To be fair, not everyone who read Ghost Story would necessarily have read Aftermath, or indeed any of the short stories. As far as I could tell, very few of the short stories were widely available in the UK until shortly before Ghost Story was published, for instance.

That said, I had read it, and it did set things up nicely, although equally I personally didn't have a problem with the timeskip.

 

Back to Murphy, she still bothers me in this book. I understand where some of you are coming from, but it is still too big of a flop for her.

If you remember every time Dresden looked upon her with his sight, he say a white night, pure and innocent. In my mind, as if she were an angel.

Not only that, but her morals and values throughout all of the books. Morals don't change as easily as hers did in this book. Of coarse she's going through a alot, but all of a sudden laws and value don't matter, she doesn't care that people are being hurt by black magic, though she knows what Molly's did to harm others. She isn't fighting to help so much as to get vengence, but that goes against everything we know about her. She doesn't even want Dresden to break laws, and now all of a sudden she's trying to become Marcone.

It just doesn't make since that with all she has seen with the swords, and God, and all her past actions of ALWAYS following the law that she would then all of a sudden just change. We'll see how she acts in the next book, but I would be willing to bet that her morals and values of laws will still be intanct, and if so I'll be happy; But it won't make sense.

I also believe she won't be able to wield a sword, not after how she's acted now - but we will see. It appears to me that Butcher is trying to throw us red herrings, but gone too far. If he was going to cast Murphy as one of God's disciples who acts in the interest of the people she's fighting for, an angel among humans, that can speak with Gods voice, then how can he change her to a vigilante that cares more about a win then the price of innocent lives.

I just can't believe that vengeance and denial of Dresdens death would change her morals. If she believed Dresden was still alive, then why change personalities?

But then again OP is a dick so no need to worry about this post.

 

The thing is though, loss changes people. There is no logic or reason to it. Murphy is angry at the world because her best friend and possible lover is dead. It's a very human reaction to lash out at anything and everything after an emotional trauma/loss, and my interpretation is that's exactly what Murphy's doing. She reads like she's somewhere between the Denial and Anger stages of grief and is taking it out on everyone, including herself.

I very much expect her character in Cold Days and onwards to be more in line with what we're shown in previous books. She had accepted Dresden's death by the end of Ghost Story and will likely realize the downward spiral she was on.

 

This and the hegemony magical society/gang that took over Chicago and started killing people in Harry's absence. Combination of the two is going to knock people off their usual path.

 

Not to mention losing her job on top of all that; being a cop was a very big deal to Murphy.

 

her job was offered to her...she can get it back whenever she wants....but her morals keep her from it

 

Which means that duh, she's still not a cop anymore, as being one at the pleasure of Marconoe is, to her, the same as not being a real cop at all. Ergo, same fucking thing.

Fixed. Where of where is my Ignore List?

 

:facepalm... You do realize you just compromised you own argument by saying she still has morals- those keeping her from going back to being a cop. I haven't read Ghost Story since its release so I'm fuzzy on the details but that's poor reasoning.

 

No..I don't think that compromises my argument...because Marcone is not truly a bad guy anymore.... I'm sure most if his free time is killing supernatural now... And not dealing with incompetent thugs....

But after he offered her the job....I'm sure she didn't accept it because she could do more to help without being a cop....she of all people knows magic - and all of a sudden she's ignoring dark magic and her morals at the same time

 

God you make me face palm.

Marcone is a bad guy, he's the leader of a massive criminal enterprise. He is motivated by power, and grasping more of it. The Supernatural world is simply just another way to gather more power.

She's also not ignoring dark magic or her morals, she's refusing to work for a guy who simply doesn't share the same morals as she does.

Also, stop using so many fucking ellipses.

 

What power is he grasping when Murphy, some werewolves, and a psychic are having trouble fighting....

In GS Marcones morals are above Murphy's...

---------- Post automerged at 11:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 PM ----------

I'm sorry about my writing. I'll start opening word so what I can see more than 4 lines at a time.

The point of the matter is that ther are certain people teaching mewhati asked for, and a lot more just slamming me for my typing.

But back to the arguement.

I'm not sure you've noticed...but Dresden has never attacked Marcone...and his threats are always hypothetical, saying IF he does something. Dresden makes a lot of threats though., and most of the other threats that he doesn't act on are either to others with stronger magic or have blackmail against him. Seems like there's a reason Marcone gets different threats....but maybe I'm just a dumbass

 

In the grand scheme of things, Marcone is the "best" option. He has some degree of standards and keeps things under control.

That said, he's also a ruthless son of a bitch. Marcone will do damn near anything to achieve his aims. Just about the only thing he won't do is involve children. He's not outright evil, he does have his principles. The problem is that he is a criminal. It doesn't matter how he comes across, his actions and decisions are directly responsible for hundreds of deaths in Chicago alone, and his influence extends quite a bit beyond that.

Dresden doesn't follow through with his threats against Marcone because Marcone is smart enough to know not to make an enemy of him. Marcone rather deliberately avoids crossing Dresden's line. He knows what would happen, and it would benefit no one.

Long story short, Marcone knows that crossing Dresden would end with the both of them (and a number of other people) dead. It's far more profitable to toe the line to get Dresden to leave him alone.

Edit: And Murphy's thing is that she doesn't compromise on the law. She's pretty damn close to the archetypal Lawful Good. She can't tolerate being associated with a criminal, full stop. It's a combination of pride and morals that simply don't let her be indebted to a criminal.

 

They aren't morals/beliefs if you change them just because someone else has more power. If Murphy had changed because Marcone was more powerful, she wouldn't be Murphy.

"Might makes right" is only the underworld's view. Law abiding citizens still have some semblance of order and structure that doesn't change just cause some dickhead that disagrees with them comes to power.

WE HAVE A WINNER! Give the man a prize!

 

lol set myself up for that, thanks for letting me join the circle jerk.

---------- Post automerged at 12:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:10 AM ----------

you also took my argument out of context spacie

 

The funny part is that with any argument about his business between Marcone and Murphy, I'd take Marcone's side except in the case of his contracted killings, as they aren't consensual on both sides.

 

I'm with you T3t, but there is a reason why the term "Lawful Stupid" was coined.

 

The thing is, what would Murphy lose by taking his offer of a job, he owed her.

On top of that SI shouldn't get any case involving Marcone, unless one of his thugs shoots someone (and I doubt CPD would hand off a gun shot to SI).

 

Murphy would lose her self-respect and identity. She would be excepting a favor from a known criminal. A higher class of criminal than most, yes, but still a criminal. She's not about to accept that.

 

lol, now you think Murphy cares about self-respect and identity? WHAT THE FUCK (I would put wtf, but i'm sure you would be offended)

Where the fuck will you draw the line? Are her morals gone, or is she just fucking lashing out at the death of a best friend? Does she believe he's dead then? Fuck, I bet she believes Dresdens daughter is dead too!

Hell any other idea you want to throw out there?

(SARCASM IN THAT STATEMENT, just to let you know before you say i'm contradicting myself.)

 

What is this I don't even...? I actually don't know how to respond to some of your ideas.

I'm done talking to you. Your comments are just fucking retarded. And your grammar/spelling really doesn't help.