She Is the King: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:SheIsTheKing 197.jpg|frame|I Rule.]]

 

This trope is when a woman reigns under a masculine title, and usually with all the authority that title implies. There are three varieties.

== Type 1 ==

 

* A filler episode of ''[[Naruto]]'' has a princess masquerading as her brother, the king.

 

=== Literature ===

* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|By the Sword]]'', it's mentioned that the current Son of the Sun, leader of theocratic Karse, is a woman pretending to be a man, including wearing a faux mustache. She's later replaced by a different variant on the trope, Solaris.

 

=== Myth and Legend ===

 

=== Video Games ===

 

== Type 2 ==

* Various Ancient Belka Kings in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', who still keep that title even if they are female. Specific examples are Sankt Kaiser Olivie Segbrecht and Ixpellia, the king of Garea.

** Although with the Sankt Kaiser, there's no indication that the title itself has any gender connotations, so this might be a Type 3 instead.

* Lord [[Satan]] in ''[[My Balls]]''.

* {{spoiler|Mukuro}} is one the Three Kings in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''.

 

=== Film ===

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', Pirate King {{spoiler|Elizabeth Swann}}.

** Also, the nine leaders of the pirates are called Pirate Lords, regardless of gender.

 

=== Literature ===

* In the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series, starting partway through the ''Mage Winds'' trilogy the High Priest of Vkandis and ruler of the theocracy of Karse is a woman named Solaris, whose title is "''Son'' of the Sun". Having been handpicked very publicly for the position by Vkandis himself seems to have thoroughly overcome the gender barrier that previously existed with regards to the role, but the terminology remains unchanged.

* ''[[Xanth]]'' has this In this case The King of Xanth is defined as its ruler (at least among the human inhabitants) while The Queen of Xanth is defined as the King's spouse. Turns out, [[Aint No Rule|they never explicitly defined the King as being male]], that had just been assumed to be the case for centuries due to the requirement that the office (which is not hereditary) has to go to a Magician. Since females with powerful magic were called Sorceresses, it was believed that they didn't qualify. Until somebody pointed out that a Sorceress is defined as a female Magician, and thus is also a Magician.

** Which not only paved the way for this trope, but for its inversion: a female King of Xanth's spouse is a male Queen.

* In Megan Whalen Turner's series ''[[The Queen's Thief]]'', the Queen of Eddis is called Eddis when as a woman she should have been called Eddia.

* In ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'', there's precedent for the royal family of Djelibeybi being able to change sex by decree. "No, sire, she is a man. She herself declares this."

* In ''[[Honor Harrington]]'', only men of the royal line can be Emperor of the Anderman Empire. At least once an emperor failed to produce any male heirs and it looked like there would by a dynastic civil war between his various nephews and cousins. Then his daughter proclaimed herself to be a man and took the throne, basically daring all her male cousins to object if they thought they could make it stick. They universally declined the offer and, by all accounts, she became one of the empire's longest ruling and most effective leaders since the original Gustav Anderman himself.

* In ''[[Temeraire]]'', the Tswana society resolves around ancestor worship, and they practice telling stories of deceased loved ones to dragon eggs, so that the dragons are born as reincarnations of great leaders. This has lead to their entire empire being led by a young female dragon who is the "reincarnation" of their last king.

 

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'' up until ''[[Voyager]]'' female superior officers were called "Sir". Janeway refused that, insisting on being called Captain or "Ma'am". In spite of this, the bridge crew still called her "Sir" periodically.

** "Mister" Saavik in ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''.

* In ''[[Hikari Sentai Maskman]],'' Prince Igam is working with the bad guys in order to restore the Igam Clan to their former glory (and gets into friction with the others because her goals aren't always in line with her boss's.) She uses [[Japanese Pronouns|male pronouns]]. However, it seems she was actually a type 1 - bizarrely, a number of characters are ''astonished'' when she is "revealed" to be female even though she did nothing to alter her ''obviously'' female features and voice.

* The new captain on [[Castle]] is a woman who insists on being called "sir".

 

=== Music ===

* Iron & Wine's song "Woman King" is all about this trope. [[Concept Album|So are most of the other songs on the same EP]].

* In "Moment 4 Life" by [[Nicki Minaj]], she refers to herself as king and this is even shown in the music video, which has a [[Storybook Opening]] that starts with "Once upon a time, there was a king named Nicki."

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

* [[Inverted]] in the flash series ''[[Alice Is Dead]]'', The Queen is always referred to as "he".

* ''[[Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'': Emelina's full title is "Holy King of the Holy Kingdom of Iris"; outside of its use, she's apparently still just called the queen.

 

=== Web Comics ===

* The Basitin [[Hot Amazon|King]] [[Instant Fanclub|Adelaide]] from ''[[Twokinds]]''. In Basitin culture, rank is derived solely from your prowess in battle. The female king stands head and shoulders above any other Basitin.

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'', when the Master of Paris died and his heir was giving the speech:

* In ''[[Beast Wars]]'' Inferno called Megatron his Queen, because Inferno was based on a fire ant.

** Inferno gets it from a glitch in his programming. The ant's instinct is dominant, so he truly believes that he is an ant.

 

=== Real Life ===

** Her mother Anne Boleyn was made the Marquess of Pembroke (a masculine title, despite the feminine-looking ending) by Henry VIII. The ''actual'' female equivalent is "marchioness".

* Queen Elizabeth II is the Duke of Lancaster, the Duke of Normandy (in the Channel Islands) and the Lord of Mann (on the Isle of Man). All of these titles are automatically held by the currently reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, regardless of that monarch's gender.

