Codex Alera/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• In Academ's Fury, Tavi defuses a dangerous moment between guards and the Canim ambassador by bluffing: he pretends to be some important lord or something and pushes both the guards and the ambassador around, assuming that the guards will go along with this Bavarian Fire Drill just out of fear of Varg. This is a clever (and funny) moment, but Tavi spends almost the whole series bluffing or getting the drop on his enemies before they have a chance to react, so the specifics of this meeting don't seem all that important at the time. However, in the third book the reader is informed that Tavi is the legitimate prince and heir to the throne, and in the fourth book Tavi finds out that the ambassador's sense of smell is so good he can tell when humans are related to each other. This means that Tavi's bluff was true, even though he didn't know it, and the ambassador knew Tavi's secret long before he did himself.
• A lot of things about that reveal become Fridge Brilliance on a reread: For instance, the First Lord's line towards the end of the first book: "A princely gift. Are you sure it is yours to give?" He said that to Fade, regarding a sword taken from the Princeps' Memorium. So he's talking to Septimus's singulare about giving one of the singulares' swords to the prince. Thereby making it very clear to Araris that he knows exactly what's going on. No wonder he agreed to go to the capital.
• At first, I though Gaius Sextus didn't care for his "wife" because he was so wrapped up in politics and ruling his kingdom. Then I realized that Gaius Sextus could summon Alera anytime he wished - a superhumanly beautiful and impossibly intelligent and wise and friendly female entity - one with whom he has an equal partnership. That was when I got it: Gaius Sextus was, in a way, married to Alera. I'm not sure if there was anything sexual going on between them, but Alera would provide a partner, friend, and companion far more fulfilling and far more equal to someone like Gaius than his politically-married wife ever could.
• Minor one: When Tavi's using fire- or metalcrafting, the sparks and flames are red and blue. The colors of House Gaius.
• Jim Butcher wrote the Codex Alera by combining what he thought were two bad ideas: The Lost Roman Legion and Pokémon. Now consider that one of the most powerful and dangerous furies in the series is named Garados. There's also Isana, a Mama Bear among Mama Bears, using a Fury she calls Rill (as in "Ma-rill"). -- Sgamer 82
• Cursor's Fury is full of these. (1) Magnus (or Max) explains to Tavi early on that anyone competent in the new Aleran legion will be a spy. At the very end of the book, we learn why Alera's version of Sergeant Rock came out of retirement for the job. (2) At the end of that sequence, Butcher reminds us that Gaius Sextus knows who Sergeant Rock really is, that he therefore couldn't come out of retirement without Gaius's approval, and that Gaius set up the whole Aleran legion for Tavi's benefit. In other words, Gaius turned Fidelias back to the cause by showing him Tavi in action. (3) Lastly, Gaius reveals that he knows full well what "Tavi" is short for.
  • Isana learns that Araris loves her, and realizes she loves him as well. I say "realizes" because I originally thought it came out of nowhere and she was just responding to his love, until I realized that she spent an entire month trying to save his life, even risking hers to do so. At the absolute least, she cares about him like a close friend or a family member, and probably more.
• Tavi is part of a bloodline of kings, the savior of the world, secretly the (grand)son of a king, and a shepherd. Does this remind you of anyone?
• The symbolism behind Fade/ Araris' self mutilation of himself by branding himself with the Legion's mark of cowardice. While he did it to disguise his identity from those around him, he also did it because he felt he exhibited cowardice by abandoning Septimus in the field, even though Septimus ordered him to.
  • Since he's almost always referred to as a slave, rather than by his profession, it's easy to miss that Fade, secretly one of the finest metalcrafters alive, works as a blacksmith.
• The choice of pictures for the cover of this book. Each cover represents a high-level use of each kind of Aleran furycraft. Furies of Calderon - Wind ( the windmanes), Academ's Fury - Earth ( the arms of Earth used to restrain Tavi), Cursor's Fury - Water ( the two water lions sent by Max and Crassus), Captain's Fury - Fire ( the firehounds guarding the Gray Tower), Princeps' Fury - Wood ( the figurehead of the Slive bending over to pick Tavi up), and First Lord's Fury - Metal.
