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* ATankardOfMooseUrine: Durk's beer, which is watered down to the point of tastelessness. The locals still drink it, to the dismay of the brewmaster's son, who is trying to reintroduce the people to the concept of quality beer.
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* VirginSacrifice: Mention is made of an attempt to perform this in ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. Once the king in question announced that he was going to do this, his subjects promptly had a massive two-week orgy in order to disqualify themselves. Then one of the King's nobles assassinated him while the King's bodyguards were participating in said orgy.
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* NeverLiveItDown: A wizard in ''Bad Prince Charlie'' who tried to banish all the snakes from Damask and accidentally banished all the chickens instead.
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* NeverLiveItDown: InUniverse example - A wizard in ''Bad Prince Charlie'' who tried to banish all the snakes from Damask and accidentally banished all the chickens instead.
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* OfferedTheCrown: ''Bad Prince Charlie'' has a very unusual example. If the king doesn't designate an heir, it's up to the surviving members of the royal family to choose one. Charlie has no desire to be king, and he expects his uncles to choose one of themselves, but they have other plans. The kingdom is in big economic trouble, and they'd prefer to simply merge it with a neighboring kingdom. But the people are fierce and independent, and won't stand for it. So they want Charlie to accept the job of king, ''temporarily'', and then do such a bad job that the people will want to depose him and will accept the merger in return for the neighbor's help getting rid of Charlie.
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* NeverLiveItDown: A wizard in ''Bad Prince Charlie'' who tried to banish all the snakes from Damask and accidentally banished all the chickens instead.
* OfferedTheCrown: ''Bad Prince Charlie'' has a very unusual example. If the king doesn't designate an heir, it's up to the surviving members of the royal family to choose one. Charlie has no desire to be king, and he expects his uncles to choose one of themselves, but they have other plans. The kingdom is in big economictrouble, trouble (Due to the local geography, it doesn't get enough rain to support an agrarian culture), and they'd prefer to simply merge it with a neighboring kingdom. But the people are fierce and independent, and won't stand for it. So they want Charlie to accept the job of king, ''temporarily'', and then do such a bad job that the people will want to depose him and will accept the merger in return for the neighbor's help getting rid of Charlie.
* OfferedTheCrown: ''Bad Prince Charlie'' has a very unusual example. If the king doesn't designate an heir, it's up to the surviving members of the royal family to choose one. Charlie has no desire to be king, and he expects his uncles to choose one of themselves, but they have other plans. The kingdom is in big economic
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* VirginSacrifice: Mention is made of an attempt to perform this in ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. Once the king in question announced that he was going to do this, his subjects promptly had a massive two-week orgy in order to disqualify themselves. Then one of the King's nobles assassinated him while the King's bodyguards were participating in said orgy.
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* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style. The other guy succeeds, but before Charming has split the arrow in half lengthwise with his sword.
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* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style. The other guy succeeds, but not before Charming has split the arrow in half lengthwise with his sword.
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* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style.
to:
* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style. The other guy succeeds, but before Charming has split the arrow in half lengthwise with his sword.
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Everythings Better With Chickens was renamed to Clucking Funny and Garnishing The Story. Zero Context Examples and plain misuse is being removed.
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* EverythingsBetterWithChickens: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'', one running gag is a discussion of how a wizard tried to banish all the snakes from the kingdom, but botched the spell and banished all the chickens instead (And since he never figured out why the spell went wrong, he couldn't reverse it). As a result, it is impossible to get any kind of food that involves chicken or eggs, except on an annual festival where they import the meat and eggs from a neighboring country.
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* OfferedTheCrown: ''Bad Prince Charlie'' has a very unusual example. If the king doesn't designate an heir, it's up to the surviving members of the royal family to choose one. Charlie has no desire to be king, and he expects his uncles to choose one of themselves, but they have other plans. The kingdom is in big economic trouble, and they'd prefer to simply merge it with a neighboring kingdom. But the people are fierce and independent, and won't stand for it. So they want Charlie to accept the job of king, ''temporarily'', and then do such a bad job that the people will want to depose him and will accept the merger in return for the neighbor's help getting rid of Charlie.
