Harry -- yer a wizard.
Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 4
This series of seven children's books and young adult novels by J.K. Rowling exploded onto the world literary scene in the late 1990s and has become a phenomenon unlike anything seen before in publishing. Blending fantasy with the nearly extinct British boarding school genre, it made a literal superstar out of its ex-schoolteacher author, and the characters and settings she created have permanently entered popular culture the world over.
The books in the series are:
- Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
- Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and The Prizoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
Five of the books have already been filmed, with the remaining two to follow. The seventh will be split into two movies.
Fan reaction to this news has been mixed.
The basic story is a deceptively simple one: Harry Potter is a seemingly normal schoolboy, living with his resentful Aunt and Uncle after being orphaned in his infancy, who on his eleventh birthday discovers he isn't really normal at all. His parents were both powerful wizards, and Harry himself is the renowned slayer of Voldemort, would-be
Evil Overlord of the wizarding world. Years earlier, Voldemort had attempted to kill Harry and perished, an occurrence for which Harry had received all the credit.
Harry goes to Hogwarts, the great school of magic, and is happy. There are the normal school troubles -- bullies, unpleasant teachers -- but nothing serious, until he sees a dark shadow creeping through the forest. Investigating, he eventually discovers that Voldemort
did not truly die. Though his body was destroyed, his spirit clung to life, seeking ways to return from death and resume his campaign of terror.
That year Voldemort is defeated, but each new year brings a fresh confrontation between Harry and the forces of evil. Harry grows stronger over the years, mastering his magic, but so too does Voldemort as he recovers from his death. The wizarding world slips back into war as a final battle looms and a prophecy approaches fulfillment.
These books provide examples of:
Character tropes:
- The Atoner (Snape)
- Author Avatar (Hermione=J.K. Rowling, by her own admission. In later interviews she has claimed that Ginny was also an Author Avatar.)
- Badass Abnormal
- Broken Masquerade
- Chekhovs Skill (Ron and Chess, Harry and his Patronus, even Neville and his botany)
- The Chessmaster (Dumbledore)
- The Chosen One (guess... )
- Circle Of Extinction (During book VII Harry and Voldemort both do this exposing plot to each other)
- Cloudcuckoolander (Luna Lovegood)
- Dead Guy Junior
- Dead Little Sister (Ariana Dumbledore)
- Designated Antagonist
- Dojikko (Tonks)
- Dorian Gray (Grindelwald)
- Double Agent (Snape. Snape. Severus Snape.)
- The Dumbledore
- Dying Like Animals (Filch, Dolores Umbridge, and various Death Eaters -- among others -- all qualify)
- Easing Into The Adventure
- Face Framed In Shadow (Dolores Umbridge's introduction happens this way)
- Feet Of Clay (Gilderoy Lockhart)
- Gentle Giant (Hagrid)
- Happily Married (Molly and Arthur Weasley)
- He Who Must Not Be Named (Voldemort, literally)
- Hot Librarian (Hermione, judging by both The Goblet of Fire, Deathly Hallows and Emma Watson)
- Hyper Awareness (Luna Lovegood)
- Intrepid Reporter (Rita Skeeter,antagonist version)
- The Libby (Pansy Parkinson)
- Kendo Team Captain (Oliver Wood)
- Mary Sue (Ginny Weasley. Raging debates ensue, so make up your own mind.)
- Naive Newcomer
- Power Trio (Harry, Ron, and Hermione)
- The Quisling
- Reverse Mole (Snape in Deathly Hallows)
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens (While they are not aliens, Voldemort and the Death Eaters fit the Aliens as Nazis archetype to a T.)
- Smug Snake (Dolores Umbridge)
- The Straight Will And Grace (Harry and Hermione)
- Tall Dark And Snarky (Snape is a rare ugly version of this trope)
- Unfortunately, you try explaining that he's supposed to be ugly to most of the fandom and see what reaction you get.
- Took A Level In Badass (Neville Longbottom, Represent!)
- Team Rocket (Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.)
- Technicolor Eyes (Harry Potter)
- Ted Baxter (Gilderoy Lockhart)
- The Umbridge (Dolores Umbridge, obviously)
- With Friends Like These (Ron and Hermione)
Plot tropes:
- Accidental Athlete
- Accidental Kiss
- Achey Scars
- All Of The Other Reindeer
- Americanitis (Editors at Scholastic Books forced a change from "Philosopher's Stone" -- a genuine item of folklore and alchemy -- to "Sorcerer's Stone" for the North American editions on the grounds that American children would have no idea what a Philosopher's Stone was. David Morgan-Mar has an alternative explanation.
They have received more than a decade of excoriation since. Due to the negative reaction, British terms and slang in the later books, such as "jumper", "taking the mickey", and "snogging", were left in.)
- Animorphism
- Anyone Can Die (Rather minor in the earlier books, but after Goblet Of Fire all bets were off.)
- Bathroom Stall Of Overheard Insults (Moaning Myrtle was going to give Tom Riddle a piece of her mind for using parseltongue in the girls' bathroom, but then...)
- Beam O War
- Because Destiny Says So
- Black Cloak
- Blasting It Out Of Their Hands (The Expelliarmus spell.)
- By The Eyes Of The Blind
- Care Bear Stare (how Voldemort was driven out of Harry's mind after possessing him)
- Changeling Fantasy
- Character Name And The Noun Phrase
- Chekhovs Gun (Common in the series, i.e. The Deluminator; fans obsess over details in earlier books, looking for hidden Chekhov's Guns, to the point where J.K. Rowling made a public apology about accidentally giving a minor, unimportant character the same last name as Harry's mum.)
