History VideoGame / FableIII

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The "Revolution" is more of a coup. A revolution is the overthrowing of a government, not a change in the seats of office. Likely done because yelling "Revolution!" just sounds better. The plot of the conspirators in Traitors Keep is more of an actual revolution as they seek the overthrow of the monarchy and a democratic republic in its place. The DLC may have shown that the overthrow of Logan was not a "true" revolution as the monarchy is still in place, leading to the plots against you.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: As King or Queen you are NOT required to dress like one. You can totally attend the royal court dressed in a chicken suit if you want.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** Mourningwood. "Morning Wood"? In a game with so much debauchery and bloody violence, it's pretty tame, but still part of the sly humour of the series, slipping in dirty puns everywhere.
** In In-Universe example. The pub in Bowerstone is called "The Cock in the Crown", an obvious TakeThat at Logan. The picture on the sign depicts a rooster sitting in a royal crown, but nobody's fooled.

** Also a flourish/counter with pistols against bandits. Left, right (as in both arms), down, up. Complete with clutching at the...uh... inguinal region. One can also, using pistols or rifles, fine aim to shoot the swords and [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar guns off an enemy]], thus disarming them.

* YourCheatingHeart: You can have multiple spouses, although it will never be discovered unless you put your spouses in the same town. Lovers, on the other hand, can coexist quite nicely -- even with spouses -- but this is likely because people can fall in love with you without you doing anything to encourage it.
** On the NPC side of things, you will occasionally hear a lover say, "My wife will never know that I have been unfaithful." Oops.

* BrokenAesop: [[spoiler:The game is presumably trying to make a point about the tradeoffs inherent in spending limited government money and resources on defense over social programs or vice versa. However, since the game economy is utterly broken and it's possible to very easily make a functionally unlimited amount of money by investing in real estate, however, the moral comes out looking more like "You can have your cake and eat it too as long as you put all your trust in philanthropic real estate barons."]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: High level spellcasting is this. If charged up all the way they can deal massive damage, and in particular the "Shock + Fireball" combo is an AreaOfEffect OneHitKill to 90% of the enemies in the game at maximum charge. However, charging to maximum requires the player to stand perfectly still for several seconds, which can be extremely dangerous in combat.

* ActionGirl: Page, and any female player character.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Most of the spell combos are this. However, combining the two most basic spells, [[PlayingWithFire Fireball]] and [[ShockAndAwe Shock]], results in a spell that is in effect an InstantDeathRadius for about 90% of the game's enemies.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: About half-way through the game.

* BigBad: The hero's brother Logan, a hated king who has them chased out of the castle. [[spoiler:Logan turns out to be a DiscOneFinalBoss and he was preparing to counter the true big bad invading, a dark being called the Crawler.]]

* BigBeautifulWoman: there are posters around Bowerstone for a plus-sized dancing girl named "Big Bess."

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Done by the Hero during the "Darkness Incarnate" quest.
-->'''Sir Walter:''' Do you sometimes get the feeling someone's playing a game with you?
-->'''Hero:''' All the time.

* BrokenAesop: The game is presumably trying to make a point about [[spoiler: the tradeoffs inherent in spending limited government money and resources on defense over social programs or vice versa.]] Since the economy is utterly broken and it's possible to very easily make a functionally unlimited amount of money by investing in real estate, however, the moral comes out looking more like [[spoiler:"You can have your cake and eat it too as long as you put all your trust in philanthropic real estate barons." Uh, okay.]]
** Although it is doubtful that someone would indeed take to heart a rather-nontrivial sociological/economic/geopolitical aesop from a game like ''Fable'', of all things. ''[[{{VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment}} PS:T]]'' or ''[[{{VideoGame/DeusEx}} Deus Ex]]'' this is not.

