Over our time writing about urban fantasy, blogging about urban fantasy, talking about urban fantasy, running our podcast about urban fantasy, we have developed something of our own lexicon that may need explaining to newcomers. These phrases are useful shorthands when discussing tropes or they come up so much they've become something of an in-joke.
An Adele
A book/show that could be so much better with just a little change. Either a bit more development or a particular part that needed removing leaving us with something that could be perfect but, alas, falls show. We Could Have Had it All.... instead we have this and another artist will deserve our accolade far more.Adhesive Plot
Adhesive plot is used to hold together a collection of fight scenes or sex scenes in an attempt to produce a book. The book isn't story driven or character driven. The plot only exists so you don't just have these scenes back to back. The action scenes or the sex scenes do not exist to advance the story - the story exists to present the action and the sex.Anita Fug
When the protagonists repeatedly engage in sex but rarely in clean up afterwards. The resulting smell must be awful Anita Blake brought and epitomises this tropeArse Grimoire:
Sometimes a protagonist will throw out a whole new shiny power that seems to come from nowhere. Backed up in a corner with nowhere for them (or their author) to go, they pull this shiny power from their arse and save the day. Lo we see the Arse Grimoire, where all the secret magic of "shit I can't think of a way to end this story" lives. The sister volume, the Vagina Grimoire, is also seen in Paranormal Romance where said random, unexplained powers usually appear after the characters start humping.Whichever orifice this magic is pulled from, it's usually as subtle and understandable as a plot convenient deus ex
Aurora Teagarden
While not Urban Fantasy, The Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris still stands as our record for packing the most offensive shit in a series. Still referenced with horror, dread and a kind of awe.Belated Inclusion
When a series is long established, only then does the author bring out the minority characters. It feels like they're waiting until they have an established fanbase before they can "risk" the minorities - either that or it's a belated reaction to criticism of erasure.Blackety Black Black
Biting of the Lower Lip:
For some reason in paranormal romance, this keeps coming up in the dreadful Ikea sex scenes. It's a stand in for repeated “sexy” actions that are really not sexy. Anya Bast caused us to coin the phrase with so much lip biting, but she's hardly uniqueBonnie
Aka White Girl Dipped in Chocolate – when a Token inclusion has no cultural or historical markers, they have dark skin for Inclusions cookies but if you closed your eyes there'd be nothing differentiating them from the white cast. We also see this in a lot of mixed race protagonists whose POC parent is dead/absent. From Bonnie in Vampire DiariesChekhov's Junkshop
There is a literay term coined by Playwrite Anton Chekov that says one should not include a gun in a scene if no-one is intending to fire it. In other words, don't include unnecessary objects and plot points.Sadly, we've graduated beyond Chekhov's gun and are now lost in Chekhov's junkshop, where not only do we have unnecessary guns that are not fired, but we have junk under foot we keep tripping over, we have useless things hanging from the ceiling we bump our heads on and generally unnecessary things clutterng up the place. These books are just over-written - sometimes, it's as simple as using 10 words where one would do, sometimes it's because of overdescription and sometimes whole scenes are just plain unnecessary. These books tend to feel padded, clumsy and very slow to read.
Clary Award
Award given to a character, usually a protagonist, for doing something that is not only foolish, but defies all common sense, is virtually self-destructive and almost destroys the suspension of disbelief because you can't believe anyone would do such a thing. Originally named for Clary from the Mortal Instruments series but it's sadly commonDick Van Spike
A British character that is inevitably based on Spike from Buffy but whose accent has all the authenticity of Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins. Usually this involves lots and lots of "authentic" British slang and curses rammed in (often at random) frequently with anachronisms. Also the characters tend to be enamoured with 1980s punk BritainDNF
A book that was so bad we could not finish it.Dresden Goggles
Similar to Beer Goggles, this refers to a male character (usually protagonist) who simply cannot look at a woman without considering her sexual attractiveness and how much he wants to have sex with her. Usually this is accompanied by ALL women (or all women between the age of 18-45, since older women are rarely considered) being sexually attractive. This man hardly ever meets a woman he finds unattractive or one he doesn't think of in sexual terms and will often tell us about it at lengthErasure
Complete absence of a marginalised group. E.g. a book with POC erasure would containnothing but white charactersFanpoodles: Fans who love an author/book/series beyond all reason and refuse to tolerate any criticism. Upon finding any less-than shining review of their beloved they will flock in, yapping annoyingly. We freely admit to being Fanpoodles ourselves to some wonderful authors, but we try to rein in the yapping.
