The Dresden Files/Tropes A-M: Difference between revisions

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: {{spoiler|Carmichael, Morgan, Susan, and even Harry himself.}}

* [[Armor Is Useless]]: Generally averted; while Kevlar vests are usually not sufficient against most supernatural threats, everyone who knows what they are up against makes sure to include mail of various kinds, generally chain or plate, to deflect claws or blades. Charity even gave Murphy a bulletproof vest with titanium chainmail fitting underneath for Christmas.

* [[Army of Lawyers]]: It is mentioned many times that [[The Don|Marcone]] has one to protect him from any kind of legal charges.

* [[Artistic License Geography]]: The Chicago of the early books is not quite the Chicago of reality. Butcher cleans up his geographical act by the later books, though.

* [[Ask a Stupid Question]]: Michael ''loves'' these, being in a position to innocently pull off these [[Captain Obvious]] quips.

"Jesus did believe in demons," Michael said, his voice quiet. }}

* [[Asteroids Monster]]: Several critters in the series have this ability. Certain trolls, for example, shed lots of little trolls when they are wounded. The Denarian Tessa while in mantis form also bleeds countless tiny bugs which recombine into her primary body as a sort of [[Terminator|T-1000-esque]] regeneration. The guardian centipede in Lea's garden {{spoiler|on the other side of the Nevernever from Harry's apartment}} splits into two separate insects when Harry slices it in half, prompting Lea to complain that now she has two gaping maws to feed.

* [[Classical Movie Vampire]]: The Black Court Vampires (or, to quote Harry, [[The Nicknamer|blampires]]). In fact, [[Dracula|Stoker's book]] was written and published on the orders of the White Court in order to help teach [[Muggle|muggles]] how to fight the Black Court.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]

* [[The Collector of the Strange]]: Harry Dresden has a collection of vampire fangs (not the hinged plastic kind), parts of rhino horns, depleted uranium dust and spell/potion ingredients.

** Also a lion scrotum. It was a gift. Stop looking at me like that.

* [[Crime of Self Defense]]: The White Council believes that all killing using magic is bad, even in self defense.

* [[Crossover Cosmology]]: Big G [[God]] exists in the Dresdenverse and is fairly active, and so are all the demons and angels that come with Him. However, the Fae are real and there are various demons, loa, and other supposedly mythological spirits and creatures around that Dresden can call up. The Norse gods formed a corporation relating to magical security.

* [[Curse]]: Several varieties, including a Wizard's Death Curse.

* [[Cuteness Proximity]]: Ivy, the all-knowing Archive in ''Death Masks'', is all business when introducing herself and her purpose for visiting Harry... but goes to full 7-year-old little girl mode when [[Mega Neko|Mister]] enters the room. Or, in ''Small Favor'', goes to full 12-year-old little girl mode when she sees otters. ''Otters!''

** Skinwalkers are said to be able to draw power from people's fear so potently that even so much as ''talking'' about them can strengthen them. Subsequently, the Navajo tribespeople who know of them tend to not discuss them with outsiders, meaning that those who encounter them will probably not recognise them, which ''also'' leads to fear of them.

* [[Enemy Within]]: Subverted. Harry does have an inner subconscious persona, but he is really harmless, or at worst annoying. Harry thinks his inner self pronounces words like "issues" funny and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in his first appearence.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: More than a few villainous characters have worked with Harry for this reason.

** Thomas Raith's motivation for helping Harry out. {{spoiler|He lied. It is actually because Harry is his half-brother, through their Mom.}}

* [[Fascinating Eyebrow]]: Harry is a fan of the inquisitive eyebrow arch, and his narration in ''Death Masks'' describes it as Spock-like.

* [[Faux Yay]]

* [[Fearless Fool]]

* [[Femme Fatale]]: Too many to list. Once again -- subject of ''a lot'' of lampshade hanging.

* [[First-Person Smartass]]: Harry Dresden, primarily, though Thomas Raith exemplifies this trope in the novella ''Backup''.

