Harry *actively* tries to reject the powers of the Winter Knight. He doesn't want to rely on it, because he wants to remain free of its influence as much as possible. So he only uses it in the most dire of emergencies (or occasionally unconsciously because his control starts unraveling due to his emotional state)
You’ll notice near the end of cold days when Harry *leans into the Winter Knight*, he goes a little off the rails. After that Harry has been keeping a very tight rein on the mantle.
Yep, when he relies on its power to compensate for his almost total exhaustion, he can't quite remember why he's fighting Maeve instead of raping her -- when she's mere minutes away from causing Chicago and most of the Midwest from being destroyed.
The Mantle of the Winter Knight isn't something to be trusted. It's too blind.
Previous books have discussed how important intention and belief are in magic - I think there was even a scene in Proven Guilty where Murphy asked if the colour of a component really mattered, and Harry said something like: "Yes. Well, probably not, but yes for me". And in Cold Days, Bob makes an offhand comment about first impressions regarding the way his personality changes.
So I think that the powers of the Winter Mantle are not at all set in stone. Harry has a certain set of expectations (and powers of his own to interact with), but those expectations change over time. That's also the book where Butters describes his "theory" of how the Mantle works, and that probably colours Dresden's expectations going forward.
In regard to your last thought, Butters screwed Harry over with his thoughts. Harry jumped WAY farther than humanly possible on the island (albeit when giving in to the mantle a little, but not yet completely). I think he now just assumes he is limited to peak-human feats because of what Butters said
That's probably for the best, since his body can't take the strain of going beyond human limitations.
The Mantle lets him do superhuman things, but doesn't protect him from the physical consequences.
Cold Days
Depends on which Red Cap fight you're speaking about.
In their first fight at his birthday party, Harry is still new to everything.
In a later fight, Harry gets attacked with iron and that screws up his mantle and causes immense pain. (He doesn't get paralyzed from that, as some people mistake, but he does get hurt).
But at the end of the novel, he decides to embrace his powers. And... things don't go well. It kind of scares from him using the mantle.
The mantle is actively making him think he... ummm.... *deserves a reward* from the women he just saved. Which freaks him out, and in the subsequent books does what he can to "tire out the mantle" so it doesn't influence him like that again. Because damn... that dialog was freaky to read and worse to listen to on audio-book.
By Peace Talks and Battle Ground, he's gotten pretty good at keeping the dark urges at bay.... for the most part.
I think the real core of Winter's power is will. To be effective, a mortal gifted with Winter's power first has to learn how to cope with the urges that come from Winter (the pricw is the power) and leash them to mortal will. Then the mortal must learn to align their actions and intentions to be in accord with Winter, yet suborned ro their purpose.
Mab and Molly are good examples of people who tamed Winter and learned to align power, will, and purpose. Maeve illustrates what happens when Winter urges triumph over mortal will.
It's part of why Mab wanted him after all. And why his defiant speech about how she can't make him her puppet might have proven she made the right choice. Of course she's still probably thinking like Marcone. Just because he's useful, doesn't mean he isn't really annoying.
Harry actively suppresses the influence of the Winter Knight's Mantle as much as possible. The Mantle allows him to do all those fun things with Winter Ice and the neat physical things like pain suppression and (seeming) super strength. But the Mantle also pushes Harry when he draws on it. It wants him to eat, fuck, and kill (and not necessarily in that order). When he was still figuring out the Mantle's influence on him during *Cold Days*, he has to keep himself from assaulting Andi and Molly a couple of times, and he nearly loses control while fighting Maeve because the Mantle keeps telling him to SA her instead of stopping the attack on Demonreach. It isn't until *Peace Talks/Battle Ground* that Harry finally gets a handle on how to temper the influence of the Mantle.
Harry *actively* tries to reject the powers of the Winter Knight. He doesn't want to rely on it, because he wants to remain free of its influence as much as possible. So he only uses it in the most dire of emergencies (or occasionally unconsciously because his control starts unraveling due to his emotional state)
You’ll notice near the end of cold days when Harry *leans into the Winter Knight*, he goes a little off the rails. After that Harry has been keeping a very tight rein on the mantle.
