| 1 | Tropes from ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'''s sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past''. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[GhostsOfThePast/TropesIToP Tropes I To P can be found here]] and [[GhostsOfThePast/TropesQToZ Tropes Q To Z can be found here.]] |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[hardline]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | * AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Bucky's metal arm can move in ways that normal arms can't, when he wants it to. More dramatically, when the Spirit of the Fallen Fortress [[DemonicPossession possesses]] [[spoiler: Hermione]], it makes ''Film/TheExorcist'' look mild as it progresses to full on HumanoidAbomination levels of nightmarish. |
| 8 | * AbusiveParents: Joe Danvers is psychologically abusive, though it's insidious and very hard to pin down [[TruthInTelevision (as psychological abuse often is)]]. He tries to force his two older children - Carol, a sporty, HotBlooded teenage ActionGirl, and Stevie, a slight, [[TheQuietOne softly-spoken]], artsy boy - into being what he wants them to be (a ProperLady and TheAllAmericanBoy). In Carol's case, he tries [[spoiler: to make Harry MindRape her. [[BerserkButton Bad idea]]]]. This strongly affects [[BrokenAce Carol]] and [[TheQuietOne Stevie]]'s personalities, the former having major trust issues and the latter suffering [[BreakTheCutie "a psychological death of a thousand cuts."]] When it's revealed just how far he tried to go, his [[MamaBear wife]] and [[NeverMessWithGranny mother-in-law]] make him pay. |
| 9 | * AcademicAthlete: |
| 10 | ** Harry's very athletic, as canon, but even though his main displays of intellectual prowess are in the form of his deductive intellect and GuileHero tendencies, he proves to be a very able student of Strange, Magneto, and Gorakhnath when he sets his mind to it. |
| 11 | ** Cedric Diggory, mentioned as being a star Quidditch player and very bright and able student. |
| 12 | * AccidentalMurder: Part of Gambit's backstory is that due to [[PowerIncontinence not having full control of his powers]] at the time, he accidentally killed his then-girlfriend's brother during a fight. |
| 13 | * AcquaintedWithEmergencyServices: Harry especially, though Carol isn't immune to it, especially given that she doesn't have the same recuperative powers (though she doesn't tend to get run through the same meat-grinder as him). [=McGonagall=] ends up despairing how his knack for finding trouble is ''even worse'' than canon, wondering if he can even go ''one term'' without risking his life. Dumbledore, the realist, expects that a fortnight is more likely. |
| 14 | * ActOfTrueLove: Lily's sacrifice and the resultant Phoenix based protection becomes increasingly important as Harry learns to harness it... with mixed success. |
| 15 | ** In chapter 33, after going two rounds with [[spoiler: Dracula]] and getting the crap kicked out of him twice, leaving him so tired he can barely stand, Harry determinedly donates as much blood as he can spare to Carol (who's dying of blood loss) in an impromptu and unorthodox blood transfusion. It nearly kills him, but he doesn't care. Afterwards, [[spoiler: Carol gives him a [[AnywhereButTheirLips kiss on the cheek]] and thanks him.]] |
| 16 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: |
| 17 | ** Xavier's response to Logan's crack that if one of the staff at the Institute went mad, no one would notice the difference. |
| 18 | ** Dracula, of all people, seems to find [[spoiler: Carol's]] proposal that her appointment with him take place at high noon to be this, wryly remarking that he'll have to decline. |
| 19 | ** And then there's this [[DeadpanSnarker reaction]] to the [[PrecisionFStrike impromptu middle name for emphasis]] lampshading a surprise cameo by someone unexpected: |
| 20 | --> Well, [...] you're mostly right. However, I [don't] have a middle name, and if I did, it would not be "fucking". |
| 21 | * AdaptationalBadass: Voldemort quickly establishes that he's a ''lot'' more dangerous than his canon counterpart. |
| 22 | ** As of the update, Barty Crouch Junior has been upgraded as TheDragon to Voldemort. A sign of things to come, probably. |
| 23 | ** [[spoiler: Dudley Dursley]] goes from neighborhood bully to a PersonOfMassDestruction, and later becomes even more powerful as he's turned into a vampire. Still no match for an angry Harry, though. |
| 24 | * AdaptationalJerkass: |
| 25 | ** Carol's dad wasn't pleasant in the comics, from what little we see, but he wasn't an explicitly psychologically abusive parent. |
| 26 | ** Doctor Strange, in this fic, is rather less noble and scrupulous than his comic and MCU counterparts - though it mostly exaggerates their ruthlessness. Given his DarkAndTroubledPast, and the malevolent cosmic threats like Thanos lurking about, a guy like Strange has to get his hands dirty once in awhile (and sometimes, even more frequently) to assure the universe remains safe. |
| 27 | ** Odin and Thor... sort of (there's a reason the entry used to be on the YMMV page). |
| 28 | *** Odin was willing to put innocent Russian civilians lives at stake, just for the sake of taking down the Red Room, though it could be argued that the Red Room controlled Russia and there was no real way of getting a stranglehold on them without getting one on the rest of Russia as well - a stranglehold that lapsed the moment the Red Room were squashed. Which seems in character for an experienced and occasionally ruthless commander who's both achieving an aim and making a point. |
| 29 | *** Thor at first seems to lack the humility he'd developed from the Marvel films and is more brash and hotheaded when compared to his canon counterpart. However, this might be explained by his sudden adjustment to two decades of memories, the fact that [[spoiler: the last time he had a child that he lost track of, Torunn, she died long before he ever met her]], and his son's recurring habit of getting into trouble, which would strain the patience of a saint. By ''Ghosts'', he's mostly calmed down, and is if anything wiser and more patient than his MCU counterpart - except when his son is involved. |
| 30 | * AdaptationalSexuality: Diana has an obvious crush on [[spoiler: Ginny Weasley]], and it is definitely mutual, with the two getting together (facilitated by [[TheMatchmaker Harry]]) at the Yule Ball. |
| 31 | * AdaptationalWimp: General Lukin. His canon counterpart is an incredibly powerful CEO and ex Soviet General, ruling a ''de facto'' miniature state and wielding a cosmic cube - though that comes with the issue of the Red Skull trying to possess him. This version is an admittedly powerful General and commander of the resurrected Red Room, ruling a new Russian Empire (very briefly), but he plays a definite second fiddle to [[spoiler: Sinister.]] |
| 32 | * AdaptationalVillainy: Dudley. Oh dear Lord, Dudley. Far removed from the book character who, while a bullying brat, was complex enough to be one of the few members of the Dursleys to develop into a better person and accept Harry. In this version, he's just an absolutely vile monster who later becomes [[spoiler: Sinister's StupidEvil dumb muscle.]] WordOfGod explains that this is the result of several years of [[TheCorrupter having every single one of his darkest whims and desires catered for and encouraged]] by [[spoiler: Sinister and the Red Room]], while also not having the CharacterDevelopment forced on him by the Dementor attack and Dumbledore's pointed speech in the canon fifth and sixth books. |
| 33 | * AdaptedOut: While characters such as Amos Diggory and Waldo Butters still appear, their roles are much reduced, the former due to Harry not being as closely tied to the Weasleys and thus the magical world in general, and the latter due to ''Literature/DeadBeat'' having been condensed into a mostly [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome offscreen adventure]]. |
| 34 | * AdventureDuo: Harry and Carol. If one is involved in some form of trouble, the other is rarely all that far behind. |
| 35 | * AGodAmI: One rather unexpected character veers into this after [[BreakTheCutie finally being pushed too far]], summed up by a variation on a very famous catchphrase. |
| 36 | -->[[spoiler: '''Harry''']]: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER... I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''' |
| 37 | * TheAllAmericanBoy: Joe Jnr Danvers, Carol's baby brother, fits this trope like an adorable, impressionable 9-year-old glove. [[AbusiveParents His father]] also tries to force his [[TheQuietOne softly spoken]], creative older brother, Carol's middle sibling, Steven 'Stevie' Danvers, into this mould, the same way he tries to force Carol to be more traditionally feminine. |
| 38 | ** Clark Kent also fits the trope - the irony of this, since he's from another world, is noted. |
| 39 | * TheAlliance: In ancient times, the worlds that became seven of the Nine Realms, as well as several other races, banded together to defeat [[spoiler: Surtur]]. |
| 40 | * AllIsWellThatEndsWell: Despite the implication of the finale of ''Child of the Storm'', this is Subverted. It's made very clear that Harry and Carol in particular are still suffering from varying degrees of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]], right from chapter 1, which features Carol awakening from {{Trauma Induced Nightmare}}s and a resultant {{UST}} heavy piece of psychic therapy as Harry tries to help. Other near-death experiences/generalised horror are treated as increasing the issues, particularly in Harry's case, and broadening the rift between him and those who aren't involved, such as Ron and Hermione, and other Hogwarts friends - one widened even further by first his refusal to explain because of trauma, and then his somewhat cack-handed explanation that only makes things worse. And usually, every time it looks like he's recovered and in good shape (or getting that way, at least), something else comes in to make matters worse. |
| 41 | * AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In Chapter 32, Dracula launches an attack on Avengers Mansion in order to [[spoiler: abduct Carol]]. To bypass the defences and the Threshold, he telekinetically tears the building apart, then has his minions swarm into the separate pieces. |
| 42 | * AlmostKiss: Harry and Carol share one in chapter 36, with Harry instead [[AnywhereButTheirLips opting to kiss Carol's brow.]] |
| 43 | * AlternateSelf: During the First Task, Harry triggers a mental trap spell that, due to his own powers and the fact that reality is still thin from Chthon's rising, allows him to meet an older version of himself from a timeline where Wanda took him in after his first year at Hogwarts. Then he glimpses various other versions of himself from across TheMultiverse. |
| 44 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Vampires, White Court excepted (they're mortal enough to have choice). Some are more Lawful than Chaotic, but they're all evil undead horrors. Some just have better manners than others. |
| 45 | * AlwaysSecondBest: Uhtred averts this, having long since got over his issues with Harry's prominence and being content to be his right hand (or possibly left, considering Carol) and loyal Sworn Sword. Ron, by contrast, still has this to Harry, though a little less than in canon (as noted in the previous book, he definitely does ''not'' envy all the hell that Harry goes through). However, also unlike in canon, Hermione's development of new and unusual powers (which are less obviously traumatic than Harry's) and being mentored not only by Loki (distantly) but also by Wanda Maximoff, a LivingLegend in her own right compounds his feelings. Harry, being more perceptive than in canon (and psychic) picks up on it, and explains it to Carol, while Uhtred (who's in a very similar situation) discusses it with Ron when the two meet. |
| 46 | * AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: |
| 47 | ** Thor occasionally enjoys winding up his son, having remarked in the previous books that it's pretty much his duty. Usually, said teasing revolves around Harry's attraction to Carol. Harry, naturally, ends up mortified. |
| 48 | ** Jack O'Neill keeps trying to be badass and go-getting, and keeps getting upstaged by his mother, Alison Carter. |
| 49 | ** Steve is less than happy upon discovering that Carol and Harry {{Rules Lawyer}}ed the instructions to leave his door open and their clothes on. |
| 50 | * AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: The Red Son]] has his left arm and much of his left side blown off while fighting Magneto, then replaced by the Transmode Virus. Unsurprisingly, once matters are set to rights, [[spoiler: Harry]] is vocally unhappy about this. [[spoiler: Then he snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix, blasting off the Transmode and regenerating his limbs.]] |
| 51 | ** During ''Bloody Hell'', Wanda pulls a TeleFrag on Selene, removing her hands while getting clear. Since this is [[NighInvulnerable Selene]] [[HealingFactor we're talking about]], her hands just drop off [[HelpingHands and scuttle back towards their owner]]. Therefore [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wanda]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice decides to]] [[{{Transflormation}} up her game.]] |
| 52 | ** [[spoiler: Doctor Doom]] uses weaponized {{Portal Cut}}s to do this to Dracula's minions during the climax of ''Bloody Hell''. |
| 53 | --->'''[[spoiler: Doom]]''': They have failed to rest in peace, so now they [[{{Pun}} rest in pieces]]. |
| 54 | * AncientEvil: |
| 55 | ** Selene is noted to have already been old when Atlantis fell. |
| 56 | ** The original Dark Phoenix has been in stasis for the last ''million'' years. |
| 57 | ** The [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] from the ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' arc was a member of the above-mentioned first Dark Phoenix's army, and has been slumbering in the caverns beneath where Hogwarts now is ever since its master's defeat. |
| 58 | ** [[spoiler: Nimue]] in ''Unfinished Business'' is the youngest of the list, but she's still older than Merlin. |
| 59 | * AnywhereButTheirLips: In chapter 33, Carol kisses Harry on the cheek to thank him for what he did. Harry returns one to her brow in chapter 36, after they AlmostKiss. |
| 60 | * ApocalypseHow: Strange reveals that [[BadFuture of the bad futures he can see]], the ''best'' are at least a Class 2, while the worst are minimally Class X-4's, with [[spoiler: Maddie as the Dark Phoenix destroying all of the Nine Realms except for Muspelheim, which she takes over, and a straight race between Chthon and Thanos to destroy/control the universe.]] |
| 61 | * ARareSentence: |
| 62 | ** Dresden notes that Selene "ate his dinosaur," the weirdness of which Morgan lampshades. |
| 63 | ** When discussing Strange's production of ''Theatre/WestSideStory,'' Wanda notes that "you haven't lived until you've seen several dozen Mindless Ones pull off a flawless street dance routine." Everyone - including Thor, who really has SeenItAll - can only stare in disbelief. |
| 64 | * ArchEnemy: |
| 65 | ** It's reiterated that Harry and Voldemort are this, though it looks increasingly like Strange is setting Harry up to be this to Thanos - though it's also indicated to be [[ItsPersonal personal]] with Thanos. |
| 66 | ** Strange seems to consider [[spoiler: Sinister]] to be his, given how he treats hunting him down as a case of ItsPersonal. He also considered [[spoiler: Mordred]] to be his, and both of them for the same reason: He was too late to stop them from harming others. |
| 67 | * TheArchMage: In addition to all the examples established in the previous book (Strange, Wanda, Dumbledore, Arthur Langtry/The Merlin), in Chapter 62 Wanda reveals that the ''original'' Merlin is still around, and that while Strange may be more skilled, Merlin is more purely powerful. As she puts it, while other wizards wield magic, Merlin ''controls'' it. When he turns up, he proves that this is in no way an exaggeration, facing down [[spoiler: Nimue]] when she's got half of all the magic of the Earth at her disposal and fighting her to a draw while trying [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath to talk]] [[AllLovingHero her down]]. |
| 68 | * ArcVillain: |
| 69 | ** The Red Room, led by General Lukin, Yelena Belova, and [[spoiler: Sinister]] in the ''Forever Red'' arc. |
| 70 | ** The Kemmlerites and Dracula in the ''Bloody Hell'' arc. |
| 71 | ** The [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] in the ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' arc. |
| 72 | ** [[spoiler:Dr. Robert Reynolds]] for the unnamed Smallville arc. |
| 73 | ** The Spirit of the Fallen Fortress for the arc set there. |
| 74 | ** [[spoiler:Nimue]] for the ''Unfinished Business'' side story. |
| 75 | * ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Chapter 55 in particular tries to subvert this, with the author (an epileptic) making very clear that Harry is entirely wrong when he grabs and tries to restrain someone who's having a seizure (though he has reasons beyond just medical for wanting to do so), as it only leads to you and them getting hurt in real life. |
| 76 | * ArtisticLicenseMusic: Deadpool says that he doesn't want to hear another ''a capella'' VillainSong, presumably referring to "Agatha All Along" from Series/WandaVision. Since he's not a music lover, he doesn't know that the song isn't actually ''a capella'' (since the term refers to music made with only the human voice and no instrumental backing). |
| 77 | * ASharedSuffering: Harry and Carol's shared experiences, shared traumas, and shared resultant nightmares etcetera, play a significant role in deepening their bond. On the downside, this leads to Ron and Hermione being somewhat LockedOutOfTheLoop. |
| 78 | * TheAtoner: Bucky for his actions as the Winter Soldier, and Harry latterly for the events of ''Forever Red'' - both [[spoiler: screwing up so that his EmptyShell body was reprogrammed as the Red Son]] and for [[spoiler: losing control and becoming the Dark Phoenix, slaughtering the otherwise innocent Red Army - though both Sunniva and Shou-Lao make it quite clear that while his motives at the time were just 'eliminate threat'/'they're in my way', [[SadisticChoice there were no good choices]]]]. |
| 79 | * ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: The second part of ''Forever Red'' onwards in a nutshell - Harry gambles everything on trying to [[spoiler: get through to Maddie, even throwing himself back into the Red Room's hands]]. This was a horrible idea, with what happens next both turning the world upside down and almost driving him insane. It gets to the point where he's [[ShellShockedVeteran palpably haunted by it]] to one degree or another for over 40 chapters after it ends, and the entire book effectively functions as his MentalHealthRecoveryArc. |
| 80 | * AudienceSurrogate: This role shifts from Harry and Carol to Ron and, to a lesser extent, Hermione, in this book, due to Harry and Carol's CharacterDevelopment and increased weirdness factor/habit of being totally FantasticallyIndifferent. Ron and Hermione, by contrast, are normal teenagers, magic powers aside, and react much more normally. |
| 81 | ** The Red Room prisoners function as this in the first half of ''Forever Red'', being somewhat disturbed by how casually Harry and Carol are treating everything - right down to them FlirtingUnderFire. |
| 82 | ** Likewise, Steven 'Stevie' Danvers (Carol's little brother) and Peter Parker both serve as this in ''Bloody Hell''. |
| 83 | ** Monica serves as this and TheWatson in ''Unfinished Business''. |
| 84 | * AutobotsRockOut: In order to provide Harry with a suitable background music to strike at an Elder Wyrm, Strange has Tony hack the ''Valiant'' so its loudspeakers start to crank out "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Thunderstruck]]", much to Peter Wisdom's [[NarrativeProfanityFilter (very vocal)]] displeasure. |
| 85 | ** In ''Unfinished Business'', he does this twice, turning New Orleans into a giant amp, playing first [[{{Music/Queen}} "We Will Rock You"]] and then a certain cover... No one is particularly surprised, either that he would do it, or that he's responsible. |
| 86 | -->'''''[[WesternAnimation/Shrek2 "C Minor, put it in C Minor..."]]''''' |
| 87 | * AwesomenessByAnalysis: Carol's brother Stevie is LockedOutOfTheLoop regarding her adventures with Harry, but has been able to piece together at least a vague idea of what's happening just by paying attention to the way everyone's acting. |
| 88 | ** This is also how Carol is able to deduce that [[spoiler: there's a strike team after her]], their numbers, and who and what they are. |
| 89 | ** More than once, Bucky is able to deduce what Strange is up to just from the observed evidence. |
| 90 | * BadassBoast: Strange, when putting his foot down to the Council Elite, lets an epic one fly: |
| 91 | -->"I am the Sorcerer Supreme. I am the Evergreen Man, the Lord of Time, and I know my place perfectly well. I fight beings like you ''every single day''. I have guarded reality against them for centuries, and for the most part, I have done it ''alone''. For centuries I have stood, and I stand here still, now with [[spoiler: an Infinity Stone]] in my hand. Do you really think that ''you'', ''any'' of you, is a match for ''me?'' So how dare ''you?'' How dare ''any'' of you? '''''How dare any of you raise your voices to me!'''''" |
| 92 | ** Dracula gives one when fighting Harry: |
| 93 | --->"I am Dracula. I defied empires, causing the fields of Europe to steam with the blood of my enemies, long before I began drinking it as well. When I destroyed their armies, I made a screaming forest of their survivors, ''earning'' the name of Lord Impaler. I am the Lord of the Vampires, I have slain gods and demons alike, and I, little Prince, am going to teach you a lesson you should long since have learned." *tosses Harry through a portal into open skies.* "Why not to meddle in the affairs of your betters." |
| 94 | ** In Chapter 34, Wanda asks [[spoiler: Jesus]] to give a message to the members of the Council Elite who might potentially harm Harry, on her behalf: |
| 95 | --->"The message is as follows: I am [[spoiler: the Sorceress Supreme]]. Harry is my godson. And if any god, or goddess, or any entity of that ilk, even ''breathes'' the wrong way towards him, then I swear by my power and my name that I will make them ''wish'' that they were dealing with [[spoiler: my predecessor]]." |
| 96 | ** [[spoiler:The Elder Wyrm]] gives a lengthy one in chapter 43 that carries shades of Smaug's, and one that - since he's capable of taking on both Thor and the ''Valiant'' simultaneously - he's plenty capable of living up to. |
| 97 | ---> ''[[TheHero "You]]'' would fight ''me?'' You think much of yourself, oh very ''little'' thing. You are an Asgardian, of the blood of Frey, and one of moderate intelligence at that. Those qualities alone make you worth conversing with. But I, I am far more. My sire was Jormungand, Father of Dragons. I was born at the command of the Surtur Ash-Bringer, King of Flames, Lord of the Inferno, for a purpose beyond your comprehension. I was a vanguard for his infinite armies; I burned worlds beyond number from clouds to core, and devoured their people like sheep on the fold! Your people are gods now, Asgardian, but I ate my fill of gods long before your kind ever claimed the spark of divinity! Your people are old now, but I was ancient when the eldest of your sires were mere mortal babes in their mother’s arms! Even in my sleep, I reached out my thought and ensnared gods, both of this land and of your kindred, and ''broke'' them to my will!” |
| 98 | * BadassCrew: Harry already has a team of proto-Young Avengers, composed of himself, Carol, Jean-Paul, Uhtred, and Diana. |
| 99 | ** This group, minus Jean-Paul (at first) and including Bucky, Remus, Sirius, Gambit, and a [[spoiler: half-turned Peter Parker]], later joined by Alison, and [[spoiler: Doctor Doom]], work together quite effectively against the Grey Court. |
| 100 | ** The Winter Guard are said to be this trope, though [[TheWorfEffect in practice they get]] OvershadowedByAwesome. |
| 101 | ** After Alison was kidnapped by the Red Room and the Kree in the 50s, [[MamaBear Peggy Carter]] teamed up with Charles Xavier, Jor-El, Howard Stark, Mar-Vell, Piotr Rasputin, Bra'tac, and Teal'c to get her back. |
| 102 | ** The Avengers, of course, who are respected, if not outright feared, by every mortal and supernatural power bloc on Earth and its associated realms. |
| 103 | ** The First Class of X-Men are mentioned again, with Fury noting to Loki that before he joined, he would've given them even odds against the Avengers. While they never fight together as a collective, each of them demonstrates just how dangerous they are on multiple occasions. |
| 104 | * BadassLongCoat: Harry Dresden, of course. |
