History Animation / ThreeBogatyrs

* AnAesop: Gambling is bad. Betting on AnOfferYouCantRefuse with an ObviouslyEvil ProfessionalGambler with a chance of {{Blackmail}} will ruin you completely.

* AnAesop: Some superstitions exist for a reason, ignoring good and bad signs will make you unlucky.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Alyosha and Tihon's plan to save Rostov is to gather all gold in a cave on top of the hill, and once Tugars come in for it, close it with a boulder. What they didn't take into account is that the entrance to the cave is at an angle, the boulder is very spherical and Rostov is near the bottom of the mountain. THe bolder simply rolls out, the invaders leave with the gold without noticing anything, and most of Rostov gets demolished. The population is understandably very angry.

* AnachronismStew: Because the time period of each of the original myths are ambiguous and believed to be somewhere in X-XIII, here all stories happen at the same time. A "1234" stamp in the first movie can be considered the year if taken for granted. Julius remarks in the fourth film that they are living in the tenth century, judging by the "X" on a random book's cover. Though there are also a lot of modern stuff, like storage lockers, ship cannons, hot air balloons and even a mini-hockey machine.

* {{Catchphrase}}:

* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:The main villain of ''Horse Julius and Big Horse Racing'' is never confronted directly and the most he gets is getting his prize horse stolen back and reunited with her original owner]].

* LoanShark: Julius tries his luck with a talking tree that offers a number guessing game, selling his horseshoes to play. [[TheGamblingAddict Once he gets too ahead of himself]] and bets his own skin against two half-kingdoms, the tree simply says his guess is wrong, and the two bouncers chase him for the rest of the movie.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Kalyvan offers a honey gingerbread to everyone.* ThreatBackfire: [[spoiler:Zmey threatens to set Kalyvan on fire... with a matchstick. Cue Zmey being beat up by the hen hut and getting [[DistressedDude locked in the basement]].]]

* WhenTreesAttack: Baba Yaga summons an army of strong animated trees against Dobryna[[spoiler:, which march into the swamp and sink when he knocks out the controlling pan from Baba Yaga's hands]].

* GoingForTheBigScoop: Alyonushka the scribe wants to write an article about the corruption in Kyiv and a [[TagalongChronicler historical chronicle]] on Bogatyrs. On Ilya's mother request to deliver a luck charm, and also promising to fix Duke's public reputation, she becomes a TagalongReporter.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Alyonushka gets "help" from a Tsargradian star manager and gets locked with future prostitutes. Luckily, she is delivered to Vasilevs as his potential musician or concubine, who she wanted to talk to anyway.

* BaitAndSwitch: Alyosha finds Moses CaughtInASnare, insects the rope, and pulls it. Somehow, a pit trap opens below him.

* BondVillainStupidity: The Queen has all three Bogatyrs, the only defenders of Rus, at her mercy. Instead of killing them (or even better, brainwashing them), she throws them into a deep well and leaves, which doesn't even injure them and is easily escapable.

* CreepyCrows: The Queen of Shemakh uses a talking and old-looking crow as her minion.

* DrawingStraws: After escaping the Queen of Shemakh's palace, the Bogatyrs come across a large army of orcs and, after a small argument, decide to draw the straws regarding who shall stay to fight. Dobrinya is the one to stay, having secretly rigged the drawing to his favor out of care for his comrades.

* LeeroyJenkins: Bogatyrs need to confirm if the Duke is alive and also prepare for a plan against the Queen. Alyosha charges the front gate as soon as they stop talking.

* SkewedPriorities: While escaping DescendingCeiling, the Duke feels appropriate to stop and chat with Tihon, who has to pull him away from death.

** Emperor Basileus in the eighth film, trying to conquer Rus by forcing its heiress - Zabava (who is already married) - to marry his son, while simultaneously attempting to dispose of the Bogatyrs.

* TheCasanova: Nobody is typically allowed in the palace, but Alyonushka's appearance made enough impression on the Duke to not only let it slide, but he offers her a stay in his "private room". Vasilevs makes the same offer to her, but it's implied he has a RoyalHarem he updates regularly.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: [[spoiler:The Duke's brother Vasilevs, the Emperor of Byzantine, who he holds in high regard, turns out to be [[TheCaligula even worse ruler]] than him, and in his first line proposes to his advisors to claim part of Kyiv's land, then all of it, while eating icecream, and is looking to behead anyone who speaks up.]]

** Do not speak up to [[spoiler:Vasilevs, period. Multiple people got lucky that the executioner was on a vacation at the time]].

* ShadowArchetype: [[spoiler:Vasilevs inherits and exaggerates most of Duke's early negative moments, lusting over gold and women despite having more than enough, tries to execute anyone who doesn't do the job the way he expects, and collects an army to invade Kiyv on a whim. While Duke of Kiyv has shown similar traits, he at least [[SlaveToPR tries to look like a competent ruler]] and, while small, still leaves some money for proper government expenses.]]

* TortureAlwaysWorks: Vasilevs' executioner threatens Nightingale with an enema. He spills out all the details, though making himself the victim.

** [[spoiler:Emperor Vasilevs of Byzantine is a FatBastard, TheHedonist and a holy autocrat of Tsargrad, threatening anyone who slightly displases him with beheading. He also shows no respect to his brother the Duke of Kyiv, or Rus' integrity.]]

** [[spoiler:Emperor Vasilevs likes to mumble "to execute... or forgive", with the emphasis on the former. He also says "Great, great job!" when someone from his advisors has a good idea and barely manages to switch their fate.]]

* BoundAndGagged: Alyonushka, twice.

''Three Bogatyrs'' (Три Богатыря), also known as ''Three Heroes'', is a series of Russian animated films by Melnitsa Animation Studio, set in the period of UsefulNotes/KievanRus and featuring three warriors with the strength of OneManArmy and other characters from Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales or sometimes works of Creator/AlexanderPushkin.

