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1[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scollins-210-exp-Warmbloods.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:210:[[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids Yeah, it's a children's book]]. And yes, the lizard is a good guy.]]
3
4->''Aurora the Flier, I bond to you/Our life and death are one, we two/Through dark, through flame, through war, though strife/I save you as I save my life.''
5-->--'''The bonding ceremony between flier and human'''
6
7''The Underland Chronicles'', abbreviated fondly as TUC, was written by author Creator/SuzanneCollins as her debut series of novels. The books consist of:
8
9* ''Gregor the Overlander''
10* ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane''
11* ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods''
12* ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret''
13* ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''
14
15When a kid named [[KidHero Gregor]] follows his little sister, Boots, through [[DownTheRabbitHole a grate in the laundry room]] of their New York apartment building, he hurtles into the dark [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer Underland beneath the city]]. There, humans live uneasily besides [[NightmareFuel gi]][[AnimalsNotToScale ant]] [[GiantSpider spiders]], [[GentleGiant bats]], [[DumbIsGood cockroaches]], and [[RodentsOfUnusualSize rats]]--but the fragile peace is about to fall apart. Of course, Gregor [[LittleHeroBigWar wants no part of a conflict]] between these creepy creatures. But when he discovers that a [[BecauseDestinySaysSo strange prophecy]] [[ChosenOne foretells a role for him]] in the Underland's uncertain future, he knows there's no other choice. Little does he know his [[TheQuest quest]] will change him forever.
16
17Though it sounds like [[AirportFantasy your run-of-the-mill fiction]], the books are surprisingly good and feature great characters. And, yes, [[TalkingAnimal the animals talk]]. Big time.
18
19The series has a small but devoted fanbase, which has become slightly larger following the success of her other series, ''Literature/TheHungerGames''.
20----
21!!This series includes examples of:
22
23%%* ABoyAndHisX:
24%%** Henry is bonded with the bat Ares.
25%%** Luxa and her bond bat, Aurora.
26%%** At the end of ''Gregor the Overlander'', Gregor bonds with the bat [[spoiler:Ares]].
27%%
28%% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them.
29%%
30* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: Solovet]] due to her WellIntentionedExtremist tendencies was this to [[spoiler: Hamnet]]. In fact, what she did to him made him leave Regalia for the more dangerous jungles, and he doesn't regret leaving for a minute.
31* ActionGirl:
32** Queen Luxa. Pretty much a requirement, with the humans nearly always at war with the rats.
33** Solovet.
34** Okay, pretty much all female characters save [[WaifProphet Nerissa]], [[CheerfulChild Boots]], and Lizzie.
35* AdultsAreUseless:
36** Gregor, Boots, and Lizzie's parents are not completely useless, and never by choice, but they are rarely able to help Gregor with his unique problems. Averted in ''Gregor the Overlander'' when his dad manages to steer them back to Regalia.
37** Averted with Vikus, though he usually plays more of a supporting role. [[spoiler: Played straight with his son Hamnet, whom Solovet through ColdBloodedTorture convinced him to fight]].
38* AerithAndBob: The humans have both typical English names--Henry, Howard, York, Susanna, Judith--and more fantastic names like Solovet, Nerissa, Vikus and Mareth. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Gregor is introduced to Henry--he almost laughs that "among all these strange names, there's a Henry".
39* AmbiguouslyBrown While never directly said, and on first read through it can be totally overlooked, as Gregor's darker skin seeming to be in comparison to the Underlander's. Later in the series, as more becomes known about his family, there are potential hints to them being of Hispanic origin.
40* AnimalsNotToScale: All of the Underland animals are much, much larger than their Overland cousins.
41* AnyoneCanDie: Even characters that have been part of the story for multiple books, like [[spoiler: Solovet]].
42* AppliedPhlebotinum So... many... prophecies. Not to mention [[spoiler:the plot-helping mutations]].
43* ArcWords: Certain phrases from the various Prophecies get repeated over and over again in the story before it's revealed what they mean:
44** "Two Over, two Under, of royal descent, two Crawlers, two Fliers, two Spinners assent. One Gnawer beside, one lost up ahead, and eight will be left when we count up the dead" from the Prophecy Of Grey in ''Gregor the Overlander''.
45** "Die the Baby, die his heart, die his most essential part" from the Prophecy Of Bane in ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane''.
46** "Turn and turn and turn again, you see the what but not the when", "Remedy and wrong entwine and so they form a single vine", and "If the flames of war are fanned, all Warmbloods lose the Underland" from the Prophecy Of Blood in '' Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods''.
