History Literature / TheLastDragonslayer

%%* AgeLift: In the book, penultimate Dragonslayer Brian Spalding is described as an elderly man, looking about 90 and still in good health despite being 150 years old (at least before he [[spoiler: succumbs to RapidAging after appointing Jennifer his successor]]). In the film, Dragonslayer Brian is played by a fresh-faced Creator/NickMohammed, who would have been in his 30's at the time of filming. He admits to being [[OlderThanTheyLook older than he looks]] -- 153, exactly.

* ParentalAbandonment: There are massive quantities of "foundlings" left at orphanages around the Ununited Kingdom, many of them orphans of the Troll Wars. These foundlings don't have full citizenship rights, are often sold on contract as indentured servants to businesses (it's mentioned that [=ConStuff=] owns a chain of islands off east Trollvania where they use cheap foundling labor to produce cheap goods cheaper than anyone else in the cheap goods market). Jennifer was left at the doorstep of the Convent of the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster in an orange Volkswagen, and Tiger was left in a basket with a war medal pinned to the side.

%%* TheFashionista: The reporter who provides live updates from the Dragonlands and interviews Jennifer has several exciting costume changes, including a bright green "dragon" costume with chiffon wings.

%%* AgeLift: In the book, penultimate Dragonslayer Brian Spalding is described as an elderly man, looking about 90 and still in good health despite being 150 years old (at least before he [[spoiler: succumbs to RapidAging after appointing Jennifer his successor]]). In the film, Dragonslayer Brian is played by a fresh-faced Creator/NickMohammed, who would have been in his 30's at the time of filming.

%%* StringTheory: When Mr. Zambini goes missing, Jennifer puts together a board with newspaper clippings, photographs, maps, string, and pushpins to trying and get insight into his whereabouts.

%%* TheAllegedCar: Mr. Zambini drives a horse-drawn Volkswagen -- a beetle chasis outfitted with a setee up top for the driver, a yoke in front for the horses, and lanterns that hang in front to illuminate the way. The brake lights still work, but nothing else seems to.

%%* CompositeCharacter: The cast of characters is greatly reduced for the film, with only two full-time wizards at Kazam -- the Wizard Moobin and Venerable Lady Mawgan. Moobin is the one who gets Kevin Zipp's prophecy.

%%* BalefulPolymorph: In the film's opening, Mr. Zambini transforms an antagonistic guard first into a polar bear, then into a fur shawl, and then into a cape. In the books, turning someone into an animal (usually a newt, hence the phrase "I'll newt you") is irreversible and explicitly described as tantamount to murder.
%% * CrystalDragonJesus: The Mighty Shandar is regarded this way; Heaven, at least for dragonslayers, is referred to as the Palace of Shandar.

* PowerLevels: A wizard's power of reflected by their status and accolade, both of which can change if/when the magic user's powers wax or wane. Statuses are pretty straightforward: at the lowest level is Spellmanager, followed by Sorcerer, Master Sorcerer, Grand Master Sorcerer, and Super Grand Master Sorcerer. There's no official governing body that issues statuses or accolades to the wizards of the Ununited Kingdom and beyond. The very idea of having a governing body is "wholly ridiculous once you get to know how scatty they can be," but practitioners of the magical arts are honorbound to a fault -- so titles that reflect their relative levels of wizidrical power and reliability are all self-conferred. These include, in no particular order, "Lady", "Wizard", "Venerable", "Amazing", "Astonishing", "Remarkable", "Incredible", "Magnificent", "Mighty", "All-Powerful", and "Pointless".
--> "An accolade isn't simply based on performance, but on reliability. Wizard Moobin isn't the most powerful in the building, but he's the most consistent. And to complicate matters further, a status is different to an accolade. Two wizards might both be status ''Spellmanager'' but if one has turned a goat into a moped and the other hasn't, then they get to call themselves 'Wizard.'"

** In "The Last Dragonslayer," Tiger tells Jennifer that he'd been left at the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster's doorstep in a basket (with a war medal and a train ticket left alongside him). In "The Song of the Quarkbeast," he says he was left at the convent in a red rolling suitcase.
** The number of foundlings at the convent seems to fluctuate. In "The Last Dragonslayer," Jennifer says that Mother Zenobia "had hundreds of foundlings ready to take up servitude" - and that number would only have included those of working age, presumably older than 10 or 12. In "The Song of the Quarkbeast," Jennifer mentions that she had to fight "all forty" other girls at the convent to use the single handkerchief, while in "The Eye of Zoltar" she mentions sleeping in a dormitory with "sixty other girls". Later she says that Tiger still hasn't acclimated to having his own room after spending his whole life sleeping in a dormitory with "eighty other boys."

%%* AgeLift: In the book, penultimate Dragonslayer Brian Spalding is described as an elderly man, being 150 years old but still in good health (at least before he [[spoiler: succumbs to RapidAging after appointing Jennifer his successor]]). In the film, Dragonslayer Brian is played by Creator/NickMohammed, who would have been in his 30's at the time of filming.
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In the film's opening, Mr. Zambini transforms an antagonistic guard first into a polarbear, then into a fur shawl, and then into a cape. In the books, turning someone into an animal (usually a newt, hence the phrase "I'll newt you") is explicitly described as tantamount to murder.

%% * CrystalDragonJesus: The Mighty Shandar is regarded this way; Heaven, at least for dragonslayers, is referred to as the Palace of Shandar.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The-Last-Dragonslayer-by-Jasper-Fforde_5331.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:That's her on the hilltop.]]

* Literature/TheEyeOfZoltar (2013): In order to save the dragons from the wrath of Shandar, Jennifer goes on what is ''emphatically'' not a quest in the Cambrian Empire. She learns a thing or two about Jeopardy Tourism, rescues a princess, and discovers the secrets of the Leviathan's Graveyard.

* FantasticMeasurementSystem: Magical power is measured in "shandars," so-called after the famous wizard Shandar. Devices called "Shandarmeters" can measure the amount of shandars certain acts of magic take to cast, and devices called "shandargraphs" can measure background levels and usage of magical powers in the local area. All children have their power measured to test for magical aptitude, with the national average at about 150 shandars. Protagonist Jennifer rated at 159.3 shandars. It takes about 200 shandars to make a toad burp, and 1000 shandars to boil an egg.

