Hunting the Unicorn: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Here is there, and high is low; all may be undone. What is true, no two men know; what is gone is gone." Fairy tales are harder to live through than you'd think.''|The story's summary.}}

 

 

 

Excerpts and poetry from the novel set each chapter's tone, and several scenes are inspired by parts of the book. While it is certainly not a ''happy'' story, there are lighter moments that keep it from being too depressing.

 

 

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Averted with the Dalton staff, although Blaine's parents aren't too useful.

* [[All Love Is Unrequited]]: Blaine comes damn close. Two guys were his unrequited love interests, his father's emotionally negligent, and two more guys had to deal with Blaine's own [[Selective Obliviousness]]. Five people, one successful relationship. {{spoiler|And Alex makes it six.}}

* [[A Man Is Always Eager]]: [[Played With]]. There's nothing wrong with losing your virginity once you're legally able to consent--it's when you also think ''[[Sex Equals Love]]'' that things [[Break the Cutie|end badly.]]

* [[Anguished Declaration of Love]]: Blaine [[Cannot Spit It Out|doesn't actually say]] he loves Kurt yet, but it's obvious what his huge speech in ''The Clock'' means.

* [[Anxiety Dreams]] / [[Bad Dreams]]: Blaine (both) and Kurt (the second). Both are symbolic.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Wes wins any bet he makes, and a past Warbler nearly ''died'' because he wasn't careful. Played for laughs until he ups the ante on [[Duet Bonding|a Kurt/Blaine duet at Regionals.]]

* [[The Bet]]: "Kurt and Blaine ''will'' hook up within the next decade, it's just a matter of what will finally do it."

* [[Becoming the Mask]] / [[Love Redeems]]: Blaine's good manners used to be just a habit. Then poor, miserable Kurt came along, and Blaine liked making him happy.

** {{spoiler|Kurt's not taking Blaine's abduction very well.}}

* [[Big Fancy House]]: The Andersons' mansion. Has a voice-activated gate, a huge driveway (that Wes implies to be on the ''small'' side), a pool, and two theaters. Blaine's theater has movies from the 1920s, and at first Kurt thought it was just a really big room until Blaine started opening a bunch of secret compartments.

** Depressingly lampshaded by Kurt in ''The Harpy'' when he tells his mom he has to remind Blaine that "he is in fact his boyfriend and not his liege lord" to which Blaine always gives him confused [[Puppy Dog Eyes]]. So yeah, Kurt sees the Courtly in [[Courtly Love]] in-universe apparently.

* [[But Not Too Foreign]]: Blaine and Wes are half-Filipino. It turns out relevant to Blaine's character.

* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: Blaine tries to call his dad out on his [[Parental Neglect]]--but he's concussed and can't seem to recognize that he's actually talking to [[Parental Substitute|Greg,]] who is very clearly concerned.

* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: The Warblers are increasingly annoyed by Kurt and Blaine's inability to say "I love you."

* [[Central Theme]]: [[Purity Personified|Purity]]--[[Deconstruction|how it wouldn't work in reality]], and [[Reconstruction|how it would]].

** Being broken [[Reconstruction|can make you a better person.]]

** Desire. There's "what you want vs. what you ''say'' you want," "what you want vs. what someone else wants," and even "what you want vs. what ''else'' you want." Implicitly, "what you want vs. what's right" is there if you squint.

* [[Cerebus Retcon]]: Three major aspects of Blaine's character have been retconned: Blaine's [[Knight in Shining Armor]] personality, played as straight as possible, would be [[Deconstruction|extremely unhealthy]] in modern society. His [[Oblivious to Love|obliviousness to love]] is even ''less'' fun when you're not Kurt; on the sad side, Blaine completely believed a friend's excuse to invoke a [[Dance of Romance]]--[[Department of Redundancy Department|alone, in an empty room, with nobody watching]]. On the [[Fridge Horror]] side, {{spoiler|he has no idea that he's garnered the attentions of a stalker.}}

** Klaine's [[But Not Too Gay|annoying chastity]] is torn apart. Unlike most fanfics where Kurt is the wibbly, terrified [[Uke]], Blaine seems to project that image on him because {{spoiler|Blaine tried to invoke [[Sex Equals Love]] out of loneliness and naivete}}. Not only did that fail hard, he was pretty clearly unprepared for his siblings [[Beware the Nice Ones|going crazy]] and is now carrying lots of emotional baggage. Their [[Sickeningly Sweethearts]] portrayal is an extension of this.

