UNspoiled! The Dresden Files

Hi there, my lovelies! I'm comin at ya with the three chapters that set the table for our trio (well, quartet if you count the wheel man) of heroes to attack the scourge hiding in a homeless shelter.

But first, we have some family drama to deal with as Murphy finds out her little sister is going to be marrying her ex-husband. Which really truly is SOME SHIT. RoShawn and I talk at length about how very not-okay that is, and how Murphy's mom is defending the baby sister way too much, but that's not really the main plot here so I will leave it at that.

The main mystery here is the weird animosity between Ebenzer and Kincaid. RoShawn's ears perk up at the way Kinkaid calls him "Blackstaff" but she can't decide what that could possibly mean. The only thing she knows for sure is that this man is about to be knocked off his pedestal.

Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon!

I'm so delighted to find this work from deviantART user Mollinda! It fits perfectly with what I thought was the most fascinating part of this trio of chapters, and that is the information that Bob relays to Harry after going out exploring in Mister's body. There isn't a lot of art out there featuring Bob and Mister, so if you see any others, be sure to send them my way!

First things first: Harry gets a tiny bit framed for murder in these chapters. It's kind of infuriating, because there's a moment where he really gets the drop on Trixie and you think that dumbass is finally going to get what's coming to her. But it turns out that while Trixie may be a dumbass, she's very good at taking orders from smarter people, as well as good at messing up magic circles. So Harry's carefully laid plan comes to nothing, and someone winds up dying anyway.

Harry flees to his house, and this is when he gets the info from Bob on what to expect from Mavra. Turns out that Mavra isn't relying on her sorcery skills to get her through, and has "recruited" some help by brainwashing regular people and outfitting them with assault rifles and hand grenades. Oh, goody.

Harry gets picked up by Ebenezer McCoy, whom we haven't seen in a minute, and they get ready to head into what amounts to a secret war zone. I wonder what will happen next?!

Hey everyone! I think that the last post I did with an illustration of Kincaid, someone commented that they had been picturing him as a ginger while the illustration showed him as a blonde. I'm pretty sure they're right about how he's originally described, and this is a closer approximation of how I picture him than the last one. Younger, more clean-cut, and almost bored.

These chapters are the ones where Harry introduces Murphy and Kincaid for the first time, and when he starts to realize what might be going on with the entropy curse. Unfortunately, there's not much of a chance to do anything about that last thing because Trixie Vixen sneaks up on him with a gun, but hey. Can't fault him on this one, he tried his best.

Thanks so much for listening, and we will see you next week!


Artwork credit: https://kellhound1365.deviantart.com/art/Kincaid-188393879

IT'S THE FIRST DRESDEN-FILES LIVE-READ EPISODE!

I'm so excited about this one, you guys. Can I tell you the gods-honest truth? The first time I got to this reveal, I didn't care. Not even kidding. I hate secret-sibling reveals almost always, and while I didn't hate this, I just managed to stay neutral. I should have cared, because it matters a whole lot, but I didn't. I think you will all be glad to hear that RoShawn doesn't react the way that I did.

She really cares, and she starts theorizing about all kinds of shit once I'm done with the live-read. The main thing that she's caught up on is the fact that in the soul-gaze Harry sees his mother and she tells him that she did something to weaken Lord Raith, so RoShawn brainstorms all the possible methods and outcomes of whatever it is that Margaret did. Also, she's kind of chilled by the fact that Lord Raith must have known who Harry was the moment he saw him, and started plotting how to kill him immediately once he realized that Lara had given Harry her protection.

Also, we learn about how Lord Raith controls his daughters, and the whole thing is so ghastly that it makes us both more invested in how things turn out for Inari, Thomas's little sister. The poor thing doesn't know what she is, and is unknowingly sent to seduce and kill Dresden...but it turns out that if she waits and has sex out of love for her first time, she will be free of the demon. That's a pretty big deal.

Thanks so much to all of you for listening, and I hope you enjoy the show!

Hi there, everyone! For those of you who have read these books before, we've finally gotten to a part that I'm sure many of your were excited for: the one with the frozen turkey.

This is one of those moments where you are just dying to ask Butcher where the hell the idea came into his head. Was this a true freak accident he'd read about somewhere? Did he have a strange dream? Did he read about some kind of bizarre phobia in which people are terrified of being crushed by frozen turkeys? Or did he just sit down and brainstorm some of the most hilarious and unexpected ways someone could be killed?

There's definitely other stuff happening in this trio of chapters, but you know that's what I had to lead with. I mean, come on.

Harry and Lara wind up fighting on the same side from here because the being who gets crushed is a vampire of the Black Court, and part of a scourge joined the party and is ready to take out Harry, Lara, and Thomas. Turns out, Mavra can use her underlings as sock puppets, and she's really excited that she's stumbled across all three of them together like this. Not for long, however, because they're all dispatched. But not before Lara is almost eaten up.

