YMMV / Dragons of Requiem

• Alas, Poor Scrappy:
  • Piri. Even if she was clingy to Bayrin and tried to force herself on him, it was still upsetting to see her die beside Bayrin after she was crushed beneath rubble.
  • Leresy Cadigus was an insufferable Smug Snake through and through who betrayed his allies in a desperate attempt to get the throne. But he redeemed himself by killing his father and saving Kaelyn and Rune—at the cost of his life, no less.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Gloriae raping Kyrie. Was she truly doing it so she could repopulate the Vir Requis, or did she do it simply because she was jealous over Agnus Dei and wanted to hurt her?
  • Is Bantis truly a Cloudcuckoolander who had lost his mind over the years, or was he simply pretending to be insane so he could work on his inventions without anyone interfering?
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Shari Cadigus is killed when Tilla, not Kaelyn or Leresy, stabs her in the chest when she's not paying attention.
  • For all the buildup surrounding him, Frey Cadigus goes down very quickly. He's killed by a furious Leresy Cadigus, who swoops on him through a window and quickly stabs him to death after his father refused him the Requiem Throne.
• Broken Base: The revelation that Queen Solina was pregnant with Elethor's child when Orin burned her is either a horrible Ass Pull that was thrown in to try and make her more sympathetic, or it makes her an even bigger Tragic Villain that fully justifies why she despises the Vir Requis so much.
• Complete Monster:
  • Dawn of Dragons trilogy:
    • King Raem Seran sees all Vir Requis as diseased creatures who must be purged from the world by any means necessary. Ashamed of being a Vir Requis himself, Raem has multiple Vir Requis executed in public. After discovering his son, Sena, is a Vir Requis too, he immediately tries to kill him, only stopping because Issari, his daughter, begs him not to. Fed up with the sheer amount of Vir Requis in his kingdom, Raem summons a demon named Angel and has her army seek out and slaughter any Vir Requis they find as they rape many of the women in Eteer. He also allows a witch to extract blood from Issari in exchange for information regarding his exiled daughter, Laira; Raem later hires Zerra Blacksmith to kill Laira and the remaining Vir Requis in the north. Once his initial plans fail, and Raem discovers that Issari is a Vir Requis after she tries to kill him, Raem allows Angel and her demons to feast upon the innocents in Eteer so they'll grow stronger and will assist him in hunting Issari and the other Vir Requis. As they hunt, Raem lets his demons feast upon any villagers they find before confronting the Vir Requis army and killing dozens in the ensuing battle. Raem later contacts the Widejaw tribe and turns them all into sphinxes before ordering them to destroy Requiem and kill any Vir Requis they find. Frustrated over his own "disease," Raem spends his free time executing many innocents in the Abyss, before ordering Angel's demon army to eradicate all life on Earth.
    • The ironically-named Angel is Queen of the Abyss, and a fallen deity. Upon being summoned by Raem, she immediately tries to drag him to the Abyss so she can torture him, only stopping because Raem holds all control over what she does. While Raem only wants Angel to kill all the Vir Requis in Eteer, she begs him to allow her and her demons to rape hundreds of women in the city too, which Raem agrees to. Angel and her demon army Rape, Pillage, and Burn as they please while Angel keeps begging Raem to let her army feed on human flesh as well—an offer Raem later agrees to in order to strengthen her army. As Angel's demons continue to wreak havoc upon the neighboring communities, Angel stays in Eteer to ensure her demons keep raping and impregnating as many women as possible. When Issari and many other Eteerian soldiers capture her, Issari tries to take control over Angel, only for her and the hundreds of pregnant women to give birth to half-demons who proceed to slaughter even more innocents. Angel continues to rape and kill indiscriminately while her army massacres villages and cities around the country. During the final confrontation between Angel and the Vir Requis, she starts mind raping some of the characters by making them believe that their fallen loved ones are being tortured in the Abyss. While Raem was driven out of shame and the need to purge the world of Vir Requis, Angel only cares about causing as much death and destruction as possible to satisfy her lust and hunger.
