A Series of Unfortunate Events: Difference between revisions

After their parents die in a fire at the family mansion, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are left in the care of Count Olaf, a sinister distant relative who wants his hands on the Baudelaire family fortune, which Violet will inherit when she turns 18.

 

 

[[Lemony Narrator|Lemony]] Snicket [[Narrator|narrates]] throughout, providing commentary, anecdotes, and advice - usually against reading any more of his history of the Baudelaire orphans.

* [[Snicket Warning Label]]

 

 

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Not parents, strictly speaking, but many guardians are thoroughly unsuitable. Count Olaf worst of all.

* [[And Now You Must Marry Me]]: Olaf tries to force Violet to marry him in Book the First, despite being her legal guardian. The creepiness of this is actually played up, culminating in the [[Crosses the Line Twice|hilarious and horrifying]] line "You may not be my wife, but you are still my daughter, and--"

* [[Anti Love Song]]: Several of The Gothic Archies' accompanying songs on the audiobooks and ''The Tragic Treasury'', including ''Smile!'', ''Shipwrecked'' and ''Walking My Gargoyle''.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]

* [[Apathetic Citizens]]: Most of society is unwilling and/or unable to fight injustice, and many would prefer to [[Pass the Popcorn|gawk at violence for entertainment]] than attempt to stop it, unless [[Hypocritical Humor|it actually threatens them]].

** There are also some actual [[Arc Words]], especially in the later books and in the "supplementary materials." For example, "The world is quiet here."

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: ''Count'' Olaf, anyone?

** ''The Hostile Hospital'' the Baudelaires are accused of being "murderers, arsonists, and spurious doctors.".

** The back covers list five or more of the "unfortunate events" found within, generally 2 or 3 serious ones and then something quite harmless -- or at least that sounds that way.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: some of Sunny's comments, such as her arigato in the Slippery Slope, or her saying Aubergine to mean that she is making a plot with this eggplant. Others are a mishmash of English ("Kicbucit?" for "Is he dead?") and a couple are plain old Hebrew ("Yomhuledet!" which is translated as "Surprise" but literally means "birthday" and "Yomhashoah" which is translated as "Never again" but literally means "Holocaust Memorial Day"). The children also make pasta Puttanesca, an Italian dish translating as "whore's sauce."

* [[A Birthday Not a Break|A Birthday, Not A Break]]: Klaus spends his thirteenth in a jail cell.

* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]: The narrator and his comrades imply that V.F.D. dates back to [[Ancient Greece]], that Martin Luther King, Edith Wharton, and Thomas Malthus were involved with it -- although Malthus was on the evil side of the schism -- and that Shakespeare may be alive. However, these may be the result of revisionism in accordance with V.F.D.'s own views.

* [[Belated Backstory]]: [[Department of Redundancy Department|Although it takes a while,]] this is exactly what happens to Fernald.

* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: Klaus in Book the Fourth; he even appears to have [[Mind Control Eyes]] on the cover.

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: Some members of V.F.D.

* [[Bus Crash]]: {{spoiler|Hector; the Quagmire triplets; Captain Widdershins; Fernald; Fiona, in some interpretations: the human race.}} ''Maybe.''

* [[But Not Too Evil]]

** Actually, subverted pretty harshly. Even though this is a children's book series, Count Olaf and the other villains do some absolutely heinous things like {{spoiler|burning down a hospital in an attempt to kill a group of children. Even though they fail in killing the children, they likely succeed in killing everyone else}}. Some of them could hold their own against the villains in a [[Stephen King]] novel.

* [[Clark Kenting]]: Numerous characters at various points, with the minor characters being better at it than the main ones.

* [[Common Meter]]: "The Little Snicket Lad"

* [[Contemptible Cover]]: Many non-English-language covers are awful and do the series no justice.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Tons of these, especially in "An Unauthorized Biography". [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in "The End"

* [[Convection Schmonvection]]: {{spoiler|Well, technically "Radiation Schmadiation." In the [[Film of the Book]], Klaus uses Olaf's sunlight-refracting weapon to incinerate the wedding contract. The ''instant'' the sunlight hits the paper, it catches on fire. That means the thing was heated to about 400 degrees Farenheit just like ''that.'' Never mind the fact that Klaus [[Improbable Aiming Skills|perfectly lined up the device]] to hit such a small target, how come Olaf's hand didn't get singed? Or, you know, the stage didn't catch fire? There should at least have been ''smoke,'' considering how easily the paper went up.}}

* [[Cool Car]]: The Tatra 603 and 1959 Chrysler Imperial in [[The Film of the Book]].

