History Series / Defiance

* CouchGag: Starting Season 2 of the series, when it comes to the title card, it flies over the town and ends with a shot of the Gateway Arch. Depending on the weather of each episode, the title card reflects it. When it comes to Season 3, [[spoiler: the arch is shown to be damaged after it is bombed by Datak and Stahma]].

* LovableRogue: Nolan, prior to becoming Defiance's lawkeeper. Deconstructed by Berlin, who explains her reasons for wholeheartedly supporting the Earth Republic, despite its heavy-handedness and police state. She even compares Nolan to [[StarWars Han Solo]] (calling Irisa his "hot Chewbacca"), but beats him over the head with the argument that this lifestyle doesn't work for most people. Most people would rather have civilization, in any form, rather than lawlessness. For reference, Berlin lost her family during the Pale Wars to a bunch of Votan deserters.

* CoitusEnsues:
** Irisa rather abruptly gets into it with Tommy after they've dealt with the cultist who abused her as a child. Not that this is all that surprising for [[FieryRedhead Irisa]]. Also seen once or twice in the episode "Past is Prologue".
** In "That Woman's Work", Nolan and Berlin go from drinking to sex in a single night, but she's doing it to get back at Tommy, so it's not completely out of left field.

* BareYourMidriff: In "The Devil In The Dark", Irisa does this while practicing martial arts. Her regular outfit does this to a lesser extent.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/defiancepostercropped_3205.jpg]]

* NoOSHACompliance: Despite the fact that Alak has a day job up there and his family alone would be able to at least fix the observation deck, the interior of the Arch has a massive gaping hole in it. In Season 2, the show subverts and then plays the issue straight by showing the installation of a window big enough to take up the hole. [[spoiler:However, the window doesn't stop Deidre Lamb from falling to her death in "Doll Parts."]]

* NoOSHACompliance: Despite the fact that Alak has a day job up there and his family alone would be able to at least fix the observation deck, the interior of the Arch has massive gaping holes in it.

* 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 on 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 he's [[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 {{fantasy counterpart culture}}s, so even the Native American family are more like old money W.A.S.Ps having a 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.'' It's possible that when St. Louis got buried, the majority of the people living there died as well, since escaping St. Louis in a hurry could be a problem--to go east, into Illinois, would require crossing the Mississippi River, and people escaping that way would bottleneck at the bridges. And they could only go so far into St. Louis County (which surrounds the city on the Missouri side) before running into a similar problem, since it's almost impossible to get out of St. Louis County without having to cross a river as well. Not to mention the people in the counties surrounding St. Louis would already be trying to get as far away from the city as possible, so anybody in the city itself would be caught behind the people in the counties. And the first-tier counties around St. Louis are still predominantly white, with the second-tier counties having an even higher white population. Once St. Louis (the city) was covered over, the people in the counties may have drifted to the new Defiance.

* NiceHat: Sukar has a spiffy top hat with goggles on it.

* ConLang: Linguist David J. Peterson, who created the Dothraki language for ''Series/GameOfThrones'', has created full languages for the Castithans and Irathients, as well as outlines of languages for other Votans.

%%* KnifeNut: Irisa.

*** CoveredUp or not, musically, predominantly white genres and artists are played yet there is no rap, R&B, Latin, etc. meaning ''Music/{{TheCure}}'' were played yet Black music like St. Louis's own Nelly was not.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair:
** The Castithans are an albino race of white-haired beings who are the most human-looking and among the more attractive of the Votans. The males also [[LongHairedPrettyBoy wear their hair long]].
** Subverted by Alak and some other Castithan teens, who dye their white hair partially or wholly in human hair-colors. Doing so, Alak invoke this for their own race as human hair colors to them would be like blue hair to us.
** Irathients all have fiery red hair.
** The handful of other races we've seen either have no hair or typical human colors.
** The Omec have a silvery white hair color.

* ContemptibleCover: The cover for ''[[https://twitter.com/kevinmurphyhc/status/609518980848570368 Amazing Goddess of the Badlands]]'', an in-universe novel about Irisa, depicts a rather underdressed Irisa on the cover.

