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Not An Example. It was planned to be a TRUE trilogy, but didn\'t make it that far.
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* TwoPartTrilogy: The series was originally planned to be a trilogy of 'books' with each book being represented by two seasons.
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* AllInTheManual: Knauf has revealed much about the characters' histories and the series' mythology outside of the show. Much of it is explained in the [[http://savecarnivale.org/html/rousties_month_thalidar_gospel.htm Gospel of Knaufias]].
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* AllInTheManual: Knauf has revealed much about the characters' histories and the series' mythology outside of the show. Much of it is explained in the [[http://savecarnivale.org/html/rousties_month_thalidar_gospel.htm [[http://m.friendfeed-media.com/adb56d1cd12611e3f795a47bb01947a1ad3b8a70 Gospel of Knaufias]].
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A useful note, not a trope. And even if it were a trope, we\'d prefer the examples to come from episodes that were actually made.
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* NaziGermany: According to WordOfGod, the villains of seasons 3 through 5.
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* NaziGermany: According to WordOfGod, the villains of seasons 3 through 5.
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Samson says this pretty much every episode. It keeps the carnies moving, as well as the show\'s forward momentum.
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** "Let's shake some dust!"
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* ExecutiveMeddling: Lots. As Clancy Brown has put it, HBO was "uncomfortable with ambiguity," and so altered story-lines and characters to fit their needs. Brother Justin becoming all but pure evil in the second season in contrast to being conflicted in the first was because of this. Scenes where Justin was depicted as being more sympathetic were vetoed by the producers.
** HBO meddled quite a bit with Justin and Iris' relationship. They pushed for Justin to rape her at the end of the first season (which the writers did not want to do, hence the ambiguity of that scene), and then demanded that the show drop their relationship entirely in the second season.
** HBO meddled quite a bit with Justin and Iris' relationship. They pushed for Justin to rape her at the end of the first season (which the writers did not want to do, hence the ambiguity of that scene), and then demanded that the show drop their relationship entirely in the second season.
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This is the trope page, not the reviews page.
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Reminiscent of the sinister visual style of DavidLynch -- it even features Michael J. Anderson from ''TwinPeaks'' -- this sprawling, mega-budget HBO production treads the line between fascinating psychodrama and frustrating gobbledegook. [[ExecutiveMeddling Interference from the network]] weakened series creator Daniel Knauf's vision, truths were learned at a snail's pace, and the show ends on an excruciating cliff-hanger. But Carnivale's mythology, production design, acting, and attention to historical detail are stellar. The show won five Emmys in 2004 for best title design, cinematography, art direction, costumes, and hairstyling.
The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints. It could be said that ''Carnivale'' aired ten years too early, considering the success of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/TrueDetective''. Fans of those series will find a lot to like here.
The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints. It could be said that ''Carnivale'' aired ten years too early, considering the success of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/TrueDetective''. Fans of those series will find a lot to like here.
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The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints.
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The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints.
constraints. It could be said that ''Carnivale'' aired ten years too early, considering the success of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/TrueDetective''. Fans of those series will find a lot to like here.
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* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: John Hannah as Dora Mae's murderer in ''Pick A Number'' is from a tiny town in the middle of the dust bowl but inexplicably speaks with Hannah's natural Scottish accent.
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* OnlyChildSyndrome: A justified case, as outlined in [[SeriesBible the Gospel of Knauf]]. According to this universe's rules, only the eldest male child of an Avataric family can become his generation's Avatar, but giving birth to an Avatar is such a traumatic experience that it renders the mother permanently infertile. Hence, Avatars can only have older female siblings, and they have a disproportionately high chance of being only children.
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* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have ClancyBrown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
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* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have ClancyBrown Creator/ClancyBrown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
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* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Gecko, one of the carnival freaks, disappears after the first season, without any further mention or explanation of where he went.
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* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Gecko, one of Gecko and the carnival freaks, disappears Steben sisters all disappear after the first season, season without any further mention or explanation of where he they went.
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* CutShort: Hope you weren't too invested in finding out what happened in Season 3.
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* CutShort: Hope you weren't too invested in finding out what happened in Season 3. Or seasons 4, 5, and 6.
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* DangerTakesABackseat: [[spoiler: just when Scudder thought he was in the clear, too]]
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* DangerTakesABackseat: [[spoiler: And just when Scudder [[spoiler:Scudder]] thought he was in the clear, too]]too.
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* DumbMuscle: the carnival strongman is a giant ManChild.
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* DumbMuscle: Gabriel, the carnival strongman strongman, is a giant ManChild.ManChild. Most of the rousties qualify, too.
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* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have Clancy Brown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
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* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have Clancy Brown ClancyBrown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
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* ICannotSelfTerminate: Ben [[spoiler: attempts suicide in "The Day That Was The Day", but Scudder heals him because Ben is "too important"]].
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* ICannotSelfTerminate: Ben [[spoiler: Ben attempts suicide in "The Day That Was The Day", but Scudder heals him because Ben is "too important"]].
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* ThoseTwoGuys: A few, especially Osgood.
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* ThoseTwoGuys: A few, few of the rousties, especially Osgood.Osgood.
** In early season one, Jonesy and Samson come off as this.
** In early season one, Jonesy and Samson come off as this.
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* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much with Ben's militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of TheKlan.
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* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much We get a non-comical and extremely disturbing example with Ben's creepy, militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of TheKlan.TheKlan.
* RacistGrandpa: Played for laughs with Stumpy.
* RacistGrandpa: Played for laughs with Stumpy.
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** When he goes full bore evil, Justin's fairly affable ("Blessed are the meek? Hah, how banal.").
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** When he goes full bore evil, Justin's fairly affable ("Blessed are the meek? Hah, how banal."). Unless he's angry, when he barely changes his tone or expression yet is suddenly ''terrifying.''
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Badass Abnormal has been renamed. Make sure you check out the new page and its definition before readding.
