The 10th Kingdom: Difference between revisions

* [[Book Ends]]: "My name is Virginia, and I live at the edge of the forest."

* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: Wolf's list of self-help books. Granted, he picked the last one up by mistake.

* [[Burn the Witch]]: The Little Lamb Villagers' answer to the wolf problem. [[Truth in Television]] for people once believed to be werewolves (since most werewolves were also believed to be witches who received their new shapes as part of a [[Deal with the Devil]]), though how a [[Real Life]] medieval attitude ended up in the Kingdoms is...[[Wild Mass Guessing|thought-provoking]]. (See [[Fantasy World Map]].)

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Tony.

* [[Fruit Cart]]: While in New York, a police car takes out several outdoor book stands and a fruit cart for good measure.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Subverted. For a miniseries which purports to deconstruct fairytales, surprisingly few characters in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' seem to be [[Genre Savvy]]. Street smart Virginia certainly isn't, other than when she realizes that "everyone in this place is crazy!" Wolf only gets a few moments now and then, one of the most memorable being his knowledge of fairy tale endings: "We either live happily ever after or we get killed by horrible curses." (Another would be his explanation, after {{spoiler|Prince gets turned to gold}}, that "things have a way of bouncing back here"... only to admit, when confronted by Tony, that he was "just saying that" and proceeding to tempt Prince with a stick with delicious snark.) The most truly [[Genre Savvy]] moment in the entire miniseries, surprisingly, comes from [[Butt Monkey|Tony]], after the Blind Woodsman explains how they can obtain his magic axe... by guessing his name -- except if they fail, he chops off Wolf's head:

** Of course this is immediately subverted when Tony, believing he knows which fairy tale he's in, agrees to the deal and guesses the Woodsman is named Rumpelstiltskin. Wrong! [[Deus Ex Machina|Good thing that magic bird came along when it did.]]

** Let's not forget Wolf stopping Tony from eating an apple at Snow White's cottage, because it probably grew from the one that poisoned her.

* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: Averted in that the "Golden Age" is referred to several times in which the Nine Kingdoms prospered under the rule of their queens, and we specifically never see anything but wisdom, goodness, and heroism from Snow White and Cinderella. It is played straight, however, with the Evil Queen. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she reveals herself to the servants in Wendell's castle.

* [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]: The troll children.

* [[Grail in the Garbage]]: The mirror which allows passage between our world and the Nine Kingdoms turns up for dirt cheap at an auction. When the auctioneers find out what it can do, however... It was also this to begin with, since it was first found amid piles of junk in the basement of Snow White Memorial Prison, something which is never explained.

** Also Wolf, a victim of [[Fantastic Racism]], having prejudices against Gypsies. Granted, that particular band ends up placing a [[Curse]] on Virginia, but that is only because she frees the magic birds and ruins their livelihood...

* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]: Acorn says this when he tells Virginia to go into the cellar.

'''Acorn''': I don't know. I just always wanted to say it. }}

** Wolf also says this in regards to asking Virginia to drop her [[Rapunzel Hair]] so he can climb it.

* [[I Choose to Stay]]: {{spoiler|Tony, mainly because of the consequences of his [[Genre Blind]] wishes have left him in major legal trouble back home in New York City.}}

* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Although never actually spoken, it is heavily implied (and even nearly subverted) during the scene at the Huntsman's treehouse in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'', when Wolf is about to kill him with the magic axe and Virginia stops him.

'''Wolf:''' You're gonna regret this moment. }}

** And of course, [[Implacable Man|he's right]].

* [[Large Ham]]: Wolf, most certainly, and also the Troll King and his children. The Queen mostly averts [[Evil Is Hammy]] and is normally underplayed and calm, outside of a couple of scenes.

* [[Literal Ass Kissing]]: Because of his wish, [[Pun|Butt]] [[Butt Monkey|Monkey]] Tony has his boss follow him around and continually try to do this. Tony ends up having to shoo him away frequently. The rest of Murray's family eventually shows up and ends up giving him the same treatment. It doesn't help that at least one of the Murrays must have been something of a brown-noser already, since he insists on kissing Tony's ass repeatedly. (Or could that also have been covered under the "and be my slaves forever" part?)

* [[Literal Genie]]: Tony's dragon dung bean fulfills this trope to a tee: his first wish of making his landlord and his family become his slaves included the phrase 'and kiss my ass'...so every single Murray family member insists on doing exactly that with obsessive attention. The beer in the fridge is indeed neverending, to the point of making it explode, the vacuum he asked to 'clean the entire house' follows the directions to the letter (including trying to vacuum up the curtains), and even the beneficial wish of being able to speak to Wendell the dog is limited to only Tony being able to hear him, since he said "I" rather than "we". And when he wishes for money, {{spoiler|it is stolen from the bank, and the cops are quick to track it down.}}

** This also occurs later in the Deadly Swamp (because [[Too Dumb to Live|Tony never learns]]):

'''Tony:''' Hey! When I said we wanted to be separated, I didn't mean ''literally''! }}

* [[A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll"]]: In a "shepherdess contest" which includes a singing portion, Virginia goes with "We Will Shear You" (in the style of Queen's "We Will Rock You").

