History TheDresdenFiles / TropesAToM

* CatchPhrase: [[invoked]] Harry has two: "Hell's bells!" and "Stars and stones!" (also seen used by Elaine) Thomas has "Empty night" (also used by Lara and presumably the other Raiths). WordOfGod has said that those three phrases will also be the titles of the Big Apocalyptic Trilogy that ends the series, as in Butcher's own words, "There's a ''reason'' those are curses."
** The CatchPhrase of Harry's musclebound-barbarian PC in the Alphas' role-playing adventures is "Enough talk!"
** There's also "Damn, I'm good", which Harry uses often enough that it's rubbed off on Molly too.

* DeagedInDeath: In ''Literature/GhostStory'', the first spirit Dresden encounters is Ron Carmichael, who died about a decade before during the events of ''Literature/FoolMoon''. Dresden doesn't even recognize him until he uses his CatchPhrase, because his spirit self is about twenty years younger, 40 pounds lighter, and lacking the receding hairline and poor hygiene of his living self. It's implied this is pretty standard and most spirits have a degree of control over how their appearance manifests.

** We know Harry Dresden is a HurtingHero and SadClown. Everyone else, like the [[TheFairFolk Faerie Queens]], {{Fallen Angel}}s, and White Council? Not so much. They know him as a possibly-not-so-former warlock who shows a glaring disrespect for Faerie Queens, Fallen Angels, the highest nobility of the vampire courts, and even his seniors on the White Council and gets away with it, continually gaining more power in the process. As far as they're concerned, he is the guy that [[spoiler:killed the Summer Lady, fought off Outsiders, and stopped the Darkhallow with a zombie Tyrannosaurus, succeeding Morgan as the "Most Infamous Warden on the White Council"]]. This reputation is enough to give a half-dozen Wardens pause when they are told to arrest him. It has reached its peak by ''[[WhamEpisode Changes]]'', when a Red Court vampire assassin, the most badass of the vampire badass, one of the most feared vampire assassins ''in the world'' sees Harry... and ''[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere screams in terror and runs the other way.]]''

* EdibleAmmunition: If you agree that every random thing that the Entropy Curse used from its environment to kill its victim may get called its "ammo", then yes, chalk up one unlucky vampire dying from [[AWorldwidePunomenon cold turkey.]]

* DeusExitMachina: Harry is one of the top 10% of wizards on Earth, the greatest of his generation, and guaranteed to be the strongest on earth once he gets a few more decades under his belt. As a result, side stories and sometimes even the main plot will need to occasionally bench Harry so that vanilla humans, other supernatural beings, and even other wizards with less raw power than him can have the spotlight without the audience wondering why Dresden can't simply throw a fireball at the problem and be done with it. For example, In "Day One" [[spoiler:new Knight of the Cross Butters]] calls Harry for help. While Harry does offer information, he reluctantly refuses to come himself. Dresden tells [[spoiler: Butters]] that his new job means that he is supposed to be the one who people are counting on to help them, so he needs to learn to do these things on his own and can't count Harry to bail him out every time things get a little hairy.

* DeusExitMachina: Harry is one of the top 10% of wizards on Earth, the greatest of his generation, and guaranteed to be the strongest on earth once he gets a few more decades under his belt. As a result, side stories and sometimes even the main plot will need to occasionally bench Harry so that vanilla humans, other supernatural beings, and even other wizards with less raw power than him can have the spotlight without the audience wondering why Dresden can't simply throw a fireball at the problem and be done with it. For example, In "Day One" [[spoiler:new Knight of the Cross Butters]] calls Harry for help. While Harry does offer information, he reluctantly refuses to come himself. Dresden tells [[spoiler: ''Butters'']] that his new job means that he is supposed to be the one who people are counting on to help them, so he needs to learn to do these things on his own and can't count Harry to bail him out every time things get a little hairy.