* ''Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey'', alternatively ''Alosha and The Snake'' (2004)[[note]]''Алёша Попович и Тугарин Змей''[[/note]]
* ''Dobrinya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych'', alternatively ''Dobrinya and The Dragon'' (2006)[[note]]''Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч''[[/note]]
* ''Ilya and The Robber'' (2007)[[note]]''Илья Муромец и Соловей-Разбойник'', literally: ''Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Bandit''[[/note]]
* ''How Not to Rescue a Princess'' (2010)[[note]]''Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица'', literally: ''Three Bogatyrs and the Queen of Shemakh''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes on Distant Shores'' (2012)[[note]]''Три богатыря на дальних берегах''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes. Horse Course'', alternatively ''Three Heroes: Gambit'' (2015)[[note]]''Три богатыря. Ход конём''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Sea King'' (2016)[[note]]''Три богатыря и морской царь''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Princess of Egypt'' (2017)[[note]]''Три богатыря и принцесса Египта''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes. The Heiress to the Throne'' (2018)[[note]]''Три богатыря и Наследница престола''[[/note]]
* ''Horse Julius and Big Horse Racing'' (2020)[[note]]''Конь Юлий и большие скачки''[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Horse on the Throne'' (2021)[[note]]''Три богатыря и конь на троне''[[/note]]

* DoesNotLikeShoes: After Tihon gets most of his clothes stolen by gypsies, he ends up barefoot for the rest of the film, not even bothering to get footwear at any point.

* DoomedHometown: Alyosha's Rostov gets almost completely destroyed, accidentally by himself no less, but compared to their gold being stolen, this is treated as a minor issue. Alyosha sets off to take the gold back [[TheAtoner as an apology]].

** [[spoiler:Nobody figures out that the Duke effectively sold Zabava to Kalyvan, though Dobrinya brings up a suspicious debt paper, and he has to agree to let Zabava marry Elysei.]]

* BladeOnAStick: Dobrinya's weapon is a wooden log twice his height with a spade on top.

** When Zmey appears for the first time at his MonsterShapedMountain, both him and Dobrinya speak in BadassBaritone and are ready to fight. When it looks like they're about to clash, [[spoiler:they hug each other, [[NotHisSled subverting expectations]] of Zmey being typically evil in myths]].

** Kolyvan is the villain in the second and the fifth movie. A greedy short merchant who wants to marry princess Zabava, even if he has to arrange her kidnapping, coercing the Duke of Kyiv into cooperating with him via blackmail.

** Durilo in the seventh film, going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against his father.

** In the first movie the Duke of Kyiv tries to get Tihon and Grandma executed for intruding the throne room, before they even request to hear them out, while the nobles sitting around mimic his every move. When they leave Rostov's gold to him for safekeeping, he [[BlatantLies forgets]] about it next time they visit and nonchalantly continues to enjoy cake, then when pushed keeps everything except a single coin as "a fee". Alyosha has to threaten him with the captive Tugarin to get what he came for. Later movies make him a more sympathetic, but still a greedy ruler.

* MultipleHeadCase: Zmey Gorynych is a three-headed dragon. Each head has a distinct voice, mannerisms, and personality, and they don't conflict with each other.

** Ilya Muromets knocks out a thousand and a half of Tsargrad's armed soldiers, though with some assistance from an elephant.

* VersusTitle: Each of the first fourth films (The fourth one is [[MarketBasedTitle named differently]] in original Russian) and also the sixth one has the names of the heroes and the current antagonist in the title. {{Subverted|Trope}} in the [[spoiler:second one, in which Zmey Gorynych, a typical enemy in the folklore, is friendly, though exploited by the real villain.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: In an otherwise lighthearted film, Tugarin Zmey intimidates Julius by slicing his own chest with his sword.
* FisherKing: The sky turns into thunderclouds wherever Tugarin Zmey goes. In a comedic way, once he is defeated, all the bad weather gets sucked into him.

The movies are family-friendly comedic adventure stories with occasional pop-culture references. The first four films have found fame among Russian media on a level close to Soviet classics and many phrases from them can occasionally slip into daily speech due to MemeticMutation.

The series started as a take on the Alyosha Popovich myth, then another two were reluctantly pitched. The first two movies were {{Acclaimed Flop}}s and the third one was expected to be a FranchiseKiller, but the movie proved to be a massive commercial success, resulting in a crossover film and eventually a CashCowFranchise with a new movie released almost every year that have less and less things to do with Russian folklore. The films are also accompanied by [[PointAndClickGame Point-And-Click]] videogame adaptations.

* ArtEvolution: From the fourth movie the franchise moved to cell-shaded 3D, allowing more dynamic shots and scenery panning.
* AnachronismStew: Because the time period of each of the original myths are ambiguous and believed to be somewhere in X-XIII, here all stories happen at the same time. A 1234 stamp in the first movie can be considered the year if taken at face value. Julius remarks in the fourth film that they are living in the tenth century judging by the "X" on a random book's cover, though there are also a lot of modern stuff like storage lockers, ship cannons, hot air baloons and even a mini-hockey machine.

** Tugarin Zmey for the first movie, the warlord of one of the HordesFromTheEast, who took all of the gold from Rostov, Alyosha's home village, as tribute.
** Kolyvan for the second and the fifth movie. A greedy short merchant who wants to marry princess Zabava, even if he has to arrange her kidnapping, even coercing the Duke of Kyiv into cooperating with him via blackmail.
** Nightingale the Robber for the third movie, a thief with [[BlowYouAway tornado-inducing whistle]] who, after being [[CardboardPrison released from prison yet another time]], stole Duke of Kyiv's treasury and Ilya's personal horse.
** Shamakhan Queen for the fourth movie, a VainSorceress who charms the Duke of Kyiv into marrying her and trying to create FountainOfYouth out of tears of Rus' women.

* BreakoutCharacter: Julius, the talking InsufferableGenius horse, effectively became the series' mascot and has a dedicated spin-off film about himself.

** In the first movie the Duke of Kyiv tries to get Tihon and Grandma executed for intrusion before they request to hear them out, while the sitting around nobles mimic his every move. When they leave Rostov's gold for him for safekeeping, he [[BlatantLies forgets]] about it next time they visit him and continues enjoying cake, then keeps everything except a single coin as a fee. Alyosha has to threaten him with captive Tugarin to get what he came for. Later movies make him a more sympathetic, but still a greedy ruler.
** [[spoiler:Emperor Vasilevs of Byzantine is a FatBastard, TheHedonist and a holy autocrat of Tsargrad, threatning anyone who slightly displases him with beheading. He also shows no respect to the Duke of Kyiv, his brother, or Rus' integrity.]]

