He Who Walks Behind is Harry Harry.

Adolescent Harry would have been executed for throwing a fit about Elaine dying and having to kill his mentor, then being put under the Doom of Damocles for trying to protect himself, had HWWB not copied his personality, moved in as was its usual MO, then turned relatively good compared to what it originally was when it saw Harry's connection with Elaine from the inside.

Cowl is not human.

In Dead Beat, during his fight with Cowl, Harry briefly mentions that Cowl has about the same amount of power as the Faerie Queens. Given that fact, there is almost no possible way for Cowl to be human, or at least fully human. He could be a Shapeshifter Mode Locked Outsider, or an Outsider possessing a human and unable to leave. Plus, who names their kid "Cowl", or changes their name to that? His cowl is one the most notable things about him, so it's an Outsider's version of Hugh Mann.

  • Wasn't that Harry's name for him, and Cowl just went "Sure, Why Not?" We also have that as a trope. Anyway, I, for one, would gladly use "Cowl" as a pseudonym.
    • I don't think Cowl even went 'Sure, why not' so much as 'Not dignifying that with a response.' 
    • Having just read the part of the book where Harry meets him, he actually introduces himself as Cowl. So it's definitely the name he uses, but it's almost certainly a false name.
    • Humans are more creative than that. The average human would probably choose a common name, like "John" or "Daniel".
    • And for a guy who goes around draped head-to-foot in identity-concealing robes, a normal-sounding name would be a little bit... odd. If he's concealing his identity, might as well go whole-hog with an obviously fake, and yet descriptive, pseudonym. It's not like he's renting an apartment using the "Cowl" identity or anything (at least, that we're aware of).
      • Kumori's name sounds "namey" but not "normal".
  • Disregarding all name discussion for now, Harry explicitly calls Cowl's voice "not human".
    • Yeah, but he says that Cowl's magic is definitely human. The voice is just some sort of distortion effect to conceal his identity.
      • Which could mean that he's someone another character (or Harry) could recognize.
  • Some connection to Faerie actually is implied in the way Cowl asks Harry to hand over the book three times, in a sequence that closely parallels Harry's binding of Grimalkin in Summer Knight. Unless Cowl thought Harry, himself, was a sidhe or changeling, that's not something you'd normally expect a human to do.

Books-Bob is a ghost.

He's just been dead for long enough that he may as well be a spirit. This explains why he's bound to a human skull: it's his own skull, which makes the binding more effective. It makes more sense for Kemmler to have owned him, since it fits better with his necromantic theme. And, last but not least, the next book is Ghost Story, and Bob is the main sidekick. With the scores of hints dropped in the RPG rulebooks, it's obvious that Bob has some kind of story that needs to be cleared up.

Identity of Rashid.

He's also been the Grand Vizier Jafar. He tricked everyone into thinking he was beheaded, then joined the White Council.

  • He took the name "Rashid" as a way of saying "Screw you, I lived." to the guy who tried to kill him.

Kincaid's inhuman heritage.

He's a Nephilim, the son of a mortal and a fallen Angel.

Building on the above, Kincaid is the son of Nicodemus.

They've got personal history, and Kincaid hates Nicodemus with a furious passion. It would make a terrifying amount of sense if they were related....

    • And Laschiel's his mother? Or did Nicodemus' Fallen father Kincaid with a mortal woman?
    • Perhaps being possessed by one of the most powerful Fallen for so long actually altered Nick on a genetic level, enough that any children he might have wouldn't be fully human. Interestingly, this might also include Deirdre, though what precisely that would mean for someone who's already a Denarian I'm not sure...
  • Nicodemus is human. Deirdre and any other children he has are (mostly) human. Anduriel is his fallen. Anduriel would have to be the one to father Kincaid for this scenario.

Harry has some extra power related to names.

It was established that names have power to them particularly when it comes to powerful magical beings. Harry has given names to at least four powerful magical beings (Bob, Ivy, Mouse and Lash) which they all accepted full heartedly. Bob and Ivy may be overlooked and Mouse despite his power is a dog and not likely to object to any name he was given but it is suspect that the Shadow of a Fallen would so readily accept a name granted to her by a mortal, even Harry pointed out it was odd. Not only that but in Dead Beat using the name he gave Bob he was able to reassert the Bob personality that had cast out the dark parts of himself, something unlikely unless the name Bob had become a true name.

  • You missed out Demonreach.
  • Mouse is significantly more than a dog.
  • The name Mouse fits. Mice are tiny animals that can scare the crap out of giant elephants. I remember some magical entity reacting to Mouse's presence with great fear.
  • Who says this is a power only Harry has? It's possible that any mortal has it...and Harry's been the only one who has delved so deeply into irreverence to nickname God's creatures.
  • Ghost Story spoiler: Maybe? He calls Uriel by a nickname, which terribly angers - and terrifies - the archangel. The "-iel" on the end of an angel's name is important. My guess, a nickname leaving out that bit lessens and angel in some terrible way. Only time will tell if Harry did permanent damage. (Harry is forgiven, of course, and the two come to an agreement on the name of "Mister Sunshine.)
    • I kinda figured it had something to do with the "-el" meaning "of God" or "God is". Saying an angel is the "Light" or "The Light" could be blasphemous on an extreme level, because the last set of angels who dropped the pretense of being "of God" are the Fallen. Just food for thought
    • Calling an angel "The Light" could also be a reference to calling them "the morning star" or similar...a euphamism for Lucifer, if this Troper recalls correctly.
      • It goes a bit beyond the "Morning Star" name being used for Lucifer - "Lucifer" itself comes from Latin - and means "light bearer". Dropping the "of God" part of Uriel's name, given that and what we've seen with how much of an effect nicknames can have on supernatural beings, could be downright disastrous.
  • It doesn't have to be that Harry has extra Naming powers, it could just be, and based on Uriel's reaction most likely is, that Names have a lot of power, and nicknames are names just as much as the ones on birth certificates. More so, in fact, because it's repeatedly mentioned that humans especially change their Names a lot.
  • You are forgetting one more incredibly powerful magical being who Harry has nicknamed: Lea. And we haven't seen any distinct personality changes in her yet. But if the pattern sticks, she should be watched closely..
    • We didn't meet the Leanansidhe until long, long AFTER Harry met her and began calling her Lea. Any changes there are long done.

Nicodemus and the Denarians are responsible for every major terrorist attack in the last century.

This is already strongly implied, as the Nickelheads were apparently behind a number of horrible disasters in human history, and Tessa was apparently complicit in a number of massive acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide, purely for her own enjoyment. Nicodemus also mentions in Death Masks that he has a terrorist group ready to take responsibility for the plague he's going to unleash. One can safely assume that if he's done it once, he's done it many times. In fact, it is likely that one could tie many terror attacks (including possibly the Dresdenverse's version of 9/11) directly to the Denarians, as they would have created exactly the kind of environment that the Nickelheads would love and feed power off of.

Hendricks is actually deep, deep undercover for CPD's Mafia Squad.

  • In Storm Front, he puts a tight three shot into someone who betrayed Marcone. The only other people who do those that we've met are cops or other law enforcement. Also, someone's been keeping the CPD informed about Marcone's movements and plans. 
    • Note that this doesn't mean that Marcone doesn't know.
    • Or maybe Hendricks just trains a lot and is a naturally good shot. Being a good shooter != being police.
    • This is incredibly flimsy reasoning. By the same logic, Kincaid is an undercover cop too.
      • Why couldn't Kincaid have been a cop at some point? Doesn't mean Hendricks isn't. Also, this is Wild Mass Guessing, it doesn't NEED substantiation.
      • No, but it really oughta have something a little less tangential and flimsy. It's only slightly more evidence than saying, "Hendricks has red hair, so he might be Irish. Murphy is Irish, and she's a cop. Therefore, Hendricks is a cop."
      • If the path of logic you used to arrive at your destination is faulty, we are perfectly within our rights to call you on said faulty logic.
      • I fail to see how it's any flimsier than some of the other WMGs on this, or any other, page.

Harry Dresden's final powers

  • Harry will be a Knight of the Cross, the Winter Knight, the Summer Knight, wielding Soulfire, with the power of a

redeemed Denarian in him, probably still holding the coin...and he will STILL start the book by getting his ass kicked!

    • the Summer Knight thing is Jossed JB said that one person holding both mantles would cause something like a matter-antimatter explosion.

Harry really did change Lash for the better and she is still in his mind

  • Near the end of Ghost Story, Uriel shows to Harry that it was a fallen angel who had influenced Harry's decision to call upon Mab for power, but I doubt Uriel would know the difference between Lasciel's shadow (Lash) and Lasciel herself, when they were(are?) two different entities, the former because Harry gave Lash free will and a portion of his soul. I think it was Lash who whispered in Harry's years, and even though the action might had seemed cruel at the time, a lot of things turned out for the best.

Martha Liberty was born a slave.

She must be an American, as the Merlin is said to believe there were already too many Americans on the Senior Council before McCoy joined it, and just one (Listens-to-Wind) wouldn't be "too many". She's elderly enough to have been a contemporary of Luccio's original body, meaning that slavery was still the norm for most black people in the United States when she was young. And her surname of "Liberty" is exactly the sort of name a former slave would have chosen for herself upon escaping from, or being released from bondage.

Lucius Glau was half Fomor, not half djinn.

We only have Madrigal Raith's word that his lawyer (from Proven Guilty) was a jann. He's hardly a trustworthy source, and we know from later events that Madrigal is quite content to do business with other evil power-blocs. Glau's description -- specifically, his "frog-like" mouth -- makes him sound like he's got the "Innsmouth look", which links him to the Lovecraftian-Deep-One motif which the Fomor seem to have. And it's the kind of unobtrusive sneak peek that Butcher might slip into one of his books, to coyly foreshadow the rise of the Fomorian menace post-Changes.

Swords of the Cross scenarios

Murphy not taking up Fidellacchius in Ghost Story.

In Ghost Story, there were several times when the Sword of Faith might have come in handy, most specifically at the end during the battle with Corpsetaker. Murphy, however, never takes it up. It took me until today to realize that she would be unmaking it if she had. Even though she still believes in her oath to protect the denizens of Chicago, she also believes that she had acted against that vow by killing threats without turning them over to the police.

Daniel Carpenter will be the next wielder of Amoracchius.

In Ghost Story Daniel shows much of the same passion and determination as his parents. While the Swords of the Cross aren't (necessarily) inherited, it seems right that Michael's oldest son would follow in his footsteps.

  • Passion and determination, yes, but he doesn't exude the calm, kind vibe that his father did while holding the sword.

Murphy will be the next wielder of Fidellacchius.

Murphy is a very steadfast believer in the rule of law and order, and in protecting people. Also, whenever Harry looks at Murphy with his Sight, he sees an angel wielding a sword. That might be a hint. Finally, Fidellacchius is a katana. Coincidentally, Murphy is already an expert aikido practitioner. Now if only Harry got the clue...

  • Hmmm... Has Murphy been to see Harry at home any time in the past 5 years? Although the sword is in plain sight, no-one other than Harry and Michael seem to be able to notice it. It seems likely that the sword is preventing itself being perceived except by its guardian or by one worthy to wield it. If she's been in the room and ignored it, she's probably not the chosen champion.
    • She does own a pair of Japanese swords over her mantle seen by Harry in Summer Knight.
  • Except that she specifically declines in Small Favour, saying that she already has a job.
    • Pretty sure this WMG was made after Small Favor; regardless, see the immediate next entry.
      • WMG predated (the originating troper's reading of) Small Favor, and so is partially Jossed. But indeed, the series isn't over yet.
  • And there's the fact that she needs to have Royal Blood for some reason. Though then again she already got the job offer.
    • Murphy is very Irish. Can't hardly walk in Ireland without tripping over some king or other.
    • Royal Blood helps, but isn't required. Susan could use Amorracius with no trouble, and all she had was love for her daughter and the need to protect her, and there's no indication that she was a descendant of royalty.
      • Not true. Susan, having been infected by the Red Court, is the descendent of Kulukan. (Changes Spoiler: It's why the whole thing at the end of changes worked.)
      • I don't think nonhuman "royal" blood counts, especially considering the sword burned her precisely because of her vampire "blood." Not to mention that "royal" blood gets fairly spread out over time; roughly 90% of Asia has some genetic connection to Genghis Khan, after all, though he really got around.
    • There's a Murphy branch that's descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the High Kings of Ireland. Boom, royal blood.
  • Remember the woman Carol from the station? I thought at the time she would get the sword in that book. But then, there are two swords.
    • In Changes, Murphy does indeed take up the sword and is awesome, though only as a loan. Nonetheless, since she's probably going to lose her job, she's clearly thinking about taking it up permanently at the end of the book.
      • And as of Aftermath in Side Jobs, it looks like Murphy has become a lot more friendly to the idea of using the sword. Indeed, the only reason she doesn't go home to get it is partly because time is of the essence but mostly because the sword depends on the faith of the wielder and she could hardly be worthy of it if she couldn't trust herself to fight with out it.

Thomas will end up the next wielder of Amoracchius

Almost every action that Thomas has ever taken in the series has been motivated by love, either for Justine or for Harry. Even better, the holy sword might well allow him to control his demon half, or even suppress it entirely. 

  • Why didn't I think of that! I bet it would work too. 
  • Particularly since, as the son of the White King, he counts as royalty.
    • Thomas' favored weapon is saber and that is emphasized every time we see it.
    • Until Small Favour, when he starts favouring a kukri knife instead.
      • Actually check again. In Small Favor, Thomas is Dual-Wielding. Saber in one hand, kukri in the other.
    • A saber, you say? Now, who else in this series do we know wields a saber? Sanya. Time for a WMG of my own....
    • Even The Other Wiki agrees! "He is the only White Court vampire shown to be capable of true love, which is rare even by human standards in the Dresdenverse; it should be noted that as the actual son of a king, this theoretically makes him almost uniquely suited to wield Amoracchius, should the need arise."

Harry will eventually wield Esperachius

If Murphy gets Fidelachius (Faith) and Thomas gets Amorachius (Love) then the best match for Harry is Esperachius (Hope). Murphy is possessed of a deep faith, while Thomas is driven by love and Harry is a beacon of hope in a situation that is increasingly getting worse. He even gave hope to Lash that she could be more than a mere copy of Lasciel. That's pretty damn inspiring if you ask me. Of course this does mean that Sanya had best be careful.

  • Of course that would mean Michael has to die. 
    • How so? Michael's out of commission for the for foreseeable future as of Small Favor which leaves Thomas free with wield Amorachius. If Harry is going to wield Esperachius it's Sanya that has to die or be incapacitated.
      • Worse, there's also only one sword out there, at this point. This Troper's ten cents says that Sanya's going to bite it, or otherwise lose his sword to evil, and Harry's going to have to get it for the plot of a book. Or even one of those side-plot-type-things.
      • Sanya is an Ex-Denarian. Ten bucks says someone gives him his coin back.
      • Someone already did. Harry got Magog's coin when Elder Gruff vaporized him. He said he would get it to Sanya, though we never actually saw an exchange.
        • With the recent Grimdark turn of the story, this troper wouldn't be surprised if Sanya kicked it or was forced to take his coin up again.
        • And with Sanya being 50/50 of a comparison to Boromir...Foreshadowing?
  • It does make sense that Harry would end up with the atheist's sword. 
    • Sanya is not an atheist, he is just not a participant.
      • Sanya says he's an atheist. When pressed, he admits he might be agnostic. He's not "just not a participant".
  • It also would fit with the fact that Harry wasn't given a sword when he joined the Wardens. Granted, Luccio can't make them currently, the pieces do fit.
    • God works in mysterious ways, anyone?

Sanya will die, and Thomas will end with Esperacchius.

A WMG up above proposed that Thomas will end up wielding Amoracchius. However, Thomas prefers a saber - which Esperacchius is. Which means that by the end of the series....

  • This sorta makes sense. All bearers of the cross personify the virtue of their sword to some extent. Michael, former wielder of Amoracchius (Love), loved his family, his friends, and his fellow men intensely. Shiro, former wielder of Fidelacchius (Faith), had such faith in the Divine plan that he allowed himself to be sacrificed in order to save Harry from Nicodemus. Sanya, current wielder of Esperacchius (Hope), represents hope since by being a reformed Denarian he shows that the Knight mission to redeem Denarians is possible. If Thomas can somehow manage his vampire nature or becomes human somehow he would represent hope for the redemption of White Court vampires.

The three Knights of the Cross will be:

  • Murphy, wielding Fidelacchius. Small Favor has already hinted very, very strongly at this.
    • As stated further up, this happens, albeit temporarily, in Changes. Odds are, she may take it up full-time.
  • Harry will wield Amoracchius. There's already too many parallels between Harry and Merlin, the original holder of Excalibur, and Amoracchius is most likely Arthur's sword.
    • The other Harry will wield Amoracchius. Harry's got parallels to Merlin, but if Michael's descended from King Arthur, that means Harry Carpenter is, too. We've still got between nine and eleven years until the Apocalyptic Trilogy if the number of books goes according to Butcher's plan and the next ten books follow the same year-on-average pattern, so young Harry should be somewhere between sixteen and eighteen by then. With Charity breaking out the old smithing projects, and Michael having plenty of time to instruct him in double-edge, straight blade sword work, he should be quite ready to break his Caliburn and pick up Amoracchius in, say, defense of his family...
      • Michael isn't descended from Arthur. The end of the one book says it's Charlemagne. It's believed Amoracchius may have been Excalibur.
    • Butters will wield Amoracchius. It's revealed in Ghost Story that he's an ME instead of a doctor because he can't stand seeing people in pain. Love? Hell– er, heck yes! And in Dead Beat when Harry was getting the crap beat out of him and wished for a Knight to "coincidentally" show up and save him, Butters showed up and saved him.
    • Johnny Marcone will wield Amoracchius in Persephone's name, for one truly EPIC battle, make a Heroic Sacrifice, and then Butters will get it.
  • Thomas, who will be wielding Esperacchius. Thomas already uses a saber anyway, he's a descendant of royalty, and the image of the three of them being Knights of the Cross is just too fraking awesome to be anything but the truth.
    • Alternately, either Molly or Daniel Carpenter will be the wielder of Esperacchius. We know they're the descendents of Charlemagne, and Sir Stuart referred to Esperacchius as Durandal, the blade wielded by Charlemagne's paladin Roland.
  • I think if anything Butters would be more likely to wield Esperacchius, since Harry's wishing that a knight would show up to save him in Dead Beat was essentially blind HOPE. Thomas is a no-brainer for Amoracchius and Murphy has already been shown as Fidelacchius' next wielder. She just hasn't totally taken up the sword yet.

If Thomas gets Amorrachius, it will deal with his demon while leaving it intact.

Option A: His demon will feed off the cast off energy from the sword as-is, and stay sated as long as he regularly has the sword on or around his person. Rating: Unlikely.

Option B: The sword will show the demon a glimpse of the core power of True Love, God's love (remember: according to the Church, which may or may not be correct about this in The Dresden Files, God Is Flawed does not apply but Humans Are Flawed does) as reflected in the love given by the weilder of the sword (or something like that), and turn it from a lust demon into a love demon. Rating: Less unlikely, and pretty cool.

Option C: The sword's rightfully-held presence will suppress the hunger pangs and Shoulder Demon aspects that the demon emits, without harming or changing it. Rating: Kind of likely, but not so likely as to be a major possibility.

  • Option D: The sword's incredible Power of Love will utterly destroy the demon, making Thomas a human.

Harry will at one point wield all three swords simultaneously

Even at the end game of the series I doubt he'll continue to do so, but for one brief shining moment he'll take up all three. Somehow. Maybe even promptly lose all three or drop them. I dunno, we're talking about a guy with a pola powered zombie T-Rex. A guy who already has two of the swords. No one can tell me at some point he won't at least attempt to use all three at once in desperation.

Harry will lose his guardianship of the swords.

  • At the end of Changes, Harry told Susan a lie he knew she would believe and act upon, which led to her first losing her humanity entirely, then being murdered by Harry himself. That's clearly a direct betrayal of her faith in him and her love for him, making him unworthy of the guardianship of the Swords of Love and of Faith.
    • No, he didn't tell her a lie. He told her something that would make her ask the question that would get her to turn into a vampire. Still a betrayal, though, but at the same time it does not necessarily rule him out as a guardian. It would disqualify him as a wielder if he had taken up either of those swords at the time, however.

He's Just Hiding

Lash was redeemed by her sacrifice and is coming back

  • Lash was formally a "clone" of an angelic being capable of holding favor in the Heavenly Court so there is something about her that was capable of being up there. Lash died in an Heroic Sacrifice which is one of the hallmarks of those who are able to move on up. If she actually died there is a chance that that particular sentient shadow could have been sent to Heaven. Add that to the recent turn of events that seem to show that the higher forces of light are taking an interest in Dresden and they may decide that she could be sent down to act as a guide and assistant to him in his coming trials. 
  • Shadow Lasciel and "Real" Lasciel will have a confrontation, since Lasciel's coin was presumably among the 11 that Harry lost.
    • Harry turned in Lasciel's coin at the end of White Night but it was mentioned the Denarians get a lot of the coins back from the church through simple temptation. So the idea still stands that Lasciel-empowered Denarian may get to face down Lash-empowered Harry especially with the fact the Word of God stated he plans to end the series with an apocalyptic trilogy.
      • That is such an immensely awesome concept that this troper, quite a Lash fan, is now rooting for it to happen.
      • At least two other tropers are in agreement that this is very cool and hope it happens.
      • This troper not only agrees it's also cool, but thinks it fits. The purpose of the Knights has always been to redeem the holders of the Denari rather than just kill them. It would fit then that the Denarians themselves may have a chance at redemption if a pure enough heart were to redeem them.
      • this troper loves the idea, but would like to point out that Harry doesn't exactly have the purest heart out there, though he was very strong-willed, the time period of years he spent with Lash is what changed her, and not the purity of his heart. 
    • I think similar types have been exposed to them in the past 1980-ish years since the J man died. Plus, you know, Harry has been repeatedly pointed out as 'not all that pure'.
      • Harry may not be pure, but he is generally a good guy. Lash even pointed out that a human such as himself holding out for such a long time with the shadow but not taking up the coin was practically unheard of. Lasciel the full true fallen angel is too great for a mere mortal to alter, but the shadow of her Lash has to be flexible to try to talk Harry in picking up the coin. She can be changed and redeemed.
      • Harry's not 'pure' in the saintly/Galahad-esque sense, true. But he does have a good conscience - and seems very strong willed/unusually resistant to temptation. (Also, Harry wasn't who Lasciel was trying to possess. She probably avoided people like him; I severely doubt she's ever faced up to a will like Harry's.)
      • While this is all true, you're forgetting the reasons why the Denarians rebelled in the first place. We haven't been told in the books, but Fallen Angel rebellions usually vary pretty widely. It's possible they were all evil and hated God, but it's also possible they balked at some order god gave them and were cast out for refusing it. 
  • Lasciel is a rebellious rebellious angel. Who is to say that one of Uriel's ulterior motives could be to "upload" Lash's personality into the true Lasciel? We would have an Battle In The Center Of The Coin going on here. 
  • Okay, while all this speculation is neat, at least part of it has been Jossed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXJM Gt Ip S Xg Lash didn't 'go to heaven'. 
    • Lash got a bit of Harry's soul. Even if she didn't go to Heaven, she can be sneaking about as a spirit. Especially since being killed by the psychic attack of an outsider probably counts as 'dying before your time'.
  • Ghost Story spoiler: Half right. Lasciel's shadow is the opposition that broke the rules, by saying the right seven words to Harry at exactly the wrong time. She's at least back enough to do that, but she still counts as the opposition.
    • That part of Ghost Story doesn't specifically mention which fallen angel was the "shadow" whispering to Harry. Anduriel or one of the other Nickelheads makes much more sense than Lash
      • No, no it doesn't. Uriel specifically mentions that it's a Fallen that knows Dresden, and knows him well enough to know exactly when a little white lie will push him over the edge. Lasciel is the only one of the Fallen who can be said to know Harry at all intimately.
      • Re-reading Ghost Stories, Lash makes the most sense. Any of the Fallen would know the rules, and know that Uriel would be able to use this to help Harry eventually.
    • It's unclear whether that is enough to count as breaking the rules, since Harry already let the shadow into his head by choosing to pick up the coin. Lasciel herself may have been the whisperer, though my guess would be Anduriel (getting probably-dead is a good motive to want Harry gone). As for "knowing Dresden well enough", Dresden isn't so hard to figure out, especially for beings that old. More evidence against Lash trying to kill Harry: her possible role in keeping Harry's body alive (if you buy that she's the "parasite" that Demonreach mentions).
      • Do you even have to WONDER? I don't mean to be rude, but it's ridiculously obvious who it was. Who has thousands of years of experience with Humans? Anduriel. Who is a living shadow, such as the one Uriel shows Harry whispering in his ear? Anduriel. Who would love to see Harry take a dirt nap? Anduriel. Also, as the above troper states, Harry willingly allowed Lasciel into his head. It's not breaking the rules for her to whisper in his ear - she's been doing that for years. In addition, her mission was to corrupt Harry into taking up the coin, not kill him, and Lash said multiple times that she didn't want to die, and that Harry's death would mean hers as well. Finally, Lash might not even be strong enough to make a shadow and whisper in Harry's ear, considering that Bob, who is a being of Spirit and Mind, couldn't sense her anymore, and her sigil was gone from Harry's hand. Anduriel is our man. Angel. Shadow. Whatever. Are there any more questions, class?

