History Literature / ProvenGuilty

* ArmorIsUseless: A very strange case, especially considering Jim Butcher's AuthorAppeal for medieval fighting. When attempting to flee from the Winter Court, Harry and the rest take off their armor because it's starting to weigh them down while they're trying to get away. Considering that there isn't ''that'' much distance to the portal out, it would take more time to strip off all of their armor then they would gain back in speed by not wearing it. What makes it particularly glaring, however, is that since they don't want to leave the armor behind, they elect to carry it instead. Obviously ously, it's considerably more encumbering to carry armor in your hands or in a backpack then to simply wear it as the weight distributes across your shoulders and entire body while worn.[[note]]Murphy ''might'' have an excuse, since her armor was oversized, and damaged in the fighting, so she had problems with it slipping off. Everyone else, though....[[/note]]

** Michael goes on one just as Harry brings back Molly at the start of the book. [[spoiler:It is to save the White Council trainees, Luccio, and three Senior Council members from a Red Court attack. Harry suspects the primary consequence of this mission was to give Molly a chance to live through her trial]].

* JokeNameTag: Harry fills in his "My name is ___" tag for the [=SplatterCon!!!=] convention with "An Innocent Bystander". A policeman on the scene beat him to the punch with this joke, using "An Authority Figure" on his own tag.

* HeroWorshipper: Molly, full stop, for Harry. It is because she worshiped him so much she [[spoiler:kept her magic a secret from everyone, save her mother.]] As Harry puts it, if he was a rock star, she wouldn't want to show her skills by just being able to play the scales and nothing else. She wanted to do something grand.

** [[spoiler:Red Court vampire Duchess Arianna, wife of Ortega, was mentioned as one of the bidders for Harry on Ebay]].

* FormerTeenRebel: Charity states she was a bit of a rebel from her upper-crust family in her youth, and [[spoiler:was even a practitioner in her younger days —- a weak one, but she did get in with a bad crowd and it nearly led her to be eaten by a dragon. She walked away from that life after Michael saved her.]]

* ArmorIsUseless: A very strange case, especially considering Jim Butcher's AuthorAppeal for medieval fighting. When attempting to flee from the Winter Court, Harry and the rest take off their armor because it's starting to weigh them down while they're trying to get away. Considering that there isn't ''that'' much distance to the portal out, it would take more time to strip off all of their armor then they would gain back in speed by not wearing it. What makes it particularly glaring, however, is that since they don't want to leave the armor behind, they elect to carry it instead. Obivously, it's considerably more encumbering to carry armor in your hands or in a backpack then to simply wear it as the weight distributes across your shoulders and entire body while worn.

* JokeNameTag: Harry fills in his "My name is ___" tag for the SplatterCon!!! convention with "An Innocent Bystander". A policeman on the scene beat him to the punch with this joke, using "An Authority Figure" on his own tag.

* WrongGenreSavvy: One of the best examples in all of the Dresden novels: Harry confronts a murderous vampire, warning the guy to back off or Harry will expose his work. The vampire laughs as he assumes that he and Harry are bound by "rules" to protect this grand Masquerade and Harry would never dare reveal the existence of magic to humans. He's more than a bit deflated when Harry points out he's ''listed in the phone book'' under "Wizards."

* TemporalParadox: Messing with the currents of time can cause this, so it is one reason the Senior Council has a law against it. [[spoiler:[[ForWantOfANail Rashid gets around this by giving tiny hints to nudge things in a different direction.]]]] As Bob explains, if a car was going to be stolen, [[spoiler: Rashid]] could not tell the owner to move to protect it via a message from the future or this will cause a paradox. He ''can'' however suggest that it is moved from the street to a garage. It will still be stolen but in the former case the car owner is shot and killed by a street junkie, while in the latter they're carjacked by a professional who knows how to get the car without anyone getting hurt.

** Daniel Carpenter is able to escape from [[spoiler:the Hammerhand phobophage... by hiding in the Carpenters' old tree house and pulling the rope ladder up behind him. After all, [[LogicalWeakness Hammerhands doesn't have any actual hands]]]].

* TemporalParadox: Messing with the currents of time can cause this, so it is one reason the Senior Council has a law against it. [[spoiler:[[ForWantOfANail Rashid gets around this by giving tiny hints to nudge things in a different direction.]]]] As Bob explains, if a car was going to be stolen, [[spoiler: Rashid]] could not tell the owner to move to protect it via a message from the future or this will cause a paradox. He ''can'' however suggest that it is moved from the street to a garage. It will still be stolen but in the former case the car owner is shot and killed by a street druggie, while in the latter they're carjacked by a professional who knows how to get the car without anyone getting hurt.

** Daniel Carpenter is able to escape from [[spoiler:the Hammerhand phobophage... by hiding in the Carpenters' old tree house and pulling the rope ladder up behind him. After all, [[LogicalWeakness Hammerhand doesn't have any actual hands]]]].

* {{Squick}}: [[invoked]] Lampshaded In-Universe. Harry and Murphy have a little moment of this when they discuss the fact Murphy's second ex-husband, FBI Agent Rick, is now married to and sleeping with Murphy's ''youngest sister''.

* CripplingOverspecialization: The fetch in the form of Hammerhands can't climb a ladder because he has hammers for hands.

** Harry further guesses that someone booked Madrigal Raith to Splattercon specifically so he'd take the fall for the phages' actions. [[spoiler:Right on cue, Eldest Fetch shows up, killing Crane's assistant. We later learn Eldest Fetch is to Mab what the Eldest Gruff is to Titania - a favored enforcer. Furthermore the form the Fetch picked was from Madrigal's own films]].

