History YMMV / BloodRites

* SignatureScene: [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments The frozen turkey missile]].

* ShipTease: Murphy/Harry and Murphy/Kincaid have several moments in this book. Of note, Harry tells Murphy [[SheCleansUpNicely she looks nice in a dress]] along with a few SheIsNotMyGirlfriend moments, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Kincaid took off her pants]], Harry was most ''definitely'' jealous.
-->Kincaid was bracing her legs, hands on her calves, and sliding down as she moved forward, helping her to keep them from accidentally moving too far.\\
Or at least that damn well better have been what he was doing, because if it wasn't I would be forced to kill him.\\
(...)\\
'''Dresden:''' "Don't be silly. The image of you [[ItMakesSenseInContext gunfighting in your panties]] is going to boost my morale for years."
** Harry also candidly mentions he wouldn't mind marrying Murphy for her mom's cooking.

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Zigzagged with the book's portrayal of the porn industry. On the one hand, Arturo and most of his cast and crew are shown as sympathetic characters trying to make a living. On the other hand, it's mentioned that some of Arturo's ideas, like his open-mindedness about what makes people attractive, are at odds with the opinions of most people in the industry. [[spoiler: And on a larger scale, much of the porn industry is controlled by the White Court, who are using it to propagate attitudes towards attraction and sex that make it easier for them to feed.]]

'''Dresden:''' Don't be silly. The image of you [[ItMakesSenseInContext gunfighting in your panties]] is going to boost my morale for years."

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Lord Raith]], aka [[VampireMonarch the White King]], is one of the cruelest White Court vampires, as well as one of Harry's most personal enemies. A brutal authoritarian, [[AbusiveParents Raith]] murders his sons to avoid them becoming a threat to his power, and rapes and feeds off his daughters, reducing them to {{sex slave}}s. Feeding off of the feeling of lust from his victims to sustain his power, Raith only stops this when he kills his ex-wife Maragret--[[YouKilledMyFather better known as Harry's mother]]--and she uses her death curse to prevent him from continuing. When Raith's servant Arturo begins operating independently of Raith's porn monopoly, Raith furiously responds by slaughtering Arturo's innocent employees, only stopping to hunt Harry to lift Margert's death curse. Attacking Harry and his half-brother who is Raith's own son, Thomas, Raith tries to kill them both to vanquish any threat to his power. Raith reveals to Harry that he intends to turn his love interest Karrin Murphy into his personal sex slave and later reveals his intent to rape his youngest daughter, Inari, and turn her into yet another mentally-broken slave for himself.

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Lord Raith]], aka [[VampireMonarch the White King]], is one of the cruelest White Court vampires, as well as one of Harry's most personal enemies. A brutal authoritarian, [[AbusiveParents Raith]] murders his sons to avoid them becoming a threat to his power, and rapes and feeds off his daughters, reducing them to {{sex slave}}s. Feeding off of the feeling of lust from his victims to sustain his power, Raith only stops this when he kills Maragret Dresden--[[YouKilledMyFather Harry's mother]]--and she uses her death curse to prevent him from continuing. When Raith's servant Arturo begins operating independently of Raith's porn monopoly, Raith furiously responds by slaughtering Arturo's innocent employees, only stopping to hunt Harry to lift Margert's death curse. Attacking Harry and his half-brother who is Raith's own son, Thomas, Raith tries to kill them both to vanquish any threat to his power. Raith reveals to Harry that he intends to turn his love interest Karrin Murphy into his personal sex slave and later reveals his intent to rape his youngest daughter, Inari, and turn her into yet another mentally-broken slave for himself.

