Harry Dresden:Wizard Extraordinaire
PEACE TALKS WILL BE RELEASED JULY 14th, 2020!
Skin Game is out! Please watch your spoilers carefully.1.Who is Harry Dresden?
-Harry Dresden is the main character of a series of books called
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. He is a wizard as he explains numerous times though out the books. He has his own Scooby gang kind of like Buffy. And he fights evil, sometimes has lunch with Faerie Queens and usually ends up blowing at least one building up a book. All in all Harry is a bad ass.
2.
Why should I read about this guy? Isn't this just a Harry Potter the adult ripoff?
-The Dresden Files are some of the most fun books you can find. The characters are witty, the conversations are fun and the action is packed through and through. The more of the books you read the more you get into it. Plus the guy is such a dork it will make you feel better about yourself time and again.
3.OK, this sounds like it might be more fun than poking my eyes with a hot stick or reading Twilight. Where do I start?
-The Dresden Files has turned into a pretty long series. It is 14 books with a 15th on the way. The stories in each book though are pretty self contained and unlike some other Fantasy series it actually has books coming out about once a year. So the wait period isn't 2 years to when the next ice age hits.
The Books in Order
Next Books Title is: Unknown
Short Stories! Thanks Cimmerii for point them out because I always forget about them.
Short Stories for Dresden!Don't forget the graphic novel! Mostly because I did because I am a fool!4. Ok, sir, I have read the books and I am in your thread. What do you want me to do? I mean I am in love with Murphy but how will she ever love a neckbeard like me? What do I discuss in this thread?
-Well, hoss, this is where you talk about the books. Plots, theories, favorite characters and favorite moments. Ask questions about are the books good or which one is your favorite. If you could though hoss avoid the Mary Sue shit. It killed the last thread and many threads before this and we really don't want to bring a satellite down on yah. Also, use spoilers for major events or twist. If you are discussing the new book put everything in spoilers for the newest book, some folks gotta work for a livin'. For older books try to keep it to minor stuff unspoiled and major stuff spoiled. You may discuss relationships unspoiled, if and only if it isn't breaking any of the previous rules. And the same goes for speculatin'. Other than that enjoy the thread.
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I enjoyed them even if the later ones are much better.
I think it should
Hard to believe that OP is like 5 years old.
I update it from time to time but I think it was a late night ramble when I first made it.
Some time next spring is the current estimate.
Aka: "Not Soon Enough".
It was good, but it's a quick read. The art was solid and it gave my my Dresden fix so I was happy. Wish I could tell you more. It's been awhile since I read it. There are actually a few others out now too, though I haven't picked them up yet.
I usually have to push people I've introduced to the series to keep going during Fool Moon. It's a rough read.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Depends on which one.
Welcome to the Jungle is a really nice Side Job story that builds off of a throwaway line or two in Storm Front. It's set just before Storm Front and covers a case Harry works at the zoo.
The Storm Front and Fool Moon graphic novels are pretty good. They're basically condensed versions of the novels.
Ghoul Goblin is good, and fleshed out some story stuff, but probably the lesser of the graphic novels. It covers a family curse and a feud between the title creatures.
War Cry is great, as befitting the first original graphic novel in the series to fit the naming convention. It's set before Changes and it covers Harry and Ramirez as they take out their small squad of trainee wardens on a 'simple' mission.
I think it may be my favourite book of the series - not only because it has smaller scale than epic Dead Beat which makes nice contrast, but also because it's the only book in the series that finished with a lot of questions unanswered so far. I would not be surprised if it turned out, that it's the most important book for the series plot overall.
Spoilers for the entire series!
At the start of the book, Harry gets hit by grey Chrysler, even before he starts investigating anything - yeah, after reading Cold Days we may assume it was Ace, but it would be really boring answer, so i consider him a red herring.
We still dont know who fixed a Little Chicago at the end.
And the most interesting question - what was this all about about Fetches at Splattercon!!! ?
