Realm of the Elderlings: Difference between revisions

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: On his way to assassinate Prince Regal, Fitz encounters the half-mad bond companion of a Witted man Regal had tortured to death. The insane little ferret is bent on killing Regal, as well, intending on slashing open his throat and drinking his blood, and Fitz wishes him well, as one assassin to another. {{spoiler|In the book's epilogue, Regal is described as having died in his bed in a way that implies Small Ferret got to him in the end, after all.}}

** Also the Witness Stones. {{spoiler|They are first introduced in ''Assassin's Apprentice''. Two books later, in ''Assassin's Quest'', the Skill pillars, which grant teleportation, are introduced and get an idea about their origins. Then, in ''Fool's Fate'', '''eight''' books after first being introduced, the Fool uses the Witness Stones to travel to the Outislands.}}

* [[Children Are Innocent]]: Rosemary is a [[Double Subversion]]. {{spoiler|she is [[The Mole]], but, being a small child, is simply doing what Prince Regal's people tell her to.}}

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Lady Patience.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Fitz does not fight fair at all. Poison, hidden weapons, sniping, and deliberate maiming are all standard tactics for him.

* [[Comic Book Adaptation]]: A French production that has only been translated into Dutch so far.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Nighteyes, who never seems to stop being amused by certain human tendencies. Fitz has a hard time keeping a straight face when Nighteyes nicknames new encounters, on occasion, too, especially when he refers to Starling as the "howling bitch" for her singing.

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Although several characters are notable for their unwavering loyalty to the person or a cause, Burrich stands out among them.

* [[The Wise Prince]]: Chivalry and especially Verity.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: or slash, or poison. Given [[Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality|the genders are pretty much equal]], nobody pulls punches.

 

* [[Continuity Nod]]: when Amber resculpts the ship Paragon's visage in order to restore its eyes, the end result is heavily implied to be Fitz the assassin. In ''The Tawny Man'', {{spoiler|this turns out to have been a [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]}}.

* [[Corrupt Church]]: {{spoiler|The church of Sa in Jamailla City has turned corrupt, and now collaborates with the slave traders.}}

* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: Dear Sa, Kennit has one. Paragon's past at least rivals Kennit's. So does Brashen, albeit on a considerably smaller scale than Kennit.

* [[Dead Guy Junior]]: a variation: {{spoiler|Etta and Kennit's son is named Paragon, after the ship}}

* [[Fantasy Contraception]]: wizardwood used as a belly button ring.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|Kennit's being held prisoner and raped as a child and, more dramatically, becoming a sociopath due to investing his traumatic memories in Paragon. Note that putting memories into wizardwood or skill stone, as with the stone dragons, is shown to remove the emotional attachment the person has to those memories throughout the series. While it might come off as strange, it is consistent with how that type of magic works in the series.}}

* [[Idiot Ball]]: almost all of the problems in the first book are directly caused by Ronica entrusting the family liveship not to her nice but unorthodox daughter Althea, but to the harsh and brutal husband of her other daughter, Kyle. Within the first few chapters, Kyle alienates his wife, disrupts the life of his son, chases Althea out of the family, supports his daughter becoming a manipulative vixen, kicks out most of the ship's crew, and turns the newly awakened family ship to slave trading.

* [[If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Being a Sa priest is not easy.

* [[I Gave My Word]]

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Jerk]]: Satrap Cosgo is made more prudent and pragmatic by his ordeals, but every time you think he's learned something about empathy, graciousness, or humility as well, he turns out to be as big of a [[Jerkass]] as ever.

* [[Living Legend]]:

* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: Just ask ''Vivacia'' which captain she preferred and which one was the most successful.

* [[Made a Slave]]

* [[Never My Fault]]: Kyle Haven and Kennit both tend toward this form of reasoning, and it's [[Played for Drama|not played for laughs]].

* [[No Dead Body Poops]]: Explicitly noted when the dead pig is found in Davad Restart's coach.

* [[Sapient Ship]]: the premise, ships imbued with the memories of their ancestral families, with sentient, talking figureheads

* [[Save the Villain]]

* [[Sinister Minister]]: {{spoiler|Sa'Adar.}}

* [[Slut Shaming]]: The tenor of Bingtown society is more conservative than Six Duchies, and the shaming women face is more severe. Althea in particular gets a lot of it, including from her own sister in one important incident from their youth. Jek, who actually is implied to be promiscuous, is notably immune to being shamed because of her forceful personality.

* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Kennit, especially to Etta.

* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: {{spoiler|The Fool as Amber, probably. The Fool's gender is never truly revealed, although he is generally considered to be male.}}

 

'''The Tawny Man''':

* [[Scry vs. Scry]]: Hinted at in the first trilogy; made much more obvious. The entire plot of the books revolves around the Fool and the Pale Woman's opposing views of what the future should be like and their attempts to enforce their version.

* [[Slut Shaming]]: People heap shame on Fitz and Lord Golden for their perceived promiscuities. Svanja's father is distraught over what she and Hap are doing, and starts a fight with Fitz over it.

* [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask]]: shades of this in Kettricken

 

* [[Character Filibuster]]: Bellin to Jerd, when the latter is {{spoiler|having a miscarriage.}} Hoo boy.

* [[Christmas Cake]]: Alise at the start

* [[Domestic Abuser]]: Hest

* [[Trilogy Creep|Duology Creep]]: First being planned out as one book, the story grew so long that it was released as two books. And now her forthcoming sequel has grown to two books too.