History Fanfic / HalloweenUnspectacular

%%* BlobMonster: Mabel turns into one in "Bewarb the Blob".

* BlobMonster: Mabel turns into one in "Bewarb the Blob".

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Percival Northwest is stated by family legend to have kidnapped the Princes in the Tower and sacrificed them to power his longevity, framing Richard III for killing them in the process.

* CivilWar: One of these has erupted in Avalon about a year after the Battle of El Dorado, primarily between factions loyal to Galahad and Gawaine, who are trying to take the throne for themselves, while a smaller loyalist faction led by Guinevere and Lancelot having to flee elsewhere.

%%* GrandFinale: For the Fiddley Canon MythArc.
%%* GroinAttack: A guard offers to do this to Robbie in "The Other Sock Drops".
%%* HatedByAll: Gaz has this among the ship's crew in "The Sea of Switching". [[spoiler: Which is why it's ''enormously'' satisfying to them once [[LaserGuidedKarma karma hits her hard]].]]

%%* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler: Galahad's ritual requires one.]]

* UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories: E350 comes up with one in order to explain the animated universe. Among other things, he claims that [[WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends Frankie Foster]] and [[WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents Vicky]] are clones and the government has ninjas.

* GrandFinale: For the Fiddley Canon MythArc.
* GroinAttack: A guard offers to do this to Robbie in "The Other Sock Drops".
* HatedByAll: Gaz has this among the ship's crew in "The Sea of Switching". [[spoiler: Which is why it's ''enormously'' satisfying to them once [[LaserGuidedKarma karma hits her hard]].]]

* HumanSacrifice: [[spoiler: Galahad's ritual requires one.]]

** "Lady Liberty", set in a world based on a game of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'', features the Mongols as Britain's great enemy in Asia. And the Statue of Liberty in this world is in Edinburgh, and is actually [[spoiler: a transformed Dani]].

* ShoutOut: Witch Ember [[Anime/DigimonAdventure turns Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Timmy into keychains.]]
** E350 is looking after an [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Andalite morphing cube]] for a friend.
** [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]] appear in a couple of stories.
** [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Bender]] and [[Series/DoctorWho a Cyberman]] pop up in the filler chapter to complain about E350's liberal use of "organics-turning-into-machines" plots.
** Witch Ember pulls a page from [[Series/DoctorWho the Master's]] playbook at one point and turns everyone in the city into duplicates of herself.
** "War Never Changes" references ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}''.

* ShoutOut: After [[spoiler: Sam turns into a wax statue at the end of the second story]], the author's notes say "[[Fanfic/DOOMRepercussionsOfEvil NO SAM YOU ARE THE DEMONS]]".
** "Murdered By Moonlight" is one to ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''.
** The climatic fight with [[spoiler: Dan Phantom]] and his minions contains references to ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', and ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.

* ShoutOut: "Enemy Unknown" references ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}''.
** "My Brother Will Kill Me" is one long pastiche of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise. Calamitous' method of creating a MonsterOfTheWeek is also similar to how Vendetta makes her monsters in ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends''.

* ShoutOut: Plankton tries to get E350 to reenact the ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' with him, Danny, and Cosmo in the beginning.
** Chapter 24 is labeled "[[Film/LittleShopOfHorrors Little Shop of Parodies]]" and features references to ''Franchise/{{Tron}}'', ''Franchise/{{Warhammer}}'', Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos, and ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''.

* ShoutOut: "The Piccadilly Caper" starts off with a parody of [[Franchise/StarWars Star Wars']] famous opening crawl.
** [[Fanfic/DOOMRepercussionsOfEvil AND THEN SQUIDWARD WAS A HALF-GHOST]]
** The closing author's note for "Eureka" simply says "[[Franchise/{{Terminator}} COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE.]]"
** When Gaz is suddenly abducted by the Inquisition, Timmy states that [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus he wasn't expecting that]].

