History WesternAnimation / SofiatheFirst

* GirlPosse: Amber, Clio, and Hildegard are almost always seen together in school or at hangouts. Clio and Hilde are just as prissy as Amber, and they join her in bullying Sofia.

*** Khaldoun and Tangu for Saudi Arabia.

* GirlPosse: Amber, Clio, and Hildegard are almost always seen together in school or at hangouts, and Clio and Hilde are just as prissy as Amber, and they join her bullying Sofia.

* GirlPosse: Amber, Clio, and Hildegard.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Clover and Wormwood in "The Enchanted Feast".
* TemptingFate: In the pilot, when Sofia worries she might trip and everyone will laugh at her, her mother tries to comfort her, saying, "No one laughs at a princess." Guess what happens to Sofia during her dance lesson later in the episode.

* TestosteronePoisoning: "We should've made the cannon bigger."

* ThoseTwoGirls: Sofia's best friends Ruby and Jade from the village at first, though they are individually given time to shine in [[ADayInTheLimelight their respective spotlight episodes]]. Mia and Robin also qualify.

* Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Hugo doesn't appear for the 4th season.

* MeddlingParents: Cedric's parents, who keep an eye on him via a magic portrait and occasionally pop in to give him advice.

** Sofia's voice actress, Creator/ArielWinter, previously voiced Princess-turned-Queen Perdita in ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseGreenArrow'' and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. Coincidentally, both of their fathers' deaths led to their royal ascension... though fortunately, Sofia doesn't have any {{Evil Uncle}}s.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: "In Cedric We Trust" reveals that Cedric and Roland were the best of friends when they were children. [[spoiler:Cedric spends most of the episode trying to rekindle their former friendship, and finally succeeds after saving Sofia.]]

* RoyalSchool: The royal prep is a rare co-educated and [[BoardingSchool non-boarding]] version.

** Sort of a G-rated version of the Trope. "The Baker King" puts this at the forefront, where King Roland is stressed out because he does so many things for the kingdom, and after wishing to spend a day not being the king, he realizes how much his people appreciate the things he does.

** "It's Up To You" from "Minding the Manner" as Tilly expresses her faith in Sofia as she leaves her in charge of her manor.

** Sofia doesn't say this ''exactly'' in "The Great Aunt-venture", but the castle is visible in the shot when she declares, "I can see the whole kingdom from here."

* BittersweetEnding: "In Cedric We Trust" ends with [[spoiler:Wormwood pulling a FaceHellTurn and Prisma stealing the Grimhilde's Crown, which is one of the Wicked Nine items]]. On the bright side, Cedric has fixed his friendship with King Roland.

* BreakfastInBed: In the episode "Baileywick's Day Off" in Season One. Baileywick brings a strawberry-themed breakfast in bed to Sofia, but the latter finally wakes up and dresses herself [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich without eating it]].

* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Sofia gets this briefly after being chosen to sing the Enchancian anthem at a harvest festival. It begins with her trying to avoid the extra attention, but it gets to her. Her Amulet doesn't let her get away with it and curses Sofia with a frog in her throat until she can make up for it.

** Creator/TravisWillingham voices a king; he [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist previously]] [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist voiced]] a character who had an ambition to become one.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: A lot of the kids' pets didn't return after Season 1, e.g. Hildegard's mink Lulu and Xandar's pet elephant.

* GonnaNeedMoreX: In "The Shy Princess", the students of Royal Prep were paired up and each pair had to make a model of their dream castle. Prince James and Prince Xandar made a cannon with a castle on it. When they lost, the believed that should have made a ''bigger'' cannon.

** Every other royal family depicted either has only one child (Prince Xandar, Princess Vivian), has the son be the eldest (Jin and Jun), or has the children be the same gender (Hildegard and her older sister, Hugo and his older brother), neatly sidestepping the issue for every other kingdom.

* UnusualPetsForUnusualPeople: Several of the Sofia's friends and siblings are seen to have exotic pets in "Blue Ribbon Bunny", as befitting of royalty; in addition to Vivian's pet dragon Crackle and Hildegard's mink Lulu, Amber has a peacock named "Praline", James has a baboon, and Xandar has an elephant.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: "Forever Royal" features a very tragic example: [[spoiler:Roland's first wife, Queen Lorelei, couldn't bear him children, so Roland tries to push this limitation, resulting in Amber and James being born. However, Lorelei's body was unable to handle the stress of childbirth (due to simply not having the means for it), and she passed away soon after.]]

** Oona's comb from "The Floating Palace".
** The Hocus Crocus from "Enchanted Science Fair".
** The Wicked Nine from Season 4, which Prisma wants to use to awaken the spirit of Vor, while Sofia and the Protectors are out to bring them to safety so no one uses them.

** "Dads and Daughters Day" features some natural examples at the enchanted animal park, such as Pelicants (Pelicans with elephant trunk beaks) and zerbra-fish (literally half-zebra, half-fish).

** Princess Ivy and Miss Nettle have {{Heel Face Turn}}s and come to like Sofia, but ''not'' because they've come to feel regret for their actions, but because of something else. Ivy doesn't feel bad about trying to overthrow her sister or trying to take over Enchancia, but she ''is'' scared of losing Roma, while Miss Nettle is still vain. The two seem to get along because of this.

* MotorMouth: Ruby.

* MysteryFiction: One episode delves into this genre, "The Mystic Isles: Undercover Fairies". The premise is that someone is trying to steal all the fairy magic from the Pixie Cup, a blossom that only blooms once a year. Heightening the urgency, if all the magic gets stolen, no fairy will ever get a magic wand again and the magical things fairies do will vanish forever, so Chrysta and Sofia need to go undercover to find out who the attempted thief is. The suspects are Etheria the Air Fairy, Flurry the Frost Fairy, two other unnamed fairies, and Bridget the Brownie. There's a RedHerring when [[spoiler:Flurry behaves suspiciously, but only because she was looking for flowers to make corsages]], but the actual culprit finally turns out to be [[spoiler:Bridget.]]

* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: Cedric never reuses any of his potions or spells to steal Sofia's amulet. This is particularly obvious because some (like the sleeping spell and the invisibility potion) work as intended.

** The grownups are this, too. Roland is steadfast but humorous; Cedric is surly and antagonistic; and Miranda is a motherly figure who is more assertive and watches out for everyone, especially her daughter.
* NoHuggingNoKissing: Aside from Prince Hugo being the object of a few of the princesses' (short-lived) affections, the subject of romance is hardly even gleaned as a topic between Sofia and her peers. The only ones involved in romantic subplots are people who are old enough to be parents themselves, such as Sir Bartelby, Aunt Tilly and Cedric (who quickly had the rug pulled under him by Sascha/Miss Nettle).

* NotMeThisTime: In "The Amulet of Avalor", near the end, Cedric is accused of being a jewel thief. Though he wants to steal the Amulet of Avalor, he's actually telling the truth when he says he was ''chasing'' the thief. (The actual jewel thief was a baby griffon.)