* UtilityMagic: Due to a combination of magic has becoming [[TheMagicGoesAway less powerful than it once was]] and increasingly regulated in the [=UnUnited Kingdom=], witches and wizards like the ones at Kazam are forced to apply their abilities to menial tasks in order to keep the lights on:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes Present Throughout the Series]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes in "The Last Dragonslayer"]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Maltcassion, the last dragon in the Ununited Kingdoms.
* TheBerserker:
** "Berzerker" warriors are highly sought after fighters, and King Snodd employs a few of them.
** [[spoiler: At the end of the book, Jennifer discovers that she is a berzerker who can control her temper -- a very rare combination.]]
* BrokenPedestal: Jennifer has a bit of an embarrassing crush on Sir Matt Grifflon, a minor noble and Hereford's very own rock star/ heartthrob. The first time she encounters him in person, he's been sent [[spoiler: to the Dragonstation by the king to [[WouldHurtAChild murder her]] and take over her job as the Dragonslayer]]. Jennifer's crush evaporates after that encounter.
* TheChosenOne: Jennifer, at least according to the prophecy.
* ContainmentField: The Dragonlands are surrounded by a [[SomeKindOfForceField magical barrier]] that only the Dragonslayer or the Dragonslayer's apprentice may pass through - anyone else who tries is instantly vaporized. [[spoiler: But what no living human knows is that the force field works both ways - humans can't get in, and dragons can't get out. This was part of Shandar's plan to eliminate the dragons once and for all. With the dragons imprisoned in separate territories with no way to meet or mingle, there was no way for them to reproduce naturally. And without dragons leaving the Dragonlands to commit acts that would break the Dragonpact, there would be no reason for the Dragonslayer to slay any dragons (which [[HydraProblem turns one dragon into two]]). Once the last dragon died of old age, there would be no more.]]
* CoolSword: Exhorbitus, the sword of the Dragonslayers. It's an AbsurdlySharpBlade that can cut through boulders, brick walls, and carbide steel as if they were wet paper. It's got a giant ruby "the size of an orange" embedded in the pommel. And anyone who ''isn't'' the Dragonslayer [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield is vaporized if they try to touch it]]. (And apparently, it can only be sharpened with a banana.)
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Not a superhero per se, but a Corporate Sponsored [[TheDragonslayer Dragonslayer]]. When Jennifer takes up the mantle of Dragonslayer several companies start a bidding war to get her to endorse their product, with Yummy Flakes cereal and Fizzi-Pop soda leading the charge. In order to save the Dragonstation from being repossessed by King Snodd (and to keep herself out of debtor's prison after assuming responsibility for the back-charged property tax, rent, gas, water, and electricity), Jennifer accepts a 100,000 moolah contract with Fizzi-Pop.
-->An hour later I was heading off to the Dragonlands again, the Rolls-Royce bedecked with Fizzi-Pop stickers. Painted on the door was a big sign:
'' '''[[center:[-Dragonslayer-]]]''' ''
''[[center:[-Personally sponsored by-]]]''
''[[center:[-Fizzi-Pop, Inc.-]]]''
''[[center:[-The Drink of Champions-]]]''
* DeadlyForceField: Anyone, bar the Dragonslayer or the Dragonslayer's apprentice, who attempts to cross into the Dragonlands will find themselves vaporized by the barrier that surrounds it. [[spoiler: The barrier is actually a ContainmentField. Dragons don't just stay in the Dragonlands for fear of violating the Dragonpact: dragons cannot get out of their individual parcels of land, and humans can't get in.]]
* DogDiesAtTheEnd: [[spoiler: Gordon shoots Jennifer's loyal Quarkbeast companion when it leaps to defend her.]]
* TheDragonslayer: A tenured position in the Ununited Kingdoms, where there must always be an official Dragonslayer to deal with any dragons accused of breaking the Dragonpact by leaving the Dragonlands.
%%* EmotionBomb: Jennifer's previously undiscovered [[TheBerserker berseker rage]] kicks in when she's forced to kill Maltcassion, and it intermingles with the ambient magic released when the barrier around the Dragonlands fizzles out. It creates an odd wave of emotion that calms the greedy, angry, desperate, and stressed masses at the border of the Dragonlands.
* GemTissue: Dragons have a large gem in their forehead that glows slightly. [[spoiler: In the olden days, knights would take the gem as a trophy when they killed the dragon]].
* HydraProblem: [[spoiler: "Slaying" a dragon leads to the one dragon magically dividing into two, both of which retain something of the memories and personality of their "parent." The only way to truly kill of a dragon is to sequester it until it dies of old age.]]
* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: More like ''In-justice By Other Legal Means'', when this trope is attempted by King Snodd against Jennifer. After she gets stuck with the title of Dragonslayer and pledges not to slay the last dragon, King Snodd wants her out of the picture and replaced with someone who ''will'' kill the dragon. When he finds he can't bribe Jennifer into giving up the position, he sics the IntimidatingRevenueService on her with a massive tax and utility bill attached to the Dragonstation, for which she assumed responsibility when she was appointed Dragonslayer.
* IntimidatingRevenueService: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by King Snodd as part of his attempted JusticeByOtherLegalMeans ploy, in an effort to get rid of Jennifer. Once she assumes the mantle of Dragonslayer and responsibility for the Dragonstation, King Snodd immediately dumps a debt of nearly 100,000 moolah from back-charged property tax, rent, gas, water, and electricity in her lap. If she doesn't pay up in a few hours, she faces some serious jail time. Even if Jennifer wanted to dispute the legality of the debt, she'd be tied up in court for weeks - long past the last dragon's predicted demise.
