< The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files/Fridge


Fridge Brilliance

  • It always bothered my that Harry bothered to pay for an office; especially in the earlier books where he's perpetually broke. But then it occurred to me: Harry has to have an office, since if he ran his detective business out of his apartment, it would probably lose its threshold and Harry wouldn't be able to conjure effective wards. Harry's office is, indirectly, one of the reasons that his apartment is so safe.
  • Putting this both here and WMG: In Ghost Story, there were several times when the Sword of Faith might have come in handy, most specifically at the end during the battle with Corpsetaker. Murphy, however, never takes it up. It took me until today to realize that she would be unmaking it if she had. Even though she still believes in her oath to protect the denizens of Chicago, she also believes that she had acted against that vow by killing threats without turning them over to the police.
  • Shiro's name is a good hint of both his character and his ultimate fate. Shiro means 'white', which symbolizes purity in Western countries, showing his kind and patient nature. White also symbolizes death in Eastern countries, hinting at Shiro's death at the hands of the Denarians
  • In Proven Guilty, a nice bit of foreshadowing that Molly has magical talent is when Harry's getting his name tag, the lady says that the printer's been on the fritz.
  • Harry has stated repeatedly that the reason wizards choose ancient languages for their spells is because they don't want to accidentally say a word that has meaning for them, and remember belatedly that it's tied to their fireball spell. Harry uses Canis Latinicus for his spells. He also has a hard time learning actual Latin. It's probably a good this he didn't do well with that stupid correspondence course. He wouldn't want to torch the entire Council, would he?
    • Double Fridge Brilliance: Justin allowed Harry to use Latin as his language of magic. Meaning that if/when the Council finds out about Harry's situation, he's less able to communicate with the other wizards. Miscommunication Kills turned Xanatos Gambit turned Thanatos Gambit for Justin.
  • When you realize that the name of the Monoc corporation is a kenning (Norse Incredibly Lame Pun) for Odin. "Monoc" = "Mono Oculus" = "One Eye" = Odin. Also, the CEO is named Donner, which is the Germanic name for Thor.
  • This crosses over between Fridge Brilliance and Wild Mass Guessing: There's a very good reason why no Knight of the Cross came to the rescue when Harry was being disembowelled by Cassius. (Given how much Harry was wondering why one didn't come at the time, and given the Knights' tendency to show up when needed, I think the reader is intended to think about this.) In Death Masks, Harry arguably subverted the Knights' purpose and principles by giving Cassius that beating, so he got a thorough beating in return. In addition, Harry shows the view throughout Death Masks that the Denarians aren't really people and are entirely evil, and has no issues with passing judgement on Cassius as evil. When he's nearly killed by Cassius in Dead Beat, what does he do? He makes a deal with Lasciel's shadow, the first step to becoming a Denarian himself. It's both a repercussion for his previous actions, and a chance to learn empathy by understanding the process by which someone could fall. It's not the Knights' job to save him from that lesson, or from the consequences of his own actions.
  • In another instance of Fridge Brilliance, reread Changes and you'll find tons of foreshadowing at Martin's fate. In the part where they debate who corresponds to which members of the Fellowship of the Ring, for example, Martin is unobtrusively assigned the role of Boromir. A traitor with his heart in the right place... sounds about right.
    • Thomas said "And you are clearly Aragorn" for a reason. Namely, Sanya is a champion of the forces of good who uses an ancient and powerfully magical sword to fight evil. It's dependent on the fact that he's the descendant of kings, but he's been raised far away from the place that would have been his kingdom.
  • In Turn Coat, when Harry is sent by the Merlin to get the report about LaFortier's death, Peabody tries to get him to sign for the report, to keep the records tidy. Harry refuses to do so, since he knows his own investigation isn't supposed to be happening, and if he leaves a paper trail, it'll come back to him. Peabody's persistence to get him to sign for it is because he was trying to subvert Harry using his drugged ink.
  • In Aftermath, Murphy keeps coming back to what it means to be female. At first this just seems like a male author's best attempt at writing a female character, then you realize that she spends pretty much all her time in a male-dominated field.
  • In Blood Rites, Harry makes an off-hand joke to Arturo about him being a leader, and how they need to buy Arturo a big round table. Arturo gets the joke and laughs, comparing himself and Harry to King Arthur and Merlin. Its a small thing, but considering that later on we learn Ebenezar has been trained in the tradition of the actual Merlin and Harry is safeguarding a sword that is but outright said to be Excalibur, and a small scene becomes a brilliant bit of foreshadowing.
    • Although there's no reason to assume that Merlin only had one successor and one set of journals to pass on. It could be that most European wizards' heirloom journals trace back to him sooner or later.
    • Sir Stewart in Ghost Story out right calls it Excalibur rather casually
  • The swords themselves are linked to the three Christian Virtues: Faith (Fidelacchius), Hope (Esperacchius), and Love (Amoracchius)...and the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13.
    • Even better, some translations have the three Christian Virtues as; Faith, Hope, and Charity (the name of Michael Carpenter's wife!)
