Par for the series in general, there were quite a few ridiculously funny moments in this installment of The Dresden Files. WARNING: Unmarked spoilers below!
- Harry's mental snarkiness doesn’t quit, even when he's in the middle of a life-or-death struggle in the middle of an icy lake fighting a genuine kraken."On the other tentacle..."
- And naturally, he also makes that Shout-Out.
- Harry being Harry, he also makes note of how tentacles are often used in anime.
- Harry's wiseass reputation preceding him. After their fight against the kraken, Lara had to replace her clothes that were shredded to pieces by its tentacles. She notices Harry looking at her (and he's valiantly trying not to laugh at her state of undress), gives him a Death Glare, and preemptively threatens him with "Not one quip about hentai, Dresden."
- Harry and the heavily injured Murphy have to move quickly through Chicago. Murphy can't run, and carrying her would just put her in more pain.Murphy (holding on to the inside of a shopping cart): Dresden, if you tell anybody about this, I will murder you slowly. With dental implements.Harry: Now, now. If you're good we can buy you a candy bar at the checkout.
- Paranoid Gary the Paranetizen being something of a stereotypical troll/nerd and gets annoyed with Harry for "outing" him in Mac's Pub...except that basically everyone already does know who he is. Mac and Murphy included.
- Harry recruiting Toot-Toot and all of Chicago's Little Folk. By telling them that pizza itself is at stake.
- Really, the whole scene with Harry calling on Toot to get the Little Folk's aid in the upcoming battle is hysterical, as it's a perfect example of Toot's Blue-and-Orange Morality, Skewed Priorities, and habit of Comically Missing the Point."And now," I concluded, "[Ethniu's] coming here to kill all the people."
"Uh-huh," Toot said, nodding, listening, completely supportive.
"And me," I said.
"Uh-huh," Toot said, brightly, waiting.
"And all the pizza shops," I said.
"Oh no!" Toot wailed. He buzzed in a vertical circle. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"... "WE MUST FIGHT!" - And during Toot's freak out, Lacuna is just calling him an idiot for worrying about it.
- Later in the book, after Toot-Toot saves Harry's bacon from Mavra, he muses:I wonder what it says about me that pizza has been one of the better long-term investments in my career.
- Really, the whole scene with Harry calling on Toot to get the Little Folk's aid in the upcoming battle is hysterical, as it's a perfect example of Toot's Blue-and-Orange Morality, Skewed Priorities, and habit of Comically Missing the Point.
- The Erlking's reaction to finding out Harry is Margaret LeFay's son boils down to a deadpan "Much is explained."
- Harry and River Shoulders exchange a fist bump with the arm that Harry just had put back into the socket by River. Then Harry casually brings up that in no way did it cause him to scream in pain.
- Wild Bill cheering at the thought of shooting some zombies, and being mock-disappointed when he hears that the plan is to shoot the necromancers before they raise any walking dead.
- When interrupting the Black Court's necromancy ritual, Harry gets their attention by paraphrasing Ray's formal confrontation of Gozer. Carlos chokes on a laugh while Wild Bill completes the reference in an utterly deadpan tone.
- While confronting Harry, Drakul wonders how he'll react to his impending death. Harry responds with a knock-knock joke.Drakul regarded me for a second. Then he made an exasperated little sound and put one hand on his hip. "I'll be open with you, starborn. At this point of conversations like this one, I often offer the dark gift of immortality to someone in your position. It's occasionally a way to obtain a useful tool, but mostly I just want to see how they react. One sees people for who they truly are when they face death... but, honestly, five minutes of you in my life has been quite enough."
- Mavra snarking at the other Black Court elders about how well and yet thanklessly she's done her job.
- Harry weaponizes his conjuritis to bring an anvil on top of a Black Court vampire's head, and promptly tells them that he did promise to do it.
- Listens-to-Wind, after shapeshifting back to human from a bird, winces and mentions that he ought to do more yoga—but what sells it is River Shoulders' worried reaction."Mobility routines are very important in a human your age."
- An unconscious teenage girl being carried to safety by River Shoulders wakes up, screams, and passes back out again. River Shoulders concludes it's because he's lost his Nerd Glasses.
- Murphy saves Harry on her motorbike, and when she radios in, offhandedly mentions that his call sign is Booster Gold. Harry is somewhat offended.
- Especially funny since one has to wonder just who came up with using obscure comic book references for codenames.
- Harry's numerous manly screams.
- Badass Bystander Randy giving the perfect summary for the entire franchise in just eight words:Randy: We've got a goddamned wizard! Fuck those guys!
- Toot-Toot gives Harry a complex strategic briefing:Toot: We didn't see them until they got there! The foe has sneakily snucked a sneak attack behind our lines, like a sneaky sneak!Harry: What kind of sneak attack?Toot: The sneaky kind! They used veils and got around behind the lines and now they're up to something!!
