The Baroque Cycle: Difference between revisions

 

 

'''The protagonists:'''

* Otto van Hoek: seaman who ''really'' hates pirates. Becomes [[The Captain]] when the Cabal gets their [[Cool Boat]].

* Dappa: African linguist, [[Badass Bookworm]], and just as much [[The Smart Guy]] as Moseh. Hates slavery just as much as Van Hoek hates pirates. Completely averts [[Scary Black Man]], as he's one of the most calm, collected, and intellectual members of the Cabal.

* Gabriel Goto: [[Japanese Christian]] [[Ronin]] who demonstrates [[Katanas Are Just Better]]. Born after his father was exiled from Japan and wants to go home for the first time in his life. As a Jesuit priest, he's also well-educated, and very much a [[Genius Bruiser]].

* Vrej Esphahnian: [[Manipulative Bastard]] and old "friend" of Jack.

* Enoch Root, also known as [[Color-Coded Wizardry|Enoch the Red]]: [[Immortality|Immortal]] [[Alchemy|alchemist]] and the only character from ''[[Cryptonomicon]]'' to personally appear in '''''The Baroque Cycle'''''. Straddles the line between [[Deus Ex Machina]] and [[Deus Exit Machina]]: he often [[Mr. Exposition|tips off the protagonists to vital information]] they couldn't have known otherwise (but he doesn't tell them ''too'' much), and he quickly makes himself scarce so the protagonists can act on that information by themselves.

 

 

* [[Affably Evil]] - Louis XIV, in his dealings with Jack. Actually, most of the villains come off as nice guys until you see what they're capable of doing...

* [[Anti-Hero]] - Jack and Eliza

* [[Arranged Marriage]] - As per history, most of the nobility. Notably the German princesses Eleanor and Caroline.

* [[Author Avatar]] - [[Fanon]] has it that Enoch the Red is ''literally'' [[Neal Stephenson]]'s [[God in Human Form|avatar]].

* [[Badass Boast]] with a distinct flavor of [[I Have Many Names]]

* [[Badass Bookworm]] - Some of the characters (i.e. Dappa and Moseh de la Cruz) are very well educated but have amazing fighting skills

** Bonaventure Rossignol is a brilliant cryptanalyst who enjoys reading people's mail (encrypted or not) to find out if they're heading into danger just so he can run off to be a [[Big Damn Heroes|Big Damn Hero]].

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]] - Hooke, anyone?

** Newton much moreso than Hooke. Hooke was just a bit...off-putting. Newton was off in his own world much of the time ([[Real Life]] corroborates this...look up his stint in Parliament for proof<ref>notoriously, his one "speech" during his time there was something along the lines of "Mr. Speaker, it's rather stuffy in here; I crave that the House open a window or something"</ref>), most obviously in college, but he was like this in his adult life too.

* [[Cool Boat]] - ''Minerva''.

* [[Cool Sword]] - Jack's Janissary sword; it's made out of wootz, which is for all intents and purposes, [[Unobtanium]] that exists in [[Real Life]].

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] - Just about everyone able to read in the time period(and a few who can't!) makes an appearance.

* [[The Longitude Problem]] - It's unsolved. This causes problems.

{{quote|'''Teague''': What d'you think y'are, a ''character'' in a friggin' ''novel'', Bob?}}

* [[Loving a Shadow]] - Gets an interesting twist in Eliza's relationship with Bob. She references the trope, but notes that since Bob is healthy and level-headed, and Jack is a crazy syphilitic, Jack, the original love, is the one who looks more like a shadow.

Moseh did not appear to find it especially funny. "It is a long story -- even by ''your'' standards, Jack. Suffice it to say that the Iberian Peninsula is a complicated place to be Jewish." }}

* [[Mistaken for Special Guest]]: Jack Shaftoe, AKA "King of the Vagabonds," accidentally crashes a masquerade party that King Louis of France is expected to attend dressed as...King of the Vagabonds.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]] - Édouard de Gex's alias, Edmund '''de Ath'''.

** [[Hanging Judge|Jeffreys]]' hired assassins, Bob Carver and Dick Gripp.

* [[Off with His Head]] - {{spoiler|Jack finds and beheads the man who sold Eliza and her mother into sexual slavery, and sends her his head on a silver platter}}

* [[Out with a Bang]] - {{spoiler|Roger dies [[Incredibly Lame Pun|rogering]] Newton's sexy niece.}}

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]] - Jack and Bob.

* [[Really Gets Around]] - To an extent Eliza, although some of this is an [[Urban Legend Love Life]] as part of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]] - Louis XIV, William of Orange, Peter the Great, and the females of the House of Hanover.

* [[Ruritania]] - The fictional island of Qwghlm is presented as a backward place, with almost no resources except a lot of bird crap. The main livelihood of its residence is acting as Wreckers of English ships.

* [[Shout-Out]]

* [[Single-Target Sexuality]] - Jack for Eliza, since Eliza is literally the only person who is able to sexually satisfy Jack (it has to do with Jack's [[Unusual Euphemism|disability]] and the things Eliza learned from "books of India" while in slavery.)

* [[The Spanish Inquisition]] - The members of the Cabal get an up-close-and-personal look at the Inquisiton when they arrive in Mexico in ''The Confusion''. And, yes, there was a [[Monty Python]] reference in ''The System of the World''.

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] - Daniel [[Discussed Trope|discusses this trope]] when he notes that some people can easily be replaced by [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]s (e.g. Thomas More Anglesey replacing John Comstock), while others aren't so easily replaceable.

* [[Thanatos Gambit]] - [[Subverted]] in the finale. Just before {{spoiler|Jack}} is about to be half-hanged, drawn, and quartered (a ''really'' slow and painful execution), he receives an expensive suit and lots of money with which to bribe the executioner to make his death quick and painless. [[Thanatos Gambit]], check. Now for the subversion: after the executioner jumps for joy over what he'll be receiving, {{spoiler|Jack}} tosses it all to the Mobb watching the execution, so the executioner resolves to make his death even slower and more painful than usual. With {{spoiler|Jack}} already being a popular figure among the Mobb, his generosity pushes them over the edge; with ''plenty'' of time to act now that the executioner is determined to take his time, the Mobb {{spoiler|storms the gallows after Jack starts hanging and carries him to safety}}, which was all part of {{spoiler|Jack}}'s [[Batman Gambit|plan]].

** Furthermore, Newton and the various officials who ordered the execution were too far away to see all this drama, so they assumed that the executioner has given Jack a long drop and a fast death, and so do not bother to look for him.

* [[Two Lines, No Waiting]] - Three, actually: Daniel, Jack, and Eliza. And those are just the major ones...

* [[Unobtanium]] - The Solomonic gold

*** Not so much an exception; Daniel rages (privately) against the established Church's sermons deploring the execution of King Charles I. Though he'd rather not come to violence, and he ends up serving several monarchs (always for Whiggish causes), his republicanism is adamant.

* [[Winter Royal Lady]] - Much is made of the legacy of the original one; Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen.

* [[You Are Better Than You Think You Are]]: Daniel says something like this to Hooke, who is insecure about being [[Overshadowed by Awesome|overshadowed]] by Newton.

 

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[[Category:Historical Fiction Literature]]