House of Anubis

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Welcome to Hogwarts!"

House of Anubis is a mystery series series airing on Nickelodeon, based on the Flemish-Dutch series Het Huis Anubis. The series tells the story of Nina, an American student who earns a scholarship to a fancy English Boarding School and becomes a member of the House of Anubis, believed to be the nicest house on campus. On the day of Nina's arrival, another student named Joy is pulled out of the school under mysterious circumstances, prompting her roommate, Patricia, to suspect that the school faculty are enacting some kind of conspiracy. First aired on January 1, 2011, as part of a two-night series premiere.

Here are some of the principal characters

  • Nina Martin - The New Transfer Student at the Boarding School. She tries to solve the mystery of the House of Anubis and find the treasure hidden within.
  • Fabian Rutter - A student in the House of Anubis who is nice to Nina right from the beginning.
  • Patricia Williamson - Joy's roommate and friend. Patricia is suspicious of the circumstances under which Joy disappeared, especially since Joy left behind her cell phone and her favorite stuffed animal.
  • Amber Millington - Another female student. Mick's girlfriend at the start of the series.
  • Mick Campbell - Student in the House of Anubis and Amber's boyfriend. Likes sports.
  • Mara Jaffray - Amber's best friend, but there's some romantic tension between Mara and Mick.
  • Jerome Clarke - Male student in the House of Anubis. Seems to enjoy causing chaos.
  • Alfie Lewis - Another student in the House of Anubis. He has a crush on Amber.
  • Joy Mercer - A student who is called away from the school under odd circumstances. May or may not actually be hiding in the building somewhere.
  • Sarah Frobisher-Smythe - An old woman who claims to have lived in the House of Anubis. She gives Nina a locket which seems to have some power over the house.
  • Victor Rodenmaar - The guy in charge of the House of Anubis. Definitely creepy and definitely up to something.
  • Rufus Zeno - A man posing as a private investigator.
  • Eddie Miller - A new American student in Season 2. Seems to be a bit of a troublemaker, not to mention being ridiculously flirtatious. In the season 2 finale, it turns out that he is destined to be Nina's protector.
Tropes used in House of Anubis include:
  • Acting for Two: Averted. Though Patricia has a twin sister, introduced in "House Of Snoops", she's played by Jade Ramsey's real life sister Nikita.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Eddie calls Patricia "Yacker." This started as an insult, but took on a different meaning when they started dating.
  • Almost Kiss: Patricia and Eddie. She pulls away.
  • Arc Number: Seven. Anubis split the Cup of Ankh into seven pieces and The Chosen One was born on the seventh hour of the seventh day in the seventh month. Seven acolytes are necessary in order to tip the scales of life. Also, the Cup of Ankh can only be put back together once every 25 years. (2+5=7) Doubles as a Numerological Motif for the Cup.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:

Mara(to Patricia): You went too far. Plus, I was on cleanup duty.

  • Back for the Season Finale: Mick.
  • Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Amber steps out of a bathroom stall just after hearing Mara tell Patricia that she's attracted to Mick. It goes over about as well as you'd expect.
    • In House of Victory , this is how Jerome learns that Mick cheated so Mara would win the election.
  • Beard of Evil: Victor.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Eddie and Patricia. They have yet to say anything nice to each other, even though Eddie is just a gender-flipped, Casanova version of Patricia.
    • Patricia has admitted to liking Eddie, although whenever she tries to tell him, it comes out as an insult.
  • Berserk Button: Fabian flips out when Rufus Zeno tries to leave with Nina while holding the group hostage in the season finale.
  • Big Bad: Victor seemed like this at first, but at the end of the season finale, it was implied that he was more ignorant than evil. He just wanted to be immortal and was unaware of the price of that immortality. (He believed that the tipping of the scales of life was symbolic and was genuinely shocked to learn otherwise.) Rufus Zeno on the other hand, knew that it wasn't symbolic and intended to become immortal anyway. That and the fact that he's generally a sadistic bastard make him a much better candidate for the Big Bad.
  • Boarding School
  • Book Dumb: Played with by Eddie. He speaks French well enough to see through Patricia's prank [1] and he even jokingly calls Ms. Andrews a "menteuse"[2], but he doesn't know the meaning of the word "meritocracy". [3]
  • Brainy Brunette: Mara
  • Break the Cutie: This happened to Victor when he was little. After his father gave him a verbal lashing, he broke his friendship with Sarah because he thought she wouldn't tell him any information, such as where the Ankh pieces were.
  • Brick Joke: Early in Season 1, the possibility of Anubis House being haunted is brought up, but then dismissed. Fast forward to Season 2, where the house turns out to actually be haunted.
  • Brutal Honesty:

Patricia: "Sorry, I bet I've been driving you all crazy."
Everyone: "No."
Jerome: "Yes."

  • Buffy-Speak: Nina refers to the ghost that is haunting her as a "Curse-y spirit".
  • Call Back: In House Of Yesterday, Nina says "Crisis averted, for now" which are the same words Victor said after destroying Joy's file in House Of Eyes.
    • The roommate swapping between Amber and Patricia could be considered a Call Back to the original Het Huis Anubis, in which Amber was roommates with Nienke and Patricia was roommates with Mara.
  • Catch Phrase: Victor: "You have five minutes precisely and then I want to hear a pin drop." Can also be taken as a sign of his real age, since the expression "Hear a pin drop" is no longer in style.
    • Nina: "I'm Nina, from America." Lampshaded by Patricia:

She's American and she's totally obsessed with it. She said it like a hundred times.

  • Chekhov's Gun: The blank phonographic cylinder that made the horrible screeching noise when Fabian and Nina attempted to play it. It was fake. It has a clue hidden inside it.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Eddie. He appears in Season 2 as a new student from America and a Love Interest for Patricia, but in the season finale, he turns out to be the Osirian, counterpart and guardian to The Chosen One.
  • Cliff Hanger: The season 2 finale ends with Victor putting on the ring his father gave him, at which point it glows and opens to reveal a Tear of Gold.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Amber
    • Nina acts like this toward Joy in Season 2, regarding the fact that they both love Fabian. She takes no pleasure in feeling this way.
  • The Chosen One: Joy seems like this, but in the season finale it turns out to be Nina. Lampshaded by Jerome:

It would be the American, wouldn't it?

    • Eddie turns out to be this as well, if only as the yang to Nina's yin. Somehow, he knew how to banish Senkhara from Nina's body, when she was about to sacrifice herself for her friends and family.
  • Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Rufus in House Of Hazard
    • Again to Jerome in the season 2 finale.
  • Companion Cube: Corbierre, Victor's stuffed raven. Played with too, as it belonged to his father and probably was alive at some point.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Patricia. A rare instance where the Conspiracy Theorist is actually right.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: After tricking the younger students into paying to audition for a school play and insulting and rejecting them all, Jerome and Alfie's punishment is putting on a performance for them dressed as sumo wrestlers in tutus, and paying them back with 50% interest going to charity.
  • Creepy Attic and Cellar: The students are not allowed in those two places, and rightfully so.
  • Darker and Edgier: Season 2 compared to Season 1.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Eddie is the symbolic darkness to Nina's light, but is still one of the good guys.
  • Dawson Casting: Jade Ramsey, who plays Patricia, is 23 and Klariza Clayton, who plays Joy, is 22.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Nina has some moments of this:

Victor: What were you doing in the cellar?
Nina: Just remembering all the fun times we had down there.

    • Mara can do this too:

Mara: Amber, you're supposed to be helping me do the dishes.
Amber: But I hate doing the dishes, the water makes my hands all wrinkly.
Mara: I know. If only there were some sort of glove, made of rubber, that could protect your hands from water.

    • Eddie as well:

Mara: I don't believe in ghosts.
Eddie: Yeah, you made that perfectly clear by the way you screamed and hid.

