History Awesome / TheQueensThief

* And then there's what she did to Nahuseresh... she kept him believing, in spite of her backstory, that she was a puppet, was aware of every single step of his XanatosSpeedChess, and shot his game down completely with ThePlan of her own. Complete with a freaking ''epic'' BreakingSpeech. Badass MagnificentBitch all the way.

* Attolia's rise to power. Her father married her off to an ambitious family who planned to use her position as a minor princess to seize the throne. Because she acts like a stupid ShrinkingViolet, they openly discuss their treasonous plans around her while she collects coleus leaves and catalogs her jewelry. Accordingly, her brother mysteriously dies shortly after he takes the throne, and her husband formally marries her to take the kingship. He gloats loudly until he takes a sip of wine from her cup (which she has been fake-drinking from because it's full of coleus poison). Then when a courtier demands she marry ''him'' as her erstwhile husband is cooling, she orders one of the guards to kill him, having bought them all off with her jewelry.

* Eugenides kidnapping Sounis's advisor out of his own palace ''when Eugenides had only one hand'' has to count, as does the sequence where he kidnaps Attolia, of all people, and then successfully persuades her to marry him.

* Eugenides is considered by most of his people to be an idiot, a usurper and a barbarian. His attendants live to play pranks on him, egged on by Sejanus, a favored younger son of the most powerful baron. Then their helpless, inept monarch proceeds to reveal that he knows who exactly is responsible for each of the pranks pulled on him, drive Sejanus to confess to regicide ''in front of the attendants'' who have just been placed in a very compromising position by ''him'', and exile Sejanus' older brother, thereby bringing an end to the house of the most powerful baron in Attolia.

* A quiet moment of awesome for the side character Heiro: the mousy younger daughter of a lord involved with Baron Erondites's conspiracy, she repeatedly dances with with Eugenides in order to prevent her older sister, who is also a conspirator, from getting a shot at manipulating him into taking her (the sister) as a mistress, which the conspiracy believes will help them turn Eugenides into a PuppetKing. Even after her father beats her for it, Heiro keeps doing it anyway. She only stops when Eugenides discreetly explains he's got this under control.

* A quiet moment of awesome for the side character Heiro: the mousy younger daughter of a lord involved with Baron Erondites's conspiracy, she repeatedly dances with with Eugenides in order to prevent her older sister, who is also a conspirator, from getting a shot at manipulating him into taking her(the sister) as a mistress, which the conspiracy believes will help them turn Eugenides into a PuppetKing. Even after her father beats her for it, Heiro keeps doing it anyway. She only stops when Eugenides discreetly explains he's got this under control.

* Sophos lends Gen his practice sword to hold off the Attolians. On the clifftop, both the magus' party and the Attolian soldiers can subsequently see Gen lying in wait, but the magus forestalls a crossbow bolt by saying there's no way the thief can use it--and then his jaw ''drops'' when Gen proceeds to take apart several heavily armed, well-trained horsemen.

* ''The Queen of Attolia'':
** Attolia's rise to power. Her father married her off to an ambitious family who planned to use her position as a minor princess to seize the throne. Because she acts like a stupid ShrinkingViolet, they openly discuss their treasonous plans around her while she collects coleus leaves and catalogs her jewelry. Accordingly, her brother mysteriously dies shortly after he takes the throne, and her husband formally marries her to take the kingship. He gloats loudly until he takes a sip of wine from her cup (which she has been fake-drinking from because it's full of coleus poison). Then when a courtier demands she marry ''him'' as her erstwhile husband is cooling, she orders one of the guards to kill him, having bought them all off with her jewelry.
** And then there's what she did to Nahuseresh... she kept him believing, in spite of her backstory, that she was a puppet, was aware of every single step of his XanatosSpeedChess, and shot his game down completely with ThePlan of her own. Complete with a freaking ''epic'' BreakingSpeech. Badass MagnificentBitch all the way.
** Eugenides kidnapping Sounis's advisor out of his own palace ''when Eugenides had only one hand'' has to count, as does the sequence where he kidnaps Attolia, of all people, and then successfully persuades her to marry him.
* In ''The King of Attolia'', Eugenides is considered by most of his people to be an idiot, a usurper and a barbarian. His attendants live to play pranks on him, egged on by Sejanus, a favored younger son of the most powerful baron. Then their helpless, inept monarch proceeds to reveal that he knows who exactly is responsible for each of the pranks pulled on him, drive Sejanus to confess to regicide ''in front of the attendants'' who have just been placed in a very compromising position by ''him'', and exile Sejanus' older brother, thereby bringing an end to the house of the most powerful baron in Attolia.

