Series / Galavant

Galavant, Richard, and Friend

Way back in days of old
There was a legend told
About a hero known as Galavant...

Galavant is a musical-comedy series which first aired on ABC during the 2014/2015 midseason winter break, bridging the gap between season halves of Once Upon a Time. The series follows the exploits of the famous knight Galavant, whose true love Madalena was kidnapped by the evil King Richard. However, when Galavant attempted to rescue her, Madalena chose to marry Richard for the fame and fortune instead of returning to Galavant. About a year later, a despondent Galavant is approached by Isabella, the princess of Valencia. Her kingdom has come under attack by Richard, and she wants Galavant to liberate it. There's just one problem; Galavant has spent the last year or so doing nothing but drinking and becoming a sour and depressed shut-in, so he's not really up for playing the hero. So it falls to Isabella and Galavant's squire Sidney to try and inspire him to take up the quest to save Valencia and once again become the hero he was meant to be. Along the way are laughs, epic battles, and songs. Lots and lots of songs.

Surprisingly—despite mediocre ratings and the show's own narrator thinking it unlikely—the show was picked up for a second season, which began airing January 3, 2016. The second season resolved many of the plot threads that had been Left Hanging at the end of the first, as well as a number of new conflicts that arose during the course of the season. That said it still ended with something of a Sequel Hook, as well as some more subtle hints at potential plot/character arcs that would be present in a third season.

But alas, the show's luck ran out and it wasn't renewed for a third season. Alan Menken says that he isn't done with the project, however, and hopes to be able to find another home for it, even hinting at a possible run on Broadway.

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Tropes present include:

• The Ace: Galavant, prior to the end of the opening, was a grand hero who excelled at being tough and "every other manly value". So much so that, even after becoming a Broken Ace, his former reputation is still strong enough to bring him some measure of respect. By the end of the first season, he's back to his old level of skill.
• Accidental Truth: Galavant when attempting to stop Richard and Madalena's wedding tells Richard that he may offer all the riches and power, but he will never win Madalena's heart. This ends up being completely true; Madalena while married to Richard belittles all his attempts and treats him like garbage.
• Acting for Two: In-universe. Madalena sings a number with her reflections in mirrors around her chambers ending with a chorus of reflections that could rival the companies of some theater productions.
• Action Figure Justification: Galavant appreciates Sid's honesty about being "a late sleeper and a lover of dolls."
  Sid: Figurines. Detailed figurines.
  Galavant: Right, so, fancy dolls.
• Affably Evil: King Richard. Not every day you meet a genocidal warlord who's so dorky and trying his best to please his loved ones.
  Richard: I need a hug!
• Affectionate Parody: Of fairy tales and musicals, somewhat along the lines of Spamalot or Once Upon a Mattress.
• Agent Peacock: Chester Wormwood is a wedding planner. The DEL in the finale is a fashion consultant.
• The Alcoholic: Galavant after Madalena dropped him.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: When Galavant convinces Richard to just assassinate Kingsley, Richard loudly announces it to the whole pub, and they both then walk the castle drunkenly singing about it. By the time they actually get to the bedroom there's an ambush in place.
• Alter Kocker: Everyone in Sid's hometown. They even have a song about it.
• Ambiguously Brown: Isabella lampshades this when she refers to herself as "ethnically hard to pin down." Her actress, Karen David, is of mixed Indian, Chinese, and Jewish descent.
• Anachronism Stew: The events of series explicitly takes place in the year 1256 and it generally fits visually, but there are many details that are all wrong for that time period. Rule of Funny usually applies.
  • Corseted dresses are occasionally shown, despite corsets being a Renaissance invention. An odd example as the more period accurate brassieres are referenced and shown in throw-away gags a few times.
  • Vikings and Huns are referenced as threats to daily life in the setting. Vikings and Huns actually were a notable presence in the Dark Ages but had both faded into obscurity long before the 13th century.
  • Gareth mentions that salty snacks are good for the king's electrolytes. Electrolytes were discovered in 1884.
  • The pirates are decked out in all the trappings of The Golden Age of Piracy, Jolly Roger and all.
  • Stands out in Gal and Izzy's wedding vows:
    Head Monk: Through richer or poorer, in sickness and health. Through rampaging Vikings and cannibal elfs. Through Hobbits, and bikers, and dolphins with lasers and mutants and lawyers...
  • Done in the opposite direction, when Gareth then suggests a standardized time-keeping system, only for Richard to say he's talking like a witch. The earliest known sundials date back to 1500 BCE.
  • In the pilot episode, Galavant is explaining his backstory to Isabella and comments that "You can't fight genetics." While theories on heredity have been kicked around for thousands of years by physicians in many different cultures, modern genetic studies didn't emerge until the nineteenth century.
• And the Adventure Continues: While almost all the Heroes get their Happy Ever Afters, Season Two closes with Gareth setting off on an adventure to save Madalena from herself, with Sid joining him.
  Gareth: Are you up for an adventure?
  Sidney: Definitely!
• And Now You Must Marry Me: King Richard kidnapped Madalena and forced her into marrying him, though by the time of the wedding she was okay with it.
• Anti-Climax: The pirates say the reason they are stuck on land is a terrible, frightening tale, just to reveal their ship is stuck on some trees on a nearby hill. Bonus point for them not actually telling us how it got up there.
• Anti-Love Song: Most love songs on the show generally have a theme of how confusing love is, and how flawed the lovers are, and all the little aches and pains of marriage, but they also generally state that love is, overall, worth it.
  • "Maybe You're Not the Worst Thing Ever" and "Love Is Strange" mainly just listing off the love interests' flaws
  • "Share My Life with You" is about love in The Dung Ages, and "Happy Ending For Us" details a murder plot.
  • "World' Best Kiss" is about Galavant and Isabella reminiscing about their one and only kiss and how, in hindsight, it was actually pretty awful.
  • "Dance With Me", although legitimately a love song on Galavant's side (at first), is one of these on Madalena's. Her half of the duet is about how she loves him "as much as someone like me can love anyone", for things like how they look together or how he's middling to fair in bed.
  • "Maybe You Won't Die Alone" is primarily Galavant trying to prevent Richard from royally screwing up his date with Roberta by tapping into Richard's fear of loneliness.
• Anti-Villain: King Richard. Homicidal, genocidal, and more. Yet, he's extremely sympathetic, respects women's rights (to a certain point), and generally wants the people around him to be happy and to like him (unless they piss him off, then all bets are off). He's the deuteragonist by the end of the first season, but the Season 2 opening reminds viewers that his goal is to retake Valencia after having brutally conquered it in the first place.
• Appliance Defenestration: When Gareth finds that Madalena has thrown his "Dogs Jousting" painting into the moat, he starts throwing stuff of hers out the window as well, leading to an Escalating War that ends with Sid (now their servant) being thrown out as well.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Nobody believes Sid when he says he walked into the Enchanted Forest without knowing that it was a gay bar, even though Richard did the same thing (well, Richard is known to be a bit oblivious...)
• Artistic License – History: Being a parody, there is a lot of this but two things really stand out.
  • The first would be how Squires are treated and used as little more than personal servants and given the ages of some we meet all they ever will be, when in reality a Squire was a knight in training similar to being an apprentice. While some of their duties would seem servant-like, this was in return for being trained.
  • The second is Gwynne and Cook constantly calling themselves poor peasants when given their jobs, Handmaiden to the Queen and Personal Chef of the King, they would both be very well off and Gwynne would have to be a Noble with a title of her own. The first season finale suggests why this was the case. If you count on people to prepare your food, keep all your secrets and watch over you while you sleep, it's probably a good idea to treat them well. This may be intentional, since when they get the same jobs in another kingdom for early season 2 they live like nobility.
  • In general there don't seem to be any feudal ranks between royalty and knights, and even knights are basically just soldiers with better equipment. Everyone with any kind of castle is royalty, and no kingdom seems to extend beyond one settlement. Some courtiers and "fancy folk" occasionally show up for crowd scenes, but they don't seem to have any function.
  • The Kingdom of Valencia was a real kingdom, however it was a kingdom of the Crown of Aragon and not indepedent. Although conquered by 1256, it had just recently been a Muslim-ruled Taifa.
• Aside Glance:
  • Xanax (a "spiritual guide"—he's not allowed to call himself a magician (anymore) gives one in annoyance when King Richard decides to take the group to see his childhood bedroom.
  • The spokesman for a democratic village tells Galavant that his request for help attacking Valencia will be heard by the council, but he doesn't see why a free people would agree to an open-ended campaign hundreds of miles away that benefits only the few. That part is spoken directly into the camera, leading a confused Galavant to look behind his shoulder to figure out who he's talking to.
• Automaton Horses: Exaggerated in the second season; the gang's horse stops moving forwards, and it plays out exactly like a motorcycle nobody knows how to service broke down. The horse is just standing there and looks perfectly fine, but the characters are forced to continue on foot after trying to give it a kick fails to work. The gang is also starving to the point of cannibalism, but nobody even thinks of the fact that the now-useless horse is made of meat.
• Babies Ever After: Galavant and Isabella both want to settle down to a quiet life and start a family. She wants seven while he's trying to talk her down to three.
• Badass Decay: In-universe with Galavant, who has to return to top form after a year of hard drinking and no exercise.
• Bad Boss: The Cook makes note that Richard's family has butchered the last five generations of cooks in his family for very petty reasons. Even Richard concedes the point with "I'm such a bully!"
