Night Watch (novel): Difference between revisions

{{quote|''The following article has been approved for publishing because it serves the cause of the Dark.''|''Day Watch''}}

 

 

''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]].

* [[Being Good Sucks]]

* [[Being Evil Sucks]]

* [[Cheerful Child]]: Nadya

* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]: A particularly tedious string of long conversations in the third part of the book about morality and the Light and Dark, etc.

* [[Creator Provincialism]]: Lukyanenko spent much of his adult life in Moscow, so it's not surprising that it's the main setting of the books. On the other hand he was born in Kazakhstan, and Central Asian motifs often show up in the novels.

* [[Cultural Cross-Reference]]: Many to western popular music and literature. Also, a surprising one to anime in ''Day Watch'', in which a witch named Alita wears a ''[[Battle Angel Alita]]'' T-shirt.

** The novels show that a lot of minor Dark Others aren't evil -- the above-mentioned werewolf, and earlier, the dark ones Maxim killed, and such, but it also shows that the rank-and-file ones in the Day Watch are happy to engage in cruel acts of child murder, or rape. And in two novels, dark ones attempted to nuke Moscow. When light ones kill people, or do something too bad it's usually accidental - if they kill someone on purpose unjustly they often dematerialize themselves (dying by disintegration) because they feel so guilty that they lose the will to live.

** The important difference between Light and Dark Others is that the Light Others are perfectly aware of the human vice and ignorance, while Dark Others consider their power a gift that is to be used. This explains why low-ranking Dark Others tend to use their powers for granted while high-ranked ones consider it an asset that has to be invested wisely. Light Others are taught from the beginning that the power corrupts and if not controlled, it may destroy its bearer (it is also the recurring theme in ''Night Watch'' and {{spoiler|a part of Zabulon's [[Evil Plan]] in ''Day Watch'')}}.

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: the Dark Other Edgar leaves the Day Watch and joins the Inquisition because of his disgust for all of the machinations in both of the watches. It's not exactly a [[Heel Face Turn]], but it cements him as sort of a [[Friendly Enemy]] / [[Enemy Mine]] to Anton.

* [[Eagle Land]]: Lukyanenko always was and still is rather strongly anti-American, and isn't afraid to show it.

** In ''Day Watch'', a low-level American Air Force officer is introduced on holiday in Prague. He's a member of the Light and was involved in the bombing of Kosovo. Russian Night Watch members are very surprised he's still aligned with good.

* [[Knight Templar]]: Maxim, an uninitiated Light Other who kills Dark Others who aren't really that evil (including a werepanther that had only ever killed in self-defense and a Dark wizard out for a night on the town with his wife and child) {{spoiler|He changed his views when he agreed to become an Inquisitor. Inquisition generally tends to do this to people.}}

* [[Light Is Not Good]]

** There's one scene in ''Day Watch'' that mentions how the historical figure Gilles de Rais (a friend to Joan of Arc and a child murderer) as well as some fictional [[Serial Killer]] were both Light Others. Essentially, both fell into a combination of [[Pure Is Not Good]] and [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] -- both were effectively [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]], but since they didn't see their actions as wrong, their crimes had no effect on their alignment.

* [[MacGuffin]]: The Chalk of Fate in ''Night Watch'', an artifact that allows {{spoiler|a Light Sorceress, whose [[Power Levels]] is "Beyond Categorization," to rewrite the fate of any individual}}.

* [[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.<br />The first book also mentions the possibility of resurrecting an ancient and powerful Dark Other, who likes to appear as a giant dragon. It's mentioned he would go rampaging across Europe, not caring about the Grand Treaty. However, another character points out that, while devastating, said dragon would be no match for the modern human military. As the character puts it, in a battle between an angry dragon and helicopter gunships, he'd bet on the gunships.

* [[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.

* [[The New Russia]]: It isn't the most negative depiction, but there are a lot of references to the shady new money (with possible connections to [[The Mafiya]]) associated with this setting.

* [[No Periods, Period]]: Somehow averted; Olga jokes about it when she [[Freaky Friday Flip|magically switches bodies]] with Anton. He gets lucky though, it would have been one week later. Anton responds with his own deadpan joke, pointing out that every TV-watching man knows what to do with a tampon: put it in your fist and pour blue liquid on it.

* [[Not So Different]]: A repeated theme is that the line between Light and Dark Others is very fine indeed.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Afandi, an elderly but weak magician from ''The Last Watch'', "Part 2 - A Common Enemy"

* [[Shout-Out]]

** During the first part of ''The Last Watch'', several characters have dreams that mirror scenes from the ''Night Watch'' film adaptation. The City Light Company, which is a Night Watch front in the movies, is referred to in ''Last Watch'' as one if their former fronts.

** The [[Strugatsky Brothers]] are referenced several times throughout the books, either by book title or by quotes.

* [[Song Fic]]

** A rare usage in a published work: the first two novels contain many samples from contemporary Russian rock music to set the mood and illustrate the characters' philosophy, e.g. Valery Kipelov's song "I'm Free" is used extensively to exemplify the Dark Others' worldview. In fact, some characters suggest that [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Kipelov himself is an uninitiated Dark Other]].

** Even more prominent in the case of alternative-rock band ''Piknik'' known for their esoteric lyrics. The band leader, Edmund Shklarsky is also considered to be an uninitiated Other.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]] / [[Precision F-Strike]]: In ''New Watch'' Anton describes the humongous fireball thrown at them: "It was a premium-class fireball, in terms of commercial managers. It was a Tzar-fireball, poetically speaking. A biologist would call it an Alpha-fireball. A very composed mathematician would note that it is a three meter-wide fireball. It was a "shit-your-pants-it's-so-scary" fireball!

* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: Anton, while listening to his mini-disc (later [[MP 3]]) player. He always puts it on random, and often the song that pops up has something to do either with the story, or with his present state of mind.

** Film!Yegor seems to combine aspects of Yegor and Kostya in the novels. The Light/Dark conflict strains Anton's relationships with both characters and film!Yegor is introduced like his novel counterpart, but like Kostya in the novel, becomes a vampire. Further, Anton's introduction in the film in which he tries to purchase a spell to induce a miscarriage is taken from a [[Batman Cold Open]] in ''Day Watch'' (novel), in which it was done by a random woman, but Alissa in the novel also did this successfully.

* [[Creepy Twins]]: The Inquisition in ''Day Watch''.

* [[The Danza]]: Kostya's father Gennadiy is renamed to Valeriy in the movie. The actor's name is Valeriy Zolotukhin.

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Semyon in ''Night Watch'', Alisa in ''Day Watch''.

* [[Immune to Bullets]]: Played with. Ordinary guns (and later machine guns) are surprisingly effective against the lower-level Others in the PC game. Not so much with the higher-powered others, but they still do damage, which can be useful when you and your enemy are out of mana.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: During the course of the PC game, the characters try to figure out why some Light Others inexplicably become Dark. {{spoiler|turns out that the new technology-based "remoralization" spell can flip the potential Others' alignments before they are initiated}}.

* [[McGuffin]]: Orb of Power, as the name implies, can amplify any spell thousand-fold. Naturally, both sides want to use it for their own purposes.

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Yuri (in the PC game).