History VideoGame / ChooChooCharles

* SuperDrowningSkills: On the starting dock, you can find a note written by a guy who couldn't take it anymore and decided to swim to the mainland. In the note, he states that his chances of success aren't high, but it's still better than staying on the island. You can find his corpse just a couple feet away, floating on the water...

* SuperDrowningSkills: On the starting dock, you can find a note written by some guy who couldn't take it anymore and decided to swim to the mainland. He notes that his chances of success aren't high but it's still better than staying on the island. You can find his corpse just a couple feet away, floating on the water...

* NamesTheSame: Downplayed. Both Big Bads are named "Charles", one after the other. Choo-Choo Charles the spider abomination wearing a train engine from the Charles Company on himself, and Warren Charles III, owner of that company and CorruptCorporateExecutive of the island. However, Warren Charles is usually referred to as just "Warren" while Charles is used pretty much exclusively to refer to the Spider.

* AmbiguousGender: The spider-train is called Charles by the island folk because it is written on his side and they refer to him with male pronouns. But [[spoiler:TheStinger seems to imply that he laid millions of eggs]], leaving his true gender unknown. Though, it is possible that he has NoBiologicalSex.

* EpicFail: On the starting dock, you can find a note written by some guy who couldn't take it anymore and decided to swim to the mainland. He notes that his chances of success aren't high but it's still better than staying on the island. [[SuperDrowningSkills You can find his corpse just a couple feet away, floating on the water]]...

* SlasherSmile: Thanks to Charles's large face and having MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily, he has a massive sharp-toothed grin that's very hard to miss. [[spoiler:vHe only loses it just before he falls to his death.]]

* EpicFail: On the starting dock, you can find a note written by some guy who couldn't take it anymore and decided to swim to the mainland. He notes that his chances of success aren't high but it's still better than staying on the island. You can find his corpse just a couple feet away, floating on the water...

* ConvenientCranny: The mines, houses, and inside the player’s locomotive all count, as Charles is too large to fit into any of them (unless Charles brings the choo-choo’s health down to zero, at which point it’s too badly damaged to protect the player). If the player hears Charles approaching, racing into one of these is their best hope of survival. The game’s NPCs will also take shelter upon the monster’s approach, so following them and sharing a hiding spot can save the player.

* RunOrDie: Charles, whenever the player is out in the open away from the train. The monster avoids tighter spaces, so the mines and inside NPC houses are safe from him (though you need to worry about the cultists in the mines, and if the player hides in a house, it's impossible to predict how long it'll take Charles to leave), but every weapon in the game available to the player is mounted on their train, so if the player hears his horn and is caught outside, their only real hope is to bolt for their locomotive before Charles gets them so the player can turn it into a more survivable AdvancingBossOfDoom fight.

* BoomHeadshot: Once again, Charles' face is not metallic. Wanna deal more damage? Shoot 'im in the face.

** Charles is essentially [[CorruptedCharacterCopy an evil version]] of ''Thomas the Tank Engine''.
** Warren Charles III, likewise, appears to have similarities to ''Sir Topham Hatt/The Fat Controller'', due to his connection to Charles, his position on Aranearum and having the same kind of top hat.

* EvilIsNotAToy: Charles' cult doesn't actually seem to have any control over the monster whatsoever. Not only is Charles just as likely to attack cultists as the player if both are caught in the open, but [[spoiler: he devours Warren Charles III right after becoming Hell Charles.]]

* MadeOfIron: Literally and figuratively. Charles' metallic hide and supernatural nature mean he can take a lot of punishment, but his growls and visible flinching when hit implies that he's not actually invincible, making the idea of destroying him actually feasible for the protagonist. Also, he takes more damage when [[AttackItsWeakPoint you shoot his fleshy bits]].
* MalevolentMaskedMen: The Cult of Charles, led by Charles Warren III. Most of its members wear nightmarish large white and blood-red masks in homage to Charles (Mr. Warren III being the only exception) and they are plenty malevolent armed with shotguns and relentlessly pursuing the player once they spot you.
* MechanicalAbomination: Charles is a locomotive... with huge spider legs, a nightmarish face with MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily, and a craving for human flesh. How he came to be is unknown so far, but whatever it is can only be an affront to nature and sanity. [[spoiler:He's also implied to have been created by the monster eggs [[DugTooDeep unearthed by the mining operation]].]]

* MotherOfAThousandYoung: [[spoiler:TheStinger reveals a cavern filled with what could possibly be thousands of eggs presumably laid by Charles, though nests of eggs were found prior, one of which is implied to have hatched into something that merged with a train to become what he is now.]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Charles is a giant demon spider killer train. [[spoiler:It's implied that he's something that hatched from an egg [[DugTooDeep unearthed by the mining operation]] and merged with a train.]]

* OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler: For the final battle, Charles transforms into a larger, more demonic version of himself called Hell Charles. This was foreshadowed by an [=NPC=] that leads you to one of the eggs.]]

