All The Tropes

Streets of Rage Saga: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Streets of Rage Saga (view source)

Revision as of 08:28, 8 April 2014

13 bytes added ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Dai-Guard moved page Streets of Rage Saga (Fanfic) to Streets of Rage Saga over redirect: Remove TVT Namespaces from title)
m (Mass update links)
Line 43:
* [[Atomic F-Bomb]]: Axel drops one after being forced to abandon the search for their missing ally Candace.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Enigma.
* [[Back From the Dead]]: Mr. X comes back from the dead at least twice in the saga through bio-genetic means (not counting his [[Brain In Aa Jar]] status during ''Project Y''), and in fact the introductory note for ''Shadow Hand'' is similar to the introductory story used in the fan-made ''Streets of Rage Remake'', where, having been thought to be dead, he returned to life "stronger than ever." Following his defeat in ''Shadow Hand'', he is resurrected by the titular ''Sons of Darkness'' for their own purposes.
** {{spoiler|Dr. Zan in ''Shadow Dancer'', having been exhumed from his grave and [[Came Back Strong|given a new android body by British operatives]]; Leon Shiva is a villainous example from the same story, courtesy of [[The Syndicate]] and the aforementioned bio-genetic engineering. In ''Behind the World'' it's revealed that Skate was genetically resurrected by the Syndicate and took on the name Anthrax}}.
* [[Bad Boss]]: Lucius Hawk executes a hired assassin who failed his mission by shooting him in the head. Likewise, Enigma thanks two scavengers he hired to find an ancient artifact, once they hand it over to him, by ordering his [[The Dragon|right-hand man]] to "give them what they deserve"...which in this case is two shotgun blasts.
Line 65:
* [[Big No]]:
** Shiva unleashes one {{spoiler|when Axel knocks him off the roof of his headquarters in ''The New Syndicate'', plummeting 70 stories to his death}}.
** Dreadnought gives one {{spoiler|when he gets [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]}}.
** Socharis has a moment upon being defeated in ''Shadow Hand''.
** Rudra gives one {{spoiler|just before being shot to death by Adam.}}
** Blaze emits one in ''Behind the World'' {{spoiler|when Adam dies}}.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Taken individually, the endings for some of the stories in the overall saga qualify.
** ''Cygnus Threshold'': {{spoiler|Axel has avenged his parents' deaths, but the captured Lucius Hawk gets [[Off Onon a Technicality]] [[Karma Houdini|thanks to the Syndicate's machinations]]}}.
** ''The New Syndicate'': {{spoiler|Shiva and [[Shinobi|the Hand]] are dead, Joe Musashi has retrieved the two mystic items that Neo Zeed sought to steal for their nefarious purposes, and Axel and Blaze get back together. However, Dr. Zan is now dead, and the nuclear bombing of London has created a state of societal and financial chaos both at ground zero and in the wider global community, [[Social Darwinist|as Shiva]] [[The Bad Guy Wins|had hoped to have happen]]}}.
** ''Shadow Dancer'': {{spoiler|Joe Musashi has avenged his slain friend by killing Sauros, and the cyborg Jet has been destroyed by Blaze and company. However, Max is now dead, and the Dragon Lord still lives}}.
** ''Shadow Hand'': {{spoiler|Socharis the Dragon Lord, a.k.a. Mr. X, is dead once again, his clones are destroyed, his [[Take Over the World]] plan has been stopped, Axel and Blaze get married and are now expecting a baby, Dr. Zan is [[Back From the Dead]], and siblings Rudra and Shiva have reunited and pulled a collective [[Heel Face Turn]]. However, Skate is now dead and millions of people have been killed by the Project Y robots that were sent out by Mr. X}}.
** ''Duality'': {{spoiler|The Syndicate's [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] has been destroyed and the entire world has been saved; but Blaze, who was pregnant with her and Axel's second child, [[Convenient Miscarriage|has lost the baby]]}}.
** ''Behind the World'': {{spoiler|Zan, Adam, Tina and Blaze are all dead by the end of the story--in Zan's case, for the second time and permanently--and Axel leaves the city, having nothing there to go back to. On the other hand, [[Big Bad|Enigma]] has been destroyed, his [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|plan to bring Hell on Earth]] has been stopped, Axel and Blaze's children have been rescued, the Kaeyus Infernus pieces have been destroyed to prevent a reopening of the portal, and as Axel himself notes, Blaze's death means that after the [[Dark and Troubled Past|crapsack life she's experienced]], she can now have peace. This one may also qualify as a [[Downer Ending]] for the saga as a whole, [[Your Mileage May Vary|depending on how you view it]]}}.
* [[Blood Brothers]]: Musashi, Kato, and Yamato formed such a bond taking down the Zeed organization.
* [[Blood Knight]]: Shiva.