  • Also in Blood Rites, the scene where Thomas and Harry soulgaze one another has their mother show up in both of their respective soulgazes. This seems to be a small thing, but also keep in mind that Margaret Lefay states she bound a little bit of herself into both of their souls. With that in mind, it becomes readily apparent that anyone who soulgazes Harry may have encountered the apparition of Margaret, which helps explain part of why anyone else who soulgazes Harry has such a strong reaction to seeing his soul.
  • Harry drives a Beetle because the engine is in the back, so he's further away from it and less likely to break it.
  • In the writeup of Cassandra's Tears in the RPG, you have the ability to predict the future but people won't believe you. In Lydia's writeup, despite her claims to have this ability, the author ascribes her foreknowledge of the events of the case file she's in to her more mundane connections to the events. Meaning the writer doesn't believe she has the ability to predict the future.
  • Harry is named after three legendary stage magicians, men who used skill, trickery, and intelligence to pull off seemingly impossible feats. And like his namesakes, Harry has more often used skill, trickery, swift-thinking, and intelligence to defeat enemies and escape situations that are considered impossible. In retrospect, Malcolm and Margaret Dresden chose the perfect people to name their son after.
  • A subtle thing, but in Small Favor, when Harry and Thomas go to meet Hendricks and Gard at the safehouse, Gard has Thomas stay downstairs before bringing Harry up. At first glance this is just the usual criminal cagey paranoia about wanting to keep the vampire where they can watch him, but remember that Gard is badly wounded, and Thomas is a natural predator whose instincts push him to attack wounded prey. Keeping Thomas downstairs and away from Gard not only protects her, but it makes things easier on him as well.
  • In Dead Beat, after Dresden shoots the Corpsetaker in Luccio's body, Morgan goes ballistic on him and refuses to listen to any explanation. The first time around, this just seems like normal overzealous Morgan who hates Dresden. Then you read Turn Coat, and realize that Morgan was acting like that because he just saw Dresden gun down not just the leader of the Wardens, but the woman he was in love with.
  • The white, rubbery Spy Catsuit-style outfit Justine wears in Turn Coat takes on a whole new meaning if one has read Even Hand, since Justine is now an agent for Lara, performing clandestine infiltrations, so it literally is a Spy Catsuit.
  • Spend any amount of time thinking about the Archive, and Fridge Horror will hit you.
    • She has memorized the entire works of the Marquis De Sade.
    • Ivy has access to all the recorded information of humanity. This includes things like Nazi propaganda and pornography.
    • All works of fan fiction.
    • Consider all the paperwork probably generated about Harry: police reports, White Court records, his own case files, increasingly antagonistic reports from villians. Ivy knows exactly what sort of man Harry is and knows he would protect her.
    • Consider, too, her fondness for animals: petting Mister in Death Masks, watching the sea otters in Small Favor. At first glance, it looks like she's simply slipping out of character as an all-knowing savant to act like a little kid; then, when you recall that it's all human knowledge which she possesses, you realize that even the all-knowing side of her is probably just as pleased to spend time with them, because animal knowledge isn't part of her database and their behavior is thus refreshingly unpredictable to her.
  • Speaking of Ivy, note that technology seems to work just fine around her...which means she doesn't have wizard talents. Yeah, that's right: Ivy is able to be a Person of Mass Destruction with only the Archive and ordinary Muggle potential with magic.
    • Screwing up technology has less to do with how much power you have, than with how much control over it you have. Faeries, for instance, have much more powerful magic than mortals, but no problems whatsoever with tech, because they have full and total control, and don't let any 'stray' magic get out when they cast a spell. It just means that Ivy has extremely good control over her magic, which is to be expected, really.
  • It's established in Proven Guilty, I believe, that once a wizard has done something with magic, they believe that that was the (or at least a) right thing to do; it's not entirely clear how much of that is convincing yourself beforehand and how much is a side-effect of doing the magic, not that it matters afterward. Now remember Harry's reputation as a Person of Mass Destruction. And every wizard on the council knows Harry believed every one of those acts was just. No wonder they're worried about him.
    • Earlier than that: when describing the murders in Storm Front, Harry says you can't use magic to do anything you don't believe in. Admittedly, as part of his rationale that the murderer was a woman, as "women hate better".
  • Anyone read Psalm 23 lately? Anyone remember what Harry's favorite weapons are?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

    • Harry spends most of the entire series in said Valley himself, or helping others through it.
    • Wait, so does that mean Harry is God? [beat] YES!!! Of course, it makes so much sense! WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM! ALL HAIL THE PIZZA LORD!!!
  • I've heard some of the series' detractors complaining about the apparent sexism in the series, stating that Harry seems far too descriptive when he encounters women, particularly any of The Fair Folk. It didn't terribly strike me as being that sexist (maybe I'm just less sensitive to that sort of thing). Maybe a bit overbearing and descriptive, at worst. Then, as I read through the series, I noticed various elements of Harry's attitude around women (his tendency to describe them in detail, his overly-protective nature towards them, etc) Then I read a Word of God statement by Jim Butcher himself that noted that the reason why Bob is so obsessed with sex is because he has been influenced by Harry. Then I realized something that should have been extremely bloody obvious: Harry's tendency to exquisitely describe women is just a reflection of his character and his hyperactive and troublesome libido, which he regularly has to work to suppress. The Purple Prose that crops up whenever a beautiful woman shows up is a rather subtly-reinforced character trait of Harry Dresden.