* YouHaveToHaveJews: Cai is an Irathian Jew. He was orphaned as a baby and raised by a human Jewish couple. He works as a lawyer.

* RealityEnsues:
** Plague episode. Okay, lots of shows have that. Irathients get blamed-that's pretty normal for a show with FantasticRacism. Then the forceful rounding up of Irathients into a makeshift internment camp (occasionally using guns, dogcatchers, and force) begins, some Irathients discuss the possibility of them being gassed to death, and one ends up dead because their captors don't like a harmless religious ceremony...
** In the video game, fighting a Gulanee is just another boss battle. The series, however, shows what it's like to deal with such a thing when you ''don't'' have an experimental EGO or fantastic future-tech weaponry that might not be out of place in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''.
** In the second season finale, Berlin arrives at Camp Reverie to find the panicked guards executing prisoners. Berlin relieves the Sergeant in charge of his command and assumes control of the situation. [[spoiler: The much bigger, armed, and pissed off Sergeant simply whacks her with his billy club and continues the executions, putting her in the next batch.]]

* RockBeatsLaser: Averted. When Amanda explains an incident where the Irathients in Defiance rioted against mandatory vaccinations, she quips that they had clubs while the rest of the town had Votan blasters. [[RealityEnsues Doesn't take a genius to work things out from there.]]

* The trailer for Season 2 made it look like Nolan and Stahma were kissing. In truth, she just gave him a chaste peck for saving her life from a roller bomb.

* MixedAncestry: Although not highlighted in the show, it's revealed that the [=McCawley=] children's mom (who's still alive, contrary to what they believed) is white (played by Linda Hamilton), while their father Rafe is an indigenous American. Given that her first name is Pilar, it's possible she's a white Latina. The three children are played by a Latina and two indigenous actors, but their appearance makes this plausible.

* MechanicalLifeform: The Volge.

* 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 later introduced as Pilar [=McCawley=], and was played by Linda Hamilton starting in season 2.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: It's implied that most of Datak's hatred for humans stems from being lorded over by local crimeboss Hunter Bell, back when he was a penniless refugee. Considering [[BadBoss his own actions]] in the present, he apparently fails to appreciate [[NotSoDifferent the irony]].

* NotSoDifferent:
** Rafe and Datak really aren't all that different. Rafe just knows when to control his temper.
** Nolan and Yewll actually have a lot in common, both trying to do better after a life of sins they'd rather forget.
** Nolan and Pottinger are both cocky, clever charmers who act like tough guys to hide their vulnerabilities. Pottinger is just a little slimier and more petty.
** Nolan and the Votanis Collective agent have this in "Slouching Towards Bethlehem". The latter even thinks they could have been good friends if they weren't on opposite sides. Nolan won't go that far, but admits he wouldn't mind him as a drinking buddy.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers/AllAtmospheresAreEqual: Votans are entirely capable of living here in Earth's environment with zero problems regarding air (Liberata are said to breathe nitrogen, yet never need breathing apparatuses[[note]]They wouldn't - Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen[[/note]]).

* ProfessionalSexEd: Stahma wants to be educated Alak in "the eccentricities of the Human female libido" so he can impress Christie on their wedding night and tries to hire Kenya to so do since [[SexGoddess she's the best at it]]. But Kenya convinces her otherwise, pointing out a human like Christie wouldn't want her husband sleeping with a prostitute right before marrying him.

* RaisedByRival: Irisa is an Irathient raised by Nolan, formerly a HorrifyingHero who cheerfully massacred Irathient tribes (including her own). He's mellowed out a lot since then, casting aside anti-alien prejudice and being a good father, but sometimes she still remembers how he raised her to be HunterOfHerOwnKind.

** [[spoiler:Pilar]] demonstrates why you should NeverBringAKifeToAGunFight. She [[NeverFoundTheBody may have survived]] the resulting chest shot, but that's good luck on her part.

* TriggerHappy: [[spoiler: Nolan]] used to be this way, and kind of still is. It's used against him in "Past is Prologue", where Datak arranges the "assassination" of Amanda with a realistic looking paintball gun, counting on Nolan shooting first. The kid he gets to do it is killed, then Datak reveals his bloody war record to make Amanda look bad for supporting him.