Lash is still in Harry's head and is coming back

One of Harry's dreams during Small Favor runs as follows: "I was having a dream where I wasn't hurt, and no one was kicking me around. The walls where white and smooth and clean, lit only by frosty moonlight, and someone with a gentle voice was speaking quietly to me." Sounds like one of the illusions Lash used to pull on harry to tempt and later to sooth him. But there's more: "But my right hand had broken into fierce tingling, all pins and needles, and sleep began to retreat." Harry's got a celestial host at this point centered in his hand which probably wouldn't approve of the shadow of a fallen angel vying for Harry's subconscious copilot seat. Finally, in an earlier book, Butters notes that wizards regenerate damage completely, making a perfect copy of the damaged cells. Including brain cells damaged by a psychic bullet, maybe?

    • Who is to say that Uriel was trying to suppress Lash. In Small Favor, Satan interferers twice (Harry points this out at the end of the book), and so Uriel gets to interfere twice, the first of which he uses to give harry access to soul fire. The second time he gets to act is when the Archive gets put in that big magic circle, which should be just about the same time Harry got the dream. Uriel might have used this chance to revive Lash. After all Harry has a lot more to learn, and "the burned hand teaches best."
  • On the other hand, in Turn Coat (well, the preview chapters posted), Harry has been experiencing migraines. Could it be that like his hand, a wizard's brain can regenerate when it shouldn't normally have been able to? And, incidentally, that Lash might be coming back, or at least, have a place to come back to?
    • This troper thought that Harry's migraines were an aneurysm or something of the kind, as a sort of delayed reaction to Lash's death.
      • Mab did something to Harry's mind at the end of Small Favor, we just don't yet know what. But that's all the explanation you need for crippling migranes.
  • There is that thing at the end of White Night where Harry starts playing guitar, and he hears a sort of whisper of a voice. Maybe its a very, very weak Lash, or maybe its just his head.
  • Possibly supporting this theory, at the end of Changes: "Hush, now," whispered a woman's voice. It sounded familiar.
  • After reading the end of Ghost story This troper noticed something that Demoneach mentions, it says that Mab gave Harry breath, the island gave him nourishment and "THE PARASITE" kept his heart pumping...
  • Or maybe "the parasite" is Harry's mother, whose spirit has been concealed inside him all along. We know she left a message within him and Thomas, so it's possible she left more than that. And there was a semi-familiar female presence in his dreams in Death Masks, that banished his nightmares before he'd picked up Lasciel's coin. So maybe it's Margaret who's hiding, and who'll be coming back for the grand finale, not Lash; indeed, maybe her hidden presence is part of what imbued Lash with the capacity to stop being a villain.

Both of the above theories are true

Lash is going to reappear in Harry's mind for the reasons mentioned and find, much to her surprise, that her self-sacrifice has at least partially restored her normal angelic status. Incredible amounts of joint badassery follow.

  • Redeemed Lash + Uriel's power = AWESOMENESS ?
  • Hang on, what if the soulfire didn't come from Uriel at all - what if it came from Lash? What if Lash was only weakened by the psychic trauma instead of destroyed; as is hinted at the end of Small Favor.. The act of turning away from Lasciel and embracing free will, then sacrificing herself for Harry may have been enough to redeem herself. That would change the power Harry has access too; divine instead of infernal. She's simply been too weak too manifest herself until the end of Changes - she's "vaguely familiar voice" Harry hears after he's been shot.
  • I think there is a real potential for this to be true. In Changes when Harry begs Uriel for help, Uriel tells him that he already has helped Harry in a way that he cannot yet reveal, this was not cleaned up by the end of the book and may indeed have been him repairing the damage to Harry's brain and resurrecting Lash.
  • If it's likely to help Harry in the apocalyptic trio then Lash will probably come back, maybe allowing him to use Hellfire and Soulfire in tandem...?

Nicodemus isn't dead.

  • Well, this may not be as wild as some of the others, but my stance is that we don't know for sure he'd dead until you crucify him upside down, decapitate him (possibly by magic that would turn the Noose into razor wire), and then burn the body and head in seperate locations, at least 100 miles apart. THEN, you throw the ashes of the head into a volcano, and send the ashes of the body into deep space. Yes, that's overkill, but with Nicodemus, I think it's justified.
    • But back to my original point. We assume he's dead, and my theory isn't so much that he survived, rather that he died, and Lucifer interfered again and revived him. I mean, who says the only way Lucifer can interfere is by powering a greater circle?
      • And as for his Coin, my theory is that Nick either pulled a Davy Jones and put the coin in where his heart should be, or it's in some other location within his body that's just as difficult to get to. Possibly above the roof of his mouth?
    • There is no kill like overkill. But yeah I have to agree... the last we see of Nick, Dierdre and his goons are fishing him out of the lake; that's enough to qualify for Never Found the Body for me. If he's dead, I'm pretty sure they can fix that somehow; otherwise he'll be back later. Either way we could be in for some My Death Is Only the Beginning.
    • Bah. This is The Dresden Files. If they're going to kill Nicodemus, it isn't going to be through some silly quaint way like burning his body to ashes. They're just going to nuke him. Repeatedly.
    • Wait, what? Believing that killed Nicodemus would be rather like thinking Gandalf actually died fighting the Balor Balrog, or that Anakin died at the end of Episode 3. We've seen him live through far more deadly things, there's no way that killed him.
      • The only reason he survived those more deadly things was because they weren't the one thing that could actually harm him. Harry was strangling Nicodemus on that noose of his for quite a good while before Dierdre caught up to them.
        • Except we've seen many Denarians live through quite a lot more damage, especially before they suddenly became cannon fodder in the Oceanarium. If they were that easy to kill, then Ivy probably could've beaten the entire group without breaking a sweat or putting Harry at risk. 
  • Going by the general consensus in the Dresden Files forums on Jim Butcher's website this isn't implausible enough to qualify as a Wild Mass Guess. Hell, the opposite is more implausible. Look at Tessa, Nicodemus' wife, who was shot through the chest with a bar of fire that was so dense it was nearly a solid object. Almost no one on the forums believes she is dead.
    • She was in Denarian form at the time, I believe it's already been stated that while in demon form they've got all the benefits of such including increased resilience and stamina and possibly some regenerative capability, so no big surprises that no one thinks she's dead. Also another case of Never Found the Body: after Harry blasts her we never see her again. On the other hand, we've NEVER seen Nick's Denarian form, as he's always been plenty Badass in human form with his Living Shadow. 
  • Word of God states that Nic is alive, and is now terrified of Harry.
    • Fears Harry? He should fear IVY. I dare say the Archive is allowed to act in self defense, against a foe that has broken the Accord and attacked her to usurp the Archive against it purpose. Exactly how much does Nicodemus' occasional destruction of the church's records help against her? She knows all about his preferred mode of operation, history, safe houses, his fake aliases, his hidden wealth in secret bank accounts, the identity of his worshipers and in all probability exactly where he is right now...
      • Yes, that's fine and all, but Harry is the one person that's came the closest to killing him.
  • This troper a little confused as to why this is here...Did I miss something in Small Favor? Was there ever a doubt that Nicodemus hadn't died?

The Eebs are alive.

  • The Eebs stated that they were less respected because they were not Chupacabras descended from the 'First Maya' and given how the bloodline curse works... They also killed Harry, to avenge their lord, or just following their last orders, or for the evlulz.
    • Did you miss the bit where the Eebs were devoured by the goblins with the rest of their team?
    • Considering the Erlking said some of the goblins were wanting to make full use of all the rooms (torture and such), I imagined that they were all being kept alive for as much fun as possible.
    • The blood curse even wiped out the vampire side of the Order of St. Giles folks. I think it's safe to say it wiped out every Red Court vampire, even if they weren't "pureblood."
    • The Eebs were probably referring to the fact that they hadn't been ethnic Maya before becoming Red Court vampires. No rule says that murderous junkie vampire blood-cultists can't be racist jerks, too.
    • Although the killing Harry bit has been Jossed by Ghost Story, it's been mentioned that curses lose most, if not all, of their power crossing between the real world and the Never Never, so its possible that the Eebs and their companions survived.
      • Eeeeeexcept that Harry's narration is explicitly saying that they're all being devoured once he wins the trial by combat.
    • Not even close. Both Esteban and Esmerelda were seen in without their fleshmasks: Esteban when he was fleeing Harry's office building, and Esmerelda when Harry burned the fleshmask off her with his mother's pentacle. Red Court all the way.

Kemmler is still around.

  • Be he Cowl, Rashid, or even a character shown (or at least implied) not to be human. Evidence for Kemmler being Cowl is that Cowl knows about what Bob is and what Bob knows, and only Justin (and now Harry) have reason to know that (unless one of Kemmler's disciples managed to do some spying). It explicitly took most of the White Council (not the Wardens, the White Council) to take him down, and even then they Never Found the Body.
    Additionally, we've only got the Heirs' word and Bob's reverted form to tell us that Kemmler was a complete psycho. It's quite possible that he managed to pull off a cure for Dark Magic addiction and withdrawal, and can now use dark magic with no side effects worse than getting lazy. Unlikely, but possible.
  • Never found the body? To paraphrase Bob, they killed Kemmler twice, seeing as he came back the first time, and were "real careful the second time." 
    • "Made sure there wasn't a body" if effectively Never Found the Body is you're dealing with a... Well, with Kemmler. Reread Dead Beat and get back to me once you remember the implications from one of Kemmler's specialties being in "not staying dead" and the heirs were (and as far as we know, possibly still are) mostly small fry compared to him.
      • The fact that he came back at least once means that the White Council became aware that he was able to and presumably took steps to prevent it. Rereading the passage in question, Bob assures Harry that Kemmler is gone, saying that the Wardens took him out in the 20th century, and then the entire White Coucil got in on the act to keep him down. 
      • Corpsetaker was one of his disciples wasn't she? Who's to say he wasn't the one who taught her that little trick of hers?
      • Kemmler being still around is perfectly possible. Cowl being Kemmler is jossed - if it was him, he wouldn't need Bob and his knowlege to enact Darkhallow - you know, being the guy who actually came up with the whole concept and all.
      • Seeing as Corpsetaker was only a small fry compared to Kemmler himself, and nearly managed to pull off a revive despite being blown to kuck by the Darkhallow, I'm fairly sure Kemmler is probably still alive. Harry, being Harry, will rectify this issue in the next books.
      • Let's suppose Kemmler managed to swap bodies just before his death at the hands of the Council. Which body would he take? Perhaps someone who wouldn't present that much of a challenge, would be too young and inexperienced to be prepared for it. Obviously someone from the Senior Council is out of the question, but what if there was some foot soldiers present, perhaps taking records. Maybe even someone who would have access to the inner workings of the Council, able to be present in their meetings and nudge their vote in the directions he wants them to go. He would also have complete access to Council-exclusive information and materials, and would be in the right position to spread his knowledge. Of course that person would be a traitor in a perfect position to start getting together a Black Council. In essence, everything Peabody was. Kemmler also sounds capable of fabricating or containing mordite, which drains the life energy of what it touches.
      • You don't bring "young and inexperienced" wizards to fight the worst dark wizard on the face of the planet. According to Jim Butcher, Bob's exaggerating when he says the whole White Council showed up to the fight--it was just those wizards who would've actually been worth something in a fight.

Cowl is Justin duMorne; Kumori is Elaine

Justin was in possession of Bob, who knew the Word of Kemmler since he helped write it; Justin also would've known that Bob was owned by Kemmler (since that's where he swiped the skull). Cowl didn't outright kill Harry since he thought that he may willingly join forces with the Circle/Black Council, but realized after their first fight in Dead Beat that Harry was hopeless. The Circle seems to have ties to Outsiders, as pointed out in White Night; the same book informs us that He Who Walks Behind, whom Justin summoned and sent after Harry, is an Outsider as well. We've also never seen the actual fight in flashback between Harry and either HWWB or Justin, which means there might be a clue in his subconscious that Jim is waiting to spring on us. As for Elaine being Kumori, this is why she raised that man from the dead and why she saw necromancy as she did - she is still Justin's thrall, and thus has to do what he says. However, he also can benefit from allowing her to retain her original personality (creating a mole to send into Harry's life, time and again), and thus she will allow her power to be used for good. 

  • That doesn't explain her debt to the summer court in Midsummer Knight.
  • Justin is (notice the tense, and that I'm fairly certain the quote was released after Cowl's introduction) D-E-D dead. It could be Justin's corpse, but it's not Justin.
  • I like Elaine for Kumori. Kumori was the one who tried keeping Dresden and Cowl from fighting (which would be expected to end in Harry's death.) If we accept Cowl's assertion that he isn't a Kemmlerite, then there's no good reason he should know about Bob, unless one of Du Morne's apprentices spilled the beans. Pretty easy guess that Harry would scoop the skull out of the ashes. We know that Elaine has the ability to cheat the White Council's tests of power, so she could have been hiding a greater talent when she had skin contact with Harry in Summer Knight and White Night. Kumori recognized Harry's ring as an item of power, which makes sense if either A) he made it when he was an apprentice or B) she knew he wouldn't wear jewelry (other than the pentacle.) And somehow she managed not to kill Harry when she had a knife to his throat.

Cowl is what's really left of He Who Walks Behind.

See above, including the "D-E-D dead" bit. Harry didn't kill HWWB and get its shadow stuck to him, he de-powered it and didn't notice the little splotch of nigh-powerless Outsider that was left in the ruins of Justin's mansion.

  • Except that HWWB was summoned in Blood Rites, and while I don't recall exactly what it said, it certainly implied that it had been banished but had now returned. That said, it hasn't shown back up yet, and it probably will.

Cowl is Kemmler

Cheating death was Kemmler's specialty- who's to say his methods didn't keep advancing along with the Council's methods of destroying him, and he deliberately left Bob out of the loop so that no one would be able to rat him out. The process, however, cost him part of his memory and/or part of his power, so he needed to steal Bob back and perform the darkhallow to get himself back to full strength. The fact that Cowl says he has nothing but contempt for "the madman Kemmler" could just be a lie, or it could be that Cowl/Kemmler was once mad but is now sane(r) and looks back on his previous efforts with distaste. In any case, if this is true we've probably seen barely a hint of what he can do, and he may well wear the cloak and cowl to hide an undead body beneath it. 

    • This is based on the fact that Cowl is by far the strongest necromancer in Dead Beat, beyond even Grevane, who was supposedly Kemmler's favorite, and because Kemmler got a bit too much build-up to just be a historical footnote important only for his spellbooks as far as Harry's concerned, methinks...
    • Biggest problem with this, of course, is Cowl also was after the Word of Kemmler. If he was Kemmler, you'd think his life's work would be something he'd remember.
    • Unless his most recent resurrection also damaged his memory, so that he remembered what he'd done, but not how. Ties in too to why he went after Bob. 
    • But wouldn't Bob have been transformed back into his "Killer" personality, instead of his subservient blue-eyed form?
    • Moreover, if Cowl were Kemmler, wouldn't he have just ordered Grevane and Corpsetaker to cooperate against Harry and the Wardens, while he claimed the Darkhallow's benefits for himself? They'd been Kemmler's apprentices, after all.
    • it's pretty clear in dead beat that cowl doesn't need the erlking book and Harry only assumes that he needs bob to do the darkhollow spell. the only part that Cowl directly gets involved in is drawing the funnel of death to himself. in fact it looks like grevane cast the spell and cowl planned on hijacking it. cowl may have just taken bob back because, as kemmler, he felt like bob was his. the main reason for following harry around had nothing to do with bob but to make sure the erlking escaped.


Cowl is The Worm That Walks.

He wears the cowl to make it easier to appear humanoid, and his voice sounds inhuman to Harry.

  • Cowl uses human magic, which is only possible for someone that's at least mostly mortal. The voice may be an intentional distortion to hide his identity; Harry already suspects he's White Council based on the way he speaks, and Cowl doesn't want Harry recognizing his voice properly.

Justin is alive

  • Word of God says he's "D-E-D dead". That's missing the A, so thus it's only mostly dead, and mostly dead is slightly alive.
    • Alternately, he is dead... but is still active, on account of being a lich or the Dresdenverse equivalent.
    • Or a Black Court vampire, Red Court being jossed as of Changes.

Justin Du Morne isn't dead, and is still messing with Harry's life.

We've already seen one character come back from the fire that supposedly killed him. Who's to say that he didn't survive, as well? Supposing he survived, but had massive burns that took a long time to heal, how might he disguise himself? Maybe by wearing a hooded robe...otherwise known as a Cowl. 

  • Yes, I'm aware that this is implied above, but I don't recall seeing it explicitely stated in this manner. If it is, This Troper apologizes.
    • I think you're half right. That is to say, Justin Du Morne is very dead, but is still messing with Harry's life.

The Water Beetle and other Shipping

Crossover Theories

Harry is the great great great great grandson of Solomon Kane

So Word of Jim states that in the Dresdenverse Lovecraft's stories were basically true, or at least true enough to get him killed. In fact Rashid the Gatekeeper apparently killed the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred (or more likely turned one of his minions against him if what Lovecraft wrote was true). That being the case It's possible that Robert E Howard, who basically shared a universe with lovecraft, was also right. Kane and Dresden share a great many similarity's, they are both tall and lean with sharp features and black hair, they both have a strong moral code that they stick too no matter what, and they both kick insane amounts of evil ass on a regular basis. Maybe he's Harry's ancestor on Malcome's side, and that's part of what makes His birth so special. 

Cthulu's going to show up at some point

Word of God states that H.P. Lovecraft got killed for being onto something, much like Stoker.(I don't have the link, but he said it) Cthulu's probably the lead outsider (or even more scarily, maybe the second-in-command) and is somehow linked to the Formor.

  • Stoker wasn't killed for being onto something, unless it was by the Black/Red court. He wrote(literally) the book on the Black Court, which is why they were driven to nigh extinction.
    • Stoker was killed, according to Butcher, "for being delicious." Or, more specifically, Lara "rewarded" him for a job well done and got, uh, carried away.

Captain Jack is....Captain Jack.

No, not Sparrow, nice try; Harry. As Carmichael showed; you get to look a lot better after you're dead. Even though the body of the Face of Boe "died"; Captain Jack is Eternal (and no longer bound by dimension or time). Or at least; eternal enough that his soul is still chugging and needs more processing before what Comes After. As king of "breaking the rules" he's put in charge of events that break the rules.

    • Jossed He's Murphy's father.

Stephanie Meyer wrote the Twilight series at the behest of the Red Court, to sow disdain for White Court vampires.

Just like Bram Stoker did for the Blacks. Granted, the hatedom being only matched by the insane fandom means it may well have backfired, but there's no reason every gambit has to work out.

  • Or Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight after being visited by the White Court. Think about it. The main plot of Blood Rites centered around the White Court trying to bring down a porno producer who wasn't using people who looked like White Court vampires, and it's explicitly stated that they want to control the porn industry in order to hlp make themselves seem more attractive. Now compare the physical descriptions of Twilight vampires and White Court Vampires. In other words, Stephanie Meyer is a White Court thrall.
    • ...these are almost terrifyingly sensible. 
    • Except they aren't, because the White Court feeds off of life energy and the vampires in Twilight, while supernaturally sexy, drink blood.

Margaret Dresden is Kumori.

Consider the discussions in the latest book of Margaret's seemingly wacky ideas on how magic should be handled by the White Council and discussions of her treading the edge when it comes to its implementation combined with Kumori's speech to Dresden about breaking the Laws of Magic by reviving the hired thug in Dead Beat.

  • But didn't she hit Lord Raith with a Death Curse? Is there a way to pull that off without using up the energies required to keep your body functioning (as explained when Harry's contemplating it in Summer Knight)?
    • Hey, Corwin could do it
      • Fun fact: A note made by Margaret Dresden stated that she shouldn't wear a dress when using a certain way. To Corwin. Coincidence?
      • That wouldn't be the first Corwin shout out...
    • Well, Kumori was hanging out with Cowl at the beginning of Dead Beat, so necromancy might be an answer. Wonder if Liches exist in the Dresdenverse... On second thought, that's really freaking creepy.
      • They exist in the television continuity...
    • Death Curse. It uses all the energy keeping you from merely being a sack of meat and bones. Once it is used, you will be dead, not pining for the fjords.

Wizards (or just Harry) are descended from the Time Lords

One throwaway line in Ghost Story by He Who Walks Behind is 'child of the stars' in reference to Harry, implying extraterrestrial origin. They also swear by the 'stars and stones'. They have a specific law against Time Travel and are ruled by a high council of the old and powerful, just like the Time Lords. Time Lords also have strong telepathic powers, as well as a greater potential life span in even one of their bodies. The first Doctor was about 450 when he regenerated, and showed himself to capable of physical combat (though he preferred to avoid) at that age. Ancient Mai, for example, is maybe 420 and terrifies anyone with fear glands with her power. Also, HWWB is some sort of Lovecraftian monster, which has been confirmed to exist in the Whoniverse. All it would take was one Time Lord in the far distant past to start the ball rolling by sleeping with a human, something that isn't exactly unprecedented *cough* Rose *cough*.

Lara created the TV series

  • Certainly, she has enough contacts in the entertainment business to pull it off. She created the series both to get the word out about Harry in particular and wizards in general, and to just piss Harry off. That's why so much was different-she deliberately changed things in ways that would tweak him.
    • That... actually makes a surprising amount of sense. 
    • Likely, given that the White Court was behind both Bram Stoker's Dracula and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer as a how-to on killing blacks and reds respectively.
  • Likewise, TV!Bianca is a thinly-veiled Expy for Lara, personifying her ideal relationship with Dresden (she's clearly controlling him in any episode where she appears).

The White Court commissioned From Dusk till Dawn

As with Dracula, it's a how-to on killing Red Court vamps. Look at the similarities: Weak to holy water/symbols and sunlight, transform into bat-like creatures to feed, and their base is on an ancient Mayincatec pyramid? Can't be a coincidence.


Bad Romance is about the White Court.

Just watch the video; this song, and perhaps Lady Gaga, are unquestionably being put forth by the White Court. 

  • Oh God it fits.
    • I know, seriously. The video is even mostly white. Tell me you don't think 'Club Zero' (That club from Turncoat) when you see the video.
    • So Bianca has a flamethrower bra? Awesome.
      • Forget Bianca, think Lara.

