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* UnreliableNarrator: It's not really that Fat is unreliable, but his reality is. Arguably.
to:
* UnreliableNarrator: It's not really that Fat is unreliable, not dishonest, but his perception of reality is. Arguably.might be impaired. Fittingly, he is aware of this and forthright about the possibility that he is insane.
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* AncientAstronauts: Fat makes ''Series/AncientAliens'' worthy claims (like "the ornament on this Greek vase is obviously DNA strand") years before it came in fashion.
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* BrainyBaby: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]]
to:
* BrainyBaby: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.who's also the messiah.]]
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* BulliedIntoDepression: Maybe it's not all her fault, but let's face it, Bath is downright abusive to Fat and everyone (but him) can see the fact. She's angry at him for not getting his ''suicide attempt'' right, for crying out loud.
to:
* BulliedIntoDepression: Maybe it's not all her fault, but let's face it, Bath Beth is downright abusive to Fat and everyone (but him) can see the fact. She's angry at him for not getting his ''suicide attempt'' right, for crying out loud.
Added DiffLines:
* {{Catchphrase}}: Maurice keeps rhetorically claiming "I'm being serious!". Fat and Phil laugh about that (behind his back).
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some editing
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* AsHimself: Creator/RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
to:
%% * AsHimself: Creator/RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
Changed line(s) 20 (click to see context) from:
* BrokenMasquerade
to:
%% * BrokenMasqueradeBrokenMasquerade
* BulliedIntoDepression: Maybe it's not all her fault, but let's face it, Bath is downright abusive to Fat and everyone (but him) can see the fact. She's angry at him for not getting his ''suicide attempt'' right, for crying out loud.
* BungledSuicide: Fat, twice. Both his attempts are cries for help, although the one when he took ''49'' tablets of digitalis came within hair's breath of actually killing him.
* BulliedIntoDepression: Maybe it's not all her fault, but let's face it, Bath is downright abusive to Fat and everyone (but him) can see the fact. She's angry at him for not getting his ''suicide attempt'' right, for crying out loud.
* BungledSuicide: Fat, twice. Both his attempts are cries for help, although the one when he took ''49'' tablets of digitalis came within hair's breath of actually killing him.
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* DeusEstMachina: Possibly? When the characters meet the ostensible incarnation of the deity, they wonder afterwards if she was a machine.
to:
* DeusEstMachina: Possibly? When the characters meet the ostensible incarnation of the deity, they wonder afterwards if whether she was a machine.machine. Also, VALIS is a satellite in the ''Radio Free Albemuth'' version.
* DrugsAreBad: Several characters, Fat included, are quite a bit brain-fried because of them.
* DrugsAreBad: Several characters, Fat included, are quite a bit brain-fried because of them.
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* KillSat: Well, sorta.
* MindControlConspiracy
* MindControlConspiracy
to:
* KillSat: Well, sorta.
sorta. VALIS can be dangerous to pets [[spoiler: and people]] due to the radiation it emits.
%% * MindControlConspiracy
%% * MindControlConspiracy
Changed line(s) 36 (click to see context) from:
** For example, Fat drops a man named Phil off at the airport. Phil is a friend of his and he is going overseas for a year or so to get his head around the events that happened in-book. He sends Fat postcards of where he's been, and told him about a woman he's been seeing. Phil eventually comes home and Fat and his friends go to the airport and welcome him back from his journey, of which he has many photos. During this entire time, Fat was staying at home and spent most of his time watching TV all day, and meeting periodically with his friends. Okay, have you got all that? Good. All right. [[spoiler: Phil is Fat's split personality.]] Have a nice day now.
to:
** For example, Fat Phil drops a man named Phil his friend Fat off at the airport. Phil is a friend of his and he Fat is going overseas for a year or so to get his head around the events that happened in-book. do some soul-searching. He sends Fat postcards of where he's been, and told tells him about a woman he's been seeing. Phil eventually Eventually, he comes home and Fat and Phil along with his friends go to the airport and welcome him back from his journey, of which he has many photos. During this entire time, Fat Phil was staying at home and spent most of his time watching TV all day, and meeting periodically with his friends. Okay, have you got all that? Good. All right. [[spoiler: Phil is Fat's and Fat are split personality.personalities.]] Have a nice day now.
* TheShrink: Leon Stone is The Awesome Shrink, who (at least, for a while) restores Fat's faith in himself by treating him as a person, not a thing to be fixed. Of course, all his hard work gets ruined by the subsequent events, but doctor Stone did help as much as he could.
Changed line(s) 45 (click to see context) from:
* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but Sherri enacts a psychological version of this as she spirals towards her death, pulling everyone who knows her with her (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
to:
* SplitPersonality: Phil and Fat, probably. [[spoiler: Add [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne Thomas]] to the bunch, even if he doesn't get a proper speaking role, and all the reincarnatad-in-Phil-people-from-the-past...]]
* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, butSherri enacts Gloria, and later Sherri, enact a psychological version of this as she they spirals towards her death, their deaths, pulling everyone who knows her with her around along (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but
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* ColdSniper: This guy doesn't make a great therapist.
to:
* ColdSniper: This guy doesn't make a great therapist.Maurice, Fat's therapist, used to blow up terrorists in Syria.
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Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
Creator/PhilipKDick's second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
to:
Creator/PhilipKDick's second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew mean?[[note]]It's a literal translation of Dick's name, Philip meaning "friend to horses" and Dick being German for fat.[[/note]][[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
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Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalNameChange: The film changes Fremont's first name and middle initial to Richard J.
to:
* AdaptationalNameChange: AdaptationNameChange: The film changes Fremont's first name and middle initial to Richard J.
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Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
* HorseshoeEffect: In the film, when Nicholas tells Phil that Fremont is a secret Communist, the latter objects that he's a fascist, while Nick says there's no real difference in practice. Fremont in any case is ''pretending'' to be a right-wing anti-communist, so it's not surprising he'd be called a fascist. Both also used very similar tactics.
to:
* HorseshoeEffect: TheHorseshoeEffect: In the film, when Nicholas tells Phil that Fremont is a secret Communist, the latter objects that he's a fascist, while Nick says there's no real difference in practice. Fremont in any case is also ''pretending'' to be a right-wing anti-communist, so it's not surprising he'd be called a fascist. Both also used very similar tactics.
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None
* AdaptationalNameChange: The film changes Fremont's first name and middle initial to Richard J.
* HorseshoeEffect: In the film, when Nicholas tells Phil that Fremont is a secret Communist, the latter objects that he's a fascist, while Nick says there's no real difference in practice. Fremont in any case is ''pretending'' to be a right-wing anti-communist, so it's not surprising he'd be called a fascist. Both also used very similar tactics.
Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:
* [[RuleOfThree Mind Screw]]
to:
* [[RuleOfThree Mind Screw]]Screw]]:
Changed line(s) 47 (click to see context) from:
* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
to:
* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek Greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian Christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
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Deleted line(s) 15 (click to see context) :
%% * ZeroContextExample
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moderator restored to earlier version
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/98514511b793793a648c2f3a1c37d68a.jpg]]
Horselover Fat is not having a great time. A friend of his checked into therapy only to throw herself off a building. This, combined with his wife's nervous breakdown and the Soviet three-eyed space aliens beaming messages into his head with a pink laser beam, is enough to drive him to complete insanity.
Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Ferris F Fremont]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
Creator/PhilipKDick's second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
An early draft of the novel, ''Radio Free Albemuth'' was published in 1985 and later adapted into the 2010 film of the same name.
[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation to]] [[VideoGame/{{Valis}} the video game]].
Horselover Fat is not having a great time. A friend of his checked into therapy only to throw herself off a building. This, combined with his wife's nervous breakdown and the Soviet three-eyed space aliens beaming messages into his head with a pink laser beam, is enough to drive him to complete insanity.
Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Ferris F Fremont]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
Creator/PhilipKDick's second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
An early draft of the novel, ''Radio Free Albemuth'' was published in 1985 and later adapted into the 2010 film of the same name.
