| 1 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enchanted_forest_collage.png]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ''The Enchanted Forest Chronicles'' is a series of humorous fantasy novels by Creator/PatriciaCWrede which [[FracturedFairyTale spoof]] and reconstruct FairytaleMotifs. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | As the first book begins, forthright and tomboyish [[RebelliousPrincess Princess Cimorene]] decides that she is tired of being a princess and doesn't much like the prince her parents are pushing at her. Her Fairy Godmother is no help, so she follows the advice of a talking frog and ends up offering her services to a dragon. The first three books in the series follow Cimorene's adventures. The fourth book (which was actually written first, then revised and reissued after the other three were completed) concerns her son Daystar. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | The books in the series are: |
| 8 | # ''Dealing with Dragons'' (1990) ([[MarketBasedTitle Published in the UK]] as Dragonsbane) |
| 9 | # ''Searching for Dragons'' (1991) (Published in the UK as Dragon Search) |
| 10 | # ''Calling on Dragons'' (1993) |
| 11 | # ''Talking to Dragons'' (1985; revised version 1993). |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The four associated short stories are: |
| 14 | * "The Improper Princess" -- first published in the anthology ''Spaceships and Spells'' (1987). It was later expanded into ''Dealing With Dragons''. |
| 15 | * "The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn" -- first published in the anthology ''The Unicorn Treasury'' (1988) and reprinted in Wrede's collection ''Book of Enchantments'' (1996). |
| 16 | * "Literature/TheSixtyTwoCursesOfCaliphArenschadd" -- first published in the anthology ''A Wizard's Dozen'' (1993) and reprinted in ''Book of Enchantments'' (1996). |
| 17 | * "Utensile Strength" -- first published in ''Book of Enchantments'' (1996); set after ''Talking to Dragons''. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | !!This series contains examples of: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | * AchievementsInIgnorance: Invoked for Daystar in ''Talking to Dragons'', since if he [[spoiler:rescued the King of the Enchanted Forest ''knowing'' that the sword he carried would only work for a blood relative of the king, the wizards would be able to track him down.]] Cimorene isn't happy when discussing this plan while Daystar is a baby, but she has no choice because [[spoiler:her husband has been taken hostage.]] |
| 23 | %%* ActionDressRip |
| 24 | * ActionGirl: Cimorene, who's a skilled fencer as a teenager (though she needs some practice to get back into fighting form after a few years of being forbidden from doing so) and eventually matures into... |
| 25 | * ActionMom: Sixteen years after Daystar is born, Cimorene still kicks wizard butt. |
| 26 | * AerithAndBob: Most characters have names like Cimorene and Mendanbar and Kazul and so on. However there are some ordinary-named characters like Jack, Herman, and Rachel. The "normal"-sounding names are all given to characters spoofing familiar fairy-tale characters: Jack for Jack and the Beanstalk (where a married pair of giants have been repeatedly robbed by human men uniformly named Jack), Herman for Rumplestiltskin (who didn't ''want'' to keep people's children and changed his name so that it would be easier to remember or guess), and Rachel for Rapunzel (who let down her ''chair'' to people who somehow got the words mangled up). |
| 27 | * AesopAmnesia: Averted by the protagonists, who learn from their experiences -- for instance, in "Utensile Strength", it's stated that [[CallBack a wizard once stole something out of the armory]], which caused no end of trouble; since that mess was straightened out, Mendanbar has put up spells that prevent magic from being used too close to the armory (including his and Daystar's means of magical transport). |
| 28 | * AffectionateParody |
| 29 | * AllWitchesHaveCats: |
| 30 | ** Morwen owns nine cats, and it's explained that the more cats a witch has, the more power she can channel. |
| 31 | ** Fire-witches also have cats -- Brandel's is Horatio, who begins a romance with Morwen's cat Scorn. Seventeen years later, Morwen gives Shiara a kitten, whom she names Nightwitch. |
| 32 | ** Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist is of the belief that "proper" witches have one black cat each, and anything else (like Morwen's having many, none of them black) goes against tradition and is therefore wrong. |
| 33 | * AppealToTradition: Done rather arrogantly by Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist, who constantly nags magical beings to act in a way he deems "traditional", rather than updating for the times (or simply because the new ways are more practical). |
| 34 | * ArrangedMarriage: Pops up twice. |
| 35 | ** In ''Dealing With Dragons'', Princess Cimorene's parents try to pawn off their difficult daughter on the braindead Prince Therandil and tell her she has no choice. Cimorene defies the trope by running away and becoming a dragon's princess instead, and later by arranging for Therandil to rescue and marry someone else. |
| 36 | ** In ''Searching for Dragons'', King Mendanbar of the Enchanted Forest finds himself eternally arguing with his steward, who pressures him to get married to ensure an heir. Three guesses who ends up married to whom, and the first two don't count. |
| 37 | * AvengingTheVillain: After the primary antagonist [[EvilSorcerer Zemenar]] is killed in ''Calling on Dragons'', his son Antorell works to avenge him -- although, actually, Antorell was ''already'' among the antagonists, so Zemenar's death just made him [[ItsPersonal angrier]] and ''very'' slightly less {{ineffectual|SympatheticVillain}}. |
| 38 | * AwesomeButImpractical: The Sword of the Enchanted Forest: powerful magical weapon, chooser of the heir to the kingdom... also good for plumbing. On the other hand, the sword leaks magical energy if you try to take it out of the Forest, and every magic user except its wielder can tell. Keeping it in a scabbard helps, but any time it's unsheathed or used, it's like sending out a homing signal for any magic-users. |
| 39 | * BabyAsPayment: In ''Searching for Dragons'', Cimorene and Mendanbar meet a dwarf whose grandfather (implied to be Rumplestiltskin) set up a deal with a princess, asking for her firstborn and part of the gold he had to spin for her in return for his aid, but if she could guess his name, she could keep the baby. Then he let her find out his name, and everyone went home happy. His grandson continues the set-up, making the same deals, but every single girl he runs into is too stupid to find out his name, so he ends up with the baby ''and'' the gold. And he's getting really tired of getting more children (he likes them well enough, there's just too ''many'' of them). |
| 40 | * BackToBackBadasses: One version of the cover art for ''Searching'' shows Mendanbar and Cimorene as such ([[CoversAlwaysLie in the actual story, they were fighting a bit of a distance away from each other]]). |
| 41 | * BadPowersBadPeople: |
| 42 | ** Wizards absorb magic from everything around them, unlike witches and magicians who study magic and use magical objects. It seems as if only an unscrupulous person would ''want'' to be a wizard in this universe, since the magic absorption process visibly harms sentient creatures and damages the environment. |
| 43 | ** In ''Talking to Dragons'', [[spoiler:after the battle, it is mentioned that a few of the wizards surrendered and were willing to cooperate with the allies of the Enchanted Forest. Although, their alternative was being eaten by dragons or they might’ve been disgusted with the actions committed by their own peers and willingly sided against them as it sounds like the plot to kill the King of the Enchanted Forest to steal all the forest’s magic was conceived by and known only to the most senior wizards.]] |
| 44 | * BagOfHolding: Sleeves, technically; Morwen's enchanted her sleeves to work like a backpack, although there are limits to the spell, at which point her sleeves get heavy. |
| 45 | * BeCarefulWhatYouSay: To the nth degree within the Enchanted Forest itself. If you make a promise, the Forest ''makes'' you keep it; it also makes it so Daystar and Shiara's respective desires (Daystar's for Shiara to be more polite and Shiara's for her magic to work) will come true after they touch hands briefly. |
| 46 | * BetaCouple: Morwen and Telemain. Also Alianora and the Stone Prince in the first book. |
| 47 | * BewitchedAmphibians: |
| 48 | ** Subverted with the talking frog that Cimorene meets in ''Dealing With Dragons'', though he's met a few who played it straight. |
| 49 | ** Later in ''Dealing With Dragons'', Alianora tells Cimorene that she was afraid Antorell would work this on them if they annoyed him too much. Cimorene replies that she doesn't think he's a very good wizard, and that he probably couldn't manage anything worse than a squirrel. |
| 50 | ** A frog prince is among the lingering enchantments found in Fire-Flower Meadow near the end of ''Searching For Dragons''. |
| 51 | ** Morwen is offended at the suggestion of turning someone into a toad, although she considers doing it to Arona Vamist because he irritates her so much. Her cats encourage it as they want something to play with. |
| 52 | ** In "Utensile Strength", Mendanbar foils an evil sorcerer's attempt to turn a knight into a pollywog. |
| 53 | * BiggerOnTheInside: Morwen's house, which appears to consist of one room, but has a back door enchanted to lead to any of about a dozen different rooms. |
| 54 | * {{Bizarchitecture}}: Thanks to centuries of previous kings making changes to the plans on a whim, the castle of the Enchanted Forest has quite a few strange quirks, such as numerous staircases that don't actually go anywhere (brought on by one King who was fond of sweeping up and down stairs in his best crown and long velvet robes) and a dungeon that can only be accessed from the sixth floor. |
| 55 | * BlessedWithSuck: The fact that Alianora ''wasn't'' cursed at her christening, despite the presence of an evil fairy who it is explained had a ''wonderful'' time at the christening party and was in too good a mood to bother, seems to have been the origin of so many problems in her life (most of them caused by her Aunt Emintrude, who keeps trying to force Alianora into fitting some sort of fairy tale archetype) that for years her family thought she might have been better ''off'' with a curse instead. On the other hand, Alianora ''has'' managed to accrue a number of BoringButPractical blessings such as never having problems with her teeth, not to mention that her unconventionality has made her the only princess besides Cimorene herself who is neither a BrainlessBeauty nor an AlphaBitch. |
| 56 | * {{Blessing}}: The relatives of Princess Alianora attempted to invoke this. They sent Alianora into the forest with a loaf of bread, expecting her to encounter a fairy disguised as a beggar-woman who would bless Alianora. But instead of a blessing that diamonds and roses would drop from her mouth whenever she spoke, the blessing was that Alianora would never have any problems with her teeth. |
| 57 | * BlobMonster: The quozzel in ''Talking to Dragons'', which looks like a four-foot mobile tower of blackberry jelly. |
| 58 | * BrainlessBeauty: Most of the princesses and the princes too. Though Cimorene notes that it's not as though the poor dears can help it, given the typical education of one. |
| 59 | * BullyingADragon: |
| 60 | ** Wizards trying to threaten dragons, as well as dragons' princesses. It gets to the point that they need a traitor, which they get from Woraug. |
| 61 | ** Arona Vamist goes out of his way to make himself hated by a group of notoriously temperamental people that can set things on fire with their minds. This might have been excusable in that he at least protected himself against their retribution by allying himself with wizards, but he continues his boneheaded streak by ''literally'' trying to invoke this trope by taking severe exception to the intellectual positions held by Kazul -- not just '''a''' dragon, but the King of the Dragons! And to make it worse, the argument is over the behavior of dragons, which Kazul is naturally an expert on. |
| 62 | * BurningWithAnger: Fire witches' hair tends to [[FlamingHair burst into flames]] when they get angry enough. |
