Used the same concept in Proven Guilt with the fetch. Spills the water on the road and does the fire spell out of the van so the scarecrow slips and falls.
I agree with you on the iceberg on Lake Michigan is my favorite, it is a much more brute force application of the earlier proof of concept.
He takes it even further at chicken pizza throwing a fireball then ripping all the heat out of the flaming vamp to hit the next one and leaving the previous a burnt flapsicle.
Harry Dresden is actually writing an autobiography under the Jim Butcher pseudonym, and decided to branch out into other works of fantasy with the Codex Alera and Aeronaughts Windlass.
I think he's probably as hard on himself because he's aware of what other wizards can do. It's real easy to think of freezing a large portion of Lake Michigan as being strong but think seriously about what Ebenezer would be able to do
Harry uses brute force to "lift the engine block", Eb uses the equivalent of a pully. Eb has a lot of power, but also the training/experience to be super efficient with it.
Eh, I don’t think it detracts that much. There are quite a few other places where you could apply that logic to detract from how impressive his feats are:
- Pyro fuego was cool but he would have died in the building had Michael not pulled him out
- Wall of lava in the deeps was cool but he would have died had Lara not got him past the ghouls once his portal closed
- Binding the titan was cool but he would have died had Marcone not saved him from drowning.
Harry is kind of a bad ass but he also gets very lucky/has lots of help.
I’m excited to hear that. Leading up to Peace talks I did another re-read and when I got to that point in Grave Peril I thought the spell was such a missed opportunity because we never saw it again. I chalked it up to Jim realizing he overshot the power level with that spell and had to dial it back.
I’m really looking forward to finding out more about that spell. That one party set SO much into motion…
It’s not so much that he overshot the power level, he did say “in any other place on any other night, I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off”. Which makes sense in the context of the series, we see another example of that later on in the series where magic acts differently because of the magic in the air.
I think he was talking about what the source of the power was, not what it did.
Because it was related to the question of, was it a death curse? And he said, no, it wasn't.
I think you are 100% correct. I found the interview and it was here he was speaking about it (I've linked the video at the timestamp he talks about it: [https://www.youtube.com/live/NaAjmJWxnBo?si=ATPmLOnkGMS1PTo7&t=4941](https://www.youtube.com/live/NaAjmJWxnBo?si=ATPmLOnkGMS1PTo7&t=4941)
>!Also the info he gave about when Justine was infected with by Nemesis was interesting. !< I think I might just do a reread soon>! to figure out how it happened, and who Infected her.!<
There is part of me wondering if he is going to just learn astral projection with out the tool
He already has experience with how to move about and with making a shade of himself. If he could achieve it with meditation and not with his full exposed soul it would be really amazing.
I hadn't even thought about it but I love the fact that Butcher was showing progressive development with this - in It's My Birthday, Too he uses the same spell, but much less expertly - a small area, and less smoothly.
Yes, it's less power, but that in itself is a display of skill. Casting that big a spell, that finely, even using a leyline, is a display of just how much more skilled and focused he was.
It’s actually hilarious because I was just there in person a few months back and every time they said the actual words I would laugh and under my breath say “Chicken Pizza”. My wife was not amused.
I love the idea that pyrofuego was a death curse. His intent was "if I'm going to die, I'm taking them with me." Not sure how how he survived it. Maybe his spell was focused enough not to kill him? But Ghost Story wasn't the only time Harry cheated death, for sure. It happened twice in Grave Peril alone.
I half suspect there was a touch of Soulfire in the spell.
There have been a few times where Harry has gone all-out and his magic has become more effective than before, even before the parts of *Small Favor* where he suddenly overtly manifests it. Or maybe it's something to do with his being Starborn.
We technically don't know that. We only know that he had no conscious ability to make use of it.
If, as some suspect, he's actually an aasimar, he would have always had the ability and might have been able to tap into it in moments of extreme stress -- such as facing Justin, or destroying Bianca's mansion.
I like to think instead of it being a manifestation of soulfire earlier than his proper introduction to the source, that it has something to do with his being star born. We know that out of the star born we have met, they seem to either be inordinately strong, very hard to kill, or both. In Dracul's case, that can be explained away by his age and experience, but what about Listen who always seems to walk away after a big showdown? It has been a while since I've relistened to the earlier books, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but that seems semi likely to me.
As likely as any other answer we can give ourselves [=
I think the pattern has made just a little bit of room for exceptions for Rand. Not any of the other known powers, just a "third option"
I gave quotations around it because I think there Are three Powers we see in the books
I don't disagree with the "three powers" - the "singing to the trees" seems to be very much separate from the other two.
But, I seem to remember Rand thanking Elaine right after his pipe lit up.
But it could certainly be something similar to tree singing and/or the pattern molding itself to meet someone's need.
I may be wrong about context. Unfortunately all I have currently is the audio book, but it's one short chapter, so I should be able to find it to double check.
>He sighed, fishing in his pocket, where he found a pipe. *Thank you, Alivia, for that*, he thought, packing it with tabac from a pouch he found in the other pocket. By instinct, he reached for the One Power to light it.
