Line #74 Literature/TheTripods


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tripods.jpg]]
2	''The Tripods'' refers to a young adult trilogy-and-a-prequel series of ScienceFiction novels written by British author Creator/JohnChristopher. This series of novels tells the story of the conquest of Earth by alien invaders [[SerialNumbersFiledOff inspired by the Martians of]] ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'', as well as its eventual liberation by a band of resistance fighters.
3
4	[[AC:The novels are as follows:]]
5
6	* ''The White Mountains'' (1967)
7	* ''The City of Gold and Lead'' (1968)
8	* ''The Pool of Fire'' (1968)
9	* ''When the Tripods Came'' (1988), the {{prequel}} to the first three books.
10
11	In ''The White Mountains'', the Tripods have ruled the world for a hundred years, mankind having been reduced to a medieval state, and kept docile by "caps" which the Tripods surgically attach to their skulls around their fourteenth birthday. Will, an English boy, suspicious of the Tripods, and wanting to escape the mind-controlling Caps, flees with his cousin, Henry, to the eponyomous White Mountains, in Switzerland. En route, whilst in France, they meet up with Jean-Paul, known to them as Beanpole, an intelligent boy who fears that being Capped will stifle his curiosity, and who joins them on their quest for freedom.
12
13	In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will, Beanpole, and Fritz, a German boy from the White Mountains resistance, compete in "the games", an Olympic-style competition whose winners are selected to serve in the domed, environmentally controlled cities of the "masters" who operate the Tripods. Having been selected, they infiltrate the Tripods' European headquarters, located in Germany, and learn valuable information about the masters' biology, and their long-term plan to terraform Earth to their standards (and eradicate humanity in the process).
14
15	In ''The Pool of Fire'', The White Mountains resistance embarks on a race against time to free the world from the Tripods, in the few years left to them before the terraforming ship arrives.
16
17	''When The Tripods Came'' tells the story, introduced in a flashback in the second novel, of how the Tripods invaded and enslaved the world in the 1980s, using television and the mass media to win popular support for themselves and to instigate war between the human governments.
18
19	''The Tripods'' was also adapted into a live action television series, produced jointly by Creator/TheBBC and the Australian Seven Network. Two seasons, covering the first two books, were broadcast in 1984 and 1985 respectively. A script for the third season was written, but never filmed (Michael Grade of ''Series/DoctorWho'' cancellation fame also cancelled this). A theatrical film is now in pre-production, although it seems to be stuck squarely in DevelopmentHell. It was also serialized in comic form for the Boy Scout magazine ''Boys' Life'' (since renamed ''Scout Life'') from 1981 to 1986.
20	----
21	!! ''The Tripods'' provide examples of:
22
23	* AchillesHeel: The Masters' sensitive spot between the respiratory and ingestive orifices. [[spoiler:Also, while they have a natural ability to detect almost any contaminants in their food, they cannot detect alcohol, which has such a potent effect on them that even the tiniest trace will knock them out for hours.]]
24	* ActionBomb: [[spoiler:Henry.]]
25	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: [[JustifiedTrope Cleverly justified]] in the novels - it's easier for the Masters to learn the language of their slaves[[note]]which is actually German since the Masters' city is near the ruins of Berlin and they "recruit" locally[[/note]] than vice versa. Humans will [[WeAreAsMayflies only survive a few years in a Tripod city anyway]]. It's a subtlety lost in the TV series, where everyone just speaks English.
26	* AfterTheEnd: At least, after the end of Modern civilization, for the first three books.
27	* AlienAbduction: Inverted. The humans abduct an alien and experiment on him. Also played straight in the prequel, when an exploring Tripod takes a human farmer inside itself for examination.
28	* AlienInvasion
29	* AliensAreBastards: Played straight with the Masters, who enslave humans with no regard for their well-being, and plan to exterminate the entire species.
30	* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Although the Tripods have near-lightspeed craft, they have no means of detecting light outside the visible spectrum, and have no aircraft. Justified with regard to the latter, as the gravity and atmosphere of their planet was such that aircraft wouldn't work.
31	* AliensStealCable: How the Tripods are able to infiltrate Earth, after their failed invasion.
32	* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. The human resistance in Europe is hiding in the Alps, because the Tripods avoid high altitudes with low atmospheric pressure (from what we see of the artificially maintained alien climate in their cities, their own planet seems to be vaguely swamp-like). The European resistance consists of people from all over Europe that fled there as uncapped children, but the main characters are from Britain. In ''The Pool of Fire'', they make contact with a similar resistance group which formed in parallel to the one in the European Alps, but in the American Rockies. The protagonist, who has grown up in the rustic feudal-level society of the Capped humans with no long-distance travel, can't help but remark on how the Americans he encounters for the first time have an extremely bizarre accent. Ironically, despite having a well-organized and long-running resistance movement, their attack against the aliens fails, while the new recruits in Asia succeeded. The idea was to attack each of the three alien cities - one in China, one on the Rhine River, one in Panama - but the attack on the American city failed.
33	* AnachronismStew: Justified, as humanity is artificially kept in a MedievalStasis, with some relics from the modern world.
34	* {{Ancient Artifact}}s : The "eggs" (grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
35	* AndTheAdventureContinues: The result of the BittersweetEnding.