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Closer to this than [[Corrupt Hick]] is Sir, the amoral, cigar-smoking lumbermill owner who pays his workers in coupons and gives them gum for lunch; in a later appearance, business is bad, as nearby lumber source the Finite Forest is running out of trees.

* [[Deus Angst Machina]]: Pretty much the point of the series.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] in Book the Seventh.

* [[Distant Finale]]: Seven-thirteenths of ''The Beatrice Letters''. Ostensibly they're just supplementary reading, but there's no such thing as "optional," is there?

* [[Don't Try This At Home]]: In Book the Second, Snicket tells the reader to "never ever ever" do something, and the "ever"s continue for [[Overly Long Gag|two whole pages]].

* [[Every Episode Ending]]: Every book ends with exactly the same formula: There's a full-page picture containing a clue to the plot of the next book; comical bios for the author and illustrator, with a [[Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation|obscured picture]] of the former and a themed illustration of the latter; and a letter from Lemony Snicket to his editor explaining where to pick up the manuscript for the next book, along with several items related to it.

* [[Everyone Went to School Together]]: Quite a few characters went to school together, but this is somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that they were all members of a secret organisation and this was their training; also, several of these characters are [[The Ghost]].

* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: Fiona, when joining Olaf's side, exchanges a uniform with a portrait of Herman Melville for one with a portrait of notoriously bad poet Edgar Guest.

* [[Evil Laugh]]: Olaf's actually indicates [[Character Development]]

* [[External Retcon]]: In explaining the difference between "denouement" and "end", Snicket "reveals" the [[Distant Finale|distant endings]] of several [[Fairy Tale|Fairy Tales]], involving the rather non-fantastical deaths of the heroes.

* [[Faceless Eye]]: One of the distinguishing marks of the series.

** Bonus points for giving it its own opening credits, and then not even putting the real title on the screen afterwards. It only appears in the end credits.

* [[Fauxreigner]]: Gunther and Lulu, who are indefinitely foreign {{spoiler|because it's actually a disguise}}.

* [[Glove Snap]]: Jim Carrey's Count Olaf does this in his herpetologist disguise.

* [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress]]: [[Discussed Trope|Plays out in dialogue]] -- and thus ends up [[Averted Trope|averted]] -- in Book the Twelfth: "I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies."

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Or rather, Hannibal Gloat, in the movie. Olaf reveals to the audience that he has just legally married Violet and played everyone for a sap. When Mr. Poe demands that the Chief of Police arrest him, Olaf calls Poe and everyone out on how the kids had repeatedly tried to warn the adults and asked for help, but they wouldn't listen to them. "No one ever listens to children".

* [[Henpecked Husband]]: Jerome Squalor. And how.

* [[Hitler Ate Sugar]]: Played with, a few times. (Only a villainous person places his cup on the table without using a coaster or enjoys the works of Edgar Guest.)

* [[Hoist By His Own Petard]]: {{spoiler|Count Olaf dies of a wound he sustained from having his own harpoon gun fired at him by Ishmael.}}

* [[Hostage for McGuffin]]: A [[Subverted Trope]]: in Book the Tenth, where for once it's proposed by the heroes, neither they nor the villain are capable of carrying out their side of the bargain.

* [[How Do You Like Them Apples]]: ''The End''.

* [[In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It]]: [[The Film of the Book]] is titled ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'', perhaps to emphasize the [[Lemony Narrator]].

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Violet and Klaus, [[Sarcasm Mode|obviously]]. The [[Film of the Book]] actually ''does'' sport a bit of chemistry though.

* [[Incurable Cough of Death]]: Subverted. Mr. Poe's cough is his defining character quirk (other than being woefully incompetent), and serves only to show what a weak and annoying person he is rather than mark him for death.

** Not to mention the connection to his name and [[Easter Egg|Edgar Allen Poe's association with tuberculosis]]

* [[Kick the Son of A Bitch]]: When Count Olaf violently pushes Carmelita Spats to the ground.

