Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 94 (click to see context) from:
* FutureImperfect: Julius incorrectly believes that the Tripods are an artificial intelligence that TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.
to:
* FutureImperfect: In the TV series, Julius incorrectly believes that the Tripods are an artificial intelligence that TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* FutureImperfect: Julius incorrectly believes that the Tripods are an artificial intelligence that TurnedAgainstTheirMasters.
Changed line(s) 95 (click to see context) from:
* GiantFootOfStomping: Fortunately they're in a cleft of rocks that protect them from being squashed.
to:
* GiantFootOfStomping: Fortunately they're in a cleft of rocks that protect them from being squashed. In the first episode of Season Two however, a freeman gets killed this way when he runs near the Tripod to divert its attention from his friends.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 112 (click to see context) from:
* InsertGrenadeHere
to:
* InsertGrenadeHereInsertGrenadeHere: The protagonists are being hauled up into the alien Tripod by its CombatTentacles when one of them throws an AncientArtifact they found in an abandoned cache through the opening hatch. The damage causes the alien atmosphere to vent into the outside world. In the TV miniseries, the boys find themselves underneath the Tripod which is standing on loose slate. They use the grenade to cause a small avalanche that unbalances it, popping the hatch open so they can throw a second grenade inside.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: Will comes across the wreck of a giant ship on the beach. Lampshaded by Oxymandius use of Shelley's poem as a MadnessMantra.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 192 (click to see context) from:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite Jack's capping being the catalyst of Will's journey, he isn't mentioned at all in The Pool of Fire when Will discusses his trip to visit his parents.
to:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite Jack's capping being the catalyst of Will's journey, he isn't mentioned at all in The ''The Pool of Fire Fire'' when Will discusses his trip to visit his parents.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
* {{Ancient Artifact}}s : The "eggs"(grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
to:
* {{Ancient Artifact}}s : The "eggs"(grenades) "eggs" (grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* GiantFootOfStomping: Fortunately they're in a cleft of rocks that protect them from being squashed.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 145 (click to see context) :
* PerpSweating: In the TV series the boys reach the White Mountains, escaping a Tripod hunter-killer team, only to be captured by Black Guards. They're held without food for days and interrogated on their journey before they eventually crack and admit why they've come. Turns out it's just a test by the Resistance to stop {{Fake Defector}}s sent to infiltrate them.
Added DiffLines:
** In the TV series the boys reach the White Mountains, escaping a Tripod hunter-killer team, only to be captured by Black Guards. They're [[PerpSweating held without food for days and interrogated]] on their journey before they eventually crack and admit why they've come. Turns out it's just a test by the Resistance to stop {{Fake Defector}}s sent to infiltrate them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* PerpSweating: In the TV series the boys reach the White Mountains, escaping a Tripod hunter-killer team, only to be captured by Black Guards. They're held without food for days and interrogated on their journey before they eventually crack and admit why they've come. Turns out it's just a test by the Resistance to stop {{Fake Defector}}s sent to infiltrate them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: In the TV series Will and Henry sneak out of a French prison past a guard who at one point is standing in a position that meant he'd be looking into the (now empty) cell they've just escaped from.
Added DiffLines:
* InsertGrenadeHere
Added DiffLines:
* PineappleSurprise: The boys nearly kill themselves when they come across a stache of grenades left over from the invasion, and don't know what they are.
Added DiffLines:
* TrackingDevice: The Tripods implant one in Will's skin, then hypnotise him to forget about it. Fortunately the others discover it in time, but it's removal causes the tripod to come down upon them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FrickinLaserBeams: Not in the novels, but in the TV series after the boys destroy the tripod with a grenade, red-painted military tripods are sent out to find them, and shoot up the countryside in an effort to flush them out.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Likely the reason for every recruit taking the long hazardous trip to the White Mountains instead of staying to form cells in their own countries. It filters out those who don't have the determination or cunning to be a member of LaResistance.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 133 (click to see context) from:
* ObfuscatingInsanity: Ozymandias
to:
* ObfuscatingInsanity: OzymandiasOzymandias poses as a Vagrant so he can wander from one village to another as a recruiter.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** The Masters destroy their former cities when they realise the humans have won, but make no other retaliation against Earth. This is likely due to their BlueAndOrangeMorality -- revenge is not as important to them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Masters do not understand why humans feel the need to lie.
Added DiffLines:
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Subverted; Will is adopted by a kindly Master who's built a special room for his slave and gives him time off to explore the city, especially after Will saves his life. However Will realises that his role is that of a favorite pet, and that his Master's attitude towards humanity is at best patronising. When the Master reveals their plan to terraform the Earth killing everyone on it, his view is that some humans should be preserved in zoos, rather than that the whole genocide is wrong.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: It's easier for the Masters to learn the language of their slaves than vice versa, as the humans will [[WeAreAsMayflies only survive a few years in a Tripod city anyway]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** While crossing the English Channel a Tripod threatens to swamp their vessel by deliberately steering close to it. In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' it becomes obvious that the aliens are not evil per se; there are simply those who abuse their power and those who don't.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Vagrants are capped people who have gone insane as a result. Although tolerated and given food, they're kept out of villages and can be violent.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
''The Tripods'' was also adapted into a live action television series, produced jointly by the {{BBC}} and the Australian Seven Network. Two seasons, covering the first two books, were broadcast in 1984 and 1985 respectively. A script for the third season was written, but never filmed.
to:
''The Tripods'' was also adapted into a live action television series, produced jointly by the {{BBC}} and the Australian Seven Network. Two seasons, covering the first two books, were broadcast in 1984 and 1985 respectively. A script for the third season was written, but never filmed. A theatrical film is now in pre-production.
Changed line(s) 22 (click to see context) from:
* AchillesHeel: The Masters' sensitive spot between the respiratory and ingestive orifices. Also, they can detect any poisons in food, except alcohol.
to:
* AchillesHeel: The Masters' sensitive spot between the respiratory and ingestive orifices. Also, they can cannot detect any poisons in food, except alcohol.[[spoiler: alcohol]], which is poisonous to them.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** In fairness, butterflies are already at the end of their lifecycle. In the adult stage of their life cycle, butterflies only live a couple of weeks at most. Of course, to the Masters, [[WeAreAsMayflies We Are As Butterflies]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** On the other hand, after the destruction of the tank, the military hit the Tripod with a volley of missiles from a wing of jet fighters and it's easily annihilated. In ''The City of Gold and Led'' Will's master explains to him that the Masters had a healthy respect for humanity's military, well aware that if they tried to take mankind head-on ''they'd lose.''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
I just read the book and it looked to me like the failure of Henry\'s team was just due to bad luck. Certainly, we are never told that the Panama city was warned.
