History Literature / TurnCoat

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: The White Court wants people to think they are this but (with the exception of Thomas) subvert it. They pretend to be this because they dislike physical fighting and, as Lara said in ''White Night'', she is more than willing to defeat the Council through peace and pleasantries. The darker aspects of them are shown with Club Zero, a White Court run club that has no limits on whatever fetishes or drugs its patrons do so long as one is pleasured, and Lara and her sisters [[spoiler:would recover by feeding on three loyal men who risked their lives to protect House Raith and were gravely injured but could survive with modern medical care]]. They are like a rose whose thorns are laced with arsenic or Ricin: Truly beautiful and alluring, but deadly if mishandled.
* FogOfWar: Discussed by Murphy. She, after years of work as a cop, guesses that the bad guys framing Morgan aren't Xanatos-tier planners, but just as fallible and ignorant of what Harry and Murphy know as much as Murphy and Harry know about them. So, they can use this confusion to their advantage by forcing them to slip up and show some more cards.

** [=McCoy=] mentions early in the book, as part of the reason why they believe Morgan has to be guilty, that Mind control magic would not work on someone Morgan's age to any strong degree as it'd cause his mind to break, because at that age the brain is too set in its ways to accept orders that go against one's beliefs. [[spoiler:This sets up Luccio as the real killer - since her body swap would've made her vulnerable. It also sets that Morgan's earlier account of the events - that he woke up standing with the weapon over the dead Lafortier is false. No one could've made him walk in there by magic.]]

* 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. Things that few others would have survived just one of these and Harry came out on top on each one, such as killing a Fae Queen, ''twice'' fought Nicodemus and lived, and the whole matter of riding a 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'']].
** Add to this the fact that Harry took down ''He Who Walks Behind'', as well as imprisoned the Erkling, the god of ''all frickin' nature'', it's safe to say that you ''don't'' want to fight Harry without at least some proper health insurance.
** Another thing. To date, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the ''only'' known mortal to resist the temptation of a Denarius. Toss in the matter that this ''particular'' Denarius was ''Lasciel'', the one known best for [[YourHeartsDesire tempting]] people, you get a seriously badass wizard.

* FeedTheMole: [[spoiler:Harry calls the Council switchboard to send up a long message about his plot to expose the traitor, prove Morgan's innocence, and all because of an informant. This entire line is a lie meant to draw out the traitor into acting quickly and without a full plan]].
* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler:Harry realizes the reason Luccio didn't kill [=LaFortier=] with magic because on some level, she knew it was wrong and fought the order to kill. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop herself from stabbing him with a mundane blade]].

* DoctorsOrders: Butters is called in to stitch up Morgan at the beginning. While Morgan doesn't see him, he hears Butter's orders by proxy with Harry and Mouse puts his heavy head on Morgan to make sure he kept down.

** [[spoiler:While it started off as a MexicanStandoff, Harry planned for this to be the result between himself and friends, Lara Raith's forces, and the arriving Senior Council and the Wardens to fight against Shagnasty and its allies.]] It works.
* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler:No one in the Senior Council ever suspected Secretary Peabody as the mole and the damage he had done to the Council before he was found out.]]

** Harry knows Lara is a treacherous bitch. But when she gives her word she will keep it. Granted, she might look for a loophole and will use the situation to advance her position as much she can, but she will keep her word.
** Within the White Court, there are rules and protocols against poaching another vampire's meal. [[spoiler:Madeline thrusting herself on Justine and telling her how she would bring in a guy for Justine to sleep with just so Madeline could take her was more than enough justification for Thomas to break a metal chair on Madeline]].

** Mab promised Wizards could use her territory to move about on. She never said they would go without being accosted. So, if some fae was on the path at the same time, friendly behavior was not always to be expected. Mind, this ''is'' [[SinkOrSwimMentor Mab.]]

** [=McCoy=] tells Mai and Listens-to-Winds he is assisting them [[spoiler:by telling them to not try and forcibly arrest Harry because he knows the type of man Harry is and sees such an action as a dangerous one. Hence him not helping detain Harry]].