47** "[[spoiler:Father, mother, sister, brother, off they go, I do not know if I'll see another]]" from the [[spoiler:Prophecy Of Secrets]] in ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret''.
48** "What she saw, it is the flaw, in the Code Of Claw" and "When the Monster's blood is spilled, when [[spoiler:the Warrior has been killed]]" from the Prophecy Of Time in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''.
49* BadassNormal: Almost everyone who isn't a rager or a seer.
50* BadassPacifist:
51** Nerissa has her moments, especially [[spoiler: as Queen of Regalia (temporarily)]].
52** Hamnet, one of Vikus and Solovet's children.
53* BeneathTheEarth: The series is all about this trope. More than 90 percent of the books take place in an underground world beneath New York called the Underland.
54* TheBerserker:
55** In ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', Gregor learns that he's a [[spoiler:"rager": a person with instinctive highly-developed warrior skills, a natural-born killer. He has a natural capacity to go into this state when his life is in danger. It's not always voluntary, which is ''really'' bad for a character who hates to kill]].
56** [[spoiler:Ripred is also a rager.]]
57* BigApplesauce: The Underland is located directly underneath New York. Of course.
58%%* BigBad: Pearlpelt, or [[spoiler:the Bane. Literally]].
59* BigCreepyCrawlies: The Underland has {{Giant Spider}}s, cockroaches, ants, scorpions, fireflies, and probably other species we don't see.
60* BittersweetEnding: Every single book except the first, verging on DownerEnding by the fifth one. In the latter, [[spoiler: half the cast has died]] Gregor's father plans to move the family to their farm in Virginia, away from the vent, which means Luxa and Gregor may never see each other again, but [[spoiler: Gregor manages to broker peace between the rats and humans, and he no longer has prophecies to fulfill]].
61* BlackAndGrayMorality: verging on GreyAndGrayMorality before [[spoiler:[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the systematic extermination of the nibblers]]. Even afterward, individual rats on the Bane's side are portrayed in a sympathetic light]].
62* BlessedWithSuck: Everyone in this series has some sort of tragic past.
63** More specifically, Twitchtip the "scent seer", whose sense of smell is so accurate that she can smell secrets--not a fast track to the popular crowd.
64** Also Nerissa. Funny how a society built on one man's prophecies treats their own personal prophetess so poorly.
65** Turns out being the Warrior of the prophecy isn't much fun for Gregor. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Gregor is warned that with his rager abilities it will be much easier for him to kill people, so he'll always have to keep an eye on himself]].
66** Hamnet is a skilled warrior and tactician. He also takes after his father in wanting to be a pacifist and better resolutions to conflict. [[spoiler: Solovet doesn't take this well.]]
67* BondCreatures: The Underlander humans (and Gregor) and the bats are the only species with this. [[spoiler:Until ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'']].
68* BrokenPedestal: Gregor loses what little respect he had left for Bartholomew of Sandwich after learning he [[spoiler:poisoned the Diggers' water supply to steal their land]]. At the end of the book he [[spoiler:[[WreckedWeapon breaks Sandwich's sword]] to symbolically "kill the Warrior"]].
69* BurialAtSea: The Regalians send their dead on small rafts out into the Waterway. Justified since cremation would create smoke with nowhere to go, while there's limited land with actual soil rather than rocks, which they need for agriculture.
70* CallARabbitASmeerp: The assorted oversized creatures of the overworld are given simpler names, allegedly by the people who live there. (Rats are known as "gnawers", spiders as "spinners", and so on.) This is what the creatures of the Underworld actually call themselves in their own language, just translated into the nearest thing in English. Humans have one of these names too among the Underworld creatures[[note]][[HumansAreTheRealMonsters "killer"]][[/note]], [[FantasticRacism but they don't like to hear it]].
71* CallingTheOldManOut: Hamnet does this to Vikus quietly, saying that what he can do in Regalia that he can't do in the jungle is "cause no harm". This causes Vikus to fly off rather quickly with Solovet.
72* CharacterDevelopment: Oodles of this. It's quite refreshing, actually. Gregor goes out of his way to point this out in Luxa when she goes to Temp for advice in later books.
73* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: The series starts off with ''Gregor the Overlander'', then continues to ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', then ''Curse of the Warmbloods'', and so on.
74* ChekhovsHobby: Lizzie's love of puzzles, which is brought up first in ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', and comes in handy for [[spoiler:cracking the titular code in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'']].