  • Song of Dragons trilogy: Dies Irae is responsible for nearly driving the Vir Requis into extinction. Shunned by his father for the inability to shift into a dragon, unlike his brother Benedictus, Irae takes out his frustration by raping and possibly impregnating his brother's fiancée, Lacrimosa. Upon finding out that Benedictus will take the throne, he kills his father and declares war on the Vir Requis. As he hunts them, he kidnaps Lacrimosa and Benedictus' daughter, Gloriae, and trains her to hate and kill the Vir Requis as well. When Irae discovers that there are still four Vir Requis left in the world, he sends his armies to hunt them all down, not caring how many innocents are caught in the crossfire. After he's defeated by Benedictus, and Gloriae releases the nightshades, Irae banishes Gloriae from his kingdom. While mad that the nightshades harmed his kingdom, he later takes control of them, allowing them to terrorize the world and suck the souls out of thousands of people. Irae also takes his frustrations out on his own soldiers, going as far as having 300 of his men beheaded because they failed to kill any Vir Requis. Irae faces Benedictus and Lacrimosa a second time, and he succeeds in killing his brother before escaping and creating an army of mimics. Not content with using dead body parts, Irae builds a camp where he kidnaps thousands of individuals and harvests their body parts while they're still alive, and even hacks off Agnus Dei's hand. Irae sends his army to finish off the remaining Vir Requis once and for all, and during the battle, he kills Lacrimosa even after she confesses that she's pregnant. A racist driven by his hatred of the Vir Requis, Dies Irae stands out as being one of the worst villains in the franchise.
  • The Dragon War trilogy: Emperor Frey Cadigus is the vicious, tyrannical ruler of Requiem. Viewing the Vir Requis as weak, Frey staged a coup where he murdered everyone in the Aeternum family and overtook the throne. Afterwards, he spent several years recruiting thousands for his army; after they're put through Training from Hell, he sent his forces out to exterminate all the surrounding nations, leading to the deaths of millions. When the Resistance is formed, Frey has all his soldiers hunt down and destroy the organization, going as far as imprisoning or publicly executing anyone allied with them and opposing his empire. Once Frey discovers that Rune Brewer, the sole survivor of the Aeternum family, is still alive, he sends his troops out to hunt him down. When the Resistance retakes Lynport, Frey and his troops fly down to the city and destroy it, killing anyone in their path. Frey also lures Rune out of hiding by killing several hostages, two at a time. Frey keeps Rune alive, but only so he can torture him and convert him to his empire. During the final battle between the Resistance and Frey's troops, Frey subdues his own daughter, Kaelyn, and ties her and Rune to a chair. He then points a gun at both of them and tries to make Valien choose which person he should kill. Although Frey claims that he cares about Requiem, he uses his power to imprison, torture, and kill anyone in his way, even those who pose no threat to him.
  • Requiem for Dragons trilogy: High Priestess Beatrix Deus is the new Requiem ruler and the leader of the Cured Temple. As ruler, Beatrix routinely sought out any Vir Requis who could shift into dragons and exposed them to tillvine in hopes of ridding the Vir Requis race of their transforming power. Anyone who refused to be "cleansed" with the tillvine was either murdered or imprisoned and tortured, resulting in thousands of casualties. After Beatrix hears that Eliana, the stepsister of Cade Baker, has the power to turn into a dragon, she sends her daughter Mercy to expose her to tillvine, only to discover that Cade is a Vir Requis too. When Mercy fails to find Cade, she burns down his village and murders his stepparents. Once Beatrix realizes that there are other Vir Requis who oppose her rule, she tells Mercy to hunt them down by any means necessary, and later imprisons her own son Gemini to be tortured to death after he inadvertently allows two Vir Requis to escape. She later orders Mercy to murder thousands of infants when her supply of tillvine runs low and declares war on the Horde, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Due to Mercy's repeated failures, Beatrix summons an army of bonedrakes to sniff out the Vir Requis and finish them off. In the final battle, when she's confronted by her former lover, Korvin, who tries to persuade her to surrender peacefully; Beatrix responds by subduing Korvin and orders her guards to hang him from her Temple's balcony. While Beatrix acts like she cares about the Vir Requis, she's really a hypocritical, abusive mother obsessed with "curing" the Vir Requis of their "disease," even if it means taking innocent lives.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Fin, for being a very helpful, faithful, and optimistic follower of Issari, despite his young age.
  • Nehushtan, for being a wise Martial Pacifist, for aiding in Benedictus' resurrection at the end of Blood of Requiem, and for being a salvanae, a giant wingless dragon that grows facial hair and shoots lightning bolts from his mouth.
