History ComicBook / Bamse

* TheChosenOne / OnlyTheChosenMayWield: In the story ''Bamse i vilda västern'' ("Bamse in the Wild West), it turns out Bamse is a reincarnation of the Native American Chief Thunder Bear, and he proves it by drawing Thunder Bear's bow, which nobody has been able to do for a hundred years.

* TheChessmaster: Reinard often plays several people in his schemes like fiddles, and usually escapes before he can be held accountable, sometimes even with the money from the crime. One time, he manages to avoid jail because Bamse stops him prior to a burglary- and thus he can't be arrested since there is no crime committed on his part yet..

* {{Expy}}: Some of the characters were taken from Rune Andreasson's earlier works and given minor changes.
** The newest villain, Reinard the fox, is clearly an {{Expy}} of Vargen from his early, villainous days. This is even {{Lampshaded}} by Bamse and Skalman in Reinard's intro story.
*** He's an even bigger {{Expy}} of the villainous fox Martin Mickel, the Teddy(Bamse Prototype series) villain that Vargen AND Kroesus was based on.

!!''{{Bamse}}'' provides examples of:

** Bamse has an extraordinarily bad memory when it comes to bringing dunderhonung with him on his adventures. Lots of stories have him getting into a situation where he really needs some dunderhonung and then remember he forgot to bring any.

The cast has gradually expanded as the series went on, the original PowerTrio of Bamse the bear (mostly the BigGuy even though he's small... almost verging on a CuteBruiser considering that most other adult characters are actually much larger and GentleGiant) Skalman the turtle (AbsentMindedProfessor sometimes bordering on MadScientist and also TheSpock) and Lille Skutt the rabbit (FragileSpeedster and CowardlySidekick, although he has enough incidents of bravery that he approaches TheSoCalledCoward) and to some extent their friends and antagonists. The second CastHerd is made up mainly of the triplets of the titular character (artistic Brum, TomBoy Nalle-Maja and BadassBookworm Teddy) and to some extent their friends. But over the years the series has attracted LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

Bamse is made super-strong by eating ''dunderhonung'' ("thunder honey"), a dish (which, according to WordOfGod, is not just honey but includes a bunch of ingredients, including a secret plant and some pepper) that is brewed by his grandmother.

* BerserkButton: Do not threaten Bamse's children, and do not try to bully people weaker than you when Bamse is around. He will knock you around until you learn your lesson.

* CatsAreMean: Averted with Katten Jansson, who may occasionally be selfish and mischevious, but is genuinely kind and helpful in his role as TeamPet, and even has a mouse as a best friend. Played straight with the bigger alley cats he sometimes tries to impress, though.

* TheCommissionerGordon / FriendOnTheForce: Kommissarie Pontus Kask is happy to have Bamse around, and overlooks any misdemeanors that might occur when stopping worse crime and injustice - often by making people not wanting to be criminals in the first place.
* CoolHorse: Bamse's horse Billy Boy, originally a bad-tempered and quarrelsome horse from a stud farm, who calmed down considerably after Skalman discovered he was wrongly shod and fixed the problem. Known as a regular speed demon; he and Bamse have entered and won several races. His mate Pållan and foal Lill-Pålle are both pretty cool too.

* CoolSword: Mostly subverted, since Bamse doesn't like weapons. Any story including a sword is likely to include Bamse breaking the sword and saying "I want to do that to all swords." "Bamse och de tre svärden" ("Bamse and the Three Swords") even made it a plot point: Bamse was offered three magical swords, but refused them all. As it turned out, [[spoiler: had he accepted one, he would have been doomed.]]

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Averted, even in a recently made spin-off series about Bamse's childhood. Bamse, Mickelina Räv, Ola Grävling and Annika Anka did go to school together (though Bamse was two years above the others), but Lille Skutt, Skalman, Vargen, Brummelisa and most of the other well-known characters are absent. This is likely because there are already stories about how Bamse met them the first time – years later, so he couldn't have known them at the time of the spin-off series.
* EvilVersusEvil: Reinard manages a glorious feat of [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastardry]] when he manages to scam Kroesus. He starts by pitching a few paintings to Kroesus, claiming them to be worth a lot. Kroesus wants to buy them for a low price, and when he can't he has his minions steal them... only to find out they were under insurance of his own insurance company. By the time this happens, Reinard has already collected the money, so goodbye any hope Kroesus had of getting them back.
* FakeUltimateHero: [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules]]. An ongoing storyline depicts how Bamse, Lille Skutt and Skalman travel back in time to AncientGreece, where they meet Hercules and aid him with his legendary Twelve Tasks. Or perhaps not so much "aid" him as "do all the work while Hercules gets all the glory," because it turns out Hercules is far less impressive than the myths say.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Skalman helps Reinard fake his death on the condition that Reinard leaves and never returns.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: In the first panel of "Reinard's Final Haul" observant readers may note a copy of [[ArthurConanDoyle A.C. Doyle's]] [[Literature/SherlockHolmes "The Final Problem"]]. In the climax of the story, Reinard and Skalman falls down a waterfall in what can only be a tribute to the novel. Skalman's shell protects him. Reinard however...]]

