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* DropTheHammer: Frank Dunning uses a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice on Halloween night when he murders (or attempts to murder) his family.
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* TheSlowPath: The portal in the diner will always lead to 11:58 AM on September 9, 1958, and any trip back through the portal will reset the previous changes. As such, the only for Jake to actually achieve his goal of saving Kennedy is to live in the past and wait for the eponymous date to arrive. This proves to have some serious consequences for him; see TimeLoopFatigue below.

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* TheSlowPath: The portal in the diner will always lead to 11:58 AM on September 9, 1958, and any trip back through the portal will reset the previous changes. As such, the only way for Jake to actually achieve his goal of saving Kennedy is to live in the past and wait for the eponymous date to arrive. This proves to have some serious consequences for him; see TimeLoopFatigue below.
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* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: [[spoiler: With Al's death, his diner closes down and is likely demolished after Jake moves away from Lisbon Falls, making it unlikely anyone will ever use the portal again. After resetting the timeline back to what it was, this leaves Jake as the only person who'll ever truly know what happened.]]

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** After Jake is heading back to Maine [[spoiler: after successfully saving Kennedy]], he hears from the cab driver that [[spoiler: a major earthquake hit Los Angeles, destroying much of the city and killing over 7,000 people. When he makes it back to 2011, it turns out it was only the first of ''many.'']]



* GaiasLament: A few examples in [[spoiler: the BadFuture according to Harry, where the world has seen almost thirty atomic bombings, the Middle East has become fields of black glass that "glows in the dark," the Gulf of Mexico is ecologically dead after a dirty bomb was set off in Miami, and the Vermont Yankee nuclear planet went critical after an earthquake and spewed radiation across New England and Southern Quebec.]]



* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: Constant in the series. When cornered about his past, Jake claims to have made two tours in Korea for the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M*A*S*H]]; to have composed a song with three friends called [[Music/TheBeatles John, Paul, and Ringo]]; or to be in witness protection after seeing a maffia leader called [[Film/TheGodfather Michael kill his brother Fredo]] in a lake. He also makes a reference to the film ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' before realizing that it has not come out yet, but it lands because the book has.

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* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: Constant in the series. When cornered about his past, Jake claims to have made two tours in Korea for the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M*A*S*H]]; to have composed a song with three friends called [[Music/TheBeatles John, Paul, and Ringo]]; or to be in witness protection after seeing a maffia mafia leader called [[Film/TheGodfather Michael kill his brother Fredo]] in a lake. He also makes a reference to the film ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' before realizing that it has not come out yet, but it lands because the book has.



* JustBeforeTheEnd: One of the consequences of Jake interfering with history is Earth being struck with almost constant earthquakes due to the disturbance of reality. It's estimated by scientists that the planet will have completely broken apart by 2080.

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* JustBeforeTheEnd: One of the consequences of Jake interfering with history is [[spoiler: Earth being struck with almost constant earthquakes due to the disturbance of reality. It's estimated by scientists that the planet will have completely broken apart by 2080.]]



* MisterSandManSequence: An unmistakably late 50s scene greets Jake everytime he goes through the portal, scored with Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs 1960 hit "Stay."

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* MisterSandManSequence: An unmistakably late 50s scene greets Jake everytime every time he goes through the portal, scored with Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs 1960 hit "Stay."


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* TheSlowPath: The portal in the diner will always lead to 11:58 AM on September 9, 1958, and any trip back through the portal will reset the previous changes. As such, the only for Jake to actually achieve his goal of saving Kennedy is to live in the past and wait for the eponymous date to arrive. This proves to have some serious consequences for him; see TimeLoopFatigue below.
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* ItsOkayToCry: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]], Jake Epping is a man who ''doesn't'' cry, even when everybody around him thinks he should. It's not that he doesn't feel sadness or anger, and it's not that he's repressed, he just doesn't ''cry''. This leads to people thinking that he is cold or emotionless when he doesn't even cry at intense personal trauma. His ex-wife described his lack of tears as one of the reasons for why she left him.

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* LoveAtFirstSight: Jake denies that it happened between him and Sadie, but he admits that there was definitely a connection right away that grew into love very quickly.



* MeetCute: Jake and Sadie have a classic first meting, where Sadie trips and Jake catches her before she falls.



* MostWritersAreWriters: Jake Epping is a high school English teacher. When he goes back in time he gets a job working as a substitute teacher, and also claims to be writing a book as a cover for his visits to Dallas. He eventually starts writing the book, and is a little hurt when he is told that it's okay, but nothing really ''special''.

