The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
True Love's Protection
Dina:
Well, my experience is different. I never believed Harry loved Murphy, at least not True Love, so I was surprised when he actually burnt Lara. I always thought their love was the love of a dear friend or sibling. More than many romantic loves, granted, but not True Love.
LaraBeck:
--- Quote from: Dina on January 26, 2026, 09:23:50 PM ---Well, my experience is different. I never believed Harry loved Murphy, at least not True Love, so I was surprised when he actually burnt Lara. I always thought their love was the love of a dear friend or sibling. More than many romantic loves, granted, but not True Love.
--- End quote ---
Hm, I'm shook. I would understand to some level the "they were better friends than lovers" that some readers feel about them, regardless of my shipping heart, but I don't think they ever read as siblings or just friends. Interesting.
Dina:
By Changes, I had the theory that someone was playing tricks with Harry's mind, making him believe that he was in love with Karrin when he was not. In my opinion, he talked too much.
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: LaraBeck on January 26, 2026, 02:40:39 PM ---Watch from about min 38:40 it's a couple of minutes where he talks about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg5GxQb_rXo
--- End quote ---
He does say that Susan is still out there. Murphy isn't. He does say Susan is still out there and Harry still pines for her. So maybe the person has to be alive and there has to be a certain present emotional stance towards them. Jim said Harry didn't know about Maggie. That suggests that knowing about Maggie would change his emotional stance enough to break the protection.
This lends validity to what Mab says in 12 Months about Harry's feelings being the reason he isn't protected anymore. It's probably several factors all working together that determines protection. In Blood Rites we saw that Harry was less protected than Arturo because Harry hadn't been with Susan for a long time. So time is probably another factor.
LaraBeck:
--- Quote from: Bad Alias on January 26, 2026, 11:12:33 PM ---Jim said Harry didn't know about Maggie. That suggests that knowing about Maggie would change his emotional stance enough to break the protection.
--- End quote ---
Now that is an interesting point. Harry definitely feels way different about Susan after he learns about Maggie, so I think you might be onto something. And indeed, in that case Mab's explanation could, potentially (though I'm still not 100% on board) maybe work.
I thought it was so Harry though, when he asked Mab if she was saying that death defeats love, because it's obviously a Princess Bride reference. I think, of all the excuses, like Harry here, I don't want to believe that death changes the protection, though. That's so depressing. I'd say Harry's self-loathing, his (IMO) self-centerness in his grief, his guilt, and how belief tends to work in the Dresden universe would be slightly more convincing a reason for why the True Love™ protection goes away. Though still a cheap excuse. If that were the case though, if Harry starts to feel better about it, if he embraces Murphy's memory, would the protection return? Probably not.
I will say this, too, that I found a bit hard to digest in this book: I don't have a problem with Harry grieving, I'll start with that, it was necessary, it is raw and it is painful. I wished we had seen a little less of "Karrin is dead and oh how much this hurts me" and more "Karrin is dead and that's unfair because Karrin was x, y and z" I mean, he tells us more times how wonderful Michael is in any of the books than he thinks about Murphy in this one, when it'd be the appropriate book to do it. There's a lot of things that you feel when you lose someone, yes, guilt, anger, denial, but also longing, and the memories of the best about them replay in your head making you miss them more, want them more. I felt there wasn't enough longing or enough memories. And I still can't believe we didn't learn when her birthday was in a full year of story.
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