* MegaCorp: Consolidated Useful Stuff, or [=ConStuff=], and their many subsidiaries.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Gordon van Gordon]]. He was part of a long-running plot by [[spoiler: [=ConStuff=] to put an agent of theirs in place as a Dragonslayer's apprentice, in order to claim the Dragonlands before the barrier could come down]]. The particular conspiracy had been in play for over 60 years before they had a chance to embed their operative.
* NamedWeapon: Exhorbitus, sword of the Dragonslayers.
--> "Why is it called Exhorbitus?"
--> "Probably because it was very expensive."
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Only the Dragonslayer or their apprentice can wield the sword Exhorbitus and the lance of the Dragonslayers. Anyone who isn't the Dragonslayer disappears in a puff of smoke.
* OverlyLongName[=/=]RepetitiveName: Jennifer's assistant Dragonslayer is Gordon van Gordon Gordonson ap Gordon-Gordon of Gordon.
* ThePardon: Jennifer's "betrayal of the crown" is eventually "reluctantly" pardoned by King Snodd, after she spends a week or two in jail. A quote from ''The Song of the Quarkbeast'' reveals that she found the conditions in jail oddly relaxing:
-->The last time we had met he had me put in jail for daring to meddle in his plans to invade the Duchy of Brecon. Thankfully, 'averting a war with pacifist aforethought' couldn't be found anywhere on the statute books so I was released after two weeks of half-rations and a single sheet to sleep under in a damp cell without natural light. To anyone else it might have been unbearable, but after being brought up by the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster, it was really quite relaxing. I'd not slept so well for months.
* PaperThinDisguise: Being the subject of a massive manhunt after "disappearing" into Kazam, Jennifer can't show her face in public. To sneak out of Kazam and back into the Dragonstation, Tiger comes up with the idea that she should disguise herself as a Troll War Widow with a wig, an old dress, and a cardboard sign begging for coins. The Quark Beast is disguised as her baby with a bonnet and a baby pram to sneak him past some of King Snodd's guards. The guards are complete idiots though, so it works perfectly.
* RapidAging: The fate of [[spoiler: Dragonslayer Brian Spalding, after he appoints Jennifer his successor in the field of Dragon Slaying]]. He was over 150 years old, and only "Old Magic" kept him from passing away until he could pass the torch. Once his job is complete, he ages decades in the span of a minute and dwindles away to "a fine smattering of gray powder."
%%* SomeKindOfForceField:
* SomethingForEveryone: The Pollyanna Stone is a magical artifact that morphs into whatever the holder ''expects'' or hopes to see. When given to Jennifer unprompted, she sees a newspaper declaring that she won't be forced to kill the dragon. With a little bit of trickery, Jennifer uses the stone to fool the royal guards into believing that they're holding her Troll War Widow identification papers.
--> Just then Lady Mawgon walked into the kitchens and handed me a copy of the ''Daily Mollusc''. The front page had banner headlines explaining how everything was fine after all, so it was no longer necessary for me to slay Maltcassion. It added that the Duke of Brecon and King Snodd has kissed and made up, the Quarkbeast was no longer an illegal animal, the sale of marzipan was to be banned, and all foundlings everywhere were to be reunited with their parents.
--> "This is all far too good to be true," I muttered, and as soon as I had, the enchantment crumbled. I was no longer reading a newspaper but simply staring at a colorless gray pebble.
--> "What you have in your hand is a Pollyanna Stone," Lady Mawgon told me. "Whoever holds the pebble will see what they expect or hope to see. It might be of use if you are stopped on the way."
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Jennifer encounters two magically recorded messages from the Mighty Shandar. Both times, the recording mentions that it's a recording just as she begins to wonder if it's a recording.
-->'You must be a Dragonslayer or their apprentice,' said a warm voice that sounded like how I hoped my father would speak, 'For only they may pass the marker stones.'\\
'I am, sir,' I muttered, unsure of how to address the most powerful wizard the world had ever known.\\
'I expect you have many questions,' continued the Mighty Shandar.\\
'Well, yes, I do," I replied, looking up, "in particular, how the whole Dragon/ magic deal--'\\
'--questions that I cannot hope to answer.'\\
I got to my feet. 'How's that?' I asked, but the Wizard ignored me.\\
'This is a recording, by the way.' answered Shandar, who now that I looked more closely seemed almost translucent, like a spectre. The image flickered and rocked as he spoke, and I was surprised to find that a sorcery recording is not a lot better than a poor video recording.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: The dragons realized that Shandar's magic had trapped them, individually, in the Dragonlands. Without intermingling and reproducing the natural way, they would eventually go extinct. Getting the Dragonslayer to [[HydraProblem kill a single dragon to give rise to two successors]] would only result in two dragons still trapped. Maltcassion planned for his own death meticulously, as it would trigger ''Big Magic'' that could undo Shandar's pact and create two successor dragons who would be free.]]
* ThinkNothingOfIt: Lady Mawgon gifts Jennifer and Tiger a [[SomethingForEveryone Pollyanna Stone]] to aid them in their quest to get back to the Dragonstation, but she threatens to make Jennifer's life hell if anyone finds out that Mawgon has been anything but horrid to the foundlings.
--> "If you tell ''anyone'' I've been nice to you," she said, narrowing her eyes, "I will make it my solemn duty to make both your lives as unbearable as possible. And don't think I'm not going to have you both replaced on Monday, for I will."
* WouldHurtAChild: Would hurt a teen in this case, as Jennifer is fifteen, but the death of the last dragon brings out the nasty side of several characters:
** [[spoiler: Sir Matt Grifflon]] was willing to kill Jennifer in order to take her position as the Dragonslayer.
** [[spoiler: Gordon van Gordon]] was also willing to shoot Jennifer if she tried to interfere with [[spoiler: [=ConStuff's=] plot to stake their claim on most of the territory in the Dragonlands]] before the last dragon was slain.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes in "The Song of the Quarkbeast"]]

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Just to the North of the first Troll Wall, Jennifer encounters a pair of trolls while searching for The Great Zambini. These trolls are tall, muscular, covered in intricate tattoos, wield massive clubs, and [[spoiler: speak very good English]]. They're also violently opposed to humans and more than happy to kill any they see on sight [[spoiler: because the trolls view humans as a pest akin to rodents or locusts, with just enough intelligence to deplete natural resources and live in an unsustainable style that will eventually destroy the environment]]. One troll [[spoiler: mentions that a friend keeps some humans as pets]].
* AsideComment: When Jennifer devises a plan to get Perkins to [[spoiler: infiltrate iMagic]] by pretending to double-cross Kazam, she gives him a black eye in order to sell the ruse. When she does, she addresses the audience:
--> Reader, I punched him Right in the eye, a real corker -- a punch like I'd never punched anyone, expect that time back at the orphanage when Tamara Glickstein was bullying the smaller kids.
* BizarreHumanBiology: When a wild Quarkbeast uses a surge of wizidrical energy to escape the poacher Lord Bloch-Draine, Jennifer gets caught up in the outrush of random spelling and ends up "mirrored". At first she thinks her clothes have been spelled backwards (as Lord Bloch-Draine's had been spelled inside-out), but soon she realizes that a small mole has moved to the opposite side of her body... and that she has suddenly become right-handed. This would mean all her internal organs had flipped around as well, giving her a magically-induced case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situs_inversus Situs inversus]].
* CourtMage: Conrad Blix gets himself appointed Court Mystician by King Snodd IV. [[spoiler: It's part of his plan to put himself on the throne -- the court mystician is automatically 8th in line to rule.]]
* DogDiesAtTheEnd: [[spoiler: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] from the first book. Quarkbeasts reproduce by creating mirror images of themselves when they have the opportunity to siphon off ''massive'' quantities of Shandars (in the range of 1.2 gigashandars) from wizards performing powerful magic. When the mirror image of Jennifer's Quarkbeast siphons energy from the bridge building contest, it replicates Jennifer's original Quarkbeast down to the markings and skewed scales. Jennifer's revived Quarkbeasts even recognizes her and Tiger, and resumes it's position as her terrifying guard dog/ beloved housepet]].
* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: The Great Zambini, the Amazing Conrad Blix, and Miss Boolean Champernowne Waseed Mitford Smith (aka the Once Magnificent Boo) all competed on the Ununited Kingdom's 1974 Olympic Sorcery team. [[spoiler: Blix and Zambini were also rivals for Boo's hand in marriage. She eventually married Conrad Blix in secret, but the two grew apart after her kidnapping]].
%%* EvilChancellor:
* ExplosiveOverclocking: In order to get Jennifer to Troll Wall (280 miles away from Herefore, with 32 minutes to get there) in time to catch the Great Zambini during his next predicted appearance, [[spoiler: carpeteers Prince Nasil & Owen of Rhayder push their flying carpets to go ''supersonic''. That means flying a Turkish rug held together by magic and willpower at a speed of seven hundred and sixty miles per hour. They have the forethought to bring parachutes with them, and Owen ends up using one when his carpet disintegrates in midair. Jennifer and Prince Nasil make it all the way to the wall, but Prince Nasil's carpet is destroyed in the process -- they have to take the train back down to Hereford.]]
* {{Fingore}}: When [[spoiler: Boolean Smith]] was captured by anti-magic extremists, they cut off her index fingers. This rendered her unable to perform magic, as sorcerers require their index fingers to focus wizidrical energy. This trope gets even more horrifying [[spoiler: when it's revealed that her husband Conrad Blix was the one who arranged for her to be kidnapped and mutilated. He had sought out the precognitive abilities of a famous soothsayer to divine their future together. He learned that Boo would be "greater and more powerful than he, and ultimately the agent of his downfall." Blix couldn't stand the idea that his wife would outshine him, so he had her crippled.]]
* HotWitch: Samantha Flynt is a dimwitted trainee wizard at iMagic and quite possibly the most attractive magic practitioner in the Ununited Kingdom. She's failed the magic licensing exam multiple times, but King Snodd's useless brother was willing to grant her a license anyways because she's "so utterly captivating" (a fact that Conrad Blix tried to exploit by having Samantha perform the test in a swimsuit).
* IProduct: Discussed and Lampshaded -- Industrial Magic, Kazam's competing agency mentioned in the last book, has undergone a makeover and dubbed itself "iMagic":
--> "What's with the iMagic name change?" I said.
--> "Industrial Magic was a bit of a mouthful," Blix explained. "Besides, putting ''i'' in front of anything makes it more hip and current."
%%* LukeIAmYourFather:
* RichLanguagePoorLanguage: The upper class speak in such an affected manner that "High British" is considered a dialect distinct from "Common British."
* SecretRelationship: [[spoiler: Conrad Blix and Boolean Smith secretly married after they competed on the Ununited Kingdom's Olympic Sorcery team in 1974. They became estranged after Boo was kidnapped and mutilated by anti-magic extremists (an event orchestrated by Blix), but it appears they never bothered to get a divorce.]]
* ShowWithinAShow: Tiger takes The Mysterious X to see a showing of ''Rupert the Foundling Conquers the Universe.''
* TakenForGranite: Lots of people getting statue-d in "The Song of the Quarkbeast":
** While trying to hack the Dibble Coils (a spell that can store ambient wizidrical energy for later use, much like a giant magic battery), Lady Mawgon gets petrified by one of the counterspells that protects the coils' spellcode from being meddled with. When Monty Vanguard tries to find the lines of spell that petrified Lady Mawgon, he gets alabaster-ed too.
---> I'd never seen anyone turned to stone before, and after the initial shock wore off, I ventured closer. Every single pore of Lady Mawgon's skin, every wrinkle, every eyelash, was perfectly rendered in the finest alabaster. It felt odd being in such close proximity to he even if she was now a four-hundred-pound block of stone, and although getting turned to stone was bad news, it might have been worse. The really serious cases of petrification involved dolerite, marble, or, worst, granite.
** Jennifer deduces that wizards [[spoiler: turn themselves into stone in order to slow down the aging process]]. The process is similar to suspended animation, with the added risk of having an arm or a nose break off if someone gets careless while dusting them off. [[spoiler: Mother Zenobia]] confirms her theories:
---> "I do indeed change to stone every night in order to delay death's cold embrace. Eight hours of sleep over an eighty-year lifetime is about twenty-six years. Wasted time, if you ask me, except for dreaming, which I miss. I've been rock during the winter months for the past seventy-six years as well, and when my last fortnight beckons I will be with you for an hour a year. I may last another century as this rate."
** [[spoiler: Conrad Blix]] is transformed into granite when [[spoiler: the Once Magnificent Boo (his wife) regains the index fingers (or at least the bones that are leftover after thirty years at the bottom of a well) that Conrad had arranged to have cut off]]. The statue is donated to the Hereford Museum so that locals can gawk and insult him.
* TitleDrop: The sound made by [[spoiler: two mirror-image quark beasts as they prepare to fuse and explode]] is called "the Song of the Quark Beast," and gets dropped in Chapter 24:
--> The low hum rose in pitch as the Quarkbeasts moved closer to each other. It reached a whine, then lowered again as they moved a few inches apart. This was the song of the Quarkbeast.\\
Others who have heard it are now little more than dust. But if I was about to die, then I was glad to have heard the song. It was lonely -- one of lament, of unknown knowledge. A song of resignation, of poetry given and received. The small movements that the Quarkbeasts made as they padded around each other altered the hum so subtly that it sounded like an alto bassoon, but with one single note, infinitely variable.\\
But it wasnt' a song of peace, love, or happiness. It was a requiem -- for all of us.
* WellThisIsNotThatTrope: The opening paragraph of Chapter 1 begin with a description of how ''glamorous'' the magical industry is, only to be sarcastically refuted in the (very short) very next line.
--> I work in the magic industry. I think you'll agree it's pretty glamorous: a life of spells, potions, and whispered enchantments; of levitation, vanishings, and alchemy. Of titanic fights to the death with the powers of darkness, of conjuring up blizzards and quelling storms at sea. Of casting lightning bolts from mountains, of bringing statues to life in order to vanquish troublesome foes.
--> If only.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes in "The Eye of Zoltar"]]

* AngelUnaware: [[spoiler: Gabby, one of Addie's professional associates]], is implied to be one of the angels working overtime in the Cambrian Empire. He's never seen without [[spoiler: a huge backpack to disguise his wings, and]] he helps Jennifer out of several otherwise hopeless jams.
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: The Princess loses a hand while defending the caravan from the onslaught of Hollow Men. Jennifer gives her the [[HelpingHands Helping Hand™]] as an ArtificialLimb]].
* BalefulPolymorph: A Justified/ Exploited example -- after Colin takes a direct hit to his wing from the Cambrian Empire's anti-aircraft artillery, [[spoiler: Perkins transforms him into rubber [[EmergencyTransformation to save him from a deadly fall]]]]. The trouble is, he's stuck in that form until the spell wears off.
* BlessedWithSuck: [[spoiler: Perkins]] is a "Burner", a magician who can't channel ambient magic currents the way other wizards can; his spells are [[CastFromLifespan fueled by his life force]]. He's capable of casting incredibly powerful magic on the fly ''because'' he isn't limited by the amount of magic he can draw from the environment (which remains at a historic low-ebb), but at the cost of years off his life. Jennifer notes that "Some of the finest magicians on the planet had been Burners, who did one fantastic, game-changing feat of magic and then they were gone."
* CastFromLifespan: Perkins has to perform some incredibly powerful feats of magic once they get across the border into the Cambrian Empire (like turning a dragon into rubber and performing a full "Genetic Reset" on someone suffering from a magical overdose), and it takes ''years'' off his life at a time. [[spoiler: He later reveals to Jennifer that this is always how he's cast magic; he's a "[[BlessedWithSuck Burner]]," someone who can't draw on the world's ambient magical energies and instead must use his own life force to power his spells.]]
%%* CerebusSyndrome: Not that Jennifer's adventures in the previous books didn't operate on high stakes, but there was always an element of fun and adventure to them. ''The Eye of Zoltar'' goes a lot darker. The book starts with Jennifer traveling to the Cambrian empire to recover a magical artifact while babysitting a [[FreakyFridayFlip spoiled princess stuck in a scullery maid's body]]. Along the way, Jennifer is forced to offer up her freedom as collateral for Colin's transmogrified rubber body, watch as her love interest siphons off his own life force to protect their party before he disintegrates, lose a toe in battle, and finally she learn that The Kingdom of Snodd has been attacked and the royal family slaughtered when she witnesses the spoiled princess she's guarding feel her original body dying.
* CoolCar: After The Once Magnificent Boo uses Jennifer's orange Volkswagen to fly a captured Tralfamosaur across the border, Jennifer picks out a new car from the basement parking garage of Zambini Towers -- a gorgeous Bugatti Royale.
--> Inside, it was sumptuously comfortable; outside, the hood was so long that in misty weather it was hard to see the radiator ornament. I chose the car partly because it started pretty much the first time, party because it looked nice, but mostly because it was the biggest.
* CoversAlwaysLie: The [=UK=] hardback cover art depicts Jennifer's orange Volkswagen Beetle as bright blue, while the Russian cover shows it as purple.
* DancingPants: Shandar is able to animate suits to do his bidding. They're called "Hollow Men", and they're great for doing heavy lifting, bodyguard work, manual labor, and [[spoiler: murdering anyone who discovers Shandar's guanolite factory in the Cambrian Empire]].
* DevolutionDevice: When [[spoiler: Ralph]] overdoses on magic and is in danger of getting magically turned inside out and dying a horrible death, Perkins performs a complicated bit of magic called a "Genetic Master Reset." This purges all the magic from his system, with the side effect of turning him into an australopithecine. Apparently it was either that or a rabbit.
%%--> "What Perkins did was a Genetic Master Reset. The only way to release [[spoiler: Ralph]] from the spells was a complete scouring of anything that made him [[spoiler: Ralph]]. And since [[spoiler: Ralph]] was human, a master reset brought him back to the first thing that..."
* DismembermentIsCheap: Jennifer bluffs the border guard into believing the hairy, manly [[HelpingHands Helping Hand™]] she's using as a "power steering" assistant on the Bugatti is her own, spinning a story about how the owner died in an accident and his salvageable body parts were attached to needy amputees. Later, after [[spoiler: the Princess loses a hand in battle]], Jennifer gives her the Helping Hand as a perfectly serviceable prosthetic.
* DragonsPreferPrincesses: Invoked -- Feldspar Axiom Firebreath IV is interviewed for the job of guarding a princess in a tower and defending her from [[DragonsVersusKnights unworthy suitors]].
* ElephantGraveyard: The legendary Leviathan's graveyard, where the massive, lighter-than-air creatures go to die.
%%* EmergencyTransformation:
* ExpospeakGag: A running gag -- instead of admitting there is no plan, Jennifer will say something like:
--> "How about this," I said. "We modify our plans with regard to ongoing facts as they become known to us, then re-modify them as the situation unfolds."
--> "You mean wake it all up as we go along?" asked Perkins.
--> "Right."
* FantasticDrug: Curtis, one of the jeopardy tourists Jennifer and Perkins encounter in The Cambrian Empire, asks them for some recreational spells he can get high off of with his travel companions. Jennifer tells him "no" flat out, [[spoiler: but later Curtis' friend Ralph gets into Perkins' suitcases an overdoses on magic]].
--> "So listen, I know you run Kazam, so got any ''S''? Y'know, something to while away the dull evenings between bouts of excitement and terror?"
--> "''S''?"
--> ''"Spells,"'' he said in a low voice. "The weirder the better, but none of that 'changing into animals' stuff because it can totally mess with your head."
--> He laughed in a clumsy attempt to charm me. The use of magic for recreational purposes was stupid, dangerous, and irresponsible. Supplying mind- or body-altering spells to idiots like Curtis would also have you drummed out of the magic industry quicker than you could say ''zork''.
--> "No," I said, "and here's why: You'll start with something simple like a Pollyanna Stone that tells you what you want to hear. Pretty soon you'll move on to stronger and heavier spells that promote unrealistic levels of optimism and self-delusion. After that you'll be always looking for the next spell, and when the spells lose their power you'll be lost, frightened, and bewildered, and your life will tip into a downward spiral of recrimination and despair."
--> "Okay, okay," he said, backing away from my icy stare. "I only asked. Boy, some people are so square."
* FictionalDocument: Several new and interesting publications are mentioned during Jennifer's jaunt to the dangerous Cambrian Empire:
** ''Enjoy the Unspoiled Charms of the Cambrian Empire Without Death or Serious Injury"
** ''Death and Injury Avoidance Techniques for the Discerning Traveler in the Western Kingdom''
** ''Miller's Guide to Kidnappable Personages''
%%* Foreshadowing: Once again, Kevin Zipp's prophecies all come true with a twist. He predicts that the aggressor will be the victor of the next troll war, that the babies he's predicting the future of won't survive the week, and that Perkins will grow old in the Cambrian Empire. Jennifer thought the "aggressor" would be King Snodd, who was gearing up another campaign to attack the trolls -- in reality, the Trolls launched a surprise attack that decimated the Ununited Kingdoms. The children Kevin predicted wouldn't survive the week all die in the first wave of Troll attacks. And Perkins [[spoiler: turns out to be a "Burner" who can only CastFromLifespan. He trades away years of his life for powerful feats of magic to get Jennifer and the party out of increasingly perilous situations, finally casting a spell so strong it uses up the remaining ten or so years of his life and evaporates his body on the spot]].
* FreakyFridayFlip: Queen Mimosa body-swaps the spoiled Princess Shazza with Laura Scrubb, one of the palace's indentured orphan servants, [[LiteralTransformativeExperience in order to teach the princess some humility]].
* HelpingHands: Lady Mawgon lends Jennifer a disembodied hand to help with steering the Bugatti, but that's not all it can do; kneading bread, copying letters, taking dogs for a walk are all tasks Helping Hand™ is capable of.
--> A Helping Hand™ is Memory Pre-Loaded with every dexterous act imaginable, from mending barometers to building box-girder bridges. With a pair of them, you could play Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto, which is seriously hard. More relevant now, a Helping Hand™ can wield a sword as expertly as if it were conducting open-heart surgery -- which are not as unrelated as one might think.
* TheHighQueen: Queen Mimosa Snodd née Jones, the wife of King Snodd and his better half in every sense of the word. She is described as beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate -- everything King Snodd isn't. Jennifer also mentions her self-sacrificing nature; Mimosa agreed to give up her career as a middle-ranked sorceress to marry the spoiled, despotic King Snodd in order to temper his worst impulses and bear royal heirs that would hopefully turn out less awful than their father.
* InsistentTerminology: Any time another character calls Jennifer's mission to locate the Eye of Zoltar a "quest," she emphatically denies that it is. Quests come with exorbitant fees from the Questing Federation oversight body, and a higher fatality rate than "searches" or "journeys." [[spoiler: At the end of the book, she upgrades their mission to an official quest.]]
--> I’d been an idiot to think that this journey was anything but a quest. Searches were nice and soft and cuddly and no one needed to be killed. A quest always demanded the death of a trusted friend and one or more ethical dilemmas.
* InstantMessengerPigeon: Jennifer and her comrades at Kazam make use of high speed "homing snails" to communicate messages over long distances. Pigeons are mentioned to be too unreliable:
-->Homing snails were one of wizard Moobin's recent discoveries. He had found that all snails have the capacity to do over one hundred miles per hour and find a location with pinpoint accuracy, but didn't because they were horribly lazy and couldn't be bothered. By rewriting a motivating spell commonly used by TV fitness instructors, communication by homing snail was entirely possible — and snails were more reliable than pigeons, which were easily distracted.
* JustWhistle: [[spoiler: After saving Jennifer, Addie, and the Princess from the second wave of Hollow Men, Ralph-the-australopithecine (and newly minted Leviathan taming sky pirate) gives Jennifer a whistle made from the tooth of a Leviathan that she can use to summon him if she's ever in danger]].
* LiteralTransformativeExperience: Invoked -- Queen Mimosa [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swaps]] Princess Shazza with a lowly palace servant in order to teach the spoilt princess humility and responsibility. While initially distraught over the transformation, [[spoiler: the Princess quickly learns the values of teamwork and trust while on her expedition with Jennifer]].
* MacGuffinTitle: Jennifer gets sent on a journey ([[InsistentTerminology not a quest, mind you]]) to locate the fabled Eye of Zoltar, a magnificent jewel with magical powers.
* MuggleBornOfMages: Downplayed with Princess Shazza. Her mother is Queen Mimosa Jones, a formerly middle-ranked sorceress (now retired), and her father is the decidedly un-magical King Snodd. The Princess did not inherit her mother's magical gifts and what's more she seems to look down on magic practitioners (though to be fair she looks down on everyone). Nothing is known about whether her younger brother, Crown Prince Steve, inherited their mother's talents.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: After [[spoiler: Ralph is de-evolved into an australopithecine]], he spends the rest of the book totally nude (save for a woman's hand bag he picks up later). Everyone who encounters him asks if he knows that his "thingy" is showing.
%%* ProphecyTwist: Kevin Zipp's prophecies always seem to come true, just in a way no-one expects.
* SpoiledBrat: Princess Shazza of the Kingdom of Snodd. Despite her [[TheHighQueen mother's influence]], the Princess is incredibly conceited, spoiled, and lazy. It gets to the point that Queen Mimosa takes the drastic step of [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapping the Princess with an orphan servant]] in a last-ditch effort to teach her some humility.
* {{Synchronization}}: Downplayed -- Princess Shazza gets bodyswapped with indentured orphan servant Laura Scrubb, and at first it seems that they aren't connected at all. But at the end of the book the Princess can feel when [[spoiler: Laura, who is still in the Princess' body, is killed in the attack on Snodd Castle]].
* ThemeNaming: The "tribes" of the Cambrian Empire are named after geologic eras -- there're the Silurians, the Devonians, the Ordovicians, etc...
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Perkins is only in his teens, but once he starts using CastFromLifespan magic in the Cambrian Empire he looks older and older as greater feats of magic are called for. For example, casting a "Genetic Master Reset" on a jeopardy tourist overdosing on magic costs him ten years of his life, taking him from a "spotty-faced eighteen year old" to a "handsome man in his late twenties." By the end of the book Perkins looks like he's in his fifties [[spoiler: before casting a spell so powerful it evaporates him on the spot, using up the last ten years of his life]].

[[/folder]]

%%[[folder: The Great Troll War]]
%%[[/folder]]
----

%% The Questing Federation were powerful, and would insist on a minimum staffing requirement: at least one strong-and-silent warrior, a sage-like old man, and either a giant or a dwarf–and all of them cost bundles, not just in salary but in hotel bills too. To go on a quest these days you needed serious financial backing.
%% [[working title ''Strange and the Wizard'']]

->''Thus it was that I, Jennifer Strange, sixteen years next month and loyal subject of King Snodd IV in the Kingdom of Hereford, took on the rights and responsibilities of [[TitleDrop the last Dragonslayer]].''

Imagine your {{standard fantasy setting}}, some place like [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Middle-earth]]. You have your green, pastoral fields, your villages, your sheep, your kings and knights, and your medley of mythical creatures, including, naturally, dragons. Now, imagine that this place ''didn't'' stay frozen in {{medieval stasis}}, and instead continued to change through the years, and that it now exists at a point in time closer to modern age--the year 2007, to be specific.

''The Last Dragonslayer'', the first {{young adult}} {{fantasy}} novel by Creator/JasperFforde, is set herein. It was published in 2010. Our protagonist is Jennifer Strange, a fifteen year-old indentured servant and acting manager of Kazam, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers in a world where [[TheMagicGoesAway the magic is gradually ebbing away]] and succumbing to the advent of technology, while the manager Mr. Zambini is away for undisclosed reasons.

One day, a prophecy gets out that she is destined to kill the last surviving dragon, Maltcassion, allowing [[MegaCorp Consolidated Useful Stuff]] to take over the dragon's vast domain and exploit it for financial gain. But Jennifer doesn't ''want'' to be the Last Dragonslayer; in fact, she takes a moral stand against it. The book chronicles her adventures as she confronts the problem-and, naturally, Maltcassion himself.

It was followed with ''The Song of the Quarkbeast'' in 2011, ''The Eye of Zoltar'' in 2013, and finally ''The Great Troll War'' in 2021.

Author Fforde's website has a section dedicated to the series available [[https://www.jasperfforde.com/dragon/dragon.html here]], where extra information on all four books and the world of ''The Last Dragonslayer'' can be found.

!!''The Last Dragonslayer'' Contains Examples Of:

* OnlySaneEmployee: Jennifer, the 15-year-old (16 as of "The Song of the Quarkbeast") indentured servant who runs Kazam. Most of the employees of the agency are old, curmudgeonly, slightly batty from too much magic, or all of the above: without a manager, they'd hardly be able to tie their shoes in the morning, much less earn a living. As the acting manager, Jennifer is in charge of answering the phones at the agency, booking jobs, renewing contracts, managing personnel, chauffeuring the talent to their jobs, and filling out all the paperwork and forms that keeps her employees from literally being burned at the stake. Tiger is in training to become her replacement.

* BugWar: The Ununited Kingdom is in a constant state of war with the Trolls of Trollvania. This is believed to be why Jennifer and Tiger are foundlings.

%%* UtilityMagic:

* ThePardon: Jennifer's "betrayal of the crown" is eventually "reluctantly" pardoned by King Snodd, after she spends a week or two in jail.

%%* CerebusSyndrome: Not that Jennifer's adventures in the previous books weren't high stakes, but there was always an element of fun and adventure to them. ''The Eye of Zoltar'' goes a lot darker. The book starts with Jennifer traveling to the Cambrian empire to recover a magical artifact while babysitting a [[FreakyFridayFlip spoiled princess stuck in a scullery maid's body]]. Along the way, Jennifer is forced to offer up her freedom as collateral for Colin's transmogrified rubber body, watch as her love interest siphons off his own life force to protect their party before he disintegrates, lose a toe in battle, and finally she learn that The Kingdom of Snodd has been attacked and the royal family slaughtered when she witnesses the spoiled princess she's guarding feel her original body dying.

%%* Foreshadowing: Once again, Kevin Zipp's prophecies all come true with a twist. He predicts that the aggressor will be the victor of the next troll war, that the babies he's predicting the future of won't survive the week, and that Perkins will grow old in the Cambrian Empire.

* LiteralTransformativeExperience: Invoked -- Queen Mimosa [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swaps]] Princess Shazza with a lowly palace servant in order to teach the spoilt princess humility and responsibility. While initially distraught over the transformation, [[spoiler: the Princess quickly learns the values of teamwork and trust while on her expidition with Jennifer]].

It was followed with ''The Song of a Quarkbeast'' in 2011, ''The Eye of Zoltar'' in 2013, and finally ''The Great Troll War'' in 2021.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Maltcassion

* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: Not a superhero per se, but a Corporate Sponsored Dragonslayer. When Jennifer takes up the mantle of Dragonslayer several companies start a bidding war to get her to endorse their product, with Yummy Flakes cereal and Fizzi-Pop soda leading the charge. In order to save the Dragonstation from being repossessed by King Snodd (and to keep herself out of debtor's prison after assuming responsibility for the back-charged property tax, rent, gas, water, and electricity), Jennifer accepts a 100,000 moolah contract with Fizzi-Pop.
--> An hour later I was heading off to the Dragonlands again, the Rolls-Royce bedecked with Fizzi-Pop stickers. Painted on the door was a big sign:

%%* EmotionBomb:

* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: More like In-justice By Other Legal Means when it is attempted by King Snodd against Jennifer. After she gets stuck with the title of Dragonslayer and pledges not to slay the last dragon, King Snodd wants her out of the picture and replaced with someone who ''will'' kill the dragon. When he finds he can't bribe Jennifer into giving up the position, he sics the IntimidatingRevenueService on her with a massive tax and utility bill attached to the Dragonstation, for which she assumed responsibility when she was appointed Dragonslayer.

* IntimidatingRevenueService: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by King Snodd, in an effort to get rid of Jennifer. Once she assumes the mantle of Dragonslayer and responsibility for the Dragonstation, King Snodd immediately dumps a debt of nearly 100,000 moolah from back-charged property tax, rent, gas, water, and electricity in her lap. If she doesn't pay up in a few hours, she faces some serious jail time. Even if Jennifer wanted to dispute the legality of the debt, she'd be tied up in court for weeks - long past the last dragon's predicted demise.

