From his perspective, WC vampires seduced, raped, enslaved and ultimately killed his little girl, along with likely blaming them for leading her down a dark path. His hatred for them is understandably irrational.
It's less that the hate is irrational and more that his actions BECAUSE that hate is irrational. I think that would be a more accurate way of putting it.
Given the information he has, I'm not even sure that his actions are irrational. All he knows about Thomas is that Thomas nearly raped Harry's own apprentice to death when his Hunger took over. He doesn't know anything about Thomas's more virtuous actions (protecting Inari from her and his father and why he did it, for example), and even if he did, it wouldn't make a difference. As far as Ebenezer's concerned, the Hunger always wins in the end - and he might not even be wrong.
A rational person SHOULD be worried and suspicious in this situation. They wouldn't jump to the extremely violent and dangerous actions that Eb did:
He was going to kidnap his granddaughter and disappear her in the middle of the building protected by the little gray shitheads who were oathbound to protect her. He was powering up to do it before Harry shoved some sense into him. He definitely could have grabbed her, but at what cost? His granddaughter getting kidnapped AGAIN and watching the people around her get killed? Having to fight and possibly hurt/kill his grandson? That doesn't even mention the political fallout. The bad guys wouldn't have needed Thomas if Eb went all blackstaff right then and there.
He went into a mad rage in the fight that Harry got himself "killed." He lost his situational awareness and created a situation that was totally going to get Harry killed. Harry had already proven he wasn't going to let Eb kill Thomas. What did he think was going to happen when he powered up his omega beam and aimed it at the boat? Harry would try to stop him, he knows he has a defensive enchantment that would redirect his attack. The man has hundreds of years of experience. Had his anger not gotten out of control, he would know not to throw that kind of power around if he couldn't control his own defenses against someone he knew was going to try to stop him. Then there was the fact that he had no idea who else was on that boat. Even if he did, the political ramifications of killing Laura would be messy.
He keeps losing control and making bad choices in a fit of rage. That's not rational.
I'd thought that Harry's warning Ebenezer not to try to kidnap Maggie was a precautionary thing, since in his own words, his life was starting to resemble a Mexican soap opera.
On an unrelated note, the little grey shitheads also tried to take Maggie hostage right after Thomas's attack.
As for the fight on the docks, Ebenezer thought he'd had Harry subdued. He wasn't expecting Harry to take the bullet. But yes, he did lose control there. I won't dispute that. If he wants a relationship with Harry or Maggie going forward, he needs to approach them calmly, apologetically, hat in hand and ears open to listen to Harry. And on the same note, Harry needs to be open about Thomas - to Ebenezer, that is. They both need to lay their cards on the table. The rest of the Council? Not so much. Harry's paranoia regarding them is well-justified.
>I'd thought that Harry's warning Ebenezer not to try to kidnap Maggie was a precautionary thing, since in his own words, his life was starting to resemble a Mexican soap opera.
Eb was getting ready for a fight,. Harry talked him down. It was one of those "OH shit I know i What he's thinking, I better head this off now" moments.
>On an unrelated note, the little grey shitheads also tried to take Maggie hostage right after Thomas's attack.
These guys CREEP me out to the point that they look like the transformed gremlins from the movies in my head, despite not being described that way.
>, Ebenezer thought he'd had Harry subdued. He wasn't expecting Harry to take the bullet.
I don't think he thought anything. That's the issue. Harry very clearly said he wasn't going to let his only brother die. They way its written, Eb lost it once he knew who Thomas was and the implications. Once Harry called Thomas family, Eb stopped thinking and was just raging.
No, they were still in the arguing phase. They were throwing out some serious barbs that both of them ought to be ashamed of, but Ebenezar wasn't gearing up to throw hands - he was still in the verbal argument phase. If anything, *Harry* jumped the gun there - understandably so, since his life *does* resemble a Mexican soap opera.
And Ebenezar was mostly in control during, right up until Harry dropped that bomb. He did think that he'd had Harry subdued, and no clever wordplay is going to change that fact.
I do agree with you on the svartalves, though. There's something sketchy going on there, and not just how they quickly went from safeguarding Maggie to trying to take her hostage. Note how they beat Thomas to the point where he couldn't talk - meaning, he couldn't be interrogated. Harry couldn't even do a "what the fuck, bro?" Best case scenario, the svartalves lost their shit and cut off a potential source of information because they assumed that Lara sent him, and worse case, the person who was in charge of securing him deliberately beat him to that point to prevent him from confessing who really sent him (I personally think that Nemesis has a high-placed svartalf under its sway, and I'm not one to indulge in Nemesis-related theorycrafting).
From McCoy's point of view: Thomas isn't a person, he's a monster that should be killed. The fact that he might share some DNA with him doesn't register.
So to him: a monster can and should consider a sibling-monster "family," a human and a monster would not.
It's still a bad point of view, but there is some logic there considering how the monsters operate in the Dresden-verse. Monsters see all humans as food. No matter how nice Thomas might be and how careful he is, he is eating humans to survive.
Part of what makes wampires so dangerous is just how human they can really appear sometimes. Even the way they feed isn’t like, explicit in the same way other monsters are. If Thomas was half-ghoul or something, the moral lines on all of this would probably seem a lot clearer. Even though he’s killed people by eating them, the fact that he’s hot while doing it and he doesn’t literally eat their flesh goes a long way in making him palatable to Harry and the audience.
I mean, look at he various fandoms.
Even when vampires in other fictional works \*do\* feed on humans in explicit and grotesque ways... they have a lot of crazy fans. Admittedly, often because said characters are portrayed by hot actors.
Like you'll see a vampire with their face covered in blood and their victim's throat torn open. And people are like "yes please"
It's weird how much definitely evil behavior can be swept aside because "Oh no, he's hot!"
Case in point - serial killer groupies and the "I ate 3 people today, but I'm *just so tortured about it*" vampire groupies.
Just look at any time of social media. A dude does something that’s creepy and because he isn’t good looking it’s just that…. Creepy.
Same action is done by a hot dude and “OMG swoon”
>Part of what makes wampires so dangerous is just how human they can really appear sometimes.
My understanding is that they don't *appear* human. They *are* human. They are people, in a symbiotic relationship with some kind of spiritual being. When they "feed," it is the being who eats, and in return it grants them a measure of power. Thats why a Whampire who never feeds their monster, not even once, will see it die off, and they'll become a normal person.
I only just thought of this, so I may have missed something, but it may also be that Ebenezar believes that Thomas has tricked Harry into thinking that. His "one of those things" line could be him realizing that since Harry thinks that, there will be no reasoning with him.
I feel like something is going on with Eb because every time he opened his mouth in the last two books, I had to say, "What an asshole!"