The TV series stars Creator/GrantBowler as Chief Lawkeeper Joshua Nolan, Creator/JulieBenz as Mayor Amanda Rosewater, Creator/TonyCurran as Castithan community/underworld leader Datak Tarr, Creator/JaimeMurray as Stahma Tarr, Creator/StephanieLeonidas as Deputy Lawkeeper Irisa Nyira, Mia Kirshner as town madam Kenya Rosewater, and {{Creator/Graham Greene|Actor}} as industrialist Rafe [=McCawley=].

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 in California and the show is set in the remains of St. Louis, Missouri,[[note]]about 2000 miles apart[[/note]] they did adknowledged each other occasionally.

* 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.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers/AllAtmospheresAreEqual: Votans are entirely capable of living here in Earth's environment with zero problems regarding air (Liberata are said breathe nitrogen, yet never need breathing apparatuses[[note]]They wouldn't - Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen[[/note]]).

* AscendedExtra: Sukar. Although intended as a one off character, he was given a more prominent role because the creators were impressed by the contributions that Noah Danby made, behind the scenes, in defining the Irathient race. And then happens to Sukar again as he was also then suppose to die during season one but Noah's performance impressed so much that the character lived.

* BadHumorTruck: In one episode drug dealers abduct people off the streets to process them into [[FantasticDrugs Blue Devil]]. Their ride of choice is an ice cream truck.

* [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil Being Raped Makes You Evil]]: [[spoiler: Niles Pottinger became mentally unbalanced due to his rape, and ultimately raped Amanda himself.]]

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Tarrs and the McCawleys both have dysfunction to spare (organized crime and MadwomanInTheAttic, respectively), and it only gets worse when their kids get married.

* BottleEpisode: "The Serpent's Egg" is this after the big budget special effects of the last four.

* BrickJoke: In "Down in the Ground Where The Dead Men Go", Nicolette says she's going to take up golf as a retirement hobby, since she's the only one left who remembers the rules. In "Everything is Broken", Black Jonah threatens to scalp Yewll's "golf ball" head if she double crosses the E-Rep, causing Yewll to ask what a golf ball is.

** There are no cars or trucks. They're called "rollers". Possibly justified in universe by the amount of robotic "walker" vehicles that are also seen.

* TheChosenOne: Sukar believes Irisa has been chosen by the their people's god for some greater purpose. Daigo also believes she's been chosen... but to be a DarkMessiah.

** In "A Well Respected Man", Datak wears more ordinary looking (but still cool) shades. Could be considered as an ActorAllusion, this is the same kind of shades that [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan Skinner]] wear in Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen.

* DeadPersonConversation: Quentin has this with Luke early in Season 1,[[spoiler: it is actually a ship's AI masquerading as Luke.]]. It happens again in season 2 when [[spoiler: Dr Yewll and Pottinger talk to dead friends in the episode 'Put the Damage On' which is also caused by errant technology interfering with people's heads.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Doc Yewll

* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: The minor one of [[spoiler: Conner/Amanda/Nolan]] is resolved in this way, courtesy of [[spoiler: Datak, though Nolan is unaware]]. The slightly more major one of [[spoiler: Amanda/Nolan/Kenya]] is briefly derailed when [[spoiler: Kenya apparently dumps Nolan for Stahma]] but is ended via this trope when [[spoiler: Stahma apparently murders Kenya]].
** Do they still count as love triangles when one of the people in them is literally a prostitute and has probably screwed every guy in town, and other participants were her clients?

* DepravedBisexual: Niles Pottinger.

** A common profession among nomads is "ark hunting", which involves scavenging technology from pieces of the arks which crash into Earth every so often. The remains of the alien arks in orbit are extremely valuable and useful for a large variety of reasons, and everyone wants a piece. Players in the tie-in game are all ark hunters as are Irisa and Nolan before settling in Defiance.

** Minor (and not very nice) one but when Datak starts up a talk about how Irathients are, in more flowery words, dirty plague ridden mongrels in the eyes of other Votans, you can see Rafe in the background nodding and gesturing in agreement.