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. The human resistance in Europe is hiding in the Alps, because the Tripods avoid high altitudes with low atmospheric pressure (from what we see of the artificially maintained alien climate in their cities, their own planet seems to be vaguely swamp-like). The European resistance consists of people from all over Europe that fled there as uncapped children, but the main characters are from Britain. In ''The Pool of Fire'', they make contact with a similar resistance group which formed in parallel to the one in the European Alps, but in the American Rockies. The protagonist, who has grown up in the rustic feudal-level society of the Capped humans with no long-distance travel, can't help but remark on how the Americans he encounters for the first time have an extremely bizarre accent. Ironically, despite having a well-organized and long-running resistance movement, their attack against the aliens fails, while the new recruits in Asia succeeded. The idea was to attack each of the three alien cities - one in China, one on the Rhine River, one in Panama - but the first two cities were able to send some sort of warning to the American city, so the attack failed.
to:
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. The human resistance in Europe is hiding in the Alps, because the Tripods avoid high altitudes with low atmospheric pressure (from what we see of the artificially maintained alien climate in their cities, their own planet seems to be vaguely swamp-like). The European resistance consists of people from all over Europe that fled there as uncapped children, but the main characters are from Britain. In ''The Pool of Fire'', they make contact with a similar resistance group which formed in parallel to the one in the European Alps, but in the American Rockies. The protagonist, who has grown up in the rustic feudal-level society of the Capped humans with no long-distance travel, can't help but remark on how the Americans he encounters for the first time have an extremely bizarre accent. Ironically, despite having a well-organized and long-running resistance movement, their attack against the aliens fails, while the new recruits in Asia succeeded. The idea was to attack each of the three alien cities - one in China, one on the Rhine River, one in Panama - but the first two cities were able to send some sort of warning to attack on the American city, so the attack city failed.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
* RuleOfThree: Anything to do with the Tripods. Three initial landings, three waves of the invasion, thee-tentacled robots, three Cities, [[spoiler: aliens with three legs and three tentacles]].
to:
* RuleOfThree: Anything to do with the Tripods. Three initial landings, three waves of the invasion, thee-tentacled three-tentacled robots, three Cities, [[spoiler: aliens with three legs and three tentacles]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Addressed in the story. The Masters on Earth are basically the first wave which will eventually end with terraforming the Earth to the Masters' biology. It's stated that the main ship is currently on-route, and more Masters still live elsewhere in the universe. When the ship finally does show up, it simply nukes the remains of the three cities (presumably to prevent any of the Masters' advanced technology from falling into human hands). It then departs, probably having decided Earth isn't worth the effort.
to:
* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Addressed in the story. The Masters on Earth are basically the first wave which will eventually end with terraforming the Earth to the Masters' biology. It's stated that the main ship is currently on-route, en-route, and more Masters still live elsewhere in the universe. When the ship finally does show up, it simply nukes the remains of the three cities (presumably to prevent any of the Masters' advanced technology from falling into human hands). It then departs, probably having decided Earth isn't worth the effort.
Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily and the Masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the masters. In fact you think what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.\\
to:
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily happily, and the Masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the masters. Masters. In fact fact, you think think, what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Tiny grammatical change
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* AncientArtifact s : The "eggs"(grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
to:
* AncientArtifact s {{Ancient Artifact}}s : The "eggs"(grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
They aren\'t reptiles at all. They\'re three-legged triangular tentacled two-mouthed multi-eyed aliens. Also fixing typos.
Changed line(s) 61,62 (click to see context) from:
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily and the masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the the masters. In fact you think what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.
** Also consider that roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
** Also consider that roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
to:
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily and the masters Masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the the masters. In fact you think what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.
** Also consider thatmatter.\\
\\
Also, roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
** Also consider that
\\
Also, roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
Changed line(s) 142,143 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler: ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Masters, in ''The City of Gold and Lead''.]]
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
to:
* [[spoiler: ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Masters, in ''The City of Gold and Lead''.]]
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:ScaryDogmaticAliens
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
Changed line(s) 145 (click to see context) from:
* SecondHandStorytelling: Infuriatingly done at the beginning of The Pool of Fire. While Will and Fritz are wandering over Europe and the Middle-East starting resistance cells, Beanpole heads an effort to rediscover as much technical knowledge as possible and get it weaponized. At the same time another group sails ACROSS THE FRIGGING ATLANTIC to North America and makes contact with another resistance group!
to:
* SecondHandStorytelling: Infuriatingly done at the beginning of The ''The Pool of Fire.Fire''. While Will and Fritz are wandering over Europe and the Middle-East starting resistance cells, Beanpole heads an effort to rediscover as much technical knowledge as possible and get it weaponized. At the same time another group sails ACROSS THE FRIGGING ATLANTIC to North America and makes contact with another resistance group!
Added DiffLines:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' when Will discovers that the Masters will start their terraforming project ''in just a few years'', as opposed to the ''generations'' the resistance assume would be needed to overthrow the Masters.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Although the Tripods have faster-than-light craft, they have no means of detecting light outside the visible spectrum, and have ho aircraft. Justified with regard to the latter, as the gravity and atmosphere of their planet was such that aircraft wouldn't work.
to:
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Although the Tripods have faster-than-light craft, they have no means of detecting light outside the visible spectrum, and have ho no aircraft. Justified with regard to the latter, as the gravity and atmosphere of their planet was such that aircraft wouldn't work.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
''The Tripods'' was also adapted into a live action television series, produced jointly by the {{BBC}} and the Australian Seven Network. Two seasons, covering the first two books, were broadcast in 1984 and 1985 respectively. A script for the third season was written, but never filmed.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
''The Tripods'' refers to a young adult trilogy-and-a-prequel series of ScienceFiction novels written by British author JohnChristopher. This series of novels tells the story of the conquest and eventual liberation of Earth by alien invaders [[SerialNumbersFiledOff inspired by the Martians of]] ''TheWarOfTheWorlds''.
[[AC:The novels are as follows:]]
* ''The White Mountains'' (1967)
* ''The City of Gold and Lead'' (1968)
* ''The Pool of Fire'' (1968)
* ''When the Tripods Came'' (1988), the {{prequel}} to the first three books.
In ''The White Mountains'', the Tripods have ruled the world for a hundred years, mankind having been reduced to a medieval state, and kept docile by "caps" which the Tripods surgically attach to their skulls around their fourteenth birthday. Will, an English boy, suspicious of the Tripods, and wanting to escape the mind-controlling Caps, flees with his cousin, Henry, to the eponyomous White Mountains, in Switzerland. En route, whilst in France, they meet up with Jean-Paul, known to them as Beanpole, an intelligent boy who fears that being Capped will stifle his curiosity, and who joins them on their quest for freedom.