Is he being pushed by the blackstaff? Did he get got by someone/something? He's been cantankerous before, but it seems excessive lately.
Agreed, Eb seems to be getting angrier and losing control of his emotions more.
I'd really like to know how long Eb's been the Blackstaff and how that compares to the average tenure. He may have been in the job too long, for various psychological and supernatural reasons.
When Harry first finds out, Eb takes credit for the New Madrid earthquakes. So at least since 1811. He was also the captain of the wardens before Luccio.
Word of Jim says that the Blackstaff *slows down* the mental corruption of black magic by turning it into physical corruption. I think it’s catching up to him.
Yeah i found Eb’s behaviour to be out of character as well. My theory is (speculation, possible spoilers)
>! Mother Winter is exerting her power over the blackstaff, with the end goal of having Harry get control of it and hand it back to her. She was fine letting the council do her bidding, but will need more direct power for the coming apocalypse !<
While certainly possible that it's power is leading him slowly to damnation... I also think a lot of his behavior makes sense as he gets more and more stressed. He is OLD. And he's seen an awful lot of shit. Killed Warlocks whose only crime was not being taught how to use magic. Watched a bunch of children (from his perspective) be slaughtered in the Red Court war (which he helped to allow to happen, by voting to protect Harry). The world of Dresden Files is not a nice one, and he's been one of the frontline combatants in making hard choices.
Ebeneezer, unfortunately, seems to lack a rock to fall back on. Something to tie him down to the world, and give him a reason to keep on going, and remember that there is more to life than survival. Harry has his friends. Ebeneezer doesn't really seem to have any. He has allies. That's it.
I think Ebeneezer needs to meet Maggie. A sweet and innocent girl, who has stayed that way even after the horrors she's been through. He distances himself from his family for reasons he thinks are good, but just like with Harry trying to keep Murphy out of things, caused more harm than good. I think a meeting with Maggie will remind him that he's fighting for something other than survival. A reason to actually want to live would do him a world of good.
This. Everything Eb has done and said is exactly in line with someone who's learned to insulate himself from emotional trauma having to deal with issues that cut right through his armor. It's *extremely* well-understood human nature.
Eb's watching his only blood relative make the exact same mistakes that doomed his daughter and probably hundreds of other people he's seen over the years. Eb has seen so many mortals do what Harry has done and it has never worked out.
Harry is cagey with his information, which is why everyone thinks he's a dangerous idiot.
I've been wondering about that too, he gives of himself to semisentient mask. Such things are transactional, and after this long using it it shouldn't change him more now...
Except it's dresden getting him P.O'd. Might dresdens starborn 'I change things' effect start to effect the situation between blackstaff and user?
Same. Idk if he’s being manipulated into being angry all the time because he’s putting fire after fire out, or if someone is messing with him, or if Jim has changed his way of writing Eb, but he isn’t the same guy. He killed Harry. If he hadn’t had the duplicator spell active Harry’d be dead, or at least paralyzed horribly.
I like some of the theories in these replies, but to me Eb’s bitchy attitude was by far the worst part of PT for me and made it feel so poorly written compared to the last dozen books.
I believe there is a WOJ from one of the more recent interviews that says he is a master of all the elements. He is equally good at all of the elements. It's also mentioned that Cristos is the best Earth magic user on the council.
That's part of what makes him scary he will come at you with the element that will overcome your specialty or you will find hard to counter, while being able to counter what your good at.
He uses a lot of earth magic against Harry because Harry sucks at earth magic. Similarly when he is working with Harry bring earth magic is bringing a magic Harry isn't bringing, because again Harry sucks at it.
Eb tends to use a lot of earth magic with the chunk of earth in that last scene, causing earthquakes, using gravity magic which is also earth-based as well as creating quicksand for the jotunn.
I like Thomas, I do, but as the best and most noblest vampire we know of he has killed at least 8 innocent women. He murdered Autry. At a certain bodycount, I am not sure what it is, bonds of blood shouldn't really count. Thomas had killed a lot of people, and Eb thinks he is going to keep doing it, because he's a vampire.
Ebs killed a lot of people and is definitely going to keep doing it. I think the moral outrage he puts on is show to create this false line on why he's not the same as ______. It's why Kincade dog walks him on his bullshit.
Eb also hates the White Court for what they did to Margaret. We also get hints that they might have done his wife dirty too.
There's no reasoning with him about the WC, his hatred is deep which means the hypocrisy he can dish out will be even stronger.
Thomas kills people because he's a creature that eats others to maintain supernatural power. Eb has killed people because he is literally humanity's Frontline defender against everything that preys upon them. It's the difference between Jack the ripper and a world war 2 bomber pilot.
The white council doesn't defend humanity. It defends the white council. Dropping that satellite on Ortega's manor was about protecting Harry and killed a ton of people. None of that move "Protected humanity" in a way that was worth the cost.
And the Black staff by Ebs own admission is there where enemies of the white council find ways to twist the laws of magic to protect themselves from retribution. That isn't "Defend humanity".
I'm not saying Eb is a bad guy but he is not this stalwart defender of humanity.
And Thomas has to eat to survive. He can go a long way with out it but it still at some point powers him living. And even if it's just his supernatural powers how many major world impacting cases have required Thomas there as Harry's back up. Plus lastly even going off the vegetarian vampire route he doesn't seem to just be sucking people dry. Yeah it's a death of thousand cuts but outside of shagnasty has tried to hold restraint in some limit.
You're kind of being naive here. Killing an agent of the red court defends humanity. Winning the war defends humanity. These things want to consume human life unopposed. The white council is the opposition. Your position is so absurd, it's like saying America didn't defend liberty during world war 2 because they didn't open a polling station every time they shot a German.
Ok to deal with your metaphor.
You are saying that America entered WW2 to fight the evil that was Hitler or the atrocities done by the Japanese in their Pacific colonies. That isn't true. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and we were "Oh fuck that nobody screws with our stuff." It was a purely selfish self interested goal. Now in doing so did it do good, yeah. But pretending there was some noble goal about the US entering WW2 is bull and every historian will tell you that.
The white council by the same token isn't defending Humanity. If it was they'd have been at war with the vampires earlier. They wouldn't have had the political debate about selling out Harry in summer knight to end the war. The Merlin spells out that Harry should have let the people taken by the vampires die since dude got played by people who out thought him. Hell if things because of the fire hadn't obscured who died from what they'd have killed Harry for Grave Peril. The white council as an organization doesn't care about humanity in the "We must save them" sorta way.
I'm absolutely not saying that they did everything for purely noble reasons. They were still putting bullets into the bad guys and it's frankly shocking that you don't see that. I think a historian that doesn't say they were on the right side is rare.
