History Recap / AsterixTheGladiator

%%* GladiatorGames

* GoneHorriblyRight: Caius Fatuous involves the Gauls because he thinks they'll make the games more interesting.

* KarmaHoudini: Odius Asparagus, who started the whole mess by arranging for Cacofonix to be kidnapped and then handing him over to Caesar as a "gift", disappears from the story and apparently never gets any comeuppance for what he's done.[[note]](This was actually a quirk of the early stories, where there was typically a StarterVillain -- Caligula Minus in ''Asterix the Gaul'', the Arvenian innkeeper in ''Asterix and the Golden Sickle'', and Choleric in ''Asterix and the Goths'' -- who provided the initial threat to the protagonists, before disappearing at the halfway point of the narrative)[[/note]]

* BreadAndCircuses

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A legionary catches an Egyptian tourist carving his name into a pillar, and asks the tourist, would you like it if I carved my name into a pyramid?
* GladiatorGames

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Brutus is written here as a LazyBum who has to be reminded by Caesar to applaud his entrance, and looks generally disinterested throughout the games. In future stories he's written as a violent thug, foreshadowing his role in Caesar's assassination.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asterixgladiator.jpg]]

* KarmaHoudini: Odius Asparagus, who started the whole mess by arranging for Cacofonix to be kidnapped and then handing him over to Caesar as a "gift", disappears from the story and apparently never gets any comeuppance for what he's done.

* HauteCuisineIsWeird: When Fatuous invites Asterix and Obelix for a quick lunch, Obelix is particularly disappointed to discover it consists in very small toasts of pâtés made with nightingale tongues, roach gums, or sturgeon eggs. Fatuous on his side is quite vexed that Obelix finds his delicacies "salty". Later on Obelix asks for some "real food" instead, like wild boars.

* MuggingTheMonster: With this being their debut story, the pirates don't know Asterix and Obelix yet and thus don't hesitate to attack Ekonomikrisis' ship, with the two Gauls on board. They quickly and painfully learn their mistake, thus kicking off the RunningGag of the Gauls beating them up and sinking their ship anytime they meet.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: At one point Obelix suggests that they masquerade as lions. Asterix retorts by saying that Obelix is too fat to be a lion, and he doesn't object in any way. In later stories, he was so touchy about his weight that, to name one example, he knocks a Roman legionary flying just for using the expression "fat lot of good you are" (which, if you're not familiar with it, has a meaning along the lines of "you're useless") around him.

That evening, the two Armoricans meet Instantmix at his flat (inadvertently provoking a loud argument among the other residents of his building in the process), and learn both that Cacofonix has been imprisoned in the Circus Maximus and will be thrown to the lions in a few days and that Caius Fatuous is on the lookout for indomitable Gauls to train as gladiators for the arena. Sure enough, some of Fatuous' hired thugs try to ambush the Gauls as they leave, to no avail, and Asterix and Obelix book into an inn near the Circus. The next day, a circus guard barges into the inn to get parsley to stuff into his ears; Obelix takes the direct approach and asks where Cacofonix is being kept and is answered immediately, and he and Asterix head into the Circus Maximus, only to discover the bard has been transferred to another cell after complaints from the other condemned prisoners. They are forced to leave when the alarm is sounded, and when word gets back to Fatuous, he is more determined than ever to recruit the Gauls as gladiators.

* BoringReturnJourney: Actually lampshaded by the narration, which states the journey back from Rome to Gaul is rather uneventfull, aside from another quick battle with the pirates.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Brutus is first introduced, Caesar upbraids him for sleeping as he enters his box instead of applauding his leader like everyone else (saying that fateful line, "Et tu, Brute!"). As Brutus tries desperately to make up for his faux pas, Caesar thinks to himself that he will be having trouble from his subordinate someday, and as the comic book artist reminds us, that thought will prove prophetic, as any examination of Shakespeare's '''''Julius Caesar''''' will show you. (This gag will be repeated every time Brutus appears or is referred to.)

* IOweYouMyLife: After they fight off the pirates and thus save his life (and [[SkewedPriorities more important, his merchandise]]), Ekonomikrisis admitst that he originally intended to take Asterix and Obelix prisoner to [[MadeASlave sell them as slaves]], but now he will bring them to Rome as promised.
* KarmaHoudini: Odious Asparagus, who started the whole mess by arranging for Cacofonix to be kidnapped and then handing him over to Caesar as a "gift", disappears from the story and apparently never gets any comeuppance for what he's done.
* MuggingTheMonster: With this being their debute story, the pirates don't know Asterix and Obelix yet and thus don't hesitate to attack Ekonomikrisis' ship, with the two Gauls on board. They quickly and painfully learn their mistake, thus kicking off the RunningGag of the Gauls beating them up and sinking their ship anytime they meet.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: Odious Asparagus, after handing Cacofonix to Caesar as his gift, is never heard from again.

-->'''Gladiators''': Ave Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!
-->'''Asterix and Obelix''': Hiya, Julie! How ya doing?[[note]] In the British edition of the book, they use the much more British "Hello, Julius old chap!"[[/note]]

The fourth ''Asterix'' book sees the re-appearance of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, as Asterix and Obelix meet him on his home turf: Rome. (It has the first of four appearances [in the series] of Brutus as well.)

* AnimatedAdaptation: Combined with ''Asterix the Legionary'' to create ''Asterix vs Caesar''. Instead of Cacofonix, Tragicomix and Panacea, the romantic subplot leads from ''Asterix the Legionary'', are captured, so Asterix and Obelix pursue them by first joining the Roman Legion, then heading to Rome to become gladiators.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: In the arena scene in the AnimatedAdaptation, Obelix gets distracted and accidentally runs into a support pillar and causes a sizable portion of the Colosseum to collapse. [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Quite an impressive feat when you remember that the Colosseum wouldn't even be built for another century.]]

* MuggingTheMonster: With this being their debute story, the pirates don't know Asterix and Obelix yet and thus don't hesitate to attack Ekonomikrisis' ship, with the two Gauls on board. They quickly realize their mistake, thus kicking off the RunningGag of the Gausl beating them up and sinking their ship anytime they meet.

The fourth ''Asterix'' book sees the re-appearance of UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar, as Asterix and Obelix meet him on his home turf: Rome. (It has the first of four appearances [in the series] of Brutus as well.)

* SkewedPriorities: Ekonomikrisis fears that the pirates will take him and his men prisoner, kill them or, even worse, steal their merchandise!

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: At one point Obelix suggests that they masquerade as lions. Asterix retorts by saying that Obelix is too fat to be a lion, and he doesn't object in any way.

-->'''Gladiators''': Ave Caesar! Those who are about to die salute you!

The fourth ''Asterix'' book sees the re-appearance of UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar, as Asterix and Obelix meet him on his home turf: Rome. (It also has the first of four appearances [in the series] of Brutus as well.)