Tropes C - D

  • Call Back: In "Yeoman's Work", Jim Hawkins describes to Ted the first time he heard the song "Our Love is Here to Stay" which Bob had been playing down in the family room. It's blindingly obvious when he gets done with his description that he had been listening to the USO show at RAF Woodbridge in "Greatest Generation".
    • "Leap Day" is practically built around this trope with all the stories over the previous 30 years in-universe it references.
    • Remember the climax of 'Leap Day' where Ladyhawk attaches the Destreum-killer to Doctor Destroyer? One month later in-universe, she is asked to recreate that sequence as exactly as she can against Rochemont in a stolen Destroyertech power-armor suit in 'The Destroyer Wars' in order to properly seed a mental illusion.
  • Chekhov's Exhibit: The Blood Crown of the Aztecs in 'Crowns of Krim'
  • Chekhov's Gun: Those special shuriken that Ladyhawk loaded into her utility belt at the beginning of 'Leap Day'? Turns out they were pretty important at the climax...
  • Chekhov's Skill: In the beginning of 'Jurassic City', we see Vikon attempting to teach Bob how to speak Varanyi. Fast-forward three years in-universe to the beginning of 'The Varanyi Civil War,' and guess what Starforce can now do fluently?
    • Not to be outdone, Julie taught Vikon how to play Poker without using his powers well enough to beat Ranger in 'Operation Phoenix'. Those bluffing skills come in very handy at the end of 'The Varanyi Civil War' when he convinces the Uthiriom Vaan that TASK FORCE has shared the secrets of its anti-psionic weaponry with him.
  • Chic and Awe: Julie pulls this on Bob (and to a lesser extent Ted) in the beginning of 'The Strange Secret of Matthew Fuseli'
  • City of Adventure: The Dallas/Fort Worth area. Alien attacks, piranha-laden thunderstorms, cloned dinosaurs, and supervillain attacks are just the tip of the iceberg here.
  • Christmas Episode: "O Little Town"
  • Clip Show: "United States v. Hawkins" almost qualifies, just from the sheer number of previous stories referenced during both times Bob takes the stand during his trial.
  • Clock Roaches: A single one -- Quemetiel, at the polar opposite end of the Multiverse from Creation, described to Bob by Istvatha V'Han in "The First Dimensional War" and seen in "Return of the Destroyer," "The Manifestation," and "Leap Day". It's where corrupted and/or paradoxical universes go to be blotted from existence.
  • Comic Book Time: Partially negated. If you're not alien, Empyrean, touched by supernatural forces, or have Varanyi medical nanotechnology in your body, you age at one year per year.
  • Complete Monster: Clint Stanton, from 'The City That VIPER Built.' Captures Julie, ties her to a weight, throws her into his swimming pool to drown -- and films her drowning -- just so he can gain enough favor with VIPER's Council of 30 to take over all of its operations in Dayton. This isn't even mentioning his cold-blooded execution of fellow VIPER agent Leo Samuel just before all that.
    • Vikon's older brother Tlokon, from 'The Varanyi Civil War'. Kills his uncle and father in a manner that frames his brother just so he can use all of Humanity as a psionic battery to fuel his conquest of the entire Galaxy
    • Heck, what about the Sh'Garothayn's Grand Inquisitor Vashyyl?
  • Continuity Lockout: "Leap Day" verges on this thanks to the sheer number of stories it references over the previous 30 years in-universe.
  • Cool House: Stately Dormyer Manor Mark II has Destreum armor underneath the exterior wood and stone, its own fusion reactor, an interdiction field worthy of any of Doctor Destroyer's bases, a theta-boson wormhole generator and state-of-the-art physics and engineering labs in the basement, its own AI, and has a property assessment equal to the rest of Lakewood Village, TX combined
  • Cool Starship: The Varanyi Star Galleon, most famously represented by the Sitharados in "Reconnaissance in Force", 'The Varanyi Civil War', and 'The Battle of Detroit'. 20 years later in-universe, gaming demigoddess Jillian Hawkins can't express enough fear over the Star Galleon's capabilities when she describes her wargame with Bob to Jocelyn in 'The Destroyer Wars'
  • Couch Gag: Every time a scene is about to take place in Bob's lab at ProStar, there is a different sign out in front of it which usually has something to do with the action that is about to take place
    • 'Ghosts from the Past' provides the in-universe explanation even though we don't see the lab
  • Courtroom Episode: 'United States v. Hawkins'
  • Crate Expectations: Lampshaded, of all times, during Jillian's Cyberspace duel with Sennacherib in "The Prisoner of Doctor Destroyer", as she is winding up for the Mother of All Presence Attacks on it.
  • Crosses The Line Twice: A tag-team effort by both Ladyhawk and Starforce in 'A Week at Davos'. Ladyhawk drags Fiacho off the Upper Lobby of the Kongresszentrum Davos with her during their fight and impales him with a katana while landing on the floor 10 meters below -- prompting the following Bond One Liner from a not-quite-dead yet Starforce:

    Starforce: "Damn. He really stuck THAT landing..."

  • Curse Cut Short: Ladyhawk jumping out of the way of the impending collision between Starforce and Viperia in 'International Treasure'
    • Bob almost hitting Nebula with his car in the beginning of 'The Paradox of Doctor Destroyer'
    • Nathan AND Lucas Steele, more or less at the same time, when Starforce & Ladyhawk arrive at the climax of 'Cliques'
    • Dominus in the surviving robot, just before Julie fillets him in 'A Parting Glass'
  • Cut Lex Luthor A Check: Averted in 'The Battle of Detroit' when Starforce points out to Biomaster that the Varanyi failed to make him sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before looking at their medical nanotechnology.
    • Discussed in 'Leap Day' when Julie tries to point out to Doctor Destroyer that he could BUY medical nanotechnology from Biomaster instead of harvesting what's in her body and Bob's body.
    • Averted AGAIN by Starforce in 'The Prisoner of Doctor Destroyer' when he points out to Gigaton exactly what is in those three hermetically-sealed palettes in storage at Destroyer's main base ($1 BILLION dollars worth of cash in each) -- and basically offers them as a bribe to stop being a supervillain.
  • Dallas: Where they're based and most of the adventures take place until the turn of the Millenium.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory: This sequence between Ladyhawk and Hammer from the beginning of 'Street Level', played straight at first and then immediately lampshaded by them both:

    (Hammer enters and flips the light on)
    Ladyhawk: "Good evening, Mr. Jackson."
    (Hammer's pistol is instantly in a two-handed grip pointed at her. Tense pause, then he lowers the pistol)
    Hammer (re-holstering gun): "My apologies. That was muscle memory speaking."
    Ladyhawk: "My sensei used to say that muscle memory was the one language that required no translation."

