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Darth Wiki: Mythology 101 Cycle

A work-in-progress by Pinata (real name to be revealed upon publication, but as of right now he's ingested a bit too much Paranoia Fuel), this 10-book fantasy/Deconstruction of fantasy series essentially asks the question, "What if Quentin Tarantino wrote The Chronicles of Narnia?"

Not only is it Troperiffic, Bloodier and Gorier, Darker and Edgier, and Hotter and Sexier (that is, if you're not scarred for life by it), it's also being intentionally constructed with No Fourth Wall.

Because it's a work in progress, don't expect many spoilers here, at least not plot-oriented ones. Comments on the discussion page are welcome, especially since I'm curious whether there's actually a market for something that's this far out there.

The story follows a professor of folklore and mythology — and his students, and a cop who gets dragged into the mix — who are recruited by an Elvish princess to help her fulfill an ancient prophecy back in her world (referred to by the characters as the "World of Myth").

The series provides examples of:

Absurdly Spacious Sewer
Action Girl: Several actually, but Kylie's got Memetic Badass potential so let's just throw her name up here.
Adorkable: What's being shot for with William. The fangirls will have to say whether or not the trope is successfully played straight after the first book is published.
Adventurer Archaeologist: More like "Adventurer Mythology Teacher", but it's in the same spirit.
All of the Other Reindeer: The author admits to suffering through this trope himself, so this should come as no surprise.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us
Alternate Universe: The World of Myth, or Terra if you want to get technical.
Amazonian Beauty: Kylie is the muscular variety, Alira and Carrie are the tall variety. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot agent Kim Walker is both.
Anvilicious: When this author makes a political statement, it's about as subtle as Hiroshima.
Anything That Moves: Too many instances to list. In fact, it's the default setting for the Elves.
Anyone Can Die: And not pleasantly, either.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Baron Devincenzi.
Ascended Fanboy: Professor Banks probably counts since he's a mythology teacher... William, however, is a much more hardcore fantasy geek and is therefore one of the more enthusiastic Chosen Ones.
Asshole Victim
Atomic F-Bomb: Parodied by Jane, who will occasionally yell things like "CRUD!" loud enough to startle birds (or other characters).
Author Appeal: To a possibly worrisome amount.
Author Filibuster: Several. The author continually bashes organized religion and promotes free love throughout the series.
Averted Trope: The Cape, Chickification, Children Are Innocent, If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him, No Bisexuals, Sex Is Evil, Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Badass: Pretty much everybody, though some of them don't start out that way.
Badass Adorable: Lyona, even if she is 180.
Badass Back: Alira and Kylie are both masters of this style.
Badass Bookworm: Professors Banks, Flynn and Scott.
- And William.
Badass Princess: Alira. And later on in the series, Josette.
Bears Are Bad News: And even worse than that with werebears.
Because Destiny Says So
The Berserker: Kylie.
Big Bad: Lord Morbaruk.
The Big Guy: Grog the Ogre. Yes, I'm fully aware of what grog is... I'm going for Narm Charm.
Bi the Way: Tara, because she doesn't quite qualify for Anything That Moves status.
Black and Gray Morality
Bloody Hilarious
Bond One-Liner
Boobs of Steel: Kylie is stated to be rather well-endowed. She rarely loses fights.
- Special mention should also probably go to Donatella, who has six of them.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: About Once A Book, sometimes more frequently than that.
Bring My Red Jacket: Carina wears a red dress. It's a plot point briefly.
Brown Note: The screeching of harpies is said to be rather unpleasant, and can drive a person mad if they're subjected to it long enough. The screeching of banshees can make a person's head explode. There are also sirens, though the sounds they make are more pleasant in nature.
The Brute: Maximo.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Binky is an undisputed Ditz, but she's also the best archer that either universe can field.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Nathan calls a car a smeerp in order to confuse Alira.
Camp: Intentionally so. Described by the author as a "grindhouse book".
Car Fu: Every time Jim and Andy get into a car. Or are even anywhere near a car. This culminates in one of them making a verbal Shout Out to Hal Needham.
Chekhov's Gun
Chew Toy
Children Are Innocent: Subverted. Iain can out-cuss a sailor.
The Chosen One: Anyone who is named in a prophecy bears this title, so there's about a dozen of them running around.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The gods cannot continue to exist if nobody worships them. This is why most of them find some way to propagate their genetic material so they can have a race of "children" who are of them, and therefore must worship them.
Cliffhanger: It's made pretty obvious that the plot is not yet resolved at the end of the first book.
Cluster F-Bomb
The Combat Pragmatist: Kylie goes after sensitive areas, has no moral qualms about biting and in general does whatever she has to to win.
Conversational Troping
Country Matters: Quoting every single line that uses this trope would make the page insufferably long. The author admits to this being an unfortunate Verbal Tic of his in Real Life.
