Alain Volant/Tropes

* Abusive Offspring: When children mistreat their parents.
** Abusive Parents: When parents treat their children horribly.
** Adoption Angst: Beefing with your parents for not being your "real" mom and dad.
** Adoption Diss: Someone gets insulted for being adopted.
** Affair? Blame the Bastard: A child born from infidelity is blamed for their parent's cheating.
** Always a Child to Parent: A parent has trouble treating their children like adults as they mature over the course of the series.
** Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: A child's parents embarrass them in public.
** Ambiguously Absent Parent: A character has a parental figure missing from their life without any explanation as to why.
** Antics-Enabling Wife: When despite knowing better, the mother will do little to prevent the fallout from the actions of a Bumbling Dad
** Antagonistic Offspring: When a child is antagonistic towards their parents.
** Anti-Smother Love Talk: It's argued that you can't pamper your children forever and that sooner or later they'll have to figure out how to do things by themselves.
** Archnemesis Dad: The villain is the protagonist's father.
** Baby as Payment: A parent uses their child as currency to pay for something.
** Baby Factory: Women are used to making babies for profit.
** Bastard Angst: Being the child of unwed parents causes a character grief.
** Bastard Bastard: A character who is a bastard in both senses of the word (i.e., a child born out of wedlock and a jerk).
** Because I Said So: Parents using vague reasons for why their children shouldn't do certain things.
** Betrayal by Offspring: A child betrays their parents.
** Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: A parent vows to avoid the abusive methods used by their own parents, or at least downplay the part about corporal punishment.
** Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: A father who will be confrontational to anyone he suspects is getting too close to his daughter.
** Calling Parents by Their Name: A child shows disrespect toward their parents by addressing them by their given names instead of "Mom or "Dad".
** Calling the Old Man Out: When children call out their parents for their actions.
** Calling the Young Man Out: When parents call out their children for their actions.
** Child Supplants Parent: A person who challenges their parent in an attempt to supplant them.
** Chocolate Baby: A supposed father is obviously not the biological father, because the baby looks very different.
** Cinderella Plot: A child is treated like a servant by their (step)parents.
** Closet Punishment: Parent punishes their children by locking them in a closet.
** Conveniently an Orphan: A character is an orphan so the plot can move along more easily.
** Daddy Didn't Show: A parent fails to show up for their child's special event.
** Daddy DNA Test: Trying to find out who the dad of a baby is by giving the baby a DNA test.
** Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: An estranged father gives an excuse for why he abandoned his child.
** Daddy's Little Villain: A villain's equally evil daughter.
** Dad's Off Fighting in the War: A dad who's absent because he's serving in the military.
** Dad the Veteran: A parent who is a retired military person.
** Deceptive Legacy: A child is told lies about their absent parents.
** Denied Food as Punishment: Parents punish their children by denying them food.
** Disappeared Dad: The character's mother is present, but not their father.
** Disneyland Dad: A divorced parent wins their child's affection by taking them to expensive places.
** Disowned Parent: A child disowns their parent(s).
** Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Parents who don't know any personal information about their child that they should know.
** Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Parents use Corporal Punishment on their children as a method of punishment.
** Education Mama: When parents are very pushy with their children's education.
** Elder Abuse: When the now-old parent is abused.
** Embarrassing Relative Teacher: A relative, most often an embarrassing parent, becomes a teacher and humiliates their child during class.
** Evil Matriarch: A villainous mother.
** Family Relationship Switcheroo: A lie about a family relationship is revealed.
** Fantasy-Forbidding Father: A parent doesn't approve of their child's hobbies nor career choice.
** Father, I Don't Want to Fight: The Proud Warrior Race Guy is upset that his son doesn't want to embrace his warrior culture.
** Final First Hug: A parent only expresses their true feeling when they are dying.
** Financial Abuse: A parent abuses their child by using money to control them.
** First Father Wins
** Follow in My Footsteps: Parents want what's best for their children and so they are forced into their shoes.
** For Your Own Good: A parent's explanation in doing something unpleasant to their children (usually forcing them to do something they don't like).
** Freudian Excuse: Many examples of a character being evil or mean because of past misfortune has the past misfortune involve issues with the bad guy's parents.
** Freudian Excuse Denial: A character who is a harsh or abusive parent denies having a bad upbringing or at least doesn't think it effects them negatively.
** Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Even if they had lousy parents, that doesn't excuse their present evil.
** Gene Hunting: An adopted child searches for their biological parents.
** Generational Trauma: Conflict arises due to unresolved baggage passed down from generation to generation.
** Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Two parents have different methods in guiding their children - one is through kindness while the other is through strictness.
** Give Him a Normal Life: An unusual character gives up their child for adoption because they don't want their kid to be roped up with the bizarreness or extraordinarity of their life.
** Glorified Sperm Donor: A character has a father who left after impregnating the mother.
** Grandparental Obliviousness: A grandparent left in charge of their grandchildren is too senile to keep a proper eye on them.
** Grandparent Favoritism: Grandparents who like or give preferential treatment to their children's offspring over their children.
** Gruesome Grandparent: Grandparents are abusive/antagonistic to their grandchild.
** Half-Sibling Angst: Two siblings can't get along because they only share one biological parent.
** Hands-Off Parenting: Parents who don't actively raise their children.
** Hates Their Parent: A character outright despises at least one of their parents.
** Helicopter Parents: Parents who are very involved with their children's lives, often to excessive degrees.
** Hilariously Abusive Childhood: A character is shown to have a ridiculously rough childhood for Black Comedy.
** Honor-Related Abuse: A character is mistreated or killed by their family for the sake of preserving the family's honor.
** I Am Not My Father: A character does not like being compared to their parent.
** I Have No Son!: When a parent disowns their child for some reason.
** I Miss Mom: Character misses their dead/missing parent(s).
** Imaginary Friend: A child treats a figment of their imagination as their best friend to compensate for their loner reputation.
** Inadequate Inheritor: A child's or heir's worthiness of an inheritance is questioned by their elders.
** It Runs in the Family: Family members tend to have similar personalities.
** I Want Grandkids: Parents pressure their children to have children of their own.
** I Want My Mommy!: A character cries for their mother to come help them. Can be played for comedy by having them yell for mommy once they realize they're in trouble, or played for drama by having them cry for mommy while in inevitable peril.
** Jealous Parent: A mom or dad compete with their child for their spouse's affection.
** Jock Dad, Nerd Son: The father is very athletic. The son is nerdy but not athletic.
** Junkie Parent: A parent who is a drug addict.
** Kids Punishing Parents: Kids punish their parents for their misdeeds.
** Knight Templar Parent: Parents going above and beyond the limit in protecting their children.
** Lecherous Stepparent: A stepparent who sexually abuses their new spouse's children.
** Let Her Grow Up, Dear: The father doesn't want the child (often a girl) to have romance, but the mother doesn't mind.
** Like Parent, Like Spouse: A character's Love Interest is similar to one of their parents, be it in looks or personality.
** Loser Son of Loser Dad: A character is derided as being a loser just because their father was pathetic.
** Love-Obstructing Parents: Parents who interfere with their children's personal romantic relationships.
** Luke, I Am Your Father: Someone reveals to another person that they are that person's father.
** Luke, I Might Be Your Father: Someone reveals to another person that they might or might not be that person's parent/child.
** Luke, You Are My Father: Someone reveals to another person that they are that person's child.
** Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: The mother of a criminal denies that her child could ever be such a thing.
** Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: A father is unsure if his child is really his.
** Mandatory Motherhood: Society essentially forces women to become mothers.
** Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: The father (and by extension the rest of the family) blame the child for the mother's death.
** Missing Mom: A character's father is present, but not their mother.
** A Mistake Is Born: A child is conceived when the parents didn't intend to have children.
** My Beloved Smother: A bossy, overprotective, clingy mother.
** Mysterious Parent: When the reason for Parental Abandonment is revealed and the parent is an important character.
** New Child Left Behind: A male character gets a female character pregnant before he leaves for a long period of time.
** New Parent Nomenclature Problem: A character debates whether to call their non-biological parent "Mom" or "Dad".
** No Fathers Allowed: Cultures where having fathers present in their kid's lives is discouraged.
** Not Actually His Child: One character is believed the biological parent of another. Turns out they were wrong.
** Notorious Parent: A parent runs away from their offspring because they are a fugitive criminal wanted by law enforcement.
** Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Mom fights with everybody to get her way, even if it humiliates or terrifies her children.
** Offing the Offspring: Parents killing their children.
** Open-Minded Parent: A parent who is completely fine with their child being unusual or different.
** Orphan's Ordeal: Highlighting the unpleasant side of losing one's parents to death or abandonment.
** Over-Enthusiastic Parents: Parents who love their kids to embarrassing extremes.
** Parental Abandonment: Neither of the character's parents are accounted for.
** Parental Betrayal: Someone betrays their child.
** Parental Blamelessness: Parent will always deny any wrongdoing in raising their child.
** Parental Fashion Veto: A parent forbids their child to wear clothes which are deemed "unsuitable".
** Parental Favoritism: A child the parents like more than the rest of their offspring.
** Parental Incest: Sex or romantic relationship between a parent and a child.
** Parent-Induced Extended Childhood: An unhealthily obsessive parent literally prevents their child from growing up.
** Parental Neglect: Parents who don't care for their kids.
** Parental Obliviousness: Parents who are unaware of what their child is getting involved with.
** Parental Savings Splurge: Your parents spend your dedicated college savings for selfish reasons.
** Parental Substitute: A character who acts as someone's parental figure when their real parents are absent or out of focus.
** Parental Title Characterization: What you call your parents indicates your relationship with them.
** Parent Never Came Back from the Store: A parent leaves to run a casual errand and never comes back.
** Parents Are Wrong: Parents need to let go of tradition so their kids can be free.
** Parents as People: Parents with proper character traits besides their parenthood.
** Parents Suck at Matchmaking: Whoever their parents pick for their kids is guaranteed to be someone they don't like.
** Parent with New Paramour: A character reacts to their parent receiving a new Love Interest.
** Permissive Parents: Parents that actively encourage things discouraged for those underaged.
** Secret Other Family: A character has another family that's unbeknownst to their other one.
** Shed the Family Name: A character changes their family name in order to disassociate themselves from a hated family member.
** Sins of Our Fathers: Children who are punished for what their parents have done.
** Sports Dad: Parents who push their kids to excel at sports.
** Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Super strict parenting causes the children to become good at hiding things from their parents.
** Tough Love: Parents treating their children harshly to make them better.
** Trophy Child: A child who is treated as a status symbol by their parents more so than a person.
** Turn Out Like His Father: A character ends up becoming like their parent.
** Unpleasant Parent Reveal: A character meets their missing parent, only to find out that they're not anything like the child had hoped they would be.
** Useless Bystander Parent: A parent does little or nothing to protect their child from abuse.
** Vicariously Ambitious: A parent pushes their child to be what they think is best.
** "Well Done, Son" Guy: A child wants approval from their parent.
** When You Coming Home, Dad?: Someone's dad is almost too busy for them.
** Where Did We Go Wrong?: When a kid turns out different than the parents hoped, the parents wonder where they went wrong.
** Why Are You Not My Son?: Parents compare their children unfavorably to their friends, with the implications that they would have preferred the friend to be their child instead of their biological offspring.
** Why Couldn't You Be Different?: When parents are disappointed that their kids failed to live up to their expectations of them.
** Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: A parent uses violence against their child, and then makes their child feel they're responsible about it.
** You're Not My Father: Someone tells another person that they are not their parent, regardless of whether or not it's true.
** You Should Have Died Instead: A parent expresses disappointment that their child survived instead of the person who died.
*** Annoying Younger Sibling: A younger sibling who bothers their older sibling by being annoying.
*** Disappointing Older Sibling: A character who is seen as a letdown by their younger sibling, often for being a bully, irresponsible etc.
*** Evil Brunette Twin: An Evil Twin who is dark-haired while the good twin is light-haired.
*** Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: One sibling is responsible and cares about doing the right thing, while the other one is a lazy slacker who gets into trouble.
*** Half-Sibling Angst: The fact that you only share one parent with them makes it more difficult to get along with them.
*** Knight Templar Big Brother: Older siblings who go extreme lengths to protect their younger siblings.
*** Sibling Rivalry: Siblings who don't get along well.
*** Spartan Sibling: A character who is unsympathetic to their sibling's struggles and expects them to fend for themselves.
*** Successful Sibling Syndrome: Someone feels overshadowed by their sibling's achievements.
* Annoying Younger Sibling: A younger sibling who's seen as annoying to their older one.
* Big Brother Instinct: A big brother/sister who is protective of their younger sibling.
* Big Brother Mentor: A big brother/sister who mentors their younger sibling.
* Big Little Brother: A younger sibling who is taller than their older sibling.
* Cain and Abel: Sibling rivalry turns into bitter hatred with murderous intent.
* Dark Horse Sibling: A sibling that everyone thought was a loser ends up being the most successful.
* Disappointing Older Sibling: An older sibling who lets down his younger siblings.
* Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: A duo of siblings respectively consisting of a doofus and a mature person.