36	* AnyoneCanDie: Including [[spoiler: Henry. Subverted with Fritz, though.]]
37	* ArcWords: "Hail the Tripod!", in the prequel.
38	* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: In early editions of ''When the Tripods Came'', the phrase "Hail the Tripod!" is translated as "''Heilen dem Dreibeiner!'', which, not conjugated, simply means "To heal the Tripod". Averted in subsequent editions. A bit curious, since "Heil" is a rather famous German word.
39	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In ''The Pool of Fire'', the resistance uses newly-recreated scuba gear to get inside the City, and they are described by Will as "bottles with the part of air that humans actually use isolated inside them". Scuba tanks ''never'' use pure oxygen, as it is harmful to humans under pressure. Depending on the circumstances, a diver might use ordinary compressed air, an air mixture enriched with extra oxygen, or mixtures with oxygen/nitrogen/helium in various proportions.
40	* ArtificialGravity: As the Masters are {{heavyworlder}}s, they use this to increase the gravity in their cities, to the [[WeHaveReserves detriment of their human slaves.]]
41	* AtmosphereAbuse: What the Masters plan to do.
42	* AwesomeButImpractical: Surprisingly, the Tripods themselves in the prequel. While they're almost unstoppable in the main trilogy due to mankind's stunted technology level, the first Tripod that arrived on Earth managed to destroy one tank before being blown to kingdom come by a wing of jet fighters. The reason the Masters had to conquer the Earth by subversion was that, while their war machines are effective at terrorising medieval-level peasants, they were ''no'' match for the war machines of 20th century mankind.
43	* TheBait: In order to capture one of the Masters, the protagonist rides a green-painted (to catch their attention) horse past one of their Tripods, and when it gives chase lures it into a hidden pit.
44	* BenevolentAlienInvasion:
45	** Subverted. It often looks idyllic and it builds up a big shock when we learn that they plan to KillAllHumans.
46	** The aliens ''think'' of themselves this way. They consider turning the humans into uncreative, unambitious cattle to have been helping them by stopping wars, and they think taking humans as slaves (who they beat, abuse, and shorten the lifespans to a few years) and decorations (killing them and preserving the bodies for display) to be an honor... for the ''humans''. [[HappinessInSlavery The Capped agree.]]
47	* BerserkButton:
48	** Never speak or act against the Tripods if someone Capped is around, unless you're well armed.
49	** When Will manages to destroy a Tripod with a grenade in ''The White Mountains'', dozens of Tripods flood the area, so many of them that it is most of a day before they can leave their hiding place for even a couple of minutes to stretch their legs, and a full two days before it is safe to travel again.
50	* BilingualBonus: At least, when not using TranslationConvention.
51	* BittersweetEnding: Of course, the Tripods are defeated, never to return. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: Julius is voted out of power, the Conference of Man fails to achieve a consensus in uniting humanity, and there are rumors of war.]]
52	* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Masters are pretty bad, but the heroes can be downright Machiavellian at times.
53	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Masters unsurprisingly are revealed to have an alien way of thinking about things; some examples:
54	** During his enslavement, Will learns that using human slaves is a thorny political issue among the Masters and that some of them disapprove of the practice. However, this is not because of a moral objection to slavery or any concern for the dignity of the enslaved (the Masters have neither). Instead it's merely an economic concern about over-dependence on cheap alien labor.
55	** The Masters do not understand why humans lie. When a captive Master wishes to withhold information, he simply refuses to answer.
56	** On discovering the humans have won, the Masters destroy their captured cities but take no further revenge on Earth. The concept is apparently unknown to them.
57	* BrattyHalfPint: Will and Henry, in the beginning.
58	* BotheringByTheBook: Will does this with Ulf, with unexpected results.
59	* BrainwashedAndCrazy:
60	** The Capped. Not so much crazy, though, unless you start insulting or acting against the Tripods.
61	** Vagrants are capped people who have gone insane as a result. Although tolerated and given food, they're kept out of villages and can be violent.
62	** In the TV series the boys encounter a woman who traveled widely before being capped, and still has a compulsion to collect items from faraway places. She herself assumes this is just a kind of mental illness that the Cap fortunately restrains.
63	* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Addressed in the story. The Masters on Earth are basically the first wave which will eventually end with terraforming the Earth to the Masters' biology. It's stated that the main ship is currently en-route, and more Masters still live elsewhere in the universe. When the ship finally does show up, it simply nukes the remains of the three cities (presumably to prevent any of the Masters' advanced technology from falling into human hands). It then departs, presumably having decided Earth isn't worth the effort. This is in keeping with the Masters' belief in fate: if they failed to conquer the Earth after a certain amount of effort, they weren't meant to.
64	* {{Callback}}: The scene in ''When The Tripods Came'' with Laurie looking up at the sky and wondering if future humans will look up and dream of peace is a callback to a scene with Will and his friends looking up at the sky during the first book.
65	* CallingTheOldManOut: Laurie does this [[spoiler: over his father's refusal to rescue Andy.]]
66	* CantHoldHisLiquor: [[spoiler:An exaggerated example in the case of the Masters, who are so weak to its effects that even the tiniest trace will knock them out cold for hours.]]
67	* ChekhovsGun: The "eggs" (grenades) in ''The White Mountains'', and the hot-air balloons in ''The Pool of Fire''.
