Talk:Harry Dresden

hockey stick

Why does he carry around the hockey stick? Chris 05:30, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

He uses it as his magic staff. Kishi 06:32, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

only in the tv series Shinigami Josh 12:33, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

He carries it around in the TV series because a hockey stick is far less noticeable than a rune-covered Staff, especially in Chicago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.161.5.70 (talk) 22:48, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Hockey Stick???

In the books, he doesn't carry a hockey stick -- he carries a wizard's staff, and sometimes a blasting rod! Frau Budgie (talk) 22:40, 26 March 2008 (UTC)Frau Budgie

Death Curse

should it really gon on about it much at all? it comes down to it ALL people die alone, witch makes it a retty bad death curseShinigami Josh 12:33, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Novelettes and Short Stories

What about them? We have the following already published:

• Something Borrowed
• It's My Birthday, Too
• Heorot

And also coming:

• Harry's Day Off
• Untitled (Harry Dresden short story)
• The Warrior

Can they be included in this page too?

--Chemical Rage (talk) 22:34, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, please list them properly, and the source books they come from, could someone? --Ael—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.81.136.236 (talk • contribs)

Storm Front

the summary of Dresden's fictional biography in Storm Front isn't well done. It pays a lot of attention to things that only get a sentence or two in the book, (Elaine for example, isn't even mentioned BY NAME in Storm Front) and almost no attention at all to the books main plot, things we learn about Harry, or a what characters he does meet. The main plot of the story is almost mentioned as an afterword. This needs to be TOTALLY re-done. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.222.33.146 (talk) 15:21, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, added Demonreach to the CHaracters page of the wiki

But it's not linking from the Harry Dresden page. Sorry. --Ael—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.81.136.236 (talk • contribs)

Soulgazes

from article:
"a young wizard who shared a soulgaze said that Harry was gentle, kind, and alone."
Who was this?

Potter reference

Invalid since the manuscript was created in 1996 as a writing exercise. Should be noted as a coincidence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.136.147.221 (talk) 19:29, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Spoilers?

The character bio is full of spoilers from the most recent book. That seems a little bit unfortunate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.161.5.70 (talk) 22:49, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Maybe, but then there's WP:SPOIL. Besides, Changes has been out for 3 months now. :) Deafgeek (talk) 18:10, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Removed the spoiler tag as this is an encyclopedia and the novel has been out long enough to not warrant a warning. Ryokashi (talk) 01:26, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

In the description for the Grave Peril novel the line "During this novel, Harry's girlfriend is taken from him and turned into a half-vampire." is a pretty big spoiler but otherwise adds very little to the description of the novel. I'm not a usual contributor to this page but I'd appreciate a regular editor taking a look and deciding if it's appropriate. 69.174.58.204 (talk) 20:46, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

The novel has been out for a good many years. Little or nothing to spoil. MinorStoop (talk) 21:07, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Not everyone reads the novels as they come out and a lot of people come to these kinds of pages explicitly because they haven't read all of the books and are looking for more info. Voiceofreason01 (talk) 19:19, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Guys, WP:SPOIL is pretty clear. Wikipedia is about information. Not including information because someone might not want it is petty much the opposite of what we're trying to do here. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 21:10, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Useless article

This is not a fan wiki, this is Wikipedia, an encyclopedia project. Merge the important information to The Dresden Files and get otherwisely rid of this "article". --91.97.75.115 (talk) 19:04, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia has established that primary characters in popular series are worthy of their own article. See: Harry Potter (character), Luke Skywalker, James T. Kirk, or Alaric Morgan (Gwynedd) for examples. SeanNovack (talk) 00:21, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

If anything the merger should be the other way round - b Butcher himself has said that the TV series is a different story — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.29.111.98 (talk) 16:44, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Dresden's religious beliefs

Pay this no mind, as I just found out that he had joked about being Theological Switzerland, because ve qctually do not have any specific believe whatsoever. So while it seems like he's a wiccan, it is not something he practices, so it's more coincidence that some aspects seem to overlap.

