Line #69 Literature/TheBFG


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4	[[quoteright:215:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheBFGCover_2125.JPG]]
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6	->''"I is not like the others, I is a nice Giant, I is a freaky Giant. I is the Big Friendly Giant. The BFG, that's me."''
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8	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant NO! Not that kind of]] {{BFG}}! Not to be confused with Music/TheNotoriousBIG either. ''The BFG'' is a book by Creator/RoaldDahl. "BFG" in this case stands for Big Friendly Giant, and is the name of one of the protagonists. He is a Giant, the magic mythological kind who lives in Giant Country and is the only member of his race who doesn't eat humans. The other protagonist is Sophie, a little orphan girl who the BFG kidnaps (an action he later regrets) because she catches a glimpse of him for fear that she will tell the outside world of his presence-- she's terrified at first, but, once she learns he's nice, she's actually quite glad to be out of the [[OrphanageOfFear horrible orphanage]] she lived in.
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10	The other nine Giants are child killers, and downright terrifying. Sophie is very nearly eaten by one (the Bloodbottler) but survives when he spits out the disgusting vegetable she's hiding in. The BFG lets Sophie in on his secret job -- catching dreams from Dream Country, then mixing them up and distributing them to children (blowing them through a big trumpet). He also locks away any nightmares he finds, to make sure they don't find a way to kids by themselves.
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12	Sophie comes up with a plan to capture the other giants: Making the [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII Queen of England]] dream about the Giants and also that they can be stopped by a little girl called Sophie and a friendly Giant. Thus, when she appears on the Queen's windowsill, Sophie is instantly believed (with the additional backup of a recent ring of child massacres that the Queen also dreams about on the same night that they happen). The Queen calls on the Army and the RAF to capture the Giants, which they do with the help of the BFG and Sophie.
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14	An AnimatedAdaptation was made by Creator/CosgroveHall for Creator/TheCannonGroup in 1989, with its own trope page [[WesternAnimation/TheBFG here]]. A new live-action adaptation by Disney directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg was released in July 2016, with its own trope page [[Film/TheBFG here]].
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16	----
17	!!The book provides examples of:
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19	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Sophie righteously declares "whizzpopping" to be extremely rude; yet when the BFG demonstrates "whizzpopping" with a force akin to rocket propulsion as the result of drinking Frobscottle, she cannot contain her laughter.
20	** She also can't help but smile when the BFG talks about [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]], the only human giants fear, as she's fully aware that Jack is a fictional character.
21	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Three drunk men become the last victims of the giants when they climb over the fence surrounding the giant pit and fall in. Then they put warning signs on the fence that say "Do Not Feed The Giants" -- though how this will stop any more drunken idiots from climbing the fence is anyone's guess.
22	* AllJustADream: When Sophie reads the labels on the dream bottles, many of them include the dreamer waking up to being told breakfast is ready, or that they will be late for school.
23	* AlwaysABiggerFish: Compared to other giants, the BFG is a runt. The other Giants use it as a sort of nickname.
24	* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Even though they bully him and beat him up regularly, the BFG insists that the other giants would never actually threaten his life. Giants is never killing their own kind; only humans is. In fact, the BFG claims that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans are the only species on the planet that kill their own kind]].[[note]]In fact, many animal species slay their own kind (some of them will even ''eat their own offspring'', depending on when they come across them). The real difference is, as far as we can tell, humanity is the only species to feel regret when it happens.[[/note]]
25	** At least threatened to be averted at the end. When trapped in the pit, the Fleshlumpeater says that if they can't guzzle human beans, they will guzzle ''him''. Whether it was an idle threat that they ultimately wouldn't have followed through on, or they were so furious that they would have, is unknown (but would you really put your trust in those nine bloodthirsty brutes?).
26	* AscendedExtra: The BFG originally made a one-chapter appearance in Dahl's previous book ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'', as a character in a bedtime story told by Danny's father.
27	%%* BeastAndBeauty: Sophie and the titular character form a platonic example.