Fast Lane Dystopia
Hauptman effect
A man, usually love interest to the protagonist who is over “protective” of “his woman.” This usually includes telling her what to do, sometimes locking her up, refusing to let her go anywhere alone and often attacking any other man who expresses an interest in her/looks at her/dares to come within 10 miles of her. This is supposed to be romantic. Named after Hauptman in the Mercy Thomas seriesHighlander Minority: There can only be one Token minority character. When we get two Tokens of the same minority together, one often dies
Ikea Sex
Sex that is extremely mechanical, not sexy and sounds very much like “tab A in slot B”.
In the Grim Darkness of the Future, there is only Privilege: Many books present a dystopian alternate world - maybe there's been a plague, a zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, a spell gone wrong, maybe mankind's collective foolishness has finally gone over the top. Either way, there has been some grand cataclysm and humanity is now a remnant of what it once was. But, whether humanity is reduced to scattered refugees or are now recovering, one thing is common - they'll be cis, straight, white and able bodied; with minorities either absent or undererpresented
In some ways this is similar to Erasure or Tokenism but it has worse implications. Because humanity has been reduced by cataclysm, the lack of diversity implies extermination - that the zombies/aliens/blood thirsty Morris Dancers targetted marginalised people. Given the world's history of genocide especially against the marginalised, that's problematic to say the least
Inclusion Cookies
Including a marginalised character or referencing marginalised people in order to prove how inclusive and forward thinking a series is (or to shut up marginalised people complaining about Erasure) The inclusion is normally a Token and extremely stereotyped.Inclusion Furniture
A particularly crafty form of tokenism - the marginalised character will appear often, may actually be in every episode or in every scene but, ultimately have no purpose to the plot. Maybe they'll make the odd quip, maybe they'll help carry something, maybe they'll agree with the protagonist (or briefly disagree in order to be corrected so the protagonist can prove how right they are) but, ultimately they're no more meaningful to the plot line than the chair the protagonist sits on. They exist to show a marginalised face to the camera and that is all. A subset of this is the "Sexy Lamp Test" where a female character can be replaced by a sexy lamp and not change the story in any meaningful way.
Keille Independence
A version of Spunky Agency that, again, tries to present independent, strong women and falls flat. In this case, to show how strong and independent she is, the character is angry and has no control of their temper, refuses to respect any authority no matter how valid - and she is often violent. Instead of being strong, these women seem almost to have anger management issues and give the impression that they should be arrested and the only reason she isn't is because she is female/cute/small Named after Keillie Riviere in Black Dust Mambo - who has never met someone she hasn't physically attacked
LA Banks effect: The idea that because a book contains marginalised characters, people from that marginalisation (and/or their allies) will love and praise the book far beyond what it deserves. For example, a book or author writes extremely good gay characters, so people declare how much they love it... despite the book being rather poor or outright awful
Lesbian Shark
: There are some sharks where if they stop moving they cannot get oxygenated water to pass their gills and therefore suffocate. So it is with the lesbian shark - the lesbian - or gay male - character feels compelled to mention they are gay every other sentence. Often this is because they have zero other characterisation and sometimes it's just to pull every last crumb of exclusion cookie from the representation Based on the lesbian sister in Christopher Moore's A Dirty JobLove at First Woo-Woo: We have all heard of love at first sight. Love at first woo-woo is the paranormal romance version - two charactrs meet and their magic powers/werewolfness/whatever means they are instantly in Twu Luv. No need for development or explanation.
Loving Contempt!: Boy meets girl. Boy hates girl... and what comes next? Inevitably the boy and girl fall in love. A common romance trope - the protagonists start off hating each other and then fall in love. Awww, sweet. And it can be well done - but it can also be done where one partner showers the other other with contempt, derision, denigration and general out-of-line unpleasantness. This can serve one of two (or both!) destructive ideas:
1) You should tolerate abuse because it's a sign of secret attraction
2) No matter how firm and clear their "No" is, if you push they'll eventually give in to your charms.
Magical Healing Vagina/Penis: All trauma, no matter how horrific and no matter how debilitating the psychological consequences may be, can be cured with sex. Sometimes once is all that's needed, but for good measure repeated humping will get the job done. It doesn't matter if the victim was having flashbacks, night terrors, panic attacks, paranoia or even near catatonia - get them laid and DING they're healed.
Magical Plot Glue
Sometimes the author looks at their world setting, their characters and their plot and realises they've made an utter broken mess and have no idea how to fix it... and out comes the magical plot glue! It might make no sense! It might involve Swiss Army Magic or the use of an Arse Grimoire but poorly explained and developed magic will save this story!Marginalised Side-kick
A large number of protagonists in the genre have a best friend/supporter who is a POC or GBL who largely exist for the greater glory of the straight/white person.A {marginalised} Maris
: A marginalised character who is repeatedly referenced or a marginalisation that is repeatedly referenced but never actually appears in the books or series Original reference is from Frasier where Niles' wife, Maris, is often mentioned but never seen. Coined after Teen Wolf where a gay character was repeatedly referred to but not seen on screen for many episodesMarginalised Swan Song
Minority Decay: Sometimes a show starts and we get very eager – why the pilot has several POC! And GBLT people! And disabled people and older people – why the diversity is stunning!
