Literature / Lord Marksman and Vanadis

This page contains unmarked spoilers for the first two story arcs. You Have Been Warned!

"Until the farthest reaches of the skies are calm, turn your wailing anger to strength, and become a silver flash of wind."

Elen: Throw down your bow. You may call me Eleonora Viltaria. Your turn.
Tigre: Lord Tigrevurmud Vorn.
Elen: Very well. From this day forward, you are now my property.

Lord Marksman and Vanadis (Madan no Ou to Vanadis, literally "King of the Magic Bullet and Vanadis") is a series of Light Novels written by Tsukasa Kawaguchi with illustrations by Yoshi☆Wo, Nobuhiko Yanai and Hinata Katagiri, which was published by Kadokawa's MF Bunko J label from 2011 to 2017 for 18 volumes. It has a manga adaptation which was serialized in Comic Flapper from 2011 to 2016, and an anime adaptation which aired from October to December 2014 for 13 episodes.

The story centers on Tigrevurmud Vorn, the young Count of the European town of Alsace and an archer, and Eleonora Viltaria, a noblewoman and swordswoman of the neighboring country of Zhcted called a Vanadis.

In the first saga (Volumes 1-5), Tigre is captured by Elen after Brune's Civil War has begun. Accompanied by his maid, Titta, Tigre helps Elen stop Brune's Civil War and even repels an invasion by the kingdom of Muozinel. On Tigre's five-volume long Hero's Journey, Tigre meets characters such as fellow Vanadis Ludmila Lourie.

The second saga (Volumes 6-10) opens six months after Brune's civil war. The kingdom of Asvarre is experiencing its own civil war due to a dispute between Princes Elliott and Germaine over who should rule the country. After helping Asvarre end its civil with the help of nobleman Tallard Graham, Tigre meets up with Elizaveta Fomina, the Vanadis of Lebus, after losing his memory. He learns about her history with Baba Yaga, who corrupted her in the past, and helps end a dispute between King Viktor's heirs. He also meets Alexandra Alshavin, a powerful Vanadis who has a debilitating illness.

The third saga (Volumes 11-18) begins one year after Volume 10, and depicts Melisande's attempt to start an insurgency, Muozinel's second invasion of Brune and Valentina Glinka Estes, the Vanadis of Osterode, beginning Zhcted's civil war after Viktor's death. Along the way, Tigre crosses paths with Figneria Alshavin, the newly appointed Vanadis of Sasha's homeland Legnica.

There are also two Alternate Continuity of novels with different female leads:

• Madan no Ou to Michelia: The first Alternate Continuity where Ludmila is Tigre's female lead.
• Madan no Ou to Seisen no Carnwenhan: The second Alternate Continuity where Limalisha is Tigre's female lead.

A manga adaptation of the first 5 volumes by Nobuhiko Yanai lasted for 51 chapters. A 13-episode anime adaptation of the first 5 volumes produced by Satelight and directed by Tatsuo Sato aired during the October 2014 fall season. Funimation simulcasted the series as it aired, and later released it on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2016.

Please move any character tropes to the character page and any specific tropes from arcs to the recap page.

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Lord Marksman and Vanadis provides examples of:

Tropes # to D

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: In the anime, the battle scenes are depicted this way on a strategic level. For the more generic movements, they'll show chess pieces representing various forces on a map, with a narrator explains what's happening. Various pieces moving around, slaughtering other pieces or getting trapped, and during crucial events, the scene will focus back on the main characters to show what they're doing on the battlefield.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Arifal can cut through shields, helms, and armor like paper.
• Action Girl: Any of the seven Vanadis and Limalisha make the most of it.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime is based on the first five volumes of the light novel, only condensed and with some characters (such as Greast and Vodyanoy) removed.
• Adapted Out: Aram, Vodyanoy and Greast are a prominent characters in the series, but they don't appear in the anime due to it being an Adaptation Distillation.
• All for Nothing: Melisande plots to avenge the death of her husband and son by attempting to kill Tigre. When she confronts Regin, they don’t see eye to eye. In the end, she gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by the fake Durandal, has killed a lot of citizens, and ultimately caused her own death. She had lost her family, her friends and everything else she has risked her life for.
• An Arm and a Leg: Several soldiers from all sides frequently lose limbs
• Ancestral Weapon: The black bow of the Vorn family. Lavias also coincidentally continues to choose women in Mila's family.
• Anyone Can Die: Several characters, most notably:
  • First saga: Duke Felix Aaron Thenardier and his supporters^* Prince Zion Thenardier, the Serrash assassins, Steid, Roland, countless Brune and Zhcted soldiers, Donalbein, Kasim, Bertrand, and King Faron.
  • Second saga: Princes Elliot and Germaine, Hamish, Torbalan, Alexandra Alshavin, Baba Yaga, and Orgelt Kazakov.
  • Third saga: Hans von Klugel, Melisande Thenardier, Charon Anquetil Greast, the House of Thenardier as a noble entity, Auguste, numerous soldiers of the Moonlight Knights, the Muozinel King, Drekavac, Ilda Kurtis, King Viktor, Figneria Alshavin, Maximilian Bennusa Ganelon, Aram, and Valentina Glinka Estes.
• Arc Villain: Various including
  • First saga: A Big Bad Ensemble between Dukes Ganelon and Thenardier, with Prince Zion Thenardier joining them in the first volume.
  • Second Saga: Prince Elliot, Torvalan, and Baba Yaga.
  • Third saga: Melisande Thenardier, Maximilian Bennusa Ganelon, Marquis Charon Antoine Greast, Valentina Glinka Estes and Figneria Alshavin.
• Art Evolution: After the first 4 Volumes, the Light Novel artist, Yoshi☆Wo, fell ill, and Volume 5's pictures end up being done by the manga author, Nobuhiko Yanai. However, backlash towards Yanai's manga-style artwork led the manga artist away, and left Volume 6 with no pictures. The original Light Novel artist then returned for Volumes 7 and 8, but decided to leave for other work. This led to the hiring of Hinata Katagiri, who has been working on the illustrations since Volume 9.
• Arc Words: Tigre's "Mettle" which he inherited from his father.
• Assassin Outclassin':
  • In the first volume, an assassin with an arbalest tried to kill Elen; his attempt fails due to Arifal's wind barrier and his escape fails when Tigre nails him in the foot.
  • In the second volume, Thenardier sends an assassin group called the Serrash to kill Tigre. Their first attack gets six of them killed, with Tigre killing the first, Lim killing the second (while being poisoned in the process), and Mila killing four. The survivor appears during the end of the volume, targeting the two Vanadis after they've exhausted themselves fighting each other, only for Tigre to shoot him in the nick of time.
• Ass Shove: Tigre snipes Ilda's horse in the back in volume 8 to keep him from escaping.
• Attempted Rape:
  • Zion does this to Titta after he enters Tigre's mansion in volume 1.
  • In volume 13, Elen goes through one when Greast learns that Tigre is going to rescue her.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: The Vanadis of Zhcted and the noblemen of Brune lead their forces whenever their principalities are forced to fight.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: There are many brilliant tacticians in the series, especially Eleonora, Ludmila and Tigre who also applies this to his archery. Able to factor in wind to make curved shots and even perfectly adapt to a sabotaged bow after only two shots.
• Badass Army: The Silver Meteor Army and the Navarre Knights stand out the most.
• Battle of the Still Frames: Almost any battle that isn't between named characters turns into this, such as when Roland shows up. He screams and is shown on a still frame, while the Red Shirt Army troops get slaughtered the same way. If any actual combat is shown, it's typically the named character running by on horseback and slashing at random enemy troops. Or getting killed by Tigre's arrows.
• Berserk Button:
  • Anything that reminds Liza of her past will make her very upset.
  • Mila reacts badly to anyone who mocks her diminutive size or if anyone gets too close to Tigre.
  • Elen gets upset when she sees Tigre getting too close to another girl and Greast's perverted antics will set her off. Greast found that last one out the hard way during her Cold-Blooded Torture.
