Conan the Barbarian: Difference between revisions

** The only good Stygian in Howard's world is a poor fisherman who is kidnapped by Conan in ''Hour of the Dragon''. He's not only spared, but even rewarded with a hatful of gold!

** The negative portrayal of the Picts is all the odder because a) the Picts had been allies of Kull, who was supposedly Conan's earlier incarnation, and b) Howard wrote an essay concerning his longtime particular ''admiration'' for the historical Picts (despite there not being much detailed information available).

* [[Ambition Is Evil]]

** In "A Witch Shall Be Born", Salome rejected the study of [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] for using [[Black Magic]] for power.

** In "The Hour of the Dragon" and "The Phoenix on the Sword," more than one conspirator wanted the throne. (At least two wanted the same throne, that of Aquilonia, which gets awkward.)

* [[Animated Adaptation]]: Two of them, actually.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]:

** In "The People of the Black Circle," Conan laughs at Yasmina's offer of reward.

"Yes, civilized customs that won't let you do as you wish. You'll marry some withered old king of the plains, and I can go my way with only the memory of a few kisses snatched from your lips. Ha!"'' }}

** In "Shadows in the Moonlight" Olivia was [[Made a Slave]] for refusing this.

* [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]]

** In "The Phoenix on the Sword," Conan does not even fight a defensive battle when outnumbered twenty-to-one.

** In "The Slithering Shadow", the forces of Xuthal nearly overcame him though they aren't good fighters because of this and their [[Zerg Rush|numbers]].

* [[Attempted Rape]]: In "Red Nails" Olmec tries this on Valeria. {{spoiler|The rescue is even worse.}}

* [[Back From the Dead]]: In the Savage Sword of Conan comics, Boraq D' Sharaq did this so often that Conan remarked during his later appearances that the former pirate had more lives than a cat. He even returned to life after being turned into [[Taken for Granite|a glass statue]].

* [[Badass Boast]]: In "Shadows of Zamboula", Conan beats a cultist strangler, [[Scary Black Man|a black guy who's even larger than him]], at his own game - ''while being strangled himself'':

* [[Badass Creed]]: As summed up in the poem ''The Road of Kings''

''Rush in and die, dogs -- I was a man before I was a king!'' }}

* [[Badass in Distress]]: Conan has gotten captured more than once in his day. He usually escapes by some measure of guile, trickery or luck.

* [[Burn the Witch]]

* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: In the movie Thulsa Doom does not remember plundering Conan's village and selling him and the other children into slavery.

'''Doom:''' Ah! It must have been when I was younger. }}

* [[Buy Them Off]]: In "The Scarlet Citadel", to Conan. Works worse than usual.

* [[The Chains of Commanding]]

* [[Chewing the Scenery]]: Mako's narration in the film (of course); Max Von Sydow as King Osric, "The Usurper."

* [[The Chosen One]]: In ''The Phoenix On The Sword'' Conan is visited by the spirit of the sage Epemitreus. During their conversation Epemitreus implies that Conan was destined to become the king of Aquilonia and save the world from the cult of Set.

* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]

** Oddly, though, Howard stated in a letter that he preferred to write stupid characters, so he wouldn't have to dream up clever ways of getting them out of their predicaments: just punch, stab, or shoot. [[Irony|The implication is that he '''thought''' he was writing Conan as DumbMuscle rather than a GeniusBruiser.]]

* [[Fluffy Tamer]]: The henchman who cares for the giant snake in the movie.

* [[Forging Scene]]: The film ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' starts with the forging of the Father's Sword.

* [[Franchise Killer]]: The horrible second film, ''Conan The Destroyer'', undid all the lingering good will from John Milius' first film. It wasn't even the negative critical reception of the second movie that killed the franchise; it actually was successful at the box office, just less than the first one. This prompted the production of the ''[[Red Sonja]]'' movie - now ''that'' was a big flop. Schwarzenegger called it [[Self-Deprecation|"the worst movie I've ever made"]] and may have had a hand in making him move on to other projects - when a third Conan movie was considered, he was already busy with ''[[Predator]]''.

* [[Gem-Encrusted]]

* [[Gender Flip]]: [[The Movie]]'s sequel ''Conan The Destroyer'' turned [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/zula_hyborian.htm Zula], a male [[Magic Knight|warrior/wizard]] from the [[Marvel Comics]] line, into the non-magical [[Action Girl]] played by Grace Jones as a [[Amazon Brigade|Zulu Amazon]] of sorts wielding a [[Simple Staff]]. She's somewhat, uh, [[The Ladette|manly]] however.

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: In the original stories, he uses both brain and brawn to get through hardships.

* [[Genre Killer]]

* [[Good Hair, Evil Hair]]: A bit of this by courtesy of some of the Villains Conan has to face in some of his adventures.

* [[The Good King]]: Conan is one of these. He rules with the support of the outlying barons as well as the common people. During his reign he lowers taxes, institutes freedom of religion, and curbs the abuses of commoners by the nobility. When he is temporarily deposed in ''The Hour of the Dragon'' he is tempted to abandon his quest to reclaim his throne and return to the exciting life of a wandering adventurer, but he quickly decides that he can not leave his people in the hands of a tyrant.

* [[Gotterdammerung]]

* [[Grand Finale]]: The only full-length novel, "Hour of the Dragon" seems to serve as this for the Conan cycle.

* [[He Will Not Cry, So I Cry for Him]]: The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the first film adaptaion: Conan tenderly dresses the corpse of Valeria, the love of his life, as he prepares her funeral pyre for her journey to Valhalla. Yet for all his love, any tears that are left from his [[Men Don't Cry]] upbringing in childhood has been dried away by his twenty years of pitiless slavery. His best-friend Subotai silently sheds [[Tender Tears]] as the sorcerer asks "Why do you cry?" To which the Mongol Warrior answers: ''"He is Conan, Cimmerian. [[He Will Not Cry, So I Cry for Him]]."''

