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Belisarius Series

1267 statements
250 feature instances
212 referencing feature instances

Belisarius Series	type	TVTItem
Belisarius Series	label	Belisarius Series
Belisarius Series	page	BelisariusSeries
Belisarius Series	comment	The Belisarius Series is an epic Alternate History saga written by David Drake and Eric Flint.Consists of the books: An Oblique Approach In the Heart of Darkness Destiny's Shield Fortune's Stroke The Tide of Victory The Dance of TimeThe story follows the exploits and careers of the great Byzantine general, Flavius Belisarius; except there is one minor difference from Real Life history. A war in The Future between two posthuman and transhuman factions has spilled into the past as both groups are attempting to alter history to establish a future more to their liking. On one side, you have the 'New Gods,' who are obsessed with genetic purity of the human race. They have sent a cyborg called Link (no relation) to aid the Malwa Empire in India in achieving global dominance and instituting the eugenics program to shape the future humanity more to their liking.Link's primary target is the Eastern Roman Empire and its belief in meritorious accomplishment. Their opponents, the Great Ones, send a crystalline AI called Aide to advise the Roman general Belisarius and provide him the technology to defeat the Malwa.Is the Spiritual Successor to The General Series, also co-created by Drake. Nothing to do with Donald P. Bellisario.
Belisarius Series	fetched	2023-09-05T20:58:29Z
Belisarius Series	parsed	2023-09-05T20:58:29Z
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Belisarius Series	processingComment	Dropped link to GenreBusting: Not a Feature - IGNORE
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Belisarius Series	processingComment	Dropped link to RaidersOfTheLostArk: Not a Feature - ITEM
Belisarius Series	processingComment	Dropped link to SexGoddess: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
Belisarius Series	processingUnknown	BreastPlate
Belisarius Series	processingUnknown	Downplayed
Belisarius Series	processingUnknown	SexGoddess
Belisarius Series	isPartOf	DBTropes
Belisarius Series / int_1049848f	type	Aliens Speaking English
Belisarius Series / int_1049848f	comment	Aliens Speaking English: Some of the jokes - like Anastasius' constant puns about Valentinian's murmuring - are language games and therefore inexplicable outside the assumption that the characters are speaking English.
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Belisarius Series / int_1237828f	type	Anyone Can Die
Belisarius Series / int_1237828f	comment	Anyone Can Die: Belisarius, of course, survives to the end, but everyone else's head is on the chopping block, including well developed and likeable characters.
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Belisarius Series / int_133f1c12	type	The Spymaster
Belisarius Series / int_133f1c12	comment	Ye-tai general Toramana promised Nanda Lal that he'd be at the general's wedding to Rana Sanga's sister. Toramana later points out to Sanga that he made no guarantees that Lal would be able to flatter the bride. His head attends. In a jar.
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Belisarius Series / int_135d58f9	type	Man of Wealth and Taste
Belisarius Series / int_135d58f9	comment	Man of Wealth and Taste: The Persian noble Kurush is so rich that his Roman guests are afraid to drink lest they drop one of his expensive glasses. The Romans are then assured to know that he had two chests full of them. And they are further assured that he is so rich that he hadn't bothered to find out how much his wine glasses cost. However despite his taste for finer things Kurush is a skillful and experienced warrior. Subverted with the Malwa in general and Venandakatra the Vile in particular. Malwa command pavilions and palaces are described as ostentatious and vulgar displays of gratuitous greed.
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Belisarius Series / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
Belisarius Series / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate: In The Tide of Victory, the allied fleet attacks a Malwa harbor with their new cannon-armed warships. When the guarding Malwa finally fires, the chief technical assistant for the Roman upgrade effort is assured that the Malwa couldn't possibly hit anything on their first shot, in a night engagement. A moment later, he finds himself knocked on his back by the cannonball striking the ship, killing John of Rhodes with a direct hit where he was standing. On a less-serious scale scale, Menander comments that a raid on enemy shipping he's just completed is the one and only time he's seen a military operation go entirely according to plan — the wind's even blowing the resulting smoke away from him. A moment later, the engine of the ship he's commanding fails, followed by the inevitable You Just Had to Say It.
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Belisarius Series / int_17fc8b9c	type	Storyboarding the Apocalypse
Belisarius Series / int_17fc8b9c	comment	Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Aide allows various characters to live through detailed visions of the future if Link and the Malwa win, as well as visions of the untampered timeline. Used to Set Right What Once Went Wrong in the case of Justinian's doubts about Belisarius's loyalties.
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Belisarius Series / int_187bddc1	type	Religion of Evil
Belisarius Series / int_187bddc1	comment	Religion of Evil: The Mahaveda cult preaches blind obedience to the Malwa leadership, and among its various rites is skinning the bodies of its victims, crafting them so that the wind will inflate them to look more like the original people.
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Belisarius Series / int_19769f50	type	Defeat Means Friendship
Belisarius Series / int_19769f50	comment	Defeat Means Friendship: Rana Sanga's Pathan guide. He is nominally a slave and serves Rana Sanga faithfully because Rana Sanga took him captive and treated him well. The Pathan figures that anyone who can defeat him deserves his Undying Loyalty. The Kushan forces in the Malwan army do this for Belisarius.
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Belisarius Series / int_19d06ef7	type	A Father to His Men
Belisarius Series / int_19d06ef7	comment	A Father to His Men: Belisarius makes sure that his troops are well equipped, and won't needlessly spend them. Antonia is a Mother to Belisarius' Men. In a vision of the future in Oblique Approach, Belisarius sees himself leading a charge and everyone shouting the Battle Cry "For the whore!" Anna becomes this as well for her hospital service. The masses call both Antonina (in Constantinople, after the Nika victory) and Anna (in India) simply "the Wife".
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Belisarius Series / int_19e13868	type	Ancient Rome
Belisarius Series / int_19e13868	comment	Ancient Rome: The setting, with a few 'modifications.'
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Belisarius Series / int_1bf47ada	type	The Medic
Belisarius Series / int_1bf47ada	comment	The Medic: Anna. While going through Belisarius's supply lines she visits field hospitals plagued by lazy surgeons and gives them a full-out Drill Sergeant Nasty treatment. She even ends up founding a proto-Red Cross.
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Belisarius Series / int_1c4adce1	type	The Siege
Belisarius Series / int_1c4adce1	comment	The Siege/Storming the Castle: Both the good guys and the bad guys do this. At Kausambi at the end both good guys and bad guys are doing this at the same time (Damodara's and Rana Sanga's family are barricaded in a bunker inside the city while their army is hammering at the gates).
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Belisarius Series / int_1c5002bc	type	The Stoic
Belisarius Series / int_1c5002bc	comment	The Stoic: Kungas, to the point where he sometimes qualifies for Frozen Face despite having nothing physically wrong with him. He eventually lightened up a little after marrying Irene.
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Belisarius Series / int_1dfd19f9	type	Papa Wolf
Belisarius Series / int_1dfd19f9	comment	Papa Wolf: Damodara's revolt was provoked partly by the realization that almost every result except him becoming The Emperor would result in the death of his family.
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Belisarius Series / int_1e3a9a21	type	Angrish
Belisarius Series / int_1e3a9a21	comment	Angrish: Belisarius is reduced to this in Destiny's Shield, when Antonina refuses to take along guards on her trip to Egypt.
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Belisarius Series / int_21768d3f	type	Seduction-Proof Marriage
Belisarius Series / int_21768d3f	comment	Seduction-Proof Marriage: Invoked by John of Rhodes when he says he is not really such a Casanova as rumored: He looks carefully to see who is seduceable and Antonia is completely not, being Happily Married to Belisarius.
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Belisarius Series / int_21ac3809	type	Ancient Grome
Belisarius Series / int_21ac3809	comment	Ancient Grome: Averted, but an author's note had to be put in to address fans who thought this was in effect due to the Byzantine Empire being a mostly Greek empire that still calls itself the Roman Empire.
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Belisarius Series / int_21bf4878	type	Decapitation Presentation
Belisarius Series / int_21bf4878	comment	Decapitation Presentation: Every prominent member of the coup against Justinian who is killed in the process or executed afterwards has his head put up on a pike to see.
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Belisarius Series / int_21d41a5b	type	Praetorian Guard
Belisarius Series / int_21d41a5b	comment	Praetorian Guard: Kungas and his Kushans serve as this for Shakuntala. Interestingly she knew them first as her prison guards but they were so effective and conscientious at this that she was perfectly happy to have them as bodyguards. They in turn were happy to serve a monarch they could respect. The Ye-Tai are described as performing this role for the Malwa. As they are outside the caste system, their high place in the social hierarchy is entirely due to their role as the Malwa's elite soldiers. Discussed, with regard to Link's assassins. As an elite, they are highly trained but frequently have little actual experience. "As Praetorian Guards have done throughout history, they had slipped from being killers to murderers."
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Belisarius Series / int_225d4412	type	PlayedStraight
Belisarius Series / int_225d4412	comment	Played Straight with Narses, who is an Anti-Villain obsessed with ambition for power and even more, ambition to prove himselve the best Chessmaster of them all.
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Belisarius Series / int_2260cfe3	type	Like Father, Like Son
Belisarius Series / int_2260cfe3	comment	Like Father, Like Son: Rajiv, son of Rana Sanga. Rajiv initially wants to play it very straight, copying his father's style of combat, but Valentinian warns him that most people who try to fight with Rana's honor and very direct approach die messily. He instead teaches Rajiv to fight more like him, with guile and not just strength.
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Belisarius Series / int_2280a9a1	type	Ancient Persia
Belisarius Series / int_2280a9a1	comment	Ancient Persia: Much of the series is set here, with the Sassanids under Khusrau Anushirvan being the initial enemy and eventual ally of the Byzantines under Justinian. The third and fourth books largely involve the Roman and Persian armies allying to break the Malwa siege of Babylon and then retake the port of Charax.
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Belisarius Series / int_22a60f6a	type	Nepotism
Belisarius Series / int_22a60f6a	comment	Nepotism: All high-ranking civil and military posts in the Malwa empire are reserved for the members of the dynastic clan. While some (like Damodara) are competent, many are not.
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Belisarius Series / int_22cf536c	type	Chekhov's Gun
Belisarius Series / int_22cf536c	comment	Chekhov's Gun, being carried by Chekhov's Gunmen: The Dance of Time features brief passages involving a small (but heavy) bombard being hauled halfway across Eurasia and back as a Malwa assassination team chases their target and then gives up to return to headquarters. It's looking like it's shaping up to be a "Shaggy Dog" Story featuring a cast of Butt Monkeys, but they wind up in just the right place at just the right time for the bombard to bring the series to a conclusion.
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Belisarius Series / int_23cc7485	type	I Want Grandkids
Belisarius Series / int_23cc7485	comment	I Want Grandkids: At the end, Belisarius asks one more favor from Photius and Tahmina. "As soon as you can manage it, I'd like a lot of grandchildren." Justified in that the hope is that the children will stabilize the dynasty and create a lasting peace between Rome and Persia.
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Belisarius Series / int_243cbd0d	type	Dope Slap
Belisarius Series / int_243cbd0d	comment	Dope Slap: As dawazz to Prince Eon, it was part of Ousanas' job to deliver one of these whenever Eon needed correcting in his behavior.
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Belisarius Series / int_2692393	type	The Women Are Safe with Us
Belisarius Series / int_2692393	comment	The Women Are Safe with Us: Partly. All the good guys and Worthy Opponents agree that Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, though some Old Soldiers take it as an unfortunate inevitability that soldiers will get out of control. Belisarius occasionally has to use extreme measures to prevent atrocities by Romans and once threatens to turn his men on a Hunnish mercenary unit (thus saving the daughter of a Persian Prince). Rajputs, being honorable folk, never touch a captive woman. Malwans are different of course. They love to Rape, Pillage, and Burn. In the Bad Future vision of Belisarius, Rao muses that it was this quality that the Malwa systematically broke out of the Rajputs. Thus shorn of their preciously held honor, there was nothing left for them but to be the Malwa's dogs.
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Belisarius Series / int_272b4fce	type	What's Up, King Dude?
Belisarius Series / int_272b4fce	comment	What's Up, King Dude?: Eon is first seen arm wrestling with Roman soldiers. He comes from an informal but spartan and militaristic culture where princes are first and foremost expected to prove themselves as soldiers and playing with soldiers is as natural to him as fighting beside them. The pragmatic reason for this is that the soldiers of the regiments are the ones who have final say on which prince will inherit the throne. A prince who is not liked by the common soldiers will not become king.
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Belisarius Series / int_285b66d7	type	I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That
Belisarius Series / int_285b66d7	comment	I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: When Rana Sanga reports to Damodara that Belisarius successfully conned him and escaped from India, Damodara, knowing Sanga would be likely be executed for not catching him makes a point that Sanga doesn't have any proof he was actually chasing Belisarius, thus can't be sure of having failed to get him. When Sanga presents a gem used to pay for the camels used in the escape, which had been part of a Malwa bribe to Belisarius, Damodara says it could be a fake and doesn't prove anything. He quietly throws it in a river later. It comes up again in the final book.
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Belisarius Series / int_2a090d00	type	Lampshade Hanging
Belisarius Series / int_2a090d00	comment	Lampshade Hanging: The author often uses this whenever it is starting to feel like a convention from a traditional epic. For instance when horsemen go on a glorious charge, it is commented that Upper Class Twits are too obsessed with these, glorious charges are rather rare, and this instance was only because a perfectly sensible general had managed to see one of the few occasions where it was a good idea.
