A perfect outfit for playing a Pretty Princess Powerhouse.
Adriana: "It looks like Arendelle has a new queen."
Mary: "Dibs on playing her spunky, plucky sister!"
Knights of Buena Vista was a Campaign Comic covering mainly the Disney Animated Canon and a few other Disney works and Pixar films.
Frozen (2013) was the first work to be covered, beginning with all the player characters dying in battle, including the king and queen of Arendelle (a kingdom they founded). Fortunately those characters had daughters, and we follow the subsequent adventures as Elsa is crowned queen.
Next comes Wreck-It Ralph, where Roy takes over, and they play a Cyberpunk spinoff of their roleplaying game, just as game characters instead of hackers.
The group consists of:
- Walter, the Game Master.
- Roy, Walter's brother and also a game master.
- Adriana, a min-maxer who plays the king first, then Elsa, but is absent for the Ralph campaign.
- Mary, an action-loving player who plays the queen, then Anna, and then Sergeant Calhoun.
- Bill, is Adriana's brother and Mary's fiance, who playes Hans, then Felix.
- Ilene, who plays Olaf (first plays the unseen regent of Arendelle), then Vanellope.
- Dick, who plays Kristoff, then Ralph.
The comic has since been taken down from its Tumblr website, making it much more difficult to track down.
Can still be found on various web archives, however. For example:
Tropes in the comic and author's notes:
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- Walter thinks this happens when he describes Weselton's Dodgy Toupee, but Mary and Adriana are more laughing at his comically bad NPC accent.
- It looks like Adriana will have a Lame Pun Reaction, but she actually likes that Ilene says Genesis is known as "Mega Drive" in the rest of the world.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- Han's Wham Line from Frozen instead is used by Bill to comfort his heartbroken sister.
- In Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph is unhappy from the bad treatment he got for years from the rest of the people in his game. Here, he's just pretending as part of a cover story to hunt for viruses. He actually has a good relationship with everyone in his game.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In the movie, the bishop at the coronation is just a guy doing his job. Here he tries to control the kingdom by hypnotizing Elsa. This is later subverted when it turns out the real bishop was locked away and a magical doppelganger took his place.
- Weselton goes from being just a Jerkass to a sorcerer who steals power from other magic users, under the guise of witch hunting.
- The Wreck-It Ralph campaign subverts what was done to Zangief. He's only at the "Bad Anon" meeting to keep Bison company."Besides, free vodka!"
- Adaptation Expansion: Scenes are made up, happen off panel, and are then discussed later.
- There was going to be a regent for Arendelle in Frozen but was cut. Ilene plays him until she sorts out how to make her snowman character stronger.
- Ain't No Rule: Subverted when Mary says that while the acrobat class doesn't allow offensive chi movies, Anna can use defensive ones. Dick wonders if she's using the "Air Bud" logic, but Walter points out that the book says defensive moves are allowed.
- Alcohol Hic: Mayor Gene finishes every other sentence with a hiccup.
- The Alcoholic: Adriana and Bill have an aunt who likes to drink.
- The Nicelanders are making Felix want to have an intervention over their drinking habits.Mayer Gene: "WHO WANZ TO PLAY STRIP TWISTER (hic)!"
- The Nicelanders are making Felix want to have an intervention over their drinking habits.
- All for Nothing: Subverted. After Anna saves herself due to the Heroic Sacrifice, Mary apologizes to Dick, thinking the quest to get the Apollo Panacea was a waste of time. Dick then says that it has a shelf life, so they can just save it for another emergency.
- Alliterative List: Adriana comes up with one to describe the bishop's treachery.
- Anachronism Stew: Like in Frozen, the setting has a bunch of stuff out of time, such as Haagan-Dazs existing over a century before it was founded. Mary wouldn't mind so much if the setting didn't exclude Ninja.