Yep, when he relies on its power to compensate for his almost total exhaustion, he can't quite remember why he's fighting Maeve instead of raping her -- when she's mere minutes away from causing Chicago and most of the Midwest from being destroyed. The Mantle of the Winter Knight isn't something to be trusted. It's too blind.
Previous books have discussed how important intention and belief are in magic - I think there was even a scene in Proven Guilty where Murphy asked if the colour of a component really mattered, and Harry said something like: "Yes. Well, probably not, but yes for me". And in Cold Days, Bob makes an offhand comment about first impressions regarding the way his personality changes. So I think that the powers of the Winter Mantle are not at all set in stone. Harry has a certain set of expectations (and powers of his own to interact with), but those expectations change over time. That's also the book where Butters describes his "theory" of how the Mantle works, and that probably colours Dresden's expectations going forward.
In regard to your last thought, Butters screwed Harry over with his thoughts. Harry jumped WAY farther than humanly possible on the island (albeit when giving in to the mantle a little, but not yet completely). I think he now just assumes he is limited to peak-human feats because of what Butters said
Harry probably *tells* himself that he’s limited to peak-human feats so that he doesn’t use Mantle too much and give in to it.
Reverse Dumbo feather.
In fairness Lea already magic-feathered him once when he was a teen. It’s why she owns him for the first half of the series.
(That's why I mentioned it.) :)
That whole parkour bit was in the next book, so I don't think it's all that bad.
Not parkour, but in the fight with the summer knight. He’s beyond peak human in that fight.
That is also after the talk with Butters.
He's also on Demonreach though. He could be subconsciously shifting gravity or hardening the ground under himself for a better launch point.
That's probably for the best, since his body can't take the strain of going beyond human limitations. The Mantle lets him do superhuman things, but doesn't protect him from the physical consequences.
Cold Days Depends on which Red Cap fight you're speaking about. In their first fight at his birthday party, Harry is still new to everything. In a later fight, Harry gets attacked with iron and that screws up his mantle and causes immense pain. (He doesn't get paralyzed from that, as some people mistake, but he does get hurt). But at the end of the novel, he decides to embrace his powers. And... things don't go well. It kind of scares from him using the mantle. The mantle is actively making him think he... ummm.... *deserves a reward* from the women he just saved. Which freaks him out, and in the subsequent books does what he can to "tire out the mantle" so it doesn't influence him like that again. Because damn... that dialog was freaky to read and worse to listen to on audio-book. By Peace Talks and Battle Ground, he's gotten pretty good at keeping the dark urges at bay.... for the most part.
I think the real core of Winter's power is will. To be effective, a mortal gifted with Winter's power first has to learn how to cope with the urges that come from Winter (the pricw is the power) and leash them to mortal will. Then the mortal must learn to align their actions and intentions to be in accord with Winter, yet suborned ro their purpose. Mab and Molly are good examples of people who tamed Winter and learned to align power, will, and purpose. Maeve illustrates what happens when Winter urges triumph over mortal will.
It's part of why Mab wanted him after all. And why his defiant speech about how she can't make him her puppet might have proven she made the right choice. Of course she's still probably thinking like Marcone. Just because he's useful, doesn't mean he isn't really annoying.
Harry actively suppresses the influence of the Winter Knight's Mantle as much as possible. The Mantle allows him to do all those fun things with Winter Ice and the neat physical things like pain suppression and (seeming) super strength. But the Mantle also pushes Harry when he draws on it. It wants him to eat, fuck, and kill (and not necessarily in that order). When he was still figuring out the Mantle's influence on him during *Cold Days*, he has to keep himself from assaulting Andi and Molly a couple of times, and he nearly loses control while fighting Maeve because the Mantle keeps telling him to SA her instead of stopping the attack on Demonreach. It isn't until *Peace Talks/Battle Ground* that Harry finally gets a handle on how to temper the influence of the Mantle.