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Castle Perilous

1871 statements
370 feature instances
12 referencing feature instances

Castle Perilous	type	TVTItem
Castle Perilous	label	Castle Perilous
Castle Perilous	page	CastlePerilous
Castle Perilous	comment	Take the High Concept of a gigantic castle at the center of The Multiverse, where every door or window can lead to another world; add in numerous characters from those worlds, each with his own special talent he develops just by being there; and then throw them into various wacky hijinks and screwball comedy, and you get John DeChancie's Castle Perilous series.Novels in the series are: Castle Perilous Castle for Rent Castle Kidnapped Castle War! Castle Murders Castle Dreams Castle Spellbound Bride of the Castle The Pirates of PerilousJoin Gene, Linda, Snowclaw, Sheila, Thaxton and Dalton, Kwip, Jeremy, and many, many more as they search for a way home, learn to adapt, and have incredible adventures both ridiculous and frightening, all while Lord Incarnadine ("Inky" to his friends) and his family work to keep the castle and its 144,000 worlds stable and safe (though not always sane). It's thought-provoking, it's crazy, it's weird, and it's unexpected, but it's almost always hilarious. Sadly, the author seems to have abandoned the series, leaving it on quite the Cliffhanger, but it is still worth a read for its entertainment value alone.
Castle Perilous	fetched	2023-08-20T10:58:04Z
Castle Perilous	parsed	2023-08-20T10:58:04Z
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to CthulhuMythos: Not a Feature - ITEM
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Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to JackOfAllTrades: Not a Feature - ITEM
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to LoveableRogue: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to ShaggyDogStory: Not a Feature - ITEM
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to TheIliad: Not a Feature - ITEM
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to TheMysteriesOfUdolpho: Not a Feature - ITEM
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to TheWizardOfOz: Not a Feature - ITEM
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to ThreeLinesSomeWaiting: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
Castle Perilous	processingComment	Dropped link to TwoFistedTales: Not a Feature - ITEM
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Castle Perilous	processingUnknown	ThreeLinesSomeWaiting
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Castle Perilous / int_10a9cdee	type	Once Upon a Time
Castle Perilous / int_10a9cdee	comment	Once Upon a Time / Happy Ever After: Castle Spellbound actually starts and ends this way.
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Castle Perilous / int_1206dd74	type	Victory Is Boring
Castle Perilous / int_1206dd74	comment	And Trent encounters this when made regent, to the point he realizes he can't handle the quotidian aspects of ruling and that being king isn't really worth it in the end, so he drops his ambitions.
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Castle Perilous / int_144d31b1	type	Most Writers Are Human
Castle Perilous / int_144d31b1	comment	Most Writers Are Human: Despite the fact there are 144,000 worlds, many of them alien and nonhuman, and that nonhuman Guests are mentioned in the background, all the main characters are from Earth or a similar world, and are human. Except Snowclaw.
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Castle Perilous / int_149ff4b0	type	HilarityEnsues
Castle Perilous / int_149ff4b0	comment	Hilarity Ensues: Both the original intention of this phrase, and what this trope has actually become, show up. Genuine humor and silliness during Castle Spellbound, but genuine danger, fear, and dire straits during any of the various invasions, attacks, and magical mishaps. (The Mirror Universe's Evil Twins of Castle War! come to mind.)
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Castle Perilous / int_15385326	type	You Can't Thwart Stage One
Castle Perilous / int_15385326	comment	You Can't Thwart Stage One: While this is generally true for all the villainous schemes in the series, it is especially notable in Castle Perilous and Castle for Rent: Despite all of his magical (and mundane) defenses, Incarnadine can't stop Vorn's armies from winning their siege, despite all of his research and study (and Osmirik's) they can't find any way to stop Melydia's spellwork, and despite the Big Damn Heroes moment wherein the main characters take out all of her guards (zombies and duplicates included) and Linda almost gets her hands on Melydia, the castle still gets changed back into Ramthonodox. Partly this is due to the fact prophecy said it would happen, but it's also because Incarnadine ends up letting it happen as part of a Batman Gambit—on the one hand, Ramthonodox's release eliminated the besieging armies, drained Melydia of her powers, and made her sane again so she could help him re-cast the Forced Transformation; on the other hand, he allowed it to come to pass because he knew of the broken shard of the Brain and how this loss would weaken the demon and allow him to regain control of it again. As for Ferne's scheme, she succeeds in trapping Incarnadine on Earth, releasing the Blue Meanies so as to take over the castle and drive all the Guests and soldiers into the countless Aspects, and using the power of the Hosts of Hell to keep the Blue Meanies and Incarnadine in check. Her scheme only falls apart because she trusted the Hosts, Deems turned on her, the Guests succeed in wrenching away the Earth portal and attacking the demons on her estate (and bring a banishment spell for the Hosts with them), and Trent and Incarnadine also arrive to take the demons out.
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Castle Perilous / int_154aa477	type	Big, Screwed-Up Family
Castle Perilous / int_154aa477	comment	Big, Screwed-Up Family: While not all the suspects are related, in every other respect the tangled web of relationships, backstabbing, cutthroat dealings, adultery, and other criminal acts amongst those gathered at Hawkingsmere in Bride of the Castle is otherwise this trope taken up to eleven.
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Castle Perilous / int_15adb9a8	type	Never Split the Party
Castle Perilous / int_15adb9a8	comment	Never Split the Party: A constant danger when wandering through a Mobile Maze, and always leading to trouble throughout the series. Osmirik learns it in the very first book.
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Castle Perilous / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
Castle Perilous / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate: Gene really shouldn’t have talked about Aspects closing on them in Castle for Rent...
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Castle Perilous / int_161fa3b8	type	Hidden Agenda Villain
Castle Perilous / int_161fa3b8	comment	Hidden Agenda Villain: Ruthven. Unbeknownst to his cat's-paw Tragg, the Con Man mage only used him to get Incarnadine out of the way, and once it was revealed he'd be lying in state for ten days (and could possibly wake up from the spell during that time), he deliberately went behind Tragg's back by bribing his undertaker friend into claiming the preservation spell wouldn't work, thus shortening the time lying in state and getting Trent's attention...all so he could make Trent his offer to rule together.
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Castle Perilous / int_1777688d	type	Genre Savvy
Castle Perilous / int_1777688d	comment	This is also the reason several characters (most notably Gene) can be Genre Savvy, because by coming from Earth they can be aware of the conventions of the fantasy or sci fi genres, if not that they are actually in a book (except in Castle Spellbound, which can be said to be the moment reality gets so out of whack it breaks the rules of narrative cohesion).
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Castle Perilous / int_1779f10e	type	"Well Done, Son" Guy
Castle Perilous / int_1779f10e	comment	"Well Done, Son" Guy: Trent, so much Trent. He even lampshades it as his Freudian Excuse when rejecting the kingship and Ruthven.
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Castle Perilous / int_177a6464	type	Genre Shift
Castle Perilous / int_177a6464	comment	Genre Shift: Although there are 144,000 Aspects which can have any sort of setting and therefore any manner of plot, the vast majority seem to focus only on a Western medieval fantasy milieu, a parallel to Real Life Earth history, or a science-fiction setting. However, every once in a while a different plot than usual takes place, whether in a particular Aspect or the castle itself. Castle Murders manages to have two examples at once, the Mystery Arc and Incarnadine's Noir Episode which has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot and only exists to keep him from being there to solve the crime. Incarnadine's eschatological experiences in Castle Dreams are extremely different from the usual fare. The entirety of Castle Spellbound, as the Literal Genie spell not only mixes and matches all manner of characters and creatures and sends reality out to lunch, thus turning things into both farce and absurdism, but there's also the historical subplot regarding the Iliad Expy. And within the disconnected plot of Bride of the Castle, the reader is presented with Rance's adventures, which come across as a mix of horror and Adventurer Archaeologist; Thaxton and Dalton have an insane Lower-Deck Episode which is a parody of yet another Mystery Arc; and what happens to poor Max introduces a Sliders-esque series of Alternate Universes that starts out as a sort of Kafka Komedy before going off the rails.
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Castle Perilous / int_17fe1048	type	Naked on Arrival
Castle Perilous / int_17fe1048	comment	Naked on Arrival: Sheila, thanks to the Aspect opening in her shower.
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Castle Perilous / int_1892d512	type	Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Castle Perilous / int_1892d512	comment	Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Incarnadine. And Gene, according to Linda. Which would explain why she fell for both of them.
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Castle Perilous / int_18e33968	type	Earth Is the Center of the Universe
Castle Perilous / int_18e33968	comment	Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Subverted in Castle Murders—not because it isn't the center (the castle is) but because Thaxton discovers to his chagrin that the castle doctor's nanotechnology and DNA identification do not, in fact, come from being in close contact with Earth developments in modern police methods.
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Castle Perilous / int_1a237409	type	Order Versus Chaos
Castle Perilous / int_1a237409	comment	Order Versus Chaos: The Hosts of Hell state that they are greatly disturbed by chaos and wish to "establish a semblance of rationality" through "a benevolent order".
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Castle Perilous / int_1aa30797	type	Single Woman Seeks Good Man
Castle Perilous / int_1aa30797	comment	Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Why Linda has been without a man since before she came to Castle Perilous.
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Castle Perilous / int_1b89151e	type	Forgotten Phlebotinum
Castle Perilous / int_1b89151e	comment	Forgotten Phlebotinum: Dalton's ability to levitate is demonstrated once in the first book, mentioned once in Castle Murders, but otherwise never brought up again. The same is true for Osmirik's scent ability. Snowclaw can teleport (which is discovered right when they need it), but his power doesn't appear again either. The latter might seem justified in that Snowclaw is hardly the magical sort, more prone to thinking with his axe and wading in to attack, plus his usage of it in the first book is described as rather taxing and difficult for him and he later finds himself unable to perform it without running into a wall. But then in Bride of the Castle Gene speaks of Snowy "never having had magic" and theorizes about his talent relating to disguising himself instead; apparently DeChancie did forget.
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Castle Perilous / int_1b8c7503	type	The Exile
Castle Perilous / int_1b8c7503	comment	The Exile: Trent, courtesy of a Curse cast by his father.
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Castle Perilous / int_1bbe87f7	type	Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome
Castle Perilous / int_1bbe87f7	comment	Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome: Played with in Castle Murders: Lord Arl doesn't hold onto the murder weapon himself, but he isn't able to find and remove it as evidence against him either because it's invisible even to him. Thus, Thaxton is able to find it first.
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Castle Perilous / int_1c08ee8f	type	Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum
Castle Perilous / int_1c08ee8f	comment	Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: The Hosts of Hell's true final goal.
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Castle Perilous / int_1c6ded94	type	Wicked Cultured
Castle Perilous / int_1c6ded94	comment	Wicked Cultured: Jacoby. The Hosts of Hell alternate between this and Cluster F Bombs when their plans go awry or Incarnadine blasts them with a banishment spell.
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Castle Perilous / int_1c79ae8c	type	Those Two Guys
Castle Perilous / int_1c79ae8c	comment	Those Two Guys: Thaxton and Dalton; Thorsby and Fetchen; Luster and Dolbert.
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Castle Perilous / int_1c9537cd	type	The Main Characters Do Everything
Castle Perilous / int_1c9537cd	comment	The Main Characters Do Everything: Thaxton and Dalton are not only the ones to find the body in Castle Murders, but Thaxton finds the murder weapon and later the book of magic that helps him figure out the solution. Particularly noteworthy since before this they were usually only the Butt-Monkey or The Load, but once they got A Day in the Limelight...
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Castle Perilous / int_1da3a484	type	Alice Allusion
Castle Perilous / int_1da3a484	comment	Alice Allusion: More subtle than most examples, but the woman Alice whom Gene meets in the Big Brother Is Watching world of Castle War! is one of the rare few for whom InnerVoice does not work due to some natural immunity to the nanotech—i.e., she is one of the few who has not bought into (or been forced to accept) the status quo, retaining sanity among a form of madness.
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Castle Perilous / int_1e39757d	type	Servant Race
Castle Perilous / int_1e39757d	comment	Servant Race: The Umoi created the yalim to be this through the use of genetic manipulation of "the more highly developed fauna". They also created the hrunt as Half-Human Hybrids through LEGO Genetics to be actual slave laborers, as opposed to domestic servants. Thanks to What Measure Is a Non-Human? and racism, the yalim hunt the hrunt; Gene wishes to modify them to be more human again, but finds it rather hard to go against centuries of In-Universe Values Dissonance.
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Castle Perilous / int_1e7c47ab	type	Stealth Pun
Castle Perilous / int_1e7c47ab	comment	Stealth Pun: When dining in Golfhell, Dalton drolly makes note of the cockatrice au vin on the menu—"breast of cockatrice sautéed with wild mushrooms and fresh tender roots in a light wine sauce". Between the other elements of the dish and the fact a cockatrice (another name for/variation of basilisk) is often depicted as part-bird due to its unusual origin, this would seem to be a reference to the joke that "everything Tastes Like Chicken".
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Castle Perilous / int_1ec3eb0a	type	Take Our Word for It
Castle Perilous / int_1ec3eb0a	comment	Take Our Word for It: The Hosts of Hell's true form, since it could never be truly seen or comprehended.
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Castle Perilous / int_1f799027	type	Obstructive Bureaucrat
Castle Perilous / int_1f799027	comment	Obstructive Bureaucrat: The armorer, who seems to take great pleasure in taking as long as possible to describe every type of weapon he possesses, at least until Snowclaw simplifies things—although in his defense Gene's newbie status did make his requests quite vague. Incarnadine also runs into a demonic form of this when going to rescue Ferne from the Hosts of Hell. Like Snowclaw, he gets his way through threat of violence; unlike Snowclaw, he actually carries it out. And Trent encounters this when made regent, to the point he realizes he can't handle the quotidian aspects of ruling and that being king isn't really worth it in the end, so he drops his ambitions.
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Castle Perilous / int_1f88a426	type	Psycho Ex-Girlfriend
Castle Perilous / int_1f88a426	comment	Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Melydia to Incarnadine. Played with, however, in that even before their break-up she was mad, or had the potential for it, and that the break-up acts as merely a Freudian Excuse which doesn't in fact excuse her villainy at all.
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Castle Perilous / int_1fc8335e	type	Deal with the Devil
Castle Perilous / int_1fc8335e	comment	Deal with the Devil: In the case of any dealings with the Hosts of Hell. As Ferne learns to her sorrow. Also Clare Tweel's deal with the dengs of Necropolis.
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Castle Perilous / int_208c4494	type	With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
Castle Perilous / int_208c4494	comment	With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Ferne, apparently, and certainly Melydia. Lampshaded in the latter's case when, having used up all her power to release Ramthonodox, she is suddenly sane again.
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Castle Perilous / int_21fd09a7	type	How Do I Shot Web?
Castle Perilous / int_21fd09a7	comment	Sheila. She can conjure portals. Granted, there is a great deal of How Do I Shot Web? at first, but once she figures it out, there is no more danger of characters being trapped anywhere, the wandering portal to Earth can be easily located and tied down, and characters can travel wherever and whenever they want. Luckily the author manages to consistently have her cut off from the others, her magic is blocked, or she's simply not available.
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Castle Perilous / int_23698fa8	type	Aborted Arc
Castle Perilous / int_23698fa8	comment	Aborted Arc: Upon arriving in Castle Perilous, the rakish barbarian lord Rance of Corcindor shows an inordinate amount of interest in Linda; at the same time, Melanie seemed rather interested in him, suggesting the beginnings of a Love Dodecahedron. Luckily, thanks to No Ending for the series, this never gets pursued, though even if the series had been continued this arc might not have been, since at the end of Bride of the Castle Gene was well on his way to convincing Rance to take over as Emperor of Orem for him.
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Castle Perilous / int_243eeb00	type	Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do
Castle Perilous / int_243eeb00	comment	Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do: A rare example where the Stock Phrase is both justified and completely accurate—Incarnadine instructs Jeremy to tell this to his doppelganger because, as a Mirror Universe Evil Twin, what the real Incarnadine "wouldn’t do" is, well, evil.
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Castle Perilous / int_246330ec	type	Noir Episode
Castle Perilous / int_246330ec	comment	Castle Murders manages to have two examples at once, the Mystery Arc and Incarnadine's Noir Episode which has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot and only exists to keep him from being there to solve the crime.
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Castle Perilous / int_259d5879	type	Anachronism Stew
Castle Perilous / int_259d5879	comment	Anachronism Stew: By its very nature the castle and all its worlds are this, particularly when residents of different aspects mingle and interact, but Gene is fond of making Earth references Snowclaw and others don't get while Trent and Incarnadine do the same thanks to their long years spent there. The "Afterlife" Incarnadine goes to in Castle Dreams is also this, since it crosses and alters several eschatologies, and the very nature of the spell in Castle Spellbound (wishing for anything and everything under the sun) creates a huge amount of this.
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Castle Perilous / int_264a140b	type	Fat and Skinny
Castle Perilous / int_264a140b	comment	Fat and Skinny: The Gooch brothers.
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Castle Perilous / int_26fa627a	type	Elephant in the Living Room
Castle Perilous / int_26fa627a	comment	Elephant in the Living Room: The status of Gene and Linda's relationship.
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Castle Perilous / int_272abb98	type	Shoot the Shaggy Dog
Castle Perilous / int_272abb98	comment	Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Gene's jaunt into Sativa's world ends up being this. While it's true the rebel munitions dump does get blown apart by nuclear grenades, and this presumably kills the rebels who were after her, Sativa herself also dies in the process, leaving Gene to return to the castle with nothing to show for it, and knowing that the rebel movement will likely still continue on to cause trouble for the galactic government—perhaps even strengthened thanks to her death. So the whole adventure and her death are indeed all for nothing. "Shaggy Dog" Story: The whole episode on Hellas is this, since there is no point to the story—Trent is put through the grueling campaign for no reason except to give Incarnadine another strategist to face since he couldn't duplicate himself, and although his favored city Troas is saved, he reveals that in time the bay will silt up and the valueless citadel will be abandoned. Its only point was for him to play out real-life war games (and, admittedly, give Trent something to do to keep him occupied and his blood flowing); no wonder, then, that Trent believes Revenge is a dish Best Served Cold. Max's jaunt through Alternate Universes turns out all to be for nothing, since he can never find one that is exactly perfect and the way he wants it, he can never find his original home, in every world he is a failure no matter how successful he appears on the surface, and in the end he's left stuck in a Me's a Crowd situation, hoping that one of the Jeremys can eventually help him find a home again...though with the number of duplicates versus 'good' worlds, his chances are bleak.
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Castle Perilous / int_27690f66	type	Literary Allusion Title
Castle Perilous / int_27690f66	comment	Literary Allusion Title: Castle Perilous, aside from being a very apt name for such a dangerous, unstable place, is a reference to Arthurian Canon and the Siege Perilous, as well as a castle in the tale of Gareth and Linette. It is implied that it actually is the castle of legend, or of various legends throughout the Aspects. In a great Stealth Pun, the supposed "castle editions" of the series found in the library by Osmirik are published under the overarching title Eidolons of the King. Not only is this entirely appropriate for a work whose central location comes from Arthurian Canon, but an eidolon, being a ghost or phantasm, could aptly describe what the events of the books, being fictional, would be to DeChancie and the readers here in the real world.
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Castle Perilous / int_287083f7	type	Power Floats
Castle Perilous / int_287083f7	comment	Power Floats: What Dalton can do, though only on a very limited level, and only objects.
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Castle Perilous / int_294ed981	type	Bilingual Bonus
Castle Perilous / int_294ed981	comment	Bilingual Bonus: The world in which Incarnadine seems to die, and from which news of this is sent, is called Malnovia, pseudo-Latin for "bad news".
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Castle Perilous / int_2a02e5c9	type	Guile Hero
Castle Perilous / int_2a02e5c9	comment	Guile Hero: Gene, much of the time, and Incarnadine all the time (when he’s a hero at all).