* Half-Sibling Angst: A character being a half-sibling to their siblings causes them grief.
* Jacob and Esau: Each child favors one parent or vice versa.
* Knight Templar Big Brother: A sibling who would protect/avenge their fellow siblings by any means necessary.
* Little Big Brother: An older sibling who is shorter than their younger sibling.
* Monster Brother, Cutie Sister: Inverted. A couple of siblings where the older brother is menacing and mean, and the younger sister is cute and nice.
* Onee-sama: A classy highly respected older sister.
* Only Child Syndrome: Characteristics associated with only children.
* Parental Favoritism: A child is given preference over their siblings.
* Princeling Rivalry: A younger sibling will plot to overthrow, kill, or banish their older sibling in order to seize power for themselves.
* Promotion to Parent: The oldest child takes it upon themselves to parent their younger siblings.
* Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: One sibling is wealthy and/or showered in love and praise; the other is degraded and impoverished.
* Shared Family Quirks: Two otherwise different siblings share the same quirk.
* Sibling Rivalry: Siblings who don't get along well.
* Sibling Yin-Yang: Siblings who have opposite traits to each other.
* Successful Sibling Syndrome: Someone lives in the shadow of their more successful sibling.
* The Unfavorite: A character whose family prefers their sibling over them.
* White Sheep: A non-evil member of an evil family.
* Youngest Child Wins: The youngest sibling has the best luck in life.
==Hufflepuff==
* Always Lawful Good: While Gryffindor House is the "hero" house, Hufflepuff House is a more literal example of this trope, being the most consistently lawful and good of the houses. They are defined by their loyalty and integrity and have produced the least amount of Dark Wizards/Witches of all the Hogwarts houses.
* Always Second Best: They are aware of Hufflepuff's reputation as an overshadowed house and they hoped the Tri-Wizard tournament would be their time to outshine Gryffindor.
* And the Rest: Although usually said to be chosen for loyalty and hard work, one of the Sorting Hat songs describes Helga Hufflepuff as "tak[ing] all the rest, and treat[ing] them all the same," demonstrating the most frequently mentioned defining traits of the House; fairness and equality. Of course, many people take it to mean that Hufflepuff is just a dumping ground for students none of the other Founders would deem "worthy".
* Animal Motifs: Badgers are adorable, unassuming, and will rip your face off if you threaten something they care about, which sums the House up quite neatly.
* Bad Ol' Badger: Double subverted—badgers are the house's mascot and this partially does symbolize Hufflepuff's friendliness... however, both Hufflepuffs and badgers can be downright vicious if you do anything to hurt their loved ones...
* Beware the Nice Ones: They spend the whole series just hanging out and being generally inoffensive... until the school is attacked in the final battle and all but the youngest and Zacharias Smith take up their wands and fight without hesitation.
* The Big Guy: After Gryffindor, Hufflepuff contributed the most student combatants to the Battle of Hogwarts.
* Butt-Monkey: Hufflepuff is definitely the most maligned and mocked house in the fandom as well as canon. Hagrid tells us the first thing we ever hear about Hufflepuff, which is "everyone says Hufflepuff are a load o' duffers," although it's not made clear whether or not he actually agrees with this assessment. In any case, the books imply (and demonstrate) many times that Hufflepuff doesn't deserve its in-universe reputation as the house of weak-willed idiots. If anything, as mentioned below, Hufflepuff is strongly associated with loyalty and determination.
* Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Their heraldic colours are yellow and black, representing wheat and soil respectively.
* Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Do not anger the Hufflepuffs. Proof positive — the Hufflepuff common room door is the only one guarded by a non-verbal password, and if you get it wrong, the door squirts vinegar all over the offender. In point of fact, the Hufflepuff door has had the same password forever—it doesn't change like the others. It's also the only common room not entered by non-Hufflepuffs in the last thousand years.
* Cynic–Idealist Duo: The Idealists to Ravenclaws Cynics. Perhaps even more Idealistic than Gryffindor, Hufflepuffs pretty much see the good in everyone (at first). Since they value kindness, it's hard not to see them as warm, welcoming individuals. Most Hufflepuffs aren't out for glory or power, but if you think this makes them pushovers? You'll be sorely mistaken.
* Determinator: The House that contributes the most fighters to Hogwarts at the end of the seventh book (after Gryffindor). Loyalty is one of their defining traits.
* Fatal Flaw: Hufflepuffs tend to be too trusting and nice for their own good, leading them to be easily manipulated, and their strong sense of humility leads to them being easily overlooked.
* Four-Element Ensemble: Represents Earth among the four Houses, reflected in their most prominent staff member, Pomona Sprout, who works with magical plants, and their common room, located in the basements.
* The Generic Guy: Their one moment of glory was when Cedric Diggory was chosen as the Triwizard contestant for Hogwarts, which was soon overshadowed by Harry becoming the other contestant for Hogwarts.
* Hard Work Hardly Works:
** In-universe example, as Hufflepuff House rarely shines compared to the other Houses (noted in Goblet of Fire), despite being the house that hard work is associated with.
** It seems like the difference between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff is supposed to be the one between gazelles and warthogs. Academically, Hufflepuff students keep plugging at things till they get them and do good studious groundwork. Ravenclaws, on the other hand, would excel at their talents while neglecting fields that don't interest them and make breakthroughs that are possible because of the good groundwork in question. It is entirely possible that while the Gryffindors, Slytherins, and Ravenclaws are highly visible, it is the Hufflepuffs who make that visibility possible.
* Hidden Disdain Reveal: In Goblet of Fire, the house was usually civil towards Gryffindor but when Harry was chosen as the second champion of Hogwarts, they became cold and dismissive towards the entire Gryffindor house because they felt besmirched by Harry's legacy. The Tri-Wizard tournament was supposed to be their time to shine but Harry unwittingly stole their glory due to his status as the chosen one and it wasn't helped when Rita Skeeter stated that Harry was the only champion of Hogwarts in her papers.
* Hufflepuff House: Trope Namer. Hufflepuff is first brought up to be made fun of, and no major student is a Hufflepuff, except Cedric Diggory, who dies in the second book he appears in. Their most prominent alumni, Nymphadora Tonks and Newt Scamander, were only revealed to be members through supplementary material.
* Humble Hero: A self-admitted trait on Pottermore—they do have plenty of accomplishments to their name, they just don't go around bragging about it like the other three Houses do. Unfortunately, this is also one of the reasons they're so frequently overlooked.
* Jack-of-All-Trades: Although they are mocked in-universe for being the "throwaway" house, one of their greatest qualities is that they value and/or demonstrate the qualities the other three houses value equally, along with a helping of determination and hard work.
* Nice Guy: Being kind to a fault seems to be a thing with them. They're so nice, in fact, that one of their greatest accomplishments is said to be that they've produced the fewest dark wizards/witches of any Hogwarts House. Indeed, not even a single villain in the series has been confirmed to be a Hufflepuff (Peter Pettigrew and Quirinus Quirrel are a villainous Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively, but no one in Voldemort's ranks has ever been confirmed to be in Hufflepuff). The closest that a Hufflepuff becomes a villain occurs in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, where Cedric Diggory was made Voldemort's right-hand man in an alternate universe, upon feeling disaffected by the outcome of the Triwizard Tournament.
* The Reliable One: As noted above, they made up most of the student fighters in the seventh book aside from the Gryffindors.
* Throw the Dog a Bone:
** The franchise does this for Hufflepuff by featuring former Hufflepuff Newt Scamander as the protagonist of the Fantastic Beasts series. For bonus points, Scamander was previously expelled from Hogwarts but still went on to live a successful life, even achieving fame.
** The house managed to snag a real-world victory by winning Pottermore's final House Cup before the feature was removed from the site indefinitely. The best part? Gryffindor came in dead last.
* Undying Loyalty: The primary defining trait of Hufflepuff. JK Rowling herself has said that while more of the Gryffindors remained behind, for a lot of them it was simply because they wanted to fight, whether because they thought running away would be cowardly or for revenge. For the Hufflepuffs who remained behind, she says it was universally "something deeper".
* Yellow Earth, Green Earth: As an Elemental Motif, Hufflepuff corresponds to Earth — its house colours are yellow and black, representing wheat and soil, and the house is known for its hard workers. (Here's a citation for that.)
* Abusive Parents: His father is extremely physically abusive, which is implied to have been going on for years as it's the impetus for Andrew setting up the camera in his room.
* Accidental Murder: Subverted; while it's implied he might've somehow accidentally caused the lightning bolt that killed Steve, which he is nonetheless horrified and guilt-ridden over, writer Max Landis has confirmed that it was a natural, freak-accident bolt that Andrew had no control over.
* Alas, Poor Villain: Matt is extremely reluctant to kill him, but does because he has to.
* Ax-Crazy: Post Face–Heel Turn and just gets worse from there. As he becomes an apocalyptic, homicidal, rage-filled monster.
* Berserk Button: If Andrew wants to be left alone, you'd best leave him the fuck alone.
* Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Downplayed; being bullied by school peers and abused by an alcoholic father isn't on fully equal footing with torture, but wreaks similar effects on Andrew's psyche.
* Butt-Monkey: Nothing seems to go his way. This goes extremely badly for everyone.
* Calling the Old Man Out: Sadly, this doesn't lead to any sort of improvement in the relationship between him and his father — it just makes things worse as a whole. Not that he didn't deserve to do it anyway, or that he did anything else on his part. His dad's just being too stubborn about himself.
* Car Fu: Throws a bus at Matt in the climax.
* Determinator: Nothing could stop him from going ape-shit across Seattle.
* Death by Irony: He called himself an apex predator, only to die by a spear, a hunter's weapon.
* Decoy Protagonist: Though the story focuses on his downfall, the hero is ultimately Matt.
* The Dog Bites Back: Fully unhinges and stops taking his old man's crap when his mother takes a turn for the worse.
* Don't Make Me Destroy You: How he threatens Matt, who sees the light and kills Andrew, but remains extremely guilt-ridden about it.
* Drunk on the Dark Side: Happens to him almost immediately as he enjoys his powers immensely from the first time he discovers he has them, but becomes the progress of his whole arc.
* Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Though it's clear Andrew is becoming more and more detached from his humanity with the continued use of his power, his love for his mother never changes.
* Expy: Chronicle's frequent homages to AKIRA makes Andrew - a young man with a troubled personal life who loses his mind after obtaining telekinetic powers - a rather obvious counterpart for Tetsuo Shima.
* Freudian Trio: The unbalanced, impulsive, and miserable id who just tries to bring himself happiness or satisfaction.
* From Nobody to Nightmare: From abused random teenager to super villain.
* The Heavy: He's not quite the Big Bad, as the story's plot isn't entirely his own fault, but he does become the major threat.
* Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:How Matt kills him in the end of the movie.
* Implacable Man: He keeps going with his rampage over Seattle and the police force send against him is completely powerless in their attempts to stop or even hurt him.
* Kubrick Stare: See the photo above.
* Kick the Son of a Bitch: His tormentors had it coming for the most part.
* Kick the Dog: He's still a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds but taking his anger out on the whole city that didn't abuse him like his father did was a dick move. So was ripping apart that spider just because he could as well as swiping the redneck's car into the lake, which prompts Matt to outline the rules.
* Leave Me Alone!: One of his Berserk Buttons is that he wants to be left alone whenever he experiences strong emotion.
* Loners Are Freaks: He was very much a loner at the beginning of the film and his constant filming made him seem a bit off.
* Madden Into Misanthropy: His eventual Start of Darkness; he genuinely loves his mom and tries not to upset his dad whenever he can, but after she dies, Steve dies, a girl at school laughs at him, and he gets bullied (including by his dad), he goes off the deep end.
* Made of Iron: Andrew goes through a lot of injuries and still gets back up to rampage.
* Mirror Character: With his father, Richard. Both eventually are revealed to be angry guys who feel powerless due to the amount of bad luck in their lives, which leads to Richard brutally beating him. Andrew tries to respond to this with kindness, but eventually ends up going mad and brutally killing hundreds of people in revenge and despair.
* Missing Mom: Subverted as she is barely seen throughout the movie. But she is confirmed to be dead by the end of the film.
* Narcissist: Andrew is a curious case with his always-rolling camera. What started as a way to keep his abusive father at bay gradually turns into the boy filming more and more of himself, all while he's slowly going down the Protagonist Journey to Villain. By the final, during his rampage over Seattle, he steals random cameras and have them circle around himself for the sake of filming all his stunts.
* No Social Skills: On one hand, he's extensively bullied by just about everyone. On the other, he is a shut-in even without that. Combined together, those two make Andrew have close to zero social competence - something that Steve tries to fix throughout the whole movie.
* Person of Mass Destruction: By the end of the movie his powers have developed to where he's become this.
* Psychopathic Manchild: In his ending rampage, he is essentially throwing a super powered temper tantrum.
* Screaming Warrior: Andrew roars his way across the city while fighting Matt. This proves to be a great weapon as he can crush anything and stop bullets.