The train at the very end of Changes is the Hogwarts express, and Harry is at the station. Well, the crazy ghost station.

  • C'mon, you know it's not true, but that it'll show up in a billion Fanfics.

He Who Walks Behind is the monster from The Children of the Corn.

He Who Walks Behind is He Who Walks Behind Rows, it's not terribly much of stretch. The mass killing of adults probably sums up enough energies for him to form a body outside the never never when night falls.

Harry is the reincarnation of Dirty Harry (literally)

I mean, seriously. That knees vs. baseball bat scene in Death Masks was a dead giveaway. He even lampshades it, toting Harry Callaghan's Magnum revolver at one point before.

  • Jim put that in because someone described the series as "Dirty Harry Potter" and he loved it enough that he gave Harry his 44 magnum.


The books are representative of the Fool's Journey

By combining two of the cards, the similarities between the symbolism of the major arcana and the books so far are uncanny.

  • The Fool is Harry, of course. He is The Hero, master of the Indy Ploy. He tries new things, embraces "folly," and is learning to have faith.
  • The Magician/Storm Front: Taking action, making an impact, experiencing power, beginning a journey
  • The High Priestess/Fool Moon: Sensing what is hidden and looking beyond the obvious (Harry already suspects that there is a conspiracy behind the recent weirdness), female mystery (Tara West)
  • The Empress/Grave Peril: Abundance (things start off good in this book - Harry even has a girlfriend), senses (especially where the Red Court and their narcotic saliva are concerned), mothering and femininity (Charity is introduced and gives birth to little Harry)
  • The Emperor/Summer Knight: Fathering and masculinity (the book revolves around the death of a protective father figure; one of the changelings' father was a troll; the Winter Knight is a hypermasculine rapist), authority (the various faerie queens; Harry to the Pizza Lord's Guard), forging order from chaos (Aurora's goal was to end the conflict between the courts)
  • The Hierophant/Death Masks: Organized belief systems (the first book where the church plays a role), knowing where to put your faith (Harry being at odds with Michael over religion; knowing who to trust out of various thieves, murderers, and priests), identifying with a group (three major groups are introduced or expanded on: the Knights, the Denarians, and the Fellowship)
  • The Lovers/Blood Rites: Relating to others, questioning opinions (Harry's newfound relationship to Thomas and how it changes his feelings toward the vampire), Star-Crossed Lovers (Thomas and Justine; Susan and Harry are also mentioned), intimacy (the White Court in general), free will (Thomas; what Lord Raith does to his children)
  • The Chariot/Dead Beat: Determination and being assertive, "hard" control (Harry rides a goddamn zombie dinosaur into the last battle, possibly the least subtle expression of power in literary history; the villains are also unsubtle, accosting Harry and Butters in public places and having godhood as their primary goal), war (the war between the Red Court and White Council gets really serious, and enough wardens are killed that they lower themselves to recruit Harry)
  • Justice/Proven Guilty: Cause and effect, responsibility, legal trouble, accepting and understanding justice
  • The Hermit/White Night: Giving/receiving guidance and being a mentor (Harry to Molly, Lash to Harry), truth at all costs (Harry stoops to new lows in this book), introspection (he realizes how his personality has changed), solitude (Harry is never really alone while Lasciel lives in his head, and she is gone in the end); also Wheel of Fortune: destiny and discovering a greater pattern (the suggestion that Harry's birth was predetermined)
  • Strength/Small Favor: "soft" control (the first time we see Harry as a manipulator, using the coins and Shirou's sword as bait for the Denarians; Luccio is under the influence of mind magic, although we don't realize that until the next book), compassion (Harry shows mercy to enemies where he wouldn't have before; Marcone also places Ivy's life before his own), a young girl with power (Ivy, Ivy, Ivy!)
  • The Hanged Man/Turn Coat: reversal (Harry and Morgan's positions), sacrifice, giving up for a higher cause (what Morgan does in the end), entrapment (all the young wardens affected by the traitor)
  • Death/Changes: Irrevocable change and, well, death.
  • Temperance/Ghost Story: Health (according to Wikipedia, Harry is probably going to spend at least part of this book trying to get his physical body back), balancing forces (he's "trapped in a world in-between," he'll encounter other "presences")
  • The Devil: Ignorance, helplessness, bondage (Harry has to deal with his new job as the Winter Knight)
  • Perhaps the short stories will eventually line up with the minor arcana? There's already around 20 short stories (including the novella The Warrior as a short story), and a book of ten about to be released, so whether the compilation is of all-new stories or just a collection of previously published stories, there's plenty of time to fill out another 30 or 35 short stories.
  • We know the titles of the last three books will be, in some order, "Empty Night," "Stars and Stones," and "Hell's Bells." It doesn't seem too wild to imagine The Tower and the Star fitting Stars and Stones, and the next one after that is the Moon (Empty Night). I don't know about the Sun, but after that comes Judgement, which is a shoo-in for Hell's Bells.
    • Alternatively, since there are apparently about 20 books before the trilogy, they could all be part of Judgment and/or The World. Having the last book be Stars and Stones, which, like Changes, breaks the usual pattern would be a pretty Butchery move.
    • Supposedly there is Word of Jim somewhere that Empty Night is the last of the trilogy. Citation needed?

The Dresden Files takes place in the same universe as The Vampire Files

And P. N. Elrod and Jim Butcher are destined to collaberate on a side story of how Harry and Jack meet! Because it is too awesome not to happen!

For those unaware, The Vampire Files is about Jack Fleming, a vampire P.I. in 1930's Chicago. He most resembles a Black Court vampire (Elrod based him off of Stoker's work), but with some notable differences, one of them being that he's not Exclusively Evil. My personal theory is that his kind of vampire was created as a sort of experiment by the Black Court in an attempt to overcome their weaknesses, but was ultimately unsuccessful, at least to them (for one, it's difficult for them to make new vampires, because it seems some are immune). In my fanon I call Jack a Grey Court, between Black and White--he has Dracula-ish powers, but still has a soul.

And I guess Jack hasn't caught on to the rest of the masquerade because he doesn't have any reason to think they exist.

The Dresden Files takes place in the same universe as Kat Richardson's Greywalker series.

The spirit in the box in book 1 (Greywalker) was sealed using a spell similar to the one that was used on Bob. The vampires (save for the newbie) are all skilled magic-users, there aren't many of them (aside from the left-to-die pets that Edward gets on a whim), and it's stated that most of the few vampires in Seattle are well-versed in the art of staying undercover (Edward and the untaught fledgelings are explicit and, for Edward, inexplicable exceptions). The Grey is probably exactly what the Danzigers said it was, and Harper may even become involved in the aftereffects of Changes (and Dead Beat), but Harper's manipulation of the Grey seems exactly like Harry's manipilation of spiritual and physical energy (which really doesn't mean much). Mexican ghosts (as shown in the short story "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog") gain the ability to stick around specifically because of the Day of the Dead rites, the final death where they die for good when nobody alive remembers them is because they no longer have that believe holding them together.

  • Sub-guess: Harper is Kumori.
  • But almost all Dresden Files vampires are not capable of using magic?
    • Dresden-verse vampires are perfectly capable of using magic. Both Mavra and the White King are confirmed sorcerors.
      • No, super powerful Dresden-Verse vampires are capable of using magic. Go check Grave Peril and see how surprising (and bad) it is that Bianca has learned to use magic. Also, see many of the comments about the fall of Archangel and what a risk magically capable Vampires are. Powerful and long lived Vampires can theoretically use Magic, but most cannot actually use it.

Terra West is Holo The Wise Wolf.

Being The Last of Her Kind Holo stayed with Lawerence until her eventually died of old age. Depressed by the loss of her mortal love as well as that of her people Holo set about traveling the world, even journeying to the New World where she met Listens To Wind who kindly taught her the magic needed to let other mortal become wolves to keep her company. Her time with Listens To Wind taught her that alot of magical beings are not as benign as herself and she sought do what she could about trouble makers by training groups of werewolves like the Alphas and keeping larger lupine threats like the Loup Garou as contained as possible.

Demonreach is the bound form of Vorvadoss, The Troubler of Sands from the Cthulhu Mythos.

The description of the avatar is exactly the same as Vorvadoss' form - a cloaked, hooded being enveloped in green flames (noted in the fireplace after the battle). This holds with the idea of Rashid keeping Outsiders beyond the gate and the island holding a grudge - it can be easily theorized that anything from the Cthulhu Mythos is viably an Outsider.

Fangires are The Jade Court.

All thats known about the Jade Court is that they are a vampires native to Asia and we have yet to see a non-asian Fangire. Normal logic would indicate that they are hopping vampires but this is WMG.


Upcoming Plot Predictions

Fix and Harry are going to square off

It's going to happen. Harry's the Winter Knight now... and Fix was extremely worried about this happening in earlier books. Fix is going to confront Harry, which Harry won't want. Fix will be Crazy Prepared during the fight, while Harry will be holding back... until he knocks Fix down, and gives him a lecture about how stupid he's being. Fix will probably fire one right back.

Harry will end up as the next Gatekeeper.

The Gatekeeper's duty is to prevent Outsiders from entering our realm, and Harry, in White Night, has been told that he has a special ability to affect Outsiders. The (current) Gatekeeper seems to have an interest in Harry's fate as well. 

  • That's so lowbrow. We know there's a traitor on the White Council, the Merlin has taken issue with Harry since he showed up, "Merlin" is a title, Elaine says Harry is "the strongest wizard I've ever met," and a number of times throughout the series, Harry is compared to the original Merlin. Although these are usually jokes ("Maybe I should go out and buy you a round table.") they sometimes aren't (Harry is the first wizard since Merlin to be given guardianship of more than one of the Knights' of the Cross swords). He's obviously being groomed as the next Merlin.
    • In support of this theory, Harry's mother's maiden name is "Lefay." Guess who was occasionally connected with Merlin in the original legends...
      • It is stated multiple times that he is the strongest of his generation, so it would make sense that he would be the Merlin when that generation comes into its full power.
        • It is most emphatically not stated that Harry is the most powerful of his generation. One of the most powerful wizards currently operating, yes-- but the most he's claimed is that "on a good day" he's one of the thirty or forty most powerful wizards alive. Never has it been said that he's the most powerful wizard of his generation, or anything like that.
        • Actually he is outright stated to be the most talented of his generation.
      • Wait... Harry as Merlin? Hasn't he spent the whole series making fun of any kind of authority figure? He and the White Council get along like oil and water.
      • So? Worked for Sam Vimes.
    • Other theories place him as the future Blackstaff, given his willingness to use peripheral Black Magic where absolutely required while remaining (just) on the right side of the Laws (e.g. see the end of Dead Beat) coupled with a strong morality that sees him risking life and limb regularly for little money and less respect. He wouldn't like it, but he'd probably be very good at it - and wouldn't abuse the license to ignore the rules.
      • Harry would definitely turn the job down. Also in Dead Beat, he says that he wants to live his own life, and stay "above the influence" of black magic. He only took Lasciel's help because it was a necessary evil, same with reanimating Sue.
        • This capacity to use black magic when it actually * is* what is needed - and then walk way - strikes me as the qualifying exam for Blackstaff.
          • Except Harry is the sort who would keep walking. 
            • Harry might view the Blackstaff as a necessary evil, like Lasciel's help. When driven by anger, Harry is willing to kill with magic, such as in Fool Moon. Odds are, Harry will be forced to pick up the Blackstaff in order to bypass the Laws of Magic (a little more Necromancy, anyone? Maybe some mind control?) as well as get the increased power that seems to come with it. Proof: Ebenezer is old and powerful, but the man RIPS THE LIFE OUT OF OVER A HUNDRED MOOKS. He also pulled a satellite from outer space and directed it with perfect accuracy at Ortega's fortress. No wizard (maybe the Merlin on a good day) could possibly do that with just his own magic. Harry has plenty of people offering him power: Mab wanting him to be the Winter Knight, Nicodemus wanting him to take up a Denarius, his ties to the Leanansidhe, an army of faeries, connections to the Hellhound (Kincaid), connections to Ivy, the Blackstaff as a teacher and grandfather, an apprentice who has shown that she is very good at mind control, a Foo dog, knowledge of the Book Of Kemmler, the ability to trigger the Darkhallows, two of the three swords of the Knights of the Cross, and his own raw magical strength. He has said before that he will take up every power offered him to kill an enemy that harms his friends. I can see Harry taking up everything he has (including the Blackstaff) to destroy an enemy like Mab, Cowl, or the Black Council. 
    • Maybe he'll consolidate the entire White Council and be Gatekeeper, Merlin, and Blackstaff all at one! (^_^)b
      • I think it'll be more like "help create something new from the shambles of the White Council" - I don't think the Council in its current form will last out the series.
    • Odds are good he won't be named gatekeeper until he's been performing the duties for at least one book. Harry can't be successful in magic or finance without it bringing more trouble then it's worth. And there is no way Harry would ever be willing to be the Blackstaff, even if they offered it to a man who twice had the Doom of Damocles over his head trained by a warlock, he would turn it down flat. 
      • He'd take it if he thought it wold be given to someone less responsible if he didn't. He'd grumble, but he'd take it.
  • No, Harry already IS the Gatekeeper. Rashid is Harry from the future, come back to do everything he's already seen himself do, otherwise Time explodes. It's surprisingly plausible.
    • Time Travel is against the Laws of Magic...
      • He uses his position as Merlin to appoint himself Blackstaff, then travels back in time legally to become the Gatekeeper. Problem solved!
      • Given what Jim Butcher said in regards to the timeline of the books and time travel at the signing for "Changes" in Portland, Oregon, on 8 April, I'd say that's not only possible but also a pretty darn cool idea. "Am I gonna make any big leaps forward or backward, well... You know, there is a whole law of magic about messing with time, and given that it's a law of magic, Dresden's gonna have to break it eventually." Video clips of Jim Butcher's Portland, OR, signing for "Changes". Beware spoilers!
      • I think this is actually unlikely, given that Rashid was surprised to find out that Dresden has made a sanctuary of Demonreach. If he was future-Dresden, he would have known that quite well, and there would have been no real reason for Harry to be surprised over him knowing due to his magical knowledge and resources. Also, the Gatekeeper seemed willing to kill Harry to prevent the fight until he found out about Harry's ace in the hole.
        • As an additive to this, for those of you who say he was faking surprise, Harry is a terrible liar as well... he probably couldn't even trick himself.
      • Perhaps Rashid is Harry, with his memory altered by Molly/another mental wizard. Some time in the future, the Outsiders are released and start messing with time. Harry needs to ensure that certain events happen, and since he is the only one capable of harming Outsiders he has to be the one that goes back. He has his memory altered so that he does not remember that he is Harry in order to prevent himself from giving himself away and ruining the whole "causality" thing, but does retain his magical talents and the knowledge of which events need to happen.

Mavra wants Harry to kill Ferrovax

In Grave Peril Mavra helped start the war with the Red Court, while in Dead Beat she prompted him to stop the necromancers from achieving A God Am I status and got the Word of Kemmler for herself. In Blood Rites Mavra showed up, killed a few people and attracted Harry's attention, and pointedly and painfully demonstrated that Harry's shield didn't stop heat. Unless she had a deeper reason for doing that is seems pretty petty compared to her previous appearances.

  • Well, she needed to get photos for leverage...
    • A plan within a plan within a plan? Place your bets for Gambit Roulette.
      • And, Ferrovax did slap Harry around back at the party. Harry has mentioned repeatedly that he doesn't like bullies...
    • This theory is unlikely. Word of God is that Ferrovax is one entity that has a chance killing Mab, Queen of the Winter Court of Faerie, in a one on one fight. Included in his company is Cowl if he had managed to become a god using the ascension ritual in Dead Beat, the entire White Council if they had her true name, the entire Red Court, Drakul, and with a very low probability of succeeding the entire White Court.
    • ...Firstly I think you misunderstand the term "wild mass guessing". But at this point given Harry's rapid and sustained increase in power and contacts and tendency to triumph over things theoretically well out of his weight class (case in point, the entire Red Court ) the questionable part is not "how could Harry ever be in a position to destroy Ferrovax?" but "why would Mavra want Ferrovax dead?" 
    • If Ferrovax could take out Mab and now that Harry is the Winter Knight, Mab would have a good reason to manipulate /order Harry to take Ferrovax out as a precaution or if the dragon starts it. Mavra could still be involved somewhere, possibly running parallel to Mab without knowing it. Plus, flamable vampires probably don't like dragons and dragon fire may be connected to Summer fire. Wild Mass Guessing!

More of the Carpenter children will be magically active, and Harry has to train them.

Molly's just the oldest child, among a set of seven; there are six more up at bat to see if they won the genetic lottery (pardon the mixed metaphors). However, they've got a lot going for them in that department: their mother carries the potential, although she refused the power and it has since withered away, and their father is the "Fist of God", and implied to be descended from kings. Oh, and they've got Harry Dresden keeping a close eye on them, so if they do go magically active, they'll get the training to keep them from going Dark. 

  • Of particular interest is Harry's namesake among the Carpenter clan. We know that Michael has siblings, so if Michael is a seventh child, what does that mean for his own seventh child?
    • It means he's a werewolf.
    • It means plot devices.
  • There was some speculation about Harry taking up Amoracchius, which would be particularly awesome given his wizard powers. Any of the seven Carpenter children have the potential both for magic, AND the potential to wield any of the Swords of the Cross. At least one of them will take up a Sword of the Cross augmented by their magic abilities. 
  • Word of God has said that Molly will be the only magical Carpenter child. Jim Butcher explains that Charity Carpenter began neglecting a not very impressive magical gift as soon as she was rescued by Michael. Basically by the time she had Daniel (the second oldest) it had been three years since she had used her magic and it had atrophied to nothing.
    • So for magic to be passed on, it has to be in use? That seems not right. Not everyone uses their magic or even knows they have it, but practitioners are still being born. Also, it doesn't always run in families, it just tends to, like schizophrenia or something; genetics not required, just ups the chances. Besides, Butcher is a known liar.
      • I can't disagree with anything you just said, but I'll play devil's advocate. I think there could be a difference between not using a gift/not knowing you have one and actively denying it, as Charity did. Also, there's something to inherited ability, as it was important enough for the White Court to consider it a viable means to remove wizards from play.

We're quickly heading into a Gambit Pileup

So far we know there are at least eight major plans going on, which have had at least a portion unfold on screen. Most of these are also as widely varied and exclusive as winning Illuminati. There's no way these will be able continue to avoid a collision.

  • By extension, causing said Gambit Pileup is someone's Gambit Roulette. Wrap your head around that.
    • From what this troper has seen of the series, it appears that the entire series is a Gambit Pileup orchestrated by people like Nicodemus, Harry, Lara, the White Council, and Mavra, and the Gambit Pileup is a Batman Gambit by the Black Council for everyone to destroy each other which in turn is a Batman Gambit by Harry's Mother orchestrated so Harry can kick some serious ass on the Outsiders who will most likely be at the focal point of the Apocalyptic Trilogy. Because you know everytime a god-like Eldritch Abomination is kicked out of the universe, eventually they will get pissed and try to come back. Is there a trope for that? Not to mention Harry seems to be getting his hands on an awful lot of magical weapons for an average joe. Ability to affect Outsiders, a fallen angel, the Demonreach, Soulfire, the ability to get the Mantle of the Winter Knight, Bob, the knowledge of how to use the Darkhallow, according to many fan theories a Sword of the Cross, etc. It seems like someone is putting a lot of effort into souping up Harry so he can, in the words of Harry to Mavra in Dead Beat, "pick up every weapon he can get. And using them to kill them. Horribly".
      • Rashid the Gatekeeper may be in on Margaret Dresden's plan as well. He doesn't see the future or anything like that, he knows what's going to happen because he helped plan it. 
      • But, of course, defeating the Outsiders was a gambit by someone else who needs the Outsiders removed so that s/he/it can occupy their now vacant position and invade only to be defeated by someone else as part of yet another gambit.
  • Better yet. The Gambit Pileup is a Gambit Roulette by Harry's Mom.

He Who Walks Behind is responsible for everything.

  • When DuMorne summoned H.W.W.B, I bet it allowed the Outsider to have more effect on earth, so H.W.W.B gathered/founded the Black Council, who taught Victor Sells, gave the Hexenwulfen their pelts, only God knows how much stuff H.W.W.B were responsible for at Bianca's party, drove Aurora insane, gave the athame to Mab (unless it's NOT driving her insane...), kidnapped Marcone, and turned Peabody to the dark side.
    • Some part of this has to be true. We don't know how often it is that someone "defeats" an Outsider. What we do know is that killing a demon doesn't destroy them, just sends them back where they came from. And that more than one person has hinted about HWWB still hanging around Harry (including psycho Third-Eye junkie in Storm Front). Logically, having HWWB summoned to Earth to fulfill a task, then being defeated before accomplishing that task, leaves the Outsider with unfinished business -- he's "stuck" on Earth until he fulfills his mission. Having tried and failed at the direct approach, the Black Council is his new way of getting it done.

At some point, The Masquerade will collapse

The series has been hinting for a long time that if humans were to realize what was really going on, it would cause hell with the supernatural world. There's already hints that some mortal forces have dealings with the supernatural (e.g. Marcone's goons in White Night) and we know there's an apocalyptic trilogy down the line. All signs point to, at some point in the next few books, the Muggles are going to realize what's going on, and there will be hell to pay.

  • Alternatively, when the masquerade breaks down the Vampire Courts will sue for full rights in a landmark case called Clark V Addsion and the story will ultimately end up as a prequel to Anita Blake. 
  • This may actually the the Circle's master plan: they seem to act much more overtly than other supernaturals, and appear to be making enemies of every side of that world.
  • Some supporting evidence: Bringing in muggle authorities to supernatural problems is repeatedly compared to using nuclear weapons. We are going to have an Apocalyptic Trilogy. An what good is an Apocalypse without any nuclear weapons?

Lash will possess "Persephone"

  • Lash is gone from Harry's mind, presumably dead. However Word of God says we haven't seen the last of her. If she's truly out of Harry's mind, she might need a new host, and through Harry he knows exactly the one good for the job: Helen Beckitt's daughter. If it's truly impossible to cure her any other way, Lash can move in and make use of the body for herself.
    • Anyone mind if I steal this one for a fanfiction that crosses over with Castle? 
      • As long as you provide a link


Prior to Small Favor, Nicodemus was not truly trying to end the world - now, he is.

This one needs some set-up: when Nick tried to recruit the Archive, people were less worried about the Fallen controlling the most powerful mage known to exist than they were about her omni-knowledge allowing for the launch of nuclear weapons. But the Denarians have access to master-level Veils and mind-probing magics: there seems to be no reason for them not to simply steal those codes from defenseless mundane humans, then sneak into military bases and fire the nukes directly. Why don't they? Nicodemus, like most old and successful beings, was complacent, and enjoyed working as a supervillain more than he would an actual doomsday. However, Harry almost killed him, and by so doing, has given him reason to try and end the game, rather than just playing for fun. Soon, a nuclear holocaust will descend on a world too distracted by supernatural conflict to prevent it...

  • I disagree, but only in part. I don't think Nicodemus was ever actually trying to destroy the world. You'll notice even back in Death Masks he points out that the plague would've been stopped before everyone was destroyed. Nicodemus is more like Spike than someone who wants the world to end. Not the same, of course, because he wants it to end eventually, but not yet. Now, Tessa on the other hand...
    • Exactly. This theory runs that Nick was like that, right up until a certain professional Wizard showed him he might actually die, after which point...
      • Except that most of the evidence supporting this idea comes from Small Favor, especially when he and Harry are on the boat and end up having a conversation rather similar to the one Buffy and Spike have in season 2. He's downright pissed about Tessa. If he just wanted Armageddon ASAP I think he'd be far less angry. 

Marcone now has a sample of Ivy's hair, for later use.

He had ample opportunity to take it when they were going up to the helicopter.

