Series / Raven

”May the luck of the Raven’s Eye be with you.”

Raven was a BAFTA-winning BBC Scotland children's adventure game show shown on CBBC in the UK and on BBC Kids in Canada, and completed production after ten series and three spin offs (though later had 2 more series; see below). It was hosted by James Mackenzie in the title role, who conducted a group of children, known as warriors, over five days through a series of tasks and feats. At various stages in the adventure, the group lost the least successful warrior, until only two remained to go through to the final week to compete for the title of Ultimate Warrior. Failure in any challenge costs contestants a life, symbolised by one of Raven's feathers. Success was rewarded with gold rings; gain nine rings and they could be exchanged to win back a life.

The challenges faced include tests of intelligence, skill and agility, strength, races, and the occasional tests which involved jumping from a great height or into freezing cold water. The challengers competed until the final stage where they faced off against Nevar to claim the prize of "Ultimate Warrior" and their own Staff of Power.

The series resulted in several spin offs which tended to focus on contestants operating in teams. Unlike in the previous series, teammates lost during these challenges could be "bought back" only once each, by trading the MacGuffins their team had gathered (though not in the first spinoff; see Anyone Can Die example below). The spinoffs also tended to incorporate more backstory in with the gameplay, and introduced other characters for exposition and for Raven to interact with. A DVD game based on the main show was also released.

An eleventh series aired in December 2017 and stars Aisha Toussaint as a new Raven though James Mackenzie's Raven (now known as Raven of Old) also appears. The format however is different than previous series: 4 warriors compete for three days under an animal emblem for all of the warriors in that heat (Bears, Wolves, Wildcats, and Stags) and only rings are used to separate warriors in the placings with a challenge loss costing one ring. The last placed warrior is eliminated on day two and the final three complete the Last Stand on day three; only one warrior from each heat moves into the Grand Tournament/finals in which they become the final four and compete to win the title of True Warrior. A twelfth series using this same format aired during June 2018 albeit with the groups of warriors being shown doing their heats in a different order than in series 11.

A shortened Gaelic language remake of the above new Raven format aired in March 2018 on BBC Alba and had three warriors competing over six days and thus there were no eliminations (the episodes of this version are fifteen minutes long and so have only one or two challenges per episode). Raven of Old is also He Who Must Not Be Seen in this version (though commentary on the challenges is done by him as is the case in some challenges in Series 12).

Has nothing to do with a hooded empathetic superheroine, a professional wrestler, or an African-American teenager with psychic powers. Also has nothing to do with a 1990s U.S. TV show also titled Raven.

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“Let the tropes...begin!”:

• Abandoned Mine: The setting of the challenge Dwarf Mine obviously. Spider Tunnel also used to be a mine (both it and Dwarf Mine were filmed in the same location).
• Adapted Out: The wolf emblem is not used in the Gaelic adaptation of the new format due to there being only three warriors total.
• Aerith and Bob: the warriors' names are usually weird ones but there's one normal one in the form of Lamar, the champion of series 1 (making it the Odd Name Out). There was also an Orrin in series three, but this was alleviated slightly by being a Gender-Blender Name assigned to a female warrior.
  • There are some warrior names that are in-universe as faux-Celtic names but in other countries are real names, eg Dejan (male series 4 runner up) is a real life Boy’s name in Serbia, and Arnor (female Series 5 winner) is a real life name, though a boy’s name, in Iceland.
• Alliterative Name: Some of the challenge names such as Ring Rack, Burning Battlements, Troll Trap, and Balance Beam.
• Always with You: This sentiment is usually expressed to the second and (sometimes) third placed warriors overall in each regular series (pre-series 11) by Raven using these words: "By day, you will glimpse my shadow and by night, you will hear my call. The spirit of Raven travels with you."
• Anachronism Stew: A little with the safety equipment needed during some of the challenges in a show that otherwise has a medieval-esque setting. Justified Trope due to the fact that the risk of injury to the warriors needs to be next to nil and even then a few injuries do still happen; see Non-Gameplay Elimination below.
• Animal Stereotype: Averted. Ravens are often considered symbols of darkness and bad things (see Creepy Crows). The Raven in this case is the good guy. He is a Warlord though, apparently.
  • Well, not really averted: in Celtic and Irish myths, gods of war often appeared in the form of a raven or crow, so make it more like The Greatest Warlord then. In other words, a double subversion.
  • Other animal stereotypes are discussed occasionally by Raven (e.g. the one mentioned in the Disappointed in You example).
• Anyone Can Die: Well, obviously, it's a fantasy based gameshow, so dying (i.e. failing a challenge) is common and fairly standard, if annoying. Raven brings them back again using CG.