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* MostWritersAreWriters: Jake Epping is a high school English teacher. When he goes back in time he gets a job working as a substitute teacher, and also [[ItsForABook claims to be writing a book as a cover for his visits to Dallas.Dallas]]. He eventually starts writing the book, and is a little hurt when he is told that it's okay, but nothing really ''special''.



* PoliceAreUseless: Jake frequently considers how he could get the police involved, but quickly realizes that they would be of no help.
** In Derry, he realizes that there's nothing for the police to actually ''do'', since Frank hasn't committed -- or even threatened-- any crime yet. Even if he manages to convince them that Frank really will kill his family and they warn him off or stake out the home on Halloween, Frank would just stay home and then get drunk another night.
** In Dallas, Jake knows that the police have been inundated with so many threats and warnings about threats against President Kennedy that they won't even bother hearing him out. He also harshly describes the Dallas Police Department as "astound[ing] the world with their incompetence" with how they bungle the aftermath of the original assassination, and so knows he can't rely on them to get it right this time.



* {{Profiling}}: Discussed in Al's notes of how the assassination originally went down: Bonnie Ray Williams worked at the Texas Book Depository and was one of the people that the police originally suspected of being the shooter, likely because he was black. Oswald, meanwhile, was questioned and then let go once they determined that he worked there.



* RippleEffectProofMemory: Affects anyone in immediate proximity to the portal. Although [[spoiler:having to reconcile multiple alternate realities can be bad for your mental health.]]

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* RippleEffectProofMemory: Affects anyone RippleEffectProofMemory:
** Al keeps his memories of adult Harry Dunning when Jake first goes back to save the Dunning family, even though the picture of Harry
in immediate proximity the diner disappears with the new timeline. Al and Jake never figure out exactly what the rules are for memory, but think it may have something to do with Al being next to the portal. Although [[spoiler:having rabbit hole when Jake went in.
** Al thinks that the Yellow Card Man knows ''something'' because he happens
to reconcile multiple alternate realities can be bad for your mental health.]]right next to where the rabbit hole comes out, but his mind is so damaged through alcohol abuse that it's not really clear what he knows. [[spoiler:The Green Card Man eventually explains to Jake that he -- and the Yellow Card Man -- are aware of all of the changes that Jake is causing, and the strain of holding so many disparate timelines in their minds is what drives them insane]].



* SeriesContinuityError: While in Derry in 1958, Jake is told the body of Patrick Hockstetter, one of the victims of Pennywise, has recently been found in The Barrens. However, in "{{Literature/IT}}" Patrick was dragged into the tunnels underneath Derry by Pennywise and remained there undiscovered for decades. The Losers encounter his (skeletal) remains down in the tunnels in both 1958 and again in 1985. Likewise, by this time Henry Bowers should have been apprehended by the Derry Police, and under intense pressure from both police questioning and severe psychological strain from what transpired in the sewers, falsely confessed to the murders and sent off to Juniper Hill. The townspeople of Derry don't seem to be aware of this, however, even suspecting that the killer may still be out there, or even unsure that the murders have stopped for good. [[spoiler: Justified in that Jake's changes to the timeline with each visit [[ButterflyEffect may have made subtle changes to events in Derry]] which altered the narrative for that timeline.]]



* TakeThat:
** Jake is thoroughly creeped out by Dallas and flees to Jodie because he can't spend another night there. He finds Dallas ugly, smelly, racist and utterly miserable. And he can sense a great evil in the city, as he did in Derry. King noted in the afterword that some thought he was too hard on Dallas, but claims that, if anything, he was not nearly hard enough on the Dallas of the early 60s. And King made clear that he doesn't think the Dallas of the 2010s is much better.
** The treatment Dallas receives is mild compared to how Fort Worth is portrayed. In particular, the Mercedes Street neighborhood where the Oswald family (and Epping during his surveillance) lived is described as a WretchedHive.

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* TakeThat:
**
TakeThat: Jake is thoroughly creeped out by Dallas and flees to Jodie because he can't spend another night there. He finds Dallas ugly, smelly, racist and utterly miserable. And he can sense a great evil in the city, as he did in Derry. King noted in the afterword that some thought he was too hard on Dallas, but claims that, if anything, he was not nearly hard enough on the Dallas of the early 60s. And King made clear that he doesn't think the Dallas of the 2010s is much better. \n** The treatment Dallas receives is mild compared to how Fort Worth is portrayed. In particular, the Mercedes Street neighborhood where the Oswald family (and Epping during his surveillance) lived is described as a WretchedHive.

