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Through the Looking Glass is a trilogy of crossover Fan Fics by Herr Wozzeck (Not to be confused with the Alice in Wonderland sequel of the same name.) that somehow manages to cross over Sonic the Hedgehog, Banjo-Kazooie, Kung Fu Panda, and Mass Effect. The title is given because all of the fics are given a supernatural twist that would make the events of each respective part of the fic impossible or difficult to occur, depending on which part of the trilogy is being read.

Installments include:


Tropes that apply to this fanfic series include:

  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    Banjo: "He's headed right this way!"
    Shade: "And what makes you think that?"
    Trophy Thomas: "Oh, I dunno, the fact that he destroyed our home! That, and those robots of his messed up my hair!"
  • Batman Gambit: Tan Tao released Tai Lung in Penance with the intent that Tai Lung would kill the emperor and allow him to ascend the throne of China as his Wang Dun persona. Of course, Tails makes sure it doesn't quite happen like that...
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Banjo is the nicest guy in part one. That said, you better not say bad things about his girlfriend lest you want to get punched in the face.
  • Big "NO!": More like Big Shifu.
  • Break the Cutie: Almost happens to Cream in Penance. Key word being "almost".
    • And then it happens to Tooty in part 1 as backstory.
  • Continuity Nod: Quite a few to the Banjo-Kazooie series in part 1.
    • Also to Sonic's being playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as some of the characters from Brawl show up at his funeral at the end of part 1.
  • Darker and Edgier: Most of the series once the climax of part 1 happens.
  • Dead All Along: Wang Dun in Penance.
  • Dead Person Conversation: The only substantial dream sequence in Penance is this between Tails, Oogway, and Sonic. Tails gives a speech that Sonic brutally tears apart in a counterargument.
  • Doing In the Wizard: Happens in Part 1, although it is partly subverted given that it does involve mystical objects and that particular reveal only explains how the pieces fit together, not exactly how said pieces would cause a dream land to form.
  • Dream Sequence: These are central to the story of both the first and third parts. Also appear in part two, although to a much lesser extent than the other two parts.
    • Dream Land: In part one, where Banjo and Rouge remember what happened vividly.
    • Or Was It a Dream?: Elegy seems to be going in this direction.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Tails during the entirety of Penance. He's so disgusted with himself after the climax of part 1 that he (and the narrative) gives his given name of Miles Prower. By the end of Penance, though, he's warmed back up to it, such that by Elegy he no longer fusses about it and the narrative goes back to referring to him as Tails.
  • Empty Shell: Tails in Penance. He gets better, though.
  • Final Speech: Shifu gets a rather long one when he dies in Penance.
  • Girl of My Dreams: Banjo, in quite a literal sense.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: With the Chaos Emeralds in Part 1. Neither side gets a hold of all of them until the very end.
  • Greedy Jew: Tan Tao gives this as a defense for when things finally fall apart.
  • Happily Married: The ultimate fate of Banjo and Rouge as seen at the end of Penance and throughout Elegy.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Rouge in Part 1, thanks to Banjo. Tai Lung also gets this treatment in Penance: see Redemption Quest below.
  • Infodump: Tooty's fate in part 1.
  • Kirk Summation: To Tan Tao at the end of Penance.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Prevalent in Parts 2 and 3. Part 3 practically requires the knowledge that Tai Lung went with Tails for the story to make sense. Part 2 subverts it, though, treating the climax of part 1 as a plot twist.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Applies to Amy at the end of part 1, and then mentioned a few more times in Penance.
  • Long Lost Sibling:
    Crane: "Man, it feels so awkward to know that Tigress and Tai Lung are related by blood..."
  • Love Before First Sight: Played with in part 1. Banjo and Rouge are in constant contact throughout, yet they never see each other's physical bodies until the climax.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Mother in this case, although said mother does exposit about the identity of the character's father as well.
  • MacGuffin: The Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald in part 1.
  • Mad Scientist: Eggman in part 1.
    • He's so Royally Screwed Up by the end of Part 1 he doesn't even realize when the Humiliation Conga has been pulled on him and proceeds to believe that he's taken over the world.
  • Master of Disguise: Tan Tao in Penance, who masquerades around throughout Penance as both himself and his deceased twin brother.
    • He's so good at it the characters aren't sure which is the real one for a chapter:
      Kublai Khan: "Which was the brother that truly died on the route back to China?"
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Banjo gets this when he's able to perform a Chaos Control with the Master Emerald. It's subverted for three reasons, though. The action constitutes a Desperation Attack when the only other person who could do Chaos Control at the time became a victim of a Non-Lethal K.O., it's implied and stated that the action almost killed him, and he never really needs to do it again throughout the entire rest of the trilogy.
  • One Degree of Separation: Tooty comes under Rouge's care, and Rouge sees Banjo in her dreams. Rouge figures out the resemblance when Banjo accidentally brings a portrait with him into a dream.
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Banjo gives one to Rouge:
    Banjo: "You may have been bad to your friends, but... What you did for me wasn't what any bad person would do. You brought my sister back, you told me about Eggman's plans to come straight for me... And the fact that you would've done the same thing even if you knew this was going to happen... You're not a bad person, Rouge. You're not a bad person, even if you've been bad to your friends. I couldn't think of anybody who deserves to be my friend more if I took Kazooie off of that list. Rouge... Don't think like that. Please."
  • Pull the Thread: Arguably, the entire second half of Penance after Shifu's death is this to Tan Tao.
  • Rape as Drama: In both of the first two parts. Part 1 has it happen to Sonic. Part 2 actually subverts it, as it's more the threat of rape that creates some drama for Cream rather than the act itself.
  • Redemption Quest: Basically the whole plot of Penance.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Silver; see Set Right What Once Went Wrong below.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The emperor of China in Penance.
  • Sequel Hook: At the end of part 1.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Silver travels back in time to the events of part 1 to avoid a nuclear war that could have resulted. It's successful, although it's not entirely by his own hands.
  • Skeptic No Longer: Happens to Knuckles in part 1. He takes a punch to the face and brutal taunting about what Eggman's going to do to his friends before he changes his mind on Rouge.
  • Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: In Part 1, there are quite a few fourth-wall breaking jokes in which characters (all exclusively from the Banjo Kazooie series) make random references to both the author and the reader or in which the narrator interacts directly with a few of the characters. The fourth wall solidifies pretty quickly once it gets Darker and Edgier, however, and it never returns to that state after the climax.
  • So Happy Together: Amy and Sonic's only intimate experience in the entire trilogy comes three chapters before Sonic gets killed.
  • Straight Gay: Buddy and Cody in Elegy.
  • Talking in Your Dreams: Lots of it in part 1, and then a very brief scene in Penance (see Dead Person Conversation above).
  • Take That!: The Lord of Games directs a big one at Amy's 4Kids voiceover.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Poor, poor Tails. He gets taken under mind control, rapes Sonic under said mind control, does so not once but twice, and kills Sonic and two other characters. Needless to say, having to process all this information when he finally regains his senses barely a few seconds after he kills Sonic leads to a minor Heroic BSoD and a massive Despair Event Horizon that kicks off Penance.
  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word:
    Tai Lung: "My biggest question right now is what the bloody hell is a siha?"

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