- Angst? What Angst?: Adraiana needs just a few extra points, and decides on the tragic backstory flaw, asking Mary if her character nearly killed Mary's character accidentally when they were kids. Mary thinks that's awesome, and Dick snarks about how they're making out childhood trauma to be a cool thing.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Elsa can cause this, but only under certain conditions. Walter avoids this by banning gummi worms from the campaign.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Walter thinks barons are more evil than dukes, so he makes Weselton a baron instead. This tips off everyone else.
- Artifact Title: Well artifact character name in this case. When Ilene was going to have Olaf be a "Savage warrior" class and be Marshmallow's size, she called him "Olaf Axebutt". After changing into what he is in the movie, she still sticks with the name.
- Aroused by Their Voice: Apparently Bill can do a pretty hot Billy Dee Williams voice.
- Awesomeness Is a Force: Ilene as Olaf compares him to Chucky to freak Mary out, but Mary says she'd just kick his head off, as he'd just be a doll. Ilene counters that she's imbued with Brad Dourif's awesomeness, so she can't be hurt.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Mary's in character acting is really bad, and Walter bites his tongue to avoid saying anything. The exception is when there is action involved. So when she gets excited to do even normal scenes, her acting improves overall, and the bad acting eventually goes away.
- Bait-and-Switch Comparison: Weselton asks Gustav how it feels to be serving a witch (after Elsa reveals her powers), and Gustav says he isn't happy, but enough about his wife. Then Gustav's player uses an app on her phone to make a Rimshot (which Walter asks Ilene not to do again).
- Battle Amongst the Flames: When Mary guesses that Hans might be a villain, she says she hopes he and Anna have "an epic battle over a live volcano". It turns out to be just on the deck of a ship, but she's okay with it.
- Berserk Button: Do not compare any band to Nickelback around Walter. Dick learns this the hard way when he calls ABBA "the Nickelback of The '70s".
- Big "NO!": When Gustav has the fake bishop cornered, the bishop wins initiative and stabs Gustav. Anna shouts this, since she wouldn't know the wound wasn't fatal (was only three damage).
- Big "YES!": Mary does about three, each on successively bigger, when Bill proposes.
- Bishie Sparkle: When Anna falls for Hans, Mary describes it as seeing sparkles around his face.
- Bland-Name Product: "Sorcery The Rendezvous" for Magic: The Gathering.
- Blatant Lies: Walter claiming he didn't notice that Mary's in-character acting stinks.
- Bond One-Liner: Bill decides it wouldn't be in-character for Hans to say one after defeating Marshmallow, at least not with what else was going on.
- Brainwashed: Mary recognizes the impersonator bishop's words during the coronation are really a spell to control Elsa. Fortunately they find a counterspell after she defeats him.
- Brain Bleach: After it turns out that Mary likes to wear furs and swimsuits in private with Bill, his sister Adriana then realizes that Mary then let her borrow those furs. The implications of that make Adriana nearly sick.
- Brick Joke:
- After finding out Dick was trying to play Kristoff as Han Solo, Mary asks if his sled was called the "Asgard Falcon", but it's actually the "Ragnarok Raven", When he gets his new sled, it's part of the "Asgard Falcon" line.
- Ilene plays Olaf as a thief because Walter said playing him as a berserker didn't make any sense. Ilene insisted that a thief wasn't much better as a walking snowman wouldn't be that good for stealth. She reminds them of that when Olaf fails his stealth roll in the Arendelle capital (where the woman shrieked when she saw him).
- Elsa gets lost in a blizzard, and fearing Rad and Rude will find her anyway, she makes a half pipe to distract them. The next strip, Hans says they aren't with him because they're busy snowboarding on the half pipe.
- Burn the Witch!: Weselton's role in the comic seems to be upgraded from being bigoted to being an outright witch hunter, then it's subverted when it turns out that's his cover, and he's really a mage reaver.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: After Sven bites at Olaf's nose, Ilene says with a grin "that's a bad touch to a snowman! Don't make me get an adult!". Walter begs her to just move on.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Bill proposes to Mary, she thinks he's roleplaying his player character proposing to hers. Then Bill remembers to pull out the ring.
- Companion Cube: Adriana names her dice. Her 20-sided die is named Becky.