** The Warblers treat everything as [[Serious Business]], which means Blaine had no idea they were [[Crying Wolf|genuinely worried]] about {{spoiler|the stalker following him around}}.

* [[Character Development]]: Blaine and the Warblers get a lot of fleshing out, as does Karofsky.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: In ''The Cat,'' [[Code Name|Jerry]] from the fourth chapter reappears. {{spoiler|It's Greg.}}

* [[Chekhov's Skill|Chekhov's Habit]]: David writes everything down. {{spoiler|It comes in handy when you're keeping track of a stalker.}}

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: Averted in ''The Cat.'' A concussed Blaine, who is in {{spoiler|his stalker's basement}} instead of a hospital, calls his dad and finally [[Calling the Old Man Out|calls him out]] on his neglect. ...Except he's talking to [[Parental Substitute|Greg]].

** [[Played With]] in ''The Skull.'' Kurt finds Blaine in an alley, calls it the [[Lampshade Hanging|"best coincidence ever,"]] and starts calling Finn over. {{spoiler|Which lets Alex find them.}}

* [[Cool Big Sis]] ''and'' [[Big Brother Mentor|Brother]]: Blaine's siblings Kyle and Lydia are respectively a photographer and an art student studying in California, and have a much better relationship with Blaine than their parents do. Then again, it doesn't do much good since [[Lonely Rich Kid|they're not home very often]].

* [[Courtly Love]]: A depressing take on Kurt and Blaine's [[But Not Too Gay]] portrayal. Kurt's not too enthusiastic on the matter of sex, but Blaine takes it ''really'' far. And he has a [[The First Cut Is the Deepest|reason]].

* [[Culture Clash]] / [[Values Dissonance]]: A source of conflict for Blaine, whose mother is old-fashioned.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: A literal (attempted) curb-stomp is mentioned in Blaine's flashback about Terry.

* [[Damned By Faint Praise]]: The only thing Kyle can say about his and Blaine's father is that he could be worse.

* [[Dance of Romance]]: Terry tried to invoke this. [[Subverted Trope|It didn't work.]]

* [[Deconstruction Fic]]: ''And how''. Ties in nicely with [[Cerebus Retcon]] above.

** Blaine's chivalrous nature makes him a good person, but he's also insecure, fragile, and naive. The Warblers poke fun at how [[Sickeningly Sweethearts|painfully romantic]] and [[But Not Too Gay|chaste]] he is, while his decision to let Kurt go back to McKinley is derided as [[Extreme Doormat|being Kurt's bitch]]. On the other hand, the Warblers, Greg, and Blaine's siblings are so protective of him that he ''doesn't tell them things'' because he's afraid they'll [[Disproportionate Retribution|overreact]].

* [[Deuteragonist]]: Blaine (deuteragonist) and Kurt (protagonist).

* [[Did Not Get the Girl|Did Not Get The Guy]]: Terry didn't get Blaine.

* [[Dramatic Irony]]: The fic ''runs'' on Type Two.

** For someone who always worries about his boyfriend getting hurt by the cold, cruel world, Blaine is the one in genuine need of protection by the thirteenth chapter. {{spoiler|And the nineteenth.}}

** Blaine is the perfect boyfriend because the rest of his life is ''miserable''. Which he refuses to complain about because his [[Parental Neglect|parents]] taught him to be chivalrous.

** Blaine phones his dad and [[Calling the Old Man Out|finally calls him out]] on his [[Parental Neglect]]. The problem is, he's concussed and has no idea he's actually talking to [[Parental Substitute|Greg]].

* [[Dude Magnet]]: Blaine is a toned-down example with "only" two guys on his record {{spoiler|plus one he doesn't know about}}, but he makes it up in [[All Love Is Unrequited|sadness]] and [[Fridge Horror|terror]].

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Blaine's family: A well-meaning but [[Values Dissonance|extremely old-fashioned]] mother, a [[Parental Neglect|distant]] father, a [[Parental Substitute]], and two well-adjusted, caring older siblings... [[When You Coming Home, Dad?|who are almost never home]].

** Averted in ''Nikos,'' which [[It Got Worse|gets worse]] in ''The Cat.'' Blaine gets a concussion, wakes up with no memory of the past half-hour (during which David and Wes say that he was rambling incoherently), and after calling home he mistakes his [[Parental Substitute]] Greg for his dad.

