Rags to Royalty: Difference between revisions

* From ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', we have You Houki. She was a [[Country Mouse|poor farm girl]], taking care of her ailing father, when she was asked to join the emperor's harem (much to the ire of her former boyfriend Suu, later revealed to be {{spoiler|Hotohori's half-brother}}). Originally, she didn't want to go, but her father pressured her saying she'd have a better life. {{spoiler|And Hotohori eventually chooses her to be his Empress.}}

* In the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]] of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', It's revealed that {{spoiler|the twins Fuka and Fumika}} picked up a pair of animals which turned out to be princes from the [[Magic World]]. Within five years they were married and already had their first kids.

 

== Ballads ==

* In [[Child Ballad]] #89 "[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch089.htm Fause Foodrage]," a nobleman's infant daughter is exchanged for the infant prince. After the prince learned the truth and overcame the usurper who would have killed him, he marries the daughter.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[X Wing Series|Plourr Illo]], a [[Boisterous Bruiser]] expy of Anastasia, went into hiding and later became a pilot for the Rebellion after revolutionaries killed her family. She wasn't in rags, exactly, but she lived as well as any of the other pilots and kept her heritage a secret.

* [[Bone]] Thorn was unaware of her royal legacy. Her grandma told her that she is meant to lead a kingdom as the next queen. Thorn becomes Queen in the end.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

* In "[[Adalmina's Pearl|Adalminas Pearl]]", the cruel princess loses her [[MacGuffin|enchanted pearl]] and becomes a plain, dumb peasant girl. Thanks to a back up enchantment, her heart however turns good now, and stays that even after she gets the pearl back.

* In ''[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/075.htm The Grateful Prince]'', the prince goes to rescue [[Damsel in Distress|a peasant girl who was captive to an ogre]] because his father had promised him to the ogre, and substituted to the girl. After he does, he marries her.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Pan's Labyrinth]]'' has Ophelia as a Sleeping Beauty; she's the reincarnation of a fairy princess, but must pass many tests to prove she is still more royalty than human, and hasn't been corrupted by living among us.

** That's assuming the Faun is telling the truth, and is neither lying nor a product of Ophelia's imagination. [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

** Her first boyfriend wasn't a deadbeat, he had a perfectly good blue-collar job and before the movie ended had achieved his aim of owning his own boat. However he had no sympathy with her white-collar aspirations and he cheated on her.

* In ''[[In the Name of The King]]: A [[Dungeon Siege]] Tale'', [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Farmer]] is a simple [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|farmer]] with no aspirations other than to grow crops and be a good husband and father. When his son is killed and his wife captured by the [[Evil Sorcerer]] [[Big Bad]], he goes to try to get her back and avenge his son. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Ehb is under seige from the sorcerer's mindless horde of creatures called the Krug. [[Burt Reynolds|King Konreid]] meets Farmer and is told by his wizard that Farmer is his long-lost son. Farmer neither believes him nor does he care. During the first battle with the Krug, the king is betrayed and mortally wounded by {{spoiler|his nephew Duke Fallow}}. On his deathbed, he convinces Farmer that the latter is his son. Farmer becomes King Camden Konreid.

 

== Literature ==

* {{spoiler|Octavian}} in the [[Codex Alera]] series is a male in the Sleeping Beauty style, and {{spoiler|his mother Isana}} was a Cinderella in the backstory and is a Goose Girl during the events of the main plot. {{spoiler|Octavian}} only reveals his birthright after he has proven himself a brilliant military commander.

* Jame, the heroine of P.C. Hodgell's [[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]] series, is a [[Sleeping Beauty]] type; she believes herself the outcast, ragtag daughter of a minor Lord, but she turns out to be the sister of the Highlord of the Kencyrath—a situation that doesn't make her all that happy, because she chafes under (and eventually rejects) the restrictions of the role.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "The Scarlet Citadel" [[Conan the Barbarian]] is proud of his going through this as a [[Self-Made Man]].

* In [[Josepha Sherman]]'s ''[[The Shining Falcon]]'', Maria is reduced to a peasant's life before gaining Finist's love.

* Bria in ''[[The Last Dove]]'' is the Sleeping Beauty Style.

 

* Guinevere does it Cinderella style on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' going from serving girl to Queen of Camelot in becoming Arthur's wife.

 

* In [[Chess]], a pawn which reaches the eighth and final row may be immediately promoted to any other rank except king; as the most powerful piece on the board is the queen, this [[Easy Sex Change]] is almost always chosen.

** This trope is used in one of the ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' books to promote Alice to queen upon reaching the eighth row.

** ''[[The Winter's Tale|The Winters Tale]]'': Perdita is raised as a shepherdess, although a princess.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'''s protagonist. [[Kid Hero|Common kid]] --> [[Made a Slave|slave]] --> [[Walk the Earth|wanderer]] ---> [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|King of Gotha]]. It's just that he doesn't know it until he reaches his hometown. [[All Just a Dream|Not that we]] [[Or Was It a Dream?|don't see this coming.]]

 

* Villain example: In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', the demon lord Horribus (as well as his siblings Deplora and Terribus) were originally the demon equivalents of rednecks, with the simple names Horb, Plorb, and Terb, until Horribus's role in conquering the Dimension of Pain earned them all aristocratic status.

** The same occurs for long suffering member of Horribus's [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] {{spoiler|Psyk}}, who is made the new demon lord {{spoiler|Psykosis}}.

* While not a princess per se, Agatha Heterodyne in [[Girl Genius]] is a Sleeping Beauty type—the long-lost daughter and only survivor {{spoiler|besides her mother, who happens to be the [[Big Bad]], sort of}} of the powerful Heterodyne family. Raised by [[Parental Substitutes]] and protected from her heritage as a [[Mad Scientist|Spark]] by a locket her uncle made for her, she grows up having no idea she's heir to one of the most important families there is in a world run by [[Mad Scientists]].

* In ''[[Erstwhile]]'', Maid Maleen is a Goose Girl, All-Furs a Snow White, and the farmer's clever daughter is a Cinderella.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Rapunzel and {{spoiler|Flynn}} in ''[[Tangled]]''. Rapunzel is a Tippetarius Style, kidnapped as a baby so Mother Gothel can make use of her magic hair, while {{spoiler|Flynn}} is a {{spoiler|Cinderella Style, as he is an orphan and a thief who marries a princess (though he didn't know that she was royalty when he fell in love with her).}}

* Disney later subverts this with ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]''. Tiana marries Prince Naveen officially becomes a princess by marriage. But she dosen't get the royal treatment, but instead opens up her own restaurant with Naveen.

 

== Real Life ==

** Prince Edward's wife Sophie Rhys-Jones, now the Countess of Wessex, was also a commoner, as was Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, Prince Andrew's ex-wife.

* Ditto [[wikipedia:Frida Lyngstad|Anni-Frid Princess Reuss of Plauen]], better known as Frida Lyngstad, the brunette from [[ABBA]]. Her late husband's country was absorbed into unified Germany after [[World War I]], meaning she has no real power, but it's still a long way to go from her childhood. (She was the product of her mother's affair with a German soldier during the [[World War Two|occupation of Norway]], and was raised by her grandmother to protect her from [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|the abuse war children received in Norway.]])

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:The Makeover]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Poverty Tropes]]