- Cool, but Stupid: Mary's feelings about Michael Bay movies."I know his movies are really stupid. That's WHY I like them."
- Critical Failure:
- When Elsa tries to melt her ice bridge, Adriana rolls a one. So instead of melting, or merely staying as it is, the ice spreads to the rest of the fjord.
- Mary rolls this climbing down a snowy hill, which is why Anna's coronation dress gets frozen.
- When Anna and Hans have their final duel, Hans fumbles a slice, and the penalty is leaving him wide open for Anna socking him in the face (she got a plus four to hit).
- Critical Hit:
- Subverted when Mary rolls one with her snowball hitting Marshmallow. Natural immunity to an element will cancel out even a crit.
- Not an attack but a magic use, Adriana rolls a 20 when she finally frees Arendelle from the eternal winter.Mary: "I knew you could do it, Becky!"
- Damager, Healer, Tank: Mary and Ilene realize that Olaf's defensive abilities effectively make him the party's tank.
- Deus ex Machina: Older editions of "Fantasialand" lets players invoke this through the "hero's trial", which could get them the item they need, but the trial would be as difficult and devious as the game master would like, so the players would have to earn this.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Adriana thinks that the furs Mary let her borrow were given after Mary had sex with Bill, Adriana's brother, while wearing them. Mary assured her that she and Bill did nothing of the sort. Bill just took pictures of Mary while she wore her furs with swimsuits. Adriana is not relieved by this information.
- Discredited Meme: Although Walter's swear jar isn't serious, he does have "an overused reference jar", and is serious about it (but will let non-overused references slide).
- When Mary quotes Monty Python's Life of Brian and Walter hands her the jar, she claims the movie isn't that overused. Walter says it is in Britain, and Mary snarks that she'll just put a pound note in the jar.
- Walter decides to let it slide when Mary tells Kristoff "I suggest a new strategy. Let the reindeer win", because it fit so well in the context.
- Discussed Trope: Mary and Adriana compare the backstory with Anna and Elsa to the McClanes in Die Hard, in the sense of two people in love become estranged and have to overcome it.
- Doomed Hometown: This is what Ilene says is Olaf's backstory, but it then gets changed to being made by Elsa's powers.
- Dramatic Irony: Spoofed when Adriana had Elsa not believe she caused the eternal winter at first. She sarcastically asked if people were going sledding or planning their Christmas shopping, both of which had been established after Bill's character arrived at the city.
- Dramatic Unmask: Doesn't reveal a person underneath, but empty air.
- Draw Aggro: When the characters are chased by Marshmallow, Olaf insults him so that Marshmallow went after him instead of Anna and Kristoff.
- The Dreaded: According to the lore of "Fantasialand". Maleficent is the most powerful of mage reavers, and is nicknamed "The Archangel of Death".
- Dump Stat: Mary considers charisma to be this, and is shocked that Bill focused on it.
- Endless Winter: When there is enough magical ice in one place, the surrounding area will become winter until the ice is melted. But this will also make many of the animals and people think it's supposed to be winter.
- Evil Twin: Mary thinks the fake bishop is the real bishop's twin, but he doesn't have any brothers.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Mary rolls a 2 when it turns out Anna is running along the same street Hans is riding. That's how Anna falls into the boat.
- This is also why Elsa doesn't notice that she froze the whole fjord.
- Fanon Discontinuity: In-Universe, Mary does not recognize any Die Hard films past the third one.
- Flaming Sword: Played with. Mary had the castle guards set a bunch of swords on fire to make them look like elemental weapons, so they could scare off some frost giants. It shouldn't have worked, since they swords weren't glowing red (from the heat, not from Power Glows), but Bill's charisma allowed the bluff to work.
- Foreshadowing:
- Walter fixes a goof for Adriana (being hated and feared changed to only if her powers are revealed), but says he won't fudge another one, so he couldn't do anything when her ice bridge fumbles and freezes the kingdom.
- After Anna takes out Hans, Mary asks Bill to play a nice character next time. When Wreck-It Ralph starts, Bill plays Felix.
