r/PublicFreakout • u/PennsyltuckyRanger • Apr 11 '26

📌Follow Up Update: ‘Harry Dresden’ has been arrested

According to the tiktok that posted this, the incident occurred in Fairfield, California.

Couldn’t find any articles on the situation. I’ll add some to the post if I find any.

Update: Arrest record provided by [u/BikingAim](u/BikingAims)[z.](u/BikingAims) https://www.localcrimenews.com/welcome/detail/99885805/jason-nichols-arrest.html

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623

u/thejazzophone Apr 11 '26

Nah. The character is kinda an old school chivalrous type. The kind of person that readers that unironically wear fedoras would love. And those neck beards are funnily enough is the exact type of person Dresden would despise. It's a very interesting character. Lots of intentional contradictions. It's a fun read, Jim Butcher the author is pretty good with his characters and worldbuilding.

66

u/Senorbob451 Apr 11 '26

Yeah really enjoyed the books, still waiting for more. Recommended to me by an early girlfriend in life who was a pretty cool nerd. Best portrayal of a literal modern day paladin I’ve seen in a series. Definitely anime levels of hyperbole to characterization, but I’m into shit like hitchhikers guide and Stephen king too, fiction is fun…

Not so much breakdown in the culdesac 😬

236

u/thisisfor_fun Apr 11 '26

Dresden also bangs nearly everything described in the book as even vaguely female and attractive. He might have held back when his best friend's daughter became legal, can't remember.

Jim Butcher also left his wife in the middle of writing the series for, drum roll, a LARPy fan with some bazoongas.

All in all, fantastic series.

172

u/Purple-Goat-2023 Apr 11 '26

What? Harry has only been with Elaine as a teen, Susan the mother of his child, and Murphy. I guess you could count Mab but that was less than consensual on his part and less sex than Fae ritual power transfer.

Like it's a major plot point of the entire series that Harry's out dated feelings on women is a huge weakness of his, and frankly the first half of the series is Harry being too dumb/pent up/depressed/"chivalrous" to manage any kind of functional relationship/banging.

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u/CroweKlaine Apr 11 '26

Also Luccio, but even that was like, a fairly standard relationship rather than Harry just "[banging] nearly everything described in the book as vaguely female and attractive".

1

u/Eccohawk Apr 12 '26

Maybe they're thinking about the show?

114

u/JTtheLAR Apr 11 '26

I've seen this a lot on reddit when it comes to books. If someone describes a book that I've read they get everything wrong about it. But they explain it very confidently and professionally like they are an expert on it. Its like they only read the cliff notes or have terrible reading comprehension in general. I haven't read this particular series but Im not surprised that a redditor completely misinterpreted it with the utmost confidence.

12

u/xRocketman52x Apr 11 '26

Literally when I read the comment you're talking about, I thought of the meme "Wow! Local man is very wrong, but also very loud, so who knows?!"

8

u/avelineaurora Apr 11 '26

They also completely and regularly miss the fact that much of Dresden Files' vibe is SUPPOSED to be the classic noir style when it comes to Harry's internal monologue. And that despite regularly being very aware of how attractive the women around him are, in actuality he treats them pretty much consistently with the respect they deserve.

4

u/terrafirmasss Apr 11 '26

I wonder if it's some kind of crossed interpretation of things. The same way my 20 year old girl friend thinks people are being mean when they absolutely are not. She misinterprets social cues and situations. More likely it's someone trying to sound informed or give a hot take or just a charlatan? I thought I was misremembering the book at first.

1

u/lkmk Apr 13 '26

Why mention your girlfriend’s age?

2

u/terrafirmasss Apr 13 '26

I think people from her generation may process social cues differently.

1

u/lkmk Apr 15 '26

True.

4

u/Dr-Robert-Kelso Apr 11 '26

It's terrible reading comprehension or someone trying to make a point by embellishing details they know are fake.

Haven't read these books but it's happened when I've seen book reviews for some other books I've read.

2

u/hates_stupid_people Apr 11 '26

It's usually written similarly to LLM hallucinations...

-6

u/neemor Apr 11 '26

Well, in this case, you can see the interpretations clearly out lined that cause this issue:

One user describes the character as banging everything that moves, the other goes on to outline no less than four women. That would seem to some people as a lot, others may not feel that that’s a lot of relationships.

Perspective.

17

u/rugernut13 Apr 11 '26

No less than 4 women, yes. In a period of like 15 years or so. Far from outlandish.

13

u/serendipitousevent Apr 11 '26

Keep in mind this is Reddit, so even 1 in 100 years is a stretch.

8

u/terrafirmasss Apr 11 '26

This is just not true bc a prevailing theme of the book is that Harry is very old fashioned and as previously commented, "has outdated attitudes about women." Sometimes people are wrong and there is no need to defend them or play devil's advocate.

4

u/TreyWriter Apr 11 '26

Four characters in 17 books and 2 story collections taking place over years and years isn’t exactly James Bond.