68	* ChekhovsGunman:
69	** Ilse in ''When the Tripods Came''. Her nationality and parentage become very important to the plot.
70	** Ulf. Just when you think you see the last of him in ''The City of Gold and Lead'', he comes back in ''The Pool of Fire'', and sets up a conflict with Will that has unexpected results.
71	* ChildSoldiers: The recruits of LaResistance. This is of necessity, of course. Virtually no un-Capped adults exist outside of the Resistance--and the adult members of the Resistance were undoubtedly once ChildSoldiers themselves.
72	* LesCollaborateurs: The Capped, not that they really have a choice.
73	* CombatTentacles: The Tripod's main weapon.
74	* CompetenceZone: Sort of. Most of the people who get things done are teenagers. At fifteen or sixteen, Beanpole has already become a head scientist, and Fritz soon after becomes a mission commander. Only partially justified by the fact that fourteen is the age of majority.
75	* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily, and the Masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the Masters. In fact, you think, what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.\
76	Also, roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
77	* CrazyPrepared: The resistance. But then, they have to be.
78	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The German tradition of "the Hunt" sees convicted criminals hunted down on horseback by a Tripod. If the Tripod catches them (and it usually does), it ''tears them limb from limb.'' Will loses his lunch the first time he sees it happen.
79	* CurbStompBattle:
80	** The initial encounter between a Tripod and a [[TanksForNothing Challenger tank]] in the prequel results in a [[IncrediblyLamePun crushing]] [[CombatTentacles defeat]].
81	** On the other hand, after the destruction of the tank, the military hits the Tripod with a volley of missiles from a wing of jet fighters and it is easily annihilated. In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' Will's master explains to him that the Masters had a healthy respect for humanity's military, well aware that if they tried to take mankind head-on ''they'd lose.''
82	* CuriosityIsACrapshoot: Beanpole is generally quite level-headed, except when it comes to the technological artifacts they find in the City of the Ancients in ''The White Mountains.'' It gets rather complicated when they find a cache of grenades.
83	* CutShort: As mentioned in the write-up above, the BBC adaptation was cancelled after the second season. This was due to the general hostility to SF/fantasy among the BBC's leadership at the time that also saw the original ''Series/DoctorWho'' gradually smothered and the organisation not making any high-profile SF TV series (apart from the comic ''Series/RedDwarf'') until the mid-2000s.
84	* DaysOfFuturePast: Upon conquering the world, the Tripods reduce humanity to a MedievalStasis.
85	* DeadlyEuphemism: The Place of Happy Release.
86	* DeusExNukina : In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' we are told that a submarine launched an ICBM at one of the Masters' cities long ago.
87	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Will.
88	* DisappearedDad: Andy.
89	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
90	** Will's removal of Eloise's turban is almost treated as some kind of sexual assault.
91	** The depiction of the Trippy Show sounds like the controversy and moral panic surrounding various fads through history.
92	** In addition, in the Prequel, some of the reactions to Cappings, including the school assemblies warning against them, are reminiscent of anti-drug campaigns.
93	** On the way to the games, Will is able to buy a beer, and no one questions his age because of his false Cap... not entirely unlike how his adolescent forefathers might have once obtained booze with a fake ID.
94	** The mix of contempt and patronizing benevolence shown by Will's Master is similar to the attitude of a white European from the [=19th=] Century towards 'lesser' races.
95	* DoomAsTestPrize: The girls who win a beauty prize are taken to the Masters' city where they are killed and preserved under glass like butterflies.
96	* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Subverted, in that it only seems easily thwarted at first.
97	* {{EMP}}: Implied to be used against the resistance aeroplanes attacking the Masters' city in Panama.
98	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Masters, except for Ruki.
99	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
100	** Will is exploring other VichyEarth states besides England. When he arrives in one he comments that English hang murderers because they can't think of what else to do and nobody likes it much. In one German state they have them [[BloodSport hunted by Tripods]]. In other words, English capped may be LesCollaborateurs, but they are not sadistic.
101	** When the Masters in the newly-arrived terraforming ship realize the humans have won, they destroy their former cities and depart. This is likely due to their BlueAndOrangeMorality -- revenge is not important to them.
102	* FantasticRacism: The Masters think of humans as livestock or, at best, as pets. Uncapped humans are, not surprisingly, not exceedingly fond of the Masters.
103	* FasterThanLightTravel: Actually averted. The Master who owns Will tells him that the ship travels ''almost'' as fast as light, and that it will be arriving at Earth soon (i.e. within the next few years).
104	* AFateWorseThanDeath: Will regards being Capped as this.
105	* FeudalFuture: Enforced by the Masters.
106	* FirstNameBasis: Julius and Martin to everyone.
107	* ForegoneConclusion: If you read the original trilogy before the prequel came out, you know the Tripods win.
108	* ForeignRulingClass: Earth is conquered by alien invaders who order all humans to be implanted with HypnoTrinket "caps" that force them to remain loyal.
109	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Henry's concerns toward the end of ''The Pool of Fire'' are awfully prescient, considering the BittersweetEnding. In the prequel, one of the things the first exploring Tripod plucks from the smashed farmhouse to study is a television set.
110	* FunetikAksent: We get "shmand-fair" for ''[[RailroadIndex chemin-de-fer]]''[[note]]A French phrase that literally translates as "iron road", but really means a railroad or railway[[/note]] and (once) "Zhan-Pole" for "Jean-Paul." Somewhat justified, as Will and Henry seem largely unaware of foreign languages.
