History Literature / DeadBeat

** And, of course, there was Kemmler himself. He created a ritual that enabled the caster to ascend to godhood. Fortunately, they took him down before he could pull it off himself, but even then it took the entire council to take him down. The ''whole'' White Council, which included the aforementioned Merlin, the other six members of the Senior Council, [=McCoy=], Luccio, all the Wardens, Simon Pietrovic's brute squad out of Archangelsk, every other available spellcaster, and every other friend, ally, or frenemy the Council could scrounge up to make sure he stayed dead this time. Yes, he was dangerous.

** Cowl is described as being [[spoiler:on par or stronger than [=McCoy=], Mr. ColonyDrop]]. He survived Harry [[spoiler:throwing a car on him]]. He is not to be taken lightly.

Oh, and a ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs T. rex]]'' is involved.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun legendary]] incident in ''Dead Beat'', which seems to be widely considered ''the'' defining moment of the series so far (c.f., the [[Laconic/TheDresdenFiles Laconic]] and [[Haiku/TheDresdenFiles Haiku]] versions of this page).

[[TheOneWith The one with]] [[{{Necromancer}} the necromancers]].

Oh, and a ''[[TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'' is involved.

* TyrannosaurusRex: [[Awesome/TheDresdenFiles Um... yeah.]]

--->''''Harry:''' ''(narration)'' [[spoiler: Sue ate him. Snap. Gulp. No more ghoul.]]

** [[spoiler:Sheila never grabbed a book from Harry or spoke when others were in the room]].
** [[spoiler:Mab and her explanation of what happened to Lea. Also, the knife she wore. This and the guns after it aren't fired until later books in the series]].

* CoolCar: Subverted with Billy and Georgia's giant SUV. Butters is talking about all the cool features of these new cars- and then he turns on the GPS. It has apparently been around Harry too long already.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Li Xian caused Harry a lot of trouble. Then, Harry got himself a zombie T-Rex.]]
-->''''Harry:''' ''(narration)'' [[spoiler: Sue ate him. Snap. Gulp. No more ghoul.]]

* DeaderThanDead: The Necromancer Kemmler's back story: "They killed him good. A couple of times. He'd come back after they'd killed him early in the nineteenth century, so they were real careful this time."
* DeadlyGas: [[spoiler:The Red Court hired human mercenaries to attack injured Wardens and Council members while they were resting in a muggle hospital. With what was suspected to be ''sarin''. Thousands died]].

* {{Deconstruction}} : It's made clear that having supernatural sexual appeal ''that you can't turn off'' isn't nearly so great when you can't live off the family fortune and are trying to hold down a minimum wage job. Thomas keeps getting sexually assaulted by his female co-workers and customers and/or fired.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Waldo flat-out calls Thomas "hot."

* FamedInStory: Luccio points out to Harry [[spoiler:his actions from the past few books have gotten him known and really respected by the younger generation of the Council]]. Even [[spoiler:the Erlking is impressed with his slaying of Aurora and reanimation of the ''T. rex'']].

** [[spoiler:Dresden is death cursed to "die alone"]]. This cannot be good.
** Knights of the Cross have a tendency to miraculously show up exactly when and where they are needed, usually attributed to God manipulating coincidence to make things happen just right. While he is being tortured by Liverspots Harry muses that this is exactly the sort of situation where his friend Michael or another Knight of the Cross would come out of nowhere to save him. Michael does not suddenly appear to save the day [[spoiler:but unexpectedly, Butters does. Hmm...]]

** Mort mentions that he knows Murphy's deceased father. [[spoiler: Jack Murphy's ghost is a major character in ''Ghost Stories''.]]

* GratuitousGerman: ''Die Lied der Erlking'' (The grammatically correct title would be ''Das Lied des Erlkonigs''). [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in-series when Harry finds the author of the book -- an anal retentive ObstructiveBureaucrat -- and taunts him over the fact that he screwed up the title. His miffed response is that "German is an untidy language". This is either a subtle joke by the author or an honest mistake, as German is a ''more'' logical language than English.

* HijackingCthulhu: Harry successfully summons [[spoiler:the Erlking, a king of TheFairFolk and]] one of the most powerful beings in the series, and traps it in the summoning circle. Although he by no means has control of it, he is able to keep it from attacking him or leaving. [[spoiler:Until someone bonks him on the head, that is]].

* LetsGetDangerous: An off-screen moment when [[spoiler:the ''entire'' Senior Council goes to the front lines of the war to reclaim the captured warden]]. Butters gets one too, when he [[spoiler: jumps Liverspots in the museum]].

* ColdBloodedTorture: The museum scene, [[spoiler:where Cassius tortures Harry for no reason other than personal enjoyment. Of course, this is the guy that Harry himself [[CallItKarma tortured not two books earlier for information]].]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In a less common example of this trope being a detriment to the heroes, rather than a blessing. Harry spends a good portion of this book taking risks to protect Butters. Thomas points out that although he understands why Harry is doing it (because of friendship), Grevane probably won't, and might conclude that Butters is still important to the scheme somehow.

