History Literature / T2Trilogy

* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Downplayed, and simultaneously deconstructed. Serena fakes a truly impressive resume to land a job as Cyberdyne's head of security, so she can protect [=SkyNet=], and to add further incentive to hire her, during her interviews she subtly implies that some of her "upward mobility" was due to her "horizontal agility." The Cyberdyne directors eat the implication up with spoons--but their security liaison [[RealityEnsues immediately sees this as a red flag]].
* StrawmanPolitical: The [[EcoTerrorist Luddites]] are portrayed as gullible fools at best, and their leader comes across as a [[StrawLoser massive hypocrite and whining sociopath]]. To make clear how stupid their fanatical environmentalism is, the first book even has Serena and Skynet [[EvilerThanThou commenting]] condescendingly on it.

* RealityEnsues: The books live on this trope. Dieter's main red flag that something truly bizarre is going on with Sarah Connor isn't just that pictures of ''him'' were taken with her, once when he was apparently trying to kill and again when he was working with her (and Dieter is confirmed to be elsewhere during both events), but the fact that, while Dieter is a top-notch special forces agent and crack shot, even ''he'' couldn't nonfatally shoot people in the legs as often as the T-800 does. John and Sarah are wanted criminals for their previous antics and hiding out in Paraguay, and both have some pretty severe PTSD to deal with. Numerous other examples abound, mostly deconstructing the common action movie tropes the Terminator series lives.

* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: The neural implants in an I-950 can actually take over the body and use it like a meat puppet after the organic brain is fatally damaged. The heroes have to blast the brain to total mush or sever the head to kill one.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] due to the series' conceit that time has an "inertia," and will mold events to play out as closely as possible. The more success John and Sarah have delaying or destroying [=SkyNet=], the more events push back to bring [=SkyNet=] about. [[spoiler: Taken to UpToEleven in the second book, when they attempt to simply stop [=SkyNet=] from ever becoming sentient. Wendy Dorset basically has to write an AI program, then write a program to prevent AI from happening. [[IdiotBall But she forgot to label the disks]], and ends up inserting the AI program first, and is promptly killed. Thus, Wendy, who was only involved because of her relationship with John Connor, actually makes [=SkyNet=] self-aware.]]

** The Infiltrator 950s are the truest example of this trope in the ''Terminator''-verse, being human beings (with some gene-modification) who are implanted with various cybernetic upgrades from birth, mostly focused on neural modifications. They can even reproduce sexually, though only with other I-950s or through parthenogenesis.
** Serena has the most critical components for T-800s surgically implanted in her body before being sent back through time, allowing her to create T-800s as backup.

* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Deconstructed. Serena fakes a truly impressive resume to land a job as Cyberdyne's head of security, so she can protect [=SkyNet=], and to add further incentive to hire her, during her interviews she subtly implies that some of her "upward mobility" was due to her "horizontal agility." The Cyberdyne directors eat the implication up with spoons--but their security liaison [[RealityEnsues immediately sees this as a red flag]].

* SleepingTheirWayToTheTop: Serena fakes a truly impressive resume to land a job as Cyberdyne's head of security, so she can protect [=SkyNet=]. To add incentive, during her interviews she subtly implies that some of her "upward mobility" was due to her "horizontal agility." The Cyberdyne [=CEOs=] eat the implication up with spoons, while Tricker immediately sees it as a red flag.

* StrawmanPolitical: The [[EcoTerrorists Luddites]] are portrayed as gullible fools at best, and their leader comes across as a [[StrawLoser massive hypocrite and whining sociopath]]. To make clear how stupid their fanatical environmentalism is, the first book even has Serena and Skynet [[EvilerThanThou commenting]] condescendingly on it.

* MistakenForTerrorist: Both John and Sarah, for blowing up Cyberdyne in Terminator 2.

* CasualDangerDialogue: In a CrowningMomentOfFunny, a Terminator is attempting to kill John, Sarah, and Dieter as they are leaving on a chartered plane. The Terminator is hanging on outside the plane, and the best weapon they have to deal with it is C-4. Sarah is spinning the plastic explosive in her hands into thin ropes, which they wrap around the Termiantor's arms and (eventually) neck to destroy it. Dieter comments that he's never seen someone work plastic explosive like that, and John says that Sarah does it the same way she does with dough for Christmas cookies, to which Sarah helpfully supplies the name.

