Neopets

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


From left to right: a Shoyru, Lupe, Grundo, and Aisha.

Neopets started out with a website created by Adam Powell, launched in 1999. In short, it's the virtual pet site. The basic idea is you are a Neopian (i.e., an owner) with a limit of four Neopets per account. Owners can take care of their pets by feeding them and playing with them, but there are a number of things they can do: buy and sell items, play games, discuss on the Neoboards, explore Neopia, train and battle with their Neopets, and design a webpage. Some Neopians strive to become rich, others use it as a place to post Neopets fanwork, and still others use it to win contests.

Neopets has a lot of fiction: encyclopedia articles, short stories, a rich world, comics, game premises, and ongoing Story Arcs (known as "plots") which crop up every so often. And, if in need of inspiration, The Neopets Team lets talented users post Neopets-related articles, novellas and comic strips.

The site has since evolved into a franchise—video games have been released, as well as Nickelodeon shorts and a breakfast cereal. Neopets also provides a simple, efficient way of advertising—sponsor games. These games give easy Neopoints, so they're played by a lot of Neopians every day, which provides some good advertising. It's also rather successful with merchandise; McDonald's and Burger King even had Neopets plushies as part of their kids' meals some years ago.

Special mention goes to the Neo Quest series of RPGs, which have so many tropes they all have their own page. The Neopian Times Writers Forum (NTWF for short) also has its own page, just be careful of the insanity. Lastly, a Gaiden Game to the main Neopets site, Petpet Park, also has a page.

