Them or Us: Difference between revisions

* [[Atomic Hate]] - The bombs have stopped dropping, but the effects are still being felt by the survivors.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]] / [[Blessed With Suck]] - Danny's ability to "hold the Hate" - the ability to NOT kill the Unchanged -seems pretty useless in a world with no Unchanged, and he constantly fears [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]. Danny has managed to get on the good side of one of the new leaders, Hinchcliffe, who sees other qualities in Danny, and continues to send him out to spy on other Haters. As Hinchcliffe puts it, his other talent is the ability to blend in, "You're forgettable. No one notices you. No one even gives you a second glance."

* [[Begone Bribe]] - Among other types of bribery.

* [[Camp Unsafe Isn't Safe Anymore]] - Lowestoft.

* [[Chase Scene]] - A car chase.

* [[Coitus Ensues]] - A session between Danny and the woman is described in flat, dry, technical terms, and has no real effect on the plot in the long run.

* [[Eat the Dog]] - A delicacy in a nuclear wasteland without food.

* [[The Emperor]] - Hinchcliffe, a [[Genius Bruiser]] / [[Jerkass]] / [[Smug Snake]]. He's fairly ruthless, which earns him the [[Embarrassing Nickname]] K.C. which is short for "King Cunt". Hinchcliffe will do anything to secure his status as leader of [[The Empire]].

* [[Esoteric Happy Ending]] {{spoiler|- Danny helps the last Unchanged live just a little bit longer.}}

** [[Fridge Logic]] - It's heavily implied, throughout the series, that if there's any logic behind the [[Hate Plague]], aside from Mother Nature's population control, then it's that the Haters are regressing back to their tribal, primitive, feral-animal selves. Regressing in order to actually live life to its fullest before dying an inevitable death, and that the Unchanged want to keep them shackled to a bullshit prison planet, wasting away in a living death and wasting the extremely short time anyone has with this gift of life by engaging in extraneous bullshit such as fill_in_the_blank (whatever you don't like about society at large, for instance David Moody and Danny McCoyne seem to dislike consumerism and materialism). The word "bullshit" is used several times not just in connection to the Unchanged, but also in connection to people who can hold the hate. For instance the {{spoiler|other Hateholder in this book tries to explain why Danny should help the Unchanged}}, which even Danny calls bullshit.{{spoiler|.. at first.}} It makes any Hateholder seem like a potential, domesticated pet for the Unchanged oppressors. Hater children embrace the Hate more than adults, and act like animals more than the adults. They lose their ability for speech and don't need adults for anything, sort of like any [[Nature Documentary|wild animal who comes out the womb, learns to walk on all fours, finishes suckling, and then takes off to hunt alone]]. The younger they are, the stronger they are, and the less they need other people. [[Unfortunate Implications|Needing other people is bullshit.]] Not only is a complex, global, societal hierarchy considered bullshit, but any sort of even the most simple, primitive tribe, or simple group of humans, or family unit or marriage, is destined to implode eventually and make everyone miserable in the meantime in a living death. Bullshit equals death. So, in short, David Moody seems to be saying that {{spoiler|1=Danny McCoyne is choosing bullshit and death over life by helping the Unchanged rather than using his remaining time for satisfying peace. The last image -- two Unchanged children fighting over a can of soda -- seems to underscore this logic.}}

* [[Food As Bribe]]

* [[Freedom From Choice]] - A philosophy that is discussed.

* [[Get It Over With]] - Spoken by characters when facing what seems like certain death, as well as Danny's motto for any given task.

* [[Goal in Life]] - Now that the Unchanged are gone, most Haters don't have one.

* [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]] - The Haters and their [[Final Solution]], especially the ones who do experiments on children.

* [[Not Quite Dead]] {{spoiler|Hinchcliffe pulls one of these.}}

* [[Paranoia]] - The paranoia was saved for the "other team" in previous novels, but now it's every man for himself. As Jonathan Maberry puts it: “David Moody spins paranoia into a deliciously dark new direction."

* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]] - Almost inverted when Hinchcliffe mentions that he'll kill anyone, even if that person is a "Black Lesbian Jew." Used to show that Haters don't care about any of the things that society has used for excuses to discriminate: Race, sexual orientation, or religion, for example. The only discrimination is reserved for Haters and Unchanged. Violence against Unchanged is business, violence against Haters is personal.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] - Delivered several times by Hinchcliffe to Danny.

* [[Reduced to Ratburgers]]

* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] - Danny has nightmares about the nukes and what happened to his daughter.

* [[The Short Guy With Glasses]] - Rufus, only his glasses got broken and lost.

[[Category:Horror Literature]]

[[Category:Them Or Us]]