- Founder of the Kingdom: Mary and Adriana didn't just play the king and queen of Arendelle, they also founded it.
- Fourth-Date Marriage:
- Mary thinks Bill is roleplaying a proposal to characters who just met, instead of to her. Then they decide to have their characters do just that.
- This is averted with Mary and Bill themselves, who had known each other over three years before Bill proposed.
- Fridge Logic: A couple of In-Universe examples occur:
- Walter doesn't think "hell" should be a swear word because it doesn't make sense.
- When Dick plays Ralph, he asks why Zangief is attending "Bad Anon", since he isn't a villain... or at least he's not one of the bosses... and there are continuities from other adaptations to consider. Anyway, Zangief says he's not a bad guy. Sagat just couldn't come, and M. Bison likes extra company when he's there.
- Funetik Aksent: This is Exaggerated when Walter does such a bad accent with Weselton that Mary's thoughts describe it as mangling French, Scottish, and German all at once. Walter tones it down when Adriana wonders what a "kwen" (queen) is.
- Gag Censor: When characters swear, it's replaced with "(swear jar)".
- Genre Savvy: As soon as Walter describes Weselton, all five players call him out as a bad guy. Walter can't even deny it.
- Going Fur a Swim:
- Mary mentions that wearing fur isn't too warm for summer, especially over a swimsuit.
- Adriana mentioned when she borrowed a white rabbit jacket from Mary, she wore it over a bikini.
- G-Rated Drug: Mary chooses a random addiction flaw for Anna, and it's chocolate ("Melts in your mouth, not in the bong!"). After she runs out of her supply, she's suffering withdrawal, and thinks Kristoff's head looks like the inside of a Cadbury egg.
- Groin Attack: Walter worries that Adriana's having Elsa go psychotic because of what Harry did to her. Adriana insists if that was the reason, she would be making called shots below the belt.
- Happily Ever After: Since "Fantasialand" is fairy tale based, even this is a mechanic. It basically puts a campaign in stasis so that the players can go do other things rather than play the campaign until bored with it.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream:
- Adriana playing Elsa says she's "gonna find a carton of Haagan-Dazs and sprinkle it with my tears!".
- This is played straight after Adriana is dumped, and Walter offers Adriana some of the Ben & Jerry's in his fridge.
- Heel Realization: Rad and Rude are "kind of bummed out" after they learn that Weselton is seeking magic power instead of stopping evil magicians. They apologize to Elsa about what they did, see Weselton off to stand trial, and then head to the Arendelle beaches "to catch the waves and find some bodacious chicks".
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Mary has a habit of calling NPCs by their functions instead of their names. When she said this to the Bishop, Walter remembered that his name actually was Bishop.
- Hypnotize the Captive: Elsa's would be kidnappers hypnotize her during the coronation, rather than try to deal with her ice powers.
- An Ice Person: Adriana decides she wants to play Elsa as an ice sorceress, so like the movie, no further explanation for her powers are given.
- I'm Melting!: Subverted when Bill thinks Ilene's Snowlem character will melt in the summer, but it just turns out he will lose a hell of a lot of defense points in the heat (then Ilene realizes even that would be a problem).
- The Ingenue: Mary plays Anna as so naive, she's scandalized by Elsa giving her "the talk", and insists that Hans would "never do such filthy things" to her.
- It's Fake Fur, It's Fine: The author's notes says that if a reader prefers, just say that Mary's furs are faux.
- Jerkass:
- Weselton makes Fantastic Racism comments about Elsa, causing Anna to come this close to punching him.
- Adriana's boyfriend dumps her in a really weaselly manner.
- Bill actually ups Hans as a jerk by also making him blatantly misogynistic, including saying that he likes how Anna is trusting, but she's clearly not obedient.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery:
- Justified when Mary specifically points out that Anna's Pimped-Out Dress for the coronation has enough pleats on the skirt to do a Roundhouse Kick without any penalties.
