Tinka og Kongespillet (Tinka and the King's game) is a Danish Julekalender that first aired in 2019 on Danish TV2. It is a sequel to Tinkas Juleeventyr.
Sometime after the events of Tinka's Juleeventyr, Tinka is about to move into the castle and be named the heir to the throne by her father. However, when a tragic accident occurs the day before the ceremony, the nissene must hold a game to decide who the next king or queen will be. Tinka must now compete against three other representatives from the different regions of nissenes realm, but unbeknownst to everyone, someone is attempting to sabotage the game and sow discord among the four candidates.
Lasse and his family also deal with their own problems in the human world, while also helping Tinka deal with the challenges she's facing.
In December 2022, the series will be followed by the second sequel series Tinka og Sjælens Spejl (Tinka and the Mirror of the Soul).
Tropes:
- Chekhov's Gun:
- While preparing for the first challenge, Tinka finds a necklace with a blue pointed gem in it that her father wore as a good luck charm, but she ends up accidentally dropping it during said challenge. After Fileas reveals that troll glass can be used to defeat Ingi, who is half troll, Tinka, Lasse and Falke realize that the gem in the necklace matches Fileas' description of it.
- King Bokil's magical sword, which Lasse and Falke help Tinka retrieve before the third challenge, ends up not being used during said challenge. Tinka instead wields it during the final battle with Ingi, during which it finally reveals its power.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Hilde, a nisse woman Tinka and the representatives for the other regions end up helping, later returns the favor by letting Tinka, Lasse and Falke hide out in her barn after Ingi takes the kingdom by force.
- Exact Words: When receiving instructions for the second challenge, Falke asks Skir to repeat the exact instructions to confirm that she understood the rules correctly as she puts together her plan.
- Fantastic Racism: While Tinka's reputation has improved since the events of the previous series, there are still some nisser are skeptical of humans and don't fully accept her due to her Half-Human Hybrid status. In addition, nissene from the four different regions don't all get along either, with Ingi deliberately making things worse by sowing discord between the candidates.
- Foreshadowing:
- When discussing the first challenge the candidates will be faced with, Ingi gets almost defensive when Fileas speaks of trolls being stupid. Ingi is half-troll.
- Storm's horse is shown to be nervous around Ingi, which might initially just seem like the horse sensing Ingi's evil intent. Turns out Ingi was the one responsible for Storm's death, by scaring the horse while Storm was on his way home.
- Tinka is introduced to the concept of democracy in the human world, which naturally leads to Tinka deciding to introduce it to nissenes realm.
- I Have No Son!: When Aamund learns that Falke gave up her chance to win the king's game, he angrily disowns her for going against his plans for her to become the Queen. He later regrets it after calming down, and apologizes to her once the two of them reunite after Ingi is defeated.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The death of King Storm is what sets the events of this series in motion, since he died before he could name Tinka his successor.
- Secret Test of Character: During the final test, Tinka and Falke both come across a nisse boy claiming to be injured and lost in the forest while they're trying to find the way back out of the forest. Only Tinka goes back to help them, but the nisse boy claims that this means Tinka failed the test, by choosing to help a single nisse over the throne and all other nisser. However, Tinka wins anyways due to Falke witnessing this, and choosing to let Tinka reach the finish line first.
- Taken for Granite: Ingi nearly suffers this fate when Falke shoots her with an arrow with a troll glass tip, but it fails to finish her off.
- True Companions: Tinka and the other three candidates gradually develop into this.
