YMMV / Battle Ground (2020)

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Mab claims that the White Council is only (or primarily) fighting to acquire the Eye of Balor, and Harry (who has understandable issues with the Council) agrees. This despite the fact that Harry later notes that the Council is closest of all the powers to humanity. How much of their participation is to get their hands on the Eye of Balor, and how much is to actually protect Chicago, and by extension humanity?
    • Furthermore, their vote to expel Harry. Harry chalks it up to wariness towards the Warden of Demonreach after he managed to bind Ethniu, and Mab dismisses it as "the sheep fearing the wolf." But both here and in Peace Talks Carlos makes a lot of very good points as to why Harry is not trustworthy anymore, which was not at all helped by how incredibly cagey Harry acted throughout both books. Meanwhile, Ebenezer believes the entire effort is being driven by Black Council agents.
    • In light of how internally-factional the White Council can be, the answer in both cases is likely "all of the above," or depends on which individual member is being discussed.
    • Also, how bad is it for the Council to be trying to claim the Eye? It's essentially the magical equivalent of a nuke, so it is almost certainly for the best that they have it and the monsters don't, a line of reasoning which Harry dismisses without any actual argument against.
  • Harry's final break with the White Council. Is it a justified case of Dude, Where's My Respect?? Or is it a case of Never My Fault, as he time and time again flouted their wishes and outright refused to give Ramirez and co anything resembling a straight answer when they asked what he was doing with Lara, as well as many other suspicious activities (see below)? By the end, they also think he is hiding the Eye of Balor - a supernatural superweapon - from them, and they're entirely right.
  • Ebenezer's concerns about the company Harry keeps can seem like an overreaction from Harry's perspective, but by the end of the novel Harry is alienated from his primary human allies in the White Council and closer still with the circle of monsters who make up Winter and the Accorded Nations, making Ebenezar's fears he'll end up like Margaret more understandable. Heck, as Harry himself realizes, it takes him basically browbeating the rest of the Accorded nations for them to actually take into account the cost of human lives and that Innocent Bystanders shouldn't be ranked as potential threats on par with the Fomor.
  • Harry might come across as an Ungrateful Bastard toward Carlos Ramirez for refusing to trust him despite all the times he had Harry's back previously and the help he gave the Justice League of Chicago behind the scenes. On the other hand, Ramirez himself can come off as one given his betrayal of Harry's trust in the previous book and his automatically assuming the worst of matters .
  • The final reveal of Nemesis possessing Justine calls into question the motives behind seven or eight books worth of character development and choices.
  • As suggested by this Reddit post, how much of Listen's Hypercompetent Sidekick antics for Ethniu and Corb are motivated by legitimate Undying Loyalty to the Fomor's cause, and how much of them are him playing them for fools to get a genuine shot at freedom?
    • There's little indication of any loyalty on his side to begin with, and more of him being an Opportunistic Bastard.
  • Bob suggests that Murphy coming to help during the battle despite her injuries is due to Mab's subtle influence, taking away fear and caution and adding aggression. Murphy herself counters that it's not exactly out of character for her to make the decision, even unaided. Was it entirely due to Mab, only partially (she already wanted to come and help and Mab's influence gave her that last little push), or would Murphy have still risked her life even though she's wounded even without any psychic influence?
• Arc Fatigue: Harry's in trouble of being disciplined by the White Council again?!? Even Harry is as tired of this long-running threat as the audience, and his reaction is more of resignation and surprise at Carlos agreeing with the decision than surprise at the decision itself.
• Audience Awareness Advantage: The readers know that Harry is a genuinely good man with (usually) good reasons for what he does. However, to most members of the White Council who don't know him personally, all they know is his record: Raised by a dark wizard, never passed his formal trials, was under the Doom of Damocles, advertises his wizard status publicly, might be working for/with Marcone (whom he sponsored as a Freeholding Lord under the Accords), kicked off a world war with the Red Court that left hundreds of wizards dead, has used necromancy (albeit not technically breaking the Laws since it was on an animal), dropped a challenge to the Senior Council and later to an invited guest who was present under Council hospitality, appears to be very close to the White Court, is the Winter Knight, and his former apprentice was under the Doom of Damocles herself and is now the Winter Lady. Oh, certainly, there are explanations for all of these (such as the fact that his brother is a whampire, he's not actually been working for Marcone or making out with Lara, and most of his choices were due to necessity rather than desire), most wizards wouldn't know this, and as Carlos says, his needlessly secretive and standoffish behavior hasn't helped matters any. The fact that he almost never visits Edinburgh, meaning that most wizards outside the younger Wardens don't know him personally, doesn't help either, nor do the illusions Freydis put up in the previous book. Really, it's honestly more of a wonder that they had waited this long into the series to boot him out.