We know that they were after Molly, but someone had to summon them. Harry realizes, that Madrigal Raith was an obvious fall guy, even though he had personaly nothing to do with entire plot - the problem is, that he was invited one year before, so someone was already planning this that long ago.
When Scarecrow attacks Harry, Thomas and Madrigal, he killes Glau, Madrigal's assistant first, which Harry finds suspicious. He propably had something to do with this plot, and was killed so he wouldn't be interrogated.
Who invited Madrigal to Splattercon!!!? Sandra Marling, minor character. There are 2 problems though:
1. She didn;t touch Harry's hand, which, as we remeber, was also used as a plot point in Blood Rites.
2. She is ALSO responsible for giving Molly an idea ofr using fear by mind control on her friends, which starts entire plot.
Coincidence? I don't think so, and i will be highly surprised, it she won;t return in any future book.
Main theory? One of the future books will be about time travel, Prisoner of Azkaban style (and i have to remind - time travel is directly sicussed in this book by Harry nad Bob!), and the story will be about revisiting Proven Guilty plot to find out, what it REALLY was all about.
It is not a new theory, but i like it so much, that i just had to share it here.
I don't buy it.
Second, meta reason: she is dead. If she really fixed Little Chicago, she would mention it to Harry before her death, and now it's too late to do that. Leaving mystery like that unanswered would by a poor writing by author.
My guess? Future Harry.
... or Mab, but she also would metion it by now.
I don't think it was Lash, but if it was, I don't think it would invalidate the idea that the Denarians can't just up and control their hosts. You could argue that at that point Lash was enough of a separate entity that the normal free will constraints weren't as binding, and she was doing something that would be of pure benefit to Harry, so maybe that's an out. It's not good writing though, so hopefully it's not the case.
I'll go with Future Harry too. You need knowledge of Little Chicago, and that's a pretty specialized thing that even a skilled wizard would need time with to get a handle on how it works and how it might be broken. Plus you'd need access, which means going through Harry's wards (either bypassing them or busting through and rebuilding them afterwards), or going in through the Nevernever (which means punching the crap out of two giant centipedes). So with all that, Future Harry is probably the best bet.
Well, alternate history Harry and Molly.
Cowl has connections specifically to He Who Walks Behind, has knowledge of the Darkhallow and hatred of Kemmler and his acolytes, he believes that the White Council is dark and corrupt, he has a hatred of the Winter Sidth, knowledge of the internal politics of the White Court, knows Bob is with Harry (when not even the other Kemmlerites knew), has the chance to kill Ramirez, but instead throws him free from the Darkhallow.
I'm saying he has a lot of overlap and knowledge with Harry.
Kumori knows about Harry's magical items (naming them specifically when asking him to disarm himself), uses Japanese when casting spells (her name also means "cloudiness"), and has a more gentle nature than Cowl.
She has some crossover with Molly, but she really only gets one solid appearance in the books so there's less evidence.
Now, imagine Harry going through the books without any of the stuff we know Cowl or the Black Council did in the background.
Harry isn't clued in to people like Victor Sells, the hexenwulfs, or the Darkhallow.
The Winter Court doesn't know about the infiltration among them or others.
Molly isn't discovered as a witch until some time later as the Fetches don't have the free run to leave Arctis Tor and alert Harry.
Little Chicago isn't almost destroyed by Cowl, so Harry isn't forced into examining it again.
Harry doesn't get the upper hand on the White Court politically.
The White Council doesn't have the same kind of fighting against the Red Court with Black Council representatives that forces certain traitors within it to hold off their plans.
I'm willing to bet there's a lot more that has to do with tipping the odds more into Harry's favor.
Harry would be a different and possibly much darker person, and wouldn't have been there to stop some world changing events.
So, Harry and Molly, at the end of the world, facing the inevitable apocalypse that would have resulted, and finally with the full knowledge of what is going to happen decide that the way to survive is to break laws of magic, and go back in time to stop it.
So they orchestrate plans that would allow them to clue in people about the threats while trying to gain enough power themselves to fight off the oncoming apocalypse. They adopt disguises to allow their alternate selves to go on normally and with only a few interventions to clue them in or to prevent certain disasters.
