Dresden Files

[MilesMortim]

Heh, reminds me that the first episode of the TV show that aired featured a skinwalker.

Heh heh.

If he pulls that in the book, I will not be amused, Doombox or no.

Hmm, brings up an interesting conundrum. If he did that, could he be sued for ripping off what could be considered his own work?

No, Butcher owns the idea/concept of the Dresden Files and can't be sued unless he does something drastic like taking something owned by the studio that made the TV series.

He can do damn near anything he wants with the series so long as he doesn't violate someone's copyright or intellectual property, make the plot take a left turn for the worse (provided he goes insane first), or just does something stupid.

It's his idea and no one has the ability to write his books exactly as he would, thus the series remains his in its properties and multiple incarnations in entertainment (books, tv show, comics, etc.).

 

[Lost Star]

Oh, my friends sends lots of hugs for the linky.

 

[spooky316]

Oh, my friends sends lots of hugs for the linky.

My pleasure. B)

 

[ttestagr]

Let me just say that a new spoiler is out on Butcher's site. The first line of the new book in fact. It cannot be unseen, and my reaction was quite explosive.


For the interested:

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.p...ic,12148.0.html


And it is confirmed by his beta on page one, and by Butcher himself at about page 35.

 

[Watashiwa]

Let me just say that a new spoiler is out on Butcher's site. The first line of the new book in fact. It cannot be unseen, and my reaction was quite explosive.


For the interested:

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.p...ic,12148.0.html


And it is confirmed by his beta on page one, and by Butcher himself at about page 35.

Gurk-- WHAT!?!?!?

:huh:

On the one hand, yay for Susan, I happen to like her. On the other hand, Dresden just got burned.

Taking bets now: who thinks continents are going to be slagged?

 

[Belgarion213]

...

On the one hand the person who tried this has just taken out most of this years Darwin Awards

On the other hand, your right, Harry just got BURNED. I mean fucking hell....

 

[shiki]

On one hand, this looks to be interesting. Harry's going to open a can of whup-ass on some people. The world needs a Harry Dresden that is giving the beating instead of being tossed around like a rag doll.

On the other hand... this one line makes me dislike Susan even more than ever. I mean, COME ON! WTH! Keeping something that big from him for years...

 

[Belgarion213]

Question...is the 'Butcher confirms this' was he confirming that Susan really said this or that Susan was speaking the truth as they are very different.

Honestly yeah while the though of how much ass Dresden is going to kick is pretty nice...my dislike of Susan keeps making me hope for the second one with her just using Dresden...

 

[SotF]

Actually, it doesn't really make me that annoyed with Susan, depends more on why she didn't tell him.

It's quite possible that the kid was sent somewhere else because she was simply to much of a danger to the kid at that point, especially with how being near Harry already endangered herself and him.

Could also be a sign that she's safer to be around now and the kid vanished a while back and rather than endanger her progress, she wasn't told someone kidnapped the kid.

 

[ttestagr]

More specifically, the daughter may have been dangerous to him depending on how much of Susan's vampire nature passed along.

 

[Ryuugi]

Or, you know, Susan way just have thought that the annual war zone that is Harry's life may have been a bad environment for a baby.

 

[Steel]

Bitch could have at least told him.

 

[shiki]

Bitch could have at least told him.

^ this. Plus we all know how important family is to Harry. It would have meant the world to him if he had known.

There is no excuse on keeping Dresden ignorant. Although, it does explain why his love protection against the White Court lasted so long.

 

[Watashiwa]

Bitch could have at least told him.

^ this. Plus we all know how important family is to Harry. It would have meant the world to him if he had known.

There is no excuse on keeping Dresden ignorant. Although, it does explain why his love protection against the White Court lasted so long.

*sigh*

And once again, I fail to see why everyone hates Susan. Is she a stock character? Yes. Is she well written? Hell yes.

Seriously, all this rage is really cutting into my excitement for the next book.

Why did Susan keep the child from Dresden? Because she had to.

Do you know what the best way to keep a secret is? It's to not tell anyone. How many times in the series has Dresden been at the mercy of someone who shredded his mind? Let's count: one, two, three, four, five...

And those are the ones that I know happened. You can't spill what you don't know. And if Dresden knew he'd had a kid, then anyone who glanced at his surface thoughts would know and suddenly have a grade-A+ weapon to use against him.

Tell me, what would happen if the White Council heard that Dresden had had a kid with a vampire?

Not to mention, I doubt that Susans friends are too happy about the result of her and Wizard Dresden's relationship. They quite possibly took custody of the child in order to keep Susan close.

tl;dr--stop bitching. -_-

 

[shiki]

Bitch could have at least told him.

^ this. Plus we all know how important family is to Harry. It would have meant the world to him if he had known.

There is no excuse on keeping Dresden ignorant. Although, it does explain why his love protection against the White Court lasted so long.

*sigh*

And once again, I fail to see why everyone hates Susan. Is she a stock character? Yes. Is she well written? Hell yes.

Seriously, all this rage is really cutting into my excitement for the next book.

Why did Susan keep the child from Dresden? Because she had to.

Do you know what the best way to keep a secret is? It's to not tell anyone. How many times in the series has Dresden been at the mercy of someone who shredded his mind? Let's count: one, two, three, four, five...

And those are the ones that I know happened. You can't spill what you don't know. And if Dresden knew he'd had a kid, then anyone who glanced at his surface thoughts would know and suddenly have a grade-A+ weapon to use against him.

Tell me, what would happen if the White Council heard that Dresden had had a kid with a vampire?