  • Of course if he ever used it, Dresden would put him down. Seriously, I doubt Marcone would ever use a child like that.
    • He would never use it to harm her, of course, but it could also be used to find her if she was in danger. 
  • Also, the Denarians shaved her head for added humiliation and torture.
    • And Nicodemus is totally the kind of short-sighted idiot that would let the hair of a major Power like that go to waste. </sarcasm>
      • He might've gotten rid of it for his own safety. The Archive is Power. They were only able to capture her at all by seriously stacking the tables against her. You only exercise power over another through that kind of sympathetic link if you can, well, overpower that person. Except in the very specific and planned circumstances of Small Favor, it would take something like one of the Faerie Queens to even match Ivy's power, let alone overcome it. If Nicodemus tries to open up that kind of connection to Ivy, it's going to end very badly for him.
      • Moreover, if you can locate a person using a bit of their hair, who's to say you can't reverse the effect and use the person to find the hair? Keeping Ivy's hair anywhere near him might just be like putting a big "Come Blow Big Holes In Us, Kincaid!" sticker on himself and his minions.

One of Harry's major foes will be destroyed for good by Harry realizing he can send Bob out on destructive missions, as DuMorne did before him.

Luccio calls Bob a "miniature Archive," Harry himself was terrified by Bob's power when Kemmler!Bob attacked him, and Bob clearly has no ethical compunctions to stand in the way. It would have to be a non-human target to sneak past the First Law, but Bob's use in combat could be devastating.

  • In Changes, Bob accompanies Murphy into battle to shield her mind against the elder Red Court.

The series is Harry's writings in the wizards journals that Ebenezer has.

It's already been hinted at that Harry might someday inherit the journals. It would also explain why the series is written in a first person narrative. Since the writing style fits Dresden's personality, it would make a lot of sense.

Marcone will go to Valhalla.

This Troper thinks that when and if Marcone dies, he will go to Valhalla, escorted by Ms. Gard of course. Johnny Marcone is already badass enough to guarantee a one-way ticket to Valhalla and a Valkyrie is already around to take him there.

Lasciel is going to come back... in Harry's daughter.

Word of God has it that Lasciel's--not Lash's--story isn't done. Also: see the conversation in Small Favor where Harry and Michael discuss Nicodemus' throwing the coin at Michael's son. Jim Butcher states that he's a lazy author; anything he writes is going to be important.

    • This Troper heard the exact opposite via Youtube, where Butcher said the Lash's story wasn't done. He initially said Lasciel, but clarified when a fan asked him which he meant.

The Black Court is about to come stomping in like a big old Dinosaur and make its comeback

  • The Red Court is gone. Completely. The main reason the Blacks were being kept down was competion. Before, they were able to compete, and were only knocked down by everyone learning their weaknesses. But, as Buffy has proven, that's not quite enough. The Red Court was really the only barrier against their comeback. Blacks reproduce fastest. They ignore any kind of mortal systems, the White's specialty. The White's can't hope to match them physically. The Red Court could have competed with them, but its gone. So, Blacks are gonna come back, and because of their reproductive speed, they're gonna do it faster than you can say "Like Rabbits".
    • Some of the Red Court could be alive. The Curse got whoever was turned by the same vamp that turned Susan, but not everyone who was turned by those siblings; everyone that that was turned by the same vamp that turned Susan's "parent" but not everyone turned by those "uncles and aunts" and so on. I think the Red Court has been dealt a crippling blow, and all of their enemies are going to be taking advantage to try and wipe them out, but at least some of them will survive. And the ones who do will be strong and really, really smart and deadly, and hate Harry so very much.
      • The Red Court is completely gone. The bloodline curse kills entire generations in order starting with the youngest. Since Susan was literally the most recent Red, all other Reds came before her and therefore died or reverted back to human if they were particularly young.
    • I thought the Reds reproduced faster? In fact, I don't think it's ever been explicitly stated how the Black Court reproduce. The Reds use the Dracula method, the Whites reproduce sexually (and how!), but what about the Blacks?
      • I think anyone who gets killed by a Black comes back as one. Reds have to go out of their way to turn someone.
    • The Blacks are also kept down because everyone who's read Dracula knows how to kill them. Competition isn't as big a factor, especially since the Red Court was mostly active in South America and the Black in Europe.
    • Also, don't forget the Jade Court. They'll probably take a much more active role now that the Reds are gone.

Cassius botched his Death Curse

  • When he yelled "DIE ALONE!" to Harry, he thought that he was condemning him to the obvious: A death isolated, alone, and friendless. However, he didn't know about Harry's relationship with Lash. As long as Lash is in Harry's head, he can't die. The voice at the end of Changes was Lash returning, and the light at the end of the tunnel being a freight train was her way of saying "Hi!"
  • Last part Jossed.

Harry starts the next book in Asgard

  • aka Monoc Industries. Old one-eye might have not been responsible (or he might have ordered it), but he's impressed enough with Harry that the voice that Harry heard was a Valkyrie coming to get him. If he is able to return to anything resembling his former life is unknown.
  • Remember Harry visiting Odin? And him saying that he gave him exactly what Harry needs? HE GAVE HARRY FOOD AND INVITED HIM TO DINE IN VALHALLA. Harry's gonna be an einharjar.
    • The first chapter of Ghost Story is here. Harry met an angel, but nothing Norse. Odin could scoop him up later, though. 
    • Jossed by Ghost Story, but it could still happen.


Some time around the end of Grave Peril, an agreement that Chicago would act as a neutral ground either broke down or expired.

Chicago is a major mortal population center, with a huge confluence of ley lines, notable political pull, lots of money going around, and excellent Nevernever Ways. Yet, at the start of the series, these are the major supernatural denizens of the city:

  • Only two Wizards in it (or, in fact, anywhere in the Midwest as far as we can tell) - one who probably came there precisely because it was far from the rest of the Council, and one who followed him to try and cut his head off.
    • Well, don't forget, it's been stated that there are only a few hundred Wardens total. We don't know how many wizards there are in the Midwest, just how many wardens there are.
  • A mansion owned by the Raith family which is seldom occupied (recall: Laura runs her operations there, but when Lord Raith called the shots, she traveled a lot, and it was a surprise reveal for him to show up in Chicago at all), 
    • Given that Lara is still maintaining the illusion that Lord Raith is in charge, it's likely that he is continuing to move. If Lara joined him, it'd be a pretty clear sign that something is up. 
  • A minor Red Court presence which has not even become an official Court yet.
    • Bianca was a noble, and that was her court. It's a pretty major plot point in Changes.
      • WRONG. Bianca becoming a noble (and getting her court officially recognized) is a major plot point in Grave Peril. Until then, she's just a random spawn of Ortega.
  • A Knight Of The Cross, often out of town on his travels (and it cannot be that most people avoided the city out fearing Michael - he shows up all over the place, and his home and family were said to be secret to the community at large).
  • Toot-Toot.
    • There lots of Dew Drop Faeries, even if the early books. Toot is just the one that Harry knows. 

A few books later, the White Court is based out of the city, Summer and Winter routinely pay it more focus than anywhere else, Denarians make two different plays for power there, The Heirs Of Kemmler fight their last battle over Darkhallow, etc. Why the sudden change? Some sort of agreement either ended, or was considered ended by Harry's often violent actions in Chicago.

  • Most of these changes and events are related directly to three specific events. 1) Harry being in Chicago. (Second Denarian action, most of the actions by the Fae after Summer Knight) 2) Marcone being in Chicago, (the first time the Denarians showed up, chasing the Shroud, which Marone had had stolen. The Heirs of Kemmler showing up, which was because a minion of Marcone's had found his last book and hidden it in Chicago. 3) The Weakening of the Barrier between the real world and the Nevernever by the Black Council, which caused the Summer and Winter Courts to show up since they were able to move a portion of their courts to the real world.
    • And the second of those factors (Marcone) is probably only a factor because of the first. Until he had his face-to-face confrontation with Harry in Storm Front, Marcone probably wasn't even sure that magic was for real: he'd heard rumors about it, and probably about Bianca's nature and SI's previous run-ins with monsters, but he had to see Dresden tossing evocations around to be entirely convinced. If Harry'd never given him that demonstration that there are hidden forces at work in his Verse, he'd probably never have expected the Shroud to be any more than an historical knickknack.
    • So, without Harry and Marcone, the entire world would just totally ignore this huge ley line nexus? If anything, this is evidence that Harry and Marcone unknowingly broke the truce that kept Chicago off-limits, not that no such agreement ever existed.
      • Of course, if such an agreement existed, don't you think someone would have mentioned it by now? I mean, I don't know about you, but some major, important truce that existed that affected the entire supernatural community might be well-known enough that the White Council - and thus Harry - would know about it. I mean, these kind of agreements don't exactly work if some random supernatural schmoe like Harry can accidentally break and thus invalidate them through ignorance.
      • In fact, Ortega does offer to have Chicago declared "neutral territory" for the purposes of the Council/Court conflict, provided Harry defeats him during their duel from Death Masks. Harry's reaction suggests that affording the city such status is an entirely new idea to him, not something that had once applied and only needed to be re-established.
  • Don't forget that the reason so much stuff happens in Chicago is that it is a major merging point of ley lines. Most such locations are apparently heavily guarded, like Edinburgh. The major stuff around the Winter and Summer Courts happens there for that exact reason, the Shroud ends up there because its a transport hub, the Darkhallow takes place there because its a ley line hub, the whole issue with the Denarians and the Archive happened there precisely because of Marcone and Harry's presence, and the White Court operates there because there's a lot of money, communication, and transportation passing through.
    • Why isn't this hub guarded or claimed?
      • If it really is that powerful then nobody will want to let anyone else take solo control. The minute one group tried to stake a claim, all the others would gang up on them to maintain their own shares of the pie. Trying that kind of power grab would be an invitation to war.
    • Possibly it was guarded centuries ago, by Native American powers that once held sway in the region. With the suppression of indigenous cultural beliefs by European and Judeo-Christian traditions, possibly with a little help from the Oblivion War, these powers faded away and left the site open to a power-grab, which is precisely what the Red Court was attempting when Bianca was promoted to their nobility (remember her speech?). Sure, it took a few generations for one of the power-blocs to make the attempt, but that's not surprising when you consider the lifespans and/or immortality of the contenders.
  • It might be that instead of there being a truce that was broken, it's simply a forgotten safety ban. Imagine that instead of everyone agreeing that there needed to be some place everyone could talk, everyone agreed that the area was simply too dangerous for the supernatural world to inhabit. Over the years it just so happens that the world has forgotten what a powerful place it was and the influx of vanilla mortals puts the supernaturals at ease. It could be that Demonreach once extended much farther than that one little island, but the water has since risen and cut off the source.
  • Or it could be that every major nexus in the world has been subject to similar incursions by the supernatural, of late: we just don't hear about them, because those locations' resident wizards are just as proud, overworked, and/or suspicious of the Council as Harry, so don't have the time or inclination to bitch about their troubles where Harry will hear of it.

Harry will get out of the Winter Knight position after only one task.

This first, of course, requires Harry to be alive, but considering the number of books yet to be written, I think we can be moderately safe in making that assumption. Second, the exact bargain he made with Mab was that after three tasks his obligation to her would be done. Considering the broad use of the word obligation it's entirely reasonable that this would conclude all obligations to her, including that of Winter Knight.

  • Except that Harry specifically exchanged his remaining favor to Mab by becoming the Winter Knight, with the lone caveat that he would be allowed to go save his daughter using the additional power before he started taking her orders. He became the Winter Knight, and thus his debt to her was void outside of being the Winter Knight. Then he died, and is now no longer the Winter Knight. He's gotten off on a technicality, especially if he's come back. See my "At the end of Changes, whoever shot Harry did so to do Harry a favor." WMG for more.

Margaret intentionally passed anything she could to Harry that she knew wouldn't be required for her Death Curse to stick.

Part of the "circumstances of [Harry's] birth" are that he got a lot of power and a few abilities passed down to him, particularly something Grey-Council-ish that Margaret might have been working on that would be useful in battling Outsiders, and possibly a nerfed version of the Intellectus she got from impressing Demonreach at some point? She knew that even a death curse from someone as powerful and skilled as her would be unable to kill off Lord Raith, especially if some aspects of that power weren't truly hers to put into a death curse but were transferrable in some small way, and that she wouldn't survive much longer without having to make a Deal With The Devil/Fair Folk/Sheer Dumb Luck to take the entropy curse off of her, so she settled for giving Raith a lifelong torment (which would inevitably shorten his life), while giving Harry whatever she could to make it possible for him to continue at least some of her work and survive without any magical live-in family.

Justin will reappear AS A GHOST!

  • What? It fits with the specifics. He's D-E-D dead. However, a ghost/echo of him could appear. Or, better yet, he may appear in a visit to the afterlife, or some sort of afterlife. He's a major character in Harry's background, after all. 
    • Butcher said at one point that Harry was as "dead as Justin." Make of that what you will, since Harry is clearly not going to stay dead.
    • After reading Ghost Story, this theory might be true...

Molly will make new foci for Harry.

  • Harry actually died at the end of Changes. He'll also come back, but it may take some time - perhaps a year or so. In the meantime, Molly maintains perfect faith that Harry will return, and makes sure things are ready for him. It's doubtful she can get him a new car or apartment, so she does what she can do, as his apprentice: she refurbishes him with foci. Possibly, this also involves her getting to know Ebenezer in more detail, since she has to get the wood for the staff from him.

Harry will soon take a sabbatical from the Chicago-legwork to learn the 18 charms of Odin.

He'll probably have to come back early, both to stop him from being a Game Breaker and because there's trouble, but it's possible that under the circumstances he'll try to pick up to about the eighth charm or so, then skip ahead to a nerfed version of the (or at least his) last charm which allows time travel or true self-resurrection. Quitting early, skipping ahead, or most likely the fact that Harry is (probably) just an unusually powerful human will mean that most of the charms he does learn won't work to full capacity, but with his power, they (at least the ones that don't rely on finesse) will be enough.

  • Because a series where the protagonist is just 'unusually powerful' is so exciting and satisfying. /sarcasm

Power Vacuum created by demise of the Red Court filled by...?

I left the title incomplete because I've got a few theories about what will happen now that a major Big Bad of the Dresden Universe has been completely wiped off the maps.

  • Jade Court vampires or Black Court vampires may find it helpful or offending that part of their family has been exterminated.
  • Harry might become a power equal to that of the fairy queens or the Erlking, he's got contacts on both sides of the fence and he even has a fairy army in the wings. While they're small now Toot Toot has been growing the more powerful Dresden gets and with him stepping into the Winter Knight's mantle Toot Toot might just have gotten a power boost.
  • Prime time for the Black Council to step in considering the fact that a lot of power has just been cut loose.
  • Heck, even the church or the Denarians might step in considering that one of their respectively major threats and major competition has been taken out of the game.
    • Nicodemus specifically says that the Red Court would need to be eliminated as part of his long-term plans. Who wants to bet that half of those revolutions in South and Central America were his doing?
      • Aren't most of those done by the Red Court to keep things unstable so that they can maintain control? 
      • No, the revolutions only really started after the Red Court was wiped out. Before then, they just kept the region in a permanent state of Third-World hellhole to keep the people under control to make it easier to feed on them.
  • Black Court? While their weaknesses are common knowledge, they're still incredibly dangerous and can reproduce faster than probably any other type of nasty in the Dresdenverse. Mavra's quite the Chessmaster; I could definitely see her leaping into the gap to set herself as the master vampire of a worldwide network.
  • Even Hand and Aftermath strongly imply that the major vacuum-filler will be a new faction previously unrecognized - the Fomor, a race of powerful sorcerous fish-men, who make their move for dominion in the chaos.

We'll be seeing Harry and Susan's daughter Maggie again in a few books, around the time she hits puberty.

  • Because around then it will become apparent she's inherited her dad's wizard magic, her mom's vampirism, since she seems to have been concieved after Susan was turned or, with Harry's luck both.
    • However, after Harry sacrificed Susan he killed all the Reds and cured all the half-vamps, so even if she did inherit it, she wouldn't have it anymore, but yeah her being magically talented is ridiculously likely, the way these books are going she's going to turn out to be a super-Warlock that Harry will have to protect from the Wardens.
    • Unfortunately, she won't inherit any magic. In White Night, Harry said that the reason the White Court was killing female practitioners was because magic is inherited from the mother.
    • The curse only worked sideways or upwards, meaning that if Maggie got any vampire blood (which might not even be possible), it should have been fine. In this light, Maggie might in theory be capable of starting the Red Court, or at least something similar, up again if she gets careless- because if something can go wrong in Harry's life, it probably will, in the most spectacular manner possible. 
    • Actually, Maggie inheriting magic from Harry is very likely. Maggie Sr. inherited it from her father (Ebenezar) since Word of God says that Harry's grandmother was a vanilla mortal.
  • Ghost Story spoiler: We see her again at the end of Ghost Story. Harry's exact instructions were to find Maggie a good home, and that was exactly what Father Forthill did - as the new ward of Michael and Charity Carpenter. It's the least they could do for a man who has saved and cared for their own children like they were his own. However, by that point Harry is out of the game, and has other obligations to fulfill, so no happy reunions.
    • Also worth noting, however, when Harry laments that Mouse, as a dog, won't live more than a decade or so, Uriel mentions that Temple Dogs such as him have been known to live for centuries, and thus he'll be able to stay with Maggie during her whole life. He specifically says that Mouse should be around for a wizard's lifetime as well. Take that as you will.

Nicodemus will return

I predict that he will return, but brain-damaged from his strangulation, with Anduriel in total control.

  • Anduriel never spoke up before Small Favor and it spoke up to have a little debate with Nicodemus about whether or not to take the Sword, I think Butcher was attempting to draw attention to the fact the Nicodemus and Anduriel were not one and the same, and would not always work in total concert.

Harry isn't going to fight Outsiders, he's going to command them.

A popular theory is that Harry is going to break or at least bend all seven of the laws at some point. In White Night, Lash said that Harry has the "potential to wield power over Outsiders" (emphasis added). Note that she didn't say "overcome" or "destroy" or anything like that. We've seen him take control of a demon summoned by another wizard, so he wouldn't even technically have to invite them to the party himself.

  • That would be in line with Harry's usual style
  • Alternatively, he won't command them, but he was intended to -- remember when Aurora says he was "meant to be a destroyer?"

Thomas knows something important about Maggie Sr. he hasn't divulged yet.

  • In Blood Rites, he gives a summary of "almost" everything he remembers about her. Either he's keeping a secret or hasn't realized he has important information.

Rudolph's motivations are more complex than we realize.

  • Harry has a history of allowing his disdain for some people to cloud his judgment of their motivations (Turtleneck and Martin stick out as examples). He attributes Rudolph's vendetta against himself and Murphy to his Jerkass personality and fear of the unknown. However, compare Rudolph's behavior in Grave Peril to Changes: in the former, he threatens to kill Harry if he lets anything happen to Murphy, while in the latter he allies himself with the Red Court just to make trouble for our heroes. Sure, it happened over eight books, but it's not a minor transition. Maybe he's just a cowardly Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, but what if someone is manipulating his mind, spotlighting his grudge like in Molly's example?

Demonreach is a Prison.

Demonreach was originally the prison of the White Council for unspecified nasty things. This is supported by the comment in Ebenezars' diary that 'He [Harry]has no idea of it's original purpose' (it being Demonreach). Then we have this quote from Butcher at the 2009 Independence signing: Q: Can the skinwalker access the Never Never and use the Ways? If so, why didn’t it?  A: Yes. All I'll say now is that it's important to know that ‘wardens’ wasn’t always plural. (He did add later that there are certain places it can’t cross over, like the island).  If the Nevernever side of Demonreach is a prison for nasty things, it makes sense that the Skinwalker might avoid crossing into the Nevernever there. And, of course, the term Warden usually refers to a guardian of a prison and prisoners - would it not make more sense, if there was no prison, for the Wardens to be called Guardians, Protectors etc.? Maybe Warden was originally a position on the Senior Council, like Gatekeeper.

  • Also, may I recommend http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,21772.0.html . It is a compilation of every comment butcher has ever made (or as near to it as possible, anyway). There is enough material there to work out so much - for example, I am now pretty confident that it was Drakul who hired the skinwalker (read it if you want to know why I think that).
  • Also note that Mab refers to Harry as Demonreach's "custodian" - emphasis on the "custody"

The fact that "John Marcone" is not Marcone's real name is going to be a big deal later.

In his novella, Marcone says, "My name is something I rarely trouble to remember, but for most of my adult life, I have been called John Marcone." Given the importance of true names to the series, This Troper can't help but think that fact Marcone's kept his real name so well hidden is going to come into play at some point. Or perhaps his real name will be revealed and will be a massive WHAM Moment?

    • Harry is alluded to have more than just Thomas as a relative (and this is before Maggie was conceived)...so Marcone is a relative of Harry's. Probably another half brother. It explains his 'wouldn't hurt a child' and reasonably regular Pet the Dog moments, as well as the fact that he is seriously hardcore.

At some point, Harry is going to tap into the confluence point of a Ley line.

  • Just because of how built up it was in Turn Coat. Also because it would be an awesome way to end a book. Possibly the one on Demon Reach.

Mab wants Harry to kill Titania as her last favor.

Fact One: We have not seen Titania once in the series. Even in Summer Knight, when Harry's rounding up the various Queens of Faerie, all he sees is the imprint of Titania's power, not her. Fact Two: Titania really hates Harry. Fact Three: Mab is a scheming witch. Fact Four: Mab is most likely batshit crazy ever since taking the black athame off of Lea. Lea as much as says it in Proven Guilty, and every appearance by Mab thus far has had her speaking through proxy so the rage in her words doesn't kill someone. Fact Five: Harry is now the Winter Knight, and if his status at the end of Changes doesn't alter that, he's beholden to kill whoever she wants. It suggests that Mab, driven mad with power (or something else), may wish to institute a regime change in Summer using the perfect proxy.

  • Becoming the Winter Knight WAS the last favour.

If Mab is usurped, replaced, or killed, the Leanansidhe will become the new Winter Queen

  • She is directly beneath Mab in terms of power, and you have to admit it sounds like Harry's luck that his godmother would become a Queen of Faerie.
    • Alternatively, Maeve, as Mab's Queen Who Is To Be, will become Winter Queen, and Lea will become her Winter Lady.
      • Or Maeve gets what's coming to her, and Lea becomes the new Winter Lady.

John Marcone will undergo a Heel-Face Turn.

  • Or, well, an antivillain-face-turn. Redemption Equals Death is optional. Aforementioned trip to Valhalla is certainly on the table. My money's on him picking up one of the Swords.

Murphy will become a Valkyrie

In Heorot, when we first learn Ms. Gard is a Chooser of the Slain, she mentions that she's descended from a Geat (probably Beowulf). She also laughs a bit at being called a "Daughter of Odin," implying such nomenclature isn't entirely accurate. This means that at least some Valkyries, if not all, aren't originally divine, but are instead chosen themselves, like the Einherjar, to carry on their task, as Ms. Gard seems to have been.

And then in Aftermath, not only does Murphy earn the respect of Ms. Gard (one gets the feeling that "Hail, Warrior," coming directly from an honest-to-gods Valkyrie isn't something to be taken lightly), but Gard offers her a job with Monoc securities.

With Murphy stepping into Dresden's place as Chicago's protector, she and Gard are more likely to find themselves fighting side-by-side.

So maybe somewhere down the line, after Murphy has put down the Sword of Faith (because you know she's going to take it up), she'll get another visit from Ms. Gard, who'll offer her a chance to keep protecting the innocent and smiting the wicked.

Lord Raith is about to make a comeback.

He was seriously hyped up power wise, even without the magical immunity, able to kill with a touch if he wanted to. The only thing holding him back was the fact that he couldn't feed. We see other White Court vampires getting desperate to eat after one short fight, he lasted more than THIRTY YEARS. With Harry dead the curse on him is likely weakened. Probably no where near enough for him to feed properly, but even if he can only feed a tiny bit at a time.....

