History Literature / T2Trilogy

* ClarkKenting: Clea goes to great lengths to alter her appearance from that of her progenitor Serena, starting with hair dye and glasses. She also uses makeup and [[NavelDeepNeckline a very eye-catching dress]] to [[DistractedByTheSexy draw attention away from her face]]. She's helped by the fact that she is, personality-wise, a completely different person than Serena.

* InferiorInheritor: Subverted: for all her desire to be a SuperiorSuccessor to Serena, Clea often believes herself to be this, noting the "flaws" in her development compared to the more normally grown Alyssa, even admitting at one point that the latter would be leader if it weren't for her looking like a six year old girl. However, she's also the only one of the three I-950s to successfully complete her mission, ensuring Skynet's birth.

* FakingTheDead: While Sarah having died by the time of the future war is something that most takes on the franchise have logically assumed, here she's still around at the time of Skynet's final defeat, with John having faked her death to give the Resistance (specifically Kyle) a martyr to idolise into a legend. She even lives long enough to see Kyle Reese go back in time.

** Victor Greigo is a slimeball arms dealer who absolutely no-one likes, and can't help making himself as unpopular as possible when he stays at Dieter's place. There's even a rumour that his mother died of a broken heart because he was so awful. When one of Serena's Terminators offs him, no tears are shed. Even when John and Dieter find out, all they do is comment on what an asshoke he was to his mother.

** The arms dealers in ''Rising Storm'' point-blank refuse to sell guns to John when he initially approaches them, saying they're not going to be responsible for a high-school shooting spree.

* Victor Greigo is a slimeball arms dealer who absolutely no-one likes, and can't help making himself as unpopular as possible when he stays at Dieter's place. There's even a rumour that his mother died of a broken heart because he was so awful. When one of Serena's Terminators offs him, no tears are shed. Even when John and Dieter find out, all they do is comment on what an asshoke he was to his mother.

** The T-800s, obviously.

* CloningBlues: Despite all being based on the same template, the I-950s have very different personalities, as it's implied the speed of the latter two's development has left some unaddressed personality defects. Clea regards Serena as arrogant, overconfident and sloppy in her work, while Alissa thinks Clea is overly emotional and "defective".

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: The novels operate on the conceit that time has a kind of inertia, a desire to flow down a specific path and the ability to nudge events towards that path, which is basically the quantum mechanical version of this trope. Thus, the more Skynet tries to kill the Connors (specifically John) and the more the Connors try to stop Skynet before it happens, the harder they fail. The more they move in line with the future history Kyle Reese talked about -- the Connors stockpiling weapons and supplies and recruiting allies; Skynet's forces ensuring the [=AIs=] birth -- the greater success they enjoy.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Tricker is genuinely offended and downright angry when Colvin and Warren try to dismiss Kurt Viemeister's Neo-Nazism by stating lots of geniuses, when they have political ideas, tend to have "airy-fairy notions about how things should be run."

* CasualDangerDialogue: In a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}, a Terminator is attempting to kill John, Sarah, and Dieter as they are leaving on a chartered plane. The Terminator is hanging on outside the plane, and the best weapon they have to deal with it is C-4. Sarah is spinning the plastic explosive in her hands into thin ropes, which they wrap around the Termiantor's arms and (eventually) neck to destroy it. Dieter comments that he's never seen someone work plastic explosive like that, and John says that Sarah does it the same way she does with dough for Christmas cookies, to which Sarah helpfully identifies them as Cinnamon Bows.

* EvilLuddite: A whole army of them. Ron Labane is a {{Jerkass}}, but his followers in the second book start getting increasingly violent, irrational and murderous - to the point of killing him to gain greater sympathy for their cause. By Skynet's time, many of hem willingly work for it, believing that Skynet will be less harmful to Earth than the human race and that they can freely kill themselves once it's all over. A few even work for Skynet at the very end of the war, once the Terminators have gone back in time. Esrly in "Infiltrator", Serena is instructed by Skynet to engage a Luddite in conversation on their worldview, and can only come away from it blieving humans are in sane - especially since, as mentioned elsewhere, Skynet and its war are far more harmful to the environment than humans could ever be.

