History Literature / MagicKingdomOfLandover

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Meeks is personally interviewing the potential buyers of Landover, supposedly to asses them and their potential to be TheGoodKing. [[spoiler: In reality, he's searching for [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense weak-willed wimps with loads of cash]] that will back off from the deal, lining his pockets or even die before they can get back to Earth]].

* HurtingHero: Ben at first, who is grieving the untimely death of his wife. Much of the first book is him learning to let go and love Willow.

* CuffsOffRubWrists: Mistaya, after being freed from ''magic halo binders''.

** TheChick: Willow. LoveFreak, TheHeart, GranolaGirl, it would be hard for her to get more chickish. Luckily, she's also a downright likeable character in her own right.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In the first book, Ben is initially convinced that the advert to purchase a magic kingdom is a scam for the obvious reason. He eventually learns that it is a scam -- not because the kingdom doesn't exist, but because it's beset by enemies and what he's bought is less "permanent vacation to fairyland" and more "full time job that will kill him if he doesn't do it exactly right". Each time the seller simply waits for the new king to be killed and puts it back on the market.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** What happened to Abernathy in {{Backstory}}, courtesy of a MagicMisfire from Questor (to protect him from Michel Ard Rhi). End result is a scribe who is a soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, luckily still retaining human hands and the ability to speak.
** Nightshade gets trapped in her crow form at the end of ''Witches Brew''.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Aside from having been the one to make Ben king in the first place, in the end Meeks's defeat comes about because of the very one he had manipulated Questor into putting under a BalefulPolymorph. Not to mention Abernathy wouldn't have been in a position to choose whether to help destroy the books if Meeks hadn't sent a dream to Questor to retrieve them...which he did because he wanted to change Abernathy back.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys:
** The kobolds Bunion and Parsnip. Parsnip is the castle chef, Bunion is the court runner, and also doubles as Ben's personal bodyguard.
** Subverted with the Throg Monkeys of ''Princess'', which are mean-tempered, unnerving, voyeuristic, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking seemingly lazy]] and which turn out to be helping Crabbit free the demons of Abaddon.

* OurKoboldsAreDifferent: Kobolds are a type of fairy resembling large-eared monkeys with mouths full of sharp teeth. They don't talk, but communicate through gestures, hisses and other noises. Two named Buinion and Parsnip work as servants in the King's living castle.

* MixedAncestry: Willow, born of two different kinds of faerie, whose status complicates both her relationship to Ben Holiday, and later their child's gestation and birth -- as the child of a wood nymph, she has to spend part of the time as a tree.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Some of this comes through in the River Master's contempt for Ben, though it seems more directly related to the long line of failed kings than to humans in general. Mostly. Eventually, he gets better, in large part [[PapaWolf thanks to Mistaya]].

** However, each subsequent book seems to like piling on the complications in the same way. In ''The Black Unicorn'', the BadDreams everyone suffers ends up allowing Meeks back into Landover, who switches places with Ben, seemingly steals the medallion, and exiles him with no one believing who he is or recognizing him except Nightshade and Strabo; meanwhile Meeks has the books of magic and is manipulating Willow into bringing the black unicorn to him so he can enslave it once again.

* SummonEverymanHero: Played with in the first book, where the everyman hero is summoned by the genre blind villain with the expectation of being useless as a hero, complete with a job interview designed to ensure uselessness. The hero is just the latest in a long line of summoned everymen who were until then as useless as expected.

* SheatheYourSword: In ''Witches Brew'', one of the champions sent by Lord Rydall, the fake BigBad of the book, is a knight resembling the Paladin. The Paladin fights the knight but finds his opponent can perfectly match him blow for blow. The knight is only defeated when the Paladin sheathes his weapon and disappears, causing his doppelganger to do the same.

* CombatByChampion: In ''Witches Brew'', the fictitious King Rydall of Marnhull challenges Ben and the Paladin to defeat 7 of his champions in order to determine whether Marnhull's armies will take over Landover. In reality, Rydall is an agent of Nightshade, and his champions are monsters created by her and Ben's daughter Mistaya, who believes she is helping her father. Only five of the champions ever appear: they include [[Myth/GreekMythology a giant who gains strength from touching the soil]], a demonic entity that mimics the Paladin, an immense mechanical man, the [[SandWorm Wurm]], and [[spoiler: the zombified [[ImplacableMan Ardsheal]]]].