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* TheStoner: Blended with JunkieProphet in ''Bad Prince Charlie''. The prophet that Charlie goes to see for advice with his troubles turns out to be a very young, very naked, and very stoned girl, who is prone to saying "wow" a lot, and constantly has the munchies. ''Very'' loosely inspired by some historians' notions of the Prophet at Delphi in Ancient Greece.
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* TheStoner: Blended with JunkieProphet in ''Bad Prince Charlie''. The prophet oracle that Charlie goes to see for advice with his troubles turns out to be a very young, very naked, and very stoned girl, who is prone to saying "wow" a lot, and constantly has the munchies. ''Very'' loosely inspired by some historians' notions of the Prophet Oracle at Delphi in Ancient Greece.
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* JunkieProphet: Played for laughs in ''Bad Prince Charlie'', when Charlie goes to see an oracle who turns out to be a very naked and very stoned young woman, who talks and acts like the stereotype of The Stoner.
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* TheStoner: Blended with JunkieProphet in ''Bad Prince Charlie''. The prophet that Charlie goes to see for advice with his troubles turns out to be a very young, very naked, and very stoned girl, who is prone to saying "wow" a lot, and constantly has the munchies. ''Very'' loosely inspired by some historians' notions of the Prophet at Delphi in Ancient Greece.
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link to new work page, and remove tropes specific to that work
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His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''Literature/TheUnhandsomePrince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
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His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''Literature/TheUnhandsomePrince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Literature/HeroicsForBeginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
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* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Played with in ''Heroics for Beginners''. The main character thinks back to how he once snuck out of the castle to take his then girlfriend to a small jazz club, only for his father, King Eric the Totally Cool, to show up with his trademark [[CoolShades shades]] and a saxophone so he can jam with the band. As the hero puts it "Parent's should not be cooler then their children."
* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian from ''Heroics for Beginners'', who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody.
* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian from ''Heroics for Beginners'', who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody.
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* ContractualGenreBlindness: In ''Heroics for Beginners'', the evil overlord mentions trying to foreclose the mortgage on an orphanage and chase down puppies to kick because that's how one becomes an evil overlord. This is an interesting case, as the overlord manages to be a stereotypical villain while still being DangerouslyGenreSavvy. The only reason he's ultimately defeated is because the hero doesn't use conventional "heroic" methods.
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* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: ''Heroics for Beginners'' uses this repeatedly, including the Fortress of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Fortress of Doom logo.
* EncyclopediaExposita: ''Heroics for Beginners'' starts each chapter with a quote from ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'' that happens to be relevant to the events of the chapter.
* EncyclopediaExposita: ''Heroics for Beginners'' starts each chapter with a quote from ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'' that happens to be relevant to the events of the chapter.
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* FictionalDocument: ''Heroics for Beginners'' has ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'', which is exactly what it sounds like: a self-help book for wanna-be heroes.
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* MilkingTheGiantCow: ''Heroics for Beginners'' specifically cites this term:
-->He stood in the center of the room, his head thrown back in silent laughter, his arms raised above his head, his fists clenched in that famous, overly dramatic gesture known to theatre students everywhere as "milking the giant cow." Yes, it was hokey and cliched, and [[EvilOverlord Voltmeter]] knew it, but he loved doing that gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a man mad with power.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: ''Heroics for Beginners'' mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family''. Amazingly, the villain was GenreSavvy enough to '''not''' attempt to break it; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagers and under -- he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[ProperlyParanoid psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: ''Heroics for Beginners'' has this with the main character and his love interest; they met and fell in love before her father started looking for a husband for her, and so she intentionally became cold and unpleasant to all other potential suitors to put them off. Mention is also made of another prince whose family refused to let him marry until he was thirty and then betrothed him to a six-year-old girl; ten years later, he is the most envied man on the continent.
-->He stood in the center of the room, his head thrown back in silent laughter, his arms raised above his head, his fists clenched in that famous, overly dramatic gesture known to theatre students everywhere as "milking the giant cow." Yes, it was hokey and cliched, and [[EvilOverlord Voltmeter]] knew it, but he loved doing that gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a man mad with power.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: ''Heroics for Beginners'' mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family''. Amazingly, the villain was GenreSavvy enough to '''not''' attempt to break it; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagers and under -- he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[ProperlyParanoid psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: ''Heroics for Beginners'' has this with the main character and his love interest; they met and fell in love before her father started looking for a husband for her, and so she intentionally became cold and unpleasant to all other potential suitors to put them off. Mention is also made of another prince whose family refused to let him marry until he was thirty and then betrothed him to a six-year-old girl; ten years later, he is the most envied man on the continent.
