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]]:

** In ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', Belgarath and Beldin at one point meet for the first time in a while, and ask what the other has been up to; Belgarath had just finished a rigorous mathematical proof that three and three made six, while Beldin had been trying to determine the exact difference between the concepts of "right" and "good." Both men wonder why the other was doing something [[Mad Mathematician|so]] [[Contemplate Our Navels|pointless]].

* [[Hysterical Woman]]: Played straight with Ce'Nedra in ''The Belgariad'' and taken even further in ''The Malloreon''. In the first series she's prone to hysterics, often throws tantrums, and at one point almost gets her friend and Garion's cousin Adara killed because she was bored. In ''The Malloreon'' she becomes even more unstable with the theft of Geran, and her major contributions to the party are unreasonable demands that someone get her baby back that very second followed by crying fits when it's pointed out that she's asking for the impossible.

* [[Idiot Ball]]:

** In ''Guardians of the West'', neither Garion, Porenn, or Silk pick up on the the extremely obvious hints General Haldar drops about his involvement with the Bear Cult. Even Silk – the [[Guile Hero]] of the group – doesn't put two and two together.

* [[Ignorance Is Bliss]]: Garion, deliberately. Also played with in Errand/Eriond.

* [[I Gave My Word]]: Garion in ''Pawn of Prophecy'', after unwillingly being taken into confidence about a plot to kill the king of Arendia and promising not to reveal where he got the information.

* [[I Have You Now, My Pretty]]: A recurring threat against Polgara is that Torak will [[Mind Rape]] and force her into marriage. Indeed, the turning point of the final battle comes {{spoiler|when Polgara is able to tell Torak exactly where he can go stick what, despite his attempts to force her. Belgarath specifically points out that if Torak had had the emotional support of Polgara's "love", however false, Belgarion would never have been able to defeat him.}}

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Garion. Everyone's response: You're not. Get over it.

"Does the ambassador know that you know?" Hettar asked.

"Of course he does." The fat man laughed. "But he doesn't think that I'm aware of the fact that he knows that I know." }}

* [[Improbable Antidote]]:

** In ''Magician's Gambit'', Relg discovers that using his ability of passing through solid rock got rid of his cold.

** 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.

 

* [[One-Gender Race]]: The nonhuman Dryads. They kidnap human men and force them to father children. This goes one of two ways: a girl will always be a Dryad, and a boy will be human with Dryad genes lying dormant. These Dryad genes can then be passed on to the children of that male - and they are, resulting in Ce'Nedra, who, thanks to dilution, is half Dryad. (It's not stated explicitly, but the implication is that the Dryads, left to their own devices, kill male children.)

** Pure dryads don't have male children. In "Belgarath the Sorcerer", Belgarath notes that crossbreeding dryads with the House of Borune did some odd things, since a pure dryad "would never give birth to a male child".

* [[Only Child Syndrome]]: A hereditary trait of the Rivan line, largely due to the interference of the Prophecy. Retconned in ''Polgara the Sorceress''. Apparently at least a few of Garion's ancestors had multiple children, but only the direct line mattered, so none of Garion's various great-great-etc-aunts and uncles ultimately mattered, and the only cousin he ever knowingly meets is from his mother's side of the family. The founder of the hidden line is explicitly the king's youngest grandson, implying that any male in an unbroken male line descended from Riva would work. Let's hope there aren't any more unbroken male lines. A direct sibling is never portrayed; while Polgara mentions having lots of children to play with in Cherek, they could've been maternal cousins or some such.

* [[Only the Chosen May Wield]]: The Orb, and as a consequence the Sword of the Rivan King due to its immense weight when Orb-less.

* [[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.

* [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]: To the point of caricature, but still played completely straight. It's even [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] by the heroes at a few points, and acknowledged that, while it may not necessarily be a good thing, it's absolutely necessary to fulfil the Prophecy. Belgarath performed assassinations as well as coerced marriages to create the families of the [[True Companions]], and is quite unapologetic about it. Yes, it was wrong, but [[Papa Wolf|he doesn't really care.]] At one point, he [[Lampshade|Lampshades]] this when he tells Garion that he's less interested in Good vs Evil than Us vs. Them.

* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: The [[Boisterous Bruiser|Chereks]], [[Fragile Speedster|Algars]], [[Honour Before Reason|Arends]], and [[Blood Knight|Murgos]] all represent different flavors of this trope.

* [[Puberty Superpower]]: Beldin theorizes that their particular type of "talent" only shows itself during puberty as a safety precaution, since having baby sorceres around could be highly inconvenient.

* [[Robe and Wizard Hat]]: Sorcerers maintain that this image of them is a fiction invented by [[Muggles]] who know nothing about them. The few times Belgarath is forced into such an outfit, he is notably apoplectic about it.

* [[Ruling Couple]]: Belgarion and Ce'Nedra of Riva, and Korodullin and Mayaserana of Arendia.

* [[Running Gag]]: Garion asking {{spoiler|'Zakath}} if he's sure he's not part Arendish. Comes up whenever the latter is behaving too enthusiastically in [[The Malloreon]].

 

** Let's not forget Vella and Beldin in ''the Malloreon'', which virtually becomes {{spoiler|part of their courtship before they end up mated as a pair of hawks at the end of the series}}. The level to which they go to in their language towards one another makes even some who are already used to Beldin blanch.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: A power of sorcerers- most develop a fondness for a particular animal form. Wolf for Garion and Belgarath, owl for Polgara, human for Poledra (who ''started out'' a wolf), and dragon for Zandramas. We also see Beldin take the form of a hawk and Ctuchik (or maybe Urvon) use the form of a [[Hell Hound|Hound of Torak]] in ''Belgarath''.

* [[Wanted Poster]]: Silk gets this treatment a lot, much to his disgust. Beldin too, in Mallorea, thanks to his vendetta against Urvon, much to his delight. Specifically, he creates a series of masterful characters with the help of shapeshifting that render the posters useless--but every century or so, drops into Urvon's home base and butchers a lot of priests and guards to let Urvon know he's still kicking around and wanting to continue a discussion they once had about white-hot hooks and Urvon's guts.

* [[Weak-Willed]]: Ce'Nedra spends a lot of time getting mind-controlled. At one point, Belgarath shows his [[Genre Savvy]] by leaving her behind so this can't happen.

* [[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]]