But he has not won every fight. Infact the whole reason he is in this mess is because he LOST the last time and was captured.

Also Maeve is NOT the most powerfull person around. I figure that Dumbledore could have taken her out if he had not decided to pussy out and run away to rescue the order. If Harry cannot win against Maeve, then how is he going to win against Voldemort without a lot of extra training.

I am not opposed to the idea of Amanda helping somehow, but I think after everything that has happened between Harry and Maeve, this battle should have been between them alone. Maybe Maeve could have summoned some follower to attack/distract Harry only to have Amanda deal with that (sidekick vs sidekick so to speak) or something, but Maeve should have been purely Harrys.

 

Thematically this end makes more sense than Harry killing Maeve alone. Harry's always seen others with contempt (except Voldemort/Dumbledore), but perhaps Harry will come to understand that even pathetic weaklings (like Amanda) are capable of killing the most powerful of enemies under the right circumstances. I dunno, but it's more congruent with the story, and perhaps Harry will see Amanda more as an equal instead of a lackey/silly little girl now.

Maybe we could have had some foreshadowing on this Shezza, since you knew this was coming. Like a conversation where Amanda thinks she's grown, but Harry still says she's a weakling - or something to that tune. It might make the scene more acceptable to some.

 

woohoo! Amaris is dead! Even better Maeve is dead! That part of Harry's life is better left as it is, all dead. Amaris and Maeve both got what was coming to them. I don't think Amaris deserved any pity, sure her mother raised her, but she knew she could of gone to Harry. But she chose to betray and torture him. Death was the only real solution, it was Harry's responsiblity to rid the world of her and her mothers scum and he did. Good job!

 

That's the whole point though. Amanda isn't Harry's equal, and she is still a weakling. She has even less formal skill/intelligence than the other Knights. It's like Datakim said, by this point in the story, Harry should have (and pretty much did) the power, skill, and motivation (torture, anyone?) to defeat Maeve without help. He still has to fight Voldemort, and this is, in the words of Nicodemus, endgame. Amanda should not be the one to deal such a critical blow, when it is literally her very first outing with new powers, while Harry has been honing his skills throughout the trilogy.

 

I was under the impression that the Sword of the Cross was silver, not iron - and as such, the blow Amanda gave was not a lethal one to Maeve. It just distracted her enough for Harry to actually land an AK?

 

See, this is where I'd have to disagree. Maeve is a Sidhe Queen. No mortal, Dumbledore included, should be able to kill her without outside assistance. Now, Harry could, even should be able to give her a challenge. But defeat her in a straight up fight? Not unless he gets very, very, very lucky. Like a Knight stabbing Maeve in the back lucky.

Oh, wait.

 

Hes a Denarian Lord and shes already worn down from having to fight off Dumbledore, I dont think him beating the weakest of the sidhe queens in a straight up fight is out of the question at all. Easy? Not at all, but doable yes.

 

I really do not understand what the problem is.

Harry is escaping from months of torture.
Even though he has been healed during it it does not mean that he has recovered.
Furthermore we have been told by Dumbledore that Maeve is more powerful that she really should be and that she has a 'dark taint' in her power indicating that she likely gained that additional power from Voldemort or whatever else wizard that was shown at the end of Denarian Knight.

 

I believe that the sword is made of steel and has the silver soulfire wreathing it. I could be wrong though .

-SK

 

Lol wut? In canon the Ladies are pretty weak. I'm sure anyone in the Senior Council could kill them without any problems.

 

And that was what Dubmledore would do, had he not rushed to help the Order. Nevermind the DF canon where Maeve could hardly do anything to her Knight, and he wasn't the most powerful wizard either.

As far as we know, Harry was in at least good condition. Maeve, on the other hand, was at least a little spent from her battle with Dumbledore. What's more, Harry would win if she hadn't used Amaris's blood to dismantle the golems.

 

First, I hope that Amaris lives... either by choosing her human side, or as she lays dying, as others have already mentioned, she becomes the new Queen.

Second, I agree with the opinions of many that Amanda stabbing Maeve seems a bit... off, to me. I would much prefer for Harry to be lying there, trapped in the ice, and then over Maeve's shoulder he notices a crack in the air slowly start to rip its way open, and a furious Dumbledore come out to aid Harry, rather than Amanda.

I like the character of Amanda, but she is, what... a sixteen/seventeen year old girl? I don't care if she was at the DoM, she is now in a completely alternate realm, hideous creatures of legend are all around engaged in a battle with the wizards, and the fight between Maeve and Harry would be enough to make a squad of Marines wet themselves...

I just don't like the fact that Amanda has become Super!Amanda, in her own limited way. She went from a totally unremarkable witch, to suddenly a Knight of the Cross, capable of holding her own against Amaris (who, in Denarian Knight, held up reasonably well against Denarians with Harry as an eight year old girl), and possessing the mental capability to harden herself enough to withstand the psychological trauma of where she is and what is going on. I mean, this little girl is now capable of throwing herself through a raging storm of Hellfire-pumped fiendfyre?