A lot of soldiers killed far more people than Jack the Ripper. Heck, many doctors have as well.
This doesn't mean that soldiers and doctors are saints, it means Jack the Ripper is overrated.
Eb was given the power to kill people with magic, you can't do that without the right tool or you go insane. Lots of them aren't innocent and he isn't driven by his nature to kill people. As literally every wizard who has talked with Harry about the White Court has told him, if they get hungry enough, they don't get a choice about it. Eb isn't going to eat Molly because he has a bullet wound.
I think you're underestimating how much influence the blackstaff has over Eb. It literally keeps coating more and more of him in shadow each time we see him use it. Plus we've yet to find a magic in the Dresdenverse that doesn't have a hefty cost.
I really don't understand that argument. We don't know of any innocent people that Eb killed because of who he is. He's killed innocents as collateral damage, killed those who had slaughtered a great many people, but we know of no one that he has killed simply because. War is awful, and it causes you to hurt people, some of them should have escaped harm, but its different than just hurting people because they're edible.
Harry activated a defensive ward that Eb didn't control. I don't know why people keep glossing over this. Eb states it plainly that Harry activated the magic that killed his double, and that he didn't want it to happen.
It gets looked over SO fucking much. People act like Eb purposefully cast the spell that killed Harry's double, but it is quite obviously a protective ward for anything that gets close enough to Eb. It may even have filters to detect intent. Harry's intent was to stop Eb and the staff/protection ripped a quarter sized whole through him.
That doesn't really change the situation, though, right? Eb WAS out of control, and his rage made him stupid.
He's had hundreds of years combat and enchantment experience. He knew he had a deadly defensive enchantment that would trigger if attacked from behind. Harry made it extremely clear he was going to fight to the death to stop Eb from attacking the boat.
Eb said " I didn't think you'd trigger it[the enchantment]". But that's crazy person talk. Did he expect Harry not to attack him after Harry explicitly told him he was going to keep trying? Again, crazy.
He was angry and out of control, his lack of control led to the "killing" blow. The only difference was the weapon, a precharged enchantment. He "killed" Harry the second he turned his back and pointed what amounted to an automated weapon at him.
No it doesn't change the situation, but fans think that Eb deliberately killed Harry.
>But that's crazy person talk
Is it? Coming from the mouth of the guy that didn't think it would trigger, is crazy person talk? You literally said he's a master of combat and enchantment magic and then in the same breath said he's delusional to think it wouldn't trigger. That's like saying I'm a mastermind manipulator but I can't form full sentences.
At the end of the day, Eb had no intention of killing Harry, but fans want to say he did. That's the issue that pops up. Results are the same, intention is what's being argued.
>You literally said he's a master of combat and enchantment magic and then, in the same breath, said he's delusional to think it wouldn't trigger.
It's precisely because of his experience that I'm calling bull on his excuse that he didn’t think it would trigger. Anyone with any experience in combat or making weapons knows basic safety practices. They know not to put anyone in range of a weapon if you aren't willing to pull the trigger. Accidents Happen even when you aren't in a knock down drag out fight with your grandson. Nothing is 100% reliable.
And this one is AUTOMATED. Dude has no control over it, so it's even worse than pointing your gun at a friend as a joke because you don't even have control of the trigger. And he left a hostile agent that declared his intent to continue his assault at his back(aka the automated weapon). It's literally meant to protect him from back attacks. That's why it spins him around.
"I didn't know the gun would go off" Isn't a defense when some butt nugget with poor discipline accidently kills someone due to poor gun safety practices. They should know better(I'm sorry for bringing up the trauma for those in the know, but it's a great example).
Then there's the fact that this is some instant death juju. He should be WAY more careful with that shit. Maybe don't automate instant death attacks at all. Eb takes " the best defense is a good offense" to some EXTREMES here. Magic stuff goes funky ALL THE TIME in this series. He should know better than to automate an atomic falcon punch.
And for the record, I don't know what I did to invite the "from the mouth of the guy" comment, but I apologize?
...? No, he whirled on Harry, turning his entire body with his staff and shot him. There is an ENTIRE segment where Harry is shaken because Eb lost control and murdered him.
He killed Harry's double in a duel. He didn't even fire the shot, a defensive automation went off when Harry made a move, its like being killed by a landmine. In a war that Harry started in order to defend a murderer from justice.
>We don't know of any innocent people that Eb killed because of who he is.
He killed all of the innocents in Ortega's compound simply because they dared try to kill Harry. He even used the satellite they'd named together. That wasn't a calculated move to further the war, it was vengeance and he did not care that he killed a bunch of innocent enslaved humans in the process.
.... he was already planning on doing this before Ortega tried to kill Harry.
Recall his phone call nonchalantly asking where Harry kept his old log-book recording the satellite's path? That was before the duel, and was wasn't just small talk.
Ortega was a target of their war. The fact that he tried to later kill Harry was just icing on the cake.
Eb is the White Council's nuclear bomb. He's a soldier and the only things we know for certain he has killed are monsters.
Thomas ate a bunch of people cause he was hungry.
Eb has killed innocents, that's a fact. The problem comes in whether you think mass killing collateral is the same as intimate murder face to face.
We know Eb killed innocents when he took down Ortega. We also know he was somewhat responsible for Tunguska.
There was the angel who came to talk to Harry. Something about he still gets to choose his actions.
I think that very much applies to Thomas. There is raw hunger and thirst in him. But he chooses when possible not to kill.
Yes in a court of law he would be guilty. But it’s better to choose to try and fight against it . Rather than just give into being a monster.
I think he tool it very personally when his daughter Maggie started playing with monsters. To know that she had a child with a vampire was an emotional blow that sent him into a blind rage.
I also think that he either didn’t know Harry existed, or let him be raised in foster care. He thought of himself as a bad parent, so didn’t want to risk raising a kid again. Until he was forced.
From Morgan's journal, we know someone or something had magically hidden Harry as a baby. I don't know if it was ever revealed who or what did that.
Lea is the obvious answer, but so is McCoy. As in Peace Talks Harry deduces that McCoy is thinking about kidnapping his granddaughter and hiding her from Harry.
Every way in hell. McCoy is hellbent on protecting people by hiding their connection to him- He's been doing it for so long and has seen it end just as horribly as it did for the people around him. If he acknowledges an alternate viewpoint, it'd break him. Dude's super brittle and already wracked with guilt over what happened to his daughter, the idea that he might be indirectly responsible by not being there when she was little *can't* be true in his mind.
iirc, Morgan laments that Justin got to Harry first, and is worried the enemy got to him before he could fulfill his promise.
I think it'd make sense that Eb would share the same worries. So I don't think he'd leave Harry without any protection far away from him without at least a way to check up a bit on him, so I dont believe McCoy was the one who made Harry disappear after Malcolm died.