* DeusExitMachina: Harry being in the top 10% of wizard's on earth, the greatest of his generation, and guareenteed to be the strongest on earth once he gets a few more decades under his belt, side stories, and even the main plot, will need to occasionly bench Harry so vanilla human's, other supernatural being's, and even other wizard's with a lot less raw power then him can have the spot light without the audience wondering why they Dresden just throwing a fireball at the problem and be done with it. In "Day One" [[spoiler: new Knight of the Cross, Butters]], calls Harry for help, while Harry does offer information he, reluctantly, refuses to come. Dresden tells him part of his new job is that [[spoiler: ''Butter's'']] is supposed to be the one who people are counting on to rush in and help them, so he needs to learn to do these things on his own and can't count Harry to bail him out every time things get a little hairy.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The Senior Council of the White Council of Wizards is composed of the seven wisest and most powerful wizards on the planet. The leader of the Senior Council, the Merlin, is supposedly the most powerful wizard '''''period'''''. Though there is shown to be a lot of politicing and deal-making that determines who gets appointed to the Senior Council, not even Harry (Insubordinate wise-cracker though he is) disputes their power and skill.
** This applies to pretty much the entire Dresdenverse. Justified in the case of the supernatural community, since supernatural power grows with age, so that someone's climb through the political hierarchy will correlate with growing supernatural power. Subverted in the case of [[spoiler:Lord Raith, who used to be an ass-kicker, but lost most of his power thanks to Maggie's death curse.]]

** The White Council has a grand total of seven laws: ThouShallNotKill (no magic to kill your fellow humans, weapons are fine, though that doesn't mean "no consequences"); Thou Shalt Not [[ForcedTransformation Transform Others]] (because in a nonhuman body, the mind would [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody slowly change]], effectively killing the victim given enough time); Thou Shalt Not Invade the Mind of Another (looking through the mind of another is a light form of MindRape); Thou Shalt Not Enthrall Another (mind control, and full-on MindRape); Thou Shalt Not Reach Beyond the Borders of Life (no [[{{Necromancer}} necromancy]], though its benevolent cousin is "ectomancy", and that one's okay); Thou Shalt Not Swim Against the Currents of Time (no TimeTravel and places heavy restrictions on divination, doing either can result in a TemporalParadox, and is incredibly dangerous to the user and the fabric of reality); and finally Thou Shalt Not Open the [[EldritchLocation Outer Gates]] (no [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow looking for knowledge from the Outside]], no talking to [[EldritchAbomination the Outsiders]]. Period.).

** Mouse. He's also a Good-Detecting Dog: The Senior Council of wizards considers Harry reckless, dangerous, and possibly evil because of [[RaisedByOrcs his past]]. The council's resident expert on magic dogs is dumbfounded in ''Turn Coat'' when she realizes Mouse chose Harry as a companion - from her reaction, it's implied this means he must be a [[IncorruptiblePurePureness stellar]] [[IncrediblyLamePun guy]].

* MoralityKitchenSink: At the furthest extreme of the Hero end we have Michael Carpenter, [[RedBaron the Fist of God]], who only fights monsters, has a grand total of one recorded instance of swearing in the series proper (which was in a side story), and is all around about as wholesome as a person can be. Slightly away from the good extreme would be the majority of the series other heroes e.g. [[TheHero Harry Dresden]], who is a generally upstanding guy with a '''''massive''''' case of ChronicHeroSyndrome, but isn't above a bit of ruthless pragmatism if it's necessary, is prone to HonorBeforeReason and LeeroyJenkins in the earlier books, and has a disturbing tendency to get DrunkWithPower. More towards the middle of the scale is the [[MagicalSociety White Council of Wizards]], which is made up of plenty of KnightTemplar {{Jerkass}}es, but its ruthless methods have oftentimes been shown to be a cruel necessity in the grand scheme of things. The main representative of dark grey is John Marcone, who is a ruthless crime boss, but ends up [[EnemyMine joining forces]] with Dresden more often than opposing him and '''''[[BerserkButton will not]]''''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards tolerate any violence against children]]. And when it comes to his usual criminal activities, he believes, as characters of his type often do, that crime's going to exist no matter what, and it's better that it be controlled by someone like him than descend into [[EnemyCivilWar "every-gang-for-itself" warfare]]. As for the monsters of the setting, we have any one the supernatural villains, e.g. the Skinwalker, a terrifying and sadistic monster where the briefest glimpse Harry grabs of its [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm true form]] with his Sight is enough to send him into a HeroicBSOD. To top it all off, we even have BlueAndOrangeMorality in the form of TheFairFolk, whose Winter Court [[spoiler:guards the universe against the nightmarish Outsiders, who don't ''enter'' reality so much as ''parasitize'' it]], and whose Summer Court [[spoiler:[[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen protects the universe from the Winter Court]]]]. On top of all that, we later find that Winter has the ability to be [[IncrediblyLamePun coldly]] ''logical'' and stay its hand when it's best to in the long term, while Summer is more prone to going off half-cocked as part of them [[spoiler:being designed to keep Winter in check]] (and when a faerie as powerful as the leaders of the Courts does ''that'', we can potentially be talking about something like another Ice Age or the Black Death happening).