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Castle Perilous / int_2b14367f	type	Bring My Brown Pants
Castle Perilous / int_2b14367f	comment	Bring My Brown Pants: Kwip gets to experience this in his very first scene, thanks to the seeming horror of the disembodied feet. Happens again later when encountering the Hosts of Hell's demons.
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Castle Perilous / int_2b2c66c3	type	Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor
Castle Perilous / int_2b2c66c3	comment	Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Completely averted with Charon—who isn't evil anyway, nor is he a Grim Reaper figure!—who very much enjoys Incarnadine's jokes and stories.
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Castle Perilous / int_2b34de10	type	Conversational Troping
Castle Perilous / int_2b34de10	comment	Conversational Troping: The Guests indulge in this a lot, whether wondering why it is that only those who are at Rock Bottom find their way to the castle or why it is the castle hasn’t been invaded hundreds of times by now. The fact Gene tried to be a fantasy writer once (and Incarnadine moonlights as one) makes this even more natural. Trent also indulges in this in the Greek Aspect thanks to being aware of the original events in The Iliad, including remarking on (and snarking at) the unbelievable nature of the Trojans falling for the wooden horse gambit...then subverting it by being more clever about it, instead using himself and his men in the form of actual horses to get inside Troas. In Castle Murders, Thaxton not only discusses the Locked Room Mystery (and its lack of plausibility in Real Life), but makes note of the fact most murders are crimes of passion and not premeditated, and therefore not well-planned. Happens because Thaxton is himself an avid mystery reader.
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Castle Perilous / int_2be271c7	type	Hollywood Hacking
Castle Perilous / int_2be271c7	comment	Hollywood Hacking: Averted for the most part; Jeremy can do incredible, amazing things with his hacking, but it is generally the sort of thing hackers in real life are known to do, nor is he shown to be able to access devices he shouldn’t be able to or create effects which are impossible. It isn't until he gets to Castle Perilous that he starts doing the jaw-dropping, crazy hacking...and this is justified since he has become a literal Techno Wizard.
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Castle Perilous / int_2cac89cf	type	The Ingenue
Castle Perilous / int_2cac89cf	comment	The Ingenue: Sheila, at least at first.
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Castle Perilous / int_2d4d16d9	type	I Know You Know I Know
Castle Perilous / int_2d4d16d9	comment	I Know You Know I Know / I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: The master of the local mages' guild in Malnovia has a conversation like this with Trent—and he manages to reveal the motive for Incarnadine's "murder", that the spell responsible is still working and he would look the other way if it were broken, what Trent will be up against, and the musical harmonics of the spell so Trent can locate its source...all without breaking any guild rules or giving himself away.
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Castle Perilous / int_2d88e42c	type	Gender Bender
Castle Perilous / int_2d88e42c	comment	Gender Bender: Unless either the laptop or the mainframe is gay, this trope has happened to one of the computers by the time of Castle War!—in Castle Kidnapped the two computers were romancing each other, but after the mainframe is destroyed and rebuilt, it "had the hots for" Jeremy, and this only becomes intensified when he boots up Isis. Further evidence: the laptop, which continues to call Jeremy "baby" or "sweetie", is used as the OS template for the mainframe. Its OS? MS-DOS.
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Castle Perilous / int_2dc0d2bf	type	Hidden Depths
Castle Perilous / int_2dc0d2bf	comment	Hidden Depths: Snowclaw has perfect pitch and can tell bad singing when he hears it, and Gene theorizes he may be smarter than he appears.
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Castle Perilous / int_2f57a4cb	type	Divine Intervention
Castle Perilous / int_2f57a4cb	comment	Played with and inverted. Upon learning that the king of Mykos intends to sacrifice one of his daughters to the gods to alleviate the bad weather assaulting his fleet, Trent puts a stop to it by using magic for Divine Intervention...except instead of making himself seem like a god, he makes it seem as if the gods are showing their disapproval through a Bolt of Divine Retribution which also strikes him for interfering. This takes suspicion off himself as the cause and convinces the king the whole sacrifice was merely a Secret Test of Character a la Abraham and Isaac.
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Castle Perilous / int_2fb61faa	type	Statuesque Stunner
Castle Perilous / int_2fb61faa	comment	Statuesque Stunner: Ferne; Vaya.
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Castle Perilous / int_2ff4c09b	type	Special Person, Normal Name
Castle Perilous / int_2ff4c09b	comment	Special Person, Normal Name: In an amusing subversion of Named Weapons, Rance's sword is named...Bruce. Made worse when it turns out he can't change the name, since it was given to the sword when it was made and must be used to activate its magic. Then Double Subverted when, after the demons mock him, he proceeds to kill their avenging champion with it and escapes.
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Castle Perilous / int_308a5ff0	type	Strange Minds Think Alike
Castle Perilous / int_308a5ff0	comment	Strange Minds Think Alike: Not only does Trent make the exact same comment as Incarnadine when he wakes up from a bad dream, but he even tells the same jokes and stories.
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Castle Perilous / int_309edee6	type	Divorce Assets Conflict
Castle Perilous / int_309edee6	comment	Divorce Assets Conflict: Sheila's ex pulled this on her, to the point of breaking into her house and trashing all her possessions after he was served the divorce papers; whether he did this because he knew she'd never let him have them, or simply out of petty spite, isn't known, but considering he'd been an adulterer, a drunk, and an extravagant spender, the latter is more likely.
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Castle Perilous / int_319e4a2f	type	Even Evil Has Standards
Castle Perilous / int_319e4a2f	comment	Even Evil Has Standards: Not precisely evil, but after joining Ferne in her takeover attempt, not only does Deems have second thoughts but he makes it very clear that if he had known ahead of time of her deal with the Hosts of Hell, he would have joined Incarnadine and never helped her. In the end it is these standards which cause him to die in battle against the Hosts' demons. Ferne too could be said to have limits, since the assistance she gives the Hosts in Castle Kidnapped is only obtained under duress, and in Castle for Rent she shows true remorse for her actions, particularly Deems' death.
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Castle Perilous / int_323fd510	type	Everyone Is a Suspect
Castle Perilous / int_323fd510	comment	Everyone Is a Suspect: Castle Murders. At least, everyone who is a powerful magic-user. Although before magic is conclusively proven to have been involved in the murder, everyone at the party is indeed held on suspicion just in case. Also, everyone who is a powerful magic-user is a suspect because everyone hated the victim.
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Castle Perilous / int_32821ceb	type	The Unintelligible
Castle Perilous / int_32821ceb	comment	The Unintelligible: Dolbert. Also, amazingly, a Genius Ditz.
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Castle Perilous / int_32da91b8	type	Out of Focus
Castle Perilous / int_32da91b8	comment	Out of Focus: While this could be said of any character who becomes less important or common in later installments, this is particularly true of Sheila: undergoing Character Development from The Ditz to a smart, competent sorceress, she is a key character in both Castle for Rent and Castle Kidnapped, but after this her Happily Married bliss with Trent coupled with her insistence on staying in the ocean Aspect to run her resort makes her vanish from the narrative, only having brief appearances in Castle War!, Castle Murders and Castle Spellbound (the latter consisting only of waiting around for Trent to return and then showing up with everybody else at the end).
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Castle Perilous / int_3577923b	type	Murder by Mistake
Castle Perilous / int_3577923b	comment	Murder by Mistake: Poor Count Damik. Even though his knowledge of knives, and his having a motive due to a succession squabble, makes him a prime suspect in killing Oren in Castle Murders, he is torn on whether to reveal the truth (having in turn seen Lord Belgard buying a dagger which matched the murder weapon), due to noblesse oblige. But when he goes to confide in Dorcas, he happens to walk in the path of a dagger meant for the princess (because she actually knew the real murderer's identity).
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Castle Perilous / int_38d02d44	type	Batman Gambit
Castle Perilous / int_38d02d44	comment	Batman Gambit: Ferne's plot in Castle for Rent. It has the basic framework of a Xanatos Gambit but has too many moving parts and unknown variables to truly be an 'all reasonable options benefit' plan. The best she can do is plan for the most likely outcome. In detail: If Incarnadine goes along with her and Deems, they join forces to remove the Blue Meanies, then they take out the Hosts of Hell, and then she turns on her brothers. If he doesn't, she uses the Hosts of Hell to get rid of the Blue Meanies, turns on Deems, uses the Hosts' powers to control Castle Perilous, and uses Incarnadine as her ace against them if they become too troublesome. Even not taking the assistance of Trent or the Guests into account, things didn't go as she planned thanks to her underestimating the Hosts and overestimating herself...
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Castle Perilous / int_39c443f0	type	DemonLordsAndArchDevils
Castle Perilous / int_39c443f0	comment	Demon Lords And Arch Devils: The Hosts of Hell.
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Castle Perilous / int_3a1c2171	type	The Man Behind the Man
Castle Perilous / int_3a1c2171	comment	The Man Behind the Man: The Hosts of Hell, to Ferne and then Jamin. Also, Ruthven to Tragg.
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Castle Perilous / int_3aec9e5e	type	Properly Paranoid
Castle Perilous / int_3aec9e5e	comment	Properly Paranoid: Incarnadine in Castle for Rent, it turns out, though the family member causing problems wasn't the one he thought.
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Castle Perilous / int_3b99a9e0	type	Reality Warper
Castle Perilous / int_3b99a9e0	comment	Reality Warper: Both Linda and Sheila, and to a fair extent the castle itself. And the minitranslator from Bride of the Castle that can banish things or people from one reality to another.
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Castle Perilous / int_3e2c9d95	type	Rock Bottom
Castle Perilous / int_3e2c9d95	comment	Rock Bottom: The situations of most Guests, prior to coming to the castle. Gene was unemployed with no prospects for the future. Kwip was on death row, to be hung for his thievery. Snowclaw had gotten buried in a crevasse of ice and intended to kill himself. Linda, although wary of doing so, was also contemplating suicide; so was Thaxton after being divorced by his cheating wife. Jacoby had been arrested for embezzlement and was about to be put away for his crimes. Jeremy was on the run from the law for his hacking. Dalton was lonely and depressed after suffering a heart attack. Deena was from Bed-Sty—'nuff said. Sheila was stuck in worthless, piddling Wilmerding. (And, admittedly, was upset by the way her last marriage had ended.) Melanie's is a special case since she was actually approached and befriended online by Linda before being offered a way into the castle via Jeremy’s magical computer. However, it is still played straight in that the reason Linda brings her there is to save her from suicide after she is left by her boyfriend, flunking college, and soon to be a single mother. Even Rance, who doesn't come to the castle the normal way, counts thanks to the Curse of ill-fortune he was suffering from. If Max had ever made it to the real castle, he certainly would have counted too.
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Castle Perilous / int_3ec18c6f	type	Sherlock Scan
Castle Perilous / int_3ec18c6f	comment	Sherlock Scan: Parodied in Castle Murders when Incarnadine pretends to deduce all manner of things about Father Sealey's niece, then reveals he knows everything he does because "your uncle talks about you a lot".
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Castle Perilous / int_3fca462c	type	Deus ex Machina
Castle Perilous / int_3fca462c	comment	Deus ex Machina: Whether it's Linda or Sheila pulling off an incredible summoning, Trent or Incarnadine showing up to set everything right, Osmirik finding just the right spell in the library, an Enemy Civil War, or a Spanner in the Works, something always seems to happen to save the castle Just in Time. And it's satisfying every time, too.
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Castle Perilous / int_4017043	type	ScienceFictionVersusFantasy
Castle Perilous / int_4017043	comment	Science Fiction Versus Fantasy: The series unabashedly and gleefully picks no sides or favorites, throwing in whatever audacity, coolness, and fun will allow, so that very little makes sense and the books defy classification. There are Aspects of High and Low Fantasy, as well as Hard and Soft Science Fiction. Dragons, mages, mythical creatures, deity-class beings, ruined cities and medieval citizenry appear alongside time machines, computers, fighter planes, spaceships, laser weapons, lost colonies, and robotics. And then there's Earth.
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Castle Perilous / int_4063acfd	type	Woman Scorned
Castle Perilous / int_4063acfd	comment	Woman Scorned: Melydia.
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Castle Perilous / int_4172582b	type	Monster of the Aesop
Castle Perilous / int_4172582b	comment	Aspect of the Aesop: Gene feels inadequate as a hero through his lack of magic compared to people like Linda, Sheila, and Jeremy. He then encounters a world where for some inexplicable reason his will to resist gives him magic of the Your Mind Makes It Real type...and he quickly discovers the downside to magic: always being expected to be the one to save the day (and under harrowing pressure as a result). This eventually leads him to the conclusion that he's better off as he is. Not a Broken Aesop because he isn't rejecting magic or heroism, instead choosing to set aside his old life on Earth for one in the castle but in the role his talent has given him.
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Castle Perilous / int_41a3e267	type	Hidden in Plain Sight
Castle Perilous / int_41a3e267	comment	Hidden in Plain Sight: The murder weapon in Castle Murders, since it was made invisible.
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Castle Perilous / int_41d8a845	type	Sufficiently Analyzed Magic
Castle Perilous / int_41d8a845	comment	The diamond which Dorcas wears magically on her forehead is explained by her "attuning" the carbon in her body to that of the jewel.
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Castle Perilous / int_42008602	type	Story Arc
Castle Perilous / int_42008602	comment	Story Arc: Most of the novels in the series are stand-alone adventures, including the very first, and while newcomers to the series might be confused as to who all the characters are and their relationships (aided by helpful bits of As You Know and the occasional footnote here and there), they can mostly be read in any order and without any need for continuity. However, Castle for Rent, Castle Kidnapped, and Castle War! could be said to form one arc revolving around Ferne and the Hosts of Hell—from the first book, where Ferne attempts to use them to gain control of the castle, to the second where they turn the tables and use her for the same purpose, to the last where The Multiverse is endangered due to all the magical and spatiotemporal tinkering going on in the previous two.
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Castle Perilous / int_420c50b7	type	A.I. Is a Crapshoot
Castle Perilous / int_420c50b7	comment	A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with. The cities of the Umoi were perfectly and properly designed—it is just that after centuries of abandonment and neglect, some of them have either deteriorated to the point of it affecting their AIs as well, or their isolation has caused them to have mental breakdowns. In any event, the end result is a Split Personality for one, and a creative reinterpretation of its prime directive…
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Castle Perilous / int_424c9a9b	type	Cold-Blooded Torture
Castle Perilous / int_424c9a9b	comment	Cold-Blooded Torture: Ferne's fate. Damn it.
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Castle Perilous / int_4292ebbf	type	DoppelgÃ¤nger Attack
Castle Perilous / int_4292ebbf	comment	Doppelgänger Attack: Occurs in the first book during the confrontation with the Big Bad, when Linda conjures up numerous doubles of Gene, Snowclaw, and Osmirik to fight the duplicate zombie soldiers and servants. This later becomes Linda's favorite tactic in every book thereafter. However, in one Call-Back to this, Evil!Gene of Castle War! convinces Linda to duplicate Snowclaw to fight the forces of Evil!Incarnadine...only things go horribly wrong when a funnel cloud starts producing endless clones of him. The multiple copies of Incarnadine and his soldiers also count, though the former end up settling in to try and solve the problem of the multiple castles and end up becoming a hilarious Me's a Crowd instead. This also occurs in Castle Spellbound, since a number of the manifestations (belly dancers, gladiators, comedians, minstrels) are duplicates of each other.
Castle Perilous / int_4292ebbf	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4292ebbf	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4292ebbf
Castle Perilous / int_4304666a	type	Meta Fiction
Castle Perilous / int_4304666a	comment	Metafiction: Castle Dreams is made of this trope, but it appears earlier than that in "Osmirik" and his prefaces, acting as Royal Scribe to describe the world of Castle Perilous, the novels, and their possible origin, then revealing in the second preface that he did no such thing. They were instead the work of some 'hack fantasy author' on Earth...the very one Incarnadine poses as. Also of note is the bit of Blatant Lies in which he claims the book in the reader’s hands is "painstakingly set in movable type, printed on vellum stock, and bound in fine-grained leather with gilt lettering and filigree...faithfully reproduced without editorial emendation or gloss" instead of being made with "cheap pulp paper, hastily glued bindings, and garish covers". This is also the reason several characters (most notably Gene) can be Genre Savvy, because by coming from Earth they can be aware of the conventions of the fantasy or sci fi genres, if not that they are actually in a book (except in Castle Spellbound, which can be said to be the moment reality gets so out of whack it breaks the rules of narrative cohesion).
Castle Perilous / int_4304666a	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4304666a	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4304666a
Castle Perilous / int_440d1d0b	type	Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
Castle Perilous / int_440d1d0b	comment	Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Subverted. At first it appears Lord Tragg is the only member of the Privy Council who will stand up to Trent's Blackmail and refuse his offer, that he won't compromise his principles or the realm for money or expediency. But then it turns out he was so adamantly opposed to Trent taking over because he was one of those behind Incarnadine's "death", and he wanted to rule instead.
Castle Perilous / int_440d1d0b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Castle Perilous / int_440d1d0b	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_440d1d0b
Castle Perilous / int_45007296	type	Metaphorgotten
Castle Perilous / int_45007296	comment	Metaphorgotten / Sidetracked by the Analogy: From the ending of Castle Kidnapped: "This particular tale is almost done, but for the wrapping up. It's been a long concerto, and the soloist has one more cadenza in him, if the audience will allow, in which the theme is restated for the benefit of those who've drowsed, wonder-weary, through the third movement—"
Castle Perilous / int_45007296	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_45007296	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_45007296
Castle Perilous / int_45cec696	type	God Guise
Castle Perilous / int_45cec696	comment	God Guise: Played with and inverted. Upon learning that the king of Mykos intends to sacrifice one of his daughters to the gods to alleviate the bad weather assaulting his fleet, Trent puts a stop to it by using magic for Divine Intervention...except instead of making himself seem like a god, he makes it seem as if the gods are showing their disapproval through a Bolt of Divine Retribution which also strikes him for interfering. This takes suspicion off himself as the cause and convinces the king the whole sacrifice was merely a Secret Test of Character a la Abraham and Isaac. Played straight (but still played with) in the very first book when Incarnadine poses as God (or the Devil, or a God Is Evil situation) in order to manipulate Jacoby.
Castle Perilous / int_45cec696	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_45cec696	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_45cec696
Castle Perilous / int_4602f495	type	Record Needle Scratch
Castle Perilous / int_4602f495	comment	Record Needle Scratch: Occurs when Incarnadine interrupts Mordecai's impressive display of "godhood" in Castle War! Justified since there really was a background soundtrack—in this case, a magical one of a chanting chorus.
Castle Perilous / int_4602f495	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4602f495	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4602f495
Castle Perilous / int_46837258	type	Authority Equals Asskicking
Castle Perilous / int_46837258	comment	Authority Equals Ass Kicking: Incarnadine, and Trent. Both are Royals Who Actually Do Something, since they are accomplished swordsmen and incredible battle-mages who also aren't afraid to get involved in hand-to-hand combat if the need arises.
Castle Perilous / int_46837258	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_46837258	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_46837258
Castle Perilous / int_469e49de	type	Booze-Based Buff
Castle Perilous / int_469e49de	comment	Booze-Based Buff: How Incarnadine gains the powers to stop the dengs—by getting drunk with an extremely powerful, magical bottle of "spirits".
Castle Perilous / int_469e49de	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_469e49de	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_469e49de
Castle Perilous / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
Castle Perilous / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: Kwip, Barnaby, Jeremy. At one time or another, all three run afoul of the most monsters, wild Aspects, or malfunctions of the castle's magic in the series, the latter to the point of getting Trapped in Another World fairly often. Since Kwip's power only lets him walk through physical walls (and is no use when Reality Is Out to Lunch), Barnaby doesn't seem to have a power (or if he has one, it must be fairly mundane), and Jeremy's power only relates to computers and technology, this is understandable.