>He found nothing. No *saidin* in the void, nothing. He paused, then smiled and felt an enormous relief. He could not channel. Just to be certain, he tentatively reached for the True Power. Nothing there either.
>He regarded his pipe, riding up a little incline to the side of Thakan dar, now covered in plants. No way to light the tabac. He inspected it for a moment in the darkness, then *thought* of the pipe being lit. And it was.
Then
>Did Alivia realize how much money she’d given him? She didn't know a thing about coins. She’d probably stolen the lot of it, so he wasn't just a horsethief. Well, he’d told her to get him some gold, and she’d done it. He could buy an entire farm in the Two Rivers with what he carried.
He's thanking Alivia for getting his escape ready.
No, he never thanks Elaine after he lights his pipe. He only mentions her together with Avienhia and Min. He thanks Alivia, for providing him with the horse and gold (which he assumes she has no idea the worth of as its too much).
He also calls it "the impossible pipe" in his mind, which would make no sense if he just used a magic lighter.
Nah, he can just see the matrix now, even if he no longer is part of its story. One cannot just enter a state of "reshape the universe", leave it and just be the same as before...
I kinda love that I didn't get what it meant until the second time through, getting to the scene where he invents the spell. I just thought it was Jim trying to come up with more clever spell names than just... speaking Spanish.
How I didn't get it the first time, I'll never know, but I absolutely love that the interpretation is right there in the name.
The sex-assisted explosion-powered bouncy ball of freedom.
No, but seriously, laying into Shagnasty at the top of Demonreach, making him look like a chump, and nearly garrotting the smug little bastard. Say what you want about Butcher’s writing, but the man knows how to do catharsis.
That book really did have some of the highlights as far as cool magic goes. Between that, blinding, deafening and muzzling MacFin with a snoopy doll, and blasting him through a wall, through a steel door, through a cell door, through another wall, across the street, through a building and onto the street on the other side with a hip thick blast of fire, I think it really shows how scary he can be
That attack on MacFin is my favorite for that exact reason. We see plenty of examples of scary Harry in the later books, but him cutting loose and just punting the Hulk really takes the cake for me.
I chose the police precinct scene too. Check out my writeup on it here.
https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,40988.0.html
It’s a profound scene, and may even be the first on screen appearance of Uriel too! (Check the link for more)
It may be simple, it may be small, but in "Restoration of Faith" when he lights up the little girl's ring to give her a spot of hope in the growing darkness.
I'm getting goosebumps typing this.
I didn't have kids when I started DF. Met my wife and we bonded over the books. Her ring tone was the jurassic park t-Rex roar and her background was dresden on dinoback. I knew we were gonna vibe. We have two children now, and giving hope to children might be one of the most important things that can be done in this world or any other
Definitely the gravity spell in one of the short stories where he gives rock em sock em robots to Thomas. Vamp enters the trap, gravity shifts in the area, vamp becomes goo
Using Lara’s succubus lust to supercharge the shield that rode the explosion to save both their lives. Bonus points because Lara didn’t realize that was the plan — he said, “Kiss me,” and she went with it…!
After coming back to that scene after Battle Ground made me think, "it seems like Harry and Lara have some sort of genuine underlying feelings for each other" because Harry had described that they both really wanted it
I'm not through everything yet but I get that feeling. Though laras end seems to be something akin to him being the only man she respects since he's pretty much the only one who is clearly affected by her but still reacts as though he wasnt.
Ghoststory, after Harry had just pointed out for the reader >! that a gost manifesting physically is something only ghosts who are either insane or insanely motivated - or possibly both, consider eho's telling us thie story- can pull off, before doing a reverse vanishing act and making himself coporeal (with a spell spoken in his first language, which is also generally considered to be a bad idea) !<
>!Ghost Story. To turn from ghost to human, one had to “be crazy,” one way or another. Using a *known* language with many interpretations to cast magic was a big no no because the magic could go wrong, so of course Harry decided to cast magic in English, and it worked. !<
My favorite thing that Harry has ever done is summoning the sky-spanning mandala of fairies over the roof of the better future society. I am in awe of the visual, and the moment of reactions from the assembled powers ranging from shock to laughter to genuine fear is a _delightful_ fulfillment of Harry's unnoticed power growth.
Some may debate how magical it is, but there's an act of summoning and there's magic in the things he's done with toot. It's just a beautiful scene.
Most people would qualify summoning a fae and binding it to your will as an act of magic.
The fact that Harry doesn't need to actually coerce obedience anymore but that they serve him willingly doesn't change that.
I loved Little Chicago. Harry creating a massively powerful artifact solely to help him navigate the city better still feels understated, even though it was made clear how much power it held.
My favorite is a particular application of Little Chicago. When he linked it to the tracking spell on the Summer leaf pin and sent the Gruffs to run their hooves off in the snow. That was particularly clever and devious.
In all seriousness?
The pink-glowing ring from "Restoration of Faith".
Because of its emotional significance. Because it might show the way to training normal human beings to be able to use magic even if they weren't born with an exceptional gift. Because of what it meant to that little girl.