| 105 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] has a similar one, but she ditches it as part of her HeelFaceTurn. |
| 106 | ** Wanda Maximoff seems to have picked up the [[{{Pun}} habit]] from her boyfriend, and when she receives the [[spoiler: garb of the Sorceress Supreme]], it takes the form of one. |
| 107 | ** Harry briefly wears one during the finale of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc as part of his [[spoiler: imitation of the Dark Phoenix]]. |
| 108 | * BadFuture: Strange actively works to prevent them. For example, he tells Wanda that if he hadn't [[spoiler: led Gambit to the Red Room, setting in motion the first steps of Maddie's HeelFaceTurn]], the worst possible outcome of events would have been Earth and the rest of the Nine Realms being destroyed by [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix Maddie]], followed by a race between Chthon's ilk and an Infinity Stone-powered Thanos to control or destroy the universe. Most of the 'better' futures would still have had [[spoiler: Maddie]] dead and a death toll extending into the millions, if not the hundreds of millions - and while there were other, better futures that Strange could more easily have arranged, though they were few and far between, he felt he owed it to [[spoiler: Maddie.]] |
| 109 | ** Harry's shown a number of possible futures, with the worst showing Harry as [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix, having slaughtered his family, the Avengers, and set the Nine Realms aflame, and now just sitting on the melted throne in the ruins of Asgard and laughing like a maniac because he knows that Harry can see him]]. Harry, needless to say, freaks the hell out. It continues to haunt him for a long time after, as he knows that it is a genuine possibility. |
| 110 | * BaitAndSwitch: At first, it is implied that the Red Son is a clone of someone, perhaps Clark or Harry, or some other genetically engineered abomination from the tail-end of the Cold War. Actually, though, it's [[spoiler: Harry, or at least the BlankSlate of his body, brainwashed and programmed.]] |
| 111 | ** The same arc also heavily implies that [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] is either an ArtificialHuman or a clone of [[spoiler:Jean]]. As it turns out, she's just always been told that she's an ArtificialHuman as a means of dehumanisation and thus control. In reality, [[spoiler: she's Jean's stolen at birth twin sister.]] |
| 112 | ** Carol notices Peter Parker acting strangely, standing up to Flash Thompson, and moving with super-human agility. Most readers believed that this was {{foreshadowing}} of his spider-powers, but actually, it's [[spoiler: because he's a thrall of the Grey Court]]. |
| 113 | * BatmanGambit: |
| 114 | ** Voldemort has Crouch send up the Dark Mark during the fight at the World Cup, knowing that its reputation will cause panic and confusion among the heroes and assembled allies. It works perfectly, and with a psychic nudge, he very nearly tricks Thor into accidentally killing Harry and [[spoiler: Pepper in Carol's body]], only being prevented by a brief intervention by the Phoenix. |
| 115 | ** The Avengers pull several on the Red Room in Chapter 13, counting on exactly how they're going to react to provocation in order to lead them into several traps. While [[spoiler: Harry]] notes rather scathingly that they were blatantly obvious and wouldn't have worked were it not for Belova being mad and Lukin's sensitive ego, it could also be said that this was kind of the point. |
| 116 | ** [[spoiler: Alison Carter]] pulled one in the backstory, when she arranged for [[MagnificentBastard Fury]] and [[ManipulativeBastard Coulson]] to be the first SHIELD Agents to run into a recently landed infant Kal-El a.k.a. Clark Kent, knowing that they'd react sympathetically to a lost child. Even more impressively, she managed it without once indicating - not even to them - that she was involved. |
| 117 | * BattleBallgown: Subverted, with Carol noting Strange's presence at [[spoiler: the Yule Ball]] and wondering if everything is going to go wrong and if she has time to change into something more practical. |
| 118 | * BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: |
| 119 | ** Harry and Voldemort have a couple of these during their fight at the World Cup. The first one ends in a draw due to Harry's raw power going up against Voldemort's skill and willingness to use Harry's friends as hostages. The second, without hostages, ends with Harry overwhelming Voldemort, forcing him to flee. |
| 120 | ** Harry and [[spoiler: Rachel Grey/Maddie Pryor]] get into another, pretty epic one, later on. It causes a global scale PsychicNosebleed, almost kills some elderly psychics, and results in a WorldGoneMad in the relevant part of the Nevernever. |
| 121 | * BattleInTheRain: The climax of ''Unfinished Business'' sees the unleashing of Project Pegasus' magic to cause a Category 5 hurricane to form over New Orleans, which quickly becomes a battleground between [[spoiler: Nimue]]'s monster army and the heroes that Strange assembles to stop them. |
| 122 | * BeAllMySinsRemembered: At Loki's own insistence, the "RoguesGallery" exhibit at New York's Natural History Museum contains a replica of him as he was during the Chitauri invasion. |
| 123 | * BeautifulDreamer: Harry wakes up and sees Carol snuggled up to him in chapter 37, and smiles fondly at her peaceful expression... then the moment is immediately ruined when he realises to his absolute mortification that [[RagingStiffie he's got a case of morning wood.]] Cue some very careful attempts to extricate himself without waking her up. |
| 124 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Harry gets hit with this ''hard'' when he darkly remarks that he ''hopes'' the then unknown telepath - Sinister - who intervened to keep him at Privet Drive to study him comes around and has a go, doubtless planning to wreak horrors on his person. Cue the ''Forever Red'' arc, in which Harry is kidnapped, tortured, [[spoiler: his BlankSlate body is [[ReforgedIntoAMinion reprogrammed into the Red Son]]]], hundreds of deaths, countless cases of MindRape to varying degrees, the geopolitical map of the mortal and spirit worlds being turned upside down, and worst of all, [[spoiler: the rise of the Dark Phoenix, an event which leads to more than a few mortals and gods concluding that Harry is an ApocalypseMaiden and too dangerous to live, while Harry himself is a slowly recovering traumatised wreck.]] All in all, it's fair to say that that particular wish backfired. |
| 125 | * BehemothBattle: |
| 126 | ** To counter Dresden bringing in Sue [[RaisingTheSteaks the reanimated T-Rex]], Selene transforms into a primordial dragon called a Long-Wyrm. To Sue's credit, she holds out for a fair while before Selene wins. |
| 127 | ** The climax of ''Unfinished Business'' sees a fight between [[spoiler: Man-Thing (a transmuted Jason Woodrue) and Swamp Thing]], both of whom have magically grown to huge sizes. |
| 128 | * BerserkButton: There are many, occasionally several for each character. |
| 129 | ** A general one for most any character is hurting or threatening a member of their family or their TrueCompanions. |
| 130 | ** Draco does ''not'' like to be compared to his father. |
| 131 | ** Harry has a selection of new ones (usually relating to telepathy) after the ''Forever Red'' arc that he's rather reticent about. This makes him even more unnerving for his fellow Hogwarts students as, from their point of view, there's every chance that they'll make an innocuous joke and he'll go off like a claymore mine. He also absolutely hates being controlled or dictated to, for understandable reasons. |
| 132 | ** ''Never'' condescend towards or treat Dracula like an idiot. Harry and Voldemort both try fairly transparent ploys on the VampireMonarch, and in neither case does it end well for them. |
| 133 | * TheBet: Several were apparently made among both the Avengers and the Hogwarts staff regarding whether Harry and Carol would [[spoiler: have their FirstKiss before or during the Yule Ball]], with the winners collecting their earnings in Chapter 47 after [[spoiler: the kiss occurs when Harry asks her to the Ball]]. |
| 134 | * BigBadassBattleSequence: |
| 135 | ** Chapters 9 and 10, especially 10, embody this trope. |
| 136 | ** Chapters 12 and 13 also emphasise this. |
| 137 | ** Chapters 32 and 33 are pretty much entirely this trope, with several separate battles. |
| 138 | ** Chapters 43 and 44 have Harry, the Hogwarts staff, the various heroes who have come to watch the Triwizard Tournament, and [=MI13=] fighting an [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] who awakens from underneath the Black Lake and starts attacking everyone in the area. |
| 139 | ** Chapter 58 is almost entirely action, with Harry and [[spoiler: a newly empowered]] Clark, backed by SHIELD air support, going toe to with Reynolds a.k.a. [[spoiler: the Parasite/the Void]] over Smallville. |
| 140 | ** The climax of ''Unfinished Business'' features the Battle of New Orleans, in which [[spoiler: Nimue]] unleashes all of Project Pegasus' trapped magical experiments on the city, only to be confronted by S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, the White Council, and various other heroes. |
| 141 | * BigBlackout: The Grey Court cuts all power and communications networks in Manhattan, in order to create enough confusion and chaos that they can [[spoiler: abduct Carol]] without anyone noticing. |
| 142 | * BigBadEnsemble: While Voldemort appears to be the main villain of this book and Surtur is the GreaterScopeVillain, the StoryArc format provides plenty of other antagonists time to shine: |
| 143 | ** ''Forever Red'': the Red Room as led by General Lukin and [[spoiler: Sinister]]. |
| 144 | ** ''Bloody Hell'': Voldemort is joined by Selene and the Kemmlerites (all in opposition to each other) in the Dresden storyline, and Dracula and his Grey Court in the Harry storyline. |
| 145 | ** ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'': an [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] is inadvertently awakened by the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament and comes into conflict with Harry as it tries to devour him and the other Champions. |
| 146 | ** ''Mirror Image'': Doctor Reynolds a.k.a. [[spoiler: Rudy Jones a.k.a. the Parasite/the Void]]. |
| 147 | * BigDamnHeroes: The Avengers, Wanda, Bucky, Jean, Alison, and Jack O'Neill when storming the Red Room. |
| 148 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie,]] Jono, Harry Dresden, Sir Fix, and [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]] pull this in chapters 14 and 15, to retrieve [[spoiler: Harry's]] mind. |
| 149 | ** For a given value of 'hero', but [[spoiler: Strange]] pulls this in chapter 16 when Odin's being backed into a corner by the Council Elite of Skyfathers. By [[spoiler: whisking them to the Rock of Eternity with the Tesseract]], no less. |
| 150 | ** [[spoiler: Gambit]] pops up at the end of Chapter 30 to help Carol, Stevie, and [[spoiler: Peter]] escape the Grey Court. Chapter 31 follows up on this by showing he brought Uhtred, Diana, and Logan with him as backup. And ''then'', Harry and Bucky show up just in time to [[spoiler: stop the vampires from executing Stevie]]. |
| 151 | ** Chapter 31 also has Magneto show up just in time to save Dresden from Cassius. |
| 152 | ** Dresden pulls this off in chapter 33 with Sue the polka-powered dinosaur (ItMakesSenseInContext), Harry, Bucky, and Alison pull together a team to rescue Carol from Dracula, and Hulk, Thor, and Loki later show up to rescue Harry once things go south. |
| 153 | ** Just as Harry Thorson is about to be pounded into the ground by Dracula in the same chapter, who's seen through his ploy, Harry starts counting down. Five seconds later, Thor performs a ThreePointLanding, followed swiftly by the Hulk and Loki. |
| 154 | ** In chapter 58, Clark is at Reynolds' mercy, being StrappedToAnOperatingTable... then Harry sweeps in, full of righteous wrath and summarily establishes who the biggest fish in the pond is (hint: it's not Reynolds). |
| 155 | * TheBigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: Harry and Carol in Chapter 46, when she agrees to be his date to the Yule Ball. As Bucky observes... "About damn time."]] |
| 156 | * BiggerOnTheInside: |
| 157 | ** Harry speculates that this is the case with Hogwarts. |
| 158 | ** Sirius casually reveals to Harry that the Forbidden Forest is this. |
| 159 | * BigBrotherInstinct[=/=]BigSisterInstinct: Both variations on this are demonstrated. |
| 160 | ** Jean to Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]], outright threatening to bring down SHIELD singlehandedly if she thinks that they're a threat to her family. |
| 161 | ** Carol notes after [[spoiler: being kidnapped by the Grey Court]] that what really angers her isn't being captured, nor is it innocents getting hurt, but her baby brother [[TearsOfFear crying.]] |
| 162 | ** Subverted between Sirius and Wisdom a.k.a. Regulus - while Sirius was concerned about/protective of his brother in the previous book, not only can Wisdom look after himself, he's evolved into [[HeWhoFightsMonsters a borderline sociopath]] who Sirius is willing to threaten with murder if he threatens Harry. |
| 163 | ** Harry to Clark, when they finally meet, being instantly protective of him, offering the benefit of his experiences, and helping him through emotional crises regarding his identity. |
| 164 | * BilingualBonus: Magneto and Ruth's terms for each other, ''Zayde'' and ''Aynikl,'' are {{Affectionate Nickname}}s in Yiddish for "grandpa" and "granddaughter," respectively. |
| 165 | * BlackAndGreyMorality: The story settles into this, after the first book flirted with it, particularly in relation to the Avengers' habit of obeying rules more or less only when it suits them, a habit that Harry has acquired, which is treated as morally dubious. For instance, Doctor Doom's concern that the Avengers might one day decide to stroll into Latveria and depose him is presented as reasonable (even if his methods are not), on the grounds [[NoodleIncident that it has happened before.]] Likewise, their keeping the fact that Bucky used to be the Winter Soldier secret, having faked the Soldier's death, and using him as Harry's bodyguard in a school where more than a few students - including Harry's close friend, Ron - lost relatives to the Winter Soldier and the HYDRA troops he was leading (even if, as with Arthur Weasley, it was a MercyKill, it was still a kill). Carol [[WhatTheHellHero calls her grandmother, Alison, and the Avengers by proxy on this]], pointing out exactly why it's extremely morally dodgy. Alison, for her part, concedes that Carol is right, but Harry needed the best (not so much to protect him as to mentor him through the aftermath of ''Forever Red''), and for better or worse, Bucky is the best - and he also flies under the radar for those who don't know who he used to be. |
| 166 | ** That being said, morally pure heroes--such as Clark Kent, Steve Rogers, and Michael Carpenter--do exist, and their idealism is presented as being one of the best things about them. |
| 167 | * BlankWhiteVoid: Harry's mental landscape forms into this on more than one occasion, before being reshaped into something else. |
| 168 | * BlaseBoast: Strange gives a quiet one to Thor: |
| 169 | --> We both know that no prison built will hold me. I've been through enough tortures that anything you could do to me would be at best amusingly quaint and frankly, cathartic. |
| 170 | ** Jean-Paul also tells Clark that there's no one faster than him, with Clark noting that this isn't as much of a boast as it is a statement of fact. |
| 171 | ** Alison gets a couple in a flashback in chapter 36, noting to [[spoiler: Jor-El]] that she could, when necessary, make then Director Jim Woo do what she wants. Whether he likes it or not. |
| 172 | ** Strange gets another in Chapter 37, stating casually (while inspecting his fingernails) that [[TheDreaded Queen]] [[PhysicalGod Mab]] knows much better than to get in his way. Since Mab is as powerful as Thor and Loki at her ''weakest'' and someone they tread lightly around for good reason, this is no small thing. |
| 173 | ** Harry gets a couple in chapter 42. The first is to the Undines, telling them that if he wanted to cause trouble for them, he would have, but so far has been willing to play nice. If they want to get nasty, he will oblige them, and they ''won't'' like it. Later on, he tells the [[spoiler: barrow wrights]] DontMakeMeDestroyYou, warning them that it's not a bluff, a threat, or even a negotiation: it's a statement of fact. |
| 174 | ** Strange tells the Senior Council in chapter 61, after having had enough of their blustering, that they ''will'' be changing to keep up to date, whether or not they want to. |
| 175 | * BodyguardingABadass: This was [[spoiler: Maddie's]] job for Sinister, since he MinoredInAsskicking, but regards combat as beneath him. |
| 176 | ** Bucky also serves as this for Harry after ''Forever Red.'' While the latter is capable of taking on just about anyone up to and including a fellow PersonOfMassDestruction, his primary reaction is to KillItWithFire, and subtlety, espionage, and being a planner are skills he has yet to master. Furthermore, because of his [[FamedInStory growing legend]], most enemies aren't going to just flat-out attack him, but instead strike from the shadows - and who better to watch his back and teach him how to fight in the shadows than [[TheDreaded the undisputed master]] [[ProfessionalKiller of those skills?]] |
| 177 | *** He also serves as a moderating influence on Harry in general, helping him along the rocky road of recovery following ''Forever Red''. |
| 178 | * BodyHorror: [[spoiler: Nimue]] is a one-woman vehicle of this in ''Unfinished Business'', in part because she favours various forms of ForcedTransformation, and in part because she's exploiting the remains of Project Pegasus, which is a hellish nightmare that is absolutely ''full'' of this. |
| 179 | * BornOfMagic: Chapter 10 implies in passing that Merlin was this. |
| 180 | * BorrowedCatchphrase: Harry uses a slightly modified version of his father's "I would have words with thee" when confronting Dracula. |
| 181 | * BothSidesHaveAPoint: Harry keeping his knowledge of Wanda being Hermione's mother a secret. On one side, it is not his secret to share, but on the other side, as [[spoiler:Hermione]] points out, he didn't even try to get Wanda to confess. |
| 182 | ** In general, this trope applies to much of Harry's secret-keeping; some things aren't his to share, and dragging them further into the world of madness and danger will definitely have negative effects on Ron and Hermione; on the other hand, they have the right to choose. |
| 183 | * BrandishmentBluff: Harry uses this - specifically, he pretends to become [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] against Dracula, who has a very understandable fear of the entity in question, as part of his KansasCityShuffle at the end of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc. It works, for just about long enough. |
| 184 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Harry ends up suffering this at the hands of the Red Room, becoming the Red Son.]] |
| 185 | * BreadEggsMilkSquick: [[DoomMagnet Harry]] at one point hopes for world peace, good weather, and a year to go by at school without someone trying to murder him. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't get his wish (though given his dad's WeatherManipulation powers, at least one of three is possible). |
| 186 | * BreakingSpeech: Taken up to eleven in ''Unfinished Business''. [[spoiler: [[TheDreaded Doctor]] [[TimeMaster Strange]]]] rips into an opponent with a barrage of savage comments in a duel, made all the more terrible by his inability to lie - all those insults are the complete truth. It's ambiguous whether the effect is purely psychological or [[WordsCanBreakMyBones deeper]] - certainly, he makes the receiving character [[NightmareFuel vomit up chunks of their soul]]. [[spoiler: This later comes back to bite him when said opponent uses some of the ready-made soul fragments for [[SoulJar their own]] magic.]] |
| 187 | -->Worse even than those, though, was the whispering in her ear, a voice that was always behind her, one that poured soft, cruel words into her heart in a tongue that only they understood, one that only a handful of mortals still spoke. The inexorable whispers, impossible to deafen, impossible to ignore, carried dreadful knowledge. They spoke of crimes and failures, of past mistakes and present incompetence, each phrase as artfully constructed as any spell, and far more deadly, slicing into the listener's soul. For those whispers were in the voice of [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]], and as all the world knew - [[spoiler: the Doctor]] never lied. |
| 188 | * BreedingCult: The occasionally mentioned and extremely secretive Askani are consistently described as a 'weird, but mostly harmless' mixture of this and a MysteryCult. It's never made particularly clear what they actually want, though their most consistent goal is described to be maintaining their bloodlines and scouting for new input - which would be why they were so interested in Charles Xavier. |
| 189 | ** When one of their members appears in chapter 38 and speaks to Xavier, this impression is confirmed - along with a general interest in psychic goings-on worldwide (on the grounds that they're affected too) - and it is further revealed that the Askani previously not only picked up new psychics, but ejected bloodlines that stopped producing psychics. They've acknowledged this as a mistake (though not as immoral, which Xavier coldly points out), with the reveal that [[spoiler: the Grey family, including Jean, Maddie, and Harry (through Lily) are descendants of a previously defunct Askani bloodline]]. |
| 190 | * BrickJoke: During the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, the LemonyNarrator describes the injustice that the universe didn't have a soundtrack, for if it had, it would have welcomed [[spoiler:Maddie]] lifting Mjolnir to a rousing rendition of "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Thunderstruck]]". [[spoiler:When Harry is about to use the thunderstorm to add to the power of his attack, Tony hacks the ''Valiant'' helicarrier so that its loudspeakers will ''blast'' "Thunderstruck".]] |
| 191 | ** This is actually a doubled example, as in chapter 80 of ''Child of the Storm'', Wisdom remarks to Pepper that [[spoiler: he half-expects Tony to put something in when revamping the ''Valiant'', perhaps a backdoor to hack in through and doesn't mind for his own reasons - part of them being that if he had a problem with Tony, he wouldn't use a helicarrier to sort it out. Then, Tony hacks into the ''Valiant'' to use its speakers, which Wisdom ''definitely'' minds.]] |
| 192 | ** Back in chapter 77 of ''Child of the Storm'', during the Battle of London, Thor embarrasses Harry by cheerfully informing him that he and Carol make a lovely BattleCouple. In chapter 43 of this book, when Harry alludes to that battle and how he and Carol teamed up to take down a demonic dragon - in reference to [[spoiler: the giant dragon he's facing now]] - Thor snarks that that wasn't a battle, it was a first date. Cue another wail of teenage embarrassment (though, as it's noted, Harry doesn't actually disagree with this assessment). |
| 193 | ** All the way back in ''Film/TheAvengers2012,'' the Catholic Steve Rogers (upon meeting Thor and Loki) noted that, "there's only one God, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." When said (demi)god finally appears, he indeed doesn't wear anything resembling robes or armor, instead rocking jeans and a T-shirt. |
| 194 | * BridalCarry: Predictably, Clark pulls a variation of this on [[spoiler: Lois Lane]] when he catches her. This is at least partly to cushion her fall (from a plane) to minimise the jolt as [[ShownTheirWork he matches her descent speed and slows the both of them down in line with the laws of physics]], taking the trouble to support her back, neck, and head in the process. The {{UST}} is not ignored. He then does it again, more conventionally, to whisk her over to the plane (which he has since rescued) and drop her off discreetly... and unfortunately does it a little ''too'' fast, meaning that [[spoiler: Lois]], still somewhat off-balance, [[VomitDiscretionShot ends up throwing up on him]]. |
| 195 | * BringIt: Harry says this to [[spoiler: Maddie]] right before their psychic duel in [[spoiler: the Red Room base]]. |
| 196 | -->'''[[spoiler: Maddie]]''': Consider it brought. |
| 197 | * BrokenAce: Doctor Strange, as best shown during the ''Forever Red'' arc and when he explains his background in chapter 20. He's brilliant, witty, and incredibly powerful... and he's also ancient, miserable, half-mad, chock full of self-loathing, and incredibly lonely, regarding the prospect of torture as cathartic and of death as a release. |
