RIRI,
The brave but shy jester
“She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not!! Oh no! I was sure of it.” Sigh from Riri sitting in a daisy field on Valentine’s day last year.
Although he’s not very strong, Riri is full of character and cunning, and fights daily to save the dragon. He finds unimaginable resources to beat these stupid pretentious and arrogant knights. He knows better than anyone else how to find the chink in the armour or find the solution to the most desperate problems. Always optimistic, he never gives up.
It is true that love make people stronger. Riri does all this because he is in love!
He loves Melodine but would never dare to let her know his love … he is too shy.
During their adventures they have become thick as thieves. He regularly tries to declare his love for her. He almost gets there but something always gets in the way. This keeps the suspense up throughout the series. “Will Riri manage to tell Melodine that he loves her in this episode?
Everything would be so much more simple. There would be no more knights or constant battles. Riri and Melodine would live happily ever after without getting mixed up in the squabbles between the dragon and the king.
But Riri is the king’s jester and is persuaded that jesters can’t marry princesses. It’s the only thing that makes him sad at times.
Even if Riri knows how to do circus tricks and play music, he is not really a jester. He doesn’t play the fool or be rude to the king (he’s the only one who isn’t). He is more of a sort of personal secretary. He’s the clown of the series.
He feels awkward about betraying the king’s trust Riri is sometimes touched by the distress of this man obsessed by the dragon. He can’t help seeing him as his future father-in-law.
Luckily, Melodine and Riri always have a new fantastic adventure to occupy his thoughts. In the heat of the action and with his friends, Riri enjoys himself during all these adventures.
Riri is an all round hero. He is sporty (he runs everywhere). He is very dynamic (he jumps around). He is clever (he thinks very quickly). He is romantic (he’s in love with a princess). He is artistic (he composes sonnets).
The wooed princess
“One day Riri and I will get married and live happily ever after surrounded by lots of children … and we will go parachuting and ride a motorbike.”
From Melodine’s private diary.
Melodine is a real princess but not the type that sleeps for a 100 years or waits in her tower. She prefers doing things. She likes nothing more than throwing herself in mad adventures to help Riri in his most daring plans.
She is very pretty and causes men’s hearts to beat faster but in general doesn’t notice. She just knows that her innocent air and pretty eyes hold her above suspicion. She is not scared of disobeying her father if it’s for a good cause.
Obviously she knows that Riri is secretly in love with her. She, too, is in love with him, but it’s not up to her to make the first move. Even though she is a modern princess and has got rid of dusty old traditions, she still loves romantic stories - rearranged to suit her. For example, she is not above challenging her knight to prove his courage. Normally knights should slay dragons, Riri must save them.
Actually Melodine loves fairytales … after all, she is lucky enough to be a real princess! She recognise herself in these brave and romantic stories and tends to rearrange the reality a bit. When she throws herself into these amazing adventures. She is like a little girl playing at being a princess! She is either a damsel in distress or the brave fiancée of Robin Hood (she would rather like to change roles and have to save Riri). She has inherited a little of her father’s delusions of grandeur.
All the challenges that our to heroes have to deal with only reinforce their friendship. Melodine is confident that one day, Riri will find the courage to declare his love for her and ask the king for her hand in marriage. (She doesn’t imagine for a moment that he might not agree).
However, Melodine does start to get impatient. She likes provoking Riri with smarting little remarks like : “You don’t want me to marry this brute, do you Riri?” But she also knows how to encourage and comfort him when needed.
In the bottom of her heart, Melodine is an idealistic young girl, bubbling with energy and enthusiasm. In her own naïve way she hopes to change the world. Maybe one day she will manage to make peace between her father and the dragon.
King of the potato Kingdom
“Aaaagh. Turn this dragon into sausage meat. Make pâté and kidneys out of him so that at least he will be of some use to us. To war!”
Extract from a speech by Hugo III after his 82nd consecutive defeat.
Despite his tiny kingdom, the king tries hard to act as a real statesman. He visits his subjects, listens to complaints and renders justice. He also reads the financial papers and even does electoral campaigns.