* [[Epiphany Therapy]]: [[Subverted Trope|Subverted.]] Blaine has an epiphany in ''The Harpy,'' but it's a messy ramble that doesn't solve his issues.

* [[Exact Eavesdropping]]: [[Played With]]. Wes and David track Kurt for ''three hours'' before [[Fan Nickname|the Kliss]], but then they accidentally watch Kurt tell Blaine about his nightmare.

** And then comes ''The Clock.''

** And '''''[[Up to Eleven|Nikos.]]'''''

* [[Exact Words]]: Fans of the novel may have noticed that in ''The Hunters,'' the quotes that the author uses are from the beginning of TLU. The story will end "when she runs out of quotes"--she never said anything about chronological order.

** Blaine's "never been anyone's boyfriend." {{spoiler|He just really, really wanted to be.}}

* [[Fatal Flaw]]: Blaine's unquestioning trust in people is heading towards this.

* [[The First Cut Is the Deepest]]: {{spoiler|Oh, Blaine.}} Bonus points for {{spoiler|the guy being his ''literal'' first.}}

* [[The Four Loves]]: Blaine's lack of Storge ([[Parental Neglect|intended]] and [[When You Coming Home, Dad?|unintended]]) means that he throws himself into Eros and Phileo. The former led to him {{spoiler|losing his virginity in an attempt to invoke [[Sex Equals Love]]}}, which [[Break the Cutie|didn't go well]], and his Agape has attracted {{spoiler|his stalker Alex.}}

** On the positive side, the Warblers are a perfect example of Phileo and the Eros with Kurt is mutually genuine. Blaine's siblings and Greg are also an example of Storge, even if two-thirds of them aren't there to show it.

* [[Heroic Self-Deprecation]]: Blaine's lack of self-esteem shows painfully in his [[Love Martyr]] and [[Extreme Doormat]] personality.

* [[Hero Secret Service]]: The Warblers are a minor case for Blaine, and they are ''very'' right to do so.

* [[Horrible Judge of Character]]: ''Blaine.'' [[Played With]] in that while he ''is'' [[Selective Obliviousness|selectively oblivious]], his real flaw comes from being insanely trusting.

* [[If I Can't Have You]]: {{spoiler|Alex threatens to run over a concussed Blaine ''with Blaine's car'' if David or Wes calls 911.}}

* [[I Have This Friend]]: {{spoiler|Who has a stalker.}}

** In a serious example, Kyle lampshades how ridiculous it would be for someone to ''turn down'' {{spoiler|sleeping with Blaine.}}

** "We forgot about [[Chekhov's Gun|David's cuff-links]]."

* [[Locked Out of the Loop]]: [[Played With]]. The Warblers try ''not'' to lock Blaine out, but since [[Serious Business|they treat everything as a life-or-death matter,]] Blaine thinks they're just exaggerating about that guy hanging around campus.

* [[Lonely Rich Kid]]: Blaine, so much.

* [[Love Hurts]]: For Blaine, romantically and otherwise.

** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] in ''The Princess'' and ''The Harpy.''

** And ''The Cat.''

* [[May-December Romance|May-September Romance]]: Besides Kurt, at least two of Blaine's past love interests are older. Jeremiah's [[Vague Age|older]], Terry works for UPS while Blaine's still in school, and the guy in ''The Princess'' is implied to be older since Kyle puts so much emphasis on Blaine being sixteen. {{spoiler|Alex is older, too.}}

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: Not exact echoes, but:

'''Blaine to Kurt:''' Would you want to stay with me?<ref> He's asking if Kurt would stay with him at Dalton, given the choice.</ref> ([[Foregone Conclusion|Kurt wouldn't.]])<br />

* [[Men Don't Cry]]: Averted. It's okay for men to cry when they go through as much as [[The Woobie|Kurt]] does. Or if their heart is [[Love Hurts|utterly broken]] like Blaine's is.

** Or if they're getting therapy and facing particularly hard mistakes.

* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Blaine's mother disapproves of Blaine's singing, though it's not as clear-cut as most examples: She's Filipino, [[Self-Made Man|grew up poor]], and doesn't want Blaine to end up a [[Starving Artist]]. Wes calls her traditional despite his own mother being Filipino.

** [[Played With]] in ''The Princess''--after Kurt talks about how crazy [[Papa Wolf|Burt]] would go in Blaine's situation, Blaine's mother ''doesn't'' take {{spoiler|Blaine losing his virginity}} very seriously.