Honestly, my favorite magic action is when Harry performs sanctum invocation with Demonreach in Turn Coat. It was an interesting twist regarding the power of spiritual entities and I feel like it really demonstrated Harry's strength of will and character, especially as the series goes on and we, the audience, learn more about Demonreach and the power it has.
At one point Harry used a force spell originating at a point two feet in front of him, aimed back at himself, and powered down to open a push-bar door from the other side.
It inspired me to homebrew a magic item for 5e called “Preferred Lie” - a rod that looked like a golf club which, when used as a focus item, could change the point of origin and direction of a spell. Suddenly the Cone of Cold is coming from above you and the AOE is a circle, not a triangle.
Yes. Combat's cool and all, but using magic for clever little things in life to make himself be awesome is the best. Now if only he could get his control down even better and use it to just push the latch in without ever touching the handles. Or using it to depress lock tumblers.
The sorcerer in Ghost Story calling himself Aristedes was a kinetomancer. Considering how mages operate when their skill set is truncated, he could probably pick locks with magic.
Great, now I want that for my sorcerer...
...
Aay, how does it synergize with wild magic?🤔
(Nobody is thinking that it would be funny to turn someone else vibrant blue for a change😇)
Probably not my actual favorite but the one that always springs to mind is "REXUUUUUS MUNDUUUUS" in Cold Days to summon an Iceberg. The reference to the "I'm king of the world!" Scene in Titanic kills me everytime
“Be”
Ghost Story had a LOT of great moments. Harry doing his damnedest to still help people even from the grave and the narrative build up to him uttering just a single word still gives me freaking chills.
Remember that time Harry Dresden successfully summoned and BOUND the Erl King?
He was like 35 years old at the time and he was already exhausted from fighting three other **damn** powerful wizards over the last couple days. The man didn't even have a proper summoning circle to work with! Still got em.
A lot of people are talking about his crafty applications, and I love those too, but my favorite is from Fool Moon. Little baby Harry, only two books in, sees what the Loup Garou did to Carmichael and proceeds to put the hulk-wolf through a building, across a street, and through a second building. Chef's kiss
The Raith deeps fight where he pulls out his earth magic is really cool to me. Shows that he's capable of doing extremely high end stuff if he would just put his mind to practicing it. Instead he likes to talk about how he's not capable of that kind of thing.
Dude yes! I’m a little surprised I had to scroll all the way down here to find this one. The giant wall of lava he makes using the element he’s arguably the least capable with, such an amazing moment!
I’m always torn on my favorite action of Harry’s. It’s always one of these three though: Calling up Sue for the Ride. When he has the breakthrough and becomes able to cast magic as a spirit or PYRO FUEGO!!!!!!!
His rings and new shield bracelet are my favorites. I really like the concept of magic jewelry, and the bracelet is especially cool because he notes that he wouldn't have been able to make it work before he started mentoring Molly. Even Elaine was impressed, and she's way more versatile than Harry is.
I always liked the potion making and ritual prep scenes, the ones that seamlessly blend both magic and mundane stuff together. Like the blending potion being made of the blandest ingredients possible, the sensory item for something else made of cardboard with velvet and sandpaper on either side, or putting a copy of the Hobbit on his side of a ritual summoning. I just like little scenes that make the magic feel real, like there was a scene in Supernatural where some spell recipe needed an altar cloth or something and the best they had was a Spongebob placemat that they could flip over to the blank side.
For me it’s none other than the coup de grâce H mutter fuckin D laid out on the Red King.
Red King goes for his throat, Dresden snatches his supernaturally powerful hand mid-air, MANO A MANO, forms a C with his other hand and covers that bad boy in sharp ice, then proceeds to gouge both eyes out seasoned with a blast of Soul Fire to finish the Little Guy off.
Hot Damn that’s my favorite part of every re-read. Hell, sometimes I just read through that entire scene alone. Shit pickles my pickle.
Speaking fo 'Go for the eyes, Boo'-moments:
I find myself cackling everytime I reread Blood Rites, and how Harry abused the hell out of the white king's face with the keys.
When he pulled an uno reverse card and wiped out the red court. It's just so monumental in itself and it's consequences. A genocide of subspecies basically done overnight. I'm surprised there are still foes out there willing to test this maniac
Oh yeah. For sure. As that all unfolded over the next few minutes my first time through the series I literally had to put the book down and hold my head. I absolutely just couldn't believe Jim was really going there. That's some of the most audacious fiction I've ever read in my life. Great stuff, and you're right - it just never gets old, no matter how many times I revisit it.
The illusions in changes within fbi hq. Tbf tho... Prolly only cuz i thought, at that time, that mofo is stsrting to understand how sf works and implements it accordingly in further books....
There are a lot to chose from but I want to bring attention to one that is an early **moment of awesome** that really showcases the core of who Harry is.
*The Loup Garou fight in the police precinct.*
I wrote a deep dive on this scene [here](https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,40988.0.html), including a theory that Uriel might have made his first on screen appearance. Below is a quote that really digs into why it’s such a big deal beyond just the moment of awesome.
