Vagrant Queen is a science-fiction series airing on Syfy, and based on the comic-book series of the same name.
Eight years ago, Eldaya Al-Feyr's family was violently deposed from the throne of Arriopa by The Republic. Since then, Eldaya, now calling herself Elida, wanders the galaxy, trying to scrape together a living while avoiding the Republic's forces. However, when her sometime-ally Isaac re-emerges and informs her that her mother is still alive, she, Isaac, and engineer Amae go on a quest to rescue her.
It was canceled after one season.
This series contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The comic book on which the show is based has a rather sparse plot - Elida and Isaac reluctantly team up, head to Wix, find the Bezoar of Kings instead of Elida's mother, and fight to overthrow Lazaro after he steals the Bezoar and goes on a rampage. The TV series adds a number of new characters and subplots.
- Aerith and Bob: Though many of the other galaxy's individuals are given different names, some have those from Earth (like Eileen) with no explanation.
- Affectionate Parody: "No Clue" is a pretty direct spoof of the movie Clue.
- Aliens Speaking English: Despite being from another galaxy, Isaac doesn't seem to have any trouble communicating with anyone.
- And I Must Scream:
- One of Lazaro's apparently preferred ways to use the Sterzaad. He forces one mook to sort through his own intestines completely silently and uses it to stop cries of pain from another that he orders to jump off a balcony.
- When the Admirals are forced to murder each other, Admiral Rykal has visible horror on her face as her body cuts open Admiral Kavar's throat with a spoon.
- Big Damn Kiss: Elida and Amae share one in the penultimate episode of the first season.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Arriopa's currently divided between The Republic, a brutal, repressive military dictatorship dressed up in populism, and the Loyalists, a bunch of Affably Evil theocrats. Elida wants nothing to do with either of them.
- Body Horror: When Lazaro gains mind control powers, he forces a mook to slowly pull out his own intestines.
- Bottle Episode: "No Clue" takes place entirely upon the ship.
- Bounty Hunter: A couple of them appear in "Sunshine Express Yourself", hunting a scientist who has knowledge Lazaro wants, tangling with Isaac, Amae and Elida over this.
- Breather Episode: "No Clue," a lighthearted bottle episode/murder mystery that occurs after the double-whammy of "Temple of Doom" and "Requiem for the Republic."
- Can Only Move the Eyes: Victims of the Sterzaad appear to still be conscious of their actions, but have no way to control them beyond slight facial expression.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: How most of the cast sees Isaac.
- Cliffhanger: Season One ends with Lazaro dead at Elida's hand, everything seeming good as Elida and Amae start to get into a romance. Then Elida's mother takes the Sterzaad and goes off... toward Earth. Thanks to the series being canceled, this won't get resolved.
- Covered in Gunge: In "In a Sticky Spot", the team gets their hands on pods that release a super-adhesive slime when punctured.
- The Coup: After Lazaro obtains the Sterzaad, he mind-controls the Admiralty and forces them all to kill one another, effectively becoming the new leader of the Republic.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Elida was deposed from her throne when she was ten years old, spent several years on the run, watched her mother get murdered right in front of her, and nearly starved to death. After dealing with all that, her present life as a lowly scavenger doesn't seem so bad.
- Amae's homeworld was wiped out in a war when she was only five years old.
- Decoy Protagonist: Episode 9 opens with what appears to be a new character introduced, a man held prisoner in a cell for years but still strong and powerful. He boasts of how he's going to break free with ease and kill the leader of this new empire, led out of his cell to stirring music...and is vaporized with a single blast as he was just target practice for Lazaro's new weapon.
- Doomed Hometown: Amae and Chaz's homeworld was wiped out in the Narrows War.
- Dressing as the Enemy:
- Isaac and Amae disguise themselves as Republic soldiers to rescue Chaz. Elida dresses as a Republic soldier "escorting" Nim so she can do the same. They bump into each other in the middle.
Isaac: They really gotta reconsider these uniforms, this is way too easy!- They do this again in the season finale in order to infiltrate the Arriopan dungeons.
- The Empire: Despite what its name suggests, The Republic is a brutal dictatorship. It gets played even more straight once Lazaro takes control, turning it from an oligarchy into a single all-powerful dictator.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Lazaro takes other planetary rulers to task for their corruption and neglect of their people, we see many commoners voicing agreement with him. Then he uses the Sterzaad to compel them to kill themselves, and many of those very same commoners react with utter horror.