* The Social Darwinist: As indicated by his quote, he develops the philosophy that it's the right of the strong to step on the weak.
* Spear Counterpart: To Carrie White, of Carrie and Carrie (1976). Both are badly abused teenagers with a single abusive parent - Carrie's father is dead while Andrew's mother is dying, and Andrew's father is physically abusive like Margaret White. Both are badly bullied outsiders in town who lack any sort of romantic or friendship connections (and the few connections they can form are cruelly thrown back at him) develop superpowers with which they use to fight back against their tormentors...and eventually everybody else.
* Super Supremacist: As he comes into his powers, he sees himself as an "apex predator" above normal humans.
* Teens Are Monsters: Arguably a poster boy example of why a teenager with super powers would be a bad thing.
* Took a Level in Badass: Gets stronger than the other two at using his powers.
* A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: His life and death in a nutshell.
* Tragic Villain: The entire story shows his downfall, heartbreaking as it is even after he becomes a villain.
* Troubled Teen: Andrew's life consists of an extremely abusive alcoholic father and a terminally ill bedridden mother and is frequently bullied at school, not to mention everything else that happens to him throughout the film, giving him serious mental issues. The fact that Andrew decides to keep it all bottled up until hitting his Rage-Breaking Point instead of reaching out to talk to someone about it doesn't help matters either, especially after he acquires his powers.
* Unskilled, but Strong: By the end of the film, it's clear that while he is very strong with his powers, his mental instability causes him to just randomly lash out with them, rather than use them strategically.
* Unstoppable Rage: He goes nuclear near the end of the film, and just gets worse to the point that he was nothing more than a human-shaped ball of destructive, mindless fury by the time Matt is forced to kill him.
* Villain Protagonist: The story encompasses his Slowly Slipping Into Evil Protagonist Journey to Villain.
* Walking Spoiler: Let's just say that what happens to him, in the end, is... unpleasant.
* With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Deconstructed — Andrew was already mentally and emotionally unstable from the abuse he suffered from his father. The only reason why he became as unhinged as he did was because his father pushed him to the breaking point — his powers were simply a means of finally fighting back through which his instability fully manifested.
* Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The poor kid could not just catch a break. From his abusive father to the harsh bullying he received in and outside of school and his dying mother. When he finally le's loose and becomes a wrathful beast of destruction you can't help but feel sorry for him.
* The Beat Generation: The movie is about the founding fathers.
* Based on a True Story: The movie is based on the murder of David Kammerer.
* Bungled Suicide: Lucien Carr attempts to kill himself in jail by hanging himself with his bedsheets, but the knot undoes itself.
* Cast Full of Gay: David and Allen are both gay, William is Bisexual, Lucien is probably gay (although possibly bisexual), and Jack Kerouac is probably bisexual, although his lust for Lucien is never confirmed.
* Character Development: Allen Ginsberg begins the film as a high schooler with a fairly dull life. It ends with him being the man with the willpower, passion, and vision to lead a social and literary movement.
* The Charmer: Lucien Carr seduces almost everyone he comes into contact with.
* Contrast Montage: An extremely, extremely uncomfortable one involving drug abuse, the death of a friend, anonymous sex, and murder.
* Dark and Troubled Past: Something that happened "in Chicago" to Lucien Carr is often referred to, much to his displeasure, but is eventually explained.
* Driven to Suicide: Lucien Carr, fearing he'll be in jail for the rest of his life.
* Fantasy Sequence: Many, frequently taking place in jazz clubs.
* Foreshadowing: When Allen Ginsberg and (more importantly) Lucien Carr 'hang themselves', and the pole the ropes are roped around breaks.
* The Gadfly: Lucien Carr's introductory scene involves reading aloud obscene poetry in the middle of a library and his ability to manipulate other people's emotions is what drives the entire movie.
* Gayngst: At least two gay character's unrequited love.
* Horrible Judge of Character: Many of the people who come across Lucien, but especially Allen Ginsberg.
* How We Got Here: The film opens with a shirtless Lucien Carr disposing of a body in a river, covered in blood.
* Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Allen Ginsberg has a brief, sexual fantasy about Lucien Carr as he falls asleep in his lap.
* Moment Killer: Jack Kerouac is guilty of this, both in-movie and for the fans.
* Murder Is the Best Solution: Calling the cops sooner would have been much smarter.
* Period Piece: From the jazz to the clothing to the World War II radio broadcasts, this very much takes place in the early 40's.
* Politically Correct History: Lucien Carr's son Caleb vehemently disputes the film's version of events, revealing that David Kammerer began his relationship with Lucien Carr as the latter's Boy Scout troop leader. He describes the events as much, much uglier than the film makes them out to be.
* Straight Gay: Lucien, Allen, and David are all gay, but none are campy.
* The Tease: Lucien Carr seduces a large percentage of the cast, and is never seen fulfilling any of their physical or emotional desires.
* Tragic Villain: Lucien Carr manages to sucker the audience as well as he does the characters in the film.
* Adaptational Curves: Inverted. He lacks the large muscular frame of his comics self, and not only shares Peter's Geek Physique but comes off as having an even smaller frame than him.
* Adaptational Dye-Job: He has brown hair in the comics while here he has Dane DeHaan's dark blonde hair.
* Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: He and Peter are childhood friends instead of meeting in college.
** Harry and Felicia Hardy have no connection in the comics, but here, Harry is her Benevolent Boss and she serves as his Number Two in OsCorp.
** Harry and Norman Osborn have a very abusive relationship in the comics. While they still are not at all close in the movie this is because Norman sends Harry away as a child instead of abusing him physically and verbally.
* Adaptational Early Appearance: The Harry Osborn Green Goblin is a Legacy Character to his father Norman in the comics and most adaptations. Here he is the original.
** Also, like in many adaptations before including the predecessor trilogy Peter and Harry know each other long before college while in the comics Harry is introduced in Spidey´s college years.
* Adaptational Sympathy: To a degree. He doesn't become the Goblin to avenge his father's death because of his Irrational Hatred of Spider-Man like in the comics, but because he's dying and Peter wouldn't help him.
* Adaptational Villainy: As opposed to Electro's Adaptational Nice Guy above, Harry is notably less sympathetic than he was in the comics, being the Big Bad of the second film, and the Green Goblin that's responsible for Gwen Stacy's death, rather than his father. In the comics, Harry and Gwen were close friends and he was greatly upset by her death.
* Alternate Self: Has one on Earth-96283 and another distinct version is set to appear in Spider-Man: Freshman Year.
* Anime Hair: Transforming into the Green Goblin automatically brushes up his hair in a jagged manner.
* Arch-Enemy: Killing Gwen Stacy makes him this to Peter and he's creating a team to take over New York and kill him.
* Ax-Crazy: Starts off with relatively decent behavior, but grows progressively insane as the movie continues, culminating in him, well, becoming the Goblin.
* The Bad Guy Wins: Though he is arrested at the end of the movie, Harry managed to get back at Peter for his apparent "betrayal" by killing Gwen.
* Big Bad Duumvirate: Becomes one of the main antagonists of the second film as he attempts to find a cure for his illness, putting him in conflict with Spider-Man and straining his friendship with Peter before he releases Electro and becomes the Green Goblin.
* Big Bad Friend: To Peter, his best friend when they were kids.
* Big Bad Slippage: He actually starts out as a friend to Peter, but as his illness gets the better of him he loses his sanity. He goes full villain after being seized from Oscorp.
* Body Horror: His disease becomes increasingly apparent as time goes by, with his skin falling apart. He later painfully mutates into a goblin-like creature with pale yellow-green skin, longer nose and ears, yellowed teeth, and discolored Wild Hair after being given the spider venom. The alternate cut of this scene is much more gross and disturbing.
* Both Sides Have a Point: He's terminally ill and wants Spider-Man's blood, believing it to be his only hope of survival; however, Spider-Man refuses, believing it might harm or kill him, or even turn Harry into a monster like the Lizard. While Spidey makes a valid point, Harry also does when he points out to Spidey that he's already dying, so he's got nothing to lose either way.
* Childhood Friends: With Peter Parker. This is notable in that Peter was the only friend he had who wasn't after his money.
* Cold Ham: The character of Harry Osborn seems to have been written for a more dramatic actor, but Dane DeHaan is more restrained than is necessary... until he becomes the Green Goblin, and then throws all restraint out the window.
* Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Never calls himself the Green Goblin, only named as such in the credits. In fact the word goblin isn't spoken by anyone.
* Composite Character: With the Ultimate version of Eddie Brock, being Peter's childhood friend who reunites with him several years later and becomes a supervillain due to a perceived betrayal from Peter.
** Also with his own father: He´s the first and only Green Goblin in this continuity instead of being his father´s successor. Also, he´s the one that kills Gwen Stacy, ultimatly seen as one of Norman Osborn´s worst actions in the comics, cementing him as Spider-Man´s Arch-Enemy.
* Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
** To the Lizard, who was a scientist at Oscorp who mutated himself using science he had helped to create for the purpose of regowing physical injuries. Harry meanwhile was the son of the company's owner and used science developed by others to try and cure himself of a genetic illness.
** To Venom of Spider-Man 3, as Harry appeared in the last film before his film series was rebooted. Like Venom he is the last villain to appear in their respective films, and use a more powerful but sympathetic villain to fight Spider-Man. However Eddie Brock was a self-serving photographer who bonded with an alien symbiote, and as Venom was incredibly petty and selfish in his desire to kill Spider-Man. Harry however was a wealthy young man who used science to mutate himself into the Green Goblin while also using Oscorp weapons, and while curel he was motivated from the desire to survive the illness that killed his father. Harry also serves as a Evil Counterpart to the version of Harry who appeared in Spider-Man 3 who sacrificed himself to save Spider-Man.
* Demoted to Extra: He doesn't play as big a role in the second console game as he did in the film.
* Disabled in the Adaptation: Much like his father in this universe, this Harry suffers from an illness that'll eventually kill him and is ultimately the impetus for him becoming the Green Goblin.
* Driven to Villainy: He was only looking for a way to cure his disease, and being kicked out of Oscorp certainly didn't help matters.
* Entitled Bastard: Harry becomes angrier in his search for a cure to his disease. Even when Peter tells him that a blood transfusion from Spider-Man would be risky, Harry ignores him.
* Even Evil Has Standards: While it's before he really slips, he's noticeably upset that Oscorp is experimenting on human subjects in Ravencroft.
* Evil Counterpart: As the Green Goblin, he is even more obviously this to Peter than his father was in the comics. In addition to being the same age as Peter, he's pushed into his Start of Darkness by the sudden death of his father figure, and he gets his superpowers from a self-inflicted dose of the same spider venom that gave Peter his abilities.
* Evil Former Friend: Becomes the Green Goblin. Killing Gwen cements this.
* Evil Is Hammy: Once he turns into the Goblin, all restraints are off. His very introduction has some wordless overacting even before delivering an overenunciated "Peter...".
* Evil Laugh: Pulls an impressive one before the final battle.
* Eye Scream: When Spider-Man appears in person to inform Harry that he won't hand him his blood, Harry is so enraged that he hurls a glass of scotch at the wall. The shattering glass is so dramatic that it can be hard to notice Harry scream and clutch his face right afterwards, as if some of the tiny shards of glass flying everywhere had found their way back to him.
* Frameup: The accident that creates Electro is passed off as an experiment which is then pinned on Harry, which gives Oscorp's Board of Directors the excuse to kick him out of the company.
* Involuntary Shapeshifter: Is last seen in his normal human form, but he says his condition "comes and goes". A nod to the comic version (and the first trilogy) where being the Goblin was a mental illness rather than a physical change.
* Jerkass Has a Point: Harry wants Spider-Man's blood for its healing abilities as his only hope of survival. Spider-Man refuses as it could harm or kill him, but Harry points out he is already dying and has nothing to lose.
* Knight of Cerebus: The moment Harry becomes the Green Goblin, people start dying...
* Laughing Mad: Develops a tendency towards maniacal laughter after he becomes the Green Goblin.
* Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Thanks to the assistance of Mr. Fiers, he's currently overseeing the formation of the Sinister Six from his cell at Ravencroft.
* Never My Fault: Harry exclusively blames Spider-Man's refusal to help him for his transformation and mutation, never mind that Spider-Man and Peter (from Harry's perspective) each gave valid points that there was no way of knowing if Spider-Man's blood would help or make things worse.
* Nice, Mean, and In-Between: From a multiversal point of view in regard to Peter Parker's best friend, this Harry Osborn is the mean to the nice of Earth-199999's Ned Leeds and the in-between of Earth-96283's Harry Osborn. He starts off as Peter Parker's best friend, but when Parker as Spider-Man refuses to give him his blood out of concern for his safety, he snaps and becomes the Green Goblin, leading him to kill Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, becoming his arch-enemy and shattering their friendship forever.
* Not His Sled: He becomes the Green Goblin before his dad, unlike the comics and other incarnations (such as Spider-Man 3 and unlike The Spectacular Spider-Mannote ).
* Painful Transformation: Turning into the Green Goblin hurts.
* Pet the Dog: In a deleted scene, he spares Felicia during his rampage at Oscorp.