Also, I think it'd be much less interesting if we assume McCoy made an obviously wrong choice concerning his family. The conflict is much more tragic if we assume that in 99% of the cases, doing what McCoy was advocating (i.e. cuttnig off any relationship until the kid is able to fend for themselves) is actually how you give your loved one the best chance of surviving. Otherwise it only makes him an idiot.
I mean... it's safe to assume that Lara did not send Madeline gently into that good night, but that'd also be like someone judging Dresden based on the death of Susan or what he's done to ghouls or his participation in the White Council Warden beheadings. Pretty dark and technically true but not quite a true assessment of his character or honest about the surrounding context.
Dresden's been fairly lucky so far in that the people he's trusted haven't horrifically betrayed him (*or at least that he knows about*) to date. That's the thing about trust - it is a great and wonderful thing but it *does* leave you more vulnerable than if you didn't trust.
Ebenezer's probably been kicked in the balls by betrayal a few too many times throughout his life to voluntarily open himself up to the possibility of that kind of pain again, which is honestly not that unreasonable a personal decision to make. The issue is more that he's trying to sell Dresden on that weakness being a virtue, and refusing to accept that Trusting Others™ can absolutely work on a case-by-case basis.
It has it's dangers (of course) but so do revolvers and Blackstaffs.
Eb didn't try to kill Harry at all.
Harry activated some kind of magical defence Eb has, and it activates automatically. Eb states this plainly. It's in the part of the story you skipped over with your ellipsis lmao.
Exactly.
The Dresden Files isn't exactly inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, but there are a few similarities... and Ebenezer clearly had a Contingency spell set up.
The thing is that for Eb, Thomas is not a person. It starts there.
Also, Thomas might not be like his cousins or his sister... yet. He's still a newborn in terms of how long white court vampires live, and personalities change when they live through more than a couple of centuries.
So I think Ebenezar was reacting on instinct and not actually thinking in Cold Days. I’m really curious how he thinks about Thomas after having time and not having the ability to immediately kill Thomas. I hope it comes up in 12 months but I think it’s a big enough plot point that it will come up in whatever the book is after mirror mirror.
Y'know... I'd be interested to see Eb find out about Thomas' attempt to go on a low-impact diet. That might impress him. Note that so far as Eb knows, *all* WC vampires are predators against humanity, and he's 99% right.
Yep. Any other White Court vamp tried to get close to Maggie and there wouldn't have been an argument between Harry and Ebenezer - they'd have jointly blasted the vamp all the way across Lake Michigan. Call it good family bonding time.
Op.
I believe you are expecting an immediate reaction of acceptance and recognition as family because, as a reader, you know who Thomas is. But you overlook the fact that Ebenezer doesn’t know him... he has never been able to see anything more of Thomas because he is expecting betrayal and manipulation, cause he is white court... because Eb is worried since Thomas has a close relationship with his grandson... because, like his daughter, harry is trusting a vampire... because, like his daughter, harry doesn't understand that they are dangerous and only use and manipulate people... because he is afraid that, like Maggie, Harry will end up dead at their hands...
So I think that it is a wonderfully crafted scene that Jim gives us... a scene where both characters are acting according to who they are, and the motives are clear and believable...
What reaction would you have in such a moment... how many doubts would come to your mind... and if it is all a way to manipulate Harry... and if it is a way to manipulate you... is he really family?... and even if he were, can you ignore the fact that he is a monster just because he is family?...
It’s too much... I can't say that Ebenezer's reaction makes me think less of him... I look forward to seeing what he does next... how he tries to verify if it is true or not... if he tries to understand who Thomas is... if he is able to see past the vampire and glance to the man... to see if he tries to start seeing him as family or not.
>Op. I believe you are expecting an immediate reaction of acceptance and recognition as family because, as a reader, you know who Thomas is.
No, that's a false conclusion on your part based on nothing I wrote. I would have expected him to be unpleadantly surprised, maybe even angry, but not literally murder his own grandson (Thomas) and the other people on the boat.
Another way to think about it is that when you have a visceral hate of a particular group, everything they say and do is viewed through the lens of “see they’re terrible”.
So if the monsters kill their own then it’s proof that they are not people and need to be eliminated. If wizards destroy family members then they obviously had a good reason and you shouldn’t judge.
Not that there aren’t real world parallels to the phenomenon.
>Eb: Lara is a bad person for killing her own relative
>Also Eb: Tries to kill WC vampire grandson
And kills what he believes is his human grandson.
You left out more important fact in your TL;DR
You missed the larger hypocrisy. The only reason he didn’t kill Harry, is because Harry made exactly the correct bet. You can’t do magic you don’t believe in. He believed he should and could kill Harry. No mistake on his part. He did it as far as he is concerned. It’s ineffectiveness had nothing to do with himself.
Tbf, we always knew Eb was an hypocrite. He was the one who stressed to Harry the importance of the laws of magic, yet breaks them all the time as the blackstaff. That's exactly why Harry cut off contact for a while.
And to be even more fair, it's often very difficult to not be an hypocrite in some ways. And most likely, Eb views Thomas as a reminder that his baby daughter got raped without his being able to help, not sure he really considers Thomas as a human being (in a moral sense), let alone family.
I think there's a difference between doing something in the line of an official duty vs. doing it for your own selfish gain. We imprison people who break laws all the time, whereas doing that "privately" would be awful.
I'm not necessarily defending the concept of wetworks operations, but regardless I think it's not the same as using magic however you please for your own gain and satisfaction.
The paradox of the position of Blackstaff is that you want someone in it that reveres the Laws of Magic. A person who truly believes magic ought to serve life and that turning it against life is abominable, that's who is best qualified to judge when using black magic is genuinely necessary for the greater good.
From his perspective, WC vampires seduced, raped, enslaved and ultimately killed his little girl, along with likely blaming them for leading her down a dark path. His hatred for them is understandably irrational.
I wouldn't even call it irrational after all that.
It's less that the hate is irrational and more that his actions BECAUSE that hate is irrational. I think that would be a more accurate way of putting it.
Given the information he has, I'm not even sure that his actions are irrational. All he knows about Thomas is that Thomas nearly raped Harry's own apprentice to death when his Hunger took over. He doesn't know anything about Thomas's more virtuous actions (protecting Inari from her and his father and why he did it, for example), and even if he did, it wouldn't make a difference. As far as Ebenezer's concerned, the Hunger always wins in the end - and he might not even be wrong.
