Darker than Black/Season One Tropes A-M: Difference between revisions

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* [[Blind Without'Em]]: Kirihara

* [[Blessed with Suck]] / [[Cursed with Awesome]]: The main curse of being a Contractor is losing one's emotions and moral constraints, but most of those encountered retain enough emotion to be fairly pleasant (if amoral), and have gained cool powers. Their obeisance is an important determinant of whether the Contractor has a [[Blessed with Suck]] or [[Cursed with Awesome]]. Some of the former include having to [[Fingore|break one's fingers]], needing to cut oneself, and drinking children's blood (although the Contractors with the last two were mass murderers). On the other hand, other obeisances include needing to drink beer or write poetry. Then again, the guy who merely had to arrange pebbles was annoyed by the fact it's apparently meaningless compulsion.

** Wei may actually be [[Cursed with Awesome]]. His power is exploding his blood, and his price is bleeding. Whereas most Contractors need to go out of their way to pay the price after using their power, Wei pays the price in the process of using his power. He might get light-headed if he overdoes it, but it's not like he'll need to run away in the middle of a violent altercation in order to find a safe place to arrange pebbles.

* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: About half of the Contractors are blond.

* [[The Charmer]]: November 11, in between being a [[Jerkass]].

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: The first shot of the first episode, before the [[Batman Cold Open]], is {{spoiler|Hei's sister Bai.}} We have no clues explaining this until eleven episodes in.

* [[Chick Magnet]]: Hei's magnetism is so great, even ''[[Emotionless Girl|Emotionless Girls]]'' crush on him.

** And the [[Fair Cop]] trying to catch him.

* [[Crack Fic]]: A [[Crowning Moment of Funny|glorious]] in-universe example - Mayu's [[Interspecies Romance|human-on-elephant]] [[Slash Fic]]. Which she writes ''Hei'' into.

* [[Creepy Child]]: Of the [[Emotionless Girl]] kind when it comes to dolls. (Provided the dolls are in a young person's body, otherwise the "child" part doesn't really work out.) This is essentially their premise, and dolls have no control over this aspect of the way they act.

* [[Cryonics Failure]]: November 11 does this intentionally.

* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: The Friends of the Gate is a bizarre mix of Catholicism and Jehovah's Witnesses, except they worship Hell's Gate. They even have confessionals!

** {{spoiler|Hitotsubashi}} transported {{spoiler|Kenji's [[No Name Given]] girl}} sitting in a car next to him. She sat quietly, saw where they are moving... and immediately communicated this to another party using her observer apparition. It didn't even occur to him he creates a security hole the size of a whole Titanic. It's just a Doll!

** In ''Shikkoku no Hana'' Meena Khandar Swami heard Yin dropping a phrase that in normal circumstances would be an expected common courtesy. Cue a [[Beat Panel|speechless]], shaken, "maybe I'm still [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|at the Gate]] and hallucinating?" face, then stuttering out that it's the first time she saw even this much of free will from a Doll. Mina was a scientist in PANDORA whom her chief considers more brilliant than himself, so... yes, it's ''that'' bad.

** Also the Evening Primrose's ultimatum- "Acknowledge existence of we contractor", indeed.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Hei and, to a much lesser degree, November 11.

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Where does Hei keep all those knives, anyway? He also somehow fits his [[Badass Longcoat]] into his pocket.

* [[An Ice Person]]: November 11 is a more lethal version, and his powers are complemented by April, who [[Making a Splash|can create mini-hurricanes leading to rain]].

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Explained in the 2nd episode, Hei's [[Badass Longcoat]] is quite handy.

* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: A [[Tear Jerker|tear shed]] for {{spoiler|Havok}}. Also {{spoiler|Maki}}, except offscreen and without the tear shedding.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Committed by Kurosawa, in [[Gratuitous English]], no less. Quoth Kiko, "That wasn't even funny."

* [[Inelegant Blubbering]]: {{spoiler|Kid!Hei in the Instrumentality-esque [[Gainax Ending]].}}

* [[Innocent Fanservice Girl]]: The sexy secretary contractor referenced below has the power to teleport (clothing not included) and walks around naked without any suggestion of shame. November 11 acts in the same way when she phases him out of his clothing (although another male contractor is weirded out by her behavior and tells her to [[Please Put Some Clothes On]]). In both cases, this is less innocence than [[Tin Man|just not caring]].

** Dolls should also count. Many of them have been naked in public, and they certainly don't mind it, all of them being [[Emotionless Girl|emotionless people]] by definition. Though [[Your Mileage May Vary|it may be more]] [[Fan Disservice]] in practice...

** Lampshaded in an [[Omake]] to the first manga, where the heroine, who's mostly interacted with his "real" personality, sees him switch over to "Li" and start cheerfully chatting with Saitou, with great big labels on the scene reading "Police" and "Culprit."

* [[MacGuffin]]: A number of Hei's missions involve him stealing crystals or other things which came from the gate and not only is that goal not revealed until he completes it, the significance of the products isn't either.

* [[Magic by Any Other Name]]

* [[Magic Prerequisite]]: The basis of a Contractor's powers.

* [[Masquerade]]: Very few people know the truth about the Contractors, and one organization's goal is to reveal their existence to the public. {{spoiler|It works.}}

* [[Mass Super-Empowering Event]]: The appearance of the Gates.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The writers really did a number on this one. Hei, of course, has [[Shock and Awe|electric-based abilities]], which he acquired as a result of whatever transpired in South America when he was with Amber. The word "electric" is derived from a Latin term which roughly translates to "produce from amber by friction," as it was believed then that lightning was a product of amber. In reality amber is a conductor of static electricity, so it's only fitting that Amber [[Incredibly Lame Pun|rubs Hei the wrong way]], inevitably resulting in [[Hurricane of Puns|sparks flying.]] ''In addition'' to that, amber is fossilized resin, something kept in its natural state by time, which fits perfectly with Amber's ability.

** Also, the various [[Code Name|Code Names]] used by members of [[The Syndicate]] are words for [[Colorful Theme Naming|colors]] in foreign languages, mostly Chinese and English, and a lot of them are clearly based on the person's appearance. Besides Amber and her [[Eyes of Gold]], there's Hei ("black" in Chinese, and black-haired, [[Black Eyes|black-eyed]], and prone to wearing black), Yin ("silver" in Chinese and a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]]), and red-headed Havoc's Syndicate codename "Carmine." Bai ("white") is probably meant to contrast with her brother. Oh, and [[Punny Name|"Mao" means "cat."]]

* [[Mission Control]]: Huang and Yin

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Often present, as an arc will start off with some humor, but become grim by the end.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Never, ''ever'' mess with Yin. The blind, [[Moe]] [[Emotionless Girl]] comes with a very protective [[Badass Abnormal]] ninja who will want to have a word with you if you so much as touch her. Overlaps with [[Morality Chain]] as well.

* [[Motherly Scientist]]: Kanami cared a lot about [[media:DtB13_Kanami_and_Dolls_336x178_4178.png|catatonic Dolls]] [[People Jars|in jars]] in her observatory and learned their individual quirks, which became evident when CY-463 trapped them. They are more ''tools'' than ''subjects'', but it's not like she could do for them any more even if she had any real power.

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: Contractors are said to be cold-hearted, rational killers who don't dream, by characters who find them aberrant/abhorrent for these qualities. But there's always at least one who behaves in contradiction to these traits, and then there are normal humans who demonstrate their capacity for them.

 

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