History Series / Defiance

After only four episodes, the show was renewed for a second season, which consists of 13 episodes. It was then renewed for a third and final season, being cancelled as of October 16, 2015. The game was shut down in April 29, 2021.

The show has a rather novel approach in that it was developed alongside a MassivelyMultiplayer Online Game, also called ''VideoGame/{{Defiance}}''. While the game is set in the San Francisco Bay area (at least currently) in California and the show is set in the remains of St. Louis, Missouri,[[note]]about 2000 miles apart[[/note]] they can and do affect each other occasionally.

After only four episodes, the show was renewed for a second season, which consists of 13 episodes. It was then renewed for a third and final season, being cancelled as of October 16, 2015.

** Creator/{{Syfy}} allegedly had pretty in-depth guides that expand on the world of Defiance. Unfortunately, none of them exist anymore, and all we have are the loading screens from the game.
*** Thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, it allows access to the website and the in-depth guides once again.

* ReverseMole: the entire plot of "The Lost Ones" web series turns out to hinge on this, as Nolan gets Daigo's location from his "captor."

* FiveRaces: Several of the Votan species have been noted to resemble fantasy races:
** Castithans have an entry on the SpaceElves page, but they act a bit more like High Men, or Fallen in the case of the Machiavellian Tarrs.
** Irathients are a bit of a blend; they're strong, proud warriors (or at least the Spirit Riders are, we saw some peaceful homesteaders in a flashback) like the Stout. They are deeply spiritual, some even have clairvoyant abilities, and have a connection to nature like Fairies. Possibly even some shades of the Savage. But they also seem the most human-like of the Votan.
** Indogenes are highly intelligent and responsible for most Votan tech like the Arks, force-blades (intended as [[LaserCutter surgical tools]], converted into [[LaserBlade weapons]] by the Castithans), and their own cybernetic implants. Kind of Fairy or competing with Castis for High Men.
** Liberata actually resemble dwarves physically and were once an economically powerful race.
** Sensoth are Wookiees.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Rafe and Nicolette, back in the day.
** Stahma and Kenya in the present.
** Done deliberately by Deidre, who purposely slants Christie's actions as a Votan cross-dresser into something twisted so she can have Alak for herself.

* DiscountLesbians:
** Stahma (a [[HumanoidAlien Castithan]]) and Kenya (who's Human) have an affair. Both appear to be bisexual, since they're also frequently with men.
** Yewell and her lover shown in the flashbacks, two female Indogenes (another Votan species).

* MissingMom:
** Mrs. [=McCawley=] is conspicuously absent. [[spoiler:It turns out she had bipolar disorder, and when she became a threat to her own children, Rafe had her locked up, then lied and said she was dead.]]
** She's now known as Pilar [=McCawley=], and was played by Linda Hamilton starting in season 2.

* ParentalAbandonment: In episode 4, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Amanda and Kenya's mother abandoned them during the war. She and Amanda were out looking for supplies, and when the fighting got close to them she wanted to merely run. Amanda insisted on going back for Kenya, and had to do so alone. Amanda told Kenya that their mother was dead, but admits the truth in the present.]]

* FantasticDrug: The first season episode "A Well Respected Man" introduces "Blue Devil", a neurotransmitter enhancing drug developed by the E-Rep during the war for soldiers, one of its ingredients is human adrenaline, in that episode obtained by scaring people and extracting it from their blood. After the E-Rep occupation of Defiance in season 2 many of its citizens have become addicted to Blue Devil sold by the Tarr syndicate, but Alak makes his suppliers use pseudo-epinephrine instead of the real thing.

* JumpTheShark: The first two seasons follow a pre-planned story arc, like Babylon 5, that concludes brilliantly and epically, tying up all loose plot threads and character arcs. Then the show got renewed for a third season, and the writers didn't have any story left to tell, so they cobbled some random bullshit together that contradicted previously established continuity and had the characters act wildly out-of-character.

* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Averted. Pottinger's RapeAsBackstory by VC soldiers is taken just as seriously as Amanda's by some random assailant[[spoiler: (who turned out to not have been random at all, but actually also Pottinger, who became obsessed with Amanda after Connor had [[BiTheWay left him for her]], stalked and later raped her)]].

