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Yeah I can see Jim talking to his publisher and saying “this is where I want to take the story but to do it right it’s going to be quite a bit longer than the other books” and the publisher saying “well just split it up and we’ll do two back to back”
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Jul 16, 2020 00:58
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Daric posted:Yeah I can see Jim talking to his publisher and saying “this is where I want to take the story but to do it right it’s going to be quite a bit longer than the other books” and the publisher saying “well just split it up and we’ll do two back to back” Presumably the fact the Butcher has delayed so long since the last one gave the publisher more sway to split this one up. However you look at it though it's a pretty naked cash grab.
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Jul 16, 2020 01:09
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jivjov posted:Judging by the cover art of Battle Ground, Dresden is totally putting the spearhead on his staff. That's exciting It also looks like he's getting a hat! Honestly, I think he should wear a hat.
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Jul 16, 2020 01:36
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I think my favorite thread title was "Harry doesn't wear a hat!" back when this was exclusively the Dresden Files thread.
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Jul 16, 2020 01:50
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Beachcomber posted:It also looks like he's getting a hat! He's actually wearing a hat (a fedora, I think) on the cover of Peace Talks. Note that the hat is not pointed. I kind of think of this as Harry Dresden and the Deathly Hallows. Part I is build-up and a lot of "tent." Part II is when poo poo gets really real. Meanwhile, Ethnui coming "out of nowhere" kind of makes a bit os sense when you think about. Consider that the Fomor only really became a threat after the annihilation of the Red Court - which means that on some level they were weaker than the Red Court or at least evenly matched enough as to make a victory over the Red Court extremely Pyrrhic at best. Meanwhile, the Red Court would have know about Ethnui and been extremely reluctant to push things to the point that she'd take the field against them. So the Red Court and the Fomor co-existed in a grudging peace (or at least a low-key war). Consider Ferrovax and Vadderung. The two are clearly enemies who dislike each, but there's also a sense of respect between the two. There was likely a cordial hatred between the Fomor and the Red Court for centuries if not millennia. And then the Red Court was utterly destroyed. By a human. Wizards are still human, after all. They're just humans with access to some of the Cheat Codes of the universe. While the Red King had certainly handed Dresden the chance to do it, the fact remains that a mortal wizard destroy an entire supernatural nation and race in a single night. If it happened once it could happen again - to the Fomor. Think about the War on Terror and how expensive it was and is in money and lives. Figure that Ethnui and the Fomor are planning a supernatural 9-11 to set humans and supernaturals at each others throats, weakening both so that the Fomor can ultimately conquer.
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Jul 16, 2020 02:10
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Everyone posted:He's actually wearing a hat (a fedora, I think) on the cover of Peace Talks. Note that the hat is not pointed. He's wearing a hat on every cover despite explicitly not wearing a hat in the books.
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Jul 16, 2020 02:25
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Khizan posted:He's wearing a hat on every cover despite explicitly not wearing a hat in the books. I'm really hoping that the cover of Mirror, Mirror has Harry With No Hat, but that the mirror universe Harry absolutely is wearing one
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Jul 16, 2020 03:50
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jivjov posted:I'm really hoping that the cover of Mirror, Mirror has Harry With No Hat, but that the mirror universe Harry absolutely is wearing one lmao someone tweet this at butcher
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Jul 16, 2020 05:18
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jivjov posted:I'm really hoping that the cover of Mirror, Mirror has Harry With No Hat, but that the mirror universe Harry absolutely is wearing one Shouldn't it be the opposite?
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Jul 16, 2020 05:26
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As per a thread on butchers forum he somewhere said making these one book his publisher would not have been able to print it in house due to lenght.
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Jul 16, 2020 06:05
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Should Butcher get some credit for doing a male-gazey description of the male internal affairs detective?