    This is especially noticeable if one compares the prose in the Dresden Files books to that of the Codex Alera series - the Purple Prose is virtually nonexistent, because it is being told from a third-person-limited perspective from multiple characters' viewpoints. Harry's reaction to beautiful women is just that: Harry's reaction, written into his case files. What would be a point of contention in other series is a reinforced character flaw and trait in this series. Brilliant.
    • Harry also freely admits he's kind of a chauvinist. He also has understandable mommy issues. If readers can't put two and two together, it's not Butcher's fault.
    • Thank you, sir or madam, for explaining exactly what I've tried to tell people about Harry's evil sexism. Both of you. I think the problem has been people seeing him as a sexist pig without honestly realizing it's meant to be a flaw that he readily acknowledges,and he isn't lauded for it; it does in fact come back to bite him more often than not, which is also acknowledged. A perfect hero is boring, and Harry Dresden is anything but.
      • It becomes really apparent when one reads Aftermath and see things from Murphy's perspective, or Even hand and see things from Marcone's perspective. The kind of detailed description of feminine form doesn't occur in those stories because neither Murphy nor Marcone are those kinds of people. Sure, we have Murphy noting that Andi has a good figure, but less detail is devoted to her than was devoted by Harry to Michael and Sanya's epic Spartan physiques in Small Favor.
    • The purple prose about women seems to fit in with the film noir influences (Pessimistic, snarky narrator with big coat and big revolver investigates, faces people trying to kill him and femme fatales.)
    • It seems to me that Dresden is really, really heavily based on Phillip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler), who is a total sexist--he also is overly protective and overly descriptive. What I appreciated is that while in Marlowe's world, all the women are typically even more amoral and brainless than Marlowe thinks they are, in the dresdenverse, Butcher allows for a lot of powerful female characters.
  • In Changes, Molly admonishes Harry that he references Star Wars too much, and he should throw in some variation. Turns out, she wasn't just annoyed by the repetition, but because she's a Trekkie.
  • Harry has mentioned that Santa Claus is real, and powerful. That brings up some Fridge Logic: if Santa's real, why does nobody notice that there are more presents every Christmas than bought, or if there isn't, why isn't Santa delivering them? Fridge Brilliance then points out that Santa is one of the Fae and as such, he can not cross a threshold!
    • Additional Fridge Brilliance: would a letter to Santa act as an invitation to enter?
    • He says that he's real, he never says if he actually delivers presents.
    • It get a present from Santa you have to have been good ALL year. Who can honestly say they've done that? Maybe he has presents, just no one has been good enough to earn one?
  • When Bianca is introduced, the revelation that Red Court vampires are loathsome bat-hybrid freaks sheathed by temporary human husks seems a little schlock B-movie-ish, or else like Butcher's deliberately employing the Our Vampires Are Different trope. Events in Changes reveal that having them work this way wasn't just an arbitrary excuse for Body Horror: It means that Susan, in becoming a full vampire, shed and discarded her original human body. Therefore, Harry could sacrifice her emerged vampire-self and kill the Red Court without worrying that the heart-ripper spell would rebound on her human relatives, which include her parents and grandparents (if they're alive) as well as little Maggie.
  • The battle at Archangel came into a whole new light when I discovered this Wikipedia page. Right time frame too...
    • The battle at Sicily in Dead Beat seems to be modeled after this battle in ancient Greece where a seemingly invincible power suffered catastrophic losses because it was unable to withdraw from the island.
  • Father Forthill managed to find the one place he could place Maggie and let Harry spend time with her safely. A ex-Knight of the Cross adopting an orphan isn't going to look strange. Harry Dresden visiting his apprentice's family won't look strange either. The guardian angels make an attack or spying run on the household pretty much impossible. Net result: Harry will get to spend some time with his daughter. And he'll have an excuse to total anyone who messes with her without revealing her parentage, because everyone knows by this point that messing with his friends makes him almost as mad as targeting his daughter.
  • In Ghost Story, Word of God is that Inez was Mab's proxy, Inez wasn't talking about Harry steadily becoming a monster as a ghost, she was talking about Harry becoming a monster as the Winter Knight.
  • In Ghost Story, the reason Molly was upset by the "you're one hell of a woman, Molly, Thank you" line from Harry was because its the exact same thing Harry said to comfort her while she was helping him arrange his suicide.
  • It seemed strange that Kincaid wouldn't drop Harry perfectly and painlessly at the end of Changes. But then I remembered; he stumbled the very moment before he heard the shot hit the boat behind him. No shooter, scion or not, could have predicted that.
  • It's easy to assume that the being who whispered the Seven Words to Harry wanted him dead. But when you think about it, those words actually increased his chances of success and survival. Three things happened as a result of those words;
    1. He becomes the Winter Knight, giving him a chance of saving Maggie.
    2. He arranges his death, but due to the circumstances, he's sent back, is able to stop the Corpsetaker, and can be revived.
    3. Uriel is allowed to "balance the scales" by telling Harry Mab can't actually corrupt him. Even if everything else could have happened without this entity's interference, Uriel's hands would have been tied on this point.
