Linette Volant/Tropes

* All Girls Want Bad Boys: She's more attracted to rebellious outcast Peter than the wholesome and sensible Henry.
* Arranged Marriage: At the beginning of the story, she is betrothed to Henry, due him being wealthy. She is unhappy about this for various reasons, not least because she’s actually in love with her childhood friend Peter, and only reluctantly goes along with it. They eventually break it off after Henry realizes she prefers Peter.
* Beauty Equals Goodness: Played straight. She's considered the most beautiful girl in the village and is also sweet and kind for the most part.
* Birds of a Feather: With Peter. They both feel like outcasts who want to leave Daggerhorn and see what else life can offer.
* Childhood Friend Romance: With Peter. They are shown to have been best friends since they were young children and now they're in love.
* Damsel in Distress: When Father Solomon ties her up to be bait for the Wolf, needing to be rescued by the combined efforts of Cesaire, Peter and Henry.
* Dating What Daddy Hates: Her parents (more so her mother) don't approve of her relationship with Peter.
* Good Bad Girl: She is a sweet and virtuous heroine who deliberately seduces Peter for a tryst in the granary while engaged to Henry (albeit against her will). Fornication and adultery were both considered serious sins that a medieval woman could get in a lot of trouble for. Her fornication eventually results in an out of wedlock baby, possibly another reason why she moves out of the village.
* Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blonde hair and is largely a good and kind person.
* The Hermit: In the end, she chooses to leave Daggerhorn and live by herself in her grandmother's cottage, waiting for Peter to return to her. She is no longer comfortable living there because of all the lies and suspicion, which isn't surprising given they accused her of being a witch and tried to sacrifice her to the Wolf.
* Innocent Blue Eyes: She has large, beautiful blue eyes (courtesy of Amanda Seyfried) and is a good, kindhearted person, as well as one of the more moral characters in the film. Notably, she’s one of the only characters who has blue eyes, making them stand out even more.
* Interspecies Romance: With Peter in the end, after he becomes a werewolf.
* I Will Wait for You: She promises to wait for Peter to return to her after he leaves to get his wolf side under control. The end sees them happily reunited.
* Love Triangle: She’s in a Type 4 triangle with Henry and Peter. Valerie much prefers Peter to start with, though she considers choosing Henry due to convenience and because she suspects Peter could be the Wolf. In the end, she picks Peter.
* Marry for Love: Valerie wants to marry Peter, her childhood sweetheart, and not the wealthy guy her parents picked for her. She gets her wish in the end, though not without a lot of bloodshed and Peter winding up a werewolf.
* Returning the Wedding Ring: A non-ring variant. When she and Henry mutually end their engagement, she gives him back the bracelet he'd made her as a wedding gift.
* Sympathetic Adulterer: She rolls in the hay with Peter while engaged to Henry, although she's portrayed more sympathetically as she didn't have a say about marrying Henry.
* True Blue Femininity: She usually wears a light blue gown.
*Pink Means Feminine
*Long Hair Is Feminine
: "I wanted to get married knowing who I am."
Donna's daughter, who is about to get married. In an attempt to find out who her father is, she sends wedding invitations to the three likely candidates, kickstarting the plot.
* Disappeared Dad: She grew up without a father, and wants to find her biological dad. She never does learn which is the one, but in the end she's happy to have all three as her "dads" and vice-versa, and one of them, Sam, becomes her stepfather.
* Does Not Like Shoes: In many stage productions, Sophie goes barefoot in the opening scene and many others. In the film, she is a barefoot bride (seen in posters and the end of the scene where Sky picks her up).
* Easily Forgiven: Nobody seems to mind that Sophie abruptly cancels the wedding, especially her fiancé. It helps that she doesn’t break up with him, just that she isn’t ready to settle down on the island with marriage just yet, and a wedding still takes place with Donna and Sam deciding to get married instead.
* Gene Hunting: Sophie is trying to find her biological father, hence the wedding invitations to her mother's three flings.
* Generation Xerox: Like her mother, she gets pregnant at a young age on the same Greek island. The sequel explores the similarities and differences in their life stories.
* Heroic Bastard: She was born from her unwed mother having sex with one of three men who fathered Sophie.
* Nice Girl: While impulsive and a bit naive in the first film, Sophie is genuinely well-meaning and kind.
* 20 Minutes into the Future: Set in the year 2169. Given the true chronological age of some of the characters, the current system of having one's lifespan as currency has been in place since at least the 2050s.
* Absurdly High-Stakes Game: The rich indulge in this with their time. Will wins 1000 years thanks to it. It is notable that Will placed a bet of all the time he had remaining; while merely an expensive hand to the other players, it was literally life and death for him.
* Abusive Parents: While the context makes it (a little) sympathetic, some of the ghetto residents are shown to wish they could use the time of their pre-25 children as well as their own. Also extremely disturbing is the mother holding her newborn child, looking at him tenderly and speaking in a sweet voice of how she would like to shorten her baby's life span.
* Age Insecurity: Played with. Characters will describe their age as being "25 for X" years, which is valid considering they stop aging at that point, alleviating many of the undesirable parts of getting older. But the social insecurities haven't exactly gone away, as evidenced by a prostitute who didn't like being called out for "pushing sixty".
* The Ageless: Everyone has this kind of immortality, so long as they can keep time on their clock. It's implied disease has been eliminated, but people still need to eat and drink.
* The Alcoholic: Borel is seen adding alcohol to his morning coffee, drunk at the bar later on, and ultimately dies due to alcohol poisoning when Will gives him a decade.
* Alas, Poor Villain: Raymond Leon. Once serene music plays out in five seconds before he times out, you can't help but feel bad for him.
* All Girls Want Bad Boys: Sylvia becomes interested in Will the moment she sees that he runs while others walk, and takes more risks than the rich people she's surrounded with.
* Ambiguously Jewish: The Weis family. They have a common Jewish name and conform to a number of Greedy Jew stereotypes.
* And the Adventure Continues: After Weis' 1,000,000-year capsule is leaked to the public in Dayton, the factories there shut down due to the citizens having enough time to move elsewhere. Meanwhile, Will and Sylvia move onto robbing bigger banks, still seeking to crash the system.
* Apathetic Citizens: The reason Will's mom dies. It's also notable that, at several points in the film, people are just dead on the ground from timing out and no one has the courtesy to move the body.
* Arc Words:
** "Is it stealing if it's already stolen?"
** "For a few to be immortal, many must die."
** "You can do a lot in a day."
** "Don't waste my time."
* Artistic License – Biology: The idea that you can commodify lifespan is pure fantasy; aging is not caused by an "aging gene," but rather through a number of factors. Damage is sustained to DNA due to repeated splitting and copying necessary for cellular division, the skin becomes thinner and wrinkled with age mainly due to exposure to ultraviolet radiation, joints wearing out simply due to use over time, and so on.
* Artistic License – Economics: Even as a parable about the Idle Rich being All Take and No Give, the elites of this society seem more concerned with preventing overpopulation than maintaining a working economy; they've hiked the prices of goods and lowered wages so much that entire communities have less lifespan to their name than hours in the day - go to work every day or die. Added to that, there is the problem that they are using as currency something with a large intrinsic value of its own: time. The whole point of money is that it's a medium of exchange; ideally, it should have no value of its own.
* Author Tract: The movie was released in the wake of Occupy Wall Street and boy, does it show.
* Badass Longcoat: All field timekeepers have one.
* The Beautiful Elite: And not just the elite. Not only is everyone in this world 25 or younger, they all happen to be able to pass for supermodels. A notable exception would be the fat guy behind the food counter.
* Be Careful What You Wish For: Sylvia was bored with her sterile rich life and wanted a life of excitement and adventure. She got it. She lampshades this.
* Believing Their Own Lies: Raymond Leon honestly thinks the system is necessary to maintain the population and that charity actually harms the poor.
* Bioluminescence Is Cool: Humanity has been engineered with bioluminescent timers in their arms.
* Call-Back: At the beginning of the movie, Will’s mom runs into his arm in need of time, but dies just before reaching him. At the end, Sylvia does the same thing, but reaches him just in time.
