History VisualNovel / Adastra2018

* StupidEvil: [[spoiler:Before he dies, it gets pointed out that if Cato had actually succeeded in his vengeful ploy of executing Neferu, Khemia would have ended up going to war with the wolves over the death of their royal diplomat [[note]] despite the Khemian Prince being on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of power and popularity within his own family [[/note]] and that they would have inevitably destroyed the wolves, as their Kingdom is the strongest of all the siblings (even being mentioned in the sequel as being close to powerful as The Parents themselves). Despite probably knowing all this, in Catos mindset the destruction of his home Empire and people still would've been worth it if it meant Adastra and Khemia never aligned.]]

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: [[spoiler: After Cato is killed in the arena duel and the Computer declares Amicus as both the victor of the fight and the new Emperor of Adastra, the wolven populace has this reaction (as cheers of celebration are loud enough to be heard from Adastra City).]]

* BerserkButton: For Amicus, if anyone says or tries to do anything that's even remotely threatening toward Marco, you can guarantee it'll get them facing the wolfs full blown wrath, as he truly does care for his humans well-being. Even referring to Marco in a dehumanizing way (such as "slave", "pet" and "it") when Amicus is in the room is enough to completely get on the wolven royals bad side.

** When Amicus realizes Marco isn't as unintelligent as he presumed.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:After he witnesses Cassius agree to step down as Adastras Emperor as part of a plan to stop Cato, Alexios throws Marco and the other palace residents under the bus by snitching to the tyrant about the secret plan to overthrow him (with this action being part of his own saboteur intentions). To his horror, this results in his wolven lover getting poisoned by Cato, followed by the feline getting punched across the room after he screams to the tyrant about how he went too far. Later on, Marco overhears Alex freaking out about the recent events and when confronted, he laments that he'll probably be executed by Cato in the near future. Unlike most examples, Alexios isn't killed for his betrayal, though given Catos violent tendencies it's not a stretch to say he would've fulfilled this trope and killed his informant had he gotten to personally dealing with him.]]

** [[spoiler: Before the start of the story, Cato ended up getting severely injured during the Khemian War (losing part of his skull, an eye and his entire vision), which prompted Amicus' father, who was the Emperor and the wolfs closest friend, to get aid from the Parents to heal his injuries, which helped Cato miraculously survive. This act of kindness ultimately meant nothing to Cato however, as he ended up sabotaging the Emperors ship and killed him, all so that he himself could become acting Emperor and work on his goal to start another war with Khemia from a higher level of power.]]

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] the Creator/BradPitt movie, ''Film/AdAstra''.[[note]]Note the distinction between '''Ad Astra''' and '''Adastra'''.[[/note]] [[SincerityMode Seriously, no. You clicked on the wrong page.]] [[ARareSentence You're not going to find Brad Pitt in a furry visual novel.]]

* DivineConflict: Of the EldritchAbominaion variety. The [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Parents]] are locked in eternal conflict with [[MechanicalAbomination The Other]], the former favouring life and the latter its extinction.

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler: In an attempt to stop an alliance from forming between his planet and Khemia, Cato tries to publicly execute Neferu, [[StupidEvil not even caring what the consequences of killing one of the Pharaohs sons would bring to the Wolven population in the long run]]. Thanks to Marco and Amicus showing up at the last moment to stop him, ​Cato ended up being the one who died while Neferu survived the ordeal.]]

* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Cato]], who committed multiple atrocities throughout the story (ranging from [[spoiler:violently tampering with the third trial to put Cassius on the throne for his own agendas to attempting to directly murder more than half the cast]]), ends up getting killed by [[spoiler:Marco and Amicus in the arena when he tries to publicly execute Neferu, both by the same knife he was going to kill the jackal ambassador with and by the hands of the same wolf he unjustly imprisoned to stay in power]].
** Karma also gives [[spoiler:Cato]] one more posthumous stab long after [[spoiler:his death]]. The reason [[spoiler:Cato attempted to kill Neferu was so that he could stop an alliance from forming between Adastra and Khemia, as he had nothing but hatred for the jackal race ([[StupidEvil not caring what the consequences of killing one of their leaders sons would bring to the Wolven population in the long run]]). Not only did Neferu survive while his would-be executioner didn't, but in the end the alliance between the two planets looks like it's going to be officially established.]]
* KarmaHoudini: After having one last bitter talk with him [[spoiler:before returning to Earth]], Marco laments to himself that [[spoiler:Alexios]], who intentionally caused quite a lot of chaos on Adastra, doesn't have to answer for most of his actions due to a plea deal he made to help take out [[spoiler:Cato]] at the most critical time, along with [[spoiler:Cassius using his influences to keep the cat from being deported]].

