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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] characters in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
== ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' ==
* Peter Pevensie demonstrates a degree of [[Genre Savvy]] in [[C. S.
** He has another in ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' when they are considering what has happened to the man whose armor they have found; it is explicitly cited that he reads mysteries.▼
== ''[[Discworld]]'' ==
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] features quite a few characters like this, thanks to the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]. Several of the witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have a feel for "stories", and can use them to their own ends if they have to. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is pretty [[Genre Savvy]] when it comes to tropes of detective stories and police procedurals. Malicia from ''The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents'' is either ''too'' [[Genre Savvy]], or [[Wrong Genre Savvy|not savvy enough.]] She insists on ''always'' seeing things in terms of stories, ranging from fairy tales to [[Kid Detective]] novels like ''Tom Swift'', ''The Hardy Boys'', and ''The Famous Five'' (she even claims at one point that four kids and a dog is "the right number for an adventure"). Furthermore, she has trouble in coping with subversions and exceptions, and [[Heroic Wannabe|always makes herself out to be the main character of the "story"]]. Rincewind the Wizzard [sic], meanwhile, is very much aware of [[Finagle's Law]] and similar narrative conventions that keep his life interesting. He hates them.▼
== ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' ==
* Harry Dresden in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Not exactly harmed by such details as ''Dracula'' having been written to educate people about how to kill a certain kind of vampire.▼
{{quote|"The trick was to figure out which movie I was in. If this was a variant on ''High Noon'', then walking outside was probably a fairly dangerous idea. On the other hand, there was always the chance that I was still in the opening scenes of ''The Maltese Falcon'' and everyone trying to chase down the bird still wanted to talk to me. In which case, this was probably a good chanceto dig for vital information about what might well be a growing storm around the search for The Word of Kemmler."}}▼
** A failure of [[Genre Savvy]] is lampshaded later in the book. When {{spoiler|Sue, the reanimated T. Rex}} eats a ghoul, the ghoul does nothing but scream and throw up its hands to shield itself. Butters points out that never did any good [[Jurassic Park|in the movie]], and Harry notes he must not have seen it.▼
** Also Nicodemus. At one point, Harry tries to trick him into telling him his master plan, but Nicodemus sees right through it, causing Harry to suspect he's read the [[Evil Overlord List]].▼
== Other works ==
* ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]'': Gilgamesh is smart enough not to sleep with Ishtar, who is goddess of love by night, but goddess of war by day.
** Of course, it's really a 'heads I win, tails you lose' situation; Ishtar does ''not'' [[Woman Scorned|take rejection well]], and spends the rest of the tale trying to screw Gilgamesh over in ever more creative ways. And very often succeeding.
* In the [[Framing Story]] of [[How Kazir Won His Wife]], the sorcerer implies that he got his position through [[Knights and Knaves|knowing how to deal with pairs of people of whom one always lied and the other always told the truth]]. In the [[Story Within a Story]], the king was genre savvy enough to realise that Kazir was familiar with the [[Knights and Knaves]] puzzle, so Kazir ended up [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] when the king set a slightly different puzzle.
▲* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] features quite a few characters like this, thanks to the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]. Several of the witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have a feel for "stories", and can use them to their own ends if they have to. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is pretty [[Genre Savvy]] when it comes to tropes of detective stories and police procedurals. Malicia from ''The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents'' is either ''too'' [[Genre Savvy]], or [[Wrong Genre Savvy|not savvy enough.]] She insists on ''always'' seeing things in terms of stories, ranging from fairy tales to [[Kid Detective]] novels like ''Tom Swift'', ''The Hardy Boys'', and ''The Famous Five'' (she even claims at one point that four kids and a dog is "the right number for an adventure"). Furthermore, she has trouble in coping with subversions and exceptions, and [[Heroic Wannabe|always makes herself out to be the main character of the "story"]]. Rincewind the Wizzard [sic], meanwhile, is very much aware of [[Finagle's Law]] and similar narrative conventions that keep his life interesting. He hates them.
▲** It's even the whole basis of the plot in ''[[Discworld/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]''. The stories want to be told, whatever the effects on their players. Lily is arranging the city of Genua along the lines of these stories. The toymaker will be a jolly, red-faced man who whistles while he works ''if he knows what's good for him''. The servant girl will marry the prince, with the help of her fairy godmother, whoever has to get hurt along the way.
▲** "...Exactly one in a million?"