* OlderThanTheyLook: Word of God says that the characters have aged three years by season four, but the younger characters don't look any older than when the series started.
* OncePerEpisode: A musical number (more than once in "Once Upon A Princess"). Also more than once, if you count the two instances the song "Blue Ribbon Bunny" (in the episode with the same name) is sung, as two separate songs. The first time, it's sung in an upbeat hip-hop fashion by Clover and the birds, while the second time Sofia sings a short reprise but this time it's slow and quiet.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: "Ghostly Gala" reveals that ghosts can only leave the place they haunt once every hundred years, on Halloween. They can also converse with animals (Both living and dead).
* OutOfFocus: Whatnaught the Squirrel seems to be appearing less and less as the show goes on, being completely absent from episodes that heavily features the other animals such as ''Finding Clover'' and ''The Amulet of Avalor.'' This is somewhat averted in ''Gizmo Gwen'', where Whatnaught serves a crucial role near the end.

** Several of the Disney Princesses' songs are this, too. "True Sisters", "Make it Right", "The Love we Share" and "From the Heart", and especially "Stronger Than You Know" and "Dare to Risk it All".

* RagsToRoyalty: Sofia and her mother.

* TheScapegoat

* SchizoTech: The kingdom is definitely more medieval than modern, but there is a modern-looking elevator in the castle It's {{justified|Trope}} in that it's hand-cranked by a servant. ** Then, at the end of Season 3, a flying car... err, we mean "horseless carriage" that looks very reminiscent of 1950s automobiles is introduced. And it's specifically mentioned to be steam-powered, so in this case, [[AWizardDidIt a wizard]] [[AvertedTrope didn't do it]].

** [[spoiler:Aunt Tilly]] actually provides several of these to Sofia in "Minding The Manor", with the music rolls used in a music box each causing a magical problem to solve. Sofia unknowingly chose the hardest problem, but managed to succeed. As a reward, [[spoiler:Tilly]] gave her a book on the History of Enchancia [[spoiler:(and revealed in "The Secret Library" that she was testing to see if Sofia was ready to be a story keeper)]].

** "Best in Air Show" has Grand Mum entering a stunt race with a horse, and she becomes known, with a disguise, as the [[Franchise/KamenRider Masked]] [[Series/MaskedRider Rider]], although her outfit doesn't resemble any Rider at all (the choice in name was likely an unintentional shout out).
* ShrinkingViolet: Princess Vivian.
* SiblingSenioritySquabble: Amber is seven minutes older than her twin brother James. This is rarely brought up though.

** Twins Amber and James (revealed to be twins in ''Tri-Kingdom Picnic''); while the former is a LovableAlphaBitch who is very prim and proper, the latter is a bit irresponsible and lacking in manners but overall avoids having his sister's superior attitude.

** Due to her amulet acting up, Sofia summoned [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Olaf]] during "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle" instead of one of the royal princesses. He still helped out, though.

** Hildegard to her older sister, [[spoiler:whose name, according to WordOfGod, is Astrid]]

** WordOfGod says that Sofia looks more like her birth father than Miranda.
** Downplayed with Prince Hugo, who looks like a younger version of his brother but with dark brown hair and bigger eyes

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: "Forever Royal" features a very tragic example: [[spoiler:Roland's first wife, Queen Lorelei, couldn't bear him children, so Roland made a wish on the wishing well, resulting in Amber and James being born. However, Lorelei's body was unable to handle the stress of childbirth (due to simply not having the means for it), and she passed away soon after.]]

** [[spoiler:Wormwood]] gains this ability in "Hexley Hall", after [[spoiler:Cedric accidentally spills a "Talking potion" on him.]]
* TechnoBabble: Gwen, from "Gizmo Gwen" uses a more kiddie version of the trope, using phrases like Do-dad, Thingamajig, and don't forget the ever important What-Chu-[=McCall=]-It.

* TemptingFate: In the pilot when Sofia worries she might trip and everyone will laugh at her, her mother denies, saying, "No one laughs at a princess." Guess what happens to Sofia during her dance lesson later!

* ThoseTwoGirls: Sofia's best friends Ruby and Jade from the village at first, though they are individually given time to shine in their respective spotlight episodes. Mia and Robin also qualify.

* UnexpectedCharacter: "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle" featured a guest appearance by Olaf from ''Frozen'' (due to magical interference on Sofia's amulet). While the title is a giveaway, no-one would have guessed before season three that anyone other than the Princesses would have been summoned by the amulet.

* VillainSong: "Cedric the Great", "Make Way for Miss Nettle", "A Kingdom of My Own", and "Crystal Clear".
* VitriolicBestBuds: Robin often pokes fun at Clover, earning her some annoyed glares, and occasional retorts.

** Despite the amulet letting Sofia talk to animals, Whatnaught the squirrel does not talk at all.
** Princess Hildegard's pet mink, Lulu, who has appeared twice so far, never had a word either.

* WeatherControlMachine: The Queen Mermaid's trident can be used to control the weather and summon storms if she chooses.

** In the episodes leading up to the finale, "Forever Royal", [[spoiler:Prisma has one of the wicked nine (Grimhilde's crown), the Protectors have three (the Falcon's Eye, the spinning wheel's spindle, and Ursula's necklace), and the remaining five are still hidden throughout the Ever Realm]]. Then, at the beginning of the finale, [[spoiler:the Protectors have already locked away all nine items in the Protector's Castle before Prisma uses them to awaken Vor]]. We never find out [[spoiler:where the remaining five were hidden, how the Protectors obtained them, or how the Protectors took Grimhilde's crown from Prisma]].

** In "The Mystic Isles", Sofia gives Amber one after Amber destroyed the bridge connecting the Isles of Dancing Deserts and Crystals with a shatter stone. After Prisma got Skye the unicorn and the sisters through a vortex, Amber was more upset about her new amulet being defective than Prisma harming the Mystic Isles, which got Sofia to angrily scold her for not only helping Prisma but being a spoiled brat and thinking only about herself.

* YouJustToldMe: Cedric's raven Wormwood has no problem telling the animals that Sofia is looking in the wrong spellbook. He then discovers that ''she can understand animals.''
* YouMeanXmas: The people of Enchancia celebrate the winter holiday of Wassailia, which features singing, decorated trees, giving gifts and lighting a ceremonial candle.
** Which is somewhat bizarre, considering that Halloween exists in Enchancia.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:[[LovableAlphaBitch Amber]]]], after the premiere movie, starts acting like a real [[spoiler:sister and]] friend to Sofia.
** Lucinda in "The Little Witch".
** Wendell in "Camp Wilderwood", although it remains to be seen if it'll stick.
** Cedric seems to be on a constant HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, but in recent seasons seems to do the right thing by the end of the episode more often than not. [[spoiler:By the end of "Day of the Sorcerers", he is firmly on the side of good.]]
** Miss Nettle in "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle".

** Every other royal family depicted either has only one child (Prince Xander, Princess Vivian), has the son be the eldest (Jin and Jun), or has the children be the same gender (Hildegard and her older sister, Hugo and his older brother), neatly sidestepping the issue for every other kingdom.

* TheHighQueen: Sofia's mom, Miranda, has become one.

** In "Baileywhoops", Slickwell gives Baileywick a pin (a cursed pin that gives whoever wears it extreme clumsiness), and when Baileywick screws up royally at his job, Slickwell convinces him that he should quit and retire (so that Slickwell can take over his position). However, Clover secretly plants the pin on Slickwell, and ''he'' starts screwing up his duties.

** In "Day of the Sorcerers", [[spoiler:Grimtrix gives Cedric his staff so he can freeze Sofia. However, Cedric (having been convinced of his inner goodness by Sofia) uses the staff to freeze Grimtrix instead.]]

* HypocriticalHumor: Wormwood in "Hexley Hall". He mocks fellow familiar Pumpkin for using the "conjureteria" (which produce anything requested of it) to get a ball of yarn... then asks for a piece of ''peanut brittle'' (the best peanut brittle in the world, but still just peanut brittle).

** Barley and Sassafras seem to be heading this way at the end of "Bunny Swap".

** Miss Nettle. She imprisons Flora, Fauna and Merryweather in a giant bubble and steals their spell book, all so she can be the "number one fairy", and she shows no qualms about similarly trapping anyone who gets in her way.

*** It's even demonstrated malevolence beyond the abilities of a Disney-canon genie: [[spoiler:The series finale, "Forever Royal", reveals that Roland's first wish was for a family. The well granted it by subjecting Roland's then-wife to DeathByChildbirth.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Amber in the series.
** Sir Finnegan in "The Silent Knight". When James acts as his squire, he pushes him quite hard, laying on countless tasks, and demanding he hurry up. But when James does a good job, he congratulates him, calling him an "excellent squire" (Aunt Tilly had earlier suggested that Sir Finnegan was hard on James in order to prepare for the hardships of being a knight).
* JustLikeRobinHood: The episode "Carol of the Arrow" introduces the eponymous Carol of the Arrow, leader of a "merry band" of people who do good deeds. Befitting this trope, they dress very similarly to Robin Hood, and their motivation is to help others. However, unlike Robin Hood, they are do-gooders ''only''; while Carol of the Arrow has a negative opinion of the Royal Family, she never "steals from the rich" (especially since Carol adjusts her negative opinion after seeing Sofia's earnest attempts to do good deeds).

** Believing that picking either of her two best witch friends as witch of honor for her Cauldronation Day would make the other witch too upset, Lucinda picks Sofia instead. When Sofia's non-witch status is used to challenge the decision, Lucinda's mother reads the cauldronation rules and finds no rules saying the witch of honor must be a real witch.

** Sofia is definitely this by the end of the show, exemplified in "The Royal School Fair", where she has trouble figuring out what school to attend after graduating Royal Prep because she enjoys and has an aptitude for ''every'' school presented, from alchemy to magical music to jousting. Though this has been hard earned, and the proceeding seasons show that Sofia gained this status via never giving up when faced with challenges.
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Sofia gets this briefly after being chosen to sing the Enchancian anthem at a harvest festival. It begins with her trying to avoid the extra attention, but it gets to her. Her amulet doesn't let her get away with it and curses Sofia with a frog in her throat until she can make up for it.

** A cross reference example. "The Mystic Isles: A Merry Wassailia" has a Santa type character names Elfafa. One of the Mystic Isles protectors is named Galial, and is voiced by Creator/KateMicucci, who voiced an elf named Elfafa on ''WesternAnimation/{{Wallykazam}}'', who is the Jingle Troll's helper.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The sorcerers in Cedric's family seem to be fond of this while adding titles to their names. Cedric is known as Cedric the Sorcerer and later as Cedric the Sensational; his sister is known as Cordelia the Conjuror; and their parents are known as Goodwin the Great and Winifred the Wise.
** Averted in the series finale, when Cedric's title is changed to "Cedric the Great".

* AdultsAreUseless: In "Sidekick Clio", teacher Miss Elodie sees Hildegard try to bully Clio into giving up something she truly enjoys (musical theatre) in favor of remaining Hildegard's sidekick and doing everything Hildie says all the time. Sofia and Amber are the ones who intervene, trying to get Hildegard to back off and convince Clio to stand up for herself, while Miss Elodie's only concern is having Clio in the play because she's so talented, with no concern over whether Clio herself wants to do so or not.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Zigzagged, as the cute woodland creatures here straight-out admit that their tradition of helping the fairytale princesses is because "we gotta eat -- and you got the food."

* AlphaBitch: Amber in the premiere movie.

* AmbiguousSituation: It's never made entirely clear if the tales of the Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es are legends of fiction or history. The existence of the three fairies (plus another, who also mentions Maleficent as an infamous figure) proves that ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' happened some time ago, Amber is a fan of the story of [[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} Rapunzel]], and Winter says that the story of [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 a princess that could control ice]] is passed around where she lives. The SeriesFinale reveals that [[spoiler:the Ever Realm shares its world with [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Neverland]], and that it is connected to the "real world", with WordOfGod implying that [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Tiana]] comes from the past of the "real world".]]

* AmuletOfDependency: Sofia frequently relies on her amulet for help, and has gotten so used to it that whenever she loses it, she immediately wants it back. Especially helped since she made a promise to her dad to never take it off.
** There's also the fact that she can't talk to her animal friends without it.
* AnachronismStew: While the show mostly stays faithful to its medieval setting, there are a few modern elements here and there. For example, in "The Big Sleepover", Sofia, Jade, and Ruby do some rapping (and even make beat box sounds).
** The technology varies from things that stay aesthetically true to the fairy tale setting to full-on SteamPunk, with large flying hydrofoils and flying, steam-powered cars.

* ApologizesALot: Sort of a recurring theme of the series, more or less. (The show [[AnAesop is full of morals]], of course, given its target audience, and the biggest one seems to be that an apology is the first step in correcting a mistake.)
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Mermaids and ghosts are NOT REAL!! Trolls, fairies, giants and sorcery are all ok, but mermaids and ghosts…no way!
** Sofia also didn't think the Mystic Isles were real until Cedric told her they were, despite meeting many magical creatures.

** All Disney Princesses up to WesternAnimation/{{Moana}} (except for WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}} and [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Anna and Elsa]][[labelnote:*]]Due to not wanting to conflict with the then-upcoming ''Frozen 2'', although Olaf appears in their place.[[/labelnote]]) are summoned by Sofia's amulet.

* AreWeThereYet: In ''The Floating Palace'', James asks this right around the beginning of the special. The answer is "yes" because the floating palace has in fact arrived at Merroway Cove.
* ArtEvolution: The show boasts smoother shading and animation from season 2 onwards. Settings get more detailed as well, and certain locations like the throne room get some major facelifts.

** One particularly notable example is in In "The Mystic Isles: The Princess and the Protector": Chrysta dismisses Sofia as a "pampered princess" and claims that a princess can't be a protector. Chrysta is seemingly unaware that Sofia has lived most of her life as a commoner.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sofia's stepbrother James is extremely helpful and encouraging (except in "The Tri-Kingdom Picnic", but his brief {{Jerkass}} sore-winner behavior is dealt with by the end of the episode).

