History Literature / TheEmpressSword

* RaceLift: In-story example. Aster is described as Caucasian, but his girl form is Asian.

* KarmicTransformation: Aster -- though he's a basically kind, brave and helpful person from the start, his opinion of girls is... not the best. He ''really'' has to learn to reconsider his former opinions after turning into a girl himself.

* BreakTheHaughty: Aster -- though he's a basically kind, brave and helpful person from the start, his opinion of girls is... not the best. He ''really'' has to learn to reconsider his former opinions after turning into a girl himself.

'''Tropes Include:'''

* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay: In the end, as complying with the FirstLawOfGenderBending, Aster gives up on his quest to become a boy again and stays a girl. The SecondLawOfGenderBending is somewhat in effect here, as he does become more comfortable in his female body as time passes -- and the final chapter seals the deal by having the narration finally using the pronoun "she" and the name "Astrid." The ThirdLawOfGenderBending is completely averted, however; beyond maturing and becoming a little wiser thanks to her experiences Aster/Astrid doesn't really change as a person, and while she does learn to live with wearing dresses (especially after she finds one with pockets to keep her knife in), she still doesn't wear makeup and remains somewhat of a tomboy.]]

* WrongGenreSavvy: Aster has read a lot of books about brave princes and heroic deeds, and keeps comparing his own experiences to the books he's read -- and repeatedly discovering that things don't play out like in the books at all.

* MissingMom: Maggie's mother died when she was three, and this was the main reason why Marcus resigned from the Royal Guard. Maggie herself doesn't remember her mother very well, but she ''does'' remember how much happier her father was back then. [[spoiler:It turns out that Mandrake is responsible for the woman's death; she was in fact the first casuality of his ten-year-long terrorizing of the kingdom.]]

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Sure, they are big, winged, fire-breathing, incredibly powerful and immensely intelligent. But uniquely they don't seem to be interested in gold or riches, they don't have any kind of magic (Mandrake, in fact, explicitly dislikes and distusts magic), and they turn out to have a very complex and ancient society and civilization, which is separate from the humans'.

* AmbiguouslyBi: "Ambiguous" in the sense that "Astrid" is ''definitely'' bisexual, but it's unclear how much of it is JumpingTheGenderBarrier. Aster, being thirteen, is new to the idea of having romantic feelings for ''anyone,'' and so when he, as "Astrid" develops a serious crush on Maggie and then later on begins crushing on Eric as well, it's hard to tell whether or not he was ''already'' bisexual and just didn't know it because until now he just thought romance was ick. The ambiguity just gets stronger Aster himself doesn't seem to even think twice about the fact that his two crushes are opposite sexes, and it's never commented upon by the narrative either.

* BiTheWay: It's not clear whether it's a result of the transformation or if Aster was always bi and didn't know it, but as "Astrid" he develops a serious crush on Maggie, and later discovers that he might like Eric as more than a friend as well. Curiously, while he acknowledges that this is getting really complicated, it's mostly because he's new to the idea of romantic feelings and being attracted to someone, not to mention having feelings for more than one person. The idea that there's something unusual about same-sex attraction in and of itself never seems to cross his mind, and it's never commented upon by the narrative either.

->''This is not your father's epic fantasy story, but it might be your cousin Trudy's.''

* BiTheWay: It's not clear whether it's a result of the transformation or if Aster was always bi and didn't know it, but as "Astrid" he develops a serious crush on Maggie, and later discovers that he might like Eric as more than a friend as well. Curiously, while he acknowledges that this is getting really complicated, it's mostly because he's new to the idea of romantic feelings and being attracted to someone, not to mention having feelings for more than one person. The idea that there's something unusual about same-sex attraction in and of itself never seems to cross his mind.

* BiTheWay: There's a hint that Aster may be bisexual, either as a result of the gender transformation or simply naturally, but not much is made of it.