[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation to]] [[VideoGame/{{Valis}} the video game]].
to:
Horselover Fat
->''"Awaken an era."''
[[caption-width-right:200:Can you dig it?]]
A {{Mons}} series from Creator/{{Nintendo}} and Creator/RedEntertainment, ''Fossil Fighters'' (''Kaseki Horider'', or "Fossil Hunters", in Japan) is a collection Mon RPG/paleontology sim series for the DS and 3DS.
On the tropical Vivosaur island, the Richmond archaeological foundation has built a fantastic resort. Using the brilliance of Dr. Diggins, they have developed a process to revive dead animals from fossil fragments. ([[Film/JurassicPark Sound familiar?]]) As a side-effect of this process, the dead animals are not
Thus,
Creator/PhilipKDick's second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences
Like most games, this one stars a [[KidHero young boy]] (or girl, starting with
An early draft of
Games in the series:
* ''Fossil Fighters'' (''Bokura wa Kaseki Horider'', or "We Are Fossil Hunters", in Japan), 2008 JP/2009 US Nintendo DS
* ''Fossil Fighters: Champions'' (''Super Kaseki Horider'', or "Super Fossil Hunters" in Japan), 2010 JP/2011 US Nintendo DS: This game features improved, [[CelShaded cel-shaded graphics]] (with FMV cutscenes), a female player character, a revamped movement system, new islands, new villains, and the ability to Super Revive certain Vivosaurs into evolved forms.
* ''Fossil Fighters: Frontier'' (''Kaseki Horider Mugengear'', or "Fossil Hunters Infinite Gear" in Japan), 2014 JP/2015 US Nintendo 3DS: The new feature for this title is the
[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation to]] [[VideoGame/{{Valis}} the video game]].
Changed line(s) 14,47 (click to see context) from:
!!This book contains examples of:
* AsHimself: Creator/RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
* AuthorAvatar: Admitted within three pages. [[spoiler:Then ''Philip K Dick'' shows up as a character.]]
* BilingualBonus: Yes and no. It doesn't take too long for someone with a background in languages to figure out that "Horselover" is "Philip" (from Greek ''Phillipos''=''phil-'', love(r) and ''hippos'', horse(s)) and that "Fat" is "Dick" (German), but anyone who's read the book will tell you [[MindScrew it's not nearly that simple]].
* BrainyBaby: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]]
* BrokenMasquerade
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: A big problem for Fat.
-->Helping people was one of the two basic things Fat had been told to give up; helping people and taking dope. He had stopped taking dope, but all his energy and enthusiasm were now totally channeled into saving people. Better he had kept on with the dope.
* ColdSniper: This guy doesn't make a great therapist.
* DeusEstMachina: Possibly? When the characters meet the ostensible incarnation of the deity, they wonder afterwards if she was a machine.
* ExpositionBeam: The laser beam that fired information into Fat's brain.
* FictionalColor: After seeing the laser beam, Fat researched and found that it was a shade of pink that could not exist.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" in the film ''Valis'' only makes "sense" after multiple watchings.
* {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}: It's practically a novelization.
* KillSat: Well, sorta.
* MindControlConspiracy
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's never outright stated if the events of the novel are real or Horselover's hallucinations.
* MindScrew
* MindScrew
* [[RuleOfThree Mind Screw]]
** For example, Fat drops a man named Phil off at the airport. Phil is a friend of his and he is going overseas for a year or so to get his head around the events that happened in-book. He sends Fat postcards of where he's been, and told him about a woman he's been seeing. Phil eventually comes home and Fat and his friends go to the airport and welcome him back from his journey, of which he has many photos. During this entire time, Fat was staying at home and spent most of his time watching TV all day, and meeting periodically with his friends. Okay, have you got all that? Good. All right. [[spoiler: Phil is Fat's split personality.]] Have a nice day now.
** [[spoiler: Makes a great deal more sense if you consider that Fat probably isn't supposed to be another personality, but a hallucination. Another personality would take over Philip's body periodically, and leave Philip with holes in his memory. It's pretty clear in the novel that Philip believes in Fat's existence, but everyone else thinks he's a hallucination. If Fat were another personality, Philip would be in the dark. It's possible his friends went to the airport because they were tired of arguing with him. He's schizophrenic, not dissociative.]] But... still a MindScrew.
*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[note]]See Chapter 1[[/note]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[note]]Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.[[/note]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
* NumberOfTheBeast: Ferris F. Fremont's initials are FFF, and F is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
* PublicSecretMessage: A subliminal message is sent to the public in the form of song lyrics so that the government won't intercept it but those who know the truth will be able to spread the message.
* SanitySlippage: One possible interpretation of the plot.
** [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou The reader.]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow By the end of the book.]]
* ShownTheirWork: PKD did just as much mad research as there is in the novel, and more. After the events of 1974, he started keeping journals of his research into mysticism and philosophy, which laid the groundwork for this novel. They totaled '''''8,000 pages''''' by the time of his death. A handful of them were later published as ''The Exegesis of Philip K Dick''.
* ShowWithinAShow: A major plot point. Fat and his friends see a movie (named ''Valis'') and realize that the events of the film closely parallel Fat's own visions. They realize that whoever or whatever contacted Fat must have also made contact with the filmmakers. (For extra {{postmodernism}} points, the events of the film ''Valis'' are taken directly from PKD's [[WhatCouldHaveBeen wildly different, early draft]] of this very novel. Said draft was later published as ''Radio Free Albemuth''.)
* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but Sherri enacts a psychological version of this as she spirals towards her death, pulling everyone who knows her with her (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
* ThirdEye: Your interpretation may vary but, generally, the third eye is either something all humans possess which, if opened, would allow them to free themselves of the Iron Fortress and the vestiges of time; or it can be used to brainwash and condemn humans to an earthbound existence of depression. There is the co-joined idea that those with a third eye are aliens, and have possibly reached out through a satellite to interact with the human mind. Possibly Fat's. The "possible"s are [[SelfDemonstratingArticle probably necessary]].
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: It's really difficult to tell whether Fat is insane or his reality is literally manifesting itself in strange and unusual ways due to the result of either a caretaker deity, a NeglectfulPrecursor to the human race, aliens, or an EldritchAbomination... and probably about another twenty different possible causative factors if his reality ''is'' [[RealityWarper being warped]]. However, if he is insane (even [[DrivenToMadness if his insanity is due to something]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane supra-natural]]), then this trope may be in effect. It becomes very difficult by the end to find distinct boundaries between Fat's neurosis/(possible)psychosis and reality, and even then the question raised is "''is'' there any definition?" However, since he has a split personality that manifests itself and which he talks to repeatedly on a daily basis, the answer may simply be "Yes. He's a paranoid schizophrenic. Next patient please?"
* UnreliableNarrator: It's not really that Fat is unreliable, but his reality is. Arguably.
* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
* AsHimself: Creator/RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
* AuthorAvatar: Admitted within three pages. [[spoiler:Then ''Philip K Dick'' shows up as a character.]]
* BilingualBonus: Yes and no. It doesn't take too long for someone with a background in languages to figure out that "Horselover" is "Philip" (from Greek ''Phillipos''=''phil-'', love(r) and ''hippos'', horse(s)) and that "Fat" is "Dick" (German), but anyone who's read the book will tell you [[MindScrew it's not nearly that simple]].
* BrainyBaby: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]]
* BrokenMasquerade
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: A big problem for Fat.
-->Helping people was one of the two basic things Fat had been told to give up; helping people and taking dope. He had stopped taking dope, but all his energy and enthusiasm were now totally channeled into saving people. Better he had kept on with the dope.
* ColdSniper: This guy doesn't make a great therapist.
* DeusEstMachina: Possibly? When the characters meet the ostensible incarnation of the deity, they wonder afterwards if she was a machine.
* ExpositionBeam: The laser beam that fired information into Fat's brain.
* FictionalColor: After seeing the laser beam, Fat researched and found that it was a shade of pink that could not exist.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" in the film ''Valis'' only makes "sense" after multiple watchings.