• Big Damn Heroes: There are several examples throughout the series, which notably include Tigre and Elen rescuing Titta from Zion's clutches, Mashas and his allies helping Tigre put a stop to Muozinel's invasion of Agnes and Tigre and Mila rescuing Elen from being raped by Ganelon.
• Big Good:
  • King Faron and King Viktor in the first saga.
  • Queen Regin takes Faron's place during the second and third sagas.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio : For the Asvarre arc, it's Tigre, Matvey, and Olga.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Anyone who speaks German will know that Mila's attack "Eisberg" translates to "Iceberg".
  • The writings on Brune documents are in French, given that Brune is based on France.
• Bittersweet Ending: A staple of the series.
  • First saga: The invasion of Alsace is thwarted, Mila pulls a Heel–Face Turn, the slaves in Agnes are liberated from the Muozinel invasion, Thenardier and his son Zion are killed, Regin becomes Brune's queen, and Brune ends its civil war and allies with Zhcted. But Ganelon and Greast escape and join with Tina, many soldiers and slaves perish in the civil war, and Roland, Bertrand, and Faron are dead (and Tigre is left mourning for Bertrand).
  • Second saga: Asvarre ends its civil war with Elliot and Germaine dead and Guinevere becoming Queen of Asvarre. Tigre regains his memories after losing them for a short time, Liza and Elen have reconciled, and Baba Yaga, Torbalan and Orgelt Kazakov are dead. However, Melisande begins to make her move, Liza is injured, Ganelon and Tina are still out there, and Sasha is dead.
  • Third saga: Melisande Thenardier and Charin Antoine Greast are dead with their supporters scattered or defeated, Sachstein's invasion of Brune has been thwarted, the Muozinellan king is killed and Nemetacum belongs to Brune again, Tigre finally professes his love for Mila, Titta and Elen, and Drekavac, Maximilian Bennusa Ganelon, Figneria Alshavin and Valentina Glinka Estes are dead. However, many have perished in the invasion of Sachstein, the insurgency of Brune and Muozinel's attack on Nemetacum with thousands more dying in Zhcted's civil war, Greast's attempted rape on Elen takes a temporary toll on her sanity, King Viktor, Ilda Kurtis, Eugene Sharavin and Auguste are dead, and Regin becomes the last living descendant of King Charles. And in this case, it overlaps with Earn Your Happy Ending.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Volume 12 ends with the Moonlight Knights losing against Greast's army in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Boom, Headshot!: Many of Tigre's kills end up with an arrow lodged between their eyes.
• Boy Meets Girl: Boy shoots arrow at girl, girl makes him into a war prisoner. Together they fight a civil war.
• Break the Cutie: In Volume 13, Elen goes through Greast's Cold-Blooded Torture and his Attempted Rape. She gets better by the end of the volume.
• Broken Bird: It summarizes Liza's early life before becoming a war maiden.
• The Cameo: In the anime, Sora Amamiya voices a resident of Agnes who thanks Tigre for rescuing her and the remaining slaves.
• Can't Bathe Without a Weapon:
  • Tigre accidentally walks in on Ellen bathing alone at an isolated well, which she insists isn't an issue while directing his attention to Arifar close by.
  • He later walks in on Ludmila bathing and discovers she keeps her Ancestral Weapon Lavias with her at all times and finds her pointing it at his neck in no time. But he's actually more worried over her coming out of the water naked and tells her to Please Put Some Clothes On, but she scoffs at the idea, since she finds no shame in being seen naked by someone she considers to be lower than an animal and eventually simply smacks him with Lavias's shaft.
• Casting Gag:
  • As in Sword Art Online, Haruka Tomatsu voiced a swordswoman. Tomatsu also voiced a character wearing blue in the Japanese dub of Power Rangers Mystic Force.
  • The same goes for Elen's English actress Caitlin Glass, as she also voiced a girl with white hair in Strike Witches. Glass also voiced a swordswoman in Freezing.
  • As with Akame ga Kill!, Ryohei Kimura voices an Ax-Crazy son of a corrupt politician who serves as the Big Bad.
  • Sumire Uesaka previously played a maid who is a close friend of the protagonist in Cross Ange.
  • It's also not the first time Mariya Ise has played a character with blue hair before, as she previously played Levy McGarden in Fairy Tail.
• Chainmail Bikini: Averted. But only because none of the Vanadis BOTHER with armor for their battlewear, preferring normal clothing instead. Lim wears proper armor in the novels, though.
• The Chessmaster: There are several characters that are these, most notably Tina and Ganelon.
• Civil War:
  • The first five volumes of the series are focused on the civil war in Brune between Thenardier and Ganelon.
  • Asvarre has its own civil war between Germaine and Eliot, after the former murders his siblings. Volume 6 though 8 are about that war and its aftermath.
  • The second arc has a very small one between Zhcted's new heir and the man passed over for the job, (though that one is due to an assassination attempt on the latter by a third party). Interestingly, the aggressor makes a point of avoiding all-out war, instead choosing just to attack with his own troops.