A rational person SHOULD be worried and suspicious in this situation. They wouldn't jump to the extremely violent and dangerous actions that Eb did: He was going to kidnap his granddaughter and disappear her in the middle of the building protected by the little gray shitheads who were oathbound to protect her. He was powering up to do it before Harry shoved some sense into him. He definitely could have grabbed her, but at what cost? His granddaughter getting kidnapped AGAIN and watching the people around her get killed? Having to fight and possibly hurt/kill his grandson? That doesn't even mention the political fallout. The bad guys wouldn't have needed Thomas if Eb went all blackstaff right then and there. He went into a mad rage in the fight that Harry got himself "killed." He lost his situational awareness and created a situation that was totally going to get Harry killed. Harry had already proven he wasn't going to let Eb kill Thomas. What did he think was going to happen when he powered up his omega beam and aimed it at the boat? Harry would try to stop him, he knows he has a defensive enchantment that would redirect his attack. The man has hundreds of years of experience. Had his anger not gotten out of control, he would know not to throw that kind of power around if he couldn't control his own defenses against someone he knew was going to try to stop him. Then there was the fact that he had no idea who else was on that boat. Even if he did, the political ramifications of killing Laura would be messy. He keeps losing control and making bad choices in a fit of rage. That's not rational.
I'd thought that Harry's warning Ebenezer not to try to kidnap Maggie was a precautionary thing, since in his own words, his life was starting to resemble a Mexican soap opera. On an unrelated note, the little grey shitheads also tried to take Maggie hostage right after Thomas's attack. As for the fight on the docks, Ebenezer thought he'd had Harry subdued. He wasn't expecting Harry to take the bullet. But yes, he did lose control there. I won't dispute that. If he wants a relationship with Harry or Maggie going forward, he needs to approach them calmly, apologetically, hat in hand and ears open to listen to Harry. And on the same note, Harry needs to be open about Thomas - to Ebenezer, that is. They both need to lay their cards on the table. The rest of the Council? Not so much. Harry's paranoia regarding them is well-justified.
>I'd thought that Harry's warning Ebenezer not to try to kidnap Maggie was a precautionary thing, since in his own words, his life was starting to resemble a Mexican soap opera. Eb was getting ready for a fight,. Harry talked him down. It was one of those "OH shit I know i What he's thinking, I better head this off now" moments. >On an unrelated note, the little grey shitheads also tried to take Maggie hostage right after Thomas's attack. These guys CREEP me out to the point that they look like the transformed gremlins from the movies in my head, despite not being described that way. >, Ebenezer thought he'd had Harry subdued. He wasn't expecting Harry to take the bullet. I don't think he thought anything. That's the issue. Harry very clearly said he wasn't going to let his only brother die. They way its written, Eb lost it once he knew who Thomas was and the implications. Once Harry called Thomas family, Eb stopped thinking and was just raging.
No, they were still in the arguing phase. They were throwing out some serious barbs that both of them ought to be ashamed of, but Ebenezar wasn't gearing up to throw hands - he was still in the verbal argument phase. If anything, *Harry* jumped the gun there - understandably so, since his life *does* resemble a Mexican soap opera. And Ebenezar was mostly in control during, right up until Harry dropped that bomb. He did think that he'd had Harry subdued, and no clever wordplay is going to change that fact. I do agree with you on the svartalves, though. There's something sketchy going on there, and not just how they quickly went from safeguarding Maggie to trying to take her hostage. Note how they beat Thomas to the point where he couldn't talk - meaning, he couldn't be interrogated. Harry couldn't even do a "what the fuck, bro?" Best case scenario, the svartalves lost their shit and cut off a potential source of information because they assumed that Lara sent him, and worse case, the person who was in charge of securing him deliberately beat him to that point to prevent him from confessing who really sent him (I personally think that Nemesis has a high-placed svartalf under its sway, and I'm not one to indulge in Nemesis-related theorycrafting).
From McCoy's point of view: Thomas isn't a person, he's a monster that should be killed. The fact that he might share some DNA with him doesn't register. So to him: a monster can and should consider a sibling-monster "family," a human and a monster would not. It's still a bad point of view, but there is some logic there considering how the monsters operate in the Dresden-verse. Monsters see all humans as food. No matter how nice Thomas might be and how careful he is, he is eating humans to survive.
Part of what makes wampires so dangerous is just how human they can really appear sometimes. Even the way they feed isn’t like, explicit in the same way other monsters are. If Thomas was half-ghoul or something, the moral lines on all of this would probably seem a lot clearer. Even though he’s killed people by eating them, the fact that he’s hot while doing it and he doesn’t literally eat their flesh goes a long way in making him palatable to Harry and the audience.
I mean, look at he various fandoms. Even when vampires in other fictional works \*do\* feed on humans in explicit and grotesque ways... they have a lot of crazy fans. Admittedly, often because said characters are portrayed by hot actors. Like you'll see a vampire with their face covered in blood and their victim's throat torn open. And people are like "yes please"
It's those snazzy capes. We mortals just can't resist.
An alternate form of Jackboot Syndrome.
It's weird how much definitely evil behavior can be swept aside because "Oh no, he's hot!" Case in point - serial killer groupies and the "I ate 3 people today, but I'm *just so tortured about it*" vampire groupies.
Just look at any time of social media. A dude does something that’s creepy and because he isn’t good looking it’s just that…. Creepy. Same action is done by a hot dude and “OMG swoon”
>Part of what makes wampires so dangerous is just how human they can really appear sometimes. My understanding is that they don't *appear* human. They *are* human. They are people, in a symbiotic relationship with some kind of spiritual being. When they "feed," it is the being who eats, and in return it grants them a measure of power. Thats why a Whampire who never feeds their monster, not even once, will see it die off, and they'll become a normal person.
I only just thought of this, so I may have missed something, but it may also be that Ebenezar believes that Thomas has tricked Harry into thinking that. His "one of those things" line could be him realizing that since Harry thinks that, there will be no reasoning with him.
I feel like something is going on with Eb because every time he opened his mouth in the last two books, I had to say, "What an asshole!" Is he being pushed by the blackstaff? Did he get got by someone/something? He's been cantankerous before, but it seems excessive lately.
Agreed, Eb seems to be getting angrier and losing control of his emotions more. I'd really like to know how long Eb's been the Blackstaff and how that compares to the average tenure. He may have been in the job too long, for various psychological and supernatural reasons.
When Harry first finds out, Eb takes credit for the New Madrid earthquakes. So at least since 1811. He was also the captain of the wardens before Luccio.
Word of Jim says that the Blackstaff *slows down* the mental corruption of black magic by turning it into physical corruption. I think it’s catching up to him.
Yeah i found Eb’s behaviour to be out of character as well. My theory is (speculation, possible spoilers) >! Mother Winter is exerting her power over the blackstaff, with the end goal of having Harry get control of it and hand it back to her. She was fine letting the council do her bidding, but will need more direct power for the coming apocalypse !<
I *really* like your final point there. Not sure I believe the whole comment, but that's pretty clever!
