The Dresden Files/Tropes N-Z: Difference between revisions

* [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]]: Which is made of inherited silver.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: Despite there being 12 books in the series there have been very few duplicate names, and never amongst the primary cast. Archangel Michael and Michael Carpenter come close, but the former never appears "on screen". Michael did name his youngest son Harry after Harry.

** If you're willing to give a little, there's Justin, Harry's former teacher, and Justine, Thomas's lover.

** Also, Molly's full name is Margaret, just like Harry's mom {{spoiler|and his daughter.}}

** Almost lampshaded in ''Death Masks''. Harry is about to initiate a duel against a powerful Red Court vampire named Ortega. The duel's moderator tells them they can make an opening statement. Ortega says something almost poetic and respectful. Harry takes a swig of his anti-vampire-mind-control potion and burps.

* [[Pop-Cultured Badass]]: Harry, Harry, Harry. His somewhat outdated references are [[Lampshaded]] by Molly in ''Changes'' (and sub-sequentially mirrored in ''Ghost Story''.)

'''Harry:''' That is why you fail. }}

* [[The Pornomancer]]: Deconstructed. Thomas can not keep a minimum-wage job because his [[Incubus]] powers make people sexually assault him and, thanks to the [[Double Standard]], he gets fired for it.

** Later in ''Dead Beat'', when facing Corpsetaker, Harry describes a variety of ways that holding power manifests around wizards, many of which fall at least loosely into this category.

** Harry borrows the power of Summer to administer a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] to a seriously powerful elder fetch with an epic [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]]:

** Mouse's paws glow when he's preparing to kick some evil ass.

** The Swords of the Cross frequently glow when wielded. The light is seen to be inherently painful to various evil beasties.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Stronger curse words are relatively rare in the books, so when someone drops an F bomb you know that either someone is ''very'' angry, or something is ''very'' wrong.

** When Harry and Michael discuss Harry's {{spoiler|buried Blackened Denarius}}, and what he had to do to get rid of {{spoiler|Lasciel's Shadow}}.

'''Harry:''' "Fuck that." }}

** The scene at the end of ''Dead Beat'' when Harry is talking to {{spoiler|Mavra}}.

** In ''Proven Guilty'' Harry has to convince Molly that she needs to stop acting like a child, take him seriously, and not try to manipulate him like he is just kindly ol' Uncle Harry who has never been anything but sweet to her. So when she tries to go back on her promise to do what Harry tells her, he looks at her threateningly and says "Now get the fuck into the car."

** Harry to Molly again in ''White Night'' during his [[Scare'Em Straight]] attempt. He only uses words like "damned" and mentions that it is just as effective because he doesn't even curse lightly around Michael's family.

** After Father Roarke kidnaps Alicia to get at Fidelacchius and Amoracchius, Harry and Michael go to Forthill for info. When Forthill tries to reason with them:

* [[Private Detective]]: Harry, technically, and Vince in ''Turn Coat''. {{spoiler|Elaine Mallory, as of ''White Night.'' She admits that she stole the idea from Harry}}

* [[Private Eye Monologue]]: The books are narrated by Harry in the first person and he ''is'' a [[Private Detective]], so we get hardboiled inner monologues like this:

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: Harry, of course, and Murphy. The funny thing is, by ''Changes'', even Butters has been infected with paranoia.

* [[Public Domain Artifact]]: Several times. The Knights of the Cross each have a magical evil-fighting sword that supposedly has a nail from the True Cross in the hilt, and ''Ghost Story'' confirms that they are {{spoiler|[[King Arthur|Excalibur]], [[The Song of Roland|Durendal]], and [[Japanese Mythology|Kusanagi]]}}. The Shroud of Turin itself is the [[MacGuffin]] in the fifth book. In addition, Nicodemus wears the same noose Judas used to hang himself and the Blackened Denarii are probably the very same 30 pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying Jesus.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: At Dragon*Con 2010, Jim told the audience that, when his son was 8, they had to move to Pennsylvania. To make up for leaving his friends behind, the Butcher's got him a dog. Jim then explained that Mouse was based on how his dog saw himself.

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Several of the Denarians are 2000 years old or close to it. The Red King, Arianna Ortega, and pretty much every high ranking god or wizard qualifies.

