Line #1 Creator/SofiaProkofieva


1	Sofia Leonidovna Prokofieva (born 14 May 1928) is a prominent Soviet and Russian author, best known for her children's books; she has also written scripts, plays and poetry. Her first husband, whose surname she has kept, was the son of Music/SergeiProkofiev.
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3	Her later works tend to shift towards fantasy and darker themes, and the BrokenBase can't agree whether it is a success.
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6	!! Among her works are:
7	[[index]]
8	* ''Literature/TheBigSisterAndLittleSister''
9	* ''Literature/LoskutikAndTheCloud''
10	* ''Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys''
11	* ''Literature/TheSecretOfTheCrystalCastle''
12	* ''Literature/WhileTheClockChimes''
13	[[/index]]
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15	!! Tropes common to Prokofieva's works:
16	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: For the stories set in our world, it's either vaguely modern (meaning somewhere between 1950 and 2005) or vaguely medieval.
17	* AngryMob: Always appears when the royals have a ZeroPercentApprovalRating (such as the king in ''[[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys Astrel and the Forest's Guardian]]'').
18	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Subverted pointedly. There are many stunning-looking villains (such as [[spoiler:Gina]] in ''[[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys The Island of Captains]]'' or the Ice Kingdom's ruling family in ''Literature/TheBigSisterAndLittleSister''), and plain or downright ugly heroes (like Barbatsutsa in ''Literature/LoskutikAndTheCloud'') can appear as well.
19	* ChildrenAreInnocent: They definitely are open and good-hearted, with extremely few exceptions (such as [[spoiler:Gina Banditto]]). It gets exploited by many villains, since children are also more prone to temptations – if CorruptTheCutie occurs (like in ''The Hoard under the Old Oak'') or almost occurs (like in ''The Castle of the Black Queen''), the cutie in question is usually a child.
20	* CruelMercy: The fate of any BigBad, often combined with CoolAndUnusualPunishment.
21	* DistressedDude: Pretty often, it's the girls who save the guys (for example, Nitochka frees her fiance Trot in ''[[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys A Girl Named Glazastik]]'').
22	* GoodEyesEvilEyes: Mostly played straight. Bright and clear equals good, sharp and piercing equals bad.
23	* GoodShepherd: Quite frequent in her post-Soviet works (Father Ioann in ''Literature/TheBigSisterAndLittleSister'', the holy hermit in ''Literature/TheSecretOfTheCrystalCastle'' etc.).
24	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: If the villain possesses a very cool and/or dangerous artifact, the chances are high it will be used against them in the climax. [[spoiler:Such is the case, for instance, with the Mountain Spirit's writings in ''The Big Sister and Little Sister'' or the ice key in ''A Girl Named Glazastik'']].
25	* HolyBurnsEvil: Again, in the post-Soviet books. If villains or their minions are so wicked they have absolutely zero chance of redemption, they will crumble at the sound of prayer or tolling church bells (like the underground dwarves in ''The Castle of the Black Queen'').
26	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Happens fairly often. For example, the wizard Alyosha in ''Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys'' is a good friend to the kids in the neighborhood, and in the heroes' team in ''Loskutik and the Cloud'' we get the elderly Barbatsutsa and Rositta, the VagueAge Cloud, Vermilyon who is implied to be in his twenties or thirties, and the preteen Loskutik and Soot.
27	* LadyOfBlackMagic: If a female magician is the BigBad, expect her to be like this: beautiful, elegant, poisonously polite, with a good supply of evil spells and handy artifacts, and dressed in [[DarkIsEvil dark colors]]. The Black Queen in ''The Castle of the Black Queen'' is a classic example.
28	* MeaningfulName: In every work.
29	* NiceMice: Helpful mice, such as the Mouse Queen in ''A Girl Named Glazastik'', often save the day for the heroes, even if they are a tad too self-absorbed to be on the heroic team.
30	* PrincessClassic: Played with. The good princesses (such as Astrel from ''Astrel and the Forest's Guardian'' or Selizetta from ''The Big Sister and Little Sister'') embody the trope, being beautiful, gentle and refined, but they are also quite capable in facing villains and become the ones to save the day more often than not (see SilkHidingSteel below).
31	* PublicDomainCharacter: Prokofieva has written an entire series about Snow White. The first book is a loose retelling of the Grimms' fairy tale, but the rest are completely original.
32	* PuppyLove: In practically any story that features a boy and a girl who aren't related.
33	* RingOfPower: Appears quite often (the ''Snow White'' series, ''The Castle of the Black Queen'' etc.), usually as a ChekhovsGun to save the day for the heroes in the final battle.
34	* SavedByTheChurchBell: In ''The Castle of the Black Queen'', the day is saved when the villainous dwarves crumble to dust at the sound of the church bells.
35	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: If they are quick and savvy enough, the villains can avoid CoolAndUnusualPunishment and simply run far away.
36	* SignatureStyle: A book by Prokofieva almost always includes: a kindhearted plucky girl (child or grownup), a villain with piercing eyes (usually LadyOfBlackMagic if female), PuppyLove with a nice boy if the heroine is a kid (if it’s StandardFantasySetting, he is a servant or page), DistressedDude love interest if the heroine is an adult, NiceMice, siblings with a large age gap, evil kings overthrown by an AngryMob (mostly in the pre-1991 works), a soft-spoken EvilChancellor.
37	* SilkHidingSteel:
38	** The heroines. Villains tend to think that RealWomenDontWearDresses and that a delicate, soft-hearted, feminine [[TheIngenue Ingenue]] (bonus point if she's also a preteen girl) can't be a serious threat to their plans. They are very much mistaken. An especially prominent example is Smirinka from ''[[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys Princess Wennie]]'', who is a servant in the villain's castle and lives by the TurnTheOtherCheek principle... until she foils the villain's Plan A and [[spoiler:successfully fights off his main sidekick]].
39	** Not to mention the extremely capable and dangerous female villains: [[spoiler:the Lovely Gina]], KickingAssInAllHerFinery in ''[[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys The Island of Captains]]'', Queen [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Demonta]] in ''Literature/TheSecretOfTheCrystalCastle'', the Black Queen in ''The Castle of the Black Queen'' etc.
40	* WouldHurtAChild: Most of the villains ([[Literature/RulerOfTheMagicalKeys Tragimor]], for instance, targets a child ''specifically'' because children have the purest souls).

Context Creator / SofiaProkofieva