History YMMV / SwordOfTruth

* JerkassWoobie: Nearly the whole main cast.
** Mord-Sith. Read MoralEventHorizon.

** Really, ''too many to list''.

** In ''Faith of the Fallen'' Richard is viewed by the D'Haran forces as a DesignatedHero. His reaction is to [[IResembleThatRemark refuse to help them]] for such a [[EvilIsPetty petty reason.]]

** Michael's usually remembered for his speech against fire.

* FanNickname: Inverted in that it's a nickname that comes from the {{Hatedom}} who call the author Badkind because he neither tells people to be good nor kind and in fact the opposite.

** A captured assassin tells Kahlan that if she is as good a person as she claims she is then she will give him a quick death since there is no more information that he could provide. She instead has him slowly tortured to death to [[MoralDissonance teach him the value of life.]]

** An captured assassin tells Kahlan that if she is as good a person as she claims she is then she will give him a quick death since there is no more information that he could provide. She instead has him slowly tortured to death to [[MoralDissonance teach him the value of life.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Despite there being some restrictions on how you can use it, the powers of the Sword of Truth (cutting through anything that you think deserves it, being able to draw on the fighting skills of its previous owners) suggest that there might be ways to use it to disarm or disable relatively weak foes rather than killing them outright. Richard never attempts this due to being too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

** Kahlan crosses it when she vows to destroy everyone in Galea and throw her half-sister queen Cyrilla into a rape pit. Zedd crosses it moments later when he is implied to have murdered the queen's emissary in cold blood for [[FelonyMisdemeanor daring to be angry about such a pronouncement.]] This is [[DesignatedHero treated as]] [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality a completely good action]] by Goodkind.

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Despite there being some restrictions on how you can use it, the powers of the Sword of Truth (cutting through anything that you think deserves it, being able to draw on the fighting skills of its previous owners) suggest that there might be ways to use it to disarm or disable relatively weak foes rather than killing them outright. Richard never attempts this.

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything, which would be great in the hands of a hero (especially against mooks) because they could win fights by destroying the opponents' weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the weapon and then the person wielding the weapon (no matter who they are) since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything, which would be great in the hands of a hero (especially against mooks) because they could win fights by destroying the opponents' weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the weapon and then the person wielding the weapon (no matter who they are) since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything, which would be great in the hands of a hero because they could win fights by destroying the opponents' weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the weapon and then the person wielding the weapon since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

* ColonelKilgore: Several of Kahlan's sayings about warfare ("The purpose of war is singular: to kill," "If war is brought to you, then it is incumbent upon you to show no mercy...let there be war like your enemy has never imagined in his most frightening nightmares,") and ordering her soldiers to kill innocents passing through the area on the off chance that they might be spies, can certainty give this impression. Given that most of these ideas come from what her father taught her, it probably applied to him as well.

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

* ColonelKilgore: Several of Kahlan's sayings about warfare ("The purpose of war is singular: to kill," "If war is brought to you, then it is incumbent upon you to show no mercy...let there be war like your enemy has never imagined in his most frightening nightmares,") and ordering her soldiers to kill innocents passing through the area on the off chance that they might be spies, can certainty give this impression. Given that most of these ideas come from what her father taught her, it probably applies to him as well.
* CompleteMonster: Darken Rahl is an EvilOverlord and EvilSorcerer who has made a [[DealWithTheDevil bargain for power with the demonic being The Keeper of the Underworld]]. Darken keeps the people enslaved, banning fire and launching brutal extermination campaigns on those who have resisted him. Rahl also continues the order of Mord-Sith: girls raised to be vicious torturers who have their mothers murdered in front of them and are forced to torture their fathers to death. He also sexually abuses the Mord-Sith and especially enjoys tormenting a lesbian couple among them. A SerialRapist as well, Rahl forces himself upon many women, and if ones with him consensually are repulsed at the scars under his clothing, he tortures them to death. Viewing children without the gift of magic as worthless, he has any ungifted offspring disposed of, while also sacrificing other children to the Keeper for power. Rahl's ultimate goal is to plunge the world into The Keeper's domain, where all that lives will suffer eternally.

