History YMMV / TheBelgariad

* FiveManBand: The Gods themselves form a loose version of this:
** {{The Leader}}/TeamDad: UL
** TheLancer: Nedra
** TheSmartGuy: Aldur
** [[TheBigGuy The Big Guys]]: Belar and Chaldan
** TheChick: Mara
** TheSixthRanger: Issa
** TokenEvilTeammate: Torak
** EleventhHourRanger: [[spoiler:Eriond]]

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: It's never mentioned in the story itself, but according WordOfGod, since most Nyissan men (the ones that aren't eunuchs) spend about 90% of their time completely stoned out of their minds, lesbianism is commonplace in Nyissa.
** It's also mentioned that the clientele of the high-class brothels of Tol Honeth are not entirely male.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The entire series has a bad case of ProtagonistCenteredMorality, and the past crimes of characters are quickly forgotten as soon as they join the heroes. A reader might well be quite surprised at the portrayal of [[spoiler: Zakath]] as a decent guy who made some bad mistakes late in the ''Malloreon'', considering that this is the guy who [[spoiler: tried and nearly damn succeeded in wiping out an entire race because of something their king did, and used to call himself 'Kal Zakath' ('Kal' meaning 'King and God'- i.e. the title that ''Torak'' used to use.) Yeah.]]

** It's also mentioned that the clientele of the high-class brothels of Tol Honeth are not entirely male

** Zedar is portrayed as having passed this when he kills [[spoiler: Durnik]]. He said was the one thing above all else that he didn't want to do, and it pushed Belgarath's BerserkButton something fierce.

** Vordai's purpose in the books is to be a sympathetic character who manages to break through Belgarath's JerkassFacade. The Arendish serf Lammer serves a similar purpose with respect to making Ce'Nedra and Lleldorin appreciate the plight of the serfs. And then there's the brain-damaged boy with the flute. Zedar is set up to appear as this to an extent, as his only real mistake was in daring to think he could outwit Torak, and the punishment for it was milennia of enslavement to the God's CompellingVoice and, at the end, [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream eternal imprisonment in solid rock]]]].

** [[spoiler:EleventhHourRanger]]: [[spoiler:Eriond]]

* UnfortunateImplications
** The "evil races" have [[YellowPeril oriental features]]. The "good races" tend to be much more European. ''The Malloreon'' lessens this by revealing that the Eastern races are much more nuanced than the West believes; it's mainly their God that sucks. That last bit is still unfortunate, given that Eddings lists Islam as one of the influences on the Angarak {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s.
** Also, [[spoiler: Durnik is given sorcery so that he will be Polgara's equal, because apparently that's necessary for a relationship (which may or may not be true). However, no mention is made of giving ''Ce'Nedra'' sorcery so that she will not be inferior to ''Garion'' (and let's not go into the fact that Garion is presumably immortal whereas she will live up to a few centuries, if that long). Of course, Durnik, being Durnik, is highly unlikely to cause problems, whereas giving Ce'Nedra sorcery might not be the smartest idea, but still.]]
*** Ce'Nedra's much less bothered about the sorcery than about political power, and she does get an upgrade in that area to match Garion. And then shortly thereafter starts ''using'' that power. Also, the other dryads are still young at a few centuries. They may last a ''lot'' longer, though sorcerers apparently lack any expiration date at all. This just delays the problem, rather than fixing it.
*** Belgarath does say that even sorcerers die, in the end, implying that it's connected to the purpose they have to serve. Given that Garion's accomplished his, maybe his life won't have to be that much longer than Ce'Nedra's.
*** We know that a dryad lives as long as her tree. Now, go check what is the symbol of Ce'Nedra's locket. [[spoiler:The Tree in the Vale of Aldur, known to be immortal]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Zedar. He's supposed to be a cruel, power-hungry sorcerer who betrayed his god and his fellow sorcerers to commit centuries of evil acts and whose eventual imprisonment within a rock for all eternity is richly deserved. However, this intended interpretation of him falls apart when you consider 1) His FaceHeelTurn was not his own choice, but forced on him by Torak, 2) all the evil things he did were while under Torak's mind control and not of his own volition, and 3) His killing of Durnik was in self-defense after the latter, enraged, assaulted him with intent to kill, and was the only thing that prevented Polgara from agreeing to marry Torak and give him the edge he needed to defeat Garion and conquer the world. In light of these points, Zedar's fate becomes much less LaserGuidedKarma and much more a combination of ProtagonistCenteredMorality and Moral Dissonance. (And really, what was Belgarath expecting Zedar to do? Just stand there and let Durnik kill him?)

