History Literature / TheLastUnicorn

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Last Unicorn finds and frees her fellows, but at a price. As a human, the Lady Amalthea falls in love with Prince Lír. Returned to her immortal form, she can no longer stay with him (or even feel love anymore), so she leaves both her love and her two human friends behind to return to her home in the lilac wood. Even sadder, however, because she has experienced love, aging, and regret -- experiences foreign to "pure" unicorns -- [[BlessedWithSuck she is no longer as innocent and aloof as others of her kind, separating her even from her own species]].]] And yet, as sad as these things may be, she thanks Schmendrick for them. It is a good thing [[spoiler:to have known love]]. Molly and Schmendrick also fall in love and can live a normal life together now Schmendrick's immortality has ended.

-->'''Nikos''': Therefore I grant that from this day forth you shall not grow old, but will travel the world round and round, eternally inefficient, until at last you come to yourself and know what you are. Don't thank me. I tremble at your doom.

* CentralTheme: Innocence: [[IncorruptiblePurePureness its value]], [[AmbiguousInnocence its]] [[TrueNeutral various]] [[PureIsNotGood problems]], and [[ComingOfAgeStory its]] [[GrowingUpSucks inevitable]] [[BitterSweetEnding loss]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: The story is considered one for fairy tales in general, by having the characters pointing out how they're aware that they live inside a fairy tale. The story also deconstructs common cliches of the genre: the princess is cold and aloof (and not even human); the middle-aged woman believes in unicorns the most of them all and is close friends with the princess instead of being her enemy; the heroic prince starts out as a lazy bum and has to make himself into a hero through effort and experience; the wicked witch merely wants to be remembered; the cruel tyrant just wants to find true happiness; and the good wizard is incompetent. Most of all, [[spoiler:the story doesn't end with the princess and the prince marrying and living happily ever after]].

* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: King Haggard is a ''frightening'' [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggeration]] of what might happen to someone who never found a purpose and never stopped looking for one anyway. Even the unicorns merely distract him from the emptiness inside.

* FeatheredFiend: The Harpy

** The prince and son of prophecy is an overweight layabout. By the time he grows into himself and fulfils his destiny, the beautiful maiden he's fought so hard to save... leaves him forever.
* GoodIsNotNice: Unicorns may be [[IncorruptiblePurePureness incorruptible]], but they're also ''wild.''

* RapunzelHair: Lady Amalthea.

** This is also one of the reasons why the unicorn doesn't approach the princess -- the princess had made promises like "I will abandon my title and go begging if I can only see your shadow" that the unicorn's actual appearance would have bound her to.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The story is considered one for fairy tales in general, by having the characters pointing out how they're aware that they live inside a fairy tale. The story also deconstructs common cliches of the genre: the princess is cold and aloof (and not even human), the old woman believes in unicorns the most of them all and is close friends with the princess instead of being her enemy, the Prince Charming is originally a lazy bum and has to work to actually turn into a desirable Charming figure, by changing his habits and parts of his personality; the old wicked witch simply wants to be remembered, and the wizard is quite incompetent in his magic. Biggest thing of all, [[spoiler:the story doesn't end with the princess and the prince marrying and living happily ever after]].
* DemBones: The guardian of the passageway that leads to the Red Bull.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The unicorn warns Mommy Fortuna that the harpy will turn on her, and then there will be nothing left of her carnival but the sound of a spider weeping. The next chapter, that's exactly what happens.

* GenreDeconstruction: Poor Molly eloped with Cully because she imagined the romantic life of an outlaw, thanks to stories of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The ensuing reality of {{barefoot poverty}} and constantly cooking and washing for scores of rowdy men out in the woods made her prematurely old and bitter.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:That would be Lír. Twice ... again, alongside Malka in Two Hearts. Leaving The Unicorn to make the heartbreaking choice of who to save ...]]

** Result: The people of the town became terrified of one of their children taking the curse for granted and overthrowing Haggard, and chose not to have ''any.'' It's implied that they were abandoning their children to die of exposure; Drinn tells a story of how he came across a foundling in the town square in the dead of winter, surviving due to every cat in town curling up around it. He chased the cats away and went home. Not long afterwards, Haggard announced he had an heir; the child grew up to be Lír.

* NotSoDifferent: Discussed. The Lady Amalthea initially has no interest in Lír because she sees that he wants her just as the Red Bull did, and it frightens her. [[spoiler:After she is restored to a unicorn]], Prince Lír demands to know where she is and states that he must have her, and for a moment he looks just as Haggard did.

* RealityEnsues: Poor Molly eloped with Cully because she imagined the romantic life of an outlaw, thanks to stories of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The ensuing reality of {{barefoot poverty}} and constantly cooking and washing for scores of rowdy men out in the woods made her prematurely old and bitter.

* FamousLastWords: Mommy Fortuna's "Not alone! You never could have freed yourselves alone! I ''held'' you!" Mommy Fortuna is clearly akin to those people who keep venomous snakes as pets.

** The unicorn's alias, "Amalthea," is a reference to the nanny goat who nursed Zeus. The original Amalthea had lost a horn, which became the Cornucopia, effectively making her a unicorn. WordOfGod has it that the author was not aware of the origins of the name when it came to him and suspects he read the myth as a child and got it stuck in his subconscious.

* TheAgeless: Unicorns. They do not age, but they can be killed.
** Schmendrick, until he learns to master his magic.

** InUniverse example. Schmendrick, in spite of his loathing of Mommy Fortuna, weeps after she is killed by the harpy.
** Lír is the only one to make even a single sound of mourning for [[spoiler:King Haggard's death]].
* AllTakeAndNoGive: King Haggard. Beautifully demonstrated when the unicorn is first turned into a woman, and both Haggard and Lír look into her eyes. Lír's eyes reflect the light radiating from her eyes, while Haggard's reflect none of it back, as if hoarding it away somewhere.

%%* LeftFieldDescription
* TheLoad: Downplayed. After Haggard allows the trio to stay in his castle, Schmendrick and Molly are immediately put to work as Haggard's personal jester and scullery maid, while the Lady Amalthea is left free to roam the castle. However, the trio make no headway finding her people for ''months'' because Schmendrick and Molly are too busy working all hours to search the castle, while the Lady Amalthea can't be bothered to do anything but sulk about being human. [[spoiler:Once she forgets ever being a unicorn, Molly and Schmendrick then have to do all the work of finding her people for her, while dragging her unwilling self along.]]

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: After the day has been saved, Lír decides to look for the Unicorn. Schmendrick tells him not to, and briefly Lír's rage turns him into Haggard Jr. He realizes before it's too late that it would be a fruitless, self-destructive search.

* Recap/TheMetamorphosesArachne: One of Mommy Fortuna's exhibits is a brown spider that she's enchanted to think is the actual Arachne.

* FamousLastWords: Mommy Fortuna's "Not alone! You never could have freed yourselves alone! I held you!" Mommy Fortuna is clearly akin to those people who keep venomous snakes as pets.

* LegacyCharacter: When Lír declares he will find the Unicorn at any cost at the end, it's noted he looks like Haggard for the first time. Schmendrick advises against it.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Last Unicorn finds and frees her fellows, but at a price. As a human, the Lady Amalthea falls in love with Prince Lír. Returned to her immortal form, she can no longer stay with him (or even feel love anymore), so she leaves both her love and her two human friends behind to return to her home in the lilac wood. Even sadder, however, because she has experienced love, aging, and regret -- experiences foreign to "pure" unicorns -- [[BlessedWithSuck she is no longer as innocent and aloof as others of her kind, separating her even from her own species]].]] And yet, as sad as these things may be, she thanks Schmendrick for them. It is a good thing [[spoiler:to have known love]].

* PainfulRhyme: [[invoked]] Lír's love poetry to Amalthea uses this as a form of StylisticSuck (since his poetry is ''supposed'' to be terrible):

* OlderThanTheyLook: Schmendrick. He was [[CursedWithAwesome cursed to stop aging]] by Nikos, under the condition that he find out who and what he was. [[CaptainObvious It's implied that he's much older than he looks]]. WordOfGod says he's anywhere from 40 to 60.

[[WesternAnimation/TheLastUnicorn An animated film adaptation]], with a script by the author, was produced by Creator/RankinBassProductions in the 1980s.

Beginning in April 2010, IDW published a six-issue comic book adaptation.

* GreenEyes: Schmendrick's green eyes are especially mentioned.

* CatsAreMean: The same cat is a {{Trickster}}, and when Molly gets frustrated at him for his riddling answers, he protests that he cannot give more help than he already has.

* OlderIsBetter: The unicorn speaks about the Red Bull this way.

* OlderIsBetter: The unicorn speaks about the Red Bull this way. It's unclear whether StrongerWithAge applies or not.

* OlderIsBetter: The unicorn speaks about the Red Bull those way. It's unclear whether StrongerWithAge applies or not.

-->'''Ruck:''' The greatest weaver in the world -— her fate's the proof of it. She had the bad luck to defeat the goddess Athena in a weaving contest. Athena was a sore loser, and Arachne is now a spider, creating only for Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, by special arrangement. Warp of snow and woof of flame, and never any two the same. Arachne.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When the unicorn blows off the princess that tries to summon her because she thinks her time is more valuable than a mortal's, Molly wistfully remarks that she wishes unicorn could turn into something mortal that can't wait. The next chapter, this is exactly what happens.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Last Unicorn finds and frees her fellows, but at a price. As a human, the Lady Amalthea falls in love with Prince Lír. Returned to her immortal form, she can no longer stay with him (or even feel love anymore), so she leaves both her love and her two human friends behind to return to her home in the lilac wood. Even sadder, however, because she has experienced love, aging, and regret--experiences foreign to "pure" unicorns--[[BlessedWithSuck she is no longer as innocent and aloof as others of her kind, separating her even from her own species]].]] And yet, as sad as these things may be, she thanks Schmendrick for them. It is a good thing [[spoiler:to have known love]].

* DeathOfPersonality: [[spoiler:The 'Lady Amalthea' personality essentially dies when Schmendrick restores the unicorn to its rightful form.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: Haggard's biggest vice--and danger--is his selfishness and obsessiveness.

* LastOfHerKind: [[spoiler:But not exactly. It turns out that there ''are'' more unicorns--but they have all been imprisoned in the sea by King Haggard, with the help of the Red Bull.]]

* MayflyDecemberRomance: Prince Lír and the unicorn... sort of. As Lady Amalthea, she's as human and mortal as he is, and when she's turned back into the immortal unicorn she can no longer feel love for him, but he still loves her all the same.

** Lír isn't just a PunctuationShaker - anyone versed in Irish mythology would recognise the name as that of the Irish ''sea'' god, most prominent in ''Literature/TheChildrenOfLir'', in which his three children are turned into swans and bound to three lakes, for three hundred years each per lake.

* WildMagic: Schmendrick does not so much control the magic he uses, as acts as a conduit for it to do what is ''necessary'', which is not the same as doing what he ''wants''.

* LeftFieldDescription