Sharpe: Difference between revisions

* [[Tactical Withdrawal]]: Most of the novel ''Sharpe's Escape'' follows Wellington's retreat through Portugal to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_of_Torres_Vedras Lines of Torres Vedras].

* [[The Tooth Hurts]]: Poor Harper has a horrible toothache in ''Sharpe's Siege''.

* [[Wrecked Weapon]]: ''Sharpe's Sword''. [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Kinda self-explanatory.]]

 

** One particularly [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|crowning]] subversion is Sharpe's [[Odd Couple]] friendship with the aristocratic William Lawford, which he explains to Leroy in ''Sharpe's Eagle'':

{{quote| '''Sharpe''': We spent three months chained in a cell in India. He had a page of the Bible. In three months he taught me how to read and write. How can you pay back a man who teaches you how to write your own name, Captain? }}

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Greatcoats were pretty common for soldiers in that period, but Sean Bean made them look ''awesome''.

* [[Badass Spaniard]]: A lot of the action takes place in Spain. Some of the locals are useless. Some of them are freakin' scary. And then there's Teresa.

* [[Character Title]]

* [[Clothes Make the Legend]]: Sharpe's green Rifleman jacket. All of Sharpe's friends know that if he dies, he's to be buried in it.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Sharpe doesn't believe in fighting fair, so expect to see him use every dirty trick in the book in order to win. These include switching uniforms, ambushing enemy troops, frequent use of [[Groin Attack|Groin Attacks]], luring enemies into positions where they can be shot by the French. One specific example: While fighting a superior swordsman with a rapier, he allows his opponent to stab him in the thigh, lodging the rapier in place due to the wound's suction. His opponent is thus (in an extremely unorthodox fashion) disarmed.

* [[Cool Sword]]: Sharpe's 1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword. It's a real weapon, but so massive that they're only used by men on horseback. Only those as big and strong as Sharpe are capable of wielding it like an infantry sword.

* [[Do It Yourself Theme Tune]]: Although you perhaps wouldn't expect it to work, Hagman's folk rendition of the Rifles' marching song ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' (with altered lyrics to fit the particular episode's events) often comes close to [[Crowning Music of Awesome]].

* [[Downer Ending]]: The TV version of what was to be the last episode, ''Sharpe's Waterloo'', included {{spoiler|two of Sharpe's best men and close friends, who had appeared in every previous episode, being killed due to incompetence by the Prince of Orange}}. And then the recent revival ''Sharpe's Challenge'' made matters worse by {{spoiler|killing off Sharpe's wife soon after they were married, whereas in the books they live [[Happily Ever After]]}}.

* [[Duel to The Death]]: Sharpe duels in a couple of books/episodes, mostly against other Britons rather than the enemy. Cornwell successfully averts what the modern viewer/reader might expect, that Sharpe (having risen from the ranks and being contemptuous of aristocratic twits) does ''not'' dismiss duelling as a silly affectation, but takes it very seriously - despite Wellington having banned the practice.

* [[The Duke of Wellington]]: The series' [[Big Good]].

* [[Famed in Story]]: Sharpe (and to a lesser extent, Harper) are renowned throughout the army and even back home in England for their sheer badassery. South Essex recruiting Sergeants brag about how the pair are part of the Regiment, and Sharpe is well-received in the court of the Prince Regent.

* [[Fatal Flaw]]: Sharpe's is beautiful women. He's never quite sure how to act around them. Granted, the fact that he usually ends up in bed with them is a point in his favor, but Sharpe also has a habit of believing ''anything'' a beautiful woman tells him.

* [[Field Promotion]]: How Sharpe is risen up from the ranks to the officer's mess in the first place...

** Teresa, a partisan, acts as [[The Sixth Ranger]] until {{spoiler|her death}}. Afterwards, Captain Friedrickson fills the role.

* [[Good Looking Privates]]

** Firmly averted, on the other hand, by William Frederickson, whose facial injuries make him truly hideous but is one of Sharpe's staunchest allies (at least until they find themselves competing for the same woman).

** In the TV movies Sharpe periodically removes his shirt -- with his back to the camera, thus reminding viewers that he still carries scars from a long-ago (and nearly lethal) flogging. In ''Sharpe's Eagle'' he does so before a group of soldiers, making sure they know he too was once one of them.

* [[Inspired By]]: The character of Rifleman Harris is named after a real individual, Private Benjamin Harris of the 95th Rifles who fought in the Peninsular War and, upon returning home, dictated an account of his experiences to an acquaintance. Eventually published as "The Recollections of Rifleman Harris", it's one of the few accounts of life in the British Army as an enlisted soldier (since "rankers" were typically illiterate, most accounts of the period were written by officers), and was one of Bernard Cornwell's main sources when he researched and wrote the Sharpe novels.<br />\In fact, Harper at one point suggests to Harris that when the war is over [[I Should Write a Book About This|he should write a book about his experiences]], "full of battles and death", and that would be sure to make his fortune. The audiobook of "Recollections" was narrated by Jason Salkey, the actor who played Harris in the TV series. {{spoiler|However, unlike his novel counterpart, TV's Harris dies at Waterloo.}}

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]: Almost an inversion - "Over the Hills and Far Away" is [[Leitmotif|frequently]] used this way, but [[Justified Trope|justified]] by its being an old folk song about the military.