** Later, this same king takes on member after member of the king's own guard and defeats ''every single one of them'', culminating in an IronicEcho -

** Let's face it, ''everything'' the king does is awesome, from the way he serves wine--juggling a cup one-handed while he puts the other cup down--to the way he demonstrates his faith--getting drunk while jumping from crenelation to crenelation on the outer wall of the palace--to the way he convinces the Queen--and everyone else in the palace--that he is not seriously injured by ''constantly whining that he is going to die''. They should just get it over with and rename him His Royal Awesomness.
** A quiet moment of awesome for the side character Heiro: the mousy younger daughter of a lord involved with Baron Erondites's conspiracy, she repeatedly dances with with Eugenides in order to prevent her older sister, who is also a conspirator, from getting a shot at manipulating him into taking her(the sister) as a mistress, which the conspiracy believes will help them turn Eugenides into a PuppetKing. Even after her father beats her for it, Heiro keeps doing it anyway. She only stops when Eugenides discreetly explains he's got this under control.
* ''A Conspiracy of Kings'': The new king of Sounis has to be elected by the council of barons. Sophos gives an impassioned speech about uniting with Eddis and Attolia against the Mede threat, cooperation, and other such things that cast him as a WideEyedIdealist to a bunch of hard, cynical men... so they vote him down, and the Mede ambassador gloats appropriately by asking if he ''really'' expected that to work. "Not on the ''first'' vote," says Sophos. And then he shoots the leader of the rebellious barons dead, and holds the ambassador at gunpoint -- specifically because if he were to aim at anyone else, the other barons might think they were safe. The barons unanimously vote him in as king.
* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and '''''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly.'''''

-->'''Eugenides, almost certainly possessed by his god:''' Nahuseresh says I am not king. We shall see if he really likes the Thief better.

!!Meta
* The fact that Megan Whalen Turner pulls off a twist every single book, in a way that never feels contrived or a ShockingSwerve, that is always surprising despite always being foreshadowed.
* After gaining a reputation for the rather long wait time between books, Megan Whalen Turner ''shocked'' the fandom with the completely out-of-the-blue release date announcement for the sixth book only one year after releasing Thick as Thieves -- which was about three or four years before anyone was expecting or looking for it! Coming on the heels of the seven year wait between books four and five, the short two year wait for ''Return of the Thief'' was a wholly unexpected and awesome surprise.
----

* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and '''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly.'''

* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. [[spoiler:Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and '''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly.''' ]]