'''This visual novel contains graphic content, sex, and violence and the novel, as such all external links on this page are to be considered NSFW unless stated otherwise.'''

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:After he witnesses Cassius agree to step down as Adastras Emperor as part of a plan to stop Cato, Alexios throws Marco and the other palace residents under the bus by snitching to the tyrant about the secret plan to overthrow him (with this action being part of his own saboteur intentions). To his horror, this results in his wolven lover get poisoned by Cato, followed by the feline getting punched across the room after he screams to the tyrant about how he went too far. Later on, Marco overhears Alex freaking out about the recent events and when confronted, he laments that he'll probably be executed by Cato in the near future.[[note]] and given Catos violent tendencies, it's not a stretch to say he would've killed Alex had he gotten to personally dealing with him.[[/note]]]]

** Marco has to pretend he is a dumb pet for Amicus so that people won't question him or Amicus. The reason why is that when Amicus went to Earth and brought Marco to his home planet, he made forbidden first contact (as a legal one requires authorization from a God-like entity known as The Parents) and the consequence for anyone directly involved in it is execution.

** Marco has to pretend he is a dumb pet for Amicus so that people won't question him or Amicus.

** [[spoiler: The stylized down arrow mark shows up in many other areas as well. The gold collar Alexios wears has a down arrow printed on it, as does the belt Bjarni the bear diplomat wears in ''Inertia''. On the Khemia soundtrack, the clothing Neferu is wearing has a cluster of down arrows and a promo pic for the sequel VN has a female Khemian (most likely being one of Neferus sisters) with a golden down arrow painted on her forehead. Finally, if the player makes certain decisions and gets the "Meera" vision on Marcos last night on Adastra, anyone can see the Hindo (tiger) has a similar down arrow mark atop her own forehead]].

* CatsAreMean: [[spoiler:After he gets outed as a spy and saboteur, Alexios pretty much acts like this towards Marco in a verbally passive-aggressive way.]]

** [[spoiler:Alexios can build a strong and threatening presence when he relies solely on his verbal skills to intimidate any of his opponents (such as getting to Neferu when casually bringing up his status as the UnFavorite in his family), but when it looks like someone is about to physically attack him, he immediately loses his composure and freaks out (as Marco quickly manages to leave him terrified and begging for mercy when he confronts the cat about his underhanded actions and threatens to hurt him)]].

** [[spoiler: If the player makes certain decisions and gets the "Meera" vision on Marcos last night on Adastra, anyone can see the Hindo (tiger) has a similar down arrow mark atop her own forehead]].

'''This visual novel contains graphic content, sex, and violence and the novel and all links on this page are to be considered NSFW unless stated otherwise.'''

* RealityEnsues:
** When Marco first meets Amicus, he ends up getting freaked out by the sight of a giant alien wolf that somehow speaks English in front of him. And his first reaction is to promptly kick him in the chest to get him away.
** Likewise, Cassius also has a major freak out when he first sees Marco unexpectedly, as he'd never seen a human in his life up to that point and naturally assumed he could be dangerous. The reason why Virginia and Neferu reacted calmer to their first encounter with Marco is because they heard about him in advance before seeing him, giving them time to prepare for the surprise of seeing a new species.
** One of the risks to a human being on a planet full of sentient aliens is that they're vulnerable of catching viruses and diseases that their bodies are not used to. [[spoiler: At one point, Marco ends up catching something called avia pox, and while the average Adastran can easily deal with any symptoms, the human ends up suffering more severely (ranging from having violent hallucinations to slipping into a near coma-like state) as his body has no idea how to fight off the alien illness]].
** After Marco [[spoiler:is brought back to his Italian apartment room on Earth after spending about a year on Adastra, he notes that all his stuff is gone (presumably taken during a police investigation) and that his mysterious disappearance probably got a lot of media coverage akin to other strange disappearances in the area]].

* UnexpectedCharacter: Bjarni, a diplomat who is also the first [[spoiler:bear]] character to appear onscreen in the entire series. This is especially surprising since Marco didn't mention him during the main story when reflecting on his tour of Adastra, [[spoiler:thus making the first appearance of another Sibling species more unexpected.]]

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Marco is kidnapped from Earth by Amicus and brought to Adastra with no word on when he will return to Earth, if ever. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Marco does make it back to Earth by the end of the story, but also yearns to go back to Adastra and soon gets started on a mission that is said to end in his return to said planet.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Amicus' plan to bring a human to Adastra was...to kidnap and bring a human against their will and deceive them and lie to them by hoping they will be too unintelligent to suspect what exactly is going on. [[spoiler:In Amicus' defense, he does end up regretting his poorly though out idea of kidnapping Marco, as it put him in a very dangerous position for a good chunk of the story, and goes out of his way to keep the human safe from any and all harm no matter what. He even tearfully apologizes to Marco for dragging him into his conflict for the throne after the humans death and revival ordeal section concludes, with Marco forgiving him]].