  • Then there are the spinoff series, where people who "die" are eliminated and can only be brought back once, via a sacrifice. This holds true even if you end up being the only person left in your team, as happened to the Wolves in The Secret Temple. The only exception is Raven: The Island in which no one can be brought back at all after failing a challenge.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The Rings (served to earn back the warriors lost lives from series 2 to series 10), and the Time Pieces in The Island (which were needed to complete the game and earn time for the contestants in the final challenge).
• Armor-Piercing Question: downplayed example in episode 4 of The Dragon's Eye. Raven is asking the Eagles' team leader Varan if a leader should have a keener eye for aiming because she did not do well in the previous day's challenge, Archer's Aim. She avoids the question at first but when she is asked a second time, her answer is "Probably".
• Artificial Limbs: One Series 11 warrior, Hanmor, has a fake leg.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Series 1, Raven makes the warriors think they will have to do the Leap of Faith without any safety equipment then shows them the rope that will be used as a safety harness during each attempt at the challenge.
• Berserk Button: Do not threaten Raven's warriors, especially not using unfair means.
• Big Bad: Nevar.
• Big Damn Heroes: Raven pulls this one, right at the end of The Secret Temple.
  • Considering how much he and Satyarani bicker, they make a pretty good team.
• Black Cloak: Nevar and the Demons (though from series 1-10, most of the demons wore brown cloaks instead). Raven too, actually, sans hood, and with more feathers.
• Black Dude Dies First: Or rather, gets eliminated first on a few occasions:
  • Seacy goes home first in week 1 of series 2.
  • Karna goes home first in week 2 of Series 6.
  • In Raven: The Island, the first three warriors to be eliminated (Jenso, Tanla and Masam) were all non-white.
• Bookends: Most of the series' opening sequences end with Raven transforming from bird to human form. In those same series at the end of each episode, Raven turns from humam to bird form when the ending credits have stopped running and flies off.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Raven does this at the beginning and end of each episode such as when the viewers are told that maybe they will one day hear the raven's call in both the final episodes of series 1 and series 11. It also happens on other occasions such as voiceover commentaries during the challenges.
• Brick Joke: In Series 1 on day 1 of week 2, one warrior, Lamar, answered "boats" to the Old Troll's riddle. In the final episode, he wins the whole series and his "heart's desire" which turns out to be a boating holiday with his family.
• Brown Note: The Dragon's Eye stone, which corrupts anyone who looks upon it, except for the pure of heart.
• Character Catchphrase: Raven's "Let the challenge begin", which is used as a starting bell.
  • His other catchphrase is "May the luck of the Raven's Eye be with you." which is said before Way of the Warrior and The Last Stand.
• Children Are Special: Which is probably why they're chosen as warriors. Becomes a plot point in The Island; see Just a Kid example.
• The Chosen Many: Subverted. Raven states in Series 1 that he did not choose the warriors who are participating in the tournament; they decided on their own to do that.
• Clever Crows: The Raven in this case is the good guy. He is a warlord though, apparently. He also emphasizes how brains are equally important to brawn when describing the mental challenges the warriors have to face.
• Collapsing Lair: The Secret Temple in the final episode.
  • Also, inside of Blasted Mountain in the original series.
  • The challenge Dwarf Mine was also a good example of this trope; if the challenge was not completed in time or three false pit props were removed, the ceiling of the mine would collapse onto the warriors.
• Colour-Coded Characters: After the first series, each of the contestants has an emblem assigned to them, which they earn in the initial challenge starting in Series 5; this emblem comes with a colour (that becomes their uniform) and a symbol - Sun (red), Moon (grey), Mountain (yellow), Cloud (beige), Wave (blue), or Tree (green).
  • Starting in Series 11, colours only are once again used in the heats (yellow, blue, red, and green) along with an animal emblem shared by each group of warriors with the winner of each heat representing that emblem in the finals. The finalists all wear black outfits with the animal emblem they are representing on each one.
• Confession Cam: justified in universe as Raven using the Raven's Eye to find out the warriors' Conveniently Coherent Thoughts. He actually says about the warriors on the first day of week 2 of Series 1 that "I must see what stirs in their hearts" before the confession cam segment introducing said week 2 warriors is shown. Most of the time, the warriors use it to describe their feelings about their positions in the competition at the beginning of each episode as well as how they feel after each challenge.
• Damsel in Distress: played with in the challenge Escape the Cage in Series 11: the two girl warriors competing that week might have been the ones to get "captured" by demons but each one of them had to work with whichever boy was their partner to open a series of chests to get the key and thus free themselves.
  • In the final week of The Dragon's Eye, this is played straight briefly; the final six warriors are this and dudes in distress in the case of Vesak and Gydan when the feral children try to lock them up. Fortunately Raven is able to save the warriors. Later on the final day, Arkil, Hareb, and Gydan have to free themselves and make a potion to destroy the demon guarding them after getting captured by Nevar in the previous episode.
• Darker and Edgier: The spin-offs can be considered this seeing as they are more serious in tone and each one is a mission that needs to be completed to thwart Nevar's plans. Series 11 and 12 are also darker than the other regular series of the show in the sense of having more challenges involve danger resulting from Nevar's demons constantly trying to stop the warriors from completing the quest.