In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will and Fritz, a boy from the White Mountains resistance, compete in "the games", an Olympic competition the winners of whom are selected to serve in the domed, environmentally controlled cities of the "masters" who operate the Tripods. Having been selected, they infiltrate the Tripods' European headquarters, located in Germany, and learn valuable information about the masters' biology, and their long-term plan to terraform Earth to their standards (and eradicate humanity in the process).
In ''The Pool of Fire'', The White Mountains resistance embarks on a race against time to free the world from the Tripods, in the few years left to them before the terraforming ship arrives.
''When The Tripods Came'' tells the story, introduced in a flashback in the second novel, of how the Tripods invaded and enslaved the world in the 1980s, using television and the mass media to win popular support for themselves and to instigate war between the human governments.
----
!! ''The Tripods'' provide examples of:
* AchillesHeel: The Masters' sensitive spot between the respiratory and ingestive orifices. Also, they can detect any poisons in food, except alcohol.
* [[spoiler: ActionBomb: Henry.]]
* AnAesop: Freedom to think for, and be, yourself.
** Also, the need for humanity to put aside differences and work together.
* AfterTheEnd: At least, after the end of Modern civilization, for the first three books.
* AlienAbduction: Inverted. The humans abduct an alien and experiment on him.
* AlienInvasion: Type 2.
* AliensAreBastards: Played straight with the Masters, who enslave humans with no regard for their well-being, and plan to exterminate the entire species.
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Although the Tripods have faster-than-light craft, they have no means of detecting light outside the visible spectrum, and have ho aircraft. Justified with regard to the latter, as the gravity and atmosphere of their planet was such that aircraft wouldn't work.
* AliensStealCable: How the Tripods are able to infiltrate Earth, after their failed invasion.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. The human resistance in Europe is hiding in the Alps, because the Tripods avoid high altitudes with low atmospheric pressure (from what we see of the artificially maintained alien climate in their cities, their own planet seems to be vaguely swamp-like). The European resistance consists of people from all over Europe that fled there as uncapped children, but the main characters are from Britain. In ''The Pool of Fire'', they make contact with a similar resistance group which formed in parallel to the one in the European Alps, but in the American Rockies. The protagonist, who has grown up in the rustic feudal-level society of the Capped humans with no long-distance travel, can't help but remark on how the Americans he encounters for the first time have an extremely bizarre accent. Ironically, despite having a well-organized and long-running resistance movement, their attack against the aliens fails, while the new recruits in Asia succeeded. The idea was to attack each of the three alien cities - one in China, one on the Rhine River, one in Panama - but the first two cities were able to send some sort of warning to the American city, so the attack failed.
* AnachronismStew: Justified, as humanity is artificially kept in a MedievalStasis, with some relics from the modern world.
* AncientArtifact s : The "eggs"(grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The result of the BittersweetEnding.
* AntiHero: Straddling the line Will is mostly type II, but they all go into type III.
* AnyoneCanDie: Including [[spoiler: Henry. Subverted with Fritz, though.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Ultimately proves to be a Class 1. In ''The Pool of Fire'', the resistance tries to avert a Class 5.
* ArcWords: "Hail the Tripod!", in the prequel.
* YouFailLinguisticsForever: In early editions of ''When the Tripods Came'', the phrase "Hail the Tripod!" is translated as "''Heilen dem Dreibeiner!'', which, not conjugated, simply means "To hail the Tripod". Averted in subsequent editions. A bit curious, since "Heil" is a rather famous German word.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The gravitational constant in Earth is thirty-two feet per second squared, not sixteen as described in the book.
* AtmosphereAbuse: What the Masters plan to do.
* TheBait: In order to capture one of the Masters, the protagonist rides a green-painted (to catch their attention) horse past one of their Tripods, and when it gives chase lures it into a hidden pit.
* BenevolentAlienInvasion: Subverted. It often looks idyllic and it builds up a big shock when we learn that they plan to KillAllHumans.
* BerserkButton: Never speak or act against the Tripods if someone Capped is around, unless you're well armed.
* BilingualBonus: At least, when not using TranslationConvention.
* BittersweetEnding: Of course, the Tripods are defeated, never to return. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: Julius is voted out of power, the Conference of Man fails to achieve a consensus in uniting humanity, and there are rumors of war.]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Tripods are pretty bad, but the heroes can be downright Machiavellian at times.
* BrattyHalfPint: Will and Henry, in the beginning.
* BotheringByTheBook: Will does this with Ulf, with unexpected results.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Capped. Not so much crazy, though, unless you start insulting or acting against the Tripods.
* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Addressed in the story. The Masters on Earth are basically the first wave which will eventually end with terraforming the Earth to the Masters' biology. It's stated that the main ship is currently on-route, and more Masters still live elsewhere in the universe. When the ship finally does show up, it simply nukes the remains of the three cities (presumably to prevent any of the Masters' advanced technology from falling into human hands). It then departs, probably having decided Earth isn't worth the effort.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Laurie does this [[spoiler: over his father's refusal to rescue Andy.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The "eggs" (grenades) in ''The White Mountains'', and the hot-air balloons in ''The Pool of Fire''.
* ChekhovsGunman: Ilse in ''When the Tripods Came''. Her nationality and parentage become very important to the plot.
** Ulf. Just when you think you see the last of him in ''The City of Gold and Lead'', he comes back in ''The Pool of Fire'', and sets up a conflict with Will that has unexpected results.
* ChildSoldiers: The recruits of LaResistance.
** This is of necessity, of course. Virtually no un-Capped adults exist outside of the Resistance--and the adult members of the Resistance were undoubtedly once ChildSoldiers themselves.
* CombatTentacles: The Tripod's main weapon.
* CompetenceZone: Sort of. Most of the people who get things done are teenagers. At fifteen or sixteen, Beanpole has already become a head scientist, and Fritz soon after becomes a mission commander. Only partially justified by the fact that fourteen is the age of majority.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily and the masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the the masters. In fact you think what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.
** Also consider that roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
* CrazyPrepared: The resistance. But then, they have to be.
* CurbStompBattle: The initial encounter between a Tripod and a [[TanksForNothing Challenger tank]] in the prequel results in a [[IncrediblyLamePun crushing]] [[CombatTentacles defeat]].
* CuriosityIsACrapshoot: Beanpole is generally quite level-headed, except when it comes to the technological artifacts they find in the City of the Ancients in ''The White Mountains.'' It gets rather complicated when they find a cache of grenades.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Upon conquering the world, the Tripods reduce humanity to a MedievalStasis.
* DeadlyEuphemism: The Place of Happy Release.
* DeusExNukina : In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' we are told that a submarine launched an ICBM at a tripod city long ago.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Will.