| 198 | ** If Harry Thorson wasn't this trope before, he certainly is after ''Forever Red.'' |
| 199 | * BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Played With, in terms of Harry and Carol. On the one hand, Harry is prone to brooding, much more after the brutal TraumaCongaLine of ''Forever Red'' thanks to a world-class case of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]]. Likewise, Carol is much gentler than her reputation and initial spiky attitude leads most to assume, particularly with Harry, and listens to him when he's miserable, comforts him, and counsels him. However, she is also not shy of giving him a firm kick up the arse if he's wallowing, and sometimes ends up brooding in her own right, resulting in the dynamic being inverted. |
| 200 | * BroughtDownToBadass: According to Dumbledore, while Strange stripped Grindelwald of all his outside enhancements and gifted power, he was still the joint strongest Wanded practitioner of his era, armed with the Elder Wand, and exceptionally knowledgeable about the Dark Arts. In other words, he went from PhysicalGod to PersonOfMassDestruction. |
| 201 | ** Thor demonstrates during the second half of ''Forever Red'' that being without Mjolnir doesn't really slow him down. How? He snaps into [[UnstoppableRage the Warrior's Madness]] and beats the freaking ''Juggernaut'' to a pulp with his bare hands. |
| 202 | ** Strange binds Harry's psychic abilities during his first encounter with Clark, as a way of teaching him. Since Harry already has months worth of black ops and espionage training, a few years of magical tutelage (including from some of the greatest mages alive), and quite a few life or death experiences under his belt, this barely impedes him. |
| 203 | * BrutalHonesty: Ron retains his canonical habit of this, while Carol's proclivity for it (which includes puncturing Harry's more melodramatic moments) is a key character trait. Harry, meanwhile, is just as bad as Carol, especially when he's upset. |
| 204 | * TheBusCameBack: Sean and Warren make cameos in chapter 2, before becoming supporting characters again in chapter 27. |
| 205 | ** Peter Parker also shows up in chapter 29, having had one fairly brief appearance all the way back in chapter 20 of ''Child of the Storm.'' |
| 206 | * ButForMeItWasTuesday: Harry does this a couple of times, to make the point of how different his life is from everyone else's. |
| 207 | ** He absently remarks in chapter 57, in the midst of the ''Mirror Image'' arc, that stuff like {{Eldritch Location}}s, {{Evil Sorcerer}}s who dabble in {{Magitek}} super-serums, and that sort of chaos, isn't nothing, but it's basically Tuesday for him. Chloe Sullivan, who's spent the last few hours suffering magical ElectricTorture, beaten up, and thrown in a cell by said EvilSorcerer, tartly remarks that what is Tuesday for him definitely isn't Tuesday for her (or Lex, for that matter). |
| 208 | ** In Chapter 66, he bluntly references this trope by name to tell Ron that while the events of the Fallen Fortress were terrible and life-defining for him, for Harry it was nothing special. Unusually, it's not a dismissal, but a way of underlining just how dangerous and traumatic his life can be - as he makes clear, people are ''not'' meant to live like that. |
| 209 | * ButtMonkey: Cornelius Fudge. The only reason he's still Minister is for lack of better alternatives, or anyone willing to take the job while it means dealing with Peter Wisdom. Additionally, Wisdom regards terrorising Fudge as one of his few pleasures in life. And that's not even getting into the Hogwarts breakfast food-fight, wherein he's engulfed by a tidal wave of jam, which, [[BlatantLies of course, had nothing to do with Dumbledore whatsoever]]. |
| 210 | * CallBack: |
| 211 | ** When Voldemort first reveals himself to Harry by turning [[spoiler: Carol and Uhtred]] into PeoplePuppets, he has them reiterate his comments to Harry from ''Philosopher's Stone'' about power and morality. This is actually what clues Harry into what's happening. |
| 212 | ** Carol mentions the heart ripping/pseudo-Blood Eagle incident to Hermione as a demonstration of what Harry's dark side is capable of. She also mentions the Battle of London in general, and Harry's resurrection by the Phoenix and Her resultant rampage in chapter 71 of ''Child of the Storm''. |
| 213 | ** Mention is also made of Trelawney's second prophecy in Chapter 4. |
| 214 | ** When Diana and Uhtred come to visit Harry at Hogwarts, the latter gets his attention by knocking on a window and shouting "Found you!" just like [[Film/{{Thor}} Sif and the Warriors Three did when they found Thor on Earth]]. |
| 215 | ** Professor Bach [[spoiler: a.k.a. Strange]] references [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Ron's creative usage of a Levitation Charm on a troll's club]]. |
| 216 | ** In chapter 28, Harry (when in an extremely bad mood) refers both to Crouch Senior's role in Sirius' incarceration and Thor's violent reaction to it, noting that they haven't forgotten, just been distracted by more important things - therefore, Crouch would be wise not to draw attention to himself. |
| 217 | *** In the same chapter, in reference to [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Kemmlerite necromancers plaguing Chicago]], specifically how one of them - Kumori - used her necromancy to prevent someone from dying, Dresden discusses Doctor Strange resurrecting him in the Catacombs under Paris, after he used his Death Curse on Gravemoss, and mentions the ''veidrdraugar'' (and how he is heartily glad none of the Kemmlerites have figured out how to replicate them). |
| 218 | ** Later on, Wanda describes the previously-mentioned fight between her father and Voldemort on Mount Wundagore the night she was born, and she and Luccio reference Strange's famous challenge of the Council over her. |
| 219 | ** Harry Dresden calls back to [[Literature/BloodRites his previous adventure]] a couple of times when speaking to Ebenezar and Luccio, and he and [[spoiler: Cassius]] reference [[Literature/DeathMasks Dresden's first encounter with the Denarians.]] |
| 220 | ** After absorbing the best Harry and his allies can do and letting them pound him a little, the ArcVillain catches Harry's strike and says, "Not bad. But not good enough." This exact situation occurred in chapter 60 of ''Child of the Storm'', with Zemo and HYDRA's Destroyer instead of Dracula. |
| 221 | ** Mention is also made of Harry and Thor meeting and helping Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker, back in chapter 20 of the first book, by Gwen's father, Captain Stacy - who also notes that according to Gwen, Harry was decidedly ''not'' 'arrogant, difficult, and prone to making threats'. Harry's snarky response is that [[{{Understatement}} he's "had a difficult year."]] |
| 222 | ** In chapter 38, when discussing the [[GreyAndGreyMorality moral ambiguity]] of hiding Bucky's past as the Winter Soldier, Alison - who supports keeping the secret - recalls that the Winter Soldier killed Brian Falsworth a.k.a. Union Jack (the [[FlyingBrick Captain Britain]] of his day, and son of Lt. Montgomery Falsworth) and his partner, Roger Aubrey a.k.a. [[BadassNormal Dyna-Mite/the Destroyer]] in the 1970s. This was mentioned in passing in ''Child of the Storm'' to establish the Soldier's badassery, and the two made a brief post-mortem cameo at the Battle of London. However, it's expanded upon here, with Alison stating that she knew Brian very well (after all, their parents were friends), and that he was the little brother she never had. She also confirms what their cameo implied - they were more than just professional partners - remarking that she acted as Brian's [[TheBeard beard]] a couple of times. Accordingly, her decision to support keeping Bucky's secret is not one made lightly. |
| 223 | ** [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger Arnim Zola's remark]] that the sanity of the Red Skull's plans is immaterial, because he can do it, is referenced by Dumbledore. Strange later says exactly the same thing about [[TheDreaded Thanos]]. |
| 224 | ** In chapter 53, Harry calls back to his rebuttal to Chthon at the end of the first book when he tells Gorakhnath that he never wanted power, or to be a god, much less "capital-G God." |
| 225 | ** In chapter 58, Harry mentions that he taught Carol most of her repertoire of Russian swear-words. In chapter 2 of ''Unfinished Business'', Carol's just finished a ClusterFBomb, and mentions that the language the others (Peter, Monica, Ned, and Gwen) don't recognise is Russian - and that she learned from Harry, who's fluent. |
| 226 | ** In chapter 59, Strange conjures one of Harry's Tarot cards from Trelawney's reading in chapter 66 of the first book: the Star. Which showed a red star in golden fields (Clark) and a blue star in the sky. This, he suggests somewhat cautiously, ''might'' - and only might, because this is a relatively minor prediction, by a somewhat pickled and untrained {{Seer|s}}, and he is well aware of the risks of a ProphecyTwist - indicate another Kryptonian. As he warns, though, it could very easily refer to something else. |
| 227 | ** In chapter 73 of ''Ghosts'', Harry nods back to his obliteration of [[SendInTheClones the Red Army]], and reveals that he considers it to be [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest regret]] because [[spoiler: while they were programmed {{Human Weapon}}s]], they were ''[[ClonesArePeopleToo people]]'' (which he ''knew'') and they never got the chance to live. |
| 228 | * CallingCard: The Dark Mark, for Voldemort and the Death Eaters. |
| 229 | ** The Red Room's is a blood red star. |
| 230 | ** The phoenix, particularly the simplified and stylised Jean Grey emblem, becomes this for Harry. It's not that hard to guess why. |
| 231 | ** Gambit's literal calling card is the Jack of Hearts. |
| 232 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Carol gets to call out her father for the psychological abuse he put her and Stevie through (as well as how he tried to have Harry MindRape her) in Chapter 73. |
| 233 | * TheCameo: [[Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell]] appear briefly in the background in chapter 7 as two wandless Wizards, the former an expert on Faerie, the other an owner of a vintage bookstore that almost never sells anything. They are, predictably arguing and the jury is still out on whether Jonathan Strange is any relation to Doctor Strange. Jonathan apparently doesn't know (and quite plausibly points out that Strange's time travelling means that it's anyone's guess). For his part, the good doctor isn't saying anything. |
| 234 | ** In chapter 18, Hermione mentions having a brief chat with 'Ambrose Penn', a wandless wizard who made a cameo in ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' (the one reading 'A Brief History of Time' in the Leaky Cauldron while casually stirring his tea with a twiddle of his finger) regarding magic and magical theory. WordOfGod has confirmed that he is, in fact, Merlin. |
| 235 | * TheCape: Steve, as usual, while Clark becomes this - he just needs the encouragement to properly become a hero. |
| 236 | * CannotSpitItOut: Harry regarding his feelings for Carol. He even lampshades how he can fight the likes of Voldemort and Dracula without batting an eye, but struggles with this. As it turns out, it's mutual - both the feelings and the inability to spit it out. Fortunately, having a psychic link helps clear things up. |
| 237 | * CanOnlyMoveTheEyes: Cedric Diggory during the First Task, when he's under the [[spoiler: Wights']] spell. It is unclear whether the other two captured Champions, Fleur or Krum, are similarly capable, but it is probable. |
| 238 | * CaptainErsatz: The InvisiblePresident of Russia, Volodya, is one for Putin, or [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Putin himself]], considering that Volodya is one of his known nicknames and his characterisation fits Putin's background and displayed character. WordOfGod later mused that following the 2022 war in Ukraine, he might have been giving Putin a bit too much credit. |
| 239 | * CapturedSuperEntity: The canonical example of Dream is mentioned by the Gatekeeper, as is the attempt by the Clan Akkaba to capture and control the Phoenix in Vienna in 1897. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge In neither case did it end well,]] though the latter has continued significance, as before breaking loose, the Phoenix did as the Clan desired and all but wiped out the Grey Court of Vampires (mainly because She really doesn't like vampires), and it's indicated repeatedly that Dracula might just have a grudge against Harry because of this. When he appears, he isn't particularly interested in fighting Harry, but when the latter rudely insists on being a SpannerInTheWorks, Dracula does attack him, [[{{Foreshadowing}} and seems to both recognise the Phoenix within him and fear it.]] |
| 240 | * CasualDangerDialogue: |
| 241 | ** Harry and Carol continue this trend from ''Child of the Storm'', flirting[=/=]snarking at each other even when in the middle of an escape attempt from the Red Room. This is considered somewhat disturbing by most other people. |
| 242 | -->'''Noriko''': (''annoyed'') Do you always talk this much when there are more important things to do? |
| 243 | -->'''Harry and Carol''': [[BlatantLies ... No.]] |
| 244 | ** Peter Parker, Diana, and Harry get into quite a bit of this while fighting Grey Court vampires. |
| 245 | * CentralTheme: '''Family.''' In this book, pretty much everyone's family issues come to light and become relevant. Harry begins to understand what it means both to inherit the legacy of Frey (on his father's side), and his mother being the Phoenix plays a huge role throughout the story. He is partially able to connect with [[spoiler: Maddie through their familial link]]. Ron's having lost his father at the end of the last book fuels CharacterDevelopment that leads him on quite a different track from canon. Hermione's being the daughter of Wanda Maximoff becomes important as her chaos magic begins to develop, and [[spoiler: when she learns the truth about her family, she is ''not'' pleased, though happy to meet her grandfather]]. Wanda in turn comes to accept her status as the daughter and daughter-figure of Magneto and Doctor Strange. Carol's issues with both her parents come to light, and Steve connects with his daughter (and becomes his great-granddaughter's real dad). Tony becomes a father as well, leading to some emotional development. Clark Kent comes to grips with his Kryptonian heritage. Scott Summers meets [[spoiler: his clone]], and Harry Dresden his [[spoiler: daughter]]. |
| 246 | * CerebusRetcon: |
| 247 | ** Carol's dad, previously established as having [[StayInTheKitchen old fashioned attitudes]], and generally being a StandardFiftiesFather in the wrong century, is established on his first actual appearance as being [[AbusiveParents psychologically abusive]] - something which also, in retrospect, provides the root for most of Carol's issues. He tries to get Harry to use his PsychicPowers to [[MindRape set Carol 'on the right path.']] [[BerserkButton Harry predictably erupts with fury.]] When his wife and mother-in-law get the full story in chapter 20, they agree that he has to go. Since said mother-in-law is [[NeverMessWithGranny Alison Carter]], he is gone in very short order. |
| 248 | ** It's mentioned in ''Child of the Storm'' that Brian Falsworth a.k.a. [[FlyingBrick Union Jack,]] and his partner ([[BattleCouple professionally and personally]]) Roger Aubrey, who were both killed by the Winter Soldier in the 1970s, mainly as a throwaway reference. In ''Ghosts'', however, it's revealed that Brian was a close friend to Alison, and the nearest thing she had to a little brother - she even played TheBeard for him on a couple of occasions. Bearing in mind that the Winter Soldier turned out to be her long-lost father's brainwashed best friend, who she interacts with on a regular basis... |
| 249 | ** The circumstances of Hermione's adoption become even grimmer once it's made clear just what Constantine did, which (combined with the Order [[TheFellowshipHasEnded falling apart]] and her mentor remaining persistently and unhelpfully silent) left Wanda so very alone and without options. |
| 250 | ** A triple one, no less: Chapter 13 has Belova molest the Red Son as a way to get on Natasha's nerves. In Chapter 46, Harry reveals to Carol that it had happened once or twice before. Then, in Chapter 60, the reader gets to see exactly what happened. It is '''[[RapeAsDrama brutal]]'''. |
| 251 | *** Additionally, the scene in chapter 21 where Harry calls out Ron for a tasteless joke regarding seeing Lavender's rear takes on a much harsher cast in light of this incident. |
| 252 | ** Strange's BadassBoast to Jean in chapter 75 of ''Child of the Storm'', "Miss Grey, I am the Sorcerer Supreme. Mistakes and misapprehensions are for other people." It takes on a darker hue in light of the fact that, as of chapter 9 of ''Ghosts'', he appears to have made a mistake -- and an absolute whopper too. Not only that, but one which directly affected her as well. Of course, it could also be taken as a statement of intent, that he believes that they should be things for other people, and he's trying to rectify them. |
| 253 | ** Strange's reference to the traditional poem "For Want of a Nail" in the final chapter of ''Child of the Storm'', becomes this in chapter 20. He's rhetorically asking those calling him on his decisions if they felt that he would be better as a knight on the battlefield, or a blacksmith present to re-shoe the horse. In chapter 20, though, it's revealed that [[spoiler: the Battle of Camlann was very likely lost, Arthur killed, and Camelot doomed, because he was not there to confront Mordred, Arthur's killer and Strange's EvilCounterpart, on the battlefield]] - and he is ''phenomenally'' bitter about that. |
| 254 | * TheChampion: Harry serves as this, as in the first book. Later, he becomes this less platonically to Carol, with it being made clear that he will do ''anything'' for her - she generally serves as a MoralityChain during those periods when he needs one, and if something were to happen to her, [[TheUnfettered it's made clear that the consequences could be downright horrifying.]] |
| 255 | * ChekhovsGun: Back in Chapter 69 of ''Child of the Storm'', Fury had an OhCrap reaction to an EurekaMoment he had after reading something in SHIELD's file on Jean. In ''Ghosts'', we learn that he's realised that [[spoiler: her twin sister Rachel didn't actually die as an infant, but was in fact stolen and still alive. Sinister's involvement led him to figure out who was behind it]]. |
| 256 | ** The phoenix feather (or, as Strange puts it, 'what you all so charmingly think is merely a phoenix feather') that Odin showed Harry way back in chapter 35 of ''Child of the Storm'', and gifted Harry with in the epilogue. Here, [[spoiler: Maddie stores Harry's consciousness in it to protect him from the Red Son reprogramming, and it's later used to absorb his out of control Phoenix powers.]] It's later revealed to be [[spoiler: Laevateinn, the shapeshifting wand of Prospero Slytherin,]] first mentioned in the above chapter. |
| 257 | ** Also first mentioned in Chapter 35 was the Twilight Sword, which Harry finds out almost a book later was wielded by [[spoiler: Surtur]]. |
| 258 | * ChekhovsGunman: In chapter 7 of ''Ghosts'', the mysterious voice in Draco's head is directly alluded to for the first time since chapter 21 of ''Child of the Storm'', with circumstantial hints as to who it might be: Prospero Slytherin, ancestor of Salazar, hero of the Last Frost Giant War and wielder of the Phoenix associated Laevateinn, something confirmed about 40 chapters later. |
| 259 | ** In the same chapter, Sinister finally appears, having lurked in the background throughout ''Child of the Storm''. |
| 260 | ** The Girl With Glowing Blue Eyes finally runs into Harry, also in chapter 7, having appeared in scattered scenes throughout the second half of ''Child of the Storm'' and earlier in ''Ghosts of the Past'', each time responding to a major use of Harry's psychic powers or of the Phoenix and is [[TheReveal revealed to be]] [[spoiler: Rachel Grey a.k.a. Maddie Pryor.]] |
| 261 | ** [[spoiler: Jesus]] mentions that his counterpart, [[spoiler: the Anti-Christ,]] is named [[Literature/GoodOmens Adam]]. |
| 262 | * ChessmasterSidekick: |
| 263 | ** Doctor Strange functions as this for the heroes. He's not the most powerful hero, or even the most powerful mage (Merlin takes that, with Wanda next in line), but he's easily the smartest and most experienced. Along with being a time-traveller, an extremely powerful {{Seer|s}} and [[spoiler:nigh-immortal]] thanks to [[spoiler: the Time Stone]] means that he could probably take over the world in a day if he ever felt like it. His unparalleled skills as a manipulator and utter ruthlessness means that he justly terrifies many of his allies, let alone his enemies. However, he was chosen not to be TheChosenOne, but TheChooserOfTheOne, and spends his entire vastly extended life machinating to prepare the universe, the Nine Realms, Earth, the heroes, and most specifically, Harry, to face down Thanos. |
| 264 | ** Sinister, to anyone he works with, from Weapon X to the Red Room, since he's generally NotInThisForYourRevolution. Instead, as a MadScientist brilliant enough to give Zola lessons and behind-the-scenes manipulator immune to Strange's foresight, he arranges to get exactly what he wants: time, lab-space, funding, and as many test subjects as he wants. However, [[spoiler: Strange figures out a way around that immunity and tracks him down...]] |
| 265 | * ChildrenForcedToKill: [[spoiler: Harry]] as the Red Son. It's part of why he's so broken that he [[spoiler: willingly becomes the Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 266 | * TheChosenOne: |
| 267 | ** Harry, as per usual, to his profound displeasure and eventual resignation. |
| 268 | ** Frey, the First King, was this, and doesn't seem to have liked it any more than his descendant. His statue, unusually, is described as having the look of someone who's scared out of their mind by what they're about to do but is nevertheless about to do it anyway - as Strange notes, he was a young man almost defined by his devotion to duty, and did it without complaining. |
| 269 | * ChromeChampion: Harry's 'Project Galahad' battle armour, designed by Tony for speed, agility, and durability ([[PersonOfMassDestruction Harry]] [[DestructiveSaviour is not]] [[FlyingFirepower short on firepower]]), is designed along these lines - primarily white and silver, with gold accents. |
| 270 | * ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry's comes up again in Chapter 10, as he [[spoiler: chases after Maddie/Rachel as she's teleported away with the Red Room]], not caring about the danger it puts him in. |
| 271 | ** Mab plays on Harry Dresden's ChronicHeroSyndrome to get him to take the Winter Knight mantle, as he [[FriendToAllChildren would absolutely be willing]] to make a DealWithTheDevil to save one kid. Thankfully, Pepper helps him to TakeAThirdOption. |
| 272 | ** Mention is also made of Bruce Wayne's, as he helps Harry (Dresden) against the Kemmlerites despite the latter's direct orders. |
| 273 | * CivilWar: One broke out on Krypton in its last days, between the Science Council (which [[HeadInTheSandManagement refused to believe]] Jor-El's warnings), General Zod (who believed Jor-El and believed overthrowing the Council would somehow save their planet) and the Cult of the Eradicator (who also believed Jor-El, but felt that [[ApocalypseCult the world ending would be a good thing]]). To say that Jor-El, a pacifistic scientist, was unhappy about this would be a spectacular understatement. |
| 274 | * ClonesArePeopleToo: A repeated message is that no matter how they are created, people are people, a message directed at [[spoiler: Maddie]] (who isn't actually a clone to everyone's surprise), [[spoiler: Gambit]] (who is one, ''also'' to everyone's surprise), and later by [[MyGreatestFailure Harry]] in reference to [[SendInTheClones the Red Army]], which he destroyed, despite ''knowing'' this and that they were effectively innocents (though others looking at it more objectively say that it was a SadisticChoice with no good options). |
| 275 | * CloneAngst: [[spoiler: Gambit]], after finding out that he's a clone, later reveals that he avoided his 'brother' for so long because he felt like "a bad copy of a better man." [[spoiler: Scott]] firmly rebuts this, saying that his name is [[spoiler: Remy]] and [[Film/ThePhantomMenace he is a person]] -- and a good one. |
| 276 | * ClusterFBomb: Harry and Carol are both prone to this when extremely annoyed, often in multiple languages -- in Harry's case, it's usually Russian and 'something vaguely Scandinavian' implied to be from Asgard. In Carol's, it includes Arabic, German, and Irish, as well as some Russian she's picked up from Harry. Both use French quite liberally (almost certainly thanks to Jean-Paul). |
