Awesome / Turn Coat

• Morgan got into a fight with a Native American skinwalker — think "highly intelligent shapeshifting demigod of sadism"—back in the 50's. Skinwalkers are hard to kill, so the fight started up in New Mexico and ended in Nevada. In the nuclear weapon testing grounds. Where Morgan left the skinwalker behind to enjoy a front row seat to a mushroom cloud. That's right—he nuked an Eldritch Abomination.
  • He did it while stepping into the Nevernever, too. One can only imagine it happening with Morgan slowly and calmly turning around, stepping into the gateway, and closing it right as the nuke went off.
• Thomas and Justine putting one of Thomas' uppity succubus cousins in her place. Thomas broke a solid metal chair over her head and literally pinned her to a table. Then Touched-By-True-Love-Justine kissed her. Ouch.
  • This is especially funny seeing how the White Court are seldom that physical. But Thomas just didn't want to play with words, or plots. He just smacked a metal chair over her head.
  • Shortly before that, Madeline comes on to Harry, and he says she reminds him of Jessica Rabbit, "all shiny and overblown and obvious", and then changes his mind to "the evil princess from Buck Rogers". He caps off the insult by telling the vain, hyper-sexualised Alpha Bitch (who has some sort of rivalry with Lara) that "Lara does more for me just sitting in a chair than you did with your whole entrance."
• Harry calling up the Genius Loci of the nasty island from Small Favor, beating it in a contest of wills, and making it his friend. Of sorts.
  "I punched it in the nose. Now we're friends."
  • This becomes ten times more awesome after the revelations in Cold Days. Demonreach's Genius Loci is able to take on twenty Fae, two of whom are the Summer and Winter Lady, and resist. But Harry Badass Copperfield Dresden is able to make it respect him by punching it.
  • And apparently the island holds a grudge against Rashid. Talk about an Offscreen Moment of Awesome!
• Harry setting up a showdown on the aforementioned island between himself, the White Court, the White Council, the skinwalker hunting the wounded Morgan and the traitor in the Council. And it was all just his Plan A!
• Ebenezar's Blasé Boast after Lara socks Harry, unaware the two are working together.

  "Lady Raith," Ebenezar said, calmly. "Touch that boy again and the only things left for your kin to bury will be your five-hundred-dollar shoes."