** Harry further guesses that someone booked Madrigal Raith to Splattercon specifically so he'd take the fall for the phages' actions. [[spoiler:Right on cue, the Eldest Fetch shows up, killing Crane's assistant. We later learn Eldest Fetch is to Mab what the Eldest Gruff is to Titania - a favored enforcer. Furthermore the form the Fetch picked was from Madrigal's own films]].

* TheChessmaster: Lea describes Mab as such, with her habit of being patient and detailed about her plots. [[spoiler:It is implied she had the Fetches go after Molly and played restrained about reacting to the Red Court's actions in ''Dead Beat'' because she, personally, was waiting for a better time to strike. So, she allowed Maeve to think her wrong, to make her work with Lily in a long plot to get Harry Dresden chasing the Scarecrow Fetch to Arctis Tor with Summer Fire and destroy her Wellspring, giving Summer their chance for vengeance.]] Harry gets this idea because [[spoiler:one of the ice statues in Mab's garden was her in disguise and winked at him]].

* BittersweetEnding: On the bitter side, [[spoiler:way too many innocent people died as a result of Molly's sorcery at [=SPLATTERCON!!!=], it's completely ambiguous if her friends will ever be able to fully recover from her mental magic given to them, she's been tainted by BlackMagic, and both her and Harry are placed under the Doom of Damocles]]. On the sweet side, [[spoiler:Molly becomes Harry's apprentice so that she can learn [[ComesGreatResponsibility how to better improve the world around her with her magical talent]], the Eldest Fetch is defeated, Harry and Charity finally learn to bury the hatchet, and Molly moves back in with her family to help her with her own maturity]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than ''Dead Beat''. Both novels are pretty dark, to be fair, but this one has a noticeably more uncomfortable and bleaker tone to it, and also tackles darker and [[AdultFear less fantastical]] concerns (i.e., family relations, drug addiction and abuse, and fear) than ''Dead Beat'' did. Or, to put it another way, while ''Dead Beat'' started out on a lighthearted note with Harry being MistakenForGay by one of Thomas' recent lovers, ''Proven Guilty'' starts out with a Korean warlock being decapitated by Morgan in a warehouse and Harry throwing up on the floor in revulsion.

* FalseInnocenceTrick: As much as one can call [[spoiler:Leanansidhe]] "innocent" the imprisoned person plays the part of a person in need, knowing Harry would likely help the person be free. [[spoiler:If not for Lea fighting from the inside and warning Harry off, Harry would have.]]

** Mouse growls [[spoiler:at Molly like he did against another warlock. He stops when Harry tells him so.]]
** At the convention [[spoiler:Molly is working at]] the printer has been acting up quite a bit as of late. And it isn't just when Harry's around.

* RuleOfSymbolism: It is shown that the [[IconicOutfit iconic grey cloaks of the Wardens]] cannot be stained with blood. Considering how the primary job of the Wardens is to serve as a executioner of warlocks, this can be seen as a literal example of how from the perspective of the White Council, the {{Necessary Evil}}s performed by a Warden do no mark them as people.
* SandInMyEyes: Dresden, during the scene where [[spoiler:he talks to Michael about the two people he had to kill to stop the events from last Halloween.]]

[[TheOneWith The one with]] Harry's new job and all the [[SlasherMovie movie monsters]].

* NotSoDifferent:

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Charity was a former practitioner, and has known for some time her daughter is now one.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** [[spoiler:One of the con-goers bleeds to death when Harry gets distracted by beating up a phobophage instead of providing proper First Aid]].
** Daniel Carpenter is able to escape from [[spoiler:the Hammerhand phobophage... by hiding in the Carpenters' old tree house and pulling the rope ladder up behind him. After all, [[LogicalWeakness Hammerhand doesn't have any actual hands]]]].
** ''Dead Beat'' was the first time that Harry ''consciously'' decided to end two peoples' lives - the Corpsetaker and Quintus Cassius - with all other times Harry had killed someone prior to this point being in self-defense (more or less). While both deaths were treated as awesome and satisfying in the moment, this book shows that Harry is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone understandably horrified and sickened with himself]] over having ''ended the lives of two people''. Granted, as both were {{Asshole Victim}}s, he's not ''as'' upset about it as he would be if he had killed two innocent people, but as in RealLife, he's still guilt-ridden over it to the point of having nightmares. Since most people nowadays are taught to have at least some general respect for the sanctity of life, Harry's [=PTSD=] is perfectly understandable.

* BittersweetEnding: On the bitter side, [[spoiler:way too many innocent people died as a result of Molly's sorcery at [=SPLATTERCON!!!=], it's completely ambiguous if her friends will ever be able to fully recover from her mental magic given to them, she's been tainted by BlackMagic, and both her and Harry and placed under the Doom of Damocles]]. On the sweet side, [[spoiler:Molly becomes Harry's apprentice so that she can learn [[ComesGreatResponsibility how to better improve the world around her with her magical talent]], the Eldest Fetch is defeated, Harry and Charity finally learn to bury the hatchet, and Molly moves back in with her family to help her with her own maturity]].

** The FBI get involved in the Splattercon!!! murder case, and Harry reminds Murphy that things [[Literature/FoolMoon didn't go so well]] the last time feds got involved.

* RiddleForTheAges: [[spoiler:Who, precisely, are the other beings trapped in Mab's garden/prison? Harry never finds out, and Butcher has no plans to explain them further.[[note]]However, he did reveal their identities in a AMA Reddit Q&A in 2018; the couple are Vlad Tepes and his lover [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor who wanted never to be parted]], the cardinal is a shapeshifted Cardinal Richelieu (who had to pay the piper at some point), the spider in the web is Anansi (oh, and he ''will'' escape at one point and get his revenge on Mab), and two of the three ladies standing back to back are women who were burned at the stake as witches, but whom Mab rescued and turned into living crystal[[/note]]]]