History FanFic / SpellbindingRadiance

* TedBaxter: Patrick has this quality in '''''SPADES'''''.

* GroinAttack: John suffered a rather nasty one at the hands of Patrick. [[TedBaxter He considers it one of his many specialties.]]

* GodModeSue: John goes dangerously close to this many times.

* FridgeHorror: [[spoiler:The person who was responsible for the death of Gatrie as well as the cause of great amounts of torment for John early in the story just happened to be a time-travelling ex girlfriend who was also once a friend of Gatrie's and mourned his loss. She also happens to be the same person who killed John in the story. AxCrazy much?]]

* BizarroEpisode: The April Fool's Day chapter.

* MurderArsonAndJaywalking: "Crimes against Begnion including murdering soldiers, harassing and assaulting officers, impeding imperial shipments, and disturbance of the peace." (Chapter 85)

Be careful, as it is an incredibly LONG read. However, it is entirely worth it.

* TakeThat: There are quite a few in Chapter 74, although the ones to the new ClashOfTheTitans movie, the new WarOfTheWorlds movie, and VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld are the most prominent. It seems like the author just MIGHT have something against sequels...

** His name is not [[{{LionKing}} Simba]], as much as John calls King Caineghis that.

* SecretKeeper: Averted early on. Rather than keep mum about his origins and have it spiral out of his control the way it did for [[FanFic/MassVexations Art]], John immediately goes to Greil and tells him everything he knows. He doesn't warn Greil that he is going to die, though, because doing so might derail the timeline, and not necessarily in a good way, as he puts it to the commander.

* TheWonka: John. Just ask Selena or Micaiah.

* MasterOfNone: John is able to use Anima, Dark and Light magic, something that has only been seen a couple times in the Fire Emblem games. (Specifically Athos, a [[EleventhHourSuperpower very strong]] but [[CrutchCharacter fully leveled]] EleventhHourRanger character from Fire Emblem 7 and [[CuteShotaroBoy Ewan]] from Fire Emblem 8 as a [[FanNickname Super]][[MagikarpPower Pupil]], a BraggingRightsReward [[PrestigeClass promotion]] only unlocked during a [[NewGamePlus third playthrough and onward]].) However, while he has great potential, John has a great deal of trouble applying it. This leaves him frequently overshadowed by more specialized spellcasters like Selena.

* SelfInsertFic:

* SomethingElseAlsoRises: John has a spyglass poking Sophia Domivere--[[spoiler: The Nino Version, that is]]--when she sits in his lap. Eventually [[DeadpanSnarker Jay]] remarks how the [[UnusualEuphemism spyglass disappears into hammerspace]].

** Conversely, [[spoiler:John's]] and [[spoiler:Jill's]] deaths

* BLAMEpisode: The April Fool's Day chapter.