Castle Perilous / int_47fea76b	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_47fea76b	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_47fea76b
Castle Perilous / int_485eb589	type	Sealed Evil in a Can
Castle Perilous / int_485eb589	comment	Sealed Evil in a Can: Ramthonodox himself, but also the Hosts of Hell (courtesy of Incarnadine's ancestor).
Castle Perilous / int_485eb589	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_485eb589	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_485eb589
Castle Perilous / int_48904622	type	A Protagonist Shall Lead Them
Castle Perilous / int_48904622	comment	A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Subverted in the world of the Umoi—Gene rises from humble beginnings as the Queen's concubine, only to become her captain of the guards and king who does lead the tribe to the glory of the Old Gods...except The Native Rival comes back for Revenge, the tribe is almost entirely slaughtered save those who will join other tribes, and Vaya loses her throne so that she and Gene are forced to go to Annau alone in order to escape that world. Played straight, however in Alice's world where Gene's magical gift (and ability to resist InnerVoice) inspires him to begin a rebellion—and when he leaves, he passes on his gifts to her so that she can lead it in his place.
Castle Perilous / int_48904622	featureApplicability	-0.3
Castle Perilous / int_48904622	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_48904622
Castle Perilous / int_4a3e547f	type	Leaning on the Fourth Wall
Castle Perilous / int_4a3e547f	comment	Leaning on the Fourth Wall / Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Castle Spellbound, when Gene quips about them once more having to prevent The End of the Multiverse as We Know It, he notes, "Chapter Twenty-one, In Which Our Heroes Once Again Save the Universe". Counting the Idiosyncratically Named Chapters reveals this actually does occur in Chapter 21. Later they encounter Stephen Brust's Vlad Taltos and Gene actually asks him, "Are you in this book?"
Castle Perilous / int_4a3e547f	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4a3e547f	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4a3e547f
Castle Perilous / int_4a6b3288	type	Liminal Time
Castle Perilous / int_4a6b3288	comment	Liminal Time: Once, when Kwip pauses half in and half out of a wall, it comments on his "paradoxical" state.
Castle Perilous / int_4a6b3288	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4a6b3288	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4a6b3288
Castle Perilous / int_4ae690ca	type	Laughing Mad
Castle Perilous / int_4ae690ca	comment	Laughing Mad: Ferne, eventually.
Castle Perilous / int_4ae690ca	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4ae690ca	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4ae690ca
Castle Perilous / int_4bf3d8d7	type	Personality Powers
Castle Perilous / int_4bf3d8d7	comment	Personality Powers: While not all Guests' talents have anything to do with their personalities or interests, several do—Gene, who always wanted to do something heroic and meaningful, gets to be a Flynning Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass; Sheila, who only wants to go home, can summon portals; Kwip the rogue is Intangible; Jacoby, the Manipulative Bastard, has mind-control powers; and Jeremy the hacker ends up becoming a Techno Wizard.
Castle Perilous / int_4bf3d8d7	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4bf3d8d7	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4bf3d8d7
Castle Perilous / int_4c8a0849	type	Mirror Universe
Castle Perilous / int_4c8a0849	comment	Mirror Universe: In Castle War! By the end of the book there are actually multiple ones. (And in fact the breakdown of reality gets to the point that any Aspect in the castle can become a Mirror Universe, each with its own 144,000 possible Mirror Universes, which each have their own 144,000...)
Castle Perilous / int_4c8a0849	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4c8a0849	featureConfidence	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_4f62bde6	type	Kavorka Man
Castle Perilous / int_4f62bde6	comment	Kavorka Man: Gene.
Castle Perilous / int_4f62bde6	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4f62bde6	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4f62bde6
Castle Perilous / int_4ff0627a	type	Suspect Existence Failure
Castle Perilous / int_4ff0627a	comment	Suspect Existence Failure: In Castle Murders. Knowing that Dorcas had discerned his guilt, Lord Arl tries to kill her as well. In the process, however, he accidentally kills Count Damik instead—which also happens to exonerate him, since prior to this he'd been a strong suspect due to his fascination and skill with knives.
Castle Perilous / int_4ff0627a	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_4ff0627a	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_4ff0627a
Castle Perilous / int_5028baf2	type	What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?
Castle Perilous / int_5028baf2	comment	What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Snowy's reaction to humans and their mating rituals.
Castle Perilous / int_5028baf2	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5028baf2	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5028baf2
Castle Perilous / int_50ed1af4	type	Our Demons Are Different
Castle Perilous / int_50ed1af4	comment	Our Demons Are Different: In two flavors, the Hosts of Hell (which are not true demons but did inspire them and are certainly wicked, destructive, and hateful) and demons like Ramthonodox which are more like Cosmic Horror Story antagonists. They also have a Number of the Beast which is 144,000 rather than 666 (although it's still from the Book of Revelation).
Castle Perilous / int_50ed1af4	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_50ed1af4	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_50ed1af4
Castle Perilous / int_51300dbf	type	Fat Bastard
Castle Perilous / int_51300dbf	comment	Fat Bastard: Jacoby.
Castle Perilous / int_51300dbf	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_51300dbf	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_51300dbf
Castle Perilous / int_515189ab	type	Single-Biome Planet
Castle Perilous / int_515189ab	comment	Single-Biome Planet: A few Aspects are this, or at least appear to be; for example, the ocean Aspect that is eventually called Sheila's World. A variation is what everyone calls the "golfing world", an Aspect known not for having only one climate but existing for only one purpose, having been deliberately created with golfing in mind but superimposed on a tropical dinosaur world.
Castle Perilous / int_515189ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_515189ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_515189ab
Castle Perilous / int_524f397c	type	Madden Into Misanthropy
Castle Perilous / int_524f397c	comment	Madden Into Misanthropy: Melydia, post-breakup. Hastened by her study of Black Magic and other Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
Castle Perilous / int_524f397c	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_524f397c	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_524f397c
Castle Perilous / int_52d1f46e	type	Not What It Looks Like
Castle Perilous / int_52d1f46e	comment	Not What It Looks Like: Naked Sheila...in Gene's bed.
Castle Perilous / int_52d1f46e	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_52d1f46e	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_52d1f46e
Castle Perilous / int_537dd8fe	type	Affably Evil
Castle Perilous / int_537dd8fe	comment	Affably Evil: Clare Tweel. Not surprising, since he's actually Incarnadine's nephew (Dorcas's son).
Castle Perilous / int_537dd8fe	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_537dd8fe	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_537dd8fe
Castle Perilous / int_542b8e66	type	Bad Powers, Bad People
Castle Perilous / int_542b8e66	comment	Jacoby's fate—after going most of the first book nastily and smugly manipulating and controlling others with his mental powers but suffering no comeuppance for it, he finally gets tricked by Incarnadine's Devil Guise into giving up the shard of the Brain of Ramthonodox, then going to his "reward"...led out onto the Plains of Baranthe so that Ramthonodox himself can consume him.
Castle Perilous / int_542b8e66	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_542b8e66	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_542b8e66
Castle Perilous / int_553c27bb	type	Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness
Castle Perilous / int_553c27bb	comment	Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: The first book is fairly balanced, with the zaniness and weirdness of learning about and becoming accustomed to the world of the castle offset by the genuine danger of the siege, Melydia's spell work, and the true terror and desperation of trying to maneuver through the castle and stop its destruction even as it is changing back into a demon. The invasions by the Blue Meanies and the Hosts of Hell, and the destabilization of the castle, are also treated seriously, albeit with much levity and comic relief at the appropriate moments. The longer the series goes on, however, the sillier it gets, though moments of seriousness do still creep up.
Castle Perilous / int_553c27bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_553c27bb	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_553c27bb
Castle Perilous / int_554063c6	type	If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!
Castle Perilous / int_554063c6	comment	If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Why Lady Rilma didn’t go through with killing, not Oren, but Lady Rowena in Castle Murders.
Castle Perilous / int_554063c6	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_554063c6	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_554063c6
Castle Perilous / int_557dabce	type	Deserted Island
Castle Perilous / int_557dabce	comment	Deserted Island: Trent and Sheila are dumped on one of these for a good deal of Castle Kidnapped; they fall in love while there.
Castle Perilous / int_557dabce	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_557dabce	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_557dabce
Castle Perilous / int_5740acf7	type	Chickification
Castle Perilous / int_5740acf7	comment	Chickification: Some of Linda's later appearances slide toward this, making her more of a Damsel in Distress despite her incredible summoning powers.
Castle Perilous / int_5740acf7	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5740acf7	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5740acf7
Castle Perilous / int_586624e5	type	Genius Loci
Castle Perilous / int_586624e5	comment	The Guests wonder, twice, why it is that despite this the castle has not been invaded before or ever fallen. The conclusions are that because it is a Genius Loci, it makes sure to open only to unpopulated worlds or ones where civilization has collapsed and thus there is no imminent threat of invading armies; or that only those who are at Rock Bottom and thus wish to abandon their life and world can ever even see the portals. This last would seem to be undermined by the Bluefaces and the Hosts of Hell except that the latter, at least, do indeed hate their own world (and themselves, and all of creation) while the Bluefaces, as aggressive as they are, do seem to at least hate each other as well as what they consider lower life forms. And, as Dalton points out, the castle doesn't have hard and fast rules. (I.e., wishing to leave one's world, but only for the purpose of conquering another, still counts in making an Aspect open.)
Castle Perilous / int_586624e5	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_586624e5	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_586624e5
Castle Perilous / int_5941d75	type	Beta Couple
Castle Perilous / int_5941d75	comment	Beta Couple: Trent and Sheila. Deena and Barnaby count too, although they are rarely ever seen at all, let alone together; Kwip lampshades this by calling him her "sometime paramour" in his thoughts.
Castle Perilous / int_5941d75	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5941d75	featureConfidence	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_5989e3b6	type	Enemy Mine
Castle Perilous / int_5989e3b6	comment	Enemy Mine: Part of how Trent changes his tune, and how Inky comes to trust him, happens because they are trapped together on Earth and have to work together to get back to the castle.
Castle Perilous / int_5989e3b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5989e3b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5989e3b6
Castle Perilous / int_5a3b8032	type	The Un-Reveal
Castle Perilous / int_5a3b8032	comment	The Unreveal: Kwip is a thief. But this fact is never actually revealed to the majority of the characters. Jacoby figures it out...but the secret dies with him. Gene is understandably suspicious of him...but this is all forgotten when the Reset Button is pushed. And Deena and Barnaby, other than a moment of disbelief and derision for him chasing after valuables he claims are his in Castle Spellbound, never seem to think ill of him or distrust him. Even Incarnadine, who retains his memories of the first book, does not act in any untrusting manner when they are introduced in Castle for Rent, but then he tends to be forgiving of any transgressions which may lie in a Guest’s past (see Jeremy), probably because he isn't exactly squeaky clean himself. The rest never learn or care, even when such a revelation might possibly have been dramatic or at least interesting.
Castle Perilous / int_5a3b8032	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5a3b8032	featureConfidence	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_5ac8f358	type	Hordes from the East
Castle Perilous / int_5ac8f358	comment	Hordes from the East: The army of Vorn from the first book, which is said to come from Hunra, capital of the Eastern Empire. The army which sacks Orem in Bride of the Castle is also this, by no coincidence.
Castle Perilous / int_5ac8f358	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5ac8f358	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5ac8f358
Castle Perilous / int_5b6e57e	type	Required Secondary Powers
Castle Perilous / int_5b6e57e	comment	Required Secondary Powers: In order to summon portals, Sheila is able to understand and harness any world's magical system. This also lets her conjure and perform other magical tricks similar to Linda's.
Castle Perilous / int_5b6e57e	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5b6e57e	featureConfidence	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_5c5ac0e2	type	Really 700 Years Old
Castle Perilous / int_5c5ac0e2	comment	Really 700 Years Old: Incarnadine and Trent are centuries old (as is the rest of their family) though they all look in the mid-30's to late 40's. This is also true of many of the castle's nobles, at least the ones who are also mages.
Castle Perilous / int_5c5ac0e2	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5c5ac0e2	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5c5ac0e2
Castle Perilous / int_5da3f522	type	Big Brother Is Watching
Castle Perilous / int_5da3f522	comment	Big Brother Is Watching: The alternate Earth of Castle War!, which has numerous echoes to Nineteen Eighty-Four, We, and Brave New World—from terminology like maladapt, Outforces, and the Citizens' Committee for Constant Struggle, to the nature and structure of the average (numbered) citizen's day (and their Stepford Smiler nature) and No Sex Allowed, to the society's slogans and place names (Boulevard of Social Concern, Conscience Avenue, Dedication Drive) and the entire concept of the nanotech InnerVoice, which uses your own body's chemical functions and emotional reactions against you to suppress and eventually obliterate The Evils of Free Will.
Castle Perilous / int_5da3f522	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5da3f522	featureConfidence	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_5f1999a0	type	Building of Adventure
Castle Perilous / int_5f1999a0	comment	Building of Adventure: Castle Perilous is certainly a Big Labyrinthine Building, but the trope is subverted in that inside the castle are 144,000 universes.
Castle Perilous / int_5f1999a0	featureApplicability	-0.3
Castle Perilous / int_5f1999a0	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5f1999a0
Castle Perilous / int_5f2b0457	type	Nerds Are Virgins
Castle Perilous / int_5f2b0457	comment	Nerds Are Virgins: At least until they meet beautiful female AIs, anyway.
Castle Perilous / int_5f2b0457	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5f2b0457	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5f2b0457
Castle Perilous / int_5f3bb274	type	Late-Arrival Spoiler
Castle Perilous / int_5f3bb274	comment	Late-Arrival Spoiler: The fact that Castle Perilous is actually the transmogrified demon, Ramthonodox, is referenced casually, albeit indirectly, In-Universe in several books after the first and stated outright in Osmirik's first preface to Castle Murders and therefore treated as something the reader should know already, despite being a mystery and the big reveal of the first book. For anyone who missed the first book or read them out of order, however...
Castle Perilous / int_5f3bb274	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5f3bb274	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5f3bb274
Castle Perilous / int_5fcedca	type	Big Eater
Castle Perilous / int_5fcedca	comment	Big Eater: Snowclaw. Not just huge amounts of food either, but strange ones—like poisonous substances and other things never meant to be eaten. This reaches its peak when, while stranded on Earth, he ends up making a giant vat of hundreds of ingredients, eats it all, and gets sick...though whether this is due to the nature of the 'food' or overeating is never made clear.
Castle Perilous / int_5fcedca	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5fcedca	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5fcedca
Castle Perilous / int_5ff56a1f	type	Long List
Castle Perilous / int_5ff56a1f	comment	Long List: Of nautical terms known by the sailors on Incarnadine's ship in the "Afterlife".
Castle Perilous / int_5ff56a1f	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_5ff56a1f	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_5ff56a1f
Castle Perilous / int_60194b82	type	Spanner in the Works
Castle Perilous / int_60194b82	comment	Spanner in the Works: How Incarnadine defeats Melydia and restores the castle: because Kwip had broken a piece off of Ramthonodox’s brain, it was missing an Aspect. Demons must have all their Aspects to feel complete, so without it he was vulnerable to manipulation and control. Particularly because Incarnadine, Chessmaster that he was, had gotten said shard away from Jacoby and could use it to bargain with. In Castle for Rent, Sheila's portal-summoning power allows her and the others to escape to Ferne's mansion on Earth right as Trent and Incarnadine are trying to break into the estate. This, and the others fighting the Hosts' forces, provides the distraction (and uses up the Hosts' spell power) for the brothers to save the day.
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Castle Perilous / int_617f0563	type	Heelâ€“Face Turn
Castle Perilous / int_617f0563	comment	Heel–Face Turn: Trent, who was once a Rebel Prince and determined to claim Castle Perilous for himself to the point of being portrayed as dark, sinister, and not to be trusted, and who self-describes as amoral, ends up becoming one of Incarnadine's most faithful and loyal supporters, as well as a source of great help to the Guests when danger threatens. At least partly comes to pass thanks to his love for Sheila, although he does have a momentary relapse and hunger for power when Incarnadine seemingly dies—until he finds out a) his brother isn't really dead and b) ruling isn't what it cracks up to be. Jeremy was an illegal hacker, drug-user, and criminal on the run from the law when he came to the castle, but quickly becomes one of the more powerful Guests, helping rescue others from various magical mishaps and becoming indispensable to Incarnadine and Osmirik as a redesigner of the castle's 'operating program' and incorporating both magic and technology in rewriting reality and restoring stability. And speaking of Osmirik, he started off working for Big Bad Melydia, but a case could be made he was The Mole all along, since it seemed his whole intent in serving her was to get into the castle—since as soon as he did so, he made a beeline for the library, researched the spell Melydia was using to destroy the castle, and then did all he could to help Incarnadine stop her.
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Castle Perilous / int_61b576af	type	I Take Offense to That Last One
Castle Perilous / int_61b576af	comment	I Take Offense to That Last One:
Castle Perilous / int_61b576af	featureApplicability	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_61c7d589	type	Bigger Is Better in Bed
Castle Perilous / int_61c7d589	comment	Bigger Is Better in Bed: The dengs of the Noir Aspect. Also doubled.
Castle Perilous / int_61c7d589	featureApplicability	1.0
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Castle Perilous / int_6344aa1a	type	All-Natural Fire Extinguisher
Castle Perilous / int_6344aa1a	comment	All-Natural Fire Extinguisher: The series has a scene in which a Devil to whom Lord Incarnadine's nephew has sold his soul opens a pit to Hell to collect on the contract, but Lord Incarnadine—who has drunk an excessive amount of voodoo liquor—relieves himself down the pit and extinguishes the fires of Hell.
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Castle Perilous / int_634a2ff9	type	Sue Donym
Castle Perilous / int_634a2ff9	comment	Sue Donym: Incarnadine's alias on Earth (and in the Noir Aspect) is John Carney.
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Castle Perilous / int_6439de78	type	Heroic Sacrifice
Castle Perilous / int_6439de78	comment	Heroic Sacrifice / More Hero than Thou: In Castle for Rent, Gene and Sheila vie for this role, to keep the demons from making it to Earth through the portal since Sheila can't close it from the other side—until Linda summons a bank vault over the portal...and then Ferne summons it back to her quarters, making the whole thing moot.
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Castle Perilous / int_644eca71	type	Rich Bitch
Castle Perilous / int_644eca71	comment	Rich Bitch: Melydia.
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Castle Perilous / int_65331274	type	Flynning
Castle Perilous / int_65331274	comment	Flynning: What Gene's talent amounts to, only with the real Master Swordsman cred to back it up.
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Castle Perilous / int_656ca350	type	Plot Magnet
Castle Perilous / int_656ca350	comment	Plot Magnet: Castle Perilous itself, besieged by no less than four armies or takeover attempts during the series. Justified because any number of powerful people, armies, or mages would love to have access to 144,000 worlds, or just to its immense magical power. The Guests wonder, twice, why it is that despite this the castle has not been invaded before or ever fallen. The conclusions are that because it is a Genius Loci, it makes sure to open only to unpopulated worlds or ones where civilization has collapsed and thus there is no imminent threat of invading armies; or that only those who are at Rock Bottom and thus wish to abandon their life and world can ever even see the portals. This last would seem to be undermined by the Bluefaces and the Hosts of Hell except that the latter, at least, do indeed hate their own world (and themselves, and all of creation) while the Bluefaces, as aggressive as they are, do seem to at least hate each other as well as what they consider lower life forms. And, as Dalton points out, the castle doesn't have hard and fast rules. (I.e., wishing to leave one's world, but only for the purpose of conquering another, still counts in making an Aspect open.)
