Line #53 Literature/TheSoldierSon


1	[[quoteright:191:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ShamansCrossing_8141.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:191:''Shaman's Crossing'' cover art by John Howe]]
3	''The Soldier Son'' is a {{Fantasy}} trilogy by Creator/RobinHobb, featuring a more modern setting than usual. The books are:
4
5	# ''Shaman's Crossing''
6	# ''Forest Mage''
7	# ''Renegade's Magic''
8	----
9	!!Contains examples of:
10
11	%%* AgentMulder: Epiny.
12	* AMillionIsAStatistic: As it turns out, [[spoiler:the authorities of Gettys knew all along about the holy trees of the Specks and the creeping depression/fear; they just didn't care, since changing the road's route would draw trading away from Gettys.]]
13	* AntiAntiChrist: [[spoiler:Nevare doesn't particularly ''want'' to wipe out every Gernian in existence just because the Speck magic says so...]]
14	* AntiMagic: Iron is this, as it is revealed throughout the book, and it is because of the Gernians heavy use of it that they could manage to defeat magic-using nations, such as the Plainsmen.[[spoiler: In ''Forest Mage'', Nevare's Speck alter-ego manages to destroy the Dancing Spindle, the main source of the Plains people magic, by throwing an iron knife at its core]].
15	%%* AnyoneCanDie
16	* ArrangedMarriage: Nevare and Carsina.
17	%%* AttemptedRape
18	%%* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor
19	%%* BalancingDeathsBooks: Well, Soldier's Boy tries, at least.
20	* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Hitch.]] Of course, things are a bit more complicated than usually in this trope, since there's no clearly Evil side. Not to mention he couldn't exactly help it.
21	* BigEater: All Great Ones are this,since they obtain their magic from certain types foods and have to eat enormous quantities of it to replenish their magic. It helps that, due to their spells relying on a CastFromCalories logic, Great Ones always feel very hungry after using their magic. However, in a twist, the Great Ones are only hungry for magic-containing food - they do not eat out of pure gluttony, or just to satiate their hunger, meaning if they gorge on non-magic food, they'll still be left hungry and disappointed.
22	* BlessedWithSuck: Being a wizard sounds great, but not when you realize what it can and will do to you, should you ever go against the will of your magic.
23	%%* TheCaligula: [[spoiler:Nevare's father]] becomes this after the Speck Plague strikes his family.
24	* TheCassandra: Nevare throughout most of the second book: no matter what subject he is honest about, be it his own weight gain, the existence of magic or the Speck conspiracy against Gernians, nobody believes him.
25	* CastFromCalories: [[spoiler: Speck Great Ones gouge on food (especially magically potent food) to become obese and full of magic. Using the magic withers all the stored fat from their bodies]].
26	* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: A variation. One of the several types of magic in this setting is religious and relies on the worship of TheOldGods ; while Nevare discovers in ''Forest Mage'' that, even though he is imbued with Speck magic, he needs to ''believe'' in it to get it to work to its will.
27	* ColdIron: Iron stops magic and is harmful to magic-users. It is how the Gernians could conquer and dominate the Specks and the Kidona, thanks to their massive use of iron-based weapons and equipment. When Nevare completely gives himself up to magic, he soon finds that he can't even seize the handle of his sword anymore, as it burns him like poison ivy.
28	* CosmicPlaything: This is the fate of [[spoiler:Nevare, Buel Hitch]] and all magic users, because of magic. Magic being a sentient force, and as a result a magic user never actually dominates magic rather than magic ''dominates'' them. Throughout its users, magic always make sure its own goals and plans are put in motion or completed, and no matter how much a magic user tries to defie or be free from the grasp of magic, it will always influence the world around them - from the people they meet to the very weather - so that they have no choice but to enact the desires of magic. This is why the Specks, the most magical of the three civilizations of the series, have absolutely no concept of free-will or personal choice.
29	%%* CountryMouse: Nevare and most of the battle lords' sons, compared to the old nobles' sons.
