The Lion in Winter: Difference between revisions

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Henry, Eleanor and Geoffrey have honed their sarcasm into fine-cutting weapons. Philip and Richard aren't as clever with words but can give as well as they can take. If you're John and Alais, you can't keep up.

* [[Defiant to The End]]: "When the fall is all there is, it matters."

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: The inclusion of Christmas trees in 1183, for one.

** As well as a reference to syphilis 300 years before the New World was discovered. (To be fair, there is evidence that a syphilis-like disease might have been around in the Old World since Ancient Roman times, but the term "syphilis" isn't thought to have arisen until 1530, and the disease wasn't commonly referred to by the name syphilis until the 19th century.)

* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: You think?

* [[Evil Matriarch]]

* [[Family Disunion]]

* [[Freud Was Right]]: The homosexual {{spoiler|Richard}} is very close to his mother. This was still the popular explanation for homosexuality when the play was written.

* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: None of the characters are particularly decent people, especially towards each other. {{spoiler|And their plotting can actually get other people killed}}.

* [[Ham to Ham Combat]]: When Henry and Eleanor put away the [[Snark to Snark Combat|Snark Daggers]] and break out the Ham Cannons, there may as well be no-one else in the room.

** And their son [[Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]] is sleeping with the king of France, [[James Bond]].

* [[Historical Domain Character]]: The [[The House of Plantagenet|main characters]], including [[Richard the Lion Heart]].

* [[Middle Child Syndrome]]: Geoffrey is a painfully pure example of this trope.

{{quote| '''Geoffrey''': It's not the power I feel deprived of... ''it's the mention I miss''. There's no affection for me here: You wouldn't think I'd want that, would you? }}

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Like crazy. Generally from laugh-out-loud funny to crushing tragedy in the course of just a few lines.

* [[My Beloved Smother]]

* [[Oedipus Complex]]: Richard probably has one of the worst cases in all of history.

* [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Woman]]: Alais is the only one who doesn't join in the plots and counter-plots, but points out what the others are doing with loathing.

** Slightly subverted at one point, when Alais attempts a few stabs at Eleanor. {{spoiler|It fails rather quickly, however, and she ends up crying in the queen's lap.}}