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* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and parodied in ''Heroics For Beginners''. The hero meets a mysterious fortuneteller, but complains that her prophecies don't rhyme. Exasperated, she whips up a quatrain on the spot (or tries to ... she has to send him a message later with the last line).
* PunnyName: The EvilOverlord in ''Heroics For Beginners'' is called Lord Voltmeter. It's more of a {{Shallow P|arody}}un on "Lord Voldemort" than a meaningful name though, since he doesn't have electric powers. He is also referred to as "He Who Must Be Named", furthering the parody. Apparently, it's dangerous to use personal pronouns when referring to him.
* ShamefulStrip: ''Heroics for Beginners'' features the BigBad's "Evil Assistant" tearing open the captive princess' blouse, on the grounds that exposing a female prisoner's body makes her feel more vulnerable. She's very surprised to encounter a chainmail bra underneath.
* PunnyName: The EvilOverlord in ''Heroics For Beginners'' is called Lord Voltmeter. It's more of a {{Shallow P|arody}}un on "Lord Voldemort" than a meaningful name though, since he doesn't have electric powers. He is also referred to as "He Who Must Be Named", furthering the parody. Apparently, it's dangerous to use personal pronouns when referring to him.
* ShamefulStrip: ''Heroics for Beginners'' features the BigBad's "Evil Assistant" tearing open the captive princess' blouse, on the grounds that exposing a female prisoner's body makes her feel more vulnerable. She's very surprised to encounter a chainmail bra underneath.
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* TheTropeWithoutATitle: Inverted in ''Heroics for Beginners''; the Big Bad, Lord Voltmeter, is referred to as "He Who Must Be Named," as Lord Voltmeter dislikes being referred to by personal pronouns.
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* YouKnowTheOne: Parodied in ''Heroics for Beginners''. Lord Voltmeter is known as He Who ''Must'' Be Named, because Lord Voltmeter dislikes when people use pronouns to refer to Lord Voltmeter.
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* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: ''Heroics for Beginners'' uses this repeatedly, including the Castle of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Castle of Doom logo.
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* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: ''Heroics for Beginners'' uses this repeatedly, including the Castle Fortress of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Castle Fortress of Doom logo.
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* EncyclopediaExposita: ''Heroics for Beginners'' starts each chapter with a quote from ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'' that happens to be relevant to the events of the chapter.
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* FictionalDocument: ''Heroics for Beginners'' has ''The Handbook of Practical Heroics'', which is exactly what it sounds like: a self-help book for wanna-be heroes.
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* BarbarianHero: Thunk the Barbarian from ''Heroics for Beginners'', who tries to break into the Fortress of Doom at the beginning of the story, is a classic version bordering on parody.
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link to new work page, and remove tropes specific to that work
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His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''The Unhandsome Prince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
to:
His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''The Unhandsome Prince'', ''Literature/TheUnhandsomePrince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
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* BewitchedAmphibians: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
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* GreedyJew: Invoked in ''The Unhandsome Prince''--this is one of the reasons the King and Prince Kenneth (not the prince of the title) cite to support their plan to kick the Jews out of the kingdom and confiscate their property (neatly solving the family's money problems).
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* MurderInc: Subverted in ''The Unhandsome Prince''. The capital of Melinower does have an Assassin's Guild—but it's actually a fake, run by the palace guard, to catch people who might want to hire or join such an organization.
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* PrinceCharmless: A tricky variation in ''The Unhandsome Prince''. The titular Prince Hal is ''not'' this trope, but Caroline doesn't want to marry him--the reward for kissing the right frog is supposed to be a ''handsome'' prince, and Hal is...well, not the thing girls dream about. His oldest brother, Prince Kenneth, on the other hand, seems like all Caroline could ask for, except for the rudeness, the arrogance, the mean streak, the cruelty to animals, the utter ruthlessness....
