History Literature / TheNightOfWishes

** Beelzebub's oirignal German name is Beelzebub Irrwitzer (translates roughly and freely to madness maker.)

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The story starts at [[NewYearHasCome New Year's Eve]] and ends a few minutes after midnight.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: The ''"Büchernörgele"'' is too well-read to believe in supernatural beings like elves or fairies, despite being himself a fairy creature and trapped in a room full of elves, fairies and suchlike.

* FunWithAcronyms: Lucifer's Salto Dimensionale.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: The ''"Büchernörgele"'' is too well-read to believe in supernatural beings like elves or fairies, despite being in a room full of them.

* CastFromMoney: Liquid money was one of the ingredients needed for the Notion Potion.
* CatsAreMean: Subverted, as the cat is probably the kindest and most compassionate character in the book (if a bit of a dunce at times).

* HoldMe: Jacob and Maurizio do this to each other without realizing it.
* {{I Do Not Speak Nonverbal}}: Jacob's winking to hint that he's a fellow spy goes right over Maurizio's head.

* {{Green Aesop}}: Evil magic is said to be partly responsible for the pollution of the environment.

* {{Kavorka Man}}: Jacob is an ugly old bird, but has so many wives he can barely keep their names straight. It becomes a {{Running Gag}}.

* {{Kid With The Leash}}: Beelzebub keeps a collection of elemental spirits trapped in jars. As soon as they get free, chaos ensues.
* {{Large Ham}}: Tyrannia enters the house vie the chimney in a shower of gold coins, singing and demanding applause. When she's mad, she conjures a giant camel. Beelzebub isn't much better.

* {{Mad Scientist Laboratory}}: Beelzebub has one.

* {{Married To The Job}}: Beelzebub, in a throwaway line. Not that any sane woman would want him.
* {{Meaningful Name}}: All the villains.
* {{Mushroom Samba}}

* {{Nice Job Fixing It Villain}}: [[spoiler: The potion grants the ''reverse'' of what the drinker wishes out loud, which is why the villains planned to use it to commit all the evil deeds in their contracts in one night. However, with Maurizio and Jacob's intervention, all those hypocritical wishes for peace, prosperity etc. end up literally coming true.]]

* {{Odd Friendship}}: Maurizio and Jacob become this.

* {{Old Dark House}}: Nightmare Villa, custom-designed by Beelzebub.

** The recipe itself is written in code both understand, but the instructions are a mixed bag calling alternately for money magic or lab wizardry, which are the respective specialities of Tyrannja and Beelzebub, and they are each ignorant of the other field, to the point where Tyrannja couldn't even have made the cauldron required to take the extreme stress of the process.

* {{Security Cling}}: Maurizio and Jacob do this with each other several times.

* SecretMessageWink: Jakob, raven pet of the witch Tyrannia, keeps winking at Maurizio, cat pet of the wizard Bubonic, to clue Maurizio in on the fact that both are sent from the Council of Animals and were told to keep an eye on their masters. Of course it goes straight over Maurizio's head, who is flummoxed as to why the strange bird is trying to act all chummy. Bubonic, though, is the one who asks what is wrong with Jakob, and not Maurizio.
* {{Take That}}: The ''"Büchernörgele"'' ("book nag") is a Take That to literary critics, especially a famous German one named Marcel Reich-Ranicki, whose face he has in the illustrated German version.

* {{Teeth Clenched Teamwork}}: The two villains, each waiting for the chance to take the other out.

* {{Upper Class Twit}}: Maurizio, who claims descent from Neapolitan cat nobility. [[spoiler: He's really just a stray cat, but his mannerisms are still the same.]]

* {{Wide Eyed Idealist}}: Maurizio, in contrast to Jacob {{The Cynic}}.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** In particular, one of the preparation steps for the potion requires going to the 4th Dimension. How do you get there? Why, by injecting Lucifer's Salto Dimensionale.
** When talking about how books of wizards and witches, although not moving, are to some level sentient and very conscious of the titles and topics of books standing next to them, the narrator says even an ordinary human can understand the need for topical arrangement, as nobody would put, say, ''[[Creator/MarquisDeSade Justine]]'' next to a children's book.

* {{Mushroom Samba}}: See {{Getting Crap Past The Radar}} above.

* {{Determinator}}: Maurizio, a fat little tomcat climbing up a church tower in a snowstorm to seek divine aid in spite of all Jacob's objections.

* {{Affably Evil}}: The emissary of Hell, Maledictus Maggot, is extremely polite.

* {{Black Speech}}: The language of the fourth dimension is a variation on this - it literally ''cannot'' be translated, because it describes things and actions of that dimension that don't exist in ours.
* {{Broken Pedestal}}: Maurizio, the cat, starts out worshipping his master and is heartbroken to find out said master's true intentions.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In particular, one of the preparation steps for the potion requires going to the 4th Dimension. How do you get there? Why, by injecting Lucifer's Salto Dimensionale... [[DontExplainTheJoke check the initials.]]

* GoodIsBadAndBadIsGood

** When talking about how books of wizards and witches, although not moving, are to some level sentinent and very conscious of the titles and topics of books standing next to them, the narrator says even an ordinary human can understand the need for topical arrangement, as nobody would put, say, ''[[Creator/MarquisDeSade Justine]]'' next to a children's book.

* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: The deadline. Also, the wishes granted by the potion would only come in reverse if made before the first strike. Saint Sylvester helped the heroes by giving them a strike to be tossed at the cauldron.

* DraggedOffToHell: The fate the villains are attempting to avoid.

''The Night of Wishes'' (or ''The [[{{Portmanteau}} Satanarchaeolidealcohellish]] Notion Potion''; German title: ''Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch'') is a comic fantasy novel by Creator/MichaelEnde (author of ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory''). A sorcerer and a witch, finding themselves on New Year's Eve and both behind on their annual evil quotas, team up to concoct the Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion, which grants wishes to anyone who drinks from it and will give them unimaginable power for evil. All that stand in their way are a conceited cat and raggedy raven. Hilarity (and much wordplay) ensues.

** LastOfHisKind: It's outright stated that Tyrannia and Beelzebub are the last living members of their family.