History Literature / AMemoryOfFlames

* XMeetsY: ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' meets ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' or ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern.'' In short, it's a massive deconstruction of anything with [[DragonRider Dragon Riders]] in it.

* FailOSuckyName: Kemir invokes this when finding out Snow's true name: Alimer Ishtan vei Atherial, or Beloved Memory Of A Lover Distant And Lost.
--> '''Kemir:''' ''(trying not to laugh)'' That's...not a name I would have ever guessed. Alimer is better. Alim. Ali.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Although not seriously believed, Hyram was actually correct when he maintained that King Tyan, Jehal's father, was being poisoned. However, he was wrong about it being Jehal doing it. [[spoiler: It's actually Meteroa, Tyan's brother and Jehal's uncle and {{Dragon}}.]]

** Skjorl defeats [[spoiler: Blackscar]] because he knows that the dragon simply can't take the pragmatic course of action--that would be too easy and unsatisfying. [[ThoseWhoFightMonsters He knows this because...]]

* ThoseWhoFightMonsters: Skjorl is compared several times throughout the fourth book as worse than a dragon, and he even admits it to himself in the book's climax.

* XMeetsY: ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' meets ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' or ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern.'' In short, it's a massive deconstruction of anything with DragonRiders in it.

* RapePillageBurn: If the pasts of Outsiders like Kemir and Siff are anything to go by, this is incredibly common even in peacetime.

* [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Hero?]] A few examples, but the one that most stands out is when Snow prevents Kemir from raping a female dragon knight with a healthy helping of irony and "I told you so."

* DisneyDeath:

** ''The Order of the Scales'': [[spoiler: Kemir, Isentine, Kithyr, The Picker, Valmeyan, Prince Tichane, Jehal, Vale, Almiri, Sirion.]] [[UpToEleven Yeah.]]
** ''The Blac kMausoleum'': Surprisingly few, considering previous instalments: [[spoiler: Skjorl and Siff.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Skjorl defeats [[spoiler: Blackscar]] because he knows that the dragon simply can't take the pragmatic course of action--that would be too easy and unsatisfying. [[ThoseWhoFightMonsters He knows this because...]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse? In-universe example. Vale and Zafir both wonder over what actually happened to Knight-Marshal Nastria.

* [[KilledOffForReal Killed Off For Real:]] By the end of the third book, [[spoiler:every main human character's dead, and the rest of the human cast are facing either a life underground or being a dragon's dinner.]]

* AscendedExtra: Kataros. In ''The Order of the Scales'' she was merely Kemir's love interest. In ''The Black Mausoleum'' she's a competent and powerful blood mage and the true hero of the book.
** Vale goes from being the nameless leader of the Adamantine Guard to the hero of ''Order of the Scales.''

* PropheticTwist: The prophecy that moves ''King of the Crags'' is as follows: ''And out of the sun shall come a white dragon, and with the white dragon a red rider. Thieves and liars shall quiver and weep, for the red rider's name shall be Justice, and the dragon shall be Vengeance.'' The prophecy does come true to an extent--there ''is'' a white dragon and there ''is'' a red rider ([[spoiler: Kemir]]) and thieves and liars ''do'' quiver and weep--along with the rest of the human race. But in reality, it's the white dragon that brings justice, and the red rider that brings vengeance.

* [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Blue and Orange Morality:]] We don't know enough about the Taiytakei to judge them, but it seems to be this. Snow claims that dragons have no morals whatsoever in a [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem Screw The Rules, I Make Them!]] fashion.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Dragons are creatures of impulse and destruction and whim. Common behaviour for them is abandoning a hidden enemy even if they know where he is, landing in places where there's no room to take off again, and attacking at night even when they don't do very well in it. So when you've got a dragon with more patience than most humans, you know something's up.

* [[ActionGirl Action Girl:]] Shezira and Jaslyn definitely qualify.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: ''Many'' examples. Basically, the dragons' return is the result of a whole string of mistakes made by people who really, really should have known better, such as refusing to give the alchemists more resources to create potions, despite knowing that they're the only things keeping the dragons under control, or the kings ignoring the rogue dragon let loose in the Worldspine even though there have been so many historic examples of what one dragon can do. In a more specific example, [[spoiler: the Outwatch massacre]] could have been avoided or at least delayed if a) Jaslyn had listened to her alchemists or b) Isentine had grown a spine and [[WhyDon'tYouJustShootHim killed the monster.]]

* BadassDecay: Jehal in the third book. He's aware of it, and not happy.

** Likewise with Siff. He thinks of himself as a survivor. Everyone else thinks he's insane and dangerous.

* DysfunctionJunction: The quadrat in ''The Black Mausoleum'' all have serious issues: Kataros is a BrokenBird and persecuted by everyone due to being an alchemist, Jasaan is sick of life, Skjorl borders on CompleteMonster, and Siff's just batshit insane.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Silence MindRapes a Scales by telling him the truth of dragons.

* DemotedToExtra: [[spoiler: Shezira]] goes from being a major protagonist and one of the few genuine "good guys" in ''The Adamantine Palace''(though that may merely be because [[spoiler: she]] simply had no opportunity to do anything bad) to speaking in only one chapter in ''The King of the Crags.'' [[spoiler: The effects of her imprisonment are felt throughout the series, however.]]

* DysfunctionJunction: The quadrat in ''The Black Mausoleum'' all have serious issues; Kataros is a BrokenBird and persecuted by everyone due to being an alchemist, Jasaan is sick of life, Skjorl borders on CompleteMonster, and Siff's just batshit insane.

* [[TheGhost The Unseen:]] At no point do we ever see the Silver King except in a few hallucinations.

* PosessionBurnout: Eventually [[spoiler: Siff.]]

* RealAllAlong: ''The Black Mausoleum'' in particular plays with this, but in the series as a whole there are continous debates on whether or not [[spoiler: the Silver King]] actually exists, and what happened to him after he [[spoiler: "tamed" the dragons.]] The climax of the fourth book seems to prove it.

* DemonicPosession: Siff suffers from this.

* AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: The last thing [[spoiler: Jehal]] calls out before he dies? [[spoiler: ''Zafir.'']]

--> '''Jehal:''' "I do wish you could have told me, just once, that you were proud of what I've done. That I'm not a monster like {{RoyallyScrewedUp/Calzarin.}}"