History Literature / BattleGround2020

** In a rather amusing literal interpretation, Gard uses her rune-inscribed axe to deliver a crippling blow right to Ethniu's Achilles tendon. She limps on it for the rest of the battle.

** Combined with ShutUpHannibal (or ShutUpKirk depending on how you view [[spoiler:the White Council]]). Harry tells [[spoiler:Carlos that the White Council has lost its moral authority, that the people of Chicago need him, and that he ''doesn't'' intend to stop helping people. He's also the Winter Knight and he just put down a Titan, so maybe they should rethink tangling with him. He's no longer afraid of them and has no intention of following their hypocritical, self-serving rules. Carlos is left with no real response.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: When Carlos arrives to deliver the official announcement that [[spoiler: Harry has been kicked off the White Council]], their resulting argument is made of this. Harry is right that their justification is flimsy, the Council has no moral high ground, and they use their power to bully weaker practioners. But Carlos is also right that Harry has done a lot of shady things the past few years, including becoming the Winter Knight, keeping secrets from him despite the fact they're friends, and refusing to even try to offer an explanation as to why for any of it. It's what makes their falling out all the more bitter and tragic.

** The finale shows that the White Council failed to consider that [[spoiler:in expelling Harry, they forfeit their only way of controlling him other than the threat of force -- and that as Winter Knight, an attack on Harry would be an attack on Mab. Ramirez is left at a loss when Harry asks what the Council will do ''when'' he defies its authority.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Harry pushes the Accorded Nations to make humanitarian aid to the people of Chicago and for Molly to reveal to her family she is the Winter Maiden with the underlying belief in trust in people in both cases conviently forgetting a few days earlier he pretty much chose to let his friendship with Ramirez be destroyed rather then trust him with any of his own secret's that would put him at a disadvantage because he ''might'' tell the council.

* JerkassHasAPoint: For once, this trope is deconstructed. [[spoiler: Yes the White Council does have some grounds for kicking Harry out, but that doesn't change the fact that they're a bunch of bullying old farts who have had it in for Harry for a long time, and their punishment is outrageously cruel. As a result, Harry all but tells Carlos (and the Council by extension) "fuck off and stay out of my way", and even ''Michael'' drops an F bomb]].

* ScrewYourUltimatum: [[spoiler:Ramirez informs Harry he's been expelled from the White Council -- due to the Merlin holding the vote while his two biggest allies were conveniently in surgery -- and, moreover, been given a suspended death sentence ''in absentia'' for using magic to kill human Fomorians during the battle. This essentially puts him back into the legal situation he started the series in. Harry, however, has officially had it with toeing the Council's line, and tells Ramirez flat-out that he's going to continue doing whatever he has to do to protect Chicago and his loved ones and that if the Council has a problem with it, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections he's still the Winter Knight so they can tell it to Queen Mab]] -- if "the guy who soloed a Titan" doesn't come for them first.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: An InUniverse example. Harry refers to the Erlking as "one of Mab's most powerful vassals" early in the book. According to WordOfGod, however, the Erlking is a member of the Summer Court, and thus a vassal of Titania rather than Mab.

* AchillesHeel: Titanic Bronze renders the wearer essentially invulnerable to both physical and magical attacks, but its protection is worth a lot less against explicitly divine or infernal sources, like the Swords of the Cross or the Knights of the Blackened Denarius.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** It's mentioned that even without the literal invasion by the Fomor, Ethniu's massive hex cast over Chicago with the Eye of Balor almost instantly caused several thousand deaths (i.e., numerous car crashes, people's pacemakers suddenly stop working, friggin' ''planes'' falling from the sky...). Naturally, the effects were made even worse since the lingering effects of the hex make it nearly impossible for any form of efficient organized response to happen, resulting in the city police being ''very'' stretched as they struggle to maintain any semblance of order.
** It turns out that RecklessGunUsage plus the world going to hell around you is a great combination for getting someone shot accidentally.
** After kicking off a magical world war, an epic case of PoorCommunicationKills in the last book with the Wardens, being appointed the Winter Knight, his former apprentice being promoted to be the Winter Lady, spending lots of time with the leading family of the White Court, and generally being TheLastDJ, it's not exactly surprising that [[spoiler:the White Council voted to exclude Harry (though it involved the Merlin cheating by holding the vote while [=McCoy=] and Listens-to-Wind were in surgery)]]. His various clashes and constantly keeping information from Carlos has also infuriated the latter, to the point that he no longer trusts Harry at all.\\
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This gets turned around on them: [[spoiler:Harry has had enough of them and their LawfulStupid nature and has come to see them as nothing more than petty bullies. He washes his hands of the Council and tells Ramirez outright to stay out of his way and he'll stay out of his. Carlos, and the White Council by extension, is reminded that Harry is ''still a member of the Winter Court'' as the Winter Knight, who are the much bigger fish to the Council (translation: politically, he basically has diplomatic immunity), with him also having personal connections to the queens. Carlos is understandably gobsmacked.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Molly's fear and reticence at the prospect of revealing to her parents that [[spoiler:she is the Winter Lady, only to find that they, 1) already knew about it, and 2) aren't nearly as immediately angry at her as she'd feared they would be closely matches one of the happier standard (clichéd?) 'coming-out as queer one's parents' narratives—all it's wanting is Molly already being out to one or more siblings and her parents joining the Sidhe equivalent of P.F.L.A.G. or something.]]