- The winter outfit plays this straight with Anna still doing some fighting despite wearing a wool cape and dress, and even an unseen ermine petticoat adding to the weight of it all.
- Killer Game Master: Dick asks Bill if Roy is like this, but Bill says he's worse.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Adriana's had at least two relationships that ended badly.
- The Loonie: Ilene, although early strips didn't show it much. When she has Olaf meet Anna and Kristoff, she ups how goofy Olaf was in the film... but not by that much.
- Love at First Sight: Bill has this as a charisma bonus, and that's how Anna falls for him.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Walter lets Ilene use Olaf's arms as an impromptu lockpick, but not his carrot, as the carrot wasn't enchanted with Elsa' magic.
- Mega Manning: A Mage Reaver gains power from other magic users by taking their heart.
- Min-Maxing:
- Adriana overdoes this a lot, from a past incident which nearly started a war, to giving Elsa ice magic too strong to control.
- Mary does a more reasonable amount of this to give Anna some agility points.
- Walter soon declares a house rule to limit flaw points when starting out.
- More than Mind Control: The "Love At First Sight" bonus is not a mind control ability, so Anna falls for it despite having immunity to charm.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: When Adriana wears her blue dress for her date (which would be incorporated into the game as Elsa's ice dress), Ilene tells Dick to stop staring at Adriana's chest. Dick says they look like ice-themed Disco balls. Ilene then gripes she can't un-see that now.
- Nightmare Fuel: A couple of In-Universe examples:
- Mary is getting creeped out by how Walter is portraying Weselton.
Walter: "And he leans close, almost like he's trying to see the darkness in your pupils."- When Elsa freaks out after learning about causing the eternal winter, Dick compares the dark ice cracks to a J-Horror film, and Mary says she's quitting the campaign if anything comes out of the ice.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: When Anna goes out to patrol the capital, Adriana says "what are you, Princess Cop?". Mary responds, "No, but I would watch every episode of that show!".
- Noodle Incident:
- Walter isn't pleased with how much Elsa's ice abilities have been beefed up, and mentions the last time she tried to max up like that, which involved her flaws actually requiring "that the land would be torn by war".
- Mary admits she really screwed up when she nearly drove the creatures in the Pride Lands to extinction.
- Whatever happened the only time Mary went ice fishing (aside from her knowing what it would be like to be really cold below the waist). Bill says her grandfather still apologizes.
- This is a future tense one, but we never find out Ilene's original plan to distract Marshmallow, as Walter sees her smirking and tells her not to even think about it.
- Bill mentions the last time he played with Roy as the GM, he tricked Bill into nearly destroying Christmas, although Roy reminded Bill that Jack wanted a new vocation.
- Noodle Implements:
- Elsa's flaws mean she can accidentally cause the apocalypse, but only when certain things happen. The only part of it stated is gummi worms, which Walter bans from the campaign.
- So holy water makes sense for an exorcism, but why a two-by-four? Rule of Funny of course.
- No Saving Throw: Downplayed. Walter says Adriana can't use one when the bishop is putting Elsa under a spell. It's to retaliate against her massive min maxing, but he also justifies it by pointing out Elsa would be too focused on not giving herself away.
- Not a Morning Person: One of the flaws Mary chooses for Anna. Bedhead is also included, and Adriana is surprised that's actually a flaw. Mary is surprised Adriana doesn't have that section already memorized.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Being that typical Disney films aren't the most action-oriented, some action is thrown in "off panel".
- The battle in the first strip. All that's stated is that the pirate "Blackbrace" has been slain, the king of Arendelle bit a squid man and lost modifiers due to setting off allergies, and a giant shark pulled the ship down.
- Instead of just meeting Hans, Anna is off to stop a robbery she overhears. Afterwards it turns out that the robbers might actually be thugs working for someone.
- Anna, Hans, and Elsa fight off some frost giants. Later they come back for revenge.
- Off the Rails: Adriana thinks that happened when her character's powers are revealed, but it really happened when the eternal winter was set off accidentally.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Walter's reaction to seeing Elsa's character sheet properly (he looked at it before but didn't notice quite what she had done).
- Mary when she figures out that Weselton is a witch hunter. Then again when she realizes he's a Mage Reaver.
- When they see Roy has taken over while Walter is away at a convention.
- Orphaned Series: Has not updated since mid-2015.
- Overused Copycat Character: Dick is told to tweak his character when Walter realizes he's trying to play Han Solo.
- Physical God: "Living God" is how strong Adriana makes Elsa's ice powers. Yet being that strong when a character is level one is considered a bad thing.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Elsa's ice dress is actually worn by Adriana as a gift from a movie star whose teeth she capped (but didn't want anyone to know about). It's incorporated into the game when Rad and Rude note how "sinful" her outfit is.
- Plot Hole: In a rant, the author admits to noting a plot hole while making this very TV Tropes page, and then starting that strip with a couple of lines to fill it.
- Power Incontinence: Elsa's chance of accidentally casting ice magic is a whopping 90%. Then she can't even control the effect, which is random.
- Power Limiter: Elsa's gloves reduce the chance of accidentally using her powers by 80%.
- Precision F-Strike: After Adriana tells of how her boyfriend dumped her in a very Jerkass manner, Mary calls him a son of a bitch. Although it's bleeped out in the comic, it's the only time a standard bleep is used instead of the Gag Censor with the swear jar. Ilene even asks Walter why he isn't handing Mary the swear jar, and he says he was about to say it himself.
- Pretty in Mink:
- It's mentioned that Elsa's coronation cape was going to have ermine lining, but she sold off the pelts for a load of money. Her in character excuse was that all that fur would be too warm for summer.
- Then it's revealed the ermine pelts were sold to Oaken, which he offers to sew into Anna's hat and cape. This includes an unseen ermine petticoat (which Mary noted would be really helpful after walking around in an ice cold skirt and pantaloons).
- Mary has a number of furs, coming from a wealthy family, most of which she let Adriana borrow.
- Product Placement: Bill guesses this is why Haagan-Dazs is part of a 19th century setting, even though the company was founded in 1961.
- Railroading: Walter only does this occasionally. It's noted once when Dick gripes that Walter is just forcing his character to work with Mary's, and Mary asks if that's really a bad thing under the circumstances.
- The Rant: Short author's notes that accompany many strips.
- The Real Man: Mary wants Anna to be a martial artist, and (at first) only really gets into character when there is action involved.
- Required Secondary Powers: This is a Discussed Trope a few times.
- Adriana wonders if Elsa's immunity to cold and ice would mean the falling chandelier would hurt her. Walter surmises the kinetic energy would still hurt, which is why Elsa is knocked out from the impact.
- "Fantasialand" has a mechanic where earth elementals can see through their element like an X-ray. Adriana notes that even the other elements would find this handy after Elsa gets lost in her own blizzard.
- Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony: When Elsa tries to get through the crowd, she says she has an emergency one of these to attend.
- The Roleplayer: The nature of the game (the XP if nothing else) encourages all the players to do this.
- Bill is the most dedicated, from choosing music to set the tone to passing notes to the GM.
- Adriana is shocked when Mary starts to get heavily into it.
- Rule #1: For the group, it's never take their eyes off the map during a fight. Dick notes this when Kristoff and Anna are fleeing wolves and soon find themselves headed toward a cliff.
- Running Gag:
- Mary is not happy that she can't play a ninja.
- People swearing, but "(swear jar)" is written instead.
- Ilene comparing Olaf to Chucky from Child's Play.
- Sarcasm Mode:
- Bill does this when he perceives Dick's character to be a bit boring (he changed his mind later).
- Adriana says this about Hans bringing Elsa to the castle, where her powers have the potential to harm people even more.
- Secret Test of Character: When Sven falls in the water, Dick is ready to have Kristoff dive in and save his friend. It turns out his willingness to self sacrifice was the real hero's trial.
- Shipper on Deck: Mary asks Ilene if she's trying to ship Anna and Kristoff, and Ilene reminds Mary that Anna was starting to see Kristoff as dashing.
