History Literature / Nightwatch

Literature called ''Night Watch'' may refer to:

* ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'': A book in the City Watch portion of the ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'' series.
* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'': A series of books contrasting Day Watch and Night Watch.

If a direct wick has led you here, please correct the link so that it points to the corresponding article.
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[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightwatch_lukyanenko.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:260:"The common good and the individual good rarely coincide."]]

->''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Light.''
-->-- ''Night Watch''

->''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Dark.''
-->-- ''Day Watch''

''Night Watch'' (''Ночной Дозор, Nochnoi Dozor'') is a book series by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko, a [[SpeculativeFiction speculative fiction]] writer internationally acclaimed, especially in the Eastern Bloc. It had two movie adaptations (both movies mixed elements of this book and its sequel) starring Creator/KonstantinKhabensky, both of which became the top-grossing Russian movie of all time (Night Watch broke all previous records, was briefly beaten by 9th Company, then DayWatch broke 9th Company's new record). Because of this, the series received much attention internationally and spread Lukyanenko's name and work to the West.

''Night Watch'' is set in Moscow in [[PresentDay 1998-2007 (book timeline) / circa 2004 (movie timeline)]]. The world is pretty much the gritty ex-Communist concrete-a-thon we know and love, with a major difference. There are Others. Others are non-humans born from humans and have special abilities. Vampires, shapeshifters, wizards, prophets, warlocks... and [[IncrediblyLamePun all others.]] What distinguishes Others from humans is their innate ability to manipulate "The Twilight", a "mirror world" of magical energy. Others come in two flavors, Light and Dark, and the Light and Dark have been conflicting since the beginning of time. In the 12th century or so, the Others from both sides realized that conflicts between them, due to their vast power and influence over humans, could destroy the world. So they wrote and signed the Treaty, which basically states that each side is allowed to form a Watch to monitor the activities of the other side from becoming overly excessive, in turn monitored by a joint Inquisition. The Treaty has held up well, and all fighting between Light and Dark has since moved [[TheChessmaster into the shadows.]]

Not to be confused with the 1994 Danish horror film ''Film/{{Nightwatch}}'' or its 1997 American remake, or the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book titled ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}''.

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Main series:
* ''Night Watch'' follows the livings and doings of Light magician Anton Gorodetskiy, an Moscow Night Watch operative working under the Great Light magician Geser.
* ''Day Watch'' follows three different Dark Others, with several ''Night Watch'' characters appearing as recurring antagonists. It was co-written by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko and Creator/VladimirVasilyev.
* ''Twilight Watch'' follows Anton Gorodetskiy as he tries to protect his daughter, [[spoiler:a potential Light Messiah]], while looking for a magic book that can turn mundane humans into Others.
* ''The Last Watch'' written by Sergey Lukyanenko because he wanted to prove that the fame hasn't gone to his head and he could write a book within a year without distractions getting in the way. Wraps up some loose trends from the previous books, ({{lampshade|Hanging}}s and {{homage}}s the movie adaptation a few times and wraps up the events in the closest thing the series can have to the GrandFinale.
* Nevertheless, the fifth book was released in 2012, titled ''The New Watch''.
* In 2014 the author declared that the upcoming ''Sixth Watch'' was very definitely going to be the last book about the mage Anton Gorodetskiy. According to Lukyanenko, he will instead focus on the new series, exploring the evil within us. The ''Watch'' series is going to become a SharedUniverse (under his supervision) to introduce fresh perspective into the 'verse. ''The Sixth Watch'' was released in December 2014, after as many as 3 co-authored spin-offs (see below).
* Nevertheless, in November 2018 he released the first chapter from the seventh, now absolutely definitely last book about Gorodetsky. Technically this does not contradict the above statement, as in the end if "Sixth Watch" Gorodetsky [[spoiler:has been reverted to human]].

Spin-offs:
* ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' follows the livings and doings of members of the Kievan Day Watch visiting St. Petersburg. The book was written by Creator/VladimirVasilyev with Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's blessing. ''Twilight Watch'' and ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' take place in the same time period, and events of one book refer to those in the other (and vice versa) - though the plots never truly connect.
* In 2014, a spin-off was released, co-authored by Arkadiy Shushpanov, titled ''School Supervision'' (or ''School Watch'', if you prefer). The book deals with a group of unaffiliated teenage Others being taught at a WizardingSchool of sorts.
* Also in 2014, another spin-off called ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' was released, co-authored by Ivan Kuznetsov. This one focuses on two original POV characters, although Anton shows up for a short chapter before leaving.
* Yet another spin-off in 2014 called ''District Cop'', co-authored by Alex de Klemeshye. Set in Siberia in 1972, the focus is on a lone cop policing a small village in the middle of nowhere who finds himself set against evil shamans.
* And yet another spin-off was released in 2014 called ''The Time of Inversions'', once again penned by Creator/VladimirVasilyev and serving as a sequel of sorts to ''The Face of the Dark Palmira'', being once again set in Ukraine and having some characters from that book return.
* Arkadiy Shushpanov writes another spin-off (unrelated to ''School Supervision'') called ''Shadow Watch'' (2015) involving the deepest layers of the Twilight and the Others who have gone from this world.
* ''Sevastopol Watch'' (2016) by Sergey Nedorub involves the mysterious disappearance of both Watches of the titular Crimean city. Their replacements have no idea what to do and aren't really suited for Watch work.
* Alex de Klemeshye returns in 2016 with a sequel to ''District Cop'' called ''Son of the Great Dane''.
* ''The Watches Don't Work Together'' (2016) by Nikolay Zhelunov takes place in 1962 and has a young Light mage investigate the disappearance of multiple Others in Moscow during a ban on magic by the Inquisition.
* Karina Shainian's ''Color Watch'' (written in 2013; published in 2016) focuses on a young female artist from Novosibirsk, who spends her time backpacking across Asia and refuses to accept the world of magic.
* Marina Yasinskaya's ''Foreign Watch'' (2017) has a female Other from Moscow go on vacation to Cuba, only for her husband and daughter to vanish and herself arrested by the Havana Night Watch on the charge of murder. Apparently, someone is trying to resurrect a powerful Other named UsefulNotes/CheGuevara.
* Ivan Kuznetsov's ''The Time of Wishes'' (2017) takes place between ''New Watch'' and ''Sixth Watch'' and has the Inquisition bring in a Dark Other named Yuri to reopen an investigation related to the Tiger's visit.
* A four-author (Olga Baumgertner, Aleksandr Salnikov, Alex de Klemeshye, Arkadiy Shushpanov) collaboration called ''The Watch from the Boulevard des Capucines'' (2018) focuses on an Other named Leonid, who is obsessed with cinematography in the early 20th century and wants nothing to do with the Watches and their problems. But things don't always work out the way we want them to.
Aside from the movie adaptations, the book inspired a surprisingly interesting (if badly animated, buggy and poorly acted) PC game, a MMORG and a board game, not to mention the usual merchandising crap.

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!!''Night Watch'' provides examples of:

* ActOfTrueLove: [[spoiler: Geser and Olga (she was trapped in the form of a stuffed owl for decades), who risked everything in a conspiracy in order to convert their own human son into an Other by secretly using the Fuaran in ‘’Twilight Watch’’ and Gayla, Anton’s teenage sidekick, when she sacrificed her own life to save him from an assassin in ‘’Last Watch’’]].
* AffablyEvil: Zabulon may be the head of the Moscow Day Watch (making him incredibly powerful, several centuries old, and probably the most ruthless and dangerous Dark Other in the former Soviet Union) and the sworn enemy of the Night Watch in general and Geser in particular, but he is generally polite and friendly to everyone, seems to have a certain fondness for Anton, generally acts as though he is enjoying himself immensely, and regards Geser as a beloved rival (it is even implied in ''Twilight Watch'' that part of the reason that neither Geser or Zabulon have advanced beyond the rivalries of the Watches is because they enjoy playing out their rivalry). It's mentioned somewhere that Zabulon is nearly a millennium old. And he remarks to Gesar that he had dreamed that they would one day work together, during the climax of ''Twilight Watch''. While giggling in a slightly less-than-sane way.
** ''New Watch'' also reveals that Zabulon cares about those he initiated, like the prophet Erasmus Darwin, whom he genuinely tried to defend against the Tiger. Then again, when Anton witnesses him begging the Tiger for his life, he realizes that, should Zabulon find out that Anton knows, Anton's life is forfeit.
** The reason he's so interested in Anton? [[spoiler: He turns out to be Anton's biological grandfather, who planned to make him Dark, and was severely pissed at Geser for turning him as Light Other.]]
* AllMenAreRapists: In the second story of ''Day Watch'', Alisa starts a conversation with a taxi driver after sensing that he was a decent man faithful to his wife, and tries to prove this trope to him. He tries to deny this, at least with regards to himself, but she bashes him on the head with the argument that he would rape her in an instant if he didn't fear punishment. It's obvious she's just playing with him, but he's glad when he finally drops her off that the conversation's over.
* AllPropheciesAreTrue: Played straight and subverted. Any ''main'' (the first complete prophecy spoken by a prophet) prophecy that is heard by a human (not necessarily from the original source) "locks in" the future, and that eventuality will happen no matter what. However, if the prophet dies before speaking the prophecy, or he prophecies it to empty space, or any Other that hears it is killed before telling a human, the prophecy is averted.
** Additionally, Arina claims that she has managed to avert one prophecy even after a human heard it. Said prophecy predicted doom for the Russian nation following the death of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II Nicholas II]]'s son [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsesarevich_of_Russia Alexei]] from haemophilia (passed down from his great-grandmother [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Queen Vicky]]). The prophecy claimed that, after the death of his sole heir, Nicholas would grow bitter and angry, more decisive. He would brutally crush the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions revolution]], but then, several decades down the line, Russia would end being carved up by Germany, Japan, and other Western powers. Arina secretly prolonged Alexei's life, preferring a Communist future to the one described in the prophecy.
*** However, Fan Wen-yan denies that any prophecy (as opposed to a prediction) can be altered, only postponed. Postponing a prophecy can turn it UpToEleven.
** Also, there is a distinction made between prophets and clairvoyants. Clairvoyants predict ''possible'' futures (really, any Other, and even some humans, can do that; clairvoyants just do it better). Prophets say what ''will'' happen, as long as a human hears it.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Arina's love for [[spoiler: Anton]], who is devoted to his wife.
* AlternateContinuity: The films, as expressly stated near the beginning of ''The Last Watch''. One of the characters retells as a dream one of the most random and over-the-top scenes in the movies, which he dismisses as an alternate reality -- there's more than a hint of a TakeThat, too. There is also the PC game adaptation, which basically throws the book and movie continuities into a blender.
* AnalogyBackfire: In ''The New Watch'', an uninitiated boy prophet asks Gesar if he can tell his mom the truth. Gesar explains that she wouldn't understand. The boy references [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hermione]] telling her parents. Gesar points out that she had to erase their memories after that.
* AndIMustScream
** The spell that the Inquisitors suggest that Anton use [[spoiler:to defeat the ultimate vampire Kostya]], is called the Sarcophagus of Ages. It locks the victim and the caster in said sarcophagus together until the end of the universe. The spell maintains the bodies of the trapped, so they don't die (even if they want to). It's not even 100% certain that the end of the universe would be enough to destroy the Sarcophagus.
*** By the end of ''New Watch'', [[spoiler:Anton uses the spell to trap himself and Arina to convince Tiger the prophecy about the destruction of magic will never come true. However, Tiger pulls Anton out of the Sarcophagus, and Anton suggests Arina might escape once her portal-opening Minos sphere recharges.]]
** ''White Haze'', a spell referred to in the ''Last Watch'', essentially made a whole opposing army into the stone statues... while leaving everyone alive and conscious. They've spent ''four millennia'' [[FateWorseThanDeath like that]]. White Haze was also the spell Geser suggested in the above-mentioned duel.
** ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' reveals the existence of the so-called Twilight Others. These are ordinary Others who were born in the Twilight (this usually kills the mother). Eventually, all Twilight Others lose the ability to return to the human world but feel completely at home on every Twilight level. Imagine spending an extraordinarily long life without being able to see normal shapes or people again, only their shadows and imprints in the Twilight.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The first two stories in ''Day Watch'' are told from the viewpoints of two Dark Others: Alisa and Vitaliy.
** The novel ''School Supervision'' introduces a new protagonist, a seventh-level (i.e. extremely weak) Light Other named Dmitriy Dreyer, who teaches Other Literature at the WizardingSchool. He mentions to have once met Anton shortly after being initiated. Anton taught a class on the nature of magic and explains why Others will never travel to other planets, at least until sufficiently large human colonies are established (the last part was likely intentional, as many in the class are sci-fi writers). After the first story, though, Dmitriy becomes an Inquisitor and assistant principal at the school ([[spoiler:he also manages to jump 3 levels to 4th with the help of his friends]]).
** ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' focuses on two POV Others from Samara, Russia. One chapter once again brings us Anton's POV, who is sent by Gesar to investigate one of the protagonists, only to go back to Moscow shortly after.
** ''District Cop'' takes place in 1972, so it only makes sense that Anton would not be the protagonist. Instead, the focus is on a lone cop policing a small Siberian village far from any city. The cop is also a Light Other, but he, for the most part, prefers to live as a {{Muggle}} with his (normal) wife and daughter.
* AntiVillain
** [[spoiler:Kostya]] in ''Twilight Watch''.
** Arguably [[spoiler:Edgar and Genady]] in ''The Last Watch''. And Arina.
** Even more arguably [[spoiler:Tiger/the Twilight]] in ''The New Watch'', though he gets better at the end. Just as arguable [[spoiler: Two-in-One.]]
* AuraVision: All Others are able to see through the Twilight at another person's aura. The aura usually reflects not only whether the person is a human or an Other but also the person's emotional state. In fact, auras are used by the Watches as a method of identification, as each person's aura is unique (similar to DNA, though, the auras of family members have many of the same features). In ''New Watch'', it's revealed that at least two people have been accidentally granted the ability to recognize Others as a side effect of spells used on them. A Moscow policeman named Dima Pastukhov explains that he sees them though the eyes... even if he's looking at the Other from far away. He's even able to differentiate Light Others (whom he calls "dogs") and Dark Others ("wolves" to him). The other person was Creator/WilliamBlake, presumably through his association with the Dark Other prophet Erasmus Darwin.
* BadassFamily: The Gorodetsky family.
* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil
** ''New Watch'' explains why there are more Dark Others numerically but of lower rank but fewer Light Others but of higher rank (Zabulon is the only Great Dark Other in Moscow, while there are nearly half-dozen Great Light Others in Moscow). Statistically, there is 1 altruistic person per 16 selfish people. The same proportion translates into the Light and Dark Others, respectively.
* BalefulPolymorph: Olga is punished for an unspecified transgression by being forced to remain as a stuffed snowy owl for decades at a time. She's only allowed to assume human form for half-an-hour each day during wartime (the last time was during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). Thanks to Geser's manipulations, the curse is lifted at the end of ''Night Watch''. She is still able to speak in this form, but Anton notes that it takes great effort.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of UserfulNotes/CharlesDarwin, is revealed in ''New Watch'' to be a Dark Other and a prophet.
** Certain historical figures (especially authors) are revealed to have either been Others (e.g. Creator/RobertLouisStevenson, Creator/AmbroseBierce), uninitiated Others (e.g. [[Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita Mikhail Bulgakov]], Creator/StephenKing), or influenced by Others (e.g. Creator/WilliamBlake, Creator/WilliamShakespeare).
** Creator/BruceLee is alive and well. There was a crisis in Hong Kong in 1973, and he was recalled to active duty in the Night Watch, requiring the Watch to fake his death. His Twilight form is a small dragon.
** In ''School Supervision'', [[spoiler:Aleksandr Filipov]] is revealed to be none other than [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, son of Phillip II of Macedon]]. He is the real power behind the European Bureau of the Inquisition.
** One of the Russian tsars had the potential to be a powerful Other. However, since this would create an enormous imbalance, both sides agreed not to initiate him.
** Creator/EdgarAllanPoe was an uninitiated Other whose works were influenced by the Twilight. It's speculated that his death was the result of him accidentally stepping into the Twilight and staying there too long, resulting in hypoglycemia (which humans attributed to alcoholism).
** Creator/HPLovecraft was a low-level Dark Other, who lived the life of a recluse but somehow entered Twilight in his sleep, inspiring the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.
* BeingEvilSucks: While the Dark Ones use every opportunity to brag about all that freedom, independence and strength The Darkness had given them and to make some lenient remarks on the poor deluded Light Ones who are so very constricted by their rules and who fuss over humans so much... It turns out that vampires are haunted by persistent insatiable HorrorHunger, werewolves have to deal with feats of feral uncontrollable rage once in a while and all the Dark Ones in general live in a world of constant paranoia and distrust towards their own brethren and superiors; ''especially'' superiors who wouldn't even bother notifying that YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness before they set up and sacrifice you as a part of their EvilPlan. The one ''non-Watch'' dark magician we see is shown enjoying himself in a restaurant with his [[HappilyMarried lovely wife and happy children.]]
* BeingGoodSucks
** This is hammered into recently-initiated Light Others at the Night Watch school, although the regular teacher always calls in sick for this particular lesson, as she can't stand the BreakTheCutie nature of it.
** Light bosses tend to be just as, if not more manipulative than their dark counterparts. Justified, as Light Others serving in the Watches often need help to justify their actions as Light, or risk dematerialising themselves.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Anton spends most of the first book treated as a muddling patsy who only ever wins because of Gesar's machinations. Then he hits his RageBreakingPoint and goes rogue, killing several Dark Others in his way. One he finds in a skyscraper's observation deck with a glass floor hanging over nothing, so he yanks the guy up a couple levels in the Twilight, where the building is no longer there, and then pulls them both back while the guy is falling - only to catch the Dark Other's fingertips in the glass floor, leaving him dangling... briefly. It's easily Anton's most cold-blooded moment in the whole book.
* BindingAncientTreaty: The Grand Treaty protects the world from an outright war between the Light and the Dark Others. This doesn't stop the two sides from using various schemes to ensure their domination over the other.
** The blood pact between the ancient vampires and [[spoiler:the Two-in-One]] and later [[spoiler:the Two-in-One and the Sixth Watch (composed of a Light Other, a Dark Other, a witch, a vampire, a prophet, and a potential Mirror)]]. According to it, the Others agree to maintain a balance in the world.
* BittersweetEnding: The end of ''Sixth Watch''. [[spoiler: The Two-in-One is killed, everybody lives (except Tiger and two poor mages that has become Two-in-One)... however Anton is permanently BroughtDownToNormal, and will quite likely die before all his friends.)]].
* BlackComedyRape[=/=]RapePortrayedAsRedemption: To an extent in ''Day Watch'' as seen in Alisa's revenge on a group of guys who were going to rape her is to force them at gunpoint to perform sex acts on each other. That being said, the completely cold and callous way in which she does this ensures that while it's hard to sympathize with them, she doesn't come across as justified in doing so either. She even mentions that it's not as good as gay porn she once watched with the other witches.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:The two Others possessed by the Two-in-One]] eventually start merging into one HumanoidAbomination.
* BornOfMagic: "Mirrors" are human-like beings who are spawned into existence by the [[SpiritWorld Twilight]] itself to kill or to DePower mages who threaten to upset the [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Light-Dark balance]], after which they return back to the Twilight. After one Mirror successfully neutralizes [[spoiler:Svetlana]] in ''Day Watch'', the main characters live in constant fear of another appearing, lest they fail to preserve the power balance.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Anton and Olga in ''New Watch''. Anton is angry that Watches [[spoiler: organized Nadya's birth to make her a potential weapon against [[GeniusLoci Twilight.]] However, Olga replies that Twilight's intentions are incomprehensible to Others, and as Tiger doesn't spoke too much about them, despite clearly being able to communicate, it's better to create an Other who is able to oppose Twilight's might. It's hard to disagree with both sides.]]
* BroughtDownToNormal: A common non-capital punishment by the Inquisition is to put a magical RestrainingBolt on the offender, which prevents him or her from drawing on Power and using magic. This, effectively, turns the Other into a normal human. He or she even resumes the normal aging process. The ban on magic is typically for life but is considered to be a better option than dematerialization. In ''School Supervision'', [[spoiler:a jinn Other manifests a version of the Fuaran text she calls the Anti-Fuaran, which is able to turn an Other into a normal person. It's then possible to use the normal Fuaran to make the person into a Higher Other. It can also be used to turn vampires and werewolves into magicians]]. At the end of ''Sixth Watch'', [[spoiler:the Two-in-One removes Anton's magic permanently, making him a regular human without a possibility of re-Initiation. It's no wonder it's the last book with him as a protagonist]].
* ByTheBookCop: Staff Sergeant Dima Pastukhov of the Moscow Police considers himself an honest cop, by Russian standards. Granted, he'll occasionally accept a small bribe from a cafe owner when stopping by for lunch or rough up a drunk or two when they get rowdy and refuse to go to a sobering-up station (special center for the intoxicated). However, he will also chase down any perp without a second thought, won't harass store owners, and will let those who are only a little drunk go home (provided they don't drive). However, he avoids the Others like the plague, having been accidentally granted the ability to see them by Anton's carelessness.
* CassandraTruth: When the young Erasmus Darwin, a prophet, is first being trained by his teacher [[spoiler:Zabulon]], the teacher asks him a few questions about the future. One particular one asks who will rule Capitol Hill in 300-400 years. Erasmus replies that "a [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama black man]] will ascend the throne and all will glorify him as a peacemaker. But he will send iron birds across the ocean to seize the treasures of the Libyans and the Persians, and by that shall be caused a great war and convulsions in the world…" The teacher thinks for a bit and shakes his head, claiming that the prophecy has too many mistakes. However, the teacher is talking about Capitoline Hill in Rome, not Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C, so there is no ocean between Italy and Lybia. He also claims that Lybia doesn't have any treasures, only a bunch of "useless black oil".
* CelebrityParadox: A variant in ''Face of the Black Palmira''. Zabulon and Taviscaron (the head of the Kiev Day Watch) are walking through the streets of Kiev, discussing random things. Taviscaron points to a building and casually mentions its architect by the name of Gorodetsky. Zabulon immediately expresses interest and asks for the architect's first name. Taviscaron tells him it's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Gorodetsky Vladislav]], and Zabulon loses interest, mentioning that he knows another Gorodetsky.
** In ''New Watch'', an old Jewish battle mage thinks that Anton is also Jewish based on his last name. Anton defends his family name, claiming it's an old Russian name, that he comes from a family of architects. While this may be another nod to Vladislav Gorodetsky, the real Gorodetsky was of Polish-Ukrainian descent. Interestingly, a revelation in ''Sixth Watch'' implies that Anton is [[spoiler:one-eighth Judean by way of Grandpa Zabulon]].
* CharmPerson: All Others, even weak ones, are able to do this, but it is recommended to avoid long term consequences or spend a limited special permit. In ''New Watch'', Anton deliberately tells a cop that he doesn't "need to see [his] papers" while waving his hand, while musing about ''StarWars''.
* CheerfulChild: Nadya
* CombatPragmatist: Semyon is one of the few Others who has studied martial arts in order to use them in combat. Most Others rely on their magic or supernatural abilities (such as vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters). Anton notably takes out a rogue Light mage (who has surrounded himself with an impenetrable magical shield) by knocking him out with a telescopic stick (he mentions that it's a rookie mistake to use a magical shield that doesn't protect against physical attacks as well). The BigBad of the ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' spin-off novel is taken out in a similar manner (hitting him on the head with a lamp)by the Dark Other, but only because he was using the technique of partial submerging.
* ContemplateOurNavels: A particularly tedious string of long conversations in the third part of the book about morality and the Light and Dark, etc.