▲** Perhaps the most obvious example (and subversion) of this comes from the ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'' novel, when Vimes has just confronted the hidden villain of the story. The villain, (using the title of the book) summons several mooks to take Vimes into custody. However, the mooks, despite Vimes having no weapons and just standing there, show extreme hesitation. When the villain demands an explanation, they indicate they know what happens in situations like this: the likelihood is that if they try to take Vimes into custody, he will kill them all by engaging in swashbuckling clichés such as performing somersaults or swinging off chandeliers (the villain points out, somewhat hysterically, that there ''are'' no chandeliers in the room at all). It actually takes Vimes' assurances that he will not do so and would not know how to do so if he tried before the mooks actually take him prisoner.
▲** Also inverted in Discworld with [[Discworld/Going Postal|Moist Von Lipwig]], who knows very well how things are supposed to go... and plays the part of the hero, because he knows that the innate genre savviness of the public will view him as a hero if he does. As a con artist, taking advantage of what people expect to see is his major skill.
▲** [[Discworld/Thief of Time|Rule One]].
▲** [http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/target256.html Well, ''technically'' they're only little old men in robes...]
▲*** Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde in ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'' are confronted by Captain Carrot. They're about to fight him when they realise that's there's only one of him and nine of them, and that he's trying to save the world. All experienced heroes who have spent decades winning against incredible odds, they see that the fight can only go one way and back down.
▲*** This is pure genius considering that the Horde took advantage of that very trope ''themselves'' in their first appearance in ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' (though it didn't end quite the way you might think).
▲*** And all the moreso, in that the Horde's dangerous actions were spurred on by their belief that the time of heroes has passed. It has, but only for ''their'' kind of kick-in-the-door, rob-the-temple, big-thug-with-a-sword hero. Carrot, who routinely risks his life for a city salary the Silver Horde wouldn't consider enough to tip a barmaid, represents a new '''type''' of hero: one who's simply determined to do the right thing. The Silver Horde are confronted by this generational and cultural transition -- from hero''ing'' to hero''ism'' -- and it floors them.
▲*** Taken to its logically subversive extreme when the Silver Horde meet up with Evil Harry Dread and his minions. They spend quite some time reminiscing about how Evil Harry used to follow [[Genre Blind|The Code]] by doing things like having the standard dress code for his soldiers include helmets that fully covered his face, hiring ridiculously stupid henchmen who couldn't tell the difference between an old washerwoman and a hero dressed like an old washerwoman, and so forth. Basically how Evil Harry always did everything the [[Evil Overlord List]], something with which he is clearly [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|intimately familiar with]], says not to do -- [[Contractual Genre Blindness|on purpose]]. After complimenting Harry on the utter stupidity of his current batch of minions, they go on to complain about how the current generation of Evil Overlords go about doing everything The [[Evil Overlord List]] says to do, which just isn't right. That is, if they bother with the Evil Overlording at all and don't just go straight into bureaucracy.
▲**** At the same time, Evil Harry Dread is complaining about how the new heroes are refusing to live up to their end of the bargain by doing things like sabotaging the Evil Overlord's escape tunnel. Guys like Cohen always left the escape tunnel intact, [[Contractual Genre Blindness|even thought they knew the Evil Overlord would inevitably escape through one]]. The reasoning behind this is that Evil Overlords are a hero's bread and butter, so killing them all off would leave them unemployed.
▲*** Rincewind demonstrates a PERFECT level of this trope in this story. At one point, he announces to Lord Vetinari that he does not wish to volunteer for the mission. He's GOING, of course, because he's perfectly aware that that's how his life goes, but he wants it known that he doesn't WISH TO. The other wizards present, knowing what kind of things he's gone through (for what appears to be rather more than 20 years by this point) concur with him on this point.
▲** The Patrician has wearily recognised the pattern of supernaturally powered fads running riot over his city (''[[Discworld/Soul Music|Soul Music]]'', ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'') etc., but interestingly when he says so in ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' he's actually being [[Wrong Genre Savvy]], because the fad in that book -- newspapers -- isn't supernatural and doesn't fade away like the earlier ones.
▲** Cohen the Barbarian shows a moment of [[Genre Savvy]] in ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'': knowing that [[Evil Chancellor|Grand Viziers are always evil]], he asks Twoflower, "Do you know anything about Grand-Viziering?" Twoflower says no. He gets the job, precisely ''because'' someone who knew something about it would be ''evil''.
