Awesome Moment of Crowning: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

This is when, (not always) at the end of the story, the main character or characters are crowned the leader of the land they just saved. Reasons can vary:

 

{{endingtrope}}

{{examples}}

* Twisted in the end of the ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' manga, considering how mermaid politics work. Aqua Regina gives her throne and powers up so that Lucia can be the new Aqua Regina.

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'' R2, Lelouch managed to kill his father and named himself the emperor of Britannia. There were many who refused to acknowledge him, but that was before he showed them his Power of the King. In the end, after Lelouch's death, his younger sister Nunnally is crowned as the 100th Empress of Britannia.

* In ''[[Vinland Saga]]'', the king has been trying to eliminate Prince Canute from contention for the throne, one way or another. After threatening to attack Wales unless the prince was killed, Askeladd beheaded the king, killed about a dozen soldiers, and then allowed Canute to stab him, thus "avenging" his father. The prince, bleeding from the face, dons the crown and takes control of an army whose leader had wanted him dead minutes before. Badass.

* Esther at the end of ''[[Trinity Blood]]''

** In the [[Spin-Off]] Manga, where said Sankt Kaiser is the main character, her mommy gives her this power back! Have we mentioned that said mommy is a weird combination of [[Magical Girl]] and [[Combat Pragmatist]]?

* Lucia's in ''[[Rave Master]]''. Which includes everyone dressed elegantly and a speech about how [[The Power of Love|love is great and all]] but screw it anyway.

* Happens in ''[[Berserk]]'' at the end of the Millennium Falcon arc, where Griffith, the general [[Big Bad]] of the series proper, after defeating Emperor Ganishka and fusing the astral and mortal worlds together, has recently claimed the throne of his new kingdom of Falconia.

* At the end of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ling Yao goes back to Xing with a philosopher's stone and becomes emperor. Unfortunately we don't see his crowning but we get a final shot of him on the throne in the photo collage at the end of the series.

** If one considers that Saito and Louise have been "Married" this could technically mean that Saito has become a Prince and is now 3rd in line for the throne. Even then, it's pretty obvious they'll get married for real. He also gets his own version when he becomes a Knight Chevalier and therefore nobility. Which has the added bonus of her father cannot complain anymore about whom she marries.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Tsunade is crowned Hokage near the end of Part 1. Also, the manga will likely end with Naruto being crowned Hokage as that has been his dream since the beginning of the series.

* ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'': Starscream draws power from the stolen Cyber Planet Keys and [[Make My Monster Grow|grows to the size of a skyscraper]], bursting out of the top of a volcano. And then, he places upon his head a massive crown identical to the one G1 Starscream wore in ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' and declares that he will conquer the universe. He is armyless by now, but it doesn't matter.

 

* ''[[Bone]]'': Thorn, taking [[Rightful King Returns|her rightful place]] after the royal family had previously been exiled by a war and the kingdom usurped. Oddly enough, the usurper [[Red Herring|never had to be dealt with]], having died at the beginning of the climactic battle.

* ''[[Ghostopolis]]'' has Claire becoming the new ruler of the afterlife (or rather, the interim version of the afterlife that comes between Earth and Heaven)

 

* The ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' [[Alternate Universe]] fic ''Perfect Mind'' ends with Chrono and Rosette becoming the new rulers of the demons.

 

* The ending of ''[[The Lion King]]''.

** Well, he was the rightful ruler... Scar kind of hijacked it by making everyone think Simba was dead.

 

 

* At the end of ''[[The Court Jester]]'', the rightful king is finally revealed by his distinctive birthmark.

* [[The Parody|Spoofed]] at the climax of ''[[Johnny English]]''. The [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] is a Funny Moment of Crowning, where Rowan Atkinson becomes the King of England.

*** It was later addressed with the line "Chewbacca would receive a medal also, but later, as few star princesses are that tall."

*** In the Marvel comic, they had to adjourn to the cafeteria, where Leia could stand on a table.

** The same movie averts this in the finished film, as well; when Ridley gets into the treasure-filled room with the Dragon-controlling rod of something-or-other, there's a particularly awesome-looking crown in the background, which our square-jawed protagonist (as well as the movie itself) ignores completely.

* ''Conan the Destroyer'': Jehnna is crowned after the Queen is killed. She offers Conan the chance to "rule with [her]". He declines.

 

 

* In the grand finale of the ''[[Animorphs]]'' series, Aximili, the alien stranded on earth and seemingly forever doomed to live in the shadow of his late brother, Prince Elfangor, finally, FINALLY gets his awesome moment of crowning and is named a Prince himself and becomes a hero of his people.

** Though, it's not exactly an Awesome Moment of Crowning in this case, because for the Andalites, "Prince" is a military title, a bit like Colonel or General are on earth, still awesome though.