* ShoutOut:
** The first chapter features a parody of "Make a Man out of You" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}''.
** In "It's Back", Peridot, in her boredom, briefly watches a Jacksepticeye video and the music video for "[[Music/RickAstley Never Gonna Give You Up]]".
** Also from "It's Back", Amethyst and Peridot briefly travel to "The Universe That Is Currently Being Sued By [[Film/MadMax George Miller]]".
** "The Most Patient Man On Radio" is based on the "Most Patient Man On Television" skit from ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver''.
** In "Of Presidents and Purity", the President tells the arguing Vice-President and General Ambercrombie "[[Film/DrStrangelove no fighting in the war room]]".

* ReferenceOverdosed: Allsworthy in a freaking nutshell.

* ShoutOut: The first chapter features a parody of "The Candy Man" from ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''.
** "Robot Wars" has references to Kaiju movies, ''Film/PacificRim'', and, of all things, UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell.
** "The Fiftycrumb Tinies" is, obviously, a parody of ''[[Creator/EdwardGorey The Gashleycrumb Tinies]]''.
** "Angry Fandom Shelter" ends with a ''Series/{{COPS}}'' reference.
** Sandy calls the haunting in the eighth chapter "a real Franchise/{{Amityville}} situation".
** In the author's notes for "Unidentified Problem", the author sings a snippet of "[[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Let's Do the Time Warp Again]]".
** The title of chapter 18 parodies the infamous fanfic ''Dipper Goes to Taco Bell''.
** "A Sunday Drive Down Fury Road" is one to...well, [[Film/MadMax guess]]. Also, E350 uses "[[Film/KingsmanTheSecretService Manners maketh man]]" as a PreAsskickingOneLiner.
** "Karma Punishment" features [[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 an opening narration from Rod Serling]].
** The title of chapter 23, "House of Cards", is an intentional reference to [[Series/HouseOfCardsUK the series of]] [[Series/HouseOfCardsUS the same name]].
** Chapter 29 has two [=MPs=] looking for [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil the Diaz family]].
** Allsworthy's various plans are all codenamed after various bits of pop culture. Stan and Ford call him out on this.

* ShoutOut:
** E350's opening song this year is a parody of "Puttin' on the Ritz".
** The ending narration of "The Dictator" is very similar to that of the episode "He's Alive" of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''.
** Among the people trying to get help from Ford in "Before Breakfast" are [[Film/ThorRagnarok the Grandmaster (wanting fighters for his arena)]] and someone [[VideoGame/BadDudes who wants to know if he's a bad enough dude to rescue the President.]]
** The very title of [[Music/PinkFloyd "Another Brick in the Wall"]].

* ShoutOut:
** The opening musical number this year is a number of Disney song parodies strung together. The songs used include [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} "Arabian Nights"]], [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 "Under The Sea"]], [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 "Let It Go"]], and [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast "Beauty and the Beast"]].
** The BadGuyBar that the villains frequent is called the [[WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys Backslide Tavern]].
** This exchange in the "Aliens and Monsters" segment from "The Reject Shop":
--->'''E350:''' ''(answering the phone)'' E350 speaking.\\
'''Timmy:''' Hey, I need you to come over here.\\
'''E350:''' [[WebVideo/CodeMENT I can't, I'm buying clothes.]]\\
'''Timmy:''' We're not doing that joke.

* ShoutOut:
** Plankton's attempted takeover of the story involves him showing clips from blatant ripoffs of famous movies now starring him -- ''[[Franchise/StarWars Plankton Wars]]'', ''[[Film/GoneWithTheWind Gone With the Plankton]]'', ''[[Film/AFewGoodMen A Few Good Plankton]]'', ''[[Film/Titanic1997 Planktanic]]'', and ''[[Film/SchindlersList Plankton's List]]''.
** E350's HeroicBSOD is specifically compared to Thor's in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Every collection ends with a parody of [[Music/BillyJoel Billy Joel's]] "We Didn't Start the Fire". [[spoiler: Except for [=HU9=], where E350 has been left miserable and broken by the Bus Driver.]]

* WeaponOfChoice: E350 has his Anti-Magic Tommy Gun.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:In "Downfall", almost every gem on Homeworld is destroyed, including the Diamonds.]]

* BalefulPolymorph:
** Everyone that the Underworld King turns into his minions gets subject to this.
** [[spoiler: Dani is turned into the Statue of Liberty by Alden Bitterroot.]]