| 277 | * TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: |
| 278 | ** Alison Carter is the former Deputy Director of SHIELD - and only missed out on the Directorship because of a mixture of politicking, HYDRA, and a very much justified desire for SHIELD and others not to pay too much attention to her family so they won't figure out that they're all descended from Peggy and Steve. In general, she is incredibly on the ball and very insightful. She also completely fails to recognise that she's pushing her daughter away until it's too late, and while they do make up, it has generational consequences for her grandchildren. She later admits that she was a "far better spy than a mother", and is mostly grateful she's learned from her mistakes. |
| 279 | ** The main tragedy of Doctor Strange is that thanks to [[spoiler: his alterations by the Time Stone]], he can fix almost everyone and everything, he can bend key events in time to his own ends, give everyone strong and happy family connections with which to endure all sorts of terrors... but he can't fix himself. He can't undo or fix [[spoiler: Camlann]]. He could save everyone... except the people he loved. He is unsurprisingly phenomenally bitter under his cheerfully odd behaviour. |
| 280 | ** Wanda, eventually, gets to at least act as a ParentalSubstitute to her godson, Harry, even if it is a decade or so late (thanks to ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies and Strange's warning). She can't do the same for her daughter - though in [[spoiler: Hermione's]] case, she has a happy family, by Wanda's own contrivance, and Wanda wants a clean break/not to attach her baggage. Needless to say, it doesn't work out that way. |
| 281 | * CoDragons: Yelena and [[spoiler: Sinister]] serve as this to Lukin -- the former is his chief physical enforcer, while the latter is the resident EvilGenius (and the [[DragonInChief brains behind the operation]]). |
| 282 | * ColorCodedEyes: As mentioned on the trope's page, all three books have a ''lot'' of this: |
| 283 | ** '''Green''': Harry, Jean, and Maddie all have very distinctive emerald green eyes, as did Lily. [[WhatBeautifulEyes It's the one trait that everyone immediately fixates on]], it indicates that they're related beforehand (as that specific shade seems to only run in their family), and indicates their mystery, slightly eerie aura, and supernatural power - to the point where Sinister implies that every single other superhuman in the family's history has had that particular eye colour. It doesn't hurt that all of them bar Harry are {{Significant Green Eyed Redhead}}s, either. \ |
| 284 | Natasha's green eyes are also worth noting, with more of the 'exotic beauty' and 'mystery' aspects emphasised - she is, after all, a super-spy. |
| 285 | ** '''Yellow''': When a [[SupernaturalGoldEyes supernatural character]] connected to the Phoenix is very angry, upset, or especially when they are in danger of getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide, their eyes change color to "burn with golden fire". |
| 286 | ** '''Blue''': Steve's cornflower blue eyes are a typical case of InnocentBlueEyes, mixed with his [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold golden hair]], and are likewise inherited, including by his great-granddaughter, Carol. They're a bit less distinctive, so no one initially notices the exact shade until they start looking, but in both cases, they underline the characters' heroism and idealism. \ |
| 287 | Diana, meanwhile, is explicitly noted as having slate-blue eyes - being a powerful [[TheEmpath Empath]] from an early age and surviving numerous assassination attempts means that while she's incredibly kind, her innocence is tarnished. \ |
| 288 | Bucky's noted as having IcyBlueEyes - apt for the Winter Soldier, a ColdSniper (later, a FriendlySniper). \ |
| 289 | Unlike his comic book counterpart (whose eyes are grey), TheDreaded Doctor Strange is also repeatedly noted as having IcyBlueEyes |
| 290 | ** '''Brown''': In a setting where nearly ''everyone'' has strikingly significant, flamboyant, or outright unnatural eye colors, Joshua is a guy whose eyes are a completely mundane shade of average brown. The narration noting this is an ''inversion'' of the usual eye color trope - as when nearly everyone's eyes are significant, unlike in real life a warm ("kind") brown is very unusual by sheer contrast (much like [[{{Franchise/Discworld}} Captain Carrot's]] completely mundane sword and for many of the same reasons). It's so unusual that whenever someone is the [=POV=]-character who hasn't seen Joshua before his eyes are nearly the first thing they notice (just as it is with Harry's green ones). This inverted trope fits Joshua, who's the in-story embodiment of both HiddenDepths and DownplayedTrope to the point of it sometimes [[FridgeLogic covertly]] going over into awesome through roll-over-error. He fits the description on the trope's page as down-to-earth, kindly character, too. |
| 291 | * CombatPragmatist: |
| 292 | ** Clint, Bucky, Natasha, and Loki all focus on the efficient takedown, by training and inclination. |
| 293 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie]], who was taught/programmed to go for the quick and efficient solution - her EvilMentor, Essex, is the same when actually forced to fight. However, in the case of the former, this leaves her a bit out of ideas when facing someone who a) can fight on her level, b) refuses to play by the rules. |
| 294 | ** Despite his ChronicHeroSyndrome and tendency to IndyPloy his way in and out of trouble, Harry's actual fighting style heavily reflects this, particularly after ''[[TraumaCongaLine Forever Red]]''. In the next major arc, he explicitly states, "when it comes to monsters attacking my friends, I have absolutely no interest in fair fights". This involves using every single dirty trick in the book (and then some). |
| 295 | ** To everyone's surprise, while a MartialPacifist by inclination, when he ''is'' forced to fight, Clark Kent is described as both this and a ''brutal'' in-fighter. And that's by ''Harry's'' standards. Seriously - ''[[ManBitesMan he bites]].'' |
| 296 | ** Carol, best shown during the finale of ''Unfinished Business'' where she fights as dirty as possible in order to throw her enemy off her game. The supercharged GroinAttack was just the beginning. |
| 297 | * TheComicallySerious: [[spoiler: Maddie]], at first. This eventually evolves into some extremely deadpan sarcasm. |
| 298 | * ComplimentFishing: Averted by Alison Carter, who states that she was "always a better spy than a mother" when discussing parenting with the Kent family. When politely assured that this is certainly not true by Martha Kent, she explains that she's not "dynamite fishing" for compliments, but making a relevant point and acknowledging her mistakes (which have allowed her to become a better grandmother). |
| 299 | * CompositeCharacter: |
| 300 | ** [[spoiler: Dudley]] is the Blob in this setting, having been experimented on by Sinister, which activated his X-Gene. |
| 301 | ** The Blue Eyed Girl is a fusion of [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor and Rachel Grey, being the twin sister of Jean who was stolen at birth by Sinister and raised as his Hound.]] |
| 302 | ** Gambit is a mixture of his canon self and [[spoiler: Gabriel Summers]]. |
| 303 | ** Judging by his true name and his MO, [[ComicBook/TheSentry Doctor Robert Reynolds]] is also [[spoiler: the Parasite]]. |
| 304 | ** [[spoiler: Jason Woodrue, DC's Floronic Man, is transformed into a version of Marvel's Man-Thing.]] |
| 305 | * TheConfidant: Carol develops into this for Harry. Usually, she's with him for whatever insane scenario he's found himself in ''this'' time, so already has the context. Additionally, they have an increasingly close relationship that eventually evolves into an AnchoredShip, and as a side-effect of some well-intentioned but inexpert psychic therapy, they wind up with a PsychicLink, meaning that he doesn't actually have to ''say'' things, as such. This only gets dialed up further after [[spoiler: their RelationshipUpgrade.]] |
| 306 | * ConflictingLoyalty: Harry is repeatedly caught between trusting and being honest with Ron and Hermione, and obligations to keep secrets from them - in some cases, intensely personal secrets. These include hiding the fact that [[spoiler: Bucky is the Winter Soldier, since he gave Arthur Weasley a MercyKill in HYDRA's assault on the Ministry,]] and Hermione's parentage. The former is secret for security reasons, the latter he figures out and keeps mum about at Wanda's request (since Wanda is his [[ParentalSubstitute godmother]]). This, combined with his tendencies to keep them on the sidelines for their own protection, and LockedOutOfTheLoop because he's not particularly eager to talk to anyone about whatever he's been through unless they were there, causes increasing friction, and both sides are profoundly unhappy about it. |
| 307 | * ConfusionFu: This is Harry's strategic trademark, mixed in with ImprovFu, and latterly, XanatosSpeedChess. It's why he's such a SpannerInTheWorks - he's the wild card factor, because no one quite knows what he's going to do next. All they ''do'' know is that it'll probably be [[CrazyEnoughToWork completely nuts]]. |
| 308 | * ConsummateLiar: Aside from the usual examples of Loki, Natasha, and Jean-Paul, Harry is also evolving into this. Hermione finds it both surprising and somewhat disturbing, as he's so good at it he hardly notices. |
| 309 | * ContinuityNod: The orca whale in the Hogwarts' Lake is occasionally mentioned, both in passing in terms of the Lake, and in reference to Hermione's emergent chaos magic (which created the orca from a chair). |
| 310 | ** As he did in previous years, Hagrid invites Harry to tea at his hut multiple times. |
| 311 | ** Bruce Wayne is mentioned as helping Dresden set up the [[Literature/DresdenFiles Paranet.]] |
| 312 | ** Once again, Uhtred shows confusion over why someone (in this case [[spoiler: Hermione]]) would not be happy to learn that they are related to a LivingLegend. |
| 313 | * ContrivedCoincidence: For once, a genuine one that ''isn't'' Doctor Strange's fault. The night that [[spoiler: Hermione's chaos magic erupts, courtesy of the Fallen Fortress]], occurs on the one night he's too busy to keep an eye on her, thanks to cleaning up Voldemort's mess in the Department of Mysteries (and, it's implied, making sure he stays away from anything too damaging--Voldemort himself notes the ''suspicious'' lack of Time Turners) and then dealing with the magical battle royale and its fallout in New Orleans. |
| 314 | * CoolAirship: Helicarriers in general, but particularly [=MI13=]'s ''Valiant'', which goes toe to toe with the Elder Wyrm, a planet-killer, and actually does the bulk of the damage, thanks to its [[TeleFrag Nexus weaponry,]] and thanks to its Vibranium armour (scraped off HYDRA's ''Dreadnought''), it can not only shrug off blasts of flame sufficient to melt 'a mountain of adamantium', but store it and return it, with interest. |
| 315 | * CoolCrown: Harry gets one for the Yule Ball, a circlet of golden ivy branches and leaves (symbolic of life, rebirth, and love), set with a gem of pure starlight. He's a bit uncomfortable with how fancy it is, but it is generally acknowledged that he wears it well. |
| 316 | * CoolHelmet: Thor's, as usual - though he doesn't often wear it. |
| 317 | ** Harry winds up with a silver-white and short-lived winged one in chapter 32, in the style of his father's mixed with [[PoweredArmour an Iron Man helmet]] - which has something to do with how Sirius transfigured it from [[ImprovisedArmour the broken pieces of several Iron Man suits.]] It also has a certain [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Tolkienian flair]], as does the rest of the KnightInShiningArmour aesthetic, which WordOfGod indicates was very much intentional. |
| 318 | *** An improved variation appears as part of 'Project Galahad', a suit of Iron Man armour tailored for Harry, in chapter 43. |
| 319 | * CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Zig-Zagged. While the characters who do so are usually cool, their reasons for doing so are deconstructed, being portrayed as flawed; as creating as many problems as they solve; or actively undermining the authority of those who need it, e.g. the White Council, who backed down when Strange threw down the gauntlet to protect a young Wanda. While Ebenezar [=McCoy=], a member of the Senior Council, notes he was glad to see her spared, he also points out that the White Council's ability to face down rogue practitioners and darker supernatural powers is based on its reputation, which was ''not'' helped by Strange's actions. |
| 320 | * CoolSword: The Twilight Sword, wielded by Surtur and indicated by Odin to be on the same level as Mjolnir or Gungnir. |
| 321 | ** Van, the Sword of Hope, which was at least somewhat sentient, could NoSell [[spoiler: Phoenix fire]], and was wielded by [[spoiler: Frey in the FinalBattle against Surtur]]. |
| 322 | ** Harry's sword, which post [[ReforgedBlade reforging]] he names [[spoiler: Curtana.]] Before, it's simply a very sharp and well-balanced Asgardian sword. Forged by Uhtred (with Tony's help) and enchanted by Loki, it receives a kind of re-forging thanks to a mixture of Dracula's lightning, Harry's power, his Phoenix-infused blood, and a couple of enchantments from Doctor Strange. Beyond glowing occasionally and possibly 'biting' anyone who tries to pick it up without permission, it doesn't do much - until chapter 44, when it proves very effective as a channel for Harry's powers, being one of the few things that seriously harms the Elder Wyrm. |
| 323 | ** In relation to Harry's sword, it's compared InUniverse to the ''Series/Merlin2008'' version of Excalibur. Since Strange [[spoiler: grew up alongside Merlin and was involved in those events as a boy]], being involved in the creation of that sword, Loki remarks that the similarities were almost certainly intentional. Harry, a King Arthur geek, spends the next few minutes on the verge of nerdgasm, and eventually gives it a very Arthurian name: [[spoiler: Curtana, the Sword of Mercy]]. |
| 324 | ** He also discusses another example of this trope, ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]'', explaining how Arthur had two apparently different swords that were both known as Excalibur. Essentially, the dragon-forged one was the original Excalibur, and became the Sword in the Stone (the current location of which is unknown, with Loki sourly speculating that Strange could quite easily be using it as a fireplace poker), while Arthur wielded ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]'' (another example) in later life, and confused record-keepers conflated the two, calling ''both'' Excalibur. |
| 325 | * TheCorruption: Black magic has this effect, particularly on wandless practitioners - wands serve as a buffer for wanded practitioners, reducing the side-effects. As a result, even those who innocently break the Seven Laws and use BlackMagic with the best of intentions (e.g. by using magic to MindRape someone into stopping their self-destructive drug abuse), are at risk of very quickly JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. This in turn explains the White Council's [[InspectorJavert zero tolerance]] policy regarding dark magic. |
| 326 | ** The only ways around this are if you have an artefact that, like a wand or the Blackstaff, that serves as a buffer, or have mastered the techniques of the Sorcerers Supreme to use it without being changed by it. The latter is the final test of an Apprentice Sorcerer Supreme, and one that's often failed, with Captain Luccio noting some of history's worst Dark Lords and Ladies are former Apprentices that failed that particular test and were corrupted. |
| 327 | * CosmicEntity: The Endless, especially Destruction a.k.a. the Phoenix. Also mentioned are Galactus and Eternity. |
| 328 | * CostumePorn: |
| 329 | ** Harry's jury-rigged armour, which he put together from a bunch of pieces of battered Iron Man armour, becomes this, courtesy of Sirius, being described by a dazed Carol as 'something from another age' - WordOfGod was that it was intended to evoke Numenor, KnightInShiningArmour aesthetic and all. Tony then uses this design as a template for a suit of armour referred to as [[MeaningfulName Project Galahad]], which Harry wears in chapter 44. |
| 330 | ** Harry's, [[spoiler: Carol's]] and [[spoiler: Diana's]] costumes (the latter two being closer to SimpleYetOpulent) in chapter 47 for the Yule Ball all qualify, with Harry, among other things, wearing a golden ivy themed CoolCrown set with a gem of pure starlight, the rest primarily being [[GoldAndWhiteAreDivine gold and white themed, with hints of silver]] and red trousers beneath. Being ModestRoyalty, he's a little uncomfortable with it, but is noted to wear it well. |
| 331 | * CouldSayItBut: During a fight, [[spoiler: Gambit]] uses banter to cover that he's telling Harry how to find where Carol and the other captives are being held, before throwing the fight. |
| 332 | * TheCoup: [[spoiler: When Volodya states his intent to shut down the Red Room and hand Lukin over to the Avengers, Lukin responds by killing him, taking de facto control of Russia.]] |
| 333 | * CourtlyLove: Harry and Carol's thoroughly complicated relationship evolves into this on the way to becoming an AnchoredShip, with the Avengers discussing which of TheFourLoves applies (they're not entirely sure, but settle on ''philia''). |
| 334 | ** Regarding Carol, Harry's just about the only person - prior to [[ParentalSubstitute Steve]] in chapter 60 - other than her mother and grandmother that she lets see her genuinely vulnerable side (thanks to major trust issues, particularly regarding guys) and is [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship is terrified of ruining their friendship]]. |
| 335 | ** Harry, meanwhile, is utterly scrupulous about abiding by her wishes, stating repeatedly that their friendship comes before anything else - [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan this is a large part of why she likes him]]. However, following ''Forever Red'', he's leery about a relationship because he doesn't want it just to be a case of Carol holding his mind together - since she's one of a very short list of people who can reliably act as his MoralityChain and provide a CooldownHug[=/=]YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech, [[spoiler: even when he's on the verge of transforming completely into the Dark Phoenix]]. The others are his father and Jean - his cousin and, increasingly, surrogate big sister. |
| 336 | ** Interestingly, their psychic connection, formed accidentally in chapter 2, seems to be fueling both sides of their relationship. They frequently share a bed and snuggle after one or both has gone through something traumatic (since Harry's a DoomMagnet, this is frequent), and are practically joined at the hip/the brain. While broadly platonic, [[{{UST}} the door is clearly open]] for them to become MindLinkMates. [[spoiler: In chapter 46, they do.]] |
| 337 | * CovertPervert: |
| 338 | ** Harry and Carol, whose minds both tend to jump to the dirtiest possible conclusion - in Harry's case, when Carol refers to not wearing pants, being SeparatedByACommonLanguage he assumes that she means GoingCommando. In Carol's, she wakes up in Harry's bed, with him in the shower, and immediately assumes that they did more than just have a heart to heart and an emotional SleepCute. The resultant mental picture is explicit enough that it travels down the mental link and causes a very surprised Harry to fall over in the shower. |
| 339 | ** Clark. When Harry mentions his InvisibilityCloak after talking about his relationship with [[spoiler: Carol]], which involved them being caught necking, the pure and innocent Clark immediately asks, eyes wide, if they, ahem, did something under the cloak for the purposes of discretion. Cue mortified blushing from Harry and sputtered denials. |
| 340 | ** Hermione. She ends up in Harry's head (ItMakesSenseInContext) and stumbles across some rather explicit memories featuring [[spoiler: Carol]], and has a sufficiently dirty mind that innocuous words like "warmer and fuller" bring them roaring back. She also begins to ask if they've gone further, before Harry cuts her off, mortally embarrassed. |
| 341 | * CreateYourOwnVillain: Doctor Strange observes that Uther Pendragon's paranoid fear of the pacifistic druidic clans and his genocidal response led to a number of druidic plots to bring him down. Indeed, this habit came back to bite him twice: two druid boys survived ThePurge. One was Taliesin, [[spoiler: now known as Doctor Strange]], who became apprentice to Merlin and his right-hand man, as well as eventually [[TheMedic Court Physician]] of Camelot, playing a key role in dismantling Uther's legacy during Arthur's reign. The other was Mordred, whose enmity for the Pendragon dynasty led to his allegiance to Morgana and Arthur's death on the field of Camlann, and the eventual collapse of Camelot itself. In other words, his actions led not only to the total dismantling of his legacy, but the collapse of his dynasty and his realm. [[spoiler: Nimue]] also gloatingly notes the irony in ''Unfinished Business'', feeling especially smug since [[spoiler: it was her magic that caused Arthur to be born in the first place]]. |
| 342 | ** After leaving Grindelwald for Dumbledore to defeat, Strange apparently told Dumbledore that this trope was why he wouldn't just do it himself - though it's suspected that Strange [[MetaphoricallyTrue being]] [[ManipulativeBastard Strange]], this may not be the only reason. |
| 343 | * CreativeSterility: [[spoiler: Surtur]] is depicted as such. While he's stone-cold brilliant, his brilliance is just that: stone cold. There's no intuition, no spark of inspiration, it's all technical. This is suggested on more than one occasion to be his FatalFlaw. |
| 344 | * CreepyMonotone: |
| 345 | ** Essex, usually, with it being noted that it's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness very rare for him to show any sign of emotion.]] |
| 346 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie]] picked it up from him, as part of her EmotionlessGirl and LivingWeapon shtick, contrasting her with Jean. Notably, as her HeelFaceTurn progresses, she starts doing this less and less - though she remains TheStoic, as a rule. |
| 347 | * CruelToBeKind: The rationale behind most of Strange's decisions. As he observes to [[spoiler: Nimue]] in ''Unfinished Business'', he believes that [[Literature/LordOfTheRings "the burned hand teaches best."]] This is, among other things, why he didn't intervene to stop Project Pegasus melting down - after the disastrous fallout, not even ''HYDRA'' were willing to risk directly experimenting with magic. |
| 348 | * CrushBlush: |
| 349 | ** Harry and Carol. ''Frequently.'' |
| 350 | *** Harry even manages it when [[spoiler: on the edge of a Dark Phoenix meltdown, being incarnate as a being of living flame, which the narrative notes should, by all logic, not be able to blush.]] |
| 351 | ** Diana gets a small one when Ginny's mentioned, and after meeting her, which [[ShipperOnDeck Harry]] immediately spots. |
| 352 | * CrystalPrison: Demonreach, an island prison designed by Strange and Merlin which is ''full'' of these, with its prisoners usually minimally being {{Humanoid Abomination}}s. It also siphons off their power. According to Strange, they based it off the Rock of Eternity, created by Agamotto, which is capable of producing these at its master's command - and when the Council Elite of Skyfathers gets uppity, Strange, wielding [[spoiler: the Tesseract]], demonstrates just how effective it is. On Zeus. |
| 353 | * CulturedBadass: Loki, Natasha, Charles Xavier, Bruce and Tony are all stand-out examples, often quoting classic literature. Since most of them are classically educated in one tradition or another (though Tony, a former TeenRebel, prefers to be a PopCulturedBadass), this isn't surprising. |
| 354 | ** [[spoiler: Sinister]], being WickedCultured and a badass, using quotes from T.S. Eliot and Alfred Lord Tennyson as trigger phrases. One of those he uses them on [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] breaks free in chapter 14 and being an example of this in her own right, replies to his attempt with a stinging quote from Robert Burns and a snippet from ''Invictus''. |
| 355 | ** Since Gambit taught [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] the Robbie Burns poem and is a major badass in his own right, he also qualifies. Dresden is at least familiar with the Burns quote, while his mentor [[BraveScot Ebenezar McCoy]] was a drinking buddy of the poet himself. Both are more cultured in canon, though in Dresden's case it's overshadowed by being a PopCulturedBadass. |