* DisappearedDad: Andy.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Will's removal of Eloise's turban is almost treated as some kind of sexual assault.
** The depiction of the Trippy Show sounds like the controversy and moral panic surrounding various fads, including {{Pokemon}}, HarryPotter, and Literature/{{Twilight}}. And the Tripods trilogy predates them all by several decades.
** In addition, in the Prequel, some of the reactions to Cappings, including the school assemblies warning against them, are reminiscent of anti-drug campaigns.
* DomedHometown: The Masters' Cities.
* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Subverted, in that it only *seems* easily thwarted at first.
* {{EMP}}: Implied to be used against the resistance aeroplanes attacking the Masters' city in Panama
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Masters, except for Ruki.
* EvenEvilHasStandards : Will is exploring other VichyEarth states besides England. When he arrives in one he comments that English hang murderers because they can't think of what else to do and nobody likes it much. In one German state they have them [[BloodSport hunted]] by tripods. In other words English capped may be LesCollaborateurs but they are not sadistic.
* FantasticRacism: The Masters think of humans as livestock or at best, as pets. Uncapped humans are, not surprisingly, not exceedingly fond of the masters.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Actually averted. The Master who owns Will tells him that the ship travels ''almost'' as fast as light, and that it will be arriving at Earth soon (i.e. within the next few years).
* AFateWorseThanDeath: Will regards being Capped as this.
* FeudalFuture: Enforced by the Masters.
* FirstNameBasis: Julius and Martin to everyone.
* ForegoneConclusion: If you read the original trilogy before the prequel came out, you know the Tripods win.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Henry's concerns toward the end of ''The Pool of Fire'' are awfully prescient, considering the BittersweetEnding.
* FunetikAksent: We get "shmand-fair" for ''[[RailroadIndex chemin-de-fer]]'' and (once) "Zhan-Pole" for "Jean-Paul."
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The description of the Masters' "fighting" sounds awfully like an InnocentInaccurate description of sex. Although why the adults seemingly don't catch on is puzzling.
* GoOutWithASmile: A very chilling example in the prequel.
* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: No one particularly worries about whether or not the Masters in the city are civilians. The Masters meanwhile wish to KillAllHumans.
* HappinessInSlavery: Thanks to the Caps, at least.
* {{Heavyworlder}}: The Masters.
* HeyYou: Laurie calls his grandmother and his stepmother by their first names. Andy does so with his mother.
* HostileTerraforming: The Masters' plan for Earth.
* HowToInvadeAnAlienPlanet: Cleverer than some. They are able to avoid, or work around the hazards of some of the obvious mistakes, but they have a critical weakness to alcohol, fail to realize that Caps can be faked until too late, and keep humans around as slaves (rather than killing everyone immediately) long enough for them to develop a resistance. At least they KnowWhenToFoldEm, and destroy their Cities in the process, preventing humans from reverse-engineering their technology or deciphering starmaps.
* HumansAreWarriors : Subverted. The AlienInvasion comes off almost without a hitch. However it is explained that the planners of the invasion had feared that human military technology might make them difficult prey if the invaders were not unusually subtle about it.
** Well, humans do all right in the beginning, as the Tripods aren't built to withstand missiles. Then the invaders break out the MassHypnosis ...
* HumongousMecha: The Tripods. They are twenty meters tall.
* HypnoTrinket: The Caps.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Which includes accepting people's hospitality and stealing their children. Many of the parents would of course have been glad that their children were free-if they were in their right mind. But as they were capped it's awfully tough luck on them.
* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: The Masters tracking Will in ''The White Mountains''. Planting a tracking device on an un-Capped person, possibly acting suspiciously? Good idea. Using a great big hulking Tripod to check up on him and his friends, so they get suspicious? Not so much.]]
* IgnoredExpert: Dr. Monmouth in the prequel -- at least, for the Cordrays.
* InferredHolocaust: Realistically speaking, the fate of Hans in ''The City of Gold and Lead''. He is alone and disabled on an island, that is NOT self-sufficient, with no means of traveling to the mainland. The Capped mainlanders have no reason to care about him or render assistance. It's painfully obvious that he will starve to death, and, given his expression as Will and Beanpole are leaving, he clearly knows it.
* InstantAllegianceArtifact: The Caps.
* JerkAss: Will can be this way, at times. So can Henry, in the beginning, but he quickly grows out of it.
* {{Jossed}}: Some readers theorized that the trilogy was an AlternateContinuity of WarOfTheWorlds. Then, Christopher wrote the prequel.
* KickTheDog: In the prequel, when a Tripod first appears, it abducts a farmer, demolishes said farmer's house with his wife still inside, and, sure enough, picks up their dog and flings it to its death.
* KillAllHumans: What the Tripods ultimately plan for humans.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: What the aliens ultimately do once Earth is freed.
* LaResistance: The White Mountains group, along with some others.
* LeaveYourQuestTest: In ''The White Mountains'', Will faces one of these when he faces the prospect of being welcomed into the Count's family and [[spoiler: he thinks]] life with Eloise.
** In ''When the Tripods Came'', Laurie faces one of these when he fears his father has abandoned him.
* LesCollaborateurs: The Capped, not that they really have a choice.
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: The Masters. They program their slaves to shriek and howl when they are beaten, for the Masters' enjoyment.
* MassHypnosis: How the Masters take over the world. Firstly, they use television signals that aren't universally effective. Later, they use mind-controlling Caps on the victims of hypnosis, and (once they get a foothold) everyone else.
* TheMaster: The Masters, of course.
* MayContainEvil: The Trippy Show.
* MedievalStasis: Enforced by the Tripods.
* MindControlDevice: The Caps.
* MindRape: The reason for Vagrants.
* MissingMom: Laurie, and soon, Andy.
* NonindicativeName: Or nonindicative nickname: Wild Bill Hockey. "He didn't look wild, and his name wasn't Bill."
* NotHimself: Laurie's first clue that there is something seriously wrong with his Uncle Ian.
* NotSoDifferent: The humans' overconfidence in ''When The Tripods Came'' parallels the Tripods' overconfidence in ''The Pool of Fire''. Both pay dearly for this.
* [[spoiler: NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Conference of Man in the end, foreshadowed by Pierre in the beginning of ''The Pool of Fire''.]]
* ObfuscatingInsanity: Ozymandias
* ObliviouslyEvil: Even Will's "good" Master sees nothing wrong with [[spoiler: preserving human girls as stuffed specimens.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Beanpole, for most of the books. We only see his real name in print when he is introduced (to the reader), or once when Julius refers to him.
* OnlyOneName: Julius.
* OvernightConquest: Played largely straight, once the MassHypnosis sets in.
* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at in the prequel, but most explicitly done in ''The Pool of Fire'', in the Middle East, where Tripod worship has supplanted Islam.
* PeopleJars: In the second novel, Will wonders why no women are seen in the Tripod city. [[spoiler: Then his Master takes him to a place were human females are kept preserved like butterflies.]]
* PerfectPacifistPeople: What the Capped claim is the Tripods' plan for humanity.
* PrequelInTheLostAge: ''When the Tripods Came''.
* ProperlyParanoid : Invoked. In ''When the Tripods Came'' the Swiss are shown as having a nationalism that verges on fascism, including a distasteful hatred of outsiders. The father says that under the circumstances that could give them a better chance for surviving free of the Tripods. As it happens they don't and are conquered by the French and German capped. But they do have an offstage DyingMomentOfAwesome at least.
* RagnarokProofing: Despite a worldwide civil war and a century of abandonment, a great deal of equipment and knowledge is salvaged from deserted human cities.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Julius. Also, Fritz, briefly.
* [[spoiler: ReleasedToElsewhere: Eloise's ultimate fate.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The Masters' plan to destroy life on Earth to make it habitable for their own species.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: The meaning of the Sphere Chase. Just an alien game, or something else?
* {{Ruritania}} : Germany at this time.
* RuleOfThree: Anything to do with the Tripods. Three initial landings, three waves of the invasion, thee-tentacled robots, three Cities, [[spoiler: aliens with three legs and three tentacles]].
* [[spoiler: ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Masters, in ''The City of Gold and Lead''.]]
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
* SchmuckBait: Double-subverted by the "DANGER: 6,600 VOLTS" sign in the beginning of ''The White Mountains.'' The reason for the warning sign had long since become a non-issue, "but the notion of danger, however far away and long ago, was exciting."
* SecondHandStorytelling: Infuriatingly done at the beginning of The Pool of Fire. While Will and Fritz are wandering over Europe and the Middle-East starting resistance cells, Beanpole heads an effort to rediscover as much technical knowledge as possible and get it weaponized. At the same time another group sails ACROSS THE FRIGGING ATLANTIC to North America and makes contact with another resistance group!
* SheIsTheKing: Straddles the line between Types 2 and 3. In ''When the Tripods Came'', during the stopover in Guernsey, the narrator comments that the islanders hail the Queen as the ''Duke'' of Normandy, which, according to TheOtherWiki, is her correct style despite her gender.
* ShoutOut: The Tripods were a deliberate one to H. G. Wells' WarOfTheWorlds.
** Also, the prequel has a ShoutOut to CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind, as well as a very subtle one to Series/{{Alf}}
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Definitely on the cynical side.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To WarOfTheWorlds.
* SpoiledBrat: Angela in the prequel.
* SquareCubeLaw: The Masters are bigger than humans, and come from a higher-gravity planet. One would think that, because of the square-cube law, higher gravity would necessitate them being ''smaller''. However, they do need to consume much more than humans to survive.
* StarCrossedLovers: Will and Eloise.
* StarfishAliens: The Masters.
* SternTeacher: "Wild Bill" Hockey, in the prequel.
* [[spoiler: StuffedInTheFridge: Eloise.]]
* SubStory : Alluded to. Some of the last bits of the formal human military forces to be subdued were submarines. These had to be sunk rather then having their crew capped and one almost managed to destroy a tripod city.
* [[spoiler: SuicideAttack: How Henry manages to destroy the final City.]]
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Place of Happy Release.
* SwissWithArmyKnives: Had a LastStand in ''When the Tripods Came''.
* TeenGenius: Beanpole
* TerraDeforming: The Masters' Plan for Earth.
* {{The Master}}s
* TitleDrop: All three books of the trilogy.
* TrilogyCreep: First, it was a trilogy, then the author added a prequel.
* TripodTerror: Of course.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The setting of the prequel. Given that it was written in TheEighties, some amount of {{Zeerust}}, particularly because of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.
* UnFavorite: Laurie in ''When The Tripods Came''.
* VichyEarth: In the aftermath of the invasion, the world is divided into feudal states, ultimately controlled by the Tripods.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Thanks to AliensStealCable, the Tripods.
* VillainousValour: In the backstory the Masters voyaged far away from their homeworld and then decided to top that by conquering, well, [[HumansAreWarriors us]].
* WaxMuseumMorgue: In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will's Master takes him to this place, [[spoiler: where he finds Eloise]].
* WeaksauceWeakness: Even tiny quantities of alcohol render the Masters completely unconscious for hours and they are unable to detect it. However, actually getting the alcohol into the masters water supply proves exceptionally difficult.
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: At least, in the Masters' Cities.
* WhamLine: In ''When the Tripods Came'', the growing cult of humans who have been hypnotized into worshipping the Tripods (the "Trippies") is progressively getting worse, and they've started using the (early, removable) Brain Cap which allows them to be controlled all the time. The main character looks at three military jets flying through the sky, and spends a long moment calming himself by pointing out that the authorities still have the might of our entire military and civil infrastructure against what are basically hypnotized rioters...then two of the military jets shoot down the other one. Although he never knew which side each plane was on, this is the terrifying moment when the protagonist realizes that the Capped humans have taken over at least part of our frontline military units, and we are truly no longer in control.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite Jack's capping being the catalyst of Will's journey, he isn't mentioned at all in The Pool of Fire when Will discusses his trip to visit his parents.
* WhatTheHellHero: Laurie gives one of these to his father when [[spoiler: Andy is captured]].
* WickedCultured: The Masters appreciate beauty. So they have the Capped humans hold beauty contests for young girls. They take the "winners" and kill them, perfectly preserving their bodies forever, like butterflies under museum glass. They honestly don't have any moral problem with this, any more than a butterfly collector who doesn't realize he's killing what he claims to appreciate.
* [[spoiler: WonTheWarLostThePeace: The end result of the liberation of Earth.]]
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The manner of speech affected by Ozymandias, as part of his disguise. Justified in that he ''is'' pretending to be brain damaged.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When the slaves in the Cities can no longer work, they go to the Place of Happy Release.
----
[[AC:The novels are as follows:]]
* ''The White Mountains'' (1967)
* ''The City of Gold and Lead'' (1968)
* ''The Pool of Fire'' (1968)
* ''When the Tripods Came'' (1988), the {{prequel}} to the first three books.
In ''The White Mountains'', the Tripods have ruled the world for a hundred years, mankind having been reduced to a medieval state, and kept docile by "caps" which the Tripods surgically attach to their skulls around their fourteenth birthday. Will, an English boy, suspicious of the Tripods, and wanting to escape the mind-controlling Caps, flees with his cousin, Henry, to the eponyomous White Mountains, in Switzerland. En route, whilst in France, they meet up with Jean-Paul, known to them as Beanpole, an intelligent boy who fears that being Capped will stifle his curiosity, and who joins them on their quest for freedom.
