History Film / Stardust

* WholesomeCrossdresser: Captain Shakespeare is revealed to like dressing in women's clothing right at the same time he's shown to ''not'' really be a bloodthirsty murderer, but a good, kind man.

* TooDumbToLive: After discussing that his brothers will try to kill each other for the throne, ''and'' having killed Quartus in the backstory, Secundus doesn't see anything suspicious about his father asking him to stand with his back to his siblings, next to a [[DestinationDefenestration large open window]]. Septimus takes advantage of this.
* TookALevelInBadass: Tristan goes from "a boy who works in a shop" to a confident, sword-wielding adventurer, and later [[spoiler:King of Stormhold]]. Captain Shakespeare's TrainingMontage provides a lot of the growth. The fact that [[spoiler: he's a Prince of Stormhold and a HalfHumanHybrid who seems to be finally finding his feet]] is hinted to help.
* TransparentCloset: The ship's crew [[spoiler:always knew their captain was gay, or at least a cross-dresser]].

* SoundtrackDissonance: Septimus and his men ambush Captain Shakespeare's boat, in a massive fight, to the tune of [[spoiler:the Can-Can]], which [[LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn is playing on Shakespeare's gramophone]].

* RealityChangingMiniature: Lamia is able to use a VoodooDoll to kill [[spoiler:Septimus]] and then puppet his corpse to fight Tristan.

* AdaptedOut: Tristran's stepmother Daisy and half-sister Louisa from the book do not exist in the film. This allows Dunstan and Una to implicitly get together at the end (they are together in the crowd at Tristan and Yvaine's wedding), since in this version Dunstan didn't marry anyone after their one-night stand.
* AdaptationDyeJob: In the book, the eldest of the Lilim has black hair and wears red. In the movie, Lamia has blonde hair and wears green clothing.
* AdaptationExpansion: The Lightning Pirates get only a brief mention in the book, but have a significant subplot in the movie.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Lamia and her sisters -- Lamia is the Blonde, Empusa the Brunette, and Mormo is the Redhead.

* CastFromLifespan: Lamia. Well, more "Cast from Youth," as each spell she uses drains a little bit of the good looks she gets from eating the last of the previous star's heart. This leads to a funny scene where she repeatedly tries to use magic to undo signs of age in one spot on her body, only for it to cause signs of age to appear on another spot.

* RewatchBonus: Sure, there are a couple of times the camera cuts to one of the Lightning Pirates rolling his eyes whenever Captain Shakespeare falters in his tough act, but more subtly the crew's rowdy behavior is a little toned down whenever the Captain is not addressing them. They [[spoiler:already knew their Captain was just putting on a false front]].

* RewatchBonus: Notice there are a couple of times the camera cuts to one of the Lightning Pirates rolling his eyes whenever Captain Shakespeare falters in his tough act, and the crew's rowdy behavior is a little toned down whenever the Captain is not addressing them. They [[spoiler:already knew their Captain was just putting on a false front]].

* ColorCodedCharacters: The Princes of Stormhold all have outfits in different bright colours: Primus wears [[PurpleIsPowerful shades of purple]], Secundus wears [[RedIsHeroic bright red]], Tertius wears [[GreenAndMean green and gold]], and Septimus, naturally, [[EvilWearsBlack wears black.]] It's impossible to tell what color the ghostly princes' clothes once were, but presumably they had their own individual color schemes as well.

** Which are indeed revealed when they fly away at the end to each of their afterlives.

* SymbolMotifClothing: Each of the Princes of Stormhold has the Roman numeral that matches their [[NumericalThemeNaming name]] embroidered into the pattern of their clothing, and Septimus has the Arabic numeral for 7 on his spurs.

* TooDumbToLive: After discussing that his brothers will try to kill each other for the throne, Secundus doesn't see anything suspicious about his father asking him to stand with his back to his siblings, next to a [[DestinationDefenestration large open window]]. Septimus takes advantage of this.

* BlueBlood: When [[spoiler:Lamia cuts Primus's throat in the bath, he bleeds blue.]] It's unclear if it's just because [[spoiler: he's royalty,]] or if all inhabitants of Stormhold have such blood, since nobody else in the movie is seen bleeding. WordOfGod states the decision for the color was made to avoid the "R" rating that [[BlackBlood red blood]] would have caused, with the added benefit of being a visual gag for the character.[[invoked]]