• Deadly Gaze: the thrall demons in the Wizard's Tower and Thrall Forest and the wood demons on the Dark Path have this hence the need for blindfolds when facing them. Nevar's Eye from the challenge of the same name also has this.
• Deadpan Snarker: Raven is both this and Stern Teacher. He often switches between high praise, sympathy, and dry sarcasm several times over the course of one episode.
• Death Course: Oh, ye gods, The Way of the Warrior. With the abundance of sneaky traps and narrow passageways through the titular (very) long course, just one false step could take you out permanently. Out of all the mechanisms faced along the course, perhaps the one that's claimed the most challengers are three shields that push across the path - since leaving the path for even a second results in elimination, many, many warriors have met their end here.
  • Notably, one doesn't even need to be hit by the mechanisms to be eliminated; a few warriors lost by simply slipping off the path itself!
  • And some of the challenges inside The Secret Temple final level, too, for that matter.
• Demoted to Extra: Raven himself in Raven: The Island.
• Descending Ceiling: Well, walls. Riddle Trap in The Secret Temple, complete with Spikes of Doom. An example involving an actual ceiling is Escape the Cage in Series 11 and 12.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Satyarani, helping Raven plot a sneak attack in The Secret Temple.
• Disappointed in You: Raven will sometimes say something expressing this sentiment when warriors perform poorly; one example is from day 3 of week 3 in Series 5 when everyone fails Demon Square and Raven comments that he hoped his warriors would be as wise as owls but instead "they are all as featherbrained as cuckoos".
• Don't Try This at Home: In the intro of The Dragon's Eye, Raven says to the viewers "Our Raven warriors are always supervised and have their safety checked by experts. Please do not copy the challenges yourself." A similar warning is given during the ending credits of The Island by a CBBC announcer. In the regular series, a variation is sometimes used before Leap of Faith when Raven reminds the warriors that they will be tethered for their safety.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Former ally of Nevar, Ervan actually plans to ensure a battle between Raven and Nevar kills both of them so he can take over.
• Dub Name Change: in the shortened Gaelic language adaptation done in the style of Series 11, the name of the title character is translated into Gaelic but Nevar's name is left untranslated.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first series, gold rings could not be exchanged for extra lives, and players were asked to volunteer for the Way of the Warrior challenge. Unlike later series, failing the Way of the Warrior the first time only cost one life, but success earned an extra life. A second failure, however, eliminated the player completely. If multiple players volunteered, or if nobody volunteered, then it came down to a random selection. Starting with the second day, whoever was in last place after the Way of the Warrior was out (unless someone was eliminated due to a second failure). Lamar, the winner of this series, did not win a Staff of Power (though still won a holiday with his family). Finally, on the Friday show, success in challenges was worth extra lives, although no lives would be lost for failure.
• Eliminated from the Race: Whoever has the fewest lives left (ties are broken by number of rings, then by drawing feathers from a bag) has to face the Way of the Warrior. Fail here, and you're gone. If you succeed, you get to come back for the next day, and whoever was next to last has to play. Repeat until someone fails. Oh, by the way, only four kids ever pulled it off in 10 series.
• Elimination Catchphrase: In the main series, Raven would often say to the eliminated player something along the lines of, "You have done well, and you leave us with honor."
• Elimination Statement: All the kids get this one when they're eliminated in the main show with only a few exceptions (i.e. Harsam in Series 9).
• Enigmatic Minion: Ervan.
• Epic Fail: Any time everyone fails a challenge, the remaining three team members of the Bears failing Cursed Earth in episode 14 of The Dragon's Eye being a notable example. Not to mention the times that everyone lost Demon Square in the main show.
  • In Series 3 on day 3 of week two, Nosoo failed Dragon's Blood by dropping the very first dish just after picking it up. Brena then proceeded to do the exact same thing much to Raven's disappointment.
  • Whilst the Way of The Warrior was a near-impossible challenge, two female contestants fell at the simple first obstacle (a rope swing) on successive days in Series 3, week 3 - no other warrior had such a short run. The latter case was the first ever Blue-wave-wearing contestant to not make the final 3 in any week since the symbols began in Series 2, as she placed 4th^note  In series 1, when the colours were worn on a sash over a multicoloured kit rather than as a full kit with a symbol, the contestant with the blue sash won all 3 heats but in the final, placed 5th.
  • Series 10: day 1 of week one had most of the warriors fail to complete Golden Stairway; the only one to succeed was Sarjed.
  • During a playing of Conundrum in Series 12 in the Bears' qualifying round, Karpel put the puzzles together wrong and they didn't look anything like the images Tailsan had to look for. As a result, they lost the challenge by running out of time.