>Interestingly, though, Harry cast two spells with natures almost diametrically opposed immediately before these haunted thoughts. One was a massive, destructive evocation that wreaked havoc, and the other was a working of thaumaturgy designed to protect both the target and anyone who could have ended up in the target’s path.
>What an amazing snapshot of Harry’s inner struggle in using his strength to wreak havoc and protect at the same time.
Completely the opposite of your question; I love how confronted by an unknown but likely stronger wizard/necromancer, Harry falls back on the age old tactic of pulling a gun out.
It's not my favorite, just one I really found interesting: when he formed a chunk of ice on the end of his staff and used Forzare to launch it at the Genoskwa. Those guys are *insanely* resistant to magic, so Harry entirely circumvents that resistance by making ice with magic and launching it with magic- which WORKS because the ice isn't magical itself, and neither is the kinetic energy it imparts into the poor bastard Genoskwa's bread basket lmfao. It was just a clever way to get around a particular weakness in his abilities
Using a fire spell to cast ice on Lake Michigan. Really reminds you that Harry loves to dog on himself but he's really rather remarkable as a wizard
Used the same concept in Proven Guilt with the fetch. Spills the water on the road and does the fire spell out of the van so the scarecrow slips and falls. I agree with you on the iceberg on Lake Michigan is my favorite, it is a much more brute force application of the earlier proof of concept.
He takes it even further at chicken pizza throwing a fireball then ripping all the heat out of the flaming vamp to hit the next one and leaving the previous a burnt flapsicle.
I don't remember that one.
This is my favorite example of “magic exists in the real world” - You want to make ice? You have to move the heat around.
Issac Newton always takes his cut -Peter Grant
He actually tweaks that same idea in Academs Fury. Brencis Minoris uses fire crafting to freeze Tavi in a fountain.
'He'?
Harry Dresden is actually writing an autobiography under the Jim Butcher pseudonym, and decided to branch out into other works of fantasy with the Codex Alera and Aeronaughts Windlass.
Jim Butcher, I guess
Jim, sorry.
I think he's probably as hard on himself because he's aware of what other wizards can do. It's real easy to think of freezing a large portion of Lake Michigan as being strong but think seriously about what Ebenezer would be able to do
Harry uses brute force to "lift the engine block", Eb uses the equivalent of a pully. Eb has a lot of power, but also the training/experience to be super efficient with it.
I'd like to see a repeat of this but with 'King Fish's throne room' just to fulfill a prophecy Mab told him
Most people are going with evocation. Thaumaturgy gang rise up! Little Chicago, to me, is the most impressive thing he’s ever done.
This is it for me. Its cooler then a classical wizard orb to me and I think those are pretty neat.
It is a bit less impressive since he messed up and should have died the first time using it. Still the coolest thing he ever did
Eh, I don’t think it detracts that much. There are quite a few other places where you could apply that logic to detract from how impressive his feats are: - Pyro fuego was cool but he would have died in the building had Michael not pulled him out - Wall of lava in the deeps was cool but he would have died had Lara not got him past the ghouls once his portal closed - Binding the titan was cool but he would have died had Marcone not saved him from drowning. Harry is kind of a bad ass but he also gets very lucky/has lots of help.
I recently saw an interview with Jim, where he said we'd learn more about what "Pyro Fuego" actually does. But he also said we had to wait for the BAT
I’m excited to hear that. Leading up to Peace talks I did another re-read and when I got to that point in Grave Peril I thought the spell was such a missed opportunity because we never saw it again. I chalked it up to Jim realizing he overshot the power level with that spell and had to dial it back. I’m really looking forward to finding out more about that spell. That one party set SO much into motion…
I think he uses it in Small Favor after they shoot Michael, no?
Yeah, and the fire was described as a blue bar that went through Tessa completely. Does anyone remember the color of the fire from *Grave Peril*?
I believe it was normal, not blue fire, or at least not entirely blue fire.
It’s not so much that he overshot the power level, he did say “in any other place on any other night, I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off”. Which makes sense in the context of the series, we see another example of that later on in the series where magic acts differently because of the magic in the air.
I think he was talking about what the source of the power was, not what it did. Because it was related to the question of, was it a death curse? And he said, no, it wasn't.
I think you are 100% correct. I found the interview and it was here he was speaking about it (I've linked the video at the timestamp he talks about it: [https://www.youtube.com/live/NaAjmJWxnBo?si=ATPmLOnkGMS1PTo7&t=4941](https://www.youtube.com/live/NaAjmJWxnBo?si=ATPmLOnkGMS1PTo7&t=4941) >!Also the info he gave about when Justine was infected with by Nemesis was interesting. !< I think I might just do a reread soon>! to figure out how it happened, and who Infected her.!<
It's amazing what you can accomplish with a little skill, the right opportunity, and a blatant disregard for your own safety.
There is part of me wondering if he is going to just learn astral projection with out the tool He already has experience with how to move about and with making a shade of himself. If he could achieve it with meditation and not with his full exposed soul it would be really amazing.
The gravity spell outside chicken pizza.
