Hello.. *has heard discussion of Karrin Murphy and just has to show up* As someone who likes Murph very very much, I just want to add my two cents here because seems like an interesting discussion.
My interpretation, anyway, of the things that have happened regarding Murph.
First, to not ignore completely the OP..
Who recently annoyed Nicodemus and whose death would cause Harry a lot of pain? Murphy. I think Nicodemus sent the Barrabus curse to kill Murphy, and the curse used Rudolph's poor trigger discipline as a weapon. When Harry finds this out, he will go berserk and hunt Nicodemus down.
I dunno about the curse idea, I mean, it's interesting, who knows, but I don't see clues about how that would work exactly or why Nicodemus would go after Murphy with that in order to make Harry suffer when he already sort of did? I mean, in Dresden's interpretation of events anyway:
Peace Talks, Ch 5:
“I remembered her scream when Nicodemus had kicked in her knee. The ugly, wet crunching sound when he’d calmly forced her arm out of its socket, tearing apart her rotator and hyperextending her elbow at the same time. He’d done it deliberately, inflicted as much damage, as much pain, as he could.”
Like, if Nicodemus wanted to use an inevitable curse to hurt someone close to Harry to make him hurt, maybe he would use it against Maggie.
That being said, I'm not entirely convinced that Murphy's death was entirely "an accident", and maybe it is wishful thinking and wanting to give more meaning to what happens to a favorite character, I'll admit that. But Butcher can be pretty tricky, and the fact that he's said he's planned this death for at least 10 years and that after Changes he could finally get to do the fun stuff, makes me believe that maybe the story is gonna get wild and maybe we'll start seeing all sorts of thing we were not expecting, and that might not be a bad thing, not even for the characters that, at first, seem to have been "wronged".
Interview for Dragoncon 2020
Now we'll move onto that elephant in the room. Regarding that event that occurs at the halfway point of Battle Ground, how long have you been planning that and how much hatemail have you received since? I'm joking about the last part.
Oh um, I've been planning that one for about fifteen years so I'd been looking forward to that. I only decided on it for sure about ten years ago but I've been toying with it for about fifteen so.
...
What I really thought about it was "what's the /worst/ way for Murphy to die?" Not like the most painful or the most dramatic but the one that would be the worst for the people who loved and supported her. What is going to make the reader suffer the most to read and so it's like she can't die in battle she has to die and it's got to be to this weasel, she can't be taken straight-up because it's not who her character is but to be killed by this weasel sort of by accident almost, you know death by incompetence seems to be even worse *unintelligible*. I had a lot of fun planning that out and I know there's a lot of people who are really angry at me and to them I can say "well keep reading we'll see what happens"
Right because it is the Dresdenverse after all right so...
Yeah there's a lot of stuff going on there so who knows?
I mean, Murphy's death is tragic, yes, definitely (I cried my eyes out). But I think saying that it didn't mean anything or that it was a disservice to the character or the fans is a bit rushed, though I do understand the frustration of some people about it, I think we all would be a bit hurt if (
when in the Dresdenverse) bad stuff happen to our favorites; I remember how angry some people were when Molly got turned into the Winter Lady. Now, personally, I never liked Molly, not one bit, but I think the change has actually been good for her role in the overall story, I feel like she has more agency now, and I like her as a character better now.
And I know, Murphy is dead, technically. Not the same. But also, that's kinda all we know about it so far.
The thing about her being a Einherjar now, Butcher kind created his own rule didn't he? As far as I know there's nothing about a memory rule in Norse mythology about this. Einherjar train and feast and prepare for Ragnarok. But now Jim created a new rule here, we don't know all about how it works yet, and honestly, we don't really even know what exactly was Dresden going to ask here:
Battle Ground, Ch 36:
“I nodded. Then after a while, I said, “If she’s an Einherjar, now . . .”
Gard shook her head. “Not until the memory of her has faded from the minds of those who knew her. That is the limit not even the Allfather may cross.”
Was he going to ask if he could see her? Or if she could come back? we don't know because we don't see him asking the full question. Though it is fair to interpret that what he was going to ask was if she'd be coming back to Midgard.
My point is, we haven't really seen the fallout of this death yet. We saw a few days after, when the dust wasn't even settled on things, and a very brief and specific moment in time and theme with the christmas story. And keep in mind that in the christmas story Dresden sounds still torn about things, that's not nothing.
But overall, I don't think we have seen enough to pass judgement on Karrin Murphy's death being without both personal meaning/consequence to Harry or cosmical meaning/consequence in the DV universe.
I think we need to see the next couple of books first.
Now, going further with some things other people have said...
Remember how when Harry was cut by Butter's and there was the smell of sulfur? What if Nicodemus did this as a way to try and make Harry go dark side? That if Harry gets angry enough, and has enough hate, the connection between him, and Lasciel could be restored? Maybe the point of Murphy's death was an attempt to make Harry go all the way bad?
That's interesting, and I think there might a point here, I mean, look at this, after the fight with Eb and Harry saying that he was out of control:
Peace Talks, Ch 32:
“What if …” I swallowed. “What if that’s me, one day? What if that’s what I’m like?”
“There’s a difference between you and him,” Murph said.
“Yeah?”
She moved a bit, leaned down, and kissed my forehead. “Yeah. You’ve got me.”
And … something little and warm kindled in my heart. It didn’t stop the pain. Oh God, did it not stop the pain.
