Guardians of Ga'Hoole

A children's fictional book series written by Kathryn Lasky and illustrated by Richard Chowder. Most of the main characters are owls, and the series is a cross between animal fiction such as Watership Down and epic fantasy.

The protagonist for the majority of the books is Soren, a young barn owl. He is pushed out of his nest by his malicious older brother Kludd and then kidnapped by owl scouts from a mysterious institution called St. Aggie's Academy. He soon makes friends with an elf owl named Gylfie and together they resist brainwashing by the St. Aggie's owls. Soren and Gylfie draw on the legends of an order of noble owls called the Guardians of Ga'Hoole for inspiration. They eventually escape, but upon discovering that their families have disappeared while they were imprisoned in St. Aggie's, they decide to search for the legendary Guardians. Soren and Gylfie are joined by Twilight, a great grey owl, and Digger, a burrowing owl. All four of them, each of their lives impacted by St. Aggie's, form "The Band" and join the Ga'Hoolian owls.

Subsequent books deal with The Band's education and training in Ga'Hoole and also the rise of a group even more dangerous than St. Aggie's called the Pure Ones. The Pure Ones believe in the superiority of Barn Owls above all other owl species.

The series has spawned a spinoff series entitled Wolves of The Beyond. It centers on the Dire Wolves known as the Wolves of the Watch, specifically a young wolf who grows up to become a gnaw wolf, a sort of story recorder, and eventually a watch wolf. The owls appear occasionally in the books.

The Film of the Book, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, was released in September 24, 2010, by Zack Snyder and the guys who did Happy Feet.

Tropes used in Guardians of Ga'Hoole include:

• Actual Pacifist: Theo, the gizzard resister, and Cleve, who doesn't believe in war.
• After the End: The Others (i.e. humans) are long gone/extinct. All that remains of The Others' civilization are ruins and artifacts.
• An Arm and a Leg: Chopping off an owl's wing is always fatal, no exceptions.
  • Possibly justified, because they cannot fly with only one wing. If they cannot fly, they cannot hunt. If they cannot hunt, they cannot eat. Also, they tend to get their wings chopped while they're in mid-flight, they more often than not fall to their untimely doom.
• Animated Adaptation
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Pure Ones.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Nyroc/Coryn.
• Apocalypse How: Class 3b appears to have happened at some point in the past, leaving the owls with ruins belonging to the "Others".
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Coryn becomes king, although there was no actual crown. Made awesomer by the dire wolves' pledge:"We have all chosen to remain as wolves, to serve you, King Coryn, but we have also chosen to regain what we had lost in order to serve the Sacred Ring. Our twisted limbs have been straightened. Our eyes restored, our tails made whole once more. But we shall always be prepared to serve you, good King Coryn, always. That is our pledge."
• Badass Boast/I Shall Taunt You: Twilight .
• Battle Amongst the Flames: At the end of The Shattering and The Burning.
• Battle Couple: Boron and Barran, the king and queen of the Guardians.
  • Later Soren and Pelli.
• Big Bad: Played with throughout the series. Nyra is the only recurring villain throughout all of the arcs (except for in the Whole Arc Flashback, of course), but they team up with other villains in each arc, who have about the same status in the story.
• Big Badass Wolf; The Dire Wolves.
• The Big Guy: Twilight.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Twilight again.
• Book Dumb: Ruby describes herself this way. She makes up for it by being an excellent flier.
• Brainwashed: Moon blinking, and moon scalding (which is basically moon blinking taken Up to Eleven.)
  • Not to mention stone stunning and shattering.
• Cain and Abel: Soren and Kludd . However, contrary to expectations, Twilight is the one who actually kills Kludd in The Burning.
• Carnivore Confusion: Generally averts the "Predators Are Mean" aspect (owls, wolves, and bears are protagonists). Lampshaded when Digger (burrowing owl) and Mrs. P (snake) first meet, as burrowing owls are a predator of snakes.
  • This becomes most apparent when the band is genuinely horrified that Twilight would suggest drying out a sea-star to use as a decoration. Outside of needing to eat, the owls generally leave prey animals alone.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The Rogue Smith curses a lot.
  • This being an alternate society, the curses are somewhat exotic.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Glaux.
• Cool Old Guy / Badass Grandpa: Ezylryb, all the way.
• Dan Browned: Quite a bit of it, unfortunately, mostly having to do with owls' biology. Could be excused as extreme Artistic License, but the books' information says that the series was the alternative to a nonfiction book the author wanted to write about owls, and thus she attempted to include owls' natural history. By and large, it appears she was unsuccessful... For more detail, see the Headscratchers tab.
• Defector From Decadence: Lots of characters, most importantly Nyroc.
• Disney Death: Hortense.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Soren has this ability.
• Egg McGuffin: Nyra's egg, before Eglantine breaks it.
• Enemy Mine: The Guardians briefly join with the leaders of St. Aggies in the 6th book, who get killed trying to double cross them during a battle.
  • Crows are recruited to help fight the Pure Ones in the last book, and in the end are acknowledged as being as noble as all the other species that fought in the war.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: Inverted, since polar bears are good guys.
• Eviler Than Thou: St. Aggie's vs. The Pure Ones.
• Evil Matriarch: Nyra, especially after Kludd dies
• Eyepatch of Power: Otulissa, after losing an eye in Exile.
• Eye Scream: Otulissa. She lives, though.
• Face Heel Turn: The Striga/Orlando.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: And how! Deaths by dismemberment, decapitation, impalement, burnings...
• Fantasy World Map
• Fantastic Racism: The Pure Ones
• The Farmer and the Viper: Simon saves Kludd, who kills him for his efforts.
• Fictionary: Krakish.
• Fridge Brilliance: Spell Nyra backwards. (Aryan, minus one a)
  • At first it seems kind of strange that the author would have a second set of villains in addition to the Nazis, who operated in a very similar manner, but with a different ideology...then it hits you that they're the Communists, and the whole world is basically pre-WWII Germany.
• Genius Ditz: The puffins.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: In the last book. They end up recruiting wolves, bears, eagles, crows, seagulls, and puffins.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Ezylryb has a missing claw, while Kludd has half his face missing.
  • Nyra and coryn both have one in the exact same place, Nyra received it from otulissa and Coryn from Nyra herself
• Grim Up North: Inverted; while it is quite grim and desolate up north, the inhabitants become valuable allies for the Ga'Hoole owls. This is also where Ezylryb hails from.
• Heaven: Glaumora.
• Heel Face Turn: Grimble, to St. Aggies.
  • Nyroc, to the Pure Ones.
  • Uglamore, preforming a Heroic Sacrifice in the process.