** [[spoiler:Grimtrix the Good, headmaster of Hexley Hall]]. He acts nice and friendly, then reveals that he has been spying on Sofia and Cedric since they came to the school. He then tries to take the Amulet of Avalor by force.
* BittersweetEnding: "In Cedric We Trust" ends with [[spoiler:Wormwood pulling a face heel turn, and Prisma stealing the Grimhilde's Crown, which is one of the Wicked Nine items]]. On the bright side, Cedric has fixed his friendship with King Roland.

* BookEnds: The series starts with an animated movie where Sofia enters Royal Prep and ends with an animated movie that features her graduation ceremony. Both stories are the only ones in the series where Royal Prep's anthem is sung and the only ones featuring Sofia and Miranda's shoe store outside flashbacks.
* BookOnTheHead:
** The exercise was part of the “Princess Test” in the episode of the same name. All the female students of the [[RoyalSchool Royal prep]] succeed to do it. So, the fairies teachers complicate the test by throwing enchanted cushions into princesses’s legs.
** Sofia herself wasn't present but can be seen doing so [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GGMWluBAL.jpg in the merchandising.]]

* BreakfastInBed: In the episode "Baileywicks Day Off" in Season One. Baileywicks brings a strawberry-themed breakfast in bed to Sofia, but the latter finally wakes up and dresses herself [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich without eating it]].

** FridgeBrilliance: Luckily for Cinderella, she was depicted in her movie with the ability to talk to animals and featured an extended scene of her handing out food to all the animals in her household (including the mice as well as the horses and chickens and her dog Bruno), as well as being nice enough to provide all her mouse friends with custom-made clothing. Not so much for Snow White, she's rather bossy when it comes to having animals help her with the chores and forcing the dwarves to wash up before meals. The most she gives up is the crust of a gooseberry pie she was making for Grumpy.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The laughing-plant potion in "Make Way For Miss Nettle".
** The [[LovePotion Liking Berries]] in "All The Sprite Moves".
** The Shatter Stone in "The Mystic Isles".

* CoolBoat: The Floating Palace is exactly that: a BigFancyCastle style of house boat.
* CoolCrown: Most of the cast has them, naturally, although Amber seems to have an entire ''collection'' of tiaras.
* CoolPet: Several are seen in "Blue Ribbon Bunny"; In addition to Vivian's pet dragon Crackle and Hildegard's mink Lulu, Amber has a peacock named "Praline", James has a baboon, and Xandar has an elephant.

** Aunt Tilly also counts as this.

** The end credits for "The Secret Library", and episodes that revolve around it, have the titular library instead of the castle - as with "Holiday In Enchancia", "The Secret Library: Olaf And The Tale Of Miss Nettle" have the library in the midst of snow falling.

* DarkIsNotEvil: In "The Secret Library: The Tale of the Noble Knight", [[spoiler:Sir Jaxon]] initially seems to be crafty and manipulative, with his appearance leaning towards him being a bad knight. But he is eventually revealed to be a good and decent knight, who only wants to stop [[spoiler:Sir Oliver from harassing his dragon friends.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: Cedric once stated that the Amulet of Avalor would curse wicked and or evil deeds. However the severity of the curse when Sofia started boasting about her singing talent (making her croak, rendering her unable speak much less sing) seems to have been a bit of an extreme punishment for so small a crime. However, it's implied that the curse was less concerned about the boasting itself (or it would've disappeared when Sofia apologized) and more concerned about the boasting hurting her friends' feelings (thus necessitating that Sofia make her friends happy before the curse would go away).

* ADogNamedDog: The robin's name is "Robin".

* DogsAreDumb: James's pet dog Rex is dopey and fun-loving. He constantly fails to grasp when a situation is serious, and when Clover's IdenticalStranger bunny shows up, he's too dumb to be confused over there being two Clovers around. (On the other hand, James's other pet, a baboon, is also less than intelligent and easily distracted, so maybe that says more about James than dogs.)
* EasilyForgiven: In "The Mystic Isles: Undercover Fairies", after the culprit behind the attempted theft of fairy magic is revealed to be [[spoiler:Bridget the brownie, Chrysta and Sofia manage to stop the theft. Then, the Sugar Plum Fairy instructor gives the fairies their wands...including Bridget, forgiving her for the attempted theft. Even ''Bridget'' is confused that she'd be given a wand after what she did. But this trope is given more justification than most examples: the Sugar Plum Fairy admits that she was wrong to previously fail Bridget just because Bridget was different, so the reason Bridget is easily forgiven is because the Sugar Plum Fairy is willing to admit ''her own'' misdeed that motivated Bridget in the first place.]]

* EpisodeTitleCard: Also spoken by Sofia (except in the pilot, when it's done by one of the head fairies, and in the finale, which has no title card).

** Cedric, though he's much too bumbling to play the trope completely straight. Wormwood, on the occasions when he talks, is actually a better example.

** In "Day of the Sorcerers", [[spoiler:as a condition for Cedric to keep his position as the Royal Sorcerer, King Roland demands him to remember it's because of Sofia he's not being exiled.]]

* ExtranormalInstitute: Royal Prep.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Grimtrix the Good]] is revealed to have gone through one prior to his appearance in "Hexley Hall"; Formerly a good sorcerer, he now seeks power so he can take control of his own kingdom.
** [[spoiler:Wormwood deserts Cedric for evil plans with Prisma in "In Cedric We Trust”.]]
* FairestOfThemAll: When Sofia arrived at the castle, Prince James told Princess Amber she'd no longer be the fairest of them all.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: "The Mystic Isles: Undercover Fairies" is this, as it's possible to figure out who the attempted fairy magic thief is in advance. But the viewer may miss it, as Sofia first suspects [[spoiler:Flurry the frost fairy, who seemingly acts suspiciously.]] However, [[spoiler:Bridget also keeps not only sneaking off like Flurry, but she keeps unexplicably getting dirty]], so an eagle-eyed viewer may figure out in advance that [[spoiler:Bridget is the attempted thief, not Flurry]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Tri-Kingdom Area has a few:
** Enchancia seems to be the British Monarchy
** Khaldoun and Tangu for Saudi Arabia
** Wei Ling is presumably Imperial China

* FantasyGunControl: Played straight, albeit realistically: cannons exist in-universe even though the show is set during a vague Medieval period. [[ShownTheirWork Just like in real life.]]

** In "Cedric Be Good", the amulet gives Cedric the ability to grow giant-sized, and gains a loud and booming voice that can be heard by anyone in the village...except Sofia, despite being nearby.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Cedric's attempts to steal Sofia's Amulet, especially least those that involve him simply taking it (WordOfGod says that the Amulet's power only works when it is willingly passed from one owner to the next).

* FishOutOfWater: The whole premise of the series. Sofia, who's not used to life as a princess, has to learn how to be one.

** Sofia was twice turned into a lizard in "Cedric's Apprentice"; in "The Fligel has Landed", Grotta the Fliegel liked to turn people who refused her demands into salamanders (and changed her flunky Flinch from a salamander to a mole).

** Note that Sofia's amulet appears to flash or give off a very faint glow whenever Cedric looks at it and thinks of stealing it; this is hinting the amulet is warning Cedric to not steal it from its chosen bearer without warning, otherwise he'll be cursed for such.

** In "Princess Adventure Club", Princess Zooey doesn't let Amber join the titular club because she fear Amber would turn it into the "Amber Adventure Club". That becomes the name of the club Amber [[StartMyOwn starts]] to retaliate for not being allowed to join Zooey's.

* FormalFullArrayOfCutlery: Sofia's first dinner at the palace embarrasses her so much that the little girl actually take all the forks at once in her hands. Princess Amber notices it-and make fun of her new stepsister's table manners at school the very next day.

* FreudianExcuse: The song "King Cedric the Great" reveals that Cedric has often been mocked and looked down on for his lack of magical prowess. He believes using the power of the Amulet of Avalor to take over the kingdom is the only way he'll get some respect.
** Princess Hildegard's KnowNothingKnowItAll tendancies are due to events from her first day at school, where she embarrassed herself by trying a dance she didn't know and falling down. From then on, she thought the only way she could be liked was if she acted like she knew everything.

* FriendOrIdolDecision: In "Cedric's Apprentice", when it came time for Cedric to use his concocted invisibility potion, he has to decide either to use it on himself so he can take the amulet, or a different subject. Ultimately, because of Sofia's kindness and the fact she helped him prove what a great sorcerer he is to Magnus, he goes with the latter and uses the potion on Clover instead.

* GenerationXerox: King Gideon IV once jumped to conclusions and thought trolls were attacking. (They were just banging the clubs on the floor because they like the sound) He ordered the guards to seize the trolls, who ran away to the cave under the palace and ever since forbidden from leaving. Upon learning the trolls' side of the story, Princess Sofia tried to set things right but King Roland II (King Gideon IV's grandson) had basically the same reaction his grandfather did. [[spoiler:The misunderstanding was eventually cleared]].
* GenkiGirl: Both Ruby and Jade; Ruby especially.
** Crackle is a non-human example.

* GonnaNeedMoreX: In "The Shy Princess", the students of Royal Prep were paired up and each pair had to make a model of their dream castle. Prince James and Prince Zandar made a cannon with a castle on it. When they lost, the believed that should have made a ''bigger'' cannon.

* GoodScarsEvilScars: Plank the merman has a very nasty-looking one running down his arm (The result of a previous encounter with humans).

* GreenEyedMonster: Amber gets jealous pretty easily, and often reveals her nastier side, Sofia can also become somewhat nasty when she becomes jealous and its even happened a few times. Both girls come to regret their jealous actions.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Princess Hildegarde in "Scrambled Pets"; She watches events spiral out of control with undisguised glee, and relishes the idea of the pet owners (even Amber, her ''best friend'') getting in trouble.

* UglyCute: Invoked. In "Minding the Manor", Sofia's reaction to the gargoyles at Aunt Tilly's manor is that "They're so ugly, they're cute."

* TheUnfavorite: Cedric considers himself this to his father. By contrast, [[MyBelovedSmother his mother spoils him.]] The sad thing is that his father ''does'' care for him and is only hard on him to get him to do the right thing, whereas his mother is evil and wants him to be the same.

* UptownGirl: Gender-Switched. Miranda (a shoemaker) and Roland the Second (a King).

** Sofia is definitely this by the end of the show, exemplified in "The Royal School Fair," where she has trouble figuring out what school to attend after graduating Royal Prep because she enjoys and has an aptitude for ''every'' school presented, from alchemy to magical music to jousting. Though this has been hard earned, and the proceeding seasons show that Sofia gained this status via never giving up when faced with challenges.

** Robin suffers from this in "The Leafsong Festival." After the director dove compliments her singing voice, she starts voicing the desire to do a solo during her duet with Mia, ignoring her partner's protests.

** Sofia becomes a mermaid in "The Floating Palace." Creator/ArielWinter voices the mermaid Marina in ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates''.

** Averted in the series finale, when Cedric's title is changed to "Cedric the Great."

* AdultsAreUseless: In "Sidekick Clio," teacher Miss Elodie sees Hildegard try to bully Clio into giving up something she truly enjoys (musical theatre) in favor of remaining Hildegard's sidekick and doing everything Hildie says all the time. Sofia and Amber are the ones who intervene, trying to get Hildegard to back off and convince Clio to stand up for herself, while Miss Elodie's only concern is having Clio in the play because she's so talented, with no concern over whether Clio herself wants to do so or not.

** In "The Emerald Key", Amber hasn't quite internalized the "appearances can be deceiving [[spoiler: especially since there are megalomaniacal shapeshifters in the kingdom]]" lesson from "The Enchanted Feast". [[spoiler: By the time she realizes that the fake Princess Lani has the key, it's almost too late.]]
** In "Dads and Daughters Day," during a trip to an enchanted animal park, Hildegard refuses to learn the lesson of leaving animals in their natural habitat and not taking them to be pets; Even after her desires get the group chased and cornered by the angry animals, she still goes back to wanting another enchanted animal.

** There also are clear wild animals in "Holiday in Enchancia" and "The Emerald Key," including a stag, a snowy owl, and a grizzly bear.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: In "Let The Good Times Troll," the trolls living under the bridge are smart, friendly, love music and were banned from the castle due to a simple, knee-jerk misunderstanding. The show being what it is, it's up to Sofia to fix this mistake and introduce the trolls to polite society.

* BadMoodAsAnExcuse: In "Winter's Gift," when Sofia asks Glacia why she can't just remove Winter's ice touch, Glacia replies that she's in a bad mood.
-->'''Glacia''': Why don't you check back in a few centuries. Bye-bye, now. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Oh, that's right. I had the door removed.

** In "When You Wish Upon a Well," a LiteralGenie wishing well issues this warning, and indeed, Amber regrets two of the three wishes she makes. [[RiddleForTheAges All King Roland reveals about his first wish is the fact that he regrets it as well]].
*** [[spoiler:The wish is revealed in "Forever Royal". He wished for a family and it resulted on his first wife dying from giving birth to James and Amber.]]

** In "New Genie On The Block," a number of people make offhand wishes that are overheard and granted by Kazeem the genie. Several of these wishes (toy elephants becoming real elephants, giant cookies, etc) end up causing a lot of trouble.
** In "The Birthday Wish," Sofia’s birthday party is ruined and she wishes to relive it over again. Tizzy grants the wish, and Sofia finds herself stuck in living the same day over and over again until she has a truly happy birthday.

** In "Cedric's Apprentice," Sofia accidentally spills a potion on herself that turns her into a lizard.
** In "Mom's the Word," Marla turns Baileywick into a frog, much to his dismay.
** In "The Fliegel Has Landed," Grotta threatens to turn anyone who displeases her into a salamander, and actually carries out this threat on Cedric. [[spoiler: the end of the episode reveals that her mole minion was a salamander to begin with.]]

* BigEater: Clover is by far the most food-obsessed of the four main animals.
** James is one too.
* TheBigRace: "Just One Of The Princes" features a race where first and second prizes were places at Royal Prep's derby Racing team. Sofia enters the race despite being told that sport is for Princes and not for Princesses. [[spoiler: She and James tie for first place and thus make it onto the team.]]