* [[Kill All Humans]]: While not particularly harmful, the insects called snow gnats sting humans just for the fun of it.

* [[Kissing Discretion Shot]]: A very rare literary version. In ''The Slippery Slope'', it's extremely obvious that there is some chemistry between {{spoiler|Violet and Quigley}}, but the moment the two get alone and one starts with the [[Longing Look|Longing Looks]], Snicket goes off on one of [[Lemony Narrator|his signature spiels]] about how since the series started {{spoiler|Violet}} has had little to no privacy, and that he will take this chance to give them a little. [[Ship Tease|The readers were not amused.]]

* [[Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone]]: Snicket does this to the readers in ''The Slippery Slope.''

* [[Lemony Narrator]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

** Hell, re-reading the entire series, along with all the [[Red Herring|Red Herrings,]] [[Red Herring Twist|twists on such]], [[Paranoia Fuel]], and the fact that ''every single thing in the series could be a clue toward an ending'' (or not) Can turn even the [[Viewers Are Geniuses|smartest and most critical thinking readers]] on their heads in absolute confusion.

* [[Mister Seahorse]]: Sent up in ''The End'', where Count Olaf tries to disguise himself as a pregnant woman. The [[Lemony Narrator]] states that "pregnancy occurs very rarely in males," noting actual seahorses as an exception.

* [[Mysterious Past]]: Nearly every character has a mysterious past, and none are ever fully revealed. For example, Emse reveals that Beatrice stole the sugar bowl, but Lemony later states that he was involved too. Just ''HOW'' he was involved, we do not know.

* [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: Tons and tons of characters. A few examples: the main characters are named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Baudelaire Baudelaire]; their banker is named [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe Poe]. See also [[Odd Name Out]], below.

** Open any of the books, turn to a page, read one of Snicket's monologues. Guaranteed you'll find at at least one.

* [[Not So Different]]: Attempted -- or perhaps spoofed -- with the Baudelaires and Olaf from Book the Eighth onward.

* [[Number of the Beast]]: Close: 667 Dark Avenue, with its sixty-six floors.

* [[Numerological Motif]]: Canon, text, paratexts ... the number thirteen is everywhere. It was once the number of search results for this page on the wiki.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_and_Ernest_<!-- 28comic_strip29 Frank, Ernest]], and Dewey Denouement. -->

** While the names of the first 12 books are alliterative, the last book is simply called "The End."

* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: V.F.D.

* [[Onion Tears]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[The End]]''.

* [[On the Next]]: Lemony's letters to his Kind Editor, which include the title of the next book and a few random details from it. As the series goes on, these letters become increasingly obscured, such as by tearing and water-stains, and so the information is increasingly elusive. In the case of the eleventh book, only half the title was known; the twelfth book's title was completely lost; the letter about the thirteenth book was just a single sentence written on a napkin -- with the title included, but nobody realized at the time as it deviated from the usual [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|title pattern]].

* [[Painting the Medium]]: In ''The Ersatz Elevator'', the three children are {{spoiler|thrown down an elevator shaft}}, and rather than try to describe it, Lemony just prints two pages solid black.

** In the eighth, ninth, and twelfth books, the Baudelaires get disguises of their own. Their disguises in the eighth book are particularly ridiculous: thirteen year old Klaus and baby Sunny just don face masks and ill-fitting doctor uniforms and are mistaken as the pale-faced women, ''by the women's own cohorts''! In the ninth book, their disguises are a bit less paper thin, but Count Olaf still probably should have recognized them since he's been following them so long (though he does mention that they look familiar).

** Subverted with Olaf's henchmen. When one of them is in disguise, the Baudelaires "meet" them before Olaf, and never recognize them.

* [[Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation]]: Lemony Snicket never shows his face in photographs, but there are several possible explanations for why this is, and most such photographs are only seen by the audience in his author bio rather than by the characters. The nearest thing we get to an actual image of him is the elusive taxi driver, which is rumoured, and hinted in the series, to actually be him.

* [[Plot Tailored to The Party]]: In every book the children are in situations that require inventing skills, research skills, and sharp teeth (or cooking, from the 10th book on); also true to some degree of the Quagmire triplets, although Duncan's journalism interest is rarely useful.

