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{{work|wppage=Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel)}}
{{Multiple Works Need Separate Pages}}
{{quote|''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Light.''|''Night Watch''}}
{{quote|''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Dark.''|''Day Watch''}}
'''''Night Watch''''' (''Ночной дозор, Nochnoi Dozor'') is a book series by [[Sergey Lukyanenko]], a [[Speculative Fiction]] writer internationally acclaimed in the Eastern Bloc. It had two movie adaptations (both movies mixed elements of this book and its sequel) starring [[Konstantin Khabensky]], the first of which became the top-grossing Russian movie of the time. Because of this, the series received much attention internationally and spread Lukyanenko's name and work to the West.
''Night Watch'' is set in Moscow in [[Present Day|1998-2007 (book timeline) / circa 2004 (movie timeline)]]. The world is pretty much the gritty ex-Communist concrete-a-thon we know and love, with a major difference. There are Others. Others are non-humans, born by humans and have special abilities. Vampires, shapeshifters, wizards, prophets, warlocks... and [[Incredibly Lame Pun|all others]]. What distinguishes Others from humans is their innate ability to manipulate "The Twilight", a "mirror-world" of magical energy. Others come in two flavors, Light and Dark, and the Light and Dark have been conflicting since the beginning of time. In the 12th century or so, the Others from both sides realized that conflicts between them, due to their vast power and influence over humans, could destroy the world. So they wrote and signed the Treaty, which basically states that each side is allowed to form a Watch to monitor the activities of the other side from becoming overly excessive, in turn monitored by a joint Inquisition. The Treaty has held up well, and all fighting between Light and Dark has moved [[The Chessmaster|into the shadows]].
'''Novels in the Franchise:'''
* ''[[Night Watch (Lukyanenko novel)|Night Watch]]'' follows the livings and doings of Light magician Anton Gorodetskiy, an Moscow Night Watch operative working under the Great Light magician Geser.
* ''[[Day Watch (novel)|Day Watch]]'' follows three different Dark Others, with several ''Night Watch'' characters appearing as recurring antagonists. It was co-written by Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev
* ''[[Twilight Watch]]'' follows Anton Gorodetskiy as he tries to protect his daughter, {{spoiler|a potential Light Messiah}}, while looking for a magic book that can turn mundane humans into Others.
* ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' follows the livings and doings of members of the Kievan Day Watch visiting St. Petersburg. The book was written by Vladimir Vasilyev with Sergey Lukyanenko's blessings. ''Twilight Watch'' and ''Face of the Dark Palmira'' take place in the same time period, and events of one book refer to those in the other (and vice versa) - though the plots never truly connect.
* ''
* ''[[New Watch (novel)|New Watch]]''
* ''[[Sixth Watch (novel)|Sixth Watch]]''
'''Other works in the Franchise:'''
* [[Night Watch (2004 film)|''Night Watch'' (2004 film)]]
* [[Day Watch (film)|''Day Watch'' (film)]]
* [[Night Watch (video game)|''Night Watch'' (video game)]]
Aside from the movie adaptations, the book inspired a surprisingly interesting (if badly animated, buggy and poorly acted) PC game, a MMORG and a board game, not to mention the usual merchandising crap.
Not to be confused with [[Night Watch (Discworld)|the ''Discworld'' novel of the same name]].
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Affably Evil]]: Zabulon may be the head of the Moscow Day Watch (making him incredibly powerful, several centuries old, and probably the most ruthless and dangerous Dark Other in the former Soviet Union) and the sworn enemy of the Night Watch in general and Geser in particular, but he is generally polite and friendly to everyone, seems to have a certain fondness for Anton, generally acts as though he is enjoying himself immensely, and regards Geser as a beloved rival (it is even implied in ''Twilight Watch'' that part of the reason that neither Geser or Zabulon have advanced beyond the rivalries of the Watches is because they enjoy playing out their rivalry). It's mentioned somewhere that Zabulon is nearly a millennium old. And he remarks to Gesar that he had dreamed that they would one day work together, during the climax of ''Twilight Watch''. While giggling in a slightly less-than-sane way.
* [[And I Must Scream]]
** The spell that the Inquisitors suggest that Anton use {{spoiler|to defeat the ultimate vampire Kostya}}, is called the Sarcophagus of Ages. It locks the victim and the caster in said sarcophagus together until the end of the universe.)
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* [[Evil Redhead]]: Alisa Donnikova
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Both the Light and Dark have contempt for vampires and werewolves, with the Dark seeing them mostly as useful pawns and the Light tending to assume they are [[Exclusively Evil]], since the Others who become them tend to be the type who would go for eating innocents. Interestingly enough, both groups provide examples of rare [[Dark Is Not Evil]] Dark Others. Not exactly [[Exclusively Evil]] but rather too animalistic to be considered proper humans. In the case of vampires, they may also turn people into new vampires who, without proper initiation and guidance may turn into real monsters (as shown in the first part of ''[[Day Watch]]''). The same thing can happen with werewolves. Vampires and werewolves are the only Others who can turn humans into their kind ({{spoiler|until ''Twilight Watch'', that is}}).