    • Amber got in on it when they were taking the reflector out of the mosaic:

Nina: Careful. Easy does it.
Amber: Yes, we wouldn't want to break it because it's just so pretty.

  • Deal with the Devil: Rufus isn't exactly The Devil, but he's evil enough. Way to get in over your head there, Jerome
  • Death Glare:
    • Nina has this down pretty well.
    • Victor is the grand champion of this trope.
  • Demoted to Extra: Mick and Mara. Their relationship subplot towards the end of the series only served as fluff Padding and had very little significance to the Sibuna plot aside from setting up the date of the prom dance.
    • Mick wasn't even in a good portion of the second season, being Put on a Bus.
    • Joy. Apparently, being "The Chosen One" will rob you of all the limelight of the show or even won't have you in group photos (see the page photo). But is she really the Chosen One?
  • Dueling Shows: With Tower Prep
  • Different As Night and Day: Patricia and Piper
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The Cup of Ankh.
  • Disappeared Dad: Mr. Sweet was this to Eddie but he's at least attempting to rectify this.
  • Dumb Blond: Amber and to a lesser extent Mick.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When Alfie is captured in the Senet game, Victor is deeply disturbed by this and says to Vera that harming the students wasn't part of the plan.
  • Everyone Can See It: The relationship between Fabian and Nina definitely falls under this.
  • Fallen Hero: Rufus was Sarah's Osirian, but the power went to his head.
  • Fascinating Eyebrow: Jerome has demonstrated this a few times.
  • Five-Man Band: Characters for both genders apply.
  • Freudian Excuse: Jerome's mischievious behavior is partially explained by the fact that his parents left him at House Of Anubis to get rid of him.
    • Victor actually did see Sarah as a friend at one point, but his father changed all that.
    • Joy manipulating Fabian, posting horrible slander about Nina on the school website to ruin her image and try to make her leave the school, and committing plagiarism are all due to her excuse of thinking Nina has stolen everything from her. Subverted from an In-Universe perspective though: She tries to invoke it to justify her behavior, but none of her friends are buying it.
  • Genre Savvy: Nina. When one of the clues is solved too easily (mostly because Victor has already solved it), she immediately suspects something. And is usually right.
  • Genius Ditz: Amber isn't very book smart, but she does come up with some pretty good ideas during the search for the treasure.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In House of Pests, the students from Anubis House are forced to stay in the school when Victor fakes an infestation of mice. Mara suggests that she and Mick "set up camp" in one part of the school building. Trudy quickly stops them and says "boys in the classroom, girls over here." The fact that Mara wanted to sleep in the same area as Mick makes her intentions pretty clear.
    • In House of Cheats, the drama teacher tells them to group up in pairs, and Mick and Fabian are grouped together. Than the teacher says "Three simple words; I love you." The guys look at each other, smile awkwardly, and step back from each other. This is also a bit of a Funny Background Event
  • A God Am I: Rufus does this in the Season 2 finale. His delusions of Godhood don't last long though.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: The science teacher says a lot of stuff in Latin that he could just say in English. Then he says them in English anyway.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Joy towards Nina.