  • Adluk of Series 1 remains the only warrior in the history of the show to not win a single ring. That said, he wasn't as inept as this fact implies; he won Dark Forest, but no rings were awarded for completing it anyway, and his failure at Old Troll was mitigated by every single other person failing it that week too due to it presenting a particularly tricky and cryptic riddle. He then lost Castle due to a patently unfair scoring system; despite being a head to head game, the warriors were arbitrarily grouped into teams- so despite Adluk defeating Halei he lost a life due to his other two teammates losing their bouts. And then he lost a life at Leap of Faith despite making the jump, due to a restriction present only in the first series that a warrior must grab the gold ring to avoid losing a life. Finishing the day in join-last, he lost the black feather draw with Boyan and failed the Way of the Warrior, making him the first casualty of the week. The only challenge he properly lost was Eyeless Demons. Fair to say that Adluk definitely qualifies as an Ironic Name...
  • Series 7: any time someone forgot to grab the second ring in Cliff Face as it meant wasting time going back for it and getting captured by the pursuing demon. (Though the second ring is hard to see.)
• Every Episode Ending: From series 5-10, Raven would say some words of wisdom to the viewers before the credits rolled.
• Evil Laugh: Nevar.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: As explained in one episode of The Island, Nevar stole wood from the Enchanted Oak to make himself a Staff of Power but because of this and using said staff for evil, his life force has decreased over time and affected his looks (as well as his mind).
• Evil Sorceror: Nevar, as mentioned in series 11 and 12's intro to benefit new viewers who had not watched the original run of the show.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Wizard's Tower challenge, usually contains some kind of skill or puzzle game. (In the first season, there was the Far-Less-Ominious troll. Whom Raven liked to jibe at now and then.)
  • The Castle Of Shadows in The Dragon's Eye kinda counts.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: most challenges are this such as the High Walk (walking across a high beam) and Tower Build (two teams having to build towers out of giant blocks).
• Exposition Fairy: Haryad, the small, blue, glowy... thing in The Island.
• Expy: Nevar was an obvious (bordering on plagiarising) one of Doctor Doom.
• Eye Scream: averting this trope is the point of doing some challenges blindfolded (e.g. Dark Path and Nevar's Eye) in addition to testing the warriors' ability to rely on their other senses in the absence of one.
• Facepalm: Hanso does a double facepalm on day 1 of week 3 in series 7 after knocking down a red skull during Skull Cage right before said red skull causes her to vanish.
• Face Your Fears: The point of Leap of Faith, High Walk, and other challenges in high places is to test the warriors' ability to do this.
• Failed a Spot Check: in the last episode of Raven: The Dragon's Eye, Ervan, who is demanding that Raven and Arkil give him the titular McGuffin, fails to notice Nevar sneaking up on him. This leads to Ervan's death.
• Feet-First Introduction: done on day two of week one in series 4 at the beginning of the episode when a close-up of a boot Raven is wearing is seen before the shot switches to one of his face.
• Filler The spinoffs liked to pad out the actual show (namely, watching these kids toughing it out in challenges with some rather difficult odds) with a backstory, explaining why they were doing all of this. Reactions to the additional plot were mixed, but it generally went down a lot better in The Dragon's Eye.
  • Additional plot scenes are also included in the main show starting in Series 11.
• Find the Cure!: The purpose behind the Secret Temple spinoff was to recover the magic waters that would save Raven's homeland of Alaunus from a spell which has frozen it into an eternal winter.
• Five-Man Band: The six finalists from The Dragon's Eye:
  • The Leader: Lemec, the winner of the leadership trials, physically imposing but soft-spoken.
  • The Lancer: Gydan, the runner up, who was shorter but faster and more energetic.
  • The Heart: Hareb, the more shy and quietly competent one with a fear of creepy-crawlies.
  • The Big Guy: Arkil, the tallest warrior who proved capable of essentially carrying the Otters throughout the entire Spirit Trials.
  • The Smart Guy: Varan, who excelled at puzzles but was less adept at physical challenges.
  • The Sixth Ranger: Vesak, managing to qualify for the finally mainly due to Halsem's incompetence, was eliminated on just the second day of the final week.
• Forbidden Zone: The Forgotten Kingdom.
• Fourth Wall Greeting: At the beginning of some episodes, Raven will say something along the lines of "Well-met my friends" or "Greetings friends" to the viewing audience.
• Friend to All Children: Raven may as well count as an example of this trope considering the fact that he has called the warriors "my friends" numerous times during the show. Also counts as an Intergenerational Friendship.
• Furry Reminder: Or rather, Feathered Reminder. In Series 5 on day one of week 1, Raven points out where he built his first nest to the warriors. He also called the warriors "fledglings" in the earlier series though this was not done very often. He also references "cousin magpie", a species that is part of the corvid genus in real life just as ravens are. Lastly, after the warriors take a challenge that involves swimming across a cold lake, he commends them for their efforts, stating that he wouldn't have liked taking that challenge, since he is "a raven, not a duck".
