History Literature / TheHorseAndHisBoy

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bree could have been a bit politer about pointing out to Aravis that he and Hwin are independent persons, not the childrens' possessions, but even the narrator basically agrees with the point.

** Even with a SapientSteed like Bree, it takes Shasta quite a few falls and bruises before he's able to ride properly. Later, he's lead astray by a normal horse because he never learned how to control a horse.
** Shasta and Aravis try to disguise Bree and Hwin as normal cart-horses. However, Bree is a well-trained and muscular war horse and visibly out of place. The ruse nearly falls apart when a guard immediately realizes that Bree is a charger and far too precious to be put to cart work.
** When Aravis brings word of Rabadash's attack, she and Shasta initially panic because they assume it's happening immediately. Bree then points out that it takes time to get an army of 200 cavalry ready to cross a desert, and as two riders they have a significant head start.
** Bree and Hwin have spent so long in captivity being forced to do things that their own willpower has dwindled to nothing. It takes a random lion showing up and chasing them [[spoiler:actually Aslan, knowing they'd need the motivation]] to get them to Archenland in time to warn the king.

* PhraseCatcher[=/=]VerbalTic: The name "The Tisroc" is usually followed with "May he live forever." As a free Narnian at heart, Bree makes a point of omitting that little titbit. The other characters stop saying it over time too, though the length varies.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Bree, at first, thanks mostly to being a talking intelligent horse surrounded by regular witless horses. He panics on the verge of arriving in Narnia when he realizes that he's spent his life as a big fish in a small pond and begins to fear that he will embarrass himself in front of the other talking horses. Aslan tells him gently to get over himself -- he may not be exceptional, but he's a perfectly fine horse.

* StealthInsult: One that could also be considered an inversion, depending on who it was aimed at; after the climatic battle, Prince Corin taunts Rabadash for getting himself caught on a hook while attempting a dive from the battlements. King Lune rebukes Corin by saying "Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you: then, as you please." So in other words, the King believes that his pre-teenage son is a stronger person than the adult prince of the Calormen.

* ActionSurvivor: Shasta. At the beginning, he's just an escaped teenaged slave who has mostly done minor physical labor. While his attempts at being conventionally heroic generally leave him looking ridiculous, he grows into being competent and self-sufficient, and he ends up saving the day. The postscript describing his fate reveals that he graduates into being a full-fledged badass as an adult.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: Shasta is unable to help Bree by dismounting during the daylight part of the desert crossing because the sand is hot and [[BarefootPoverty he has no shoes]].

* AmbiguousInnocence: Lasaraleen. She is friendly, likable and SpoiledSweet -- but also conditioned by Calormen's horrible culture of slavery and oppression, which she has never had occasion (or opportunity) to question. Thus, she is casual and even cheerful about things like arranged marriages and random death threats to the servants, though in an innocently thoughtless rather than cruel manner.
* ArabianNightsDays: Calormene culture is heavily inspired by the ''Arabian Nights'' version of the Middle East; notably, Creator/CSLewis is on record as being a fan of the English translation and even borrowed the name "Aslan" from the footnotes to one edition. [[spoiler: It's Turkish for "Lion."]]
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Bree scoffs at the idea that the tombs of the ancient kings are haunted, regarding it as foolish superstition. Bree is a ''talking horse''. Also, it was established back in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' that ghouls exist in the Narniverse, though since Bree was taken from Narnia at a young age -- he wasn't even aware that Aslan was a real lion -- he may not have known this.

* ArrangedMarriage: What Aravis is fleeing. Suggested to be the case with her friend Lasaraleen. However we never see her husband (it is suggested that he spends a lot of time away from home) and she rather enjoys her high life.

* BarefootPoverty: Shasta is the (adoptive) son of a pauper fisherman and has no shoes, though this doesn't cause him any problems or distress until they have to cross the desert (see Agony of the Feet, above).

* GenreSavvy: As the heroes are starting out from the tombs to warn Archenland about Rabadash's attack, Aravis is worried that Rabadash and his forces will already be setting out, but Bree reminds her that Rabadash won't be able to get two hundred horsemen supplied, armoured, fed, watered and ready to travel all in a minute.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Lewis uses Bree to poke fun at those who de-mythologize Christianity (saying that Christ was an inspired teacher, for example), by having him say that Aslan isn't ''really'' a lion, he's just 'strong as a lion' or as 'fierce as a lion'. The quite literal (and highly amused) lion is right behind him as he says this.