* ContentWarnings: Made InUniverse -- ''Night Watch'', the first book, opens with a note that its text was approved for publishing by both Night and Day Watches; on the other hand, ''Day Watch'' has a note that it has ''not'' been approved by either; ''Dusk Watch'' is "indifferent" to both; ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' has "no comment" from both (while the Inquisition states that "it's silent [on the matter], as always") and ''The Last Watch'' is "acceptable" for both. ''The New Watch'' is a text of "dubious content" for both. ''Sixth Watch'' is "mandatory" for both. ''School Supervision'' is considered "pedagogically incorrect" by both Watches, and the Inquisition does not recommend it for children. Averted for ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' and ''District Cop''.
* ContinuityNod: Anton references the events of Creator/VladimirVasilyev's ''Face of the Black Palmira'' spin-off novel in ''Twilight Watch''.
** The spin-off novel ''School Supervision'' (co-authored by Arkadiy Shushpanov) references both the main ''Watch'' series and Vasilyev's spin-off.
** ''Sixth Watch'' makes several references to the ''School Supervision'' spin-off and even includes a character introduced there.
* CreatorProvincialism: Lukyanenko spent much of his adult life in Moscow, so it's not surprising that it's the main setting of the books. On the other hand he was born in Kazakhstan, and Central Asian motifs often show up in the novels.
* CulturalCrossReference: Many to western popular music and literature. Also, a surprising one to anime in ''Day Watch'', in which a witch named Alita wears a ''[[Manga/{{Gunnm}} Battle Angel Alita]]'' T-shirt.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Stated often, shown... not so much.
** The main idea seems to be that Dark Others value personal freedom over anyone's well-being, whereas the Light Others see it the other way around. Things get shady when it becomes apparent that personal freedom of a powerful mage comes at the cost of freedoms of less powerful mages and, eventually, humans, but the Dark Others are encouraged not to give a damn. Which doesn't really work. On a side note, Light Others are constantly faced with the dilemma of "killing a thousand to save a million".
** ''Day Watch'' shows the most of how Dark Others are not necessarily evil, or even bad, and provides insight into their perspective. It is true that most of the Dark Ones shown are quite evil, but since most of the stories are told from the perspective of the Night Watch, most of the Dark Ones encountered will be criminals or high-ranking members of the Day Watch (who will be the most ruthless and powerful, as well as the oldest -- when you've lived several centuries, you want to explore as many pleasures as possible). In ''Twilight Watch'' we also see a werewolf who initiated several children in order to save them from a terminal illness.
** The novels show that a lot of minor Dark Others aren't evil -- the above-mentioned werewolf, and earlier, the dark ones Maxim killed, and such, but it also shows that the rank-and-file ones in the Day Watch are happy to engage in cruel acts of child murder, or rape. And in two novels, dark ones attempted to nuke Moscow. When light ones kill people, or do something too bad it's usually accidental - if they kill someone on purpose unjustly they often dematerialize themselves (dying by disintegration) because they feel so guilty that they lose the will to live.
** The important difference between Light and Dark Others is that the Light Others are perfectly aware of the human vice and ignorance, while Dark Others consider their power a gift that is to be used. This explains why low-ranking Dark Others tend to use their powers for granted while high-ranked ones consider it an asset that has to be invested wisely. Light Others are taught from the beginning that the power corrupts and if not controlled, it may destroy its bearer (it is also the recurring theme in ''Night Watch'' and [[spoiler: a part of Zabulon's EvilPlan in ''Day Watch'')]].
** Kostya is a complicated example. He dreams of curing vampirism [[spoiler:and ends up developing a "cocktail" that allows vampires to feed and grow in power without hurting anyone]]. He manages to become a Higher vampire [[spoiler:without ever requested a hunting license despite having the right to do so]]. Anton assumes that he killed at least 12 people to advance that far, stops communicating with him entirely and doesn't want to check Kostya's file, which reminds him they used to be friends. Kostya incorrectly interprets this hostility as Anton becoming yet another self-righteous Light hypocrite (probably Zebulon helps).
*** As a result, when Kostya finds [[spoiler:an UpgradeArtifact]], he doesn't contact Anton, [[EpilepticTrees who could've helped with moral dilemmas]], but turns to another investigator, [[spoiler:Vitezslav, ends up killing him, and succumbs to his dream of turning all humans to Others so that he could be normal in the new world]]. And things quickly roll downhill. PoorCommunicationKills, indeed.
** Erasmus Darwin in ''New Watch'' is a lazy example, When Anton meets him, he lives alone in a house in Regent's Park Estate, London, and prefers it that way. He's also implied to be on good terms with Geser, who occasionally sends him magical puzzles. Darwin is a prophet initiated by [[spoiler:Zabulon]]. It seems he simply doesn't want to do anything, good or evil, in start contrast to his grandson UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin. The only thing that could possibly put him on the Dark side is his utter lack of concern for his teenage mistress when he, as a teen himself during the 18th century, learns that her soul has been sucked out by the Tiger, who's after him. After [[spoiler:getting the Tiger to leave]], Erasmus briefly wonders whether, now that she's no longer a complete person with dreams and ambitions, his mistress will let him do things in bed that she was previously against.
** In ''New Watch'', Anton reveals that UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance was the result of an intervention by the Dark Others. To balance things out, the Light Others attempted their own project a few centuries later - the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions Russian Revolution]], which didn't work out [[{{Understatement}} quite as well]].
** One of the school doctors in ''School Supervision'' is a 300-year-old Dark Other from Germany named Karl Frieling. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he aided the [[LaResistance German Resistance]] and even testified at the Nuremberg Trials.
** Others can replenish their energy by draining emotions from people, positive and negative respectively. So there are Light Mages that suck joy out of people and Dark Mages that recharge by curing depressions and hangovers.
* ADayInTheLimelight: In ''Day Watch'', the first part had as its narrator the secondary character Alisa, and the second part's narrator was a new character Vitaliy.
* DefectorFromDecadence: the Dark Other Edgar leaves the Day Watch and joins the Inquisition because of his disgust for all of the machinations in both of the watches. It's not exactly a HeelFaceTurn, but it cements him as sort of a FriendlyEnemy / EnemyMine to Anton.
* ADegreeInUseless: In ''Last Watch'', Anton travels to Samarkand and gets in the taxi driven by an elderly Uzbek man who speaks Russian without an accent. When talking to the driver, Anton assumes most of the man's reasoning is grounded in Eastern wisdom. The driver reveals that he has a Ph.D. in Psychology, which is completely useless in Uzbekistan. Also crosses with WorthlessForeignDegree, as he earned his Ph.D. in Moscow.
* DiagonalCut: In ''Last Watch'', Anton throws two "triple-blades" at a human mercenary with magical amulets. The first one slices cleanly through the mercenary's enchanted submachinegun (also taking off the guy's hand). Anton isn't sure where the other one went until the confused mercenary tries to move. At that point, the guy's head splits open into three pieces. Of course, since it's a spell and not a physical blade, they could also count as {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s.
* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler: Sixth Watch, the Inquisition and all Great Others delete all records about the Two-in-One when the exprement upon then-Russian Empire took place, so it won't spoil their view. Unfortunately, when the latter comes, they found themselves without information, and only Arina managed to fill the gaps. Oops.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Tiger Cub's death in ''Day Watch'' is described almost casually. Which is normal if you consider that the narrator is Vitaliy, a powerful Dark Other (sort of...) who had never met Tiger Cub before and killed her in self-defence.]]
* DummiedOut: The {{snark}}y reply by Anton to Olga's jibe about tampons is removed in the international version of ''Night Watch''. Possibly the {{squick}} factor is involved.
* [[spoiler: EldritchAbomination / SentientCosmicForce / GeniusLoci: What Twilight really is.]]
** [[spoiler: HumanoidAbomination: What he/it is as a Tiger, although that's changing in ''Sixth Watch'', as his extended stay in the human world makes him realize that he enjoys the little things in life. One of the reasons why he opposes the Two-in-One is to keep himself from having to return to the Twilight, as his stay is directly dependent on the continue survival of anyone connected to the prophecy]].
*** The [[spoiler:Twilight Other]] in ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' also counts.
** [[spoiler:The Two-in-One in ''Sixth Watch'']].
* EagleLand: Lukyanenko always was and still is rather strongly anti-American, and isn't afraid to show it.
** In ''Day Watch'', a low-level American Air Force officer is introduced on holiday in Prague. He's a member of the Light and was involved in the bombing of Kosovo. Russian Night Watch members are very surprised he's still aligned with good.
** There's also the issue when the Dark Other Edgar asks another American about spiritual experiences (Edgar's gearing up for a BreakingSpeech), the American responds by citing a sports victory, essentially proving himself TooDumbToFool.
** In ''Twilight Watch'', one character has a shirt showing a Russian soldier killing an American with a message about who really won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; Anton finds it somewhat amusing.
** In ''New Watch'', Anton off-handedly mentions that UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution was a result of a major intervention by one of the Other sides. A student immediately assumes that it was the Dark ones. In fact, in ''Sixth Watch'', it's heavily implied that all the colonial revolutions in the Americas were an attempt by the Light ones to start fresh, which were quickly abandoned after they realized that nothing changed.
* EnemyMine: The Watches work together when battling [[spoiler:Kostya]].
** Zabulon also shows up during the Night Watch's first battle with the Tiger in ''New Watch''. However, after a short smoke/talk with Anton, he decides not to help them anymore and leaves, despite the fact that the fate of the Twilight itself is in the balance.
* EnthrallingSiren: Vampires can use the Call to get a human to come to them. Usually used to get around the MustBeInvited rule. Once hooked, a human remains "summonable" by the vampire wherever he or she is.
* ETGaveUsWifi: Discussed in ''School Supervision''. An uninitiated Light Other girl accidentally manifests an extremely-advanced transparent smartphone after reading a magazine on possible future developments. After she is brought to the Night Watch, a Watchman confiscates the device and tests it to confirm that it works. After Dmitriy talks to him about this, the Watchman explains that the Night Watch is faced with a dilemma. They can either patent the device and make the Watch a lot of money, or go to the girl and ask for permission. He admits that the Dark ones would've immediately filed for a patent.
* EthnicMagician: The way Others use magic tends to be affected by their culture and upbringing. Since the novels mainly focus on Russia, we mainly see the Russian use of magic. However, several non-Russian Others are shown whose spells are subtly different. For example, Mark Germenson is a Great Light Magician of Jewish descent. His first (and most effective) spell against the Tiger is to create a {{golem}}. Anton notes that Germenson doesn't use any runes, which are normally required to animate inert matter, meaning Germenson has spent a long time perfecting the spell.
** The BigBad of ''The Face of the Black Palmira'' is a Jamaican sorcerer. Some characters refer to him as "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Samedi Baron Samedi]] wannabe".
** It's mentioned in ''Sixth Watch'' that the former vampire Master of Masters was a Polish Jew. Anton is incredulous, as the Jewish faith forbids the consumption of blood, and wonders how the vampire reconciled his beliefs and his vampiric nature.
* EvilDetectingDog: Dogs are mentioned to be able to tell Others from humans. They like Light Others and fear Dark Others. Tigercub has specifically trained her dogs to attack Others, although she has trained them to restrain, not kill.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''The Last Watch'', [[spoiler:Arina, now a light one, stops her co-conspirator from using a nuclear bomb in their plan. She assures him that even when she was a dark one she would have done the same.]]
** [[spoiler:Arina]] claims [[spoiler:she]] WouldntHurtAChild in ''Twilight Watch'' and then ends up [[spoiler:leaving a live grenade with Anton's daughter with the pin pulled]].
* EvilCounterpart: The Dark protagonists of ''Day Watch'', Alisa, Vitaly, and Edgar, all present interesting counterparts to Anton's personality.
* EvilPaysBetter: In the second novel, Anton grimly notes how a Dark Other (of a lower rank than he) can easily afford to fly business class, while he has to fly economy.
** Subverted in ''New Watch'', where Anton finds out that his Watch-issued ATM card doesn't have a limit. Theoretically, any Watch member can get as much money as they want, but it's not really their nature to be greedy. When asked, Geser simply says that being able to predict stock markets and currency exchange rates means that the Watch is never short on money. When Geser asks if Anton wants to get a Bentley, Anton instead opts for a more practical SUV. Besides, a fancy car would only invite curses from the unwitting humans.
*** This actually goes against what Anton notes in the second novel, that it's difficult for the Night Watch to make a lot of money using honest means. Then again, not everything the Light Others do is honest, so Anton may simply be a WideEyedIdealist at this point. Besides, what's so dishonest about calculating probabilities? Everybody does it. The Others just do it a lot better.
*** Technically, the card does have a limit. However, since Geser has deliberately chosen a foreign bank to keep the money, which doesn't report the balance to [=ATMs=] belonging to Russian banks, the Watch employees can't see it. Anton does try to get a large amount of money, and the machine spits it out without a problem, so there is, at least, no (visible) limit on how much cash one can get in a day.
*** When Anton makes a joke about a private jet when being sent by Geser to London, Geser in all seriousness replies that he's considering buying one for the Watch and asks Anton which model is better. Anton just shakes his head in bewilderment and leaves.
* EvilRedhead: Alisa Donnikova
* FailedFutureForecast: In ''The New Watch'', Anton meets a Grand Light Magician whom he has seen on TV. The guy is actually a clairvoyant but claims to be a psychic for the humans. Naturally, his predictions for humans tend to be a crapshoot, which is deliberate.
** Erasmus's teacher [[spoiler:Zabulon]] believed that the boy's prophecy about who would rule Capitol Hill in 300-400 years to be this trope due to the many mistakes. In fact, it was a CassandraTruth. The prophecy in question involves a [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama black man]] sending "iron birds" across the ocean to take the treasures of Lybia. The teacher assumes Erasmus is talking about Capitoline Hill in Rome and claims there's no ocean between Italy and Libya. Besides, what treasures are there in Libya? Just some "useless black oil".
* FantasticRacism: Both the Light and Dark have contempt for vampires and werewolves, with the Dark seeing them mostly as useful pawns and the Light tending to assume they are AlwaysChaoticEvil, since the Others who become them tend to be the type who would go for eating innocents. Interestingly enough, both groups provide examples of rare DarkIsNotEvil Dark Others. Not exactly AlwaysChaoticEvil but rather too animalistic to be considered proper humans. In the case of vampires, they may also turn people into new vampires who, without proper initiation and guidance may turn into real monsters (as shown in the first part of ''Day Watch''). The same thing can happen with werewolves. Vampires and werewolves are the only Others who can turn humans into their kind ([[spoiler:until ''Twilight Watch'', that is]]).
* FictionalSport: Anyone who first comes to the school in ''School Supervision'' expects to see kids playing [[Franchise/HarryPotter Quidditch]]. Nope. Everybody plays plain old human team sports, although people are watching out for anyone cheating with spells. There's a reason for that. The goal is to teach the children to live in a world dominated by humans. The teachers also deliberately mix teams of Light and Dark Others so as not to create any "Gryffindor vs Slytherin" rivalries.
* FilleFatale: 15-year old teenage werewolf Galya in ‘’Last Watch’’, who has fallen in love with Anton (since meeting and helping him 4 years prior as a tween in ‘’Twilight Watch’’), and who tries to seduce him in his hotel room while they are on a mission together in Edinburgh. In Anton’s own words, she is dressed just like a classic Lolita. [[spoiler: she fails, because as attracted as Anton was to her, being a Light Other, he is just not into adultery, since he is already happily married to the love of his life.]]
* TheFilmOfTheBook: The first two, at least.
* FlyingBroomstick: While it's entirely possible to enchant a broom for levitation, it's mentioned that a peel (a shovel-like tool used by bakers) is much more comfortable to sit on and can be recharged in the oven.
* ForTheEvulz: Light Others are generally prone to seeing Dark Others like that. Dark Others tend to be more [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] though. At some point, the Night Watch determines that a group of Dark Others are trying to resurrect an ancient and powerful Dark Other to prevent the rise of a unborn female Absolute Light Other and confront the Day Watch over it. The Dark Others balk at the suggestion, wondering why ''anyone'' would resurrect a certifiably insane Dark Other who would be of no use in politics and would probably [[ScaledUp turn himself into a dragon]] and [[ChaoticStupid burn down a few cities]] before [[MagicVersusScience getting shot down by human jets]].[[spoiler:It turns out later, as BigBad puts it, it's much better to trick a Light Other who was planned to be a teacher of potential messiah to mutually fall in love with Dark Other witch of a similar rank (who happens to be a former BigBad's lover who screwed up before) (they were both drained out in a fight and sent in a child camp, so they can't sense each other's auras), allow him kill her in a duel, and then wait until he dematerializes from guilt... which exactly what happens.]]
* ForeignLanguageTirade: Anton does this accidentally in ''Sixth Watch'' after finding out that, prior to his final death, the vampire Master of Masters was a Polish Jew. He then goes on an indignant rant in Polish until Olga stops him and points out what he is doing. It turns out he used a language-learning spell for his trip to France earlier, which also teaches the fifteen most commonly-used languages (in fact, Polish is only about 30th most spoken language).
* ForeignMoneyIsProofOfGuilt: In ''Day Watch'', [[AmnesiacGod Vitaly]] discovers that his bag is full of dollars and immediately thinks he's up to something illegal.