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General re-writes throughout the article. Formatting example lists, and removing tropes which do not fit the series


* TheFifties: Technically straddles the 50s and 60s, but Texas wasn't exactly known for being on the forefront of social trends at the time.

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* TheFifties: Technically straddles The rabbit hole always drops you off in 1958. Jake stays in the 50s past long enough to eventually reach the early '60s, but the culture and 60s, but Texas wasn't exactly known for being on society of the forefront of social trends at the time.'50s hasn't yet gone away.



* AgeLift: Bill Turcotte is noticeably younger in the series than he is in the book, most likely to go with his larger role (see below)
* TheAlcoholic: The mysterious Yellow-Card Man [[spoiler:pre-suicide]], as well as Jake's ex-wife.
* TheAllegedCar: When Jake tries to change the past, every single car he touches turns into this.
* AlternateHistory: [[spoiler: Jake creates a spectacularly bad future, where the Vietnam War went nuclear, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain George Wallace]] and ''[[GeneralRipper Curtis [=LeMay=]]]'' became president, the Civil Rights Act never passed, racial tensions are even worse, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Maine has become a Canadian province]]. And that ignores the Earthquakes that will destroy the world]]...

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* AgeLift: Bill Turcotte is noticeably younger in the series than he is in the book, most likely to go with his larger role (see below)
below).
* TheAlcoholic: TheAlcoholic:
** Jake's ex-wife struggled for years with alcohol abuse. He reflects frequently on her efforts to stay sober, the lies she would tell (to others and also to herself), and how it was one of the key components in the end of their marriage. It seems that she did eventually sober up for good, but they separated soon afterwards so he doesn't know if she has since relapsed.
**
The mysterious Yellow-Card Man [[spoiler:pre-suicide]], as well as Man, a wino who accosts Al (and Jake) every time they exit the rabbit hole for money so he can buy alcohol. [[spoiler:Jake eventually learns that it was his knowledge of the changing timelines that drove him to drink]].
* TheAllegedCar:
** No matter how well-maintained a car may be, when Jake attempts to alter the past any vehicle he is driving or riding in spontaneously breaks down with excessive mechanical problems that weren't there yesterday.
**
Jake's ex-wife.
* TheAllegedCar: When Jake tries to change
Sunliner starts the past, every single book as a pristine car that he touches grows extremely attached to. Over the course of the novel, the wear-and-tear from five years hard driving across the country turns into this.
a shaky, near-wreck that eventually breaks down completely.
* AlternateHistory: [[spoiler: AllohistoricalAllusion: In real life, FBI Agent James Hosty eventually believed that Oswald assassinated Kennedy at the behest of the Soviet Union, and that Soviet spies met with him him to give instructions. [[spoiler:When Jake manages to stop the assassination, Hosty thinks that he may be a Soviet spy who was sent to ''stop'' Oswald from performing an assassination that they didn't want to happen]].
* AlternateHistory:[[spoiler:
Jake creates a spectacularly bad future, where the Vietnam War went nuclear, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain George Wallace]] and ''[[GeneralRipper [[GeneralRipper Curtis [=LeMay=]]]'' [=LeMay=]]] became president, the Civil Rights Act never passed, and racial tensions are even worse, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking worse. It got so bad that Maine seceded from the USA and has become a Canadian province]]. And that ignores the Earthquakes province. In addition to these "normal" results from his tampering, there are also dramatic earthquakes that will destroy the world]]...entire planet due to the ruptures in time itself]].



* AndIMustScream: The Guardians. They are not only confined to an extremely small area (in this case over a [[{{Squick}} broken sewer pipe]]), [[spoiler: but the Time Travelers' effects drive them all insane.]]



* ArtisticLicenseHistory: One of Jake's friends tells him to stop wasting his time and bet the Bears to win the NFC in 1963. The Bears ''did'' win the title that year, but it was still the NF'''L'''. The NFL/AFL merger (which led to the creation of the NFC and AFC) would not be agreed to until 1966, and was not consummated until 1970. This was changed in at least one later edition of the book.
** The prize fight that Jake and Sadie go to was entirely fictional.
* AscendedExtra: Bill Turcotte has a much larger role in the miniseries than he had in the book. In the book, he only appears during the part set in Derry. In the series he becomes Jake’s ally in his quest to save Kennedy, and moves with him to Jody, posing as Jake’s little brother.
* AxeCrazy: [[spoiler: Johnny, Sadie's obsessive-compulsive ex-husband who tracks her down and nearly kills her but for Jake and Deke's timely intervention--at least in one timeline.]]
** Not to mention [[spoiler:Frank Dunning, who brutally murders his wife and children with a sledgehammer.]]