  • I'd rate this as pretty likely as well; while we know Lara's reasons for sparing his life, I can't help but think that out-of-universe he's being saved up for a final reckoning between Harry/Thomas and the man who killed their mother. Honestly, he was on top of the White Court for centuries; for all we know, he's been playing everyone ever since he was introduced, in pursuit of some hidden goal. 

Michael will kill Lea.

As early as Grave Peril, Michael has made it clear that if Lea messes with Molly, or any of his children, that he will destroy her. Yet Lea has been tempting Molly, if only a bit...and, well, a father's fury is a sight to behold. Especially when that father is the Fist Of God. Lea will attempt to tempt Molly, and then all heaven will break loose on her.

  • With his injuries and retirement from being a Knight of the Cross, it's unlikely. 

There will be a Time Skip between Ghost Story and the next book

Thus Changes really brought many more changes than those depicted. Harry will spend Ghost Story in a limbo, watching things from the sidelines and influencing them, but once he gets back, a year or more will have passed, and everyone's gone on with their lives: Murphy is now a full-fledged Knight of the Cross, Molly has taken Harry's business, Mouse has puppies, Thomas has disappeared, etc. And while in Changes he called on every ally, and Ghost Story will be a solo operation, the next book will be about Harry reuniting his Nakama. Thus it'll follow comic books tradition and the events will be referred as either Pre-Changes, or Post-Changes.

  • Ghost Story spoiler: There's a time skip in Ghost Story that Harry doesn't notice until it's happened. Apparently, time is a fuzzy subject on the other side. He skips forwards six months in the hour or so he spends in Chicago-tory. However, everything else above is Jossed - Murphy is getting hardened and bitter, Molly is slightly loopy and pretending to be a mass-murderer, Mouse is guarding Maggie, Thomas and Justine work out a way for him to feed off of her, and the nakama is in full swing on Harry's side, if a little distrustful and broken.
    • Pretending to be a mass murderer? She and Lea together ARE a mass murderer. Molly may be beloved, but you can't deny she IS killing people.

At some point, Harry will be able to count the Erlking as an ally

Twice now, the Erlking has met Harry and left impressed, once by his audacity in raising a T. Rex and returning a great hunter to the world, and once by his cleverness, likening Harry to a wily fox. Remember that the number three is a big deal with Faeries: If they promise something thrice, they're bound to it. Call their name thrice, they appear. One gets the feeling that impressing the Erlking a third time would be very significant.

In a future book, Chicago's Tribune Tower will be the epicenter for an attempted globe-spanning curse.

Butcher likes using Chicago landmarks in these novels. The Tribune Tower is the ideal site to act as a focal point for an epic magical ritual, because its structure incorporates donated fragments of historical and natural landmarks from all over the world. A ritual targeted at the Tower could therefore spread across most of the planet, to every source from which one of those fragments was collected, in the same way that thaumaturgy can home in on the source of blood or hair. Given the nature of the series, it's a safe bet it won't be a pleasant ritual either, so Harry will have to disrupt it before its effects can spread across the Earth.


If and when Harry dies, he will go to Valhalla.

Harry has already impressed Odin with his defiance of powers greater than he and ability to turn the tables on them. At the end of the Big Apocalyptic Trilogy, Harry will suffer a fatal injury, yet still drag himself through to finish his objective and save the world, before succumbing to the injury surrounded by his friends. The book(and series) ends with a note from Harry explaining that he knew his death was coming, Shiro-style, and that he accepted it, before one of his friends closes the book, which has just been sent to them via mail, yet again Shiro-style. As one of the theories above states, this is the last of his Journals; the scene then cuts to Harry whinging about the stairs as he climbs up to Asgard in a call-back to Summer Knight, escorted by Gard.

The Black and Grey Councils

The Grey Council IS The Black Council.

Peabody's plot was entirely set up for one purpose: to cajole Harry into joining and unwittingly working for the Black Council. He is serving their agenda(which could turn out to be that of a bunch of Well-Intentioned Extremist s,) and he doesn't even know it. Ebenezar says to him, "We'll have to walk down some mighty dark roads, in some mighty dark company." He is trying to warn Harry, being a member of the Black Council and not approving of the decision but unable to change it.

The Members of the Black Council.

How has this not come up yet? Anyway the obvious ones are Mavra, Nicodemus, Cowl, a Traitor on the senior council(may also be Cowl), Ortega, and I'd say one of the Sidhe but there aren't any good choices there.

  • Well Toot-Toot is most likely in charge of the whole thing.
  • Mavra probably isn't. Cowl is practically a confirmed member and these two indirectly butt heads in Dead Beat.
    • Moreover, if she and Cowl were in cahoots then she would probably have known that Bob contained the same information as The Word of Kemmler, so would've simply demanded that Harry turn the skull over to her at the beginning instead of sending him on a possibly-futile search for the book.
  • I'd go with Tessa instead of Niocodemus.
    • Tessa seems too chaotic to join. Nicodemus is the planner. Tessa is impatient.
    • Small Favor almost Jossed this as far as Nicodemus goes. 
    • Turn Coat Jossed it explicitly. Thorned Namshiel was stated as the guy who assaulted Arctis Tor, and Tessa was also hinted at being a member.
  • I say the Merlin is part of it. 1. Stopping the council from fighting back. He's playing defensive in the war letting the Reds wear down the White council and everyone's saying the Council needs to go offensive but the Merlin's not listening while the Council continues to hemorrhage members. 2. He's killing of the new blood, Harry comments that more people have been killed as warlocks in the past few years than in the past few decades before the war.
    • The Merlin seems too obvious to me. He's probably more of a Red Herring than a traitor. He just happens to be a jerkass politician.
  • The current in-universe theory as of Turn Coat is that Gregori Cristos, the man who was made a member of the Senior Council in order to replace La Fortier while bucking several procedures and traditions in order to do so, is the traitor in the White Council and engineered the entire plot of the book in order to get the opportunity to gain a position on the Senior Council. However, this does not account for some of the events in the other books and the possibility that one of the other members of the Senior Council is also a traitor remains.
    • Or the possibility that the Senior Council member whom McCoy replaced was a member, and Cristos was put in LaFortier's slot to replace the Mole whom the Red Court, acting independently of the Circle, had taken out.
  • Perhaps unpopular, but I am inclined to think that Ebenezar is a member of the Black Council. As one of the Senior Council members, he fits most, if not all of the criteria to be a candidate for treachery. Furthermore, because of his status as Blackstaff of the Senior Council, he is the only wizard in the world officially permitted to break the laws of magic, which has been heavily emphasized as a corrupting influence, no matter how good the person doing it is. What makes this even more plausible is that by helping Harry realize that the Black Council exists, Ebenezar is able to present himself as Harry's sole trustworthy confidant on the Senior Council and ensure that anything Harry finds out never gets any further. This is especially emphasized by the subtle suggestions made by Murphy that Harry is actually far more prone to routine and habitual courses of action than he realizes. And guess who Harry runs to at the first sign of Black Council related trouble...
    • The reason the position of Blackstaff exists is because of the eponymous artifact: a black staff the protects the user from the corrupting influence of using black magic.
      • We don't really know the motivation of the Black Council yet, or even if the members all have the same goals. Ebenezar could be a mole, or simply a Well-Intentioned Extremist and be a part of it. 
    • Glad to see someone else had the same idea as this Troper. We still don't actually know what the goals of the Black Council as a whole are, other than to make life hard for Harry and that several members are not above killing anyone who gets in their way, including most of Chicago. Ebenezar could be a member and not agree with most of the Black Council's actions any more than he agrees with the White Council's actions. And, given that at the end of Turn Coat, he drafts Harry into creating yet another council, ostensibly a Grey one...
    • When Harry spoke to him about the Black Council, Ebenezar answered "I totally agree, I have no information that could help you, make sure not to tell anyone else or gather any allies." Could there be a more villainous response?
      • Considering that Ebenezar is the Blackstaff, he could have killed Harry with all the effort it takes to swat a fly. What he did was recruit Harry into his own Black Council-hunting group, the Gray Council. Ebenezar also knew that Harry would blow the whole operation if sufficiently provoked. (See Changes for full details on what it would take for Harry to blow everything.)
    • Perhaps Ebenezar is secretly a member of the Black Council, but he's trying to use Harry and the Grey Council in order to pit Black against White and either destroy them both and create something new from the remains. The White Council has become far too archaic to keep up with the new world and is too zealous in regard to unknowing offenders of the Laws of Magic. The Black Council meanwhile, appears to have a very dangerous attitude towards black magic. Neither system is perfect. A clever wizard might decide to Take a Third Option.
  • The group depends on the motivation of the Black Council. Look at what the White Council is doing, killing warlocks formed by lack of training. Look at the Black Council, users of black magic in control of themselves. They'll be revealed like Nicodemus to have their own motives that seem good on the surface level. 
    • Given that a neatnik bureaucrat like Peabody was working for them, and Cowl's having been the least overtly-destructive of the necromancers from Dead Beat, their internal dogma presumably is of the "build-a-new-and-better-order" sort, rather than blatant For The Evuls. At least, that's what the human members probably believe, although if it's Outsiders who are behind it all, their actual intentions are probably far more destructive and destabilizing.
  • Assuming a group well intentioned extremists I'll give this listing.
      • Cowl
      • Ebenezar
      • Deirdre/Unnamed Deniarian. Nicodemus is jossed, Tessa doesn't seem the type. It has to be Deirdre betraying her father or a deniarian we haven't seen in action. A coin that, unknown to Michael, "escaped" thus allowing for the "we can end it here" to happen.
      • Mavra, possibly. She comes off with that Stealth Mentor vibe. 
    • My list goes more like:
      • Cowl
      • Denarian: Thorned Namshiel
      • Denarian: Tessa
      • Mavra
      • A Dragon (just because we haven't seen a Dragon on center stage yet)
      • Senior Council: Gregori Cristos
      • at least one other Senior Council.
        • Ebenezar is out though, no chance of Ebenezar in this trouper's mind.
    • He Who Walks Behind. All of the Black Council's actions seem (key word: seem) to have taken place very recently. So after Harry's previous mentor, Du Morne, summoned HWWB, there is the possibility that the Outsider was able to go around Earth, collecting influence with people like Cowl, certain Denarians, maybe a few ranking Fae, etc.
      • Although, this would mean that Rashid the Gatekeeper is one of the Black Council, since it's his job to make sure nothing gets through the Outer Gates, and something as powerful as HWWB would be setting off alarms all over the place for Rashid.
    • This tropers list (* means rather dead):
      • Marva (too heavily involved in setting up the war to be otherwise)
      • Cowl (obvious reasons)
      • Justin* (It's unlikely he whistled up He Who Walks Behind as his first ever outsider summon just to put a hit on teenaged Harry)
      • Vitto* (Associated with Cowl and outsiders)
      • Thorned Nashiel (Attack on Arctis Tor)
      • Titania (probably coerced, supported Nashiel's plan)
      • Mab (The attack on Arctis Tor was to place her under a mind-control effect, and she's been fighting back)
      • Peabody* (Possibly did the outsider summoning, mistfiend and codeword makes it unlikely he's simply some bitter guy who doesn't know about the black council)
      • Gregori Cristos (his unusual rise to power is rather suspicious, although it might not have been plan A)
      • At least one high-end outsider, possibly He Who Walks Behind (For Eldritch Abominations, they've been pretty co-operative, likely because it's all a setup by an outsider knight)
      • None of the senior council members as of Dead Beat, since it seems likely they could have disrupted the ward and slaughtered the Council's entire military force. 
  • My slightly odd theory is that Ramirez is involved with the Black Council. Reasoning is as follows: In Dead Beat, during the conversation with the Wardens, Harry comments (in the narration, to the audience) that "you don't get to be the Merlin of the White Council by collecting bottle caps." Later in that same conversation, Harry is stunned when he is told that the Merlin and the Gatekeeper stopped the entire Red Court with a single ward, to which Ramirez responds with the exact words Harry used earlier. If we assume, not unreasonably, that the narration equates to Harry's thoughts, then this suggests that Ramirez read Harry's mind during the conversation, which would be Black Magic. Also of note is the fact that this occurs during Dead Beat, which focuses a fair amount on the traitor(s) within the White Council for the first time.
    • The narration to the audience is journals or case files; it's more likely that Harry stole the phrase from Ramirez when he was writing it all up afterward.
  • This is a weird suggestion with no real evidence to back it up, but Injun Joe could be the traitor. Only reason this troper suspects him is that Ebenezear vouched for him, and Genre Savvy makes me think that HAS to mean he'll be revealed as a bad guy.
  • Anyone had the same idea as this troper and suspects Martha Liberty? There has been almost no focus on her in thirteen books and what we do know of her doesn't point to evil. But since this is Jim Butcher we're talking about, the fact that there's no real looks at her yet is probably significant.
  • This troper'd like to tack Mister Ferro's name onto the list of possible suspects. There's got to be some reason why he'd have bothered to go slumming at Bianca's party, despite out-classing even Mavra, Lea and Ortega. And we know that something burned its way through the defenses of Arctis Tor, suggesting access to fires even more potent than what a couple of Denarians might've conjured.


The Black Council does not exist

I was reading the above argument for Ebenezar being on the Black Council, and was reminded of O'Brien from Nineteen Eighty-Four, with Harry as Winston and the Black Council as the Party. Then I though, what if it isn't the Black Council that is the Party, but the White. The White Council made up the Black so they would have an non-defeatable enemy who could not be found to point both external enemies (Nicodemus) and potential internal enemies (Harry) at. This would allow them to keep a real threat from within from occurring, as any potential rebel would be found by a council member they trusted, and "let in" on the existence of the Black Council.These potential rebels would then spend many years spinning their wheels looking for non-existent spies and threats, instead of becoming threats themselves. The Black Council would also serve as the catalyst for an Enemy Mine situation if the White Council ever needs to make a temporary ally out of an outside enemy. They simply claim to have discovered a Black Council member, and request the aid of someone they usually would not work with to deal with them.

    • Sorry but when Harry soul gazes Denton he sees a flashback of Denton KNEELING WHILE RECIEVING HIS BELT. Either way he does have an unknown benefactor, otherwise he would not have known of the White Council. Sells also knew far more than a mere acolyte should. Either way both had SOME kind of benefactor.

Mavra and Nicodemus will join Harry and Ebenezer's 'Grey Council'.

Nicodemus is effectively confirmed by the events of Small Favor NOT to be part of the Black Council. Mavra so far has forced Harry to stop another Council Member from gaining power. Ultimately, despite the rather bitter hatred between Harry and both Nicodemus and Mavra, they'll be forced to work together to stop the Black Council.

  • Nick has killed at least three-thousand people, including Shiro, and Mavra just about forced Harry to get an amputation. Both are Complete Monsters. I doubt Harry will be teaming up with them anytime soon.
  • I have to agree. He tolerates Marcone because he's Affably Evil and actually has a good motive for the things he does, even if Harry doesn't care for his methods. I can't think of anything that would motivate him to have that kind of alliance with those two, even The End of the World as We Know It... especially considering that's where Nick's headed anyway.
  • I'd disagree. Harry is, above all else, practical. He's already worked alongside Lara Raith more than once, and she's almost as bad as Mavra and Nicodemus. He may hate it, loathe it, and fight it every inch of the way, but if he pushed way too deeply into a corner, he may end up temporarily working with either Old Nick or Mavra to fight the Black Council. 
    • Exactly. Complete Monster s or not, when you have to choose between working with the devil you know or the Black Council winning, you're going to pick the devil. Don't forget that unless Nic and/or Mavra is running a long game, we've seen both of them work directly against the interests of the Black Council. 
    • I call bullshit. Lara Raith is NOWHERE near as bad as Nick or Mavra. Lara is approximately Marcone level evil, maybe a half point higher. Nick is easily one of the most evil characters in the entire series, with Mavra a close second. (I think that Nick should be the poster-child for Neutral Evil)Harry is practical, but he knows better than to team-up with the guy who has broken the accords so he could torture a little girl.
  • The Devil literally. Nicodemus is a Fallen Angel. He is evil incarnate. Harry would never, never work with him, because he represents everything Harry is fighting against.
  • The big difference between people like Lara and Marcone and people like Nicodemus and Mavra is that, ultimately, the former are evil, but also forces of stability; as such, their on Harry's hit list, but pretty low, and they want some of the same things he does (albeit for different reasons). On the other hand, we have Mavra, who's a Black Court vampire (read- remorseless killing machine) and Nick, who tried to jump start the Apocalypse and is implied to do this sort of thing fairly regularly, in addition to all his other atrocities. In terms of raw metaphysical evil, about the only things that have them beat are Nick's boss, the Skinwalker, and probably some of the top-tier Outsiders. In other words, these people are about as evil as evil gets, and allying with them is both stupid from a practical standpoint and way beyond the grey areas where I see Harry willing to go. 
  • While that's all true, what most of you are forgetting is that this is not about them working with Harry, it's about them joining the Grey Council. Whether or not Harry would be willing to allow them doesn't matter: He has no say in this. So long as the other members vote and the majority agrees to allow them membership, Harry's opinions would be largely ignored. Though given Ebenezar's reaction to Kincaid, and how he probably was one of the founders of the group, it really doesn't seem likely they'll get a nice fruit basket invitation.

Harry's Mother leads the Circle (AKA Black Council).

Justin is, as we all know "D-E-D dead," but the circumstances of his mother's death are much more mysterious. She had enough forethought to place an enchantment in Harry and Thomas that would give them interactive, personalized messages decades later, enough skill to strike a favorable bargain with the Leanansidhe, and enough potential for dark magic that the Council is worried about Harry partially because of her.

The Black Council's evil plot is to use the Moon to cast a massive illusion over the world and bring about an era of forced peace and prosperity between all people.

  • So Madara from Naruto is the Big Bad?
    • You have to admit it fits reasonably well with what Kumori was saying about their goals. 
    • It also fits if Cowl and Kumori are Pain and Konan. And the Black Council are the Akatsuki.
      • Not quite sure how serious this is, but he mixed up some potions in Changes.

The Gray Council has either been infiltrated or is actually a part of The Circle (aka The Black Council)

They showed up with a flash of Green Lightning in Changes, which if memory serves, was all the arrival method of the Black Council Agent in Turn Coat during the fight on Demonreach.

  • That green lightning came courtesy of Donar Vaderung, so if it has the same source as Peabody's transport to Demonreach... that could be slightly problematic.
    • It's possible I'm wrong then, but I seem to recall green lightning being tossed around on Demonreach. I'll have to recheck. 
    • The green lightning was how the Genius Loci of Demonreach appeared to challenge Harry.
  • They didn't use green lightning. They arrived through a Way via Nevernever; Harry's intellectus warns him that they simply "appeared" on the island, which means Nevernever transport.

Harry is a member of the Black Council.

And he doesn't even know it. Isn't it interesting how well developed Subconscious Harry is? The fact is, Harry is a member of the Black Council, but he doesn't know it. Maybe it's a split personality, maybe he's been enthralled, but he is. Mark my words. 

  • That's not a fact, just an opinion - and not one with a lot of evidence.
    • That's not an opinion, just a guess - and the whole point of this page.

The Grey Council consists of....

Thirteen members of the Grey Council showed up at the end of Changes. Three are Harry, Ebenezar, and Vadderung. Word of God is that six more members of the Council are people we've already met in the series, and they're all either wizards or other people with magical power. The six are...

  • Luccio
  • Listens To Winds (Both wizards conspicious by their absence, and allies of Harry and Ebenezar. The letter from Luccio says that they were all incapacitated by Council infighting, but this could easily be disinformation to hide what's really going on. Alternately, they are members of the Council, but they were captured/infected, and couldn't make it)
  • The Gatekeeper Rashid (very conspicious by his absence)
  • Lily (acting as an agent of the Summer Court in the war against the Reds, and interpreting her Queen's commands liberally)
  • Fix (see above)
  • Maeve (conspicious by complete absence from the story involving Harry's ascension to Knighthood, supporting the Winter Knight and fighting against those who attacked Arctis Tor - in fact, I'm 99% certain that Rashid and Maeve are on the Council, and about 90% certain Lily is on the Council as well, which brings Fix in too)

Other potential members of the six:

  • Nicodemus (vested interest in opposing the Black Council and destroying the Red Court, willing to work with Harry)
  • Eldest Gruff (see entry on Lily)
  • Elaine (ally of Harry, no friend to the White Council but opposed to the Black)
    • Adding to this: someone at Chichen Itza was tossing around Harry's spell, and Elaine has cheated off him before.
  • Ivy (statement of being neutral may have changed due to circumstances or been a lie)
    • Couldn't have been Ivy. Given what we've seen her capable of when her magic was severely limited, if she'd shown up at the end of Changes, with the temple sitting on top of a leyline that she must know about, the battle would've been much shorter.
  • Klaus the Toymaker (apparently a serious heavyweight on the Council)
    • Klaus might well be the single best wizard for a strike against known opposition with plenty of time to prepare; he's an enchanter and it's repeatedly demonstrated that wizards are most dangerous when they've got a vast assortment of magical gear and possibly a well-made potion.
  • Warden Chandler, a.k.a. Steed, a.k.a. the Warden Luccio trusts most.
  • The Merlin. Yes, he's a Jerkass. Yes, he's directly opposed Harry in the past, and nearly had Molly beheaded out of pure spite. But we've seen nothing to indicate that he's evil, and he's shown hidden depths before, in Turn Coat. While he's officially not acknowledging the Black Council, that's only official. His adversarial relationship with Harry and Ebenezer is at least partly a cover to hide the Grey Council's connection to one another.

Ramirez is a member of the Black Council

  • They set him up to befriend Harry and gain his confidence, to be a spy to see how much he knows and take him out if need be. Think about it, he was made a Regional Commander younger than anyone else ever, meaning he has connections to someone higher up on the Council...perhaps one of the other members of the Black Council. They have him assisting Harry, befriending him, talking to him about the Black Council to find out what Harry knows.
    • He was made a regional commander so young because there was a sudden shortage of Wardens in general, this was made very clear. It was heavily implied in Proven Guilty that the Merlin appointed him as regional commander, not just "someone higher up." Merlin didn't seem terribly enthused about him, either, but he was the only option, having more experience than the other Wardens who were not already commanders. If Ramirez wasn't a regional commander, Harry would be covering more of the country all by himself; we've only heard reference to three whole commanders for the entire United States. Whether that's a full compliment or not hasn't been stated, but four would be more reasonable. With four, each commander would be responsible for an area approximately the size of Sudan, and a few times as large as the Ukraine, one of the largest countries in Europe. So, yeah, kind of need a few of them in the States, and who else could do it?

Elaine is the Black Council's counterpart to Harry

Elaine has been awful helpful to Harry in both her appearances, but there has been markedly few Face-Heel Turns/reveals yet, and Elaine would be a particularly poignant one. We know that Du Morne took her for the same reasons he took Harry, which means that what makes him special is something she also posses, which would make her a valuable ally for the Black Council in the same way most factions are clamoring to get Harry on their side. As mentioned elsewhere, she has repeatedly used black magic to cloud peoples' minds, which is a far cry from Harry's occasional loophole abuse of the laws.

She was Du Morne's thrall for a while, and even if he is 100% dead and doesn't have a hold on her, we've seen that hardcore mind control can have horrible long-term effects on someone and could well have been the tipping factor in Elaine going evil. Where she is helping Harry, she's either doing it as part of a long game the Black Council is running to get him into a vulnerable position, or working at cross purposes with other allies (the plan would seriously harm her own kind, and depending on their arms they could well be a self-serving bunch who use proxies, like Harry, to undercut each other). Her involvement in White Night could have even been leading Harry into a trap in hopes of removing him from play. The Paranet, the hastily-thrown together solution that would keep the two in contact, could well have a sinister intention that we haven't yet seen.

…

Ivy the Archive hits puberty. Hijinks ensue.

