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Otherland

1090 statements
215 feature instances
86 referencing feature instances

Otherland	type	TVTItem
Otherland	label	Otherland
Otherland	page	Otherland
Otherland	comment	Otherland is an epic Post-Cyberpunk novel series written by Tad Williams, comprising four volumes: City of Golden Shadow (1996) River of Blue Fire (1998) Mountain of Black Glass (1999) Sea of Silver Light (2001)The story is set 20 Minutes into the Future, where corporate entities are as or more powerful than governments and the Internet has become a Metaverse with its own private virtual reality environments. It follows a disparate group of ordinary people whose lives become entwined in the discovery that thousands of children around the world are falling into comas that are seemingly related to their use of the 'Net. As they delve further into these mysteries, they encounter a secretive figure named Sellars who tells them that the comas are connected to a conspiracy of the world's elite known as the Grail Brotherhood. Their apparent goal is to create a computer simulation more powerful than anything that has ever been seen before, called the Grail Network by its creators but Otherland by the few outsiders who know of it. With Sellars' help, they break into this system looking for clues, only to be trapped within the network, unable to "disconnect" and return to their bodies.Stumbling from one hostile virtual reality environment to another, chased by agents of the Brotherhood, they discover that the system is becoming distorted in a way that no normal computer ought to be, and that these distortions are centered around a dark entity known as the "Other" that serves as the operating system of the network. People who die in Otherland are dying in real life. Back in the physical world, forces are at work hunting down and destroying the enemies of the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood itself seems to be building its project up to an ultimate conclusion. Even worse, their party has been infiltrated by a sociopathic killer, named Johnny Dread, with a hidden agenda of his own, one that ultimately disrupts the Grail Brotherhood's ceremony and threatens the stability of the entire system. It becomes a race against time to solve the mystery of the Other before they are killed by the network or by Dread himself.If this sounds like a long synopsis, wait until you read the books themselves. Tad Williams prides himself on the interweaving of multiple plot threads and enormous casts of characters, and even more on having the reader actually care about what happens to them. This despite the fairly standard Cyberpunk setting and rather more pages than necessary spent on the way to each plot point. It's notable for having a fantastically diverse cast and treating them all with respect. The story could also be read as a Fantastic Aesop about the dangers of seeking Immortality.There is a (work in progress) Character Sheet.A now-defunct MMORPG based on the world of the novels was released in 2015.
Otherland	fetched	2023-11-11T05:30:47Z
Otherland	parsed	2023-11-11T05:30:47Z
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to BladeRunner: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to BuddyCopShow: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to DisabilitySuperpower: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to MissionFromGod: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to ShaggyDogStory: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	processingComment	Dropped link to StarTrek: Not a Feature - ITEM
Otherland	isPartOf	DBTropes
Otherland / int_1237828f	type	Anyone Can Die
Otherland / int_1237828f	comment	Anyone Can Die: It's occasionally surprising just who gets killed next.
Otherland / int_1237828f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_1237828f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_1237828f
Otherland / int_135b9977	type	Bloodless Carnage
Otherland / int_135b9977	comment	Bloodless Carnage: The rules of how avatars can be damaged vary widely from one VR environment to another. In some, wounds simply shear off body parts with no mess or blood, while in others they are treated with gory realism. There's even a world that works on cartoon physics, complete with Amusing Injuries.
Otherland / int_135b9977	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_135b9977	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_135b9977
Otherland / int_13abce74	type	Misanthrope Supreme
Otherland / int_13abce74	comment	Misanthrope Supreme: Dread again.
Otherland / int_13abce74	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_13abce74	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_13abce74
Otherland / int_149ff4b0	type	HilarityEnsues
Otherland / int_149ff4b0	comment	In the Trojan War simulation, characters' avatars are automatically chosen by the system unless they know how to override them, resulting in some hilarity.
Otherland / int_149ff4b0	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_149ff4b0	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_149ff4b0
Otherland / int_1777688d	type	Genre Savvy
Otherland / int_1777688d	comment	Genre Savvy: Since most of the virtual reality worlds of Otherland are based on actual fiction, the characters spend time plotting how to take advantage of their "rules". Martine is also unusually Genre Savvy all by herself, which ends up getting a subtle justification in that the Other seems to believe in fairy tales (one in particular) and is deliberately shaping events along those lines.
Otherland / int_1777688d	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_1777688d	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_1777688d
Otherland / int_1ba09c9d	type	Human Resources
Otherland / int_1ba09c9d	comment	In order to increase its "capacity", the Brotherhood harvested unborn fetal brains and stuck them in with the Other.
Otherland / int_1ba09c9d	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_1ba09c9d	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_1ba09c9d
Otherland / int_1e7487cd	type	Breaking the Fourth Wall
Otherland / int_1e7487cd	comment	Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Nemesis program at one point does a Title Drop for the fourth book. It's easy to miss if you aren't paying attention.
Otherland / int_1e7487cd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_1e7487cd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_1e7487cd
Otherland / int_2207b002	type	Ambiguously Brown
Otherland / int_2207b002	comment	Ambiguously Brown: John Dread is a quarter white, a quarter Australian aborigine, half Filipino. He's accustomed to being mistaken for everything, and it also helps explain his dark charisma. note The more average a person's appearance (as in averaged over ethnicities), the more attractive they are to everyone.
Otherland / int_2207b002	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2207b002	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2207b002
Otherland / int_22cf536c	type	Chekhov's Gun
Otherland / int_22cf536c	comment	Chekhov's Gun: Dread's Snuff Films, which Dulcie discovers and uses to hide the virus payload that she uploads into Dread's system to distract him at a crucial moment. Mr. Jingo's Smile, the virtual club that Renie investigates, is later revealed to be named after Felix Jongleur's childhood bogeyman, who he sees as a symbol of death.
Otherland / int_22cf536c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_22cf536c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_22cf536c
Otherland / int_233647f6	type	Post-Cyberpunk
Otherland / int_233647f6	comment	Post Cyber Punk
Otherland / int_233647f6	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_233647f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_233647f6
Otherland / int_234073a4	type	Your Mind Makes It Real
Otherland / int_234073a4	comment	Your Mind Makes It Real: One of the central mysteries of the series is why this trope seems to be in effect inside the Otherland network: unlike in the "normal" 'net, a person whose Otherland avatar is killed also dies in the real world. Brown Note effects are known to exist, but they require especially high-quality virtual reality interfaces, and yet the Otherland network somehow manages to deliver sensations (such as scents) that the users' equipment is literally not capable of producing, in addition to keeping them trapped online even when they ought to be able to simply remove their VR gear. The effect is caused by The Other's Psychic Powers, and was not an intentional feature of Otherland. At one point a character questions whether the computer is even capable of killing them by simulating freezing to death. Another points out that by the same logic, they shouldn't die from getting dismembered by a giant scorpion, but they still ran for dear life. Martine isn't actually blind — a team of doctors find that her brain and optic nerves are functioning properly — but she still hasn't been able to coax her mind into seeing again ever since the incident as a child in which emergency lights blared on, several days into the sensory deprivation experiment she was participating in.
Otherland / int_234073a4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_234073a4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_234073a4
Otherland / int_23f1384a	type	Babies Make Everything Better
Otherland / int_23f1384a	comment	Babies Make Everything Better: Insofar as the series presents any solution to the problem of facing your mortality, it's this trope - the fact that you are leaving children (literal or symbolic ones) behind makes death easier to bear. Olga even paraphrases the trope itself at one point, claiming that "somehow children seem to make sense of things." Also, in the stand-alone short story The Happiest Dead Boy in the World, Orlando perks up from his bout of the Clone Angst when he finds out that thanks to the peculiarities of post-Other Otherland, he's about to become the father of a great number of simulated children.
Otherland / int_23f1384a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_23f1384a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_23f1384a
Otherland / int_2630ef75	type	Emergency Transformation
Otherland / int_2630ef75	comment	Emergency Transformation: Via Brain Uploading, for some characters whose physical bodies die.
Otherland / int_2630ef75	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2630ef75	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2630ef75
Otherland / int_26fb2f9e	type	Past Experience Nightmare
Otherland / int_26fb2f9e	comment	Past Experience Nightmare: As part of establishing his motivations, Jongleur frequently suffers nightmares of events from his childhood, particularly the abuse he suffered at Cranleigh. These dreams are also used to foreshadow Avialle's death.
Otherland / int_26fb2f9e	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_26fb2f9e	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_26fb2f9e
Otherland / int_27ae4882	type	Modern Mayincatec Empire
Otherland / int_27ae4882	comment	Modern Mayincatec Empire: Temilún.
Otherland / int_27ae4882	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_27ae4882	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_27ae4882
Otherland / int_2969dda7	type	Nightmare Fetishist
Otherland / int_2969dda7	comment	Nightmare Fetishist: Orlando has a thing for death simulations.
Otherland / int_2969dda7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2969dda7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2969dda7
Otherland / int_2a090d00	type	Lampshade Hanging
Otherland / int_2a090d00	comment	Lampshade Hanging: Enough that it deserves its own entry on this page. Williams hangs lampshades on everything from the Kudzu Plot to the number of characters in the original group. And even on the fairy-tale nature of the story everyone is in.
Otherland / int_2a090d00	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2a090d00	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2a090d00
Otherland / int_2bc48235	type	Dream Apocalypse
Otherland / int_2bc48235	comment	Dream Apocalypse: Well, VR apocalypse. There's a fair amount of speculation by the characters as to whether the inhabitants of the simulation are truly alive, and hence whether destroying the simulation would be murder. Fortunately, there's a way to Save Both Worlds.
Otherland / int_2bc48235	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2bc48235	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2bc48235
Otherland / int_2cd22076	type	Fantastic Drug
Otherland / int_2cd22076	comment	Fantastic Drug: Charge.
Otherland / int_2cd22076	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2cd22076	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2cd22076
Otherland / int_2d88e42c	type	Gender Bender
Otherland / int_2d88e42c	comment	Gender Bender: In Otherland, you really can be whomever you want to be. In Sam's case, this means actually having a male body for once. In the Trojan War simulation, characters' avatars are automatically chosen by the system unless they know how to override them, resulting in some hilarity.
Otherland / int_2d88e42c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2d88e42c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2d88e42c
Otherland / int_2f329e3c	type	Tomato in the Mirror
Otherland / int_2f329e3c	comment	Tomato in the Mirror: Paul Jonas at first doesn't even realize he's in a computer simulation. When he does understand this, he begins searching for a way to escape, not realizing until the very end that the reason he's wandering around so freely is because he was already uploaded, and he's the copy. This drives him over the Despair Event Horizon, but ironically gives him the resolve to perform a final Heroic Sacrifice to delay Dread long enough for the Other to shut down the system.
Otherland / int_2f329e3c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_2f329e3c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_2f329e3c
Otherland / int_30ab0aa1	type	Worldbuilding
Otherland / int_30ab0aa1	comment	Worldbuilding: Every chapter begins with a "NETFEED" update, showcasing news stories from around the world. They include a musical comedy featuring doctors, diseases and explosions; spray-on latex clothing as the new fashion trend among street youths; a man who, while still involved in a bitter custody battle for his son, has altered the toddler's physiology to withstand falls out of apartment building windows; and a commercial for a sketchy documentary that is set to investigate "the mysterious Otherworld network."