75* ChildProdigy: Lizzie, who helps [[spoiler:crack secret codes]] at ''eight'', and Jedidiah, who is the same age and can tell you how all kinds of things work. Hazard is about the same age and can speak several non-human languages fluently.
76* ChildrenAreInnocent: The reason [[spoiler: Gregor doesn't kill the Bane]] in the second book. Also played straight with Hazard and Boots.
77* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: Solovet locked Hamnet]] in a prison cell with no human contact and minimal food for months [[GoMadFromTheIsolation until he broke]] and carried out a battle plan [[spoiler: that wiped out countless rats, bats and humans]]. She ignores this when [[IDidWhatIHadToDo criticizing Hamnet]] [[NeverMyFault ten years later]] because he wants nothing to do with her, and everyone in Regalia thought he was dead.
78* CoveredWithScars:
79** Ripred.
80** By the end Gregor's racked up an impressive total. He gets an ointment to help with the ones on his arms and legs from the Vineyard after ''Curse of the Warmbloods'', but often forgets to use it. After [[spoiler:his fight with the [[BigBad Bane]]]], he basically gives up the idea of even coming up with an excuse for them.
81* CreateYourOwnVillain: Averted; although Gregor [[spoiler: spared the Bane, who was a baby]] it was more a case of YouCantFightFate.
82* CypherLanguage: A major plot point in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''.
83* DeathIsSuchAnOddThing:
84** The ending leaves Gregor in a state of emotional distress about many characters, many of whom were absolute {{jerkass}}es toward him. Particularly in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'', when faced with [[spoiler:the Prophecy of Time that foretells his own death]].
85** On a smaller scale, the TrueCompanions have a very confused, not-quite-stunned reaction to the death of [[spoiler:Tick]] in ''Gregor the Overlander''.
86* DeathWorld: The Underland jungle. Scratch that, the entire Underland may count. Besides that, the humans have to deal with intelligent races of RodentsOfUnusualSize and BigCreepyCrawlies. This isn't to mention the earthquakes, volcanoes, eyeless plesiosaurs, giant squid, and the occasional plague outbreak. Good thing the humans have the [[GiantFlyer bats]] on their side--otherwise they probably would have been goners long ago.
87* DevastatingRemark: 7-year-old Hazard says, when he hears about the death of his paternal grandmother, that he doesn't know how to feel because she rarely spoke to him, likely because she and his father (who had been killed in battle less than a year earlier) hated each other. This statement was the proximate cause of her husband, Hazard's grandfather, having a stroke.
88* TheDiaperChange: The changing of Boots's "catchcloths" was frequent subject matter.
89* DieLaughing: A certain type of carnivorous plant in the Vineyard of Eyes emits a [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin euphoric gas]] that makes you laugh at ''everything'', rendering you helpless to the attacking vines.
90* DisappearedDad: The father of the titular character in ''Gregor the Overlander'' vanished when he was eight. [[spoiler:They find him in the first book, though]].
91* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Subverted. Fairly early in ''Gregor the Overlander'', Luxa slaps Gregor across the face and is immediately reproved--first by [[CheerfulChild Boots]], then by [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Vikus]].
92* TheDragAlong: Temp and Boots. Averted in ''Gregor and The Curse of The Warmbloods''. Temp [[spoiler:kept on warning them, first suggested the idea that the cradle/cure might not be where they thought it was, and Boots did her dance]].
93** {{Lampshaded}} by Ripred in the same book:
94--->'''Ripred:''' And if Temp is right, it would explain one thing...The point of having a [[CallARabbitASmeerp crawler]] on this whole hellish trip! Honestly, how has he added to anything of significance? No offense, Temp, you've been a real champ about babysitting, but what have you contributed? Nothing! Maybe this is it! Your big moment!
95* DuctTapeForEverything: One of the most useful materials around. Gregor always takes some on his quests.
96* DudeWheresMyRespect: The Underlanders will spend centuries meditating on the possible meanings of Sandwich's prophecies, but they won't give a second thought to whatever [[WaifProphet Nerissa]] says. Sure, Nerissa is [[TheOphelia not all there]], but her visions ''are'' accurate[[note]]The problem is she doesn't know the time her visions take place. They could be ten years into the future or five years before she was born for all she knows[[/note]]. Gregor at least gives her the respect she deserves.
