Favorite Character Challenge for fandomverse
fandomverse challenge #4 Favorite Character
This is a hard challenge; there are so many characters I love and a for myriad of reasons. I wavered between Sparhawk (David Eddings, The Elenium/Tamuli), Jack O’Neill (Stargate) and Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher) for a bit but in the end Harry won out. Not because I favor him more than the other two, but because he is the only one whose character is still evolving. Stargate was canceled, Jack being peripheral part of the show after 05 and Sparhawk’s character arc was completed in the early 90’s. Ghost Story, the newest Dresden book comes out in July.
So that was the process, now onto the reasons. Be warned there will be spoilers for all 12 books, and side stories.
1. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden will not only save you, but he will teach you how to save yourself.
Harry is a wizard, a detective, eventually a warden and all around badass. If you need saving from anything Supernatural he is your guy but even better he will show things that keep you alive. When he met Waldo Butters the man was a polka obsessed coward being chased after by Necromancers and their zombie armies. He showed Butters how to create a shield to protect him from magic, which not only protected him but instilled him with confidence. By the end of that particular book Butters is helping Harry defeat the army of zombies, using his polka obsession (in this verse Zombies are animated and controlled through a beat) and in later books he is still using that knowledge.
"I know how you feel," I said. "You run into something you totally don't get, and it's scary as hell. But once you learn something about it, it gets easier to handle. Knowledge counters fear. It always has." Dead Beat (book 7)
2. Harry is a BAMF.
If you are evil, if you are hurting humans Harry doesn’t care what you are, who you work for, who works for you or how many of you there are he will put you down. The aforementioned Necromancers and their army of Zombies, plus rouge wizards, fallen angels, fairy queens and their associates, armies of vampires (there are three kinds currently being dealt with Black, Red and White), loup-garou, hexenwolves and whatever else is thrown at him.
In the most recent book Changes (book 12), Harry literally wiped out the entire faction of Red Court vampires. Tens of Thousands of them wiped out through a bloodline curse that they had intended to use on him and his family. He ended the war that he started.
“The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.
I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled, 'Fuck subtle.' Changes (book 12)
3. He will use whatever means necessary to get the job done.
The Summer Lady decided to end the power imbalance between Summer and Winter, a decision that would have had an apocalyptic effect on the weather in the human word. Harry had help from a human cop, Karrin Murphy, college students who are also werewolves, and a tiny army of pizza loving pixies.
In Dead Beat (book 7), when faced with a horde of zombies and the possible end of the world he uses Necromancy, which is forbidden, on Sue the T-Rex. He gets away with it because Sue wasn't a human.
He also has an Air elemental ( a spirit of intellect) he dubbed Bob. Harry’s former guardian Justin DuMorne once owned ‘Bob’ but he was a traitor to the White Council (the wizard’s ruling body) and Bob was thought to have been destroyed. Harry continually hides the fact he has Bob from everyone unnecessary, including his own apprentice.
"Harry," she said quietly, "I know you must be angry."
“I burn things to ash and smash holes in buildings when I'm angry," I said. "I'm a couple of steps past that point right now." - Changes (book 12)
4. His brother is a monster, but he loves him anyway.
When meet Thomas Raith, a White Court Vampire (Incubus), in Grave Peril (book 3) Harry knows what he is but not who. They manage to form an odd sort of friendship anyways. In Blood Rites (book 6), Thomas tells Harry they shared a mother (Margret LeFay) and that changes everything. Since they’ve shared Harry’s apartment, helped each other out, fought, and generally been like brothers from that moment on. Thomas fought his nature for quite awhile, but loses the battle after being captures and tortured while working on a case with Harry and this still doesn’t shake Harry’s love for him. For Harry, who was raised an orphan, Thomas is everything.
" 'Christ, Dresden! You almost got me killed!'
'Don't be a baby. You're fine.'
Thomas frowned at me. 'You at least could have told me!'
'I did tell you,' I said. 'I told you at Mac's that I'd give you a ride home, but that I had to run an errand first.'
Thomas scowled. 'An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo.' " Blood Rites (book 6)
5. Harry has a sense of humor and is all around awesome.
He went to a Vampire Party dressed as Dracula, a party where he received the gift of a headstone that says “Harry Dresden - He died doing the right thing.”. (Grave Peril, book 3)
When he acquired a tiny, grey fluff ball of a dog, which turned out to be a Temple Foo Dog, he names him Mouse. Harry later refers to him as a cross between a chow, a woolly mammoth, and a "West Highland Dogosaurus."
He has a 30 pound bobtailed cat named Mister.
He buys Bob cheesy romance novels and dirty magazines to keep him happy.
Donar Vadderung, who is really Odin, likes and respects him.
He rides bitch on Karrin Murphy’s bike and likes it.
His idea of swearing is "Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells." Proven Guilty (Book 8)
He is snarky in the face of danger. "That’s the problem with you nearly immortal types,” I said. “You couldn’t spot a pop culture reference if it skittered up and implanted an embryo down your esophagus." ( Small Favor, book 10) Or he and his cohorts argue about what characters they are in the Lord of the Rings books (link to long quote).
Odin sums Harry up nicely in a conversation they have in Changes (book 12) “They say you can know a man by his enemies, Dresden. You defy beings that should cow you into silence. You resist forces that are inevitable for no more reason that you believe they should be resisted. You bow your head to neither demons nor angels, and you put yourself in harm’s way to defend those who cannot defend themselves.” Harry is a Big Damn Hero and I love him for it.
