They introduced a female love interest pretty deep into the story. She was the first character who was openly and unconditionally supportive of the main character. Unusually, they immediately progressed their relationship, got married, and had a child.

Of course this beacon of hope and warmth only existed to cause trauma. A terrible bad guy kidnapped her, against the advice of literally every other character. He tortured her to extremes only possible in a fantasy novel, then she died in the hero’s arms.