Original release date: 01/08/2022
The year is 1475. Numerous protests have emerged due to the poor economic state the Koopa Kingdom is in. Lord Richard Koopa of the Sherbet House, the duke of Sherbet Land and king John VI's second-cousin, vists Bright Valley expecting to become the king's claw and restore order, but he gets an unpleseant surprise when he finds out that Lord Sigmund Phoenix, whom he considers a betrayer, was chosen over him, causing more tensions among the nobility.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Implied with Lord Blackfoot, as he openly insults his kids in front of others.
- Artistic License – History: Although the setting is in the 15th century, some characters use slang terms from the late 2010s and early 2020s such as "yeet", "mald", "cope" and" seethe". That said, Rule of Funny is most likely in effect here.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sir Torrence Python states that the Blackfoots attacked their men, stole their supplies and ate their wedding feast.
- Attention Whore: Cynder accuses Jane of being this because of her looks.
- Awful Wedded Life: Cynder and John VI, mainly because how childish and stupid John is. Cynder was told by her father that she would marry a brave, strong, fearsome warrior... and then he introduced her to John, who is the complete opposite of that description.
- Bullying a Dragon: The anarchist peasants that insult and taunt Cynder when she tells them to swear loyalty to her and the king in exchange of not kiling them all.
- Blatant Lies: The prologue's narrator states that Prince Joseph, John VI's uncle, disappeared under "non-suspicious circumstances" while he is shown inside a cell lying in a pool of his own blood.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: John VI is stated to be unable to keep secrets. Not because he is a snitch, but because of his stupidity.
- Clashing Cousins:
- Blayne and Jane appear to be this, as Blayne openly insults Jane's child and mocks her over her husband's death.
- Averted with King John and Lord Richard, who are on very good terms with each other.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with king John collapsing in the middle of dinner and all the attendees desperately calling for help.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As Lord Richard sorts through Raymund Kassimeer's belongings, he finds a stack of "drawings of ladies in ill-suited poses". Basically, this is the medieval equivalent of a porn magazine.
- Enfant Terrible: Richard II, as seen in the prologue, was a cruel child who would mistreat animals and women for fun and it only got worse as he grew older. Now we see where Bowser Jr. gets his superiority complex from.
- Foil: John Koopa VI and Lord Richard Koopa. John is cowardly, childish, and Prone to Tears, Richard is brave, mature, and is not easily scared. John and Queen Cynder have an unhappy marriage due to how childish John is and have no children, while Richard and Lady Tulisa love each other very much and have seven kids. John has absolutely no idea of how to run a kingdom yet is the king, while Richard is more than capable of doing so but no one but his family gives him any credit for it. Finally their motives are fire and ice respectively.
- Happily Married: Lord Richard and Lady Tulisa are deeply in love with each other and often show their signs of affection in public.
- It Amused Me: As shown in the prologue, Richard II had his uncle Prince Tarquin executed via being boiled alive in lava for attempting to raise a rebellion against him, also having Tarquin's son and heir Joseph executed alongside him. supplementary information states that Joseph played no part in the rebellion and was merely executed for Richard II's own twisted amusement.
- Death by Childbirth: Downplayed. Jane Phoenix gives birth to her son James without any problem, but the egg he was in damaged her reproductive system when she laid it, meaning she won't be able to bear another child ever again.
- Dirty Old Man: Lord Kassimieer has illustrations of some of the earliest forms of pornography.Kassimieer: It gets boring sitting in bed every day.
- The Ditz: King John asks Lady Jane, his cousin, if he is the father of her child. While marriages between cousins were not uncommon at the time, John has been married to Cynder for seven years now.
- Fantastic Racism: Cynder is Beanish, which means that she's from the Bohnenkraut Kingdom, hence why some of the natives of the Koopa Kingdom look down on her in spite of pretty much running the kingdom in John's place.
- Feuding Families: The Blackfoots and the Phythons are rival families due to the Phythons stealing territory that used to belong to the Blackfoots many years ago, hence why Lord Blackfoot refuses to take action when Lord Richard informs him that two of his sons attacked Sir Torrence Phython at his wedding feast.
- Flat World: Discussed by Lady Tulisa Phython.Tulisa: Honey, you know I will follow you to the ends of the Earth, flat, round or whatever the hell we're supposed to believe it is now.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Cynder is this when angered enough. It's probably a good thing that John is the one in charge and not her.
- Jerkass:
- Sigmund Phoenix let his whole army die, making the Koopa Kingdom lose their territory in the Bohnenkraut Kingdom, and clearly only thinks about himself, as he states that it's the army's fault for getting killed. It's pretty telling that the only reason he is the King's Claw in the first place is because Blayne asked Cynder, whom he has an affair with, to convince John to give his father the position.
- Blayne Phoenix is arrogant, self-centered, and mocks his own cousin over her husband's death.
- Queen Cynder is rude, selfish and has little to no patience. Though it all seems to be a result of being in an arranged marriage with king John and him being a complete Manchild.
