Cool Chair: Difference between revisions

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Cool Chairs will always be thematically appropriate. You will never find [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Lord Azazel the Befouler]] brooding atop his dread throne of plush cushions, and conversely you'll will never see [[The Captain|Captain]] [[Awesome McCoolname|Jake McHero]] reclining on a seat made of iron [[Spikes of Villainy|spikes]] and [[Atop a Mountain of Corpses|human tibias]]. In [[The Sixties]], ''the'' Cool Chair was [http://www.eero-aarnio.com/8/Objects/Ball_Chair.htm Aarnio Eero's Ball Chair.] People who have their own Cool Chairs (understandably) tend to be attached to them; should some irreverent interloper put his seat in your seat, feel free to declare: [[This Is My Chair]].
 
A subtrope of this is the ''Hovering'' [[Cool Chair]], often found in video games and more fantastic works of fiction. Hovering Cool Chairs are also sometimes weaponized - machine guns, rockets, and lasers pop out of it to attack the villain's enemies- especially when also functioning as a [[Super Wheelchair]]. This may serve as a way to introduce a [[Boss Battle]] with a mastermind-type villain without resorting to [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]. [[Swivel Chair Antics]] is another [[Sub -Trope]].
 
Also, on occasion, the chair may serve as an escape pod for the villain to [[Villain Exit Stage Left|make his getaway]]. 
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** In "Prometheus Unbound," Hammond returns to the SGC to recruit Daniel for the latest flight to Atlantis. When Jack asks him if he misses the chair and wants it back, Hammond says yes... and has the chair shipped to his office in Washington. That must be a damn comfy chair.
* Daniel's control chair in his [[Emperor Scientist|secret underground bunker]] in [[All Just a Dream|"Absolute Power"]] also definitely counts. It's on a cantilever, at least one of its armrests is a control panel, and it has a [[Deflector Shield]], making it [[Immune to Bullets|immune to shooting from a 9mm pistol]].
* Let's not forget Baltar's infamous swivelling chair in the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic (TV)|Battlestar Galactica Classic]]''. Though how he got up there in the first place is beyond me.
* Averted on the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]''. As part of the design of the 2003 mini-series, the writers and producers attempted to avoid as many of the standard stylings of typical TV [[Space Opera]]. Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh always stand in [[Ci C]]. Some folks think they didn't really think it all the way through...
* Having been crippled, Davros, the creator of the Daleks and recurring villain in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', has his lower body encased in a cool chair by the time of his initial appearance in Genesis of the Daleks and retains it in later appearances.
* The Thinking Chair from ''[[Blues Clues]]''. Want!
* The Frank Lloyd Wright chairs in the council chambers on ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|Babylon 5]]'', and the command chair on the ''White Star''-class ships. One of the buttons on the latter was programmed, at the battle of Corianna VII, to detonate 500 Megaton thermonuclear mines. Can you get any cooler? 
* A [[Genre Savvy]] moment in ''[[Rome]]'' has Cassius trying to convince Brutus that the cool chair Caesar has ordered for the forum is actually a throne and indicative of a thirst for power. Brutus claims that "thrones are usually more decorative. That is decidedly plain and chair-like."
* In the first episode of ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'', Ducky and DiNozzo quickly snap photos of each other sitting in the President's chair on Air Force One.
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** How can we not mention Stephen Hawking's wheelchair from the same show? It could fly and was loaded with more tools than [[Inspector Gadget]].
* Professor Farnsworth from ''[[Futurama]]'' pilots a flying, armed Laz-E-Boy when they are pushed back to 1940's Roswell.
** [[Ridiculously -Human Robots|Hedonism Bot]] ''is'' a Cool Chair.
* The [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]] Felix Renton from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has a wheelchair with a hover system and retractable [[Combat Tentacles]]. It was built by his mother, a cybertechnology expert who moved into town to work at the space center with Kim's father. In his second appearance, the bad guys steal it, causing Shego to remark that [[Even Evil Has Standards]].
* [[Big Bad]] Megabyte in [[Re Boot]] had a hovering Cool Chair. Of course, sitting in it required him to ''take his legs off'' to attach himself to it. He often had one of his Mooks polishing his legs while using his chair.
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* Jafar in ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'' has a throne that's basically [[Slouch of Villainy|a couch]] with a giant carving of a cobra's head above it and more cobras for the legs. He also [[Go-Go Enslavement|chains Princess Jasmine to it.]] Of course, the original throne of the sultan of Agrabah was pretty cool too, having an elephant carving.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the Earth King has an ornate throne worked into an absolutely enormous wall fashioned in the likeness of a badgermole, and covered in what appears to be gold and jade. Firelord Sozin had a golden throne before a similar wall worked with a golden dragon and surrounded by fiery cressets. After he crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] this is replaced with what seems to be a simpler seat... that's hidden behind a wall of flames in an otherwise unlit hall.
* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'': A [[Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum|temporarly smart Beezy]] makes a chair that can [[Time Travel]].
* In ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' Thundera's [[The Good King|Good King]] Claudus has a high-backed golden throne with cat's head armrests (appropriate to a [[Catfolk]] [[King of Beasts|monarch]]) and royal blue cushions. [[Big Bad]] [[Sorcerous Overlord]] Mumm-Ra later sees fit to commandeer it after he's succesfully laid [[The Siege|siege]] to Thundera.
 