| 356 | * CurbStompBattle: The Avengers[=/=][=MI13=] vs the Death Eaters and Harry vs Voldemort Round 2. |
| 357 | ** Harry vs his childhood bullies in chapter 7. In the same chapter, [[spoiler: Sinister vs Carol]] and [[spoiler: Maddie]] vs Harry. |
| 358 | *** Harry avoids a later repeat of the latter in chapter 10 by refusing to directly engage. |
| 359 | ** Wanda vs [[spoiler: Sinister]]. He didn't stand a chance. |
| 360 | ** Natasha vs Yelena. The latter gets in a few early hits, but then the former gets her measure, stops playing around and takes her down relatively easily. |
| 361 | ** Thor vs [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]]. The former stops the latter's double axehandle strike with zero effort, then, with just as little effort, piledrives him halfway into a mountain. |
| 362 | ** The conclusion of the ''Forever Red'' arc has a few of these -- Avengers vs Winter Guard (including Natasha vs Yelena Round II), Magneto vs the Winter Guard, Strange vs [[spoiler: Sinister]], [[spoiler: Maddie vs the Red Room]], Jono vs [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]], and [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix Harry]] vs the Red Room, including [[spoiler: Bizzaro Jor-El]] especially. |
| 363 | ** The Avengers vs the Red Room, overall really, doesn't go well for the bad guys. |
| 364 | ** When [[spoiler: Cassius]] attempts to torture Harry Dresden, Magneto shows up, paralyzes, and kills him without the sorcerer being able to get off a single shot. |
| 365 | ** Harry's rematch with [[spoiler: a now-vampire Blob!Dudley]]. Harry's in TranquilFury mode and in no mood to deal with him, so he just rips out [[spoiler: Dudley's]] voice-box, then uses his sword and [[LightningBruiser his speed advantage,]] taking him apart with three blows. |
| 366 | ** In ''Unfinished Business'', there are several: |
| 367 | *** Gambit vs the 'Patches' (enhanced henchmen of Jason Woodrue a.k.a. the Green Man). There's a baker's dozen of them and they can match blows with a SuperSoldier, and when Carol arrives, he is mopping the floor with them. When Carol and Peter get involved, the fight is over very, very quickly. |
| 368 | *** [[spoiler: Nimue]] effortlessly stomps [[SuperSoldier Carol]], [[{{Dhampyr}} Peter Parker]], {{ComicBook/Gambit}}, and {{ComicBook/Deadpool}}, despite the fact that her powers are crippled. Then, to cap it off, she takes the Green Lantern Ring and forces it into submission through sheer force of will. The rematch goes equally poorly, with the only reason that the kids survive being Strange stacking the deck, [[spoiler: Nimue's]] easily-bored sadism, and Strange's direct intervention. |
| 369 | * CuriousQualmsOfConscience: [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] starts developing these in ''Forever Red'', thanks to Gambit's steadily DefusingTheTykeBomb and Harry's appeal to a better nature she didn't even know she had, when she starts doubting the morality of her commands when she'd previously executed them without question. |
| 370 | * DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ghosts'' is this to ''Child of the Storm''. While it's mostly lower on the carnage and gets steadily lighter as time goes on, it explores the moral shades of grey in the good guys, and is far more physically and psychologically brutal towards the main characters, Harry in particular. The villains are also much more personal when it comes to going after Harry, something shown in their tactics, while [[TokenEvilTeammate Wisdom]] tightens his grip on Magical Britain and Harry's own darker side comes into play as he struggles with his MentalHealthRecoveryArc and his conscience. |
| 371 | * DarkestHour: The ''Forever Red'' arc arguably hits its in Chapter 12. With the aid of the Red Son [[spoiler: (brainwashed Harry)]], the Red Room is able to cause most of Eastern Europe to leave the European Union and NATO to rejoin Russia's sphere of influence, which also spreads to Central Asia. Meanwhile, the Winter Guard hunts down potential supernatural threats and either wipes them out or forces them to flee to other regions, further increasing Russian influence. And then, just to top it off, [[spoiler: President Volodya tries to shut the Red Room down, only for Lukin to kill him and seize de facto control of the country and most of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.]] |
| 372 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: There are several. |
| 373 | ** Coulson and Gambit himself imply that Gambit has one in chapters 9 and 10. The details are elaborated upon in chapter 34, when it's revealed that [[spoiler: Gambit is a clone of Scott Summers.]] |
| 374 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]], oh dear god, [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel.]] [[spoiler: Stolen at birth]], raised as an ArtificialHuman and a LivingWeapon, raised to believe that the latter was her sole purpose for existence and that even the idea of free will was an aberration in her programming, [[MoreThanMindControl shaped to obey without question]] and programmed with shutdown commands if this isn't enough... it's not surprising that she breaks down entirely when she finds out the truth. |
| 375 | ** Harry Dresden makes note of his own (orphaned at 6, in an orphanage 'til 11, adopted by a dark wizard who manipulated his developing powers and personality to shape him - and his other ward, Elaine Mallory, Dresden's first love - into his enforcer, forcing Dresden to kill him in a duel at 16, nearly executed for that by the White Council... and in some ways, it arguably got worse from there) in passing in chapter 15. |
| 376 | ** Stephen Strange has one at least equal to any of the others, which he finally elaborates on in chapter 20. In brief, [[spoiler: his real name is Taliesin, his parents were slaughtered as part of Uther Pendragon's purge of magical practitioners, his mother set him adrift in a basket a la Moses, he ended up in Uther's Camelot and had to keep the secret of his magic on pain of death from the age of 9 onwards, was taught by Merlin and Merlin's own teacher, his life getting better as he became Arthur's Court Physician and Bard, as well as a secondary CourtMage after Merlin... then he tried WalkingTheEarth for a few years and came back to find Arthur dead (slain by Mordred, Taliesin/Strange's EvilCounterpart and ArchEnemy), Merlin in grief-struck exile, and Camelot and all they'd built falling apart.]] The following [[spoiler: five hundred odd]] millennia haven't been all that kind to him, either. |
| 377 | * TheDarkArts: BlackMagic is depicted as this, as demonstrated by Reynolds (who's also a MadScientist), who's a shining example of SanitySlippage and ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil. |
| 378 | * DarkMessiah: Magneto is namechecked as having been this trope, being referred to as 'mutantkind's DarkMessiah'. Now, he's ReformedButNotTamed. |
| 379 | ** Doctor Strange shows himself as this in this book, oddly enough, though he's a little closer to Moses - and he definitely veers into DarkShepherd territory when facing down the Council Elite. |
| 380 | ** Surtur, and [[spoiler: Harry]], as the [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]]. |
| 381 | * DavidVersusGoliath: Carol versus [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]]. |
| 382 | ** Harry versus [[spoiler: Maddie]], which would be why he spends most of the fight using every ounce of cunning and creativity he possesses to avoid a direct contest of power and skill. |
| 383 | * DayInTheLimelight: |
| 384 | ** Hermione gets one in chapter 18, which mostly consists of her, Ron and the Twins being LockedOutOfTheLoop and trying to figure out what's going on. They actually manage to get a pretty good idea of what happened. |
| 385 | ** Chapters 29 and 30 mostly focus on Carol getting [[spoiler: kidnapped by Dracula's forces]] and Dresden and Wanda teaming up with the Wardens in Chicago. |
| 386 | ** About half of chapter 36 involves Alison Carter, speaking to Jor-El (in a flashback) and his son about Krypton's destruction. More detail is also provided about the time the Red Room and their alien allies kidnapped her for her blood. |
| 387 | ** Chapters 55 through 58 highlight Clark Kent, Agent Coulson, Chloe Sullivan, and Lex Luthor - unsurprising, given that they're part of the ''Mirror Image'' arc, which is set in Smallville. |
| 388 | ** ''Unfinished Business'' is one for Carol, showing her off on her own without Harry, and to a lesser extent Peter Parker, Gambit, and Monica Rambeau. |
| 389 | ** Chapters 73 and 74 of ''Ghosts'' serve as this for Wanda, Thomas Raith, and Michael Carpenter, particularly the latter two, who have been primarily secondary/tertiary characters at most. |
| 390 | * DeadGuyJunior: Ada Maria Potts-Stark and Margaret Dresden are both named after their deceased paternal grandmothers, though in the former case it's her middle name. |
| 391 | * DeadlyDoctor: |
| 392 | ** [[spoiler: Sinister]], who though he rarely fights, is genuinely good at it, and uses his extensive medical knowledge for torture in ''Forever Red''. |
| 393 | ** Additionally, his {{Archenemy}} Doctor Strange is a (mostly) benevolent variant on this trope, using his medical knowledge as part of creatively making the above ''suffer'' when he finally catches up to him. |
| 394 | * DeadlyUpgrade: Several examples. |
| 395 | ** The [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] usually serves as this to Harry, since it risks a SuperPowerMeltdown and transformation into a HumanoidAbomination, then an EldritchAbomination. |
| 396 | ** Likewise the Warrior's Madness to Thor, which greatly enhances his strength at the cost of putting him in a potentially planet-busting berserker rage. |
| 397 | * DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much all the usual suspects, [[WorldOfSnark which means almost the entire cast.]] |
| 398 | ** In chapter 10, O'Neill (snarking that their extraction mission is really a sight-seeing trip), Kurt (dryly wondering why he could feel his head again after a PsychicNosebleed writ large), and unexpectedly, [[spoiler: [[TheComicallySerious Maddie]]]], have their moments. |
| 399 | ** Magneto gets special mention for his utterly dry ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' reference. |
| 400 | * DeathByAdaptation: In Chapter 61, Strange exposes [[spoiler: Peabody]] as the Black Council mole on the White Council and kills him, several years before this occurs in canon. He also implies that he's wiped out the rest of the Black Council (with the possible exception of Cowl - WordOfGod has hinted that he's still around), when as far as we know they're all still alive in canon. |
| 401 | * DeclarationOfProtection: |
| 402 | ** Wanda, Thor, Steve, Carol, Jean, and Maddie ask [[spoiler: Jesus]] to pass one on to the Council Elite regarding Harry (see Wanda's BadassBoast above), though it's somewhat subverted when he mentions quietly that, being {{Jerkass God}}s with the [[PhysicalGod associated]] [[RealityWarper power]], they won't really care about most of the above. |
| 403 | ** Xavier gives a quiet but no less fierce one to Brother Smith of the Askani, warning him that if any of them so much as try to contact Harry, Jean, or [[spoiler: Maddie]], he will know. And they ''will'' regret it. Considering both how powerful he is, and how he's the only person bar Strange who actually properly scares Sinister, this is not taken lightly. |
| 404 | ** Harry gives one to the barrow-wights, telling them that Cedric, Fleur, and Krum are under his protection. They disregard it. [[TooDumbToLive That was a mistake.]] |
| 405 | * DecompositeCharacter: In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', it's eventually established that Donnar Vadderung, the Fae Lord who also happens to be Santa Claus, is a modern avatar of Odin. Here, it's stated that while Odin ''used'' to be Santa (in fact, he was the source of the legend, before it developed into a mantle of power) he eventually passed it off to his illegitimate son Vidar, who still holds it to this day (Vadderung being one of his aliases). |
| 406 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: |
| 407 | ** Harry's characterisation as the KidHero is torn to ''shreds'' by showcasing just how heavy a burden that role has become for him. The never-ending threats targeting him because of who he is/could be, start taking a serious toll on his psyche along with the mental trauma already built up from his previous adventures, to the point where he develops a serious case of [[ShellShockedVeteran Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.]] |
| 408 | *** Carol is similarly afflicted, albeit to a significantly lesser extent, and both (Harry particularly) are used as examples of why the KidHero concept is a terrible idea. Harry in particular uses it as a reason to keep Ron and Hermione out of things as much as possible and to avoid Clark for most of the book, until Strange forces his hand, because he doesn't want them undergoing the same kind of experiences and turning out like him. |
| 409 | ** Doctor Strange deconstructs the cryptic TricksterMentor and TheChessmaster playing the LongGame. |
| 410 | *** Leading people around by the nose with hints, comments, and selectively revealed information designed to manipulate them into doing exactly what you want them to do, playing them like chess-pieces, is a great way to win the metaphorical chess match. It's also a great way to get people to resent you at best or hate you at worst, especially when 75% of the time you refuse to tell them ''why'' you're doing it (even if that's a necessary part). Playing the LongGame also means that your personal relationships suffer in the process; as Strange sadly admits, he was an excellent teacher for Wanda, but a poor ParentalSubstitute, the latter of which she badly needed. That and his absolute refusal to help her with [[spoiler: her pregnancy with Hermione by John Constantine, who she had come to absolutely distrust]], leaving her utterly isolated but for [[BestFriend Lily Potter]], as well as his ban on her taking in Harry after his parents' death (she was his godmother and had the right), critically damaged their relationship. While he had good reason to do so - Harry wouldn't have survived her enemies, [[spoiler: and neither would Hermione]] - she also had good reason to resent him, especially given what happened anyway with Harry and Sinister. |
| 411 | *** Sticking to ThePlan come what may, only altering details in XanatosSpeedChess to get it back on track, even if getting it exactly right is crucial to saving the universe, leaves others overly reliant on you, meaning that the moment you get caught off-guard they're massively blindsided - as is horrifically demonstrated in ''Forever Red''. Almost as bad is Harry Dresden's discovery that Strange manipulated events to ensure [[spoiler: his and Thomas' birth, setting their mother, Margaret [=LeFay=], one of his former apprentices, on the necessary path]] on the grounds that he felt they'd be useful, leaving Dresden in a full-on existential crisis. Strange is aware of this (contributing to his considerable self-hatred), and considers his actions NecessarilyEvil, setting up Gorakhnath as [[OpposedMentors a philosophical opposite]] to prevent Harry copying him, and arranging matters so that the heroes can stand up on their own when he's gone. |
| 412 | ** Jean Grey is a minor deconstruction of the GoGetterGirl, CoolBigSis, and AllLovingHeroine. She is genuinely all those things and loves both Harry, her cousin, and [[spoiler: Maddie, her long-lost twin sister]] unconditionally. However, the sheer pressure of having to juggle her academic and sporting responsibilities, her ''de facto'' role as Head Girl of the Xavier Institute (which gets a lot of traumatised younger students), her lessons in her vastly expanded PsychicPowers, and being a CoolBigSis to Harry (who's [[ShellShockedVeteran horribly traumatised]] following ''Forever Red'') and [[spoiler: Maddie]], who's ''[[{{Tykebomb}} even worse]]'', with a literal ''lifetime'' of trauma that means that she can barely function normally. Add a relationship into the bargain, and it's inevitable that she finally cracks under the pressure in chapter 47. Carol, in milder but similar situation, remarks that she's only surprised it didn't happen sooner. |
| 413 | * DeconstructorFleet: |
| 414 | ** The story also paints a clear picture on just how far The Avengers would go to defeat an enemy [[ItsPersonal who targeted those around them]], and just what methods they'd resort to. Many of them aren't on the moral side of the scale and have extended consequences. |
| 415 | ** Also demonstrated is the fact that the world doesn't stop when the heroes defeat a BigBad. After defeating HYDRA, not only does the world move on, the next installment also shows that it's not always a HappilyEverAfter scenario. Both Harry and Carol need therapy following their experiences during the HYDRA Arc, and Voldemort is still a present problem, lurking in the shadows. The latter also indicates that no matter how many villains the heroes defeat, there will be another out there just waiting for a chance to strike. It's noted that the rise of the Red Room is partially due to the fact that, with SHIELD still rebuilding and HYDRA having fallen, there's no one to stand in their way. |
| 416 | * DeducingTheSecretIdentity: Lois Lane figures out that Clark Kent is Superman (or Kal El as he goes by) thanks to the resemblance and personality. And he flew into his house. |
| 417 | * DefectorFromDecadence: According to Loki, Shou-Lao the Undying and the other dragons of K'un L'un were members of Surtur's horde of Wyrms who renounced him and chose to live peacefully on Earth. Another such group also defected, and interbred with various other spirits to become the Great Dragons of Avalon. |
| 418 | * DefiantToTheEnd: |
| 419 | ** [[spoiler: Volodya]], when Lukin is about to execute him, merely calls Lukin out on the nearsighted stupidity of his plans, how it'll bring Russia to ruin, and how the Avengers will destroy him. He was right about that one, as it turns out. |
| 420 | ** [[spoiler: Harry]] is similarly defiant when faced with the prospect of programming or being lobotomised - though that's partly because if there's no other option, he's prepared to unleash [[spoiler: the Phoenix.]] |
| 421 | ** When he thinks [[spoiler: Dracula]] is about to skewer him, Harry again just snarks off. |
| 422 | * DemonicPossession: [[spoiler: Hermione]] ends up possessed by the entity in the Fallen Fortress. |
| 423 | * DestructiveSaviour: Both Bucky and Carol note Harry's tendency towards with this, with Carol describing the results of Harry losing his temper as being "like ''{{Film/Carrie|1976}}'' as directed by Creator/MichaelBay." It's not an inaccurate description, either. |
| 424 | ** This last remark takes on an edge of {{Foreshadowing}} when Harry snaps through mistreatment, just like the titular Carrie and [[spoiler: becomes the Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 425 | * DeusExitMachina: The Hulk gets subjected to this no less than three times in ''Ghosts of the Past'': Due to fears of getting telepathically manipulated, Bruce works as TheMedic at the Quidditch World Cup in chapter 2. In chapter 10, during the attack on the Red Room, Loki has to teleport his thoroughly Hulked-out self to an empty desert. Finally, instead of helping Thor against the Juggernaut in chapter 13, he remains on hand to stop any of the other prisoners. |
| 426 | ** However, after Thor snaps into his BerserkerRage after the latter incident, the Hulk does restrain him long enough to be calmed down. Considering that BerserkerRage Thor can destroy planets, this is an important role. He also gets involved at the end of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, smashing Dracula. |
| 427 | ** Harry gets subjected to this in chapter 30, when he starts bleeding from the nose after having strained himself too much with his AstralProjection. |
| 428 | ** This is also invoked by [[spoiler: Voldemort, Selene, and]] the Heirs of Kemmler, as well as Dracula, who would not have dared to try the Darkhallow nor [[spoiler: abducting Carol]], respectively, if the White Council, Strange, and the Avengers weren't dealing with the Red Court and their Outsiders - which meant that were unable to come to Wanda and Dresden (or [[spoiler: Carol]]'s) aid. |
| 429 | * DidntSeeThatComing: |
| 430 | ** Strange most certainly did not anticipate [[spoiler: Sinister and Maddie kidnapping Harry and Carol]]. |
| 431 | ** Wanda's reaction to hearing that Karrin Murphy is dating Jared 'The Hellhound' Kincaid, being on a romantic holiday in Hawaii with him. |
| 432 | ** [[spoiler: Dracula and Syrus]] did not expect Harry to show up to rescue Carol and Stevie, who in turn didn't see [[spoiler: Gambit, Logan, Uhtred, and Diana coming to rescue them]]. |
| 433 | ** Even Harry, who feels like he's SeenItAll these days, is shocked when he learns that the Forbidden Forest is BiggerOnTheInside. |
| 434 | ** Strange admits that he didn't anticipate [[spoiler: Hermione]]'s X-Gene power to be related to manipulating space, having been trying to engineer it to manipulate ''time'' instead. |
| 435 | ** It's revealed that the usage of chaos magic tends to be this for Strange in general, since his power revolves around manipulating possibilities, and chaos magic by definition throws the usual rules out of the window. |
| 436 | * DirtyMindReading: How Harry knows that Carol is attracted to him - while he doesn't go looking, empathy ''is'' part of the psychic package... |
| 437 | ** Jean-Paul also insinuates the less family friendly aspects of the psychic link between the two of them - and while he's trolling, they ''have'' used it to flirt. Carol later suggests the possibility; though [[TheGadfly to see his expression.]] [[{{UST}} Mostly.]] |
| 438 | * DissonantSerenity: |
| 439 | ** Harry in general develops this trait, which most of his peers - and many adults - find extremely disturbing. For instance, after a flashback in chapter 12 after being physically and psychically tortured for two days, he remarks in a disturbingly casual voice, "That's when the torture started. You'd almost think I'd annoyed him." |
| 440 | ** Bucky very calmly explains to Ron that a teenage wizard isn't going to be able to do much against a Grey Court vampire, especially a senior one. All the while, he has one hand on Ron's wand and the other on his throat, having disarmed him and pinned him to the floor mid-sentence, in the blink of an eye. |
| 441 | ** After Bucky asks if anyone can see any sign of Dracula trying to infiltrate the Mansion, Gambit notes quietly that he can: [[OhCrap Peter Parker's formerly unconscious body has disappeared]]. |
| 442 | ** As usual, Diana is almost always cool and unruffled unless in the middle of a fight, and sometimes even then. |
| 443 | * DistressedWoodchopping: Harry, in chapter 55, to work off his anger at what has been done to [[spoiler: Clark]] - specifically, some life/energy draining magic, which presses a particular BerserkButton of his - by methodically working his way through [[spoiler: the Kent family's]] wood-pile. |
| 444 | * DivineIntervention: Several of the Endless, as well as both Faerie Courts (though not exactly out of altruism in the case of the Fae), step in to aid in bringing down the Red Room for good, [[GodsHandsAreTied as much as they're they're allowed]]. |
| 445 | ** Mentioned by Harry Dresden in chapter 29. He speculates that the reason Voldemort is not interested in becoming a Greater God is because then he would make himself fair game/an easy target not only for Thor and Loki, but also for Odin, who wouldn't so much as step in as step ''on''. Given the latter's truly epic PapaWolf moments seen so far, this is probably a fair guess. |
| 446 | ** Defied by Jor-El in a flashback, explaining that he considered asking Asgard for help against the Dheronians, but believed that it will take too long for them to muster their armed forces - and if they made a move, the Dheronians would just destroy Krypton outright. Plus, he's not sure what's going on in Asgard, with the last he heard being that Thor had vanished (he'd just have died as James at this point), so he isn't sure that Clark/Kal-El would be any safer there. |
| 447 | * DoABarrelRoll: As [[spoiler: Nimue]] notes somewhat disapprovingly, the X-Wing constructs at the Battle of New Orleans in the climax of ''Unfinished Business'' do a number as they scream into battle. |
| 448 | * DoppelgangerLink: It is implied that the [[spoiler:Sinister clones]] are a HiveMind. While it appears that he simply [[BodySurf jumps from one cloned body to another]], it has been hinted that multiple clones are active at once, as observed by [[spoiler:Maddie]] pointing out how he shows up in unexpected places and that she would notice if he were just jumping from one body to another. |
