Black Company/Characters: Difference between revisions

== Characters introduced in ''The Books of the North'': ==

 

The Captain at the start of the series. We never learn his real name. Makes a deal with the devil which puts the Black Company under the employ of The Lady and sets up the first three books.

 

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]

 

One of the three company wizards. He and Goblin have an eternal feud with each other leading to magical duels cropping up whenever they have the time. Cheats horribly at Tonk leading many characters to avoid playing with him. As to his ability with sorcery he is more capable than any minor wizard outside the company, but he often points out that his magic is nothing compared with those wizards with the talent level of the Taken.

 

* [[Jerkass]]

* [[Nice Hat]]: Well, it sounds like a cool hat even if everybody else goes on about how old and ugly it is. Besides, it can {{spoiler|cancel out mind control}}. That's got to count for something.

 

 

 

* {{spoiler|[[Brainwashed and Crazy]]}}: {{spoiler|Comes back like this after his first [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. He gets better in time to finish Kina off, with a little help from One Eye's magic hat}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}: Twice.

 

=== Silent ===

* {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}

* [[The Rival]]: {{spoiler|with Raven}} in ''Silver Spike''

 

=== Raven ===

* {{spoiler|[[Comes Great Insanity]]}}: Because he studied black magic, in ''The Silver Spike'' {{spoiler|once he touches it, he gets instantly corrupted}}

* [[Deconstruction]]: He gets introduced as your typical ultra-cool badass loner with angsty past in the first book. Starting halway through it series proceed to show him as more and more flawed. In his final apperance he comes as a bit of pathetic.

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Considering his hate for Limper it's ironic how much ruthless he becomes {{spoiler|and in the end he turns as mad as Limper or Dominator when he touches Silver Spike}}.

* [[Knight Templar Parent]]: A ''major'' one of these for Darling.

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Crosses one big time in ''Shadows Linger''.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Inversion - taking care of Darling makes him even worse, as he focuses all his good on her,leaving the world to witness his less pleasant side.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: He has two children he abandoned without remose. {{spoiler|In ''The Silver Spike'' Case and Darling forces him to meet them}}

* [[Parental Substitute]]: For Darling

* [[The Worf Effect]]: Suffers it big time in ''The White Rose'' and again in ''The Silver Spike''. Second one is especially humilating, as it was delivered by man named ''Old Man Fish''.

 

* [[Badass]]

* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]

* [[Enemy Civil War]]

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: {{spoiler|Especially when they started fighting each other}}

* [[Magic Knight]]: Most of them are both skilled wizard and strong warriors, due to the setting's inversion of the [[Squishy Wizard]] trope.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]

* [[True Name]]: The Taken are largely impervious if their true name is not known, even by wizard standards.

* [[Undead]]: Part of the ritual to convert someone to a Taken seems to involve killing and then resurrecting them again, possibly more than once. Several, if not all, of the Ten Who Were Taken clearly spent some time dead before their conversion; all of the Ten wear masks, presumably to hide this.

 

== Soulcatcher ==

* [[Complete Monster]]: Croaker notes he is considered one of the worst among the Taken.

* {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead]]:}} {{spoiler|twice}}

* {{spoiler|[[Rasputinian Death]]:}} {{spoiler|In ''Black Company'' he survives being eaten by fire snakes. In ''Shadows Linger'' he ends impaled from ballista, twice, ripped by dogs, cut several times, crucified and having his chest ripped by one of Dominator's curses. He survived, only to get his head cut off by Croaker in ''The White Rose'' and having the rest of his body cut to the pieces and it's still implied he is still alive. He finally dies with rest of the Taken, when Lady looses her power. Probably.}}

** {{spoiler|He comes back ''again'' in ''The Silver Spike'', as just a head this time. He proceeds to acquire a newer, better body soon after. Even at the end of the book, he doesn't really 'die', he's 'simply' cast off into another dimension by a deity who's power rivals that of the Dominator.}}

 

* [[Big Bad]]: In-universe.

* [[Evil Overlord]]: How she is seen; while she definitely has a cruel streak, it is doubtful she is as bad as her husband or even the Rebel.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: {{spoiler|Once she starts having visions of Kina she immediately recognizes that the goddess is trying to seduce her with promises of great power, while never mentioning the price. It hast something to do with her doing the same during her time as [[Evil Overlord]].}}

* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: Croaker tries to argue he might have good side Lady didn not knew about, and uses this as an possible example. Lady says he probably killed her with his bare hands.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: His whole existence is this for Lady.

* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Apparently has backup plans for backup plans and managed to set many of them in motion before being imprisoned.

 

 

A wizard who dedicated most of his life to gaining access to the Great Barrow where the Dominator and his henchmen were buried. He recognized the dangers of his work, and never intended to free anyone; rather, his plan was to coerce the lady into teaching him what she knew of magic. While the Lady has since wiped most records of what happened, it is thought that his ritual was disrupted when he was caught between two parties who wished to release and contain the Dominator, respectively. Popular myth holds that he was last seen heading towards the Great Barrow in a vain attempt to keep the Dominator from escaping. While it is unclear if he succeeded in containing the Dominator, the Lady and the Taken did escape.

 

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Is believed to have attempted this in-universe. It is unclear whether it succeeded. {{spoiler|It appears he never got past the dragon guarding the central chamber. Later sacrifices himself to slay the dragon during the Dominator's escape attempt.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead]]: Frozen in time with a plume of fire from a dragon coming at him.}}

 

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Just to drive the point home - he had assaulted resident [[Badass]] Raven and two other people at the same time, [[Curb Stomp Battle|beaten them without breaking a sweat]], murdered one of them and managed to do it too fast for them to see his face.

* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: {{spoiler|Manipulated everybody to save his and Smeds' skins, making all sides dance as he wanted them to.}}