| 63 | * CardCarryingVillain: As a member of the Men's Auxiliary of the ''Right Honorable WickedStepmother's Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society'', Prince Rupert has a reputation to uphold as an EvilUncle. [[MinionWithAnFInEvil When it comes to the actual "evil" part, though...]] |
| 64 | * CatsAreMagic: Morwen's cats, who have their own magic and augment her own when she needs them to. |
| 65 | * CatsAreSnarkers: Morwen observes that it's a good thing only witches can understand cats, and only their ''own'' cats, because her horde tends to be pretty irreverent. |
| 66 | * TheChainsOfCommanding: Mendanbar to a degree, although his inner monologue presents him as more sarcastic than angsty. He doesn't have any use for conventional formality, but he's very serious about his real responsibilities, almost to a fault when he tries to ''personally'' resolve all of the kingdom's problems. Both Morwen and Cimorene observe that he's visibly worn out from trying to do everything by himself. |
| 67 | * ChekhovsSkill: |
| 68 | ** Cimorene tires of the traditional princess training regime, so forces various members of her parents' staff to teach her more masculine skills, like swordfighting and politics. ''All'' of these skills become useful at various points in her career. |
| 69 | ** Interestingly, though, Cimorene finds herself mentally apologizing to her protocol teacher early in ''Dealing''; it had been one of her most hated classes, but learning about the importance of seating arrangements proves useful when she's serving dessert for a dinner party of dragons. |
| 70 | * ChildMarriageVeto: |
| 71 | ** [[RebelliousPrincess Cimorene]] goes to live with the dragons as her way of vetoing her parents' attempt to marry her off to the son of a neighboring king, since she can't stand Therandil. She vetoes further proposals by sending away all the knights and princes who try to come and rescue her, sending most of them off to rescue other princesses instead. In the second book, she finally marries King Mendanbar after legitimately falling for him. |
| 72 | ** In "Utensile Strength", Princess Annalisa refuses to marry her EvilUncle Rothbern the Great, who'd usurped her kingdom and wanted to marry her to cement his rule. |
| 73 | * ColdBloodedTorture: In the BackStory of one fire-witch. [[spoiler: It's how she made her castle invisible.]] |
| 74 | * ContainmentField: Introduced (chronologically) in ''Searching for Dragons'', where a vastly enhanced version of a standard reptile restraint spell is used to imprison Kazul. In ''Calling on Dragons'', the wizards then use a similar spell around the Castle of the King of the Enchanted Forest to keep the dragons and their allies from getting in, and then (sometime after the battle is done) the dragons, with Telemain's help, duplicate it and put up their own version to keep the ''wizards'' out of the castle. The only way to remove the wizards' version, both times, is with the King's sword. |
| 75 | * ContinuityNod: In ''Dealing'', Cimorene sneaks out of the castle for the first and only time by using an {{invisibility}} spell. In ''Searching'', Mendanbar sneaks out of the castle specifically ''not'' using an invisibility spell, because he's apparently done it so many times that by now it'd be "cheating". |
| 76 | * CookingDuel: In "Utensile Strength", a cooking competition is used to determine the rightful owner of a magical FryingPanOfDoom. [[ChefOfIron All of the contestants are warriors.]] And when Mendanbar decides to call it off after [[spoiler:the rightful owner is found before the competition starts]], they insist on going ahead with the competition anyway, since some of them have really been looking forward to it. |
| 77 | * CoolAndUnusualPunishment: |
| 78 | ** Near the end of ''Searching'', Cimorene and Mendanbar suggest to Prince Rupert that being an EvilUncle would actually mean more if he made his nephew do something that said nephew didn't like, with the boy being TooKinkyToTorture. They then recommend sending the nephew to boarding school, where he'll get an education to become a proper prince. |
| 79 | ** Near the end ''Calling'', as punishment for his crimes against the Enchanted Forest, Arona Vamist is [[spoiler:made to take on all Killer's transformations, returning Killer to normal and turning Arona into a six-foot -- sorry, [[InsistentTerminology seven-foot, eleven-inch (counting the ears)]] -- floating blue donkey with wings... and with a bald patch, reflecting his human form being bald]]. |
| 80 | * CoolButInefficient: Literal with most wizards. They tend to be a theatrical lot and their spells create lightshows and loud sounds, all of which are a result of the excess magic that's not being used in the actual spell. The more skilled and dangerous wizards can control their magic to such a degree that only the desired effect of the spell occurs. |
| 81 | * CoolGate: |
| 82 | ** Morwen has a magic door that's linked to multiple extra rooms, including a library, study, magic workshop, storage area, and several bedrooms, and notes that there's space for at least three or four more rooms before she'd have to add a second door. |
| 83 | ** Mendanbar has a similar, but less effective, door in one of his castle attics that takes the person all the way back to the ground floor. Unfortunately, it's one-way, so whoever uses it still has to climb seventeen flights of stairs to get to the attic in the first place. |
| 84 | * CreepyCave: |
| 85 | ** Downplayed in ''Dealing with Dragons''. Cimorene is gainfully employed by Kazul, and she does her best to make her employer's cave homey, but she still finds it rather gloomy at times. Later in the book, she has to traverse a large connected system of magical caves with their own peculiar rules and dangers. The journey is portrayed as harrowing, but not terrifying. |
| 86 | ** In the scariest chapter of ''Talking to Dragons'', the main characters travel through the Caves of Chance, a large network of caves with peculiar properties. They are pursued throughout by a creepy, sapient, jelly-like lifeform called a "quozzel," which at one point causes a cave-in trying to kill them all. |
| 87 | * CreepyUncle: Rothben the Great from "Utensile Strength", who usurped the throne of the Gracious Islands and wants to marry his niece to cement his power, much to her disgust. |
| 88 | * CrystalBall: |
| 89 | ** The King's Crystal can scry as well as foretell the future, but it's actually a flat plate instead of a sphere. Morwen has a more conventional ball. |
| 90 | ** The dwarf Herman has a window in his house that can show distant things, which is used by Cimorene for discovering what became of Kazul during ''Searching for Dragons''. It breaks however when she tries to find Kazul's location with its magic. |
| 91 | ** Later on, in ''Calling on Dragons'', Brandel has a magic mirror that can serve the same purpose of scrying, though it's cranky and won't cooperate unless they specify what they're looking for in rhyme. |
| 92 | * CurseEscapeClause: The usual cure for being turned to stone is to be kissed, or via water from the Living Spring. [[spoiler: Prince Riddle's transformation into a cat is more specific: it can only be reversed if he's kissed by a princess who's drunk water from a unicorn's pool. The queen who enchanted him did it specifically so he'd be forced to marry her extremely unpleasant daughter, who already met the requirement and could have broken the spell... had he not escaped and, eventually, found another princess who wound up becoming able to break the curse.]] |
| 93 | * CursedWithAwesome: The stone prince finds that being made of stone comes in quite useful when a dragon tries to chomp on you. The unpleasant Woraug ends up chipping a tooth, and the prince complains that he's also been chipped. |
| 94 | * DamselOutOfDistress: Princess Annalisa in "Utensile Strength" when her EvilUncle tries to kidnap her. Cimorene notes that Rothbern wouldn't get far anyway with attempting a kidnapping in the Enchanted Forest and Mendanbar nullifying the man's magic, let alone a horde of heroes and knights competing, but Annalisa solves the problem by [[spoiler:using the Frying Pan of Doom to turn the man into a poached egg]]. |
| 95 | * DeathbringerTheAdorable: Killer the rabbit. On meeting him Morwen thinks to herself that rabbits have very odd ideas about names, probably because they have to come up with [[ExplosiveBreeder so many of them]]. He ''is'' hit with a variety of transformational spells, but they don't do much to make him more fearsome, just ridiculous, and he's about as brave as you would probably expect an ordinary rabbit to be. |
| 96 | * DefeatedAndTrophified: In ''Talking to Dragons'', the evil fire witch keeps all the people she has turned to stone as statues in the courtyard around her invisible castle. |
| 97 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Brought up in ''Dealing With Dragons'', in which Kazul mentions the time someone decided to drown a giant in a lake and, since he didn't think about the displacement effect this would have on the water, wound up causing a huge flood. |
| 98 | * DisposableFiance: Therandil is a case of Bland Perfection. Cimorene starts trying to dispose of him the moment she learns that he ''is'' her fiancé, and eventually sets things up for him to marry another princess. |
| 99 | * TheDitz: |
| 100 | ** It becomes clear rather quickly that Antorell isn't very bright. In ''Dealing With Dragons'', he accidentally lets it slip that a security spell his father proposed for Kazul's lair was very easy to do (judging by Zemenar's reaction, Cimorene guessed that he was planning to pretend it was difficult, as an excuse to snoop around). In ''Searching For Dragons'', he comes to visit Cimorene in, what she points out, is a very suspicious manner (he comes blundering in the back way without announcing himself or bringing a candle). In ''Calling On Dragons'', he is captured by one of Morwen's ''cats'' (he was shrunk at the time granted, but still), and is referred to by Telemain as "the wizard Cimorene keeps melting". The epilogue has Cimorene tell how he was so determined to get revenge on her that when he found her hiding place, he walked right past Mendanbar's magic sword and Cimorene's child and tripped over Kazul's tail before he was melted. In ''Talking To Dragons'', he completely loses any intelligence he has, being melted by Cimorene in the ''first chapter'' just after boasting that he will kill her and take the sword and Daystar. From there, he continues to ineffectually stalk Daystar until he [[spoiler:is finally gotten rid of when he decides to sic a monster on Cimorene...right after her son just learned how to effectively wield the sword that ''channeled all magic in the forest''.]] |
| 101 | ** Arona Vamist from ''Calling on Dragons'' counts in a ''big'' way. He basically decides for no reason to act as a weird variation of a MoralGuardian, trying to force people to conform to the "traditional" ways for things -- forcing witches to have one black cat, driving an angry group of Fire Witches out of town, etc. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:he did have some protection from the wizards]], but that doesn't explain why, when [[spoiler:he lost said protection]], he thought it was a good idea to contradict Kazul of all people on the behavior of dragons. He also tried to take the moral high ground against the protagonists "kidnapping" him, even though [[spoiler:he was an accomplice to the wizards stealing Mendanbar's sword, which also meant he was an accomplice to their plan of invading the Enchanted Forest.]] |
| 102 | * DoomedByCanon: The situation previously established in ''Talking to Dragons'' requires that ''Calling on Dragons'' have a less than happy ending. |
| 103 | * DoomyDoomsOfDoom: The Frying Pan of Doom. (The enchanter intended to create "The Sword of Doom", but he tripped over his pet pig and enchanted his wife's best frying pan instead.) |
| 104 | * DragonsPreferPrincesses: And apparently use them as live-in maids, despite the fact that out of all the Princesses being held prisoner by the various dragons in the Mountains of Morning, Cimorene is the only one who actually knows anything about housekeeping. |
| 105 | * DragonsVersusKnights: Cimorene gets to read up on a history book which, in a setting where knights register in her life as annoyances and she lives with dragons by choice, details a history of dragons that includes the crimes typically associated with them, "defeating knights and princes" and, it registers as the exception, "occasionally being defeated by them". |
