Video Game / Guenevere

I was eighteen when I married King Arthur.

So begins Guenevere, a Story Branching game written by Jean Townsend in ChoiceScript, that places the Player Character as the newly engaged queen presumptive to King Arthur. Set in Anachronism Stew "Arthurian" Britain, Guenevere tells the story of a new queen who can choose how she wants to rule, direct her attentions, and shape history. The first chapter of the game has been completed, and the first half of the second chapter is also available to play.

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The game contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Maris and Bretta, two knights of the all-female Order of Boudica, assigned by Arthur as Guen's bodyguards.
• Aerith and Bob: Characters' names are usually taken from that of actual players in Arthurian legend. Some of these, like Julia or Arthur, are still relatively common today. Others, like Leodegrance, are not.
• Affably Evil: Grimald is unfailingly polite to Guen, even after kidnapping her for his own schemes.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Guen can remain indifferent to her various love interests, while manipulating them to fall for her regardless (not that Lancelot needs any encouragement).
• Altar Diplomacy: Guen's father arranges her marriage to Arthur to further Cornwall's status, and Guen occasionally reflects on the fact that another woman could easily be in her shoes if her father had offered a less beneficial alliance.
• Amazon Brigade: The small, but capable, Order of Boudica.
• Anachronism Stew: The author notes that, due to the nature of a mythology cobbled together over the centuries, recognizable Arthurian legend is inherently anachronistic and:
  "This game is no exception. It actively embraces anachronism. It puts Merlin's seventeenth-century lab apparatuses alongside early medieval chain mail and late medieval plate mail, with Roman soldiers who act and dress like they're in the first century. All of these elements have appeared elsewhere in different versions of Arthurian legend. "
• Ancestral Weapon: Excalibur, Arthur's birthright as Uther Pendragon's heir.
• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Morgana is stated not to wear armor as it would interfere with her spellcasting.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • The game starts with Arthur and Guen marrying for political reasons.
  • Morgana is also in an arranged marriage she doesn't particularly enjoy; as neither of them had a say in the matter, she does not consider herself or Guen bound by them.
• Awful Wedded Life: Potentially Guen's marriage, if she hates Arthur.
• Bad Powers, Good People: While Dark Magic doesn't technically have any "alignment" in and of itself, its bad reputation can make heroic dark magic users like Morgana, and potentially Guen, publicly look like examples of this trope.
• Battle Trophy:
  • Guen can choose to take an assortment of these.
  • Lance dedicates many of these to Guen during his Time Skip adventures.
• Because Destiny Says So: Merlin makes oblique comments concerning this at Guen's first attendance of the Round Table, but what specifically he's referencing has yet to be revealed.
• Bewitched Amphibians: Some of the wards in Merlin's tower are said to have this effect on trespassers; Arthur has been a victim of one in the past and says "being a newt is kind of interesting."
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Guen's Fairytale Wedding Dress, following the assassination attempt on her.
  • An even bloodier one features prominently in her later Nightmare Sequence, if it happens.
• Broken Ace: Privately, Lance is already facing doubts about having left Avalon and feeling general personal unhappiness even before he falls for his best friend's wife.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his eccentricities, there's no doubting that Merlin is a powerful sorcerer. Arthur also cites him as his mentor on how to be a king, suggesting that he may not have been so senile in those days.
• But Thou Must!: No matter how much Guen protests, her father will insist on her accompanying the army to the Romano-Saxon battle.
• Cassandra Truth: Guen has an option at the end of Book I to tell Arthur that Lancelot has an inappropriate level of interest in her. Arthur just laughs it off as her misunderstanding Lance's generally flirtatious nature.
• Cast from Hit Points: Dark Magic is physically exhausting to the user if they don't have an external source of power.
• Chastity Couple: Guen can choose to forgo physical intimacy, but still start a romantic relationship with any (or all) of the three options.
• Circle of Standing Stones: Arthur and Guen's marriage ceremony takes place in one of these. Namely, Stonehenge.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Merlin has a tendency to zonk out during important meetings and say and do things that seem incomprehensible to the people around him.
• Combat Medic: Guen can spec in swordfighting and light magic, making her equivalent to this.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Lance is dedicated to Arthur, his best friend and liege, but after falling in love with Guen, things get a bit murky for him.
  • Guen can be played as trying to be a responsible queen and good wife, but still in love with Lance or Morgana and thus torn.
• Covert Pervert: Despite being a virgin on his wedding night and generally considered a model of purity and virtue, Arthur is very eager to take all possible opportunities for intimacy with his wife whenever she shows interest.
• Courtly Love: Lancelot and Guen can pursue this kind of romance.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The religion of the land is monotheistic Goddess worship, presided over by priestesses.
• Creepy Souvenir: Guen can choose to take a chunk of Hrothulf's hair, if she kills him.
