Clouded Horizons:Tropes

Such is the blessing and curse of any form of media, written or otherwise. With an infinite number of ideas comes an infinite number of clichés that go along with the ideas. From the wonderful site TVTropes.org, here are examples of some of the tropes that are in Clouded Horizons, whether played straight, subverted, or otherwise.

Spoilers may be ahead. Consider yourself forewarned.

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Action Girl
Examples:

• Taking the trope to its highest would be Celes Chere and Beatrix from Runic Legacy. Beatrix especially; when you can practically one-hit KO the protagonists, you've got a good thing going for you.

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Age Is Relative
Examples:

• Ein is probably the glaring example here. Only 14 years old, but he's the Trabian SeeD Commander following some rather interesting incidents. Yuki's a little less this trope - she's also 14, but is only a Lieutenant.

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Aloof Big Brother
Examples:

• Katanas DeValle fits this one almost perfectly. He doesn't have the bored expression, but saying that he's miles ahead of his brothers and even most of the protagonists is an understatement.

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An Ice Person
Examples:

• Both Ben and Yuki are examples of this trope - Yuki's very name even means "snow."

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Authority Equals Asskicking
Examples:

• Pretty much anyone at all that has a rank in anything, anywhere - no subversions here, folks. Darius DeValle Sr., Katanas DeValle, Albel Nox, Angel, and Hikari Tanaka probably play this trope straightest on the mortal side of things.

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Battle Aura
Examples:

• Most all of the main characters are capable of this, but usually only when they're really fired up or about to use a Limit Break. Anyone who uses Alchemy gets a form of this, colored specifically to the type of Alchemy they're using.
  • Also, the Grim Angel captains/vice-captains and Byakuya Kuchiki in Soul Society. Just like the Bleach Shinigami they're based off, they have the tangible version that can hurt others by merely being released.

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Battle In The Center Of The Mind
Examples:

• Ben did this once to Manes to regain control of his body after the first time Manes emerged, at the same time as Manes was being fought in the physical world.

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Beam Spam
Examples:

• Darius' Charfire attack certainly qualifies here.
• To a lesser extent, Ben's Hailstorm skill goes for the numerous version.

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Because Destiny Says So
Examples:

• This may as well be Ben's reason for existence.
• Angel's too, on occasion.

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Beware The Nice Ones
Examples:

• Ben did this once, when he found the one responsible for attacking his friends in Spira. Staying calm all the while, he proceeded to torture the person, and when that wasn't enough...he brought out Manes to finish the job.

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BFS
Examples:

• Sephiroth. Enough said.
• Cloud, or Seraphim, member of the Eighteen. Once again, enough said.

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Big Damn Heroes
Examples:

• Ben and Celes were the recipients of this one while in the Ethereal Plane fighting Haseo Misaki. Just as he was about to call out for his Avatar, Skeith, Odin broke into the fight and knocked Haseo through a couple pillars to make the Vizard aware of his presence.

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Bigger Stick
Examples:

• Hikari Tanaka's NILSC prototype armor stolen appropriated from Vector Industries fits the bill here. She'd have already died no less than twice without it.

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Break The Cutie
Examples:

• ...Sweet fancy Moses, Carrie Tremont is this trope taken to its logical extreme. When you can say that being kidnapped around four times and having Eidolon-esque spirits implanted into the mind was the least of the things she had happen to her, that's saying something.

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Calling Your Attacks
Examples:

• Once again, name a character. Chances are, they've done it at least once.
• Subversion: Basic Alchemy skills, and most Alchemy in general, doesn't require anything to be said in order to use it.

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Corrupt Corporate Executive
Examples:

• Darius DeValle Sr embodies this trope. Oh, does he ever. Zeo Conrad and Wilhelm, although the latter to a lesser extent, are also guilty of this.

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Crowning Moment of Awesome
Examples:

• This one is so big, we may as well go alphabetically by character. Akira Hamada, not to mention two squads of the Presidential Guard, got theirs when they stormed a building to apprehend Geese Howard following an assassination attempt on Laguna Loire. One member of Geese's gang took a step forward after Akira said not to, and received no less than eight bullet wounds for his trouble. No one else tried to move after that.
• Angel's Crowning Moment came during the fight to defend the Ethereal Plane, when Shawlong Qufang showed up to fight him, as well as Ben, Celes, and Ein, the former three of whom had just unlocked their Diviners' Shikai. Shawlong proceeded to take down everyone except Angel after a short fight, to which Angel promptly cut the chatter and unloaded on the Arrancar, destroying him with a combination of his Peacemaker Diviner and a pair of pulse rifles. And he wasn't even dirty afterwards.
  • Now Angel has had another - namely, achieving Bankai in the span of a few months as opposed to the usual time of over ten years, as well as killing Angelus - his dark half - in a mental duel with said Bankai.
• Ben has had a lot of smaller moments, but his true Crowning Moment came when he took on Destine more or less alone after a power boost from Will. Say what you will, taking on a Pillar with only Rubedo Alaberti as backup is pretty impressive, and that he won, in a sense, is even more impressive.
• Darius got his Crowning Moment in Vector Industries. Finding out his girlfriend was shot by the person standing in front of him? Rage-inducing. Shattering every electronic circuit in the building with a burst of Alchemy, after beating the offender unconscious with her own weapon? Just plain sweet.
• Darius Sr. has has two that immediately come to mind. The fight with Arragious Nicholai on Vector Industries' space station while Hikari Tanaka's squad was rescuing Laguna Loire was short, sweet, quip-filled, and still awe-inspiring. His second moment was on Trabia's third floor, after he took on both Revolver and Katanas in a battle that could've made the third floor come down on everyone's heads. After two simultaneous Limits from both his sons to counter his own, he finally went down, but with nothing more than a couple scratches despite being unconscious.
• Arguably, Hikari Tanaka's CMoA came during a battle at the Akatosh Chantry against the Dark Brotherhood. After being rendered unconscious for a time courtesy of a suicidal attack from one of the Brotherhood members, Nightfire showed up to defend his girlfriend, beating the offending leader of the Brotherhood handily. But when he went to finish said leader off...well, Hikari wasn't quite unconscious any more.

Hikari: When you try to kill someone, you should make sure they die.

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Crowning Moment of Heartwarming
Examples:

• Just...this post. Bravo, Angel. Bravo.

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Cute Shotaro Boy
Examples:

• Ein Beoulve is the Clouded Horizons poster-boy for this trope. Ask any of the administrators.

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Death Is Cheap
Examples:

• Dmitri Yuriev. Just...Dmitri Yuriev.
• To a lesser extent, everyone, especially Planeswalkers - revival magic and items are common in the world, and Planeswalkers have a deity behind them. Suffice it to say that if said deity wanted them alive again, not much would really stop them.

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Determinator
Examples:

• Ben has taken this above and beyond almost anyone else in the series. Knock him down, he'll stay down for a minute while figuring a way around what you just used, and then get up and beat you down with what he figured out. Not to mention how determined he is now to retake Trabia Garden, since the Eighteen have taken it over.
  • Subverted when Ben went after Sin, and ended up in a big crater after Sin slapped him into the ground.
• Darius, upon finding out his former girlfriend Lindsey was still alive in the form of KOS-MOS, out-did Ben with his attempts at getting her back. He succeeded.

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Diagonal Cut
Examples:

• Nightfire's Kyoumou Meibatsu Limit Break works like this, though instead of an actual Diagonal Cut as the trope implies, it's a diagonal slash that deals three types of elemental damage.

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Doppleganger Spin
Examples:

• Etchel did this to Ben during his Blademaster training. Ben, in return, then made that the idea for his Shihohappo Ken skill, adding an almost ludicrous amount of throwing weapons to the mix for good measure - making it more of a Doppleganger Attack, really.
• Naoki's Shadow Clone skill works like this, minus the spinning.

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Drop The Hammer
Examples:

• Revolver DeValle hit someone during a mission to Esthar's Vector Industries with a smithing hammer. In the face. Granted, they deserved it.

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Dual Wielding
Examples:

• Ben and Angel both notably do this, Ben most often with twin katanas, and Angel with dual Atma Weapons. Ben also uses a pair of wrist blades on occasion.
• Darius' dual magnums also qualify here.
• So do Nightfire and Yuki's twin katanas.

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Dungeon Master
Examples:

• Planar leaders and Authors alike both come across as this more often than not, but each has their own reasons for interfering or not interfering besides simply being stopped by the others.

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Emotionless Girl
Examples:

• Hikari Tanaka epitomized this trope the first time she was seen in the Vector Industries arc. Given who she's modeled after, however...this isn't very surprising. Partially a subversion, as she isn't always that way - that personality was more or less related to her job.
• Lindsey Geneave, aka KOS-MOS, also fits this one to a degree.

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Empathic Weapon
Examples:

• Diviners, like the Bleach zanpakuto that is their basis, are effectively a piece of the user's soul in weapon form. However, they can be transferred between users - though, how well they work depends on how much they like the user.

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Executive Suite Fight
Examples:

• Darius Sr., Revolver, and Katanas had one of these that nearly leveled the whole third floor of Garden before it ended.

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Flash Step
Examples:

• Again, the Grim Angels in Soul Society do this a lot. Ben can also do it, thanks to Etchel Beoulve. Admittedly, he was pretty fond of Haste magic and blinding speed before.

