Realm of the Elderlings/Characters

Fitz a.k.a Fitzchivalry Farseer a.k.a Tom Badgerlock

 * An Axe to Grind: Fitz's weapon of choice; averting Heroes Prefer Swords since he sucks at using them.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Wanted to help Verity in sculpting the dragon, but got to help him another way.
 * Buried Alive: Technically, although he wasn't in his body when it happened.
 * Faking the Dead
 * Career Killer
 * First Love: Ends with his.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend
 * Foreshadowing
 * Freaky Friday Flip - With Verity in Assassin's Quest.
 * Friend to All Living Things - Due to the Wit rather than the usual meanings of this trope.
 * Heroic Bastard - Despite everything (including how some of them treat him) Fitz remains loyal to the Farseer line.
 * Hero With Bad Publicity - What he used to think he was, and mainly the reason for his self-imposed exile; subverted at the end when he finds out people actually believe him a hero.
 * Genius Bruiser - He looks rough around the edges but he enjoys being a scholar more than a warrior
 * I Just Want to Be Normal
 * Laser Guided Amnesia: He forgets the first six or seven years of his life; He gets his memory back at the end of Fool's Fate.
 * Luke I Am Your Father:
 * To clarify,
 * Meaningful Name - Fitzchivalry, a Patronymic which also shows his bastardry & Badgerlock relating to his name.
 * Mistaken for Gay: The Ho Yay with his best friend is so strong that he gets mistaken for gay by the most of the court, his friends, and his family members.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: He's usually smart but he can a bit oblivious sometimes.
 * Ship Tease - Gets a bit, which he finds squicky, with Kettricken.
 * Strong Family Resemblance - Like most of the Farseers. One of the reasons they recognise him
 * Identical Son - to Chivalry. He's often said look exactly like his as a boy.
 * Skunk Stripe - After his time in Regal's dungeons.
 * Tall Dark and Handsome - Or he would have been anyway.
 * Younger Than They Look - In the Tawny Man series.

Chade Fallstar

 * Awesome McCoolname
 * Career Killer
 * Faking the Dead: After a long period of absence from the court, everyone thought he was dead. He kept up that charade since it was useful.
 * The Good Chancellor - Secretly for Shrewd
 * Heroic Bastard
 * I Was Quite a Looker: When he was younger and before he received his scars; He was also apparently quite the ladies man.
 * Mad Scientist - he invents gunpowder!
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Parental Substitute - One of many father figures for Fitz.
 * The Spymaster
 * The Resenter: Mainly thanks to him being illegitimate, and not taught the Skill.
 * Wangst: When he was scarred he sunk into such a depression that he wished himself dead, and almost never left his room.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: As Lady Thyme.

Burrich

 * Badass:
 * Awkwardly, it works the other way around, too -
 * Important Haircut: When Chivalry dies, he shaves his head and even his eyebrows.
 * Love Triangle - The loser in one with Chivalry for Patience
 * Friend to All Living Things: He tries to deny it
 * May December Romance
 * Parental Substitute - To Fitz who he does much of the early raising for
 * The Alcoholic: Seems to get drunk more often later in his life.
 * The Alcoholic: Seems to get drunk more often later in his life.

The Fool a.k.a Lord Golden a.k.a Beloved a.k.a Amber

 * Ambiguous Gender: With the successful cross dressing, people assuming that he is female even when he's dressed like a male, not taking off even his shirt in front of Fitz, and his refusal to state his gender firmly, it's no wonder many readers are not sure what gender he is. He's usually referred as male for convenience's sake and because Fitz refuses to believe he's anything but male.
 * Mind Screw - There must be a reason why some of the characters believe he's female, but if he's male how did he manage to pass as a female in a sentient ship when . But if he's female then Fitz probably would have notice it at the end of Fool's Fate.
 * Bishonen: He's considered to be really pretty as Lord Golden; he was more freaky looking than pretty when he was an albino.
 * I Have Many Names:
 * Has Two Daddies: He reveals to Fitz that it's his people's custom to have two daddies and one mommy in a family.
 * Heroic Albino: In the first two books; he starts to darken in the third one.
 * Ho Yay: It's either this or simple ship tease if he's female.
 * Fitz and The Fool almost end up together.
 * The Fool gives him the nickname Beloved. It becomes more hoyaytastic when the Pale Lady reveals that married couples exchange names, and since Beloved is supposed to be The Fool's real name that means that The Fool is basically calling Fitz his husband.
 * Older Than They Look: Apart from an overall darkening appearance, he doesn't seem to age much. Since the former white prophet is still around, this is also probably a case of Really 700 Years Old.
 * The Fool: What he masquerades as in the first trilogy and the role that gives him his most common nickname.
 * Mad Oracle: What he's actually more like.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: Not sure what gender exactly he's cross dressing as, although he looks more manly when he's dressed as a female than when he's male.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: Not sure what gender exactly he's cross dressing as, although he looks more manly when he's dressed as a female than when he's male.