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]]: The TV version of Sharpe.

{{quote| '''Marie-Angelique''': You are a good man, Richard, whatever you would have the world think.}}

** And even more appropriately, "Our army is the scum of the earth, the merest scum of the earth..." ''(and the usually forgotten second part)'' "...but by God, what have we made of them!"

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]] and [[Cultured Warrior]]: Captain (later Major) Peter D'Alembord - elegant and erudite, with exquisitely tailored uniforms and perfect, languid, manners. Also a first-class swordsman and excellent commander of light troops.

{{quote| '''Wellesley:''' He says you lost the King's colours.<br />

'''Simmerson''': [[Never My Fault|The fault was not mine, sir]]. Major Lennox must answer.<br />

'''Simmerson''': ...to be commanded by the newly gazetted Captain Gibbons?<br />

'''Wellesley''': To be commanded by the newly gazetted Captain ''Sharpe'', sir.<br />

'''Wellesley''': The man who loses the King's Colours....loses the King's friendship. }}

* [[Redshirt Army]] / [[We Have Reserves]]: Most of Sharpe's aristocratic enemies take this attitude, and his mission is to convince the troops that they are more than that.

{{quote| '''Sharpe:''' You don't see a battle. You ''hear'' it. Black powder blasting by the ton on all sides. Black smoke blinding you and choking you and making you vomit. Then the French come out of the smoke - not in a line, but in a column. And they march towards our thin line, kettledrums hammering like hell and a golden eagle blazing overhead. They march slowly, and it takes them a long time to reach you, and you can't see them in smoke. But you can hear the drums. They march out of the smoke, and you fire a volley. And the front rank of the column falls, and the next rank steps over them, with drums hammering, and the column smashes your line like a hammer breaking glass... and Napoleon has won another battle. But if you don't run - if you stand until you can smell the garlic, and fire volley after volley, three rounds a minute - then they slow down. They stop. And then they run away. All you've got to do is stand, and fire three rounds a minute. Now, you and I know you can fire three rounds a minute. ''But can you stand?'' }}

* [[Sergeant Rock]]: Patrick Harper pretty much occupies this position

* [[Shout Out]]: A good many, in both directions:

** Examples of shout outs to other works:

*** ''The Fields of Death'', part of a "[[Not So Different|parallel lives]]" series about Napoleon and Wellington by Simon Scarrow, features a Rifle officer named Richard who unusually carries a rifle like the rankers.

*** Ads for PC game Empire: Total War featured a very Sean Beanish redcoat in them, which seems odd until one considers that Sharpe dons his signature green jacket much later. (In Napoleon: Total War, as it were.)

* [[Spin Offspring]]/[[Babies Ever After]]: Sharpe and Lucille's son, Patrick Lassan, is a minor character in ''The Starbuck Chronicles'', another series by Cornwell set during the [[American Civil War]]. In that series, Patrick is a Chasseur Colonel of the French Imperial Guard and a French Military Observer attached to the Union Army. He carries and uses Sharpe's old sword, though his father was apparently a bit disappointed that his son joined the cavalry rather than the infantry. By 1862, when the novel was set, Sharpe had died of old age on the farm and Lucille was still alive.

* [[Spot of Tea]]: This being the British Army, tea is never far away.

* [[The Squad]]: Sharpe and the Chosen Men. More so in the TV series, where there's only five Chosen Men besides Sharpe and they get a lot of character development, compared to the books where there's a dozen or two Riflemen who are only named and mentioned specifically when needed.

* [[Storming the Castle]]: Literally, and regularly.

** It should be noted that after they smash one square, the Germans go on to utterly destroy several other nearby squares in quick succession by letting the fleeing french from the first square knock the others into disarray.

* [[Suicide Mission]]: The Forlorn Hope (derived from Dutch ''verloren hoep'', "lost troop"), who are the first men to charge through a breach opened in an enemy fortress' walls--nine times out of ten they naturally catch the brunt of the enemy defence and get killed, but if they survive, they get instant promotions. Sharpe ends up leading one in order to confirm his promotion to captain.

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Sharpe's Baker rifle and [[Cool Sword|heavy cavalry sabre]]. At the time, infantry soldiers fought with muskets (or rifles) and bayonets, while the officers used pistols and sabres (if they fought at all). Not only do the rifle and sword make an effective combo, but they aptly represent where Sharpe has come from and what he is now.

** Harper's [[BFG|Nock gun]].

** [[Word of God]] (in the foreword to a '94 printing of ''Sharpe's Enemy'') says she lives happily ever after. So now we know.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Sharpe regards Napoleon as one in the books. Not so much in the TV series, but he doesn't appear to have any particular animosity for l'Empereur either.

* [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]: Whenever Sharpe has to get somewhere by ship in the books, particularly in ''Sharpe's Trafalgar'' and ''Sharpe's Devil''.

* [[Writer Revolt]]: An editor told Bernard Cornwell to change a scene where an Ensign died. He resented being told how to write, so he changed it... to be ''more'' depressing. And in a number of the books since, Cornwell has killed off Ensigns in increasingly worse ways.

[[Category:Historical Fiction Literature]]

[[Category:Sharpe]]