History Literature / Skagboys

** Likewise, [[spoiler: Mark's older brother Billy will be killed in an IRA ambush while serving with the British Army in Northern Ireland]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: Before Renton and Sick Boy started to [[{{Trainspotting}} actively resent each other]] and eventually [[Literature/{{Porno}} turn mutually treacherous]], they just [[CallForward pantomimed insulting each other]] for their own amusement and that of others.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[InvokedTrope|Invoked]] by Alexander when his family criticizes him for leaving his wife, which she had apparently said several times she hoped he would do.

** Lesley: Whom appears in Trainspotting and is mentioned in Porno

* DoomedByCanon: Anybody who's already read {{Trainspotting}} will already know that [[spoiler: Matty and Tommy will die of AIDS. By the end of ''Skagboys'', the final "Notes On An Epidemic" chapter lists a number of HIV positive patients, one of whom is Matty.]]

** Alison, albeit her role was already expanded by the time of Porno.

* ContinuityNod: Even for an IrvineWelsh novel, this one is particularly packed with references to TheVerse. Above and beyond just the innumerable [[CallForward call forwards]] to ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'', we have:

* ButtMonkey: Matty. Constantly berated behind his back and in his face for being a junk-addicted scruffy thief with a bad attitude. When Matty hassles Keezbo during Hodgemany, Franco smacks him on the head and reprimands him in front of his girl friend.

* ButtMonkey

* * [[ScaryTeeth Disgusting Teeth]]: We hear about the decline of Renton's teeth from white to yellow and Matty's from yellow to brownish. Toothpaste isn't as valuable as heroin to these lads.

* [[ScaryTeeth Disgusting Teeth]]: We hear about the decline of Renton's teeth from white to yellow and Matty's from yellow to brownish. Toothpaste isn't as valuable as heroin to these lads.
** The White Swan's teeth, meanwhile, are [[SarcasmMode lovingly described]] as having a green and brown tinge, like [[TheSexPistols Johnny Rotten's]].

* StartOfDarkness

[[quoteright:210:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/timthumb_3831.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:210: Ah'm a fuckin trainspotter...]]

* Expy: Keezbo is what [[Literature/{{Glue}} Juice Terry]] could have been if he started on heroin, supported Hearts and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking had ginger hair]]. They're both very successful with the ladies despite their weight, and have a penchant for breaking and entering.

Mark Renton's got it all: he's young, smart, and good-looking with his own flat, girlfriend, and a place at Aberdeen University. But there is no room for him in the 80s. As Thatcherism demolishes working-class communities across the UK, Renton's family fractures and he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the unsavoury, drug-infested side of the Northern Soul scene as he succumbs to defeatism and despair. His life begins to fall apart, but nothing is ever so bad that it can't get worse.

His friends aren't doing much better. Frank Begbie's increasingly unhinged and violent behaviour is making him a feared name across Leith. Spud is laid off from his furniture removals job and unable to find new employment. Tommy Lawrence is unwillingly sucked into the world of petty crime by Begbie and Matty Connelly. And Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson is becoming more and more at the mercy of the inner rage which compels him to scar, manipulate, and torment everyone he can. But with bust comes opportunity...

* ADateWithRosiePalms

* CountryMatters: [[CaptainObvious Par for the course in a Welsh novel.]] However, Matty's use stands out. Much more often than not, he simply refers to everyone else as "Cunt". Its no exaggeration to say this helps to make him one of the least sympathetic of the protaganists, and that really does say something when [[CountryMatters country matters]] is tossed around as freely as it is by almost every other main (and peripheral) character.

* NobodyPoops: Averted. Did you expect anything else?

** Retroactively [[InvertedTrope inverted]] with Kelly. Here she's got a bit part, but as ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'' is the sequel to ''Skagboys'' it gives her some character development as a budding student and Mike's casual girlfriend.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Before Renton and Sick Boy started to [[{{Trainspotting}} actively resent each other]] and eventually [[{{Porno}} turn mutually treacherous]], they just [[CallForward pantomimed insulting each other]] for their own amusement and that of others.

** '''Les''''': "They say that aboot skinny guys. Aw prick n ribs.''''\\

* [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Idiosyncratic Chapter Naming]] The gang's more disturbing struggles with heroin really kick off in Junk Dilemmas No. 1-4, with trademark italics. This is an important CallForward to ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}''. And then you have The Rehab Diaries, intermittently charting 45 days of Renton's cold turkey at St. Monan's. Also, there's Notes On An Epidemic 1-7, explaining the myriad events leading to the skag addiction cum HIV infestation Edinburgh played host to in the eighties.

** '''Les''': "They say that aboot skinny guys. Aw prick n ribs.''''\\

His friends aren't doing much better. Frank Begbie's increasingly unhinged and violent behaviour is making him a feared name across Leith. Spud is laid off from his furniture removals job and unable to find new employment. Tommy Lawrence is unwillingly sucked into the world of petty crime by Begbie and Matty Connelly. And Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson is becoming more and more at the mercy of the inner rage which compels him to scar, manipulate, and torment everyone he can.

** '''''Les''': "They say that aboot skinny guys. Aw prick n ribs.''''\\