History Literature / RangersApprentice

* AutomatonHorses: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Ranger horses may be able to run for incredible amounts of time without rest ([[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in-universe), but it's pointed out as early as book one that even they need periods of recovery. In addition, Will's horse Tug isn't afraid to get into the fight if he sees his master in trouble, which is also shown as early as book one.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: All but named in ''The Royal Ranger'', when one of Ruhl's sidekicks points out that Jory [[spoiler: [[ItMakesSenseInContext taunts Will with a flame while he's at a stake]], [[DeathByIrony ready to be burnt]]]]. "Even the most hardened criminal" wouldn't go that far, considering [[spoiler:[[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome why exactly Will is being burnt]].

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Rangers (and Araluen) are generally good, while their enemies are usually unambiguously bad.

** And slavery wasn't totally abolished. Later on Will gives Butle to Scandian as slave.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Horace receives minor injuries multiple times, and is mostly able to shrug them off and continue fighting. Examples are during the storm of Macindaw, the final fight in ''Erac's ransom'' and others.

** ''The Lost Stories'' also gives a hint why: King Duncan's father practically destroyed the Ranger Corps due to Morgarath's shenaniangs. Most Rangers are hardly more experienced than Will, without his advantage of being personally trained by Halt.

** One of the short stories reveals that it's all in their heads, somehow.

There are an eleventh (The Lost Stories) and twelfth book in the making. John Flanagan has announced that he plans to end the series there. Considering he said the same thing about the tenth book before, some fans hold onto hope that there will be more.

* ArtifactTitle: Sort of. [[spoiler: There's a time skip in between Book Four and Book Five, in which Will completes his training and becomes a full-fledged Ranger, complete with silver oakleaf medallion. However, Book Seven jumps back to shortly before Book Five, showing Will's last adventure as an Apprentice.]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Cassandra, and how.

* FakeKing: Interestingly inverted. When Halt dresses up as the king of Clonmel, he pretends to be Ferris, but [[spoiler:it is Ferris that pretends to be the rightful king - a title which belongs to Halt; which means that Halt pretends to be someone who pretends to be him... ]]Oh, dear.[[hottip:*: An explanation, then. Halt and Ferris are twins, but Halt was born several minutes earlier, making him the firstborn. Ferris hated this about him and attempted to have him killed in a series of "accidents". Halt quickly caught on, and sick of his brother's attempts on his life, basically said "You want the crown so bad? Here, take it!", and moved out of Hibernia.]]

* NoArcInArchery: Subverted. The books describe how the Rangers and other archers have to angle their shots upward to account for gravity acting on the arrow.

* MentorArchetype: Halt. He has some features of [[EccentricMentor]] and [[TheChooserOfTheOne]].
* MentorOccupationHazard: subverted. Halt survives the whole series.

* MismatchedEyes: On a ''dog'' no less.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Rangers (and Araluen) are unambiguously good, the villains are unambiguously bad.

* {{The Ruins of Gorlan}}
* {{The Burning Bridge}}
* {{The Icebound Land}}
* {{The Battle for Skandia}}
* {{The Sorcerer of the North}}
* {{The Siege of Macindaw}}
* {{Eraks Ransom}}
* {{The Kings of Clonmel}}
* {{Halts Peril}}
* {{The Emperor of Nihon-Ja}}

* SapientSteed / BondCreatures: Ranger horses can't speak ([[CaptainObvious because they're horses]]), but it has been shown several times that they have human-level intelligence. Will's horse, Tug, in particular, has mastered the art of "saying something with a look".
** Nope. This trope has aparently been grafted into canon in the new book of short stories, where all ranger horses are clearly shown to be [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Snarkers]] (although they just as clearly can only speak to their rider)
*** [[FridgeLogic ... And, presumably, each other]]
*** One of those same short stories reveals that it's all in their heads. [[FridgeLogic All fifty-plus of them]].

** Though, how much of it is supposed to be so much like ancient Europe is debatable, beyond the loose [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Fantasy Counterpart Cultures]].

** Actually, by their own reckoning, the Temujai would be Always Lawful Evil.

*** Actually, it ''is'' "Arretez". He has no shame in admitting it's just the [[GratuitousFrench Gallic]] word for "Halt".

** [[HeroOfAnotherStory Debatably]], the other Rangers may be just as accomplished, but their actions aren't exactly common knowledge, with a few exceptions. Though, it does seem that the main characters are always the ones to fix the most remarkable matters.
*** Considering the Rangers are basically ye olde secret agents, their accomplishments would mostly be under the radar anyway.
** To be fair, it's not that other rangers are the only ones, it's just that Halt and Crowley are considered the best and those who Halt trains are going to be pretty damn good. Not to mention that Gilan has the advantage of being the son of Araluen's battlemaster and has been training since birth. Will on the other hand for the most part at the beginning got really lucky and eventually grew into his role because of his history placing him in positions where he is given important duties, not to mention that his accomplishments are watched by the whole kingdom.

* TheThemeParkVersion: A distinct feature of the series is the idealism. The Middle Ages setting apparently has gender equality, no racism, and slavery can be abolished by asking nicely. To be fair, it's clearly intended to be a fun kids' adventure series, not the next ''ASongOfIceAndFire''.

** To be fair, they were expecting the [[strike:vikings]] Skandians to ZergRush them. They didn't expect to have to actually use strategy. Furthermore, they only lost because their General had decided that they'd lost too many men to go through with their original plan.
** Also, it wasn't so much training they'd gone through as "Okay, when Will says "shoot" shoot!" And they only learned four positions.