Talented Princess, Regular Guy/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The heroine is noticeably more talented than the hero.

  • Straight: Princess Alice can dance, paint, and kick butt, while Prince Bob has no unique skills.
  • Exaggerated: Princess Alice has every talent imaginable, including skills she doesn't even need, while Bob can do basically nothing.
  • Justified: Princess Alice has a team of tutors and instructors who taught her everything she knows, while Bob is a peasant and doesn't have access to, or can't afford, that kind of thing.
    • Alice has lived a sheltered life and had to do something to entertain herself.
  • Inverted: Bob is incredibly talented and Alice isn't.
  • Subverted: Alice and Bob break up because she's too good for him.
  • Double Subverted: But then Alice discovers skills she didn't know she had, and kicks the Big Bad's ass, outdoing Bob again.
  • Averted: Bob and Alice are both equally talented or untalented.
  • Deconstructed: The talented Princess Alice is engaged to the drab and untalented Prince Bob. Charlie, who is just as talented as Alice, is jealous of Bob because he thinks he's much better for Alice.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice is a better singer than Bob, Bob is a better dancer than Alice, Alice is a better artist than Bob, etc.
    • On top of that, Alice is a peasant and Bob is royal.
  • Enforced: Girls Need Role Models.
  • Lampshaded: "You're such a showoff, Alice."
  • Defied: Prince Bob is in an Arranged Marriage with Princess Alice. When he hears how vastly talented she is, he immediately begins brushing up on his own skills to impress her.
  • Discussed: "Alice and Bob don't belong together. She's so much better than him at everything."
  • Conversed: "Wow, Bob sure is pathetic compared to Alice."

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