- Circle Of Extinction (between Harry and Voldie during their final showdown)
- Death By Childbirth (Merope Riddle)
- Die Or Fly
- Distant Finale
- Dorian Gray
- Dying Like Animals (Not just the Muggles, but Wizards too.)
- Easter Bunny
- Eigen Plot (The gauntlet of puzzles the trio go through at the end of Philosopher's Stone.)
- Enforced Cold War (the House rivalries, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin)
- Evil Counterpart
- Evil Detecting Dog
- Fate Worse Than Death (Neville's parents)
- Filleritis (Arguably, a large portion of Hallows.)
- Filth
- Finding Judas (Snape anyone?)
- First Girl Wins (While she did not enter Hogwarts until the second book, Harry crossed paths with Ginny Weasley at King's Cross Station before he met any other female lead. Ginny, of course, was the person Harry eventually fell in love with.)
- Fluffy The Terrible
- Functional Magic
- Golden Snitch
- Gondor Calls For Aid (The end of The Deathly Hallows)
- Gotta Kill Them All (Voldemort's Horcruxes)
- Government Conspiracy (the Ministry of Magic's cover-up of Voldemort's return)
- Happiness In Slavery
- Heroes Want Red Heads
- Hero Secret Service (the Order of the Phoenix)
- Hidden Depths
- Hufflepuff House
- Idiot Plot (Order of the Phoenix would have been a lot shorter if the adults had just levelled with Harry about what was going on instead of making him dig through all their obfuscation. The major tragedy of the story takes place because Harry had incomplete information. After defeating or stalemating the Basilisk, Death Eaters, and Voldy himself (three times) you would think they might start giving him some credit.)
- On the other side of the conflict, the entire point of The Goblet of Fire is a hideously over-complicated, year-long plot by the disguised Barty Crouch, Jr. that could have been handled better and faster simply by abducting Harry at wand-point during the first week of school. But Voldemort's dramatic flair with regards to his self-preservation just had to get in the way.)
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy
- Is That What He Told You (Lots of well-meaning deception from Dumbledore.)
- Its Not You Its My Enemies
- Kangaroo Court
- Karmic Death (Voldemort)
- Killed Off For Real (Time doesn't permit us to list. At least one big death per book from Goblet of Fire on.)
- Lotus Eater Machine (The Mirror of Erised. Reading the name -- not to mention the entire inscription -- backwards is a dead giveaway.)
- Love Redeems (Snape's motivation for his Heel Face Turn.)
- Machiavelli Was Wrong
- Mad At The Mysterious Mentor (Harry, at Dumbledore's holding back helping cause Sirius' death in Book 5)
- Magic A Is Magic A
- Magic Feather
- Magic Hat
- Mailer Daemon (Voldemort's Diary (Part Artifact Of Doom and part Soul Jar) slowly worked its hooks into Ginny Weasley, using her to summon the Basilisk and attempting to steal her life to release itself)
- Martyr Without A Cause (Harry at times, who wants to protect everyone)
- Masquerade
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover
- Meaningful Funeral
- Meaningful Name (Indeed, certain characters "just happen" to have names that relate to what they are to the point of providing more astute readers with a possibly unintentional spoiler.)
- Methuselah Syndrome
- Misaimed Fandom
- Missed The Call (Neville -- narrowly.)
- The Mole
- Moral Guardians (The endless parade of American Christians who insist that the books entice children into the occult and devil worship.)
- Muggles (The series brought the term to public attention, though there is debate as to whether or not Rowling invented the term.)
- Near Death Experience
- Near Misses
- Never The Selves Shall Meet
- No Ontological Inertia (Some spells are made to last after death, most others cease.)
- No Such Thing As Bad Publicity
- The Noun Of Adjective
- Older Than They Think
- Only I Can Kill Him
- The Power Of Love
- Post Dramatic Stress Disorder (A lot)
- Plot Coupons
- Prophetic Fallacy
- Prophetic Names
- Put Down Your Gun And Step Away (Replace gun with wand; Bellatrix holding Hermione hostage in the last book asks for Harry's and his friends' wands)
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old (Wizards live longer, much longer.)
- The Scottish Trope (Saying "Voldemort" in the seventh book, itself a subversion of the previous books' frequent insistence that naming him was perfectly safe despite the common belief to the contrary)
- Self Fulfilling Prophecies
- She Is Not My Girlfriend
- Side Bet
- Significant Anagram (Tom Marvolo Riddle <-> I am Lord Voldemort)
- Slytherin House (Trope Namer, of course)
- Soul Jar
- Spy Speak (Subverted)
- Stab The Salad (In Prisoner of Azkaban with the Griffin Buckbeak.)
- Steven Ulysses Perhero
- Theme Naming
- The Trope Without A Title
- Time Travel
- Tonight Someone Dies
- Three Amigos
- Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000 (Mega Mutilation Part Three, Dudley's game)
- Unnecessary Roughness
- Unusual Euphemism
- Wangst (Harry's teenager angst, while perhaps justified, was still an annoyance to many readers)
- We Can Rule Together (Voldemort and Neville in The Deathly Hallows.)
- What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway
- White Haired Pretty Boy
- Witch Species
- Wizarding School
- Word Of God (J.K. Rowling's interviews)
- Wronski Feint (Trope Namer)
- Xanadu
- Xanatos Roulette (Dumbledore's plan revealed near the end of the last book.)
- You Already Changed The Past
- You Cant Fight Fate (Literally -- it's against the law. You can go back in time, just don't interfere with anything.)
- You Have Failed Me (If you're lucky, after you've ticked off Voldemort, he'll kill you without putting you through the Cruciatus Curse first.)
Film tropes:
Tropes that appear only in the film adaptations:
Video game tropes:
Tropes that appear only in the
Video Game adaptations:
Fanon tropes:
Other tropes associated with the series:
