Is Murphy truly dead

[morriswalters]

When the author god is against you what choice do you have?  Jim used the character the way he always has. Murphy died when the sword broke, Jim just didn't write it out until Battle Ground. She was sacrificed for Jim's man wish to insert a goofy nerd as a knight with a light saber. Murphy's biggest sin was that she was a gurl.  And gurls don't do well in the Dresdenverse. I don't think the man knows how to write an adult women.

Murphy is dead.  The living don't go to Valhalla. She died on a street in Chicago, killed by an idiot. She can no longer exercise free will.  She can't choose to stay or go. She exists in whatever form because Odin says so.

And Valhalla is for s**t.  Drafty halls, no internet,  the music blows and all the fellows think they are Odin's gift the to the softer side.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Are you calling Jim the Bloody God of the Dresdenverse, responsible, for torture, death and destruction?

Fair enough.

[Arjan]

That is a matter of opinion, she tells Harry all the reasons why she won't give him back the Swords.

And at that moment in Cold Days she was completely right. I would not have given them back either.

Then she violates one of the main rules governing them.. 

The rules are hard to keep for most people, even for most knights. Failing does not make you hypocritical, it makes you human.

It is not that she preaches another set of morals for others than those for herself. She already told Harry why she did not want to become a knight because she had difficulty keeping those rules. She is actually very honest about it.

And she did not preach the morality of the swords. She just recognizes what it is and what the swords expect. She never claimed those morals were here morals, she actually said they were too difficult for her.

It isn't about her picking up the Sword, that doesn't make her hypocritical.. After her very long soliloquy implying if the Swords got back in Harry's hands they could be misused but if they stayed in her hands they wouldn't.. 

She tried to do what was best. The Harry in Cold Days is different from the Harry at the end of Skin Game. That Harry got the swords back.

The Harry in Cold Days was a terrible Harry. Denying him the swords was the right choice and she explained it well.

It isn't about her using the Sword, it is about how she used it. 

Failing does not make you hypocritical. Her emotions, her love for Harry, her anger just kicked in.

Hypocritical is about the morality you preach, and we have already seen she did not preach one, and the morality you live your life by.

She took the sword to save Harry.

Here is the definition of a hypocritical action;
When Nic surrendered, gave up both noose and coin, instead of accepting it as a Holy Knight, or knowing the rules for the Swords.. Judgement wasn't up to her, yet she felt that he should die, judged him, tried to kill him and broke the Sword.. That wasn't doing what she had to do, it was doing what she knew to be wrong after berating Harry

She did not berate Harry. She had the swords and she had to take a decision and she had to explain it. At that moment she did the correct thing. That does not mean she was the right knight material, that is why she did not take it up.

You forget Harry’s mental condition at that time and how Harry had warned everyone about what he would become.

about the rules governing the Swords and why they were better off in her hands.  That my friend is hypocritical.

Explaining the rules of the swords has nothing to do with explaining your personal morality. I think the rules of the swords are on purpose too difficult to achieve for most people. Understanding them is something else.

That has nothing to do with it, if it made anything clear, it was she had no business keeping the Swords once Harry came back.

In Cold Days? That is not realistic.

She did not preach for others another morality than she believed for herself.

[Avernite]

So to sum up the original point, as I see it:

Murphy chose the morality of the Einherjar - face evil with a sword in hand and your love behind. That she did, many times.
The morality of TWG is to face human evil with love in your hand, and steel in your soul (the soulless evil can take a hike, apparently). That she didn't do as easy.

So while she did not choose after death to go be an einherjar, she chose it in LIFE. She chose to face Nick, with Sword in one hand, but not love in the other - perfect Einherjar, imperfect Holy Knight. She stood to defend Harry from Nick. And when the Jotuns came, though she shouldn't have, she stood with rocket launcher in hand and Harry behind. Perfect Einherjar, no points either way on the Knight scale.

And of course, at time TWG and his agents act as avenging angels instead, as at CI, or Michael after Nicks definitive refusal to repent in the vault. So they are not strangers entirely to the Einherjar mentality... which is why Uriel doesn't obliterate Odin for snatching souls, but has tea with him and discusses when a bared blade is more useful than an armed missionary.
Odin probably disagrees with Uriel on that, but when you have a universe-unmaker who disagrees with you but lets you do your thing... well even an Einherjar might make nice and be polite.

[Mira]

She did not preach for others another morality than she believed for herself.

Yes, she did, in the beginning of Skin Game.. 

In Cold Days? That is not realistic.

Cold Days, I'd agree, but not in Skin Game.  And it really doesn't matter because she was preaching to him something she didn't believe herself, she made her own rules.

The rules are hard to keep for most people, even for most knights. Failing does not make you hypocritical, it makes you human.

Perhaps, but after she preached to Harry about not bringing the Sword.. She secretly brought it, that had nothing to do with failing, it had everything to do about thinking the rules didn't apply to her.
Taking it upon herself to judge Nic when she knew perfectly well it was against the rules had nothing to do with failing, but everything about believing the rules didn't apply to her.  She flat out tells Harry why she cannot be a Knight, she doesn't believe in It's rules.. Then she brings it, breaks the rules governing it, and breaks the Sword.

In other words, like the definition;

behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.
 

That is Murphy's actions in Skin Game in a nutshell...

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Murphy had previously been a Knight of the Sword, a direct agent of the White God in whose faith she had been inculcated since birth. No wonder she thought she knew better than anyone else. A catholic true believer who had empirical evidence of God’s existence and her significant place in his plan. We are very lucky she didn’t go full Joan of Arc, as her plot Arc.

