History Literature / ThePrincessTales

* BabyAsPayment: In ''For Biddle's Sake'', the fairy Bombina demands that the parents of a child who will only eat parsley (the only parsley around grows in her garden) give the child to her. She privately thinks to herself that this will both punish the theft and make her come off better to the fairy queen, given that the situation could be spun as an adoption.
* BatmanGambit: In ''The Fairy's Return'', Robin asks the fairy Ethelinda if there's any area of which he can claim sovereignty. Ethelinda brings up the Briny Islands, but warns him that they're very far away and not very livable. Robin reassures her, saying that he won't have to go there if his plan actually works. Ethelinda proclaims that she is an official of the Briny Islands, who wants to make Robin king. Now Robin is a worthy suitor to Princess Lark, but if he actually accepts the position, King Humphrey won't see his daughter for years. As Robin predicted, King Humphrey gives in and allows them to marry without the kingship.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** The habit of inviting fairies to christenings is discontinued after the fairies get into a magic duel and transform one of the royal family several times.
** The plot of ''For Biddle's Sake'' also revolves around a person being transformed. Parsley's adoptive guardian, the fairy Bombina, has a bad habit of turning people into toads for the slightest offense. At one point, she decides to turn the princes who are riding by under Parsley's window (including the one that, unknown to her, Parsley has fallen in love with) into toads, but when Parsley tries to stop her, she transforms her by accident.

* {{Deconstruction}}: "The Fairy's Mistake" is one of Diamonds and Toads. It points out that a girl that has jewels coming out of her mouth would be a target for any OpportunisticBastard, and that another punished with bugs and reptiles coming out would realize it's a good tool for blackmail. Indeed, Rosella's new husband starts making her read constantly so that he can fill his royal coffers, to the point where she gets ill. Meanwhile, Myrtle coerces the townsfolk to give her things in exchange for not talking. In another sense, Myrtle isn't so evil that she'd leave her sister in a bad situation and agrees to help out.

* BrainyBaby: Two fairies bless the newborn Princess Sonora with intelligence-related gifts, resulting in her being ten times as smart as anyone else from a young age. It's also {{deconstructed|CharacterArchetype}} a bit, as Sonora reacts differently to various facets of childhood than a usual baby would (for instance, getting embarrassed when she spits up on people).
* ConstantlyCurious: Christopher, prince of Kulornia, from ''Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep''. He usually asks questions that cannot be answered, driving the people around him to exasperation. Luckily, this results in him being HappilyMarried to Princess Sonora, because she's smart enough that she always has things she's bursting to tell others, to the point that a proverb sprang up about her: "Princess Sonora knows, but don't ask her."

** In "For Biddle's Sake", Parsley is accidentally transformed into a frog. Luckily, she realizes that being turned into a frog means she can do magic.

** "Princess Sonora knows, but don't ask her."

** In "For Biddle's Sake", Parsley is accidentally transformed into a frog. Luckily, she realizes that being turned into frog means she can do magic.