  • In the third arc, when Viktor dies, Tina begins her plans to become Queen of Zhcted and start its own civil war.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Elen shows increasing shades of this toward Tigre as time goes on. Ludmila takes on some of this behavior toward Tigre as well after Volume 4.
• Combat Pragmatist: Elen, at least on the tactical and strategic level.
  Elen: I fight to win. I don't bother choosing a specific method, nor am I burdened by such useless things.
• Combination Attack: Tigre's bow seems to be able to take the power of the Dragonic Tools to combine with the arrow fired.
  • At the end of Volume 1, Tigre and Elen snipe a flying dragon.
    • They do it again to destroy the gate of the Tatra fortress.
  • Elen and Mila also have a combination attack of their own during their Rivals Team Up. When Arifal's wind carried Lavias' ice they created a blizzard storm trapping three earth dragons before killing them.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The author really loves David Versus Goliath situations that the heroes overcome through a combination of this and guerrilla tactics.
• Con Man: A Gender Swapped example. Tina cons everyone (Tigre, Ganelon, Viktor, Eugene, Fine) to get what she wants: to become Queen of Zhcted.
• Confession Triggers Consummation: Elen and Tigre properly confess their love for each other right before they begin Intimate Psychotherapy for Elen's sake.
• Cool Big Sis: Sofy is this to Elen and Ludmila, and Sasha is this to all of the Vanadis until her death at least.
• Costume Evolution: As a series that takes place over several years, this is bound to happen.
  • After the Time Skip between volumes 10 and 11, all of the Vanadis minus Olga, Sofy and Tina receive one.
    • Elen wears the bracelet that Tigre gave her as a memento during his trip to Asvarre.
    • Mila has a new breastplate, a non-transparent skirt and thigh-high boots.
    • Liza replaces her purple dress with a black gothic one.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Elen has done several of these throughout the series:
    • In Volume 1, she easily defeats the 25,000-strong Brunish army with only The 5,000-man Zhcted army of her troops in the Dinant Plains. It was because: A. It was a night time ambush. B. During the initial attack, the army of Brune declared that Regin was killed (or so they thought), which in turn caused a full on rout. C. That in turn caused a sizable portion of the Brune forces to get trampled under foot of their own allies. And finally D. Elen's forces were able to run down most of the stragglers. Elen, however, is actually disappointed about the amazing victory, because she wasn't able to test as many strategies as she'd had wanted to. Later in that same volume, she obliterates Zion’s dragon with her Ley Admos attack.
    • In Volume 2, she fights off a group of bandits and the Serrash assassins, ends up on the receiving end of Mila's ambush in Olmütz, and finally, she has her army infiltrate the Tatra Fortress.
    • Later, she subjugates the bandits that were raiding Territoire along with Tigre. Although Roland gains the upper hand in their one-on-one duel, Elen, Sofy and Tigre manage to overpower Roland with Tigre’s attack.
    • In Volume 10, she easily decapitates Kazakov in a one-on-one duel after her allies stop the Polus army.
    • She ends up on the receiving end in Volume 11 after Sachstein defeats the Moonlight Knights and again in Volume 12 when Greast’s army scatters the Moonlight Knights and Greast captures her.
  • In Volume 10, Ganelon effortlessly beats the tar out of a seriously injured Baba Yaga and absorbed her while easily decapitates Kazakov in a one-on-one duel after her allies stop the Polus army.
  • Tina seriously injures Sofya Obertas at the end of volume 17.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Titta, Ludmila and Sasha have matching colored hair and eyes.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The black bow can shoot a Magic Missile. Firing one drains Tigre, leaving him tired, and has killed at least one previous wielder.
• Death from Above: Shero Zam Kafa, the Dragonic Skill of Lavias, can create a massive number of icicles to rain down on the enemy.
• Demoted to Extra: Mila during Volumes 6-10.
• Dictionary Opening: The anime adaptation offers "dictionary entry" cards for each eyecatch in between the episodes.
• Disappeared Dad: Urs was this to Tigre and and Rodion was this to Liza during their early lives.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Hiromi Harada, Tina's Japanese voice, sings the anime's ending theme.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: At the end of Volume 3, Elen has leaves Brune with most of her forces to assist Sasha when the latter's territory is invaded by another Vanadis. This leaves Tigre down a huge chunk of his forces and his strongest warrior.
• Dramatic Wind: Was once even used to foreshadow how Tigre will beat his opponent. In the climactic battle of the Brune Civil War arc, wind started blowing when Tigre faced off with Thenardier. Then it blew considerably stronger when Thenardier started charging and Tigre fired his arrow which curved due to the wind, penetrating the villain right between the eyes.
• Durandal: The national weapon of Brune, a BFS possessed by Roland until his death. Ganelon steals it in Volume 11.