** They also set up [[Hero Secret Service|a buddy system]] to keep track of Blaine once David {{spoiler|realizes Blaine is getting stalked.}}

** Wes and David {{spoiler|''force Alex to kidnap them'' because they won't leave Blaine alone}}. The other Warblers are {{spoiler|helping the police look for them.}}

* [[No Name Given]]: {{spoiler|Blaine's first.}}

* [[Noodle Incident]]: How did Blaine end up stranded in the rain with a drunk Wes and David? Wes ''won'' a bet.

** David and Wes once hospitalized Blaine's dad while the Andersons' mansion was being renovated. It made the paramedics laugh at him.

* [[Oblivious to Love]]: Blaine, ''so much.'' And with ''The Butterfly,'' it has a terrifying bent.

* [[Oh Crap]]: When David realizes that {{spoiler|Blaine's stalker has slipped past campus security [[Right Under Their Noses|disguised as a delivery guy]].}}

* [[Papa Wolf]] / [[Mama Bear]]: Greg, Burt, and Carole, in a strong contrast to Blaine's parents. Emphasized in ''King Haggard,'' where Luke asks Greg why he didn't find out {{spoiler|Blaine got kidnapped}} until hours later.

* [[Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality]]: Obviously Kurt, but David reveals that Blaine has "chivalrous panic attacks" about pushing Kurt too much. Both are (un)motivated by a host of insecurities, played for dramedy. And we've found out that {{spoiler|Blaine's not a virgin, which makes all of the jokes sound horrible now.}}

** Later, we see Blaine get uncomfortable listening to [[Spring Awakening|"Touch Me"]]. He also takes ''lots'' of [[Shower of Angst|cold showers]] to deal with his feelings, and he can barely talk about it to anyone.

* [[Parental Neglect]]: Luke to Blaine. {{spoiler|And Blaine's mother is incredibly lax on sex-ed.}}

* [[Played for Drama]] / [[Played for Laughs]]: Sometimes both at the same time. It's a [[Glee]] fanfic, after all.

** {{spoiler|And forcing the stalker to kidnap them if he doesn't want them to call the police.}}

* [[The Power of Love]]: Is great, but [[Deconstruction|not enough]] to keep Kurt or Blaine from having insane insecurities. Or for Kurt to stay at Dalton.

** David, Nick, Trent, and Wes drag Blaine to counseling. ''Literally.''

** ''Nikos'' starts with Kurt and Blaine saying "I love you," {{spoiler|abruptly cuts to Blaine, Wes, and David getting kidnapped,}} and ends with the Warblers freaking out via text-message.

** ''The Hunters:'' {{spoiler|Blaine's not a virgin.}} Elaborated via [[Flash Back]] in ''The Princess.''

** ''The Butterfly:'' {{spoiler|Blaine has a stalker.}} In ''Nikos,'' {{spoiler|he kidnaps Blaine, Wes, and David.}}

** ''Everyone'' is keeping some kind of secret from each other. Except Kurt and Blaine.

* [[Seme]] / [[Uke]]: [[Played With]]. Blaine looks like a standard ''seme'', but is unbelievably trusting and naive. Meanwhile, Kurt looks like a standard ''uke'' but is far more assertive and confident than Blaine.

** Which has now been [[Cerebus Retcon|Cerebus Retconned]] (see [[Crying Wolf]] above).

* [[Sex Equals Love]]: [[Reality Ensues|Not necessarily]]. [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] if you try to ''invoke'' it.

* [[Ship Tease]]: Jeff and Nick. They're almost always together, there's a reference to Jeff and Nick being the subject of Warbler bets, and considering Nick got hauled into counseling and won't tell anyone ''why''...

** In ''The Butterfly,'' a stoned Nick accidentally falls in the swimming pool and somehow mistakes Jeff for [[Batman]]. [[Lampshade Hanging|Nick then remembers his last name is Grayson.]] [[Subverted Trope|And worries that "Bruce" will whoop his ass for cursing so much.]]

** In ''Drinn,'' Nick insists that Jeff give Blaine a hug, because [[It Makes Sense in Context|Jeff's the only one pretty enough to cancel out the estrogen in Blaine's system.]]

** The shout-outs to [[Team Starkid]] and [[Harry Potter]].

** Blaine is [[Actor Allusion|half-Filipino,]] his eyes are [[Eyes of Gold|tawny]] like Molly Grue's, and he twists his hands like Lir.