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Fragile Speedster
Examples:

• It's hard to say whether Ben is this trope, a Lightning Bruiser, or a Glass Cannon now...unless it comes to magic, in which case the Fragile part of this trope is perfectly exemplified.

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Giggling Villain
Examples:

• Hyne absolutely loves to do this, exclusively for the purpose of creeping out anyone she feels to need it.

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Guardian Of The Multiverse Examples:

• Authors and Planeswalkers both fall into this at varying levels. Authors protect each of the realms in the Clouded Horizons universe, while Planeswalkers are the ones who travel between them; it's implied that their actions often directly affect whether two realms continue to be at peace or go to war.

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Hime Cut
Examples:

• Chieko Murakami's hairstyle is like this.

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Implausible Fencing Powers
Examples:

• Name a person with a sword in the series. Any person. Go on, I'll wait.

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Improbable Aiming Skills
Examples:

• Darius is probably the biggest offender here, able to do just about anything with his pistols. If he ever has to use the rifle, watch out.
• Angel has also demonstrated a little of this, notably using a pair of pulse rifles.
• Ben also does this with throwing weapons, after a long period of training with them.

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It's Up To You
Examples:

• Averted during the field exam - each squad, regardless of character importance, had roughly the same objectives with regards to importance.
• Played straight later, as it really was almost solely up to Ben to take on Destine.

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Jumped At The Call
Examples:

• Not only did Ben jump at the call, he's not once said "I just want to be normal." Truthfully, he can't imagine life now without having a Pillar pop by every couple hours or so.

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Kawaisa
Examples:

• An argument could be made that both Ein Beoulve and Lina U'noei are this trope, concentrated.

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Lady of War
Examples:

• Word of God Darius Ben says that Freya is this trope...and there's really no reason to disbelieve it.
• Fia Nelcas also seems to fit this trope - rapier as weapon of choice, demure and polite personality...

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Lightning Bruiser
Examples:

• Albel Nox. Fastest mortal in Gaia at the present time, capable of handing you your own head on a stick in less time than it takes you to sneeze, and the General of the Sphere for Trabia Garden's military forces, which means he's more than capable of taking assaults from divisions alone and coming out on top.

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Living With The Villain
Examples:

• Ben had this happen a lot. Having Darius DeValle Sr. as your Garden Headmaster doesn't do wonders for your career when he's constantly trying to get rid of you by any means necessary. He's also found himself in combat with the Senior at least twice, which is equally bad when you realize just who the Senior is.

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Magnetic Hero
Examples:

• Ben definitely qualifies for this one. First it was the DeValle family and Angel. Then it was Ethereal Plane entities. Then it was Grim Angels. He seems to be good at this sort of thing.

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The Mario
Examples:

• Katanas DeValle is probably one of the bigger examples of this trope. Tetsuya Kurabasa, Andréa Beoulve, and Ein Beoulve all seem to fall under this as well.

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Mauve Shirt
Examples:

• The nameless receptionist at Trabia Garden eventually got a name - Rain Myers. Then she died. She got better.

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Moe
Examples:

• Yuki Kurabasa is a potential case for this one. She's 14, and actually very cute, though much too shy to have much interest in relationships...yet.

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The Multiverse
Examples:

• Clouded Horizons itself, naturally. Ten different realms, each with its own Author, multiple planes, and many worlds within at least one of those planes.

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My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours
Examples:

• Whole series, really - especially Dimensional Legend.

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My Name Is Inigo Montoya
Examples:

• Ben's done this one a couple times. That is, when you can get him to stay down in the first place.

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No One Could Survive That
Examples:

• Luca Blight played this one to the hilt. He took everything up to and including both Ben and Angel's Limits in sequence, shrugged it off, beat them down, then fought all four Knights of the Sphere at the same time, beat them down...and more or less came out without a scratch. It took some crafty planning by Katanas and Albel to stop him, and it wasn't by combat, either.

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Personality Powers
Examples:

• Uriko is the biggest perpetrator for this trope. She's hot-headed, stubborn, and can be quite rude on occasion, so it's no big surprise that her primary element is fire.
• Likewise, Yuki is calm (almost too much so sometimes) and intelligent, so her element is ice.
• Partial subversion: Ben's Alchemy element of choice is ice, but while intelligent, for the first 3/4 of the series he had a habit of letting his temper get the best of him. This changed somewhere around the Soul Society arc.