  • In Ghost Story: Remember when Molly made her "entrance" at Murphy's house? Well, she definitely wasn't there the entire time, as she wasn't up to speed on the "Harry is back as a Ghost" situation, and the radio only shorted out that last time. So when was she invited in? Answer; She wasn't. She cast that perfect illusion while weakened by the threshold.
  • Also in Ghost Story, when Harry reveals himself to Molly as a ghost, he quotes Obi-Wan at Hoth: "You will go to the Dagobah system. There you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me." Who's teaching Molly now that Harry's gone? Leanansidhe, the master of magic who instructed him.
  • Yet another Ghost Story entry, Lea answers Harry's question about who killed him with "three truths" since she is both bound to answer Harry's questions as part of their deal and bound not to give him the information he was looking for because he had to figure it out himself. The three statements she makes: his killer was a male he was acquainted with, had a death toll in the thousands, and worked for someone even more powerful than him apply to both Kincaid, who physically pulled the trigger on the gun that killed Harry and Harry himself, who ordered his own hit and erased his memory of it just before becoming the Winter Knight and killing the entire Red Court.
  • Just realized some other subtle, almost-last-minute foreshadowing about Harry's resurrection. Remember how they kept Butters alive after his soul was punted out of his body? Two attractive women doing rescue breathing and chest compressions. Now, how did Harry survive? By having Mab and Lash--personified as attractive women--keep his breath flowing and his heart beating.
  • The first significant act which Martin performs in the series is to risk breaking his own neck by deliberately crashing the limo at the art gallery, distracting Marcone's thugs from Harry and Susan. This seems like a minor off-camera event, until you read Changes, after which it becomes Foreshadowing for how Martin is willing to offer up his own blood, or even his life, to ensure Harry and Susan can take down the villains.
    • Plus, Martin is a half-vampire like Susan, who can easily tackle things through walls. He can take a car crash without trouble.
  • In Blood Rites, when Harry leaves baby Mouse at the police station, he returns to find the puppy gnawing and shaking a battered old Snoopy toy kept to amuse visitors' children. Odds are, it's the same Snoopy that Harry'd used to hamstring the loup-garou a few books earlier, in a sympathetic-magic ritual using the creature's blood. Even as a pup, Mouse's foo dog senses could recognize the scent of years-old monster blood!
  • When Thomas wishes Harry a happy birthday in Dead Beat, he also remarks that he was a bit surprised he'd remembered to do so. At first, it seems like they've just been too busy to think about things like that. But when you stop to consider how Margaret Dresden died, you realized that Thomas could never forget Halloween's significance to their family, because for him, it's the day his father murdered his mother! So what surprised him was probably not that he'd remembered the date of Harry's birthday, but rather, that he'd remembered Harry considers it a day of birthday celebration, and not grief for their Mom.
  • So, Harry and other English-speaking wizards use faux-latin or otherwise mishmashed words from other languages to cast their spells, and we see that Molly is starting to use Japanese. Then it occurs to you that there must be Japanese wizards. Might they use, say, English to cast their spells? Making it so that the garbled Gratuitous English used when an anime character is Calling His Attack, he's actually accurately representing how magic works?
  • All the way back in Storm Front the photographer mentions that there were five people involved in the ritual to kill Tommy and Jenny, two women and three men. One of the men was Sells, one was Beckitt, but who was the third? The Black Council member who gave Victor his training such as it was?
    • Probably the one guy with Marcone that was working with them. I recall someone mentioning Sells offered him "something" that made him jump ship.
  • Jim Butcher apparently likes playing with costumes. Recall Mavra's Hamlet getup in Grave Peril. How does the action in Hamlet start? A ghost spurs Hamlet's quest for revenge. Kinda like how Paula's ghost tormenting Bianca drives her to seek revenge on Harry.
    • Similarly, pay close attention to the outfit Lea puts Susan into in Changes. It's a sacrificial robe.

Fridge Horror

  • There's a moment in Ghost Story that seems like a Pet the Dog moment, when Justin DuMorne gives Harry his first present: A baseball glove, and then invites him to play catch. It seems sweet, until you remember a passing moment from Small Favor when Harry talks about his first shielding lesson having been with baseballs.
  • Just to drive home the Crapsack World nature of The Dresden Files, when Daniel goes in to save Forthill from Aresetdes the lion, Daniel and Butters have to fight him, and Daniel gets busted up. i.e. Daniel goes into the lions den, and gets stabbed.
  • Lloyd Slate is/was a rapist and murderer, and hung around Maeve's court. Maeve- no less a bitch herself- regularly had the changeling kids dragged into her Court...
  • In Grave Peril, Mister Ferro appears as a green-eyed Roman centurion. Later on, Jim Butcher would write an entire series about magical Romans, the most powerful of whom all have green eyes.
  • So, Changes identifies the process by which a Sidhe Queen transfers her power to her Knight. Namely, when Mab has sex with Harry. But when one goes back to Summer Knight, and remembers how this works, it means that in order for Aurora to make Lily the temporary Summer Knight, she would have to...oh, shit. This adds a whole new dimension to how insane Aurora had become, especially when one considers that Lily had already been implied to have been repeatedly raped by the Winter Knight for Maeve's amusement....