- Toot-Toot cheerfully insisting that Lacuna is his girlfriend, while she deadpan counters him.Lacuna: When you are dead, I will claim your teeth.Toot: See, she loves me for me!
- Especially hilarious when it’s implied that Lacuna actually does care for Toot, at least as a friend.
- Bob's hilariously blunt reaction when Harry tells him he's going to use him in the binding ritual on Ethinu:
- Listens-To-Wind is one of the greatest living mortal shape-shifters on the White Council. Twice in this book he changes from Owl to a Grizzly Bear mid-flight. This counts both as Orbital Bombardment and a joke about Drop Bears.
- He also pulled a Rawrbomb.
- The banter between Harry and Marcone during the final confrontation with Ethniu is funny, in a laugh-to-keep-themselves-sane kind of way.Dresden: It was good enough for the Son of God. I figure it's in the right league.
Marcone: And the adults let you have it?!
(later)
Dresden: Do you at least have a gun? Maybe you can distract her.
Marcone: I have a knife.
Dresden: Jusht like a gangshter. Bringsh a knife to an apocalypshe fight.
Marcone: ...Honestly, Dresden. If you used your mind half as much as your mouth, you'd be running the place by now. - To save himself and Harry from the tidal wave created as a side effect of sealing Ethniu, Marcone conjures a barrier that takes a form similar to a giant teacup. Harry repeatedly mocks him for this.
- And before creating the teacup barrier, Marcone tells Thorned Namishel in an annoyed tone, "No, I don't have any gopher wood. No one has any gopher wood. I'm not even sure it exists anymore." note
- Really, anything involving Thorned Namshiel and Marcone acting Like an Old Married Couple is pretty hilarious to watch.
- Vadderung refers to Uriel by Harry's nickname for him, "Mr. Sunshine". When Harry shows surprise at this, Vadderung casually mentions that he and Uriel have lunch together once a year.
- Listens-to-Wind and Ebenezar keep up their tradition of throwing Cultural Posturing around.Ebenezar: You are just damned useless in a military situation. No discipline at all.Raven!Listens-to-Wind: Redneck! Caw!Ebenezar: [to Harry] Fine, take the Indian too.
- Harry orders Butters to give Mab a boot to the head, to assist him in pulling out the iron spear. Butters being who he is, he assumes that Harry is making a Shout-Out, and Harry has to clarify that for once in his life, he isn't. He also gets annoyed at Butters' nerdiness, which coming from Harry, is really quite ironic.
- When Harry barges into a post-battle meeting of the Unseelie Accords' leaders, their various bodyguards jump to attention to get in his way... except for Freydis, who doesn't even look up from her magazine.
- An offscreen Brick Joke also involving Freydis, in the previous book Harry warns her to not step onto the Demonreach's island without permission because even he is unsure what would happen. Here, when coming to Harry's aid, she does just that, and it throws her 200 yards into the lake for her trouble.
- At the post-battle conference, Harry uses very obvious Exact Words to get out of admitting he has the Eye of Balor. As he notes, they know he's not telling the full truth, and he knows that they know, but none of them can say anything because questioning his word would mean implicitly questioning Mab.
- Afterwards, Molly, Lara, and Mab, all stop cut off Harry from meeting Marcone after the conference, knowing he try to rub it in Marcone face and push his luck.
- Mab's meta commentary on her dynamic with Harry after bluntly informing him that to solidify an alliance with the White Court, he's going to marry Lara - who, despite her long-standing interest in enthralling Harry is taken aback (especially given that Murphy's barely cold), insists on a period of mourning and courting to forestall Mab who intended to have them married there and then: He defies her, makes some baffling reference to mortal pop-culture, she gives him a Death Glare and reminds him of her power over him, he confirms that he continues to understand why she tolerates his insouciance, and they agree to repeat it for basically forever.
- Harry's Sad Clown moment at the end of the book, much to Mab's usual bafflement:"I'm the hero Chicago needs, not the one it swiped on Tinder."
- The sheer casualness with which Michael reveals that he and Charity already know all about Molly being the Lady of Winter, after Harry and Molly had spent the last two-and-a-half books angsting about telling him. They also tell her that being a fairy princess won't get her out of helping in the kitchen. There's even a new pair of rubber gloves waiting for her so she can wash dishes without being hurt by directly touching iron pots and pans.
- Also, the utterly casual way Michael refers to the mantle of the Lady of Winter, right hand of the Queen of wicked Fae, as being a "fairy princess."
- When Harry mentions to Michael that he's been kicked out of the White Council, Michael's immediate is simply "Those fuckers." Harry immediately slips on flat ground and continues to lie there while Michael continues to swear obscenities in multiple languages.
- And then Michael apologizes to the heavens for saying such things, because he's such a Nice Guy, but some things need to be said.