Tropes E to H

• Elemental Powers: Most of the Dragonic Tools channels a specific element:
  • Arifal: Blow You Away
  • Lavias: An Ice Person
  • Zaht: Light 'em Up
  • Bargreb: Playing with Fire
  • Valitsaif: Shock and Awe
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Ganelon is Viktor, Faron and Regin's.
  • Valentina is more villainous as opposed to the war maidens and Tigre.
• Exact Words: Tir Na Fal tells Tigre she prefers to be invoked at midnight, on top of a mound of corpses. When he's lost at sea during Torbalan's attack, the conditions are met. She never said it had to be on land, or that Tigre had to have participated in the killing.
• Fanservice: The real reason that all Vanadis are female, wear revealing clothing and inevitably gather around Tigre.
• Fantastic Racism: Cargo variation: the people of Brune hate bow users and archery, considering it cowardly. Since the protagonist is an archer, he gets no respect from the majority of his countrymen, no matter that he's got more and bigger achievements than any other character.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Tsukasa Kawaguchi based Asvarre on Britain, Muozinel on Persia (specifically Iran), Brune on France, Zhcted on Russia, and Sachstein on Germany. And Tigre figting Muozinel reapeats Jan III Sobieski tactics used in Battle of Lwów in 1675 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_LwB3w_%281675%29.
  • Tigre's territory of Alsace resembles Alsace-Lorraine, territory once disputed between France and Imperial Germany (taken by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War and returned after World War I). Alsace is a territory at the edge of Brune that Eleonora of Zhcted lays claim to due to capturing its lord.
• Flash Forward: While the manga (like the anime) only adapts up to Volume 5, the final chapter ends with bits and pieces of future events (the novels were up to Volume 15 by this point), culminating in Tigre and Elen becoming lovers in Volume 13.
• Foil:
  • Tallard Graham to Tigre. Tigre is a Count, Tallard is a commoner who rose to a generalship. Both are exception archers, and both are brilliant military strategists. However, where Tigre would risk near anything to protect those is need and is loathe to sacrifice innocent people, Tallard is ruthlessly pragmatic and would do anything for his ambition.
  • Fine to Elen. Both are Vanadis in their respective territories (Elen for Leitmeritz while Fine for Legnica), both are former mercenaries and inheriting Vissarion's vision. The difference between them however is Elen genuinely continuing her adopted father's legacy in building a kingdom of peace, while Fine doing the opposite by trying to build a militarized kingdom instead.
• For the Evulz: The reason why Ganelon was at a civil war with Thenardier?
  Ganelon: To kill time.
• Foreshadowing: Zhcted's founding myth tells of a man claiming to be the incarnation of the Black Dragon, who gave his seven wives weapons that made them Vanadis. Another story talks about a man who received a black bow from a goddess and used it to become king. Tigre's bow is tied to the goddess of death, all seven Vanadis are falling for him, and Zhcted's current ruler is very old.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: All Vanadis wear this and this certainly emphasizes their "assets". Makes you wonder how they make such clingy clothe with pre-modern technology.
• Gambit Roulette: Ganelon and Thenardier’s plans to start Brune’s civil war requires that the Brunish Prince Regnas would fall in battle so that the renowned war maiden Eleonora Viltaria would capture Tigrevurmud Vorn to hold him for ransom so that Zion can launch an assault on Alsace and sell the citizens as slaves en masse to Muozinel in order to gain total control of Brune and overthrow the poisoned King Faron.
• God Was My Co-Pilot: The black bow may or may not be the avatar of the local death goddess.
• God of Evil: Tir na Fal, goddess of death, darkness, and night. Possibly archers and archery as well. Subverted in that she's married to the God of Good, and that the two of them uphold up the Balance of Good and Evil. Also subverted in that she's actively aiding Tigre.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: This is somewhat inverted. While most of the men do fight in close quarters, the main character Tigre fights exclusively with a bow, and the female Vanadis who surround him fight exclusively with close combat weapons such as swords, spears and staffs.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The demons as a whole, and Ganelon in particular. When they aren't the cause of the crisis, they're making it worse.
• Handicapped Badass:
  • Sasha. While she's the strongest of the current Vanadis who once took on three Vanadis and won, but she can only fight at full strength for half an hour due to a debilitating illness.
  • Liza gets her arm paralyzed by the time Volume 10 rolls around.
• Heel–Face Turn: Mila turns on the Thenardiers and becomes Tigre's ally towards the end of Volume 2.
• Heavy Sleeper: Tigre, very much so. This combined with his Thanks for the Mammaries tendencies is mainly responsible for his Accidental Pervert status.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted. Tigre exclusively uses a bow in battle, and has no skill with the sword or other weapons. It's played straight with Elen, Lim and Fine.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Tigre goes through one after Bertrand is killed.
  • Elen has one when she learns that Tigre has disappeared.
  • In Volume 13, Tigre has another one when he feels that he failed to save Elen, and Elen herself goes through one after experiencing Greast's Cold-Blooded Torture by the end of the volume.
• Hero's Slave Harem: Double Subverted in regards to Tigre and Elen; early in the story, she takes him prisoner after he fails to defeat her in battle, intending to use him as a ransom. As a prisoner, the two of them become more interested and attracted to one-another, although Elen always reminds Tigre (as well as any other girls desiring him) that he "belongs" to her. Later in the story, however, Tigre gains more and more political power to the degree that several groups and nations swear fealty to him, including Titta, his personal servant since childhood.
• Hollywood Tactics: It seems everyone who is not Tigre, all Vanadis and/or Worthy Opponent commander heavily studied this. For example, Muozinel didn't place side guard at column formation while marching nor not hiring any guides are few of glaring examples.
• Honor Before Reason: Out of all the knights and nobles in the series, the person most guilty of this? Titta, who stays in Tigre's manor house when the town is being attacked by an enemy army, despite the local shrine guaranteeing sanctuary. Why? Because Tigre told her to watch the house for him.
• Horse Archer: Tigre, despite being a commander of the Silver Meteor Army, often takes to the field to snipe enemy commanders from horseback.
• A House Divided: For kingdoms that descend into civil war are this.
  • Brune is this. Even before the series' beginning, the kingdom has became divided when the feud between Thenardier and Ganelon for the throne has been widely known in the entire kingdom. What makes situation even more deteriorating is when King Faron, who has struck a fatal illness, was so depressed after hearing his heir (Princess Regin in disguise) that he has decided to withdraw himself from politics and shut himself in his bedroom, leading Brune into its civil disarray when Thenardier and Ganelon using this opportunity in forging their path for power.
    • Even under Regin's new reign, things doesn't improve for Brune when Melisande, widow of the late Duke Thenardier who was killed by Tigre, as well some Brune's aristocrats, are strongly against their new ruler due to her little accomplishment than that from her late father. This eventually led to the Duchess's revolt against Regin by not only mustering her supporters, but also inviting Sachstein Army to invade Brune
  • Asvarre is this when Germaine and Eliot are fighting after the massacre of the Royal Siblings which Eliot and Guinevere barely survived. The following wake of the aftermath though, especially after the deaths of Germaine and Eliot, Guinevere is the only surviving member of the Asvarre nobility and becoming her kingdom's queen.
  • Muozinel's current status is this when Kureys is feuding with his nephews for the throne after the death of his brother, the late King of Muozinel. It is that reason Brune narrowly survives Muozinel's invasion, again.
  • Finally, Zhcted is this when Tina's ambition finally reveals its true colors when Ruslan, under Viktor's last minute decree, replaces Eugene as his successor to be the new King of Zhcted after his passing and Ilda's suspicious murder. Under the new reign though, Zhcted's aristocracy is falling apart when Ruslan's supporters suspecting Eugene's (former candidate) attempt in "usurping" the throne from Ruslan, causing massive chaos at the capital.
    • To make matters go From Bad to Worse, Fine, the new Vanadis of Legnica, joining Tina's scheme in order to seek her own ambition: establishing a militarized kingdom that rule through dominating other kingdoms . Obviously, their infamy don't sit well with the other War-Maidens especially for Sofy, who has long predicted Tina's eventual betrayal, Elen, who is still holding her grudge against Fine for the death of her adopted guardian Vissarion, and Liza who, once as Tina's and Fine's ally , is now viewing the two as enemies especially the latter for her failed assassination attempt onto her. In any rate, the disunity between the Vanadises, once Zhcted's protectors now are fighting against each other, is now putting Zhcted in a much, much dangerous situation.
• Hourglass Plot: At the beginning, Tigre ends up a prisoner and subordinate to Elen. As the series reached its conclusion, Tigre has become the leader of his army with all the remaining war maidens supporting him.
• How We Got Here: At the beginning of the series, Tigre is captured by Elen at the Dinant Plains. The first half of volume 1 explains how it all happened, starting with Elen's invasion.

