The Princess Bride (film)/Fridge

Fridge Logic

• In The Princess Bride, at the very end, the Grandson asks the Grandfather to come back and read the story again. The Grandfather replies, "As you wish," which seems very sweet but not particularly dramatic--until you remember what was said earlier: "When he said 'As you wish,' what he meant was 'I love you.' "--Sammi J
• The famous I Am Not Left-Handed scene. Why does Westley take the sword in his left hand to start with? Well, in fencing, lefties have a natural advantage against righties simply because few people train to fence against lefties. When a lefty fences a lefty they are both used to fencing against righties, hence both have a disadvantage. BUT if you are a lefty who has experience against other lefties, then you would be at an advantage against a lefty who had mainly trained against righties. So clearly Westley had experience fighting against lefties as a lefty and used his left hand in order to cancel out Inigo's advantage. --Lawyer Dude
  • I don't know if this makes this less brilliant/logical or not, but, as both men are absolute masters of the fencing art, could it be simply that, to give their opponent a chance (albeit just a sliver of a chance), each man took what was his "weak" hand, that being the left. As Fezzik might say, "It's more sportsmanlike". -- wacomason

Fridge Horror

• Westley is the good guy, but how many innocent sailors has he killed while being the Dread Pirate Roberts?
  • It's implied that the Dread Pirate Roberts is more about reputation than anything. The whole point of the name was to get the crews of enemies to surrender, rather than fight. The idea is, "If you fight, we kill you all, no exceptions. If you surrender, we take your stuff."
  • The reason for the numerous killings is so that, when the title of Dread Pirate Roberts is passed on, there will be no one who could recognize that the new DPR isn't the same one that held up their ship before. Westley likely has a bodycount in the hundreds, if not thousands, in order to maintain the charade.
    • Did you not listen? "The name is important. No one will surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley." (Emphasis mine). Nowhere is what you're saying stated or implied in either book or movie. What is explicitly stated is that the name and reputation is enough to make people give up without a fight--and you don't give up without a fight if you know you're going to die by doing so.

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