** [[spoiler:Emperor Vasilevs likes to mumble "execute... or forgive", with the emphasis on the former. He also says "Great, great job!" when someone from his advisors has a good idea and barely manages to switch their fate.]]
* CoolHorse: Ilya's horse Burushka has golden mane, the might and combat skills on par with the Bogatyr himself, who he treats more like a friend than a mount.

** In the first movie Alyosha accidentally drops Lybava literally into Tugarin Zmey's hands while knocking the last of his minions. The villain takes the hostage opportunity right away.
** In the second movie Zabava, the RebelliousPrincess and a neice of Duke of Kiev, is kidnapped by Kolyvan using Zmey Gorynych as proxy and is kept at Baba Yaga's hut.
** In the third movie, trying to chase after Ilya, Alyonushka gets captured by Nightingale's goons and is rescued by chance. Later she gets captured by a slave trader, but is untied when delivered to the palace and manages to leave before anything is done to her.
* {{Greed}}: Julius, Duke of Kyiv, Kalyvan, Nightingale the Robber and Vasilevs of Byzantine prioritize gold coins over anything else if the opportunity presents itself.
* IdiotHero: Alyosha is illiterate, a bit of TheKlutz, loves to [[BloodKnight fistfight]] and prone to LeeroyJenkins.
* InsufferableGenius: Julius likes to boast his intelligence to his more simple-minded friends and [[MotorMouth just can't stop talking]], while avoiding any hard work himself, which rarely makes others take him seriously.

** In the second movie Dobrinya asks Elysei if he's tagging along for fun. He replies that he's doing it for Zabava (spelled the same), making Dobrinya confused. This only works in native language.
** "Horse Course" in an untranslatable reference to the way the Knight moves in TabletopGame/{{Chess}}, as Knight is called Horse in Russian.
* MultipleHeadCase: Zmey Gorynych is a three-headed dragon. Each head has a distinct voice, mannerism, and thought process, though heads don't conflict with each other.

* NearlyNormalAnimal: Julius is a [[TalkingAnimal talking horse]] and other than that, acts like a normal person, even knowing modern physics, biology, math and [[{{Omniglot}} 10 languages]].

** Vasilevs is a greek equivalent to "king" and it's not made clear if it's also his name.

** Alyosha Popovich manages to beat about a hundred of Tugarin Zmey's {{Mooks}} all by himself by using the rest of his friends sitting in a pot like a hammer.
** Dobrinya Nikitich serves in Duke of Kyiv's military and is sent against Khan Beket. Of course, due to his strength, he operates solo.
** Ilya Muromets knocks out a thousand and a half of Tsargrad's armed soldiers, though with an assistance of an elephant.

* VaguenessIsComing: Ilya Muromets's main personality trait is finding good and bad omens in his surroundings, to the point of believing YouCantFightFate.

* {{Acrofatic}}: Unexpectedly, since the stomach makes most of Tugarin Zmey's body, he can RoundhouseKick Alyosha across the field.
* BadassNormal: Tugarin Zmey is defeated by [[spoiler:Tihon and Granma launching the cart with Moses at his face, while Alyosha is barely standing and awake. When Alyosha comes to his senses, everyone praises him for beating the villain]].

** When Tihon and Alyosha inadvertently destroy Rostov, the villagers suggest impaling them for it. The next scene shows their legs on top of two wooden pillars, only for it to be a reflection in the water and them just sitting at the lake, beat up though.
** With Svyatogor's direction where did he last see the Tugars, the gang goes through a tunnel full of skeletons and hears voices they don't recognize at the end. Running and ready to fight, [[spoiler:the team realized they've returned home through a cave they'd left the gold in earlier]].

* {{Bookends}}: The first movie starts with a written narration and the plot kickstarts when Rostov gets partially destroyed by a boulder after their gold gets stolen. At the end of the movie, Alyosha and the team get the gold back, now melted into a ball, to the same hill, which rolls down jumps around Rostov in the same manner, though this time without crushing any buildings. The end sequence shows the chronicle from the opening finished, [[spoiler:with Moses as [[NarratorAllALong the writer]]]].
* BreakingTheFellowship: The [[AtTheCrossroads Directional Stone]] points "Death ahead, marriage to the right, wealth to the left". Alyosha and Tihon go forward since that's where the Tugars must be. Lybava and her Grandma and Moses go to the right. Julius, after failing to convince others this is a safer way to get their gold back, follows his OnlyInItForTheMoney desires. Later Alyosha decides to be with Lybava and Julius runs away from debt collectors, and the team together continues forward.
* BrickJoke: Alyosha throws a pine cone at Julius while he's climbing the tree, assuming the horse is [[DemonicPossession possessed by an imp]]. 5 minutes later after the misunderstanding clears up, the cone returns from the sky and knocks Julius out.
* BridgeLogic: While Julius is drawing catapult math on the ground to get them across the chasm, the rest of the gang falls a nearby tree across. [[spoiler:Everyone except Julius jumps in anyway to save Tihon when he falls, without any injuries]].
* ByTheHair: [[spoiler:Tugarin's giant nose hair is used as ropes at the end of the movie to drag him to Kiev as a prisoner]].

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Alyosha and Tihon's plan to save Rostov is gather all gold in a cave, and once Tugars come in for it, close it with a boulder. What they didn't take into account is that the entrance to the cave is at the top of the hill, the boulder is very round and Rostov is near the bottom of the mountain. Invaders just leave with the gold and most of Rostov gets demolished. The population is understandably very angry.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The two debt collectors know who Tugarin Zmey is, and take away Julius in the middle of his interrogation without batting an eye. Tugarin is as confused as pissed.
* DirtyCoward: Despite Julius boasting about his "Bogatyr's horse" status all the time setting up heroic strategies for others, he always puts himself outside of any danger.

