Did LittleChicago just purposely make a mistake to throw off his superhero identity and make people think "Maybe that guy isn't Jim Butcher?"

On-topic for the thread, Molly's hot, bum leg or no. Dresden will have her. And wizard healing will handle the leg.

As far as the Queens and killing mortals go, I thought it was any Sidhe and not just the Queens who couldn't kill vanilla mortals? Pretty sure every instance we've seen where a Sidhe has killed/attempted to it's because the vanilla mortal has interfered in Sidhe business, thus allowing the Sidhe to at least defend itself, such as with Murphy and the goats. Or Michael and everything he's killed.

Basically I don't think Mab could send one of her court to go kill a random vanilla mortal unless said mortal was involved in Sidhe affairs. So random guy A is safe but random guy B who tries to mug a Sidhe isn't. I think the Sidhe are more restricted than we get to see since we only read about mortals who interfere.

 

What Joschneide said. That's entirely what the Knights are for - to be the Queen's arm in mortal business.

 

Sounds about right. Of course, as a general rule Mab wouldn't want to kill off some random vanilla mortal who's not involved with the Courts in any way.

However, that rule does seem to be a bit fuzzy when it comes to the lesser Faeries. The Fetches in Proven Guilty and the Hobs in Small Favor didn't seem to have any trouble hurting vanilla mortals who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Presumably, the stronger the Faerie, the more limits there are on how it can use it's power.

 

It seems to be a general rule of thumb, that, excepting wizards and a few other magic-users (like Dragons), the more power you are gifted with, the less free-will you have.

 

It's not that exactly. The more power you have, the more obligations you have.

Queen to Winter? Godlike power, but you have to manage a massive realm.
Marcone? Huge political power, but you have to manage your empire.

The more power you have, the more people expect you to use it.

 

It's not just responsibility. Outside of artificially created power like Marcone's, more power literally means less free will. For example, the reason Mab can't kill a mortal whenever is not because she's worried about the political repercussions or Winter's position - she is literally unable to kill the person, it is not her nature.

The obligations certainly play a part in their decisions, but it's much more than a simple 'responsibility to the people' idea. I'm sure that even Aurora, at the height of her madness, could not have gone against the basic tenets that bound her as the Summer Lady.

 

I don't know. Personally, I think Aurora's madness was caused by her being forced to go against her nature.

 

I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have been able to lie, or break a bargain, or whatever else "binds" fae. It's possible that her madness was caused by mind-bending black magic - we know it can do that to the victim.

 

Sorry, didn't make myself clear. I meant that the conflict between her innate nature and black magic of some kind drove her mad. You can't change the basic nature of the Fae because it's intrinsic to their being. You can, however, try. It won't work, and will drive the Fae insane, but it does have an effect.

Note that this is just speculation on my part.

 

Oh.. possibly, but that's why black magic drives humans insane too - it fights against their normal patterns of behavior. Semantics. Feh :facepalm

 

I got electronically bitch-slapped

I didn't go into the 'They can't because it's against their nature' argument because I feel I'm not knowledgeable about the subject. Is every being that's not human or part-human have no free will? I think you need a soul to have free will. Angels are nothing but soul. Changelings have half a soul. [citation needed]

Actually, I don't think Mab gives a shit about her people. I think if she fucks up and just stops doing her job, Maeve or Mother Winter would move in and at least attempt to change that. Faeries are like sharks- they smell weakness and they move in. And yes, I am shamelessly mixing metaphors.

EDIT: Ninja'd by two people.

 

With free will comes the ability to go against your nature. Maybe non-sapient human magic is naturally inclined to benevolent purposes (taking literally Harry's assertion that magic is the force of life), and going against that through free will is what causes the corruption.

 

I don't think there are any set guidelines for what beings are restricted in terms of free will and which ones aren't.

Humans seem to have complete free will (including Wizards). The same seems to be true for all magical creatures that exist on the mortal realm.

Fae, demons, other creatures from the nevernever, things from up above and down below, on the other hand, seem to be restricted in how they can act.

 

Not really. Apart from White Court Vampires we haven't seen any non-human being go against its nature. Red Court act like Red Court. Black Court like Black Court. Ghouls eat people. Loup-Garou go mad. None of them are capable of going against their ingrained nature.

EDIT: Aurora excluded, possibly.

 

It's not about "going against their nature" so much as what strict limits they have on their behavior. As far as we know, vampires don't have any limits - they can do anything that they can conceive.

 

Yeah. A vampire can conceive a plot to donate all their life saving to a fundraiser for the Chicago Down Syndrome Soccer League. Doesn't mean they're going to do it.

Point is, they have a nature. To gain power at the cost of others. And they like their nature. A human can be dissatisfied at a moral choice. A vampire can't.

 

Come again? We know that half-vampires can fight against their darker half, who's to say that full vampires can't have morals beyond selfishness?

 

I'm talking about Red and Black court. The White Court reads like they are humans with a magical parasite tacked on.
White Court vamps can have any emotion- the books state that the Hunger is actually anchored to their soul.

The books actually say (or imply) that you lose your soul, or something similar, when you become a Red Vampire.

Such a radical change of heart does not imply good things.

I don't think that I need to talk about the Black Court's moral compass. That is, their lack of one.

Recap: White Court are the most human like.
Red Court are not human but can have human-like emotions- fear, anger, terror, hatred, greed, blood-lust.
Black Court are the least human. They are almost alien in their motion and motives. JB has described them as 'spider-like' and 'unnatural' several times.

 

More Words of Jim.

 

Ok, so we're both right. Kinda. Sorta. Not really. Ok, so I was wrong.

So there is no limits on what they can do, but RC and BC are unlikely to do something that doesn't benefit them. So is WC (unlikely to be a good samaritan that is) but they can do unselfish things. That's what I got from this.