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Lord Raith]], aka [[VampireMonarch the White King]], is one of the cruelest White Court vampires, as well as one of Harry's most personal enemies. A brutal authoritarian, [[AbusiveParents Raith]] murders his sons to avoid them becoming a threat to his power, and rapes and feeds off his daughters, reducing them to {{sex slave}}s. Feeding off of the feeling of lust from his victims to sustain his power, Raith only stops this when he kills Maragret "LaFey" Dresden--[[YouKilledMyFather Harry's mother]]--and she uses her death curse to prevent him from continuing. When Raith's servant Arturo begins operating independently of Raith's porn monopoly, Raith furiously responds by slaughtering Arturo's innocent employees, only stopping to hunt Harry to lift Margert's death curse. Attacking Harry and his half-brother who is Raith's own son, Thomas, Raith tries to kill them both to vanquish any threat to his power. Raith reveals to Harry that he intends to turn his love interest Karrin Murphy into his personal sex slave and later reveals his intent to rape his youngest daughter, Inari, and turn her into yet another mentally-broken slave for himself.

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Lord Raith]], aka [[VampireMonarch the White King]], is one of the cruelest White Court vampires, as well as one of Harry's most personal enemies. A brutal authoritarian, [[AbusiveParents Raith]] murders his sons to avoid them becoming a threat to his power, and rapes and feeds off his daughters, reducing them to {{sex slave}}s. Feeding off of the feeling of lust from his victims to sustain his power, Raith only stops this when he kills Margret Le Fey Dresden--[[YouKilledMyFather Harry's mother]]--and she uses her death curse to prevent him from continuing. When Raith's servant Arturo begins operating independently of Raith's porn monopoly, Raith furiously responds by slaughtering Arturo's innocent employees, only stopping to hunt Harry to lift Margert's death curse. Attacking Harry and his half-brother who is Raith's own son, Thomas, Raith tries to kill them both to vanquish any threat to his power. Raith reveals to Harry that he intends to turn his love interest Karrin Murphy into his personal sex slave and later reveals his intent to rape his youngest daughter, Inari, and turn her into yet another mentally-broken slave for himself.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Harry hiring a cold-hearted mercenary to help him take out some vampires despite ''knowing'' he can in no way afford the man's services, and the mercenary will almost certainly kill him if he gets stiffed. Made especially worse considering the man is risking his life for Harry when Harry is essentially lying to him about payment. It might have been better if Harry had made ''some'' kind of effort to obtain alternative allies or sources of cash to pay Kincaid.
** As Ebenezar pointed out, Mavra has the power of a wizard, so is theoretically also capable of the Death Curse, and Harry has taken no precautions against it. Harry has to admit he didn't think of it.

* MoralEventHorizon: Harry considers the practitioners who send off the Entropy Curse to have fully crossed it because of the cold murder of [[spoiler:Emma.]] Even though [[spoiler:they are women, Harry will no longer care about that fact as they must be stopped at any cost now.]]

-->Kincaid was bracing her legs, hands on her calves, and sliding down as she moved forward, helping her to keep them from accidentally moving too far.
-->Or at least that damn well better have been what he was doing, because if it wasn't I would be forced to kill him.

-->'''Dresden:''' Don't be silly. The image of you [[ItMakesSenseInContext gunfighting in your panties]] is going to boost my morale for years."

* WhatAnIdiot: Harry hiring a cold-hearted mercenary to help him take out some vampires despite ''knowing'' he can in no way afford the man's services, and the mercenary will almost certainly kill him if he gets stiffed. Made especially worse considering the man is risking his life for Harry when Harry is essentially lying to him about payment. It might have been better if Harry had made ''some'' kind of effort to obtain alternative allies or sources of cash to pay Kincaid.

* CompleteMonster: [[SerialRapist Lord Raith]], aka [[VampireMonarch the White King]], is one of the cruelest White Court vampires, as well as one of Harry's most personal enemies. A brutal authoritarian, [[AbusiveParents Raith]] murders his sons to avoid them becoming a threat to his power, and rapes and feeds off his daughters, reducing them to {{sex slave}}s. Feeding off of the feeling of lust from his victims to sustain his power, Raith only stops this when he kills Margret Le Fey Dresden—[[YouKilledMyFather Harry's mother]]—and she uses her death curse to prevent him from continuing. When Raith's servant Arturo begins operating independently of Raith's porn monopoly, Raith furiously responds by slaughtering Arturo's innocent employees, only stopping to hunt Harry to lift Margert's death curse. Attacking Harry and his half-brother and Raith's own son, Thomas, Raith tries to kill them both to vanquish any threat to his power while trying to rape his own daughter, Inari, and turn her into yet another mentally-broken slave for himself.

