I doubt it. Fix was already decently afraid of Harry when Proven Guilty came round, and he knows that he probably wouldn't have stood a chance against even a pre-mantle Harry. As the Winter Knight? Nah, Fix would be fighting way out of his league there.

 

In regards to the balance, I always thought of it as a set of scales teetering from side to side.

As for a fight between the Knights...I'd back Harry against Lily, nevermind Fix.

What was it that made Reul or Slate choices for Knight in the first place? Cause if Dresden is the kind of person Mab looks for as a Knight, I can't see why Slate would ever get the job. I kinda see Dresden as a major coup for a Queen to score as their Knight, however. Thoughts on Knight selection process?

 

Well, they've got two sets of people to recruit from:

1. People who come into contact with the fae without really knowing what they're doing (e.g. practitioners).

2. People who know what they're doing (e.g. wizards).

The first group will be easier to trick, but less of a prize.

The second group will be extremely wary. They know what the fae are like. They're probably quite hard to get hold of, but are the much better prize.

 

Plus changelings like Fix and Lily. I'd also expect that the fae approach straight up mortals with deals, like the band playing when Harry first met Maeve.

 

When Mab found out that Slate was working with Aurora she commented that she wouldn't let Maeve hire the help again, so it was probably Maeve's decision to take on Slate as Knight. Considering how indulgent she is of the various pleasures of the world, it could be that she just wanted another toy to play with.

 

It was also noted that Winter goes through significantly more Knights than Summer does IIRC.

 

Could I get a quote on that?

Still, if that's case it seems to keep with Winter's harsher temperament; it seems pretty Darwinistic at times to me. If you're not strong enough to survive as the Winter Knight you don't deserve the title. Harry will probably go for a few books before working a way out of it though.

 

I have this picture in my mind of Dresden taking on all challengers in a Ring of Death in the middle of the Court for the amusement of the Queens.

...Someone write this naokthanx.

 

Going off what Aurora said in Summer Knight, Harry is very much not the kind of person Mab normally chooses for her agents.

 

Yeah, but wasn't that like pretty much the point of Ghost Story? Mab wanted Harry (granted, we don't know really know why yet, but still), and when she got him she planned to make him like her. Turn him into all those things in the Summer Knight quote. One does wonder why she wanted him as her Knight so badly, though. Mab is thousands of years old and pretty much Winter itself, it seems a bit out of place that she'd turn around and change her M.O. regarding Knights after all that time.

 

Harry is quite a bit more powerful than the usual Knights, even disregarding his propensity for taking down enemies a lot stronger than himself.

 

It's because Dresden is unique. For one, He's an "Outsider-bane" or whatever you want to call it. For two, he has wielded both Hell- and Soulfire. Third, he's bound to an ungodly powerful and ancient sentient leyline. And fourth, he has a strength of character, determination and will that is rarely seen.

And none of that takes into account what his mother may have set in motion to help him or what he can grow into.

Why wouldn't she want Dresden? She knows how to break people. As long as she is able to influence him, he can easily be one of her most powerful vassals.

 

Have to agree there; if there's one thing that's been pretty consistently shown, it's that a lot of the heavy hitters in the supernatural world have a special interest in Harry. Nicodemus has been trying as hard as Mab to get Harry to join his team, Uriel's obviously running his own long-term plans on him, and even the Red Court took a couple tries at trying to turn him.

 

I always thought that the Red Court wanting to turn Harry was more because a) he was a wizard or b) simply because of what he had done. Not necessarily because he was an Outsider-bane. Not because they have a special interest.

Harry's noted that the RC getting to turn a full-fledged wizard would be a major advantage for them. I don't think it's much more than that, plus the fact that turning him would be, to their minds, poetic justice.

Agreed on all the other fronts, though. Cowl (and probably the Black Council), Nicodemus, Uriel, Grevane, the Winter Court...they all want to get their hands on Harry.

 

Fair point; unlike most of the other players trying to turn Harry to their side, it's never made clear that the Red Court has any special interest in Harry outside of revenge.

 

Oh, no argument there haha. Pretty much everyone who is someone wants a piece of Dresden. I think the point I was trying to make is more that we don't know why. I mean, yeah he's Outsider-bane, his mom obviously did A LOT of things we don't know about, etc, but we don't what this has actually done or will do for him. (Only now are some of the pieces being revealed, like the gem with the knowledge of the Ways and whatnot.) So...basically things that will be revealed about in the coming books, I guess, or knowing Butcher he'll save the major answers all the way to the Apocalyptic Trilogy.

 

They (most major powers) want a wizard (any wizard) because having a foothold in humanity can mean the difference between getting killed and doing the killing in a great number of fights. Having a legitimate reason to influence and have a say in the world of man is generally a good thing. Dresden is special because he has done so much to create turmoil that having him on your side seems like a sure win. Of course anything on Mab's level will hedge their bets in case he doesn't turn out to be a game changer but so far all we have seen is him kicking ass and taking names against things that he really should just have died against.

 

I think Mab's playing the long game here. I think she wants something more to do with Harry than the rest. But I think it's Harry's fairy godmother that caused this, not the rest of it.

That woman knows everything about Dresden. And she made a bid for power and was set back in line. One of the bargaining chips after being set back in line was Dresden's debt. Mab has tried in multiple ways to set hooks into Harry ever since she took notice of him.

In my opinion we'll have a book that fleshes out the secrets the Winter has been keeping on Dresden. Whether or not it's his ability to deal with Outsiders, his penchant for living through stupid circumstances, or any other reason isn't really paramount. You can pick any of them.

Anyway, my bet's on Lea being the reason for Mab's interest in Dresden. Not entirely, but enough to risk her court keeping his body alive for a year.