Molly Chandler

 * Abusive Parents: Her father. Who also doubles as Alcoholic Parent.
 * First Girl Wins
 * Official Couple: With Fitz, and later with
 * She's All Grown Up: Fitz's reaction when he sees her in a dress.
 * Tomboy: When she was younger.

Lady Patience

 * Cloudcuckoolander - She's known to be weird.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity - She might know more about whats going on than she lets on.
 * Genius Ditz / Ditzy Genius: She's either one or the other, but she's definitely more capable than many people realize.
 * Wicked Stepmother - Averted hard, she really loves Fitz and believes him to be the son that she should have had.

Regal Farseer a.k.a Regal the Pretender

 * Arch Enemy: To Fitz. Bare in mind that the first three books cover Fitz's life from childhood 'till he's in his twenties, and consider that for nearly all of that these two have despised each other, mostly on account of Regal being an evil, spoilt, murdering bastard.
 * Bad Boss: Will murder his own men to conceal his crimes and will torture them with The Skill when they fail him, though at times he seems to be doing it For the Evulz as well.
 * Big Bad: Technically part of a Big Bad Ensemble with the Red Ships, but he's the one where Its Personal and the Ships would have been less of a threat were it not for his machinations and willingness to commit murder and treason against his own family and kingdom, sabotaging the war effort for his own ambition.
 * Bishonen: He still has the Farseer looks, but he's built on more delicate lines than his relatives.
 * : His penultimate fate.
 * Bread and Circuses: His style of rule, and to a lesser extent how he cultivates enough popularity to take the throne and villainize Verity.
 * The Bully
 * Cain and Abel: The Cain to Verity and Chivarly's Abel's.
 * The Caligula
 * Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Hides the fact that he has The Skill from the rest of his family, and more importantly that he and Galen have access to old books about its advanced techniques, which were thought lost to the world.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Death by Ferret.
 * Despotism Justifies the Means: Though partly due to prejudice against them, he's willing to sacrifice the coastal Duchies- half the kingdom- to the Red Ships and murder his way through his family in the middle of a war if it will put himself on the throne. And he ignores the Red Ship threat when he gets it, as well as the economic crisis it has brought about, simply content to be king.
 * Dirty Coward
 * Drugs Are Bad: Is a drug addict, much like his mother, who doubtless got him into the habit.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: His mother is probably the only person he ever loved and cared about. By contrast, he couldn't give a shit about his father or anyone else in his family
 * Evil Prince
 * Evil Uncle: To Fitz, though neither of them like the fact that they are related and few people bring it up much.
 * Its All About Me
 * Jerkass: Even in his ordinary, day-to-day life when he's not trying to usurp the throne, Regal is an utter bastard. Even if he wasn't the Big Bad, you still wouldn't like him, because he's just that unpleasant.
 * Karma Houdini: Subverted; it looks like he's going to be this but then he suffers a Cruel and Unusual Death.
 * Royal Brat: Starts out as one, but later he becomes worse. Much, much worse.
 * Self Made Orphan: Responsible for King Shrewd's death.
 * Smug Snake: No where near as clever or as powerful as he thinks he is; the only reason he gets away with all that he does is that half the kingdom is incompetent and buys into his good publicity, and the rest are far too busy dealing with the war against the Red Ships, that and lack of evidence and the fact that he is royalty. His reign ruins the kingdom due to him being a lazy, callous and drug-addicted psycho.
 * The Sociopath
 * Villain With Good Publicity: The only reason he gets away with anything is that Fitz can't prove anything and the people are easily duped by him, mostly because he serves as a rich and flamboyant contrast to the moody and serious Verity (though Verity has a very good reason to be moody and serious). Essentially, Regal encourages them to forget about the war, which is how he gets to be so popular.

Starling Birdsong

 * Babies Ever After: She was supposedly sterile, but she got pregnant by her husband.
 * Convenient Miscarriage: After her rape, she takes herbs to induce a miscarriage.
 * Friends With Benefits: With Fitz.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * The Bard
 * Unrequited Love: Was in love with Fitz.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Marries a minor noble but still sleeps with Fitz until Fitz finds out.

Verity Farseer

 * Humble Hero - Felt that he was not up to the job of being King-in-waiting, but he stills performed the job admirably well and gained the loyalty of many.
 * Freaky Friday Flip
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * The Mentor:
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage: with Kettricken.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something - Royal who actually does quite a lot, to be more precise. For sake of Six Duchies, he
 * The Wise Prince