Proven Guilty is book #8 in The Dresden Files.Dark magic is afoot in Chicago. Harry Dresden, now a Warden of the White Council, finds himself dealing with the politics of the magical world, learning where the mercurian Summer Court stands in the war between the White Council and the vampires, and investigating a series of attacks by creatures that feed on fear.So having to make peace between his Holy Knight best friend's precocious teenage daughter and said knight's wife is probably not coming with the best of timing.Now has its own Shout Out page.
Proven Guilty provides example of the following tropes:
Always a Bigger Fish: After escaping being sold on eBay by Madrigal Raith, Harry corners Madrigal and severely wounds his jann lackey with some help from Thomas and Mouse. Then Madrigal's lackey is dragged off and devoured by the reallyBig Bad of the book, an elder fetch.
Badass Longcoat: Harry Lampshades how people stop thinking he's a superhero when he doesn't wear his leather duster.
Charity Carpenter is a really good sword fighter. Who do you think Michael’s been practicing against all these years?
Rawlins holds his own pretty well, despite being the only vanilla-human in a fight involving White Court vampires, a Big Bad fetch, a foo dog and Harry.
And, as in pretty much every book, Murphy.
Batman Cold Open: The book begins with the execution of a warlock, and much of the plot of the story is about how to handle another warlock.
Batman Gambit: It is never truly said whether The Gatekeeper Rashid, Faery Queens Lily and Maeve or Mab, or God started the events in motion to help save Molly, Harry, and the members of the Senior Council but the plan works out perfectly in the end. See Gambit Pile Up for more.
Big Damn Heroes: Michael is this to the training camp and his arrival helped save the novice mages and three members of the Senior Council.
Cannot Tell a Lie: The Faery Queens Maeve and Lily. This doesn't stop them from manuvering things to not only help save Molly's life but many other in-training wizards and members of the Senior Council. And Lily telling the Merlin facts which are true From a Certain Point of View.
Although recent information reveals that Maeve was in fact able to lie, and used it to manipulate both Harry and Lily.
Chew Bubblegum: As Harry busts into a theater, trying to get the phobophages inside to attack him, he shouts "And I'm all out of bubblegum!"
Department of Redundancy Department: When Harry tells Molly that she will be living with her parents again while he is training her and provides a list of things she will be there.
Harry: ...you're going to do everything in your power to be the most respectful, loving, respectful, considerate and respectful daughter in the whole wide world.
Molly's friends she reprogrammed will endure a long road to some recovery but never fully coming back to who they were.
In Cold Days it is revealed Leah is going through this when she is trapped in ice in Mab's courtyard. It is only working because Leah wants to be cured of what is inside of her.
Distracted From Death: Harry's trying to save a girl from a phobophage, but gets carried away attacking it and, when he turns round to check on the girl, she's bled to death.
Drunk on the Dark Side: The young warlock at the start of the book is this, by Merlin's words. He either personally killed or brainwashed his family to kill each other. Merlin firmly believed the young man he once was is dead and gone.
Harry himself worries that he might be this when he neglects checking on civilians so that he can beat up a Xenomorph.
Foreshadowing: At the convention Molly is working at the printer has been acting up quite a bit as of late. And it isn't just when Harry's around.
Full Name Ultimatum: Though not yelled when Michael sees Molly for the first time in several weeks and finds her hair pink and she has visible tatoos and piercings, he says in a hushed voice, "Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter."
Gambit Pileup: The plot is initially presented as an investigation by Harry into attacks by the phages against the horror movie convention, but it rapidly becomes much more complex when Thomas starts acting secretive and tails Harry around town, then the Sidhe Ladies start plucking strings, and it gets even muddier when Madrigal Raith gets involved, planning to sell Harry on Ebay for profit. By the end of the book, it looks like Lily manipulates Harry into going into Arctis Tor, while Maeve manipulated Harry into Arctis Tor and slowed down time in the region to trap the armies of Winter so Summer could attack, and it is hinted that the entire thing might have been arranged by Mab, and then at the trial at the very end of the book it appears the entire bloody thing was planned by the Gatekeeper. And to top it all off, at the very, very end of the trial, Michael shows up, having saved Luccio, Ebenazar, and the rest of the Senior Council, alongside the Summer Court intervening in a battle between the Council and the Red Court, saving the day, which may mean that everything was planned by God. And the Black Council was apparently involved at one level or another, somewhere, and the Denarians make a small cameo somewhere in this screwball of a mess. Just as planned.
Groin Attack: Harry makes up for his lack of real skill with a sword by stabbing an ogre "in the danglies." The rest of the ogres wisely back off at the prospect of getting cold iron in their privates.
Hellfire was also used in a major assault against Arctis Tor.