* DoomedHometown: Alyosha's Rostov gets almost completely destroyed, by him no less, but compared to their gold being taken it's treated as a minor thing. Alyosha sets off to take the gold back [[TheAtoner as an apology]].
* EvilIsBigger: Alyosha is above average human height already, and Tugarin Zmey towers him.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Alyosha is speechless after meeting Svyatogor, once meeting another Bogatyr, even larger than him, and the second time [[spoiler:after seeing that behind the giant armor is a tiny ScatterbrainedSenior]].

* FisherKing: The sky turns into thunderclouds wherever Tugarin Zmey goes. In a comedic way, once he's been defeated, all the bad weather gets sucked into him.

* Letters2Numbers: The golden ball in Tugarin's possession that Rostov's valuables have been melted into has a "2GARIN" stamp.
* LockedAwayInAMonastery: Lybava threatens to do this herself, in a male monastery [[SweetPollyOliver while in disguise]], if she can't be with Alyosha.
* LoanShark: Julius tries his luck at a tree that works like a number guessing game, selling his horseshoes to play. [[TheGamblingAddict Once he gets too ahead of himself]] and bets his own skin against two half-kingdoms, the tree says he guessed wrong, and the two bouncers near the tree chase him for the rest of the movie.
* MeaningfulEcho: The last of Tugarin's {{Mooks}} says he "didn't fall" while leaning on Alyosha, the latter just throws him off as says "fell", signifying him being defeated. When Tugarin Zmey is finally knocked out, Alyosha says "fell", which changes the entire atmosphere in an acknowledgment of victory.
* MeleeATrois: The final fight is a fist brawl with Alyosha vs Tugarin Zmey vs the debt collectors.

* PassingTheTorch: Alyosha aks Svyatogor, another popular Bogatyr from the folklore, for assistance. Since he's very old by now, he gives him his own Kladenets sword instead. Which almost falls apart a few times and then completely off during the final battle.

* SoloMissionBecomesGroupMission: Alyosha leaves Rostov to deal with Tugars alone. Tihon and Lybava, worry about him and decide to tag along. Lybava's Grandma doesn't care about Alyosha, but can't let her go with him alone. Tihon purchases Julius from Romani merchants shortly after.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When the gang finally gets Rostov's gold, Julius suggests dividing everything between themselves, and letting himself keep over a half of it. When Alyosha finally snaps at him, he tries to pass it as the SecretTestOfCharacter.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Lybava suggests waiting until Tugars starve to death after getting trapped in a cave, which shocks everyone around. She retracts with "until they get weak".
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Tugarin Zmey wears nothing besides botts, pants, and a spiked bracelet.
* WilliamTelling: Alyosha tries to shoot an arrow from a bow into an apple on Lubava's head. Seeing this, her Granma closes her and the arrow [[PainToTheAss hits her in the ass]].
* WorthyOpponent: Tugarin Zmey is excited to hear that his opponent is a Bogatyr and looks happy Alyosha is still conscious after his RoundhouseKick.

* AcrophobicBird: Zmey can't fly, allegedly because of his small wings. [[spoiler:Near the end of the film he manages to fly through HeroicSecondWind.]]
* AnAesop: Gambling is bad. Betting on AnOfferYouCantRefuse with an ObviouslyEvil ProfessionalGambler with a chance of {{Blackmail}} will just ruin your future.
* ArrangedMarriage: Duke of Kyiv tries to wed Zabava to someone of BlueBlood, so she'd stop hanging out with Elysei. She points out that every candidate is a {{Gonk}}, accidentally saying the same to his own portrait. [[spoiler:Kalyvan convinces the Duke to give his niece to him in exchange for voiding a debt, and the Duke has has to call him a savior from Zmey Gorynych. When Kalyvan is defeated, the Duke refuses to call Elysei the husband despite the public promise and had to be quietly persuaded by Dobrinya.]]
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The map of Rus is justifiably a crude drawing, but the relative positions of Kyiv, Rostov, Crimerian Khan Beket's fort and the rivers don't make sense with regards to real geography.
* AscendedFanboy: Elysei is a fan of Bogatyrs and takes him being assigned to Dobrinya (so he would be away from Kyiv) as an excuse to become his pupil. Overtime Elysei gets to be a hero in his own right.

** When Zmey appears for the first time at his MonsterShapedMountain, both him and Dobrinya speak in BadassBaritone and are ready to fight. When it looks like they're about to clash, [[spoiler:they hug each other, [[NotHisSled subverting expectations]] on Zmey being typically evil in stories]].

* BridgeLogic: Dobrinya makes a tree bridge with a light tap.
* CharacterFilibuster: To Dobrinya's annoyance, Elysei doesn't understand the meaning of "be quiet and listen to me" and keeps monologuing about his future heroics.

* CrocodileTears: The Duke cries in front of boyars and Dobrinya that Zabava was kidnapped by Zmey Gorynych, but speaks normally discussing Dobrinya's recent campaign. When Dobrinya offers to investigate himself, the Duke in panic and tries to force him into vacation.

* DefiantCaptive: When Kalyvan explains to Zabava that he is her rescuer and should be her future husband, she beats him up, making him to look for dark magic.

* DisneyAcidSequence: Duke of Kyiv eavesdrops on three woman being impressed by Elysei going to rescue Zabava, do a hip-hop music number with [[ShakingTheRump every suggsetive dance move imaginable]], and resume the conversation.

* TheDreaded: For a very [[ShowyInvincibleHero good reason]], the closer Dobrinya is to Kolyvan and Baba Yaga's location the more they panic.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: The hen hut drops a rope ladder for Kalyvan. He demands it to sit and put the entrance right in front of him instead, which it reluctantly does. He also threatens Baba Yaga for speaking up while she's failing to curse the Bogatyr. Only when he gets more humble does Baba Yaga comes up with something effective.

** One of the roadsigns labels directions "Rus" and "Enemies".
** Khan Beket snatches an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar figure]] from the treasures he gave to Dobrinya.
* GroinAttack: Dobrinya rescues Elysei from a [[CaughtInASnare rope trap]], but upset with [[spoiler:Zmey's treachery]], pulls the entire thing with a branch hitting Elysei between legs.
* HeavySleeper: Elysei pretty much starts attacking sleeping Dobrinya to deliver Duke's letter before having to sleep till morning himself. It's also his AchillesHeel, and while he's still invincible, he can't respond to whatever enemies are doing at night and him sleeping at the worst time becomes a recurring problem.
* HenpeckedHusband: Dobrinya's wife rants how he's always away doing heroics or in a military campaign. He can't really talk back to her except to use Elysei's fake summons order as an excuse to leave. Later he mentions that his house life isn't so bad.