| 449 | * DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal: Referenced when Strange is calling out the Council of Skyfathers in Chapter 17, with what he says making it clear that he does ''not'' ascribe to the double standard, even if the Council does. |
| 450 | --> '''Strange:''' [...]you sired ''that'' hero,[...] but[...] in many cases the mother of the hero was hardly in any position to consent and siring a hero was more of a convenient byproduct than a matter of intent. |
| 451 | * DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted, ''hard''. Belova aggressively kissing and fondling the Red Son [[spoiler: a.k.a. Harry]], who's a) physically a teenager [[spoiler: (14/15)]], b) a puppet of the Red Room and in no state to even ''consider'' consenting, with the narrative noting that from Belova's point of view, that's part of the point, in front of Natasha as a power play. This is because she sees [[spoiler: Harry]] as something of Natasha's that she can take, and afterwards makes a lewd comment about how he's 'almost done cooking', bragging about how she'll show him what pleasure means is treated as horrifying and absolutely disgusting. The fact that she's exceptionally attractive is treated as utterly immaterial by the narrative; [[EvenEvilHasStandards her sane teammates]] are [[{{Squick}} deeply disturbed by her behaviour]] and Natasha cuttingly describes it as what it is: an adult gloating about how she's going to molest a child. |
| 452 | ** When the subject comes up again, and it transpires that she more than once molested [[spoiler: Harry]] as a power move after she'd been thwarted, Carol's immediate response is [[TranquilFury an eerily calm declaration]] that she'll "tear that [[PrecisionFStrike fucking bitch]] limb from limb." The only reason that she doesn't follow through is that Belova is currently suffering a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 453 | ** Chapter 60 elaborates on just what happened, and it is depicted as utterly horrific. |
| 454 | * TheDragon: Barty Crouch Junior, to Voldemort, as usual, being his chief willing minion - though we see very little of him, in large part because Voldemort himself is moving around behind the scenes. |
| 455 | ** Belova serves as this to Lukin, being the only other person in the Red Room other than him and [[spoiler: Sinister]] who can command the Red Son, leading the Winter Guard as a result. |
| 456 | * TheDragonslayer: What Harry becomes at the end of ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'', having taken the traditional route and gone for the eye. Additionally, Doctor Strange had arranged for it to happen very publicly, intentionally evoking the DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu reaction (since this dragon is the size of a mountain and destroys planets). Odin, meanwhile, takes the skeleton and puts it on display somewhere that's not ''too'' overt, but quite easy to find, making a pointed statement regarding just what his grandson is capable of - even if he did have help. |
| 457 | * DragonsVersusKnights: What ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' culminates in, with Harry doing the bulk of the fighting against the Elder Wyrm, being sardonically referred to as "the KnightInShiningArmour" by Wisdom. Funnily enough, it's also quite literal, as Harry has at this point been knighted, thanks to the Battle of London, and is a member of the [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Order of the Garter]]. |
| 458 | * DramaQueen: As is observed by several, including T'Challa, Harry is occasionally prone to this (usually in a fight) and Carol calls him out on it in chapter 15, neatly undercutting the drama of the scene in question. |
| 459 | -->'''Carol''': [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Oh my]] ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments god]]'', [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments you total fucking drama queen.]] |
| 460 | * TheDreaded: |
| 461 | ** Voldemort, especially since he TookALevelInBadass. While he's not feared so much as the heavyweights, even the real powerhouses worry about him because he's clever and they're not sure what he's really after. |
| 462 | ** Wisdom functions as this to the British Ministry and the Death Eaters. One of the main reasons Fudge hasn't been replaced is because no one wants to go up against him. |
| 463 | ** The Red Room to absolutely everyone, and with good reason. |
| 464 | ** The Phoenix, even to the good guys. As Loki points out, even though Lily is the chief aspect of the Phoenix, she is far from the ''only'' aspect, and some of those aspects aren't fuzzy and nice - [[TheUnfettered at the very least, they aren't constrained by mortal, or even divine, morality.]] Trelawney's second prophecy is also rather ominous about it. |
| 465 | *** In chapter 15, [[spoiler: Harry proves all these worries right by becoming the Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 466 | *** Chapter 20 elaborates on this with the reveal that the original Dark Phoenix [[spoiler: was Surtur, who]] destroyed an entire ''galaxy''. |
| 467 | ** Doctor Strange is this to more or less everyone, and with excellent reason. No one is immune to it. Essex/Sinister, whose usual calm - which later holds up in front of the freaking [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] - dissolves completely when Strange finally finds him, [[LoomingSilhouetteOfRage looming up behind him]] with a SlasherSmile. |
| 468 | *** He is also particularly this to the White Council, given what he represents. The Council is all about [[TheFettered controlling power so that it's not misused]]. Strange is almost the definition of TheUnfettered and effectively impossible to control. More to the point, for reasons that aren't widely known, he's got a very personal grudge against them ([[spoiler: the fact that he was, and is, very close to the original Merlin, and Strange sees them as an insult to his 'brother']]). |
| 469 | ** Harry, on a lesser scale to Hogwarts students after he emerges from the events of ''[[TraumaCongaLine Forever]] [[DarkestHour Red]]'' with a rampant case of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]] and a HairTriggerTemper - it doesn't help that they don't even know ''why'' he's like that. He gets better after Cedric Diggory gives him a gentle WhatTheHellHero and he has a HeelRealisation. |
| 470 | ** Thanos, though still TheGhost, casts a large shadow over proceedings. The Council Elite have a MassOhCrap when they hear that he's coming, and even Strange is... perhaps not afraid, as such (or at least hides it well), but unequivocally describes him as being the worst thing, and most dangerous threat, in the universe. |
| 471 | * DressCodedForYourConvenience: Played Straight and Subverted with Alison Carter on various occasions. Sometimes, she's in typical SHIELD combat gear, entirely befitting a RetiredBadass, SuperSoldier, and ex-Deputy Director of SHIELD who hasn't aged (physically) half as much as careful application of make-up would have most believe, and indeed, finds retirement boring and is still very active behind the scenes. When meeting the Kent family, however, to set them a bit more at their ease, she dresses up in a casual, comfy fashion that the narrator observes a Brit would have described as 'mumsy', and that the very American Clark inwardly pegs as resembling 'a soccer mom from central casting' (albeit an upper-middle class 'ladies who lunch' version). He also, however, picks up very quickly on the fact that this is far from all that she is. |
| 472 | ** When Harry is discussing his different identities/aspects of who he is with Ron in chapter 45, he performs an InstantCostumeChange (or, rather, a psychic illusion of one), taking on the appearances and voices he used as [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix, Light Phoenix, Red Son,]] and Harry Potter (in the latter case, basically him just before he discovered his heritage). |
| 473 | * DrunkOnTheDarkSide: A usual hazard of [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] possession, as it hits the person involved with a massive power-rush and magnifies all emotions, both good and bad, and gets magnified by them in turn. |
| 474 | ** The same applies to dark magic, with [[spoiler: Reynolds']] point of view section in chapter 58 explicitly comparing it to [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil drugs]] (he thinks this is a good thing, mind you). |
| 475 | ** [[spoiler: Nimue]] is, surprisingly, not particularly prone to this, retaining her calculating intellect even after a truly monstrous power-up in ''Unfinished Business'' - though she ''does'' get [[EvilIsHammy a little hammier]]. |
| 476 | * EasilyForgiven: Discussed and Zig-Zagged with Harry after the way he's been passively terrorising his fellow students following what the ''Forever Red'' arc did to him (as in, they're terrified of accidentally setting him off). On the one hand, after he has his HeelRealisation courtesy of Cedric Diggory's WhatTheHellHero speech, and publicly apologises to Seamus Finnegan, who [[NoodleIncident at one point he scared witless]] after the other boy unwittingly pressed a BerserkButton of his, the Hogwarts student body relax significantly and generally seem willing to let bygones be bygones. On the other, the narration notes that they're 'cautiously optimistic', but also wary of a reversion, and Harry and Cedric discuss the trope, with Harry dryly noting that his fellow students would mostly just be relieved by the change and too scared of him to be willing to push it. Cedric, ever optimistic though he is, does not disagree, and Hermione later notes that while Harry is seen as being generally decent, the view of him as nice went out the window a long time ago. |
| 477 | * EatingTheEyeCandy: |
| 478 | ** Harry and Carol, mutually, when they're in swimsuits. It's deeply awkward and leads to Harry reaffirming to a faintly worried Carol that they are still JustFriends and their friendship comes first. |
| 479 | ** Carol and Jean-Paul, when Uhtred and Harry go [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] for a training bout, make their appreciation known. [[TheGadfly Harry being Harry]], he offers Carol a conjured handkerchief to wipe up the drool. |
| 480 | ** Carol's friends on the soccer team, especially Monica Rambeau, are quite appreciative of the, ahem, attributes Harry's picked up from his dad, to Carol's absolute mortification. |
| 481 | -->'''Monica:''' That ass is ''literally'' divine. |
| 482 | * EldritchAbomination: As part of his VisionQuest with the Norns, Harry gets a glimpse of Annihilus, who aside from his overall bug-like appearance is noted to be constantly shifting through colours that Harry's eyes refuse to comprehend. |
| 483 | * EldritchLocation: |
| 484 | ** The Dreaming, which is noted as being even stranger than the [=NeverNever=], which is apparently a small portion of it. |
| 485 | ** Also, the Rock of Eternity. |
| 486 | ** The Mirror Dimension, as per ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', is thoroughly weird. |
| 487 | ** The strange in-between dimension in chapter 42 created by a spell reacting oddly to Harry, which allows him to [[spoiler: see a small and hopefully relevant section of the multiverse and interact with an alternate version of him that goes by Nathan.]] |
| 488 | ** Belle Reve sanitarium has been the site of dark magic rituals perpetrated against magical beings. As a side effect of this, it has turned [[GeniusLoci sentient]], and is capable of manipulating its own AlienGeometries. Lex and Chloe are understandably fairly freaked out. [[SeenItAll Harry,]] on the other hand, is less than impressed and [[ContinuityNod notes that]] [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone he was breaking into more impressive places when he was eleven]], before effortlessly cowing it into submission. |
| 489 | ** Hogwarts is also very much this--it has a millennium of magic woven into its very stones. In addition to how its passageways canonically shift around, it gives Dumbledore Intellectus while within its walls, and is at least somewhat sapient. |
| 490 | ** The Fortress in the Forbidden Forest. It's normally a ruin, but on some nights is restored to its full state; on those nights, people who get too close are compelled to enter, at which point the collective spirits of everyone who died there torment them with their worst fears. |
| 491 | ** After being mentioned in vague detail beforehand, ''Unfinished Business'' finally shows how Project Pegasus qualifies for this. The attempts by SHIELD to harness the local magic as a power source for creating SuperSoldiers and super weapons, the magic burst loose and warped the facility to [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor fulfill that desire]] -- the heart of the complex is now a forest made of trees that [[ForcedTransformation used to be people]], inhabited by various monstrous creatures [[WasOnceAMan that also used to be people]]. |
| 492 | * EmotionlessGirl: [[spoiler: Maddie]], thanks to Essex's conditioning, often complete with a CreepyMonotone. Even after her HeelFaceTurn with an associated increase in willingness to show emotion, she still gives off a very dry, reserved vibe - though this is more because she has trouble dealing with her emotions rather than not having them in the first place. |
| 493 | * EmotionsVsStoicism: The balance between the two is discussed and played out several times across both books, particularly regarding the Phoenix and its hosts with each side noted as having both flaws and virtues. On the one hand, emotions means compassion, empathy, and understanding. On the other, stoicism means rationality, practicality, and self-control. The conclusion is that too much of either is a bad thing, with the best choice being a balance of the two - to feel and understand emotions, but not to be ruled by them - being demonstrated by Harry's CharacterDevelopment towards being FieryStoic. |
| 494 | * EmpathicEnvironment: Those parts of the Nevernever near to the mortal world tend to be influenced by it, and it can be similarly influenced by suitably powerful individuals. When two Omega class psychics throw down, this results in a WorldGoneMad. |
| 495 | * EmpathicWeapon: |
| 496 | ** The Green Lantern Ring is mentioned again as being semi-sentient, enough to form opinions on people, and demonstrates something of a personality in ''Unfinished Business'' - enough that Carol can bully it into doing what she wants. |
| 497 | ** Wands, of course, and the Sword of Gryffindor. |
| 498 | ** Mjolnir. In chapter 12, [[spoiler: Maddie]] discovers that while it isn't quite sentient, thanks to Odin's spell, it ''does'' have something of an emergent consciousness. Certainly, it's capable of [[spoiler: indirectly answering a telepathic question about what it means to be Worthy by showing previous wielders, indicating what actions the questioner - Maddie - had performed that were worthy, and shattering a powerful telepathic block.]] It also appears capable of expressing a certain degree of smug satisfaction. |
| 499 | ** The artefact that, as Strange puts it, the cast so charmingly thinks is a phoenix feather - it can store [[spoiler: Harry's mind and epic amounts of Phoenix fire]], it moves around of its own accord, and considering that it used to be [[spoiler: Laevateinn, the wand of Prospero Slytherin]] and was in Odin's possession for a millennium and a half without him twigging, it can disguise itself extremely effectively. |
| 500 | ** Ván, the Sword of Hope. It was forged from uru and vibranium, layered with the best spells that the Alliance of Realms could come up with, had a mind of its own, which [[LoyalPhlebotinum like Excalibur, only someone worthy could wield]] -- which despite Thor's suspicions, had nothing to do with Strange (who suspects that, instead, it had more to do with Yggdrasil). It was made to take on [[spoiler: Surtur,]] a fully fledged Dark Phoenix and NoSell the best said Dark Phoenix could throw at it -- which, by inference, it ''did''. It makes the Sword of Gryffindor look like a toy in comparison. |
| 501 | * EmptyPilesOfClothing: PlayedForLaughs after a Grey Court vampire's body is charged and turned to ash by Gambit, and what's left of the vampire is apparently thrown down a hospital laundry chute. |
| 502 | * EnemyMine: Strange recruits Doctor Doom to help Harry's group fight the Grey Court, on the grounds that Dracula's victory would threaten his own power base. |
| 503 | * EscortMission: Lampshaded and Discussed in ''Unfinished Business'', when Dresden notes the concept (it having been explained to him by a gamer friend of his) and that his current mission of evacuating the Midtown High students and getting them to shelter while running the gauntlet of [[WorldGoneMad New Orleans gone nuts]], monsters and all, is basically a textbook example. |
| 504 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Dracula gets a spectacular on his introduction, sitting and listening to Voldemort's proposal for mutual advantage, having remarked that he doesn't particularly want to play games... then Voldemort finishes his proposal, saying that he'll elaborate on the details of what information he has to offer once Dracula accepts. In a blurred instant, Dracula is on his feet and has lifted Voldemort out of his chair like it's nothing, coldly remarking that he doesn't appreciate being manipulated into a war with the Avengers or Asgard which would be 'tiresome'. So, it's going to be the other way around - Voldemort's going to cough up his information, and if, and only if, it is sufficient, then Dracula will accept his proposal. Oh, and any attempt to use his magical or psychic powers won't work because Dracula's suppressing them with a mere effort of will. [[EvilerThanThou Voldemort promptly coughs up.]] |
| 505 | * EtherealWhiteDress: |
| 506 | ** Lily as the White Phoenix of the Crown a.k.a. Destruction of the Endless, consistently appears in a white dress with a golden sash and Phoenix emblem whenever she turns up. |
| 507 | ** In the ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' arc, one of the [[OurSirensAreDifferent Undines]] appears in this form. Considering that Undines like luring people to their deaths by drowning, Harry is careful not to be taken in -- though he doesn't miss that the entity in question at least appears to be an attractive young woman in [[SexySoakedShirt a wet dress]] that's implied to be VaporWear. |
| 508 | ** Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]] appear in Harry's mindscape wearing pure white dresses (their psychic forms having previously merged into a pure white gestalt), emphasising both their [[PsychicPowers unearthly nature]] and purity. Here, they're unambiguously benevolent, doing their best to help heal Harry |
| 509 | * EvenTheGuysWantHim: Jean-Paul agrees with Carol's assessment that Warren is hot. While this isn't necessarily surprising, considering that Jean-Paul is very, very gay, even Harry (who's otherwise entirely straight) notes that he's astonishingly good looking. |
| 510 | ** In a gender-flipped example, Carol (who is otherwise very heterosexual) mentions that Jean Grey is hot. |
| 511 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: |
| 512 | ** Even before her conscience started to really develop, [[spoiler: Maddie]] despised Omega Red. As did pretty much all the rest of the Red Room, actually. |
| 513 | ** The saner members of the Winter Guard are visibly disturbed by Yelena molesting [[spoiler: Red Son!Harry]] to get at Natasha. |
| 514 | ** When one of Dracula's minions suggest he employ some LoopholeAbuse to get around a promise made to a captive [[spoiler: Carol]] on his behalf (by pointing out Dracula himself didn't make the promise), Dracula is incensed at the idea of breaking a vow, and later demonstrates a certain amount of VillainRespect for both Carol and (to a lesser extent) Harry. |
| 515 | ** While [[spoiler: Nimue]] wants to empower magical beings and let them run wild on the world once more, she makes a point of avoiding Demonreach, viewing the entities trapped within it as too dangerous. Similarly, she avoids Uluru so as to not unleash the Dreamtime (and thus the entire Dreaming) onto Earth as well. |
| 516 | * TheEveryman: Ron, to an extent, like in canon. [[DownplayedTrope It's only to an extent]], however, because he's increasingly focused on becoming a SHIELD Agent and being trained in hand-to-hand by Sean Cassidy on the grounds that he wants to go after HYDRA to avenge his father and figures that that's the best way to get at them. |
| 517 | * EveryoneCanSeeIt: |
| 518 | ** Harry and Carol. By this point, both of them are aware of their mutual attraction, but [[AnchoredShip deny that they're taking it further,]] or flirting, when they blatantly are. It gets to the point of almost being an ExaggeratedTrope, given that beings who have seen them together for just a few minutes can already tell that they're flirting, and becomes a RunningGag. [[spoiler: Then they finally get together in chapter 46.]] |
| 519 | ** Ron and Hermione have a downplayed version of this. While it's not as obvious as Harry and Carol's {{UST}} [[EveryoneCanSeeIt (not that that's not really saying much)]], Thor, Harry, and Maddie all make note of it at different points. |
| 520 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: |
| 521 | ** Xavier points out to Sinister in a BreakingSpeech that this is his FatalFlaw: He never understood either ThePowerOfLove or the persistent strength of [[spoiler: Maddie's]] free will. |
| 522 | ** Averted in the case of Doctor Doom, who knows perfectly well why neither [[MamaBear Alison Carter]] nor [[WouldntHurtAChild Bucky Barnes]] is willing to force [[spoiler: Peter Parker]] to drink the potentially lethal antidote to [[spoiler: the Grey Court infection within him]], pointing out both that and the fact that they [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork aren't making any moves to stop him]]. |
| 523 | ** Both 'Dave' the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] and his master [[spoiler: (Surtur)]] offer Harry the opportunity to join them and share his power. Since this is Harry we're talking about, the reply is a salvo of snark. |
| 524 | ** [[spoiler: Nimue]] is shocked and confused to find that the bulk of magic users are acting against her efforts to remake Earth into a magic-dominated primordial world, having assumed that they would all share her paranoia and hatred of non-magical people. |
| 525 | * EvilGloating: |
| 526 | ** Yelena indulges in some when confronting Natasha again, specifically, about [[{{Squick}} molesting]] [[spoiler: the Red Son]], because she saw him as being Natasha's. An unimpressed Natasha asks if she wants a [[RightHandCat white cat]] to stroke while she does it, snarkily offering [[RussianFashion a white ushanka (the famous Russian furry hat)]] as a substitute, before coldly deconstructing what she's doing. |
| 527 | ** Largely averted with [[spoiler: Nimue]] in ''Unfinished Business'' - she still gloats, she just saves her gloating until [[YouAreTooLate she's already pulled her plans off]]. |
| 528 | * EvilPowerVacuum: After the Avengers devastate the Red Room in retaliation for the events of the ''Forever Red'' arc, and thus effectively decapitate the Russian government (which the Red Room had taken over) it's noted that everyone from Chechen rebels to Islamic fundamentalists to splinter fragments of HYDRA to the Grey Court are trying to take advantage of the power vacuum left behind. |
| 529 | * EvilerThanThou: As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far, ''far'' worse than Surtur, as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise. He and Gorakhnath also state that while Surtur is highly intelligent, Thanos is ''creative.'' |
| 530 | ** Dracula, as part of his EstablishingCharacterMoment, subjects Voldemort to this. Of course, it could be argued that Voldemort still got the better of him. |
| 531 | * EvilIsHammy: |
| 532 | ** Both Dark Phoenixes tend to vacillate between ColdHam and ChewingTheScenery, depending on their emotional control. |
| 533 | ** [[spoiler: Nimue]] has her moments after her spectacular power-up in ''Unfinished Business'', though she's mostly a fairly restrained ColdHam. |
| 534 | * ExactWords: |
| 535 | ** Dresden (at Pepper's suggestion) uses this so that he only has to serve as Mab's Emissary during the fight against the Red Room, rather than have to become her Knight. And since she'd just attempted to scam him into thinking he had to take the position, he threatens to bring it up with Thor and Odin, who would be less than pleased that she's trying to turn what is supposed to be a goodwill effort to her own advantage, if she objects. Mab being Mab, she's grudgingly impressed. |
| 536 | ** Harry's 'apology' to Snape ("I'm sorry, Professor. What I said hurt you.") is explicitly noted by the narration as being very carefully structured to carry an undertone of total insincerity and subtext of 'and I'm glad it did, because it was meant to.' Dumbledore later somewhat dourly remarks that trying to make Harry apologise to Snape publicly would be pointless, as Harry's budding talent at this means that he would just structure his 'apology' to be as insincere and humiliating (for Snape) as possible. Harry tries (and fails) not to look pleased. |
