Kitty Norville: Difference between revisions

* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: {{spoiler|Anastasia departing "into the West" with Xiwangmu.}} It is played reminiscently of Enoch "walking with God".

* [[Balance Between Good and Evil]]/[[Order Versus Chaos]]: It's not clear which way the series is going to fall on these tropes; Roman and his ilk definitely seem to hew toward the "[[Take Over the World|evil and darkness taking over the world]]" end, while the conflict between Grant and the Band of Tiamat is explicitly described as one fought "over the nature of the universe". In Book 7, Kitty calls such dualities false, to which Grant says "You're learning," but whatever it is they're fighting and why, it seems clear that by the end of the series there will be a big battle, and at stake will be such things as [[Harmony Versus Discipline|peace and harmony]], [[The Evils of Free Will|free will]], and of course [[The End of the World as We Know It|the fate of the supernatural world]].

* [[Bring Out Your Gay Dead]]: {{spoiler|[[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar]] T.J. gets [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]], by the straight man he once loved. Ouch. No other openly gay or lesbian characters show up.}}

** Probably subverted with {{spoiler|Tina}} in a later book. She reveals her sexuality after the [[Big Bad]] has been beaten, along with some other reveals, and that's the end. She's arguably [[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar]], though.

* [[The Commissioner Gordon]]: Detective Hardin acts as the low-ranked version of this for Kitty, though at times rather [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork|unwillingly]] and [[Deadpan Snarker|snarkily]]. Even after the decision in the Senate in book 2, people do tend to still fear/hate the supernaturals, making this a secret [[Hot Line]] version of the trope--at least as far as the public goes; other members of the force are aware of both Kitty and Hardin's focus (they call it obsession) on the paranormal, and instead react with [[All of the Other Reindeer|mockery]]. Except when the shit hits the fan and they need help, of course.

* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: In a seemingly random moment at the start of ''Kitty Raises Hell'', one of her callers claims there is a correlation between robberies, ley lines, and the location of Speedy Mart convenience stores. Though intrigued, Kitty dismisses him thanks to his [[You Have to Believe Me]] crackpot nature. However, this turns out to be a [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Charles from Shreveport, in ''Kitty Goes to War'', lays out a more detailed plot connecting the president of the company with major weather disasters over the last forty years. {{spoiler|It turns out he's absolutely right--[[He Knows Too Much|and gets killed for his troubles]].}} Even Ben is forced to admit, when the truth comes out, that Kitty may be right to be [[Properly Paranoid]].

* [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness]]: The call that puts Kitty on the map as a talk show host comes from a vampire who wants to talk about being Catholic when he literally can't enter a church, at least not without physical pain. Kitty advises him to read ''[[Paradise Lost]]''. Drawing on her English major background, she argues that Lucifer's ''real'' sin wasn't the rebellion against God itself, but his belief afterwards that he was beyond redemption. She advises her caller not to make the same mistake. By her reasoning, a vampire could still be a good Catholic, he'd just have to work harder at it than most people.

** The stakes are upped when, in book 9 Kitty meets {{spoiler|what appear to be gods}}. It leads to quite the existential crisis when she has to wonder if this truly means [[All Myths Are True]] and what she believes is called into question.

* [[Flat Earth Atheist]]: Most people in the series take the existence of the supernatural in stride; Kitty remarks that she wonders if her parents think of it as a fad or affectation on her part, but even they are willing to take her lycanthropy at face value. The seventh book, ''Kitty's House of Horrors'', introduces what might be the first determined skeptic of the series: the author Conrad Garrett, who believes that alleged supernatural people are frauds or crazy, that video footage of a werewolf shapeshifting is CGI, and that CDC reports on were-people and vampires are the result of collusion with drug companies who want to make money off the conditions. It's arguably justified, though, since [[The Masquerade]] only was broken in the first book of the series, so there would still be a fair amount of skeptics around.

* [[Friendly Local Chinatown]]: ''Kitty's Big Trouble'' is largely set in [[San Francisco]]'s.

* [[HeelDeadly Face Door SlamChange-of-Heart]]: {{spoiler|Walters.}}

* [[Hermetic Magic]]: Franklin's weather summoning definitely has flavors of this. {{spoiler|Being from the Victorian era, so do Amelia Parker's spells.}}

* [[HilaritySued Suesfor Superheroics]] (subverted)

** And the guy Kitty dated in college, and the {{spoiler|fake}} vampire master of Las Vegas, although you'd expect it from him. Also probably [[Van Helsing Hate Crimes|Senator Duke and Dr. Flemming]]. We know that they lost a lawsuit, but they kidnapped someone and were party to murder; losing a lawsuit seems like a poor substitute for jail time. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in their case, of course.

* <s>[[Mars Needs Women]]</s> [[Mars Needs Women|Pack Needs Bitches]]: How Kitty's plan to capture the renegade wolves in book eight, via [[Distracted by the Sexy]], almost goes horribly wrong. Filled with all kinds of [[Unfortunate Implications]], which are [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledged]] by both Ben and Kitty.

* [[The Maze]]: The tunnels underneath San Francisco in book 9. They don't appear to be a [[Mobile Maze]], but thanks to their magic it is pretty much impossible to navigate them without Grace's lantern. There are also a number of traps (some, possibly all, set up and watched over by {{spoiler|[[The Trickster|the Monkey King]]}}).