* In [[Garth Nix]]'s ''[[Old Kingdom|The Old Kingdom]]'' trilogy, the long-lost prince is first discovered as a [[Human Popsicle]], and reluctantly reveals his heritage (he was the bastard son of the ruling Queen and the only survivor of the royal family.) When we revisit the Kingdom fourteen years later, he is definitely King and married to the heroine from Book One. Squee !

* In Garth Nix's ''Keys to the Kingdom'' series, Arthur becomes the New Architect the moment he finally brings the Will together, and gets to remake the entire Universe from scratch. He even gets his own 'Let there be light' moment.

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor after the defeat of Sauron, in a wonderfully awesome ceremony, lightened by gossiping asides by bystander Ioreth in the watching crowd.

* At the end of [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'' [[Doorstopper]] trilogy, Simon Snowlock is crowned King. Although the moment is not particularly awesome, per se, as the land he's make King of has been fairly well wrecked.

* Valraven and Varencienne's crowning at the end of ''[[Chronicles of Magravandias]]'' combines almost all of the above instances of crowning but [[Standard Hero Reward]]. Incidentally Valraven is married to the old emperor's daughter, but that was arranged and happened seven years beforehand.

 

* In Ann Maxwell's ''Timeshadow Rider'', the Kiriy of Za'ahrain - the ruler of the planet - is the first person who, upon the death of the previous Kiriy, can survive wearing the Eyes of Za'ahrain, which are effectively a crown that is also a magical artifact used to keep the inherent violence of the people from surfacing in the present time. The Eyes are stolen upon the death of the Kiriy at the beginning of the book, and are pursued by the protagonists (who are the two most likely to survive attempting to wear them) throughout the book, although neither wants the job. Subverted in that when the Eyes are finally retrieved and the protagonists are facing up to seeing who will be the next Kiriy, their [[Mons]], sensing that their human partners don't want the Eyes, promptly make the Eyes permanently disappear.

* In ''[[Gormenghast|Titus Groan]]'', one-year-old Titus subverts this trope when he drops all three ceremonial objects that tradition obligated him to carry at his Earling into the lake.

* ''[[Discworld]]'':

** In another part of the Disc entirely, averted thus far, where even though ''everyone'', even people who haven't been to the city since before Carrot arrived, knows he's the rightful heir to the throne, he hasn't been made king yet. Even better, both Vetinari and Carrot know that Carrot is the rightful heir to the thrown and could actually take over in a heartbeat, '''if''' he wanted to. The main issue seems to be that he has an objection to people following him simply because of that reason, and Vimes made the valid point that there numerous problems with the term 'rightful'. After all, they got rid of the kings and never invited them back, presumably all his antecedents for 300 years were rightful too, just not narratively appropriate.

 

** The scene itself is a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in that Roslin's oath was purposefully modeled after another real-life "end of a reign"—that of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, specifically, the photo of the swearing-in ceremony of Lyndon Johnson, surrounded by reporters, aboard Air Force One.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor gets elected as President of the High Council of the Time Lords (for the second time, having no memory of the first case in ''The Invasion of Time'') at the end of ''The Five Doctors''. He accepts, gives temporary authority to Chancellor Flavia and leaves in the TARDIS. He gets said position taken from him at some point between that and ''The Trial of a Time Lord''.

 

 

* "Crowning of the King" by Blackmore's Night is all about this.

* [[Iamamiwhoami]]'s video "t" features the Mandragora receiving a crown and scepter made of aluminum foil.

 

 

** This generally involves feuding with Jerry "The King" Lawler, who had used the gimmick in Memphis for decades previous to his entrance in WWE/F.

 

 

* Many sporting events have something similar to this for its winner. The event would be styled as 'King of the X' or something with 'Royal' in it. Often the winner ends up with a cape, crown, and throne for promotional photos.

* The [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] medal ceremony. All of them. Ever. Unless you're Michael Phelps. Phelps got a lot of flack in the international press for being disrespectful during some of his medal ceremonies. The footage of him ''stretching his legs on the gold medal podium'' ticked off a lot of people.

 

 

* In ''[[Pippin]]'', Pippin gets crowned king after killing his father, but the crown turns out to be one size bigger than his head.

 

 

* At the end of the first two ''[[Suikoden]]'' games, the hero is offered the leadership of the country they've just liberated/formed. They don't usually accept. (Riou can become the leader in II, but the 'true' ending has him leave.)

** ''[[Suikoden V]]'' also has a subversion with Lymsleia's crowning ceremony. It SHOULD be an awesome moment for little Lym, but seeing as the [[Big Bad]] is effectively using her as a puppet and plans to use her new status as Queen to screw over the good guys even more, it's far from awesome.

** Not to mention the scene after his transformation to a Deathknight, where he simply stabs his father to take over the throne. Not that he has much interest in breathing servants...

