History Series / TheCape

** Gregor Molotov spent twenty years in prison obsessing over the cape, which Max denied him because of the darkness in his heart. While this sort of situation is common with his [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil character type]], the exact circumstances are eerily similar to Tai Lung's motivations in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''.

** "British Bartitsu ... Kodokan Judo ... the warrior dancers of the Tang Dynasty used their robes as weapons, and so will you!" A pleasant surprise to hear this ''wasn't'' an example of getting DanBrowned. The writers did their homework.

* SwissArmyPower: The cape seems capable of a number of highly improbable abilities, but it's implied by Max that they all just take training in knowing how to use the cape in the right way.

* PlayingGertrude: [[spoiler: Gender-flipped. James Frain (Fleming) is only 13 years older than the actress playing his daughter, Summer Glau (Orwell). While this is biologically possible, it's highly improbable.]]

* ShotgunWedding: Minus the shotgun, [[spoiler: The Lich tries to marry a paralyzed Orwell.]]

** The promotional material ''alone'' has copious amounts of this between Vince and Orwell. Which makes things awkward since Vince is a married man and part of his whole origin story is getting back to said wife and kid. Take UptoEleven when Orwell is dreaming about marrying Vince.

* TarotMotifs: There's a secret society of tarot-themed {{assassin}}s, with tattoos of their major arcana. So far we've met:

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Goggles and Hicks, two brothers/assassins.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: Max gets captured by Ark, beaten, shot, and gives his FamousLastWords to Vince while lying in his arms. [[spoiler: Then he realizes he isn't dying, and gets annoyed he wasted that good speech.]]

%%ZeroContextExample * DirtyOldMan: Fleming, as of "Dice."

%%ZeroContextExample * FanserviceWithASmile: Raia has her moments.

%%ZeroContextExample * TricksterMentor: Max.

%%ZeroContextExample * WaistcoatOfStyle: Scales.

** Also Dice, who is just trying to kill Fleming and stop a project which could have let Fleming mathematically predict the future, which isn't exactly a bad thing, and despite her ruthlessness, probably wouldn't have posed a threat to anyone else if Vince had just let her go agate Fleming.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In the pilot, the carnival of crime has a stilt walker, trapeze artist, fire tater and two or three more acrobats but afterwards Max, Rollo, Raia and Ruvi are the only ones to appear.

* UhOhEyes: Fleming's [[NightmareFuel damn creepy]] chess piece contact lenses. One of the villains is even nicknamed Eyes, as he cannot blink.

** Played straight with the Cape/Vince. Neither Fleming nor Vince's BlackBestFriend recognize Vince while he's wearing a tiny mask and ''not changing his voice''. Slightly justified in that they believe Vince to be dead. He also turns his head away from them.

* BlackBestFriend: Averted with Marty, in that Marty is a fully-developed character in his own right. While he is Vince's best friend, he is also a traitor. It's implied that this is under duress. Played semi-straight with Vince's mentor Max, except for Vince having to tolerate his side job as an armed robber.

* JustifiedCriminal: The entire Carnival of Crime. They're criminals because they rob banks (in circus attire and with carnival music playing in the background), and sympathetic because they don't actually seem to hurt anybody directly, and because they are willing to help a former cop become a superhero. Though to be fair, while they're not fairly loyal to Vince, their initial bargain was that Vince provide them with police access to various things.

* [[TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil The Good, the Bad =, the Evil and the Complete Monster]]: The Cape, the Carnival of Crime, Scales, and Fleming.

** A particularly sad example as he was a clear example of a doting father. But having to fake his own death makes it that much more painful.
** Inverted with Flemming who has been shown looking for his long lost daughter. [[spoiler: Heavily implied to be Orwell]]

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Vince does, because he was framed and forced to fake his death. Unusually, this trope is portrayed from the perspective of the father.