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Fake King: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.''|The [[Evil Overlord List]], Rule #3}}
Rarely seen in the same country as the [[Evil Chancellor]] and rarely a [[Final Boss]] -- though they can be a significant one -- a good, often beloved ruler or other authority figure has been replaced by a doppelganger of some kind with horribly evil intentions. The [[Fake King]] exploits the country's people and resources to further his nefarious agenda. He often isn't very subtle, but you don't get much in the way of disobedience except from the heroes; everyone else just remarks on how the king is acting funny or has changed. The replacement usually happens before the story starts. It could be seen as the lazy way to become a [[Villain
While this specific [[Fake King]] plot is arguably a [[Dead Horse Trope]] in console RPGs by now, the general trope of replacing a good authority figure with an evil one through [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]], [[Grand Theft Me|possession]], the existence of an [[Evil Twin]], cloning, illusion magic, or some other form of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] is considerably older and potentially more varied. The key points are that the authority figure is known as a real person and that he or she gets replaced by a look-alike who makes things worse -- a villain disguised as the king.
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== Film ==
* Many adaptations of ''[[The Man in
* ''[[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.
* The novel and movie ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]'', on which ''[[Dave]]'' was based, also uses an inversion, where the hero impersonates his identical cousin the King of [[Ruritania]] while the latter is imprisoned by [[The Evil Prince]]. He is a much better person and leader than the real king, who is dissolute and incompetent, but he ultimately helps restore the real king to the throne. (Although at several points he debates allowing the villains to kill the real king before foiling their schemes -- but mostly because he's in love with the king's fiancee.)
* ''[[The Great Race]]'' takes time out from the actual race to send up ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]''. The villain, Professor Fate, gets to be the one who looks just like the king-to-be.
* ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' has a fake ''queen'' -- and a relatively obvious one at that. [[Magnificent Bastard]] Ratigan forces a toymaker to create a robotic copy of the actual Mouse Queen, who -- standing in for the real deal -- will abdicate her throne in favor of Ratigan as the new king.
* Later from [[Disney]], ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy:
* In ''[[Metropolis]]'', the mad scientist Rotwang replaces leader-of-the-people Maria with a robot.
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* At least two ''[[Discworld]]'' stories involve this, or at least the idea of doing it. Apparently, Vetinari just has that effect on people.
** There might be just one story where an actual Vetinari impersonation is an important plot point (''[[Discworld
* 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 [[
** That's just the role-playing game, and possibly some professional fanfiction. Lovecraft only implied that the King and his priests were inhuman, but never clarified just what they were, and if they had always been that way.
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's [[
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Kull]] story "The Shadow Kingdom", the Snakemen do this.
{{quote| ''"Kings have reigned as true men in Valusia," the Pict whispered, "and yet, slain in battle, have died serpents—as died he who fell beneath the spear of Lion- fang on the red beaches when we of the isles harried the Seven Empires. And how can this be. Lord Kull?<br />
"These kings were born of women and lived as men!<br />
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== Live Action TV ==
* The ''[[
* 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 ==
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* ''[[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.
* ''[[
** Also subverted when the king starts acting like a dick. (More of a dick than usual, anyway). People do comment on his strange behavior... but it's the aforementioned {{spoiler|Fake Chancellor}} trying to throw you off the trail.
* The appropriately named False King in [[Demons Souls]]
* ''[[Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories]]'' gives us {{spoiler|a fake}} Overlord Zenon. {{spoiler|The real Zenon is reincarnated as Rozalin.}}
* ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ...and then ''[[
** The ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters]]'' series did it more times than this troper can count. Probably because you can only battle monsters.
** Again this trope turns up twice in ''[[
* The first of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' Games, ''Arena'', begins in a prison where the player learns in a dream that the Emperor is an impostor, and must chase all over Tamriel for pieces of the Chaos Staff to defeat him.
* ''[[
** In ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'', we have a fake princess. Who eats rats. And demands sex from [[The Hero]].