• Back for the Finale: Parodied. Sid brings the pirates, gay club members, giants, dwarfs and Princess Jubilee's gang to the final battle, but because of budget restraints their leaders Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith and Hugh Bonneville couldn't make it.
• "Balls" Gag:
  • Everyone laughs when the eunuch mentions that "we used to have balls", meaning dances.
  • When Gareth gets a nut bowl for his birthday, he points out "They'll never fit".
• Bar Brawl: Gareth used to get into one on his birthday, so Madalena takes him to a bar as a present. Unfortunately, now that he's king no one is willing to fight him.
• Batman Gambit: King Richard pulls a nice one on Galavant, using his love for Madalena to lure him out. Also, he tells Isabella to ask Galavant's help to free her kingdom, knowing he'll initially refuse, then stick around because he'll, out of curiosity, ask her story, and then she'll casually mention a girl crying every night for a mistake she made, to make Galavant believe it's Madalena regretting her choice. It works perfectly.
• Be Careful What You Wish For/Jerkass Genie: Possibly the Forest of Coincidence. Sid gets a horse and direction to rejoin Galavant, and a sword to give him with which Sid ends up accidentally running Galavant through, while Wormwood gets the means for his revenge on Isabella, but that also puts him in the way of the only person in the world that could actually kill him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Isabella lampshades the fact that Galavant's beard magically stays the same length.
• Being Evil Sucks: Richard for all his Big Bad qualities really doesn't like being the bad guy. It means that no one likes him except for Gareth, and even his wife wants nothing to do with him. He also realizes that there's no reason for people to like him because he forgets all the heinous acts he does.
• Berserk Button:
  • The eunuch makes the mistake of joking about Madelena's infidelity to Richard. All other jokes about him Richard took in stride, but this one makes the smile drop from his face. He promptly declares that the party's over, the eunuch is to be executed, and leaves enraged.
  • Another one is being told that Tad Cooper is not a real dragon. It's Wormwood seemingly killing him that gets Richard enraged enough to fight Wormwood.
• Beta Couple: The chef and Gywnne. They have the least problems and if there were, easily resolved. Coupled with the king and queen of Valencia, they are the most beta of couples. This is in contrast with the other couples in the limelight who has issues in their relationships.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Almost every single fantasy convention (in addition to a considerable deal of non-fantasy ones) gets lampshaded, parodied or outright explored in this series. Richard even calls out plot similarities to genres and tropes that wouldn't have existed during the show's setting.
• Big Bad: Richard as per being the resident Evil Overlord.
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • After Kingsley shows up. And then Madalena kills him in the season finale, leaving her as the one, true Big Bad.
  • Gareth and Madalena become one in Season Two, but when Evil Sorcerer Wormwood joins them, Gareth has an Even Evil Has Standards reaction to using black magic, and Madelena betrays Gareth to learn Wormwood's magic.
• Big Damn Kiss:
  • Galavant and Isabella finally kiss in the first season finale. Subverted when, in Season 2, it's revealed that neither enjoyed in much. They don't like their second kiss, either but agree to work on it.
  • Then there's Chef/Vincenzo and Gwynn, who actually get their kiss before the main characters.
  • Richard and Roberta almost get theirs at Neo of Sporin's, but Galavant couldn't stay dead for thirty more seconds. They have their kiss at the start of the next episode.
• Birds of a Feather: Madalena and Gareth, after first disagreements, got along precisely because they are violent and nasty people. It's simply their morals clashed where Madalena continued to lust for more power, choosing it over love repeatedly while Gareth is mostly righteous, knowing and showing he still has (moral) friends he would protect them even from Madalena, the woman he loves.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Madalena is introduced as a typical hero's love interest but reveals her true colors as a bitch par excellence after marrying King Richard.
  Madalena: No one wheels and double deals in killer heels like me!
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Isabella complains about her imprisonment in season 2, her mother insists that she's just being dramatic, and this isn't a prison. She then pounds on a wall. A guard calls out "Visitor leaving!" and multiple locks disengage.
• Bloodless Carnage: No blood is shown anywhere, ever. Especially notable when Sid puts a sword through Galavant's chest, there still isn't any blood visible even when the lyrics say there really should be.
  Neo of Sporin: We've done all that we could for him,
  but look how much he bled.
• Book Ends:
  • The first episode had its introduction song ended with Madelena staring out of a window in Richard's castle. One of the last scenes of the first season's final episode shows Isabella being confined to the room that her cousin made just for her while she stared out of a tiny heart-shaped aperture.
  • The first episode has a Mook let out a Wilhlem Scream when defeated by Galavant. The last episode of Season 2 has Wormwood make the same scream when killed.
• Boyband: The monks of Valencia, having taken a vow of singing, are one complete with close harmonies and dancing. The five monks even fall into the standard boyband archetypes, with "Weird Al" Yankovic as the lead.
• Brainwashed Bride: Downplayed in that Isabella did already agree to wed her cousin (though she did so under duress), but Wormwood the evil wedding planner slips a mind-controlling tiara onto her head that turns her from a foot-dragging fiancée to a girlishly enthusiastic one. After the wedding she's now eager to have, he plans to depose the prince and rule Hortensia through her.
• Brick Joke:
  • In the first song of the second season, the cast predicts that they'll have tons of guest stars that will "cost the network a fortune." In the last episode Sid arrives with The Cavalry, but is unable to bring any of the big guest stars that have made appearances throughout the season because they ran out of money and couldn't afford to have those stars make another appearance.
  • In the final episodes, Isabella is looking for more weapons to help protect the kingdom of Hortensia. One local has a really pointy potato he is sure to be of use. Later, when the enemy forces are ramming the gates, he is heard calling for his potato to use.
  • A pretty spectacular cross-season one comes im the penultimate episode of the series. In season one, Richard makes quite a bit of fuss over greeting Galavant with a villainous "Well, well, well!" He finally gets to use it (albeit much less villainously) when he faces off with Wormwood.
  • In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from the second episode of the first season (which crosses over with Rewatch Bonus), a painting can be seen in the background of Gareth's room during the scene where he tries to teach Richard to be more "manly." A closer inspection of the painting reveals that it's one of the paintings Gareth tries to hang up in the throne room during the second season.
• The Bro Code: Sid invokes this by name with Gareth. Gareth, despite being the human embodiment of testosterone, had never heard of it and asks if it's "a black thing."
• Broken Ace: Galavant used to put Lord Flashheart to shame, but by the time we meet him Madalena's betrayal has turned him into a pathetic drunk.
• Bullying a Dragon: Another set of royals invite Madalena to a party and spend the whole time mocking her about being a brutal murdering sociopath. They do manage to hurt her feelings, but then Gareth cheers Madalena up by cutting their ears off.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When King Richard tries to organize something to have a bit of fun in Valencia, he finds it hard due to the consequences of his actions during the war (such as burning all of their crops and reducing their most beloved tree to toothpicks), actions he had forgotten until he was reminded of them.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Invoked in the opening theme's description of Madelana but it's an Informed Attribute as her actress is actually fairly small-breasted, most notably compared to the much curvier Isabella.
• Camp Straight: Richard, The Dandy who also desperately lusts for Madelena.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Every attempt of King Richard at humor is pretty much doomed to crash and burn.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Richard seemingly starts off as one, as made evident by his Villain Song She'll Be Mine. He quickly becomes first a Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain before being upgraded to deuteragonist in the second season.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: During the middle of a sword fight he started, Richard cheerfully reconnects with an old friend and talks to Galavant about how amazing it is to have met said friend while seemingly oblivious to the violence and death surrounding him. It's only when Galavant barely stops a knife from flying into his face that Richard decides it would be a good idea to get out of the way.
• Cat Fight: Between Isabella and Madalena, although it's not so much fighting as Battle Rapping. It does consist largely of catty remarks.
  Gareth: Finally! I've been waiting two seasons for this.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Sword of Heroes, pulled from a stump by the bumbling King Richard. And possibly his new pet liza—err—dragon.
• Characterization Marches On: In season 1, Richard is a cruel dictator who wants to start a genocidal war. At the start of season 2, he is a pathetic loser who nobody respects, and becomes a well-meaning underdog. To be fair, these were both true in the first season, he was just Obliviously Evil and people were too afraid to contradict him.
  Richard: I don't know how to do anything except be a king. And nobody wants me to be a king.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In the sixth episode, a flashback shows us Kingsley, Richard's older brother, who refused kingship because he'd rather take what he wanted than have it handed to him. Guess who shows up by the end of the episode to take his kingdom back?
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Hortensia is run by a child prince. When Isabella opens his armory, she finds it full of toy horses, and chocolate-shaped weapons in foil. The boy lampshades this by saying maybe it wasn't a good idea to let a child be in charge of something like this.
• The Chosen One: King Richard of all people wields the sword of The One True King To Unite Them All and is the only person able to kill Wormwood.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Richard was right. Tad Cooper really is a dragon.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb:
  • Gareth drops one in the fourth episode as a knock-knock joke.
  • The song "Your Mother is a Whore" was cut for taking this further than the censors were willing to allow. It starts with a few, but by the end entire verses are being bleeped at a time.
• Color Blind Casting: Sid is black and Isabella is Indian/Chinese/Jewish. Yet Sid's parents are white, and Isabella's lighter than she is. However, Sid is explicitly adopted, and though the specifics in Isabella's family are not clear yet, her cousin is also Indian. There's also a gag that even she isn't quite clear on her ethnicity, saying it's "hard to pin down".
• The Comically Serious:
  • Gareth, when he's not being a Straight Man for King Richard.