** Arguably, the White Council [[spoiler:banishes Harry from their organization, strips him of his Warden status, and enacts a bunch of draconian laws that make him a keeper of TheMasquerade as well as subject to random searches. Carlos is taken aback when Harry just basically says, "No, I am not going to do that."]] It's severely YMMV, however, given that he's been acting as TheLastDJ since before the series even started, plus his extremely sketchy public record.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Harry ordered Goodman Grey to defend Justine from everything. So when the power went out and a bunch of the White Court's mercenaries swarmed her place to protect her, Grey assumed the worst and fought them all off, injuring many. Lara rips into Harry for this, losing her usual cool and snapping at him to just communicate next time.

* ExactWords: Dresden needs to convince everyone that he doesn't have [[spoiler:the Eye of Balor]], but as a member of Mab's court he's not supposed to explicitly lie. So instead he says he doesn't know where it is. This is technically true in that he doesn't know its exact location (because he gave it to Demonreach to hide and ordered the ally not to tell Dresden where it was), and if everyone present then assumes Dresden doesn't possess it at all, that's their problem. As he's dealing with fellow supernatural beings, they're aware of this trope, but can't really do much about it.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Molly's fear and reticence at the prospect of revealing to her parents that [[spoiler:she is the Winter Lady, only to find that they, 1) already knew about it, and 2) aren't nearly as immediately angry at her as she'd feared they would be closely matches one of the happier standard (clichéd?) 'coming-out as queer one's parents' narratives—all it's wanting is Molly already being out to one or more siblings and her parents joining some Sidhe equivalent of P.F.L.A.G..]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Molly's fear and reticence at the prospect of revealing to her parents that [[spoiler:she is the Winter Lady, only to find that they. 0) already knew and 1.) aren't nearly as immediately angry at her as she'd feared they would be closely matches one of the happier standard (clichéd?) 'coming-out as queer one's parents' narratives—all it's wanting is Molly already being out to one or more siblings and her parents joining some Sidhe equivalent of P.F.L.A.G..]]

** The main driver of conflict is that Ethniu is for all intents and purposes invincible. Besides the Eye and her invincible armor, she has enough raw power to counter just about everything anybody can throw at her. Hence ThePlan, and though a last resort, was acknowledged to be the best shot at beating her.

** "Stars and stones" is a go-to swear for Harry, though Ebenezar chides him for it in ''Peace Talks'', mentioning that Harry doesn't even know what that means. With the fight with the Black Court, the vampires mention in passing the Stars and Stones being as something literal. After the fight, Harry asks Listens-To-Wind what it means, and the older wizard is rather cagey, but does eventually promise to get "some people" to tell Harry about it sometime if they survive the night; a prospect that would take the better part of a year. Harry presses for an answer, but Listens-To-Wind points out that as a Senior Councilman, arrogant as they may be, he doesn't have the confidence to make the decision alone to elaborate to Harry what the stars and stones are; a concept that gives Harry pause. [[spoiler:So far, nothing yet, and since Harry gets booted off the Council, Listens-To-Wind may be barred from talking to him. Good thing that the beings he mentioned to Harry are quite probably not bound by the same conventions.]]

** In ''Literature/ColdDays'' Mab points out to Harry that Molly's new postion as the Winter Lady protects her from White Council punishment for her actions after she went off the deep end from guilt for the part she played in Harry's Death. When Ramirez arrives after the battle with a message from the Senior Council [[spoiler: to tell Harry he is no longer one of them and try to basically put him under the SwordOfDamocles from the first book in all but name Harry points out he is now the Winter Knight and any direct action taken by them to screw with him risks a war with Mab and The Winter Court.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything [[spoiler: Molly's fear and reticence at the prospect of revealing to her parents that that she is the Winter Lady, only to find that they. 0) already knew and 1.) aren't as immediately angry at her as she'd feared they would be closely matches on e of the happier standard (clichéd?) '''coming-out as queer one's parents''' narratives—all it's wanting us Molly already being out to ine or more siblings.

** At one point, when discussing how to crack Ethniu's defenses, it's mentioned that sufficient angelic power would be able to pierce Titanic bronze. Mab mentions that sufficient infernal power would have the same effect and that Nicodemus Archleone might be able to manage it. [[spoiler:Sufficient infernal power winds up doing the trick. Only the Denarian in question is not Nicodemus, but John Marcone, who has secretly had Thorned Namshiel's coin since the end of ''Small Favor'' - even scarier, Mab doesn't say something like "A Denarian's power could do it", but specifies Nicodemus himself, indicating just how good Marcone has already gotten with the coin.]]

* NaginatasAreFeminine: Harry thinks Laura is using one during the battle.

* NagitanasAreFeminine: Harry thinks Laura is using one during the battle.

* {{Retirony}}: Murphy's old partner Rawlins shows up and mentions that he's only got two weeks until retirement. When Dresden mentions that a supernatural war just broke out, he comments that he's about to die from cliche poisoning. No mention is made as to whether or not he actually died in the battle.

* CurbStompCushion: [[spoiler: Despite Ethniu absolutely wrecking every major power sent her way, she doesn’t come out of it unscathed either. By the time she’s imprisoned in Demonreach, she’s sustained heavy damage and is missing part of her face and an arm from the back-to-back cosmic-scale beatdowns that she’s endured.]]

* CurbStompCushion: Titania, Vadderung (read: ''Odin''), and the Erlking all team up to try and take on Ethniu. They're all handily defeated, but Ethniu only managed to win by the skin of her teeth.

** In an aversion, the original release of "Christmas Eve" had [[spoiler: Dresden referring to himself as a Wizard of the White Council, leading readers to believe he'd find a way to weasel out of their latest attempt to expel him. He actually doesn't, and is kicked out of the Council for good at the end of ''Battle Ground''. The version of "Christmas Eve" included with ''Battle Ground [[RetCon changes the dialogue]] to instead refer to Dresden as the Wizard of Chicago.]]

--->'''Nemesis:''' ''I am [[TheDreaded He Who Walks Beside.]]''