YMMV / King's Quest

• Angst? What Angst?: Alexander comes off as mostly well-adjusted and normal despite his past of growing up as a mistreated slave. Fans (and some of the Expanded Universe material) have generally decided this is odd and tend to compensate by running in the opposite direction and making him Troubled, but Cute instead (particularly in The Silver Lining). Though this seems to be a "Harry Potter" type of scenario, that being a naturally born hero, no matter how abused he was as a child, his natural good nature overpowers everything else.
• Designated Monkey: The Royal House of Daventry. These games are best known for The Many Deaths of You, and since they rely heavily on Trial-and-Error Gameplay, it's expected to see these characters die in countless ways.
• Fan Nickname: Among fans, the games are almost exclusively referred to as "KQ [roman numeral/#]"
• Fanon: In the AGD remake, a hidden letter (search Manannan's desk four times) from Lolotte to Manannan states that her "Sister" once had a crush on Manannan before he grew out his beard. Her sister is stated to be Malicia, as they're both fairies. Not to mention both had a connection to Edgar, and Malicia may have even aided Lolotte in kidnapping him. The letter also states that Hagatha is Manannan and Mordack's sister, while also confirming Lolotte and Hagatha as part of the Black Cloak Society. Though this game had Approval of God it's still nowhere near Word of God.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Mask of Eternity was not well-received by a portion of the fanbase, to the point where it's debatably In Name Only. Even some of the old-school Sierra staffers distance themselves from it.
  • Though bizarrely, despite being reviled by some members of the fanbase, especially the hardcore fans, tribute fan games such as the King's Quest II remake and "The Silver Lining" still state it as canon.
  • The game was actually successful — at least as successful as KQ7 — and led to the development of King's Quest 9 by Mark Seibert, but the game (along with many others) was cancelled as Sierra was closed down.
  • Nowadays, the is slightly Vindicated by History and most points of contention now focuses on whether or not the Genre Shift to an Action RPG is an unforgivable offense, rather than the game's merits on its own
• Fridge Brilliance: To explain the whole Fantasy Kitchen Sink scenario. Think about it — once the books in our world are finished, the characters have to go somewhere. Perhaps Daventry is a purgatory of sorts for literature characters whose stories have ended, with no writer to continue them, so they end up here? ^note I would not count if a new writer eventually takes over, as each character is bound to the writer who created him/her/it. While the "new writers" may have the same characters, that would in turn create a second incarnation who is similar. But not exactly the same, as different writers, no matter how accurate they try to be, can never truly duplicate the original writer.
• Growing the Beard: The series' gameplay, graphics, logic and overall quality tended to improve as the series progressed, with KQVI generally being regarded as the highest point of the franchise. However, KQ VII had a mixed reception, though positive in general, and KQVIII is very highly contested for changing from the normal formulas, to the point it's been Mis-blamed for killing Sierra and the entire genre of Adventure games.
• Narm: "A POIsonous snaaaake! A POIsonous snaaaake!"
• Once Original, Now Common: Although the franchise basically kicked off the graphic adventure genre, and is highly important in gaming history, its earlier installments are downright unplayable (the remakes make them much more accessible, though), and even the later games can be needlessly frustrating for the modern gamer. In fact, the fact that Mask of Eternity tried to make the experience a lot more fair for players is probably why the game now garners less ire from the fanbase than it did when released.
• Questionable Casting: Being one of the first computer games to feature voice acting, characters in the CD-ROM version of King's Quest V were voiced by only a handful of Sierra employees, with varying degrees of success. The recording facilities were also poor, and many lines sound like they were recorded in echoey environments. Sierra learned its lesson, and pioneered the concept of Hollywood actors voicing computer games, mentioned below.
  • That being said, they still kept developer Josh Mandel as Graham for VI (since he's usually considered the one employee who actually did a pretty good job with his VA) and Mandel has been gracious enough to lend his voice to the fan-done remakes.
  • Completely averted with VI. Sierra put up the cash for an extremely high-end voice cast, including the late Tony Jay and Don Messick. Robby Benson from Beauty and the Beast played Alexander, which made one of the Non-Standard Game Overs a lot funnier than it should have been.
• The Scrappy: Cedric in King's Quest V. Apparently even other employees at Sierra were not kind to the owl either, as seen below.
  • So much reviled that, in an Easter Egg of the VGA remake of King's Quest II, an old King Graham runs after the damn owl with his sword ready to strike.
  • If you play Ms. Astro Chicken long enough in Space Quest IV, Cedric shows up. You can crash into him, survive, and get 50 bonus points.
  • In Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, at one point, you can find a lost Cedric in the desert; later, you find him being picked clean by buzzards.

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