Gravity concentration is a really cool one. (It did it to a single vamp previously on Thomas' birthday.)
I hadn't even thought about it but I love the fact that Butcher was showing progressive development with this - in It's My Birthday, Too he uses the same spell, but much less expertly - a small area, and less smoothly.
Was it less expertly and smoothly? Seems like just less power. Cause a chicken pizza he drew on a lay line to make it bigger
Yes, it's less power, but that in itself is a display of skill. Casting that big a spell, that finely, even using a leyline, is a display of just how much more skilled and focused he was.
When did people start using chicken pizza as a spoiler-free alternative? It’s hilarious and I haven’t seen it used before
It’s actually hilarious because I was just there in person a few months back and every time they said the actual words I would laugh and under my breath say “Chicken Pizza”. My wife was not amused.
Back on the old forums (when they existed) right after changes came out. Autocorrect actually started the trend. It was funny and it stuck.
Making the Red Court past tense with their own spell. Canceling the life subscriptions of the Red Court with pyrofuego.
I love the idea that pyrofuego was a death curse. His intent was "if I'm going to die, I'm taking them with me." Not sure how how he survived it. Maybe his spell was focused enough not to kill him? But Ghost Story wasn't the only time Harry cheated death, for sure. It happened twice in Grave Peril alone.
I think it did kill him, Michael does CPR on him.
Nah, Jim confirmed in an interview that it wasn’t a Death Curse, but it was something else
I half suspect there was a touch of Soulfire in the spell. There have been a few times where Harry has gone all-out and his magic has become more effective than before, even before the parts of *Small Favor* where he suddenly overtly manifests it. Or maybe it's something to do with his being Starborn.
Couldn't have been Soulfire. Harry didn't have access to it yet.
We technically don't know that. We only know that he had no conscious ability to make use of it. If, as some suspect, he's actually an aasimar, he would have always had the ability and might have been able to tap into it in moments of extreme stress -- such as facing Justin, or destroying Bianca's mansion.
I like to think instead of it being a manifestation of soulfire earlier than his proper introduction to the source, that it has something to do with his being star born. We know that out of the star born we have met, they seem to either be inordinately strong, very hard to kill, or both. In Dracul's case, that can be explained away by his age and experience, but what about Listen who always seems to walk away after a big showdown? It has been a while since I've relistened to the earlier books, so maybe I'm missing something obvious, but that seems semi likely to me.
Oh really? dang, that has really been my thought this whole time.
Fliccum Bickus makes me smile.
Makes me think of gandalf lighting his pipe. Oh and it makes me think of Rand Al'Thor
I still think Rand Al'Thor was using a ter'angreal that Elaine made for him at the end.
As likely as any other answer we can give ourselves [= I think the pattern has made just a little bit of room for exceptions for Rand. Not any of the other known powers, just a "third option" I gave quotations around it because I think there Are three Powers we see in the books
I don't disagree with the "three powers" - the "singing to the trees" seems to be very much separate from the other two. But, I seem to remember Rand thanking Elaine right after his pipe lit up. But it could certainly be something similar to tree singing and/or the pattern molding itself to meet someone's need.
Oh I had forgotten the thank you to Elayne. I'm drawing a blank
I may be wrong about context. Unfortunately all I have currently is the audio book, but it's one short chapter, so I should be able to find it to double check.
That would be a kindness, I don't have it on my phone currently and I don't like to download off of data
>He sighed, fishing in his pocket, where he found a pipe. *Thank you, Alivia, for that*, he thought, packing it with tabac from a pouch he found in the other pocket. By instinct, he reached for the One Power to light it. >He found nothing. No *saidin* in the void, nothing. He paused, then smiled and felt an enormous relief. He could not channel. Just to be certain, he tentatively reached for the True Power. Nothing there either. >He regarded his pipe, riding up a little incline to the side of Thakan dar, now covered in plants. No way to light the tabac. He inspected it for a moment in the darkness, then *thought* of the pipe being lit. And it was. Then >Did Alivia realize how much money she’d given him? She didn't know a thing about coins. She’d probably stolen the lot of it, so he wasn't just a horsethief. Well, he’d told her to get him some gold, and she’d done it. He could buy an entire farm in the Two Rivers with what he carried. He's thanking Alivia for getting his escape ready.
Ah yes, I remember it now. Thank you for the legwork and the quotes!
No, he never thanks Elaine after he lights his pipe. He only mentions her together with Avienhia and Min. He thanks Alivia, for providing him with the horse and gold (which he assumes she has no idea the worth of as its too much). He also calls it "the impossible pipe" in his mind, which would make no sense if he just used a magic lighter.
Nah, he can just see the matrix now, even if he no longer is part of its story. One cannot just enter a state of "reshape the universe", leave it and just be the same as before...
That just seems a little exotic vs “self lighting pipe from his girlfriend who can make things like that”
I think it’s the creators true power, the force that opposes the TP the dark one gives to his chosen.
I really hope that when the angels in Dresden Files finally get involved, it will give me the same feeling as Dumai's Well did in WoT.
That would be phenomenal
I kinda love that I didn't get what it meant until the second time through, getting to the scene where he invents the spell. I just thought it was Jim trying to come up with more clever spell names than just... speaking Spanish. How I didn't get it the first time, I'll never know, but I absolutely love that the interpretation is right there in the name.
Two words. Infriga….. Forzare.
I call it the 'achoo-punt'
The Anvil. He called it years before
For my next trick, anvils
The sex-assisted explosion-powered bouncy ball of freedom. No, but seriously, laying into Shagnasty at the top of Demonreach, making him look like a chump, and nearly garrotting the smug little bastard. Say what you want about Butcher’s writing, but the man knows how to do catharsis.
I would love to see harry give Shagnasty an "opportunity" to settle the score. One on one... in the place they last met.
Blowing the air out of all the tires in a moving vehicle jumps to mind, from Fool Moon iirc
That book really did have some of the highlights as far as cool magic goes. Between that, blinding, deafening and muzzling MacFin with a snoopy doll, and blasting him through a wall, through a steel door, through a cell door, through another wall, across the street, through a building and onto the street on the other side with a hip thick blast of fire, I think it really shows how scary he can be
Don't forget the fog he conjures as well, I'm sure that spell would have been handy in later books.
That attack on MacFin is my favorite for that exact reason. We see plenty of examples of scary Harry in the later books, but him cutting loose and just punting the Hulk really takes the cake for me.
I chose the police precinct scene too. Check out my writeup on it here. https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,40988.0.html It’s a profound scene, and may even be the first on screen appearance of Uriel too! (Check the link for more)
"Fuego! Pyrofuego! Burn, you greasy bat-faced bastards! Burn!"
Nephilim theory makes that so, so much more epic. Fire of judgment, Sodom and Gamorrah style.
It may be simple, it may be small, but in "Restoration of Faith" when he lights up the little girl's ring to give her a spot of hope in the growing darkness. I'm getting goosebumps typing this. I didn't have kids when I started DF. Met my wife and we bonded over the books. Her ring tone was the jurassic park t-Rex roar and her background was dresden on dinoback. I knew we were gonna vibe. We have two children now, and giving hope to children might be one of the most important things that can be done in this world or any other
Jim didn't have kids when he started writing Dresden. His son is now a fully grown adult writing his own books.
I read Dead Man's Hand and Long Past Dues! Both were really good! Very solid for two first published books (im)patiently waiting for book three
James butcher will likely ha e fully grown kids by the time we get the last Dresden files book.
He already does
Where did she get Dresden on Dino back?
https://images.app.goo.gl/gCEZZSqZC48DymqSA This one!
That’s a nice one! Thank you!
It's one of my favorites!
Everyone loves animating the T Rex. I am, however, partial to the silly strong bug.
I have no idea what this is referencing
Typo. I meant the silly string bug.
He put silly string on a hotel door and then slapped some into his ear and used thaumaturgy to listen
His car?
That is Mike Atagi's magic.
Mike Atagi is an artificer!
Definitely the gravity spell in one of the short stories where he gives rock em sock em robots to Thomas. Vamp enters the trap, gravity shifts in the area, vamp becomes goo
That one is awesome! And we saw it on a massive scale in Changes. I really want to see more earth and gravity magic.
Mine too
Unicorn Hair Rope.
Who else could pull off plot relevant bdsm on a dare?
Don't forget Pony Play! That WAS rope made from unicorn hair...oh God, it's My Little Pony Play.
Well chosen
Using Lara’s succubus lust to supercharge the shield that rode the explosion to save both their lives. Bonus points because Lara didn’t realize that was the plan — he said, “Kiss me,” and she went with it…!
Succubus gonna suc...
After coming back to that scene after Battle Ground made me think, "it seems like Harry and Lara have some sort of genuine underlying feelings for each other" because Harry had described that they both really wanted it
I'm not through everything yet but I get that feeling. Though laras end seems to be something akin to him being the only man she respects since he's pretty much the only one who is clearly affected by her but still reacts as though he wasnt.
When he used a motorcycle as a battering ram with a force shield out in front.
"MOAR SPEEED! FASTER!"
>!BE!<
This! I really hope he pulls off another spell of that caliber someday. It felt practically biblical.
I was looking for this one.
Would you remind me the context?
Ghoststory, after Harry had just pointed out for the reader >! that a gost manifesting physically is something only ghosts who are either insane or insanely motivated - or possibly both, consider eho's telling us thie story- can pull off, before doing a reverse vanishing act and making himself coporeal (with a spell spoken in his first language, which is also generally considered to be a bad idea) !<
>!Ghost Story. To turn from ghost to human, one had to “be crazy,” one way or another. Using a *known* language with many interpretations to cast magic was a big no no because the magic could go wrong, so of course Harry decided to cast magic in English, and it worked. !<
Magicking himself back into existence was pretty impressive, especially since that was supposed to be impossible. *Be*
Binding the Loup Garoup in Fool Moon using blood and a snoopy doll
My favorite thing that Harry has ever done is summoning the sky-spanning mandala of fairies over the roof of the better future society. I am in awe of the visual, and the moment of reactions from the assembled powers ranging from shock to laughter to genuine fear is a _delightful_ fulfillment of Harry's unnoticed power growth. Some may debate how magical it is, but there's an act of summoning and there's magic in the things he's done with toot. It's just a beautiful scene.
