History Literature / TheDireSaga

* ILoveNuclearPower: Since Tesla won the electricity transmission war, there is no need for nuclear power plants and all the use for nuclear material is weaponsmaking. Or mutating people into metahumans, using [[ShoutOut Eastman-Laird radiation]].

* BeautyBrainsandBrawn: Dire’s power is being a supergenius in multiple fields, she can take down entire hero teams by herself, and even though she believes she is a bit scrawny, many characters, both male and female, consider her quite attractive or even beautiful.

* PracticallyJoker: Pagliacci, a monster clown of the universe, seemed to exist entirely to cause pain to others with his excuse people that he wanted to share the joy of tragedy.

* {{Expy}}: Dire's pretty much a DistaffCounterpart to the more benevolent interpretations of SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom, complete with PoweredArmor, ChewingTheScenery mannerisms and ThirdPersonPerson, except her ReedRichardsIsUseless by an even larger margin.

* NeverLiveItDown: Strictly speaking, everything Dire did in the first book that the heroes knew about would not have painted her as an outright villain if Ballista hadn't forced her to fight him over accusations of killing Scrapper. Even her nemeses-to-be, Tomorrow Force, were sensible (alright, less obnoxious) until she was clearly slotted into villainy in their mind.
** On a more personal level, when Ballista "goes vigilante" and fights her [[spoiler: armor actually worn by Minna]] in the third book, he's convinced he should have killed Dire back then, and apparently let it affect his life enough to go off the reservation.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Book 3. MASSIVE SPOILER. Martin decided to quit being a minion and goes to jail. Vorpal betrays everyone and disappears. The original host of Dire is killed by Unstoppable, who is left in anguish when he discovers who she was. And Minna becomes the new host of Dire so that her daughter Anya doesn’t take the mantle in the future. Worse? Dire is still Dire. And now every time she looks herself in the mirror she is forced to remember that one of her oldest friends sacrificed herself so that Dire could live again.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Book 3. MASSIVE SPOILER. Martin sacrifices his freedom. Vorpal sacrifices her love. Bunny sacrifices her morals. The original host of Dire sacrifices her life. And Minna becomes the new host of Dire so that her daughter Anya doesn’t take the mantle in the future. Worse? Dire is still Dire. And now every time she looks herself in the mirror she is forced to remember that one of her oldest friends sacrificed herself so that Dire could live again.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Book 3. MASSIVE SPOILER. Martin sacrifices his freedom. Vorpal sacrifices her love. Bunny sacrifices her morals. The original Dire sacrifices her life. And Minna becomes the new Dire so that her daughter Anya doesn’t take the mantle in the future]]

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Dire and Unstopabble. [[spoiler: They do. Somehow Dire manages to dislocate her shoulder during the act]]

* BeautyBrainsandBrawn: Dire power is being a supergenius in multiple fields, she can take down hero teams while in her armor, and even though she believes she is a bit scrawny, many characters, both male and female consider her quite attractive or even beautiful.

** Followed shortly by James Cameron over how her [[Film/{{Terminator}} Guard-bots look]].

* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Apparently true for each individual time traveling power. Possible for every different method of scientific time travel as well.

See also ''Fanfic/DireWorm'', a crossover with ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' by Seiple himself that probably serves as most readers' first encounter with Dire.

* GraffitiOfTheResistance: When Dire is transported to the future in the third book, she sees