Line #26 Literature/Insignia


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11115434.jpg]]
2
3	Insignia is a science-fiction Young Adult trilogy by S.J. Kincaid.
4
5	The planet's natural resources are almost gone, and war is being fought to control the assets of the solar system. The enemy is winning. The salvation may be Tom Raines. Tom doesn't seem like a hero. He's a short fourteen-year-old with bad skin. But he has the virtual-reality gaming skills that make him a phenom behind the controls of the battle drones.
6
7	As a new member of the Intrasolar Forces, Tom's life completely changes. Suddenly, he's someone important. He has new opportunities, friends, and a shot at having a girlfriend. But there's a price to pay. . . .
8
9	!The Series Include:
10
11	* ''Insignia'' (#1) (2012)
12	* ''Allies'' (#1.5) (2013)
13	* ''Vortex'' (#2) (2013)
14	* ''Catalyst'' (#3) (2015)
15
16
17	!The Insignia Trilogy contains examples of:
18
19	* TheAce: The majority of the trilogy's heroes are teen geniuses with some impressive achievements.
20	** Tom might often act {{book dumb}}, [[spoiler: but he has a potential to become a skilled space combatant and similarily to Medusa he is a {{technopath}}.]]
21	* ActionGirl: Medusa, Wyatt and Heather are all capable pilots.
22	* AllTheOtherReindeer: Nigel Harrison, a loner who is mocked by his peers due to his unusual [[CharacterTics tics]]. [[spoiler: This is the reason why he later leaks information on [=CamCos=] combatants, betrays Tom and [[FaceHeelTurn tries to blow up the Pentagonal Spire with the spaceship he's controlling]].]]
23	* AmazonChaser: Tom seems to be this; Medusa's fighting skills impress him so much that he pursues to get to know her personally.
24	* AmbitionIsEvil: Heather wants to become the most famous Cam-Cos member. This leads her to betray Wyatt, leak information on her colleagues and blackmail Tom to help her win Capitol Summit by backstabbing Medusa.
25	* AntiHero: Tom Raines is an undeniably good person, despite the fact that he's arrogant, constantly gets into conflicts and [[spoiler: wins a space duel with Medusa by hacking cameras and publically exposing her disfigured face.]]
26	* AssholeVictim: Heather Akron in ''Vortex''.[[spoiler: [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Her plan to blackmail Tom into helping her win her Capitol Summit fight with Medusa ends with her career being destroyed, losing sponsorship and then being murdured by Blackburn in order to keep Tom's secret away from Vengerov]].]]
27	* BetaCouple: Wyatt Enslow and Yuri Sysevich. [[spoiler:Even though Yuri was unwittingly made Vengerov's spy]], unlike Tom and Medusa they aren't fighting for two opposing sides of an international war and are allowed to meet without being charged for treason.
28	* BettyAndVeronica: Medusa (Veronica) and Heather Akron (Betty) to Tom's Archie. While both Medusa and Heather are [[ActionGirl action girls]], Medusa is a more dangerous option due to being a [[LivingLegend world famous space combatant]] fighting for the opposing side [[DatingCatwoman in the international conflict]].
29	** BettyAndVeronicaSwitch: [[spoiler:In "Vortex" Heather turns out to be a {{romantic false lead}}; moreover, she threatens him with revealing his secret abilities to the corporations if he won't help her win the Capitol Summit. Medusa, on the other hand, is loyal despite the fact that he's American and she's Russo-Chinese.]]
30	* BigBad: While in Tom's perception the members of the Russian-Chinese alliance are the bad guys, the background information states that the galactic war is in fact between different corporations who fight over Earth's resources, and are not only responsible for the current war, but also for famine and genocide.
31	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:The moment Medusa rescues Tom, Wyatt and Vik from Obsidian Corp.'s headquaters on Antarctica.]]
32	* BlackAndGreyMorality: Lampshaded. [[spoiler:Lieutenant Blackburn goes so far as to kill a teenage girl to preserve his chance at revenge, but also eventually brings about the downfall of a corrupt oligarchy.]]
33	* BitterSweetEnding
34	** A downplayed example when it comes to Insignia; [[spoiler:Tom is able to stay in the Spire after winning a duel with Medusa and alongside [[TrueCompanions Wyatt, Vik and Yuri]], he is promoted. The only thing is that in order to win, he publicly exposed [[CoveredInScars her]] [[FacialHorror face]].]]