  • Head Desk: Jerome makes this a trademark in season 2 as his efforts to help his father keep hitting walls.
  • Heel Face Turn: Patricia. She's initially very hostile toward Nina, as she suspects Nina of being involved in Joy's disapppearance, but she later realizes that she's wrong and apologizes for her behavior. However, it takes her several episodes to completely trust Nina.
    • Aside from Victor, the rest of the Society seems to have pulled one as well, at least in the sense of no longer showing any interest in becoming immortal. In particular, Mr. Sweet seems to find Victor's obsession a little frightening.
  • The Hero: Nina and Fabian.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Joy takes a bolt of lighting from a possessed Nina in order to protect Fabian. Victor gives up the last tear of gold to save her.
    • Moments earlier, Nina tried to make one by allowing Senkhara to take her to the afterlife in exchange for removing the curses from her friends and her grandmother, but Eddie, the Osirian was having none of it.
  • Hidden Depths: Amber of all people is a ping-pong champion (3 years). She's so good she can knock a ping-pong ball away with a hairbrush, without even looking or trying.
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Robert Frobisher-Smythe hid the Mask Of Anubis this way. It was actually quite brilliant: He placed the Mask in the tunnels and protected it with a series of tasks designed to keep people away from it. Anyone would assume that the Mask he'd gone to so much trouble to protect must be the real one, but when they reached the end of the tasks, they would discover that the Mask in the tunnels was a replica and that the real one had been donated to a museum disguised as a replica.
  • Hidden Villain: The Collector, the Big Bad of Season 2. Revealed to be Rufus Zeno.
  • Historical In-Joke: Robert Frobisher-Smythe was part of Howard Carter's famous expidition into King Tut's tomb.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode so far has been titled "House Of _____"
  • Idiot Ball: The main characters have an annoying habit of letting Victor in on their suspicions of him. Up until Rufus comes along, Sibuna believes he's responsible for Joy's disappearance and is up to something sinister. Instead of keeping secret about it like someone normally would do, they talk about it openly in front of each other and their classmates. Amber is the worst offender as her Dumb Blonde status makes her ask about it in class. Her defense? She was trying to get information.
    • In one episode the group finds a picture of Victor Sr. and a Victor Jr. They instantly assume that the Jr. is the Victor they know and throw out the potion of immortality theory. They never assume that the one they know might have a son, nor do they stop and think that even Victor Jr. would be around 80 without the potion.
    • Hey, so we know all this information on the secrets of the house that would probably get us killed or seriously injured if they knew that we knew. Clearly, the best idea here is to put on a play about it that everyone will see.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Joy, but subverted in that she is normal.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Joy, someone cannot steal your "boyfriend" if the two of you aren't dating.
  • I Know You Know I Know: Amber does this in House of Betrayal", except it's more like "We know they know we know."
  • Immortality: Obtained if you drink the Elixir of Life from the Cup of Ankh. But someone else will die if you do.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Two within the same episode!