Line 83:
** Rudra mutters "Checkmate." after killing two soldiers who were playing chess.
* [[Boom! Headshot!]]: [[Improbable Aiming Skills|Axel is evidently good at delivering these]].
* [[Brain In Aa Jar]]: Mr. X's status in ''Project Y'' (a throwback to his status in the third game).
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]:
** {{spoiler|Dr. Zan via reprogramming}} in ''The New Syndicate''.
Line 104:
** Anthrax proves to be this when Adam challenges him in ''Behind the World''. {{spoiler|He simply shoots Adam instead of engaging in fisticuffs}}.
* [[Combination Attack]]: {{spoiler|Blaze and Shiva}} combine their fireball power together to destroy Mr. X.
* [[Composite Character]]: Several [[Ascended Extra|Ascended Extras]] get this treatment. For example, Silver McLeod, [[The Dragon]] in ''The Rise of Dreadnought'', is a composite of two pallet-swap enemies from the third game (Silver and McLeod, two of several [[Badass in Aa Nice Suit]] mooks who fired pistols at the heroes during gameplay); while Zamza, the [[Psycho for Hire]] from the same story, was originally named James Souther (in the second game, Zamza and Souther are separate names for two pallet-swap bosses).
* [[Corrupt Cop]]: As with the canon series, a lot of these prove to be a problem for the protagonists. {{spoiler|Also, Lucius Hawk was one}}.
** {{spoiler|Chief O'Hara, too, as revealed in ''Origins''}}.
Line 122:
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: In contrast to the games, where the canon back-story was ''already'' pretty dark.
* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Axel and Blaze's first child, Max, named for their departed friend.
* [[Deal Withwith the Devil]]: ''Duality'' reveals that {{spoiler|Chief O'Hara}} chose subservience to Mr. X in exchange for seven million dollars and his children's lives being spared.
* [[Death Byby Sex]]: Rudra kills a Syndicate traitor while having sex with him in ''Shadow Hand''.
* [[Determinator]]: All the main characters qualify.
* [[Deuteragonist]]: Blaze, after being introduced in ''Origins'' (the second story of the saga).
Line 129:
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Adam and Skate were raised single-handedly by their mother.
* [[Dismantled MacGuffin]]: The nine Kaeyus Infernus artifacts in ''Behind the World'', which have been scattered across religious sites of varying faiths worldwide. Supposedly, if brought together, the nine artifacts act as a key to another dimension inhabited by "beings possessed of fantastical evil" worshiped by ancient Egyptians as gods; prior to the start of the story, Leon Shiva had collected seven of them.
* [[Distracted Byby the Sexy]]: Used by Blaze to lure two guards away from their posts in ''Origins'', and again in ''Duality'' to lure another guard into being killed by Adam. It helps that Blaze isn't shy about nudity.
* [[The Dragon]]:
** Haku-oh is this for Lucius Hawk in ''Cygnus Threshold''.
** Of course, there's also Leon Shiva for Mr. X, like in the games.
** Silver McLeod is this for Dreadnought in ''The Rise of Dreadnought''. {{spoiler|[[Dragon Withwith an Agenda|He's not quite so loyal]]}}.
** The jetpack-powered Jet (the cyborg version from the third SOR game) serves as Sauros' Dragon in ''Shadow Dancer''.
** Rudra to Shiva in ''Duality''.
** Anthrax to Enigma in ''Behind the World''.
** [[Dragon Withwith an Agenda]]: Surprisingly enough, Mr. X himself in ''Sons of Darkness''. The titular beings revived him following the events of ''Shadow Hand'' to serve their purposes, but he's intent on learning the secret of their power so he can rule the world.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Axel's sister Tina}} in ''Behind the World'', courtesy of Enigma.
* [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him]]: Happens to Blaze's new boyfriend in ''The New Syndicate'' when he's killed during an attack on her that's been orchestrated by the Syndicate.
* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: Axel is seen doing this when first introduced in ''The New Syndicate'', due to being depressed after Blaze has left him.
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: The drug Fire, available in pill form, gives an energetic high but is highly addictive; ingesting ''three'' pills for the purposes of a training demonstration causes an X-Robot to go berserk and almost kill Shiva and Mr. X. Blaze is an addict as well, a fact that [[Discussed Trope|worries Axel]]. She's later shown to be taking heroin via injection in ''The New Syndicate'', but by ''Shadow Hand'' she's gotten herself clean and sober.
* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]:
** As revealed in ''Shadow Hand'', Mr. X's ultimate plan for world domination consisted of sending the "Battlegroup," heavily-modified Project Y robots, to lay waste to all major cities across the globe.
** In ''Behind the World'', Enigma wants to unleash literal Hell on Earth.
* [[Eye Scream]]: In ''The Rise of Dreadnought'', Kazuyuki Harakiri threatens to torture Blaze by putting a lit cigarette into her eye ([[I Have You Now, My Pretty|among other implied unpleasant torture methods]]) and he actually burns her with the cigarette one centimeter away from the eyeball to show he's not bluffing. [[Bullying a Dragon|Unfortunately for him, however]]...