** Later in the story, [[spoiler:Marco ends up stabbing Cato in the back and throat with a golden knife that he was going to use to wrongfully execute Neferu with. Before he is killed, Cato manages to carry out the same trope toward Marco by seizing the knife from his grip and using it to slit his throat open.]]

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Marco is kidnapped from Earth by Amicus and brought to Adastra with no word on when he will return to Earth, if ever.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Amicus' plan to bring a human to Adastra was...to kidnap and bring a human against their will and deceive them and lie to them by hoping they will be too unintelligent to suspect what exactly is going on.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: After tranquilizing Marco twice, Marco decides to use it against Amicus only this time [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill with much more power than he used.]]

* HopeSpot: Several of these come up during the story for Marco and Amicus, [[spoiler:with [[{{Understatement}} all three trials for the Emperorship not playing out as smoothly as they envisioned]] being prime examples. However, the most cruelest example of the trope takes place during Amicus' fight against Cato: Just when it looks like the tyrant is about to tear out Amicus' throat after getting the upper hand on him, Marco boldly intervenes and critically stabs him twice with the same knife he almost killed Neferu with, making it appear everyone will survive with no further harm from the BigBad...only for Cato to pry the knife from Marco and slit his throat wide open with a wild swing, causing the human to die not long after meeting his own end.[[note]]Though Marcos the death is only temporary, as he comes back later with help from The Parents. [[/note]]]]

* HopeSpot: Several of these come up during the story for Marco and Amicus, [[spoiler:with all three trials for the Emperorship not playing out as smoothly as they envisioned being prime examples. However, the most cruelest example of the trope takes place during Amicus' fight against Cato: Just when it looks like the tyrant is about to tear out Amicus' throat after getting the upper hand on him, Marco boldly intervenes and critically stabs him twice with the same knife he almost killed Neferu with, making it appear everyone else will survive with no further harm...only for Cato to pry the knife from Marco and slit his throat wide open with a wild swing, causing him to die not long after he meets his own end.[[note]]Though the death is only temporary, as Marco comes back later with help from The Parents. [[/note]]]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Out of all three royal siblings, Virginia is the one most likely to be considered non-violent and passive. However, she also ends up being the one most open to the idea [[spoiler: of executing Alexios as punishment for his prior destructive acts of sabotage, even suggesting [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident his death be made to look accidental]] during the ride to the university. Given the Omorfans actions indirectly resulted in the near deaths of both her brothers, as well as put her in a scenario that nearly had her forcibly married to Cato, it's easy to see why Virginia feels Alex doesn't deserves mercy]].

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The story ends with Marco kicking off his 8-year journey on Earth to bring his people into the Galaxias and Amicus continuing his work as the ruler of Adastra while also starting a major diplomatic mission with the Khemians.]]

* BullyingADragon: Not long after the third trial, [[spoiler: Neferu taunts Cato by revealing that he knows about his involvement in staging the event, followed by more smug quips as part of a plan to get him into saying something incriminating. Cato responds by slamming the jackal into a wall and kicks him so hard in the groin that he vomits]].

** Amicus ends up experiencing an even darker hour later on in the story after [[spoiler: he witnesses Marco actually die in his arms following his life or death duel with Cato. Not wanting to accept this, Amicus takes his humans body to the Archive device to contact the parents in a desperate attempt to revive him, with no guarantee that he`ll return with his lover alive again...]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: This is Amicus' biggest flaw, as he sometimes tends to act out whatever idea or impulse that comes to him without fully contemplating any possible consequences or other factors that could end up causing more trouble in the long run. He's even introduced carrying out an idea he immediately came up with (going to a planet that Adastra apparently failed to uplift long ago and bring home one of its inhabitants to get more support from his people to be made the next Emperor) that kicks off Marcos story.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Adastra is a futuristic Roman society but was the precursor to Earth's Ancient Rome where this alien society is what tried to uplift their influence on Earth in the first place. The Wolves are [[SpaceRomans Romans]], the Khemians (Jackals) are Egyptians, Alexios and the Omorfans (Cats) are analogous to the Ancient Greeks and the Hindos (Tigers) are Indian. There are still other races and cultures that are yet to be revealed. [[spoiler:So far all we know are the bears, rams, and lions, but none of the cultures are yet known.]]