** Demon Doors, which contain unlockable content.

** The Sanctuary has one when the gold is kept. You have to amass a fortune to reach a key for the chest that's only accessible when you have barely any gold.
* ButThouMust: No matter how you feel about him, you can't do anything to [[KarmaHoudini Reaver]] and he'll always become your adviser.
* CallBack: The Gnomes, one of the collection sidequests for ''III'', are given life (and attitude) by an insulting Gargoyle from ''II''.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Played with in minor ways in the first two games, but utterly bitchslaps you here [[spoiler: just like they did Logan]]. There's a reason every time you're making royal decisions, you're slumped on the throne, both annoyed and despairing.
** [[TakeAThirdOption Unless you spam real estate]].

** Theresa is not only behind your development as a Hero, but [[spoiler: provoked Logan into becoming a tyrant by telling him the EldritchAbomination that nearly killed him is coming to Albion]].
** [[spoiler:Milton]] of Traitor's Keep.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Invoked by a Demon Door.

--> "If I had a friend like you, I could tell them secrets... ''Like that I'm going to set you on fire!''"
--> "You know what I like most about people? They die."
--> "I'd like to get to know someone like you... ''And then drown them.''"
--> "My favourite things are music and sunshine and ''looove''. And pain."

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Reaver. He's making the best out of the industrial age.
* CrapsackWorld: Aurora during Eternal Darkness. And how. And if [[spoiler:your character makes the wrong choices when you become the ruler of Albion, the kingdom quickly becomes one of these.]]
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:Have fun trying to scrounge up the funds needed to fight the Crawler on a good-guy playthrough.]]
** [[TakeAThirdOption Or just invest in real estate]]. Actually, this is extremely easy to do, almost frighteningly so. Sure, you'll need to work a bit more at the beginning (the minigames help), but once you've got a few houses and the money is rolling in, you buy more estate, and revenue increases exponentially. Rinse and repeat. It is perfectly possible to literally own '' '''every single building''' in the world'' in the endgame. This route is somewhat more tedious than the "evil" choices, but not overly so - the total increase in play time in order to raise enough money to begin the cycle of investment and, once you own enough property, to fill the kingdom's treasury, is something like 2-3 hours of real time. And while perhaps slightly more time-consuming, there is no actual ''challenge'' in terms of gameplay whatsoever.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Logan. [[spoiler: He never forgot why he was behaving like a tyrant. When you capture him, he has no VillainousBreakdown. He [[GracefulLoser calmly surrenders]] quickly and tells you exactly why he did what he did.]]

* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: The fire-breathing demonic um... chickens. Of Doom!

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: If you choose to make life better, and drain the vault, better be ready after you win to see a ''lot'' of corpses littering the land. The land is beautiful, friendly... and dead. On the other hand, be a tyrant and have everyone alive - and hating your living guts.]]
** Of course, you can TakeAThirdOption and EarnYourHappyEnding with [[spoiler: virtually all your citizens (minus soldiers who died in battle) surviving by keeping the land beautiful as well as working your butt off and investing smartly, coming up with the 8.5 million gold you need to keep the citizens alive ''and'' keep all your promises.]]

** [[spoiler: If you play a female character, you're forced into this in a quest that has you impersonate a bandit. The costume they give you is always the male variant, goatee included]]

** Worse yet, in one storyline required quest, you must [[spoiler:halt a robbery]]. The fellow in charge of said spoilered event scoffs at you, even though you're the freakin' ''King/Queen'' of the ''entire country'' and had to carve a bloody swathe through two to three small armies, and staged a coup against the resident tyrant, practically single-handed. Said fellow is universally agreed to be TooDumbToLive by every player who encounters him.

* ElaborateEqualsEffective: Subverted as the hero weapons do gain different styles and decorations per level depending on your decorations[[note]]albeit very limited[[/note]]. The hero weapons are very weak in comparison to the legendary weapons you gain along the journey[[note]]not to mention, if you have xbox live, there is a DLC pack of just two weapons(a rifle and hammer) that rank within the top 5 in power[[/note]]. Due to this, the hero weapons become more for style points and self imposed challenges.
* EliteMooks: Balverines are a very tough, complete with tactics and dodging, and they're faster. They also replace most enemies at night as the game progresses.