{{quote| Count Olaf/Stefano: Get in the damn jeep!}}

** This has actually gotten some controversy over being in a children's book series. [[Word of God]] says this was meant to have him [[Kick the Dog]].

* [[Scenery Porn]]: All other scenery in the above.

* [[Scrapbook Story]]: ''[[Lemony Snicket the Unauthorized Autobiography|The Unauthorized Autobiography]]'' and ''The Beatrice Letters''.

* [[Self Induced Allergic Reaction]]: The Baudelaire siblings eat peppermints so they have an excuse to escape from dinner and decode a secret message.

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Often seen in books which Klaus has to read because only he can make sense of them.

* [[Something They Would Never Say]]

* [[Snicket Warning Label]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Spy Speak]]: V.F.D., being a secret organisation, naturally uses copious quantities of this, so much so that there have been disputes among readers over whether certain phrases are in code or not.

{{quote| "The world is quiet here."<br />

* [[Totem Pole Trench]]: An interesting variant: Violet and Klaus put on the same oversized outfit to disguise themselves as a two-headed person.

* [[Torches and Pitchforks]]: Well, torches anyway. In ''The Vile Village'', the townspeople go after the Beaudelaires this way when the children are accused of murder.

* [[Trigger Phrase]]: "Lucky!" "Inordinate!"

* [[The Trope Without a Title]]: The white-faced women, the man with a beard but no hair ... pretty much any accomplice of Olaf's.

* [[Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness]]: Olaf's poor hygiene and dirty house, played up even more in [[The Movie]]-- there are not only roaches and rats in the kitchen, but bats living in the cupboards.

* [[The Unintelligible]]: Sunny (whose speech is a mixture of [[Speaking Simlish|gibberish]], semi-relevant words and phrases (some of them [[Shout Out|literary or cultural allusions]]), and sentence fragments), though her older siblings can understand her.

* [[The Unpronounceable]]: Sir's real name -- which is why he makes people call him Sir.

** In the illustration at the end of the book, we can kind-of see the back of his head, so he may be bald.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: On two occasions, flustered or frightened characters blaspheme the names of divine entities from about five different religions, concluding with "Charles Darwin!" or "Nathaniel Hawthorne!"

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: A mild example: Ishmael's [[Dystopia|Dystopic]] [[Utopia]] on a [[Deserted Island]] suppresses its inhabitants via peer pressure, technological deprivation and druggings.

* [[Verbal Tic]] ([[Fauxreigner|Fauxreigners]] "Gunther" and "Madame Lulu" say "please" in almost every sentence.

* [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]

* [[The Walrus Was Paul]]: Let's face it, the entire series was a deliberate [[Mind Screw]].

* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: Sort of. The children are more like weirdness iron filings, drawn to bizarre people and places. On the other hand, that might just be because there aren't any normal people in Snicketland.

* [[We Sell Everything]]: Last Chance General Store.

** In the first book an assistant of Olaf's is mentioned who has warts all over his face. We never hear of him again.

** Complicated further in [[The Film of the Book]], which mixes American and British accents.

** If examined closely, the package the children receive at the end of the film is postmarked to Boston. The film is of course, non-canon, and even if Boston were the location, it'd be a highly fictionalized version of the city.

** The movie and an offhand line in a later book [[Justified Trope|justify]] some of her fears.

* [[Word of Gay]]: Sir and Charles, in a very brilliantly downplayed example. In The Miserable Mill, we are led to believe that they are simply business partners with an extremely lopsided distribution of power, with Charles being too meek to put his foot down to the more domineering Sir's cruel actions. They show up again in The Penultimate Peril, and the conversation the Baudelaires overhear is a lot more tender, with Charles timidly telling Sir that he cares about him, and trying to get Sir to reciprocate. When the hotel burns down, they're holding hands "so they don't lose each other in the blinding smoke". Then this (paraphrased) line from one of Lemony Snicket's love letters in ''The Beatrice Letters'' seals the deal: "I will love [Beatrice] until C realizes that S is unworthy of his love."

** Sir also likes the smell of [[Double Entendre|hot wood]].

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:A Series Of Unfortunate Events]]