  • The Valencian eunuch. When asked what they used to do for fun in Valencia, he says, quite innocently, "We used to have balls," much to King Richard's amusement. Then, after being sentenced to death for revealing the affair between Madalena and the Jester, he reacts simply by standing there and nodding, as if to say, "Okay, I see where I went wrong. My bad."
• Comically Small Bribe: The price on Sid's head in season 2 is a mere 6 gold coins. Subverted when he points this out to a would-be bounty hunter and the peasant points out that it's actually the price of a farm.
• Commuting on a Bus: Chef and Gwynne depart Hortensia and aren't present for the middle portion of Season 2 because their actors weren't available.
• Contrived Coincidence: The writers needed to get some important information across without slowing down the show's pace. Cue several characters entering the Forest of Coincidence and about a dozen different problems being resolved in the space of five minutes.
• Crowd Song: Today We Rise starts off as one about a peasant uprising, but gradually dwindles until it's just Sid singing about the likelihood of horrific injury.
• Cultured Badass: Although Galavant comes across as an egotistical clod, he mentions that he dedicated his early life to educating himself.
• The Dandy: King Richard is pretty effeminate, often starting the musical numbers in his castle and unable to accomplish any of the brutal acts he desires. He seems aware of his status as thus, given he spends the whole second episode asking for advice from Gareth on how to become more manly.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Madalena says that she loves Galavant... As much as someone like her can love anyone.
  Madalena: I mean, I love how when we hit the hay,
  It's more than just okay.
  Galavant: Right?!
  Madalena: I'd absolutely say, more like middling to fair.
  Galavant: Wait, what?
• Damsel in Distress: Isabella finds herself locked up by her cousin/fiance in exchange for the safety of her friends. She's seen trying to free herself but the guards are savvy to every trick in the book and all she can do is lament that while she's a feminist who doesn't need a man, she'd like for Galavant to hurry up and come rescue her.
• Dark Comedy: Many of the songs mine humor by juxtaposing cheerful melodies with extremely dark lyrics. Notable is the love duet between Chef and Gwynne (Madalena's handmaiden).
  Chef: We would have a dozen kids.
  Gwynne: And maybe one won't die!
• Dark Reprise: The song "Dark Season" of the Season 2 main theme.
• Decapitation Presentation: When Isabella tells Richard she's feeling second thoughts about luring Galavant to his doom, he shows her her parents' heads on platters. Then it turns out they're just sticking their heads up through the table and aren't dead, he convinced them that it would be funny.
• Delayed Reaction: While singing "Love is Strange", Galavant and Isabella leave their dungeon cells to dance together in the middle of the dungeon. It's not until after the song ends that they realize that the doors were unlocked, causing Galavant to wonder if they were really unlocked the whole time they were down there and if no one checked.
• Department of Redundancy Department: After Roberta refuses to watch Richard die in battle, she sings that she'll "cross the lonely seas to spend her lonely life alone".
• Description Cut: Wormwood claims that only the Sword of Heroes can kill him, and no one knows where it is. Cut to Richard using the pommel of said sword to crack nuts.
• Designated Girl Fight: Madelena vs. Isabella at the end of Season 2. Played with in that it's a showdown between the characters in their roles as leaders of their respective factions, not just the women being paired off in a general melee.
• Devil, but No God: A signpost in the premiere episode has an arrow pointing down to Hell, but no opposite sign pointing to Heaven. Of course, this is just a pun on the fact it also points to Winterfell. The DEL appears to possibly be a Satanic Archetype, though he never has screen time to confirm this.
• Didn't See That Coming: Sid's reaction to Madalena and Gareth. It's heavily implied this is the same with everyone else when they saw their interactions in the final battle.
• Disney Death: Richard's dragon, Tad Cooper, particularly hilarious for those who had owned bearded dragons and know that they can survive falls like this and play dead.
• Distant Duet:
  • "Maybe You're not the Worst Thing Ever", one of many anti-love songs in the series, is sung by two duets (Galavant & Isabella, Richard & Madalena) while they're in different kingdoms
  • "The Best Kiss Ever", a love song sung by Galavant and Isabella while the former is in Richard's unnamed kingdom and the latter is in Hortensia.
• Dragon Ascendant:
  • Played with. Gareth winds up becoming king once Madalena tries to get rid of Richard and Kingsley, but it's clear Madalena is making Gareth a king in name only, and Gareth actually worked to save Richard and send him back to his kingdom.
  • Played with differently in Season 2; Wormwood's assistant doesn't actually care about the evil plan, but he does take over the wedding planning business at the end.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the opening number of episode one, a man sings about Galavant having "cojones down to there" while holding two pumpkins.
• Don't Go in the Woods: Richard's father warned him not to go into the Enchanted Forest... which turns out not to be an actual forest but the name of a Gay Bar.
• Double Entendre: There is at least one in every dialogue concerning Madalena and the jester.
• The Dragon: Gareth is King Richard's. He's the king's personal muscle and has been by Richard's side since they were ten years-old.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Galavant does this after Madalena leaves him, until Isabella drags him out of it.
• Dual Wielding: Seems to be Isabella's preferred fighting style.
• Dude, Not Funny!:
  • In-Universe: King Richard has a horrible sense of humor. Even the jester thinks Richard's bit mocking Valencia is inappropriate.
    King Richard: How many Valencians does it take to win a war? [Beat] More than you had.
  • He thought it would be funny to trick Isabella into thinking he killed her parents and put their heads on platters, and somehow convinced her parents it would be, as well.
• The Dung Ages: Played for Dark Comedy laughs with the Chef and Gwynne's love duet and their relationship in general.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Explicitly. Spoilers for plot summation quote from the final episode:
    Isabella: I've been locked in a dungeon and a jewelry box. I've been engaged to my 11-year-old cousin. I spent the better part of two years in the same outfit. I am getting my happy ending.
  • Not to mention completing her quest from the start of the first season all the way through betraying Galavant, rehabilitating Galavant in one day, leading a woefully outnumbered and outequipped army to valor and (as of that quote) survival on the path to victory, and other heroic feats.
  • Galavant is put through the ringer as he - among other things - gets betrayed by his love, falls out of shape, gets beat back into shape, gets betrayed by his second love, gets separated from his love, fails miserably to raise an army, gets impaled by his best friend, gets raised from the dead, and gets to lead a worthless undead army, who get stolen from him right after he makes them useful before he can finally be with his true love. Oh, and he has to put up with King Richard.
  • King Richard goes through a much more personal, internal voyage, where he has a painful Heel Realization, finds out nobody ever loved him, has his best friend forced to betray him, nearly dies, is exiled, finds his own kingdom has revolted in his absence, and that he's useless at everything, before finally getting his act together, and becoming worthy of being king, finds true love, and gets a dragon.
• Ear Worm: Season 1's opening number is considered annoyingly catchy by most of the characters, acknowledging how audiences were annoyed by how the melody was used everywhere. The Pirate King threatens to throw Galavant and Richard off the ship if they sing it and a passerby humming the melody is summarily stabbed. Season 2 features a new song that the characters hope will catch on.
• Eating the Eye Candy:
  • When Galavant is shirtless and pouring some water on himself after his workout, Isabella takes some time to look at him and mutter, "Damn!"
  • The song "Off With His Shirt!" in Season 2, once again targeted at Galavant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Richard tries to win over Madalena after marrying her, to no avail. He also treats Gareth like a brother and is cordial to Chef. He reminisces over Pearly, the only adult who showed him affection as a child.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • During She'll Be Mine, everyone joins Richard singing about his cruelties. When he mentions starting a genocidal war, however, they all stop and look at him in horror. And then they start singing again.
  • Richard will pillage, destroy, and kill indiscriminately, but he respects women and will only sleep with one if she's willing. This, of course, means that he's a virgin.
  • Zig-zagged when Wormword offers to introduce Madalena to the Dark Dark Evil Ways. She walks in on him holding a baby and a knife, and protests that child sacrifice is too evil even for her, then reconsiders and asks for the knife. Wormwood is horrified, and explains that he was just cutting fruit for the child (who he is babysitting for one of the women in camp), and he only expects Madalena to sell her soul. And she really really didn't have to sign the contract in blood.
  • Gareth has no problems leading an army to war for his own amusement, but draws the line at black magic. He also declares later that there is a difference between being horrible and being actually evil, and it's a line he doesn't cross.
• Everything Except Most Things: The proto-democracy that gets started in Richard's kingdom has a long list of people not allowed to vote. By the end of the song the guy singing it is cheerfully lampshading the fact that only people very much like him are allowed a voice in the new system.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Richard has a crippling issue with the fact he is trying to be a good King to Valencía but he's utterly clueless about how to please a Kingdom, since he's been a ruthless tyrant his entire life.
• Evil Is Hammy:
  • Richard likes to sing and complains when he gets food on his nice clothes.
  • Wormwood, an evil follower of the D'DEW (the Dark, Dark Evil Ways) works as a wedding planner.
  • Wormwood's superior is a fashion designer and advises a new apprentice to wear a necklace to accessorize.
• Evil Is Petty: The Von Falconburgh sisters from Bewitched Bothered and Belittled. When they find out that the girl they bullied is a queen now they invite her to their castle....and then humiliate her, culminating in them doing the SAME carriage trick they did when they were teenagers. Somehow you don't feel sorry for Gareth chopping off their ears.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The court jester and the chef are only referred to as such. Justified, given that their employer is an Evil Overlord-type, but defied briefly in the case of the jester by King Richard, who points out to his wife that the jester's name is Steve McKenzie. Chef asks Gwynne to call him Vincenzo, but she refuses, saying she'll get attached if she calls him by his name.