35	** In ''[[DarkerAndEdgier Vortex]]''. [[spoiler:Tom, Wyatt and Vik manage to escape from Obsidian Corp. with Medusa's help and destroy the transmitter. Yuri gets a new neural processor and fully recovers. However, Vengerov knows that someone can interface with his system.Tom is subsequently forced to pretend to go along with his wishes incapacitating Medusa with a virus in order to remove suspicion that she's the mysterious ghost in the machine.]]
36	* BrainyBrunette: Wyatt Enslow, who's extremely skilled when it comes to compute programming.
37	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Yuri Sysevish; when his friends find out Vengerov has been doing some spying in the Pentagonal Spire using Yuri as an unwitting pawn, Obsidian Corp. [[MindControl takes control of him]].]]
38	* BrokenAce: While Medusa is (next to Tom) one of the most talented fighters in the series, but appears [[BrokenBird quite broken]] due to the [[spoiler: extensive burn scars she has]].
39	* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler:In ''Vortex'' Blackburn throws Heather down a vactube. Tom is well aware how she will die]].
40	* CharacterDevelopment
41	** In ''Vortex'' Elliot willingly defects from military and freely expresses his rather critical opinion about the corrupt corporations.
42	** Tom, especially at the end of ''Vortex''. He becomes less defiant, arrogant and even [[spoiler:pretends to work with Vengerov in order to save Medusa.]]
43	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In "Insignia" Heather is merely a member of the Camelot Company who Tom has a crush on, and affably evil at worst. Future installments expand on her personality; [[spoiler:''Allies'' reveals her former friendship with Wyatt, whom she wanted to use for personal benefit. In Vortex Heather leaks humiliating information on her Cam-Cos colleagues to degrade their public image, bullies Wyatt, proceeds to blackmail Tom into helping her win the Capitol Summit by incapacitating Medusa and after refusing to have her memory modified, she is killed by Blackburn so that Tom's secret ability can be safe from Vengerov.]]
44	* ChildSoldiers: Elliot, Karl, Heather and other members from Cam Cos, as well as their Russo-Chinese counterparts who fight space battles are teenagers. Justified, since electronical devices can be installed only in children and teenagers - adults either die or similarily to Blackburn become [[SanitySlippage mentally unstable]].
45	* CoolOldGuy: Marsh.
46	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Vortex'' takes a significantly darker tone than the [[LighterAndSofter cheerful, light-hearted ''Insignia'']].
47	* DatingCatwoman: Tom and Medusa in ''Insignia''; they meet through the internet, fight online and are genuinely friendly to each other despite fighting on two opposing sides of the international war.
48	* DefiantToTheEnd: One of Tom's defining traits.
49	-->"Those are some of the most powerful people in the world, and you swamped them in sewage!"
50	* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Well, Heather isn't as villainous as Vengerov, but being thrown down a vacuum train tube fits this trope to a tee.]]
51	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Well, Blackburn is more of a {{good is not nice}} variant, however, he does save Tom's life and even though he knows that Yuri has Vengerov's transmitter in his brain, he won't take it out knowing that this would likely end up killing the kid. Vengerov on the other hand fries his brain, keeping his promise to remove Yuri's neural processor from the Spire.
52	* EvilVersusEvil: The multinational corporations that form the two alliances. Both are corrupt oligarchies, compete over power and install neural processors in [[ChildSoldier kids]] which they use to fight space battles.
53	* FacialHorror: [[spoiler: The reason why Medusa doesn't want to reveal herself to Tom, is because half of her face is {{covered with scars}} from a fire.]]
54	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: [[HotBlooded Tom Raines]] (choleric), [[ThePollyanna Vik Ashwan]] (sanguine), [[BrainyBrunette Wyatt Enslow]] (melancholic) and [[NiceGuy Yuri]] [[GentleGiant Sysevich]] (phlegmatic).
55	* FriendlessBackground: Implied that prior to the series Tom didn't have any friends his own age.
56	* GrewASpine: Elliot initially was obedient regarding the military's orders; only later he claimed to have destroyed the skyboards (something Tom was responsible for) and publicly criticised the multinational corporations.