At the same time, he tries to be wise, dignified and poised. But it must be said, that it is not in his nature. He keeps throwing tantrums. When someone crosses him, he throws himself on the ground crying. When he is angry, he jumps up and down on the spot, with his hair all ruffled up and his moustaches sticking out like reed pipes. When he is happy he can’t help making kangaroo leaps and pirouettes. He’s a real live wire.
In other words, King Hugo is not a very believable king. Luckily, he is not aware of this and so keeps on with his dreams of grandeur. For example, one day, in order to imitate his model, Charlemagne, he decides to open a school – in which Juju was the only pupil. You only had to look at him to realise that he had never really been confronted by the unforgiving world of adults. He already had enough problems imposing his authority on the four residents of the castle.
The king, however, nursed great ambitions for his small kingdom. He wanted to develop economic activity, encourage foreign investment and build huge buildings like those of his neighbours. In order to attract tourists, he tried to organise prestigious events. Once he wanted to enter into the Guinness Book of Records for making the world’s largest paella. Obviously, the dragon spoilt everything and it was he got into the Book of Records by swallowing all 800kg of paella in under five minutes.
Once the king wanted to put together a big exposition of pottery, china and other fragile objects. The dragon thought it rather fun to play hula-hoop that day … .
The cause of all the King’s problems is the dragon. He has a personal vendetta against him and has sworn that one day he will chase this awful creature that baits him every day. Each time a new knight turns up, however ridiculous he may seem, the king is persuaded that he will be the right one. He becomes overexcited and tries to rush things and heads enthusiastically towards yet another disaster.
It must be said that the king would hire anyone – even if Martians landed the King would immediately want a Martian to become a knight. One day, he convinced the plumber, who was mending the royal bath, to challenge the dragon. Since then no plumber has set foot in the castle.
Over time, challenging the dragon has turned into a real obsession for the king. He no longer worries about the quiet daily life at the castle. If the dragon went on holiday, he was quite capable of following him just for the fun of teasing him. Today, they both form a sort of old couple – each as mad as the other.
His obsession with the dragon rather cuts him off from the rest of the world. He adores his daughter but doesn’t always pay very much attention to her. If only he would listen to what she has to say, everything would be so much easier.
Melodine and Riri do their best to change his mind of course. In order to distract him, Riri organises all sorts of hobbies for him – mainly gentle sports like knitting and mini-golf.
King Hugo is not a nasty man. He is more a victim of his own pigheadedness. His amazing dynamic character and his absolute confidence in the most stupid projects can only be admired. The mass of defeats and mix-ups don’t halt him – he continues blow by blow to believe in his luck and very quickly goes back to battle;
the little page boy
“If anyone taunts the dragon, they will have me to deal with, because he’s my friend.” (From Juju’s school book – notes and scribbles in the margin).
Juju is Riri’s small nephew and Princess Melodine’s pageboy. He is still very small and doesn’t know much vocabulary but is very active. As he runs very fast and can hide almost anywhere he has a lot of fun at the expense of the King and the jester. He loves it when they start chasing him.
Only Riri and Melodine know his secret – he is the dragon’s friend. He is never scared of him. One day he went to see the dragon and asked him a lot of naïve questions. The dragon was so surprised that he decided to play the game and they became friends. He is the only one to be able to go near the dragon and even seems to be able to completely understand his language. He speaks to him normally and the dragon replies in rumbles. Sometimes, Juju encourages him to play pranks – though not serious ones.
He adores Riri who is a sort of ideal big brother to him. He follows him everywhere and very often helps him. He doesn’t get on quite so well with Melodine. Firstly, she always has lots of chores for him to do when he would rather play with Riri or the dragon. Secondly, she never stops asking him questions about Riri. “Does he like my dress? Or my new hairstyle?”. In fact she tells him her deepest feelings in the hope that he will repeat everything to Riri. But Juju understands nothing about love and never passes on the messages. When he remembers the bribes she has given him, it only causes more complications and misunderstandings. Apart from this, Juju is a small faithful companion that Riri can always count on. Without him, he would have trouble saving the dragon.
The invincible neighbour
“Grr, Oumph, Woof, Woof, Growl, Gurgle”
The dragon in his shower.
