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20th Mar '13 7:30:25 AM MacronNotes

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''AStudyInEmerald'' is a HugoAward-winning short story by NeilGaiman, essentially an IntercontinuityCrossover between ''SherlockHolmes'' and the works of Creator/HPLovecraft. Written in the style of a classic Holmes pastiche, this story, roughly following the plot of the first Holmes novel ''A Study in Scarlet'', finds a brilliant consulting detective and [[TheWatson his new flatmate]] investigating the gruesome murder of a member of the royal family.

Can be read [[http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf here]] for free, in nifty newsprint format. Which we highly recommend you do before proceeding to the trope list, which contains spoilers.

And also just because it's [[CrazyAwesome awesome.]]
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!!This work provides examples of:

* AlienBlood: Hence why it's a study in ''emerald''.
* [[spoiler:TheAllConcealingI: The protagonists aren't referred to by name, so we're led to believe they're Holmes and Watson... until the real Holmes and Watson show up.]]
* AlternateHistory: It's revealed in the first few paragraphs that [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] exist and are accepted fact in this version of VictorianBritain, and that's just the beginning.
* AntiHero: [[spoiler: Rache, the real Sherlock Holmes and killer of royalty,]] is a Type III.
** AntiVillain: Or, alternatively, he's a Type IV.
* BadassBookworm: [[spoiler: Rache, the real Sherlock Holmes.]]
** CulturedBadass
* BadDreams: The narrator warns his potential apartmentmate that he screams sometimes at night.
* BadMoonRising: The narrator mentions in passing that the moon is now red, and has been for centuries. People are used to it now.
* BigGood: The Old Ones, in the eyes of most of humanity.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Our protagonists go to see a theatre troupe perform three one-act plays: a wacky MistakenIdentity comedy, a tragic melodrama about a [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth sweet starving waif who sells violets]], and a [[CosmicHorrorStory historical epic about the day the Old Ones awoke and conquered humanity]]. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance And the audience is equally charmed by all three.]]
* BrownNote
* ContinuityNod
** The name Vernet is a nod to a minor line from the Holmes story "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter." 
** The Sigerson alias was also used as such by Holmes in the period between the events of "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House".
** "John (or perhaps James) Watson" is a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's notorious inability to keep Watson's first name straight. Call it an incontinuity nod.
** Likewise, there's a similar nod to the text's disagreement about where on his body Watson was injured in Afghanistan. ''Study in Scarlet'' placed it on his leg, later stories said his shoulder. In ''AStudyInEmerald'' [[spoiler:Moran, i.e., the "fake" Watson, was wounded in his shoulder, while the real Watson was wounded in his leg.]]
*** [[spoiler: Moran refers to Watson as "The Limping Doctor" until Holmes and Watson's names are revealed at the end]].
* CosmicHorrorStory: But of course.
* CrackFic: And a glorious one it is.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Royalty is the product of intercourse between humans and Old Ones, producing something with green blood and a large number of limbs.
* HumanoidAbomination: Prince Franz Drogo of Bohemia. Well, he's got a few extra limbs, but he looks far more human than his aunt Victoria.
* DeadlyDoctor: 
-->Indeed. I hate to say this, but it is my experience that when a doctor goes to the bad, he is a fouler and darker creature than the worst cut-throat.
** [[spoiler: Subverted, in that the average reader is quite likely to agree with the killer, Dr. Watson, that his actions were right and necessary.]]
** This is also either a [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nod]] or [[MythologyGag Mythology Gag]], in that the line is originally used to describe Dr. Roylott in The Adventure of the Speckled Band: "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals."
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Tentacled horrors running the place? The natural order of things. To do it otherwise would just be silly.
* DidYouJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: Early in the story, the protagonists are briefed by the Queen who while oddly voiced, speaks English and talks lucidly, and is nice enough to heal the narrator's injury. She seems decent enough if you ignore the strong implication (probably certainty) that she and her relatives like to MindRape people every once in a while and will probably wipe out humanity pretty soon.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Two men manage to knife to death a Bohemian prince, a sort of Old One half-breed.
* DidYouJustRomanceCthulu: Victoria is not the same same species as Prince Albert in this universe.
* EldritchAbomination: The Great Ones, naturally, inclding Queen Victoria, the Black One of Egypt, the Ancient Goat and the Czar Unanswerable.
* {{Expy}}: The Great One Parent to a Thousand, of Lovecraft's MotherOfAThousandYoung
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Victoria. [[QueenVicky Not that one.]] She's called Victoria because [[EldritchAbomination she conquered Europe centuries ago]].
* HalfHumanHybrid: The royal family is all some fraction EldritchAbomination.
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: Victoria's consort is quite human, while she towers over them.
* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]
* LovecraftLite
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Czar Unanswerable, the Black One of Egypt, Parent to a Thousand.
* NobleTopEnforcer: Lestrade, the detective, narrator and Prince Albert all seem like decent people.
* ObliviouslyEvil: The protagonists and Lestrade.
* PerspectiveFlip: Kind of. [[spoiler: Moriarty and Moran are the "good guys" and Holmes and Watson are the antagonists. However, while the reader probably ends up seeing the latter as still being heroic, Moriarty and Moran actually are well-intentioned in this setting despite their allegiance to Eldritch Abominations.]]
* RoyallyScrewedUp: Played for kind of dark humor in that the Queen's relatives seem to be the usual debauched and reckless sort that the human Victoria had (and probably many/most monarchs have), but it's taken UpToEleven, given what they are.
* SerialNumbersFiledOff (InUniverse): The play they see concerning the girl who sells violets is ''The Little Match Girl'' by Hans Christian Andersen with a few details changed.
* SherlockScan: Mostly played straight with the Great Detective, but subverted/parodied in the scene where he recognises that the murder victim is a member of the German royal family... by the number of his limbs and the green shade of his blood.
* ShoutOut: With the exception of the first one, which introduces a theater troupe that will feature in the plot, each of the advertisements between chapters. 
** "Victor's Vitae", manufactured by [[{{Frankenstein}} Victor von F.]], promises to restore life to the dead... nether regions.
** [[DrJekyllAndMrHyde "Jekyll's Powders"]] will release the inner you.
** Exsanguinations by [[{{Dracula}} V. Tepes]], for your health.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-heeled_Jack Jack's Boots, Shoes, and Brogues]]. Putting the spring back in your heels is their specialty.
* StaringDownCthulhu: The consulting detective, when he meets Victoria, doesn't seem at all intimidated.
* ThatsWhatIWouldDo: The detective tells the narrator that he figured out how the murderers got away based on the fact that he would have done the same thing.
* TitleDrop: In the description of the crime scene.
* [[spoiler:TomatoSurprise]]
* TwiceToldTale: The ending can be hard to follow unless you're relatively familiar with the SherlockHolmes canon. (The story doesn't require a similarly close knowledge of the Cthulhu mythos, but it doesn't hurt.)
* TheWatson: Well, it's a SherlockHolmes pastiche, after all.
* WeirdMoon: It's bright red thanks to the Old Ones.
* WorthyOpponent: The Great Detective and his equally clever antagonist take this attitude toward each other.

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4th Mar '13 10:32:16 AM Chabal2

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23rd Jan '13 2:37:28 PM TheOneWhoTropes

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Genius Bonus was already on the YMMV page. Please check that page before adding it again on the main page.

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