I'm so stresseddddd lately but dressing him up like a doll keeps me sane 💀

Ha ha ha !

Nickleheads, Knights, and Harry's Half-Vampire Ex-Girlfriend

We were introduced to Michael Carptenter as a Knight of the Cross back in Grave Peril, but this is where we really get a good sense of the Knights as an organization within the Catholic Church, and it's where we learn about who they're there to...save, strictly speaking, if possible, but let's be real. They kill Denarians to try to keep cursed silver bits off the streets. This is going to be relevant literally for the rest of the series as far as anyone knows. Oh and also, somebody stole the Shroud of Turin and Harry's half-vampire ex-girlfriend is in town. Let's talk Death Masks.

Spoilers abound below the break, so head's up if you're on your first Dresden read through and don't want MASSIVE THINGS SPOILED.

Also, Content Warning for sex, blood, and violence. Take care of you first and we will catch you on the flip side if you choose to skip over this one!

You cannot say that the worldbuilding in the Dresden Files is anything but thorough, and apparently that also includes shitty daytime TV personalities, because Harry opens this book by basically having a low-key anxiety attack while trying not to take out every single piece of technology in a television studio during a "debate" between himself, Mort Lindquist, and Paolo Ortega. It's literally the opening to a bad joke: A medium, a vampire, and a wizard walk into a TV studio to discuss whether paranormal creatures and beings are real.

Unfortunately, our vamp also takes the time to challenge the Wizard to a duel, which the White Court is all too happy to accept as a way out of the war that Harry started. To complicate matters further, the Shroud of Turin has been stolen and the Knights of the Cross, Denarians, and Susan are in town, so Harry isn't having a terribly good week. And then he also has to stop Nicodemus from beginning a plague.

Honestly, so many things about this book ANNOY me. Listicles were, at one time, popular on the interwebz, so let's go old school here with the irksome stuff.

Kinky Vampire Sex As a Lifesaving Measure. All right. I get that vampires being sex coded isn't new; from early works like the Vampyre to iconic classics like Carmilla and Dracula to modern reimaginings like Interview with a Vampire and Twilight, vampires have been sex coded. I think what irritates me about this example is the framing. Like, we can't just have "my girlfriend is half vampire and we have kinky, mind-blowing vampire sex," no. We have to have "My control is slipping and I will literally murder you if you don't...*checks notes*...tie me up like a hog for slaughter and sex the evil vampiric tendencies out of me." Like...IT'S A FLESHY BUNDLE OF NERVES, NOT A MAGIC WAND. CAN WE PLEASE NOT FRAME THIS AS "HARRY DRESDEN'S MAGICAL ANTI-VAMPIRE PENIS"????? And just to clarify: I'm not out here to kink shame anyone. My objection is to the hypermasculinity and toxic masculinity of the framing of this sex scene. We can still have kinky vampire sex, but maybe let's have it be enthusiastic and fun rather than "If we don't bang right now, one or both of us is going to die." There is an element of coercion there than I don't love, especially not when the author then also frames it as "my dick literally saved my girlfriend's life." If you want kinky monster sex, the just have kinky monster sex. Don't make it weird.

Heroic Sacrifice Is Fine Because I Had Terminal Cancer Anyway. Hello Ableism, My Old Friend. The trope that a chronically ill, terminally ill, or disabled character dies to save an able-bodied character is inherently ableist, full stop. It straight out SAYS that the able-bodied life we have saved is more valuable than the disabled life we lost. And not only does Butcher have Shiro pull this, we get a back-dated letter at the end from Shiro to Harry going, "Hey, I knew I was dying and I hope that makes you feel better about me being horribly tortured to death on your behalf. Dressing up what is essentially a "bury your disabled" trope in a heroic sacrifice does not make it less ableist and shitty. (For those of you who want more on disability tropes and why they're ableist, I have written a literal book on it, and also please see this TV Tropes page.) I don't have a lot to actually SAY about this one, other than endlessly screaming into the void about the blatant ableism throughout this series and wondering why the HELL I was surprised when Butcher disabled and fridged Murphy. Please join me in screaming, there will be throat coat tea afterwards.