57	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Tom and Vik.
58	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Heather's plan of blackmailing Tom ends with her career being destroyed, losing sponsorship and a looming danger of being reprogrammed like [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorld Nigel Harrison]]. As she later attempts to get away from the Spire without her memory being modified, she is killed by Blackburn.]]
59	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: OneWordTitle: ''Insignia'', ''Allies'', ''Vortex'', ''Catalyst''
60	* KidHero: The majority of the main characters are teenagers ranging from 14 up to 17.
61	* LikeFatherLikeSon: Neil can be as stubborn and reckless as his son.
62	* MeaningfulName: Multiple:
63	** Medusa's alias [[spoiler: seems to allude to her [[FacialHorror facial]] [[CoveredInScars disfigurement]].]]
64	** As it turns out, this is also the case of [[FauxAffablyEvil Heather's]] call sign, "Enigma". [[spoiler:As revealed in ''Vortex'' [[AffablyEvil she only appears harmless]], [[AmbitionIsEvil uses people for personal benefit]] and has no problem with [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder with stabbing them in the back]] if that would improve her career.]]
65	* MindRape: A constant looming threat for anyone with a neural processor. [[spoiler: Happens to Tom several times throughout the books.]]
66	* MissingMom: Tom's estranged mother who abandoned him and his father prior to the series. The reason for this is that [[spoiler: she was given a neural processor and her personality was wiped.]]
67	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Wyatt unscrambles Yuri's filtering program, unwittingly allowing Vengerov to spy in the Pentagonal Spire through a transmitter installed in Yuri's brain.]]
68	* OfficialCouple
69	** [[BrainyBrunette Wyatt]] and [[GentleGiant Yuri]].
70	** [[DatingCatwoman Tom and Medusa]]. In ''Insignia'' [[BigDamnKiss they share a kiss]] and as of ''Vortex'' [[spoiler:Tom is willing to pretend to cooperate with Vengerov in order to keep her secret safe.]]
71	* ParentalSubstitute: Blackburn is mplied to act one towards Wyatt as her mentor. He even remarks that Wyatt doesn't have much support from her parents and that she reminds him what it was like to be a father. [[spoiler: It's sort of a {{tear jerker}} knowing that he accidentally killed his own kids after having a neural processor installed in his brain.]]
72	* PetTheDog: Blackburn in ''Vortex'' is a lot kinder than in the previous book; he saves Tom's life, comforts him and helps him, Wyatt and Vik to [[spoiler: take down a {{brainwashed and crazy}} Yuri.]]
73	* SanitySlippage: Blackburn has one halfway through the first book. [[spoiler: When he discovers Tom can mentally "hack" computer systems, he performs {{mind rape}} on him to find out more about it.]]
74	* ShipTease: Heather and Medusa are both Tom's potential love interests.
75	* SleazyPolitician: The Wyndham Harks executives control the American government, transforming it into a corrupt oligarchy.
76	* StarCrossedLovers: [[DatingCatwoman Tom and Medusa]], definitely. They fight for two sides of an international conflict and have met only on-line, due to living in the U.S and China respectively, at the same time risking a charge for treason.
77	* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Tom usually fullfills the role of the Wise Guy to Elliot and Medusa's voices of reason.
78	* TemptingFate: Tom's speciality; he's impulsive and doesn't shy away from recklessly sneering at his opponents. Even if they're called [[SadistTeacher James]] [[SanitySlippage Blackburn]].
79	* {{Technopath}}: [[spoiler: A unique ability shared by Tom and Medusa.]]
80	* TrueCompanions: Tom, Vik, Yuri and Wyatt become good friends throughout the first book.
81	* WeUsedToBeFriends: ''Allies'' reveal that before Heather joined Camelot Company, she used to be friends with Wyatt. Only as it turned out, Heather's ambitions [[AmbitionIsEvil were more important to her]].
82	--> Wyatt stared at her. “You only sit with me now when you want something.”
83	--> She stung with the realization. “You dont want to be my friend; you just want me to do stuff for you.”
84	--> Heather rolled her eyes, her lips curling. “Oh my ''God'', that’s so pathetic. Are you this out of touch with the way people work?”

Context Literature / Insignia