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* RagsToRoyalty: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Caroline ''knows'' she's destined for this. It was hard work finding the right frog to kiss. The only problem is that the standard deal is for a ''handsome'' prince. She knows that ''she's'' beautiful, and she'll be damned if she's going to settle!
* SecretStabWound: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the title character wins a tournament with an enchanted sword ... except that when he struck the winning blow, his opponent's dagger slipped beneath his breastplate and gravely wounded him. (The judges didn't see it.) Since the winner had bet on himself (at 100-1 odds), he couldn't reveal his injury or he'd lose the tournament (and his winnings, which he needed to keep his family from going bankrupt).
* SecretStabWound: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the title character wins a tournament with an enchanted sword ... except that when he struck the winning blow, his opponent's dagger slipped beneath his breastplate and gravely wounded him. (The judges didn't see it.) Since the winner had bet on himself (at 100-1 odds), he couldn't reveal his injury or he'd lose the tournament (and his winnings, which he needed to keep his family from going bankrupt).
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* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the character who insists she is entitled to marry a handsome prince is shocked and repelled by one brother of the unhandsome prince she disenchanted; she seriously considers marrying the unhandsome prince. As he has fallen in love with someone else in the meantime, she ends up marrying the third brother, who is both handsome and nice.
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* TrueLovesKiss:
** Subverted in ''Slay and Rescue'', when Prince Charming finds Sleeping Beauty and rescues her with a kiss, but then it turns out that he's ''not'' her true love.
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
* TwiceToldTale: ''The Unhandsome Prince'', in addition to being [[FracturedFairyTale very loosely based]] on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', includes encounters with a hair-obsessed woman living in a tower, named ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', and a dwarf with a magic spinning spell named ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}''.
* VirginPower: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the one-use-only magic spell that Rumpelstiltskin has for turning straw into gold requires the ''loss'' of virginity--which is why Rumpel is still looking for the ''right'' girl.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.
** Subverted in ''Slay and Rescue'', when Prince Charming finds Sleeping Beauty and rescues her with a kiss, but then it turns out that he's ''not'' her true love.
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
* TwiceToldTale: ''The Unhandsome Prince'', in addition to being [[FracturedFairyTale very loosely based]] on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', includes encounters with a hair-obsessed woman living in a tower, named ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', and a dwarf with a magic spinning spell named ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}''.
* VirginPower: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the one-use-only magic spell that Rumpelstiltskin has for turning straw into gold requires the ''loss'' of virginity--which is why Rumpel is still looking for the ''right'' girl.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.
to:
* TrueLovesKiss:
**TrueLovesKiss: Subverted in ''Slay and Rescue'', when Prince Charming finds Sleeping Beauty and rescues her with a kiss, but then it turns out that he's ''not'' her true love.
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
* TwiceToldTale: ''The Unhandsome Prince'', in addition to being [[FracturedFairyTale very loosely based]] on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', includes encounters with a hair-obsessed woman living in a tower, named ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', and a dwarf with a magic spinning spell named ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}''.
* VirginPower: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the one-use-only magic spell that Rumpelstiltskin has for turning straw into gold requires the ''loss'' of virginity--which is why Rumpel is still looking for the ''right'' girl.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.love.
**
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
* TwiceToldTale: ''The Unhandsome Prince'', in addition to being [[FracturedFairyTale very loosely based]] on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', includes encounters with a hair-obsessed woman living in a tower, named ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', and a dwarf with a magic spinning spell named ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}''.
* VirginPower: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the one-use-only magic spell that Rumpelstiltskin has for turning straw into gold requires the ''loss'' of virginity--which is why Rumpel is still looking for the ''right'' girl.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.
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* GreedyJew: Invoked in ''The Unhandsome Prince''--this is one of the reasons the King and Prince Kenneth (not the prince of the title) cite to support their plan to kick the Jews out of the kingdom and confiscate their property (neatly solving the family's money problems).
