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Cerberon: Difference between revisions
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{{tropelist}}
* [[A Boy and His X]]: Cerberon was born when George was a child and they've been inseparable ever since.
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: Alicorn blades are shown to be absurdly sharp. Bryn Kravat easily slices Aladavan's steel sword in half with King Norrith's alicorn scimitar. A skilled magic user can take this even further by making the alicorn blade extend a magical energy blade as functional as a light saber. Aladavan uses one like this to decapitate a horse and bisect its rider in a single stroke.
* [[Acrophobic Bird]]: The skraad in the story actively avoid flying in daytime, unless they're invisible, because if someone spots them there's a very good chance they'll be killed.
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* [[Alien Non-Interference Clause]]: The dragons espouse a version by which they avoid interfering in the lives of humans and other younger races. It doesn't stop them from interacting with them or severely punishing them when they become dangerously unruly.
* [[The Alleged Steed]]: Thedrik's mule. Old, half blind, unreliable, and cranky. He still chooses her over a good horse when given the chance.
* [[
* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: At the end of the novel, Cerberon is reunited with some of his children and he plans to teach them all magic while chaperoning a dragon on the Grand Tour of Europe.
** Another example exists with Thedrik. He plans to hunt down the vampires infesting his [[Corrupt Church]].
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* [[A Storm Is Coming]]: Invoked by Aladavan. Whether he's only forecasting the heavy rain that falls later that night or he has insight into the battle that occurs while it's still raining the next day is unclear.
* [[As You Know Bob]]: Played with in this exchange, where Aladavan passes along information which is common knowledge in his world, but which George, and the reader, couldn't possibly know :
{{quote|
'''George''': No. I did not know that at all.
'''Aladavan''': I know, which is why I told you. }}
* [[Attempted Rape]]: Twice, with the same characters. Lubek, a ruthless hackal, tries to rape Junapur after knocking her out in combat. He tries again later when she's sleeping, but she stabs him to death.
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** Aladavan's horses were uncontrollably spooked by Darkram's [[Enemy to All Living Things|evil aura]], so he killed and reanimated them, turning them into [[Everything's Deader with Zombies|Zombie]] [[Automaton Horses]].
* [[Badass Boast]]: When Aladavan does it, it's equal parts warning and picking a fight. Example:
{{quote|
* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Merlen and Oethelzeiren are both over a thousand years old and are renowned worldwide for their power. The one person who dared to directly defy Merlen was vaporized mid-sentence with a glance. Oethelzeiren easily kick's Merlen's ass because he doesn't mind causing collateral damage.
* [[Beast Man]]: Hackals are basically humanoid hyenas.
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* [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Aladavan is the only example of [[The Fair Folk]] who appears in the novel, and his general attitude and bearing fits this trope. He's also an extremely intelligent [[Manipulative Bastard]] capable of turning almost any argument in his favor.
** Can't Argue With Dragons: Dragons have ruled the world for millions of years, and won't let you forget they're literally the top of the food chain.
{{quote|
'''George''': Like cattle… But I'm not going to argue with a dragon. Are you?”
'''Cerberon''': No. It's unsettling to meet someone who'd as soon kill us as sit down for a nice cup of tea. }}
* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Averted, since the intelligent carnivores, dragons, hackals, and skraad, don't have a problem with eating other intelligent species. As far as they're concerned, meat is meat, regardless of the source. They do avoid outright cannibalism, but eating a half-human hybrid of their own species doesn't seem to count as cannibalism to them.
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* [[Dragon Rider]]: Averted, unless you want to count Robert and Agnes riding on the back of Prince Aeronweyir, who's a dragon. They're only playing, since the Prince is fond of children. It's still awesome.
* [[Duel to the Death]]: After George punches Aladavan, and he's convinced Aladavan plans terrible retribution, George suggests they have a duel to get it over with. Fortunately for George, Aladavan considers the idea ridiculous.
** Aladavan is forced to duel the son of a wizard he killed in a [[Trial by Combat]]. Aladavan is not allowed to use his sword or magic in the fight, while his opponent is fully armed.
** George offers to duel Captain Mayhew to settle their differences. He tells Mayhew about the special ammunition his pistols are loaded with and lets him pick which one he wants to use. {{spoiler|Mayhew [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]], which doesn't work out well for him.}}
* [[Elite Mooks]]: Wizard Royal Elect Tmneal Kravat has a group of half-hackal warriors called the Nine Fangs explicitly described as elite soldiers. Their eliteness seems more like an [[Informed Ability]] when Aladavan fries them with a massive ball of lightning, and decapitates the blinded and severely burned survivors who are still trying to achieve their objective despite their fatal injuries.
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* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Aladavan annihilates a clan of crazed haflings because they are rapacious cannibalistic monsters, worse than wild hackals.
** Thedrik thinks this when he enters a tavern full of unsavory criminal types. Even they wouldn't help hackals raid human homes like he's doing.
