Reroll Fan Art by PeachMalady on tumblr
We reroll Princess Bride! Caroyln sees a bird! Andy outwits himself! Lane teaches biology!
Episode 80-81 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1987 adventure movie.
Presented as a book read to sick boy by his grandfather, The Princess Bride tells the story of Buttercup, a woman dealing with her fair share of issues. Her lover is presumed dead, she has started hallucinating and Prince Humperdink has demanded to claim her as his bride, and sent out his agents to collect her. Buttercup already has her hands quite full before even more complications arrive. Who is the mysterious pirate tailing her? What is his history with mermaids? And what about Diane, the strange woman living in the forest?
Starring Andy Hoover as Westley, Carolyn Faye Kramer as Princess Buttercup, Lane Moore (First Appearance) as Inigo Montoya and as Diane and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.
This is the second consecutive reroll based on a movie by William Goldman after the reroll of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Followed by The Rock.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Evil: Diane's true allegiances are kept vague throughout the story, and Westley is afraid that she might end up betraying them. In the end though, it seems like Diane is exactly what she appears to be; a somewhat sadistic yet caring mercenary who doesn't want any innocents to get hurt.
- Anachronism Stew: Played for Laughs with Diane, who claims to be able to fix cars, is apparently a member of PETA, and references pop culture that has yet to be created.
- And Then What?: Having gotten their new ship, our protagonists realize that they're not even sure what they want to do or where they should go.
- Bag of Holding:
- While never outright stated to be magical in nature, Diane's bag can fit far more than it logically should, leading to a Mary Poppins reference.
- Averted with Buttercup's suitcase, which she can just barely not fit into. Further averted when Paulo reminds Carolyn that there are no suitcases in this setting.
- Bavarian Fire Drill:
- Westley manages to trick Fezzik into thinking that they were both working for the same man and that the whole conflict has been a big misunderstanding, side-stepping their movie fight entirely. Paulo actually ends up preferring this version, finding it more plausible.
- Diane manages to make herself captain of an enemy ship and its' crew by simply claiming to be carrying out Humperdink's orders. However, the other ships become suspicious and end up pursuing them.
- Big Damn Kiss: Westley and Buttercup kiss for over an hour, as Vizzini is slowly bleeding out next to them, no less. This goes on for four In-Universe pages, and the kid is mildly traumatised after having had them read out to him.
- Butch Lesbian: Diane is — in her own humble words — "hugely gay and in incredible shape." She also puts on a fancy suit in preparation for the journey.
- Call-Back: After introducing Buttercup's imaginary friend Roger, the grandfather points out that usually when people hallucinate talking birds, they tend to be penguins.
- Canon Foreigner: Roger the bird and Diane are not part of the original movie.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Westley and Inigo have a casual conversation about their respective apprenticeships in the middle of their duel.
- Cliffhanger: The first episode ends with Diane having disarmed Westley and aimed her bow at him. The Rerollers take advantage of the Framing Device by having the grandfather deliberately leaving the story hanging while he goes for a pee break.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Diane joins forces with Westley — somewhat reluctantly, at first — after beating him in a duel.
- Demonic Possession: Andy Hoover jokingly speculates that Fred Savage's character has a mild case of a The Exorcist-esque possession, where instead of becoming evil he just Took a Level in Jerkass.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Buttercup spends some time bemoaning the "death" of Westley to her horse, Esmeralda. A few days later, she eats a hamburger made of fresh horse meat. The rerollers draw the natural conclusion.
- Extreme Doormat: Westley is one to Buttercup (who, granted, is also his employer.) It gets to the point that that the grandfather says that they have a "dom/sub relationship", which is something he might explain to his grandson when he is older.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: Westley, Buttercup and Diane all part ways at the end. Presumably, this was more of a case of Breaking the Fellowship within the In-Universe book, but the campaign doesn't cover that part of the story, so...
- Friendly Enemy: Westley and Inigo Montoya both consider the other to be a Worthy Opponent almost immediately, are very affable towards each other, and outright hope that their duel will result a case of Defeat Equals Friendship.
-
Girl-Show Ghetto: The kid in the Framing Device is at first disinterested in the titular book because of the "girly" title. (In Real Life, it was actually renamed in several countries for this exact reason.) - Hotter and Sexier: Certainly compared to the original story. What's more, the grandfather actually claims to have skipped over the rauchiest parts. If this is what he felt he could read...