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Most series consist of nine boys and nine girls; out of interest, a dedicated fan calculated which sex performed better. The winner, by a small margin, were the girls.
  • In The Dragon's Eye there were more girls than boys competing, averting the trope for this spin-off. And then mostly played straight anyway as the team with three girls and one boy saw female warrior Cermal eliminated on just the third day of the quest.
• Girlish Pigtails: Some of the female warriors had these such as Nebra in The Secret Temple and Arkil in The Dragon's Eye.
• Golden Snitch: A malignant example with Way of the Warrior. The contestants take it on in reverse order of rank (last place has to play first; it's based on number of lives, then number of gold rings), the first player to fail is eliminated, regardless of lives remaining. That said, the challenge has only been beaten four times in 10 seasons.
• Graceful Loser: Most of (if not all of) the eliminated warriors are this.
• Groin Attack: Accidental example. During the challenge The Circle in week three of series 1, one of the bags of flour thrown at Toasa by Brhea to score a hit struck him between the legs.
• Handicapped Badass: any of the warriors who had physical disabilities such as Wenra in Series 4 (had only one hand) or Hanmor in Series 11 (had a fake leg) just to name two. Any disabilities the warriors had (physical or otherwise) were not directly talked about in dialogue though.
• Hourglass Plot: One episode began with one contestant having a full 6 lives, while her opponent only had 2. By the time of The Way of the Warrior, the former had lost all but one of her lives, while the latter had regained all of his lost ones.
• Illness Blanket: At the beginning of day 2 of the second week of series 1, Kefra is wrapped in a blanket before explaining to Raven that she still feels sick before her non-gameplay elimination.
• Interspecies Friendship:
  • Raven, a practically immortal magic user who turns into a bird, refers to the human warriors as his friends.
  • Princess Erina (human and Raven's childhood friend) and Haryad (blue, glowing sprite) in Raven: The Island.
• It Was with You All Along: In Series 11, the second Raven, who is a former champion, thought she had to find Raven of Old after the final battle. He replies that the goal was not to find him but the land's protector, which is her.
  Raven Of Old: When you found my staff, you found yourself. You are Raven now.
• It's the Journey That Counts: One of the things Raven says at the end of day 2 of the second week of series 9 is a paraphrase of this:
  Raven: It is not the end of the journey that is most important. It is the journey itself in the end.
• Just a Kid: Haryad expresses this sentiment about the warriors in the first episode of The Island. Princess Erina assures him that being children, the warriors are up to the task of retrieving the acorn of the enchanted oak as their life force can not easily be detected by demons due to their ages.
• Karmic Transformation: Apparently it was Nevar's greed and hunger for power which resulted in him being so horrifically scarred that he hides his face behind a mask. Doesn't seem to have put him off trying, though...
• Killed Off for Real: Ervan is killed by Nevar in the final episode of The Dragon's Eye.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Discussed Trope. Raven mentions in the description of the challenge Treetop Treasure that a warrior needs to know when to stand and fight and when to retreat.
• Lady of War: We don't see her fight much, but Satyarani in The Secret Temple hops between this and the mentor. She had a habit of standing up to the demons, defying them (and Nevar himself) to their faces. One time she ended up serving as a distraction for Nevar, so Raven could get to him which he wasn't looking - it's the only time you saw her retreat.
• Last Of Its Kind: The Wisdom Tree is said to be the only tree left of an orchard of knowledge during one explanation of Demon Square.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: played straight in the challenges inside of the Blasted Mountain in Series 7 (though played with in Lava Pit). The warriors are not harmed by the volcano's heat but can still easily lose lives in other ways during the challenges.
• Lava Pit: As mentioned above, the name of one of the challenges under the Blasted Mountain.
• Law of Seven/Nine: Get enough gold rings and you get a life back.
• Leap of Faith: There is a challenge that shares the trope's name. In it, the warriors (who are tethered for their safety) have to leap from a tree (or a pole in series 4) in order to grab rings hanging in the treetops.
• A Lesson in Defeat: A recurring theme of the show is dealing with failure; as Raven himself puts it "The only true failure is one that a warrior does not learn from."
• Little Brother Is Watching: Or rather, Arkil Is Watching when Raven gets tempted to use the power of the Dragon's Eye (which would corrupt him). Fortunately, he notices her and resists the temptation, using his Staff of Power to destroy this particular MacGuffin.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: On day 2 of week 1 in series 10, Lendil loses a boot while swimming across the Deep Loch but she still makes it to shore first.
• Mr. Exposition: Raven (and in the spinoffs, Erina and Satyarani). Being the hosts, that's basically what they're all about.
• MacGuffin: The Dragon's Eye itself. Actually, most of the things the contestants have to collect.
• Magic Staff: The Staffs of Power. Pretty much all the mentors (and a couple of bad guys) have them. They mostly shoot out Pure Energy. The contestants earn one for winning the series (but they're probably more interested in the holiday).