* {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}: It's practically a novelization.
* KillSat: Well, sorta.
* MindControlConspiracy
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's never outright stated if the events of the novel are real or Horselover's hallucinations.
* MindScrew
* MindScrew
* [[RuleOfThree Mind Screw]]
** For example, Fat drops a man named Phil off at the airport. Phil is a friend of his and he is going overseas for a year or so to get his head around the events that happened in-book. He sends Fat postcards of where he's been, and told him about a woman he's been seeing. Phil eventually comes home and Fat and his friends go to the airport and welcome him back from his journey, of which he has many photos. During this entire time, Fat was staying at home and spent most of his time watching TV all day, and meeting periodically with his friends. Okay, have you got all that? Good. All right. [[spoiler: Phil is Fat's split personality.]] Have a nice day now.
** [[spoiler: Makes a great deal more sense if you consider that Fat probably isn't supposed to be another personality, but a hallucination. Another personality would take over Philip's body periodically, and leave Philip with holes in his memory. It's pretty clear in the novel that Philip believes in Fat's existence, but everyone else thinks he's a hallucination. If Fat were another personality, Philip would be in the dark. It's possible his friends went to the airport because they were tired of arguing with him. He's schizophrenic, not dissociative.]] But... still a MindScrew.
*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[note]]See Chapter 1[[/note]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[note]]Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.[[/note]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
* NumberOfTheBeast: Ferris F. Fremont's initials are FFF, and F is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
* PublicSecretMessage: A subliminal message is sent to the public in the form of song lyrics so that the government won't intercept it but those who know the truth will be able to spread the message.
* SanitySlippage: One possible interpretation of the plot.
** [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou The reader.]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow By the end of the book.]]
* ShownTheirWork: PKD did just as much mad research as there is in the novel, and more. After the events of 1974, he started keeping journals of his research into mysticism and philosophy, which laid the groundwork for this novel. They totaled '''''8,000 pages''''' by the time of his death. A handful of them were later published as ''The Exegesis of Philip K Dick''.
* ShowWithinAShow: A major plot point. Fat and his friends see a movie (named ''Valis'') and realize that the events of the film closely parallel Fat's own visions. They realize that whoever or whatever contacted Fat must have also made contact with the filmmakers. (For extra {{postmodernism}} points, the events of the film ''Valis'' are taken directly from PKD's [[WhatCouldHaveBeen wildly different, early draft]] of this very novel. Said draft was later published as ''Radio Free Albemuth''.)
* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but Sherri enacts a psychological version of this as she spirals towards her death, pulling everyone who knows her with her (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
* ThirdEye: Your interpretation may vary but, generally, the third eye is either something all humans possess which, if opened, would allow them to free themselves of the Iron Fortress and the vestiges of time; or it can be used to brainwash and condemn humans to an earthbound existence of depression. There is the co-joined idea that those with a third eye are aliens, and have possibly reached out through a satellite to interact with the human mind. Possibly Fat's. The "possible"s are [[SelfDemonstratingArticle probably necessary]].
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: It's really difficult to tell whether Fat is insane or his reality is literally manifesting itself in strange and unusual ways due to the result of either a caretaker deity, a NeglectfulPrecursor to the human race, aliens, or an EldritchAbomination... and probably about another twenty different possible causative factors if his reality ''is'' [[RealityWarper being warped]]. However, if he is insane (even [[DrivenToMadness if his insanity is due to something]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane supra-natural]]), then this trope may be in effect. It becomes very difficult by the end to find distinct boundaries between Fat's neurosis/(possible)psychosis and reality, and even then the question raised is "''is'' there any definition?" However, since he has a split personality that manifests itself and which he talks to repeatedly on a daily basis, the answer may simply be "Yes. He's a paranoid schizophrenic. Next patient please?"
* UnreliableNarrator: It's not really that Fat is unreliable, but his reality is. Arguably.
* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
to:
*
* AuthorAvatar: Admitted within three pages. [[spoiler:Then ''Philip K Dick'' shows up as a character.]]
* BilingualBonus: Yes and no. It doesn't take too long for someone with a background
* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: In the
* AcceptableHobbyTargets: InUniverse. The three commanders of the Barebones Brigade? They're a hipster, a hippie, and a metalhead. The game especially has fun taking potshots at Cole, the hipster, and Todd remarks that
* BrainyBaby:
** [[spoiler:
*
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: A big problem for Fat.
-->Helping people was one
* ColdSniper: This guy doesn't make a great therapist.
* DeusEstMachina: Possibly? When the characters meet the ostensible incarnation
** ''Champions'' has an even more direct CaptainErsatz of
*
* FictionalColor: After seeing the laser beam, Fat researched and found that it was a shade of pink that could not exist.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism"
* {{UsefulNotes/Gnosticism}}: It's practically a novelization.
* KillSat: Well, sorta.
* MindControlConspiracy
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's never outright stated if the events of the novel are real or Horselover's hallucinations.
* MindScrew
* MindScrew
* [[RuleOfThree Mind Screw]]
** For example, Fat drops a man named Phil off at the airport. Phil is a friend of his and he is going overseas for a year or so to get his head around the events that happened in-book. He sends Fat postcards of where he's been, and told him about a woman he's been seeing. Phil eventually comes home and Fat and his friends go to the airport and welcome him back from his journey, of which he has many photos. During this entire time, Fat was staying at home and spent most of his time watching TV all day, and meeting periodically with his friends. Okay, have you got all that? Good. All right. [[spoiler: Phil is Fat's split personality.]] Have a nice day now.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: The first two games include a series of masks that your character can collect and wear.
* AgentPeacock: Ryne from the ''Champions'' DLC. He wears the only pink Brigade suit in the game and draws attention to himself because of it. But he is also the first character in the franchise to actually make his own Vivosaur, discounting [[spoiler:
* AmbiguouslyGay: Cole in ''Champions''. It's
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: ''Frontier'' cleans up some of the issues with finding fossils in the field; identifying fossils on sight and allowing immediate excavations, rather than requiring the player to haul an entire inventory back to base before they even know what they have. Vivosaurs can also be revived from any fossils, not just the heads.
* ArtEvolution: ''Champions'' featured a much more detailed, and more {{Animesque}}, art style than the original's more cartoony look.
** ArtShift: [[spoiler:
** ''Fossil Fighters: Frontier'' seems to have significant change in the design of... just about everything, really.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Fully justified by the fact that vivosaurs are explicitly stated to be dinosaur-''like'' creatures and not actual dinosaurs. Beyond that, it's generally averted since the creators have ShownTheirWork and keep their data as accurate as possible.
* AuthorAvatar: The first game's announcers are the game's two creators, and the idea of
* AwesomeButImpractical: Many high-level vivosaurs with really high Attack or LP are devastating from the Attack Zone... but if they end up in the Support Zone somehow, they'll turn your attacker into a quivering pile of useless mush. T-Rex is a perfect example--he has the highest attack in the game and can attack all of your enemies at once, but, if he ends up in the support zone, he reduces all your attacker's stats by ''30%!''
** Zino and Centro. Every hit from them will be a critical-but their accuracy is so terrible that the rest of the team needs to be focused around buffing accuracy/evasion stats to get them to even land a hit. In other words: CriticalHitClass meets ATeamFiring.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Joe Wildwest in ''Champions'' and Captain Stryker in ''Frontier''.
* [[BadJobWorseUniform Bad Sidequest, Worse Costume]]: So... how 'bout that Hare Club? Y'know, the one where you have to wear a bunny mask, then clean 100 fossils to 80 points or higher?
* BagOfHolding: We really have ''no'' idea how a twelve-year-old can lug around up to ''64'' fossils as long as his entire body and not get sore, esecially when some of those rocks contain an ''entire skeleton''. Justified and averted in ''Frontier'', where A) you travel by car, which can much more easily accommodate the size and weight, and B) fossils are processed automatically, so you're not even carrying them around in the first place.
* BigOlEyebrows: The samurai, with a BigOlUnibrow chaser.