** "Soul of the Fire" describes a minority group that keeps itself in power by controlling the schools and teaching everyone in their society that they were the victim of a horrible injustice in the past and are therefore owed a great debt by the "evil" majority. (And the horrible injustice may not have actually happened in the first place.) Parallels to real-world groups are [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment left as an exercise to the reader.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything which would be great in the hands of a hero because they could win fights by destroying the opponents weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the weapon and then the person wielding the weapon since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

* {{Narm}}: Richard comparing a Mord Sith's lesbianism to steamed peas: "I might not like what you like, but that doesn't mean I don't like you anymore for liking it."

* {{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 [[WhatTheHellHero being called out]] [[MoralDissonance on his hypocrisy?]] [[IResembleThatRemark He ends up steamrolling her and accusing her of "posturing".]] [[LaserGuidedKarma Eventually, he has to trade his sword for the information he wants.]]

** [[spoiler: Warren's]] death in ''Faith of the Fallen,'' seriously sucky timing there.
** Also [[spoiler: Cara's Wedding,]] the juxtaposition of what they used to be, to what they have now is incredibly moving.

* TheWoobie: Rachel, Jehnsel.

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything which would be great in the hands of a hero because they could win fights by destroying the opponents weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the weapon and then the person wielding the sword since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything which would be great in the hands of a hero because they could win fights by destroying the opponents weapons so that no one is harmed. Richard usually cuts through the wielder and then the person wielding the sword since he's too much of a KnightTemplar to [[MurderIsTheBestSolution show mercy to people.]]

** ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' as well. Many WOT fans will outright accuse Goodkind of plagiarism, which Goodkind once casually deflected by suggesting that if you notice any similarities between the two, you probably aren't old enough to read his books.

** Similarly, the villain in The Law of Nines is said to have garnered support by offering what was essentially medieval welfare to the "lazy."
** The entirety of "Soul of the Fire" is a thinly disguised parable for how the Holocaust was all a great big lie by the Jews in order to control the Aryans who brought them civilization.

** ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' as well. Many WOT fans will outright accuse Goodkind of plagiarism, which Goodkind deflects by declaring that he does not read fantasy, or even much fiction at all.

* QualityByPopularVote: In any online discussion of these books, its supporters will cling to this trope like it's the last lifeline on the Titanic. It's true that the books sell well, and thus, in the eyes of its most diehard fans, that alone means that critics of its flaws are automatically wrong, [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible failed to understand it]] or [[YoureJustJealous just jealous]].

*** 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 revealed as rapists, even child molesters. If a formerly "good" character starts disagreeing with Richard, this is the beginning of that character's FaceHeelTurn (even some of ''them'' may turn to rape). 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.

* CompleteMonster: Darken Rahl is an EvilOverlord and EvilSorcerer who has made a DealWithTheDevil for power with the demonic being The Keeper of the Underworld. Darken keeps the people enslaved, banning fire and launching brutal extermination campaigns on the orders that have resisted him. Rahl also continues the order of Mord-Sith: girls raised to be vicious torturers who have their mothers murdered in front of them and are forced to torture their fathers to death. He also sexually abuses the Mord-Sith and especially enjoys tormenting a lesbian couple amongst them. A SerialRapist as well, Rahl forces himself upon many women, and if ones with him consensually are repulsed at the scars under his clothing, he tortures them to death. Viewing children without the gift of magic as worthless, he has any ungifted offspring disposed of, while also sacrificing other children to the Keeper for power. Rahl's ultimate goal is to plunge the world into The Keeper's domain, where all that lives will suffer eternally.

** [[spoiler: Sebastian arranging the death of Jennsen's mother, along with four of his own soldiers, in order to ingratiate himself to Jennsen and fool her into trusting him.]]

** Michael's usually remembered for his speech against fire.