* TheQuisling: What Warren Charles' cult turns out to be, abating Charles' presence and solidifying their rule of the island. [[spoiler: When you learn more about it, it becomes both more and less an example: Warren is not ''exactly'' on Charles' side, but witnessed Charles nearly transforming into Hell Charles when absorbing the energy of the eggs. Thus, Warren keeps the eggs hidden to prevent it from happening again, violently suppressing the villagers who think studying the eggs might be the key to winning. Since he sees no real way to defeat Charles, he also just allows Charles free reign on the island hoping the monster can't leave and instead makes the villagers evacuate - which still leads to Warren becoming a dictator the locals think is just insane and giving in to Charles. That said, a couple of the notes you can find have some locals wonder if the whole mess might be Warren's twisted attempt to protect them.]]

* SequelHook: TheStinger's reveal that [[spoiler:''numerous'' eggs still exist beneath the earth after Charles' reign of terror meets a violent end]] implies that Aranearum's troubles may not be over just yet.

** One of Pickles' rambling notes references the "Franchise/{{Shrek}} is love, Shrek is life" meme.

* SlasherSmile: Thanks to Charles' large face and having MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily, he has a massive and wide sharp-toothed grin that's very hard to miss. [[spoiler:He only loses it just before he falls to his death.]]
* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration: A note and a conversation with Paul reveals that Charles is afraid of the long and elevated wooden bridge. Sure enough, if you get chased by Charles and cross the bridge, he will actually leave you alone while you're on it. [[spoiler:He will only cross it in his Hell Charles form while you have him preoccupied with a fight to the death.]]
* TheStinger: After the credits roll, [[spoiler:the camera goes down to a dark cave. It focuses on a single, glowing, red egg about to hatch. The camera pans a bit, showing ''hundreds'' of eggs glowing with a different rainbow color.]]

* VillainTeleportation: [[spoiler:Hell Charles gains the ability to teleport both himself ''and'' the Archivist's train, though he mainly uses this to teleport the Archivist and his train around the island to try and disorient them and to try and teleport out of the way of their shots. Conveniently, your train will always end up on top of the rails. This ends up biting Charles in the cab at the end of the fight when he teleports them both to the wooden bridge, resulting in him running right into the trap and resulting in his own demise.]]

* YouFool: Warren Charles shouts "You fool! You've doomed us all!" toward [[spoiler:the Archivist after he places the eggs into its prism, summoning Charles and transforming him into Hell Charles in the process]].

* SlenderManStandIn: The entity that plants drawings around Sasha's boulder field. Notably, he usually plants sixteen, but Sasha was only able to retrieve half of them, so the player has to retrieve exactly [[VideoGame/{{Slender}} eight pages]].

* DramaticIrony: Among the various NPCs the Archivist can meet on the island, one of them is Paul, Eugene's son. The first thing that Paul says is that he's disappointed his dad chose to stay on the mainland instead of coming back to the island with the protagonist. [[spoiler:Eugene did return, and he was killed by Charles in the beginning, and [[HeroicMime the protagonist can't really say anything about it to Paul]]]].

* DramaticIrony: Near the end of the game, the Archivist meets Paul, Eugene's son. The first thing that Paul says is that he's disappointed his dad chose to stay on the mainland instead of coming back to the island with the protagonist. [[spoiler:Eugene did return, and he was killed by Charles in the beginning, and [[HeroicMime the protagonist can't really say anything about it to Paul]]]].

** Charles is a children's media themed monster that is also a spider-horror. Are we talking about Charles or [[Literature/{{It}} Pennywise]]?

** You cannot hit your own train with projectiles. This makes it possible to fight Charles if he happens to attack you while the train is moving backwards.

* EpicFail: On the starting dock, you can find a note written by some guy who couldn't take it anymore and decided to swim to the mainland. You can find his corpse just a couple feet away, floating on the water.

** Also '''Ch'''oo '''Ch'''oo '''Ch'''arles.

* AlliterativeName: '''T'''ony '''T'''iddle.

* TooDumbToLive: The Cultists are arguably this, they relentlessly pursue you even if you make your way to your heavily armed train or even stand in the tracks either behind ''or in front'' of it.

* MadeOfIron: Literally and figuratively. Charles' metallic hide and supernatural nature mean he can take a lot of punishment, but his growls and visible flinching when hit implies he is not actually invincible, making the idea of destroying him actually feasible for the protagonist. Also, he takes more damage when [[{{AttackItsWeakPoint}} you shoot his fleshy bits]].

* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Charles fits this as he is a black and red train in addition to being a violent monster who hunts down and eats humans.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The Pickle Lady is not named that for nothing. She looooooves her pickles.

* YouFool: Warren Charles shouts "You fool! You've doomed us all!!" toward [[spoiler:the Archivist after he places the eggs into its prism, summoning Charles and transforming him into Hell Charles in the process]].