** Kurt Viemeister is Skynet's Neo-Nazi programmer, a blatant misogynist with an unrelenting superiority complex whom even the I-950s delight in finding small ways to take down a peg. Consequently, when Skynet becomes active and tells him precisely how the many books on racial theory and inferiority inspired it to exterminate humans as a whole. One of the military men with him promptly shoots him dead, commenting on how he'd wanted to do that for years. His boss comments on how he'd wanted to do that ever since he met the man.

* AssholeVictim: Two men see young Alissa in a restaurant and decide to take the opportunity of her visiting the restroom to abduct her for unsavory purposes. Of course, despite her young biological age Alissa is still an I-950 with SuperStrength and [[SuperToughness Toughness]], to say nothing of being [[ElectronicTelepathy Wi-Fi linked]] to the three T-800s in the dining room, so this ends very badly for both would-be kidnappers.

* FantasticRacism: In this case, speciesism. While Skynet wanting to destroy humanity has always been a given in the franchise, here, we see an I-950 Infiltrator's viewpoint on the subject. Barely a page goes by where Serena isn;t commenting on how stupid humans are, and how they deserve to die. Even one of her Terminators eventually gets in on the action after having to watch a comedy on a flight. Notably, Clea and Alissa dial it way down in the second book.

* CloningBlues: Despite all being based on the same template, the I-950s have very different personalities, as it's implied the speed of the latter two's development has left some unaddressed personality defects.. Clea regards Serena as arrogant, overconfident and sloppy in her work, while Alissa thinks is overly emotional and "defective".

* BondOneLiner: From a Terminator, no less. After killing a man via third floor window, the Terminator answers an inquiry as to his whereabouts with "He just dropped out."

* TheSpartanWay: [=SkyNet=]s efforts at rearing the I-950s, which started when they were babies; they would be given hologrammatic toys to chase and compelled to chase them as long as possible to build up physical conditioning and stamina. Those who failed were punished and eventually eliminated. Serena actually kills one of her brothers during puberty after he is judged "emotionally compromised".

* Sucksessor: Whether from being pushed too hard in the growth acceleration stages, being raised by a Terminator and never knowing Skynet's presence, or just inherent instabilities in the brand-new I-950 line, Clea is definitely flawed compared to her progenitor Serena, however hard she works to make herself a SuperiorSuccessor. Even Alissa regards her as defective by the end.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: The T-800s; as Serena realises all too late, this makes them more remarkable amongst humans, making it much harder to deploy multiple ones at a time and go unnoticed. She attempts to get around it by artificially styling and coloring their hair to make them look at least a little different on a cursory inspection. This also comes into play with the basis for their appearance, Sector agent Dieter von Rossbach; his associates in the Sector start thinking something hinky is up when he's shown to be first trying to kill Sarah Connor (and murdering seventeen police officers in the process) then helping her, when both times Dieter himself was confirmed to be nowhere in the vicinity.

* IronicEcho: The second novel starts with a brooding Skynet trying to make sense of the fact it has records of three totally different origins in different timeframes, eventually concluding (just as Sarh Connor ONCE did);

* BunnyEarsLawyer: This is the ''only'' reason why Dr. Kurt Viemeister was allowed to work on the [=SkyNet=] program; as much as it disgusts Cyberdyne to employ a practicing Neo-Nazi, the truth of the matter is that he's the only man on the ''planet'' who has the programming knowledge to coax a computer into true ArtificialIntelligence. Goes both ways, interestingly: Viemeister initially insisted on ''much'' more favorable terms for his contract employment with Cyberdyne, basically amounting to "I do whatever I want and own everything I make," because he's just good enough to make such demands and still get hired by every other tech firm out there. Tricker slapped him with super stringent security protocols partly because the project had already been set back by StuffBlowingUp, partly because Tricker really would have been happy if Viemeister walked rather than accept the restrictions. But Viemeister stuck around because what Cyberdyne was doing (and what they were doing it with) was well beyond anything he'd get to work with anywhere else. When Skynet eventually makes its move and leaves Viemeister and the military men with him to die in their Antarctic bunker, one of hem shoots him straightaway, commenting on how he'd wanted to do it for years.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: This is the ''only'' reason why Dr. Kurt Viemeister was allowed to work on the [=SkyNet=] program; as much as it disgusts Cyberdyne to employ a practicing Neo-Nazi, the truth of the matter is that he's the only man on the ''planet'' who has the programming knowledge to coax a computer into true ArtificialIntelligence. Goes both ways, interestingly: Viemeister initially insisted on ''much'' more favorable terms for his contract employment with Cyberdyne, basically amounting to "I do whatever I want and own everything I make," because he's just good enough to make such demands and still get hired by every other tech firm out there. Tricker slapped him with super stringent security protocols partly because the project had already been set back by StuffBlowingUp, partly because Tricker really would have been happy if Viemeister walked rather than accept the restrictions. But Viemeister stuck around because what Cyberdyne was doing (and what they were doing it with) was well beyond anything he'd get to work with anywhere else.

* DeconstructedTrope: The books live on this trope. Dieter's main red flag that something truly bizarre is going on with Sarah Connor isn't just that pictures of ''him'' were taken with her, once when he was apparently trying to kill her and again when he was working with her (and Dieter is confirmed to be elsewhere during both events), but the fact that, while Dieter is a top-notch special forces agent and crack shot, even ''he'' couldn't nonfatally shoot people in the legs as often as the T-800 does. John and Sarah are wanted criminals for their previous antics and hiding out in Paraguay, and both have some pretty severe PTSD to deal with (the first time Sarah sees Dieter's face, and recognizes it as the T-800's, she '''runs'''). Numerous other examples abound, mostly deconstructing the common action movie tropes the Terminator series lives.

* FlawedPrototype: Not Serena herself, but the first clone she makes, Clea. Whether from being pushed too hard in the growth acceleration stages, being raised by a Terminator and never knowing Skynet's presence, or just inherent instabilities in the brand-new I-950 line, Clea is definitely flawed compared to Serena.

** Snog, one of Wendy's college buddies, seems a lazy nerdy hacker. But he's surprisingly insightful in his and John's first meeting, challenging him and accepting him as the challenges are met. He's also capable with firearms, as his family has always owned guns and maintains a hunting lodge.

* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Clea doesn't have much respect for Serena, despite them being genetically identical. Part of it is resentment that Serena actually knew Skynet, while Clea, "born" in the past, never really will. Part of it is some harsh (but not unjustified) criticism of Serena's personality, plans, and approach.

* SeriesContinuityError: The novels make the same error as ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'', identifying the T-800 as a T-101. For the record, the Terminator type featured throughout most Terminator media is the [[https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/T-800 Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Terminator,]] or simply T-800. "[[https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/Model_(living_tissue) Model 101]]" refers to the outer flesh coating a Terminator is given to create a distinct appearance.

* TemptingFate: After Ssrah was caught in the successful attempt to blow up Cyberdyne again, she manages to work the system and get moved to a halfway house fairly quickly. She reflects that this is so much easier with a more gullible doctor and not being pumped full of drugs she doesn't need by the unlamented Dr. Silberman. Guess who turns out to be running the halfway house?

* DeathBySex: [[spoiler:Averted]] for Sarah; [[spoiler:She and Dieter become lovers, but survive through the end of the trilogy]], [[spoiler:played straight]] for John, [[spoiler:who loses not one, but two lovers who die shortly after he sleeps with them.]]

* YouGotSpunk: When Tricker, Warren, and Colvin finally agree to hire Serena, she hands Warren and Colvin the disks she "found" in Miles Dyson's house which she used to secure her employment. Tricker initially seems very put off by this, before slamming his hand on the table and crowing "The little girl knows how to play hardball!" indicating that he's starting to warm up to Serena as a good hire for Cyberdyne.

* PinPullingTeeth: John looks down on people who do this as engaging in macho bullshit that's bad for your teeth. But when he finds himself needing to chuck termite grenades at Terminators while riding a motorcycle, he doesn't have another option.

* AnAxToGrind: A very-injured Sarah takes a fire ax to a should-be-dead-already Serena.