* Capitalism Is Bad: This film connects capitalism with social darwinism in an anvilicious way. Wages are decreased and prices are increased by fiat, meaning the purpose of the system is to Work The Poor To Death at a controllable rate.
* Cast from Lifespan: This has actually replaced money. Everything is paid for in time, salary is paid out in time, and running out of time is instant death. The wealthy have centuries — or even millennia — to spare, while the lower class live day to day.
* Chekhov's Skill:
** The trick Will's father taught him for winning "fights".
** And, earlier in the film, his friend commenting that he stopped losing money at poker when Will stopped playing.
* Conveniently an Orphan: Rachel's death is part of the inciting incident.
* Cool Shades: Phillipe Weis's bodyguards wear pretty ominous sunglasses. Will then uses this to get close enough to him to hold him hostage.
* Crapsaccharine World: The beautiful and serene domains of the rich, where you spend your time worrying about accidents and assassinations while making sure to be as publicly lazy as possible and trying very hard to avoid thinking about what you are doing to the rest of mankind.
* Dark and Troubled Past: Even before his mother died, Will used to fight people for their time. It's even hinted that he might have killed a few guys this way. This skill, "time fighting", becomes very useful later on.
* Deadly Game: "Time fighting", a deadly variation on arm wrestling. It's more of a personal endeavor rather than a recognized sport, however. Since time is transferred simply by aiming one's wrist up (lose time) or down (gain it), the game consists of two people locking at the wrists to transfer time, then trying to force the other guy to drain his clock. Loser dies, though there are probably friendlier versions of the game that don't play for such high stakes since they do it on the street.
* Deadpan Snarker: Sylvia doesn't seem to care that she and Will are wanted by the law. Sylvia: We look cute together.
* Determinator: Leon is dead-set on catching Will, as evidenced by him being the only officer willing to jump out a second-story window to continue the chase. It also serves as one of several hints that Leon, unlike his partners, is more familiar with the ghetto than he likes to let on.
* Disappeared Dad: Will's father died when he was very young. It's implied he was killed for trying to help the poor and break the system.
* Does This Remind You of Anything?: Daughter of a wealthy family gets kidnapped and assists in a series of bank robberies. Patty Hearst, anyone?
* Dungeon Bypass: A lot of establishing shots show how thick and secure the time zone barriers are... which Will and Sylvia completely ignore by going through the toll booth.
* Embarrassing Rescue: Though it's subtle, Leon is clearly bothered when Will gives him several hours of time prior to stealing his car, since Leon wouldn't have had enough to get back to the other Timekeepers otherwise.
* Evil Brit: Fortis, the Minute Man gangster.
* Exact Time to Failure: Enforced by the clocks. The twist is that it's mutable.
* Failed a Spot Check: After Will's failed attempt to ransom Sylvia, he lets her call her father to be rescued while watching out for her across the street. Leon proceeds to park on the side street and walk up to Will gun-drawn, both of which Will would have noticed if he had the presence of mind to turn his head even once.
* Fictional Currency: A person's remaining lifespan can be extended or reduced depending on how it is exchanged. One's time, quite literally, is money in this world.
* Foreshadowing:
** One of Leon's goons remarks to him that he's cutting his time refill very close about half-way through the movie.
** During the chase, Leon is shown to be willing to take risks that none of his fellow Timekeepers will, such as jumping out of windows.
* Gold Fever: What does Borel proceed to do after receiving 10 years from Will? Buy some household items? Get some supplies for his new born baby? No, he heads to the bar and spends it on booze. When Will comes by his apartment again, looking to get some of that time back, his wife says, "He drank himself to death with nine years on his clock."
* Greedy Jew: The Weis family are Ambiguously Jewish financiers who suck the life out of the general population. They are specifically called usurers at one point.
* Hand Wave: The movie opens with one to avoid explaining why and how the time system was set up. Will (voiceover): "I don't have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We're genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. Trouble is we only live one more year... unless we can get more time."
* Hated by All: Everyone hates Leon. Once he got an unwanted rescue and attempts to leave, they break off the phone cord and started jeering him on when his partner came to pick him up. It doesn't help the fact that he was like them. Also, his colleagues only carried out his orders because he's the leader of the Timekeepers, so once he times out, none of them continued pursuing Will and Sylvia, not even his partner.
* Hate Sink: Fortis. While the main antagonistic force is the system, Fortis is not part of said system and only serves as proof of how people can take advantage of it and use it to make innocents suffer severely.
* Heroic Sacrifice: Henry Hamilton, a rich man who gives away almost all of his time to Will, leaving himself only enough to walk over to the nearest bridge and die. The amount? Over 100 years. Will was pretty close to the wire at the time, making it likely that his own heroism in saving the guy could have been a fatal endeavor.
* High-Class Gloves: Sylvia's party dress includes a matching pair of long gloves.
* Honor Before Reason:
** Fortis is a subversion. He says that he "doesn't kill in a man cold blood" despite being a murderous gangster, and challenges Will for a time fight instead of just killing him. However, his motivation behind this action is less about honor and more because he cannot take away someone's time if they die from trauma. Fortis has a very good reason to not just go around shooting people.
** Will also counts. He gives Raymond 4 hours to leave the ghetto safely, despite barely having ten himself. And this is after Raymond just pointed a gun at his head.
* Idiot Ball: Most of the cast, at one point or other. Several characters in particular show a suicidal disregard for their time allowance.
** Will's mother knows she'll be running a very tight schedule after repaying her loan, but still gives Will 30 minutes just so he can "enjoy his lunch". Even had the bus fares not doubled, she was leaving herself just 30 minutes of leeway.
** Will himself keeps coming into large quantities of time, then giving it away and leaving himself only a few hours, instead of, say, a year. Especially ridiculous at the end, when he has a million years and gives all but about half an hour away, predictably leaving him seconds from death at the climax.
** Raymond, being a Timekeeper, habitually lets his clock run low so as to avoid being a target for thieves. However, he puts off a top-up with only 45 minutes of time left, just so that he can chase after Will, even though he's in his car and could refill mid-chase. Like Will's mother, his complete lack of foresight/planning ends up killing him.
** Aside from his team of incredibly ineffectual bodyguards, Phillipe Weis has very little security protecting his fortune, though this is possibly due to complacency from living in a Utopian timezone. Less forgivable are his banks and lending shops, who leave the vault open during business hours, apparently have no security guards, and have nothing in place to stop a simple ram-raid, even in the rougher areas.
* Idle Rich: The rich actually have time to waste, and thus spend all their days doing things very slowly.
* I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Sylvia non-fatally wounds Leon when he's about to arrest Will. She states that while she did fire intentionally, she wasn't actually trying to hit Leon, just scare him. Later on, she (accidentally this time) shoots the hood of the car they're trying to steal, scaring the crap out of both Will and the driver.
* Immortality Immorality: The point that Will (and, before him, Henry Hamilton) is trying to make is that the wealthy stay immortal by exploiting the poor, who live day-by-day and collapse dead when they don't even have enough time for rent.
* Inherent in the System: Will's mom Rachel is compassionate, beautiful and intelligent, with fifty years of life experience in a 25 years old body and the capacity to live forever. The system casually murders her, for no other reason than it being ruled by people who consider her to be a worthless waste of space. The rest of the story goes out of its way to show that this kind of tragedy happens all the time, since it's simply how the system works. It is also clearly established that the lack of time is artificial. Everyone could live forever, but the government chose to murder poor people in the interest of avoiding overpopulation, and to keep the rich families rich. Whether or not space expansion would be a viable option isn't mentioned, probably because nobody cares.
* Inspector Javert/Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Timekeeper Raymond Leon straddles the line between the two. At first, he just seems to be doing his job, making him the latter. As the movie presses on, however, there are hints that Leon isn't doing this just because he feels it's the right thing to do. The final revelation that he's from the ghetto and is making sure that people from there stay there actively makes him Javert.
* Internalized Categorism: Welcome to a system where the poor are taught to hate themselves while the rich spend their time frantically trying to avoid seeing what kind of world they are building... failing that, they are likely to commit suicide.