30	%%* TheChosenOne: You get one guess.
31	%%* CultureClash: Between the Gernians and the Specks.
32	%%* CuteKitten: Comes into play near the end.
33	%%* CycleOfRevenge
34	%%* DaddysGirl: This time it's Epiny.
35	%%* DatingCatwoman: Olikea.
36	%%* DefrostingIceQueen: Amzil.
37	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Intended for the Gernians, whose society is based on 18th century American colonies, doubled with some strong medieval elements, with all the historical dissonance that comes with it. As a result, women are expected to be gentle and kind housewives, each young nobleman has a predetermined career depending on his order among his siblings (second sons are for the military, third sons for the religion), everybody rejects any religion that is not the CrystalDragonJesus faith of Gernia, and all of that wrapped in heavy doses of FantasticRacism (see below).
38	%%* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Nevare's father]] crosses it, and it drives him mad.
39	%%** Used as a weapon by the [[spoiler:Speck magic]] in ''Forest Mage''.
40	%%* DrillSergeantNasty
41	* TheDutifulSon: What Nevare desperately tries to be despite the entire world being against him. Even after being infected with magic, becoming obese, and finding himself an agent and sympathizer of the Specks, he still tries to be a good and loyal Gernian, obeying the traditions of the Gernian faith and to make a carreer in the military, as he was always trained to do. No matter how much the odds are against him, he still tries to follow the path his society, raising and father set out for him, and it will take him [[spoiler: almost being lynched by his own people to understand he should maybe take a different lifepath.]] Subverted in-universe, as Nevare's family is convinced he actually made himself obese on purpose to avoid the military duties that were expecting him. His father, especially, perceives the bizarre circumstances and strange curses surrounding his son as personal attempts at defying his authority and escaping his control, despite Nevare doing the very opposite and trying as hard as he can to please him. [[spoiler: Understanding that his father is a bitter and abusive control-freak is a needed step for Nevare to become his own person.]]
42	%%* EarnYourHappyEnding: Creator/RobinHobb seems fond of these.
43	%%* EnemyWithin
44	* FakingTheDead: What [[spoiler: Nevare is forced to do at the end of the second book, since he has been framed for crimes ranging from murder to necrophilia. His only way to survive a death penalty, or an execution by a mob, is to make everyone believe through magic that he died, while he hides in the forests far away from civilization.]]
45	* FantasticRacism: This is "Fantastic Racism - The Series". The Gernians are the fantasy equivalent of white European colonizers towards the "Native" Plains people and Specks, with all the racism that comes with it. The Specks and Plains people, of course, do not appreciate at all those foreign invaders that try to enslave them or destroy their culture. But on top of that, the Specks and the Plains people also hate the guts out of each other, with each having the hope of seeing the other wiped out (and this conflict is what allowed the Gernians to invade in the first place).
46	%%* FantasyAmericana
47	%%* FantasyGunControl: Averted.
48	* FoodPorn: A recurring thing in this series. As Nevare turns into a "Great One" (a sorcerer with a CastFromCalories magic), not only does he grows an immense appetite, but also finds his sense of taste highly developed and starts to feel the magical and life-force within aliments. The result is that whenever Nevare has to eat, he plunges into a PurpleProse trance describing and admiring every single detail of flavor and texture of whatever food he has in front of him - and his extreme appreciation and love for food tends to weird out other people around him.
49	-->'''Hitch (upon seeing Nevare eat):''' Can’t say that I’ve ever seen a man enjoy his meal as much as you do.
50	* FormerlyFit: The main plot point of the first part of ''Forest Mage''. After recovering from the Ocellion Plague, Nevare finds himself inexplicably gaining weight to the point of obesity, and is met with the disgust and rejection of his own people and family, while all of his attempts at losing weight are useless. It is later revealed that [[spoiler: It is because he became a "Great One", one of the users of the Specks magic, whose magic leaves them obese due to their use of CastFromCalories spells.]] This subplot also manages to show some of the major cultural differences between the Gernians, for whom Nevare is a {{Gonk}} and FatBastard, and the Specks, who rather consider him a BigBeautifulMan.