• Evil Costume Switch: Madalena dons a sinister purple dress with a black collar by episode 5. While she mostly sticks to dark dresses in Season 2, she eventually takes it a step further with Evil Queen armor when she and Gareth go to attack Hortensia.
• Evil Overlord: King Richard is a parody of the archetype, being The Dandy, Manchild and Henpecked Husband who still butchers the innocent and oppresses the poor for a pastime. The DEL appears to be a a straighter example.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The forest of coincidence. Eventually lampshaded.
• Expy: Madalena is pretty much Cersei from A Song of Ice and Fire & Game of Thrones. Her mannerisms are similar, the way she talks is similar and her hairstyle (but not color) is similar. And to drive a point home, she looks like a younger Cersei (this may be intentional, seeing as to how there are a couple of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones references in a few episodes). And, though in a quite different manner, she also kills the king. And Really Gets Around. However, she lacks Cersei's paranoia and is a good deal more willing to do her own dirty work, likely because Madalena is a self-made woman who was raised in destitution while Cersei is the daughter of the wealthiest family in Westeros.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • The cell doors in King Richard's dungeon are unlocked. None of the prisoners ever thought to check.
    Galavant: Have these been open the whole time? No one thought to check? Really?
  • Chef and Gwynne fail to notice their quaint little cottage is surrounded by two, then three, armies until said armies start charging at them.
• Fair for Its Day: A satirical In-Universe case. In the second season, Galavant and King Richard find that while Richard has been away from his home kingdom the people have reinvented it as a democracy. Of course, it's hardly what could be called a fair democracy, since tons of people get excluded from voting, (including women, gays, the poor, lepers, people of color, redheads, suspected witches, and communists), but Galavant notes that it's still very progressive for the Middle Ages.
• Fairy Tale: Described as a "musical comedy fairy tale" in the trailer.
• Famed In-Story:
  • Galavant is almost a Living Legend, a Knight Errant known for helping the common people. He's also mentioned to have slain dragons, and during the opening is able to defeat several armed soldiers with his bare hands, or even just by impressing them with his reputation. Sadly, a year of constant drinking and very little exercise leaves him somewhat out of shape and not capable of living up to his legend in the early episodes. In the second episode, Isabella even uses this to get him placed automatically in the finals of a joust when it is clear he is still very much broken and cannot even put on his armor right.
  • Gareth has a reputation of his own, and is shown as tough-as-nails, ruthless, brutal, and a Worthy Opponent for Galavant.
• Fantastic Racism: The conflict between the Giants and the Dwarves, who are actually of equal heights. Indeed, during the fight both sides keep confusing each other.
• Femme Fatale: Beautiful Madalena quickly becomes a ruthless queen after marrying King Richard.
• Flynning: Surprisingly used only in a dream and in a training sequence. When Galavant is in actual combat he uses quick and dirty tactics (and his own reputation as a memetic badass) to take down his opponents.
• Foil:
  • Galavant and king Richard, to one other. Galavant has "every manly value", while Richard can hardly handle a sword, Galavant is loved by the people while Richard is hated, but Galavant is also a Idiot Hero who doesn't pay much attention to anything else, and people actually close to him don't seem to like him very much, while Richard is quite clever and sincerely caring for his subjects, and while utterly (and hilariously) failing at being nice to them, he gets some sympathy from people who get to know him a little better.
  • Isabella and Madalena. One is a princess who was forced to learn combat from her father, and is a goodhearted individual blackmailed by Richard to bring Galavant to him, while motivating the hero to regain their former glory. The other is a scheming commoner raised in poverty who had to kill her pet goat and eat it to survive, and treats the men in her life terribly.
• Foreshadowing: In "Do The D'Dew," Galavant has difficulty trying to get his Zombie Army to focus. However, during Richard & Roberta's Love Confession Song, they all seem to be paying attention and act as the Chorus. This foreshadows Galavant's later realization that the Zombie Army responds to Love.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Isabella returns to Hortensia to banish Wormwood and asks where he is, the Answer Cut is a close-up of his twin to-do lists, the Evil Plan and the Wedding Plan, which he quickly pulls back before the lists can be read. They include such gems as "Snub Alan Menken re. Emmy"^note which is crossed off, as Menken had already failed to win an Emmy for the first season and "NO CHILDREN INVITED (except the groom)."
  • When Galavant, Richard, and Roberta arrive at the estate of Galavant's father, a sign can be seen for a couple seconds saying it's the home of Arthur Galavant, revealing Galavant is the protagonist's last name, not his given name. Not until almost the very end of the final episode is his first name revealed. It's Gary.
• Friendless Background: When Galavant dies, Death doesn't have enough friends of his to say goodbye to, bringing in his hated ex girlfriend and some random guy to round out the numbers.
  Galavant: What happened, I just ran out of friends?
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Madalena's life story is this trope. She went from being a penniless peasant to an apparent Damsel in Distress to ruthless all-out Evil Queen with a brutal and capable enforcer who is one of the best fighters in the world. The end of second season sees her becoming an Evil Sorcerer and briefly commanding an undead army. After her teacher Wormwood is defeated, she flees to learn more black magic.
• Funny Background Event:
  • During the crescendo of "Love is Strange", the Queen of Valencia can be seen giving the King a back rub.
  • The song where Richard and Roberta talk about their first time.... together, Galavant and Sid stand way off in a corner during the big dance number sticking their fingers in their ears.
• Fun with Acronyms: The Dark, Dark Evil Ways, or D'Dew, pronounced duh-dew. Lampshaded by Gareth, who asks why it isn't just called "dew." And as part of the season cliffhanger, we have the DEL, the Dark Evil Lord.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Assuming Madalena's telling the truth about her childhood, growing up so poor and hungry that one bad winter saw her killing and eating her pet goat is a hell of a good explanation for both her desire for power and her ruthlessness in getting it.
  • Played with when it comes to Richard. He has one, being considered always the second choice (it's quite understandable that his older brother was supposed to be the king, being the eldest, but not even caring about Richard's presence at the crowning shows that her mother just didn't care about "Dicky"; it gets worse when Kingsley refuses to be king and her mother doesn't even consider giving it to Richard). However, it explains not his evil side but why he is unable to be firm with his underlings.
• Gilligan Cut: A villain mentions to be a master of Dark Arts, and that he can only be killed by the rightful wielder of the hero's sword... Cue to Richard, rightful wielder of said sword, using it to crack a nut.
  • Additionally, the Season 2 premier involves the protagonists approaching King Richard's homeland on a pirate ship. When they spot land, King Richard confidently says "There! That is the safest place to come ashore!" Cut to the crew swimming ashore amidst the detritus of a shipwreck.
• Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die:
  • "Today We Rise", sung by Sid as he and the peasants of Valencia prepare to storm the castle. It's filled to the brim with lyrics about how the entire attack will be pointless and they will all die in vain. They all end up ditching him by the end of the song.
  • "Today is a Good Day To Die", sung during the battle that ends season two. Several characters point out how unlikely it is that any of the main characters will be killed off.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Madalena is a cold-hearted woman who wants power and fortune and cares nothing for the people of her kingdom. One episode title refers to her as a "dragon lady."
• Gold Digger: Madalena uses both Galavant and King Richard to increase her standing in the world. She was originally with Galavant because of the status it gave her as the lover of a great hero. She dumped him for Richard in order to gain fame and fortune before plotting to overthrow the king in order to keep everything for herself while trying to manipulate Galavant to come back to her as arm candy.
• Gone Horribly Right: Sid tries to make peace between Madalena and Gareth by asking them to think of an activity they both enjoy. After a musical number where they seem to be diametrically opposed in everything they like, they finally come up with something they both want to do: throw Sid out a window into the moat.
• Good Princess, Evil Queen: The Hero Galavant's ex-girlfriend Madalena becomes the evil queen of King Richard's kingdom, while Galavant's mysterious new ally and love interest Princess Isabella of the neighboring kingdom is heroic. Although she starts out being manipulated by the villains, she falls In Love with the Mark and goes against Richard for Galavant. Notably, Madalena and Isabella are fairly close in age.
• Groin Attack:
  • During She'll Be Mine
    King Richard: I want to skewer him with swords and slowly twist 'em/All around his reproductive system. / Wooon't thaaat beee diiiviiine?
  • When trying to entertain the Valencians in the castle, he goes for physical humor by kicking a eunuch in the groin. Being a eunuch, the man can't feel a thing down there anymore, so Richard has everyone form a line in front of the eunuch and take turns kicking him in the groin.
  • Galavant delivers one to Death in "Love and Death."
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Galavant and Jean Hamm face off and it becomes a contest to see which actor can top the other in how much they can overdo the scene.
• Heart Broken Badass: Galavant after Madalena's betrayal.
• Heel–Face Turn: King Richard goes all the way from Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain to, arguably, the hero of season two.
• Heel Realization: Richard slowly comes to terms with the fact he's a ruthless tyrant despite not really wanting to be. His first realization that his people don't like him is upon hearing that he's killed the last three generations of chefs in Chef's family.
  Richard: I am such a bully.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: When Galavant offers Richard a face concealing helmet he asks if it's because they're not doing their own stunts, and Galavant assures him it's just for the dramatic reveal. Obviously defense is not a consideration.
• Henpecked Husband: Despite being an Evil Overlord, King Richard is completely dwarfed by Madelena's authority whenever they speak face to face.
• Homage:
  • Chef and Gwynne conspiring about murder and cooking with a joyful waltz puts one in the mind of "A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd.