97* DysfunctionJunction: Where to begin? Start with [[PromotionToParent Gre]][[TheChosenOne gor]], whose [[DisappearedDad father]] mysteriously vanished when he was eight and who gets dragged into a war at the age of eleven for no reason other than BecauseDestinySaysSo, then add in [[RebelliousPrincess Luxa]], who [[BrokenBird broke]] when both her parents were killed and suffered even more when [[spoiler:her cousin and close friend Henry betrayed her]] in the first book. Gregor's best friend is [[LonersAreFreaks Ares]], who is unfairly stigmatized from [[spoiler:Henry's betrayal, which left him in the unpleasant position of [[ToBeLawfulOrGood choosing to save his bond or Gregor]]]]. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Ripred]] is a DeadpanSnarker FairWeatherMentor at the best of times, something of an outcast [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch among his own kind]], whose [[spoiler:wife and children died years ago]]. Even {{Nice Guy}}s [[TheMedic Howard]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Vikus]] have to deal with ever-increasing amounts of horribleness as the series goes on. The most normal person out of all of them is [[CheerfulChild Boots]], who is ''three'', and even ''she'' is forced to deal with some of the realities of death and war [[ChildrenAreInnocent more than her family would like]]. Most of the time it's not anybody's ''fault'', exactly, it's just the natural result of living in a CrapsackWorld where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou.
98* EveryoneCanSeeIt: [[spoiler: By the final book, Ripred can tell that Gregor is in love with Luxa. It's also implied that Ripred figured it out with his sense of smell, as rats have the ability to smell fear already.]]
99* EyeScream: Happens to a rat in ''Gregor and The Prophecy of Bane''.
100* FailureKnight: Poor Hamnet. [[spoiler:He shouldn't have listened to his mother and let the flood gates open so that everyone would drown]]. Later we discover that [[spoiler:Ripred is this for his dead mate and pups]].
101* FallingIntoThePlot: The first book begins with Gregor and Boots falling down a (seemingly) BottomlessPit under their apartment building's laundry room.
102* FantasticRacism:
103** Even though the crawlers/cockroaches, gnawers/rats, spinners/spiders, fliers/bats, etc. that coexist with humans in the Underland are not human, they are sapient and treated as full characters on the same level as humans. Prejudices held among human characters towards these species are even treated as equal to any intrahuman bigotry.
104** The bats, humans, and mice are allies with each other and hate the rats, who hate just about everyone, but especially the humans and mice. Most of the insects, especially the ants, hate all the mammals, although the fireflies will work for anyone who feeds them, and the cockroaches are considered stupid by just about everyone.
105** Luxa getting over her tendency to hate all rats and look down on/dismiss other species is part of her CharacterDevelopment.
106** Vikus is one of the few Underland humans who doesn't have it.
107** Like Luxa, Henry mocks the cockroaches. [[spoiler:He even attempts to kill Ripred]].
108* FinalBattle: [[spoiler:Almost all of Underland's species come together against the Bane's army on the Plains of Tartarus]].
109* FirstNameBasis: Gregor, Boots, and Lizzie's last name is never mentioned. Their mother's first name is Grace.
110* FoodPorn: ''The Underland Chronicles'' contain descriptions of lavish meals, making for interesting {{Mood Whiplash}}es when contrasted with some of the other things described in them.
111* FriendToAllLivingThings:
112** Boots. Even (especially) the creepy-crawly ones. Kind of her "[[HeartIsAnAwesomePower superpower]]". She speaks fluent (as fluent as a three-year-old can get, anyway) Crawler by the end of the series.
113** Vikus is one of a very few Underland humans who would willingly work with a rat.
114* FromBadToWorse: The entire series can be summed up like this.
115* GardenOfEvil: The Vineyard Of Eyes in ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods''.
116* GoodIsNotNice: Especially characters who [[LadyOfWar may]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold not]] [[GreyAndGreyMorality quite]] qualify as "good".
117* GoodWithNumbers: The mice, judging by their ThemeNaming, and [[ChekhovsGunman Lizzie]] in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''.
118* GreyAndGrayMorality: The human/rat war is FULL of this.
119* GutFeeling: Happens a lot.
120* HappilyMarried: Vikus and Solovet. [[spoiler:Though it's ''strongly'' implied that her participation in the creation of [[SyntheticPlague the plague]] made things rocky between them]].
121* HeroicBSOD: More than once.
122** Gregor suffers from one in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'' when [[spoiler:the realization that [[YourDaysAreNumbered if the prophecy is true, he's going to die]] hits]].
123** Luxa [[spoiler:becomes essentially catatonic when her cousin betrays her]].
124** Howard [[spoiler:after Pandora dies]].
125** Vikus [[spoiler:suffers a stroke after his wife dies]].
126* HeroicSacrifice: Used in almost every book--and not just from Gregor. Everyone wants to die for their loved ones. Sometimes this [[SenselessSacrifice doesn't help all that much]].
