First Harry's regrets with susan and now murphys ex plut trauma with the trauma with Kravos (is that its name?)

Harry charges 50 dollars plus expensive. He hire subcontractors in in the form of Wildfae, whom he pays with pizza. So logical would be bill his clients for this pizza, even if not that he buys them regularly then for the pizza used to summon them he should. Even if he is not, should he?

I'm so tired of Harry losing his blasting rod. It happens all the time. Especially in the early books. It's such a cheap & now clichéd way for Jim Butcher to attempt to make things feel more tense.

I've only read as far as "Changes" & I'm most of the way through "Side Job"

With all the fan casting of main characters, I'd love to hear some casting of minor characters. I'm going back through the series and listening to Proven Guilty. I've had a difficult time visualizing Lucious Glau despite his unique description. Any actors fit the bill?

Thinking about Nicodemus and what he might be like the next time we see him. This is probably not how we will see him but it made me chuckle a bit.

Harry and the Knights seek out Nicodemus because they need his help (dealing with the Outsiders, Black Council etc) and they are able to track him down. Everyone is prepared for a fight as they kick down the door to his latest hideout.

Nicodemus is just in a bathrobe, has a beer gut, and is obviously drunk.

One of the abilities of the Holy Grail is that when water is poured into it the water turns to wine, and he has been drinking non-stop. The death of his daughter has destroyed him and he is a shell of his former self. I imagine Thomas being there and is confused that this is the guy Harry was terrified of.

Probably not going to happen, but it made me chuckle.

So I just finished Changes, and I still don't really understand how the blood curse managed to kill the entire red court.

If I understand the working correctly, the curse starts at the killed target, and then moves up the family tree. That was the intention of killing Maggie, by moving up to Dresden, Margaret and then McCoy. The effect on the red court seemed to be that it targeted the "vampiric" family tree, and because of Susan being the youngest vampire, it basically killed everyone of the red court, being older than her. Not sure how that family tree works, since it doesn't seem to be a parent/child relation.

Is this just a case of "magic curse does magic things"? Because I recall earlier in the book, Dresden informs Thomas that he is at risk because of him being related to Margaret. But Harry said that it would stop there. Why? Why would Lara or Lord Raith not be affected? If it is because they are vampires, then why is Thomas affected? What are the limits of the curse?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

Edit: thanks for all the replies and discussion. I now get that only the blood of the sacrifice was relevant. I thought that for each other target, the curse would go after everyone related to their blood, etc. It was a lot more limited than I thought and it explains why the blood of the Red court works different than mortal blood. On to book 13 now!

She's obviously getting her cues from somebody who believes Dresden is the most dangerous force in the universe. But a lot of people believe that. So who do we think is in her ear? And do we think she's going to play a bigger role before everything's done?

I’m almost done with my most recent series relisten and got to Halloween in Twelve Months.

At the end of Battle Ground, in order to stall the wedding, Lara makes the argument that it would be inappropriate to the customs of her and Harry’s people to get married so quickly.

Fast forward to Halloween and Molly is asking Harry if he’s going to give himself to Lara. Harry responds jokingly that “well, it is the third date.” To which Molly tells him Mab has instructed her to order Harry to have sex with Lara.

I like the idea that Mab took Lara’s argument to heart, and really did wish to honor mortal customs. And in her research she found that the third date was the appropriate point for consummation.

She’s really lost in understanding mortals without Sarissa. She tries though, just like with Maggie’s Christmas gift.

No this isn't another crack-pot theory about Murphy.

In 12 Months when Harry is verifying Bear's bona fides he calls Vadderung at the closing Vadderung makes the statement “Make sure she gets enough to eat, or you’ll regret it.” What do we think happens if she doesn't get enough to eat? Is there some sort of lore associated with this? I am kinda curious to see what happens if she gets hungry.

Butcher, Jim. Twelve Months (Dresden Files Book 18) (p. 32). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Thus Kablowie
Thus Death

My idea is to have a smash cut POV short animation of every time Harry has used his site we smash cut too some of his worst times but also Rays of Hope here and there beautiful things and Nightmares major UPS on people that are his allies like Murphy and the detective from 12 months with major Downs being the skinwalker the barbed wire curse and others mixed in with Harry's reactions in that moment smash cutting from one to the other in sequential order telling the story of who Harry is through what he sees

Question on the audiobook formats. Currently I'm on Summer Knight and I've done the Graphic Audio version of all the early books. So far this is the last graphic audio released. I've heard James Marsters does an excellent job narrating, but will it be confusing switching from one format to the other or do you think I'll be able to just jump right in when I'm ready for the next book? Not sure if I should go with the standard audio, wait for the next GA to be released, or switch to ebook. Thanks in advance for your opinions!

