History Literature / BestServedCold

* FetishFuel: While Monza is disguised as a whore in Cardotti's, a patron sees her maimed hand and regards it as an intriguing novelty.

* AndThenWhat: Orso at one point asks Monza what, since he's defined her entire life up to this point, she'll do with herself once she actually succeeds in killing him. [[spoiler: Monza just responds, [[ShutUpHannibal "I'll think of something"]] and runs him through.]]

** [[BrutalHonesty Monza]] also delivers these to Salier and Rogont for handing Orso the rulership due to selfishness.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Monza systematically works her way through the list of those who participated in her brother's murder and her attempted murder.

A mysterious stranger finds her broken body and nurses her back to health; suspicious in turn of his motives, Monza escapes as soon as she's able, and swears revenge on all the men present at her "murder"; seven in all, counting Orzo, his two sons, his general, Monza's treacherous second-in-command, Orzo's bodyguard, and the banker who's Orzo's financial backer.

** "Monza, Monza, what would I do without you?" Said by both Cosca and Orzo, two people who have been both comrades and enemies to Monza.

* TheButcher: Monza's epithet is "The Butcher of Caprile", because of the bloody sack of that city by her army. [[spoiler:It turns out that she gave explicit orders not to sack the city, which were ignored in her absence while she was reporting to Duke Orzo]].

** When Duke Orzo finds out that Monza is still alive, he has the best assassins and bounty hunters brought to him and offers them a big reward for killing her.

* IronicEcho: At the very start of the novel, Orzo asks Monza, then his prize general, "Monza, Monza. What would I do without you?" At the end of the novel and at the final step of Monza's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Orzo asks Monza what she'll do with her life once she's no longer consumed with a desire for revenge by asking, "Monza, Monza. What would do you without me?"

* ItsPersonal: Duke Orzo killed Monza's beloved brother Benna (as well as permanently maiming and almost killing Monza herself).

* NotQuiteDead: Monza, who Duke Orzo is convinced that he killed. [[spoiler: Later, Nicomo Cosca.]]

** Orzo's inner circle who participated in the attack on Monza and Benna.

* UnwittingPawn: Monza has been manipulated into most of the infamous actions that form her backstory by [[spoiler: her brother Benna]]. At the beginning of the book [[spoiler: Shenkt]] plans to use her as a pawn against Duke Orzo and the Bank of Valint and Balk but she gets away. Ironically [[spoiler: she fulfills Shenkt's plan all on her own]].

* WhereItAllBegan: [[spoiler:Monza confronts Orzo in his fortress of Fontezarmo, where he had her "killed" in the beginning.]]

* AndThenWhat: Orso at one point asks Monza what, since he'd defined her entire life up to this point, she'll do with herself once she actually succeeds in killing him. [[spoiler: Monza just responds, [[ShutUpHannibal "I'll think of something"]] and runs him through.]]

* BestServedCold: Revenge is the motivation for quite a few characters. The title is especially appropriate to the book's themes because, in the end, vengeance proves cold comfort.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler: Friendly]] feels this way after discovering that [[spoiler:Safety]] has been abandoned.

* TheApprentice: Day, who starts of as Morveer's apprentice and then is his assistant.

* BulletTime: When Shenkt uses his SuperSpeed, time seems to slow down to him, making it seem that he's normally while everything else moves at a snail's pace. Because he's moving so fast, the force of his blows is increased many times over.
* TheButcher: Monza's epithet is "The Butcher of Caprile", because of the bloody sack of that city by her army. [[spoiler: It turns out that she gave explicit orders not to sack the city, which were ignored in her absence while she was reporting to Duke Orzo.]]

* ExactWords: First we pretend. Then we fight for real." [[spoiler:"Fighting for real" was supposed to mean against others, but Greylock means him and Shivers stop pretending to fight each other and fight ''each other'' for real]].

** Cosca is a serious alcoholic and had reached the non-functional stage when introduced, but for the rest of the novel stays sober and functions quite well (despite desperately wanting a drink the whole time). At the end of the novel [[spoiler: in a subversion of CharacterDevelopment, he immediately goes back to drinking the instant that it no longer serves his plans to stay sober]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Morveer goes to great lengths to ensure that he won't be poisoned by his own concoctions, drilling Day endlessly about what a common fate this is for poisoners. [[spoiler: This doesn't prevent his death when Cosca forces Morveer's own mounted needle into the poisoner's neck.]]

** Morveer does more to aid Monza after [[spoiler:turning on her than he did when he was working for her]]?
* ItsPersonal: Duke Orzo killed Monza's beloved brother Benna (as well as almost killing and permanently maiming Monza herself).

