Fake King: Difference between revisions

 

If a hero stands in for the king, it's [[Emergency Impersonation]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Mr. 2 Bon Clay impersonates the king to get everyone in Alabasta to fight. Only one kid notices this, and he's too injured by Baroque Works to tell anyone.

* In [[The Twelve Kingdoms]], Princess Joei takes up the role to usurp Youko's rightful place as the sucessor of her sister Joukaku.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In the ''[[Archies Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' comics, during the "Endgame" [[Story Arc]], [[Big Bad|Dr. Robotnik]] replaced King Max with a robot double as part of his plan to finally defeat the Freedom Fighters.

* In ''[[The Warlord]]'', Deimos used an [[Identical Stranger]] to usurp Travis Morgan's position as Warlord of Skartaris.

 

== Film ==

* Many adaptations of ''[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]]'' involve an inversion of this plot—an evil king being replaced by his secret good twin.

* ''[[Dave]]'' centers on an inversion of this plot: a bastard President goes into a coma and a look-alike is asked to stand in for him—a look-alike who makes a much better president.

 

== Literature ==

* At least two ''[[Discworld]]'' stories involve this, or at least the idea of doing it. Apparently, Vetinari just has that effect on people.

* Terry Brooks' [[Magic Kingdom of Landover]] novel ''The Black Unicorn'' has this exact plot, but puts a fresh take on it by telling the story from the real king's point-of-view.

* Robert E. Howard's ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' story "A Witch Shall Be Born" has Queen Taramis of Khauran replaced by her evil twin sister Salome. Salome treats the kingdom's farmers like slaves and excessively taxes city dwellers.

* [[Older Than Print]]: There is an old Jewish legend about King Solomon capturing Asmodeus the Demon King. Eventually Asmodeus tricks Solomon into letting him out of the cell—then impersonates Solomon and exiles him.

* ''King Behind The Veil in Dreamlands'' by [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. You really need to read it, but in short: the proper king was decadent and has shown disrespect to gods and went to openly mock them. He returned, wearing veil forever. In reality he has been replaced by a race of beings, who enforced harsh but reasonably fair laws. The exiles from the society are secretly captured and used for their breeding program (which, [[Cthulhu Mythos]] being what it is, involves mosquito men and semi-sentient grubs).

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's [[Prospero's Daughter]] trilogy, the legend of Solomon and Asmodeus is true. Solomon, near the end of it, took advantage of it to go to Hell and do a lot of damage to them, because they all took him for Asmodeus.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Kull]] story "The Shadow Kingdom", the Snakemen do this.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The King's Demons''.

* Sylar, the villain of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', has attempted to [[Take Over the World]] by assuming the identity of the President of the United States. Twice!

 

== Toys ==

* Shows up in the ''Adventures'' arc of [[Bionicle]] where Makuta swaps places with Turaga Dume, ruler of [[Capital City|Metru Nui]] in order to perform a crucial part of his [[Evil Plan]].

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' features a variation on this. [[Cloudcuckoolander|Tapeta]] is the prince of Fort Nageur; unfortunately, he's shiftless, irresponsible and a hopeless romantic, and he's been abroad for quite some time (much of it spent [[Baleful Polymorph|transformed into an even]] ''[[Baleful Polymorph|bigger]]'' [[Baleful Polymorph|frog]]). By the time he comes back as part of Ryu's party, an impostor has taken his place: said impostor claims that Tapeta is impersonating ''him'' and has him arrested.

** And the kicker? The people of Fort Nageur ''knew'' that Tapeta was the real deal; [[They Just]] [[Didnt Care]] on the grounds they were probably better off with the phony.

 

== Web Comics ==

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100218162458/http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0253.html Parodied] in ''[[Adventurers!]]!'': Karn meets a chancellor and immediately defenestrates him, on the [[Genre Savvy]] assumption that he's been replaced by a monster. It turns out that was the real chancellor; the monster assigned to replace him was out sick.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In an episode of ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' based on ''[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]]'', "The Duck in the Iron Mask".

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]