Overall, Cowl and the others do a lot of damage to people, but seem to hold back when it comes to directly hurting certain people or to hiding their plans.
Yeah, it's popular theory, but i don't like it. Also, assuming that Cowl tells the truth during dialogues, it gives a counterargument to your theory.
For me, there is only one possible explanation: Cowl is Simon Petrovich, a.k.a. White Courst member who dies off-screen at the start of Summer Knight.
Others assume that his Death Curse killed a lot of vampires on Archangel, but considering what powerhouse Cowl / Simon is, he could do that any other way.
He also have suprisingly large presence in a text, even though he doesn't appear even once: almost every book he is referenced at least once, if he isn't - The Archangel is. Almost, as if author didn't want the reader to forget about his name...
Also, food for thought: he was Justin Du Morne teacher, and as such, he would know about Bob - and obviously, Cowl knows about Bob existence in Dead Beat.
At this point, it's the only explanation that would be satisfying for me.
Harry had the potential to be one of the strongest wizards on the council. And then he started tapping new power sources. The wardens are right to fear what he coould become.
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One spirit of intellect with centuries of knowledge that is already on the 'banned entities' list.
One newbie spirit of intellect who may or may not have inherited the knowledge of a fallen angel.
One semi-sentient supermax prison chock full of crazy evil things whose failsafe is an explosion somewhere between Krakatoa and Yellowstone going off.
Some stuff Butcher has revealed about the Peace Talks
She knows a lot of information, but has no context for it.
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I'd like to know if other wizards have similar things that we just don't see, or if there's some reason for Harry to have these things that nobody else gets.
I can buy Molly only having been able to put together her wands, and Ramirez is younger, too, at least at first. But Luccio, Morgan, and a lot of the bad guys we've seen seem like they would really benefit from stuff similar to Harry's.
The world does seem awfully full of magical dohickies and whatdos.
Well, most of that list is standard wizard gear (foci for wards or fire magic, general purpose focus, warded clothing).
Luccio actually does have artifacts she makes. Per Turn Coat I think?
I would say that the things Harry has made that are truly unique inventions are probably:
Force rings - clever evocation magic basically (one of his specialties)
Little Chicago - a masterpiece of thaumaturgy
Antidote for Red Court saliva - Bob helped and it was half guesswork. I think it's stated offhand somewhere that it was quickly improved by the council once war broke out, so more of a "Harry needed it first" thing.
I think Little Chicago is the only thing Harry has made that would actually be beyond the level of the average wizard who had a use for it. Some of what he does is definitely clever (the rings, which I don't know if he shared with the council but are probably low-level things anyone can copy, at least the early versions).
But as far as being unusual in his total number of gadgets I think it's implied that most wizards eventually create a lot of tools. Harry does have Bob though, which is an unusual advantage in learning/creating new tricks.
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As a wizards get more experience, they might come to rely less on enchanted items and magic potions that need to be made in advance and more on just doing it with magic when the need arises.
Not to say that there's no value in crafting magic items, doing so let's a wizard hone their craft in a way that is less likely to leave a crater, and can lead to new ways of thinking about and implementing magic effects.
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That does not explain
I'm pretty sure I remember reading something where Jim indicated that most of the top wizards have bargains and resources and secret allies up the wazoo. Harry is mostly unusual in that respect in how quickly he's gaining them and how ahead of the power curve they are. You can see hints that throughout - McCoy seems to be on good terms with Odin already, and called on a race of bird people to help in Changes, wields the Blackstaff, etc, and it goes almost without saying that the Gatekeeper probably has a huge number of allies and resources that can call upon. Listens-to-Wind, Ancient Mai, etc, they probably all have a ton of contacts, allies, secret power sources, artifacts, etc.
Similarly, I think the Apocalyptic Trilogy that's supposed to cap this series off will have similar chips being cashed in and IOU's called into play, but on a much larger scale.
Considering what Harry brought to the table, I can't imagine what the entire council would bring to bear in a showdown like that.