- Eye Scream: During the Sterzaad-compelled Mêlée à Trois between the Admirals, one of Admiral Kaval's eyes is scooped out with a spoon.
- Faceless Mooks: Republic guards dress in identical, imposing armor with covered faces. This makes infiltrating them quite easy.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: After the disaster on Wix, Elida decides to split from Isaac and Amae, but it only lasts until the next episode when she realizes she doesn't want to be alone anymore.
- Fingore: Lazaro makes his stylist cut his own fingers off after screwing up his hair.
- Flock of Wolves: Isaac and Amae run into Elida while all three of them are all wearing full-body Republic uniforms. They only realize each other's identities after everyone pulls their guns out.
- Full-Circle Revolution: Every time Arriopa undergoes social change they replace their previous dictatorship with a new dictatorship.
- Godzilla Threshold: After Lazaro takes over the Republic with the Sterzaad, the Loyalists decide to just bomb Arriopa, regardless of innocent casualties.
- Great Offscreen War: A conflict called the Narrows War wiped out Chaz and Amae's people and prevented Isaac from returning home easily. Amae was only five years old at the time.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ihred sacrifices herself to help the team escape from the port.
- Heroic Suicide: Nim chooses to kill himself rather than let Lazaro torture him into betraying Elida.
- His Name Is...: One of the IPA agents reveals to a shocked Issac that she's been to the Milky Way, but is shot in the back just as she's about to tell him how.
- Humanoid Aliens: All of the sapients living in the other galaxy share the same body plan as humans, and most don't look that much different from us.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: In "No Clue", after the IPA agents on her ship start being mysteriously killed, Elida insists she isn't responsible because if she wanted them dead, she'd have already killed all of them.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In "Yippee Ki Yay", the team gets captured by bunch of cannibals.
- Kangaroo Court: After the revolution, The Republic put former aristocrats on trial. Anyone who didn't immediately admit guilt and repent was beheaded.
- Karaoke Bonding Scene: In episode 2, the gang is held over a pit of fire where they must battle for their lives by...singing "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Earth pop culture rarely shows up, but some of the locals seem to be fans. Isaac introduced Elida to various Earth movies during their time scavving together and a cannibal gang uses a song from Earth during a karaoke competition.
- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...: The series takes place in another galaxy, which is identified every time as "Not Yours". Isaac managed to get there from Earth after a mishap with a wormhole, and he has no idea how to get back.
- MacGuffin: Both Lazaro and the Loyalists are searching for the Sterzaad, an artifact that enabled Elida's ancestors to unite Arriopa centuries ago.
- Mêlée à Trois: When Lazaro shows up to usurp the Admiralty, he decides to let one survive as his personal assistant. He makes this decision by using the Sterzaad to force the Admirals to kill each other using various objects on the dining table until only one survives.
- Mind-Control Device: The Sterzaad allows the holder to dominate the minds of others, making them utterly incapable of resisting their commands. At its weakest, the holder can control anyone within eyesight. With the proper conduits to enhance its power, its range could be extended to planetary distances and beyond.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Those under the influence of the Sterzaad's eyes glow green when it is used on them. Notably, this does not happen to Elida when Lazaro uses it on her in the season one finale.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: Absolutely none of the people in the series bat an eye at Amae flirting with or kissing other women, and given she frequently picks them up it appears to be a pretty universal feature in their cultures. Lucky for her, since she's got a girl in every port it seems.
- Noodle Incident: For a while, all that is known about Elida and Isaac's last encounter is that Isaac shot Elida and Elida ended up with Isaac's ship. This sets the tone of their relationship for the first couple of episodes. It's resolved via flashback a few episodes in.
- Now or Never Kiss: Amae finally works up the nerve to plant one on Elida just before they separate for their big missions.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Sterzaad can only be activated by those with royal blood. However, once it's active, anyone can use it so long as they have at least one conduit.
- Queer Colors: The show makes liberal use of pink, blue, and purple lighting around Elida, who is shown as attracted to women (possibly implying that she's bisexual given they're the bi flag colors, though we don't see her interested in any men onscreen-this might have come up if they had a second season).
- Queer Romance: This is teased between Amae and Elida over the first season, until they realize their mutual attraction, kissing in the penultimate episode. It's implied after this they may get into a relationship.
- People's Republic of Tyranny: The Republic is supposed to be more democratic and representative than the religiously-tinged monarchy that it replaced, but in practice, it's closer to a military dictatorship. Lazaro even points out that it's basically a monarchy by another name.