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Castle Perilous / int_65acf9db	type	He Knows Too Much
Castle Perilous / int_65acf9db	comment	He Knows Too Much: In Castle Murders, this seems to be the motive for killing Count Damik, since he had previously been going around telling everyone in Peele Castle that he had seen one of the suspects buying the murder weapon, and trying to decide if he should tell the authorities what he knew. (This would seem to be a Too Dumb to Live moment, except that he was counting on noblesse oblige to protect him and was in fact using his obvious attention-grabbing move to try and warn the killer he was on to him, thus giving him time to either hide the evidence or come clean.) However this is all a Red Herring: not only was the person he saw not the killer, but he wasn't even the target and was in fact a friend of the real murderer. (The actual target was, in fact, slated for killing due to this trope.)
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Castle Perilous / int_66370e0d	type	Domesticated Dinosaurs
Castle Perilous / int_66370e0d	comment	Domesticated Dinosaurs: In the Golfworld, one of the local tribes of saurians (based on the description and the cover illustration, they seem to be one of the "egg-stealer" species) has been tamed to act as caddies—and drink-fetchers. The other species seem to avoid the "civilization" of the clubhouse, except for when the occasional larger carnivore becomes hungry or aggressive enough to attack, at which point the Guests have to use ultrasonic weaponry to eliminate them.
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Castle Perilous / int_66755d29	type	Author Avatar
Castle Perilous / int_66755d29	comment	Author Avatar: At various times Incarnadine, Trent, and Gene all vie for this title, but usually Inky wins out. By no coincidence.
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Castle Perilous / int_67d947a3	type	Nubile Savage
Castle Perilous / int_67d947a3	comment	Nubile Savage: Vaya, who is also a Statuesque Stunner and barbarian queen. Possibly an Expy of Ayesha or Dejah Thoris—Linda even lampshades the latter. Then subverted when she goes to Earth and begins studying at college (although helped along by Incarnadine using magic to teach her English.)
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Castle Perilous / int_69dff6df	type	Fantasy Counterpart Religion
Castle Perilous / int_69dff6df	comment	Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Dorcas's education and religious beliefs seem to stem from Hinduism. (Samra, soul-substance; bramhara, a contemplative and sleeping position; the Internal Eye.)
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Castle Perilous / int_69ebf1d7	type
Castle Perilous / int_69ebf1d7	comment	"Bang!" Flag Gun: Trent turns Ruthven's gun into this.
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Castle Perilous / int_6a3c49f	type	Direct Line to the Author
Castle Perilous / int_6a3c49f	comment	Castle Dreams is made of this trope, but it appears earlier than that in "Osmirik" and his prefaces, acting as Royal Scribe to describe the world of Castle Perilous, the novels, and their possible origin, then revealing in the second preface that he did no such thing. They were instead the work of some 'hack fantasy author' on Earth...the very one Incarnadine poses as. Also of note is the bit of Blatant Lies in which he claims the book in the reader’s hands is "painstakingly set in movable type, printed on vellum stock, and bound in fine-grained leather with gilt lettering and filigree...faithfully reproduced without editorial emendation or gloss" instead of being made with "cheap pulp paper, hastily glued bindings, and garish covers".
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Castle Perilous / int_6b723294	type	Techno Babble
Castle Perilous / int_6b723294	comment	Techno Babble: Naturally, much of Jeremy's descriptions of the castle computers and how they work is this, much to the bafflement of Osmirik—which is Played for Laughs since the way the scribe spoke of spells and historical texts was really no different. Which, aside from their both being at the tops of their fields, is why they were paired up together.
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Castle Perilous / int_6bda9a30	type	Meaningful Name
Castle Perilous / int_6bda9a30	comment	Meaningful Name: Castle Perilous, which is a very dangerous castle indeed thanks to its wild magic, roving (or closing) portals, and the many invading armies, creatures, and mages it has to deal with. (Also, it's a Shout-Out to Arthurian Canon.) Incarnadine is an in-story one, thanks to a prophecy regarding Ramthonodox. While not the only character to do so (both Gene and Linda are masters of it), Kwip is quite often a Deadpan Snarker. Thanks to Classical Mythology, the "good" half of Annau's Split Personality is this: Dis, the alternate Roman name for Pluto/Hades. Thanks to his questionable (if unfair) reputation, any place named after him is sure to make one wary, though in this case it could also be a reference to the wealth Annau once possessed, and the fact the sane portion of the city was underground.
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Castle Perilous / int_6bfc52a3	type	A Wizard Did It
Castle Perilous / int_6bfc52a3	comment	A Wizard Did It: Literally, in the case of Ervoldt, Incarnadine's ancestor, who cast the spell to change Ramthonodox into Castle Perilous. But a number of times, when something strange happens in the castle, whether a part of its usual idiosyncratic quirks or something actually going wrong, it's always blamed on/explained by "magic".
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Castle Perilous / int_6c3d1777	type	Magic A Is Magic A
Castle Perilous / int_6c3d1777	comment	Magic A Is Magic A: Played with. The rules of Functional Magic themselves remain consistent and reliable, even when the castle itself isn't due to its chaotic, entropic nature...but magic can act differently from Aspect to Aspect, causing spells to behave weirdly, having the opposite or no effect, and talents to go awry. Even Sheila summoning a portal can become next to impossible in certain worlds. On the other hand, once enough time is spent in a world, talents adapt and mages can make their spells work again; Sheila eventually attunes herself enough to draw portals wherever she goes. The diamond which Dorcas wears magically on her forehead is explained by her "attuning" the carbon in her body to that of the jewel.
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Castle Perilous / int_6ef6417b	type	Disney Death
Castle Perilous / int_6ef6417b	comment	Disney Death: Incarnadine in Castle Dreams; Dalton in Castle Spellbound. (The latter even looks like a Disney Villain Death.)
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Castle Perilous / int_6fb5cb83	type	I Gave My Word
Castle Perilous / int_6fb5cb83	comment	I Gave My Word: Why Trent won't abandon the siege of Troas even though he's left Sheila alone for a very long time (or so he thinks) and he doesn't even care which side wins (since they're both equally bad).
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Castle Perilous / int_7043a964	type	Grammar Nazi
Castle Perilous / int_7043a964	comment	In the preface for Castle Murders, Osmirik complains about the improper use of "portfolio" in place of "folio" back in book one. Much later in the book, during The Summation that ends the mystery, a folio is again produced...with a footnote saying, "Up yours, Osmirik!" Another Brick Joke, also related to the footnotes, appears in the form of an essay question on Tierra del Fuego in Castle Dreams, referencing the previous footnotes on the subject.
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Castle Perilous / int_71bb775a	type	Rebel Prince
Castle Perilous / int_71bb775a	comment	Trent, who was once a Rebel Prince and determined to claim Castle Perilous for himself to the point of being portrayed as dark, sinister, and not to be trusted, and who self-describes as amoral, ends up becoming one of Incarnadine's most faithful and loyal supporters, as well as a source of great help to the Guests when danger threatens. At least partly comes to pass thanks to his love for Sheila, although he does have a momentary relapse and hunger for power when Incarnadine seemingly dies—until he finds out a) his brother isn't really dead and b) ruling isn't what it cracks up to be.
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Castle Perilous / int_7215c26c	type	Man-Eating Plant
Castle Perilous / int_7215c26c	comment	Man-Eating Plant: One is stopped from eating Jacoby. More's the pity.
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Castle Perilous / int_7315fd38	type	Covers Always Lie
Castle Perilous / int_7315fd38	comment	Covers Always Lie: Castle Kidnapped featured on its paperback cover the primary characters, tied up and being borne away on the back of a huge blue turtle-like creature which nowhere appeared in the book. On Fidonet's old SF_LIT echo this spawned the acronym FBT, for "Friggin' Blue Turtloid". Who are all those people, aside from Snowclaw, on the cover of Castle Dreams? It's possible that's Osmirik and Tyrene on the right of the coffin, the man in red and gold might be Gene (which isn't accurate if so, since he was off in Sativa's world at the time), and the woman and child are probably Incarnadine's wife Zafra and their son Brandon (who have only appeared once or twice in the series), but...
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Castle Perilous / int_7335ffa9	type	Grey-and-Gray Morality
Castle Perilous / int_7335ffa9	comment	Grey-and-Gray Morality: What Trent discovers is true of the Arkadians and Troadeans—both are barbaric pirates.
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Castle Perilous / int_733e007a	type	Unwitting Pawn
Castle Perilous / int_733e007a	comment	Vorn, if you squint right. Although a conquering warlord, he also fully believed he was doing a right and holy thing by capturing and destroying Castle Perilous, that it was a fortress of evil ruled by the Devil himself and only by doing as Melydia directed would the world be saved. What he didn't know was that she was only using him, and that instead of destroying the evil, her plan for the castle would actually free it.
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Castle Perilous / int_7426582d	type	Token Minority
Castle Perilous / int_7426582d	comment	Token Minority: Deena, who is also a Sassy Black Woman.
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Castle Perilous / int_754df088	type	Put on a Bus
Castle Perilous / int_754df088	comment	Put on a Bus: Vaya. First she learns English and goes to Earth to attend UCLA off-screen sometime between Castle Kidnapped and Castle War!, then (as we are told in Castle Dreams) she drops out of college to join a biker gang some time before Castle Murders.
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Castle Perilous / int_771f6307	type	Brother–Sister Incest
Castle Perilous / int_771f6307	comment	Brother–Sister Incest: Incarnadine and Ferne, though never consummated, and apparently all one-sided on her part.
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Castle Perilous / int_77473d35	type	God Is Evil
Castle Perilous / int_77473d35	comment	Played straight (but still played with) in the very first book when Incarnadine poses as God (or the Devil, or a God Is Evil situation) in order to manipulate Jacoby.
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Castle Perilous / int_776a06eb	type	All Myths Are True
Castle Perilous / int_776a06eb	comment	All Myths Are True: The Hosts of Hell possibly inspired Earth's concept of Demon Lords and Archdevils. Castle Perilous itself is reminiscent of or even a Trope Namer for a place/tale in Arthurian Canon. Incarnadine theorizes to Trent that their father, who had a strong interest in Earth and Western European culture especially and gave them all British names, was Merlin. (And his name, as revealed in Castle Dreams, was Cawdor.) Thanks to stories of Castle Perilous told in Kwip's world, and legends of a "Castle of the Gods" in Vaya's, this may be true for the myths of all Aspects.
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Castle Perilous / int_7921ad77	type	Actually, I Am Him
Castle Perilous / int_7921ad77	comment	Actually, I Am Him: Osmirik mistakes Incarnadine for the castle librarian when they first meet—an intentional magical deception on his part.
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Castle Perilous / int_79c34029	type	The Nose Knows
Castle Perilous / int_79c34029	comment	The Nose Knows: Osmirik's power. Enables him to find the library, and then the Hall of the Brain, but otherwise useless.
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Castle Perilous / int_7ae75c78	type	Evil Me Scares Me
Castle Perilous / int_7ae75c78	comment	Evil Me Scares Me: Linda's reaction to her Evil Twin in Castle War!
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Castle Perilous / int_7c904676	type	Portal Slam
Castle Perilous / int_7c904676	comment	Portal Slam: Happens much more frequently early on, when the instability of the castle causes Aspects to move ("wander"), close, or otherwise change their nature. (Some are even "orbiting", not staying within the confines of the castle!) Becomes less of a problem when Sheila appears with her ability to control them, and less still when Incarnadine finally gets the castle and its magic under control...but every once in a while it still happens. Comes from the chaotic nature of the demon Ramthonodox and its magic.
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Castle Perilous / int_7ec94d53	type	Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Castle Perilous / int_7ec94d53	comment	Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Believe it or not, the Hosts of Hell. This still does not justify their acts.
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Castle Perilous / int_7f38c0cd	type	An Offer You Can't Refuse
Castle Perilous / int_7f38c0cd	comment	An Offer You Can't Refuse: Trent makes one to the Privy Council after Incarnadine’s "death": make him Regent for Life, or until he gets tired of the job and steps down to allow Brandon to rule, or he'll pursue his claim to being the rightful heir through the courts and wrest the throne from Brandon. The Council takes option one, partly because they are sure he'll win his case, but mostly to spare their pocketbooks the litigation fees.
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Castle Perilous / int_7fe8b5b5	type	Time Machine
Castle Perilous / int_7fe8b5b5	comment	Time Machine: The Sidewise Voyager. Prone to Phlebotinum Breakdown.
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Castle Perilous / int_80251be3	type	How We Got Here
Castle Perilous / int_80251be3	comment	How We Got Here: The first book begins with the main Guests meeting up and becoming acquainted, telling their backstories and how they arrived at the castle in retrospect. At the end of the book, when time is reversed and the castle is restored, the reader finally gets to see those moments before the Aspect opened, revealing some meaningful and thought-provoking details which prior to then had been conspicuously left out.
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Castle Perilous / int_808cbaeb	type	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
Castle Perilous / int_808cbaeb	comment	The situations of most Guests, prior to coming to the castle. Gene was unemployed with no prospects for the future. Kwip was on death row, to be hung for his thievery. Snowclaw had gotten buried in a crevasse of ice and intended to kill himself. Linda, although wary of doing so, was also contemplating suicide; so was Thaxton after being divorced by his cheating wife. Jacoby had been arrested for embezzlement and was about to be put away for his crimes. Jeremy was on the run from the law for his hacking. Dalton was lonely and depressed after suffering a heart attack. Deena was from Bed-Sty—'nuff said. Sheila was stuck in worthless, piddling Wilmerding. (And, admittedly, was upset by the way her last marriage had ended.)
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Castle Perilous / int_819b6384	type	Sympathetic Murderer
Castle Perilous / int_819b6384	comment	Sympathetic Murderer: Castle Murders's Lord Arl. Aside from disliking Oren and believing he deserved to die for all the various sins, cruelties, and appalling habits the viscount had committed, he only wished to ensure a good future for his son by making sure Oren died childless instead of divorcing Rilma, thus causing the peerage to devolve to him, and then to his son. Despite this motive, and the fact everyone wished Oren dead, he does in fact still get taken to prison, his scheme abrogated, partly because murder is still unjustified but mostly because of the accidental death of Damik and attempted murder of the princess.
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Castle Perilous / int_8204a6ad	type	The Magic Versus Technology War
Castle Perilous / int_8204a6ad	comment	The Magic Versus Technology War: Science, particularly electricity and mechanical constructs, does not work within Castle Perilous, though it can work in certain Aspects. Justified by the castle actually being a transmogrified demon whose very nature could suppress or run counter to technology. This rule can be creatively gotten around: an elevator which has no mechanical parts and runs on magic, or a computer which is built entirely by magical means.
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Castle Perilous / int_82d2715f	type	Magitek
Castle Perilous / int_82d2715f	comment	Jeremy was an illegal hacker, drug-user, and criminal on the run from the law when he came to the castle, but quickly becomes one of the more powerful Guests, helping rescue others from various magical mishaps and becoming indispensable to Incarnadine and Osmirik as a redesigner of the castle's 'operating program' and incorporating both magic and technology in rewriting reality and restoring stability.
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Castle Perilous / int_830343d8	type	We Will Use WikiWords in the Future
Castle Perilous / int_830343d8	comment	We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: InnerVoice.
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Castle Perilous / int_8430699a	type	Alternate Universe
Castle Perilous / int_8430699a	comment	Max's jaunt through Alternate Universes turns out all to be for nothing, since he can never find one that is exactly perfect and the way he wants it, he can never find his original home, in every world he is a failure no matter how successful he appears on the surface, and in the end he's left stuck in a Me's a Crowd situation, hoping that one of the Jeremys can eventually help him find a home again...though with the number of duplicates versus 'good' worlds, his chances are bleak.
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Castle Perilous / int_84764598	type	Dramatic Thunder
Castle Perilous / int_84764598	comment	Dramatic Thunder: Thunder happens when Dorcas makes her confession to Thaxton and Dalton in Castle Murders.
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Castle Perilous / int_8618825d	type	Portal Network
Castle Perilous / int_8618825d	comment	Portal Network: Variation. Like the Wood Between the Worlds of Narnia, each of the 144,000 worlds is connected to Castle Perilous as the nexus, but none of them connect directly with each other. Certain powerful mages can 'burrow' from one Aspect to another, but this is rare and difficult.
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Castle Perilous / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
Castle Perilous / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: Happens often to the bit players when their plots are mere amusing hijinks or are simply not deemed important when compared to the main plot. Sometimes their stories are resolved with a quick Hand Wave or a brief narration of what happened off-screen; other times it's forgotten entirely yet the characters still show up just fine in the next book. A very specific example, however: unless she was merely mistaken, Vaya claims to be pregnant by Gene, yet no mention of this or the baby is ever made after she comes to the castle and goes to Earth. It is possible she lost the baby either due to the injuries she suffers in Annau or the explosion and healing in the lab, but again this is never actually mentioned or addressed—until Bride of the Castle, when Linda finally mentions that Gene believes she aborted it but doesn't actually know. Another example: the fate of Goofus after he is used to rescue Melanie in Castle Murders; he's never seen again. See the Fridge page for a possible upsetting conclusion.
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Castle Perilous / int_86b34ecf	type	"Leave Your Quest" Test
Castle Perilous / int_86b34ecf	comment	"Leave Your Quest" Test: Downplayed version with Melanie, who almost goes off with the minstrels in Castle Spellbound until Jeremy of all people snaps her out of it by pointing out their unreal, Flat Character Doppelgänger nature.
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Castle Perilous / int_86eea0e5	type	World of Pun
Castle Perilous / int_86eea0e5	comment	World of Pun: The series is actually rife with puns and wordplay, especially from Gene, but one which has to take the cake due to the set-up and the long wait before DeChancie finally drops the other shoe would be this extreme groaner from Castle Murders:
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Castle Perilous / int_8712e4c9	type	Story-Breaker Power
Castle Perilous / int_8712e4c9	comment	Story-Breaker Power: Linda. The only thing that keeps her powers from taking over the story is that sometimes they do fail, or bring the wrong thing, and that quite often the solution to the current issue facing the castle is something she can't conjure. But she usually is a very big part of saving the day nevertheless. Unless it's because she's overshadowed by... Sheila. She can conjure portals. Granted, there is a great deal of How Do I Shot Web? at first, but once she figures it out, there is no more danger of characters being trapped anywhere, the wandering portal to Earth can be easily located and tied down, and characters can travel wherever and whenever they want. Luckily the author manages to consistently have her cut off from the others, her magic is blocked, or she's simply not available. Incarnadine. At various times he is actually accused of godhood, or responds to the question by tongue-in-cheekly claiming to be a demiurge, and he certainly is, to use Osmirik's in-story Understatement, "something of a magician". In fact not only is he capable of things no one else is (creating and building computers by magic, creating technology with magic that lasts longer than anyone else's, understanding and applying numerous arcane systems, making three-dimensional spell components (and drawing complex two-dimensional ones by hand with perfectly accurate lines and angles without aid of draftsman's tools), memorizing complex spells after only reading them once, and so on), but he is usually the only one who fully understands what is going on and can save The Multiverse. The end result is that whenever a crisis ensues, he must inevitably be absent, trapped, or deliberately removed from the so that there can be any kind of narrative tension. Sometimes there is more than one issue at stake, so that he can handle the one on The Multiverse level while the other characters deal with the more "mundane" problems.
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Castle Perilous / int_8774fb47	type	Eldritch Abomination
Castle Perilous / int_8774fb47	comment	Eldritch Abomination: The Hosts of Hell's true form.
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Castle Perilous / int_88472ef3	type	Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life
Castle Perilous / int_88472ef3	comment	Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: All of the Guests, to various degrees, but especially Gene and Sheila. Also, Ferne.
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Castle Perilous / int_884e513b	type	Medium Awareness
Castle Perilous / int_884e513b	comment	Medium Awareness: Gene is very much aware he is in B-movie Parodies (and, once in a while, books).