Except Harry too was an agent of the White God, gifted with Soul Fire which he continued to wield even Murphy had to put down the sword. Empirical evidence even to Murphy that Harry was worthy, which she chose to ignore.

[Arjan]

Yes, she did, in the beginning of Skin Game..  Cold Days, I'd agree, but not in Skin Game.  And it really doesn't matter because she was preaching to him something she didn't believe herself, she made her own rules.Perhaps, but after she preached to Harry about not bringing the Sword.. She secretly brought it, that had nothing to do with failing, it had everything to do about thinking the rules didn't apply to her.
Taking it upon herself to judge Nic when she knew perfectly well it was against the rules had nothing to do with failing, but everything about believing the rules didn't apply to her.  She flat out tells Harry why she cannot be a Knight, she doesn't believe in It's rules.. Then she brings it, breaks the rules governing it, and breaks the Sword.

In other words, like the definition;
That is Murphy's actions in Skin Game in a nutshell...

Or she brought it because she hoped a knight would appear which in the end happened.

The point is she picked it up in desperation to save Harry and and did not know how to act correctly when she knew Nicodemus was not acting sincerely and the only safe action seemed to be to kill him. She made an error in a highly emotional situation but that does not mean she was hypocritical. It just meant she failed according to the swords rules exactly what she told Harry what could happen with herself.

The idea that she broke the rules deliberately because she thought the rules applied to everyone else but not to her is not supported by the text.

People make mistakes in highly emotional situations. That is all.

Hypocritical is basically a form of lying, a deception. A dishonesty. That is not supported by the text. Karen was honest to Harry.

[KurtinStGeorge]

All I know is when Murphy reappears she will be PO'd. 

Murphy - "Harry, why didn't you tell me you talked to my father?"
Harry - "Hey Murph.  Ah, how did you know about that?  I thought you were in Valhalla."
Murphy - "Don't dodge the question mister.  OK, I am there most of the time, but Uriel gave my dad a job that took him to my neighborhood."
Bob - "Gee boss.  She even orders you around from the afterlife."
 

[Mira]

The idea that she broke the rules deliberately because she thought the rules applied to everyone else but not to her is not supported by the text.

But it is, go back to Skin Game, Harry thinks the Swords need to be used if they were going to be successful on the mission.  Murphy argues all the reasons why they shouldn't be in addition to her not believing in those rules, that is why she cannot be a Knight.. Then hiding it, she brings the Sword of Faith along.  That is deliberately breaking the rules, or thinking they don't apply to her if she hides the Sword that somehow I don't know,maybe she thought doing that made her an unofficial Knight.

The point is she picked it up in desperation to save Harry and and did not know how to act correctly when she knew Nicodemus was not acting sincerely and the only safe action seemed to be to kill him. She made an error in a highly emotional situation but that does not mean she was hypocritical. It just meant she failed according to the swords rules exactly what she told Harry what could happen with herself.

Murphy is a trained cop, they are trained to function with their head, not their heart... Fact of the matter had she used her head, she would have accepted Nic's surrender, he would have been screwed and it would have been all over.  Instead she attempted what she said to Harry earlier, she didn't believe Nic or any other Denarian deserved a chance at redemption, so she tried to execute him instead and thus broke the Sword.  If she was doing it to save Harry, there is no evidence that if she had succeeded in killing Nic that Harry wouldn't have been killed anyway.

Hypocritical is basically a form of lying, a deception. A dishonesty. That is not supported by the text. Karen was honest to Harry.

Was she?  Why go on and on about why the Swords couldn't or shouldn't be used on the mission, then conceal it on her person and take it with?  That is being dishonest, maybe for what she thought were good reasons, but none the less, dishonest.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

For Mira’s point remember Murphy was awake the shoe fetishist Anduriel was listening in on them all the time.

Her falsehood was likely for Anduriel’s benefit, it was her Goodman Grey, the Sword was disguised as a rocket launcher, something which could have killed Blood on his Soul (except maybe not given he was a Denarian on top of his own prodigious healing ability).

It’s exactly the same as Harry treated the Spear in BG, just as a common knife.

[Mira]

For Mira’s point remember Murphy was awake the shoe fetishist Anduriel was listening in on them all the time.

Her falsehood was likely for Anduriel’s benefit, it was her Goodman Grey, the Sword was disguised as a rocket launcher, something which could have killed Blood on his Soul (except maybe not given he was a Denarian on top of his own prodigious healing ability).

I don't know if it exactly went like that, but you've solved the mystery of what happened that day.  Anduriel listening in on the conversation between Murphy and Harry, knew what was said and relayed it to Nic.  Andriel could also relay to Nic that Murphy had hidden the Sword in a rocket launcher case and taken it with her. With this information Nic could set up the breaking of a Holy Sword, while tip toeing up to the line, but never cross it as far as his bargain with Mab goes. Thus he planned and played Murphy to a tee so that she would produce the Sword and attack him.  Then knowing exactly what she'd do and what would happen to the Sword if she tried it, gave himself up to her.  It was the perfect plan to get a Holy Sword broken and Harry's right hand woman out of the picture.  What Nic hadn't planned for was how far Uriel was willing to go so that the mission would succeed.

It’s exactly the same as Harry treated the Spear in BG, just as a common knife.

No, he didn't.  He kept the Spear hidden and secret until he was ready to use it.  He had the tip of his staff remade to handle the Spear.. He never took it out to brandish it at anyone, and he was in plenty of fights with heavy weights up until he needed it to deal with Ethniu.