History GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas / Tropes0ToF

* AdaptationalBadass: In [[BadExportForYou the Japanese version]], the Ballas are a larger and more powerful organization, as they're involved with legitimate businesses and random civilians CJ's occasionally tasked with killing are now affiliated with the gang.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Let's face it, despite the subtlety, Rockstar really wasn't trying to hide [[spoiler:Big Smoke's impending betrayal. The clues were right in our faces]].
** [[spoiler:He moved out of Grove Street to buy a house in Idlewood (aka Ballas turf) with money he claimed was given to him by his aunt. It most likely came from drug dealing]].
** [[spoiler:Big Smoke never attended C.J.'s mother's funeral and decided to stay in the house (possibly to attack Sweet once he would arrive inside), and right when he meets CJ, he tosses the bat right onto the table on top of the photo of C.J.'s mother]].
** [[spoiler:The Ballas never target Ryder or Big Smoke during the first mission. Likewise, during "Drive Thru", Big Smoke doesn't fire at the Ballas.]]
** [[spoiler:During the "Drive Thru" mission, Big Smoke tried to change the subject right when C.J. talks about his mother's death towards Sweet, and on that same mission, when Sweet and Ryder attempted to kill the Ballas after the gang tried to head to their turf, Big Smoke deliberately uses the food as an excuse to refuse to even lift a finger to help them. It's also possible that his long order beforehand was a way to lengthen the time to keep the Grove Street Family out of the hood to give the Ballas time to kill the other members of the hood, including C.J. and Sweet]].
** [[spoiler:During "Wrong Side of the Tracks", when C.J. asks Big Smoke what was really going on, Big Smoke immediately tried to change the subject and asks C.J. if he would like to go for a ride]].

** [[spoiler:During "Reuniting the Families", right after C.J. and Sweet meet up with the Families at a local hotel where the police arrive, Big Smoke and Ryder abandon them, but do return afterwards. However, during the police chase, Big Smoke, the driver of the chase, circles around the neighborhood twice and drives through an active car wash, causing C.J. to get soap in his eyes. There's also the end, in which the helicopter is hovering low and Big Smoke decides to floor it straight through rather than back up. He also claims the brakes were out, even though he had just had the car speeding, which was another sign he subtly tried to kill C.J. and Sweet]].
** [[spoiler:The license plate on his car reads "A2TMFK" which could be interpreted as "a two-time motherfucker", hinting at his actions in the game]].
** [[spoiler:Big Smoke constantly has Tenpenny and Pulaski visiting his house]].

* CheckpointStarvation: In the original release, only the final mission of the game, "End of the Line", has any checkpoints. It's a ''GTA'' tradition. Since the tablet and Windows Store versions, the game starts to have them, at least.

*** At the Cobra Martial Arts Gym, the master wears a Chinese martial arts uniform while his students wear a Japanese one. Also, the fighting style that CJ can learn at that gym consists entirely of kicks, which is characteristic of some forms of Tae Kwon Do (a Korean martial art).

* UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish: On rare occasions the fact the ''GTA'' games are actually made by a British company becomes evident.
** The news radio station, WCTR, includes news reports referencing "the drugs trade"; Americans tend to singularize the word "drug" in that phrase, while the Brits use the plural "drugs" in all uses.
** During an early mission in which CJ has to whack a Families member who has been snitching to the Ballas, the subtitles advise you to kill the "grass".
** Also true of certain jokes, for example Helena Wankstein's name being a reference to the British insult "wank stain" and the asset "Wang Cars" being a semi-homophone of "wankers". On the other hand, "wang" is also a slang term for penis, so it works either way.
** Cluckin' Bell = Cockney rhyming slang for "fucking hell". Also possibly a reference to a line used by the title character in ''Series/BlackadderGoesForth'' immediately before the infamous DownerEnding, when he realises that all his schemes to avoid a brutal and pointless death have failed.
** On-screen instructions frequently use the word "whilst". It's not a very common word in America, and it certainly doesn't fit the game's ghetto aesthetic. Game instructions also use "quay" rather than "wharf".

* CoOpMultiplayer: If only on the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} version, by default.

** Driving school isn't hard per se, though certainly some of the tricks you need to pull off take practice. What makes getting all gold truly difficult is the fact that they not only expect you to do these tricks, but to do them so perfectly that you stop in exactly the right position facing exactly the right way without so much as dinging your car. Bike school is easier, having less classes and the bike being easier to maneuver. Flight school is similar, except the timer is even less forgiving and you're trying to fly vehicles which have, at best, awkward controls. Boating school is downright simple by comparison. Thankfully, you only need bronzes for the HundredPercentCompletion reward. Driving school doesn't even have a decent reward, just a fairly CoolCar (though it does unlock some additional missions leading up to the particularly lucrative import/export sidequest). At least you get an attack helicopter for beating flight school.
** Once you get far enough that you can start taking over gang territories for Grove Street, it becomes almost trivially easy to collect thousands of rounds of SMG and automatic rifle ammunition. [[spoiler:So naturally, once you've finished the missions for that area, you lose all your guns and all the territory you took over becomes enemy property.]]