* FailedASpotCheck: When interrogating Binder, a decent-level practitioner, Harry pulls a few of his hairs. [[spoiler:Binder knows this can be used to track him, so he goes through several rituals to keep Harry from using magic. Confident on blocking this, he didn't think Harry had outsourced to have the normal human PI Vince Graver track him via non-magical means]].

** In the end, [=McCoy=] [[spoiler:writes in his diary about Demonreach's true purpose is something Harry doesn't know and how the Merlin is responding to Harry's connection to the island]].
** [=McCoy=] [[spoiler:in the same diary entry brings up once more his deep feelings of trust in Maggie and her choice to go against him still hurting]].
** [[spoiler:Wizard Rashid, who can see into the future]] tells Harry he will stop him from [[spoiler:fighting the Senior Council now because it is not his time to die, which he certainly will if he goes through with it. However, his new connection to the island changes Rashid's vision]].

** Morgan says of his boon from the Summer Court, [[Literature/SmallFavor "Well, it's no donut..."]]

* ConsummateLiar[=/=]TheFool: [[spoiler:Wizard Rashid, the Gatekeeper]] takes a few moments to consider which of these Harry is when noting not only all the dangerous and crazy things that have happened in the past ten years, like the Shadowman, FBI with werewolf belts, an unbalanced Aurora, but in some of the most serious ones, Harry was directly involved, like Aurora, working closely with White Court vampires to stop coups, the rumor that two of the world most powerful swords are in the custody of a wizard who doesn't have much in the matter of faith. So either Harry was behind them and is lying about his good intentions now or he really is that unlucky. Harry, being Harry, just points to his heavily bandaged head and says, "Dude." This invokes some hearty laughter, and the conclusion that yes, Harry ''is'' that unlucky.
* CoolCar: Lara Raith's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Silver_Wraith Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith]] leads to a few expressions of pure awe. The power of this car is such that it alone gives Harry hope. As he finds out that [[spoiler:his harboring of Morgan has been tipped off to the Wardens]], another character points out that this car is ''far too cool'' for Harry to die in. Murphy agrees.

* 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 old allies to make good in the Black Council but at the same time will pull a ScrewThisImOutOfHere and betray the Black Council if the winds are changing and helping Harry or other good guys will net them a better future. [[spoiler:So, part of Harry's plot to draw out the traitor is making the traitor think there is one in the group willing to spill and since this is the traitor's mess to begin with, he will be punished if he cannot get things under control]].

** If the Mole's plan is successful, this is one of the most likely results because the Merlin's right hand man killed the one Senior Council member who cared about the African, Asian, and South American 3rd world country wizards. Those from those nations would respond with suspicion and anger, fracturing the council.

* CasualHighDrop: Lara Raith and her White Court companions disembark from a helicopter onto the island, without bothering to rappel down ropes.
* TheCavalry: Harry ends up on the benefit of this twice.

** The boon Morgan earned from Summer back in ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'' gets cashed in -- he asks to be concealed from the White Council's attempts to magically locate him for a couple days.

** Luccio ''hates'' being called by the name "Stacy." Her name is ''Anastasia''. Harry purposefully presses it to make sure she is her and not a shapeshifter.

** Morgan has one pressed at the thought of Black Magic being used in any way to help show his innocence. As it is, though [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments he has entirely the wrong idea about how Molly intends to 'change' someone's mind.]]

** 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 will not cause a similar situation if protecting Morgan causes a civil war]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The mole is dead and his brainwashed victims are found and on the long road to recovery, but the White Council lost not only Morgan but Senior Council member [=LaFortier=] by the mole's machinations. His replacement is suspected by Harry to be a new mole working for the Black Council. On top of that, it becomes apparent that Luccio's relationship with Harry was a consequence of her brainwashing in an effort to keep an eye on him. To make matters even worse, the White Council, which is already suffering a critical shortage of manpower, thanks to the ongoing war with the Red Court, lost several more wizards during Peabody's attack at the trial. And Thomas appears to be broken by some extreme torture methods and is leaning towards evil now.]]

* 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:nearly rapes Molly to death]].

* AffablyEvil: Lara Raith describes herself as a "habitually polite monster." Then she [[spoiler:eats her cousin alive. Literally]].

