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The Saga of Darren Shan: Difference between revisions
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''The Saga of Darren Shan'' is a 12-part Fantasy Horror series by Irish author... Darren Shan (his real surname is ''O' Shaughnessy'', but [[Pen Name|that's not quite as marketable]]). It's very popular across the world and was made into [[Film of the Book|a movie]]. There is also a [[Manga]] adaptation... which, oddly enough, is actually made and published in Japan.
The Saga follows a perfectly normal Teenager in a [[No Name Given|perfectly normal town]] who after an unfortunate chain of events winds up ''faking his own death'' and living his life as a half-vampire [[The Apprentice (trope)||assistant]] to the vampire Mr. Crepsley. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity]] and [[Nightmare Fuel]] ensues. The story starts off with the appearance of a Goosebumps-esque non-serial horror series, but then (intentionally) [[Plot Tumor|grows]] into a war involving the [[Dark Is Not Evil|good Vampires]] and the evil [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampaneze]]. Cue violence, character development, [[Time Travel]], and plot twists. Lots and lots of plot twists.
The books in the Saga are:
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* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: Literally. {{spoiler|Des Tiny is the omnipotent demon man who caused the series to happen. See Xanatos Roulette below.}}
* [[Big Bad]]: Desmond Tiny for the series as a whole.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: The last book ends with {{spoiler|Darren dying, then being [[Back
* [[Blade Lock]]: Subverted in ''Hunters of the Dusk''. Darren gets in a sword fight with a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampaneze]] and tries blade locking. The vampaneze simply runs his blade down the length of Darren's and maims his hand.
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Darren. And he's broken indeed...
** Illustrated with the writing style. Remember the way Cirque du Freak was written? Lots of exclamation marks, quite often after a one word sentence, almost like a very skilled child had written it. [[Fridge Brilliance|Well, all that disappears right after that one book...]]
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Played epically.{{spoiler|Darren meets a seemingly irrelevant mook in the first book. By the last book, it reveals it was actually Darren from the future who had been turned into a [[Body Horror|small zombie creature]] and sent back in time to [[Time Paradox|stop the whole series from existing.]]}}
* [[Circus of Fear]]: Subverted.
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* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Mr. Crepsley is bitter, snarky, perfectly willing to let Steve die, and not averse to smacking Darren around to teach him a lesson, and yet he genuinely cares for Mesdames Truska and Octa, and comes to the rescue every time Darren gets into trouble (which is often).
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Mr. Crepsley making Darren fake his death and make him sit through his own grieving funeral and burial. But at least he did it to save his best friends life, right? Too bad, as said best friend thinks Darren did it to spite him and vows to kill him. [[Break the Cutie|Break the cutie indeed]].
* [[I Should Write a Book About This]]: The series ties into the real world at the end, when {{spoiler|vampire Darren sends his journals of his vampire adventures to his alternate-timeline fiction-author self, to be published as a fiction novel}}.
* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Mr. Crepsley's dramatic end in Book Nine, where he sacrifices his life on a pit of flaming spikes to save the good guys after assuming he had killed the [[Big Bad]]. Said Big Bad was a decoy and he died for nothing.}}
* [[Infant Immortality]]: {{spoiler|Averted: Steve kills eight-year-old Shancus Von}}.
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* [[Meaningful Echo]]: In ''Trials of Death'', we see the Death's Touch(see [[Strange Salute]]). {{spoiler|When at the end of the book, after surviving 3 Trials and "failing" one, Darren discovers Kurda Smahlt's treachery, as Darren flees, he swears that he will bring vengeance upon Kurda. Broken and battered, down a roaring river, he does the Death's Touch at Kurda, and spitefully cries "Even in death, may I be triumphant!"}}
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Mr. '''Des'''mond '''Tiny'''.
* [[Mind Screw]]: The 12th book.
* [[Necessarily Evil]]: {{spoiler|Kurda Smahlt embraced this; he intended to betray the vampires to the vampaneze in a bid to avert all-out war.}}
* [[Never Learned to Read]]: Crepsley admits this in the beginning of Book 8.
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* [[Significant Anagram]]: {{spoiler|Harkat Mulds and Kurda Smahlt}} in book 10.
* [[Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness]]: Somewhere in the middle. The degree of viciousness or friendliness of a vampire is their choice rather than being forced.
* [[Strange Salute]]: In ''Trials of Death'' the vampires do a strange sign, placing their hand in front of their face with the middle finger on their forehead, with the index and ring fingers placed on the eyelids. This is called the Death's Touch, which is meant to mean "even in death, may you be triumphant. {{spoiler|Becomes a [[Meaningful Echo]] later in the book.}}
* [[The Spartan Way]]: Those who wish to become a Vampire General must take the Trials of Initiation, a series of five difficult, randomly-chosen tasks, each the day after the last (excepting holidays) where death is highly likely, and even survival without success results in execution. When Darren has to undergo the Trials to prove himself, he has to go through a flooding maze with a huge rock shackled to him, cross a cave filled with very sharp and brittle stalagmites and stalactites which drop at the slightest noise, spend 15 minutes in a metal chamber which randomly shoots spurts of flame, and fight two massive, rabid wild boars. They note that due to his youth and being only a half vampire, they actually removed the most difficult tasks from the roster.
* [[Trailers Always Lie]]: The trailers for [[The Movie]] imply that Crepsley just randomly asks Darren if he wants to be a vampire. "Dude, wanna be a vampire?" while in the actual movie Darren agrees to become one in exchange for saving Steve(part of the line survives, but it's part of a speech about the trials of being a vampire)
* [[Teacher-Student Romance]] Darren and Debbie. Subverted in that they're actually the same age, they even dated when [[Puppy Love|they were]] about twelve, Darren is simply [[Younger Than They Look|younger than he looks like]], and despite this Debbie refuses to get involved with him again, because she feels really bad about dating "a boy". However when she learns that Darren [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up|will grow up]] as a side-effect of the Purge she's more than happy to point out that will change her view on the issue. Altought by then she's not a teacher.
* [[Two-Part Trilogy]]: The twelve-book saga is divided into four trilogies, the latter two of which are [[Two-Part Trilogy|Two Part Trilogies]] in their own right (with "Hunters of the Dusk" establishing what has happened during the [[Time Skip]] and setting the premise for the next two books, and "The Lake of Souls" bridging the [[Grand Finale]] and the previous [[Wham! Episode]]).
* [[Unable to Cry]]: Darren for a long time after the death of {{spoiler|Mr. Crepsley}}.
* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Steve, in spades.
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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Horror Literature]]
[[Category:The Saga of Darren Shan]]▼
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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