History YMMV / SwordOfTruth

** Even less GenreSavvy readers cannot ignore the absurd amount of times people say: "There are not many people like you/Richard"

*** Richard is not just good, but perceived, at least by Goodkind, as damn near perfect. Richard, and often by extension Kahlan or Zedd, as they always seem to agree with him, is always shown as being above reproach, no matter what he does, or how it is perceived by those around him. Richard can kick a child in the face, nearly killing her, and doom an entire nation to death because they disagreed with his moral standpoint (more than once), and numerous other clearly villainous acts, but it doesn't matter, because it was all somehow warranted. On the other hand, characters who are not on Richard's side cannot be forgiven the slightest of offenses, and most, if not all of them are shown to be rapists, even child molesters. If a formerly "good" character starts disagreeing with Richard, this is the beginning of that character's FaceHeelTurn. That is because Richard is a picture of all that is holy and good in the world, and can never be allowed to be wrong. If he kills someone, that person deserved to die. If a country refuses to join Richard's D'Haran Empire, that country is evil, even if they were only "evil" by virtue of opposing Richard. By the same token, a formerly evil character's HeelFaceTurn will begin with them realizing Richard is right.

** Actually, nearly every truly bad character in these books, defined as "those who do not feel Richard is always right", is usually shown to be a CompleteMonster, usually a rapist or child molester (or both). If this is not the case, then they are [[ObfuscatingStupidity willfully stupid]]. Either way they deserve to die.

* MarySue: Richard is not just good, but perceived, at least by Goodkind, as damn near perfect. Richard, and often by extension Kahlan or Zedd, as they always seem to agree with him, is always shown as being above reproach, no matter what he does, or how it is perceived by those around him. If a formerly "good" character starts disagreeing with Richard, this is the beginning of that character's FaceHeelTurn. That is because Richard is a picture of all that is holy and good in the world, and can never be allowed to be wrong. If he kills someone, that person deserved to die. If a country refuses to join Richard's D'Haran Empire, that country is evil, even if they were only "evil" by virtue of opposing Richard. By the same token, a formerly evil character's HeelFaceTurn will begin with them realizing Richard is right. Richard can kick a child in the face, nearly killing her, and doom an entire nation to death because they disagreed with his moral standpoint (more than once), and numerous other clearly villainous acts, but it doesn't matter, because it was all somehow warranted. On the other hand, characters who are not on Richard's side cannot be forgiven the slightest of offenses, and most, if not all of them are shown to be rapists, even child molesters.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Some of the things about "wizards" and "magic" really make much more sense if you read them as "politicians"/"politics" or, which was more likely Goodkind's intent, "philosopher"/"philosophy". The most prominent example of this is the often repeated sentence: "Sometimes wizards have to use people"

* TheUntwist: Zuddicus's the great wizard, of course.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Chickens aside, the idea that the Chimes of Death can just suddenly show up and make you drown yourself can be frightening.

* CanonSue: Richard is basically a perfect human being: strong, incredibly handsome, good at pretty much everything, [[spoiler: chosen wielder of the Sword of Truth AND the first War Wizard born in the last 3000 years]]. He repeatedly wins over enemies with his unconditional love, including someone who ''tortured him for months''. Taken to an even more ridiculous extreme in the last few books, when Richard, armed with only a regular sword (not his usual {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}), kills almost a hundred armed soldiers by himself. Following that, he is [[AccidentalAthlete conscripted into a Ja'La team]], where despite being completely new to the game, takes the most important position on the team, and becomes, to paraphrase a character, "the best point man we've seen in the last hundred years". Keep in mind, this sport is run almost exactly like current day sports, so the equivalent would be someone who's never touched a football stepping onto an NFL field and becoming the greatest quarterback in the history of the sport in the space of a few months.
* ClicheStorm: On a level with the InheritanceCycle.

