Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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* [[Complete Monster]]: Pryrates. As one of the few even slightly [[Genre Savvy]] characters, he seems to go out of his way to make sure everyone knows just how far over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] he's gone.

** Every single one of Elias's cronies is at the very least a [[Smug Snake]], but Skali is probably the worst- his own soldiers helped Isorn escape because they were so sickened by Skali's orders to [[Cold Blooded Torture|torture them]] [[For the Evulz|for no reason]]. Later, he tortures Gwythinn to death and leaves his mutilated corpse for his family to find.

** Every single one of Elias's cronies is at the very least a [[Smug Snake]], but Skali is probably the worst- his own soldiers helped Isorn escape because they were so sickened by Skali's orders to [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture them]] [[For the Evulz|for no reason]]. Later, he tortures Gwythinn to death and leaves his mutilated corpse for his family to find.

* [[Goddamned Bats]]: Bukken, tiny diggers who like to burrow beneath the ground and swarm larger foes from below. They have a tendency to show up in the most inconvenient of places.

* [[Growing the Beard]]: The pace of the story picks up noticeably about halfway through the first book and goes to warp speed by the end of the third.

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Notably averted. Pryrates, being a [[Card Carrying Villain]] from his first appearance, starts out beyond the M.E.H., but Williams goes to great pains to make sure the story's other antagonists, including the [[Big Bad]] himself, all remain to some degree sympathetic no matter how many awful things they do.

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Notably averted. Pryrates, being a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] from his first appearance, starts out beyond the M.E.H., but Williams goes to great pains to make sure the story's other antagonists, including the [[Big Bad]] himself, all remain to some degree sympathetic no matter how many awful things they do.

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: The ghant nest... shudder. The tunnel sequences with Simon can also be brutal for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia.

** The fall of Naglimund, especially the bukken.

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** The key word there is "might"; their seemingly pointless wandering provides crucial world-building and adds depth to the main plot by putting viewpoint characters at key scenes/locations.

* [[The Woobie]]: Examples of tragic suffering abound on all sides of the story. On the villains' side, there's Elias himself, who is tricked into the whole [[Evil Plan]] out of {{spoiler|grief over his dead wife}}; not to mention poor Guthwulf -- as much of a [[Jerkass]] as he is to begin with, he doesn't deserve to be [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]] by Sorrow and blinded by Pryrates. Nearly every plot-significant protagonist suffers, too. Maegwyn and Leleth in particular seem to have been screwed over by a cruel deity just so they can {{spoiler|sacrifice their lives to give Simon the strength to return to his body from near death}}.

* [[Woobie Destroyer of Worlds]]: Ineluki, the [[Big Bad]]. Even Utuk'ku, the Norn Queen, is played with a certain degree of sympathy; her desire to destroy the world comes from the dreadful ennui of eternal life coupled with a hatred of humanity stemming from the death of her son.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Ineluki, the [[Big Bad]]. Even Utuk'ku, the Norn Queen, is played with a certain degree of sympathy; her desire to destroy the world comes from the dreadful ennui of eternal life coupled with a hatred of humanity stemming from the death of her son.