Personally, I have no problem with it. A good example of this in action would be the Bartimaeus Trilogy. Each chapter focuses on one of three characters, but only Bartimaeus' is told in the first person. It provides an excellent contrast between him and the other characters, allowing for his personality to really shine through.

Like you said, though, each POV shift needs to be contained in a separate chapter, otherwise it becomes a jumbled mess of /Dresden's POV/, /Potter's POV/ every other scene break.

So I say go for it.

 

So, in an attempt to steer the conversation away petty bickering over minor details of why humans decided they were just way too cool for earth, I'd like to ask a slightly more broad question.

What kind of story is this going to be? Personally, I liked nonjon's fic because it was a decidedly comedic affair, but it seems like you're going for a much more straight faced approach. Is this simply going to be more of Harry fighting beings he really has no business even talking to, except amped up to eleven?

Aside from that, what's the pacing going to be like? Is this going to be a single fic taking course over several months (years?) which is decidedly un-Dresden by nature, or is it going to be several fast paced stand alone pieces?

Honestly, I could picture either working way, but I can see it running into problems if done over a long period of time. For one, it forces the issue of Harry's nature on electronic devices, though I seem to remember Butters giving a scientific explanation for this in Dead Beat, which could be used to fix the problem. I'll try to find the passage when I get the chance.


But yeah, despite all of the nitpicking about how this happens, I'm sure I speak for many when I say I'm quite interested in this idea. So iron out how you want bad shit to go down and get writing.

 

Well to get back to the original topic, I've had an idea floating around my head for a while.

During the events of Fool Moon things end up taking a slightly different turn. Instead of the FBI trying to use Dresden to take out Marcone and then indirectly trying to get rid of him by throwing him to the lycanthropes, they instead go after him directly. This leads Harry to have to go to Marcone for help, because his only other contact, Karrin, is still being duped by the FBI.

From this point, things diverge even further. Now that Harry knows who is after him he puts things together a bit quicker. Harry is now on the case of defending the rich guy who at any moment could turn into a rampaging monster from the FBI who love turning in rampaging monsters. He succeeds, but now most of the city knows that Dresden works for Marcone, and the SI can no longer associate with him. At some point after Tera teaches Harry the werewolf spell.

Now Harry's job is to basically do what he did before (protecting the city and people from supernatural threats), but with better pay and with less savory people around him. He doesn't have to worry about paying the bills, but the hard thing now is to attract customers.

Another that could be tied in from what I read in It's My Birthday Too is that Harry becomes somewhat of the Godfather of the faeries in Chicago. He hooks them up with jobs and homes and such, but in return he expects their cooperation and services from time to time.

 

Necro, I know, but I like this thread.

"Typical, I thought. Even when you’re dead, it doesn’t get any easier.
The light rushed closer, and I distinctly heard the horn and the engine of an oncoming train." - Changes

Just a small little idea that I thought of. We have plenty of crossovers where Harry Potter is transported to Dresden's universe, but very few where the opposite happens. What if at the end of Changes, the train that Dresden wakes up in front of happens to be the Hogwarts Express?

Just a plot bunny, that I don't know where I would take, but it seems to me like a good starting place for a fic with Dresden in the Potterverse.

 

Everyone,

The thread has become a favorite 'derail' destination. I just created a thread to take out 54 posts which were about how evil hell is, etc, and now I have created a dedicated thread for Magical Theory. Please, keep discussions on the latter to the new thread and let this one function in the way it was intended.

Thank you.

Magic Theory Thread

Is Hell Absolutely or Relatively Evil Thread

 

@Nuhuh - currently reading DFMP, great fic.

An idea assaulted me out of the blue though, when Charity visits Potter.
What if instead of the Knights of the Cross, the White God bound thirty of his own servants to coins, to be taken up as guides and advisers to those of the faith; or to those who are living on 'a second chance', and have only avoided death by taking up God's work.

Thirty polished dubloons to counter thirty blackened denarians.

I can't see any plot to go with it, its merely the start of a fledgling of an idea.
Although it might work, if in a form similar to Gabriel.

 

Filled with Angelic Pirates?

 

What would be the Angelic equivalent to the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas? I can't really think of any coinage. Shit like Jesus vs Moneylenders really set the tone in the Bible towards currency. You might be able to do something with Feeding the Multitude, but there's not really a good way to approach the situation of an Angel living in a dead fish.

 

How about fragments of the True Cross? You can have an army of angels in them.

 

It sprung from Harry's idea of Heaven sending an angel to visit after hell had sent one (from Demon's Feign), and I only picked dubloons as I couldn't think of many oldish currencies. Heck, it could be one for each of Mary's finger bones or something, and a minor saint rather than an angel.

I'd thought it might be interesting (like in the stand) to see the differences between angelically good and hellishly evil, but played by actual angels and demons. Sort of.

 

I've been to some fairly heavenly places that happened to smell a bit fishy.

 

Harry never walked in on Justin enthralling Elaine. Dark side awesomeness ensues.

The story starts around Dead Beat. Dresden and Elaine are happily married, and crazy in love. And I mean crazy: playing with mind magic has interesting results. Chicago is falling apart, not helped in the least by a paranoid, one-eyed Marcone. Justin sends his two pupils to ensure that Cowl doesn't bite off more than he can chew.

This would be a glorious AU if I ever had the time.

 

If Mavra ever decided to get revenge after Harry made her back down ... actually, fuck you guys, I'm writing that myself.

Any divergence point would be where Harry was offered a choice. Any Dark Side offers. Harry finds a bearer for the swords. Any fic where a previous villain decides to get uppity and try again, with disastrous results. You could always do a fic where Harry had failed at a critical moment (EX: didn't stop Darkhallow, didn't stop Denton, failed to catch Victor Sells). Anything like that.

 

If Harry failed to stop the Darkhallow he'd be dead. Along with everyone else in a mile radius.

 

He could have called Lasciel to him. That's a pretty convenient way of allowing him to survive.

 

Or he could have drew a circle around himself. >_>

 

I'm not sure that would actually have worked... That seems to give the simple act of will to create a circle far too much power.

Still, nothing in canon directly contradicts that...

 

What, like that stopped him in the last book? Admittedly, Angelic help, but still.

 

Not quite the same circumstances - here, his life force (spirit, I think, not soul) would literally have been absorbed into the surroundings to make up for the vacuum that the Darkhallow would have caused. Though I guess you can deus ex some way for him to retain cohesion.

 

Couldn't he just open up a Way? Sure, it would have its own problems, but he would survive. That's actually another cool idea.

The Darkhollow succeeds and Cowl becomes a god. Harry Dresden manages to save a few, but not all, of his friends by opening up a way and offering a few favors to the Fae. Then, he tries to kill a newborn god.