28	%%* BigDamnHeroes: The BFG bursting in to save Sophie from Fleshlumpeater during the climax.
29	%%* BigNo: Sophie, when [[spoiler:the Fleshlumpeater]] is implied to eat [[spoiler:a young boy]].
30	* BigStupidDoodooHead: When the Bloodbottler unleashes a string of insults to the BFG, he finishes with a meaningless one.
31	--> '''Bloodbottler:''' You is an insult to the giant peoples! You is not fit to be a giant! You is... a cream puffnut!
32	* BorrowedWithoutPermission: At one point, the giant explains the reason he knows how to write is because he has a book by Charles Dickens which he borrowed from a human boy. When asked how long he's had it for, he responds "Only about eighty years. Soon I shall be putting it back."
33	* BreakingTheFourthWall: The {{Malaproper}} BFG repeatedly mispronounces Creator/CharlesDickens as ''[[Creator/RoaldDahl Dahl's]] Chickens''. This is given a ShoutOut in the film version of ''Film/{{Matilda}}''.
34	* TheButcher: One of the giants is named "Butcher Boy".
35	* ChekhovsGun: The Queen gives Sophie a sapphire brooch to wear. Later, she stabs the Fleshlumpeater with it to distract him from eating a soldier.
36	* ChildEater: One of the giants is named "Childchewer", although all the giants probably don’t care about the age of the humans they eat.
37	* ClosetPunishment: Children at the orphanage are punished for being out of bed at night by being locked in the cellar for a day and a night, [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment without anything to eat or drink]].
38	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Good dreams are green, stable ovoids. Nightmares are thrashing red storms.
39	* ContainerCling: Subverted when the BFG's cave is invaded by the man-eating Bloodbottler giant, and Sophie hides behind a snozzcumber (a giant foul-tasting vegetable). When she realises that the snozzcumber would not hide her if the Bloodbottler picked it up, she hides ''inside'' it. The Bloodbottler does indeed pick it up, and bites a huge hunk off it, while Sophie is still inside.
40	* CulturalTranslation:
41	** In the Hebrew version the giants fear David ([[Literature/TheBible from David and Goliath]]) rather than [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]].
42	** In the German version the giants fear ''Literature/TheBraveLittleTailor'' from Grimm's fairy tales.
43	--> '''BFG:''' He's got something called blow and he once killed seven giants with it. (Seven with one blow.)
44	** In the Dutch version the BFG owns a copy of ''Literature/OliverTwist'', rather than ''Literature/NicholasNickleby''.
45	** In German the book is {{Literature/Simplicissimus}} by Grimmelshausen who the BFG calls Himmels Grausen (heaven's horror).[[note]]Grimmelshausen lived in the 17th century. Had the BFG learned from him, his language should be even weirder.[[/note]]
46	* DavidVersusGoliath: The BFG and the humans against the evil giants.[[note]]The BFG, despite his size, is still an example of this trope, as not only is he smaller than the other 9 giants, the other giants also disown him for not following their practice of eating children.[[/note]]
47	* DissonantSerenity: Slightly downplayed with the Queen of England's reaction to her nightmare about man-eating giants, finding Sophie on her window sill, the realisation of ThatWasNotADream, meeting a giant for the first time, and the BFG's demonstration of a whizzpopper. Although gasps and wide-eyed disbelief do escape her, she takes it much more calmly than her maid.
48	--> The Queen glanced across at the window. Now it was ''her'' turn to freeze. She didn't scream as the maid had done. Queens are too self-controlled for that.
49	* DoesNotLikeSpam: The only people that giants won't eat are Greeks, because "they taste greasy". (The Greek translation of the book says that Greeks taste like olive oil.)
50	* DramaticDrop: When Mary the maid hears that Queen dreamed about boys and girls being eaten by the giants on the same night that it ''actually happened'', she drops the Queen's breakfast tray.
51	* DramaticSitDown: Just after the Queen's maid dropped the breakfast tray, the Queen tells her that she ought to sit down; normally it would be unthinkable for a servant to sit in the presence of the Queen.
52	* TheDreaded: The only human bean giants fear is the legendary [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack and his giant-killing beanstalk]].
53	* DreamWeaver: The BFG is a benign example, mixing up good dreams for the children of the world from the bottled small dreams he captures, and locking away nightmares. He's reluctant to mix up the dream for the Queen in Sophie's plan because, as it's about the horror of the giants, it's naturally a nightmare.
54	* EarlyBirdCameo: The BFG is first mentioned as one of Danny's father's stories in ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'', written six years earlier.
55	%%* EatsBabies: The evil Giants, implied at least.
56	* EldritchLocation: Giant Country is a mild example, not being on a map but being quite reachable by helicopter. The Land of Dreams is an even weirder place, but appears to be less dangerous.
57	* TheEvilGenius: Compared to the Fleshlumpeater who is dumb enough for the BFG himself to defeat, the Bloodbottler is apparently the smartest of the bunch. In his first scene, he barges into the BFG's cave, having overheard him talking to Sophie and correctly assumes that there is a "human bean" around. Furthermore, it takes the BFG a great deal of persuasion and lies to trick the Bloodbottler into tasting a snozzcumber.
58	* EvilIsBigger: Subverted by the BFG himself, but played straight in that his murderous neighbours are much larger than ''he'' is.
59	* EvilOrphanageLady: Mrs. Clonkers is this to a tee.
60	* {{Expy}}: The design of the bad giants are from the Badfort Gang of ''Uncle'', another book illustrated by Quentin.
61	* FooledByTheSound: Just before capturing the giants, the head of the army hears a sound like gunfire, and orders his men to turn back; but it is only the giants snoring.
62	--> '''Head of the army:''' I am a military man, and I know a gun when I hear one! Turn back!\
63	'''The BFG:''' That is just the giants snortling in their sleep. I is a giant myself, and I know a giant's snortle when I hear one.
64	* ForeignQueasine: Snozzcumbers, which tastes absolutely repulsive. As he refuses to eat humans, or steal their vegetables, it's the only thing that the BFG can eat, as it is the only thing that grows in Giant Country.
65	--> '''The BFG''': I is a very honourable giant. I would rather be chewing up rotsome snozzcumbers than snitching things from other people.
66	* GassyGastronomy: When introducing the ''frobscottle'' (a soda where the bubbles fizz down and make the drinker fart so hard they get launched into the air), the BFG is disgusted to learn that humans' sodas have bubbles that fizz upwards, since giants consider burping ruder than humans.
67	* GentleGiant: The giant named "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Big Friendly Giant]]" [[note]]or BFG for short[[/note]], though he does have some DeadpanSnarker-ish moments.
68	%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
69	* HeroicBSOD: The BFG has a mild one when he accidentally catches a particularly nasty nightmare while fishing for dreams, which upsets him so much that he immediately decides to go home. He quickly gets over it by deciding to give the nightmare to one of the other giants.
70	* TheHiddenHour: The first chapter of the book is called "The Witching Hour", during which Sophie looks out of the window, and sees the BFG.
71	* HobblingTheGiant: Sophie sticks the pin of her brooch into the Fleshlumpeater's ankle, to incapacitate him when he is about to eat a soldier.
72	* HollywoodAtlas: Let's see... the Queen of England runs everything and can overturn any decisions that her military commanders try to make... Sweden is such a small community that everyone notices if twenty-six of them suddenly disappear... and Baghdad (and likely the rest of Iraq as well) is run by a Caliph.
73	* HonorBeforeReason: The BFG would rather subsist on disgusting snozzcumbers than steal food from humans.
74	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The BFG is disdainful of humankind in general, but realizes by the end that not ''all'' humans are bad.
75	%%* HumanoidAbomination: The giants are effectively this.
76	* HumbleGoal: The BFG dreams of riding on an elephant and picking peaches off trees. [[spoiler:He gets his wish at the end when all the countries of the world send gifts to thank him and Sophie for getting rid of the giants, including an elephant.]]
