History Characters / RavagesOfTimeSunClan

* {{Badass}}: He can cleave a man in half just by hurling his halberd. And curbstomp Lu Kang's defense and take his head in a matter of day, to the point Yuan Shu proclaims him 'Lu Bu on water'. [[spoiler:Small wonder he got chosen to play Sun Ce]].

* [[spoiler:DueToTheDead]]: [[spoiler:Sun Ce committed an aversion and blamed it on Liu Yao to raise army morale. It works like a miracle, but Ling Cao's son understandably isn't impressed.]]

* [[spoiler:SecretIdentity]]: [[spoiler:Ling Cao, subordinate of Sun Ce.]]

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: He continued to trust and believe the best of Yuan Shao and the other Guandong warlords even after they sabotaged his march to Luoyang by giving him insufficient rations, but the discovery of the Imperial seal in the hand of a Yuan clan's soldier made him wise up. Sadly, this realization was not enough for him to completely abandon their cause.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: He was a famous Loyalist who fought for a just cause and protected the Imperial Seal from would-be usurpers, and all it did was getting him killed for Yuan Shu's ambition. Without a patriarch, the Sun family (which already had lost much control of the Eastern land) lost most of their military force (implied to be in no small part due to Yuan Shu's machination) and quickly declined in influence, forcing Sun Ce to submit to Yuan Shu and marry off his sister to Sima clan.

* RedBaron: The Tiger of Jiangdong.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: His ideals of righteousness and loyalty are ''way'' out of keeping with the era he lives in -- he was basically the only "true" (or rather sincere) Loyalist out of the lords in the Guandong coalition, and he hid the Imperial Seal not out of ambition but rather out of fear of the other, less sincere lords getting their hands on it. Notably, no one [[spoiler:except Sun Ce]] will speak ill of Sun Jian's loyalism, and in fact Sun Ce's enemies even use it to bash him with!

[[folder:[[spoiler:Sun Ce]]]]

[[folder:'Sun Ce'/[[spoiler:Ling Cao]]]]

* [[spoiler:DueToTheDead]]: [[spoiler:Sun Ce committed an aversion and blame it on Liu Yao to raise army morale. It works like a miracle, but Ling Cao's son understandably isn't impressed.]]
* [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]: [[spoiler:He pretended to be Sun Ce in public throughout the clan's vassalage to Yuan Shu, so that when Ling Cao met his end disguised as Sun Ce, the Sun clan's forces -- and the real Sun Ce -- could slip out.]]

[[folder:'Sun Fu'/[[spoiler:Sun Ce]]]]

* TheAce: Almighty warrior, certified MagnificentBastard, "[[RedBaron Little Hegemon]]" at an impossible age, almost never plays by the rules and pulls crazy stunts not even the Eight Geniuses could predict, only to always emerge victorious.

** YoungConqueror: An actual in-universe RedBaron of his.

* ArrangedMarriage: With the eldest daughter of Qiao family, one of the richest families in the Eastern region. His little brother got him this match by putting a sword to his would-be father-in-law's neck and offering to wed the old man's daughters to two most desirable men (one TheAce and an appointed general of the court, the other [[MaryTzu a world-famous strategist]]) in Eastern land at that period, provided that the Qiaos became their ally.
* BatmanGambit: The Battle at Shenting Peak, second round. Which more or less relied on [[spoiler:his men getting sufficiently enraged at Liu Yao's rampage of Ling Cao's tomb (and not finding out that it was ''Sun Ce'' who intentionally did it) to curbstomp Liu Yao's army despite their massive difference in number]]. [[CrazyEnoughToWork And it went off spectacularly]].

* ObfuscatingStupidity: It doesn't fool Yuan Shu and his advisor though.

* SchmuckBait: Sun Ce is going out with very few escorts to visit his subordinate [[spoiler:Ling Cao]]'s grave, unguarded and trapped in the high mountain for the first time, sure let's bring out your entire army to surround the tomb and leave your base defenseless! [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong]], right Liu Yao? The irony is that he ''almost'' avoids it too, but Sun Ce's fight with Taishi Ci ends up longer than expected and he eventually falls for the bait all the same.