| 106 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: |
| 107 | ** In ''Searching'', Cimorene mentions that she thinks a snake ate a toad-ified Woraug. |
| 108 | ** At the end of the third book Kazul rather offhandedly [[spoiler:informs the protagonists that she ate Zemenar offscreen.]] |
| 109 | * ElementalHairColors: Fire witches invariably have red hair (which tends to [[FlamingHair burst into flames]] when [[BurningWithAnger they get angry enough]].) |
| 110 | * EmpathicWeapon: The Sword of Kings makes many judgment calls on its own, including the selection of the heir designate. |
| 111 | * EnchantedWeapon: The Sword of the Kings is able to aid in casting spells or undo them, along with absording and attracting magic in general. |
| 112 | * EnchantedForest: The Enchanted Forest itself, which is unpredictable but ''usually'' benign. It still has its dangers though, such as nightshades. |
| 113 | * EnergyAbsorption: Wizards' staffs have the capacity to suck up ambient magic, which is at best discomfiting and at worst fatal to any ''living'' target. The Sword of the Enchanted Forest also works as this, as it can absorb the magics that Wizards use. |
| 114 | * EveryoneCanSeeIt: DoubleSubverted with Cimorene and Mendanbar. Quite a few characters they encounter in ''Searching'' assume they are a couple or about to become one, for no other reason than they are a guy and a girl traveling together. But the assumptions turn out to be RightForTheWrongReasons as they fall for each other anyway. |
| 115 | * EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Played with when Woraug turns into a toad after displaying un-dragonlike behavior. |
| 116 | * EvilRedhead: Subverted in the case of fire-witches. While they are shown to have nasty tempers and are prone to tantrums, nearly all of the ones mentioned or seen are generally quite helpful to the protagonists. [[spoiler:Played straight by the one that Daystar and his companions meet.]] |
| 117 | * EvilUncle: |
| 118 | ** The villain in "Utensile Strength" is a sorcerer who has usurped his niece's throne. |
| 119 | ** Prince Rupert, technically, although he's actually a milquetoast who ''likes'' his nephew. He's also rather annoyed that his sibling and in-law ran off questing rather than running the country, indicating he'd rather not play EvilRegent if he did not have to to keep his membership. |
| 120 | ** There's an entire ''group'' for them in the "Right Honorable Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society" -- their 'Men's Auxiliary', while officially meant for wicked stepfathers, mostly consists of uncles. |
| 121 | ** While not precisely evil, Alianora's Great-Aunt Ermintrude has spent most of her life putting Alianora in danger for the sake of propriety. She did everything from inviting a wicked fairy to the princess's christening to ensuring that Alianora would end up kidnapped by a dragon. |
| 122 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Ford of Whispering Snakes, a ford where snakes whisper things at the people present. |
| 123 | * ExactWords: Addressed a couple of times; see IGaveMyWord below. |
| 124 | ** Discussed in ''Calling on Dragons'', where the sword Cimorene wields is supposed to make it impossible for the user to be defeated. Cimorene then adds that "Getting killed isn't the same as being defeated." |
| 125 | * ExploitedImmunity: Witches melt in water, and wizards melt in ''soapy'' water (with some lemon juice). At one point Zemenar uses the witch Morwen as a shield, so the stone prince gets both of them with the cleaning solution, correctly deducing that "no one who lives in a house as clean as Morwen's could possibly melt in a bucket of soapsuds". |
| 126 | ** It's debatable whether Morwen would actually melt in water, given that only her cats decline baths in ''Calling on Dragons'' (though given that CatsHateWater, it's to be expected). She does cite "clean living" as the reason she doesn't melt, which may imply that only evil witches have that weakness. |
| 127 | * ExtremelyDustyHome: When Daystar and Shiara enter the castle of the King of the Enchanted Forest in ''Talking to Dragons'', they note that while the wizards' shield spell kept out the spiders and cobwebs, it didn't do a thing about the dust that's built up in the past seventeen years. Mendanbar then magically cleans it all away in moments soon after he's freed. |
| 128 | * EyeOfNewt: Usually in passing Morwen will mention what components are going into her spells. In the first book Cimorene spends quite a bit of time trying to collect increasingly obscure components and had the most trouble locating a set of powdered hens' teeth. |
| 129 | * EyelashFluttering: In ''Dealing with Dragons'' it's mentioned that this is a technique taught to princesses and other women whose role in a traditional fantasy world is to be {{Distressed Damsel}}s; moreover, that it's most effective when the male target is OneHeadTaller than the female, so that she can look up at him through her eyelashes. This is a problem for Cimorene, who is the same height as most men and thus couldn't pull off the trope effectively even if she wanted to. |
| 130 | * FairyGodmother: |
| 131 | ** Cimorene has one, who tries to convince her to act like a traditional princess and keeps in touch with her parents. When Cimorene tells her she's tired of being a princess, her fairy godmother insists she's just going through a phase and advises the King and Queen to marry her off as soon as possible. |
| 132 | ** [[spoiler: Princess Annalisa from "Utensile Strength" also has one who, after Rothbern usurps power in her kingdom, helps her escape to the Enchanted Forest so she can hide as a scullery maid; Cimorene remarks that she's probably a traditionalist and didn't think about doing something actually helpful, like aiding Annalisa regain her kingdom.]] |
| 133 | * FantasticFruitsAndVegetables: Book 3 (''Calling On Dragons'') has the travelers stop near a farm (run by a man named [=MacDonald=]), who's currently only growing fruits and vegetables of this type -- or in some cases, normal-looking ones that replicate the effects of plants from classic fairy tale settings. These include peas that are hard as a rock to scatter on the floor and expose visiting princesses disguised as men (or to stick under their mattress to expose the ones disguised as peasants, as in the story of ''The Princess and the Pea''), straw designed to be spun into gold, four kinds of grain that come from the same plant so it's harvested premixed (for people who want to test someone by making them sort out the different kinds), beans that jump or grow giant stalks, apples in several varieties of poisoned or gold, extra large pumpkins for turning into coaches, and walnuts with almost anything inside. |
| 134 | * FantasticLivestock: Book 3 (''Calling On Dragons'') has the travelers stop near a farm (run by a man named [=MacDonald=]), who's currently only growing [[FantasticFruitsAndVegetables magical vegetables]] (or in some cases, vegetables used in standard fairy tale arrangements) but plans to branch out soon and include livestock of this type: |
| 135 | -->"Oh, little dogs that laugh, winged horses, geese that lay golden eggs, that sort of thing." |
| 136 | * FantasticScience: Telemain, a magician, researches spells and magic in general with a scientific mindset, carefully studying every aspect he can to learn more. He often explains his findings however in MagiBabble most other people can't understand well. |
| 137 | * FantasyCounterpartAppliance: Although the {{Magic Mirror}}s are clearly designed for scrying, in ''Calling'' they're used basically as videophones. |
| 138 | * FieryRedhead: Fire-witches, who, as the name implies, specialize in PlayingWithFire, and they have ElementalHairColors to match. They are shown to have nasty tempers and are prone to tantrums. |
| 139 | * FisherKing: The Enchanted Forest itself apparently has a kind of low-level sentience, which is linked to the status of its king. If he dies, the forest reacts in a dramatic fashion. As Morwen mentions (and her cat Trouble confirms), reflecting on a prior such occasion, "none of us got any sleep for three weeks". |
| 140 | * FlamingHair: Fire witches' hair tends to burst into flames when [[BurningWithAnger they get angry enough]]. |
| 141 | * FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Telemain and Morwen have a RelationshipUpgrade after she supervises his recovery from an injury received in the battle against the wizards. It's not clear how much vulnerability and tenderness comes into it; since it's Telemain and Morwen, it mostly involves Morwen bossing Telemain around so he won't throw himself back into his research and forget to take things slowly. |
| 142 | * FlyingBroomstick: Morwen uses a broomstick, is mentioned to have once "flown home on a borrowed rake", and later enchants a giant basket to fly. Telemain doesn't like it. Morwen insists it's because you're meant to ride them sidesaddle. |
| 143 | * ForcedTransformation: Quite a few. |
| 144 | ** ''Dealing with Dragons'' mentions that such magic would've been taught to Cimorene, were she better at magic, as it's more advanced than the {{Invisibility}} spell that is the best she can cast. |
| 145 | ** Woraug's own biology/inherent magic does this to him. As Kazul explains it, "when a dragon stops behaving like a dragon", as Waurog had, they automatically turn into a toad instead. |
| 146 | ** During the wedding preparations at the end of ''Searching For Dragons'', Mendanbar and Telemain go over Fire-Flower Meadow to make sure all the fire-flowers are gone and to deal with any lingering enchantments. They find and disenchant two princesses who've been turned into pinks (a species of flower), a frog prince and a hedgehog who'd once been someone's groom, and then invite all of them to the wedding once they're cured. |
| 147 | ** In ''Calling on Dragons'', Killer is accidentally hit with multiple ones that ''stack''. [[spoiler:They're eventually transferred to Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist.]] |
| 148 | ** The Frying Pan of Doom has this effect when the rightful owner wields it and strikes a person, [[spoiler:in this case a princess whose uncle tries to kidnap her in full view of a dozen knights and kings]]. Its target [[spoiler:gets turned into an enormous poached egg]], which has the benefit of making everyone nearby lose their appetite. |
| 149 | * FourthDateMarriage: Since this is based in a fairy tale setting, this is quite common. |
| 150 | ** Cimorene and Mendanbar go from "I can't imagine marrying anybody" to "I'm not sure I trust you" to "Let's get married and live happily ever after" in about a week. |
| 151 | ** Averted for Daystar and Shiara; at the end of a similarly eventful week, they've decided to keep seeing each other, but haven't made any decisions about the long-term course of their relationship. (Also played with: the title of the final chapter promises an engagement and a happy ending, but the engagement turns out to be Morwen and Telemain deciding to take the step from bickering LikeAnOldMarriedCouple to actually being married.) |
| 152 | ** Princess Elyssa and [[spoiler: Prince Riddle]] agree to get married after about a day or so of traveling together. [[spoiler: And about two minutes after she breaks the spell on him -- he'd been turned into a cat previously.]] |
| 153 | * FracturedFairyTale |
| 154 | * FryingPanOfDoom: |
| 155 | ** Buckets of soapy water (with lemon juice; don't forget the lemon juice) have an interesting effect on... ''wizards''. Not witches. (Although the one witch who's ever been in its path was a particularly tidy one and therefore not prone to melting.) |
| 156 | ** The short story collection ''Book of Enchantments'' has an actual Frying Pan of Doom, which OnlyTheChosenMayWield, though others can ''hold'' it with the right safety measures. |
| 157 | * FunctionalMagic: Good writeup of the series' use of magic here. |
| 158 | * FunnyAnsweringMachine: Variant in ''Calling on Dragons'' -- the gargoyle in Mendanbar's study is put in charge of answering their magic mirror, and tends to be pretty snarky when it does so. Cimorene knows full well how it answers and finds it both funny and useful, since it cuts down on the stupid questions people might ask when they call. |
| 159 | * GenderBender: A throwaway line early in ''Dealing'' indicates that dragons are born sexless and choose a gender when they become adults. Yet when a female dragon becomes ruler, they are crowned King regardless of gender, though many readers (and even Cimorene for a brief instance) expected this trope. It turns out that "King of the Dragons" is just a job title that is gender-neutral, and that no one has been Queen of the Dragons for years because it's boring. Though, the last holder of that title was in fact male. |
| 160 | * GenieInABottle: Cimorene lets loose a genie who [[HowWouldYouLikeToDie promises to kill her]], though she evades it through a legal loophole, due to the genie having been let out a few hundred years early. |
| 161 | * GenreSavvy: ''Everyone'' is this. Fairy tale tropes are part of the characters' daily life, expectations and conversation. That's one reason why Cimorene runs away -- she wants something other than being forced into a role that she finds mindlessly boring with a prince who's just as bad if not worse. |
| 162 | * GirlInTheTower: Brandel's sister Rachel was continually bugged by adventurers thinking she was this and seeking to rescue her when she was simply a girl who literally happened to be living in a tower of her own free will. After moving out and leaving the place to her brother, they now bother him, as they are unable to get their heads around the notion that she doesn't live there anymore. |
| 163 | * HappilyAdopted: Herman the dwarf in ''Searching for Dragons'' wound up raising many, many human children whose mothers left them with him. Though he's burdened with the task, he is a loving adoptive father to them even so. |
| 164 | * HarmlessVillain: Prince Rupert is here, if there isn't a rank ''lower''. He's not remotely evil, and is in fact in danger of being kicked out of the Men's Auxiliary of the Right Honorable Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society for not being villainous enough. |
| 165 | * HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: Cimorene has two: |
| 166 | ** Therandil, who she's the RunawayFiancee of. |
| 167 | ** Mendanbar, where EveryoneCanSeeIt. |
| 168 | * HowWouldYouLikeToDie: Jinns, if let out of their bottles, always ask their liberator this question. Cimorene decides to TakeAThirdOption, saying [[spoiler: "Old age]]." |
| 169 | * IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: |
| 170 | ** The book titles all follow the format ''[Gerund] [Preposition] Dragons''. |
| 171 | ** See also InWhichATropeIsDescribed for the chapter titles. |
| 172 | * IdiotBall: The Stone Prince is generally one of the smarter characters in ''Dealing With Dragons'', but he became a walking, talking statue because of this trope, and he's well aware of it -- despite ''knowing'' that he should use the tin dipper and not the golden one to draw healing water from the magic well, he couldn't resist taking the gold one down from its hook just to ''look'' at it for a minute. Cimorene mentally lampshades that he behaved foolishly in that instant, but decides not to say so to his face because she can also tell that he's well aware of how foolish he was at that time. To be fair to the prince, he didn't ''know'' that just touching the gold dipper would trigger the enchantment (he thought you had to actually try to ''use'' it before the magic kicked in), and then when realized what was happening he saved himself from being completely TakenForGranite with some very quick thinking which Cimorene ''does'' acknowledge out loud. |
| 173 | * IGaveMyWord: Apparently breaking promises in the Enchanted Forest is a really bad idea. |
| 174 | ** Daystar almost uses this exact phrase when he promises to try to do whatever he can to help out a princess -- and she asks that he hand over his magic sword. |
| 175 | * ImmuneToFire: In book 1 (''Dealing With Dragons''), Princesses Cimorene and Alianora cast a spell to make themselves immune to fire, so as to keep from being accidentally burned by a dragon if they suddenly lose their temper. The initial casting requires a ritual, but renewing it when it wears off takes only a simple rhyme and a pinch of feverfew. This gets a callback in ''Calling on Dragons'' when Cimorene is able to use it ''without'' the feverfew; the book also introduces fire witches, who are naturally immune to fire. |
| 176 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: Anyone who uses the FryingPanOfDoom from "Utensile Strength", or buckets of soapy lemon water against wizards. |
| 177 | * IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Pretty much nothing ever seems to go right for Antorell. He's not clever, not all that good a wizard, both his enemies and his own allies (including his father) largely hold him in contempt, and he's melted in every single book at least once. He doggedly continues to try and pit himself against Cimorene despite the fact that the result is the same every single time. If he weren't a villain (and didn't transform into a SmugSnake every time he thought he held the upper hand), you might be inclined to feel pity for him. |
| 178 | -->"Ought I to be taking this person seriously?" the stone prince said in a rather doubtful tone. |
| 179 | * InformedObscenity: A dragon apologizes for saying "By George!" There's [[Literature/SaintGeorgeAndTheDragon a reason]] that name would be shocking to dragons... |
| 180 | * InterspeciesFriendship: Morwen's cat Jasper is friends with a couple of the mice that live in the castle of the King of the Enchanted Forest. He keeps it quiet though, since he'd never hear the end of it if some of the other cats found out. |
| 181 | * InsubstantialIngredients: In ''Dealing with Dragons'', Cimorene needs hens' teeth to complete a spell of protection against fire, which naturally prove quite hard to find. She eventually gets the ingredient from a genie's wish. |
| 182 | * {{Invisibility}}: A type of magic used in ''Dealing with Dragons'', and is less advanced than transformation spells. |
| 183 | * InWhichATropeIsDescribed: All the chapter titles, such as "In Which Morwen and Telemain Argue and Killer Discovers the Perils of Mixing Cosmetics and Magic". |
| 184 | ** A particularly good example: "In Which The Plot Thickens", followed shortly by "In Which The Plot Positively Curdles". |
| 185 | * ItsWhatIDo: |
| 186 | --> "He's been trying to figure out how the wizards work their spells," Mendanbar [[TranslatorBuddy explained]], "but he hasn't done it yet."\ |
| 187 | "Why do you want to know that?" Cimorene asked Telemain with renewed suspicion.\ |
| 188 | "Because that's what I do!" Telemain said. |
| 189 | ** Specifically, "what he does" is research magic, trying to find the underlying ur-spell in any given magical rite, as well as experimental magic. His house has two stairwells, one of which only goes up and the other only down, apparently for no other reason than he was experimenting and those were the nearest handy sets of stairs. |
| 190 | * JackOfAllTrades: The aptly-named Jack. He mostly does peddling and minor repairs. He does ''not'' do giants. |
| 191 | * KarmicTransformation: For Woraug this is explicit, but Arona Vamist qualifies too. |
| 192 | * KindheartedCatLover: The witch Morwen has cats in every color except black. |
| 193 | * KilledOffscreen: Cimorene ''thinks'' this happened to Woraug after he turned into a toad. Later, for all that [[spoiler:Zemenar]] was shaping up to be the series' BigBad, his death is only mentioned in passing: [[spoiler:Kazul ate him at some point during the offscreen battle in the Enchanted Forest]]. |
| 194 | * KillerRabbit: Subverted with the ironically named Killer. He's an ordinary rabbit that gets caught up in eating many strange plants, each of which cause him to undergo various transformations. His big appetite manages to save Cimorene at a crucial time, but he's more benevolent and stupid even when magically changed into a flying donkey. |
| 195 | * KingInTheMountain: Late in book 3, [[spoiler:Mendanbar gets trapped in a small pocket realm by Zemenar]] and is stuck there until Daystar can free him in the climax of book 4. |
| 196 | * LaymansTerms: Telemain's technical babble on magic often needs to be translated. |
| 197 | * LessonsInSophistication: Cimorene's introduction is a review of her attempts to get better training than her standard Princess Lessons could provide, explaining that she has random cooking, fencing, and Latin skills because she'd bully experts in interesting subjects until they tutored her, much to the chagrin of her parents, who insisted these were not subjects for a "proper" princess to learn. ''All'' of these lessons -- including the boring ones -- turn out to be [[ChekhovsSkill Chekhov's Skills]]. |
| 198 | ** The only "princess" skill that is of any use to Cimorene is protocol, but only because she learned place settings with it and knows who to serve first. |
| 199 | * LiteralGenie: This ''may'' have happened with the genie encountered by Cimorene and her unwanted fiancé Therandil. Therandil wishes to defeat a dragon in battle and rescue "his" captive princess. Cimorene then points out that Kazul, her dragon, is '''female''', and thus the wish doesn't apply to her. Since both of them were actually happier with the idea of Therandil defeating a ''male'' dragon and rescuing a more "traditional" princess, they never actually try to find out if the wish was indeed literal. |
| 200 | * LivingStatue: The Stone Prince in ''Dealing with Dragons'', who got to be this way when he went on a quest to obtain some of the Water of Healing from a magic spring. He was offered the choice of using a plain or a gem-encrusted ladle to fetch the water, and knew that the second one was a trap. However, he figured it [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong couldn't hurt]] to just ''look'' at the fancy ladle, which started turning him to stone as soon as he touched it. So he stuck his other hand in the magical spring, which stopped him being TakenForGranite. |
| 201 | * TheLoad: Killer. A rabbit turned into a floating blue donkey, Killer spends the whole story whining about not getting enough to eat, eating things that are obviously magical and dangerous despite being warned numerous times and despite having suffered bad consequences already from it, whining about being in danger that his own actions have put him into and thus requiring rescue, whining about having to carry an incapacitated Telemain, and in general being an all-around useless pain to the heroes. The heroes only take him along because Telemain thinks he can use what's left of the wizards' size-changing spell on him to locate their headquarters once they get close enough... which turns out to be completely unnecessary, though he ''does'' come in useful a few times. |
| 202 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: For most of ''Talking to Dragons'', Daystar has no clear idea what's going on, and the various people who do know refuse to enlighten him. There is a good reason for this, however: [[spoiler:if he was informed of what the sword he was carrying was and what his possessing it meant (that he was prince of the Enchanted Forest), the wizards could use magic to find him.]] |
| 203 | * LongList: Willin carries around one for ''everything'' -- caves in the Enchanted Forest Kingdom, formal occasions the kingdom no longer holds, torture implements once stocked in the dungeon... |
| 204 | * LoopholeAbuse: a downplayed version. The stone prince quickly sticking his arm in the healing spring after touching the golden ladle as he knew that the water would turn all the other enchanted princes back to normal when someone successfully completed the quest so he thought it would prevent the enchantment on the golden ladle from taking effect. Apparently whoever enchanted the golden ladle hadn’t expected anyone to do that and thus only his physical appearance was changed in that he was made of stone but still able to think and move about. Even Cimorene acknowledges his quick and sound course of action of utilizing the spring as being “smart”. |
| 205 | * LordErrorProne: |
| 206 | ** Therandil keeps trying to rescue Cimorene and screwing it up (quite apart from her not wanting to be "rescued" at all), and then accidentally looses a genie who wants to kill them both. |
| 207 | ** Daystar and Shiara meet a young knight who only survives his first encounter with a dragon because it's a young one who doesn't actually want to fight him either. He seems to mostly do things because his girlfriend, a princess who's the DistaffCounterpart of this trope, tells him to, including running off into the woods. |
| 208 | * LoyalPhlebotinum: Mendanbar's sword. It works only for the king or heir of the Enchanted Forest, although a family member can carry it safely. Even ''Morwen'' can't hold it without feeling like she's getting burned, despite only wanting to save Cimorene's life by doing so. |