 
== Real Life ==
* [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Throne |Thrones]]. Duh.
* The ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedia_gestatoria:Sedia gestatoria|sedia gestatoria]]'' used by [[The Pope]] has to be [http://www.pepik.net/fotky/papamobil/papanositka.jpg seen to be believed.]
* Real-life example: the term "chairman" comes from a time when all the members of a committee, save for the most important one, had to sit on benches. The most important one got a chair, which, when everyone else is sitting on benches, seems pretty cool all by itself.
** In the British House of Commons, only the Speaker has a chair. Everyone else sits on benches. 
** Subverted in the House of Lords, where while the Lords do sit on benches (admittedly really, really, posh benches), the "chairman" of the House (formerly the Lord Chancellor, now the Lord Speaker) does ''not'' get an actual chair but rather sits on the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Woolsack |Woolsack]], which is [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]: a sack full of wool. Despite the absence of a back, it's apparently quite comfortable. There's also a Judges' Woolsack, another (much longer) wool-filled cushion right in front of and below it, where the Law Lords--Britain's highest judicial authority until they were moved to the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in late 2009--sat during the State Opening of Parliament (although any Lord may sit on it during normal session). Double Subverted in that there ''is'' a rather cool chair in the Lords Chamber--it's the monarch's throne, from which he/she gives the Speech from the Throne every State Opening of Parliament--and unlike the Judges' Woolsack, if you're not supposed to be sitting in it but sit in it anyway, you ''will'' get in trouble.
* The old-school [https://www.chesterfields1780.com/ Chesterfield] chairs and sofas are among the most recognisable upper class furniture, familiar from every [[Smoky GentlemensGentlemen's Club]] in fiction, ever. 
* The long-running TV show [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim%27ll_Fix_It:Jimchr(27)ll Fix It|Jim'll Fix It]] featured a large chair for Jimmy Savile with concealed compartments that would open when he pressed the right button. When Tom Baker and K9 were on the shown K9 said it was pleased to meet "Mr Savile and Chair".
* The Atlantis resort and watermark in the bahamas gives us [http://albanykid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bahamas-atlantis-girl-on-golden-throne-1.jpg The Golden Throne], a seat that guests are free to sit in (one at a time... [http://images.travelpod.com/users/bellavita/1.1241994300.the-atlantis-throne.jpg normally)] and take pictures in for free.
* The "thrones" occupied by mall Santas tend to be fairly impressive to look at, at least to the small children who come to sit on his lap.
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[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide To Cool]]
[[Category:Cool Chair]]
[[Category:Trope]]