* BatmanGambit: The Battle at Shenting Peak, second round. Which more or less relied on [[spoiler:his men getting sufficiently enraged at Liu Yao's rampage of Ling Cao's tomb (and not finding out that it was ''Sun Ce'' who intentionally did it) to curbstomp Liu Yao's army despite their massive difference in number]]. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And it went off spectacularly]].

* UndyingLoyalty: His response to Sun Ce trying to recruit him after he trashed Liu Yao's army and led to his death is, not surprisingly, telling him to suck it.

* BadassGrandpa: Huang Gai.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: How Sun Ce gets Taishi Ci. Trolling the hell out of him helps, too.

* IFightForTheStrongestSide: The Lu clan, led by [[YoungAndInCharge Lu Xun]], which was previously an ally of Taiping cult but surrenders to the emerging Sun clan despite Sun Ce[[hottip:*:or rather Ling Cao]] having previously slain Lu Xun's father Lu Kang of Lujiang while Sun Ce was still Yuan Shu's vassal. (It's explained that Lu Xun doesn't hold it against Sun Ce since any blood debt was already paid by [[spoiler:both Ling Cao and Yuan Shu subsequently dying as well]].)

* TheCallPutMeOnHold: Taishi Ci, who is young, talented and eager to prove himself to his lords (first Kong Rong, then Liu Yao) who are either too conservative to use his strategies or just plain disapprove of his hotbloodedness. Of course, he gets his due after joining the Sun clan.

* [[spoiler:DueToTheDead]]: [[spoiler:Sun Ce himself deliberately averts this tradition at his tomb and blames it on Liu Yao to raise army morale. It works like a miracle, but Ling Cao's son understandably isn't impressed.]]

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Yuan Shu and his advisor

[[folder:Lu Meng]]

* BuffySpeak: When discussing war strategies, Lu Meng prefers vulgar and simple metaphors to using the proper military textbook terms. [[spoiler:Becomes a thing of the past after he devotes himself to study]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: He's a very talented strategist and general yet is illiterate [[hottip:*:his first appearance consists of him telling a messenger to read aloud Zhou Yu's letter that was supposed to be for Lu Meng's eyes only]] and crude to the point that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu has to (constantly) tell him to study up.
** [[spoiler:By the time of Sun Ce's death, he's shown to be a much more eloquent and studious man, and eight years later during a naval battle with Liu Biao's forces he's no longer spouting scatalogical insults.]]
* ClusterFBomb: His speech can get liberal with a huge amount of scatological vocabulary, to people's exasperation. [[spoiler:He no longer drops these after he bothers to read books]].
* [[spoiler:CulturedWarrior]]: [[spoiler:After Sun Ce's death]].
* GeniusBruiser
* SirSwearsalot: [[spoiler:Used to be.]]

* AFathertoHisMen: [[spoiler:His last request to Liaoyuan Huo before taking on an entire vengeful army was helping his subordinates get away.]]

* GuileHero: He sees through every bit of Yuan Shu's FauxAffablyEvil PR spins but still plays along.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Ling Tong and Cheng Pu, after some direct contacts with Yu Ji, but when Cheng Pu reveals himself free of mind control and WordOfGod suggests that he had just been playing along.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lu Meng, a very talented [[GeniusBruiser strategist and general]] despite being [[BuffySpeak illiterate]][[hottip:*:his first appearance consists of him telling a messenger to read aloud Zhou Yu's letter that was supposed to be for Lu Meng's eyes only]] and [[ClusterFBomb crude]] (to people's exasperation, with a huge amount of scatological vocabulary) to the point that Sun Ce tells him to study up. [[spoiler:By the time of Sun Ce's death, he's shown to be a much more eloquent and studious man, and eight years later during a naval battle with Liu Biao's forces he's no longer spouting scatalogical insults.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Ling Cao pretended to be Sun Ce in public throughout the clan's vassalage to Yuan Shu, so that when Ling Cao met his end disguised as Sun Ce, the Sun clan's forces -- and the real Sun Ce -- could slip out.]]