* [[Five-Man Band]]:

[[Team Pet]]: Mouse. }}

* [[First-Name Basis]]

* [[Flat Earth Atheist]]: Sanya (see [[Church Militant]] example above). Sanya has a pretty sophisticated and logical personal philosophy on all the supernatural stuff. He lives in a world with ridiculously powerful beings who are not actually worshipped or called gods, and it is possible for mere mortals to gain near-godlike power. So why assume that one particular powerful entity really is a god, or God? And his mission, as he points out, is worthwhile whether he was given his task by a real angel or not, because either way he is still [[We Help the Helpless|helping the helpless]].

* [[Flowery Elizabethan English]]: [[The Sidhe]] and other immortals have a tendency to talk this way.

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]:

** Harry has not only fought and killed in the protection of the innocent, but tortured, manipulated and ''executed'' for the greater good. As he pointed out to Molly when she continued to disobey his instructions, he is ''not'' [[This Is Reality|some fictional character who can always avoid tough decisions]].

** Also shown in ''Death Masks'', where Harry and the Knights of the Cross are confronted by a willing collaborator of the Denarians who [[I Surrender, Suckers|surrenders and sarcastically promises to repent]], all the while [[Smug Snake|taunting them smugly]] because the Knights are bound to not judge or punish, but only to fight the evil possessing the Denarians. {{spoiler|Once the Knights leave, [[Shut UP, Hannibal|Harry takes a baseball bat to the man's kneecaps]].}}

** The White Council of Wizards as a whole is judgemental, hypocritical, isolationist and violent. However, even Harry eventually agrees that their bloody actions are exactly what is needed to protect humanity from supernatural threats, and perhaps even from wizardkind themselves. Their tendency to execute without a second glance is not because they enjoy the blood, but because there is no other option.

* [[Good Is Not Soft]]: The Knights of the Cross will try to persuade the Denarian-possessed to turn away from evil, but won't shy from taking heads if refused.

** Certain supernatural creatures have more enhanced versions. The RPG rulebook puts it at three levels, the highest of which allows a creature to heal from something that would normally take months or years within minutes.

* [[Held Gaze]]: There's even has a name for this - the Soulgaze, where two people catch a glimpse of each other's souls because they share a gaze. One of them has to be a wizard to trigger it, though.

* [[Hermetic Magic]]: Most magic in the series is either this or [[Summon Magic]]. Both may be powered by [[Life Energy]], but especially this.

* [[Hero of Another Story]]:

* [[Ignore the Fanservice]]: Practically a running gag, though he does have to exercise some forced methods of control. One time Harry winds up dumping ice water on his crotch. The next time he dumps the water on the temptress.

** [[Hormone-Addled Teenager|Molly]] is really bad about this, though. In ''White Night'', when Harry and Murphy talk about Murphy's sexual escapades with Kincaid in Hawaii, Molly, who is reading a book, drops the book on her face in surprise, then tries to act uninterested.

* [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad]]: White Court Vampires are born, not "made" like the other Courts, and become vampires if they feed on someone before truly falling in love. Raith manipulates his children to make sure they turn, then he ensures his daughters' loyalties [[Parental Incest|through disturbing means]] and kills his sons before they can become threats. This is a large part of the reason behind Thomas' [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].

* [[I Know Your True Name]]: True names (i.e. a person's name pronounced ''exactly'' the way they do so themselves) grant a wizard power over the one named, to the point that demons will consider a portion of a person's name from their own lips to be worthy payment for a service. Some dragons are apparently so powerful they only need part of the name, and Harry wonders what he could do with the full one. However, it is pointed out that humans are far more mutable than supernatural beings, so a human's True Name can change over time.

** Dimensional travel assumes the Law of Infinite Universes, and there is a wizard with the task of guarding certain dimensions.

* [[Layman's Terms]]: Lampshaded in ''Summer Knight'', when Harry stops to give a massive plant monster a cool name, simply because such a thing ''needs'' a cool name.