77	* IChooseToStay: In the book, [[spoiler:Sophie and the BFG stay in Windsor Great Park in the end]].
78	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: While Sophie at first doesn't like the idea of giving the Queen a nightmare of giants eating children, she and the BFG agree that it has to be done if they want to save everyone from being eaten by the giants once and for all.
79	* ImAHumanitarian: The other nine giants, who all travel into the world and eat humans on a daily basis. The BFG is too polite to do this, so the other giants don’t tend to look upon him fondly.
80	* ImprovisedWeapon: When the Fleshlumpeater is about to devour a poor soldier, Sophie takes the pin of the brooch she's wearing and uses it to stab him in the ankle. The Fleshlumpeater howls in pain, and the BFG tricks him into thinking he's been bitten by a poisonous viper and needs to grab his leg with both hands to stop the poison going into his heart, which makes it easy to tie him up.
81	* InsaneTrollLogic: Used by one of the British pilots to understand where Giant Land is located; he turns to the blank page at the back of the atlas and explains it must be there. Of course, in this world, TheCuckoolanderWasRight.
82	* InvisiblePresident: Averted; the Queen is not only seen, but is a major character ''and'' plays an important role in the story, and a fairly worshipfully-written one, too. Though admittedly she's only called The Queen of England, not [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII Queen Elizabeth II]]. However, she looks rather like her in Quentin Blake's extremely-stylized illustrations for the book.
83	* InvisibleStreaker: One dream describes a boy who makes himself invisible, while he is naked in the bath. Later he puts on his dressing gown and slippers (which are still visible) and walks in the streets, scaring people, who say "A ghost! A ghost!"
84	* IronicName: Both played straight and averted in the BFG's name. While the "Friendly Giant" makes sense, "Big" does not. While he is a giant, he is actually much smaller than the other giants. While he is big in comparison to humans, it makes no sense to call him big and a giant, because the other giants are the big ones.
85	* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: At the very end of the story, the BFG (having become literate) tells Sophie that he's planning to write a novel about their adventures. The last line of the book is "You've just finished reading it."
86	* JarOfTheBizarre: A notable feature of the BFG's cave is the many thousands of glass bottles filling every nook and cranny. These contain the dreams which the BFG collects, although this is not revealed for several chapters after the bottles are first mentioned. Even an enemy giant's curiosity is tickled by the bottles.
87	-->'''Bloodbottler:''' You and your pibbling bottles! What is you putting in them?\
88	'''BFG:''' Nothing that would interest you. You is only interested in guzzling human beans.
89	* KarmaHoudini: Mrs. Clonkers, owner of the OrphanageOfFear Sophie is living in at the beginning, who imposed all sorts of petty rules on the orphans and would lock them in a rat-infested cellar as punishment for breaking them. She isn't mentioned again after Sophie tells the BFG about her, and as far as we know is still abusing the kids in her care at the end of the story. (Averted in [[WesternAnimation/TheBFG the 1989 cartoon film]], in which the Queen has her orphanage shut down and makes her the giants' keeper.)
90	%%* KidHero: Sophie, of course.
91	* KnightOfCerebus: The other giants; they induce MoodWhiplash whenever they appear and their ChildEater habits are played very seriously.
92	* LargeAndInCharge: The Fleshlumpeater is the biggest and strongest of the giants, and is their unofficial leader.
93	* LargeRunt: Despite his name, the [=BFG=] is the smallest of the giants, and often bullied for it. Of cource, he ''is'' four times the size of a regular human...
94	* LittleMissSnarker: Sophie has many moments of this in her dialogue with the BFG, and sometimes in the narrative.
95	--> (Pondering the BFG) What a strange and moody creature this is. One moment he is telling me my head is full of squashed flies, and the next his heart is melting because Mrs Clonkers locks us in the cellar.
96	* LukeNounverber: Not counting the BFG himself, all but one of the giants have this type of name: Fleshlumpeater, Bloodbottler, Gizzardgulper, etc. The only exception is one called the Butcher Boy.