There's a reason that, traditionally, the Archive is passed on to a woman in her 30s that's already formed a strong personality of her own and has even had a kid or two, and that's because, for one thing, one rarely hears the phrases "developmental/maturation period" and "emotional equilibrium" in the same sentence. 

Ivy's smart, scarily intelligent and very composed... but she still indulges in age-appropriate behaviors, such as rendering official documents in crayon and taking time off from the set up to a meeting with a Big Bad to go watch the otters at play. 

What's going to happen when all those hormones start gushing through her system? I'll tell ya: at best, Kincaid will have a moody, cranky, pain-stricken force of nature on his hands. Oh, and Heaven help any male that she fixates on. 

  • Ten bucks Kincaid acts like a Knight Templar Parent Overprotective Dad. I truly pity any boyfriend Ivy gets.
    • Or girlfriend. I'd love it if Ivy was gay or bi just because it would screw with the Council's expectations so MUCH. "But...but she has to have a child so that the line of the Archive can continue! Otherwise all of mankind's recorded knowledge will be lost!" (And of course there's no reason why a gay or bi woman couldn't have a child. I just think the Council is rather hidebound when it comes to considering possibilities.)
    • She was twelve as of Small Favor. We've had about 3 years between that and Changes. Place your bets, people!
    • Dresden and Luccio had a discussion on this near the end of Small Favour, after Dresden rescues Ivy from Old Nick and the Nickleheads. They talk about how Ivy needs to be as little emotionally involved in things as possible so that, when she hits puberty, all those emotions won't affect her and turn her into an insane bitch.
      • To which Harry quite firmly states, "Screw You."
        • Which, really, seems pretty valid. The whole fear of the Archive going insane is based on the fact that she can't cope with having memories of emotions, despite the fact that the Archive would also have all the memories of how to cope with said emotions. If anything, Ivy'll probably handle puberty better than your average teen. 

Mac is God.

It's established that McAnally's Pub is 'neutral ground' under the accords. Harry internally quips in Small Favor that Mac's special occasion brew is "God's beer." Unbeknownst to Harry, he's being literal.

  • That would be so very awesome. WANT.
    • That... actually seems likely. Or at least that Mac is a lot more powerful and badass than the books have let on so far.
    • More support: Harry talks about the way beings that see into the future, or have other forms of supernatural knowledge must be very careful about what they say - and Mac barely speaks complete sentences.
  • Alternatively, Mac is short for Michael....Michael Callahan
  • It does seem like he knows everyone and everyone knows him.
  • Word of God is that we probably won't learn on Mac's nature and origins until the apocalyptic trilogy that takes place after 20 books in the series are written.
  • Possible spin-off theory: Mac is God... but not Jehovah God. Neither is he Jesus. Mac is quiet and barely speaks, but when he does it's always straight to the point, meaningful, and you better listen up. He's the Holy Spirit.
  • Or, given what we know about the angels, Mac is Uriel. Mab does say Uriel is the only one capable of subtlety.

Harry's father was actually Uriel

This is mostly based on a certain incident in Dead Beat, when he and Harry have a nice little dream conversation. Among other things, he says (and Harry believes him) that he isn't a ghost, and that he couldn't talk to him until that point because he had to wait until "others had crossed that line"- and this was the night after Lash first showed herself to him as Sheila. This might also explain his ability to hurt Outsiders.

  • I thought his ability to hurt Outsiders was explicitly defined as being from the arrangement of his time of birth (Halloween for starters)?
    • No, it's been strongly implied that it's his mothers bloodline that lets him hurt outsiders. It's why she was so powerful.
    • I think it was a whole bunch of things. From Lash: "There was a complex confluence of events, of energies, of circumstances that would have given a child born under them the potential to wield power over Outsiders." Someone clearly went to a lot of trouble to arrange things so that Harry could beat up Outsiders, and having an angel as a father could have been a part of it.
  • Also, I forget which book, Kincaid states that he is as human as Dresden. Shortly afterwards it is revealed that Kincaid is the Hellhound and decidedly NOT human.
  • It's in Blood Rites, IIRC, and yes, he did say that he was as human as Dresden. He was also claiming that he was a vanilla mortal, which is a big fat lie. He's not someone who's words we can trust, since he's a merc and capable of telling lies, unlike the fae.
    • If Harry's father was an angel, he wouldn't exactly be human. He would be one of the Nephilim.

Lash is currently in the service of the "Za Lord's Guard".

When Lash 'died' some of Harry's soul went with her, and there was soon fairies everywhere. It's not really inconceivable that she made herself a fairy body and disappeared in the crowd.


Changes in the Fairy Courts

  • Okay, Changes might have jossed this, but...By the end of the series, Harry will have caused Lily to become the Summer Queen, and someone else to become Winter Queen. Let's say, for fun...Toot-Toot. Thus, he'll have the fairy courts working for him! Oh, and Harry will run the White Council. 
    • Toot-Toot....turned into a Fairy Queen?
    • YES!
    • There's a better candidate anyways. The Leanansidhe.
    • There has to be a new Winter Lady more sympathetic to Harry by the end of the series, both for the symmetry and because Maeve really needs someone to kick her ass.

Harry and Murphy are the new Merlin and Arthur.

  • Except that they have sex as well.
  • Good lord, people, the Arthurian imagery and associations in this series are burning holes in my retinas. Let me explain:
    • Harry is Merlin. He's the strongest wizard of his generation. He's implied to be not entirely human (in the Arthurian mythos, Merlin's daddy was a demon). It is strongly implied Harry is decended from the first Merlin (McCoy's journals and their trend of training their decendents).
      • Therefore, Demonreach is Harry's Avalon. A somewhat scary prospect.
    • As above, Murphy is Arthur.
    • Molly is Nimue. Merlin was her teacher, she had a epic thing for him - in some tellings it's mutual. Given that Molly has been slowly sliding down the slippery slope, this could be a very Bad Thing.
    • Ramirez is Galahad. Virgin. Need I say more?
    • You forgot Margaret Le Fay. Also, more obscurely, Arthur has siblings. One of them is his half-sister Elaine. These two reasons are part of why I think that Harry is more of an Arthur than a Merlin.

Mouse will join the Alphas.

When in hound form during Changes, Harry was able to understand some kind of telepathy from Mouse. And in the RPG, a margin comment suggests that the power "Echoes of the Beast" allows Billy and the Alphas to communicate with dogs. Obviously, Mouse will pick up where Tera West left off: "You've learned to be wolves. Now, I'm going to teach you how to be magical monster-killing dogs."

  • Except becoming "magical monster-killing dogs" isn't something that's learned. Mouse is powerful like that because he was born with it.
    • Jossed by Ghost Story; he's with the Carpenters protecting Maggie.

Red Court members are the basis of the chupacabra legends.

You're hungry, you're stuck in a village where the people are locked in their houses and protected by threshold law, and the only animals around are dogs, large cattle (sometimes), and goats. It's not very nourishing, magically, but wouldn't you tear into a goat or (if possible) a calf or two and drink as much of their blood as possible if you were a Red Court vampire in this situation?

Toot-Toot will become a wildfae lord like the Erlking

With his position as supreme leader and spokesperson of the Za lord's guard, and his tendency to get in over his head and grind for those badass XP, he will soon be powerful enough and influential enough to become a force to be reckoned with in Faerie. One suspects he's not quite sly enough for the big leagues yet, though.

Mister is actually a magical beast of tremendous power

In Changes, it's revealed that Mouse has been a fully sapient magical creature all along. A few books earlier, it's shown that Mouse unquestioningly accepts Mister's superiority. It may have been just his way of dealing with an obnoxious cat, or Mister might actually be superior even to Mouse in the magical beast hierarchy, enough so to warrant his respect.

  • In the short story "My Day Off," when Harry turns on his Sight, he says that Mister doesn't look any different than normal. No magical aura, nothing. Perhaps he is some sort of anti-magic creature.
    • Relevant quote:

I opened my eyes and immediately saw the thick bands of power that I’d laid into the very walls of my apartment when I’d built up its magical defenses. Further layers of power surrounded my lab in a second shell of insulating magic, beneath my feet. From his perch atop one of my bookshelves, Mister, the cat, appeared exactly as he always did, evidently beyond the reach of such petty concerns as the mere forces that created the universe, though my dog, Mouse, was surrounded by a calm, steady aurora of silver and blue light.

  • I don't think Mister is an anti-magic creature. Rather, I think that his magical aura is akin to Adam's aura from Good Omens. To wit: You can't see his aura for the same reason you can't see England from Trafalgar Square.
  • When someone asked Jim on the forums whether Mister makes it to book 13, his reply was:

Mister is far too cool. We haven't really run into anything that could kill Mister at this point.

    • If you take it at face value, then considering some of the dangerous things that have appeared so far (He Who Walks Behind, Mab, the Erkling, the Archive, Cowl, the Merlin, Ferrovax, Nicodemus, the Red King, the Skinwalker, Mother Summer and Mother Winter), Mister has to be some kind of crazy powerful cat.
    • Ghost Story spoilers: There's definitely something in this. Mister is able to interact normally with ghost Harry, feeling perfectly solid and strokable to Harry's incorporeal hands.
      • Well, the explanation given there is that that's just a cat thing, rather than Mister in particular.
        • Seeing and interacting with ghosts is a cat thing. Pumping thirty pounds of running momentum into a ghost and coming to a dead stop? More of a grey area, and probably not a normal cat thing.
  • Even if Mister is anything other than a very large tomcat, Mouse doesn't seem to be aware of that. He rushes to defend the cat from an out-of-control werewolf without hesitation in "Day Off", even though doing so provokes even more trouble when the other werewolf tries to defend her companion from him. Not the sort of thing that Mouse, who's so often the Only Sane Dog of the household, would want to do if he thought Mister could defend himself.

Harry will return to life in Oktoberfest

  • Because POLKA WILL NEVER DIE.

Fix is the Slender Man.

A direct quote from Small Favor, "...Fix is a slender man..." Nothing needed further.

Harry is a nephilim

  • They're supposed to be ridiculously tall
  • Uriel takes a reeeeeallly personal interest in Harry
  • Uriel is stated to be subtle; Harry often does things no-one is able to predict
  • Harry is unusually resistant to temptation
  • The dream conversations Harry has with Malcolm involve Malcolm hinting to Harry that dark times lie ahead (archangels have intellectus!) & that Harry has the power to push back against fallen angels
  • Harry is entrusted with holy swords & seems to be very sensitive to dark magic (unusually so, for a wizard)

And adding on to this, Uriel is the Archangel who killed all the first born children of Egypt. This was an act meant to force an evil despot to give up. A heinous and evil act committed by the good guys in the name of the greater good. Not at all unlike the bombings of Dresden in WWII.

Ferrovax

  • Jim has said that Ferro is one of the only entities that could actually take down Mab. Now, obviously he's going to have a lot of raw power at his disposal, but what if it's more than that? Jim is a big fan of Meaningful Names, and there's something in Ferrovax's that counts. Ferro, which looks like Ferrum, the Latin word for "iron". In the Dresdenverse, Dragons are "semi-divine beings who were once given authority over various portions of the mortal universe, and who were responsible for their orderly procession." What if part of Ferrovax's "portfolio," for lack of a better word, is iron? He might be the reason that iron is the Bane to Faeries.

The effect that nuclear explosions have on the corresponding place in the NeverNever to ground Zero is to cement what little reality they have in place, at least for a time.

In Grave Peril, Dresden uses a bag of powder that includes depleted uranium to counteract the ghost's unreality and get any bits of it that get struck by the powder stuck in the real world. I was wondering about what sort of backlash there might be on the other side of a just-closed portal to the NeverNever if a nuclear weapon went off (such as, for example, Morgan vs. the Elder skinwalker), and a slight disturbance from the explosion or a burst of change in the local geography just didn't seem right, and while absolutely no backlash would fit with the mythos, it wouldn't fit with the tone of the Dresden Files. Thinking back to the depleted uranium powder, it is possible that a nuclear explosion (or at least one using uranium or transuranic materials) would actually have enough of a negative backlash on the local NeverNever, assuming there was a sufficient link between it and the blast site (such as a just-closed portal), to temporarily make it less shifting, the area and duration likely being based on the strength of the local connection to the real world and the size and strength of the bomb. I have a hunch that "real stuff" could have something to do with the Ways, but probably not.
Then again, I could be going entirely the wrong way with this, and it not only has no effect on the NeverNever but could make the place a den for Radiation Gnomes and turn the thing it landed on into a half-melted, nuclear-fire-spitting version of itself that will show up later in the series, if only through hearsay. You never can tell with this series.

  • It probably depends on the degree of integration to the Nevernever you're talking about. Some parts, especially in say Grave Peril, correspond closely to the real world, and thus would probably show the effects of a nuke, or at least it's devastation. At the same time though, much of the nevernever has little-to-no correspondence with the real world, and even the parts that do correspond often seem to be out of sync with the real world time-wise.
  • I think that a nuclear explosion and it's destruction (not to mention it's status in the collective consciousness as the Ultimate Weapon) would change the connection between the Never Never and the real world. Just as the FBI headquarters and a hunting store link to the Erlking's Halls, a nuclear blast site would lead to the testing grounds of ancient magical superweapons. Or, in the case of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki sites, to the places where those weapons were employed.


...When a child younger than a certain point gains the shadow of a Fallen (or the fallen itself), the two become inextricably linked after a different point, once enough time has passed.

Had Michael's son gotten the denarius on him, he'd have become a demonic version of Jesus (with the God part of the deal one or two rungs lower, of course). Whether he'd be an Anti Christ or not depends on the individual Fallen, of course.

  • I don't believe that. Despite how it worked in Shezza's fanfiction, if that was the case then far more of the Denarians would be/have been taken as kids.
    • I hadn't seen the Fanfic Recs page until checking what "Shezza's fanfiction" was about, or the work itself, so that was just coincidence. But I was really going more with the "it hasn't happened because no one's tried before" point, since it was a Desperation Attack and they had previously only given the coins to people who were old enough for a decent amount of magic to have awakened in them (regardless of whether they actually had powers).
      • As Harry and multiple other characters point out several times, there was nothing desperate about it. Nicodemus is a Chessmaster. He knew that there were two outcomes there. Harry picks up the coin, or Little Harry picks up the coin. Either way, he's (theoretically) gotten a powerful agent. 

If Cowl and Kumori succeed in abolishing death, we'd all be screwed.

Aside from the obvious problems, such as what happens if you're crushed to a pulp and can't die, there's the question of "where does all the power come from?" When Harry casts Fuego, the energy comes from the environment. All other spells are the same way, and Harry repeatedly remarks how draining spellcasting can be. This magic is also responsible for how long wizards can live for. Now, imagine that everyone is tapping into this well forever.

    • Abolishing death didn't work out to well when Minus tried it, either.
    • Yeah, I forgot about overpopulation.
    • Harry points out a few downsides himself, actually.
    • He just scratched the surface. Forget human overpopulation, what about all the animals and plants and fungi and bacteria and protists? 

The three major houses of the White Court are directly opposed to the three Swords.

Fidelacchius, Esperacchius, Amoracchius: Faith, Hope, and Love, "and the greatest of these is Love." And the three biggest Houses feed on despair, fear, and lust, with the Raiths being the most powerful. It's not a perfect set of opposites, but if Raiths are repelled by true love, it makes sense for faith and hope to be the others' banes. All of which means that if Thomas gets any one of the swords, it should be Amoracchius.

  • Update: and the Dresden Files RPG hints that "truly selfless Hope and Courage" could be just as deadly, but there's a lack of experimental data to prove it. I was close. :)
  • At one point during Changes, Harry fights off a Red Court vampire using his necklace, saying that the Red Court is the most vulnerable to objects of faith.
  • It was stated explicitly, I think in White Knight, that the each of the three houses of the White Court are harmed by the opposite of the emotion they feed on. Love for the Raiths, courage for the Malvora, and hope for the Skavis.
  • The RPG books suggest that there are White Court vampires that feed on wrath, so a Sword of Peace might appear/be created in time for the apocalyptic trilogy. Of course, the RPG books also suggest a Blue Court of vampires and an Autumn Court of the fae, so take it with a grain of salt. 

As in an above guess, the Fallen are Fallen because they refused to follow one of God's orders...

...And that order was to love, which angels can't do. Some of the angels twisted the instruction, such as Uriel's infatuation with humanity and (possibly) The Other Michael's lust for battle, but a few just said "no way, Yahweh" and got kicked out. In the mean time, Lash has come to know and care for Harry to the point that she would and did sacrifice herself willingly to save Harry, and what is the word for emotionally and intellectually caring about another person's life above your own? Some say "love". Ergo, in doing what she did, having lived in Harry for so long and seen humanity and himself through his own eyes and mind, respectively, Lash may have not only redeemed herself, but also became more than a "normal" angel... she became a human who simply doesn't have a body or brain to hold her.

    • There is a key mistake in your theory. The Archangels Michael and Uriel are never stated or implied to be Fallen. So angels can love. Lash indicated the Fallen fell because they did not like following orders or the form of morality demanded angels follow.

Angels, fallen or not, claiming not to have free will is bullshit.

  • If Angels don't have free will, how on earth did a bunch of them say 'No' and then start a rebellion. That requires free will, after all. The Angels may not realize they have free will, much like Lash's Shadow didn't seem to clue into it, but they do. 
    • Roleplaying Game explains it. Demons do not have 'free will' either. They cannot act against their nature. While they could refuse to serve and fall, that just means they are just as enslaved, but now they can do nothing BUT rebel. 
      • But if they have the power to say 'No, I wont do that', then they're already acting against their nature. What's to stop a demon who now can do nothing but rebel from rebelling against that and acting neutral? I understand that as an RPG mechanic it works that way, and that from the angels/demons perspective that way, but as a Human Being with Free Will, that sounds an awful lot like a nice excuse for not using your free will, rather than not having it.
    • Maybe angels have no free will, but God does. He creates them to fulfill certain roles, which they are locked into. When He changes His mind about what they should be doing, some allow Him to alter their assignments accordingly, but others are so committed to their initial tasks that they rebel rather than be changed.


Harry is eventually going to be the equivalent of Demonreach for Earth.

His mother gained a sort of intellectus for the Ways, and he seems to be picking it up from her little gift. He has a habit of messinging around with major ley lines and nodes in ways that could break them, empower them, send their power coursing through him like a ten-cent fuse in a lightning storm, or all of the above, and may wield power combinations unknown to any human at one time (Sanja prevents me from being less specific), and then some. Eventually, Harry ends up a ghost with Intellectus who can affect energy, and thus matter, on Earth's mortal plane.

The Jade Court is behind everything.

They manipulated the White Court in thinking they had the idea to get Dracula written and then started the vampire war so that Harry would wipe out the Red Court. Now it's just them and the White Court. The black council probably has at least one Jade vamp higher up in it.

One if the uses of the Stone Table in modern times is keeping all the extra power that would otherwise have been lost when a Summer or Winter Knight who was also a magic-user is retired.

The Knight power would normally be the only thing to go directly to the nearest Court official, but if a Knight is killed on the Table when their master is in control of it, all of the rest of the power that the Knight brings to the table is sent along with it.

Ancient Mai is a Jade Court inductee or the repentant originator of the Jade Court line.

The dragon explanation in the TV series was just a way to throw off suspicion. Either she was attacked by a Jade Court vampire a couple or few thouusand years ago and never fully turned, and Jade Court transmission works in a way similar to the Red Court, or the Jade Court vampires are more like traditional jiangshi and Ancient Mai was an early Chinese alchemist and Taoist who was working on ways to achieve at least The Ageless (so far so good) and bring back the dead (Gone Horribly Right) and Ancient Mai and the Jade Court are the reason for the necromancy ban in the first place.

Harry's ability to repel outsiders is not a Chekhov's Gun; it merely explains how he defeated He who Walks Behind, who is the real Chekhov's Gun.

I know it's a One In A Million- nay, a One In A Hundred Billion Chance that his outsider-anathema isn't a Chekhov's Gun in and of itself, but it's possible.

"Cowl" is a title, not a proper name

Probably the Black Council's chief field agent, simply because Cowl in White Night comes across as much more vicious than the version in Dead Beat. A handful of the BC's elite might simply trade off the title and Black Cloak on missions, pretending to be one person to disguise the extent of the organization. "Cowl" is obviously a pseudonym, and this is one possible reason for it. 

    • Alternately, Cowl is the character's official rank within the Black Council, but only one person has held it throughout the series; he goes by title while in public because he's someone the magical community at large might recognize (be it a Senior Council member, Undead!Justin, Kemmler, Harry's future self, or someone completely different).
    • I thought Cowl was just what Dresden called him because he is The Nicknamer.
    • Nope- he introduces himself as Cowl, and Kumori and Corpsetaker call him that too. 

The Red Court and Black Court have a common magical ancestor, as may the White Court and Jade Court.

It's quite probable that the Red and Black courts are simply blood feeders that happen to be called vampires and have Animal Motifs and a weakness to sunlight, and the White and Jade courts simply feed off of spiritual assets and happen to be called vampires by English-speaking magi, but it's worth saying.

Someone will mention that the Jade Court vampires can be vanquished by, among far more difficult means, putting a mushroom in their left sock and throwing the sock in a river.

Sarcastically, of course. My money's on Molly, since she would have been the right age to see the show before Power Incontinence would have set in and she's gotten to be quite the snarker, but Ivy may develop a snarkier sense of humor by the time we next see her and the Fae tend to pick up all sorts of pop culture.

There is some sort of connection between the White Court and the Swords of the Cross.

White Court vamps feed upon unbalanced negative emotions--Lust, Fear, and Despair--and are burned by pure expressions of their healthy positive opposites--Love in the case of House Raith, and presumably Courage and Hope in the case of Malvora and Skavis. But Courage is conceptually very close to Faith, and that gives us the three cardinal virtues of Christianity, after which the Swords of the Cross--Amoracchius, Fidelacchius, and Esperacchius--are named. That has to come into play somehow.

Butters is going to be a Knight of the Cross

In Dead Beat, when Harry is being tortured and praying for a Knight to come to his rescue, Butters shows up and saves his ass. Foreshadowing?

  • I am conflicted. On the one hand, it's Butters, Knight of the Cross. On the other hand, of the three knightly virtues, Butters mostly possesses Hope. Thus, for him to take up a sword, the agnostic Fist of God would have to be taken out of the action. 
  • It would be funnier for Butters to get the sword of Faith, because he doesn't have any faith in himself. And of course there's his faith in Polka (which will never die).
  • Possible ... but then again, it wasn't Butters who actually killed Cassius, it was Mouse. As Mouse is an ass-kicking Angel Unaware, whom even Uriel calls "little brother", isn't he the more likely one to have been acting as a stand-in Knight at the time? Butters was the clever guy who was there to open the car door and to buy Mouse time to chomp the baddie, meaning he was playing Harry to Mouse's Michael.

Harry's Outsider Influence is Partly Based on Ebenezeer's Postion.

Lash said that there needed to be a confluence of events for Harry to be able to push the Outsiders around. One of those events is probably being born to the line of a Blackstaff, who could break the seventh law.

The voice Harry hears at the end of Changes is

Not actually Lash, it's his Mother, speaking through the gem Lea gave him. While he is dying, he's following one of her Ways somewhere, probably somewhere other than regular old death.

  • I thought about it before, and it doesn't seem to work. Remember when Harry first heard Margaret's voice: during his soulgaze with Thomas. Soulgazes, like any other Sight-based memory, never, ever fade. (Turn Coat shows us a lot of this, since every time Harry remembered Shagnasty, it was just as shocking as when he first saw him.) Thus, Margaret's voice could never just "sound familiar"; Harry would recognise it instantly, no matter what.
    • That would depend on how badly his perception of the voice at the end of Changes was distorted by his imminent blackout when he heard it, wouldn't it? If his senses were fuzzy for that reason, even Murphy's voice might not have been recognizable to him.