127** In ''The Code of Claw'', Cartesian the nibbler dies protecting his sister's babies from the rats when they break into the palace.
128* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler:Solovet ordered the creation of the plague in the third book.]] In ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret'', we learn that all the other races call humans "killers", and we learn in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'' that this is not without reason: [[spoiler:one of their first acts in the Underland was poisoning the water supply of the Diggers to take their land]].
129* ICanStillFight: ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'' has everyone doing this.
130* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: Some of the carnivorous plants in the Jungle subdue you by getting you high.
131* IFellForHours: In the first book, Gregor feels like he and Boots fall for hours down the laundry shaft. This is actually a good thing, since it means the air currents slowed their descent enough that they didn't have a [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou crash landing]]. In later books they skip the air currents and just ride [[GiantFlier bats]].
132* InelegantBlubbering: Luxa shortly breaks down into this towards the end of [[spoiler:''The Marks of Secret'' after witnessing a big pack of mice -- several of her friends included -- perish due to toxic gas emitted by a volcano.]]
133* InsistentTerminology: "Fo-Fo? Fo-Fo? I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and will answer to no other name!"
134* IronicNurseryTune: ''Gregor and the Mark of Secret'' features a nursery rhyme that turns out to be [[spoiler:a ''prophecy'' detailing the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Holocaust-esque genocide]] of a group of innocent mice]].
135** Also, the nursery rhyme features the line "Some will slice and some will pour". This sounds like an innocent tea party, but turns out to be [[spoiler:a description of the medieval-style warfare used in the Underland. "Slicing" refers to the use of swords and "pouring" refers to the pouring of boiling oil over the walls of a fortress or castle to stop a siege]].
136** Given [[spoiler:the "revelation" that Sandwich's prophecies are either nonsense or so vague as to be practically so]], this seems a lot less significant.
137* JustFollowingOrders: In ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'', [[spoiler:Doctor Neveeve]] says this line while being arrested. Somewhat justified, since Gregor ends up [[spoiler: locked up in a prison cell where no one knows where he is]] after [[spoiler: defying Solovet's orderes to save Luxa]].
138* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Solovet]], a WellIntentionedExtremist who resorts to violent means [[spoiler: and who will torture her son to get a result]], dies as a result of a SadisticChoice that invokes TheNeedsOfTheMany.
139* KarmaHoudini: To an extent [[spoiler: Solovet for ordering the plague.]] As Gregor notes, [[spoiler: Doctor Naveeve was executed for her part although she was JustFollowingOrders, while Solovet would have wiped out the rats and let Regalia suffer for months, doing nothing]].
140* ManEatingPlant: And giant-rat-eating. Gregor and co. face carnivorous plants that look like "giant yellow smiles" in the jungle.
141* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
142** [[spoiler:Ripred points out that Sandwich's prophecies may well just be coincidence or [[SelfFulfillingProphecy self-fulfilling]], and he doesn't believe in them. They seem to be pretty accurate, but only after a book of trying to decipher them, and you can see how they could be reinterpreted to fit other explanations/events]].
143** Mrs. Cormaci, who tends to send just the right objects at just the right times and gives tarot readings. Gregor at one point wonders if she can see what he needs in her tarot cards, and, given that psychics and {{seers}} exist in this series, he could be right.
144* MetaphoricallyTrue: Invoked by Gregor at the end of ''The Code of Claw''. He [[spoiler:breaks his sword and refuses to fight in another war to fulfill the prophecy that the warrior would be killed]]. Ripred seems to take this as more evidence that the prophecies [[spoiler:are mundane after all, since the Prophecy of Time was only fulfilled by stretching the interpretation]].
145* MilitaryMaverick:
146** Luxa shows shades of it in ''The Prophecy of Bane'', when she secretly left Regalia to join the party in searching for the subject of the prophecy.
147** In ''The Marks of Secret'' Luxa cements this, by [[spoiler: declaring the war at rats by herself, without the Council of Regalia approval. When called out on this, she points out that the rats are likely to exterminate all the mice while the Council is bickering about the topic, and they won't stop to listen to others' accusations anyway.]]
148* MissingMom: [[spoiler:When Gregor's mom gets the plague]] in ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'', [[spoiler:she spends most of the rest of the series recuperating in the Underland, since it's an Underland plague and Overland doctors would have no idea how to treat it]].
149* MoreThanMeetsTheEye: Everyone seems to have HiddenDepths in this series.