    • Mab's initiation of Harry makes the already squicky deal with Lea (shown in a flashback in Grave Peril) even more disturbing. Remember Harry was 16 at the time.
    • Becomes a bit of Fridge Brilliance as well when one considers the relationship between Lily and Fix. In order for her to make him the Summer Knight....well, there's a reason they're smiling at the end of the book.
  • The disturbing scenario at the end of Proven Guilty becomes far more disturbing if one considers how it would have played out if Michael had been a couple minutes later, stepping into the room to find his daughter either about to be executed or having been executed by the White Council, with Harry either standing against them or already dead. Particularly disturbing is that Ammoracchius, being the Sword of Love, would possibly not lose its power in the inevitable unstoppable rampage that would ensue, due to Michael's love for his daughter and the injustice of the Merlin's sentence. Let's just say that it's a good thing for the Good Guys that Michael arrived then and not a moment later, because the carnage that would have ensued would have been catastrophic, no matter who won.
    • Also, right next to Michael is Ebenezar. And if the Blackstaff sees his apprentice and grandson being murdered, there's more than a passing likelihood that another Tunguska might come to pass then and there.
    • Good thing Rashid was there. Helped delay the process as long as was needed.
    • Of course he did. Remember that part of his powers/duties is seeing the future, after all.
    • And that part of the God-given abilities of the Knights of the Cross make them just happen to be in the right place at the right time.
  • The conversation between Harry and Luccio during the flashback in White Night takes on a new meaning after the events of Small Favor, where Thomas points out that Luccio is attracted to Harry and coming onto him in a roundabout manner, and Harry realizes that she's not entirely confident (having spent about a hundred and forty years without dating or a sex drive). The faintly awkward conversation between Harry and Luccio, particularly Lucchio's mention of her frustration with having to deal with her body and offhand mention of her sex drive, seems more like a shy girl trying to test the waters with a guy she likes but is uncertain about - which is exactly what she is at this point. The conversation becomes a subtle but excellent bit of foreshadowing of the relationship that develops between Harry and Luccio. Of course, this takes on a darker and more brilliant turn when one considers that Luccio was being mentally-influenced into being attracted to Harry, and what we know about how people react to mind-control magic. Luccio's awkwardness and uncertainty is also a subtle indicator that she's being mind-controlled.
  • Corpsetaker's favorite tactic makes a lot of sense if one wants to be a sneaky infiltrator or to hide out by changing identities, but it makes even more sense when one considers the nature of thaumaturgy. Jumping from body to body ensures that anyone who gets a sample of blood, hair, nail clippings, DNA, or anything else traditionally used for targeting thaumaturgy spells can't use it on him/her/it - something very important when one's chief rivals are wizards and necromancers to boot.
  • The Council has always been characterized as being filled with reactionary Jerkasses who are fanatical and unreasonable and unwilling to swerve or compromise. Morgan is a hostile, fanatical killer, the Merlin is an uncompromising, prideful schemer, Ancient Mai is a harsh traditionalist, LaFortier is and as of Turn Coat, was a complete douche. They're so set in these ways because they're old wizards who've seen a lot of terrible things that resulted in a rigid, uncompromising organizational doctrine. Now, in Turn Coat, Molly talks about mind control, and notes that if she were to manipulate someone's mind, she wouldn't be overt about it; she'd use subtle methodology, to push someone who is naturally of a particular persuasion further along that path, i.e. making someone who likes to fight more prone to fighting, or someone who is a schemer more prone to scheming. Now, consider the fact that Peabody was drugging the inks he used for years, possibly decades, or maybe even centuries to subtly mind-control many of the Council. Now look at the characterization of the Council again. Jim Butcher, you are a magnificent bastard.
  • In Dead Beat, Dresden more or less loses control of Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex for a few moments at one point. Remember what happens when undead stop hearing the drumbeat that's part of the spell to reanimate them? Furthermore, remember that Morgan took over drumming duties for Butters somewhere along the line? What are the odds that they pulled off getting Butters out of that one-man-band getup and getting Morgan into it without (literally) missing a beat?
    • Not necessarily that difficult, as you don't have to be wearing a drum to beat it. Morgan could have thumped on the drum with his hand while Butters un-strapped himself, then Butters took over the beat while he was strapping the outfit on Morgan.
  • How did the Kemmlerites know to look for the Die Lied der Erlking for use in the Darkhallow? Because they're part and parcel of the Black Council, and a Black Council agent wrote the bloody thing, so of course they'd know it contains a summoning ritual!
  • Murphy is aging at a normal human rate, while Dresden is aging somewhat slower (I think, if I interpreted the passage on wizard's aging correctly). Either way, Murphy is going to die long before Dresden. While this is not horror in itself, think about how stubborn Murphy is and how she's willing to do pretty much anything to keep up with Dresden to show how tough she is. Eventually, as they get older, they will start slowing down. Dresden will have his magic to throw around (which will increase as he ages), but Murphy's going to just get older and older. Unwilling to accept her limits, she will eventually lose to something, and Dresden will have to watch as his friend is killed, no matter what he tries to save her.
  • In Ghost Story Uriel freaks out when Harry shortens his name to Uri and says the part Harry left out is very important to who he is. Notice that it's the same syllable Harry left out of Lasciel's Shadow's name around the time her personality started changing...