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Belisarius Series / int_2a3aa1a5	type	Peace Conference
Belisarius Series / int_2a3aa1a5	comment	Peace Conference: Toward the end of the series. In this case, it was in a weird way a Peace Conference between allies; in a way. The Emperor of the Malwa had recently overthrown the one who had started the war and was simply clearing up loose ends. Thus in the last campaign he actually had been an ally. In the peace conference, the new emperor was giving himself a reasonably sized empire to begin his dynasty with, and letting his empire's former enemies worry about dividing the Plunder, a straightforward job for the most part as most of them just kept what they had conquered except for a massive palace with a hoard so big that it would inevitably be an object of interimperial rivalry if any one kept it. This problem was solved by donating it all to charity.
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Belisarius Series / int_2a4e8051	type	Sexual Karma
Belisarius Series / int_2a4e8051	comment	Sexual Karma: All of the sympathetic protagonists have healthy and satisfying sex lives. By contrast, villainous Venandakatra is a pedophile who likes to beat or force himself on pre-teen Sex Slaves.
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Belisarius Series / int_2d4d16d9	type	I Know You Know I Know
Belisarius Series / int_2d4d16d9	comment	I Know You Know I Know: In Fortune's Stroke, Belisarius' forces face Damodara's. Damodara and his general Rana Sanga notice Belisarius puts up a harder fight when Damodara's forces try to move south, even though it makes no strategic sense and that's precisely where he should want them to go. They decide to ignore the "subtle bait" for his "trap" and head north, because they still outnumber him by 2-3 times. Actually, there is something to the south that Belisarius wants to hide, and he counted on their reaction.
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Belisarius Series / int_2fa6b075	type	God Save Us from the Queen!
Belisarius Series / int_2fa6b075	comment	God Save Us from the Queen!: Although an extraordinarily competent administrator, Empress Regent Theodora's temper is such that she's repeatedly just on the verge of lapsing into this and having to be restrained from it by her loyal advisers. By the end of the series her immediate subordinates have resorted to simply deciding things on their own and then spending the rest of their time planning how to talk Theodora into it ex post facto. This ultimately leads to the hilarious extreme of "Send Justinian in first, he's the only one of us she won't try to have executed."
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Belisarius Series / int_3036294e	type	Scary Black Man
Belisarius Series / int_3036294e	comment	Scary Black Man: The Axumites are widely known for being a Proud Warrior Race, especially on the high seas.
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Belisarius Series / int_30849c3e	type	Ruling Couple
Belisarius Series / int_30849c3e	comment	Ruling Couple: The Roman Empire and many of its eventual allies have what effectively amounts to co-ruling husband and wife teams, each part of the team filling in where the other isn't as strong.
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Belisarius Series / int_30d107bb	type	Elective Broken Language
Belisarius Series / int_30d107bb	comment	Elective Broken Language: Despite being fluent in several languages, Ousanas often deliberately speaks pidgin, either as a ruse or as a joke.
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Belisarius Series / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
Belisarius Series / int_319e4a2f	comment	Even Evil Has Standards: Narses refuses to assassinate the families of Damodara and Rana Sanga, but instead spirits them away to where they can be safe. It is not said whether this is out of standards or because he thought he might have use for them later. Or maybe both. Or maybe he was just so disgusted with Malwan incompetence that he wanted to at least have an efficient master. It is hard to tell what lurks in his convoluted mind.
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Belisarius Series / int_33d5b7f2	type	Adapted Out
Belisarius Series / int_33d5b7f2	comment	Adapted Out: A number of Real Life people were left out of the series, presumably to keep the cast from becoming any more massive than it already is. Among the most noticeable is Comito, who was Sittas's wife and Theodora's older sister. Theodora's illegitimate daughter (whose name has been lost) also suffered a kind of Death by Adaptation, as it's mentioned in the series that Theodora nearly died in childbirth and her baby didn't make it—in real life, her daughter survived to adulthood, married a relative of the late emperor Anastasius, and had at least one child of her own. Justinian's relatives—namely, his sister Vigilantia, his cousin Germanus, and his various nieces and nephews—are also absent, allowing Belisarius's adopted son Photius to inherit the purple when Justinian is incapacitated (granted, the One-Steve Limit might have contributed to this, too, as his family included another Justinian, multiple Justins, and a Justina.) Antonina also had several other children from previous relationships, none of whom appear in the series, plus she and Belisarius had a daughter called Joannina, who is similarly missing.
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Belisarius Series / int_3511c4d7	type	Plunder
Belisarius Series / int_3511c4d7	comment	Plunder: Belisarius has specific rules about this. It is all right to take this from the enemy when fairly distributed after the campaign is over. If soldiers just go off on their own they will hurt civilians and hurt the army's discipline as well.
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Belisarius Series / int_362461f6	type	Sex Slave
Belisarius Series / int_362461f6	comment	Sex Slave: The normal fate of any woman in the path of the Malwa. In the good guy empires, concubinage is also practiced, but in that case it means roughly "woman a little like slave, a little like mistress, and a little like wife" and is often an honorable position; it is possible to be invited to be a concubine among the Axumites, Maratha, or Persians whereas no one would possibly find the position of Malwan Sex Slave attractive.
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Belisarius Series / int_3946634e	type	The Smart Guy
Belisarius Series / int_3946634e	comment	The Smart Guy: Aide helps not only Belisarius, but others with knowledge from the future, allowing technological advancement far more quickly than in the original timeline.
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Belisarius Series / int_39b8d3d6	type	Boring, but Practical
Belisarius Series / int_39b8d3d6	comment	Boring, but Practical: While Aide does help the Romans make gunpowder weapons, he also gives them boring but practical advances with things like stirrups: easy to make, simple to use, and instantly makes your cavalry far more effective. OTOH, the ramifications of the introduction of stirrups is ridiculous enough that all but the most esoteric military historians have to have the advance spelled out for them; it's akin to the "shoot the swordsman" scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not Included; Sittas — an experienced cavalryman twice Belisarius' weight before counting his armor — repeatedly screaming "YOU CHEATED!" after Belisarus smacks him right off his horse in a joust. Throughout the series, Belisarius himself reins other characters in (including Aide) when he feels they are aiming too high with the advanced technology: he wants equipment the Romans and their allies can produce and field now instead of better weapons that would take too long to manufacture. Though he also admits it's a balancing act; the Malwa — having started earlier and an actual power-behind-the-throne capable of demonstrating the manufacturing techniques — begin the series with a significant technological advantage. Belisarius has to focus on Boring, but Practical stuff he can implement quickly — making up the difference with cunning battle strategies — but he also has to develop the advanced stuff as quickly as possible or he'll lose the whole game once the Malwa develop it first.
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Belisarius Series / int_3bebfcc0	type	Living Lie Detector
Belisarius Series / int_3bebfcc0	comment	Living Lie Detector: Link, for certain values of 'living', as it's a cyborg entity. It uses a superhuman perception of someone's reactions to detect a lie; as such, it can be fooled by someone able to control their own reactions and secure in the knowledge that they aren't technically lying.
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Belisarius Series / int_3c5ae1a1	type	Schizo Tech
Belisarius Series / int_3c5ae1a1	comment	Schizo Tech: Roman Legions coexisting beside steam-powered ironclad gunships and riflemen, as the entire premise of the series. It handles it in a realistic manner too - as you see Link and Belisarius attempting to one-up each other throughout the series. Belisarius makes a point of grooming the officers who can see the potential in the new weapons.
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Belisarius Series / int_3cb1d38d	type	Bad Boss
Belisarius Series / int_3cb1d38d	comment	Bad Boss: Almost none of the Malwa leadership care the least bit about their troops, whether it's from egotistical arrogance, like with Skandagupta and Venandakatra the Vile, or out of ignorance, like with Link and its nearly complete lack of understanding about human nature. Venandakatra in particular comes dangerously close to becoming a parody of this trope with his over-the-top sadism.
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Belisarius Series / int_3e8d9cd3	type	Historical Hero Upgrade
Belisarius Series / int_3e8d9cd3	comment	Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe, several of the characters wonder if this will happen to them in the distant future. The Real Life Antonina was indeed a charismatic stateswoman who accompanied Belisarius on various campaigns and acted as Theodora's agent, but she never led an army of her own (and, needless to say, she probably didn't kill anyone with a meat cleaver, either.) There's also a fair amount of evidence that her relationship with Belisarius was much more strained than the happy marriage they share in this series, and that she was having at least one major affair.note Procopius alleges in the Anecdota that Antonina was sleeping with her adopted godson, a man called Theodosius, and that Theodora's intervention allowed this relationship to continue despite Belisarius finding out about it and becoming angry enough to have Antonina arrested. While the Anecdota is filled with questionable slander, historians have noted that Procopius is very specific about this particular claim, and that Antonina is the only person he accuses of adultery; while he attacks Theodora for her supposed sexual depravity, he alleges that all of it occurred before she met Justinian and never accuses her of carrying on affairs, and he consistently characterizes Belisarius and Antonina's marriage as an unhappy, strained relationship held together mainly by Antonina's connections to Theodora.
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Belisarius Series / int_3f11ef74	type	Parental Substitute
Belisarius Series / int_3f11ef74	comment	The second book is one for Theodora. It begins with her discovering that Narses, the only Parental Substitute she ever had, betrayed her and plotted her murder. Then it ends with a fictionalized version of the Real Life Nika Riots, made worse by the meddling of a time-travelling AI from the future. Ultimately, she and Justinian are captured, Justinian is mutilated to render him ineligible for the throne, and both are very nearly killed. She does retain some power by becoming Photius's regent, but—as Photius points out to her four books later—the empire is no longer hers. She winds up going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the riots, cementing her status as a badly Broken Bird.
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Belisarius Series / int_40bb59d0	type	Blatant Lies
Belisarius Series / int_40bb59d0	comment	Blatant Lies: No one actually believes Damodara's claim to be rightful emperor, including Damodara, but everyone on his side is happy to go with it. In the final books, Irene establishes an all-female bodyguard for herself as queen of the new Kushan kingdom Kungas is building called the "Sarmatian Guard", even though the last Sarmatians died out centuries ago, because Kungas' kingdom is in the region they used to occupy, and it helps give him legitimacy. Later on, a group of Ye-tai defect to the new Kushan kingdom by explaining they're all half-Sarmatian, on their mothers' side, a claim everyone knows to be patently untrue but is accepted anyway. Later deserters also end up using this excuse as well.
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Belisarius Series / int_40c57041	type	Manipulative Bastard
Belisarius Series / int_40c57041	comment	Manipulative Bastard: Narses, bordering on full-fledged Magnificent Bastard.
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Belisarius Series / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
Belisarius Series / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: Link is destroyed and Aide gains humanity . . . but the victory means that Aide's existence is now a time paradox, so he dies soon after. There's also the loss of all their other beloved friends and comrades, but the future—for now—looks bright.
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Belisarius Series / int_40da7cc9	type	Urban Warfare
Belisarius Series / int_40da7cc9	comment	Urban Warfare: The revolts in Constantinople and Alexandria, the Siege of Charax, the storming of Kausimbi. Especially Charax, with the Real Life battle for Stalingrad during WW2 mentioned as the inspiration for Belisarius.
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Belisarius Series / int_4130657a	type	Cincinnatus
Belisarius Series / int_4130657a	comment	Cincinnatus: Belisarius is given multiple opportunities to seize power, but he's never so much as tempted by the thought, and he remains loyal to Justinian to the end even in the Bad Future. Justinian and Theodora both find this incomprehensible, as they've spent their whole lives clinging to the power they've managed to attain.
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Belisarius Series / int_41dd77d	type	Zerg Rush
Belisarius Series / int_41dd77d	comment	Zerg Rush: Done often by the Malwa, using masses of poorly trained and armed soldiers backed by a small group of "elite" troops armed with advanced Malwa tech. Usually leaves a mountain of corpses.
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Belisarius Series / int_439bff8d	type	The Alleged Steed
Belisarius Series / int_439bff8d	comment	The Alleged Steed: The Axumites, being familiar with African elephants, take some time to dissect the allegation that the large unruly beasts they have been presented with in India are in fact elephants and not, for example, big tapirs with delusions of grandeur.
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Belisarius Series / int_44606d14	type	Becoming the Mask
Belisarius Series / int_44606d14	comment	Becoming the Mask: While entirely practical about not wanting to waste good talent or upset their notorious honor, after commanding a Rajput army not all of Damodara's decisions could be explained solely by pretending to be honorable.
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Belisarius Series / int_44fc28e8	type	Honor Before Reason
Belisarius Series / int_44fc28e8	comment	Honor Before Reason: Rajputs. Which is why they don't like Malwa as their Feudal Overlord. Malwa has no honor. Romans have a different sort of honor, as the Rajputs note. It is a reasonable honor and thus not as extreme as the Rajput variety. But it is there. Which is why Rajputs like Romans better then Malwans.
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Belisarius Series / int_4604fd4d	type	Worthy Opponent
Belisarius Series / int_4604fd4d	comment	Worthy Opponent: Rana Sanga, to Belisarius, Raghunath Rao, and Valentinian. He just barely defeats Valentinian in single combat, takes him prisoner, and has him healed and treats him as an honored guest. When Sanga's army is forced to retreat from the invasion of Persia, he releases Valentinian. In the last two books, Valentinian's role in protecting Sanga's wife and children from a plot against them by Link and the Malwa dynasty is key to Sanga's Heel–Face Turn, and he eventually sends his own son and heir to be Valentinian's apprentice in the art of combat. In the first book, Kungas to Raghunath Rao, prior to Kungas's Heel–Face Turn. In the third book, a Malwa naval captain caught in an ambush recognizes there is no escape from a storm of arrows and "simply [stands]] there, silent, unmoving, presenting his chest to the enemy." His Persian opponents are so impressed by his courage that they take his corpse back to Babylon and place it in an honored resting place with their own dead.
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Belisarius Series / int_474e3977	type	You Have Failed Me
Belisarius Series / int_474e3977	comment	You Have Failed Me: Malwa are very fond of this. Particularly The Vile One.