* [[Fallen Hero]]: Shiva, in this continuity. In ''Shadow Hand'' it's revealed that he served in the Gulf War, but when he was informed that his father and sister had been killed (although unknown to him, Rudra had in fact survived), he went insane with grief, turned a gun on several innocent civilians, and was imprisoned for it. He would later be drafted into serving the Syndicate.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: Mercy me, ''where to start?'' Throughout the saga, we have varying examples of heads being cut off, throats being slashed, persons cut down in a hail of bullets, characters bleeding to death in agony, one minor character being burned alive, at least three noteworthy examples of [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice]]...and without giving away any spoilers, at least one character's death actually occurs ''in front of her children''.
* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: {{spoiler|Anthrax ends up eaten and torn apart. Repeatedly}}.
* [[Fetish]]: ''Shadow Hand'' establishes that Rudra gets a rather perverse sexual rush from every successful assassination job she does.
* [[Fighting Your Friend]]: Adam is forced to do this against {{spoiler|Axel/Enigma}} in ''Duality''.
* [[Food Porn]]: Meals get described right down to the last tasty detail. In ''Origins'', for example, the full-course meal at Axel and Blaze's first dinner date is described from start to finish, and later on the narrative goes to great lengths to describe the steak Mr. X [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|shares with the two when he has them prisoner]].
* [[Friend Onon the Force]]: Adam continues on as a cop after Axel and Blaze quit, and in ''The New Syndicate'' he uses his FBI connections to get the heroes clearance into areas they wouldn't be able to access otherwise.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Max Hatchett, the wrestler from the second game, is the chairman of a pharmaceutical company in this continuity. Also, Onihime and Yasha (Mona and Lisa from the third game) are Syndicate scientists as well as fighters.
* [[A God Am I]]: Mr. X expresses this view in ''Project Y'', despite being a [[Brain In Aa Jar]] by this point. One can't blame him, though, since he's remotely and mentally controlling a ''20-foot-tall'' [[Humongous Mecha]] that has the heroes [[Oh Crap|running for their lives]].
{{quote| '''Mr. X:''' ''You can't stop me! I am God now!''}}
** The Twelfth One, one of twelve perfected [[Super Soldier]] projects, makes a similar declaration even as she's beating the crap out of the protagonists in ''The New Syndicate''.
Line 174:
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|Shiva and Rudra}} in ''Shadow Hand''.
** [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Both of them}} between ''Sons of Darkness'' and ''Duality''.
* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]:
** ''Origins'': {{spoiler|Mr. X gets beheaded by one of his own robots}}.
** ''The Rise of Dreadnought'': {{spoiler|The [[Big Bad]] gets sent flying down into the same blade-filled trap he initially threw Axel and Skate into}}.
Line 191:
* [[It's Personal]]: The [[Final Fight|Mad Gear]] conflict, which forms part of the story for ''Shadow Dancer''. Related to this, an attack on one of his childhood friends by the Union Lizard organization prompts [[Shinobi|Joe Musashi]] to return to America and get involved with the conflict.
* [[Jekyll and Hyde]]: {{spoiler|Axel and Enigma}}.
* [[Jet Pack]]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Jet]].
* [[Ki Attacks]]: They don't show up in the saga until Blaze uses her fireball attack on Shiva in ''Project Y''. In her case, it's a side-effect of her use of the Fire drug in ''Origins''. {{spoiler|That side effect came about in the first place because of genetic tampering by the Syndicate}}.
** Axel doesn't show his Dragon Wing special attack until ''Duality'', the penultimate book in the saga. {{spoiler|It's while he's [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] as Enigma, and due to experiments by the Syndicate}}.
Line 216:
* [[Mind Over Matter]]: Socharis, and later Enigma in ''Behind the World''. {{spoiler|Also Blaze, post-''The New Syndicate''}}.
* [[Mind Rape]]: Enigma pulls this on Blaze in ''Behind the World'', giving her a mental image of him actually raping her.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Blaze isn't afraid to get nude, and the narrative has her shedding clothes whenever needed. To add to the fan-service, in one instance she has [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms]] while [[Shower Scene|taking a shower]].
* [[Mission Control]]: Murphy, Adam's FBI partner and ally to the protagonists.
* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: Jerrin.
* [[My Greatest Failure]]: It's revealed at the end of ''Duality'' that Adam wishes he could have done more to prevent {{spoiler|Skate's death in ''Shadow Hand''}}.
* [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name]]: Mr. X's art collection includes a statue in the shape of a swastika. This is lampshaded by Zan.
* [[New Neo City]]: Neo London is christened the capital of the New World Order.