Amber:(to Mick after breaking up with Mara) Trouble in Maradise?
Alfie:(after security footage shows Victor cleaning his nose hairs) Show another tape, it seems you've got a nose for comedy!

  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Subverted. Joy is kept hidden away, unable to see her friends from school or have any contact with the outside world, plus she just wants to be normal. While this might seem like It Sucks to Be the Chosen One, the real chosen one doesn't have it nearly so bad.
    • Played Straight in season 2, where a dark spirit is making the Chosen One's life a living hell.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Joy in the Season Finale, when she encourages Fabian to go be with Nina.
  • Jerkass: Patricia all the way. Right from the beginning she's rude, hostile and downright vicious to poor Nina, who doesn't have a clue as to what she's done to earn her wrath. She goes back and forth between being decent to a downright little witch throughout the series. The way she just splashed water all over her friend Amber after she told Nina something she wasn't supposed to was crossing a line. Her attitude is alienating the rest of her friends and Fabian even calls her out on it.

Patricia: Since when did you become her friend instead of mine, Fabian?
Fabian: Since you became such a witch, Patricia.

    • Jerome is one as well, considering all the stuff he's done. At least Patricia got better.
    • Eddie. Even Patricia thinks he's a royal jackass and coming from her that says a lot.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Patricia, Eddie, Jerome, and to a lesser degree, Victor.
  • Just Friends: In "House Of Heartbreak", Nina and Fabian decide that it's best for them to remain this way.
  • Karmic Death: Rufus.
  • Killed Off for Real: Sarah
    • Seemingly Rufus as of Season 2, as a local paper runs an obituary for his alias, Renee Zeldman. Ultimately subverted, as it turned out he faked it.
      • Played straight in the finale, he gets an on-screen death.
  • Light Is Not Good: A very small subtle example: In the Season 2 finale, we see a very bright light, which implies to lead into the Egyptian afterlife. But Nina is heading toward it, with Senkhara possessing her... if she'd actually succeeded in going in, they'd never see them again. (and who knows what Senkhara would have done with the power of gods...)
  • Love Triangle: Amber/Mick/Mara/Alfie in Season 1, Nina/Fabian/Joy in Season 2
  • Manipulative Bastard: Jerome
  • The Messiah: Nina being concerned about Victor's health when Senkhara threatens him pushes her into this territory. She takes it Up to Eleven in the finale, when she pleads with Rufus not to put on the Mask of Anubis and fights to prevent him from doing so. The whole time, she gives off the impression that she's worried about what will happen to him if he puts on the Mask. You can't get much more Messiah-like than being concerned about the well-being of a sociopath who would just as soon kill you as look at you.
  • The Mole: Trudy's replacement, introduced in House Of Protection, is revealed to be The Mole for someone outside of the house.
  • Mysterious Waif: Sarah seems to be a rare elderly example.
  • New Transfer Student: Nina in Season 1, Eddie in Season 2.
  • Noble Demon: Although Jason Winkler joins the Society and thus becomes one of the bad guys, he is still shown to be a generally nice guy. Of course, he only joins the Society because he has a degenerative disease and will die unless he gains immortality by drinking out of the Cup. Mr. Sweet and Ms. Andrews also show themselves to be concerned for the students as well. (Such as when Rufus kidnaps Patricia.)
    • Victor as well, demonstrated on multiple occasions.
  • No MacGuffin, No Winner: Sort of. The McGuffin is used once, but the accompanying elixir necessary to use it turns out to be fake, so it doesn't work. The end of the series has the McGuffin buried under the house, with only the heroes, (and possibly only one of them), knowing where it is.
    • Again at the end of Season 2: Presumably, the Mask of Anubis will now leave the house with the rest of the Egyptian exhibition, putting it out of reach of both sides. Even if it doesn't, the only person in the house who can use it has no intention of doing so.
  • Oblivious to Love: Fabian seems like this for a while.
  • Official Couple: Nina and Fabian.(Though they try to deny it...see Everyone Can See It)
  • Older Than They Look: Victor is really ninety-five. Ditto for Rufus Zeno.
  • Only Sane Employee: Trudy does pretty much all the actual running of the House, all Victor does is creep around and hand out punishments to the kids when they get too close to his secrets which is what lets them know they're getting close.
  • Only the Pure of Heart: The Mask of Anubis works this way. See below.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: Anyone who wears the real Mask of Anubis will go to the afterlife, but they must be pure of heart to enter. When Rufus wore it, he was immediately deemed unworthy, then he and Senkhara were dragged downward through a hellish portal.
  • The Paragon: Nina is explicitly referred to as this during Season 2.
  • The Prankster: Alfie
  • Precision F-Strike:

Jerome: Wow, our school really does suck at sports.

  • Reality Warper: Senkhara's powers have shades of this. She's marked most of the cast with the Mark of Anubis in their dreams; caused Fabian's memory to fail, Alfie to age backwards and Amber forward, and Patrica to lose her voice; and forced a non-stone Taken for Granite state on Vera.
  • Recut: Sort of. Nick is running all of the episodes again, but with some new lines of dialogue added in.
  • The Reveal: The Collector is Rufus Zeno.
  • Scholarship Student: Once again, Nina
  • Self-Deprecation: In-universe example:

Nina: I guess I am a little scared. The last time I felt like this, I threw up on my kindergarten teacher.
Driver: No, that'd just be my driving.

Jerome: Speak of the devil. Literally. I'm surprised my phone didn't burst into flames.

