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Just the First Citizen: Difference between revisions
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* In ''Tik-Tok of Oz'', the eighth [[Land of Oz|Oz book]], there is a land where everyone is a king or queen ''except'' that the guy with the position of ruling over all these kings and queens is "the Private Citizen". Even he gets a fancy title, namely "the Great Jinjin," but his subordinates still get to have the regal titles that the Private Citizen doesn't.
* Lorenzo de Medici in ''[[The Agony And The Ectasy]]'', as he was in [[Real Life]].
* In ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', the top U.S. governmental position is "Head of State," and its occupant is always referred to simply as "Mr. Thompson"; unimpressive titles both. It's a matter of speculation exactly why the United States no longer has a president in this [[Alternate History]] (have they formally abolished the US Constitution?); though Rand said that she wanted characters like Mr. Thompson to seem like mediocrities, and calling him "the President" would have given him a dignity he wasn't supposed to have.
** Supporting the "Constitution was abolished" [[Fan Wank|theory]] is the fact that one character is introduced as "Majority Leader of the National Legislature." The US Congress has ''two'' chambers, so no single person could ever be ''the'' majority leader.
* In the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', Alera is ruled over by the First Lord, who is presented as the "first among equals" with the rest of the Realm being ruled by High Lords who preside over each major city, and the First Lord officially being the ruler of Alera Imperia, the chairman of the Senate, and the executive commander of the combined Legions in times of war. Unofficially, the First Lord rules over all of Alera and the High Lords bow to him. This causes trouble when the [[Succession Crisis]] erupts.
* Big Brother from ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.
* Robert Pierre of the [[Honor Harrington|People's Republic of Haven]] uses the title Chairman of The Committee of Public Safety or simply Citizen Chairman.
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** The 2009 remake takes it even further, with there actually being no "Number One" and Number Two genuinely being the sole ruler. Apparently, the lack of a "Number One" is to remind the Villagers that they are all public servants, even [[Manipulative Bastard|their leader]]. (Apart from 2, the closest thing to a 1 is {{spoiler|his wife, identified as M2}}.)
* In HBO's [[Rome]], this is Octavian's [[Insistent Terminology]] name for his position. A consummate politician, he knows that Romans still despise the notion of a king and thus makes himself one in all but name.
* ''[[
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' provides a [[Chaotic Neutral|somewhat less villainous]] example with Oberon, whose sole title is "''Lord'' of Avalon," even though for all intents and purposes he's a [[Physical God]] who rules [[The Fair Folk|the Third Race]] as king. His sense of egalitarianism seems especially odd, since as a rule [[A God Am I|he's not exactly humble]].
** [[Word of God]] is that the title ''is'' Oberon's attempt at humility, and he does consider himself to be humble- he's just too arrogant to be any good at it. The rest of the Third Race puts up with him because their previous ruler, Oberon's mother Queen Mab, was [[The Caligula]] outright, and even Oberon looks good next to her.
* Dolf in ''[[Alfred J Kwak]]'' does this when he creates a [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|National]] [[Funny Animal|Crows]] [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|Party]] and uses it to seize power in Great Waterland, in a clear satire of the rise and fall of Nazism. Like Hitler's "Führer", he demands that others refer to him exclusively as "The President" or "President Dolf". Note that he does this in a country that has apparantly been a monarchy for many hundreds if not more years, and where this title doesn't seem to have been widely if at all used prior to Dolf's adoption of it.
* Twilight Sparkle in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' is, in theory, just one resident of the town of Ponyville, which has a mayor ([[Stealth Pun|who is, of course, a mare]]). In practice, however, it often seems that Twilight wields the real power in town, while the mayor is a figurehead.
** This is often justified in fanon by pointing out that she's the personal student of their monarch, and is treated like an envoy from her to the town.
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** [[The New Russia]] is actually a presidential republic, but during the Medvedev presidency, the guy in power was still Prime Minister [[Vladimir Putin]]. Not because he was the Prime Minister, but because he was [[Vladimir Putin]].
*** And now he's back to being President, since the Russian constitution only has a limit on the number of ''consecutive'' terms in office. Basically, he can fairly easily be President for 2 terms, then put a puppet in his place for a term, and get "re-elected" after that.
* The title of "Führer", which [[Adolf Hitler]] adopted when he became leader of the Nazi Party and elevated to a government title when they took power in Germany can be simply translated to "guide", although it is generally translated as "leader", which is more in line with fascist philosophy. Although not even nearly as ubiquitously used as Führer, Hitler also awarded himself a number of bombastic titles over the years designed specifically to invoke this trope, including "First Soldier of the German Reich", "First Worker of the New Germany", and "Supreme Judge of the German People". In something of an overlap with [[Modest Royalty]], Hitler's ceremonial uniform was also much more staid than you would expect from a man in the process of conquering the world. He wore a plain uniform with only the awards that he earned in [[World War One]], which looks funny in contrast to, say, Goering, who swanked it up with silks and furs and every medal he could lay his fat hands on.
* And before him Mussolini did the same thing with "Duce".
** And General Franco - "Caudillo"
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