* Post-Climax Confrontation: The climactic battle against Electro is over, the villain is gone, the city is saved and it seems everything is just fine — then suddenly Green Goblin appears, as one final challenge before the day is done.
* Power Armor: The Goblin suit is a battle armor which also heals the wearer. Harry puts it on as a last resort after his attempt at a cure makes his condition worse.
* Power Dyes Your Hair: After transforming into the Green Goblin, Harry's hair gets a green-ish hue.
* Remember the New Guy?: Wasn't mentioned in the first film, but established in the second as Peter's childhood friend before he was packed off to boarding school.
* Revenge: After Oscorp kicks him out, Harry breaks Electro out of custody in exchange for Electro breaking him into Oscorp so he can cure himself. He encourages Electro to fight Spider-Man because he didn't help him earlier (though Electro is already spoiling for a fight). More directly, after he turns into the Goblin, Harry confronts Spider-Man and blames him for his current state.
* Revenge by Proxy: Once Harry deduces that Spider-Man is Peter upon seeing him in the same place as Gwen, he decides to kill the latter in order to spite Peter for not giving him his blood, thus completing his descent into villainy.
* Sanity Slippage: While he loses it in extreme situations before, he still manages to stay composed and competent right up until he has the Spider-venom injected into him, which causes him to lose his grip on sanity.
* Secretly Dying:
** He discovers he's inherited the genetic disorder that killed his father and takes the Goblin formula in an attempt to cure it.
** It is in fact the same altered spider-venom that turned Peter into Spider-Man but due to it being coded to only Parker DNA it goes wrong. Horribly wrong.
* Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: After the first film focused on lesser-known Spider-Man villain The Lizard, Harry provided the sequel with this franchise's incarnation of the Green Goblin, and he would have formed the Sinister Six had the series not been Cut Short.
* Slasher Smile: Sports one of these as the Goblin.
* That Man Is Dead: Declares that "Harry is dead!" to Gwen after he takes her hostage and she tries to talk him down as Harry.
* Villainous Friendship: With Felicia and Electro.
* Vitriolic Best Buds: With Peter back when they were kids.
* "Well Done, Son" Guy: He grew to adulthood feeling his father never much cared about him. However, unlike his comic book counterpart and other versions, he never tries to gain his father's approval.
* Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Neglected by his father as a child, taken away from his friends, and dying from a genetic condition, he gets betrayed by his subordinates at Oscorp and denied a possible cure by Spider-Man, leading to his descent into villainy. Just how much of a Woobie he is after he causes Gwen's death is debatable.
* Young and in Charge: At 20, he's named by Norman Osborn to succeed him as head of Oscorp. The Board of Directors are not pleased.
* You See, I'm Dying: He had the bad luck to inherit his father's genetic disease.
* Actor Allusion: This isn't the first movie with Dane DeHaan featuring scenes of teeth being pulled out. However, he's on the receiving end of it here. Even in the other film, he made it quick.
* Ambition Is Evil: The patients are said to be ambitious men and women who have driven away everyone else in their quest for wealth and power. Lockhart is presented as being the same at the start of the movie. In contrast the chauffeur who has no such goals in life is the Token Good Teammate.
* Arc Words: "I am/you are not a well man."
* Aristocrats Are Evil: The baron who owned the lands the wellness center was built on performed horrifying experiments on his peasants to cure his sister-wife's infertility. Turns out the baron is still alive and still performing the experiments.
* Artistic License – Medicine: While dehydratation might contribute to gum disease which may degenerate into parodontitis, which may ultimately lead to loss of teeth, this last ailment is far from being the most prominent symptom of the condition.
* Anti-Hero: Lockhart starts off as a Nominal Hero, with his Jerkass demeanor and his selfish motivations to bring Pembroke back. However, once he starts becoming friends with Hannah and becomes a victim to the Spa's treatments, he undergoes some Character Development and becomes an Unscrupulous Hero by the end.
* Attempted Rape: Volmer tries to rape Hannah and nearly succeeds before Lockhart intervenes.
* Bathtub Scene: One is used for Fan Disservice. The protagonist has an Erotic Dream of Hanna naked in a standalone bathtub (not unusual in the spa where he's at; unfortunately the rest of the patients are elderly) but when he approaches he sees the tub is full of eels.
* Big Bad: Dr. Heinrich Volmer is the director of the sanitarium and uses his patients as unwilling test subjects in unethical experiments. He is also revealed to be the baron who raped his sister and terrorized the local peasants 200 years ago.
* Blood Is Squicker in Water: Hanna steps into a treatment pool against the instructions of Dr Volmer and starts to menstruate, which draws the eels to her. Just when it looks like she's going to be attacked in a feeding frenzy, we then see they're swimming around her in a circle, likely driven off by the toxin in her blood.
* Bloody Handprint: An innocuous version when the vet leaves one on the medical file that Lockhart gives him to read, tipping off Volmer that he's shown it to someone else.
* Body Horror: Such examples include Lockhart having his tooth drilled out, as well as Volmer/the baron's true face, which is more of a green, pulsating, disfigured mess.
* Brother–Sister Incest: Hannah, Volmer's daughter, is the product of his rape of his sister.
* Closest Thing We Got: Lockhart can't read Pembroke's medical file as it's in German, so he asks for a doctor in the village to translate. Unfortunately, the nearest doctors work at the spa, so he has to get the local vet instead.
* Creepy Uncle: Dr. Volmer acts this way to Hannah who is also his daughter.
* Crusty Caretaker: The caretaker at the spa usually speaks to Lockhart angrily in German. He also attempts to kill Lockhart when the latter witnesses him Disposing of a Body, but Lockhart bludgeons him to death.
* Deadly Nosebleed: When Pembroke declares his intention to leave only to be placed in a more advanced treatment program, Lockhart naturally assumes that Volmer is a fraud trying to spin as much money out of his wealthy patients as possible. When Volmer suggests that maybe he too could benefit from treatment, Lockhart scoffs at the idea...until he starts bleeding from the nose and collapses in a faint.
* Depraved Dentist: One of the doctors is identified by Volmer as an expert dentist and tortures Lockhart by drilling into one of his teeth.
* Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
** In an early scene where Lockhart visits his mother in her retirement home, the movie's theme is diegetically played by a music box owned by his mother.
** Hannah is heard huming the theme when she meets Lockhart.
* Dirty Cop: Lockhart escapes to the village and tries to convince the local police officer of what he's seen. Then he sees the blue bottle of 'vitamin' drops on the cop's shelf and realises he's with Volmer, who then turns up claiming that Lockhart is an escaped patient.
* Dissonant Serenity: The patients all dance as the asylum burns to the ground. They all seem to unaware of what’s happening due to them being brainwashed by the institution.
* Distracted by the Sexy: An orderly is supposed to be monitoring Lockhart while he's in a sensory deprivation tank. A female nurse enters and exposes herself to him, so he's too busy engaging in A Date with Rosie Palms to notice that Lockhart is on the point of drowning.
* Dramatic Necklace Removal: Volmer has the necklace belonging to the late Baroness (found while the spa was being built) mounted in his office. He presents it to Hanna for their 'wedding', and she later rips it off and throws it in the water as her father is devoured by eels.
* Driven to Suicide: During a financial crash, Lockhart's father jumped off a bridge in front of him when he was a child.
* Everyone Has Standards: Even though Lockhart was a self-righteous prick, he was shocked and horrified when he saw orderlies ruthlessly punch the old man when he woke up screaming, he saw the caretaker dumping the body to the eels where it can be eaten, and he even rescues Hannah from the clutches of the truly unthinkable evils he uncovers.
* Exploring the Evil Lair: A large part of the movie, and especially so when Lockhart explores the subterranean lake and Volmer's personal underground laboratory, which is replete in 19th century-style with beakers, dissected eels, and scientific notebooks. And a bed.
* Facial Horror: What Volmer really looks like. His face looks like a significantly fleshier version of what Skeletor's face looks like and keeps it hidden with mask-like duplicates he has preserved in his underground laboratory.
* Fan Disservice: Throughout the entire film, from fat old people wandering around the steam baths to nearly-dead people floating in the water tanks. Hannah, who has been established as Lockhart's crush, is only seen naked in a bath of eels and during the attempted rape by Volmer.
* Faux Affably Evil: Volmer is usually calm and proper, but he is really a vile psychopath, mad scientist, and incestuous rapist.
* Foreshadowing:
** During Hannah and Lockhart trip to a coffee house in the nearby town, Hannah is joined by a group of young women who ask her if she is carrying a tampon because one of the girls would need one urgently, right now; Hannah seems completing baffled by the conversation, which foreshadows she didn't have her first period until a later event in the film.
** Hannah has some kind of developmental disorder, probably from the fact she's a byproduct of incest.
** Volmer has a photograph of Hannah on her desk and tells Lockhart Hannah is like a daughter to him. Turns out he's her biological father.
* Gainax Ending: Volmer is defeated by Hannah and Lockhart and the center burns to the ground as patients continue doing their regular activities outside of the building/continue dancing oblivious to the doctors trying to put out the fire. Not long afterwards, The board of directors show up asking Lockhart what happened to Pembroke and why the facility is on fire. Instead of getting in the car with them, he rides away with Hannah while grinning insanely as the board tries to call him back.
* Ghibli Hills: Most of the film is set amidst a picturesque mountain range.
* Go Among Mad People: Lockhart starts to hallucinate as he undergoes the 'treatment'. He accuses Dr Volmer of gaslighting him, though it's not certain to what extent this is true.
* Gothic Horror: A modern take on the genre, particularly drawing influence on Dracula with a young urban professional traveling to an imposing, Germanic castle where he encounters a monstrous immortal aristocrat who engages in a form of vampirism.
* Handicapped Badass: Subverted. Lockhart confronts a troublemaker in the village bar, but after losing the element of surprise is swiftly knocked down. However,he apparently fairs better off-screen against a doctor and a couple of the male nurses, and is able to escape the dental torture he is being subjected to. His leg also turns out to be intact.
* Healing Factor: Volmer can regenerate facial wounds in about a minute. Too bad it doesn't work when he gets a shovel to the face.
* Healing Spring: The aquifer water underneath the sanitarium is said to have unique rejuvenating qualities. While this turns out to be true, it's also revealed to be highly toxic in its natural state and needs to be filtered through human bodies in order to be distilled into a life-prolonging elixir that is safe for consumption.
* Hereditary Suicide: Lockhart fears this trope. Lockhart's father jumped off a bridge to his death after being framed for financial irregularities within the company. When Lockhart starts having trouble at work that requires him to go to the remote Swiss spa, he becomes increasingly worried about the trope happening to him, too.
* Hey, Wait!: Lockhart steals Pembroke's medical file from Volmer's office, tucking it in the back of his shirt. When he turns to leave, Volmer suddenly calls him back...to give him a urine sample jar.
* Hope Spot: Lockhart goes through several cruel ones during his stay.
** The first happens when he goes to the police to tell them about the facility's experiments. At first, things seem like the cop believes him but then he sees a blue vial on a shelf, there by implying that the local police is fully consenting with Volmer and his schemes.
** The second happens not long afterwards when trying to convince his fellow patients that they're not being cured as they've been led to believe. Some of them begin to rise up, only to begin mindlessly chant "I'm not well" and attack Lockhart.
* Human Resources: A life extending elixir is derived from poisoning the patients with water containing the unrefined chemical and subjecting them to what is basically a cylindrical mini-oven, distilling their sweat into a refined liquid suitable for safe consumption. After the process has worn out and dehydrated the subjects, their corpses are dumped in the eels' breeding ground.
* Immortality Immorality: Volmer and his staff are absolutely ruthless in their pursuit of immortality, using their patients as filters for a life-extending elixir in a process that severely dehydrates and ultimately kills them.
* Insistent Terminology: Lockharts insists that he is not a patient whenever he is addressed as such by Volmer or other members of the sanitarium's staff.
* The Ingenue: Hannah looks like a young woman, but has the mind of a child due to her sheltered upbringing.
* Karma Houdini: Volmer dies but most of his equally-sadistic staff escape the fire unharmed.
* Karma Houdini Warranty: ...however, with the facility destroyed, they've likely lost all of the remaining blue vials and will eventually age and die.
* Karmic Death: Volmer is killed by Hannah, whom he'd tried to rape moments earlier, and then has his body eaten by the same eels he'd been using on his patients.
* Kindly Vet: Lockhart seeks out a helpful (if a bit gruff) local veterinarian in order to get more information out of Pembroke's medical records.
* Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A board member notes the Setting Update from the days of The Magic Mountain by sardonically asking who "takes the waters" in this day and age.
* Light Is Not Good: The interior of the facility has light colors, and all the staff wears white.
* Like a Daughter to Me: Volmer claims that Hannah is like a daughter to him and even has her photo on his desk. It eventually turns out that she actually is his daughter.
* Lovecraft Lite: There is a creepy sanitarium where the protagonist questions his sanity, and there is a recurring theme of water throughout the movie, but the antagonist turns out to be only slightly more durable than a normal human.