• Complete Monster: The two leaders of the Fomor, who first appeared near the end of Peace Talks:
  • Ethniu, the Last Titan and daughter of Balor, is the secret backer of the Fomor and their atrocities. Initiating events to lure others to peace accords in Chicago, Ethniu reveals herself and launches a full-on assault at Chicago with the intent to obliterate the city, having the Fomor sweep through to slaughter all in their path while she uses her father's Eye as a superweapon to annihilate what she sees. Ethniu intends on causing a full-on supernatural pogrom to kick off a war between the human and supernatural worlds so she may take advantage of the carnage and rule the world, and when confronted by Harry has him mentally tortured by showing him visions of his daughter and friends being brutally murdered in order to drive him to despair.
  • King Corb of the Fomor is a vicious brute who orders his court's atrocities. Having numerous sapient beings taken through Human Trafficking schemes that involve children, Corb has them subjected to horrible experiments or enslaved with their minds stolen from them to serve the Fomor. Playing every side he can, Corb had also aided the Red Court in their war crimes with providing them nerve gas and upon Ethniu's rise leads his Huntsmen to sweep through Chicago, with men, women and children alike and butchered en masse, Harry even finding a bloodied baby carriage and having to defend a daycare from the Fomor siege. Upon the tide turning against the Fomor, Corb wastes no time killing his own men to escape to the safety of the water.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The kooky "straight" from Dresden's Banner, "Randy", quickly became beloved by the fans due to his hilarious lines and Badass Normal status.
• Genius Bonus: Before creating a magical barrier against a flash flood, Marcone grumbles to Thorned Namishel "Of course I don't have any gopher wood. Nobody has gopher wood. I don't think gopher wood even exists anymore!" While it's funny on its own just for the sheer randomness, what makes it especially hilarious is how in The Bible, gopher wood was given as the primary building material for Noah's Ark.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The biggest hurdle for Harry and Murphy's relationship was always her insecurity in getting involved with a man who would outlive her by centuries. Her death and becoming a Valkyrie now means she'll outlive him and will never return until she fades from living memory and everyone who knows of her is dead (which would include Harry).
  • Justine's Character Development from White Night onward now comes across as bittersweet at best once this book reveals that she's been possessed by Nemesis the entire time, and it's completely unknown what actions were done of her own free will or were just Nemesis puppeteering her. Heck, the fact that she and Thomas were able to be intimate with each other may not have been due to the loophole Justine described, but rather the fact that it wasn't actually her, makes it not just harsher but incredibly sad.
  • Harry and Bradley mocking Rudolph for his Reckless Gun Usage is played as just another example of how much Rudy sucks. But then that same recklessness leads to him accidentally shooting and killing Murphy.
• Memetic Mutation: Randy's line "We've got a goddamned wizard! Fuck those guys!" has quickly become the rallying cry for the whole Dresden Files fanbase.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rudolph accidentally shooting and killing Murphy pushed him straight from amusingly annoying Hate Sink to utterly despised piece of human garbage, to the point where numerous fans now want him to suffer through every Cruel and Unusual Death in the entire series as retribution.
• Nightmare Fuel: Harry's description of the kraken's mind after he enters into a soulgaze with it. It's a miracle that he didn't go insane from the ordeal.
  I don’t even know what I saw that night. A blur of images, alien and strange and somehow nauseating. I felt my limbs, spread out and floating in the water. I sensed other creatures like me, writhing in obscene embraces on the floor of the ocean, amid broken columns and ancient statues of things that somehow seemed to bend themselves into more than three dimensions. Sensation flared through my thoughts, so absolutely alien to anything in the human experience that it might as well have been pure agony.
  I heard myself screaming, felt the bubbles pouring up over my face.
  • From Ebenezar's perspective: He genuinely loved his daughter, but could only watch as she became more and more alienated from her mortal allies, took up with monsters (not entirely through her own choice), and eventually got herself raped (probably multiple times) and killed. Now pretty much the same thing is happening to his grandson, and there doesn't seem to be anything he can do to stop it. Time will tell how much Harry mirrors his mother's path, but certainly, it's understandable from that point of view just why he's been freaking out when he sees Harry and Thomas working closely together (and why he was so harsh to Lara back in Turn Coat).
  • Harry ends up forming a 'banner', consisting of every human fighting in his name. He quickly finds out this means he can feel every injury that happens to any one of them... and every death, too.
  • Marcone was already terrifying as it is. Now that he's the host of Thorned Namshiel, it's possible—in fact, highly probable—that he's under the influence of a Fallen Angel. And if that wasn't bad enough, it's implied that Namshiel is a member of the Black Council, meaning that all of Marcone's abilities, resources, and underlings might now belong to them as well.