* Attolia's rise to power. Her father married her off to an ambitious family who planned to use her position as a minor princess to seize the throne. Because she acts like a stupid ShrinkingViolet, they openly discuss their treasonous plans around her while she collects coleus leaves and catalogs her jewelry. Accordingly, her brother mysteriously dies shortly after he takes the throne, and her husband formally marries her to take the kingship. He gloats loudly until he takes a sip of wine from her cup (which she has been fake-drinking from because it's full of coleus poison). Then when a courtier demands she marry ''him'' as her erstwhile husband is cooling, she orders one of the guards to kill him, having bought them all off with her jewelry.
* Gen taking on the whole Queen's Guard and ''winning''. [[spoiler:Even when one of them turned out to be trying to kill him]], he hardly thought of him as a threat at all!
* The following exchange. And even better is the attendants' reactions.
-->'''Attolia:'''[[spoiler: Ninety-eight days. You said it would take six months.]]
-->'''Euginides:'''[[spoiler: I like to give myself a margin when I can.]]
* The entire first book is revealed as one for Gen. Not only has he managed to retrieve [[spoiler: Hamiathes' gift]] for [[spoiler: his cousin, the Queen of Eddis]], but it's revealed that the entire book was [[spoiler: his plan to make sure Eddis wouldn't have to marry Sounis]]. Even better, it becomes clear on rereading that he has never once outright lied.
* ''Conspiracy of Kings'': The new king of Sounis has to be elected by the council of barons. Sophos gives an impassioned speech about uniting with Eddis and Attolia against the Mede threat, cooperation, and other such things that cast him as a WideEyedIdealist to a bunch of hard, cynical men... so they vote him down, and the Mede ambassador gloats appropriately by asking if he ''really'' expected that to work. "Not on the ''first'' vote," says Sophos. [[spoiler:And then he shoots the leader of the rebellious barons dead, and holds the ambassador at gunpoint -- specifically because if he were to aim at anyone else, the other barons might think they were safe. The barons unanimously vote him in as king.]]
* In ''The King of Attolia'', the title king [[spoiler:Eugenides]] is considered by most of his people to be an idiot, a usurper and a barbarian. His attendants live to play pranks on him, egged on by Sejanus, a favored younger son of the most powerful baron. Then their helpless, inept monarch proceeds to [[spoiler: reveal that he knows who exactly is responsible for each of the pranks pulled on him, drive Sejanus to confess to regicide ''in front of the attendants'' who have just been placed in a very compromising position by ''him'', and exile Sejanus' older brother, thereby bringing an end to the house of the most powerful baron in Attolia]]. Then, a few minutes later, he and his queen have a discussion that reveals that [[spoiler: he promised to destroy the baron in six months and did it in 98 days]].

-->[[spoiler: Eugenides]]: You forgot it's a wooden sword.
** Let's face it, ''everything'' the king does is awesome, from the way he serves wine--juggling a cup one-handed while he puts the other cup down--to the way he demonstrates his faith-- [[spoiler: getting drunk while jumping from crenelation to crenelation on the outer wall of the palace]]--to the way he convinces the Queen--and everyone else in the palace--that he [[spoiler: is not seriously injured by ''constantly whining that he is going to die'']]. They should just get it over with and rename him His Royal Awesomness.
* And Eugenides's moments in the earlier books. Kidnapping [[spoiler: Sounis's advisor]] out of his own palace [[spoiler: ''when Eugenides had only one hand'']] has to count, as does the sequence where he kidnaps [[spoiler: Attolia, of all people, and then successfully persuades her to marry him]]. And from the first book, the revelation that [[spoiler: he's been an UnreliableNarrator the whole time and he's hid not only the fact that he's a [[RebelliousPrincess Rebellious Prince]] but that he's had the MacGuffin for the last third of the book and has pulled the wool over the eyes of every last member of the cast, including the ManipulativeBastard]].
** [[spoiler: Every last member of the cast, ''and the reader'']], which in my opinion doubles as a Moment of Awesome for Turner herself. Seriously, as soon as I got over the shock of the big reveal, my first thought was, ''how did she DO THAT?'' And she does it ''every book''!
* Then there's the backstory of the [[TheHighQueen Queen of Attolia.]] She was treated as a political nothing her whole life, married off and intended as a complete puppet - and with minimal political training and no assets whatsoever, she took control of one of the most politically unsettled countries in the world and ruled it absolutely. Keep in mind that it's implied that ruling queens are not the norm. And then there's [[spoiler: what she did to Nahuseresh... she kept him believing, in spite of the above evidence, that she was a puppet, was aware of every single step of his XanatosSpeedChess, and shot his game down completely with ThePlan of her own.]] Complete with a freaking ''epic'' BreakingSpeech. Badass MagnificentBitch all the way.
* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. [[spoiler:Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a long, drawn-out war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and '''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly.''' ]]

* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. [[spoiler:Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a long, drawn-out war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and ''''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly.'''']]