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The players make no attempt at concealing the identity of the Dread Pirate Roberts, even though the character is meant to be masked.
- Literal Cliffhanger: The Dread Pirate Roberts ends up dangling from a cliff after the people he pursues cut his rope.
- Love Triangle: Westley is of course very much still in love with Buttercup, but she is still mad at him for what he did and has gotten her eyes set on Diane, who is very much enjoying the attention. Add Diane's love of bossing around Westley and his love of being dominated, and the Threesome Subtext becomes about as thick as possible without an outright Relationship Upgrade.
- Love Dodecahedron: Eventually it turns into this, once Westley's old flame Jennifer shows up and Buttercup is introduced to Joshua the sailor, who gets a crush on her. Not to mention that the whole plot kicks off because Humperdink also wanted Buttercup.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Roger, the bird only Buttercup can see, at first only seems to be a delusion caused by her loneliness. But then Inigo Montoya says that he can also se him... Roger also somehow manages to give exposition to Buttercup while she's blindfolded.
- Mermaid Problem: Westley accidentally reveals that he had a relationship with a mermaid named Jennifer.
- The Missus and the Ex: Westley ends up running into his old mermaid flame Jennifer, who does not get along with Buttercup.
- Neutral Female: Deconstructed with Buttercup, who has been this for so long that she hasn't developed much of an identity, and isn't sure what to do once she is able to get some agency of her own. The story ends with her wandering off into the distance, hoping to find herself somewhere.
- No Ending: The gang get focused on the romantic subplot, and finish the movie when that is resolved, but leave unresolved the main story of the prince chasing them. This is lampshaded as a result of the grandpa realizing that this book was too adult for his grandson. They leave it as a possible sequel hook.
- One True Love: Subverted. As Buttercup realizes that the man she thought was the love of her life is not as perfect as she'd dreamed when she was young. Buttercup realizes that she might have feelings for Diane, and she has more growing up to do before she decides who here One True Love is.
- Poe's Law: In-Universe. Our heroes aren't sure if Jennifer the mermaid is serious or not when claiming that her "water suit" is only going to last so long and that she will die soon, but Westley dumps her back into the sea regardless. Of course, he may just have been looking for an excuse to get rid of her...
- Satellite Character: Joshua the sailor and Frederico the soldier, who have little to do in the story beyond being enemies tricked into becoming party members.
- Scooby Stack: Buttercup, Westley and Diane do this while spying on the enemy ships, by Carolyn's suggestion.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After getting Westley and Buttercup to safety, Diane leaves, having gotten tired of their bickering and having other things to do. Though she does say that she'll be there if they ever need her help again.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: This version of Princess Bride becomes a bit of a Shaggy Dog, as the dramatic rescue of Buttercup becomes subverted by their relationship troubles.
- Shout-Out: The Rerollers point out that Roger the bird starts sounding like Gilbert Gottfried as Iago from Aladdin after a while.
- Smart People Play Chess: Westley and Vizzini challenge each other to a game of chesd, with the winner claiming Buttercup. It ends in a draw, at which point Westley simply draws his sword and kills Vizzini.
- Story Within a Story: The framing narrative of the grandpa and the kid reading the book gets used for comic effect.
- Succubi and Incubi: Diane claims to be something along these lines, saying that being naked increases her power and that she could eat our heroes with her vagina. She's probably just being dramatic, but the suggestible Buttercup believes every word.
- Trojan Prisoner: Westley and Buttercup try to get onboard the enemy ship by putting on face-concealing hoods to disguise themselves as prisoners captured by Diane. It works.
- The Vamp: Upon meeting Westley, Diane tries to seduce him by stripping.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: In-Universe. Every time something really weird would happen in the main narrative, the cast cut back to the kid confused by the very adult story the grandpa is reading him. The campaign ends with the grandpa realizing that the story was not at all age appropriate, and that he must have confused it with another book. It's also said that the boy's mother would not have approved of his choice of literature.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Diane claims to have worked as a gravedigger, a watchmaker, a woodcutter and a mechanic. It is implied that she's a bit of an Unreliable Narrator, though.