* TheImmune: Baba Yaga tries to curse Dobrinya with a deadly disease, but being a Bogatyr he only gets a few coughs. On second try, Elysei nearby is hit with PottyEmergency. Then a poisonous agaric mushroom is slipped into their food and Dobrinya notices it before either of them take a bite, throwing it through the Baba Yaga's spy portal and hitting her in the face.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Dobrinya pins Khan Beket's hat with Elysei's bow from across the forest.
* IWorkAlone: Dobrinya makes it clear to Elysei that he's going to settle the issue with Zmey Gorynych alone, but takes him anyway.

** [[spoiler:Baba Yaga decides to stay in the swamp and improve her living conditions, and nobody cares she tries to kill the heroes.]]

** [[spoiler:Nobody figures out that the Duke effectively sold Zabava to Kalyvan, though Dobrinya brings up a suspicious debt paper and he had to agree to let Zabava marry Elysei.]]
* KnightTemplarParent: Duke of Kyiv is Princess Zabava's uncle, but upon seeing that she and courier Elysei are lovers and are planning to run away, he immediately plans to wed the former and send the latter to a BleakBorderBase.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Dobrinya points out that watching a hero in action and a few dramatic poems won't make Elysei likable with girls. Trying to become more impressive despite Zabava already being in love with him makes him a DistressedDude several times.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Upon hearing how kindly Dobrinya thinks of him, Zmey considers confessing everything before deciding to rescue Zabava himself and leave an explanation in a letter. Dobrinya was [[NotHelpingYourCase not happy]] that his sword friend lied to him and left.]]

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The hen hut, after being used for comedy, proves itself to be effectively an AttackOfThe50FootWhatever sized KickChick and gives Dobrinya a tough fight.
* ProfessionalGambler: Kalyvan has a near-supernatural proficiency with games, which he exploited in the past on a half of the cast being TheGamblingAddict.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When [[spoiler:Dobrinya says he trusts Zmey like if he's his brother, Zmey]] gives a CatharticExhalation and has to quickly brush it off as an illness.
* TagalongKid: Elysei during the second movie. He's very fast and good at archery, but for the Dobrinya's both missions he's TheLoad and only went along because Zabava is his love interest.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Kalyvan offers a honey gingerbread to everyone.
* ThreatBackfire: [[spoiler:Zmey threatens to set Kalyvan on fire... with a matchstick. Cue Zmey being beat up by the hen hut and [[DistressedDude locked in the basement]].]]
* VillainsWantMercy: Twice Khan Beket folds when Dobrinya outmatches him and pretends he just didn't recognize who he's going against.
* VisualPun: When Dobrinya talks how [[spoiler:Zmey deceived him, ashes from the campfire get into his eyes.]]

* WhenTreesAttack: Baba Yaga summons an army of strong animated trees against Dobryna[[spoiler:, which then dispose themselves when he knocks out the controlling pan from Baba Yaga's hands]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The Duke expresses his desire to decorate Kiyv with statues of himself, like Vasilevs done in Tsargrad. The ending shows such statue, [[BrickJoke but it turns out to be a small figure in front of a window]].
* BigBadEnsemble: When Nightingale loses Burushka and the gold in Tsargrad, [[spoiler:Emperor Vasilevs tries to claim them as his own as well, then has to make the Nightingale his PsychoForHire when Ilya gets to his doorsteps.]]

* TheCasanova:
** Nobody is typically allowed in the palace, but Alyonushka's appearance made enough impression on the Duke to not only let it slide, but asks her to stay in private room.
** Vasilevs makes the same offer, but it's implied he has a RoyalHarem he updates regularly.
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: [[spoiler:Early in the story Ilya thinks about marriage, but dismissed everyone, and also tells Alyonushka off for being an unwanted sidekick. At the very end of the movie they get romantically close.]]
* ConMan: In Tsargrad the Duke tries a comfort chair, but it turns out it's not free. Then he takes an elephant, which the owner assures the ride is free, but getting off is evidently not. Subverted in that both are considered legitimate business.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: [[spoiler:The Duke's brother Vasilevs, the Emperor of Byzantine, who he holds in high regard, is even worse as him, and in his first line proposes to his advisors to claim part of Kyiv's land, then all of it, while eating icecream.]]
* GoodIsNotNice: When Ilya says IWorkAlone, he means it. He leaves the Duke and Alyonushka in a dark forest because they were tagging alone with personal motives.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Burushka eats all of Nightingale's gold out of spite despite being at his mercy and manages to escape.

** The Duke has a problem understanding that outside of Kyiv and with no money he can't get anything he wants and fails to get a ship to Tsargrad, then gets arrested for bothering the guards.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Ilya casually admits that he used the Duke as a bait for the bandits so he can beat up info on Nightingale. The Duke is infuriated that the head of state was put into danger like that.

** [[spoiler:Vasilevs' entire military is knocked out and nobody questions him why he had it assmbled against Rus.]]
* KingOfThieves: Nightingale the Robber is the leader of a band of village pillagers, who takes everything and burns houses.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Out of personal greed, the Duke of Kyiv lets Nightingale the Robber roam free due to his bribes. The bandit repays him by stealing his entire treasury. And the only available Bogatyr just so happened to resign out of spite. [[spoiler:Subverted when Ilya returns Duke's gold while catching Nightingale [[ItsPersonal for personal reasons]].]]

