History Literature / GhostStory

* {{Foreshadowing}}: An Einherjaren asks Butters when he's going to "get in the ring and train like a man". Butters replies [[spoiler:"About five minutes after I get a functional lightsaber."]]

** Butters [[spoiler:paid off the medical technicians to not look too much into the explanation of Aristides' defeat and injuries]].

** Molly tells Harry [[spoiler:she saw a Fomor servant paying off a cop to look the other way when he was carrying a duffel bag filled withat least one child]].

** Near the climax, Harry comes to realize [[spoiler:hos ghost body isn't wearing his mother's pendant, which is odd since he manifested his duster and clothes]]. He lampshades this.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Harry has a slightly downplayed version when Lea says his explanation of what happened at the climax of ''Literature/{{Changes}}'' is "Spoken as someone worthy to wield power" he replies that coming from her "that's a little unsettling actually".

* TheFettered: Most shades degrade over a few years and become unstable and dangerous wraiths. [[spoiler:Sir Stuart and others in Mort's protection guard have not. They are soldiers from various wars and eras, but men bound by honor and duty none the less. Their failures in life and strong sense of duty to now serve Mort have helped them maintained their sanity]].

** Near the climax, Harry comes to realize [[spoiler:he isn't wearing his mother's pendant, which is odd since he manifested his duster and clothes]]. He lampshades this.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Ghosts operate on this. If they believe, even just on an instinctual level, they should be able to ride in a car, they won't fall through the seat. If they believe snow shouldn't affect them, five feet of snow is no longer cold. If they believe they should be able to walk through walls, they can. Well, assuming wards and thresholds aren't blocking them.

* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler:Harry is worried Mab would be pissed when his suicide gambit tried and failed at getting around the promise he would make to her. Mab isn't. She's delighted at the brillaince and ingenuity of Harry's plot and if Harry hadn't fallen into her domain, the cold, dark waters of the lake, it might have worked]].

* BequeathedPower: Harry witnesses [[spoiler:Sir Stuart throw his pistol over a binding ring of fire. The only way this could be allowed is if the power was no longer Stuart's, to which Harry equates him having to amputate part of himself. At first Harry thinks he just got a powerful gun with one shot to it, but later comes to realize it is more than that. It is a symbol of power and authority over the protector spirits and the Lecter Specters]].

* BadassNormal: Daniel Carpenter takes after both of his parents in the badass department, knife fighting with a supernaturally fast warlock.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Corpsetaker torturs Mort with wraiths. Mort kills her for good with the same wraiths]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Corpsetaker tortured Mort with wraiths. Mort killed her for good with the same wraiths]].

* MeaningfulEcho: Harry said in ''Changes'' the world could burn if it meant he would save his daughter. [[spoiler:Uriel notes that his apprentice Molly and Karrin would suffer greatly as well. And because of his actions, they have suffered are suffering.]]

* ShutUpHannibal: There are two significant instances of this: first, [[spoiler: when Harry tells Evil Bob to take his WeCanRuleTogether offer and shove it because he will ''never'' belong to the Dark Side]], and second, [[spoiler: when Harry tells off ''Mab herself'' at the end, vowing that he is ''not'' hers and will decide if, when, and how he carries out her orders]].

** Justin [=DuMorne=] shows himself to be this. He isn't necessarily cruel to Harry when teaching him magic, but he is strict and demanding. When he asks something of Harry, he doesn't like to repeat himself. If Harry misbehaves, he will strike Harry, but never in anger.

* EvilTeacher[=/=]SternTeacher: The Leanansidhe. To most mortal views, she is Evil for her [[spoiler:forcing Molly to endure blistering cold temperatures in ragged clothes, and throwing ice chunks at her to make her work on her shields]]. Lea, however, sees herself as a Stern one because [[spoiler:she does not view education with the same wishy-washy coddling mortals do, but simply the act of empowering and fortifying students to survive the harshness of the world. If pain and cold are needed, so be it]]. So, it is simply a "pop quiz" for [[spoiler:Molly when Lea summoned some agents of the Fomor to combat to make her realize she cannot handle things alone. And in true fashion of both types of teachers who believes in never failing to make sure a student can learn a lesson when able, her refusal to help Molly when things were going bad was to push Harry and make him learn to be a stronger ghost to be able to help Molly in this moment]]. Two lessons at once. Quite a bargain.

** [[spoiler:Corpsetaker seeks to do this and come back to the world of the living once more]].

* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: [[spoiler:ArchangelUriel]] reveales to Harry that [[spoiler:he was unduly influenced by a Fallen saying a lie with seven words that led him to wanting to die after becoming the Winter Knight.]] To balance things out in the end, [[spoiler:Uriel is able to give Harry seven corresponding words of Pure Truth to help him see through Mab's manipulations.]]

* DontFearTheReaper: Dresden meets an Angel of Death [[spoiler:standing over Father Forthill]]. She's pleasant enough and is there to act as a soul's bodyguard on its final journey. She's even nice enough to ignore Dresden's various threats since, Dresden being Dresden and all, he doesn't realize until halfway through the conversation that she could utterly destroy him with a passing thought if he continues getting in the way of her duties.

* AFateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: When Fitz, literally and figuratively, turns his back on Aristedes, the rest of his crew follows his example. Aristedes is so self-absorbed that he literally could not imagine a world where he didn't matter, and finding himself powerless and ignored is pretty much Hell on Earth for him. It hits him so hard that Harry almost feels sorry for the guy.]]

* PropheticFallacy: In the first few chapters, Captain Jack tells Harry that if he doesn't go back to Chicago and find his murderer, three of his friends will come to great harm. Later on, it's revealed [[spoiler:Jack wasn't telling the future; he was speculating. He figures Dresden's got a lot of friends, if he's not around to bail them out they'll be in trouble, and three's as good a guess as any.]]

* TrueCompanions: Harry realizes the depth of the love [[spoiler:Michael and Charity have for him by accepting his daughter Maggie (and Mouse) into their house and loving her like their own]].

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"They've been like that ever since they killed you."]]

** [[spoiler:Father Forthill calls Molly out on her disrespectful attitude towards Karrin and others, citing that if she truly wished to be treated as an adult, she best start comporting herself as one, which includes giving due respect to her host and ally (Karrin)]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: An Einherjaren asks Butters when he's going to "get in the ring and train like a man". Butters replies "About five minutes after I get a functional lightsaber." [[spoiler: After he becomes a Knight of the Cross and takes up Fidelacchius, now Lightsaber of the Lord, have to wonder if he's going to be held to that...]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: An Einherjaren asks Butters when he's going to "get in the ring and train like a man". Butters replies "About five minutes after I get a functional lightsaber." [[spoiler: After he becomes a Knight of the Cross and takes up Fidelacchius, now Lightsaber of the Lord, have to wonder if he's going to be held to that...]

* HilariousInHindsight: [[spoiler:With Butters' decision to take up Fidellacchius, Butters' response to Skaldi Skjeldson asking him when he was going to 'get in the ring and train like a man' has become rather fitting and all the more funny]]

* ScheduleSlip: ''Ghost Story'' was originally scheduled for release in April 2011, before being delayed until July 2011.
-->Said Jim (paraphrased): It came down to, readers could either get a half-assed story in April, or a full-assed one in July!

* [[spoiler:AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost]]: Ironically, one of the [[TwistEnding twists]] of ''Ghost Story''. Maybe. [[spoiler: The things that Harry experienced, such as the "between", were most certainly real, and almost certainly restricted to ghosts.]]