97	* MagicalLand: Giant Country and Dream Country. The book indicates these are [[LostWorld unexplored territories]] on Earth.
98	* {{Malaproper}}: The BFG is a constant malaproper ("Right as snow!" {Right as rain}, "Two rights is not making a left" {Two wrongs don't make a right}). Both these cases ''aren't'' examples of the BFG being stupid, but are because (as he has no parents) he is self-taught. Quite an impressive feat all in all, given that in the original book, he managed to teach himself to read and write from a single book -- Charles Dickens' ''Nicholas Nickleby''. In the book, he eventually gets tuition and doesn't do this anymore. The evil Giants, however, aren't interested in such pursuits and play the trope straight ("I is now going to search the primroses!").
99	* ManlyFacialHair: PlayedForLaughs. One of the dreams in the BFG's storage is about a little boy who is only eight years old but is already growing a splendid bushy beard, making all the other boys jealous. In keeping with Dahl's famous dislike of beards, the evil giants are all drawn with filthy and scraggly beards contributing to their disgusting appearances.
100	* MasochistsMeal: The snozzcumber, a disgusting vegetable that tastes of frogskins and rotten fish. Since the BFG refuses to eat humans or steal from them, snozzcumbers are the only thing he can eat, since they're the only plants that grow in Giant County. [[spoiler:At the end, the other giants are fed snozzcumbers after being trapped in a giant pit.]]
101	* MeaningfulAppearance: Compare the BFG to the other giants:
102	** While the BFG looks like a friendly oversized human (with unusually large ears) the evil giants are [[MonstrousHumanoid humanoid monsters]].
103	** The BFG wears a full set of clothes while the evil giants merely wear loincloths, showing how the BFG is not just nicer but also more intelligent and civilized.
104	** Unlike his fellow giants who are barefoot, the BFG wears "ridiculous sandals which for some reason had holes cut along each side, with a large hole at the end where his toes stuck out". These sandals were based on ones worn by Roald Dahl himself, who sent one of them to the illustrator Quentin Blake.
105	* MeaningfulName: All the giants have very obvious names relating to their characters (e.g. Bloodbottler, Bonecruncher, Childchewer, Fleshlumpeater, Maidmasher... and the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin BFG]] himself).
106	* MugglesDoItBetter: The British Army and the RAF ''could'' have easily obliterated the giants (as discussed in length by the Field Marshal and the Air Chief Marshal -- tanks, machine guns, bombs, artillery, fighter jets, etc). Yet, [[spoiler:they managed to tie them up in their sleep, commando style, without firing a shot, and ''still'' come out on top]]. Interestingly, despite their stupidity and contempt for the PunyHumans, the evil giants are all well aware of this -- they understand that if one of them is spotted then they might all be hunted down, and according to the BFG the Fleshlumpeater has wanted to eat the Queen of England for a while, but doesn't dare risk it because she's protected by soldiers.
107	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Giants are a race of violent, evil brutes who [[ToServeMan grind their teeth with human bones]], [[ChildEater especially children's]]. The BFG is the only good member of the race and is horrified at his cohorts' brutality and anthropophagy, which the other giants disown him for.
108	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The villainous giants: The Childchewer, the Gizzardgulper, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fleshlumpeater]], the Bloodbottler, etc.
109	* NobodyPoops: Zigzagged. Despite extensive mention of "whizzpopping", it is never mentioned how or when the giants relieve themselves. As they believe that "burping is filthsome", perhaps it is not polite for them to talk about it. However, at the beginning it is mentioned that the children in Sophie's orphanage are punished if they go to the lavatory at night.
110	* NonIndicativeName: The one good giant calls himself the "Big Friendly Giant", even though he's by far the ''smallest'' of the giants (although at least the "Friendly" part is beyond question). Admittedly, calling himself "The SFG" probably wouldn't have sounded as good.
111	* NoTrueScotsman: The other giants essentially disown the BFG for not eating humans, though neither party does anything to patch the ties.