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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: ArtisticLicenseHistory:
**
One of Jake's friends tells him to stop wasting his time and bet the Bears to win the NFC in 1963. The Bears ''did'' win the title that year, but it was still the NF'''L'''. The NFL/AFL merger (which led to the creation of the NFC and AFC) would not be agreed to until 1966, and was not consummated until 1970. This was changed in at least one later edition of the book.
** The prize fight that Jake and Sadie go to was entirely fictional.
fictional, as is the newspaper article about Mohrenschildt at Jack Ruby's nightclub.
* AscendedExtra: Bill Turcotte has a much larger role in the miniseries than he had in the book. In the book, he only appears during the part set in Derry. In the series he becomes Jake’s ally in his quest to save Kennedy, Kennedy and moves with him to Jody, Jodie, posing as Jake’s little brother.
* AxeCrazy: [[spoiler: Johnny, Sadie's obsessive-compulsive ex-husband who tracks her down AxeCrazy:
** Frank Dunning killed his wife
and nearly kills her several kids with a hammer in a drunken rage after years of drunken abuse. [[spoiler:Jake eventually finds out that he killed his ''first'' family as well, but for Jake and Deke's timely intervention--at least in one timeline.covered it up so nobody ever suspected.]]
** Not ** Johnny, Sadie's ex-husband, had several mental disorders that are undiagnosed in the past (Jake figures he must have extreme OCD, along with other disorders, when Sadie describes them to mention [[spoiler:Frank Dunning, who brutally murders him). Sadie herself says that she doesn't think he would actually become ''violent'', but Jake thinks that he will eventually echo Frank Dunning. [[spoiler:After he loses his wife job and children is subjected to forced ECT, Johnny mutilates Sadie with a sledgehammer.]]knife and plans to kill either her or Jake]].



* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jake finds out that not only did stopping the Kennedy assassination make a world ''far'' worse, it will eventually destroy the fabric of time. Jake is able to undo this easily, but sadly he can't ever meet Sadie again. Thankfully, she turns out to still be alive in modern days, albeit wounded by her crazy ex. Ultimately, the only thing he changed was that he aged the years he spent in the past (albeit around five). Both the book and the TV series end with Jake and an elderly Sadie sharing a dance together at the school reunion.]]

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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jake finds out that not only did stopping the Kennedy assassination make a world ''far'' worse, it will eventually destroy the fabric of time. Jake is able to undo this easily, but sadly he can't ever go back to meet Sadie again. Thankfully, she turns out to still be alive in modern days, albeit wounded by her crazy ex. Ultimately, the only thing he changed was that he aged the years he spent in the past (albeit around five). past. Both the book and the TV series end with Jake and an elderly Sadie sharing a dance together at the school reunion.reunion in the present.]]



* ContinuityNod:

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* ContinuityNod:ContinuityNod: The story is filled with references to other works by Stephen King.



* ContrivedCoincidence: {{Lampshaded}}. Situations keep repeating for Jake as the past "harmonizes."

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* ContrivedCoincidence: ContrivedCoincidence:
**
{{Lampshaded}}. Situations keep repeating for Jake as the past "harmonizes."



* CuttingTheElectronicLeash: In the tv-adaption, Jake is seen throwing his cell phone in a pond once he gets to the past and begins to adjust to his life there.
** In the book, the threw his phone and all his post-1958 change into the pond behind the motel.

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* CuttingTheElectronicLeash: In the tv-adaption, Jake is seen throwing his cell phone in a pond once he gets to the past and begins to adjust to his life there.
** In the book, the
threw his phone and all his post-1958 change into the pond behind the motel.motel when he realized what they would mean if anybody discovered them. As time progresses, he relishes how much freedom he has not being bound by a cell phone.



* {{Deconstruction}}: Of romanticizing the so-called "good old days". As noted below, there is quite a lot of DeliberateValuesDissonance and aversions of PoliticallyCorrectHistory. not to mention [[spoiler:the fact that trying to change the past to better the future ends up leading to disastrous consequences for ''everyone'']].
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: It's very frequent. From Sadie not knowing anything about OCD, to Deke, one of Jake's elderly friends, reminiscing about MinstrelShows.