  • General Mahrdor, for being a creepy chessmaster and for being one of the few Dragons in the franchise who had a complex personality.
  • Bantis, for being a funny, Crazy-Prepared inventor who greatly aided the Resistance by creating his own hand cannons and discovering the Genesis Shards.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Gloriae the Gilded. She's a ruthless Vir Requis hunter, yes, but she was also taken from her parents at a young age and trained to be a cold, emotionless killer, never having the chance to live a normal life. Turns into a regular Woobie after she finds out she's also Vir Requis, that Benedictus and Lacrimosa are her real parents, and when Benedictus dies at the end of Tears of Requiem.
  • Queen Solina. See Unintentionally Sympathetic below.
  • Leresy Cadigus, who was horribly abused by his father and sister as a child. Given everything he had to deal with growing up, it's not surprising he ended up the way he did.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Exaggerated. Every trilogy has at least five different main characters thinking that they're about to die, ready to accept their fate. It almost never happens. This is most likely done to give the reader a false sense of security, so that when a main character does die, it's that much more surprising.
• Love to Hate: Pick any Big Bad or Dragon, and they more than likely fall under here. It helps that most of the villains are fleshed out in each trilogy or have some form of Character Development.
• Narm:
  • Some of the battles scenes are so drawn-out or over-the-top that they can get repetitive, almost to the point of hilarity.
  • The amount of detailed Gorn in the franchise. Again, it gets to a point where it's over-the-top and/or repetitive, long after the reader is desensitized to it.
  • At the end of Tears of Requiem, Dies Irae holds a Kangaroo Court for Benedictus and Lacrimosa, all while he's wearing a black judge robe, his hair is composed of snake-like nightshades, and the "court" in question consists of hundreds of shadow demons. And he treats it all as seriously as possible. Even Lacrimosa points out that Dies had gone batshit-insane.
  • Raem and Angel having sex in the Abyss, right beside their nephil children in a nursery. At this point, the Dawn of Dragons trilogy has been bloated with so much Gorn and raunchy sex that it's no longer disturbing or gross anymore. It's just ludicrous and hysterical.
• Narm Charm: Some of the mimics have silly appearances; one variaition consists of nothing but mouths and arms, while another is shaped to be horribly mutilated bodies with makeshift wings composed of stretched-out human skin. That makes them all the more horrifying and disgusting.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • There's copious amounts of Gorn scattered throughout the series. Anytime a large battle ensues, the author will no doubt fully detail how certain characters die.
  • The mimics. Everytime they show up, the author makes sure to detail how foul they smell, how contorted their bodies are, and whenever body parts are severed, spiders or cockroaches or even snakes spill from their bodies.
  • Angel's demons from the Dawn of Dragons trilogy are just as grotesque as the mimics, if not worse. There's also the fact that Angel and many of her demons seek to impregnate human beings...
• No Yay:
  • The sex scenes between Raem and Angel, who is a giant demon composed of stone.
  • In Requiem's Prayer, Issari and Tanin have rough sex. Then she finds out that "Tanin" is really a demon who donned Tanin's face.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Lacrimosa was never a horrible character, but for a majority of Blood of Requiem, she was either crying or held captive by Dies Irae. By Tears of Requiem, she starts contributing more to the plot and realizes that sometimes it's better to fight instead of running and hiding. By Light of Requiem, she's a full-on badass and cunning strategist, even when she's not in her dragon form.
  • Dorvin was a huge Jerkass and Smug Snake in his debut in Requiem's Hope, and his constant teasing of Maev and talking down to Alina did not help. After his sister died, he evolved into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and a loyal, albeit hot-headed, ally for Jeid.
• The Scrappy:
  • Lord Acribus, even for a villain. He's a very dull, one-note character who doesn't do much of anything short of raping Mori, while many other subordinates working for Solina have much more colorful personalities.
  • Piri Healer, for a Clingy Jealous Girl towards Bayrin, to the point where she tried to seduce him, even though she knew he was in love with Mori.
  • Mae Baker, for spending almost every moment of her time whining, crying, or complaining.
