Lyra Black/Tropes

## Tropes

* Wounded Hero, Weaker Helper: Her and Elan
* Wake-Up Call: About the Dark Lord
* Too Much Alike: Her and Draco
* Animal Metaphor: Her and Ares, as well as her patronus and animagus.
* Elite School Means Elite Brain: She attended Durmstrang Institute and Mahoutokoro
* Negatives as Positive: Her Slytherin traits make her the anti-hero
* Like a Duck to Water: She adjusts quickly to life at Hogwarts
* Rounded Character
* Survival Mantra
* Work Hard, Play Hard
* Personality Powers
* Mischief Face
* Jack-of-all-Trades
* Functional Addict
* Character Development
* Clothing Reflects Personality
* Friend to Bugs: Fond of moths and spiders
* Experienced Protagonist: She is already well-educated and tutored by Snape when the story starts
* Elective Mute

* Evil is Petty: Whenever someone annoys her.
* Evil Counterpart:
* Morality Pet: What Elan is to her.
* Former Bigot: Her views on muggle-borns.
* Lonely Together: Her and Draco, as unwilling Death Eaters, and her and Harry, as famous people.
* The Mole: Her role among the Death Eaters.
* Official Couple: Her and Draco for a time.
* Save the Villain: with Draco and Severus.
* Ship Tease: Her and Harry, according to others. With Draco as well.
* Ship Sinking: Her and Draco.
* Arranged Marriage: with Draco Malfoy.
* Affectionate Nickname: Ly. Or less affectionately, Black.
* First Kiss: with Draco, much to her displeasure.
* Paradox Person:
* Parental Abandonment: Sirius Black and Linette Volant.
* Parental Substitute: Walburga Black and then Severus Snape.
* I Need a Freaking Drink:
* Trademark Favorite Food: Cinnamon Buns.
* Teleportation: Apparates.
* We Used to Be Friends: to Draco.
* What You Are in the Dark:
* You Wouldn't Shoot Me: to Alain, Draco, and Severus.
* Sibling Team: with Harry, later with Alain.
* Never Hurt An Innocent:
* Missing Mom: Did not know that Linette had died.
* Abusive Parents: Snape.
* Cat Smile: Described more as wolfish.
* Like Brother and Sister:
* Long-Lost Relative: Alain Volant, whom she was unaware of.
* Neat Freak: Drilled into her by Severus
* Secret Other Family: Her mother, Linette Volant.
* Shipper On Deck: Ships Harry and Hermione.
* Sibling Yin-Yang: with Alain.
* The Dandy: Always dressed to the nines.
* Tangled Family Tree: Due to being a Black, one of the Sacred-28, she is at least distantly related to most other pureblood families.
* Strong Family Resemblance: takes after her father, Sirius.
* Elegant Classical Musician: Plays the Piano
* Odd Friendship: with Elan.
* Platonic Life-Partners: with Elan
* Birds of a Feather:
* Family Theme Naming: Named after a constellation
* Badass Bookworm:
* Big Sister Instinct: to Alain, Harry, and Elan.
* Fatal Flaw: Pride
* Token Good Teammate: Among the Slytherins.
## Slytherin

* Alpha Bitch: Produces bitchy clique leaders like Gryffindor makes heroes.
* Always Chaotic Evil: Played dead straight for the first five books. *Every* Slytherin student we see is at least implied to be an elitist, bullying creep concerned with blood supremacy. The password into their common room in Book Two is even "Pureblood." We don't get an actual decent Slytherin until the sixth book, when J. K. Rowling introduced the character of Professor Slughorn — and even *he* shows some mildly anti-Muggleborn tendencies.
	+ The only other (comparatively) good Slytherins are bit characters that barely show up in-story. Regulus Black, Sirius's brother, was originally a Death Eater that got the heck out of Dodge once he realized just how evil Voldemort really was and subsequently stole and attempted to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, but he's long dead by the time the story begins. Andromeda Tonks is a genuinely good person who married a Muggle-born wizard despite being a member of the Noble House of Black, causing her to be disowned and burnt off the Black family tree — and she gets exactly one brief scene in the last book before being mostly forgotten about, her house being All There in the Manual.
