YMMV / The Sunne in Splendour

• Cry for the Devil:
  • For all the terrible things Jerkass George has done, he is pathetic at the end, with a limited grip on sanity and genuinely grieving Isabel. But he's no threat to anyone, except for the fact that he knows that he, not Edward's son, is the rightful heir. This leads to his execution.
  • Elizabeth Woodville. Elizabeth thought her wealth and status as most powerful woman in court be restored after Bess became Queen of England. Instead, she was walled up in an abbey with her lands taken by her son-in-law Henry VII, who hated her even more than Richard did. She died alone with Grace, her late husband's bastard daughter, by her side.
• Designated Evil: It's hard for a modern person to wrap their head around the fact that Edward promising to marry Nell Butler and sleeping with her would constitute a marriage. Furthermore, that this marriage would invalidate his almost two decade marriage to Elizabeth Woodville and make their children ineligible for the throne is legally and morally bewildering, especially since Nell Butler is long dead. However, every character in the book accepts this legal principle and those that find out about Edward and Nell are shocked to their core by the information. Edward knows what it means, Elizabeth knows what it means, George knows what it means and Richard and his cohort know what it means. None of them question the legal principle.
• Jerkass Woobie: George. He really can't catch a break and his schemes always fail.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Clifford's murder of Edmund. He's a prisoner, unarmed, tied up, and wounded, and just 17 to boot.
  • Edward crosses it with his killing of Henry VI. He presents a pretty convincing argument for it, but it's nonetheless an unconscionable act of murder. He later puts his own brother to death to cover up his plight-troth, but lacks the heart to go all the way and murder the priest who knows about it, too. This comes back to bite his family hard when Edward is gone.
  • George having poor Ankarette Twynyho executed is one, In-Universe, especially for Edward. Unlike the Tudors, the Plantagenets didn't kill women and George's actions sicken both Edward and Richard.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Warwick's death apparently was this in-story; it may be to the readers, as well.
  • Beheadings in general. Francis is traumatized by seeing one, and Richard and Edward are traumatized by their father's beheading. Elizabeth is traumatized by her father and brother's beheading...and so forth. This doesn't stop any of them from ordering beheadings when necessary.
• The Woobie: Just about every child character in the book.
  • Anne. All she wants to marry her childhood sweetheart, but through no fault of her own, her father forces her to marry a man who abuses her terribly. Then, her father dies and she's placed in the care of George, who wants to steal her fortune. She escapes, and after a time of happiness, she is again placed in a position where she is going to be queen, loses her son and then slowly dies. It's awful.
  • Richard, in the last years of his life. Once he takes the throne, everything goes wrong. He loses Anne. He loses his son. He realizes the depth of Edward's depravity. He's forced into brutal actions. Then, he dies on the battlefield after being betrayed and his reputation is ruined.

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