Tropes I to O

• If It's You, It's Okay: Played with. Elen tells Tigre she'd be okay with letting him marry Lim, whom she's quite protective of otherwise.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Several main characters suffer this throughout the battle, along with many other unnamed combatants on both sides.
• Improbable Age: Many of the current Vanadis assumed their position around age 14, and they're all excellent combatants as well as administrators. Possibly averted since the Viralt choose their wielders, meaning the weapons take care to find wielders with both skill sets.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Tigre will hit his target, always. Even with a flimsy bow he's only fired twice. Even if he's shooting multiple arrows at once. Even if he has to angle the shot to rebound (though he's yet to do that in battle).
• In Medias Res: The series begins with Elen taking Tigre as her prisoner after her assault at the Dinant Plains.
• Irony: Thenardier takes advantage of Faron's grief over the death of the royal heir to try and claim the throne. Thenardier's defeat comes about because he leaves a nigh-impregnable position to seek revenge for his own son's death.
• It's Personal: Tigre and Thenardier's duel is this on both sides. Tigre's angry about the attempted razing of Alsace and Batran's recent death, while Thenardier wants revenge for his personal assistant and son.
• Jerkass: Many antagonists, starting with Zion Thenardier, are not just in opposing armies but are complete pricks.
• Legendary Weapons: The Dragonic Tools from Zhcted, and Durandal of Brune.
• Legend Fades to Myth: The black bow is another Legendary Weapon, but one so old that the stories about it have long since faded out of history.
• Leitmotif: Almost every character has one in the anime, including Tigre, Elen, Mila, Roland, Sofy, Titta and Lim.
• Limited Wardrobe: Well, it is excused for Vanadis, as their clothes accentuates their Fanservice but not for other nobles.
• Love Hurts: There are some surprisingly poignant discussions about the pain of loving someone of a different social class or nationality. Most obviously, Elen and Tigre have some real UST but they're too aware of their roles and responsibilities to act on it.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The series is set in a version of Medieval Europe.
• Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: Elen waking Tigre up by jumping on his bed and sticking her sword in his mouth. His maid, Titta, is just as baffled and alarmed after the explanation as before it.
• Marry Them All: Tigre marries every Love Interest at the end of the series.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Several armies take turns utilizing this throughout the series, as reinforcements show up in battles on different sides.
• Master Swordsman: Many, including Elen, Lim, Roland, Armand, Vissarion, Felix and Zion Thenardier, Ilda, Bargren and Damad. This trope also applies to the armies of Asvarre, Zhcted, Sachstein, Brune and Muozinel.
• Meaningful Name:
  • All of the Vanadis's first names are Russian/Slavic names, considering that Zhcted is based on Russia.
  • Also, the names of the principalities are based on Slavic towns located in Eastern Europe.
  • Tigre is the French, Spanish and Italian word for "tiger".
• Mêlée à Trois: Brune's civil war. The sides are led by Thenardier, Ganelon, and Tigre.
• Morton's Fork: When Zion invades Alsace in Volume 1, Tigre is faced with a morally grey decision: go off to fight Zion's forces alone, which would obviously get him killed, or have Elen kill him, which would lead to Zion burning down Alsace.
• Most Common Superpower: Almost all of the Vanadis' are well-endowed.
• Multishot: Tigre can do this without losing much force behind each arrow.
• Named After Somebody Famous: In-universe, Roland is named for the Roland who helped King Charles found the kingdom of Brune. Both pairs of Roland and Charles are named for Roland and Charlemagne (Charles the Great)^note See Holy Roman Empire, The Song of Roland. Ganelon and Vice-Commander Olivier get their names from the Ganelon and Oliver from The Song of Roland. Thenardier is named for Monsieur Thénardier from Les Misérables.
• National Weapon: Roland uses Durandal for Brune. The Vanadis of Zhcted use the Dragonic Tools.
• Nice Guy: Tigre is a relaxed, thoughtful, kind young man... in a world that's lousey with civil wars, political maneuvering, and assassinations. His survival is directly attributable to his Nice Guy tendencies impressing the right people, and his bow skills actually being that good.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Ganelon's revival of Tir na Va is what prompts it to help Tigre and the war maidens use their combined attacks to kill him.
  • If Greast hadn't captured and tortured Elen, Tigre and Mila wouldn’t have rescued her and the Moonlight Knights would not have launched a counterattack against Greast's men.
  • Valentina seriously injuring Sofy is what prompts Tigre and the war maidens to put an end to her reign once and for all.
• Nom de Guerre: Every single one of the Vanadis have these. For example, Elen is known as the Silvfrau and the Wind Princess of the Silver Flash, as well as the Meltis or the Danseuse of the Sword.^note Thanks to Japanese publishing conventions, the shorter names are superscribed over the longer ones. In English, the longer name would be a title and the shorter name would be an associated nickname.
  • Tigre picks one up in volume five: Silvrash/Silver Flash, or "Star Shooter". It's given to him by the commander of Muozinel's army, and it turns out it's a title given to that country's best archers.
  • All of the Vanadis have names in the same vein, that either describe them personally or are associated with their Dragonic Tool.
• Not So Omniscient After All: Brune and Zhcted are prone to be surprised by events. Brune never saw its civil war coming, as well as Muozinel's invasions. Zhcted never foresaw the feud between Viktor's heirs and Tina's ambitions.
• Not What It Looks Like: Played with when Titta walks in on Elen sitting on top of Tigre in bed with her sword down his throat. No, she wasn't trying to kill him, but what she was actually doing was even more bizarre and difficult to explain.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Young Tigre managed to kill an Earth Dragon with a normal bow and arrow.
• Off with His Head!: Some characters get decapitated in battle, notably Prince Elliot and Orgelt Kazakov.
• Oh, Crap!: Done by several characters in the series.
  • Titta is horror-stricken when Zion infiltrates Alsace, enters the Vorn home and attempts to rape her.
  • Zion freaks out when Tigre shoots an arrow at his palm and later when Tigre defeats him at the Molsheim Plains.
  • Elen when she sees Zion's dragon coming her way.
  • Mila has a sequence of these during Elen's assault on her fortress at the Tatra Mountains. The first comes when Elen and Tigre destroys the gate. The second has the surviving Serrash that is going to kill them. And lastly, she is utterly shocked when she realizes that Urs is Tigre all along.
• One-Man Army: Each Vanadis, capable of slaying a thousand men singlehandedly, as well as Roland qualify for this.
• One Name Only: Only nobility are allowed to have last names.

