The Pendragon Adventure: Difference between revisions

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A series of modern fantasy books written by DJ MacHale. Each book is divided into two viewpoints. The journal segments, detailing the adventures of Bobby Pendragon, the main character, who is whisked away from his [[Ordinary High School Student]] life by his Uncle Press, via a magical gate called a flume hidden in the subway systems of New York City. The other part follows Bobby's best friends, Mark and Courtney, who get into a bit of trouble themselves, despite lacking the ability to travel to alternate worlds. Each world is called a territory, and every territory has a Traveler, filling various roles. Every territory is reaching a turning point, which will radically alter the fate of that world. The Travelers exist to make sure that the turning points, and the destiny of the territories, go the way they naturally would, without outside interference. Obviously, if this was all there was to it, it'd be pretty uneventful. Enter Saint Dane, a sadistic [[Magnificent Bastard]] who wants to push the territories towards chaos, destroying the barriers between them, so he can reshape Halla (everything that has, does, or ever will exist) [[In Their Own Image|in his image]]. The series consists of 10 books, with the final book released May 12, 2009.

# ''The Soldiers of Halla''

 

 

And so we go.

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Loor and Kasha.

* [[An Aesop]]: More than a couple books have morals, with lessons such as "nuclear weapons are bad!" (The Merchant of Death) and "racism is bad!" (Black Water). This is all well and good, but it leads to [[Anvilicious]] messages like "Capitalism is bad!" (The Quillan Games) and (Raven Rise) in different ways.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Especially in the later books. {{spoiler|One way or the other, it doesn't quite stick for many of them.}}

* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Bobby's journals could count as this, as several times through the series he thinks Halla (the entirety of existence) might end and it is all written in his journals.

* [[Atlantis]]: Both ''The Lost City of Faar'' and ''Black Water'' feature lost cities. Both of these happen to be in their titles.

* [[Author Vocabulary Calendar]]: Part of the author's writing style. "Statement" was Character's adjective reply.

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Gunny is more of a [[Cool Old Guy]], but he can still kick ass. Press is rather old and qualifies too. Elli becomes [[Never Mess with Granny|the Grandma equivalent]].

* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: See the Arc Words.

* [[Black and White Morality]]: {{spoiler|We find out in ''The Soldiers of Halla'' that Solara, the birth place of the Travelers, was originally a place of balance before Saint Dane started monkeying around with things. Due to the existence of Ravinia, Solara has been split into two separate planes of existence. One represents the positive aspects of mankind and is fueled by the hopes of the Exiles. The other, darker, Solara covers the negative aspects and is being empowered by the evil intents of those who joined Ravinia.}}

* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]]: Black Water's "Gar" (humans) and "Klee" (giant cats). [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in when one recalls that Pendragon's [[Omniglot|inherent translation skills]] should take care of this.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Spader's "Hobey ho." And in later books, Bobby starts saying: "And so we go."

* [[Catfolk]]: The Klees of Eelong are giant, intelligent, bipedal cats.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]:

** The first book says that one character has a childish, cartoony "[[Hentai]] animation" poster. Reportedly changed in later editions to "colorful anime superhero poster" (perhaps the editors got wind of the error?), and in ''Raven Rise'' it's just "anime posters."

* [[Distant Finale]]

* [[Downer Ending]]: ''The Reality Bug'' and ''The Quillan Games''. Arguably ''Raven Rise'' as well, though mitigated by {{spoiler|the return of the Travelers at the end}}.

* [[Gainax Ending]]: {{spoiler|Sort of. In the tenth book, the epilogue has Bobby and Courtney living out a normal life, despite Press having ''just said'' that they couldn't/wouldn't just turn back the clock and have them live a normal life.}}

** Actually, what Press said was that {{spoiler|they couldn't go back to their old territories to continue living their lives because they had knowledge of the future. }}

* [[Genre Blindness]]: The books (at least the earlier ones) try to push the idea that Bobby's just [[Badass Normal|an ordinary kid who also happens to be in charge of saving the worlds]], but this, along with his [[Totally Radical|outdated slang]], hinder it.