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None
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* PrinceCharmless: A tricky variation in ''The Unhandsome Prince''. The titular Prince Hal is ''not'' this trope, but Caroline doesn't want to marry him--the reward for kissing the right frog is supposed to be a ''handsome'' prince, and Hal is...well, not the thing girls dream about. His oldest brother, Prince Kenneth, on the other hand, seems like all Caroline could ask for, except for the rudeness, the arrogance, the mean streak, the cruelty to animals, the utter ruthlessness....
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* RagsToRoyalty: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Caroline ''knows'' she's destined for this. It was hard work finding the right frog to kiss. The only problem is that the standard deal is for a ''handsome'' prince. She knows that ''she's'' beautiful, and she'll be damned if she's going to settle!
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 7 (click to see context) from:
* BewitchedAmphibian: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
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* BewitchedAmphibian: BewitchedAmphibians: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
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* VirginPower: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the one-use-only magic spell that Rumpelstiltskin has for turning straw into gold requires the ''loss'' of virginity--which is why Rumpel is still looking for the ''right'' girl.
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None
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* BewitchedAmphibian: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the prince has been turned into a frog, but when the beautiful maiden rescues him with a kiss, she's not pleased with her prize.
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* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.
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None
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* TrueLovesKiss:
** Subverted in ''Slay and Rescue'', when Prince Charming finds Sleeping Beauty and rescues her with a kiss, but then it turns out that he's ''not'' her true love.
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
** Subverted in ''Slay and Rescue'', when Prince Charming finds Sleeping Beauty and rescues her with a kiss, but then it turns out that he's ''not'' her true love.
** Subverted again in ''The Unhandsome Prince'', when Caroline's kiss frees Prince Hal from being a frog. She takes one look and demands a better prince.
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None
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* MurderInc: Subverted in ''The Unhandsome Prince''. The capital of Melinower does have an Assassin's Guild—but it's actually a fake, run by the palace guard, to catch people who might want to hire or join such an organization.
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None
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* TwiceToldTale: ''The Unhandsome Prince'', in addition to being [[FracturedFairyTale very loosely based]] on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', includes encounters with a hair-obsessed woman living in a tower, named ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', and a dwarf with a magic spinning spell named ''Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}''.
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more examples scraped from existing tropes
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* EverythingsBetterWithChickens: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'', one running gag is a discussion of how a wizard tried to banish all the snakes from the kingdom, but botched the spell and banished all the chickens instead (And since he never figured out why the spell went wrong, he couldn't reverse it). As a result, it is impossible to get any kind of food that involves chicken or eggs, except on an annual festival where they import the meat and eggs from a neighboring country.
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* ZeroApprovalGambit: The plot of ''Bad Prince Charlie'' centers around a scheme to have the throne of Damask taken by an unpopular ruler so that the neighboring kingdom of Noile can be seen as saviors when they conquer it, at which point the people who engineered the scheme get paid off and the 'tyrant' (Who doesn't care for his home country anyway) gets banished. The strange thing is that Charlie manages to make himself unpopular by being ''competent''.
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* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Played with in ''Heroics for Beginners''. The main character thinks back to how he once snuck out of the castle to take his then girlfriend to a small jazz club, only for his father, King Eric the Totally Cool, to show up with his trademark [[CoolShades shades]] and a saxophone so he can jam with the band. As the hero puts it "Parent's should not be cooler then their children."
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* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: ''Heroics for Beginners'' has this with the main character and his love interest; they met and fell in love before her father started looking for a husband for her, and so she intentionally became cold and unpleasant to all other potential suitors to put them off. Mention is also made of another prince whose family refused to let him marry until he was thirty and then betrothed him to a six-year-old girl; ten years later, he is the most envied man on the continent.
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* ShamefulStrip: ''Heroics for Beginners'' features the BigBad's "Evil Assistant" tearing open the captive princess' blouse, on the grounds that exposing a female prisoner's body makes her feel more vulnerable. She's very surprised to encounter a chainmail bra underneath.
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* TheTropeWithoutATitle: Inverted in ''Heroics for Beginners''; the Big Bad, Lord Voltmeter, is referred to as "He Who Must Be Named," as Lord Voltmeter dislikes being referred to by personal pronouns.
