Complete Monster: Mr. G.M. Dark, lord of the Autumn People and master of the carnival, is a devilish figure who tempts his victims into ruin and damnation. Sweeping from town to town, Dark makes bargains with those he encounters, but cruelly exploits them to destroy the victims' lives and force them into the carnival where he and the rest of the Autumn People feast upon their life force, Dark filled with the victims he tattoos upon himself as trophies. Seeking to cause pain and discord wherever he goes, Dark intends to force Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade to his carnival in his never-ending quest to glut himself upon agony and nightmare.
Spiritual Successor: To Dandelion Wine, long before it received an official sequel in the form of Farewell Summer. The three books collectively are unofficially known as the "Green Town Trilogy".
Values Dissonance: Charles feels he is too old to be a proper father to his son, as Will was born when he was 39. Which is old for the novel's time period but much more common by modern day standards.
Complete Monster: Mr. Dark is the leader of the Autumn People and owner of Dark's Pandemonium Carnival who feasts on the emotions of those he bargains with and transforms them into Autumn People. Arriving in Green Town, Illinois, Mr. Dark grants the wishes of several of the townsfolk that causes their corruption. Wanting to know when the storm that will destroy them will approach, Mr. Dark electrically tortures Tom Fury and has the Dust Witch send out a swarm of spiders to kill Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade when they eavesdrop on him. After failing to coerce Will's father, Charles, Mr. Dark attempts to kill him and kidnaps both kids with plans to corrupt them, gloating how he failed to save them and that Will considers Charles a failure.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Pam Grier steals the show as the Dust Witch; not appearing in many scenes, and just there as a seductive presence. But there's no denying she is very memorable. She still gets asked about the film in addition to her more famous roles like Coffy, Foxy Brown or Jackie Brown.
Fair for Its Day: The only major black character in the film is a villain, and The Dragon at that (not to mention she's the most prominent woman in the story). But Pam Grier pointed out that the Dust Witch was white in the book, and she was offered the role because the filmmakers were fans, meaning they made a conscious decision to cast a black actress - and it meant a lot to see a black person in a Disney film at all. The Dust Witch is also quite powerful and gets a Near-Villain Victory (in fact coming closer to tricking Charles than Mr Dark).
Special Effect Failure: Averted. Two scenes of special effects (one of the steam from the train turning into carnival attractions and the other of a giant hand) were cut from the film because they were deemed to be too unrealistic.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Released by Disney (before they were producing darker films under the Touchstone banner) and has two children as the main protagonists. However, not only are there plenty of scenes that would be terrifying for young children, the story also deals with some complex issues (not surprising, since Ray Bradbury wrote the book and the screenplay). It was released during a time where Disney weren't quite sure if they wanted to move in a more adult direction to capitalise on the Heroic Fantasy trend of the 80s - The Black Cauldron and Return to Oz came out around this time too.
Tropes for the Fanfic
Ass Pull: Raven being immune to not only status effects like paralysis, but even instant death! In the original ending to Volume 1: Chapter 3 Raven even somehow survives The Goal of All Life is Death. While this was changed in the revised ending for Chapter 3, many readers still think that Raven should not possess total immunity, or at the very least be immune to effects that are tier six or seven and below.
There were a great many people who were happy to see Raven getting her rules about might makes right thrown back at her face by way of Momonga slaughtering her tribe in front of her.
Roy undergoing a Fate Worse than Death was arguably better than watching Raven's subsequent breakdown, especially since the author made them out to be a giant asshole especially after he left his teammates to die.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Volume 2: Chapter 3 introduces the Wild Hunt Grimm, a Grimm that's been around since the days of the Brother Gods and is capable of speaking. Come RWBYs eighth season, we're introduced to the Hound — a Grimm that, although nowhere near as old as the Wild Hunt as far as we know, is capable of speech.
The decision for Shizu to not be placed on a team can also be seen as one, seeing as how the idea has been used to death in many other stories. On the other hand, the author has gone out of his way to deconstruct the idea by having Solos — students without a team — having numerous disadvantages, such as being unable to go on missions unless they accompany another team.