▲** And it's not just the good guys who are [[Genre Savvy]]. The old Count Magpyr in ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'' has huge stocks of lemons, holy water, and wooden stakes; his servant Igor even added a handy anatomy chart to help vampire hunters find the heart. Windows were easily opened to the sun, and dozens of objects could be converted into an easily recognised holy symbol. Why? His role was the ''recurring'' monster, and he knew what people would do if he tried Going Too Far.
▲*** His nephew, the new Count is just as [[Genre Savvy]], but more ambitious. As savvy as he is though, he's not quite a match for Granny Weatherwax.
* Johnny and Kirsty in ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]''. Of course their genre awareness is actually influencing the setting to some degree.
* Princess Cimorene of the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'' is fairly genre savvy, as are most of the characters to one extent or another. She just refuses to conform to type.
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{{quote|''A spinning kick, Butler. How could you?''}}
** Invoked in ''The Opal Deception,'' when Holly asks Artemis to think like a videogame character in order to divise a solution to their predicament (being attacked by trolls). Artemis decides to think like a character in a war game, tries to create a list of exploitable weaknesses that the trolls possess, and forms a plan based around their hatred of bright lights.
▲* Peter Pevensie demonstrates a degree of [[Genre Savvy]] in [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', particularly when -- after Edmund suggests the robin they are following might be leading them into a trap -- he observes that in all of the stories he has read, robins are creatures of good.
▲** Edmund also has a [[Genre Savvy]] moment or two near the beginning of ''[[Prince Caspian]]'', drawing upon his knowledge of adventure stories for ideas on how he and his siblings can get by after they find themselves in an unpopulated wilderness.
▲** He has another in ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' when they are considering what has happened to the man whose armor they have found; it is explicitly cited that he reads mysteries.
▲** Eustace, [[Foil|by contrast]], has his initial ''[[Genre Blindness|lack]]'' of [[Genre Savvy]] pointed out multiple times -- he's said in the narration to have "read none of the right books." In his diary, when the ship is becalmed and drinking water is at a premium, he recounts how Caspian warned that anyone caught stealing water will "get two dozen" and that he didn't know what that meant until Edmund explained it to him. "It comes of the sort of books those Pevensie kids read." (Even the Pevensies have their lapses, like when they first arrive back in Narnia in ''Prince Caspian'' and think they might have to live off the land. They think they remember reading about people eating roots, but they're not sure what kind; Lucy "always thought it meant roots of trees.")
* Subverted in ''The Dumas Club'' by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Rare book finder Lucas Corso has read enough to recognize a trope when he sees one and insists on following them until he can nab the [[Big Bad]]. He's mostly right {{spoiler|but the [[Big Bad]] is someone completely different than he suspected}}.
* Subverted in ''[[A Dance With Dragons]]'': {{spoiler|Quentyn Martell knows that, in stories, princes always win fights against dragons and get the beautiful princess afterwards.}} Too bad for him it is ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' we're talking about, so saying that things go spectacularly wrong is a bit of an understatement.
* Happens a lot in [[K. A. Applegate]]'s ''Everworld'' series, about four young adults thrown into a world in which everything from all the mythologies in the history of the world co-exists. Odds are at least one of them will know enough about whatever figure they encounter to know how to deal with them. They still don't believe Cassandra, though.
* The online blogiform novel ''[http://toothycat.net/~hologram/UltimateDream/ Ultimate Dream]'' is pretty much defined by its [[Genre Savvy]] [[Deadpan Snarker]] narrator, who relentlessly mocks the cliched [[Role
* All of the [[Animorphs]] are at least somewhat [[Genre Savvy]], as Tobias, Jake and Marco are all fans of science fiction and comic books, Ax [[Alien Arts Are Appreciated|loves soap operas]] and Rachel at least watches ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', but they're much more likely to assert that [[This Is Reality]] and just use it for jokes.
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', most of the good guys are pretty [[Genre Savvy]], since legends are a major form of entertainment in Middle Earth. In "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol," Sam wonders if he and Frodo have reached a part of the story that the audience won't want to hear. Frodo, however, rightly points out that it's the dark, scary parts that keep people interested.
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** In ''The Three Coffins'', he stops the action to explain to everybody how a locked room murder mystery can be pulled off, explaining that there's no point in pretending they're ''not'' in a detective novel.