Then comes the trip to Raith Manor, and Harry unexpectedly gets to meet Lord Raith. Oh, shit.

Hi everyone! RoShawn and I are back with another installment of Blood Rites, and this is the part where someone pulls a gun on Harry. Wait, I mean the part where someone tries to shoot Harry. Wait, I mean the part where someone succeeds at shooting Harry.

You know what? None of this is helpful. Harry gets shot at, and even successfully shot, a lot.
These are the chapters where Harry spots Thomas watching him from the shadows, and chases him down to question him, only to have Lara Raith pressing two guns against his back. Lara is in no mood, and when she finds out that Thomas has involved Harry, her reaction is mainly one of incredulity. She can't believe that Thomas has taken this long to "enter the game", as she puts it, and his assertions that the two of them could team up to take their father down are greeted with ridicule. Lana has seen all this shit before, and as far as she is concerned, it's more merciful for her to shoot Thomas now than to let one of his inevitable fuck-ups lead to dying at the hands of their father.

Thanks so much for listening! See you soon!

I'm delighted to bring you this episode with an illustration of Kincaid, who sounds hot as hell and I wish there was more fanart of him. Someone do me a favor and get on that, because he deserves a little more love from the fandom, in my opinion.

In this trio of chapters, Kincaid is the one who backed Harry into a corner with a sleep mask over his eyes and a magic circle of salt around him to contain his power. Because he doesn't trust anyone, and he knows that Harry can really throw around some power when he wants to, so Kincaid considers this a compliment. He agrees to help Harry deal with Mavra, and I can't wait to finally see them working together.

Murphy, meanwhile, is really having a hard time with her family, and this is one of only two times so far that we've seen her get vulnerable with Harry and divulge some personal problems. Not that Harry is really much help, but he does the best he can because he has arguably the most big-picture perspective of all: appreciate who you have in your life while you can, because they won't always be there.

And lastly is the scene where Harry meets Lara. She's a succubus, but that doesn't really sink in until after she's left the room and he has a second to think straight. He's pretty sure that she's a Raith, and he's none too happy about Thomas keeping things from him. Oh, and Harry also meets Tricia Scrump AKA Trixie Vixen, who is just a delight and I hate her.

Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you soon!

I mentioned the artwork I'm using for this post in last week's episode, and it turns out that this is the artwork used on the Dresden Wiki! James Marsters very much works for me as Harry, and I would like to submit a motion to have his face on all the fanart, please and thank you.

This episode is the one where the malocchio comes for its first victims that Harry witnesses. He manages to jump in and save them, but it's a near thing, and the girl who is hurt the worst is going to have scars on her neck that will probably prevent her from working as an actress ever again. Harry is really bothered by this whole thing, both because the killer got so close to succeeding and because the curse is so strong and moves so quickly that he's not sure he will be able to stop it when it strikes again.

There's a lot going on in this book, and I'm eager to hear what you all think of it! Thanks so much for listening, and I will see you again soon!

I'm sorry this episode is late! Normally I do a bunch of recording on Saturday but I had THREE recordings scheduled that day and I wasn't able to squeeze in any editing. I'm here now, though, and we're starting to get into the main plot of this book. I'm excited because now RoShawn knows just what kind of director Arturo is. Heh.

These three chapters focus mainly on the set-up of Harry meeting Arturo, finding out about the case and possible people who could want him to fail, and pow-wowing with Bob. Also, Harry has decided he's going to find out where Mavra's scourge is hiding out, sneak up on them in the middle of the day while they're asleep, and stake them all in the damn heart. No elaborate setups, no drawn-out planning. Just find them and kill them. It's really kind of refreshing!

Meanwhile, Murphy is getting recruited to the Mavra & Co. Kill Squad, and she's really hopeful that Harry can schedule her in on a day when she's supposed to see her family. Murph, I don't blame you. Family reunions aren't something the majority of people I know look forward to.

Thanks so much for listening, and see you soon!

Woot wooooooot! We're getting started on the next installment of The Dresden Files and I'm so excited! I have my reservations about this book (more on that in the episode) but there's still some great shit coming up and I'm excited to get to it all.

This book starts of with Harry running for his life from some literal flying monkeys while saving a basket full of puppies. It's the most quintessential Harry Dresden Moment so far in the series, to be honest, and RoShawn is totally here for the puppy that winds up in the bottom of Harry's car hidden under his seat. Yay! Puppies!

Also, Thomas Raith is here which throws her for a bit of a loop, but she's very happy to see him because he's such a fun character. She's a little surprised by how serious he is, though, as compared to other times we've seen him, and there's a really tense moment between him and Harry when Justine comes up in conversation.

Overall, this is a great couple of opening chapters, and I can't wait to get further into the book. This is gonna be fun! Thanks for listening!

Artwork credit: https://saintash.deviantart.com/art/thomas-202498064