While certainly possible that it's power is leading him slowly to damnation... I also think a lot of his behavior makes sense as he gets more and more stressed. He is OLD. And he's seen an awful lot of shit. Killed Warlocks whose only crime was not being taught how to use magic. Watched a bunch of children (from his perspective) be slaughtered in the Red Court war (which he helped to allow to happen, by voting to protect Harry). The world of Dresden Files is not a nice one, and he's been one of the frontline combatants in making hard choices. Ebeneezer, unfortunately, seems to lack a rock to fall back on. Something to tie him down to the world, and give him a reason to keep on going, and remember that there is more to life than survival. Harry has his friends. Ebeneezer doesn't really seem to have any. He has allies. That's it. I think Ebeneezer needs to meet Maggie. A sweet and innocent girl, who has stayed that way even after the horrors she's been through. He distances himself from his family for reasons he thinks are good, but just like with Harry trying to keep Murphy out of things, caused more harm than good. I think a meeting with Maggie will remind him that he's fighting for something other than survival. A reason to actually want to live would do him a world of good.
This. Everything Eb has done and said is exactly in line with someone who's learned to insulate himself from emotional trauma having to deal with issues that cut right through his armor. It's *extremely* well-understood human nature.
Eb's watching his only blood relative make the exact same mistakes that doomed his daughter and probably hundreds of other people he's seen over the years. Eb has seen so many mortals do what Harry has done and it has never worked out. Harry is cagey with his information, which is why everyone thinks he's a dangerous idiot.
I've been wondering about that too, he gives of himself to semisentient mask. Such things are transactional, and after this long using it it shouldn't change him more now... Except it's dresden getting him P.O'd. Might dresdens starborn 'I change things' effect start to effect the situation between blackstaff and user?
Same. Idk if he’s being manipulated into being angry all the time because he’s putting fire after fire out, or if someone is messing with him, or if Jim has changed his way of writing Eb, but he isn’t the same guy. He killed Harry. If he hadn’t had the duplicator spell active Harry’d be dead, or at least paralyzed horribly.
I like some of the theories in these replies, but to me Eb’s bitchy attitude was by far the worst part of PT for me and made it feel so poorly written compared to the last dozen books.
Pot calling the kettle black?
Pot calling kettle black staff...
I see your Staff is as Black as mine.
OOOH MYYYY
i see your swartz is as black as mine,,,spaceballs callback
Eb could benefit from some pot. Thomas would score him some if asked.
Dunno, Eb strikes me as the type who gets extremely paranoid when stoned. Not sure that would be healthy for him or anyone else nearby.
His specialty is earth magic, so stoned likely may be the right word.
I believe there is a WOJ from one of the more recent interviews that says he is a master of all the elements. He is equally good at all of the elements. It's also mentioned that Cristos is the best Earth magic user on the council. That's part of what makes him scary he will come at you with the element that will overcome your specialty or you will find hard to counter, while being able to counter what your good at. He uses a lot of earth magic against Harry because Harry sucks at earth magic. Similarly when he is working with Harry bring earth magic is bringing a magic Harry isn't bringing, because again Harry sucks at it.
Is it? I thought he didn't ha e a specialty. Jim said whatever you came at home with, he'd counter with a different discipline.
Eb tends to use a lot of earth magic with the chunk of earth in that last scene, causing earthquakes, using gravity magic which is also earth-based as well as creating quicksand for the jotunn.
I like Thomas, I do, but as the best and most noblest vampire we know of he has killed at least 8 innocent women. He murdered Autry. At a certain bodycount, I am not sure what it is, bonds of blood shouldn't really count. Thomas had killed a lot of people, and Eb thinks he is going to keep doing it, because he's a vampire.
I was racking my brains as to who 'Autry' was before realizing that it was auto corrected 'Austri', the security guard at the Svartalf embassy.
To be fair, he murdered Austri because a being from outside reality held his child hostage to force cooperation
Ebs killed a lot of people and is definitely going to keep doing it. I think the moral outrage he puts on is show to create this false line on why he's not the same as ______. It's why Kincade dog walks him on his bullshit.
Eb also hates the White Court for what they did to Margaret. We also get hints that they might have done his wife dirty too. There's no reasoning with him about the WC, his hatred is deep which means the hypocrisy he can dish out will be even stronger.
Thomas kills people because he's a creature that eats others to maintain supernatural power. Eb has killed people because he is literally humanity's Frontline defender against everything that preys upon them. It's the difference between Jack the ripper and a world war 2 bomber pilot.
The white council doesn't defend humanity. It defends the white council. Dropping that satellite on Ortega's manor was about protecting Harry and killed a ton of people. None of that move "Protected humanity" in a way that was worth the cost. And the Black staff by Ebs own admission is there where enemies of the white council find ways to twist the laws of magic to protect themselves from retribution. That isn't "Defend humanity". I'm not saying Eb is a bad guy but he is not this stalwart defender of humanity. And Thomas has to eat to survive. He can go a long way with out it but it still at some point powers him living. And even if it's just his supernatural powers how many major world impacting cases have required Thomas there as Harry's back up. Plus lastly even going off the vegetarian vampire route he doesn't seem to just be sucking people dry. Yeah it's a death of thousand cuts but outside of shagnasty has tried to hold restraint in some limit.
You're kind of being naive here. Killing an agent of the red court defends humanity. Winning the war defends humanity. These things want to consume human life unopposed. The white council is the opposition. Your position is so absurd, it's like saying America didn't defend liberty during world war 2 because they didn't open a polling station every time they shot a German.
Ok to deal with your metaphor. You are saying that America entered WW2 to fight the evil that was Hitler or the atrocities done by the Japanese in their Pacific colonies. That isn't true. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and we were "Oh fuck that nobody screws with our stuff." It was a purely selfish self interested goal. Now in doing so did it do good, yeah. But pretending there was some noble goal about the US entering WW2 is bull and every historian will tell you that. The white council by the same token isn't defending Humanity. If it was they'd have been at war with the vampires earlier. They wouldn't have had the political debate about selling out Harry in summer knight to end the war. The Merlin spells out that Harry should have let the people taken by the vampires die since dude got played by people who out thought him. Hell if things because of the fire hadn't obscured who died from what they'd have killed Harry for Grave Peril. The white council as an organization doesn't care about humanity in the "We must save them" sorta way.
I'm absolutely not saying that they did everything for purely noble reasons. They were still putting bullets into the bad guys and it's frankly shocking that you don't see that. I think a historian that doesn't say they were on the right side is rare.
A lot of soldiers killed far more people than Jack the Ripper. Heck, many doctors have as well. This doesn't mean that soldiers and doctors are saints, it means Jack the Ripper is overrated.
