The Brothers Lionheart/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Just how the book and movie is used in Sweden. At several hospitals the book is read, or the movie is shown, to children who are dying or gravely ill. The effect it has on these children, and the extent to which the story has been shown to relieve children's fear of death and of dying, is truly beyond words.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The entire score by Björn Isfält. The usage of an organ as the main instrument elevates the score even further, given how organs are often played at funerals and the bulk of the movie takes place in the afterlife.
    • Thorn Rose Valley's liberation song. You don't even need to speak the language, the instrumental part playing at the end as the brothers ride home gives this troper chills every time.
  • Memetic Mutation: "All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare! / All power to Tengil, our liberator"
  • Nightmare Fuel: Katla in the movies may seem silly both by modern standards, yet countless children have had nightmares because of her.
    • What freaked me out was the illustrations of her in the book... They seriously made me cry.
    • Karm as well. I still have nightmares of a black dragon and a green lindworm ringing to death.
  • Purity Sue: Jonatan Lionheart. He was already described as a fairy tale prince before Nangijala. He could do anything, understand everything, he was stronger than anyone else, and everyone else wanted to be with him. That was before he started to lead a rebellion. And it works. It works beautifully, because the story is told by the hero-worshipping Skorpan -- and in the end (though Skorpan himself says differently in the story introduction) the story isn't about Jonathan, but about Skorpan and his very touching relationship with his practically perfect older brother.
  • Tear Jerker: Well, it's Astrid Lindgren.