* BalefulPolymorph: A number of people have been turned into figurines by the time "Figurines" happens.

* ClearMyName: Jazz and Athena end up having to clear Dr Insano's name when he's accused of murder in "The Piccadilly Caper". As it turns out, [[BalefulPolymorph it wasn't even murder to begin with]].

* BalefulPolymorph: E350's roommate Floyd has a nasty habit of turning people into furniture and collectibles.

* BalefulPolymorph: Just like in his last appearance, Floyd turns people into things. This time around, it's living Legos.

* BalefulPolymorph: Lisa is turned into a coffee table in "Welcome To Your New Job!".

* TakeThat: When told that the bus he's boarding is heading for Sydney, Insano happily declares it "the most hellish place imaginable".

* TakeThat:
** When the copy of the first ''Halloween Unspectacular'' E350 receives in the beginning of the story unleashes eldritch horror on Sydney, it's noted that it has no visible effect on the train service (implying that it couldn't possibly get worse than it already is).
** When Timmy gets turned into a vampire in the first story, the narrator notes that "Much to Spongebob's misfortune, he was not of the [[Literature/{{Twilight}} weak sparkling kind]]."

* TakeThat: The center of the universe, according to Doctor Insano, is in Milton Keynes; "Even I'm [not] crazy enough to go through there."

* TakeThat:
** "So Your Government Has Shut Down" is an interview between Sam and Lionel Hutz about government shutdowns, mocking everything about the politics involved in them, written in response to an actual US government shutdown happening that October.
** Many towards the infamously derided ending of ''Mass Effect 3''.
** When Spongebob and Sandy explore the abandoned arcade in "Little Shop of Parodies", it's noted that all of the games have been cleared out, except for the 1982 [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial ET]] one, which "no sane man would want".
** At Comic-Con, it's shown that the Creator/{{Valve|Software}} panel is deserted.

* TakeThat: In "An Open Letter to Deviantart: Parting Words", E350 comes to the conclusion that, while plenty of websites have their resident weirdos, there is no real "frothing mass of scum and villainy" on the internet...except for Stormfront.

* TakeThat:
** In the introduction, E350 refers to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenage Stevenage]] as a truly awful place. And the imps he presents as living underneath it are basically the people who {{troll}} Fanfiction.net and leave derivative and unhelpful anonymous reviews.
** In the above ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' parody, E350 talks about writing stories with "the coherency of Creator/DanBrown" and "the quality of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''".
** The second chapter has Professor Calamitous create a thinly-veiled parody of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. [[spoiler: Who then turns into an EldritchAbomination and is swiftly defeated offscreen by [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Kamala Khan]], WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom, and [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse the Crystal Gems]].]]
** "The Interview" is one long dig at the FridgeLogic behind ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''.
** The second-to-last chapter is basically a rant at the poor quality of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} VI'' compared to earlier versions of the game.

* TakeThat:
** During the song in the first chapter, the people and things E3 [[SelfDeprecation claims his writing makes look good]] are Creator/DanBrown, Creator/ZackSnyder, Creator/AynRand, ''Literature/TheHost2008'', Creator/EdWood, Creator/GeorgeLucas, and Tim Kring.
** In "Robot Wars" Peridot and Lapis accidentally destroy Cleveland. No one notices for years.
** In the above-mentioned ''Series/{{COPS}}'' reference, E350 calls it a "pretty awful show".
** In chapter 10, Doc the Ruby, Dipper and Wendy all hate the "It's a Small World" ride -- the latter two so much that they proceed to destroy the place.
** In "A Sunday Drive Down Fury Road", E350 listens to 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" (better known as the [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]] "HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA" [[https://youtu.be/mBw3qzf4s18 song]]) in the car before Sandy grabs the CD and chucks it out the window. Also, he compares the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hume_Highway Hume Highway]] to a barren, hellish landscape.