This is a hard challenge; there are so many characters I love and a for myriad of reasons. I wavered between Sparhawk (David Eddings, The Elenium/Tamuli), Jack O’Neill (Stargate) and Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher) for a bit but in the end Harry won out. Not because I favor him more than the other two, but because he is the only one whose character is still evolving. Stargate was canceled, Jack being peripheral part of the show after 05 and Sparhawk’s character arc was completed in the early 90’s. Ghost Story, the newest Dresden book comes out in July.
So that was the process, now onto the reasons. Be warned there will be spoilers for all 12 books, and side stories.
1. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden will not only save you, but he will teach you how to save yourself.
Harry is a wizard, a detective, eventually a warden and all around badass. If you need saving from anything Supernatural he is your guy but even better he will show things that keep you alive. When he met Waldo Butters the man was a polka obsessed coward being chased after by Necromancers and their zombie armies. He showed Butters how to create a shield to protect him from magic, which not only protected him but instilled him with confidence. By the end of that particular book Butters is helping Harry defeat the army of zombies, using his polka obsession (in this verse Zombies are animated and controlled through a beat) and in later books he is still using that knowledge.
"I know how you feel," I said. "You run into something you totally don't get, and it's scary as hell. But once you learn something about it, it gets easier to handle. Knowledge counters fear. It always has." Dead Beat (book 7)
2. Harry is a BAMF.
If you are evil, if you are hurting humans Harry doesn’t care what you are, who you work for, who works for you or how many of you there are he will put you down. The aforementioned Necromancers and their army of Zombies, plus rouge wizards, fallen angels, fairy queens and their associates, armies of vampires (there are three kinds currently being dealt with Black, Red and White), loup-garou, hexenwolves and whatever else is thrown at him.
In the most recent book Changes (book 12), Harry literally wiped out the entire faction of Red Court vampires. Tens of Thousands of them wiped out through a bloodline curse that they had intended to use on him and his family. He ended the war that he started.
“The man once wrote: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. Tolkien had that one mostly right.
I stepped forward, let the door bang closed, and snarled, 'Fuck subtle.' Changes (book 12)
3. He will use whatever means necessary to get the job done.
The Summer Lady decided to end the power imbalance between Summer and Winter, a decision that would have had an apocalyptic effect on the weather in the human word. Harry had help from a human cop, Karrin Murphy, college students who are also werewolves, and a tiny army of pizza loving pixies.
In Dead Beat (book 7), when faced with a horde of zombies and the possible end of the world he uses Necromancy, which is forbidden, on Sue the T-Rex. He gets away with it because Sue wasn't a human.
He also has an Air elemental ( a spirit of intellect) he dubbed Bob. Harry’s former guardian Justin DuMorne once owned ‘Bob’ but he was a traitor to the White Council (the wizard’s ruling body) and Bob was thought to have been destroyed. Harry continually hides the fact he has Bob from everyone unnecessary, including his own apprentice.
"Harry," she said quietly, "I know you must be angry."
“I burn things to ash and smash holes in buildings when I'm angry," I said. "I'm a couple of steps past that point right now." - Changes (book 12)
4. His brother is a monster, but he loves him anyway.
When meet Thomas Raith, a White Court Vampire (Incubus), in Grave Peril (book 3) Harry knows what he is but not who. They manage to form an odd sort of friendship anyways. In Blood Rites (book 6), Thomas tells Harry they shared a mother (Margret LeFay) and that changes everything. Since they’ve shared Harry’s apartment, helped each other out, fought, and generally been like brothers from that moment on. Thomas fought his nature for quite awhile, but loses the battle after being captures and tortured while working on a case with Harry and this still doesn’t shake Harry’s love for him. For Harry, who was raised an orphan, Thomas is everything.
" 'Christ, Dresden! You almost got me killed!'
'Don't be a baby. You're fine.'
Thomas frowned at me. 'You at least could have told me!'
'I did tell you,' I said. 'I told you at Mac's that I'd give you a ride home, but that I had to run an errand first.'
Thomas scowled. 'An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo.' " Blood Rites (book 6)
5. Harry has a sense of humor and is all around awesome.
He went to a Vampire Party dressed as Dracula, a party where he received the gift of a headstone that says “Harry Dresden - He died doing the right thing.”. (Grave Peril, book 3)
When he acquired a tiny, grey fluff ball of a dog, which turned out to be a Temple Foo Dog, he names him Mouse. Harry later refers to him as a cross between a chow, a woolly mammoth, and a "West Highland Dogosaurus."
He has a 30 pound bobtailed cat named Mister.
He buys Bob cheesy romance novels and dirty magazines to keep him happy.
Donar Vadderung, who is really Odin, likes and respects him.
He rides bitch on Karrin Murphy’s bike and likes it.
His idea of swearing is "Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells." Proven Guilty (Book 8)
He is snarky in the face of danger. "That’s the problem with you nearly immortal types,” I said. “You couldn’t spot a pop culture reference if it skittered up and implanted an embryo down your esophagus." ( Small Favor, book 10) Or he and his cohorts argue about what characters they are in the Lord of the Rings books (link to long quote).
Odin sums Harry up nicely in a conversation they have in Changes (book 12) “They say you can know a man by his enemies, Dresden. You defy beings that should cow you into silence. You resist forces that are inevitable for no more reason that you believe they should be resisted. You bow your head to neither demons nor angels, and you put yourself in harm’s way to defend those who cannot defend themselves.” Harry is a Big Damn Hero and I love him for it.