But it told me the pain wouldn’t be there forever.”
And what Harry says to Karrin in a moment during one of the battles, when his banner manifests...
Battle Ground, Ch 17:
“I hate that you’re here with me,” I said.
“I know.”
“And I’m glad that you’re here with me.”
“I know.”
I held her against me for a moment and whispered, “I’m scared. What’s happening inside me. Stay close. Please.”
Her hand clenched my wrist, fiercely, for a beat. “I’m here.”
And I don't think she was being like superconfident, that she was all powerful and able to keep Harry in check or to keep up with all that was going on, I think it was just about her saying "I'm gonna be here with you, and I'm gonna support you in any way I can". Those were really nice moments that they had in these later books, and very important imo for the characters.
Karrin made some really stupid decisions throughout the series, Dresden did too, but I dunno, for me that's kinda the fun in reading this story, characters mess up and then they also do good things and they do incredible things that we don't normally see in real life. I never liked Karrin because she was the human in the series, because the way I see it, this is fiction and none of these characters are really ordinary humans. Her being, according to Dresden words, so good in a fight and with incredible detective skills and all that, maybe it wasn't realistic, but then Michael's style of faith isn't either. You don't find many people in real life (or in DV universe for that matter) with Murphy's tactical skill or Michael's type of unwavering faith, so yeah, imo, they are not really ordinary humans. So, it was about the personality, I liked her personality and I could relate to some things about her, and I think throughout the series we've seen her do good things and bad things, and that's what makes her an interesting character (and woman if you wanna get specific about it) in the Dresdenverse.
Now granted, it is true that since Changes, book after book, whatever mistake she made and whatever good she did, either way, the consequences for her have been bad. As in she'd had bad thing after bad thing happening to her. Until now when she's getting her deserved "rest" according to Gard. Which is fitting, but also maybe serves a purpose storywise. God, maybe Murph needed to be away from Harry for once, for her own good. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Sometimes you have to fall hard to become something else, hopefully better.
Dresden's been through something similar too in a way, and if anything, I would say that he sorta maybe a little bit failed her. Dresden's had a lot going on for him in the recent years, and obviously he needed to sort out his things, but in the process, at moments, it kinda felt like he sorta left his friends, and especially Murphy, sorta drifting away on their own. His friends were there for him, I dunno how much he really was there for them. And no, they're not his responsibility, as Michael pointed out in Skin Game, but Harry hasn't been able to return the favor, seems like. I think that's part of what Michael and Harry talked about at the end in Battle Ground.
Battle Ground, Ch 36:
“Do you know why I wanted Murph to stay out of the fight?” I asked.
“Because you’d given up on her,” Michael said.”
“No, it was because I’d given up on . . . Oh, yes.” I cleared my throat. “On some level, I had written her off. I knew I was going to be out there without her watching my back.”
Die alone, whispered a voice in my memory.
“She didn’t agree with your assessment,” Michael noted.
“No,” I said quietly. “She had, you know. Hope. Faith. That what she was doing was right and necessary and worth it.”
Now, back to the idea of how Murphy's death could be important to tip Harry to the bad side, it sorta fits. Whatever we feel about her actions being good or bad (overall from our outside and personal perspective), ultimately, she was willing to be around Harry for whatever happened, and I think that was kinda the point. Sometimes, getting people to stick around you is in itself a big deal. It certainly is for Dresden, by his own admission.
And it seems that in the books people that got to know Murphy and Dresden knew that about them. So it would make a lot of sense, if someone tried to meddle here in an attempt to push Harry, and getting Murph out of the chessboard was that, another piece in the game to turn Harry into whatever it is he's supposed to turn into.
Yeah, I won't be surprised if the next books don't do as well. I know that the person introduced me to the series is done because of the way Jim wrote the Winter Mantle and Murph getting fridged. What he liked about the series isn't there so why keep going?
I dunno about how the books will do, if it will really impact the sales. But I've heard the sentiment of many fans that say they are done with the series for those reasons. Maybe not so publicly though, because I think that in the past few years there's been a lot of sentiments against Murphy in public forums, so many people that I know that like the character decided to stay away, but in private conversations, yeah, I've heard about that. Some people were really torn up about it, and I get it.
For me it kinda happened in the opposite, you know? We haven't read the next book, we don't know what happens next for Harry, how he's gonna be dealing with this or if Murphy is indeed gone for good for the whole series, until the BAT or if she'll be back in a couple of books more (I'd bet for the later honestly). So, for me, now more than ever I want the next book, I'm really looking forward to Twelve Months. Something that I hadn't felt since waiting for Ghost Story. I mean, I was sorta out of the series, because nothing was a good as pre-Changes, and the waiting time was too long, and the payoff of Dresden's return didn't completely satisfy yet, so I was out, zero excitement and was planning on reading Peace Talks only maybe eventually if I had the time, until a fellow fan texted me "dude.. he did it, he killed Murph". So, after that, I do am sorta excited again for the series. The only thing that would sorta put me out of the expectation is if it takes too long again (more than 1 and half years). I'm happy to pay Butcher's son tuition and insurance and all that, but I can't do that if it takes too long.
Now, if we get the next couple of books and Murphy shows up like some sort of far away, distant unimportant thought, I would say then that some people were right and there was a disservice done to the character and the fans, but so far, the story is not over yet.