* BittersweetEnding: Subverted in the first game. [[spoiler:Guhnash]] is defeated, but your partner didn't quite make it out of [[spoiler:stone sleep]]. You've saved the world, at a cost, and that's how it has to be... [[spoiler:and then the Digadig chieftain shows up and tells you to use the hip-shaker dance!!]]
* BlackAndNerdy: Dr. Diggins in the first game is a professional-grade [[Series/{{Scrubs}} blerd]]. Who's dorky enough to wear shorts and a Hawaiian shirt beneath his lab coat, no less.
* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: It's no wonder Nick Nack mangles foreign languages so bad--he barely gets ''English!'' "I can have my snacks and feet them too!"
* BodySurf: This is how [[spoiler:Zongazonga's immortality spell]] works in ''Champions''. His latest victim is actually [[spoiler:the owner of the Fossil Park, Joe Wildwest.]]
* BonusBoss: After you beat the final boss of the first game, almost ''every character you've fought before becomes a BonusBoss.'' Almost all of them have maxed-out teams, some of them you have to fight one right after the other, and the prizes for beating them range from "BraggingRightsReward" to "OlympusMons." You can even take on the FinalBoss again as often as you like! The most difficult BonusBoss fight, however, is probably against [[spoiler: Dynal, Duna, and Raptin]] ''all at once.''
** There's also an {{Early Bird|Boss}} BonusBoss named Petey, who requires you fight him with three very specific vivosaurs. If you take the time to max out said three and wait until you're near the end of the game, he's not so tough... But try him ''without'' copius LevelGrinding, and he proves to be quite the KillerRabbit.
* ABoyAndHisX: Thanks to the player getting a sidekick, ''Frontier'' is a "Boy/Girl and his/her dinosaur" story.
* ButtBiter: A RunningGag in ''Frontier'' involves your little vivosaur sidekick chomping down on Nate's butt. In the little guy's defense, Nate is usually literally asking for it by sticking his butt out and taunting him.
* ButtMonkey: Rosie.
* CallARabbitASmeerp: The names have been changed to emphasize that Vivosaurs aren't really dinosaurs, and to trim down the {{Overly Long Name}}s that real dinos often have. There's a mode that gives detailed information on the animals that inspired each dinosaur.
* CanonName: The main character of the first doesn't really have one, but Nintendo's guide suggests "Buckland", after an early paleontologist. The official mini-manga gives his name as "Hunter." The second game's protagonists, though, are [[AnimalThemeNaming Dino and Dina]].
** ''Frontier'' has nameable protagonists "Jura" and "Tria". The puns just don't stop. The canonical name for their little dino sidekick is "Nibbles".
* CardboardPrison: Only in the first game, but it's exaggerated. [[PoliceAreUseless What happens in that police station is anybody's guess.]]
* CelShading: ''Champions'' uses cel-shaded graphics, as well as more detailed graphics in general.
* ChekhovsSkill: [[spoiler:The hip-shaking dance, used to revive Rosie/Duna from tainted stone sleep.]]
* [[TheChiefsDaughter The Chief's Granddaughter]]: [[spoiler:Pauleen.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Trip Cera in the second game. His first name [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs seems appropriate]].
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The vast majority of Vivosaurs are absent in ''Frontier'', in particular nearly all of the non-dinosaur Vivosaurs are gone, with the exception of a few pterosaurs.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: Since you can't use them to revive vivosaurs, nobody wants dropping fossils. Except Nick Nack...
** John Guano replaces him in the sequel. John's even ''weirder,'' if that's possible. He's standing not three feet away from a lady who offers dropping fossils in exchange for fossil cleaning. The only catch is, he'd have to wear the Hare Mask to join the club to do so. EveryoneHasStandards?
* CombatCommentator: In ''Fossil Fighters'', they're {{Author Avatar}}s. In ''Champions'' we have a two talking Vivosaurs. ''Frontier'' doesn't have any announcers.
* ContinuityNod:
** In ''Champions'', Pauleen is a throwback to the first game's Digadig tribe. [[spoiler:You also get to fight Rosie in the post-game.]] [[spoiler:Duna, Raptin, and Dynal]] also make appearances in some bonus content.
** In ''Frontier'', the Vivosaur Island and Caliosteo Fossil Parks from the first two games get mentioned occasionally. Characters from ''Champions'' (or at least people with the same names) can show up in the in-game tournaments; one such team is Joanie, Pooch, and Tonzilla and another is Todd, Rupert, and Pauline.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Mt. Lavaflow in the first game, and Mt. Krakanak in the second.
* CowardlyLion: Todd in ''Champions''.
* CrooksAreBetterArmed: Wanted vivosaur thief Blambeau carries around a shotgun. The [[PoliceAreUseless unarmed and largely ineffective police force]] send [[KidHero Hunter]] after him. Thrice.
* DarkSkinnedRedhead: Nevada Montecarlo, who also likes to WhipItGood.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Rosie can be seen as a deconstruction of TheLoad[=/=]DamselInDistress. She is those things, but realizes it, and is sorry for the times when you have to save her. After one instance she even asks if you hate her.
* DefiedTrope: The final boss of ''Fossil Fighters Champions'':
-->''"Yes, well, [[BondVillainStupidity let's not waste any more time with empty threats]] or [[JustBetweenYouAndMe the revealing of plans]], mmm?"''
* DemBones: The [=BareBones=] Brigade's boneysaurs in ''Champions''.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Averted. When the bad guy pulls out an {{Olympus Mon|s}}, you need to get your own before you can properly challenge him. (Unfortunately, you can't keep it - see NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup below)
** However, it's later played straight with [[spoiler:Guhnash--apparently, all you have to do is destroy his brains. Easy-peasy.]]
** In ''Champions'' [[spoiler:The FinalBoss, Zongazonga, is pretty much exactly this. A body-snatching skull that turns into a literally on fire zombie T-Rex with giant, bloody skeleton arms coming out of it? Just send some kid with his pet dinosaurs to beat it up.]]
* DinosaursAreDragons: The Fire-type Vivosaurs breathe fire, but remember - they're no longer Dinosaurs, they're ''[[CallARabbitASmeerp Vivosaurs]]''.
** In ''Champions'', the Super Revive function in the sequel plays this to the hilt, essentially morphing your Vivosaurs from dinosaur-like creatures into more draconic monsters. Also, [[spoiler:the BigBad Zongazonga literally refers to the dinosaurs as dragons in his magic chant in the penultimate battle.]]
* [[AnimalMotif Dinosaur Motif]]: In ''Champions,'' the male PC has a T-Rex motif, while the female PC has a triceratops motif.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Frigisaur, and the leader of the BB Bandits with him.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: Boy, isn't Mt. Lavaflow climactic! The lava! The HeelFaceTurn! The impending epic battle between the opposing forces of Frigisaur and Ignosaur! ...Wait, whaddiya ''mean'' half the plot threads still haven't been followed up on?
* DiscOneNuke: The Spinax you're given at the beginning of the first game is strong enough to last you until endgame.
** In ''Champions'' the starters are powerful enough to last you the entire game, particularly Dimetro.
** The 'Donation Point' dinosaurs also count, particularly Compso in the first game. There's nothing to stop you from grinding all the way to him the moment you get access to your first dig-site, and his support-effects will make you basically unstoppable for the rest of the game. To a lesser degree, Stego - being the cheapest of the DP-dinosaurs, you can, again, fairly easily get all 4 parts of him, in [[RareRandomDrop 'red' quality]], for an instantly high-level 'Tank' who can solo practically anything up to late-mid-game if needs be.
** Giga Raja in Champions, which is created by evolving Raja (available in the first area) with a gold fossil (can be found early with some dedication). Giga Raja's already powerful attacks can be bolstered by his ability to Charge-Up for a turn, causing him to hit like a meteor and deal damage exceeding the highest possible Life Points for anything in the game!