In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will and Fritz, a boy from the White Mountains resistance, compete in "the games", an Olympic competition the winners of whom are selected to serve in the domed, environmentally controlled cities of the "masters" who operate the Tripods. Having been selected, they infiltrate the Tripods' European headquarters, located in Germany, and learn valuable information about the masters' biology, and their long-term plan to terraform Earth to their standards (and eradicate humanity in the process).
In ''The Pool of Fire'', The White Mountains resistance embarks on a race against time to free the world from the Tripods, in the few years left to them before the terraforming ship arrives.
''When The Tripods Came'' tells the story, introduced in a flashback in the second novel, of how the Tripods invaded and enslaved the world in the 1980s, using television and the mass media to win popular support for themselves and to instigate war between the human governments.
----
!! ''The Tripods'' provide examples of:
* AchillesHeel: The Masters' sensitive spot between the respiratory and ingestive orifices. Also, they can detect any poisons in food, except alcohol.
* [[spoiler: ActionBomb: Henry.]]
* AnAesop: Freedom to think for, and be, yourself.
** Also, the need for humanity to put aside differences and work together.
* AfterTheEnd: At least, after the end of Modern civilization, for the first three books.
* AlienAbduction: Inverted. The humans abduct an alien and experiment on him.
* AlienInvasion: Type 2.
* AliensAreBastards: Played straight with the Masters, who enslave humans with no regard for their well-being, and plan to exterminate the entire species.
* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Although the Tripods have faster-than-light craft, they have no means of detecting light outside the visible spectrum, and have ho aircraft. Justified with regard to the latter, as the gravity and atmosphere of their planet was such that aircraft wouldn't work.
* AliensStealCable: How the Tripods are able to infiltrate Earth, after their failed invasion.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Averted. The human resistance in Europe is hiding in the Alps, because the Tripods avoid high altitudes with low atmospheric pressure (from what we see of the artificially maintained alien climate in their cities, their own planet seems to be vaguely swamp-like). The European resistance consists of people from all over Europe that fled there as uncapped children, but the main characters are from Britain. In ''The Pool of Fire'', they make contact with a similar resistance group which formed in parallel to the one in the European Alps, but in the American Rockies. The protagonist, who has grown up in the rustic feudal-level society of the Capped humans with no long-distance travel, can't help but remark on how the Americans he encounters for the first time have an extremely bizarre accent. Ironically, despite having a well-organized and long-running resistance movement, their attack against the aliens fails, while the new recruits in Asia succeeded. The idea was to attack each of the three alien cities - one in China, one on the Rhine River, one in Panama - but the first two cities were able to send some sort of warning to the American city, so the attack failed.
* AnachronismStew: Justified, as humanity is artificially kept in a MedievalStasis, with some relics from the modern world.
* AncientArtifact s : The "eggs"(grenades) left behind in a ruined human city.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The result of the BittersweetEnding.
* AntiHero: Straddling the line Will is mostly type II, but they all go into type III.
* AnyoneCanDie: Including [[spoiler: Henry. Subverted with Fritz, though.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Ultimately proves to be a Class 1. In ''The Pool of Fire'', the resistance tries to avert a Class 5.
* ArcWords: "Hail the Tripod!", in the prequel.
* YouFailLinguisticsForever: In early editions of ''When the Tripods Came'', the phrase "Hail the Tripod!" is translated as "''Heilen dem Dreibeiner!'', which, not conjugated, simply means "To hail the Tripod". Averted in subsequent editions. A bit curious, since "Heil" is a rather famous German word.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The gravitational constant in Earth is thirty-two feet per second squared, not sixteen as described in the book.
* AtmosphereAbuse: What the Masters plan to do.
* TheBait: In order to capture one of the Masters, the protagonist rides a green-painted (to catch their attention) horse past one of their Tripods, and when it gives chase lures it into a hidden pit.
* BenevolentAlienInvasion: Subverted. It often looks idyllic and it builds up a big shock when we learn that they plan to KillAllHumans.
* BerserkButton: Never speak or act against the Tripods if someone Capped is around, unless you're well armed.
* BilingualBonus: At least, when not using TranslationConvention.
* BittersweetEnding: Of course, the Tripods are defeated, never to return. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: Julius is voted out of power, the Conference of Man fails to achieve a consensus in uniting humanity, and there are rumors of war.]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Tripods are pretty bad, but the heroes can be downright Machiavellian at times.
* BrattyHalfPint: Will and Henry, in the beginning.
* BotheringByTheBook: Will does this with Ulf, with unexpected results.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Capped. Not so much crazy, though, unless you start insulting or acting against the Tripods.
* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Addressed in the story. The Masters on Earth are basically the first wave which will eventually end with terraforming the Earth to the Masters' biology. It's stated that the main ship is currently on-route, and more Masters still live elsewhere in the universe. When the ship finally does show up, it simply nukes the remains of the three cities (presumably to prevent any of the Masters' advanced technology from falling into human hands). It then departs, probably having decided Earth isn't worth the effort.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Laurie does this [[spoiler: over his father's refusal to rescue Andy.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The "eggs" (grenades) in ''The White Mountains'', and the hot-air balloons in ''The Pool of Fire''.
* ChekhovsGunman: Ilse in ''When the Tripods Came''. Her nationality and parentage become very important to the plot.
** Ulf. Just when you think you see the last of him in ''The City of Gold and Lead'', he comes back in ''The Pool of Fire'', and sets up a conflict with Will that has unexpected results.
* ChildSoldiers: The recruits of LaResistance.
** This is of necessity, of course. Virtually no un-Capped adults exist outside of the Resistance--and the adult members of the Resistance were undoubtedly once ChildSoldiers themselves.
* CombatTentacles: The Tripod's main weapon.
* CompetenceZone: Sort of. Most of the people who get things done are teenagers. At fifteen or sixteen, Beanpole has already become a head scientist, and Fritz soon after becomes a mission commander. Only partially justified by the fact that fourteen is the age of majority.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Most people live happily and the masters couldn't be bothered to actively control everyone; it is enough to put a mind block against resisting the the masters. In fact you think what's so bad about it? Until you realize that just to start with, [[AnAesop it is not being able to think]] that is the matter.
** Also consider that roughly one out of every twenty people that gets Capped is driven insane, becoming Vagrants. Vagrants basically have the mental capacity of a medieval Village Idiot, wandering around from town to town to beg. Most people feel both sorry for and ashamed of them, but none of the Capped people ever question why this has to happen.
* CrazyPrepared: The resistance. But then, they have to be.
