Anita Blake: Difference between revisions

** Jason Schulyer has received considerable amounts of development. He starts out as a [[Handsome Lech]] and somewhat of a [[Jerkass]] but as the series continues, he matures and actually becomes a responsible, reliable friend/lover to Anita all while still being genuinely funny and charming.

* [[Chaste Hero]]: Anita, until "The Killing Dance." Then after "Blue Moon" she was having sex with both Jean-Claude and Richard. After that it was [[Unwanted Harem|no longer]] [[Horny Devils|that way]].

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Looking through the books, it is ''very'' rare to find one that ends with Jean-Claude worse off than he started, and whenever we find out one of his goals, he achieves them. Including Anita.

* [[Contemptible Cover]]:

** The early ones, in which the books were actually about murders, necromancy, supernatural politics and so on. Later, of course, the covers became a perfectly accurate forecast of their content.

* [[Deus Sex Machina]]: in later books it's used and abused to no end

* [[Double Standard]]: Anita can have sex with just about anyone to slake the ardeur, but none of the men can have sex with each other, only Anita. This is later changed due to Anita's [[Suddenly Sexuality|sudden bisexual]] feelings and she enjoys watching all the guys in her harem get it on with each other while she watches and has one of them servicing her as well.

* [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]]: Micah, Nathaniel and Jean-Claude, among others.

* [[The Eighties]]: The earlier books are set there. As of ''Bullet'', it's modern day.

* [[Fashion Dissonance]]: Most vampires dress in what has been aptly described as "Ren Faire porn" and Anita herself thinks it is still [[The Eighties]].

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: A lot of people hate vampires and weres because of what they are and their extensive magical powers, and frequently they are drummed out of their jobs in a subtle manner if they are "outed." In fact, every "normal" human pretty much is either a vampire groupie or a slobbering KKK-style racist (main characters excluded). Though they would, of course, be the loudest.

** In ''Blue Moon'', A [[Mook|vampire flunky]] delivers a pinky finger to Anita as notification that Richard's family has been abducted.

** In ''Bullet'', A severed head is delivered to Anita's office at Animators Inc.

* [[I Love You, Vampire Son]]: Has Belle Morte turned you? Congratulations.

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: Books are frequently named after businesses in the universe.

* [[IKEA Erotica]]

* [[I Love You Because I Can't Control You]]: Jean-Claude says essentially those exact words to Anita.

* [[Mutilation Interrogation]]

* [[My Girl Is a Slut]]: Anita, after "Narcissus In Chains." In fact, if Anita goes for a few pages without sex, her boyfriends start [[Incredibly Lame Pun|chastising]] her and reminding her to let more guys bang her. In fact, saying no is now verboten. If she tries to insist that she doesn't want to have sex with X, Y or Z, then the guys start telling her that she's ruining their lives and must have sex with them to ensure their happiness. The whole risking-death of herself and other people may have something to do with it.

* [[One of the Boys]]: Particularly early Anita, aggressively so--so much so that it might reveal some troubling [[Author Avatar]] issues. One apt reader points out how Anita's gun is like a substitute penis. I.e, the only way she feels she can ever get respect is by having it with her at all times. She also insists that no one call her "girl" or "ma'am" and is actually ''happy'' when someone calls her a guy or a "son of a bitch." To even begin unpeeling the problems with this mentality would take years.

* [[One-Hour Work Week]]: After Jumping the Shark, Anita almost never goes to work at her supposed job at Animators, Inc. In the books prior to "Narcissus in Chains," she regularly went to work and got in fights with her mostly unethical boss Burt, but after [[Ni C]], she pretty much just shows up once in a blue moon to argue with potential clients. In true form with the trope, we're told her zombie raising skills earn her bucket loads of cash so that's why she never has any money problems.

* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: There are ''many'' different kinds of werebeasts in this book. In addition to [[Werewolves]], there are wereleopards, werelions, weretigers (including blue, red and black tigers in the last book), at least three weredogs (their abilities are inherited not infection), weresnakes (at lest 2 species cobra and anaconda), swanmen (some are cursed others inherit their abilities like the weredogs), wererats, werebears, and werehyenas.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Do not mess with [[Professional Killer|Edward's]] family. [[Unstoppable Rage|You WILL DIE.]]

* [[The Pornomancer]]

* [[Purple Prose]]: [[Captain Obvious|Ummm...]] Yeah.

* [[Snuff Film]]: Anita investigates weres making these.

* [[Sparing the Aces]]: Jean-Claude's reasoning for not turning...well, almost anyone.

** Anita is in love with Richard, Richard is in love with Anita...the final stumbling block before they agree to engagement is to see him shapeshift, since the effect of his inhumanity spooks her a bit (understandable since she's first hit in the face with it by him getting turned on to the point of breaking up a bathroom after watching a horrifying snuff film.) Shapeshifting is apparently pretty gruesome, and gushes noxious bodily fluids, bits of flesh and a mysterious clear goop everywhere. So clearly, Richard, the solution is the pin her down, change right on top of her, and then eat someone in front of her. Anita, understandably, is freaked out, especially since as Richard is in her head, she can psychically feel not only his desire to eat someone, but the entire pack's desire to eat ''her''. It leads to a breakup when she bolts, traumatized, and Jean-Claude steps in to seduce her while she's huddled in shock in a bathtub; she sleeps with him - regretting it in the morning, and it's probably worth considering her state of mind at the time of the sex - and the split is forever more blamed on Anita.

** What "state of mind"? The first thing she did to JC was blow him. ''The first thing.'' Clearly she wasn't ''that'' sickened or traumatized by what happened with Richard if she could stuff a cold, dead penis into her mouth lickity-split afterwards. All because after incessantly badgering him through the entire book, Richard finally did ''exactly what she kept pushing him to do.'' Gee, why would the split possibly be blamed on her?

** In ''The Harlequin'', Anita has to cut out the heart of a powerful human servant, but she is very weak and cannot grab it properly. Olaf helps her by thrusting his hand in the open wound, taking her hand and grabbing the heart together, and caresses her hand in the process. Anita gets the heart out and vomits immediately after.

* [[Staking the Loved One]]: Anita gets asked to behead the body of a teenage girl before she rises a vampire. The request comes from the girl's parents.

* [[Strictly Formula]]: Just read the description at the top of the page. The sex scenes also follow a general formula: Anita is propositioned by one or more people, but refuses on moral grounds. The ''arduer'' takes over, hair is pulled and mutual screaming orgasms are achieved.

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Many characters, most notably Anita and her harem.

* [[The Unfair Sex]]: Already noted in all of the mentions of one-way monogamy, but Richard gets a special mention. Anita runs off and sleeps with Jean-Claude while she and Richard are still in a nominally normal, theoretically monogamous relationship. Later, ''after Anita and Richard have broken up'', Richard bragging about sleeping around with other women is intended to show what a [[Jerkass]] he is now (even as Anita is moving into her "hump anything in sight" phase).

* [[The Unmasqued World]]: While vampires officially "outed" themselves some time ago, the world clearly has a long history of the masquerade taking a hit or being thin in some areas.

* [[Two-Faced]]: Asher

* [[Urban Fantasy]]

* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Anita often wonders about this trope in regard to Edward, who has shown up with derringers, tiny throwing knives, flamethrowers, homemade vampire killing bullets, etc. The question is answered initially because his legal alter ego is Ted Forrester, a bounty hunter, but Anita still maintains that Edward is just secretly Batman but with lethal force.

* [[Wolverine Publicity]]: As shown in that page's image, one issue of the comic book featured [[Wolverine]] on the cover, despite the fact that the comic isn't set in the [[Marvel Universe]].

* [[Yaoi Fangirl]]:

** Anita Blake since ''Danse Macabre'', at least. Two men kissing, while having anal sex with each other, just gets her off.