* DoWellButNotPerfect: In ''Champions,'' there's a man who wants your help making hard-boiled eggs in the hot springs. They need to be in there for 10 seconds ''exactly,'' and hardly a millisecond longer. However, boiling the eggs for ''9.9 seconds exactly'' is the only way
* DownloadableContent:
** The original game briefly featured four of
** ''Champions'' features [[OlympusMons Frigisaur and
** ''Frontier'' distributed its bonus content through AR cards rather than actual downloads; including some Bone Buggys, versions of
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Averted. The [=NPC=]s' dialogue changes to praise you as you progress through the story and ranks.
* {{Eagleland}}: The Fossil Park America in ''Frontier''. The whole place is lit up like Las Vegas, the Warden in charge is TotallyRadical and [[AmericansAreCowboys dresses like a cowboy]], and the first dig site is in a southwest canyon. To its' credit, the Starry Falls dig site is a South American jungle instead of being a US stereotype. Fossil Parks Asia and Europe aren't all that much better when it comes to cultural stereotypes.
* ElementalPowers: It turns out that the cloning process gives these to animals as a [[CursedWithAwesome side-effect]].
** BlowYouAway
** DishingOutDirt
** MakingASplash
** PlayingWithFire
** NonElemental
** InfinityPlusOneElement: "Legendary" in the first two games, though in practice these vivosaurs are treated as Neutral; they just have better stats. The first game has [[spoiler:Frigisaur, Ignosaur, and all the parts of Guhnash]] and ''Champions'' has [[spoiler:Zombie Tricera, Zombie Ptera, Zombie Rex, Zombie Plesio, and Zongazonga; plust the return of Frigi and Igno]]. ''Frontier'' drops the designation.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Fire beats Air, which beats Earth, which beats Water, which beats Fire. Neutral has no advantages or disadvantages.
* ElvisImpersonator: Rockin' Billy from ''Champions.'' Did you catch the PunnyName?
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Duh!
* [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Everything's Better With Princessaurs]]: Maia (Maiasaurus) is a pink dinosaur with a feminine face and a princess-crown. She's also a support-skill powerhouse, the only one in the game to have both healing and anti-status-ailment skills.
* EvolutionaryLevels: [[spoiler:The Dinaurians have a devolution beam. It turns humans into "triconodonta", a ratlike mammal ancestor.]]
** The three "Transformation-Class" Vivosaurs also transform into later descendants of theirs: Guan turns into T-Rex, and Proto turns into Tricera. Aoptryx is somewhat more confusing--it can turn into ''any'' neutral-type Vivosaur. Even those that technically came before it. And even those it ''could not possibly be related to'' (Apato isn't even a ''theropod!'').
** In ''Champions'', some vivosaurs can "Super Evolve" into stronger forms.
* {{Expy}}: Pauleen in ''Champions'' has a lot in common with Rosie from the first game. In addition to being your designated female hanger-on and being surprisingly powerful for such a young age, both have bright pink TwinTails... and the same (accidental, in Rosie's case) VerbalTic.
* FeatheredFiend: Aopteryx. It can semi-reliably steal FP with Thieving Talons, recover LP with Life Drain and as mentioned above, transform into any Neutral vivosaur. [[JokeCharacter Unfortunately, it needs significant support to dish out and/or take damage...]]
* FetchQuest: AND HOW. The first game is loaded with these. Thankfully, most of them go by quickly enough to keep the story rolling.
* FireWaterJuxtaposition: Frigisaur and Ignosaur in the first game represent the Fire/Ice version.
* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: And [[WaterIsAir inverted]] when fighting in [[UnderTheSea Bottomsup Bay]].
* FossilRevival: ...It's the backbone of the series.
* GeniusSweetTooth: Dr. Diggins has a weakness for Dino Cakes.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Professor Scatterly in the second game manages to slip a [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch "Sod it"]] past the radar. Similarly, the game goes to absolutely ''zero'' lengths to disguise the fact that Pauleen has a [[HoYay girl crush]] on the female protagonist. She grabs the female PC's hands, stares deeply into her eyes, and then admits she has no idea why she's blushing.
* GlobalCurrencyException: Redundant fossils are donated to the museum, which gives you donation points based on how good they are. These points are the only currency the cleaning station store accepts. Averted in ''Frontier'', where you just get cash for extra fossils.
* {{Gonk}}: Baron von Blackraven, especially compared to his two PrettyBoy associates.
* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Don Boneyard and the [=BareBones=] Brigade, trying to stop the Caliosteo Cup in order to stop Zongazonga's scheme. Well, the Brigade didn't know Don Boneyard was a good guy, but they don't have a problem with it when they find out.]]
* GottaCatchEmAll
* GreenHillZone: Greenhorn Plains in the first game, Treasure Lake in ''Champions'', and Paradise Beach in ''Frontier''.
* HarmlessFreezing: Frigisaur freezes you and Rosie completely after your first fight with it. But you're still OK.
* HarmlessVillain: The Barebones Brigade aren't exactly what you'd call menacing at first. Their eeeeevil plans involve such plots as "Pampering girls so they forget to participate in a tournament," and "Fill the hot springs up with powdered gelatin so people get stuck and can't
** NotSoHarmlessVillain: [[spoiler: Their fourth plan, the one Don comes up with, is to destroy the ''entire Caliosteo island system''. Egads.]]
** [[spoiler: It's later {{justified|Trope}} when you learn that Don Boneyard is, in fact, the real Joe Wildwest in disguise. He didn't want to hurt anybody. When he [=OKed=] the third plan, things were getting ''extremely'' desperate, and it went slowly enough to give the people plenty of time to evacuate.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: The BB Bandits - well, the TerribleTrio team, anyway; the {{Mooks}} don't seem to turn.]]
** [[spoiler: The entire
* HelloInsertNameHere: All games actually allow you to change your main character's name at any time! The first game doesn't
* HopelessBossFight: [[spoiler: Round one against Frigisaurus.]]
* HotSpringsEpisode: In the second game, there's a hot spring-themed dig site called Hot Spring Heights. Not surprisingly, most of the plot in that area revolves around the hot springs.
* HumansAreSpecial [[spoiler: Not only do they have the sci-fi standard "pluck," but the dinaurians are impressed by their capacity for both compassion and forgiveness.]]
* HypnotizeThePrincess: Comes into play late in Champions. [[spoiler: It's Todd.]]
* InconsistentDub: ''Frontier'' changes a couple names from previous games. The coin-like items vivosaurs are stored in were "Dino Medals" but are now "Dino Gears", and Becklespinax's vivosaur name goes from "Spinax" to "Beckles" - of course, the first two games identified it as
* InfinityPlusOneSword: T-Rex in the first game, natch. Also, [[KillerRabbit Compso, who debuffs the enemy's attack power by 90%]]. Even moreso are [[spoiler:Duna, Dynal, and Raptin]], with
* InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler:Before the final battle with
*
*
** LethalJokeCharacter in ''Champions '' It gets an [[TookALevelInBadass upgrade]] to gold confusion which means that the
* SanitySlippage: One possible interpretation
** [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou The reader.]] [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow By
* JustifiedTrope: The game goes out of their way to emphasize that Dinosaurs didn't really have superpowers, and a great deal of the Vivosaurs aren't even really revived from Dinosaurs, per se, but are rather other forms of prehistoric life.
** Driven home in ''Frontier'', where [[spoiler:you travel back in time and encounter ''real'' dinosaurs. Unlike vivosaurs, dinosaurs are all Neutral-type, [[RealIsBrown have brown skin]], and are identified by their full names (like "Triceratops" instead of "Tricera")]].
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Mihu, a ceratopsian found in Japan, has ''katanas for horns.''
* KidHero: The main characters.
* KingIncognito: During ''Champions'', you're tasked with finding the Princess of Nomadistan, who has quietly entered the tournament; and are shown a picture of a girl and her dog that you ran into earlier. [[spoiler:The Princess turns out to be ''the dog''; the girl's her retainer. Both the fact that this would have been good to know earlier and the absurdity of [[CaligulasHorse appointing dogs as royalty]] is lampshaded.]]
* LampshadeHanging: The {{Combat Commentator}}s sometimes do this.
-->'''P.A. Leon''': I was wondering, why do we talk through every fight?
