Belgariad: Difference between revisions
There is no end to the tropes
(There is no end to the tropes) |
|||
Line 46:
* [[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.
* [[Alliterative Title]]: ''Pawn of Prophecy'' and ''Enchanters' End Game''.
* [[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]].
Line 140 ⟶ 141:
{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Poledra}} and Polgara''' (on occasion): "How remarkable."}}
{{quote|'''Silk''': "Trust me."}}
* [[Character Title]]: Eddings had originally envisioned ''The Belgariad'' as a trilogy with the titles ''Garion'', ''Ce'Nedra'', and ''Kal Torak''. In the end this was averted by Eddings' publisher, who mandated five books instead of three and insisted on [[Chess Motifs]] for the titles.
* [[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.
Line 272 ⟶ 274:
* [[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.
* [[First Time in the Sun]]:
* [[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]]:
Line 358 ⟶ 360:
** 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.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Invoked a few times, especially with boats vs. ships.
{{quote|"Ships," Anheg corrected. "They're called ships. A boat is something else."}}
* [[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.
* [[Invisible to Normals]]: In ''Enchanters' End Game'', Belgarath teaches the Orb how to make itself, the Sword of the Rivan King, and even Garion
* [[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.
Line 482 ⟶ 486:
* [[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.
* [[Primal Fear (trope)|Primal Fear]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]] and [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] with the underground-dwelling Ulgo people, who have a fear of ''non-enclosed'' spaces.
* [[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.
| |||