* FanDisservice: Maccer is revealed to have had a liaison with a hillbilly woman, giving her an ugly case of "the red bumpies". That, and most of Maccer's masturbation fantasies are nauseating in general.
-->"I LOVE YOU [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher MAGGIE!]]"

** Radio host comments will change based upon the weather. Some [=DJs=] will also remark on current game events, such as [[spoiler:the riots that dominate Los Santos during the final stage of the game]] beyond the evolving news report segments.

* BadassDriver: [[RunningGag The characters mercilessly mock your driving.]] At one point, they tell you to go to driver's ed. And then you do. Harsh. Admittedly, it's an ''advanced'' driving school, and those classes teach you how to be an even more badass driver (even in-game, as every 100% earned on a test increases your driving skill by an amount that would take about half an hour of nonstop driving).

* DrivesLikeCrazy: A RunningGag is people taking issue with C.J.'s questionably poor driving... then telling him to drive anyway. Being a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' game, this is probably a lampshade hanging.

* DriveThruAntics: Early in the story, CJ drives his crew to the nearby burger joint, and after everyone places a modest order, the resident Big Eater Big Smoke rattles off one so long, it easily eclipses the rest of the gang's combined. [[spoiler:The order is extra-long because he's trying to buy time for the Ballas to turn up and attack the gang.]]

* Area51: Parodied with Area [[LOL69 69]], which [[spoiler:C.J. breaks into to acquire a {{jetpack}}.]] Trying to enter the area will earn you an instant five-star wanted level, and if you fly over, you will be brought down by SAM sites and Hydra fighter jets. If you've reached the point in the game where [[spoiler:you finally own the nearby abandoned airstrip, entering your house and saving will allow you to lose your wanted levels easily]].

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
** When you go to the ship, the "sailors" you run into are merely the game's stock military troops, wearing green. For the time period, the sailors should be wearing the classic dungarees.
** Minor, but there is no LHD [[Lol69 69]] either (only USS Wasp, LHD 1, was in service at the time). But, of course, this is GTA, so what other hull designator would it be?
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM9HhOzK-oA&t=9m20s This moment from the mission "Breaking The Bank At Caligula's".]]. And it's actually ''the only way to reach the helicopter''. Open the parachute immediately after jumping, and you won't be able to land on the roof where that helicopter is.

** One achievement titled is "They Can't Stop All of Us"[[note]]A Facebook Event - really a sardonic shitpost - that took place in 2019 which involved raiding Area 51... [[SubvertedTrope except not really]].[[/note]], which requires CJ [[spoiler:to successfully sneak inside the military base during the mission "Black Project" without setting off any alarms.]]

* AscendedMeme:
** ''The Definitive Edition'' has an achievement titled "They Can't Stop All of Us"[[note]]A Facebook Event - really a sardonic shitpost - that took place in 2019 which involved raiding Area 51... [[SubvertedTrope except not really]].[[/note]], which requires CJ [[spoiler:to successfully sneak inside the military base during the mission "Black Project" without setting off any alarms.]]
** Also from ''The Definitive Edition'' are a pair of achievements named after lines from Big Smoke's memetic ridiculously-large order in "Drive-Thru", "I'll Have Two Number 9s" for [[spoiler:getting CJ as fat as the game will allow]] and "With Extra Dip" for [[spoiler:eating eight Cluckin' Bell meals in a row without leaving]].

** ''The Definitive Edition'' has an achievement titled "They Can't Stop All of Us"[[note]] A Facebook Event - really a sardonic shitpost - that took place in 2019 which involved raiding Area 51... [[SubvertedTrope except not really]]. [[/note]], which requires CJ [[spoiler:to successfully sneak inside the military base during the mission "Black Project" without setting off any alarms.]]
** Another achievement from ''The Definitive Edition'' is titled "I'll Have Two Number 9s"[[note]]Named after Big Smoke's ridiculous order in "Drive-Thru"[[/note]]. It requires CJ [[spoiler:to reach maximum weight.]]
** Yet, another achievement from ''The Definitive Edition'' is titled "With Extra Dip"[[note]]Also, named after Big Smoke's ridiculous order in "Drive-Thru"[[/note]]. It requires CJ [[spoiler:to eat eight Cluckin Bell meals in a row without leaving.]]
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Big Smoke often quotes the Bible ("'Man cannot live on bread alone'. I should know, I tried that shit.") but [[HypocriticalHumor he's not exactly a saint.]]

* AthensAndSparta: Los Santos and San Fierro. Los Santos is a gang-ridden city filled with urban segregation, with limited social opportunities and advancement, while San Fierro has less of a gang presence, is much more developed and sophisticated, and is the city where the hero achieves some kind of social mobility (legal and illegal), while also interacting with a real melting pot and weird bunch of misfits.

** Yet, another achievement from ''The Definitive Edition'' is titled "With Extra Dip"[[note]]Also, named after Big Smoke's ridiculous order in "Drive-Thru"[[/note]]. It requires CJ [[spoiler:to eat eight Cluckin Bell meals in a row without leaving.]]
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Big Smoke often quotes the Bible ("'Man cannot live on bread alone'. I should know, I tried that shit.") but [[HypocriticalHumor he's not exactly a saint.]]