• Mentor: Raven, to the contestants. Sort of. Given that it's a game show, in reality he's more Mr. Exposition. He also acts like this to his successor/Aisha Toussaint's Raven starting in series 11. Satyarani in the spinoff The Secret Temple.
• Morphic Resonance: Whenever Raven shapeshifts from bird form into his human form, a talon remains over the middle finger on his right hand and his feathers remain on his cloak.
• Musical Spoiler: The music often changes just before a warrior fails Way of the Warrior, most notably in Series 1 and 2.
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: After failing the challenge Stones of Aaron on day 5 of week one in series 1, Hadan states that he sucked so badly at it that his sister could have done better than him.
• Mysterious Protector: Erina and Haryad, in The Island. Sorta Raven.
• Mystical India: The spin-off Secret Temple is filmed in India, and the country is depicted as a mix of this and "Arabian Nights" Days.
• Never Say "Die": In The Island the closest anyone gets is when Erina uses the word "perish" when describing what could happen to the warriors.
• No Communities Were Harmed: Alaunus probably doesn't exist, and god only knows where the enchanted forest where all these demons and shapeshifters live is, but it's probably somewhere in Scotland. Like several different places in Scotland, photoshopped together. ^note in real life, the main show changed filming locations between series 7 and 8 hence the differing settings from series 8 onwards.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: there have been times that a warrior has had to leave due to injury or illness such as Thyran in Series 8 who injured her wrist in Ring Rack, or Gaale in Series 1 who suffered a knee injury; also in the latter series was Kefra, who withdrew due to an unspecified illness and was replaced by Racar. Averted by Lymel in The Secret Temple; she had to sit out of the challenge Chariots due to illness but did not have to go home.
  • In Series 9, Yenja left for reasons not revealed onscreen ^note  he later revealed them in a thread on the forum The Force of Raven as well as in an interview for the fan magazine, The Raven's Eye and was replaced by Tridic who went on to finish third overall.
  • Denat in Series 3 had to withdraw after getting injured during High Walk.
  • Tanla quit Raven The Island via refusing to attempt the descent portion of an abseiling challenge due to her fear of heights.
• No One Could Survive That!: Both Nevar and Raven after the Secret Temple collapses on them and of course they both do. Raven shows up a few seconds into Satyarani explaining this to the Winning Contestant (he morphed bird and flew out). Nevar just does the Eye Awaken thing from beneath the rubble.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Subverted with Way of the Warrior. It's far more common for a player to get eliminated that way than by running out of lives. In fact, there's only been one instance of a warrior running out of lives in the middle of an episode- Roska in series 2- and even then he survived due to winning back enough rings to gain back a life despite losing the challenge. Two other warriors in series one ran out of lives, but this was at the very end of the day when they would have been eliminated anyway. Other close calls came in the form of Hunwen in Series 10, who was literally inches from losing his last life in Warrior's Eye, and Beron in Series 7 who would have lost all his lives had he not become the only person in the history of the show to complete The Chasm.
• Noodle Incident: The viewers are not told much about how the second Raven became a champion before taking on Raven of Old's role of defending their land from Nevar.
• Not Quite Dead: Nevar at the end of The Secret Temple.
• On the Next: Done at the end of most episodes.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted twice:
  • There was a Sonro in Raven: The Secret Temple and a Sonro in Series 12.
  • As series 11-12 have a new character going by "Raven" and guiding the warriors, the previous Raven is now called "Raven of Old".
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Sort of. All the contestants are given faux Celtic names, based on letters of their full names when they start the show, resulting in some... rather weird and not necessarily Celtic sounding combinations. The Series 1 warriors get their real names listed during the credits of the final episode. The warriors in the spinoffs The Secret Temple and The Dragon's Eye get their real first names revealed onscreen via text during their introductions. Occasionally, the warriors will accidentally call each other by their real first names during the challenges.
• Only Smart People May Pass: The Riddle Bridge challenge in the original series required a correctly answered question to cross (also The Old Troll, which served the same basic purpose). It was replaced with the very similar Riddle Rocks in Series 11.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: Each warrior is "challenged" to discover who is the most powerful. It's also implied in The Dragon's Eye that the reason only the final, victorious warrior could take the Dragon's Eye without being corrupted was because she was pure of heart.
• The Only Way They Will Learn: Turns out, you can't teach someone how to jump from a great height. They just have to pluck up the nerve and do it.
• Pet the Dog: Subverted. Moments after handing the warriors a bundle of fresh firewood, Ervan is turning to the camera and talking about how he'd much prefer to kill them in their sleep.
• The Plan: Ervan (or a Gambit Roulette depending on how crazy you think the plan was.)
• Pride Before a Fall: Raven mentions this trope on day one of week 3 in series 2.
• Race Against the Clock: Quite a few challenges are this such as Dwarf Mine, Burning Battlements, Conundrum, Spider Tunnel, and Demon Star to name but five.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Erina.