* WhatAnIdiot: InUniverse; when the lion attacks Aravis and chases her and Hwin furiously, Shasta's reaction is to yell at it and command it to leave, like it was a stray dog or something. Despite the fact that it works [[spoiler: because it's actually Aslan, and Aslan is merely trying to make a point]], the text is pretty quick to point out just how [[HonorBeforeReason foolhardy]] Shasta was being and how his success was rather unlikely.

* SlapSlapKiss: Aravis and Shasta. As the narrator puts it, they had so many fights they decided to get married to make making up more convenient.

* LibertyOverProsperity: Aravis is running away from a life of wealth and comfort in Calormene to live a free life in Narnia.

* TooDumbToLive: Yeesh, Rabadash! First, his whole plan relies on speed: step one is take the royal castle in Archenland by surprise, then step two is quickly rush to Cair Paravel before Susan's ship arrives. [[spoiler: Shasta successfully warns King Lune in time, so the Archenland castle is sealed. Rabadash ought to know full well that he doesn't have time to lay siege to the castle.]] He should've called it quits and turned around right then and there, but whether from pride or lust, he doesn't. [[spoiler: He wastes critical time trying to take the Archenland castle, and now, instead of him being at Cair Paravel in time to catch Susan, [[RussianReversal King Edmund (who was on Susan's ship, no less!) rides out with an army from Cair Paravel]] to rescue his Archenland allies at the besieged castle.]] [[EpicFail Basically what happens is the polar opposite of Rabadash's plan.]] Next, [[spoiler: Rabadash gets captured in battle by the Narnians and Archenlanders and, even though they treat him quite nicely as a royal prisoner of war, he continues to throw fits and refuse to negotiate with them and threatens them all, even though they could just as easily have his head for it.]] This despite the fact that his father had told him in so many words that Calormen would not rescue or even avenge Rabadash if he fails. Then [[spoiler: he continues to act like this while [[CrystalDragonJesus Aslan]] is in the room, even when he's ''told'' to shut up or something bad will happen to him.]]

* ActionGirl: Queen Lucy (who is a young woman at this point in the timeline, rather than a little girl as in most of the books) fights together with the other Narnians in the battle against Rabadash's army. Averted by Susan, who is [[TheHighQueen "more like an ordinary grown-up lady"]] and prefers not to go to war when she has a choice, though she is still an excellent archer.

* WhatTheHellHero

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Shasta/[[spoiler: Cor]] wonders why everyone has suddenly risen to their feet while they are all debating what to do with Rabadash. Just as everyone in a courtroom stands to attention when the judge comes in, standing for [[spoiler: Aslan's arrival]] foreshadows what will happen to Rabadash.

%%* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Lewis was fond of this trope, and thus there's quite a few examples, often with a lampshade.
** Susan and the Narnians discuss barricading themselves in their embassy and having a heroic LastStand, which is shot down because the Calormenes would simply [[CuttingTheKnot burn the house down]].

* GoAndSinNoMore: Both King Lune and Aslan Himself attempt this with Rabadash after he gets captured (in a very humilating way, no less). But he's too proud, too HotBlooded, too self-centered, and too stubborn to even ''consider'' accepting their mercy or instruction until he's hit with a ForcedTransformation into the stubborn donkey that he'd been acting like.

* SidenoteFullStory: ''Literature/TheSilverChair'' takes a brief moment to discuss an old legend as part of dinner entertainment, and says one day that story would have to be told in its entirety. That legend became this.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Bree tells Shasta that he would prefer to be dead tonight than be Tarkhaan Anradin's slave tomorrow.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Bree could have been a bit politer about pointing out to Aravis that he and Hwin are independent persons, not the childrens' possessions... but even the narrator basically agrees with the point.

* StealthPun: The grand vizier describing Rabadash's familial love as a "carbuncle." (This usually means "ruby" but can also mean "festering sore.")

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Lewis was fond of this trope, and thus there's quite a few examples, often with a lampshade.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Ahoshta Tarkaan suggests that Rabadash might succeed in abducting Queen Susan, even on her siblings' doorstep, because Narnians are raised on stories and it will look like [[GrandRomanticGesture an act of passion]]. It would never work in Calomen, of course, because all of their poetry is practical and instructive.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Corin is an outstanding boxer even as a boy -- it takes three Calormene watchmen to subdue him -- and, as an adult, goes several rounds with a ''bear'', thus earning the name [[AwesomeMcCoolname Corin Thunder-Fist]].