    • Which is also the syllable that means God in Hebrew names. Perhaps not the right bit to leave out when dealing with an archangel? Take the "el" off and "Uri" just means "light." There was another angel whose name meant "light": Lucifer.
      • "Lucifer" is a title. It means "light bringer", appropriate for the Angel of the Morning. His proper Angelic Name would have included and "-el" at the end of it.
        • Samael, for the curious.
    • Losing the El would mean Uri was no longer "of god"
    • Which could be what he's freaking out about, in more ways than one. Lucifer, indirectly, makes an appearance(well, okay, he powers up some of Dresden's foes) in the same book that Uriel first appears. Thus, angels falling from grace is a possibility, and Uriel is hinted to be Heaven's "black ops guy", with specific reference to the killing of the first born. So maybe Uriel could be afraid of falling as well, which explains his relationship with Harry really. Each of his brother-archangels picks, supports and empowers a Knight of the Cross. Uriel repeatedly appears to Harry, teaches him to use Soulfire, and is very much like him: Works for the good end, does bad things if necessary to get there, and is in danger of turning evil.
  • In Ghost Story, why does Molly go completely off the deep end even willing to turn to Lea for help? Sure a lot of it had to deal with the psychic backlash of the death of the whole Red Court and losing Harry, but probably another big thing happened. Earlier in Changes, Molly for the first time realized that her father Michael isn't Superman and can't swoop in to save her, Harry promised that that would be his job from now on. When Harry dies, she literally feels that she has no one to turn to as she lost both of her supermen in a couple of days.
  • In Turn Coat, Harry and Molly talk about her reaction to Morgan, and why his distrust of Harry bothers her so much. Now think about Harry's response to her: "Because if I'm just a ticking time bomb, and I'm the one trying to rehabilitate you, then you haven't got a chance. I get it." Once upon a time, Harry was in her position as the frightened apprentice wrestling with his own inner darkness. He got saved by Ebenezar, who turned out to be the Blackstaff. He's not just trying to reassure her, he really does get what it's like to worry that the person you trusted to save you isn't everything they claim to be.
  • In Ghost Story, Harry talks a lot about how life is all about pain, experiencing it, getting through it, and learning from it. Now, given Jim Butcher's Word of God that he's going to take whatever path makes Harry suffer more, it seems really obvious that this would mean keeping him alive.
  • While reading Ghost Story, I repeatedly wondered why Georgia didn't show up. Then it hit me- Georgia was pregnant in Aftermath, so she's probably taking care of her kid.
  • In Blood Rites Harry takes Ebenezar's role as the Blackstaff as a betrayal. He wonders how the man who taught him all about how magic was the stuff of Life could also be the White Council's black ops man. It's always seemed odd to me that nobody's ever stopped to consider that it's precisely because Ebenezar believed in those things that he was the Blackstaff. Someone with a Warden's mentality is second only to an out-and-out evil psychopath for people who should not wield the Blackstaff. But a true believer, someone wo believes in the Life of magic, and is willing to fight, kill if need be, to protect it. That's who you want.
  • Just today, I finally put together this string of logic from The Dresden Files: Miss Gard, bodyguard-for-hire employed by an outfit called Monoc Securities, is actually a Valkyrie, as in the Choosers of the Slain from Norse mythology. Monoc = Monocular = One-Eye = Odin. --Karalora
    • Don't forget that her magical specialty, in which she completely blows Dresden away, is rune magic.
    • Dead Beat. The back of the book makes it clear, you know, that Chicago is Dresden's beat, and there's a lot of necromancy about. Except that an integral part of necromancy in this setting involves drums. Drums that you have to beat to control the dead. Brilliant.
    • Yes.
    • This troper was thoroughly confused about the Gatekeeper and his effect on the plot of Proven Guilty. Okay, so he told Dresden that there was black magic afoot, but the only thing that was going on was the whole phobophage deal, and Molly put him onto that. But then I realized that if the Gatekeeper had never given him the message, Dresden would not have been down in the basement when the phone rang, which put him onto Molly, which put him onto the phobophages, which put him onto Arcis Tor. Holy crap. Jim Butcher is a fucking genius.
      • Actually, there was Black Magic afoot, and the Gatekeeper lead him directly to it, since Molly was the one practicing it.