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** BadassAbnormal: A key part of the life cycle of Avatara, as well as [[spoiler: Sofie as of the series finale]]
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A semi-surreal drama set in 1930s Depression-stricken America, Carnivale casts the epic battle between Good and Evil against a background of the traveling circus and the revival tent. One story line involves an escaped convict with the ability to heal the afflicted and resurrect the dead as he follows a carnival troupe across the country and slowly discovers clues to his MysteriousPast. The other story line focuses on a Methodist [[SinisterMinister minister]] in California who heeds a call from God to start his own church, awakening his own supernatural ability to manipulate others' thoughts and read their souls. Gradually, the two plots converge for a confrontation on a cataclysmic scale.
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A semi-surreal drama set in 1930s Depression-stricken America, US, Carnivale casts the epic battle between Good and Evil against a background of the traveling circus and the revival tent. One story line involves an escaped convict with the ability to heal the afflicted and resurrect the dead as he follows a carnival troupe across the country and slowly discovers clues to his MysteriousPast. The other story line focuses on a Methodist [[SinisterMinister minister]] in California who heeds a call from God to start his own church, awakening his own supernatural ability to manipulate others' thoughts and read their souls. Gradually, the two plots converge for a confrontation on a cataclysmic scale.
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* ShownTheirWork: Depression-era America is painstakingly and beautifully recreated. There is an incredible focus on small details.
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* ShownTheirWork: Depression-era America US is painstakingly and beautifully recreated. There is an incredible focus on small details.
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* GhostlyGlide: During one of Brother Justin's visions, the ghosts of children float into, then out of, view.
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* KlingonPromotion: An essential part of someone's ascension to Avatar status: the next person in line to become an Avatar ("The Prince") can only claim his full powers by killing the previous generation's Avatar ("The Prophet") and asserting himself as his replacement.
-->"By the hand of the Prince, the Prophet dies."
-->"By the hand of the Prince, the Prophet dies."
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* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much with Ben's militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan.
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* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much with Ben's militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan.TheKlan.
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* ForegoneConclusion: From the moments of the opening monologue, you know everything ends with the atomic bomb. [[spoiler: And at the beginning of season 2, you learn the whole story has a DownerEnding because of this]]
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* DangerTakesABackseat: [[spoiler: just when Scudder thought he was in the clear, too]]
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* OrWasItADream: Several characters have intense dreams/visions/hallucinations that leave them unsure of what is real. A good example is when Ben fell asleep in the mask-maker's house and woke up sometime later uncertain if what he remembered had actually happened. [[spoiler: It really happened.]]
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** Ben gets duped, kidnapped, tortured far too often for someone in his line of work. He tends to believe what people tell him even if these people are obviously creepy and manipulative.
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** [[spoiler: Norman, following his stroke, at first cannot move then is later forced to pretend to be unable all while Justin does and says horrendous things in front of him.]]
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* MayDecemberRomance: Ruthie was about thirty years older than Ben.
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Trivia.
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* CrossDressingVoices: Management is a Russian man voiced by Linda Hunt.
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* CrossDressingVoices: Management is a Russian man voiced by Linda Hunt.
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* AntiAntiChrist: Brother Justin starts out as this, until he embraces his nature. Ben's father Henry Scudder is a more straight example of this, fighting against his nature as the "creature of Darkness" until the end.
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* EvilSoundsDeep: Clancy Brown really does have a fantastic villain voice.
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[[quoteright:330: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carnivale_promo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:The whole gang in Season One.]]
->''"Before the beginning, after the great war between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called Man. And to each generation was born a creature of Light and a creature of Darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between Good and Evil. There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and Man forever traded away wonder for reason..."''
-->--Samson's prologue
A semi-surreal drama set in 1930s Depression-stricken America, Carnivale casts the epic battle between Good and Evil against a background of the traveling circus and the revival tent. One story line involves an escaped convict with the ability to heal the afflicted and resurrect the dead as he follows a carnival troupe across the country and slowly discovers clues to his MysteriousPast. The other story line focuses on a Methodist [[SinisterMinister minister]] in California who heeds a call from God to start his own church, awakening his own supernatural ability to manipulate others' thoughts and read their souls. Gradually, the two plots converge for a confrontation on a cataclysmic scale.
Reminiscent of the sinister visual style of DavidLynch -- it even features Michael J. Anderson from ''TwinPeaks'' -- this sprawling, mega-budget HBO production treads the line between fascinating psychodrama and frustrating gobbledegook. [[ExecutiveMeddling Interference from the network]] weakened series creator Daniel Knauf's vision, truths were learned at a snail's pace, and the show ends on an excruciating cliff-hanger. But Carnivale's mythology, production design, acting, and attention to historical detail are stellar. The show won five Emmys in 2004 for best title design, cinematography, art direction, costumes, and hairstyling.
The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints.
----
!!This show provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: A number of subplots in the second season were cut thanks to HBO's ExecutiveMeddling. In particular, Lodz was going to have a bigger role. Lodz's line to Lila about seeing her again "in the flesh" was supposed to refer to the Carnivale coming across his mummified corpse in another traveling freak show.
* AbusiveParents: Both Ben and Sofie's mothers were the emotional kind. It's also implied that Justin and Iris's birth mother was also emotionally abusive (dragging two kids across Russia on a train, telling them their father is a monster, etc).
* AndIMustScream: Apollonia is stuck in a catatonic state, only able to psychically communicate with her daughter.
** [[spoiler: Dora Mae's fate in Babylon]] also counts as an example.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Stated to be what happens to Light Avatara when they die.
* AffablyEvil:
** The garrulous and agreeable contract killer Varlyn Stroud.
** The child-killing Evander Geddes who enjoys nothing more than good company and hot cider.
** When he goes full bore evil, Justin's fairly affable ("Blessed are the meek? Hah, how banal.").
* AllInTheManual: Knauf has revealed much about the characters' histories and the series' mythology outside of the show. Much of it is explained in the [[http://savecarnivale.org/html/rousties_month_thalidar_gospel.htm Gospel of Knaufias]].
* TheAntichrist: What Brother Justin becomes after JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.
** Heavily implied to be [[spoiler: the purpose of Sofie's status as the Omega.]]
* AntiVillain: Brother Justin, at least earlier in the series.