-->'''Slate Johnson''': I'm wondering how we can ''see'' every fight happening!
-->'''P.A. Leon''': Excellent point, Slate.
* LargeHamAnnouncer: All the announcers, but special mention must be given to Trip Cera. A couple choice quotes:
-->Not as excited as me! BOOYAH, GRANDMA!
-->'''Trip:''' Just like my wife with a credit card! Zing!\\
'''Ty:''' You're not married, Trip.\\
'''Trip:''' I'M SO LONELY!
-->There is a literal river of sweat running over my laptop! Seriously, I may electrocute myself before the day is over!
* LastLousyPoint: The five elemental [[spoiler:baby birds]] in the first game, who can only be obtained by getting every other vivosaur in the game and then ''maxing their levels.'' Yikes! They used to be downloadable from the Nintendo Channel on the Wii, but have since disappeared, as the aforementioned channel is no longer supported.
** More generally, you may find yourself gritting your teeth over the last lousy point of every single fossil you can clean. Properly-cleaned fossils are worth a ton of experience points, way more than you can reasonably give any specific vivosaur through combat. It's not ''mandatory'' to get everything perfect, but for perfectionists...
* LeakedExperience: Three vivosaurs participate in each fight, but all five that you're carrying (including defeated ones) get the experience. Averted in ''Frontier'', where all vivosaurs are available to use at all times but only the one used in battle gets experience.
* LizardFolk: In the second half of the game [[spoiler:a race of dromaeosauridae that evolved into hyper intelligent humanoids become the main antagonists after the BB Bandits are defeated. They want to KillAllHumans, naturally.]]
* [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Foreign]] {{Malaproper}}: Nick Nack does this. Airy cat oh! Donkey shine!
* MaskedLuchador: There seems to be a thriving masked-battler community, since each game involves some:
** Saurhead in the first game, who wears [[RefugeInAudacity no less than]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity thirty]]'' full-head dinosaur masks at any given time. [[TheUnreveal Can't risk]] [[DramaticUnmask being unmasked]], after all.
** Pauleen from ''Champions'' also wears a mask. [[spoiler: She wears it because it's shy, and it helps her feel more confident--but the mask is enchanted to bestow confidence, and ''evil,'' so it takes over the wearer's body in a rather literal case of BecomingTheMask.]]
* MetalDetectorPuzzle: This is your entire means of
*
* {{Mon}}: It's a
* MythologyGag: Many visual details of the
** Some are [[PunnyName name puns]] (Krona is covered in clock-like Roman numerals, and Coatlus was made
*** The fact that Breme (''Bradycneme draculae'') is vampiric is both a name and location reference, as it was discovered in Transylvania and and consequently named after {{Dracula}}.
** And more have their own fun facts (M-Raptor was exceptionally bird-like and so resembles a parrot; Megalo was one of the first discoveries ever, so according
* {{Nerf}}: Support effects were nerfed quite heavily in ''Champions.'' In the first game, vivosaurs had their full support effects regardless of their level, making things like [[GameBreaker Compso]] incredibly dangerous. In the sequel, support effects grow when your levels do... meaning the game gives you a Compso in the ''very beginning of the game,'' and feels no remorse.
** But there's also an inversion, as some game mechanics got stronger in the transition from the original game to ''Champions''. In the original game, only the vivosaur in the Attack Zone could have a negative status effect put on them, and switching zones got rid of status effects. This made attacks whose only purpose was to cause a status effect somewhat weak, but this hurt poison attacks especially--you would need to use a chain of either knockback or [[StandardStatusEffect excite]] skills to get a poison attack to work, and the extra damage frequently wasn't that spectacular. In the sequel, however, all zones can have status effects and rotating doesn't get rid of them, meaning the extra damage from poison is more likely to stick around.
** A similar inversion applies to counterattacks. In the first game, counterattacks only had a 40% chance of working, making them a rather weak and luck-based strategy. In the sequel, counterattacks were upped to a 70% success rate, making them far more dangerous.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Dinomatons are robot dinosaurs, and the aforementioned Breme is a vampire dinosaur.
** And the sequel brings us skeleton [[spoiler:and zombie]] dinosaurs.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: A rare living example in [[OlympusMons Frigi(saur) and Igno(saur)]]. As soon as you defeat the former, the latter vanishes as well due to them cancelling each other's powers out. Still, it removes a god-like power from your party to prevent a Game Breaker. [[spoiler:Until you can win them from post-game {{Bonus Boss}}es, anyway.]]
* NothingIsScarier: When [[spoiler: the BB Bandits take over Vivosaur Island]], no music plays even in friendly areas.
* NotQuiteBackToNormal: Poor Rosie. The other girl's ending shows she hasn't fully thrown off the effects of the Digadig charm ''or'' the [[spoiler: deevolution ray]].
* OddNameOut: Three of Holt's V-Raptors in the mini-manga are Odin, Thor, and Steve.
* OlympusMons: Frigisaur and Ignosaur.
*
* OverlyLongName: Avoided. Many dinos have these, but their Vivosaur counterparts have them cut short.
* PaletteSwap: In ''Frontier,'' certain dinos have variants (based off famous specimens) that
*
* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: There's a bonus boss post-game that most people have trouble with. However, with the right team (ex. Seismo, Hoplo, and Compso) you can consistently defeat said bonus boss over and over again in about 6 turns each time by abusing a team skill and how long-range attacks work, making leveling up all your vivosaurs to rank 12 easy.
** In the second game, there's the three Barebones Brigade officials. They use teams made up entirely of Boneysaurs; although Boneys have powerful support effects, they're also extreme {{Glass Cannon}}s, meaning vivosaurs several levels lower of them can take them out with some decent planning. They grant a full 30 points (in a game where level-ups come every 50 points) on defeat, making them great for grinding.
** Also in the second game, after you beat the game, you can talk to Prof. Scatterly to "reenact" the final battle with Zongazonga. By thee end of the game your vivosaurs will probably be strong enough to take him out no problem, and he gives you 50 points, so any dinosaurs can be leveled up just by being put in the support group.
* PlanetEater: [[spoiler:Guhnash.]]
* PlayableEpilogue: A whole crop of stuff opens up after you beat the game. UnusableEnemyEquipment becomes [[InfinityPlusOneSword usable]], new areas open up, everyone becomes a BonusBoss, you get ''both'' the OlympusMons...
* PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs: [[spoiler:Inverted; Dinosaurs were introduced on Earth by the Dinaurians.]]
* PopQuiz: The second go through the Secret Tunnels has you correctly answering dinosaur trivia to advance in the maze.
** In ''Champions'' there's a roaming quiz show sidequest run by Tess Score.
* PowerTrio: Hunter, Rosie, and Holt become one of these in the mini-manga. In ''Champions'', it's the player, Todd, and Pauleen; with Rupert as SixthRanger.
* PowerupLetdown: Getting the upgrade for Dark Fossils lets you find red fossils, which you could already find anyway, jewels, which you could find anyway, and dino droppings, which you ''couldn't''. Also, dark fossils have an outer shell that can only be broken with a hammer. If there's a speck of outer shell covering that perfect red fossil, expect to lose some points smashing it.
** Yes, but you don't get challenged for finding Dark Fossils in the original. Meaning you don't have to fight tooth-and-nail for every [[VendorTrash Emerald and Diamond]] that you dig up. In addition, the best jewels are available in Dark Fossils, meaning you can now get those all-important case, sonar, and cleaning tool upgrades without running around swinging a pickaxe like a maniac for hours on end. BoringButPractical.
* PunnyName / MeaningfulName: Where to start? We've got name changer Ty Tull, advice giver Tipper, Sam Inaro who teaches seminars... And these are just from the ''first'' game.
** Gets lampshaded:
--->'''Rosie:''' Oh, I can't believe I didn't make the connection before... Knickknacks... ''Nick Nack''. Ugh. Waa ha ha! To think we're out looking for knickknacks for a guy named Nick Nack... It's
** NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Even the
* PurelyAestheticGender: Your gender has no effect on the
* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: In ''Champions,'' both Professor Scatterly and
* UnreliableNarrator: It's not really that Fat is unreliable, but his reality is. Arguably.