* CurbStompBattle: The initial encounter between a Tripod and a [[TanksForNothing Challenger tank]] in the prequel results in a [[IncrediblyLamePun crushing]] [[CombatTentacles defeat]].
* CuriosityIsACrapshoot: Beanpole is generally quite level-headed, except when it comes to the technological artifacts they find in the City of the Ancients in ''The White Mountains.'' It gets rather complicated when they find a cache of grenades.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Upon conquering the world, the Tripods reduce humanity to a MedievalStasis.
* DeadlyEuphemism: The Place of Happy Release.
* DeusExNukina : In ''The City of Gold and Lead'' we are told that a submarine launched an ICBM at a tripod city long ago.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Will.
* DisappearedDad: Andy.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Will's removal of Eloise's turban is almost treated as some kind of sexual assault.
** The depiction of the Trippy Show sounds like the controversy and moral panic surrounding various fads, including {{Pokemon}}, HarryPotter, and Literature/{{Twilight}}. And the Tripods trilogy predates them all by several decades.
** In addition, in the Prequel, some of the reactions to Cappings, including the school assemblies warning against them, are reminiscent of anti-drug campaigns.
* DomedHometown: The Masters' Cities.
* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Subverted, in that it only *seems* easily thwarted at first.
* {{EMP}}: Implied to be used against the resistance aeroplanes attacking the Masters' city in Panama
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Masters, except for Ruki.
* EvenEvilHasStandards : Will is exploring other VichyEarth states besides England. When he arrives in one he comments that English hang murderers because they can't think of what else to do and nobody likes it much. In one German state they have them [[BloodSport hunted]] by tripods. In other words English capped may be LesCollaborateurs but they are not sadistic.
* FantasticRacism: The Masters think of humans as livestock or at best, as pets. Uncapped humans are, not surprisingly, not exceedingly fond of the masters.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Actually averted. The Master who owns Will tells him that the ship travels ''almost'' as fast as light, and that it will be arriving at Earth soon (i.e. within the next few years).
* AFateWorseThanDeath: Will regards being Capped as this.
* FeudalFuture: Enforced by the Masters.
* FirstNameBasis: Julius and Martin to everyone.
* ForegoneConclusion: If you read the original trilogy before the prequel came out, you know the Tripods win.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Henry's concerns toward the end of ''The Pool of Fire'' are awfully prescient, considering the BittersweetEnding.
* FunetikAksent: We get "shmand-fair" for ''[[RailroadIndex chemin-de-fer]]'' and (once) "Zhan-Pole" for "Jean-Paul."
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The description of the Masters' "fighting" sounds awfully like an InnocentInaccurate description of sex. Although why the adults seemingly don't catch on is puzzling.
* GoOutWithASmile: A very chilling example in the prequel.
* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: No one particularly worries about whether or not the Masters in the city are civilians. The Masters meanwhile wish to KillAllHumans.
* HappinessInSlavery: Thanks to the Caps, at least.
* {{Heavyworlder}}: The Masters.
* HeyYou: Laurie calls his grandmother and his stepmother by their first names. Andy does so with his mother.
* HostileTerraforming: The Masters' plan for Earth.
* HowToInvadeAnAlienPlanet: Cleverer than some. They are able to avoid, or work around the hazards of some of the obvious mistakes, but they have a critical weakness to alcohol, fail to realize that Caps can be faked until too late, and keep humans around as slaves (rather than killing everyone immediately) long enough for them to develop a resistance. At least they KnowWhenToFoldEm, and destroy their Cities in the process, preventing humans from reverse-engineering their technology or deciphering starmaps.
* HumansAreWarriors : Subverted. The AlienInvasion comes off almost without a hitch. However it is explained that the planners of the invasion had feared that human military technology might make them difficult prey if the invaders were not unusually subtle about it.
** Well, humans do all right in the beginning, as the Tripods aren't built to withstand missiles. Then the invaders break out the MassHypnosis ...
* HumongousMecha: The Tripods. They are twenty meters tall.
* HypnoTrinket: The Caps.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Which includes accepting people's hospitality and stealing their children. Many of the parents would of course have been glad that their children were free-if they were in their right mind. But as they were capped it's awfully tough luck on them.
* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: The Masters tracking Will in ''The White Mountains''. Planting a tracking device on an un-Capped person, possibly acting suspiciously? Good idea. Using a great big hulking Tripod to check up on him and his friends, so they get suspicious? Not so much.]]
* IgnoredExpert: Dr. Monmouth in the prequel -- at least, for the Cordrays.
* InferredHolocaust: Realistically speaking, the fate of Hans in ''The City of Gold and Lead''. He is alone and disabled on an island, that is NOT self-sufficient, with no means of traveling to the mainland. The Capped mainlanders have no reason to care about him or render assistance. It's painfully obvious that he will starve to death, and, given his expression as Will and Beanpole are leaving, he clearly knows it.
* InstantAllegianceArtifact: The Caps.
* JerkAss: Will can be this way, at times. So can Henry, in the beginning, but he quickly grows out of it.
* {{Jossed}}: Some readers theorized that the trilogy was an AlternateContinuity of WarOfTheWorlds. Then, Christopher wrote the prequel.
* KickTheDog: In the prequel, when a Tripod first appears, it abducts a farmer, demolishes said farmer's house with his wife still inside, and, sure enough, picks up their dog and flings it to its death.
* KillAllHumans: What the Tripods ultimately plan for humans.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: What the aliens ultimately do once Earth is freed.
* LaResistance: The White Mountains group, along with some others.
* LeaveYourQuestTest: In ''The White Mountains'', Will faces one of these when he faces the prospect of being welcomed into the Count's family and [[spoiler: he thinks]] life with Eloise.
** In ''When the Tripods Came'', Laurie faces one of these when he fears his father has abandoned him.
* LesCollaborateurs: The Capped, not that they really have a choice.
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: The Masters. They program their slaves to shriek and howl when they are beaten, for the Masters' enjoyment.
* MassHypnosis: How the Masters take over the world. Firstly, they use television signals that aren't universally effective. Later, they use mind-controlling Caps on the victims of hypnosis, and (once they get a foothold) everyone else.
* TheMaster: The Masters, of course.
* MayContainEvil: The Trippy Show.
* MedievalStasis: Enforced by the Tripods.
* MindControlDevice: The Caps.
* MindRape: The reason for Vagrants.
* MissingMom: Laurie, and soon, Andy.
* NonindicativeName: Or nonindicative nickname: Wild Bill Hockey. "He didn't look wild, and his name wasn't Bill."
* NotHimself: Laurie's first clue that there is something seriously wrong with his Uncle Ian.
* NotSoDifferent: The humans' overconfidence in ''When The Tripods Came'' parallels the Tripods' overconfidence in ''The Pool of Fire''. Both pay dearly for this.