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Cassius is more refined and snobbish than the laid-back and carefree Amicus. [[spoiler:However, after Amicus officially becomes Adastra's Emperor he notably starts to act more serious and shows a more responsible side to his usually relaxed personality.]]

** After [[spoiler:Cato is killed, Amicus gets made the planet's Emperor and he recovers from his poisoning]], Cassius notably turns his JerkAss and hostile traits down a notch, as his first onscreen chat with Marco following his [[spoiler:recovery]] has him speak more passively and less "better than thou" to the human (even begrudgingly thanking him for his role in putting the Empire on a less corrupt course), which is a step up from the constant distrust and aggression he displayed early on.
** In a more subtle case, Virginia takes one towards Marco as well. While she is mostly kind to him throughout the story, she also remains the most socially distant character in the palace towards him (with Marco even noting that he learned nothing about her after a year passed). However, on Marcos [[spoiler:final day on Adastra]], Virginia finally opens up about herself a bit and explains why she acts distant (mainly to get by in the [[StayInTheKitchen planet's politics, which has no room for other females as of the current time]], while also relying on her lessons of not entirely trusting any male, as she feels there are too many opponents who will try and drag her down if she doesn't keep her uptight personality up). Marco ends up understanding her points, leading the duo to develop a small connection before parting ways [[spoiler:for the next few years]].

** [[spoiler:Alexios]] towards Marco. The [[spoiler:cat's]] first chat with the human (not long after Marco was taken to Adastra) has the duo bonding over breakfast and gardening while sharing details about themselves in a curious yet seemingly well-intentioned way. [[spoiler:Alexios' last chat with Marco (which takes place after the feline was outed as a spy and was using Marco for his own goals to cause chaos) has him and the human speaking to each other in a ''very'' hostile and aggressive tone, with clear indication that the broken friendship isn't going to heal anytime in the near future.]]

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Cato, who emerges as the story's main antagonist before the third trial, ends up getting killed by Amicus and Marco near the 2/3rd's point in the story. After that, the main conflict is more on politics of Adastra and Marco and Amicus struggling with the fact that they'll be separated for eight years to fulfill a mission for the Parents]].

** The [[spoiler: Omorfans (cats)]] obviously have a less than positive relationship with the Adastrans, given the fact that they sent [[spoiler: Alexios]] to their planet so he could spy on them while also subtly sabotaging their government. With the exception of his [[spoiler: lover Cassius, Alexios]] clearly shares this viewpoint as he basically tells Marco [[IDidWhatIHadToDo he did what he had to do]] while the human reflects the consequences of the aforementioned actions (which actually contributed in starting full scale riots).

** [[spoiler: Later in the story, Cassius claims that Alexios has an excuse in regards as to why he carried out destructive espionage. He explains to Marco that the Omorfan government basically used Alexios as their own stylus and a means to an end for their agendas to hinder Adastra from making a comeback to the Galaxias, with Alex being lead astray by them into thinking he was doing things for the greater good (as his underestimation of Cato's cruelty highlighted this). However, Marco counters this by pointing out (both personally to himself and out loud Cassius) [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse that Alexios nonetheless had a choice, and he chose to accept his saboteur assignment and do all he could to bring harm to the wolven populace]]]].

** [[spoiler:Cato]], who committed multiple atrocities throughout the story (ranging from [[spoiler:violently tampering with the third trial to put Cassius on the throne for his own agendas to attempting to murder Marco]]), ends up getting killed by [[spoiler:Marco and Amicus in the arena when he tries to publicly execute Neferu, both by the same knife he was going to kill the jackal ambassador with and by the hands of the same wolf he unjustly imprisoned to stay in power]].

* NoodleIncident: It's not made clear what Neferu did to earn his status as TheUnfavorite in his family, with the jackal only bringing up vague responses such as, "After what I put them through, it's only fair", when asked why he has to stay on Adastra in order to help form an alliance that has little to no chance of success.

* WomenAreWiser: Compared to her brothers (who do have their own strengths but also behave like [[ManChild manchildren]] at various points), Virginia is the most mature member of the royal family, as she's fully responsible with any task she's given and doesn't tolerate any form of immaturity or incompetence. [[spoiler: Granted, she was molded into behaving like this during her youth through many etiquette lessons (much to her chagrin), though she does also admit that it helps her get by in a world where women's rights are years behind Earths]].

* UnexpectedCharacter: Bjarni, a diplomat who is also the first [[spoiler:bear]] character to appear onscreen in the entire series. This is especially surprising since Marco didn't mention him during the main story when reflecting on his tour of Adastra, [[spoiler:thus making the first appearance of another Sibling species onscreen more surprising.]]