| 209 | * MadeOfTemptation: There are two dippers next to the Water of Healing. The correct one to use is plain tin. The other is gold and gem-encrusted, and turns you to stone if you pick it up. Every prince who goes on a quest for the Water of Healing is told to use the tin one, but most of them think they know better and turn to stone until one with sense comes along and uses some of the water on them. This happens again and again; even the prince Cimorene gets the story from in ''Dealing With Dragons'', who ''explicitly'' knew better, still gave in to the temptation to take the damn golden dipper off its hook to look at it... which is why he's "the stone prince". (To be fair, he admits that he didn't realize that just ''touching'' it was enough to activate the magic -- he thought you had to actually try to ''use'' it before it would enchant you.) |
| 210 | * MageSpecies: Aside from the WitchClassic type like Morwen and the other members of the Deadly Nightshade Gardening Club, there's also Fire Witches, who have control over fire (including their hair bursting into flame when they get mad), have a natural control over spells (even other people's), and are generally immune to magic effects. It's also possible for them to have {{Muggle}} kids -- just very unlikely. |
| 211 | * MagiBabble: Telemain speaks in nothing but, at least when he's talking shop, to others' annoyance. Mendanbar frequently has to translate them into LaymansTerms. |
| 212 | * MagicalSociety: The Society of Wizards is one, and they're recurring antagonists in the books, with a High Wizard as their head. |
| 213 | * MagicCauldron: The giantess Ballimore's Cauldron of Plenty, mentioned a few times across the series. It can produce almost any food on demand, and she has no issue lending it out to her neighbors when they're planning a banquet. The only catch is that it can't do desserts, except for burnt mint custard and sour-cream-and-onion ice cream. |
| 214 | * MagicMirror: Several of them; mostly used for communication, but they can also be used to find things. The one in Brandel's tower, which he inherited from his sister (and which ''she'' inherited from a sorceress) is exceptionally cranky when they try to use it; Morwen mentions that her own first magic mirror used to be cranky in the mornings too. |
| 215 | * MassiveNumberedSiblings: Cimorene is [[RuleOfSeven the seventh]] of her parents' children, who are also all daughters. |
| 216 | * MenCantKeepHouse: Gender-neutral with the dragons, whose homes tend to be full of stuff just lying around; while cleaning, Cimorene thinks to herself that dragons in general aren't very tidy creatures. Of the three main dragons whose caves were seen or had their status referenced, Kazul's is the tidiest (though Cimorene still winds up picking up a lot of stuff that's just lying around where it doesn't belong), Kazul tells Cimorene (after visiting them for the first time) that the official vaults for the King of the Dragons are in even worse shape than Kazul's were when Cimorene first moved in, and Roxim's caves in particular are full of clutter to the point where he has a hard time finding anything and is visibly frustrated about it; Cimorene winds up having to help him find the item he's looking for. This is part of why they have princesses, to act as live-in maids and keep things clean and organized for them; after seeing the abysmal state of Roxim's caves, Cimorene makes a mental note to find a nice princess for him who can handle the job. |
| 217 | * MistakenForTransformed: Early in ''Dealing With Dragons'', Princess Cimorene meets a talking frog and, because of his ability to speak, briefly thinks said frog might be an enchanted prince. He's not, but he's "met a couple of them, and after a while you pick up a few things". |
| 218 | * MobileMaze: The forest constantly shifts itself about. Having a will of its own, it often acts in such a way intentionally, to separate people from each other, to get them lost, or to prevent "undesirables" from entering the forest at all. The Caves of Chance have similar properties, as does one section of the Caves of Fire and Night, according to Kazul when she's explaining them in ''Dealing With Dragons''. |
| 219 | * ModestRoyalty: |
| 220 | ** Cimorene, especially when she was Kazul's princess, you are more apt to see her in sensible clothing with an apron. Even after marrying Mendanbar, she sticks to it. Mendanbar himself dresses very casually and hates formal occasions (which he calls stuffy and boring), canceling as many as he can get away with, much to his steward's dismay. At one point, another character chides him for it, saying he should at least wear the crown or else no one would know who he was. |
| 221 | ** Their son Daystar sticks to the trend, though in the beginning it's because he didn't ''know'' he was a prince. |
| 222 | * MoralGuardians: |
| 223 | ** Arona Michaelear Grinogian Vamist acts as one in ''Calling on Dragons'', for some unfathomable reason. He basically spends his days calling up magical beings whom he believes aren't "traditional" and trying to convince them to rearrange their lives to suit his tastes. |
| 224 | ** In ''The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn'', the King of Oslett has advisors who do much the same: they try to convince his daughters that they're supposed to hate one another, and their stepmother that she's supposed to be unpleasant toward her stepdaughters. None of the royal family cares for their behavior; in fact, when Princess Elyssa leaves to seek her fortune, her father tells her that he hoped "she would give the councillors one in the eye". They're ''still'' acting this way after her return with [[spoiler: Prince Riddle]], and it's noted that while everyone else lived happily ever, they were the exceptions because they never gave up trying (and failing) to make the family act as the advisors thought they should. |
| 225 | * MorphicResonance: [[spoiler:When Vamist has all of Killer's curses shunted onto him, he ends up as a seven-foot blue floating donkey with wings... ''and'' a bald spot.]] |
| 226 | * MuggleBornOfMages: Brandel's family are nearly all fire-witches. The exception is his sister Rachel, who's sent off to study under a sorceress instead. |
| 227 | * MundaneSolution: ''Literally''. |
| 228 | ** In a case similar to the [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the West]], it's discovered that wizards can be temporarily melted by soapy water with lemon juice in it. It turns out, however, that magically-created soapy lemon water works just as well, and by the end of the series the protagonists have what amounts to an instant wizard-melting spell. |
| 229 | ** In the climactic battle in ''Talking to Dragons'', a couple of the wizards are carrying swords in addition to their staffs; one of them attacks the magician Telemain with one, and Telemain couldn't block it because he thought it was a spell and used the wrong defensive enchantment as a result. |
| 230 | * MundaneUtility: This is more or less how Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest, and Cimorene become acquainted with each other -- he introduces himself by using the ancestral weapon linked to the realm of pure enchantment to ''unclog the drain''. She has to forestall him from doing the dishes (saying that "A magic sword that does dishes is just plain silly"). Then, late in ''Talking to Dragons'', he uses his magic to get rid of all the dust in his castle. |
| 231 | * MyHairCameOutGreen: Unusual variant in Killer's case -- he dyes his fur white, and while the dye job works just fine, exposure to magic causes it to wear off and make him blotchy. According to Morwen, spells are hard on cosmetic changes (which is why witches never color their hair) and he won't be able to re-dye it until the spell residue wears off, which will take about six weeks. |
| 232 | * NiceGuy: Roxim is easily one of the kindest, friendliest and most rational dragons that Cimorene meets, reminding her of an elderly great-uncle of whom she's rather fond. She even makes a note to herself to find him a nice princess to keep his caves clean and organized, since he clearly needs the help and would treat her well. |
| 233 | * NoNameGiven: A number of characters. |
| 234 | ** More than a few of the adult dragons don't have their names mentioned, instead being described by the colors of their scales or other traits (such as "the thin dragon" or "the dragon at the far end [of the table]"). |
| 235 | ** The stone prince presumably has one, but it's never mentioned what it is. |
| 236 | ** Cimorene's parents and sisters are never named. |
| 237 | ** The princess that Mendanbar meets early in ''Searching For Dragons'' never gets the chance to give him her name. |
| 238 | ** The evil fire-witch in ''Talking to Dragons'' never gives her name [[spoiler: before Daystar kills her]]. |
| 239 | ** The knight whom Daystar and Shiara meet in ''Talking to Dragons''. Averted with the princess he's in love with, whom he refers to as Isabelle. |
| 240 | ** Very few of the wizards besides Zemenar and Antorell have their names given. |
| 241 | ** The young dragon in ''Talking to Dragons''. Justified in its case, since dragons don't ''have'' names until they have a gender to go with it. |
| 242 | * NoOntologicalInertia: In several ways, really. Most importantly, after a magic user's death, their spells will cease to exert any influence (unless they're a very powerful/clever magic user). |
| 243 | ** Justified in ''Talking to Dragons'', where everything just snaps back to normal after [[spoiler:Daystar brings down the wizards' shield around the castle and releases Mendanbar]] -- all the magic he released goes back into the Enchanted Forest, which is where most of it was stolen from in the first place. |
| 244 | * NoSell: |
| 245 | ** [[spoiler:Morwen]] shrugs off the soapy-water treatment, and explains it as "clean living". |
| 246 | ** By the second book, the wizards have invented a massive shield spell to keep others in and anyone but themselves out. As proven by Jasper and Trouble, witch's cats can get through it without any problem. |
| 247 | * NotSoHarmlessVillain: The quozzel may look silly (it's a four-foot-tall towering mass of black jelly), but it's capable of causing a cave-in in an attempt to kill Daystar and ''does'' break Shiara's arm in doing so. |
| 248 | * NotThatKindOfMage: Telemain is a magician and ''not'' a wizard, no matter how interested in how they work their spells he may be, and regardless of whether or not he happens to have one of their staves at the moment or not. |
| 249 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Cimorene on occasion, mainly in ''Dealing'' when she's trying to convince Zemenar and Antorell that she's harmless. She draws from her own sisters' behavior. |
| 250 | * OffToBoardingSchool: Mendanbar's suggestion of what the aforementioned EvilUncle should do. Prince Rupert has been ordered by the Wicked Stepmothers' Society to do something evil or lose his membership, but he genuinely likes his nephew, and in addition, can't get his nephew to think getting lost in the forest is actually a ''bad'' thing, because the nephew is a [[JumpedAtTheCall wannabe adventurer]]. So Mendanbar tells the uncle that boarding school is the perfect solution, because it's a thing that's conventionally done by nasty people, that the nephew will hate, but won't actually do much harm. |
| 251 | * OhNoNotAgain: Cimorene says this at the beginning when meeting Mendanbar, mistaking him for another prince that wants to "rescue" her. He quickly explains that he's the king of the Enchanted Forest, wants to meet Kazul for actual diplomatic reasons, and (after vaguely explaining ''why'' he wants to see her) adds that Morwen sent him, which is what officially convinces Cimorene that it's all right to let him in. And then he manages to repair her plugged sink. |
| 252 | * OldRetainer: Willin the elf, to Mendanbar (and Cimorene after their marriage). |
| 253 | * OneSteveLimit: Averted. The giants Dobbilan and Ballimore are regularly robbed by humans, who are different individuals each time but always named Jack. However, Jack the [[HonestJohnsDealership traveling merchant]] Cimorene and Mendanbar encounter has no interest in trying his luck. |
| 254 | -->"I'm a businessman. I don't ''do'' giants." |
| 255 | * OnlyTheChosenMayWield: |
| 256 | ** While any dragon can carry Colin's Stone, any dragon other than the rightful king who tries to do so will find it a very unpleasant experience due to the vibrations it gives off. The test of kingship is to pick up the stone and fly a certain distance without dropping it. |