Otherland / int_30ab0aa1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_30ab0aa1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_30ab0aa1
Otherland / int_30f16d3f	type	The Punishment
Otherland / int_30f16d3f	comment	The Punishment: After his "daughter"'s death in an accident, Jongleur has Paul Jonas rendered unconscious and placed into his World War I simulation as a nameless soldier in an endless cycle of trench warfare and death. This lasts for years.
Otherland / int_30f16d3f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_30f16d3f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_30f16d3f
Otherland / int_33a2f32f	type	Do Androids Dream?
Otherland / int_33a2f32f	comment	Do Androids Dream?: The only AI that has its perspective explored is explicitly stated as not having emotions or intuition, but they are described to explain the logic of the program's actions. The unorthodox effects of the Other, including its intrusion into the dreams of people within the network and its own semi-aware, possibly dreamlike existence, are a major clue to its true nature.
Otherland / int_33a2f32f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_33a2f32f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_33a2f32f
Otherland / int_34dd5f3	type	La RÃ©sistance
Otherland / int_34dd5f3	comment	La Résistance: The Circle, which includes a couple members of the Grail Brotherhood amongst its ranks. They end up doing little, and Jongleur is well aware that they exist.)
Otherland / int_34dd5f3	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_34dd5f3	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_34dd5f3
Otherland / int_361fd3db	type	What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?
Otherland / int_361fd3db	comment	What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Played straight in-universe. Felix Jongleur earned much of his vast fortune from "Uncle Jingle", a grinning character in his children's show (and, of course, all associated products). The image of Uncle Jingle is inspired by "Mr. Jingo", a character Jongleur encountered in his youth and who became his personal terror as an Anthropomorphic Personification of Death. Uncle Jingle's show also shows traces of this trope, including Jingle abandoning an injured friend to go to a party, and an advertisement claiming that Uncle Jingle will die unless children get parents to empty their wallets over official merchandise.
Otherland / int_361fd3db	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_361fd3db	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_361fd3db
Otherland / int_37005c4a	type	I Am Not Weasel
Otherland / int_37005c4a	comment	I Am Not Weasel: A slight Running Gag involves Orlando and Fredericks referring to cartoon tortoises as turtles and getting corrected by said tortoises.
Otherland / int_37005c4a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_37005c4a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_37005c4a
Otherland / int_3820a9ea	type	Tomboyish Name
Otherland / int_3820a9ea	comment	Tomboyish Name: In an inversion, "Sam" (Salome) Fredericks gave herself the apparently masculine name in order to disguise her gender from her online friends. Orlando is shocked to discover the truth.
Otherland / int_3820a9ea	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3820a9ea	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3820a9ea
Otherland / int_38b58aa3	type	Leaf Boat
Otherland / int_38b58aa3	comment	Leaf Boat: The heroes' boat turns into a leaf when they travel into a simulation in which they're smaller than the local insects.
Otherland / int_38b58aa3	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_38b58aa3	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_38b58aa3
Otherland / int_3b7ba342	type	Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy
Otherland / int_3b7ba342	comment	Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: The Grail Brotherhood, a group of financiers, corporate executives, drug lords, heads of state, and military leaders who unite for a single purpose: to cheat death.
Otherland / int_3b7ba342	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3b7ba342	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3b7ba342
Otherland / int_3cba8ce9	type	Psycho Prototype
Otherland / int_3cba8ce9	comment	Psycho Prototype: The secret military program that Mr. Sellars came from was wrecked by one of these.
Otherland / int_3cba8ce9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3cba8ce9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3cba8ce9
Otherland / int_3ec468b8	type	Online Alias
Otherland / int_3ec468b8	comment	Online Alias: T4b. And Sweet William, though there's a chance the "William" part is his real name. Also, Renie sets up convincing false identities for herself and !Xabbu.
Otherland / int_3ec468b8	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3ec468b8	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3ec468b8
Otherland / int_3eee0728	type	Captain Obvious
Otherland / int_3eee0728	comment	Captain Obvious: Fredericks enjoys stating the obvious, partly as a deliberate attempt to annoy Orlando.
Otherland / int_3eee0728	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3eee0728	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3eee0728
Otherland / int_3f71b00e	type	Point Defenseless
Otherland / int_3f71b00e	comment	Point Defenseless: At the climax, it turns out that the J Corp tower, in addition to having a private military force, is equipped with surface-to-air missiles. They prove woefully inadequate against what finally comes knocking.
Otherland / int_3f71b00e	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_3f71b00e	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_3f71b00e
Otherland / int_420c50b7	type	A.I. Is a Crapshoot
Otherland / int_420c50b7	comment	A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Other is cast as this, with much speculation from the characters as to why and how it has such bizarre characteristics. Is it good or evil? Insane or misunderstood? The answer ends up subverting the trope, as the Other is not, in fact, an AI. A double subversion occurs post-climax with Sellars' AI entities, who are not malicious but merely alien.
Otherland / int_420c50b7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_420c50b7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_420c50b7
Otherland / int_45cd286c	type	Corrupt Politician
Otherland / int_45cd286c	comment	Corrupt Politician: Half the Brotherhood are heads of state (with one being President-for-life of a West African nation.) The rest merely own heads of state.
Otherland / int_45cd286c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_45cd286c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_45cd286c
Otherland / int_4755314a	type	Magical Native American
Otherland / int_4755314a	comment	Magical Native American: !Xabbu is an African Bushman who was raised partly in the industrialized world; his "natural wisdom" plays a major role in solving some of Otherland's mysteries.
Otherland / int_4755314a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_4755314a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_4755314a
Otherland / int_4781adbb	type	Jerk with a Heart of Gold
Otherland / int_4781adbb	comment	Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sweet William and t4B, for different reasons. Sweet William is intensely private (and is also The Atoner) and actively rebuffs any attempt to establish a friendship; t4B is in fact a teenager and also has a secret affiliation. Both are actually decent people.
Otherland / int_4781adbb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_4781adbb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_4781adbb
Otherland / int_485eb589	type	Sealed Evil in a Can
Otherland / int_485eb589	comment	Sealed Evil in a Can: A literal, if not figurative example of this occurs with both Felix Jongleur and the Other.
Otherland / int_485eb589	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_485eb589	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_485eb589
Otherland / int_4920f624	type	Hidden Villain
Otherland / int_4920f624	comment	Hidden Villain: Jongleur in book one.
Otherland / int_4920f624	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_4920f624	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_4920f624
Otherland / int_4cf1658	type	Commander Contrarian
Otherland / int_4cf1658	comment	Commander Contrarian: Yacoubian is a villainous version within the Brotherhood, constantly naysaying everything Jongleur does and conspiring with David Wells to undermine his leadership.
Otherland / int_4cf1658	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_4cf1658	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_4cf1658
Otherland / int_4e3dee88	type	Their First Time
Otherland / int_4e3dee88	comment	Their First Time: Renie and !Xabbu have three: one purely mental, one virtual, and one real.
Otherland / int_4e3dee88	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_4e3dee88	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_4e3dee88
Otherland / int_5008a1bb	type	Mysterious Informant
Otherland / int_5008a1bb	comment	Mysterious Informant: Sellars plays this role throughout most of the first novel, hiding clues to Otherland in out of the way places on the 'Net that he hopes the protagonists will stumble upon. Justified in that he's trying to recruit people to confront a multinational conspiracy that is well known for "disappearing" anyone who crosses them.
Otherland / int_5008a1bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5008a1bb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5008a1bb
Otherland / int_505a1021	type	The Farmer and the Viper
Otherland / int_505a1021	comment	The Farmer and the Viper: Dulcinea Anwin, who falls in love with Dread and tries to civilize him. For his part, he considers her an amusing toy that he keeps around because she's useful. When that's over, though... Fortunately, she realizes the danger before Dread tries to kill her.
Otherland / int_505a1021	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_505a1021	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_505a1021
Otherland / int_53f5119f	type	The Dragon
Otherland / int_53f5119f	comment	The Dragon: Dread acts as Jongleur's pet hunting dog, assassinating his enemies and otherwise running errands that he's too busy to do himself. Jongleur hoped at one point to make Dread his protege and even bring him into his inner circle, but he proves too unstable to control. Throughout the story, Dread is the proximate physical threat to the protagonists' well-being, and his defeat is what frees them to finally hunt down the Grail Brotherhood.
Otherland / int_53f5119f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_53f5119f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_53f5119f
Otherland / int_54e3f941	type	Hikikomori
Otherland / int_54e3f941	comment	Hikikomori: Jongleur lives isolated in a specially designed VR tank that keeps him in good health, fed and relieved of waste, in a heavily guarded tower in his mansion on a privately owned island. In a brief section where he emerges from the tank, it's implied that whomever guards his tower rarely ever bothers or checks up on him.
Otherland / int_54e3f941	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_54e3f941	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_54e3f941
Otherland / int_55940b68	type	Doorstopper
Otherland / int_55940b68	comment	Doorstopper: Tad Williams continues in the tradition started with Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. The page counts of the four volumes, in their original hardcover format, are 770, 634, 720 and 922, respectively.
Otherland / int_55940b68	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_55940b68	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_55940b68
Otherland / int_5670cddb	type	Troubled Backstory Flashback
Otherland / int_5670cddb	comment	Troubled Backstory Flashback: Martine recalls the incident that rendered her blind. Dread gets one, in which he recalls being trained by his prostitute mother to kill.
Otherland / int_5670cddb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5670cddb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5670cddb
Otherland / int_57b74bd4	type	Achievements in Ignorance
Otherland / int_57b74bd4	comment	Achievements in Ignorance: This shows up a few times, in ways that seem incidental to the plot only to have huge significance later. The cops investigating John Wulgaru are astonished that he managed to go far beyond what a normal hacker could do in erasing his computer records while somehow remaining ignorant of basic programs that wipe out everything automatically. Because little Johnny has a magic power and isn't actually a hacker. Wells has his team work up an AI to scour Otherland for the missing Jonas, and they provide it with a map of Otherland and its inhabitants to compare people against in this search. However, their map is so different from the AI's perception of the Otherland that it nearly shuts down. Fortunately (for it, anyway), it's sophisticated and flexible enough that it instead throws out the map and starts building its own, and then Humanity Ensues.
Otherland / int_57b74bd4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_57b74bd4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_57b74bd4
Otherland / int_5963b221	type	Eviler than Thou
Otherland / int_5963b221	comment	Eviler than Thou: Jongleur loses control of his Psycho for Hire, John Dread, as the latter discovers that his psychic power allows him to bypass the security systems of Otherland. The havoc that results makes Jongleur's dreams of world domination look petty by comparison, and leads to a Enemy Mine situation in the fourth book.