* On the occasion of the invasion of Silesia by Frederick II, King of [[Prussia]], the sort-of [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Empress]] [[Maria Theresa]], who also was Queen Regnant of Hungary, appealed for aid to her Hungarian subjects in their Diet, at which, we are told, a number of cavaliers rose, drew their swords, and shouted, "''[[Altum Videtur|Moriamur pro nostro Rege, Maria Theresia]]'', Let us die for our ''King'', Maria Theresa".

** Averted with her main title, though. While she ruled in her own right as Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Bohemia, etc., etc., etc., she was officially only Holy Roman Empress-consort (or later, Dowager Empress): the Electors refused to elect a female Emperor, giving the position to her husband Francis, Duke of Lorraine. Though in practice, Francis left the governance to his wife, with most of his own efforts going to the Empire's finances.

* Plenty of corporate and other leaders' positions convey an official title of "Chairman", no matter what gender holds that position. Political correctness has caused some of these titles to be truncated to "Chair", but others remain grammatically-masculine.

* Wu Zetian was the only woman to ever be crowned Emperor in China. She's usually referred to as Empress in English translations, but her actual title in Chinese was the male ''huangdi'' as the Chinese word for Empress only refers to the wife of a ruler.

 

== Type 3 ==

* In ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'', the ruler is referred to as the "king" regardless of gender (at least in some translations). The original Japanese word translated as "king" is closer to the gender-neutral "monarch".

* Maou in ''[[Maouyuu Maou Yuusha]]'' is this seeing as she's the ruler of the demon world.

 

 

=== Literature ===

* In [[Patricia C. Wrede]]'s ''Dragonsbane'' (also titled ''Dealing with Dragons''), the first volume of the [[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]], it is explained that the title of King of the Dragons is gender neutral, Kazul is a female dragon and contestant for the title of King. In what is arguably an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]], Queen, a boring secretarial position unrelated to being the ruler or ruler's consort, is also a gender-neutral title, and the most recent holder of the now-vacant post was male.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', a certain key prophecy refers to the [[Chosen One|Prince That Is Promised]], but all the signs are pointing very clearly at a ''female'' character. The fandom [[Wild Mass Guessing|guessed]] that the term "Prince" was gender-neutral in Old Valyrian, the language the prophecy was written in. This was proven exactly correct in ''A Feast For Crows''.

 

=== Myth and Legend ===

* In Judaism, some rare verses refer to God in the feminine form instead of the more common masculine form. This isn't to suggest that God is a female being, but rather one that can be referred to both in the masculine and feminine gender. [[No Biological Sex|An omnipotent being likely doesn't have fixed genitalia]].

 

=== Tabletop Game ===

=== Video Games ===

* The Imperator of the [[The Empire|Novus Orvus Librarium]] in ''[[BlazBlue]]''.

** Likewise, the next step up on the Fereldan ladder of nobility is "bann", roughly the equivalent of baron, which is also a gender-neutral title.

** As is the title of Viscount of Kirkwall in ''[[Dragon Age 2]]''.

* The title of "Keyblade Master" in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', as demonstrated by [[Hot Chick with a Sword|Master Aqua]] in ''Birth by Sleep''.

* From the ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series, Lyn and Eirika both start out with the Lord class, with Lyn promoting to Blade Lord and Eirika to Great Lord. This is mostly a case of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], however, as Lord is the traditional class for any protagonist of royal ancestry, regardless of what their actual title may be. Both Lyn and Erika are princesses and referred to as such in their respective games.

 

=== Real Life ===

* Most republican titles, such as president and prime minister, are gender neutral (at least in English), with an exception noted below (senator/senatrix).

* While under the current constitution women are barred from the line of succession, historically eight women have held Japan's Chrysanthemum Throne. All of them used the same title as their male counterparts: "''tennō''". While the title is normally translated as the masculine "Emperor", the literal translation is "Heavenly Sovereign", which is gender-neutral.

 

== Blended and Other Examples ==

=== Anime and Manga ===

* Because of a [[Gendercide]] plague, the shogun and feudal lords of Japan are all female in the manga ''[[Ooku]].'' They also adopt male names when assuming their titles, and audiences with foreigners are elaborately [[Sweet Polly Oliver|stage-managed]] to give the appearance that the ruler is male, making this a cross between Type 1 and Type 2.

 

=== Comic Books ===

* Winnowill in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' is Lord of the Gliders. A suggested reason is that the Gliders only ever had one ruler before that, and for something like 10,000 years, so she just took over the title.

 

=== Literature ===

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' "Lord" is a unisex term, though it probably wasn't so when people first started using it. In the present of the story both genders are about equally represented, and High Lord Elena in the second book is a woman.

 

 

=== Video games ===

* Toyosatomimi no Miko of ''[[Touhou Project]]'' is a genderbent version of Crown Prince Shoutoku, and retains his (masculine) title. However, it isn't clear whether or not she was openly female.

* It's revealed ''very'' late in ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' that {{spoiler|the title of "Emperor" amongst the Tainted Coil}} can be used for either gender. {{spoiler|In fact, the previous Emperor was the protagonist's mother.}}

 

=== Western Animation ===

** In [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'''s [[All There in the Manual|website]], Zuko has officially retired and his *daughter* is now ruling the Fire Nation, so the title is now gender neutral.

* ''[[Storm Hawks]]''. Master Cyclonis is the Empress of Cyclonia. This seems to have also been the title used by her Grandmother.

 

=== Real Life ===