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* {{Deconstruction}}: Of romanticizing the so-called "good old days". As noted below, there is quite a lot of DeliberateValuesDissonance and aversions of PoliticallyCorrectHistory. not to mention [[spoiler:the fact that trying to change the past to better the future ends up leading to disastrous consequences for ''everyone'']].
PoliticallyCorrectHistory.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: It's very frequent. From Sadie not knowing anything about OCD, Jake finds himself enjoying the food and culture of the past, but makes a deliberate point to explain to the reader that just because things are nice ''for him'' doesn't mean they were nice all the way around. He repeatedly mentions the time he saw a "Colored" bathroom that was just a wooden plank over a stream, and the path to get there was overgrown with poison ivy. Even Deke, one of Jake's kind elderly friends, reminiscing reminisces fondly about MinstrelShows.the MinstrelShows they had when he was younger.



** Oswald is one. Frank Dunning is worse.

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** Oswald is one. Frank Dunning is worse.the "gets drunk and violent" style of abuser, despite his charming and friendly personality when he is sober. It got so bad that his wife actually kicked him out of their home in 1958, despite the extreme social stigma of the time. [[spoiler:Jake learns that this is a repeating pattern for him, and that he had killed his ''first'' wife and child years before]].
** Lee Harvey Oswald is the type of man who beats on his wife to make himself feel better, since he is so angry at their situation in the world.



* GraysSportsAlmanac: Al's notes. Some of which are actual sports scores for betting purposes.
** Deconstructed; placing big sports bets is a surefire way to draw the attention of organized crime, which happens to Jake on three separate occasions [[spoiler: ending with him suffering a near-fatal beating at the hands of some gangsters]]. Also, Al leaves behind the results of a boxing match that took place after he left the 1960s (and could not use himself) just in case Jake needs extra cash. [[spoiler: Jake not only uses the match results to pick up more money, they also serve as a ''bona fide'' to Sadie that he is in fact a time traveller.]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A chunk of the book is Epping keeping a close eye on Lee Harvey Oswald and monitoring his life and relationships with friends and family.

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* GraysSportsAlmanac: Al's notes. Some of which are actual sports scores for betting purposes.
HistoricalDomainCharacter:
** Deconstructed; placing big sports bets is a surefire way to draw the attention of organized crime, which happens to Jake on three separate occasions [[spoiler: ending with him suffering a near-fatal beating at the hands of some gangsters]]. Also, Al leaves behind the results of a boxing match that took place after he left the 1960s (and could not use himself) just in case Jake needs extra cash. [[spoiler: Jake not only uses the match results to pick up more money, they also serve as a ''bona fide'' to Sadie that he is in fact a time traveller.]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter:
A chunk of the book is Epping keeping a close eye on Lee Harvey Oswald and monitoring his life and relationships with friends and family.



* ILetGwenStacyDie: A weird, non-lethal [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]: While Jake blames [[spoiler:Sadie getting slashed in the face]] on his mucking around with the past, when he [[spoiler:eventually fixes the BadFuture his saving Kennedy caused]], he finds out that [[spoiler:Sadie gets slashed anyway... because [[ArcWords the past really does harmonize]].]]

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* ILetGwenStacyDie: A weird, non-lethal [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]: While Jake blames [[spoiler:Sadie getting slashed in the face]] on his mucking around with the past, when past. [[spoiler:When he [[spoiler:eventually eventually fixes the BadFuture his saving Kennedy caused]], caused, he finds out that [[spoiler:Sadie Sadie gets slashed anyway... because [[ArcWords the past really does harmonize]].]]



* MorethanJustATeacher: Jake time travels to the past and works as a high school teacher there, hiding his knowledge of the future.

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* MorethanJustATeacher: MoreThanJustATeacher: Jake time travels to the past and works as a high school teacher there, hiding his knowledge of the future.future.
* MostWritersAreWriters: Jake Epping is a high school English teacher. When he goes back in time he gets a job working as a substitute teacher, and also claims to be writing a book as a cover for his visits to Dallas. He eventually starts writing the book, and is a little hurt when he is told that it's okay, but nothing really ''special''.



* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Bill wants to be the one to kill Frank Dunning [[spoiler:for what happened to his sister and nephew, both of whom he believes were murdered by Frank. During Jake's first trip back through time, he gets his wish.]]
* OutsideContextProblem: [[spoiler: Jake is this to the FBI, who can't figure out how this man has the information he says he has or why there seems to be no record of his existence prior to 1958 (this ''is'' the FBI we're talking about here). The Yellow Card Man is this to Jake]].