* [[For the Evulz]]: Light Others are generally prone to seeing Dark Others like that. Dark Others tend to be more [[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic]] though. At some point, the Night Watch determines that a group of Dark Others are trying to resurrect an ancient and powerful Dark Other and confront the Day Watch over it. The Dark Others balk at the suggestion, wondering why ''anyone'' would resurrect a certifiably insane Dark Other who would be of no use in politics and would probably [[Scaled Up|turn himself into a dragon]] and [[Chaotic Stupid|burn down a few cities]] before [[Magic Versus Science|getting shot down by human jets]].
* [[Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt]]: In ''Day Watch'', [[Amnesiac God|Vitaly]] discovers that his bag is full of dollars and immediately thinks he's up to something illegal.
* [[Four Eyes, Zero Soul]]: Zabulon
* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Vampires are shown to be intolerant to alcohol - getting splashed with it results in burns. Perhaps that's the reason they [[I Do Not Drink... Wine|do not drink... wine?]]
* [[Friendly Neighbourhood Vampires]]: Anton himself was friends with a family of vampires who lived in the apartment next to his until he killed a vampire in the line of duty.
* [[Fun Personified]]: Las
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* [[Mathematician's Answer]]: In ''The Last Watch'', a powerful vampire in disguise is spotted by an Other, who is a teacher on a field trip with his class of Other children. The vampire is trying to remain hidden and kills the teacher in front of his students. All the kids run away except for one. The vampire grabs him and asks, using a spell of truth, if the kid has been taught yet how to remember auras (an easy way of identifying Others). The kid honestly replies that he hasn't been. The vampire lets him go and leaves. The kid didn't lie, nobody taught him how to remember auras, but he has been practicing on his own. His memory of the aura is vague, though.
* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: In the first novel, Anton is temporarily in Olga's body and goes out to dinner with Svetlana, his love interest. The combination of their body language around each other and Olga's short hair makes another character see them as a lesbian couple and react with disgust.
* [[Muggles Do It Better]]: Nukes are the only weapons (except for some extremely powerful spells) that obliterate everything in the area in both the normal dimension and all Twilight layers, leaving the Others nowhere to run. Additionally, as shown in ''The Last Watch'', remote-controlled guns can be extremely effective against the Others due to the fact that machines project no malice and can't be detected with magic. Enchanted guns are even more effective. There is a reason the Others are terrified of humans finding out about the existence of the Others. It would be the witch trials all over again.
* [[Narrator]]: Anton in ''Night Watch'', ''Twilight Watch'' and ''The Last Watch''. For the two first parts of the second book, see [[A Day in the Limelight]] above, the third part averted this trope as it had no narrator.
* [[Never Found the Body]]: Subverted. Anton believes that {{spoiler|Kostya's}} body has never been found after the events of ''Twilight Watch'' and that he may be the new villain in ''Final Watch''. However, Geser almost immediately reveals that {{spoiler|Kostya's}} body was, indeed, recovered but this was kept secret from Anton because it was in a [[Deader Than Dead|very bad condition]] and Anton ''was'' his friend, after all. There is a good chance of the body simply disintegrating during re-entry.
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* [[Pac-Man Fever]]: Generally averted. When video games are mentioned, they are treated as casual hobbies and the few games mentioned by name were indeed popular titles at the time of writing. The movie depicts them with reasonable realism as well.
** Special mention goes to a scene in the second film where this appears intentionally. Zavulon is playing a fighting game. At some point, he holds and swings his phone like a sword and his movements are imitated in game. That was two years before the iPhone came out. But this game he plays is {{spoiler|actually a vision of a possible future.}}
* [[Power Levels]]: All Others are assigned "Categories", ranging from the seventh (the weakest) to first (the most powerful). Categories are not fixed, as an Other can advance or fall down a rank depending on how often they practice magic. There is also the so-called "peak condition" when a mage jumps up two or three levels during a time of great emotional stress, like it happens to Anton Gorodetsky in the end of the first book. Lastly, there is the [[Over Nine Thousand]] category called "Beyond Categorization".
* [[Public Domain Character]]
** Merlin is a major historical figure for Others.
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** The whole trope is also repeatedly subverted from here to the far side of Moscow when it turns out that Zabulon, Gesar or whoever is stringing Anton around at that point in time ''specifically didn't mention the third option so that Anton would pick it.''
* [[Tome of Fate]]
* [[Took a Level
** Anton does this many times through the series.
** His friend and [[Plucky Comic Relief]], the [[punk Rocke|punk rocker]] Las<ref>Based on the real-life Moscow punk Alexander "Las" Ulyanov, leader of ''The Belomors'' and Lukyanenko's friend</ref>, tends to regularly end up together with him in those incidents that boost Anton's level and receive an upgrade too. He wasn't even the Other when he was first introduced, and ended up as a minor Night Watch official with third or fourth level.
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----
=== Aside from
* [[Alternate Universe]]: The PC game was basically a combination of book and movie continuities. The character designs harken back to the movie, as does the usage of mundane items to do magic, but the characters can also use spells from the books and Twilight is closer to the way it was depicted in the books.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Turn Based Tactics]]
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
▲[[Category:Night Watch]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Russian Literature]
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