* BalefulPolymorph: Aslan turns Prince Rabadash into a donkey during his HumiliationConga. The final part? He can only be changed back by showing up at the temple during a huge festival, letting thousands see what happened to him. Furthermore, if he ever goes too far from the palace, he'll turn back into a donkey forever. This prevents him from conducting any military campaigns against neighboring kingdoms, since he would lose the respect of his own people if he sent his army to fight while he stayed behind, and might get overthrown.

* InThatOrder: [[TheDitz Lasaraleen]] tells her servants that if they reveal Aravis' presence, she'll have them beaten to death, burnt alive, and then kept on bread and water for six weeks -- rather ineffectual punishments if done in that order, and a display of her casual, lazy attitude.[[labelnote:analysis]]This allows Lewis to make her a kind of IneffectualSympatheticVillain, which is necessary because she is a friend of Aravis and helps her, but she is still a Calormene noblewoman and a product of her culture.[[/labelnote]] (That none of Lasaraleen's servants are described as reacting to this with any panic or alarm suggests that this is a habit of hers with which they're familiar, and by now no longer take it especially seriously.)

* InThatOrder: [[TheDitz Lasaraleen]] tells her servants that if they reveal Aravis' presence, she'll have them beaten to death, burnt alive, and then kept on bread and water for six weeks -- rather ineffectual punishments if done in that order, and a display of her casual, lazy attitude.[[labelnote:analysis]]This allows Lewis to make her a kind of IneffectualSympatheticVillain, which is necessary because she is a friend of Aravis and helps her, but she is still a Calormene noblewoman and a product of her culture.[[/labelnote]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Lewis uses Bree to poke fun at those who de-mythologize Christianity (saying that Christ was an inspired teacher, for example), having him say that Aslan isn't ''really'' a lion, he's just as ''strong'' as a lion or as ''fierce'' as a lion. The very-literal (and highly amused) lion is right behind him as he says this.

** A soldier, who is isn't even named, is accidentally set adrift on a tiny rowboat with a baby. There's barely any supplies onboard and no chance of directing the boat to shore, so who gets to eat? [[HeroicSacrifice He chose the baby.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: While Rabadash outlines his plan to kidnap Queen Susan and force her to become his wife, the Tisroc rationally points out that even if he were to succeed, High King Peter would retaliate when he found out what happened. Rabadash brushes off this concern, stating that Peter won't want to lose the political advantages of a marriage alliance with Calormen, and that they can always send fake letters from Susan that claim [[BlatantLies she's changed her mind and is happy with the arrangement.]] The idea that Peter might not be okay with his sister being assaulted in this manner never crosses their minds.

* ExactEavesdropping: Both Aravis and Shasta learn crucial information when, through no intent or fault of their own, they overhear secret councils of the highest levels of government: Aravis and Lasaraleen learn about Rabadash's planned sneak attack on Archenland and his further campaign through Narnia to capture Susan; Shasta (mistaken for Corin) hears the Narnians plotting their escape and also learns of a safer way through the desert. Of course, since we are in the Narnian universe, ThereAreNoCoincidences.

** He later tries to intimidate the Archenland court by making faces, since it frightens his own people in Calormen. Unfortunately, it only works when he's the prince and could have them killed horribly at whim. When he's the prisoner, King Lune and company are just confused and wonder if he's going to be sick.

** Both Edmund and Lune. Lune gives a good summation of the job -- see The Chains of Commanding, above.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Corin is an outstanding boxer even as a boy -- it takes three Calormene watchmen to subdue him -- and, as an adult, punches out a ''bear'', thus earning the name [[AwesomeMcCoolname Corin Thunder-Fist]].

* HappilyFailedSuicide: Aravis tries to commit suicide to avoid an arranged marriage to Ahoshta Tarkaan. Hwin intervenes, though, telling her that as long as she's alive, things have a chance to improve. The two make a plan to escape to Narnia, where no one is forced into marriage, and Aravis is very glad that she hadn't killed herself.

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: What Rabadash plans to do to Susan.