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Belisarius Series / int_47e9e5c6	type	Smart People Know Latin
Belisarius Series / int_47e9e5c6	comment	Smart People Know Latin: Not in this setting. Latin is the language of fallen West hick-dom, and even speaking Latin-accented Greek marks you as a slack-jawed yokel.
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Belisarius Series / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
Belisarius Series / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: If a pimp is mentioned (who is still alive), expect some badass character to shortly ensure they are no longer living...or at least beat them so badly they wish they were dead.
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Belisarius Series / int_48078a7	type	Cool Versus Awesome
Belisarius Series / int_48078a7	comment	Cool Versus Awesome: Belisarius versus Damodara in Fortune's Stroke. Rana Sanga versus Valentinian. When Rana Sanga is fighting Valentinian the Rajputs consider this their special moment. To the point of shoving out any Malwa who wish to come and watch except those few who have proven their valor by Rajput standards.
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Belisarius Series / int_4852f325	type	I Just Want to Be Normal
Belisarius Series / int_4852f325	comment	I Just Want to Be Normal: Belisarius keeps thinking back to his original desire to become a blacksmith throughout the series, particularly while he is killing large numbers of people.
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Belisarius Series / int_49fb5ccb	type	Combat Pragmatist
Belisarius Series / int_49fb5ccb	comment	Combat Pragmatist: Plenty of them, starting with Belisarius, but none more than Valentinian.
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Belisarius Series / int_4da6ac	type	Rated M for Manly
Belisarius Series / int_4da6ac	comment	Rated M for Manly: The manliness in this book is so intense that it could be used to fuel the space shuttle. Rana Sanga is pretty much the incarnation of this trope.
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Belisarius Series / int_4e6e9b64	type	A Child Shall Lead Them
Belisarius Series / int_4e6e9b64	comment	A Child Shall Lead Them: When Justinian is blinded, the throne is passed down to Belisarius's child-aged stepson Photius, as Justinian and Theodora had no children and there were no other contenders. Subverted in that Theodora continued to hold the real power while acting as Photius's regent.
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Belisarius Series / int_502b147b	type	Playing Drunk
Belisarius Series / int_502b147b	comment	Playing Drunk: In An Oblique Approach, part of the plan of Belisarius involves playing at being a drunken sot to fool Lord Venandakatra into thinking he was going to corrupt the general into the Malwa Empire's plans to conquer the world. To himself, Belisarius scornfully thinks that because of his country boy youth, he could have drunken Venandakatra under the table at the age of ten.
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Belisarius Series / int_51a32fd6	type	Moe Couplet
Belisarius Series / int_51a32fd6	comment	Moe Couplet: One involving Dhruva's baby and the harsh and hardened Valentinian, of all people. Said baby forms an attachment to him, and as much as Valentinian grouches about it, he is genuinely happy to coddle the child. This leads to a genuine attachment forming between him and Dhruva, and the two later marry.
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Belisarius Series / int_51df5ca1	type	Animal Metaphor
Belisarius Series / int_51df5ca1	comment	Animal Metaphor: Valentinian is compared with both a mongoose and weasel, Belisarius a couple times with a mongoose, Michael of Macedonia with a hawk, his friend Bishop Cassian with an owl, both Ousanas and Rao with panthers, Sanga with a tiger, Sittas with a wild boar. Antonina is compared with a shark once.
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Belisarius Series / int_52132531	type	Marriage Before Romance
Belisarius Series / int_52132531	comment	Marriage Before Romance: Calopodius leaves for war shortly after his Arranged Marriage with Anna, so they don't have to think about their marriage. It doesn't work that way.
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Belisarius Series / int_52488c54	type	Drowning My Sorrows
Belisarius Series / int_52488c54	comment	Drowning My Sorrows: It became something of a tradition of Antonina's, when Belisarius goes away on a potentially hopeless mission against the Malwa, to get thoroughly trashed, accompanied by Irene.
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Belisarius Series / int_53ecf83f	type	Lensman Arms Race
Belisarius Series / int_53ecf83f	comment	Lensman Arms Race: There's a nearly constant battle to upgrade the advanced technology to the armies of both sides, in order to defeat their respective opponents.
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Belisarius Series / int_556a4e20	type	The Empire
Belisarius Series / int_556a4e20	comment	The Empire: Both sides, only the Romans (and later, the Persians and Ethiopians) are the nice guys and the Malwas are firmly in the villainous variety of empire, until the last novel.
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Belisarius Series / int_559db5c1	type	TheUriahGambit
Belisarius Series / int_559db5c1	comment	The Uriah Gambit: Khusrau thinks cavalry charges against fortified defenders armed with rifles is a great way of dealing with disloyal and/or arrogant reactionary nobles, and to provide a distraction for more useful forces.
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Belisarius Series / int_55ab1be5	type	Royal Brat
Belisarius Series / int_55ab1be5	comment	Royal Brat: Malwa princes are this—to the point of bringing ridiculously luxurious and impractical mobile palaces to the battlefield. They stay too far away from any danger and hardship to be effective commanders. As part of a ruse, Eon pretends to be a Jerkass prince in front of the Malwa. He almost blows his cover as a Royal Brat by refusing to touch a Sex Slave who showed the signs of having been in a sacked city. As it turns out she was Shakuntala's maid.
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Belisarius Series / int_570afdac	type	Fake-Out Make-Out
Belisarius Series / int_570afdac	comment	Fakeout Makeout: Eon engages in a rather more explicit version than usual, which both hides the lady in question and embarrasses the soldiers looking for her into leaving quickly. Antonina's elaborate series of pretend affairs to mask the creation of the new Roman arsenal.
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Belisarius Series / int_5989e3b6	type	Enemy Mine
Belisarius Series / int_5989e3b6	comment	Enemy Mine: Rome and Persia put aside centuries of warfare to ally against the Malwa.
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Belisarius Series / int_59907e4f	type	Police Are Useless
Belisarius Series / int_59907e4f	comment	Police Are Useless: Apparently if someone is on the run in the Malwan capital the only thing the local garrison knows how to do is to mill around like an ant colony after someone poked a stick into it. Justified in that the Malwa capital is so full of corruption that the last thing the Malwa nobility wants is a competent police force — after all, all the important people already have their own bodyguards, and who gives a damn about the commoners?
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Belisarius Series / int_5a100b90	type	Puppet King
Belisarius Series / int_5a100b90	comment	A Puppet King for a coup against Justinian begs for mercy after being captured. Upon getting an inkling of how wrathful the empress is feeling, Belarus supplies it in the form of having him decapitated before being presented for Theodora to order something worse for.
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Belisarius Series / int_5aa2b7c8	type	Powder Trail
Belisarius Series / int_5aa2b7c8	comment	Powder Trail: Used by Kungas when blowing up the Malwa gunpowder armory in Kausambi.
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Belisarius Series / int_5dd191ec	type	Wife Husbandry
Belisarius Series / int_5dd191ec	comment	Wife Husbandry: Irene, Rome's spymaster, has to bully Empress Shakuntala into marrying Raghunath Rao, the great warrior assassin who raised her and trained her, even though they both want it. Made somewhat less troubling by the facts that Shakuntala was twenty years old at her wedding, at least one of her other possible royal suitors were also Rao's age, Rao at least was the man she wanted to marry instead of one of her many impending possible arranged marriages, and he doesn't want to betray her late father's trust in him.
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Belisarius Series / int_5e66f8ca	type	Pro-Human Transhuman
Belisarius Series / int_5e66f8ca	comment	Pro-Human Transhuman: The Great Ones embody this trope, being all for freedom, diversity and free adaptation of the human race to the new circumstances, while their archrivals the New Gods are Politically Incorrect Villains bent on racial purity and conformism.
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Belisarius Series / int_60fa92ac	type	Names to Run Away from Really Fast
Belisarius Series / int_60fa92ac	comment	Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Valentinian (The Mongoose), Belisarius himself, Rana Sanga and most of all Raghunath Rao.
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Belisarius Series / int_617f0563	type	Heelâ€“Face Turn
Belisarius Series / int_617f0563	comment	In the first book, Kungas to Raghunath Rao, prior to Kungas's Heel–Face Turn.
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Belisarius Series / int_619b771c	type	Army Scout
Belisarius Series / int_619b771c	comment	A more interesting example is Kungas' relation with the local tribes. One Army Scout calls him "Great King". Kungas notes that he is specifically saying in a complicated manner that Kungas is not his king because his loyalty is given to his tribe-but that he is obeying Kungas because he is now the Feudal Overlord of his tribe.
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Belisarius Series / int_61c683d2	type	We Have Reserves
Belisarius Series / int_61c683d2	comment	We Have Reserves: The Malwa; Link just doesn't give a damn about human life.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_61c683d2
Belisarius Series / int_629fa757	type	Perfectly Arranged Marriage
Belisarius Series / int_629fa757	comment	Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Photius and Tahmina, Eon and Rukaiya, Rana Sanga and his wife, Damodara and his wife. In fact, pretty much every Arranged Marriage in the series, whether on the Indian or Roman side, is perfectly happy. Rana Sanga in particular is noted to be extremely devoted to his wife and their children. Played With with Calopodius the Blind and Anna. Theirs was a purely politico-economic marriage, and both didn't particularly care for each other. He had one night with her before going off to war, and she stews bitterly afterward until she decides to track him down to the front to demand a divorce. To get there, however, she needs to pretend to be the dedicated wife of the now-popular Calopodius to get soldiers to help her. To do that, she grudgingly begins a correspondence with him. In the course of their long correspondence, they fall genuinely in love.
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Belisarius Series / int_62fd5552	type	Bavarian Fire Drill
Belisarius Series / int_62fd5552	comment	Bavarian Fire Drill: When Belisarius and Shakuntala are trapped in Kausambi, Belisarius escapes by killing a member of the imperial bodyguard, taking his uniform, and doing a Drill Sergeant Nasty routine on any Malwa troops who get in his way, which was easy enough for him as he is already an experienced and charismatic military officer and the Malwa common troops have been harshly conditioned to never question orders from their superiors. So the soldiers judged that ignoring any suspicions they had would allow them to remain safely inconspicuous while bringing them up was much more likely to get them punished for insubordination than rewarded for alertness.
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Belisarius Series / int_6366f900	type	Old Soldier
Belisarius Series / int_6366f900	comment	Old Soldier: Valentinian, just to start, although Maurice fits the trope slightly better. He's eternally pessimistic (to the point where it's a Running Gag) and he's been Belisarius's XO since the latter joined the army.
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Belisarius Series / int_6682d6e4	type	Dying Moment of Awesome
Belisarius Series / int_6682d6e4	comment	Dying Moment of Awesome: King Eon during an attack on a Malwa sea port, when he winds up forced to advance into the Malwa fortress guarding the port.
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Belisarius Series / int_69391768	type	Expecting Someone Taller
Belisarius Series / int_69391768	comment	Expecting Someone Taller: Valentinian's first impression of Raghunath Rao, one of India's greatest warriors: "The most ordinary looking fellow he had ever seen! Shortish...getting a little long in the tooth...well-built—no fat on those muscles—but he's no Hercules like Eon." Then he sees Rao move (casually jumping down a ten-foot drop), and is reminded why Rao is nicknamed "The Panther of Majarashtra".
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Belisarius Series / int_69681e01	type	Big Brother Instinct
Belisarius Series / int_69681e01	comment	Big Brother Instinct: When Valentinian and Anastasius come to "kidnap" Rana Sanga's family they see Rajiv Sanga in front of his mother and siblings with a knife and find it quite difficult to persuade him of the circumstances.
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Belisarius Series / int_69c32c9e	type	Subordinate Excuse
Belisarius Series / int_69c32c9e	comment	Rana Sanga's Pathan guide. He is nominally a slave and serves Rana Sanga faithfully because Rana Sanga took him captive and treated him well. The Pathan figures that anyone who can defeat him deserves his Undying Loyalty.
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Belisarius Series / int_6a44ee29	type	Jeanne d'ArchÃ©type
Belisarius Series / int_6a44ee29	comment	Jeanne d'Archétype: Shakuntala, a young female leader and warrior who leads a powerful rebellion with charisma and cunning.
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Belisarius Series / int_6a44ee29	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_6cc39b20	type	Puppeteer Parasite
Belisarius Series / int_6cc39b20	comment	Puppeteer Parasite: Link commands through females of the royal Malwa family, with Link's hardware buried deep within the royal palace.
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Belisarius Series / int_6cc92c4c	type	Anti-Villain
Belisarius Series / int_6cc92c4c	comment	Antivillain: Narses, despite his treachery, retains sympathy through his good sense and his occasional Pet the Dog moments. In some ways he is a Tragic Villain overcome by his ambition.
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Belisarius Series / int_6cdc784f	type	You No Take Candle
Belisarius Series / int_6cdc784f	comment	You No Take Candle: Subverted with Ousanas; he initially speaks this way, but halfway through the first book it's revealed as a ruse; he's actually quite eloquent and well-spoken. He sometimes drops back into the pidgin as a joke or to emphasize how stupid he thinks the targeted person is being, however.
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Belisarius Series / int_6fb5cb83	type	I Gave My Word
Belisarius Series / int_6fb5cb83	comment	I Gave My Word: Rana Sanga swore to obey the emperor of Malwa. This proves to be vulnerable to a certain amount of fudging as to who the emperor is, exactly. Belisarius, meanwhile, would never have betrayed his vows to Justinian, even to defeat Link and the Malwa. Sittas jokes about this in the first book when he claims to Irene that the first oath Belisarius ever swore, when he was just four years old, was to a piglet that the animal should never be eaten. Belisarius, of course, kept the oath, and Sittas claims the adult pig is now roaming around Thrace, terrorizing the countryside.
