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My Teacher Is an Alien: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.MyTeacherIsAnAlien 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.MyTeacherIsAnAlien, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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* [[Aliens Are Bastards]]: Zig-zagged, although they are well-meaning and mostly peaceful, they ''do'' want to destroy Earth because of their somewhat justified belief that [[Humans Are Bastards]].
* [[Alien Lunch]]: The alien food replicators ''attempt'' to create an approximation of Earth cuisine. The "french fry/blueberry pancake" did not work out as well as planned.
* [[Alien Non-Interference Clause]]: In the last book the kids and the aliens are under specific instructions only to observe human behavior and not to interfere in any situation. Predictably, a [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]] situation eventually presents itself.
* [[Alliterative Name]]: Susan Simmons and Duncan Dougal.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: Duncan goes from a minor supporting character in the first book to being the protagonist of the second and goes through the biggest arch by the series end.
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* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: It is implied during the torture scene of the fourth book that a woman is about to be raped, pressing Broxholm's [[Berserk Button]] and leading the aliens and children to violate the [[Alien Non Interference Clause]].
* [[Gray and Gray Morality]]: Are humans bastards or [[Rousseau Was Right|was Rousseau right?]] The books suggest that neither answer is a simple as it seems.
* [[Green
* [[Hive Mind]]: {{spoiler|The kids and the aliens eventually discover that the entire human race was once a hive mind, but that we forcibly isolated our minds from each other because of the incredible strain created by the swelling population. Our violent ways are the result of subconscious trauma that comes of not being connected to one another as we're designed to be}}.
* [[Hidden Depths]]: Duncan starts off as a [[Jerkass]] bully character but eventually grows into a more well-rounded character.
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* [[Narrative Profanity Filter]]: Broxholm's reaction to television is "'I spit in deep disgust at your decision to play in your own garbage.' Only the last word wasn't 'garbage'."
* [[New Media Are Evil]]: Hoo-Lan feels that triggering the invention of television was like giving a loaded rifle to a child instead of a watergun. At the time, he was ''trying'' to slow down humanity's technological progress by [[Distracted By the Shiny|"Turning their brains into swiss cheese"]]. You know, by [[Fridge Logic|improving global communications]].
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: The kids' efforts to thwart Broxholm in the first book actually end up hurting their cause later.
* [[Ninety Percent of Your Brain]]: A major concept in the series, humans supposedly would be the most intelligent species in the universe [[Humans Are Morons|if only we used all of our brains]].
* [[No Big Deal]]: Dozens of people see Broxholm unmasked and even more watch his ship escape, but the town's reaction seems to be just pretending en masse that it never happened. There're some hints that the government hushed things up, but it's never fleshed out.
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* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: The various aliens fall all over this scale.
* [[Snooping Little Kid]]: What the main characters essentially are in the first two books, in their attempts to get proof that their teacher is an alien.
* [[Some Call Me... Tim]]: In the last book, the protagonists meet an alien who fills a whole room. When asking for its name, they find out his name is long and [[The Unpronounceable|almost unpronounceable]], sounding something like "Uhuurbeheegjuli"; Duncan mishears "Big Julie" (sounding like a character from ''[[Guys and Dolls]]'') and the name sticks. There is also "Doc Croc" whose real name is Kritzklumpf but Peter calls him this way internally before learning his name.
* [[Starfish Aliens]]: Some of the aliens have rather bizarre anatomies by human standards, especially the New Jersey ship captain who is a ''bunch of crystals in a jar''. Big Julie is an alien literally the size of a house, but who must separate into smaller, ambulatory parts in order to transport himself. Several members of the leadership council are this, including one that appears to be made of shadow and another whose body seems to be composed of "red seaweed."
** Many races are undescribed, but the third book takes pains to emphasize the [[Starfish Aliens|massive assortment of types of aliens]], including something like 30 varieties of bathrooms, [[Squick|repulsive-looking]] alien foods, and a selection of furniture so vast that it takes many minutes to select a chair (and later, a bed) that would fit a human boy comfortably.
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* [[Violence Really Is the Answer]]: The aliens are generally all high-minded pacifists who abhor violence. However, some of them are willing to destroy the human race if that's what it takes to protect the rest of the universe from us.
* [[We Need to Get Proof]]: What kicks the plot of the first two books into action.
* [[What Measure Is a Non
* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Duncan becomes this after the aliens expand his mental capacity.
* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: During his time as [[The Bully]], Duncan does this to Susan, although it was an accident.
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