History Awesome / BloodRites

* Harry is CrazyPrepared enough to keep ''water baloons filled with holy water'' in his car.

** The climax, where Harry tricks Lord Raith into revealing his weakness--namely, his inability to feed due to Margaret Dresden's death curse--with Lara Raith as a witness, thereby allowing her to take over in a coup d'etat. Even ''Lara'', no slouch at political intrigue herself, is impressed. Harry might not resort to [[XanatosSpeedChess subtlety]] often, but when he does he is ''good'' at it.

** And since Harry cannot use magic directly against Lord Raith due to his AntiMagic aura via Outsider protection, Harry simply shifts to guns and knives. And beating him up with keys under magical magnetism.

* Awesome moment for Creator/JimButcher: ''Blood Rites'' has two of the best opening and closing lines in all of fiction. Opening: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." Closing: "'Hey. Why did you get ''large breed'' puppy chow?'"

** Once they are out of range, Harry lets loose a massive fireball between the ""Demon Kong Voltron's"" eyes, blowing its head off, damaging its vessel beyond repair, showing that the [[IAmNotLeftHanded only reason he wasn't destroying them was to prevent the puppies he was rescuing from being caught in the collateral damage]].

* In the ActionPrologue, Harry stomps in a demon monkey's nose to protect a puppy, [[spoiler: meeting Mouse for the first time]], then smacks down another with a fire extinguisher.

* [[spoiler: Mouse]]'s EstablishingCharacterMoment. While his the rest [[spoiler: of his littermates]] are cowering in fear of approaching demons, he is ''not''. He is facing them.

---> [[spoiler: "Leave me alone, ''Mister Dresden''."]]

* Awesome moment for Creator/JimButcher: ''Blood Rites'' has two of the best opening and closing lines in all of fiction. Opening: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." Closing: [[spoiler:"'Hey. Why did you get ''large breed'' puppy chow?'"]]
* Harry and Murphy, with a little magical help, motorcycle-joust a car [[spoiler:loaded with Lord Raith's goons]] and send the car hurtling away on fire.
* The climactic battle of Harry and Murphy vs the BigBad, [[spoiler: Lord Raith]]. The villain proves to be '''''several levels above''''' the rest of his kind, and this was ''years after being cut off from his full power''. [[spoiler: And considering how Thomas described how wracking the thirst is for a White Court vampire in the next book, its amazing how he managed to retain what little sanity he had]].
** The climax, where Harry [[spoiler:tricks Lord Raith into revealing his weakness--namely, his inability to feed due to Margaret Dresden's death curse--with Lara Raith as a witness, thereby allowing her to take over in a coup d'etat.]] Even ''Lara'', no slouch at political intrigue herself, is impressed. Harry might not resort to [[XanatosSpeedChess subtlety]] often, but when he does he is ''good'' at it.
---> [[spoiler:'''Lara Raith''':]]You've made me the cat's-paw for you, Dresden. While making me think I had the advantage of you. You've played me at my own game, and ably. I thought you capable of nothing but overt action. Clearly I underestimated you.\\

*** Also a crowning moment for [[spoiler: Margaret Dresden herself; even when she was dying, she knew ''exactly'' how to hurt Lord Raith and eventually destroy him - leaving him to starve until someone could finish the job.]]
** And since [[spoiler: Harry cannot use magic directly against Lord Raith due to his AntiMagic aura via Outsider protection, Harry simply shifts to guns and knives. And beating him up with keys under magical magnetism.]]
* While it's an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, [[spoiler:[[BrokenBird Lara Raith's]] RapeAndRevenge against her evil father and turning him into her puppet to continue ruling the White Court as she commands certainly counts.]]
** Even more impressive is the effect that Lara's power has on [[spoiler: Harry as he leaves; just the smell of her hair is very nearly enough to make him drop to the ground and crawl back, and she implies that once she really gets going, it'll get ''worse''... and this is still only her ambient, unfocused power, against someone ''who still has True Love's protection''.]]