| 257 | ** The Sword of the Kings of the Enchanted Forest, and only after the earth, air, and water of the Enchanted Forest and the fire of the sword itself recognize them (which it announces by declaring "All hail the (noun) of the sword!" in a way that only said prospective king can hear it; the nouns are "Bearer", "Wielder", "Holder" and "Waker", respectively). It will allow other members of the King's family to hold it as a courtesy, but reacts negatively to anyone else touching it -- even Morwen, who was trying to save Cimorene at the time, feels like she's grabbed hold of a red-hot poker when she touches the hilt (apparently the standard defensive means when it's outside the Forest). Months later, her hand still tingles when she remembers that incident. |
| 258 | ** The Frying Pan of Doom from "Utensile Strength" has a variant on this sort of enchantment -- it can only be ''used'' by the rightful wielder, but it can be ''held'' by anyone else if they're wearing an oven mitt (without one, they get badly burned). |
| 259 | * OpenSesame: The gate from the Mountains of Morning to the Caves of Fire and Night requires a lengthy spoken password to get through. Apparently, Open Sesame was the ''literal'' passcode for a time, but "word got around and we had to change it." |
| 260 | * OrgyOfEvidence: King Mendanbar finds a section of the Enchanted Forest burned down with a bunch of dragon scales scattered around. The witch he goes to for advice notes that there are way too many scales present to have been shed in the course of a single rampage, and also that they had been magically modified to look like they came from different dragons, when a dragon genuinely interested in hiding evidence of itself would have just picked them up. |
| 261 | * OrwellianRetcon: The re-release of ''Talking to Dragons'' had some edits to bring it into line with things that had changed during the writing of the prequels. These included: |
| 262 | ** In the original version of ''Talking to Dragons'', Telemain was reasonably comprehensible, but the prequel novels gave him his habit of constantly speaking in MagiBabble. When ''Talking to Dragons'' was reissued, his dialogue was edited accordingly. |
| 263 | ** The circumstances under which Cimorene and Mendanbar knew each other -- the original version of ''Talking'' asserted that the Enchanted Forest and the Mountains of Morning had been closely allied, bringing them into each other's immediate orbit, but in ''Searching'' the relationship between the two kingdoms is shown to be neutral at best, and in fact the two meet while trying to prevent an outbreak of full-scale war. There was further mention of Antorell having actually ''courted'' Cimorene, and that they were married only after the sword was stolen. These were also rectified in the re-release. |
| 264 | * OurDragonsAreDifferent: They seem to be pretty benevolent; only the real {{Jerkass}} dragons eat people. Unless those people are wizards. (Also, they're literally genderless and nameless until they're a hundred years old, and turn into toads when they stop acting like dragons.) |
| 265 | * OurElvesAreDifferent: And the groups of elves are all apparently quite different from each other, to the point where in the last book, some side with the king and others with the wizards. |
| 266 | * OurGargoylesRock: There's a wooden one in Mendanbar's study, who was apparently put there to keep an eye on the castle so if the wood starts to rot or structural problems develop, it can alert someone. It spends more of its time insulting Mendanbar though, and according to Mendanbar, it did the same thing with his own father. |
| 267 | * OverlyLongName: |
| 268 | ** Shorter than most examples, but one of Morwen's cats is Jasper Darlington Higgens IV. |
| 269 | ** ''Calling on Dragons'' features Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist, the obnoxious man who tries to make anyone magical do things ''his'' way. |
| 270 | * PairTheSpares: Cimorene deliberately does something like this when she sends Therandil to rescue Keredwel instead of her. It gets Therandil out of her hair, and the two are much better suited for each other, so everyone wins. She continues to do this for the rest of her time as Kazul's princess, sending the knights who tried to rescue her off to rescue other princesses. |
| 271 | * PersonalityPowers: Fire-witches tend to have a certain similar temperament, although it's no indication of being either good or evil. |
| 272 | * PlayingWithFire: [[MageSpecies Fire witches]], who [[BurnTheWitch burn themselves]]. [[{{Pun}} Har]]. |
| 273 | * PrinceCharmingWannabe: Therandil is an odd example. He knows Cimorene doesn't want to marry him, and he doesn't want to marry her either. But they're still supposed to be in an Arranged Marriage, so he continues pursuing her out of a sense of honor and duty even after she runs away from home to be a dragon's captive princess. [[spoiler:Cimorene gets rid of him in the end by having him rescue a different dragon's captive princess.]] |
| 274 | * PolitenessJudo: Daystar has a black belt in it. He explains this in the very first paragraph of ''Talking to Dragons'': |
| 275 | -->Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinary polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted princesses and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know ''whom'' you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case. |
| 276 | * PorkyPigPronunciation: The quozzel in ''Talking to Dragons'' has a perpetual stammering problem, which gets worse the more nervous it gets. |
| 277 | * PositionOfLiteralPower: It's explained in ''Talking to Dragons'' that prospective heirs to the throne of the Enchanted Forest have to go out into the forest and do the right things at the right time until the air, earth and water of the Forest, and the fire of the sword of the Kings of the Enchanted Forest, all acknowledge the person as the rightful heir. As a result, they also inherit a link to the magical forces that sustain the realm, which is more than enough power to be a match for any individual spellcaster (though they still run into trouble with groups if they aren't carrying the sword in question). |
| 278 | * PregnantBadass: Cimorene in ''Calling on Dragons''. The baby grows up to be Daystar. |
| 279 | * PrincessClassic: The majority of the princesses, Cimorene excluded, are this -- innocent, demure, and overly feminine. However, with a few exceptions [[spoiler:(such as Princess Annalisa in "Utensile Strength")]], it's treated as a negative: most princesses are shown to be stupid, spineless and generally useless. In all fairness, they're raised to be that way, but most of the protagonists find them annoying. It's the first clue to Mendanbar that something is wrong with the forest: apparently, the forest doesn't like them either and will shift itself around so they don't enter, but the fact that one got in is a sign that there's a problem. |
| 280 | * PrincessProtagonist: Cimorene, for the first two books. Subverted in ''Calling on Dragons'', since [[spoiler:she's gone from [[RankUp princess of Linderwall to Queen of the Enchanted Forest]].]] |
| 281 | * ProphecyTwist: When the stone prince was born, it was foretold that he would do a king a great service, which caused a great deal of trouble as he tried to figure out what service and which king. In the end, he does a great service to the king of the dragons, more or less by accident and without realizing it would count until somebody points it out afterward. |
| 282 | * PublicDomainArtifact: GenieInABottle, FlyingCarpet, SevenLeagueBoots, [[Literature/BabaYaga flying mortar and pestle]]... virtually every well-known object from European fairy tales is likely to get at least a passing mention -- [[FracturedFairyTale often with a twist]]. |
| 283 | * PunchClockVillain: Two examples from ''Searching'': |
| 284 | ** Dobbilan the Giant, encountered ''off'' the clock. |
| 285 | ** Rumplestiltskin, AKA Herman. He doesn't actually ''want'' more kids, so he changes his name to Herman so that someone would guess it. |
| 286 | * RagsToRoyalty: Cimorene deliberately invokes this when she decides to go work for a dragon. Later, she's a more traditional Snow White-esque example when she goes into hiding. Daystar is a Sleeping Beauty variant: he didn't even know he was a prince until he saved his father. |
| 287 | * RealMenWearPink: In "Utensile Strength", when a tournament is announced to find the rightful wielder of the Frying Pan of Doom, a number of knights and heroes show up even after finding that part of it is a bake-off. And apparently, a lot of them were looking forward to it, since they insist on holding it even when the Frying Pan's rightful wielder is found beforehand. |
| 288 | * RealWomenDontWearDresses: In-universe, the princesses who aren't like Cimorene (meaning most) are often seen as stupid and useless for embracing their PrincessClassic[=/=]DamselInDistress heritage and being happy with being rescued and married. Cimorene herself, however, admits they are silly but can't really help it, considering that's just how they were brought up. |
| 289 | ** The trope is played with in that while Cimorene goes on adventures and uses a sword, she also is fine with doing traditionally feminine things like cooking, cleaning and dressing up (see: her absolute pleasure at discovering her wardrobe at Kazul's is magical and can provide practical work dresses and luxurious gowns as needed). The first book also subverts this with Alianora, who ''tries'' to be a proper princess but fails miserably in various ways (and it's mostly not her fault -- aside from the spinning straw into linen thread thing). She still is Cimorene's best friend. |
| 290 | ** Also, see Morwen, who wears robes (close enough to dresses), makes cider, bakes gingerbread and gardens deadly nightshade, apples and lilies. She's also a very powerful practical witch and magic user. |
| 291 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cimorene in "Utensile Strength" when she finds out one of the new maids is a runaway princess named Annalisa, who was hiding from her EvilUncle. She defends the girl when Rothbern tries to kidnap her, thinks that Annalisa's fairy godmother ought to have helped her regain the kingdom, and applauds her for being proactive about the situation. In fact, Cimorene's only rebuke is to the hiring manager, whom she informs that she'll be sitting in on job interviews because finding good help is hard when each one is secretly royalty in disguise. |
| 292 | * RebelliousPrincess: Zig-zagged by Princess Cimorene -- early in the first book, she intentionally gets herself "kidnapped" by a dragon in order to escape her current life and an ArrangedMarriage. Before this she insisted on her teachers teaching her things not normally covered: magic, cooking, politics, fencing, Latin, etc. She also (verbally) fights off many of the princes and knights to come to rescue her herself to prevent them from bringing her home, and changes her official title (among the dragons) to "Chief Cook and Librarian" to help drive them away. Cimorene doesn't rebel just because she'd rather play with swords and hates girly princess stuff as Rebellious Princesses tend to. She just sees nothing ''useful'' about learning common princess skills such as dancing and embroidery. She prefers cooking and learning magic. She grits her teeth and learns the princess skills anyway... then runs away to avoid an unwanted marriage. Her training as a princess only comes in handy when dealing with the ranks of the various dragons, and when she wants to pretend to be an "airhead" princess. She ends up becoming queen, and a very happy and efficient one at that. |
| 293 | * RescueRomance: Played with. Therandil and other knights and princes attempt to invoke this with Cimorene; she's not having any of it though. She ''does'' discuss it with Alianora and admits that getting kidnapped by a dragon would be a good way for a princess in search of a husband to find a match. Morwen herself even admits that princesses from less well-off nations should actually be clamoring to become a Dragon’s princess as it practically guarantees a very good match as far as spouses are concerned especially if that spouse is also the heir to a more prosperous kingdom. |