Otherland / int_5963b221	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5963b221	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5963b221
Otherland / int_5989e3b6	type	Enemy Mine
Otherland / int_5989e3b6	comment	Enemy Mine: Jongleur and the protagonists are forced to work together after he loses control of the system to Dread.
Otherland / int_5989e3b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5989e3b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5989e3b6
Otherland / int_5b64e6d4	type	Red Herring Mole
Otherland / int_5b64e6d4	comment	Red Herring Mole: Florimel, later Sweet William.
Otherland / int_5b64e6d4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5b64e6d4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5b64e6d4
Otherland / int_5c5ac0e2	type	Really 700 Years Old
Otherland / int_5c5ac0e2	comment	Really 700 Years Old: People knew Jongleur was old, but his memories go back as far as the World Wars, making him at least 180 years old.
Otherland / int_5c5ac0e2	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5c5ac0e2	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5c5ac0e2
Otherland / int_5ce7dbb9	type	Central Theme
Otherland / int_5ce7dbb9	comment	Central Theme: Facing old age, personal irrelevance and the prospect of death. Conversely, and as a response to the above: children and parenthood.
Otherland / int_5ce7dbb9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5ce7dbb9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5ce7dbb9
Otherland / int_5d3e2f87	type	Ugly Cute
Otherland / int_5d3e2f87	comment	Ugly Cute: In-universe example — the inhabitants of the world that the Other creates for itself are a mishmash of fairy tale creatures, often taken literally out of context, such as dwarves that consist of a head on top of a pair of legs.
Otherland / int_5d3e2f87	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5d3e2f87	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5d3e2f87
Otherland / int_5db59a03	type	Brown Note
Otherland / int_5db59a03	comment	One of the central mysteries of the series is why this trope seems to be in effect inside the Otherland network: unlike in the "normal" 'net, a person whose Otherland avatar is killed also dies in the real world. Brown Note effects are known to exist, but they require especially high-quality virtual reality interfaces, and yet the Otherland network somehow manages to deliver sensations (such as scents) that the users' equipment is literally not capable of producing, in addition to keeping them trapped online even when they ought to be able to simply remove their VR gear. The effect is caused by The Other's Psychic Powers, and was not an intentional feature of Otherland.
Otherland / int_5db59a03	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5db59a03	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5db59a03
Otherland / int_5f1999a0	type	Building of Adventure
Otherland / int_5f1999a0	comment	Building of Adventure: One of the virtual worlds is a massive house with no "outside", and its inhabitants act baffled when the concept of "outside the House" is brought up.
Otherland / int_5f1999a0	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_5f1999a0	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_5f1999a0
Otherland / int_60441d9	type	Future Slang
Otherland / int_60441d9	comment	Future Slang: There's a bevy of slang attributed to "goggleboys", younger people who spend a lot of time online. Sam uses the goggleboy curses to get around censorship. The word "duppy/dupping" is used a lot, being goggleboy slang for "liar/lying".
Otherland / int_60441d9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_60441d9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_60441d9
Otherland / int_60fa92ac	type	Names to Run Away from Really Fast
Otherland / int_60fa92ac	comment	Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Dread.
Otherland / int_60fa92ac	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_60fa92ac	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_60fa92ac
Otherland / int_61356a74	type	Almost Dead Guy
Otherland / int_61356a74	comment	Almost Dead Guy: Susan Van Bleeck gets beaten to death by the Brotherhood's thugs, but manages to spell out a dying message to Renie with finger typing. Calliope Skourous manages to call triple zero after being stabbed in the back by Dread, and Dulcinea Anwin uses what seem to be her final moments to combine the video footage of Dread's serial killings with a powerful virus and upload it into his system. Both are saved, but Dulcie is paralyzed.
Otherland / int_61356a74	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_61356a74	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_61356a74
Otherland / int_643618e5	type	Replacement Goldfish
Otherland / int_643618e5	comment	Replacement Goldfish: In an odd version, the real Paul Jonas manages to become this to his own virtual clone. When Martine is inconsolable following the death of the Paul she got to know and had started developing feelings for in Otherland, she suddenly realises that the original is alive in the real world, and promptly goes to find him.
Otherland / int_643618e5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_643618e5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_643618e5
Otherland / int_65163c3a	type	Evil Tower of Ominousness
Otherland / int_65163c3a	comment	Evil Tower of Ominousness: It doesn't get much more ominous than the corporate tower of J Corp, which houses Jongleur's still-living body as well as his half of the Otherland technology.
Otherland / int_65163c3a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_65163c3a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_65163c3a
Otherland / int_6563a3f2	type	Cyberspace
Otherland / int_6563a3f2	comment	Cyberspace: An archetypal example.
Otherland / int_6563a3f2	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6563a3f2	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6563a3f2
Otherland / int_66d13ab9	type	Talking in Your Dreams
Otherland / int_66d13ab9	comment	Talking in Your Dreams: Sellars is able to communicate with those inside Otherland when they are sleeping. Beezle, Orlando's AI pet, also connects him to the outside world in this way (one dream causing a problem in a simworld of Ancient Egypt, where a lesser god who is resting alongside Orlando hears his side of the conversation and interprets it as a command to fight.) Finally, Paul receives communications from the Angel during his dreams.
Otherland / int_66d13ab9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_66d13ab9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_66d13ab9
Otherland / int_673b2da6	type	Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!
Otherland / int_673b2da6	comment	Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: As noted under A.I. Is a Crapshoot, the question of how such a sophisticated (and quirky) AI as the Other came to be forms a major Driving Question of the story.
Otherland / int_673b2da6	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_673b2da6	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_673b2da6
Otherland / int_680bb6b1	type	Hot-Blooded
Otherland / int_680bb6b1	comment	Hot-Blooded: Both Renie and Florimel, which sets them against each other.
Otherland / int_680bb6b1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_680bb6b1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_680bb6b1
Otherland / int_691de918	type	Death by Looking Up
Otherland / int_691de918	comment	Death by Looking Up: In the climax, most of the characters are too busy to notice the impending Colony Drop until it's far too late to stop it. Finney and Mudd don't notice until Olga points it out, at which point they uselessly attempt to flee. Jongleur sees it on his security feed and attempts to start the Grail process in order to survive, but is instead "eaten" by the Other.
Otherland / int_691de918	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_691de918	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_691de918
Otherland / int_69ab6c58	type	Justified Tutorial
Otherland / int_69ab6c58	comment	Justified Tutorial: A large amount of the first book is spent on Renie showing !Xabbu how to navigate in and program the 'Net, cluing readers in on the same. It also illustrates the stark difference between the 'Net and the Otherland network.
Otherland / int_69ab6c58	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_69ab6c58	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_69ab6c58
Otherland / int_6a492371	type	Truly Single Parent
Otherland / int_6a492371	comment	Truly Single Parent: Jongleur's first Immortality scheme, which would also be fair to call "Truly Single Grandparent".
Otherland / int_6a492371	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6a492371	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6a492371
Otherland / int_6b2b3b59	type	The Reveal
Otherland / int_6b2b3b59	comment	The Reveal of the Other's true nature.
Otherland / int_6b2b3b59	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6b2b3b59	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6b2b3b59
Otherland / int_6b6556ee	type	Mentor Occupational Hazard
Otherland / int_6b6556ee	comment	Mentor Occupational Hazard: Renie's mentor Susan gets beaten to death within days of being sought out for help. Singh, the wizened hacker that helps the team get into Otherland, is killed by the security system.
Otherland / int_6b6556ee	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6b6556ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6b6556ee
Otherland / int_6bda9a30	type	Meaningful Name
Otherland / int_6bda9a30	comment	Meaningful Name: John "More Dread" Wulgaru, on at least three separate levels: His mother, an Australian aborigine, gave her son the surname "Wulgaru" (a monster from their mythology) because she wanted to create a monster that would exact her revenge on the rest of the world. He chose the name "Dread" because it would be a Name to Run Away from Really Fast. After Felix Jongleur hired him, John learned that Jongleur had a bit of a King Arthur theme going on, what with the group behind Otherland calling themselves "The Grail Brotherhood" and all. So, to screw with Jongleur, he started to call himself "More Dread" - as in Mordred, the knight who betrays King Arthur and starts a civil war.
Otherland / int_6bda9a30	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6bda9a30	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6bda9a30
Otherland / int_6c46615c	type	Talking through Technique
Otherland / int_6c46615c	comment	Talking through Technique: Subverted. Mr. Sellars' chess game is just a chess game. It is, however, a front for his other covert activities.
Otherland / int_6c46615c	featureApplicability	-0.3
Otherland / int_6c46615c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6c46615c
Otherland / int_6d332aea	type	Driven to Suicide
Otherland / int_6d332aea	comment	Driven to Suicide: The Other had already been tortured and manipulated for decades, but it isn't until Dread gets hold of the system that it gives up all hope of saving anything of itself and chooses to escape its own horrifying existence and take as many of its tormentors with it as possible on the way.
Otherland / int_6d332aea	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6d332aea	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6d332aea
Otherland / int_6fd268f0	type	Win to Exit
Otherland / int_6fd268f0	comment	Win to Exit: When the protagonists come to learn that it is the Other that is keeping them from exiting the VR environments of Otherland, they realize that they need to destroy or "rescue" it in order to get free.
Otherland / int_6fd268f0	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_6fd268f0	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_6fd268f0
Otherland / int_715704e5	type	Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
Otherland / int_715704e5	comment	Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: City of Golden Shadow puts all of the characters through the ordeal of finding their own way to Otherland through Sellars' clues, assembling them like a puzzle to which none have all the pieces. Once they arrive in Temilún, it seems as if the pieces will be put together, but Dread's assault on their hosts breaks it up.
Otherland / int_715704e5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_715704e5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_715704e5
Otherland / int_71fcf44	type	The Metaverse
Otherland / int_71fcf44	comment	The Metaverse: Arguably one of the more nuanced and well-researched examples.
Otherland / int_71fcf44	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_71fcf44	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_71fcf44
Otherland / int_7203552b	type	Not Disabled In VR
Otherland / int_7203552b	comment	Not Disabled In VR: Orlando again. He's dying from progeria and spending most of his time as mighty Thargor the Barbarian.
Otherland / int_7203552b	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7203552b	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7203552b
Otherland / int_737a65f4	type	The Watson
Otherland / int_737a65f4	comment	The Watson: !Xabbu, whose ignorance of the 'Net provides plenty of opportunity for Renie to explain how it works. Sam acts like this, sometimes. On the villains' side, Yacoubian and Dedoblanco function as this for the Brotherhood.
Otherland / int_737a65f4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_737a65f4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_737a65f4
Otherland / int_73f79f91	type	Released to Elsewhere
Otherland / int_73f79f91	comment	Released to Elsewhere: It is unclear whether the Other truly understands the meaning of death, but the fairy tale that Martine shared with it as a child and that forms the basis of its perception of its own existence ends with the lost boy being "set free" of his imprisonment by going to heaven. This is a not-very-subtle Foreshadowing of the climax of the story.
