I'm listening to BG for the second time, and noticed something interesting in the encounter between Butters and Harry vis a vis the sword of faith (middle of ch 23): as we know, Harry is so focused on revenge he decides to go through Butters. Butters parries, which puts the mantle of winter check. Harry experiences his pain again and is also hit with a big dose of empathy (presumably prompted by the sword/angel inside the sword) for himself, Rudolf, etc. Then we get this:

"The stench of my own charred flesh filled my nose, somehow laced with the scent of sulfur, brimstone. There was a blazon of blackened flesh along my left forearm..."

What do y'all make of this? I'm taking it as even more evidence that Harry isn't so vanilla. The scene tickled something in the back of my mind from Blood Rites when Kincaid says: I'm as human as you are Dresden.

The more I think about Harry as a half-[something] scion, the more others' reactions to soul gazing Harry make sense.