** ''[[
* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' plays with this Trope a great deal. {{spoiler|Early on, you are lead to believe that Emperor Sun Hai is somehow being controlled by his sinister adviser, [[The Faceless|Death's Hand]]. Once you reach him, though, you learn that Death's Hand is merely a puppet of Sun Hai, who is still very much in control of his own faculties despite being dead, and must defeat the Emperor... just in time for another villain to actually step out of the shadows and assume control of the Empire, pretending that Sun Hai still rules.}}
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** ''[[Oracle of Ages]]'' pulls a similar trick -- the sorceress Veran possesses the titular oracle, and goes back in time to manipulate the queen as an advisor (and later possess her, too). It results in a similar situation to the usual Fake King plot.
** ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' has this with the Goron Leader, who has been possessed by a Fused Shadow. Not quite an example as the other Gorons were wise to the change the moment it happened and sealed him in the Goron Mines.
* In ''[[Lunar Silver Star Story Complete|Lunar: The Silver Star]]'' and its remakes, the leader of the floating city of Vane, Lemia Ausa, is replaced by [[The Dragon|Xenobia]], a servant of the Magic Emperor. The real Lemia is imprisoned in the dungeon with a [[Man in
* In the first ''[[Might and Magic]]'' game, this is used. In the fifth game, the [[Big Bad]] takes the same identity, although not with taking over a throne.
* ''[[Okami]]'' played with this with the leaders of Sei-an City; the game (and [[Ninja Butterfly|Issun]]) hint that Queen Himiko is behind the Emperor's illness and the city's curse, when in fact {{spoiler|Ninetails, using the appearance of Priestess Rao (who he killed previously), infected the Emperor and caused him to exhale the evil mist that caused the curse.}}
* ''[[Pokémon Colosseum|Pokémon XD]]'' had six brothers impersonate the same person and the same time -- apparently unaware of the awkwardness of this situation.
* ''[[
* The plot of ''[[Prince of Persia]] 2: The Shadow and the Flame'': once again, the Prince must [[Save the Princess]] from [[Big Bad]] Jaffar, who has magically disguised himself as the Prince.
* ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' used it for the [[Did Not Do the Research|king of a republic.]]
* Yaridovich in ''[[
** It tried it again in Nimbus Land, where Valentina tried to pass off her giant raven henchman Dodo as the missing prince Mallow.
* The Demon Lord Odin from ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' was subject to this in Gwendolyn's story. {{spoiler|He was possessed by his "finest" General, Brigan, after Gwendolyn previously killed him to save Velvet.}} There is no direct comment that he had been acting strange, but the fact that Gwendolyn (his own daughter) was attacked by his guards stands as evidence enough.
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* In ''Shining of the Holy Ark'' the King is being possessed by an evil spirit for apparently no reason pertaining to the plot. Bonus points for ?the king is acting strangely? comments from the villagers and for removing the popular and good Sage/Advisor and replacing him with a scary, hated and clearly evil Witch/Advisor.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]] Saga: [[Endless Frontier]]'', the heroes don't encounter a [[Fake King]], but learn that a war between Formido Heim and Elfetale was cause by one of these. King Stahl of Formido Heim had discovered technology to travel to [[Another Dimension|different dimensions]], proceed to make use of it. Unforunately, the first world he visted was inhabited by the Einst, one of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the [[Super Robot Wars]] games. The Einst presumedly killed him and created an [[Evil Knockoff]] in its place. Said knockoff returned to the [[Endless Frontier]] and declared war in order to fulfill the Einst's goals. It wasn't until ten years into the war that leaders of the Orchestra Army, Formido Heim's main force, realized the true nature of their "king". The army rebelled and eliminated the fake, and sued for peace, while not telling the world why the war happened.
* Happens in ''[[Romancing
* Copy-X, ''[[
* In ''Alundra 2'', the [[Evil Chancellor]] Baron Diaz imprisons the king and has him replaced with ''a wooden manikin''. Probably the only reason the population falls for this is because the only people other than the nobles in the resistance who actually see the 'king' work for Diaz.
* Teikun Ō from ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]] 2''. {{spoiler|The real Teikun was assassinated years ago by a hitman and replaced with a fake. The fake and his comrades planned to then kill the hitman, which led to the [[Big Bad]] of the game killing the fake to repay the hitman for saving his life as a child.}}
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== Web Comics ==
* [http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0253.html Parodied] in ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* In an episode of ''[[
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