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1* {{Anvilicious}}:
2** Gambling and dishonest money lending are bad ideas overall.
3** We get undertones of a GreenAesop in the third series as well, with all the talk of respecting the land. ''[[AllThereInTheManual Secrets Of Deltora]]'' ups it even higher.
4* CompleteMonster:
5** The [[EvilOverlord Shadow Lord]]--born Malverlain, a [[FromNobodyToNightmare mortal sorcerer]] from Dorne--was exiled by his brothers after a fight for the throne. Arriving on an isle where four sisters sung with beautiful voices, his hatred for their singing made him imprison them far apart from each other and later kill them. Upon arriving in Deltora, he tricks the Pirrans into breaking up the Pirran Pipe that was defending them and then invaded Pirra, turning it into the Shadowlands. Eventually becoming an EldritchAbomination, the Shadow Lord invaded Deltora with its armies, slaughtering thousands before being driven back by the King wielding the Belt of Deltora. For a millennium, the Shadow Lord implanted spies to manipulate the royal family, until finally breaking the Belt and invading a second time. Subjecting the land to a tyrannical reign of oppression and capturing thousands of Deltorans for experimentation, he was only defeated a second time by the reassembled Belt. The Shadow Lord was then revealed to have implanted creatures called Sisters slowly poisoning the land, but when destroyed would release [[DoomsdayDevice the grey tide]] that would [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone]].
6** [[LoanShark Laughing Jack]], aka James Gant, is a ConArtist and servant of the Shadow Lord, who swore servitude in exchange for power. Captaining a ship with a rigged gambling room, indebted losers became [[SlaveGalley slaves forced to row the oars]]. Tasked with turning off Bonepoint lighthouse, Jack scams Red Han the keeper with an unpayable debt, before [[IHaveYourWife taking his daughter Verity hostage]]. Enticing his mutinous crew with gold, Verity magically binds this vow. Jack murders her in retaliation, cursing the ship and everyone who died with undeath. Surviving, Jack [[ForcedTransformation magically turns Red Han into a horse]] and abuses him. Jack becomes a moneylender and scams people of their money, property, and sometimes lives. Ordered to dispose of a boy possessing the Belt of Deltora, he planned to throw them into a whirlpool. Later he captures his sister Ava, dressing as her to trick the heroes to their deaths. After failing, Jack takes Jasmine hostage and demands the Belt of Deltora, planning to use Ava to accept the Belt and then kill her.
7* CultClassic: The series is quite obscure, but highly regarded for its unique world, well-written characters, and memorable monsters. The anime is this as well, being an overall strong adaption that remains mostly faithful to the books.
8* CrackPairing - Some of the fanfic pairings are terrifying: [[MayDecemberRomance Lief]]/[[HoYay Barda]], [[HoYay Lief/Dain]], [[LesYay Sharn]]/[[MayDecemberRomance Zeean]], [[InterspeciesRomance Jasmine/Filli]] and most surprising, yet most popular: [[HoYay Barda/Doom]].
9* EnsembleDarkhorse:
10** ''Doom.'' 1000 times Doom. He has got to be one of, if not the, most popular character in the fandom, for all that he doesn't get as much focus as Lief, Barda and Jasmine, at least not after the first series. He's even more popular than the main trio, and that's saying something.
11** Sharn. She's not focused on much, but fans love her for her quick wit and her strength. And for the fact that she pushed Prandine from that palace tower window on the night the Shadow Lord invaded.
12** Anna is also very popular, despite only appearing in the first part of ''The Forests of Silence'' and being dead for the majority of the series, majorly because of her willingness (along with Jarred) to give up her home and identity for the royal family and go live in a dangerous forest which probably haunted the dreams of everyone in Del while heavily pregnant and manage to ''survive'' there for seven whole years with a small child to look after.
13** Lindal, while only playing a major role in ''Dragon's Nest'' and a minor one in a few other books, is beloved for her BoisterousBruiser attitude and for being a butch, bald woman who also happens to be pleasant subversion of the usual tropes associated with that sort of character.
14* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The translated novels were so popular in Japan that it received a manga, anime, and even DS game adaptation.
15* HarsherInHindsight:
16** Doom insulting Jasmine's mother during the Rithmere Games. It's light and funny when you first read it, but it gets worse when you realise that [[spoiler: Doom was insulting his own wife.]]
17** After the gang is captured by the people of Plume in series 2, Jasmine sarcastically asks Glock if his talisman [[spoiler:part of which is actually the Pirran pipe]] will protect him from The Fear. [[spoiler: The Fear ends up crushing him to death (on the bright side, he deals the killing blow to the Fear single-handedly, and the Plumes and Jasmine come to honor him as a hero for his sacrifice).]]
18** In ''Maze of the Beast'', Barda speaks to Doom about Doom's past, to which Doom gets subtly annoyed. At first it seems as if he's just being his usual JerkAss self, but when you think about it you realise that he's uncomfortable and stung by Barda's questions as [[spoiler: he doesn't have a past, at least not one which he can remember.]]
19** In the first book, while his opinion changes after learning the truth, Lief thinking that the previous king deserved to die can make once wince in hindsight. [[spoiler:Because not only is that man Lief's ''father'', he does, in fact, end up dying in ''Return to Del''.]]
20* ItWasHisSled: The identity of the heir, especially due to being a LateArrivalSpoiler that the second and third series make no attempt to hide.
21* LoveToHate: The main traitor of the first series, for turning out to be an irredeemable villain who just about single-handedly causes the DarkestHour of the first series.
22* MagnificentBastard:
23** [[TheMole Dain]] is a [[{{Shapeshifting}} Grade 3 Ol]] and the Shadow Lord's ultimate spy. Joining the Resistance against the Shadow Lord's tyranny with a fake backstory, he seemingly aids the hero Lief and his companions to gain their trust. [[HolyBurnsEvil Weakened by the magic of the city Tora]], Dain tricks the heroes into [[CrocodileTears thinking he's grieving over the city's abandonment]]. Once the Belt of Deltora is complete, Dain, believed to be the heir of the kingdom, stages his own capture, and morphs into a dagger to continue spying on the heroes. Once exposed, Dain disarms Lief, tries to destroy the Belt, and foils an attempt to ambush him. Even after his death, Dain had most of the heroes captured and [[NearVillainVictory nearly completed his master's scheme]].
24** [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Tom]] is a {{Magitech}} salesman. He is very charming to his customers and offers a discount to members of the Resistance, but has also [[CrazyPrepared rigged his shop to be theft proof]]. He however cannot resist his {{greed}} when offered gold, exchanging them for muddlets that did not belong to him. When the heroes spot him assisting the Shadow Lord's forces and confront him about it, Tom proclaims that he is a neutral party who will do business with anyone so long as he can make a profit.
25* MemeticMutation: "I do not give a fig." [[note]]Said by Barda in ''Shadowgate'', and a heavily loved line for its charming use of GoshDarnItToHeck[[/note]]
26* MoralEventHorizon: Fallow's solution to interrogating Endon is to torture his wife while he watches.
27* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Deltora Quest for DS, [[NoExportForYou released only in Japan,]] is an incredibly hard though fun game with very good spritework.
28* PeripheryDemographic: The series is aimed for 8-12 year olds. While many, if most of its fans ''first'' read it at that age, suffice to say that the majority of the fandom is likely much older than that. The depth of the cast, attention to worldbuilding, NightmareFuel, and sheer amounts of {{Foreshadowing}} do well in keeping them retained.
29* PortmanteauCoupleName: Jarda, for Jarred/Barda.
30* TheScrappy: Prin the young kin for her often insufferable [[GenkiGirl exuberance]] and getting the heroes into danger after thoughtlessly trying to tag along with them. Though many find she is later RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap after doing some [[TookALevelInBadass amazingly badass stuff]] and [[CharacterDevelopment maturing.]]
31* SignatureScene: [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Sharn pushing Prandine out of a tower]] in the prologue is quite possibly the most beloved scene in the series, being what cemented Sharn as an EnsembleDarkhorse.
32* TheWoobie:
33** Oh hey, Jasmine! Let's talk about your life. You grew up in a forest. When you were seven years old, your parents were taken away, presumably to be killed, and your home got burned down. You had to fend for yourself. When you were sixteen, two strangers invade the lifestyle that you made for yourself, and your dead mother's spirit made you leave your home to go on a quest with them. You had lots of trouble because you could barely read or write, and most people thought that you were mad. Then it turned out that the guy you kind of liked was [[spoiler:a servant of the Shadowlord, and not even human!]] Eventually you discovered that [[spoiler:your father is not really dead but all that he has been through has made him a completely different person]]. And then it turns out that the other guy you kind of liked was [[spoiler:the heir to the throne and became King]]. Later, you found out that you had a sister, Faith, in the Shadowlands. Another guy you kind of like [[spoiler: dies on the way to the Shadowlands]]. Oh, and Faith? It turned out that [[spoiler:she was not real, but a plot of the Shadowlord's to get the King into his realm. And the Shadow Lord says explicitly that you were never important in his eyes, just a pawn that could be used against Lief]].
34** Jarred's life is just as bad, if not more bad. His father died when he was four years old, and he was basically alone in the world, save having Endon as a friend. He was mistrusted by Prandine and possibly King Alton (as the King threatened to send Jarred away if he ever broke the Rule). When his close friend Prince Endon becomes King, he realises that Endon and Deltora are in danger because of the Rule, and tries to warn Endon but is accused of attempted murder of the new king and is forced to flee for his life. He finds a home in the forge and marries Anna, the love of his life, who ends up dying horribly in the Shadowlands quite likely with Jarred watching. Anna's death (possibly) ends up completely breaking him, and he's never the same afterward. Then before he has a chance to properly grieve her he loses all his memories during a fight in the Shadow Arena, and returns to Deltora a completely different person.
35** Endon. He spent most of his life believing that it was important to obey the Rule and grew up learning to be dutiful and obedient. Then he realised that by doing what he had been taught to do his entire life, he had accidentally led his kingdom straight into the Shadow Lord's hands. The realisation almost breaks him. Then there's how he lost both his parents when he was just fifteen or sixteen years of age and also lost his best friend at the same time.
36** Britta all the way. She longed to be a trader since she was seven years old, but after her father's betrayal and disappearance that dream was denied to her. She, her mother and her sister were forced to go into hiding to avoid the people's scorn, and her mother became so paranoid toward anything to do with trading and the sailing life that she forbade Britta and Margareth to go to the harbor and see Captain Gripp, an old friend of theirs (and Britta's closest and only one until meeting Jantsy), effectively isolating Britta and making her feel bitter and longing for her old life and her old dream of trading. Britta most likely had no friends until Jantsy, and no one to share her love of trading with who would actually understand and support it. Her mother did everything to bar her from it, which only alienated and embittered her, and when Britta finally had a chance to achieve her dream she had to do it in secret lest her mother find out and be angry with her (and try to stop her). Then when she finally tells her mother of her good fortune, her mother screams at her and tells her to get out, saying words that can never be taken back, and quite possibly by doing so has disowned her. Then there's the prejudice the people seem to have toward Britta and her family (even though they are only Dare's innocent family), which makes it more difficult for Britta to participate in the competition lest she be rejected. And there's also Zoolah's hate toward her...
37** While Lief has his moments in the first series, the second and third series are what push him into woobie territory. On top of the Shadow Lord constantly trying to mentally break him through the crystal, it's noted that the first months of his reign are marked by criticism, hatred, distancing himself from those he loves, and multiple attempts on his life--all towards one of the kindest people you'll ever meet--and while those get resolved, things only get ''worse'' for him in the third series. He feels like a fraud because at heart, he's just a teenage boy and not the perfect king others see him as, with his position making it easy for him to blame himself for anything that goes wrong (and things go wrong a ''lot''). ''Shadowgate'' and ''Sister of the South'' are particularly cruel to him, the latter being a TraumaCongaLine that nearly pushes him past the DespairEventHorizon.
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39!!Anime series
40* CompleteMonster: The [[SorcerousOverlord Shadow Lord]] is an envious, ancient ruler of the Shadowlands who invaded Deltora in the past. Driven off by King Adin and the power of the Belt of Deltora, the Shadow Lord has spent centuries isolating the royal family from their people and spreading suffering across Deltora in preparation for another invasion. Invading at last, the Shadow Lord has most of the Palace's inhabitants slaughtered and the Belt destroyed, hiding the Seven Gems at the most dangerous places in Deltora, including the Valley of the Lost, which the Shadow Lord enchanted to turn everybody who comes to it into lost spirits. The Shadow Lord's armies spread across the land, exterminating the entire Jalis tribe save for Glock and capturing countless people for [[GladiatorGames gladiator fights]] in the Shadowlands. When the Gems are reunited on the reforged Belt, the Shadow Lord has Dain pretend to be an heir and uses him to lure heroes into the Royal Palace. The Shadow Lord comes personally to end the rebellion, planning to slaughter the heroes and all their allies.

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