u/No-Cause5127

I have 2 Questions about the conversation they have at the beginning of the book

1. Why did Bob ask to come out of the skull during the conversation? At that point it was still the normal Bob so I can't think of any reason he would ask to leave the skull for the conversation.

2. What exactly did he do to harry when he asked him to open his mouth? It was kind of an attack and almost killed harry but what exactly was it and for what purpose did he do it?

Im not talking about his strength boost but more about the magical applications of creating ice, freezing things etc.

I think earth is the most unlikely. Dresden doesn't seem to be very proficient at earth magic but is throwing ice around like it's no big deal. If it was earth magic he should have improved in other applications as well.

Water sounds like the obvious answer. After all Ice is frozen water. But there are some points that don't fit into this logic.

A. The winter power isnt just about ice (even though it's a prominent application) but also about coldness and freezing things. And while water is normally associated with coldness it can also be hot

B. Large amounts of water are a big problem for wizards and magical energies. At the same time dresden can create large quantities of ice without any problem and use his magic without problems while being on ice so there seems to be a metaphysical difference between liquid water and its frozen form which might also apply to the creation and control of the element with magic.

C. Dresdens ice powers aren't comparable to any other confirmed application of water magic I can remember. Ramirez disintegration beam, his shield, all the shapechanging and the healing from LtW aren't even close to what dresden does with ice.

Therefore I think water isnt the best fitting option

Fire might be an option. The first time he creates ice its described as a reversed application of his normal fire creation procedure. Also he uses the ice in a similar way, he uses large amounts of energy to get a powerful instant effect without much finesse. I know there are more refined and precise applications of fire magic but harrys uses of fire and ice are comparable.

Air could also be an option. Air can be associated with freezing and coldness and dresdens applications of air magic are at least a bit comparable to his ice powers. Ventas servitas creates a strong air flow, making it colder than it was before doesnt seem to far away from that.

The problem I have is that no answer fits perfectly. Except for earth you can make a solid argument for every element. What are your thoughts?

Before the heist book (forgot it's name) I assumed that he might be as competent as harry. After all he is a few thousands years old and had an angel as teacher who should be interested in making his vessel as strong as possible. But then we find out that he cant even open a portal to the nevernever, which is something harry could already do before the first book.

Assuming you pick the founder you would be bound by the kings vow, so no real life rumbling.

I personally would choose the female or Warhammer titan. Both are very versatile. The female titan seems to have slightly more stamina while the warhammer titan is more useful when it comes to building stuff.

The attack titan is by far the worst option because the second you receive it you become a slave to the future wielders will and are haunted by them.

Im talking about the original merlin. Everything we see on demon reach proves that he is on a completely different level than even the whole senior council combined. Is Merlin just a once in human history exception or is there some magical knowledge that was lost to time?

In my headcanon Merlin was just a wizard who mastered time travel and used these abilities to train for an infinite amount of time and gain knowledge even the archive cant imagine but even that doesn't explain the extreme difference in skill to the modern white council.

And do you think Dresden will come even close to this level?

Bonus question: who is more skilled at using magic, modern Mab or Merlin? I know we have almost nothing to compare them, so I'm just asking how you feel about that question

In Changes Dresden speaks Mabs name 2 times while visiting the Erlking. Then the Erlking warns him that he shouldn't say it a third time because he wouldn't like what would follow. Sure saying her name a third time could summon Mab but what would actually happen that Dresden wouldn't like? Do you have any ideas how this interaction would play out?

My thoughts:

Option 1: Mab can resist the summoning. Nothing happens

Option 2: Mab can't resist the summoning. Then she just apologizes to the erlking, slaps harry in the face for waisting her time and leaves again.

Where is the conflict the Erlking hinted at? I mean yeah if both of them really wanted to they could make a large conflict out of entering the erlkings domain without an invitation but both of them seem to be reasonable enough to just talk it out without too much complications. Am I missing something?

We know that every other type of elemental magic has different applications that aren't directly controling/producing that element (like shapeshifting and healing for water, magnetism for earth or communication for air) but for fire its only blasting it at your enemies (and resisting heat). Do you think there are other forms of fire magic? How would you imagine them

I mean from a cosmic balance standpoint this doesnt make much sense. Also if the denarians had even the smallest amount of brain they would start 4 of their bad evil plans at the same time in 4 different time zones. 3 of them would get countered by the knights but the 4th would have a high chance of working.

For simplicity lets compare the mantles to harry dresden. How many Dresdens would it take to match the power of the knights/ladys/queens/mothers mantles in terms of raw energy?

I think it would take about 600 dresdens to match the queens mantle. Dresden is far above average when it comes to raw power and jim said that it would take the whole white council (1000 wizards) + knowing her true name to beat mab. Knowing her name gives them a much more efficient link to her so when we are talking about pure energy it would take a few hundred more wizards to match her. This is how I came to my estimate for about 600 Dresdens

The knight mantles should be worth anything from 1,5 to 4 Dresdens i guess. In summer knight its stated that a wizard might be able to take down a knight even though it would be a very hard fight. Assuming that the average wizard is far more efficient and trained than the average knight the raw energy of the knight mantle should be much higher to match that

I have no idea how to scale the ladys or the mothers so let me know your ideas!

