The Thirty-Nine Steps: Difference between revisions

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: In ''Mr Standfast''.

* [[Fake Defector]]: Various characters in ''Greenmantle''

** The Hero: Richard Hannay

** The Lancer: Peter Pienaar

* [[Heroic RROD]]: Happens around once per book. That's what happens when you're a [[Determinator]] not [[Made of Iron]].

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: There's at least two in ''Mr Standfast''

{{quote| I'm not in this show for honour and glory, though. I want to do the best I can, but I wish to Heaven it was over. All I think of is coming out of it with a whole skin.}}

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: With a lampshade! [[Berserk Button|Offer Richard Hannay a bribe]] so he'll look the other way while you make your country pay twice for the munitions it's going to use to bomb the hell out of the Anzacs at Gallipoli, and he'll make damn sure you don't get away with it... Oh wait, poor Anzacs. Especially impressive because it means Hannay's disguise as barge foreman is working so well he's even convinced himself he's working for the Germans!

* [[I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me|I Can't Believe A Girl Like You Would Notice Me!]]

* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: ''Mr Standfast''

* [[James Bondage]]: ''Mr Standfast''. {{spoiler|From which he extracts himself with a combination of astronomy, trajectories, brute strength and really good shooting.}}

* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Medina}} in ''The Three Hostages'', {{spoiler|who would have survived if he hadn't just disabled Hannay, the one man able to save him.}}

* [[Majorly Awesome]]: Hannay, during ''Greenmantle''.

* [[Master of Disguise]]: The [[Big Bad]] of ''Mr Standfast'' and Sandy Arbuthnot in ''Greenmantle'' and ''The Three Hostages''. To a lesser extent, Hannay and his friend Peter Pienaar in ''Greenmantle''.

* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]: Utterly, totally averted in ''The Three Hostages''

* [[Nice Guy]]: Richard Hannay is a rare protagonist example.

{{quote| I had no particular ill-will left against Stumm. He was a man of remarkable qualities, which would have brought him to the highest distinction in the Stone Age.}}

* [[Officer and A Gentleman]]

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: Even the [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Reasonable Authority Figures]] find it difficult to believe Hannay's wild story in ''The Thirty-Nine Steps''.

* [[Rage Breaking Point]]: In ''Greenmantle'', Hannay's disguise as a backveldt Boer is given away when Stumm's bullying, intimidation, and insults finally push him beyond this.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Definitely on the Idealist end of the scale owing to Buchan's convictions about the war. However his idealism need not be mistaken for ignorance or shallowness. The books treat Germans sympathetically (including the Kaiser) and Buchan witnessed trench warfare firsthand as a newspaper correspondent.

* [[Spy Fiction]]: Basically invented the trope; the Beer and Martini elements both have roots here.

* [[The Spymaster]]: Sir Walter Bullivant, John Blenkiron and Mary Lamington for the allied cause, and {{spoiler|Moxon Ivery alias der Graf von Schwabing}} for the Germans.

** Lampshaded in one instance when two characters come to a ladder and the woman won't go up. "Why no- oh, [[Collective Groan|don't tell me]]. '' {{spoiler|[[Vertigo]].}}''"

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Because there are only two guys other than Hannay, this pops up a lot. Examples include the underwear salesmen, the police officers, the heavies, the Sheriff and Chief Inspector, Dunwoody and [[Mc Quarrie]], and Compere and Mr. Memory.

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'''The 2008 [[Made for TV Movie|TV Movie]]'''