* ArcWords:
** "Every Prophet in his house."
** "Pain is an unavoidable side effect."
** "[[BecauseDestinySaysSo Because Management says so.]]"
* AttemptedRape: In the pilot, Ben saves Sofie from this. Jonesy [[ValuesDissonance implies she'd asked for it]].
** In "Babylon", the miners attempt to do this to Dora Mae. Stumpy and the other rousties get her out of there.
* AutoErotica: Ben and Sofie.
* AxeCrazy: Ben's grandma is this.
* BackStory: From just a generation before the show to all the way back to before the Flood.
* {{Badass}}: Ben and Justin by the end of Season 1 [[spoiler: and particularly acute once they become the Prophets of their respective Houses.]] The show also has examples of:
** BadassAbnormal: A key part of the life cycle of Avatara, as well as [[spoiler: Sofie as of the series finale]]
** BadassNormal: Jonesy and Samson. The latter qualifies as a BadAssOldGuy.
** BadassPreacher: Brother Justin.
** BadassFamily: The families Crowe and Hawkins, as well as the Houses of Light and Dark.
* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: The entire point of the battle between Light and Dark Avatars is to determine whether that generation of man rises toward enlightenment or falls toward barbarism. [[spoiler: Consider the time of the series. Give you two guesses as to who won the generation before Ben and Justin.]]
* BalancingDeathsBooks: To heal someone who is dead, Ben has to kill someone else.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: All of human history from before the Flood onward has been heavily infuenced by various Avatars. Jesus? Oh yeah. Alexander the Great? You betcha.
* BetaCouple: Jonesy and Libby.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The ''really'' dangerous one? Sweet, innocent, Iris Crowe.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Members of the House of Dark display these when their evil flares up.
* BlessedWithSuck:
** Ben has the power to give life, but at the cost of taking it from others.
** Sofie's psychic abilities allow her to see visions of confusing, at best, events, and act as a medium for her comatose mother.
* BlindSeer: Professor Ernst Lodz.
* BlueBlood: Rather literally in the case of Prophets.
* BrokenBird: Sofie.
* BrotherSisterIncest
* BuriedAlive: The fate Ben almost suffers at the hands of his relatives.
* CainAndAbel: WordOfGod states that the first two Avatara were brothers, with popular conjecture theorizing they were Cain and Abel.
* CareerEndingInjury: Jonesy was a professional baseball player before his knee injury.
* TheChessmaster: Explicitly referenced with Management.
-->'''Samson:''' He don't care much for people. Like pieces moving 'round on a board.
* ChekhovsGun: Multiple, throughout the series:
** Justin's manipulation of the asylum patients in "Lonnigan, Texas" - specifically, his use of the phrase "be still" to freeze them in place - pays off big in the finale when he [[spoiler: brings the Colossus itself to a halt with the same phrase]].
** All of Ben and Justin's dream sequences foreshadow actual events.
** The use of Ruth Etting's "Love Me or Leave Me" as Flora Hawkins' and Henry Scudder's theme in "After the Ball Is Over", underlying Ben's diner dream and Scudder's actual appearance in "The Day That Was The Day".
* ChosenOne: The entire point of Prophets and their Princes.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Gecko, one of the carnival freaks, disappears after the first season, without any further mention or explanation of where he went.
* ChristmasCake: Ruthie and Iris.
* CircusBrat
* CircusOfFear
* CrappyCarnival: The carnival referred to in the title is an OSHA-compliant variant. Strangely, it's the good guys running it.
* CreepyChild: Young Iris and Justin.
** The creepy girl Sofie sees in "Day of the Dead" who first tells her [[ArcWords "Every prophet in her house"]].
* CrapsackWorld: Start with the fact that it's set during the Great Depression. Then add in A LOT of BlackAndGrayMorality, severe supernatural events, and the overarching theme of BalancingDeathsBooks.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: Ben gets one at the end of Season 2.
* CrypticConversation: Every single interaction between Ben and Management. Actually, any interaction with Management at all.
* CurtainCamouflage
* CutShort: Hope you weren't too invested in finding out what happened in Season 3.
* CycleOfRevenge: The battle between Avatara repeating ad infinitum.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Henry Scudder, the Dark Prophet, is actually a pretty decent guy considering he's destined to spread pain and suffering throughout the world and may or may not be metaphysically responsible for the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. Unlike Justin, Scudder wants nothing to do with his destiny.
* DarkMessiah:
** Brother Justin defines this trope from start to finish.
** And [[spoiler: Sofie as of the series finale]].
* DealWithTheDevil:
** [[spoiler: Lodz's sight was the price for a trickle of Avataric power, courtesy of one Henry Scudder.]]
** Also, this wonderful exchange:
--->'''Justin''': I'm reminded of the phrase "making a deal with the devil".
--->'''Tommy Dolan''': Aw, come on. I'm not that bad.
--->'''Justin''': No. [[IsntItIronic You're]] not.
* DeathByChildbirth: Whether their lovers are Light or Dark, any woman who bears an Avatar becomes instantly barren and goes irrevocably insane.
* DecapitationPresentation: Justin does this with [[spoiler: Scudder's head]] after he kills him.
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: You'd think security would be tighter at New Canaan/Crowe House/[[FanNickname Casa de Creepy]], but Ben manages to get all the way up to the house and into Justin's bedroom before Iris catches him.
* DirtyBusiness: Ben does a lot of things that fall into this, like [[spoiler: murdering Lodz]], and Samson does a lot of unethical things as well, but rarely expresses remorse.
* TheDragon:
** Iris is Justin's at the beginning, then Varlyn Stroud becomes one.
** Lila is Lodz's.
** Samson is an unwilling one to Management.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Ben, Sofie, and Justin dream about events that occur later in the series.
* DrivenToSuicide: Preparing to do this causes Brother Justin to realize who and what he is.
* DumbMuscle: the carnival strongman is a giant ManChild.
* DysfunctionalFamily: One is left to wonder whether there even is such a thing as a truly functional family in this series.
* EquivalentExchange: Healing has a toll.