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Castle Perilous / int_891c547d	type	Teleporter's Visualization Clause
Castle Perilous / int_891c547d	comment	Teleporter's Visualization Clause: Snowclaw's power (at least originally). Interestingly, while it can be done mid-run, it generally seems to work as a reverse Call on Me, where he is able to teleport to a person he cares for whom he knows is in danger, simply by homing in on their feelings or thoughts of him.
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Castle Perilous / int_895ec17	type	Only in It for the Money
Castle Perilous / int_895ec17	comment	Only in It for the Money: Deems.
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Castle Perilous / int_8a4988bb	type	Mind Rape
Castle Perilous / int_8a4988bb	comment	Mind Rape: Thanks to Bad Powers, Bad People, and Jacoby enjoys said powers and what they can do with corrupt, sadistic glee.
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Castle Perilous / int_8dbec56b	type	Cast Speciation
Castle Perilous / int_8dbec56b	comment	Cast Speciation / Superhero Speciation: The very nature of the plot (everyone getting their own unique power) combined with a little judicious Personality Powers means there tends to be no duplication between the Guests. Even the mages like Incarnadine and Trent have their own styles, or schools of magic they are better at, or Aspects in whose magic they are more experienced, so that they can perform different roles or be useful in different situations. (Examples: Trent is better at Earth magic, but Incarnadine is better at more arcane and obscure magical systems and is generally a Jack of All Trades when it comes to combining magic and technology; Ferne is one of the few who can tap into the interstitial etherium; she and Mordecai are the only ones who can burrow from one Aspect to another.) The one time when this rule is not followed is with Sheila, whose ability to understand and tap into any magical system in order to summon portals enables her to perform the same exact kinds of conjuration and magical tricks as Linda. This is likely why she gets shipped off to the ocean Aspect with Trent and disappears from the narrative, so as to keep from stealing the limelight (or breaking the story) and letting Linda still be relevant and a hero.
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Castle Perilous / int_8ed5c6e4	type	Asshole Victim
Castle Perilous / int_8ed5c6e4	comment	Asshole Victim: Viscount Oren from Castle Murders is the victim of the mystery arc. Not only does hardly anyone like him, he is guilty of spousal abuse (verbal and physical); openly flirting and making out with Lady Rowena right in front of her husband the Earl of Belgard; making a pass at Sheila that almost became more; and betraying various friends for political or financial gain. In fact it ends up being revealed that several of the suspects actually did intend to kill him, had gone so far as to prepare a dagger with the proper spells, but were either beaten to it (Trent), had problems with the spells (Belgard), or came to their senses at the last moment (Lady Rilma). Ironically, though, the motive for his death turns out to have nothing to do with any of this, though his murderer is someone who didn't like him.
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Castle Perilous / int_8efbd9d2	type	Meaningful Funeral
Castle Perilous / int_8efbd9d2	comment	Meaningful Funeral: Ferne's, albeit off-screen.
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Castle Perilous / int_8f37b	type	Medieval Stasis
Castle Perilous / int_8f37b	comment	Medieval Stasis: Justified; while technology will work in various Aspects, it does not work in the castle, in fact even gunpowder can be suppressed by a simple spell. Thus, all fighting is done with medieval weaponry or magic.
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Castle Perilous / int_8fac4a3a	type	Superpower Lottery
Castle Perilous / int_8fac4a3a	comment	Superpower Lottery: It's anyone's guess what talent a given Guest will end up with, with some being awesome and badass and others complaining (or not) about how lame their heart is. Linda and Sheila have to take the cake though for most powerful and versatile talents ever. Lampshaded by both Incarnadine and Trent, who note they are two of the most powerful magicians in generations who are not members of the royal family.
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Castle Perilous / int_8fc39987	type	Techno Wizard
Castle Perilous / int_8fc39987	comment	Techno Wizard: Jeremy's computers and AIs don't even need batteries, they run on pure magical phlebotinum!
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Castle Perilous / int_901dbf9a	type	Cliff Hanger
Castle Perilous / int_901dbf9a	comment	Cliffhanger / No Ending: The end of Bride of the Castle not only leaves Gene and Linda's future up in the air after she calls off their wedding, but has Linda having slept with Incarnadine...or at least, his clone. And the real one just found out.
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Castle Perilous / int_90965cc7	type	Hive Mind
Castle Perilous / int_90965cc7	comment	The Hosts of Hell, since they are actually a single Hive Mind.
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Castle Perilous / int_90e31482	type	Laser-Guided Karma
Castle Perilous / int_90e31482	comment	Laser-Guided Karma: Jacoby's fate—after going most of the first book nastily and smugly manipulating and controlling others with his mental powers but suffering no comeuppance for it, he finally gets tricked by Incarnadine's Devil Guise into giving up the shard of the Brain of Ramthonodox, then going to his "reward"...led out onto the Plains of Baranthe so that Ramthonodox himself can consume him. And for that matter, Jamin, Tragg, and Ruthven. Both of the first two attempt some form of treason in order to take over the castle and rule in Incarnadine (or Trent)'s stead. Jamin is then in turn betrayed by Vasagaroth killing him as he himself is being slain, while both Tragg and Ruthven are killed when the being they summoned is turned back on them after the spell they cast on Incarnadine is broken.
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Castle Perilous / int_91e894b4	type	Apocalypse How
Castle Perilous / int_91e894b4	comment	Apocalypse How: Incarnadine unleashes a Class 4 on the world of the Hosts of Hell.
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Castle Perilous / int_927b2f11	type	The Bus Came Back
Castle Perilous / int_927b2f11	comment	The Bus Came Back: Following his assisting the rest of the heroes in facing the Hosts of Hell in Castle for Rent, Kwip disappeared from the series with no explanation; similarly, Barnaby Walsh also vanished, even though his sometime-girlfriend Deena Williams appeared briefly at the end of both Castle Kidnapped and Castle War!, and had larger roles in Castle Murders and Castle Dreams. Both Kwip and Barnaby, however, reappear in Castle Spellbound, the latter without any explanation but the former’s absence justified in-story by him having been off exploring the distant parts of the castle (and other Aspects) in his endless quest to be the greatest thief with the most loot. Their reappearance is yet another indication that Castle Spellbound may have been meant to be the last novel in the series before Bride of the Castle was added.
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Castle Perilous / int_92f674e5	type	Revenge
Castle Perilous / int_92f674e5	comment	The whole episode on Hellas is this, since there is no point to the story—Trent is put through the grueling campaign for no reason except to give Incarnadine another strategist to face since he couldn't duplicate himself, and although his favored city Troas is saved, he reveals that in time the bay will silt up and the valueless citadel will be abandoned. Its only point was for him to play out real-life war games (and, admittedly, give Trent something to do to keep him occupied and his blood flowing); no wonder, then, that Trent believes Revenge is a dish Best Served Cold.
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Castle Perilous / int_957e5fc2	type	Villainous Breakdown
Castle Perilous / int_957e5fc2	comment	Villainous Breakdown: Jamin has quite an example in Castle Kidnapped.
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Castle Perilous / int_95b7c400	type	Faux Affably Evil
Castle Perilous / int_95b7c400	comment	Faux Affably Evil: The Hosts of Hell adopt such an attitude in their dealings, but it's all just a mask.
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Castle Perilous / int_96144372	type	Aristocrats Are Evil
Castle Perilous / int_96144372	comment	Aristocrats Are Evil: Prince Vorn and his allies; Jamin. The latter is especially notable since he is first introduced as merely a rake, but ends up proving himself incredibly arrogant and hostile toward the Guests as magical rivals and posturing pretenders trying to reach outside their proper station.
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Castle Perilous / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
Castle Perilous / int_970c790a	comment	And speaking of Osmirik, he started off working for Big Bad Melydia, but a case could be made he was The Mole all along, since it seemed his whole intent in serving her was to get into the castle—since as soon as he did so, he made a beeline for the library, researched the spell Melydia was using to destroy the castle, and then did all he could to help Incarnadine stop her.
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Castle Perilous / int_97c3a6af	type	The Power of Creation
Castle Perilous / int_97c3a6af	comment	The Power of Creation: Linda's conjuration (and by extension, Sheila's when her understanding of magical systems lets her mimic this). Generally considered to be done through No Conservation of Energy, though the things summoned can be either permanent or temporary (the latter starts off being accidental on her part, but she later can create weak versions of things that will fizzle out on their own). It is possible, however, that she is actually summoning them from somewhere else; the possible moral ramifications of this are briefly explored in the case of Goofus and also when they consider summoning Incarnadine and Melanie (i.e., is it the real person or merely a clone). In any event, whether summoned for real or formed out of nothing, she is able to conjure things she's never seen before based solely on descriptions or the thoughts of others.
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Castle Perilous / int_97ee273	type	Momma's Boy
Castle Perilous / int_97ee273	comment	Momma's Boy: Vorn.
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Castle Perilous / int_9843be73	type	As You Know
Castle Perilous / int_9843be73	comment	As You Know: Unavoidable when one of the main conceits is that new random characters will continually show up and need to be apprised of the nature of Castle Perilous, but it does show up a great deal in Castle for Rent. Particularly true for Gene and Linda's initial chapter as well as Snowclaw's (essentially recapping how they came to the castle and became friends), and Incarnadine's talk with Trent where he retold the entire plot of the first book, as well as introduced the rest of their family, of which the reader had no inkling until that moment. Justified, however, since Trent had been out of the loop for a very long while.
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Castle Perilous / int_9c45b5a2	type	What Measure Is a Non-Human?
Castle Perilous / int_9c45b5a2	comment	What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Averted, discussed, and otherwise explored and deconstructed in a surprisingly serious, contemplative, and sympathetic manner with Incarnadine and the sphinx statue he temporarily brings to life.
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Castle Perilous / int_9c6ba43a	type	Values Dissonance
Castle Perilous / int_9c6ba43a	comment	Values Dissonance: Invoked in-story when Trent is repulsed by the Mykosians' usage of human sacrifice to propitiate their gods.
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Castle Perilous / int_9c8701b5	type	A Day in the Limelight
Castle Perilous / int_9c8701b5	comment	A Day in the Limelight: Almost all of Castle Murders for Thaxton and Dalton.
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Castle Perilous / int_9ccb5f39	type	Summation Gathering
Castle Perilous / int_9ccb5f39	comment	Summation Gathering: The suspects in Castle Murders are all confronted at Peele Castle. Both invoked and a subversion, since Thaxton arranged it in order to get the murderer to incriminate himself.
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Castle Perilous / int_9e1e14ea	type	Ambition Is Evil
Castle Perilous / int_9e1e14ea	comment	Ambition Is Evil: Ferne, Jamin, and Tragg and Ruthven, though in Tragg's case he tries vainly to conceal it behind Revenge for supposed slights and insults committed by Incarnadine. Trent starts off seeming this way in his quest for the throne, but his motive is actually fairly pure—not wanting power for its own sake or what he can do with it, but simply believing he's the right man for the job and that it should have been his to begin with. Once he finds out what the job actually entails, he abandons his goal and goes back to a normal life.
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Castle Perilous / int_9ebca7d9	type	Mr. Smith
Castle Perilous / int_9ebca7d9	comment	Mr. Smith: Variation—Incarnadine's author pseudonym on Earth is "C. Wainwright Smithton".
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Castle Perilous / int_9f5e99a7	type	DistressedDamsel
Castle Perilous / int_9f5e99a7	comment	Distressed Damsel: Sheila at first; definitely Melanie.
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Castle Perilous / int_9fb2452d	type	Evil Is Not a Toy
Castle Perilous / int_9fb2452d	comment	As for Ferne's scheme, she succeeds in trapping Incarnadine on Earth, releasing the Blue Meanies so as to take over the castle and drive all the Guests and soldiers into the countless Aspects, and using the power of the Hosts of Hell to keep the Blue Meanies and Incarnadine in check. Her scheme only falls apart because she trusted the Hosts, Deems turned on her, the Guests succeed in wrenching away the Earth portal and attacking the demons on her estate (and bring a banishment spell for the Hosts with them), and Trent and Incarnadine also arrive to take the demons out.
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Castle Perilous / int_a07afea2	type	Random Events Plot
Castle Perilous / int_a07afea2	comment	And within the disconnected plot of Bride of the Castle, the reader is presented with Rance's adventures, which come across as a mix of horror and Adventurer Archaeologist; Thaxton and Dalton have an insane Lower-Deck Episode which is a parody of yet another Mystery Arc; and what happens to poor Max introduces a Sliders-esque series of Alternate Universes that starts out as a sort of Kafka Komedy before going off the rails.
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Castle Perilous / int_a188ac4b	type	Overly Long Gag
Castle Perilous / int_a188ac4b	comment	Overly-Long Gag: The inscription in the Zinnite tomb detailing the nature of the curse, which ends up rambling on and on about the rudeness of robbing a tomb and the unfairness of stealing from a long-suffering king—to the point that it covers all the walls and runs down numerous passages.
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Castle Perilous / int_a19135a6	type	Mind Control
Castle Perilous / int_a19135a6	comment	Mind Control: Jacoby's power, verging into Mind over Matter when he employs it to compel action (or inaction) from his victim's body. Which leads to...
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Castle Perilous / int_a3458bf2	type	More Deadly Than the Male
Castle Perilous / int_a3458bf2	comment	More Deadly Than the Male: Melydia, scorned by Incarnadine and wanting Revenge, wishes to prove she is worthy of the power she'd been denied (for being a woman). She does this by...manipulating an empress, seducing and enchanting her warlord son into besieging Perilous...so that she can undo the spell on it and release a demon that will bring about The End of the World as We Know It. Because she's crazy, and apparently always has been. To some degree this also applies to Ferne, since she is played up as much more of a threat than Trent, Jamin, and Tragg and is in fact the centerpiece of the only real major Story Arc in the series, the Hosts of Hell.
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Castle Perilous / int_a39d6056	type	Nice to the Waiter
Castle Perilous / int_a39d6056	comment	Nice to the Waiter: Trent, as a certain guildmaster learns to his chagrin.
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Castle Perilous / int_a5b12e14	type	Commitment Issues
Castle Perilous / int_a5b12e14	comment	Commitment Issues: Gene. It particularly becomes apparent, and a driving conflict, in Bride of the Castle where it causes him to seek out an Aspect to become lost in and danger to be caught up in just so as to avoid marrying Linda and being tied down. But it also appears before then—not only in his relationship with Linda, but in how his wanderlust compels him to wander other Aspects (and acquire a new Girl of the Week every book) rather than settle down or stay in the relative safety of the castle.
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Castle Perilous / int_a62dca03	type	Year Inside, Hour Outside
Castle Perilous / int_a62dca03	comment	Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time varies widely between the castle and its many Aspects. In some you emerge exactly the moment you left; in others, you come out after being gone for what you think is months or even years, only to find it was just a few hours. (This is quite helpful for Gene on the one hand, and Trent and Sheila on the other, in Castle Kidnapped, and again for Trent and Incarnadine in Castle Spellbound.) For still others, it's the reverse.
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Castle Perilous / int_a6c69bd	type	MacGuffin
Castle Perilous / int_a6c69bd	comment	MacGuffin: The shard of the Brain of Ramthonodox, stolen by Kwip and then appropriated by Jacoby before finally making its way to Incarnadine's hands.
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Castle Perilous / int_a6e8221e	type	Status Quo Is God
Castle Perilous / int_a6e8221e	comment	Status Quo Is God: Despite the fact that with the reinstitution of the transformation spell, Castle Perilous is more stable and reasonable than it has been in years, and that between Incarnadine, Trent, Sheila, and Jeremy the Aspects become much more manageable and Earth is made accessible again after years of wandering, something still always manages to happen to make the castle unsafe and cause the characters to go haring off into dangerous, unstable Aspects. As proof Tropes Are Not Bad, this is half the fun of the series!
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Castle Perilous / int_a6fa41b	type	Recycled Premise
Castle Perilous / int_a6fa41b	comment	Recycled Premise: Either The End of the World as We Know It, or invaders/besiegers trying to take over the castle. Justified in the first case due to sealed evils being released from their cans or the generally unstable nature of the castle, justified in the second due to the castle being a Plot Magnet.
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Castle Perilous / int_a806691d	type	Casanova Wannabe
Castle Perilous / int_a806691d	comment	Casanova Wannabe: Mordecai, at least to judge from his outfit.
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Castle Perilous / int_a8a04f6f	type	And I Must Scream
Castle Perilous / int_a8a04f6f	comment	And I Must Scream: Ramthonodox's fate. Melydia's too, though she seems to either have resigned herself to it or even welcomes it as a fitting punishment, since there isn't any screaming.
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Castle Perilous / int_a8cbf649	type	I Should Write a Book About This
Castle Perilous / int_a8cbf649	comment	I Should Write a Book About This: Apparently, Incarnadine does just that, in disguise as John DeChancie, with assistance (maybe) from Osmirik. See Direct Line to the Author. Gene also rather tongue-in-cheekly claims he will do this to relate his adventures with Vaya.
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Castle Perilous / int_a9de87d2	type	Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
Castle Perilous / int_a9de87d2	comment	Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gene.
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Castle Perilous / int_ab5eea65	type	Dramatic Irony
Castle Perilous / int_ab5eea65	comment	Dramatic Irony: Osmirik, in researching Aspects to find the one which released the Blue Meanies, discovers information about the Hosts of Hell and, assuming them to be the Blue Meanies, pursues and eventually locates a spell to contain them. This then comes in handy for sealing off the Hosts of Hell when they actually do invade the castle.
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Castle Perilous / int_ac09dc0f	type	Alas, Poor Villain
Castle Perilous / int_ac09dc0f	comment	Alas, Poor Villain: Melydia, despite her sympathetic backstory, is pretty much depicted as an insane Rich Bitch for most of Castle Perilous; however, as soon as she and Incarnadine actually face each other, she becomes a lot more sympathetic, and pitiable, and once she recovers her sanity and regrets her actions, it isn't very hard at all to feel sorry for her fate—although she'll always be with Incarnadine in a sense, she also gets to remain a disembodied voice, combined with a transmogrified demon, forever. And it's made quite clear that Incarnadine himself regrets her fate as well. Ferne's fate is even worse, since she ends up put through horrible cruel Cold-Blooded Torture by the Hosts of Hell, to the point that when Incarnadine finally finds her he can't remove her from the devices without leaving pieces of her flesh still in them; she gets a chance to make one last Dying Declaration of Love for her brother and then dies in his arms. This is also an in-story example, since the heroes, despite having faced her as an antagonist, are all very sympathetic to Incarnadine and go to her Meaningful Funeral.
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Castle Perilous / int_ac4ac8e5	type	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
Castle Perilous / int_ac4ac8e5	comment	Idiosyncratic Chapter Naming: Nine times out of ten, chapters are named after locations, particularly very specific locations in the castle by wing, tower, room, even stairwell. Or they are other Aspects or places found therein. Things get interesting when the characters don't know where they are so that the chapter names become vague epithets instead.
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Castle Perilous / int_acecb17d	type	Chekhov's Skill
Castle Perilous / int_acecb17d	comment	Chekhov's Skill: Ferne's ability to tap into the interstitial etherium between the universes.
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Castle Perilous / int_ad641426	type	Trademark Favorite Food
Castle Perilous / int_ad641426	comment	Trademark Favorite Food: Beeswax candles dipped in Thousand Island dressing, for Snowclaw.
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Castle Perilous / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
Castle Perilous / int_ae3d6438	comment	Also, His Royal Highness Trent, Prince of the House of Haplodie, Protector of Zilonesia, Vice-regent of Ulontha, Beloved of the Gods, Holy Warrior, Keeper of the Stone of Truth-telling... Though this may not all be true, since his introduction came from Incarnadine.