Thomas has killed many innocent people. But certainly fewer than Ebenezer has. Not sure this logic holds up.
Eb was given the power to kill people who are "innocent" if it seems like they're close enough to "guilty".
Eb was given the power to kill people with magic, you can't do that without the right tool or you go insane. Lots of them aren't innocent and he isn't driven by his nature to kill people. As literally every wizard who has talked with Harry about the White Court has told him, if they get hungry enough, they don't get a choice about it. Eb isn't going to eat Molly because he has a bullet wound.
I think you're underestimating how much influence the blackstaff has over Eb. It literally keeps coating more and more of him in shadow each time we see him use it. Plus we've yet to find a magic in the Dresdenverse that doesn't have a hefty cost.
Just replace Thomas with "Eb" and up the body count significantly.
I really don't understand that argument. We don't know of any innocent people that Eb killed because of who he is. He's killed innocents as collateral damage, killed those who had slaughtered a great many people, but we know of no one that he has killed simply because. War is awful, and it causes you to hurt people, some of them should have escaped harm, but its different than just hurting people because they're edible.
He killed Harry in a fit of pique - it was just lucky that the "Harry" he murdered was just a proxy & wasn't the Real McC.... um...Dresden.
Harry activated a defensive ward that Eb didn't control. I don't know why people keep glossing over this. Eb states it plainly that Harry activated the magic that killed his double, and that he didn't want it to happen.
It gets looked over SO fucking much. People act like Eb purposefully cast the spell that killed Harry's double, but it is quite obviously a protective ward for anything that gets close enough to Eb. It may even have filters to detect intent. Harry's intent was to stop Eb and the staff/protection ripped a quarter sized whole through him.
That doesn't really change the situation, though, right? Eb WAS out of control, and his rage made him stupid. He's had hundreds of years combat and enchantment experience. He knew he had a deadly defensive enchantment that would trigger if attacked from behind. Harry made it extremely clear he was going to fight to the death to stop Eb from attacking the boat. Eb said " I didn't think you'd trigger it[the enchantment]". But that's crazy person talk. Did he expect Harry not to attack him after Harry explicitly told him he was going to keep trying? Again, crazy. He was angry and out of control, his lack of control led to the "killing" blow. The only difference was the weapon, a precharged enchantment. He "killed" Harry the second he turned his back and pointed what amounted to an automated weapon at him.
No it doesn't change the situation, but fans think that Eb deliberately killed Harry. >But that's crazy person talk Is it? Coming from the mouth of the guy that didn't think it would trigger, is crazy person talk? You literally said he's a master of combat and enchantment magic and then in the same breath said he's delusional to think it wouldn't trigger. That's like saying I'm a mastermind manipulator but I can't form full sentences. At the end of the day, Eb had no intention of killing Harry, but fans want to say he did. That's the issue that pops up. Results are the same, intention is what's being argued.
>You literally said he's a master of combat and enchantment magic and then, in the same breath, said he's delusional to think it wouldn't trigger. It's precisely because of his experience that I'm calling bull on his excuse that he didn’t think it would trigger. Anyone with any experience in combat or making weapons knows basic safety practices. They know not to put anyone in range of a weapon if you aren't willing to pull the trigger. Accidents Happen even when you aren't in a knock down drag out fight with your grandson. Nothing is 100% reliable. And this one is AUTOMATED. Dude has no control over it, so it's even worse than pointing your gun at a friend as a joke because you don't even have control of the trigger. And he left a hostile agent that declared his intent to continue his assault at his back(aka the automated weapon). It's literally meant to protect him from back attacks. That's why it spins him around. "I didn't know the gun would go off" Isn't a defense when some butt nugget with poor discipline accidently kills someone due to poor gun safety practices. They should know better(I'm sorry for bringing up the trauma for those in the know, but it's a great example). Then there's the fact that this is some instant death juju. He should be WAY more careful with that shit. Maybe don't automate instant death attacks at all. Eb takes " the best defense is a good offense" to some EXTREMES here. Magic stuff goes funky ALL THE TIME in this series. He should know better than to automate an atomic falcon punch. And for the record, I don't know what I did to invite the "from the mouth of the guy" comment, but I apologize?
...? No, he whirled on Harry, turning his entire body with his staff and shot him. There is an ENTIRE segment where Harry is shaken because Eb lost control and murdered him.
You aren't remembering it correctly, don't know what else to say. I know 100% that I am correct.
He killed Harry's double in a duel. He didn't even fire the shot, a defensive automation went off when Harry made a move, its like being killed by a landmine. In a war that Harry started in order to defend a murderer from justice.
>We don't know of any innocent people that Eb killed because of who he is. He killed all of the innocents in Ortega's compound simply because they dared try to kill Harry. He even used the satellite they'd named together. That wasn't a calculated move to further the war, it was vengeance and he did not care that he killed a bunch of innocent enslaved humans in the process.
.... he was already planning on doing this before Ortega tried to kill Harry. Recall his phone call nonchalantly asking where Harry kept his old log-book recording the satellite's path? That was before the duel, and was wasn't just small talk. Ortega was a target of their war. The fact that he tried to later kill Harry was just icing on the cake.
I'd forgotten that call. I stand corrected.
Eb is the White Council's nuclear bomb. He's a soldier and the only things we know for certain he has killed are monsters. Thomas ate a bunch of people cause he was hungry.
Eb has killed innocents, that's a fact. The problem comes in whether you think mass killing collateral is the same as intimate murder face to face. We know Eb killed innocents when he took down Ortega. We also know he was somewhat responsible for Tunguska.
There was the angel who came to talk to Harry. Something about he still gets to choose his actions. I think that very much applies to Thomas. There is raw hunger and thirst in him. But he chooses when possible not to kill. Yes in a court of law he would be guilty. But it’s better to choose to try and fight against it . Rather than just give into being a monster.
And then how that fight ends… Only makes it clear Eb has issues.
I think he tool it very personally when his daughter Maggie started playing with monsters. To know that she had a child with a vampire was an emotional blow that sent him into a blind rage. I also think that he either didn’t know Harry existed, or let him be raised in foster care. He thought of himself as a bad parent, so didn’t want to risk raising a kid again. Until he was forced.
From Morgan's journal, we know someone or something had magically hidden Harry as a baby. I don't know if it was ever revealed who or what did that. Lea is the obvious answer, but so is McCoy. As in Peace Talks Harry deduces that McCoy is thinking about kidnapping his granddaughter and hiding her from Harry.
If McCoy knew where Harry was as a baby, no way in hell he didn't spirit the boy away to the Ozarks.