Im really not sure on this. Its stated that power comes witj restrictions as we see in Uriel/mab/etc. But on the other side the fallen angels chose to betray heaven and to choose something you need a free will I think. We also see them breaking the rules by manipulating harry into suicide, which is later countered by Uriel. To break a rule you need to be able to make your own decision.

Im really confused on the whole free will thing in the dresden files because it doesnt make any sense from a philosophical/academic point of view on this topic so please give me your thoughts

Who would win in a fight? Prime Morgan vs Winter knight Harry. Both are well rested at the beginning, both have their regular fighting equipment and in preparation Rounds whatever they would additionally create for the situation, they fight to the death

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Round 1: in character, no preparation

Round 2: both bloodlusted, no care for the laws of magic, no preparation

Round 3: in character, with preparation

Round 4: both bloodlusted, no care for the laws of magic, with preparation

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Bonus Round: Morgan and the merlin vs Harry and Ebenezer in an MMA tag team fight to the death without the use of magic, all bloodlusted and full of drugs, no Winter knight powerups

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For the in character rounds assume Morgan survived and is again convinced that dresden is a warlock and wants to show the world what happens to someone who betrays the white council to work with this dirty fae bastards and breaks laws of magic or some other stupid extremist bullshit Morgan would come up with to give him a reason to fight harry. Harry is fucking annoyed but generally acting in self defense but his mantle gives him a hard time staying calm against such an insult.

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Round 1: I think Morgan takes the victory 7/10 times. Winter knight Harry has more raw power but Morgan was always clearly superior in evocation and has much more experience and finesse. He could use magic to fixate Harry and behead him with the sword without breaking the laws. Harry would have to hold back because otherwise the winter mantle takes over and he doesnt want that to happen but this restricts him and interrupts his concentration which is a good way to get yourself killed when you are fighting someone like morgan

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Round 2: 5,1/10 for dresden. Both would instantly activate their biggest blast and strongest shield, which is more or less an absolute coin flip. Im giving harry the slight advantage in this scenario because he is a beast when it comes to fast output of magical energy even though morgans efficiency might save him.

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Round 3: Harry would probably search for a way to trick Morgan or something like that but I have no idea how that would play out

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Round 4: same here I know wizards can be extremly powerful with preparation time but I just cant imagine what both of them could actually prepare for, help me with your thoughts

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Anyway i would say that Harrys odds should be slightly better in round 3/4 compared to 1/2

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Bonus round: 9/10 for Harry + Eb. The merlin is nothing compared to the absolute machine Eb is. Morgan is completely overwhelmed because he never has tried drugs before. Even if Morgan somehow can manage with drugs he cant do shit. He may be technically a better fighter than dresden but hes 100 years old. So its Harry Dresden and his surprisingly agile and strong grandpa beating up 2 old men

I have the feeling that the white council is way too weak and small for the role it should have in the story. They claim to be representing and controlling all mortal mages and do their best to kill anyone who acts outside of their regulations but if you are not talking about a teen that just discovered their magical abilities in a way that breaks a law its just too easy for anyone who has at least some power to just ignore or hide from them.

There are just too many powerful mortal mages who can act relatively freely outside the councils control (Marcone, Elaine, Dresden, the complete black council, cowl etc.)

Every other supernatural leader of a nation has more or less absolute power over all his people except the council. Why should anyone give them a seat at the table if they cant even control their own people? Even their victory over the red court, which is their biggest accomplishment we ever heard of, was like 90% Dresden being insanely lucky on his suicide mission and 10% mabs intervention that saved his ass. And yes I know that even a single wizard can be very impressive if they have enough time to prepare but why does anyone give them time? Just drop some bombs on them without any warning.

The council is just so extremly fragile and I dont get why their enemies take them serious when even I can think of a dozen ways to get rid of the mutated humans without too much of a problem. Can anyone give me their thoughts on this?

In a woj jim states that the whole white council could beat mab if literally all of them worked together and they had her name.

1. What do you think needs to happen for the white council to decide starting such a stupid fight?

2. How do you think this fight would play out? I honestly can't imagine how the white council could manage to hurt mab without just dropping multiple nukes on her. Even that should not be enough to permanently delete her from existence.

In Chapter 15 of Grave Peril Bob and Harry are discussing who could be the attacker of Mickey Malone. Bob mentions that someone could have dug up a god like Kali, Hecate or one of the old ones. Combined with the new knowledge about the fairie queens and their connecion to hecate that we have now Im wondering what exactly dugging up a god means. Can someone help me understand? (English isnt my first language so I might be missing on some nuance on the meaning of the sentence)