Collin Murphy didn't commit suicide

Or at the very least, he wasn't planning on it. It's been made clear that Murphy's dad threw down with the supernatural denizens of Chicago quite a bit back in his day, and as we've learned from Harry, you can only bump back against the night so many times before you've put a big target on your back. We already know of at least one type of baddie that can cause their victims to commit suicide. Odds are Collin tread on the toes of House Skavis (or some other kind of despair-o-phage) which came back with a vengeance. Now Collin's ghost is stuck trying to expose his killer and make amends to his family, and he's going to need the help of a certain recently deceased wizard to carry out justice.

  • Semi-Jossed; it didn't happen, but that could very well be the case.

Harry's shooter is the person who drove the Chrysler in Proven Guilty.

I don't know how I didn't think of this sooner. The person who attacked Dresden during Proven Guilty in that Chrysler has never been mentioned or seen since, as far as we know. Since it was right after a Council execution, it could mean it was another traitor within, since it was never tied to Peabody and it seems like the kind of thing Butcher wouldn't just drop. Given whoever did it was trying to kill Harry, it's not unreasonable to assume that whoever did it shot Harry. If the other theories about people doing it for his benefit (Murphy, Kincaid, Lea), then it's clearly a malicious attack, possibly Black Council, and this same assailant took a much smarter shot this time around. Wo J says that Ghost Story will follow Harry as he solves his own murder, and wouldn't it be the perfect time for him to notice the car that attacked him a few years back?

  • Semi-Jossed by Ghost Story. Harry pulled a Thanatos Gambit and had Kincaid shoot him to try to get out of being the Winter Knight, which didn't work. I really doubt that Kincaid would have been the one in the Chrysler, but it's not impossible.
    • Not impossible, but unlikely unless the incident was only intended to scare Harry. Kincaid's skills as an assassin are such that he probably knows exactly how to make a hit-and-run lethal. Rather, given that it's specifically identified as an old Chrysler, this troper suspects it was one of the wizards at the execution, who'd short out a newer model of vehicle.

Thomas has the power to rule the White Court

  • Based on a comment made by Justine about the strength of his Hunger in the novelette Backup, I think Thomas has some major juice. She implies that his Hunger is even stronger than Lara's, which could mean that his demon could overpower anyone's. Whether he'll use it to become the White King, I'm not sure of. Before the Trauma Conga Line that was Changes, I wouldn't have seriously considered it for Harry's brother, but now I'm not convinced that any relationship is safe.
    • Given that he's found the means to safely make love to Justine again, it's likely that Thomas could automatically win any sex-off challenge with another White Court vampire: if he has sex with Justine first, then if the challenger so much as touches him, they'd get burned!

The full Fellowship

Just for Fun. There's that gloriously Shout-Out-tastic conversation in Changes about how their vampire-raiding party of nine is like the Fellowship of the Ring, but we don't hear who everyone is. So, with the benefits of hindsight on how it turned out and the Fridge Brilliance involved, who do you think is who? We know these:

  • Sam- Harry. The real hero of the story, who will go to the ends of the earth to help his friends and never give up no matter how much crap the universe throws his way.
  • Legolas- Thomas, due to prettiness.
  • Gimli- Mouse. Shortest, stoutest and hairiest.
  • Gandalf- Lea. An ancient, powerfully magical being who may look human, but isn't.
  • Aragorn- Almost certainly Sanya. He's a warrior of the forces of good, wielding a sword that's prone to bursting into brilliant light in battle, a king without a kingdom[3].
  • Boromir- Almost certainly Martin. He betrays the group out of good intentions and dies to further the cause.

That leaves Frodo, Merry, and Pippin on the LotR side and Murphy, Molly, and Susan on the Dresden side. Hop to it!

  • Susan is Frodo. She's in hip deep rather than just along for the ride, Dresden is her Sam, and she is the most damaged from her experience. Murph is Merry if only for the Nazgul/Lord Of Outer Night comparison.
    • That leaves Pippin for Molly. As she's the youngest and least experienced, that makes perfect sense.
    • I'd put down Susan and Murph as Pippin and Merry, respectively. Both relatively young and inexperienced in the beginning, but who come into their own as fighters against evil, and act against it independently of the main plot. That leaves Molly, a young persom who comes into a great and terrible power through inheritance, and must struggle against it, to not give it control over her very being, as Frodo. Hmmm...
      • But the "Fellowship" revolves around the current crisis, not overall, and Molly isn't the central character involved. Now, which of them is forever changed by the resolution of the crisis, and unable to rejoin the world with the others? Right, Susan. Going by this interpretation, it might mean that Martin is in fact Gollum, but that raises the question of who's Boromir?
        • Martin was assigned Boromir in the book. And Gollum isn't even a member of the Fellowship.
      • Gollum wasn't a member of the Fellowship, no. But he was following the Fellowship fairly closely, or at least Frodo and Sam, for nearly the whole journey--and of all of Dresden's fellowship, who's the only one who he doesn't really know personally? Also, it was Gollum (Martin) giving information to Sauron (the Red Court) that sets off the events of the book, and Gollum's (Martin's) last-minute betrayal that lets the good guys win...by way of Frodo (Susan) killing Gollum (Martin).
        • Or maybe Ebenezar is Gollum. He wasn't part of the original party, he's older than anyone in the group except Lea/Gandalf, he started out working at cross-purposes to Harry when he initially warned him not to attempt a rescue, and he shows up at the end to become a Spanner in the Works for the bad guys. Plus, we don't yet know how much of a corrupting effect his use of the Blackstaff and/or of black magic may have had on him.
    • Murphy is Aragorn. Think about it. She has a magical sword but doesn't feel ready to use it- kind of like Aragorn's blade that needs to be reforged. Being chosen by the Sword but not taking it up (yet) is similar to Aragorn being the true king but not being crowned until the third volume. She also has many of the heroic qualities that Aragorn posseses. Have any more doubts? Read when she kicks major ass in Changes.

There are no time travellers in Dresden Files

Because it's too damn dangerous. The Nevernever is too morphic and have too many supernatural nasties that will IMMEDIATELY pounce on you if you try it, while trying to do so in the mortal realms find out that it's very hard to be where you want when you want, and usually end up getting spaced because the planet is on the other side of the solar system. And the solar system itself moved. As did the galaxy. And the galactic cluster. And the galactic supercluster.

  • If it's just suicidal, why would the Council forbid it? 
    • Two ways of looking at it. 99% suicidal, odds are the 1% that manage to survive will either be batshit crazy and/or insanely strong. Now you have a crazy, strong, crazy strong psycho in the time stream. 100% suicidal, for eachh would be dark arts dablers that thinks it is possible because of the law and get themselves killed it is one less dark arts dabler messing around with the other laws that are feasible.

Harry will not technically time travel...

He is making a great trend so far of not quite breaking the Laws of Magic. Murder? It was self-defense. Necromancy? It was a T-rex, not a human. Whatever he does with time travel will prevent him needing to time travel. Only he and a couple others will even remember any of it happened. One of them, of course, will be either a Warden or a member of the Senior Council, with whom he will have a conversation identical to this WMG.

    • Vaguely related: When Harry time travels, he will need some sort of focus to preform the required time magic. Whoever is with him will be skeptical of it's power/logic/appearance, and he will respond, "I know, it's no police box."Bonus points if a) the skeptic is Murphy, or b) when explaining the above paradox, he mentions "wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball".

The previous Archives (Ivy's mother and grandmother) were murdered.

Ivy's grandmother was killed in a freak automobile accident, passing the position of the Archive to her seventeen year old daughter, who committed suicide after Ivy was born thus passing the position of the Archive to a newborn Ivy. Sounds like an unfortunate series of coincidences, right? Yeah, right. There's no such thing such as coincidences in the Dresden Files universe.


The Archive is an immensely powerful magical being. So much that Ivy, a twelve year old, managed to defeat a bunch of Denarians without breaking a sweat. How, then couldn't her grandmother protect herself from an automobile accident? I know that magic can't solve everything, but still, Ivy's grandmother should be able to protect herself. You'd think that a being as important as the Archive would be heavily protected like Ivy, who has Kincaid as a bodyguard. Keep in mind that some of the so-called accidents are cover-ups for something supernatural. For that matter, it would be pretty easy for a warlock to use thaumaturgy to cause an accident without anyone being the wiser. 

Ivy's mother committed suicide. Really? Suicide is a premeditated act, not something you do on a whim. I don't know about you, but if I were the White Council, I'd go through some preventive measures to prevent someone as important and vital such as the Archive to do harm to herself. Shouldn't they do something to prevent her from killing herself? Of course, there are ways for someone to arrange murder while making it look like suicide. In-universe example: Elaine nearly killed herself out of despair in White Night because of a Skavis White Court vampire. She had already slitted her wrists and everything. If Harry didn't use the telepathic link between them to get rid of the Skavis's influence Elaine would have died. Hell, it would be easy for someone to use mind-control on her to spotlight her despair, like what Molly explained in Turn Coat.

By killing the two previous Archives and passing the position to Ivy, it compromises her supposed neutrality. Ivy, for all her maturity and knowledge, is still a child. Children aren't exactly known for their rationality, after all. The main reason why Nicodemus and Tessa's plan in Small Favor worked was because they took advantage of her age and feelings. They threatened Kincaid, the father she never had, and Harry, the person who gave her another name other than just 'The Archive'. Both were the only people who treated her as a human being, and that's why Nick and the Nickleheads managed to capture her. It wouldn't have worked if Ivy was older, or if the Archive had already formed a personality of her own before receiving the position. It's not that far of a stretch to think that it's a part of someone's plan.

  • The Council does not have access to the location of the Archive at all times, nor would the Archive appreciate people spying on her family. Also, if the Archive decided to kill herself, what exactly is the Council going to do to stop her? She is a Signatory to the Accords, a faction all her own, and at least as powerful as a lesser Faerie Queen. They do not have the authority to tell her what to do nor do they have the raw power to do so, especially if they're trying to stop someone who could just Death Curse herself to death. I do think Ivy's grandmother's accident was suspicious, but her mom was a depressed teen that got overwhelmed. If I recall correctly, Ivy actually states she knows her mom killed herself, and she knows everything that the previous Archives knew (meaning she knows the thought processes that went into her mom deciding to kill herself).
  • I don't really see how being the Archive makes one immune to automobile accidents. The Archive is pretty powerful magically, but she's still human. She could defend herself from nearly anything she knew was coming, but if she's got hurt, she'd die as easily as anyone else. A random car crash is pretty much impossible to predict ahead of time, and so impossible to defend against. It would probably be easier for the Archive to see an assassination attempt coming than a freak accident.

The Outer Gates were completely trashed before the start of the series

Rashid and possibly other senior council members are keeping it quiet, but people can summon Outsiders as easily as anything else and without alerting the Gatekeeper now. It explains where all the Outsiders running around came from. If you count the spiders and super-ghouls as Outsider serfs, that makes a few hundred onscreen, and the ones that ambush retreating Warden heavy assault teams are definately Outsiders and quite numerous. The super-ghouls are kind of strange, really nasty, and associated with a confirmed Outsider, making them likely canidates for the Outsider Redshirt Army, while the spiders are creepy, powerful enough to actually be a valid assassination attempt against Senior Council members, and worked for the Black Council.


He Who Walks Behind has Harry's bear belt buckle.

Harry has built up an impressive arsenal of magical foci over the years. Something like the bear belt buckle, which replenishes his strength, is incredibly useful for him, and allowed him to survive the events of Blood Rites. However, it hasn't been seen since, and Harry hasn't mentioned it at all.

Now, at the end of Blood Rites, He Who Walks Behind is summoned again by the White King, and he makes it clear he still had a grudge against Harry for defeating him when Harry was a teenager.

The pendant is one of Harry's possessions. It contains his magic within it, maybe allowing him to be tracked. And in Small Favor, Mab removed Harry's knowledge of his blasting rod from his mind, and Harry never even thought of using it.

So, He Who Walks Behind still has it in for Harry, and took the bear belt buckle as a means of tracking him. Harry doesn't realize it, because his memories were obscured just like his memories of his blasting rod. When He Who Walks Behind makes his next appearance, the bear belt buckle will play an important role.

    • While not ruling it out, it could be that Harry simply decided not to use the buckle again, since the one time he did he dangerously overextended himself because the energy boost affected his mind and made him overconfident and utterly helpless when it wore off.
      • Someone asked Jim Butcher what happened to it. His response implies just that:

He used it, and then it left him semi-comatose, so it’s not the kind of thing you want to rely on in a life and death situation.

    • Or after Dead Beat, he might have given it to one of the junior Wardens, who need all the help they can get to survive. 

Da Chief is Murphy's dad

He did establish that he has at least 1 daughter, and he was a cop. Likely he, and Carmichael, are still there by their own choice. Cops till after the end.

  • I think this was more or less confirmed by people who got to hear JB read the next few chapters. The evidence certainly stacks up that way. We'll know soon enough.
    • Confirmed by Ghost Story.


The Dresden Files will end the same way the Time War ended.

The Masquerade will not be broken. There will be an epic battle sequence in the Apocalyptic Trilogy with all the good guys versus all the bad guys, and various people will switch sides in a confusing manner. But Harry, having realized that the White Council is hopelessly corrupt, will choose to bring both it AND the chief enemy race, vampires, down. He will then assume Doctor status, wandering the world with truly awesome wizarding powers and an especially long life span, protecting muggles from the things that go bump in the night. His first companion? Murphy, of course!

    • Lea will end up the Winter Queen, setting the Faerie Court to neutral. At least, the Winter Court.
    • There will no longer be the Accords, but most spooky beings will be too terrified of Harry to kick up much fuss.
    • As all vampires will die, Thomas will make a Heroic Sacrifice. Hopefully just after passionately kissing Justine because he knows that soon the burns won't matter.
    • The eliminated villain won't be the Denarians because The Temptation/Redemption Tango of Denarian vs. Knights of the Cross is eternal.

Mab is pregnant.

As a general rule, there isn't a lot of sexual detail in the Dresden Files. Last time there was any, we found out seven years later that it had resulted in little Maggie, and was thus important. It could be that the sex ritual described in Changes was important because it was how Mab claimed Harry as her Knight, but what if it was important for another reason? 

  • Well, Maeve did want Harry's child in Summer Knight. Maybe it was for more reasons than to support the cliche?

Mister is part Malk.

Harry already owns one animal that's part mythical creature in Mouse, so it wouldn't be surprising if it turns out he owned two (well, they think they own HIM, but that's beside the point). For one, malks are known to be much larger than normal felines (about the size of a bobcat). Harry frequently comments about Mister's remarkable size (and ironically, jokingly claims that Mister is part bobcat at one point), especially before Mouse entered the picture, and like Mouse, seems to have a strong sense of the supernatural (Harry occasionally comments that when something otherworldly comes calling at his home, Mister is nowhere to be found, only showing up when the danger has passed). But the kicker? In the short story Heorot, Harry attempts to craft up an illusion to make himself, Ms. Gard, and Mouse to appear to be malks, in order to sneak past a large pack of them. His mental basis for the illusion? Mister. And it WORKS.

In Winter Knight, Harry will politely ask Mab to remove the mantle of the Winter Knight from him and absolve him of all his debts

  • She'll say "no", and come to greatly regret that decision in the book's climax.
    • Come on, Harry's not that stupid, especially considering he told her explicitly that he would not try to weasel out of it through any means.
      • Well, Harry said he wouldn't try to weasel out. The OP says "politely ask," which I don't think counts as weaseling out. And to be fair, no one's going to expect Harry to just ask politely about anything and not be a wiseass/try to blow something up.
        • Semi-Jossed: At the end of Ghost Story, Mab is revealed to be one of the three powers that has been keeping Harrys body. She even explicitly says that since his body never died, her contract with him is still in force. Harry accepts this, but thanks to the Seven Words from Uriel, realises that this does not mean she can change who he is, and he promises her dumb literal exact obedience if she tries it (which, given why she values him as her knight, is quite a threat.)

The Merlin planned, or at least was aware of and encouraged, the events of Changes

Langtry even told Harry, in a fantastic show of foreshadowing:

  " "No, so [the Red Court} never knew it was coming. Period. We will no longer wage a war with that filth, cold, hot, or otherwise. We're going to destroy them root and branch". He lifted his chin slightly as his voice turned to frost. "We're going to exterminate them." "

There was really no way the Reds would live out the book. The "root and branch" tree metaphor is even echoing how the bloodline curse works. He must have known, or at the minimum suspected.

  • Alternately, he was preparing a Batman Gambit, with the letter from Luccio being disinformation and the order to not involve himself being a deliberate choice to push Harry to attack the Red Court (becuase he knows how Harry responds to direct commands). He knew Harry probably had a decent shot at taking out the Reds if he went in by himself, without Council support, but if he failed, his attack would both weaken the Reds and eliminate Harry from his list of problems. Then the Merlin could follow up with his own assault and wipe the Reds off the map.


The only real Law of Magic is number 7, the one about messing with the Outer Gates

All other types of Black Magic weaken the Outer Gates in some way or another, which allows one or more Outsiders to influence whoever is using the Black Magic, hence the corrupting and addictive properties of Black Magic in the Dresdenverse. Due to his vaguely-alluded to ability to pwn Outsiders, Harry would be immune to these effects, like he seems to be from the following examples from the books:

  • Though we haven't heard much of Harry's early time with Ebenezer, he didn't seem to display any of the mind-altering side effects that should come with killing a person. The one notable instance is when he talks about how he was being harassed by a group of teenagers, and instead of feeling an urge to call up a firestorm and burn them for their insolence, he considers the notion and then laughs at the thought of it.
    • As for Ebenezer, to my understanding the Blackstaff itself acts as a buffer for the effects of breaking the laws.
  • In Grave Peril, Harry killed a few innocent humans. Though they were either dying or were about to be Turned into vampires, he noted that some of them were still moving and he burnt them to a crisp. After this, instead of feeling high on power (as one does after using Black Magic), he was sick with guilt.
  • Word of God says that Justin chose Harry and Elaine because they both have power over Outsiders, so Elaine would have the same immunity to Black Magic as Harry if this theory is correct. In Summer Knight, Elaine floods the Wal Mart with Mind Fog, which Harry says violates a law of Magic. So Elaine just used Black Magic to invade the minds of a couple dozen patrons, but afterward retains enough of her morality to risk her life to help Harry save the world.
    • Molly broke a law without turning into a slavering monster. If lawbreaking were as mind-altering as you suggest, taking a warlock as apprentice wouldn't be an option, because only people with Outsider-killing abilities would be able to draw back from the abyss. Lawbreaking is a slippery slope, sure, but it doesn't automatically flip the Eeevil lever to the "on" position.
      • Molly broke a Law twice, and even then in the Soul Gaze Harry saw the potential for her to go into full super villain mode. Elaine broke that same law dozens of times in one sitting with the mind fog, and Word of God says that once of her foci stores up a memory of her own to force into someone's head in order to temporarily paralyze them, which means one of her main magical tools revolves around breaking a law of magic, yet she does not appear to be evil.
      • A lot of mind magic is apparently a "grey area" that the council has decided to apply a very wide ban to because it's so dangerous. Addictive black magic and things that break the Council's rules are not necessarily 100% in line with each other. In one book Harry removes someone's memory of traumatic magic and sends them to sleep, both of which do involve influencing their mind, but notes that even the Council accepts this use of magic.

The recurring theme naming of "Margaret" is meaningful.

Harry's mother is named Margaret. Out of tribute to her, Susan named their daughter Maggie, short for Margaret. Harry's apprentice/potential-sorta-maybe love interest is Molly, which can also be a pet name for Margaret. Even Mab can be a pet name for quite a few things, including Margaret. There's likely more here than coincidence, if four women who feature very prominently in his life all share the common name.

  • Molly is a pet name for Margaret. In Proven Guilty, Michael calls Molly by her full, given name, which is Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter.

Titania fixed Little Chicago

So, what do we know about the fixing of Little Chicago? It had to be someone who knew that Harry's lab was in the basement. Someone who know there was a Little Chicago at all. Someone who has had the opportunity to spy on Harry enough to discover there was a flaw with it and intimate knowledge of the design. It had to be done by someone very familiar with Harry's wards. Someone would have to pass through them, disarm them and leave them untouched. It had to be done by someone with a LOT of metaphysical oomph, in order to cross over Harry's threshold/wards and still retain enough power to fix a delicate and complex construct like that.
So, who fits the bill? Titania. Summer has been giving Harry cleaning service in the form of brownies for years. They're perfectly positioned to spy on him and on whatever he is doing in his basement. Anyone who could order them around - like, oh, a Faerie Queen - would have all the information she'd ever need on Harry, his projects and everything else he's doing. Titania is also one of the few people who just might have the metaphysical oomph to cross over a threshold(even though it's a weak one, it's still a threshold) and perform magic. Extremely complex magic is likely not a big deal for her - it would not be a problem for her to perform within minutes or hours something that took Harry months to do.
Because, really, what do we know about Titania's opinion on Harry? We only have guesses and enigmatic statements at best. For all we know, she could be an ally.

  • I had always assumed it was Uriel that did it.
    • Huh, I had always assumed it was Lashiel, or at least that she had somehow sheilded Harry from it going kablooie.
      • Uriel? Maybe. However, remember that at the time, Harry was still Denarian-infected. For all Uriel knew, Harry could turn into a monster that time next month. After all, this is not Michael we're talking about, it's Harry. Lasciel seems unlikely as well. Wouldn't she basically go - "You know, I saved your life, see how helpful I am? Now be a nice guy and take the coin"? Why would she hide the fact that she saved his life when she was trying to tempt him?
        If you mean that the real Lasciel did it, not the shadow-Lasciel then wouldn't Lash at least offer a suggestion "You know, it might've been my greater self that saved you"?
      • On further thought, a good candidate might just be good ol' Leanansidhe. She *is* the only one with access to the Never Never side of his apartment, after all. However, if it is her, she missed a good moment to crow about it when she was talking to him about the defenses she had put in place.
      • That's practically impossible. Lea was imprisoned in Arctis Tor when Little Chicago was fixed. There's a possibility that it was Mab who fixed it, because Mab had taken on Lea's duties due to imprisoning her.
  • Sidhe influence is doubtful. I'd always thought Thomas, but Lash is a (remote) possibility.
  • My guess is either Ebenezer or a time traveling Harry. 
  • May be Uriel, may be not, but the fact is an Angel of some kind is most likely if only because Harry was using Little Chicago at the time to help the Carpenters, putting him in to Deus' personal ex Machina that he keeps on hand for Michael.

The Red Court is already alive again.

The magic used to destroy the Red Court by definition excluded those who weren't complete members (full vampires) at the time, meaning there are an unknown but significant number of people with the capacity to turn at any point in the future. It's implausible that at least one of them wasn't an agent of the Red Court or Black Council (who ought to have an interest in founding a new version of the former, with enough changes to its methods of operation). And while people in this series can have significant arrogance-derived blind spots, the sheer numbers who had to have been aware of the planned familicide, over the period of time said plans were in effect, almost demand somebody had to have seen the possibilities and made contingency plans. They're certainly crippled for now, and have good reason to abandon their former strongholds, resources, and mode of operation, but there's really no good reason to think they've been eradicated.

  • It's explicitly mentioned that anyone who was infected, but not fully turned, was turned back into a normal human. For this to work, there'd have to have been someone who was infected after Susan fully turned and before she died (so, in the window of about 30 seconds, tops?) Going by the RPG's rules, anyone who wanted protection from the spell would have needed to create a spell of even greater power, and have it set up and executed before the ritual was finished, which is not a level of preparedness that you take to defend against an extremely remote possibility that depends on at least a dozen extremely unlikely events to happen.
    So there might be one infected left, who would simultaneously be the most and least lucky creature on the face of the planet.
    • It's mentioned in Ghost Story that there are several of them left, either ones in magically protected areas (presumably the force of the spell is diluted a bit by being spread out over thousands of targets rather than the expected two) or the youngest of them, depending on how exactly the spell was set up. It could be that it missed all those infected in the several years after Susan's initial infection, or those who were turned by vampires who turned after Susan was infected (Who would probably not be permitted to make new ones, but maybe they did anyway). Either would leave a small number of extremely feeble Reds left. This still leaves them in even worse shape than the Black Court though, and unlikely to recover any significant influence in the foreseeable future.
      • It's mentioned in Ghost Story that there might possibly be some of them left, not that there actually were.