51	** Invoked by Buel Hitch, who guessed that Nevare didn't always use to be fat by observing how he moves: his gestures are those of a thin man, despite his enormous girth, and his posture is the one of someone clearly not used to the weight they have to carry.
52	* FunctionalMagic: We get three different types of magic. One is the magic of the Plains, practiced by the Kidona people (and by some Gernians themselves) and which suffers from a ColdIron weakness. The second is the forest-magic of the Specks people (of which the Plains magic is an off-shoot), which relies on a CastFromCalories principle. The last one is the magic of the "old gods", obtained from the worship of the former gods of Gernia, those that existed before the country's current religion of CrystalDragonJesus.
53	%%* GaiasVengeance: Subverted.
54	* GentlemenRankers: [[spoiler: Nevare]] ends up enlisting in the ranks after his expulsion from the Cavalla Academy. Aggravating his situation, Spink (who does have a commission) is assigned to the same regiment, as is the officer his former fiancee married.
55	* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Averted.
56	-->'''Orandula:''' Do you honestly believe that we derive our powers because you believe in us? What sort of impotent god would that be?
57	%%* GoingNative: Although "being dragged" might be a better verb choice.
58	%%* GollumMadeMeDoIt: A curse here, a hand sign there, a steel knife ''there''...
59	%%* GreyAndGrayMorality
60	%%* IJustWantToBeNormal: Nevare, ''fiercely''. Provided "nobility, with lots of privileges" counts as normal.
61	%%* InMysteriousWays
62	* InnocentlyInsensitive: Nevare, bordering on InnocentBigot. Being a son of an aristocratic family trained in a top-class military academy to serve and defend a colonizing country, Nevare has to learn to expand his mind and worldview throughout the books as he is faced with poverty, foreign cultures, the flaws of his government, the prejudices of his society, and in general regular, every-day life.
63	%%* ItsAllMyFault
64	%%* [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies It's Not You, It's My Enemies]]
65	%%* LaserGuidedAmnesia
66	* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Lisana at the end, killing two guards in a nightmarish way and trying to kill Amzil.]]
67	* ManEatingPlant: The kaembras can become this when too much of their magic is used - the trees need to 'feed' to replenish their power, and if a living being, human or not, happens to pass too close to the plant...
68	* MightyWhitey: Deconstructed in Gernia's colonization of the Plainspeople and the Specks. Nevare, being raised as a "true" Gernian (itself heavily based on the European colonies of early America), truly believes at the beginning of the series that the Gernian way of life, civilization and society are far superior to those of the "native" of the lands they are colonizing, and that they are helping them progress towards a better life. One of the threads of the series is how Nevare comes to understand the culture of the colonized, while opening his eyes to the numerous flaws and crimes of Gernians themselves.
69	%%* MoralMyopia: On all sides, regarding the others.
70	%%* MurderTheHypotenuse: See Love Makes You Evil above.
71	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Nevare's mindset. Even as he starts to understand the traditions and moral codes of other cultures, even as he is confronted with the nasty sides of Gerian's wars, conquests and colonization, even as he sees the injustice, prejudices and corruption of his own society, he still thinks it is his duty to serve his country and help it however he can. This blind patriotism is even called out by Bluel Hitch:
72	--> '''Hitch:''': Do you believe that Gernians are the most important people in the world? Or do you think so only because you were born one? If you'd been born anywhere else, would you still think that you had a duty to protect the interest of Gernia, no matter what it cost to other people?
73	* MysticalPlague: The Speck people use infectious diseases against their enemies, and a good part of the story is concerned with trying to understand if their plague is indeed magical, or if it is a simple biological weapon. Nevare is especially concerned with this MaybeMagicMaybeMundane topic, since his recovery from the Speck plague leads him to gain weight massively - and he doesn't know if he suffers from a rare side-effect of the disease (as his doctor claims), or if the plague actually cursed him and transformed his body with magic.