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Belisarius Series / int_6feaf27b	type	Scarily Competent Tracker
Belisarius Series / int_6feaf27b	comment	Scarily Competent Tracker: Abbu, chief of Belisarius' bedouin mercenaries. Rana Sanga has a Pathan scout that fulfills the same purpose. Belisarius once escaped Sanga using a plan relying on the latter having some in his service.
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Belisarius Series / int_70535937	type	Flexibility Equals Sex Ability
Belisarius Series / int_70535937	comment	Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: Shakuntala's flexibility gets her quite a bit of attention. She ends up surprising Rao on their wedding night by turning out to be an innate Sex Goddess, which is mostly attributed to her nimbleness and flexibility.
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Belisarius Series / int_71e8a5c5	type	Trauma Conga Line
Belisarius Series / int_71e8a5c5	comment	Trauma Conga Line: The Aide-supplied vision of the Bad Future is this for Belisarius and, to a lesser extent, Justinian. Antonina, Photius, and Sittas are gruesomely murdered, and their flayed remains are left up for everyone to see as Constantinople falls to the enemy. Ultimately, both men are ostensibly mercy-killed by Rao, but it was really more of a suicide, and they both die thinking they'll be condemned to hell anyway. The second book is one for Theodora. It begins with her discovering that Narses, the only Parental Substitute she ever had, betrayed her and plotted her murder. Then it ends with a fictionalized version of the Real Life Nika Riots, made worse by the meddling of a time-travelling AI from the future. Ultimately, she and Justinian are captured, Justinian is mutilated to render him ineligible for the throne, and both are very nearly killed. She does retain some power by becoming Photius's regent, but—as Photius points out to her four books later—the empire is no longer hers. She winds up going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the riots, cementing her status as a badly Broken Bird.
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Belisarius Series / int_7294b403	type	Altar Diplomacy
Belisarius Series / int_7294b403	comment	Altar Diplomacy: The marriage of Photius and Tahmina, to cement an alliance between Rome and Persia. The marriage of Eon and Rukaiya, to strengthen the political ties between Ethopia and Arabia.
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Belisarius Series / int_729c69f3	type	Politically Incorrect Villain
Belisarius Series / int_729c69f3	comment	Politically Incorrect Villain: Link goes back in time to make sure bigotry is assured in all its glory, even to the point of having a militarily incompetent empire because it's more important to keep lesser people down than it is to let them excel in your service. Venandakatra is known for his many vices, in particular his abusive treatment of the pre-teen girls he claims as Sex Slaves. At one point, his current "harem" is taken away and beheaded on the orders of Nanda Lal, who realizes he's probably doing them a favor by granting them a Mercy Kill.
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Belisarius Series / int_745a226c	type	Easy Logistics
Belisarius Series / int_745a226c	comment	Easy Logistics: Averted in the sense that the writer does go out of his way to introduce the effects of logistical problems.
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Belisarius Series / int_74b85afd	type	If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!
Belisarius Series / int_74b85afd	comment	If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: After the sack of Ranapur, Venandakatra and Skandagupta present the rebel leader and his family to Belisarius's party for rape and torture. Belisarius instead has Valentinian summarily dispose of the prisoners to A) demonstrate that he does not do the work of menials (the Malwa have boatloads of rapists and torturers, he is a general) and B) provide what mercy he could to the captives (six sword-strokes, the last head hit the ground before the first stopped rolling).
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Belisarius Series / int_77063cd7	type	Hooker with a Heart of Gold
Belisarius Series / int_77063cd7	comment	Hooker with a Heart of Gold: It's significant to the backstory that both the Empress Theodora and Antonina start this way. One of the reasons Justinian seized the throne was to rewrite the laws to allow him to marry Theodora.
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Belisarius Series / int_78da8795	type	Dowry Dilemma
Belisarius Series / int_78da8795	comment	Dowry Dilemma: Tahmina's dowry could have been an extortionate sum that bankrupted the Persian Empire, but instead was simply a horse and a horse-bow, in reference to a saying that a Persian should teach his son to "ride a horse, to shoot a bow and to despise all lies."
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Belisarius Series / int_7919a45b	type	Duel to the Death
Belisarius Series / int_7919a45b	comment	Duel to the Death: Invoked, and averted. Valentinian fights Rana Sanga in a three hour duel, after which Rana Sanga cracks his skull and decides to end the duel without sullying it by executing a Worthy Opponent. Averted completely in Raghunath Rao and Rana Sanga's duel in The Dance of Time. They fought a legendary duel in their youth, which is described as a day-long affair they began mounted, on foot and finally, exhausted, exchanging philosophical barbs. In the second duel, Raghunath Rao disarms himself, leaving himself at Rana Sanga's mercy. Damodara intervenes and stops the duel, to the relief of Sanga, who is trapped between his duty to Malwa, respect for Rao, and his honour.
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Belisarius Series / int_79fa704c	type	Training the Peaceful Villagers
Belisarius Series / int_79fa704c	comment	Training the Peaceful Villagers: The Theodoran Cohort, consisting of Syrian herders and their wives brought into military service to bolster Roman forces, using the new grenades developed with the assistance of Aide.
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Belisarius Series / int_7a0374eb	type	Impoverished Patrician
Belisarius Series / int_7a0374eb	comment	Impoverished Patrician: Sudaba and Anna both come from these kinds of families; they marry lower-status but much richer men. (Naturally these turn out to be perfectly arranged.)
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Belisarius Series / int_7a143509	type	Shell-Shocked Veteran
Belisarius Series / int_7a143509	comment	One of Shakuntala's best friend's was her maid whom she helps comfort when she is reunited with her after the maid was driven insane by her experiences during the sack.
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Belisarius Series / int_7b0fddcd	type	Battle Cry
Belisarius Series / int_7b0fddcd	comment	Antonia is a Mother to Belisarius' Men. In a vision of the future in Oblique Approach, Belisarius sees himself leading a charge and everyone shouting the Battle Cry "For the whore!"
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Belisarius Series / int_7b1b96ce	type	Impeded Messenger
Belisarius Series / int_7b1b96ce	comment	Impeded Messenger: In the second book, seventeen elite Malwa couriers are sent to spread an alarm against the Romans. Between efforts by the Romans and their allies to stop them, and the risks of riding too hard over bad terrain, only two of the seventeen survive. One falls off his horse, injuring himself, and isn't found in time to deliver the message; the other manages to avoid the ambushers, arriving at a destination where his successful delivery of the message amounts to nothing due to matters of geography.
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Belisarius Series / int_7c862b8a	type	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
Belisarius Series / int_7c862b8a	comment	Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Narses is the most loyal spymaster one can hire so long as there's something actually worth intriguing for, but betrays his current employer whenever the struggle is won and it's time to rest and enjoy the fruits of success. This is because he only cares about the game, and success bores the pants off of him. His final employer (and he goes through several in the series) proves smart enough in the end to arrange for Narses to seek new independent business opportunities in a distant country, the instant the war is over. Not coincidentally, this is the only employer Narses didn't end up betraying and trying to have murdered.
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Belisarius Series / int_7d44b017	type	Balance of Power
Belisarius Series / int_7d44b017	comment	Balance of Power: After the war Belisarius supports Rome keeping areas of the Malwa empire that he had conquered, less for the glory of Rome then to make sure that there is another large faction in India to support the Balance of Power. On the other side the Malwa use the Kushans, the Rajputs, and the Ye-tai to balance each other and to jointly keep the proles in their place. Part of Belisarius' plan is to encourage the defection of the first two, who aren't all that fond of the Malwa anyway.
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Belisarius Series / int_7dae20c8	type	Sex Is Good
Belisarius Series / int_7dae20c8	comment	Sex Is Good/Sex Is Evil: For good people it is romantic. Bad guys rape for the fun of causing pain even when they are so powerful they can just command it.
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Belisarius Series / int_7e6c0522	type	Off with His Head!
Belisarius Series / int_7e6c0522	comment	Off with His Head!: One of Valentinian's jobs; he gets called upon so many times to behead people for Belisarius that later instances consist solely of Belisarius saying "Valentinian!"; the Gory Discretion Shot is implied.
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Belisarius Series / int_7f38c0cd	type	An Offer You Can't Refuse
Belisarius Series / int_7f38c0cd	comment	An Offer You Can't Refuse: Early in the series, we see Antonia fleeing assassins through the streets of Constantinople and ducking into a small eatery. She confronts the owners and slams a heavy purse on the table, offering it insistently as rent for the shop, then pulls out a dagger and tells them "or take the knife, in your fucking guts!"
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Belisarius Series / int_80621707	type	Arranged Marriage
Belisarius Series / int_80621707	comment	Photius and Tahmina, Eon and Rukaiya, Rana Sanga and his wife, Damodara and his wife. In fact, pretty much every Arranged Marriage in the series, whether on the Indian or Roman side, is perfectly happy.
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Belisarius Series / int_813afa05	type	Defiled Forever
Belisarius Series / int_813afa05	comment	Defiled Forever: Subverted. Holkar's daughters are afraid this will happen to them because they have been made Sex Slaves. Instead Valentinian and Anastasius marry them, they are welcomed back by their father, supported by Shakuntala, their past is covered up by Adjutasutra's machinations and no one who knows about it says anything for obvious reasons. In Belisarius' vision, Rao actually hopes Shakuntala won't resist Venandakatra because he doesn't care about all that but cares about her life. Shakuntala however turns out to be of different mind, rather to Venandakatra's regret. Both Antonina and Theodora were prostitutes before the series' beginning, and they are never allowed to forget it. Antonina is viewed slightly more favorably because she was supposedly choosier about her clients, but Theodora, who was a borderline Sex Slave, gets less sympathy.
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Belisarius Series / int_81c72ad5	type	Vestigial Empire
Belisarius Series / int_81c72ad5	comment	Arguably the Malwa fulfil the Vestigial Empire trope too- they're one of the successor states to the Gupta Empire, and are simply rising because Link's machinations enabled them to dominate the Ye-Tai and other polities instead of slowly falling apart. So they're a Rising Empire coming out of the ashes of a Vestigial Empire.
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Belisarius Series / int_82f05a5d	type	ConservationOfNinjitsu
Belisarius Series / int_82f05a5d	comment	Conservation of Ninjutsu: Malwa. Most of its soldiers were trained at the Malwan Military Academy. At the other end, you have the likes of Valentinian ("the Mongoose"), Raghunath Rao ("the Panther", "the Wind of the Great Country"), and Rana Sanga (who needs no other name).
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Belisarius Series / int_8437cb10	type	Made a Slave
Belisarius Series / int_8437cb10	comment	Made a Slave: This is the fate of many on the losing side of battles. Notable examples include Dadaji Holkar and his family (all eventually escaped or freed), a troop of Kushan soldiers (freed after working for Belisarius in the attack on Charax), and the few survivors of Ranapur.
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Belisarius Series / int_86b21114	type	Badass Boast
Belisarius Series / int_86b21114	comment	Badass Boast: Antonina, explaining her role in pacifying Alexandria.
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Belisarius Series / int_8767b1f3	type	Black-and-Gray Morality
Belisarius Series / int_8767b1f3	comment	Black-and-Gray Morality: The good guys are medieval people and tend to act like it in most ways. However the author goes far out of his way to make sure the bad guys are properly "evilized".
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Belisarius Series / int_885a5be7	type	Suffer the Slings
Belisarius Series / int_885a5be7	comment	Suffer the Slings: The Theodoran Cohort uses slings and sling staffs to allow them to throw their grenades farther than by hand alone.
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Belisarius Series / int_89a17726	type	Spell My Name with an S
Belisarius Series / int_89a17726	comment	Spell My Name with an S: Antonina is frequently misspelled by readers as the more common Antonia.
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Belisarius Series / int_8c481e9a	type	Risking the King
Belisarius Series / int_8c481e9a	comment	Risking the King: Lampshaded. The Persian emperor makes Belisarius' bodyguards promise to keep him alive even if it requires arresting him. This is necessary because The Emperor feels he needs a Roman he can personally trust during a diplomatically sensitive joint military operation and Belisarius has an eccentric habit of getting to close to the fighting.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_8c481e9a
Belisarius Series / int_8cd96e6c	type	Nasal Trauma
Belisarius Series / int_8cd96e6c	comment	Nasal Trauma: In In The Heart of Darkness, Belisarius kicks Malwa spymaster Nandi Lal in the nose, permanently disfiguring him. Afterwards, Nandi Lal stops being Faux Affably Evil and becomes more openly nasty to match his new, ogreish appearance.
Belisarius Series / int_8cd96e6c	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_8cd96e6c
Belisarius Series / int_8fc39987	type	Techno Wizard
Belisarius Series / int_8fc39987	comment	Techno Wizard: Rome. The Malwans have a head start, but once the Romans understand what's going on they actually make better versions of future weapons, not being as hampered by a restrictive social hierarchy that concentrates power in a relatively small handful of people.
Belisarius Series / int_8fc39987	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_8fc39987
Belisarius Series / int_90b66e22	type	Femme Fatale
Belisarius Series / int_90b66e22	comment	Femme Fatale: Again, Antonina. However, she is a retired Femme Fatale and mostly has the position of an Ambadassador.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_90b66e22
Belisarius Series / int_91cecc1e	type	Exaggerated Trope
Belisarius Series / int_91cecc1e	comment	The Persian noble Kurush is so rich that his Roman guests are afraid to drink lest they drop one of his expensive glasses. The Romans are then assured to know that he had two chests full of them. And they are further assured that he is so rich that he hadn't bothered to find out how much his wine glasses cost. However despite his taste for finer things Kurush is a skillful and experienced warrior.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_91cecc1e
Belisarius Series / int_935212c	type	Feminine Women Can Cook
Belisarius Series / int_935212c	comment	Feminine Women Can Cook: Lady Sanga loves to cook, even though as a Rajput queen she would have any number of servants to do it for her.
