History Literature / ThePoppyWar

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The series ends with Rin, Kitay, and Venka all dead. Nezha survives, but has to rebuild Nikara, and because of his immortality, will likely be alone forever.]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Kitay, who snaps after dealing with annoying bureaucrats and smashes a pompous magistrate’s collection of teapots.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Taken to extremes by the Mugenese at Golyn Niis. They [[CruelAndUnusualDeath gruesomely torture and kill]] nearly every one of Golyn Niis' 500,000 residents, then leave the mangled remains strung up on walls and piled up in the streets for the arriving Militia to see.

* DemolitionsExpert: Ramsa.

* EvilVersusEvil: The Nikara-Mugen wars. Both sides see the others as not human because of the atrocities they have committed and use it to justify their own atrocities. By the end of the book [[spoiler:Rin herself]] has committed genocide against the [[spoiler:Mugen Federation]] and [[spoiler:the rest of the Cike]] have condemned [[spoiler:the Nikara civil population]] to famine and pestilence to get rid of enemies, something that [[spoiler:Rin proposed in a strategy homework earlier]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Nikara Empire is obviously inspired by imperial China. The Federation of Mugen is Japan and Hesperia is probably the United States. Heightened by what the Mugeni and Nikarans do to each other during the war: [[spoiler: the Federation invasion maps onto the Rape of Nanjing, while Rin's awakening of the volcano under the Longbow Island is basically the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.]]

** In a strategy exercise, Rin suggests destroying a dam to kill a large mass of enemy soldiers (and sacrificing civilians and some of her troops in the process). A classmate objects, pointing out that she's not considering the long-term effects - the flood would wash away topsoil in the entire river delta, causing widespread starvation and disease for years to come. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, someone has pulled off such a move, and Rin reflects that her classmate was right.[[note]]The real-life event this was based on was estimated to have killed nearly a million people.[[/note]]]]

* KickTheDog: What the Mugenese army does to the civilians of Golyn Niis.

* MilitarySchool: a significant part of the book happens at Sinegard Academy.
* PlayingWithFire: Channeling the Phoenix grants Rin the power to produce huge amounts of fire from her body. She hones more precise control over her abilities during the second book.

* RapePillageAndBurn: The Mugenese troops who massacre Nikani civilians with abandon wherever they go.

** Ironically, despite not being spoiled by the Fang's at all, Rin sometimes demonstrates behaviour like this when she throws a tantrum because Jiang won't show her how to harness the Phoenix ''right now'' when she's a volatile, untrained fourteen-year-old girl, or continuously backtalks and insults Altan because he's ignoring her.

* TheAce: Altan Trengsin is famous among the students of Sinegard Academy for being the best at everything he does.
-->Can you piss over the wall into town?\\
Altan can.
* TheEmpire: The expansionistic and warlike Federation of Mugen, a clear counterpart of Imperial Japan, is a straight example. Ironically, the Nikan Empire is ''not''.

* VillainProtagonist: By the end of the [[spoiler:third book Rin has become an increasingly merciless, self-absorbed dictator on the level of most other leaders in the series, probably worse as it's lampshaded that her main strength is soldiering and making wars even bloodier, not uniting and/or leading a stable nation.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: By the end of the book, [[spoiler: Kitay and Rin are no longer friends because he can't conscience her destroying the entire Federation homeland.]]

* CrystalDragonJesus: The Hesperians' worship of the Maker is a counterpart to Christianity. The second book reveals the actual tenets of this faith: the Maker is the sole creator god, but he is ''not'' omnipotent, and must struggle continuously against the forces of Chaos. For its part, Chaos is described more as an entropic force than as a Satanic figure.

* SupernaturalMartialArts: the teachers at Sinegard Academy are adamant that ''ki'' manipulation is not supernatural. [[spoiler:Then you have shamans.]]

* ThePurge: After the [[spoiler: Republican forces triumph over the Empire in the Nikada civil war, Vizrha]] cleans house, rounding up and executing the [[spoiler: Southern Warlords and the remaining Cike members]] who fought for him during the war.

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The republican revolution in the second book has clear tendencies of this; sure they hold plebiscites when they capture settlements, but the options are either voting to join the Republic or having all adult men executed. Things go FromBadToWorse shortly after the Republic [[spoiler: wins the Nikani civil war and Vizrha initiates a [[ThePurge Purge]] of the Cike and the Warlords who supported him.]]

* FosteringForProfit: The Fangs, treating Rin like servant, then trying to marry her off to an official to gain leverage for their business. (It says something that she expected the matchmaker to be a brothel madame who intended to buy her.)

* AbusiveParents: Rin's foster parents. They were legally forced to take her in by the Empress's decree that all war-orphans from the Second Poppy War be raised by families with less than three children, and treat her no better than a servant and decide to marry her when it is convenient for them. They're not much nicer to Kesega, their biological son, either - when he cries because Rin is leaving, his mother responds by telling him to shut up and pinching him on the ear until he stops crying.

* BloodKnight: Rin comes to enjoy fighting, killing, and burning, due partly to the Phoenix's influence and partly to wartime trauma.

* CharmPerson: The Empress Su Daji has this ability. Everyone who looks at her immediately adores her and would do anything for her. Legend says this is a literally god-given gift to her as the legendary Vipress, but most people consider this a story for children. (Considering that shamans do, in fact, exist, however...)

* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: Jiang accurately sums up Altan as [[KirkSummation being little more than a mad dog, taught to do nothing more than fight and hate until nothing is left and his supposed patriotism is nothing more than hatred of the Mugenese for what they did to him as a child - he actually doesn't care at all about Nikan, so long as he can wipe out his enemy.]] Altan is stunned speechless by this and can only unconvincingly stammer that it's not true.
* CrystalDragonJesus: The Hesperians' worship of the Maker is a very clear counterpart to Christianity. The second book reveals the actual tenets of this faith: the Maker is the sole creator god, but he is ''not'' omnipotent, and must struggle continuously against the forces of Chaos. For its part, Chaos is described more as an entropic force than as a Satanic figure.

* DrugsAreBad: Opium traffic has been used as a tool to undermine the empire's stability. On the individual level, Aunt Fang explains to Rin how to get her husband addicted to control him. Even when [[spoiler: shamans use drugs to let their mind commune with gods]], too much can leave them addled for combat or addicted.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: As early as the first chapter, Rin uses pain to help her focus and get what she wants. By the end of the book, [[spoiler: pain causes the hatred which is the focus of her powers.]]

** At the book's climax, [[spoiler:Rin uses the Phoenix to destroy Mugen. It's made clear that this won't help all that much - the invasion force, not being in Mugen, was untouched and now have no home to go back to.]]

* InformedAttribute: Rin claims to have practically raised Kesegi and loves him, but once she's accepted into Sinegard she promptly leaves him in Tikany without a backward glance and never bothers to write to him afterwards.

* PlayingWithFire: Channeling the Phoenix grants Rin the ability to produce huge amounts of fire from her body. While she initially lacks fine control, she manages to gain much more precise control over her abilities during the second book.

* ThePurge: After the [[spoiler: Republican forces triumph over the Empire in the Nikada civil war, Vizrha]] cleans house, rounding up and executing the [[spoiler: Southern Warlords and the remaining members of the Cike]] who fought for him during the war.

* RapePillageAndBurn: The name of the game for Mugenese troops, who massacre Nikani civilians with abandon wherever they go.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Changhan gives one to Rin, calling her out on her constant disrespect and obnoxiousness towards everyone around her, including her commanding officer and tells her to stop acting like a little bitch because Altan won't pat her on the head.

** Ironically, despite not being spoiled by the Fang's at all, Rin sometimes demonstrates behaviour like this when she throws a tantrum because Jiang won't show her how to harness the Phoenix ''right now'' when she's a volatile, untrained fourteen-year-old girl, or continues backtalks and insults Altan because he's ignoring her.

* VillainProtagonist: By the end of the [[spoiler:third book Rin has thoroughly moved into this trope, becoming an increasingly merciless, self-absorbed dictator on the level of most other leaders in the series, probably worse as it's lampshaded that her main strength is soldiering and making wars even bloodier, not uniting and/or leading a stable nation.]]
* WarIsHell: Huang doesn't shy away from vividly describing the horrors of war and its effects on the civilian population.

* InformedAttribute: Rin claims to have practically raised Kesega and loves him, but once she's accepted into Sinegard she promptly leaves him in Tikany without a backward glance and never bothers to write to him afterwards.

* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: Jiang accurately sums up Altan as [[KirkSummation being little more than a mad dog, taught to do nothing more than fight and hate until nothing is left and his supposed patriotism is nothing more than hatred of the Mugenese for what they did to him as a child - he actually doesn't care at all about Nikara, so long as he can wipe out his enemy.]] Altan is stunned speechless by this and can only unconvincingly stammer that it's not true.

* FantasyWorldMap: R.F. Kuang [[https://rfkuang.com/2018/05/07/its-a-map/ has a map showing]] the Nikara Empire and the Federation of Mugen, the author has jokingly said that "Any resemblance to real-life countries is mere coincidence"

* FantasticRacism: Played with. The Hesperians' racist beliefs are essentially identical to the real world's 19th-century scientific racism, right down to the belief that the "white race" is superior to all others. However, the Hesperian racial ideology has one notable difference from its real-world counterpart that pulls it into fantastic terrritory: The Hesperians believe that as "lesser" races are "[[WhiteMansBurden educated]]" into the superior Hesperian culture, they will ''[[LamarckWasRight physically evolve]]'' into white people.

''The Poppy War'' is the first novel by Rebecca F. Kuang, and is announced as the first volume of a trilogy. It was followed by ''The Dragon Republic'', released in August 2019, and subsequently ''The Burning God'', released in November 2020.

* WhatTheHellHero: By the end of the book, [[spoiler: Kitay and Rin are no longer friends because he can't conscience her destroying the entire Federation homeland.]]

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Jiang, who is not taken seriously by most of the school, is frightening in the rare moments he is serious.

* TheMengele: Dr. Shiro. [[spoiler:He conducted experiences on the Speerlies to find out the origin of their powers.]]

* VillainProtagonist: By the end of the [[spoiler:third book Rin has thoroughly moved into this trope, becoming an increasingly merciless dictator on the level of most other leaders in the series, probably worse as it's lampshaded that her main strength is soldiering and making wars even bloodier, not uniting and/or leading a stable nation.]]

->''Everything was good until the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Fire Nation]] attacked. Wait. we are the Fire Nation. Where is drug man?''