* SirSwearsalot: Lu Meng, mainly of the scatological variety. [[spoiler:He gives it up by the time of Sun Ce's death.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Ling Tong to Sun Ce, who desecrated Ling Cao's tomb, gave Liu Yao's army Ling Cao's headband and blamed it on the enemy to inspire his troops.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: Subverted with Ling Tong. He knows his father's sacrifice was needed to revive the Sun clan, and harbors no resentment towards Sun Ce or whoever has a hand in [[spoiler:the 'fake Sun Ce' plan]]... [[spoiler:the desecration of Ling Cao's tomb]] is a different story.

[[folder:Sun Ce]]

* TheBusCameBack: Disappears after the Luoyang arc, then returns briefly to announce her engagement with Liaoyuan Huo as a ploy to gain Sima clan's supports for the Sun clan's return to the Eastern regions. She has not been seen again since then, though [[spoiler:after Liaoyuan Huo goes missing]], Sima Yi tells Zhang Lei to cancel the engagement and send her home.
* RescueRomance: To Liaoyuan Huo, after realizing he's saved her twice in the hostage rescue mission at Luoyang; when they meet in the tunnels under Puyang during the battle between Cao Cao and Lu Bu's armies.

[[/folder]]

* IFightForTheStrongestSide: The Lu clan, led by [[YoungAndInCharge Lu Xun]], which was previously an ally of Taiping cult but surrenders to the emerging Sun clan despite Sun Ce[[hottip:*:or rather Ling Cao]] having previously slain Lu Xun's father Lu Kang of Lujiang while Sun Ce was still Yuan Shu's vassal. (It's explained that Lu Xun doesn't hold it against Sun Ce since any blood debt was already paid by [[both Ling Cao and Yuan Shu subsequently dying as well]].)

Due to obvious reasons, this page containes profile pictures of Sun Ce and Sun Quan - major in-universe WalkingSpoiler and ChekhovsGunman, respectively. Enjoy their entries at your own risk.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Ling Tong and Cheng Pu, after some direct contacts with Yu Ji.]] [[spoiler:And subverted with Cheng Pu.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lu Meng, a very talented [[GeniusBruiser strategist and general]] despite being [[BuffySpeak illiterate]] and [[ClusterFBomb crude]] (to people's exasperation, with a huge amount of scatological vocabulary). [[spoiler:By the time of Sun Ce's death, he's shown to be a much more eloquent and studious man.]]

* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:Gan Ning]].

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Ling Cao, who pretended to be Sun Ce in public while the clan was still vassals of Yuan Shu, so that when he met his end, the Sun clan's forces -- and the real Sun Ce -- could slip out.]]
* IFightForTheStrongestSide: The Lu clan, led by [[YoungAndInCharge Lu Xun]], which was previously an ally of Taiping cult but surrenders to the emerging Sun clan, despite Sun Ce[[hottip:*:or Ling Cao]] having previously slain Lu Xun's father Lu Kang while Sun Ce was still Yuan Shu's vassal.
* IndyPloy: Invoked; Sun Ce always counts on his men and Zhou Yu to be adaptive and makes use of the situational advantages offered by his reckless charges.
* LegacyOfService: Most aged generals serving Sun Ce used to be his father Sun Jian's subordinates. After Ling Cao's death in battle, his son Ling Tong was given a title and joined Sun Ce.

* SirSwearsalot: Lu Meng, mainly of the scatological variety.

* WhatWereYouThinking: To Sun Ce, whenever he does something reckless (which is ''often'') like leaving the main troops to take on an entire army alone. Of course, to Sun Ce, it's always AllAccordingToPlan...