111	* GermanicEfficiency: The mission-dedicated Fritz.
112	%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
113	* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: No one particularly worries about whether or not the Masters in the cities are civilians. The Masters meanwhile wish to KillAllHumans.
114	* HappinessInSlavery: Thanks to the Caps, at least.
115	* {{Heavyworlder}}: The Masters.
116	* HeyYou: Laurie calls his grandmother and his stepmother by their first names. Andy does so with his mother.
117	* HostileTerraforming: The Masters' plan for Earth.
118	* HumansAreUgly: Surprisingly [[AvertedTrope averted]], albeit to horrifying effect; despite their utterly alien anatomy compared to ours, the Masters have an aesthetic appreciation for the human form [[spoiler:and keep the most beautiful human women preserved on display in their cities like butterflies pinned to a board]].
119	* HumansAreWarriors :
120	** Subverted. The AlienInvasion comes off almost without a hitch. However it is explained that the planners of the invasion had feared that human military technology might make them difficult prey if the invaders were to fight them directly.
121	** Well, humans do all right in the beginning, as the Tripods aren't built to withstand missiles. Then the invaders break out the MassHypnosis...
122	* HumanShield: A variation in the prequel. The military can't take out the second wave of Tripods immediately because Trippies are swarming all around them.
123	** Though the Tripods are eventually [[InferredHolocaust taken out anyway.]]
124	* HumongousMecha: The Tripods. They are twenty meters tall.
125	* HypnoTrinket: The Caps.
126	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Which includes accepting people's hospitality and stealing their children. Many of the parents would of course have been glad that their children were free...if they were in their right mind. But as they were capped it's awfully tough luck on them. Will feels very guilty about this.
127	* IdiotBall:
128	** [[spoiler: The Masters tracking Will in ''The White Mountains''. Planting a tracking device on an un-Capped person, possibly acting suspiciously? Good idea. Using a great big hulking Tripod to check up on him and his friends, so they get suspicious? Not so much.]]
129	** [[spoiler: Will's Master has discovered that Will is uncapped, and on a previous occasion revealed to Will the Masters' AchillesHeel. Caught in the Master's grip, Will says "Master, I can show you. Bring me closer"... and doing so is the last thing the Master ever does.]]
130	* IgnoredExpert: Dr. Monmouth in the prequel -- at least, for the Cordrays.
131	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Will notices that during Ulf's time as the warden of Ruki's prison he frequently coughs into a polka-dotted handkerchief, and notes that he only later realised that the "polka-dots" were bloodstains and that Ulf was a dying man.
132	* IndyPloy: In ''The Pool of Fire'', resistance infiltrators succeed in putting all the Masters in the DomedCity [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink into a coma]], but have to find some way of actually destroying the city before they wake up, with no idea of how to do so.
133	* InsertGrenadeHere: Will is being hauled up into the alien Tripod by its CombatTentacles when he is able to toss an AncientArtifact they found in an abandoned cache through the opening hatch. The damage causes the alien atmosphere to vent into the outside world. In the TV miniseries, the boys find themselves underneath the Tripod which is standing on loose slate. They use the grenade to cause a small avalanche that unbalances it, popping the hatch open so they can throw a second grenade inside.
134	* InstantAllegianceArtifact: The Caps.
135	* JerkAss:
136	** Will can be this way, at times. (Flawed protagonists were something of a Christopher specialty.) So can Henry, in the beginning he's the local bully, but he quickly grows out of it.
137	** Fritz' Master also qualifies, as the alien not only beats him constantly for fun, but deliberately gives him tasks that are beyond his strength.
138	* JumpedAtTheCall: When Ozymandias told Will the larger story, Will didn't need much convincing even before he saw that "Ozy" was not a vagrant but a phony capped normal human. And it helps that Will hated the idea of being capped to begin with.
139	* KickTheDog:
140	** In the prequel, when a Tripod first appears, it abducts a farmer, demolishes said farmer's house with his wife still inside, and, sure enough, picks up their dog and flings it to its death.
141	** While crossing the English Channel a Tripod threatens to swamp their vessel by deliberately steering close to it. In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' it becomes obvious that the aliens are not evil per se; there are simply those who abuse their power and those who don't.
142	* KillAllHumans: What the Tripods ultimately plan for humans, though not out of malice; it's simply collateral damage from their {{terraforming}}.
143	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: What the aliens ultimately do once Earth is freed.
144	* LeaveYourQuestTest:
145	** In ''The White Mountains'', Will faces one of these when he faces the prospect of being welcomed into the Count's family and life with Eloise. [[spoiler:Or so he thinks.]]
146	** Likely the reason for every recruit taking the long hazardous trip to the White Mountains instead of staying to form cells in their own countries. It filters out those who don't have the determination or cunning to be a member of LaResistance.
147	** In ''When the Tripods Came'', Laurie faces one of these when he fears his father has abandoned him.
148	* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: Will comes across the wreck of a giant ship on the beach. Lampshaded by Ozymandias' use of Shelley's poem as a MadnessMantra.
149	* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Fritz' master in ''The City of Gold and Lead'', who clearly beats him for fun. In contrast, Will's is AffablyEvil, giving him a slightly larger living area than most slaves get, and asking Will polite questions about his life.
150	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: After Will kills his Master, he makes it look like the Master died in the bath of a drug overdose. After Will escapes, Fritz tells everyone he found the body and decided to commit suicide at the Place of Happy Release.
151	* MassHypnosis: How the Masters take over the world. Firstly, they use television signals that aren't universally effective. Later, they use mind-controlling Caps on the victims of hypnosis, and (once they get a foothold) everyone else.
152	* TheMaster: The Masters, of course.
153	* MayContainEvil: The Trippy Show.
154	* MedievalStasis: Enforced by the Tripods.
155	* MindControlDevice: The Caps.
156	* MindRape: The reason for Vagrants.
157	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Subverted; Will is adopted by a kindly Master who's built a special room for his slave and gives him time off to explore the city, especially after Will nurses him through an illness. However Will realises that his role is that of a [[HumanPet favorite pet]], and that his Master's attitude towards humanity is at best patronising. When the Master reveals their plan to terraform the Earth killing everyone on it, his view is that some humans should be preserved in zoos, rather than that genocide is wrong.
158	* MirroringFactions: The humans' overconfidence in ''When The Tripods Came'' parallels the Tripods' overconfidence in ''The Pool of Fire''. Both pay dearly for this.
159	* MissingMom: Laurie, and soon, Andy.
160	* NewEraSpeech: The Trippies are fond of these in the prequel. After Switzerland falls, there is an indirect quotation of one, saying that "everlasting peace had come to Switzerland as it had already to the rest of the world".
161	* NonindicativeName: Or nonindicative nickname -- Wild Bill Hockey. "He didn't look wild, and his name wasn't Bill."
162	* NotHimself:
163	** Laurie's first clue that there is something seriously wrong with his Uncle Ian.
164	** Will's Master notices strange things about Will, like him failing to bow after a beating (the first time this had happened, and only because the normally kindly Master was high on drugs). This rouses his curiosity, but the precipitating incident comes when Will's Master goes into Will's room and finds out that [[spoiler:Will was making notes about the Masters and the City in the margins of his books. In the Master's words, "The cap should forbid that absolutely."]]
165	* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: Will becomes the first human to kill a Tripod. [[spoiler:And then the first to kill a Master up close and personal.]] Resistance leader Julius mentions these facts more than once in efforts to bolster morale.
166	* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: [[spoiler:The Conference of Man in the end, foreshadowed by Pierre in the beginning of ''The Pool of Fire''.]]
167	* ObfuscatingInsanity: Ozymandias poses as a Vagrant so he can wander from one village to another as a recruiter.
168	* ObliviouslyEvil: Even Will's "good" Master sees nothing wrong with [[spoiler: preserving human girls as stuffed specimens, or destroying all of Earth's native life except for a few humans who would be kept in the alien equivalent of a zoo.]]
169	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Beanpole, for most of the books. We only see his real name in print when he is introduced (to the reader), or once when Julius refers to him.
170	* OnlyOneName: Julius.
171	* OvernightConquest: Played largely straight, once the MassHypnosis sets in.
172	* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at in the prequel, but most explicitly done in ''The Pool of Fire'', in the Middle East, where Tripod worship has supplanted Islam.
173	* PeopleJars: In the second novel, Will wonders why no women are seen in the Tripod city. [[spoiler: Then his Master takes him to a place where human females are kept preserved like butterflies.]]
174	* PerfectPacifistPeople: What the Capped claim is the Tripods' plan for humanity.
175	* PineappleSurprise: The boys nearly kill themselves when they come across a cache of grenades left over from the invasion, and don't know what they are.
176	* PrequelInTheLostAge: ''When the Tripods Came''.
177	* ProperlyParanoid : Invoked. In ''When the Tripods Came'' the Swiss are shown as having a nationalism that verges on fascism, including a distasteful hatred of outsiders. The father says that under the circumstances that could give them a better chance for surviving free of the Tripods. As it happens they don't and are conquered by the French and German capped. But they do have an offstage DyingMomentOfAwesome at least.
178	* RagnarokProofing: Despite a worldwide civil war and a century of abandonment, a great deal of equipment and knowledge is salvaged from deserted human cities.
179	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Julius. Also, Fritz, briefly.
180	* ReleasedToElsewhere: [[spoiler:Eloise's ultimate fate.]]
181	* LaResistance: The White Mountains group, along with some others.
182	* TheReveal:
183	** [[spoiler: The Masters' plan to destroy life on Earth to make it habitable for their own species.]]
184	** [[spoiler: Also the Masters themselves. After so long of not knowing whether the Tripods were robots or merely vehicles, Will finally gets to ''see'' their operators... and he finds them so disgusting and ridiculous that his first urge is to laugh.]]
185	* RiddleForTheAges: The meaning of the Sphere Chase. Just an alien game, or something else? The description sounds like a weird form of basketball, but when a captive Master is questioned about it, he refuses to say anything about it, suggesting it's important in some way.
186	* {{Ruritania}} : Germany at this time.
187	* RuleOfThree: Anything to do with the Tripods. Three initial landings, three waves of the invasion, three-tentacled robots, three Cities, [[spoiler: aliens with three legs and three tentacles]].
188	* ScaryDogmaticAliens
189	* SchmuckBait: Double-subverted by the "DANGER: 6,600 VOLTS" sign in the beginning of ''The White Mountains.'' The reason for the warning sign had long since become a non-issue, "but the notion of danger, however far away and long ago, was exciting."
190	* SecondHandStorytelling: Infuriatingly done at the beginning of ''The Pool of Fire''. While Will and Fritz are wandering over Europe and the Middle-East starting resistance cells, Beanpole heads an effort to rediscover as much technical knowledge as possible and get it weaponized. At the same time another group sails ACROSS THE FRIGGING ATLANTIC to North America and makes contact with another resistance group!
191	* SheIsTheKing: Straddles the line between Types 2 and 3. In ''When the Tripods Came'', during the stopover in Guernsey, the narrator comments that the islanders hail the Queen as the ''Duke'' of Normandy, which, according to Website/TheOtherWiki, is her correct style despite her gender.
192	* ShoutOut:
193	** The Tripods were a deliberate one to H. G. Wells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898''.
194	** Also, the prequel has a ShoutOut to ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', as well as a very subtle one to ''Series/{{Alf}}''.
195	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Definitely on the cynical side.
196	* SpoiledBrat: Angela in the prequel.
197	* SquareCubeLaw: The Masters are bigger than humans, and come from a higher-gravity planet. One would think that, because of the square-cube law, higher gravity would necessitate them being ''smaller''. However, they do need to consume much more than humans to survive.
198	* StarCrossedLovers: Will and Eloise.
199	* StarfishAliens:
200	** The Masters; three-metre tall conical-beings with three short legs, three tentacles, three eyes, and two mouths. One for eating the other for breathing. [[https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Masters-Tripods-Quadrology-John-Christopher.jpg Here's]] how they're illustrated in ''[[Creator/WayneBarlowe Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials]]''.
201	** The TV series changes them a bit, but they're still non-humanoid. There, they look like three-legged [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ghomas]] with one single eye, and plant-like physiology.
202	* SternTeacher: "Wild Bill" Hockey, in the prequel.
203	* TheStoic: Fritz, the [[NationalStereotypes German]] boy who only laughs once in the the entire series.
204	* SubStory : Alluded to. Some of the last bits of the formal human military forces to be subdued were submarines. These had to be sunk rather then having their crew capped and one almost managed to destroy one of the Masters' cities.
205	* SuicideAttack / TakingYouWithMe: The hot-air balloon bombing assault on the last of the Masters' Cities fails because the bombs either detonate in midair or keep bouncing off the dome. [[spoiler:Henry jumps out of his balloon, lands at the edge of the dome, and holds his bomb against it to make sure the blast will shatter it.]]
206	* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Place of Happy Release.
207	* TakeThat: A reviewer of the original books wondered about the Tripods not having infrared lights for night searching. John Christopher included some lines in the prequel book as a response to that, with the psychiatrist saying that even if not all of their technology is advanced, they might be advanced in studies of the mind.
208	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: The WeaksauceWeakness of the Masters is discovered accidentally when a drunken guard pours his booze into the food being taken to the captive Master. Attempts have been made to discover their vulnerabilities, but the Master has always detected the poison and refused to eat, so Will just takes the food in, expecting the Master will reject it as usual. He falls into a coma instead. However distilling alcohol in the alien environment of a DomedCity presents its own problems.
209	* TeenGenius: Beanpole
210	* TechnoBabble: While working as a spy in ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will tries to encourage his Master to talk about his work, but unfortunately there aren't any human words for the technical terms the Master is using.
211	-->"A few days ago he was saying that he was feeling unhappy because during the zootleboot a tsutsutsu went into spiwis, and therefore it was not possible to izdool the shuchutu. At least, it sounded something like that. I saw no point in even trying to understand what it meant."
212	* TerraDeforming: The Masters' Plan for Earth.
213	* TitleDrop: All three books of the trilogy.
214	* TrackingDevice: The Tripods implant one in Will's skin, then hypnotize him to forget about it. Fortunately the others discover it in time, but its removal causes the Tripod to come down upon them.
215	* TrilogyCreep: First, it was a trilogy, then the author added a prequel.
216	* TripodTerror: Of course. Probably the second-most iconic example in fiction after ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898''.
217	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The setting of the prequel. Given that it was written in TheEighties, some amount of {{Zeerust}}, particularly because of FailedFutureForecast.
218	* UnFavorite: Laurie in ''When The Tripods Came''.
219	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: To the Capped (and Will's Master) the Tripods are benevolent rulers who stopped humanity from fighting wars.
220	* VichyEarth: In the aftermath of the invasion, the world is divided into feudal states, ultimately controlled by the Tripods.
221	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Thanks to AliensStealCable, the Tripods.
222	* VillainousValour: In the backstory the Masters voyaged far away from their homeworld and then decided to top that by conquering, well, [[HumansAreWarriors us]].
223	* WaxMuseumMorgue: In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will's Master takes him to this place, [[spoiler: where he finds Eloise]].
224	* WeaksauceWeakness: Even tiny quantities of alcohol render the Masters completely unconscious for hours and they are unable to detect it. However, actually getting the alcohol into the masters water supply proves exceptionally difficult.
225	* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: At least, in the Masters' cities.