I have no problem with stories where the little people can make a big difference - big LotR fan. Someone pointed out earlier that we don't want to see Gondor march to Mordor and beat them in a battle, nor do we want Gandalf to beat Sauron in a duel. I agree. But neither do we want Frodo to sneak into Mordor and stick Sting into Sauron's eye, or Pippin take apart the army of Uruk'hai that killed Boromir. Frodo, the little guy, made all the difference in the world by taking a ring and dropping it into a mountain...

I don't know. We'll all agree/disagree... but I find it much more likely that Dumbledore is capable of handling the Winter creatures with Maeve off of his back, and then using his nifty Word to step into all of the chaos of Harry and Maeve's battle to either cause a distraction, free Harry, or land the type of blow that Amanda did. Amanda should be in a corner crying somewhere about everything going on around her, morose that she's about to die a virgin.

 

If we go by DF canon, then Maeve is actually the weakest of the queens. Even other non-queens like Lea are apparently stronger than her. Heck, her counterpart and equal in summer was killed by a couple of pixies wielding pocket knives. I think thats why Shezza wrote all that stuff about Dumbledore wanting to kill her because she had grown too strong, to justify how tough she was here.

I admit its not unrealistic as such for Amanda to stab Maeve in the back, I cannot complain about that. I just kinda think that it would have been more appropriate if after everything thats happened Harry would have killed Maeve all on his own. In some ways in this story, Maeve plays as big a role as Voldemort does. Harry met her in the very first story and has had more contact with her than Voldemort through the series.

After all that, for Amanda to deal the death blow was a bit disappointing. A analogy might be if in HP canon, at the end, it would have been Ron or Hermione who finished off Voldemort while Harry just stood there.

We know that Michaels sword Amoracchius is made of steel and while it has never been outright said, the implication is that the others are too. The silver thing is just the holy glow thing that the swords do.

 

Exactly. From all that I understand of DF canon, the Sidhe Ladies are about par with who would be the strongest mortals, people like the Senior Council Wizards, or if Dresden was able to hone more of his raw talent. Harry demonstrated both the power and skill to kill Maeve, and frankly, the only reason she was even alive at that point is because she was cold (no pun intended) enough to sacrifice her daughter, of all people. Amanda's position up until that time made sense. With Harry's training and the sword, I could conceivably see her as a worthy opponent for Amaris. To be honest, I was expecting a more obvious parallel like Amanda having to sacrifice herself to give Harry a clean shot at the kill. I didn't get what I expected, which is great. I like that in a story, who doesn't. But at the same time, as others mentioned, we have what is possibly Harry's second to last major fight here. To be shown that Harry is easily capable, when he uses his skill and cunning, of killing Maeve (iron constructs), and then have the satisfaction of the KB taken away seems anticlimactic. To get my own analogy in, imagine if Frodo got all the way to the edge of Mount Doom, but then tripped and dropped the ring while Sam had to fight Golem and drop it in.

 

For you all bitching that Harry should be able to kill Maeve by herself, guess what? He pretty much did, until she killed his daughter, enough to give him pause, and guess what? Distract him from the battle, and get trapped.

Amanda is left nearby, with a sword, and no one to stop her from shoving it into the Winter Lady when she felt the time was right. Dumbledore is hurt, in large amounts of pain from that attack Amaris had, and is making sure the Order is ok.

I honestly don't see why you people have so many issues with Amanda taking a lucky break, if you choose to look at it that way. I mean, her shoving a sword into Maeve's back is hardly something that makes her 'super!amanda'.

Either way, thats how it is, and most likely how it will stay.

 

Nooo.., don't kill off Amaris! We have as dark as harry as we could want, and Meciel is the one who lost her (grandgrand) children. Especially since we all know Harry does have fealings (fatherly) for her...and it would be a cool plot thread for her to embrace her mortal side

 

The three Swords of the Cross are constructed around the iron nails that perforated Jesus, so they are inherently iron based and I think the sword itself is steel anyway. Silver lights and shinyness are a result of steel being steel and the Soulfire boost.

Regarding the whinging, I don't have a problem with Amanda spitting Maeve on the sword - anyone who gets so absorbed in a duel and doesn't watch their back always runs the risk of a downed or weaker opponent taking a potshot or making a crippling attack. Amanda was simply in the right place at the right time and took advantage. Skill means little in such a situation.

 

What Azrael said, also, Harry was doing exactly the same thing with Nicodemus, he took pot shots when Sanya had 'aggro' and there was no way he could of won without Sanya's help there.

 

Which is how a wizard should fight. Have the "knight" tank the enemy and then when the moment strikes drop a spell on the enemy's ass.

So Maeve's scene is kind of a reversal. Harry "tanked" Maeve while equally doling out the damage but the turning point came when the "knight" came from behind and stabbed Maeve through the back.

Still I think its a bit of a fitting death, for all her power and her plans, she dies in a ditch with a sword through the back and a death spell to the face.

Damnit. I forgot this was the third.

Shits about to get real. XD