** Nick's last name is Grayson. His name is ''[[Batman|Nick Grayson.]]'' Lampshaded in ''The Butterfly.''

** The Warblers need a countertenor for most ''[[Rent]]'' songs, so they'll have to settle for ''[[Spring Awakening]].''

* [[Shower of Angst|Shower Of Repressed Sexuality]]: Blaine takes a lot of them.

** [[Unicorn|Unicorns]] are frequently thought of as sweet, helpless, and pure, and this is why Blaine's dreams involve Kurt turning into one or vice versa. But the author compares Kurt to the medieval unicorn, which is a symbol of pure ''[[Pure Is Not Good|wildness.]]''

* [[Sickeningly Sweethearts]]: [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] in that Blaine has no other outlet for love besides Kurt, and he's also really conflicted about the ''other'' kind of feelings.

* [[Sir Swearsalot]]: Nick. Trying to watch his language makes things worse.

* [[Skewed Priorities]]: Nick was more worried about getting caught smoking weed than of ''potentially drowning.'' And the Warblers value their bets over the fuzzy legality of tampering with security cameras, although they do have lines they won't cross regarding Kurt and Blaine's privacy.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: The Warblers, who use a profuse amount of [[Precision F-Strike|Precision F Strikes]].

'''David:''' According to what I learned in Psych, inexplicable crying means that something's been fucked over! }}

* [[Subtext]]: Several of these tropes are implied heavily at most. And let's not forget the dreams.

** There's also ''The Creatures of Night,'' where the Warblers listen to "[[Spring Awakening|Touch Me]]" and Blaine ends up uncomfortable.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: In ''The Hunters,'' Blaine claims that he's not repressing his feelings. Though he ''is'' repressing his feelings about Kurt, they're [[Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality|very specific ones]].

* [[Theme Naming]]: Ky'''l'''e, B'''l'''aine, and '''L'''ydia. Their father is '''L'''uke.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Blaine avoids dealing with his issues because "they're not that bad" compared to Kurt's. They certainly aren't, but they're still pretty serious.

** No longer applicable, as of ''The Hunters.''

* [[Thicker Than Water]]: Blaine won't let ''anyone'' question how his parents raised him, and he puts up with his father's [[Parental Neglect]] by saying things could be worse.

* [[Two Scenes, One Dialogue|Three Scenes, Two Dialogues:]] ''The Princess'' jumps between three different scenes (denoted by '''then, now,''' and '''later''') and two dialogues. The first scene is what happened to Blaine a year earlier, while the second and third scenes are about Blaine telling Sarah and Kurt about it.

* [[Title Drop]]: In ''The Hunters.''

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Blaine, physically ''and'' emotionally.

* [[Undercover Cop Reveal]]: {{spoiler|Greg is Jerry.}}

* [[The Unfavorite]]: Blaine. When he tries to call home and get a ride from his dad, it takes three tries and his ''brother'' finally answers. It's implied this has happened before.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: Only the freshmen at Dalton care that four Warblers are hauling Blaine around like a sack of potatoes. Apparently, they do this for at least one of their number every year.

** Ms. Bradford bumps into Nick and Jeff, who are both soaking wet, and Nick is acting strangely (because he's high, but she doesn't know this). She immediately "gives the nurse a head's up."

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Blaine.

** ''Nikos.''

** "Having a rough patch, [[Code Name|Tom?]]" Said to the dean by {{spoiler|Greg}}.

** David and Wes don't know they're being recorded either. When they need to decide between {{spoiler|calling 911 or running, which would risk Blaine getting run over}}, they [[Take a Third Option]] by {{spoiler|forcing Alex to kidnap ''all three of them.''}}

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: The Warblers think Kurt and Blaine are a fairy tale couple and desperately want them to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, this story is based on ''two'' deconstructions of that very thing.

** Terry may have thought he and Blaine would be [[High School Sweethearts]]. Unfortunately for him, that title goes to Kurt.

** And {{spoiler|Blaine's stalker Alex}} thinks that 1) Blaine is in an [[All Take and No Give]] relationship, and 2) he's the [[Dogged Nice Guy]] who'll end up with Blaine in the end.

** They try to change Kurt's ringtone to a "[[The Power of Love|Love overcomes all]]" song ([[Aqualung]]'s "Brighter Than Sunshine"), but accidentally change it to a sad song (Augustana's "Boston"). Kurt's just confused.

** They hack Blaine's Facebook to send Kurt a marriage request and [[Refuge in Audacity|a five-page poem]]. As gay marriage is still largely illegal in the US, it's a sore spot for Blaine.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Troper Works]]