Otherland / int_73f79f91	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_73f79f91	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_73f79f91
Otherland / int_7464705c	type	Arc Words
Otherland / int_7464705c	comment	Arc Words: Throughout the story, the phrase, "An angel touched me," becomes a recurring element, said by many of the Other's creations and adoptees and recited by the Other itself like a Madness Mantra. It turns out to be part of a fairy tale that Martine told the Other, long ago, and that it adopted as its own story.
Otherland / int_7464705c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7464705c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7464705c
Otherland / int_77538ed4	type	Admiring the Abomination
Otherland / int_77538ed4	comment	Admiring the Abomination: At one point one of the heroes notes that as evil and twisted as Jongleur is, there is something magnificent about a man who's declared war on death itself.
Otherland / int_77538ed4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_77538ed4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_77538ed4
Otherland / int_77cdb390	type	Man in the Machine
Otherland / int_77cdb390	comment	Man in the Machine: Jongleur, sans robotic body. He doesn't need one, with all of Otherland to rule.
Otherland / int_77cdb390	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_77cdb390	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_77cdb390
Otherland / int_7950239f	type	Humanity Ensues
Otherland / int_7950239f	comment	Humanity Ensues: The Nemesis program gets released into the simulation to hunt down Paul Jonas. It can mimic anything nearby—and when it mimics a recently deceased character, it begins to take on human thought processes. This turns out to be the key to communicating with Sellars' artificial life entities.
Otherland / int_7950239f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7950239f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7950239f
Otherland / int_7a265daa	type	Eagleland
Otherland / int_7a265daa	comment	Eagleland: The cast is amazingly multinational, and the Americans in it are not treated particularly specially, but Yacoubian embodies just about every negative stereotype possible: brash, obnoxious, impatient, and impulsive.
Otherland / int_7a265daa	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7a265daa	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7a265daa
Otherland / int_7d2ef873	type	Placebotinum Effect
Otherland / int_7d2ef873	comment	Placebotinum Effect: The characters comment on how Otherland's experience is "too real" for any current computer technology to produce, including having no apparent latency, which should be impossible, not to mention the Brown Note effects. The Other's true nature reveals why this is the case: its psychic influence is creating an illusion of hyper-reality in users' minds.
Otherland / int_7d2ef873	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7d2ef873	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7d2ef873
Otherland / int_7ec94d53	type	Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Otherland / int_7ec94d53	comment	Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Other doesn't care how many people it kills as long as it ends its own suffering and takes Jongleur with it.
Otherland / int_7ec94d53	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7ec94d53	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7ec94d53
Otherland / int_7eebe99c	type	The Alcoholic
Otherland / int_7eebe99c	comment	The Alcoholic: Long Joseph's wife died in a fire, driving him to a personal Despair Event Horizon. He drinks to escape the pain, leaving his daughter Renie to be the de facto parent in the Sulaweyo household.
Otherland / int_7eebe99c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_7eebe99c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_7eebe99c
Otherland / int_8151ec48	type	Driving Question
Otherland / int_8151ec48	comment	Driving Question: One per plotline in the first book. From the second book on, there are many but the primary one is- What is the true nature of the Other? Secondary ones include Why was Paul trapped in the network? Who is the mysterious woman he keeps seeing? Why was Mr. Sellars imprisoned on the base? What's at the top of Jongleur's tower? What's in the fourth tank?
Otherland / int_8151ec48	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8151ec48	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8151ec48
Otherland / int_854b029a	type	Encyclopedia Exposita
Otherland / int_854b029a	comment	Encyclopedia Exposita: Sort of. Each chapter is prefaced with a short passage from a subscription news/entertainment feed, used as a Framing Device to establish a context for the larger world that the story takes place in. For example, the deaths of major characters may get mentioned in a subsequent chapter. The articles get increasingly creepy as the plot advances.
Otherland / int_854b029a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_854b029a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_854b029a
Otherland / int_85b1e741	type	Creepy Crossdresser
Otherland / int_85b1e741	comment	Creepy Crossdresser: Dread poses as a female member of the group for a very long time. None of his true personality breaks out.
Otherland / int_85b1e741	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_85b1e741	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_85b1e741
Otherland / int_8739b21	type	Technopath
Otherland / int_8739b21	comment	Technopath: John Dread's "twist"; a form of telekinesis that works at the level of individual electrons and allows him to manipulate computer systems.
Otherland / int_8739b21	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8739b21	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8739b21
Otherland / int_874176be	type	Psychic Powers
Otherland / int_874176be	comment	Psychic Powers: Both Dread and the Other.
Otherland / int_874176be	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_874176be	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_874176be
Otherland / int_88157da3	type	Translate the Loanwords, Too
Otherland / int_88157da3	comment	Translate the Loanwords, Too: When Florimel, a native German speaker, says "doppelganger", which is a German loanword, the 'Net's translation software insists on rendering it as "double-goer" in English.
Otherland / int_88157da3	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_88157da3	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_88157da3
Otherland / int_884e513b	type	Medium Awareness
Otherland / int_884e513b	comment	Medium Awareness: Played with in that the real people who are online in Otherland are aware that they are in a simulated world, the inhabitants of that world are not. This is different from the 'Net as a whole where A.I.s ("Puppets") are required to identify themselves to real people ("Citizens") if asked. Thus, the protagonists get some odd looks from Otherland's inhabitants when they attempt to work with the mechanical rules of the network rather than the internal logic of each simulation.
Otherland / int_884e513b	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_884e513b	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_884e513b
Otherland / int_8a4988bb	type	Mind Rape
Otherland / int_8a4988bb	comment	Mind Rape: What the Other does to people by accident.
Otherland / int_8a4988bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8a4988bb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8a4988bb
Otherland / int_8ad43dc9	type	Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
Otherland / int_8ad43dc9	comment	Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Lampshaded.
Otherland / int_8ad43dc9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8ad43dc9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8ad43dc9
Otherland / int_8b5e8731	type	Kudzu Plot
Otherland / int_8b5e8731	comment	Kudzu Plot: So these guys want to become immortal, except this guy just wants to wreak havoc, but they think they have him under control. And these guys want to destroy it all. And then there's Sellars, who wants who-knows-what, and the main characters, who each have personal reasons for getting involved, except for The Mole. And then there's something called "Sprootie"...
Otherland / int_8b5e8731	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8b5e8731	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8b5e8731
Otherland / int_8c8bd091	type	Fetus Terrible
Otherland / int_8c8bd091	comment	Fetus Terrible: Olga Pirofsky's unborn child is a mutant — powerfully telepathic. In the delivery room, his psychic emanations are sufficient to kill attending medical personnel before he can be sedated. Jongleur's agents are aware of the child's potential and arrange to snatch him away, telling Olga only that he died. This child's brain becomes The Other.
Otherland / int_8c8bd091	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8c8bd091	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8c8bd091
Otherland / int_8cf6aa	type	Literal Metaphor
Otherland / int_8cf6aa	comment	Literal Metaphor: When told that the Other put children into comas because he wanted to make friends, the character replied "And he played too rough?" This is when we learn that, no, he wanted to make friends, the inhabitants of his little fairy tale village, and was studying children to learn how they work.
Otherland / int_8cf6aa	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8cf6aa	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8cf6aa
Otherland / int_8d9c8569	type	Deep-Immersion Gaming
Otherland / int_8d9c8569	comment	Deep-Immersion Gaming: In VR game worlds like the Middle Kingdom, dedicated players may spend days online and get so deep in-character that they seem to have two complete lives. Otherland takes this to its logical conclusion, as its creators plan to create permanent virtual copies of themselves to live eternally in the network's fantastic worlds. Once the system starts closing down in preparation for their ceremony, anyone still inside is trapped, unable to disconnect, and due to the Other's strange Brown Note effects, dying online kills their real bodies.
Otherland / int_8d9c8569	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8d9c8569	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8d9c8569
Otherland / int_8db4988a	type	Unusual User Interface
Otherland / int_8db4988a	comment	Unusual User Interface: Where to start? The VR environments of the 'Net can be accessed in a variety of ways, from the simple to the absurdly complex: a plain old flat screen, 3D goggles (both with "squeezers" for input), a mechanical framework that you strap into, full-body immersion in a pressure-sensitive gel, and for the rich, a direct neural implant. Within the 'Net, a combination of hand gestures and speech form the "programming" language. And some users go so far as to have custom interfaces designed for them, whether out of personal idiosyncrasies or impatience.
Otherland / int_8db4988a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8db4988a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8db4988a
Otherland / int_8e04fdd7	type	Dragon with an Agenda
Otherland / int_8e04fdd7	comment	Dragon with an Agenda: Dread is mostly content to be Jongleur's attack dog, but chafes at his master's absolute control, which is enforced by pain. But Dread is the master of pain, and his submission a ruse. He constantly probes and pushes, looking for a way to turn the tables. He finds it in Otherland, as his peculiar psychic power allows him to bypass the security protocols surrounding the Other and take control of it.
Otherland / int_8e04fdd7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8e04fdd7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8e04fdd7
Otherland / int_8e20979	type	Wham Episode
Otherland / int_8e20979	comment	Wham Episode: Several near the end: When Orlando finally dies. We were all expecting it, but still... Also a Tear Jerker. Jongleur revealing that the Other has learned how to reach out of the Otherland network, and with Dread now in control of it, can level or re-shape the entire 'Net as he sees fit once he realizes that he can do it. The Reveal of the Other's true nature.
Otherland / int_8e20979	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8e20979	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8e20979
Otherland / int_8e81e57f	type	Voice with an Internet Connection
Otherland / int_8e81e57f	comment	Voice with an Internet Connection: Olga Pirovsky has one while infiltrating J Corp.
Otherland / int_8e81e57f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8e81e57f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8e81e57f
Otherland / int_8f57d5eb	type	Another Man's Terror
Otherland / int_8f57d5eb	comment	Another Man's Terror: Orlando uses VR simulations that play out fatal accidents or other forms of death. There's an urban legend that they're made by monitoring someone's actual death, but this is dismissed as ridiculous as someone would have to be loaded up with expensive recording devices in advance. He has reason to be preoccupied with the experience.
Otherland / int_8f57d5eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_8f57d5eb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_8f57d5eb
Otherland / int_90d44f44	type	Karmic Death
Otherland / int_90d44f44	comment	Karmic Death: Most of the villains go out in an ironic and/or karmic way. Jongleur dies when the Other blows up his corporate headquarters with him inside it... after mind raping him. Dread's fate, while not technically death, is most certainly karmic: trapped in a comatose dreamscape, being endlessly pursued by the ghosts of his victims.
Otherland / int_90d44f44	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_90d44f44	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_90d44f44
Otherland / int_932da128	type	Monster Clown
Otherland / int_932da128	comment	Monster Clown: Mr. Jingo — well, he's not technically a clown, but he sure does fit the trope.
Otherland / int_932da128	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_932da128	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_932da128
Otherland / int_95a2cbd4	type	Exposition Fairy
Otherland / int_95a2cbd4	comment	Exposition Fairy: Beezle, in-story, for Orlando. Everyone in the Trojan War simulation gets their own personal one, since the simworld is programmed to help them play their parts accurately.