Belisarius Series / int_935212c	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_935212c
Belisarius Series / int_93b92ca4	type	Lousy Lovers Are Losers
Belisarius Series / int_93b92ca4	comment	Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Downplayed and Invoked when Shakuntala and Rao consummate their Perfectly Arranged Marriage, she ends up surprising him with her nimbleness and Comic Sutra knowledge, so he ends up not lasting very long. She acts mock offended, and teases him mercilessly about it, claiming she was "defrauded" and "cheated" and giving him silly Embarrassing Nicknames. This makes Rao relax and he gets a 'second wind':
Belisarius Series / int_93b92ca4	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_93ed8515	type	Set Right What Once Went Wrong
Belisarius Series / int_93ed8515	comment	Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Aide's purpose to time travel. Later subverted into not just fixing history, but making it better. A stable Roman Empire in the 6th century with extensive trading networks across the Middle East to India and Ethiopia. Link and the New Gods believe they're doing this as well. It's just that their idea of "right" is a cruel, violent eugenics program designed to weed out huge masses of people they view as undesirable.
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Belisarius Series / int_95befc94	type	Terminator Twosome
Belisarius Series / int_95befc94	comment	Terminator Twosome: Link versus Aide, on a grander scale than usually covered by the trope.
Belisarius Series / int_95befc94	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_95befc94
Belisarius Series / int_966da803	type	Defiant to the End
Belisarius Series / int_966da803	comment	Defiant to the End: The Romans, Rao, and Shakuntala in the Bad Future alternate universe Aide showed Belisarius.
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Belisarius Series / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
Belisarius Series / int_970c790a	comment	Big Bad: Link is ultimately behind the Malwa threat, not only being in ultimate command of its uncountable hordes, but being the source of the technology the Malwa empire uses to overwhelm other empires.
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Belisarius Series / int_9724d6fa	type	Call That a Formation?
Belisarius Series / int_9724d6fa	comment	Call That a Formation?: Well dealt with. More then once a properly dressed formation rolls over a battered or ill-disciplined one like a steamroller. Roman cataphracts are specifically noted as not advancing at a gallop lest they become disoriented.
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Belisarius Series / int_9823f7c	type	ProudWarriorRace
Belisarius Series / int_9823f7c	comment	Proud Warrior Race: Persians, Rajputs, Axumites—oh heck, this story is crawling with proud warrior race guys.
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Belisarius Series / int_98a150f3	type	Excrement Statement
Belisarius Series / int_98a150f3	comment	John of Cappadocia, who blinded Justininan, has it even worse. The cataphracts arrive in time to see Theodora pissing in his empty eye sockets after she blinds him in revenge.
Belisarius Series / int_98a150f3	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_99a12edd	type	Cyborg
Belisarius Series / int_99a12edd	comment	Cyborg: Link. The actual machinery, it's pointed out, is elsewhere, buried deep in the palace, while Link itself lives in specially prepared dynastic females, passing to the next when their predecessors die. Noted by several characters are the hosts' empty, inhuman eyes. Of course, without the machines, it's stuck in the body until it dies or it manages to build new machines.
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Belisarius Series / int_99fa6bc0	type	Because I'm Good At It
Belisarius Series / int_99fa6bc0	comment	Because I'm Good At It: The reason Belisarius must remain a soldier, even though some days he really wishes he could have been a blacksmith instead.
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Belisarius Series / int_9b2923bc	type	Mooning
Belisarius Series / int_9b2923bc	comment	Mooning: The Axumites do this to mock Venandakatra during the celebration of Shakuntala's wedding. They rotate through the platform facing Venandakatra three times, because the crowd loves the sight of four hundred bare black asses hanging over the battlements to taunt Malwa.
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Belisarius Series / int_9bfbf9f3	type	Chainmail Bikini
Belisarius Series / int_9bfbf9f3	comment	Chainmail Bikini: Belisarius' shapely wife Antonina receives a cuirass with gigantic brass boobs. It is immediately made a joke, she calls it "obscene", and her maidservant makes a joke about her gigantic tits scaring the enemy off. Said maidservant later imitates Antonia (while the real Antonia is elsewhere) to deceive the Malwa, mostly with the help of said obscene cuirass.
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Belisarius Series / int_9cbf01d6	type	Stay in the Kitchen
Belisarius Series / int_9cbf01d6	comment	Stay in the Kitchen: Averted as often as not. Female characters are as apt toward badassery as male ones, at least the major characters. Lady Sanga stays in the kitchen when she can. But then she actually likes the kitchen.
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Belisarius Series / int_9cde2df1	type	Hand Cannon
Belisarius Series / int_9cde2df1	comment	Hand Cannon: Antonina gets a hold of a double barreled pistol about half-way through the series. Any time it comes up, expect it to be described as "monstrous"; any time it's fired, expect Antonia to be spun around or knocked on her ass by the recoil.
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Belisarius Series / int_9d6427ec	type	Time Travel
Belisarius Series / int_9d6427ec	comment	Time Travel: Central to the Plot Premise, although the future advisors are shown as already present in the past when the story starts.
Belisarius Series / int_9d6427ec	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_9e1e14ea	type	Ambition Is Evil
Belisarius Series / int_9e1e14ea	comment	Ambition Is Evil: Played Straight with Narses, who is an Anti-Villain obsessed with ambition for power and even more, ambition to prove himselve the best Chessmaster of them all. Downplayed with Theodora and Justinian, whose ambition does not make them evil but does make them proud, curmudgeonly, and sometimes paranoid.
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Belisarius Series / int_9f063f19	type	Tough Leader FaÃ§ade
Belisarius Series / int_9f063f19	comment	Tough Leader Façade: Shakuntala always tries her best to be a dignified ruler by hiding her emotions in public.
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Belisarius Series / int_9ff2b000	type	The Consigliere
Belisarius Series / int_9ff2b000	comment	The Consigliere: Ousanas is kind of a combination of this and Battle Butler for Eon.
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Belisarius Series / int_a0db7803	type	It's Personal
Belisarius Series / int_a0db7803	comment	The Axumites administer this after their king's palace is destroyed with many casualties. They intended to go to war anyway but now it was personal.
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Belisarius Series / int_a2b38d3b	type	Eye Scream
Belisarius Series / int_a2b38d3b	comment	Eye Scream: Justinian is blinded to render him ineligible for the Roman throne. Calopodius loses his sight when a Malwa cannonball strikes the viewing slit he's using. John of Cappadocia, who blinded Justininan, has it even worse. The cataphracts arrive in time to see Theodora pissing in his empty eye sockets after she blinds him in revenge.
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Belisarius Series / int_a39d6056	type	NiceToTheWaiter
Belisarius Series / int_a39d6056	comment	Nice to the Waiter: Eon's servants are questioned about this before his coronation. The idea is that a ruler who is not nice to his servants probably won't be nice to his subjects. As it happens, Eon passes perfectly. It's noted that weapons designer John of Rhodes is the sort of man who's only rude to his social equals or superiors. And then there's Kungas, whose character is revealed to Raghunath Rao when he walks into a room, swiftly assesses where he'll need to post guards, curtly gives his soldiers the orders to post those guards, and then leads them slowly and carefully across the room ... so they won't scuff the floor a servant was polishing just then. One of Shakuntala's best friend's was her maid whom she helps comfort when she is reunited with her after the maid was driven insane by her experiences during the sack.
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Belisarius Series / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
Belisarius Series / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: At the beginning of Fortune's Stroke Rana Sanga goes out of his way to make sure that fallen Persian warriors are treated according to Zoroastrian custom.
Belisarius Series / int_a679184b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_a796d2a6	type	Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy
Belisarius Series / int_a796d2a6	comment	Malwa Mook Hand-To-Hand Combat Academy: Malwa's armies are mostly made up of half-starved, poorly-trained peasant levies with little discipline and morale. They are used in Zerg Rush tactics and suffer horrific casualties.
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Belisarius Series / int_a8371e84	type	Giving Radio to the Romans
Belisarius Series / int_a8371e84	comment	Giving Radio to the Romans: Literally. Aide actually does give radio to the Romans. (And the stirrup, and gunpowder, and the basics of modern medicine, and...)
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Belisarius Series / int_a8559a9f	type	RealLife
Belisarius Series / int_a8559a9f	comment	There's a point near the beginning of book 2 where the narration refers to the Real Life timeline Justinian (as opposed to the alternate timeline Justinian) as the man who, "more than any other man, caused the final splintering of Greco-Roman civilization," partly because of his grandiose campaigns draining the treasury and partly because of the plague that bears his name. While it's true that his campaigns in Italy were expensive and may have overextended the empire in the long run, to say that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for the ultimate downfall of Eastern Rome is a massive hyperbole. His non-military achievements—namely his buildings and his legal reforms—are generally considered net positives, and it's unlikely that he could have done much to lessen the impact of the first ever plague pandemic in European history, especially without antibiotics or germ theory (or time-travelling robots from the future.) In any case, Constantinople survived until 1453, well over 800 years after Justinian died, so his reign certainly wasn't its death knell.
Belisarius Series / int_a8559a9f	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_a86069f	type	Alternate History
Belisarius Series / int_a86069f	comment	Alternate History: 6th century AD history is turned on its head by the arrival of two time travelers from the far future. One of the arrivals is a sentient crystal sent to aid the titular Roman general against a future traveler engaging in a genocidal campaign on the Indian subcontinent bent on world domination, seeking to generate a "pure" race, instead of the energy beings that mankind had evolved into in the crystal's time.
Belisarius Series / int_a86069f	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_aa8fa208	type	Well-Trained, but Inexperienced
Belisarius Series / int_aa8fa208	comment	Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Link's Khmer assassins and bodyguards.
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Belisarius Series / int_aabe2fb	type	Deliberate Values Dissonance
Belisarius Series / int_aabe2fb	comment	Deliberate Values Dissonance: Even the good guys can be remarkably cavalier about human life. An interesting example of in-verse Values Dissonance comes toward the end when Belisarius orders rebelling Rajputs to burn out the country to deprive the Malwans of forage. Belisarius dislikes giving the order because it's hard luck on the peasants. The Rajputs dislike carrying it out because it is an unsportsmanlike way to fight. The Christians of the era have little problem with drinking, swearing, and pre-marital sex. The kingdom of Axum is very conspicuously and devoutly Christian, but the king can still have concubines, and the prince has several lovers, which are discussed openly. Antonina even notes that the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-Monophysite monks of Alexandria are more like fanatical, smelly, shaggy thugs with clubs (and experience using them) than the peaceful Franciscan monks of the future. Brawls are common. In response, the good guys deploy their own order of warrior monks.
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Belisarius Series / int_aaece264	type	Rousing Speech
Belisarius Series / int_aaece264	comment	Rousing Speech: Shakuntala is good at this, rousing the people of the Indian subcontinent to rise up against an evil empire that was thought to be unstoppable.
Belisarius Series / int_aaece264	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_ac928039	type	Four-Star Badass
Belisarius Series / int_ac928039	comment	Four-Star Badass: Belisarius, even without the assistance from Aide.
Belisarius Series / int_ac928039	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ac928039	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_acecb17d	type	Chekhov's Skill
Belisarius Series / int_acecb17d	comment	Calopodius got excellent marks in grammar and rhetoric. Apparently, a useful skill for such things as running messages to uppity Persian grandees or fending off the advances of overly-amorous aunts. Turns into Chekhov's Skill later in the series.
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Belisarius Series / int_ad4f656	type	Transhuman Aliens
Belisarius Series / int_ad4f656	comment	Transhuman Aliens: all of humanity millions of years in the future, diverged into uncountable descendant species; in particular, the New Gods and the not-even-biological Great Ones.
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Belisarius Series / int_ad952d6e	type	Renowned Selective Mentor
Belisarius Series / int_ad952d6e	comment	Renowned Selective Mentor: An emperor hires one of the greatest warriors in India to train his daughter. Later she and her mentor get married and they become a Battle Couple.
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Belisarius Series / int_adfd3165	type	For the Evulz
Belisarius Series / int_adfd3165	comment	For the Evulz: Malwa is so evil that they seem to be trying for this at times. Venandakatra especially.
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Belisarius Series / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
Belisarius Series / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Everyone, at one point or another. Even an unnamed Malwa bodyguard gets one; when Belisarius, reminded he's carrying a tiny knife for sharpening pens, says he supposes it could kill a chicken — after a fierce battle — the guard says the chicken would win. Aide is one of the best at this, even though when he started he didn't even know how to directly communicate with people.
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Belisarius Series / int_affd30b0	type	Stupid Evil
Belisarius Series / int_affd30b0	comment	Stupid Evil: Actually, the Malwa come across as way too stupid for an Empire commanded by a superbeing from millions of years in the future, even considering the fact that Link doesn't care about the lives of its minions. It helps that it discourages initiative and independent thought. In the sixth book, it's even noted that most of the competent or intelligent officers were sent to the front and killed. This actually makes sense given that they're a fascist state led by a psychopathic robot from the future. Fascist states tend to quietly eliminate anybody who gets smart enough to question the system without being trustworthy enough to be part of the ruling class. Malwa's just going through some growing pains as the Link takes it from feudalism to fascism.
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Belisarius Series / int_b0b11c76	type	You Just Had to Say It
Belisarius Series / int_b0b11c76	comment	On a less-serious scale scale, Menander comments that a raid on enemy shipping he's just completed is the one and only time he's seen a military operation go entirely according to plan — the wind's even blowing the resulting smoke away from him. A moment later, the engine of the ship he's commanding fails, followed by the inevitable You Just Had to Say It.
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Belisarius Series / int_b11ac9f5	type	Abusive Parents
Belisarius Series / int_b11ac9f5	comment	A relatively minor one, all things considered, but it's relevant to the backstory that Theodora's father abused her in a rather horrible way, and she took her revenge on him when she became Empress. The real Theodora's father was a bearkeeper named Acacius who died when she was a young child; he didn't live long enough to pimp her out as a teenager. There's nothing to suggest that she or her sisters harbored any kind of hatred towards him, and she certainly didn't have him killed. (That being said, however, the real Theodora was indeed a prostitute from a young age.)