The books are out of the main continuity of the series following ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'', which chose a rather different path for the universe to take, though it arguably inspired (or at least predicted) certain ''elements'' of that film. On the [[http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Terminator_Wiki Terminator Wiki]], they are treated as an alternate timeline. In any case, the trilogy consists of three novels:

The books are out of the main continuity of the series following ''Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'', which chose a rather different path for the universe to take, though it arguably inspired (or at least predicted) certain ''elements'' of that film. On the [[http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Terminator_Wiki Terminator Wiki]], they are treated as an alternate timeline. In any case, the trilogy consists of three novels:

It consists of three novels:
* ''Infiltration''
* ''Rising Storm''
* ''The Future War''

* CasualDangerDialogue: In a CrowningMomentOfFunny, a Terminator is attempting to kill John, Sarah, and Dieter as they are leaving on a chartered plane. The Terminator is hanging on outside the plane, and the best weapon they have to deal with it is C-4. Sarah is spinning the plastic explosive in her hands into thin ropes, which they wrap around the Termiantor's arms and (eventually) neck to destroy it. Dieter comments that he's never seen someone work plastic explosive like that, and John says that Sarah does it the same way she does with dough for Christmas cookiees, to which Sarah helpfully supplies the name.

* JerkAss: Ronald Labane, a self-righteous eco-nut who abandons his commune, including his long-term lover and infant child, because he feels they have "sold out". In reality, he's a self-righteous, lazy, self-proclaimed leader and an all-around asshole, who blew up at them because they expected him to start actually working to help out around the commune instead of sitting around and typing up reams of drivel. He's end goal is to actually foment a Neo-Luddite uprising, to save the planet from wonton consumerism and impose a better set of values (namely, his) on everyone. He even cites the old chestnut about omelettes and eggs when thinking about the likely cost of his revolution.

* Infiltration
* Rising Storm
* The Future War

* LesCollaborateurs: [=SkyNet=] actually has a small contingent of humans who serve it in various capacities, ranging from humans who sold out in hopes of having at least some small comfort to eco-nut zealots who actively seek the destruction of humanity.

%%* BadassFamily: The Connors.

** Defied; I-950s have much more subtle cyber-components and so can pass the "dog test".

* RetiredBadass: Dieter von Rossbach, an ex counter-intelligence agent. The man was picked as the base for the T-800's disguise for a reason.

* JerkAss: Ronald Labane, a self-righteous eco-nut who abandons his commune, including his long-term lover and infant child, because he feels they have "sold out". In reality, he's a self-righteous, lazy, self-proclaimed leader and an all-around asshole, who blew up at them because they expected him to start actually working to help out around the commune instead of sitting around and typing up reams of drivel.

** The I-950s are able to repress pain through their combination of intense training and neural implants, allowing them to keep functioning despite considerable injury.

* MuggingForClothes: Serena takes a woman hostage and uses her apartment as a temporary base to set up an identity for herself in order to complete her mission. Before leaving, she takes some of the woman's clothes.

* BadAss:
** BadassFamily: The Connors.
** RetiredBadass: Dieter von Rossbach, an ex counter-intelligence agent. The man was picked as the base for the T-800's disguise for a reason.

The T2 Trilogy is a set of novels in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' continuity, written as sequels to ''Film/{{Terminator 2}}'' by Creator/SMStirling. When its existence is jeopardized by the destruction of the T-800 remnants in the 1990s, [=SkyNet=] sends Serena, one of a new breed of super-realistic cyborg stealth operatives, back in time to ensure its existence and, if possible, the destruction of the Connors. This forces the Connors to team up with Dieter von Rossbach, the Austrian-American ex-counter-intelligence agent who served as the base model for the T-800s, in order to stop [=SkyNet=]'s plans.

** The Infiltrator 950s are the truest example of this trope in the Terminator-verse, being human beings (with some gene-modification) who are implanted with various cybernetic upgrades from birth, mostly focused on neural modifications. They can even reproduce sexually, though only with other I-950s or through parthenogenesis.

** Referenced; as per Terminatorverse canon, dogs can sense the artificial nature of T-800s and T-1000s and react with aggression. Seeing a stray dog instantly take a liking to Dieter helps reassure Sarah that he actually isn't another T-800 come to kill her.

