39,327
edits
Night Watcher: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 6:
----
=== The novel provides examples of: ===
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: Silver is this for vampires; subverted in that there are other, more conventional ways to kill a vampire, this is just much more certain and foolproof.
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Bloodsucking vampires eventually degenerate into this.
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: Captain Kotov's weapon of choice. He occasionally jokingly calls it [[Heroes Prefer Swords|"my trusty sword"]].
* [[Badass Abnormal]]: Igor Dolinsky, though by vampire standards he would be an example of [[Weak but Skilled]].
* [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop]]: The city militsiya force is systematically and thoroughly corrupt, to the point where {{spoiler|its [[Da Chief|commander]] was planning to use vampires in a power ploy against [[The Mafiya]]}}. This plan was only changed when {{spoiler|[[It's Personal|his ''daughter'' was raped and turned into a vampire]]}}.
* [[Badass Normal]]: The human [[Vampire Hunter|Night Teams]] would probably qualify in general; the one seen in the book itself certainly does, seeing as it consists of just two cops ([[Combat Pragmatist|Captain Kotov]] and [[The Big Guy|Sergeant Zykov]], each badass in his own ways) that nonetheless are capable of fighting vampires in top shape when needed ([[Fighting Dirty|though they generally prefer to kill them in their sleep, of course]]).
* [[Big Bad]]: The title eventually turns out to refer to this guy.
Line 37:
** It is mentioned, in a [[All Just a Dream|mind]][[Or Was It a Dream?|screwy]] segment, that they were originally created {{spoiler|in the 20th century in a series of unconnected military experiments, mainly ran by non-nuclear powers trying - and failing - to get an edge over advanced societies.}} If true, they have absolutely zero connection to the vampires of legend, though, as said, it might have all been a dream.
** Vampires are ''not'' immortal. Even the Elders can live to a bit over 150 at best, though they remain fully active to the end. Ordinary bloodsuckers can last 6 years, maybe, but most of them die unnaturally long before that. It's hinted that the immortality myth is just an element of Elder propaganda, aimed at intimidating the humans and keeping the lower-ranking vampires in line.
** Vampires are very hard to kill, but not really immune to normal weapons as such. Their [[Achilles' Heel|one big weakness]] is silver; the [[Vampire Hunter|Night Teams]] therefore use injections. Daylight effectively suppresses most regular vampires, pisses off their pack leaders if they are attacked during the day, and hasn't much of an effect on non-blood-sucker vampires
** Vampirism is [[The Virus|viral]] (sort of - a character who should know disputes this, but really, it works similar enough for our purposes), but apparently it's a STD that only works for 1% of the entire human population. "Luckily", those humans tend to have good chemistry with each other...
* [[Our Werewolves Are Different]]: Although Andrey Luzgin, the main character, insists on calling Vova a werewolf, this is actually dubious since he really ''is'' different. He is a mutant that kind of looks like something in between a human and a wolf (or at any rate a beast) all the time, and despite being physically strong is more notable for his extraordinarily strong [[Psychic Powers]], mostly communicating through telepathy. He did use to be a normal boy before ''something'' happened, though.
Line 46:
* [[Super Senses]]: Vampires of both varieties get those. Mikhail, being a painter, is particularly fond of those - and terrified to find out that they are going to fade/become useless for his artistic purposes (as opposed to animalistic survival) as he degenerates, especially as he can no longer see colours during the day.
* [[Super Strength]]: Part of the whole vampire package. While a blood-charged vampire has this to a far greater extent, Igor Dolinsky has this too, and at some point demonstrates this by effortlessly bending a tire iron into a noose.
* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Averted. There is a therapist, who is something of a minor kleptomaniac but otherwise perfectly competent and generally quite awesome; he doubles as the second most knowledgeable vampire expert in town, though he doesn't know anywhere near as much as Igor does, and even Igor doesn't know all that much. He tries to be as helpful as possible, both as a therapist and as a vampirologist, whenever given the chance. [[Double Subversion|Of course, during the present time events of the book he couldn't help literal Heroic Sociopath Captain Kotov much, even though he tried]]... [[Zig Zagged Trope|But in the epilogue, it is shown that Kotov ended up in a mental hospital - and is actually making a steady recovery, which, all things considered, is a testament both to how badass he is and how awesome his shrink is]].
* [[Ubermensch]]: Mikhail (a literal [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] as opposed to a pure nihilist) does some rants about him (and other "proper" - i.e. bloodsucking - vampires) being this, and positions Igor Dolinsky as the Last Man. Dolinsky points out that not only are the bloodsuckers amoral, emotionally-unhinged hedonists even at their peak, but they also eventually degenerate into mindless animals. He is right, of course.
* [[Vampire Invitation]]: Invoked by the main character before he quite knew what's what, but otherwise averted.
| |||