• Damsel in Distress: Guen and Morgana are kidnapped by Grimald and Meligaunt in Book II.
• Damsel out of Distress: Guen and Morgana, following the above, stage their own escape.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Despite having a bad reputation, dark magic isn't inherently immoral.
  • Morgana has a mixed reputation due to her prowess in dark magic and her standoffish behavior; but she loves Arthur, she's an excellent friend to Guen given the chance, and generally she's a kind-hearted, good person.
• Defiant Captive: Guen and Morgana after the Book II kidnapping.
• Determinator: Lance, especially when it comes to Guen's safety.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: If Guen avoids people on her wedding night, she dreams of a mysterious figure... whom Word of God has confirmed to be Mordred.
• Dream Reality Check: Guen can invoke this when she and Arthur wake up to see a dozen doppelgangers of her running around the castle. If she doesn't, Arthur will.
• Driving Question: What kind of queen will you be?
• Early-Bird Cameo: If you make some specific choices, Guen can encounter Mordred in a dream years before he's even conceived.
• Easily Forgiven: Anyone who surrenders to Arthur, who as a matter of ideals freely gives out pardons.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Arthur (via Lance) gives Guen a purple emerald as an engagement gift, which later takes on more significance when it disappears when Meligaunt wrecks the palace.
• Evil Chancellor: Count Grimald is essentially this for Queen Radagund.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Guen's fae pet has a way of sensing when people have bad intentions towards her. Justified in that he has magical abilities.
• Evil Is Petty: Hrothulf and Cornelia hire a Byzantine assassin and wage war against Arthur for no other reason than that Arthur's council didn't agree for him to marry their daughter.
• Evil Uncle: One of Lancelot's Time Skip adventures involves saving a princess from her villainous aunt.
• Evil Weapon: Meligaunt has a giant-forged sword imbued with powerful dark magic, which Guen can potentially covet or want to destroy. Guen can try take the sword for herself if she goes to rescue Arthur or - provided he has high enough trust - send Lancelot to do it for her.
• Excalibur: Arthur's sword, naturally.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Guen's wedding dress is described in this style.
• Fantastic Fireworks: Lance combines regular fireworks with Merlin's fae powder to create surreal, magical fireworks for Guen and Arthur's wedding night.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Being based on Arthurian Legend, this is par for the course. Magic, curses, and giants are all mentioned. A passing reference to werewolves is even made in Book II.
• The Fashionista: A hidden stat tracks how fashionable Guen is based on her choices.
• Featureless Protagonist: Guen is never physically described in any concrete terms beyond her gender.
• The Fettered: Arthur's moral code gives him a natural air of authority and fuels his subordinates' trust.
• Feminist Fantasy: The main character is the Queen of Britain and can be played any number of ways, including as a competent leader, a master swordswoman, and either a dark or light sorceress.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Literally. Of the three default options for your fae pet, a magical creature capable of changing into a giant shadowbeast when necessary, your options are Victor, Tristan, and Fluffy.
• Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: The relationship between Arthur and an intelligent and responsible Guen has shades of this, especially when Arthur brings sheep into the castle.
• Four-Star Badass: Lancelot and Arthur are both military commanders with high levels of combat skill.
• Forceful Kiss: Lancelot to Guen at the halfway point of Book II, thanks to the attraction spell between them. Guen's possible reactions vary from returning it to being outright furious.
• Gay Option: Morgana can be romanced and the author has mentioned one of Guen's bodyguards will also be romanceable.
• Geas: It is speculated that the Byzantine assassin who tries to kill Guen is under the effect of one by Cornelia.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The main characters: Guen, Morgana, Arthur, and Lance.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: After running into Lance in the Frankish countryside, if Guen has had sex with Morgana, you have the option of dropping that bomb on him in response to his Reunion Kiss. Lance is stunned by the notion...and then his imagination begins to run away with it. One of the responses is, "Oh, gross! Don't you dare imagine Morgana and me together!"
• Happily Married: Guen and Arthur, potentially.
• Heroic Vow: Lancelot swears one to Guenevere:
  "Queen Guenevere, I promise by my sword, my honor as a knight, and my home of Avalon, that I will always do everything in my power to defend you and your honor from any injury. Every challenge I undertake will be for your glory. Every victory I achieve in battle will be dedicated to you. I will devote myself to you as no knight has ever done before for any lady. I promise this freely, asking nothing in return."
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Arthur and Lancelot, which makes Lancelot's attraction to Guen all the more uncomfortable for him. He deals with it by spending as much time abroad as possible during the timeskip, which depresses Arthur considerably.
  • Guen's relationship with Morgana can also be played this way.
• Honor Before Reason: When choosing between his ideals and practicality, Arthur will almost always choose the former.