  • Later, Lara seems to have forgotten about this warning. So when she gets a bit too forward with Harry, Ebenezar doesn't say a word. He just pulls a Darth Vader. And then drops her none-too-gently on the ground.
    • And as Harry notes, makes it very clear to Lara that Ebenezar "Colony Drop" McCoy is not nice or chivalrous like Harry, superior to him in every way possible, and is someone she couldn't hope to do anything to, and is more than capable of carrying out his earlier threat and would eagerly do it. She can only mumble "I won't forget" in response.
• Toot-toot during the fight on the island takes on the skinwalker with a boxcutter and actually gets in a few hits, distracting it long enough for Harry to continue kicking its ass.
  • While shouting "Avaunt, villain!" In fact, he was saving Harry's life, and probably Molly's too. No wonder Toot's even taller when we see him next.
    • As Joe said: "Little guy like that, taking on something so far out his weight class. That was a sight to see."
• Listens-To-Wind getting into a Shapeshifter Showdown with the skinwalker. And sending it scurrying for its life. And that was after shorting out its magic with fricking RAIN DANCE!
  Injun Joe was smiling a fierce, wolfish smile.
  • Shagnasty tore through the White King's personal domain with no effort, and almost made Harry go bonkers just looking at it through his Sight. Listens-To-Wind kicked its ass. And, if it hadn't fled, might well have actually killed it.
    • According to Word of Jim, probably not. Shagnasty fled not because it would lose, but because it couldn't win easily. Given enough time, it probably would have beaten Listens-To-Wind. Still, the fact that he was able to fight it so effectively is still worthy of admiration.
  • Before the fight, Injun Joe simply scoops up a handful of dirt, and says "Mother says you have no place here." There's a flash of lighting without the boom of thunder. Listens-to-Wind looks to the sky, looks to the skinwalker, and reports "Father says you are ugly." Shagnasty claims that since Injun Joe isn't a holy man and doesn't follow the Blessing Way he has no power over it. Joe simply says "I don't plan on binding or banishing you, old ghost, I'm just gonna kick your ass up between your ears." And proceeds to do so.
• And Harry's plan to expose the traitor. Hurrah for subcontracting!
• Time to edit the top of that page for Will and Georgia deciding that at this point they aren't Harry's sidekicks any more and if he wants them as backup they are partners. Getting clued in on everything that is going on, and taking out a White Court vamp.
• Mouse's amazing ability to keep incredibly awkward situations under control. Specifically, Harry comes home on three different occasions to find Mouse keeping Morgan, Molly, and Luccio from killing one another, entirely on his own. In the third instance Mouse goes so far as to take a bullet for Molly - and then shamelessly hams up the severity of the injury in order to properly impress on Molly the mistake that she had made.
  • Very impressive for a non speaking creature. He usually did this by sitting on someone.
  • Mouse is not a non speaking creature. We simply can't understand him.
• While we are on it, credit should be given to Molly for taking on Warden Luccio, The Captain of White Council Wardens in a fist fight and curbstomping her when she thought Luccio had come to arrest Morgan. Granted, Molly began the fight by literally sucker punching Luccio, but considering how deadly her opponent is, it's still ridiculously impressive. And then Morgan, with his wounded leg, climbs out of the bed, grabs Harry's Sword Cane, and effortlessly trounces Molly without hurting her.
  • Credit goes to Molly for figuring out that someone had framed Morgan by manipulating the mind of someone he trusts.
• While very much Nightmare Fuel, Lara Raith disemboweling her Hate Sink cousin counts. While being on fire and sporting the injuries of taking an incendiary grenade to the face.
• Give Mouse another nod for impressing the Senior Council so much that they're willing to accept that one of their closest associates is a traitor simply because a "dog" indicates that it is so. And add in Ancient Mai's astonishment that Harry has the services of such a creature. Mouse is clearly one hella puppy.
  • Adding on that, Mai spend the entire book looking down on Harry and his friends, plus she modelled her Attack Animal stone dog squad after Temple Dogs. And Harry dumbfounds her by showing he has the loyalty of the real deal.
• The Merlin, often viewed by Harry as nothing more than politician, is able to contain and, with the help of the Senior Council, banish a deadly mistfiend that literally kills with a touch.
  • And before that, he was able to telepathically formulate a battle plan amidst the chaos of the attack. While it was pitch-black. While he was fighting a powerful supernatural entity. In under three seconds.
    • Not to mention how insanely calm the wording for the battle plan was.
    Rashid, prevent it from moving forward and disintegrating me, if you please.
  • To make things better he even thought a mental chalk board outline of the battle plan to people so they could more easily see what to do. And he realized that anyone that called forth light in the black would immediately be a target. Many humans in the Dresdenverse die by making that mistake. They light themselves up (as supernatural creatures are seldom bothered by the lack of light) and become targets. And then dead. Guess you don't get to be the Merlin by collecting bottle caps.
• The interrogation of Binder. Murphy tortures him with a hoagie, Harry repeatedly punches him in the face, and Rawlins provides some of the best color commentary ever while watching from the camera in the next room.
• A Tear Jerker-inducing Moment of Awesome for Morgan: The actual mind-controlled killer was Luccio, who he found standing over LaFortier. His response was to take the blame and cover for her because even after all that time, he still loved her. For someone like Morgan, that is incredibly powerful.
  • Within just a few seconds, at most, Morgan figured out what had happened, calculated the alternatives, veiled Luccio, and shoved her out the door before the guards could arrive. Both incredibly heartwarming and flat-out awesome.
• Molly using her gift for veils to invisibly draw a huge magic circle around Binder and his mooks and wipe out creatures in an instant when she activates it, leaving Binder alone. Then Murphy kicks his ass and arrests him.
  • Just before that, Morgan in his wheelchair appearing right behind Binder, toting Harry's shotgun, ordering Binder to surrender. And it was just the distraction for the above.
• For Morgan, right near the end. He's on the cusp of being executed just to appease the White Council's political image. Then Harry unmasks the traitor, who promptly flees. Morgan, despite the injury that makes it life-threatening to even stand, sprints to catch up, and puts two bullets in the traitor's head just in time to save Harry's life. Naturally, he'd tore open his injury, and was bleeding out. With his dying breath, he tells Harry to let the White Council paint him (Morgan) as a traitor - both to keep the White Council looking strong for outsiders, and to keep Luccio from being discovered. In one fell swoop, Morgan turned the Downer Ending of an undeserved, politically-motivated execution... into going out fighting, taking out a traitor, and ensuring his death continues to serve the White Council even politically, while saving the woman he loves. In short, the absolute best death a Knight Templar could ever, ever dream of.
• A subtle one, more of a callback than anything, but when Harry gets half the Senior Council to come to his island for the big showdown, Ancient Mai orders the Wardens to arrest him, and all five of them proceed with caution. Harry then goes over some of his previous victories, and realizes that while he knows he's just a plucky smartass with a lot of luck, who the five Wardens, each of whom would have no trouble taking down (along with three Senior Council members, who outrank even the Wardens), the others don't see it that way. They see him as a badass wizard who rides zombie dinosaurs into battle and kicks the crap out of Eldritch Abominations on a semi-annual basis. In other words, they regard him the same way we do. Harry Dresden is his own 'verse's Memetic Badass.
  • Do we need quotes? I think we need quotes.
  "And then it hit me. They were dealing with something far more dangerous than me, Harry Dresden, whose battered old Volkswagen was currently in the city impound. They were dealing with the potential demonic dark lord nightmare warlock they'd been busy fearing since I turned sixteen. They were dealing with the wizard who had faced the Heirs of Kemmler riding a zombie dinosaur, and emerged victorious from a fight that had flattened Morgan and Captain Luccio before they had even reached it. They were dealing with a man who had dropped a challenge to the entire Senior Council, and who had then actually showed, apparently willing to fight - on the shores of an entirely too creepy island in the middle of a freshwater sea."
• Harry fighting the skinwalker. "Bring it, you dickless freak!" Best. Challenge. Ever.
  • Consider the circumstances of the duel. Harry had barely slept for two days, had been recently injured — multiple concussions, no less — had lost his staff and blasting rod and exhausted a good deal of his power in previous battles. He had to run up a mountain to catch up with the damn thing. Yet he hit the skinwalker with three precise, ferocious spells and each one hurt it, even if he himself collapsed afterwards. Imagine what might happen if Harry ever meets the skinwalker when he's at full strength, with the preparation and experience he has now. To quote Harry and invert the situation:
    One bloody and spectacular mess, coming up.
• A villainous one for Shagnasty who, when told to "fuck off" by Harry responds with this;

  Shagnasty: "I will no longer be in a playful mood," it purred. "I will come for you. I will kill your blood, your friends, your beasts. I will kill the flowers in your home and the trees in your tiny fields. I will visit such death upon whatever is yours that your very name will be remembered only in curses and tales of terror."

  • And Harry Dresden, the man who has snarked Fallen Angels, Vampires of all shapes and sizes, Faerie Queens and evil Necromancers, has no comeback. Perhaps Shagnasty should be teaching the other Dresden-universe villains how to threaten someone.
  • Another one for Shagnasty. You know how at the top of the page, his kind are called, for good reason, a "highly intelligent shape-shifting demigod of sadism?" Well, unlike a lot of monstrous villains, he actually proves his intelligence. When Harry has him on the ropes with his soulfire... rope, you'd expect an enemy that strong to pull a Diabolus ex Machina by simply overpowering the spell or revealing it doesn't affect him. Shagnasty? Shagnasty does what pretty much no-other villain in the series does: remember the basics and draw a circle, generating a barrier and waits out till Harry's magic tank runs out. Basic magic, basic logic, and it saves his own life and nearly wins him the day.
• One for Harry towards the beginning: Looking at Shagnasty with his True Sight just about drives him bonkers. Most people probably would've turned into gibbering wrecks. But Harry is able to get himself to Will and Georgia's, tell them what he needs, and restore his sanity by remembering all the other things he's ever Seen, wonderful and horrible, and basically forcing the memory of the naagloshii to get in line.