* Ironic Echo:
** A positive example: Will's mother dies as they run to embrace each other, which had they succeeded would have meant her survival given Will's surplus. The same scenario happens again in the climax, between Will and Sylvia, only they reach each other in time to survive.
** Another positive example in "Is it still stealing if it was stolen to begin with?"
* Just for Pun: Wealth, being measured in time, is measured in "time zones" for standard of living.
* Just Like Robin Hood: The whole point of the plot is Will stealing time from the immortal and giving it to the dying.
* Karma Houdini: The bus driver who heartlessly kicks Will's mother off when she doesn't have enough time to get a ride, which causes her to spend it all running to get to her son until she dies.
* Kick the Son of a Bitch: When Leon is stranded in the ghetto, away from his car and access to his time allotment, he's forced to walk until someone picks him up. The citizens break the phones so he can't call for help. Seemingly the entire town takes some time from their busy day to mock him, for the entire walk. You'd almost feel bad for him if he weren't portrayed as anything other than a jerk who does nothing to help the common man.
* Lampshaded Double Entendre: "After I've taken you, I'll take her. [Beat] And her time too, of course."
* Leonine Contract: A way of life when bankruptcy kills you and everyone can see how much time you have to live if you refuse the deal. Pawn shops will fleece customers if they think they can get away with it (can't afford to wait a day until we open again, sucks to be you) while the biggest mogul in the country runs payday lending facilities with interest rates that are implied to be staggering (despite being similar to real-life credit card rates, and a fraction of pay-day loan companies' interest rates).
* Life Will Kill You: Played straight in the story, subverted by the setting. Within the story, characters die from the smallest mistakes, such as only keeping enough cash for the bus ride home (without knowing that the fee has been increased), or getting so absorbed in your duty that you don't take the time to refill your clock when you have the chance. On the political level, however, it is made clear that the system has been engineered for these kinds of mistakes to occur. The government is murdering their citizens on a genocidal level, while building in an element of randomization as an excuse to pretend that it's the victim's own fault.
* Little Black Dress: Sylvia wears one to a party, and then for much of the film.
* Longevity Treatment: The aging gene has been "shut down", freezing aging at 25. But to prevent overpopulation and present an anvilicious message about income disparity, people are programmed to die at a certain time and use their remaining time as currency.
* The Magic Poker Equation: The river completes Will's straight, allowing him to beat the set of queens of the villain. Right after he called some big bets with a trash hand preflop and with a gutshot afterwards. Seriously, if the villain had called him out for his stupid play, he'd been right. Don't Try This at Home, you will probably lose all you got.
* Meaningful Name: The poor live in Dayton, which seems to be named for the fact they usually have just a day or two on their watch. The rich live in New Greenwich, presumably named for the place in London where all time is measured from.
* Meaningless Villain Victory: Fortis tries to shake down a guy for his time, but Will's Robin Hood antics have given him enough of a surplus to buy a gun. Since he can't strongarm the guy, Fortis just shoots him in a moment of anger, thus killing him and rendering his surplus time unobtainable.
* Modern Stasis: The movie is set in 2169, but aside from advances in genetic engineering, which started the whole thing, progress seems to have ground to a halt. In fact, Dayton seems to have less technology than current times. People rely on payphones, for example. Justified, as many modern conveniences would probably make time earning easier...and that defeats the purpose of the system currently in place. Though we only see them in Dayton, where people probably have more urgent things to spend their sparse time on than mobile phones.
* Moment Killer: Every time Will and Sylvia get close, something always shows up to move the plot along.
* Moving the Goalposts: People in the ghetto get hit with this hard. Will goes over his previous quota, only to be cheated out of a bonus because the quota went up. His mother is forced to walk home when the bus fare doubles for no reason. Will's later criminal activities only make the problem worse; to compensate for his thefts, the costs are jacked up.
* The Name Is Bond, James Bond: In the casino, Will introduces himself as "Salas, Will Salas."
* Nerves of Steel: Will keeps a cool head even when he has minutes or seconds left on his clock.
* Nice to the Waiter: Shortly after getting his initial boon of time, Will notably tips a waitress a week. In return, she gives him some tips about his appearance before he hits the casino.
* No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Will's mother gives him thirty minutes for a proper lunch. Five less and she would have survived.
* No New Fashions in the Future: In keeping with Nice to the Waiter. Only the Timekeepers wear garb that could be considered out of place, and it's more like a uniform than anything else.
* Oh, Crap!:
** The default reaction of anyone who is almost out of time, except Will.
** Weis delivers a great one when Will gambles himself down to a few seconds during the poker game; the only reason you'd go that far all in is that you're either suicidal (probably not, if you're still in New Greenwich), or you've got a monster hand.
* Older Than They Look: Once you reach 25, you stop aging.
* One Head Taller: Bordering on Huge Guy, Tiny Girl. Amanda Seyfried (Sylvia) is so much shorter than Justin Timberlake (Will) note  that she has to wear extremely high heels in almost every scene just to keep them in shot together.
* Outlaw Couple: Will and Sylvia start stealing from Sylvia's dad. But they distribute all the wealth.
* The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The combination to Phillipe Weis' time vault is "12021809": Charles Darwin's birthday. Sylvia needs one short guess to get it.
* Police Are Useless: As Will points out, the Timekeepers are all-too willing to unfairly punish him for getting a huge amount of time, both times in ways that were perfectly legal, but refuse to lift a finger to stop serial time thieves who regularly kill people by draining their clocks.
* Population Control: An example which the vast majority of society isn't really aware of. The cost of living is so high that most people don't live too much longer than a normal human would. If everyone lived forever, the population would explode. Instead, the lower class lives and dies as normal (or even younger) by today's standards, while the upper class collects the time they spend, giving them hundreds or even thousands of years to spend as they please. This way, only a select few get true immortality.
* Precision F-Strike: In a film notably devoid of profanity, Will delivers the lines "Shit!" and "Un-fucking-believable!" within two minutes of one another.
* Pretty in Mink: A white fur wrap is worn by Sylvia when she first meets Will. A lady she and Will hold up wears a sable jacket.
* Punch-Clock Villain: While Leon's motives go beyond mere law enforcement, his colleagues are far more sympathetic. They're only following orders most of the time, point out Leon's highly negative interpretation of Will, and Leon's partner ultimately resigns at the end.
* Race Against the Clock: A literal example considering what happens if you run out of time.
* Rags to Riches: Zig-zagged. Will starts off rarely waking up with more than a day to live. Then he gets a century all at once. Then he loses all but two hours, and has to work his way back up, through a series of pawnings and thefts, to enough to purchase a hotel. Then he loses almost all of it again, and so on.
* Really 700 Years Old: The cast to varying degrees, considering all humans are genetically engineered to not age after 25. Weis states that he's "25 for the 85th time," which either means he's much older than his wife, or that his mother-in-law is actually at least 150 years old, which makes her the oldest person in the film.
* Retro Universe: Crossed with Modern Stasis, though in some ways the world looks more like a futuristic version of The '70s and The '80s. Justified in that there's really little incentive to make any significant changes when there's all the time in the world.
* Revolvers Are Just Better:
** The gang leader, Fortis, set one down at the bar.
** A Minute Man and a random civilian were holding one when they met. Too bad for the latter, though.
** Another confrontation with Will and some Minute Men had one of them holding one before he died.
* Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Raymond Leon, when Weis tries to bribe him with effective immortality. Part of the reason is that It's Personal. Leon: There isn't enough time in the world.
* Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Philippe Weis. Unfortunately for him, Raymond Leon cannot be bought.
* Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Leon's partner resigns at the end of the film, leaving his gun on the way out. Female Timekeeper: What do we do, sir? Jaeger: Go home.
* Shown Their Work: While the headscratchers page is chock full of places where this movie goes wrong, the idea of the Timekeepers getting free time forever but paid in daily allotments to deter crimes against them is a pretty sharp idea.
* Skinny Dipping: Will and Sylvia do this at the beach near her mansion.
* Slobs Versus Snobs: But in The Future.
* Smug Snake: Phillipe Weis, as played by the apparently type-cast Vincent Kartheiser.
