Dresden Files

Uriel · Feb 25, 2013

Azrayne_sl said:
Which brings up an interesting point I was wondering about the other day: why doesn't Harry use his potions more? He could be so much more versatile and effective if he carried a few potions around constantly, but despite the fact that they don't seem to require more than time and the ingredients, he only makes them as a last ditch backup when the necessity presents itself. You'd think a character who's all about their magical equipment would have room for a flask or two with different potions in them.

I'm guessing they probably expire pretty quickly, and some ingredients must be expensive and/or hard to acquire.

Nebuchadnezzar · Feb 25, 2013

Harry Dresden Mental Check List For Attacking Enemies

1. Can I burn it?

2. Can I hit it with a stick?

3. Can I punch it?

4. Do I have bullets in my gun?

5. Is there a vehicle nearby I can ram it with?

...

1001: Potions

Void · Feb 25, 2013

Nebuchadnezzar_sl said:
Harry Dresden Mental Check List For Attacking Enemies

1. Can I burn it?

2. Can I hit it with a stick?

3. Can I punch it?

4. Do I have bullets in my gun?

5. Is there a vehicle nearby I can ram it with?

...

1001: Potions

I'd rep you again for that if I could. That cracked me the fuck up.

Commander Vimeseh_sl · Feb 25, 2013

Azrayne_sl said:
Which brings up an interesting point I was wondering about the other day: why doesn't Harry use his potions more? He could be so much more versatile and effective if he carried a few potions around constantly, but despite the fact that they don't seem to require more than time and the ingredients, he only makes them as a last ditch backup when the necessity presents itself. You'd think a character who's all about their magical equipment would have room for a flask or two with different potions in them.

Potions have a very direct and focused effect and as far as we've seen and have to be imbibed in the Dresdenverse so that limits their offensive utility. Everything I could think of that would be multi-use or commonly used his regular paraphernalia or innate abilities already gives him. Shields, invisibility, protection against projectiles. Also, Harry isn't exactly a planner. Or at least to this point hasn't been. So unless he has a very specific situation (like climbing the valley face in Changes) that he can't handle with his usual bag of tricks I don't see him concocting a variety of easily stored potions for different problems. Although Harry running around with a potion utility belt is somewhat fitting to the character's nerdiness and would be quite amusing.

Slyminxy · Feb 26, 2013

Commander Vimeseh_sl said:
Potions have a very direct and focused effect and as far as we've seen and have to be imbibed in the Dresdenverse so that limits their offensive utility. Everything I could think of that would be multi-use or commonly used his regular paraphernalia or innate abilities already gives him. Shields, invisibility, protection against projectiles. Also, Harry isn't exactly a planner. Or at least to this point hasn't been. So unless he has a very specific situation (like climbing the valley face in Changes) that he can't handle with his usual bag of tricks I don't see him concocting a variety of easily stored potions for different problems. Although Harry running around with a potion utility belt is somewhat fitting to the character's nerdiness and would be quite amusing.

If you remember the starting books, Harry did make potions, but only did them when he knew he'll be needing them because making them was tiresome work. Imagine putting 6 hours of grisly work (even with Bob helping) into something that might be good for 5 seconds. Ofcourse, in Turncoat you do see that in some cases he plans ahead and does stuff for long hours to be prepared.

Basically, he doesn't have time. He's either in jail, sleeping, working on a case or trying to stay alive.

Azrayne · Feb 26, 2013

But he has tons of downtime between cases, what we see in the books is only a few weeks out of every year for him. I dunno, it just doesn't make sense unless the potions have an expiry date or something. Even if he can do that stuff with his normal magic, it seems silly to drain energy he could use blowing stuff up, especially with veils and shit he's usually not good with, when he could just gulp down a potion instead. There's no reason he couldn't carry a flask or two on each leg, an invisibility potion, the escape/teleport one he did, the energy recharge one he used in Fool Moon, etc. He already puts so much time into building/rebuilding/maintaining his other equipment, seems like spending a day brewing up a couple of potions would make sense.

