YMMV / Tigana

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• Applicability: Guy Gavriel Kay commented that, from South Korea to Poland to Quebec, readers have been praising him for basing the plot of Tigana on their national history. For reference, he based it on Renaissance-era Italy. His writing philosophy is that history-inspired fantasy, among other things, lets a story have more of a universal appeal than mundane historical fiction would.
• Author Appeal: Alienor and Devin's bondage scene comes out of nowhere and is so lovingly described that somebody just had to be throwing it in there for his own enjoyment.
• Complete Monster: Alberico of Barbiador is a powerful sorcerer and brutal tyrant, unlike the more powerful Brandin. Seeking to dominate all in his path, Alberico responds to an assassination attempt by crucifying his attackers' families, children included, to giant "death wheels", cutting off their hands and stuffing them in their mouths while leaving them to perish of exposure. When feeling slighted by poets, Alberico selects 20 poets at random to give the same treatment to, while frequently having his men commit atrocious war crimes during conquest. When war is provoked between him and Brandin, Alberico marches his forces, burning and slaughtering as he goes. He is despised by all, to the point where Brandin comments that Alberico is wholly devoid of any human passion, simply wanting for the sake of ambition and nothing more.
• Designated Hero: Rare among appearances of this trope, it's intentional. The whole book is dedicated to the question of whether Alessan's revenge plot is worth the work he's putting in. Brandin, his nemesis, is an Affably Evil Anti-Villain whose most atrocious acts were committed out of grief and pride very similar to Alessan's own. Even Alberico — clearly much worse than Brandin — is said to have made the roads safer in his territory.
• Funny Moments
  • The protagonists work to foster unity in the Palm by staging a series of arguments in roadside taverns while pretending not to know each other. After twenty or so fake arguments, they're praising and critiquing each other's performances as though they've just put on a play.
    Sandre: [to Devin] I particularly enjoyed your spluttering indignation.
  • Several from Dianora and Brandin snarking with each other.
    Dianora: You did travel part of the way up a mountain today, after all.
• Heartwarming Moments
  • Alessan's Love Confession to Catriana.
    Alessan: Bright Star of Eanna, forgive the manner of this, but you are the harbor of my soul's journeying.
  • Erlein prevents Catriana from making a Heroic Sacrifice without Alessan needing to give him any orders. In response, Alessan releases Erlein's magical bonds, betting that he'll stay with the team anyway. Erlein does.
  • Any scene with Rovigo and his family. Though Rovigo loves to pretend he's a henpecked husband shackled to a shrewish wife and four airheaded daughters, the Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other is constant.
• Ho Yay: A great deal, as it seems to be a very homosocial culture.
  • Alberico seems to dwell on Tomasso a little too long and too lovingly; he is thinking of torturing him, but fantasising about another man being "curved invitingly back" on one's mechanisms is a little loaded.
  • In one scene several male characters greet each other so enthusiastically that the other patrons of the bar all assume they are homosexuals.
• Magnificent Bastard: Prince Alessan of Tigana is a Rebel Leader dedicated to the death of Prince Brandin and the restoration of Tigana. Working with a small rebellion, Alessan builds a network of information and sabotage against Brandin and his rival Alberico while enslaving mages to assist them as well. Alessan later formulates a plan to assassinate a key ambassador after sowing mistrust between the two tyrants, sparking a war to annihilate them both.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Catriana's assassination of the Barbadian in Senzio, which was very nearly a Heroic Sacrifice and helped redeem the somewhat difficult character for many people.
    • And it's saved from being her last moment of awesome by the intervention of Erlein di Senzio, who finally puts aside his complaining and griping to save her life and fully join the team as a friend.
  • Dianora's Ring Dive, although this overlaps with Tear Jerker.
  • The final battle, and the killing of Alberico.
  • Alberico has one early on, when he dodges a projectile that would otherwise have killed him by disintegrating himself and then reforming after it's passed through the spot he occupied. The act leaves him with several permanent health problems, but it's still the most spectacular feat of magic we see in the book, something that the narration also acknowledges. Especially impressive seeing as Alberico is frequently noted to be a less powerful sorcerer than Brandin.
  • The scene with Baerd and the Night Walkers, which many might argue is where he really comes together as a character. After years of fighting defensive battles, their numbers shrinking each time, the Walkers are shocked and overjoyed to see their new recruit wading into the river to attack the enemy on their turf.
  • Anytime Devin proves his worth to the team, especially the scheme he devises to trick Erlein into being bound by Alessan. Doubly awesome because the entire group picks up on it without Devin having to say anything.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The destruction of Tigana and the erasing of its memory—ironic because the more sympathetic of the two conquerors committed the single worst atrocity. It retroactively becomes even worse with The Reveal of Rhun's real identity as Prince Valentin of Tigana, and the sheer amount of physical and mental brutality Brandin used to make him the way he is now, all as part of his grotesquely disproportionate revenge plot. Brandin spends the whole book trying to drag his way back across it.
  • Alberico is a walking Moral Event Horizon, but his defining moment of depravity comes early on. He gatecrashes a vigil wherein three of the most powerful lords in the realm are conspiring to overthrow him. He kills them all, which is understandable enough. What is less reasonable is that he then sky-wheels their families—namely, crucifying them on vast wooden wheels with their hands chopped off and stuffed into their mouths so that they can't scream, then leaves them to die of exposure and publically rot. It is explicitly noted that he does this to every single member of the families. Even the children. This is why people prefer Brandin.
• Nausea Fuel: Isolla's death scene is absolutely sickening. Brandin kills her with his magic; what this looks like is that her head explodes and an illusion of a mass of snake-like creatures emerges from her neck in its place. The graphic, visceral description just intensifies the disgusting effect.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The scene where Sandre and Tomasso meet in Alberico's dungeons, where Sandre murders him to spare him from torture and stop him from talking. Also doubles as a So Proud of You moment.
  • Many of Dianora's scenes with Brandin, but most notably The Ring Dive, and his death and her subsequent suicide; this should be shot through with joy because the spell is broken and Tigana is restored, but Brandin is so likeable—and the heroes so designated—that the reader might be left wondering whether it was really worth it.

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