Not to mention, I doubt that Susans friends are too happy about the result of her and Wizard Dresden's relationship. They quite possibly took custody of the child in order to keep Susan close.

tl;dr--stop bitching. -_-

One: I don't hate Susan. I mainly have no problem with her. I just have a problem with the fact that she hid her daughter from Harry.

Two: I fail to remember anytime Dresden had someone read his thoughts. The "looking into people's eyes" thing (the Soul watchamacallit [Edit: Ah right. "Soul Gaze"]) doesn't allow one to read another thoughts.

If I remember correctly, manipulating minds violates one of the rules of magic. So the WC finding out that way would be rather difficult.

If you are talking about all the times Harry has been manipulated and used, that was from previous contracts/obligations that he had. The first time he met Mab shows this in a big way. Pen opener stab to the hand, anyone?

Plus, Harry kept the whole Vamp!brother thing under wraps for many, many books. Hell, in the last book Dresden kept Morgan safe for a really long time considering that everyone and their uncle was looking for him. I say his secret keeping abilities aren't too shabby.

So all in all, I dislike that Harry didn't know that he had a daughter. It doesn't mean I'm not excited for the next book.

 

[Belgarion213]

I have nothing really against Susan...its just that compared to other charecters I don't find her that interesting a character.

 

[tjalorak]

Two: I fail to remember anytime Dresden had someone read his thoughts. The "looking into people's eyes" thing (the Soul watchamacallit [Edit: Ah right. "Soul Gaze"]) doesn't allow one to read another thoughts.

Mab (!!!!), Molly, Lasciel...

If I remember correctly, manipulating minds violates one of the rules of magic. So the WC finding out that way would be rather difficult.

And yet, both Luccio as Captain of the Wardens and Michael have tacitly given permission to Molly to look through Dresden's mind before...

If you are talking about all the times Harry has been manipulated and used, that was from previous contracts/obligations that he had. The first time he met Mab shows this in a big way. Pen opener stab to the hand, anyone?

She walks into his mind and removes all his knowledge of fire spells in Small Favors. That goes a bit beyond just being manipulated.

Plus, Harry kept the whole Vamp!brother thing under wraps for many, many books. Hell, in the last book Dresden kept Morgan safe for a really long time considering that everyone and their uncle was looking for him. I say his secret keeping abilities aren't too shabby.

Not from Mab. Not from Molly. Not from Lasciel. There's probably more (I'm fairly certain the Archive knows) but I'm blanking on it. Mab in fact has already used the threat of offering Thomas the Winter Knight position directly to Dresden's face.

So all in all, I dislike that Harry didn't know that he had a daughter. It doesn't mean I'm not excited for the next book.

How does a vampire get pregnant anyway? Also, while it could mean Dresden, it could also mean Susan's moved on and when she says "our," she's referring to hers and someone else's rather than Dresden. That is, for example, you're married, call up a friend, and start hyperventilating that your son just got into a car accident or whatever. Most people will assume that the "our" there refers to you and your wife / husband. If so, that's bad phrasing on the part of Susan then, although helped by Butcher no doubt.

 

[tjalorak]

BTW, full Q&A post is: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.p...ic,11734.0.html

Edit: More Q&A on the following pages... I thought this was interesting:

The first line of Changesà is the baby HarryÆs?
Harry is certainly meant to believe it is.? Susan doesnÆt correct herself and say, ôNo, I mean ours, as in mine and Captain Bland.ö? She is telling Harry that itÆs his child.

So... it could be someone else's, but at the very least, she's trying to make him believe that it's his.

 

[Canis]

It's Butcher, no matter what the circumstances you know he's going to pull it off with style and lots and lots of fire, explosions, and cool magic shit. Why are you bitching about how characters we haven't seen in the books in years act? Just enjoy the ride damn it!

 

[Watashiwa]

It's Butcher, no matter what the circumstances you know he's going to pull it off with style and lots and lots of fire, explosions, and cool magic shit. Why are you bitching about how characters we haven't seen in the books in years act? Just enjoy the ride damn it!

Voiec of reason, right here.

I cannot wait for the next book. B)

 

[Innortal]

I'm going to put this out here. But has anyone found a page or anything that lists the spells and such used in the Dresden Files? I have the ebooks and a few hard copies. But I was hoping someone built a small lexicon for the series.

 

[Draculthemad]

They arent really any "spells" from the sound of most of it.

Harry has some that he uses consistently, but the magic system seems to be just slightly more complicated than "will and the word" type stuff for evocations.

Other more complicated things seem to be more like law of contagion, and etc.

 

[Innortal]

That's what I mean. I know his spells vary in intensity depending on how much of his will and magic he exerts, causing the same word to exert different levels of responses, such as Forzare being enough to either open a door from the other side or toss someone across a room and possibly through a wall.

Or is it time to use Babelfish, stick in a word, pick a random language, and use it as a spell?

 

[spooky316]

There are a few threads I found that may have what you're interested in.

Dresdenverse Magic - On DLP forums

"Styles" of Magic: Where do they come from? - On Jim Butcher forums

The Nature of Enchantted Items in Dresdenverse... - On Jim Butcher forums

Tiers, Levels and 'Types' of Powers - On Jim Butcher forums

 

[Belgarion213]

Actually i'm pretty sure that Dresden in one of the books mentions that its a GOOD thing to make up spells in a language you barely understand. If you actually UNDERSTAND what your saying you overload them with power or something. Or maybe that was a fic?

Actually using Babalfish and making something up that roughly translates to 'may the fire burn you' or something is probably a good enough way to go.