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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). Of course, fandom being what it is, there's also fans who then wrap around and protest the compensation.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Mask of Eternity has not been put on any of the compelation CDs, nor written into the Novelization-style game guides.
  • 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.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Mask of Eternity was not well-received by the fanbase, to the point where it's debatably In Name Only. Even the old-school Sierra staffers distance themselves from it.
  • 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.
    • And 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.
  • 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 (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.

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