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Place Beyond Time
Examples:

• The Ethereal Plane, Nether Plane, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo work somewhat like this with regards to the mortal realms like Earth, Gaia, and Spira. Time doesn't completely stop for anyone in these realms, but it moves at a drastically reduced rate. The same effect happens in ways between the mortal realms of different dimensions - a week in Earth is approximately a year in Spira, for instance.
• The Crystal Path is also a notable exception, existing not just out of time with each realm, but all realms simultaneously.

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Power Levels
Examples:

• Trabia Garden's advanced magic classes teach a form of this, involving sensing the stocked magic and magical aura of an opponent. This can even be used to identify a person, as each person has their own unique "power," and can be used for such things as teleporting to a target (for the few people who can do this) or better assessing the odds of winning a given skirmish.

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Precision F Strike
Examples:

• Will is generally the nicest Pillar of Reality, always calm and polite no matter how bad the situation becomes. However, even he can be pushed too far...and if that happens, there will be no forgiveness, only a swift death.

Will: You fail to understand, so allow me to explain it to you. I'm the Pillar of the Future. No matter what happens, I exist. No matter how much you attack me, I will continue on. I am created to exist when no one else continues to. Your attack destroyed my reishi, yes. But my body no longer associates itself with that reishi. In fact, it hinders me most of the time. By destroying my reishi, you unleashed but a fragment of my power. In other words, I have nothing holding me back anymore. Now? I will fucking kill you.

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Quirky Miniboss Squad
Examples:

• The Royal Thieves Guild. It's amazing how they manage to get along and complete jobs with how much they seem to annoy each other, really - unless it involves blowing things up.

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Running Gag
Examples:

• Dmitri Yuriev's frequent evasions of death. Ben's inability to locate Angel's office. Ein's charming personality. Katanas being close to omniscient. It might be easier to list the things that did not become running gags.

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Screw The Rules, I Have Money!
Examples:

• Darius DeValle Sr. epitomizes this one. So does Zeo Conrad. Unfortunately for Conrad, the Senior plays the role better.

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Single Stroke Battle
Examples:

• Played straight at the end of the fight between Katanas and Albel, with the exception that Albel didn't fall. But he had the entire circular area for about 25 yards around him explode, so it counts all the same.

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Squishy Wizard
Examples:

• Yuki Kurabasa, for certain. Magical attacks? Not too dangerous to her most of the time. Physical attacks? Two hits and she's out.

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Suddenly Sexuality
Examples:

• Destine, who had been established to have been in a relationship with Arragious Nicholai at some point in the past, fell head over heels for Celes Chere when she showed up in Gaia.

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Superpowered Evil Side
Examples:

• Manes is this to Ben, thanks to Destine's meddling earlier in the third story. Partially an aversion, as Manes is his own separate being.
  • This is almost a subversion now, as Ben is more powerful than Manes at present due to his transcendence.
• Angelus is the same for Angel, and while he doesn't make Angel any more powerful (given that he's a vampire and all already), it does make him faster and a whole lot more sadistic to boot.

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The Rival
Examples:

• For a long time, Darius seemed to be this to Ben. That spot seems to have been taken over by Saiyax Quint in the finale arc.
• A case could be made for Fayt and Destine being this to each other, and possibly even Hyne being this to everybody.

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Tournament Arc
Examples:

• The SFA Grand Championship comprising the first 12 or so chapters of Dimensional Legend fits this.

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Training From Hell
Examples:

• This is half the reason Ben is so powerful. Fighting two Pillars of Reality, and later facing one of the Espada in the Nether Plane has taught him that you either learn to survive, or figure out a way to come back from the dead. Obviously, he's chosen the former every chance he's gotten.
• A case could be argued for Etchel's training of Ben and Celes to fall under this, given that he is a former Grim Angel captain.

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Tsundere
Examples:

• Uriko Kurabasa is oh so very much a type A. The problem is that no one's figured out exactly what she might be deredere over.

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Unstoppable Rage
Examples:

• Nightfire did this one to a member of the Dark Brotherhood in Esthar, after Hikari was nearly killed by a suicidal mook.
• Darius, with a little less self-control, would have pulled this on Hikari after she lied about killing his first girlfriend if not for Wilhelm's arrival. She didn't get away unscathed, though.
• Ben, to a lesser extent, did this in Bevelle after Rikku was shot by one of Seymour's flunkies.

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Vitriolic Best Buds
Examples:

• Not from the series proper, but from the creators - Angel, Ben, and Darius seem to be like the second type of this in 99% of the conversations they have. It's not a normal day until each of them has had at least one or two threats of death and several searing insults hurled their way...and none of them ever seem to flinch. Very much confirmed after Otakon 2009, too.

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The Wesley
Examples:

• Hikari Tanaka is this to Darius (admin and player both, it seems) and only to Darius. The other two administrators love her to death. There's probably a valid reason for this, given some information that changed hands in-story.