• One-Scene Wonder: Drakul only appears for one scene, but damn if he doesn't leave an impression.
• Padding: It's fairly obvious that this book and the previous were one book split into two, discussed in Two-Part Episode on the main page. This tends to result in some repetition in both books, such as Ebenezar and Harry going around and around in their arguments essentially repeating the same thing in Peace Talks, and the non-stop action that goes on for hundreds of pages in this book, which can result in an experience somewhat like The Hobbit where important plot/character points are dribbled between very long action scenes. It's arguable that it might have been better to release the story in its original single-book format.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Downplayed; As reflecting the complaints about Butters being seen as a Creator's Pet, this book not only has him getting his ass handed to him by Ethniu, providing those who aren't fans of Butters a bit of a Catharsis Factor (and it doesn’t really make him look weak, given that before Ethniu came to kick his ass personally, he had cut down the army of minions she had thrown at him and managed to No-Sell one of her attacks), but also has him showcase his genuine Character Development by standing up to her and talking down a grief-stricken Harry from killing Rudolph, showing just how far Butters has come and why he does genuinely deserve to be a Knight of the Cross.
    • Harry also notes the advantages of the new form of the Sword in this book, showing that Butters getting the lightsaber wasn't just a fun gimmick but actually a relevant and useful plot point.
  • Relatedly, the Redcap having been such an Anti-Climax Boss and subject to a bit of Bond Villain Stupidity in Cold Days gets a Hand Wave here when he reveals to Harry that he was Mab's mole within Maeve's court and intentionally held back his punches (relatively speaking) so he wouldn't offend his Queen by offhandedly killing her new Knight.
• Shocking Moments: By the time this book's over, Murphy, Hendricks, Yoshimo, Wild Bill, and (possibly) Chandler are dead; Drakul's been introduced; it turns out that Marcone has Thorned Namshiel's Coin; Justine has been revealed to be possessed by Nemesis, which is properly named as He Who Walks Beside; Harry is kicked off the Council, and in retaliation makes it clear he won't tolerate their authority anymore; and Mab forces Harry into a political marriage to Lara. That is a lot to stuff into one book.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Battle Ground still has its flaws, but overall readers have been more positive and receptive to this entry in The Dresden Files than its immediate predecessor.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Nobody exactly expected Drakul, of all people, to make an appearance.
  • Similarly, as soon as it's stated that either celestial fire or Hellfire is needed to breach Ethniu's armor, it becomes obvious that either an angel or one of the Denarians will show up to form an alliance against the Fomor. However, of all the Denarians to arrive, virtually no one was expecting it to be Thorned Namshiel in the hands of Marcone, especially when circumstantial evidence in Small Favor had implied that Namshiel was infected with Nemesis (who the Fomor are broadly on the same side of).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Bonea, the "daughter" of Harry and Lash who Harry gave birth to in Skin Game, is not mentioned at all in this novel.
  • Mister is also nowhere to be seen, not even getting a brief cameo appearance like he did in Skin Game or Peace Talks.
  • Some feel this way about Murphy, viewing her death as needlessly anti-climatic and seemingly written to be more of a Gut Punch than a satisfying place for her character to end. What certainly doesn't help is that it seems like she's been effectively Put on a Bus for the whole rest of the series, completely neutering any more potential Character Development or drama that could be given to her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Michael and Charity already knowing Molly is the Winter Lady works as an amusing Anti-Climax, but unlike when Harry confessed to having Lasciel's coin in Proven Guilty, there's no real explanation as to how they came by this knowledge (granted, Michael did see the Statue of Hecate in Hades's Vault in Skin Game) or how they came to terms with what's happened to their daughter, and it can feel like cheating for this plot point to be brushed off so quickly after multiple books of build-up. On the other hand, however? Complete, instant acceptance, love, and kindness... is completely characteristic of Michael and Charity, as are Hidden Depths, so befitting a YMMV page, this issue is understandably ambiguous.
  • A weird variant (being closer to "They Wasted a Perfectly Good Potential Joke" more than anything else), but several fans were disappointed that Hendricks died before Harry was ever given an opportunity to learn that he was actually a Wicked Cultured Badass Bookworm and not just a Dumb Muscle Brute. It would've been pretty amusing to see Harry trying to mentally wrap his brain around that and realize that he'd been underestimating Marcone yet again.
  • Harry told by Carlos that he was kicked out of the White Council might have been more of a Wham Line had it been a direct result of Harry's various questionable actions in this and the previous book (not to mention the many times he's flouted the rules previously). However, Peace Talks starts by saying that the White Council is already planning on voting to expel him, with various political ploys in play along with Harry being too busy with the Accords to defend himself suggesting that there's no known way for Harry to stop it. So, instead of being a Plot Twist, Harry's expulsion is more of a Foregone Conclusion.

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