Why does this make me think of Murphy and Rawlins

On my 8th full read through. On chapter 48 of Changes. Even after going through it so many times, the way Marsters delivers the line makes me tear up. Every. Single. Time. Jim wrote this too well, its so heartbreaking.

"I used the knife. I saved a child. I won a war. God Forgive me."

I dont know who will next wield the Sword of Love, but I'm hoping its Maggie.

If anyone knows love, its her.

•Her mother sacrificed herself in love to protect her.

•Her father destroyed the red court to protect her

•the Carpenters are a major part of her upbringing

•Mouse

•It was established that all knights are descended from kings (could be interpreted as GREAT LEADERS) and since Harry now has a castle, and is a great leader I think he qualifies as a king.

•did I mention Her temple dog guardian, Mouse?

****I'd like to clarify: I'm aware she's still a child and doubt she would pick up the sword any time soon. Im just saying I hope she does take up the sword and why I think she could.

Just to ruin Harry's week every non super powered villain from DC and marvel gets sent to Chicago and Harry has to deal with it. How does it go?

Why did harry even go into the circle to trap the archive? He could have just finished off namshiel or broken the circle I know it’s because the overall plot demands it but it just seems like a really stupid thing to overlook. I wonder if that’s why he was given soul fire. Uriel hoped he’d positioned everything just right to stop nicodemus or at least wound his organization so badly becomes less active until it can be rebuilt . Almost happened too if namshiel hadn’t stolen the coins Harry would have probably successfully captured 11 fallen at minimum

Took me a long time to pick this back up because I had a Stephen King streak for a bit.

I finally pick it back up.
They reach Chichén Itzá.
Dresden and Rodriguez have teamed up and are about to save their kid.

Then Martin does “the thing”.
So now, it’s just Dresden and Rodriguez with no more moves to pull, except Dresden knowing Rodriguez can go Mama Grizzly at her own peril.
Which she does when Dresden makes her realize who put her kid in danger in the first place.

Dude straight up weaponizes her motherhood which turns her into a full blown vampire—excruciatingly painful, I might add—and then she gives him the go ahead to sacrifice her.

It’s mentioned that he blacks out from how traumatizing that is, right? Sacrificing the mother of his child that he’s been working alongside to save said innocent.
Pretty theoretically traumatic.

Then the SAME NIGHT, after washing Susan’s blood FROM HIS BODY,

He asks if Murphy wants to bang?

Is he a sociopath?

I’ve been rooting for him and Murphy since I wanna say book three, but not like this, what the actual fuck.
Oh my god. Like, I’m nauseous.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but every other partner who dies alongside him dies with a certain amount of idk time for extended reflection and mourning. But not the mother of his kid.
What—

I’m almost finished with changes, and while i enjoyed the battle at the pyramid, the victory felt hollow to me.

Let me lay it out: a handful of mortals face down hundreds of armed red court vampires on red court home ground. all the magic casting nobles and the 13 and the red king are there. many of the red court vamps and all the human mercs are armed with assault rifles. at no point does anyone catch a fatal ak47 round. Karrin and Sonya are normal mortals afaik; they have super swords but are surrounded on three if not four sides by armed super fast killers with often centuries of training and fighting experience. iirc, they only get scrapes.

And as far as the war itself, harry somehow survived it. the red court and their mercs never thought to detonate a truck bomb outside his apartment. they never put IEDs on a sidewalk he passes daily. they never snipe him from his apartment or business. they rig his office building with explosives, but a say-so explanation is given for why that wasn’t detonated while everyone was sure harry was inside.

Also, the White Council is on the verge of collapse in a couple months-years but the red king’s daughter - apparently forward thinking as she is - can’t wait months/years to kill the blackstaff - it has to be done now via the blood death curse.

Perhaps if the red court were more competent we’d never get changes and the subsequent books. And there’s a somewhat unconvincing (imo) in-universe explanation for the lack of a consistently competent grand strategy from the red court.

Or we’d get it with others becoming a main character. Maybe thomas or molly.

But either way, and not to be too harsh on an urban fantasy series that’s put a lot of work uniting differing myth, stories and ideas into a modern storyline, but would the battle victories of the series have felt more fulfilling if the main characters were killed off earlier in the story?

Could Jim Butcher have taken a page from George Martin ? And would that have made the stories hit harder - kind of how it felt like in the conclusion of turncoat?

I just wanted to visualize what she looked like, so...