** Day, Morveer's apprentice, is blonde and appears sunnily innocent.

** An argument could be made for any of Monza's recruits but it comes across most consistently with Morveer. He initially appears to be a sophisticated, if slightly eccentric gentleman assassin but his egomania and disdain for human life quickly become apparent. As more and more of his back story opens up it only gets worse. Subverted in how he frets about his own lack of people skills and how at times he genuinely wants people to relate to and understand him.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: To make sure [[spoiler:Mauthis]] is good and dead, Morveer goes ahead and poisons [[spoiler:every single ledger in the bank, killing an extra forty or so people in the process]].

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Monza is not pleased when the female soldier who tortured Shivers and herself (not knowing who they were), later tells Monza (once she knows who her prisoner was) how she considers Monza to be her hero and an inspiration.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: At the end of the novel, Cosca gives Monza a touching speech about how despite her pretentions to ruthlessness, she is actually a good person (see JerkWithAHeartOfGold). He gives this as a reason why he loved her and still loves her despite her betraying him [[spoiler: in addition to the fact that Cosca knows Benna was the one who betrayed him and basically roped Monza into going along with it]].
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler: Friendly]] feels this way after discovering that [[spoiler: Safety]] has been abandoned.

* BulletTime: Shenkt can cause time to slow down and move normally while everything else moves at a snail's pace. Because he's moving so fast, the force of his blows is increased many times over.

* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Duke Salier shows off two sculptures intended to be displayed as a pair, one of the artist's mother and the other his favorite whore. Monza snaps that she has no time for artists' mothers and whores.

** Shivers and Monza each give one to the other in the end, when their relationship is at its worst.

* VillainHasAPoint: Simultaneously played straight and inverted when [[spoiler: Shivers]] turns on Monza. They both throw a [[ReasonYouSuckSpeech flurry of accusations]] at the other, and both acknowledge (quietly, to themselves) that here is a lot of truth to what the other says. It doesn't stop them from going through with trying to kill each other, though.
* WeaponOfChoice: Played straight with Monza's Calvez rapier, Friendly's cleaver, Vitari's chain (mentioned rarely, but carried over from the main trilogy), Ganmark's Union-style steels, and Morveer and Day's poisoned needles and blowguns. Played for laughs with Cosca's gilt-encrusted sword, which he lists "can be pawned" as one of its better qualities (and it's condition when Cosca is introduced). Played with in Shivers' use of a sword [[spoiler: before losing his eye]] and an axe later, used to signify his [[spoiler: Face Heel Turn]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: The plot revolves entirely on the premise that revenge, while a glorified pursuit in stories, is self-destructive and only causes people to come after you in kind. After her surgery, Monza has a clear choice of leaving Styria with her fortune, or pursuing the most powerful man in the land in order to kill him and his associates. She chooses the latter, and her vendetta ends up with a lot more people killed than what she set out for, good men injured, and escalating the war that Monza gets tangled up in.

* IronicEcho:
** At the very start of the novel, Orzo asks Monza, then his prize general, "Monza, Monza. What would I do without you?" At the end of the novel and at the final step of Monza's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Orzo asks Monza what she'll do with her life once she's no longer consumed with a desire for revenge by asking, "Monza, Monza. What would do you without me?"

* BarbarianLonghair: Shivers gets an ImportantHaircut and for a time wears it in the style of the Italian Renaissance FantasyCounterpartCulture in which he's ended up. He then lets it grow long again following his FaceHeelTurn.

* {{Irony}}: Holy shit, where do we start? With the fact that [[spoiler:half the betrayals in the book are by accident]]? Or how [[spoiler:Morveer does more to aid Monza after turning on her than he did when he was working for her]]? The only constants in this story are that almost any slight will be avenged, almost every trust will be betrayed, and that you can't stop the consequences of your actions. That leads to a lot of irony of the situational, cosmic, and tragic varieties.

* SdrawkcabAlias: Morveer's GoToAlias is to call himself Rotsac Reevrom. He thinks this is the height of comedy, and his internal monologue admits that he can never help but giggle when he trots it out.

* AlliterativeName: Monza (Monzcarro Murcatto)

* IronicNickname: Zigzagged with Friendly. He's TheComicallySerious as opposed to jovial and is a self-confessed psychopath, but in some respect, the name fits, as he is the least actively malicious character.
** Also zigzags with Faithful Carpi. On one hand, he previously betrayed Cosca, but on the other, his betrayal was in staying faithful to Monza when she betrayed their leader. He later proceeds to backstab Monza, but as he points out, doing so stayed faithful ''to her example'', as Carpi's betrays her in the same manner that she betrayed Cosca, and for the same motivation.

* SdrawkcabAlias: Morveer's GoToAlias is to call himself Rotsac Reevrom.

** Or at any rate [[spoiler: her brother did, with Monza just kind of being collateral damage.]]