For Neopets' spin-off game, Treasure Keepers, go here.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Neopets franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
  • Absolutely Happened: Inverted; there's "no such thing as Jelly World." Veterans and noobs alike simply adore screwing with newbies this way.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: You better hope and pray you make a ton of Neopoints in case your pet ever comes down with a disease (which can happen due to a random event); the cures, depending on the disease, range from 1,000 to over 300,000 NP. Blame the undercutters taking advantage of the random diseases given via Qasalan Expellibox (a game where you can earn Neocash without paying money, hence its popularity) for this. Same thing goes for taking advantage of the demand for items needed for avatars.
    • Has been eased a bit with the release of Key Quest, a game which awards high-demand items like Neggs and Codestones as prizes.
      • Or you can just go to the Healing Springs every half hour until your pet's healed for free.
      • There's also overriding that sickness with another sickness that has a cheaper medicine.
  • Adipose Rex: King Skarl, King Hagan, and King Kelpbeard all exude this trope, and this tends to be lampshaded by villains.
  • Aerith and Bob: Character names range from normal names like Lucy, Jake, and Rosie to names like Meerouladen and Prytariel. Alien Aishas and Grundos have a tendency to be Aeriths.
  • Affably Evil: Dr. Sloth, the first major villain in site history, is very affable despite his plans for world domination! It really sets him apart from Lord Kass and the like.
  • Alpha Bitch: The Faerie and Fire Cybunnies in the Neopedia article for the Cybunny Beauty Contest.
  • Amusing Injuries
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Each species has at least a dozen or two, from basic colors to stuff like "Baby", "Pirate", "Darigan" (Obviously Evil), "Mutant" (Body Horror), "Royal" (with both "prince" and "princess" varieties), and "8-Bit". But not "Jelly"; that's just silly.
  • Ancient Grome: Altador.
  • And I Must Scream: When a Petpetpet dies in the Habitarium, it turns into a diamond with a face on it (these you collect to gain Experience Points, thus levels and bonus Neopoints). Seeing as this falls under the category of Your Mileage May Vary, that might not qualify (the faces have a "what just happened" expression, then they smile, like, "oh, cool!").
  • Antagonist in Mourning: A 2010 Advent Calendar animation implies a heroic variant, with Magax mourning Hubrid Nox after his death in The Faerie's Ruin.
  • Anthropomorphic Shift: It used to be that most Neopets were simply 'pets' and their human owners were there. See also Was Once a Man...
  • Art Evolution: The cast of Neopets has come a long way from the first gradient-shaded pets, many of which have gone through multiple revamps since the site's introduction.
    • The most striking (and funniest) revamp was done to the Bruces: currently a race of penguins, they were originally effeminate tuxedo-wearing men. Photographs of Bruce Forsyth, to be precise.
    • Some of Neopets newest art, particularly in the recent plots and events, now incorporate gradients done the right way. The results are amazing, especially in the Faeries' Ruin comics.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Loads.
    • Master Vex, the host of Cellblock, has apparently "Never lost a game". However, he can be defeated in nine moves, nearly every time.
    • The Altador Cup--specifically, Yooyuball. The only real challenge is figuring out the quickest path to the goal, weaving through the opposing team, then shooting. Once you've got that sorted, it's just a matter of tedious repetition.
      • Partly fixed with the keyboard version. Now the opposing team is even more frustrating.
  • Ascended Glitch: Certain glitches in Yooyuball, particularly the ones who give a superfast ball or the one which has all of the players facing backwards. The Neopets Team liked them so much, they kept them in.
  • Ascended Meme: Neopian Times writers launched an intentional campaign to make it possible to paint Weewoos white. They did this by including images and mentions of White Weewoos in their Neopian Times submissions. Now, not only do White Weewoos exist, but they're the official mascot of the Neopian Times.
    • Mr. Coconut, a meme from the Editorial section of the Neopian Times that started when they featured a random entry for a Caption Contest, got his own shopkeeper and mask. The Fance Top from the same meme is now a wearable.
    • At the beginning of The Faerie's Ruin plot, a group of players made a tongue-in-cheek campaign to demand that The Neopets Team rescue the pie that turned to stone along with the faeries. When the prize shop for the plot opened, one of the prizes was a stone pie with the description "Poor pie... still stone. Mmm... crunchy."
    • During the event in which Krawk Island disappeared, players took an image of the event's main character (a Krawk named Gavril McGill) and edited in various images into his hands. Later in the year, during the Haunted Faire's "Masks of Dread" event, for completing each quest the day it was released, you received a bonus prize - a book entitled "Book of Awesome" with the cover showing Gavril holding the book. The item description: "What won't Gavril hold up next?"
  • Awesome but Impractical: A lot of the Battledome items look and sound cool, but are weaker than a stick swung by a two-year-old.
  • Badass Adorable: Pretty much every plot character, really.
    • Almost any neopet with high battledome stats.
  • Badass: Any hero or villain that isn't a Faerie.
  • Baguette Beatdown: In the game "Whack-A-Kass" (eventually changed to "Kass Basher"), one can use a baguette like a bat.
  • Ban on Politics: You can get in trouble for discussing politics or religion on the Neoboards.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: Taken to an extreme with Ghostkerchiefs, which are ghost(-like?) Petpets that haunt pockets.
  • Begone Bribe: There's a random event where a rendingly mewling Mutant Kadoatie appears and "you pay its owner 5000 Neopoints to take it away."
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Hoban and Linae.
  • Big Bad: Dr. Frank Sloth, although he hasn't been doing a whole lot lately. He's recently been upgraded to Sealed Evil in a Can.
  • Big Good: Queen Fyora and the faeries in general (barring the occasional Obviously Evil one) are considered this, complete with 100% Adoration Rating.