* [[Nightmare Face]]: Dreadnought, as a result of his self-mutilations prior to the events of the story; he usually keeps his face hidden behind a skintight mask for this reason. The narrative paints a [[Sarcasm Mode|lovely]] picture for the reader.
Line 227:
* [[Not So Harmless]]: Though it's already established that he's a Syndicate member, when first introduced Ash appears to be nothing more than a [[Depraved Bisexual]] who runs a BDSM-themed night-club. Turns out he's a [[Lightning Bruiser]] who keeps a gun hidden in his cap and knows how to use it.
* [[The Obi-Wan]]: Dr. Zan serves as this for Blaze during ''Project Y'', with regards to dealing with her new-found [[Ki Attacks]].
* [[Off Withwith His Head]]: Happens to two characters in the saga--Mr. X in ''Origins'' (he gets better) and Sauros in ''Shadow Dancer'' (he doesn't).
* [[Official Couple]]: Axel and Blaze for the first three books, though they broke up some time prior to ''The New Syndicate'' because of the [[Law of Inverse Fertility]]. They eventually get back together in that story, and he proposes to her at the end of it.
* [[Oh Crap]]:
** Beano, a mini-boss character from the second game and an [[Elite Mook]] in ''Cygnus Threshold'', has such a moment during a vehicular chase in which the tow truck he's commandeered crashes into a car with a surfboard mounted on top--specifically, right before said surfboard gets propelled by the impact through his windshield to [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice|impale him]].
** Shiva and Mr. X share a collective moment of this during ''Origins'', when the X-Robot (fueled by three tablets of the drug Fire) goes berserk and [[Gone Horribly Right|utterly brutalizes Shiva's soldiers]] during its training demonstration. [[It Got Worse|Then it looks in their direction]]...
{{quote| '''Mr. X:''' He's looking at ''us!''}}
*** Both of them get separate moments later in the story--{{spoiler|Mr. X before being [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]], Shiva before the base gets blown up}}.
** Axel has this reaction in ''Project Y'' when [[Humongous Mecha|Robot Y]] shows up during the final confrontation.
** Shiva gets such a moment again in ''The New Syndicate'' {{spoiler|when he's knocked off the roof of his 70-story-high headquarters}}.
Line 255:
** Matthew Drury actually has an explanation for this: originally, had Drury been able to flesh out ''Sons of Darkness'' the way he'd wanted to, Abadede was going to be [[Not Quite Dead]] following his fight with Axel and Blaze, with his subsequent return being a shock for both the characters and the readers.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Various times, even within the narrative itself.
* [[Rape Asas Backstory]]: {{spoiler|Blaze, in this continuity}}. It's disconcerting that [[Angst? What Angst?|she can so casually talk about what she experienced in her childhood]] while switching back and forth between banter about the food she's eating.
{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Blaze}}''': It's ironic. I've been raped so many times in my life...I've almost gotten used to it. How sick is that?}}
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Captain Jack Wyndam in ''Cygnus Threshold'', and the U.S. President in ''The Rise of Dreadnought''. In the latter case, Blaze disobeyed direct federal orders for Team Firestorm not to pursue Dreadnought...and the President, heading the subsequent trial, ''only'' fines Blaze $3.5 million and allows her to continue heading the team instead of sending her to prison, on the grounds that her disobedience ended up averting the [[Big Bad|Big Bad's]] intended nuclear war.
Line 268:
* [[Say My Name]]: Done by Axel in ''Behind the World''. {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real|"Blaaaaaaaze!"]]}}.
* [[Secret Secret Keeper]]: It's revealed in ''Duality'' that Adam and Tina, Axel's sister, as well as several other individuals within the FBI, were this regarding the true identity of Enigma.
* [[Send in Thethe Clones]]: Spoken verbatim by Shiva.
* [[Sense Loss Sadness]]: Dr. Zan, due to being a cyborg, can no longer enjoy the various pleasures of life that most humans take for granted, such as being able to enjoy food or intimate relations. He angsts about this for a while, especially because he was turned into a cyborg against his will.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Mr. X.
Line 278:
** The prologue of ''Origins'' has a segment that's lifted almost word-for-word from a similar scene in the [[Jurassic Park]] novel.
** The aforementioned crossovers as well as Dr. Dahm being sent to [[Batman|Arkham Asylum]].
** The climax of ''The Rise of Dreadnought'' where Axel and gang battle a mutated Vehilits within a train is similar to the climax of ''[[Resident Evil 2 (Video Game)]]''.
** On that note, the ending of ''The New Syndicate'' is similar to the beginning of the second Resident Evil film, Apocalypse, complete with Blaze saying Alice's "My name is Alice and I remember everything" line.
** ''Duality'': Shiva's world-destroying superweapon is called a [[Dark Empire|World Devastator]].
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/888248"