** Datak is a power hungry, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] crime lord, but he's still disgusted by [[MadBomber Madis]]. He also supports Amanda in what seemed to be a hopeless defense of the town against the Volge, promising to forgive the debt of anyone who chooses to fight. He could have easily tried to pack up and leave with his family and servants. Indeed, during the battle, he does not hide behind others and does his share of the fighting, calling another Castithan a "[[PardonMyKlingon shtako]] coward" for running away.

** "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" is just all over this trope. Jalina gets her eyes taken by a back alley doctor, Rynn loses one of hers to the same, and Datak uses his fingers to gouge the man's eyes out when he catches him.

* GodivaHair: Stahma has this frequently in her bathing or sex scenes, either with her long hair covering her nipples, or strings of beads that she wears.

* [[TheMountainsOfIllinois The Mountains of Missouri]]: The promos depict these quite prominently. Justified by worldwide terraforming; there weren't mountains there before the Pale Wars.
* MsFanservice: Stahma provides most of this for the series. Frequently she's seen wearing very little in the communal bathing pool, or during sex scenes.
* MulticulturalAlienPlanet: Daribo and Irath were at the very least.

** Earth was supposed to be this for the Votan fleet. Unfortunately they didn't realize that Earth was already inhabited, apparently having failed to detect any traces of Human civilization. Though that might have something to do with the fact that they launched their Arks around the same time Humans were building the Pyramids and mastering the art of writing.

** In the video game, fighting a Gulanee is just another boss battle. The series, however, shows what it's like to deal with such a thing when you ''don't'' have an experimental EGO or fantastic future tech weaponry that might not be out of place in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''.

* SceneryPorn

** ''Terminator 2'': Pilar is played by Linda Hamilton, who says to Nolan, "come with me if you want to live."

** The third season opener continues the downward spiral. [[spoiler: The destruction of New York has made the E-Rep pull out of Defiance, and the collapse of the mines has struck the town with a worse blow due to the lack of jobs and fuel. Just as Amanda decides to shut down the town's force field protection to conserve energy, a band of Votanis Collective soldiers led by [[GeneralRipper General Rahm Tak]] go on the warpath with the intent of killing every human in the town. The Votan cross paths with the McCawleys, sans Pilar and Alak, and [[EstablishingCharacterMoment we get to see just how much of a monster Rahm Tak is]] when he executes Quinton with Rafe watching captive. Rafe breaks free and makes an attempt to reach Christie and her baby, only to be [[KilledOffForReal gunned down]]. [[FromBadToWorse And then]] Rahm Tak gets pissed over the fact that Christie knows his language, and he forces Stahma to choose between watching Datak die or slitting Christie's throat -- she picks the latter. In one fell swoop, the entire McCawley clan is wiped out. Pilar later runs off with the child, abandoning Alak to be picked up by Rahm's men and used as leverage, which forces Datak and Stahma to work as spies in Defiance. And to top it all off, the ending shot shows us that there is a huge fleet of [[TheDreaded Omec]] hovering in hypersleep just outside Earth's orbit.]]

* NoBiochemicalBarriers/AllAtmospheresAreEqual: Votans are entirely capable of living here in Earth's environment with zero problems regarding air (Liberata are said breathe nitrogen, yet never need breathing apparatuses).

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 in California and the show is set in the remains of St. Louis, Missouri,[[note]]about 2000 miles apart[[/note]] they do affected each other occasionally.

* 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 on 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 he's [[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 {{fantasy counterpart culture}}s, so even the Native American family are more like old money W.A.S.Ps having a 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.''
** This troper presumed that when St. Louis got buried, the majority of the people living there died as well, since escaping St. Louis in a hurry could be a problem--to go east, into Illinois, would require crossing the Mississippi River, and people escaping that way would bottleneck at the bridges. And they could only go so far into St. Louis County (which surrounds the city on the Missouri side) before running into a similar problem, since it's almost impossible to get out of St. Louis County without having to cross a river as well. Not to mention the people in the counties surrounding St. Louis would already be trying to get as far away from the city as possible, so anybody in the city itself would be caught behind the people in the counties. And the first-tier counties around St. Louis are still pedominantly white, with the second-tier counties having an even higher white population. Once St. Louis (the city) was covered over, the people in the counties may have drifted to the new Defiance.