	+ *The Cursed Child* *finally* subverts this by providing some unambiguous, purely good Slytherin students with sweet Scorpius Malfoy and heroic Albus Potter.
* Ambition Is Evil: The former Trope Namer. Ambition, as per the Sorting Hat, is the quality that Slytherin supposedly prized among his students alongside purity of blood and cunning. By the time of the series, Slytherin only contains a bunch of pureblood elite Rich Bitch who live on inherited wealth, with very few of them showing genuine ambition.
* Animal Motifs: Sneaky, sneaky Slytherin is associated with sneaky, sneaky snakes.
* Aristocrat Team: The Slytherin House of Hogwarts was founded to house magical students that held the characteristics that Salazar Slytherin valued: cunning, resourcefulness, and ambition. However, due to Salazar's belief that only those of the esteemed wizard families and those of pureblood should be allowed within the halls of Hogwarts, Slytherin House would soon garner a reputation of creating more dark wizards and witches than the other houses. Most of its student body would be from the families of corrupt politicians and aristocrats, harbouring a fanatical Anti-Muggle, Wizard Supremacist ideology that eventually led to the creation of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
* Barbaric Bully: Slytherin bullies tend to prefer beating the shit out of their victims, their Quidditch team is notoriously brutal, and many of past Slytherin, especially the worst generation from the 60s and 70s, go on to become Death Eaters.
* The Beautiful Elite: When they aren't described as pug-faced and inbred, the Slytherins (usually the leaders) are depicted as gorgeous aristocrats. Averted for the two most prominent Slytherins in the series, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, who come from poor upbringings which only spur them to be even more ambitious than the spoiled pureblood kids who don't have to study hard to get anywhere.
* Black Sheep: Salazar Slytherin was this to the other Hogwarts founders due to his pureblood supremacist views.
* Black Shirt: A lot of them ended up being Death Eaters.
* Les Collaborateurs: More Slytherins supported Umbridge than anyone else did — though, like Voldemort's case, Umbridge may simply have focused on recruiting followers from her own house. According to Voldemort, a sizable number of Slytherins joined his army in attacking Hogwarts. The rest left with Slughorn and Rowling says that gathered reinforcements from across Britain in support of Harry, though this was never mentioned in the books.
* Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Their heraldic colours are green and silver, meant to represent brackish waters.
* Combat Pragmatist: How they play Quidditch. Rowling also subsequently claimed that they left the school to gather reinforcements during the Battle of Hogwarts, although it was never mentioned in the actual book.
* Cynic–Idealist Duo: The Cynics to Gryffindors Idealist. Most if not all Slytherins, have shown to be untrusting and skeptical of the intentions of others. Snape was perhaps the best example, but largely to how tragic his past was. Narcissa Malfoy was never truly loyal to Voldemort either, because despite his overwhelming power, she cared more for family.
* Dark Is Not Evil: One of the most important things to remember about this house. Though the Death Eaters were mostly Slytherins, not all of them were. There's no doubt, that Slytherin members have done bad things in their histories, but some also did good/right in return. For Slytherin, the ends justify the means, even scum like Lucius Malfoy saw how being a pompous jackass can land you in hot water. Salazar Slytherin himself even warned the other founders, that teaching magic to Muggle-born can be dangerous and at times...he was right.
* Delinquents: Slytherins frequently rely on thuggery and violence to exert influence on other people in Hogwarts.
* Dirty Coward: Self-preservation is one of the traits of Slytherin; while this doesn't always translate into cowardice,note  it often does for Slytherins that aren't on the side of the bad guys.
* Dumb Muscle: Despite being described as cunning, witty, and ambitious, most Slytherins fit this trope, i.e. Crabbe, Goyle, and just about the entire Slytherin Quidditch team.
