Like the Red Court?

 

Not exactly what I mean, the Red Court's end marked the end of an entire faction that Harry dealt with, yes, but it lacks the personal touch of an ongoing one-on-one conflict.
(Not to say the Court's end wasn't very personal to Harry, just in a different way.)

Basically any Main Nemesis (i.e. someone that falls under Big Bad status, not a random mook like Madigral Raith) that Harry has met either died/were thoroughly and irredeemably incapacitated in their first book appearance: Lord Raith, the Red King, Arianna (though she was mentioned before, in passing), Victor, the Nightmare, Lilly, etc.
Or they've survived and faced him several times and never die: Lara, Nico, Mab, Cowl, and others.
There's just a huge satisfaction of seeing one of those types of characters getting put down after escaping several times, so I'm hoping Butcher offs one soon.

The only one that could be said to kinda count is Bianca, but that was back in book 3 after two appearances...and I gotta say it wasn't one of my favorites, so it's hard to include it. Not to mention her whole villanous hatred for Harry seemed out of nowhere.
"Hey, remember that one vampire Harry saw for about a chapter back in book one? Yeah, she hates his guts so horrendously that here's her big plan she put together to kill him, because he shamed her in a private setting and then offered to find her worker's murderer."
...Wut.
I like the early books, but some aspects are best overlooked.

...And, I guess, you can also sort of count Corpsetaker. Depends on how technical you want to be in the issue of ghost vs actual person, and whether you count him as the Big Bad (I don't, really).

Finally, not saying Harry should be killing off all his nemesis left and right, that'd leave him with no interesting foils, but a few selected ones that you took the time to build up the hatred for across books and see him finally get put down in a Dresden-fashion? You can't tell me you wouldn't love the climax after that level of build-up.
And right now, Nico seems to be pretty well primed for it.

tl;dr: Faceless factions don't carry the same specific weight (though they are really hated too), a recurring face that we've seen and hated for several books getting decisively dealt with is the personal satisfaction I'm talking about.

 

My bets for the book after next being about Mavra and Drakul. Harry will off her.

 

My bets are on Mavra making it to the very end then dying sparking off the Apocalypse.

 

I feel that more Nico/Cowl appropriate.

Not that Nico and Cowl are the same person. That one of them will die,

 

^Basically my thoughts.

Something I'd find particularly hilarious if it's suddenly revealed that one of these HAS been killed by someone else 'off-screen'.
Harry: ...but... ...it's MY thing.

 

Mab is not a villain, much less a big bad. Mab just is. She is a necessary force, neither good nor evil. She provides balance with Titania. Also, Mab is so far outside Dresden's league, which had been acknowledged repeatedly, that she doesn't really qualify. No one that you just mentioned even approaches her level of power.

But I agree with your point. Those people you mentioned, with the exception of Lara which I don't foresee being a major villain, and a few others were set up to be big bads years ago when Dresden was young, foolish, and powerful enough to be an annoyance.

Those days are over with. Harry Dresden is a major player in the supernatural community at this point. Winter knight, guardian of demonreach, Warden, keeper of the swords of the cross, sometimes agent of Uriel, wielded of soul fire; Dresden has graduated from powerful annoyance to a significant figure due to what he is and what he has done. And unlike his younger days, he understands far more of the world around him. He is capable of throwing down with Nico, Cowl, Mavra, and others.

 

I wouldn´t go that far. Harry is powerful sure but quite a lot of his current powers are burrowed. We have seen that the whole WK is by no means set in stone, he somehow lost the guardianship of the swords (in one of my my most hated Murphy scenes) and Demonreach doesn´t offer that much power outside of the island.
Like any other wizard he is nearly unbeatable if given time to prepare but how often has /does he that?

And for all his added understanding he still seems to prefer the brutish and simple methods of his youth.

 

I just want to see what he can do post Cold Days with preperation, everything in Cold Day's was completely balls to the wall. When he makes new tools with his additional decade of experience, that'l make him a scary fucker.

 

I dont think he will make many tools, it seems that the older, better wizards dont use many tools.

Tools seem to work as a crutch for young wizards.

The Merlin, supposedly the greatest wizard alive, has a plain white staff, and a bodiler with potions, and that was his war gear, McCoy has his two staffs, one almost identical to Harrys, the other the Black Staff, and thats it. When he escaped from a Red Ambush in Proven Guilty he just had his staff and overalls.

Its only young wizards we see kitted out with loads of tools. Elaine, Harry, a few Wardens. The only tool we have really seen experienced Wizards use are staffs and the Warden Swords.

 

He also has at least one enchanted ring and something like Harry's duster.

 

And the Merlin had a combat wand in Changes. Sides, more tools makes for more interesting reading.

 

Jim said in an interview who Harry is taking to watch his back.

Spoiler tags for spoiler:

Spoiler

Murphy

Link

 

Hnnnnnnnnnnn.

 

Dont want to say to much outside of spoilers. But was hoping for someone else.

 

Yeah. Reading Butcher's rationale for the choice makes it a bit better, but I was still hoping for someone else.

 

You guys seriously didn't know? I've had that interview bookmarked for months.

 

... seriously?

Spoiler

Hopefully this will be the one where Murphy finally gets knocked off. Really, a plain vanilla human running around a load of serious supernatural bad guys should not have lasted this long.

 

I'd bet money on that it is going to be, Taure.

 

Considering that

Spoiler

it is confirmed that the sword of faith will be getting a new wielder in this book I wouldn't bet on Murphy dying just yet.