-->'''Rebecca''': There's rules, boy. To give life, you gotta take it from someplace else. Could be those birds up in the sky, the grass by the road. Could be that little girl you brought in here.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Even after accepting that he's evil, Justin is still disturbed by Iris burning down the orphanage and her lack of remorse over it.]]
* ExecutiveMeddling: Lots. As Clancy Brown has put it, HBO was "uncomfortable with ambiguity," and so altered story-lines and characters to fit their needs. Brother Justin becoming all but pure evil in the second season in contrast to being conflicted in the first was because of this. Scenes where Justin was depicted as being more sympathetic were vetoed by the producers.
** HBO meddled quite a bit with Justin and Iris' relationship. They pushed for Justin to rape her at the end of the first season (which the writers did not want to do, hence the ambiguity of that scene), and then demanded that the show drop their relationship entirely in the second season.
* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have Clancy Brown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
* EyelessFace: [[spoiler: The Crone, Ben's grandmother]] is missing her eyes, and it's pretty creepy. Made even moreso once its revealed that [[spoiler: she gouged them out herself after murdering her entire family on the night Henry Scudder was born.]] *shudders*
* FaceHeelTurn: In the finale, [[spoiler: Sofie shooting Jonesy and resurrecting her diabolical father.]]
* FalseWidow: In one episode, Sofie pretends to be a widow in order to get into bed with a random stranger in town.
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Dora Mae]] is gang-molested by a group of seemingly-undead miners. Then murdered by one of them. Then her spirit is condemned to the town, apparently doomed to spend eternity naked in a town of dead-eyed, soulless monsters.
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: When using their full power, Light Avatars get an invisible aura (read: the [[TranquilFury righteous]] [[UnstoppableRage fury]] of [[GodInHumanForm God himself]]) while Dark Avatars have their eyes go completely black (read: [[OhCrap Oh, Shit!]])
* GoryDiscretionShot: At one point, someone makes Henry Scudder angry. Henry Scudder then proceeds to rip their intestines out. You don't see the tearing, but you do see the bits being tossed about.
* TheGrotesque: A number of the supporting and some of the main cast. Pretty standard for a traveling carnival, but they're all given distinct characters separate from their appearance.
* HealingHands: A hallmark of Light Avatara.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Just about everyone has this for Justin, but in particular, [[spoiler:Sofie]], has a bad case. Although the real wolf in sheep's clothing hanging around New Canaan is [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]] Iris.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Apollonia and, later, Sofie.
** Brother Justin after the destruction of his ministry, also his StartOfDarkness.
** Ben in "The Day That Was the Day".
* HeroicSacrifice: Most of the light avatars are prone to these, {{lampshaded}} by Samson in the finale.
--->'''Samson''': What ''is'' it with you people?
* {{Homage}}: To everything from sports history to The Bible to The Wizard of Oz.
* HourglassPlot: Ben and Justin.
* HypocriticalHumour: There's a lot of snarky in-jokes in the dialogue referring to the characters' darker sides; see DealWithTheDevil above.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Ben [[spoiler: attempts suicide in "The Day That Was The Day", but Scudder heals him because Ben is "too important"]].
* IncestIsRelative: The Crowe family likes this one. Not only do we have [[BrotherSisterIncest Justin and Iris]], but Justin also has an eye for his daughter (although he [[SurpriseIncest doesn't know about their relation)]].
* InTheBlood: The Avatara.
* KickTheDog: Justin's treatment of Balthus in the second season falls under this.
* {{Kneecapping}}: Jonesy's limp is the result of being kneecapped by mobsters when he refused to [[ThrowingTheFight throw a game]].
* TheKnightsTemplar: The Knights Templar play a role in the first season, and it's implied [[spoiler:Scudder]] was one.
* LightIsNotGood: Management, [[spoiler: the Light Prophet]], wants nothing more than to stop Justin and save humanity. He goes about this by being an utter ManipulativeBastard.
* LipstickLesbian / BaitAndSwitchLesbians: [[spoiler: Libby and Sofie]], which doesn't go much of anywhere.
* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: One of the strongest [[SubvertedTrope subversions]] in the history of fiction. Samson is a main character for the duration of the series, and a three-dimensional one at that. He wears well-fitting suits and acts dignified at all times. As the series grows darker and more ambiguous, he ends up being the only character the audience can really trust. He's also the narrator, and thus the AudienceSurrogate.
* LostInTheMaize: The season two finale, which has appeared in Ben's visions throughout the series.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Nasty surprises for Belyakov, Ben, Justin, and Sofie.
* ManipulativeBastard: Management, to a diabolical tee. Iris, [[spoiler: following in her father's footsteps]], doesn't do too bad at this either.
* MeaningfulName:
** Benjamin '''Hawk'''ins, Justin '''Crow'''e . Daniel Knauf explained this in an interview, saying, "Birds are, to me, the creatures that have lowest flesh-to-soul ratio. They are barely carnate."
** The names of several towns visited by the Carnivale along the way (Babylon and New Canaan in particular).
** The stage name of the balding, weightlifting dwarf? Samson.
** The name Belyakov is derived from the Russian word беляк (belyak), which means "white hare" (or "white rabbit"). "Lucius" is pretty reminiscent of "Lucifer", which also means "light-bringer", and [[spoiler: foreshadows his status as Light Avatar]].
** There's also all the names from Literature/TheBible. Gabriel (from the archangel), Ruth (from the loyal daughter), Tommy/Thomas (the doubting apostle of Jesus), the aforementioned Samson and Lucius, and of course, Benjamin Hawkins (Benjamin being the most righteous of Joseph's brothers, the name meaning "son of my right hand".
** Justin's given name is "Alexei", which in a nice twist of irony, means "defender". Iris's given name, "Irina", is also ironic, meaning "peace".
* TheManBehindTheCurtain: Management, a.k.a [[spoiler: Lucius Belyakov.]]
* MindRape: Brother Justin's preferred use of his powers, particularly on young women.
* MindScrew
* MissConception: Sofie.