    • Martin is Boromir. --Sgamer 82
    • The Erlking is described as being the leader of the Wild Hunt, the pack of hunter spirits that doesn't give up once they're on your trail, but... is also possibly a protector of children. So, of course, his home links up with the FBI office. -- bibliophile 20
      • Another one from me. I was looking at Death Masks earlier today, and read the scene in which Ebenezar McCoy offers Dresden sanctuary at his farm. The mention of Asteroid Dresden the Russian satellite is in that scene as obvious foreshadowing for what McCoy does later. Ebenezar's asking where they packed the old telescope seemed casual enough up until I realized that he also asked if the observation logs were there, too. McCoy was getting set to drop the satellite on Ortega even then. --Sgamer 82
    • At the end of Changes, Harry wipes out the entire Red Court. It wasn't until later that it hit me: the Red Court violated Faerie territory in Dead Beat and brought the wrath of both Summer and Winter down on them. But while Summer struck first, Winter delayed attacking the Court, and then I realized why. Harry's the Winter Knight. Therefore, he was acting as Mab's instrument in wiping out the Red Court. In other words, Mab was playing a very long game. Queen of Air and Darkness, you are such a magnificent bitch. --Unknown Troper
      • It goes deeper than that. Mab spends quite a lot of time and effort rehabilitating Leanansidhe after Bianca gives her the Athame which mentally unbalances her. This Troper has a personal theory that quite a lot of the Vampire War played out the way it did as a Plan to avenge that particular affront. Mab plays a long game indeed. --Kinje
    • Also in Changes, there's a minor mention that Harry has seen Chandler (the British wizard that looks like John Steed) making tea for the other Wardens. At the time, it just seemed like Harry was making the point that Chandler is one, nice, and two, very British. Until you realize that that means all the other Wardens trust him enough to make them food. Think about that. Morgan let someone else make him a drink. Chandler suddenly became ten times more awesome. - Lola
    • After reading Blood Rites, it hit me: In Death Masks, Lord Raith, after being asked to be Ortega's second for the duel, sends his son Thomas instead- partially as a good joke, partially in the hope that he'll die. I realised that there's a third reason: since Lord Raith can't feed or replenish his reserves, there was a very good chance he could have been wiped out at the duel- and that's why he sent Thomas: because he was worried he'd die. --Zadia
    • Billy and the Werewolves go through a nice little character development that was far more subtle than I originally noticed. In Fool Moon, they're wearing biker leathers trying to *appear* tough, but they're still amateurs. By the later books, they're typically wearing loose shirts and sweats so they can transform more quickly into their wolf forms. Why mention this? A line about Mouse from Proven Guilty. "Like all the most dangerous people I know, he didn't feel a need to make any displays." Billy...err, Will's pack went from being posers to being truly dangerous.
    • In Storm Front, Harry says that he doesn't know of anyone with the stones to summon St. Nick. Word of God, and the way that the Dresdenverse generally works, imply that Santa is the Winter King - making him the equal of the Erlking. Guess someone has the stones after all. Terrion
  • A throwaway line in Blood Rites mentions that Black Court vampires have normal human teeth, rather than the pointed incisors normally attributed to vamps. Human teeth are meant for mastication, not for puncturing flesh like the teeth of a wolf other quadrupedal predator. As such, a Black Court vampire's feeding routine wouldn't resemble the traditional "poke delicate holes in the neck" routine--the vamp would have to literally bite a chunk out the victim's neck and lap at the viscera as it comes spilling out. Le gross.
  • The Archive apparently has access to all the information on the internet. That means Ivy has been exposed to every single fanfiction ever written. Poor, poor Ivy...
  • Kincaid serving as Ivy's bodyguard makes a huge mount of sense when one considers that most of Ivy's power comes from magic, whereas Kincaid's primary means of beating ass is with guns, melee weapons, and physical power. They're an excellent compliment for one another who can support each other in areas that they can't cover.
  • In Love Hurts, Murphy and Harry talk about all the other couples whose happiness they'd be ruining. But consider this: the spell was on the Tunnel of Terror ride at a fair. Imagine how many people would go to a fair on any given day. How many parents with children, younger children or volatile teenagers got on that ride? And what happened to them after the spell was broken?
  • In The Dresden Files, it is mentioned that Bianca, the vampire who runs a whorehouse in Chicago (that is, until Harry gets involved), is always on the lookout for new girls. At first one might pay no mind to this, at least until one starts adding the pieces together and the Fridge Horror sets in. If you are an attractive woman in the Dresdenverse's Chicago, you might be kidnapped, drugged to the gills on the vampire's narcotic saliva, and then unwillingly sold into prostitution to anyone who can pay the right price. Worst of all, you have no choice in the matter, nor any way to prevent it. The vampires can just randomly grab you off the street and do this to you whenever they want. And they're willing to break the supernatural equivalent of the Geneva Convention to do it. Oh, and It Gets Worse. If you are lucky, you can end up as a sex slave to one of these vampires, forced to serve their every whim. That is, until they have a momentary lapse in control and eat you for no reason.
    • Hell, this applies to just about any supernatural nasty that Butcher introduces. With few exceptions, any monster that Harry fights will be A. only one of many, B. active for a long, long time, and/or C. capable of doing horrible, horrible things to people who don't know enough to defend themselves, and whose loved ones will never know what happened.
      So say Harry saves the virginal damsel in distress from the oversized beast that kidnapped her, and plans to rape her and then let his spawn Chest Burster its way out of her. Leaving aside the fairly unique circumstances which led to Harry being able to save the day this time, if he doesn't kill the monster, it's just going to do it again when Harry's not looking, and if he does kill it, there's still more of them out there in places Harry doesn't frequent.
    • In Dead Beat, we learn that the Corpsetaker originally inhabited the body of Doctor Bartlesby, and transferred to the younger body of his assistant, Alicia, before killing the old body in a rather gruesome ritual, while the rest of the body was cut up for food by the doctor's other assistant, a ghoul in disguise. That means that a young woman who was likely innocent and ignorant of her boss and colleague's true nature was suddenly torn out of her body and thrown into a different one, then held down and watched while her own body and face sliced her open and her coworker tore chunks out of her legs, and was fully conscious the entire time. Yee-gads.