Otherland / int_95a2cbd4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_95a2cbd4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_95a2cbd4
Otherland / int_963e36bd	type	Boarding School of Horrors
Otherland / int_963e36bd	comment	Felix Jongleur grew up in a Boarding School of Horrors and took that experience with him into the business world, becoming the biggest bully in the world.
Otherland / int_963e36bd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_963e36bd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_963e36bd
Otherland / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
Otherland / int_970c790a	comment	Big Bad: Felix Jongleur, a nearly 200 year old corporate magnate, orchestrates almost all of the events of the story as part of his long-term plan to conquer death. He subverts governments, corrupts politicians and military organizations, orders the death of anyone who gets in his way, organizes a conspiracy of the world's elite, and is arguably the most powerful individual on Earth. When he gets replaced by Dread in the fourth book, after the latter takes control of Otherland, he is not amused.
Otherland / int_970c790a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_970c790a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_970c790a
Otherland / int_973291cd	type	Pardon My Klingon
Otherland / int_973291cd	comment	Pardon My Klingon: Fredericks swears in invented curses from this world's internet, and swears often.
Otherland / int_973291cd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_973291cd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_973291cd
Otherland / int_99a12edd	type	Cyborg
Otherland / int_99a12edd	comment	Cyborg: Mr. Sellars, who is enhanced not for speed or strength but to be a living computer, able to connect to the 'Net with no external hardware. In a rare realistic treatment, this combined with the physical trauma he suffered earlier in his life leaves him a barely functional cripple (though his enhancements originally included the additional durability that would have made him a better fighter pilot and did allow him to survive his injuries).
Otherland / int_99a12edd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_99a12edd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_99a12edd
Otherland / int_99be89b5	type	Send in the Clones
Otherland / int_99be89b5	comment	Send in the Clones: Not only are there versions of Finney and Mudd in almost every part of Otherland, Dread makes thousands of virtual copies of himself for the express purpose of destroying everything in sight.
Otherland / int_99be89b5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_99be89b5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_99be89b5
Otherland / int_9a0870ae	type	Screw Yourself
Otherland / int_9a0870ae	comment	Screw Yourself: Azador has sex with Emily in the Oz simulation. It is later revealed that Azador is a virtual copy of Jongleur and Emily was a copy of Avialle, who was an Opposite-Sex Clone of Jongleur.
Otherland / int_9a0870ae	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9a0870ae	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9a0870ae
Otherland / int_9a7f6233	type	Fictional Video Game
Otherland / int_9a7f6233	comment	Fictional Video Game: Appropriately for a story about future Internet technology, games are abundant, especially full immersion VR games. The Middle Kingdom is the premier example, and several of the Otherland simulations are set up this way.
Otherland / int_9a7f6233	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9a7f6233	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9a7f6233
Otherland / int_9afa05c7	type	Family-Unfriendly Death
Otherland / int_9afa05c7	comment	Family-Unfriendly Death: Over and over. In particular, some of the deaths in the Western simulation are horrifying.
Otherland / int_9afa05c7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9afa05c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9afa05c7
Otherland / int_9bca83eb	type	Death by Irony
Otherland / int_9bca83eb	comment	Death by Irony: The fate of nearly all the members of the Grail Brotherhood: many die by committing suicide, believing that they are uploading themselves into virtual bodies, not knowing that the procedure has been sabotaged by Dread. (For further irony, the process does work, and the Other ends up using it on two of the heroes.) Shortly afterward, Daniel Yacoubian, a powerful general, is killed by getting stabbed in the chest by a teenage boy. After Dread's apocalypse, the remaining members die in similarly ironic ways: Jiun Bhao, the powerful financier, is killed by a giant bug in Kunohara's simulation. Robert Wells, software mogul, is killed by Dread in a You Have Failed Me. And Felix Jongleur himself dies at the hands of his own creation.
Otherland / int_9bca83eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9bca83eb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9bca83eb
Otherland / int_9c45b5a2	type	What Measure Is a Non-Human?
Otherland / int_9c45b5a2	comment	What Measure Is a Non-Human?: There's an ongoing debate in the story over the morality of killing virtual people who seem just as lifelike as real humans — they have memories, lives, hopes, and fears. While most of the main characters want to prevent further comas, the Circle intends to destroy the entire simulation as an ungodly abomination, and doesn't particularly care what happens to those simulated. They're talked out of it. Earlier in the series, Azador talks about how they shouldn't feel any qualms about having sex with puppets, as they aren't real. He even calls it masturbation as opposed to intercourse. Ironically, he is an imperfect copy and not an actual Citizen himself.
Otherland / int_9c45b5a2	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9c45b5a2	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9c45b5a2
Otherland / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
Otherland / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: Paul's dream of the caged birdwoman is a dream logic recollection of him falling in love with Avialle and attempting to rescue her from Jongleur's control. This info is revealed to him when he regains his memories. Paul's discovery of Tinto in Venice foreshadows The Reveal that The Grail Brotherhood had not even gotten close to perfecting Brain Uploading by the time they plan to upload themselves into the Otherland network. The copied Tinto is incomplete, acting as if he has dementia, and is fixated on getting flowers for his mistress. Dread's psychic "twist" makes The Reveal that The Other is a literal Brain in a Jar with major psychic powers much more palatable to the reader. Jongleur's dreams foreshadow Avialle's death.
Otherland / int_9d12bbc1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9d12bbc1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9d12bbc1
Otherland / int_9fe35833	type	Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
Otherland / int_9fe35833	comment	Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Other is gratified to experience a mother's unconditional love. John Dread explicitly does not. One of his first victims was an expy of his mother.
Otherland / int_9fe35833	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9fe35833	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9fe35833
Otherland / int_9ff5aa20	type	Nailed to the Wagon
Otherland / int_9ff5aa20	comment	Nailed to the Wagon: Long Joseph in the decommissioned military base.
Otherland / int_9ff5aa20	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_9ff5aa20	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_9ff5aa20
Otherland / int_a122bf2f	type	Blind Seer
Otherland / int_a122bf2f	comment	Blind Seer: Martine Desroubins is blind in the real world after a childhood accident. She takes refuge in the online world, becoming a prominent researcher, but in Otherland she enjoys an uncanny and almost prophetic ability to "read" the network, turning her into a literal version of the trope. She points out the irony in her journals.
Otherland / int_a122bf2f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a122bf2f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a122bf2f
Otherland / int_a18d407b	type	Samus Is a Girl
Otherland / int_a18d407b	comment	Samus Is a Girl: Orlando is surprised to learn that his long-time online RPG buddy Sam Fredericks is actually Salome Fredericks, a girl.
Otherland / int_a18d407b	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a18d407b	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a18d407b
Otherland / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
Otherland / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: Sweet William, an 80-year old retiree, goes to Otherland after discovering that a person he had solicited for sex online is in fact 12 years old and is now in a coma. He wants to help her in order to apologize.
Otherland / int_a1b141f4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a1b141f4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a1b141f4
Otherland / int_a4c37cbe	type	Mood Whiplash
Otherland / int_a4c37cbe	comment	Mood Whiplash: The jarring post-climax revelation regarding Sellars' artificial life entities.
Otherland / int_a4c37cbe	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a4c37cbe	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a4c37cbe
Otherland / int_a67b86a7	type	General Ripper
Otherland / int_a67b86a7	comment	General Ripper: General Yacoubian apparently considers invading Third World countries to be a casual exercise of power that he might do any week, just For the Evulz.
Otherland / int_a67b86a7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a67b86a7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a67b86a7
Otherland / int_a8a04f6f	type	And I Must Scream
Otherland / int_a8a04f6f	comment	And I Must Scream: One theory about the children's comas is that their minds are trapped in Otherland, unable to return to their bodies and possibly even unaware of the nature of their existence. This is later revealed not to be the case. The Other is, quite literally, a human brain in a satellite, forced to be the operating system of Otherland. The karmic Fate Worse than Death of John Dread is to be trapped in a vision of the Dreamtime, eternally pursued by the spirits of the women he murdered.
Otherland / int_a8a04f6f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_a8a04f6f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_a8a04f6f
Otherland / int_abdf7d09	type	Weirdness Censor
Otherland / int_abdf7d09	comment	Weirdness Censor: On the 'Net, the "Puppets" (the AI NPCs) are designed to ignore commands that users give out to their systems or other users. Zigzagged in the Otherland network: some Puppets either completely ignore such things, or give the characters odd looks when they hear things beyond the simworlds.
Otherland / int_abdf7d09	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_abdf7d09	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_abdf7d09
Otherland / int_ac4ac8e5	type	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
Otherland / int_ac4ac8e5	comment	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: [Location] of [Color] [Material-ish thing], for each of the 4 books: City of Golden Shadow (1996) River of Blue Fire (1998) Mountain of Black Glass (1999) Sea of Silver Light (2001)
Otherland / int_ac4ac8e5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ac4ac8e5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ac4ac8e5
Otherland / int_ad22fa80	type	Apocalyptic Log
Otherland / int_ad22fa80	comment	Apocalyptic Log: Martine subvocalizes her journals while she is in Otherland, hoping that either her own software or the network will retain them for later. This allows her point-of-view segments to be narrated retrospectively.
Otherland / int_ad22fa80	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ad22fa80	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ad22fa80
Otherland / int_adf55ded	type	Neo-Africa
Otherland / int_adf55ded	comment	Neo-Africa: The Post-Cyberpunk applies to everywhere in the world, but notable is that Renie and !Xabbu are from Durban, South Africa.
Otherland / int_adf55ded	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_adf55ded	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_adf55ded
Otherland / int_ae5ab58b	type	Luck-Based Search Technique
Otherland / int_ae5ab58b	comment	Luck-Based Search Technique: Dulcinea does a thorough investigation of John Dread's laptop using very sophisticated hacking software, and discovers that it has a secret trigger that activates when someone types DREAMTIME, a phrase she's not familiar with. She tries it, and her hacking software reports that the only thing that happened was that the laptop's microphone turned on. At that point, she gives up because she realizes that whatever the actual secret is, it's locked behind a voice password that her software can't reveal to her and she has no way of guessing - but she then ends up saying the correct password out loud anyway, completely by accident. ("The Dreamtime Bitch" was what John Dread called his abusive mother.)
Otherland / int_ae5ab58b	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ae5ab58b	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ae5ab58b
Otherland / int_afd71b8a	type	Inside a Computer System
Otherland / int_afd71b8a	comment	Inside a Computer System: Otherland is a network composed of virtual reality environments. There are also "hidden" virtual worlds inside it — some representing the operating system and some created by the operating system.
Otherland / int_afd71b8a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_afd71b8a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_afd71b8a
Otherland / int_b01abe4f	type	Catchphrase
Otherland / int_b01abe4f	comment	Catchphrase: Dread — "Confident, cocky, lazy, dead." Which of course comes back to bite him.
Otherland / int_b01abe4f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b01abe4f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b01abe4f
Otherland / int_b11ac9f5	type	Abusive Parents
Otherland / int_b11ac9f5	comment	Abusive Parents: The Freudian Excuse of John Dread, whose mother used her string of pimps and boyfriends to try and shape him into a walking nightmare. She was successful.
