History YMMV / BlackCompany

* CompleteMonster: While we never get a true backstory, every single reference to the Dominator describes him as nothing short of evil to the extreme. Not once is there even a grudging admission of a redeeming quality.
* FridgeLogic: Croaker has a moment of it in ''Shadow Games'' -[[spoiler: when he realized that if it was so hard to kill Limper, then how can they be sure other Taken died so easily during battle of Charm? Turns out some of them actually didn't.]]
* InferredHolocaust: We don't actually see what happens between when the killer shadows from the Plain of Glittering Stone are unleashed on the Voroshk homelands ([[spoiler: which Croaker erroneously called "Khatovar."]]) and when the shadows are defeated, but what is shown before and after these events makes it very clear how much the victory cost the Voroshk.
* MoralEventHorizon: Shed flirts with, and ultimately crosses the line in ''Shadows Linger.''
--> "Murder no longer bothered Shed."
** [[spoiler: Mogaba]] crosses it over the course of the siege of Dejagore. Murgen recalls a skirmish as the first time in Company history that Brothers knowingly raised arms against one another. He eventually pulls a full FaceHeelTurn and becomes a General to Longshadow.
* {{Narm}}: The Dominator, ''the'' BiggerBad for the first trilogy, driving force behind most of the plot and a man so powerful and so evil he makes The Lady look like a benevolent dictator, gets only one line in the series: [[spoiler: ARDATH, YOU BITCH!]] And he didn't even get her name right.
** He gets another line in next book [[spoiler: trying to bind Lady's powers]]. And he gets the name wrong again.
** There's also the tendency for most of the fights involving magical or superpowered adversaries to take the form of gigantic, prolongued dogpiles.
* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: Creator/StevenErikson, author of ''Literature/TheMalazanBookOfTheFallen'', wrote in a review that ''The Black Company'' was "like reading UsefulNotes/VietnamWar fiction on peyote."
* TrappedByMountainLions: Goblin spends most of ''She is the Darkness'' separated from the Company proper on a secret mission, which Murgen occasionally checks in on. It's revealed late in the novel that the mission's purpose was [[spoiler: to keep Goblin and One-Eye separated so that their feud couldn't complicate any critically important missions]].

* CanonSue - Raven comes across as one of these for the first couple of books, but eventually is revealed as a person who has a lot of deep flaws, just like everyone else.
** He suffers from a particularly nasty case of TheWorfEffect.
** Even in the first book, the attitude the rest of the Black Company has towards him is always more like wary suspicion than respect, precisely because of the attributes that would normally make him a hero. The way Croker writes about him makes it clear that he does ''not'' trust people like that.
** Tobo comes across this way in ''Soldiers Live.'' Now well in command of his magical talent, he is also shown to be uncommonly intelligent and incredibly graceful.
*** With that said, Tobo's power and lack of a true name all mean that he must be kept on the straight-and-narrow. It's been insinuated that any failure to exercise restraint would quickly turn him into a monster, as implied with the horrific death of Mogaba.

* ScaryImpracticalArmor - Croaker consistently describes Lady's [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/glitteringstone.jpg?w=500&h=719 Lifetaker armour]] and his own [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bookofthesouth.jpg?w=500&h=719 Widowmaker armour]] as being "ugly." Most people would probably describe it not as ugly, but badass.
* SchizoTech: Croaker's skills as a doctor (particularly in keeping the perennially wounded Otto and Hagop alive) point to his gear and training being more in line with the mid-19th century medical establishment than with the late medieval period the books are set in. Since his technique is never described in greater details than "patching," and his gear gets even less attention, YMMV on the presence of this trope.
** Generally averted elsewhere in the series.
** Could be hand waved by saying he has picked up bits and pieces of useful info as the Company moved around, while the bulk of the folk they meet are stationary, keeping in line with the late medieval period. A doctor who's tromped from Norway to India would learn more then the guys standing still in their villages.

* HeroKiller: All of the Taken.

** Could be hand waved by saying he has picked up bits and pieces of useful info as the Company moved around, while the bulk of the folk they meet are stationary, keeping in line with the late medieval period. A doctor who's tromped from Norway to India would learn more then the guys standing still in their villages.

* InferredHolocaust: We don't actually see what happens between when the killer shadows from the Plain of Glittering Stone are unleashed are unleashed on the Voroshk homelands ([[spoiler: which Croaker erroneously called "Khatovar."]]) and when the shadows are defeated, but what is shown before and after these events makes it very clear how much the victory cost the Voroshk.

* InferredHolocaust: The fate of the world ruled by the Varoshk [[spoiler: which Croaker erroneously called "Khatovar."]].

* CompleteMonster: Though all the Taken are considered to be paragons of evil by most characters, The Limper is nearly-universally regarded as the worst of the lot. Though he doesn't get a chance to do much on-page, everyone who talks about the Dominator consider him to be ''far'' worse than any of his ex-minions.

** Generally averted elsewhere in the series.

-> "Murder no longer bothered Shed."

* ScaryImpracticalArmor - Croaker consistently describes Lady's [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/glitteringstone.jpg?w=500&h=719 Lifetaker armour]] and his own [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bookofthesouth.jpg?w=500&h=719 Widowmaker armour]] as being "ugly." Most people would probably describe it not as ugly, but badass.

* CompleteMonster: The Limper is nearly-universally regarded as the worst of the lot. Though he doesn't get a chance to do much on-page, everyone who talks about the Dominator consider him to be ''far'' worse than any of his ex-minions.

* CompleteMonster: All of the Taken are considered to be such, but the Limper is nearly-universally regarded as the worst of the lot. Though he doesn't get a chance to do much on-page, everyone who talks about the Dominator consider him to be ''far'' worse than any of his ex-minions.

* ScaryImpracticalArmor - Croaker consistently describes Lady's [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/glitteringstone.jpg?w=500&h=719 Lifetaker armour]] and his own [[http://durkbricknell.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bookofthesouth.jpg?w=500&h=719 Widowmaker armour]] as being "ugly." Most people would probably describe it not as ugly, but badass.

** Not to mention he suffers from a particularly nasty case of TheWorfEffect.

* {{Narm}}: The Dominator, ''the'' BiggerBad for the first trilogy, driving force behind most of the plot and a man so powerful and so evil he makes The Lady look like a benevolent dictator, gets only one line in the series: [[spoiler:ARDATH, YOU BITCH!]] And he didn't even get her name right.