Sir Apropos of Nothing

Every heroic fantasy has its hero - the dashing, handsome, fearless warrior who will rush into battle, slaughter the forces of evil, secure in the knowledge that he will save the day and win the favor of the (always beautiful and virginal) princess of the land, and live happily ever after.

This series is not about that guy.

This is about the Sidekick.

Apropos is the son of a prostitute, born of a gang-rape by a bunch of drunk knights, and his mother is convinced that the universe has Great Things planned for him. Apropos is sick of hearing the word "destiny" being bandied about, and he would rather save his own skin than the world. It's a comedy.

There are currently three books in the Sir Apropos of Nothing series by Peter David (whom some of you might recognize from his Star Trek novels, or his tenure on The Incredible Hulk).

• Sir Apropos of Nothing
• The Woad to Wuin
• Tong Lashing

There is also a five-issue comics miniseries published by IDW, called "Gypsies, Vamps, and Thieves", which picks up the story after Tong Lashing.

Tropes used in Sir Apropos of Nothing include:

• Adipose Rex: King Runcible and King Meander
• Anti-Hero: Apropos.
• Axe Crazy: Entipy, who may have burned down a convent.
• Bifurcated Weapon: Apropos' staff can split into two batons, amongst other tricks.
• Born Lucky: Used straight and inverted.
• Brother-Sister Incest: Unknowingly. Really Unknowingly.
• Byronic Hero: Apropos.
• Butt Monkey: Apropos again. Many of the horrors and indignities he is subjected to are the result of Laser-Guided Karma; everybody else got away with something, but the one time he cheated, he got caught and got screwed. Many more are completely out of the blue.
• Child by Rape: Apropos yet again. His lame leg is a key to figuring out that The King's jester is his father.
• Cursed with Awesome: A main plot point of the second book.
• Deadpan Snarker: Now, we can't keep seeing the same hands every time...
• Death Seeker: Sir Umbrage
• Deconstruction: Exploring the role of the hero from the point of view of someone who's not a hero. That and slapping several high fantasy tropes in the face.
• Deconstructive Parody: Some parts.
• Despair Event Horizon: Several moments throughout the trilogy could qualify, but it's particularly thoroughly spelled out in the third book, after Apropos returns to Hosbiyu, only to find everyone dead.
• Destructive Savior: Mainly in the second and third books.
• Dirty Coward
• Distant Finale: Implied; Apropos comments in one book that he is writing this in his old age.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: Verah Wang Ho
• First-Person Smartass
• Foregone Conclusion: Well, he survives to old age... he's just not sure how.
• Groin Attack: The One Thing to Rule Them All doesn't go on your finger...
• The Gump: At the end of the second book, it's revealed the "Golden City" much of the book took place in is Jerusalem.
• Heel Realization: It starts with his epiphany that he's a side character in someone else-story, and kind of goes to hell from there.
• Heroic BSOD: See "Bridget", above. It results in the Hiroshima-like destruction of a city.
• How We Got Here: The first chapter of the first book starts at about the middle of the story. They then start at the beginning. The very beginning.
• Hurricane of Puns: Look closely at the maps...
  • He spends a full two pages detailing just how a race of bird-men came to be, and how they got their name...the punchline being that they're called the Harpers Bizarre.
• Incest Is Relative: See above.
• Killer Game Master: Ronnel McDonnel, in the third book.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Tacit, the hero to whom Apropos is a sidekick. Tacit is an idiot.
  • Played with; in the story's universe, actual knights in shining armor exist and are forces to be reckoned with like medieval Europe, and Tacit isn't one of them. He's more a Robin Hood figure. That makes him disreputable in the story's universe, but the Designated Hero in the story.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Apropos knows this is not supposed to be his story. He doesn't care anymore. He'll steal it.
• Long Lost Sibling: Discovered not quite in time...
• Love Is in the Air: Every woman Apropos comes in contact with while the One Thing to Rule Them All is attached to his member jumps his bones. At one point they actually tie him down so that every woman within a 20-mile radius can have a turn.
• Missed the Call: A lot, which pissed Apropos off to no end.
• Mood Whiplash
• No Indoor Voice: LORD BELICOSE IN THE SECOND BOOK, BY CRUMM!
  • YES, Brian Blessed IS MY FIRST CHOICE TO PLAY HIM IN THE MOVIE, TOO!!!
• No Party Like a Donner Party: May or may not be the backstory of the mad king in the first book.
• Precision F-Strike: One in every book. The first one is done by nuns, no less.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sir Umbrage; King Meander; Odclay
• Punny Name: Just about everyone of note. Start with the narrator and walk in a random direction.
• Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Thanks to the One Thing, above.
• Redheaded Hero: Well, anti-hero...
• Refusal of the Call
• The Resenter: Apropos, towards Tacit. Big time.
• Screw Destiny
• Shout-Out/Literature: All over the place.
• Signature Style: Peter David loves his puns. And characters who are nattily dressed.
• Simple Staff: Apropos' favored weapon due to his lame leg. Not entirely simple, due to the blade hidden within.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Apropos sort of breaks the scale, being a Type IV or V saddled with the loser luck of a cynical Type I.
• Son of a Whore: Apropos.
• Standard Hero Reward: This almost ends very badly.

• Villain Protagonist: Apropos becomes one for the second half of the second book.
• Who's on First?: in the third book. Played with at the end: "My lousy luck that in Chinpanese the word for "who" was the same as in my language."
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Entipy, the girl... and the horse.
  • The source of more than a bit of fridge Squick (hardly the only example related to her, of course, but still) when you remember their connection.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He doesn't realize he's the actual protagonist of the story until some time after he chucks a rock at the default hero's head and takes the hero role by force.