Otherland / int_b11ac9f5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b11ac9f5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b11ac9f5
Otherland / int_b1346878	type	Fate Worse than Death
Otherland / int_b1346878	comment	The karmic Fate Worse than Death of John Dread is to be trapped in a vision of the Dreamtime, eternally pursued by the spirits of the women he murdered.
Otherland / int_b1346878	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b1346878	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b1346878
Otherland / int_b1619b3c	type	Omnicidal Maniac
Otherland / int_b1619b3c	comment	Omnicidal Maniac: Dread, almost literally. He's also a rare case of a Psycho for Hire who's also a Serial Killer, taking a particular delight in slaughtering beautiful women in fetishistic ways. It's probably redundant to add that he's in it For the Evulz.
Otherland / int_b1619b3c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b1619b3c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b1619b3c
Otherland / int_b17f6a27	type	I Did What I Had to Do
Otherland / int_b17f6a27	comment	I Did What I Had to Do: Sellars' justification for all his actions, except the Creating Life bit - that was from boredom.
Otherland / int_b17f6a27	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b17f6a27	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b17f6a27
Otherland / int_b1a7cd14	type	Tap on the Head
Otherland / int_b1a7cd14	comment	Tap on the Head: Given how many times the protagonists get knocked unconscious at major plot transitions, it's a good thing they're in a computer system where their real brains aren't being turned to mush.
Otherland / int_b1a7cd14	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b1a7cd14	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b1a7cd14
Otherland / int_b26cc887	type	Just Between You and Me
Otherland / int_b26cc887	comment	Just Between You and Me: Jongleur and Paul Jonas share a moment of truth in Sea of Silver Light, after the latter manages to recover his memories. Subverted, however, because Jongleur knows what Jonas, at that point, does not: he's talking to a brain-uploaded clones, not the real Jonas.
Otherland / int_b26cc887	featureApplicability	-0.3
Otherland / int_b26cc887	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b26cc887
Otherland / int_b333f02e	type	Achilles in His Tent
Otherland / int_b333f02e	comment	Achilles in His Tent: In the Trojan War simulation, Orlando is placed in the role of Achilles, while Sam is Patroclus. The AI characters react to Orlando being too sick to fight (because of his progeria) as if he's stubbornly refusing, exactly as in The Iliad, and when Sam dons Achilles' armor in unwitting imitation of the myth, Orlando is forced to ride out and rescue her from Hector.
Otherland / int_b333f02e	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b333f02e	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b333f02e
Otherland / int_b3aa5504	type	Convenient Coma
Otherland / int_b3aa5504	comment	Convenient Coma: The Call to Adventure of the series is the comas suffered by thousands of children who come into contact with the Other. Also happens to John Dread at the end.
Otherland / int_b3aa5504	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b3aa5504	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b3aa5504
Otherland / int_b3d1b7e3	type	Genius Bonus
Otherland / int_b3d1b7e3	comment	Genius Bonus: The Real Killer, in a slightly meta in-universe example. So called because he writes "REAL" on something in his victim's blood. It's actually a punny joke at his employer's expense. In French, "sang réal" means "royal blood" and was a medieval pun for "san graal", which, in Old French, meant "Holy Grail" (the cup that caught the blood of Christ), which of course grants immortality in myth. Jongleur found it a tasteless joke.
Otherland / int_b3d1b7e3	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b3d1b7e3	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b3d1b7e3
Otherland / int_b3eecaae	type	Colony Drop
Otherland / int_b3eecaae	comment	Colony Drop: At the climax, the Other crashes the satellite it is housed in into the headquarters of J Corp. The chapter in which this occurs is poetically titled "Star Over Louisiana".
Otherland / int_b3eecaae	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b3eecaae	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b3eecaae
Otherland / int_b6aad019	type	Snuff Film
Otherland / int_b6aad019	comment	Snuff Film: Dread likes to record his "kills" on camera for his own private amusement, even adding dramatic lighting, editing and music in post-production. This ends up being a Chekhov's Gun.
Otherland / int_b6aad019	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b6aad019	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b6aad019
Otherland / int_b77a6d82	type	Evil Is Deathly Cold
Otherland / int_b77a6d82	comment	Evil Is Deathly Cold: Whenever anyone confronts the Other online, they experience a sensation of paralyzing, killing cold. This turns out to be a psychic echo of the Other's physical prison, in geosynchronous orbit with the Earth.
Otherland / int_b77a6d82	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b77a6d82	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b77a6d82
Otherland / int_b82b5723	type	Convulsive Seizures
Otherland / int_b82b5723	comment	Convulsive Seizures: How Eddie responds when Renie asks him what happened at Mr. J's club the night Steven got sick. His mind had been touched by the Other, and it is too much for him.
Otherland / int_b82b5723	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b82b5723	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b82b5723
Otherland / int_b96ee227	type	Everyone Meets Everyone
Otherland / int_b96ee227	comment	Everyone Meets Everyone: Subverted — it looks like this is going to happen at the end of the first book, but then things go very badly wrong, and a whole slew of new characters get introduced in the second book.
Otherland / int_b96ee227	featureApplicability	-0.3
Otherland / int_b96ee227	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b96ee227
Otherland / int_b9d334b2	type	Aerith and Bob
Otherland / int_b9d334b2	comment	Aerith and Bob: Renie, Martine, Orlando, Sam, Florimel, Sweet William, !Xabbu, and t4B. Justified because the characters are drawn from across the world (with !Xabbu's name being a traditional South African bushpeople name). In the case of Sweet William and t4B, they're going by their online handles. t4B's name is Javier.
Otherland / int_b9d334b2	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_b9d334b2	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_b9d334b2
Otherland / int_bab7fceb	type	Incredible Shrinking Man
Otherland / int_bab7fceb	comment	Incredible Shrinking Man: One of the first simulations the protagonists enter is run by an entomologist who configures it so that the human visitors are tiny in comparison with the insects. He is also openly disdainful of the "survival" of the people in question, figuring that if they get eaten (and thus kicked out of the simulation), it's their problem. After Dread takes over, the insects turn into something far worse.
Otherland / int_bab7fceb	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_bab7fceb	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_bab7fceb
Otherland / int_bb53d08	type	Tear Jerker
Otherland / int_bb53d08	comment	When Orlando finally dies. We were all expecting it, but still... Also a Tear Jerker.
Otherland / int_bb53d08	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_bb53d08	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_bb53d08
Otherland / int_bf487e2b	type	Translator Microbes
Otherland / int_bf487e2b	comment	Translator Microbes: Justified in that the 'Net has been programmed to translate languages on the fly and this goes hand in hand with the built-in voice recognition. It doesn't work with all languages, as Renie discovers from !Xabbu's Bushman dialect, and it has some peculiarities with certain loanwords.
Otherland / int_bf487e2b	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_bf487e2b	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_bf487e2b
Otherland / int_c2254109	type	WhackAMole
Otherland / int_c2254109	comment	Whack A Mole: When Dread infiltrates the group. It's notable that the viewpoint character changes often between the various parties, but never to any of the suspects, to keep the suspense up as long as possible.
Otherland / int_c2254109	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c2254109	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c2254109
Otherland / int_c2fd3484	type	Relationship Reset Button
Otherland / int_c2fd3484	comment	Relationship Reset Button: Paul and Martine, due to Paul's status as an uploaded personality.
Otherland / int_c2fd3484	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c2fd3484	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c2fd3484
Otherland / int_c4d4d3cc	type	Digital Avatar
Otherland / int_c4d4d3cc	comment	Digital Avatar: A significant part of the first book's Justified Tutorial includes a description of how avatars work on the 'Net and the process of creating one. The characters' avatars are described in great detail: Orlando's muscular Thargor, the flamboyant sims of the very rich, the esoteric and fanciful sims of the Treehouse inhabitants, the functional sim that Renie uses, even the nonexistent sim of Martine Desroubins. The Otherland series ended two years before Second Life was released, so the explanations are justified as the readers likely didn't have a frame of reference to fully understand the world of the 'Net more at the time of publication.
Otherland / int_c4d4d3cc	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c4d4d3cc	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c4d4d3cc
Otherland / int_c4e519dd	type	Little Hero, Big War
Otherland / int_c4e519dd	comment	Little Hero, Big War: Most of the protagonists play this role, as, let's face it, they are ordinary citizens thrown into a massive web of conspiracy.
Otherland / int_c4e519dd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c4e519dd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c4e519dd
Otherland / int_c6102eb0	type	Grand Theft Me
Otherland / int_c6102eb0	comment	Grand Theft Me: Dread plays The Mole in the protagonists' party by hijacking the sim of one of their initial members, starting a game of Whack A Mole once they figure out that he's infiltrated them. The poor sod he does it to is executed off screen.
Otherland / int_c6102eb0	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c6102eb0	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c6102eb0
Otherland / int_c660bc15	type	Fan Disservice
Otherland / int_c660bc15	comment	Fan Disservice: In the virtual club that Renie and Xabbu visit during their investigation, there is a "stripper", but rather than taking off her clothes, she peels off her skin.
Otherland / int_c660bc15	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c660bc15	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c660bc15
Otherland / int_c6b8d37a	type	Cliffhanger
Otherland / int_c6b8d37a	comment	Cliffhanger: Each of the first three volumes ends with one: City of Golden Shadow: Sellars' gang narrowly escapes Dread and disappears into the Otherland network, as Long Joseph begins to realize his failures. River of Blue Light: Sellars' gang are left for dead (with Sweet William left literally dead) by Dread in a dead zone of Otherland, as Long Joseph is abducted while trying to visit his son in the hospital. Mountain of Black Glass: A few members of Sellars' gang find themselves stranded with Felix Jongleur in a seemingly abandoned simworld, as Dread takes over the Otherland network and Orlando's body lies limp.
Otherland / int_c6b8d37a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c6b8d37a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c6b8d37a
Otherland / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
Otherland / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: Multiple. Blade Runner: In River of Blue Fire, the dying Scarecrow (played by a human) quite intentionally paraphrases the "tears in the rain" speech, calling it a "good ending speech". Star Trek: In City of Golden Shadow, when Orlando and Sam are brought to the Treehouse, their guide refers to the environment as "It's the net, but not as we know it" then lampshades it as a very old joke - referring to the song "Star Trekkin'" by the Firm.
Otherland / int_c75df49a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c75df49a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c75df49a
Otherland / int_c868a42a	type	Freudian Excuse
Otherland / int_c868a42a	comment	Freudian Excuse: John Dread was raised by his abusive, drug-addicted mother with the intention of making him evil. It worked. Felix Jongleur grew up in a Boarding School of Horrors and took that experience with him into the business world, becoming the biggest bully in the world.
Otherland / int_c868a42a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c868a42a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c868a42a
Otherland / int_c887dc21	type	You Can Barely Stand
Otherland / int_c887dc21	comment	You Can Barely Stand: Orlando, much of the time, due to his illness.