* [[Remember That You Trust Me]]: Harry's interaction with Murphy. Both are guilty of this. This is actually a recurring theme; Harry is both [[Properly Paranoid|paranoid]] and protective of his friends, remembering to trust them is a lesson he learns again and again.

* [[Remember the New Guy?]]: Michael. He was introduced in ''Grave Peril'' and has known Harry for at least five years, but he had neither appeared nor was mentioned in the preceding two books or any of the short stories that take place in the earlier time periods.

== S-U ==

* [[Sacred Hospitality]]: Most of the supernatural community is hundreds of years old and grew up in a different social world (the Old World). This shows up in the treaty which outlines the rules for hospitality and diplomacy among supernatural communities. Guests in a home are privy to protection by the host, but are also expected to act honorably towards the home's owner, and they treat violations of these customs as grave offenses. Harry used this and a bit of [[Quote Mine|Quote Mining]] to talk his way out of being killed by the denizens of {{spoiler|the Erlking's Hall}} when he accidentally ends up there in ''Changes'', and extends the traditions of hospitality himself to others.

{{spoiler|"You came to me for help and I'm doing my best. Hell, the kid has put herself in harm's way, trying to protect you. I've done everything for you that I would have for blood family, because you are my guest. There are monsters from whom I would expect better behavior, once they had accepted my hospitality. What's more, they'd give it to me." }} }}

* [[Sad Clown]]: Harry.

* [[Soul Jar]]: The Blackened Denarii.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]

** When called on this:

*** [[Lampshade Hanging]]: "You just used obviate and ain't in the same sentence."

* [[Spirit Advisor]]:

* [[Spirit World]]: the Nevernever, realm of faeries, demons, and other supernatural whatsits.

* [[Squick]]: In-universe. Harry is understandably... perturbed... by the nature of the relationship between Nicodemus and his daughter, Deirdre.

She slid onto his lap and did. With tongue. Yuck. }}

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Averted. Wizards are physically weaker than most of the supernatural creatures encountered in the series, but that still leaves them (slightly) physically tougher than normal humans, able to heal and recuperate from damage that would normally prove fatal or debilitating. In addition, most wizards we see are veterans of some kind of combat, so what they lack in physical ability they deliberately make up for in spells or enchantments.

* [[Taking You with Me]]: The principle of a Wizards Death Curse, which [[Cast From Hit Points|kills the wizard]] but allows them to strike out at whatever they feel deserves their dying wrath.

* [[Tall, Dark and Snarky]]: Harry. He is also fond of making his own snarky variations of "[[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]" to refer to supernatural beings.

* [[Tell Me About My Father]]: Harry never has to ask his father about his mother; he notes that his father had told him so much about her that he felt as if he had known her, so he never felt the need.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: Harry. ''All the time.''

* [[Terror Hero]]: Harry is an unintentional Type 3.

* [[Thanatos Gambit]]:

** In ''Turn Coat''. Dresden gets one of these by inviting three renegade factions to the same location to play them off against each other. He later reveals that this was all a setup to get surveillance photos of the real traitor when they find out about the fray. He would have liked to catch the traitor on the scene; the photos (and Mouse) were just a backup plan. He lays it out once the gambit pays off: "But lately I've thinking that you don't ever plan on a single path to victory. You set things up so you've got more than one way to win." This particular gambit, while it succeeds, is a bit undermined when Ebenezar points out the ways it could have failed, to which the only sensible reply is "I got lucky."

* [[You Can Barely Stand]]: Harry is rarely in any decent shape to even be walking by the time the real fighting has rolled around. Take for instance ''Fool Moon'' where he actually has to ''work'' to blow out a camera, or ''Dead Beat'', where the only reason he can move at all for most of the Final Battle is Lash's assistance. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in ''Changes'' where Harry eventually {{spoiler|gets his back broken so he ''literally'' cannot stand}}. However, he {{spoiler|makes a deal with Mab, The Winter Queen, and becomes her Knight, but he gets to save his daughter first.}} After that, he is fit as a fiddle and ready to rock. Lampshaded in the RPG, when he complains about how he is always beaten up in the pictures. Quoth Billy:

* [[You Have Failed Me]]: Every odd numbered lackey.

* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: Snarl.