* [[spoiler: NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Conference of Man in the end, foreshadowed by Pierre in the beginning of ''The Pool of Fire''.]]
* ObfuscatingInsanity: Ozymandias
* ObliviouslyEvil: Even Will's "good" Master sees nothing wrong with [[spoiler: preserving human girls as stuffed specimens.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Beanpole, for most of the books. We only see his real name in print when he is introduced (to the reader), or once when Julius refers to him.
* OnlyOneName: Julius.
* OvernightConquest: Played largely straight, once the MassHypnosis sets in.
* PathOfInspiration: Hinted at in the prequel, but most explicitly done in ''The Pool of Fire'', in the Middle East, where Tripod worship has supplanted Islam.
* PeopleJars: In the second novel, Will wonders why no women are seen in the Tripod city. [[spoiler: Then his Master takes him to a place were human females are kept preserved like butterflies.]]
* PerfectPacifistPeople: What the Capped claim is the Tripods' plan for humanity.
* PrequelInTheLostAge: ''When the Tripods Came''.
* ProperlyParanoid : Invoked. In ''When the Tripods Came'' the Swiss are shown as having a nationalism that verges on fascism, including a distasteful hatred of outsiders. The father says that under the circumstances that could give them a better chance for surviving free of the Tripods. As it happens they don't and are conquered by the French and German capped. But they do have an offstage DyingMomentOfAwesome at least.
* RagnarokProofing: Despite a worldwide civil war and a century of abandonment, a great deal of equipment and knowledge is salvaged from deserted human cities.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Julius. Also, Fritz, briefly.
* [[spoiler: ReleasedToElsewhere: Eloise's ultimate fate.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: The Masters' plan to destroy life on Earth to make it habitable for their own species.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: The meaning of the Sphere Chase. Just an alien game, or something else?
* {{Ruritania}} : Germany at this time.
* RuleOfThree: Anything to do with the Tripods. Three initial landings, three waves of the invasion, thee-tentacled robots, three Cities, [[spoiler: aliens with three legs and three tentacles]].
* [[spoiler: ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Masters, in ''The City of Gold and Lead''.]]
* ScaryDogmaticAliens:
* SchmuckBait: Double-subverted by the "DANGER: 6,600 VOLTS" sign in the beginning of ''The White Mountains.'' The reason for the warning sign had long since become a non-issue, "but the notion of danger, however far away and long ago, was exciting."
* SecondHandStorytelling: Infuriatingly done at the beginning of The Pool of Fire. While Will and Fritz are wandering over Europe and the Middle-East starting resistance cells, Beanpole heads an effort to rediscover as much technical knowledge as possible and get it weaponized. At the same time another group sails ACROSS THE FRIGGING ATLANTIC to North America and makes contact with another resistance group!
* SheIsTheKing: Straddles the line between Types 2 and 3. In ''When the Tripods Came'', during the stopover in Guernsey, the narrator comments that the islanders hail the Queen as the ''Duke'' of Normandy, which, according to TheOtherWiki, is her correct style despite her gender.
* ShoutOut: The Tripods were a deliberate one to H. G. Wells' WarOfTheWorlds.
** Also, the prequel has a ShoutOut to CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind, as well as a very subtle one to Series/{{Alf}}
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Definitely on the cynical side.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To WarOfTheWorlds.
* SpoiledBrat: Angela in the prequel.
* SquareCubeLaw: The Masters are bigger than humans, and come from a higher-gravity planet. One would think that, because of the square-cube law, higher gravity would necessitate them being ''smaller''. However, they do need to consume much more than humans to survive.
* StarCrossedLovers: Will and Eloise.
* StarfishAliens: The Masters.
* SternTeacher: "Wild Bill" Hockey, in the prequel.
* [[spoiler: StuffedInTheFridge: Eloise.]]
* SubStory : Alluded to. Some of the last bits of the formal human military forces to be subdued were submarines. These had to be sunk rather then having their crew capped and one almost managed to destroy a tripod city.
* [[spoiler: SuicideAttack: How Henry manages to destroy the final City.]]
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The Place of Happy Release.
* SwissWithArmyKnives: Had a LastStand in ''When the Tripods Came''.
* TeenGenius: Beanpole
* TerraDeforming: The Masters' Plan for Earth.
* {{The Master}}s
* TitleDrop: All three books of the trilogy.
* TrilogyCreep: First, it was a trilogy, then the author added a prequel.
* TripodTerror: Of course.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The setting of the prequel. Given that it was written in TheEighties, some amount of {{Zeerust}}, particularly because of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.
* UnFavorite: Laurie in ''When The Tripods Came''.
* VichyEarth: In the aftermath of the invasion, the world is divided into feudal states, ultimately controlled by the Tripods.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Thanks to AliensStealCable, the Tripods.
* VillainousValour: In the backstory the Masters voyaged far away from their homeworld and then decided to top that by conquering, well, [[HumansAreWarriors us]].
* WaxMuseumMorgue: In ''The City of Gold and Lead'', Will's Master takes him to this place, [[spoiler: where he finds Eloise]].
* WeaksauceWeakness: Even tiny quantities of alcohol render the Masters completely unconscious for hours and they are unable to detect it. However, actually getting the alcohol into the masters water supply proves exceptionally difficult.
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: At least, in the Masters' Cities.
* WhamLine: In ''When the Tripods Came'', the growing cult of humans who have been hypnotized into worshipping the Tripods (the "Trippies") is progressively getting worse, and they've started using the (early, removable) Brain Cap which allows them to be controlled all the time. The main character looks at three military jets flying through the sky, and spends a long moment calming himself by pointing out that the authorities still have the might of our entire military and civil infrastructure against what are basically hypnotized rioters...then two of the military jets shoot down the other one. Although he never knew which side each plane was on, this is the terrifying moment when the protagonist realizes that the Capped humans have taken over at least part of our frontline military units, and we are truly no longer in control.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite Jack's capping being the catalyst of Will's journey, he isn't mentioned at all in The Pool of Fire when Will discusses his trip to visit his parents.
* WhatTheHellHero: Laurie gives one of these to his father when [[spoiler: Andy is captured]].
* WickedCultured: The Masters appreciate beauty. So they have the Capped humans hold beauty contests for young girls. They take the "winners" and kill them, perfectly preserving their bodies forever, like butterflies under museum glass. They honestly don't have any moral problem with this, any more than a butterfly collector who doesn't realize he's killing what he claims to appreciate.
* [[spoiler: WonTheWarLostThePeace: The end result of the liberation of Earth.]]
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The manner of speech affected by Ozymandias, as part of his disguise. Justified in that he ''is'' pretending to be brain damaged.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When the slaves in the Cities can no longer work, they go to the Place of Happy Release.
----