Creation Myth: The story does deal with how the World of Myth came to be in the first place. Bring your Brain Bleach.
Crosses the Line Twice: And then rips its head off and spits down its neck.
Crowning Moment of Awesome: The series shoots for these at least once a chapter.
Crowning Moment of Funny: With about the same frequency as Crowning Moment of Awesome.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Could become the new Trope Codifier.
Cursed with Awesome
Cute Bruiser: Kylie.
Cycle of Vengeance: The fourth and fifth books in the series.
Daddy's Little Villain: Carina.
Dark Is Not Evil
Deadpan Snarker: Grayscale the dragon. Jim has his moments as well.
Death by Irony
The Determinator: Kylie.
Dirty Coward
Disproportionate Retribution
The Ditz: Binky.
Double Standard: Rape�Female on Male: Ruthlessly averted.
Dual Wielding: Several characters do this, but only a couple with swords.
Either-Or Prophecy
Elemental Embodiment
- Stratos: Air.
- Terra: Earth.
- Pyria: Fire.
- Nauticus: Water.
The Empath: Seldona. Also one of the Psychic Powers possessed by Chris.
Ethical Slut: The Elves. Just the Elves.
- Also Nathan, who fully embraces the Elvish lifestyle.
Everybody Has Lots of Sex
Everything's Even Worse with Sharks
Evil Is Sexy
Evil Prince
Exotic Equipment
Explicit Content: Actually, the sex scenes veer between "porn" and "please pass the Brain Bleach", but this still fits.
Exploitation Book
Eye Scream
Fanservice: Described in text, but it's in the same spirit.
- And there's loads of it.
Fate Worse Than Death
Fetish-Fuel Future: Let's see... Everyone Is Bi, breast milk is considered sacred, monogamy is frowned upon, several cultures have No Nudity Taboo and a few have no incest taboo, lycanthropes are endowed with Exotic Equipment, and one of the main gods has Naughty Tentacles.
Fiery Redhead: Kylie.
- There's also a more literal interpretation of "fiery" with Pyria, the goddess of fire.
Filler: The author freely admits that the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot subplot is essentially this in the first two books, which need more characters to get them past "novella" length. In WTF's subsequent appearances in the series, however, they're being set up for their own Spin-Off series.
Fish out of Water: Alira, played for maximum laughs.
Flashback: Done to explain the Backstory and/or do some World Building occasionally. Also done for Show, Don't Tell purposes when characters are learning about Backstory-related things.
Foreshadowing: This page. Also, Chris does this from time to time when "reading" people.
The Fundamentalist: Jane.
Gag Boobs: Empress Paizuri. Yes, Paizuri. And these are lactating Gag Boobs.
Genius Bonus: See above. Only an Otaku would know what "paizuri" means. Also, there's the characters named Fortunato and Luchesi (as in ''The Cask Of Amontillado'').
Giant Mook: Maximo.
Good Thing You Can Heal
Gorn
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Jane is the only character who seems to have major qualms about swearing. She does this instead.
Goth: Tara.
Go Out with a Smile
Groin Attack
Half the Man He Used to Be
Heel Face Revolving Door
Hell-Bent for Leather: Pyria.
Hello, Nurse!: Donatella. Justified, since she has six breasts and No Nudity Taboo.
Heteronormative Crusader: Rick.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Nathan and Chris.
Hoist by His Own Petard
Ho Yay: See Heterosexual Life Partners. Later on in the series, an actual gay couple with text instead of subtext is introduced as well.
The Hunter: Kylie's name in The Prophecy is The Huntress. This is also the title of the fifth book.
Hurricane of Puns
I'm a Humanitarian
Immortal Immaturity: Pretty much every Elf, but especially Lyona.
Improbable Aiming Skills
- Binky and Cerisa are both very good archers.
- Kylie, being the star pitcher for a championship college softball team, is naturally capable of throwing knives and other weapons with deadly accuracy.
Improvised Weapon: Kylie uses a cue stick to apply a beatdown in the first book.
- Professor Banks finds an innovative use for a paperweight in the first book as well.
It's Personal
Jerkass: Nathan.
Jerk Jock: Rick.
Kill It with Fire
Kill It with Water
The Lad-ette: Kylie, turned Up to Eleven.
Lady in Red: Carina. See also Bring My Brown Jacket.
Lady of War: Pretty much every female Elf.
Lampshade Hanging: Turned Up to Eleven.
Les Yay: And then some.
- And then some more on top of that.
Loads and Loads of Characters
Losing Your Head: With a side of Good Thing You Can Heal.
Magic Knight: All of the Elves, and some of the vampires, can use magic. None of them are SquishyWizards, and most of them are actually quite Badass in physical combat. Alira's moves are likened to something out of The Matrix.
Malaproper: Binky does this sometimes. Alira as well, due to her being unfamiliar with the ways certain words are used in our world.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Lyona, though she's a much more Badass version.
Manipulative Bitch: Carina.
Meaningful Names: Maximo, Fieri.
Medium Awareness: Nathan asks what page it is at one point.
Memetic Mutation: Played with in-universe. Due to a funny mispronunciation that occurred one time, Nathan and his friends now bet each other "a hundred ducks" each time they make a friendly wager.
The Men in Black: The Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Initiative, who investigate paranormal phenomena for the U.S. federal government while trying to avoid full-blown interagency jurisdiction wars among their members.