* CompleteMonster: Lord Raith, King of the White Court and the head of House Raith, who also appears in ''Literature/WhiteNight'', manages to stand out amongst his peers as one of the cruelest White Court vampires. While all the Houses of the White Court [[EmotionEater feed off of the emotions of their victims]] to maintain their power, House Raith feeds off of lust. In order to maintain his absolute control over his household, Lord Raith [[AbusiveParents raped and fed off his daughters to make them his slaves and murdered his sons to prevent them from becoming threats]]. This behavior stopped when [[YouKilledMyFather Raith killed Harry's mother]], who used her death curse to ensure that Raith could no longer feed and gain power. This forced Raith to limit his magic usage and act through mortal intermediaries. When a former employee of his, Arturo, begins to work independently as head of his own porno studio, Raith arranges the murder of several of Arturo’s workers to force Arturo to work for Raith again. Yet these plans take a backseat once he discovers that Harry is the son of the woman who cursed him and that Harry's death would enable him to feed again and regain his former glory. By the end of the novel, Raith has attempted to [[OffingTheOffspring kill his son Thomas]], plans on keeping Harry's LoveInterest, Murphy, as a SexSlave, and intends to [[ParentalIncest rape Inari, his youngest daughter]].

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Zigzagged with the book's portrayal of the porn industry. On the one hand, Arturo and his cast and crew are generally shown a sympathetic characters trying to make a living. On the other hand, it's mentioned that some of Arturo's ideas, like his open-mindedness about what makes people attractive, are at odds with the opinions of most people in the industry. [[spoiler: And on a larger scale, much of the porn industry is controlled by the White Court, who are using it to propagate attitudes towards attraction and sex that make it easier for them to feed.]]

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Zigzagged with the book's portrayal of the port industry. On the one hand, Arturo and his cast and crew are generally shown a sympathetic characters trying to make a living. On the other hand, it's mentioned that some of Arturo's ideas, like his open-mindedness about what makes people attractive, are at odds with the opinions of most people in the industry. [[spoiler: And on a larger scale, much of the porn industry is controlled by the White Court, who are using it to propagate attitudes towards attraction and sex that make it easier for them to feed.]]

* FreudWasRight: Obvious in the final chapters of the book, to the point that it was even Lampshaded by Harry in the narrative.
-->And with that, [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty Murphy still pinned on his knife]] - [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic don't miss the symbolism there, Doc Freud--]]

* CompleteMonster: Lord Raith, King of the White Court and the head of House Raith, who also appears in ''Literature/WhiteNight'', manages to stand out amongst his peers as one of the cruelest White Court vampires. While all the Houses of the White Court [[EmotionEater feed off of the emotions of their victims]] to maintain their power, House Raith feeds off of lust. In order to maintain his absolute control over his household, Lord Raith [[AbusiveParents raped and fed off his daughters to make them his slaves and murdered his sons to prevent them from becoming threats]]. This behavior stopped when [[YouKilledMyFather Raith killed Harry's mother]], who used her death curse to ensure that Raith could no longer feed and gain power. This forced Raith to limit his magic usage and act through mortal intermediaries. When a former employee of his, Arturo, begins to work independently as head of his own porno studio, Raith arranges the murder of several of Arturo’s workers to force Arturo to work for Raith again. Yet these plans take a backseat once he discovers that Harry is the son of the woman who cursed him and that Harry's death would enable him to feed again and regain his former glory. By the end of the novel, Raith has attempted to [[OffingTheOffspring kill his son Thomas]], plans on keeping Harry's LoveInterest, Murphy, as a SexSlave, and intends to [[ParentalIncest rape Inari, his youngest daughter]]. Not only would this put Inari under his control, but, because White Court vampires start off as mortals and don’t turn into vampires so long as they lose their virginity to someone they love, this would doom her to a life as HorrorHunger ridden, White Court succubus like the rest of his children.