- Lady Macbeth: Cynder, already pretty cruel and ambitious herself, often tries to convince John to follow her example and rule the kingdom with an iron fist. John however, being pretty much a child in an adult's body, only answers by telling her not to yell at him and crying.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Cynder is said to have often been criticized for failing to produce a heir to the throne for the seven years that she and John were married, and then she lays an egg when she least expects it. That said, it is heavily implied that the egg's father is Blayne and not John.
- Manchild: John VI is pretty much a child in an adult's body. He gets overly excited for minor things, he is very sensitive, and Cynder and him act like mother and son rather than a married couple.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Cynder and John respectively. Cynder is a cruel and imposing queen who, for the most part, likes to solve her problems with violence while John is a very sensitive king who is a complete Manchild, but (slightly) compensates those flaws with a friendly personality.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Cynder is fascinated by the thought of bloodshed. It says something when she ''gleefully' has the anarchist peseants executed for their actions.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Wars of Frozen Flames has many characters who are based on real-life figures from the actual Wars of the Roses. Here are the most notable ones introduced in this episode:
- King John Koopa VI — Henry VI of England
- Queen Cynder Von Bohnenrotte — Margaret of Anjou
- Sir Rodrick Solberg & Sir Theodrick Solberg — Jasper Tudor
- Lord Symon Blackfoot — Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland
- Lord Horace Sylver — Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham
- Korrin Sylver — Henry Stafford
- Harrin Sylver — Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford
- Lord Sigmund Phoenix — Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
- Sir Blayne Phoenix — Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset
- Lady Jane Phoenix — Lady Margaret Beaufort
- James Solberg (the future King James Koopa I) — Henry VII of England
- Lord Agron Ironside — Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby
- Lord Richard Koopa — Richard of York
- Lady Tulisa Python — Cecily Neville
- Sir Robert Koopa (the future King Robert Koopa IV) — Edward IV of England
- Sir Halbert Koopa — Edmund, Earl of Rutland
- Tobias Koopa — George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence
- Richard "Rickon" Koopa (the future King Richard Koopa III) — Richard III of England
- Lord Berwick Python — Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
- Sir Torrence Python — Sir Thomas Neville
- Sir Jorgon Python — John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu
- Lily Python — Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence
- Rose Python — Anne Neville
- Lord Raymund Kassimieer — Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March
- Lord Ghaston Thornton — Sir Andrew Trollope
- No-Respect Guy: Lord Richard is utterly disrespected by everyone but his family. Whenever he tries to assert order he is always laughed at. Cynder even organizes a Loveday's feast and invites him over to inform him that because she has laid an egg, he's no longer next in line to the throne.
- No Sympathy: Blayne Phoenix mocks Lady Jane, his cousin, over her husband's death and insults her newborn child James in front of her. Cynder also insults Jane when she begs her uncle Sigmund not to be separated from James and pretty much says that whatever happens to her is her own problem for "being a woman in the 15th century".
- Parenting the Husband: Cynder and John act more like mother and child than wife and husband.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Horace Sylver is this, and he will talk behind his superiors' backs too but is also shown to be a huge coward
- Prone to Tears: John VI is so sensitive that making him cry is not a hard task.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lord Richard lampshades this trope when Lord Ghaston Thorton, who has red eyes and a dark color scheme to his design, offers him his assistance.
- Sadistic Choice: Cynder tells Lady Jane that she either remarries and is separated from her child James, as the law states that he will become a ward for someone in the crown after she does so, or she stays single and gets to keep James but both of them will die out of poverty because no one will be able to financially support her. John says it is unfair, but Cynder rebuttals by saying that life shouldn't be fair for her because "she's a woman in the 15th century".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Lord Sigmund should actually be punished for deserting his troops and refusing to take responsibility for his mistakes in the war against the Bohnenkraut Kingdom. He is instead named King's Claw following Alfred De La Korde's death at the hands of anarchists, all simply because his son Blayne is having an affair with Queen Cynder, and he asked her to convince king John to give Sigmund the position over Lord Richard, who is more capable than Sigmund and is next-in-line to the throne on top of that (Well, until Cynder lays an egg, that is).
- Secret Relationship: Because of how childish and incompetent John is, Cynder has a secret romance with Sir Blayne Phoenix. It's implied that Blayne is the father of the egg Cynder laid and not John.
- Sword Fight: Two of Lord Richard's kids, Tobias and Robert, have a practise sword fight. One also nearly breaks out at the end of the episode, but it is interrupted by the King collapsing in the middle of dinner.
- Too Dumb to Live: Cynder tells the peasants that were arrested for carrying out anarchist revolts that should they swear loyalty to her and her husband she would let them go free. The peasants taunt and insult her for being a woman. Cynder has them executed for it.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Lord Kassimieer tells Richard that he was seven years old when King Richard II was deposed and he and his sister were taken to the Black Tower under the orders of King John IV. Problem is, Richard says that Kassimieer is sixty-five years old. Since this episode takes place in 1475, doing the math shows that Kassimieer was born in 1410, and Richard II was deposed in 1419, meaning that Kassimieer had to be nine years old at the time, not seven. Then again, this can all be attributed to Kassimieer misremembering due to his old age.