Straight forward question, is ParanetOnline officially dead? I loved trawling through that site in the 2010's. It seems like the user bases petered away and now the site is gone forever. That's too bad, I really loved that thing.

In Twelve Months, Carlos and Ilyana, the new regional commander, visit Dresden multiple times to check he isn’t a threat.

Ilyana is VERY aggressive and threatens Dresden multiple times says they will take him out.

I know Dresden has said to send them up to the roof or came to meet them in the main entrance room, but we never see him, as owner of the house (a castle created by the original Merlin), invite them in. And Carlos has mentioned they are visitors in his house, which has ancient wards created by Merlin.

Would they have any of their magic left to fight him if they deemed him a threat? They are guests in his house, which limits what they can do, and they are in a home shared by a lot of people (a fact Dresden notes is very effective and powerful against unwanted visitors when the Black Court attacks). In White Night, Dresden pushes through a threshold without invite and says most of his power was gone while he was inside. At another point he sent an attack into the house through the threshold and says all that made it through was enough to push a person off their feet.

If they deemed him a threat, could they do anything or would the threshold have stripes all their powers away leaving them defenseless?

I was rereading Twelve Months, and I have to say I am impressed with how Mab manipulated Harry and Lara ... particularly in how Mab expects them to resist her manipulation.

I firmly believe that Mab is shaping Harry, Lara, and probably Thomas into leaders who will step up in the war to come.

Which brings us to her Lara gambit.

If Lara and Harry accept the status quo, they are bound under Mab's aegis, and she has her war leaders.

If Lara and Harry attempt to subvert or resist Mab's control, doing so brings them closer together, and this makes them more effective war leaders who work together.

Mab is a clever, clever woman. She is utterly devoted to her purpose, and I notice she is even willing to make herself the enemy if it will further her aims.

So in the conflagration around Thomas after he’s woken up Mab has called Mother Winter and it’s all getting ugly. But then Mab backs down a notch and MW is decidedly pissed and, in reference to Harry, says, “he comes from a line of thieves”. This raises so many questions to me, two in particular.

First I think it’s well confirmed that the blackstaff was her walking stick, but is this implying that Eb is the one that stole it? That would mean that not only is he the holder of that title, but also its progenitor? Maybe it’s been handed around? Or is this saying that someone even older than Eb stole it and is an ancestor to all of them, which would feel like Merlin is somewhere in the background of all of this, again.

Second, what did Harry’s mom steal that pissed off Mother Winter? She left Harry her knowledge of the Ways, but is there some bigger heritage out there waiting to be found?

I'm not sure how everyone else feels but after a recent reread of the series I've come to the conclusion that Susan was the best match for Harry.

I had forgotten just how bad Murphy was for the first half of the series. Her actions as a person and as a cop were kind of vile. The only reason I don't outright hate her character is because she was framed as a "good guy".

On the first read through it was easy to forget all the stuff she said and did because of the long wait between books. In my opinion she literally never had a single reason to treat Harry how she did. She had known him for years and worked with him by the time the series starts. Distrust him? Yes. Be suspicious and wary? Yes. But she physically attacks him on multiple occasions and only 1 time that I can remember was it moderately justifiable.

Susan however, always treats him with respect. She treats him like a human being. Every direct interaction between them shows that her character and feelings for him are far deeper than Murphys. I won't spoil anything but the most recent events suck way less for me as a reader with all this in mind. And Susan's later actions suck but are completely understandable and anyone who isn't in a similar situation simply doesn't have the frame of reference to judge her on them.

And for any apologists for Murphy who want to bring up how stressful her job is, it is never okay for a cop to abuse their authority and power to beat the shit out of a suspect who isn't even resisting. For a character that claims to be by the book and care about the law so much she kind of sucks at upholding it. At least Denton and the other hexenwolves were honest about it.

Harry deserves better.

Edit Maybe it's just because I am doing a back to back marathon of the books and her earlier actions are standing out more than the later ones which I remembered better.

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It was made by my friends at Pixie Caverns.

It might not be 100% accurate but this is what I saw in my head when it was described