The Thief Lord

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Thief Lord is a children's fantasy novel by German author Cornelia Funke, who also authored The Inkworld Trilogy. The Thief Lord follows a ragtag bunch of runaways and orphans living in the unseen parts of Venice, led by the titular "Thief Lord". Unfortunately two of them, Bo and Prosper, are pursued by the Private Detective Victor hired by their oppressive aunt. Victor's presence is just the catalyst for other forces that test the band's loyalty to each other.

The novel's big themes include growing up and family. In 2006 a film adaptation was made.

Tropes used in The Thief Lord include:
  • Adaptation Expansion
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Victor Getz.
  • Anti-Villain: Victor and the Conte, sort of. And even Esther gets much more sympathetic at the end.
  • The Artful Dodger: Riccio is something of this. Unlike most of the other kids, he quite enjoys stealing for a living and, when some of the others consider living with Ida, he is disgusted by the prospect of being told what to do, going to school, and bathing regularly. However it is mentioned that, when he lived with Mosca and Hornet, and before Scipio began helping them out, his life was anything but happy and carefree.
  • Badass Longcoat: The Thief Lord wears one.
  • Badass Long Hair: The Thief Lord, again.
  • Beneath the Mask: Scipio is a completely different person when he is with the other kids and when he is around his father. This is obvious even to Victor, who had met him only briefly. Interestingly, these are both masks for his true personality, which is somewhere in between.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Everyone who uses the merry-go-round has shades of this, but Barbarossa gets it the worst.
    • Barbarossa's fate could also be called Cursed with Awesome. In a couple of years, he'll have exactly what he wanted anyway.
    • Ester always wanted a child that looked like an adorable angel but could behave like a charming adult...
  • Big Brother Instinct: Prosper to Bo, who else do you think?
  • Black Best Friend: Mosca to Hornet and Riccio.
  • Black Eyes: Scipio and his father have these.
  • Bound and Gagged: The children do this to Victor when he comes snooping around their hideout (an abandoned cinema), then lock him in the men's bathroom.
  • Broken Bird: Hornet.
  • Butt Monkey: Victor (overlaps a bit with The Chew Toy).
  • Call Back: At one point, when the children pick up a letter from the Conte at Barbarossa's shop, Barbarossa presses them for details about what the Conte asked them to steal, and Bo taunts him with stories about its appearance, mentioning diamonds and pearls. Barbarossa later sneaks to the Isola Segreta and threatens Morosina with harm, demanding that she show him the treasure with "huge diamonds and pearls."
  • Cinderella Circumstances: In the Conte's backstory.
  • Click. "Hello.": Ida does this (except without the click because her rifle doesn't actually work) to the kids when they break into her house in the middle of the night and start arguing amongst themselves.
  • Cool Big Sis: Ida isn't actually anyone's sister, but she fits the character description.
  • Cool Mask: Scipio wears a black, bird-beaked plague doctor mask that effectively creeps the other kids out.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Victor likely wouldn't have found Prosper and Bo, and by extension wouldn't have been involved in nearly as much of the plot, if he hadn't happened to run into Prosper while he was out getting pizza.
  • Cuteness Overload: Happens to Ester when she meets Ernesto, resulting in I'm Taking Her Home with Me.
  • Cuteness Proximity: In-story we're told that Bo inspires this reaction in adults.
  • Disappeared Dad: Prosper and Bo's late mother is mentioned several times, but never their father.
  • Dye or Die: Bo is too easily recognizable with his blond baby-angel curls, so when Prosper realizes Victor is after them, Hornet cuts Prop's hair very short and dyes Bo's black with ink. Not played entirely straight, however, as Victor still recognizes the boys immediately the next time he sees them.
  • The End of the Beginning: This is implied rather than stated in the last chapter. While everyone more or less gets "And they lived happily ever after", this trope certainly applies, especially for young Ernesto.
  • The Fagin: The Thief Lord
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Scipio/the Thief Lord.
  • Five-Man Band: The Thief Lord's gang is something of this:
  • Freudian Excuse: The Conte
  • Gentleman Thief: Scipio tries to be one. As best as a 13-year-old boy can be one, anyway.
  • Growing Up Sucks: Played with. According to Scipio, it's actually not that bad.
    • But played straight with the Conte, whose deepest wish is to be a child again as he never had a real childhood to begin with.
  • Hero Antagonist: Victor early on in the book.
  • Heroic BSOD: Prosper when Bo is taken away. Hornet has a somewhat milder one while she is in the orphanage.
  • Identical Son: Scipio and his father, so much that when Scipio is magically aged, Barbarossa mistakes him for his father
  • Instant Messenger Pigeon: From the Conte.
