Line #12 FanFic/FirstImpressionsOfEarth


1	''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3728378/1/First_Impressions_of_Earth First Impressions of Earth]]'' was an eight-chapter, 56,923-word ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' fanfic by Creator/{{the ultimateSora}}. When Arnold's eighteen, he gets his girlfriend Wanda pregnant. They marry, and their daughter Jackie is born just before they start college. Unfortunately, Wanda's love of sex and partying means that she's a poor partner and a lousy mother, and Arnold's first girlfriend Phoebe ends up helping to raise Jackie. Before Arnold and Wanda's second wedding anniversary, they divorce (relatively amicably), largely because of Wanda's infidelity and sporadic violence towards her husband. [[UpToEleven And that's just the prologue]]. Arnold marries Phoebe, and thinks that this marriage will be easier. Twenty years of joy, angst, sex and mental breakdowns ensue.
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3	This is the ultimateSora's most epic fic (covering 22 years). It's also her darkest. Characters discuss abortion, there's minor domestic abuse and a suicide attempt and, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking most shocking of all, a Carlos/Keesha ship.]]
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5	The TropeNamer for OfficialCoupleOrdealSyndrome.
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7	Has been deleted from the site. No word from the author yet whether it will come back or not.
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9	----
10	!!Tropes that appear in ''First Impressions of Earth'' include:
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12	* TheAlcoholic: Wanda.
13	* AlphaBitch: Jackie. {{Justified\|Trope}} to a certain extent given her messed-up childhood.
14	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Phoebe is diagnosed with melancholic depression. However, she shows symptoms of anorexia, melancholic depression, post-partum depression, Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy, extremely low self-esteem, OCD and mysophobia (fear of germs).
15	** She's just got a severe case of OfficialCoupleOrdealSyndrome...
16	* BetterAsFriends: Arnold and [[spoiler: D.A.]]
17	* BreakTheCutie: Poor, ''poor'' [[spoiler: Phoebe]].
18	* CatchPhrase: All of the kids have outgrown their {{Canon}} catchphrases, a fact which is [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshaded]] by D.A. when she is running for the Senate and says in an interview that she had stopped saying "According to my research..." by the time she was ten.
19	* ClusterFBomb: Wanda. All the time. She does ''occasionally'' apologize for doing it in front of other people's children.
20	* DarkerAndEdgier: Very much so in comparison to the author's other stories, let alone to the source material.
21	* DemotedToExtra: Tim, Ralphie, Carlos and Keesha.
22	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: The only one of this author's stories where this is {{Averted}}. It's not okay, it's upsetting.
23	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Arnold proposes to Phoebe, she accepts, but warns him that she was brought up as a Catholic "and we don't believe in divorce".
24	** Early on in Arnold and Phoebe's marriage, after D.A. gets elected to the Senate, Phoebe reads an interview with her best friend where the journalist plays up how attractive D.A. is, and D.A. plays along with it to win votes. She thinks it's funny at the time, but [[{{YourCheatingHeart}} not so much later on]]. Basically an {{Invoked}} FunnyAneurysmMoment.
25	* HeroicBSOD: Poor [[spoiler: Phoebe]].
26	* IncrediblyLamePun: At Arnold and Phoebe's wedding, Wanda jokes about D.A. and Arnold's brief high school rebound relationship by saying to D.A. "...when you were Jewing..."
27	** [[{{DontExplainTheJoke}} Because Arnold's Jewish and Dorothy Ann's surname is Ewing...]]
28	* InformedAttractiveness: Both Wanda and Phoebe think this applies to Arnold's attraction to Phoebe.
29	* InsistentTerminology: D.A. would like you to know that, for professional purposes, her name is Ann Ewing.
30	* IronicEcho: When Arnold and Wanda are in college and Wanda spends most of her time partying, Arnold turns to Phoebe for help. She ends up mothering Jackie and giving Arnold emotional support, and their relationship is quite touching. Years later, when Phoebe is in hospital because [[spoiler: she crashed her car (inducing a miscarriage) while trying to leave Arnold without explaining why]], D.A. - sorry, senator Ann Ewing - comes to stay and try to help her best friends mend their relationship. [[spoiler: She and Arnold sleep together.]]
31	* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: Wanda.
32	* KarmaHoudini: Arnold, although it may be fate making up for his lousy first marriage. It's his spoiling of Jackie and inability to discipline her that leads to Phoebe trying to leave him while pregnant (crashing her car and having a miscarriage). Then, while she's recovering in the hospital, [[spoiler:he sleeps with her best friend, Dorothy Ann]]. Although he immediately regrets doing this, [[spoiler:the truth comes out thanks to D.A., causing Phoebe to have a mental breakdown]]. Phoebe eventually [[spoiler: leaves him for four years, but they are reconciled]]. At the end, she wakes Arnold and asks him if he was having an EroticDream. He says he was dreaming about having wild sex with her, but she [[spoiler: calls him out on this and he admits it was about D.A. He insists that he loves Phoebe but has unresolved feelings for D.A. because [[TheOneThatGotAway he chose to give up on her]] and stay with Phoebe]]. Her response is to sleep with him, asking him to call her [[spoiler: Dorothy Ann]] during it.
33	* LoveRedeems: Eventually.
34	* OfficialCouple: Phoebe and Arnold. {{Averted\|Trope}} with Carlos and D.A., {{Fanon}}'s OfficialCouple, who broke up in high school.
35	* OfficialCoupleOrdealSyndrome: The TropeNamer. Arnold and Phoebe are put through eleven years of torture including an abusive stepchild, a car crash, a miscarriage, and infidelity, causing Phoebe to have a HeroicBSOD that culminates in a mental breakdown. And that's just the halfway point.
36	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Phoebe ''finally'' TakesALevelInBadass and [[spoiler: hits Jackie]] it signals that her relationships with Wanda and Arnold are about to [[spoiler: return to as near normal as possible]].
37	* ShotgunWedding: Arnold and Wanda.
38	* ShoutOut:
39	** The story is named after [[Music/TheStrokes the album of the same name]] and each chapter begins with lyrics from songs on the album.
40	** Dorothy Ann's surname is [[Series/{{Dallas}} Ewing]].
41	* SpoiledBrat: Jackie. Hoo boy.
42	* WickedStepmother: {{Inverted\|Trope}} with Phoebe and Jackie. It's Jackie who is evil, not Phoebe.
43	* WrongNameOutburst: Arnold calls Wanda [[spoiler: "Phoebe"]] in bed. She isn't impressed.
44	* YouAreInCommandNow: At the end of the story, the gang watch the news showing Vice President Ann Ewing being sworn in as President after her superior's assassination.
45	* YourCheatingHeart: Wanda is unfaithful to Arnold through most of their marriage. Years later, [[spoiler: Arnold cheats on Phoebe with D.A. when Phoebe's in the hospital after crashing her car while pregnant with twins (one of whom dies) because she's trying to leave Arnold for reasons she hasn't even been open with herself about, let alone with him.]]

Context FanFic / FirstImpressionsOfEarth