** In the Dragonwrath questline and in [[Thrall Twilighha Of The Aspects]], Kalecgos becomes the new Aspect of Magic.

{{quote|'''Kerrigan''': [[Video Games/Awesome|You see, at this point... I'm pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe.]]}}

*** Then, there's Mengsk.

*** Which is kinda hilarious, [[You Keep Using That Word|if you know what prodigal actually means]].

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]] 7'', the ending involves the crowning of either Eliwood as Marquess Pherae (in Eli's route) or Hector as Marquess Ostia (in Hector's). Also used in [[Fire Emblem]] 6, which includes in the epilogue mentions of Roy's friend and protegee Princess Guinivere becoming Queen of Bern after her older brother Zephiel's death.

** And ''The Sacred Stones,'' and ''Path of Radiance,'' and... you know what? Let's just assume that Fire Emblem games end with an Awesome Moment of Crowning by default.

* Subverted in ''[[Dragon Quest III]]'': after defeating the ''very first boss'', you are presented with the option of becoming king. Once you are king, however, you can only walk around the castle: no weapons, no armor, no magic, no leaving... making this also a modified [[Nonstandard Game Over]] (though it can be reversed by talking the old king back into his job.)

 

 

* Subverted (or possibly averted) in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0170.html this] ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' strip. Durkon rightly becomes King of the Bandits, but gives it up.

** Also subverted as the characters chit-chat during [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0412.html Hinjo's crowning].

* The "Ninja Emperor" arc of ''Sam and Fuzzy'' has been screwing around with this A LOT. First Sam doesn't want to be crowned but he's being dragged into it by Blank and opposed by Black, then we meet Gertrude who really ought to be getting crowned and resents the crap out of Sam because he has a semi-legitimate claim and she doesn't, then we find out that Blank doesn't want Sam, he just wants ''somebody'' to validate the command structure while Black wants to tear it down, then oh just read it. I swear. Crazy.

** Although Sam's actual crowning as the new Ninja Emperor isn't particularly awesome, his [http://samandfuzzy.com/archive.php?comicID=919 first decree] is definitely his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]

** Also earlier, the Wayward Vagabond and the Aimless Renegade make a crown for the Windswept Questant (former White Queen). She promptly turns it down, giving it to Peregrine Mendicant instead, in gratitude towards PM for completing her duty.

 

 

 

 

* Subverted in ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'', when Elyon's Awesome Moment of Crowning is actually a trap to allow Phobos to steal her power. After Phobos is defeated, however, Elyon gets a real one.

** Actually, Elyon never gets a crowning ceremony. She's crowned by Will, the leader of the Guardians, to release her full power so magnificent that she turns ''shackles of light into crumbling stone''. She then proceeds to restore the magic in their world in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMoA]]/[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|H]]

 

 

* After the Revolutionary War, [[George Washington]] was offered the position of King. Averted, obviously.

** His heir was apparently going to be John Adams, which makes sense because Adams, unlike Washington, actually ''had children.''

* Napoleon's coronation culminated in his taking the crown from [[The Pope|Pope Pius VII.]] and crowning himself. He was just that good.

** That gesture had actually been arranged beforehand, as a way of drawing a parallel with the coronation of Charlemagne.

** Wilhelm, King of Prussia, was proclaimed German Emperor Wilhelm I by acclamation in the Versailles palace. There was no formal imperial coronation, nor an imperial crown, because the emperor ruled over both Catholic and Protestant Germans, who hardly would have agreed on how to carry out a coronation. Also, the notion of self-coronation was unacceptable just because Napoleon I had done so; the Germans of those days did not like what the French Empire had done to their lands. The constitution of the German Empire stipulated that the King of Prussia automatically would serve as German Emperor.

* Anybody who wins a major election, a recent and great example being the historic inauguration of President [[Barack Obama]]. In particular, [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who having led the Allied militaries to victory in the [[Second World War]], who was courted by both major parties to run for them.

* Averted in 1973, in the immediate aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, when Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and Chief of the General Staff Gen. David "Dado" Elazar visited Israeli forces at the Sinai front. When they visited the 143rd Armored Division, they addressed the troops in the company of the Division's commander, Gen. Ariel "Arik" Sharon. When they all appeared, the men started spontaneously shouting "Arik, king of Israel!" Nevertheless an aversion, because Sharon did not actually become king; he was, however, eventually elected prime minister in February 2001. Still, one can only imagine what goes through the mind of the duly elected prime minister of a modern republic when she hears the citizen-soldiers of said republic proclaiming their general to be their king.

* The coronation of Jean Bedel Bokassa, the psychotic dictator of the Central African Republic from 1966-1979. In 1977 he decided to crown himself Emperor of his country, and replicated the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as best he could. It ultimately cost a third of the nation's GDP to pull it off,and several foreign leaders were invited (though most of them didn't show up). Like Bonaparte, he also tried to get the Pope to crown him, but this was also unsuccessful. Bokassa replicated everything from the robes he wore to the ceremonial carriage, and like Napoleon, seized the crown and placed it on his own head.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Authority Tropes]]

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]