I mean I get that the reality is that it's a literary thing, authors always forget that these things exist until they think up an excuse to use them, just kind of hard to believe that they wouldn't be utilized more than we see them. Even if not Harry, you think the Wardens wouldn't carry a few potions on them as part of their standard battle getup?

Also, what happened to that belt buckle? At one stage he had a belt buckle shaped like a bear which he used to store a charge of energy to refresh him during battle, but he used it once (think it was the book where he's working on the porn set) then we never hear about it again.

Commander Vimeseh_sl · Feb 26, 2013

Azrayne_sl said:
But he has tons of downtime between cases, what we see in the books is only a few weeks out of every year for him. I dunno, it just doesn't make sense unless the potions have an expiry date or something. Even if he can do that stuff with his normal magic, it seems silly to drain energy he could use blowing stuff up, especially with veils and shit he's usually not good with, when he could just gulp down a potion instead. There's no reason he couldn't carry a flask or two on each leg, an invisibility potion, the escape/teleport one he did, the energy recharge one he used in Fool Moon, etc. He already puts so much time into building/rebuilding/maintaining his other equipment, seems like spending a day brewing up a couple of potions would make sense.

I mean I get that the reality is that it's a literary thing, authors always forget that these things exist until they think up an excuse to use them, just kind of hard to believe that they wouldn't be utilized more than we see them. Even if not Harry, you think the Wardens wouldn't carry a few potions on them as part of their standard battle getup?

Also, what happened to that belt buckle? At one stage he had a belt buckle shaped like a bear which he used to store a charge of energy to refresh him during battle, but he used it once (think it was the book where he's working on the porn set) then we never hear about it again.

My previous post was an attempt at giving it a real explanation. The truth is and JB said this on his forums about a year back;

"If Harry carried around every piece of magical gear he could create then I'd literally never be able to put him in a bad position. He'd just grab potion #31298 and walk out fine."

I'm paraphrasing of course but it does boil down to literary issues as to why Harry doesn't keep himself stocked up with a magical answer to all common situations. Like you said Azrayne.

Budrick · Feb 26, 2013

I agree. I think JB's use of potions is well planned and practical without becoming way OP.
I wouldn't mind seeing some more magical contraptions, but let's face it there is a limit to what can be thought up and written about.

Commander Vimeseh_sl · Feb 26, 2013

Budrick_sl said:
I agree. I think JB's use of potions is well planned and practical without becoming way OP.
I wouldn't mind seeing some more magical contraptions, but let's face it there is a limit to what can be thought up and written about.

I thought Little Chicago was an amazing and creative magical tool. I could just imagine Harry walking down a street and taking brick, plastic, metal, etc shavings off of each building then incorporating them in to the models. Fits the oddness of the character while being an effective storytelling vehicle. Its things like that which allow me to overlook Harry not carrying around obvious things like potions that would make his life easier.

moontayle · Feb 26, 2013

And truth be told, the last few books, when the shit hit the fan it really hit the fan. Hard to spend time preparing when you'd being knocked on your heels every time you turn around.

Grimmlokk · Feb 26, 2013

Not to mention his lab and all his hard farmed rare potion materials have been blown up and burned away. So for the last few books at least it makes some sense.

Selix · Feb 26, 2013

My two cents: Potion ingredients could be hard to come by/expensive and Harry is always broke. Another suggestion is just what would happen if you left magical potions lying around? Maybe a couple would be fine but magic is a tricky thing. And another explanation it may be a bad idea to use multiple potions or use potions to often. And potions could be a handicap. If you carry them around all the time and use them whenever you hit danger then what happens when you are not use to fighting without them? What happens if the potion mix is slightly off (mass production has errors)? And what about the cost? What happens if the potion lasts 26 seconds and you expected it to last 44?

Selix · Feb 27, 2013

Also I think of the magic in the Dresden universe as a bit like Luck and a casino. Everyone is always trying to bend, break, outsmart, or dominate it but just when they think they've won the Lady shows up and collects her pay. What happened to Harry is he was born holding a Royal Flush but quickly realized he was sitting at a roulette table. He has figured out that the game is rigged and the house always wins but the smart players can eek out a living in the margins.