I have been pondering over the issue that the instigatted religion is incorrect. I believe a religion such as wiccan is a better assumption. Dresden himself say he has no outright belief in anything concerning a specific deity or god. He does however, believe in the five basic elements air, earth, fire, spirit and water. Besides that magic itself works on the principle that it is a tool to help others and an expression of your and believe, it is never the solution. All this points toward a pagan religion rather than a christian religion, which according to my research theological Switzerland(swiss) is. Any sources on the currently claimed religion being the most likely? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.56.197.26 (talk) 11:02, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

He is no wiccan. He is simply not religious. He is aware of the validity of Christianity since the context includes Knights of the Swords of the Cross, the 30 fallen angels bound to the 30 coins of Judas (denarius), and his interaction with angels (ex. Uriel) and fallen angels (ex. Lasciel). He also has interacted with at least one other god (Odin). But he does not practice any religion. SunSw0rd (talk) 02:42, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Well, you forget Dresden's interactions with the Archangel Uriel who tells him about the reality of the soul and its judgement after death. Non-denominationally, of course. But I wouldn't discount the "Theological Switzerland" bit - *I* remember it as statement of intent: Dresden does not care about following any religion because they all get something about reality right and something wrong. Ngebendi (talk) 11:05, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

The problem with this is twofold. (And first, I did not discount Uriel, reread my note). Problem one -- you can't find a good definition of "theological Switzerland" on the web -- not as a definition, not as a wikipedia article. Problem two -- the quote comes from Jim Butcher -- the author -- describing himself. Not as a statement about the character Harry Dresden. So I don't agree that the phrase is applicable to Harry. However I do agree with your perspective on Dresden and why he does not follow any particular religion. That is why I feel his religion is most accurately described as "None". SunSw0rd (talk) 16:17, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I overlooked the interaction with angelic entities - my fault. But why should you find a definition of theological Switzerland on the 'net? As far as I can tell, it's Butcher's, and, judging by Goodreads, its first appearance is in Death Mask. I'm gonna reread the book, anyway. Ngebendi (talk) 19:55, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

As long as you can't provide any sources, this discussion is senseless. 84.152.58.40 (talk) 16:26, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

List of Novels

Is it me, or should the list of his appearances in the novels subsection be trimmed down significantly? The entries seem to be duplicating plot summaries that already exist on the novels' pages. I think that they could stand to be trimmed down to a one or two sentence summary. For example:

Storm Front

Harry is introduced as a wizard and a private investigator working in Chicago. He finds himself drawn into the case of an evil sorcerer who is murdering people with black magic.

Fool Moon

Harry is once again drawn into a police case; grisly murders committed by what seems to be a werewolf.

etc, etc. I really think it should be done, but I want to give it a few days to see if anyone disagrees first. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 21:49, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

I just made the edit, since no-one seemed to want to argue. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 19:01, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Drops Things

I think the article might mention that Harry has an unfortunate tendency to drop whatever is in his hand, whether it is his blasting rod, his staff or a firearm, at an important point in a fight. This is not a unique trope and one can see the reason that writers use it but it is extremely common with Harry. 65.79.173.135 (talk) 14:15, 28 May 2014 (UTC)Will in New Haven65.79.173.135 (talk) 14:15, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

I think that falls under the overall archetype of Harry. It would be out of character for him to not drop things constantly, and so, probably doesn't need a specific mention.

That being said, it does contribute to an encyclopedic description of him. If you wanted to add an overview section that gave a good, concise description of his character and style without duplicating information mentioned elsewhere (which would most likely require an extensive overhaul of the article), I could see it going in there. As the article stands, I just don't know where you could put it where it wouldn't stick out. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 16:45, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Items from the vault

I'd like to add that linking the items found in the vault to existing wikipedia pages is premature. Harry himself has not discovered what the items are or do and unless Jim Butcher has made announcements (which I doubt) the links should be removed. ‎157.203.176.132 (talk) 07:40, February 9, 2016‎ (UTC)