* NeverMyFault: When Ilya kicks the Duke from his party, he starts ranting how the treasures, Ilya's horse and Ilya himself are his personal property, disregarding that he caused the mess to begin with.
* PhlebotinumBattery: Ilya Muromets's powers come from Rus soil or temporarily from anything that touched it, [[spoiler:such as Burushka's horseshoe]]. Without them he barely has strength to stand.
* PlotHole: The Duke of Kyiv locks "other national expenses" in a safe in his palace's basement and keeps the key on his person. It's not explained how the Nightingale manages to get through such security measures and steal all the gold.
* PuffOfLogic: Ilya can fight at full strength only on Rus soil, which is a problem when he's in Tsargrad, but he only gets weak [[NiceJobBreakingItHero after Duke reminds him about it]]. [[spoiler:Then he gets back stronger after retrieving Burushka's horseshoe]].
* PutOnABus: The Duke says he has other Bogatyrs in his service, but can't come up with anyone. It's not stated where Alyosha or Dobrinya are.

* ResignInProtest: Ilya quits Duke of Kyiv's service after hearing he let Nightingale out of prison yet again for a small bribe. He has to leave Burushka behind for being a government property and works in a farm to purchase it, though the horse getting stolen prompts him to make chase.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Ilya takes no shit from anyone and is bold enough to boss the Duke himself around. When Duke continues to be uncooperative during the travels, Ilya just lets him get captured by Nightingale's gang before saving him. And when he hears that Duke's treasury is at stake, he staight up leaves him behind and gets a boat to Tsardgrad alone.
* ShadowArchetype: [[spoiler:Vasilevs inherits and exaggerates most of Duke's early negative moments, lusting over gold and women despite having more than enough, tries to execute anyone who hasn't done what he've expected and collects an army to invate Kiyv on a whim. The Duke of Kiyv is instead a SlaveToPR and at least leaves ''some'' money for real goverment expenses.]]
* StrawCharacter: Duke of Kyiv is annoyed by the "democrats" and "western scribes". He's really not a role model and Alyonushka is a positive take on a public journalist.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Alyonushka gets "help" from a Tsargradian star manager and gets locked with future prostitues for Vasilevs. Luckly, she is delivered to Vasilevs as a potential as his potential musician or concubine, who she wanted to talk to anyway.
* ToonPhysics: Nightingale's SignatureMove invovles twisting himself like a corkscrew enough times to become a giant man-tower, then vertically slamming himself back to his lower half with all the twisting just disappearing.
* TortureAlwaysWorks: Vasilevs' executioner threatens Nightingale with enema. He spills out all the details, though making himself the victim.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Nightingale's powers come from whistling. [[spoiler:In Tsargrad a grandma knocks his tooth out becuase it's a bad omen, ironically depowering him until he gets a golden replacement. Being knocked out near the end by [[ChekhovsGunman the same grandma]] renders him completely harmless to the point that Ilya doesn't even bother punching him.]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Ilya is supersititious against black cats on his way, so he has to chase one away with a glove and find another path.

* AdaptationDeviation: The movie follows ''The Tale of the Golden Cockerel'', a fairytale by Creator/AlexanderPushkin. But the King Dodon is replaced by the Duke of Kyiv and the Cockerel is not present.
* AdviceBackfire: Julius tries to explain to the brainwashed Duke that the Queen only wants his lands and is dangerous. The Duke then gives her half of Rus as a wedding gift.
* AwfulWeddedLife: All three pairings show that Bogatyrs make incompetent husbands. When the chance presents itself to do heroics, they all all quietly escape from their house duties.
* BalanceOfPower: Duke leaves "the best Bogatyr in Rus" to his assistant while he's away. The each of three initally call themselves the best, then to avoid arguing all refuse the job.
* BaitAndSwitch: Alyosha finds Moses CaughtInASnare, inpects the rope, and pulls it. Somehow, a pit trap opens below him.

** Alyosha charges to Queen's palace first, gets hypnotized, knocks out the other Bogatyrs, and all three fall into a well.
* BrokenAesop: The film tries to tell that marriage requires mutual trust and independance, and the StayInTheKitchen approach is detrimental to everyone. Still, Bogatyrs' wives end up as DamselsInDistress again and forive their husbands for leaving them alone.
* BondVillainStupidity: The Queen has all three Bogatyrs, the only defenders of Rus, at her mercy. Instead of killing them (or even better, brainwashing them to be at her side all times), she throws them into a deep well and leaves, which doesn't even injure them and is easily escapable.
* CardboardPrison: The Duke has left buttons in his jails specifically in case he gets locked in one, though he can't recall which one and activates multiple traps before being rescued by Tihon. It turns out pretty much everyone knows the jail has an underground passage, the Queen included.
* CeilingCling: Julius hides from the Queen by holding onto the walls right above her.
* CreepyCrows: The Queen of Shemakh uses a talking crow as her minion.
* CharmPerson: The Queen of Shemakh has HypnoticEyes that make any man obey her unconditionally. A photo of herself has the same effect.
* ChivalrousPervert: Juilus is immune to the Queen of Shemakh's hypnosis, but her female horse instead takes his interest, though she is really not interested in him.
* TheConscience: When hearing that the Duke is in danger, Alyosha rushes to save him, then starting to see hallucinations regarding leaving other two Bogatyrs in the dark for own glory, and goes back for them.
* ContinuityNod: The Duke plays with a golden figure he's got at the end of the last film.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Dobrinya falls into the river, then gets washed off a beach near a Chinese martial arts dojo, where Gorynych just so happened to be in.
* DrawingStraws: After escaping the Queen of Shemakh's palace, the Bogatyrs come across a large army of orcs and after a small argument decide to draw the straws to decide who shall stay to fight. Dobrinya is the one to stay, having secretly rigged the drawing to his favor out of care for his comrades.

* DramaticUnmask: The Queen of Shemakh's wardrobe leaves only the eyes open. [[spoiler:Without her shawl, she's just an elderly WickedWitch. Though, nobody cares.]]
* EnragedByIdiocy: The Queen of Shemakh has heard the Duke is an awful ruler, but did not expect him to be an idiot as well and almost regrets enslaving him. Then at Rus she's the only one at the party who's not having fun.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first thing the Queen of Shemakh does is being carried by servants, then hypnotizing a temple guard to fall off the cliff, then abuse her crow to solve the puzzle for the FountainOfYouth.