** Conversely, [[spoiler:John's]] and [[spoiler:Jill's]] deaths both subvert this trope were rather anti-climatic despite their huge roles. [[spoiler:Sothe]] also plays this straight in having a huge death scene despite having almost no lines in the story. [[spoiler:It is, however, excusable given the fact that it firmly establishes that AnyoneCanDie is in FULL swing, since Sothe is one of the few people who CANNOT die in Path of Radiance under ANY circumstance.]]
* ISuckAtSummaries: Arguably, the FF.net summary of this story.
* {{Joisey}}: John's from there.
* {{Kuudere}}: Karla, though your milage may vary.
* LadyOfWar: Princess Elincia and Mist can qualify as one, although Mist starts as a WhiteMagicianGirl.
* LampshadeHanging: So many!
** "It was like some kind of comic relief in the middle of a heavily serious battle. If only my adventures on Tellius were some kind of self-insertion fanfiction, I am pretty sure the author just decided to do that to try to relieve tension." (Chapter 65)
** John seems to point out in his thoughts that the theory of BuxomIsBetter had translated from the video game to reality.
* LaserGuidedKarma: John saves [[spoiler:Petrine]] from the fate that [[spoiler:she]], by all accounts, should have gotten. John eventually befriends the extra character slowly, but surely. The result is [[spoiler:Petrine saving John, Ike, and Mist from The Black Knight aka General Zelgius in the battle at Castle Nados leading to a VillainousRescue]].
* LethalChef: Tanith, and how!
** This is from actual canon.
* LightbulbJoke: Chapter 35!
-->'''John''': Hey, Jill! How many wyvern knights does it take to screw in a light bulb?
-->'''Jill''': A... light bulb?
-->'''John''': Three! Two to fight over who's going to do it and one to bark orders!
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: This is Fire Emblem, after all. Not to mention that aside from the standard Path of Radiance cast, there's [[CanonForeigner other Fire Emblem characters]] such as [[FireEmblem Selena, Karla, Cormag, Linde, Nino...]] just to name a few as well as [[SoulSeries Carin [[spoiler:who is actually Cassandra Alexandra]]]] and [[FanFic/MassVexations Ash]]. There are also some original characters, such as Gabriella, Phoenix Apollo Irving, Katrina... and so on. Many characters are introduced, given seeming importance, then PutOnABus until convenient. That's just the story characters, too.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Exposited on a lot when John is learning how to use magic. [[spoiler:Later results in a CrowningMomentOfFunny when John uses fire, lighting, and wind magics in one spell and gets reprimanded by the other mages in the army in a [[TrainingFromHell 'training' session]].]]
* MarshmallowHell: Happens at least once to poor [[ChasteHero John]]. Subverted, however, as the act was performed by Mia, and it was really more a result of the girl's [[GenkiGirl unbridled enthusiasm and obliviousness to John's pleas to let go]] rather than her chest size.
* MasterOfNone: John is able to use Anima, Dark and Light magic, something that has only been seen a couple times in the Fire Emblem games. (Specifically Athos, a [[EleventhHourSuperpower very strong]] but [[CrutchCharacter fully leveled]] EleventhHourRanger character from Fire Emblem 7 and [[CuteShotaroBoy Ewan]] from Fire Emblem 8 as a [[FanNickname Super]][[MagikarpPower Pupil]], a BraggingRightsReward [[PrestigeClass promotion]] only unlocked during a [[NewGamePlus third playthrough and onward]].) However, while he has great potential, John has a great deal of trouble applying it. This leaves him frequently overshadowed by more specialized spellcasters like Selena.
* [[MetaGuy Meta Girl]]: Jay has evolved into one of these, snarking on things even John - with all his pop culture knowhow and genre savvy - doesn't pick up.
* MindFuck: Apparently, [[spoiler:Sophia Domivere is a ''real person'', seeing as how she and John are somehow able to be in two places at once.]]
* MomentKiller: Boyd seems to cause a lot of these.
* MostCommonCardGame: The beginning of Chapter 103 sounds like an intimidating scene... until we find out it's just a game of Go Fish.
* MurderArsonAndJaywalking: "Crimes against Begnion including murdering soldiers, harassing and assaulting officers, impeding imperial shipments, and disturbance of the peace." (Chapter 85)
* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Averted, although to be fair, John and Noah met in a dream world. Reality does not exactly apply in there.
* NobodyPoops
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: [[spoiler:The Black Fang]] assisting Princess Elincia in the first arc seems to fit into this.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Chapter sixteen has John doing something to silence Mist. This something is never explained in the story. Of course, who else should enter the room at that very moment but Ike and Boyd. ICanExplain occurs without much luck for the poor hero.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: Jay knew quite well that [[spoiler: Jill was going to die]] but didn't say anything to John to try and avert it. [[spoiler: She has a '''VERY''' [[GrandfatherParadox good reason]].]]
* OneOfUs
-->'''Patrick''': TVTropes. UnusualEuphemism. Look it up.
* PapaWolf: Do what you will to John, but you do '''''NOT''''' mess with his friends if you know what's good for you.
* PopCulturedBadass: For those rare moments where John isn't [[YouSuck getting his ass royally handed to him]], he certainly qualifies. Patrick is perhaps even more of a contender, considering he was the one to [[spoiler: off Ashnard]].
* PrecisionFStrike: Selena is always portrayed as a calm character, always being a gentle, kind guide to the rash hero of the story. However, Chapter 88 has a gem that is very rarely seen in the form of a rare moment of despair.
-->'''Selena''': Well, shit.
** There is another one in chapter 91 with Selena as well.
-->'''Selena''': What in Ashera's name—what the [[spoiler: fuck]] are you doing?
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: This happens in the story a lot.
-->'''John''': That. Is. AWESOME! (chapter 19... at the magic breakfast he got.)
** Note, though, that it never seems to work that well whenever John tries to invoke the trope by name...
* PurpleProse: Sometimes the narrative of the story can become this.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Dawn Brigade.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Petrine. [[PlayerPunch Despair was had all around.]]]]
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Elincia becomes one '''''way''''' earlier than she was supposed to in the original game.
** Nailah seems to be one in canon and her little skirmish with John proves she's just as badass in game.
* RunningGag: A few:
** Chocolate cake is something of this for Karla before it becomes a ChekhovsGun. Ash picks it right back up during the Radiant Dawn arc.
** Tanith's horrible, horrible cooking. Also, Oscar's heavenly cooking.
** "Are you an orange?"
** John and titles in general.
** And now in the Radiant Dawn arc, Ash facepalming at almost all of John's spoken pop culture references.
** Selena questioning John about his Pokemon Battles.
** There's also the artichoke, which is treated with [[MundaneMadeAwesome such reverence]] that a newcomer to the story may think it's supposed to be a MacGuffin.
** His name is not [[{{LionKing}} Simba]], as much as John calls King Caineghis that.
* ScryVsScry: [[spoiler:Patrick]] versus [[spoiler:Jay]]. Both have played the game. Both know the future. Yet one seems to want to fight against canon for unknown reasons while the other seems determined to help preserve it. Cue John, the former oracle, who seems to be nothing more than a pawn in this match now.
* SelfInsertFic:
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler:Sothe, Gatrie, and Kieran. Jill, too, could qualify.]]
* SiblingRivalry: Karla and Karel.
* SheIsTheKing: Apostle Sanaki. You'd never guess it was a girl just by name. You might even guess it's a guy if you didn't know better.
* ShipSinking: [[spoiler: Patrick pretty much took his relationship with Ilyana and [[PlayerPunch shot a cannonball at it]].]] [[spoiler: John and Jill has also been thoroughly sunk thanks to TheReveal of Jay.]]
* ShipTease: Happens rather frequently, often without the author's intent. However, given [[HeartbrokenBadass John's]] [[CelibateHero nature]], it'd take some doing to make something out of it.
* ShoutOut: Quite a few.
** As he becomes a more proficient mage, John names his custom-built spells after certain special attacks. Some of his spells? [[{{Naruto}} Rasengan]], [[{{Pokemon}} Tri Attack]], and [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Indignation Judgement]].
** An entire chapter is also an homage to the first Christmas of World War 1, in which soldiers on both sides of the battlefield engaged in one big, happy Christmas.
*** And during that chapter, John finds out that Canas' last name is [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Lualdi]].
** John's first time [[spoiler:dying while in Tellius]] grants us some [[ExpositionBeam insight]] into some of the character's thoughts on the event. The whole thing is somber enough... until we get to [[spoiler:[[HeroOfAnotherStory Patrick's]] [[MoodWhiplash thoughts]], which promptly go from mourning [[WeHardlyKnewYe John's passing]] to accidentally making himself (and the readers) lose The Game and reciting [[RickRoll a certain love ballad]] to himself in hopes of using it to win over Ilyana.]] AMindIsATerribleThingToRead, indeed.
** General Wallace's [[ContinuityNod spring loaded chain axe]] has been constantly referred to as "chained axe VideoGame/GodOfWar bull$#!@" by Patrick. [[spoiler: Upon stealing it, Patrick immediately flies into more references to the series, as well as breaking out the [[MemeticMutation infamous]] '''[[DynastyWarriors DO NOT PURSUE LU BU]]'''.]]
* SilkHidingSteel: Princess Elincia is portrayed as a kind-hearted person toward John. Even if she isn't the Mary Sue that many fans consider her to be in the games, she is still relatively peaceful and calm. Just don't anger her or force her hand into combat. Therein lies a BadassPrincess behind that veil of formality and peacefulness.
* SkilledButNaive: John. He still doesn't always fully grasp his magic or the world around him.
* SmugSnake: [[spoiler:Patrick. Ignore the fact that he technically knows almost everything worth knowing about the Dawn Brigade. He fits this to a tee.]]
* SwissArmyWeapon: The staff that [[spoiler:Shinon]]uses.
* SwitchingPOV: Although the main bulk of the story is first-person through the eyes of John, there are chapters which are first-person through the eyes of Rhys, Ike, Ilyana, Jay, etc. There is even an arc with Selena's backstory that goes completely into third person.
* SynchronusEpisodes: Chapters 39 (Do or Die) and 40 (Do or Die: Jill) start at roughly the same time and end roughly the same time, except Chapter 40 has a little [[spoiler:funeral blurb]] tacked on to the end. They even have some scenes that are the same in both chapters. One has to wonder if this is brilliance by the author to combine the two chapters or sheer laziness.