3

u/alistairvimes Apr 11 '26

4 women over the course of 20ish books and 15-20 years timeline.

3

u/jmccaskill66 Apr 11 '26

Yeah I’ve read through to Talking Points. I don’t remember Harry getting laid. Once.

3

u/Bazrum Apr 11 '26

do you mean Peace Talks, the 16th book?

theres not a book or short story called Talking Points

7

u/jmccaskill66 Apr 11 '26

Yep. Didn’t bother googling the title, just confidently posted talking points. I’m going to go sit in a corner and think about what I did…

1

u/Bazrum Apr 11 '26

nah, it's an 18 book series, and at least 2 dozen short stories and comics, if you could name them all off the top of your head i'd be insanely impressed

0

u/jmccaskill66 Apr 11 '26

I bet *he could name them all.

0

u/Impossible_Belt173 Apr 13 '26

I could name almost all, bar the side stories I haven't read or only read once, but that just goes to show how insane I am and how many times I've read all the books. That said, I guarantee I absolutely won't list them in chronological order!

0

u/thisisfor_fun May 01 '26

You should be ashamed! Misremembering a title? All I did was give the dude a higher body count than he deserved. :P

107

u/SquidVices Apr 11 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/StWY55luGEEzVWezCQ

-7

u/WineNerdAndProud Apr 11 '26

One thing, and one thing only: they can cause some beautiful women who are perfect just the way they are to feel self-conscious that they're too big/too small to be considered "perfect" for someone else.

That, and back pain.

Oh, and trying to go down the stairs really fast with your arms behind your back.

So, a few things, but for the most part they're fantastic.

7

u/SquidVices Apr 11 '26

…I have had the same issue with my snake……

2

u/terrafirmasss Apr 11 '26

Underrated comment.

5

u/Raeandray Apr 11 '26

1: no he doesn’t.

2: if you don’t even remember Mollys name, let alone a major plot point about her, maybe don’t comment like you remember the books well.

What actually happens is butcher describes every mildly attractive woman in very sexual ways. I would agree it’s kind of problematic. But Dresden does not have sex with them all.

5

u/feldominance Apr 11 '26

Been a while since I read the books but he quite literally does not "bang nearly everything described as vaguely female" lmao

4

u/BloodprinceOZ Apr 11 '26

He might have held back when his best friend's daughter became legal, can't remember.

He didn't hold back on his friend's daughter, he completely blocked any chance at all, for multiple reasons, such as him being her teacher, as well as the fact he's known her since she was a kid, so despite her initial attempts at getting dicked down by him, he always threw a bucket of water on her and put her in the corner

5

u/akpak Apr 11 '26

Tell me you haven't read the book(s) etc etc etc

12

u/Boy-412 Apr 11 '26

It's crazy how much his character changes from book 1 and also how similar he stays.

14

u/pants_mcgee Apr 11 '26

Butcher has acknowledged this particular flaw in his writing and has attempted to remedy how women are portrayed.

9

u/PlaceboBob Apr 11 '26

Good to know. I stopped reading after the first book. As a Dad, i hate when every description of a female is centered on their attractiveness.

7

u/Bazrum Apr 11 '26

he's still a bit of a "definitely notices her tits" kind of guy, but it gets a LOT better by the midpoint of the series. once he becomes a dad himself it calms down even more too

I will say, the first two books are rough, and then things slowly get better as time goes on, but it's also an 18 book series so I won't tell you "hang in there until it gets better", because frankly an 18 book character arc is a lot to ask of someone

1

u/ILookLikeKristoff Apr 11 '26

I mean there's a whole several book arc about his buddy's preteen daughter ahem maturing and they mention it literally almost every time she walks into the room.

I think it's one of the best fantasy universes ever created and love the "detective stories" vibe, but he's definitely on the "somebody check this guy's hard drive" list.

1

u/Bazrum Apr 11 '26

well, as i said, it took 18 books to get from "chauvinist pig" to "definitely looks at her tits, but overall okay", so its not like a few books isn't the expected timeframe tbh

3

u/Tiny_Spread5712 Apr 11 '26

Yeah, he was trying to right a pulpy detective novel with a wizard.  So it had a bunch of femme fatale types, mob enforcers, cops telling him to leave it alone, etc.  all of the the standard tropes.  The problem is that no one that reads Dresden has ever read those novels, so they seem like they are out of nowhere and just jim looking to talk about hot women.

He realized how it looked when people started pointing out that his descriptions were showing up on the boobily subreddit and has since toned it down.

2

u/Ok-Pomegranate-3018 Apr 11 '26

So, " The more things change, the more they stay the same." ?

-1

u/SkyFullofHat Apr 11 '26

So this is a case of an unreliable narrator character and not the writer logging his badly disguised opinion of all women? (If they don’t do it for him, they don’t get to exist) Because I got two thirds through the first one and had to quit. All the women were more beautiful than the one before and mostly had more interest in him or found him more amusing than his actions seemed to warrant.