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

** Luccio is more subtle about it. She [[spoiler:discovers that Harry is hiding Morgan in his home]] and says "You lied to me" to Harry with the "almost imperceptible pause between each word".

** Luccio is more subtle about it. She [[spoiler:discovers that Harry is hiding Morgan in his home]] and says "You lied to me" to Harry with almost imperceptible pause between each word.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: After Luccio discovers that [[spoiler:Thomas is also the child of Margaret [=LaFey=], Harry states his justified fear that others would use that relationship and force Thomas to be a spy]]. Harry finishes the conversation with "Over. My. Dead. Body."

'''Luccio:''' For goodness’ sake, child, have you had no combat training at all?

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

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When trying to say that he doesn't have much in terms of progress, Harry points to his head and says, [[ThatCameOutWrong "I've got nothing going on in here at the moment."]] Molly tries not to grin, and Morgan gives him a small smile and says "Too easy."

* 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]].
* AffablyEvil: Lara Raith describes herself as an "affable monster." Then she [[spoiler:eats her cousin alive. Literally]].

** Harry [[spoiler:loves Luccio but she doesn't love him, not for the reasons with Morgan, but her mind was twisted and was forced to "love" him.]]

%%* 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 Harry's insistence he will be fine does his mentor stop]].
* TheArchmage:
** Senior Council Listens-to-Winds [[spoiler:battles a Skinwalker to the point it must run away to save its life]].

** The Merlin and The Gatekeeper. [[spoiler:The latter keeps back the mordite from assaulting the Senior Council while the former telepathically communicates with all in audience just what not to do if they wanted to live, complete with mental diagrams. All in the matter of a second]]. The latter also creates a NeverNever portal with the flick of a hand and no wasted power.
* 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, and able to use that power wisely. See TheArchmage for what some can do.

** Harry, as an outspoken enemy of Morgan, is this to the council. No one suspects Harry of sheltering him (except [=McCoy=] when he notices Harry asking very specific questions), because everyone in fact assumes Harry would be all over proving Morgan's guilt.

** Morgan quickly and effectively finds these for Molly, insulting Harry being a big one, for the purpose of seeing how she would react when pressed. Harry later calls her out for falling for such prodding and not ignoring the taunts.
** Morgan has one pressed at the thought of Black Magic being used in any way to help show his innocence.
** Madeline does not take Harry's comment -that Lara does more to arouse him just sitting in a chair than Madeline did in her whole entrance and influence she pushed on Harry- well. It nearly drives her to physically attack him for the insult.

** Listens-To-Wind enters into TranquilFury when Harry asks how right can they be if Morgan is sacrificed for the greater good because [[spoiler:the shaman 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 will not bring up the similar situation if protecting Morgan causes a civil war]].

** Harry notes this as a possible reason why Morgan would have killed [[spoiler:Senior Council member [=LaFortier=]]], but [=McCoy=] claims it wouldn't be possible; Morgan being over a hundred years old means direct brainwashing is as impossible as bending an ancient willow tree. Of course, this didn't stop [[spoiler:Peabody from subtly influencing members of the senior council by highlighting certain aspects of their personalities so they might do things they normally wouldn't]].

* 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 and [[spoiler:nearly rapes Molly to death]].

** The boon Morgan earned from Summer back in ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'' gets cashed in--he asks to be concealed from the White Council's attempts to magically locate him for a couple days.

* FamedInStory: Harry, especially apparent here. His exploits from ''Summer Knight'', ''Death Masks'', ''Dead Beat'', ''Proven Guilty'', ''White Night'', and ''Small Favor'' were each reported to the Council by either Harry or another person. Half of these things seemed like impossible things to accomplish but Harry survived and even beat some of these ancient powerhouses he faced back.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: The White Court wants people to think they are this but subvert it. They pretend to be this because they dislike physical fighting and, as Lara said in ''White Night'', she is more than willing to defeat the Council through peace and pleasantries. The darker aspects of them are shown with Club Zero, a White Court run club that has no limits on whatever fetishes or drugs its patrons do so long as one is pleasured, and Lara and her sisters [[spoiler:would recover by feeding on three loyal men who risked their lives to protect House Raith and were gravely injured but could survive with modern medical care]]. They are like a rose whose thorns are laced with arsenic or Ricin: Truly beautiful and alluring but deadly if mishandled.