* YouKilledMyFather: To Yuan Shu and Huang Zu, and by proxy, to Huang Zu's boss Liu Biao.

* TheApprentice: To Liu Da in martial arts and Shan Wu Ling (later Sima Yi) in business intrigues.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:During Sun Ce's hundred-day period of suffering from a poisoned arrow.]]

* MentorsNewHope: Sort of. Liu Da's first student (Liaoyuan Huo) turned out to be a disappointment as he failed to cut his tie with Sima clan and make a name for himself despite his talents, so he hopes Quan will be more successul in whatever he does.
* SiblingYinYang: With Sun Ce, but only in terms of their expertise - Ce is a warrior whose duty is to conquer more land and people for his clan, Quan is an administrator whose job is to manage the Eastern region's internal affairs. And they manage to balance the roles perfectly.

* YoungAndInCharge: [[spoiler: Now official, after Sun Ce passes away.]]

* TheBusCameBack: Disappears after the Luoyang arc, then returns briefly to announce her engagement with Liaoyuan Huo as a ploy to gain Sima clan's supports for the Sun clan's return to the Eastern regions. She has not been seen again since then.
* RescueRomance: To Liaoyuan Huo, after realizing he's saved her twice in the hostage rescue mission at Luoyang.

* UndyingLoyalty: To the court, and Sun Ce is not pleased [[spoiler:since it was the cause of his death]].

* GoodIsNotDumb: The whole reason that Sun Jian hid the Imperial Seal in ''Ravages'' was because he realized that he was one of the only "true" Loyalists in the Guandong Alliance -- the other being Cao Cao -- and he recognized, what with Yuan Shao having marched his army into Luoyang in hopes of recovering the Emperor and the Imperial Seal first (and Sun Jian presumably having realized how hollow any "support" from the other lords was), that the Imperial Seal wouldn't be "safe" from the other, greedier lords.

* ParentalNeglect: Judging by the way he reacts to his daughter's near-death experience and Sun Ce's flashback, Sun Jian might be accused of this to his children. In the novel ''Bofu'', Sun Ce gets this short end of the stick a lot and it damages his sense of self-worth quite severely.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Sun Jian, whose ideals of righteousness and loyalty are out of keeping with the era he lives in -- he was basically the only "true" (or rather sincere) Loyalist out of the lords in the Guandong coalition, and he hid the Imperial Seal not out of ambition but rather out of fear of the other, less sincere lords getting their hands on it. Notably, no one [[spoiler:except Sun Ce]] will speak ill of Sun Jian's loyalism, and in fact Sun Ce's enemies even use it to bash him with!
* UndyingLoyalty: Sun Jian to the court, and Sun Ce is not pleased.

* BatmanGambit: The Battle at Shenting Peak, second round.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: To Taishi Ci - "What is the meaning of loyalty?"

* [[spoiler:BodyDouble]]: [[spoiler:He pulled an epic one with Ling Cao, with Sun Ce playing younger cousin "Sun Fu", and everyone not in on it was fooled.]]

* BreakThemByTalking

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Sun Jian, whose ideals of righteousness and loyalty are out of keeping with the era he lives in -- he was basically the only "true" (or rather sincere) Loyalist out of the lords in the Guandong coalition, and he hid the Imperial Seal not out of ambition but rather out of fear of the other, less sincere lords getting their hands on it.