* [[Everyone Can See It]]: It is patently obvious to everyone but George that he and Margaret are a good match for each other. George complains about this when he finally realizes it. Cerberon also doesn't notice until George tells him about their engagement, and he doesn't really believe it until their betrothal.
* [[Evil Overlord]]: The Dragon Queen. Most of the people understandably think of her and describe her as an [[Evil Overlord]]: Solitary ruler of the world? Check. Lives in a [[Supervillain Lair|fortress of doom atop an active volcano]]? Check. Employs [[The Dragon|an enforcer]] with a [[Names to Run Away From Very Fast|Name to Run Away From Very Fast]]? Check. Personally responsible for the [[A Million Is a Statistic|deaths of thousands if not millions]]? Check. [[I Am a Humanitarian|Eats people as a standard part of her diet]]? Check. Except that she's actually a subversion. It turns out that she's really a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] who has to [[Shoot the Dog]]. Unfortunately the dog in this case happens to be a [[Humans Are
* [[The Exile]]: Aladavan was exiled for banning his sister. The Ban is apparently an [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|evil forbidden technique]] which is a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] for the person receiving it.
* [[Extreme Omnisexual]]: Probably describes a large portion of the human population of the world, considering the number and variety of half-human hybrids encountered. George might also qualify, as he's shamelessly attracted to a [[Petting Zoo Person]] (Junapur) and a [[Our Centaurs Are Different|centauress]] (Zofi).
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* [[Hot Amazon]]: George thinks so of Junapur.
* [[How Do I Shot Web?]]: Cerberon has already figured out on his own a lot of things he can do with magic. Aladavan pushes him to do things he hadn't thought of trying, giving him simple instruction on how to do them. He also provides Darkram crucial instruction on harnessing his supernatural abilities.
* [[Hypnotic Eyes]]: Darkram can use this ability to stun or immobilize subjects he makes eye contact with.
* [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: Thedrik does this after using the memory of his dead girlfriend to make small talk in a tavern. His [[Mangst]] over this and that he's helping hackals raid people's homes has him take the free drink offered by the barman, and then ask for another.
* [[I Work Alone]]: Aladavan prefers to fight alone, because he might kill his friends along with his foes if they're standing in the wrong place.
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* [[Incidental Villain]]: Most of the time Aladavan is actually very helpful to the protagonists, but he easily switches to full-evil villain mode whenever someone pisses him off, or stands in the way of what he wants.
* [[The Insomniac]]: Aladavan has been using an elixer of artificial sleep for days. He's had to take the elixer with increasing frequency and decreasing effectiveness until it runs out and its effects wear off. The results arent pretty.
* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Several. Emma and the Prince (See [[Fantastic Romance]], above). Eduard and Sera, a skraad and a human, are married and very much in love. They are surprised when they have a child together; they thought the father was an unknown human until the baby was born. Craig McKinzie and Desirée, a unicorn, hint at a sexual relationship between them, but they might only be joking.
* [[Karmic Death]]: Captain Mayhew. His attempt to murder George backfires spectacularly.
** Even Lubek's clan of undergound hackals think he got what he deserved for trying to rape Junapur in her sleep.
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** Cephalon later reveals to Princess Tara that she's actually the Dragon Queen's daughter.
* [[Mad Love]]: Sascia for Aladavan after his More Than Mind Control treatment of her.
* [[Magic
* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: When it's pointed out to Merlen that his entire arm is missing, he nonchalantly says, "Oh this? I got into a little fight with Oethelzeiren. I'll be fine." In that fight, Merlen had vaporized Oethelzeiren's wings, and he has a similar underreaction: "I hardly ever used them anyway." Of course they're both recognized as two of the most [[Badass]] sorcerors in the world, so such reactions from them isn't surprising.
** Having been nearly disemboweled, and facing George threatening him with a sabre, Aladavan says, "I'm rather busy at the moment, holding my innards in."
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* [[Pet the Dog]]: An almost literal example, when Aladavan lavishes Sascia with positive attention (inluding petting her). It's part of his [[More Than Mind Control]] treatment of her, but Darkram later points out that Aladavan probably really does care for her much more than he thinks he does.
* [[Petting Zoo People]]: Junapur has mostly human features with distinctly (though nonspecific) animal characteristics. She's probably closer to [[Little Bit Beastly]] on the scale, and might qualify as a [[Hot Amazon]].
** Beast halfs (like Pavel and Jena, who are mule halfs) are your more typical petting zoo
* [[Planar Shockwave]]: Oethelzeiren creates one of these from energy gathered from a bunch of magical attacks on him. It takes out everyone attacking him causes a lot of collateral damage.
* [[Police Are Useless]]: When Thedrik warns Lieutenant Hanlon, of the Loethess Guard's Hackal Control Squad, about the underground preparations for the Dragon Queen's imminent attack, Hanlon dismisses the warning. Hanlon actually has a point: the Queen's attack has been imminent for years, and they've heard warnings similar to Thedrik's so many times they've gotten used to it.
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