The T2 Trilogy is a set of novels in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' continuity, written as sequels to ''Film/{{Terminator 2}}'' by Creator\SMStirling. When its existence is jeopardized by the destruction of the T-800 remnants in the 1990s, [=SkyNet=] sends Serena, one of a new breed of super-realistic cyborg stealth operatives, back in time to ensure its existence and, if possible, the destruction of the Connors. This forces the Connors to team up with Dieter von Rossbach, the Austrian-American ex-counter-intelligence agent who served as the base model for the T-800s, in order to stop [=SkyNet=]'s plans.

The T2 Trilogy is a set of novels in the \'\'Franchise/{{Terminator}}\'\' continuity, written as sequels to \'\'Film/{{Terminator 2}}\'\' by Creator/SMStirling. When its existence is jeopardized by the destruction of the T-800 remnants in the 1990s, [=SkyNet=] sends Serena, one of a new breed of super-realistic cyborg stealth operatives, back in time to ensure its existence and, if possible, the destruction of the Connors. This forces the Connors to team up with Dieter von Rossbach, the Austrian-American ex-counter-intelligence agent who served as the base model for the T-800s, in order to stop [=SkyNet=]\'s plans.

** FamilyOfBadass: The Connors.
** RetiredBadass: Dieter von Rossbach, an ex counter-intelligence agent. The man was picked as the base for the T-800\'s disguise for a reason.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: The T-800s; as Serena realises all too late, this makes them more remarkable amongst humans, making it much harder to deploy multiple ones at a time and go unnoticed.

** Ronald Labane\'s efforts to set up a group of neo-Luddites would lead to that group\'s descendants actually \'\'helping\'\' [=SkyNet=] to destroy humanity for \"the sake of Mother Earth\".
*** Furthering the irony, as Serena notes in \'\'Infiltrator\'\', [=SkyNet=] is actually \'\'more\'\' likely to destroy all life on Earth than humanity is, since it is neither hindered by the need for oxygen & organic fuels nor possessed of the emotional attachment that humans feel, however dimly, for other life.
* JerkAss: Ronald Labane, a self-righteous eco-nut who abandons his commune, including his long-term lover and infant child, because he feels they have \"sold out\". In reality, he\'s a self-righteous, lazy, self-proclaimed leader and an all-around asshole, who blew up at them because they expected him to start actually working to help out around the commune instead of sitting around and typing up reams of drivel.

* MuggedForClothes: Serena takes a woman hostage and uses her apartment as a temporary base to set up an identity for herself in order to complete her mission. Before leaving, she takes some of the woman\'s clothes.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Deconstructed when Dieter takes a look at the unedited reports of the T-800s rampages; the leg actually has a number of major blood vessels that are very hard to avoid, meaning a leg-wound is actually pretty likely to be fatal. No \'\'human\'\' would be likely to make consistently non-lethal leg-wounds.

** Serena couches it in terms of logic, but still, she chooses to leave the woman she mugs for initial clothing and shelter alive, and actively makes it her goal to avoid killing unless necessary during her efforts in \'\'Infiltration\'\'.
** There\'s also her seemingly instinctive desire to protect the female slave who was her caretaker, even though she considers [=SkyNet=] to be her \"true parent\".

* TheSpartanWay: [=SkyNet=]s efforts at rearing the I-950s, which started when they were babies; they would be given hologrammatic toys to chase and compelled to chase them as long as possible to build up physical conditioning and stamina. Those who failed were punished and eventually eliminated. Serena actually kills one of her brothers after he is judged \"emotionally compromised\".

* ThoseWackyNazis: Dr. Kurt Veimeister, the German scientist who is integral to [=SkyNet=] developing into a full-fledged AI, is a full-blown Neo-Nazi. Initially, Cyberdyne doesn\'t want anything to do with him, but is eventually forced to accept him because he is just that good. \'\'Infiltrator\'\' contains a chilling scene of him teaching the infant [=SkyNet=] to vocalise by reading aloud \'\'Literature/MeinKampf\'\', calling it \"one of my favorite books\". Serena can barely resist smirking, noting that this, more than anything, is laying the foundation for [=SkyNet=]\'s future genocide of the entire human species.
* WesternTerrorists: Neo-Luddites, of the \"psychopathic ecological preservations\" variety, actively serve [=SkyNet=] in the future, and are beginning to form around Ronald Labane in the present.

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