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The Sword Of Shannara

• Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Thirty years ago, when the fantasy genre was in its infancy, The Sword Of Shannara was hailed as a worthy successor to Tolkien's epic. Now the prevalance of the tropes in it can make it seem rather cliché.
• Ho Yay: Menion Leah is very obviously head-over-heels in love with Shea Ohmsford. Which, when you think about it, might explain why Shea's older brother Flick dislikes Menion so much.
• Gateway Series: While it doesn't differ much from The Lord of the Rings in terms of themes, The Sword of Shannara is a very good book for people who are new to High Fantasy.

The Elfstones Of Shannara

• Growing the Beard: As mentioned on the main page, Elfstones is often seen as the point when the series as a whole grew the beard.
• Nightmare Fuel: While many of Demons could be this, by far the biggest source is The Reaper.
• Tear Jerker: Amberle's Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Woobie: Wisp, one of Mallenroh's servants. Brooks tells us so little about this poor fellow, but it's more than enough to draw Tears from a Stone. He claims to have once been an Elf, but Mallenroh changed him to make him "cute" so he can "roll around and play with the stick men". The process also, incidentally, turned him into a docile, ever-obedient, fawning slave to the Witch Sister, with his favorite remark being an indication of just how devoted he is: "Wisp serves the Lady." Coerced to help Wil and his party escape the dungeons (in a rather upsettingly rough hostage-taking, until Eretria is able to persuade him with her beauty and soft voice), he is then forced to witness as his Lady and her twin sister Morag destroy each other in a huge conflagration. As if that isn't bad enough, when he finally leads the party to Safehold, the light of the Bloodfire so reminds him of what happened to Mallenroh that his mind snaps and he runs shrieking from the cave—right into the Reaper.

The Wishsong Of Shannara

• Ensemble Darkhorse: Garet Jax, the Weapons Master is one of the most consistently asked about characters in the series, due his mysterious air and incredible fighting skills. He now has his own short story, The Weapon Master's Choice, which explores who he was before the events of the story.
• Tear Jerker: This is the one where Allanon dies. And then there's Jair's companions. Helt's is particularly poignant, as is Garet Jax's. In a nondeath related example, Slanter's goodbye to Jair is also quite touching.