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Fallen Princess: Difference between revisions
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Alternatively, the Fallen Princess can be a secondary character who is initially portrayed as the [[Alpha Bitch]], but who is [[Lovable Alpha Bitch|revealed to be insecure or to have other sympathetic traits that make the audience like her]], prior to her taking a leap down in the social strata.
This trope appears a lot in science fiction and fantasy shows, since their target audience is generally exactly the same kind of geek that the princess ends up hanging out with. Thus they can simultaneously [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders|fetishize the cheerleader image]] while assuaging their perceived audience by confirming their beliefs that all cheerleaders (and people in the higher strata of the school system) are [[Slobs Versus Snobs|stuck up snobs]], with few exceptions. It also lionises the viewer by showing the geeks to be more interesting and 'cool' in their own way than the cliques. Of course, the character doesn't ''have'' to be a cheerleader for it to work - just someone who's in a clique of [[The Beautiful Elite|attractive, desirable and deeply unpleasant people]].
Also ''could'' work perfectly with [[Royal Blood|actual princesses]] (or just an [[Blue Blood|upper-crust]] heroine). A low-life "peasant" or modern equivalent may fall in love with her. But in a random wave of unsurprising angst, says this line, most of the time word-for-word:
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* Yoruichi Shihouin from ''[[Bleach]]''.
* Shoukei from ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]''.
** The King of En, Shoryuu, was a ''male'' example, as a Japanese warlord who was in the losing side of a feudal war. He then was contacted by Enki, the kirin of En, and accepted to become the sovereign.
* {{spoiler|Lamda Nom}} from ''[[Dangaioh]]''.
* Another male example: Mamoru Takamura from [[Hajime no Ippo]], disinherited by his rich family because of his violent behavior. He finds solace in boxing and a sort-of adoptive family in the Kamogawa gym.
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== [[Fan Works]] ==
* [[Ultimate SpiderWoman|Mary Jane Watson]] is a partial example. While she's certainly got the beauty, talent and apparent social standing to qualify as a "princess", and she now only hangs out with a few close friends while struggling to make ends meet, her powers have nothing to do with her isolation and her friends aren't really geeks.
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== Literature ==
* A basic example is ''[[A Little Princess]]'' when Sara feels like she's lost everything, ending when she remembers again that she is still a princess.
* Sansa Stark from ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is literally a fallen princess. {{spoiler|The sister of a now dead king and the former betrothed of another king (also now dead), she has been reduced to [[Jerkass Facade|pretending to be an absolute bitch]] for her own safety and under the orders of her [[Evil Mentor]] - and [[Character Development|has become a smarter, better person]] for it.}}
** Also her tomboyish sister Arya, who {{spoiler|has become a pre-teen [[Dark Action Girl]] and member of a murdering cult.}}
** Myrcella Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell may have just entered the ranks of the fallen at the end of ''A Feast For Crows''.
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* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Honour Guard'', Kolea tells Curth that in joining the Ghosts, she has become this, since the two of them were not of anything like equal status back home -- she would never have known his name. She shrugs it off: she knows many people of his status now.
* Neone Delft of [[Stationery Voyagers]] discovers she is actually {{spoiler|Princess Wendim Shinroff}} of Neomlot, and that Hidicky Delft was only some kind carpenter that adopted her after a particularly lazy [[Evil Sorcerer]] merely [[Ripped from the Headlines|abandoned her in a dumpster to die]]. She is finally reunited with her biological parents; only she views her new life as a Voyager as her true [[Mission From God]]. After a brief moment of happiness, they tell her that bringing the family back together was all for nothing: [[Downer Ending|Astrabolo is about to destroy everything and there is no hope]]. On the other hand, being unable to do anything whatsoever with her royal heritage doesn't get her too down: she had no intentions of actually saving Neothode anyway because [[Genre Savvy|she already realized it was hopeless]].