* The Social Darwinist: Phillipe Weis, who constantly quotes things like "Survival of the Fittest" and "Natural Selection". His obsession bites him in the ass as it allows Sylvia to easily guess his safe's combination: 12021809 - Charles Darwin's birthday.
* Spotting the Thread: Will stands out in New Greenwich because he has no bodyguards, runs instead of walking, and eats fast. This makes it pretty easy for the Timekeepers to track him down. Will is able to peg Leon as a former resident of the ghetto in much the same way, since he will take risks his colleagues won't and can keep a running pace with Will.
* Stealth Pun: The poor are living paycheck to paycheck.
* Stockholm Syndrome: Will kidnaps Sylvia at gunpoint and almost kills her in a car accident. They fall in love.
* Strip Poker: Will and Sylvia play this.
* Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
** The time allowance system grants people as much time as they want, but that doesn't stop people from dying either by murder or their own self-destructive efforts. Will's friend gets ten years and ends up drinking himself to death with one year.
** Henry Hamilton lampshades the inherent problem with the time allowance system: there's no place to put people who live for ever. The system just creates an ever-growing population which necessitates culling to keep resources and consumption at a reasonable level.
** At the other end of the issue, Raymond Leon points out that despite Leon and Sylvia's efforts, the time currency system won't be altered as it's the closest setup people have to immortality.
* Supernaturally Young Parent: Because the aging gene has been switched off, Will's mom looks like she's in her mid-twenties. The same goes for Sylvia's mom Michelle and her mom Clara.
* Tall Poppy Syndrome: It's revealed through the Minutemen and Leon that the whole time system is also self-perpetuating. To win big in the ghetto, for instance, is a death sentence since nobody wants to feel put down. If everyone's poor, after all, then no one deserves any better.
* Theme Naming: Most of the characters are named after famous watch makers. (Citizen, Victa, Salas, Borel, Fortis, etc.)
* Too Dumb to Live:
** Leon actually does this twice (and the second time actually costs him): he's so obsessed with catching Will that he neglects to get his daily time allotment, leaving him with too little time to survive. The first time, Will gives him several hours so he'll survive, since Will is stealing his car and thus access to his allotment. Leon doesn't have that luxury the second time, and Will ends up taking his allotment once Leon times out.
** Borel dies of alcohol poisoning. As someone who is already established as an alcoholic, he really should know better. Even worse, unless he was buying drinks all around, it's indicated he bought a year's worth of alcohol.
* Trailers Always Lie: Watching the trailer it looks like Olivia Wilde's character will be a main character and the love interest of Justin Timberlake's character. She is his mother. Oh and she dies in the first half-hour of the film.
* Watch the Paint Job: It doesn't take long before the shiny new car Will has bought ends up totaled in the ditch with the tires blown up. Fortis lightly admonishes his goons for doing such a good job of disabling it, calling it a "gorgeous car."
* Who Wants to Live Forever?: Why one of the rich people decides to end it all... Not because he has lived too long, however, but because he can't live with having his immortality.
* World of Pun: There are quite a few puns in the film along the line of 'time is money' or 'don't waste my time' or 'your money or your life... except your money is your life'.
* Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide":
** The government has created a system where each citizen has a gun to his or her head, and people drop dead in the streets (which is commonplace enough that everyone shrugs it off) as these guns are constantly triggered. What to do in such a situation? Why, constantly repeat how “necessary” the system is!
** It's never explained what happened to those born before the current system was put into place. One would presume they'd die out eventually (given Weis's age, they'd surely have died of natural causes) or be given treatments that would give them timers like everyone else. The government would, effectively, have to force people to have their unborn children undergo genetic therapy to limit their lifespan.
* Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The drive from New Greenwich to Dayton seems to take as long as is necessary to keep the plot going. Early in the movie, Will and Sylvia started to run from the Time Keepers at night, and when they reach Dayton it is almost noon (though it can be assumed that they need to hide somewhere and don't spend the entire night driving). Near the end, Raymond was able to chase them from New Greenwich to Dayton, despite having less than an hour on his clock when the chase started. He also notably avoids taking his own allotment en route, which ultimately kills him.
* You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Will has this reaction when Leon simply will not quit chasing him, being willing to jump out a window his partners wouldn't and continuing to pursue after being shot at repeatedly.
* Zeerust: Related to the Modern Stasis and Retro Universe examples, some of the technology present has either remained static from The Present Day of 2011 when the movie was made, or else even regressed, e.g. the reversion to pay phones and landlines instead of cellphones, let alone smartphones. There are also no robots and no Flying Cars of any kind; all cars stay firmly on the ground on more-or-less 20th-century wheels. Possibly the rich having access to immortality has slowed the need for constant innovation.
Ambiguously Bi: She is in a romantic relationship with Chip, and clearly cares about him very deeply. She also makes out with Jennifer, and seems to be really into it before she breaks it off. It's heavily implied her feelings for Jennifer borders onto the romantic.
Became Their Own Antithesis: She ends the film having become just like Jennifer, demonic man-slaughtering powers and everything.
Berserk Button: Don't tell her what to eat. An orderly lost a tooth when she recommended she eat more than Toastems.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's very sweet-natured and lovable but is not to be messed with as Jennifer finds out the hard way.
Break the Cutie: She starts as a kind but insecure Shrinking Violet, then has to deal with her best friend transforming into a monstrous demon, people around her dying, losing her boyfriend, then finally having to kill Jennifer and being locked up in a mental ward. Fortunately, she ends up gaining Jennifer's demon powers and decides to do something about it.
The Cassandra: She tries to tell everyone over and over that Jennifer is a monster, both before and after her death, and even after that, she tries to convince the psych ward staff about the devil sacrifice. Nobody believes her.
Cool Loser: She's supposed to be the "ugly best friend", but is clearly drop dead gorgeous and best friends with Jennifer, the most popular girl in school. It's later shown that she downplays her own looks and covers herself up so as not to outshine Jennifer.
Cursed with Awesome: When Needy kills Jennifer, she gains some of her powers, which boils down to: all the good ones, none of the bad. However, unlike Jennifer, Needy doesn't relish them but uses them to get her job done.
Dumb Blonde: Inverted. She's incredibly smart, in contrast with her dumb popular and brunette friend Jennifer.
Hero with Bad Publicity: After killing Jennifer, she's seen by the public as a murderer and locked away when she tries to reveal the truth. After escaping and taking revenge on Nikolai and his band (who are still seen as public heroes), it's implied she becomes a fugitive afterwards.
Hollywood Homely: Invoked. Needy has to be more plain around Jennifer.
Kill the Ones You Love: Is ultimately forced to kill Jennifer, both as a mercy killing and to avenge Chip, but she still clearly cares and grieves for her after doing so.
Narrator: She's the story's narrator.
Nerd Glasses: She wears a very unflattering pair of nerdy glasses.
Nerds Are Virgins: Subverted. Despite having a rather nerdy appearance and demeanor, she has sex with Chip part way through the film.
Oh, Crap!: In the Unrated version, she is the first one besides Nikolai to notice the fire starting at the bar, and watches it spread in stunned silence. In the script, she almost catches onto Nikolai when she sees him smirking as the fire spreads.
One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: She ends the film with powers similar to Jennifer's but without the physical transformation or need to feed.
Only Known by Their Nickname: No one ever calls her "Anita."
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She slaughters Low Shoulder at the end of the movie for what they turned Jennifer into.
Shipper on Deck: She ships Jennifer/Colin, and encourages Jennifer to go out with him. This doesn't end well.
Supporting Protagonist: She's The Hero of the film, but still takes a secondary role to Villain Protagonist Jennifer.
Took a Level in Badass: After gaining part of Jennifer's powers, she breaks out and massacres all of Low Shoulder.
Took a Level in Jerkass: She becomes extremely violent and unstable after being well and truly broken. The How We Got Here opening has her kicking an orderly (whose only "crime" was to chastise Needy for her choice of food) so hard she knocks one of her teeth out.
Needy: I recommend that you shut the fuck up!
* Ambiguous Ending: After retiring from the Army, John and Savannah share a hug while meeting at a coffee shop. The future of their relationship is left open.