226	* WhamLine:
227	** In ''When the Tripods Came'', the growing cult of humans who have been hypnotized into worshipping the Tripods (the "Trippies") is progressively getting worse, and they've started using the (early, removable) Brain Cap which allows them to be controlled all the time. The main character looks at three military jets flying through the sky, and spends a long moment calming himself by pointing out that the authorities still have the might of our entire military and civil infrastructure against what are basically hypnotized rioters...then two of the military jets shoot down the other one. Although he never knew which side each plane was on, this is the terrifying moment when the protagonist realizes that the Capped humans have taken over at least part of our frontline military units, and we are truly no longer in control.
228	** In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' when Will discovers that the Masters will start their terraforming project ''in just four years'' when LaResistance assume that entire generations will pass before they're in a position to overthrow the Masters.
229	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite Jack's capping being the catalyst of Will's journey, he isn't mentioned at all in ''The Pool of Fire'' when Will discusses his trip to visit his parents.
230	* WhatTheHellHero: Laurie gives one of these to his father when [[spoiler: Andy is captured]].
231	* WickedCultured: The Masters appreciate beauty. So they have the Capped humans hold beauty contests for young girls. They take the "winners" and kill them, perfectly preserving their bodies forever, like butterflies under museum glass. They honestly don't have any moral problem with this, any more than a butterfly collector who doesn't realize he's killing what he claims to appreciate. In fairness, butterflies are already at the end of their lifecycle. In the adult stage of their life cycle, butterflies only live a couple of weeks at most. Of course, to the Masters, [[WeAreAsMayflies We Are As Butterflies]].
232	* WonTheWarLostThePeace: [[spoiler:The end result of the liberation of Earth; humanity rearms and returns to his divisive ways. The book ends with the protagonists teaming up again to work for peace.]]
233	* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The manner of speech affected by Ozymandias, as part of his disguise. Justified in that he is ''pretending'' to be brain damaged.
234	* YouCantFightFate: The Masters believe this. [[spoiler:It is implied (or hoped, by the human characters) to be the reason they lost interest in Earth after their cities were destroyed.]]
235	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When the slaves in the Cities can no longer work, they go to the Place of [[SuicideIsPainless Happy Release]].
236	* YoungerThanTheyLook: A chilling example in ''The City of Gold And Lead''. Will mistakes the first slave he meets in the City for a decrepit old man, but soon learns that the slave is a teenage game champion like himself, ground down to his current state after only a couple of years' toil for the Masters!
237
238	!Tropes in the TV series also feature:
239	* AdaptationalExpansion:
240	** In order to create dramatic tension and a sense of hot pursuit, the Black Guards were created for the show. They were essentially a Gestapo for the Masters. These were capped humans who could go where Tripods could not. Actually, the Tripods could go almost anywhere but they would be expensive to continuously use in a TV series. Also, using the Tripods sparingly would make them more dramatic when they did appear. The Black Guards also served as a more visible antagonist in the Masters' city.
241	** The Power Elite was also created to give Fritz a subplot of his own [[spoiler: Fritz could act as a "inside man" for the free men. This is also where he meets Pierre, who is secretly one of Julius' men on the inside.]].
242	** The military tripods are a very good idea as the majority of tripods seen were unarmed. Until the prequel book anyway, the question was raised quite often as to how the tripods (all unarmed in the book) were able to take over a modern day Earth with all of its weapons and especially it's air forces.
243	** The stay with the family at the vineyard (also not in the book) was an opportunity to give Henry and Beanpole their own temporary romantic interests. This served to put them in Will's shoes as they both were hard on him for almost wanting to stay behind at the Count's chateau because he fell in love with Eolise. All of them now having given up what might have been easier lives with loving generous people, they are now on even ground. And it makes them more determined to continue their quest.
244	** The Cognoscs are a non corporeal [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens higher order of beings]] to whom the Masters are subservient. One of them takes an interest in Will [[spoiler: and learns everything about their plans to fight the Masters. Fortunately, this Congnosc is sympathetic and dislikes the Masters. It's only response is to wish Will luck and AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]].
245	* AffablyEvil:
246	** The Black Guards are, for the most part, quite polite and even understanding and supportive, all the while in no way deviating from their duties. Averted with a few individual Black Guards, particularly in Germany and in the Masters' city, who are outright nasty and sadistic by comparison, as well as by the Black Guards near the White Mountains[[spoiler:, though the latter turn out to be resistance members wearing false caps who are trying to suss out infiltrators who have been hypnotised by the Masters and would thus be obedient even while not wearing caps]].
247	** Al Pasha, who runs a traveling circus of children -- either the offspring of vagrants or children who've run away to avoid capping. Those who don't have the talent to perform he hands over to the Black Guards for money. Will and Beanpole avoid this fate by promising him they know the location of buried treasure (the remains of a gold and silver chess set Beanpole has found). Because he can't take the other children with them into the White Mountains, Pasha arranges for the Black Guards and a Tripod to turn up so they can be capped, with the Guards taking the pick of the bunch.
248	* AnachronismStew: Once they cross the English Channel the boys encounter steam-driven trains and barges. The Masters are using a human-built nuclear reactor to power their city.
249	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Black Guards. In the Master's city, the captain of the Black Guards is even named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bormann Borman]].
250	* CliffHanger: Season One -- the boys are told they'll be sent as spies into the Master's city. Season Two -- Will and Beanpole return from their successful mission [[spoiler: to find the Freeman base has been destroyed by the Tripods]].