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* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Bill wants to be Turcotte claims that ''he'' is the only one to who can kill Frank Dunning [[spoiler:for what happened Dunning. Jake calls him out on this, pointing out that he has had ''years'' to try and kill Frank but hasn't taken any action. [[spoiler:Jake figures that this is Time itself trying to stop him from keeping Frank from killing his family, and once he 'breaks through' Bill comes to his sister and nephew, both of whom he believes were murdered by Frank. During Jake's first trip back through time, he gets his wish.]]
assistance, which simultaneously does allow him to kill Frank]].
* OutsideContextProblem: [[spoiler: Jake is this to the FBI, who can't figure out how this man has the information he says he has or why there seems to be no record of his existence prior to 1958 (this ''is'' the FBI we're talking about here). The Yellow Card Man is this to Jake]]. 1958.]]



* ShaggyDogStory: Jake rescues [[spoiler:President Kennedy]] at the last moment, but Sadie is killed. When he returns to the present, he finds out that this only made things a lot worse, and changing history always does. [[spoiler:So, he goes back in time once more, which resets the whole thing.]]
** Jake's attempts to save the Dunnings become this. [[spoiler: The first time he does it, one of the Dunning children still ends up dead, and in that timeline, Harry died in Vietnam. In the spectacularly BadFuture created by saving Kennedy, Harry is still alive, but still paralyzed, this time in the Vietnam War.]]
** [[spoiler:Made even worse when you consider that the result of a change doesn't even matter, since it always damages the fabric of time, so any attempt was doomed from the beginning.]]
* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: The rogue FBI agent who kills Martin Luther King in the BadFuture is named Dwight Holly. Dwight Holly is the name of an FBI agent in James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy.]]
** Jake frequently thinks of Lee Harvey Oswald as [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald Rabbit]]

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* ShaggyDogStory: Jake rescues [[spoiler:President Kennedy]] [[spoiler:Jake does manage to save President Kennedy at the last moment, but Sadie is killed. When when he returns to the present, future he finds out learns that this only made things significant changes to the timeline will ''always'' result in a lot worse, and changing history always does. [[spoiler:So, he goes BadFuture. He has to go back in time once more, which resets the whole thing.]]
** Jake's attempts to save the Dunnings become this. [[spoiler: The first time he does it, one of
and undo everything, including saving the Dunning children still ends up dead, family, and in that timeline, Harry died in Vietnam. In reset history back to the spectacularly BadFuture created by saving Kennedy, Harry is still alive, but still paralyzed, this time in the Vietnam War.]]
way it originally went]].
* ShoutOut:
** [[spoiler:Made even worse when you consider that the result Jake frequently thinks of a change doesn't even matter, since it always damages the fabric of time, so any attempt was doomed from the beginning.]]
* ShoutOut:
Lee Harvey Oswald as [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald Rabbit]].
**
[[spoiler: The rogue FBI agent who kills Martin Luther King in the BadFuture is named Dwight Holly. Dwight Holly is the name of an FBI agent in James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy.]]
** Jake frequently thinks of Lee Harvey Oswald as [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald Rabbit]]
]]



* StupidEvil: Johnny, even though you were holding a loaded gun, it was a really, really bad idea to serve a man a tall glass full of powerful bleach, ''tell'' him that it's bleach, order him to drink it, threaten to kill the woman he loves[[note]]Who's sitting at the same table with a terrible facial wound that you just inflicted on her.[[/note]] if he doesn't drink it, and finally, when he's actually ''holding the glass in his hand'', lean across the table at him but not so close that anything that hits you might splash back on him, and scream at him that he'd better drink it or else.
* TakeThat: Jake is thoroughly creeped out by Dallas and flees to Jodie because he can't spend another night there. He finds Dallas ugly, smelly, racist and utterly miserable. And he can sense a great evil in the city, as he did in Derry. King noted in the afterword that some thought he was too hard on Dallas, but claims that, if anything, he was not nearly hard enough on the Dallas of the early 60s. And King made clear that he doesn't think the Dallas of the 2010s is much better.

to:

* StupidEvil: Johnny, even though you were holding a loaded gun, it was a really, really bad idea to serve a man a tall glass full of powerful bleach, ''tell'' him that it's bleach, order him to drink it, threaten to kill the woman he loves[[note]]Who's sitting at the same table with a terrible facial wound that you just inflicted on her.[[/note]] if he doesn't drink it, and finally, when he's actually ''holding the glass in his hand'', lean across the table at him but not so close that anything that hits you might splash back on him, and scream at him that he'd better drink it or else.
* TakeThat:
TakeThat:
**
Jake is thoroughly creeped out by Dallas and flees to Jodie because he can't spend another night there. He finds Dallas ugly, smelly, racist and utterly miserable. And he can sense a great evil in the city, as he did in Derry. King noted in the afterword that some thought he was too hard on Dallas, but claims that, if anything, he was not nearly hard enough on the Dallas of the early 60s. And King made clear that he doesn't think the Dallas of the 2010s is much better.