** Mamanu. She [[spoiler: posed as Princess Lei-Lani]] in an attempt to trick the royal family of Enchancia out of the Emerald Key.
** [[spoiler: Grimtrix the Good, headmaster of Hexley Hall]]. He acts nice and friendly, then reveals that he has been spying on Sofia and Cedric since they came to the school. He then tries to take the Amulet of Avalor by force.
* BittersweetEnding: "In Cedric We Trust" ends with [[spoiler: Wormwood pulling a face heel turn, and Prisma stealing the Grimhilde's Crown, which is one of the Wicked Nine items]]. On the bright side, Cedric has fixed his friendship with King Roland.

* BreakingOldTrends: The show broke many trends over the course of it's 6 year run:

*** The first 3 specials (Once Upon A Princess, The Floating Palace, The Curse Of Princess Ivy) were all 48-50 minutes long. The remaining 3 specials (Elena And The Secret Of Avalor, The Mystic Isles, Forever Royal) were all 66 minutes.
*** The royal family and court were always together in some way for the first 3 specials. Elena And The Secret Of Avalor sees Baileywick and Cedric absent, while the only main character besides Sofia to appear in The Mystic Isles is Amber .
*** The first 4 specials premiered on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in primetime. The last 2 specials, both in season 4, premiered on Saturday mornings in summer.
** During Sofia's more intense moments, one of the Disney Princesses would come to help her out. During "The Mystic Isles: Olaf And The Take Of Miss Nettle", it's instead [[Franchise/{{Frozen}} Olaf]] who helps her out. Also, the whole practice of someone being summoned to help Sofia was abandoned after season 3. [[spoiler: Both were broken in the series finale when the princesses help Sofia during the climax, albeit in a silent cameo.]]

* BuffySpeak: Of a sort, the incantation for undoing a hex is apparently, "un-hex."

* CanonDiscontinuity: Just where in their timelines the princesses pop up from is unspecified. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Although,]] some argue that the amulet summons a version of the princesses and not necessarily the real ones.
** In WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'s song, she mentions that she and her step-sisters are not friends - whether the show is ignoring (or even meant to be consistent with) ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIDreamsComeTrue'' and ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'' is unknown. However, it is possible, as Cinderella is a princess, that she is after the first story of ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIDreamsComeTrue'' and before the event that re-unites her somewhat with Anastasia. She could have just been settled into the palace for all we know.

%%** Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Tiana, and Merida came after the events of each's respective movie.

** The [[LovePotion Liking Berries]] in "All The Sprite Moves."
** The Shatter Stone in "The Mystic Isles."

* ChristmasEpisode: "Holiday In Enchancia," "Winter's Gift," and "The Mystic Isles: A Very Mystic Wassailia." (see YouMeanXmas below).
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: A lot of the kids' pets didn't return after season 1 (i.e: Hildegard's mink Lulu, Xandar's pet elephant,)

** The end credits for "The Secret Library", and episodes that revolve around it, have the titular library instead of the castle - as with "Holiday In Enchancia," "The Secret Library: Olaf And The Tale Of Miss Nettle" have the library in the midst of snow falling.

* CreatorCameo: The director dove in "The Leafsong Festival" is voiced by series director Jamie Mitchell. More literally, series developer/story editor/executive producer Craig Gerber voices a servant in "New Genie On The Block."

** In "Ghostly Gala," Dax lets a swarm of bats into the castle to frighten off the living, but never considered that getting the bats to leave would be much harder.
** In "In A Tizzy," both Amber and James add large, unnecessary decorations (a cannon in James' case, and a punch fountain for Amber) to their go-carriages. Naturally, the extra weight ends up slowing them both down during the race.

-->'''Mia''': I have an idea!\\
'''Clover''': You do?\\
'''Mia''': ...No, it's gone!

* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Never, EVER steal the Amulet of Avalor from its current bearer, otherwise it curses the thief. Amber and especially Cedric learned this the hard way.
* DramaticIrony: The audience knows Cedric is always tricking Sofia, but Sofia is completely unaware of this. Even when Cedric gives her a sleeping spell instead of a dancing spell in the pilot, she thinks she said the spell wrong after chanting its exact words. However, Sofia is of Spanish descent and the spell was in Latin, two languages that require specific intonation to make words exact. Sofia may have thought she said a vowel wrong.

* EvilBrit: Cedric, though he's much too bumbling to play the trope completely straight. Wormwood, on the occasions when he talks, is actually a better example.
** [[spoiler: Slickwell in Baileywhoops would count as a lesser example of this.]]

* FeatheredFiend: Wormwood, Cedric's familiar, is (according to WordOfGod) not only smarter, but more evil than his master. This is confirmed in "In Cedric We Trust," when [[spoiler:he deserts Cedric for evil.]]

** Amber hits all five stages throughout "Once Upon a Princess" - is unwelcoming over Sofia's induction into the royal family (denial), gets jealous over her getting all the attention at Royal Prep (anger), gets James to play a prank on her and tricks her into using magic shoes for her dance lesson (bargaining), breaks down and cries as Suzette and Marcy are occupied with Sofia (depression), and admits her jealousy and finally accepts Sofia as a sister (acceptance).
** Sofia goes through the five stages in "Mom's the Word" - Saddened when Miranda loves Amber and James' presents and doesn't pay attention to her (denial), expresses her jealousy to Lucinda (anger), lures Miranda away from Amber and James with a boat ride (bargaining), admits her jealousy when stranded on an island (depression), and finally gives in and enjoys Mother's Day as a family (acceptance).
** Cedric hits them in "Cedric Be Good" after he finally snatches the Amulet - realizing the Amulet curses him when he does a bad deed upon switching it (denial), clearly not happy this is happening (anger), constantly tries to do good deeds to earn powers from it (bargaining), sad that he'll never get his kingdom wish (depression), and returning the amulet to Sofia, knowing how much she needs it so he does the right thing (acceptance).

** Sofia was twice turned into a lizard in "Cedric's Apprentice," and in "The Fligel has Landed," Grotta the Fliegel liked to turn people who refused her demands into salamanders (and changed her flunky Flinch from a salamander to a mole).

* FriendlyEnemy: Cedric seems to be moving in this direction as of "Cedric's Apprentice."

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: A pet variant. Fredo and Rex are both James' pets, but they aren't seen onscreen together until "Clover Time," when they both attend a party.

-->'''Clover:''' Uh... dragon... thing-a-whatever, and hurricane... stuff-a-maguff!
-->'''Wormwood:''' No! This is hurricane stuff-a-maguff- Oh, you've got me saying it! Hurricane dust!

* GroundhogDayLoop: "The Birthday Wish."

** While everyone is happy about the combined families there is a bit of friction and jealousy, mostly from Amber and Sofia.
** Sofia develops some concerns about not being Roland's "real daughter" in "Dads and Daughters Day," but is convinced by the episode's end that, even if Roland isn't her birth father, he still considers her as real a daughter to him as Amber.
* HarmlessVillain: Cedric. He really, really wants to be an EvilSorcerer, but he's neither mean nor competent enough to pull it off. (His attempted assaults on Sofia to take her Amulet louse up so badly that Sofia never even realizes she's in danger. And he's [[AntiVillain really not evil]] anyway.)

* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: Well, Have You Tried Not Being A Good Witch: Lucinda's mother is more than a little shocked her daughter wants to be a Good Witch, and hopes its just a phase.

** Cedric seems to be on a constant HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, but in recent seasons seems to do the right thing by the end of the episode more often than not. [[spoiler: By the end of "Day of the Sorcerers", he is firmly on the side of good.]]

** In the premiere, Cedric gives Sofia a sleeping spell and not a dance spell to blackmail her into giving him her amulet - yet when she casts it, it affects everyone in the ballroom, including Cedric himself.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: In "The Emerald Key", Amber [[spoiler: favors the fake Princess Lani/Mamanu because she superficially looks more like a traditional princess. She completely ignores the fake Lani's extreme rudeness, but criticizes the real Lani's opening of her present (and ignores her graciousness)]].

** Sofia doesn't say this ''exactly'' in "The Great Aunt-venture," but the castle is visible in the shot when she declares "I can see the whole kingdom from here."
* ICantDance: Sofia says this, word for word.

* InAnotherMansShoes: In "Scrambled Pets," Clover and Crackle take on each other's forms. They even sing a song about it, called "In Your Paws."
* InadequateInheritor: King Roland sees Cedric as this, considering his father was Goodwin the Great and touted as "the greatest royal sorcerer ever to wave a wand" (He saved Roland's father's life nine and a half times). By "Baileywhoops," Cedric has started to move beyond this through Sofia's trust in him and receiving his Family Wand.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: In "The Littlest Princess," Sofia saves a trio of Wee Sprites. The Amulet of Avalor rewards her by giving her the ability to shrink down to the size of her new friends at will, and, if she requests, even smaller.

-->'''Sofia''': Aunt Tilly, shouldn't you be facing forward?
-->'''Aunt Tilly''': Then how will I see what's behind me?

** "The Floating Palace": Oona constantly corrects anyone who refers to her sunken ship hideaway as a "shipwreck."

** Barley and Sassafras seem to be heading this way at the end of "Bunny Swap."

-->'''Sofia:''' Princess Amber, I'm so excited we're sisters!
-->'''Amber:''' ''Step''sisters. ''(Sofia looks shocked)''

-->'''Amber:''' No, Sofia. You wouldn't have needed the spell if I didn't give you those trick shoes. I was just jealous because...everyone likes you more than me. Even my own brother.
-->'''Sofia:''' That's not true, you're the most popular princess at Royal Prep. You have no idea how happy I was when I found out we were going to be stepsisters.
-->'''Amber:''' ''(sighs)'' Sofia...we're sisters.

-->'''Robin:''' Does a bee make honey?
-->'''Mia:''' Does a duck quack?

** Miss Nettle. She imprisons Flora, Fauna and Merryweather in a giant bubble and steals their spell book, all so she can be the "number one fairy" (And she shows no qualms about similarly trapping anyone who gets in her way).

*** It's even demonstrated malevolence beyond the abilities of a Disney-canon genie: [[spoiler: The series finale, "Forever Royal", reveals that Roland's first wish was for a family. The well granted it by subjecting Roland's then-wife to DeathByChildbirth.]]

** In "Cedric Be Good," Cedric is given SuperStrength by the Amulet of Avalor, and uses it to try and take the throne by force, saying aloud that anyone who disobeys him will be sent to the dungeons, and that he will rule with an iron fist. The Amulet then curses him by turning his arms into heavy metal gauntlets. Cedric is truly baffled by this, believing that taking over the kingdom isn't a bad deed, as he "deserves" to rule.

* OurGeniesAreDifferent: "New Genie On The Block," reveals that the genies of this world do have the classic traits, such as residing in lamps, and granting three wishes to those who release them. However, a genie can choose not to follow these rules; The young genie Kazeem flew around, granting every wish he overheard (those he thought were "fun," at least), and refused to return to his lamp. Fortunately, there is a "Genie Patrol" (staffed by a single genie, Sergeant Fizz), tasked with making wayward genies follow the rules.

** Water zebras are Miss Elody's "favorite striped water animals." Except diving tigers.
* PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: Not evil, exactly, but in "Scrambled Pets," Sofia is convinced to bring Clover to school (which is against the rules) after being pressured into it by Amber, James and Vivian.

* PerformanceAnxiety: Minimus has this in spades, even ''after'' he and Sofia win the race.
-->'''Minimus:''' We won! We actually won! Wait, does that mean they'll expect us to win the next race? And the one after that?! I think I need to lie down!

* PowerAtAPrice: Sofia's Amulet grants her quite a few magical powers, but it does come with a curse that punishes the wearer for any bad deeds, the severity of the curse proportionate to the offense and the nature of the curse fitting the crime. For example, when she started boasting about her singing, it made her start to croak, rendering her unable to do so. (As far as is known, the curse inflicted can only be lifted by apologizing and making right any damage caused by the bad deed.)

* ThePowerOfFriendship

-->'''Sofia:''' "''My love will be...!! THE END!!... OF!!!... '''YOU!!!!!'''''"
* PrinceAndPauper: Clover and Barley accidentally switch places in "Bunny Swap."

* PushoverParents: King Henrik is shown to be this in "Dads and Daughters Day," getting his daughter Hildegard anything she wants. He even grabs a Pelicant egg out of its nest, ignoring Miss Elodie's warnings. After being caused and cornered by the Pelicant's parents and their flock, Henrik learns his lesson, refusing Hildegard's next demand for an enchanted animal.

-->'''James:''' You gave Sofia the trick shoes on purpose.\\

-->'''Sofia:''' Oh, stop it, Hildegard! Just stop it! You act like you know everything, but you ''don't!'' And now, thanks to you, we're going to be stuck in these paintings forever!

* RedHerring: In "The Mystic Isles: Undercover Fairies", Chrysta and Sofia are trying to figure out who's attempting to steal the magic of the fairies. Initially the culprit seems to be [[spoiler:Flurry the frost fairy, because she keeps sneaking off and looking for something.]] But it turns out [[spoiler:Flurry was just looking for flowers to make as corsages for her fellow fairies]], and the real culprit is someone else.
* RememberTheNewGirl: Princess Kari has attended Royal Prep longer than Sofia but doesn't even make a physical appearance until the season 2 finale "Sidekick Clio", nor was she even mentioned before.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: In "Stormy Lani," Mamanu has a snake named Milo for a minion. Milo is ''very'' enthusiastic about committing evil deeds.

-->'''Sofia''': What would I do without you?
-->'''Clover''': I guess you'd do all this stuff by yourself.

** In "Bad Little Dragon," Vivian adopts a new baby dragon she names "Crispy", [[spoiler:but Crispy is secretly a grown-up ''pretending'' to be a baby so he can rob the castle's jewel room, and as part of his plan, he attempts to frame Crackle for causing trouble so Crackle will be kicked out of the castle. It ''temporarily'' works, and Crackle even runs away--except Vivian feels so guilty that she goes to retrieve Crackle to take her home, which causes Vivian to return to the castle door just in time to see Crispy's true nature as a jewel thief.]]