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Castle Perilous / int_ae853f28	type	Parody
Castle Perilous / int_ae853f28	comment	Bride of the Castle contains a Parody of the Mystery Arc in which Thaxton, believing he can solve the murders because of his experiences three books previously, valiantly tries to gather facts and formulate theories. Not only do the bodies keep piling up while the numerous suspects, alibis, motives, and lies make it next to impossible to figure out anything, while it all takes place in a microcosm of upper-crust England perfectly mimicking Christie Time (complete with class warfare and racism), but in the end it all dissolves into utter nonsense with the Summation Gathering turning into a convoluted mess of accusations and confessions worthy of Murder by Death followed by a literal bloodbath while the inspector merely stands around and lets it happen to 'sort itself out'. About the only mystery trope it doesn't mock or play with is The Butler Did It, although the butler in question actually seems to have caught on to the whole business as being a regular occurrence in this insane Aspect; whether people are just murdered constantly, or if they actually come back to life and play it out again the next day, is unknown.
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Castle Perilous / int_af3ea0e3	type	Faceâ€“Heel Turn
Castle Perilous / int_af3ea0e3	comment	Face–Heel Turn: Deems, when after first appearing to be a reasonable and trustworthy member of the family, it turns out he had secretly joined with Ferne in her plot to take over the castle. Played with, however, in that he did this both for fairly noble reasons (because he agreed she had been unfairly passed over for the throne) and under duress (he was suffering from major debts and she was the only one who promised him a way out), and that he also did so without knowing the full truth of her intended methods (i.e. that she was working with the Hosts of Hell). As soon as he finds out, he changes sides...which gets him killed for his troubles.
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Castle Perilous / int_af49bb75	type	Sex Changes Everything
Castle Perilous / int_af49bb75	comment	Sex Changes Everything: What Gene and Linda worry about when considering whether or not to have a Relationship Upgrade. And judging by what happens in the next book, they may have been right.
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Castle Perilous / int_afc52a86	type	Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
Castle Perilous / int_afc52a86	comment	Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The whole frickin' battle between Trent, Incarnadine, and the Hosts of Hell. Dinosaurs and fighter jets and missiles and horror movie monsters and demons, oh my! Helped along by the ability to summon working technology, once Earth magic has been mastered.
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Castle Perilous / int_afc6df04	type	What You Are in the Dark
Castle Perilous / int_afc6df04	comment	What You Are in the Dark: Ruthven double-crosses Tragg and offers Trent the chance to join him and become king of Perilous in truth by murdering Incarnadine and Brandon. Trent, whose original purpose in seeking him out was simply to keep from being accused of having murdered his brother himself, shows his quality and refuses—granted, partly because he's discovered his ambition isn't what he thought it was, but also because he won't be a party to murder. Naturally Ruthven, not being aware of Trent having changed, doesn't understand this.
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Castle Perilous / int_b034d333	type	Film Noir
Castle Perilous / int_b034d333	comment	Film Noir: The side story in Castle Murders has Lord Incarnadine visiting an Aspect based on the tropes of this genre, complete with demon gangsters and transparent Captain Ersatzes of 1920s and '30s celebrities.
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Castle Perilous / int_b06bbf4b	type	Be Careful What You Wish For
Castle Perilous / int_b06bbf4b	comment	Be Careful What You Wish For: Thorsby and Fetchen learn this the hard way thanks to their Literal Genie spell. Aspect of the Aesop: Gene feels inadequate as a hero through his lack of magic compared to people like Linda, Sheila, and Jeremy. He then encounters a world where for some inexplicable reason his will to resist gives him magic of the Your Mind Makes It Real type...and he quickly discovers the downside to magic: always being expected to be the one to save the day (and under harrowing pressure as a result). This eventually leads him to the conclusion that he's better off as he is. Not a Broken Aesop because he isn't rejecting magic or heroism, instead choosing to set aside his old life on Earth for one in the castle but in the role his talent has given him. Trent discovers ruling Perilous wasn't as grand and wonderful as he thought.
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Castle Perilous / int_b17f6a27	type	I Did What I Had to Do
Castle Perilous / int_b17f6a27	comment	I Did What I Had to Do: Melydia; Ferne.
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Castle Perilous / int_b351349c	type	Flowery Elizabethan English
Castle Perilous / int_b351349c	comment	The language of the Haplodites, Incarnadine's line, is translated for the reader as Flowery Elizabethan English.
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Castle Perilous / int_b3f77675	type	Grass Is Greener
Castle Perilous / int_b3f77675	comment	Grass Is Greener / Wanting Is Better Than Having: What Max discovers after trying to find a better life in an Alternate Universe—not only is he a failure no matter where he looks, but he can't even get his old, normal life back. Summed up best by his ruminating on his crummy, roach-infested apartment: "He'd sign a ninety-nine-year lease and never leave."
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Castle Perilous / int_b5171e10	type	Tragic Villain
Castle Perilous / int_b5171e10	comment	Tragic Villain: Despite the fact she was unstable and often quite insane, and that she nearly gave the castle to the Hosts of Hell, killed Incarnadine, and destroyed The Multiverse, and did cause Deems's death, you can't help but feel sorry for Ferne—if not because of her railing against Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits and her inability to inherit the throne, thus driving her into I Did What I Had to Do and eventually madness, then because of what happens to her once she falls into the clutches of the Hosts of Hell.
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Castle Perilous / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
Castle Perilous / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: A number of these appear throughout the series, usually at other authors (Foundation's Robots, I Remember Rama), genres ("What's 'cyberpunk'?"), or the literary world in general (see Incarnadine's meeting with the book editor in Castle for Rent), but a particularly epic (and mean-spirited) one occurs in Castle Dreams, complete with explanatory footnote:
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Castle Perilous / int_b53c57d5	type	Epigraph
Castle Perilous / int_b53c57d5	comment	Epigraph: Every book except the first has at least one literary reference quoted at the start. Castle for Rent quotes Tennyson's "Blow, Bugle, Blow", Castle Kidnapped quotes Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale", Castle War! quotes Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, Castle Murders quotes Wordsworth's "Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm" (and Peele Castle further appears as a place in the narrative), Castle Dreams quotes Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life", Castle Spellbound quotes Nora Archibald Smith's "The Christmas Child and Other Verse", and Bride of the Castle quotes The Taming of the Shrew and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". While these last two are wedding themed, the rest tend to reference castles, portals, and windows, by no coincidence. The tendency of writers to use these to show off their literary knowledge or seem portentous (see Pretentious Latin Motto) is also lampshaded humorously enough, in a spot quiz essay question in Castle Dreams.
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Castle Perilous / int_b58642b1	type	Trapped in Another World
Castle Perilous / int_b58642b1	comment	Trapped in Another World: Technically this is true for all the Guests who come to Castle Perilous, but the specific plot of someone being trapped in an Aspect also recurs throughout the series. Incarnadine gets stuck on Earth while Gene, Linda, Snowclaw, and Sheila get stranded in a jungle world with ruined temples in Castle for Rent; Gene, Thaxton, and Dalton get stuck in dangerous alternate variants in Castle War!; and Melanie gets stuck in a "Robin Hood" Aspect (while Gene, Linda, and Snowclaw get stuck on a dying future world while looking for her) in Castle Murders. This type of plot is also the whole point of Castle Kidnapped, where it happens to almost everybody as part of the Hosts of Hell's takeover attempt.
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Castle Perilous / int_b7e0c5ff	type	Love Triangle
Castle Perilous / int_b7e0c5ff	comment	Love Triangle: Between Gene, Linda, and Inky. From the very beginning of the series it is clear that Gene and Linda, as the two main protagonists, are developing feelings for one another, even if for various reasons (usually their crazy, dangerous adventures, but also Gene's Commitment Issues and worries of Sex Changes Everything) they never act on it. What is less clear at first due to how subtly it's handled is that Linda is also drawn to Inky, making this a Betty and Veronica situation, with Gene as the Betty and Inky as the Veronica. Things start developing more on this front in Castle Dreams when Linda dreams that Inky is her Earth boyfriend, probably jumpstarted by Incarnadine's apparent death. In rapid succession, however, Gene and Linda finally consummate their relationship in Castle Spellbound and agree to get married, but complications ensue in Bride of the Castle when Gene gets cold feet and runs off to become lost in an Aspect again. Meanwhile, the jilted Linda ends up commiserating (and eventually sleeping) with Inky's clone, who offers to make her his mistress. Eventually Gene returns, and he and Linda break off their engagement...but the real Inky also returns, only to find out from Linda what happened while he was away. So the triangle ends up broken but also unresolved, with where things go from there left uncertain.
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Castle Perilous / int_b892dd2d	type	Girl of the Week
Castle Perilous / int_b892dd2d	comment	Girl of the Week / Temporary Love Interest: For Gene: first Vaya, then Alice, then Sativa. The latter suffers the usual fate while Vaya gets Put on a Bus.
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Castle Perilous / int_b970a40	type	Valley Girl
Castle Perilous / int_b970a40	comment	Valley Girl: Despite being from California, Linda only lapses into speech like this once in a blue moon. Oddly, despite being from Pennsylvania, Sheila is the one who talks like this consistently at first before, thankfully, growing out of it. Most likely an example of this trope being conflated with The Ditz.
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Castle Perilous / int_b97a2fa7	type	Forced Transformation
Castle Perilous / int_b97a2fa7	comment	Forced Transformation: On a larger, cosmic scale: the demon Ramthonodox was transformed into Castle Perilous by Ervoldt, Incarnadine's ancestor, centuries ago.
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Castle Perilous / int_b9d334b2	type	Aerith and Bob
Castle Perilous / int_b9d334b2	comment	A third appears in Bride of the Castle, calling back to Castle Murders: in the latter book, Gene had jokingly claimed he was a medium who channeled a mystic spirit from the other side named...Murray. This also turns out to be the name of the dead king's ghost who curses Rance.
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Castle Perilous / int_b9e8ad28	type	The Multiverse
Castle Perilous / int_b9e8ad28	comment	The Multiverse: And Castle Perilous is at the center. And thus maintains all of existence.
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Castle Perilous / int_b9f472b	type	Storming the Castle
Castle Perilous / int_b9f472b	comment	Storming the Castle: Oddly enough, not Vorn's armies besieging Castle Perilous, but Trent and Incarnadine invading Ferne's estate on Earth.
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Castle Perilous / int_bb03c099	type	Cool Gate
Castle Perilous / int_bb03c099	comment	Cool Gate: Castle Perilous has 144,000 doors, each leading to an Alternate Universe, and they don't just wait for you to walk through—the portals wander, and actively seek out those who want to travel or get away.
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Castle Perilous / int_bc00493f	type	Precision F-Strike
Castle Perilous / int_bc00493f	comment	Precision F-Strike:
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Castle Perilous / int_beb932ca	type	Big Applesauce
Castle Perilous / int_beb932ca	comment	Big Applesauce: When Incarnadine looks for the Earth Aspect to go and visit Trent in Castle for Rent, it comes out in New York. As Incarnadine himself says, "All roads lead to New York." It turns out there's another reason for this...
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Castle Perilous / int_bef696dd	type	Mind Screw
Castle Perilous / int_bef696dd	comment	Mind Screw: The crossover of Direct Line to the Author, Metafiction, and All Just a Dream (or is it?) that is Castle Dreams. But Castle Perilous itself is a Mind Screw, from its Mobile Maze, Bigger on the Inside, chaotically shifting, insanely wild nature to how many worlds, creatures, spells, and mysteries lie within it. And that's just in the first book...things get even worse when Time Travel, Alternate Universes, and a Mirror Universe get involved.
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Castle Perilous / int_bf1255fa	type	Really Gets Around
Castle Perilous / int_bf1255fa	comment	Really Gets Around: Gene gets a great deal of sex, with every one of his Girls of the Week and, eventually, with Linda. At least one time, however, is actually important and plot-relevant—his ability to have sex with Alice proves he is no longer under the control of InnerVoice.
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Castle Perilous / int_bf1c906	type	Trophy Wife
Castle Perilous / int_bf1c906	comment	Trophy Wife: What Melydia was supposed to be for Vorn, courtesy of his controlling mother. She had other ideas...
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Castle Perilous / int_bf487e2b	type	Translator Microbes
Castle Perilous / int_bf487e2b	comment	Translator Microbes: Within the castle only. Shown off in a very well done scene when DuQuesne gets Linda to actually listen carefully, and hear the French he is speaking beneath the English. It can be turned off at will, and in other Aspects characters can get the general gist of other languages if they concentrate or have been exposed to them enough. Sometimes the translation lacks precision ("Elizabethan couplets" sounds to Snowclaw like "snow queen poetry"), but other times it is intriguingly accurate (as when "medieval" comes out as "middle ages").
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Castle Perilous / int_bf6a33a7	type	The Native Rival
Castle Perilous / int_bf6a33a7	comment	The Native Rival: The head of Vaya's royal guard, to Gene. It only gets worse when, after challenging and defeating him, Gene chooses not to kill him because of Honor Before Reason (and If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!). The fellow takes this to be Cruel Mercy instead...and makes Gene and Vaya pay for it.
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Castle Perilous / int_c007c53	type	Cool and Unusual Punishment
Castle Perilous / int_c007c53	comment	Cool and Unusual Punishment: After freeing Ramthonodox, Melydia threatens to turn Incarnadine into her castle instead. Incarnadine's punishment for Ferne: to be cast into a random Aspect until its gate closes and, if she ever manages to find her way back to the castle, to be sent into another, and so on for the rest of her life.
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Castle Perilous / int_c145f69b	type	Subverted Trope
Castle Perilous / int_c145f69b	comment	Subverted Trope: DeChancie uses these a lot, right from the very first book where the "horrible" thing pursuing Kwip up the stairwell turns out to be a pair of disembodied feet, the seemingly terrifying beast Snowclaw is actually fairly well-spoken, intelligent, and a loyal, brave companion, and the thief who breaks off a piece of the castle's magical brain does end up being a Spanner in the Works—but for the Big Bad, not Incarnadine. The Reveal of The Man Behind the Man is common. Sheila goes from being The Ingenue and The Ditz to one of the most powerful sorceresses the castle's ever seen. Trent, when given the chance to rule Perilous, is a Reasonable Authority Figure and The Good King instead of proving Ambition Is Evil, and ends up saving his brother instead of joining the Big Bad. There's even a Double Subversion in Bride of the Castle when the ghost town Rance discovers seems to be full of demons ready to capture and torture him, only for them to be upset and offended by his violent attack and accusations...but they still really are demons who try to kill him.
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Castle Perilous / int_c26e2b1	type	New Powers as the Plot Demands
Castle Perilous / int_c26e2b1	comment	New Powers as the Plot Demands: Literally, as every person who comes to the castle develops a talent which may just happen to be exactly what is needed at that moment to save the day. (I'm looking at you, Sheila.) Or not; but the nature of the plot still causes such magic to show up, regardless of its usefulness.
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Castle Perilous / int_c289826f	type	Double Standard Rape: Female on Male
Castle Perilous / int_c289826f	comment	Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Vaya making Gene her concubine, complete with Dress Hits Floor. This may be a deliberate Parody / Shout-Out to John Carter of Mars and other Pulp Fiction, but then again...
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Castle Perilous / int_c2e295cd	type	Curse
Castle Perilous / int_c2e295cd	comment	Even Rance, who doesn't come to the castle the normal way, counts thanks to the Curse of ill-fortune he was suffering from. If Max had ever made it to the real castle, he certainly would have counted too.
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Castle Perilous / int_c3478f1d	type	Badass Bookworm
Castle Perilous / int_c3478f1d	comment	Badass Bookworm: Both Trent and Incarnadine are this. The former is Played for Laughs when, after spouting off a great deal of natural and survival knowledge to Sheila, he deadpans that he's "had a subscription to Reader’s Digest for fifty years".
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Castle Perilous / int_c3bc970f	type	Seers
Castle Perilous / int_c3bc970f	comment	Seers: Melanie's talent seems to be seeing the immediate future, though whether only for herself, or only in relation to her pregnancy and children, is never fully explained.
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Castle Perilous / int_c3fbac64	type	Bestiality Is Depraved
Castle Perilous / int_c3fbac64	comment	Bestiality Is Depraved: Dorcas's husband is said by Trent to commit bestiality constantly, which Incarnadine excuses as a "religious ritual".
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Castle Perilous / int_c41668cd	type	Needle in a Stack of Needles
Castle Perilous / int_c41668cd	comment	Needle in a Stack of Needles: The murder weapon in Castle Murders is chosen precisely because it is a plain, very common, and easily procured knife and thus easy to confuse with others of its kind, as well as easy to find sold anywhere (thus proving nothing about where the purchaser came from).
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Castle Perilous / int_c420a553	type	We Can Rule Together
Castle Perilous / int_c420a553	comment	We Can Rule Together: The offer Ferne (and Deems) makes to Incarnadine in Castle for Rent. Also, Ruthven’s offer to Trent in Castle Dreams.
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Castle Perilous / int_c59cfa2e	type	Felony Misdemeanor
Castle Perilous / int_c59cfa2e	comment	Felony Misdemeanor: In Thaxton's own words, he is able to put up with volcanoes, earthquakes, acid hazards, and mythological beasts in the Golfhell Aspect, but when supernatural creatures start propositioning him for blood (or actively trying to trick him into falling prey to their Deadly Gaze), then It's Personal. (He proves this by maliciously ordering basilisk steak for dinner.)
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Castle Perilous / int_c70fc0a2	type	Pretentious Latin Motto
Castle Perilous / int_c70fc0a2	comment	The tendency of writers to use these to show off their literary knowledge or seem portentous (see Pretentious Latin Motto) is also lampshaded humorously enough, in a spot quiz essay question in Castle Dreams.
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Castle Perilous / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
Castle Perilous / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out / Homage: The Wizard of Oz, Bewitched, Poe (both "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee"), among many, many others. In Castle Murders, one of Those Two Guys, Thaxton (whose first name happens to be Peter), solves a magical murder mystery among the castle nobles. In appreciation, Incarnadine grants him a title...which entitles him to be known as Lord Peter. In Castle Dreams, the cry of the albatross in the "Afterlife" is "Tekeli-li!" Said albatross gets shot by Incarnadine, prompting his second-in-command to say, "I fear thee, Ancient Mariner!" These are only two of many allusions in that book.
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Castle Perilous / int_c85cb635	type	WhyDontYaJustShootHim
Castle Perilous / int_c85cb635	comment	Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Discussed by the multiple Incarnadines when trying to decide which of them gets to be "real".
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Castle Perilous / int_c8db76f6	type	And You Were There
Castle Perilous / int_c8db76f6	comment	And You Were There: In one of Linda's dreams in Castle Dreams, it is revealed that her boyfriend on Earth was (or at least looked like) Incarnadine. Because this dream, like all others in the book (and the book itself) never happened, this is never mentioned again, but it does explain why Linda fell for Incarnadine and why she ends up sleeping with his clone in Bride of the Castle. Things get more complex, though, when her boyfriend mentions dreaming that he died (which had also happened to Incarnadine himself), and his name, John, is the same as Incarnadine's Sue Donym. Even taking into account that the events of the book supposedly never happened, something is a bit off there...
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Castle Perilous / int_c9597a03	type	Self-Deprecation
Castle Perilous / int_c9597a03	comment	The scene in the conservatory in Castle Murders, where Incarnadine plays the Rachmaninoff concerto. Also, all the detail given to golf when Thaxton and Dalton are trapped in Golfhell in Castle War! is lampshaded in a footnote in Castle Dreams, along with mocking the fact that doing so much work and research keeps the author trapped inside without a social life.
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Castle Perilous / int_ca326e1e	type	Chekhov's Volcano
Castle Perilous / int_ca326e1e	comment	Chekhov's Volcano: When Trent and Sheila are trapped on the Deserted Island in Castle Kidnapped, they see another island nearby with a volcano on it. Sheila proclaims, optimistically, that it's dormant, but Trent, noting the lack of vegetation on it, isn't sure. Naturally enough, it does erupt later, forcing them to flee a tsunami.