251	* CutShort: Season Three was never made, so the series ends on the above CliffHanger.
252	* EnergyBeings: The Cognosc.
253	* EnergyWeapon: Not in the novels, but in the TV series after the boys destroy the Tripod with a grenade, red-painted military Tripods are sent out to find them, and shoot up the countryside in an effort to flush them out. This happens again at the end of Season 2, after our heroes and the circus children flee into the woods to escape capping. Which leads to a FridgeLogic moment; if Season 3 had been made, [[spoiler: what was to stop the Tripods from simply shooting down the balloons?]]
254	* FalseFlagOperation: The boys reach the White Mountains, escaping a Tripod hunter-killer team, only to be captured by Black Guards. They're [[PerpSweating held without food for days and interrogated]] on their journey before they eventually crack and admit why they've come. [[spoiler: Turns out it's just a test by the Resistance to stop {{Fake Defector}}s sent to infiltrate them.]]
255	* FoodSlap: The wife of the bargemaster is ill, possibly from ThePlague. Will tries to take her a mug of water but Fritz blocks his way, so Will tosses the water in his face.
256	* FutureImperfect: Julius incorrectly believes that the Tripods are an artificial intelligence that TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.
257	* GratuitousDiscoSequence: Given the MedievalStasis setting, something of an AnachronismStew moment occurs when Fritz walks into the Pink Parrot, and finds a [[{{Disco}} light ball shining multi-coloured beams]] over dancing men and women.
258	* GiantFootOfStomping: Fortunately our heroes are in a cleft of rocks [[ByWallThatIsHoley that protects them from being squashed]]. In the first episode of Season Two however, a freeman gets killed this way when he runs near the Tripod to divert its attention from his friends.
259	* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy:
260	** Will and Henry sneak out of a French prison past a guard [[BehindTheBlack who at one point is standing in a position that meant he'd be looking into the (now empty) cell they've just escaped from]].
261	** While searching Fritz's room, the Guards somehow miss William who's hiding in the shower stall.
262	** In general, Will and the other spies and freemen are often horrible at blending in and carefully aping the behaver of the capped population to avoid suspicion - even in the Masters city. ''Especially'' in the Masters city. Even when literally talking ''right in front of a guard that they are drawing suspicion from said guard for how unusual they are acting!''
263	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Fritz finds one of Julius' spies working in the nuclear reactor. He says he's got a heart condition brought on by the high gravity and the stress of working alone as a spy for years, but is given a new lease of life by meeting another freeman. Just when he's about to reveal the plans he's worked out for escape and sabotage, he realises he's late for his shift and collapses from a fatal heart attack. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Fritz has not only been established to suffer from a heart condition but has also been showing symptoms like shortness of breath beforehand; the shock of him realising his dereliction of his duties could give him away as being an impostor was just the final straw after he had already been overtaxing his strength by taking Fritz on a lengthy tour of the city's facilities.
264	* HumanPopsicle: Eloise isn't quite dead in this version, but frozen and preserved with other specimens of beauty or scientific interest to be taken to the Master's planet. Will is no less disturbed on seeing this.
265	* IfICantHaveYou: When Eloise starts falling for Will, the man she was supposed to marry arranges for the Tripods to take her.
266	* InstantExpert: While riding on a barge Beanpole quickly works out the steam engine, and how to make a poultice for the bargemaster's sick wife.
267	* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: Will's Master claims that this is why they had to conquer the Earth, though as moments before he said that humanity was on the verge of developing the technology to expand across the galaxy, it's possible they were actually seeking to destroy a potential rival.
268	* NonIndicativeName: The Power Elite in the Masters' city. They had no power or authority over others. They were mere technicians, more educated slaves that ran and maintained the nuclear power plant that powered the city. They did have more comfortable lifestyles however, and were despised by Borman and the other Black Guard due to the fact that they could not be bullied by him in the same way as the general slaves.
269	* KnifeThrowingAct: In the final episode, the protagonists are hiding in a traveling circus. The ringmaster, Evil Foreigner Al Pasha, forces two of the children to train for this act, so Will offers to take the girl's place, but only when the thrower is good enough to hit the KnifeOutline a hundred times in a row. To Will's apprehension the knife thrower is able to reach this target before they arrive for a big show in Geneva, and so [[IncrediblyLamePun Will has to do some]] WilliamTelling as the final act involves him with an apple on his head.
270	* {{Montage}}: As our heroes are on the barge to the games, Will is hitting a punching bag, Beanpole is working on the steam engine, and Fritz is doing exercises.
271	* OrphanedSeries: The tv series was cancelled after two seasons, despite a third being on the cards, thus ending it on a really depressing cliffhanger.
272	* RailingKill: Will and Fritz kill three Black Guards during their escape from the Master's city this way.
273	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: While watching the river to see if his friends escape the alien city, Beanpole plays chess with a gold and silver chess set he's found in an abandoned building.
274	* WhiteVoidRoom: Where Will meets Coggie.
275	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Coggie resents its immortality, so much so it's willing to turn a blind eye to Will being a member of LaResistance.
276	* WilliamTelling: Involving Will with a knife thrown at his head, and having to duck just in time so the knife splits the apple into two halves, that Will catches in each hand.

Context Literature / TheTripods