• Icy Gray Eyes: The ominous young man in Guen's Nightmare Sequence has gray eyes, implied to be of the cold, strong-willed variety.
• Incompatible Orientation: A lesbian Guen can tell Arthur and Lancelot that she isn't able to return their affections.
• Insatiable Newlyweds: Potentially Guen and Arthur, if she takes every opportunity after their wedding to be physically intimate with him.
• It's All About Me: It's possible to play Guen as completely self-centered and unconcerned with the effects of her actions on her friends and subjects.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Morgana is often sharp-tongued and abrasive, and many people in court find her off-putting, but she's clearly sympathetic and kind to Guen from the start. Arthur describes her fondly as having "hardness that comes from really caring about people."
• Karma Houdini: Arthur hands these out freely to anyone who surrenders, much to Morgana's annoyance. Guen can get in on the act by sparing Hrothulf, who has already tried to kill her twice at this point for no fault of her own.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Realistically averted. Even if Guen is a talented fighter, she'll still fall over trying to attack someone in her ten-foot-trained wedding dress.
• Kiss-Kiss-Slap: When Lance forcefully kisses Guen, she can respond by attempting to beat the living daylights out of him.
• Knight In Shining Armour: Considering the setting, there are a few of these. Guen can be this too if she specs in swordsmanship and is honorable.
• Lady and Knight: Near the end of Book I, Lance states that due to their circumstances, he can never hope to be in a true romantic relationship with Guenevere, but pledges to be the most loyal and steadfast knight to any lady that there has ever been.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Guen can be played in such a way that she'll fall into this dynamic with Morgana — especially if she specs in light magic.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Lancelot and Morgana have this kind of relationship - they're quite close despite Lance's tendency to tease Morgana, causing her to mouth off in turn.
• Like Brother and Sister: Morgana and Lance. Arthur even notes that Lance is more like a brother to Morgana than he is.
• Like Parent, Like Child: If Guen comes into Book I knowing about military strategy and leadership, she's said to take after her father. Conversely, if she's learned light magic, it's said to come from her mother.
• Love at First Sight:
  • Lance is clearly quite taken with Guenevere from the moment he sees her, although later events indicate this might not be a normal attraction.
  • If Guen and Arthur talk on their wedding night, he tells her he knew he wanted to be married to her as soon as he saw her.
  • Defied by Morgana, who shows interest in Guen if approached but specifically says she doesn't believe in love at first sight.
• Love Hurts: Lance's love for his best friend and liege's wife causes him no end of torment.
  • Guen can express misery at the way her position prevents her from being with her chosen lover, or that she feels bad about going behind Arthur's back.
• Love Triangle: The game allows for the traditional Arthur-Guenevere-Lancelot triangle of Arthurian mythology, or, by player choice, a Arthur-Guenevere-Morgana or Lancelot-Guenevere-Morgana triangle –- although Guen will be married to Arthur no matter what.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Light and Dark Magic both have specific rules and limitations that govern them.
• Magic Knight: Guen can specialize in sword-fighting and magic (either offensive or supportive).
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Guen can have an Optional Sexual Encounter with Arthur in the middle of a forest on the eve of a battle, one with Morgana on a boat where they're both being held prisoner, and one with Lancelot in the middle of the Frankish countryside.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Guen can have a sexual relationship with both Lance and Arthur; as Arthur's queen and wife, her baby will be raised as his, even though it could be Lance's.
• Manipulative Bastard
  • Count Grimald is attempting to play multiple sides at once, while allowing himself as many outs as he can manage, to try to take control of Frankmarch.
• Martial Pacifist: Arthur's general ethos.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: There's clearly something unnatural going on with the attraction between Lancelot and Guenevere, but the extent to which it's affecting their emotions is up in the air for now.
• Missing Mom: Guen's mother dies before the start of the story.
• Modest Royalty: Guen sees Arthur at a war council wearing a simple tunic and vest, much like the other knights, with only his crown setting him apart.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Even before their behavior becomes openly villainous, a reader can probably surmise that Meligaunt and Grimald are up to no good based on their names alone.
• Nightmare Sequence: Guen has a dream on her wedding night if she chooses to spend it alone in which she's stabbed in her wedding dress brutally and repeatedly and the blood covers Camelot, followed by the appearance of an extremely ominous young man.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Taking the high road with Hrothulf and sparing his life when he surrenders leads to further attacks on Britain and assassination attempts on Guen during the Time Skip.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: How Lance operates with his Shoot the Dog moments; if Arthur doesn't hear about it, he didn't do it.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Duchess Tilda pretends to be utterly vapid at the beginning of Book II, but is revealed to be a competent spy later.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Several, of the Sexy Discretion Shot variety.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: It's mentioned in passing that Lance saved "a little fishing village near Portchester" he once saved from werewolves. Nothing more about them is mentioned.