* TimeCrash: [[spoiler:Changing the past significantly, whether for good or ill, places such strain on reality that it will eventually be destroyed. When Jake returns to the BadFuture after saving Kennedy, he learns that the earth is being rocked by massive earthquakes that are predicted to destroy the world by 2080. Beyond that, there is also a wet, tearing sound in the sky that not even scientists can explain, but which he realizes is reality itself coming undone]].
* TimelineAlteringMacGuffin: Al provides Jake with detailed notes on everything leading up to the Kennedy assassination, including in-depth research into Lee Harvey Oswald's life, personality, and possible conspiracy connections. Al also gives Jake some sports statistics which he can use to gain some extra cash in an emergency. [[spoiler:Jake uses this knowledge to convince Sadie that he is telling the truth about the Kennedy assassination]].



%%* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler: Frank Dunning, Oswald, and Johnny]] would.
%%* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Frank Dunning]] certainly would as well.

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%%* WouldHitAGirl: [[spoiler: Frank Dunning, Oswald, and Johnny]] would.
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* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Frank Dunning]] certainly would as well.Dunning murdered his wife and all but one of his children in a drunken rage. The story of that night is one of the few times that Jake is moved to tears, and the thought that he can change this part of history is one of the motivations for him to accept Al's offer to go back in time.
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None of these examples are the trope. The novel explicitly addresses the guilt that comes from killing a human being, and it is not something which a character can do lightly for the sake of seeing the results. They also do discuss the possibility of the butterfly effect having unexpectedly bad results, and that if so they can reverse it (As Jake himself does at the end).


* IdiotBall: Three major ones, two relating to the fact that every trip through the time portal is a ResetButton.
** Al wants to prevent the Kennedy assassination, but he only feels 95% sure that Lee Harvey Oswald is the real killer and acted alone, so he (and later, Jake) spends five years in the past attempting to make sure. Why not just track down and kill Oswald right away, head back through the portal, and spend five minutes on the Internet checking to see if Kennedy was still killed? You can always just hit the ResetButton and try again if you got it wrong. [[note]]It's worth noting that even doing this Al or Jake would still have to wait around a while, as Oswald was on a military base in Japan at 1958 when the time portal came out.[[/note]]
** By the time Al gets back from his mission to save Kennedy, it has become clear that the timeline resists change, that the resistance is proportional to the magnitude of the change, and that it will resist a large change like preventing the Kennedy assassination with near-irresistible lethal force. Being too ill to complete the mission himself, he passes it on to Jake... who proceeds to go on a potential suicide mission without informing anyone else what he's up to. Okay, granted, he wants to keep the time portal a secret, but surely he could have found ONE trustworthy person to sit outside the portal with instructions that if Jake is not back in two minutes (meaning he has died in the past), to find ANOTHER trustworthy person to wait while the first attempts to complete the mission that both Al and Jake have failed.
** Al is aware of the ButterflyEffect, as is Jake. They talk about it at some length. And yet, it never occurs to either of them that making such a fundamental alteration to world history as they are planning would necessarily result in millions of people dying or never existing simply as a result of countless things happening differently than they actually did. In Al's case, he's an idiot because he completely disregards the possibility that the changes might be very negative, and Jake is an idiot because he has five years to think about the repercussions and never really does.

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* AgeLift: Bill Turcotte is noticeably younger in the series than he is in the book, most likely to go with his large role (see below)

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* AgeLift: Bill Turcotte is noticeably younger in the series than he is in the book, most likely to go with his large larger role (see below)


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* JustBeforeTheEnd: One of the consequences of Jake interfering with history is Earth being struck with almost constant earthquakes due to the disturbance of reality. It's estimated by scientists that the planet will have completely broken apart by 2080.
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* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: Constant in the series. When cornered about his past, Jake claims to have made two tours in Korea for the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M*A*S*H]]; to have composed a song with three friends called [[Music/TheBeatles John, Paul, and Ringo]]; or to be in witness protection after seeing a maffia leader called [[Film/TheGodfather Michael kill his brother Fredo]] in a lake. He also makes a reference to the film ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' before realizing that it has not come out yet, but it lands because [[AdaptationDisplacement the book]] has.