- Shout-Out: The names of the players refers to voice actors for some of the first Disney animated films, and the GM is named for Walt Disney; the name of the comic itself references the Buena Vista nameplate
Disney has used for a variety of purposes over the years.- The mega shark that pulls the ship down is a reference to Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.
- Mary mentions "hadouken" from Street Fighter II and how she doesn't need those to knock a monster on its butt.
- Bill says Hans is "on a diplomatic mission to Arendelle".
- The author admits he isn't a serious roleplayer, so while some inaccuracies are likely, he will make sure to avoid anything on the level of Mazes and Monsters.
- Although not The Loonie, Adriana has run into similar GM vetos as Mr. Welch.
- When Anna hears robbers say "Your money or your life", she responds "Hang on, Jack Benny!".
- When Anna falls for Hans, Mary says that she hears the love theme from Airplane!.
- Mary hopes one twist doesn't turn into a Scooby-Doo ending.
- When Mary is about to chant a spell, Adriana tells her not to "cough the last part", referring to how Ash screwed up a spell in Army of Darkness.
- When Mary accepts Bill's proposal by shouting "Yes!" a few times, Dick says "I'll have what she's having".
- When Elsa asks if it's safe for her to leave the room, Mary then quotes from The Room.
- When Elsa uses the ice bridge to Walk on Water, Adriana sings part of "Jesus He Knows Me" by Genesis.
- Walter vetoes Ilene playing Olaf like one of the Care Bears.
- Dick says that girls he knows from Mary's background just like fantasy when it's like The Lord of the Rings movies, and Mary adds that they mostly like it for "Blondie-las".
- Dick refers to a wolf as a "Hungry Hungry Huskie".
- When the people in the Arendelle capital act like this sudden winter is normal, Bill compares the place to Twin Peaks.
- Ilene names Marshmallow after the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.
- Mary says that after saving Arendelle they can make a bobsled track on the mountains, and she'll name hers "Frozen Runnings".
- Ilene giving Olaf the last name "Axebutt" is a reference to Friendship is Dragons, when Rainbow Dash's player says she could have put an axe on her butt.
- When Hans's party arrives at Elsa's castle, Bill puts on the theme to Attack on Titan to get them in the right mood. Then when he slashes Marshmallow's legs he says that move should be done on the Titans more often. When Walter points out the Healing Factor, Bill retorts it would still cripple them for the purpose of their fight. Then in The Rant, the author points out that if the show was an RPG, the players would exploit every weakness the story said the Titans have, including burning down all the land taken by the Titans if they weren't immune to fire.
- South Park: Rad wonders why the comic cut to him after someone made a comment, similar to Chef making a comment and Mr. Garrison wondering why the camera just panned to him.
- Encino Man: Rad says "Ow! My pancreas!" after Mashmallow slams him and Rude aside.
- Adriana wants to traps Elsa's castle against the invaders like Home Alone, but Rad and Rude get in before she had time to set up the ice marbles on the floor. The best she can do is make the top room brighter to hurt their vision (why the room is gold in that scene).
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Bill can't resist saying "Die, Monster! You don't belong in this world!" when he's about to kill Elsa.
- One of Dick's ringtones is the theme to The Last Starfighter.
- After wondering why the (fictional) game "Haxer Force" isn't just called "Hacker Force", Dick quotes the Atop the Fourth Wall line "Because poor literacy is kewl".
- Show Within a Show: Similar to how Darths & Droids doesn't use a defined game, this comic uses a fictional game called "FantasiaLand" which is a roleplaying game based on Fairy Tales instead of High Fantasy. It also includes spinoffs that cover other game genres.
- Soap Punishment: As part of thinking Sven can talk, Kristoff imagines Sven said something really offensive about Anna, and said he was going to wash Sven's mouth when he found some soap.
- Socialite: Mary is one, even though she still likes to Roleplay. Dick recounts a time when she was talking about trying to decapitate a dragon with an axe, while she was dressed up to go to a cotillion.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Subverted. Mary thinks Dick's character is telling Mary's to stay in the sled because of this, but it's really in case they need to flee any tough battles.
