History Characters / TheThiefAndTheCobbler

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: The Miramax cut adds amazed crowd gasps and laughs as Zigzag appeals to One-Eye, making it sound like his barbaric army is genuinely impressed by his trickery.

* TheHeavy: Much of the plot is caused by him trying to take the throne by marrying Yum-Yum, then allying with the Mighty One-Eye when he can't manipulate his way into kingodm.

* EvilerThanThou: As much of a scumbag Zig-Zag may be, he's nothing compared to the savage brute Mighty One-Eye is, and the latter wastes no time in establishing the pecking order with him. When Zigzag sees the camp of the One-Eyes for the first time, the terrified look on his face clearly shows that he's well aware that he's far from being as evil as those barbarian, decadent warriors (and that must mean something, given this is the same guy who sentenced a random poor young man to death just because he happened to walk on a tack he left on the ground). Later in the same scene, the Mighty One-Eye himself is not impressed at all by Zigzag's self-publicity and has him thrown to the alligators, because he can tolerate no one who's useless. When Zigzag escapes and angrily demands acknowledgement however, he is impressed enough to promote him to [[ThePawnsGoFirst cannon fodder at the front lines]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Calmly listens to Zigzag's proposal of an alliance, only to later scoff and sentence him to be fed to the alligators, though he would later change his mind.

* UngratefulBastard: Zigzag presents Mighty One-Eye with the three golden balls, which the prophecy states that the One-Eyes need to invade the golden kingdom. Mighty One-Eye doesn't seem to care at all, and immediately orders Zigzag to be fed to the alligators.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Mighty One-Eye and his massive war machine are undone by... a single tack. Turns out that the highly complex and finely-tuned war machine cannot handle an added chaotic element and breaks down in a massive way, wiping out most of the soldiers in the process.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Subverted. Mighty One-Eye orders his men to throw Zigzag to the alligators after Zigzag brings him the golden balls, but Zigzag manages to charm the alligators and escape, demanding that Mighty One-Eye take him seriously.

* UnfortunateName: ''YumYum''? Seriously????

* FamousLastWords: "For Zigzag, then, it is... the end."

* AnimalMotif: Zigzag looks a bit vulture-like with his flowing black robe and high, arched shoulders. Of course, he even has a pet vulture. This fits his opportunistic personality.

* PapaWolf: In the original cut. When Zigzag fools the King into thinking he can "magic the balls back," he requests Princess [=YumYum=]'s hand in marriage as compensation. The king ''vehemently'' refuses to send off his daughter to him. Note that, as far as the king is concerned, this is his only chance to get the balls back and keep his kingdom safe. It's honestly rather badass of the King to do so.

!!!Voiced by: Creator/SeanConnery (original),[[note]] Or so the credits claim; Richard Williams later said that Connery never showed up at the studio on the day he was supposed to record his line, so it was provided by a friend of Williams' wife whose name remains unknown.[[/note]] Steve Lively (Allied Filmmakers), Creator/MatthewBroderick (Miramax)

* ArtShift: His skin tone shifts from cotton-white to caucasian-pink halfway through the movie for some unexplained reason.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the original version, he corners Tack and is about to take the balls back, only to then realize they've been more trouble than they're worth, gives a "forget it" gesture, and leaves.

* AccidentalPun: "This Cobbler atTACKed me!"

* KarmicDeath: In both the original and Calvert versions, he's sat on and smothered by the same slave women he uses for furniture.

* KarmicDeath: In both the original and Calvert versions, he's killed by his own abused slave women.

* DeadpanSnarker: His inner monologue as provided by Jonathan Winters in the "finished" versions. Tends to cause a polarizing response, with some finding it obnoxious and distracting, while others think it (along with the animation) is the only thing that makes those cuts watchable.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Subverted. The Miramax dub states that he managed to earn King Nod's trust, but no one else's. Not surprising considering how he treats the inhabitants of the Golden City.

* UnfortunateName: ''YumYum''? Seriously?

* NoIndoorVoice

* {{Adorkable}}: Just look at him while he's fixing Princess Yum-Yum's shoe. The Miramax cut even describes him as being "too shy to speak."

* TheKlutz: Goes hand-and-hand with his [[{{Adorkable}} dorky]] nature.

* WeaponsOfTheirTrade: Tack, the cobbler in ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', uses one of his tacks to defeat the One-Eyes, shooting it using his thread as a slingshot.

* GoryDiscretionShot: During Zigzag's death scene, he falls into a pit and is eaten alive by a pack of crocodiles. All that can be seen is a silhouette of his mouth and eyes as he's being munched by the crocs' teeth. His pet vulture, Phido, decides to join in by swooping down onto Zigzag's shoulder and closes his suddenly monstrous beak on Zigzag's skull. In the Recobbled Cut, there's a disturbing crunch sound as Phido eats and swallows his head. satisfied gulp.