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Belisarius Series / int_b2b2093c	type	Rape and Revenge
Belisarius Series / int_b2b2093c	comment	Rape and Revenge: Numerous times, and vengeance is most satisfying each time.
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Belisarius Series / int_b2ed4736	type	Bare Midriffs Are Feminine
Belisarius Series / int_b2ed4736	comment	Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Midriff-baring saris are standard women's wear in India. Respectable women wear them out of the practicality of baring their midriffs in the hot and humid Indian climate. Saris are noted as being feminine but not particularly vulgar when worn by prostitutes. What marks a prostitute in India is the addition of an orange waist-scarf and large bangles worn on the ankle. Irene, when she visits India, is advised to wear a midriff-baring sari for the sake of comfort. She declines, continuing to wear hot and uncomfortable Roman robes to mark her status as the envoy from the Roman Empire. Anna feels tempted when she sees another woman wearing a midriff-baring sari, but it's not until she reunites with her husband and is told by him to do so that she starts wearing them herself.
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Belisarius Series / int_b343fa47	type	Feudal Overlord
Belisarius Series / int_b343fa47	comment	Rajputs. Which is why they don't like Malwa as their Feudal Overlord. Malwa has no honor.
Belisarius Series / int_b343fa47	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_b3de4c5b	type	Sex God
Belisarius Series / int_b3de4c5b	comment	Sex God: Irene describes Kungas as by far the best lover she has ever had. Shakuntala, despite being a virgin, turns out to be a Sex Goddess during her wedding night with Rao. Apparently due her nimbleness and having diligently studied some unspecified sex positions and techniques. It actually causes Rao to finish too quickly, something she mercilessly teases him about.
Belisarius Series / int_b3de4c5b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_b3de4c5b
Belisarius Series / int_b43dfc8d	type	Your Days Are Numbered
Belisarius Series / int_b43dfc8d	comment	Your Days Are Numbered: Played With: When Eon is mortally wounded, he knows that he will be dead in two weeks Belisarius and Justanian know that Theodora will die from cancer in her thirties. They decide not to tell her. Belisarius tells Narses that his days are numbered. Subverted because it's a big number, much longer than Narses thought he had: 30+ years.
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Belisarius Series / int_b43dfc8d	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_b43dfc8d
Belisarius Series / int_b58761a7	type	Type Caste
Belisarius Series / int_b58761a7	comment	Type Caste: Caste issues show up quite often, as significant parts of the series are set in India. The Malwa are extremely strict about caste, which is one of their problems. Gunpowder weapons are all managed by the kshatriya, for example. Dadaji, Shakuntala's chief advisor, is a low-caste vaisya, and that only because the Great Country is relatively liberal; in most places he'd be a sudra. Irene is amused by how upset the brahmins he negotiates with would be if they knew. One of the key things Belisarius advises Damodara to do going forward is start minimizing the caste system and enabling more social mobility, saying that the caste system crippled India for millennia.
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Belisarius Series / int_b731fa6e	type	I Cannot Self-Terminate
Belisarius Series / int_b731fa6e	comment	I Cannot Self-Terminate: In a possible future, Belisarius and Justinian ask Rao to kill them to so that they won't be captured alive by the Malwa and won't have to commit suicide, which to Christians is a mortal sin. Averted in that Rao then kills himself immediately afterward, because he doesn't share their religious beliefs and so painless suicide to escape death by prolonged torture doesn't bother him at all. Rao does note that he didn't really push either man anything even approaching hard enough to knock them off the cliff they're standing on. He shrugs and reasons that if the Christian God is just and merciful, he'll allow Belisarius and Justinian their little figleaf, no harm, no foul.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_b731fa6e
Belisarius Series / int_ba72eebb	type	Waif-Fu
Belisarius Series / int_ba72eebb	comment	Waif-Fu: Played realistically with Shakuntala. Yes, she was trained from age seven by one of the most fearsome warriors in India. Yes, she is extraordinarily fast and nimble. Yes, she is phenomenally strong for her size. But she's short and maybe 90 pounds soaking wet, and the drawbacks of that are routinely addressed.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ba72eebb
Belisarius Series / int_bbf11c0	type	Genius Bruiser
Belisarius Series / int_bbf11c0	comment	Genius Bruiser: Ousanas, Eon, Raghunath Rao, Anastasius... there are almost more genius bruisers named in this series than ordinary ones. Rana Sanga and Kungas are also bruisers who are very intelligent, if not outright geniuses.
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Belisarius Series / int_bbf11c0	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_bbf11c0
Belisarius Series / int_bc103f8b	type	Subverted
Belisarius Series / int_bc103f8b	comment	Subverted with the Malwa in general and Venandakatra the Vile in particular. Malwa command pavilions and palaces are described as ostentatious and vulgar displays of gratuitous greed.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_bc103f8b
Belisarius Series / int_bc252ea0	type	The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess
Belisarius Series / int_bc252ea0	comment	The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Link used autistic girls as avatars and destroyed their personality. The first of these was destroyed by Belisarius' wife, the second by herself (because Link was stranded inside) and the third was executed by Belisarius' bodyguard, albeit on Belisarius' orders.
Belisarius Series / int_bc252ea0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_bc252ea0
Belisarius Series / int_bd0af87b	type	Honorable Marriage Proposal
Belisarius Series / int_bd0af87b	comment	Honorable Marriage Proposal: One of Antonina's old colleagues is taken as a maid. When she becomes pregnant, a soldier gallantly offers to marry her thinking, after all, that he might really be the father.
Belisarius Series / int_bd0af87b	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_bd0af87b	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_bd0af87b
Belisarius Series / int_bda3d68a	type	Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?
Belisarius Series / int_bda3d68a	comment	Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: When Belisarius evacuates Charax, he not only pulls out all his troops and the surviving civilian population, they also take all the domestic animals just to spite Link and leave the Malwa a completely lifeless ruin.
Belisarius Series / int_bda3d68a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_c313d43a	type	True Companions
Belisarius Series / int_c313d43a	comment	True Companions: Belisarius's subordinates. Belisarius notes this himself several times, and attributes his victories to his ability to select intelligent subordinates and to instill loyalty in his Thracian cataphracts.
Belisarius Series / int_c313d43a	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_c313d43a	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_c601fc37	type	Professional Killer
Belisarius Series / int_c601fc37	comment	Professional Killer: Assassins appear in various guises. Some are thugs-for-hire who usually regret their job but Indian ones often appear in the train of powerful people, and it is sometimes implied that they are martial arts experts similar to Ninja. Rao and Shakuntala, for instance, are both trained in assassin skills.
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Belisarius Series / int_c601fc37	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_c601fc37
Belisarius Series / int_c70907c7	type	The Butcher
Belisarius Series / int_c70907c7	comment	The Butcher: Deconstructed. It is commented that if Venandakatra had been called "The Cruel" or something similar it might imply that people think him a Magnificent Bastard even if they hate him. But no one respects someone called "The Vile".
Belisarius Series / int_c70907c7	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_c70907c7
Belisarius Series / int_c8c968c3	type	The Alliance
Belisarius Series / int_c8c968c3	comment	The Alliance: Persia and the Roman Empire (traditional enemies), plus Roman ally Axum, against Malwa. Later some Asian countries, reformed after being taken back from Malwa, assist, but it's not a formal alliance as much as having a mutual enemy and mutual respect for one another.
Belisarius Series / int_c8c968c3	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_c93a6560	type	Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
Belisarius Series / int_c93a6560	comment	Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Malwa Empire's favorite method of execution comes in two varieties: "long stake" and "short stake".
Belisarius Series / int_c93a6560	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_c93a6560	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_c9790040	type	Decadent Court
Belisarius Series / int_c9790040	comment	The Malwa are supposed to be this but their Decadent Court really has more in common with Vestigial Empire. Kungas and Irene's Kushans in the later books follow this trope more closely.
Belisarius Series / int_c9790040	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_c9790040
Belisarius Series / int_c9c756a8	type	Child Soldiers
Belisarius Series / int_c9c756a8	comment	Child Soldiers: Under Valentinian's tutelage, Rajiv turns out to be an appallingly competent example, specifically a Kid Samurai.
Belisarius Series / int_c9c756a8	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_ca895242	type	Officer and a Gentleman
Belisarius Series / int_ca895242	comment	Officer and a Gentleman: Rana Sanga is an awesome Warrior Prince, but he is courteous and chivalrous, A Father to His Men, and tender with his family. He is a sensitive guy and a manly man at once.
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Belisarius Series / int_cc4d190a	type	Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?
Belisarius Series / int_cc4d190a	comment	Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The basic plot revolves around normal humans from sixth-century Eurasia battling an alien robot monster from the future. Antonina does this in book 4 when she unloads her pistol into the Link's face. Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Narses lying to the Link, and getting away with it.
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Belisarius Series / int_cc7fae30	type	Outside-Context Problem
Belisarius Series / int_cc7fae30	comment	Outside-Context Problem: Link, especially in the timeline without Aide.
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Belisarius Series / int_cc7fae30	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_ce01338b	type	Exceptionally Tolerant
Belisarius Series / int_ce01338b	comment	Exceptionally Tolerant: The main heroes sometimes come across as this even by twenty-first century standards.
Belisarius Series / int_ce01338b	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ce01338b	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ce01338b
Belisarius Series / int_ceec4df5	type	Roaring Rampage of Revenge
Belisarius Series / int_ceec4df5	comment	Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Axumites administer this after their king's palace is destroyed with many casualties. They intended to go to war anyway but now it was personal. Whenever the Persians think they have the Malwa off balance they shout "Charax! Charax!" The Malwa know what that means.
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ceec4df5
Belisarius Series / int_d08595d3	type	Broken Bird
Belisarius Series / int_d08595d3	comment	Broken Bird: Theodora had a tough life growing up, but what happened to her husband during the Malwa-supported revolt drove her hatred of most men and general mistrust to even greater heights..
Belisarius Series / int_d08595d3	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_d08595d3	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_d4d775c9	type	My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad
Belisarius Series / int_d4d775c9	comment	My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: Rajiv is very proud of how great a warrior Rana Sanga is.
Belisarius Series / int_d4d775c9	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_d54c5d44	type	Man Versus Machine
Belisarius Series / int_d54c5d44	comment	Man Versus Machine: The core conflict is the cyborg Link, commanding the Malwa, fighting against the entirely human Belisarius.
Belisarius Series / int_d54c5d44	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_d54c5d44	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_d577d839	type	Murphy's Bullet
Belisarius Series / int_d577d839	comment	Murphy's Bullet: Ashot dies from a musket shot, which ricochets under his helmet and breaks his neck. The shot is fired by a Malwa soldier from beyond maximum effective range. The Malwa army is already fleeing, leaderless and panicking. John of Rhodes and Wahsi suffered similar fates from a blind-fired siege gun and a knocked-over rocket, respectively.
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Belisarius Series / int_d62dd556	type	The Chessmaster
Belisarius Series / int_d62dd556	comment	The Chessmaster: Narses is this in spades. Also covers Belisarius, not to mention spymaster-turned-queen Irene.
Belisarius Series / int_d62dd556	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_d62dd556
Belisarius Series / int_d9e9ad7e	type	The Cavalry
Belisarius Series / int_d9e9ad7e	comment	The Cavalry: Damodara's army arives in time to save Lady Damodara and Lady Sanga. They are composed of Rajputs so they really are cavalry.
Belisarius Series / int_d9e9ad7e	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_d9e9ad7e	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_d9f4972a	type	Recruited from the Gutter
Belisarius Series / int_d9f4972a	comment	Recruited from the Gutter: Antonina was a courtesan who married the Roman general of the title, thus becoming "respectable" (and occasionally joining him on campaigns). She later used her husband's reputation as well as her own intelligence to become a great stateswoman.
Belisarius Series / int_d9f4972a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_d9f4972a
Belisarius Series / int_da19c62a	type	Leave No Survivors
Belisarius Series / int_da19c62a	comment	Whenever the Persians think they have the Malwa off balance they shout "Charax! Charax!" The Malwa know what that means.
Belisarius Series / int_da19c62a	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_da19c62a	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_da19c62a
Belisarius Series / int_db39ccfd	type	Battle Couple
Belisarius Series / int_db39ccfd	comment	Battle Couple: Bellisarius and Antonia, Rao and Shakuntala. The Theodoran Cohort is full of Battle Couples.
Belisarius Series / int_db39ccfd	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_db39ccfd	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_db39ccfd
Belisarius Series / int_dc6a260b	type	Try to Fit That on a Business Card
Belisarius Series / int_dc6a260b	comment	Try to Fit That on a Business Card: While Eon's full name, Eon Bisi Dakuen, is brief, that of his father, the king of the Ethiopians, is not. The formal name: Kaleb Ella Atsbeha, son of Tazena, Bisi Lazen, King of Axum, Himryar, Dhu Raydan, Saba, Salhen, the High Country and Yamanat, the Coastal Plain, Hadramawt, and all their Arabs, the Beja, Noba, Kasu, and Siyamo, servant of Christ. Eon's son would have a longer name as the Axumites ended the war with rather more territory.
Belisarius Series / int_dc6a260b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_dc6a260b
Belisarius Series / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
Belisarius Series / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: While the good guys have them in charge, generally speaking, the notable example is Damodara simply because not only is he on the side of the bad guys, he's one of their most senior leaders. Even Theodora and Justinian are generally reasonable in the sense of being rational. They aren't kind, but they are sensible, not usually sadistic (except when going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, as Theodora did at the end of the second volume), and if they are not good rulers per se, they at least have a good understanding of the Evil Overlord List.
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Belisarius Series / int_dd082289	type	A Million Is a Statistic
Belisarius Series / int_dd082289	comment	A Million Is a Statistic: Averted. Eon uses the sheer magnitude of the sack of Ranapur (200,000 dead, about as many people as are in all of Axum) to show the leaders of Axum just how unimportant their concerns are in comparison to the Malwa threat.
Belisarius Series / int_dd082289	featureApplicability	-1.0
Belisarius Series / int_dd082289	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_dd60caca	type	Severed Head Sports
Belisarius Series / int_dd60caca	comment	Severed Head Sports: Implied as the final fate of Nanda Lal's head.
Belisarius Series / int_dd60caca	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_dd60caca	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_dd60caca
Belisarius Series / int_dd6ce5db	type	Artistic License
Belisarius Series / int_dd6ce5db	comment	There were also real people named Rana Sanga, Raghunathrao (one word), and Skandagupta. Although, in their case, there's much more Artistic License than the above (such as being lifted from different time periods, for one). Other character names may have been taken from historical figures, but without any known similarity to that person.
Belisarius Series / int_dd6ce5db	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_dd92bf66	type	Warrior Prince
Belisarius Series / int_dd92bf66	comment	Warrior Prince: Rana Sanga, and Eon, and others.
Belisarius Series / int_dd92bf66	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_deb39de3	type	Bad Future
Belisarius Series / int_deb39de3	comment	The Aide-supplied vision of the Bad Future is this for Belisarius and, to a lesser extent, Justinian. Antonina, Photius, and Sittas are gruesomely murdered, and their flayed remains are left up for everyone to see as Constantinople falls to the enemy. Ultimately, both men are ostensibly mercy-killed by Rao, but it was really more of a suicide, and they both die thinking they'll be condemned to hell anyway.
Belisarius Series / int_deb39de3	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_def5d614	type	Suddenly Suitable Suitor
Belisarius Series / int_def5d614	comment	Suddenly Suitable Suitor: Rao and Shakuntala, except that she decides, after talking with Irene and Kungas and some soul-searching, to ignore the rules and marry him anyway for the sake of strengthening her political position as well as being what she really wanted to do anyway. (After spending 4 books pining over not being able to marry him, though.)
Belisarius Series / int_def5d614	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_df1cb219	type	Unsportsmanlike Gloating
Belisarius Series / int_df1cb219	comment	Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Venandakatra has a great procession across the territory of the Marathas (who had supported the Andran empire and been conquered in the process) to his palace where he is supposedly getting the Andran princess Shakuntala as a concubine just to remind everyone of Malwa's victory over Andra, celebrating like it was Venandakatra who won the war for Malwa.
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Belisarius Series / int_e11b003d	type	Translation Convention
Belisarius Series / int_e11b003d	comment	Translation Convention: The main Byzantine characters are presumably speaking a dialect of Greek but some of the puns and wordplay only make sense in English.
Belisarius Series / int_e11b003d	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e11b003d	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_e16217f8	type	Historical Villain Upgrade
Belisarius Series / int_e16217f8	comment	Historical Villain Upgrade: The Real Life Narses was never a traitor and was almost as much of a Four-Star Badass as the Real Life Belisarius. (The latter does get an acknowledgment in Dance of Time, when Damodara comments that Narses would make an excellent general.) A relatively minor one, all things considered, but it's relevant to the backstory that Theodora's father abused her in a rather horrible way, and she took her revenge on him when she became Empress. The real Theodora's father was a bearkeeper named Acacius who died when she was a young child; he didn't live long enough to pimp her out as a teenager. There's nothing to suggest that she or her sisters harbored any kind of hatred towards him, and she certainly didn't have him killed. (That being said, however, the real Theodora was indeed a prostitute from a young age.) Procopius' Secret Histories are dismissed as wild nonsense even less credible than a modern tabloid gossip rag, and several protagonists actively use his sensationalism to spread useful rumors. According to some interpretations, said Histories were never actually meant to be taken seriously, and may have been deliberate anti-Justinian propaganda Procopius could offer in exchange for his life if Justinian was overthrown. There's a point near the beginning of book 2 where the narration refers to the Real Life timeline Justinian (as opposed to the alternate timeline Justinian) as the man who, "more than any other man, caused the final splintering of Greco-Roman civilization," partly because of his grandiose campaigns draining the treasury and partly because of the plague that bears his name. While it's true that his campaigns in Italy were expensive and may have overextended the empire in the long run, to say that he was almost singlehandedly responsible for the ultimate downfall of Eastern Rome is a massive hyperbole. His non-military achievements—namely his buildings and his legal reforms—are generally considered net positives, and it's unlikely that he could have done much to lessen the impact of the first ever plague pandemic in European history, especially without antibiotics or germ theory (or time-travelling robots from the future.) In any case, Constantinople survived until 1453, well over 800 years after Justinian died, so his reign certainly wasn't its death knell.
Belisarius Series / int_e16217f8	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_e35ab565	type	Indy Ploy
Belisarius Series / int_e35ab565	comment	Indy Ploy: Belisarius is just as good at inspired improvisation as he is at detailed planning. Lampshaded in that this specific quality is pointed up as to how he is able to consistently outperform a hyperintelligent cyborg capable of calculating all foreseeable contingencies to the zillionth decimal place — Belisarius is capable of improvising brilliantly when the "fog of war" throws up an unexpected complication, and Link isn't. As soon as Belisarius figures this out he starts deliberately encouraging chaos and confusion in the war, as he's far better at functioning in it. While Link itself is probably as good a general as any in the series and reacts pretty well when surprises do come, the entire Malwa leadership structure is handicapped by their over-reliance on the supercomputer cyborg and a tendency to punish independent thinking and capability. This leads to the situation where the Malwa government is riddled with incompetents aside from a few, and since Link can't be everywhere at once, it allows Belisarius' side to pick away at the Malwa empire. Belisarius's final strategy is to isolate Link so that his allies can deal with the incompetent Malwa leadership.
Belisarius Series / int_e35ab565	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_e482cfa7	type	To the Pain
Belisarius Series / int_e482cfa7	comment	To the Pain: According to Rao, it is part of the assassin's code to kill unusually distasteful targets by paralyzing them and then letting them bleed to death.
Belisarius Series / int_e482cfa7	featureApplicability	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_e6b5d22f	type	Catchphrase
Belisarius Series / int_e6b5d22f	comment	Catchphrase: "Deadly with a blade is Belisarius."
Belisarius Series / int_e6b5d22f	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e6b5d22f	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e6b5d22f
Belisarius Series / int_e71975df	type	Rising Empire
Belisarius Series / int_e71975df	comment	Rising Empire: The Malwa are supposed to be this but their Decadent Court really has more in common with Vestigial Empire. Kungas and Irene's Kushans in the later books follow this trope more closely. Arguably the Malwa fulfil the Vestigial Empire trope too- they're one of the successor states to the Gupta Empire, and are simply rising because Link's machinations enabled them to dominate the Ye-Tai and other polities instead of slowly falling apart. So they're a Rising Empire coming out of the ashes of a Vestigial Empire.
Belisarius Series / int_e71975df	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e71975df	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e71975df
Belisarius Series / int_e83f211c	type	O.O.C. Is Serious Business
Belisarius Series / int_e83f211c	comment	O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The severity of Narses's betrayal is made apparent by the fact that the normally-stoic Theodora breaks down sobbing in Antonina's arms upon learning about it. Irene is rattled.
Belisarius Series / int_e83f211c	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e83f211c	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e83f211c
Belisarius Series / int_e851b5	type	The Plan
Belisarius Series / int_e851b5	comment	The Plan: First rescuing Shakuntala, then stopping the Malwan invasion by trapping Link's army in Mesopotamia without supplies, and checking Damadora's army (but leaving it intact), then collaborating in Damadora's defection and Narses' re-defection, the whole series is one of these, almost reaching Gambit Roulette territory. Indeed Narses seems to have believed Belisarius plotted the whole thing even if some of it happened by good luck.
Belisarius Series / int_e851b5	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e851b5	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e851b5
Belisarius Series / int_e866f3b8	type	Puppet State
Belisarius Series / int_e866f3b8	comment	Puppet State: Rajputs agreed to serve the Malwa empire, but are never really trusted, and generally treated poorly by them. A more interesting example is Kungas' relation with the local tribes. One Army Scout calls him "Great King". Kungas notes that he is specifically saying in a complicated manner that Kungas is not his king because his loyalty is given to his tribe-but that he is obeying Kungas because he is now the Feudal Overlord of his tribe.
Belisarius Series / int_e866f3b8	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e866f3b8	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e866f3b8
Belisarius Series / int_e8b295de	type	PlayedWith
Belisarius Series / int_e8b295de	comment	Played With with Calopodius the Blind and Anna. Theirs was a purely politico-economic marriage, and both didn't particularly care for each other. He had one night with her before going off to war, and she stews bitterly afterward until she decides to track him down to the front to demand a divorce. To get there, however, she needs to pretend to be the dedicated wife of the now-popular Calopodius to get soldiers to help her. To do that, she grudgingly begins a correspondence with him. In the course of their long correspondence, they fall genuinely in love.
Belisarius Series / int_e8b295de	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e8b295de	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e8b295de
Belisarius Series / int_e9454d0f	type	Blood-Splattered Warrior
Belisarius Series / int_e9454d0f	comment	Blood-Splattered Warrior: Rana Sanga is seen like this at one time. It is specially noted that none of the blood is Sangas.
Belisarius Series / int_e9454d0f	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e9454d0f	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e9454d0f
Belisarius Series / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
Belisarius Series / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: Belisarius uses it on Damodara to get a quiet word with Narses, who then drops the hint to Damodara regarding Rana Sanga's oath to obey the emperor. and Damodara in turn uses it to give Narses the go-ahead to do what he does best. Damodara also lets Belisarius know that he approves of the plan by saying that he hopes Belisarius is "a man with a proper respect for grammar". In a minor moment of awesome, Rana Sanga is told to flog the guards who let Belisarius escape. As Rana Sanga didn't really think it their fault he gave them each two nominal blows with his quirt. In retrospect that might have been more dangerous for the guards as someone might have noticed the lack of scars. Ye-tai general Toramana promised Nanda Lal that he'd be at the general's wedding to Rana Sanga's sister. Toramana later points out to Sanga that he made no guarantees that Lal would be able to flatter the bride. His head attends. In a jar. This is actually how Narses manages to deceive Link, which is inhumanly good at detecting lies: by telling it only the (carefully chosen and worded) truth, and letting it make its own assumptions.
Belisarius Series / int_e9e35e8f	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_e9e35e8f	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_e9e35e8f
Belisarius Series / int_eb5b71fe	type	Clingy Jealous Girl
Belisarius Series / int_eb5b71fe	comment	Clingy Jealous Girl: A variant. When Justinian leaves Constantinople to join Belisarius on the front lines, Theodora immediately starts abusing their newly-acquired telegram technology to send dozens of messages demanding and/or tearfully pleading that Justinian come home, often while threatening him with dire consequences if he doesn't stop "playing soldier." It quickly gets to the point where they avoid constructing additional infrastructure just so she can't bombard them with messages even more easily. It isn't romantic rivals that Theodora is concerned about, though—she and Justinian are Happily Married (in the sense that they're both unpleasant and miserable people when it comes to everything but their surprisingly healthy relationship) and she really doesn't like him being away from her or putting himself in danger.
Belisarius Series / int_eb5b71fe	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_eb5b71fe	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_eb5b71fe
Belisarius Series / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
Belisarius Series / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	As part of a ruse, Eon pretends to be a Jerkass prince in front of the Malwa. He almost blows his cover as a Royal Brat by refusing to touch a Sex Slave who showed the signs of having been in a sacked city. As it turns out she was Shakuntala's maid.
Belisarius Series / int_eb8ec7c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_eb8ec7c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_eb8ec7c8
Belisarius Series / int_ebb3c390	type	Crash-Into Hello
Belisarius Series / int_ebb3c390	comment	Crash-Into Hello: Irene first meets Kungas by accidentaly running into him. And giving his imposing figure, she actually thinks he's a statue for a moment.
Belisarius Series / int_ebb3c390	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ebb3c390	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ebb3c390
Belisarius Series / int_ec0ce986	type	Spotting the Thread
Belisarius Series / int_ec0ce986	comment	Spotting the Thread: Rana Sanga doubts that his wife and children were truly killed in a supposed bandit raid on their caravan because the report on the scene fails to mention the presence of onions or the small knife his wife used to cut them in the debris, which he knew she'd never leave behind.
Belisarius Series / int_ec0ce986	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ec0ce986	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ec0ce986
Belisarius Series / int_ed84457a	type	Consummate Professional
Belisarius Series / int_ed84457a	comment	Consummate Professional: Belisarius, Narses, and others Valentanian. Also the Roman Army in general by comparison with the Proud Warrior Races who make up both their allies and their Worthy Opponents, and by comparison with the Malwan Slave Mooks.
Belisarius Series / int_ed84457a	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ed84457a	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ed84457a
Belisarius Series / int_eda30d58	type	0% Approval Rating
Belisarius Series / int_eda30d58	comment	0% Approval Rating: In the second book, Prefect John of Cappadocia, a rapist, extortionist, killer, torturer and flat out Corrupt Politician even before committing treason on a grave scale.
Belisarius Series / int_eda30d58	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_eda30d58	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_eda30d58
Belisarius Series / int_eeaee38c	type	Geeky Turn-On
Belisarius Series / int_eeaee38c	comment	Geeky Turn-On: When Irene tells how many books she owns, John of Rhodes says "Marry me!" Invoked by Antonia. A big part of why she chose Rukaiya as Eon's wife.
Belisarius Series / int_eeaee38c	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_eeaee38c	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_eeaee38c
Belisarius Series / int_ef0a5ce	type	Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?
Belisarius Series / int_ef0a5ce	comment	Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Narses lying to the Link, and getting away with it.
