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  • Alas, Poor Villain: Achren post book three.
    • Though she did have a Dying Moment of Awesome in the last book when she attacked Arawn with her bare hands when he was in serpent form.
    • Though the Cauldron-Born are the most terrifying, horrifying, disgusting enemies in the whole book, most of the characters with true empathy pity them, because they're doomed to one of the most pathetic and lifeless existences possible through no choice of their own. When one is finally actually slain, it's portrayed as freeing the poor bastard.
  • Cargo Ship: Fflewddur and his harp.
  • Complete Monster: Dorath and Magg, the author himself considers the latter to be one in Book 3's introduction.
    • How about Morda?
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Taran drawing Drynwyn in the final book, and slaying the Nigh Invulnerable Cauldron-Born in a single blow.
    • Also, when Taran fights Dorath, he uses a sword he forged himself, while Dorath fights with the sword he stole from Taran (which was given to Taran at the beginning of The Black Cauldron). Taran's new blade proves so much better that it actually shatters the old one.
    • Dallben gets one when Pryderi comes with a group of soldiers to kill him.
    • Rhun, previously identified as a well-meaning clod, pulls off a beautiful one in The High King when he confuses the enemy into thinking he's brought a giant army with him.
  • Designated Hero: Taran's foolhardiness and obsession with his own glory in the early books leads many readers to wonder why we are to cheer him on. He gets better.
  • Evil Is Cool
  • Fridge Logic: Okay. Dyrnwyn can kill the Cauldron-Born. Why did Gwydion not twig onto this while he had it in his possession?
    • Taran tried using it on the Horned King. The sword was too dangerous to use at the time.
    • Also, how often do you try to stab things that you know can't be harmed? Bear in mind that they hadn't read the full version of Dyrnwyn's runes yet.
    • Most importantly, the Cauldron-Born haven't been around since the second book since Arawn has been holding them in reserve now that he has a limited supply of them. The fact that they get weaker and slower the longer/further they are from Annuvin also makes them far more effective as guards than an assault force.
      • And note that when Arawn is ready to use them, the first thing he does is steal the blade. And after using them, he immediately has them head for home.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Arawn.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Reading the final book, it seems that at least part of why actual displays of full-force magic are so rare in the series is that Prydain-style spellcasting results in this when fully unleashed.
  • Reader Punch: Coll's death.
    • Really, there are a lot of names that could go under that spoiler in the last book.
  • Tear Jerker: A half dozen in the last book, easily. A very brief list - Coll's death far from home in a barren wasteland, Prince Rhun's death, Fflewdur Fflam destroys his beloved harp and has to leave Prydain forever, Doli and the Fair Folk leave the surface world, Gurgi has to go back to the Summer Country with the Sons of Don...
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