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer[=/=]EvenTheGuysWantHim: Even people who have an IncompatibleOrientation will make comments along the lines of "You are the most ''magnificent'' of wo/men."
* EvilIsHammy: Reaver. Of course, he's played by Creator/StephenFry, so no surprise there.

* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: Logan's tyranny was not because he was evil, but he was committing evil acts to prevent a greater evil - the destruction of Albion by The Crawler. Though the sadistic choice he offers the player at the beginning is pretty damn evil. He claims he was trying to educate you on the challenges of leadership, but there are other less pointlessly cruel ways to do such things.]]
** The player on an evil playthrough
* TheEvilPrince: The player character, either [[KarmaMeter subverted or played straight]].

* FanserviceExtra: ''Very'' subtle in the form of the castle maids. They'll often, when idling, get down on their knees to clean while their skirts, which are shorter at the back, pops up to show off their bum. From a distance, the skirt will remain folded down but pop up when you get closer, making it clear that this is intentional. Should also be noted they're the only characters who's ass can actually be seen due to the clothes being too baggy.

* FascistButInefficient: How Logan runs Albion. If the state of things when [[spoiler: the player deposes him are anything to go by, Logan would probably have run Albion into the ground ''and'' left it totally unprepared for the Crawler. Meaning that not only were his repressive actions heinous, they were also ''entirely pointless''.]]
* FiveManBand: The Hero and their main allies:
** TheHero: The Hero.
** TheLancer: Walter and Ben.
** TheSmartGuy: Page.
** TheBigGuy: Sabine.
** TheChick: Kalin.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: What does [[spoiler:Walter]] say to you when you [[spoiler:step into the training room with him]] at the beginning of the game?

* FullCircleRevolution: It's possible for [[spoiler:you]] to be just as bad or ''even worse than'' Logan.
** ''Tratior's Keep'' is this.

* GentleGiant: Boulder. He likes your dog.

** The pub in Bowerstone is called "The Cock in the Crown", an obvious TakeThat at Logan. The picture on the sign depicts a rooster sitting in a royal crown, but nobody's fooled.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: If you're playing as a female character during the tabletop game quest you find a princess who you can kiss even if you're a girl as well, the three gamers in charge of the game take notice. One of them definitely approves.
* GondorCallsForAid: The first half of the game.
* TheGoodKing: The player character's father/mother (the hero of ''Fable II''). The player character can choose to subvert this trope or play it straight.

* GroinAttack: One of the flourish/counter attack animations if you're fighting Dark Minions with a hammer? You swing the hammer and slam it into their groin so hard that they break apart. Hell ''yes''. Really, the Hero of Brightwall has a vendetta against testicles.

* GuideDangIt: At the end [[spoiler: a lot of people are shocked when the countdown goes from Day 121 to the final attack and they have not had the chance to transfer the funds into the treasury, resulting in a high death toll. Instead of going forward into a war-torn Bowerstone, simply pan the camera around and go the other way, which takes you back to Day 121 to carry on as before.]]

* IAmAHumanitarian: Hobbes. And Lesley.

* IceCreamKoan: The advice the gnome collection gives.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Lesley will only trust you if you kill a man for him.
** Some of the heroic weapons power up from doing very cruel things, like killing spouses. Yes, you have to get married multiple times ''[[TheBluebeard just to kill the person]].''

** It's no ordinary chicken. It's a ''demonic firebreathing'' chicken!

* KnightTemplar:
** Several, but perhaps most extremely [[spoiler:Logan]].
** Turner and [[spoiler:Milton]] of Traitor's Keep.