Harry knows that there is always a price for using magic and so that is why he is so often successful with non-magical means against foes who have read all the magical rules but forgot to consider the non-magical fine print section on the back of the last page. Of course sometimes he just has to bluff but I've already taken this analogy to far already.......

Zehnpai · Mar 13, 2013

The one thing I hate about a great series like this is I find it incredibly hard to start reading other stuff. Just finished Cold Days after reading all 14 books in the last 2 months and now I'm like, "Well...what the fuck." I haven't really read a book since the mid-90's. Was refreshing to get lost in a series again.

Only disappointment is that he's kinda abandoned the whole detective thing. It makes sense because the character has kinda been through a lot of shit but even in the last book Harry is musing about how a few years ago he was finding lost dogs and wedding rings and now he's fighting some cosmic battle as a demi-god character. After the last 3 books I hope the next one brings him back down to Earth a little.

Lenardo · Mar 13, 2013

The kicker with the whole detective thing in the last books was...

he wasn't really just doing the lost dogs thing...he was fighting the pawns and minions of the "big guys"
spoilerized for those offended that i spoilerized some things...

stormfront- murder mystery but ends up with evil drug dealling warlock peddling "third eye"- never found out WHO gave the guy the recipe for third eye

fool's moon- starts out murder mystery - ends up with werewolves- dresden never found out who gave the fbi guys the belts
grave peril- vampire war starts/sidhe/nightmare dude-introducing some baddies we meet later on

summer knight- starts off with a murder mystery & missing person case ends up harry stops a sidhe war by killing the summer lady -meets MAB..who WANTS him to be the Winter Knight...THE major bad guy introduced here...yet we do not know it until this last book

death masks- introduces the denarians, case starts with a stolen object, ends up with harry getting one of the coins, getting the shroud of turin back(stolen item) getting one of the 3 swords of the knights in care....& stopping a plague.

blood rights- we meet mouse- white court vampires where harry discovers his mothers death curse, discovers that thomas is brother, sets up lara as the kingpin of white court.

dead beat- starts off as a blackmail case vs karrin- ends up with harry stopping the creation of a demigod- harry animates a TREX(coolest fucking thing he has done in imo) becomes a warden, meets his boss, KILLS his boss (her soul got exchanged) meets...the denarian shadow in his mind-LASH - meets cowl for first time(gets his ass kicked by cowl)

proven guilty- murder case via magic @splatter con- ends up with harry facing down the entire white council & becoming the master of molly, who has the hots for harry- molly getting kidnapped by - someone-denarians/black council we think- taken to mabs stronghold, harry invades with the help of summer lady- and gets ALL of winter pissed at him because of it..

white night- murder mystery- ends up with harry saving lara's life when cowl shows at a duel- lash "dies" protecting harry's mind. lara finds out that him and susan is/was true love and its been 3 YEARS since harry had been touched by a woman (hilarious scene) plot was to kill the female humans with magical ability to breed it OUT of humans eventually.

need i go on, while the cases started "small" they were not, it was harry working his way to and up the totem pole.

dead beat is still one of my favorites in the series...the reaction by luccio & co to harry's Ride...

Keriath · Mar 14, 2013

Seems have a few bit of people that are picking these up and reading them, should prolly spoiler that for those that haven't read them yet.

moonarchia · Mar 14, 2013

Keriath_sl said:
Seems have a few bit of people that are picking these up and reading them, should prolly spoiler that for those that haven't read them yet.

The books have been out for years and over a decade in some cases. People should whine less about spoilers and read the fucking books instead.

Selix · Mar 15, 2013

Lenardo_sl said:
SPOILER ALER

Dude I've read all the books but should this be spoilered? Maybe it's already been said in the thread already but... You know...

Commander Vimeseh_sl · Mar 15, 2013

Two posts above yours and the appropriate response to the concern in the post above yours.

Keriath · Mar 15, 2013

Moonarchia_sl said:
The books have been out for years and over a decade in some cases. People should whine less about spoilers and read the fucking books instead.

I agree with you completely and give friends shit when they still to do this day ask me not to talk about the last season of the Shield. But it also isn't such a bad idea to not be a complete ass hole to people that are just picking them up and reading them for the first time.

Dresden Files

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