    • The Archive, who begins the series as a 7 year old girl, knows everything recorded on paper. Given that we've seen her knowing instantly a note Harry writes on a napkin, we can assume this includes everything from suicide notes, ransom notes, to the nastiest, goriest stories, both real and false, that are written every day. Including any and all printouts of The Eye of Argon, My Immortal and Sonichu. Poor girl.
      • We did mention that all the knowledge and memories of every Archive is passed down directly from Archive to Archive, right? So Ivy not only has no mother, but she knows how much her mother hated the job and how it drove her to suicide. As soon as she was born.
      • Word of God says that she also gets digital content. All of it. Nobody who created the Archive was prepared for the Internet.
    • On another note, Thomas getting tortured by the Skinwalker in Turn Coat. The torture itself is bad enough on its own, but the Skinwalker also kidnaps teenage girls and let Thomas kill them to feed himself. Thomas admits he doesn't even know how many it was. This is twofold. First the realization that Thomas had to kill innocent girls, and second, who do you think SI is going to call on to find the missing girls, or look into the case when it turns out they died without any sign of trauma? That's right, Dresden likely had to investigate his own brother's slaughter, without being able to tell anyone about any of it. Brrrr.
  • The point any area in the Nevernever that connects to the mortal world generally reflects the nature of the mortal area. The point that connects to Harry's apartment? A peaceful, beautiful garden watched over by a terrifying guardian that gets meaner and nastier and more relentless the more you hurt it, which at first glance looks innocuous and generally doesn't get noticed until you step all over it and piss it off. Exactly like Harry. Lea must dig this sort of hilarious parallel design.
  • In one of the books, there is also a throwaway line that mentions faeries making people's hair grow in instead of out. Hahahaha . . . What. I mean, just think about what the possible ramifications of that could be. I . . . don't even want to describe it.
    • Ingrowing hair does actually happen in nature; generally it's a case of a hair's tip getting caught in a pore and carrying on growing, but it also happens inside some tumors.
    • Some legends about werewolves mention that they have fur on the inside while in human form.
    • Look up 'pilonidal cyst.' Now clean up the mess you made of the bathroom. Those are believed to be partially caused by this.
  • In Ghost Story I was initially confused about how Lea could make a reference to Hollywood or snarkily reply to Harry that she "missed that episode" when it's shown how many supernatural creatures are clueless when it comes to pop culture references,but then I remembered Lea gives inspiration to artists in return for their blood and movies have been made into an art form over the years. I wouldn't put it put it past her to sit on her chosen artist's film to see her inspiration fully developed.
    • Thus implying that Lea views Dresden's slow fall into greater and greater ruthlessness and hard-heartedness to be an artistic work.
  • Bob doesn't show up at the end of Ghost Story. The last time we see him, he's fighting essentially his evil twin, an entity with every bit as much power and considerably more ruthlessness than he has, in a battle to the death... what if he lost?
  • In Ghost Story at the meeting of the Chicago Alliance Will is constantly described as terrified of being in Molly's presence again,and I realized there are multiple reasons why he is. Murphy knows her through constant interaction with Harry and Daniel and Forthill are a younger sibling and a respected family friend. At best Billy knows her through the training sessions Harry had her do with the Alphas and Murphy vouching for her. Her illusions are something he can't fight with fangs and teamwork and they affect the main advantage the Alphas have always had which is their minds. No wonder he's not keen on doing another intervention.
  • When the full impact of the bloodline curse becomes evident in Changes -- that it's able to wipe out, not just a single line of ancestry, but all of its side branches also -- you have to wonder about what other uses the Red Court might have made of it, had they succeeded the first time. And then you recall that different vampire breeds have no love for one another ... and that the youngest member of the Raith lineage is Inari, who probably doesn't even have a demon to help her defend herself anymore.
  • After Turn Coat reveals that Peabody is using mind-control inks to influence the Senior Council, it's clear that the Black Council has been nudging their decisions in whatever direction it chooses. If you then re-read Proven Guilty, you find out that the Merlin was actually consulting the traitor for information during Molly's trial! Not only that, but the only reason why McCoy, Listens-to-Wind, and Martha Liberty weren't subjected to this same psychic influence was because they had been in the field when the hearing was called, not at headquarters where Peabody could inflame their suspicions, too. Had they checked in long enough to sign some paperwork, one or more of them could've voted differently.
  • Fridge Horror: There's plenty to be had by the readers, but it is also brought up in-story. In AAAA Wizardry, one of the short stories, Dresden tells a class of junior wardens about a case he had which involved helping a mother whose children were having horrible nightmares. After the story's over, two of the young wardens point out that one of those children exhibited aspects of the gift, which came to the fore in very traumatic circumstances, qualities that, when put together, tend to spell "Warlock." Despite the story's relatively happy ending, Harry and the two young wardens cannot quite shake the thought that the little girl Harry had saved might end up with her head on a warden's chopping block in the future.
    • Lea and Mab. Harry proposes a similar relationship for himself and Mab in Ghost Story. So far she doesn't sound like she wants to go for it.
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