* Laurana in the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels is a [[Spoiled Sweet]] elven princess with a [[
** She's better off without 'em anyway - ''Dragonlance'' elves [[Can't Argue with Elves|are almost all a bunch of insufferable, arrogant, hypocritical pricks]] (case in point: the civil war that split the elves millenia ago was fought because a royal elven prince had the gall to take a human bride. Guess who Laurana is descended from.)
* In [[Patricia A. McKillip]]'s ''The Book of Atrix Wolfe'', Saro, after the magic renders her mute and dazed, ends up a [[Scullery Maid]].
* Princess Vivenna of ''[[Warbreaker]]''. Leaves her country behind to rescue her little sister from an arranged marriage to {{spoiler|someone everybody thinks is}} a [[Physical God]] [[Evil Overlord]], falls in with a pair of mercenaries working against said [[Physical God]] who agree to help her {{spoiler|only they turn out to be working for the ''real'' [[Big Bad]] and Vivenna has to run for it, at which point she spends several chapters as [[Princess in Rags|a beggar and amateur pickpocket]] before finally getting back on her feet with a little help from [[Wild Card|Vasher]].}}
* In [[Josepha Sherman]]'s ''[[The Shining Falcon]]'', Maria and Vasilissia, as [[The Exile|The Exiles]].
== Live Action TV ==
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* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'', "Geek Like Me." Sabrina used magic to make Libby become a geek, intending that this fall from popularity would teach her to become a nicer person the way most Fallen Princesses do. However, she quickly proved that her usual personality was [[In the Blood]], too strong to be changed by magic. Before long, she had given herself a hot new [[Nerds Are Sexy]] look, and had made the science club into the same kind of exclusive clique (with herself as the boss) that the cheerleading squad used to be. And she was now picking on Sabrina for not being nerdy enough. This change was no better than the way things were before, so there was nothing for it but to [[Status Quo Is God|change Libby back]].
* Skylar Stevens in ''[[Jericho]]'' starts out as a spoiled rich kid, and then warms up to local misfit Dale Turner.
* On ''[[Glee]]'', [[Alpha Bitch]] Quinn becomes pregnant despite being president of the celibacy club. She is then embarrassed in front of the school, kicked off the cheerleading squad, and forced to move in with her boyfriend after her parents kick her out of the house. And it's only bound to get worse since the news that the baby's father is actually her boyfriend's best friend is starting to leak out.
** She later subverts the [[Character Development]] that you usually get from this trope - after she gives the baby up for adoption, she does her damndest to get her status back, and her goal of season two is to become prom queen, no matter what the cost - even if it means cheating on her boyfriend and, when she {{spoiler|doesn't become}} Prom Queen, {{spoiler|conspiring to get the Glee club disqualified from Nationals out of spite and jealousy}}. Strangely, she could still count as a [[Fallen Princess]] - while she has most of her popularity back, her desire to be popular again stems from the idea that there's no real future for her, and that the best she can do is be the popular girl, get an average job and marry someone like Finn.
* Averted in ''[[Lost]]''. Boone comes from a wealthy family and gave off the overall impression of a young man who had never worked a day in his life and had stuff handed to him. From the very start, he takes to island living easily and is probably the most likeable moral character in the series, characterised by his helpful attitude. Played straight with his sister Shannon though.
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** {{spoiler|Princess Tiltyu of Freege}} became one of these in Fire Emblem 4. {{spoiler|She still got to live in her older brother Blume's palace with her daughter Tinny, but was branded as a traitor by her people and horribly abused by her bitch of a stepsister, Hilda. And if Tiltyu dies child-less, she's mentioned to have died in the war, and her younger sister Ethnia is the one who takes her place as fallen princess alongside her daughter Linda.}}
** Heck, ''Celice'' is a fallen prince too. His grandfather {{spoiler|Byron}} was killed in a conspiration by his fellow noblemen, {{spoiler|his dad Sigurd is killed off and falsely branded as a traitor post-mortem, his [[Missing Mom]] Diadora becomes the Empress of Grandbell but only after being brainwashed and later she dies too}}, and he's living in a very secluded environment before becoming a [[Rebel Prince]] and starting to fight to conclude his father's mission.
