The Dresden Files

I generally also haw and hum a bit at the White God, but it's mostly just because I don't like the idea that's been kind of simmering under the surface of the series that whatever has to do with God is 'faith magic' and anything that has to do with non-Christian religions that we've seen so far (through Odin and Hades) is 'just' some kind of supercharged version of the same magic Harry's running on.

But so far Jim has at least been a good sport about it and chosen to depict gods whose religious traditions died (respectively) like 1800 and 800 years ago. And we're going to tacitly ignore the implications about the Maya because I think I've made that complaint at least once before.

Edited by math792d on Feb 2nd 2020 at 8:42:52 PM

I must admit i´m a not up to date with all the cultural toes Jim has been stepping on (i mostly just know about the tradition(?) that Skinwalkers are not to be talked about which he completly ignored, which sucks because Shagnasty is one of the best villains and could have been an other kind of shapeshifter). Is it the implication that the mayan gods were the red vampires? Because i thought the the mayan gods were real, but the red King and his ilk either impersonated them or somehow got a hold of their mantles.

That seemed to be the case, yeah.

X5 Pretty much this. When I say the things I like aren't worth discussing. I mean I'm absolutely no good at it. I think the things I like aren't worth discussing in 95% of the media I watch. When I try to articulate why I like something, I think I always sound incredibly vapid, like I'm saying very obvious things that everyone knows.

Like "I love Michael Carpenter." Why? "Because he's a down to earth, strong, and unreservedly kind human being who's gone through a decent amount of shit thanks to his career path and still made it through with his scruples intact. He and Charity are adorable together."

Everyone reading Dresden likely already knows all of that. I don't really have any deep thoughts about him to add to the conversation. He's just a highlight of any scene he's involved with.

Edited by GNinja on Feb 2nd 2020 at 9:07:46 AM

Jim has certainly been way more of a sport than I would, that's for certain.

The Angel (?) that possesses Murphy says something about the crimes the Red Court and Lords of Outer Night committed against the Maya, but leaves it ambiguous if it's talking about the Maya gods or Maya people, or both.

And implying the Maya peoples' gods were all bloodsucking parasites is not a great look, all things considered.

('Maya' is the correct pluralization, incidentally).

Edited by math792d on Feb 2nd 2020 at 12:49:31 PM

Yeah it doesn´t paint the greatest picture of the maya people, but i´m mostly ok with it. Mostly because i don´t feel like it goes against the people or their religion (i´m pretty sure big red and his kind somehow managed a hostile takeover) but is used to show how despicable the reds are. Like all the other central and south-american being in a bad state because of the reds isn´t supposed to be an attack against those countries people, but just show how bad on a bog scale the reds are.

I disagree.

I think I talked about how progressively more 'Yikes' the Vampire Courts in general get, and part of the Yikes factor of the Reds is both how they're kind of coded as super-narcos.

And 'hey, Mesoamerica, Central America and South America are shitholes because of vampires' is not a great look. Especially when their saviors involve three people wielding Catholic holy relics.

A reminder that ignorance is a far more likely explanation than malice.

A further reminder that everyone here probably already figures, even if I have some doubt that they remember everyone else does too.

An even further reminder that ignorance unaddressed has a malice all its own.

I can basicly agree with you on general principle there, but not because of the swords, because i think the persons acting are mor important than the tools they use. The swords are powerful christian artefacts, but the people who use them were one christian woman, one woman who had already been fighting against the reds for nearly a decade, and one man who adamantly doesn´t care about religion. And those three alone couldn´t have made it. The rest of their party was at least equaly important and of those only Molly is really christian. The Angel getting involved however DID send a christian message that left a bad taste.

And in the end (at least in my opinion) there were only two real factors which brought the Red Court down. Their own arrogance/cruelty (symbolized by the Blodline Curse) and Martin (a man who had been fighting for centuries, although admitedly i don´t know how long AGAINST the reds).

I think it's mentioned that the Red Court were basically pretending to be the Mayan gods, and were essentially vampire-sucking faith as well as blood, and one of the reasons they're so freaked out by Angel!Murphy is because they're not sure it's one of the actual gods out for revenge.

Have you gotten around the reading this weeks content from the Year of Dresden? If not DO SO RIGHT NOW!!! It´s a microfiction from the perspective of Morgan and made me scream WHAT!?!? repeatedly.

So Morgan was far FAR better informed than i would have ever expected, but what this made me most curious about: Why was Maragaret able to get Morgan to promise to protect her son? The wardens considered her the next best thing to a warlock, so i think there must have been some kind of personal conection between them...And man i knew Morgan had hurt during his life, but i never would have expected Harry to be such a major cause of hurt for him...This makes me incredibly sad...

I just did some math and Molly will be 31 in PEACE TALKS according to Jim Butcher. That really is wild when you think about it. Its hard to adjust to the fact these characters are aging in real time.

I do like that Jim does that.

That means Maggie will most likely be a teenager before long, which implies new magic teenage girl sidekick might be on the cards.

No kidding? Damn, 14 years in-universe since Proven Guilty?

How's he gonna explain the 6 years between Skin Games and Peace Talks?

I mean, this is The Dresden Files, I find it hard to believe 6 years passed without any major incident.

Ahhh crap. He's gonna establish a happy status quo and then nuke it.

I was gonna say that I was wondering whether mid-forties Harry was gonna be less action hero and more grizzled old detective, but wizards don't age like that.

Has it been confirmed that the series is jumping ahead six years like that?

I don't think so. The Christmas short story certainly didn't seem to imply that.

This probably isn't news to most of you, but I noticed in my library app that Peace Talks has cover art if you're curious. It's got a very Supernatural Is Purple vibe.

So far, the series has been moving along more or less in step with RL time - just like Judge Dredd.

Is there a trope for that btw? Aging in real time in relation to publications? So far I can only find "averting Comicbook Time " to describe it. Although, not suggesting it necessarily needs a trope...

Comic-Book Time is so prevalent there's really no reason for a new trope for its aversion.

No, I don't think there is a need either - I just thought that it's a fairly specific thing to do, that some works do do, and whether a trope did already exist for it, or not.

Who the Hell is the model on the front cover? Has it been the same model throughout? I don’t think I ever seen his face before.