The Underland Chronicles: Difference between revisions

* [[Big Bad]]: Pearlpelt, or {{spoiler|the Bane. Literally.}}

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: verging on [[Grey and Gray Morality]] before {{spoiler|[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|the systematic extermination of the nibblers.]] Even afterward individual rats on the Bane's side are portrayed in a sympathetic light.}}

** More specifically, Twitchtip the 'scent seer' whose sense of smell is so accurate that she can smell secrets -- not a fast track to the popular crowd. Also {{spoiler|Gregor as a rager, which means he has to pay special attention whenever he fights so he doesn't kill anyone. Great fun.}}

** Also, Nerissa. Funny how a society built on one man's prophecies treats their own personal prophetess so poorly.

Through dark, through flame, through war, though strife,<br />

I save you as you save my life }}

* [[Character Development]]: Oodles of this. It's quite refreshing, actually. Gregor goes out of his way to point this out in Luxa when she goes to Temp for advice in later books.

* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: Lizzie. In COC, she becomes incredibly useful.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Apparently not. Gregor, the hero, wears black armor during the final battle, and his bond is black as well. {{spoiler|Not to mention the Bane is white.}}

* [[Die Laughing]]: Some plants in the Jungle get you so high that you don't notice the attacking vines.

** Actually, Temp and Boots did do something in book three. Temp {{spoiler|kept on warning them, first suggested the idea that the cradle/cure might not be where they thought it was, and Boots did her dance.}}

** [[Lampshaded]] by Ripred in the same book --

* [[Fandom]]: A rather small one, considering, but the [[Fanfic|fanfiction]] for the series has a few exemplary pieces that rival the original works.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Even though the crawlers/cockroaches, gnawers/rats, spinners/spiders, fliers/bats, etc. that coexist with humans in the Underland are not human, they are sentient and treated as full characters on the same level as humans. Prejudices held among human characters towards these species are even treated as equal to any intra-human bigotry.

* [[Gut Feeling]]: Happens a lot.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Used in almost every book - and not just from [[Idiot Hero|Gregor.]] Everyone wants to die for their loved ones. Sometimes this [[Senseless Sacrifice|doesn't help all that much.]]

* [[Hyper Awareness]]: Gregor can sense his own urine just by using echolocation.

* [[I Can Still Fight]]: The fifth book has everyone doing this.

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: "Fo-Fo? Fo-Fo? I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and will answer to no other name!"

* [[It Got Worse]]: Over, and over, and over again.

** Book 5 is the shining example. Ripred comes into the code room expecting to see another of Gregor's annoying (to him) siblings. He stops short, sees Lizzie, and gets an expression of ''tenderness'' on his face. Not to mention sleeping next to Lizzie after she has another panic attack during the night.

* [[Missing Mom]]: {{spoiler|When Gregor's mom gets the plague in book 3, she spends most of the rest of the series recuperating in the Underland.}}

* [[More Than Meets the Eye]]: Everyone seems to have hidden depths in this series.

** What about all the other ones? There's King Gorger, Mange...all the rats have some scary names.

* [[Never Got to Say Goodbye]]: Everyone dies unexpectedly.

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: Pulled off most successfully in book 2.

* [[Replacement Goldfish]]: Lizzie, for Ripred.

* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Ripred. Later {{spoiler|Gregor as well, which he realizes in part of his Bittersweet Ending.}}

** Of course, that could be because {{spoiler|he secretly loves Gregor. Fans seem to believe this.}}

** And there's Gregor's mom {{spoiler|who secretly approves of Luxa, because she's "got attitude."}}

* [[War Is Hell]]: Gregor realizes this is true for both the Underland and Overland {{spoiler|in the ending chapter.}}

* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]: Gregor seems to love mocking Luxa's stiff conduct and all that. Has some pretty funny moments.

** {{spoiler|The ending of Book Five has Gregor tell off what amounts to the ENTIRE Underland. The Bane's dead and the humans and rats are ready to live together peacefully. Luxa then announces that the rats are being sent to live in the most hostile region of the Underland. Ripred isn't amused, and both sides are ready to go to war right then and there. Gregor tells all of them off not just for being so stupid after both sides have been devastated, but also for Ripred having come all this way with them and Luxa treating him like dirt.}}

* [[Wham! Line]]: That encoded message in ''Gregor and the Code of Claw''? It says {{spoiler|Twitchtip died in pit.}} Also, the entirety of Luxa's {{spoiler|declaration of war against the gnawers.}}