The Trigan Empire: Difference between revisions
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It was the best of comics, it was the worst of comics. The artwork was better than any other of its time, the writing was so overblown it would have been laughed out of a pulp magazine. It aspired to tell the history of a whole civilisation, but the writers were making it up as they went along.
''[[The Trigan Empire]]'' was published in installments in a number of British and European comics during the 1960s and '70s. The artwork was originally by Don Lawrence, and was ''way'' better than anything else available at the time; indeed, you'd have to look to modern day artists as Alex Ross or Serpieri to see it bettered, yet Lawrence was paid a pittance.
The story is set [[A Long Time Ago in
To begin with, the story was entitled ''The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire'', and tried to trace the development of the title civilisation from a humble beginning as a bunch of nomads to becoming the greatest power on the planet. Presumably, a decline was supposed to happen after this.
However, as the story progressed, it became a series of adventure stories featuring the same cast of characters, principally Trigo, the emperor; Brag, his brother; Janno, Brag's dashing son; Keren, Janno's friend; Peric, a wise architect and scientific genius, and his daughter, Salvia. Later, Janno and Keren aquired another friend, Roffa, and Trigo had three sons of whom one, Nikko, lived to be a major character.
In the early stories it made sense that the leader should do his own adventuring, as he was a young hero founding an empire, but later it made even less sense for the leader of a superpower to keep running about swashbuckling and leading expeditions than for [[The Captain]] of the ''Enterprise'' to keep leaving [[The Bridge]] to lead landing parties in person. But that never stopped Trigo, any more than it stopped Kirk or Picard.
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Another problem was that, as time went by, there were fewer and fewer new ideas available, and old ones had to be recycled without even observing the [[Fleeting Demographic Rule]]. The most common stories were:
# Villains, often officers or councillors appointed by Trigo, who must have been a [[Horrible Judge of Character]], try to usurp the throne or place upon it a puppet emperor; happened lots of times.
# Aliens invade; at least three times.
# A plant or contaminant that makes good people evil arrives from outer space; happened at least three times.
# Trigo or his relatives set off on an expedition to some continent that had never been mentioned before; at least twice.
# A Dread Curse menaces the Imperial Family; at least twice.
# Someone seems to have the secret of eternal youth; at least twice.
# Failing these, the Lokans could try to undermine the Empire... ''again''.
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Not to be confused with ''[[Trigun]]''.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Alien Sky]] Twin moons and twin suns.
* [[A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away]]: [[The Trigan Empire]]'s home, Elekton.
* [[
* [[Call a Rabbit
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Many. "By all the stars!" "Look your last upon the sky!" and "Many shall fall before Trigo falls!" are particularly good ones.
* [[Climbing Climax]]: A number of villains felt the need to go up high when Trigo chased them.
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* [[Mooks]]: Guards can arrest and oppress when needed, but as soon as the rebellion occurs they can be pushed aside by angry civilians. Guards who fight heroes go down like skittles.
* [[Mook Chivalry]]: If the hero needs to spot something in mid-fight, the enemy will pause while he looks round.
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Actually, they never say "kill", always "eliminate" or "destroy" or occasionally "dispatch".
** Actually, they generally say "perish" rather then "die" as well. Even while shooting guns or swinging swords at their enemies, "Perish, curse you!"
* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Peric begins as an architect. Later, he builds space rockets, discovers the elixir of youth, and invents a way of turning people into intelligent, electrically charged water!
* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Daveli in general, King Imbala in particular.
** King Kassar of Hericon, too.
* [[Retcon
* [[Rule of Cool]]: Swords against guns? Surviving huge explosions? Nomads on funny camel-things against tanks? No problem, as long as it looks good and makes a fine story.
* [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]]: Both times a curse was put on Trigo, it was a fake. Once the arc even ended with unbandaging the "mummy" to reveal a person you'd never have suspected. And he almost got away with it, too!
* [[Soft Glass]]: Trigo, pursued by [[Mooks]] and promising that many will fall before he does, smashes out the window in his short tunic and kilt. He isn't even scratched.
* [[Tap
* [[Weird Science]]: Any old whitebeard, dressed like a wizard but calling himself a scientist, seems able to invent almost anything.
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[[Category:British Comics]]
[[Category:The Trigan Empire]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trigan Empire, The}}
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