** Nicolas Hoult (Elliot) and the female hero's voice actress during intimate moments.

* LoveAtFirstSight: If you're a good King/Queen and fulfill all of your promises and always take the good course of action, subjects in certain areas will automatically consider you a friend at the very least, with a few citizens actually being in love with you. However, the LoveAtFirstSight bit kick in to an extreme degree in Aurora if you [[spoiler:rebuild the city without turning the citizens into indentured workers and build the Outpost]]; the citizens will universally be either fully in love with you (if you are of the correct gender) to the point of agreeing to marriage after a single positive expression, or consider you their best friend (if you [[IncompatibleOrientation are not the gender they're attracted to]]), all without you doing a single thing for them personally. Meaning that you can marry every single person of compatible orientation in Aurora within ten seconds of meeting them. It's either heartwarming or creepy depending on how you look at it.
** TruthInTelevision: Celebrities can achieve that in RealLife. Just look at Music/TheBeatles in the 1960's.
* LovecraftCountry: Aurora tends to be this, what with ancient temples, a sense of absolute lifelessness, the small sparsely populated town that [[TownWithADarkSecret knows whats out there]], and [[StealthPun crawling]] with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.
** Something to note is the scale and mystery of the location. The tone is set perfectly with the music and artwork telling one that they are no longer in the same world you were before, and while the locations are rather small and cramped it is eerily and justifiably empty. In one of the regions dungeons there is also a window which shows the true scale of the land, a massive plain that extends out forever with nothing but huge towers of stone extending from the terrain, begging the question of just what else besides the previous stated Eldritch Abominations were hiding beneath the sands. The place is also awash with strange and mind boggling set pieces despite being so barren; one such piece being a massive door in a canyon which leads nowhere and is [[LeftHanging never explained]].
** The devs expressed interest in developing DLC content for Aurora, though this ultimately didn't happen. The large door was possibly meant for a DLC that never materialized.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: Poor, poor Walter. Also Captain Swift, whose death is particularly hard on Ben Finn.]]
* MissionPackSequel: For the first half of the game, ''Fable III'' is very much this in relation to ''Fable II'', but once you [[spoiler:become King/Queen]] it changes up a little.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Jasper will continue [[YesMan serve]] the Hero no matter how many villagers s/he kills, how many unjust decisions s/he makes as a tyrannical ruler...[[FelonyMisdemeanor and no matter how ridiculously they dress]].
** This isn't to say that he holds back any commentary. After all, his voice actor is Creator/JohnCleese.

* NecessarilyEvil:
** If you don't have a crapton of gold, you must be this [[spoiler:if you want money to save your people.]]
** Also [[spoiler:Logan]].

* NightmarishFactory: Reaver's factory in Bowerstone Industrial. If you're a kind ruler, you can turn it into a school (which Reaver takes credit for, natch).
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: You meet an annoying artist named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kinkade Thomas Kaidkin]]. But then you kill him, so... InvertedTrope?

* OutlawTown: The Mercenary's Camp.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: As usual for the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series, it's very easy to pay your way past the guards. A mere 250 gold literally lets you get away with murder.
** Can be a little absurd when you slaughter the entire town, the guards, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking break all the windows]] and only have to pay 10000 gold, which isn't actually that much.
** A sort of game mechanic example. You are forced into a sadistic choice halfway through the game, [[spoiler: that being you either screw over your friends in order to prepare for the EldritchAbomination on its way to destroy Albion or keep your promises and let said abomination destroy your kindgom's citizens]]. [[TakeAThirdOption This can be completely blown out of the water through investment and some hard work]].
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: A recurring villain talks like this, even when trying to bargain for his own life. His henchmen don't get it.

* SuperGenderBender: [[spoiler: If the Hero is female Milton will swap genders when he assumes the hero's form as well as gaining power]].

* StylisticSuck: Phillipith Morreley's lost play "The Ham Sandwich".

* SwordAndGun
* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: Once you become King/Queen,]] there are, in addition to the good and evil options, options to remain neutral, which usually results in maintaining the status quo or doing something which is neither profitable for yourself or the people affected by the decision, but at least disadvantages nobody.
** However these neutral options are only applicable for decisions [[spoiler:regarding Logan's old policies that he had enacted during his reign. You still only have two choices to make when it comes to keeping or breaking your promises to your allies.]]
** Despite the game trying to imply that you ''have'' to be evil [[spoiler:in order to keep enough money to save everyone from the Crawler]], it's still fairly easy to generate enough money doing jobs and from real estate that continuing to be a pure good Hero during the [[spoiler:monarch]] stage isn't as difficult as it's made out to be.