• Rule of Three: Several examples:
  • Three versus three team challenges.
  • Three rings are the most a warrior can get in most challenges such as The Serpent's Eye/Warrior's Eye, Loch Leap, and Cliff Face just to name a few.
  • Three warriors competing in the Gaelic language version, as previously mentioned.
  • Three boys and three girls in each qualifying week in the first ten series (with a few exceptions).
  • Three symbols to describe in the challenge The Gorge in Series 7.
  • 3 warriors won Raven: The Island.
  • 3 spinoff shows (the first of which had 3 teams of 4 warriors each competing).
  • Three new series made in 2017 (2 new regular series plus the shortened Gaelic adaptation).
• Sadistic Choice: In two of the spin offs, contestants could buy back a recently eliminated team member using their hard won Token Macguffins. But the cost was usually high enough to set them way back in the contest just for bringing back one person.
• Save the Villain: Raven tries it, in The Secret Temple, offering to let Nevar take some of the sacred water that will cure him if he just stops trying to destroy everything else. Nevar wordlessly tells him to shove it.
• Say My Name: Princess Erina calls Haryad's name several times after he flies off in a panic in episode 10 of The Island, eventually having to shout it.
• Schmuck Bait: some of the challenges have the rings be this, the point being to risk getting trapped, or disable it in the case of Target Mines, in order to gain said rings.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Nevar (and to an extent, Ervan).
• Sealed Evil in a Can: when Series 11 starts years after the final battle, this is the fate that befell Nevar as a result of a spell that banished him to another realm. He did manage to banish Raven of Old there with him, meaning the latter is Sealed Good in a Can.
  • however, Nevar's attempting to escape and still controls his demons making the other realm a Leaking Can of Evil. Raven of Old can also be summoned by the current Raven whenever the latter is in need of guidance, making this said other realm also a Leaking Can of Good.
• Selective Obliviousness: Actually less selective and more necessary on the contestants part. I.e. "Look, kids, we're trying to insert a plot in between the really difficult stuff you're doing, so just act like you don't see the cameras."
• Sick Episode: Downplayed in The Secret Temple episode two as it was not given a lot of focus. As mentioned above, Lymel was too sick to do the challenge Chariots so the rest of the Wolves team had to complete it without her.
• Single Tear: Suhan sheds one when she fails to safely guide Kyson in Thrall Demons on the third day of the final week in Series 5.
• Snake Pit: Again, there is a challenge that shares this trope’s name.
• So Proud of You: Raven will sometimes express this sentiment to the warriors when they all do really well in a challenge.
• Speak Friend and Enter: solving a riddle that was in this form before going through a portal was the final challenge of day five during the first three weeks of Series 1.
• Spectacular Spinning: Satyarani is capable of turning into a whirling dervish.
• Spinoff: Three.
• Start of Darkness: Nevar had one. Raven keeps it obscure but it's said that he was once a simple thief, who got over ambitious.
• Stern Teacher: Look if you don't hurry up and jump off that then Raven is going to be Very Disappointed, (but you can bet that he'll be pleased if you manage it).
  • Satyarani more so than Raven, who occasionally questions her tendency to send his warriors into death traps.
• The Stinger:
  • The final episode of Raven: The Secret Temple shows Nevar survived the collapse of the titular location in a post credits scene.
  • The final episode of Raven: The Dragon's Eye likewise has a post credits scene revealing that Nevar was not destroyed with the titular McGuffin.
  • Episode 10 of series 11 has one in which Nevar temporarily escapes the desolate realm and picks up a ring from the river used for Dead Man's Gorge. This stinger is reused in episode 7 of series 12.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Milex failing to complete the Drop on day 5 of week 1 in series 8 due to her fear of heights despite completing Leap of Faith on day 3. It shows the viewer that just because someone faces their fear once, it doesn't mean said fear automatically goes away.
• Taken for Granite: The Stone Soldiers that must be rebuilt during the challenge of the same name.
• Tears of Fear: A few warriors who get scared during their attempts at Leap of Faith have these running down their faces, most notably Kinia during her first attempt in Series 2.
• Telepathy: one of the abilities Raven has courtesy of the Raven's Eye on his Staff of Power. Princess Erina's Staff of Power also grants her this ability.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In the introduction to the DVD game, Raven reminds the player(s) that they are taking on the quest from within their own walls "but do not think that you are safe from the evil that abounds in these parts".
• The One Guy: Of the three warriors competing in the Gaelic version (Hathlow, Tamgar, and Onia), Tamgar was the only boy and the winner of the title of True Warrior. This also happened in series 12 when Axra was the only boy to make it to the Grand Tournament (though unlike Tamgar, Axra was eliminated).
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: Melka, whose real name is Aimee Kelly, came third place in week 3 of Series 6 but would later go on to star in the show Wolf Blood.
