 Hello friends, I'm Philip Magnus and today I am doing something a little different from a book review or a game review or a game retrospective. Today I am looking at The Pariah by Anthony Ryan and doing what I have come to call a trope check. Trope check is inspired by my interest in tropes as well as by OSB of Earthly Sarcastic Productions who have done many things with tropes and they have done them wonderfully. Now today we're looking at as I said The Pariah by Anthony Ryan. If you would like to learn about this book without any spoilers please take a look at my review and don't forget to like the video. Okay I'm gonna give you a very quick rundown of what a trope actually is. What is a trope but a storytelling device? A convention? A shorthand one that signifies the myriad conventions within a genre. Only two of course be broken or used in any way than the author desires. Today I have elected to locate 11 of those in The Pariah and I suspect I might very well have to make a TV tropes page just so I can put them somewhere other than in my blog when people can learn about the fun ways in which these elements, these tropes exist within Anthony Ryan's book. Now warning, spoilers for The Pariah ahead. First, Kyteldrop Owen refers to himself as The Pariah, late in the novel, in conversation with the cherished spell worker known as The Sack Witch. Her response, I quote, the life of a pariah can be as meaningful as that of a king, unquote. End of the truth. Two, Spirit Advisor. This one is subverted. The evil chainsman who sells Alwyn and Toria to the pit mines sees the spirits of the dead. This includes the spirits of the outlaw Hostler, murdered by Alwyn. The spirit helps the chainsman to ward against Alwyn's escape on the way to the pit mines, but only tells the peddler of outlaws that Alwyn will play a role in his debt once the boy has been sold off to the pit mines. Tree, dramatic and mask. The Sack Witch turns out to be beautiful and a mother Alwyn knows to be dangerous. Her explanation as to her disguise is that she realized that the locals, I quote, put far too much stock in appearance, unquote. For Joan Darketype. Does she experience religious visions? Is she about to throw the whole social order of a Middle Ages kingdom into a ditch? Is she an action girl, par excellence? The answer to all three when it comes to Captain Everdeen Corlaine is a resounding durr, one element doesn't quite fit with this archetype. Everdeen has noble origins rather than churlish ones. A churl, for those of you who do not know, is, well, a feudal villager. One who has no rights to land but is, in a way, chained to the land that he was born in. Horrible system. Awful. Five, God of Darkness. Captain Everdeen Corlaine is motivated in her holy quest by visions. They suggest that if Everdeen doesn't take up the oats of a knight and lead the faithful against threats against the realm, the world will be overcome by the darkness of the Malachite. Possibly subverted. It might be that the source of those visions that Everdeen is getting is, in fact, the Malachite. Six, Gold Digger. Subverted. Tolerine Dumbbrill. Mary is a duke after her outlaw partner Deccan Scowl is captured and executed. She reveals that she merely made the best of a bad situation. Rather than the arch-traitor, Alwyn suspected her to be. Lorine is revealed to be a woman making the best of some bad circumstances. Seven, Karmic Death. A common and half occurrence. Most clearly encapsulated in the evil changeman's manner of death. Eight, Knight in Shining Armor. Alwyn's scribe takes up the mantle of such a one towards the end of the novel. It fits him more than it fits most knights. Wilhelm Dornmal has many of the archetype's traditional noble characteristics. Nine, Moral Myopia. Lots of knights of the realm suffer from this. Unyielding champions of a rigid social regime are a dime a dozen across the kingdom of Albemaine, as best exemplified by Sir Alters Léveil. Léveil appears just and moral. Beneath the mask, however, is hidden a power-hungry hypocrite. Ten, Order vs. Chaos. The kingdom of Albemaine imagines itself to be this in comparison to its northern neighbor, Viscalia, a land of, you guessed it, northern heathens. Typical northern barbarians from the cold north who have a more martial society. In fact, let's do one more. Eleven, Barbarian tribe. The Ascarlians are such a one, to a point. The trope is subverted in that the Ascarlians took violent, indeed, value personal freedom in ways that contrast the inhumane feudal system of Albemaine. If you enjoyed this video or need any links to the tropes in question, I have put below a link to my blog, where in the text version of this post exists, with every single link to every single trope mentioned in this video. Please share it with your friends and please press that like button, subscribe, share this with your friends. Tell me, whether you've read the pariah or not, which of these is your favorite trope? Do you, in fact, have any favorite trope in terms of fantasy novels, fantasy storytelling, at large? I would love to hear it. I'll see you again next time. I'm Philip Magnus, you're not. Bye!