* [[Move Along, Nothing to See Here]]: Used when the rich elf dies.

** Made more amusing by the exact wording used:

* [[Mushroom Samba]]: Via the magic mushrooms in the Deadly Swamp. Literally, since they sing and sway.

* [[Mysterious Parent]]: {{spoiler|Virginia's mother, who is the Evil Queen.}}

* [[Single-Issue Psychology]]: Subverted and lampshaded: Wolf's issues with food, love, and his animal urges are hilariously sent up in scenes with a New York Jewish psychiatrist, and after only ''one session'' (which he later describes to Virginia as "extensive therapy") he suddenly pronounces himself a changed man and produces "the books to prove it," consisting of several titles of real, well-known self-help books. However, Wolf only shows the beginning of change (acknowledging that he has the problem) and several times shows that he is still a slave to his stomach. Later, the others read passages that relate to each of them, but show no immediate changes. Similarly, but much more darkly, the source of [[Big Bad|the Evil Queen]]'s wicked nature seems to stem from one event: {{spoiler|once it is revealed that she is actually Virginia's [[Mysterious Parent|missing mother]], Tony then reveals that she [[Offing the Offspring|attempted to drown Virginia as a little girl]] because she was 'sick and getting worse and worse', a rather vague statement of mental illness. And it was this instability that made her easy prey for [[The Man Behind the Man|Snow White's Wicked Stepmother]].}}

* [[Skewed Priorities]]: From the first meeting of Wendell's privy council, after they have been discussing Wendell not stopping in Beantown, his conspicuous absence and lack of communication, and the Evil Queen's breakout.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]/[[Precision F-Strike|Precision H Strike]]

'''Virginia:''' Our mirror's smashed - what can we do? Where the hell are the other two? }}

* [[Spirit Advisor]]: Snow White. She calls herself a fairy godmother, but also freely admits she is actually dead (something which is never really stated about fairy godmothers). Only Virginia and Wendell (the latter either because he's gone doggy at the time or because he's her grandson) can see and speak with her—Tony cannot. She later appears in Virginia's dreams. [[All There in the Manual|According to the]] [[Novelization]], she was also disguised as the old woman from the forest who gave them [[The Power of Friendship|a lesson in solidarity]] and warned them of the Huntsman, and the little Cupid girl from Kissing Town who told them where to find the cart which had [[Plot Device|taken the mirror away]].

* [[Urine Trouble]]: The Dog Prince with a pillar, early on when he is still resisting the Queen's "human training".

* [[Vile Villain Saccharine Show]]: Subverted. For the first half or so of the miniseries (before the Queen's [[Evil Plan]] is fully revealed), a case could be made that both [[Not So Harmless|the Troll King]] and [[Psycho for Hire|the Huntsman]] act as this, since the Nine Kingdoms otherwise come across as a silly, funny, and not particularly threatening place (aside from the Third). As more of the Queen and her plans come out, and as the heroes travel and become exposed to the underbelly of the Kingdoms and the ramifications of certain fairy tales and attitudes, it seems much [[A Worldwide Punomenon|grimmer]] indeed, to the point of being a [[Crap Saccharine World]].

* [[Wacky Marriage Proposal]]: Wolf's proposal to Virginia. Not only does he preface the evening, when Virginia initially tries to weasel out of dinner, by saying he "spent a lot of time planning this spontaneous evening", he: has a song composed especially for her, played by a string quartet ''on the roof of their carriage'' (which is filled to overflowing with flowers); rents an entire restaurant just for the two of them, with a meal consisting of 13 main courses; and purchases the most expensive engagement ring he can find—a magical singing ring with a saccharinely cute cherub face and shimmering, bell-like voice which extols the virtues of their love to Virginia. She turns him down out of outrage when she learns he spent money they could have used to accomplish their goals on the proposal instead. At the end of the miniseries, he tries again, in a much more restrained manner, and she accepts.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: The three Troll children, thanks to their love of shoes and leather, consider it [[Serious Business|a terrible crime]] when shoes are "very badly cared for--scuffed and cracked and neglected", and Blabberwort tells Virginia so. Lampshaded in the [[Novelization]], first when Virginia notes Blabberwort's tone "suggested she had committed mass murder" and then when she decides they weren't "bent on destruction, only on defending shoes".