* MonochromaticEyes
* MysteriousPast: ''Everyone''.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Done quite intentionally. In the beginning, we're aware that Ben has healing powers and that Justin possesses some kind of mind control, but as the series goes on, it's gradually made clear that Avatars may not have any real limits on their powers. By the end of Season 2, we've seen various Avatars [[spoiler: exhibit telekinetic powers, create scarily lifelike illusions, control the weather, turn water into blood, raise the dead, receive prophetic visions, and travel using astral projection]]. Had the series continued, it's safe to assume that we would have seen new abilities emerge.
* ParentalAbandonment: Ben's father, Justin and Iris's mother and father, Sofie's father. The reasons behind all of this are eventually brought to light.
* PassingTheTorch: Not a fun process for Prophets, [[spoiler: as it requires them to willingly allow their Prince (young Avatar) to kill them and take their powers and knowledge.]]
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: No, really. ''Everyone''.
* PsychicNosebleed: Ben.
* PreApprovedSermon
* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much with Ben's militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan.
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Ben vs. Management.
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: Apollonia was raped by Justin, which makes him Sofie's father]].
* RapeAsDrama
* RunningGag: "Shut up, Osgood!"
* RussianNamingConvention: Mostly averted, as siblings Alexei and Irina do not call each other by the diminutives of their names except once, when Alexei says, ''"Privyet, Ira."''
* SexyPriest: Oh, just ''guess''.
* ShownTheirWork: Depression-era America is painstakingly and beautifully recreated. There is an incredible focus on small details.
* SignsOfTheEndTimes: Brother Justin says that the depression and all the traits of the CrapsackWorld in which the show takes place are surely signs of the apocalypse. He isn't wrong, but what he isn't aware of at that point is that he's the one who's bringing it.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Ben, Sofie, Iris, and Justin.
* SinisterMinister: Brother Justin is probably one of the most iconic examples.
* SinisterScythe: Justin's sickle.
* SupernaturalSoapOpera
* TarAndFeathers: In "Lincoln Highway", [[spoiler: Jonesy]] is almost lethally tarred and feathered.
* TarotMotifs: Right from the opening credits.
** We also have Sofie's tarot readings for Ben in "After the Ball is Over", Libby in "Insomnia", and Stumpy in "Day of the Dead".
** There's also the flashback to [[spoiler: Apollonia reading Iris's cards and being raped by Justin]].
** There was an original card created for the show - ''Le Passeur'', the Usher - which refers to an important plot point.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: The entire point of Management's death was to turn Ben into a fully-powered Avatar.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: A few, especially Osgood.
* ThrowingOutTheScript: In one episode, Brother Justin is given a PreApprovedSermon which he starts to read then rips apart in favor of his own words.
* TookALevelInBadass: Almost every character on the show eventually. Most pronounced in the case of Sofie and Ben. {{Lampshaded}} as a literal part of the Avataric cycle.
* TownWithADarkSecret: Several of them, but most notably Babylon.
* {{Tsundere}}: Rita Sue, who only shows her softer side when it comes to her family. And sometimes not even then.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The DVD menus give away the Crone [[spoiler: having no eyes]], something which in the episode is intended to be somewhat of a shocking moment.
* TricksterMentor: Management and Lodz.
* TwoPartTrilogy: The series was originally planned to be a trilogy of 'books' with each book being represented by two seasons.
* ViciousCycle
* VillainousIncest: Of both the brother/sister and father/daughter variety.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Justin, of course.
* WalkingWasteland: Episode 1 shows us the little girl [[spoiler:recently healed by Ben]] running after the Carnivale, with crops wilting around her. An odd subversion of the trope, in that this is neither her doing, nor emblematic of any evil force, but the [[spoiler:necessary loss of life needed to heal, according to the mythology]].
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: WordOfGod says this is the fate of anyone born of Avataric blood who isn't an actual Avatar. It's certainly proving true in the case of Iris.
* WomanScorned: Sofie's revenge on Jonesy and Libby. Ironically it led the two to becoming the BetaCouple.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As it was too expensive to continually apply the actor's extensive makeup, the character of Gecko disappeared after the first season.
* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Ben escaped from a chain gang before the beginning of the series and, in the first episode, is still wearing a broken iron manacle around his ankle. What he did to get there is [[NoodleIncident never revealed to the audience]], other than that he's wanted for murder.
** WordOfGod is that [[spoiler: he assaulted a bank teller after his farm was foreclosed, and later killed one of the guards when he made his escape from the chain gang]].
* {{Yandere}}: Iris. So genteel and pleasant on the surface, so "crazier than a shithouse rat" (in the words of [[WordOfGod Dan Knauf]]) when it comes to her brother underneath.
----
[[caption-width-right:330:The whole gang in Season One.]]
->''"Before the beginning, after the great war between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called Man. And to each generation was born a creature of Light and a creature of Darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between Good and Evil. There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and Man forever traded away wonder for reason..."''
-->--Samson's prologue
A semi-surreal drama set in 1930s Depression-stricken America, Carnivale casts the epic battle between Good and Evil against a background of the traveling circus and the revival tent. One story line involves an escaped convict with the ability to heal the afflicted and resurrect the dead as he follows a carnival troupe across the country and slowly discovers clues to his MysteriousPast. The other story line focuses on a Methodist [[SinisterMinister minister]] in California who heeds a call from God to start his own church, awakening his own supernatural ability to manipulate others' thoughts and read their souls. Gradually, the two plots converge for a confrontation on a cataclysmic scale.
Reminiscent of the sinister visual style of DavidLynch -- it even features Michael J. Anderson from ''TwinPeaks'' -- this sprawling, mega-budget HBO production treads the line between fascinating psychodrama and frustrating gobbledegook. [[ExecutiveMeddling Interference from the network]] weakened series creator Daniel Knauf's vision, truths were learned at a snail's pace, and the show ends on an excruciating cliff-hanger. But Carnivale's mythology, production design, acting, and attention to historical detail are stellar. The show won five Emmys in 2004 for best title design, cinematography, art direction, costumes, and hairstyling.
The show was originally intended to be six seasons long, each two seasons comprising one "book" of a trilogy, but HBO canceled the show after the second season due to budget constraints.
