Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Difference between revisions

*** The Utena [[Sega Saturn]] game pumps up the absurdity, by revealing that the only reason the council members have their places at all are because they're the most popular and "prince-like" students in the school. Their jobs on the council are arbitrarily assigned based on their age. Mikki is genuinely shocked at the revelation; Juri just gets pissed.

* Despite the "Order of Glittering Crux" in ''[[Star Driver]]'' is not a student council per se, its main leaders include students with extra responsibilities like a class rep, the art club president, the rich student/sponsor and the student dorms manager.

** [[Double Subverted]]. When Shizuru (the President) leaves the job, it becomes apparent that her laissez-faire attitude and sweet-natured diplomacy, [[Good Cop, Bad Cop|combined with]] Haruka's [[Hot-Blooded|boundless energy]], kept the school running. Haruka can't do the job without her; though part of this is the job getting a lot harder {{spoiler|1=after the school got half-destroyed in the HiME battles}}, she complains that Shizuru could have things sorted out if she was there.

* ''[[Kingyo Chuihou|Goldfish Warning]]'': the president literally owns the school.

** More a case of the president being rich, obsessed, and able to drag the rest along.

* ''[[Kanon]]'', where the student council apparently has some say in whether or not students get expelled or not (in the 2006 anime, at least. In the original game, the signature of a student council member was needed to get the school board to revoke an expulsion, implying that the council had influence in such matters but did not actually have the authority to make such decisions on their own.

* One of these types of Student Councils appears to be the focus of ''[[Seitokai no Ichizon]]'', though they tend to get distracted by [[Conversational Troping]] so often it's a wonder they get anything done.

** A wonder, or rather {{spoiler|the male member staying behind ridiculous hours to get through all the paperwork that doesn't otherwise get done}}.

 

== [[Visual Novel]]s ==

** Overturned with Tomoyo's election as [[Student Council President]].

** The student council in Clannad is powerful not because it has some control over club activities, but rather because it can influence GOVERNMENTAL DECISIONS (Tomoyo managed to prevent the Sakura trees near the school from being cut down even though they are not school property!)

* A similar situation occurred in one episode of ''[[Invader Zim]]''. The president's job is to sing the school's praises and never say one single word against it... or else.

* Parodied on ''[[Clone High]]'': the most important decisions that the Student President made were the placement of rugs in the library.

** Though it's made clear on multiple occasions that they answer to the teachers, or at least the principal.

* Subverted in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "The President Wore Pearls". Upon being elected [[Student Council President]], Lisa expects to have a say in the school's affairs. However, Chalmers and Skinner sidetrack her by turning her into a glamorous Eva Peron lookalike and tricking her into authorizing the elimination of music, art and gym. Doubly subverted when Lisa uses her moral authority to call a student strike, ultimately reversing the cuts. Chalmers ultimately explains to her that student government is meaningless, and their constitution is just written on the back of a placemat from [[Burger Fool|some place called "Doodle's"]].

{{quote|'''Natella''' (reading): We hope that future generations will benefit from our muddled and misguided idealism.}}

* In ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' the student council president has his own office, can use powerful technology to force kids into school on snow days, and can ''declare war'' on other grades. They apparently can debate with the school board on a few issues as well. The safety patrol/hall monitors act like a police force, arresting students and keeping them in detention.

* ''[[Daria]]'' subverted this by rendering Lawndale's student council invisible save for its President, [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] Jodie Landon, who kept mentioning being in the student council whenever she appeared on screen.

* The class treasurer election in ''[[Doug]]'' was such [[Serious Business]] that, for Doug, Skeeter donated old campaigning materials from his uncle Dan Freebird (his justification being having the same initials as "Doug Funnie"), and his opponent's father, the ''Mayor of Bluffington'', used his own campaign for re-election to parade his son around. Unfortunately, this distracted the Mayor from his own election, causing him to lose on a landslide. And {{spoiler|Dan Freebird}} was elected class treasurer.

[[Category:School Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]