* GoodHurtsEvil: Against the Skinwalker, only the strongest Goods apply against this things powerful defenses.
** To banish it, the only known ways with magic the rituals known to the shaman of tribes from the Southwestern United States, such as the Navajo or Ute tribes, [[spoiler:using Soulfire, the Fires of Creation, against it.]]
** To just send it away with the tail between the legs, [[spoiler:Senior Council Joseph Listens-to-Wind knows more than enough magic to do this]].

** Morgan holds it and lampshades it by asking if he's gone senile as [[spoiler:it didn't occur to him the Silver Oak leaf of the Summer Court he used to be protected from tracking could itself be used to track him, and Titania not having broken her word to keep him shielded from other tracking methods]].
** 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]].

* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Molly uses this to great effect to get information out of the PI shadowing Harry. Morgan jumps to the conclusion that she's going to use mind-control magic. All Molly has to do is take off her bra and go talk to the guy in his very air-conditioned car. As Harry observes, "He didn't stand a chance." Morgan agrees and hints it would certainly get a rise out of him.

** [[spoiler:Margaret La Fey Dresden, Harry's mother,]] was also a bane to the Wardens for rebelling against the ancient ways of the White Council by arguing for a "gray" area to the BlackAndWhiteMorality the Council had for enforcing the laws. The rebelling was done by going extremely close to violating the Laws but never fully cross it.

* MakeTheDogTestify: Helps that Mouse is a sentient magic dog. [[spoiler:To expand, Mouse doesn't speak but identifies Peabody by scent. His credentials as a temple dog are affirmed by Ancient Mai and several other Council Wizards when Peabody objects.]]

* NuclearOption: Warden Morgan is known to have once killed a skinwalker (a powerful Native American EldritchAbomination) by luring it to a location that would shortly be used as A-bomb testing site. Can it be called a CrowningMomentOfAwesome?

''Turn Coat'' is book #11 in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Has its own [[ShoutOut/TurnCoat shout out]] page.

* HandicappedBadass: Morgan. Having just escaped from the Wardens, Morgan is heavily wounded and gets an impromptu surgery within the first few chapters of the book. He spends the rest of it bedridden or bound to a wheelchair, heavily medicated, and running a fever from infection. Granted in that the plot takes place over the course of three days or so, so Morgan doesn't exactly have considerable time to recover from his wounds.

* FogOfWar: Discussed by Murphy. She, after years of work as a cop, guesses that the bad guys framing Morgan aren't Xantos-tier planners, but just as fallible and ignorant of what Harry and Murphy know as much as Murphy and Harry know about them. So, they can use this confusion to their advantage by forcing them to slip up and show some more cards.

** [[spoiler:Wizard Rashid, who can see into the future]] tells Harry he will stop him from [[spoiler:fighting the Senior Council now because it is not his time die, which he certainly will if he goes through with it. However, his new connection to the island changes Rashid's vision]].

* AdvantageBall: Harry is smart with the climax and actually sought a place to give him a better chance of winning. [[spoiler:He choose the mysterious island from ''Small Favor'' and invoked Sanctum with it]].

** The Merlin and The Gatekeeper. [[spoiler:The latter keeps back the mordite from assaulting the Senior Council while the former telepathically communicates with all in audience just what not to do if they wanted to live, complete with mental diagrams. All in the matter of a second]].

* BenevolentConspiracy: [[spoiler:Merlin's refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Black Council means that Ebenezar has to form the Grey Council in secret to investigate and combat the Black.]]

** Luccio notes planting bombs or anti-personal mines are some of the best ways to handle practitioner from a distance.

* ElementalPowers: [[spoiler:Demonreach, as part of his challenge for Harry to prove himself,]] puts Harry in a dual of these. [[spoiler:Harry adds [[HolyHandGrenade Soulfire]] to each of his attacks as a means of proving himself]].

** Mab promised Wizards could use her territory to move about on. She never said they would go without being accosted. So, if some fae was on the path at the same time, friendly behavior was not always to be expected.