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"I am somewhat flattered by how many Crowning Moments of Awesome I am credited with, and find it imperative to consider how to top the previous ones"

There are a lot of Crowning Moments in The Dresden Files, with this image depicting what most fans consider the Crowning Moment of all Crowning Moments. Unfortunately the artist forgot the one-man polka band. (see the Dead Beat entry below) Otherwise, this is what we've come up with so far.

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here. All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.


Across Books

  • Let's just run down Harry's allies so far in the series and see just how far the list has grown to insane proportions. As of Skin Game:
    • As of Turn Coat, Harry's standing in the White Council has risen, with many of the younger members looking up to him. He has the support of three of the seven Senior Council members (Ebenezar, "Injun Joe" Listens-to-Wind, and Rashid the Gatekeeper) and his relationship with Anastasia Luccio probably gives him some pull with the Wardens as well, not to mention how most if not all of the younger ones look up to him.
    • The Grey Council. Though seen only once in Changes, twelve of them were enough to turn the tide of battle against the entire Red Court. Though to be fair, one was Ebenezar "Blackstaff" Mccoy, another was Donnar Vadderung aka Father Odin, and the two of them brought an army of kenku to help.
    • Harry's a member of the Winter Court and gets along with five of the six Faerie Queens, as well as Toot-Toot and the Za Lord's Guard, who are starting to gain some serious attention among the Wild Fae.
    • With the Red Court destroyed and the White Court's Skavis and Malvora families killed, he has a working relationship with almost the entire vampire community.
    • He also has a working relationship with Johnny Marcone, the Baron of Chicago, who’s a formidable power in his own right.
    • Odin/Santa Claus clearly supports Harry and has helped him significantly, free of charge, more than once.
    • Although not quite a friend, Gard the valkyrie has fought side by side with Harry and considers him a worthy ally when circumstances permit.
    • Uriel, whom Mab considers the most dangerous of the Archangels, has helped Harry several times and gifted Harry with Soulfire. By extension, God himself supports Harry.
    • Harry is good friends with the Knights of the Cross.
    • Hades, Lord of the Underworld, makes a point of letting Harry know that he has an interest in what Harry does. Beyond that, he rattles off a list of things that he and Harry have in common, and expresses empathy. Hades also (indirectly) gives Harry powerful artifacts to fight the Outsiders.
    • Harry has a bond with Alfred Demonreach, an intellectus spirit powerful enough to withstand an all-out Outsider attack and an attack by both Faerie Ladies and a dozen other Fae at the same time.
    • Bob, especially when you realize what he’s capable of doing. Harry isn't kidding in Changes when he refers to Bob as one of the most powerful spirits he's ever met; in Changes, Bob manages to shield Murphy from the Red King's willpower. That's right, Bob has enough willpower to match the Physical God ruling over the Red Court.
    • Will and the other werewolves. Though normally outclassed, they are capable fighters in the right situations. Ask Madeline Raith. Or Jenny Greenteeth. Or the Fomor.
    • Then there's his spirit daughter, born of him and Lash. In a world where knowledge is power, once she gets going, she'll be quite the force to reckon with.
    • Last but certainly not least, Badass Normal Karrin Murphy, in detail below.
  • Murphy gets at least one Moment of Awesome per book. Highlights: melting down her aunt's silver earrings into bullets and shooting them into a loup-garou, taking a chainsaw to an ogre's knee, then using that same chainsaw to then kill a chlorofiend (plant monster), being the gunslinger in a raid of a vampire nest, jousting on a motorcycle against a speeding car, and beating off the control of the king of all incubi. And that's only covering up to book six...she gets at least four in Small Favor, especially when Fidelacchius gets involved.
