redbrunja | This Is What I'm Hearing: Happiness Isn't Worth Any Inconvenience

phemyscira recently asked me about bulletproof ways to make me ship something, and I didn’t have a good answer for her. I do, however, have something that makes me NOT ship a pairing (regardless of if I shipped it or not previously) which is when someone says, “the time just isn’t right.” Someone says that, and I immediately hear, “I don’t want this relationship. Not really.”

Hold that thought.

So, I read Cold Days. Well, I skimmed Cold Days. I tried to go into the book with an open mind and

honestly, all that made me realize was that the story that Butcher is telling is so far from the story that I actually want to read that it's almost unfair for me to try and criticize it. I don’t want to read about superlative conflicts between vastly powerful beings. I want to read about Harry Dresden being outgunned and trying to do the right thing anyway, with his ensemble cast. I mean, technically the ensemble cast was in this book but it didn’t feel like it.

Murphy, in particular, felt like a shell of what was once a character.

“It’s okay that you might be turning into a monster because I hang out with a lot of monsters,” is not romantic.

“If you turn into a monster I’ll shoot you in the head,” on the other hand, is a romantic statement. (Or it is in my world.)

I wanted to see Murphy take up her sword and be epically badass, like ALL THE OTHER KNIGHTS have been, in various ways. Instead, she just seems like a ghost of herself. Why is she hanging out with the Vikings? (It’s cool and all but why?) Is she running around being a Knight sometimes? If she's doing that, why does she see so utterly unhappy with everything?

Which leads me to the first part of this post, which is that at this point, I’m throwing up my hands on the Murphy/Harry front.
Whatever, you guys. Enjoy your right hands as the world gets darker and more dangerous and you wait for something convenient.

Which leads into the Winter Knight and the Winter Lady. Who I’m placing bets are going to fuck before the end of the series. I think of all the options, this was one of the least interesting places they could go with Molly. I feel like it avoids the most prickly, best part of her character, which was that she was a wizard who kept breaking the Law about fucking with people’s heads for what she believed (and often was) good reason. Now she’s in a different realm, beyond the auspice of the White Council, and in a place where she has much more lassitude to fuck with people’s heads.

And the more Harry says that he’s not going to have sex with Molly, the less I believe him. I buy he doesn’t love her; I think he’s going to fuck her anyway.

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It just doesn't feel like The Dresden Files anymore?

I say that after I wasn't really able to finish it, or I've at least been dragging my feet about finishing it since it was released.

How did you feel about the intrusive thoughts Harry was having? On one hand, I understand that Butcher is trying to convey that that's not who Harry is, and as someone who understands what intrusive thoughts are and how they work, I know I should have sympathy for a character going through that, because if you judge everyone who has an intrusive thought by their intrusive thought, then they're horrible people that you don't want anything to do with (which isn't the case, because the whole thing about them is that they happen because they are in conflict with that individual's personality or values). However...Harry Dresden is a male character I've loved for a long time and who means a lot to me, regardless of poor choices Butcher might be making, so seeing him have what amounts to rape fantasies was hard for me. It just felt like the unintentional message is "No matter how well you think you know a guy, you can't trust him. Ever".

Harry still means a lot to me, but my vision of him is frozen in a different place.

How did you feel about the intrusive thoughts Harry was having? On one hand, I understand that Butcher is trying to convey that that's not who Harry is, and as someone who understands what intrusive thoughts are and how they work, I know I should have sympathy for a character going through that, because if you judge everyone who has an intrusive thought by their intrusive thought, then they're horrible people that you don't want anything to do with (which isn't the case, because the whole thing about them is that they happen because they are in conflict with that individual's personality or values). However...Harry Dresden is a male character I've loved for a long time and who means a lot to me, regardless of poor choices Butcher might be making, so seeing him have what amounts to rape fantasies was hard for me. It just felt like the unintentional message is "No matter how well you think you know a guy, you can't trust him. Ever".

I think that your response to those intrusive thoughts is really, really valid. Harry does have very different ideas about how to treat women versus men, and I think that one of the reasons that Butcher was able to do that without making Harry come across like an asshole was his internal dialogue was very clear about what was objective truth versus Harry's emotional truth, and, as you mentioned, unlike a lot of characters I could list, it was very clear that if you came across Dresden you would be safe. Which is not true anymore. Again, I was not emotionally invested in just about anything that happened, or I would have been a lot more upset about those intrusive thoughts. And I think that as someone who is writing a character that is read by a lot of female readers... Butcher might've wanted to think twice about that narrative choice. I mean, he could have just as easily stressed Harry's belief in his own righteousness and his right to destroy in pursuit of 'what's right' which is actually something that has been really effectively foreshadowed? (Remember when he was having an argument with Molly and he slagged a section of the street, and Murphy called him on the fact that at that moment, he believed that he had every right to destroy just because he was angry?) Since Harry hurting women HASN'T been foreshadows, 'everyone has a dark side' reads a lot like, 'all men secretly want to force the woman they're around' which I truly believe is not true. Some men might have those fantasies, but I don't believe all men's darkest impulses are going to be that particular one, any more than all women's darkest fantasies would be, for example, castrating men. (What about the other sins? What about theft? What about gluttony? Sloth? For that matter, what about straight-up murder?)

Basically I think you hit the bullseye. It's basically a terrible narrative choice, and it felt slapped on in light of things that have already been foreshadowed. I get that the point was to make it something that is clearly OOC for Harry, but it would have been more effective if it was something we could conceivably see Harry doing.

(And now I'm actually bitter, because if Butcher had just made them destruction/rage/wrath fantasies, I would have enjoyed the book so much more.)

I do, however, have something that makes me NOT ship a pairing (regardless of if I shipped it or not previously) which is when someone says, “the time just isn’t right.” Someone says that, and I immediately hear, “I don’t want this relationship. Not really.”

That reminds me of this delightful GIF:

http://data.whicdn.com/images/43872314/tumblr_m8enty72D31qjwa0g_large.gif

I can see why someone would put off getting into a relationship for person reasons but timing is everything in relationships. If someone isn't ready for a relationship, 9 times out of 10 the pending romance probably won't end well.

This Is What I'm Hearing: Happiness Isn't Worth Any Inconvenience

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