** The next book reveals that [[spoiler: it was simultaneously a villainous example for ''Mavra herself'', as she'd not only survived, but staged it all in order to collect blackmail material on Murphy.]]
*** [[spoiler: Mavra gets another Villainous Example. She manages to sneak up on Harry, deliver a chilling speech about how she's been watching him for some time now, and then has two of her Renfields try to scorch Harry alive with flamethrowers, while she laughs. Harry's shield can't fully protect him, and he ends up with his hand near useless for years after that. Creepy awesome at its best.]]

** Once they are out of range, Harry lets loose a massive fireball between the Demon Kong Voltron's eyes, blowing its head off, damaging its vessel beyond repair, showing that the [[IAmNotLeftHanded only reason he wasn't destrying them was to prevent the puppies he was rescuing from being caught in the collateral damage]].

* [[spoiler: Mouse]]'s EstablishingCharacterMoment. While his the rest [[spoiler: of his littermates]] are cowering in fear of approaching demons, he is ''not''.

* The climactic battle of Harry and Murphy vs the BigBad, [[spoiler: Lord Raith]]. The villain proves to be '''''several levels above''''' the rest of his kind, and this was ''years after being cut off from his full power''

** The demons along with several of its brethren fuse into a huge one to take the fight to Harry, but BadassDriver Thomas is out there for rescue.
** Once they are out of range, Harry lets looseba massive fireball between the demon's eyes, blowing its head off, damaging its vessel beyond repair, showing that the [[IAmNotLeftHanded only reason he wasn't destrying them was to prevent the puppies he was rescuing from being caught in the collateral damage]].
* Harry telling off a cop that insulted him and Murphy

* Lara Raith terrifying an AlphaBitch who insulted her with DeathGlare and sending her running.

** And since [[spoiler: Harry cannot use magic against Lord Raith due to his AntiMagic aura via Outsider protection, Harry simply shifts to guns and knives]]

* Harry kills a Black Court vampire with a laser-guided frozen turkey dropped from an airplane passing overhead. Sure, it was someone else's curse that Harry redirected, but the end result had even the other blampires going WTF.

* Harry is CrazyPreoared enough to keep ''water baloons filled with holy water'' in his car.

** Once they are out of range, Harry lets looseba massive fireball between the demon's eyes, destroying its vessel, showing that the [[IAmNotLeftHanded only reason he wasn't destrying them was to prevent the puppies he was rescuing from being caught in the collateral damage]].

** Once they are out of range, Harry lets looseba massive fireball between the demon's eyes, destroying its vessel, showing that the [[ImNotLeftHanded only reason he wasn't destrying them was to prevent the puppies he was rescuing from being caught in the collateral damage]].

* In the ActionPrologue, Harry stomps in a demon monkey's nose to protect a puppy, [[spoiler: meeting Mouse for the first time]].

*** [[spoiler: Mavra gets another Villainous Example. She manages to sneak up on Harry, deliver a chilling speech about how she's been watching him for some time now, and then has two of her Renfields try to scorch Harry alive with flamethrowers, while she laughs. Harry's shield can't protect him, and he ends up with his hand near useless for years after that. Creepy awesome at its best.]]

* The climactic battle of Harry and Murphy vs the BigBad, [[spoiler: Lord Raith]]. The villain proves to be several levels above the rest of his species, and this was ''years after being cut off from his full power''

** And since [[spoiler: Harry cannot use magic against Lord Raith due to his AntiMagic protection via Outsider protection, Harry simply shifts to guns and knives]]

* The climax, where Harry [[spoiler:tricks Lord Raith into revealing his weakness--namely, his inability to feed due to Margaret Dresden's death curse--with Lara Raith as a witness, thereby allowing her to take over in a coup d'etat.]] Even ''Lara'', no slouch at political intrigue herself, is impressed. Harry might not resort to [[XanatosSpeedChess subtlety]] often, but when he does he is ''good'' at it.