Otherland / int_c887dc21	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c887dc21	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c887dc21
Otherland / int_c8f98eb5	type	Ontological Mystery
Otherland / int_c8f98eb5	comment	Ontological Mystery: Paul Jonas' chapters read like this for most of the story, as he's amnesiac and trapped in a bizarre world that he doesn't even realize at first is a simulation.
Otherland / int_c8f98eb5	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_c8f98eb5	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_c8f98eb5
Otherland / int_caf89e54	type	Taking You with Me
Otherland / int_caf89e54	comment	Taking You with Me: The Other's plan to end its torment culminates in this. (See Death from Above.)
Otherland / int_caf89e54	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_caf89e54	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_caf89e54
Otherland / int_cbe687ab	type	Corrupt Corporate Executive
Otherland / int_cbe687ab	comment	Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jongleur of course, but also several of the other members of the Grail Brotherhood.
Otherland / int_cbe687ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_cbe687ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_cbe687ab
Otherland / int_ce60aef3	type	Heroic Resolve
Otherland / int_ce60aef3	comment	Heroic Resolve: Orlando lives on this trope. Of course, he's got a terminal disease, so he can be forgive for long stretches of weakness punctuated by a few moments of sheer badassery.
Otherland / int_ce60aef3	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ce60aef3	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ce60aef3
Otherland / int_ceb7336a	type	Wetware CPU
Otherland / int_ceb7336a	comment	Wetware CPU: The Other.
Otherland / int_ceb7336a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ceb7336a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ceb7336a
Otherland / int_d001c42c	type	Anti-Villain
Otherland / int_d001c42c	comment	Anti-Villain: By the fourth book, you'll have long forgotten that Dulcinea Anwin is an international terrorist and a murderess, as overshadowed (and overwhelmed) as she is by Dread.
Otherland / int_d001c42c	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d001c42c	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d001c42c
Otherland / int_d038afba	type	Creating Life
Otherland / int_d038afba	comment	Creating Life: Mr. Sellars' dark secret and his motivation for invading Otherland.
Otherland / int_d038afba	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d038afba	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d038afba
Otherland / int_d355ba37	type	Turned Against Their Masters
Otherland / int_d355ba37	comment	Turned Against Their Masters: The Other, of course — both subtly, by co-opting the network resources to create its "playthings"; and overtly, by manipulating the protagonists to free it from its virtual prison.
Otherland / int_d355ba37	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d355ba37	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d355ba37
Otherland / int_d39e327f	type	What the Hell, Hero?
Otherland / int_d39e327f	comment	What the Hell, Hero?: When Sellars' manipulation of the kindergarten-age Christabel Sorensen is discovered by her parents, they really let him have it.
Otherland / int_d39e327f	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d39e327f	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d39e327f
Otherland / int_d5d976dd	type	I Have Many Names
Otherland / int_d5d976dd	comment	I Have Many Names: Johnny Wulgaru, aka John Dread, aka More Dread.
Otherland / int_d5d976dd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d5d976dd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d5d976dd
Otherland / int_d62dd556	type	The Chessmaster
Otherland / int_d62dd556	comment	The Chessmaster: Mr. Sellars has been scheming to get to the bottom of the Grail Brotherhood's plans for decades, not to mention having a secret all his own that doesn't come out until the very end.
Otherland / int_d62dd556	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d62dd556	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d62dd556
Otherland / int_d64480d2	type	There Are No Girls on the Internet
Otherland / int_d64480d2	comment	There Are No Girls on the Internet: Sam's ostensible justification for hiding behind a masculine online identity.
Otherland / int_d64480d2	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d64480d2	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d64480d2
Otherland / int_d71d51fd	type	The End of the World as We Know It
Otherland / int_d71d51fd	comment	The End of the World as We Know It: A psychic predicts the world will be destroyed. After the good guys win, she comes out of seclusion saying her prediction came true. A dense reporter says, "Because the world is ending and beginning again every day?" to the psychic's disgust. It's because the true depth and realness of Otherland died with the Other, leaving only the world's largest and most sophisticated computer simulation.
Otherland / int_d71d51fd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d71d51fd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d71d51fd
Otherland / int_d8f3dc8	type	Eternal Recurrence
Otherland / int_d8f3dc8	comment	Eternal Recurrence: Many of the virtual worlds in Otherland "reset" once they reach a programmed endpoint. This is appropriate, as they are intended to simulate games.
Otherland / int_d8f3dc8	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d8f3dc8	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d8f3dc8
Otherland / int_d959f4db	type	Immortality Seeker
Otherland / int_d959f4db	comment	Immortality Seeker: The Grail Brotherhood all seek virtual immortality to escape the inevitable deaths of their natural bodies.
Otherland / int_d959f4db	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_d959f4db	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_d959f4db
Otherland / int_da2b1604	type	Foe-Tossing Charge
Otherland / int_da2b1604	comment	Foe-Tossing Charge: Subverted when Orlando attempts to rescue Sam in the Trojan War simulation. He rides out like an Olympian hero to confront Hector, but is too ill to fight effectively and is defeated.
Otherland / int_da2b1604	featureApplicability	-0.3
Otherland / int_da2b1604	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_da2b1604
Otherland / int_dab6a3a8	type	Sugar Apocalypse
Otherland / int_dab6a3a8	comment	Sugar Apocalypse: Twice. First there's the battle in the cartoon-based world, then there's Dread's reign of mayhem, culminating at the battle of the Well when the Other's Ugly Cute fairy-tale creatures get slaughtered.
Otherland / int_dab6a3a8	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_dab6a3a8	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_dab6a3a8
Otherland / int_db2f3581	type	All Girls Want Bad Boys
Otherland / int_db2f3581	comment	All Girls Want Bad Boys: Dulcinea Anwin, a hacker-for-hire who's bored with the ennui of her quasi-criminal life, falls for Dread's "animalistic charm" and the thrill of danger that surrounds him. There are no words to describe how poorly this works out for her.
Otherland / int_db2f3581	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_db2f3581	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_db2f3581
Otherland / int_db38d6ca	type	Torture Technician
Otherland / int_db38d6ca	comment	Torture Technician: Dread implies that he's one of these, at least as far as his "hobbies" go. He is most certainly an expert at psychological torture. Jongleur also demonstrates some proficiency, subjecting two of his employees to their personal worst nightmares — drowning and needles.
Otherland / int_db38d6ca	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_db38d6ca	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_db38d6ca
Otherland / int_dc1761bd	type	A God Am I
Otherland / int_dc1761bd	comment	A God Am I: Quite literal in the case of Jongleur, whose personal simulation casts him as Osiris in a fantastic Egypt, with thousands of virtual worshipers. He even forces the rest of the Brotherhood to wear sims of Egyptian gods and speak in colourful euphemisms while speaking, to keep up the charade. Some of the Brotherhood call Jongleur on this theatricality, but he points out that through their wealth, they have as much power as men who were called kings and gods in millenia past. He also privately considers that they may find eternity living in simulations tiresome if they insist on treating them as fake. Dread gets a severe case of god syndrome after he takes over the system from Jongleur, embarking on an orgiastic campaign of destruction and subjugation in the virtual worlds. As the fourth book progresses, you can see his sanity slipping as his megalomania takes over.
Otherland / int_dc1761bd	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_dc1761bd	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_dc1761bd
Otherland / int_dcbe8a6e	type	Chekhov's Gunman
Otherland / int_dcbe8a6e	comment	Chekhov's Gunman: Olga Pirofsky's true role in the story is kept mysterious until the climax. All we really know is that she lost her child long ago. The Other turns out to be her son, who was taken from her at birth. Quan Li, who is mentioned in passing by Del Ray as "a Chinese woman named Quan". She's part of the party assembled in Temilún, and turns out to be the one whose sim Dread hijacked. Nandi Paradivash gets a brief segment in the second book helping Paul Jonas and later shows up to aid the heroes in the Egypt simulation. T4b is revealed at the end as Kunohara's mole. The Nemesis program ends up being the key to communicating with Sellars' artificial life entities.
Otherland / int_dcbe8a6e	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_dcbe8a6e	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_dcbe8a6e
Otherland / int_e0c470a1	type	The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You
Otherland / int_e0c470a1	comment	The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In-universe, a cave of one Otherland simworld includes an AI that reveals the real names and locations of the party. Also, since the system makes everything real, it's possible to die anywhere within it. Even on the main menu of the system.
Otherland / int_e0c470a1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e0c470a1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e0c470a1
Otherland / int_e150c4c7	type	Manchild
Otherland / int_e150c4c7	comment	Manchild: The Other is like this in a sense — its understanding of the world is very childlike, even though it's been around in some form for at least twenty years. More traditionally, Long Joseph Sulaweyo is extremely petulant and childish in his behavior patterns as an emotional defense against pain.
Otherland / int_e150c4c7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e150c4c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e150c4c7
Otherland / int_e26f04b4	type	Last of His Kind
Otherland / int_e26f04b4	comment	Last of His Kind: !Xabbu believes he is one of, if not the last Bushman.
Otherland / int_e26f04b4	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e26f04b4	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e26f04b4
Otherland / int_e3109dae	type	Switching P.O.V.
Otherland / int_e3109dae	comment	Switching P.O.V.: On the whole, the narrative switches through tens of points of view throughout, but this trope really shows when Sellar's gang is in the same simworld together. City of Golden Shadow ends with Dread's attack on Atasco's compound as Atasco and Sellars speak with Sellars' gang, from the successive perspectives of Renie, Dread, and Fredericks.
Otherland / int_e3109dae	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e3109dae	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e3109dae
Otherland / int_e386dc9	type	Staying Alive
Otherland / int_e386dc9	comment	Staying Alive: Orlando, who is brought back to life in a virtual avatar by the Other and then given his own Big Damn Heroes moment when he fights and defeats the avatars of Mudd and Finney at the Well.
Otherland / int_e386dc9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e386dc9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e386dc9
Otherland / int_e4c89b67	type	Attending Your Own Funeral
Otherland / int_e4c89b67	comment	Attending Your Own Funeral: Both Mr. Sellars and Orlando, after their Brain Uploading. It's made weirder by the fact that many of the attendees know their secret.
Otherland / int_e4c89b67	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e4c89b67	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e4c89b67
Otherland / int_e54245e1	type	G.I.R.L.
Otherland / int_e54245e1	comment	G.I.R.L.: Inverted: Sam pretends to be a boy online so she can be just "one of the guys" and not get singled out for her sex.
Otherland / int_e54245e1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e54245e1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e54245e1
Otherland / int_e5e07b2d	type	You Cannot Grasp the True Form
Otherland / int_e5e07b2d	comment	You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The Other appears this way online; in fact, the simulation devotes a lot of effort to forcing it into a semi-rational appearance to prevent the people who work with it from going crazy. It doesn't entirely work.
Otherland / int_e5e07b2d	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e5e07b2d	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e5e07b2d
Otherland / int_e624f0e8	type	Suspiciously Specific Denial
Otherland / int_e624f0e8	comment	The only AI that has its perspective explored is explicitly stated as not having emotions or intuition, but they are described to explain the logic of the program's actions.