*
* TheReptilians: [[spoiler:The dinaurians in the original game.]]
* RibcageRidge: Treasure Lake in the second game has a gigantic skull of some variety, smack dab in the middle of the lake.
** Could also be a
* RichBitch: Bling sisters Ruby and Sapphire, aka "the Posh Pair", in ''Frontier'''s postgame; who consider the player a commoner and recruit him/her in a few schemes to
* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: A great deal of the Fossil Fighters are implied to be this.
* RoadApples: Yes, you can dig up fossilized dino dung. Nick Nack and John Guano are the only ones who want it for whatever reason (the shop will ''accept'' it, but will pay next to nothing).
* RobotBuddy: [=KL-33N=], the cleaning robot. Rupert has a prototype digging robot called [=Di66-R=]. In ''Frontier'', the Bone Buggies have an onboard AI called [=VR-00M=] (whose picture looks like the robots from the
* RoseHairedSweetie: Nate from ''Frontier'' is a
* RuleOfCool: Dinosaurs battling it out is cool enough, but the sequels give them even more powerful, awesome-looking forms.
* RunningGag: In ''Champions'', every time [[spoiler: someone's skull jumps into your pocket]], it is always described as "lumpy."
* SamusIsAGirl: In ''Frontier,'' it's revealed that
* SaveScumming: If you save before you talk to the cleaning robot, you can reload the save until he gives satisfactory results. No longer the case in
* SchmuckBait: The Secret Tunnels of
* SetBonus: Putting three vivosaurs with something in common on the
* ShoutOut:
** One poor nameless NPC is tasked with standing guard over a warehouse, and nothing else. Keep talking to
** The cleaning robots resemble Japanese emoticons.
** A cinematic from the
** In ''Champions'', one park staffer is trying to come up with new ideas:
-->Fast cars are exciting, right? Maybe we could [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds have people battle while driving around a racetrack]]! [[TakeThat No, you're right. That's a dumb idea.]]
** Stella, Staff leader of Ribular Island informs the Hero(ine) that "[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Your dig site is on another island!]]" once they progress past Round 2 of the Cup. She then wonders why that sounds familiar.
** ''Champions'' also features a fisherman who became lost at sea. His name is [[Literature/RobinsonCrusoe Robinson,]] and
** When its programming goes haywire, Rupert's robot says things such as "[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda I AM ERROR.]]" and "[[Videogame/ProWrestling A WINNER IS YOU.]]"
** In ''Frontier'', if you talk to a shopkeeper about cleaning a daily random fossil, they'll say [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda "It's a secret to everybody."]] During a tournament during one of the postgame quests, one character will also reference [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem "playing with power"]].
* ShownTheirWork: The information on the
* SignificantAnagram: The Mole Brothers' names are Lemo and
* SinisterSchnoz: Snivels, no question.
* SkullForAHead: Don Boneyard [[spoiler:and anyone else who became a victim of Zongazonga]].
* SlasherSmile: [[spoiler: Guhweep]] has one, but it's not immediately obvious until it [[spoiler: uses Tears of Dark Light... and turns upside down]].
* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Glacier dig site from the first game, though it doesn't open up until the endgame.
** All of the Ilium Island digsites in ''Champions'' apply. Ilium isn't called "The island where warmth goes to die" for nothing!
* TheSlowPath:
** In the first game, [[spoiler:Dr. Diggins after he's sent back to the Jurassic. Thank goodness he manages to find the Stone Sleep device!]]
** Also seen in ''Frontier''. [[spoiler:While time-traveling, your vivosaur partner gets left behind in the late Cretaceous in order to make sure you get home safely. Eventually, you realize that a fossilized Dino Gear-like artifact you'd found earlier in the game really ''is'' your partner's Dino Gear.]]
* StanceSystem: Used in ''Frontier''. While previous games had tactical systems based on a vivosaur's placement on the field, ''Frontier'' instead focuses on how your vivosaur is standing: straight ahead, rearing up, ducking down, or turned around and baring its tail. Each vivosaur has a different set of strong and weak stances, and different attacks can change your or your opponents' stances (though a vivosaur's stance is always reset when it takes its turn).
* StarterMon: Each game in the series does it differently:
** ''Fossil Fighters:'' You
** ''Champions:'' Joe Wildwest lets you pick between dinos of the four basic elements, which are hard to
** ''Frontier:'' You befriend Chomp, the most traditionally mons-like dino in the series. He's no recognizable dinosaur species, he's quite powerful, and he evolves at certain points in the game. Plus, he's your TeamPet and your close friend.
* StatGrinding: A mild case in the first game; most stat gains are at levelups but vivosaurs also gain HP gradually between levels. ''Champions'' removes this.
* StockDinosaurs: But also includes any new prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs discovered during the creation of the game.
** The sequel appears to be continuing this, including many other prehistoric creatures from before and after the age of dinosaurs.
* StopHavingFunGuys: [[{{In-Universe}} Rupert]] in ''Champions''. After witnessing Todd take his loss to you in stride, he's baffled as to why Todd's not upset about losing. Though it turns out it's less arrogance that his way is the right one and more ignorance that there are other ways in the first place.
** Turns out it comes from his dad, who tried to drive the "have fun" mentality out of him and wanted him to bail out when facing even a 50% chance of failure. [[spoiler:This game being high on the idealistic end of the scale, this was just dad trying to protect Rupert from the pain of losing. [[ManipulativeBastard Or so he says...]]]]
* StrangelyEffectiveDisguise: [[spoiler: Somehow, the majority of the Dinaurians are fooled by yours and Dr. Diggins' masks.]]
** See also ''Champions'', where the hero(ine) receives a Ty Ranno mask for disguise purposes. No other mask keeps [=NPC=]s from immediately knowing who he/she is; how is this mask different?
* SummonBiggerFish: Calling up Ignosaur to fight Frigisaur.
* TakeThat: After completing the main quest and all the sidequests of ''Frontier'', you'll take a group photo with the
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:The [[LizardFolk dinaurians]] have technology that can do this. The technology that un-stones them is also responsible for how you can revive dinosaurs in the first place.]]
* ATasteOfPower: Do you go straight to the confrontation with [[spoiler: Ignosaur]] in your party... or do you have some fun with the [[OlympusMons godlike beast]] beforehand?
* TerribleTrio: The BB Gang. Also counts as the GoldfishPoopGang for the first half of the game. In the sequel, it's the Barebones Brigade. ''Frontier'' has Baron von Blackraven and his gang.
* TheTetrisEffect: Expect to see fossils in various states of cleaning every time you close your eyes.
* TyrannosaurusRex: The game's mascot, and somewhat of the InfinityPlusOneSword. One NPC ensures the player near the end of the game that "all the hype you've ever heard about it is true!"
* TheUnintelligible: Rex of the BB Bandits.
** EloquentInMyNativeTongue: [[spoiler:His true speech patterns tend toward SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. Those kooky English bulldogs...]]
* UnknownItemIdentification: In the first two games, fossils had to be brought back to base and excavated before they could be identified. In ''Frontier'', fossils are "unknown" the first time they're excavated but the sonar will be able to ID them afterward.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Boy, the Dinatomatons sure are cool, aren't they? Who wouldn't want a [[VideoGame/RobotDinosaursThatShootBeamsWhenTheyRoar Robot Dinosaur That Shoots Beams When It Roars?]] Well, sorry, but ''you don't get none.'' And you'll have to keep your paws off [[spoiler:Duna, Dynal, and Raptin]] too... [[spoiler:until they all become available in the postgame, that is.]]
* VendorTrash: Digging up and cleaning gemstones is the only way to make money. The better the gem, the more money.
* VerbalTic: The Digadigs, including Pauleen in ''Champions''. Rosie [[GotMeDoingIt picks it up]] when she is mystically made part of the tribe, and she is very ''diga-''displeased.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Roise asks "you probably hate me now, don't you?". You actually are ABLE to say "yes".