Tropes P to S

• Parental Abandonment: Tigre and Liza suffer this in their pasts.
• Perma-Stubble: Kind of weird to see Tigre sporting one of these in volume 8. Part of this is due to the volume artist changing hands sometime after Volume 5, which is why Volume 6 doesn't have any pictures apart from the volume cover.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Mila and Olga.
• Plot Parallel: In volume 13, Elen is almost raped by Greast. By the end of the volume, Tigre and Elen have passionate sex.
• Razor Wind: Ley Admos, the Dragonic Skill, or special technique, of Arifal.
• Redshirt Army: The Brune army gets wiped out by the Zhcted army in the beginning of the series.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming:
  • The name "Vanadis" comes from one of the names of Fryja from Norse Mythology.
  • From Slavic Mythology:
    • Zirnitra the black dragon.
    • Thenardier's fortune teller's name Drekavac.
    • One of Elen's villa in Vosyes Mountains, Kikimora Mansion.
    • Drekavac's associate Vodyanoy, a frog demon.
    • Torbalan
  • Bayard from Chanson de geste (song of heroic deeds)
• Reasonable Authority Figure: King Faron who sincerely doesn't want to start a civil war only for Ganelon to poison him. Also, when Regin becomes Queen, she entrusts the entirety of Brune's army to Tigre.
• Red Shirt: Brune's army gets wiped out by Elen's forces at the beginning of the series.
• Retired Badass: Hugues becomes this at the end of the first saga.
• Retractable Weapon: Lavias's shaft can grow in length from its standard short size. Furthermore, the anime gives each Dragonic Tool a default rest mode that they leave once activated, and also does so for the legendary weapon Durandal.
• Revenge Before Reason: Thenardier's eventual defeat is directly caused by his need to avenge his son. He even recognizes he's committing a tactical error, but cannot bring himself to act in any other way.
• Rivals Team Up: A really impressive one by Eleonora and Ludmila when they fought and won against five dragons in one war.
• Salt the Earth: In Volume 7, Tigre is forced to resort to this to hinder Elliot's invading army of 30,000.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The kingdom of Zhcted is founded by the man who married the original owners of the Ancestral weapons. His descendants come to treat future wielders of said weapons with distrust, and constantly do their utmost to reign them in, expecting to be betrayed. By the time King Victor's rule ends Tina chooses to betray him precisely because of this treatment, and the fact that it's a direct threat to her homeland and people.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Many of the Vanadis, due to considering themselves superior to humans.

  Ludmila: Would you be upset if a dog saw you naked?

