History ComicBook / Persepolis

* GoodParents: Marjane's parents.

* DarkerAndEdgier: While the book is by no means light fare, the movie makes good use of the benefit of timing and sound to present it's story less matter-of-factly. Most noteworthy, the movie changes Adult!Marjane's reason for leaving the country for good from her disgust at the fundamentalist propaganda rubbing off on her friends to fleeing for her life when the police chase one of her friends off a building and leave him for dead (which did happen in the book, but was not a decisive factor).

** When guards come in a raid, Marjane [[FalseRapeAccusation accuses a man of saying something indecent to her]] in order to save herself from being confronted over wearing lipstick. He's never seen again. Later on, she tells her grandmother about the incident-and also laughs about it. Grandma is far, far from amused. Since the movie takes place in post-revolution Iran, the man could've been [[spoiler:tortured or even executed]]. The scene shows how a police state could turn anyone into a monster.

''Persepolis'' is an autobiographical comic by Marjane Satrapi, originally published in multiple volumes from 2000–2004, and adapted into an animated film (directed by Satrapi as well) in 2007. It begins with her childhood in UsefulNotes/{{Tehran}} during TheSeventies, as her middle-class family works to bring down the Shah. Soon, the fundamentalists are swept into power, and a new wave of repression begins. Marjane rebels in small ways, such as by buying smuggled rock tapes and denim jackets, drawing the attention of her school and compelling her parents to send her to Europe. She kicks around UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} for a few years, alienated by the people there, before returning to a Tehran changed by years of fundamentalist rule.

''Persepolis'' is an autobiographical comic by Marjane Satrapi, originally published in multiple volumes from 2000–2004, and adapted into an animated film (directed by Satrapi as well) in 2007. It begins with her childhood in UsefulNotes/{{Tehran}} during TheSeventies, as her middle-class family works to bring down the Shah. Soon, the fundamentalists are swept into power, and a new wave of repression begins. Marjane rebels in small ways, such as by buying smuggled rock tapes and denim jackets, drawing the attention of the police and compelling her parents to send her to Europe. She kicks around UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} for a few years, alienated by the people there, before returning to a Tehran changed by years of fundamentalist rule.

* DemotedToExtra: Lucia appeared long enough in the comic version to show her developing friendship with Marji. In the movie version however she only appeared in one scene.

** [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Averted with the soundtrack version, though.]]

* WickedStepmother: When Marjane is about to be taken to the authorities by angry fundamentalist women (the ones in the page picture) for wearing Western-style clothing, she cries buckets of tears and wails about how her "evil stepmother" will burn her with an iron and send her to an orphanage. The women get so uncomfortable that they just leave her alone.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Dozens of characters receive names and some amount of characterization. Justified in that the story documents a real person's life across roughly ten years.

* AdultFear: The Iranian revolution is a real event that happened, and Marjane's parents face the full brunt of it.
** Marjane's mother [[AngerBornOfWorry slaps her daughter and maid]] for going out to a demonstration on Black Friday, the day of one of the biggest massacres.
** The government tries to convince teenage boys to become martyrs by giving them plastic keys painted gold and saying that they'll enjoy paradise for eternity in heaven if they're lucky enough to die on the battlefield. Such a promise is made to Mrs. Nasrine's son, and she's clearly devastated by it.
** As a teenager and above the age of consent in Iran -- nine years old according to sharia laws -- Marjane could potentially get arrested, forcibly married to a prison guard, raped, and then executed, as it is against sharia law to kill a virgin. Such a fate happened to Niloufar, the communist girl hiding at the passport maker's apartment, and a pittance of a dowry (500 tumans, equivalent to $5) was paid to her parents to make sure they got the message.
** Because of Marjane becoming outspoken, her parents send her to Austria at the tender age of fourteen. She then goes missing for ''months'' after her eighteenth birthday, asks to return to Iran, and attempts suicide when they go on vacation to the Caspian Sea.
** At the end of the second graphic novel, Marjane's parents admit that they were worried that their daughter would make a mess of her life, and support her going abroad to art school in France.

** Several years later, her mother Taji tells Marjane that she can't keep speaking out at school, or she might end up like Niloufar who was arrested for the crime of being Communist. Niloufar like many virgins was married off to a prison guard, raped, and shot because it's against the law to kill virgins. Marjane is shocked but suggests that maybe the regime made it up to scare people and they just executed Niloufar. Her father shuts her down with five words: "[[AdultFear No, your mother is right]]." He knows because Niloufar's family reported they received a pittance of a dowry from her "husband".

