Kincaid: I am an expert sniper. I have been shooting guns since their invention. I can gauge wind speeds, distance, terrain, even the curvature of the Earth. I can make a headshot at a distance of nearly 3 kilometers.
Molly: Ookay. So, um, what are you making?
Kincaid: *knitting* It’s a scarf for Ivy. So she doesn’t get cold in the winter.
Harry building a bike for Maggie while aided by Mouse was incredibly cute.
Mab has seen Frozen confirmed. And of course her gift is scary.
Molly seems to heading into surrogate sister territory since her kiss on Harry’s cheek is described as sisterly. Also she seems way more comfortable in her Winter Lady role.
Kringle delivering that cup of coffee was wonderful. Also Harry owed Vadderung a favor from Cold Days and their meeting seemed a little tense.
Peace Talks stuff - According to Jim it would be all right, everyone would have tea and lunch and go home just fine.
HA!
Tens of thousands injured and in need of medical care. Thousands dead. What the fuck. And some of them seem personal?
Who is dead? Thomas? Justine? Murphy (who was in bad shape at the end of Skin Game only a few months earlier), Ramirez? Luccio? The Alphas? Ebenezer?????
I knew the masquerade would be broken in this book since Jim confirmed we’d get a battle in view of mortals that could not be covered but nothing on this scale.
All in all this was a cozy slice of life short story that was perfect for Christmas. And just enough teasing of things to come in Peace Talks. Seriously, thousands dead……wtf….I need that damn book….
I usually despise the idea of ‘fixing’ a story. I feel like stories should be left as their authors wrote them even if I don’t agree with what happened. But re reading Peace Talks and Battle Ground really makes me want to write a fanfic that fixes them. It’d bring the two stories together in a manner that doesn’t feel like this Frankensteinesque stitched together *thing*, cut back on some parts of the story and cut others entirely, expand on a few specific plot points and deal with that mid point in a very different way. Hopefully the end result would be something that feels like one smooth story that works well and doesn’t leave me kinda disappointed about the whole thing.
So apparently a new Dresden book called ‘Twelve Months’ will be up next before we get Mirror Mirror. Neat. I hope we meet the Librarians, get some Winter/White Court-ing (get it?) shenanigans and some much needed quiet character moments
What bugs me about Karrin’s death is quite a number of readers are fine with it bc it shows that anyone can die and mortals are deadly or some kinda bullshit.
It’s safe to say the fandom would be pissed if Thomas or Michael or Marcone or even a pre Winter Lady Molly randomly got shot and killed halfway through a book by a stupid cop. No one would be saying that it was a oddly fitting end. But a lot of the Dresden fandom has always had a weird dislike of Murphy.
I wasn’t super attached to the character (blame Joe Abercrombie for my avoiding getting too invested in characters) and I was even fine with the idea of her possibly dying. If it was handled well. It wasn’t. She takes down a damned Jotun despite being in poor shape and barely healed after the beating from Nicodemus. Then Rudolph just offs her because he’s a frightened, stupid and sorry excuse for a human being.
Then there’s Butters attempting to chill Harry out by explaining ‘Rudolph’s’ side of things. I know it’s set in 2014 but with a real world release in 2020 after 4 years of ever increasing police violence, it feels gross. So many murderous cops have used excuses like they felt threatened or afraid and it all gets swept under the rug.
So Murphy gets a shit death that a number of fans are fine with when they’d react with outrage if any other main supporting characters got offed like that AND the story has the supporting characters try to make Harry and the reader empathize with her cop-murderer.
It’s so bad. Jesus Christ. Would it have been so difficult to give her a fitting death scene IF she had to go? Shiro got a fitting death and so did Morgan, even Deirdre’s death felt better handled than Murphy’s. Deirdre. The incestuous, psychotic host of a Fallen who has committed countless horrific acts gets a better death than one of the main characters.
My only comfort is knowing she’ll likely be back for the big apocalyptic trilogy. Ragnarok will be one of the end times scenarios happening there so I feel certain the rule about her being unable to return until she’s forgotten will be thrown out.
Mirror Mirror is traveling to an alternate timeline.
Book 19 (pre PT split) is confirmed to involve time travel. It’s now book 21 most likely unless Butcher mixes the last denarian book with the time book which I do not see happening.
Then there’s the BAT. Certain rules about characters returning have to be followed but the whole purpose of that group is that they’re reserved for Ragnarok.
So never fear because we’ve not seen the last of that character.
Faerie gets wrecked, Titania is the final boss due to nemesis infection or simply deciding to off Harry as shit hits the apocalyptic fan, Mab and Titania both die and Molly and Sarissa become the new Winter and Summer Queens of the decimated Courts who rally behind Harry for the rest of the BAT. There’s a confrontation with Drakul as well but he survives till Empty Night (book 3). Ebenezer dies but Harry swipes the Blackstaff and returns it to Mother Winter who gets to take a stroll to the Outer Gates and sacrifice herself at the end of the book to deal a major blow to the Outsiders thus buying reality (and Harry) time to find a way to save the universe later in the trilogy.
Hells Bells
I’m not too sure about this one but it is confirmed Harry travels to Hell to retrieve Hell’s Bells. Lucifer will also appear. I believe Skin Game was a test run for Hell’s Bells and Harry will be accompanied by Nicodemus, Marcone, Butters, Sanya and whoever the Knight of Love (Murphy?) is. I think Nicodemus (and Lucifer) have some sort of plan in mind that involves binding and harming the White God. Lasciel will also show up again.
Empty Night
Harry vs Drakul is guaranteed due to both being Starborn who hold power over Outsiders. Lara and Thomas play big roles here as the White Court pre Cold Days/Battle Ground were the group that used the Empty Night curse most. Harry vs He Who Walks Behind.
General Speculation
Listens to Wind is a Black Council member and will kill Ebenezer. Cowl is Simon Petrovich and another candidate for killing Ebenezer. Harry does not kill Ferrovax himself but there is a scene with aircraft carriers Jim Butcher has had in his mind for ages. Harry may use the eye of Balor to kill one of his heavyweight enemies (Drakul, Titania, Ferrovax, A Walker). Harry will meet the original Merlin.
Yup. I think that’s the pairing Butcher wants but he’ll save it for the end when the story’s done and the fan reaction (good or bad) isn’t likely to matter. You’ll notice Molly has been quite literally put on ice. It’s gross but I think Butcher is preserving her for whenever he decides to have Harry and Molly be a thing (probably somewhere in the last 3 books).
After the previous post, it’s only a matter of time before someone feels the need to say something silly about what constitutes a wizard, so I figured I’d head this one off at the pass and present this handy guide to differentiating a beach Witch from a beach Wizard.
Since I’ve been mainly playing games and watching animation here’s my first picks for voice cast along the gifs of the character that convinced me. Also one character per series or it’s just Castlevania. Also no James Marsters because he’s too easy.
