And now to tell you about some tropes my human owners know about...
Olga da Polga is a guinea pig created by Michael Bond. She is a guinea pig noted for telling tall tales in the style of Baron Munchausen (re-tellings of events that her human owners get up to).It was popular, but not quite as popular as Paddington Bear.
Tropes present in this series include:
- Adoptive Name Change: Defied: When Olga is adopted, her owners consider renaming her to Greta or Gerda, but she dislikes those names, thinking they sound boring, so she writes her name on the floor of her cage.
- Big Eater: Olga da Polga is nearly always hungry and can eat quite a lot.
- Cats Are Mean: Downplayed example. Noel is more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and not outright evil.
- Comic-Book Time: No matter whether it gets a Setting Update or not, Olga and Boris will always remain young guinea-pigs and never age. Karen the guinea pigs' owner will never age either.
- Cool Old Guy: Or rather, cool old tortoise, as Graham the tortoise, is old, but has a different, unique way of looking at the world.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Olga is initially jealous of Fircone and Raisin, two hamsters who appeared in a later book, but she quickly gains respect for them after they stand up to Noel the cat.
- How We Got Here: The first book starts with Olga in a pet shop and other guinea pigs.
- Lighter and Softer: While it was already a light and fluffy story, the picture books are even softer in tone than the original book. Justified, as they're aimed at a younger audience.
- No Antagonist: The story is very Slice of Life, and although Noel the cat can be obnoxious at times, he is not a Big Bad or even villainous.
- Schrödinger's Canon: It's never been confirmed if it's in the same continuity or canon as Paddington Bear or not.
- Slice of Life: The biggest conflicts come from misunderstandings or Olga's tall tales, not earth-shattering conflict.
- The Münchausen: Olga, and her boyfriend Boris, are both prone to exaggerating and fabulism in the story for otherwise mundane things.