* [[Hidden Depths]]:

* [[The High Queen]]: In ''A Witch Shall Be Born'', Queen Taramis is beloved by her people for being a kind, compassionate, and virtuous ruler.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]

* [[How the Mighty Have Fallen]]

* [[Hulk Speak]]: In the books, Conan has a much bigger vocabulary than the average reader -- much less the stereotypical barbarian. But in the films, some of the barbarian side-characters get this treatment.

** Could be justified by a subtle translation convention going on. "Sit here!" may have been some of the only words of Cimmerian the man knew, and he ''was'' effectively talking to a child in the body of an adult. Most other conversations occur after Conan's education, when he might actually be expected to speak the more common languages.

* [[Human Sacrifice]]: Often.

* [[Leonine Contract]]: A slave taunts Conan with the prospect of one in "The Scarlet Citadel"

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Conan is repeatedly described as very fast and agile despite his size, as in "Xuthal of the Dusk":

* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: Not exactly; though Howard wrote [http://books.google.com/books?id=kQCohrOGHOsC&pg=PA168&lpg=PA168&dq=In+writing+these+yarns+I%27ve+always+felt+less+as+creating+them+than+as+if+I+were+simply+chronicling+his+adventures+as+he+told+them+to+me.&source=bl&ots=XN0UqDDYCK&sig=vkUrljTlFyuzQRv7mbE97ihq_1E&hl=en&ei=X9_8TJ6OJYn0ca75_fMO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=In%20writing%20these%20yarns%20I%27ve%20always%20felt%20less%20as%20creating%20them%20than%20as%20if%20I%20were%20simply%20chronicling%20his%20adventures%20as%20he%20told%20them%20to%20me.&f=false in a 1936 letter to a friend,] "I've always felt less as ''creating'' [the stories] than as if I were simply ''chronicling'' his adventures as he told them to me," he also wrote a disclaimer in "The Hyborian Age", published that same year: "[This article] is simply a fictional background for a series of fiction-stories."

* [[Living Shadow]]: The [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmarish]] monster from ''Xuthal of the Dusk'', Thog.

* [[Mars Needs Women]]

* [[Master Swordsman]]: Played straight and subverted. Unlike in the Arnold films, the original Conan does not receive formal training in swordsmanship, being a barbarian. But he is able to defeat certified Master Swordsmen ''because'' he is a barbarian. Spelled out in the story "The Pool of the Black One":

* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: Akivasha in ''Hour of the Dragon''.

* [[Outside Context Villain]]: A truly epic introduction of the villain in this fashion, as the Riders of Doom descend upon Conan's village out of the blue in the 1980 ''Conan'' film.

* [[Outlived Its Creator]]

* [[Overshadowed by Awesome]]: Poor Valerius... he risk a lot and fight like a lion to save his beloved queen, slays the evil witch, escape from a giant toad demon.. and the Conan arrives with [[The Cavalry]], orders them to shot down the beast and gets all the thanks of the queen [[Ungrateful Bitch|(who totally ignores Valerius)]].

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]:

** Conan gives one of these to Constantius in "A Witch Shall Be Born" while the latter is hanging on a cross.

"You are more fit to inflict torture than to endure it," said Conan tranquilly. "I hung there on a cross as you are hanging, and I lived, thanks to circumstances and a stamina peculiar to barbarians. But you civilized men are soft; your lives are not nailed to your spines as are ours. Your fortitude consists mainly in inflicting torment, not in enduring it. You will be dead before sundown. And so, Falcon of the desert, I leave you to the companionship of another bird of the desert." }}

** Thulsa Doom gives Conan one of these in the movie before sending him away to be crucified.

* [[Reincarnation]]: Howard implied more than once that Conan was the reincarnation of [[Kull]]. In "People of the Black Circle" the Master of Yimsha forces Yasmina to relive the humiliations of her past lives as punishment for defying him. "A Witch Shall Be Born" centres around a witch who keeps being reincarnated in the same family.

* [[Religion of Evil]]: Played straight with the followers of Set. Subverted with the followers of Asura, a mysterious and shadowy cult feared by the followers of Mitra, who turn out to be decent folks.

** In "A Witch Shall Be Born", Conan is crucified after he realizes the [[Evil Twin]] of a queen he's serving has taken her place. He survives to lead an invasion against the impostor, while the queen is rescued by a secondary protagonist.

** In "Iron Shadows in the Moon", a fugitive Conan comes by chance upon a warlord who had recently slaughtered a mercenary band he served in (about to rape the [[Girl of the Week|Girl of the Story]]) - and, with a [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|Pre Asskicking Monologue]], kills him in turn.

..."Shah Amurath, the great Lord of Akif! Oh, damn you, how I love the sight of you - you, who fed my comrades to the vultures, who tore them between wild horses, blinded and maimed and mutilated them all, you dog, you filthy dog!" His voice rose to a maddened scream, and he charged. }}

* [[The Rival]]

* [[Victory Is Boring]]: Conan discovers this after becoming King of Aquilonia. He takes any opportunity to visit new countries, and travelled far as king, though happily (for him) the political turmoil of the Hyborian nations meant his kingship wasn't exactly quiet. The movies also briefly touch on it.

* [[Violently Protective Girlfriend]]: Belit from ''The Queen of the Black Coast''. Also Valeria from the 1982 film (who paraphrases Belit's oath to defend Conan even after her own death).

** And the fact that ''she really does come back from the afterlife to aid Conan'' shows that she wasn't kidding.

* [[Virgin Sacrifice]]: Tsotha-lanti promises Seth five hundred if he'll defeat Conan.