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* ContractualGenreBlindness: In ''Heroics for Beginners'', the evil overlord mentions trying to foreclose the mortgage on an orphanage and chase down puppies to kick because that's how one becomes an evil overlord. This is an interesting case, as the overlord manages to be a stereotypical villain while still being DangerouslyGenreSavvy. The only reason he's ultimately defeated is because the hero doesn't use conventional "heroic" methods.
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* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: ''Heroics for Beginners'' mentions a villain who succeeded to the throne of a kingdom by slaughtering the rightful ruler, his wife, their children, and so on. The catch was he couldn't get all of the children -- even though he'd been wise enough to schedule an assault on ''every potential heir and his or her family''. Amazingly, the villain was GenreSavvy enough to '''not''' attempt to break it; not because he didn't want the successors dead, but because if he did kill everyone in the necessary age groups -- teenagers and under -- he'd cripple the country's economy down the road. Instead, he went [[ProperlyParanoid psychotically paranoid and ended up locking himself in a nigh-inaccessible room.]]
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John Moore is an American writer of Speculative best known for his FracturedFairyTale humorous fantasies. Most of his novels are set in a realm known as "The Twenty Kingdoms", a deconstruction of the standard fairy-tale setting, with noble princes fighting monsters and rescuing princesses. He started out writing ScienceFiction thriller short-stories (some of which were published under the name John F. Moore), but switched to humorous fantasy when he began writing novels.
His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''The Unhandsome Prince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
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!! Tropes in his works:
* BigDamnHeroes: ''Slay and Rescue'' opens with GenreSavvy [[TheAce hero]] Prince Charming (that's actually his '''name''') carefully timing the rescue of a princess to achieve this effect. It's part of the job.
* DeathByChildbirth: In ''Slay and Rescue'', mothers of both Prince Charming and the three female protagonists died in childbirth. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]]:
-->'''Princess Aurora''': Is childbirth as dangerous as all that?
-->'''Princess Ann''': [The wizard] Mandelbaum says it's because royal families can afford physicians and the very best medical care. Consequently, they die like flies.
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: ''Heroics for Beginners'' uses this repeatedly, including the Castle of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Castle of Doom logo.
* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style.
* FantasticNuke: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'', two neighboring kingdoms are both trying to find a "Weapon of [[strike: Mass]] Magical Destruction" left behind by a previous king.
* FootnoteFever: Parodied in ''Bad Prince Charlie'', which contains the following footnote early on:
-->This looks like a good place for a footnote. Terry Pratchett and Susanna Clarke use lots of footnotes and they write bestsellers, so maybe I should also throw in a few.
* FracturedFairyTale: Most of his novels fall into this category, deconstructing fairy-tales like "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Princess and the Frog" and more.
* KnightInShiningArmor: ''Slay and Rescue'' has a prince named Charming, sent by his father's chancellor to rescue fair maidens all over the place (the theory is that it keeps him too busy to try to take over the throne).
* MilkingTheGiantCow: ''Heroics for Beginners'' specifically cites this term:
-->He stood in the center of the room, his head thrown back in silent laughter, his arms raised above his head, his fists clenched in that famous, overly dramatic gesture known to theatre students everywhere as "milking the giant cow." Yes, it was hokey and cliched, and [[EvilOverlord Voltmeter]] knew it, but he loved doing that gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a man mad with power.
* PrinceCharming: ''Slay and Rescue'' has a [[TheAce professional hero]] who really '''is''' a prince named Charming, sent by his father's chancellor to rescue fair maidens all over the place (the theory is that it keeps him too busy to try to take over the throne). He's GenreSavvy, deliberately pulls BigDamnHeroes arrivals, has ImplausibleFencingPowers, and is [[AManIsNotAVirgin very frustrated]]. Nonetheless, he's also basically decent.
* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and parodied in ''Heroics For Beginners''. The hero meets a mysterious fortuneteller, but complains that her prophecies don't rhyme. Exasperated, she whips up a quatrain on the spot (or tries to ... she has to send him a message later with the last line).
* PunnyName: The EvilOverlord in ''Heroics For Beginners'' is called Lord Voltmeter. It's more of a {{Shallow P|arody}}un on "Lord Voldemort" than a meaningful name though, since he doesn't have electric powers. He is also referred to as "He Who Must Be Named", furthering the parody. Apparently, it's dangerous to use personal pronouns when referring to him.