    • Maybe not 100% Adoration Rating. At least two pets hate the Faeries, so there may be more out there like them in the future.
  • Binary Bits and Bytes: To demonstrate a Lawyerbot Costume Pack, Neopets used a binary description [1] which translates to "It's Lawyerbot!".
  • The Blank: The original faeries.
  • Brain Food: You can make any pet eat items such as Brain Stew and Brain Kebab, although they'd presumably have to be Zombie to enjoy it.
  • Brick Joke: Editorial 540.
  • Caption Contest
  • Carnivore Confusion: Neopets eat each other as well as Petpets, apparently—Neopians can purchase Blumaroo meat, Elephante trunks, Snorkle snouts?
    • Chias have a longstanding rivalry with Lupes due to the latter's tendency to eat them. This does not take into account the factor that Chias tend to be prized for their unique food-like colorations to begin with.
    • Draik eggs are considered gourmet food. Yum...
  • Choose Your Own Adventure: Neo Adventures allow users to make their own. There was formerly a spotlight competition centered on these.
  • Circus of Fear: The Deserted Fairground.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Inevitable with the release of the lava-themed world of Moltara. Roxton and Cog can fly just a few feet over a magma without any ill effects, and none of the Neopets fixing the machine spitting a large plume of magma inside a cavern ringed with a magma river feel anything.
    • Justified somewhat with Scorchios, dragon-like Neopets which prefer high temperatures.
  • Cosmetic Award: The various competitions on the site, as well as getting top scores in most games, reward you with spiffy trophies for your profile.
  • Crap Saccharine World: When you get right down to it, Neopia's a pretty depressing place to live, what with the countless wars, attempted genocides, and multiple fates worse than death, the only reason none of the inhabitants have lost hope is that they have enough Badass Knights In Shining Armor/Lovable Rogues/Noble Demons to deal with them.
  • Creepy Doll: Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushies.
    • As well as Malevolent Sentient Plushie Poogles.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Darigan Citadel, after making peace with Meridell.
    • Special mention goes to Caylis of the Curse of Maraqua plotline. In previews for said storyline she was heavily implied to be an Evil Twin of Isca who wanted revenge for being banished due to being suspected of bringing bad luck with her powers (it went so far as to have her card in the Trading Card Game be of a "villain" alignment and an avatar suggesting Isca was "good" and Caylis was "bad"). Once the plot kicked around, however, it transpired that if anything she was a Broken Bird Dark Magical Girl who, while being cynical and unwilling to help at first, ultimately helped save Maraqua with said powers.
    • Delina the Crafting Faerie. This is a typical Dark Faerie. This is Delina.
  • Dem Bones: Captain Dread, the Pirate Kiko.
    • As well as several types of Petpets.
  • Different As Night and Day: Skarl and Hagan, the rulers of Meridell and Brightvale, respectively.
  • Doomy Dooms of Doom: The Lever of Doom that steals your neopoints. Then there is the Evil Toy of DOOM, Ice Lolly of Doom, Immense Rubber Axe of Doom, and Nimmo of Doom (a book).
  • Double Weapon: A four-bladed axe.
  • Dung Fu: Battle Dung, and its variations.
  • Dyson Sphere: Once you realize it, this item.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Pretty much the entire site has gone through this, having transformed from a website for college students to something... more family oriented, much to long-time fans dismay.
    • In a more explicit sense, the Altador Cup has gone through this. The first installment of the 'Cup was very different than the event organized today. Yooyuball was the only game, and there were no other games to back it up. The game itself was played from a top-down perspective, more primitive than today's isometric verision, and it was also much slower. Perhaps the most important changes were in the way the tournament was played: it was done knockout-style, which every team was eliminated after a game, and you could join another team immediately after the first team you joined up with was eliminated. There were also other differences, such as injuries to several of the teams (which probably wouldn't be able to be done with today's version of YYB), differences in trophies, and how points were given out. Most of these oddities were changed before Altador Cup II, but it wasn't until the 3rd cup where things began to look like they do today.
  • Ear Notch: Kougras all have these.
  • Ears as Hair: The Usuls appear to have scrunchies holding up their ears, though Hannah from the games "Pirate Caves", "Ice Caves", and "Kreludor Caves" is depicted with human hair on her head.
  • Easter Egg: Some games have these. Appearances from the Phantom Orange Shirt Guy are the most common.
  • Eat That: A lot of Spooky Food, and, oddly, some Gourmet Foods. Brain Kebab, Dung Slushie, Edible Tar Pizza...
    • Not to mention Gross Food. Scab Cake, anyone?
  • Everything's Better with Plushies: Including pets, Petpets, Faeries, staff members, food, paint brushes, and even piles of dung.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Amira, Princess Vysha, Princess Lunara, her younger sister Princess Terrana...
    • There's also a paint brush for it.
  • Everythings Funkier With Disco: Disco pets.
  • Evil Knockoff: The Sloth Clones.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Skeiths and Grarrls.
    • Likewise, there's the Turmaculus, an overgrown Petpet that eats Petpets.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Aishas and Chias.
  • Fairy Sexy: Neopets is surprisingly full of fanservice.
  • The Fair Folk: The Faeries sometimes act like this, as evidenced by Eithne, Ilere, The Drenched, and the Dark Faeries.
  • The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles: Prof. Milton Clodbottle's Astounding Habitarium
    • Super Happy Icy Fun Snow Shop
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: The Black Knight's death was actually quite painful for him.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Lost Desert = Ancient Egypt; Altador = Ancient Greece/Rome; Shenkuu = Far East. Tyrannia probably counts as Pangaea, too.
    • Meridell (and Brightvale to an extent) = Medieval England.