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: The show has the Castithans, who are a race of white skinned, blonde aliens. To be more specific, there's Stahma Tarr. There are also the Irathients, who have uniformly red hair and pale skin, but particularly Irisa. Both have a ''lot'' of male (or for Stahma, [[BiTheWay also female]]) attention in the series, [[BoldlyComing irrespective of their species]].

* StraightGay / BiTheWay: A great many characters are either bisexual or homosexual, and display no stereotypical personality traits. Of course this is the future, and many of them are aliens, so DeliberateValuesDissonance may be in play.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: Stahma]] has an affair with Kenya, while she's also married to one male and has an affair with another later. Kenya too it seems is into women, as she shows more than just [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold professional]] affection toward Stahma.

** Castithan Rahm Tak has children with his Irathient wife Volubela.

** Ironically, though he loathes humans and is contemptuous of lower-caste Casthinans, Ram Takh is the only Castithan character we see who's all for Votan unity (though it's not that surprising as he's with the Votanis Collective). He's even married to an Irathient.

* InterspeciesRomance: Christie (human) and Alak (Castithan), as noted above. Irisa (Irathient) and Tommy (human) kick one off in "The Serpent's Egg". People also assume this is one possibility between Irisa and Nolan; given the state of relations between the different species, it's in their best interest not to correct anyone on the matter unless it's absolutely necessary.

* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Also averted. Pottinger's RapeAsBackstory by VC soldiers is taken just as seriously as Amanda's by some random assailant[[spoiler: (who turned out to not have been random at all, but actually also Pottinger, who became obsessed with Amanda after Connor had [[BiTheWay left him for her]], stalked and later raped her)]].

* Castithan Rahm Tak has children with his Irathient wife Volubela.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Humans and Castithans are capable of having children, despite them evolving on separate worlds. The same goes for Castithans and Irathients. This is {{lampshaded}} in some production materials as something that scientists haven't had time to look into in the wake of the war, indicating they're related more closely somehow (that isn't so surprising, [[HumanoidAliens given their]] [[RubberForeheadAliens strong resemblance]]).

** The ''Inside Defiance'' extra for "The Bride Wore Black" on the Syfy website says that hybrids do exist, but such pregnancies carry a great deal of risk for both mother and child. It {{lampshade}}s the fact that this should only be possible with some kind of common ancestry, and says the issue hasn't been properly studied due to a general lack of medical research in 2046.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: {{Justified}}. It's been thirty years since the Votans first arrived on Earth, so all of the older ones have had plenty of time to learn human languages. Many of the younger ones born on Earth grew up bilingual. During the same time, many though not all humans have learned how to speak Votan languages, or at least be basically conversant in them. A few Votan words became common street-slang even among humans that don't know their languages (i.e. "jaja" means "money", "sthako" means "shit!", etc.)

* AIIsACrapshoot: The Kaziri's Ark Brain, which poses as Votan gods in order to manipulate and control its followers, and is planning to [[spoiler: spare only them when it terraforms the world, killing everything else.]]

* TheAlliance: The Votanis Collective was a loose coalition of alien species from the same solar system, and still exists on Earth in some form (Datak helps facilitate relations with them in Defiance). Most of their territory is in South America with a capital city in Brazil. The Earth Republic is another powerful alliance on the new landscape, basically consisting of what's left of the Eastern half of the USA. In practice, though, it's clear they are either terribly corrupt or extremely forceful in their recruiting, given they pretty much sanctioned their ambassador arranging a murder in order to force Defiance to join them. Their capital city is New York.
* AlienInvasion: Subverted. The Votans aren't so much invaders as desperate refugees trying to find a new home. Negotiations were almost complete for their peaceful settlement on Earth when the Votan ambassador to the UN was murdered on live TV by a human assassin. People on both sides believed that the other side set it up [[note]]The game reveals fairly early that the assassin was actually part of a conspiracy by human and Votan representatives that ''wanted'' a war, and were working together to start one for reasons unknown[[/note]], causing fighting to break out world-wide. Thus, the Pale Wars began.