** BrokenAce: Yet is also a [[TheResenter resenter]] with daddy issues and deep-seated insecurities about the righteousness of his belief.
* AmbitionIsEvil: His father Sun Jian was a famous Loyalist who sacrificed his life to protect the Royal Seal from falling into the hands of wannabe usurpers, while he only wants to restore his clan's reign in the Eastern region and extricate it from any obligatory ties with the imperial clan, which practically means declaring the eastern region autonomous at best and a separate country at worst. His objective is thus relentlessly denounced by opponents, who[[hottip:*:such as Gan Ning and Cao Cao]] also like to remind him what a terrible son he is for not upholding his late father's "loyalty and righteousness". It causes him to develop self-doubts, exacerbated by his daddy issues, [[spoiler:which later return to haunt him amidst the bouts of delirium he suffers in his deathbed.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: Gets this every time people tell him he fails hard as a son of the Loyalist Sun Jian, and Cao Cao takes it even further by warning that he will not receive Heaven's blessings; this latter one strikes a big chord with Sun Ce since he's always believed that he is so successful with the eastern region conquest because Heaven is on his side.[[spoiler: This trope is played ''terrifyingly'' straight during the hundred-day period of agonizing pains he suffers from an assassin's poisoned arrow, which culminate in him seeing himself flat-out condemned by his father in a dream for being a renegade who betrays Imperial Han, rather than a dutiful son his father'd wished him to be. [[TearJerker The entire scene is tear-jerking to behold.]]]]

* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:He's the boy who calls Shan Wu Ling "big sister" in a blink-and-you-will-miss-it moment in volume 6. Turns out they're not related at all.]]

* GenerationXerox

[[quoteright:309:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9942_526067924103862_520128445_n_5468.jpg]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/558067_526069627437025_605123258_n_779.jpg]]

[[quoteright:216:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/000_6647.jpg]]

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lu Meng, a very talented [[GeniusBruiser strategist and general]], but [[BuffySpeak illiterate]] and [[ClusterFBomb crude]] (to people's exasperation). [[spoiler:By the time of Sun Ce's death, he's shown to be a much more eloquent and studious man.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: Sun Jian's death was one for them, since it brought about the clan's near collapse and forced its member to kowtow to the enemies. [[spoiler:Later, Sun Ce's death.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Ling Cao.]]
* IFightForTheStrongestSide: The Lu clan, led by [[YoungAndInCharge Lu Xun]], which was previously an ally of Taiping cult but surrenders to the emerging Sun clan.

* LegacyOfService: Most aged generals serving Sun Ce used to be his father Sun Jian's subordinates. After Ling Cao passed away, his son Ling Tong was given a title and joined Sun Ce.
* OneManArmy: Zhou Tai, Taishi Ci and Sun Ce (especially Sun Ce), who frequently take on a vast number of enemy troops alone.
* ParentalNeglect: Judging by the way he reacts to his daughter's near-death experience and Sun Ce's flashback, Sun Jian might be accused of this to his children. In the novel Bofu, Sun Ce gets this short end of the stick a lot and it damages his sense of self-worth quite severely.
* SirSwearsalot: Lu Meng.
* TheCallPutMeOnHold: Taishi Ci, who is young, talented and eager to prove himself to his lords, who are either too conservative to use his strategies or just plain disapproves of his hotbloodedness. Of course, he gets his due after joining the Sun clan.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Sun Jian, whose ideals of righteousness and loyalty are out of keeping with the era he lives in.

* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies]]
* WhatWereYouThinking: To Sun Ce, whenever he does something reckless (which is ''often'') like leaving the main troops to take on an entire army alone. Of course, to Sun Ce, it's always AllAccordingToPlan...
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Ling Tong to Sun Ce, who desecrated Ling Cao's tomb and blamed it on the enemies to inspire his troops.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: Subverted with Ling Tong. He knows his father's sacrifice was needed to revive the Sun clan, and harbors no resentment towards Sun Ce or whoever has a hand in [[spoiler:the 'fake Sun Ce' plan]].

* TheAce: Almighty warrior, certified MagnificentBastard, [[RedBaron young conqueror]] at an impossible age, almost never plays by the rules and pulls crazy stunts not even the Eight Geniuses could predict only to always emerge victorious.