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Jul 16, 2020 06:26
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OptimusWang posted:About Butter’s Sword: Did anyone else think the lightsaber/conservation of energy scene was to setup Butters as the only being that can pierce the titan’s armor? I loved the Sansa loses a hand gag as much as anyone (and it does reinforce that this book is Empire), but why else do it? Doubtful The swords were crafted as weapons against Denarians. Against other foes, they're just plain old swords. Vampires are the only other foes the swords affect, but that's not due to anything specific to the swords but more because they are objects of faith like crucifixes and holy water. Butters' sword will likely not harm anything other than a Denarian and vampires. As a holy object it will likely destroy Thomas. Because he's a vampire and all vampires are affected by holy objects backed by faith. Regarding the Titan. I don't think it will be able to harm her, but I imagine he can dismantle her armor with it, since it has no restrictions on inanimate matter. Proteus Jones fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 06:47
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Didn't one of the swords keep Lea at bay until Harry broke it?
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Jul 16, 2020 06:51
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Avalerion posted:Didn't one of the swords keep Lea at bay until Harry broke it? It's steel?
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Jul 16, 2020 06:53
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Re. Butters' lightsaber: Was there not a whole conversation about how the lightsaber would not affect mortals, but act only upon evil supernaturals? Wouldn't a titan that wants to massacre humanity qualify as an evil supernatural?
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Jul 16, 2020 07:21
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The Knights aren't limited to fighting Denarians; Michael has slain a Dragon before and helps Harry fight a ghost in Small Favor, etc.
Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 07:30
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My guess for how they are going to heal Thomas is the shroud.
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Jul 16, 2020 07:50
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Dresden the 17th notes: The first two-third's dragged on, and I honestly thought it may have been some sort of Formor Matrix since everyone's actions seemed off. Dresden twice faced off against Ebenezer, then the Wardens, then Carlos appears even more injured during the second fete. Spewing ectoplasm seemed like it could have been his mind rebelling, but, no, it's just Dresden being an idiot and Karen Murphy has to take care of her spouse with cold medicine. Overall I like the book and am expecting more from Battle Ground. P.S. I accidentally ordered this via an Audible Credit and James Marsders sounded as tired of Harry's poo poo as I was.
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Jul 16, 2020 08:13
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Ninurta posted:Dresden the 17th notes: I'm 99% certain this is book 16. Unless you're counting SS compilations in which case it's 18.
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Jul 16, 2020 08:39
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Proteus Jones posted:Doubtful Literally the first "Mission" Butters went on in a side story was against a non-Christian monster of myth called a Baku. The Swords can harm non-human mortal monsters of any stripe just fine.
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Jul 16, 2020 10:59
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Kate Daniels meanwhile reads pretty good so far. I’m intrigued by the setting, nice change of pace to not have a masquerade.
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Jul 16, 2020 12:19
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Knights aren't limited to fighting Denarians; Michael has slain a Dragon before and helps Harry fight a ghost in Small Favor, etc. My understanding is that the swords' power levels the playing field for the Knights against any foe whatsoever (so long as their purpose isn't betrayed/they're not being used for the wrong reasons). So they probably wouldn't be much better than regular swords against a particularly bad mortal (and Fidellightsaberachhius wouldn't even be that good) but they make fighting foes like the Denarians, dragons, and perhaps Titans possible.
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Jul 16, 2020 13:07
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Proteus Jones posted:Doubtful In terms of the Dresden RPG (which was written with heavy input by Butcher) the Swords' main ability is to "level the playing field" against supernaturals by piercing/ignoring supernatural defenses. Here's the relevant part from the book: quote:All Creatures Are Equal Before God.
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Jul 16, 2020 14:21
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I don't know that we can really count on the way things work in the game to be the way they work in the books. Games are set up to be fun, not realistic.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:20
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Daric posted:Games are set up to be fun, not realistic. C'mon now, think this one through.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:31
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Yeah, if it were just from the game, that would be one thing, but it's been pretty clear in the books that, while the Denarians are the primary foe of the Knights, they can and do fight against all manner of supernatural evil and do so effectively. The book where Michael is introduced talks about him having fought a dragon (and established dragons as very heavy hitters) and also references him having destroyed a bunch of Black Court vampires. I think Peace Talks is the first time it's been openly speculated in the books that the Swords have angels living inside them the way the Denarian coins have Fallen inside. This makes it likely that the Swords are subject to a similar loophole, in that they allow for angelic interference in the mortal realm but only through the instrument of their mortal wielders.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:35
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Consistent with what happened to Murphy at chiten itza, too.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:38
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That reminds me, and it's probably just my poor memory, but where is Amoracchius these days?