* Dysfunction Junction: Slytherins, especially during Harry's school time, are frequently the children of snooty high society types, Death Eaters, psychos, murderers, and/or all of the above and many of them seem to have inherited their parents' prejudices and then you get the occasional half-blood in the house like Millicent and Tom Riddle—it's like blood in the water.
* Elaborate Underground Base:
	+ The Slytherin Common Room is located in the dungeons. It adjoins the Great Lake, giving it a greenish tint.
	+ The Chamber of Secrets, accessible only by the Heir of Slytherin, is similarly located under Hogwarts.
* Enforced Cold War: With Gryffindor.
* Everyone Has Standards:
	+ Beyond Pansy Parkinson, none of the Slytherins seem to want to sell Harry to Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts.note
	+ In the film version of *Order of the Phoenix*, a few Slytherin students can be seen cheering the Weasley twins after they wreck Umbridge's classroom, implying that even they don't like her.
* Evil Reactionary: Pure-blood supremacist ideas are a core of Slytherin's history, and it has resulted in the decay of the house, in Harry's times, into a cesspool of elitism, bigotry, and general social regression.
* Fantastic Racism: Many Slytherin characters we are introduced to have serious Pureblood biases. Hell, their Common Room's *entry password* is "Pureblood", inviting questions whether the house even accepts Muggleborns at all. We know that it at least accepts Half-bloods like Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, though.
* Fatal Flaw: Slytherins often lack the scruples to counteract their ambition, leading to ruthlessness and prejudice. Elitism is also a common issue for them.
* Flanderization:
	+ It's likely that Slytherin suffered an internalized version of this as a result of Voldemort's rise to power. The only major Slytherin free of interest in the Dark Arts and Blood Purity is Horace Slughorn, who comes from an earlier generation than Voldemort. Basically, Voldemort's obsession with being the Heir of Slytherin and the fact that he recruited Death Eaters from his own house and then their children after them, essentially cast a large blot on their legacy, making people believe that their extreme aspects were their core ideas.
	+ As a Slytherin, Slughorn prizes reaching the maximum potential of your talent and the social impact and benefit it can have on the rest of the world, showing a commitment and interest in the bigger picture that other houses often lack and ironically doing more to encourage mixing of houses and building house unity than even a model of fair play like Professor McGonagall.
* For the Evulz: What the worst of them lapse into, even if it's technically not their credo.
* Four-Element Ensemble: Represents Water among the four Houses, reflected by their most prominent staff member, Severus Snape, who brews potions, and their common room, which is under the lake.
* Gondor Calls for Aid: While they were the only house that leave the castle en masse during the Battle of Hogwarts (see below), Slytherins did return to help Hogwartsnote  when everything started going to shit for Voldemort and the Death Eaters — although you'd never know that from reading the books, as Rowling only mentioned this later.
* Greater-Scope Villain: Salazar Slytherin, being the founder of pure-blood supremacist thought which drives most of the major villains.
* Green and Mean: Their house colours are green and silver. The Slytherin Common Room is also depicted as having a constant greenish tint, because it's located underground, adjoining the Great Lake.
* Hate Sink: In the first five books, all named Slytherin students that Harry meets are described as rude, racist, elitist bullies and cowards with no redeeming features or members whatsoever. To top it off, most are described as dumb and ugly, though this can be attributed to Harry being an Unreliable Narrator.
* Informed Attribute: The Hat of Slytherin house, we are told, is ambition, but with the exceptions of Snape and Tom Riddle (which are ironically half-bloods, far from the Slytherin paragon), no one we see in Slytherin displays any genuine ambition. Slytherins are likewise supposed to be cunning, witty, and defenders of "wizarding pride," but most of the canon Slytherins are bullies and Dumb Muscle who enjoy more physical presence than wizarding talent, and whose idea of "cunning" is openly attacking Gryffindor Quidditch players before a game and then banking on their Head of House to bail them out. Then again, with no ambition to put as a hat, they are left with racism or being deceptive, which aren't values for a school to have. Presumably, most of them are in there because that's the House they wanted to be put in.