* TakeThat: There are quite a few in Chapter 74, although the ones to the new ClashOfTheTitans movie, the new WarOfTheWorlds movie, and VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld are the most prominent. It seems like the author just MIGHT have something against sequels...
* TedBaxter: Patrick has this quality in '''''SPADES'''''.
* TemptingFate: "It was nice to be in a town where we weren't worried for our lives. I think we'll be safe in a secluded, out of the way desert town. It's finally a time of peace for us. What could go wrong?" (Chapter 87). Cue the spotting of a Begnion soldier in town.
** Subverted in that [[spoiler:There wasn't a battle like was seen in previous chapters. Turns out the soldier is just Meg.]]
* TheLostLenore: Type B, assuming [[spoiler:you consider Jay and Jill to be the same person]].
* TheNotLoveInterest: Mist seems to be this way.
** WordOfGod agrees with this trope.
* TheStationsOfTheCanon: Lampshaded, both when they're being followed religiously and when they're not. [[spoiler:Being able to stick to the stations of the canon in Radiant Dawn is going to be exceptionally difficult given that he killed off Sothe and revealed the Black Knight's identity way earlier than it happened in either game.]]
* TheWonka: John. Just ask Selena or Micaiah.
* ThisCannotBe: [[spoiler:Zelgius flies into a combination of this and UnstoppableRage after he gets his ass kicked not by Ike, but by '''''Mist'''''.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: John takes quite a few by the time the fic gets to the final quarter of the Path of Radiance arc. The cincher comes during chapter 57.
* TrainingFromHell: Poor John gets this a LOT. One can easily assume the same was the case for Patrick, given he learned to fight under '''General Wallace'''.
** This seems to have gone UpToEleven since Radiant Dawn started
** John seems to have taken after Selena's pushiness and Shinon's tactics when apprenticing poor Leonardo.
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: John. [[spoiler:Patrick]], to some extent.
* TrialByCombat: John and Jarod near the end of the Path of Radiance portion of the story.
** It seems Patrick and John are heading in this direction considering Patrick seems to be of a higher status in the Begnion army and John seems to be right-hand man to Micaiah in Sothe's place.
* {{Tsundere}}: Jill alternates between beating John up, admitting he's cool to talk to, insults him, becomes a good friend, [[spoiler:kills him]], then [[spoiler:ends up dating him]]. All over the place, that one is.
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler: Jay/Jill]]
* UnfortunateName: Jay's ''REAL'' name is [[WikiWords [=LisaMarie=]]] Pheobe. Really. [[spoiler: It's also Jill Fizzart, but she's not embarrassed about that one.]]
* UnreliableNarrator: John always attempts to narrate to himself through InnerMonologue that his actions in preserving canon--even the truly bizarre or immoral ones--are justified. Whether they are actually justifiable or not is up to the reader and those around him.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between John and Jill. [[spoiler:It seems to be acted on when she starts dating him, but alas, [[AnyoneCanDie Ashnard killed her.]]]]
* VillainousRescue: [[spoiler: Petrine]] rescues John from the Black Knight in Castle Delbray.
** [[spoiler: Petrine]] does again later on in the story [[spoiler: but pays the price with her life.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: Boyd and John certainly qualify for the second version of this. There's rarely a moment when these two are together where Boyd isn't either [[MomentKiller spoiling a nice]] ShipTease or trading vocal jabs with our protagonist.
* WeDoTheImpossible: This is Fire Emblem. Impossible does not exist.
* WeWorkWellTogether: Dawn Brigade.
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 82. [[spoiler: Patrick became an AscendedExtra, pulled a FaceHeelTurn, won a CurbStompBattle and got his own {{Hatedom}}... all in one chapter!]]
** And then Chapter 102. MindFuck much?
* WhamLine: ''Twice'' in the same chapter.
-->'''Ashley''': [[spoiler:Who is Jay?]] [And then, much later on...] [[spoiler:Do the words 'Spellbinding Radiance' mean anything to you?]]
* WorthyOpponent: By what John's future-sight has shown, it could be noted that John becomes this to [[spoiler: both General Ike and Queen Elincia.]]
* WriteWhoYouKnow: John, obviously.
** It's starting to become subverted as WordOfGod has mentioned numerous times that fiction John and author John have become so different that it's like writing a whole other character.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Elincia and Selena tell this to John on occasion.
* YouAreNotAlone: Ike gave this speech to John once as well as Elincia. Somewhat of a dick move that John chose to pass up their offers before joining the very country they struggled to defeat in the war.
* YouSuck: John and archery do not mix. At all. Even when he finds out he's a natural mage, he struggles throughout basically the entire first three quarters of the [[strike:fanfic]]Path of Radiance story arc to even be up to par with every other mage in Elincia's army. And then he starts sucking again at the start of the Radiant Dawn arc.
** To be fair, while John's improved in the last quarter of the Path of Radiance arc and is on the rebound in the Radiant Dawn one, he seems to have INCREDIBLY bad luck still.
* YourMom: John and Boyd have a rather weird exchange of these in chapter 37.
----