* SecretStabWound: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the title character wins a tournament with an enchanted sword ... except that when he struck the winning blow, his opponent's dagger slipped beneath his breastplate and gravely wounded him. (The judges didn't see it.) Since the winner had bet on himself (at 100-1 odds), he couldn't reveal his injury or he'd lose the tournament (and his winnings, which he needed to keep his family from going bankrupt).
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the character who insists she is entitled to marry a handsome prince is shocked and repelled by one brother of the unhandsome prince she disenchanted; she seriously considers marrying the unhandsome prince. As he has fallen in love with someone else in the meantime, she ends up marrying the third brother, who is both handsome and nice.
* SwissArmyWeapon: Prince Charming (yes, that's really his name) in ''Slay and Rescue'' receives as a gift a sword with a number of tools folded into the grip. It didn't come with a manual, though, so Charming and everyone else who admires the device is puzzled by one particular fitting. Fortunately, Charming figures out ''[[BigDamnHeroes when it's most needed]]'' that the mystery tool is [[spoiler:a lockpick]].
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons'' plays with this one quite a bit:
** One of the heroines winds up as the hostage of an evil wizard who is attempting to breed griffins. In this setting, griffins can only draw nourishment through eating virgin maidens. The rest of the heroes arrive "too late" to save her from being tossed into the griffin feeding pit only to discover a very alive and very annoyed princess who basically says "It had already eaten. That's the only reason I'm still alive. Understand?" Later, she corners her boyfriend and demands an explanation for why the griffin really didn't eat her, since he assured her that some undefined (but obviously sexual) act "didn't count".
** Later on, as the griffin is released on a Mayday festival equivalent, a random maiden sees the griffin as it catches her scent and makes a hurried attempt to force herself on the man whose advances she had just rejected a minute earlier in an effort to make herself inedible - all while the griffin is trying to break the house down.
* YouKnowTheOne: Parodied in ''Heroics for Beginners''. Lord Voltmeter is known as He Who ''Must'' Be Named, because Lord Voltmeter dislikes when people use pronouns to refer to Lord Voltmeter.
* YouWillKnowWhatToDo: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'' the [=titular=] prince is given a charm and told 'you'll know what to do when the time comes'. Given what kind of books Moore writes, when the time comes to actually use it as a last resort in the face of an enemy army they mock him by [[LampshadeHanging reciting the same phrase back at him]].
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His novels include: ''Slay and Rescue'', ''The Unhandsome Prince'', ''Heroics for Beginners'', ''Bad Prince Charlie'', and ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons''. He also recently published his early SF novel, ''Heat Sink'' as an e-book.
----
!! Tropes in his works:
* BigDamnHeroes: ''Slay and Rescue'' opens with GenreSavvy [[TheAce hero]] Prince Charming (that's actually his '''name''') carefully timing the rescue of a princess to achieve this effect. It's part of the job.
* DeathByChildbirth: In ''Slay and Rescue'', mothers of both Prince Charming and the three female protagonists died in childbirth. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]]:
-->'''Princess Aurora''': Is childbirth as dangerous as all that?
-->'''Princess Ann''': [The wizard] Mandelbaum says it's because royal families can afford physicians and the very best medical care. Consequently, they die like flies.
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: ''Heroics for Beginners'' uses this repeatedly, including the Castle of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Castle of Doom logo.
* FakeUltimateHero: Invoked in ''Slay and Rescue'' when a fellow accuses [[TheAce professional hero]] Prince Charming of doing as Cornwell's Lancelot does. Subverted because a) by this point in the story, the reader '''knows''' Charming is a genuine {{Badass}}, and b) he proves it by asking the other guy to shoot an apple off Charming's head, William-Tell-style.
* FantasticNuke: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'', two neighboring kingdoms are both trying to find a "Weapon of [[strike: Mass]] Magical Destruction" left behind by a previous king.
* FootnoteFever: Parodied in ''Bad Prince Charlie'', which contains the following footnote early on:
-->This looks like a good place for a footnote. Terry Pratchett and Susanna Clarke use lots of footnotes and they write bestsellers, so maybe I should also throw in a few.
* FracturedFairyTale: Most of his novels fall into this category, deconstructing fairy-tales like "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Princess and the Frog" and more.