* TakeThatMe: There's a quest where you enter a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' style game. You kill the villain in this game by hitting him once with a bane-sword. One of the Dungeon Masters says "What kind of rubbish game lets you kill the villain in one blow?" [[spoiler:As a [[BlatantLies totally random]] example, ''VideoGame/FableII'' did.]]
* TakeYourTime: Sort of. Once [[spoiler:you're crowned King or Queen]], you have a full year before [[spoiler:the Crawler arrives in Albion]]. But the clock for that only moves forward when you do the "Weight of the World" quest and ignores the game's day-night cycle, so you have as much time as you want to complete quests.
** Keywords are "Sort of". The game says you have about a year, but days advance by several at a time, catching some players off-guard. [[spoiler:It becomes easier to guess how many days - or rather, how many times you need to end the day before the calendar advances far enough - you have left by keeping track of how many promises you have left to break/fulfill.]]
** This one is still actually quite bad, as the game advances time by incredibly whimsical amounts. It is true that you only advance time by ending days at the castle, but the first set of tasks costs you only about 25 days, and the last set costs you '''200 days'''. Woe be to the player who thought he still had half a year to prepare by raising rent money, sent instantly to the last day before the attack with the treasury in the red and everyone hating him for it (and can't reset because it autosaves before you can).
* TooDumbToLive: Mercenaries will charge the ruler of Albion. Even if the king/queen ''couldn't'' cast a spell to make flaming swords appear to kill them with one stab, it's still less than intelligent to attack a person commanding armies and [[spoiler:the only thing standing between them and utter genocide.]]

* [[WhatMeasureIsAMook What Measure Is A Civilian]]: Apparently each life can be saved for 1gp.

* WriterOnBoard: It's hard not to read the writers' political biases into some of the less cartoony choices offered to the PC as ruler of Albion, especially when the game assigns "Good" and "Evil" values to those decisions. (Examples: Saving the environment is "good," despoiling it to fuel economic development is "evil." Legalizing alcohol is "good," instituting prohibition is "evil." Bailing out Albion's banks with government money is "good," letting them go bankrupt is "evil.")
** It's more a function of the fact one option gets you money, such as taxation, and the other option drains money, such as lowering taxes.
* YaoiFangirl: The dead author of the in-game book "The Pangs of Sunset", a book that [[HoYay ships]] Reaver and Garth from the second game. She's mentioned to have also written a SlashFic between Lucien (bad guy from ''VideoGame/FableII'') and Jack of Blades (bad guy from ''VideoGame/FableI''). She ships Theresa and Hammer, too.
** If you look closely, the cover of said book is mysteriously stained with blood. Maybe one of the readers got too "[[TheNosebleed excited]]". Or maybe the author suffered some very [[IncrediblyLamePun pointed]] criticism from a subject of her little stories.
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The "Revolution" is more of a coup. A revolution is the overthrowing of a government, not a change in the seats of office. Likely done because yelling "Revolution!" just sounds better.
** The plot of the conspirators in Traitors Keep is more of an actual revolution as they seek the overthrow of the monarchy and a democratic republic in its place. The DLC may have shown that the overthrow of Logan was not a "true" revolution as the monarchy is still in place, leading to the plots against you.

* [[BunnyEarsLawyer Chicken Suited King]]

* HeroicFantasy. Also shades of other fantasy genres like HighFantasy and DarkFantasy.

** Some of the heroic weapons power up from doing very cruel things, like killing spouses. Yes, you have to get married multiple times ''just to kill the person.''

* RewatchBonus: [[invoked]] Play the game again, and listen to Logan's speech at the page quote knowing [[spoiler: that he's desperately trying to protect Albion from The Crawler]], and it becomes sadder and more poignant. (Well, except for the last line).