- Percussive Prevention: In the first episode, Ihred whacks Elida over the head to try and stop her from going to rescue Chaz.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide:
- After getting the Sterzaad and taking over the Republic he invites the heads of various governments to a party and compels them to kill themselves on live television.
- He later tries this with Elida. Turns out royalty's immune and she only starts to go along with it to get him in stabbing range.
- Rebound Best Friend: In the episode "Sunshine Express Yourself", Elida and Amae go their separate ways, as Elida doesn't want to rely on other people after the Wix fiasco and Amae is tired of dealing with the barriers that Elida keeps throwing up. Elida takes a solo job with a scavenger outfit, but soon gets lonely and finds that she misses having a team backing her up. Amae finds a new and very emotionally available companion who is very clearly into her, but realizes that she no longer finds easy companionship satisfying after having won Elida's trust once. In the end, the two women find their way back to each other, and Team Winnie rides again.
- Relationship Upgrade: Elida and Amae go from simply friends to something more after kissing in the penultimate episode, although neither seems sure what exactly their relationship is.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: The incident where Isaac shot Elida and Elida took Isaac's ship is eventually resolved in a flashback. Isaac learns Elida's background and Elida, suspicious Isaac might double-cross her for the bounty, immobilizes him and tries to take the Winnipeg without him. Isaac tries to stop her by shooting her as she leaves. They don't see each other again until they meet back up on Xija in the first episode.
- Revolving Door Revolution: Arriopa replaced a vaguely theocratic fascist monarchy with a military dictatorship. Then Lazaro kills the Admiralty and takes over... becoming Grand Supreme Leader and creating another dictatorship, this one based around mind control. Then Elida kills Lazaro, and who controls Arriopa now is up in the air.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: With the exception of pointed ears, Arriopans are indistinguishable from humans. In fact, most species look like humans with a few prosthetics added on.
- Running Gag:
- None of the non-human characters - which is almost the entire cast - can pronounce Terran words properly, particularly "Winnipeg".
- Amae keeps insisting on getting really into character whenever she pretends to be somebody.
- Sadistic Choice: In a flashback, Elida's mother tries to get her to let her pet die instead of releasing it into a local lake where it will poison the ecosystem, trying to impress upon her the need to make decisions for the greater good. Elida refuses to let it die, and it turns out her mother was lying about the impact. This foreshadows her decision in the present to ignore her daughter's advice for a path she feels is best.
- Serious Business: The Intergalactic Parking Authority treats parking violations like major crimes.
- Shipper on Deck: Isaac tries to get Elida to act on her feelings for Amae, because it's obvious to him Amae shares those feelings.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: Both female main characters are lesbians. Amae was shown to be from the beginning (in fact, she's introduced just after having had sex with another women), then Elida is too when she reciprocates Amae's feelings for her (neither one ever shows attraction to men). Both are also members of species that look very close to human, but come from another galaxy (where the action is set). The pair act on their attraction eventually. Same-sex relationships apparently are unremarkable in their galaxy, since no one thinks twice of this.
- Suicide Attack: Nim tries to do this against the Republic soldiers, setting the grenade off that he's carrying. However, he survives it to be captured.
- Those Two Guys: Ihred and Dengar. Every time they show up they're together. Until Ihred's Heroic Sacrifice, anyway.
- Thriller on the Express: In "Sunshine Express Yourself", the team's plan for an uneventful train ride falls apart when Isaac stumbles into the middle of a plot to kidnap a scientist.
- Two Decades Behind: Earth is presented as being well into the future, with Isaac traveling to Jupiter for a business negotiation before getting sucked into a wormhole. Despite that, most of his pop culture references would be older by our time, as he introduces Elida to Star Wars and Indiana Jones and references MacGyver. He's presumably just fond of the classics.
- Wham Episode:
- "Temple of Doom," wherein all of the remaining Loyalists die, Hath dies, and Lazaro obtains nearly limitless power, including the ability to mind control the entire battalion of troops sent by the Admiralty to apprehend him.
- "Requiem for the Republic," in which Elida breaks up the team and Lazaro becomes the supreme ruler of Arriopa.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "No Clue" is loaded with references to Clue, including the parking attendants all being named after actors from the movie (Kahn, Mull, Lloyd, etc.), weapons inspired by the board game, and several of the film's most famous quotes.
- Wretched Hive: Xija seems to be comprised mostly of outlaws. The Republic leaves it alone explicitly so they have somewhere to engage in criminal dealings.
