Trainspotting: Difference between revisions

* [[Berserk Button]]: Begbie.

* [[Better Than Sex]]: Several of the heroin junkies praise their drug of choice as being better than sex. Significantly, such comparisons are what lead Tommy to take up the habit after his girlfriend dumps him, with devastating consequences.

* [[Bi the Way]]: Mark ends up hooking up with a few men over the course of the novel, and doesn't see it as a big deal, although he feels more comfortable with women.

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: At least among the major characters. Some of their family members are good, responsible citizens.

* [[Black Comedy]]: Lots and lots, but with a few [[Dude, Not Funny]] moments to induce [[Mood Whiplash]] at points.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: And all of it in stereo, divided into gender groups.

'''Girls''': Shopping.}}

* [[Bonnie Scotland]]: Darkly and amusingly subverted.

* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Seemingly averted at first, but ultimately played straight. Renton gives an articulate and fierce defense of his lifestyle in the beginning, and the gang seem to be living fast and carefree at times, but tragedy and horror strike often. Ultimately Renton leaves the life.

* [[Erudite Stoner]]: Sick Boy

'''Renton''' That's hardly a substitute. }}

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: In the book, Begbie gets some last-minute characterization as it's explained that his father essentially abandoned him as a child. Paralleling this is the fashion in which Begbie treats his own children.

* [[Good Times Montage]]: In the film, there's a brief one when Spud, Renton, and Sick Boy start using heroin again. Predictably, though, [[It Got Worse|the good times don't last]].

* [[Groin Attack]]: Renton does this to a pitbull with an air rifle

** Begbie also tends to fight dirty.

* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: Begbie is almost as dangerous to his "mates" as he is to everyone else. Renton even outlines a number of Begbie's myths that the gang must play along with so as not to get beaten up.

** In fact, almost every chapter narrated by a female character features an aversion of this. [[Sarcasm Mode|In no way does one get a sense that Welsh has some difficulty writing female characters.]]

* [[Oh Crap]]: Begbie's reaction in the movie when he discovers that the girl he just picked up [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|isn't quite what she seems]]. As it comes [[Mood Whiplash|shortly after a lot of extremely dark stuff]] it's [[Crowning Moment of Funny|quite a welcome change of mood]]

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: In the book, Begbie abandons his and June's son. He's previously had kids with other women as well. It's implied that the same thing happened to him as a child; Renton and Frank run into an "auld drunkard" in a train station who Renton only later realizes was Begbie's father (this scene also provides the book's title, as Begbie's father asks the two if they are "trainspottin'").

* [[Posthumous Character]]: Mark's brother Davie.