** TheHero: [[CaptainObvious The Hero.]]

** Of course, you can TakeAThirdOption and EarnYourHappyEnding with [[spoiler: virtually all your citizens (minus soldiers who died in battle) surviving by keeping the land beautiful as well as working your butt off and investing smartly, coming up with the 9 million gold you need to keep the citizens alive ''and'' keep all your promises.]]

* ActorAllusion: Where do you meet Ben Finn (played by Simon Pegg)? During the section where you fight the walking dead Hollow Men, [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead of course]].

* RewatchBonus: [[invoked]] Play the game again, and listen to Logan's speech at the page quote knowing [[spoiler: that he's desperately trying to protect Albion from The Crawler]], and it becomes sadder and more poignant.

* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: Logan's tyranny was not because he was evil, but he was committing evil acts to prevent a greater evil - the destruction of Albion by The Crawler. Though the sadistic choice he offers the player at the beginning is pretty damn evil.]]

** Note that it's free on the PC version.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Half of the plot revolves around this. [[spoiler: After returning from Aurora with an entire army missing, Logan could have confided in his private council (Walter, The Hero, et al) the actual events that elapsed there. Despite what Theresa says about, "The Crawler is something you had to see for yourself", in a world where monsters roam the land and cosmic abominations from The Void are renown throughout history it would not have been hard to persuade his closest friends to trust him and help enable intelligent policy revisions to prepare for invasion.]]
** [[spoiler: Let's not forget about the families of Logan's legion of dead soldiers who make no effort to inquire as to what happened exactly.]]
** The entire reason is that Theresa ''warned'' him that if he ''told'' anyone, it would attract the attention of [[spoiler: The Crawler]] and it would attack sooner than desired.

* PaperThinDisguise: There's a particular quest where the player must dress up as a mercenary, and pose as their comrade "Jimmy" in order to sneak into their camp. It makes sense, sort of, if the PC is male, but if female, somehow the mercenaries remain oblivious to the fact that "Jimmy" suddenly ''has breasts''. (All outfits in the game, regardless of which sex they're meant for, have both male and female models to fit the PC's body.)
** Ultimately it's subverted - you are in fact detected - except it's not for any of the obvious stuff. It's because ''your eyes'' are the wrong colour. One can only cite the RuleOfFunny.

* GiantMook: The bands of highwaymen usually have a member who's about ten feet tall and built like a small mountain. And can shoot fire at you. And can perform a ShockwaveStomp fire attack.
** GirlOnGirlIsHot: If you're playing as a female character during the tabletop game quest you find a princess who you can kiss even if you're a girl as well, the three gamers in charge of the game take notice. One of them definitely approves.

** GirlOnGirlIsHot: If you're playing as a female character during this quest, the three gamers in charge of the game take notice. One of them definitely approves.
*** One of the reasons many males make female characters.

* FascistButInefficient: How Logan runs Albion.

After getting the Guild Seal which allows the Hero to use magic, and [[GondorCallsForAid gathering support throughout the land]], the Hero takes the throne. However, this isn't the end. As it turns out, [[spoiler: your brother was simply doing his best to hold off the darkness, and could not tell anyone about it, thus causing his tyranny.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The invasion in the second half of the game was originally supposed to be the Auroran civilization. Perhaps because of this plot's uncomfortable similarity with real-life events, the enemy was ultimately changed to an OutsideContextVillain in the form of the Crawler.

The third game in the ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series. Your character is the younger sibling of the tyrannical Logan, King of Albion.[[note]]Both are the children of the main character of ''Fable II'', the previous king/queen.[[/note]] When Logan spots you and your childhood friend (either Elise or Elliot, depending on whether your character is male or female) spying on one of his meetings, he forces you to make a SadisticChoice over whether to kill your friend or a group of protestors. Your [[TheObiWan Mentor]], Sir Walter Beck, rushes you out of the castle so as to start a rebellion for you to replace him as monarch.