** How about John and Elincia's dance around titles? "Your Highness" and "My Lord John" has been used for satire often. Actually, how about John and titles in general? He insists upon being called John, but never seems to get through to the soldiers.

** There's also the artichoke, which is treated with [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome such reverence]] that a newcomer to the story may think it's supposed to be a MacGuffin.

* ThisIsSparta: This happens in the story a lot.
-->'''John''': That. Is. AWESOME! (chapter 19... at the magic breakfast he got.)
** Note, though, that it never seems to work that well whenever John tries to invoke the trope by name...

** General Wallace's [[ContinuityNod spring loaded chain axe]] has been constantly referred to as "chained axe GodOfWar bull$#!@" by Patrick. [[spoiler: Upon stealing it, Patrick immediately flies into more references to the series, as well as breaking out the [[MemeticMutation infamous]] '''[[DynastyWarriors DO NOT PURSUE LU BU]]'''.]]

** As he becomes a more proficient mage, John names his custom-built spells after certain special attacks. Some of his spells? [[{{Naruto}} Rasengan]], [[{{Pokemon}} Tri Attack]], and [[TalesOfSymphonia Indignation Judgement]].

*** And during that chapter, John finds out that Canas' last name is [[TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Lualdi]].

* TakeThat: There are quite a few in Chapter 74, although the ones to the new ClashOfTheTitans movie, the new WarOfTheWorlds movie, and TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld are the most prominent. It seems like the author just MIGHT have something against sequels...

* LadyOfWar: Princess Elincia and Mist can qualify as one, although they also fit the role of StaffChick as well.