  • • The British versions have symbols for what appears to be fire(Garm's Fearcrafting), Water(Max's impersonation of Gaius, Air(The air-lenses used to win the battle with the Canim), Earth(the Legionaires' defenses, on both sides), Wood, and Metal. The German covers are more direct ^{[dead link]} .
• Tavi's Sword Sparks are blue and red, his family's colors and those of Alera itself.
• One would think that "Tavi" is a very weird sounding name. Or at least, that it doesn't fit in a world of Awesome McCoolnames. And it appeared as if Butcher was shamelessly rubbing that name in our faces for 3 books. Well, that was until the fourth book, where it was revealed that Tavi stood for Octavian... as in Sextus-Septimus-Octavus. And then, bricks were shat.
  • More Bricks. Gaius Octavian, you know, the proper name of Emperor Augustus
• Ever wonder why the Vord Queens are so unconventionally intelligent and such brilliant strategists and tacticians, and how they develop such potent furycrafting? Tavi bled on the Vord Queen's mound in Furies of Calderon. They picked up Tavi's furycrafting talents and intelligence directly from him. It's no coincidence that the primary Vord Queen picks up furycrafting at the same time as her "parents." On the other hand, Doroga talks about the Vord as if they've always been quite cunning- while the original Queen likely got her Crazy Awesome creativity and, of course, her furycraft, from her "parents", but I'm pretty sure the raw intellect is simply a natural trait of that kind of Vord. ]]
• From Books 2 through 6, the titles all follow a specific pattern. All of them refer to Tavi at various stages of his Hero's Journey ... except the first. Furies of Calderon doesn't seem to fit ... until you remember one detail from the later books. What's Max's nickname for Tavi? Calderon.
  • Also, the working title was Shepherd Boy's Fury.
• In Book 1, Frederick uses a spade as a weapon. This may seem a humorous reference to his farmboy nature and nothing more... Until one realizes that the Roman word for spade, 'Spatha' is also the word for the Roman Broadsword. (And indeed there's some evidence early Spatha swords saw double use for digging and cutting of both roots and limbs).
• The way the Lords make lots of small fires rather than just big ones is an example of Tavi's preference for efficiency over the traditional Aleran brute force.
• How did Tavi manage to anticipate exactly which street The Black Cat was going to rob, not once but twice? Because he's telepathically bonded to her
• Tavi's alias during his stint as subtribune and later captain of the First Aleran is Rufus Scipio. This is possibly a reference to Scipio Africanus, another badass general.
• Tavi is a farmboy and rises to be First Lord and that Title is reserved for the strongest man is Alera. In Pokemon, a basis for the series, the player starts as a kid from the smallest town and becomes champion, the strongest in the game. As a further nod to the games Tavi frequently encounters the Vord and defeats them. The Vord Queen kills the First Lord and becomes the final opponent Tavi must face, as a reference to the rival being the champion at the end of the first set of games.
• Why do the archers not wear armor? Most series say it allows them to move and bend better. But in Codex Alera the archers are woodcrafters. Metal cancels their abilities rendering them useless. Even a few metal bands can cancel a woodcrafters skills, imagine what a full set of armor would do.
• On reflection, Tavi and his close circle of friends all reflect different outsiders from Aleran society. In a culture that prizes furycrafting, Tavi has none and Ehren very little. Kitai is a nonhuman in a humanocentric, xenophobid empire (and she's also an outsider among her own people, for that matter, not having a clan). Even Max, handsome, likable son of a powerful nobleman, is a bastard and suffers both a degree of social stigma and, more directly, a homicidal stepmother. Of course, that's just where they start, but still...
• At the start of "Cursor's Fury", Gaius tricks Kalarus into acting too early with a faked letter claiming he's going to adopt Lord Aquataine as his heir. His later actual adoption of Aquataine makes it almost certain that it was his real plan as well if Tavi hadn't developed crafting.
  • And if you think about it, Attis may be a bastard (in the metaphorical sense) but he's smart, charismatic, relatively young, and a really powerful crafter and he's got the Realm's best interests at heart, though his methods are often questionable at best. Out of all the High Lords, he's honestly probably the best choice for a successor until Tavi develops into someone better.

=== Fridge Horror

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