* Mad Scientist: The baron of the castle that once stood on the sanitarium's grounds performed experiments on the local peasants, and in the present day, Volmer does the same to his patients. It is eventually revealed that they are actually one and the same person.
* Mind Control: Volmer is shown to have the sanitarium's patients completely under his sway, possibly as a result of brain damage-induced suggestibility or a side effect of the unrefined chemical that Volmer is using the facility to process. Lockhart nearly suffers the same fate before the ballerina figure his mother gave him brings him back to his senses.
* Moody Trailer Cover Song: The trailer used an ironic cover of The Ramones' iconic "I Wanna Be Sedated" by Mirel Wagner. The use of drugs and sedatives figures heavily in the movie.
* Mountaintop Healthcare: Takes place at an isolated "wellness center" deep in the Swiss Alps. Incidentally, the film itself was actually filmed in a real sanatorium in Beelitz, itself notable for receiving Adolf Hitler as a patient during World War I!
* Mysterious Waif: Despite being something of a self-centered jerk, Lockhart finds himself drawn to the mysterious young girl he sees playing on the ramparts of the sanitarium.
* No Name Given: We only know Lockhart by his last name.
* The Ophelia: Hannah; beautiful, naive and childlike, complete with a flowing dress and bare feet. She's not mad however though she does turn out to be a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter.
* Punch-Clock Villain: Due to generations of animosity between the castle and the village, the local hooligans harass the chauffeur when he drives patients up the mountain. When he's off duty, they drink in the same bar together without incident.
* People Jars: The patients are subjected to regular immersion in tanks.
* Perverted Sniffing: Volmer does this before he attempts to rape Hannah.
* The Power of Love:
** A possible explanation for how Lockhart is pulled out of his treatment-induced complacency at the end of the film; he'd been holding the ballerina figurine from his mother which he had gifted to Hannah, and which Hannah had returned to him earlier.
** A more sinister variation appears when Volmer suggests that Hannah's first period was brought on by the arrival of Lockhart.
* Properly Paranoid: The residents of the nearby village are distrustful of the facility.
* Pure Is Not Good: Volmer/the Baron has an obsession with purity, to the point where he raped his own sister because he believed that no one else was pure enough to bear his child. Towards the end of the film, he tries to forcibly impregnate Hannah, his own daughter.
* Really 700 Years Old: Volmer looks around his mid-forties, but is actually north of 250 years old. The same goes for Hannah (~200 years) and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the facility's staff, most of whom are hinted to be in their 70s to 80s yet look around 30-40.
* Released to Elsewhere: The suggestion is made more than once that none of the patients ever leave the spa.
* The Reveal: Volmer is the baron that lived in the castle that is now the spa. He impregnated his sister, who is the mother of Hannah.
* The Scapegoat: It's implied this is the real reason the board want to bring Pembroke back, to take the fall for an SEC investigation. They threaten to throw Lockhart under the rails too if he doesn't cooperate, and Pembroke hints he may have done the same to Lockhart's father.
* Scenery Porn: And that's putting it lightly in terms of how pretty this movie looks. About a good chunk of it was near actual mountains, an abandoned castle and an actual sanitarium where Adolf Hitler was treated.
* Shout-Out: An orderly can be seen reading Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain, which, like the film, is also set in a remote sanitarium in the Swiss Alps.
* Slasher Smile: Lockhart gives a rather unsettling one in the film's final shot as he's seen bicycling away with Hannah while the institution burns to the ground and the board of directors try to call him back.
* Slippery as an Eel: A lot of the film's disturbing imagery involves eels, especially in places where they aren't supposed to be, such as water pipes, bathtubs, and swimming pools. They live in the aquifer under the sanitarium and are unusually long-lived due to the water's rejuvenating qualities. They also eat humans, providing Volmer with a reliable method of disposing of his patients' bodies.
* Strapped to an Operating Table: Used with hospital gurneys, iron lungs and dental chairs.
* Throwing Off the Disability: Lockhart cuts off his cast to find his leg isn't broken after all, or if it was the injury has long since healed.
* Token Good Teammate: The driver is the only person connected to the Volmer Institute who isn't evil. He just simply brings people there and gets paid.
* The Tooth Hurts:
** Throughout the movie, patients are shown to be missing teeth, brought on by severe dehydration. Eventually, this happens to Lockhart's right canine.
** Later on after Volmer catches Lockhart where he shouldn't be, he has his dentist drill through Lockhart's right front tooth without anesthetic. Even worse, it isn't a Gory Discretion Shot.
* True Blue Femininity: Hannah is consistently shown wearing blue clothing.
* Überwald: Despite being set in the modern day, the film's setting and atmosphere recall many stereotypes of Central and Eastern Europe in pre-WW1 literature such as Dracula and Frankenstein, including hostile and distrustful villagers, an omimously looming castle, a Mad Scientist performing experiments on humans, and even some kind of vampirism in form of the dehydration process involved in the creation of the life-prolonging elixir.
* Villainous Breakdown: Volmer goes on one once Hannah objects to his advances, Lockheart snaps out of his brainwashing and the two fight back against him. Right at the moment when Volmer rips his own face off, all bets are off.
* What Happened to the Mouse?: Following the wreck no one mentions the fate of the chauffeur and Lockhart doesn't ask. Averted: halfway through the movie it's revealed that he is fine. He got a new car, went right back to work, and lives through the film.
* White Shirt of Death: Lockhart bleeds on his white patient's shirt when he tooth comes out, and Hanna bleeds on her dress when she menstruates.
* Abhorrent Admirer: Laureline's is a trio of Doghan Daguis (short, long-snouted winged aliens that look like earless aardvarks) that seem to work as information brokers. She really doesn't like them.
* Action Girl: Laureline is no stranger to hand-to-hand combat during missions.
* Adaptational Attractiveness: Bubble's true form is an octopus-like Cute Monster Girl with large eyes and pouty lips. The aliens she's based on from the comics are featureless amoeboids in their true form.
* Adaptation Distillation: In the comics, Laureline and Valérian are Spatio-Temporal Agents, a large part of whose job are time travel missions. In fact, Laureline was originally a woman from Medieval France who met Valérian during one of those missions, and who came with him to the 28th century. However, nothing about time travel or Laureline's past is mentioned in the movie, probably because it would've made the (already fairly complex) plot too confusing. The only small nod to that is when the computer mentions that the psychic imagery Valerian receives, actually the Pearl princess's consciousness, could have come from any point in space and time.
**
* All Girls Want Bad Boys: Lampshaded by Valerian and promptly rejected by Laureline, who's apparently had too much experience with bad boys in college.
* Almost Kiss: Valerian leans forward to kiss Laureline; she stops him with a Finger Muzzle, then wordlessly points out the horde of angry aliens charging towards them with edged weaponry.
* Animesque: Though based on a French graphic novel it favors pretty much a vast array of classic scifi anime.
* Anywhere but Their Lips: Done for a Rule of Three — after rejecting his advances, Laureline gives Valerian a patronising kiss on the cheek. Valerian gets back at her by responding this way to her turning up to rescue him. At the end, she finally gives him The Big Damn Kiss he wants.
* Arcadia: Planet Mül, the paradisiacal ocean world in the prologue, is a scifi version inhabited by the ridiculously good and peaceful Pearls. Until it's blown up, that is.
* Artificial Intelligence: The Intruder, Valerian's and Laureline's spaceship, is equipped with one named Alex that serves as the protagonists' primary Mission Control.
* Artificial Outdoors Display: We first see Valerian sunbathing in a large room inside of a spaceship made to look like an isolated beach. The same technology is key to the new home the Pearls have been building; all they need is a power source.
* Ass Shove: At one point, Laureline has to place a psionic jellyfish on her head to obtain information on Valerian's whereabouts. The Doghan Daguis trio tells her that the opening she has to place her head through isn't its mouth.
* Asteroids Monster: Well, not a monster per se, but the Pearls' spaceship suddenly splits into two dozen smaller versions of itself on its own volition to avoid the missiles Valerian shoots at it.
* Bait-and-Switch:
** After their Walking Swimsuit Scene, our heroes are ordered to dress in something more appropriate for their mission. Instead of getting into Powered Armor, they exit their spaceship dressed as tourists.
** Just before he's glooped by the Pearls, Valerian sticks some kind of cylinder in his mouth; it looks like a small breathing device, but it actually releases a tiny spiderbot that cuts him free.
** Among a long line of food bearers, Laureline is made to carry some sliced lemons to the Boullan-Bathor emperor. Turns out it's garnish — she is the meal! She figures it out when the fat slob grabs a tool for slicing off the top of her head!
** Our heroes charge towards a Zerg Rush of Boullan-Bathor warriors, only to escape through a large grill set in the floor just before the two sides collide in battle.
* Bazaar of the Bizarre: The Big Market, a giant marketplace, unusual apart from its enormous size in that it's actually set in another dimension, and humans can only interact with it through Hard Light VR holograms, and any purchases have to be passed through a matter transporter. It sells anything from standard tourist kitsch to one-of-a-kind, priceless endangered animals.
* Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Unlike Valerian who gets quite a few scratches and bruises, Laureline always looks outrageously gorgeous. The worst she gets is some Messy Hair that does nothing to detract from her beauty.
* Belligerent Sexual Tension: Though the belligerence is mostly on Laureline's side. Laureline: We get on just great. You flirt, I smile.
* Big Bad: Commander Filitt, who is the one responsible for the events by destroying Planet Mül.
* Big Good: General Okto Bar who's involved with stopping the Big Bad as much as the main protagonists.
* Bioluminescence Is Cool: Luc Besson certainly seems to think so. At least half the alien species in the movie have bioluminescent body parts.
* Bling of War: Filitt adds several decorations to his already blinged-out uniform for a formal meeting. What stands out most is the highly ornate chest plate that seems to be one massive chunk of brass, gold or a combination thereof.
* Breast Plate: Part of Laureline's armor.
* Brick Joke:
** Early in the movie, Valerian promises Laureline to take her to the most beautiful beach in the universe. In the final act, when the Pearls recreate their dead homeworld aboard their escape craft, the two of them are suddenly standing in the surf of a painfully beautiful beach completely out of the blue. Laureline is quick to remind Valerian of his promise.
** When Valerian first asks Laureline to marry him, she points out that he still keeps photos of his past conquests in his "playlist". At the end of the movie, he assures her that she's the only one he wants in his playlist.
** In their first scene together, Laureline complains that Valerian forgot her birthday. In the final scene of the movie, he presents her with a Mül energy pearl set in an engagement ring as a birthday gift.
** When they first reach Alpha, Laureline and Valerian ask for a status update from their AI Alex, who ends by commenting that the station’s economy is in shambles. Towards the end of the movie, we see the Pearls have been stealing technology from the Omnilight species, who run Alpha’s banks.
* Captain Ersatz: The Arysum-Kormn, the fourth alien race to contact Alpha, are very obviously based on the Predators. The tie-in mobile game also reveals they even have a culture that puts great emphasis on hunting.
* The Cameo: French comedic actor Alain Chabat as Bob the Pirate.
* Canon Foreigner:
** Unlike most other aliens in the movie, the Pearls are not directly based on any of the alien species in the source material (although they are possibly influenced by Shadows). Their Converter pets, though, are a faithful adaptation of a beloved character from the comics.
** The Kortan Dahuk, the very first extraterrestrial race seen contacting mankind in the montage of how Alpha came to be, are a completely original creation for the movie. Same goes for the Yautja-like Arysum-Kormn.
* Centrifugal Gravity: One of the early human ships docking at the space station in the beginning has spinning rings that generate gravity.
* Covered in Gunge:
** In the First Contact montage, the Kortan Dahuk, the first alien race to meet humanity, look reluctant to shake hands. Presumably this is because they are unfamiliar with the gesture, because later aliens do it without hesitation, apparently having been briefed on human customs. The final group of aliens are eager to shake hands...and the human ambassador grimaces as he realizes his hand in covered in sticky fluid.
** Weaponised by the Pearls during their attack.
** After Translation by Volume doesn't work, Laureline loses her temper and tries roaring for intimidation instead. The female Boullan-Bathor responds with a longer and louder roar which leaves Laureline covered in spit.
* The Cameo:
** Rutger Hauer's screentime as the President of the World State Federation amounts to this.
** French actor Alain Chabat plays Bob the Pirate.
* Cloudcuckoolander: Quite a few supporting characters are pretty quirky, as seems to be the rule for every scifi setting courtesy of Luc Besson. The most outstanding example would probably be the very eccentric one-eyed Steampunk submarine captain whose help Laureline enlists to find a missing Valerian (they're still on a space station, mind). His name is Bob.
* Collapsible Helmet: Valerian's (and presumably Laureline's) Powered Armor comes with a spaceworthy helmet that builds up from the collar when needed.
* Costume Porn: Did anyone expect anything less from a scifi movie made by Luc Besson? Although unlike The Fifth Element, Jean-Paul Gaultier wasn't involved this time.
