History Literature / MardockScramble

%% * GravityMaster: Boiled, and Paradise's [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks Cherubim]], both through the power of ''magnets''.

* NoSell: A pack of Paradise's [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks Cherubs]] attempt to stop Boiled from infiltrating the facility. They quickly realize that their advanced PGF technology means next to nothing compared to him. [[CurbStompBattle Right before he blows them all away.]]

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Paradise's security forces include ''[[GravityMaster flying]]'' sharks. They're perfectly friendly off-duty, though.

* BatmanGambit: Boiled's hiring the Bandersnatch Company to get rid of Balot comes off like a pretty classic version of the trope. [[spoiler: Boiled doesn't actually expect them to be able to kill her, because he's aware of what Oeufcoque can do. He's therefore sending them in to test the extent of her abilities and how she will react to a threat on her life. He also wants to see if he can push her into abusing Oeufcoque so that he will reject her, thereby making Balot an easy target.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: When Rune's brother found out their father was raping her, he shot at him.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Rune's father was an out of work laborer with a degenerative neurological disorder, who raped Rune several times. Her mother was a mentally unbalanced emotionally and physically abusive drug addict. And her brother was forced to resort to gunrunning for money, and nearly killed the father after learning about the aforementioned rape. Currently both parents are hospitalized, and her brother is serving a prison sentence.

* BodyHorror: The Bandersnatch Company, in spades. Let's see, we've got: a guy who replaces his fingers with those of his victims, a guy with [[EyesDoNotBelongThere eyeballs implanted all over his chest and arms]], a cackling sadist whose skin and hair are a patchwork of grafts taken from his victims, a FatBastard with human breasts grafted all over his body, and... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Pussyhand]].
* BottomlessBladder: Averted. Rune has to use a department store toilet on her first trip away from Dr Easter's lab, where she finds and disables a camera. Her urine smells of medication.

* CelibateHero: Rune's history has resulted in her having absolutely no interest in sex whatsoever.

* DimensionalTraveler: Œufcoque is some kind of multi-dimensional being. Though this only means he exists in several simultaneously, not that he can teleport or open wormholes like the trope usually refers to.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Welldone the Pussyhand has a vulva on his hand (indeed all the Bandersnatchers are named after bodyparts they like to collect)

* GunsAkimbo: Rune, sometimes. It makes sense, since she really is that good, and Œufcoque can generate new magazines inside the guns to reload. If she ever needs a free hand, she can just [[ThrowAwayGuns toss a gun]] and have Œufcoque generate a whole new one later.
* HandCannon: Boiled's revolver. It's so ridiculously powerful that he is only capable of firing it due to his PGF ability.

* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: The Bandersnatch Company, for one. Not to mention the ass kicking they receive from Balot in the last quarter of the first movie gets Balot reminiscing about all the abuse she's been through.

* MsFanservice: Rune spends a lot of time naked, or wearing a NakedApron. She alternates between ReluctantFanserviceGirl and InnocentFanserviceGirl depending on the situation.

* PlayfulHacker: Rune can ''snark'' virtually ''anything'', and displays a sadistic mischievousness about it when she does so to the Bandersnatchers.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Snarc/Snark, Flesh/Fresh

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Œufcoque is implied to be able to literally Turn into ''almost'' anything. Though he insists he could never become a human, and seems restricted to inanimate objects.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never specified where in the future Mardock City is, aside from that it's within a area called the "Commonwealth", and they were once at war with the "Continent". It's mentioned to have a coastal district, and the novel refers to Central Park, Times Square, and Trump Tower, all of which suggests it could be a future version of New York City, but it remains ambiguous.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Normally Balot is nigh unstoppable unless against monsters like Boiled. [[spoiler:However, during her second fight against Medium in the manga she lacked Œufcoque, and thus all his weaponry and battle-suit. While her personal powers were still available, she was nearly powerless to inflict harm on a military-grade cyborg like Medium and was forced to retreat.]]

!!''Mardock Scramble'' proivides examples of:

!!Tropes:

* {{Asexual}}: Doctor Easter left his wife because the hundreds of hours of ethics counseling his government research required rendered him impotent. He thinks it makes him saintly.

* NotSoDifferent: During her massacre of the Bandersnatchers, Balot becomes intoxicated by the feeling of power it gives her, and reasons that this is what all the men who used her must have felt.

* {{Transgender}}: Rare the Hair [[CrossDresser dresses in feminine clothing and wears a woman's funeral veil]], [[BodyHorror transplants the hair and skin of women he fancies to himself]], and has [[VocalDissonance surgically altered his vocal chords to sound female.]]

* FromBadToWorse: [[TheWoobie Rune's entire life: Her mother is addicted to drugs, her father raped her, her brother is in jail because he injured their dad to protect her, she had to work as a prostitute. As a minor prostitute!]] At least up until meeting Œufcoque and Dr. Easter.

* BigBrotherInstinct: When Rune's brother had to finding out their father was raping her, he shot at him.

%% * BigBrotherInstinct: The reaction Rune's brother had to finding out their father was raping her was... decisive.

%% * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Welldone the Pussyhand (indeed all the Bandersnatchers)

%% * FromBadToWorse: [[TheWoobie Rune's entire life.]] At least up until meeting Œufcoque and Dr. Easter.

%% * HandCannon: Boiled's revolver. It's so ridiculously powerful that he is only capable of firing it due to his PGF ability.

%% * RapeAsBackstory: Rune, as detailed in the ParentalIncest entry. [[spoiler: Shell too, as it turns out.]]

%% * ConspicuousCG: Mostly in scenes with cars.