** In ''Frontier,'' when you [[spoiler: travel back in time]], you can encounter dino nests. You can cheerfully drive your Bone Buggy over them and shatter them to pieces, for no other reason than they're there. (Though they magically reform themselves if you wait.)
* XMeetsY: ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' meets {{Mon}}s. (''Magazine/NintendoPower'' said "meets ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''", but "meets ''VideoGame/{{Spectrobes}}''" is much more apt.)
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: In the first game's Master-rank Level-Up Battles, losing even one vivosaur makes you lose the whole fight.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Rupert's father is... difficult to please, shall we say.
* {{Whateversaurus}}: Along with the term "vivosaur" itself, this is used liberally for the various made-up species.
* WindIsGreen: Air-type Viviosaurs are revived from green fossils.
* WombLevel: The Bonehemoth in ''Champions.''
* WordSaladTitle: In ''Champions,'' all the songs in the sound test have silly and non-indicative names, like "Sleepy Robin," "Chocolate Soiree," or "Raspberry Bell."
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Rosie's pink hair could be passed off as an [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis artistic rendtion]] of a strawberry blonde, but there's ''really'' no explaining why Dr. Diggins' hair is ''green.''
** Siamo actually has blue hair, despite being a dinosaur.
----
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An early draft of the novel, ''Radio Free Albemuth'' was published in 1985 and later adapted into the 2010 film of the same name.
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* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
to:
* WildMassGuessing: the hypotheses that Fat, his alternate personality, and their group of friends start churning out to try to explain the possible grinding humdrum of psychosis, insanity, the tedious events of everyday life, and the coming of a new messiah to earth to release man from the sins of a destructive Creator god who imprisoned all human form within a fortress that may or may not exist overlaid in multiple dimensions on top of our own reality. Generally. Depending on what part of his exegesis Fat is detailing, you may get an addition of ancient greek languages, the dichotomy of early christian symbols, the possibility of 3-eyed aliens from outside of "time" (or the future) whom humans either originally came from, have the potential to become, or are who the aliens wish to help (by coming to free humanity from the Iron Fortress), and philosophical debates on the nature of life and death. You may need a neck brace to deal with the Ideological Whiplash.
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Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[RichardNixon Ferris F Fremont]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
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Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[RichardNixon [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Ferris F Fremont]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
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Sherri, not Sherrie
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* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but Sherrie enacts a psychological version of this as she spirals towards her death, pulling everyone who knows her with her (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
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* TakingYouWithMe: This is a strange variation on this trope, but Sherrie Sherri enacts a psychological version of this as she spirals towards her death, pulling everyone who knows her with her (particularly Fat--[[UnreliableNarrator according to]] [[PointOfView him, anyway]]).
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*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[note]]See Chapter 1[[/note]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[note]]Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.[[/note]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
to:
*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[note]]See Chapter 1[[/note]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[note]]Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.[[/note]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario. scenario.
*NumberOfTheBeast: Ferris F. Fremont's initials are FFF, and F is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
*NumberOfTheBeast: Ferris F. Fremont's initials are FFF, and F is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/98514511b793793a648c2f3a1c37d68a.jpg]]
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* AsHimself: RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
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* AsHimself: RobertAntonWilson, Creator/RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
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Creator/PhilipKDick's second to last completed novel, ''VALIS'', is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
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Creator/PhilipKDick's second to last second-to-last completed novel, ''VALIS'', ''VALIS'' is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
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* ShownTheirWork: PKD did just as much mad research as there is in the novel.
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* ShownTheirWork: PKD did just as much mad research as there is in the novel.novel, and more. After the events of 1974, he started keeping journals of his research into mysticism and philosophy, which laid the groundwork for this novel. They totaled '''''8,000 pages''''' by the time of his death. A handful of them were later published as ''The Exegesis of Philip K Dick''.
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* AsHimself: RobertAntonWilson, who was a friend of Dick's at the time it was written.
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*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[hottip:*:See Chapter 1]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[hottip:*:Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
to:
*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[hottip:*:See Fat[[note]]See Chapter 1]].1[[/note]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[hottip:*:Fat ]][[note]]Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.]] [[/note]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
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Doesn\'t need that when it\'s already got spoiler tagged.
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* BrainyBaby: WARNING SPOILER: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]]
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* BrainyBaby: WARNING SPOILER: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]]
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Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[RichardNixon Ferris F Fremount]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
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Thus, the book begins. Throughout, Horselover Fat is confronted by the Soviet Union, Satan (in the form of [[RichardNixon Ferris F Fremount]]), Fremont]]), Jesus, alien space lasers, and his own possible madness.
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PhilipKDick's second to last completed novel, ''VALIS'', is about his own experiences with ''something'' in 1974. Drugs? Schizophrenia? Alien intervention? And what does the name Horselover Fat mean? [[MindScrew It's difficult to say]], but it's certainly some kind of novel.
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[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation to]] [[VideoGame/{{Valis}} the video game]].
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*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[hottip:*:See Chapter 1]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not''dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[hottip:*:Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
to:
*** [[spoiler: Debatable. The novel is written in the 3rd person, where both Fat and Philip are treated as separate entities, however the novel is ''written by'' Horselover Fat[[hottip:*:See Chapter 1]]. Hence Philip's consciousness is tied into the persona of Fat, he adopts the personality in an attempt to diverge and distance himself from the identity of Philip. This is the only way he can cope with the weight of existence within reality - the Black Iron Prison. That's why when Sophia finally is introduced, he sees a solution and his cognitive processes coalesce back into the central identity of Philip, but when she dies, he reverts. If Fat was a hallucination there would be no point-of-view to work from and he would act as an external intrusion, but instead the point of view is introspective where ''Philip'' is extruded from the central subjective view of reality. Schizophrenic yes, but you can't really argue for him being ''not''dissociative ''not'' dissociative when the entire point of Fat's existence is as a refuge so Philip can dissociate himself from reality. It doesn't need to manifest as classical disocciative identity disorder with a psychotic fugue or black-outs - you could easily stamp him with the label "atypical" and the DSM-IV wouldn't argue with you.]][[hottip:*:Fat debates this himself at the end of chapter 7, for anyone who's interested.]] However, considering the amount of YMMV, MindScrew and [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolic interpretations]] ([[ParanoiaFuel paranoia to follow]]), there are undoubtedly other ways to view this scenario.
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* BrainyBaby: WARNING SPOILER: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]] However, even in a book with as many interpretations as this one, cautionary YMMV must be placed on the base of this trope's inclusion in this page.
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* BrainyBaby: WARNING SPOILER: [[spoiler: Sophia, which doubles with MessianicArchetype.]] However, even in a book with as many interpretations as this one, cautionary YMMV must be placed on the base of this trope's inclusion in this page.
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* ExpositionBeam: The pink laser beam that fired information into Fat's brain.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" in a film only makes "sense" after multiple watchings.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" in a film only makes "sense" after multiple watchings.
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* ExpositionBeam: The pink laser beam that fired information into Fat's brain.
* FictionalColor: After seeing the laser beam, Fat researched and found that it was a shade of pink that could not exist.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" ina the film ''Valis'' only makes "sense" after multiple watchings.
* FictionalColor: After seeing the laser beam, Fat researched and found that it was a shade of pink that could not exist.
* FridgeBrilliance: In-universe. The "symbolism" in
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* ShowWithinAShow: A major plot point. Fat and his friends see a movie (named ''Valis'') and realize that the events of the film closely parallel Fat's own visions. They realize that whoever or whatever contacted Fat must have also made contact with the filmmakers.
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* ShowWithinAShow: A major plot point. Fat and his friends see a movie (named ''Valis'') and realize that the events of the film closely parallel Fat's own visions. They realize that whoever or whatever contacted Fat must have also made contact with the filmmakers. (For extra {{postmodernism}} points, the events of the film ''Valis'' are taken directly from PKD's [[WhatCouldHaveBeen wildly different, early draft]] of this very novel. Said draft was later published as ''Radio Free Albemuth''.)