* InnocentCohabitation: At the end of ''Blood Rites'', a down-on-his-luck Thomas moves in with Harry. Complicated by the fact that Thomas is an incubus who feeds and can control people's minds through sex, a fact well known, so anyone who knew they were living together simply ''wouldn't'' believe it was innocent. Understandably, they keep it quiet. [[spoiler:Especially because they can't tell anyone the real reason it's completely innocent - that they're half-brothers - without attracting a lot of hostile attention from enemies looking for leverage.]]

* LatinIsMagic: Harry uses bastardized Latin to cast spells. He's fairly unique in this, as wizards tend to use languages that they're not well-versed in to cast spells in order to more easily dissociate themselves from the literal meaning of the words, and most wizards are very well-versed in Latin due to using it as a common language -- Harry may have been deliberately put at a disadvantage here by Justin [=DuMorne=] by teaching Harry to use Latin as the basis for his invocations, making it actually ''dangerous'' for Harry to become too fluent in the language that wizards usually communicate in, and thus isolating him from seeking help.

* LatinIsMagic: Harry uses bastardized Latin to cast spells. He's fairly unique in this, as wizards tend to use languages that they're not well-versed in to cast spells in order to more easily dissociate themselves from the literal meaning of the words, and most wizards are very well-versed in Latin due to using it as a common language -- Harry just didn't keep up with his studies and so still finds Latin unfamiliar.

** Harry also has two Queens of the LandOfFaerie furious with him at the moment: Titania, one of the Queens of Summer, [[spoiler:because he killed her daughter, Aurora, in ''Summer Knight'']], and Mab, one of the Queens of Winter, [[spoiler:because Harry managed to rain destruction on her capital, Arctis Tor, in ''Proven Guilty''...and used Summer fire to do it.]]

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The White Council's opinion on any vampire, although the White Court are at least capable of acting civilized and not sucking the life force from anyone they meet. However, that ultimately does not make them any less monstrous.

* TheArchmage: The Senior Council and particularly the Merlin are this for the White Council.
** Also the Archive, a little girl who knows absolutely everything that has been ever written down. She's been shown as powerful enough to hold off fallen angels, literally with one hand, using only the latent magic present in her 12 year-old body.
** Another candidate for the title is [[{{Necromancer}} Cowl]], a villain explicitly stated to be Senior Council-class in terms of power.
** The above Cowl may or may not have at one time been the apprentice of Heinrich Kemmler, a (now mercifully deceased) EvilSorcerer referred to as a "black magic messiah" who took ''the whole White Council'' (as in the Merlin, the Senior Council, the Wardens, Simon Petrovich's brute squad and every non-evil magic user with any combat capabilities) to take down.

* ArmorIsUseless: Generally averted; while Kevlar vests are usually not sufficient against most supernatural threats, everyone who knows what they are up against makes sure to include mail, possibly supplemented with plate, to deflect claws or blades. Charity makes Michael's full plate armor (reinforced with kevlar), and she gave Murphy a double-thickness bulletproof vest with titanium chainmail fitting inbetween layers for Christmas. Come ''Ghost Story'', most characters are in possession of similar kevlar/titanium hybrid armors, all made by Charity.

* BadPowersBadPeople: The White Council believes that using any magic that breaks any of the Laws of Magic (Killing humans with magic, [[ForcedTransformation transforming others]], MindControl, Necromancy, TimeTravel and Summoning (or even seeking knowledge about) {{Eldritch Abomination}}s) is addictive. So anyone who does any of that, even if for a good reason, is likely to do it again, more frivolously, or to do another one of them, and must therefore be executed. Only another wizard putting his own life up as surety against repeated Lawbreaking can see a stay of execution.