150* MortonsFork: [[spoiler:Ares]] ends up in a textbook example at the end of the first book. [[spoiler:His human bond Henry turns out to be a traitor allied with the rats and falls off a cliff attempting to kill Gregor. If Ares lets him fall, he is guilty of betraying his bond and faces banishment as punishment. If he catches him, he is guilty of high treason and faces banishment as punishment. He chooses to let him fall, and is nearly banished until Gregor bonds with him and saves him.]]
151* MultinationalTeam: In the last book, the Regalians assemble a team of the smartest members of each race (spiders, cockroaches, bats, mice, rats, and humans) to break the Code of Claw. This was apparently planned long ago, as a separate living space for each one was built into the castle, of appropriate size.
152* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
153** Ripred, the Bane ([[spoiler:whose real name is Pearlpelt]]), Twirltongue, Lapblood, Mange, Razor... the rats have some scary names.
154** A [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace place version]]: The Arch of Tantalus and the Plains of Tartarus are both named after places in the Greek Underworld (and not the nicer parts either).
155* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Everyone dies unexpectedly.
156* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Multiple times, perhaps most pointedly when [[spoiler: Gregor's refusal to kill a baby Bane ultimately results in the war between humans and rats]].
157* NoodleIncident: A conversation between Vikus and Ripred in ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'' gives us this little gem:
158-->'''Ripred:''' Well, you have to at least credit her [Nerissa] with a certain instability. Remember when she told you I was plotting to take over the Fount with an army of lobsters?\
159'''Vikus:''' You did try and take over the Fount with an army of lobsters.
160* TheNoseKnows:
161** The rats demonstrate this quality in their first appearance by accurately calculating what Gregor and Boots ate for dinner hours earlier, right down to the tiny bowl of greens. They also are shown to be able to estimate human emotions and navigate and fight in complete darkness.
162** In ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', we meet Twitchtip, who has such a sensitive nose that she is called a "scent seer". Among other things, she can detect the scent of [[spoiler:a rager]], newly-hardened volcanic rock, secrets, a whirlpool, and the color of Boots' pink shirt from outside the castle tower Boots is in.
163* NotSoDifferentRemark: In ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'', Gregor meets Lapblood, who he at first antagonizes, but later realizes is just trying to protect her pups. He notes that they're two sides of the same coin: she's a mother trying to save her children, while he's a child trying to save his mother.
164* OceanOfAdventure: In ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', most of the story follows Gregor and the rest of his party as they travel the Waterway by boat, encountering classic obstacles like whirlpools, deadly islands, and sea monsters.
165* OneManArmy: It takes four hundred soldiers to take out [[TheBerserker Ripred]]. [[spoiler:Gregor qualifies as well by the end of the series]].
166* OutlivingOnesOffspring:
167** Luxa's mother Judith had died before the series starts. And her twin brother, presumed dead before the beginning of the series, turns up alive at the beginning of the 3rd book and dies at the end. Their parents are both alive until the 5th book.
168** In the third book, Ripred tells the story of the Garden of the Hesperides, including that several rat parents lost their pups there. In the fifth book, it's revealed that Ripred himself is one of these parents.
169* PatchworkMap: In the Underland, there are plains, jungles, maze-like tunnels, small seas, arable land, and desolate areas all within one or two hundred miles of each other, and no transitions.
170* ThePlague: ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'' has the disease known as...um...[[TitleDrop the Curse of the Warmbloods]].
171** [[spoiler:SyntheticPlague: TheReveal at the end of ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'' is that the disease called "[[TitleDrop the Curse of the Warmbloods]]" was a biological weapon that escaped from a Regalian lab. Its creator didn't tell anyone she had the cure because she didn't want to admit she'd created the plague.]]
172* PlatonicLifePartners: Most if not all of the human/bat bonds.
173* PleaseWakeUp: [[spoiler:The baby Bane]] begging his mother, Goldshard, to wake up after [[spoiler:his father]] Snare killed her.
174* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Maybe.]] While the wording of the prophecies is at times vague, and more than one character attempts to manipulate them, it ''is'' established that there are real seers in this universe. Whether the prophecies were accurate or not is ultimately left unclear.
175* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: All of Sandwich's prophecies rhyme.
176* ProphecyTwist: Happens all the time. Then it is subverted in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'', when Ripred points out that the prophecies could be loosely interpreted to cover a variety of situations and that people are often adapting what happens in reality to fit the prophecy so that it is fulfilled (their society is strongly based around the prophecies their founder wrote). He then gets ''really'' GenreSavvy by [[spoiler:deliberately giving himself a wound that will fulfill yet another prophecy]].