    • Mystery Island = All those "deepest darkest Africa" (or South America) stereotypes.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Faeries, Dinosaurs, Dragons, Mummies, Ghosts, Griffons, Aliens, and Robots, just to name a few. Sometimes more than one of these things at the same time.
  • Fanwork Ban: To a point. In the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Virtual Worlds Group games terms of service (which includes Neopets, Petpet Park, Nicktropolis, and Monkey Quest), all rights to making derivative works under Fair Use are given up. However, Neopets at the least still allows people to submit original fanwork to the various contests and the Neopian Times, all of which have rules that all submissions must follow in order to be accepted.
  • Feather Fingers: Lennies and Pteris. It's hard to tell what Hissi wings are made of, but they could also qualify.
  • Fetch Quest: Every single quest in the game, ranging from the Kitchen Quest, Edna's Quest, and of course the Faerie Quests, are all about getting some items in exchange for monetary, item, or Rare Candy rewards.
  • Fishing for Sole: Boots and cans in the ruins in Maraqua.
  • Fishing Minigame: See above.
  • Fun with Autocensors: Often crosses with Take That. For instance, the current update of the filter renders it impossible to say "Twilight" or "Stephenie Meyer" without them being turned into My Little Pony or Krusty the Clown.
    • Just saying "Edward" - no, not "Edward Cullen", just "Edward" - gets turned into Roxton Colchester III (a main character in more than one of the plots and very different from Mr. Cullen).
    • And Taylor Lautner became the infamous Nick Neopia from an old prank.
    • Heck, anything Twilight related is blocked out, though only during the new movie releases. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, main character names... it's all censored.
  • Funny Animal: The site is built on this.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Lengthy discussions have been held on what is and is not suitable for publication in the Neopian Times, especially regarding the more obscure rules. Nevertheless, some writers manage to push the limits even on such forbidden fare as romance, death, and violence.
    • It's not completely forbidden, as long as it's done tastefully and without too much dwelling on it.
    • Here's a canon example. The description for the Steam Horn is along the lines of Now you can play some steamy music.
    • Though it was deleted about an hour after the update, the Kiko Day News had "I put on my Robe and Wizard Hat!"
    • Some owners get away with having pets who are Wholesome Crossdressers, though a few handwave it by saying they're being labbed, which sometimes has the side effect of changing their gender.
    • In the Hannah and the Ice Caves plot, when Kanrik kills Galem, the panel is shown in silhouette, but the placement of Kanrik's dagger and the blood spray makes it look like he ripped Galem's heart out. And keep in mind this was after the site became Lighter and Softer.
  • Giant Eye of Doom: The Mark of Ta-Kutep is the outline of an eye symbol that appears in a pointless random event causing the user to flee in fear.
    • It actually causes an Interface Screw, as it actually sends you back a page if you wait long enough.
  • Global Currency Exception: You have to use Dubloons and Codestones, not Neopoints, to pay for training courses for your pets. Dubloons are also the exclusive currency of Krawk Island shops.
    • They were also almost impossible to get if you didn't have gratuitous amounts of NP... until the new Anchor Management daily came along.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Jazan and Ilere, among others. They're on the side of good, but they're certainly not friendly.
    • Under Lord Darigan's rule, the Darigan Citadel certainly qualifies.
  • The Good King: King Altador.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: Avatars
    • Also a particularly tricky Self-Imposed Challenge.
    • Impossible too for most new users, as some of the avatars were plot rewards and thus unattainable.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck: Rarely done in-universe, but is pretty much necessary for the Neoboards due to the strict filters. Saying "hell" can occasionally get you a warning.
  • Guide Dang It: Some of the requirements to get high scores in certain games are pretty ridiculous. For example, to get the sub-2000 distances for high scores in Kass Basher, you have to hit the plush Kass with a(n incredibly rare) tree ( Even so, there's still the possibility that you could miss... ). Beyond that, to get on many of the high score tables for games, you have approach the game in very unorthodox ways, such as losing on purpose in order to rack up points (generally on games that have a fixed number of levels, like Wrath of the Snowager), or taking advantage of in-game cheats that you can only learn (other than from guides, of course) by getting a lucky spin on the Wheel of Knowledge.
    • Many of the secret avatars can be this, especially the ones that are gotten at random. One avatar in particular took almost 2 years to figure out the solution.
  • Healing Spring: There's one in Faerieland. The water faerie that supervises it, though, isn't all that too consistent with how well one's neopets are healed.
  • Historical In-Joke: More of a literal version of this trope, but the Royal Boy Tuskaninny looks just like Henry VIII.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The Haunted Woods Plot gives a Neopet equivalent of this trope, showing the Neovians as moral cowards who only know to find someone to blame for the malicious potion effect on their bodies and psychology. It is also the reason Sophie is determined to stay away from the town as a lone swamp witch. Granted, Neopets is supposed to be a kid-friendly website!
  • I Just Want to Be Beautiful: One of the minor villains, Vira, was cursed into ugliness.
    • The faeries as a whole are very vain creatures.
    • One of the worst parts of being a Grey Faerie is that they lose their beauty.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: The Grey Faerie after losing her special powers.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: The pets waiting for adoption.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: See Carnivore Confusion.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Pretty much anyone who even enters the Battledome, as well as the NPCs within it.