* DeadpanSnarker: His inner monologue as provided by Jonathan Winters in the "finished" versions. Tends to cause a polarizing response, with some finding it obnoxious and distracting, while others think it (along with the animation) is the only thing that makes those cuts watchable

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: An old lady turns out to be a [[IKnowKarate martial artist]], a bed turns out to be a pack of giant, angry guard dogs, the polo players constantly hit him... and the giant war machine has such things as a giant flyswatter, a giant broom and a giant iron.

* ThrowTheDogABone: In the Miramax cut, after surrendering the golden balls, he is cornered by the King's soldiers...who lift him up in celebration, believing he recovered them. The Thief for once looks rather content with his situation.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: His theft of the golden balls, as well as his subsequently losing them to Zigzag, leave the Golden City vulnerable to the One-Eyes.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: She's a princess and manages to stop Zigzag from executing for stupid reasons. She shows further competence later on when trying to retrieve the three golden balls.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Bravely organizes the defence of the Golden City in preparation of the One-Eyes arrival. This is in stark contrast to his portrayal in the first part of the movie where he's almost comatose.

* EvilIsPetty: As stated above, he tries to have Tack executed, and then arrested and fed to Phido, simply because he stepped on a Tack that Tack accidentally dropped.

* TheHeavy: Much of the plot is caused by him trying to take the throne by marrying Yum-Yum then allying with the Mighty One-Eye.

* MotiveDecay: Zigzag's initial motivation is to "rule in public sight" rather than as TheManBehindTheMan to King Nod. He plans to achieve this by marrying Princess Yum Yum, which would apparently make him the new king under the Golden City's laws. However, after his initial exposition, he behaves for all intents and purposes like he really ''wants'' to marry Princess Yum Yum for its own sake; this culminates when, after betraying the city to the One-Eye, he is happy to have them raze the City to the ground and only leave Princess Yum Yum alive for him to marry.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Since they don't win, it never comes up, but its heavily implied that this would have been Zigzag's "reward" for betraying the city to One-Eye.

* SmugSnake: He's far too trusting in his own abilities; he remarks he can frighten the "barbarian" One-Eyes with ease, only to find himself surrounded by a litany of swords around his neck and forcing him to resort to a particularly futile offer to King One-Eye to spare his own life (King One-Eye can visibly be seen getting ''bored'' of Zigzag's routine there). He's an unusually more effective example in that he manages to trick his way out of the clutches of King One-Eye's crocodiles -- but even then, One-Eye ''still'' forces Zigzag to act nothing more than his foolishness in front of his army, and those same crocodiles eat him alive later when he can't deliver on his promise to them.
* TakeThat: Zigzag was designed by Williams to be an unflattering caricature of two people he particularly hated (with a bit of Vincent Price added in to make the character funnier)--which was revealed to be the film's original producers (during its initial Nasruddin stage), Omar Ali Shah and his brother Idries Shash, who were discovered to be embezzling money from Richards' studio and, after being sacked from the project, had the nerve to demand ownership of the Nasrudin character and 50% of the films profits after it would be completed, and even sent a ''death threat'' to Williams' studio (about mailing a bomb, to be exact) when he refused to comply with their demands.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: He has [[NestedMouths nested jawlines]], and he hails form an entire tribe of people who are each missing an eye.

* EvilerThanThou: As much of a scumbag Zig-Zag may be, he's nothing compared to the savage brute Mighty One-Eye is, and the latter wastes no time in establishing the pecking order with him. When Zigzag sees the camp of the One-Eyes for the first time, the terrified look on his face clearly shows that he's well aware that he's far from being as evil as those barbarian, decadent warriors (and that must mean something, given this is the same guy who sentenced a random poor young man to death just because he happened to walk on a tack he left on the ground). Later in the same scene, the Mighty One-Eye himself isn't impressed at all by Zigzag's self-publicity and has him thrown to the alligators, because he can tolerate no one who's useless. When Zigzag escapes and angrily demands acknowledgement however, he is impressed enough to promote him to [[ThePawnsGoFirst cannon fodder at the front lines]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Calmly listened to Zigzag's proposal of an alliance, only to later scoffs and sentence him to be fed to the alligators, though he would later change his mind.

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: He has rows upon rows upon ''rows'' of sharp yellow teeth. As in, you ''can't see the back of his throat even with his mouth wide open''

* WeaksauceWeakness: Mighty One-Eye and his massive war machine are undone by... a single tack. Turns out that the highly complex and finely tuned war machine cannot handle an added chaotic element and breaks down in a massive way, wiping out most of the soldiers in the process.

* DoesntLikeShoes: Downplayed. He wears one yellow slipper.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Mighty One-Eye and his massive war machine are undone by... a single tack. Turns out the highly complex and finely tuned war machine cannot handle an added chaotic element, the machine breaks down in a massive way, wiping out most of the soldiers in the process.