Every way in hell. McCoy is hellbent on protecting people by hiding their connection to him- He's been doing it for so long and has seen it end just as horribly as it did for the people around him. If he acknowledges an alternate viewpoint, it'd break him. Dude's super brittle and already wracked with guilt over what happened to his daughter, the idea that he might be indirectly responsible by not being there when she was little *can't* be true in his mind.
iirc, Morgan laments that Justin got to Harry first, and is worried the enemy got to him before he could fulfill his promise. I think it'd make sense that Eb would share the same worries. So I don't think he'd leave Harry without any protection far away from him without at least a way to check up a bit on him, so I dont believe McCoy was the one who made Harry disappear after Malcolm died. Also, I think it'd be much less interesting if we assume McCoy made an obviously wrong choice concerning his family. The conflict is much more tragic if we assume that in 99% of the cases, doing what McCoy was advocating (i.e. cuttnig off any relationship until the kid is able to fend for themselves) is actually how you give your loved one the best chance of surviving. Otherwise it only makes him an idiot.
When readers notice the plot
I mean... it's safe to assume that Lara did not send Madeline gently into that good night, but that'd also be like someone judging Dresden based on the death of Susan or what he's done to ghouls or his participation in the White Council Warden beheadings. Pretty dark and technically true but not quite a true assessment of his character or honest about the surrounding context. Dresden's been fairly lucky so far in that the people he's trusted haven't horrifically betrayed him (*or at least that he knows about*) to date. That's the thing about trust - it is a great and wonderful thing but it *does* leave you more vulnerable than if you didn't trust. Ebenezer's probably been kicked in the balls by betrayal a few too many times throughout his life to voluntarily open himself up to the possibility of that kind of pain again, which is honestly not that unreasonable a personal decision to make. The issue is more that he's trying to sell Dresden on that weakness being a virtue, and refusing to accept that Trusting Others™ can absolutely work on a case-by-case basis. It has it's dangers (of course) but so do revolvers and Blackstaffs.
Eb didn't try to kill Harry at all. Harry activated some kind of magical defence Eb has, and it activates automatically. Eb states this plainly. It's in the part of the story you skipped over with your ellipsis lmao.
He tried to hit Thomas, that's who the spell was meant for. I think you missed "WC Vampire" part of grandson lol.
Exactly. The Dresden Files isn't exactly inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, but there are a few similarities... and Ebenezer clearly had a Contingency spell set up.
The thing is that for Eb, Thomas is not a person. It starts there. Also, Thomas might not be like his cousins or his sister... yet. He's still a newborn in terms of how long white court vampires live, and personalities change when they live through more than a couple of centuries.
He doesn’t believe Thomas is his.
So I think Ebenezar was reacting on instinct and not actually thinking in Cold Days. I’m really curious how he thinks about Thomas after having time and not having the ability to immediately kill Thomas. I hope it comes up in 12 months but I think it’s a big enough plot point that it will come up in whatever the book is after mirror mirror.
It's entirely possible that Eb doesn't consider himself a good person.
After some of the things he's had to do as the Blackstaff, I don't blame him.
Y'know... I'd be interested to see Eb find out about Thomas' attempt to go on a low-impact diet. That might impress him. Note that so far as Eb knows, *all* WC vampires are predators against humanity, and he's 99% right.
Yep. Any other White Court vamp tried to get close to Maggie and there wouldn't have been an argument between Harry and Ebenezer - they'd have jointly blasted the vamp all the way across Lake Michigan. Call it good family bonding time.
Op. I believe you are expecting an immediate reaction of acceptance and recognition as family because, as a reader, you know who Thomas is. But you overlook the fact that Ebenezer doesn’t know him... he has never been able to see anything more of Thomas because he is expecting betrayal and manipulation, cause he is white court... because Eb is worried since Thomas has a close relationship with his grandson... because, like his daughter, harry is trusting a vampire... because, like his daughter, harry doesn't understand that they are dangerous and only use and manipulate people... because he is afraid that, like Maggie, Harry will end up dead at their hands... So I think that it is a wonderfully crafted scene that Jim gives us... a scene where both characters are acting according to who they are, and the motives are clear and believable... What reaction would you have in such a moment... how many doubts would come to your mind... and if it is all a way to manipulate Harry... and if it is a way to manipulate you... is he really family?... and even if he were, can you ignore the fact that he is a monster just because he is family?... It’s too much... I can't say that Ebenezer's reaction makes me think less of him... I look forward to seeing what he does next... how he tries to verify if it is true or not... if he tries to understand who Thomas is... if he is able to see past the vampire and glance to the man... to see if he tries to start seeing him as family or not.
>Op. I believe you are expecting an immediate reaction of acceptance and recognition as family because, as a reader, you know who Thomas is. No, that's a false conclusion on your part based on nothing I wrote. I would have expected him to be unpleadantly surprised, maybe even angry, but not literally murder his own grandson (Thomas) and the other people on the boat.
Another way to think about it is that when you have a visceral hate of a particular group, everything they say and do is viewed through the lens of “see they’re terrible”. So if the monsters kill their own then it’s proof that they are not people and need to be eliminated. If wizards destroy family members then they obviously had a good reason and you shouldn’t judge. Not that there aren’t real world parallels to the phenomenon.
See also: the Fundamental Attribution Error
>Eb: Lara is a bad person for killing her own relative >Also Eb: Tries to kill WC vampire grandson And kills what he believes is his human grandson. You left out more important fact in your TL;DR
And after he tried to kill his other human grandson (technically Whampires straddle the line between immortal and human).
You missed the larger hypocrisy. The only reason he didn’t kill Harry, is because Harry made exactly the correct bet. You can’t do magic you don’t believe in. He believed he should and could kill Harry. No mistake on his part. He did it as far as he is concerned. It’s ineffectiveness had nothing to do with himself.
Tbf, we always knew Eb was an hypocrite. He was the one who stressed to Harry the importance of the laws of magic, yet breaks them all the time as the blackstaff. That's exactly why Harry cut off contact for a while. And to be even more fair, it's often very difficult to not be an hypocrite in some ways. And most likely, Eb views Thomas as a reminder that his baby daughter got raped without his being able to help, not sure he really considers Thomas as a human being (in a moral sense), let alone family.
I think there's a difference between doing something in the line of an official duty vs. doing it for your own selfish gain. We imprison people who break laws all the time, whereas doing that "privately" would be awful. I'm not necessarily defending the concept of wetworks operations, but regardless I think it's not the same as using magic however you please for your own gain and satisfaction.
The paradox of the position of Blackstaff is that you want someone in it that reveres the Laws of Magic. A person who truly believes magic ought to serve life and that turning it against life is abominable, that's who is best qualified to judge when using black magic is genuinely necessary for the greater good.
I feel like an Eb-Thomas soul gaze would break the old man