* In ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking Glass]]'', Alice's familarity with [[Mother Goose]] rhymes leads to Genre Savviness. She knows that the king has promised to send all his horses and men to help Humpty Dumpty, and she awaits the crow with great anticipation, to break up the fight between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
* [[E. Nesbit]]'s ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20031212094950/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rapunzel/shortstories/melisande.html Melisande]'' is a variation of Rapunzel set in a fairy tale world where everyone is [[Genre Savvy]]. For example, the king and queen deliberately refuse to hold a christening party, knowing what happened to the Sleeping Beauty. When all the fairies are furious that they weren't invited, and they want to curse the princess, the king points out that traditionally, only ''one'' of them can curse the princess or they'll go out "like a candle-flame". He's more or less bluffing, but since the evil fairy Malevola already did the cursing, they decide not to risk it, thank the queen for a lovely afternoon, and leave.
* The whole point of [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|TheJenniferMorgue]]''. The villain, a [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] billionaire trying to take over the world, recognizes he's a living trope and creates a [[Evil Plan]] by creating a magic spell that turns everything around him into a [[James Bond]] adventure, so that only a British agent conforming to the Bond stereotype would be in a position to stop him and save the world last the last moment. The plan is to then end the spell, making the agent an ordinary person again and so easily contained and killed, with no one else able to get there in time. Unfortunately for him, the British are even more [[Genre Savvy]] {{spoiler|when the agent they send isn't really the Hero, he's the Bond Babe, acting as an initially oblivious decoy for his girlfriend who is the real Hero sweeping in at the last minute with commandos to save the day}}.
* In the comic mystery play ''Any Number Can Die,'' a wannabe detective urges a reluctant informant to tell him the name of the murderer, because otherwise she'll get killed and only have time to whisper him a cryptic clue. Sure enough, she gets shot, gives him a clue, and he says in frustration, ''This always happens in stories!''
* In [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Thursday Next]]'' and ''[[Nursery Crime]]'' novels, the lead characters are successful because of their [[Genre Savvy]]. Thursday works in the Literary Crime division, making sure that novels stick to the conventions of their genre and using her [[Genre Savvy]] to get out of many sticky situations. The main problems come when she has trouble identifying the genre she has stepped into. Jack Sprat, in the Nursery Crime novels, is an interesting character because he not only investigates crimes committed by [[Nursery Rhyme]] characters, but he also has a strange empathy for the genre-driven urges that make them commit the crimes.
* Commissar [[Ciaphas Cain]] is this in universe. He realizes that acting like the rest of the Imperium's commissars (trigger happy hardasses) will only get him killed faster, and realizes that giving a damn about his troops means he doesn't get fragged, they give a damn about him, and he more chances to avoid getting killed. He also realizes the grim dark setting for what it is, and realizes that most forms of danger are better avoided if he doesn't try to run. It gets truly insane how [[Genre Savvy]] he is when realizes that being a fanatical jackass makes him expendable, so unlike the rest of the Imperium (who put insane amounts of faith in the God Emperor of Humanity), he decides to proactively work very hard at saving his own ass himself, making him one of the smartest humans in the whole series.
▲* Harry Dresden in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Not exactly harmed by such details as ''Dracula'' having been written to educate people about how to kill a certain kind of vampire.
▲** Lampshaded in ''Dead Beat'':
▲{{quote|"The trick was to figure out which movie I was in. If this was a variant on ''High Noon'', then walking outside was probably a fairly dangerous idea. On the other hand, there was always the chance that I was still in the opening scenes of ''The Maltese Falcon'' and everyone trying to chase down the bird still wanted to talk to me. In which case, this was probably a good chanceto dig for vital information about what might well be a growing storm around the search for The Word of Kemmler."}}
▲** A failure of [[Genre Savvy]] is lampshaded later in the book. When {{spoiler|Sue, the reanimated T. Rex}} eats a ghoul, the ghoul does nothing but scream and throw up its hands to shield itself. Butters points out that never did any good [[Jurassic Park|in the movie]], and Harry notes he must not have seen it.
▲** Also Nicodemus. At one point, Harry tries to trick him into telling him his master plan, but Nicodemus sees right through it, causing Harry to suspect he's read the [[Evil Overlord List]].
▲** In ''Proven Guilty'' Harry has a plan that hinges on a group of monsters impersonating horror movie creatures ambushing him. When they fail to do so, he threatens to take "drastic, cliched measures" like walking through doorways backwards.
▲** Gentleman Johnny Marcone. Competent, ruthless, and precautionary to a tee, he nearly always manages to both place himself on the good side of a certain wizard, and talk his way into learning about the threat of the book. Since the start of the series, he has survived quite handily through attacks from vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, fae, undead, ghouls, and has even established himself as a member of the setting's regulatory body for supernatural war and diplomacy.