    • Sanya's reaction to Murphy is, in addition to being accurate, hilarious. Especially in Changes, when she gets the direct aid of an archangel. Face judgment of the Almighty!
      "Tiny." *insert description of Sanya's actions here* "But fierce!"
    • Don't forget the bit in Aftermath, where she decides not to go back to pick up Fidelacchius, essentially because she's enough of a badass without it!
  • Mouse the Dog is Murphy in dog form. Twice, if you count the law maker too. He can make Lea nervous- and since he gets his power from thresholds, and he's living with the Carpenters (who presumably have an incredibly strong one) now...well, let's just say that Maggie will be very well-protected.
  • Everything Lara Raith has ever done. She may be a villain, but she has style and sex appeal. Lara has ultimate style. Most of the bad guys do. Except for the part where she disemboweled and then fucked her cousin to death after having been burnt to a crisp. That was just pure Squick-laden horror.
  • Any time a Senior Council member demonstrates why they deserve to be on the Senior Council.
    • When you find out that Ebenezar is responsible for The Tunguska Event, that becomes even more impressive when you remember that he wasn't even on the Senior Council at that point!
      • Even more impressive when you find out that he used Tunguska to kill a Dragon.
    • You don't get to be the Merlin by collecting bottle caps.
  • The mere existence of Little Chicago, when one considers the requirements necessary to create it. Harry has to actually physically go out, take samples from every tree, building, and road in Chicago, and then precisely place every one of those samples into the corresponding pewter model of that object or structure, then precisely lay them out exactly as they are in the city itself. Even the tiniest mistake could throw off the entire model. Then he has to keep the model precisely up to date; every time a tree gets cut down, a telephone pole gets replaced, a street gets repaved, or a building gets remodeled he has to get a new sample. Then you throw in the complex magical side of creating the device. The sheer logistics and organization and precision required to make something that huge and complex is mind-boggling. For Harry, making it is just a "pain in the ass." The fact that he was even able to put it together, let alone make it work, is incredible.
    • To make it even more impressive, Harry can't even go near an electronic device without it catching fire or something. In other words, he did all that without the benefit of GPS or Google Maps (though Bob probably did help him a lot with keeping track of the locations that needed to be sampled).
    • "[Harry] has a voodoo doll of Chicago." —Thomas Raith, "Backup"
  • Anything Demonreach does. Anything.
  • Dragons in the series aren't just flying lizards. They're elemental forces of nature that will drive you insane with their true forms, and can eradicate a mere mortal with barely any effort. One of them brings Harry to his knees simply by casually saying his first name. To put that in just a little more perspective: Jim Butcher posted on his website forum answering a question on whether Ferrovax (the Dragon) would be a match for the combined powers of Eldest Gruff and the Leanansidhe. Remember that one of those collects stoles from defeated Senior Council Wizards and the other is Mab's right hand. Ferrovax would wipe the floor with them even if they had every advantage they could bring to the table. Butcher compared it Mike Tyson in his prime fighting a 13 year old blind girl.
    • Which makes taking one out one of the greatest feats possible, and we know both Michael and Ebenezar have done so (see above).
  • The fact that bringing humanity as a whole into magical conflicts is considered something of a Godzilla Threshold. Individually, humans are pathetic, but once our attention as a whole is turned onto a magical threat that threat tends to be brought to the edge of extinction in short order. This is essentially how the Black Court was nearly wiped out.
  • Nicodemus is scared of Harry. That in itself is pretty darn awesome.