Luccio is/was pregnant

Luccio and Harry were sexually active for more than a year between Small Favor and Turn Coat, and she seemed seriously distraught when she realized that it was all because of Peabody's meddling with her mind. It is possible (unlikely, but possible) that she discovered she was pregnant with Harry's child, but the realization that she was Mind Raped, coupled with her Old World mentality, made her ashamed or hesitant to confess to Harry that she was with his child, and some time in the year between Turn Coat and Changes she had the child in secret. Wod Of God is that he will always take the path that results in the most pain for Harry. The only way to hurt Harry more than having one child he'll never be able to know is to have two children he'll never be able to know.

  • Result in the most pain, you say... Howsabout Mab being pregnant? Harry would have another child and get to watch her grow up in the Winter Court, and being twisted and warped every which way by dear mom, knowing he can't do diddly squat about it because it's the Queen's right. Wouldn't that rub the wrong way.
  • I have always thought that Luccio likes and cares about Harry more than she let on, so it's entirely plausible that she had his child, but did not tell him because it would be too painful for the both of them ( and we all saw how she was even more determined to help him after Harry subtly told her that Maggie is his daughter in Changes.). One thing that I do not agree with you however is Luccio's supposed Old World mentality, for Lara casually mentioned in Turn Coat that Luccio played for both teams, suggesting a woman in touch with her sexuality centuries beforehand, and the fact that the Wardens are the most technologically advanced faction within the White Council.

Titania is Margaret Le Fay's mother

  • 1. Harry has never met Titania, nor seen her, nor has any character described her to him
  • 2. Margaret has serious connections with the Fae; being a high-ranking changeling could explain her connections to them
  • 3. Margaret is stated to have a different morality system than most human wizard; the Sidhe are Blue and Orange Morality
  • 4. Ebenezar never mentions Margaret's mother, ever
  • 5. Maeve, Mab, and the Fae in general seem to take an unusual amount of interest in Harry; if Mab (and possibly Maeve) knows, they could want him as a chesspiece, and the other Fae could be interested by his odd aura
  • 6. Harry has an unusual affinity for force, fire, and finding things--all stated to be Summer's things
  • 7. Harry is passionate about, basically, eveything--a 'Summer' trait
  • 8. Harry found himself empathizing with and completely understanding Aurora, to the point where he could predict how she'd react to his attacks; if they were more alike, then they could be related
  • 9. Kincaid's 'human as you are' line, which leads to:

Kincaid is Drakul's grandson

Because.

  • "Because"? That's a pretty poor argument. The Margeret=daughter of Titania makes sense, Troper, especially with our Lying Creator, but that doesn't mean that Kincaid is Drakul's grandson as well. Would you please give us your theory, OP? 
  • This Troper has a theory. He's not Drakul's grandson... he's Drakul's SON. Does it ever say Dracula was Drakul's only son? However, Kincaid is relatively recent (by supernatural standards) and is Dracula's younger brother. He hit the low point in the genetic lottery though... he only got some of his dad's badassness.

Mister has Plot Armor, to the degree of Joker Immunity.

Word of God when asked if Mister survives Book 13 is that "Mister is far too cool. We haven't really run into anything that could kill Mister at this point." Considering the powerful things we have seen, Mister is either absurdly powerful (far from unlikely), a Lightning Bruiser who wouldn't necessarily win but could certainly survive/escape an attack by any of the above, or is too cool for anything we've seen to kill him even though they theoretically could. We haven't yet seen anything that can kill him because we haven't yet seen anything cool enough to be worthy of killing him from a Doylist perspective.

  • No, Mister will never die because he is a cat. Cats, however warm and fluffy, are the ultimate Slytherin:they will not stick around to fight, they will never make a Heroic Sacrifice, they will run to save their own skins, then come back when the battle's over to comfort the wounded by distracting them from their pain with cries for food.

The original Merlin is in a chill chest under Edinburgh.

Like the Avalon myth, but for wizards instead of Britannians. For bonus points, the preservation chamber is a mirrored cave. If this is true, it will most likely subvert the Chekhov's Armory of the series so far.

Nobody will ever find out exactly what Mister is.

By the same principles as Nothing Is Scarier, Nothing Is Cooler.

Mister is an unbound avatar of an upper-level god.

You can't see his aura because A: if you're alive in this world, you're probably in his aura, or B: Why bother letting enough power seep out to make an aura if you don't need to do so? He doesn't need restraining bolts to keep from displaying Power Incontinence because someone that full of ability is their own restraining bolt.

John Marcone's True Name is...

John Marcone. Yes, in Even Hand he says that it isn't really his birth name, but a birth name and a True Name aren't necessarily one in the same--remember that a mortal's True Name changes over time. The True Name isn't what's written on your birth certificate, it's how you self identify, and in Even Hand, Marcone says he can barely be troubled to remember his birth name most of the time. He's probably been going by John Marcone in public and private for so long that it now "counts" as his True Name.

So somewhere down the line, he's going to have one hell of an Oh Crap moment when he realizes this precaution he's taken has backfired.

    • Contrariwise, there is also the possibility of someone going to all the trouble of tracking down Marcone's birth name, using that and having an Oh Crap moment because it didn't work.

Ebenezar messed with Harry's mind to make him more obedient to him

  • McCoy's been the Blackstaff for centuries; he's got plenty of practice at fucking with people's heads
  • McCoy is the only authority figure Harry seems even mildly obedient to
  • I somehow doubt it's normal for wizards to have conversations with their subconscious
  • It could partially explain why Harry is so angry at Luccio when she stops contacting him; she got cured, he didn't
  • Harry is never comfortable around magic-users unless he's more powerful or dominant.

Harry's real father is...

  • ... one of the as-yet unmet Denarians. It could have been a ploy to create another powerful Denarian like Dierdre, only as an ally for the father, or an act of rebellion against Nicodemus, or even kept a secret from him by Harry's mother, as part of setting up the 'special circumstances' of his birth. My guess as to why this father hasn't shown up yet in Harry's life is because the body was killed some time before his actual birth, and has been stuck in coin form ever since. Bonus points if Harry's mother arranged that too.


Harry, once resurrected, will live on Demonreach

  • His place is broken
  • There are at least two Ways to and from the island (Rashid's and Peabody's), which means the commute would not be that bad with Harry's newfound knowledge of the Ways
  • Look at the defenses Harry had spelled into his apartment : one big-ass group of wards and an early-warning system to give him a little time to plan if Harry gets attacked. The lighthouse on the island already has a set of Wards bad-ass enough to stop the Nagloo... Shagnasty, and Harry's intellectus would only require a small but constant mental effort to act as a warning system. Harry has been shielding his thoughts from Lash for years, so a "small but constant mental effort" should be a piece of cake.
  • Frankly, after the red court, Harry has moven up a few weight classes. I don't see him endangering civilians by living amongst them with what will likely come after him next.
  • The island is tied to Maggie, and therefore to Harry. While there is kind of a creepy vibe to that connection, there's nothing specific enough to deterr Harry from setting up shop here
  • It would fit with Harry's premonitions that the island would play a big role in his future
  • Harry would be able to draw on the Ley line to throw punches more in accord with his new weight division.
    • It's also possible that the Fomor regional headquarters will turn out to be located on the bottom of Lake Michigan, in which case Demonreach isn't a bad place to establish a beachhead against such aquatic baddies.

The TV Series used no special effects.

It was all actual magic being done for the cameras. The reason it looked rather cheap was that the magic was mucking up the recording equipment.

Lash was feeding Harry information without him knowing.

That was why harry knew so much about zombies in Dead Beat and why after gaining lash his magic took a major jump up in power even without hellfire.

There's an upcoming outsider invasion and half the factions knew for the entire series

So, Harry's capacity to burn straight through outsider magic immunity would be really important to anyone wanting to do anything at all relating to outsiders. And a whole lot of people have been variously gunning for or trying to recruit Harry. Here's a partial list:

  • The Black Council has tried to kill Harry indirectly in like half the books, but Cowl and Kumori try to recruit him. Possibly some dissension in the ranks or a temporary change of plans that's later reversed.
  • The Red Court tries to kill him in Grave Peril, recruit (or kill) him in Death Masks, and later kill him. The level of overlap with the Black Council is unknown.
  • The White Court tries to kill him for only semi-related reasons. Later, Black Council elements try to kill him.
  • The Denarians try to recruit him, with killing him as plan B.
  • Demons attempt to recruit him directly.
  • Rashid is uncertain of his loyalty and exceptionally worried about him.
  • Mab is really insistent on recruiting him instead of shopping around the halls of powerful people in need of even more power, which includes the entire senior council.
  • Team Heaven and subsidiaries attempt to recruit him, but that might be just or at least partially because they're generally nice people.

Basically, the theory runs like this: Somehow, all the above people are aware a whole bunch of outsiders are incoming. All of them want him around to a) Kill said whole bunch of outsiders, or b) bind them to their will. Both would rather kill him than have him do the opposite and either make the situation even worse or totally derail their evil plan. Their choice of tactics depends on which they believe more likely, Rashid and Mab are in camp A, the rest are in camp B.

The White King has been repowered

Harry was the anchor for his mother's death curse against Lord Raith, which is why killing him was so important in Blood Rites. Since Harry's dead now, he's able to feed once again. Sure, Lara is still calling the shots for the time being, but he does now have the ability to start regaining his power and take control back from his daughter. Harry returning to life will not fix this.

  • Nope. Thomas is also an anchor. Both of them have to die for the White King to regain the ability to properly feed.
    • Ghost Story spoiler: Harry was never quite "dead" in the sense required by magical law and rules. Removed from his body, yes. Sent to the in between place, yes. However, Demonreach and Mab were keeping him very much alive physically and helping his body heal. All so he was still bound by his oath.


Magog's shadow is still in Sanya's head

Touching the coin leaves an imprint of the Fallen inside the coin in the person's mind. Harry couldn't get rid of Lash until her sacrifice. Had it been as digging up the coin, touching it to merge the shadow with the real Lasciel, and handing it off to the church, he'd have done so. So why, then, would surrendering Magog's coin to the Knights keep some trace of the Fallen out of Sanya's head? Esperacchius might shut the voice up and let him ignore it far better than Harry managed to ignore Lash, but it's there, and there's still about ten books left for something to go wrong for Sanya.

    • Except that Sanya had taken up the coin fully, so Magog's shadow would have gone back to being part of the original. Now, it's possible Magog left a second shadow when he realized Sanya was about to give up the coin, but that would require quick, creative thinking- which doesn't really seem to fit Magog that much, does it?


Justin Du Morne is Grey Cloak.

  • In the released Chapter 5 of Ghost Story, a man to whom Harry refers as "Grey Cloak" is introduced. He a) is D-E-D dead, b) recognizes and despises Harry, and c) has some sort of evil Bob with him. Coincidence?
    • Ghost Story spoiler: it's the ghost of Corpsetaker, who retained her ability to swap minds after death. Evil bob is just that - Good Bob lopped off the part of him that contained the knowledge of necromancy, and that fragment became Evil Bob.

Lash was never redeemed or destroyed.

She's still there, in Harry's mind, and simply refuses to respond to him. Moreso, she was never redeemed. The whole thing is a long con intended to convince Harry that he had managed to redeem her and that she had sacrificed herself for him, making him more vulnerable to her subconscious suggestions.

  • 'Ghost Story spoiler: I'll argue over the redemption part, but I think it's pretty clear she's not gone: "MAB GAVE YOU BREATH. HERE PROVIDED NOURISHMENT. THE PARASITE MAINTAINED THE FLOW OF BLOOD." Given Lash's demonstrated ability to finely control individual bits of Harry's body, I have trouble imagining "the parasite" being anything but Lash, sitting down at the end of the vagus nerve, pushing the systole/diastole button over and over and over again. 
    • No. "The parasite" is that thing that Harry notes as working like an IV.
      • No. The IV is how the island provided nourishment.
        • Also: Word of Jim stated, that Lash would have a presence in Ghost Story.
  • I'm willing to go with the possibility Lash never left. But if Lash never left, and moreso was never redeemed EITHER, then that begs the question... why didn't she respond to Nicodemus in Small Favor?
    • Lash decided that Nicodemus/Anduriel wasn't the boss of her any more, and refused to co-operate. She also didn't talk to Harry because she knew that would freak him out and spook him when he needed to be focused.

Harry has the power to destroy Angels by Naming them

  • Uriel was angered and frightened by Harry omitting the "-el" at the end of his name (Uriel means "Light of God", the -el being the "of God" part). Anger, sure, but fear? The only way I could see Uriel frightened of anything is if it were a massively damaging thing. Harry's habit of nicknaming threatened to damage either Uriel, or something important in the universe. The important thing is, Harry has already nicknamed an angel of sorts: Lash (Lasc) is certainly missing the "-el". Could it be that Harry Naming the Shadow of Lasciel was the very thing that made her independent of Lasciel? Could it be that Harry will be doing that very thing to the Fallen herself?
    • Expanding on this, it's quite possible that the vague power he has over Outsiders can be applied to angels as well. This would go a great way to explain why Nicodemus wants Harry to join him, and why he fears him so much. Nothing would make a war on heaven easier than someone who can shoot angels out of the sky, and if Harry knew precisely what he could do, he could probably tear through the Denarians with ease.
    • The problem with this is Uriel had a good reason to be mad, not only did he drop the part that means Of God, the rest of his name means light. So normally he's the Light of God, but with Harry's nickname it becomes Light, which happens to be a bit too close to Lucifer, the Light Bringer.
    • In addition to the above, perhaps the angels themselves can be tempted to fall? The fallen angels of the Denarians certainly have, and I believe Lucifer was mentioned in the first novel Uriel appeared in. Both are associated with light, and Uriel has done some less than pleasant things, like killing the firstborn of Egypt, as Heaven's "black ops" guy. Perhaps he fears not any power of Dresden's, but rather the implication that he is not "of God's".


At one point, Harry will take up Lasciel's coin and become evil or maybe even a Big Bad.

  • Harry has said before that the temptation to take up the coin is extremely strong. Word of Jim says that the story of Harry and Lasciel isn't over - not Harry and Lash... Harry and LASCIEL. Feasibly, for Harry to have any further interaction with Lasciel... he'd have to take up the coin. Even if Harry is eventually redeemed it would be an interesting insight into his 'dark side..'
    • Not necessarily. Someone close to Harry could take up that coin. Molly would be an interesting choice...but Butters would be better.
      • I disagree. I said the story of HARRY and Lash, not Butters or Molly and Lash. Erego, Harry will become involved with her again. Not to mention that Mab might well order Harry to take up the coin to increase his power. I look forwards to Harry whooping the ass of at least one of his friends(The Alphas/Molly/Murphy) and later having a My God, What Have I Done? moment. Maybe I'm just sadistic that way.


Molly will become a Big Bad at some point in the future.

Think about it. Harry's already said she has the potential to become the most frightening wizard of her generation, and in Ghost Story she's had a little Sanity Slippage already. Combine that with the fact that Unrequited Love Lasts Forever, and love can make you both crazy and evil and you've got a recipe for a very scary Big Bad. Plus, Harry had her help him stage his own murder, which involved her using mental (read: dark) magic yet again. In theory at least, she doesn't have that far to fall.

The NeverNever is flat.

Every part of the nearby, relatively normal area where the Faeries live is positioned more or less relative to their respective parts of the earth, From a Certain Point of View, but it's canon that different parts of the NeverNever are usually much closer to and/or possibly further from each other than their relative earth locations. Ergo, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that the entire of the NeverNever is more or less flat, and the physical as well as metaphorical edges just trail off into the wild zones. If your head starts hurting as soon as you understand this, if you ever do understand it, that's a good sign because that's how the NeverNever tends to work.


The Fomor have stone skin.

It's mentioned that they're part-elf, but there's also an off-hand mention that they're lizard-like. Brown or lichenated stone skin cracking into a surface of small, loosely connected plates can look like scales, and fictional representations of the Fomor do tend to have them made of stone as often as not. If they also have their fleshy bits showing, with the more physical, Fomor-blooded ones being mostly-stone brutes and the more elven ones crossing the Bishonen Line into a barely-stone form (no matter which type end up more magically powerful, though a subversion of Monstrosity Equals Weakness would be interesting), that would be pretty cool in my opinion.


All wizards, not just Harry, are Scions.

Kincaid says he is 'as human as Harry is,' and it's never explained at all why Wizards have the power they do. It doesn't make sense that it's just out of the blue, and it's stated that wizards tend to reproduce wizards. Wizards are scions of some kind of unnamed divine/magical creature, and their unique bloodline gives them the ability to use magic. Also, Kincaid has lived for quite a long time, and he doesn't seem to actually age at all. This would likely mean that, if this theory is true, the scion blood in wizards - while diluted over the ages - is responsible for their ability to recover and their extended lifespan.

  • Wizardry is just a talent at using magic; any mortal can use magic, its just that talented humans are naturally far better at doing so. Mortals with little magical talent and enough time and instruction (i.e. anyone with one of the denarii) can be very powerful, they just need a lot more work at it.
    • Case in point, Thomas has no magical talent--but he can still do Harry's tracking spell as a ritual. He can't make one as strong as Harry, or as quickly, and it seems Thomas's version is strictly to find Harry in particular, but he can still pull it off. He looks it as a learned skillset, same as fixing a car or working a computer.
    • Moreover, Butters was able to create a protective circle after having it demonstrated and explained to him once. This, from a guy who'd only recently begun to accept that magic was for real.


Hendricks has Viking heritage.

1. Hendricks is huge to the point of being almost unbelievably muscled - Harry describes him as being built 'like a bull.'  2. Hendricks hangs out with Gard, who is a Valkyrie. 3. Hendricks has red hair, which is a common trait in those with Norse heritage.


Harry is/is related to Kemmler.

Why? Because this would make absolutely no sense. Everyone expects someone to turn around and pull off a mask and say "Hey, I'm Kemmler." NOBODY would expect Harry to have something to do with him.

There will be at least one Princess Bride reference in the next book.

Harry and Murphy (Or Molly.) will come across each other. She (Which ever she it is.) will say, "I thought you were dead." To which Harry will respond, "Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here was only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do."

  • Harry has a penchant for difusing situations with humor and movie quotes, he's quote Princess Bride before, and it fits perfectly with his situation.
  • Alternately (or additionally), Monty Python references. There's plenty to work with there, and Harry does seem to enjoy running with a gag until it drives whoever he's talking to mildly insane.

The next book will have Mab concealing Harry's existence from the other factions

Because everyone thinks he's dead, and why give away that sort of information? Also, she kept him on Demonreach instead of bringing him back to Arctus Tor, the seat of her own power. She's plotting something, and she needs to keep her trump card secret.

Kemmler is responsible for World War 2

In Ghost Story Evil Bob dresses as a Nazi, has his realm in the shape of the German defenses of the beaches at D-Day and commands legions of werewolf Nazi soldiers. Since Bob is a reflection of the person who owns him, Kemmler had a strong connection to the Nazis. He did much more than just reanimate mass graves in eastern Europe as we're told in Dead Beat ....that was just "Phase 2" of his plan to create an invincible army to bring about the Zombie Apocalypse. The first was to use magic to give a few human dictators mind control powers and occult knowledge so that they could generate a sufficient body count...

Lash whispered the Seven Words

  • First, consider what might have happened if Harry hadn't heard those words.
    1. He becomes the Winter Knight, but doesn't arrange his murder. Everything goes off the same way, except he's in no position to stop the Corpsetaker in Ghost Story, and without Uriel's words, he eventually becomes the monster Mab wants.
    2. He doesn't become the Winter Knight. Maggie is killed, the ritual kills Harry, Susan and Ebenezer, maybe more.
    3. He becomes the Winter Knight, and arranges his murder. Everything happens the same way, but without Uriel's words, he becomes the monster Mab wants.

Because of those words, a few things happened. Harry is pushed to become the Winter Knight, giving him a chance of saving Maggie. He arranges his death, and since it happened because of those words, he's sent back, and not only stops the Corpsetaker, but is able to be revived. And it gave Uriel an excuse to remind him, at the perfect moment, that Harry can choose not to be corrupted by Mab. All in all, this resulted in a positive change in Harry's life. There is one issue with this theory at first glance; Lash couldn't have known Harry's body would survive the gunshot. Except one moment before the shot hit, Harry stumbled. It's entirely possible that Lash saw the shooter, and "tripped" Harry with an illusion, saving his life.

Humans wielding Soulfire (such as Harry) can grant Free Will to Spirits (such as Bob)

  • Angels themselves are made of Soul™, but don't have Free Will. Spirits are basically a mind without a body or soul, as I understand it. The key to Free Will seems to be having both a soul and a mind, which only humans apparently do. Since it's fairly common for humans to exchange pieces of their souls, what if Soulfire allows Harry to give a piece of his soul away? Could he give Bob a soul? This may or may not extend to Faeries.
    • The main problem is the only instances of Harry apparently giving Free Will to Bob, or Lash, or anyone is distinctly before he ever got access to Soulfire.
      • I thought Bob still doesn't have free will, his nature is a reflection of people's impression of him. Lash was a shadow of an angel. It's possible that she was/is more vulnerable to soul exchange than Lasciel would have been, and she existed in Harry's mind, which probably made her "Human" enough to gain Free Will.
    • Dead Beat has Bob deciding to side with Harry at the end, despite being, at the time, property of Cowl. Lash, likewise, is gone from the picture and makes her big sacrifice before Harry gets Soulfire (and is speculated to be the reason he has Soulfire in the first place).
      • It's probable that Cowl setting Bob down and preparing to ascend to demigodhood left Bob without an owner, therefore Harry was able to "reclaim" him. It's kind of ambiguous. Lash, on the other hand, wasn't a true angel, and may have been susceptible to change in a way that Lasciel would never have been. Also kind of ambiguous.

A death curse doesn't necessarily need to be a curse

  • This is primarily just idle speculation, but a death curse is, effectively, a wizard gathering up what's left of the energy keeping them alive and using it for one last powerful spell. They die in the process, and most times we see one used or discussed it's generally to get back at some enemy of the dying wizard (generally whoever's put them in the position of being close enough to death for it to be a viable action). It may be possible to do any sort of magic with it, though. Perhaps power and/or knowledge could be passed on to another (in fact, a variation on this could be an explanation for beings like the Archive), or otherwise-impossible enchantments could be laid on objects or people. If a dying wizard thought the best way to get the result they wanted was to, say, dump a ton of magical power into Harry (or, on the other side, one of his enemies), it could result in a massive power-up (either giving him the strength to overcome whatever deity he's facing at the moment or turning a foe into a much bigger threat). Or it could be used - by a wizard with enough power to throw into their death curse - to free Harry from his position as Winter Knight.
    • Sub-WMG; A death "spell" can be used to grant wizard powers to someone.

Raith is pronounced "Writhe"

Stealth Pun. As in, "writhing around in ecstasy".

  1. ↑ To clarify, that is the human developing a dependency on having another being inside its head since the human had a fully functional mentality with eidetic memory uploaded to its head before it was itself very developed, and the Fallen's shadow getting used to having another pert of "itself" that would disappear if the human part died. Sort of like having a computer with an extremely simple OS for its computing power, loading a much more complex program, and then adjusting the code as you use it to eventually reach a point where the complex program effectively works as an operating system for the computer, and you could install it in a new computer or remove the original OS, but the complex program would become extremely erratic. This is also known as The GNU Emacs Effect.
  2. ↑ Original poster returning for the first time since "Harper is Kumori"
  3. ↑ Though unlike Aragorn, he's highly unlikely to claim it


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