Belisarius Series / int_ef0a5ce	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ef0a5ce	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ef0a5ce
Belisarius Series / int_ef20dac5	type	Servile Snarker
Belisarius Series / int_ef20dac5	comment	Servile Snarker: Ousanas — and, by implication, anyone holding the position of dawazz— uses snark as one of his tools in helping his charge grow up to be a man worthy of holding the Axumite throne.
Belisarius Series / int_ef20dac5	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_ef20dac5	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_ef20dac5
Belisarius Series / int_f3626b09	type	Mercy Kill
Belisarius Series / int_f3626b09	comment	Mercy Kill: When Belisarius is trying to evacuate the very badly abused female survivors of the city of Charax, twelve of them are so close to death that there doesn't seem any way to move them. One of the other survivors simply picks up a knife, stone-faced, and orders everyone else out of the room. A Puppet King for a coup against Justinian begs for mercy after being captured. Upon getting an inkling of how wrathful the empress is feeling, Belarus supplies it in the form of having him decapitated before being presented for Theodora to order something worse for. Both Justinian and Belisarius die this way in a vision of a potential Bad Future; they know that they'll be forced into suicide if the Malwa capture them alive, but their religious beliefs forbid taking one's own life no matter the circumstances, so they ask Rao to kill them to spare them from eternal damnation. Rao complies and pushes them both off of a high ledge. Subverted slightly, however, in that it's implied that Belisarius jumped, and Justinian is convinced they'll be denied entrance to heaven anyway. When Nanda Lal is trying to light a fire under Venandakatra, he orders Venandakatra's set of pre-teen Sex Slaves taken out and beheaded. Seeing how they have been beaten and abused, he realizes he's probably doing them a favor.
Belisarius Series / int_f3626b09	featureApplicability	-0.3
Belisarius Series / int_f3626b09	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_f44c8cc3	type	Onrushing Army
Belisarius Series / int_f44c8cc3	comment	Onrushing Army: Done only a few times by the good guys. One occasion is at the end where the Malwans are battered and the defecting Rajputs are eager to gallop down on them and Belisarius has set up a good opportunity.
Belisarius Series / int_f44c8cc3	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f44c8cc3	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f44c8cc3
Belisarius Series / int_f52ae5d8	type	Enemy Civil War
Belisarius Series / int_f52ae5d8	comment	Enemy Civil War: Belisarius's grand scheme is to instigate one of these. He realizes the Romans can't possibly defeat the Malwa empire toe-to-toe, so instead he focuses on the faultlines in the empire, splitting various subordinate peoples away from their control, culminating in Damodara's coup
Belisarius Series / int_f52ae5d8	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f52ae5d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f52ae5d8
Belisarius Series / int_f54f6719	type	Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards
Belisarius Series / int_f54f6719	comment	Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: The Kushans serve as Shakuntala's bodyguards once they break with the Malwa empire, due to the fact that her own empire's troops were mostly slaughtered during the Malwa onslaught. The Khmer eunuchs and assassins that serve Link are chosen for the sake of having a truly competent and utterly trustworthy personal guard.
Belisarius Series / int_f54f6719	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f54f6719	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f54f6719
Belisarius Series / int_f76f8943	type	Bruiser with a Soft Center
Belisarius Series / int_f76f8943	comment	Bruiser with a Soft Center: Valentinian and Rana Sanga are remorseless in their military goals, but love their respective children, and most of the badasses have their particular issues in which they reveal their softer side.
Belisarius Series / int_f76f8943	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f76f8943	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f76f8943
Belisarius Series / int_f89e8ce5	type	The High King
Belisarius Series / int_f89e8ce5	comment	The High King : This is the official title of Eon's father; the negusa nagast, King of Kings. Later Eon himself. Kungas is considered this by the Pathans(their only king is their chiefs but their chiefs pay homage to Kungas).
Belisarius Series / int_f89e8ce5	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f89e8ce5	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f89e8ce5
Belisarius Series / int_f8e010ce	type	Evil Cannot Comprehend Good
Belisarius Series / int_f8e010ce	comment	Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The other reason (see Indy Ploy below) why Link consistently loses battles of wits with Belisarius, despite being a hyperintelligent AI. Link is not human, cannot even remotely understand humans, and reduces all questions of human psychology to statistical analysis and amoral self-interest. This worked fine for it as long as Link was dealing with large masses of downtrodden populations and/or the ruthless, self-centered Malwa royal elite. It failed epically when confronting actual heroes. Ironically this is also why Link got schooled by Narses, despite the fact that Narses is himself thoroughly evil. He was just the kind of evil that comprehended good perfectly fine, thank you.
Belisarius Series / int_f8e010ce	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f8e010ce	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_f962d8a3	type	Victory by Endurance
Belisarius Series / int_f962d8a3	comment	Victory by Endurance: Valentinian's usual strategy. His attempt to defy this in battle with Rana Sanga does not work out so well.
Belisarius Series / int_f962d8a3	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_f962d8a3	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f962d8a3
Belisarius Series / int_f9f2c33	type	Running Gag
Belisarius Series / int_f9f2c33	comment	Running Gag: Maurice's gloomy pessimism, especially when things are going well. Sittas' affection for cavalry charges. Muttered comments by Valentinian, to which a third party says "I think he said <obscene commentary about second party>, but maybe it was <irrelevant, semi-nonsensical statement that sounds similar>" The gag is subverted at one point in Destiny's Shield, when Belisarius instructs Anastasius and Valentinian to behave as though they think he's an idiot. Anastasius translates Valentinian's muttered response as "He said: 'That won't be hard,'" and leaves it at that. The over-the-top sarcastic fear assorted characters assert they have of pimps. Which is followed shortly thereafter by a brief passage describing the mayhem said characters have unleashed on the pimps. The philosophical tendencies of Anastasius, Ousanas, and Rao are used as humor fuel throughout the books. All three of them find each other's opposing views utter tripe, and everyone unfortunate enough to listen to their exchanges is thoroughly exasperated, if not a bit terrified of having to sit through said exchanges. Calopodius got excellent marks in grammar and rhetoric. Apparently, a useful skill for such things as running messages to uppity Persian grandees or fending off the advances of overly-amorous aunts. Turns into Chekhov's Skill later in the series.
Belisarius Series / int_f9f2c33	featureApplicability	-0.3
Belisarius Series / int_f9f2c33	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_f9f2c33
Belisarius Series / int_fd5603b	type	MacGyvering
Belisarius Series / int_fd5603b	comment	MacGyvering: Antonina is able to defeat the majority of the thugs sent to assassinate her through the offensive use of an overturned table, flour, a kitchen knife, and stew.
Belisarius Series / int_fd5603b	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_fd5603b	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_fe10cf42	type	Alien Space Bats
Belisarius Series / int_fe10cf42	comment	Alien Space Bats: The series being a prime example of this, its divergence is the result of a Terminator Twosome of warring AIs from the future. Link was sent by a group of Master Race-type purists to prevent a future full of what they see as Transhuman Treachery, while Aide was sent by kind, gentle Transhuman Aliens (of the Space Whale persuasion) Link is trying to Ret-Gone.
Belisarius Series / int_fe10cf42	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_fe10cf42	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_fe10cf42
Belisarius Series / int_fe48cea2	type	Lady of War
Belisarius Series / int_fe48cea2	comment	Lady of War: Antonina, Empress Shakuntala, Irene especially toward the end; for most of it she was mainly a lady of intrigue.
Belisarius Series / int_fe48cea2	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_fe48cea2	featureConfidence	1.0
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Belisarius Series / int_fe48cea2
Belisarius Series / int_fe91380c	type	Nobility Marries Money
Belisarius Series / int_fe91380c	comment	Nobility Marries Money: Two of the marriages. Both turned out as Perfectly Arranged Marriage, Eric Flint having a fondness for this.
Belisarius Series / int_fe91380c	featureApplicability	1.0
Belisarius Series / int_fe91380c	featureConfidence	1.0
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Belisarius Series / int_fea42091	type	Badass Preacher
Belisarius Series / int_fea42091	comment	Badass Preacher: Michael of Macedon is well respected by pretty much everyone outside of the church higher-ups, and has at his command a religious-based Badass Army, the Knights Hospitaler, who help thwart the Malwa-supported rebellion in Constantinople.
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Belisarius Series / int_name	type	ItemName
Belisarius Series / int_name	comment
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Belisarius Series / int_name	itemName	Belisarius Series

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Belisarius Series	hasFeature	A Match Made in Stockholm / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	A Million Is a Statistic / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	A Real Man Is a Killer / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Alien Space Bats / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Alternate History Wank / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	An Offer You Can't Refuse / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Ancient Persia / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	And There Was Much Rejoicing / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Animal Metaphor / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Armies Are Evil / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Army of Thieves and Whores / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Army Scout / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Bad Future / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Barbarian Tribe / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Bare Midriffs Are Feminine / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Battle Butler / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Battle-Halting Duel / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Battle Thralls / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Be My Valentine / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Because I'm Good At It / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Benevolent Conspiracy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Better than a Bare Bulb / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Big, Bulky Bomb / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Bilingual Backfire / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Blind Justice / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Bodyguard Babes / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Call a Human a "Meatbag" / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Call That a Formation? / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Camp Follower / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Cavalry Officer / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Celibate Hero / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Chainmail Bikini / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Chastity Couple / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Chessmaster Sidekick / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Chivalrous Pervert / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Cincinnatus / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Combat Breakdown / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Combat by Champion / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Comic Sutra / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Consummate Professional / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Culture Equals Costume / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Curious Qualms of Conscience / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Daddy's Girl / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Dark Shepherd / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Defector from Decadence / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Democracy Is Bad / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Did You Just Scam Cthulhu? / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Distracted from Death / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Dope Slap / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Dowry Dilemma / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Dressing as the Enemy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Easy Logistics / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Elective Broken Language / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Elite Man–Courtesan Romance / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Eloquent in My Native Tongue / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Emperor Scientist / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Engaging Conversation / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Ermine Cape Effect / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Evil Is Hammy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Evil Power Vacuum / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Excrement Statement / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Expecting Someone Taller / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Extended Disarming / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Fake-Out Make-Out / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Fat Idiot / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Final Solution / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Flesh Versus Steel / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Flexibility Equals Sex Ability / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Football Hooligans / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Founder of the Kingdom / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Four-Star Badass / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Frontline General / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	General Failure / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Genghis Gambit / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Giving Radio to the Romans / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Grumpy Old Man / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Hidden in Plain Sight / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Historical Badass Upgrade / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Historical Hero Upgrade / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Hooker with a Heart of Gold / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Horse Archer / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Hot Guy, Ugly Wife / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Humans Are Warriors / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	I Cannot Self-Terminate / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	I Gave My Word / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	I Shall Taunt You / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	I Want Grandkids / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	In-Universe Factoid Failure / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Initiation Ceremony / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Insult to Rocks / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Invented Invalid / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Jousting Lance / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Just Following Orders / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Kid Samurai / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Knife Outline / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Leave Him to Me! / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Lensman Arms Race / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Line in the Sand / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Love to Hate / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Loved I Not Honor More / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Luke, I Might Be Your Father / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Made a Slave / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Marriage Before Romance / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Martial Arts Staff / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Mid-Battle Tea Break / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Mirth to Power / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Modest Royalty / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Monument of Humiliation and Defeat / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Mooning / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Mother Makes You King / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Murphy's Bullet / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Neck Snap / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Never a Self-Made Woman / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	New Tech Is Not Cheap / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Ninja / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	No Place for a Warrior / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Nobility Marries Money / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Noble Demon / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Noble Fugitive / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Noble Top Enforcer / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Omniglot / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Opposing Combat Philosophies / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Peace Conference / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Playing Drunk / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Plunder / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Professional Killer / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Psycho Supporter / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Puddle-Covering Chivalry / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Quantity vs. Quality / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Rape and Revenge / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Rape, Pillage, and Burn / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Rated M for Manly / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Real Men Get Shot / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Recruited from the Gutter / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Redshirt Army / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Reincarnation Romance / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Renowned Selective Mentor / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Rising Empire / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Risking the King / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Ruling Couple / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Scarily Competent Tracker / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Science Fantasy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sculpted Physique / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Seduction-Proof Marriage / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	She-Fu / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Shield Banging / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Signature Item Clue / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sinister Scimitar / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sleeping Their Way to the Top / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Small Girl, Big Gun / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Soldier vs. Warrior / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Son of a Whore / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Spare to the Throne / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Spy School / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Standard Royal Court / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Starting a New Life / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Strategy Versus Tactics / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Suddenly Suitable Suitor / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sword and Sandal / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sword/Shield Contrast / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Sympathetic Slave Owner / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Talking in Bed / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Terminator Twosome / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Alleged Steed / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Blacksmith / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Chief's Daughter / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Emperor / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Empire / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Epic / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Four Loves / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Guards Must Be Crazy / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The High King / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Magnificent / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Oath-Breaker / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Spymaster / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Women Are Safe with Us / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Wrongful Heir to the Throne / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Third Line, Some Waiting / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Too Important to Walk / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Torture Technician / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Tough Leader FaÃ§ade / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Transhuman Aliens / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Trojan Prisoner / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	True Craftsman / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Try to Fit That on a Business Card / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Type Caste / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Unskilled, but Strong / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Upbringing Makes the Hero / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Urban Warfare / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Victory by Endurance / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Waif-Fu / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Well-Trained, but Inexperienced / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Wetware Body / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	What's Up, King Dude? / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Wicked Weasel / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Wife Husbandry / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Wild Goose Chase / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	World of Badass / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Worrying for the Wrong Reason / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Xanatos Speed Chess / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	You Cannot Kill an Idea / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	Pro-Human Transhuman / int_f236a7c7
Belisarius Series	hasFeature	The Migration / int_f236a7c7

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