* HonorBeforeReason: Julius overhears that he's going to be sent to the knackers after the wedding for being annoying, and accidentally falls right before the Queen of Shemakh. To save his life, he throws BlatantLies at her that a Russian wedding involves an EngagementChallenge. She does as he says because she wants to make it sure the marriage is done properly, though unfortunatelly for Julius, the BrainwashedAndCrazy Duke manages to pass it.
* InstantlyProvenWrong: The Narrator boasts how with three Bogatyrs on duty not even a fly can pass through. Cue a fly bothering the three.
* {{Irony}}: Before the movie, the Queen of Shemakh got rid off all beautiful women in her lands. Then she discovers that she requires tears of thousand maidens, making her resort to subjugating Rus.

* LeftHanging: [[spoiler:After being turned into a baby, the Queen of Shemakh is delivered to the Duke. However she seem to still be conscious and have her powers. The next films do not follow up on this.]]

* MagicMirror: The Queen has a hand mirror that shows whoever looks into it ugly, which she orders Rus' women to look into it and cry into a jug. It can also summon an orc army.

** Dobrinya's wife is named Nastasya in this movie (though she was namedropped back in ''Dobrinya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych'').

* OfficialCouple: Zabava and Alyonushka got married to Alyosha and Ilya before the movie.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Alyonushka writes an article about "the opening of the northen log road, also known as Nord Stream". The Nord Stream gas pipline's construction began shortly before the film's production.

** Being away from Rus doesn't make Ilya weaker, unlike the last film.

* TemptingFate: Many characters wonder if with three Bogatyrs WeHaveBecomeComplacent. Cue a new villain.

* YourEyesCanDeceiveYou: To reduce the chance of getting hit with HypnoticEyes, the Bogatyrs do the final fight blindfolded. It makes them completely useless against the orcs and they fight each other instead. They drop this and then fight normally with ease.

* VaguenessIsComing: Ilya Muromets's main personality trait is finding good and bad omens is his surroundings, to the point of believing YouCantFightFate.

* NonLethalWarfare: Aside a few scary moments, the films are very kid-friendly, as enemies that have swords and spears would rather attack heroes with the blunt sides or with fists, and get bounced like confetti for trouble, while heroes only get a few bruises.

* BreakoutCharacter: Julius the talking InsufferableGenius horse effectively became the series mascot and has deidcated spin-off about himself.

[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: [[TheComicallySerious Dobrynya Nikitich]], [[GoodIsNotSoft Ilya Muromets]], [[IdiotHero Alyosha Popovich]].]]

* ''Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey'' (2004)[[note]]Алёша Попович и Тугарин Змей[[/note]]
* ''Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych'' (2006)[[note]]Добрыня Никитич и Змей Горыныч[[/note]]
* ''Ilya and The Robber'' (2007)[[note]]Илья Муромец и Соловей-Разбойник, literally: Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Bandit[[/note]]
* ''How Not to Rescue a Princess'' (2010)[[note]]Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица, literally: Three Bogatyrs and the Queen of Shemakh[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes on Distant Shores'' (2012)[[note]]Три богатыря на дальних берегах[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes. Horse Course'', alternatively ''Three Heroes: Gambit'' (2015)[[note]]Три богатыря. Ход конём [[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Sea King'' (2016)[[note]]Три богатыря и морской царь[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Princess of Egypt'' (2017)[[note]]Три богатыря и принцесса Египта[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes. The Heiress to the Throne'' (2018)[[note]]Три богатыря и Наследница престола[[/note]]
* ''Horse Julius and Big Horse Racing'' (2020)[[note]]Конь Юлий и большие скачки[[/note]]
* ''Three Heroes and the Horse on the Throne'' (2021)[[note]]Три богатыря и конь на троне[[/note]]

* BladeOnAStick: Dobrynya's weapon is a wooden log twice his height with a spade on top.

** In the second movie Dobrynya asks Elysei if he's tagging along for fun. He replies that he's doing it for Zabava (spelled the same), making Dobrynya confused. This only works in native language.

** Dobrynya Nikitich serves in Duke of Kyiv's military and is sent against Khan Beket. Of course, due to his strength, he operates solo.

[[folder:''Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych'']]

* ArrangedMarriage: Duke of Kyiv tries to wed Zabava to someone of BlueBlood, so she'd stop hanging out with Elysei. She points out that every candidate is a {{Gonk}}, accidentally saying the same to his own portrait. [[spoiler:Kalyvan convinces the Duke to give his niece to him in exchange for voiding a debt, and the Duke has has to call him a savior from Zmey Gorynych. When Kalyvan is defeated, the Duke refuses to call Elysei the husband despite the public promise and had to be quietly persuaded by Dobrynya.]]

* AscendedFanboy: Elysei is a fan of Bogatyrs and takes him being assigned to Dobrynya (so he would be away from Kyiv) as an excuse to become his pupil. Overtime Elysei gets to be a hero in his own right.

** When Zmey appears for the first time at his MonsterShapedMountain, both him and Dobrynya speak in BadassBaritone and are ready to fight. When it looks like they're about to clash, [[spoiler:they hug each other, [[NotHisSled subverting expectations]] on Zmey being typically evil in stories]].
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Dobrynya goes into TranquilFury after realizing that Zmey Gorynych is involved in Kalyvan's scheme after all and gives a long TheReasonYouSuckSpeech next time they meet.]]
* BridgeLogic: Dobrynya makes a tree bridge with a light tap.
* CharacterFilibuster: To Dobrynya's annoyance, Elysei doesn't understand the meaning of "be quiet and listen to me" and keeps monologuing about his future heroics.

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Alyosha is in effect a giant KidHero, but he's also IdiotHero with a case of ChronicHeroSyndrome. Dobrynya is a SupportingProtagonist to Elysei and is much stronger and serious JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* CrocodileTears: The Duke cries in front of boyars and Dobrynya that Zabava was kidnapped by Zmey Gorynych, but speaks normally discussing Dobrynya's recent campaign. When Dobrynya offers to investigate himself, the Duke in panic and tries to force him into vacation.

* DistressedDude: To the point of RunningGag, Elysei tries being a hero while Dobrynya is sleeping and gets captured three times.