*** And his army includes another fallen prince: Shanan of Isaac, who as a child witnessed the horrible deals that brought the huge mess that Jugdral is into alongside his aunt Ayra, and now is physically strong enough to fight back and help those in deed.
** ''Thracia 776'' has more fallen noblemen: {{spoiler|Galzus was the prince of the small kingdom of Rivough, which was destroyed and annexed by Isaac years ago; he barely escaped from all of it alongside his daughter, Mareeta. Then we have Princess Miranda of Alster, forced to hide and run away when her land is invaded as well.}}
* The female Human Noble Origin from ''[[Dragon Age]]'' could also apply, depending on how you RP the character. You are not a princess, but you are daughter of the second-highest ranking noble in the country, so that should count for something. {{spoiler|Especially because you lose your entire family and become a Grey Warden.}} Of course, by the end of the game you can {{spoiler|become the Queen of Ferelden...not a bad trade-off, there.}}
** This may actually apply to the female Dwarf Noble Origin more, as you actually ARE a princess in that origin. {{spoiler|However, you don't get to become Queen at the end of that game. You do get to become a Paragon, though, which is much more awesome.}}
* ''[[Mitsumete Knight]] R: Daibouken Hen'' has a male example with {{spoiler|1=[[The Reveal|none other than]] [[The Hero]][[The Reveal|, Christopher MacLeod]]: he's actually Prince Conor of the fallen Parmet Kingdom, thanks to the schemes of [[The Empire|Orcadia]], an [[The Empire|Empire]] bent on the conquest and domination of Zardos Continent. Conor is on a quest of [[Revenge]] again Orcadia, ''not'' because of his fallen kingdom and the loss of his parents (he was 4 at the time, thus too young to remember them), but because when he was 12, Orcadia's men discovered him and his beloved little sister Melinda, captured and atrociously tortured them, to the point that [[Kill the Cutie|Melinda died]] [[Cold-Blooded Torture|under the torture's shock]]. If the right conditions are met in your playthrough, Conor can achieve his revenge, destroy Orcadia, and become the King of the restored Parmet Kingdom.}}
* Princess Zelda fits this category in a few games. In the Ocarina of Time, she spend seven years in exile as Sheik; in Wind Waker, she is the last heir of the fallen royal line; And of course, in Twilight Princess, her throne is stolen by Zant right before her coronation, though Midna's exile from her own kingdom overshadowed that.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is the captain of her school's cheerleading squad, the person with the highest grades and the person of choice to do school chores, but is still practically an outcast from everyone but her <s>geeky friends</s> two friends.
** This might apply even more to Shego - she's got everything mentioned in the entry's first sentence, yet she still fell from hero status into the criminal underworld. [[Good Is Dumb|When being the good guy usually means being a total idiot]] she preferred to stay smart.
* Parodied in ''[[The Oblongs]]''. The matriarch of the family, Pickles Oblong, is a former [[Fallen Princess]] -- she left her rich and attractive family and friends to marry the lower-class Bob Oblong. This means she got exposed to all the toxic, body-warping chemicals in his neighborhood, leading to total baldness on her part, and a clutch of mutated children. However, she's seems fine with this.
** Well, except for the alcoholism.
** In the episode "Disfigured Debbie," one of the school's [[Girl Posse]] of [[Inexplicably Identical Individuals]] falls all right -- into a wheat thresher. Now living with the only kids who will accept her freakish appearance, she drives them crazy with her clingy behavior. Until she gets plastic surgery, and returns to the fold ("You know, this means I'll have to hate you again"). Ten seconds later, and we can't even tell which one she is anymore.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' had Valerie; a shallow [[Rich Bitch]] who lived off her father's money until a ghost dog cost him his job. Fallen out of grace, she took up [[The Hunter|ghost hunting]] for revenge before making it a full-time job. Eventually, she starts to abandon her shallow views of the people she once rejected and even falls for [[Dating Catwoman|the unpopular Danny]].
* Rhonda from ''[[Hey Arnold!]]!'' became this when she realizes she needs to wear thick eyeglasses.
** Even further when her family goes temporarily broke.
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