Short Stories

  • Uriel, at the end of The Warrior, going through all of Harry's lesser actions throughout the story and saying how each one makes the future that much brighter.
  • Also in The Warrior, when Michael who had been crippled for a year and needs a cane to run defeats the army trained priest who wields the not working, but still sharp Fidelacchius, with his old sword and a baseball bat. Throughout the entire fight he delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech calling the man out on his actions and lack of faith. In a tense role reversal, during the confrontation between Michael and the militant priest, it's Harry that has to talk his friend down from beating the man who kidnapped and strapped his daughter to a bomb to death. And he does.
  • By the way, if anyone is wondering how Harry met Murphy? She leapt onto the back of a troll, and tried to choke it to death with her nightstick. Murphy rocks.
  • Even Hand. Put it this way: remember how awesome it was that Murphy stood up to "Tiny" the Gruff and stopped him dead with a legal ultimatum? Marcone does the same thing to someone ten times meaner and more powerful, and doesn't break a sweat.
    • Marcone and Hendricks proving that a pair of AA-12 automatic shotguns with drum magazines > an entire army of Fomor monstrosities.
    • Justine has apparently gone from being a somewhat helpless Damsel in Distress to one of Lara Raith's trusted spies/secret agents, considering that she pilfered Mag's bank account information, rescued all of his slaves, and set Mag himself up to get killed by Marcone.
    • Marcone's defeat of Mag becomes retroactively even more awesome with the revelation that he was holding Thorned Namishel's Denarius the whole time. He could have called on Namishel and matched Mag's sorcerous talents, but he was so confident in his ability to defeat Mag while restricting himself to mortal weapons that he decided to keep the Denarius as an ace in the hole for more important fights.
  • Day Off:
    • The story begins with Harry playing D&D with a barbarian who likes to growl "Enough talk!" before every attack. Seems like a random throwaway line, until you remember that Gard said the exact same thing before berserkergang charging the grendelkin in Heorot. Looks like the Valkyrie made quite an impression.
    • Harry is going home from game night when he's approached by the Death Eater Wannabes for ruining their leader's bad feng shui curse. When they demand that he defend himself, ready for a magic duel (as much as they'll ever be), Harry pulls his trusty .44.
      "Wh-what?" said one of the girls, who had a nose-ring that I was pretty sure was a clip-on. "What are you doing?"
      "I'm a-fixin' to defend myself," I drawled, Texas-style.
    • Mouse gets one for taking on two werewolves in Mister's defense.
  • A lot of what Murphy does in "Aftermath," but two in particular: first, her severe beatdown of a slimebag apartment superintendent in front of all of his tenants, then her raid along with Billy and one of the other Alphas on a minor-talent human-trafficking ring. Run by Fomorians.
  • Not in any short story, but Jim has said that the Gatekeeper is the one who took down Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon, and that he is the most dangerous wizard on the entire council.
  • Backup is pretty much one long, low-key one for Thomas, as he essentially follows Harry around and covers his back, even going so far as to take a direct hit from Harry while disguised as an evil sorcerer just to keep his cover.
  • Jury Duty:
  • Zoo Day:
    • Harry manages to talk down a warlock, potentially saving his life. And moments before that, when one of the demons the warlock had accidentally summoned tries to jump him, Harry opens a Way right in its path, sending it back to the Nevernever.
    • Maggie Dresden faces down an entire tribe of haunts, fights off their mental attacks, and banishes them. She does this all without her dad even noticing, but what's truly amazing is that it emphasizes the best parts of Harry that Maggie has inherited: his wits, courage, and stubborn refusal to give up. This is seen when the haunts try to use the memories of her foster family being slaughtered by the Red Court. Maggie, in true Dresden style, realizes on the fly the creature's weakness using simple logic and insight into their behavior: they, like any bully, are just trying to hide how weak and afraid they truly are.
    • Mouse manages to counter and drive off his Shadow by explaining why it would be well advised to withdraw in peace:
      Mouse: I am bleeding, and weaker than I could be, and tired from one fight already. Assuming near parity between us, you should have the advantage. But you don't. Because you forgot something.
      Shadow: Oh?
      Mouse: I don't need to survive this scenario to win. (…) I love that child. And if you take one step closer, I will gladly die to rip out your guts with my teeth.
  • Monsters:
    • Goodman taking out a goon who just threatened to burn some of the enslaved kids alive by transforming into a tiger, breaking through a wall into the room that said goon was holed up in, and mauling him to death.
    Hey, you know how a nine-hundred-pound Bengal tiger gets into a locked room?
    Any damned way it wants to.