  • Dance of Romance: In 'Crowns of Krim', played straight between Starforce and Lady Blue to start, then inverted when Ladyhawk cuts in on them.
  • Day of Reckoning: 'Leap Day' is this for The Edomite, DEMON, Shadow Destroyer, Doctor Destroyer... and Starforce
    • To a lesser extent, the story arc "Coup d'Etat/World War VIPER" is this for Julie, the United States, and VIPER
  • Deadly Gas: The Breath of Nama attack which the Supreme Serpent hits Ladyhawk with at the beginning of their duel in 'World War VIPER'
  • Deadly Training Area: PRIMUS' Superhero Tactical Assessment Course (STAC) at NSWC Pax River in Maryland. Literally deconstructed thanks to Starforce's run through it in 'Black Ops'
  • Deus Ex Nukina: The nuclear strike mission ordered by General McAdams and VIPER to destroy Stately Dormyer Manor Mark II in "Coup d'Etat" (which a forgotten computer virus programmed by Starforce back in the 1990s had redirected to Washington DC) is used by Starforce for a spot of seismic mapping in the Mbang Range of western Africa in an attempt to precisely locate and map VIPER's World Headquarters.
  • Deus Sex Machina: How Ladyhawk and Starforce defeat Varanyi mind reading in 'The Varanyi Civil War', allowing Starforce to turn his battlesuit into anti-psionic weaponry for his teammates during their abduction across the Galaxy.
  • Disney Death: Quite a few. Oddly enough, there only seem to be two people that keep suffering this fate...
    • Starforce in 'Heart of Darkness,' when he uses himself to power the anti-zombie maser that stops Takofanes and his army
    • Julie in 'The City That VIPER Built' actually drowns in Clint Stanton's death trap. Starforce was able to pull her out and resuscitate her 10 seconds later.
    • Bob and Julie are caught by the collapsing throne room ceiling that kills Tlokon in 'The Varanyi Civil War'
    • Starforce barely survives Eurostar's assassination attempt in 'A Week at Davos, though it doesn't look like he did when the knockback from Fiacho's shots send his body over the edge of the balcony they were on.
  • Disney Villain Death: James Hailey in 'You All Meet in a Lab' gets sucked into the tornado he created when he loses control of it during the climax. Golden Avenger subtly lampshades the eventual subversion of his 'death' afterwards by reporting that no body had been found.
    • Subverted in 'Megaterak Raids Again' when Ladyhawk knocks Zorran the Artificer off the Observation Level of the Tokyo Tower. Two scenes later, it is explicitly stated in the battle debrief that Zorran was able to teleport safely out of the fall.
  • Distant Finale: 'A Parting Glass' takes place in 2150.
  • Documentary Episode: In 'Expedition to Earth', a small party of Mandaarians hangs out with TASK FORCE and observes their activities as part of the Mandaarian's much larger Fourth Expedition.
    • bonus points for Starforce lampshading this via a David Attenborough impersonation in the first scene
  • Dog Pile of Doom: Type D in 'Reconnaissance in Force', when Vikon's mind-controlled personnel at the TRESTLE EMP Simulator think they have subdued Ladyhawk only for her to suddenly be over at the control console untouched
    • An unsuited Starforce's desperation attack on the edge of the dog pile may have had someting to do with that...
  • Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: The central plot point of 'The Jewel of Awad'. Lampshaded by the ARGENT agent guarding Bob while he builds Kat el-Hassan's teleporter, enforced by Captain Rochemont's after-action report on Bob's rescue from Awad, and deconstructed in the Epilogue when Julie comes to Biomaster for help in dealing with Bob's depression post-incident.
  • Downer Ending: 'North Tower'. As in 'Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies' downer...
  • Dramatic Unmasking: Twice in-universe:
    • Ladyhawk and Starforce do this to themselves in the news conference at the end of 'The Battle of Detroit' in order to aid their retirement. (note: it doesn't work)
    • Ranger to the Justice Squadron and the Champions in 'Leap Day', in an attempt to encourage them to keep fighting (note: it works)
  • Duet Bonding: Ladyhawk & Starforce during the USO show in 'Greatest Generation'
  • Dungeon Bypass: So many ways...
    • The first two seasons, standard technique for TASK FORCE to arrive at a battle scene was to have Starforce fly in, image the landing zone across a mind-link to Spiritual Warrior, then he would teleport the rest of the team in. It's notable that any time they were up against someone who regularly used teleport interdictors (like Doctor Destroyer) their battlefield mobility was greatly curtailed
    • Starforce's preferred method for going through villain's strongholds from the 3rd season on utilized a more old-school, brute force approach involving his battlesuit's telekinesis at full power.
      • You almost feel sorry for Schloss Unbesiegbar in 'Fields of Saguenay' after he's through with it. Almost...
      • It's also how he set the course record for PRIMUS' Superhero Tactical Assessment Course (STAC) in 'Black Ops'
    • The theta-boson based portal generator in the basement of Stately Dormyer Manor Mark II from the 5th season on -- especially as it was immune to conventional methods of teleport interdiction.