They were pretty strongly implied to be the items linked to. In addition, it was all but stated categorically that they were important religious artifacts having to do with Jesus, which really narrows down the list of possibilities. I think it's safe for now. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 13:39, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

HELP (clean this place up)

As many people may or may not have noticed the entire article doesn't very well conform to wikipedia standards as there is little citation and the tone on many of the lower areas is less that clinical, I originally intended to try and fix this but i don't have the patience or the in-depth knowledge of either the Book or TV-verse to do this. No offense to any contributors so far as you have done far more than I but the tone currently comes off as verging on Fan-girl/boy-ish and that ought to be changed. TLDR: Someone bring this up to standards please, I'm a lazy bastard and don't want to do all the research myself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.14.218.55 (talk) 14:37, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

Given that this is a page about a fictional character, most of the citations would be to the books that character appears in, and generally don't need to be called out (if a reader can't figure out that info about a fictional character is from the works they appear in, they have bigger problems than the quality of a WP article). Other than that, I'll take a look through the page, see if I can't tweak the language to be more neutral. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 12:56, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

I went over a lot of the article and made some changes (I pruned up the mundane skills section considerably). While I appreciate your concerns, I have to say that I don't really share them. Much of the prose is written in quite neutral tones. I believe the focus on describing his skills, abilities and talents might be the 'fanboy' like material you referred to, but as a fictional character in a series built upon confrontation, it would not be possible to have an objective article about him that did not focus on such things. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 14:59, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

Harry Dresden depiction

@TechBear: 1) With the cover art from 16 books, why White Night's? this is, however, a side issue. Cover art is cover art, a graphic designer's interpretation, not the author's depiction, which is written copy and trumps whichever concept a cover artist may have.

2) Paul Blackthorne plays Harry Dresden in the tv series, which is most definitely not the written series.

Both elements fit better their own page, which is White Night and The Dresden Files (TV series) respectively.

79.43.19.105 (talk) 19:37, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

Authors very, very rarely do their own art. If we abide by this standard, then pretty much every novel cover in the entire Wikipedia will need to be removed. If you want to use a different cover -- the most recent available is most commonly used -- I'm cool with that. But you need a better argument than "the author did not do the art" to remove it. TechBear | Talk | Contributions

I'll have you notice that an article on Harry Dresden, fictional character, is definitely _not_ an article on Dresden Files, a book series. Whithe Night cover is are out of place on this place. 79.43.19.105 (talk) 00:20, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

I'm 100% with TechBear here. No-where is it written that a fictional character can only be attributed to one individual, and the truth is that the vast majority of fictional characters on WP were created by multiple people. The (only) actor to have portrayed a character has contributed and deserves mention. Even if we acknowledge the distinction between the book character and the TV series character, this article is about both. The cover artist has contributed by creating artwork that has been (publicly, frequently, and lavishly) praised and acknowledged by the author. Finally, the distinction between the book series about the character and the character himself is a real one, but one that in no way supports the argument that the book covers are inappropriately used here. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 20:06, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes, this is an article about the fictional character, Harry Dresden. That means we cannot use a photograph or publicity image to depict him. So, we do as has been done in thousands of other articles about fictional characters, and use an artist's impression. In this case, an impression that appeared on the cover of a book featuring said fictional character which, at this point in the author's career in the series, is reasonably safe to assume the author has approved. Alternatively, we can use an image drawn from one of the comic book adaptations of the novels, or a picture of the actor who portrayed the character in the TV show. All of these have been deemed acceptable ways of depicting a fictional character in other articles. I'm still not sure why this particular article should be treated differently. TechBear | Talk | Contributions

Deleted template

@Kolbasz: I deleted the refimprove template because this is an article about a fictional character: descriptive information about him unambiguously comes from the referenced source material, similar to a book plot. This is an acceptable use of primary sources. I'm not strongly opposed to adding cite notes to those sources (identifying from which books the statements are derived), but I think it might take some convincing to get me to support it. It seems like a lot of work for little to no gain.

As to the other template, I took a look at the article and have to agree with it. I'll see what I can do about trimming it down tomorrow. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 04:29, 11 August 2016 (UTC)