* HalfHumanHybrid:

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Humans and Castithans are capable of having children, despite them evolving on separate worlds. The same goes for Castithans and Irathients. This is {{lampshaded}} in some production materials as something that scientists haven't had time to look into in the wake of the war, indicating they're related more closely somehow (that isn't so surprising, [[HumanoidAliens given their]] [[RubberForeheadAliens strong resemblance]]). Votans are also perfectly capable of living here in Earth's environment with zero problems regarding air, food water etc being even slightly different from their home planets'.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Humans and Castithans are capable of having children, despite evolving on separate worlds. The same goes for Castithans and Irathients. This is {{lampshaded}} in some production materials as something that scientists haven't had time to look into in the wake of the war, indicating they're related more closely somehow (that isn't so surprising, [[HumanoidAliens given their]] [[RubberForeheadAliens strong resemblance]]). Votans are also perfectly capable of living in Earth's environment with zero problems regarding air, food water etc being even slightly different from their home planets'.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted. It is taken very seriously when [[spoiler: Nolan is raped by Kindzi. She's a 'she,' and she's pretty, but she's also much stronger than a human, a murderer dozens of times over, armed, and she sets new records in AxCrazy. When she took Nolan from the VC caravan by slaughtering them, restrained him, [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty described her intentions to make him her 'pet,']] and then forced herself on him, no part of the situation was treated as a minor thing due to Nolan being male]].
* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Also averted. Pottinger's RapeAsBackstory by VC soldiers is taken just as seriously as Amanda's by some random assailant[[spoiler: (who turned out to not have been random at all, but actually Pottinger, who became obsessed with Amanda after Connor had [[BiTheWay left him for her]], stalked and later raped her)]].

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: Stahma]] has an affair with Kenya, while she's also married to one male and has an affair with another later.

* MonochromeCasting: The show was an absolutely ''egregious'' example of this trope for numerous reasons and only got worse with it as time went on. First, it's not only set [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture forty years from now]] where one would expect a more diverse human population, it's set in ''St. Louis'', a majority-Black city ([[CaliforniaDoubling yet filmed in Canada]]) yet one could count the number of Black humans appearing one hand during its entire run and that's including extras. Second, it's [[AnImmigrantsTale immigration allegory]] with RubberForeheadAliens whose FantasticSlur for humans is "pink skins", suggesting humanity's gotten ''whiter'' over the years despite every species of alien put together there still having less variety among themselves as the Native American being called that snarks back by showing his wrist and saying, "this look pink to you?" Third, main character [[NominalHero Joshua]] [[VanillaProtagonist Nolan]] being a textbook WhiteMaleLead and [[WhiteMansBurden White Savior]] from his FantasticRacism down to a HeroicSacrifice for an alien race and is [[TheFace marketed so prominently]] you'd be remiss to think there were ''any'' cast members of color. Fourth, everything culturally human/"Old World" being depicted as monolithically white compared to the aliens being a mish-mash of Fantastic Counterpart Cultures so even the Native American family are more like old money W.A.S.Ps having CultureClash with ethnic foreigners, such as daughter Christie (who's in an InterspeciesRomance with one) being stupid enough to put on the alien equivalent of ''Blackface'' without any self-awareness. By the third season, [[spoiler: ''all'' of the original humans of color]] are dead, with the most prominent Black character, [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Tommy]] (and only Black character to appear for more than two episodes) being either ignored/sidelined by the show, itself or [[ButtMonkey shit on]] by [[JerkAss Nolan]] for two seasons until [[spoiler: he was killed off near the end of season two]], meaning that besides the minority actors playing aliens, the show ended [[UpToEleven whiter]] than it ''started.''

** Humans and aliens alike use the term "shtako" liberally, as something of a universal swear word (and not just the "shit" it clearly is meant to translate as - for example, in the pilot, Datak at one point yells, "You shtako coward!") Datak uses the word "shtek"; it probably translates to something like "SOB". "Gwoke" has also appeared as a Castithan swear word; considering Datak's temper at the time, it probably goes past 'shit' all the way to the F-Bomb on the swear scale. "Chup" is a word for "shag", but it's unknown which species's language gave rise to this. Also, humourously, most of the swearing on the show comes from Datak.

* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: There is a lot of sex in the series. Pretty much all of the main ones get laid at least once on-screen (not that explicitly). There's a lot of diversity as well-at least three of them are bisexual, there's an alien lesbian couple, a polygamous human woman, and various interspecies pairings (both human/alien plus some alien/alien).

* CaliforniaDoubling: Set in St. Louis, filmed in Toronto. Which explains the diner in a Toronto subway car.