* [[A God Am I]]: Saint Dane. {{spoiler|He's actually not too far off to begin with, but full-blown godhood is one of his ultimate goals.}}

* [[Huge Holographic Head]]: Used by Aja to communicate with people entering her territory, Veelox.

* [[Human Aliens]]: On all the other worlds. Flora and non-human fauna tends to be different from world to world, however.

* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Saint Dane does this to Loor. Thankfully, she recovers.}}

* [[Instrumentality]]: {{spoiler|Solara}}

* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Nevva Winter, ''The Quillan Games''}}.

* [[Narnia Time]]: Time between the territories is explained to work this way.

* [[New Eden]]: Third Earth.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Bobby's first screw up was the turning point for Denduron. {{spoiler|[[Everything Is Better With Explosions|Tak]] while discovered by the rebels, had not been able to be used in huge amounts besides pea-sized amounts for their slingshots. However, due to Bobby bringing his flashlight with him from second earth, had made the rebels find a way to harness more Tak to create a Bomb.}} Yeah, [[Sarcasm Mode|Nice Job, Bobby.]]

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: If your family is still around when you become a Traveler, they won't be for long.

* [[Planet of the Apes Ending]]: {{spoiler|Ibara}} is actually {{spoiler|Veelox three hundred years down the line}}.

* [[Portal Network]]: It's right there in the premise.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Well, girl. Loor and the other Batu people are like this.

* [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]: Out of the infinite number of habitable planets in the universe, technological civilizations arose on only seven. Six of these civilizations are exclusively human. Just let that sink in.

** {{spoiler|Given the nature of Halla, it is possible that the people who created the universe did this intentionally}}

** Except that the most optimistic answer to the Drake Equation you can seriously propose in a scientific setting is roughly 10... hmmmm how convenient.

* [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]: Subverted by ''The Never War''. Played straight in the final chapter of ''The Soldiers of Halla''.

* [[Spin-Off]]: The ''[[Morpheus Road]]'' trilogy has recently been confirmed to be a spin-off from this series.

* [[The Stoic]]: Loor rarely shows emotion. Except for when she does.

* [[Teach Me How to Fight]]: After nearly being beaten to death by Saint Dane, Bobby asks Loor [[Accidental Innuendo|to do this with him.]]

* [[Terminally Dependent Society]]: Veelox, to Lifelight. It gets better.

* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: A lot of the time travel doesn't really make sense. {{spoiler|It's apparently just fine to go back to the 1930s and change things when Saint Dane had also done so, but after they defeat Saint Dane and humanity on Third Earth is still [[After the End]]? They can't go back and fix anything.}}

* [[Title Drop]]

* [[Totally Radical]]: The worst parts of the books.

* [[Tournament Arc]]: The Quillan Games' Grand X.

** {{spoiler|All the travelers get this power once they arrive in Solara. They have to use it very sparingly though. Bobby only ever turns to smoke with it.}}

** Hilarity ensues when Bobby tries to use it himself without actually knowing how it works, and it boiled down to him trying to will it into happening:

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: Saint Dane's tried this ploy as well. Bobby never gives in.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Saint Dane was this in his mind... {{spoiler|until his [[Moral Event Horizon]]}}

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]: In many fanart pictures of Saint Dane, he is drawn as an almost exact replica of [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroth]]. That is until he becomes all powerful and all his hair gets burned off. However, the book describes him as old and unattractive in his white-haired and bald stages. In ''The Soldiers of Halla'', with all his new energy, he looks young and handsome and his hair returns, but it's black.

* [[Write Back to the Future]]: The setup for ''The Never War''.

* [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]: Lifelight on Veelox, after the Reality Bug is introduced.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]