  • Ingesting Knowledge: It's just a way to keep prices up and intelligence stats coveted, but books mysteriously disappear when you read them to your pet.
  • In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: The description of the Undead Cheese Wedge.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: Neohomes.
  • Interspecies Romance: "Skeith plus Zafara equals... Ixi??" It's actually rarer at times to see family members of the same species.
    • Justified in that most Neopet children are Happily Adopted. For a while Neopets seemed to be playing the line that all children were adopted. It made the sudden revelation that Nabile was an identical copy of a royal ancestor very jarring.
  • Jerkass: Team Maraqua's Elon Hughlis, who infamously won the "Most Selfish Player" award during ACI. Despite this, he's still the Team Captain, and he has many fans in and out of Team Maraqua.
    • King Skarl also counts, mainly because his Marrow Tax means that a Random Event can take your hard-earned Neopoints. He's also technically to blame for two wars between Meridell and the Citadel, as well. However, he's more of a Jerkass With A Heart of Gold despite his flaws.
  • Joke Weapon: Unfortunately, about 99% of Battledome items seem to fall into this category nowadays.
  • Jump Scare: How the Lair of the Beast ends if you keep clicking. Nightmare Fuel, indeed.
  • Just Add Water: The cooking pot.
  • Karma Houdini: The Gelert Assassin.
    • As well as Mr. Krawley, and, arguably, King Skarl.
  • Kobayashi Mario: Many of the Flash games.
  • Land of Faerie: Faerieland.
  • Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep: The founder was of Welsh descent and quite proud of it. As such, St David's day is sometimes an in-game event.
  • Laughably Evil: Most villains are this, especially in Defenders of Neopia. Plot villains, however...
  • Lethal Chef: Bonju, at least to Hoban.
  • Lethal Joke Item: The occasional high-level item is pretty silly. For example, the greatest reward for one of the story arcs is a hat. It's a weapon. And it's decent.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Moltara Caves.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: A category for the third annual Neopies has this for a name.
  • Level Ate: The Key Quest "Sweet" boards, made up of various candy, chocolate, cookies, and caramel. But an entire world made out of gelatin? That's just crazy talk.
  • Level Editor: A number of games. Started off with Hannah and the Pirate Caves, which actually is a very solid game, and was followed by...a poor mini golf editor. The more recent games featuring level editors haven't been much better, sadly.
  • Level Grinding: Leveling up at the Mystery Island Training School (or Cap'n Threelegs' Swashbuckling Academy) is automated, but takes several days in real time.
  • Lighter and Softer: Neopets was meant for young adults when it first came around. The early plots all had gobs of black comedy. Everything has since lost that sort of humour when the site was made kid friendly, but the old pages from old plots still float around, waiting to become Nightmare Fuel. Other bits that still float around are details changed in upgraded games. The Game Graveyard lets you play the old versions, where Carnival of Terror still says "cause of death" when you lose. And the game Spell or Starve, from the very old Doctor Sloth plot.
  • Light Is Not Good/Moral Dissonance: Despite technically being the ones who started the whole thing by stealing from the Citadel, Meridell is viewed as the good guys by TNT and King Skarl is in the Gallery Of Heroes, while Lord Darigan is still in the Gallery of Evil despite saving them.
  • Living Shadow: The Shadow Usul, the Creeping Shadows from the Tale of Woe, Edna's Shadow, the Shadow Wraiths from The Faerie's Ruin... There are a lot of them on the site.
  • Long Runners: Started in 1999, and still maintains a big, loyal playerbase over 20 years later.
  • The Lost Woods: The Haunted Woods. Don't go there.
  • Lost World: The Lost Isle, though many Neopian lands were unknown until "discovered" through a plot.
  • Mad Scientist: The Lab Ray Scorchio and Dr Sloth.
    • Not to mention the Lab Ray Scorchio's Petpet, a Kookith that runs the Petpet Lab Ray.
  • Madden Curse: So far, no team that has won the Altador Cup has made a repeat trip to the finals, ultimately never ranking higher than 7th. On the flip side, all three second-placers came back to win the next year.
    • Broken, or at least averted for a year, in 2010. 2009 winners Krawk Island did fail to make the finals, but so did the runner-up Shenkuu team; while previous champions Darigan Citadel and Roo Island have both broken back into the finals bracket, placing 3rd and 4th respectively.
  • Magic Wand: Many varieties in the Battledome, but very noticeable in Neoquest I, since this is the only kind of weapon that the player can wield (although it is not too surprising since just about anything that is capable of talking in this game is a mage).
  • Mayincatec: What Geraptiku was before… whatever caused it to be abandoned.
  • Medieval European Fantasy: Meridell and Brightvale.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Quite a few Neopets, including Peophins (hippocampus), Eyries (griffins), Elephantes (bipedal elephants with little bird wings), and Aishas (catlike with thicker tails and an extra set of ears). And most pets painted Maraquan (scales and/or a fish tail) or Faerie (a more delicate appearance plus wings).
  • Money Sink: The shops run by NPCs in Neopia as well as the Lever of Doom in the Virtupets Space Station, the Wheel of Extravagance and the "Save the Wheels" event from July to early August 2010.
    • In early 2011, the game implemented a new sink: old, retired stamps are occasionally auctioned off by a dummy account, effectively removing millions of NP from the economy as well as returning near-extinct, one-use items into circulation.
  • Mordor: The Darigan Citadel.
  • Nerf: Rarely ever happens, but when it does, it really screws with you.
  • Nerf Arm: This game's Infinity+1 Sword equipment tends toward the bizarre- while there are plain old magic swords available, you are better off wielding a pharaoh's burial mask, a Killer Yoyo, an evil rubber duckie, or the Carrotblade.
  • Never Say "Die": Averted.
  • Nineties Anti-Hero: Magax. Of course, given that it's Neopets, he goes no farther than being a Badbutt. But other than that, he reeks of this trope.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: Users are forbidden from including more than a passing mention of romance in submitted work, and for the most part official site plots avoid it as well.