* BattleCouple: Will and Georgia Borden in wolf-form. Especially apparent in "Something Borrowed".

* BigDamnHeroes: Harry and company frequently arrive at exactly the right moment, often with only seconds to spare, to save the day and rescue everybody. Well, ''almost'' everybody...

* BiggerOnTheInside: The living area, or ''sanctum'', for Bob inside his skull. Harry visits it during ''Ghost Story'' and finds it to be a pimped-out mansion on the level of James Bond, decked out with home theater, every videogame system known to man, and other comforts. Harry initally questions why Bob would ever want to leave. Bob replies, "A gold cage is still a cage, Harry."

* BilingualBonus: See that picture on the main page? The characters on Harry's staff are Japanese; specifically, the are the katakana for "matorikkusu", which is how the Japanese would write "matrix", but as you would see in a mirror.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: However, while Harry often views himself as somebody [[AntiHero on the edge]], and he frequently [[EnemyMine teams up with Marcone]], but the series is very firm on the concept of right and wrong, good and evil, etc. There are lines Harry refuses to cross, no matter what. [[spoiler:Until ''[[WhamEpisode Changes]]''.]] In ''Ghost Story'', [[spoiler:Harry realizes how badly he messed up by making that fatal compromise - but it is also not entirely Harry's fault he chose as he did.]]

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Harry's '''Forzare''' goes beyond this. In ''Literature/DeadBeat'' one unfortunate ghoul gets thrown out a room through a piece of plywood and lands on the other side of the street. In ''Literature/FoolMoon'' he sends a werewolf through '''three''' buildings with a shot from his Blasting Rod.

* BluffTheEavesdropper: ''Cold Days''; Harry knows [[spoiler:Lara has placed bugs in Thomas' apartment]]. So when he calls up a contact, he speaks with a representative of the contact, warns them the line is bugged, and uses big words like "operative." Harry knows this will get her attention and send her to keep track of whomever Harry has contacted. [[spoiler:The bluff comes when Harry reveals he wants Lara to try and track Odin as he will spot them and this will tell him how the White Court does its surveillance now. This information is payment to him for agreeing to meet Harry at all]]. Harry then [[spoiler:blows out every electronic device in Thomas' apartment]], which really should have been a tip-off, but was awesome nonetheless.

* CantHaveSexEver: Thomas, with Justine only. If he tries, his AllergicToLove nature gives him horrible burns. [[spoiler:Justine figures out a method. It involves her sleeping with another woman to remove the protection before sleeping with Thomas. Thomas seems [[GirlOnGirlIsHot okay with it]], and even Uriel seems to approve]].
** Harry and Susan as well, because pleasure makes her lose control and [[spoiler:might lead into biting him and turning into a full vampire.]] Eventually, Harry solves the problem by tying her up. They both have a wonderful time.

* CastFromHitPoints: A Wizard's Death Curse, which uses up the life in their body for one last devastatingly powerful final spell.
** Harry nearly kills himself this way without even meaning to in ''Grave Peril'', expending so much energy to burn down Bianca's party that he keels over. Michael has to perform chest compressions to revive him.

* ChekhovsGun: In any book where Harry brews a potion or two for a specific use early in the story, they turn out to be vitally important at the climax -- which, needless to say, is not the purpose for which they were originally made. And there are a whole lot more.

* ChemicalMessiah: The drug Third-Eye featured in the first book has a vaguely New Age style following. Notably, it also does seem to give vanilla mortals some genuine degree of magical power.

** Let's just say Butcher is seriously good at using these, to the point where he rivals J. K. Rowling.

** Possibly significant in Harry's case, since Latin is the language the White Council uses in writing, as well as in speech during meetings. By using Latin--even dog Latin--for his spells, Harry has inadvertently made sure that it would be dangerous for him to learn Latin fluently, rendering communication between the White Council and himself a permanent problem. It's implied that Justin [=DuMorne=] manipulated Harry towards this choice on purpose, for this exact reason ([[TruthInTelevision much like]] AbusiveParents or spouses tend to isolate their victims so they can't get help for the authorities).
* CannotCrossRunningWater: Rivers aren't much of a problem if you have a boat, but running water of any sort dissipates magic, to the point that Nicodemus is able to completely disable Harry by hanging him under a waterspout.