• Parental Abandonment: Arthur was raised by his foster father Ector, and wasn't even aware of who his birth parents were until he became king.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Inverted. If Guen refuses to say her wedding vow, her father will step in and say it for her.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: If Guen falls in love with Arthur.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Guen's wedding dress, which has a ten foot train, among other things.
• Plucky Girl: Guen can remain convivial and good-natured even in the face of a murder attempt during her wedding ceremony.
• Poisoned Weapons: Meligaunt's sword has debilitating, magical poisonous properties, which can only be treated with Meligaunt's own blood.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Being a light magic practitioner grants a reputation for kindness, regardless of actual personality. Similarly, if you practice dark magic, people will make negative assumptions about you.
• Protagonist Title: The main character is Guenevere, the wife of King Arthur.
• Purple Is Powerful: The embroidery on Guen's wedding dress has royal purple added to it in reference to her engagement to the King.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Arthur, Lancelot, and Morgana are all among the highest ranking people in the setting, as well as the most formidable. This can also apply to Queen Guenevere.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Guen has the opportunity to make it clear on multiple occasions that, whether due to love or moral principles, she intends to be a faithful wife to Arthur regardless of the circumstances.
• Sexless Marriage: Guenevere has no choice but to marry Arthur, but she can choose not to sleep with him.
• Shoot the Dog: Guen can choose to execute Hrothulf, despite knowing it goes against Arthur's orders and principles.
• Sibling Triangle: If Guen pursues both Arthur and his half-sister Morgana.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: When Lance forcefully kisses Guen, she has the option to attack him. She can then continue doing so (while he's dodging and apologizing profusely), break down in tears, then kiss him.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Arthur is as idealistic as it gets, Morgana tends to look on the darker side of things, and Lance is probably somewhere between them (but closer on the scale to Morgana). Guen herself can fall wherever the player chooses.
• Small Steps Hero: Arthur, to the point that he's constantly giving second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) chances to people who've shown him nothing but contempt. If Guen goes along with his policy and grants leniency to Hrothulf (who just tried to assassinate her!), he'll lead a series of attacks harassing Britain's borders, while his wife steps up her attempts to assassinate Guen.
• Sour Supporter:
  • Morgana supports Arthur, despite often finding him idealistic to the point of foolishness.
  • Guen has the option to support Arthur (whether out of love or respect), but still find his idealism foolish.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work:
  • Guen can be very devoted to Arthur, but still go behind his back and do things he would absolutely not approve of to further his goals or the safety of Britain.
  • Lance admits that he will deceive Arthur when he feels it's necessary to ignore Arthur's ideals for his own good.
• Spot the Imposter: Exaggerated when Meligaunt fills Camelot with over a dozen doppelgangers of Guen and himself. The castle falls into chaos as everyone tries to determine who's real.
• Standard Female Grab Area: In Book II during Guen's kidnapping, Sir Erec grabs Guen's upper arm in order to corral her.
• Stunned Silence: Lance falls into this when he sees Guen for the first time.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Both Guen and Morgana are married, but can enter into extramarital relationships (with each other, or Guen separately with Lancelot). This is treated sympathetically because neither of them had a choice about entering into their arranged marriages with men they'd never met before. Unusually for this trope, neither Arthur nor Morgana's husband are portrayed negatively over this — Arthur tries his best to be a good husband to Guen, with no hints of controlling or abusive behaviour.
• Time Skip: The second book starts three years after the first one.
• Trickster Mentor: Possibly. If Guen chooses to learn about light magic after the intro, Merlin is the one to teach her; his methods are unusual, to say the least, and she notes that she can't tell if he's managing to teach her on purpose or purely by accident.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Hrothulf and Cornelia only step up their harassment of Guen and Arthur if Guen spares Hrothulf.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Guen and Morgana and/or Guen and Lance by the end of Book I, if the player expresses interest in them.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You can devote yourself to being the best queen you can be, developing a reputation for kindness and wisdom and nurturing relationships with the people around you.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: ...Or you can be a massive jerk to everyone and set out to ruin lives.
• Wartime Wedding: Guen and Arthur get married the same day he conducts a war council to end hostilities following a rebellion, and they aren't married for more than a day when preparations for a new campaign begin.
• Wedding Smashers: Guen and Arthur's wedding is interrupted by an assassination attempt on the bride. Lance foils the attempt, and the wedding proceeds as usual.
• White Magician Girl: A light magic-specialized Guen.
• Xanatos Gambit: Grimald, argues against the plan to kidnap Guenevere so he has the moral high ground, offers her a chance to broker peace after the kidnapping to gain her favor if she survives, then arranges for assassins to deal with her after she escapes and pin the blame on Maligaunt. Duchess Tilda says that's typical of him, always arranging it so any possible outcome serves him.

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