* Creator Thumbprint: Luc Besson's love of strange headwear, and another character commenting on it, returns in force. Invoked by Valerian during the infiltration scene at another member's large square plexiglass helmet-cover thing. The audience never gets to see what it does — he certainly doesn’t lower it when a landing spaceship is blowing waves of sand into his face. Another character uses a large clear bowl helmet that is about the size of a professional wok to act as a visual interface when controlling another creature.
* Da Chief: Two here: The aptly named Defense Minister and General Okto Bar, who takes a much more active role in the plot than the former does.
* Dark Is Evil: The K-Tron bots have a sleek black finish on them and even before they open fire on innocent soldiers and the Mül people, they do not look like the most friendly bots around.
* Damsel in Distress: Despite her Action Girl cred and wearing an identical suit of Powered Armor as Valerian, Laureline is captured and held hostage by the Boullan-Bathor tribe halfway into the movie, forcing Valerian to find and free her. It's balanced out by her having rescued him just a few minutes earlier.
* Damsel out of Distress: On the other hand, she's also perfectly capable of getting herself out of trouble on numerous other occasions.
* Decapitated Army: Inverted — the Boullan-Bathor fight even more ferociously once they notice that their emperor is dead. They even send a small army's worth of warriors after Valerian, Laureline and Bubble, who escape in time via a hole in the floor — but not without casualties.
* Defrosting Ice Queen: Laureline; it's not that she doesn't find Valerian attractive, she just doesn't want to be another file in his lengthy catalogue of conquests.
* Disposable Sex Worker: Poor Bubble...
* Does This Remind You of Anything?:
** The Pearls have clear parallels to both Jews and Native Americans. They are a peaceful, low-tech civilization living off the land who have 6 million of their members killed in a military genocide and now seek a new land to call their home.
** The situation of Bubble parallels the lives of actual illegal migrants. She is a sex worker. At some point, Valerian promises to sort out her case.
** The Boullan-Bathor evoke the many stereotypes of Darkest Africa, up to the servants who carry things on their heads.
* Dude Looks Like a Lady: The Emperor of the Pearls looks like a male but has a fairly feminine voice (he's voiced by a woman). All the male Pearls in fact are, and look effeminate by human measures.
* Dungeon Bypass: During Valerian's chase after the Pearls that abducted Commander Filitt through Alpha, he's eventually forced to take the most direct route, which involves charging straight through thick metal walls, boosting through aquatic biotopes and crossing at least one Bottomless Pit by creating Temporary Platforms. His Powered Armor makes it possible.
* Earn Your Happy Ending: By the journey's end, the Pearls succeed in restoring their way of life on board a ship that faithfully projects what their world was once like, Commander Filitt has been exposed for his crimes, Valerian and Laureline are proven not guilty for their alleged "treason" and they're very likely going to get married.
* Earth-Shattering Kaboom: By the time of the events aboard Alpha, Planet Mül, the Pearls' homeworld, doesn't exist anymore, courtesy of a probably unintentional Colony Drop caused by Commander Filitt.
* Everyone Has Standards: The owner of a brothel offering Shapeshifters Do It for a Change services is introduced throwing out an overly perverted client and yelling at him to stay out.
* Extremely Short Timespan: All the movie's present-day events happen within less than 24 hours.
* Face Hugger: Head Hugger even. Laureline reluctantly agrees to stick her head into a huge blue jellyfish in her effort to find Valerian after he's gone missing (It Makes Sense in Context). It's heavily implied that the orifice she needs to invade is not the jellyfish's mouth, but rather the opposite. The thing will also start devouring her memories if she keeps it on for too long.
* Fanservice:
** If you like thin, opalescent aliens, then you're in luck. The Pearls' outfits leave little to the imagination.
** Bubble's dance is basically a PG stripper routine performed in a sequence of fetish costumes.
** Cara Delevingne's Walking Swimsuit Scene right in her first appearance on screen certainly got a few hearts pumping as well. Her next outfit is only marginally less revealing. Even her actual military uniform is tightly fitted and features a miniskirt. It's not until after they receive their new mission on Alpha that she finally dons a set of full-body armor which mostly matches Valerian's.
* Fantastic Racism: Downplayed but still there, and pretty widespread at that. Even the protagonists indulge in it quite frequently.
* Fat Bastard:
** Igon Siruss, a heavy-set alien and one of the most notorious criminals in the galaxy.
** The Boullan-Bathor emperor as well.
* A Fate Worse Than Death: Commander Filitt's fate would appear to be this, from his point of view anyway. Before ordering the K-Trons to open fire, he declares that as a soldier he would rather die than be disgraced. At the end, Valerian and Laureline leave him trussed up and dangling like a pinata but very much alive. General Bar orders his men to arrest Filitt, thus guaranteeing that Filitt will live in disgrace.
* The Federation: The United Human Federation which runs Alpha, a.k.a. The City of a Thousand Planets.
* Finishing Each Other's Sentences: The three Doghan Daguis sometimes do this, much like Donald Duck's nephews. Actually they kinda look like ducks...
* Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: The Mül people will never forget what the humans (more specifically, Commander Flitt) did to their home planet and people. But, they're willing to look past seeking revenge in favor of finding a way to simply restore their peaceful way of life.
* Forgot About His Powers: During the sequence where he chases the ship through the space station, Valerian shows the power armor to have all kinds of cool functions — it's strong enough to bust through the station walls, it has jets on the boots, and it deploys forcefields for him to run across empty space on. Laureline has the exact same armor. She also has extreme martial arts skills, and broke out of a compound full of people who wanted to keep her there just a couple scenes ago. Yet when she's captured by the Boulan Bathor, she uses exactly none of these after talking her way out (which, to be fair, was a good place to start) doesn't work. Which is, ironically, not unlike her portrayal in the original comic where, in first issues, she'd mostly sit back while Valerian saves the day, after saving his life first.
* Gadgeteer Genius: The Pearls must be this to an absurd degree. When they're introduced in the prologue, their technology is more or less on the Stone Age level, with stone/bone-tipped spears being the only tools they openly wield. Thirty years later, they've developed non-lethal but very effective slime rifles, impenetrable Deflector Shields for both infantry and large vessels, spaceships that put every high-end gear at the protagonists' disposal to shame, and another spaceship that's essentially Bigger on the Inside to harbor an entire artificial biosphere including an ocean with beautiful beaches. They accomplished all this by studying a human spaceship wreck they were trapped in for several years, and with none of them ever having been in contact with anything from beyond their homeworld before.
* Gatling Good: The watchtowers around the Market on Kyrion mount compact minigun-style weapons. When Valerian and Laureline are forced into a hasty retreat from there, their escape vehicle also breaks one out on its roof. Both are epically ineffective against the beasty thing that Siruss sics on the heroes during the Action Prologue.
* General Ripper: Commander Filitt fits the bill. He's the one responsible for Planet Mül's destruction in the prologue, and thirty years later he serves as the movie's Big Bad. Even his own troops are openly wary of him.
* Godzilla Threshold: Commander Filitt apparently crossed a major one by deploying a special weapon type at the height of the space battle that would end up destroying the Pearls' homeworld. It's so bad that his shocked XO asks him to confirm the order a second time. When Filitt does so, the XO executes the attack while visibly uncomfortable and with a resigned prayer. The target — presumably the enemy command ship — is successfully crippled and goes on to perform the Colony Drop that's prominently featured in the trailers.
* Go-Go Enslavement: Subverted. When Laureline is captured by the Boullan-Bathor, a servant coerces her to try on different dresses. As it's revealed, however, she's not being forced to wear them to appear sexually appealing; she's wearing them to appear delicious for the species' emperor.
* Good is Not Nice: Valerian and Laureline may be the movie's heroes, but he's an arrogant, selfish, womanizing jerkass most of the time, and she's both equally cocky and racist, albeit still a lot more altruistic than her partner. Also, Laureline doesn't hesitate to shoot a civilian informant when she doesn't get what she wants.
* Great Offscreen War: Zigzagged. Although we see one battle, which is crucial to the plot, we never find out what the war was about, who the enemy was, or what went on prior to the final battle.
* Green-Skinned Space Babe: The female Pearls look a lot like beautiful women and they are in scanty clothing.
* Ham-to-Ham Combat: Laureline inadvertently starts one with an alien that's holding her hostage. She ends up Covered in Gunge for her troubles.
* Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: How Valerian dresses when trying to blend in on Kyrian.
* Honor Before Reason: Commander Filitt's motivation in a nutshell. He'd rather cover up, pin the blame on others and outright kill his fellow soldiers if it means being exposed for causing genocide against a perfectly innocent species just so he could win a war.
* Humans Are Bastards: Well, some of them at least. It was Commander Filitt who was responsible for the destruction of Planet Mül and almost all of the 6 million Pearls on it. The movie is set thirty years later and revolves around his ruthless attempts to tie up loose ends by exterminating the last survivors. The human protagonists aren't exempt either — Valerian in particular is a pretty inconsiderate jackass who seems to care little for the well-being of species other than his own.
* Humans Are Special: Alpha, the gigantic space station where most of the movie plays out, originated as an ever-growing, international agglomeration of primitive human space stations in Earth's orbit. Over the course of decades and perhaps centuries, aliens from all across the universe flocked to Alpha and settled there. The place is run by the United Human Federation, though it is apparently possible for humans to be kicked off the station and suffer economic sanctions if the other species wish.
* Informed Ability: Bubble is supposed to be a master thespian, but Rihanna's flat line delivery doesn't give any credence to those claims.
* In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: The helmet of Valerian's (and presumably Laureline's) space suit is transparent.
* Insult Backfire: Laureline calls the bird-like alien information brokers "stupid pigeons". None of them know what a pigeon is.
* Interdimensional Travel Device: The transmatter box that is used to bring objects bought in Big Market back to the main universe.
* It's All About Me: Commander Filitt couldn't care less that he caused the near-genocide of an entire race and is attempting to finish the job to ensure his crime is covered up.
* Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Laureline is quite aggressive with the avian information brokers while asking them for information, shooting one in his wing and even threatening to kill them for not proving immediately helpful.
* Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Valerian is an impulsive, cocky womanizer who tends to be condescending, even to people who outrank him. His conversation with Bubble reveals that he's compensating because he doesn't want to show any weakness to others, even if it is sabotaging his attempts to woo Laureline because that's exactly what she dislikes about him.
* Karmic Death: The Boulan-Bathor emperor, who was planning to slice off the top of Laureline's head, presumably to feast on her brain, is killed when Valerian comes to the rescue and slices off the top of his head in the process
* Killer Robot: Commander Filitt's K-Trons. Everything about these hulking, black-armored Cyber Cyclopses screams trouble.
* Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Averted.
** Valerian isn't amused when Bubble taps into his memories of Laureline; it's at that point he puts a gun to her head and starts Aggressive Negotiations.
** Likewise when Laureline realizes that it's not Valerian bending over her with a cheap pick-up line (because she can see Valerian fighting a few feet away from her), she punches Bubble in the face. Bubble: Okay, I deserved that.
* Ladykiller in Love: Valerian for Laureline, whom he tries to convince to marry him throughout the film to prove he's actually serious about her.
* Last of Their Kind: The small group of Pearls that hide in the depths of Alpha are all that's left of their people. An even more extreme example is the transmutator everyone's after — it's repeatedly stated to be the very last specimen of its species.
* MacGuffin: The transmutator and, to a lesser extent, a certain pearl.
* Magical Negro: Bubble is definitely a subversion. She appears, solves the white characters' problems, and then instantly dies with little to no reverence given to her sacrifice. Also note that her death is incredibly abrupt and out of nowhere, as if the narrative knew she didn't fit and was just there to be used and dropped.
* Mama Bear: Valerian accidentally upsets an alien kid when he's in the black market early on by smearing some green slime on his face after the kid did it to him. Then mom comes in and throws his ass to the curb.
* Mauve Shirt: The two Bridge Bunnies working for General Bar manage to handily survive the K-Trons opening fire on Alpha's command center and wiping out most of the staff. In particular, Sergeant Neza, when ordered to get across a room during a gunfight, uses the same type of platform gun used by Valerian earlier in the film, using it to make temporary cover while he moves, before hotwiring the control to disable the countdown while under fire.
* Maybe Ever After: At the end, Laureline literally answers with "maybe" to Valerian's marriage proposal. Although she's finally willing to give a relationship with him a chance.
* Mecha-Mooks: Again, the K-Tron robots that serve Commander Filitt.
* Mechanical Lifeforms: The Omnilights, a robotic race known for their banking skills.
* Mega City: Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprising thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe. It very much has a Fifth Element feeling to it, only with more aliens.
* Mexican Standoff: One that happens during the deal involving the Transmutator with Valerian, Igon, his personnel and Mül people all pointing all sorts of weaponry at each other.
* Mind Rape: The Doghan Daguis warn Laureline about the jellyfish's effects on those who wear it, that it "eats memories". She almost winds up being hit with this trope before she finally takes it off in the nick of time.
* Moment Killer: When Valerian is about to kiss Laureline, an army of raging Boullan-Bathor charges at them.
