History Literature / TurnCoat

''Turn Coat'' is book #11 in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''.

* AdvantageBall: Harry is smart at the climax and actually sought a place to give him a better chance of winning. [[spoiler:He chooses the mysterious island from ''Small Favor'' and invokes Sanctum with it]]. While it [[spoiler:doesn't let him win the fight, it lets him get very, very close.]]

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership[=/=]AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: To become one of the Senior Council, one must be an elder wizard respected by the others in the Council, considered one of the strongest of the current membership (which tends to go with age, considering that Dresdenverse Wizards get StrongerWithAge), and able to use that power wisely. See TheArchmage for what some can do.

* CycleOfRevenge[=/=]FeudingFamilies: Luccio notes that one of the things the White Council does is nip these disasters in the bud. But if not for the strict adherence to the Laws of Magic, both could cause massive devastation to the world, and that isn't factoring in the fact wizards can live for centuries and have magic. Mortal versions of these are dangerous and destructive enough.

--->'''Harry:''' Because your balls are in a vise and I'm the only one who can pull them out.\\

* AdvantageBall: Harry is smart at the climax and actually sought a place to give him a better chance of winning. [[spoiler:He chooses the mysterious island from ''Small Favor'' and invokes Sanctum with it]]. While it [[spoiler: doesn't let him win the fight, it lets him get very, very close.]]

* BatmanGambit: Harry pulls one on the traitor, knowing that the Black Council's ChronicBackstabbingDisorder is so advanced that [[spoiler: Peabody]] can't be sure that no one's ratted him out.

** Listens-To-Wind enters into TranquilFury when Harry asks how right can they be if Morgan is sacrificed for the greater good because [[spoiler: he had to refrain from helping when white settlers attacked a tribe he was supposed to protect because Council laws forbade him from interfering]]. He believes [[spoiler:he chose who lived and died that day and refuses to create a similar situation by protecting Morgan if it would mean causing a civil war]].
* BigBadDuumvirate: The Skinwalker is brought in by the Black Council to cover up the tracks of their mole, [[spoiler: Peabody]].

** [[spoiler:Anastasia's much younger physical body (courtesy of [[GrandTheftMe the Corpsetaker]]) allowed Peabody to control her, as well as most of the wardens -- younger wizards recruited after the events of ''Literature/DeadBeat'').]] See ManchurianAgent below.

* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Thomas Raith]]. He gets tortured physically, [[spoiler:fed a bunch of women]] and tortured again. By the time Harry sees him again, he is in rotten shape, barely sentient, with [[spoiler: the Hunger in full control]], and [[spoiler:might have raped Molly to death if she hadn't had powerful protective magic at hand]].

** Twice [=McCoy=] calls Harry on holding it. First [[spoiler:because Harry's questions weren't too subtle on keeping the fact Harry knows Morgan's location or approximate location a secret]]. Then [[spoiler:after the battle on Demonreach, when Harry chose to save the vampire Thomas and not seeking to stop the traitor]]. Of course, in the latter case, [[spoiler: he doesn't know that Thomas is Harry's brother, and that Harry has prepared for that, getting photos of the traitor.]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority[=/=]AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: To become one of the Senior Council, one must be an elder wizard respected by the others in the Council, considered one of the strongest of the current membership (which tends to go with age, considering that Dresdenverse Wizards get StrongerWithAge), and able to use that power wisely. See TheArchmage for what some can do.

** First, he is saved [[spoiler:from the Skinwalker for a few minutes when Toot-Toot takes on the Abomination]].

* AppealToForce: Senior Wizard [=McCoy=] uses this when [[spoiler:Lara states she will go with Dresden, and not him, when dealing with Binder and likely Madeline. After his previous threat, he just grunts a word, grips his hand and she rises up ten feet in the air, unable to move. It is only after Harry's insistence he will be fine that his mentor stops]].

* BrownNote: Merely seeing the spiritual form of the skinwalker is enough to incapacitate Harry for a few hours. He adjusts to it, but since visions granted by second sight are never forgotten, it has left him permanently scarred.

** First, he is saved [[spoiler:from the Skinwalker for a few minutes when Toot-toot takes on the Abomination]].

** It is mentioned that Harry's been suffering from headaches for a while now.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Harry notes that the problem with a group like the Black Council is most of them are power-hungry self-serving bastards. They will surely betray their own allies if it will gain them advantage among the Black Council, but at the same time they'll pull a ScrewThisImOutOfHere and betray the Black Council itself if the winds are changing and helping Harry or other good guys is likely to net them a better future. [[spoiler:So, part of Harry's plot to draw out the traitor is making the traitor think there is someone among their Black Council allies willing to spill; since this is the traitor's mess to begin with, he will probably suffer serious consequences from the Black Council if he cannot get things under control]].

** Binder knows he could not handle Harry in a straight-up duel. [[spoiler:So if he found Harry stashed Morgan inside his home, Binder would just toss a fire bomb to force Dresden and Morgan out and then kill them]].

* DoWrongRight: Molly assaults Warden Luccio. Luccio is scandalized... because Molly hit her like a girl and used unnecessary complicated method of temporarily blinding her.

** When Harry takes issue with the idea of leaving Morgan to die when he is innocent, [[spoiler:Listens-to-Winds enters into this mode. He knows if they save Morgan without finding the mole, the council will rip itself apart in anger and accusations. Many people will die because he, Listens-to-Winds, chose to save one man, Morgan. He made that choice one. He will not do it again]].

** While it is the summer months, the book starts off with a blistering heatwave over Chicago. [[spoiler:Considering how Mab was shielding Harry with a snowstorm, this heatwave is likely Titania helping Morgan block any tracking spells]].

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Harry realizes [[spoiler:the group from the Senior Council thinks he is this with all the big name forces he has taken down or survived fighting against. Few others would have survived just one of these and Harry came out on top on each one, such as killing a Fae Queen, fought Nicodemus ''twice'' and lived, and the whole matter of riding a zombie dinosaur to beat up some necromancers. Hence the multiple Wardens as back up to the Senior Council as they don't want to take any chances when dealing with ''Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden'']].