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Castle Perilous / int_ca3a6dbd	type	Informed Ability
Castle Perilous / int_ca3a6dbd	comment	Informed Ability: We are told every Guest in the castle develops a talent if they stay there long enough, but there are a number of Guests whose talents we never see or even learn—Deena, Barnaby, DuQuesne. Thaxton hews even more to the trope, since he claims to not even have a talent but Dorcas says he has "great untapped potential"...which, other than his intellectual ability to solve crimes, we never see either.
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Castle Perilous / int_ca5d7b66	type	Pre-Climax Climax
Castle Perilous / int_ca5d7b66	comment	Pre-Climax Climax: With neither of them being any good in a fight, Deena and Barnaby take refuge in a bedroom during the climax of Castle for Rent...and then, since they think it might well be The End of the World as We Know It, one thing leads to another and...
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Castle Perilous / int_caf89e54	type	Taking You with Me
Castle Perilous / int_caf89e54	comment	Taking You with Me: Villainous version, where the dying Vasagaroth kills Jamin before collapsing.
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Castle Perilous / int_cbe687ab	type	Corrupt Corporate Executive
Castle Perilous / int_cbe687ab	comment	Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Hosts of Hell's assumed form has shades of a Cosmopolitan Council or Omniscient Council of Vagueness composed of these.
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Castle Perilous / int_cd3527d9	type	Negative Space Wedgie
Castle Perilous / int_cd3527d9	comment	Negative Space Wedgie: Happens a lot early on in the series. One of the most memorable would be the weird time dilation/Timey-Wimey Ball effect that happens at Ferne's mansion on Earth. Another is the breakdown of the castle's magic caused by the Hosts of Hell's tinkering in Castle Kidnapped.
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Castle Perilous / int_cda501da	type	Killed Off for Real
Castle Perilous / int_cda501da	comment	Killed Off for Real: Melydia, Jacoby, Ferne, Deems, Jamin, Tragg and Ruthven.
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Castle Perilous / int_ce104b8e	type	Serial Escalation
Castle Perilous / int_ce104b8e	comment	Incarnadine. At various times he is actually accused of godhood, or responds to the question by tongue-in-cheekly claiming to be a demiurge, and he certainly is, to use Osmirik's in-story Understatement, "something of a magician". In fact not only is he capable of things no one else is (creating and building computers by magic, creating technology with magic that lasts longer than anyone else's, understanding and applying numerous arcane systems, making three-dimensional spell components (and drawing complex two-dimensional ones by hand with perfectly accurate lines and angles without aid of draftsman's tools), memorizing complex spells after only reading them once, and so on), but he is usually the only one who fully understands what is going on and can save The Multiverse. The end result is that whenever a crisis ensues, he must inevitably be absent, trapped, or deliberately removed from the so that there can be any kind of narrative tension. Sometimes there is more than one issue at stake, so that he can handle the one on The Multiverse level while the other characters deal with the more "mundane" problems.
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Castle Perilous / int_ceec4df5	type	Roaring Rampage of Revenge
Castle Perilous / int_ceec4df5	comment	Roaring Rampage of Revenge: See Incarnadine. See Incarnadine make the Hosts of Hell pay for what they did to Ferne.
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Castle Perilous / int_d05cf3f	type	Footnote Fever
Castle Perilous / int_d05cf3f	comment	Footnote Fever: Castle Dreams, a rather surreal and existentialist entry in the series to begin with, has oodles of fun playing with spurious footnotes. The topics range from somewhat serious explanations of literary tropes, self-referential textual allusions, and obscure plot points to tongue-in-cheek humor, a hilarious send-up of many fantasy tropes and overall mockery of other examples of the genre (or the author!), fake attributions of famous poetry to modern-day celebrities, random comments which have nothing at all to do with the book, and times where the footnote writer propositions the reader for a date. And that doesn't even begin to describe the preface in which the supposed footnote writer reveals he didn't write them at all (or the preface!), as well as quizzes and tests scattered throughout the novel—usually based on info from the footnotes.
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Castle Perilous / int_d0b81ec4	type	Pineal Weirdness
Castle Perilous / int_d0b81ec4	comment	Pineal Weirdness: Dorcas and her Interior Eye, the Eye of Yahura.
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Castle Perilous / int_d0b94038	type	You Keep Telling Yourself That
Castle Perilous / int_d0b94038	comment	You Keep Telling Yourself That: Gene is rather determined to convince himself the worlds beyond the portals aren't real, just lifelike holograms or movies he can step into...to keep from having to think about Sativa.
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Castle Perilous / int_d104235d	type	Fair-Play Whodunnit
Castle Perilous / int_d104235d	comment	Fair-Play Whodunnit: Castle Murders. Although the specific spells which were required to commit the murder have no real way of being guessed by the reader (though it becomes clear fairly early on that invisibility must have been involved somehow), the clues as to who the murderer was were indeed in the text all along. Not only was Arl the actual first suspect met in the narrative, and revealed in that conversation to not be close to his brother, but he is mentioned in passing during Linda and Melanie's visit to the library as having been there that morning, and Lady Rilma remembers him touching Oren just before the viscount left the party.
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Castle Perilous / int_d129e13e	type	"Eureka!" Moment
Castle Perilous / int_d129e13e	comment	"Eureka!" Moment: In Castle Murders, Thaxton has a dramatic realization after reading the book of spells and getting a good night's sleep.
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Castle Perilous / int_d2e98fd5	type	Die or Fly
Castle Perilous / int_d2e98fd5	comment	Die or Fly: Or in this case, drown: Sheila figures out the magic of the water world so as to save her and Trent Just in Time when the volcano's tsunami is about to hit. Learning a world's magic at the last second so as to save the day seems to be what she does.
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Castle Perilous / int_d355ba37	type	Turned Against Their Masters
Castle Perilous / int_d355ba37	comment	Turned Against Their Masters: Ferne really should have known better than to trust the Hosts of Hell, or believe she could outsmart and overpower them. See Evil Is Not a Toy.
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Castle Perilous / int_d397657d	type	Hoist by His Own Petard
Castle Perilous / int_d397657d	comment	Hoist by His Own Petard: Kwip never would have lost his thief's stash to the spell-summoned crowds in Castle Spellbound if he'd just left it in his room, instead of assuming the cleaning homunculi were thieves come to steal it.
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Castle Perilous / int_d3b02ffb	type	I Know Your True Name
Castle Perilous / int_d3b02ffb	comment	I Know Your True Name: Knowing Ramthonodox's true name gives a mage power over him, and allows him to be released. In the process his Laser-Guided Amnesia is reversed—in fact it is the very recollection of his name that releases him, so his true name allows him to have power over himself.
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Castle Perilous / int_d45c0b86	type	Refuge in Audacity
Castle Perilous / int_d45c0b86	comment	Refuge in Audacity: This, and Vulgar Humor, comes into play in how Incarnadine defeats the dengs of Necropolis: he puts out the fires of Hell by emptying his bladder on them.
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Castle Perilous / int_d51553de	type	Our Wormholes Are Different
Castle Perilous / int_d51553de	comment	Our Wormholes Are Different: As evidenced by his sci-fi series, DeChancie loves this trope. Here it appears in Sativa's world, where Faster-Than-Light Travel is made possible by dangerously skirting seams or faults in the "plates" of spacetime called the Thread, then using these "cracks" as Hyperspace Lanes.
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Castle Perilous / int_d62dd556	type	The Chessmaster
Castle Perilous / int_d62dd556	comment	How Incarnadine defeats Melydia and restores the castle: because Kwip had broken a piece off of Ramthonodox’s brain, it was missing an Aspect. Demons must have all their Aspects to feel complete, so without it he was vulnerable to manipulation and control. Particularly because Incarnadine, Chessmaster that he was, had gotten said shard away from Jacoby and could use it to bargain with.
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Castle Perilous / int_d67aae8f	type	It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
Castle Perilous / int_d67aae8f	comment	It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Castle Murders opens on a college campus, with the line "It was a stark and dormy night..." He also later uses the line "It was a dark night of Sturm und Drang."
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Castle Perilous / int_d68c925d	type	Creator Provincialism
Castle Perilous / int_d68c925d	comment	Creator Provincialism: Several Earth Guests who appear at the start of the series, including The Hero, are from Pennsylvania (justified in-story by Ferne having a mansion there where she would periodically bring the portal before letting it wander) and quite a bit of time is spent there during Trent and Incarnadine's assault on the mansion as well as Snowclaw's Trapped in Another World subplot from Castle Kidnapped. The city of the Big Brother Is Watching Aspect is stated to be where Pittsburgh would be in reality. Pennsylvania is where John DeChancie resides (Pittsburgh, to be precise).
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Castle Perilous / int_d848560f	type	Unusual Euphemism
Castle Perilous / int_d848560f	comment	Unusual Euphemism: "Great White Stuff!"
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Castle Perilous / int_d9c4365c	type	Reset Button
Castle Perilous / int_d9c4365c	comment	Reset Button: The main heroes receive this at the end of the first book when the castle is first restored to its original demonic form, then transformed back again by Incarnadine. Despite all knowledge of the castle and the events of the book being wiped out, they all meet up again, become close friends, and gain savvy knowledge of the castle since apparently You Can't Fight Fate. Unfortunately one of the things forgotten is Gene's Anguished Declaration of Love, resulting in a Will They or Won't They? for the rest of the series. It is later revealed in Castle Murders that perhaps not everything was forgotten, as Linda has memories of Ramthonodox and the castle breaking down, though it all seems like a hazy dream to her.
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Castle Perilous / int_dae5c997	type	Action Girl
Castle Perilous / int_dae5c997	comment	Action Girl: Vaya, since she is a warrior queen and, in the two scenes where she gets to fight, she effortlessly kills Yerga and learns to use the Umoi weapon with surprising skill, taking out a number of Annau's robots. Appropriate, considering her source.
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Castle Perilous / int_dbb414ed	type	Hand Wave
Castle Perilous / int_dbb414ed	comment	Happens often to the bit players when their plots are mere amusing hijinks or are simply not deemed important when compared to the main plot. Sometimes their stories are resolved with a quick Hand Wave or a brief narration of what happened off-screen; other times it's forgotten entirely yet the characters still show up just fine in the next book.
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Castle Perilous / int_dc1a6b76	type	Reality Is Out to Lunch
Castle Perilous / int_dc1a6b76	comment	Reality Is Out to Lunch: What happens when spells go awry, the castle's transformative magic is being picked apart, or invaders unleash their own spells. Particularly memorable moments would be the final stages of the castle's transformation back into Ramthonodox, the breakdown of the castle in Castle Kidnapped, and the entirety of Castle Spellbound, which everyone remarks is really weird, even for Castle Perilous.
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Castle Perilous / int_dc579c91	type	Contrived Coincidence
Castle Perilous / int_dc579c91	comment	Contrived Coincidence: All the heroes just happen to find the room where the Brain of Ramthonodox is at the same time as the Big Bad so as to confront her...and just so happen to have a thief in their midst. The entire climax of Castle for Rent: Gene, Linda, Snowclaw, and Sheila happen to take refuge in the library and summon the Earth portal there at the same time as Barnaby, Deena, and Kwip find Osmirik and bring him out of his cubbyhole, and he fetches the book with the spell to reseal the Hosts of Hell's Aspect. Then they all go through the portal to Ferne's mansion at the same time as Trent and Incarnadine arrive to take on the Hosts' forces, thus providing a distraction, helping bring the Hosts that much quicker to spell exhaustion, and bringing them the spell they need to win. Gene and Vaya happen to be inside the Sidewise Voyager when Incarnadine summons it to help save The Multiverse and stop the Hosts of Hell. Lampshaded by Incarnadine himself. The book containing the spells which were the inspiration for Oren's murder happened to be written by the same man whom Melanie encounters in the "Robin Hood" Aspect. This one really is just a meaningless coincidence (and perhaps an attempt to tie her plot to the rest of the book) since this knowledge has nothing to do with the plot or solving the mystery. It does establish, however, that the Aspect Melanie was trapped in must somehow have been the past of the Garden Aspect (since it was stated the book of magic was not only the only one which dealt with the magic of that Aspect but originated within it); this may explain the time differential between the one Melanie was in (but not the present-day Garden Aspect) and the castle which Linda observed.
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Castle Perilous / int_dc6a260b	type	Try to Fit That on a Business Card
Castle Perilous / int_dc6a260b	comment	Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Incarnadine, His Serene and Transcendent Majesty of the House of Haplodite, Lord of the Western Pale, Liege Lord, Imperator and Gatekeeper, King of the Realms Perilous, Sovereign Ruler of Ylium, Zephorea, Halmudia, Grekoran, and West Thurlangia, Protector of... Also, His Royal Highness Trent, Prince of the House of Haplodie, Protector of Zilonesia, Vice-regent of Ulontha, Beloved of the Gods, Holy Warrior, Keeper of the Stone of Truth-telling... Though this may not all be true, since his introduction came from Incarnadine.
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Castle Perilous / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
Castle Perilous / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure / The Good King: Incarnadine and, it turns out, Trent.
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Castle Perilous / int_dcaa8b35	type	Locked Room Mystery
Castle Perilous / int_dcaa8b35	comment	In Castle Murders, Thaxton not only discusses the Locked Room Mystery (and its lack of plausibility in Real Life), but makes note of the fact most murders are crimes of passion and not premeditated, and therefore not well-planned. Happens because Thaxton is himself an avid mystery reader.
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Castle Perilous / int_dcbe8a6e	type	Chekhov's Gunman
Castle Perilous / int_dcbe8a6e	comment	Chekhov's Gunman: Jamin; Tragg. The former appears to be just a mostly-harmless, if typically arrogant and classist, rake while the latter seems to be just a member of the royal Privy Council (if one of the few principled ones). But both also turn out to be involved with the villainous schemes of their particular books.
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Castle Perilous / int_dd3272bb	type	What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?
Castle Perilous / int_dd3272bb	comment	What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: While some Guests get to have incredible powers (like Linda and Sheila) or ones clearly meant for heroics (like Gene's), others have to contend with nearly useless abilities. A case could be made that most of the Guests whose talents we never learn have talents like this. And a very good example of such a talent would be Osmirik's: an enhanced sense of smell, which comes in handy exactly once in the series, is never mentioned again, and almost as soon as he develops it becomes a hindrance since he managed to find himself in the castle's Water Works...
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Castle Perilous / int_ddb124b3	type	Cast Herd
Castle Perilous / int_ddb124b3	comment	Cast Herd: As might be expected in a setting where there are 144,000 possible worlds. We never even meet all the Guests (the non-human ones other than Snowclaw, and the humans who aren't from Earth, even have their own separate dining halls and never mingle with the main cast), and among the ones specifically introduced to the reader, there are a number who act only as window dressing and get little Character Development. For the characters the reader does meet, while there is a core group that usually receives the focus (Gene, Linda, and Snowclaw), various other groups and pairings tend to form, although these often shift depending on the needs of the plot (or who happens to get stuck in an Aspect together)—Barnaby, Deena, and Kwip often end up together, though just as often the first two are together while Kwip is alone; sometimes Sheila is with the main trio, sometimes she's with someone else (and eventually, after she hooks up with Trent, they're always off together on the water world and rarely interact with the main cast); Dalton and Thaxton are together (usually playing golf) nine times out of ten. Incarnadine is more often than not doing his own thing completely extraneous from the rest of the plot (unless what he's investigating has something to do with the Villain of the Week or the latest magical danger), but sometimes he's paired up with Osmirik, his brother Trent, or Jeremy (who also often has his own solo adventures).
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Castle Perilous / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Castle Perilous / int_de5e9f69	comment	Bluffing the Murderer: How Thaxton gets Lord Arl's confession in Castle Murders. Trent lampshades this as the reason for/intended result of the Summation Gathering.
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Castle Perilous / int_deea2fb5	type	Idle Rich
Castle Perilous / int_deea2fb5	comment	Idle Rich: Thanks to the fact he spends most of his time moonlighting in other dimensions (including a stint as a fantasy writer here on Earth), Incarnadine often comes across as this. Has been called on it a number of times, by both Ferne and his enemy plotters, but when he does pay attention and act like a king, it is always awesome and badass. And he does in fact directly and decisively rule in many of the Aspects he lives in, though at least once he abrogates his huge load of responsibilities to go jogging while letting his clone run things...which does prove to be a mistake.
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Castle Perilous / int_df04089a	type	Lineage Comes from the Father
Castle Perilous / int_df04089a	comment	Lineage Comes from the Father: Railing against this trope (and how it keeps women from having any power or authority) is Melydia's excuse for leading a siege against the castle; in truth, it's more about Revenge and insanely wanting to Take Over the World. It's also Ferne's motivation, in response to being denied the Seat Perilous in favor of her younger brother.
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Castle Perilous / int_dfe120e5	type	Functional Magic
Castle Perilous / int_dfe120e5	comment	Played with. The rules of Functional Magic themselves remain consistent and reliable, even when the castle itself isn't due to its chaotic, entropic nature...but magic can act differently from Aspect to Aspect, causing spells to behave weirdly, having the opposite or no effect, and talents to go awry. Even Sheila summoning a portal can become next to impossible in certain worlds. On the other hand, once enough time is spent in a world, talents adapt and mages can make their spells work again; Sheila eventually attunes herself enough to draw portals wherever she goes.
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Castle Perilous / int_dfe57573	type	Historical In-Joke
Castle Perilous / int_dfe57573	comment	Historical In-Joke: In Castle War!, when Incarnadine meets his uncle Mordecai in an attempt to get back to the castle and fix The Multiverse, he learns that the cosmic disturbance had caused a quake on Earth: in San Francisco. (The book was published in 1990, the year after Loma Prieta.)
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Castle Perilous / int_dffd6a64	type	Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex
Castle Perilous / int_dffd6a64	comment	Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Trent and Sheila.
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Castle Perilous / int_e1721fd1	type	Antiquated Linguistics
Castle Perilous / int_e1721fd1	comment	Antiquated Linguistics: Used in spell casting, when speaking to the dead, and also by Incarnadine's nobles, Osmirik, and Kwip. Otherwise, it's all modern speak (or at least translated as such). In the case of the dead it seems to be merely a traditional affectation. The language of the Haplodites, Incarnadine's line, is translated for the reader as Flowery Elizabethan English.
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Castle Perilous / int_e26f04b4	type	Last of His Kind
Castle Perilous / int_e26f04b4	comment	Last of His Kind: The Hosts of Hell, since they are actually a single Hive Mind. Also, Ablomabel.
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Castle Perilous / int_e2a6ebc1	type	Closed Circle
Castle Perilous / int_e2a6ebc1	comment	Closed Circle: The party guests in Castle Murders are not allowed to leave the Garden Aspect until the murder of Viscount Oren is solved. Justified since otherwise the killer could escape into any of the 144,000 Aspects.
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Castle Perilous / int_e2d457	type	The Ditz
Castle Perilous / int_e2d457	comment	The Ditz: Also Sheila at first. She gets better.
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Castle Perilous / int_e42c07e6	type	Holy Hand Grenade
Castle Perilous / int_e42c07e6	comment	Holy Hand Grenade: The blessed bottle of seltzer water in the Noir Aspect (and nicely foreshadowed, too).
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Castle Perilous / int_e49686	type	The Hero
Castle Perilous / int_e49686	comment	The Hero: Gene.
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Castle Perilous / int_e4bb68b8	type	The Charmer
Castle Perilous / int_e4bb68b8	comment	The Charmer: Trent, helped along by him also being the image of blond-haired, blue-eyed Prince Charming.
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Castle Perilous / int_e4f48a7f	type	The "Fun" in "Funeral"
Castle Perilous / int_e4f48a7f	comment	The "Fun" in "Funeral": Incarnadine wakes up right in the middle of his, thanks to a spell that made him appear to be dead getting broken by Trent. "Ye gods, can't a fellow take a little nap around here?"