• She Cleans Up Nicely: All of the Vanadis are gorgeous, self-confident women, even the ones on the tomboyish side. When any of them feel the need to dress up, the results are never less than stunning.
• Ship Tease: Tigre with Elen so much, they'd be the Official Couple if it weren't for their statuses.
• Shoot The Arrow: In Volume 7, Tigre shoots Hamish's arrow with his own while charging on horseback.
• Single-Stroke Battle: The duel with Thenardier invokes one, and ends with Tigre's arrow in Thenardier's forehead.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Elen and Ludmila are this to each other due to their differing backgrounds before becoming Vanadis.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Olmutz, a primitive icy wasteland shaped by snow-capped mountains where Mila is from.
• The Social Darwinist: Thenardier was raised as one. He killed all of his siblings during his rise to power, has exactly zero sympathy for anyone he considers weak (besides his son), and levies ridiculously high taxes on anyone who isn't somehow useful.
• Something Only They Would Say: Tigre recognizes Brune's missing heir apparent when the latter tells the story of how the two first met, which neither of them have spoken about since then.
• Spell My Name With An S: Is it Ludmila, Ludmira or Lyudmila? Zaien or Zion? Ellenora, Eleonora or Eleanora?
• Standard Hero Reward: In recognition of Tigre's heroics, the king awards Tigre an honorary knightly title. The prime minister is horrified, since the first, last and only person to receive the title married the princess and took the throne.
• Summon to Hand: Viralts can warp to their owner's hands from simply being called upon.
• Subordinate Excuse: Titta is from an ancient priestly family. She remains a maid of the Vorn family to stay close to Tigre.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Regnas, the prince of Brune, is actually Regin, the princess of Brune, as Tigre discovers in Volume 4.

Tropes T to Y

• Taken for Granite: Several Viralts become useless chunks of stone after expending their power to help Tigre defeat Ganelon. While Tir Na Fal assured the Vanadis that their weapons would recover in seven months, they have to clean up the Zhcted civil war while Brought Down to Badass.
• The Teaser: Each episode of the anime begins with a prologue before the opening theme plays.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • During Volume 5, Elen and Ludmila and their armies work together in the Silver Meteor Army for Tigre.
  • In Volume 9, Elen and Liza grudgingly call a truce at Tigre's insistence. Then, as of the end of Volume 10, Liza and Elen have reconciled peacefully.
• Title Drop: Near the end of Volume 1, Lim mentions a legend in which a man received a legendary black bow from a Goddess which made him undefeatable in battle. The man went on to become King, and was known as the Madan no Ou, or the King of the Magic Bullet.
• Token Mini-Moe: Olga, the seventh Vanadis who travels the world and meets Tigre in Volume 6.
• Tragic Dream: The mercenary leader who raised Elen and Lim had one. Only two people ever took him seriously, Elen and Figneria. The latter killed him on a random battlefield.
• Underestimating Badassery: Take a shot everytime someone looks down on Tigre for using a bow before he awes everyone with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Largely averted due to all the Vanadis being Shameless Fanservice Girls.
• Unwanted Harem: Tigre. Volume 1 has Elen and Lim teasing him by asking how many women he's seduced. He breaks double digits before the books do.
  • His personal maid, Titta, has been in love with him since childhood.
  • The Vanadis Eleonora falls in love at first sight, no matter what she says about "bow skill".
  • Limalisha warms up to him over time, but saving her from an assassination attempt (via sucking out the poison) is what crystallizes it.
  • Ludmila initially expresses interest to get under Elen's skin, but by the end of Brune's civil war she's come to admire his good qualities.
  • Brune's secret princess has an understandable admiration for the person who secured her throne, but it's implied she's carried a torch since their first meeting.
  • Olga falls in love with Tigre's chivalrous nature after he refuses to compromise his sense of honor time and again. She's the first girl to tell Tigre that she's in love with him.
  • Crosses that suspension bridge with Sofy, after rescuing her from Prince Elliot.
  • An innocuous comment that Liza's heterochromatic eyes are "like a cat's" makes him the first person to recognize that her eyes are just eyes and not anything mystical or symbolic.
  • It should be noted that the original Vanadis'(Vanadii?) were all the wives of the first emperor of Zhcted. History is simply repeating itself.
• Uriah Gambit: King Viktor of Zhcted is fond of these regarding the Vanadis, and the Vanadis know it.
  Elen explained about the fact that King Viktor often ordered the dispatch of troops in order to chip/weaken a Vanadis's power.
• Victory by Endurance: The fight against Roland ends with him clashing his sword with Tigre's arrow and successfully sliced it in half. But afterwards, he collapsed from exhaustion, earning Tigre the win.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Gerard from Brune and Ryurik from Zhcted.

• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The black bow has obliterated an entire city at least once before.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Sasha. Stands out because of how important they were to several other characters and arcs.
• Wham Line: At the end of Volume 12. Tigrevormund Vorn and Elen went missing in the heat of battle.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Elen is terrified of insects.
• Win Her a Prize: In the manga, Elen leads Tigre to a carnival hit-the-target game where you win prizes if you knock down dolls with a toy arbalest. Since this was right in Tigre’s wheelhouse, he wins her a plushie prize after spotting the cheating modifications on a doll and knocking it down a with a skillful ricochet shot.
• World of Buxom: Most of the female characters have larger than average chests. This causes some consternation in those who do not.

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