----
!!This show provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: A number of subplots in the second season were cut thanks to HBO's ExecutiveMeddling. In particular, Lodz was going to have a bigger role. Lodz's line to Lila about seeing her again "in the flesh" was supposed to refer to the Carnivale coming across his mummified corpse in another traveling freak show.
* AbusiveParents: Both Ben and Sofie's mothers were the emotional kind. It's also implied that Justin and Iris's birth mother was also emotionally abusive (dragging two kids across Russia on a train, telling them their father is a monster, etc).
* AndIMustScream: Apollonia is stuck in a catatonic state, only able to psychically communicate with her daughter.
** [[spoiler: Dora Mae's fate in Babylon]] also counts as an example.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Stated to be what happens to Light Avatara when they die.
* AffablyEvil:
** The garrulous and agreeable contract killer Varlyn Stroud.
** The child-killing Evander Geddes who enjoys nothing more than good company and hot cider.
** When he goes full bore evil, Justin's fairly affable ("Blessed are the meek? Hah, how banal.").
* AllInTheManual: Knauf has revealed much about the characters' histories and the series' mythology outside of the show. Much of it is explained in the [[http://savecarnivale.org/html/rousties_month_thalidar_gospel.htm Gospel of Knaufias]].
* TheAntichrist: What Brother Justin becomes after JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.
** Heavily implied to be [[spoiler: the purpose of Sofie's status as the Omega.]]
* AntiVillain: Brother Justin, at least earlier in the series.
* ArcWords:
** "Every Prophet in his house."
** "Pain is an unavoidable side effect."
** "[[BecauseDestinySaysSo Because Management says so.]]"
* AttemptedRape: In the pilot, Ben saves Sofie from this. Jonesy [[ValuesDissonance implies she'd asked for it]].
** In "Babylon", the miners attempt to do this to Dora Mae. Stumpy and the other rousties get her out of there.
* AutoErotica: Ben and Sofie.
* AxeCrazy: Ben's grandma is this.
* BackStory: From just a generation before the show to all the way back to before the Flood.
* {{Badass}}: Ben and Justin by the end of Season 1 [[spoiler: and particularly acute once they become the Prophets of their respective Houses.]] The show also has examples of:
** BadassAbnormal: A key part of the life cycle of Avatara, as well as [[spoiler: Sofie as of the series finale]]
** BadassNormal: Jonesy and Samson. The latter qualifies as a BadAssOldGuy.
** BadassPreacher: Brother Justin.
** BadassFamily: The families Crowe and Hawkins, as well as the Houses of Light and Dark.
* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: The entire point of the battle between Light and Dark Avatars is to determine whether that generation of man rises toward enlightenment or falls toward barbarism. [[spoiler: Consider the time of the series. Give you two guesses as to who won the generation before Ben and Justin.]]
* BalancingDeathsBooks: To heal someone who is dead, Ben has to kill someone else.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: All of human history from before the Flood onward has been heavily infuenced by various Avatars. Jesus? Oh yeah. Alexander the Great? You betcha.
* BetaCouple: Jonesy and Libby.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The ''really'' dangerous one? Sweet, innocent, Iris Crowe.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Members of the House of Dark display these when their evil flares up.
* BlessedWithSuck:
** Ben has the power to give life, but at the cost of taking it from others.
** Sofie's psychic abilities allow her to see visions of confusing, at best, events, and act as a medium for her comatose mother.
* BlindSeer: Professor Ernst Lodz.
* BlueBlood: Rather literally in the case of Prophets.
* BrokenBird: Sofie.
* BrotherSisterIncest
* BuriedAlive: The fate Ben almost suffers at the hands of his relatives.
* CainAndAbel: WordOfGod states that the first two Avatara were brothers, with popular conjecture theorizing they were Cain and Abel.
* CareerEndingInjury: Jonesy was a professional baseball player before his knee injury.
* TheChessmaster: Explicitly referenced with Management.
-->'''Samson:''' He don't care much for people. Like pieces moving 'round on a board.
* ChekhovsGun: Multiple, throughout the series:
** Justin's manipulation of the asylum patients in "Lonnigan, Texas" - specifically, his use of the phrase "be still" to freeze them in place - pays off big in the finale when he [[spoiler: brings the Colossus itself to a halt with the same phrase]].
** All of Ben and Justin's dream sequences foreshadow actual events.
** The use of Ruth Etting's "Love Me or Leave Me" as Flora Hawkins' and Henry Scudder's theme in "After the Ball Is Over", underlying Ben's diner dream and Scudder's actual appearance in "The Day That Was The Day".
* ChosenOne: The entire point of Prophets and their Princes.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Gecko, one of the carnival freaks, disappears after the first season, without any further mention or explanation of where he went.
* ChristmasCake: Ruthie and Iris.
* CircusBrat
* CircusOfFear
* CrappyCarnival: The carnival referred to in the title is an OSHA-compliant variant. Strangely, it's the good guys running it.
* CreepyChild: Young Iris and Justin.
** The creepy girl Sofie sees in "Day of the Dead" who first tells her [[ArcWords "Every prophet in her house"]].
* CrapsackWorld: Start with the fact that it's set during the Great Depression. Then add in A LOT of BlackAndGrayMorality, severe supernatural events, and the overarching theme of BalancingDeathsBooks.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: Ben gets one at the end of Season 2.
* CrypticConversation: Every single interaction between Ben and Management. Actually, any interaction with Management at all.
* CurtainCamouflage
* CutShort: Hope you weren't too invested in finding out what happened in Season 3.
* CycleOfRevenge: The battle between Avatara repeating ad infinitum.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Henry Scudder, the Dark Prophet, is actually a pretty decent guy considering he's destined to spread pain and suffering throughout the world and may or may not be metaphysically responsible for the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. Unlike Justin, Scudder wants nothing to do with his destiny.
* DarkMessiah:
** Brother Justin defines this trope from start to finish.
** And [[spoiler: Sofie as of the series finale]].
* DealWithTheDevil:
** [[spoiler: Lodz's sight was the price for a trickle of Avataric power, courtesy of one Henry Scudder.]]
** Also, this wonderful exchange:
--->'''Justin''': I'm reminded of the phrase "making a deal with the devil".