| 537 | ** Rita Skeeter is warned by Loki via Bucky that any slandering, libeling, or misrepresenting Harry in the ''Daily Prophet'' will be met with harsh legal action. She therefore very carefully does not do any of these in her article, but does include as much innuendo and rumour as she feels she can get away with. |
| 538 | ** Harry uses this to very carefully and [[ConsummateLiar skillfully]] dance around the point of the Winter Soldier still being alive, with 'Dave' the Elder Wyrm having hinted to Ron that this was the case. Afterwards, he feels distinctly unhappy about it. |
| 539 | ** Bucky states that the Winter Soldier died during the fighting at the Battle of London. Technically, this is true. The ''person'' of the Winter Soldier, on the other hand... |
| 540 | * ExcaliburInTheStone: Played with. According to Loki, the name Excalibur was applied to both the sword Arthur pulled from the stone and the one the Lady in the Lake gave him, but that they are in fact different swords (the name was shared because it had importance and power, plus it's possible later historians got things mixed up). And the latter is the one wielded by [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Knights of the Cross and now known as]] ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]''. |
| 541 | * ExcuseMeComingThrough: Carol pulls this when making an escape attempt from [[spoiler: Dracula's vampire]] strike team, through Lexington-63rd subway station. The narration notes that the fact that she's most of six feet tall, well built, moving fast enough to break several local speed limits (whilst carrying her younger brother under one arm to boot) helps, as does the fact that she's apparently inherited her great-grandfather's "I-am-Captain-America-and-shit-is-getting-real-so-do-as-I-say" voice. |
| 542 | --> "MOVE!" |
| 543 | * ExpendableClone: This, crossed with the HiveMind trope, is how [[spoiler: Essex]] manages to turn up in multiple places simultaneously and survive repeated violent murder. He's also known for cloning his minions and, with the Red Room, creates [[spoiler: the Red Army,]] an army of clones - though when faced with [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]], he might as well have built snowmen for all the good they did. |
| 544 | ** The latter example is later discussed, as while they were treated as expendable, [[ClonesArePeopleToo they could and should have been more than that.]] |
| 545 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 546 | ** What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; his vast and only barely trained power which he's initially scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; the morally ambiguous mentor(s); plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]] |
| 547 | ** There are also elements of [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] in there too. Ludicrously strong PsychicPowers thanks to being part of the Grey family that might end up screwing him over? Check. Dark hair with skunk stripe in the fringe? Check. Miserable childhood with [[spoiler: Sinister]] heavily involved? Check. MommasBoy? ''Definite'' check. HotBlooded [[DeadpanSnarker snarker]] with ChronicHeroSyndrome? Check. GuileHero prone to the IndyPloy, a tendency that evolves into XanatosSpeedChess? Check. Mutually intrigued by [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor]]? Check. Occasionally frighteningly ruthless? Check. He even briefly gets Nate's ''New Mutants'' era outfit when he slices up the black leather [[spoiler:containment suit the Red Room put him in,]] leaving him in, effectively, a NoShirtLongJacket. Carol, predictably, mocks him mercilessly. |
| 548 | *** Doctor Strange also quotes Moira [=MacTaggert=] in her original assessment of Nate when discussing Harry. |
| 549 | *** In relation to that, Harry's also gaining increasing shades of {{ComicBook/Cable}}, Nate's 616 counterpart. First, the [[spoiler: infection by the Transmode Virus that transforms his left arm, left side, and left eye,]] temporary though it is. Second, an occasional tendency for just one eye, his left, to glow gold when he's using his powers rather than both. Third, when he jokingly suggests building his own version of Asteroid M/Avalon, after noting that he has the power (though not the knowledge), he mentions as possible names 'Greymalkin' and 'Providence' - the former being Cable's former space station, the latter being a floating city Cable built out of the remains of the former. |
| 550 | *** An older alternate counterpart of Harry turns up, is heavily designed after both Shaman era Nate and the 'Brother Nathan' version of Cable, and when Harry snarks that he'd call him 'Other Harry' but [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles that name is spoken for]], casually refers to himself as Nathan. |
| 551 | ** Separately, Harry also has significant shades of Hope Summers: half MessianicArchetype, half potential DarkMessiah[=/=]ApocalypseMaiden targeted from birth, heavily associated with the Phoenix Force from infancy, with vast powers that don't truly realise themselves until their teens, who goes through hell and consequently manifests TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour and [[ShellShockedVeteran textbook PTSD]], is trained by a brilliant soldier/master assassin with a metal arm, and wants to experience a normal life but what with BloodKnight and DoomMagnet tendencies, keeps putting themselves InHarmsWay. |
| 552 | ** Doctor Strange is an often mischievous immortal sorcerer who [[ObfuscatingStupidity routinely acts a good deal more strangely and less dangerous than he actually is]], casually and often impatiently pushes around/outright bullies monarchs and other authority figures, and when matters get serious, belies his silly reputation by unleashing hell on his enemies. In other words, he carries significant shades of [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarath]] - though his precognitive methodology, plan to guide history, and very dry DeadpanSnarker tendencies owe just as much to [[Literature/TheBelgariad the Light Prophecy]]. |
| 553 | *** Related to the above, with her vast power, similarly ominous reputation, maternal affection/terrifying MamaBear tendencies towards small boys of great destiny in her care, along with an often fractious relationship with her father/father-figure and stunning beauty, Wanda has more than a few shades of Polgara about her. |
| 554 | * EyeScream: |
| 555 | ** Sabretooth gets his eyes slashed out by Loki after he looked at baby Ada funny. |
| 556 | ** The Red Son has his left eye blasted out by Magneto as part of an attempt to subdue him. [[spoiler: He gets a Transmode replacement.]] |
| 557 | ** In Chapter 44, Harry tries to take the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] out by turning himself into a living bullet, going in through the eye, through the brain, and out the other side. Unfortunately, it moved at the last moment; as such, he only manages to slash one eye out, a wound [[CombatPragmatist which he ruthlessly exacerbates]] and ultimately, he [[spoiler: kills it with a blast through the eye.]] |
| 558 | ** At one point during the FinalBattle of ''Unfinished Business'', Carol kicks [[spoiler: Nimue]] in the face with two-inch-long Green Lantern-generated studs on her boots at multi-mach speeds, blinding her until she can regenerate. |
| 559 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: According to Strange, when he told Frey that try as he might he couldn't save him, Frey simply thanked him and asked him to accompany him to his final battle. Strange accepted, on the grounds that it was both the least and most that he could do. |
| 560 | * FacialMarkings: Harry's scar, as usual. |
| 561 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel's]] famous markings on her face are revealed to be magically applied tattoos and part of her asserting her own identity, as part of Gambit's nudging towards independence. |
| 562 | * FairyTaleMotifs: Many of the same ones that appeared in Book I reappear here. A new one, however, is an even straighter version of the Changeling tale, with [[spoiler: Jean Grey's twin sister having been stolen at birth by Sinister and replaced with a dead infant, making it look like a tragic case of SIDS, being raised by Sinister as Madelyne 'Maddie' Pryor.]] |
| 563 | ** The fairy tales themselves are discussed during the reveal that [[spoiler: Sinister]] used a number of them, twisting their meanings, to underline his MoreThanMindControl hold on [[spoiler: Maddie.]] |
| 564 | * FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Strange does this during ''Bloody Hell'', both to give Wanda the room to prove herself as the new Sorceress Supreme, and to give himself room to make certain moves without anyone being aware of him.]] |
| 565 | * FantasticallyIndifferent: Most of the cast who're regularly exposed to him tend to take this attitude to the weird, CrazyIsCool, and frequently BeyondTheImpossible antics of Doctor Strange, summarising it as, 'Strange being Strange, in every sense of the phrase.' Hermione, by contrast, has 'mild hysterics' at Strange doing things that all the laws of magic dictate should be impossible. |
| 566 | ** Harry is a particular example, being able to observe and analyse most things that would drive even gods insane with perfectly clinical calm and equanimity thanks to his experiences with Chthon and the Dark Phoenix, dismissively remarking at a couple of points that he [[BoredWithInsanity tried insanity and got bored with it.]] However, he does have limits. Frigga at one point remarks on how perhaps his most remarkable gift is relating the most extraordinary things in perfectly casual tones, as if they're completely normal. |
| 567 | * FantasticAngst: |
| 568 | ** Honestly, this trope is essentially short hand for Harry's entire life, right down to the textbook death of his mother actually being her having AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to protect him (after dying). |
| 569 | ** After ''Unfinished Business'', Carol worries about her identity and what she's becoming after multiple instances of being TouchedByVorlons. Steve reassures her that all that's changed is that she's more ''her'' than she was before, being more self-confident and assertive, citing Erskine's "good becomes great, bad becomes worse" mantra. |
| 570 | * FantasyForbiddingFather: Carol's father is revealed to be a downplayed version of this; he doesn't stop her from playing sports and generally being a tomboy, despite his desire for her to be a ProperLady who'll StayInTheKitchen (which in turn causes his daughter to [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak hide her girly streak]] because she won't give an inch). However, this isn't so much due to grudging tolerance as the fact that he's wary of his mother-in-law and terrified of his brother-in-law (he's later terrified of both, and with good reason), who wholeheartedly support her. He's more successful with his second child, Stevie, who's quite quiet and a budding artist while his father wants him to be a rambunctious [[TheAllAmericanBoy athlete]] like his youngest child, Joe Junior, dismissing Stevie's artistic talents as "girl's stuff" and encouraging his youngest son to do the same. It is described icily by his mother-in-law as "a psychological death of a thousand cuts." |
| 571 | * FatBastard: The Beast/Blob a.k.a. [[spoiler: Dudley Dursley]], even more than his canon counterpart (or rather, ''[[CompositeCharacter counterparts]]'') - while he's not a cannibal like his Ultimate and ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' counterparts [[spoiler: (until he turns into a vampire)]], he's [[spoiler: Essex's]] DumbMuscle, never told no save for very select occasions, encouraged to indulge in every vile whim... the result? An unrepentant murderer and a rapist. He's bad enough that [[spoiler: becoming a Grey Court vampire is described by Harry as having changed very little, other than his diet.]] |
| 572 | * FateWorseThanDeath: Chapter 46 reveals that after the Red Room's defeat, Dream punished [[spoiler: Belova for her part in Harry's torture by sending her nightmares that tore away all her self-delusions and justifications for her actions. Due to the magic involved, this warped her waking world self, transforming her physically into "Gollum's uglier sister" and driving her completely insane]]. It was bad enough that ''Loki'', mid RoaringRampageOfRevenge, took one look at [[spoiler: her]] and decided that he couldn't make it worse. |
| 573 | * FauxAffablyEvil: |
| 574 | ** Voldemort, who acts friendly and polite in an urbane sort of way in the midst of making some of the most horrific threats imaginable. |
| 575 | ** [[spoiler: Essex a.k.a. Sinister]] in his guise as Nathan Milbury, kindly family doctor. |
| 576 | * FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue: Done intentionally a few times with the "Between" - a kind of [[PurgatoryAndLimbo limbo]], usually when a point of view character converses with a supernatural entity (like [[spoiler: Carol]] with Death, or [[spoiler: Harry]] with [[spoiler: Jesus]]). |
| 577 | * FemaleGaze: When Harry meets Carol's muggle friends, one, Monica Rambeau, admits to admiring his ass, much to his and Carol's mortification. |
| 578 | * FeminineMotherTomboyishDaughter: This is one of the many reasons that the Danvers family is so dysfunctional. Carol (the daughter) is a tomboy who is incredibly talented at sports (to the point she was once forced to be tested for steroids for embarrassing the football team) and highly assertive. Her mother Marie on the other hand is - [[HiddenDepths apparently]] - the typical housewife who puts up with her husband's [[AbusiveParents emotionally abusive behaviour]] towards their children with little complaint, [[PoorCommunicationKills without ever explaining to her daughter why]]. As a result, Carol initially doesn't like Marie at all, though in this story, she comes to understand her much better, HiddenDepths and all, and they get on much better as a result. Her mother realising just how far Carol's father was willing to go and consequently [[spoiler: leaving him to her own mother's total lack of mercy helped.]] |
| 579 | * FieryRedhead: It takes a bit to get Jean fired up, but [[UnstoppableRage once she is,]] [[BigSisterInstinct oh dear]] ''[[PhysicalGod god]]''... |
| 580 | ** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] subverts this, generally being as cool as ice, no matter the situation. It's actually considerably more frightening. |
| 581 | * FierySalamander: the Elder-Wyrm - while it's a ridiculously ancient proto-dragon, being absurdly large, planet-breakingly powerful, and scarily smart, it's depicted closer to a mythical salamander. It lives in cold, damp caves, and once it does emerge, it unleashes volcanic hell (and enjoys swimming in lava). |
| 582 | * FieryStoic: The ideal nature of a Phoenix Host is described as being along these lines. Separately, Harry starts becoming this in after ''Forever Red'', as part of a general drift away from his previous HotBlooded and impulsive nature, and trying to [[spoiler: control his inner Phoenix]], becoming wiser and more thoughtful as he recovers and mellows out, while retaining his proclivity for PlayingWithFire. However, there's a still a significant capacity for TranquilFury in him. |
| 583 | * FightDracula: Essentially what the Harry Thorson and co half of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc can be summed up as. |
| 584 | * FightingTheLancer: A simmering subplot in ''Ghosts'' is the slowly developing friction between Harry and Ron, primarily thanks to Harry keeping Ron LockedOutOfTheLoop thanks to overprotectiveness, wanting to keep Ron and Hermione as his 'normal' friends, and necessary and unnecessary secret-keeping. This, combined with Harry's (secretive, manipulative, pragmatic, and [[ShellShockedVeteran shell-shocked]]) and Ron's (largely normal, but increasingly obsessive about training to hunt down HYDRA and avenge his father's death) CharacterDevelopment, makes their friendship more difficult. Then there's the small fact that Harry's technically hiding Arthur Weasley's killer right under Ron's nose. Neither is happy about this, though they eventually come to adapt... then Hermione's heritage, and the fact that Harry a) knew about it and b) kept it from them comes out. |
| 585 | * {{Fingore}}: The unfortunate Remus gets splinched by some rather nasty wards. Thankfully, the fingers are reattached by Sirius. |
| 586 | * FlawExploitation: Continuing on from the previous book... |
| 587 | ** Voldemort exploits Harry's unwillingness to hurt his friends when he turns them into PeoplePuppets and drains the life from them to replenish himself every time Harry manages to hurt him, thereby bending Harry to his will (though Harry does eventually find a way around it). |
| 588 | ** In ''Forever Red'', Harry exploits [[spoiler: Maddie's]] curiosity, one of her most dominant traits, under TheStoic mask, especially about Jean. While he fails to cause the desired HeelFaceTurn straight off (and his ChronicHeroSyndrome ends up landing him in a far worse trouble), [[CuriosityCausesConversion it eventually has the desired effect]]. |
| 589 | ** Harry, [[GuileHero again,]] does this in ''Bloody Hell'' by exploiting Dracula's entirely justified fear of the [[spoiler: Phoenix]] with a temporary power boost and some [[MasterOfIllusion skills he learned from Loki]] (helped by the fact that he knows exactly how to imitate the entity in question). It works for just as long as it needs to. |
| 590 | ** Voldemort, [[ManipulativeBastard also again,]] exploits both Selene and Dracula's hunger for power in the run-up to the ''Bloody Hell'' arc from an apparently submissive position. While Dracula rightfully suspects his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder and appears to demonstrate how he's EvilerThanThou, Voldemort still comes out on top, leaving Selene to swing in the wind once he's got what he needed, and leaves Dracula to bear the wrath of the Avengers. |
| 591 | ** Harry, yet ''again'' (it's basically his go-to tactic at this point, after [[NoKillLikeOverkill destroying everything in sight]] and [[PlayingWithFire setting the rubble on fire]]), in ''Of Dungeons & Dragons'', exploits the classical draconic fondness for talking and riddle-games to buy time to escape and out-manoeuvre it. |
| 592 | ** Carol and Strange in ''Unfinished Business'' exploit [[spoiler: Nimue's]] overconfidence, single-mindedness, and tendency towards UnstoppableRage in order to draw her off the battlefield, drain her dry, and imprison her. |
| 593 | * FlirtingUnderFire: [[RunningGag Harry and Carol do this a lot.]] Occasionally to the understandable disbelief of the uninitiated. And then deny that they're flirting. [[EveryoneCanSeeIt No one is fooled.]] |
| 594 | * FlowerMotifs: At Betsy's suggestion thanks to her ProperLady training, [[spoiler: Harry]] gives [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria (meaning "will you dance with me?") when asking her to the Yule Ball. |
| 595 | * FlowersOfRomance: [[spoiler: Harry]] giving [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria [[FlowerMotifs (meaning "will you dance with me?")]] to ask her to the Yule Ball, especially since [[spoiler: it results in a RelationshipUpgrade]]. It is widely deemed to be adorable. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Even if the flower does get squashed]] in the resultant kiss. |
| 596 | * {{Flynning}}: Averted, hard. Considering how often he's either outgunned, on a tight timetable, or both, Harry will always - ''always'' - go for the quick kill. Every technique he uses, from the GroinAttack to the back-stab, is designed to take his opponent down as quickly and effectively as possible. The only exception to this is when fighting [[spoiler: a vampirised Dudley]], when he [[TranquilFury calmly]] dismembers his opponent while explaining exactly why it's ''not'' a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. And even that was both relatively brief, and efficient, killing his opponent in three sword-strokes. |
| 597 | * FogOfDoom: The mist that infests the [[EldritchLocation Fallen Fortress]], which initially appears to just be an OminousFog, before it's revealed that it's a) sentient, b) psychic, c) maliciously homicidal. |
| 598 | * {{Foil}}: the series has a few: |
| 599 | ** Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]] are both enormously powerful psychics ([[spoiler: and twins]]) equalled only by each other for power. One is compassionate and protective, being [[AllLovingHero 'big sister to the world']], raised by the highly ethical Charles Xavier. The other is a cold, [[NotSoStoic apparently]] emotionless [[HunterOfTheirOwnKind Hound]] and {{Tykebomb}}, raised by [[spoiler: Sinister]], a ruthless sociopath. Even after the latter's HeelFaceTurn, their emotional attitudes are still a study in contrasts. |
| 600 | ** Scott and [[spoiler: Gambit, his clone]], are foils to each other and to the above relationship. One is a straightforward, morally-upright and somewhat awkward team player with self-esteem issues. The other is smooth, charming, morally pragmatic loner who's about as straightforward as a pretzel and usually oozes self-confidence [[spoiler:outside of his CloneAngst]]. They're described as "studies in contrast who could use each other for shaving mirrors." |
| 601 | ** Clark to Harry, as [[LampshadeHanging is lampshaded]] in the ''Mirror Image'' arc of the sequel. Harry's [[PsychicPowers powers]] ([[PsychoActivePowers and]] their [[ApocalypseMaiden instability]]) [[TraumaCongaLine combined with his past experiences]] mean he's [[FieryStoic relatively stoic]],[[ConditionedToAcceptHorror and]] [[DissonantSerenity unfazed]] [[ChildSoldiers by]] [[HadToBeSharp anything]] [[FantasticallyIndifferent he encounters]]. He's also [[WiseBeyondTheirYears unusually mature]], [[KnightOfFaith philosophical]], [[PragmaticHero a pragmatist]] and [[LivingWeapon terrifyingly capable in a fight]]. Clark, by contrast, has led a relatively normal life and ChronicHeroSyndrome aside, acts normally for someone his age, with normal priorities and problems, like girl-trouble. He's resourceful, experienced with his powers, but barely able to throw a decent punch, and [[TheCape an idealist]] who is nevertheless reluctant to accept his non-human side. While Harry encourages him to accept his Kryptonian heritage and abilities, and nudges him to grow up a bit and perhaps be a little ProperlyParanoid, he also encourages him to have a normal life and maintain his idealism. |
| 602 | * FollowInMyFootsteps: Most of the dysfunction in the Carter-Rogers-Danvers family comes from here; Alison followed in Peggy's and Steve's footsteps as a LadyOfWar and LivingLegend at SHIELD, and her son, Jack O'Neill, followed in hers (as did his daughter, [[ComicBook/Agent13 Sharon]]), but her daughter, Marie Danvers, didn't (she preferred "making good" to fighting evil). Cue a mother-daughter split that took a while to heal. Then Carol showed every sign of following in her grandmother's footsteps, and her mother's fears (driven by Jack's [[ColdBloodedTorture experiences]] in the Gulf) meant she tried to avert this. Cue another rift, though one that was thankfully bridged before it got too far by Marie [[SoProudOfYou choosing to support and be proud of her daughter]]. |
| 603 | * ForcedTransformation: |
| 604 | ** Not uncommon, but against the White Council's Laws of Magic (in the long-term - a temporary case is indicated to be a grey area), as it eventually results in DeathOfPersonality. |
| 605 | ** The twisted mystical forest now making up the heart of Project Pegasus is composed of trees that all used to be people. [[spoiler: Nimue ends up transforming Carol in the same way.]] |
| 606 | ** [[spoiler: Nimue also turns Peter, Monica, and Gambit into a spider-monkey, eagle, and cat, respectively, but Strange fixes them in short order.]] |
| 607 | * ForgivenButNotForgotten: Harry, eventually, forgives his grandfather Odin for not rescuing him from the Dursleys due to understandable concerns (including not wanting to draw attention to Harry in the first place). However, as he notes, this is not the same as forgetting. |
| 608 | * ForgottenFallenFriend: |
| 609 | ** Averted; Mr. Weasley is still mourned and remembered, and the Weasley family's grief for him fuels Ron, Fred, and George's CharacterDevelopment. Meanwhile, the fact that Bucky is Harry's bodyguard and mentor, his past as the Winter Soldier kept secret, and is thus around Ron in particular almost every day, is repeatedly brought up as something that will be a ''major'' problem when the truth comes out. |