74	%%* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nevare gets a couple of these from Hitch, among others.
75	%%* TheNeidermeyer: Colonel Stiet, among others.
76	%%* NobleSavage: Dewara. Possibly. [[spoiler:Subverted with]] the Specks.
77	%%* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished
78	* OurLichesAreDifferent: The Great Ones of the Specks can survive beyond their physical death by fusing with a kaembra, a sacred "ancestor-tree". Thanks to this fusion, the Great One becomes one with the tree, can use its powers beyond the grave, and can "survive" in the spirit world. However, in return, if the Great One uses too much of the tree's power, the tree will demand in return to be fed not to die - which can result in a ManEatingPlant situation f the undead Speck wishes to keep on living...
79	* PaterFamilicide: Mention is made of a father who strangled his wife and drowned his children before shooting himself.
80	* ThePlague: This is the main threat and danger the Specks pose to the Gernian, as they have found a way to unleash a dreadful, deadly and highly contagious disease the Gernians simply call the "Speck Plague". Gernians have a hard time understanding how it work and how to cure it, though many doctors and scientists hope they are getting closer to the truth each day... [[spoiler: As it turns out, the plague is actually a magic spell rather than any actual bioweapon.]]
81	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Dance generates [[spoiler:the creeping sense of gloom in Gettys and of terror in the forest outside the town.]]
82	%%* RebelliousPrincess: Epiny
83	* RefusalOfTheCall: Nevare's entire journey throughout ''Forest Mage''. Magic has chosen him as its agent and yet he keeps trying to resist its call to join the Specks to help them protect their land and people - partly because he was raised up in a society that does not believe in magic and considers the Specks as enemies. He tries numerous times to settle down somewhere where he could escape the call of magic - only for magic to cause heavy disasters, making it clear what happens to those that resist it.
84	%%* RichBitch: Carsina, and Epiny's mother.
85	* SentientCosmicForce: The magic behaves much like this. The Specks know that it has a will of its own, and merely answer its calls and orders - to the point they consider it a flaw to be curious and wonder ''why'' magic wants you to do something, instead of just obeying blindly to the call.
86	%%* ShotgunWedding: Epiny runs away in the night to meet Spink to force her parents' hands.
87	* SpiritWorld: The spirit world is one of the main locations of the series. Deware trains Nevare in his youth to go there, in hope that he will be able to fight and kill his archenemesis, the Tree Woman. Unfortunately for him, [[spoiler: Nevare gets ensnared by the Tree Woman, and turned into his unwilling agent in the material world.]] Afterward, Nevare travels several other times to the spirit world, that apparently all magic users can access and which doubles as a form of afterlife since the ghosts of the deceased can stay there.
88	* SplitPersonality: Nevare gets a part of his soul stolen by the "tree-woman" in the first book. As a result, while half of him carries on his regular life in his body, another half becomes the apprentice and lover of the Speck sorceress in the spiritual world. Both halves are finally reunited at the end of the book, and Nevare thinks his alter-ego will just be reduced to memories of an alternate existence blending with his own mind... But in ''Forest Mage'' he learns that he actually grew a split personality, with his "Speck self" being a distinct entity from him, slumbering in the depths of his mind but taking control of his body from time to time - and slowly influencing him with its own personality and thoughts...
89	* VillainousBSOD: A recurring theme, from Nevare's father [[spoiler: becoming insane after the plague kills his family]] to Dewara going berserk upon learning that [[spoiler: Nevare caused the end of the Plains magic]].
90	%%* WeaponizedWeakness: Iron beats magic. And mages.
91	%%* WeHaveReserves: Kinrove's attitude towards the Dancers.
92	%%* WellIntentionedExtremist: ''All'' the Great Ones except Jodoli.
93	%%* [[WhamEpisode Wham Chapter]]: At least one per book.

Context Literature / TheSoldierSon