History Literature / HeroicsForBeginners

* {{Epigraph}}: The first chapter starts with one from ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'':
--> Before attempting to penetrate the Evil Overlord’s Invincible Fortress, the practical hero will seriously examine the option of maintaining a safe distance and picking him off the ramparts with a long-range weapon.\\
''The Handbook of Practical Heroics''\\
by Robert Taylor

* TheMole: To everyone's surprise, it's[[spoiler: the MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter]].

* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian, who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody. The "bordering" part is because he is notably unsuccessful - true, his actions bring about Voltmeter's downfall, but only in an indirect AlmostDeadGuy {{Messenger}}. [[EpicFail And aside from his unanticipated escape, he falls for every one of Voltmeter's traps]].

* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Specifically how Lord Voltmeter has browbeat the man into work on the Doomsday Device. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to him, she switched to Voltmeter's side, and has been undermining him at every turn]].

* CoolShades: Kevin's father wears a pair of mining glasses leading to his title of ''King Eric the Totally Cool''

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Played with. The main character thinks back to how he once snuck out of the castle to take his then girlfriend to a small jazz club, only for his father, King Eric the Totally Cool, to show up with his trademark [[CoolShades shades]] and a saxophone so he can jam with the band. As the hero puts it, "parents should not be cooler then their children."

* ContractualGenreBlindness: The evil overlord mentions trying to foreclose the mortgage on an orphanage and chase down puppies to kick because that's how one becomes an evil overlord. This is an interesting case, as the overlord manages to be a stereotypical villain while still being DangerouslyGenreSavvy. The only reason he's ultimately defeated is because the hero doesn't use conventional "heroic" methods.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Lord Voltmeter is this; it's part of how he came to power, in addition to having to outbid others on orphanages to forclose, or chase puppies down roads to fill the kicking quota. He hired a StrawFeminist man-hating woman to be the Lovely Assistant, who is therefore impossible to seduce and his chief EvilMinion is quite intelligent and graduated with a prestigious degree, and therefore cannot be tricked. He is ''livid'' that Thunk seduced the ''minion'' and tricked the ''assistant''.

* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family'' (Every adult member of the royal family had a disturbingly large number of children, and as a result at least one member of each household was able to get away). Amazingly, the villain was GenreSavvy enough to '''not''' attempt to break it; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagers and under -- he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[ProperlyParanoid psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]

* PunnyName: The EvilOverlord is called Lord Voltmeter. It's more of a {{Shallow P|arody}}un on "Lord Voldemort" than a meaningful name though, since he doesn't have electric powers. He is also referred to as "He Who Must Be Named", furthering the parody. Apparently, it's dangerous to use personal pronouns when referring to him.

* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian, who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody. The "bordering" part is because he is notably unsuccessful - true, his actions bring about Voltmeter's downfall, but only in an indirect AlmostDeadGuy {{Messenger}}. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And aside from his unanticipated escape, he falls for every one of Voltmeter's traps]].

* ReverseThePolarity: This is Kevin's initial assumption on how to stop the Doomsday Device. He's informed that no, you can't just do that, it wouldn't work... [[{{Subversion}} and then goes on]] to admit that, yes, all right, in ''this'' case that's the plan, but it required a great deal of calculation that he'd worked out earlier.

* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Specifically how Lord Voltmeter has browbeat the man into work on the Doomsday Device.[[Spoiler: Unbeknownst to him, she switched to Voltmeter's side, and has been undermining him at every turn]].

* WeaksauceWeakness: The Lovely Assistant is deathly afraid of showing signs of aging. That,[[Spoiler: coupled with Voltmeter going behind her back to replace her with the MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter, who is evil]].

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Played with. The main character thinks back to how he once snuck out of the castle to take his then girlfriend to a small jazz club, only for his father, King Eric the Totally Cool, to show up with his trademark [[CoolShades shades]] and a saxophone so he can jam with the band. As the hero puts it "Parent's should not be cooler then their children."

* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian, who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody.

* DoomsdayDevice: The crux of Lord Voltmeter's plan. [[spoiler: It oversaturates the air with carbon dioxide, making it impossible to breathe within a given area.]]

* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and parodied. The hero meets a mysterious fortuneteller, but complains that her prophecies don't rhyme. Exasperated, she whips up a quatrain on the spot (or tries to ... she has to send him a message later with the last line).

* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family''. Amazingly, the villain was GenreSavvy enough to '''not''' attempt to break it; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagers and under -- he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[ProperlyParanoid psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]

* DoomsdayDevice: The crux of Lord Voltmeter's plan. [[spoiler: It oversaturates the air with Carbon Dioxide, making it impossible to breathe within a given area.

It's up to Kevin to use his wits (and his copy of ''Handbook of Practical Heroics'') to save the day before Logan and his army can destroy the Fortress of Doom and win the princess.

It's up to Kevin to use his wits (and his copy of ''Handbook of Practical Heroics'') to save the day before Logan and his army can destroy the Fortress of Doom.