  • Squick: The entire 'Goose ate a gem, and they need it back' incident, in-universe and out-of-universe. Let's just leave it at that
    • Victor and Vera as well. Especially in-universe
  • Take That: Fabian's comment that "just because it doesn't have Robert Pattinson on the cover doesn't mean it's not worth reading" sounds like a Take That to the Twilight books, but when you think about it a little longer, you realize that it's actually a Take That to celebrity magazines.
  • Taxidermy Is Creepy: Especially Corbierre.
  • Teacher-Student Romance: Mara takes pictures of Mick innocently laughing with a teacher and then sends them in to the school anonymously, making it seem like this in House of Emergency.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Nina quits the Sibuna club for all of one episode. Not even one episode, more like half of one. Even while she's trying to remain uninvolved, she can't help but solve the latest clue.
  • Those Two Guys: Jerome and Alfie start as this, but become more involved in the main plot later on. Mara and Mick fit this mold, although Mara is vaguely aware of Patricia's activities for a while.
  • Thrash Metal: In Season 2, Patricia is supposed to book a classical quintet to play at the Egyptian exhibition, but Eddie messes it up and gets a thrash metal band instead. Victor doesn't take it well, but luckily for Patricia, the band knows how to play classical music too.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Joy has been acting like a colossal Jerkass in Season 2, capped off with writing a vicious attack article about Nina all because of jealousy over the fact that Fabian loves Nina and not her. ((In her words, Nina has "stolen her boyfriend" even though she and Fabian were never dating.) If we're to believe Patricia and Fabian, this isn't the way that the Joy they know and love typically acts.
    • Though she has gotten called out on it, by Amber, Jerome and Eddie in front of their entire class, and even Patricia thinks Joy can't continue to re-use her excuse of having been kidnapped last term as to why everyone's so out of sync with her.
  • Trans-Atlantic Equivalent: For the above mentioned Het Huis Anubis. There is also a German version of the series called Das Haus Anubis. Both series are very sucessful, and the German version is still running today, while the Dutch version got a spin off called The House of Anubis and the Five of the Magical Sword that surrounds around a new set of students who have really active senses. The new landlords of the house are after their senses for their own use.
  • True Companions: The Sibuna gang
  • Tsundere: Patricia and Eddie, Type A, to each other. Eddie refers to being deredere/honest as "lowering his force field". When Patricia stays tsuntsun, he vwooshes it back up.
  • Turncoat: Jason Winkler starts out helping Patricia in Season 1, but betrays her to join the Secret Society. He had a good reason though; he was dying from a degenerative disease and the Cup of Ankh was his only way out.
  • Turn the Other Cheek: Nina does this a few times for Patricia. And later once for Joy.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Nina and Particia, occasionally.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Nina has an American flag on her luggage in the first episode, but discards it, saying that it would prevent her from fitting in. It was probably meant to inform viewers that Nina was American, (because obviously no viewer would figure that out) and then was ditched after it had served that function.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Alfie has trouble getting his father's praise.
  • Wham! Line: Not a specific line, but a moment: The scene where Nina's grandmother turns out to be Senkhara's "timepiece". Seriously no one saw that coming.
  • What Does She See in Him?: Mick says this regarding Amber's supposed crush on Alfie.

Mick: What on Earth does she see in him?
Jerome: Well, they say love is blind, mate.
Mick: It'd have to be blind and have no sense of smell.

  • What Would X Do?: In one scene, Amber asks "What would Victoria Beckham do?"
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Amber says this during a discussion of Egyptian mythology in class.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Alfie pulls one off in House Of Agendas.
  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Justified. The science teacher does follow up his Latin statements with their English translations, but only because he is speaking to students who don't know Latin and therefore wouldn't be reasonably expected to understand the untranslated statements.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: The Sibuna gang agonize over how to open the puzzle box early in the series, only to have it open by itself when Fabian drops it and it turns to the correct combination.
  • You're Just Jealous: Mara to Patricia in House of Scares.
  1. She gave him a box of chocolate covered worms from a French company, thinking that the stupid American wouldn't be able to tell what they were
  2. French for "liar", complete with the correct gender variation
  3. A form of government where a person's role is decided by their level of skill or merit