112	* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Downplayed when Sophie is spat out of the Bloodbottler's mouth, from a height of fifty feet. Instead of hitting the stony wall of the cave, which would certainly have killed her, she hits the soft folds of the BFG's cloak hanging up, and then drops to the ground, half-stunned.
113	* NuclearCandle: The vast cave is lit by "brilliant blinding lights which seem to come from nowhere", the nature of which is never explained.
114	* OddNameOut: Bloodbottler, Bonecruncher, Childchewer, Fleshlumpeater, Maidmasher... [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and The Butcher Boy.]] And, understandably, the BFG.
115	* OneGenderRace: The Giants are exclusively male and simply come into being. The Giant race is pretty small, actually -- there's only 10 of them.
116	--> 'My mother!' cried the BFG. 'Giants don't have mothers! Surely you is knowing that.' 'I did not know that,' Sophie said. 'Whoever heard of a woman giant!' shouted the BFG, waving the snozzcumber around his head like a lasso. 'There never was a woman giant! And there never will be one. Giants is always men!'
117	%%* OrphanageOfFear: Mrs. Clonker's Home for Girls.
118	* OurGiantsAreBigger: ...except BFG himself, who's considerably smaller than the others.
119	* PajamaCladHero: Sophie spends most of the book in her nightdress. She gets a proper dress from the Queen later.
120	* PatrioticFervor: Sophie has a moment of this, just after she has been taken away by the BFG. Even though she is terrified that she is about to be eaten, she is angry when she learns that the Bonecrunching Giant will only gobble Turks.
121	--> '''Sophie:''' Why Turks? What's wrong with the English?
122	* PickedFlowersAreDead: The Big Friendly Giant comments that since he can hear the voices of plants, anytime somebody picks a flower, he can hear the plant screaming as though somebody were having their arm twisted off. Sophie wonders whether she'll ever be able to pick flowers again.
123	* PrettyButterflies: As the BFG can hear animals talking, he says the only thing caterpillars talk about is who is going to be the prettiest butterfly.
124	* ProductPlacement: When the BFG asks Sophie about human drinks similar to Frobscottle, she mentions that there is one called Coke and another one called Pepsi.
125	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Someone getting into the Queen's bedroom past the security? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fagan_incident Happened the same year the book was published]]. ''[[SwissCheeseSecurity Twice]]''.
126	* Really700YearsOld: The BFG and the other giants are thousands of years old.
127	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Queen, who is implied to be [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII Queen Elizabeth II]]. Roald Dahl loves his Queen.
128	* TheRuntAtTheEnd: The BFG is the smallest and physically weakest of the giants. This, along with his refusal to eat humans, is why they all ostracize him.
129	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: The BFG reveals the location of Giant Country to humans so they can defeat the evil giants and no more children will be eaten.
130	* SealedEvilInACan:
131	** At the end, [[spoiler:the evil giants are trapped in a deep pit and given only disgusting vegetables for food... save the one occasion three drunk men scaled the fence and fell in.]]
132	** The nightmares the BFG catches are literally in cans.
133	* [[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: Not quite. Sophie is snatched from her bed so she can't reveal the giants' existence to the human world.
134	* SingleTear: When the BFG hears about Sophie being locked in the cellar at her orphanage, he sheds a tear that would fill a bucket, making quite a puddle.[[note]]Considering he learned English from ''Nicholas Nickleby'', he should not have been surprised.[[/note]]
135	* SpinOff: The BFG first appeared in ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'', an earlier book by Dahl, in a bedtime story told by Danny's father.
136	* {{Spoonerism}}: Among the many ways the BFG speaks a bit funny: when Sophie is sitting right inside his super-sensitive ear, he says "your voice is sounding like tunder and thrumpets!".
137	* SquareCubeLaw: A subtle example in the book. When the BFG is visiting the queen, the butler reasons that, since the BFG is four times as tall as a human, he'll need four times the food when they go to cook breakfast for him. This turns out to be far from sufficient, as he's four times the size in every dimention, not just height--the 4x breakfast they serve him gets eaten in one bite, and trying to feed him as much as he actually needs ends up emptying the kitchen.
138	* StarvingArtist: Subverted, though the BFG has to eat disgusting Snozzcumbers. Dreams that escape from dreamland are illogical, nonsensical, and some of them are nightmarish. The BFG makes dreams have beginnings, middles, and endings, [[DoingItForTheArt thus turning them into stories for children and adults everywhere]], taking great pride in his not-for-profit work.
139	* SuperSenses: The BFG has super-powerful hearing, enabling him to hear ants talking to each other (although he can't understand the language), the screams of flowers as they're picked, and on clear nights, he can hear faint music coming from ''space''.
140	* TalkingInYourDreams: Subverted in that the BFG and Sophie create a dream for the Queen of England about the man-eating giants, since she would never believe them if they simply told her. To make the "dream come true", the dream includes Sophie sitting on the Queen's window sill, which the Queen then sees in real life when she wakes.
141	* ThatWasNotADream: A central part of Sophie's plan to catch the man-eating giants once and for all. Since the Queen of England would never believe a story about the giants, Sophie and the BFG decide to make her dream about them; and to avert AllJustADream, the dream includes Sophie sitting on the Queen's window sill; and as planned, Sophie is indeed there when the Queen wakes. The Queen is further convinced when she reads the newspaper about children disappearing from school dormitories that very night.
142	%%* ThoseTwoGuys: The heads of the army and air force.
143	* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The one kind of human that no giant will ever eat are ones from Greece, because they taste too greasy.
144	* ToServeMan: All the giants eat humans except for the BFG.
145	* ToiletHumor: There is an entire chapter dedicated to a drink that makes one fart (or rather, "make a Whizzpopper")... in pretty epic proportions. The BFG even does one in front of the Queen, who takes it quite amusingly well under the circumstances ("I prefer the bagpipes.")
146	* TokenGoodTeammate: The BFG is the only good giant, the rest are AlwaysChaoticEvil.
147	* UnusualEuphemism: "Whizzpoppers" sounds much less crude, right?
148	* VegetarianCarnivore: Presumably, the BFG ''could'' eat humans if he wanted to, but since he won't, he has to subsist on snozzcumbers instead.
149	* VirtuousVegetarianism: BFG's diet consists primarily of snozzcumbers, a cucumber-like vegetable, and he is the only good giant in the setting. All the other giants are evil, and eat children.
150	* WakeUpFighting: Justified. When the Fleshlumpeater has a terrible nightmare given to him by the BFG, his flailing limbs accidentally hit two of the other sleeping giants, who then wake up and pound him with their fists and feet, causing the wretched Fleshlumpeater to wake up, and start fighting back; and soon all nine giants have the most almighty free-for-all.
151	* WallCrawl: One of the dreams collected by the BFG is about a boy inventing suction boots, enabling him to walk up the wall and across the ceiling. When the boy's sister comes in and yells at him, he says that he told her she was driving him up the wall, and now she has done it.
152	* WeirdWorldWeirdFood: The only food that grows in Giant Country is the icky-poo vegetable, the snozzcumber; and the only drink to be had is Frobscottle, which fizzes downwards instead of up, and causes rude "whizzpopping" noises from the drinker's bottom. This might explain why the giants eat humans; their homegrown stuff is too gross.
153	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: All the Giants are terrified of only one human -- the legendary [[Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk Jack]] (see CulturalTranslation for other languages). Also, it seems that Fleshlumpeater is literally scared of snakes as well: the title character at once point scares him with "the Venomsome Vindscreen Viper".
154	* WouldHurtAChild: The giants will eat children as readily as adults. True to his name, the Childchewing Giant prefers snacking on children because they're "not so tough to eat as old grandmamma."
155	* YouNoTakeCandle: All the Giants speak in broken and mangled English, including the BFG (though he has a better grasp than the others). Also, only the bad Giants have the violent element. In the book, he eventually gets tuition and doesn't do this any more. The evil Giants, however, aren't interested in such pursuits and play the tropes pretty much straight ("I is now going to search the primroses!").

Context Literature / TheBFG