Moral Dissonance: Even after having the word explained to her, Alira still thinks "slut" has a positive connotation, and refers to herself as one from the first book on. This is because Elves view sex very differently from humans, especially the more conservative humans in our world.
- This actually leads to a Crowning Moment of Funny: "Hi, I'm Alira. I'm a slut."
My Girl Is a Slut: See Moral Dissonance. Other examples occur as well. This is Author Appeal, since the creator of the work doesn't believe in monogamy.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast
- Kylie has the hard K sound, and her last name is Winters.
- People tend to have a difficult time pronouncing Baron Devincenzi's name.
  - His daughter Carina has the hard K sound too.
- Carnos. Since he's called "The Devourer of Flesh" by his own followers, it's basically Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Several dragon examples: Talonteeth, Blackclaw, Flametongue, Iceheart, Scarface and Nightbreath all have pretty scary names.
- Morbaruk. Since his name translates to "Shadow Axe" in Tolkien's languages, even more so.
- Pernius is awfully similar to "pernicious" (if you don't know what it means, look it up... it ain't good).
Neck Snap: Played straight several times, and subverted on one occasion when a vampire gets back up from it.
Never Found the Body
The Nicknamer: Nathan.
Nightmare Face
Nightmare Fetishist: Carina.
Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book
No One Could Survive That
Oh My Gods!: Actually, probably more of a Shout Out. "Terra's cunt" kind of sounds familiar, right?
OOC Is Serious Business: If Jane actually curses for real, then things have just gotten really bad.
Parental Incest
Perfectly Cromulent Word
Physical God: Several of them.
Plot Tailored to the Party: The prophecy. Many of the characters get books named after their prophecy names during the course of the series, and everyone gets A Day in the Spotlight during which their specific skills are used to further advance the plot.
Psychic Powers: Chris's empathy is portrayed in this way, and there's a psychic who used to help the FBI track down missing persons attached to the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Initiative.
Rape as Drama
Rated M for Manly: With the author's main inspirations being Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Takashi Miike this goes without saying.
Really 700 Years Old
Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Kylie. In the first two books she favors cargo pants or camouflage fatigues, and after that she's Hell-Bent for Leather.
Refuge in Audacity
Religion of Evil: The Church of Carnos. Which is at least partially inspired by Dras-Leona.
Revenge by Proxy
Rich Bitch: Carrie.
Running Gag: Jane's refusal to swear properly; William's Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
Seinfeldian Conversation
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: William successfully drops the words "defenestrate", "bowdlerize", "absquatulate", "polymastia" and "toxopholite", among others.
She's Got Legs: Alira. Dear Terra, Alira.
Shout Out
- The names of kingdoms are all sci-fi or fantasy characters from other works: Aberforth, Aensland, Balazar, Belacqua and Nakamura.
- TV Tropes: Nathan tosses the word "smeerp" around, the king of the goblins is named Squick (with good reason), and Conversational Troping occurs regularly, complete with trope names.
- Dialogue:
  - —>Eliska: Come with me if you want to live.
  - —>Eliska: For luck.
  - —>Nathan: ...But I have had it with all those motherfucking snakes in your motherfucking hair!
  - —>Nathan: Jane, you ignorant slut, we don't have time for your bible-thumping right now!
  - —>Nathan: You can't handle the truth!
  - —>Nathan: Got milk?
  - —>Professor Banks: I have a bad feeling about this.
  - —>Kylie: Don't worry, you'll fit in just fine as long as you don't go all Summer Glau on us again.
The Stoic
- —>Jane: You're bleeding.
Kylie: I've got more blood.
Stripperiffic: Pyria's outfit. Invoked Trope.
Subverted Trope: Airport Fantasy. This tries to be like that, but from what I understand those books are usually bigger... the projected length of the first book in this series is barely 200 pages, and I don't plan for them to get much longer than that later.
Take That: Sam Raimi, for Legend of the Seeker.
Take That Me: A couple of times, including a Who Writes This Crap?!.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill
This Is TV Tropes Bitch
Token Minority: More like "token male Elf".
Torture Technician: Bastinado, in the second book.
Twincest
Unequal Pairing
- Kylie has this with pretty much everyone she's paired with.
- Nathan really has a thing for princesses.
  - Or princesses really have a thing for him. Either way, though...
Virgin Power: Jane. Named "The Unicorn Rider" in The Prophecy. The Unicorn Rider is also the name of the seventh book.
Virgin Tension: The prophecy fails to be fulfilled if Jane loses her virginity.
Waif-Fu: Averted with Kylie, who is not only muscular but also rather curvy. Played straight with the female Elves, who lean more toward Pettanko status and are usually fairly short to boot.
Waif Prophet: Emiliana. Well, sort of.
Winged Humanoid: Stratos, the God of Air, and the fairies. The harpies are more like winged reptoids.
World of Badass
Your Vampires Suck: Not really a Take That against anyone else's vampires, but the ones in this universe are fully capable of eating normal food and prefer heaps of garlic on it. Also, since they live in a pantheistic Alternate Universe, none of them have ever seen a cross before... therefore, Religious Symbolism — even holy water — doesn't work very well against them.
Zettai Ryouiki: Of the leather and latex variety, but it fits.