* ''Return of the Thief'' has perhaps the greatest moment in the series to date. [[spoiler:Eugenides, after leading his alliance into a long, drawn-out war and having been tortured by the Medes, ''straight up murders the Mede general,'' blows up the enemy camp with its own powder stores, and walks back to his own camp. The next morning Nahuseresh comes out to parley, to which Eugenides replies that he will only speak to the ''true'' man in charge: Baron Erondites. He calls out his name... and '''a bolt of lightning directly strikes Erondites’ tent, killing him instantly. ''']]

* After gaining a reputation for the rather long wait time between books, Megan Whalen Turner ''shocked'' the fandom with the completely out-of-the-blue release date announcement for the sixth book only one year after releasing Thick as Thieves -- which was about three or four years before ''anyone'' was expecting or looking for it! Coming on the heels of the seven year wait between books four and five, the short two year wait for Return of the Thief was a wholly unexpected and awesome surprise.

* After gaining a reputation for the rather long wait time between books, Megan Whalen Turner ''shocked'' the fandom with the completely out-of-the-blue release date announcement for the sixth book only one year after releasing Thick as Thieves! Coming on the heels of the seven year wait between books four and five, the short two year wait between books was a wholly unexpected and welcome surprise.

* And Eugenides's moments in the earlier books. Kidnapping [[spoiler: Sounis's advisor]] out of his own palace [[spoiler: ''when Eugenides had only one hand'']] has to count, as does the sequence where he kidnaps [[spoiler: Attolia, of all people, and then successfully persuades her to marry him]]. And from the first book, the revelation that [[spoiler: he's been an UnreliableNarrator the whole time and he's hid not only the fact that he's a [[RebelliousPrincess Rebellious Prince]] but that [[spoiler: he's had the MacGuffin for the last third of the book and has pulled the wool over the eyes of every last member of the cast, including the ManipulativeBastard]].

* Then there's the backstory of the [[TheHighQueen Queen of Attolia.]] She was treated as a political nothing her whole life, married off and intended as a complete puppet - and with minimal political training and no assets whatsoever, she took control of one of the most politically unsettled countries in the world and ruled it absolutely. Keep in mind that it's implied that ruling queens are not the norm. And then there's [[spoiler: what she did to Nahuseresh... she kept him believing, in spite of the above evidence, that she was a puppet, was aware of every single step of his XanatosSpeedChess, and shot his game down completely with ThePlan of her own.]] Complete with a freaking ''epic'' BreakingSpeech. badass MagnificentBitch all the way.

* MAJOR SPOILERS: In the fourth and most recent book, [[spoiler:Sophos]] is at a formal election [[spoiler:to instate him as the king of Sounis]]. However, [[spoiler:most of the barons are controlled by the Medes]], and [[spoiler:vote in favor of a regent]]. [[spoiler:Sophos]], a pacifist soul with not a murdering bone in his body, calmly [[spoiler: takes out a gun and shoots the baron in charge of the conspiracy and]] calls for a second vote. [[spoiler: The rest of the barons vote unanimously in his favor]].

* ''Conspiracy of Kings'': The new king of Sounis has to be elected by the council of barons. Sophos gives an impassioned speech about uniting with Eddis and Attolia against the Mede threat, cooperation, and other such things that cast him as a WideEyedIdealist to a bunch of hard, cynical men... so they vote him down, and the Mede ambassador gloats appropriately by asking if he ''really'' expected that to work. "Not on the ''first'' vote," says Sophos. [[spoiler:And then he ''shoots'' the ambassador. The barons immediately vote him in as king.]]

* Gen taking on the [[spoiler: whole Queen's Guard]] and ''winning''. [[spoiler:Even when one of them turned out to be trying to kill him]], he hardly thought of him as a threat at all!

* The following exchange. And even better is the attendants reactions.

* Gen taking on the [[spoiler: whole Queen's Guard]] and ''winning''. [[spoiler:Even when one of them turned out to be trying to kill him]], he hardly thought of him as a threat at all!

Prefacing this with: anything Eugenides does, ever.

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