  • "A Day in Richard's Life" takes its name and structure from The Beatles song, "A Day in the Life."
  • Gal and Richard's "Secret Mission" seems inspired by "With Catlike Tread" from Pirates of Penzance.
  • "Let's Agree to Disagree" is a take on "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
  • The melody of "Off With His Shirt" is clearly a remixed version of "It's Raining Men".
  • "Maybe You Won't Die Alone" takes its inspiration from "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid (1989), albeit executed as a mariachi number rather than as a calypso.
  • The Giants vs. Dwarves dance battle is straight out of West Side Story.
  • Sid's "Today We Rise" is one to "Do You Hear the People Sing" from Les Misérables, complete with Sid waving a red flag.
  • Roberta and Richard's love song "Finally" is inspired by Grease's "Summer Lovin'," both in music and choreography.
  • "My Dragon Pal and Me" was inspired by the happy-go-lucky opening themes of 60s sitcoms, specifically That Girl.
  • The song "Do the D'Dew" was inspired by the music of The Sherman Brothers. It certainly has a similar feel to "A Spoonful of Sugar."
  • A non-musical example, The speech Isabella gave to the Hortensians is a parody of Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, specifically Theoden's speech during the Battle of Pelennor Field.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Despite how she openly tells it to his face, it takes a bit for Galavant to realize Madalena never truly loved him.
• Hope Spot: Over a private dinner where Richard makes an effort to eat without assistance from chef, he and Madalena start to open up to each other. He tells her how much he admires the way she eats without care, and she tells the story of how her parents made her kill and eat her pet goat Jenny. Richard confesses that his parents never liked him, only a woman named Pearly who raised him. Just as he thinks he'll succeed in winning Madalena's heart, she tells him that he's unlovable and Pearly was paid to care for him.
• Hotter and Sexier: "Dungeons and Dragon Lady" does away with the playful winks and nudges towards sex and features a hot and heavy tango between Galavant and Madalena with blatant lyrics.
  Madalena: Can't you feel the frantic beat of our hearts as our various parts rub with such delicious friction.
• The Hero's Journey: Called out by name in the second episode. The story does follow the typical pattern, parody aside.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Sid to Galavant in the first few episodes; Gareth to Richard.
• Hypnotize the Captive: Wormwood's initial plan to grab power is to use an enchanted tiara to mind-control Isabella. She spends a couple of episodes in his power, being super-enthusiastic about everything he commands or suggests, but the spell is broken when the tiara is knocked off during Princess Jubilee's big song number.
• Hypocritical Humor: Madalena talks Richard into a chastity agreement, but has an ongoing affair with the court jester. Everyone but Richard can tell what's going on.
• Idiot Hero: Galavant may be a dashing man of action, but he's very slow on the uptake. It takes a lot longer than it really should have to for him to figure out Madalena was trying to tell him that she never really loved him.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Richard's kidnapping of Madelena, though he later regrets it. He also has a brief moment of this with Isabella. Harry locking Isabella in the large dollhouse 'forever'.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Galavant at the end of "About Last Knight", when Sid throws his sword at him and it accidentally gores him in the gut.
• Implausible Deniability: Sid telling Galavant that he never spit in his ale.
• Improvised Weapon: Prince Harry has filled the Hortensian armory with toys, so the army is forced to use pots and pans, spatulas, whisks, and a "pointy potato". The King and Queen between them have a pizza peel, a ladle, and a large wooden spoon.
  • Jester bops a zombie or two on the head with his puppet.
• In and Out of Character: The recap songs include information the singer has no way of knowing and everyone who hears them very clearly retains none of the information. This is played most obviously in the ninth episode of the second season, where the Jester gives a full season recap in front of most of the cast, including the fact that Galavant and Richard are approaching with their own army, and when they arrive everyone acts completely surprised. The Jester then offers to repeat the song for these mysterious new arrivals.
• Incredibly Long Note: The Jester does one of these at the beginning of the season 2 finale during a recap of the entire show, while surrounded by two armies. Everyone is so impressed they stop what they're doing to applaud.
• In the Back: How Kingsley meets his fate at the hands of Madalena.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain:
  • Richard's a moron who's a Henpecked Husband and quite bumbling, enough to make him endearing. He is, however, fairly effective: he actually married Madalena, took over the kingdom of Valencia with minimal to no effort, and comes out with a quite clever plan to kill Galavant (closely predicting Galavant's reactions) seemingly on the spot, it's when he tries to be nice (making Madalena like him, giving some fun to Valencians, and so on) that he is ineffective.
  • The Pirate King tries very hard to come off as tough and intimidating, but there's just no getting around the fact that his crew is stranded and completely unable to work together.
• Is This Thing On?: King Richard says it when no one laughs at his horrible jokes, and even taps his open mouth like a microphone.
• It's All About Me: Madalena, especially in her song.
• It's Not About the Request: Late in the first season, Madalena tries to order Gareth to torture the captured heroes. When he refuses, she asks if he has a problem with torture despite his brutal reputation, and Gareth says that no he doesn't, he's refusing because Gareth is Richard's bodyguard/enforcer, and at that point in the show he only takes orders from Richard. (Although as soon as Madalena leaves, Gareth starts talking to himself and reveals a case of Conflicting Loyalties; he is loyal to Richard but doesn't respect him because Gareth is fully aware that Richard is a bumbling Manchild. On the other hand, he respects Madalena's strength but he isn't loyal to her... yet.)
• It Will Never Catch On:
  • Sid comes up with the idea of a series of interlocking metal teeth positioned around the groin of trousers that can be zipped open and shut to make going to the bathroom easier. Galavant and Isabella tell him to stop being ridiculous.
  • Gareth proposes developing a standardized system of telling time based on the rotation of the Earth in relation to its position to the Sun and the Moon. King Richard dismisses this, saying that Gareth is talking like a witch.
• "I Want" Song: She'll Be Mine, both this and Villain Song.
• Jerk Ass Has A Point: Madalena tells Galavant to his face that shutting away your feelings in order to be a hero, like his father taught him, is stupid and doesn't do him any good. He realises that she's right and even wonders for a moment if there might be some good in her after all... only for her to turn around and prove that no, she's still fundamentally a Jerkass.
• Jerk Ass Realization:
  • Galavant realizes he's an asshole and that being a squire is a terrible job (and thus he should respect Sidney more) in the third episode.
    Galavant: [horrified] Oh my God...that's me.
  • King Richard has several of these as he gradually becomes a better person.
• Job Song: Parodied when the naive, childish Richard tries to imagine having various common jobs instead of being King. He sings a song which reveals that he doesn't know very much about those jobs or the world in general.
• Karma Houdini: Madalena gets away as the Season ends. Richard may also become a better person (and saved the world from Wormwood) but he still caused a lot of grief. The Von Falconburgh sisters are subverted, since Gareth chops their ears off offscreen.
• Kissing Cousins: Apparently Isabella's family tree goes 'straight up' with 'no branches' and her parents are keen to keep it that way. Turns out she is engaged to her cousin Harry (who's roughly fifteen years younger than her).
• Knight of Cerebus: Played with. When Richard's brother Kingsley shows up, he seems like a very serious and competent villain and it appears that shit is about to get real. However, he winds up playing a relatively small part in things since Madalena soon tires of his lack of regard/respect for her (and women in general) and betrays him for more power.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • The opening song describes Galavant as "a fairy-tale cliché".
  • When the chef reminds Richard that he had both his father and grandfather killed because he didn't like one dish they made, he mentions his is not really a great job.
  • Richard himself does it, admitting to the chef that he's quite a bully and that some of his ideas aren't that great (such as thinking that seeing food burning would make starving people feel better).
  • Gareth, telling Richard he won't keep his plan secret since he insists in the evil king's whisper, which everyone can hear.
• Large Ham: Galavant is one in all his egotistical glory. So is King Richard. And then there is, of course, Sir Jean Hamm.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • When Sidney's parents believe he's getting married to a princess, they call for a celebration. The family's squire then remarks, "Oh, great, another musical number." This can merely refer to Sidney's parents having a tendency to sing musical numbers in their daily lives, or it can refer to Galavant's The Musical format.
  • In the second season finale, Sid recruits allies from all the various places Galavant, Richard, and Isabella visited over the course of the season, but notes that all the actors who led those various factions like the Pirate King, the Queen of the Enchanted Forest, or Jubilee would have all cost too much to have additional appearances, so he just recruited extras from those various areas.
  • When Isabella received the invitation to the "surprise" invasion, the invitation reads Sunday January 31st, 8:00pm Eastern, the screening date and time for the season finale.
• Legacy of Service: Played for laughs; the kings have killed four generations of chefs in the palace.
• Liar Revealed: In Completely Mad-elena, this finally comes out when Richard reveals to Galavant Isabella's lie on bringing him over due to Madelena's desperation.
• Love Martyr: He gets over it eventually, but it takes a lot of abuse from Madalena for Galavant to give up on her.
  Isabella: You want to know what I think? I think you're in a dungeon wondering if the woman that put you there loves you. And the real question is, why do you still love her?
• Lyrical Dissonance: The show is largely made of this trope, including multiple cheery tunes about various characters plotting various murders and assassinations, dramatic tunes with humorous or otherwise ill-fitting lyrics, a cheerful love song highlighting the prevalence of death and disease among peasants in the era, a love-song tune entitled "Maybe You're Not The Worst Thing Ever" and more. Some example:
  • "She'll Be Mine," a cheery tune about maiming, beheading, and genocidal war.
  • The love duet between Galavant and Isabella is mostly made up of them pointing out the other's flaws.
