Tigana/YMMV
< Tigana
- Alas, Poor Villain: One death is very satisfying, but the other... not so much.
- Complete Monster: Alberico, perhaps the only character in the novel who is in no way sympathetic.
- Ho Yay: A great deal, actually; to be fair, it seems to be a very homosocial culture. In particular, Alberico seems to dwell on Tomasso a little too long and too lovingly; he is thinking of torturing him, but fantasising about another man being "curved invitingly back" on one's mechanisms is a little loaded.
- In one scene several male characters greet each other so enthusiastically that the other patrons of the bar all assume they are homosexuals.
- Moment of Awesome:
- Catriana's assassination of the Barbadian in Senzio, which was very nearly an Heroic Sacrifice and helped redeem the somewhat difficult character for many people.
- Dianora's Ring Dive, although this overlaps with Tear Jerker.
- The final battle, and the killing of Alberico.
- Moral Event Horizon: The destruction of Tigana and the erasing of its memory- ironic because the more sympathetic of the two conquerors committed the single worst atrocity. Brandin spends pretty much the whole book trying to drag his way back across it.
- Alberico is basically a walking Moral Event Horizon, but his defining moment of depravity comes early on. He gatecrashes a vigil wherein three of the most powerful lords in the realm are conspiring to overthrow him. He kills them all, which is understandable enough. What is less reasonable is that he then sky-wheels their families - namely, crucifying them on vast wooden wheels with their hands chopped off and stuffed into their mouths so that they can't scream, then leaves them to die of exposure and publically rot. It is explicitly noted that he does this to every single member of the families. Even the children. This is why people prefer Brandin.
- Tear Jerker:
- The scene where Sandre and Tomasso meet in Alberico's dungeons, where Sandre murders him to stop him from talking. Also doubles as a So Proud of You moment.
- The scene with Baerd and the Night Walkers, which many might argue is where he really comes together as a character.** Many of Dianora's scenes with Brandin, but most notably The Ring Dive, and his death and her subsequent suicide; this should be shot through with joy because the spell is broken and Tigana is restored, but Brandin is so likeable - and the heroes so designated - that the reader might be left wondering whether it was really worth it.