* CanonSue: Richard is basically a perfect human being: strong, incredibly handsome, good at pretty much everything, [[spoiler: chosen wielder of the Sword of Truth AND the first War Wizard born in the last 3000 years]]. He repeatedly wins over enemies with his unconditional love, including someone who ''tortured him for months''. Taken to an even more ridiculous extreme in the last few books, when Richard, armed with only a regular sword (not his usual {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}), kills almost a hundred armed soldiers by himself. Following that, he is conscripted into a Ja'La team, where despite being completely new to the game, takes the most important position on the team, and becomes, to paraphrase a character, "the best point man we've seen in the last hundred years". Keep in mind, this sport is run almost exactly like current day sports, so the equivalent would be someone whose never touched a football stepping onto an NFL field and becoming the greatest quarterback in the history of the sport in the space of a few months.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Richard is canonically the hero, but to many readers, he is a brutal KnightTemplar

** Denna.

* AltenateCharacterInterpretation: Richard is canonically the hero, but to many readers, he is a brutal KnightTemplar

* {{Anvilicious}} - Goodkind does ''not'' believe in ambiguity. The heroes are ([[DesignatedHero written as]]) Right, almost every villain is a CompleteMonster, and, in later books, the series' [[AuthorTract Objectivist themes]] become far more prominent.

* ClicheStorm - On a level with the InheritanceCycle.

* CompleteMonster - Darken Rahl, Demmin Nass, Emperor Jagang, the Keeper of the Underworld
* DesignatedHero - Richard, Kahlan and Zedd, [[SeasonalRot especially in the later books.]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse - Gratch is awesome, which is sad because he's absent from the later books. Or maybe fortunate that he doesn't get caught up in the AuthorTract.
* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop - Exactly which of the series' many Aesops ([[BrokenAesop broken]] or otherwise) are Family Unfriendly [[EditWar has been a matter of much dispute]], but many readers can point to at least one.

* MagnificentBastard - Dalton Campbell.

* OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow - Jagang, Darken Rahl and Nicholas the Slide would have had no problems achieving their goals if it wasn't for DeusExMachina. This is most blatant in the case of Nicholas and the vial of antidote.
* SeasonalRot - The books see a general decrease in quality as the series goes on, although there remain a few good books later in the series.
* SnarkBait - exist websites and forums that mock passages from the books.
* {{Squick}} - The Sisters of the Dark get their [[DealWithTheDevil powers of Subtractive magic]] by having sex with "nambles" - monsters with barbed penises.
* StrawmanHasAPoint - Several. The most obvious is probably Shota, the witch woman. Towards the end of the series, Richard comes to her demanding her help. She explains to him that, by his own principles, she has no obligation to help him, and really just wants to be left alone. How does Richard react to being called out on his hypocrisy? He ends up steamrolling her and accusing her of "posturing". Eventually, he has to trade his sword for the information he wants.
* TearJerker - [[spoiler:Raina's]] death in ''Temple of the Winds''.

** Also [[spoiler: Cara's Wedding,]] the juxtaposition of what they used to be, to what they have now is increddibly moving.

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** Chandalen

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* TheWoobie: Rachel, Jehnsel

* CompleteMonster - It would be easier to list the villains in this series that ''aren't'' this trope.

* MagnificentBastard - Dalton Campbell, who earns this distinction partly by being the only villain in the series who isn't a CompleteMonster.
* NeverLiveItDown: Listening to some critics you'd get the impression that killing peace protesters is all Richard does in the later books.

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* {{Hatedom}} - There's quite a bit of it to be found on the Internet.

* SnarkBait - The {{Hatedom}} includes websites and forums that mock passages from the books.

** [[YourMileageMayVary Your Mileage Will SERIOUSLY vary]].

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds - Nicci.

[[{{Horrible/Literature}} So Bad It's Horrible]]: ''Naked Empire'' is generally regarded as the worst book in the series, and it has inspired much loathing.

[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Horrible/Literature SoBadItsHorrible]]: ''Naked Empire'' is listed as such in the DarthWiki.