  • The second love duet between Chef and Gwynne is about them poisoning the guests at the feast.
  • A Good Day to Die has a blood-pumping beat and is being sung as they charge into battle, but it's really about how nobody really wants to be there. It's a good day to die, but they'll happily reschedule for a great one.
• Maintain the Lie: Sid told his folks that he was a knight and that Galavant was his squire. So, when they stop at Sid's home town, they have to play along, even when Isabella pretends to be Sid's bride.
• Manchild: King Richard insists on having Chef feed him by hand and say things like "Open your drawbridge, here come the cannonballs!" as Richard coos like a baby.
  Madalena: Normally when I yell at you you "get tummy cramps and have to go poopy." Your words.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Madalena's reflections sing to her during "Like Me".
• Meaningful Name:
  • Kingsley, Richard's older brother, whose parents explicitly gave him the name because he was expected to be king.
  • A lesser one, but you must admit "Dicky" quite fits Richard. Perhaps also ironic given the better known King Richard.
  • Not to mention the titular Galavant.
• Medium Awareness: It becomes increasingly obvious that the characters are well aware that they're in a musical.
  • After Galavant holds the last note of a song for about 20 seconds, he leans over, panting, and exclaims, "Boy, that was a long song!"
  • Madalena rolls her eyes as she hears the music starting up for Galavant's love song.
  • By the first season finale, almost everyone is tired of hearing musical numbers. The episodes usually start with a voiceover song to recap recent developments, but this time it's revealed the ex-jester was singing when he only gets a couple lines in before the other prisoners tell him to shut up. He replies in his defense that he "was just trying to catch them up."
  • Season 2's opening number is essentially three minutes of the cast acknowledging that they're in a struggling TV show and would very much like it if the audience would stick around and watch it live.
  • All of Jester's recap songs, but special credit to the lines:
    Jester: Gosh, so much to dump upon your doormat / in a half-hour sitcom format.
• Memetic Badass: In universe, it's mentioned that Galavant's exploits are so amazing people tell stories and sing songs about them. Also, a couple of Richard's guards are so awe-struck upon seeing him that they don't draw their swords before being knocked out and a third faints simply because Galavant told him to.
• Merlin and Nimue: An all evil version shows up in season two once Evil Sorcerer Wormwood begins teaching Madalena dark magic and has her sign a contract to sell her soul for magical abilities. Madalena's last act of the season is to seek out another teacher after Wormwood is killed.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Wormwood's apprentice goes along with the evil scheme in a blundering way, but only seems to really be in it out of a genuine desire to learn the wedding planning trade.
• Mirroring Factions: Taken to a ridiculous extreme with the Giants vs Dwarves feud. The "Giants" and "Dwarves" are all around 5'10" and look so similar that even they occasionally lose track of who's who.
• The Mole: Isabella, initially, is technically on King Richard's side considering her bringing Galavant to overthrow Richard is a trap.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • In the third episode, King Richard throws a party for the remaining Valencians. Upon seeing none of them are having fun, he invites everyone to roast him. Everyone starts slinging insults, having a grand time—until the eunuch reveals Madalena is sleeping with the jester. Cue Richard entering Tranquil Fury and ordering the eunuch killed, then storming off, becoming angry for the first time in the show.
  • The first season finale last episode has it twice in a row. After Richard and Galavant's escape, Madalena orders Gareth to kill whoever is in the dungeon. It becomes a funny scene with them trying to stage the escape, but no one being able to punch Gareth with enough strength to knock him out as a cover story for why Gareth didn't kill them all. After he throws them the keys, he keeps Sid as "insurance" and goes back to the royals, with Madalena disposing of Kingsley and making Gareth the new king.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Madalena is a lot more cruel and domineering than Richard, Kingsley, or Gareth. Possibly even more so than Evil Sorcerer Wormwood, who on at least one occasion is shocked at the lines she's willing to cross.
• Ms. Fanservice: Madalena.
  Narrator: Long legs and perfect skin, a body built for sin, and cleavage you could hold a whole parade in!
• Mr. Fanservice: Galavant himself, both in- and out-of-universe. “A New Season aka Suck It, Cancellation Bear" even includes a number in which the Queen of the Enchanted Forest demands her patrons to rip off his shirt. The song is appropriately titled "Off With His Shirt".
• Murder the Hypotenuse: King Richard thinks he's doing that. Killing Galavant wouldn't have really changed anything between him and Madalena, however.
• The Musical: Unusual for the TV format, every episode is essentially a mini-musical. By the end of the first season, everyone but Galavant is tired of it.
  Narrator: [in song] Our season ends right there, with questions everywhere. Like will the princess spend her whole life waiting? Will Gareth and the queen rule the entire scene? Will all the singing kill our Nielsen ratings?
• Musical World Hypotheses:
  • Seems to be a case of the Alternate Universe one, with characters bursting out into song out of the nowhere and everybody following suit, sometimes even commenting on the performance.
  • Parodied in a few occasions, such as when Isabella accidentally reveals that she's a mole in the Hero's Journey song, and has to cover it up so Galavant doesn't realize what he just heard.
  • Enforced with the monks of the Order of Our Father of Perpetual Refrain, who have taken a vow of singing.
• Musicalis Interruptus:
  • Constantly with Galavant's number "Moment in the Sun". He gets as far as 3 lines before someone cuts him off, including Kingsley chloroforming him just so he would shut up. When he finally gets to finish the song it turns out he was getting cut off just a word or two before the end every time.
  • The first episode of the Season 2 has the pirates stopping Galavant from singing his theme song because they're frankly sick of hearing it.
• My Future Self and Me: In the start of the Season 2 finale, young King Richard asks his adult self about what his future holds, but it all looks rather hopeless.
• My God, What Have I Done?: While singing "Togetherness" with Galavant and Sid, Isabella is suddenly struck by how she's betrayed Galavant, looking completely torn up about it.
• Narrator All Along: It's revealed at the end of the pilot that the jester is narrating the series.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Sid attempts to spark a peasant uprising, but his overly-blunt description of how things could go wrong scares everyone off.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Galavant gets an army of undead soldiers for the climactic battle of the second season.
• No Fourth Wall: The opening number of the first episode of Season 2 is the single most self-referential moment of the entire show.
  • Season 2 in general. The finale makes multiple references to the fact that it will be highly unlikely that the show gets to be renewed for a third season as well as The Jester referencing season 1 ending on a cliffhanger and wondering if they will make the same for season 2 (they don't).
• No Hero to His Valet:
  • Everyone loves Galavant, except Sid and Isabella (and King Richard, though for different reasons).
  • When Galavant is pretending to be Sid's squire, the other squires sing about how their masters are just "jackass(es) in a can".
  • People are generally terrified of King Richard but Gareth knows that Richard's actually a big softie and constantly urges his king to toughen up. Also, Madalena isn't impressed by Richard in the least.
• No Name Given: Richard's original kingdom is never named.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Illustrated when Galavant is at Richard's mercy. Richard walks up to him and tries to knock him out cold, but is too weak to pack up a kick. He has to order Gareth to do it for him.
• Non-Indicative Name: All the members of the Dwarves and the Giants are of average height. In fact, Galavant is a couple of inches taller than the Giants.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Xanax mentions several in his conversation with the chef and Richard.
  • The Pirate King and Galavant previously met at Lilith Fair on the Isle of Lesbos.
  • We never do learn how the pirate ship ended up all the way on that hill.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Richard is a sissy fool, but his gambit involving using Isabella to lure Galavant to him is pretty damn clever, especially considering that he appears to come up with it on the spot.
• "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: The second episode opens with Galavant having a dream of heroically defeating bandits, only for King Richard to appear and point out that he's not wearing pants. Galavant looks down and is shocked to see that.
• Obliviously Evil: Whereas Richard is usually a Card-Carrying Villain, he is actually trying to be benevolent in the third episode but his morality system is so skewed he ends up being terribly offensive and horrifying by complete accident. A particularly noteworthy case is his attempt to throw a ball in Valencia: since he burned all the crops in Valencia, save a handcart for himself, he brings it in... and burns the vegetables, because he thought that since they had nothing to eat, he shouldn't have any either. Seeing the Valencians' reactions, he admits it was ill-conceived.
• Odd Friendship: Just about every single friendship in the show is this in some way, but Richard is especially notable because he only seems to have odd ones. In the first season he's buddies with his longtime bodyguard Gareth, who is his opposite in just about every way, the meek and goodhearted chef whose father and grandfather Richard had killed, and the jester who is sleeping with Richard's wife, and Richard only befriends the jester after learning of the infidelity. Eventually he starts also developing a bond with Galavant, despite the fact that he started the plot by abducting Galavant's fiancee. The closest thing he has to a normal relationship is when he reunites with his childhood friend Roberta in the second season and the two eventually become romantically involved.
  Richard: Dear God, we have an odd relationship.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Sid and Isabella take out all the pirates by themselves in what they explicitly refer to as the "most amazing offscreen battle ever".
• Only I Can Kill Him: Wormwood boasts that he can only be killed by the rightful wielder of the hero's sword. That said, Isabella does succeed in chasing him off by threatening to have his arms cut off.
• Only One Name: Galavant. As per usual, it's lampshaded. His full name is revealed as Gary Galavant in the season two finale.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: The Sword of Heroes, which can only be removed by the true king to unite the Seven Realms. Richard absentmindedly removes it while shooing away a unicorn. In the season 2 finale, Wormwood knocks it out of his hands and it gets embedded in a rock. Wormwood tries to take it out but can't. Later, Richard shows off to Galavant by sticking it in and out of the stone with ease.
