Codex Alera/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: Twice. {{spoiler|Lord Acquitaine dies a slow, lingering death, having executed the duties of his office with great dignity and relatively conscientious, selfless regard; partially because Ehren all but set him up to die so he wouldn't consider threatening Octavian.}} And the second time is more surprising: {{spoiler|the final Vord Queen herself, having shown an increasing fascination with human customs and mockingly called Tavi and Kitai her parents, admits before her certain death that she learned much from humans, that they were stronger than the Vord, and that her battle against them was never personal; she was just trying to do what she was supposed to do as a queen. She also asks if Tavi will make her suffer; he says no.}}

* [[Complete Monster]]: Generally one of these per book. Starting off with Kord, {{spoiler|who tries to kidnap Isana and [[Rape As Drama|rape and enslave her]] after she foils his plans to kill a number of people in the Calderon Valley}}, Brencis, {{spoiler|who constantly bullies Tavi and eventually attempts to murder him after becoming a member of the aristocracy}}, and Lady Antillus, who comes along with the First Aleran ''specifically'' to try to organize Max's death {{spoiler|and cause a little treason along the way}}. But the prize has to go to Lord Kalarus, who {{spoiler|kidnaps a High Lord's daughter and another's wife and makes them his slaves, pulls four illegal legions out of his ass, [[I Have Your Wife|holds a woman's daughter hostage in order to make her obey his orders as his assassin]], creates an underground league of assassins built to systematically execute the Cursors, make treaties with the greatest enemies of Alera for them to help him in his coup, tries to kill Tavi and Max after his son gets whupped by them so his reputation isn't marred by his son being beat by a [[Heroic Bastard]] and a [[Badass Normal|"furyless freak"]], strips the wealth from his nation to make his palace more extravagant, creates a group of [[Elite Mooks|elite soldiers]] by torturing young boys for years until the sensation of pain is ''[[Combat Sadomasochist|orgasmic]]'' to them, and binding himself to the fury of a dormant volcano so if he dies [[Taking You ~~With~~ Me|he can take some of the realm with him]].}} And honestly, that's just the top of the list.

* [[Complete Monster]]: Generally one of these per book. Starting off with Kord, {{spoiler|who tries to kidnap Isana and [[Rape as Drama|rape and enslave her]] after she foils his plans to kill a number of people in the Calderon Valley}}, Brencis, {{spoiler|who constantly bullies Tavi and eventually attempts to murder him after becoming a member of the aristocracy}}, and Lady Antillus, who comes along with the First Aleran ''specifically'' to try to organize Max's death {{spoiler|and cause a little treason along the way}}. But the prize has to go to Lord Kalarus, who {{spoiler|kidnaps a High Lord's daughter and another's wife and makes them his slaves, pulls four illegal legions out of his ass, [[I Have Your Wife|holds a woman's daughter hostage in order to make her obey his orders as his assassin]], creates an underground league of assassins built to systematically execute the Cursors, make treaties with the greatest enemies of Alera for them to help him in his coup, tries to kill Tavi and Max after his son gets whupped by them so his reputation isn't marred by his son being beat by a [[Heroic Bastard]] and a [[Badass Normal|"furyless freak"]], strips the wealth from his nation to make his palace more extravagant, creates a group of [[Elite Mooks|elite soldiers]] by torturing young boys for years until the sensation of pain is ''[[Combat Sadomasochist|orgasmic]]'' to them, and binding himself to the fury of a dormant volcano so if he dies [[Taking You with Me|he can take some of the realm with him]].}} And honestly, that's just the top of the list.

*** Just to make things a bit worse, that girl he holds hostage to make her mother {{spoiler|serve as his spy and assassin}}? He also used the same girl as hostage against a prisoner's good behavior - a High Lady is too powerful to be credibly threatened by soldiers or gargoyles, so instead, if the High Lady made any escape attempt, the little girl would be the gargoyles' primary target. But anyway, that's not the part a bit worse. The part a bit worse is, {{spoiler|the girl is Kalarus's granddaughter through rape}}.

** It would probably not be unfair to speculate that Kalarus considers the day wasted if he hasn't found ''at least'' three [[Kick the Dog|dogs to kick or otherwise violate]] before lunch. It's up to the reader to decide where he finally crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]], but he's undeniably beyond it by the time all is said and done.

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** Brencis Minoris. For the first 4 books, he does quite a few sinister things, but we didn't know how much of it was his father's influence and violent temper exerting control over him. Then in Princeps' Fury {{spoiler|we find out that he's responsible for enslaving hundreds of Alerans with discipline collars. When his former fiancee Flora begs him to let her out, he gleefully tells her how she's about to be turned into a mindless husk that will gleefully entertain new recruits for the rest of her life.}} What. A. Bastard.

* [[Crazy Awesome]]: Tavi. I mean, good lord. He stops in the middle of a battle to sit in front of the gates and play chess with the enemy commander.

* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: [[Codex Alera ~~(Literature)~~/Awesome|Many over the course of the series.]]

* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: [[Codex Alera/Awesome|Many over the course of the series.]]

** Any and all of Tavi's tactics as captain in the third book, take your pick from {{spoiler|filling the city with sawdust and then setting it on fire when the invading army took it, dumping blood from the slaughterhouses into the river to attract sharks and the like from the sea, or having his Knights Aeris fly up and focus the air itself into a giant magnifying glass and proceeding to roast the enemies like ants.}}

*** Most of Tavi's actions in books three and four count, actually. Particularly when he {{spoiler|finally declares himself in front of his friends and enemies and challenges Arnos (and by extension Navaris) to a duel.}}

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*** And then High Lord Cereus tops Bernard by doing the same thing. {{spoiler|Except instead of using an arrow, he uses ''himself'' - literally hurling himself down the maw of the vordbulk and triggering a furycrafting that destroyed its entire head, taking himself along with it, to protect his daughter and grandchildren.}} [[Manly Tears]].

** [[Two Words|One word]]: {{spoiler|Catapults}}.

** On a Meta level, Jim Butcher for writing a series based on the concept of [[~~Pokémon (Franchise)|~~Pokémon]] and making it ''awesome''. (And on a bet no less.)

** On a Meta level, Jim Butcher for writing a series based on the concept of [[Pokémon]] and making it ''awesome''. (And on a bet no less.)

* [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] - [[Codex Alera ~~(Literature)~~/Funny|Has its own page.]]

* [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] - [[Codex Alera/Funny|Has its own page.]]

* [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] - [[Codex Alera ~~(Literature)~~/Heartwarming|Has its own page.]]

* [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] - [[Codex Alera/Heartwarming|Has its own page.]]

* [[Evil Is Sexy]]:

** Brencis. When the person who you've kidnapped and are about to rape notices how handsome you are, I believe you fufill this trope (though the mind control collar helped).