Medical Science Failed? Let's Try Religion. I get that Marcone is as guilty as it is possible for a sociopath to be over not being able to fix a little girl's coma--and we're just going to skim over the ableism and objectification inherent in her being a literal plot point; she could be a broken lamp and this plot point still works--but my dude...SERIOUSLY??? You are Gentleman Johnny Marcone. You have the resources to get the best doctors in the world in the room, and when that doesn't work, you have the resources to get the best scientists on the problem. You even have the resources to get the best magical healers in the room if you want to. But no. You rolled religion and went for the freaking Shroud of Turin. Which would make sense for Nicodemus or any of the Denarians, but for the mobster who business-ified the mob? I suppose this does set up Marcone's slide to the Denarians later in the series, but his WHOLE THING is being the calculated businessman. I don't love this. I also don't love the history of miracle cures in religion being used to moralize illness and disability, but frankly this little piece of scene is too small to really dive into for that.

So yeah, this book is weird about sex, it's ableist, and it's weird about moralizing illness and disability. And that is so obnoxious because we don't HAVE to be weird about this stuff. Plenty of other books manage to address these topics without getting cishet white boy weird about it.

This is also the book where Harry is half tricked, half coerced into taking up Lasciel's coin, and that's a whole thing for the next several books too.

Was there stuff I liked about this book? I mean, objectively yes. Ivy--The Archive--is never not tragically delightful on the page, and the vampire duel at Wrigley Field is damn fun. I also really LIKE Sanya and Shiro on the page, they're great characters with surprising depth for secondary characters.

I will also admit to a deep love for the Denarians. As villains, they're powerful, unhinged, scary, and delightful, and the Nicklehead books are, in general, some of my favorites of the series. Skin Game and Small Favor in particular are my top two in the series.

Overall, however, Death Masks isn't one of my favorite Dresden books, and it really leans into ableist tropes that drive me up the flippin' wall.

Michael Carpenter with Harry in Death Masks, trying to keep him out of getting involved:

WOJ Knights of the Cross

WOJ

An excerpt from a comic I made a couple years ago about fishing in video games. Full comic is on my ko-fi for free (or a couple bucks if you’d like). Happy fishing!

July 18, 2008

March 20, 2020

July 21, 2023

from: @starflungwaddledee to: @post-it-notes7

message from santa: "happy holidays post-it-notes! 🎄🥳 i know you very politely only wished for a few modest things- characters high fiving, or struggling in christmas attire- but i hope you'll still enjoy this given that i kinda went the opposite direction entirely! i'm an enormous fan of your work and most times you post anything i wind up browsing your art tag from tip-to-tail in enraptured delight. as such, i thought it was only fair i give back something a little more significant in gratitude for all the joy your work has given me. i knew i wanted to do a comic, so i was thrilled you already had a whole storyverse for me to work from!! this scene seemed the most obvious choice (chapter 8 of "wishful thinking" on ao3) given that i enjoy a dramatic fight scene 😂 i tried to stick as beat-by-beat to the writing as i could and worked in as many details as possible; i hope it'll be fun to see it envisioned this way! merry christmas! ~starflung 🎀🔔 "

From this pattern: https://ko-fi.com/s/33f47e68ab

Hi :) Hi Hi Hi! Helloooo Sooooo I don't know if you do requests or not but JUST STAY WITH ME ON THIS- XD So.... what about... some Monarch Shattered Dream and Knight!Cross content ( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛) Just a suggestion XD

set them free

Monarch by @wishingstarinajar || Shattered Dream by galacii-gallery / galacii

Knight by stankychee || Cross from xtaleunderverse by jakei95

Dark wings

I can't take painkillers but drawing him works just as well

“If the only option I have is to lose you, then I would prefer death instead.”

[Kaname Kuran, Vampire Knight]

Quinlan and Aayla are the original Anakin and Ahsoka. Quinlan being Obi-Wan's age, and Aayla being seven years older than Anakin, Quinlan is only NINE years older than her. Legends Wookieepedia says he took her as his padawan when she was 10, which is patently ridiculous. Even if we age her up to a more new-canon-consistent age, that still gives us 23yo Quinlan and his 14yo padawan. Disaster duo. Terrifying gremlin pair.

Henry II the Pious departing for Legnica by Jan Matejko

Frederic William Burton (186-1900) "The Meeting on the Turret Stairs" (1864) Watercolor and gouache on paper Located in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland The painting depicts the story of Hellelil, who fell in love with her personal guard Hildebrand. The story was taken from a medieval Danish ballad translated by the painter's friend Whitley Stokes.