• Hell: Hagsmire.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Uglamore, after his Heel Face Turn, by flying into a wolf with a foaming-mouth sickness that was about to bite Coryn.
• If I Can't Have You: Why Ifghar betrayed the Kielian League.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Well, the owl version. Some of St. Aggie's troops end up eating Digger's brother.
• Improbable Weapon User: Northern owls use weapons carved from ice. In the last book, the puffins use frozen fish.
• Insufferable Genius: Otulissa is Hermione Granger in owl form.
• Kid Hero: Soren (until he grows up), and Nyroc/Coryn.
• Kill It with Fire: The Band's and the Guardians' battle strategy. They like to use branches that are ON FIRE.
• Lady of War: Strix Struma.
  • Strix Emerilla, Otulissa, and Queen Siv also fit into this trope. Notice now they're all spotted owls...
• Lethal Lava Land: Beyond the Beyond.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Metal Beak.
• The Man Behind the Man: Metal Beak, Nyra, and the rest of the Pure Ones behind St. Aggie's in the first six books.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Grimble dies after teaching Soren and Gylfie how to fly, in the first book. In later books, Otulissa's mentor Strix Struma is killed in battle. Ezlyryb also dies, albeit from old age.
• The Movie: The books are being adapted into an animated movie to be released in late September of 2010.
  • It's directed by Zack Snyder...|Of! All! PEOPLE!
    • Though for some fans, the beautifully animated, exciting teaser trailer has turned this into an And the Fandom Rejoiced moment. His signature style is perfect fit for Epic Owl Fantasy! Who knew?
• Nakama: The Band in the first couple books, later the Chaw of Chaws.
  • Some consider Coryn a member of the Band.
• No Name Given: The rogue smith of Silverveil. Her name has been revealed as Thora Plonk in "Lost Tales".
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: In book one, Ms. Plithiver thinks to herself that there is something very wrong with Kludd. He then coughs up a pellet and she reconsiders that no bird with such a noble digestive system could be completely bad. If only...
• Orphanage of Fear: Definitely the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Soren, Gylfie, and Digger, among others.
• Our Demons Are Different
• Owl Be Damned: Subverted in that owls are on all sides, but the villains (especially Nyra) play the creepy owl factor for all it's worth.
• Pardon My Klingon A lot. Notably, "sprink", which is considered the most vile word in the owl vocabulary.
  • Frink, an equivalent to piss (the verb, not the bodily fluid), and racdrops, an equivalent to... well, you should be able to tell.
• Parental Abandonment: Quite a lot.
• Parental Favoritism: The rogue smith's stepmother doted upon her sister due to her lovely singing voice, leaving her out in the cold.
  • Kludd seems to believe this was the case with his father and Soren.
• Precision S Strike: Otulissa, twice.
• Ravens and Crows: Both ravens and crows are present in the books. Crows are usually antagonistic (except to Doc Finebeak, who recruits them for the war in the last book), while ravens are more benevolent.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted by most of the snakes, who are good guys.
• Reverse Mole: Hortense
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Boron and Barran.
• Satisfied Street Rat: Twilight, who has graduated from the orphan school of tough learning.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Ezylryb is Lyze of Kiel.. Nyroc later becomes Coryn.
• Seldom-Seen Species: Many of the owl species, as well as blind snakes, flying snakes, puffins, and dire wolves.
• Self-Made Orphan: Kludd.
• Shout-Out: "Call me Grank", the first line from The First Collier.
  • At one point, a group of owls try to save books from the Pure Ones by memorizing them, saying they got the idea from a book written by one of the Others, named "Ray Brad" (although they think the name may have been cut off).
  • There are tons of 300 references in the last book. "We will fight in the shade" and "[you want our weapons?] Come and get them!" to name a few.
• Skewed Priorities: In The Capture, Soren is being carried off by a St. Aggie's patrol owl. Rather then worry about how to escape, all Soren is worried about is that said patrol owl called him stupid.
• Slashed Throat: Lots of characters die by getting slashed in the throat or neck, such as Aunt Finny.
• Snake Talk: The flying snakes do this, though it's averted with the nest-maid and Kielian snakes.
• The Siege: The Siege, on the Great Ga'hoole Tree.
• Somewhere an Entomologist Is Crying: Spiders and centipedes are referred to as "insects".
• Somewhere a Herpetologist Is Crying: The flying snakes can inject venom with their tongues.
• Somewhere a Mammalogist Is Crying: It's implied at certain points that bats are birds, and are blind.
• 3D Movie
• Took a Level in Badass: Otulissa gets special mention. She is introduced as a prissy know-it-all bookworm, now she has an Eyepatch of Power.
  • The puffins in the last book. And how!
• Treacherous Advisor: Striga/Orlando to Coryn in the last two books.
• Unfortunate Names: Nyroc is named after Nyra, the most feared/hated owl in the entire Owl Kingdom. Even though Nyroc has never really done anything bad, his name still gives him a bad reputation Until he got the ember of Hoole.
• Unholy Matrimony: Kludd and Nyra. They actually love each other, which makes it, if possible, even creepier.
• Waif Prophet: Hortense.
• Warrior Poet: Twilight and Ezylryb.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Books 9-11 are a Whole Arc Flashback!
• You Are Number Six: The owls in St. Aggie's.