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Castle Perilous / int_e563bf09	type	Insistent Terminology
Castle Perilous / int_e563bf09	comment	Insistent Terminology: The 144,000 portals to other worlds, and the worlds themselves, are always called Aspects (because, as it turns out, they are natural aspects of the demonic magic which composes Ramthonodox). Travelers from these worlds, even before they stay at the castle for good or decide if they will, are called Guests by Incarnadine and his staff and fellow nobles, due to his noblesse oblige and medieval sense of hospitality. Incarnadine always calls himself lord, not king, because his ancestor had originally been vassal to a king, only gaining rulership after a war and in any event mostly ruling only an unpopulated desert.
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Castle Perilous / int_e5e6640b	type	Flanderization
Castle Perilous / int_e5e6640b	comment	Flanderization: Poor, poor Snowclaw. While never very bright, he certainly wasn't stupid, yet later installments play up his dumbness far more than earlier ones. His Big Eater status also gets worse as time goes on.
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Castle Perilous / int_e68b72	type	The Load
Castle Perilous / int_e68b72	comment	The Load: Thaxton and Dalton, Deena and Barnaby, Jeremy (at first).
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Castle Perilous / int_e7b0229a	type	Laser-Guided Amnesia
Castle Perilous / int_e7b0229a	comment	Laser-Guided Amnesia: Ramthonodox himself suffers from this as part of the transformation spell, forgetting his name and identity so as to become the castle. Only this amnesia keeps him locked in his inanimate form. This also happens to Incarnadine in the "Afterlife".
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Castle Perilous / int_e9604359	type	Monster of the Week
Castle Perilous / int_e9604359	comment	Monster of the Week: Aside from the threats which manifest in each book (the Blue Meanies, the Hosts of Hell, the doppelgangers), random monsters often appear around every corner or through every door whenever an Aspect is crossed.
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Castle Perilous / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
Castle Perilous / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: Incarnadine told his family he had dispensed of Ferne "with coldest justice". They took this to mean she'd been executed, but it was actually referring to a Fate Worse than Death.
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Castle Perilous / int_ea39d156	type	Who Wants to Live Forever?
Castle Perilous / int_ea39d156	comment	Who Wants to Live Forever?: Incarnadine. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the rather epic speech he gives to Lemarr Hamilton in Castle Murders.
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Castle Perilous / int_ea85d6ea	type	All Just a Dream
Castle Perilous / int_ea85d6ea	comment	All Just a Dream: What the entirety of Castle Dreams turns out to be. Made more complex by the fact that nothing which happens in the book is mentioned again, or even happened at all, since Osmirik claims the book is a work of fiction within the 'real' fictional world but perhaps happened in an Alternate Universe or Mirror Universe. So not only a dream but a What If?. However, there are hints that it does have bearing upon, or is a reflection of, the real world: Trent wakes from a dream at the start of Castle Spellbound that is implied to be the same events as those in Castle Dreams (complete with a Meaningful Echo of Incarnadine's last line of the book), and the feelings which Linda has for Inky that are first revealed in Castle Dreams are referenced again in Castle Spellbound when Gene guesses she has feelings for someone in the castle; it comes to a head in Bride of the Castle. In the end, though, things are left rather mysterious and unresolved.
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Castle Perilous / int_eb81c601	type	Big Damn Heroes
Castle Perilous / int_eb81c601	comment	Despite all of his magical (and mundane) defenses, Incarnadine can't stop Vorn's armies from winning their siege, despite all of his research and study (and Osmirik's) they can't find any way to stop Melydia's spellwork, and despite the Big Damn Heroes moment wherein the main characters take out all of her guards (zombies and duplicates included) and Linda almost gets her hands on Melydia, the castle still gets changed back into Ramthonodox. Partly this is due to the fact prophecy said it would happen, but it's also because Incarnadine ends up letting it happen as part of a Batman Gambit—on the one hand, Ramthonodox's release eliminated the besieging armies, drained Melydia of her powers, and made her sane again so she could help him re-cast the Forced Transformation; on the other hand, he allowed it to come to pass because he knew of the broken shard of the Brain and how this loss would weaken the demon and allow him to regain control of it again.
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Castle Perilous / int_eba6a077	type	Cain and Abel
Castle Perilous / int_eba6a077	comment	Cain and Abel: Incarnadine and Trent, at one time.
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Castle Perilous / int_ec4b148	type	Old, Dark House
Castle Perilous / int_ec4b148	comment	Old, Dark House: Peele Castle in Castle Murders, complete with seacoast cliff, crashing waves, and a thunderstorm.
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Castle Perilous / int_ed07a226	type	No More for Me
Castle Perilous / int_ed07a226	comment	No More for Me: The reaction of the pot-smoking truck driver who sees Snowclaw's disguise spell momentarily break down.
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Castle Perilous / int_ee1c6326	type	Mobile Maze
Castle Perilous / int_ee1c6326	comment	Mobile Maze: The entire castle acts this way. The outer regions are especially chaotic and unstable, quite Escher-like, while the Guest areas are relatively safe with only a few minor gravity and perspective shifts every so often. Since the castle is also a massive Portal Network to 144,000 worldsnote For those unfamiliar with religious numerology, this is the number of the tribes of Judah sealed by God for protection in Revelation, the number of the faithful to be saved in Jehovah's Witness beliefs, the number of prophets in Islam (possibly), and more, a trip to the bathroom can lead to adventure, terror, or the bathroom.
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Castle Perilous / int_ef92caa4	type	World Gone Mad
Castle Perilous / int_ef92caa4	comment	World Gone Mad: Even when it's not the case that Reality Is Out to Lunch, this still pretty much describes the castle itself and justifies almost everything that happens. If it isn't Rule of Cool. As a sign of how strange the castle is, and how used to this the Guests become, when the Literal Genie spell gets out of control no one bothers to question whether the castle's magic going awry isn't responsible, instead trying to figure out just how it screwed up this time. In fact they're so blasé it takes things getting really out of control before most of them even bat an eye. Snowclaw assumes it's just situation normal for those "interesting", always busy humans, and finds the lack of his Thousand Island dressing more odd than all the rest of it.
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Castle Perilous / int_efacc623	type	Drama-Preserving Handicap
Castle Perilous / int_efacc623	comment	Drama-Preserving Handicap: Thanks to the great powers possessed by Incarnadine, this almost always applies to him during the various crises and issues that arise. Sometimes his absence is actually engineered by the Big Bad or their minions (his being trapped on Earth in Castle for Rent, the zombie spell in Castle Dreams), sometimes it's an indirect result of what is going on (the Hosts of Hell's tinkering in Castle Kidnapped kept him busy trying to stop them and unable to help rescue the missing Guests, and the breakdown of The Multiverse in Castle War! shrank the portal from Merydion so he had to find another way home so he could deal with the issue), and sometimes it's a completely unrelated event that has him away (dealing with the dengs of Necropolis keeps him from being on-hand for the murder mystery; playing real-life war games with Trent keeps him away during the Literal Genie spell). Coming up with one excuse after another to keep him occupied/away (and thus straining the Willing Suspension of Disbelief) may be partly why DeChancie quit writing the series. A lesser example of this also applies to keeping Sheila and her Story-Breaker Power from always saving the day.
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Castle Perilous / int_f05444a4	type	Once per Episode
Castle Perilous / int_f05444a4	comment	Once per Episode: At first, it was "an army/host of evil/crazed mob invades or attacks the castle". Then it became "something weird/strange/silly happens with the castle’s magic that nearly overwhelms the heroes". The end result of both was that the characters end up having to flee, hop in and out of Aspects, and have ridiculous random adventures. Eventually the trope becomes "Gene gets stranded/lost/goes off to get the juices flowing and find himself and the others worry/try to rescue him".
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Castle Perilous / int_f1356f5e	type	Speaks Fluent Animal
Castle Perilous / int_f1356f5e	comment	Speaks Fluent Animal: In Castle for Rent Barnaby is implied, but never confirmed, to have the ability to speak to animals; the strange feline beasts he and Deena encounter are able to communicate empathically with both of them, but only he hears the actual thoughts of one when they flee the Aspect. Since they've never encountered beasts or bestial sapients since then, this point is never pursued later on.
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Castle Perilous / int_f1492605	type	Redemption Equals Death
Castle Perilous / int_f1492605	comment	Redemption Equals Death: Deems, Ferne.
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Castle Perilous / int_f165cf2c	type	Last-Second Word Swap
Castle Perilous / int_f165cf2c	comment	Last-Second Word Swap:
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Castle Perilous / int_f1d3f0c9	type	Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
Castle Perilous / int_f1d3f0c9	comment	Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: DeChancie isn't afraid to show off his vocabulary, nor does he underestimate the intelligence of his readers. At the same time, there is a deliberate dissonance between this and modern colloquial speech, thanks to Incarnadine and Trent having lived on Earth for so long. The switch between the two is also deliberately invoked by Incarnadine (and Trent) to annoy or confuse his enemies (Castle Dreams), and vice versa (the Hosts of Hells' "used car salesman" shtick).
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Castle Perilous / int_f2dadf81	type	Evil Twin
Castle Perilous / int_f2dadf81	comment	Evil Twin: Thanks to the Mirror Universe everyone has one. But special mention also goes to Jeremy's in the series of alternate realities in Bride of the Castle.
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Castle Perilous / int_f31926c2	type	Expendable Alternate Universe
Castle Perilous / int_f31926c2	comment	Expendable Alternate Universe: The infinite number of variants of Earth found for Max by Jeremy's Evil Twin explores this in many permutations—some are For Want of a Nail where one simple thing having changed (his boss Herb Fenton having died in a car accident, him going into partnership with different men, whether or not he proposed to his beloved Andrea) changed his entire life; at the same time In Spite of a Nail the rest of the world is always identical save small things such as who the president is, and Max's overall personality and past are the same, as is everyone's in his life. Still others are complete Alternate Universes with versions of himself (and Jeremy) from the far past or the future. As soon as Max discovers the flaw in a particular universe, he immediately wants out and dismisses it, its denizens, and his alternate self from there as having any value. In the end, though, it turns out that no matter how many variants he finds, he can never find the original again—and in every one, whether due to his choice in partners, a ruined marriage with Andrea, or financial hardships with his company, Max will never, ever be able to find true happiness or the life that he wants. The trope is also played with (and somewhat Played for Laughs) in that all those alternate selves he dismissed as having any value show up at once at the end, clamoring for the right to have a world of their own to live in, to the point the alternate Jeremys have an auction where they can bid on the "best" world.
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Castle Perilous / int_f44ad3e1	type	Twin Switch
Castle Perilous / int_f44ad3e1	comment	Clone Switch: Incarnadine pulls this magically in Bride of the Castle in order to escape the stresses and responsibilities of ruling. Unfortunately said clone is not his exact duplicate after all—while there is no degeneration, Empty Shell, soullessness, or any other negative repercussion of cloning, his personality and decision-making are different enough to allow his retainers and nobles to manipulate him for their own ends a little...and leads to him declaring his love for Linda, offering her the chance to be his official mistress, and sleeping with her.
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Castle Perilous / int_f4d8ac92	type	The Assimilator
Castle Perilous / int_f4d8ac92	comment	The Assimilator: Melydia's fate, thanks to the recasting of the transmogrification spell on Ramthonodox.
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Castle Perilous / int_f52ae5d8	type	Enemy Civil War
Castle Perilous / int_f52ae5d8	comment	Enemy Civil War: In Castle for Rent, the Blue Meanies versus the Hosts of Hell, with Ferne and Deems's forces later thrown into the mix. In Castle War!, all of the Mirror Universe Incarnadines and their guardsmen versus each other.
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Castle Perilous / int_f6b7820b	type	Cosmic Keystone
Castle Perilous / int_f6b7820b	comment	Cosmic Keystone: Castle Perilous, since all of existence, and the reality of the various universes, depends on its existence. Played with, however, in that the castle cannot be taken or destroyed like most keystones; instead it can only be unmade, whether by undoing the spell upon Ramthonodox or by destabilizing the universes and the magic which holds them together. So while theoretically The Multiverse could be destroyed by unmaking Castle Perilous, none of the Big Bad's plans ever relate to this goal, it never actually gets carried out, and the few times it comes close to happening are as an unintended consequence of the Evil Plan of the week (or simple chaos and entropy).
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Castle Perilous / int_f765e2d3	type	Dying Alone
Castle Perilous / int_f765e2d3	comment	Dying Alone: Ablomabel, until Gene, Linda, and Snowclaw find it. Sniff.
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Castle Perilous / int_f8b3fa5d	type	Our Werewolves Are Different
Castle Perilous / int_f8b3fa5d	comment	Our Werewolves Are Different: The werewolf encountered in Golfhell is apparently more on the vampiric side, since he's interested in Thaxton's blood. When Thaxton claims In-Universe "Everybody knows that werewolves don’t drink blood", the creature quips, "Everyone’s wrong, I’m AC/DC."
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Castle Perilous / int_f9636192	type	Prophecies Are Always Right
Castle Perilous / int_f9636192	comment	Prophecies Are Always Right: That Castle Perilous would be unmade, Ramthonodox freed to ravage the land, but restored again by one whose "name shall be as blood".
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Castle Perilous / int_f9876f7e	type	Faking the Dead
Castle Perilous / int_f9876f7e	comment	Faking the Dead: Linda, courtesy of a bulletproof vest after her Evil Twin shoots her with a poison dart.
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Castle Perilous / int_f9f2c33	type	Running Gag
Castle Perilous / int_f9f2c33	comment	Running Gag: Not as many as you might expect, but a few. Gene continually compares Linda to Samantha from Bewitched (and himself to Darin). Thaxton perennially complains about Dalton always wanting to play golf all the time instead of his game of choice, tennis, yet always goes along with him and enjoys it anyway. Much more hilarious is the bizarre fixation on Tierra del Fuego that runs through the footnotes and quizzes/tests in Castle Dreams. There's also one related to the poor Land Surveyor in Castle Murders.
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Castle Perilous / int_fa77a6e5	type	Heroic Dolphin
Castle Perilous / int_fa77a6e5	comment	Heroic Dolphin: Or some sort of cetacean anyway; they rescue Trent and Sheila on the water world.
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Castle Perilous / int_fa7d3dfe	type	Number Two
Castle Perilous / int_fa7d3dfe	comment	Number Two: Tyrene, for Incarnadine.
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Castle Perilous / int_fb76b6ec	type	Kiss Me, I'm Virtual
Castle Perilous / int_fb76b6ec	comment	Kiss Me, I'm Virtual / Robosexual: Jeremy and his AI, Isis.
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Castle Perilous / int_fb9e25e9	type	Team Mom
Castle Perilous / int_fb9e25e9	comment	Team Mom: Dorcas, at least according to Incarnadine; Linda.
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Castle Perilous / int_fb9e2ffd	type	Team Pet
Castle Perilous / int_fb9e2ffd	comment	Team Pet: Goofus, the Big Friendly Dog who is conjured to be able to follow scents psychically across worlds.
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Castle Perilous / int_fc148c2c	type	Weapon Specialization
Castle Perilous / int_fc148c2c	comment	Weapon Specialization: Snowclaw picks up a broadax from the castle armory in the very first book and uses it for the rest of the series. To an extent this invokes Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon, seeing as he is a large, furry, yeti-type beast, but since (like everyone else) his speech is magically translated into colloquial modern English, that trope is somwhat subverted. That said, his choice certainly does say something about him (namely that he prefers the simplest and most direct solution most of the time).
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Castle Perilous / int_fd4f8299	type	Well-Intentioned Extremist
Castle Perilous / int_fd4f8299	comment	Well-Intentioned Extremist: Vorn, if you squint right. Although a conquering warlord, he also fully believed he was doing a right and holy thing by capturing and destroying Castle Perilous, that it was a fortress of evil ruled by the Devil himself and only by doing as Melydia directed would the world be saved. What he didn't know was that she was only using him, and that instead of destroying the evil, her plan for the castle would actually free it. Ferne was one as well, since she fully believed she should rule, or co-rule, Perilous and was thus willing to open up dangerous Aspects (and use the power of the Hosts of Hell) to get what she wanted, but never truly intended to harm her brother, the castle, or any of its inhabitants if she could help it.
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Castle Perilous / int_fd94c4ac	type	Theme Naming
Castle Perilous / int_fd94c4ac	comment	Theme Naming: In Castle Murders several chapters are named after rooms which appear in Clue. The tagline for the book is also in the form of a Suggestion ("Was is it the Royal Scribe? In the library? With a broadax?").
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Castle Perilous / int_fdc1e848	type	Will They or Won't They?
Castle Perilous / int_fdc1e848	comment	Will They or Won't They?: Gene and Linda. (Finally, after seven books, they do.)
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Castle Perilous / int_fe0330fb	type	Brick Joke
Castle Perilous / int_fe0330fb	comment	Brick Joke: In the preface for Castle Murders, Osmirik complains about the improper use of "portfolio" in place of "folio" back in book one. Much later in the book, during The Summation that ends the mystery, a folio is again produced...with a footnote saying, "Up yours, Osmirik!" Another Brick Joke, also related to the footnotes, appears in the form of an essay question on Tierra del Fuego in Castle Dreams, referencing the previous footnotes on the subject. A third appears in Bride of the Castle, calling back to Castle Murders: in the latter book, Gene had jokingly claimed he was a medium who channeled a mystic spirit from the other side named...Murray. This also turns out to be the name of the dead king's ghost who curses Rance.
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Castle Perilous / int_fe1b2e75	type	Bigger on the Inside
Castle Perilous / int_fe1b2e75	comment	Bigger on the Inside: Which is quite an achievement for a castle as massive as it is to begin with.
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Castle Perilous / int_fe64d5a1	type	Evil Is Petty
Castle Perilous / int_fe64d5a1	comment	Evil Is Petty: Tragg, whose main grievances with Incarnadine are that he (supposedly) cuckolded him and that he once sued his estate for back taxes.
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Castle Perilous / int_feb72f62	type	Literal Genie
Castle Perilous / int_feb72f62	comment	Literal Genie: The spell in Castle Spellbound.
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Castle Perilous / int_febbbf8	type	IntangibleMan
Castle Perilous / int_febbbf8	comment	Intangible Man: Kwip.
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Castle Perilous / int_ff16efbf	type	Heroes Want Redheads
Castle Perilous / int_ff16efbf	comment	Heroes Want Redheads: Or at least, Trent and Isis do.
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Castle Perilous / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
Castle Perilous / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: The scene in the conservatory in Castle Murders, where Incarnadine plays the Rachmaninoff concerto. Also, all the detail given to golf when Thaxton and Dalton are trapped in Golfhell in Castle War! is lampshaded in a footnote in Castle Dreams, along with mocking the fact that doing so much work and research keeps the author trapped inside without a social life. When Trent visits the Greek-like Aspect Hellas, he remarks on how all the massive marble buildings are painted in bright, garish colors instead of being the plain unadorned white of modern buildings in that style.
Castle Perilous / int_ffad4e9f	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_ffad4e9f	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_ffad4e9f
Castle Perilous / int_name	type	ItemName
Castle Perilous / int_name	comment
Castle Perilous / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
Castle Perilous / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Castle Perilous / int_name
Castle Perilous / int_name	itemName	Castle Perilous

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Castle Perilous	hasFeature	All-Natural Fire Extinguisher / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Building of Adventure / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Cool Gate / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Don't Do Anything I Wouldn't Do / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Footnote Fever / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	It Was a Dark and Stormy Night / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Liminal Time / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Me's a Crowd / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Mobile Maze / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Portal Door / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Take Away Their Name / int_6a9440b2
Castle Perilous	hasFeature	Translator Microbes / int_6a9440b2

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