• Our Dragons Are Different: They are indistinguishable from regular lizards as babies. Adults are not shown onscreen but they can apparently fly and breathe fire.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Averted. They're very tall dwarves and have no obvious characteristics to distinguish them from regular humans or giants.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Averted. They're very short giants.
• Oxymoronic Being: One episode has Galavant getting caught up in a clash between a tribe of very tall dwarves and a tribe of very short giants. They're two bunches of guys of average height and not even they can keep track of who is which.
• Overly Long Name: Princess Isabella Maria Lucia Elizabetta of Valencia.
• Palm Bloodletting: When Galavant hands the pirate king his sword, holding it by the blade, and cutting his hand as a result when the pirate king pulls it out of his hand. Extremely funny, considering that a few minutes (both in and out-universe) earlier the same sword is shown as very dull, but Rule of Funny applies.
• Patter Song: Time Is Of The Essence is all about a doctor telling people the victim doesn't have much time for the doctor to save him while wasting time singing about it. The doctor even pauses to think of a proper rhyme for "Essence" after saying that there's "not much time in rhyming now", because the victim is so close to death.
• Perma-Stubble: Galavant actually has a full beard, but Isabella notes that it somehow magically stayed the exact same length during their journey to Valencia.
• Period Piece, Modern Language: The show takes place in the 1250s, but, being an Affectionate Parody of chivalrous folk tales, a lot of humor derives from blatant anachronisms and the use of modern dialogue and slang.
• Pet the Dog : Madalena looks guilty after insulting Richard in 1x02. It's right after her Freudian Excuse was revealed, but still somehow doesn't make up for what she said.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The pirates in Episode 4. For one thing, their ship is stranded on a cliff, so they can't get out to sea. They do more gardening than pirating. Also, the crew and the captain can't work as a team anymore.
• Pie in the Face:
  • When Richard's comedy routine bombs, he resorts to doing this to Gareth to get a laugh out of Madalena. He starts to do it again, but a stoic Gareth, (who hasn't moved since getting the first pie) begins to draw his sword and Richard thinks better of the idea.
  • Also, when Madalena gets magical powers, one of the things she does to test them is make some poor guy hit himself with the pie he's holding.
• Pinky Swear: Richard can't just return Tad Cooper to the people he bought him from, as he "pinky swore and said no backsies."
  • Wormwood pinky swears to Madalena that Gareth won't be hurt in the final battle. A promise he immediately breaks.
• Poor Communication Kills: Galavant finally gets to communicate with Isabella through her amulet, but the reception is poor, so his message is misinterpreted as him not being in love with her anymore. It would be cliche, except for the incredibly over-the-top way it's executed, including a cow showing up out of nowhere so Isabella will think Galavant called her a cow.
• The Power of Love: In Season 2, Galavant gains a zombie army, but has trouble controlling it until he realizes that he came back from the dead for love and they respond to love as well.
• Precision F-Strike: Several. One is in early season 2, when Princess Isabella wants Chef to take her amulet and give it to her parents once she makes her escape. She then goes on to sing a Distant Duet with Galavant over how terrible their kiss was before falling asleep. In the morning, she's shocked to see Chef standing by her bed.
  Isabella: What are you still doing here?
  Chef: You never gave me the fucking amulet!
• Previously on…: Most episodes begin with a voiceover song recapping the most recent developments of the heroes' journey so far. In the first season finale it's subverted when the one singing only gets two or three lines in before his fellow prisoners all tell him to shut up.
  • The second to last episode of season 2, on the other hand, has a recap so epic that all the characters present burst into applause, including the two opposing armies.
• Put on a Bus: Vincenzo (Chef) and Gwynne run away from the castle in Season 2, Episode 4, as Gwynne can't stand living semi-well to do, and Chef won't leave her. They return briefly in the penultimate episode, and are shown perfectly happy living in abject poverty.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Richard is a brutal tyrant who'll slaughter populations and order summary executions, but he's visibly appalled at the suggestion that he might "insist" his wife consummate their marriage.
  King Richard: I'm not an animal. I mean, sure, I'll kidnap a woman and force her to marry me, but after that I'm all about a woman's rights. I'm a modern, 13th century man.
• Real After All: It's revealed in the last few seconds of season 2 that Tad Cooper really is a baby dragon.
• Really Gets Around: Madalena's taste in men is anyone but Richard. There's a line outside her door of men she's "auditioning" to be her new consort and as one comes out, adjusting his trousers, we hear her announce, in a rather bored voice, "Next!" Later, a shot of her in bed shows her with a man on either side. Madalena makes references to this in a song in Season 2, singing "I like getting randy with whoever's handy!"
• Rebellious Princess: Parodied with Princess Jubilee, whose rebelliousness extends to her being a lad-ette rocker chick.
• Retcon: Isabella's amulet, which she has always worn everyday, is central to the plot of World's Best Kiss. Lampshaded when the chef and Gwynne keep pointing out that it has never been seen before, although Isabella and Galavant both insist that it's her established Iconic Item.
  • The Season 1 finale has several people - including Gareth - comment on how great Galavant and Isabella's kiss was. By the second season, it's considered that even people who weren't there know it was the worst kiss ever.
• The Reveal: At the end of Episode 6, Richard's sinister older brother Kingsley shows up, having been contacted by Madalena.
• Right Behind Me: Galavant gets this at the end of the song "He Was There" when he complains about his dad. He cuts off the song to say, "He's right behind me, isn't he?"
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kinglsey, expecting Richard will try to kill him the night before the duel. Richard only ends up trying because he's drunk and Galavant persuaded him to.
• The Rival: Jean Hamm to Galavant in Episode 2.
• The Roast:
  • Richard encourages the citizens of Valencia to roast him. He actually has a good time, until the eunuch accidentally reveals that Madalena has been sleeping with the jester.
  • Madalena gets invited to a dinner roast by two princesses. Once she gets there, however, she finds out she's the one being roasted.
• Royal Inbreeding: As Isabella's parents said concerning her engagement to her cousin, "Our family tree goes straight up, it doesn't branch out!"
• Rule-Abiding Rebel: One of the monks claims to be a bad boy. But he's not so bad, 'cause he's a monk.
• Rule of Funny: Not as much as you'd expect, but it gets a couple of instances. The pirate king's blade seems to be just as sharp as it's funniest for it to be. Also, it's very hard to think of any way a boat can end up stuck on some trees way up on a hill (especially while managing to remain seaworthy), but it works here.
• Running Gag: Two in one episode. Firstly, one character gives an involved poetic description of a time of day and the other says, "So, nine o'clock." Secondly, a character has an epiphany about an invention of modern convenience (a zipper-fly for pants, the standard cycle of time) and whoever's around says it's a horrible idea.
  • There's also the gag that every time Sid gets to have a line in a song, someone cuts him off. He finally gets his, er, moment in the sun with "Today, We Rise", but even then, by the end of the song all of the peasants have fled in fear. Guy can't catch a break.
• Saintly Church: The Order of Our Father of Perpetual Refrain is very hospitable, providing meals, drink, and baths to travelers. Even the "bad boy" among them is not too bad, because he's a monk.

• Serious Business: Though he uses his position as a wedding planner as part of an evil scheme to take over the kingdom, Wormwood takes the job very seriously. After Richard stabs him, he uses his last breath to give Galavant and Isabella advice on wedding venues.
  Wormwood: To keep things straight, from here on out, it's the wedding plan, the evil plot, and the color scheme.
• Sequel Hook: The second season does this explicitly just in case they get unexpectedly renewed again. The main plot is all wrapped up, but Madalena is getting evil magic training so Gareth teams up with Sid to save her from herself. Plus Tad Cooper is all grown up now, and Richard hasn't actually united the kings yet.
• Sex Equals Love:
  • Apparently what Galavant and Madalena's relationship was when they were together.
    Narrator: Yes! He loved her to excess! Thrice daily, more or less!
  • Richard makes that assumption regarding Madalena and the jester: since they had an affair, he believes she liked him as a person. The end of the episode proves otherwise, hence the "had". See You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Sexless Marriage: Richard and Madalena. She's taken a vow of chastity and he respects that. Not that it stops her from boinking the jester.
• Sexy Slit Dress: Both Madalena and Isabella get opportunities to show off their legs thanks to the high slits in their dresses.
• Shock Party: Madalena throws Gareth a surprise birthday party. Gareth slays a couple of people before the mix-up is cleared up.
• Shown Their Work: The episode where we reach Sidney's hometown. In Sid's childhood room is a poster signed with well-wishes and signatures from various people presumably from the village. There are legible words and names, but several people signed with simple crosses as actual, illiterate peasants would have in ancient times.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: The Richard vs. Wormwood pre-fight banter wanders off so far into a dancing metaphor that they agree to start over.
• Silly Reason for War: The conflict between the Giants and the Dwarves came about because of a bridge being built between their two lands (across a dry river bed, no less). Each group was supposed to build one half of the bridge and they ended up building it at different levels. Roberta solves the conflict by toppling the taller half so that it meets the shorter half.
• Sinister Tango Music: When Galavant attempts to win back his former lover Madalena, (who has undergone a Face–Heel Turn and become an evil queen) his declaration of love is accompanied by heartfelt, swelling chords while Madalena's reply ("I love you... as much as someone like me could love anyone") is a hot and heavy tango number and Madalena goes into full seduction mode as she tries to win Galavant over to her side.
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: Madalena has sex with "whoever's handy", except her actual husband Richard.