| 294 | * RightfulKingReturns: [[spoiler:''Talking to Dragons'' ends with the return of the rightful king (who'd been magically imprisoned), queen (who'd gone into hiding to raise their son and keep him safe from the would-be usurpers), and prince (who was the only one who could free his father from his prison, and literally only figured out who he and his parents really were about the second he achieved said freeing).]] |
| 295 | * RobeAndWizardHat: Wizards traditionally wear them. These are also all that's left (along with their staffs) after they've been melted. |
| 296 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Mendanbar, Cimorene, and Kazul are all quite active -- Mendanbar to a unhealthy degree for a while (and Kazul as well, until Cimorene sets up a system to make it easier on her). Daystar might also count, although he was unaware of any royal heritage at the time. |
| 297 | * RunawayFiance: Cimorene's adventures start when she flees an arranged marriage. |
| 298 | * SatelliteLoveInterest: Prince Therandil for Cimorene. In fact, he only counts as a love interest because her parents thought she needed to be married off to somebody and selected Therandil because his family was the first to make an offer, despite the fact that Cimorene disliked him so much that it took a conscious effort on her part just to be civil to him. When all efforts to convince her parents and her unwanted fiance to break off the marriage didn't work, she ran away and took sanctuary with Kazul, only to find Therandil showing up to 'rescue' her, mainly because he feels culturally obliged to do so despite the fact that she's perfectly happy where she is. She eventually gets rid of him by convincing him to rescue and marry a different princess being held by another dragon. He sees nothing wrong with this, and becomes interested in this new princess after learning only four things about her: first name, name of her kingdom, hair color, and a description of her crown. He succeeds in rescuing her and presumably lives happily ever after with her, as he never appears again. |
| 299 | * {{Satire}}: The books poke fun at many fairy tales and cliches in them, but lovingly. |
| 300 | * SchmuckBait: The gold dipper by the Water of Healing -- just touching it turns a person to stone. But it's so much prettier than the plain tin dipper next to it that people can't help themselves. |
| 301 | * SculleryMaid: |
| 302 | ** There's a RunningGag in "Utensile Strength" about Cimorene taking measures to ensure that the palace only hires kitchen maids who can actually do the work, and not disguised princesses on the make. [[spoiler:Due to not having time to interview all the new staff being hired to help during the tourney to find the rightful wielder of the Frying Pan of Doom, one slips past, though she's actually a capable worker.]] |
| 303 | ** In "The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn", the titular princess actually arranges with her stepmother to go away and work as a maid for another queen (a friend of her stepmother's) because they're both tired of her father's advisors always pestering her to act the way they think she should, but the cat, who knows her intended employer is an extremely unpleasant person, ends up causing her to wind up in the Enchanted Forest instead. |
| 304 | * SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: The final chapters of ''Talking To Dragons'' reveal that [[spoiler:King Mendanbar, whom no one has seen since the battle at the end of the third book and who Daystar ultimately rescues, has been stuck in the castle for 17-odd years inside a magical room of Zemenar's creation. He didn't need to eat but was most certainly conscious of time passing.]] |
| 305 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Telemain's {{Magibabble}}-esque "explanations" tend to require a [[TranslatorBuddy third-person translation]]. |
| 306 | * SheIsTheKing: In dragon society, King and Queen are gender neutral titles. [[spoiler: Kazul]], a female dragon, becomes King of the Dragons at the end of the first book. Queen is a boring secretarial position with no meaningful power that no one really wants, and the most recent holder of the long-vacant post was a male dragon. |
| 307 | * ShipperOnDeck: |
| 308 | ** Cimorene. She made sure the stone prince "rescued" Woraug's princess ''and'' she sent her own fiancé after a more suitable match for him. Later she mentions that she dealt with most of the princes trying to rescue her after the first book's events by sending them to rescue other princesses (who actually wanted to be rescued), and that she made sure to pair up the nicest knights with the nicest princesses. She describes Shiara matter-of-factly as "the next Queen of the Enchanted Forest" at a point where neither Shiara or Daystar has consciously thought about their relationship that far ahead. Also it's never revealed just how much of a hand she had in the series BetaCouple hooking up... |
| 309 | ** As seen above in SheIsNotMyGirlfriend, a lot of people in ''Searching for Dragons'' think that Mendanbar and Cimorene look good together. |
| 310 | * ShootTheHostage: Zemenar tries to use Morwen as a HumanShield when Cimorene, Alianora and the Stone Prince arm themselves with buckets of soapy water. He taunts the trio that if they melt him, the witch melts with him. Cimorene and Alianora hesitate, but [[spoiler:the Stone Prince calls Zemenar's bluff and douses him anyway; Morwen is no worse for wear, just needing dry clothes. She and the Stone Prince say that her "clean living" negated any tendency to melt]]. |
| 311 | * ShoutOut: Naturally, to just about every fairy tale in the public consciousness, but also to some recent literature: |
| 312 | ** As mentioned in ''Dealing with Dragons'', Cimorene's Great-Aunt Rose is basically ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'' / ''Briar Rose'', what with the sleeping curse, as said by Cimorene's mother: |
| 313 | ---> Your Great-Aunt Rose was married at sixteen […] One really can’t count all those years she spent asleep under that dreadful fairy’s curse. |
| 314 | ** The Fire-witch whose castle is full of [[TakenForGranite petrified]] passersby is like the White Witch in ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. |
| 315 | ** The idea that witches and wizards [[KillItWithWater melt in soapy water]] clearly comes from ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' (as do a pair of ruby slippers and the magic belt that goes with them, both being offered by Gypsy Jack), though in Morwen's case it is subverted. |
| 316 | ** Some of the descriptions of the network of caverns under the Mountains of Morning echo those in ''VideoGame/ColossalCave'', including a maze of twisty little passages. |
| 317 | ** Rumpelstiltskin in ''Searching for Dragons'', where the dwarf who's saddled with the role gets quite burdened after many children are left in his care whose mothers were unable to guess his name (though he loves them genuinely). |
| 318 | * ShrinkingViolet: Princess Alianora, who's very shy around anyone except Cimorene (and Antorell when she gets mad at him). She gradually grows out of it. |
| 319 | * SmugSnake: Zemenar. On so many levels. |
| 320 | * SoLastSeason: During the climax of ''Searching'', Mendanbar uses the Forest's magic to make soapy water (with lemon juice) rain onto and melt several Wizards. At the end of ''Calling'', the group learns he relied entirely on Telemain's "Argelfraster" spell when dealing with another large group, despite it only working on one at a time when the same spell probably could have saved him. The likely reason for that is he was deliberately trying to avoid using the Forest's magic until the sword could be retrieved. |
| 321 | * SolitarySorceress: At least one in every book. |
| 322 | ** Of the regular characters, Morwen and Telemain handily qualify, especially in ''Talking to Dragons''. There's also Brandel, the reluctantly helpful fire-witch in ''Calling'', who inherited the tower from his sister who in turn got it from her sorceress mentor, and the evil fire-witch in ''Talking'' who lives in an invisible, randomly-teleporting castle and attacks passersby to [[TakenForGranite turn them to stone]] and add to her collection. |
| 323 | ** Witches in general try to pretend that they ''are'' this, because they're afraid that if people are no longer afraid of them, they'll be endlessly bothered for magic cures for everything. |
| 324 | * SpeaksFluentAnimal: Morwen with her cats. |
| 325 | ** All witches do, although a 'hear-everyone-else's-cats' spell is still not feasible. Morwen observes that, considering the way her own cats talk about other people, that's probably for the best. |
| 326 | * SquishyWizard: Only a handful of wizards can fight without magic; this is mainly seen in ''Talking to Dragons'', where a handful of them carry swords as backup in case they run out of magic. |
| 327 | * StandardHeroReward: Half a kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage is said to be the standard reward for rescuing a princess who has been captured by a dragon. When Cimorene learns that her parents have offered it on her behalf, she notes that half the kingdom is not only a considerably larger dowry than she might otherwise have been offered with, as the youngest of seven sisters, it's larger than all her elder sisters' dowries put together. And Morwen states Linderwall itself is rather large in comparison to other kingdoms. |
| 328 | * StatuesqueStunner: Cimorene is as tall as most men, to her parents' dismay. |
| 329 | * StayInTheKitchen: |
| 330 | ** Princesses are expected to act in "proper" ways, which generally mean being ditzy and useless and waiting for a prince to save them from something and marry them. Cimorene is considered "difficult" by everyone in the castle she grew up in because her practical mind led to her wanting to do things that actually served a purpose and let her take care of herself. |
| 331 | ** ''Searching for Dragons'' has Cimorene ''think'' this is happening early on. Having just met Mendanbar, she tells him she thinks Kazul is trapped in the Enchanted Forest, so she's going to go search for her. Mendanbar tells her she shouldn't do that, to which Cimorene angrily asks him if it's because he thinks it's improper behavior for a princess. She's momentarily stunned speechless when he explains himself -- he doesn't want her going because he's king of the forest and thus knows that it's an incredibly dangerous place, full of dangerous stuff she's probably never seen before, and that as the close friend and assistant of the already-disappeared king of dragons, her getting lost or killed or enchanted would likely spark ''massive'' political problems between the dragons and the citizens of the forest, which is the very thing they're trying to avoid. Cimorene, after recovering from being startled, admits that her knee-jerk reaction was because she's used to this trope, so it never occurred to her that he might have a ''real'' reason for her not to go. (She still does, but accepts Mendanbar's offer to come along and help her out.) |
| 332 | * StealthPun: In ''Searching for Dragons'', Gypsy Jack the traveling salesman has pretty much anything you could ask for. That is to say, he's a jack of all trades. |
| 333 | * StickyFingers: Any man that giants encounter happened to be named Jack, and they have a penchant for stealing giants' harps. Or flying carpets. |
| 334 | * StopBeingStereotypical: Inverted with Arona Michaelear Grinogion Vamist, who's made it his life's mission to go around to and pester magical beings into being ''more'' stereotypical; as Morwen puts it, "As near as I can tell, he's trying to get everyone to wear pointy hats and cackle a lot". He's introduced making trouble for Morwen for having a garden that doesn't look sinister enough, not being an aged crone with a stoop, and having multiple non-black cats (which ticks off the cats who are in the room when he calls). He later insists to the King of Dragon's face that she's supposed to eat a princess, not ally with her. He's survived this kind of idiocy because the wizards found him a useful distraction and put a protection spell on him. |
| 335 | * SuccessionCrisis: The villains try to create one in at least two kingdoms. |
| 336 | ** The Mountains of Morning are ruled by the King of the Dragons, but rather than their naming a chosen successor, all dragons of age gather at the Ford of Whispering Snakes and take a special test, to move Colin's Stone from the Ford to the Vanishing Mountain. The stone itself selects the King, giving off a faint vibration that gets stronger and stronger until the dragon either is forced to drop the Stone, be shaken to pieces, or not feel it at all; the one who doesn't feel it and thus makes the entire trip without dropping the Stone is the one who's named King. The wizards later kill the sitting King and use magic to manipulate the Stone so their chosen candidate will be able to carry it; he drops it as soon as the spell is broken, and the rightful King is able to take the throne. |