* It's All About Me: A common trait and flaw of the Slytherin. They often do their deeds thinking of themselves and not others.
* Jerkass: Pretty much all named Slytherins in the main series are assholes, except Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, and possibly Regulus Black.
* Jerk Jock: Slytherin's Quidditch players are often shown to be one of these. Higgs and Pucey are notable exceptions.
* Motive Decay: It’s implied the whole house has undergone this over the centuries, having once produced great wizards such as Merlin that avert Ambition Is Evil by seeking to bring positive change to the wizarding world. Now, the house is almost all snobbish aristocrats pushing traditionist wizarding values of blood purity.
* My Species Doth Protest Too Much: What few Slytherins aren't complete jerks are this and can be quite amicable as Slughorn can attest.
* Neutral No Longer: It's implied that the majority of Slytherin simply didn't pick sides in the war, probably due to their house's enmity with the other three leaving them no safe haven if they sided against Voldemort and the children of his supporters decided to get revenge. But when push came to shove and it was clear that Voldemort was going to take or lose everything, the Slytherins spread out across Britain to gather up just *everyone* they could find to help fight, and then returned with an army that could win purely through virtue of numbers — or so Rowling claimed in a interview later, the actual book has Slytherian House evacuated *en masse* after one of their number tries to turn Harry in to Voldemort. They're never spoken of again afterwards.
* Never Be a Hero: Their trait of self-preservation manifests as this trope. While Slytherins are unlikely to perform the heroic feats of Gryffindor, they're also less likely to needlessly endanger themselves as a Gryffindor would.
* Noble Demon: Though the Slytherin house's reputation for cruelty and selfishness is well deserved (and well-earned), to the few people whom they deem worthy of their love (or at the very least, respect) Slytherin are capable of loyalty, bravery, honor, love, kindness, and heroism fierce enough to equal (and sometimes even rival) any Gryffindor. Of course, they are not the majority, most of them genuinely live up to the worst of their House reputation.
* Obviously Evil: Their emblem is a snake, they live in a dungeon, part of their folklore concerns their founder, who only wanted to teach pureblood, leaving a monster to "cleanse" Hogwarts of undesirables, and they are a group that extols underhandedness, self-centred behaviour, exclusivity, and at various points in history, outright bigotry. Oh, and it was the training ground for the vast majority of the 20th Century's dark wizards. Working around the house's unpleasant image was an uphill battle, both for the fandom and for Rowling.
* Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Neutral No Longer / Gondor Calls for Aid. It would be great if we actually got to *see* that happen; instead it's just a vague "Hey look! reinforcements!" moment. Then Rowling confirms in an interview that the Slytherins came through for the good guys, and probably because they realized that the situation was dire and some things were more important than their prejudices.
* Planet of Hats: Until the sixth book, all Slytherins seen in the series are depicted as unpleasant people. They are either bullies, blood supremacists, or both.
* The Spock: Slytherins are defined by their ruthless pragmatism and self-preservation. While this doesn't make the house inherently evil, in spite of its Motive Decay, it's hard-pressed to produce *heroes* as Gryffindor does.
* Token Good Teammate: A small example, but Harry notes that two Quidditch players, Adrian Pucey and Terence Higgs, are genuinely good opponents who don't have a long record of fouls and cheats behind their names. Higgs is replaced by Malfoy after the first book while Pucey keeps fulfilling this role in the Quidditch team up until the third book, where he's replaced with Warrington who is more aggressive and underhanded. However, he returned for the fifth book.
* The Unfettered: With ambition and pragmatism being two of their greatest traits, Slytherins will "use any means to achieve their ends".
* Upper-Class Twit: Mostly those from Draco's year or social circle. Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Flint, Bulstrode, and Pike are all shown to be not very bright or outright unfriendly to the others.
* The Usual Adversaries: Most Death Eaters were educated at Hogwarts, and with two known exceptions, every last one of those was a Slytherin.