* KnightInShiningArmor: ''Slay and Rescue'' has a prince named Charming, sent by his father's chancellor to rescue fair maidens all over the place (the theory is that it keeps him too busy to try to take over the throne).
* MilkingTheGiantCow: ''Heroics for Beginners'' specifically cites this term:
-->He stood in the center of the room, his head thrown back in silent laughter, his arms raised above his head, his fists clenched in that famous, overly dramatic gesture known to theatre students everywhere as "milking the giant cow." Yes, it was hokey and cliched, and [[EvilOverlord Voltmeter]] knew it, but he loved doing that gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a man mad with power.
* PrinceCharming: ''Slay and Rescue'' has a [[TheAce professional hero]] who really '''is''' a prince named Charming, sent by his father's chancellor to rescue fair maidens all over the place (the theory is that it keeps him too busy to try to take over the throne). He's GenreSavvy, deliberately pulls BigDamnHeroes arrivals, has ImplausibleFencingPowers, and is [[AManIsNotAVirgin very frustrated]]. Nonetheless, he's also basically decent.
* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and parodied in ''Heroics For Beginners''. The hero meets a mysterious fortuneteller, but complains that her prophecies don't rhyme. Exasperated, she whips up a quatrain on the spot (or tries to ... she has to send him a message later with the last line).
* PunnyName: The EvilOverlord in ''Heroics For Beginners'' is called Lord Voltmeter. It's more of a {{Shallow P|arody}}un on "Lord Voldemort" than a meaningful name though, since he doesn't have electric powers. He is also referred to as "He Who Must Be Named", furthering the parody. Apparently, it's dangerous to use personal pronouns when referring to him.
* SecretStabWound: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the title character wins a tournament with an enchanted sword ... except that when he struck the winning blow, his opponent's dagger slipped beneath his breastplate and gravely wounded him. (The judges didn't see it.) Since the winner had bet on himself (at 100-1 odds), he couldn't reveal his injury or he'd lose the tournament (and his winnings, which he needed to keep his family from going bankrupt).
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: In ''The Unhandsome Prince'', the character who insists she is entitled to marry a handsome prince is shocked and repelled by one brother of the unhandsome prince she disenchanted; she seriously considers marrying the unhandsome prince. As he has fallen in love with someone else in the meantime, she ends up marrying the third brother, who is both handsome and nice.
* SwissArmyWeapon: Prince Charming (yes, that's really his name) in ''Slay and Rescue'' receives as a gift a sword with a number of tools folded into the grip. It didn't come with a manual, though, so Charming and everyone else who admires the device is puzzled by one particular fitting. Fortunately, Charming figures out ''[[BigDamnHeroes when it's most needed]]'' that the mystery tool is [[spoiler:a lockpick]].
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: ''A Fate Worse Than Dragons'' plays with this one quite a bit:
** One of the heroines winds up as the hostage of an evil wizard who is attempting to breed griffins. In this setting, griffins can only draw nourishment through eating virgin maidens. The rest of the heroes arrive "too late" to save her from being tossed into the griffin feeding pit only to discover a very alive and very annoyed princess who basically says "It had already eaten. That's the only reason I'm still alive. Understand?" Later, she corners her boyfriend and demands an explanation for why the griffin really didn't eat her, since he assured her that some undefined (but obviously sexual) act "didn't count".
** Later on, as the griffin is released on a Mayday festival equivalent, a random maiden sees the griffin as it catches her scent and makes a hurried attempt to force herself on the man whose advances she had just rejected a minute earlier in an effort to make herself inedible - all while the griffin is trying to break the house down.
* YouKnowTheOne: Parodied in ''Heroics for Beginners''. Lord Voltmeter is known as He Who ''Must'' Be Named, because Lord Voltmeter dislikes when people use pronouns to refer to Lord Voltmeter.
* YouWillKnowWhatToDo: In ''Bad Prince Charlie'' the [=titular=] prince is given a charm and told 'you'll know what to do when the time comes'. Given what kind of books Moore writes, when the time comes to actually use it as a last resort in the face of an enemy army they mock him by [[LampshadeHanging reciting the same phrase back at him]].
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