* More Dakka: Igon's gun has two barrels... that can be aimed at two individual targets in front of him simultaneously. Judging by the smug grin on his face when he pulls this trick during a Mexican Standoff, it's not a particularly common feature.
* Mythology Gag: Valerian getting chewed out for being late is a reference to a Running Gag in the comics, where Valerian is never on time for a meeting despite being in the Time Police.
* Never Trust a Trailer:
** The trailers show several glimpses of various cool-looking aliens in otherworldly environments, making it seem like the story is about Valérian and Laureline traveling through Alpha and meeting them. In the movie, it turns out those glimpses are the only thing we'll ever get to see of them, as the majority of those aliens are only shown in the short montages that introduce Alpha and the Big Market, and the actual plot mostly revolves around only two alien species.
** The publicity talks of a plot to destroy Alpha, whereas it's actually just the Big Bad destroying evidence of a past atrocity, and the aforementioned plot is an excuse for the Big Bad to do as already mentioned.
* Noble Savage: The Pearls are repeatedly considered this. Eventually subverted when we learn how they went from Stone Age tech levels to being able to construct a spaceship with an artificial recreation of their destroyed homeworld inside from scrap just by studying the tech of a human space derelict over the course of a few years.
* No Conservation of Energy: The transmutators can produce replicas of anything they eat. In fact, they excrete more of said substances than what they eat, and the extras have all the properties of the original — which in the case of the Mül pearls, means having enough energy stored in them to run a spaceship.
* Obviously Evil: It's pretty clear from the outset that Commander Filitt is the movie's Big Bad due to his behavior and the fact that he's introduced alongside his guard detail of huge, black, intimidating K-Trons. It's also painfully obvious that the latter will eventually turn on the good guys.
* Off with His Head!: The Boullan-Bathor emperor is about to crack Laureline's skull to eat her brain when Valerian intervenes and cuts off the top of his head instead with a Diagonal Cut.
* Over-the-Top Secret: Everything about Planet Mül is classified at an extreme level. Valerian tries to access the information to learn more about the planet, only to be told he needs a five-star General's clearance. When General Bar later tries to access the files, he can't either as he lacks one star for authorized clearance.
* Perpetually Protean: Bubble introduces herself in a memorable performance that features her shapeshifting into a wide variety of fetishistic styles. Justified, as she's an entertainer.
* People Puppets: Used by Laureline when breaking into the Market on Kyrion — in a memorable manner, too; she hits a guard with a dart that allows one of the soldiers with her to control his body through an Augmented Reality interface, thus leaving everyone unaware that a guard's been taken out. The puppeted guard even provides fire support for their escape.
* Planet Spaceship: What Alpha has become over time.
* Product Placement: Valerian's rocket pad has the Lexus "L" logo on it. It was subtle enough that many missed it, but those who did were a little startled.
* Progressive Era Montage: An opening montage shows the evolution of a human Space Station into the eponymous city in space, and its role as a diplomatic nexus first for human races, then alien ones.
* Projected Man: Tourists visiting Big Market are projected as holograms there.
* Put on a Prison Bus: At the end of the film, Filitt is last seen being arrested by General Bar's men once Valerian and Laureline foil the former's plans.
* Really Gets Around: Valerian's infamous "playlist" consists of every woman he's ever had a fling with. Judging by what's briefly shown on-screen, there are probably a hundred entries, if not more. Not bad for a guy who appears to be in his late twenties (his actor was 30 years old during filming) and has a dangerous full-time job. But, it serves as the reason why Laureline is reluctant to give a relationship with him a chance; he ends things with a woman just before it can actually become serious.
* Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of them, actually, with General Bar being the most outstanding example.
* Red Eyes, Take Warning: The K-Trons' single "eyes" turn red once they switch to combat mode. Also counts as an example of Color-Coded for Your Convenience as their eyes glow in different colors as well, depending on their status.
* Red Light District: Paradise Alley is an area of Alpha that's full of brothels.
* Red Shirt: The squad of soldiers who accompany Valerian and Laureline on their mission at the beginning of the movie. Not one of them survive it.
* Rescue Romance: Laureline loosens up a bit after Valerian saves her from being eaten by the Emperor. Of course she's saved his life earlier, and it's implied this is a regular occurrence.
* Ridiculously Cute Critter: The transmutators look like an adorable reptile/rat/armadillo hybrid the size of a small cat, are totally docile, and have some amazing abilities.
* Sea Monster: The gigantic Bromosaurs.
* Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: According to the update Valerian and Laureline get upon arriving at the station is that, since it left Earth's orbit 400 years ago, Alpha has traveled nearly 700 million miles... which equates to about 7.5 astronomical units. All this would put the station somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, not deep in interstellar space.
* Scenery Porn: Regardless of how you feel about the film's story, you can't deny that the visuals are absolutely stunning.
* Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Might as well be Laureline's Catchphrase. She openly says that she's not big on following orders as opposed to doing the right thing.
* Shapeshifter: Bubble can change her appearance (hair color, hairstyle and clothes) in an instant.
* Shapeshifter Showoff Session: Bubble introduces herself by showing off her shapeshifting powers in a burlesque show in which she warps into a wide variety of fetish costumes: beginning with a Sally Bowles-style Cabaret outfit, she then shifts into a sexy nurse costume, then a schoolgirl getup, then a tribal costume complete with headdress, then a 1970s roller-skating costume with a massive blue afro, then a fetish catwoman outfit — before finally reverting to the Cabaret ensemble.
* Shapeshifter Swan Song: Zigzagged for Bubble. She initially reverts to her true form, but then changes again to die as the form she first met Valerian in (albeit in a different costume) and then eventually turns into dust.
* Shapeshifting Seducer: Bubble is a sex worker who can turn into whatever her clients want.
* Shout-Out:
** One of the first of many aliens we see in the opening scene bears a resemblance to the Mondoshawans. The press conference scene has an alien-looking like one of Mangalores (from the same movie). Unsurprising, seeing how both films were by the same director.
** Laureline tells the commanding operative "nice hat" before the mission, recreating an exchange from The Fifth Element between Korben Dallas and a would-be mugger.
** Igon gives Valerian the "Wherever you are, I will find you and kill you" speech from Taken — which was written by Luc Besson —, complete with Valerian answering, "Good luck."
** The K-Trons bear a striking resemblance to armored Mandalorians as they're depicted in Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel.
** At the start and finish of Bubble's dance, she bears a striking resemblance to Sally Bowles.
** Among the many prostitutes than Valerian encounters in Paradise Alley, one of them just so happens to be Jessica Rabbit.
* Space Elves: The Pearls are a very straight example of the "close to the nature"-variant. They become the enlightened mystic race variant once they leave their home planet and learn languages, science, engineering and navigation.
* Space Jews: Laureline gets information from a trio of short, dark, long-snouted aliens called Doghan Daguis who are shady information peddlers always trying to make a deal for profit, echoing many Jewish stereotypes. Their mannerisms are also vaguely stereotypical for New York Jews.
* Spaceship Girl: Valerian's ship has a female A.I. called Alex.
* Spiritual Successor: To The Fifth Element. In fact, for the longest time, Besson felt that Element was the closest he'd come to making an adaptation of the comics but thanks to the advances in movie-making tech with Avatar, it was enough to convince him to fulfill his dreams.
* Starfish Aliens: Loads of them in all shapes and sizes. One species even seems to be actual starfishes wearing Powered Armor for operations on dry ground.
* Stealth Insult: When Alex tells Valerian that a scan shows his cerebral activity is a little more intense than usual, Laureline is shown giving an amused smirk.
* To Be Lawful or Good: Valerian finds himself faced with this dilemma when Laureline wants to return the transmutator to the Pearls. He insists that it's government property and that they don't have the right to give it up while Laureline insists that it's the right thing to do after everything the people have endured, regulations be damned. In the end, Valerian opts to support Laureline's decision to return the transmutator to the Pearls.
* To Serve Man: Laureline almost gets eaten at one point, and she's literally being served to the eater when it happens.
* Translation by Volume: After Laureline is kidnapped by the Boullan-Bathor, she tries this trope with the servant holding her, who's more interested in having her try out dresses. After failing to make the servant Take Me to Your Leader or at least fetch a translator, she loses her temper and tries to intimidate with a loud roar. The servant responds with a longer and louder roar which leaves Laureline covered in spit.
* Tsundere: Laureline's a Type A and with pretty good reason, mainly due to Valerian's womanizing ways. But she does show a sweet side whenever he's in danger, most noticeably when she finds him in the caves after his jet crashes and at the climax where the pair give each other an Anguished Declaration of Love.
* Umbrella Drink: Valerian is given one before watching Bubble's dance. Until she snatches the umbrella with a whip as part of the performance, making the drink splash all over and causing Valerian to put it down.
* Wacky Wayside Tribe: The entire middle portion of the movie between Laureline's kidnapping and subsequent rescue does not advance the plot in any meaningful way, but gives a lot of eye candy courtesy of bizarre alien creatures and a pole-dancing Rihanna.
* Whateversaurus: While not dinosaurs or prehistoric creatures, the aquatic monsters that live in the submerged area of Alpha are called "Bromosaurs".
* What Happened to the Mouse?:
** Igon Siruss completely disappears from the movie once the first act ended, though he does leave a threat to Valerian that he will find and kill him.
** It's never revealed who or what the human fleet under Commander Filitt's command is fighting against over Planet Mül. Whatever they are, they're apparently formidable enough that Filitt has to deploy a devastating weapon that results in the entire planet's destruction to take them down.
** So, what happened to the troops sent to investigate "the radiation"? Answer, since they were sent with K-trons, K-trons happened to them.
* You Can't Go Home Again: The Pearl's plan to restore their home? It's actually just to rebuild and power a spaceship that projects their planet's physical setting virtually, but they are content enough with it.
*
* Ambiguously Evil: As a child. Later, he becomes more heroic, then falls into darkness.
* Badass Cape: When Mordred became a knight.
* Because You Were Nice to Me: This is most likely the cause of Mordred's loyalty towards Morgana.
** He also wants to save Arthur 'cause Arthur saved him when he was a child.
* Beware the Quiet Ones: When Mordred was a child, he didn't talk much, if ever. But he smashed a mirror with his powers when he was angry and upset over one of his kind being executed. That was a clear sign to not mess with this kid.
* Big Bad: Eventually.
* Big Brother Worship: Towards Arthur. Ironic, considering Mordred is his son in the legends.
** Considering that Mordred was originally just another foe of Arthur's in the earliest tellings (who was upgraded to major villain and Arthur's incestuous spawn in later tellings - Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory can probably be credited for this), one can argue that this is Mordred's character being brother full-circle.
* Broken Pedestal: All the time. He idolized Merlin, who's like the magic world's greatest rockstar, but who keeps trying to kill him for no reason. He has a special bond with Morgana, who was sweet and caring, and she became a vengeful woman driven by hate. He worships Arthur, and he has his beloved hanged. He considers the knights friends, and they let him down when he needed them the most.
* The Bus Came Back: He's been recast for series five.
* Child Mage: He's about eight when he first turns up.
* Child Prodigy: He's a very powerful mage even as a child.
* Children Forced to Kill: In his second appearance - though he doesn't seem all that bothered by it.
* Creepy Blue Eyes: His unblinking gray-blue eyes when he is a child can be quite unsettling.
* Creepy Child: As a child, he kills with a disquieting smirk.
* Cute Bruiser: As a child, he was a Druid with great strength and power.
* Dark and Troubled Past: His father was killed; he was injured and sentenced to death; he saw his village destroyed; he was hunted down and forced to kill and after the Time Skip he said he learned to keep a low profile to not be burned to the stake or sold out. Also, considering how clueless he is about the Old Religion, he probably didn't meet other sorcerers after leaving Alvarr.
* Deliberately Cute Child: Cultivates this impression.
* Designated Villain: He is prophesied to be the one who will kill Arthur. When he was still a child and apparently did no harm, the Great Dragon bluntly told Merlin to leave him to his death. Later Merlin himself adopts the belief that Mordred will be up to no good, which ends up driving him to evil.
* The Dreaded: To Merlin, who believes that he'll one day kill Arthur. Which he does, but only because the entire situation was a twisted Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
* Evil Costume Switch: Like when Lancelot comes back as a shade and wears all black. When Mordred runs away from Camelot and join Morgana his costume changes to a darker colour scheme. At Wales Comic Con in 2017 Alexander Vlahos, Rupert Young, and Tom Hopper joked about Mordred going into the dark chain mail store on his way to Morgana.
* Evil Sorcerer: A very young one.
* Foil: To Merlin. They are both born having powerful magic with grand destinies. Both serve Arthur in hope to find acceptance. Their love interests die by Arthur's hand. Merlin forgives Arthur for failing to live up to expectation. Mordred does not.
* Foreshadowing: He will someday kill Arthur.
** Right now there is a proper vision of him killing/wounding Arthur.
* Freudian Excuse: Mordred's storyline starts with him seriously injured by Camelot's guards and his father executed by Uther; then he is imprisoned and sentenced to death. He returned to his people only to have his mentor killed, his village destroyed by Arthur and he's forced to leave Morgana to save himself. After that he's openly hostile to the Pendragons, plus his caretaker is Alvarr; then Merlin, someone he considers sort of an ally, sides with Camelot instead. Three episodes, and he already has a hell of a Freudian Excuse for the day he will be the Big Bad.
** And now the girl he loved gets killed on Arthur's orders.
* From Nobody to Nightmare: In his first appearance he was just a helpless kid. With each subsequent episode he displays considerably more power, until he returns as an adult, and is one of the few villains who not only unnerves Merlin, but genuinely terrifies him.
* Future Badass: Mordred goes from a small, unknown Druid boy from a small village, to a knight of Camelot under King Arthur's rule. Not only that, but in the future, he is the ultimate demise of King Arthur.
* Glass-Shattering Sound: Mordred's screaming is so powerful that it has literally broken and shattered a glass mirror.
* Heartwarming Orphan: Subverted. He did have traces of it at the start, but at the same time he was also a Creepy Child from Day One.
* Heel–Face Revolving Door: Though he's supposedly destined to kill Arthur, his loyalties are hard to determine, especially when he turns on Morgana and stabs her In the Back, saving Arthur's life in the process.
** He has a Face–Heel Turn in 5x11.
* Hidden Agenda Villain: No one is quite sure what he's up to (if anything), least of all Merlin.
* I Know Your True Name: He constantly (but telepathically) refers to Merlin as "Emrys"; in fact, he's the first person in the show to mention that name to Merlin.
* In the Hood: Often wore hoods both as a child and as an adult.
* Innocent Blue Eyes: When he first appears.
* Innocence Lost: Probably because destiny says so: he has to kill Arthur, so a lot happens to make him change from a scared little boy to a vindictive kid.
* Kick the Son of a Bitch: Whenever Mordred kills knights. It's sociopathic and Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour, especially for a kid that was raised by pacifists, but the people he was killing were intent on either killing a boy who was, from their perspective, a defenceless child, or dragging him off to Uther, who has had children drowned in the past.
* Killer Rabbit: As a child, he was cute, adorable but very creepy and dangerous.
* Little Mister Badass: As demonstrated when he kicked the asses of a bunch of Camelot's guards with his magic in 2x03 and 2x11.
* Mage Species: Mordred is a Druid with magical abilities.
* Magic Knight: In 5x01, we see a prophetic vision of Mordred on the battlefield, wearing chainmail and wielding a BFS.
* Make Me Wanna Shout: When his father in Series 1 and girlfriend in Series 5 are killed, his scream shatters a mirror in the former case and breaks the prison door in the latter.
* Mirror Character: To a lesser extent than Morgana, to Merlin himself. Both were born having powerful magic and have to hide their talents to non-magical people.
* Morality Pet: Serves as one to Morgana in season five, as the single character she hesitates before attacking and forgives for betraying her.
* My Significance Sense Is Tingling: He seems able to sense Merlin/Emrys' presence. He can also sense the deaths of his father and girlfriend.
* Mysterious Past: Particularly in the Time Skips. How'd he go from Iseldir's care to Aglaine's care to Alvarr's care to working with bandits?
* Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Mordred
* Now, Let Me Carry You: Mordred is glad to take care of an injured Morgana, in thanks for her previously caring for him.
* "Not So Different" Remark: To Merlin. Both were born having powerful magic and have to hide their talents to non-magical people. Lampshaded by Mordred himself. Mordred: We are not so different. You and I.
* Oracular Urchin: It would seem so, as Alvarr says Mordred is the only one powerful enough to use the Crystal of Neahtid. Considering even Merlin had trouble with it, this would suggest great power indeed.
* Parental Abandonment: His father died and his mother was never mentioned in the first place.
* Parental Substitute: Not very lucky with them: the first one was killed by Camelot's knights and the second was a Manipulative Bastard who wants to use him and Morgana to bring Uther down.
* Psychic Powers: As a child he communicates almost exclusively through his psychic abilities. It adds to his eerie nature.
* Puppy-Dog Eyes: Oddly, teen-Mordred seems a puppy who's trying to be loved much more than child-Mordred.
* Put on a Bus: Unfortunately, Asa Butterfield (Mordred) wasn't in Season 3 and 4 because of scheduled filming conflicts. He ran off into the forest at the end of season two and isn't seen until season 5.
* Reformed, but Rejected: Seems the case with Merlin: since his returning Mordred hasn't done anything evil or wrong, he actually saved Arthur life twice, once almost dying in the process, but Merlin doesn't trust him and basically wants him dead.
* Rule of Three: Has appeared three times in the first two seasons.
** With the recasting he is in three seasons.
* Scarf Of Ass Kicking: And it's bigger than Merlin's.
* Schiff One-Liner/Wham Line: 1x08 when he reveals his identity — the above quote.
* Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Suggested in Season 5; looking at how his storyline ended, it's not hard to argue that he only defected to Morgana in the end because Merlin's inability to trust him drove him to turn against Camelot as a whole.
* Sonic Scream: His most distinctive attack as a child, using it against the knights attacking him.
* Start of Darkness: In 2x03 Mordred is forced to kill some soldiers in self-defence, but shows absolutely no remorse.
* The Team Wannabe: Looks like Mordred really wants to be part of something, and he's trying really hard to gain Merlin's trust and friendship.
* Telepathy: Has contacted several characters — including Merlin and Morgana — with his thoughts.
* This Is Unforgivable!:
** When Merlin attempts to prevent Mordred from escaping the Camelot knights in 2x11, Mordred ends up killing the knights and warning Merlin telepathically that he will not forgive Merlin nor will he forget this betrayal. Averted when it looks like he did forgive him eventually though: some things he said seems to imply that Mordred considers his old attitude a result of being a child, not fully understanding what was going on and all the implications.
** Harming his beloved is an entirely different thing. To be more specific his lover is sentenced to death for (repeated) murder of Camelot's guards and attempted regicide.
* Time-Shifted Actor: Thanks to the Time Skips between seasons, it's been seven years since Mordred was last seen, thus allowing Alexander Vlahos to step in as an older version of the same character.
* Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Merlin is shocked when he witnesses Mordred killing several knights with a Sonic Scream - even worse is the kid's reaction - he looks around at the bodies with a small smile and casually runs away.
* The Voiceless: Played straight in 1x08, where Morgana start to wonder if he's too afraid to speak or he can't. In later episodes Mordred is more verbal, but still seems to prefer telepathy over voice.
* Villain Ball Magnet: Despite his attempts to do good as an adult, Merlin (and some of his allies) distrust him because of the prophesy, resulting in him being left for dead on several occasions. While this frustrates him, it doesn't break him to turn into a villain until...(see this is unforgivable).
* Wild Card: Season 5. Stabs Morgana in the back, joins the knights, shows kindness to the prisoners, doesn't use his magic, and doesn't reveal Merlin's identity to either Arthur or Morgana. The show's been doing a very good job not letting us know if he's heel or face until his Face–Heel Turn in 2x11.
* Wise Beyond Their Years: Or so it would seem.
* You Are Not Alone: He tries this on Merlin and Morgana in 5x02, only to be cold-shouldered by Merlin and on the receiving end of a crazy rant from Morgana. One gets the sense that he chose Arthur not just because I Owe Him My Life but because he doesn't fully trust the only other two magic users on the show.
* Angst Coma: After defeating the buggers and learning it wasn't a simulation, he sleeps for several days and has multiple nightmares, to the point that his supervisors need to put an IV in his arm to make sure he doesn't dehydrate.
* The Atoner: By the conclusion of the first novel. Ender hates that he's seen as a hero for committing xenocide and writes about the Bugger Queen to make sure that no one forgives him. Suffice to say, it works and Ender is known as a genocidal monster in later books, surprising people in the colonies when the soldier with a high body count is a mild-mannered teenager.
* Beware the Nice Ones: Deconstructed. Ender honestly is one of the nicest people there is, but when a bully pushes him too far he will beat down his attacker to a pulp and then some just to make sure the bully never comes back. It horrifies Ender himself just how brutal he'll become, when he doesn't want to hurt anybody.
* Blessed with Suck: Ender's ability to empathize with his enemy gives him what he needs to destroy them. Also, he's one of the few humans that has no compunctions about killing, which means he is able to understand what the Pequeninos want: to not murder but for Ender to complete a ritual that allows them to evolve. Ender: In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them-..... I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don’t exist.
* Cain and Abel: The Abel to Peter's Cain. Also Peter united the Earth and the Human Race while Ender obliterated a race of sentient beings. Well, most of the race.
* Child Prodigy: The prodigy in a school of child prodigies.
* Chosen One: Played With, as Graff acknowledges that he has no idea if Ender's actually the one that could lead their forces to victory, but considers Ender to be the best shot.
* Combat Pragmatist: In spite of being gentle and compassionate, Ender is absolutely merciless in combat and once he's staring down his opponent he throws any sense of honor or morality out the window until he's won.
* Death Seeker: At the end of Ender's Game, he has no reaction to learning the Russians broke the Warsaw Pact and want him dead. Ender just rolls over in bed, refusing to evacuate to safety.
* Heroic BSoD: This happens twice in book one.
** After he kills Bonzo, Ender doesn't know exactly what he did but can damn well guess. He goes back to Earth, spending days drifting on a raft that he built. He doesn't even seem to care about things. Graff calls in Valentine to give Ender her trademark pep to get him willing to fightoutright admits again.
** After he wins the bugger war, he spends several days in an Angst Coma, not caring when Graff has his only Pet the Dog moment by telling Ender he doesn't want the kid to be killed by Russian soldiers. Ender just doesn't care and explicitly says he was trying to waste away or wait for death to come. His friends manage to coax him to talk at least, but he's still depressed and traumatized, understandably. Valentine outright admits she's manipulating Ender to become governor of the Formics colony but points out this time it's their choice and she does care about him. Ender agrees while admitting he isn't one hundred percent fixed. He seems to be haunted for the rest of the books, even as he becomes The Atoner.
* It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Hoo boy. Not only is all the pressure to succeed terrible, but he quickly realizes the teachers are determined to strip him down as finely as possible to extract every bit of genius from him. This includes things like isolating him, making him a target of bullying, separating him from any good friends, stacking the battles against him, and doing nothing about jealous rivals who are after his blood. And he has to deal with this all when he's six. But surely the love and fame that will come from saving humanity will make his ordeal worth it, right? Well... it turns out Ender was being bred not merely to defend humanity, but to commit xenocide on its attackers. Ender was "the chosen one" solely to be a scapegoat so Graff and Rackham could keep their hands clean and because a child would have the stamina. On top of that, Earth wasn't even in danger because the Formics had decided they weren't going to attack again. So much for being "the chosen one". It gets to the point that Ender smears his own name to make sure that generations know he was a xenocidal commander and not a hero.
* Kick Them While They Are Down: Practically his trademark. It's not enough for Ender to beat the enemy once; he must beat him forever. Kicking them while they're down makes them too afraid to come back and fight him again.
* Kid Hero: Deconstructed, as in the process Ender witnesses and commits acts that no child should ever have to experience.
* Magnetic Hero: Ender is specifically trained to become a leader, and other kids start flocking to him as his training progresses. The fact that Ender embarrasses the jerkasses in his class and plays Loophole Abuse with the rules certainly helps.
* Out-Gambitted: Twice Ender is faced with impossible odds in a game and decides he's not to going to honor the game's rules anymore. Twice he learns afterward that that's exactly what Colonel Graff wanted.
* O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Twice, Graff knew that Valentine would give Ender the spirit he needed to complete his tasks at military school and as a commander. At the end of the book, Valentine comes of her own volition to revive Ender of his Heroic BSoD and convince him to become a governor on the Formics Colony and spend the remains of their childhood together. Ender considers it. Then he agrees. But then he says he's not doing it for her, but to atone to the buggers for his mistake.
* Tranquil Fury: His usual expression whenever things get serious but catch him in a physical fight this can change very quickly.
* Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: A lot of horror from the book comes from Ender casually committing horrific, disturbing acts that contrast his otherwise-gentle demeanor. Highlights include beating another boy to death with his bare hands (twice) and wiping out an entire species. Though the last one probably doesn't count as he thought he was running a simulation at the time and went catatonic when he learned what he had actually done.
* The Unfettered: Turns into this in combat. He exploits the moral guidelines or ethical hang-ups his opponents might have to make chumps out of them, and has no problem using dirty, disturbing tactics as long as it means victory.
* Took a Level in Kindness: He's a lot mellower in later books, and kinder to people he's just met. Justified since he's not being groomed for battle.
* Unstoppable Rage: Whenever he gets angry in a fight no one is safe from his ruthless brutality. This can contrast from his usual expression of his rage.
* We Are Not Going Through That Again: He absolutely refuses to be anyone's pawn after Ender's Game, because he knows what it's like to be manipulated and turned into a monster. Valentine is the person with the most influence on him and even she has her limits on his behavior.
* Youngest Child Wins: Deconstructed. Being the winning child means he's bullied endlessly by his older brother, and it turns out winning isn't all it's cracked up to be.