But as the series progresses, these characters start to die off. Or spend a lot of time hanging around in the background doing nothing. Or sometimes just falling into a plot hole and not being seen for episodes at a time; before you know it, all that potential has dried up to nothing. The most likely cause of this is Tokenism. The creators know they need inclusion – but don’t actually have any storylines for those characters so they just fade out or into the background.
Pass at Writing X people
: Where an author has been so bad at writing a marginalisation and the portrayals are so poor that we would prefer them not to write black/gay/etc characters any more and give them a pass. We'd prefer to be erased than for them to keep writing these charactersPilot Diversity: When a show packs its pilot episode with diverse characters, giving an impression of inclusion - but they all disappear very quickly, either dying, falling into the plot box or just disappearing. Most extreme example is Under the Dome
Plot Hole/Box: When a character disappears for several episodes or books without explanation we refer to it as having "fallen into the plot hole." This happens a lot to minority side characters who only show up when the (non-minority) main characters want something - after which they're returned to the Plot Hole/Plot Box until they are needed again. It generally emphasises the sidekick, token or generally lesser status of those characters especially if they have few or no storylines of their own.
Queen Amadala Love Affair: When a characters' grossly evil actions are completely brushed over because TWU LUV
Salem Witches: Any story with witches in it will, at some point, mention Salem. It's a rule. In Urban Fantasy there weren't any non-magical humans in Salem - just ranks and ranks and ranks of witches - probably stood up because there'd be no room to sit down
Second Wave Inclusion:: A series is completely lacking in inclusion; there’s not a minority in sight (maybe in some of the crowd scenes). Until about half way into season 2, or book 4. Then minorities start sneaking in… It’s like the creator had to be sure they had a fanbase before risking it with minority characters. Or they were called out by critics about their erasure and hastily threw in a token. Or they’re just one of those people who thinks you need to have a super-special reason to include minorities and “it wasn’t the right time” (it’s always the right time for non-minorities, you’ll notice).
Of course, being in the Second Wave of characters, they will have to be worked on to get the same fan appreciation and presence as the long established characters – which is sad, because they’re often Tokens or afterthoughts.
Standalone Stuffing
Spunky Agency: Trope usually displayed by female protagonists. To show they are strong and powerful and independent and have agency, these women will defy all the menfolk around them and do what they want! Unfortunately, their plan/actions are so mindbogglingly foolish that rather than being empowering it instead just makes all the men look RIGHT and that she should just sit down, shut up and do what they told her.
Superdamsel!: :We see women who are supposed to be super powerful. They're amazing fighters, they're vampires, they're werewolves, they're super-powered dangerous arse-kicking heroines of dooooom! And yet? They need rescuing. They're victimised. They are kidnapped, they are beaten and need help. They may be super powerful but they're still damsels in disteress.
Swiss Army Magic:
Many magical systems are flexible and that's not a problem - it's interesting to a see a mage who has a spell for every occasion. Swiss Army Magic isn't that mage though - Swiss Army Magic is a magic system that SHOULD be specialised... but isn't for REASONS. Your fire mage picking someone up and throwing them... with fire? Or your Earth wizard can suddenly fly? You have Swiss Army Magic! In extreme cases this can be an example of an Arse GrimoireTasty POC: Sometimes when reading character descriptions I feel like I'm reading a recipe book - chocolate, cinnamon, caramel, cocoa, coffee. I can almost get hungry reading these books. POC as food is both prevalent and reductive especially since white skin tone is rarely described at all and, if it is, rarely as food. Extra bonus if you throw in "spicy" or "exotic" scents
T-Dog Chain
When a Token minority character dies off, they are often replaced quickly by a new Token (often indistinguishable simply because neither Token had any distinguishing feature). This allows the show to kill off a character, yet maintain it's "diversity" through tokenism. Named for T-Dog on The Walking Dead who died and was replaced by Oscar... who died and was replaced by Tyrese.Token: Including a single marginalised character for the sake of Inclusion Cookies the portrayal is normally very stereotyped, exists to serve the privileged protagonists or is otherwise annoying, offensive or aggravating
Yahoo Palace: Also Love Grotto and Va-jay-jay. Urban fantasy's ongoing terror of saying the word “vagina” has produced no shortage of ridiculous euphemisms