* HopeBringer: [[spoiler:Harry's dead father acts as this to his son, coming to him to help him after Harry needed to consult Lasciel to save the day and Cassius' death curse. On the former, he tells Harry that what he did doesn't make him a monster and he still has freewill to choose another path. On the latter, it was a poor curse because ''everyone'' is alone when they die, but that doesn't mean he will be alone up to that moment and won't be alone after he does die]].

** And, of course, there was Kemmler himself. He created a ritual that enabled the caster to ascend to godhood. Fortunately, they took him down before he could pull it off himself, but even then it took the entire council to take him down. The ''whole'' White Council, which included the aforementioned Merlin, the other six members of the Senior Council, [=McCoy=], Luccio, all the Wardens every other available spellcaster, and every other friend, ally, or frenemy the Council could scrounge up to make sure he stayed dead this time. Yes, he was dangerous.

* KissMeIAmVirtual: Lasciel [[spoiler:tricks Harry with the guise of Shiela]].

* GenreSavvy: Dresden wonders whether he is in ''Film/HighNoon'' or early in ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' when trying to work out whether or not it is safe to go outside.

* WeaponsOfMassDestruction: The Red Court use [[spoiler:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin sarin gas]], which legally ''is'' a weapon of mass destruction, to attack the White council hospital in the Congo]]. Also shows exactly ''why'' this is classed as a WMD. [[spoiler:The Red Court attack didn't just kill off the wounded Wardens, it also wiped out most of the city in which the hospital was located.]]

* WouldHurtAChild[=/=]WouldntHurtAChild: The Erlking. Considering the original tale Goethe, there is the belief the great being is a slayer of children. Others think he is a protector of children. Without a direct answer, it would be hard to decide which way he falls.

** The Red Court's recent action of [[spoiler:kidnapping a senior Warden was so danger and threatening to the White Council, the Gatekeeper and ''Ancient Mai'' voted they go on the offensive to make the bastards pay. It was enough votes to make even the Merlin agree to go out]].
** Harry realizes how bad things are when first [[spoiler:Mab is genuinely shocked to hear of Kemmler's disciples coming back into play]]. Then second when [[spoiler:she, a being with difficult understanding the nuances of mortal morality, calls Kemmler a monster and madman]].
** While Harry hasn't known Captain Luccio for long, when he sees her [[spoiler:leave the Corpsetaker alive, though badly wounded, but unbound]] his gut tells him something is off. He takes action [[spoiler:calling her "Corpsetaker". When she flinches and begins to react and, with no hesitation, Harry fires a bullet into the back of Luccio's head. He is right to do this because Luccio's body was taken over by the Corpsetaker, and the real Luccio in the body the Corpsetaker was just using]].
* PantsPositiveSafety: Billy carried Harry's revolver in his pants when returning it to him. He made sure to empty all bullets from it before putting in there.

* ThePowerOfRock: Or rather, the power of polka. Butters' love of polka is part of a rousing speech Harry uses to get him on his feet. Later, Harry and Butters use polka [[spoiler:with its steady beating, as the "heart" and "leash" on Sue the zombie T-rex]].

** Luccio didn't see Harry [[spoiler:telling her about Morgan's dirty cop actions back in ''Summer Knight'' and his other badgering and wrongful persecution before then]]. Reversing it, Harry didn't see Luccio's [[spoiler:general anger and shock at the truth, telling Harry she didn't honestly know about Morgan's behavior]].

* FamedInStory: Luccio points out to Harry [[spoiler:his actions from the past few books have gotten him known and really respected by the younger generation of the Council]]. Even [[spoiler:the Erlking is impressed with his slaying of Aurora]].

* FreakyFridaySabotage: {{Body Surf}}ing villain Corpsetaker deliberately takes a mortal wound before silently using her powers on Anastasia Luccio, trapping Luccio in a dying body.

** And, of course, there was Kemmler himself. He created a ritual that enabled the caster to ascend to godhood. Fortunately, they took him down before he could pull it off himself, but even then it took the entire council to take him down. The ''whole'' White Council, which included the aforementioned Merlin, the other six members of the Senior Council, [=McCoy=], Luccio, all the Wardens every other available spellcaster, and every other friend, ally, or frenemy the Council could scrounge up to make sure he stayed dead this time. [[CaptainObvious Yes, he was dangerous.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun legendary]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome incident]] in ''Dead Beat'', which seems to be widely considered ''the'' defining moment of the series so far (c.f., the [[Laconic/TheDresdenFiles Laconic]] and [[Haiku/TheDresdenFiles Haiku]] versions of this page).

* RaisingTheSteaks: A loophole in the Laws of Magic. Necromancy cannot be used on a dead person. Animals aren't included. So Harry raises [[spoiler:a T-Rex]] in a [[CrowningMomentofAwesome Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

''Dead Beat'' is book #7 in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Now has its own [[ShoutOut/DeadBeat Shout Out]] page.

* TakeAThirdOption: It is illegal to use humans for necromancy, but they are far better vessels for magic power? Harry's solution: [[spoiler: since the ''older'' the remains, the more power they can hold, he raises a millions-years-old ''fossil'', giving him a vessel that makes a human corpse look like a shot glass.]]

* MistakenForGay: Twice in this book alone, people assume that Harry and Thomas are a couple.