* TheDreaded: For a very [[ShowyInvincibleHero good reason]], the closer Dobrynya is to Kolyvan and Baba Yaga's location the more they panic.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Downplayed. The Duke really doesn't want to give Zabava to Kalyvan, despite planning to web her to whoever, but agrees anyway since he's in debt and Dobrynya is yet to return with Khan Beket's tribute.
* FakeUltimateHero: [[spoiler:Zmey tries to impress Zabava with a tale of how he's rescued Dobrynya from knights. Dobrynya later mentions he first met Gorynych after he got arrested for stealing vegetables.]]

** Khan Beket snatches an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar figure]] from the treasures he gave to Dobrynya.
* GroinAttack: Dobrynya rescues Elysei from a [[CaughtInASnare rope trap]], but upset with [[spoiler:Zmey's treachery]], pulls the entire thing with a branch hitting Elysei between legs.
* HeavySleeper: Elysei pretty much starts attacking sleeping Dobrynya to deliver Duke's letter before having to sleep till morning himself. It's also his AchillesHeel, and while he's still invincible, he can't respond to whatever enemies are doing at night and him sleeping at the worst time becomes a recurring problem.
* HenpeckedHusband: Dobrynya's wife rants how he's always away doing heroics or in a military campaign. He can't really talk back to her except to use Elysei's fake summons order as an excuse to leave. Later he mentions that his house life isn't so bad.
* HorseOfADifferentColor: Dobrynya's horse is seized by the Duke of Kyiv, so Elysei finds them a camel.
* TheImmune: Baba Yaga tries to curse Dobrynya with a deadly disease, but being a Bogatyr he only gets a few coughs. On second try, Elysei nearby is hit with PottyEmergency. Then a poisonous agaric mushroom is slipped into their food and Dobrynya notices it before either of them take a bite, throwing it through the Baba Yaga's spy portal and hitting her in the face.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Dobrynya pins Khan Beket's hat with Elysei's bow from across the forest.
* IWorkAlone: Dobrynya makes it clear to Elysei that he's going to settle the issue with Zmey Gorynych alone, but takes him anyway.

** [[spoiler:Nobody figures out that the Duke effectively sold Zabava to Kalyvan, though Dobrynya brings up a suspicious debt paper and he had to agree to let Zabava marry Elysei.]]

* LoveMakesYouDumb: Dobrynya points out that watching a hero in action and a few dramatic poems won't make Elysei likable with girls. Trying to become more impressive despite Zabava already being in love with him makes him a DistressedDude several times.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Upon hearing how kindly Dobrynya thinks of him, Zmey considers confessing everything before deciding to rescue Zabava himself and leave an explanation in a letter. Dobrynya was [[NotHelpingYourCase not happy]] that his sword friend lied to him and left.]]
* NotHisSled: In the [[Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales folklore]] Zmey Gorynych is a woman-stealing drake and one of the [[RoguesGallery popular monsters]] to put heroes against. The second film builds up his fight with Dobrynya, only for their fight [[spoiler:be interrupted with BaitAndSwitch and turns out he's one of Dobrynya's [[AdaptationalHeroism long time friends]]. Still, it turns out Kolyvan has been {{Blackmail}}ing him into kidnapping Zabava.]]
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The hen hut, after being used for comedy, proves itself to be effectively an AttackOfThe50FootWhatever sized KickChick and gives Dobrynya a tough fight.

* RollingAttack: With round shields in each hand, Dobrynya rolls over some Khan Beket's {{Mooks}} during the siege.
* SuperSoldier: Dobrynya Nikitich serves Duke of Kyiv as his own military unit. Unsurprisingly, he can destroy a Crimean Khan Beket's base with hundreds of soldiers single-handedly.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When [[spoiler:Dobrynya says he trusts Zmey like if he's his brother, Zmey]] gives a CatharticExhalation and has to quickly brush it off as an illness.
* TagalongKid: Elysei during the second movie. He's very fast and good at archery, but for the Dobrynya's both missions he's TheLoad and only went along because Zabava is his love interest.

* VillainsWantMercy: Twice Khan Beket folds when Dobrynya outmatches him and pretends he just didn't recognize who he's going against.
* VisualPun: When Dobrynya talks how [[spoiler:Zmey deceived him, ashes from the campfire get into his eyes.]]

[[folder:''Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber'']]

* PutOnABus: The Duke says he has other Bogatyrs in his service, but can't come up with anyone. It's not stated where Alyosha or Dobrynya are.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Dobrynya falls into the river, then gets washed off a beach near a Chinese martial arts dojo, where Gorynych just so happened to be in.
* DrawingStraws: After escaping the Queen of Shemakh's palace, the Bogatyrs come across a large army of orcs and after a small argument decide to draw the straws to decide who shall stay to fight. Dobrynya is the one to stay, having secretly rigged the drawing to his favor out of care for his comrades.

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Dobrynya rigs the draw to fight orcs alone while the other two Bogatyrs move on.

** Dobrynya's wife is named Nastasya in this movie (though she was namedropped back in ''Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych'').
** Dobrynya's camel is now called Vasya.

* SummonMagic: The crow's feather can summon an army of orcs. Subverted in it being [[MasterOfIllusion just an illusion]] and Dobrynya falls into a river. Later the Queen's MagicMirror spawns an army of real ones.

* BaitAndSwitch: The Duke expresses his desire to decorate Kiyv with statues of himself, like Vasilevs done in Tsargrad. The ending shows such statue, but it turns out to be a small figure in front of a window.

* PhlebotinumBattery: Ilya Muromets's powers come from Rus soil or temporarily from anything that touched it. Without them he barely has strength to stand.
* PlotHole: The Duke of Kyiv locks "other national expenses" in a safe in his palace's basement and keeps the key on his person. It's not explained how the Nightingale manages to steal all the gold.
* PuffOfLogic: Ilya can fight at full strength only on Rus soil, which is a problem when he's in Tsargrad, but he only gets weak after Duke reminds him about it. [[spoiler:Then he gets back stronger after retrieving Burushka's horseshoe]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The Duke expresses his desire to decorate Kiyv with statues of himself, like Vasilevs done in Tsargrad. The ending shows such statue, but it turns out to be a small figure in front of a window.

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Lybava was in love with Alyosha since he was a kid, and he admits feeling the same when asked.