Hero Worshipper: Molly full stop for Harry. It is because she worshiped him so much she kept her magic a secret from everyone. As Harry puts it, if he was a rocker, she wouldn't want to show her skills by just being able to play the scales and nothing else. She wanted to do something grand.
Lampshade Hanging: Entering the locked-up movie theater, Harry remarks on what scene of the movie he's playing out, and even taunts the fetches by saying he'll have to try walking backwards through a door or something if they don't attack him soon.
Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Some phobophages take the shape of horror movie monsters to inspire fear. Harry ends up fighting an unnamed creature which drools heavily and has acid for blood. Harry obviously recognizes it as a Xenomorph, as he spends the rest of the fight using quotes from the movies as one-liners, while very carefully not mentioning its name.
Locked Out of the Loop: Inverted. Charity has the deep dark secret. No one else knows but Harry after figuring it out on his own.
Mama Bear: Charity Carpenter more than fits this trope. She storms the gates of Winter Faerie Capital itself to get her daughter back.
Mercy Kill: Merlin believes, on some level, killing Warlocks is this as the good person they once were was gone and could not come back after tasting the pleasures of Evil Magic. There is nothing left but a monster in human guise.
There is the famous instance where Harry fights a xenomorph, including quoting from the movie with "Get away from her, you bitch!" as he proceeds to roast and smash the beast repeatedly until it is turned into chunky salsa. Moments later, however, he learns the "her" he was rescuing has bled out and died, and he is left to wonder if he wasted the chance to save her because he was indulging in blasting the monster repeatedly instead, and in turn whether that enjoyment had something to do with Lasciel's shadow's influence on him.
Charity has a small one when her daughter uses the Parable of Talents against her as to why she should keep her magic because she could do so much good with her power. Charity, who was a practitioner but gave up her magic, realizes she is the third servant who just buried his bag and did nothing with it, and she gave up her own chance to do good in the world with magic but chose to hide it from everyone, including Michael.
Name's the Same: The fact "Harry" is the name of the Dresden and the youngest Carpenter child is lampshaded. So Amanda Carpenter calls big-Harry "Bill."
The Nicknamer: Harry being this is no surprise, but in this book Molly takes a turn also, tagging her littlest sister Hope "Hobbit" on the spot. Her other sister Alicia objects to Molly's pet name for her (Leech).
Not So Different: Harry realizes Molly's infatuation is based in part in how similar their relationship is to Molly's parents. Michael/Harry saved Charity/Molly from an evil group the lady got herself entangled with and not fully understanding the risks of their choices.
Oh Crap: Harry learns that every Fae in Winter is coming to kill him. Personally.
He has another one later in the same book, when he realizes that his out maneuvering of the Merlin in trying to save Molly's life has actually resulted in forcing the Merlin to have her KILLED, both because the Council can't have one of its regional commanders kept busy with an apprentice during a war, and to show that he still has more power than one young upstart wizard/warden.
A third time for Harry would occur when Michael admits, while he has known about Lasciel's shadow being inside Harry since the night of the infection, if Michael believes Harry is going to embrace the Fallen, he will end Harry. After a moment of thinking on it, Harry is happy and would want that as well.
One Phone Call: Molly claims she can't call her folks because she used her one phone call to ask Harry to come bail her out. Harry points out that it doesn't actually work that way.
Precision F-Strike: Michael, being a very reverent man, does not like taking the Lord's Name in vain. So when he sees his eldest daughter with pink hair, has piercings, and visible tattoos, he says "God's blood."
Rage Against The Director: When the Big Bad fetch attacks at the Full Moon Garage, it takes the form of the Scarecrow, a Pumpkinhead-Expy from director Darby Crane's horror films. One of the targets it attacks is Crane himself aka Madrigal Raith, and it scares the living crap out of him.
I started to get annoyed, but was struck by the disturbing thought that if I did, I would be coming down on the same side of the situation as Charity, which might be one of the signs of the apocalypse.
Stepping Out For A Quick Cup Of Coffee: Rawlins "conveniently overlooks" Harry snooping around a crime scene. Later, when Harry needs to illegally pick a lock, he tells Murphy to "look at that zeppelin", and she grudgingly turns her back so he can get on with it.
"That was Bucky the Murder Doll." "Kind of a wimp." "Must have been the runt of the litter." "Personally. I never understood how anyone could have found that thing frightening to begin with."
Though it's actually used as a plot point... since none of the people in the group were particularly scared of Bucky, that's why it was such a wimp.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Two examples of untrained practitioners whose minds are tainted and warped by Dark Magic. The Korean boy in the start of the book and Molly Carpenter who must fight against those urges from now on.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Molly Carpenter cites The Parable of Talents. the Biblical tale that preaches this message, against her mother as why she should keep her magic and learn to use it properly. Harry notes Stan Lee says it easier, and Father Forthill agrees it rolls off the tongue better.
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