  • No Name Given: The aforementioned Zafara Double Agent. Despite this (Or perhaps because of it), she may even be among the most popular characters.
  • Noodle Incident: The site has several, and fans of the site often try to explain them in the Neopian Times. Some of the more infamous examples include the incident that caused the Deserted Fairground to be deserted (though TNT did write a Neopedia article about it), how Jhudora and Illusen became rivals in the first place, and what caused so many people to believe that a world made out jelly could possibly exist.
  • Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The Darigan Citadel. Yes, the Dariganites all have Spikes of Villainy and they made their presence known by attacking Meridell, but the Meridellians stole their Orb from them and caused their Obviously Evil appearance in the first place.
    • Granted, Darigan did go Ax Crazy after getting the orb back. Of course, when he came Back from the Dead, he saved Meridell from Kass.
  • The Notable Numeral: Team Tyrannia was known as The Forsaken Five.
  • Offstage Villainy: Some of the most feared villains have never been shown doing anything evil.
    • Justified for Jhudora. Her entire schtick is that she gets to run around scot free because no-one has ever caught her doing anything bad.
  • One-Gender Race: Faeries, as confirmed in this editorial.
  • The Other Marty: In the earliest releases, some Neopets were replaced, much like the Bruce incident. One such change was a species of dragon called the Tatsu that was inexplicably replaced with the Eyries (gryphons). The Tatsus apparently rose from an even earlier design called the Cerpull.
  • Overly Long Gag: Members giving TNT food (mostly cookies) in the editorial of the Neopian Times.
    • The Wheel of Monotony.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The "Happiness Faerie" (Dr. Sloth). Amusingly, the site staff appears to fall for it.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Several female Royal pets, especially in the old pre-Customization poses.
  • Pirate: Krawk Island
  • Player-Generated Economy: and how!
    • The site currency, Neopoints (NP), enters the economy mainly via games. Players are awarded with NP as they play the on-site games. Some NP enters via Random Events and "daily" activities such as talking to a discarded plushie, collecting bank interest or spinning a wheel.
    • Players can keep their Neopoints safe by opening a bank account. If kept in hand, money can be lost to random events.
      • Although through random events, you can end up with a negative amount of Neopoints on hand.
    • Most items enter the economy via site shops. Rare items such as paint brushes and morphing potions are only available from random events. Some items are given out via games, while some are given as prizes for players who have participated in site events such as plots or the Altador Cup.
    • Players can keep their items safe by placing them in their Safety Deposit Box. The maximum number of items that can be kept in hand is 50, after which it becomes impossible to buy from user or site shops. Items can be lost to random events as well.
    • Items in site shops cost from a few dozen NP to tens of thousands of NP. For the vast majority of items the supply in site shops is greatly limited however. This enables restocking, where players buy high demand items from site shops and resell them at significantly higher prices. High demand items can fetch a price of hundreds of thousands, even several millions of NP.
    • High demand items include most importantly one-use items such as food (especially avatar-related food), books, training currency (Codestones and Dubloons), Neggs (which are tradeable for one-time training items), and Neopet-modifying items such as Paint Brushes and Morphing Potions, and collectable items such as stamps that cannot be removed from user albums once added.
    • As the flow of money into the system is virtually unlimited, the site maintainers have specifically created money sinks to keep the inflation somehow in check. Such would be the Lever of Doom and the Wishing Well, which can both give out a site avatar, but demand money in turn (and cannot be predicted), and the late site event Save the Wheels, which gave out items in turn for donations.
  • Polka Dot Paint: Some of the Rainbow Pool paintbrushes.
  • Prehistoria: Tyrannia
  • Randomly Drops: "Something has happened!"
  • Read the Fine Print: The Terms and Conditions, which have to be signed to access the site, have some... odd wording. such as "...or incorporate such materials into any form, medium, or technology (now known or hereafter developed or devised) throughout the universe."
  • Recycled in Space: Hannah and the Kreludor Caves is Hannah and the Pirate Caves ON THE MOON!
    • And before that, Hannah and the Ice Caves was Hannah and the Pirate Caves IN TERROR MOUNTAIN!
  • Revenue Enhancing Devices: Buying real-life merchandise can net you in-game items; Lutari Island was only accessible by signing up for Neopets Mobile.
  • Running Gag: Denials of the existence of The Not-Secret Jelly World. Also the idea that those creepily staring Meepits are plotting to take over.
    • "March 3rd has been cancelled due to lack of interest."
    • For a little while, the Neopian Times Editorial always ended with "mr. coconut" shouting "GOOD NIGHT!" After a few months of that, TNT went meta by retiring mr. coconut and starting a new gag about trying to find a suitable replacement.
  • Schizo-Tech: All over the map - literally; it's dependent on region. There's sticks and stones in Tyrannia, the various Fantasy Counterpart Cultures have the tech level you'd expect, Moltara is Steampunk, Neopia Central is closest to real life but has nothing like computers or cars, and then there's the Virtupets Space Station and moon colony on Kreludor…
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Darkest Faerie; Sloth in the Space Faerie's token. Xandra.
  • Serious Business: Avatar collecting. That is all.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Loads.
  • Significant Anagram: Eliv Thade, whose spirit haunts a castle: Evil/Vile Death/Hated. Appropriately enough, the game featuring him centers around anagrams. Also: the Sword of Skardsen/Darkness, Grimoire of Thade/Death, Amulet of Thilg/Light, and Shield of Pion Troect/Protection.
  • Shout-Out: Many. To list a few:

In a secluded alley behind the Colosseum are gathered a group of Neopets... This is Punch Club.
"Would you like some punch?"

"Hello, TNT. Look at your artists. Now at me. Artists. Me. Artists. Me. Too bad your artists aren't me, but they can smell like me. I'm on a horse."
"Look again. Your horse is now diamonds!"

A doughnut with pink icing. Mmmm, Homers favourite.

"No, the Tiki Man is quite safe, if he fell into the Tombola he would just be covered with little pieces of paper."

    • And, as mentioned above, the curious case of the Bruces...
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Faeries are ostensibly the most powerful species in all of Neopia. They are regularly bottled by a scraggly mutant-wolf with no magical powers, sold away, freed, then caught again a few weeks later.
  • What Does This Button Do?: The Lever of Doom is marked "Do Not Pull." It exists to steal your money. Most people who use it repeatedly know exactly what it does, but pulling it over and over is the only way to get a certain avatar.
  • What Have I Become?: Played for laughs in the Petpet Park Mini-Plot. You come upon an adorable Cybunny with the choice of four options.[2] Upon executing any of the options, the Cybunny would turn around to reveal itself to be half-robot. If you chose A ("become inexplicably hostile"), it pulls a mirror out of nowhere and says, "ERROR: WHAT HAVE I BECOME?"
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Where did Hoban go after the Cyodrake's Gaze plot was finished?
    • The Tear Jerker ultimate fate of the Grey Faerie (whether she got her powers back or not) was never solved.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Subverted in the stories that circulate, where anyone can be a hero; but read the basic descriptions of the Neopets and you'll notice it's the cute, fluffy, huggable Aishas and Lupes and Boris that seem to be friendly and easygoing, and the less-cute or fluffy pets such as Skeiths or Jetsams that are… less agreeable.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Although all Neopets and Faeries are officially regarded as sentient beings, there's some confusion over where entities such as Petpets lie.
    • Considering that there are games in which you play as a Petpetpet?
  • What Were They Selling Again?: USUKI.
  • Weird American/Welsh Site: Although the plots tend to be a bit more serious, the site itself has a LOT of weirdness. And that's why we love it.
  • Word of God: The Editorial section of the Neopian Times is used for this.
  • Written-In Absence: Once Shenkuu joined the Altador Cup in 2007, there were 17 possible teams competing, so an odd team out was always written out (due to training accident or some such) in order to make a nice, neat, 16-team bracket. Now fixed in 2010, as Moltara has joined and made it an even 18 teams.
  • You Mean "Xmas": There is a holiday-themed land (Happy Valley) [3] and an Advent Calendar in the Month of Celebrating (December), but December 25 is the "Day of Giving." Strangely, pets can still be painted "Christmas," which gives them a festive holiday look.
    • The Winter Starlight Celebration.
    • One Neopian holiday, Illusen Day, takes place on March 17.

Plots provide examples of

Jazan: What now, Altador? More star-gazing?

  • Never Say "Die": Averted.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Well done, Brynn and Hanso (plus all the players who participated in the plot). You just helped Xandra crash Faerieland into Neopia.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Razul arrives and starts destroying Sahkmet, Jazan is initially unable to stop him. But then he presses his berserk button by harming Nabile...
  • Not So Stoic: After the others are freed from stone, they happen upon Brynn crying next to a petrified Hanso. Of all people, Jazan is the one who appears to be the most upset.
  • Official Couple: Jazan and Nabile from The Lost Desert plot, Brynn and Hanso from The Faeries' Ruin plot.
  • One-Winged Angel: Mayor Thumbert in the Tale of Woe plot and Lord Darigan in the first Meridell plot.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Dropped to avoid risk of limiting their appeal.
  • Pixel Hunt: Since we're already under the "plots" category, ONE WORD: Altador.
    • More words: Having to find the tiniest spots to click on the maps, of course, but mostly? Constellation hunting with thousands of not-quites and even hints that can actually mislead you (such as giving three equidistant stars whereas the real deal has three collinear, but NOT equidistant, stars). You will need the patience of a Zen master and the eyes of a hawk. And for the annoyances of this plot, that's just for starters!
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: 'Brynnso' for Brynn/Hanso, later used by TNT in the name of one of the plot prizes (Brynnso Plushie Set), making it an in-universe example.
  • Recurring Extra: The Angry Orange Yurble.
  • Reformed but Rejected: Lord Darigan from Neopets is a textbook example of this. Despite being an Obviously Evil Bat Out of Hell, he was in fact a Well-Intentioned Extremist who was trying to take backwhat rightfully belonged to his people from Meridell and their Jerkass ruler, King Skarl. However, even though his side won, their land wasn't restored, and he underwent a Face Heel Turn out of nowhere. Then, when he returned, he defeated Lord Kass and saved Meridell. You'd think he'd be in the Gallery of Heroes now, right? Nope! He's STILL in the Gallery Of Evil and considered a villain, while Skarl is in the Gallery of Heroes despite being the guy who's at fault for all of that!
  • Reset Button: Always averted, since plots introduce changes into Neopia. This is why the destruction of worlds, such as Maraqua and Faerieland, come as a shock. The area may be rebuilt afterward, but things are never quite the same.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: In the Faerie's Ruin plot, both King Altador and King Jazan actively got involved in investigating who turned the faeries to stone.
  • Rustproof Blood: Averted/subverted with a red-splattered asylum door in the Tale of Woe plot. In the walkthrough released after the plot ended, the door was explicitly described as rusty. The associated plot prize was actually called the Rusty Asylum Cell Door, and its description reads "Repeat after me: The red stuff is RUST."
  • Sequel Hook: The epilogue of the Faerie's Ruin mentions that the Darkest Faerie statue went missing in the chaos.
  • Ship Sinking: A surprising number of people shipped Tomos and Nabile together, before, all of a sudden, Nabile decided she wanted to marry Jazan. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: Gorix does this when he finally meets Dr. Sloth. Subsequently Lampshaded.