*** However, it does come back in ''Peace Talks,'' where his close-mouthed nature regarding the White Court leads to increased suspicion towards him amongst the other Wardens, at a time when he can least afford it.

** In the short story "The Warrior", there's a young girl who was being beaten by her father. A comment Harry makes, after making a DivingSave when she is in the way of an oncoming car, alerts her mother to that fact. [[spoiler:The girl is used as an example in the ending's YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech on how seemingly minor actions can have a major impact, as making Courtney's mother aware of the abuse, Dresden "shattered a generational cycle of abuse more than three hundred years old"]].

** In the short story "The Warrior", there's a young girl who was being beaten by her father. The DivingSave that Dresden does when she is in the way of an incoming car inadvertently alerts her mother to that fact. [[spoiler:The girl is used as an example in the ending's YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech on how seemingly minor actions can have a major impact, as by saving Courtney, Dresden "shattered a generational cycle of abuse more than three hundred years old"]].

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Butters. The best pathologist in the city... but he loves polka music more than is healthy and wears bunny slippers.

* ChasteHero: Averted. Harry likes sex just fine, the trouble is that the majority of women who are eager to sleep with him would kill him or enslave him. His first romantic and sexual relationship being part of his pre-series TraumaCongaLine doesn't help. [[spoiler: The two romantic/sexual relationships he has in-series as of ''Skin Game'' adding to his in-series TraumaCongaLine doesn't help either. When your ''least'' traumatic breakup is due to the lady concerned finding out she'd been magically manipulated by someone else into hooking up with you, though she says that her memories of you will remain good ones, it says a lot.]] Plus, he would rather not indulge out of sheer carnal pleasure, but love, or at least a serious relationship. As if this were not handicap enough, he is also kind of clueless about women. Taken to tragicomic extremes at the end of ''Changes'': [[spoiler:Harry and Murphy, both traumatized by events, agree to meet up and have mindless sex in an hour... but just before he goes to meet her Harry is shot dead.]]

** The Archive knows everything that has ever been written or committed to paper (yes, this means porn, hate speech, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and even]] PurpleProse), and the Archive itself itself is passed down from mother to daughter along with the personal memories of each previous Archive. This means that, in addition to knowledge and power, one woman gains all the trauma, heartbreak and memories from countless previous lives.

* ClassicalMovieVampire: The Black Court Vampires (or, to quote Harry, [[TheNicknamer blampires]]). In fact, [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Stoker's book]] was written and published on the orders of the White Court ''and'' White Council in order to help teach {{muggle}}s how to fight the Black Court.

* CoolPet: Mister and Mouse. Mouse is a Temple Dog / Fu Dog with unspecified magical powers and human level (at least) intelligence. Mister is an enormous house cat (30+ pounds, but no excess fat) who loves Coca-Cola and food from Harry's favorite pub. He is so awesome that his true form and the way he appears to normal sight are ''exactly the same''. Mister is too dignified to abide by such silly things as the laws of physics.

* FreeLoveFuture: ''Viciously'' deconstructed and PlayedForHorror by House Raith of the White Court. Through the porn industry, they're trying to manipulate modern Western society into encouraging promiscuity and the eschewing of monogamy in society. However, what makes this bad is that the Raiths see "consent" [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil as a funny little delusion]] that only "morons" like [[TokenGoodTeammate Thomas]] [[spoiler:and Connie Barrowill]] care about, and are trying to stigmatize meaningful romance so as to lessen the prevalance of their KryptoniteFactor (TrueLove). Appropriately enough for a faction of {{Horny Devils}}, they're remarkably sex-negative when you get down to it, as seen in how Lord Raith fetishized female homosexuality while stigmatizing male homosexuality at the same time [[EvilIsPetty due to his own personal tastes]]. In short, the Raiths are only encouraging promiscuity and "love without boundaries" so as to both eradicate love itself and further spread their powerbase.

* DepravedBisexual: [[HornyDevils The Raiths]], as most will sleep with either gender. At one point, Lara flirts with both Harry and Luccio in the same scene. Notably averted with the White King himself, which is part of the reason Thomas' father did not turn him into a slave like his sisters.

* HornyDevils: White Court vampires of House Raith.