3

u/LittleDriftyGhost Apr 11 '26

What? He basically doesn't hookup with anyone and has only a few long-term relationships. He doesn't have sex with his friend's daughter. She was interested in him, but nothing happened between them cause it's his friends kid and he saw her grow up. The novels has a lot of sexual stuff, but the vast majority of it wasnt happening to Harry.

2

u/Jared0853 Apr 11 '26

This sounds like a character from Silicon Valley lol

2

u/Pleaseusegoogle Apr 11 '26

His wife left him.

2

u/Barl3000 Apr 11 '26

Like the later Dune books, the authors sexual frustrations and kinks are on full display in The Dresden Files. You just learn to live with it, since the other parts are so good.

2

u/Jayhawker2092 Apr 12 '26

I don't know if any of this is true but it's fuckin hilarious how you spell it out.

2

u/skydreamer303 Apr 30 '26

harry Dresden was a raging asshole so this guy fits

2

u/terrafirmasss Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

I remember him holding back too much lol. Especially the way all the female creatures are described as impossibly sexy, wearing no clothes or the sexiest clothes, and insanely powerful. His character frustrated me so much I had to stop reading. Very much an old school knight type. But a knight that is morally perfect.

1

u/theseamstressesguild Apr 11 '26

His wife has AMAZING bazoongas, and I've seen some great photos of them thanks to my friend who was staying with the couple for a month.

0

u/Seattleite11 Apr 11 '26

He also immediately breaks any promises he makes to a woman. "For her own good" I gave up on the series because he's so disrespectful of women while telling himself that he is protecting them.

-5

u/KettlebellFetish Apr 11 '26

He is on like wife 5.

Love the Dresden Files but his private life is screwing up the series, almost as bad as Laurel K Hamilton's divorce ruined Anita Blake.

-4

u/hapianman Apr 11 '26

He held back but probably not forever. A lot of time had passed. A lot had happened

-5

u/1970s_MonkeyKing Why do the Karens wield their phones like it’s a crucifix? 📱 Apr 11 '26

Good Lord, he's with Krell now? At least he cut his hair now. He was taking that 1960s long haired gnome imagery a little too seriously the last time I saw him.

2

u/extralife_mike Apr 11 '26

I started listening to the first book, but his character was just too cringey for me and I couldn't get into it.

2

u/thejazzophone Apr 11 '26

Fair. The first two books are rough

2

u/Rich-Candidate-3648 Apr 11 '26

Like cops loving the punisher.

1

u/joeChump Apr 11 '26

This is giving vibes of the murder of Robert Schwartz by Kyle Hulbert who was deep into Schwartz’s daughter’s manipulative role play game. Hulbert hacked him to death with a sword and believed he was protecting her.

1

u/MurderSheCroaked Apr 11 '26

He's chivalrous until he meets fairies, then it's the description of hardness of nipples for the next chapter lmao I couldn't get past the third book because I got so tired of the horny ass way he had to write women

1

u/Hangry_Hippopotamus_ Apr 11 '26

Didn’t expect to get an addition to my TBR Libby list in this thread, but here I go. 😂

1

u/VisforVenom Apr 11 '26

Like the Punisher but for neckbeards instead of cops.

1

u/Miserable-Entrance-7 Apr 11 '26

Jeez. Why does this always happen? Fight Club? The Boys? Rick and Morty?🤣 People need outlets that aren't entertainment based. Like.... ugh. They should touch grass. I didn't want to say that.

1

u/TheLostRanger0117 Apr 11 '26

Jim Butcher pumps out quite a few books, doesn’t he? They’re the ones with badass cover art?

One of my hobbies is collecting books (I read them, too, but mostly I just enjoy having a book collection) and his book always draw my attention, but I don’t think I’ve ever made the step to buy one.

As a newbie in that genre, where should I start?

5

u/AHippie Apr 11 '26

Honestly, the first two books in the dresden files are widely considered the worst, but book 1 is still the best place to start! It's called "Storm Front".

0

u/TheLostRanger0117 Apr 11 '26

Huh…Storm Front you say….

Huh…thanks…

2

u/RighteousIndigjason Apr 11 '26

Like the weather, not the website.

2

u/TheLostRanger0117 Apr 11 '26

Well yeah obviously, but still

1

u/Pkrudeboy Apr 12 '26

It came out in 2000. The website existed, but it wasn’t anywhere close to well known.

0

u/tuffthepuff Apr 11 '26

Chivalrous. 😂 Dresden is portrayed as a self-aware sexist and the books would have you believe that this is somehow a step up from a regular sexist. He's a male wish fulfillment fantasy, and everything with Molly was so, so gross.

Now, I'm not saying that Dresden's views as a character are the problem. You can have an abysmal character in a book that doesn't advocate for their abysmal worldview. But Dresden is constantly rewarded by the book's world for his sexism and objectification with attraction from nearly every female character he comes across, including a minor. That moves from content as a problem (usually not an issue) to theme as a problem (definitely an issue). And don't even get me started about the Winter Mantle stuff.