* GentlemanThief: Reinard Räv to a T. He is suave and elegant and a very snappy dresser. He also exhibits such traits as leaving calling cards, announcing his crimes in advance and being a MasterOfDisguise. He is also quite a charmer, especially to Mickelina [[spoiler: though she turned him down when she discovered that he had conned her into stealing]]. He considers himself a lot more sophisticated than the other criminals in the area, and occasionally shows his superiority by conning them. He also has quite sophisticated literary taste: one panel showed him reading a collection of Language poetry (which he had borrowed with Lille Skutt's stolen library card and did not intend to return). He usually avoids violence, preferring to dupe his adversaries. In the feature film "Bamse och tjuvstaden", though, he is altogether more sinister, [[spoiler: even attempting to kill Bamse, Lille Skutt and Skalman]].
* GRatedDrug: somewhat averted in ''The Wizard's Red Flower'' while the drug is never named, said red flower seems to imply that it is opium. The {{Sdrawkcab Name}}s of both the wizard and his henchmen (the wizard's name is Eragord, which backwards is a word for "drug drealer," while the henchmen are called "Nioreh" and "Nifrom" -- backwards spellings of the Swedish words for "heroin" and "morphine") doesn't help. In fact, the Norwegian translator was so concerned about the implications that she changed the names to "Malonkus," "Milus" and "Nilus," which are pure fantasy names.

* HeelFaceTurn: Very common, Vargen is probably the most famous example. Although he occasionally relapses, though his conscience will constantly bother him.

*** One of the most notable cases of Skalman ignoring his watch is when Bamse's kids disappear away in an unfinished invention of his. He spends several days just working(without rest nor food) to find out where they are, and when he finally gets a few hints, he can't even put them together but has the solution pointed out to him by Brummelisa. He suddenly perks up, states: "...I did it!" and then collapses and sleeps for days without waking up.

* LongRunner: Quite.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Skalman tends to have these, mostly because he is ReallySevenhundredYearsOld and has had a lot of time to do interesting things before he met Bamse and Lille Skutt. In one story, he casually mentions that a wizard called Leofelis once taught him to speak fluent Lion.

** Oh god, Vargen, full stop. One story that deals with his childhood reveals that [[spoiler: His parents died in a forest fire but managed to save him by putting him in a basket and sending it down a river, where he was found by a trio of criminals, that reluctantly raised him, though they werent exactly ideal parents. Aside from being abusive, they also taught him to steal.]]

* PetTheDog: Reinard has several of these towards Mickelina, his RomanticInterest.

* ReallySevenhundredYearsOld: Skalman's age is unknown, but he has probably been alive for much, ''much'' longer than the rest of the main cast. In one throwaway line he mentioned that he taught Literature/TheThreeMusketeers to fence. In another story, they briefly visit some of his relatives. Their reactions would suggest that a period of ten years are like a weekend to them.

** It runs in the family. First time their parents met, Brummelisa slapped Bamse, as he accidentally insulted her with, [[spoiler: "Ah, I must've mistaken you for your great-great-great-great-great grandmother"]]. [[ItMakesSenseInContext To clarify]], Bamse had just returned from a [[spoiler: time-travel trip during which he had met Brummelisa's medieval doppelganger]].

* TeamPet: Katten Jansson and Husmusen often tag along on Bamse's journeys. Strangely enough, Lille Skutt's dog Lurvas hardly ever does.

* TheChessmaster: Reinard often plays several people in his schemes like fiddles, and usually escapes before he can be held accountable, sometimes even with the money from the crime. One time, he manages to avoid jail because Bamse stops him prior to a burglary- and thus he can't be arrested since there is no crime committed on his part yet..
* TimeTravel: There are many stories where Bamse, Skalman and Lille Skutt (and sometimes a fourth character) journey to the past in Skalman's time machine to meet famous historical or mythical people. The normal TemporalParadox/StableTimeLoop problems are avoided, usually because they seldom if ever get involved in the big historical events -- they'll show up some time before or after the famous events take place and have unrelated (and apparently unrecorded by history) adventures.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: Vargen is this.

* {{Omniglot}}: Skalman can speak lots of languages. Including fish.

* FakeUltimateHero: [[ClassicalMythology Hercules]]. An ongoing storyline depicts how Bamse, Lille Skutt and Skalman travel back in time to AncientGreece, where they meet Hercules and aid him with his legendary Twelve Tasks. Or perhaps not so much "aid" him as "do all the work while Hercules gets all the glory," because it turns out Hercules is far less impressive than the myths say.

* EvilVersusEvil: Reinard manages a glorious feat of [[MagnificientBastard Magnificient Bastardry]] when he manages to scam Kroesus. He starts by pitching a few paintings to Kroesus, claiming them to be worth a lot. Kroesus wants to buy them for a low price, and when he can't he has his minions steal them... only to find out they were under insurance of his own insurance company. By the time this happens, Reinard has already collected the money, so goodbye any hope Kroesus had of getting them back.