  • Leresy Cadigus, for being a Dirty Coward, a Smug Snake, and a pompous Overlord Jr.. He got out of the heap in A Birthright of Blood, but threw himself right back in during A Memory of Fire when he tried to kill Valien, and later kidnapped Tilla and Rune and almost got them both killed.
• Shocking Moments: Several moments qualify, especially since the author tends to write lengthy battle scenes.
  • The Big Badass Battle Sequence in Light of Requiem, which goes on several chapters and consists of no less than a hundred thousand warriors fighting.
  • When Terra and Memoria seek the Giant King, they wander into the Giants' city, and discover that there are thousands of them ready to attack.
  • The first chunk of A Dawn of Dragonfire, which features several Wham Episodes and a massive clash between phoenixes and dragons.
  • The Big Badass Battle Sequence at the end of A Dawn of Dragonfire, which features another giant-scale battle between the Vir Requis and phoenixes. Only this time, the Starlit Demon crawls his way from the Abyss itself so he can munch of thousands of phoenixes.
  • The third Requiem battle in the Dragonlore trilogy, mostly because this is the first time where Requiem is destroyed for good, and most of its residents are killed.
• Squick:
  • When Laira is fleeing from Zerra's rocs, she masks her scent by smothering herself in mammoth dung. She doesn't wash it off until two days later.
  • General Mahrdor's chamber is filled with various Creepy Souvenirs, some of which include a chair made of human femurs, pickled hands, shrunken heads, and various other human accessories.
• Spoiled by the Format: Inevitable, given that each storyline is always divided into a trilogy. Even when it seems like most of the plot has been resolved and a book ends of a relatively bright note, if the Big Bad is not dead, then they will definitely reappear in the following novel to cause more chaos.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Even if she was an innocent character, it's hard to feel upset over Mae Baker's death, since she contributed very little to the plot and spent the entire time whining.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Eranor. He was a kind Cool Old Guy, he was skilled in healing and herbs, and he showed shades of being a badass. He spent most of his time in the background and looked like he was starting to become more involved to the plot. Then he's crushed beneath some boulders, just when he could've become The Medic for Jeid's Vir Requis.
  • Sena Seran. Despite getting a couple POV chapters, he's killed off very early on in Requiem's Hope. It really didn't help that he finally started to fight off Raem's demons as a Vir Requis or that he was reunited with his banished sister, Laira. The second book could've shown him struggling to accept that he's a Vir Requis, but instead, he hangs himself. To add further salt in the wound, two more POV characters are introduced in the very next chapter; it almost seems like the author killed him off because there were too many characters to juggle around with.
  • Lord Acribus. After he rapes Mori, A Dawn of Dragonfire sets him up to be her Arch-Enemy. But beyond being a Blood Knight, he has little characterization, and he rarely even shows up. By the end of the novel, he's dead.
  • Shari Cadigus. A Legacy of Light sets her up as being a prominent, capable force in the Cadigus Empire, not to mention sets up her rivalry with Leresy and Kaelyn. But after she's wounded at the end of the book, she hardly shows up for the rest of the trilogy and has considerably less POV chapters. By A Memory of Fire, all of her setup is wasted when Tilla, not Leresy or Kaelyn, kills her very unceremoniously with a single stab to the chest.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • King Benedictus Aeternum, a gruff, badass warrior and leader of Requiem who cared deeply about his family and preserving his kingdom.
  • Princess Issari Seran, by far one of the nicest, noblest characters in the series who evolved from a mere Action Survivor into a strong and divine messiah.
  • Bryn, a Nice Girl Vir Requis who always followed Jeid no matter the odds and gave her life to save several Vir Requis from cannibalistic sphinxes.
  • General Mahrdor, for being one of the more competent side-villains in the series and for having a Faux Affably Evil, yet sensitive personality.
  • King Elethor Aeternum, a shining example of a meek character who Took a Level in Badass and sacrificed his life for his kingdom.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Queen Solina. The only reason why she is evil is because A) the Vir Requis killed her parents B) she was shunned by the Vir Requis and frequently teased by them growing up and C) she was banished from Requiem just because she fell in love with Elethor, and their relationship was completely consensual. While it's true that Solina definitely crossed the deep end (especially when she summoned the half-demon Legion), one cannot help but think that the events in the Dragonlore trilogy could've been prevented if the Vir Requis had simply treated Solina better when she was growing up.