- Surfer Dude: Weselton's voiceless henchmen are this trope in the comic, and they wouldn't mind the winter if they had only brought their snowboards. They are called Rad (the one with the sideburns) and Rude (with the mustache). When the magic winter starts, Rad complains to himself that his nachos are getting cold.
- Swear Jar: Walter has one, but it's less from being against swearing than a way to pay for pizza for the group. Whoever puts in the last dollar for the pizza and the tip gets to choose the toppings.
- The Talk: Adriana's character gives one to Mary's, and then Mary acts utterly scandalized to fit Anna's naive nature.
- Talking Animal: Played with. Sven still can't talk, but instead of talking for him, Kristoff thinks Sven can actually talk.
- Tear Jerker: In-Universe, Mary and Dick respectively tear up and sob when thinking of Ordinary People.
- Tension-Cutting Laughter: After Adriana gets squicked out when she thought she wore clothes Mary wore when sleeping with Adriana's brother, and is not relieved when Mary says Bill just took pictures when she wore those clothes, Dick told them to stop whining about their "first world problems", then jokes that Mary should at least share those pictures. Mary and Adriana burst into laughter and thank Dick for that.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: In-Universe, Walter was not happy when the "hero's trial" mechanic was removed from the latest edition of the game. Dick reminded him he complained about it for weeks. Walter insists it was just one week.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Adriana chooses that as Elsa's alignment. Yet when Rad and Rude are trying to kill her, Adriana realizes she might have to shift it to "won't hurt the innocent". Then things escalate with Elsa nearly murdering them in cold blood.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: When Adriana does one, it's implied she's about to potentially wreck the campaign. When Walter does one, it's a sign the players are making a horrible mistake.
- Throw It In!: In-Universe, Mary wants to give Anna policing skills, which is called "copper", but she wrote that for hair color, so others think Anna is a redhead. Mary shrugs and goes with it.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Mary is an inversion. Although most of her time playing fantasy games is tomboyish, she's actually a Girly Girl with a tomboy streak.
- Total Party Kill: The comic starts off with the king and queen of Arendelle, and other unseen player characters, dying in battle with pirates.
- True Love's Kiss: Mary figures immediately that kissing Hans isn't going to save Anna, but she figures a kiss from Elsa would work. Adriana asks that they don't do that, even a kiss on the cheek or forehead, because even that would remind her of certain websites she visited some time ago.
- The Voice: Gustav, the regent of Arendelle until Elsa comes of age. He also takes the role again while Anna goes to find her sister.
- We Need a Distraction: Mary has Elsa deliberately freeze the fountain to distract the crowd and make an opening to head to the fjord.
- When running from the wolves, Kristoff can't climb up the sled with the wolves chewing at him, so Mary says she's going to distract them. Ilene jokes she should toss them copies of Playwolf.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: In Ralph, the Nicelanders tend to drink so much at parties that they don't remember the party the morning after. Ralph and Felix exploit this to keep their cover story of Ralph getting bad treatment from his game.
- Where Do You Think You Are?: When Dick notes that tossing the flaming bundle at Kristoff could set him on fire, Mary reminds him they're in the middle of snow, so he could just stop, drop, and roll.
- Wild Mass Guessing: In-Universe. After Bill passes a note to the GM, Mary makes a lot of guesses as to who Hans might be, from a spy to a demigod.
- You Don't Want to Catch This: When a woman asks the newly crowned Elsa to kiss her baby, Elsa says she thinks she's coming down with something.
- You Killed My Father: A "your parents killed my father" variation. Bill plays Hans as the son of the dreaded pirate "Blackbrace, Scourge of the North Sea", who was killed in the opening battle of the comic. Now even though Bill's character killed Blackbrace, not the king or queen of Arendelle, no one survived the battle to tell the tale, so Bill surmises that Hans would assume that either the king or queen did it. So part of his goal is to punish their children.
