History Literature / Twig

* AcademyOfEvil: The setting is built on these; ruthless academic organizations that advance science in the service of a tyrannical, expansionist empire. Yet, for all that they are undeniably highly amoral places with truly abysmal human rights records by our standards, they still have ethical guidelines that they stick to. The Academic system is LawfulEvil in a cutthroat, [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinsit-like]] take on it.

* HandSignals: The Lambs have a complex language of hand signs bordering on a SignedLanguage which they developed to communicate without their doctors noticing and for use in the field. It's notable in that they ''deliberately'' made it unintuitive and difficult to learn, to prevent an astute observer from quickly figuring it out.

* PsychoSerum: The Wyvern formula, a collection of spectacularly poisonous substances injected directly into the brain which allows the user to essentially edit their own personality and mental capabilities to react to changing circumstances. Single, low doses have minor long-term effects, but the immediate effect is a massive temporary personality shift as the Wyvern user alters their mind and emotional state to correspond with the situation.

* AllowedInternalWar: [[spoiler:The King allows the Lambs and the Crown States, now under their control, to go to war against the rest of the Crown Empire and Academies in order to purge them of its worst elements and make it better as a whole in an invoked GhenghisGambit.]]

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: The Primordial. Partially deconstructed in that the beast had little knowledge of the concept, except as "the ultimate authority humans answer to," and it was trying to ensure its survival by asserting itself as such.]] Also, [[spoiler: The Baron Richmond has built a mock church of worship to himself.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Creating the Ghosts is treated as this for Percy. Fray also seemingly crosses this when she casually admits the vast majority of humanity may die. Creating Primordials [[EvenEvilHasStandards is this to Academy students]].

* MugglesDoItBetter: generally {{averted}}, but there are a few examples. [[spoiler: Mauer and his men are able to take down the unstoppable Duke simply with better bullets.]]

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Mary end up joining the Lambs after they defeat her. {{Averted}} hard for the rest of the Bad Seeds, who end up being brutally killed.

* MugglesDoItBetter: generally {{averted}}, hard, but there are a few examples. [[spoiler: Mauer and his men are able to take down the unstoppable Duke simply with better bullets.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Our ''devastatingly'' interesting protagonists. Top: Lambs Clockwise from left, Sy, Jamie, Mary, Gordon. Images by [[http://mahasim.deviantart.com Mahasim]] ]]

* SuperIntelligence: different variants are possessed by [[ManipulativeBastard Sy]], [[PhotographicMemory Jamie]] and [[TheChessmaster Fray]].
* SyntheticPlague: employed by the Crown as a weapon. Also weilded by Primordials.

-->[[spoiler:“The Academy experiments, the Academy itself, even the Lambs, especially the Lambs, they’re going to come after us. Because of what I did, and what I’m doing, and because you’re with me, now they’re the-“]]
-->[[spoiler:“Enemy,” Jamie finished for me.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Our ''devastatingly'' interesting protagonists. Images by [[http://mahasim.deviantart.com Mahasim]] ]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cropped_twig_commission_titled1.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Our ''devastatingly'' interesting protagonists. Image by [[http://mahasim.deviantart.com Mahasim]] ]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Creating the Ghosts is treated as this for Percy. Fray also seemingly crosses this when she casually admits the vast majority of humanity may die. Creating Primordials {{EvenEvilHasStandards is this to Academy students}}.

-->Clones, he thought. From Ancient Greek Klon-. Meaning Twig.
And later:
-->[[spoiler:The Lambs are the enemy now. ''cue change from "Enemy" to "Lamb" interludes'']]

[[caption-width-right:350:Our ''devastatingly'' interesting protagonists.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Our devastatingly interesting protagonists.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Our devastatingly interesting protagonists.]]]]]]

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: one of Sylvester's main abilities, a side effect of the PsychoSerum he's been taking since childhood.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: the Ghosts.

* CuteAndPsycho: Helen is adorable and often bubbly, but asking her questions can often give you answers that you didn't want to hear.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Mary. {{Averted}} hard for the rest of the Bad Seeds, {{WouldHurtAChild who are all brutally killed}}.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: [[spoiler:Mauer vs the Duke.]] Also doubles as a WhamLine.

* DreamTeam: the Lambs.

* EyeScream: used as torture by the Crown several times. Later weaponized [[spoiler: by Sylvester against the Baron.]]

* TheGadfly: Sylvester. In fairness, this isn't purely to be annoying; it helps make people more predictable.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The universe of ''Twig'' appears to be built around biotech.

* GoForTheEye: [[spoiler: Noble's reinforced skeletons don't protect them from injections directly into the brain.]]

* GunsAreWorthless: against Nobles and Warbeasts, anyway, and they're notably ineffective against many of the threats the Lambs face (like Sub Rosa.) [[spoiler: It's later revealed that the Crown have been deliberately suppressing advancement of armor-piercing rounds to encourage this.]]

* HealingFactor: the Tender Mercies.
* HiveMind: a two-person example in Lara and Nora.

* InMediasRes: The story begins in the middle of one of the orphan's missions.
* InsistentTerminology: evolution is called "Wallace's Law" after Alfred Russel Wallace (who invented the idea just after Darwin in our universe.) Electricity is "voltaic charge", after Alessandro Volta.

* TokenHuman: Lillian.
* LegoGenetics: a result of the Academy's deep understanding of biology.

* LovableCoward: Lara and Nora

* TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar: [[ArcWords The Crown doesn't lose]].
* ManipulativeBastard: Sy is a self-proclaimed example of this.
* MarshmallowHell: Happens to Sly once upon getting hugged by an older student in Taking Root 1.5.

* MoralEventHorizon: creating the Ghosts is treated as this for Percy, . Fray also seemingly crosses this when she casually admits the vast majority of humanity may die. Creating Primordials {{EvenEvilHasStandards is this to Academy students}}.

* NotEvenHuman: occasionally applied by

* PowerArmour: a rare BioTech example in Sub Rosa. [[spoiler: Lillian later develops a smaller version for herself.]]

* PuppeteerParasite: Petey is a particularly {{Squick}} version of this.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The viewpoint characters are a group of neonates and later young teenagers, only one of whom (a budding MadScientist) is not an ArtificialHuman.
* RealityEnsues: The Lambs start out as a group of covert operatives, but a couple of arcs in, the results of their jobs start becoming known, with the effect that they become a known quantity and thus can't be as covert as they were.

* ScaleOfScientificSins: pretty much everyone in this setting jumps off the deep end very quickly, but most obviously the Academy.

* SoreLoser: the Crown doesn't lose. Ever.
* SteamPunk: although rarer than biological technology, there are occasionally examples of this.

* WarIsHell: The prevalence of biotech has ''not at all'' prevented this trope from happening, if the Shepherd's recollections are anything to go by. Then we get a series of close-ups. Yup: this trope. So very hard.

* WouldHurtAChild: Percy.

* AcademyOfAdventure: Radham Academy are the ones funding the group, but only one of them is a student.

** The divergence point seems to be a massive leap forward in biotechnology sometime in the early 19th century.

* AndThenWhat: Sylvester uses this rhetorical tactic against Mary, pointing out that even if she kills them all and escapes, she'll ''never'' be able to trust her creator again.

* NoBiologicalSex: Jamie [[spoiler: and Jessie.]]