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* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: Constant in the series. When cornered about his past, Jake claims to have made two tours in Korea for the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M*A*S*H]]; to have composed a song with three friends called [[Music/TheBeatles John, Paul, and Ringo]]; or to be in witness protection after seeing a maffia leader called [[Film/TheGodfather Michael kill his brother Fredo]] in a lake. He also makes a reference to the film ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' before realizing that it has not come out yet, but it lands because [[AdaptationDisplacement the book]] book has.
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* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference: Constant in the series. When cornered about his past, Jake claims to have made two tours in Korea for the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M*A*S*H]]; to have composed a song with three friends called [[Music/TheBeatles John, Paul, and Ringo]]; or to be in witness protection after seeing a maffia leader called [[Film/TheGodfather Michael kill his brother Fredo]] in a lake. He also makes a reference to the film ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' before realizing that it has not come out yet, but it lands because [[AdaptationDisplacement the book]] has.
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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jake finds out that not only did stopping the Kennedy assassination make a world ''far'' worse, it will eventually destroy the fabric of time. Jake is able to undo this easily, but sadly he can't ever meet Sadie again. Thankfully, she turns out to still be alive in modern days, albeit wounded by her crazy ex. Ultimately, the only thing he changed was that he aged the years he spent in the past (albeit around five).]]

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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jake finds out that not only did stopping the Kennedy assassination make a world ''far'' worse, it will eventually destroy the fabric of time. Jake is able to undo this easily, but sadly he can't ever meet Sadie again. Thankfully, she turns out to still be alive in modern days, albeit wounded by her crazy ex. Ultimately, the only thing he changed was that he aged the years he spent in the past (albeit around five). Both the book and the TV series end with Jake and an elderly Sadie sharing a dance together at the school reunion.]]
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** "I've never been what you might call a 'crying man'"
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* CelebrityCasualty: [[spoiler:In the altered future, UsefulNotes/BillClinton dies of a heart attack at the 2004 Democratic Convention.]]
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https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=CIAEvilFBIGood is specifically about the juxtaposition of a morally good FBI organization and morally bad CIA organization. Example that don't fit the trope will be deleted or moved to existing tropes when applicable


* CIAEvilFBIGood: {{Zigzagged}} on the FBI. [[spoiler: After saving Kennedy, the FBI agent in charge is content to help Jake disappear and gives him a large amount of money to do so. However, in the Crapsack Future, it is revealed that Hoover actually ordered the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.]]
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Mondegreen is no longer a trope; dewicking


* {{Mondegreen}}: One of the characters Jake meets is called "Silent Mike", because when he was little, he misheard the song "Silent Night", thinking that it was all about him.

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* {{Mondegreen}}: MondegreenGag: One of the characters Jake meets is called "Silent Mike", because when he was little, he misheard the song "Silent Night", thinking that it was all about him.
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* CrapsackWorld: [[spoiler:The alternate present day created by Kennedy's survival is a very unpleasant place. The Civil Rights Act was never passed and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by the FBI, so race relations in the United States remain bad. The Vietnam War was ended by the United States nuking Hanoi, resulting in nuclear weapons being used frequently in warfare, so much of the world is radioactive. President Hilary Clinton is now trying to hold the remains of the country under Martial law. Gang warfare, pollution, poverty, extremism, famine, and hate are commonplace.]]

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* CrapsackWorld: [[spoiler:The alternate present day created by Kennedy's survival is a very unpleasant place. The Civil Rights Act was never passed and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by the FBI, so race relations in the United States remain bad. The Vietnam War was ended by the United States nuking Hanoi, resulting in nuclear weapons being used frequently in warfare, so much of the world is radioactive. President Hilary Clinton is now trying to hold the remains of the country together under Martial martial law. Gang warfare, pollution, poverty, extremism, famine, and hate racism are commonplace.]]

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* UnusualEuphemism: "Poundcake" is Jake and Sadie's euphemism for sex.

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* UnexpectedVirgin: PlayedForDrama and tragedy. [[spoiler:Sadie was trapped in an abusive, loveless marriage with Johnny Clayton for four years; as a result, Jake is Sadie's first truly intimate partner.]]
* UnusualEuphemism: "Poundcake" is Jake and Sadie's euphemism for sex.sex, a reference to the dessert Jake had bought before their first night together.
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Jake worries aloud that saving Kennedy [[spoiler:could eventually result in a BadFuture where America has a fascist government and the air is so bad that people have to walk around in gas masks. Guess what Jake finds when he returns to the present...]]
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Crosswicking.

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* TimeTitle: The date of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy's assassination (in the American MM/DD/YY format), which the novel is partially about.
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* MorethanJustATeacher: Jake time travels to the past and works as a high school teacher there, hiding his knowledge of the future.

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