* SchizoTech: The kingdom is definitely more medieval than modern, but there is a modern-looking elevator in the castle ({{Justified|Trope}} in that it's hand-cranked by a servant).
** Then at the end of Season 3, a flying car, ...err we mean "horseless carriage", that looks very reminiscent of 1950s automobiles is introduced. And it's specifically mentioned to be steam-powered, so in this case, [[AWizardDidIt a wizard]] [[AvertedTrope didn't do it.]]

** [[spoiler:Aunt Tilly]] actually provides several of these to Sofia in "Minding The Manor," with the music rolls used in a music box each causing a magical problem to solve. Sofia unknowingly chose the hardest problem, but managed to succeed. As a reward, [[spoiler:Tilly]] gave her a book on the History of Enchancia [[spoiler:(and revealed in "The Secret Library" that she was testing to see if Sofia was ready to be a story keeper)]].

* SeriesGoal: Cedric's goal is to use the [[MacGuffin Amulet of Avalor's]] power to [[TakeOverTheCity take over Enchancia.]]

** One of the lines in [[spoiler: Miss Nettle's]] VillainSong mentions being as famous as [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]].
** In "The Amulet and the Anthem", Clover mentions hearing about [[Theatre/SwanLake "A princess who turned into a swan."]]
** When Sofia [[spoiler: becomes a mermaid and]] swims underwater in "The Floating Palace", she says it's like a "[[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Whole New World]], [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Under the Sea]]".

** The outfit Amber wears at the end of "Enchanted Science Fair" is reminiscent of this [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_de_France#/media/File:Louis-Apollo1.jpg one worn by The Sun King Louis XIV.]]

*** Also in "The Ghostly Gala," when Dax reaffirms himself in front of a mirror, he says "I'm scary enough, I'm frightening enough, and by George people are terrified of me!," a play on the catchphrase of Creator/AlFranken's character [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Stuart Smalley]].

** In "Minimus is Missing," one of the flying horses has [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic a grey coat, yellow mane, and white spots on its flank]].

** In "When You Wish Upon a Well," the well speaks in a monotone and when Amber tries to make a fourth wish, it tells her, "[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey I'm sorry, Princess. I'm afraid I can't do that.]]"

* SinisterSchnoz: Cedric.
* SmallNameBigEgo: [[spoiler: Miss Nettle]] states that she'll become as famous as Maleficent. (Yeah, sure you will...)

* SpoiledBrat: Hildegard is shown to be this in "Dads and Daughters Day," being given anything she wants by her father.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Clover and Wormwood in "The Enchanted Feast."
* TemptingFate: In the pilot when Sofia worries she might trip and everyone will laugh at her, her mother denies, saying "No one laughs at a princess." Guess what happens to Sofia during her dance lesson later!

* ThoseTwoGirls: Sofia's best friends Ruby and Jade from the village.
** Mia and Robin also qualify.

* TitleConfusion: Sofia's official royal title is not "Sofia the First," a title that would make little sense as "the first" is generally only applied to reigning monarchs who have descendants with the same name. She is usually referred to as "Princess Sofia" in official contexts, and as "Sofia" or "Sof" by her friends. The phrase "Sofia the First" is [[TitleDrop title dropped]] only twice in the series, neither one of which is presented as an official title.

** In the pilot film, when Roland explains that he's called "Roland the Second" because his father was also named Roland, and Sofia says "So I guess that makes me Sofia the First."
** In "The Mystic Isles: The Princess and the Protector", [[spoiler: Chrysta decides to call Sofia "Sofia the First" because she's the first person from the Ever Realm to become a Protector.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: Prince Desmond, in the episode "Make Way for Miss Nettle."

* TwoGirlsAndAGuy: Sofia, Amber and James.

* TwoTimerDate: In "Lord of the Rink," Hugo darts between hockey practice and ice dancing practice to keep his participation in ice dancing practice a secret. It doesn't work long.
* UglyCute: Invoked. In "Minding the Manor," Sofia's reaction to the gargoyles at Aunt Tilly's manor is that "They're so ugly, they're cute."

* UnmanlySecret: In "Lord of the Rink," Hugo hides from both the hockey team and his father that he's joined the ice dancing team.

* VillainSong: "Cedric the Great,""Make Way for Miss Nettle,""A Kingdom of My Own," and "Crystal Clear."

** Miss Nettle's plant sidekick Rosey (introduced in her second appearance) is nowhere to be seen in "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle."

** James gives a ''very'' sharp and ''very'' deserved one to Amber after she [[spoiler: purposely gives Sofia trick shoes to try to ruin her welcome ball, though he unfortunately slips up at the end and unwittingly justifies Amber's fears that have been fueling her antagonism toward Sofia to begin with. Luckily Sofia is able to sort things out with her afterward.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In "The Emerald Key", Princess Lei-Lani gets Clover's head unstuck and gives him some blueberries out of the goodness of her heart. Sofia oversees this and this convinces her that [[spoiler: she's the real Princess Lani]].
* WickedWeasel: [[spoiler:Wriggley]] invokes this after [[spoiler:Grimtrix is revealed to be a villain]], gleefully assisting him in his schemes.
** Twitch takes the form of one in "The Mystic Isles: The Great Pretender."

* WrenchWench: The titular character of "Gizmo Gwen."
* YouAndWhatArmy: In "The Floating Palace", the helpful seahorse Sven says he's going to stop the Mermaid Queen from sinking the Floating Palace while Cora and Mermaid!Sofia rescue Oona. It leads to this exchange:
-->'''Sven''': Don't worry. I can stop Queen Emmaline.
-->'''Cora''': [[YouAndWhatArmy You and what army]], Sven?
-->''Sven takes a deep breath, whistles, and summons dozens of other seahorses''
-->'''Sven''': That army, Cora. Actually, this is just the immediate family, we'll pick up the cousins on the way.

** Sofia and Amber have a song devoted to this around Amber's ability to save the day in "The Mystic Isles."

* YoungestChildWins: Sofia, the main character, is two months younger than her step siblings, though James and Amber get plenty of focus.
** This becomes played straight in Season 3, as she appeared more times ''without'' her siblings.

* BalefulPolymorph: Sofia was twice turned into a lizard in "Cedric's Apprentice," and in "The Fligel has Landed," Grotta the Fliegel liked to turn people who refused her demands into salamanders (and changed her flunky Flinch from a salamander to a mole).
** Sofia has also had the misfortune of being turned into a purple cat by a wishing well, and then, demonstrating JerkassGenie qualities, a pink cat when Amber wishes she was no longer a purple cat.

* TheBully: Grotta the Fliegel in "The Fliegel Has Landed" gets others to do what she wants, or else she'll [[BalefulPolymorph turn them into salamanders]].

* SeldomSeenSpecies: James pet baboon Fredo is a gelada, not the kind of baboon most commonly seen in cartoons.
** Also, Hildegard has a pet mink.