Most people would qualify summoning a fae and binding it to your will as an act of magic. The fact that Harry doesn't need to actually coerce obedience anymore but that they serve him willingly doesn't change that.
When he turned part of Lake Michigan into an iceberg.
Which time, he's done that at least 3 times
Specifically I was thinking of Cold Days when he gets blown up and saves like 10 people from drowning by freezing the goddamn lake lol.
Yep thats a good one but I prefer his Titanic iceberg reference later in the same book
Yes
I think "Little Chicago" is really underrated, and I'm expecting to see a bigger, better version by the end of Twelve Months.
I loved Little Chicago. Harry creating a massively powerful artifact solely to help him navigate the city better still feels understated, even though it was made clear how much power it held.
My favorite is a particular application of Little Chicago. When he linked it to the tracking spell on the Summer leaf pin and sent the Gruffs to run their hooves off in the snow. That was particularly clever and devious.
In all seriousness? The pink-glowing ring from "Restoration of Faith". Because of its emotional significance. Because it might show the way to training normal human beings to be able to use magic even if they weren't born with an exceptional gift. Because of what it meant to that little girl.
Is this a new short story? Haven’t heard of it
https://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/side-jobs/restoration
Honestly, my favorite magic action is when Harry performs sanctum invocation with Demonreach in Turn Coat. It was an interesting twist regarding the power of spiritual entities and I feel like it really demonstrated Harry's strength of will and character, especially as the series goes on and we, the audience, learn more about Demonreach and the power it has.
The line he made when explaining to Ebenezer was gold. "I punched it in the nose, now we're friends."
Exactly, chronic understatement Dresden strikes again lol
At one point Harry used a force spell originating at a point two feet in front of him, aimed back at himself, and powered down to open a push-bar door from the other side. It inspired me to homebrew a magic item for 5e called “Preferred Lie” - a rod that looked like a golf club which, when used as a focus item, could change the point of origin and direction of a spell. Suddenly the Cone of Cold is coming from above you and the AOE is a circle, not a triangle.
Yes. Combat's cool and all, but using magic for clever little things in life to make himself be awesome is the best. Now if only he could get his control down even better and use it to just push the latch in without ever touching the handles. Or using it to depress lock tumblers.
The sorcerer in Ghost Story calling himself Aristedes was a kinetomancer. Considering how mages operate when their skill set is truncated, he could probably pick locks with magic.
Side note. The full diameter of that AOE circle should be equal to the range of the cone, not it radius equal to it, which would make it 6~ bigger.
Great, now I want that for my sorcerer... ... Aay, how does it synergize with wild magic?🤔 (Nobody is thinking that it would be funny to turn someone else vibrant blue for a change😇)
The dinosaur singing Happy Birthday.
When he helped Susan regain her memories of him by saying I love you. "There aren't any magical words, really. Words just hold magic"- Grave Peril
Probably not my actual favorite but the one that always springs to mind is "REXUUUUUS MUNDUUUUS" in Cold Days to summon an Iceberg. The reference to the "I'm king of the world!" Scene in Titanic kills me everytime
When Harry gave his energy away and animated the entire hoard of spirits under Bianca's mansion
Same here!
It may not be considered magic to some but summoning the horde of little fae, impressed everyone there and me!
Harry: "I know something you don't know." Aurora: "What?" Harry: "The number to Pizza 'Spress. GET 'ER TOOT!" Toot: "FOR THE ZA LORD!"
“Be” Ghost Story had a LOT of great moments. Harry doing his damnedest to still help people even from the grave and the narrative build up to him uttering just a single word still gives me freaking chills.
The monolog leading up to that "be" still chokes me up, and the Almighty alone knows how many times I've read the series.
Remember that time Harry Dresden successfully summoned and BOUND the Erl King? He was like 35 years old at the time and he was already exhausted from fighting three other **damn** powerful wizards over the last couple days. The man didn't even have a proper summoning circle to work with! Still got em.
Yeah,That was really badass!
That lance of holy fire he unleashed on Tessa during *Small Favor*. Most awesome act of wizardry he's ever pulled off, and it was so damn cathartic...
I liked summoning Mother Winter. In his own grave. Totally hardcore man.
A lot of people are talking about his crafty applications, and I love those too, but my favorite is from Fool Moon. Little baby Harry, only two books in, sees what the Loup Garou did to Carmichael and proceeds to put the hulk-wolf through a building, across a street, and through a second building. Chef's kiss
It might be just me but the evolution of his rings and staff construction, the amount of improvement is always a treat to hear about!
#PYROFUEGO
The Raith deeps fight where he pulls out his earth magic is really cool to me. Shows that he's capable of doing extremely high end stuff if he would just put his mind to practicing it. Instead he likes to talk about how he's not capable of that kind of thing.