• Slurpasaur: Played with. A Bearded dragon lizard stands in for a baby dragon but most of the cast just dismisses it as a lizard.
• Smash to Black: In the next to last episode of season 2, when the Jester asks if they'll "just stop once again, on a huge cliffhanger."
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • "She'll Be Mine" is a sweet little tune by King Richard about violently murdering Galavant in front of Madalena in order to seduce her.
  • The heroes fighting against and retreating from the undead army to the tune of the ridiculously bouncy instrumentals from "Do the D'Dew".
• Sparing the Final Mook: In the first episode Galavant defeats group after group of guards as he tries to interrupt the wedding ceremony and save Madalena from marrying Richard. In the final corridor before the castle's chapel, he defeats a number of guards without even breaking from the song he's singing, then advances on the last one, telling him to just fall instead of fighting Galavant. The guy immediately collapses on the spot.
• Squick: Galavant is creeped out Sid's mother wrote on his bedroom wall, which is filled with other people's well wishes, "I'm so jealous of the girl who gets to be your wife."
• Stock Scream: Several Wilhelms:
  • One of the knights that Jean Hamm defeats in the joust.
  • One when Richard shoves a guard to his death during "Comedy Gold"
  • Richard killing Wormwood.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "She'll Be Mine" has this:
  No more "Galavant is just complete perfection!"
  Galavant would never lose his... temper!
• Summon Bigger Fish: Just as Richard is starting to take control of the situation, Madalena calls in his more ruthless older brother.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the second episode, Isabella puts Galavant through a brutal all day Training Montage to get him back into shape, culminating in him going from being unable to even make her work hard in a sword fight to being able to casually disarm her while drinking and having her sword land point first in the heart of a training dummy. The next day he's so incredibly sore that he can't move at all.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: While locked in the dungeon, Galavant and Isabella sing a love song, including walking out of their cells for the final part. Afterwards, Galavant wonders how none of them ever checked if the doors were locked in the hours (and in some cases weeks) they'd been locked in there.
• Sword Plant: Galavant does this several times in the second episode.
• Symbolic Weapon Discarding: After King Richard kidnaps Galavant's girlfriend Madalena and forces her to marry him, Galavant rushes to stop their wedding. With all eyes on him when he enters the hall, he begins a grand romantic speech that includes tossing aside his sword as he offers Madalena "great love" over King Richard's "great fame" and "great fortune." Madalena chooses the fame and fortune, and the unarmed Galavant is knocked unconscious by Richard's bodyguard.
• Symploce: Most of the verse lines in "Togetherness" begin and especially end the same way, though the changing middles show how the veneer of amiability is cracking.
  Galavant: We eat together
  Isabella: We drink together
  Sid: We work in perfect sync together
  [...]
  Isabella: They fight together
  Sid: They glare together
  All: We breathe each other's air together
• Take That!: To the networks - not only theirs, but shows airing on other channels as well.
  Women: So in the weeks to come ignore the pageants that they'll hold
  Gareth: Skip the football matches...
  Jester: ...and the globes made out of gold
  Pirates: Screw all those apprentices...
  Women: ...and every bachelorette
  Valencian Group: Give into the miracle that no one thought we'd get!
• Take That, Audience!: Season 2's opening number gently chides TV audiences for not tuning in and for recording the show rather than watching it live, since the ratings steadily fell while the Live+3 and Live+7 remained strong during Season 1.
• Take That, Critics!: The season 2 premier is titled "A New Season aka Suck It Cancellation Bear", pointing a finger the ratings blog of the same name that predicted the show's cancellation.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In the seventh episode, Gwynne and the Chef plot to poison the royals' feast. However, Chef can't go through with it and only laced the food with allergens so they'll only get slightly sick.
• Tempting Fate: Sid says that, if the door is left open, they can still get free. And the door immediately shuts.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Gareth. In episode two, he calls himself "a master in the art of manhood" and this dialogue takes place:
  Richard: [upon noticing a Wall of Weapons] Oh my God! Is this your bedroom? And what's that smell?
  Gareth: Testosterone.
• Those Two Guys: The King and Queen of Valencia pop up now and again to provide deadpan commentary about the show's proceedings.
• Training Montage: In Episode 2, when Isabella decides to make Galavant return to top form. It's even complete with a pseudo-'70s-rock song called "Stand down!" Subverted however as the montage makes Galavant's body so stiff he can't move the next day.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: In the season 2 finale, Sid is able to gather allies from everywhere the heroes had been in months of hard traveling in less than a day.
• True Love: No matter how much the show pokes fun at fairy tale tropes, this trope was played straight. Gal found his actual true love in Isabella, not Madalena. Madalena found true love in Gareth, who knows this that he will go save her from herself. Richard found true love in Roberta.
• Unholy Matrimony: Gareth and Madalena, in season 2. Although Madalena is rather phobic about actually making a commitment and begins freaking out at the thought of officially marrying.
• Unicorns Prefer Virgins: The unicorns' reputation for preferring virgins leads to some embarrassment for King Richard when one starts acting friendly towards him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Madalena in the first episode. Her constant belittling and degrading remarks of Richard, not even realizing he now has the jewel she had him invade Valencia for in his hands, leads him to not tell her about the jewel and set up the Batman Gambit to kill Galavant. This will lead to, by the end of season 2, Galavant being back in top heroic form with a woman who truly loves him and he loves her, Richard now a good guy with the Excalibur-expy on his way to unite the kingdoms under harmony with his pet dragon and a woman who truly loves Richard, Garath on a somewhat Heel–Face Turn as he now quests to save Madalena from her own corruption, and Madalena fleeing the battle, and Valencia's true king and queen back on their thrones.
• Values Dissonance: Played in-universe for laughs every now and then.
  • Vincenzo and Gwynne nonchalantly sing about being dead by their 30s.
  • Galavant is genuinely surprised that Richard hasn't forced Madalena to sleep with him, which Richard finds horrifying.
  • The King and Queen of Valencia are big fans of marrying within the family.
  • Vincenzo is praised by Gwynne for being into women's rights, noting examples such letting her keep their first (unborn) daughter instead of throwing her to White Walkers.
  • The Kingdom that Richard left behind and forgot to contact proudly explain that their new rules mean everyone can vote... except for women, the destitute, the disabled, non-whites, gay men, gingers, people they just don't like...
• Villainous Friendship:
  • Richard seems to honestly consider Gareth a friend, and to Gareth's credit, he seems to be utterly loyal to Richard despite being much more competent.
  • We also see Gareth give Richard a hug after Madalena says some crushing things to him in Episode 2. This is after Gareth made a point of saying that he absolutely does not hug people.
  • It's eventually revealed that Gareth was first assigned to the job when they were both kids, so naturally they've become pretty close over the years.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Richard attempts to become this, but fails miserably due a case of Evil Cannot Comprehend Good.
• Villain Song:
  • "She'll Be Mine" for King Richard, "No One But You" for Madalena.
  • "The Happiest Day of Your Life" for Chester Wormwood. "Do the D'Dew" is a duet between Wormwood and Madalena.
• Virgin Power: Attracts unicorns (much to Richard's annoyance) and a key ingredient for a potion to revive the dead is a grey hair from the beard of a middle-aged man who's never known a woman.
• Virgin-Shaming: Played extremely straight for Richard's case. When he starts actually getting his act together, he loses his virginity shortly after.
• Voodoo Shark: Exaggerated and played for laughs. The pirates are stuck on land because they somehow got their ship stuck a hundred feet up a wooded hill. No explanation for how they managed that is offered beyond poor teamwork.
• Weaponized Allergy: In the first season's penultimate episode, Gwynne and Chef make a plan to poison the aristocrats at their banquet. When the time comes, Chef loses his nerve and just serves everyone foods that they are mildly allergic to, inconveniencing them for the night. This gets the two of them thrown in the dungeon.
• Wimp Fight: The joust between Galavant and Jean Hamm. With the latter too drunk and the former too musclebound and/or stiff after training all of the previous day, neither is able to charge their horses, and as they slowly ride towards each other they end up knocking each other down simultaneously. The battle is then decided over who can get up, which is equally difficult for both.
• With Catlike Tread: A drunken Galavant and Richard sing semi-loudly as they go to kill Kingsley in his sleep, although they stop briefly as they slink past a couple of guards in the throne room. The plot predictably fails.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Played with. Isabella is a princess whose kingdom was invaded, but she's stringing Galavant along in order to get him into Richard's clutches, in exchange for which Richard will let her family go.
• World of Ham: It's a fairy tale parody musical. As expected, everything is over-the-top.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • After finding about Madalena and the jester's affair, Richard ask the latter for tips about being funny, since that's something Richard couldn't offer her and he could. The jester then starts feeling guilty about said affair, and resolves to terminate it. Her only comment to that is that she doesn't need him anymore, and orders the guard to put him in the dungeon—the really scary one, with the mice.
  • Madalena does it once again, in the Season 1 finale, after Richard's gone and Kingsley decides to take a bit more of power into his own hands. Except, this time, she actually goes for the kill.
• Your Mom:
  • Jean Hamme loves these jokes, for which Galavant chides him that they're getting old in 1256.
  • Isabella can't help but indulge in some of her own while in Jean Hamm's tent.
  • Gareth always celebrates his birthday by using them to start a bar fight. Unfortunately, he finds that after he's made king, the only result is the whole room rushing to agree that their mothers are indeed hussies.

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It's lots of plot we know!
But anyway heigh-ho!
We're off and here we go!
Come back for next week's show!
To see what's next for Ga-la-vant!