  • A week before Melka, we had Galna, real name Hannah Laing, who was the second eliminated in her heat (after losing a black feather ballot to do Way Of The Warrior when tied in 4th place with a contestant who went on to make the final). She later became a DJ, using her real name, and in summer 2023, had the U.K. top 10 hit “Good Love” (which in the 2020’s is quite rare, with less than 100 in 2022, and 85 as of October 2023, a rate of just 2 a week).
  • Series 1 4th place Bryal (Lladel Bryant) later became a theatre actor who has performed at the London Bridge Theatre.
• The Smurfette Principle: Hanso was the only girl who made it to the final week in Series 7.
• The Voiceless: Nevar is not able to speak.
• Third-Person Person: there were a few rare instances of Raven speaking like this in the early series e.g. "Raven bids you greetings" which is said on the first day of some of the weeks in Series 7.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Subverted. Satyarani tells Raven that the final warrior (Sonro) in The Secret Temple will have to face that which "the warrior fears most", and do so alone. Raven realises that she means Nevar, who Sonro in short, does not have a hope in hell against, resulting in Raven (who's been somewhat edgy about how much the warriors have to do throughout the whole last eight episodes), finally saying "screw it." and going in to help the last remaining warrior.
• Time Skip: Series 11 aired 7 years after Series 10, which is reflected in-story via having the events of the former taking place an unknown amount of time after the latter.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the Warriors' defence, they're roughly eleven to thirteen years old and some of these challenges are damned hard but they should really know whether a polar bear is bigger than a lion.
  • Watching the riddle challenges can be infuriating if you aren't in the target demographic... Or for that matter if you are.
  • Invoked in the challenge Forest of Chains in Series 1: the warriors supposedly get magically chained to trees when trying to get gold rings that seem easy to get, failing to realize it might be a trap. They then have to free themselves. First one to get free gets to keep one ring.
• Tree of Life: The Enchanted Oak from which Staffs of Power are crafted in The Island.
• Two Girls and a Guy: See The One Guy above. This also could be the case for the final 3 in some series although sometimes the three finalists in each week were Two Guys and a Girl instead or rarely, all three finalists were the same gender.
• Two Girls to a Team: Inverted in Raven: The Dragon's Eye with 2 boys and 4 girls as the final six warriors.
• Tyke Bomb: why else would they never pick warriors-to-be over 14 years old?
• Überwald: The Forgotten Kingdom in The Dragon's Eye spinoff.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Subverted because obviously, This Is Reality. But there was Kinsa from season four, who never stopped smiling even when she was narrowly avoiding being dumped in freezing cold water. she came third in the tournament that year overall, still smiling, much to the happiness of those who wanted to root for the little guy.
• Unexplained Recovery: In the Secret Temple, Raven actually gets disintegrated by Nevar attacking him from behind. Later, he’s back to life with no explanation.
• Vague Age: The Other Wiki claims Raven is immortal but how old he actually is at the time of the main show and the spinoffs is never stated.
• Voluntary Shape Shifting: Raven. Take a wild guess.
• We Need a Distraction: Satyarani? If you please?
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Never actually stated by the contestants (they're a bit busy), but Satyarani turns out to be a more severe task master than Raven (which is no mean feat; bear in mind that this show asks kids to jump into raging rivers and climb sheer cliff faces). Even Raven thinks she's being too harsh, but goes along with it for the sake of the quest. Her expecting the last surviving contestant to go up against Nevar is the tipping point.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: There have been a few times that a warrior who is scared of heights can't bring themselves to make the leap in Leap of Faith meaning Raven has to bring them down and take away a life.
• Wild Child: The feral children in the Forgotten Kingdom, reportedly former warriors who had looked upon the Dragon's Eye without being pure of heart, and were left permanently corrupted and trapped there. (That they were apparently played by the children who had gone out of the contest earlier makes it just a little creepy.)
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Okay, so it looks nothing like a dragon's nest and they probably wouldn't use a ladder, but trust us here and just go with it, okay? Do you want the rings or not?
• Wise Tree: The Wisdom Tree in Demon Square if you count knowing miscellaneous facts as being wise.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Everyone who looks at the Dragon's Eye without being pure of heart is instantly corrupted by it's power. Even Raven faltered for a few moments while holding it. The only one who isn't corrupted is the "Pure of Heart" surviving warrior Arkil.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Princess Erina gives Haryad this type of speech in episode 11 of The Island to assure him that he does not lack courage as she had said before since it took a lot of said courage for him to admit his innermost fears.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In Raven: The Island, Raven is exiled from his home Island of Alaunus for whatever reasons, resulting in him having to send the "warriors" off there to face Nevar alone. He's notably distressed about this and lets it show throughout his brief appearances in the series. (It explains why he wasn't there to help the contestants - though you've got to wonder why this guy is getting a bunch of kids to do the fighting for him everywhere else; in The Island, that's the explanation you've got.)
• Your Other Left: Oh the joy of those blindfolded don't-touch-the-threads challenges...

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