| 610 | ** Luna's death is also remembered, though this is PlayedWith--while she is an active character post-mortem, Harry and Dumbledore don't actually know that. |
| 611 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: [[SignatureStyle By the bucketload, as per freaking usual.]] A significant example is [[spoiler: Maddie's]] powers glowing electric blue-white, and infusing lightning with psychic energy when fighting Harry, which [[spoiler: foreshadows her being deemed Worthy and wielding Mjolnir.]] |
| 612 | ** Carol starts calling Harry "Luke Skywalker" in the finale of ''Child of the Storm'' for his [[AllLovingHero kind]] and [[HumbleHero gentle]] nature, rags to riches story, PsychicPowers, and fighting skills. Pretty much the only thing missing is the lightsaber and the mechanical hand. Come ''Ghosts of the Past,'' [[spoiler: he briefly gains a mechanical arm (albeit on the wrong side), and a glowing sword]]. |
| 613 | ** Harry's fears of losing control and his powers harming others foreshadow first [[spoiler: his becoming the Red Son]] and then [[spoiler: his cutting loose and becoming the Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 614 | *** During ''Forever Red'', he also warns [[spoiler: Maddie]] that the Red Room are only holding him for as long as he allows them, and when he does, his voice takes on a hint of [[spoiler: the Phoenix's echo]]. At the end of the arc, he reveals just what he's been holding back: [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]]. |
| 615 | ** Carol's flippant remark that Harry losing his temper is like "''{{Film/Carrie|1976}}'' as directed by Creator/MichaelBay" at the start of the ''Forever Red'' arc takes on a dark twist at the end when Harry snaps just like the titular Carrie and [[spoiler: becomes the Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 616 | ** On a darker note, Harry's dry remark about being very attached to his arm and liking to think that it's very attached to him in the BreatherEpisode at the museum [[spoiler: comes back to bite him when, as the Red Son, it's blasted off in his fight with Magneto, and is replaced with a Cable style Transmode construct.]] |
| 617 | ** Wanda mentions Zatanna Zatara, a prodigy at combining wandless and wanded magic, and that her parents managed to create a hybridized style of magic before dying in the war against Voldemort. Not long after, Zatanna becomes the new DADA teacher at Hogwarts, and [[spoiler: the deaths of her parents and Constantine's part in it are established as the reason why Wanda hates Constantine.]] |
| 618 | ** Strange mentions being weary and "near the end of the line" a couple of times, and then [[spoiler: appears to die in chapter 29. However, it was faked, so he could do a few things on the quiet]]. That being said, his time is coming closer... |
| 619 | ** Jean briefly reflects that Remy has a striking resemblance to [[spoiler: Scott Summers.]] Fifteen chapters later, she and the audience discover that there's a ''very'' good reason for this. [[spoiler: He's a clone of Scott]]. |
| 620 | ** All the way back to the beginning of ''Child of the Storm'' [[ChekhovsGun (again, as per usual)]], when discussing how Harry had provided a MercyKill to Sally the Basilisk, Loki commented that perhaps they should call him "Harry the Just." Fast-forward to ''Ghosts'', and Harry is discussing the justice or otherwise of another MercyKill, and resolves to bring some justice and mercy to the universe. Looks like Loki was more accurate than even he realised. |
| 621 | * FreakyFridayFlip: Voldemort uses his enhanced psychic powers to make [[spoiler: Carol, Pepper, Diana, Jane, Uhtred, and the Twins]] swap minds, as part of his messing with Harry at the World Cup. Unusually, it's ''not'' PlayedForLaughs and [[PlayedForDrama all the potential horror is played up instead.]] |
| 622 | ** This is a key part of the Corpsetaker's MO. It doesn't save her from Voldemort, a rival who - thanks to his {{Telepathy}} - is not even the slightest bit fooled. |
| 623 | * FreudianTrio: Harry's TheMcCoy to Carol's TheKirk and Jean-Paul's TheSpock. He's also TheMcCoy to his father's TheKirk and his uncle's TheSpock. However, he's TheKirk to Jean's TheMcCoy (usually) and [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel's]] TheSpock. In general, he walks the line between TheKirk and TheMcCoy. |
| 624 | * FriendshipFavoritism: Overlapping with FriendVersusLover below due to the ambiguous nature of Harry and Carol's relationship, Ron worries that he's being displaced by Carol. The implication is that he's both right and wrong. Harry is still very close to Ron, and cherishes his friendship, but thanks to a confluence of factors (not least his desire to keep Ron safe and uninvolved, and having to lie to Ron about Bucky), Carol is now usually [[TheConfidant his chief confidant]]. |
| 625 | * FriendVersusLover: Ron versus Carol over Harry, something complicated by the uncertain nature of Harry and Carol's relationship (EveryoneCanSeeIt, but they're JustFriends because of prior psychological issues [[spoiler: until chapter 46]]), meaning that it overlaps with FriendshipFavoritism. Deconstructed somewhat in that they actually get on rather well, as Ron's main concern is less with Carol taking over his role as Harry's primary [[TheConfidant confidant]] and more that he's LockedOutOfTheLoop since most of Harry's adventures don't take place at Hogwarts anymore, he wants to keep Ron and Hermione out of it for their own safety, and he's fairly reticent at the best of times (Carol, by contrast, is usually involved whether he likes it or not, and has a PsychicLink to work with). |
| 626 | * FullFrontalAssault: Clark in chapter 58, though he's not aware that he's naked. [[VitriolicBestBuds Harry]] proceeds to spend the next few minutes mocking him. |
| 627 | * FullNameUltimatum: Alison uses this on Tony, [[TheGadfly partly to annoy him]], partly to get him to do as she tells him. She later uses it more seriously on her son, General O'Neill, when he tries to leave her LockedOutOfTheLoop - or at the very least, fails to inform her - [[spoiler: regarding the Red Room going after Carol and Harry.]] |
| 628 | ** O'Neill, in turn, pulls one of these on Carol in chapter 17 when she's being shifty about where the dog she got for him (one of Freki/Geri's puppies by one of the royal hunting hounds in Asgard) comes from. |
| 629 | * TheGambler: Gambit, with his card motif that flows into DeathDealer - he makes a dozen Red Room hardcases and [[AxCrazy Yelena Belova]] hesitate just by pulling out a deck of cards. Like his canon counterpart, he's a gambler and TheTrickster, but a much more calculated version. |
| 630 | * GeneralRipper: Lukin is a quieter, milder version of this trope, but all the more terrifying because of it - and he becomes more of a classic example as his MaskOfSanity fades away and he becomes drunk with power. |
| 631 | * GenerationXerox: Alison Carter looks much more like her father than her mother, though she acts much more like the latter than the former. |
| 632 | * GeniusLoci: |
| 633 | ** Belle Reve sanitarium, as a result of the magical experiments performed there. It's not a very powerful one, however, because of its relative newness, and Harry quite firmly puts it in its place with minimal effort. |
| 634 | ** It's noted that while the Forbidden Forest isn't fully sentient, it does have a certain awareness, due to a combination of its age and all the magic that's passed through it. |
| 635 | ** Hogwarts, again, is one of these thanks to a millennium of magic being used regularly throughout it. |
| 636 | * GenreSavvy: |
| 637 | ** By the time of the First Task, Thor is so used to Harry's DoomMagnet status that he fully (and calmly) expects things during the task to go horribly wrong, possibly involving some kind of AncientEvil awakening that Harry's going to have to fight. As it turns out, [[spoiler: he's absolutely right]]. |
| 638 | ** Harry himself easily deduces the First Task on a cursory glance at the location simply from [[SeenItAll prior experience]]. Fleur and Krum are stunned, while Cedric's silently just like "Yes, really. He does this all the time." |
| 639 | * GentlemanWizard: In addition to Strange, Dumbledore, and Lucius from the first book, [[Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]] make a cameo in chapter 7. |
| 640 | * TheGhost: |
| 641 | ** Though mentioned several times, Thanos has, thankfully, not appeared yet. But he's coming... |
| 642 | ** Piotr Rasputin is mentioned in chapter 27 by Magneto, and Alison later expands on his backstory in chapter 36, but so far he's stayed offscreen. |
| 643 | ** Harry's therapist Dani Moonstar, despite being mentioned a few times, has yet to appear in person. |
| 644 | * TheGlomp: |
| 645 | ** Carol gives Harry one after the psychic therapy scene, when they both got a good look at each other's minds and stirred up a lot of emotions. It led to a SleepCute, but nothing more. In chapter 16, he gives her one in return, though this time it's more of a SecurityCling. |
| 646 | ** Jean gives Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]] one after [[spoiler: Harry's cooled down from the Dark Phoenix just after breaking loose of the Red Son programming]], and [[spoiler: Maddie executed her HeelFaceTurn and discovered that she was Jean's SeparatedAtBirth twin sister]], being described as hugging them both so tightly that it almost seems as if she's trying to merge with them. |
| 647 | ** Hermione gives one to Harry following the events of chapter 60. |
| 648 | * GodhoodSeeker: Those after the ''Word of Kemmler'' and the Darkhallow rite within. |
| 649 | * GodzillaThreshold: |
| 650 | ** Wanda, Dresden, and the Wardens, being outnumbered and outclassed by the Kemmlerites, Voldemort, and Selene, call Magneto for help, despite the fact that relations between he and Wanda are touchy at best, and he's TheDreaded amongst the Wardens. |
| 651 | ** Harry threatens that if his plan to rescue [[spoiler: Carol from Dracula]] doesn't work, he'll bring an ultimatum to the Council Elite: Either they resurrect her... or [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] will. Thankfully for everyone involved, it doesn't come to this - especially when [[spoiler: Jesus]] explains the problems with it in chapter 35 (namely, even if it works, these are not beings that take being bullied lightly, hold grudges, and pretty much codified DisproportionateRetribution). |
| 652 | * GoForTheEye: Harry's absolutely vicious tactics against [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm]] primarily consist first of blinding it in one eye, then ruthlessly attacking the wound to get at the brain. |
| 653 | * GoneHorriblyRight: Ivan indicates that this was what happened to the Red Room. At first, it was created as a response to the rising number of superhumans: The Nazis had the Red Skull, Kemmler, Grindelwald, and Tesseract-based technology, and the Western Allies had superhumans like [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Cap]], Blade, Spitfire, Namor, Dumbledore, and Strange (though as Fury noted, the latter is on no side but his own). While the Russian winter proved deadly against mortal enemies, it was not nearly enough to stop superhumans, and so the Red Room and the Winter Guard were formed, including the Winter Soldier. [[OhCrap It was a complete success]]. |
| 654 | * GreenRooming: As per usual with this fic, due to the large cast. One notable example is Clint, who (group Avengers scenes aside) almost never appears between ''Forever Red'' and chapter 69 of ''Ghosts''. |
| 655 | * GrievousHarmWithABody: When confronting his childhood bullies, Dudley's gang, Harry winds up hitting one of them with the nearest thing that came to hand - their leader. |
| 656 | * GuileHero: While Harry's power now means that he can usually rely on a strategy that leaves a trail of destruction visible from space, these tendencies resurface when he's faced with someone more powerful than he is. This is demonstrated with an IndyPloy that involves [[spoiler: getting into a psychic duel with Maddie/Rachel to buy the others time to escape and cause enough psychic upheaval that the Avengers won't possibly be able to miss it, while never directly taking Maddie on in a contest of power and skill because he knew she'd crush him, doing enough to keep her occupied and all the while peppering her with little memory fragments of Jean, confusing her, before eventually having an extended psychic chat with her, all in aid of hopefully getting her to switch sides.]] While it doesn't all pan out as he'd hoped, the vast majority does. Not bad for a plan he made up on the spot. |
| 657 | ** Instead of charging in to rescue Carol, Harry takes the time to contact Xavier and enlist his help against [[spoiler: Dracula]], and he and Bucky rapidly put together plans to counter the latter's own. |
| 658 | * HateSink: The Beast a.k.a. the Blob a.k.a. [[spoiler: Dudley]] lacks any redeeming qualities whatsoever, so it's understandable to root for Harry when he literally [[spoiler: cut him apart during ''Bloody Hell'' after Dudley got turned into a vampire - something which, Harry notes, only changed his diet.]] |
| 659 | * HealTheCutie: Harry is partially broken in the extended finale of the first book - [[spoiler: seeing a friend you've tried to protect get killed and then getting killed yourself will do that]] - before being partially healed. Then, the brutal TraumaCongaLine of the ''Forever Red'' arc drives him to the brink of complete insanity as [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]]. He is talked down by the PowerOfLove, and the rest of the book has him slowly healing with therapy, time, and affection - falling head over heels in reciprocated love with [[spoiler: Carol]] certainly doesn't hurt - going from someone who's barely stable, to a KnightInSourArmour, to a KnightInShiningArmour once more (if a more cynical and pragmatic one than before) who believes that RousseauWasRight (mostly). |
| 660 | * HeartbreakAndIceCream: Steve comforts Carol, [[spoiler: his great-granddaughter,]] with a 'Thor-sized' tub of Rocky Road ice cream after she's upset and angry (enraged, in fact, to the point where she breaks a punching bag and busts her wrist [[WorkingOutTheirEmotions trying to work it out]]) because of what [[spoiler: Yelena Belova]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil did]] to Harry. |
| 661 | * TheHeartless: The entity haunting the Fortress in the Forbidden Forest is the collective fear, anger, and misery of everyone who died there. |
| 662 | * TheHecateSisters: The three leaders of the Norns, Maiden, Mother, and Crone, who respectively see into the past, the present, and the future. |
| 663 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Maddie]] pulls one during ''Forever Red''. |
| 664 | * HegemonicEmpire: Asgard has this in respect to the Nine Realms, albeit with a light touch since they don't actually want or need anything from the rest of the universe. As a result, they only really get involved if someone's mucking around with one of the other Realms, or one of the other Realms is mucking around with another (Jotunheim screwing with Earth led to the Asgard-Frost Giant Wars), with a general policy best summed of 'don't make us come down there'. However, it's also noted that this attitude hasn't been entirely consistent over time, with some periods, like Bor's rule, where Asgard ignored various realms and dominated others, and others hinted at when it ruled a much more conventional (and huge) empire. |
| 665 | * HellBentForLeather: [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] is referred to as 'gorgeous-in-black-leather-trousers' by Jono, wearing tight black trousers and a black leather trench-coat. |
| 666 | * HeManWomanHater: |
| 667 | ** Lukin's not exactly a classic example, though he uses typical misogynistic slurs against [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel and Wanda]] when incensed by the former's HeelFaceTurn. |
| 668 | ** [[spoiler: Dudley a.k.a.]] the Blob, who's noted as being a rapist. |
| 669 | * HeroesPreferSwords: Played With. Almost none of the heroes favour swords, except for the long deceased Arthur Pendragon, and the much longer deceased Frey. However, Harry's shown an increasing affinity for the weapon, and Trelawney's prophecy stipulates 'a Sword of Fire' that waits for his hand. |
| 670 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 671 | ** Harry, after [[spoiler: being forced to MindRape five Death Eaters to protect his friends.]] His dad talks him out of it. |
| 672 | ** Jean is left practically catatonic after [[spoiler: Harry gets recaptured by the Red Room and she learns Maddie is her long-lost twin sister]]. |
| 673 | *** [[spoiler: Maddie]] basically collapses after finding out the same thing, in part because it proves that everything she thought about herself, everything she believed, is a lie. |
| 674 | ** Dresden has one upon finding out the extent to which his life has been shaped and manipulated by Doctor Strange, wondering if he's nothing but a weapon the latter forged. |
| 675 | * HeroicSacrifice: About a million years ago, Frey, the First King of Asgard, made one to [[spoiler: trap Surtur]]. Harry notes that his statue, at the bottom of the Cavern of the Kings (Asgard's royal mausoleum), is unusual in that while most of the statues have the standard expression of noble constipation, Frey instead looks very young and very frightened, like someone who's scared witless by what they're about to do, but has nerved themselves up to do it anyway. |
| 676 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: |
| 677 | ** Harry's still prone to this, like in canon, with the main exception being when he wants to overawe someone. At that point, he'll quite happily remind everyone what he's capable of. As he puts it, "I don't know what you know, or what you ''think'' you know, but it boils down to this: you have limits. ''I don't."'' |
| 678 | ** Ron also tends towards this, with Uhtred disagreeing and pointing out how remarkable some of the things Ron has done (which he's heard about from Harry) are. |
| 679 | * HeroWorshipper: |
| 680 | ** Zatanna is pretty starstruck when she meets Wanda, who remarks that she was the same when she met Agatha Harkness. |
| 681 | ** Harry Dresden alludes to having had a reaction along these lines when he properly met Steve (while they'd met at the Battle of London, they were rather occupied). Steve was, apparently, patient. |
| 682 | * HesJustHiding: Following the initial shock, this is the general reaction, both InUniverse and among the readers, to [[spoiler:Doctor Strange's apparent death]]. |
| 683 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: As in the last book, this is a constant worry about Harry. [[spoiler: A justified one, going by the way he snaps and becomes the freaking Dark Phoenix in chapter 14.]] |
| 684 | ** Strange sadly admits that this has happened with him in his struggles to save the world, especially when facing off with Sinister. |
| 685 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 686 | ** Carol's mother turns out to be much more than the ExtremeDoormat Carol's been making her out to be. |
| 687 | ** In addition, Zatanna Zatara is far more than just a pretty face, as is Cedric Diggory, who's perceptive enough to pull off a basic SherlockScan on Peter Wisdom, a man he's barely met, and a more insightful one on Harry. While he's nowhere near the TropeNamer, he's sharp enough to catch quite a few details and impress Harry, who's currently in one of his {{Jerkass}} moods. |
| 688 | ** While Stevie is TheQuietOne of the Danvers family, he reveals that he has a pretty good idea of what's been going on with Carol, even though he's been LockedOutOfTheLoop. |
| 689 | ** Monica Rambeau is introduced in this book as one of Carol's soccer friends and a ShipperOnDeck for her and Harry, with a penchant for EatingTheEyeCandy. She was briefly mentioned in the first book as a possible candidate for the Young Avengers Initiative. As it turns out, she has [[spoiler: so far mostly unexplored but incredibly potent powers thanks to the Tesseract]]. |
| 690 | * HolyBurnsEvil: |
| 691 | ** The shield Carol was gifted by Odin in the first book's epilogue is capable of burning vampires on contact, due to being god-forged and blessed by Odin. |
| 692 | ** Harry's lingering Phoenix embers in his blood have the same effect, leading to [[spoiler: a partly-turned Peter Parker reluctantly drinking a mug of Harry's blood and successfully burning out the vampirism.]] |
| 693 | * HolyHandGrenade: Even when he's not consciously tapping into it, Harry's Phoenix fragment burns vampires on contact with his blood and gives his fire magic a bit of an edge against evil. [[HolyIsNotSafe And, to be fair, more or less everything else too.]] |
| 694 | * HopeSpot: In chapter 11, [[spoiler: Maddie seems to be steadily gaining a mind of her own, throwing off Essex's control, thinking for herself and moving to protect Harry from the Red Room... then Sinister uses a TriggerPhrase and knocks her out.]] |
| 695 | * HorrifyingTheHorror: Dracula completely freaks out when he scents Phoenix fire (or even [[spoiler: what he thinks is Phoenix fire]]). |
| 696 | ** According to Strange, Frey and his descendants achieved this with [[spoiler: Surtur]]. Having stolen power from one of the Endless themselves, he rampaged through the galaxy, an unstoppable force, before his mighty Great Captains were destroyed and he himself was defeated and bound for a million years. |
| 697 | * HotBlooded: This is pretty much the hat of the House of Odin thanks to the Warrior's Madness, and also, it would seem, the Evans-Grey family. Harry, being a scion of both, gets a double-dose. |
| 698 | ** Uhtred and Diana both are this trope - like Harry, Diana has a double dose from her parents, though she usually controls it better. |
| 699 | * HotWings: A textbook result of Phoenixes, Light or Dark, tapping into their powers. |
| 700 | * {{Housewife}}: Carol thinks of her mother as the ExtremeDoormat variant and her father as a StepfordSmiler version of the StandardFiftiesFather, describing them as such. While she's dead right about her father, as Harry realises as soon as they meet, her mother is a considerably more nuanced case (and much more like Carol than she wants to admit). Her RefusalOfTheCall was driven by a desire to "make good", not fight evil, plus her own [[LadyOfWar mother]]'s ParentalNeglect, and cemented by [[ColdBloodedTorture what happened to her brother, Jack]]. This drives her worries of what Carol might be getting into. Though she ultimately avoids making her mother's mistakes, explains why she was afraid, and [[SoProudOfYou accepts her daughter's choice and is proud of her]]. She also clicks to what her husband is becoming after finding out [[MindRape what he was willing to do]] to Carol to get her to be a ProperLady and [[MamaBear effectively kicks him out]] while her [[NeverMessWithGranny mother]] arranges for him to be KickedUpstairs and out of state (and per Alison, her daughter would have done much worse if she'd found out directly). |
| 701 | * HumanoidAbomination: The Dark Phoenix -- it causes global scale nightmares, makes animals howl from hundreds of miles away, and leaves ''the entire planet'' feeling as if someone had just walked across their grave. And that's when it's still basically a ''fledgling'', its power still growing, with it being pointed out that the fully fledged Dark Phoenix would be much, much worse. Which makes it even more unsettling to realise that [[spoiler: it's Harry.]] |
| 702 | ** The [[spoiler: Fire Giants, of whom Surtur is the leader,]] are said to be this. |
| 703 | * HumanSubSpecies: In addition to the ones already established in ''Child of the Storm'' (mutants, magicals, Eternals, and Deviants), it's revealed that [[TheFairFolk the Fae]] were originally human -- or at least, a prehistoric human relative -- before they migrated to the Nevernever hundreds of thousands of years ago and adapted to it, with Frigga remarking that where magical humans learned to use magic, the proto-Fae ''became'' magic. Under the circumstances, this explains a ''lot.'' |
| 704 | ** Also, mention is made of the Comicbook/{{Inhumans}}, who're a variation on mutants. And it's later established that the [[Series/StargateSG1 Jaffa]] also exist, and like the Inhumans are a sub-race created by the Kree as a warrior caste. |
| 705 | * HunterOfHerOwnKind: [[spoiler: Maddie,]] pre-HeelFaceTurn, as she's a CompositeCharacter of famous canon example [[spoiler: Rachel Grey.]] |
| 706 | * HurricaneOfPuns: The list of streets off Diagon Alley -- the canonical Knockturn Alley, Internation Alley (embassies, foreign businesses and travel agents), Theatric Alley (magic West End/Broadway), Alchemic Alley (alchemists), Aesthetic Alley (jewellers and clothes shops), and Gastronomic Alley (food district). The terrible nature of these puns is lampshaded by Carol: [[DeadpanSnarker "Well. So much for the famous British sense of humour, then."]] |
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