Comic Books

  • in Wild Card: Puck has been effortlessly killing anyone he sets his sights on, so when he confidently strolls towards Murphy as she's getting on a motorcycle she slams her helmeted head against his face and in the ensuring chase, also ends up belting him in the mouth with brass knuckles, causing his Evil Gloating to slip and making him show real anger.
  • While Puck keeps shrugging off any injury in no time at all Lea stops him from killing Harry with an energy blast that leaves him visibly singed, sends him flying dozens of feet, and rips most of his clothes off.
    Lea: The Boy is under my protection.
  • We get a scene near the end where Harry is talking down a fight between the the White Court, the Chicago Mob and the Chicago PD, rallying them against Puck and describes himself as feeling like George S. Patton.
  • In the fight that follows, when Puck arrives, disguised as a mob thug, John unfazedly stabs him through the chest saying, "Welcome to my City", before having his thugs riddle Puck with bullets, and as he's getting up from that, Thomas and Lara attack, each slicing off one of his arms. While Puck quickly heels, and is soon ready for more, it's enough to make him retreat for a bit.
  • Molly's speech to Puck as she goes out to fight him.
    Molly: You think I'm afraid of you, Freak? I'm not some half-drunk girl you followed home from a club. You don't impress me. You don't intimidate me.
  • Harry and Puck's Absurdly High-Stakes Game where, when wagering himself and his friends being Puck's vassals for a year, Harry wins, banning Puck from harming anyone for the next century.
  • Ghoul Goblin gives us the reveal of how Crazy-Prepared Joseph Talbot is, having spent his life turning his house into a fortress with a safe-room, Wall of Weapons and lots of occult symbols welded into the gate. It doesn't do him much good, but provides his siblings and Harry a decent home base for the rest of the story.
  • The Qarin saving a young Mayor Cedar from a mob of mummies in the flashbacks.
  • The Heroic Sacrifice of Maddie Talbot, an ordinary young woman with no magical abilities or combat skills, to end the Hereditary Curse, with her managing to badly wound the titular goblin with a stab to the chest first.
  • The Qarin giving Harry's its powers, which he uses to utterly and instantly crush the two monsters with.
  • The flashback showing the Red Court's battle with the Wardens at the beginning of War Cry gives us a healthy dose of Awesome Art and shows Ebeneazar being a One-Man Army, and Luccio, Ramirez and a few others serving as a rearguard as the defeated wardens flee and managing to survive the experience.
  • It's only given a couple panels, but Yoshimo does well enough cutting down Red Court vampires with her katana that for a moment she feels like a Badass Normal rather than a sorcerer, and looks no less dangerous for it.
  • The Venatori making their presence known by popping out the window with machine guns and blazing away at the attacking vampires.
  • Wild Bill's Dishing Out Dirt, smashing lots of vampires with rocks and forming a moat around the house, causing several to fall through a hole in the ground. Even after getting a broken hand, he keeps it up to great effect.
  • It may be a bit Awesome, but Impractical, but the sight of Ishchenko crouching down while sticking the gun out the window above her head and blazing away makes for an interesting sight.
  • Yoshimo using her wind powers to obscure the Red Court vampires line of vision before Ramirez appears and blasts them away as they keep pressing on, and later using enough wind to send the vampires flying through the air like pieces of paper.
  • A villainous example comes when a Badass Normal mercenary breaks into the house, kills two of the Venatoi, wounds another, and briefly takes a fourth hostage before being defeated.
  • Ishchenko urging Taylor to shoot through her when she's being hostage, and managing to shoot her captor after getting loose when he's's distracted.
  • Mcgukin, who was wounded so badly that the others were afraid to move him, attacking that mercenary before being killed, and getting a classy "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner which gives the man a brief Villainous BSoD.
    Mcgukin: 'Least I can say I got the drop on a Green Beret.. bet that won't go over so well... with your bosses.
  • Thomas arriving as The Cavalry and stabbing the second in command of the Red Court vampires on the scene through the back of the head.
  • Ramirez shooting Baron Brasova through the cheek as he begins to get the upper-hand against Thomas.
  • Thomas taking on White Court soldiers siding with the Red Court with a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, using both at the same time to great effect.
  • Wild Bill using his magic to stop a lot of fired bullets in midair.
  • Harry deciding to Summon Bigger Fish and set the creature that the Red Court came from on them, sending most of them fleeing in terror.
  • Yoshimo and Ramirez being Defiant Captive's and refusing to show any fear towards Bravosa, even scaring him into releasing them to help fight.
  • Harry feeding Bravosa to the monster, then luring it into a quarry and blowing it to bits with dynamite.
  • At the end of Welcome to the Jungle, Watson takes Will hostage and threatens to kill her in front of Harry, boasting that he's too weak to stop her. Harry just uses a spell to unlock Moe's cage, unleashing 450 pounds of pissed-off gorilla on the unsuspecting hag. She is reduced to Ludicrous Gibs very soon.

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