Line #75 Manhwa/TheTarotCafe


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tarotcafeblue.jpg]]
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3	The Tarot Cafe is a beautifully illustrated ''{{manhwa}}'' by Sang-Sun Park about a fortune teller named Pamela who deals with special customers after midnight. These customers can range from a wish-giving cat to a vampire to an alchemist (and so on and so forth), all of them with problems that only Pamela can help with... for a price. The particular price Pamela asks from these peculiar customers of hers just so happens to be a bead from Berial's necklace. The reasons as to why she's gathering the beads is something she prefers to keep to herself, but these are revealed during the course of the story.
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5	The manhwa starts out as a series of one-shot stories but eventually is revealed, through the mysterious beads Pamela collects, to be connected in a complicated plot that covers Pamela's life, from the time when she was a very small child to an adult, and is a mix of horror, comedy and drama. Despite the unreliable narrative (is it Ashes or Axis? Berial or Belial?), it's quite an enjoyable read, with humor lightening an otherwise dark story.
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7	Now has a CharacterSheet.
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9	!!Tropes associated with The Tarot Cafe:
10	* AbusiveParents - One of the later stories deals with this.
11	** Several do, in fact.
12	* AnachronismStew - To a point, at least - there are modern fashions and ''the internet'' in a time period where there wasn't any.
13	* AndIMustScream - [[spoiler:Ashes is possibly a sufferer of this.]]
14	* AttemptedRape - Victor does this to Pamela [[spoiler:and Ash, several hundred years later]].
15	* BerserkButton - Just ''try'' saying Pamela's name in front of Alecto. Go on. We dare you. To a more humorous extent, Pamela does not like being called an old lady.
16	* BewareTheNiceOnes - Inverted with [[spoiler:Ash]], who is not as nice as he initially seems. Ashes turns out to be quite frightening when he's angry. This also applies to Aaron (to an extent), since he's a werewolf.
17	* BlessedWithSuck - Seeing the future isn't all it's cracked up to be. [[spoiler:Neither is immortality.]]
18	* BreakTheCutie - ''Everyone.''
19	* CatsAreMean - Very much subverted with Butterfly.
20	* ChainedToABed - A [[HoYay male-on-male]] example, with Alecto kidnapping Ash and chaining him to a bed. Played seriously at first, with Ash being angry and afraid at the situation... only to be played for laughs later, with Ash teasing Alecto and flirting with him and Alecto getting hot and bothered about it.
21	* CostumePorn
22	** FoodPorn
23	** SceneryPorn - Let's face it, the art is ''gorgeous.''
24	* CursedWithAwesome - Pamela and Ashes immortality can be seen as this. Belus even makes a statement to Pamela that many people hunt dragons for the immortality they provide.
25	* DealWithTheDevil - [[spoiler:Pamela's mother made such a deal to save her daughter from being burnt at the stake.]] Also, [[spoiler:Pamela's lover Ashes]] makes this with [[spoiler: Berial]] because he's tired of living.
26	** [[spoiler:Victor makes one with Berial. He hopes to kill Ash, gain immortality, and win Pamela's heart. All he gets is to kill Ash, before he's dragged to Hell.]]
27	** Technically [[spoiler:Pamela made one as well, since she made a deal with Belus and Belus and Belial are the same person.]]
28	* DeathSeeker - [[spoiler:Ashes and Pamela.]]
29	* DepravedBisexual - [[spoiler:Belus and Ash.]] Victor also counts as this, as he admires Ashes' beauty even while trying to kill him.
30	* DisappearedDad - Pamela's father is never mentioned.
31	* EarnYourHappyEnding
32	* EvilPlan - Pretty much the whole plot was arranged by [[spoiler:Belus]], who wanted to keep Pamela forever because she amused him. Another example is [[spoiler:Ash's kidnapping and attempted rape suffered at Victor's hands - although it's implied the reincarnated Victor would have attempted all of that anyway.]]
33	* FaceHeelTurn - [[spoiler:Ashes]], in the form of the spiteful and manipulative [[spoiler:Ash]]. Later becomes a HeelFaceTurn, with him able to move on and live a normal, happy life.
34	* TheFairFolk
35	* FallenAngel - [[spoiler: Belus and Nebiros.]]
36	* FateWorseThanDeath - [[spoiler:Cora and Alecto suffer this. Ashes is also a possibility, since his draconic form is ''encased in ice'', presumeably for eternity... and is implied to be reincarnated constantly as a tool of Belus'.]]
37	* GoMadFromTheRevelation - [[spoiler:Pamela begins laughing madly when Belus reveals his plan.]] Inverted with [[spoiler:Ash,]] who goes temporarily insane and becomes utterly broken when Alecto [[spoiler:mistakenly]] tells him he's just a clone.