* Villain with Good Publicity: Slytherins are stereotyped as "evil" wizards, yet the actually evil ones seem to have both an unusually high amount of followers and disproportionately large representation in the wizarding government.
* Wicked Cultured: An article on Pottermore has been written on the various treasures owned by Slytherins, stating that they had "displayed some exquisitely dark, yet beautiful designs over the years". This is most apparent in their common room, with its dim green lighting, skull decor, black leather furniture, and views of Hogwarts Lake from beneath the surface. "Say what you like about Slytherin house, they had great taste."
* Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's framed this way during the first season (especially the first half), but we learn soon enough that she's actually Not So Stoic.
* Animal Motifs: Scorpions. She's wearing them in her character poster, when she was training with the Cut-Wife the older woman referred to Vanessa as "little scorpion", and the magical wards she draws in blood are in the shape of a scorpion. It seems to be a case of Dark Is Not Evil here, as the scorpion seemingly reminds Vanessa of her earlier magical power rather than the more recent demonic influences in her life.
	+ Revisited in "The Day Tennyson Died," when her trip to the museum ends with her lingering at Dr. Sweet's scorpion display.
* Apocalypse Maiden: Multiple incidents and conversations — especially the Verbis Diablo passage — suggest that as the reincarnation of Amunet she's this trope in the making, as Lucifer and Dracula are fallen angels competing to make her their "Mother of Evil".
* Badass Pacifist: Until she drops the pacifist part in Season Two.
* Beneath the Mask: Underneath her confidence and seeming casualness, Vanessa is a very damaged woman, tormented by a life of toil and torture, and plagued by guilt and shame.
* Broken Bird: Although usually emotionally stoic, Vanessa's endless troubles, her battle with Lucifer, and Ethan's abandonment in season 2 all push her into this trope in season 3. She begins to get better with Lyle and Dr. Seward's help, only for Dracula to fully break her again.
* Byronic Hero: Troubled past? Check. High intelligence and skill? Check. Doesn't fit in with society? Check. Highly complicated, passionate, and strong-willed, while also remaining sympathetic? Check.
* Can't Have Sex, Ever: Not that she *can't,* exactly, but it's more like she's scared of doing so, since every time she has genuinely passionate sex, it makes her weak to the demon and allows him to possess her.
* Cool Big Sis: Even though they aren't blood related, she develops into this for Victor in Season 2, helping him shop for clothes for Lily and teasing him about being in love. He's also the only one she entrusts with her hiding place when she and Ethan leave London, and he trusts her with watching over him whilst he shoots up on morphine.
* Death Glare: She packs a nice arsenal of intimidating stares capable of stopping monsters in their tracks. However it's later revealed this last bit has more to do with her being possessed by a demon.
* Demonic Possession: She has suffered from this her whole life, and more or less accepted it when she seduced Mina's fiancé. The possession comes and goes, but is linked to sexual encounters. It was apparently exorcised by Ethan in "Possession", but it's not completely gone.
* Does Not Like Shoes: For being a lady in Victorian London, she's shown to be barefoot a lot.
* Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: And she gets even paler when she's going through trauma or a possession.
* Entertainingly Wrong: She invokes this trope when she shares her compiled research on Dracula with Catriona. Catriona points out that a lot of what is "known" of Dracula is little more than peasant superstition and myth.
* Evil Matriarch: Both Lucifer and Dracula seek to make Vanessa the Mother of Evil. Dracula succeeds.
* Expy: Interestingly enough, for both Mina Murray-Harker and Lucy Westenra. She replaces Lucy as Mina's best gal pal, but replaces Mina as the true object of Dracula's desire and his reincarnated lost-love. However, both Mina and Lucy actually do appear in show materials, Mina in the show itself and Lucy in the prequel comic.
* Fallen Hero: Tired of running and fighting, Vanessa submits to Dracula and becomes the Mother of Evil in "Ebb Tide."