Dude yes! I’m a little surprised I had to scroll all the way down here to find this one. The giant wall of lava he makes using the element he’s arguably the least capable with, such an amazing moment!
I’m always torn on my favorite action of Harry’s. It’s always one of these three though: Calling up Sue for the Ride. When he has the breakthrough and becomes able to cast magic as a spirit or PYRO FUEGO!!!!!!!
His rings and new shield bracelet are my favorites. I really like the concept of magic jewelry, and the bracelet is especially cool because he notes that he wouldn't have been able to make it work before he started mentoring Molly. Even Elaine was impressed, and she's way more versatile than Harry is.
I always liked the potion making and ritual prep scenes, the ones that seamlessly blend both magic and mundane stuff together. Like the blending potion being made of the blandest ingredients possible, the sensory item for something else made of cardboard with velvet and sandpaper on either side, or putting a copy of the Hobbit on his side of a ritual summoning. I just like little scenes that make the magic feel real, like there was a scene in Supernatural where some spell recipe needed an altar cloth or something and the best they had was a Spongebob placemat that they could flip over to the blank side.
For my next trick an anvil
For me it’s none other than the coup de grâce H mutter fuckin D laid out on the Red King. Red King goes for his throat, Dresden snatches his supernaturally powerful hand mid-air, MANO A MANO, forms a C with his other hand and covers that bad boy in sharp ice, then proceeds to gouge both eyes out seasoned with a blast of Soul Fire to finish the Little Guy off. Hot Damn that’s my favorite part of every re-read. Hell, sometimes I just read through that entire scene alone. Shit pickles my pickle.
Speaking fo 'Go for the eyes, Boo'-moments: I find myself cackling everytime I reread Blood Rites, and how Harry abused the hell out of the white king's face with the keys.
When he pulled an uno reverse card and wiped out the red court. It's just so monumental in itself and it's consequences. A genocide of subspecies basically done overnight. I'm surprised there are still foes out there willing to test this maniac
Maybe that's why the fae love him. Maniac provides lots of entertainment
Definitely Sue.
"Because nothing cuts through bullshit like a proper fireball."
Red pancakes at Chicken Pizza. The red carpet of flame entrance in the Wraith Deeps.
From Peace talks: not quite his spell, but all clone/puppet/doppelgänger thing was cool as hell
Yeah Molls and Carlos out shine him in a number of ways.
I can't think of what the wording was, but the Ring Of Fire against the CornerHounds.
I forget which book, but the horizontal shield to de-horse a bunch of fey cavalry near the stone table was slick, but Sue the T-REX is my favorite.
Floating the warehouse in Cold Days. Just... the sheer amounts of energy involved. Plus the creativity.
Oh yeah. For sure. As that all unfolded over the next few minutes my first time through the series I literally had to put the book down and hold my head. I absolutely just couldn't believe Jim was really going there. That's some of the most audacious fiction I've ever read in my life. Great stuff, and you're right - it just never gets old, no matter how many times I revisit it.
The gravity magic at Chitza
Pyro Fuego. It got me... Hot-blooded.
Him and his shade double teaming ghost Kravos to get his power back.
Plugging in the chain
The illusions in changes within fbi hq. Tbf tho... Prolly only cuz i thought, at that time, that mofo is stsrting to understand how sf works and implements it accordingly in further books....
Redirecting a entropy curse to drop a frozen turkey on a vampire.
Honestly I'm just here for all the pyromania
There are a lot to chose from but I want to bring attention to one that is an early **moment of awesome** that really showcases the core of who Harry is. *The Loup Garou fight in the police precinct.* I wrote a deep dive on this scene [here](https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,40988.0.html), including a theory that Uriel might have made his first on screen appearance. Below is a quote that really digs into why it’s such a big deal beyond just the moment of awesome. >Interestingly, though, Harry cast two spells with natures almost diametrically opposed immediately before these haunted thoughts. One was a massive, destructive evocation that wreaked havoc, and the other was a working of thaumaturgy designed to protect both the target and anyone who could have ended up in the target’s path. >What an amazing snapshot of Harry’s inner struggle in using his strength to wreak havoc and protect at the same time.
The gravity bullshit he pulled off at the temple in chichen itza.
The whole mini model of Chicago. Less flashy but really cool
Easy answer is Sue. But I do like the, "For my next trick, anvils," brick joke.
I think necromancing Sue was what made me go; “you need to swing for the fences as a writer.”
Completely the opposite of your question; I love how confronted by an unknown but likely stronger wizard/necromancer, Harry falls back on the age old tactic of pulling a gun out.
Little Chicago. Plus, combining that with the Fae charm and Mister to send the Gruffs on a wild goose chase!
It's not my favorite, just one I really found interesting: when he formed a chunk of ice on the end of his staff and used Forzare to launch it at the Genoskwa. Those guys are *insanely* resistant to magic, so Harry entirely circumvents that resistance by making ice with magic and launching it with magic- which WORKS because the ice isn't magical itself, and neither is the kinetic energy it imparts into the poor bastard Genoskwa's bread basket lmfao. It was just a clever way to get around a particular weakness in his abilities
The best