* Anonymous Benefactor: Upon reuniting (due to John's father's death), Savannah laments to John about the expensive medical treatment her husband, Tim, would need to survive. Afterward, we see John selling the majority of his father's coin collection. Savannah later writes him and relates how an anonymous donor gave a substantial amount of money to Tim's medical fund, which allows Tim to survive for two months longer.
* Beware the Quiet Ones: John doesn't say much, but he is a veteran Green Beret with some rage issues. Randy and Tim both find this out the hard way when Randy pushes a few too many of John's buttons, and he curbstomps them both.
* Break-Up Bonfire: Upon receiving the titular letter from Savannah, John proceeds to burn all the letters she had previously sent.
* "Dear John" Letter: Duh. John himself seems to be the only character surprised when he gets one.
* Diving Save: As part of the Meet Cute, John dives off a pier to rescue Savannah's purse.
* Double-Meaning Title: Yes, Savannah writes the titular letter, but all of her letters begin with the phrase, so the title also refers to their entire relationship.
* Dull Surprise: John is a very quiet and introverted man, and most of his emotional moments are quite subdued.
* Forever Fling: John and Savannah fall in love within two weeks and attempt to stay together despite John's overseas military service. The distance weighs on Savannah and she breaks up with John, but she never stops loving him despite marrying Tim. It's implied that she and John get back together after Tim dies.
* Forgot to Pay the Bill: A flashback to John's teenage years shows him raging at his father after the latter made a large purchase for his coin collection, leading to their electricity being shut off.
* Hollywood Healing: John takes two high-powered rifle rounds the the chest, and makes a good enough recovery to return to full active service. Even with the best medical attention, it's unlikely he wouldn't face lasting effects of it.
* Iconic Item: John's father collects rare coins. The rarest and most valuable item in the collection is a specific Mule Coin (a coin that was created through an error in minting, where each side is stamped with the symbol of a different coin) that John got as change from an ice cream truck as a child. After his father's death, John sells the collection except for this specific coin, which he keeps with him as a good-luck charm during deployment.
* Lonely Funeral: An extreme and sad example in with Mr. Tyree, who was hardly a bad person, but misunderstood and speculatively suffering from Asperger Syndrome. There was only one attendee at his funeral, the titular John.
* In Medias Res: The film opens with John suffering from grievous wounds on the battlefield, as he narrates a letter describing his thoughts while bleeding out. The film then flashes back to several years previously.
* Mr. Fanservice: Channing Tatum spends a good number of scenes shirtless and surfing. However, in nearly every scene in between, he's either wearing variations of his Army uniform, or a loose-fitting hoodie, making these scenes stand out all the more.
* Period Piece: The film begins in the spring of 2001, but was released in 2010.
* Poor Communication Kills: What drives the plot. Neither John nor Savannah are very good at talking about their feelings or issues. This is compounded when, during John's deployments, they communicate purely by letter. Savannah ends up cheating on John for months and getting engaged between letters. Enforced with Mr. Tyree, whose condition has made it immensely difficult to talk about nearly anything but his coin collection.
* Relationship Reveal: John assumes that Savannah married Randy, given that he obviously had the hots for her and came from the same social circle. He's stunned to see her wedding picture and realize that she married Tim.
* The Topic of Cancer: One of Savannah's reasons for marrying Tim. He's dying of Lymphoma.
* Tragic Dream: Savannah wanted to open an Equine Therapy summer camp for autistic children, calling it "Horse Sense". She and Tim were successful for one summer, but the finances of running such a place, combined with Tim's worsening health, cause it to fall apart.
* The War on Terror: John is nearly finished with his service when 9/11 occurs. This inspires him to re-enlist for an additional four years.
* Watching the Reflection Undress: John watches Savannah undress by her reflection in the mirror.
* Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In Nathalie, the French film that served as the basis for this one, Catherine and Nathalie's relationship never goes beyond Unresolved Sexual Tension, nor is there a mother-daughter element, nor does Nathalie go dangerously crazy for Catherine.
* Age-Gap Romance: The 40-plus David and eventually Catherine being pursued by the younger 20-something call girl Chloe.
* All Men Are Perverts: Initially it looks like this is in full effect, but scaled back a bit as David never actually cheated; he just thought about it, a lot.
* Ascended Extra: Catherine's son is a more important character in Chloe than in Nathalie. In the French film he's just there, being well-behaved, and he doesn't sleep with Nathalie (whom he doesn't even meet). In this movie, he's played up more as a hormonal, rebellious teen and is a big source of concern and stress for Catherine.
* Batman Gambit: Chloe's scheme ends as soon as Catherine decides that she is done testing her husband. Chloe has to play off of Catherine's insecurity and arousal to keep up reasons to see her.
* Bisexual Love Triangle: It starts off with Catherine hiring sex worker Chloe to seduce her flirtatious husband to see if he's being unfaithful, but Catherine later winds up torn between David (her longtime husband, whom she loves despite their marriage being en route to Dead Sparks) and the younger and more exciting Chloe. Turns twisted when it turns out that Chloe is Catherine's mentally unbalanced stalker. Following Chloe's death at the end, David and Catherine are implied to rekindle their marriage.
* Bury Your Gays: The ending for Chloe, who seems to be bisexual, when she falls from a window to her death not minutes after sharing a kiss with Catherine, and whom she previously had sex with.
* Crucified Hero Shot: Crucified villain shot, although YMMV big time over whether she's the villain.
* A Date with Rosie Palms: Implied but not explicitly shown with Catherine who is taking a long hot shower after hearing Chloe's explicit details of her trysts with David, and as she fantasizes about such, continues to move her shower head down....
* Death by Adaptation: Chloe dies at the end, whereas her French analogue Nathalie survives her film unscathed.
* Depraved Bisexual: Chloe, who it turns out is highly attracted to Catherine, not taking her rejection well at all, which turns her into a stalker. Then she even threatens to kill Catherine if she won't get together with Chloe. Possibly Catherine as well, depending on how one views her actions and relationship with Chloe.
* Driven to Suicide: Chloe kills herself due to Catherine's rejection.
* Fan Disservice:
** Chloe cutting Catherine in the neck with her hair pin while demanding her love.
** Chloe seducing David and Catherine's son. While he's still in high school.
* Girl on Girl Is Hot: Chloe seduces Catherine and they have sex in the hotel. Once he finds out, David's reaction is muted, possibly because he finds this appealing instead of threatening.
* Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Deconstructed quite extensively. While Catherine is driven to find out about her husband's infidelities, she is, all the same, turned on by the recounting of the details. When David hears about Catherine sleeping with Chloe, he doesn't seem all that upset at all. Of course, he IS a man and men often like that sort of thing.
* Hypocrite: Catherine gets mad at David for working so late and accuses him of having affairs, despite herself committing adultery with the same woman she hired to seduce David.
* If I Can't Have You…: Chloe is so emotionally distraught by Catherine's rejection of her that she threatens to kill herself then threatens to kill Catherine with her hair pin unless she chooses to be with her.
* Love Father, Love Son: A gender-flipped version of this, with Chloe, Catherine and Catherine's son Michael. After Catherine ends her affair with Chloe so she could repair her marriage, Chloe meets then seduces Michael, Catherine and David's son in order to gain access to the inside of Catherine's house. While Michael immediately believes Chloe's actions as her having feelings for him as he does for her and even considered her his 'new girlfriend' after their tryst together, Chloe, on the other hand, only has feelings for Catherine and was willing to seduce Michael in order to get closer to his mother.
* Love Triangle: David, Catherine and Chloe, though luckily it's resolved quickly by the end. A second variety is Catherine, Chloe and Catherine's son Michael.
* Ms. Fanservice: While nudity is somewhat expected in an erotic thriller, Amanda Seyfried just can't seem to keep her clothes on here as Chloe, shown nude from the rear and side along with topless, plus in two sex scenes.
* One-Word Title: Antagonist Title-type, using the first name of the character.
* Platonic Prostitution: Initially, Catherine pays Chloe just to meet her husband at a cafe and see if he flirts with her. Later subverted, however it turns out Chloe's lying about having sex with him.
* Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: David and Catherine, after everything they've been through, are seen embracing each other after Chloe kills herself in their house.
* Retargeted Lust: Catherine, after hearing Chloe tell explicit details about her encounters with David, she becomes aroused and experiments with herself in the shower while fantasizing about David and Chloe together. Later, Catherine asks Chloe to show her how David touches her and she seduces her. After the affair is terminated, Chloe seduces Michael but looks over at Catherine's belongings while she's in bed with him.
* The Reveal: Chloe never actually met with David, and was lying to Catherine about all of their encounters.
* Shower Scene: Catherine is shown taking a shower, where she's not only seen topless but starts using the sprayer for her stimulation.
* Spurned into Suicide: Chloe, who willingly lets go of the window she's holding onto and falls to her death after Catherine choose to save her marriage over being with Chloe.
* Stalker with a Crush: The title character.
* Symbolic Glass House: The couple live in an all-glazed house with a lot of glass where their marriage has gone so stale that Catherine hires an escort (Chloe) to spice up their sex life, only to find that Chloe becomes obsessed with them and their image of perfection.
* Television Geography: Averted. Toronto usually doubles for other cities; this time around it's playing itself. Egoyan has said that he intentionally set as many scenes at well-known Toronto landmarks as possible (seriously, if you went to the University of Toronto or work in Downtown Toronto, you've probably walked by every filming location in the movie), in reaction to all those films shot in generic Toronto locales to hide the fact that they are in Toronto.
* The Unfair Sex: If Catherine had been a man who had an affair with someone young enough to be his daughter, then push her away when she became emotionally attached and refused to take money to just go away (resulting in her suicide), he would likely be much less sympathetic than she is as a woman.
* Yandere: Chloe borders on this after Catherine ends their affair, as she soon begins to send threatening e-mails to Catherine, showing pictures of them together in bed that could jeopardize her job. Later, she begins stalking Catherine and her husband David and was willing to sleep with their teenage son just to gain access to Catherine's house and await her.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Had darker hair in the book, but the change to a lighter hair color to differentiate her from Eponine.
Barefoot Poverty: As a child, she wears no shoes because the Thénardiers treat her like a slave.
Daddy's Girl: Attached to Valjean at the hip once he shows her compassion.
Disappeared Dad: Her birth father ran out on Fantine when he got her pregnant, meaning Cosette never even met him. Don't worry, though; Valjean more than picks up the slack.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blonde hair and is a fairly nice person.
Happily Adopted: By Valjean, who rescues her from the Thenardiers
Heartwarming Orphan: The addition of the song "Suddenly" to the film is about how Cosette's appearance in Valjean's life makes her this to him.
Love at First Sight: Quite literally, since she falls in love with Marius at their first encounter before they exchange a single word.
Morality Pet: Valjean spells this out to her as he was dying.
"It's the story of one who turned from hating. A man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping."
Nice Girl: She doesn't have a mean bone in her body.
Orphan's Ordeal: Treated as a slave by the Jerkass Thenardiers until Happily Adopted by Valjean.
Purity Personified: Despite the harshness of her life with the Thenardiers and (unbeknownst to her) quiet life on the run, she manages to make it through the film no worse for the wear.
Rags to Riches: While not necessarily rich, she definitely had an infinitely better life with Valjean than with the Thenardiers.
She's All Grown Up: After the nine-year Time Skip, Cosette has matured into a beautiful woman.
* Action Mom: Implied. Although she's never actually seen in action, she's known to have been a skilled witch and was one of the few people who were ever able to escape Voldemort more than once.
* Age Lift: Played With. As mentioned above James and Lily were both 20 when Harry was born, meaning they were 21 when they died. In the film series however, they are played by actors who are much older (Lily's actress was 34 in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, James' was 43). While some argue that it would be natural for Harry to imagine his parents at the same age as the parents of his peers when looking in the mirror of Erised (and the same theory could technically extend to their ghosts), they are played by the same actors in flashbacks and old photographs. It seems as though the production team wanted actors that looked like they could be the parents of Daniel Radcliffe at the time of filming, rather than actors who looked like they could be the parents of Daniel Radcliffe ten years previously. Granted, their age when they died hadn't been revealed yet when the film series started, and plenty of Real Life couples wait several years before they have children. Rowling herself admitted to having not realized how old Lily and James were until some time later.
* All-Loving Heroine: Apparently, Harry inherited this trait from her. Her relationship with her former friend, Snape is a good example: she, the most popular, beautiful, talented girl in school, and favourite of Slughorn who is known to "collect" influential students, was best friends with the poor, ugly, hot-tempered boy from her rival House. Yes, she eventually breaks her friendship with him, but it's after years of watching him turn into a horrible person under the influence of Slytherin's junior Death Eaters, culminating in him calling her an unforgivable slur — and it obviously broke her heart to do it.
** While Lily was generally outgoing, charismatic and polite, she is quick to express distaste, criticizing Snape's treatment of Petunia and his own Moral Myopia in hanging out with Death Eater friends who attack other students when he himself is attacked by the Marauders.
* Always with You: In the books, Dumbledore often explains to Harry that his parents' sacrifice and their example is a key source of his power and strength that he can draw from.
* Animal Motifs: Her Patronus form is a Doe, coincidentally, her husband's animagus form was a stag. After her death, it becomes Severus Snape's Patronus, signifying his ardour and commitment for her memory.
* Armor-Piercing Question: Lily's childhood friendship with Severus began to fray when he started hanging out with the Gang of Bullies that called themselves the Death Eaters, and the breaking point came when he called her a "filthy little Mudblood" in front of them. Despite his frantic attempts to apologize, Lily would have none of it and refused to be friends with him any longer. When he tried to protest that he didn't mean it, her response was, "You call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?" That was the last time they would ever speak to each other.
* Berserk Button: In her scant appearances, Lily becomes properly angry only when she is called a "mudblood" by her supposed best friend and when she is patronized by boys who are trying to protect or defend her.
* Betty and Veronica Switch: A rare female version whose two identified suitors included her childhood best friend and a slightly more moral but bullying Gryffindor. Her feelings and relationship between them follow a classic Hourglass Plot.
* Beware the Nice Ones: Lily is a genuinely kind-hearted All-Loving Hero, but if she narrows her eyes and starts speaking icily to you, run.
* Bratty Half-Pint: Downplayed. Lily wasn't exactly an obedient child, ignoring Petunia when she begs her to stop doing magic in public (something their mother has apparently already warned her about) and sneaking into Petunia's room with her friend, where they then found Petunia's personal letter and read it together.
* Brilliant, but Lazy: She has an "intutive grasp" of potions and her wand is particularly suited to charms, but what little we see of her never gives off the impression that she was particularly studious. She's seen laughing and hanging out with her girl friends after her exams, unlike Snape, who is going over his answers, and Remus, who is studying for his next exam.
* Character Focus: The first five books considerably etched out her husband's backstory and provides much information about his schooldays with very little mention of Lily. Her growing focus in the final two books signifies the central role she plays in the life of her son and Severus Snape. However, we still don't get much information on her character, her family, or her other friends.
* Childhood Friend Romance: In a one-sided example, Snape was her childhood best friend for a good 7-8 years, but their friendship died out before Lily could develop romantic feelings for him, due to his Fantastic Racism sympathies, using an unforgivable slur about Muggleborns casually, and even against Lily herself. She also knew James, but their interaction was limited and volatile until they started dating in seventh year.
* Class Princess: She was very popular in her time at Hogwarts, and also described as an "uncommonly kind woman" who was able to see the best in everyone. She was kind enough to be friends with the unpopular Snape.
* Death by Origin Story: By necessity.
* Defrosting Ice Queen: To Sirius Black, who as a young first-year she turned her back to upon being seated next to him, after being disappointed that she was sorted into Gryffindor, unlike her best friend, Severus Snape. Years later, she considered Sirius family, referring to him as Padfoot in the letter Harry discovers in Book 7, gossiping him on familiar terms and wishing him "lots of love".
* Dude Magnet: She was in a Love Triangle with both Severus and James.
* Early Personality Signs: Even before she knew magic was real, Lily showed an unusual amount of conscious control over her magical abilities as a child, being able to fling herself off a swing, soar through the air and land lightly on the hard ground, as well as make a flower's petals open and close. She would prove to be a skilled and accomplished witch during her time at Hogwarts.
* Et Tu, Brute?: She must have felt very disappointed after Snape calls her a "mudblood" and had been learning Dark Arts right behind her back.
* Family Eye Resemblance: Her son Harry inherited his green eyes from her.
* Fiery Redhead: Averted. Lily might have dark red hair, but she doesn't have the explosive temper of, say, the Weasleys. When offended in "Snape's Worst Memory" and "the Prince's Tale," she is cold and calm, focused, and even teen boys can tell she's dangerous.
* Flowery Insults: Lily had a habit of coming up with rather creative and snarky insults. Slughorn describes her as "cheeky" and "vivacious."
* Heroic Sacrifice: Considering what it sets into motion, hers may be the biggest sacrifice of the series. Rowling explains that hers is the one sacrifice where the character makes a genuine choice between life and death, driven purely by her Mama Bear instinct. The later books constantly clarify the meaning and impact of her authentic sacrifice not only on the story's plot but also for Snape's gradual Character Development.
* Hidden Depths: While Lily is treated as practically perfect in canon, the Pottermore article on wand woods describes the ideal owner for a willow wand as insecure, "however well they may try and hide it."
* Ice Queen: Becomes this when Snape crosses what she considers his Moral Event Horizon, talking to him in a cold tone and even using the Marauders' own insult, "Snivellus," to talk to her ex-friend.
* Knight Templar: More than any Gryffindor in the series, even her own son, Lily averts this. She befriends a rather unpopular Slytherin in the middle of Voldemort's rise to infamy, and being a treasured student of the Slytherin Head of House of her generation, who is himself a Token Good Teammate for Slytherin in the entire series. Part of this may be due to her being Muggleborn and thus not raised in the atmosphere.
* The Lost Lenore: Snape never got over Lily's death, and she motivated his every action from beyond the grave.
* Lovable Alpha Bitch: Implied. She is presented as the more dominant (and possibly more spoiled) of the two sisters in the Evans family. She goes on to be a popular, influential, charismatic and talented student in Hogwarts, who doesn't suffer a shortage of insults for people she doesn't like, with an active social and romantic life that contrasts Snape's, her loner best friend. Slughorn describes her as "vivacious, charming and cheeky."
* Mama Bear: Protects her infant son with love so awesome it helps him escape certain death from beyond the grave.
* Morality Chain: Explored. Although she left her mark on different individuals with her passing, when she was alive, she refuses to be the single exception to otherwise unpleasant behaviour, and merely enable her friend's insecurities. She refuses to be the Token Minority friend of Snape when he hangs out with racists simply because, in his words, "she's different" ("Why should I be any different?" is her retort). Likewise, she refuses to enable James' bullying when he does it for ostensible noble reasons. Basically, Lily would not be part of anyone's life if they were merely nice to her and put her on a pedestal but continue to be Jerkasses.
* Morality Pet:
** Lily brought out the best in Snape as children. After he indirectly caused her death, she became his Morality Chain Beyond the Grave, albeit unwillingly.
** She's also one for Horace Slughorn, being one of his "favourite students". While Slughorn is far from being a bad guy, he still has flaws. But it's often when talking about her that he shows his best qualities.
* Nice Girl: She's described as being an "uncommonly kind woman" who was able to see the best in everyone and treats Snape with kindness.
* Noodle Incident: Ollivander mentions that Lily's first wand was made of willow, leaving readers to wonder what happened that required her to buy a second wand.
* No Ontological Inertia: In the movie continuity, Professor Slughorn kept a fish that Lily gave him as a pet. When Slughorn got up one morning and found that the fish had turned back into a petal, he knew that Lily was dead.
* Not So Above It All: When James and Sirius are bullying Snape in front of a crowd of students, Lily steps in to make them stop. When James lifts Snape up into the air by one of his legs magically, causing his robes to fall over his head and show everyone his underwear, Harry notices that Lily for a moment looks like she was about to laugh along with everyone else. She quickly stops herself and calls James out for his cruelty.
* Odd Friendship : She and Severus Snape were childhood friends, knowing each other for two or more years before coming to Hogwarts and before being sorted into rival houses. After that, their friendship surprisingly kept going for five years, yet Lily started putting distance between them because of Snape's descent into the Dark Arts, which apparently led Lily's other friends to question her association with him, which she mentions in their friendship-breaking conversation.
* Official Couple: With James.
* The One That Got Away: To Snape. His descent into the Dark Arts and the Death Eaters cost him Lily's friendship, (maybe) her love, and eventually, her life. He is all too painfully aware of this. Rowling confirms that she "certainly loved him as a friend and could have loved him romantically if he wasn't into such horrible acts".
* Parental Favouritism: Possibly. Petunia accuses her parents of favouring Lily, and Lily's confidence and independence as a child suggests that she was indulged to an extent while Petunia comes across as much more dependent and nervous, even though she's older. However, as their parents are never shown interacting with them, it's hard to gauge how much truth there is to Petunia's claims.
* Playing Hard to Get: Downplayed version. According to JK Rowling in an interview with The Leaky Cauldron, Lily was attracted to James for years, but despite him pursuing her relentlessly, she only started dating him in her final year of Hogwarts, when he seemed to have somewhat improved his bully tendencies.
* Please, I Will Do Anything!: When It All Began. And what ultimately triggers the Spanner in the Works Heroic Sacrifice which drives the story's plot, unwittingly rejecting Voldemort following up on Snape's Spare Her My Liege offer. Because she had a choice between her life and her son's life, and chose Harry over hers, Harry becomes The Chosen One.
* Posthumous Character: Just like her husband, Lily manages to become familiar to the audience despite being long dead through the Mirror of Erised, Dementor flashbacks, Priori Incantum shades, the Pensieve, the Ressurection Stone, and Adult!Harry's visions.
* The Power of Love: The most significant example in the series — her selfless defence of Harry is so powerful it deflected the implacable Killing Curse.
* Randomly Gifted: Her parents were Muggles, but she was born a witch and her sister Petunia wasn't, making her jealous of Lily and destroying their relationship.
* "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
** Gives one to James Potter when the latter persists in making a fool of himself by trying to defend her honour when Snape calls her a Mudblood, chewing him out for his arrogance and problems, insisting that he's the same.
** Gives a cold, epic one to Severus which seems to end their friendship, telling him that he's betrayed her trust and that he still doesn't see anything wrong with his Death Eater friends or calling other people "Mudblood".
* Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: She is repeatedly described as having long, "dark red" hair, green eyes, and pale skin. She's also the mother of The Hero and the main reason the story began.
* Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Lily fell in love and married the rich and popular jock of Hogwarts, James Potter.
* Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Why she ended up with James, who faced his faults and became a better person, ending up happily together for the short time they had.
* Teen Genius: According to Slughorn, she was very gifted at Potions during her years at Hogwarts.
* Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She is the second character who is good at heart to be killed off, after James.
* Tranquil Fury: After Snape calls her "Mudblood". She doesn't go into a berserk screaming fit of rage, but it's clear she's pissed off nonetheless. She shows the same controlled fury when Snape comes and begs forgiveness from her after the incident.
* True Companions: Seems to have regarded the Order of the Phoenix and her husband's friends as this as evidenced by the letter to Sirius discovered in the final book by Harry and Severus Snape.
* Tsundere: Possibly. Considering she went from outwardly disliking James in fifth year to actively dating him in seventh and marriage after graduating Hogwarts, most of their development would have occurred in sixth and seventh year, although we never see it.
* We Hardly Knew Ye: Much like James, we don't know much about her from her perspective or her own friends, making her a much bigger case than him. Of all the posthumous characters, she gets the least focus as compared to her husband, who gets a Warts and All portrayal in the course of the seven books (and even then, we still know surprisingly little about him). We mostly see her from Snape's POV, additionally we hear about her being an outgoing, vivacious, charismatic person, as well as a potions genius from Slughorn, but neither mentions give a real sense of her character. Additionally, we never meet any of her friends who weren't in love with her like we do for James, despite the fact that she was popular, had her own social circle, and didn't hang out with Marauders in her school years, at least initially (it's implied she did in her later years.) Similarly, we don't learn about her flaws like we did James. Harry naturally idealizes her but she had to have her flaws, yet we don't get to see them — everybody who talks about Lily has only praise for her. Rowling also seems to be a fan of The Smurfette Principle, as Lily is the only known witch in her era.
* We Used to Be Friends: With Snape. Despite being his first and initially closest friend, it wasn't enough to keep from indulging in the Dark Arts.
* What Beautiful Eyes!: There's a lot of emphasis on her green eyes, which Harry inherited from her.
* What Does She See in Him?:
** After seeing his parents argue as teenagers and seeing his father's unpleasant side, Harry in his Broken Pedestal Heroic BSoD wonders how his parents got married, only to be reassured by Remus and Sirius that she did have some feelings towards his father and fell in love with him only after he changed his behaviour. Considering Snape's obsessive grudge against James Potter well into adulthood and his ardour for Lily, one can safely assume that he felt the same way. On meeting Dumbledore for the first time, he tries to dissociate Lily from her family, only caring that Voldemort's fixation for Lily's baby would jeopardize her by association. One reason he insists Dumbledore not tell anyone for the real reasons for his Heel–Face Turn was him being Unbalanced By Rival's Kid.
** Back in her schooldays, her girl friends and James continually wondered why Lily maintained a friendship with Snape, a Creepy Child who was obsessed with dark magic, friendly with bullies such as Mulciber and Avery, and a Death Eater in the making. Despite their protests, she ignored all of this and only broke it off after he called her a Mudblood and realized she couldn't defend him anymore.
* Adaptational Nice Guy: Book Fleur is very vain and conceited (though she eventually warms up to Harry and his friends after he saves her sister). Movie Fleur not so much, though this is mostly due to her being Out of Focus in the films.
* Adaptation Species Change: Implied, since the Veela species is all but stated to be Adapted Out from the films. As a result, Fleur's beauty has no Veela's charm that makes her irresistible to any male. She still got some amount of Male Gaze moments that distracts Hogwarts boys, sure, but they remain lucid even after seeing her.
* Adaptational Ugliness: "Ugliness" is not the right word, but in the books, Fleur is supernaturally beautiful due to her part-Veela ancestry. In the films, she's simply a pretty girl, and her Veela ancestry is not mentioned.
* Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair is darker in the movies. (Just as a point of reference, the shade of blond she's described as having in the books is closer to Lucius/Draco Malfoy than anything.)
* All Girls Want Bad Boys: While Bill is not "bad" as the typical case, it is noted she first caught interest in him because of his ponytail and dragon-fang earring, which his mother was asking him to cut and remove, respectively. Her attraction to Bill eventually matures into Single Woman Seeks Good Man in the sixth book.
* Babies Ever After: Has three children (two daughters and one son) with Bill.
* Big Sister Instinct: Towards Gabrielle. Fleur's second task in the Triwizard Tournament is to save her little sister from the mermaids.
* Breakout Character: In the fourth book, she was merely one of the Triwizard Champions and a rival for Harry as a result. The sixth book turns her into a recurring character, who eventually ends up marrying Bill Weasley.
* City Mouse: She doesn't appear to realize how much it aggravates her future in-laws that she demeans their rather poor living conditions (but there's clearly animosity on both sides).
* Defrosting Ice Queen: Becomes nicer to Harry after he saves her little sister.
* Everyone Has Standards: She wins Molly's grudging respect when Bill gets mauled, and Fleur with some offense says she's not breaking the engagement just because her fiancee got a few scars. She says that she loves him, werewolf infection or not, and is "good-looking enough for the both of us!". To top it all off, she takes the healing ointment from Molly and applies them to Bill's face. Molly stunned, offers her a family heirloom — a tiara — to wear in the wedding.
* Everyone Looks Sexier if French: The most prominent French character in the series is attractive enough to make half the men around her stop in their tracks and ogle without thought, including Main Characters like Ron Weasley. Justified, because Fleur's ancestors were creatures that used magic to arouse men. One of the reasons she falls for Bill is implied to be because he doesn't go utterly gaga around her. He falls in love with her naturally.
* Everyone Loves Blondes: She has silvery-blonde hair and is considered supremely beautiful by nearly everyone.
* Faux Action Girl: Her performance in the Triwizard Tournament is quite disappointing and definitely the worst of the four Champions; even Harry, who is three years younger than her, outperforms her at every turn. (In her defense, she would have done fine in the Third Task if Crouch Jr. hadn't stunned her before she could make much headway.) She never quite lives to her hype and even as an adult we never get to see her doing much during the Battle of Hogwarts.
* Foil: She becomes one to Percy Weasley over the course of the series. Much like Percy, she has a Big Sister Instinct for her loved ones, especially her sister Gabrielle, and is a bit arrogant. They also both treat Harry like a child; while he is one, he is a badass child forced to grow up too quickly. The difference is that Fleur suffered a Break the Haughty, warmed up towards Harry after he saved her little sister, and became an honorary Weasley after dating and marrying Bill; in contrast, Percy severed ties with Harry and his family, treating them as an annoyance while rising up in the Ministry. While Molly eventually warmed up to Fleur despite her haughty demeanor, the kids don't forgive Percy for a long time. It's highlighted ironically in Deathly Hallows; Fleur is present when Percy comes to reconcile, and as she's already an accepted part of the family who had no part in the feud, she awkwardly tries to give them some space.
* Funetik Aksent: In the books, at least. Not so much in the films.
* Happily Married: She marries Bill Weasley in the final book, scars and all.
* Head-Turning Beauty: Justified. Her Veela ancestry makes many males (and some females) attracted to her.
* Heroes Want Redheads: Quickly falls for the redhead Bill.
* Hidden Depths: Fleur is a lot more selfless and less vain than her first appearance would lead on.
* Hot Witch: Justified. Fleur is part Veela, magical creatures that can entice wizards and some witches.
* I Owe You My Life: Or rather, I Owe You My Sister's Life. She completely comes around on Harry when he saves her sister during the Second Task and never forgets it. Even though the champions' loved ones were never in any true danger, Fleur didn't know this and thought she was legitimately in danger, and even years later still tells Harry she's grateful for his actions.
* Like Parent, Like Spouse: Fleur is sometimes described as acting like Molly, Bill's mother, in the final two books, particularly in how she worries and fusses over the younger characters and uses magic to clean and make dinner.
* Lovable Alpha Bitch: Sometimes acts quite stuck-up, but isn't incapable of kindness. Some of her behaviour in Goblet of Fire seems more justified when rereading.
* Meaningful Name: According to Rowling, her name comes from the French phrase fleur de la cour, meaning "flower of the court".
* Ms. Vice Girl: She's a nice enough person who happens to have a major problem with vanity/pride.
* Obnoxious In-Laws: To the Weasleys during Half-Blood Prince, complaining about Mrs Weasley's taste in music and criticizing the state of the house. She finally makes up with Mrs Weasley near the end of the book, when she proves her love for Bill by refusing to leave him after he has been attacked and scarred by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback.
* Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Her French accent disappears in the Deathly Hallows films. Despite being a French native Clémence Poésy has a British accent when speaking English, and was speaking with a fake French accent in Goblet of Fire. Could be justified since the books note that she took a job at Gringotts to improve her English.
* Proud Beauty: She openly states that she's good-looking enough for both herself and Bill.
* Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her attraction of Bill matures from All Girls Want Bad Boys to this — Fleur makes it perfectly clear to Molly and to anyone in close vicinity that she loves Bill, not because of his looks or job ("I am good-looking enough for the both of us, I think."), but because of who he is as a person, which is a Nice Guy.
* Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She's beautiful enough for both her and a heavily scarred Bill. Based on how her parents were described, they also fit the trope.
* Uneven Hybrid: One-quarter Veela. One of her grandmother's hairs forms the magical core of her wand.
* Weight Woe: She complains that the food served to her at Hogwarts is "too heavy", and that she won't fit into her robes if she keeps eating there.