* Unintentionally Sympathetic: Zedar. He's supposed to be a cruel, power-hungry sorcerer who betrayed his god and his fellow sorcerers to commit centuries of evil acts and whose eventual imprisonment within a rock for all eternity is richly deserved. However, this intended interpretation of him falls apart when you consider 1) His Face-HeelTurn was not his own choice, but forced on him by Torak, 2) all the evil things he did were while under Torak's mind control and not of his own volition, and 3) His killing of Durnik was in self-defense after the latter, enraged, assaulted him with intent to kill, and was the only thing that prevented Polgara from agreeing to marry Torak and give him the edge he needed to defeat Garion and conquer the world. In light of these points, Zedar's fate becomes much less Laser-GuidedKarma and much more a combination of Protagonist-CenteredMorality and Moral Dissonance. (And really, what was Belgarath expecting Zedar to do? Just stand there and let Durnik kill him?)

** [[TheBigGuy The Big Guys]]: Belar and Chamdar

** {{TheLeader}}/TeamDad: UL

** TheLeader /TeamDad: UL

** TheLeader / TeamDad: UL

** TheLeader/TeamDad: UL

** [[TheBigGuy The Big Guys]]: Belar, Chamdar

* CompleteMonster: Between the [[BadBoss betraying everyone who helps her]] (by breaking their legs and leaving them to be eaten by lions in one instance), kidnapping Garion's son, attempting to start a civil war in the West, successfully starting one in the East, [[EvilIsNotAToy consorting with demons]], [[MoreThanMindControl brain-washing Ce'Nedra]], regularly trying to break the rules of Prophecy, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]], [[KickTheDog cruelty to animals]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking standing around naked in front of a toddler]], Zandramas ''really'' pushes the envelope. That's all on top, mind you, of already being a priestess of a ReligionOfEvil who liked to cut out people's hearts and [[BloodBath bathe in their blood]] while nude. Even ''[[GodOfEvil Torak]]'' and ''[[BiggerBad The Dark Prophecy]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards think she was a psycho]].

* FridgeBrilliance: After a while, you suddenly realise that the PlanetOfHats arrangements serve a vital purpose -- most of the characters who are walking stereotypes of their cultures ''need to be'' those stereotypes to fulfil their roles in the prophecy, for either side. Mimbrates aren't heavily into armoured knights just because they think jousting is awesome -- they were deliberately kept in that state for thousands of years just so Mandorallen would come out the other end. The same is true of Algarian horsemanship, Drasnian guile, Cherek barbarism, Asturian archery, Ulgo religiosity and so on.
* FridgeHorror: Sorcerers are implied to subconciously choose their appearance, which is why Belgarath looks like a wise old man, and Polgara an attractive young woman. So what does that say about Ctuchik, who looks like the very archetype of the EvilSorcerer? Likely that he's fully aware of how evil he is, and either doesn't care, or is ''proud'' of it.

* CompleteMonster
** Between the [[BadBoss betraying everyone who helps her]] (by breaking their legs and leaving them to be eaten by lions in one instance), kidnapping Garion's son, attempting to start a civil war in the West, successfully starting one in the East, [[EvilIsNotAToy consorting with demons]], [[MoreThanMindControl brain-washing Ce'Nedra]], regularly trying to break the rules of Prophecy, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]], [[KickTheDog cruelty to animals]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking standing around naked in front of a toddler]], Zandramas ''really'' pushes the envelope. That's all on top, mind you, of already being a priestess of a ReligionOfEvil who liked to cut out people's hearts and [[BloodBath bathe in their blood]] while nude. Even ''[[GodOfEvil Torak]]'' and ''[[BiggerBad The Dark Prophecy]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards think she was a psycho]].
** This is heavily implied with Ctuchik in the first series. Torak's other Disciples, Urvon and Zedar are, respectively, insane and being forced into it. Ctuchik on the other hand, chose to serve Torak of his own will, keeps rooms in a tower dedicated to his vices (which include, by the by, ColdBloodedTorture and some strongly hinted at sexual deviancy which even disgusted [[TheCynic Silk]]), and is consistently built up to be one of the worst human beings to ever walk the face of the Earth. He doesn't really do anything that awful [[OffscreenVillainy onscreen]], but nor does he do anything to dissuade the reader from coming to this conclusion.