Sloth: How dare you interrupt my "Resistance Is Futile" speech!

  • Smooch of Victory: Brynn gives Hanso one on the cheek in Chapter 17 of The Faerie's Ruin.
  • Stranger in a Familiar Land: Several plots end bittersweetly, with the objective accomplished but the more alienated or bitter characters unable to settle (back) into 'normal' life. See Sophie, Bruno, and Caylis.
  • Suddenly-Suitable Suitor: Near the end of the Lost Desert Plot, the street thief Nabile is revealed to have royal blood. This is thanks to her resemblance to a picture of a princess, which just happens to be on the wall in the room where Jazan and Princess Amira are about to be wed. Nabile then declares her love for Jazan and they get married instead.
  • Taken for Granite: The Faerie's Ruin started when the Faeries were all turned to stone during their festival. Other characters were also petrified as the plot progressed.
  • Terrible Trio: This can be seen with the Dark Faerie Sisters and The Drenched. However the normal command structure of this trope seems to be subverted.
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: Used for comedic effect with the Angry Orange Yurble.
  • Thirteen Is Unlucky: Probably unintentional, but "unlucky" doesn't even begin to describe Chapter 13, the Wham! Episode of The Faerie's Ruin. From the hero's perspective, at least; to the users (and the site), it's a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Those Two Guys: The Draik and Skeith guards from The Faerie's Ruin.
  • Too Soon: Lampshaded with a wearable trinket -- Faerieland in flames crashing to earth—whose description is "Too soon?"
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex: Grarrls, one of the few species to be designed as "Badass" rather than "cute".
  • Vampiric Draining: The creepy glowing purple wraiths in the Faeries' Ruin plot drain the Life Energy of their captives.
  • Vile Villain Saccharine Show: Lord Kass, The Bringer of Night, Captain Scarblade, Emperor Razul, Alexander Krawley… Most plot villains are this, unless they're Dr. Sloth or Lord Darigan.
  • Villain Protagonist: Garin, of the Chaotic Neutral type, though he does protect an underwater city from being destroyed by a Complete Monster pirate lord once again. He is a born pirate and will not give up the life of piracy and thrill.
  • Visionary Villain: Xandra, who believes the Faeries don't do enough good with their power and thinks everyone else is worse off for depending on them.
  • We Can Rule Together: The Faeries' Ruin plot villain Xandra, almost word for word.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The zombies that terrorize Sakhmet in the Lost Desert Plot can be destroyed by heavy blunt objects. The only ones who are able to figure this out are some scrappy street thieves, and they get an audience with the princess in order to pass on their discovery.
  • Wham! Episode: The Faerie's Ruin, Chapters 13 and 16.
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: The Angry Orange Yurble—a foreman (and later, a chef) in the Lost Desert plot, a janitor in the Altador plot and a Librarian in the Faerie's Ruin plot.
  • Weaksauce Weakness/Hoist by His Own Petard: The villain of the Petpet Park plot has been foiled multiple times in his life (including in the plot itself) by his insistence on using pens instead of pencils. In fact, his frustration with this is what drove him to villainy (as opposed to driving him to, you know, just use pencils).
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Xandra. Surprisingly, she actually has some valid points. We eventually find out Lord Darigan is one, as well.
    • When contrasted with Meridell's excuse for a ruler, Lord Darigan looks like a Big Good. At least he doesn't make up stupid things like a Marrow Tax.
  • You Fight Like A Kau: One of the steps in The Faerie's Ruin involves Hanso (you) insulting Xandra. One of the achievements for this step even has this as the description.
  • Xanatos Gambit: In the Faerie's Ruin plot, Xandra's second plan. The heroes try to get a special artifact to reverse the spell that transformed the faeries into stone. It doesn't matter if they succeed or not. Because the artifact is useless by itself and is just a power amplifier. Even if the heroes get the artifact on time Xandra will simply use the artifact to transform the heroes into stone too.
  • The X of Y: Most plot titles use the formula "The ____ of ____" or "The _______'s ______"
  1. 010010010111010000100111011100110010000001001100011000010111011101111001011001010111001001100010011011110111010000100001
  2. A) Become inexplicably hostile, B) Request an autograph, C) Ask, "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?", or D) Bribe it with Neocash
  3. On the base of Terror Mountain.