  • Kick the Dog: We already knew that Barbarossa was a crooked, greedy bastard (and not even a magnificent one at that), but his actions on the Conte's island (intending to rob an old man, dragging a little girl around by her hair, and poisoning the Conte's dogs) show his true colors.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Everyone's treatment of toddler Barbarossa near the end of the book.
  • Kid Hero
  • Known Only By Their Nickname: Hornet. Even Mosca and Riccio, who have lived with her for months and were probably friends before that don't know what her real name is.
    • This actually becomes important to the plot when she is captured by the police and taken in by the Merciful Sisters, but Victor and Ida don't know how to find out where she is because they don't know her name. Prosper finds out when he sees that she has written it inside some of her books.
    • Also, the Thief Lord to Barbarossa. They have never met. Barbarossa has only ever dealt with the other children, whom he thinks work for the adult master thief.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: And it actually works.
  • Lima Syndrome: How the children befriend Victor. However, they don't actually let him go; he manages to escape on his own, and some of the kids still mistrust him even after he gives his word of honor that he won't turn them in to the police.
  • Living a Double Life: Scipio.
  • Magical Realism: The story is realistic up until the magical carousel, which turns out to be real.
  • The Masquerade: Scipio was never a street-smart prodigy thief, he was a rich kid who simply stole from his father's mansion.
  • Meddling Aunt: To Prosper, Esther is the annoying variety.
  • Missing Mom: The death of Prosper and Bo's mother is what inspires their running away to Venice in the first place. Scipio's mom isn't dead, but she travels a lot.
  • Mock Millionaire: The Conte, who is actually not a Conte.
  • The Movie
  • Nakama: A key element of the story is the Thief Lord's nakama.
  • Noodle Implements: Invoked.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Victor. As a "snoop", it's part of the job description. He even has certain disguises meant specifically to make him look like a dimwitted tourist so he can be as unobtrusive as possible.
  • Parental Abandonment: All the kids suffer this. Prosper and Bo's mother died shortly before the story began and their father is never mentioned; Mosca's family apparently doesn't want anything to do with him; Riccio has nowhere to go but an orphanage; Hornet refuses to talk about her past because it makes her too sad, but it's pretty clear that she too has nowhere to go. Even Scipio, whose parents aren't dead but cold and uncaring towards him.
    • Also Ida, who grew up in an orphanage. And even the Conte and his sister.
  • Phantom Thief: The Thief Lord has a reputation with his gang for being one.
  • Plot Coupon: The wooden wing Scipio is hired to steal.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Riccio and sometimes Bo.
  • Private Detective: Victor, and later Scipio.
  • Promotion to Parent: Prosper to Bo, though he doesn't acknowledge he's doing it.
  • The Queen's Latin: In the movie. Even though they're in Venice, everyone appears to speak perfect British English.
    • Averted in the book, where it's mentioned at least once that they are speaking Italian.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Victor seems to think so.
  • Rich Bitch: Esther
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The Conte in the confessional.
  • Ship Tease: Prosper and Hornet.
    • It's almost a 'blink and you'll miss it' thing in the book. The movie plays it up a lot more; the last scene of the movie ends with them cuddling on a boat with Victor, Ida, and Bo.
  • Team Mom: Hornet, sometimes.
  • Title Drop: As "the Thief Lord" is Scipio's nickname, it appears multiple times. But, in an interesting twist, those are also the last three words of the book.
  • The Unfavourite: Esther doesn't want Prosper, only cute, angel-haired Bo.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Played straight with a chapter ending on Hornet's line, "I have a plan." But averted later on when Scipio tells everyone his "crazy idea" to get Ester to adopt toddler Barbarossa. Prosper tells him that there's no way it will work, but then it does.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Applied to humans, strangely. Esther dotes over Bo only because he's a cute, innocent-looking little boy and refuses to take Prosper into her home because he, in Victor's words, "doesn't look like a teddy bear anymore". Once Bo starts acting out, Esther doesn't want anything to do with him.
  • Wicked Aunt: Esther, from Prosper's POV. She tried to separate the brothers by sending Prosper to a boarding school, which is why the boys run away.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Hornet uses this to great effect in order to get Victor distracted and off the kids' trail. She grabs hold of him and yells like she's being kidnapped. Poor Victor has no idea what's going on, but, mistaken for a "child snatcher", he gets attacked by several outraged onlookers and arrested by the police, allowing the children to sneak away.
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