177* ReadingTheEnemysMail: Underlanders of all species have a system similar to Morse code to send messages. The plot of ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'' revolves around breaking the titular code in which the gnawers write theirs.
178* ReleasedToElsewhere: The rats are "relocating" all the mice in the Underland. Turns out that [[spoiler:they're actually leading the mice to their doom without them suspecting anything]]. Not surprising, considering that the story is based on [[spoiler:the Holocaust]].
179* ReluctantWarrior: Gregor, who spends the first book trying to convince everyone that he [[RefusalOfTheCall can't be the warrior]] everyone's talking about. Hamnet in the third book, who makes it clear he considers violence a last resort.
180* RodentsOfUnusualSize: The series has these as main characters--not to mention the giant insects and bats...
181* RuleOfThree: Each book consists of three parts, which in turn consist of nine (three times three) chapters each.
182* SadisticChoice: ''Gregor and the Code of Claw'' has one when they find out that [[spoiler:Solovet's route home to Regalia will cause her to fly into a rat ambush. To let her go would mean her death, to keep her from going would cause the rats to realize that the humans have cracked their code and make the humans give up their greatest advantage.]]
183* ScarsAreForever: Ripred. Later [[spoiler:Gregor]] as well, which he realizes in part of his BittersweetEnding.
184* ScaryScorpions: A pair of them towards the end of ''The Marks of Secret''. [[SubvertedTrope However]], they turn out to be much more friendly and helpful when the hero party stands down and switches to talk to them.
185* SchizoTech: The Regalians have medieval-era technology, with no mention of gunpowder, but also have microscopes and [[spoiler:sophisticated enough medicine to create a SyntheticPlague]].
186* ScreamingWarrior: York, Howard's father. Gregor's first impression of him is that he's huge, wields a [[{{BFS}} two-handed sword, and shouts a lot.]]
187* ScrewDestiny: In ''Gregor and The Code of Claw'', Ripred tells Gregor to do this when [[spoiler:a prophecy says he's going to die]].
188* SecretKeeper:
189** Lizzie is often required to explain why her family members have disappeared for extended periods of time.
190** [[spoiler:Mrs. Cormaci]] becomes this for the family starting in ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret''.
191* SenselessSacrifice: In ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'', [[spoiler:Mange, Frill, and Hamnet]] die on the quest to get the starshade, [[spoiler:which turns out to be useless]].
192* SheatheYourSword: The peaceful resolution for an encounter with scorpions turns out to be far more fruitful than a violent one.
193* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: In ''Gregor and the Marks of Secret'', Gregor and Luxa are going to investigate the Nibblers' situation, but, since no one can know about it, they pretend that they are going on a picnic. Of course, Howard shows up and offers to join them, so Gregor, looking for an excuse, tells him that they're going on a date. Even when Howard finds out that Gregor was lying, he still chews him out because seeing as Luxa's a princess and Gregor's not even an Underlander, they couldn't possibly be married. Gregor states several times that he and Luxa aren't like that and marriage is thinking ''way'' too far ahead, since they're twelve or thirteen, but then Howard asks Gregor why he thought Howard might believe it in the first place, rendering all his arguments useless.
194* ShellShockedVeteran: Gregor by the end of the series. [[ChildSoldiers At twelve]]. Ripred is an older version of this.
195* ShipperOnDeck:
196** Very much inverted with Howard, who seems hellbent on making sure Gregor and Luxa never go on a date.
197** And there's Gregor's mom [[spoiler:who secretly approves of Luxa because she's "got attitude"]].
198* ShoutOut:
199** Gregor's name is probably a Shout-Out to [[Literature/TheMetamorphosis Franz Kafka]].
200** Vikus and Solovet's three children are named Susannah, Hamnet, and Judith, the same as Creator/WilliamShakespeare's children. Both sets of Hamnet and Judith are also twins.
201* SignificantNameShift: For most of the series, Gregor's baby sister Boots refers to him as "Ge-go", since she can't pronounce his name yet. Around the third book it changes to "Gre-go", and in the final scene of the series, after [[spoiler:they leave the Underland for the last time]] she can finally say his name right, showing how they're both growing up.
202* SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty: Regalia and the rats' realm.
203* SodaCanShakeup: Weaponized by Gregor in the first book to fight off a GiantSpider.
204* SpectacularSpinning: Ripred [[spoiler:and eventually Gregor]] spin during fights. It is implied that all [[spoiler:ragers]] can.
205* StockNessMonster: The "serpents" that live in the Waterway look like blind plesiosaurs.