38	* HeroicSacrifice - Many, but especially [[spoiler:Cora]], who is killed trying to warn Pamela.
39	* IAmWho - A non-heroic example, with [[spoiler:Ash]] turning out to be the reincarnation [[spoiler:of sorts]] of [[spoiler:Ashes]], [[spoiler:Cora is the reincarnation of Pamela's mother]], and Aaron is strongly implied to be the reincarnation of [[spoiler:Sariel, an angel and Nebiros' (female) former lover.]]
40	* LoveAtFirstSight - Pamela and Ash both deal with men who falls for him just by looking at him. Neither of them are particularly sane or nice about it.
41	* TheMasochismTango: This turns up a ''lot''. A lot of minor characters in the one-shot stories get this, along with [[spoiler: Pamela and Belus, Belus and Ash (''especially'' with Belus and Ash), and Ash and Pamela]].
42	* MayflyDecemberRomance - Ashes and Pamela. [[spoiler:It doesn't end well.]] There is also one between a vampire and a human [[spoiler:and her reincarnation]] in one of the earlier stories.
43	** One story deals with [[spoiler:a man falling in love with a sweet lake spirit. They eventually get married and start a snack shop on a boat]].
44	** A one-sided one takes place between a girl and her intelligent, wish-granting cat.
45	* MindControl - [[spoiler: Ash,]] with shades of MoreThanMindControl attached to it.
46	* MurderTheHypotenuse - [[spoiler: Belial set up a BatmanGambit just so Ashes, Victor and later Alecto, all people with romantic feelings for Pamela were eventually killed off on one of the most elaborate examples of this trope.]]
47	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone - [[spoiler:Ashes]] is implied to have one of these [[spoiler:right before his death]] and apologizes to Pamela. It turns out later that his apology was made for a very good reason.
48	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast - The Prince of Pandemonium [[spoiler:also known as Belus]].
49	* NobleDemon - [[spoiler:Nebiros]] has traces of this.
50	* ObfuscatingStupidity - [[spoiler:Alecto,]] to the point where he even manages to fool the devil.
51	* OurDragonsAreDifferent - Dragons are described as "divine, immortal beings" who pass their immortality onto the person who touches the first drop of their heart's blood. [[spoiler:Which explains where the mark on Pamela's forehead comes from...]]
52	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent - Werewolves are described by Nebiros as demons, and the natural ones take on the forms of beautiful women who can shape-shift at will.
53	* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: The manhwa has a rather unwilling example. [[spoiler:The abused child of an alcoholic is sent to the hospital by a tree spirit, after the kid's beaten so badly he'll likely die. The father, upon finding out about this, breaks into the hospital and steals his son out of it, arguing that he can't afford to pay for the care. [[AssholeVictim The dad is not mourned, when he dies by the story's end]].]]
54	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld - There are several examples of this.
55	* TheReveal - [[spoiler:Belus is actually Berial and has orchestrated everything from the beginning.]] In a (somewhat) lighter example, the story is revealed at the end of the series to take place [[spoiler:around the 1940's]].
56	* {{Satan}} - [[spoiler:Belus is implied to be this.]]
57	* ShapeShifter - The dragons, demons and especially [[spoiler:Belus]].
58	* ScaryBlackMan - Justified in that Alecto, the aforementioned scary black man, is actually a scary black ''dragon''.
59	* ShoutOut: [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame A priest falling in love with a girl, then trying to murder the one she loves while decided that, if he can't have her, then he will kill her]]... And the guy's name? [[Creator/VictorHugo Victor]].
60	* StalkerWithACrush - Victor.
61	* SympathyForTheDevil - Despite all he's done to her, Pamela still feels this for [[spoiler:Belus]] and even befriends him upon recognizing his loneliness. To a lesser extent, Pamela is able to realize what [[spoiler:Ash]] has gone through and forgives him.
62	* TakenForGranite - You do ''not'' want to piss Nebiros off.
63	* TakingTheBullet - Belus does this when [[spoiler:Ash attacks Pamela in a jealous rage, then Belus ''with an umbrella'' for stopping him.]]
64	* TarotMotifs
65	* ThereAreNoTherapists
66	* [[spoiler: ToHellAndBack]]
67	* {{Tsundere}} - Pamela and Alecto are both examples of this.
68	* VillainousBreakdown - [[spoiler:Ash]] has one of these at Alecto's [[spoiler:false]] revelation, and [[spoiler:Belus]] has one in the decades after his plans are foiled. Both get better and undergo [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turns]].
69	* WaifProphet - Pamela.
70	* WhoWantsToLiveForever - [[spoiler:Ashes, who described himself as living so long that his heart had petrified. Also, Pamela, until she finally learns to live with it at the end of the series.]]
71	* {{Yandere}} - [[spoiler:Ash.]]

Context Manhwa / TheTarotCafe