* Fatal Attractor: Besides Lucifer wanting her as his bride, her love interests are Dorian Gray a depraved, ancient immortal, Ethan Chandler (a werewolf), and Dr. Sweet aka Dracula himself.
* The Hero: For all her doubt and darkness, Vanessa is undeniably the centre of the series.
* The Hero Dies: Ultimately, Ethan has to kill her in order to save the world in "The Blessed Dark," fulfilling his purpose as the Wolf of God.
* Heroic BSoD:
	+ She goes through one at the beginning of season two, due to her encounter with the witches. The experience brings to her mind her time with the Cut-Wife of Ballantree Moor, the evil of the Nightcomers, the Cut-Wife's execution, and Vanessa's own branding at the hands of the witches' minions.
	+ She undergoes another one at the beginning of season three, due to being abandoned by Victor, Malcolm, and Ethan. This one is significantly more serious of a depressive episode, to the point where Vanessa has neglected the house and her appearance, and is frightened of light itself.
* Mother of a Thousand Young: Metaphorically, as the Mother of Evil. Dracula calls his horde of familiars her children.
* Mysterious Woman: Even Dorian considers her "London's greatest mystery."
* Nice Girl: In spite of her traumatic past and stoic appearance, Vanessa is overall kind and compassionate.
* Not So Stoic: She does show a noticeably more cheerful mood when she's around Dorian Gray and when she re-encounters Mina. John Clare also finds a way into Vanessa's warmer moods, due to their shared history together at the asylum, although neither appear to remember it.
* Odd Friendship: Due to her unique nature and turbulent life story, really any friendship she has is like this. Standouts include her endearing closeness with the eccentric Ferdinand Lyle, her snarky relationship with Dr Seward, and her growing fascination with the mysteriously independent Catriona Hartdegen.
* Psychic Powers: She can repel lesser vampires, and can partially tell the future with and without tarot cards. She divines a dark secret from Dr. Seward's past by grasping the psychiatrist's wrist.
* Reincarnation: A great deal of Vanessa's problems in life stem from the fact that she is the modern-day incarnation of the Egyptian goddess Amunet; her divine potential to unleash the apocalypse makes her a target for both Lucifer and Dracula.
* Sexy Soaked Shirt: Subverted because it's an un-sexy version of this trope. She is chained to a wall in a Bedlam House in nothing but a white shift and sprayed down with a fire hose.
* Sherlock Scan: She pulls one on Ethan when she first meets him, and is the subject of one from Dorian and Dr. Seward.
* Shipper on Deck: In season 2, she encourages Victor's relationship with Lily — who, as far as she knows, is his cousin.
* Smoking Is Glamorous: It certainly is when it's Vanessa Ives doing it. Due to the nature of the show, though, this trope frequently turns into something else.
* The Stoic: Vanessa frequently stays composed and calm, keeping the same mildly cold expression regardless of the circumstances. Her facade begins to break as the battle with the Nightcomers moves into increasingly personal and private areas of her life, and by season 3, she is completely beaten down and depressed.
* Sweet Tooth: According to Sembene, Vanessa commonly eats dessert foods for breakfast.
* Then Let Me Be Evil: After years of being coveted and tormented by Lucifer and Dracula, Vanessa succumbs to Dracula and becomes the Mother of Evil. Vanessa: This is what I am.
* Token Wizard: Vanessa is not the only supernatural member of the main cast (Dorian is immortal, while Ethan is a werewolf), but she is the only one to purposefully make use of her magical abilities and knowledge.
* Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between her and Ethan, Dorian, Lucifer, Dracula, and maybe even Sir Malcolm... It's probably easier to list the male characters she doesn't have it with.
* When She Smiles: She's normally straight-faced and stoic, and often sombre. However, on the rare occasions Vanessa gets to smile, it's really very heartwarming.
* Willing Channeler: She could have rid herself of the demonic force that possesses her if she wanted to, but the allure of power proved too strong, and she allowed it to take hold of her.