* AllMythsAreTrue: There are trolls, goblins, witches, giants, dragons and they have run into [[Literature/{{Ramayana}} Rama and Sita]] a couple of times. Ghosts and other forms of undead are the only exception, it seems, as ghosts always turns out to be something else and the main characters are very insistant that there is no such things as ghosts.

The series is somewhat (in)famous for it's status as an AuthorTract (sometimes dropped into the narrative itself, sometimes in separate educational pages or on the letter column) Also, almost ''every'' villain is given a FreudianExcuse.

** His own favourite is the "Food-and-Sleep clock" which always rings at inconvenient times, see HoldingBackThePhlebotinum below.

* ParentalFavouritism: Krösus is TheUnFavourite.

** Well, she ''is'' an anthropomorphic she-bear. Brummelisa is also both stronger and more willing to kick bad guys around than her husband.

* BerserkButton: Do not threaten Bamse's children. Ever.
** Dont EVER try to bully people weaker than you when Bamse is around. He will knock you around until you learn your lesson.

* CoolOldLady: Bamse's grandmother.

* DiminishingVillainThreat: Eventually, every villain aside from Krösus drifted into this, prompting the new villain Reinard to appear.

* GadgeteerGenius: Skalman has just about any convenient doohickey tucked away in his shell. A common favorite is the inflatable helicopter. Yes, an [[CrazyAwesome ''inflatable helicopter'']].

* GRatedDrug: somewhat averted in ''The Wizard's Red Flower'' while the drug is never named, said red flower seems to imply that it is opium. The {{Sdrawkcab Name}}s of both the wizard and his henchmen (the wizard's name is Eragord, which backwards is a word for "drug drealer," while the henchmen are called "Nioreh" and "Nifrom" -- backwards spellings of the Swedish words for "heroin" and "morphine") doesn't help.
** In fact,the Norwegian translator was so concerned about the implications that she changed the names to "Malonkus," "Milus" and "Nilus," which are pure fantasy names.
* GRatedSex: In an early Bamse comic, Bamse is shown making babies with his wife: They lie in bed, fully clothed in pajamas and under the sheets, hugging each other.
** The text even says "That night, they hug for extra long". Which has actually become a euphemism in Swedish.

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Skalman is intelligent, educated, has a lot of common sense, and access to tons of convenient gadgets, so technically he could solve any problem that comes along in a moment. To counter this, he also has an alarm clock that dictates when he'll eat and sleep, and which he'll obey obsessively; when it rings, he'll stop whatever he's doing (even stopping mid-sentence) and either eat or fall asleep, thus removing him from the situation and forcing the others to save the day (or at least have them deal with the situation until he wakes up again). [[spoiler:To this troper's knowledge, Skalman has only ignored the alarm clock once; at the time, the others were in abject danger and would've died if he'd fallen asleep.]]
** [[spoiler: Make that twice, he stayed awake for the birth of Bamse's kids too]]
*** He's ignored the clock several times, actually, not just these. "I can't sleep at a time like this" would be his PreAssKickingOneLiner if it wasn't as uncommon as it is.

*** Seems he'll stay awake under very exceptional circumstances. His own life being in danger apparently doesn't count as such. (Though one story reveals that sleeping pills or knockout drops will keep him awake against his will.)

* KnightOfCerebus: Reinard was introduced to be a daring villain who would prove more of a challenge to Bamse and Skalman. He even manages to come out as a winner in some way in most of his stories.

* ParentalAbandonment and ParentalSubstitute: The titular character's parents got lost during an adventure at sea, so he was raised by his grandmother. (The origin story about this explains that this is why she lives on that ridiculously high mountain — she wants to be as far away from the sea as possible, since the sea had taken all of her family, save Bamse.) [[spoiler:Bamse's parents were later found to be alive and well, although on a DesertedIsland, where they preferred to stay, helping the local populace with various medical issues.]]

* PowerTrio: Bamse is the ego, Skalman is the superego and Lille Skutt is the id.

* ReallySevenhundredYearsOld: Skalman's age is unknown, but he has probably been alive for much, ''much'' longer than the rest of the main cast. In one throwaway line he mentioned that he taught Literature/TheThreeMusketeers to fence.
** In another story, they briefly visit some of his relatives. Their reactions would suggest that a period of ten years are like a weekend to them.

* SlapSlapKiss: Burre & Nalle-Maja would fit this trope (they are a bit young, but she *has* kissed him...) although Nalle-Maja doesn't slap people. ''She punches them in the face.''
** It runs in the family. First time their parents met, Brummelisa slapped Bamse (he accidentally insulted her).
*** [[spoiler: "Ah, I must've mistaken you for your great-great-great-great-great grandmother"]]. Oh Bamse...
*** To clarify, Bamse had just returned from a [[spoiler: time-travel trip during which he had met Brummelisa's medieval doppelganger]].

* TechnicalPacifist: Bamse never hits people. He's okay with throwing them up in a pine tree.
** He hits people occasionally, it just takes a LOT to tick him off.
** He doesn't need to use much force to make people dazed or scared enough to stop being physically threatening. "I just poked you with one finger. Now play nice, or I will poke you with ''two'' fingers."