A long time ago, dragons retired from the world in order to hide in the middle of the mountains where no-one could find them. Only one family was stubborn enough to stay near humans. The dragon in our story is a descendant of this particularly tough family. For generations, Potatoes and Dragons have been fighting for possession of this small territory. No-one knows who was there first and to be honest, it really doesn’t matter.
Our dragon is completely determined to keep up the tradition. On the other hand, he doesn’t really want to chase away all the other inhabitants – they are far too much fun. Actually, he likes nothing better than annoying the little guy who reigns over the castle. Each time he sees him, he fries his beard. They have both got into such a battle of neighbourly warfare that it has become a real occupation for them. Without that the dragon would be so bored all alone in his cave.
From day to day, the dragon lives a very simple life. After a good lie-in, he has a quick wash and then lolls around his cave until lunch-time. Then he dusts off his trophy collection and takes a bit of exercise. Sometimes Juju comes to play with him. Otherwise he does a bit of DIY or more rarely a bit of housework. Its true that single dragons rarely bother with things like that. Finally, when night falls he snores – very loudly according to the people in the castle.
However, as soon as his neighbours from the potato kingdom dare to go outside the castle, the dragon cannot resist playing tricks on them. Actually, even though he reached “the age of reason” a long time ago, he is still very child-like. It’s a chance for him to play and he loves teasing people. He gets real pleasure out of spoiling all the official events organised by king Hugo. The best trick was when he used the royal crown to make a quiche. The king smelt of bacon for weeks.
Actually, even when he’s not looking for a fight, his smallest move causes disasters. He only has to wash his socks for all the people in the castle to suffocate from the fumes. Once a year when he decides to go on a diet, he frolics in the volcano – it’s a sort of thalassotherapy for him. He nearly transforms the Potato kingdom into Pompeii each time.
However, he doesn’t do anything really nasty - just small pranks. He loves causing panic but doesn’t really want to hurt anyone. Just the fact of him being there often causes more problems than his tricks.
The challenge between the neighbours has taken a new turn since the king decided to call in foreign knights. The dragon has twice as much fun.
In this way, as soon as the king sends out a new challenger, the dragon has a good chuckle in advance. It’s a daily challenge – he is ready to face anyone or anything. He is even ready to let them choose their weapons. He accepts all challenges and feels much more superior than his ridiculous little attackers. After all, he is as big as a two-story building and he can breath fire.
However, in reality he is very presumptuous. Without the help of Princess Melodine, Riri and Juju, he would have lost the battle a long time ago. They manage to spare him a great deal of cuts and bruises. Of course he is big and strong but he is also clumsy and not very clever. Modern knights are much more dangerous than the tin soldiers of the past.
The dragon is both grumpy and endearing at the same time. He hides a big heart under a ferocious attitude. Everyone understands this – except King Hugo of course. For the king, he is a huge annoying monster. He thinks that he is very stupid, badly brought up, irresponsible, rude and thoughtless - which is of course true – that’s why we love him.
the experimental magician
“There’s something there.”
Extract from the “Merlin’s 1000 magic tricks” video.
Merlin is the official castle magician. He is an old friend of King Hugo. Together, they lived amazing adventures during their youth. Naturally, he became Melodine’s godfather. He is sort of the mad uncle of the family. He is a real magician but his memory tends to play tricks on him. He often forgets parts of his formulas and never completely manages to get his magic tricks right. However, he doesn’t give up. With him around what might seem like a good idea can easily turn into a disaster.
It has to be said they when he has a ludicrous idea, his magic works very well. He can make all sorts of objects appear – water-skis, a trampoline, a lawn mower. However, if you ask him to do you a favour – most of his tricks fail miserably. It’s a sort of jinx.
There is one thing that he gets right each time – concocting louchen, a delicious honey drink that Juju and Riri love. He simmers it in his cauldron and offers it up for tea.
Having said that, even if his magic is not what it used to be, the king holds him in esteem. Merlin is also his doctor.
The king and Merlin sometimes squabble about the methods used because Merlin tries to bring the notion of “Progress” into the little Potato kingdom. But King Hugo is rather more conservative. He is not in the least bit worried by the fact that his country is two or three industrial revolutions behind everyone else. In fact, King Hugo hates the very idea of revolution – it might give ideas to his subjects.
However, Merlin is always on the cutting edge of things - well, lets not exaggerate, the height of modernity for him is the Gramophone.
As soon as he sees an object from the modern day world, he decides to reproduce it – a real Korean processing plant all by himself. Unfortunately, he has a cruel lack of primary material. All he has are a few old mushrooms and some boiled roots. This strongly limits his potential technology. But he gets by and even manages to make substitutes which work extremely well to the surprise of everyone.
Extremely cultured and interested in everything, Merlin tries to share his enthusiasm for Science and the Arts with the rest of the castle inhabitants – he’s a walking encyclopaedia.
Merlin had travelled all over the world. He was welcomed to the court after an unfortunate accident with his magic wand burnt his old house down. Therefore, he considers his situation like an extended holiday.
Actually, he rather sees himself as a pacifist. Generally, he tries not to interfere too much in battle. But sometimes a knight really annoys him or is really dangerous. In that case, he gets personally involved in the heat of the action. He also helps Riri and Melodine. He gives them potions and various objects or diverts the king attention. He correctly works out what is going on between Riri and Melodine and thinks its great. He likes them both a lot and anyway he couldn’t deny his goddaughter anything.
Whilst being philosophic and distant at the same time, Merlin is a wise and sensible character – but that doesn’t stop him from causing disasters. Magic is a dangerous art.
the unemployed torturer
“The King said to me “ Harry, I count on you. We need to get rid of the big scaly thing that has poisoned our lives for deca… deca… a very long time””.
Harry’s memoirs, King’s torturer, Book of Palace Secrets in the Potato Kingdom.
Harry is an extra character on the king’s side. He is the “baddie” of the series who sometimes challenges the heroes when the fight seems too easy. He also is the underdog of the series. Harry in fact used to be a dragon- fighter. However, he came away grilled like toast and has worn a hood ever since. The king took pity on him and employed him as a torturer. However as there is no-one to torture, he has been unemployed ever since. In the meantime, he is determined to help the king do everything he can in order to get rid of the dragon. He’s a sort of huge bulldog – stupid but faithful.
He has a big grudge against the dragon and is very enthusiastic whenever a new challenger turns up at the castle. He is always willing to test the capabilities of the new knights but is an eternal victim. He always ends up losing. However, this doesn’t affect his determination. If their tactics work on him – they should work on the dragon.
Harry is entirely devoted to the King. He considers him on the same level as (PATTON) or (NAPOLEAN). He is always very shy in front of the princess and doesn’t suspect her of anything – she is far too pretty to do nasty things.
Harry doesn’t think much of the other characters. He is jealous of Riri and envies his place next to King Hugo. As he is sure that he is collaborating with the dragon, he does everything he can to mess up his plans. He spies on him, lays traps . . He always calls him “small head”. It’s a duel he would like to put an end to once and for all – with his hatchet.
Harry is also suspicious of Juju and Merlin. He always thinks they are going to play a trick on him or that he will the victim of an experiment gone wrong. However, the king does not pay any attention to all that. He thinks Harry is paranoid.
In each episode, a new challenger appears. This upsets things in the daily life of the castle. The confrontation with our main characters always brings lots of surprises. The princess risks being seduced, Juju meets a terrible child, Merlin refinds his old adversary in the 1932 Olympic Games, Riri finds out that the Black knight is his father … anything could happen!
The knights who turn up at the castle come from a wide range of personalities – boys bands, Martians, Bulgarian wrestling champions, organic cheese producers - a real bunch of crazy people. They come from all sorts of places. They can be imaginary, fictional characters, or from everyday life.
They are all representative of the modern world. Their attitudes and dress seem strange to the people of the potato kingdom. Through the caricatures of the knights, we can have a slight dig or satirical glance at modern society.
Every knight believes he has the solution to the beat the dragon. Some count on brute force, others on their tools (which range from forks to nuclear bombs) others, sly little devils, are ready to bank on cunning plans.
Whatever their ploy, they are always beaten by the amazing team formed by Riri, Melodine and Juju. Their magic powers or modern technology are no match for the friendship and teammanship that unite our three heroes.
For children, the knights are the image of school bullies – always showing off their latest gadget or cheating at football. They are annoying and we should be happy to see them beaten by the dragon.