--->'''Tommy Dolan''': Aw, come on. I'm not that bad.
--->'''Justin''': No. [[IsntItIronic You're]] not.
* DeathByChildbirth: Whether their lovers are Light or Dark, any woman who bears an Avatar becomes instantly barren and goes irrevocably insane.
* DecapitationPresentation: Justin does this with [[spoiler: Scudder's head]] after he kills him.
* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: You'd think security would be tighter at New Canaan/Crowe House/[[FanNickname Casa de Creepy]], but Ben manages to get all the way up to the house and into Justin's bedroom before Iris catches him.
* DirtyBusiness: Ben does a lot of things that fall into this, like [[spoiler: murdering Lodz]], and Samson does a lot of unethical things as well, but rarely expresses remorse.
* TheDragon:
** Iris is Justin's at the beginning, then Varlyn Stroud becomes one.
** Lila is Lodz's.
** Samson is an unwilling one to Management.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Ben, Sofie, and Justin dream about events that occur later in the series.
* DrivenToSuicide: Preparing to do this causes Brother Justin to realize who and what he is.
* DumbMuscle: the carnival strongman is a giant ManChild.
* DysfunctionalFamily: One is left to wonder whether there even is such a thing as a truly functional family in this series.
* EquivalentExchange: Healing has a toll.
-->'''Rebecca''': There's rules, boy. To give life, you gotta take it from someplace else. Could be those birds up in the sky, the grass by the road. Could be that little girl you brought in here.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Even after accepting that he's evil, Justin is still disturbed by Iris burning down the orphanage and her lack of remorse over it.]]
* ExecutiveMeddling: Lots. As Clancy Brown has put it, HBO was "uncomfortable with ambiguity," and so altered story-lines and characters to fit their needs. Brother Justin becoming all but pure evil in the second season in contrast to being conflicted in the first was because of this. Scenes where Justin was depicted as being more sympathetic were vetoed by the producers.
** HBO meddled quite a bit with Justin and Iris' relationship. They pushed for Justin to rape her at the end of the first season (which the writers did not want to do, hence the ambiguity of that scene), and then demanded that the show drop their relationship entirely in the second season.
* EvilLaugh: Of course, when you have Clancy Brown in the cast, the EvilLaugh is nearly a requirement.
* EyelessFace: [[spoiler: The Crone, Ben's grandmother]] is missing her eyes, and it's pretty creepy. Made even moreso once its revealed that [[spoiler: she gouged them out herself after murdering her entire family on the night Henry Scudder was born.]] *shudders*
* FaceHeelTurn: In the finale, [[spoiler: Sofie shooting Jonesy and resurrecting her diabolical father.]]
* FalseWidow: In one episode, Sofie pretends to be a widow in order to get into bed with a random stranger in town.
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Dora Mae]] is gang-molested by a group of seemingly-undead miners. Then murdered by one of them. Then her spirit is condemned to the town, apparently doomed to spend eternity naked in a town of dead-eyed, soulless monsters.
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: When using their full power, Light Avatars get an invisible aura (read: the [[TranquilFury righteous]] [[UnstoppableRage fury]] of [[GodInHumanForm God himself]]) while Dark Avatars have their eyes go completely black (read: [[OhCrap Oh, Shit!]])
* GoryDiscretionShot: At one point, someone makes Henry Scudder angry. Henry Scudder then proceeds to rip their intestines out. You don't see the tearing, but you do see the bits being tossed about.
* TheGrotesque: A number of the supporting and some of the main cast. Pretty standard for a traveling carnival, but they're all given distinct characters separate from their appearance.
* HealingHands: A hallmark of Light Avatara.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Just about everyone has this for Justin, but in particular, [[spoiler:Sofie]], has a bad case. Although the real wolf in sheep's clothing hanging around New Canaan is [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]] Iris.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Apollonia and, later, Sofie.
** Brother Justin after the destruction of his ministry, also his StartOfDarkness.
** Ben in "The Day That Was the Day".
* HeroicSacrifice: Most of the light avatars are prone to these, {{lampshaded}} by Samson in the finale.
--->'''Samson''': What ''is'' it with you people?
* {{Homage}}: To everything from sports history to The Bible to The Wizard of Oz.
* HourglassPlot: Ben and Justin.
* HypocriticalHumour: There's a lot of snarky in-jokes in the dialogue referring to the characters' darker sides; see DealWithTheDevil above.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Ben [[spoiler: attempts suicide in "The Day That Was The Day", but Scudder heals him because Ben is "too important"]].
* IncestIsRelative: The Crowe family likes this one. Not only do we have [[BrotherSisterIncest Justin and Iris]], but Justin also has an eye for his daughter (although he [[SurpriseIncest doesn't know about their relation)]].
* InTheBlood: The Avatara.
* KickTheDog: Justin's treatment of Balthus in the second season falls under this.
* {{Kneecapping}}: Jonesy's limp is the result of being kneecapped by mobsters when he refused to [[ThrowingTheFight throw a game]].
* TheKnightsTemplar: The Knights Templar play a role in the first season, and it's implied [[spoiler:Scudder]] was one.
* LightIsNotGood: Management, [[spoiler: the Light Prophet]], wants nothing more than to stop Justin and save humanity. He goes about this by being an utter ManipulativeBastard.
* LipstickLesbian / BaitAndSwitchLesbians: [[spoiler: Libby and Sofie]], which doesn't go much of anywhere.
* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: One of the strongest [[SubvertedTrope subversions]] in the history of fiction. Samson is a main character for the duration of the series, and a three-dimensional one at that. He wears well-fitting suits and acts dignified at all times. As the series grows darker and more ambiguous, he ends up being the only character the audience can really trust. He's also the narrator, and thus the AudienceSurrogate.
* LostInTheMaize: The season two finale, which has appeared in Ben's visions throughout the series.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Nasty surprises for Belyakov, Ben, Justin, and Sofie.
* ManipulativeBastard: Management, to a diabolical tee. Iris, [[spoiler: following in her father's footsteps]], doesn't do too bad at this either.
* MeaningfulName:
** Benjamin '''Hawk'''ins, Justin '''Crow'''e . Daniel Knauf explained this in an interview, saying, "Birds are, to me, the creatures that have lowest flesh-to-soul ratio. They are barely carnate."
** The names of several towns visited by the Carnivale along the way (Babylon and New Canaan in particular).
** The stage name of the balding, weightlifting dwarf? Samson.
** The name Belyakov is derived from the Russian word беляк (belyak), which means "white hare" (or "white rabbit"). "Lucius" is pretty reminiscent of "Lucifer", which also means "light-bringer", and [[spoiler: foreshadows his status as Light Avatar]].
** There's also all the names from Literature/TheBible. Gabriel (from the archangel), Ruth (from the loyal daughter), Tommy/Thomas (the doubting apostle of Jesus), the aforementioned Samson and Lucius, and of course, Benjamin Hawkins (Benjamin being the most righteous of Joseph's brothers, the name meaning "son of my right hand".
** Justin's given name is "Alexei", which in a nice twist of irony, means "defender". Iris's given name, "Irina", is also ironic, meaning "peace".
* TheManBehindTheCurtain: Management, a.k.a [[spoiler: Lucius Belyakov.]]
* MindRape: Brother Justin's preferred use of his powers, particularly on young women.
* MindScrew
* MissConception: Sofie.
* MonochromaticEyes
* MysteriousPast: ''Everyone''.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Done quite intentionally. In the beginning, we're aware that Ben has healing powers and that Justin possesses some kind of mind control, but as the series goes on, it's gradually made clear that Avatars may not have any real limits on their powers. By the end of Season 2, we've seen various Avatars [[spoiler: exhibit telekinetic powers, create scarily lifelike illusions, control the weather, turn water into blood, raise the dead, receive prophetic visions, and travel using astral projection]]. Had the series continued, it's safe to assume that we would have seen new abilities emerge.
* ParentalAbandonment: Ben's father, Justin and Iris's mother and father, Sofie's father. The reasons behind all of this are eventually brought to light.
* PassingTheTorch: Not a fun process for Prophets, [[spoiler: as it requires them to willingly allow their Prince (young Avatar) to kill them and take their powers and knowledge.]]
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: No, really. ''Everyone''.
* PsychicNosebleed: Ben.
* PreApprovedSermon
* RacistGrandma: Played for laughs with Stumpy. Not so much with Ben's militantly racist grandmother, whose husband was a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan.
* RageAgainstTheMentor: Ben vs. Management.
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: Apollonia was raped by Justin, which makes him Sofie's father]].
* RapeAsDrama
* RunningGag: "Shut up, Osgood!"
* RussianNamingConvention: Mostly averted, as siblings Alexei and Irina do not call each other by the diminutives of their names except once, when Alexei says, ''"Privyet, Ira."''
* SexyPriest: Oh, just ''guess''.
* ShownTheirWork: Depression-era America is painstakingly and beautifully recreated. There is an incredible focus on small details.
* SignsOfTheEndTimes: Brother Justin says that the depression and all the traits of the CrapsackWorld in which the show takes place are surely signs of the apocalypse. He isn't wrong, but what he isn't aware of at that point is that he's the one who's bringing it.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Ben, Sofie, Iris, and Justin.
* SinisterMinister: Brother Justin is probably one of the most iconic examples.
* SinisterScythe: Justin's sickle.
* SupernaturalSoapOpera
* TarAndFeathers: In "Lincoln Highway", [[spoiler: Jonesy]] is almost lethally tarred and feathered.
* TarotMotifs: Right from the opening credits.
** We also have Sofie's tarot readings for Ben in "After the Ball is Over", Libby in "Insomnia", and Stumpy in "Day of the Dead".
** There's also the flashback to [[spoiler: Apollonia reading Iris's cards and being raped by Justin]].
** There was an original card created for the show - ''Le Passeur'', the Usher - which refers to an important plot point.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: The entire point of Management's death was to turn Ben into a fully-powered Avatar.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: A few, especially Osgood.
* ThrowingOutTheScript: In one episode, Brother Justin is given a PreApprovedSermon which he starts to read then rips apart in favor of his own words.
* TookALevelInBadass: Almost every character on the show eventually. Most pronounced in the case of Sofie and Ben. {{Lampshaded}} as a literal part of the Avataric cycle.
* TownWithADarkSecret: Several of them, but most notably Babylon.
* {{Tsundere}}: Rita Sue, who only shows her softer side when it comes to her family. And sometimes not even then.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The DVD menus give away the Crone [[spoiler: having no eyes]], something which in the episode is intended to be somewhat of a shocking moment.
* TricksterMentor: Management and Lodz.
* TwoPartTrilogy: The series was originally planned to be a trilogy of 'books' with each book being represented by two seasons.
* ViciousCycle
* VillainousIncest: Of both the brother/sister and father/daughter variety.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Justin, of course.
* WalkingWasteland: Episode 1 shows us the little girl [[spoiler:recently healed by Ben]] running after the Carnivale, with crops wilting around her. An odd subversion of the trope, in that this is neither her doing, nor emblematic of any evil force, but the [[spoiler:necessary loss of life needed to heal, according to the mythology]].
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: WordOfGod says this is the fate of anyone born of Avataric blood who isn't an actual Avatar. It's certainly proving true in the case of Iris.
* WomanScorned: Sofie's revenge on Jonesy and Libby. Ironically it led the two to becoming the BetaCouple.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As it was too expensive to continually apply the actor's extensive makeup, the character of Gecko disappeared after the first season.
* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Ben escaped from a chain gang before the beginning of the series and, in the first episode, is still wearing a broken iron manacle around his ankle. What he did to get there is [[NoodleIncident never revealed to the audience]], other than that he's wanted for murder.
** WordOfGod is that [[spoiler: he assaulted a bank teller after his farm was foreclosed, and later killed one of the guards when he made his escape from the chain gang]].
* {{Yandere}}: Iris. So genteel and pleasant on the surface, so "crazier than a shithouse rat" (in the words of [[WordOfGod Dan Knauf]]) when it comes to her brother underneath.
----