206* TheSwarm: In ''Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane'', they pass an island inhabited by ravenous flying mites that can strip a bat down to the bone in less than a minute.
207* TakeCareOfTheKids: Hamnet's greatest fear is that his son will grow up to be a soldier and [[spoiler: an UnwittingPawn for Solovet]]. Before [[spoiler: he dies]] he makes Luxa promise to keep Hazard safe.
208* TentacledTerror: Besides the SeaSerpents, the Waterway also has giant squid that attack ships.
209* ThemeNaming:
210** All of the bats have [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming names taken from Greek mythology]].
211** Luxa's mother is named Judith, Judith's twin is named Hamnet, and their sister is named Susannah. Creator/WilliamShakespeare had a daughter named Susannah and twins named Judith and Hamnet.
212** The mice are named after famous mathematicians and mathematical principles.
213** The rats tend to have compound names, usually violent -- Ripred, Lapblood, Makemince.
214** We only meet four named cockroaches (Tick, Temp, Pend, and Min), but all of them have monosyllabic names relating to time.[[note]]Tick is self-explanatory, '''Temp'''oral, '''Pend'''ing, and '''Min'''ute.[[/note]]
215** All spiders have names [[XtremeKoolLetterz ending in "x"]].
216* TonightSomeoneDies: In the ''Gregor the Overlander'', an ancient prophecy states that twelve will set out on a quest "and eight will be left when we count up the dead". Sure enough, by the end of the book, [[spoiler:Tick, Gox, Treflex, and Henry]] have all met their maker. And it goes down from there...
217* UnstoppableRage: Ripred [[spoiler:and Gregor]] as a result of [[spoiler:being [[TheBerserker ragers]]]].
218* WellExcuseMePrincess: Gregor seems to love mocking Luxa's stiff conduct and all that. Has some pretty funny moments.
219* WellIntentionedExtremist: Solovet. Her actions in book three cross the line, however, for most of the characters, given [[spoiler: she bioengineered a plague to get rid of the rats and said nothing when the plague started affecting Regalians]].
220* WhatTheHellHero:
221** Ripred enjoys delivering these to Gregor on a regular basis, especially in ''Curse of the Warmbloods'' when Gregor disobeys orders with the rats while in [[DeathWorld jungle]].
222** Vikus chides Luxa for smacking Gregor in the first book; Boots very soon follows suit.
223** Hamnet delivers a tranquil DisappointedInYou to Luxa, when [[spoiler: she nearly lets Gregor, Ripred and Lapblood drown in quicksand]] all because she sees Gregor in company with rats and leaps to conclusions.
224** Gregor gives one of these to the entire Underland at the end of ''Code of Claw'', as Luxa was about to banish the rats to the most inhospitable part of the Underland as punishment for the war. Ripred, the new leader, objects to this, and everyone is ready to go to war again, ''right then and there'', over it. Gregor calls out Luxa for how ungrateful she was for Ripred's help, calls out Ripred for immediately resorting to violence again, and says it all needs to stop. Luxa stops it in the only way she can: [[spoiler:bonding with Ripred]].
225* WhamLine: That encoded message in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''? It says [[spoiler:"Twitchtip died in pit"]]. Also, Luxa's [[spoiler:declaration of war against the gnawers]].
226** In ''Prophecy of Bane'', Nerissa turns the expected interpretation of the prophecy [[ProphecyTwist on its head]].
227-->'''Nerissa''': So says [[WouldNotHurtAChild your heart]]. So says your [[ArcWords most essential part.]]
228* WhenTreesAttack: Lots of the plants in the Jungle are carnivorous.
229* WouldntHurtAChild: In ''Prophecy of Bane'', Gregor can't kill the Bane because he's only a baby. Nerissa later interprets the property as saying this.
230* WreckedWeapon: Zig-zagged. In the final book, [[spoiler:Gregor himself breaks Sandwich's sword after the war is over, symbolically "killing the Warrior" and announcing that he's finished fighting the Underlanders' battles]].
231* YouCantFightFate: Brought home in ''Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods'' when [[spoiler:his mom contracts the plague]]; Gregor acknowledges mentally that there was no other way to ensure the prophecy would happen the way it needed to.
232* YouCantGoHomeAgain:
233** Averted, mostly. This happens a bit in the first book, but then [[spoiler:Gregor goes on this quest to find his missing dad and all that]]. [[spoiler:Otherwise they want him to go home. And then come back for the next 4]].
234** Vikus tries to convince Hamnet to return to Regalia, with no success. Hamnet hasn't returned home in ten years, although he sends Hazard there.

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