| 337 | ** The King of the Enchanted Forest is chosen by the family sword, which is linked directly to the Forest's magic; only blood members can use it, and only then if the air, earth and water of the Enchanted Forest, and the fire of the Sword itself, acknowledge them (Mendanbar notes at one point that the sword doesn't always choose the sitting King's oldest son, and considers himself lucky to have followed his father onto the throne) and thus let them directly use the Forest's magic. Family members who haven't been acknowledged (such as the King's wife) can hold the sword but not use it; non-family members can't even do that for more than a second or two (as Morwen discovers when she grabs hold of it to save Cimorene and it feels like she's grabbed the hot end of a poker). The wizards later try to seize the power of the sword and Forest, thinking that one of them can become King if the existing line of Kings is ended. They fail because they didn't realize Mendanbar had a son, who stops them and frees Mendanbar from his prison. |
| 338 | * SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Again, Telemain, who's made analyzing magic his purpose in life. Presumably other magicians too, since he mentions that magicians have been trying to figure out how the wizards work their spells for years. |
| 339 | * SupremeChef: In "Utensile Strength", the knights and heroes who take part in the bake-off part of the tournament for the Frying Pan of Doom all prove to be quite skilled. One is so good that his fiancee breaks it off with him because she can't stand having a husband who's more skilled in the kitchen than she is. |
| 340 | * TakenForGranite: |
| 341 | ** Anyone who tries to use the golden dipper to take some of the Water of Healing, including the stone prince. At least ''he'' had the sense to do the one thing that left him still stone, but [[LivingStatue mobile]]. And in his defense, he didn't want to ''use'' the dipper, he just wanted to ''look'' at it (and didn't know that just ''touching'' the dipper would trigger its defensive enchantment) -- he was fully aware that the normal dipper was the correct option the entire time. |
| 342 | ** Shiara, plus a bunch of other people who happened by the evil Fire-witch's castle (possible ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''), gets turned to stone in ''Talking to Dragons''. Fortunately, Daystar is able to break the spell. |
| 343 | * TalkingAnimal: They're not uncommon. In particular there are witch's cats (who can only be heard by their witch, meaning the reader is only privy to their conversations in ''Calling''), Killer the rabbit (also in ''Calling'') and Suz the lizard (in ''Talking''). A few minor examples also exist, like the squirrel who directs Mendanbar to Morwen in ''Searching'' or the frog who sends Cimorene to the dragons in ''Dealing''. |
| 344 | -->'''Cimorene''': Are you an enchanted prince? |
| 345 | -->'''Talking Frog''': No, but I've met a few, and after a while you pick up a few things. |
| 346 | ** It's actually subverted in ''Searching'' by the lion who guards the Pool of Gold, since Mendanbar has to first work a spell to ''make'' the lion intelligible to him. |
| 347 | * TooDumbToLive: |
| 348 | ** ''Killer'', who keeps eating things that transform him in some way. |
| 349 | ** Antorell could also count, given that by ''Talking'', his attempts for revenge against Cimorene pretty much have consisted of him dramatically bursting into her house and screaming about how he'll get her, only for her to promptly melt him. |
| 350 | ** Arona Vamist could also count, seeing as he makes it his business to endlessly pester witches (both fire and regular) and dragons about the "proper" way they should behave. Granted he had the power of an entire group of wizards protecting him from the fire witches, but there's really no excuse for him to argue with Kazul over whether or not dragons eat princesses, especially since he had just lost said wizarding protection. |
| 351 | ** Princess Annalisa's Uncle Rothbern tries to kidnap her in the middle of a tournament in "Utensile Strength", in the Enchanted Forest right in front of both a literal army of armed men and the King of the Enchanted Forest himself! Mendanbar nullifies his magic and asks him what the hell he's doing, and the competitors honorably prepare to defend her because they are armed to the tooth and pumped for a fight. It's more or less a SuicideMission. [[spoiler:Fortunately or unfortunately, Annalisa manages to use the Frying Pan of Doom to turn her EvilUncle into a poached egg, stopping any fight before it can begin]]. |
| 352 | * TheToothHurts: During the climax of ''Dealing With Dragons'', Woraug loses his temper, snatches up the stone prince, shoves him into his mouth and bites down... which proves to be a big mistake, as a moment later, "he howled in pain and spat out the prince and four teeth". |
| 353 | * TheTourney: |
| 354 | ** This does not include a fight between a dragon and a knight, Daystar notices. |
| 355 | ** A real one is held in "Utensile Strength", intended to find the rightful wielder of a FryingPanOfDoom. |
| 356 | * TranslatorBuddy: In ''Searching'', Mendanbar frequently winds up in the role of "translating" Telemain's SesquipedalianLoquaciousness[=/=]{{magibabble}} into something more manageable. |
| 357 | -->"Actually, it is," Telemain said. "The Enchanted Forest is unique, magically speaking, and therefore the interface between the forest and the rest of the world is equally unique. Penetrating that interface requires a specific application."\ |
| 358 | "What's that mean, when it's at home?" said Jack.\ |
| 359 | "You need a special spell to get into the Enchanted Forest, because it's different from everywhere else," Mendanbar translated.\ |
| 360 | Telemain looked irritated. "That's what I just said." |
| 361 | * TrueLovesKiss: Pulled by Daystar to bring Shiara back from being a stone statue. |
| 362 | * TwistedAnkle: Invoked by Cimorene during the period when princes keep trying to rescue her; she gains a period of respite by pretending to Therandil that she's sprained her ankle and is thus unable to negotiate the path down from the mountain until it heals. (The path is sufficiently narrow and treacherous that the traditional remedy of carrying her to safety is out of the question.) |
| 363 | * UnEqualRites: |
| 364 | ** Nobody likes wizards (dragons and other inherently magical beasts are even allergic to them). |
| 365 | ** Wizards don't like fire-witches due to some rather dangerous interactions thanks to the incompatibility of their magics (causes their staffs to explode), and they also do not like the unique magic wielded by the king of the Enchanted Forest. (Mainly because it's so effective at stopping them.) |
| 366 | ** Sorceresses ended up a little too popular for their own good. |
| 367 | ** Magicians are usually seen as confusing. |
| 368 | ** Fire-witches are moody and unpredictable at ''best'', but then you get to the worst of them... |
| 369 | ** Regular witches are careful to keep their scary reputation up (even though most of them seem to be nice enough) so they don't end up like the sorceresses. |
| 370 | * {{Unicorn}}s: ...are rather narcissistic. The title unicorn of "The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn" actually tries to force Princess Elyssa to stay with him as his handmaiden so she can spend her days "appreciating his beauty". By the end of the story, he does get a (different) princess to be his handmaiden, who turns out to be even more conceited than he is. |
| 371 | * UnwantedRescue: Cimorene tells this to all of the princes that come to "rescue" her. When Mendanbar comes, she mentions that she's even threatened to duel the princes herself so that they'll go away. |
| 372 | * WantedAGenderConformingChild: In book 1 (''Dealing With Dragons''), Cimorene mentions that her parents are worried about her because she isn't princess-y enough, is too tall, and tried to learn swordfighting among other things. She runs away to volunteer as a dragon princess which apparently alleviates their worries, as being a Dragon’s Princess not only is perfectly acceptable but easily resolves the issue of finding their youngest daughter a proper suitor who wouldn’t be put off by her un-princess like behavior. |
| 373 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Any wizard can be melted (temporarily) with the simple application of soapy water with a little lemon juice. Later a spell is devised to have the same effect by simply pointing a finger and reciting a magic word. |
| 374 | --> "Argelfraster!" |
| 375 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Antorell. "Father will be so pleased." By ''Talking'' [[spoiler:this has graduated into AvengingTheVillain. He doesn't have any better luck with that, either]]. |
| 376 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Minor example in ''Searching''. The princess Mendanbar meets in the woods, who is the first to inform him that there's a giant patch of the forest that's been reduced to ashes, is never mentioned again. Mendanbar never even tells anyone else that a completely unprepared young woman is wandering around the woods, let alone send someone to find her and make her go home; given the setting, she could have met any number of unpleasant fates. Of course, given that the forest is semi-sentient, it's also equally plausible that it sent her off without undue harm -- ultimately, we don't know. |
| 377 | * WickedStepmother: |
| 378 | ** They're so common in the setting that they have a Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society. And a men's auxiliary for the EvilUncle contingent. |
| 379 | ** In ''Searching for Dragons'', a princess in the Enchanted Forest tries to move Mendanbar with her story of how her WickedStepmother banished her there. Mendanbar is not sympathetic, as he instantly suspects that the princess and the stepmother talked the entire thing over as a way for the princess to get a good marriage. His son Daystar is more susceptible when a princess tells him a similar story in ''Talking to Dragons''; that time it turns out to be a plot to get Daystar's sword. |
| 380 | ** Averted by the stepmother in "The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn", who actually cares for her three stepdaughters and is annoyed that her husband's advisors keep trying to persuade her to turn them into swans or throw them out of the castle while their father is away. She ''does'' wind up sending her middle stepdaughter to work for an extremely unpleasant fellow queen... but she hadn't met the other queen face-to-face in twenty-five years, and was unaware of her changed attitude. She was quite upset with said fellow queen, who was also an old friend, when she learned the truth. |
| 381 | * WitchClassic: Witches are portrayed as good, or at least not evil, although Morwen herself is slightly different from the more standard variety, which annoys her fellow witches who are more stalwart adherents to the trope. |
| 382 | * WizardBeard: All of the wizards have a long, unkempt beard. |
| 383 | * WizardClassic: Those in the books wear long robes with large unkempt beards, have staffs which provide a lot of their power, and they're all male. |
| 384 | * YoungestChildWins: Discussed. The stone prince was turned to stone while attempting a quest to obtain the magical cure for a king's illness; he tells Cimorene that in retrospect he ought to have realised that as two of the king's three sons had already attempted the quest and failed, nobody was going to succeed except the third son. Cimorene becomes Queen of the Enchanted Forest and as a close friend of the King of Dragons herself Cimorene is the luckiest out of all her sisters. |
| 385 | * YourMom: At one point, Morwen's cats get in an argument with Grendel, the cat belonging to Archaniz (the Chairwitch of the Deadly Nightshade Gardening Club, and a friend of Morwen's). While Grendel's remarks aren't translated, Trouble makes use of this trope (plus a stealth ShoutOut) when he yells back at him: |
| 386 | -->"Oh yeah? Well, ''your'' father wears ''boots''!" |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Literature / EnchantedForestChronicles
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
