• BeverlyCleary: Not in the exact order. A V.F.D. member lists address books, blueprints, and coffee grinders. Said member proceeds to mention false address books, false blueprints, and false coffee grinders.
  • JohnCarmack: Minor case for Archive. A throwaway exchange has Mo find a copy of the missing volume four of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming (sort of like The Bible for computer scientists) on Bob's bookshelf. Bob explains that the Laundry has a deal with Knuth: "he doesn't publish volume four, and we don't render him metabolically challenged." In real life, the first part of volume four was finally published in 2005, one year after Archive. Then again, what Bob has is the un-redacted version.
  • TerryPratchett: The story introduces a new member of the Canting Crew of beggars, the multiple-personality-bearing Altogether Andrews. On his first appearance his personalities are listed and one of them, Burke, is mentioned with trepidation (the beggars saw him once and never want to see him again), which makes the reader think he will be involved later on. In fact nothing comes of this apparent Foreshadowing.
  • Badass: Most Mantically Aware. Justified – they choose their own.
  • BusmansHoliday: Probably the worst example was when the girls were in New York and a British diplomat oh-so-conveniently staying in the same building as Stacey's friend Laine needed two thirteen-year-old baby-sitters to show his kids around the city. They even assume that they will be taking a Busman's Holiday wherever they go, such as when Dawn goes to visit her dad in California and remarks that she may babysit for some of her old clients while she's there. You know, because their parents wouldn't have found new sitters since she left the state, and would be so thoughtless as to intrude on her two weeks with her non-custodial parent by asking her to work.
  • DoNotCallMePaul: Tonks, who hates her first name, Nymphadora (who can blame her, really?) and insists on being addressed only by her last. A fan once asked Rowling why Tonks didn't go by her middle name. Rowling's response was "Her middle name is Vulpecula," which isn't much better.
  • Dragon: Bubba Rugowski, Patrick's friend and occasional bodyguard. He's a violent, sadistic, openly racist gun nut who lives in a warehouse surrounded by land mines. But for all of his, uh...eccentricities, he's fiercely loyal to Patrick and Angie, and will do anything to help them in their cases. In Moonlight Mile Patrick takes him along and repeatedly tells him that he can't just shoot everyone, not that Bubba listens.
  • EnemyMine: Pekkala makes very clear he can't stand Rasputin, but it does not prevent him from helping the "mad monk" from time to time, while Rasputin likes giving the inspector some tips on how to deal with the imperial family. also between Pekkala and Stalin: when the Emerald Eye was arrested, it was Stalin who kept him captive and tortured him.
  • Fictionary: Elvish is based on Sumerian.
  • FlyingSaucer
  • FrickinLaserBeams: Averted. Demon Download specifically mentions that lasers are instantaneous weapons, where the "The beam didn't travel through space. It simply appeared in the air."
  • HannibalLecture: Delivered by Mab to Harry, comparing him to Justin DuMorne of all people. She makes him out to be manipulating Molly during her apprenticeship into being a loyal slave of his, rather than what the books make blatantly obvious (teaching her to control her power and impulses). Harry, being Harry, feels guilty enough to not deny it.
  • HeroicSacrifice: One of Abby Irene's lovers turns out to be this. Sebastien suggests that Epaphras was the vampiric equivalent of this toward his courtesans.
  • HoYay: Jack Emery and Ted Robinson become these as the series goes on. Both of them are told to their faces that the are obsessed with arresting the Vigilantes and to just give it up. Jack gives up and starts helping out the Vigilantes in The Jury. Ted gives up and starts helping out the Vigilantes in Collateral Damage.
  • IAmLegion: The army of the Zars.
  • KickTheSonOfABitch: Sparta's brutal murder of Stig, the brain-damaged superchimp. On the one hand, he was severely brain-damaged and for all we know, he just thought he was protecting his beloved mistress. On the other hand, he was fully prepared to kill Sparta.
  • LaboriousLaziness: Victor is one of the masters of this trope.
  • McGuffin: The Orb of Neftalion, the Helmet of Unsmellability.
  • MookHorrorShow: Tanner to Fervour.
  • Pride: Lara, upon seeing seeing a badly damaged thrall sees right away the cause was her cousin Madeline's feeding habits.
  • PrinceCharming: Prince Kai.
  • PubertySuperpower: averted. Some folks are born with powers, but people can come into them at any age, even in middle adulthood.
  • Rare
  • ScrewDestiny: Used successfully by the Big Bad in removing The Chosen One from the equation. Would have succeeded, had Deeba not pulled it herself and become The Unchosen One.
  • SecretLegacy: After it slowly dawns on the Silver Horde that Carrot might be more than he appears to be, one recalls the story of Anhk-Morpork's true King working as a watch-man because he prefers it. Carrot, being Carrot, responds thusly.
    Carrot: Never heard of him.
  • ShootTheMessenger: The Soviet Union collapsed, but the U.S. hasn't fared much better, either.
  • SignsOfTheEndTimes: Naturally, given it's the Biblical Apocalypse.
  • TheEmpire
  • TheGhost: Parodied with Carmelita Spats's "tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian" costume from the eleventh book.
  • TitleDrop: Vortex gets a couple. The Emperor refers to his collapsing economy as a vortex at least once, and near the end of the book Sten and his friends are saved by a rogue tornado.
  • WishFulfillment: The reforms of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, which begin with Fr. Ron's church.
  • WithFriendsLikeThese: Kim and Cricket are horrible friends to Ruby and Nora. Ruby herself can also be a pretty bad friend, although it's not at all out of malice and more because she has a tendency to get involved in things she shouldn't out of a desire to help others. Nora in the latter half of The Treasure Map of Boys treats Ruby pretty badly.
  • BuffyTheVampireSlayer: Dracula Cha Cha Cha has an actor who played Tarzan meet up with the actual Lord Greystoke.
  • TheGoodGuys: The Last Hope for the Young Century (2012)
  • LoneSurvivor: Heavy Armor (2012)