* ForWantOfANail: In ''The New Watch'', a prophecy about the birth of a certain boy being born in Australia is uttered decades ago. The boy is born but dies six months later. No one is sure how this boy is supposed to affect the whole of humanity. Anton is finally told by Arina that the boy's death split up his parents. His mother remarried and had another son, who ended up saving a little girl from drowning. That little girl has now grown up and is predicted to be a Great Dark Enchantress.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Zabulon
* FrictionlessReentry: Averted, [[spoiler:Kostya]]'s remains are charred after dropping from orbit. What's left of the skull is fused with the glass from the helmet visor. Even a [[spoiler:Higher vampire]] can't survive that.
* FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampires: Anton himself was friends with a family of vampires who lived in the apartment next to his until he killed a vampire in the line of duty.
* FunPersonified: Las
* FurAgainstFang: Completely averted as both werewolves and vampires are considered the dregs of the magical world. They still despise each other as "dumb beasts" and "dead bloodsuckers".
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: The Night Watch would deny it, but they don't have much of an answer as to what they'll do to evil people if they ever create the utopia they desire, and there's a strong implication of HeelFaceMindScrew. There is, in fact, a heavy implication that the Light others can never "win" because their victory condition is every human and other freely choosing light over darkness. When several attempts to create a perfect social system -- communism -- failed due to Dark interfering, in 1930 Light tried to salvage the project using mind control potions on Soviet leadership. The idea was to reawaken all their best moral values, ''forcing'' them to the path of Light. It worked a little too well either driving people mad or making them hunt enemies everywhere. After that the communism project was abandoned.
** In ''The New Watch'', the former witch Arina describes to Anton her views on democracy and dictatorship. Her view is that any truly progressive country must start with a RepressiveButEfficient dictatorship. Only after harsh laws and penalties force people to behave does a country earn its right to a democracy. She points to Taiwan as a good example, where a taxi driver who demands more money than he's supposed to is fired (even though he probably supports his whole village).
* GambitRoulette: The plots of the first two books were these by Moscow Night Watch and Day Watch, respectively, which usually lead to GambitPileup.
* {{Ghostapo}}: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society Thule Society]] was composed of Nazi Others who were attempting to use magical means to help Germany win UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After the end of the war, they were tried and sentenced to death in Other Nuremberg Trials. A number of their amulets can still be found in and around St. Petersburg.
* GlamourFailure: Vampires can make themselves appear invisible to humans. However, if a human looks into a mirror, then the effect of the spell is broken (although, only for as long as they're looking into the mirror). This is the opposite of the typical vampire lore.
* {{Golem}}: A serpent-like golem guards the Crown of All Things on the fifth level of the Twilight. A deva (an Eastern golem made of Twilight itself) is created by [[spoiler:Edgar]] in ''Last Watch'' to take out the Samarkand Watches. In ''New Watch'', Mark Germenson conjures a typical earth golem to oppose the Tiger and gives it orders in Hebrew. Olga mentions that it's Jewish magic. Anton mentions that the most long-lived golems are made of clay, while animating wood or metal is a crapshoot at best, even for a Great Other.
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: A group of Night Watch employees go to Tiger Cub's cabin for a weekend retreat. Anton, like most, ends up getting drunk and passing out. In the morning, he finds Svetlana and another female Light Other in the arms of Ignat (an incubus). Instead of raising hell, he simply walks out, has a smoke, talk to Semyon (who instantly deduces what happened), and waits for Svetlana to wake up. When she does, she quickly realizes that he knows and tries to justify her actions (including the fact that it's been years since the last time she had sex). She feels guilty at first, but gets madder and madder as Anton keeps telling her it's okay, seemingly not caring about her infidelity. This ends up being a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, and the two end up HappilyMarried. There could have been some [[UnresolvedSexualTension UST]] between Svetlana and Ignat, since he was previously sent to seduce her and try to get rid of the vortex over her head. Just as she was ready to do him, the vortex got bigger, and Geser forced Ignat to [[IncrediblyLamePun pull out before it blew]].
* GoodIsNotNice
** Anton is anything but a nice person at times. In fact, sometimes he comes across as a complete Jerkass. This is, in fact, pointed out by Zabulon. (To paraphrase) "I've seen your true form, Anton, and it was no knight in shining armor."
** The Night Watch is considered good but Light Others can be as ruthless as any secret police (or more, given their powers). They also control population of vampires and regularly authorize transformation and feeding on mundane people (they do prefer criminals that evade the authorities when possible) without any consent from the latter. This causes [[spoiler:Egor and Anton to become disillusioned with the Night Watch]].
*** Similarly, it is the job of the Night Watch to distribute authorizations for "Evil" acts for all Dark Others as per the Treaty.
** The Night Watch is also not above brainwashing humans in their social experiments, see TheEvilsOfFreeWill above. They never end well.
** Olga was [[BalefulPolymorph punished]] for a small mistake. This mistake resulted in Russian Civil War.
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Alisa in the second book, after falling in love with a Light Other and sleeping with him, mentions that it was the best and most amazing time she had ever had. It was also during the period of time when we saw her softening and turning... not good, just less Dark. This is partly because her previous lover, Zabulon, liked to do her in his demonic Twilight form. With a [[{{Squick}} spiked penis]].
* GroinAttack: [[spoiler:Anton]] to [[spoiler:Edgar]] towards the end of ''The Last Watch''.
* HammerSpace: In ''New Watch'', Svetlana packs a small suitcase for Anton, who is being sent to London. Due to her unconscious clairvoyant abilities, she packs 7 days' worth of clothes and uses the "Handbag" (or "Nosebag") spell to make the suitcase BiggerOnTheInside. She enchants the suitcase for 2 weeks, though, figuring it would be bad if his clothes suddenly started flying out of the suitcase in the middle of the airport when the spell wore off. According to Anton, this spell is a recent invention, inspired by similar spells and magical objects in recent fantasy books.
* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler:Anton and Svetlana in books 3 onward.]]
* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Anton is almost invariably listening to music on his headphones while on duty, and he explains that he does this because his ability to interact with the Twilight makes the world seem unreal to him, and the music helps keep him sane. It is implied that Anton's [[spoiler: Mindisc player is not choosing songs at random and may be a subconscious form of divining.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: Arina. [[spoiler:Dark Other in ''Twilight Watch'', she becomes a Light Other in ''Final Watch''.]] Subverted: [[spoiler:her turn to the Light doesn't change neither her temper, nor her motives.]]
** [[HumanoidAbomination Tiger]] is a clearer example. After having to deal with the fact that main heroes know the phrophesy about Twilight's destruction, and choosing to accept this, he stays in human world, goes on socializing to the point that he [[spoiler: gives his life in ''Sixth Watch'' to buy more time to heroes's escape and stop Two-in-One.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Tiger]] does this in ''Sixth Watch'' to hold off [[spoiler:the Two-in-One]].
** At the end of the novel, [[spoiler:Anton]] offers [[spoiler:himself]] as a sacrifice for [[spoiler:The Two-in-One]] in exchange for [[spoiler:breaking the blood pact that threatens the world]]. Instead of [[spoiler:killing him]], [[spoiler:The Two-in-One]] chooses to turn [[spoiler:him]] human for good, seeing it as an extended death sentence.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Fan Wen-yan and his friend Li, a prophet. Fan even admits that, these days, they might be considered gay, but back then it didn't even occur to them. Their friendship was so close that [[spoiler:the Tiger left Fan alone after Li forced Fan to kill him, knowing that Fan would take Li's prophecy to his grave in honor of Li's sacrifice]].
* HistoricalInJoke: Both Soviet Communism and Nazism were originally plots by the Light to swing everyone towards Good, which were corrupted by the Darkness.
** Later novels claim that the Dark Other didn't do anything to corrupt the experiments. It's just human nature to screw up a "perfect society" with personal greed or fanaticism.
** Ironically, UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance was caused by the Dark Others. This major intervention is what allowed the Light Others to try their hand in Soviet Communism.
** UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution was also a result of the Others' interference. It's never explicitly stated ''which'' Others, although one Light (Russian) student jokes that it was definitely the Dark ones.
** ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' reveals that the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy was caused by [[spoiler:an attempt by a Twilight Other to cross over into the human world]].
* HotWitch: A number of characters fall into this, with a dash of VainSorceress, since both the Light and Dark have powers to maintain youth and good looks and avert aging. In the case of the Dark, they also achieve this affect through the use of glamour.
* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Svetlana uses this form in ''New Watch'' to tell Geser that she's not a killer (she's actually an MD-turned-housewife). Geser simply replies that "every good doctor has his own graveyard."
* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: In ''Last Watch'', Geser sends Anton to Uzbekistan and gives him a whole bunch of amulets. Anton examines them and notes how Geser never gives him anything that won't be of use. Anton remembers the Australian cartoon ''WesternAnimation/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' where Phileas Fogg seems to have incredible foresight and will inevitably find a use for any object he packed at the episode start. He also notes that the same applies to most adventure games. On the other hand, he knows that either Geser himself has checked the probability lines or had the best divinators in the Watch do that. And yes, every amulet ends up being of use, even an enchanted copy of his SIM card (apparently, the "throw off GPS tracking" function is an unintentional byproduct of the "make user sound convincing on the phone" enchantment).
* JapaneseTourist: Anton sees a group of them in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and briefly wonders what they're doing there.
* KnightTemplar: Maxim, an uninitiated Light Other who kills Dark Others who aren't really that evil (including a werepanther that had only ever killed in self-defense and a Dark wizard out for a night on the town with his wife and child) [[spoiler:He changed his views when he agreed to become an Inquisitor. Inquisition generally tends to do this to people.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: None of the Great ones remembers his or her participation in the failed communist experiment that resulted in the USSR. This is because [[spoiler:each of them wiped the event from his or her memory. Arina, being a witch, was able to impart that memory onto an object and then retrieved it by touching it]].
* TheLeader: Yuri in ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' is described as a born leader. Unlike the heads of the Watches (he used to be one too), Yuri inspires loyalty and can even have Light Others like him (despite being a Dark one). Only people who utterly hate him can avoid being charmed by the guy.
* LightIsNotGood
** Maxim in ''Night Watch'', who basically comes across as [[Manga/DeathNote Light Yagami's]] Russian cousin. Also, you'd think that the Day Watch would be the organization of Light Others, but it is actually that of Dark Others.
** There's one scene in ''Day Watch'' that mentions how the historical figure Gilles de Rais (a friend to Joan of Arc and a child murderer) as well as a fictional SerialKiller were both Light Others. Essentially, both fell into a combination of PureIsNotGood and UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans -- since they didn't see their actions as wrong, their crimes had no effect on their alignment.
** Arina became ''worse'' after becoming a Light Other. She was AntiVillain at worst at her introduction, she's become darker now. Overall, zig-zags, as she's AntiVillain at worst.
* LiteralSplitPersonality: After reading in class ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' and learning of how Creator/RobertLouisStevenson, a Dark Other, spent his life trying to make the serum work to separate the Darkness from a Dark Other, a girl named Anna, a Light [[OurGeniesAreDifferent jinn]] (an extremely rare kind of Other capable of manifesting desires into reality), manifests a working serum that allow her friends, a group of young vampires, werewolves, and nagas, to split off their vampire, werewolf, and naga selves into separate entities. However, those "wild" creatures then begin to attack random people. Furthermore, their Dark selves are still tied to their originals, and thus any physical harm is shared between the two. After this fiasco, Anna suggests painting [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray portraits of the kids]] but is forced to stop.
* TheLoinsSleepTonight: While Anton and Alisher are battling [[spoiler:Edgar]], Afandi, a weak 300-year-old Uzbek Other "weaves" an intricate spell that manages to penetrate [[spoiler:Edgar]]'s defenses. When asked what it was, Afandi replies that he has cursed [[spoiler:Edgar]] so that the next 77 times he lies with a woman he suffers a failure. Anton observes that it's a very Eastern thing to do.
* LongGame: Many of the complex plans of the Great Others, Gesar and Zabulon in particular, who frequently plan things out years (if not decades or centuries) ahead of time. One of their biggest plans was [[spoiler:Nadya's birth as an Absolute Other. For this purpose, they have analyzed many bloodlines and found those likely to produce extremely powerful Others. They also needed a Light and a Dark bloodline. Some of Svetlana's ancestors were powerful Light Others, while Anton had a powerful Dark grandfather - Zabulon himself. In fact, Anton is the only one of Zabulon's many grandkids with a potential to become an Other. He was originally supposed to be a Dark one, but Gesar believed that a relationship between a Light and a Dark Other wouldn't last long enough to produce an Absolute Other, so he secretly Initiated Anton, when he was in a good mood. Zavulon is very unhappy about this fact, though he's still quite cordial to Anton]].
* LukeIAmYourFather: One of the protagonists of ''The Imprint of the Twilight'' is revealed to be [[spoiler:the son of the Twilight Other, who kept the young man's mother trapped in the Twilight until she gave birth (giving birth in the Twilight is always fatal for the mother), so that he could use his son to force his way back to the human world]]. The twist is that the protagonist himself doesn't find this out, only the other protagonist.
** In ''Sixth Watch'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Anton is Zabulon's grandson]]. The plan was for him to be a Dark one, but [[spoiler:Gesar]] beat him to the punch and initiated him as a Light Other. [[spoiler:One of the reasons for Zabulon's dislike for Anton was this fact, though he admits that his dislike is petty]].
* MacGuffin: The Chalk of Fate in ''Night Watch'', an artifact that allows [[spoiler:a Light Sorceress, whose {{power level|s}} is "Beyond Categorization," to rewrite the fate of any individual]].
* MagicIsEvil: [[spoiler:Arina]] develops this worldview in ''The New Watch''. Not for any religious reason, but simply from [[spoiler:her]] own experiences and the belief that the Others are only making things worse for humans. Naturally, [[spoiler:Anton]] points out that humans are fully capable of making things worse all on their own. For the most part, this is exactly what happens, and experiments by the Light Others to change humanity for the better invariably ended in failures.
** Las wonders this in the same novel after deciding to get baptized. He asks Anton on his opinion of whether all magic-users are automatically damned. Anton explains that, if there is an afterlife, the Others will be judged the same as humans, by their good and bad deeds.
* MagicLibrarian: In ''Sixth Watch'', Anton has to consult some old documents, so he goes down to the Night Watch Archive, which is run by an Irishwoman named Ellen Killoran, whose passion in life is categorizing old things. She has been admitted to the Day Watch Archive to examine their old documents. [[spoiler:Except Ellen has actually left Moscow over a year before that; the "Ellen" Anton saw was a vampire who temporarily blocked his memory of the real Ellen leaving and used the opportunity to give him a few hints to stop the Two-in-One]].
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: In ''Sixth Watch'', after Anton and Svetlana's fight with the traitors, Svetlana calmly tells Anton that she should really get some healing within the next few minutes. When Anton asks why, she explains that one of her ribs is broken and has punctured her heart. Maybe it's because she's a doctor and a healer, but that's a ''very'' big underreaction for someone who should really be dead.
* MamaBear: [[spoiler:Svetlana, when Nadya is in danger. Just ask Arina.]]
* {{Masquerade}}: The Treaty explicitly forbids revealing the Others' existence to normal humans, an act often punishable by death. There are, however, a few mortals who have stumbled onto the secrets of the Others on their own, and who are allowed to live.
** A few later novels also show Geser making use of humans who know about and willingly work for the Watch as contractors, as long as they keep all they know a secret.
* MathematiciansAnswer: In ''The Last Watch'', a powerful vampire in disguise is spotted by an Other, who is a teacher on a field trip with his class of Other trainees. The vampire is trying to remain hidden and kills the teacher in front of his students and one of the students who manages to use a battle spell. The vampire grabs a young student and asks, warning him that he can sense a lie, if the kid has been taught yet how to remember auras (an easy way of identifying Others). The kid honestly replies that he hasn't been. The vampire lets him go and leaves. The kid didn't lie, nobody taught him how to remember auras, but he has been practicing on his own. This allows Anton to identify the culprit.
** The same novel features another case. [[spoiler:Edgar]] uses a powerful amulet to force an ancient and powerful Light Other to tell only the truth and asks him how he can get the Crown of All. The Light Other smiles and says "with your hands". It's implied that only a very powerful Other could have avoided answering a question this way.
* MeaningfulName: Played with and averted in ''School Supervision'' with a Welsh magician named Maelgwn. When he first introduces himself to a female magician, she refers to him as a shapeshifter. He is initially defensive, claiming to be a healer, but then asks how she knows Welsh names ("Maelgwn" literally means "princely hound"). She explains that she's a philologist, and her specialty is the Welsh language and the Welsh English dialect.
* MistakenForGay: In the first novel, Anton is temporarily in Olga's body and goes out to dinner with Svetlana, his love interest. The combination of their body language around each other and Olga's short hair makes another character see them as a lesbian couple and react with disgust.
* MugglesDoItBetter: Nukes are the only weapons (except for some extremely powerful spells) that obliterate everything in the area in both the normal dimension and all Twilight layers, leaving the Others nowhere to run. Additionally, as shown in ''The Last Watch'', remote-controlled guns can be extremely effective against the Others due to the fact that machines project no malice and are harder to detect with magic. Enchanted guns are even more effective. There is a reason the Others are terrified of humans finding out about the existence of the Others. It would be the witch trials all over again.\\\
The second book also mentions the possibility of resurrecting an ancient and powerful Dark Other, who likes to appear as a giant dragon. It's mentioned he would go rampaging across Europe, not caring about the Grand Treaty. However, another character points out that, while devastating, said dragon would be no match for the modern human military. As the character puts it, in a battle between an angry dragon and helicopter gunships, he'd bet on the gunships.
* MultinationalTeam: Mentioned by an old Jewish battle mage in ''New Watch'', when a group of Light Others are gathering to oppose the Tiger. The group consists of a Jew, a Tibetan (Geser), a Kazakh, an Uzbek (Alisher), and a Russian (Anton).
** The original Sixth Watch consisted of a Light German, a Dark Frenchman, a Russian witch ([[spoiler:Arina]]), an English prophet ([[spoiler:Erasmus Darwin]]), a Czech vampire ([[spoiler:Vitezslav]]), and an uninitiated Italian woman named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori Maria Montessori]] (a potential Mirror). The new Sixth Watch is mostly Russian with only [[spoiler:Zabulon]] being ([[spoiler:Judean]]).
* MundaneUtility: A good number of spells are specifically designed for domestic use and are ubiquitously used by the Light and the Dark Others. Why spend half-an-hour applying makeup when a quick spell is all it takes to look your best? Household chores can be done in seconds. Some clever and experienced Others have actually learned to use domestic spells to win magical battles (try to throw a fireball when you feel like your body is being ironed instead of a shirt, or if your skin is literally being peeled instead of potatoes).
* MustBeInvited: One of many items of vampiric lore that are true in this 'verse. Usually not a problem for vampires, as they are able to use the [[EnthrallingSiren Call]] to get a human to come outside. It's not clear exactly how this rule is applied. For example, Witezslav and Kostya are able to enter Arina's hut after she flees. However, this is part of an investigation, so it's possible that the rule is magically suspended for the duration.
* {{Narrator}}: Anton in ''Night Watch'', ''Twilight Watch'', ''The Last Watch'', ''New Watch'', and in ''Sixth Watch''. For the two first parts of the second book, see ADayInTheLimelight above, the third part averted this trope as it had no narrator.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Subverted. Anton believes that [[spoiler:Kostya's]] body has never been found after the events of ''Twilight Watch'' and that he may be the new villain in ''Final Watch''. However, Geser almost immediately reveals that [[spoiler:Kostya's]] body was, indeed, recovered but this was kept secret from Anton because it was in a [[DeaderThanDead very bad condition]] and Anton ''was'' his friend, after all. There is a good chance of the body simply disintegrating during re-entry.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Thomas Lermont retells the story of KingArthur having all the boys born on May Day rounded up and put on a ship, after Merlin prophecies the coming of Mordred. Thomas is not sure if Mordred survived the shipwreck or was simply another boy who was told he was Arthur's son. Semyon then mentions Herod by name.
* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction: In ''School Supervision'', the protagonist's friends help him jump from level 7 (bottom rung) to level 4 (his cap) with a single ritual. An experienced Inquisitor then sardonically asks him what he plans to do with the rest of his (very long) life, since he will no longer be able to grow as an Other.
* NoOntologicalInertia: In ''New Watch'', the old witch Arina reveals that, unlike other Others (no pun intended), witches are more in tune with nature and age faster, sustaining their bodies through magic. If magic were to disappear, Arina would turn to dust. It's also implied to be true of vampires and werewolves, who sustain themselves by consuming blood and raw meat, respectively, of humans in order to use the magic stored there for sustenance.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Somehow averted; Olga jokes about it when she [[FreakyFridayFlip magically switches bodies]] with Anton. He gets lucky though, it would have been one week later. Anton responds with his own deadpan joke, pointing out that every TV-watching man knows what to do with a tampon: put it in your fist and pour blue liquid on it. Anton's reply is cut out of the English version of the book.
* NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus: Averted. Jesus ''was'' somehow connected to the Light, but it's unknown whether he was just an overpowered Light Other or [[GodInHumanForm Light itself]].
* NotSoDifferent: A repeated theme is that the line between Light and Dark Others is very fine indeed.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Afandi, an elderly but weak magician from ''The Last Watch'', "Part 2 - A Common Enemy".
* OneHitKill: A registered vampire can be instantly incinerated by "pulling" on the seal. Anton kills a vampire this way at the beginning of the first novel. However, the only reason he had to resort to this is because he had depleted an amulet given to him to capture the culprit.
* OneWingedAngel: Both sets of the Others have a true form they create in the Twilight, and the Dark Others tend to go for the "snake demon" look.
** At least one Light Other turns into a small dragon in the Twilight. Who? Why, Creator/BruceLee, of course.
* OnlyOneName: A number of characters are only known by their first name or their Twilight name. This may be either because the author simply hasn't bothered to come up with a last name for a character or because said character is extremely powerful. According to ''Day Watch'', Others who classify as Mages Beyond Categorization lose their last names. In time, they acquire Twilight names. Geser is frequently called Boris Ignatyevich; however, since he is originally from Tibet, that name is definitely false. Additionally, in ''New Watch'', a number of Great Others call him by a different name, implied to be his Tibetan birth name. Olga's name is never given. Zabulon is only referred to by this name, except in ''Face of the Black Palmira'' spin-off, where a colleague and close friend of his calls him Arthur (another novel implies that Zabulon may be English or Irish, although ''Sixth Watch'' finally reveals that he was born in [[spoiler:Judea]], making it unlikely that "Arthur" is his real name).
* TheOrder: The Sixth Watch in the eponymous book, a special council convened when [[spoiler:the Two-in-One returns]]. Also known as the Watch of Six, it, obviously, consists of representatives from the six key groups in the world of the Others: Light Others, Dark Others, vampires (with shapeshifters bundled with them), witches, prophets, and Mirrors. Also, for some reason, the new Sixth Watch must also be joined by blood, all tying back to Anton, resulting in the following composition: [[spoiler:Nadia (Anton's daughter) for the Light ones, Zabulon (Anton's grandfather) for the Dark ones, the resurrected Kostya (who drank some of Arina's blood) for the vampires, Arina for the witches, Kesha (Nadya's boyfriend and blood pact brother) for the prophets, and Yegor (the boy Anton saved in the first book) for the Mirrors]].
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Fafnir is an ancient and powerful Dark Other, whose favorite Twilight form was that of a giant dragon. He is mentioned several times, and an artifact of his plays a key part in the first book. Since he predates the Grant Treaty, resurrecting him would be ''very bad'' for both the Light and the Dark Others.
** It's also mentioned that Creator/BruceLee's Twilight form is that of a small dragon. Yes, he's alive and serving in the Hong Kong Night Watch.
** There is also a powerful Dark Other using a dragon battle form appearing in Face of the Dark Palmira.
* OurGeniesAreDifferent: ''School Supervision'' introduces a rare type of Other called a jinn. Jinns are able to materialize objects by fulfilling wishes. Introverts can only fulfill their own wishes, while extroverts can only fulfill other people's wishes. The only jinn in the school is a teenage Light girl named Anna, who can subconsciously materialize anything she wishes. She is brought to the attention of the Night Watch when her mother (a human) brings Anna to the police on suspicion that her daughter is stealing the expensive-looking objects in her room. In fact, Anna paint doodles, and the Twilight turns it into physical objects. The latest object is a futuristic-looking transparent smartphone (or communicator, as some people still call them) that she saw in a magazine. The phone works fine and can connect to existing networks.
** Later in the novel, she manifests [[spoiler:a serum that creates a LiteralSplitPersonality, another copy of the Fuaran book, and an Anti-Fuaran (it can turn an Other into a human)]].
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: ''New Watch'' goes into the nature and origin of vampires. Then ''Sixth Watch'' throws out that theory of their origin and reveals that they were the first Others to appear in the world near the end of the last Ice Age. They learned to draw Power from humans via blood and transformed themselves into the creatures they are now. They also learned to shapeshift, which eventually split off some of them into shapeshifters/werewolves, who learned to draw Power from raw meat instead of blood. Witches appeared soon after, learning to get Power from mere drops of blood instead of liters of it and learning to imbue ordinary objects with it (it's implied that witches were the inventors of jewelry precisely for the purpose of using amulets, and human women copied them) Some learned to do magic without drinking blood or eating raw human flesh, who became the first true magicians, becoming the energy vampires like all modern Others. Eventually, the true history of Others was forgotten, and vampires and werewolves became treated as worse than dirt. Only two living Others remember those early days: a vampire named Pyotr ([[spoiler:a Neanderthal]]) and a weresmilodon (i.e. sabertooth) named Hena.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: ''New Watch'' goes into the nature and origin of vampires and also mentions that werewolves have similar origins.
** These also some discontinuity here, as some novels claim that werewolves are just shapeshifters, while others claim that they're undead.
** ''School Supervision'' also introduces some [[SnakePeople weresnakes]] (or nagas, as they're sometimes called), an extremely rare breed usually only found in India. Indeed, the two students (a brother and a sister), despite having typical Russian names, look very Indian (it's mentioned that the girl just needs a bindi and a sari to complete the look, while the boy looks like a young Bollywood actor). It's mentioned that India has other types of rare were-breeds, such as weretigers, uncommon in the rest of the world. The oldest known Other is a weresmilodon (i.e. a sabertooth cat) who was born during the last Ice Age. Apparently, shapeshifters typically turn into animals that are around when they are initiated.
* OverprotectiveDad: In ''Sixth Watch'', Anton admits that the earring he enchanted for his daughter does more than protect her against any Other who wishes to harm her, also emitting a field that keeps any would-be suitor at a distance, to his daughter's great annoyance. The field is set to stop working once she turns 18, and Anton tells the readers not to judge him, especially if they happen to be fathers with teenage daughters.
* PacManFever: Generally averted. When video games are mentioned, they are treated as casual hobbies and the few games mentioned by name were indeed popular titles at the time of writing. The movie depicts them with reasonable realism as well.
** Special mention goes to a scene in the second film where this appears intentionally. Zavulon is playing a fighting game. At some point, he holds and swings his phone like a sword and his movements are imitated in game. That was two years before the iPhone came out. But this game he plays is [[spoiler:actually a vision of a possible future.]]
* PatrioticFervor: In ''The New Watch'', Gesar, Anton, and Olga are going to an uninitiated Other's place. Gesar takes his car, a BMW. However, as soon as he jumps into the Twilight, taking the whole car with him (no mean feat), Anton realizes that the BMW appearance is a façade for an old Soviet Volga. Gesar explains that he likes Russian cars, and Anton muses on his boss's patriotism (or conservatism, which he admits are likely one and the same). Shortly after that, Gesar jumps to the second level of the Twilight, and Anton realizes that it was a lie. Gesar's ''real'' car is a classy Rolls-Royce. At Anton's look, Gesar replies "[[Series/{{House}} Everybody lies]]".
** It's also stated that Great Others are, usually, not attached to a particular country or culture, as they are usually old enough when they reach the Great status that they have moved around. This isn't the case with Anton, who is very patriotic and resentful of any foreigner insulting Russia.
** According to Arina, when Gesar first proposed to try to communist experiment in Russia, he did it not out of patriotism (he's actually Tibetan by birth), but because he didn't want to subject a more civilized country to something that could fail so badly.
* PowerLevels: All Others are assigned "Categories", ranging from the seventh (the weakest) to first (the most powerful). Categories are not fixed, as an Other can advance or fall down a rank depending on how often they practice magic. There is also the so-called "peak condition" when a mage jumps up two or three levels during a time of great emotional stress, like it happens to Anton Gorodetsky in the end of the first book. Lastly, there is the 2 OverNineThousand categories called "Beyond Categorization" and Great.[[note]]Beyond Categorization is a broad term for everyone vastly stronger than rank 1, Great is one step higher, though the difference is slim. Svetlana, Geser and Zavulon are Great magicians. Olga, post Twilight Watch Anton, Yuri and Nikolai(from Day Watch) are Beyond Categorization, but aren't Great.[[/note]]\\\
** Depending on the power level, an Other can dive to the deeper levels of the Twilight. [[spoiler:There are six Twilight levels (most named characters never get past the third), and the seventh is our normal world, so the Twilight is basically a cycle. However, the full cycle can only be traversed by an ultimate mage, such as a Light Messiah like Nadya Gorodetskaya. Or Merlin, who becomes a permanent fixture as the story progresses.]] It is mentioned that the Others actually took the word "level" from video games, replacing the previously-used "rank".
** There is even more powerful rank of Beyond Classification: Absolute, who can use all Twilight's power; they are ''extremely'' rare. Nadya, Konstantin Saushkin and Merlin (maybe more) are this.
* PowerNullifier: There are several ways to keep an Other from using magic. One is commonly used by the Inquisition as punishment. An Other can also create a self-imposed block on magic, but he or she can just as easily remove the block.
** ''School Supervision'' introduces an Inquisition spell frequently called "Bureaucratic Rat". It releases a self-guided creature that bites an Other, temporarily "disconnecting" him or her from emotion. Since the use of magic is directly tied to emotions, the person is unable to to cast spells for a time. One of the side effects is the tendency to engage in SpockSpeak (hence the "bureaucratic" part of the name).
*** The novel also introduces the so-called Anti-Fuaran, a botched attempt to re-create the Fuaran book. Instead of turning a human into an Other, it turns an Other into a human. It's not permanent, though, as it merely "resets" the Other to a pre-initiation state. The Other can then be re-initiated, but must once again start from his or her lowest magical level. On the other hand, vampires and werewolves subjected to the Anti-Fuaran can be re-initiated as normal mages.
* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: Averted, but mentioned by Arina that a female prophet she knew at the start of the 20th century believed that and tried to rhyme all her prophecies.
* PublicDomainCharacter
** Merlin is a major historical figure for Others.
** Geser, head of the Moscow Night Watch, is based on a popular Central Asian folk hero by the same name.
** The second [[TheMovie film]] also briefly shows Tamerlane, the founder of the Timurid Empire, also seeking the Chalk of Fate.
** UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is also mentioned, but it is unclear if he was just a really powerful Other (perhaps a zero-level, like [[spoiler:Nadya]] or Merlin) or [[PhysicalGod Light itself]].
** ''Last Watch'' has Thomas Learmonth AKA Thomas the Rhymer as the chief Light Other of Scotland.
** ''New Watch'' has Erasmus Darwin, an actual prophet (as opposed to the charlatan he was in RealLife), the grandfather of Charles Darwin.
** The author has toyed with the idea of Zabulon being [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebulun the Old Testament Zabulon]], but later stated that he is much younger and merely named after him.
* PurelyAestheticGlasses: Ilya (in the book), Zabulon, some other Others. Since Others are able to restore eyesight and any Other who wants to can undergo this procedure, all Others who wear glasses do so of their own will.
* RandomlyGifted: Otherness isn't hereditary, and spontaneously and randomly manifests.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Nearly all Others stop aging when initiated. There are some exceptions, but they usually use some form of illusion to make up for it. In ''Sixth Watch'', Anton encounters (or hears about others encountering) several of the oldest living Others: a vampire named Eve ([[spoiler:whose real name is Lilith]]), who claims to be many thousands of years old, another vampire named Pyotr ([[spoiler:a genuine Neanderthal]]), and a shapeshifting Inquisitor named Hena (who turns into a sabertooth cat).
* TheReveal: Occurs multiple times in each book. The most notable example is the revelation at the end of ''Last Watch'' that [[spoiler:the Twilight only has six levels, and that the seventh level is simply the real world.]] This may or may not be topped in ''Sixth Watch'', when it's revealed that [[spoiler:vampires were the original Others at the dawn of humankind, who made a pact with an ancient god to shepherd humanity. Now the conditions of the compact have been forgotten and violated, and the god has returned to destroy the world]].
* RewritingReality: The Chalk of Fate.
* RunningGag: Even on the head of this article! (The gag mainly consisting of the fact that there is no difference between Light and Dark.)
* ShapeshifterBaggage: Lampshaded in the first novel (how a 100-pound girl like Tiger Cub can turn into a 500-pound tiger) but never explained. Chalked up to AWizardDidIt.
* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Played straight for werewolves and vampires, who must take off their clothing when turning into a wolf or a bat, respectively. "Eve"/Lilith, the oldest vampire in existence, has learned to shapeshift the outer part of her skin into whatever clothes she wishes, but, technically, she is still naked.
* TheSheriff: The protagonist of ''District Cop'' is a Siberian village's only cop who, in 1972, ends up facing off against evil shamans. He's a Light Other but doesn't want anything to do with the Night Watch.
* ShoutOut
** During the first part of ''The Last Watch'', several characters have dreams that mirror scenes from the ''Night Watch'' film adaptation. The City Light Company, which is a Night Watch front in the movies, is referred to in ''Last Watch'' as one if their former fronts.
** That book also has Anton notice Nadya watching a show with [[WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends a theme song going "la-la-la, la-la-la-la, and a blue moose on skis hurtling towards a group of young animals in what is clearly going to be a horrible disaster]]. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments He expresses concern over his daughter watching such a thing.]]
** The Creator/StrugatskyBrothers are referenced several times throughout the books, either by book title or by quotes.
*** The protagonist of their ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'' novel is referenced in ''New Watch'' as a nickname for all Light Others who go off the deep end (i.e. start giving out happiness left and right).
** An intentional one in ''New Watch''. After Nadya compares Geser to [[Series/{{House}} Dr. House]] (i.e. the way he suggests a bunch of crazy theories to his underlings and then picks the right one himself), Geser appears dumbfounded, and Anton notes to himself that Geser only watches news and figure skating on TV. Later, though, after Anton catches Geser in a lie, Geser replies "everybody lies," showing that he ''has'' seen the show.
** Creator/WilliamBlake's poem "The Tyger" features prominently in ''New Watch''. Gesar and Anton quote and analyze it. In the original Russian novel, they quote the poem both in the original English and the two available translations.
** One of the teachers in ''School Supervision'' is a huge fan of ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'' and tends to collect [=DVDs=] of school-themed films, even if they have little to do with education (e.g. ''Film/{{Carrie}}'', ''Class of 1999''). After showing the film to his students, many of the young werewolves and vampires began to call themselves Dead Poets. He later spends some time analyzing Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Literature/TheRaven", explaining how the Russian translation loses some of the scary undertones. He speculates that the raven in question could have been a normal raven whose sounds may have been misinterpreted by an overactive mind as "Nevermore" or an escaped raven trained to speak (ravens can be taught to speak about as well as parrots).
* SideBet: In ''Sixth Watch'', Geser and Zabulon tell Anton and his family about a new prophecy involving them and the entire world. After the Gorodetskys' calm acceptance, Zabulon reluctantly pulls out an object he calls Merlin's smoking pipe and hands it to Geser. Geser explains that Zabulon bet that Anton and the others would panic. Geser is doubtful that the object really did belong to Merlin, as tobacco had not yet been imported to England at the time. Zabulon tells Geser he doesn't want to know what Merlin did smoke. After Anton's daughter opens a portal to his safe house and pulls her parents into it, they last thing they hear is Geser demanding Merlin's smoking bag from Zabulon, implying another bet. Averted in the third attempt, where Geser extends his hand to Zabulon later, only for the latter to look at him in confusion. It turns out Geser simply wants matches to light up.
* SongFic
** A rare usage in a published work: the first two novels contain many samples from contemporary Russian rock music to set the mood and illustrate the characters' philosophy, e.g. Valery Kipelov's song "I'm Free" is used extensively to exemplify the Dark Others' worldview. In fact, some characters suggest that [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Kipelov himself is an uninitiated Dark Other]].
** Even more prominent in the case of alternative-rock band ''Piknik'' known for their esoteric lyrics. The band leader, Edmund Shklarsky is also considered to be an uninitiated Other.
** It is briefly mentioned that Music/{{Rammstein}} video ''Du riechst so gut'' probably has been sponsored and scripted by werewolves.
* SophisticatedAsHell / PrecisionFStrike: In ''New Watch'' Anton describes the humongous fireball thrown at them: "A marketing manager would call it a premium-class fireball. A poet would say it was a Tzar-fireball. A biologist would dub it an Alpha-fireball. A very composed mathematician would note that it was a three meter-wide fireball. It was a "shit-your-pants-it's-so-scary" fireball!
** The same scene features another example, involving Geser (who is driving) trying to veer away from the fireball while screaming a profanity. Anton mentally notes how precisely the phrase captures the events and Geser's feelings. He's very proud of the Russian language.
* SpeakofTheDevil: In ''Last Watch'', Semyon is driving Anton to the airport and tells him a dream of driving a truck and nearly hitting Zabulon with it, who puts up a shield, which flips the truck over (one of the over-the-top scenes from the film)... and nearly runs into Zabulon on the airport parking lot.
--> '''Semyon''': Oh, hell!\\
'''Anton''': More like its lord and master.
* StarCrossedLovers: Anton and Svetlana, in a twist on this trope. Fate [[spoiler: or rather, Gesar and Zabulon]] dictates that they fall in love so they can produce TheMessiah, which understandably makes Anton reluctant to pursue a relationship. They wind up happy regardless.
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: In ''The New Watch'', Anton tells Arina that he thinks he saw a [[TheFairFolk fairy]] while walking home late at night. Arina then goes into a detailed half-scientific explanation of how this manifestation is likely created, referencing several physics constants and mentioning that, in this case, magic behaves exactly like thermodynamics. She explains that witches have always knows this (it's not always about brewing stuff in cauldrons) and asks if it's taught in the Watch school. Anton replies that it isn't, since there's no practical purpose for this knowledge.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Anton, while listening to his mini-disc (later [=MP3=]) player. He always puts it on random, and often the song that pops up has something to do either with the story, or with his present state of mind.
** This is referenced in the novel with Anton suspecting he might be unconsciously manipulating the player.
* TheTalk: In ''Sixth Watch'', Anton and Svetlana realize they (or rather, just Svetlana) will have talk to the teenage Nadya about the birds and the bees, especially since she admitted to have suggested sex to Innokenti (the prophet from ''The New Watch''). Anton volunteers to do the same for the boy, whose own father doesn't live with him, although he's glad Innokenti asked Nadya to wait, either believing that sex would reduce their magic potential or simply afraid.
* TakeAThirdOption
** Anton does this regularly, it really is something of his ''[[GratuitousLatin modus operandi.]]'' This gets lampshaded when Anton decides that the only way to be certain that he isn't taking the option Zavulon wants him to take is to invent an entirely new and unpredictable one.
** The whole trope is also repeatedly subverted from here to the far side of Moscow when it turns out that Zabulon, Gesar or whoever is stringing Anton around at that point in time ''specifically didn't mention the third option so that Anton would pick it.''
* TakeThat: In ''Last Watch'', Anton mentions how a group of them went to see ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. When it came to the duel between Gandalf and Saruman (whom Anton outright labels Light and Dark), all the Others laughed hysterically, as one of the first things they've been taught is that only an idiot relies exclusively on his amulets and battle wands instead of his Power.
* [[invoked]] TechnologyMarchesOn: By ''New Watch'', Anton has ditched his mini-disc player in favor of a smartphone that plays [=MP3s=] and has a GPS navigator. He still has the old player, though, [[spoiler:which proves useful]].
* ThemeNaming: Most novels (at least in the original Russian) of the same book have titles with a recurring word or its synonyms, each pertaining to belonging : "(One's) own" in ''Night Watch'', "Others'" in ''Day Watch'', "Noone's" in ''Twilight Watch'' and "Everyone's" in ''Final Watch''. ''New Watch'' and ''Sixth Watch'' break the overall theme of belonging, but their novels also have a recurring word: "Troublous" in the former and "Forced" in the latter.
* ThisIsReality: In ''Last Watch'', Semyon meets an old friend of his in Edinburgh and tells him they'll talk and exchange gifts later. Anton notes that, if this was an action film, these words would spell doom for Semyon. Luckily, things work differently in RealLife.
* TomeOfFate: Apparently, everyone has one. It can only be altered with the Chalk of Fate and only by a Higher Enchantress. [[spoiler:It is used by Olga to rewrite Svetlana's fate, turning her future daughter into an Absolute Enchantress instead of merely a Higher Enchantress. She manages to do it, while everyone is busy watching Svetlana trying to rewrite Yegor's fate and failing]].
* TooAwesomeToUse: Several one-shot artifacts are mentioned throughout the series. One such artifact is the Minoan Sphere, which allows one to open a portal to any desired location while remaining untraceable. However, the witch Arina has figured out how to recharge the Sphere, turning it into a GameBreaker. Anton seemingly breaks the Sphere by using it to teleport four people, but Arina mentions that it'll recover in 5 years.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Anton does this many times through the series. From fifth level to Beyond Classification to [[spoiler: being turned into human.]]
** His friend and PluckyComicRelief, the {{punk rock}}er Las[[note]]Based on the real-life Moscow punk Alexander "Las" Ulyanov, leader of ''The Belomors'' and Lukyanenko's friend[[/note]], tends to regularly end up together with him in those incidents that boost Anton's level and receive an upgrade too. He wasn't even the Other when he was first introduced, and ended up as a minor Night Watch official with third or fourth level.
*** Las's strength isn't in his magic but his ability to see things from a human's perspective. When sent to investigate, he'll often simply talk to people, while using a low-level "tongue-loosener" spell and basic psychology to get people to open up. Most Others no longer think that way.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Las, after his baptism in ''New Watch'' becomes quite a patronising jerk, full of disdain towards both regular people for "ignoring the revelation" and living in vice and Higher Others for dissociating themselves from mundane problems and growing aloof.
* TheBackwardsR: [[BilingualBonus If you can read Russian]], look at the movie poster.
* TheChessmaster: Both Geser and Zavulon. They are masterful planners and manipulators... [[DeconstructedTrope however, their pawns (mainly Anton, Svetlana, Edgar), are very unhappy about being used like this, and in case of Svetlana and Edgar, even leave Watches to human life and Inquisition respectively.]]
* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:Kostya]] returns in ''Sixth Watch'', having been somehow revived by the Twilight, even after Anton purged the Twilight of all dead Others.
* UpgradeArtifact: The Fuaran book (or rather diary), when combined with [[spoiler:blood from 12 people]] and read aloud by an Other will turn any human in the field of the reader's vision into a low-level Other. The same spell will "upgrade" an Other to an even higher level. Anton is "upgraded" to a Mage Beyond Classification (Geser's level), while [[spoiler:Kostya]] becomes an Absolute Other (Nadya's level). The spell appears to permanently lower the person/Other's "magical temperature" in relation to the ambient "magical temperature". Essentially, anyone whose temperature is lower than the ambient temperature is an Other (i.e. he/she absorbs the magic of the world and is able to use it). The lower the temperature, the more powerful the Other. An Absolute Other is also called a Zero-level Other, as his or her magical temperature is 0 (i.e. unlimited absorbtion).
** The Saushkin Cocktail could also possibly count, being a special mix of donor blood that can be used to raise a vampire to a Higher status that normally requires him or her to completely drain 3-4 people.
** Several other methods are mentioned in ''School Supervision'', although they're stated to only allow an Other to be raised up to his or her maximum possible level, usually involving the transfer of accumulated experience. Two of protagonist's friends use one of these methods to transfer the experience stored in ''literature'' to raise the protagonist from the lowest 7th level to the 4th (his upper limit). An Inquisitor then asks him what he plans to do with the rest of his life, if his Power level will no longer grow.
*** [[spoiler:The Fuaran text is re-created in the novel by a jinn Other in both the original form and the so-called anti-Fuaran (capable of de-initiating an Other). The two are then used to turn several vampires and werewolves into regular mages with a neutral aura. Strangely, jinns cannot be "upgraded" with the Fuaran. Then again, all jinn tend to be low-level Others, so it may be a requirement]].
* UrbanFantasy
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The "dark side", so to speak, of the Night Watch, and the main argument the Day Watch uses against them. Even [[WeDidntStartTheFuhrer The Nazis]] came out of their attempts to change the world.
* VampireMonarch: The Master of Masters is the supreme vampire in the world. He or she is typically one of the stronger vampires, since becoming one requires [[KlingonPromotion killing the current one]] in a duel. Should the Master or Masters die in any other manner, a new candidate can only be granted the title by killing twelve other vampires vying for the position. Since the post is pretty ceremonial (vampires tend to care more about blood ties), and vampires are no more suicidal than a regular person, this tends to leave the post open for quite a while. It's worth noting that the Master of Masters is not necessarily the oldest and most powerful vampire, as those also tend to be smart enough not to bother. For example, Lilith was several times older than the previous Master of Masters, while [[spoiler:Peter is a bona fide ''Neanderthal'']], making him about as old as Hena, a weresmilodon. In ''Sixth Watch'', [[spoiler:Kostya, who has been brought back by the Twilight, instigates a fight at the vampire gathering and becomes the new Master of Masters]].
* VegetarianVampire: It's perfectly possible for vampires to survive on donated or even animal blood. However, most prefer the thrill of luring and biting a victim. Vampires can do this legally by applying for hunting licence to the Night Watch and the Watch is bound by the Treaty to distribute them. They also issue emergency licences to drain a serial killer or other violent criminals, who happen to be too good at evading authorities.
** In ''School Supervision'', the boy vampire Artem Komarov's mother works for a blood bank and even uses the Call to lure donors with rare blood types. The Night Watch allows this, as she has never applied for a license for herself. In fact, feeling guilty to even drink donor blood, she drinks pig's blood.
* VeinOVision
* VillainProtagonist: Alisa in ''Day Watch'' and to a somewhat lesser extent the other Dark Other protagonists of the novel.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Werewolves and their Light counterparts (who prefer "Shifter-Mage") can turn into their animal form at will. However, werewolves are actually undead, while the Shifter-Mages are normal Others with an affinity for this trope. Vampires are also mentioned in the first novel to be able to turn into bats or other animals.
** Whether or not werewolves are undead keeps changing from book to book.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Occasionally, a recently-initiated Light Other will break down, hateful of the compromise between Light and Darkness, and will start taking absorbing Power from happy humans. At full capacity, even a Great Other may not be able to deal with him. The goal of these extremists is to remoralize a huge number of people to always be happy. They ignore pleas from their fellow Light Others that such an action would allow the Dark Others an equal chance at spreading unhappiness by the terms of the Treaty. In ''New Watch'', Anton reveals that those who go off the deep end are called "schuharts" after the protagonist of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' novel ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'' Redrick "Red" Schuhart whose final act in the novel is to declare "HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!". Anton himself nearly does this in ''Night Watch'' but ends up spending all the accumulated Power to remoralize ''himself''.
** In ''Twilight Watch'' [[spoiler: Kostya Saushkin]] decides to use the aforementioned [[[UpgradeArtifact Fuaran]] to [[spoiler: turn the whole Earth population into Others, so that there would be no more discrimination.]]
** [[spoiler: Arina, Edgar and Gennadii Saushkin (Kostya's father)]] become this in ''Last Watch'', when they try to find Crown of All in order to resurrect their Other loved ones, and freely use humans as pawns.
* WickedWitch: Played around with Arina. Her true form is a greatly aged crone and her depiction definitely evokes Baba Yaga. Edgar seems to be a male version (both seem to practice the same kind of magic), and his true form is likewise very aged. However, both are a subversion. Neither are that evil, and Anton notes how their true forms show this- many Dark Others become hideous demons in the Twilight, and so the fact that those two still look ''human'' speaks to their relative goodness.
* WizardingSchool: Both Watches have schools for newly-initiated Others. Unlike a typical example, though, not all students are children, as Others can be initiated at any age. It's implied that a child's curriculum includes regular classes as well. Anton teaches a class in ''New Watch'' where he explains why it's not a good idea to try to remake the world (or a country) to be better (essentially, a BreakTheCutie class).
** ''School Supervision'' is about a boarding school of sorts for Other teens who don't fit into either the Light or the Dark category. By nature, their teachers are all Inquisitors. Many characters deliberately invoke ''Harry Potter'' for comparison, showcasing many differences between the schools (e.g. use of modern electronic devices in classrooms, ordinary building, human sports).
*** In one instance, the protagonist compares himself not to Harry Potter but to Neville Longbottom, the least capable magician, and his two friends to Ron (especially since the guy initially introduced himself as such) and Hermione, especially since his friends are sleeping together.
** Anton mentions that, after ''Literature/HarryPotter'' was published, it became much easier to explain to the newly-initiated Others what they are, although kids are still disappointed that there's no school like Hogwarts (and that they still have to go to school like normal kids).
* WorthyOpponent: Alisa refers to Anton as this in ''Day Watch''. She sees his act in the previous novel of draining others of happiness so that he could prevent himself from turning heel as the kind of selfish individualism that a Dark One should strive for.
** Gesar and Zabulon treat one another with a measure of grudging respect, although this is more evident with Zabulon than with Gesar, who frequently calls Gesar "my adversary".
* WretchedHive: ''Face of the Black Palmira'' reveals that [[spoiler:Saint Petersburg]] has become a [[EldritchLocation Dark]] [[GeniusLoci City]], which makes it infinitely more depressing and unhealthy to live in. This has since been corrected by the Inquisition, who sentence the city to be "defleshed" (i.e. cast forever into the Twilight). Since destroying the city isn't an option, they do it only to the city's Other essence.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Erasmus Darwin, a Dark Other who was born in the 17th century, speaks in Shakespearean English (e.g. using "thou") when Anton first contacts him. The only reason Anton is even able to understand him is due to the fact that the Others can understand and speak any language. Anton wonders why Darwin does this, as no one has spoken this way even in the 17th century. Later on, Darwin drops the act and speaks normally.
** This is changed in the English translation of ''New Watch'' to Erasmus simply using slightly outdated language and grammar (i.e. no ridiculous "thou"), coupled with an accent that makes him sound French but is, in fact, that of 18th century English.

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!!Aside from the tropes above, the movie adaptations contain examples of:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/night_watch.jpg]]

* TheAlcoholic: Anton in the beginning of both movies. In the first one, he drinks a lot to pass the taste of blood he has to drink so he could chase vampires. In the second movie he drinks a little too much while reading about Tamerlane. [[spoiler:He is poisoned in the end of the second movie, resulting in an extremely drunk behavior]].
* ApocalypseMaiden: In the first movie.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Towards the beginning of ''Day Watch'', Zavulon goes through a list of Russian celebrities. Some of them are explicitly stated to be Dark Others. Easy to miss for non-Russian audiences, as [[BilingualBonus the list is in Russian]] and only appears on screen for a few seconds.
* BloodierAndGorier: Especcially how Anton defeats the vampires.
* {{Cameo}}: Lots of Russian celebrities present [[spoiler:and killed during Yegor's birthday party]] at the end of the second movie.
* CassandraTruth: When Anton tells a police officer he's been drinking blood.
* CompositeCharacter
** In the movie, Bear's name is Ilya, while in the books, Bear and Ilya are two different people.
** Also, the Inquisition, which is a rather big organization in the books, is reduced to two CreepyTwins in the second movie.
** Film!Yegor seems to combine aspects of Yegor and Kostya in the novels. The Light/Dark conflict strains Anton's relationships with both characters and film!Yegor is introduced like his novel counterpart, but like Kostya in the novel, becomes a vampire. Further, Anton's introduction in the film in which he tries to purchase a spell to induce a miscarriage is taken from a BatmanColdOpen in ''Day Watch'' (novel), in which it was done by a random woman, but Alissa in the novel also did this successfully.
* CreepyTwins: The Inquisition in ''Day Watch''.
* CulturalTranslation: In the Russian version, Yegor is watching a Russian cartoon that dealt with vampires (Not with vampires, exactly. It is old and kind Soviet cartoon, depicting creatures from Russian folklore. It is called ''Domovyonok Kuzya'',where "domovyonok" is diminutive form of "domovoi"). In the international version, the cartoon is replaced by an episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
* TheDanza: Kostya's father Gennadiy is renamed to Valeriy in the movie. The actor's name is Valeriy Zolotukhin.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Semyon in ''Night Watch'', Alisa in ''Day Watch''.
* DummiedOut: The scenes featuring Ignat, as well as the humorous scenes featuring a couple in the plane were removed from the international version of ''Night Watch''.
* EvilDiva: Alisa
* InformedAbility: Tiger Cub says in ''Night Watch'' that Bear can shapeshift into a bear, but the latter is unwilling to do a demonstration.
* InNameOnly: ''Day Watch'' was not adapted from the book of the same title. While ''Night Watch'' was adapted from the first of three stories from the book ''Night Watch'', ''Day Watch'' was adapted from the two others.
* KissOfDeath: a male Dark One kills a policeman in ''Day Watch'' by giving him one. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
* ObjectTrackingShot: When we follow a bolt that's rattled loose from a plane.
* PainfulTransformation: Olga
* PaintingTheMedium: Done heavily in the English subtitled version. The subtitles themselves appeared as blood floating across the screen like it did in the pool at the beginning.
* ProductPlacement: Oh, where to begin... blatant in the first movie, but better blended in in the second.
* [[spoiler:ResetButtonEnding]]: The ending of the second movie.
* SlobsVersusSnobs: The Light Others all look like common people, and the Night Watch even wears blue-collar worker uniforms. Their vehicle of choice is a power grid repairman's truck. The Dark Others all look like a mix of low-rank gangsters and Gestapo officers.
* {{Tagline}}: The Rusian tagline of ''Day Watch'' is "First movie of the year" (which, from Russian, can also be translated as "#1 movie of the year", as in the BEST movie). While it can seem pretentious, it is in fact to be taken literally: the movie's Russian premiere was on the 1st of January, 2006, at 3 a.m.
* TakeThat: ''Night Watch'' broke every box office record in Russia since pretty much ever. By the time ''Day Watch'' was in mid-production, ''9th Company'' (another Russian movie) surpassed that record. In ''Day Watch'', Anton used bill boards as portals. At one point, he emerges from a ''9th Company'' poster, ripping it apart. During the production, the creators of the movie expressed their hope for the movie to surpass ''9th Company'' at the box-office. It did.
* TimeStandsStill: Geser does it.

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!!Aside from above tropes, the video game adaptations contain examples of:

* AlternateUniverse: The PC game was basically a combination of book and movie continuities. The character designs harken back to the movie, as does the usage of mundane items to do magic, but the characters can also use spells from the books and Twilight is closer to the way it was depicted in the books.
* ButThouMust: sort of. Your choices won't alter the major plot points, but they will make it easier (or harder) to achieve your mission objectives.
* ImmuneToBullets: Played with. Ordinary guns (and later machine guns) are surprisingly effective against the lower-level Others in the PC game. Not so much with the higher-powered others, but they still do damage, which can be useful when you and your enemy are out of mana.
* HeelFaceTurn: During the course of the PC game, the characters try to figure out why some Light Others inexplicably become Dark. [[spoiler:turns out that the new technology-based "remoralization" spell can flip the potential Others' alignments before they are initiated]].
** This flip-flops during the series. It's initially claimed that most uninitiated Others are in flux until the moment they first step into the Twilight. Their current state of mind at that time determines their alignment. This is why the initiators have to pick just the right moment. In ''New Watch'', however, Anton claims that, statistically, there is 1 Light Other for every 16 Dark Others, which is roughly the same as the ratio of altruistic vs. selfish people in the world. This appears to indicate that only altruistic people become Light ones and only selfish people become Dark.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Stas, the main protagonist of the PC game. [[spoiler: Later in the game, it turned out that there is a reason for that - he was a "remoralized" Dark Other]]
* McGuffin: Orb of Power, as the name implies, can amplify any spell thousand-fold. Naturally, both sides want to use it for their own purposes.
* PluckyComicRelief: Yuri (in the PC game).
* UnexpectedGenreChange: One of the games based on the series is a racing game. Yeah, where you can enter the Twilight to avoid traffic.

* AuraVision: All Others are able to see through the Twilight at another person's aura. The aura usually reflects not only whether the person is a human or an Other but also the person's emotional state. In fact, auras are used by the Watches as a method of identification, as each person's aura is unique (similar to DNA, though, the auras of family members have many of the same features). In ''New Watch'', it's revealed that at least two people have been accidentally granted the ability to recognize Others as a side effect of spells used on them. A Moscow policeman named Dima Pastukhov explains that he sees them though the [[WindowsOfTheSoul eyes]]... even if he's looking at the Other from far away. He's even able to differentiate Light Others (whom he calls "dogs") and Dark Others ("wolves" to him). The other person was Creator/WilliamBlake, presumably through his association with the Dark Other prophet Erasmus Darwin.

Not to be confused with the 1994 Danish horror film ''Film/{{Nightwatch}}'' or its 1997 American remake.

The Literature/{{Discworld}} book is [[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld here]].