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Jul 16, 2020 15:41
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docbeard posted:That reminds me, and it's probably just my poor memory, but where is Amoracchius these days? Harry is storing it on the island, I believe. Michael gave it back to him at the end of Skin Game since he chose the correct person (Butters) for the sword of faith.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:43
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Still in Harry’s custody, so probably has it stashed away on demonreach.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:44
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They’re just rubber band difficulty scaling items. They’ll do whatever the plot needs them to do in order to combat power creep.
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Jul 16, 2020 15:45
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docbeard posted:Yeah, if it were just from the game, that would be one thing, but it's been pretty clear in the books that, while the Denarians are the primary foe of the Knights, they can and do fight against all manner of supernatural evil and do so effectively. The book where Michael is introduced talks about him having fought a dragon (and established dragons as very heavy hitters) and also references him having destroyed a bunch of Black Court vampires. Also, the game has little note/dialogues in the margin where Harry, Billy, Bob and maybe a couple of others comment on highlighted text within the game. The whole concept of the game is that it's a homebrew system written by Billy the Werewolf to kind of pull a Dracula on the whole supernatural communities by using the game to educate the populace (at least the RPG fan populace) about the various supernatural threats/beings in the world. What I'm saying is that Butcher was involved enough to actually write bits of the book and included a short story for it, so the stuff in the books can probably be considered to be canon unless specifically contradicted or altered by future books.
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Jul 16, 2020 16:54
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Yeah, I could totes see Butters being the way they wound Eithnu for her blood, so they can then imprison her. The big question I have is, is Butcher willing to kill Butters off. I doubt it, somehow. . anyway, my predictions for deaths in Battle Ground Murphy (temporarily, return as einherjar or valkyrie) McCoy (his arc is almost complete now) At least one of Butter's girlfriends Ramirez Maybe Fix? Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 17:04
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Yeah, I thought Butters was going to die when he got attacked at the church however many books ago that was. Would have been effective if Butcher had let him.
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Jul 16, 2020 18:09
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Wizchine posted:Yeah, I thought Butters was going to die when he got attacked at the church however many books ago that was. Would have been effective if Butcher had let him. Butters should have died when he jumped on Quintus Cassius's back trying to help Dresden waaaaaaaaay back in the first book he appeared in.
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Jul 16, 2020 18:17
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Butters should have died when he jumped on Quintus Cassius's back trying to help Dresden waaaaaaaaay back in the first book he appeared in. Okay I know you hate these books but there are limits
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Jul 16, 2020 19:02
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docbeard posted:Okay I know you hate these books but there are limits Dude summoned a bunch of snakes to fight Mouse and Dresden with a snap of his fingers, there's no reason he couldn't do something similar to Butters and there was fuckall Butters could do about it.
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Jul 16, 2020 19:15
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Knights aren't limited to fighting Denarians; Michael has slain a Dragon before and helps Harry fight a ghost in Small Favor, etc. And Butter's first knight mission in a short story is some non-Denarian monster-of-the-week that I forget.
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Jul 16, 2020 20:22
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I do think it's sort of clever how this novel is handling Harry's dealing with the Winter Mantle. He constantly mentions how the mantle makes him want to fight or gently caress everything in sight. But by focusing on the more obvious emotional effects he largely ignores the degree to which it has made him close-minded and lacking in empathy to almost everyone he interacts with. When Eb points out that living "in the open" under the protection of an inscrutable 3rd party is a terrible idea for Maggie's safety, Harry focuses instead on the personal wrongs Ebenezer did to him by having him raised in foster care. Missing completely that there is a middle path of them both living in safer location such as the Carpenter house (which is probably what will happen eventually). Similarly his conflict with the Wardens could have easily been resolved by just swearing on his power that he hadn't been sleeping with Lara, and then taking their concerns of mind control to heart and later asking Molly to check his brain for signs of tampering as she has done before. All assuming he and other characters aren't just being poorly written to artificially generate conflict. It's hard to judge clever vs bad character writing, especially when you only get half a book
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Jul 16, 2020 20:54
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According to the Christmas Eve short story, they’re at least celebrating Christmas after Battle Ground at the Carpenter’s house so i think there’s some merit to that
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Jul 16, 2020 20:57
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