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** When two Fundamentalists see Marjane wearing Western clothing, She spins the story of a WickedStepmother who physically abuses her and would lock her up. Add in some fake tears, and they let her go as she was drawing in attention.

* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: Marjane finds out that Neda Baba-Levy is dead by seeing her severed hand that contains a turquoise bracelet that she got as a gift. The next chapter shows Marjane fighting with a teacher over wearing a bracelet to school, implying that she took it for herself as a reminder of what happened to Nada]].

''Persepolis'' is an autobiographical comic by Marjane Satrapi, originally published in multiple volumes from 2000–2004, and adapted into an animated film (directed by Satrapi as well) in 2007. It begins with her childhood in UsefulNotes/{{Tehran}} during TheSeventies, as her middle-class family works to bring down the Shah. Soon, the fundamentalists are swept into power, and a new wave of repression begins. Marjane rebels in small ways, by buying smuggled rock tapes and denim jackets, drawing the attention of the police and compelling her parents to send her to Europe. She kicks around UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} for a few years, alienated by the people there, before returning to a Tehran changed by years of fundamentalist rule.

** Several years later, her mother Taji tells Marjane that she can't keep speaking out at school, or she might end up like Niloufar who was arrested for the crime of being Communist. Niloufar like many virgins was married off to a prison guard, raped, and shot because it's against the law to kill virgins. Marjane is shocked but suggests that maybe the regime made it up to scare people and they just executed Niloufar. Her father shuts her down with four words: "[[AdultFear No, your mother is right]]." He knows because Niloufar's family reported they received a pittance of a dowry from her "husband".

* FromBadToWorse: The older Marjane gets, the deeper the Iranian revolution sinks its teeth into the country. For her uncle, thinking oppression would be eradicated when the Shah was removed. Unfortunately, fundamentalist governments are much ''less' tolerant.

* LiesToChildren: One of Marjane's friends was told her pilot father was on a trip, and Marjane tactlessly tells her friend that her father's probably in prison. Later on, Marjane is told the same thing about her uncle, and gets an OhCrap expression [[DeadlyEuphemism when she realizes what it means.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Mullah from Marjane's university. He was her proctor for the religious examination and listened to her being completely honest: that she thinks that if God wanted women to wear the veil, they would have been bald and that she doesn't pray in Arabic because Persian is her native language and the best way for her to communicate to God. She passes, and the Mullah says later that Marjane was the only person honest. Later, [[spoiler:when she challenges a religious committee about the DoubleStandard towards male and female students, he invites her to a meeting, laughs and reassures her that she's not in trouble. Instead, he gives her a challenge: draw a women's uniform that pleases the conservative and the students]].

* WhamLine: We know things will get worse when Marjane finds out that Uncle Anoosh went away "on a trip." She goes OhCrap, knowing it's a DeadlyEuphemism for getting arrested.

* PrisonRape / MaritalRapeLicense: {{Discussed}}. When a virgin is arrested, a member of the SecretPolice marries and deflowers her before she's executed. Because executing virgins is illegal and virgins can't go to hell. So that's one way around that issue. Then, to hammer it in, a pittance of a dowry is sent to the woman's family so they know exactly what happened. Understandably, Marjane's parents freak out over it.

* BluffingTheAuthorities: The police suspect that Marjane's family has been to a party and are following them home to check for stashed wine. When they arrive, Marjane's grandma asks to enter the house first, claiming she has diabetes and needs to get her medicine urgently. Once inside she and Marjane flush all the wine down the toilet, but later find they needn't have bothered: Marjane's father merely bribed the police officer to get him to leave.

* DistinguishingMark: Marjane gains a rather prominent one shortly after going through puberty. While she spends most of her adolescence disgusted by it, she eventually embraces it as her most iconic feature.

* BeautyMark: Marjane gains a rather prominent one shortly after going through puberty. While she spends most of her adolescence disgusted by it, she eventually embraces it as her most iconic feature.

* BadassMustache: In contrast to [[BeardOfEvil the full beards worn by the Islamic fundamentalists]], many of the more radical Iranian men, most notably Marjane's father and her uncle Anoosh, wear neat, dignified mustaches something that she points out when describing the differences in fashion between the two.