Otherland / int_e624f0e8	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e624f0e8	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e624f0e8
Otherland / int_e70127	type	The Mole
Otherland / int_e70127	comment	T4b is revealed at the end as Kunohara's mole.
Otherland / int_e70127	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e70127	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e70127
Otherland / int_e794cb54	type	Powered by a Forsaken Child
Otherland / int_e794cb54	comment	Powered by a Forsaken Child: Literally. The Other is in fact a psychically gifted boy (or he used to be), deep-frozen in outer space. In order to increase its "capacity", the Brotherhood harvested unborn fetal brains and stuck them in with the Other.
Otherland / int_e794cb54	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e794cb54	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e794cb54
Otherland / int_e7b0229a	type	Laser-Guided Amnesia
Otherland / int_e7b0229a	comment	Laser-Guided Amnesia: Paul Jonas suffers from this. Justified as he was implanted in the Grail Network as a form of punishment and intentionally stripped of his memory in the process.
Otherland / int_e7b0229a	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e7b0229a	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e7b0229a
Otherland / int_e8dcd1c0	type	Four Lines, All Waiting
Otherland / int_e8dcd1c0	comment	Four Lines, All Waiting: The pacing of the novel turns to this once the protagonists enter Otherland. Almost immediately, Renie and !Xabbu, and Orlando and Fredericks, are each separated from the rest of the party; we also hear from the point of view of Dread, Olga, Paul, Jeremiah, Long Joseph, Christabel, and even Felix Jongleur. Martine, part of the third protagonist grouping within Otherland, narrates her adventures subvocally into a diary (which also helps to speed things up, as the reader doesn't have to sit through all of Sweet William's overdramatic fawning.) It gets a tad egregious in the middle of River of Blue Fire, in which Dread's and Martine's inner dialogues trade a few chapters while the plot takes a break.
Otherland / int_e8dcd1c0	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e8dcd1c0	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e8dcd1c0
Otherland / int_e8e56799	type	Blue-and-Orange Morality
Otherland / int_e8e56799	comment	Blue-and-Orange Morality: Much of the main plot involves the characters trying to decipher the nature of the Other, which is at times malicious, at others childlike, sometimes robotic and inhuman, and occasionally desperate for human contact. It doesn't seem to have anything resembling normal human morality, which raises the question of how an AI could become that way.
Otherland / int_e8e56799	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e8e56799	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e8e56799
Otherland / int_e9702c83	type	Opposite-Sex Clone
Otherland / int_e9702c83	comment	Opposite-Sex Clone: Jongleur's daughter is one of these. Thus explaining the Strong Family Resemblance.
Otherland / int_e9702c83	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_e9702c83	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_e9702c83
Otherland / int_ea39d156	type	Who Wants to Live Forever?
Otherland / int_ea39d156	comment	Quite literal in the case of Jongleur, whose personal simulation casts him as Osiris in a fantastic Egypt, with thousands of virtual worshipers. He even forces the rest of the Brotherhood to wear sims of Egyptian gods and speak in colourful euphemisms while speaking, to keep up the charade. Some of the Brotherhood call Jongleur on this theatricality, but he points out that through their wealth, they have as much power as men who were called kings and gods in millenia past. He also privately considers that they may find eternity living in simulations tiresome if they insist on treating them as fake.
Otherland / int_ea39d156	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ea39d156	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ea39d156
Otherland / int_eb9afb9d	type	Evil Old Folks
Otherland / int_eb9afb9d	comment	Evil Old Folks: Jongleur in particular, but also most of the Grail Brotherhood. Jongleur is around 180, Wells is 111, Jiun is 90 and Yacoubian is 70.
Otherland / int_eb9afb9d	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_eb9afb9d	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_eb9afb9d
Otherland / int_eedee4d	type	The Starscream
Otherland / int_eedee4d	comment	The Starscream: Ptah/Wells is this in to Jongleur in the Grail Brotherhood. Dread is one too, but he's smart enough to wait on his betrayal until he's in a position of genuine power.
Otherland / int_eedee4d	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_eedee4d	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_eedee4d
Otherland / int_f12d9d83	type	Promotion to Parent
Otherland / int_f12d9d83	comment	Promotion to Parent: Renie is Stephen's de facto mother after their mother died in a fire and their father became a drunk.
Otherland / int_f12d9d83	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f12d9d83	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f12d9d83
Otherland / int_f2877d9e	type	IncrediblyLamePun
Otherland / int_f2877d9e	comment	Incredibly Lame Pun: Dread honestly thinks that calling himself "More Dread" is a really cool name. Of course, it's also a pun on the character of Mordred, from the legends of King Arthur, meaning he's also poking fun at his boss and the Grail Project.
Otherland / int_f2877d9e	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f2877d9e	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f2877d9e
Otherland / int_f3fac450	type	Brain in a Jar
Otherland / int_f3fac450	comment	Brain in a Jar: The Other is a brain (well, many brains, with one dominant over the others) sealed into a life-support tank inside a satellite in orbit around the Earth, and hooked up via laser relay to the heart of the Otherland network.
Otherland / int_f3fac450	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f3fac450	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f3fac450
Otherland / int_f5c505db	type	The Cracker
Otherland / int_f5c505db	comment	The Cracker: Dulcinea Anwin is a professional Black Hat, although she is not nearly as hardened a criminal as she believes herself to be. This causes her to bite off a bit more than she can chew with Dread.
Otherland / int_f5c505db	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f5c505db	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f5c505db
Otherland / int_f64a9cf7	type	Earn Your Happy Ending
Otherland / int_f64a9cf7	comment	Earn Your Happy Ending: The Other, strangely enough, seems to be playing this sort of game, subtly manipulating everything that occurs within the network to make things play out like the fairy tales that it imagines itself to be in, complete with heroes fighting a desperate struggle against hopeless odds to free it from its imprisonment. Then Dread comes along and makes the trope play out for real.
Otherland / int_f64a9cf7	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f64a9cf7	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f64a9cf7
Otherland / int_f76842b1	type	The Fundamentalist
Otherland / int_f76842b1	comment	The Fundamentalist: The Circle has shades of this.
Otherland / int_f76842b1	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f76842b1	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f76842b1
Otherland / int_f9f2c33	type	Running Gag
Otherland / int_f9f2c33	comment	Running Gag: Sprootie and How to Kill Your Teacher are both running gags in the "Net feed news" Framing Device.
Otherland / int_f9f2c33	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_f9f2c33	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_f9f2c33
Otherland / int_fb76b6ec	type	Kiss Me, I'm Virtual
Otherland / int_fb76b6ec	comment	Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Obviously, in a VR world, virtual sex is cheap and easy to come by. Due to the hyperrealistic nature of Otherland, however, it can be really, really lifelike. Also, one of the methods used for long-term VR requires the user to be fully immersed in a tank of goop and hooked up to a life-support system. The goop hardens and softens to simulate touching things—and this is abused.
Otherland / int_fb76b6ec	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_fb76b6ec	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_fb76b6ec
Otherland / int_fb9e25e9	type	Team Mom
Otherland / int_fb9e25e9	comment	Team Mom: Renie, but not without a great deal of resentment from the others, who are (mostly) not kids.
Otherland / int_fb9e25e9	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_fb9e25e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_fb9e25e9
Otherland / int_fc52510	type	Brain Uploading
Otherland / int_fc52510	comment	The Grail Brotherhood never perfected their Brain Uploading technology.
Otherland / int_fc52510	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_fc52510	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_fc52510
Otherland / int_fd94c4ac	type	Theme Naming
Otherland / int_fd94c4ac	comment	Theme Naming: The book titles all reference a key virtual environment that the characters must navigate to or within. The City of Golden Light is Bolivar Atasco's sim, where all of Sellars' gang must meet in order to be given their mission; the River of Blue Light connects all of the sim worlds together; the Mountain of Black Glass is the simworld in which The Other's caged body resides; and the Sea of Silver Light is The Other's own sim and mental playground.
Otherland / int_fd94c4ac	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_fd94c4ac	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_fd94c4ac
Otherland / int_ff5a74c8	type	Talking Is a Free Action
Otherland / int_ff5a74c8	comment	Talking Is a Free Action: !Xabbu is able to tell his people's myths to the party at several points without interruption. Somehow, Martine continues to sub-vocalize into her diary while being tortured by Dread, and while running through a recreation of The Trojan War.
Otherland / int_ff5a74c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_ff5a74c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_ff5a74c8
Otherland / int_name	type	ItemName
Otherland / int_name	comment
Otherland / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
Otherland / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
Otherland	hasFeature	Otherland / int_name
Otherland / int_name	itemName	Otherland

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

Otherland	hasFeature	A Form You Are Comfortable With / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Admiring the Abomination / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Afrofuturism / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Another Man's Terror / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Attending Your Own Funeral / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Bizarrchitecture / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Boarding School of Horrors / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Brain Uploading / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Building of Adventure / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Clone Angst / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Colony Drop / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Corrupt Politician / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Creating Life Is Bad / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Creepily Long Arms / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Dark Lord on Life Support / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Dedication / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Deep-Immersion Gaming / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Divided for Publication / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Dream Apocalypse / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Driving Question / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Dystopian Oz / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Epiphanic Prison / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Eternal Recurrence / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Everyone Meets Everyone / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Evil Is Deathly Cold / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Evil Tower of Ominousness / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Fantastic Drug / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Fat and Skinny / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Fetus Terrible / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Four Lines, All Waiting / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Friend to All Children / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Future Slang / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	G.I.R.L. / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Gender-Concealing Writing / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Goggles Do Nothing / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Have I Mentioned I Am Gay? / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Hell Is War / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Hidden Villain / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Hollywood Hacking / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Immortality Immorality / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Immortality Seeker / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Inside a Computer System / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	It's Going Down / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Janitor Impersonation Infiltration / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Jigsaw Puzzle Plot / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Lesbian Cop / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Luck-Based Search Technique / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Mad Artist / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Malignant Plot Tumor / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Man in the Machine / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Mental Affair / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Misanthrope Supreme / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Modern Mayincatec Empire / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Nailed to the Wagon / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Online Alias / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Opposite-Sex Clone / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Or Was It a Dream? / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Permadeath / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Placebotinum Effect / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Politically Correct Villain / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Postmodernism / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Psycho for Hire / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Psycho Prototype / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Punctuation Shaker / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Read the Freaking Manual / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Relationship Reset Button / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Scary Shiny Glasses / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Self-Induced Allergic Reaction / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Snuff Film / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Straight Gay / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Team Mom / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	The Farmer and the Viper / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	The Most Dangerous Video Game / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Their First Time / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	There Are No Girls on the Internet / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Torture Technician / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Translate the Loanwords, Too / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Truly Single Parent / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Turned Against Their Masters / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Unwinnable Training Simulation / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Voice with an Internet Connection / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Wetware CPU / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	You Can Leave Your Hat On / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	You Cannot Grasp the True Form / int_d966b18e
Otherland	hasFeature	Not Disabled In VR / int_d966b18e

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