Belgariad: Difference between revisions

 

See also ''[[The Elenium]]'', Eddings' third series and [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''The Belgariad'' and ''[[The Malloreon]]'' - albeit with a much stronger focus on over-the-top battles and [[Bond One-Liner|Bond One Liners]].

=== A-C ===

* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]:

* [[Alien Geometries]]: Belgarath has a stick with [[Mind Screw|only one end]]. He uses it to [[Mundane Utility|keep children occupied so they don't bother him]].

* [[All Deaths Final]]: Due to universal agreement of the gods, with two notable exceptions.

* [[All Powerful Bystander]]: Both Prophecies by mutual agreement. If they directly clashed, they would blot out entire tracts of existence.

* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: In the Angarak world, Belgarath is apparently [[Complete Monster|something used to scare children into behaving]].

** Garion and Torak both become enormous for the final battle. Polgara does it herself earlier.

** Also Durnik {{spoiler|when he banishes the Demon Lord Nahaz}} and {{spoiler|Poledra when she fights as a wolf against Zandramas who is in the form of a dragon}}, both in the Malloreon.

* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: The Rivan King, of course. A sword drawn from stone? Check. Heralded as such by a keystone of creation? Check. Massive numbers of people bowing? Check. [[Big No]] from the girl who realized this means she has to marry you, even though she secetly wants to? Check. Awakening of a god, the god he is destined to duel? Big Goddamned Check.

* [[Axe Crazy]]: Urvon, Taur Urgas, and possibly Torak.

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Poledra}} and Polgara''' (on occasion): "How remarkable."}}

{{quote|'''Silk''': "Trust me."}}

* [[Charm Person]]: Asharak the Murgo's favourite trick, along with [[Tongue-Tied]], pulled liberally on Garion practically since birth.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Sprinkled liberally throughout the series, but most obviously in ''The Malloreon''. Examples include Zith, Sadi's pet snake, whom Velvet uses to {{spoiler|kill Harakan}}; the whole business with the Grolims being afraid to go near Kell; the subtle cannon at the beginning, where Garion says 'Fortune tellers are never right- one of them once predicted Durnik will live twice. How silly is that?'; and most especially the frequent references to the Turim reef, which ends up being {{spoiler|The Place Which Is No More}}, but nobody noticed due to language drift.

* [[Fat Idiot]]: [[Subverted Trope|Rhodar isn't one.]] In fact, he is fat because he loves to sit and read, and is one of the best educated people in the world.

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: Ce'Nedra, very much so.

* [[Five-Bad Band]]: Torak is [[The Big Bad]], Ctuchik and Zedar are his [[Co-Dragons]], with Zedar doing double duty as [[The Evil Genius]], Taur Urgas is [[The Brute]], [[The Dark Chick]] position is kept open for Polgara, and the actual dragon is the [[Team Pet]].

* [[Five-Man Band]]:

** Even Garion and Ce'Nedra, as she isn't technically human; it's stated that the Dryad strain breeds true in the female Borunes.

* [[In the Back]]: An interesting prevention tactic employed by Mimbrate tax collectors is mentioned in ''The Rivan Codex'': a thick, well-fitting wooden plank under the chainmail to protect the back from Asturian arrows. Apparently it's not unusual for a tax collector to just ignore the arrows stuck in his back.

* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons]]: Averted. Dragons are quite pathetic creatures in the world of the Belgariad and in the original series they are only mentioned in one page in ''Magician's Gambit'' and even then not referred to as dragons or in fact any name at all. Their portrayal – or lack thereof – makes one wonder if Eddings's publisher demanded he add dragons just because he was writing a fantasy series and it was only done to fill an arbitrary quota.

* [[Involuntary Shapeshifter]]: Barak's hereditary "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion is threatened. He passes the trait to his son, with respect to Garion's son.

 

* [[Pretty Boy]]: Torak ''was'' one, before the whole burning thing. He was often described as "over-pretty".

* [["Previously On..."]]: Found in some form in both series. Sometimes – especially in the Malloreon – part of the dedicated prologue section recaps events of both series on a general level. In pretty much all the books, though, more specific information is trickled out during the first few chapters with varying degrees of obviousness. Sometimes this exposition is rather well disguised, pretending to be mere context for a character's current thoughts, while other times party members are spouting [[As You Know]] dialogue in a rather out-of-character manner.

* [[Professional Killer]]: {{spoiler|Brill}} and the rest of the Daghashi, and Issus, a Nyissan poisoner and assassin. Silk, Liselle, and the other members of Drasnian intelligence have this as one of their skill sets.

* [[Prophecies Are Always Right]]: [[Deconstructed Trope]]. The reason for the prophecies in the first place is that a pure accident caused the original Purpose of the Universe to be threatened, so it split apart to protect itself. The competing Purposes then each set about to cause a course of events to occur such that their preferred outcome would come to pass. They create prophecies specifically to set out instructions for their pawns to make those things happen -- or more specifically, to give meaning to the events. Moreover, the competing prophecies sometimes describe mutually exclusive outcomes that do not come to pass until they are resolved in a moment of Choice, which can only be made by a mortal.

* [[Prophet Eyes]]: The blind seer that Polgara cures has them. Naradas, Zandramas' [[The Dragon|Dragon]] in ''The Malloreon'' has something similar, but his pupils are visible and his eyes function -- just the rest of his eyes are blank white. Seeing as how he's neither blind or a prophet, the integrity of the trope is maintained.

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Silk's dislike of enclosed spaces is tipped over into a full-blown [[Claustrophobia|phobia]] after a traumatic event in the first series. He also doesn't like snakes. This becomes a major plot point when his love interest in the second series starts to carry a highly venomous snake in her bodice. Some have speculated that she did this strictly to mess with Silk; however this is neither stated nor even strongly implied in the books. She has, however, commented on more than one occasion that Zith was cold and it was a place for her to be warm. Liselle is a pragmatist as well, and it is suggested that (possibly at the unknown prompting of the Prophecy of Light) she began doing so because it might be useful in the future. And it was. She did admit to Silk that the first time she did it it made her skin crawl and it was all she could do to keep from screaming.

* [[With Us or Against Us]]: Invoked by Belgarath in ''The Malloreon'', but it's at least [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that there really ''are'' only two sides in the great conflict.

* [[World of Snark]]: Both heroes and villains make liberal use of sarcasm. It's hard to go a page without somebody making some snarky comment.

* [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]]: The gods and Mimbrates love to speak on this manner. Especially if in [[Big Words|eloquence]].

[[Category:Literature of the 1980s]]

[[Category:Literature of the 1990s]]