* TakeThat:
** The hatted man treats ''[[Series/{{Torchwood}} Children of Earth]]'' as non-canon.
** One of the main things that PURITY does to maintain control of America? Declare all their critics as being "fake news".
** "There's An App For That" is one long jab at the AllegedlyFreeGame.
** One of the endings presented in "Choose Your Own Ending III" has the reader being forced to read ''Chicken, Chicken'' (one of the most universally despised ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books), which is treated as a FateWorseThanDeath.
** The bridge troll who appears in "E350 Presents: Billy Goats" is an admitted parody of Internet trolls, especially right-wing ones.
** "Love and Mishaps" is a prolonged parody of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Love and Monsters", which E350 views as one of the worst in the show's history.

* TakeThat:
** In the first chapter, when Stan tries to sing [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 "Let It Go"]], E350 immediately shuts him down.
** In "Ten Decades", [[ImpossiblyTackyClothes 80s fashion]] is treated like TheVirus.
** "The Full Picture with Rush Carlson" is one long jab at ManipulativeEditing.
** One of the stories in "The Reject Shop" is a parody of ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', which opens with an apology to George Lucas... until E350 notes that as Lucas made the ''Star Wars Holiday Special'', he's the one who should be apologizing to the fans.
** In "The Plague", one of the symptoms of the plague's Beta strain is [[{{Troll}} attempting to cause mass panic on social media.]]
** "Letters To The Author" takes a shot at Creator/ButchHartman and his...questionable actions as of late.
*** It also takes a shot at ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fandom and their penchance for incestual ships.
** "They Blocked Dipper's Game" is one long mockery of [[Creator/BlizzardEntertainment Blizzard's]], shall we say, poor handling of Hearthstone users' casual commentary on political events.

* TakeThat:
** One of the questions in "Form [=13E7-SP00K3=]" asks if the person filling out the form or their relatives have ever been a member of a number of villainous groups (cults, conspiracies, the Communist Party), but also includes Creator/ButchHartman's OAXIS project.
** "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Seelowe" is one long essay aimed at invalidating the myth that the Axis powers were unstoppable military juggernauts that could have won WWII if things had gone slightly differently, pointing out all the ways that their early victories were more due to luck than anything, and how their poorly managed supply lines and incompetent military leadership meant that they were always going to lose.
** "The Focus Group" mocks how corporate ownership attempting to appeal to the basest support can screw up franchises -- when a corporate entity buys out the Nicktoons, they decide to give the team DorkAge costumes, ditch Spongebob because he's AmbiguouslyBi, make Jenny into MsFanservice, add exactly one female character and one black character (and proceed to be unable to think of any candidates for the latter), and decide that the team can only fight Dark Laser because they find the other villains offensive as antagonists. Then it turns out that [[spoiler: this is all a plot by Preston Northwest, Vlad, and Mr. Burns to shut down the team]].
** In "A House in New Orleans", the titular house has a portrait of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson in its foyer, which the owner keeps up as a reminder of "the evil men do".
** "E3's Eleven (Minus Six)" has E350 explaining the concept of [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the Crucible]] by calling out the Catalyst's InsaneTrollLogic. And while discussing his plan to steal it, he randomly brings up how ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' is the worst game in the franchise.
** Agent Parker's blackmail on the Attorney General is pictures of him eating in "disreputable places"... namely Carl's Jrs.

* ContinuityLockout: The current story arc makes constant references to the previous collections, requiring one to read them all to get the most out of the references.

* ContinuityLockout: In order to get the most of this year's StoryArc, one needs to be familiar with ''VideoGame/LANoire''.

** In "A Sunday Drive Down Fury Road", E350 listens to [[Music/OutKast OutKast's]] "Hey Ya!" in the car before Sandy grabs the CD and chucks it out the window. Also, he compares the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hume_Highway Hume Highway]] to a barren, hellish landscape.

* NiceHat: The hatted man in "Puttin' on the Fics". It is lampshaded.

* ButtMonkey: Squidward and Dib are the most frequent victims of having a lot of random bad stuff happen to them. Characters that E350 genuinely dislikes, like Gaz and Paulina, are close behind.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:E350 ''begs'' the Bus Driver not to kill the ten-year-old Timmy. His pleas are ignored.]]

* MythArc: Three major ones so far:

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: For the first time since the fifth edition, E350 doesn't open the year with a musical number. In fact, he doesn't appear in the first chapter at all.