* AmbitionIsEvil: His father Sun Jian was a famous Loyalist who sacrificed his life to protect the Royal Seal from falling into the hands of wannabe usurpers, while he only wants to restore his clan's reign in the Eastern region and extricate it from any obligatory ties with the Royal Family (which is practically declaring the Eastern region an autonomy at best and a seperate country at worst). His object is thus relentlessly denounced by oppositions, who also like to remind him what a terrible son he is for not upholding his late father's belief. It causes him to develop self-doubts, [[spoiler:which later return to haunt him amidst the bouts of delirium he suffers in his dying bed.]]

** AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: In charge, and is the best fighter of his clan.

** CurbStompBattle: Not quite on Lu Bu's level yet, but ''holy shit'' this guy is pretty close. No one pulls a proud warrior (or a proud cavalry ''battalion'', for that matter) off his high horse like Sun Ce.

** GeniusBruiser: As Zhou Yu puts it: "A Lu Bu with Sun Tzu's wisdom".
** ImprobableAge: He leads the Sun army on a swift conquest of the Eastern region, defeating and outwitting men twice his age, and established the foundation of the Sun clan in 81 states in five years. Historically he's only around 24-25 [[spoiler:when he dies.]]

** OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: We only get to see the beginning and end of his conquest of the Eastern region, which is said to last five years, made of pure awesomeness, and has granted him legendary fame among the battle-weary Eastern warlords.

* [[spoiler:BodyDouble]]: [[spoiler:He pulled an epic one with Ling Cao, and everyone was fooled.]]
* BreakTheHaughty: Gets this every time people tell him he fails hard as a son of the Loyalist Sun Jian, and Cao Cao takes it even further by warning that he will not receive Heaven's blessings. This strikes a big chord with Sun Ce, since he's always believed that he is so successful with the Eastern region conquest because Heaven is on his side.[[spoiler: This trope is played ''terrifyingly'' straight during the hundred-day period of agonizing pains he suffers from an assassin's poisoned arrow, which culminate in him seeing himself flat-out condemned by his father in a dream for being a renegade who betrays Imperial Han, rather than a dutiful son his father'd wished him to be. [[TearJerker The entire scene is tear-jerking to behold.]]]]

* CallBack: [[spoiler:Just like Ling Cao 19 volumes earlier, Sun Ce meets his end with an arrow to the head, and the last sane thought passing through his mind is also the narration line hanging in Ling Cao's death scene]]. Moreover, the one who [[spoiler:indirectly caused him to drop his guard and thus be vulnerable to that arrow]]? None other than [[spoiler:Ling Tong, to whom Sun Ce had even said, "If there is justice, when Heaven reprimands, pray that I suffer a hundred days of pain before I die!"]]

* CuttingTheKnot: The primary advocator in Ravages. Throwing together all the toughest nuts and drop a freaking hammer on them is Sun Ce's way of doing things, and the way his gambits play this trope to all its worth cements his status as one of the major MagnificentBastard in-universe.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[DespairEventHorizon Sun Jian's premature death and the subsequent fall of the Sun clan]] turns Sun Ce completely off to the (traditionally valued) idea of following his father's loyal footsteps and returning to the court's service.

** [[spoiler: PeacefulInDeath]]:[[spoiler: When Sun Ce finally dies after three months of suffering, Zhou Yu sees his spirit, gradually returning to his child form, run back to his father's arms.]]

* MagnificentBastard: Outmaches his sworn brother Zhou Yu in this regard.
* MeaningfulEcho: [[spoiler:What was spoken by Ling Cao at his moment of death dawns on Sun Ce when he's shot in the head, similar to how Ling Cao died.]]

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The "Sun Ce" that Gan Ning killed was actually Ling Cao, who acted as a bait to fool Yuan Shu into thinking Sun Ce was dead, so that the real Sun Ce (so far disguised as a distant cousin) could escape safely.]]

* WellDoneSonGuy: Turns out to be one, despite his constant condemnations of his father's characteristic loyalty which got him killed. In the side-story novel Bofu, he is this trope personified.

* YoungestChildWins: In the novel Bofu, at least. Of the three children, Quan is the smartest child and takes after Sun Jian the most and thus is the clan's favorite.