'''Murphy''': ''"Oh."'' }}

* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Every now and then, Harry says things which are clearly directed at the audience. Probably the most egregious example is in ''Fool Moon'' when he jumps out of a moving car and the text reads, without any spoken dialogue, "Don't look at me that way." The RPG refers to the books as his case files, and he quite rightly expect that someone other then himself will be reading those case files in the future.

* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Ivy takes this to levels unequaled by pretty much anyone else, ever. For one thing, she can control Mordite, a literal piece of antilife, with needle-threading precision.

* [[Living Shadow]]: Nicodemus has one of these that can ''strangle people'' and ''fly''. The shadow is not even his Denarian form. To quote Jim:

* [[Loners Are Freaks]]: Harry spends the first few books as a "loner", but less so in the later books when he builds up a decent group of [[True Companions]]. It is worst between ''Grave Peril'' and ''Summer Knight'', when he is trying desperately to figure out how to cure a loved one of vampirism.

* [[Long Running Book Series]]

** {{spoiler|Lara Raith}} eventually comes to rule the entire White Court in this way, after {{spoiler|learning her father is unable to feed thanks to Margaret Dresden's curse on him, and then proceeds to literally [[Mind Rape]] him into her slave.}}

* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: The sex lives of some of the guys in the series bring this trope into play straight or with twists. Carlos, the big talker, subverts this in ''White Knight'' as he really is a virgin. Harry, needless to say, laughs himself sick.

* [[Masquerade]]: Though most of the supernatural creatures do not really bother to hide themselves, the public [[Weirdness Censor|refuses to believe they exist]]. Harry himself pays very little attention to the Masquerade, he is in the Yellow Pages under "Wizards". The vampires, demons, and the other supernatural creatures usually try to sweep their tracks, because if normals find out that they exist the general response for all of them will be [[Kill It with Fire]] and [[Muggle Power|they will be totally outnumbered]].

* [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]]: The Fae courts control global climate change.

*** [[All There in the Manual|The RPG]] states the Dresden gets his last name from the Dresden Carpet Bombings fitting him as [[Person of Mass Destruction]].

** Nicodemus Archleone.

** Michael Carpenter. Michael, as in the archangel, and Carpenter, as in Jesus' day job, and Michael is an ''actual'' carpenter to boot.

** Thomas' sister Inari. Inari was the god of, among other things, foxes/kitsune in Japan. Given the folklore surrounding kitsune, it was kind of obvious who Inari was before it was said outright.

** In "Small Favor" {{spoiler|Uriel disguises himself as a janitor}} named Jake when Harry is in the chapel questioning God. In the Bible, Jacob wrestled an angel and got some cool perks out of it. Harry gets encouragement and knowledge of soulfire.

* [[Mega Neko]]: Harry's cat, Mister. He is huge. Seriously. Easily thirty pounds and described by Harry as potentially part bobcat. In the comics, he says he feeds Mister sheep.

* [[Merlin and Nimue]]: Not ''the'' Merlin, the official leader of the White Council, but Harry himself. He has a younger apprentice of the opposite sex who he is training in magic and has a strong personal connection with; Harry was friends with her father for years before ever taking her as an apprentice. Harry is also guarding [[The Sword in the Stone]] ( {{spoiler|or rather, he was until ''Changes''}}) and looking, when he can be bothered, for a suitable user for it.

* [[Mind Control]]: {{spoiler|Molly Carpenter}}, who has developed a ''very'' bad habit of entering people's minds without their permission. Her intent is always good, but the results are not. {{spoiler|She has driven her ex-boyfriend into permanent insanity by trying to frighten him away from drug use. She also invaded the mind of Captain Luccio -- and got caught by Morgan. If Morgan had turned them in when he got caught, or had told Luccio what Molly had done, both Molly and Harry would have been beheaded automatically.}} By Dresdenverse rules, invading another's mind and compelling someone to do something (or not do something) against his/her will not only breaks two of the Laws of Magic and can cause permanent psychological damage to both the victim and the perpetrator, but is [[The Dark Side|highly addictive]] [[Black Magic]].