Line #44 YMMV/SwordOfTruth


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Richard is canonically the hero, but to many readers, he is a brutal KnightTemplar at best and a TautologicalTemplar at worst in the later books.
2	* {{Anvilicious}}: Creator/TerryGoodkind does ''not'' believe in ambiguity. While it's not so noticeable in early books, as the series goes on [[AuthorTract the author's philosophical/political views become far more prominent]], with the themes promoting Objectivism and criticising other systems (especially communism and socialism) increasingly permeating or outright overtaking the plot. This includes a particularly infamous moment where the story grinds to a halt so Richard can deliver a speech extolling the virtues of Objectivism and condemning those who oppose it, which goes on for several pages. Richard and the other heroes embody Objectivist values and are consistently presented as good and right [[DesignatedHero (at least according to the narrative)]] while those who oppose them are either misguided fools who eventually come round to the heroes' way of thinking, or they're completely evil. Even some readers who do see value in libertarianism and Objectivism find ''Sword of Truth'''s approach to be excessively heavy-handed.
3	* BadassDecay: Jennsen becomes much less formidable after joining up with Richard, almost to the point of being TheLoad.
4	* ClicheStorm: Everything from a common man of mysterious lineage, to a wise old wizard with robes and white hair, to a character that was turned into a small, fanatical creature when deprived of the artifact that was precious to him.
5	* CompleteMonster: [[SorcerousOverlord Darken Rahl]] has made a [[DealWithTheDevil bargain for power with the demonic being The Keeper of the Underworld]]. Darken [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil keeps the people enslaved]], [[DystopianEdict 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 of his 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.
6	* CrazyIsCool: Nathan Rahl. Because he is a thousand-year-old wizard who had been imprisoned for most of his life in the Palace of the Prophets, he comes across as a wise and knowledgeable BadassBookworm crossed with a reckless hormone-crazed teenager, colored with just the tiniest hint of insanity for flavor. Whenever he is on scene, something incredibly awesome and/or entertaining is about to happen.
7	* DesignatedHero:
8	** Richard can certainly come across this way by the later books, given his increasing eagerness to slaughter all those who "choose death" rather than "life". The only thing keeping him from being an UnscrupulousHero or even an outright SociopathicHero is the narrative and the other characters referring to him as [[IncorruptiblePurePureness incorruptibly pure]] and TheHero to them.
9	** Kahlan is, if anything, even ''more'' bloodthirsty and willing to ShootTheDog than Richard, and that's saying something, but she's also treated as pure and heroic. By extension, many readers find the idea that something like the Confessors could be in any way heroic, ever, difficult to accept, given their powers involve completely removing someone's free will and leaving them enslaved to the Confessor's will. If the MindControl wasn't permanent it would be one thing, but it's clearly established that anyone they Confess loses their individuality for life, and they're willing to do this to ''anyone'' they deem necessary to achieve their goals. It's hard to blame people for fearing Confessors.
10	** Zedd drifts in this direction in the [[SeasonalRot later books]] by a mixture of [[AuthorFilibuster lectures]] and [[AMillionIsAStatistic an extremely high kill count]]. That said, Zedd's backstory involves being personally responsible for a genocide (when creating the barriers prior to the first book), so he's never had clean hands. His shift is more one of attitude and how it's approached. In early books he's... not precisely TheAtoner, but it's heavily implied that his relatively minor role in things is a conscious choice, because he doesn't like what he becomes when in power. In the later books... well, he is in power, and becomes that person again, but it's treated as [[ForgottenAesop morally justified]], and even laudable.
11	%%* DontShootTheMessage: Fans, and often Goodkind himself, have suggested that people who don't like these books are only hating on them because they "take a clear moral stance." Goodkind has said a few times that the main reason he is attacked is for "my beliefs" as opposed to what many feel is bad writing and a tendency to say insulting things about other authors in his genre.
12	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
13	** 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.
14	** Even people who don't like the books tend to have a soft spot for Nathan. See CrazyIsCool, above, for why. It also helps that he's one of the few characters who gets to disagree with Richard without being portrayed as a bad guy for it.
15	* EveryoneIsSatanInHell: The Imperial Order claims this about wizards and sorceresses in particular, but also in general about anyone who is better than anyone else at anything. They are not nice people. It also doesn't stop them from ''employing'' these wizards and sorceresses, either. A mob tries this on Zedd. He stokes their fears of him until they all run away screaming. How? By asking them to explain why they're afraid of him.
16	* FandomRivalry:
17	** With ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', partly because it can be seen as the SpiritualAntithesis of just about every element of ''Sword of Truth''. The ASOIAF fandom has made it an almost-game to take the piss out of Goodkind and his works.
18	** There's a huge rivalry with ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' fandom 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, [[{{Jerkass}} you probably aren't old enough to read his books.]]
19	* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Wizard's First Rule'' remains one of the most famous and well-regarded entries; it's seen as a fairly straight-forward fantasy story with some interesting worldbuilding and a creative ending. It also lacks (or at least tones down) many of the problems present in the later books, such as excessive preaching about Objectivism, the heroes becoming increasingly unsympathetic, the occurences of narm, filler content etc. Even people who dislike the series overall tend to agree that the first book isn't half bad, if not exactly groundbreaking. Some readers even opine that ''Wizard's First Rule'' can be enjoyed as a decent standalone story and [[FanonDiscontinuity don't bother with the rest]].
20	* MoralEventHorizon: [[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.]]
21	* {{Narm}}:
22	** 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."
23	** The Sword of Truth is literally a sword with 'truth' written on it.
24	** The infamous [[NightmareRetardant chicken of doom]]. The chicken is actually a powerful demonic being in disguise, but it's difficult for most readers to find it as terrifying as the characters do in this form, because chickens simply aren't that intimidating. Kahlan's reaction doesn't help either; she starts cowering before the chicken while it's doing fairly typical chicken-things and tells it to "Shoo", while repeatedly informing the reader it's a chicken that is ''not'' a chicken. Lots of readers find the entire scene hilarious rather than suspenseful.
25	--->''The bird let out a slow chicken cackle. It sounded like a chicken, but in her heart she knew it wasn’t. In that instant, she completely understood the concept of a chicken that was not a chicken. This looked like a chicken, like most of the Mud People’s chickens. But this was no chicken. This was evil manifest.''
26	** In a case where Goodkind ''really'' should have done the research first, anyone who's at all familiar with anime or manga will not be able to stop laughing at every mention of an evil, sinister villain (a ''female'' villain no less) called "[[LoliconAndShotacon Shota]]".
27	** Samuel, full stop. Goodkind literally took [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]], changed his name, changed the object of his desire from the One Ring to the Sword of Truth, and dropped him into his own story otherwise unchanged (aside from being a former hero).
28	** An infamous typo from one edition of ''Faith of the Fallen'': "[[ARareSentence He raised his anus, commanding silence.]]"
29	** Richard taking a full novel to realize [[spoiler:Kahlan is still in love with him and was just trying to protect him]], despite it being plainly obvious, even if readers weren't privy to her thoughts. (The author tried to justify Richard's [[IdiotBall inability to see this]] as being caused by the lingering effects of having been tortured.)
30	%%** Any scene involving Rachel. Especially if written from her point of view.
31	* NeverLiveItDown:
32	** The chicken thing is pretty much all people remember about the Chimes of Death. A lot of people overlook them killing women and children via drowning, burning, and falling off cliffs.
33	** Michael's usually remembered for his speech against fire -- even though Kahlan accuses him of advocating banning fire, what he actually says amounts to "A lot of people are killed in fires, we should do something about it." He ultimately does [[spoiler:turn out to be a traitor working with Rahl, and that speech was in fact meant to foreshadow this]], but if Goodkind actually wanted us to believe Michael was ready to ban fire, he didn't sell this well outside of Kahlan's declaration that "your brother seems close to banning fire."
34	** Listening to some critics you'd get the impression that killing peace protesters is all Richard does in the later books.
35	** The [[AuthorAppeal abundant amount]] of S&M and near-rape scenes.
36	* NightmareRetardant:
37	** The Chimes, demonic entities that exist to choke the world of magic, eventually almost causing the end of the world, are first introduced to the main characters... in the form of a chicken.
38	** When ''Naked Empire'''s BigBad is introduced, all attempts by Goodkind to make him seem terrifying are undermined by his name: Nicholas the Slide. Just ''try'' not to imagine him as a brightly-coloured, anthropomorphic piece of playground equipment.
39	* 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.
40	* {{Padding}}: The series increasingly suffers from this as it progresses. In particular, you could condense the last three or four books of the series into one, simply by removing all of the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment extraneous dialogue]], [[AuthorFilibuster chapter-long philosophical rants]] and, yes, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment yet more chapters of extraneous monologuing]].
41	* 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 die-hard fans, that alone means that critics of its flaws are automatically wrong, failed to understand it, or are [[YoureJustJealous just jealous]].
42	* ReplacementScrappy: Jennsen and the other major characters of ''The Pillars of Creation'' got a rather poor reception from many fans due to effectively reducing Richard and Kahlan to a cameo appearance in their own series.
43	* ScifiGhetto: Mr. Goodkind would very much like you to know that he does not write fantasy novels, he writes ''[[InsistentTerminology stories that have important human themes]]'', thank you very much.
44	* 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. While it's a matter of debate on when precisely the rot begins, most readers agree it was definitely noticeable by the sixth book, ''Faith of the Fallen''. The most commonly-cited writing issues that contribute to this are the repetitiveness of the plots, the heroes becoming so ruthless and self-righteous they're insufferable, and the author constantly inserting his political and philosophical opinions with no subtlety or nuance.
45	* {{Squick}}: The Sisters of the Dark get their [[DealWithTheDevil powers of Subtractive magic]] by having sex with "nambles"--monsters with barbed penises.
46	* StrawmanHasAPoint: Several.
47	** 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]] on his hypocrisy? He ends up [[IResembleThatRemark steamrolling her and accusing her of "posturing".]] Eventually, [[LaserGuidedKarma he has to trade his sword for the information he wants.]]
48	** Chandalen thinks Richard is dangerous because ever since he came along his people's village has been attacked repeatedly. Which it has. And yes, it's due to Richard's presence. When dragged along on a quest to save the world from the Keeper of the Underworld, Chandalen is frustrated by Kahlan's insistence on helping out a group of young soldiers against an invading army, reminding her constantly that their main quest is to ''save the freaking world''. However, Chandalen is always presented as being wrong, despite the number of times he's proven right. However, after Kahlen's retrieval from [[spoiler: [[EvilAllAlong Prindin]]]], she acknowledges that she really got immersed in the war and forgot about her mission to find Zedd.
49	* TearJerker:
50	** Mord-Sith-- such as [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Denna]], who tortures Richard-- start as sweet, innocent girls who are [[BreakTheCutie broken]] and DrivenToMadness through ColdBloodedTorture so they'll torture others.
51	** [[spoiler:Raina's]] death in ''Temple of the Winds''.
52	** [[spoiler: Warren's]] death in ''Faith of the Fallen''-seriously sucky timing there.
53	** Also [[spoiler: Cara's wedding.]] The juxtaposition of what they used to be, to what they have now is incredibly moving.
54	** And then in ''The Third Kingdom'', [[spoiler:her husband, Ben, is killed covering her and Richard's escape. Seeing her so broken afterward is heart-wrenching.]]
55	** And this exchange in ''Stone of Tears'':
56	--->'''Verna:''' What about my wrinkles?
57	--->'''Warren:''' Someday, when you get wrinkles, I'll love them, too.
58	* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Many people who have read both ''Sword of Truth'' and ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' have noted that the former bears a lot of similarities to the latter (''The Wheel of Time'' began publication in 1990, ''Sword of Truth'' in 1994) to the point they find it stretches credibility of being coincidental. It's particularly one of the reasons ''Wheel of Time'' fans don't tend to have the highest opinion of ''Sword of Truth'', dismissing ''Truth'' as just being a rip-off with more sexual content and Objectivism. It doesn't help that Terry Goodkind responded to people pointing out the similarties by making comments about ''Wheel of Time'' and its author Creator/RobertJordan that many found insulting, such as insinuating that ''Wheel of Time'' fans are too immature to understand his books. When Jordan was questioned about the matter, his response was simply "I am aware of Mr Goodkind."
59	* TheUntwist:
60	** Zedd, the strange old man Richard is friends with, is indeed the great wizard Kahlan was sent looking for at the beginning of the first book.
61	** Richard's realization near the end of ''The Stone of Tears'' that Kahlan still loves him and only sent him away with Sister Verna to protect him comes across to the reader as a colossal "duh!" moment. Especially since the scene where Kahlan made him go with Verna was told from her perspective, the readers knew immediately her reasons for doing so, and the surprise revelation of such to Richard only came after many chapters following. It could be justified that Richard has only spent a handful of days free of a Mord-Sith where he was forced to wear a collar while being tortured and therefore has a neurosis about having to put [[PowerLimiter another one]] on and could feel betrayed at Kahlan taking advantage of his love for her to make him do something that terrifies him; but that doesn't come across on paper, where Richard seems to take Kahlan telling him that she hates him for not wanting to wear the collar at face value.
62	* TheWoobie: Lunetta, Lord General Tobias Brogan's sister and personal mage-slave. She is mostly cowed and broken by a lifetime of abuse [[InternalizedCategorism and indoctration that mages are damned]], and sometimes comes across as almost feeble-minded as a result... but on a few occasions, she livens up a little and shows traces of the great person [[TearJerker she probably could have been]] if she hadn't been born among the fanatics of the Blood of the Fold.

Context YMMV / SwordOfTruth