It was followed with ''The Song of a Quarkbeast'' and ''The Eye of Zoltar.'' A fourth novel entitled ''Strange and the Wizard'' is forthcoming.

It was adapted for television by Creator/SkyOne, and broadcast on Christmas Day 2016.

%% The Questing Federation were powerful, and would insist on a minimum staffing requirement: at least one strong-and-silent warrior, a sage-like old man, and either a giant or a dwarf–and all of them cost bundles, not just in salary but in hotel bills too. To go on a quest these days you needed serious financial backing.

'I am, sir,' I muttered, unsure of how to address the most powerful wizard the world had ever know.\\

* CastFromLifespan: Perkins has to do some incredibly powerful magic once they get across the border into the Cambrian Empire (like turning a dragon into rubber and performing a full "Genetic Reset" on someone suffering from a magical overdose), and it takes ''years'' off his life at a time. [[spoiler: He later reveals to Jennifer that this is always how he's cast magic; he's a "[[BlessedWithSuck Burner]]," someone who can't draw on the world's ambient magical energies and instead must use his own life force to power his spells.]]
%%* CerebusSyndrome:

* DevolutionDevice: When [[spoiler: Ralph]] overdoses on magic, Perkins performs a complicated bit of magic called a "Genetic Master Reset," which turns him into an australopithecine. Apparently it was either that or a rabbit.

* TheHighQueen: Queen Mimosa Snodd née Jones, the wife of King Snodd and his better half in every sense of the word. She is described as beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate. Jennifer also mentions her self-sacrificing nature; Mimosa agreed to give up her career as a middle-ranked sorceress to marry the spoiled, despotic King Snodd in order to temper his worst impulses and bear royal heirs that would hopefully turn out less awful than their father.

* MuggleBornOfMages: Downplayed with Princess Shazza. Her mother is Queen Mimosa Jones, a formerly middle-ranked sorceress (now retired), and her father is the decidedly un-magical King Snodd. The Princess did not inherit her mother's magical gifts. Nothing is known about whether her younger brother, Crown Prince Steve, inherited their mother's talents.

%%* ThemeNaming: The "tribes" of the Cambrian Empire are named after geologic eras -- there're the Silurians, the Devonians, the Ordovicians, etc...
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Perkins is only in his teens, but once he starts using CastFromLifespan magic in the Cambrian Empire, he looks older and older as greater feats of magic are called for. By the end of the book, he looks like he's in his fifties [[spoiler: before casting a spell so powerful it evaporates him on the spot, using up the last ten years of his life]].

[[/folder]]

%% * [[CrystalDragonJesus Crystal Dragonslayer Jesus]]: The Mighty Shandar is regarded this way; Heaven, at least for dragonslayers, is referred to as the Palace of Shandar.

* [[BugWar Troll War]]: The Ununited Kingdom is in a constant state of war with the Trolls of Trollvania. This is believed to be why Jennifer and Tiger are foundlings.

--> 'You must be a Dragonslayer or their apprentice,' said a warm voice that sounded like how I hoped my father would speak, 'For only they may pass the marker stones.'
--> 'I am, sir,' I muttered, unsure of how to address the most powerful wizard the world had ever know.
--> 'I expect you have many questions,' continued the Mighty Shandar.
--> 'Well, yes, I do," I replied, looking up, "in particular, how the whole Dragon/ magic deal--'
--> '--questions that I cannot hope to answer.'
--> I got to my feet. 'How's that?' I asked, but the Wizard ignored me.
--> 'This is a recording, by the way.' answered Shandar, who now that I looked more closely seemed almost translucent, like a spectre. The image flickered and rocked as he spoke, and I was surprised to find that a sorcery recording is not a lot better than a poor video recording.

%%* BlessedWithSuck:
* CastFromLifespan: Perkins has to do some incredibly powerful magic once they get across the border into the Cambrian Empire (like turning a dragon into rubber and performing a full "Genetic Reset" on someone suffering from a magical overdose), and it takes ''years'' off his life at a time. [[spoiler: He later reveals to Jennifer that this is always how he's cast magic; he's a "Burner," someone who can't draw on the world's ambient magical energies and instead must use his own life force to power his spells.]]

%%* Synchronization:
%% * ThemeNaming: The "tribes" of the Cambrian Empire are named after geologic eras -- there're the Silurians, the Devonians, the Ordovicians, etc...

* DismembermentIsCheap: Jennifer bluffs the border guard into believing the [[HelpingHands Helping Hand™]] she's using as a "power steering" assistant on the Bugatti is her own, spinning a story about how the owner was died in an accident and his other salvageable body parts are attached to other recipients. Later, after [[spoiler: the Princess loses a hand in battle]], Jennifer gives her the Helping Hand as a perfectly serviceable prosthetic.

%%* Foreshadowing: Once again, Kevin Zipp's prophecies all come true with a twist. He predicts that the agressor will be the victor of the next troll war, that the babies he's predicting the future of won't survive the week, and that Perkins will grow old in the Cambrian Empire.

* HelpingHands: Lady Mawgon lends Jennifer a disembodied hand to help with steering the Bugatti, but that's not all it can do; kneading bread, copying letters, taking dogs for a walk

* CastFromLifespan: Perkins has to do some incredibly powerful magic once they get across the border into the Cambrian Empire (like turning a dragon into rubber and performing a full "Genetic Reset" on someone suffering from a magical overdose), and it takes ''years'' off his life at a time. [[spoiler: He later reveals to Jennifer that this is always how he's cast magic; he's a "Burner," someone who can't draw on the world's ambient magical energies and instead must use his own life force.]]

* DancingPants: Shandar is able to animated suits to do his bidding. They're called "Hollow Men", and they're great for doing heavy lifting, bodyguard work, manual labor, and [[spoiler: murdering anyone who discovers Shandar's guanolite factory in the Cambrian Empire]].

** ''Enjoy the Unspoiled Charms of the Cambrian Empire Without Death of Serious Injury"

%%* Foreshadowing:
* FreakyFridayFlip: Queen Mimosa body-swaps the spoiled Princess Shazza with Laura Scrubb, one of the palace's indentured orphan servants, in order to teach the princess some humility.

%%* LiteralTransformativeExperience: