King's Quest/YMMV

• 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 in fanworks by running in the opposite direction and making him Troubled but Cute instead.
• Even Better Sequel / Growing the Beard: The series' gameplay, graphics, logic and overall quality tended to improve as the series progressed, with KQ VI generally being regarded as the highest point of the franchise. However, KQ VII had a mixed reception, though positive in general, and KQ VIII was a huge letdown that ruined the series.
• Narm: "A POIsonous snaaaake! A POIsonous snaaaake!"
• The Scrappy: Cedric in King's Quest V
  • 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.
• Seinfeld Is Unfunny: 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.
• What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Lampshaded in a Let's Play of King's Quest V (the CD-ROM version of the game was voiced by Sierra employees, with varying degrees of success. Sierra learned their lesson, and pioneered the concept of Hollywood actors voicing computer games.)
  • That being said, they still kept developer Josh Mandel as Graham for VI, 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.