** The best example of a Monster Mash in this series is book 7, Kitty's House of Horrors, which begins with reality TV show producers assembling all the supernatural celebrities they can: Kitty the werewolf talk radio host, a werewolf pro wrestler, a were-seal Alaska state legislator, a TV medium and stage magician who are both the real thing, a vampire beauty pageant winner, and someone from a supernatural investigation TV show who has psychic powers herself.

* [[Myth Arc]]: Beginning with book four, every story has tied in somehow to an ongoing conflict that apparently is an extension of vampire politics, called the Long Game. As publicly-acknowledged supernatural person, a diplomatic-minded werewolf, and for that matter as a leader for werewolves at all, Kitty is a wildcard in that.

* [[Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot]]: Ben, the {{spoiler|werewolf lawyer ex-part-time-bounty hunter}}. Cormac, the ex-bounty hunter {{spoiler|possessed by the ghost of a witch}}. Tyler, the werewolf Green Beret.

** A secondary example: a significant portion of ''Dead Man's Hand'' is spent building up Evan and Brenda as [[Ax Crazy]] bounty hunters who believe the best prey is werewolves. But, while they certainly fall into [[Anti-Hero]] camp and are hardly the most trustworthy people, in the end it turns out that {{spoiler|they're not really after Kitty at all, it's Sylvia and Boris who are the bounty hunters she should fear. And they even help rescue Kitty from the Band of Tiamat, and see to it that Boris and Sylvia go to jail}}.

{{quote| '''Kitty''': So now that you're talking can I ask you a question, Dorian? You have a portrait in the attic or what?<br />

''(Dorian groans; Anastasia throws a pillow at her)''<br />

'''Gemma''': What's so funny?<br />

{{quote| ''I couldn't save everyone; I'd had that demonstrated to me all too clearly. But if you didn't try, you might end up not saving anyone. I had to try.''<br />

'''Ben''': Sometimes you can't fix everything. You can argue your best case in front of the most sympathetic judge and jury in the world--and sometimes you still won't win.<br />

'''Kitty''': I'm not sure this is about winning. [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|It's about proving that we're human]]. That we deserve a chance.<br />

* [[Ten Little Murder Victims]]: Something like this plays out in ''Kitty's House of Horrors''. {{spoiler|It's all a subversion.}} The panicky, incompetent, suspiciously underinformed person {{spoiler|isn't the mole, but survives anyway}}. The competent but high-strung person who constantly accuses someone else of being the mole {{spoiler|isn't the mole, and also survives}}. The helpful, amiable person with lots of useful abilities {{spoiler|isn't the mole either. No one is. However, almost everyone besides those three and the narrator dies. Everyone in the house was an intended victim}}.

* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: The view of some vampires. Or as Rick puts it, "[[The End of the World as We Know It|The end of the world is all some vampires have to look forward to]]."

* [[Wizard Duel]]: Between [[Elemental Powers|Harold]] [[An Ice Person|Franklin]] and {{spoiler|possessed}} [[Took a Level Inin Badass|Cormac]]. Thanks to Franklin making the mistake of [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|meddling with powers he did not comprehend]], and assuming he could simply [[What an Idiot!|call on all the deities of thunder and storms simultaneously]] (because after all [[Did Not Do the Research|they're all the same, right?]] And [[Bigger Is Better|more is better?]]), the fight is short but oh so sweet.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Both Mercedes and {{spoiler|Roman}} are good at these. One of the best would be setting up Arturo, the Master Vampire of Denver who, even in book 1, had turned out to be something of a [[Noble Demon]] or even an [[Anti-Villain]], to look like he was responsible for {{spoiler|the vampire war with Rick}} when really he was as much a victim and dupe as anything else--if Rick went up against Arturo and lost, Arturo would be beholden to Mercedes and {{spoiler|Roman}}, thus giving them even more power in the Long Game; if instead Rick wins, they were confident in their ability to get him under their control too. The plan was only ruined because of Kitty's return to deal with her mother's cancer, [[Didn't See That Coming|something they could not have foreseen]], and her usage of [[The Commissioner Gordon|Detective Hardin]] as an ally. The con set up in book 6 via the ifrit to be banished certainly counts as well: if Kitty capitulates to Roman, he will remove the ifrit threatening her and she will then be beholden to him within the Long Game; if she stays in Denver and tries to ride it out, her pack will either all be slain or turn on her; and if she tries to face the Band of Tiamat, she will be sacrificed for their dark chaotic cult. Again, the plan is only ruined by surprises from the outside--the Paradox PI crew (specifically, [[I See Dead People|Tina]]), T.J.'s brother Peter, and Odysseus Grant.

* [[You Keep Telling Yourself That]]: A self-inflicted version applies to Kitty, in which she continually believes she is not cut out to be an alpha, to be given so much responsibility, to be believed an expert in the supernatural, to give therapy to her fellow "monsters", to be a spokesperson once [[The Masquerade]] is broken, and certainly not to be some grand leader in the fight to save everyone from the Long Game. "It was all an act, but it seemed to fool people--they kept asking me for advice. One of these days, everyone was going to see right through it."

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