▲*** To give an idea of not only how [[Genre Savvy]], but [[Badass]] this last point makes him; he is a perfectly normal mortal human being, no special powers whatsoever, and he's a member of a group consisting of the most powerful elements of the supernatural world.
▲*** As an example, in the first book, Harry confronts Marcone by blowing the doors off his club. In ''Even Hand'', Marcone notes that since that incident, he's refurnished the entrances to his establishments: While strategic entrances are properly secured and warded, ''dramatic'' entrances are made with cheap balsa wood so that any other wizards attempting such an entrance won't harm anyone with the shrapnel. To be fair to Harry, that first dramatic entrance he blew the doors ''out'', past him and his kinetic shield, so as to not hurt anyone. Marcone probably made that change just to save on replacement cost.
▲*** Marcone gave orders to all of his establishments to treat Harry with the utmost courtesy - including making Harry a platinum member of Marcone's, ahem, ''health club''. He reasons that if Harry is too distracted by boobs, Marcone's buildings are less likely to burn down.
▲*** Upon coming face to face with his [[Evil Twin|sub-conscious]], Harry says "So I'm good Harry and you're Evil Harry and you only come out at night?"
▲** Harry tracks a target by first showing the target all of the magical tracking that the target's genre-savvy would expect, then siccing a muggle detective on him.
▲** Some acquired genre savvy on Harry's part would be the issue of darkness - Wizards immediately call light, making targets of themselves. Harry has apparently never heard of the concept of night-vision goggles, or a similar spell, but he will call up a wall of lava somewhere else that wont make him a target.
* ''[[Left Behind]]'' has an "unintentional" variant that cripples the narrative from the get-go. Many of the characters, who should have shown emotions at certain times, seem to be aware of the type of book they are in; they thus either do not display the appropriate emotions, or merely go through the motions. This cripples the first book of the series to an extreme extent in regards to making the characters seem real.
* In book two of [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Smoke and Shadows]]'' trilogy, the production team and main cast of a [[Vampire Detective Series]] are trapped in a [[Haunted House]] while filming an episode about a haunted house. A large part of their defenses are ripped off from ''[[Charmed]]'' or ''[[The X-Files]]'', and much of the dialogue consists of witty observations -- and creative criticism -- of their predicament, and blatant self mockery of [[Show Within a Show]] ''Darkest Night''.
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** Frankly everyone in ''Mundementia One'' is genre savvy, though Charles is still trying to fully gain his.
* A few characters in the [[X Wing Series]] are at least a little genre savvy.
{{quote|'''Wedge''': [[Noodle Implements|We'll need a wheeled transport, one of the flatcam units our pursuers are carrying, and four sets of women's clothing.]]
'''Hobbie''': Boss, please tell me you're not putting us in women's clothing.
'''Wedge''': [[Blatant Lies|Very well. I'm not putting us in women's clothing]].
(in the next chapter, [[Gilligan Cut|the four pilots are in women's clothing]])
'''Hobbie''': You lied to me. }}
* Many of [[Jane Austen]]'s characters display hints of genre savviness, from [[Pride and Prejudice|Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth]] discussing the moral of their story, to [[Mansfield Park|Sir Thomas Bertram]] predicting that inviting his poor niece to live with him will end with her [[Kissing Cousins|marrying one of his sons]]. Catherine Morland of ''[[Northanger Abbey]]'' is also ''very'' savvy about her preferred genre -- "horrid" Gothic novels. [[Wrong Genre Savvy|Unfortunately]], the story she's actually ''in'' is a [[Regency England|Regency]] romance; fortunately, her love interest Henry Tilney is even more savvy.
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* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', one of Tarkin's cohorts ask him why he doesn't just use the Death Star to blow up Coruscant and become Emperor himself. Tarkin replies that Palpatine obviously has measures to prevent this, and any attempt would just get them all killed.
* In Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'', {{spoiler|Lyle and Lloyd}} aren't just [[Genre Savvy]], they're ''trope'' savvy, [[Conversational Troping|dropping tropes]] practically by name in some cases and reciting examples from the corresponding entries. The topper comes in the climax, when {{spoiler|Lloyd}} brags to [[The Dragon]]: "[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moment]] of ''kicked your ass''!" They also manage to piece together the [[Big Bad]]'s identity and some key elements of the [[Evil Plan]] through their [[Discussed Trope|encyclopedic knowledge of tropes]], blatantly suggesting that the characters (and the author) are [[One of Us]].
* In [[P. G.
* Thrasymachus in Plato's [[The Republic]] calls Socrates out on his usual debate style, involving [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] and [[Armor
* In [[P. G.
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