Standard Hero Reward: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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If his task involved rescuing a [[Damsel in Distress]] (or ''her'' task involved rescuing a [[Dude in Distress]]), the [[Rescue Romance|rescuee]] is the [[Princess Classic|princess]] (or [[Prince Charming|prince]]) the hero will wed.
In [[Fairy Tale
On the other hand, if the hero has a love [[I Will Wait for You|whom he is trying to win back to]], this can lead to embarrassing [[But Thou Must!]] situations.
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Sometimes you see the wedding and the hero receiving his kingdom, but it's just enough to know this is the hero's reward.
These days, it's largely a [[Discredited Trope]], due to being horribly clichéd and flying in the face of historical politics (although the princess would have [[Arranged Marriage|little choice in her husband anyway]]). But Christopher Booker has plenty to say about the [[The Seven Basic Plots|symbolic applications]] of the treasure, kingdom, and marriage combo, so don't count it out
Compare [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]], [[Knighting]], [[100% Heroism Rating]], [[Smooch of Victory]], [[Rescue Sex]], [[Offered the Crown]].
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** Another reason for this, and one that can sometimes [[Justified Trope|justify]] use of this trope is the possible consequence if you ''don't'' tie the foreign warlord into your family by marrying him to your daughter. He's quite possibly powerful enough to [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|take over the country anyway]]. After all, the fact that you needed him to help get rid of the barbarian or monster or other [[Monster of the Week]] suggests that your own military forces aren't exactly up to snuff. So at the end of the day, when the hero has slain the dragon your whole army couldn't kill, he's probably strong enough that if he really wanted to he could marry your daughter and rule your kingdom whether you wanted him to or not. In which case it's a lot safer to give him what you both know he could take for himself as a "reward" than to try to buy him off with a few trinkets.
* [[Oedipus the King|Oedipus]] saves Thebes from the Sphinx by correctly answering the [[Riddle of the Sphinx]]. As a reward, he is given the crown of Thebes and the hand of Queen Jocasta in marriage. [[Parental Incest|It goes horribly wrong.]]
* [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|Grimms']] "[[The Twelve Dancing Princesses]]" plays this perfectly straight, though most them don't feature ''quite'' so many possible spouses to pick from. And usually the youngest princess is the
** Some versions of the tale soften things by having the youngest princess fall in love with the hero herself and saves him from being tricked into drinking a love potion by her sisters.
* [[Joseph Jacobs]]'s "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/twelvedancing/stories/katiecrackernuts.html Katie Crackernuts]" is a [[Gender Flip|gender-flipped]] variation of the "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", where the main character agrees to watch an ailing prince over night. She discovers that his illness is created by [[The Fair Folk]] making him dance all night and she manages to haggle with his parents to increase her reward from a peck of silver to the prince himself. She even manages to score ''another'' prince for her sister out of it.
* [[Joseph Jacobs]]'s "[[Molly Whuppie]]" having two older sisters, and the king three sons, she laid claim to three standard rewards, one for each of them.
* "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/065.htm Jesper Who Herded the Hares]"
* "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/dapplegrim.html Dapplegrim]"
* In "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/038.htm The Grateful Beasts]", the king pushes [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]] a little too far; his own daughter the princess argues with him until he imprisons her in a tower. However, the last task is to summon all the wolves in the kingdom, [[Beware the Nice Ones|the wolves then proceed to kill all the court]], and Ferko frees the princess, marries her, and becomes king.
* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/stories/dragontricked.html How the Dragon Was Tricked]", the hero laid claim to the princess and kingdom after her father had been eaten by the dragon he demanded the hero bring back.
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* In ''[[Sir Apropos of Nothing]]'', the title character is offered the princess's hand for saving her and the king. But when they decide to consummate their love, Apropos finds they share [[Brother-Sister Incest|peculiarly similar birthmarks]]...
* In many variants of the medieval [[Chivalric Romance]] ''Robert The Devil'', while working at a menial job at court, the hero rescues the princess and so gets to marry her. (He had deliberately taken a job beneath him, as penance for evil.)
* In the [[Chivalric Romance
* Literally phrased this way in [[The Belgariad]]: "As foretold, the Rivan King has returned. He has met our ancient foe and he has prevailed. His reward stands radiant at his side." Of course, he was [[Moses in the Bulrushes|already the king to begin with]].
** Also subverted in the same series - much earlier, when said reward realizes just who the King is, it leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].
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** Lucky for him his current wife was open-minded when there was enough money on the line, so things resolved amicably with a [[Tenchi Solution]].
** A woman who helped him slay the dragon was permitted her share of the reward without having to marry a princess.
* Subverted in the [[Deconstructor Fleet]] fantasy novel ''By the Sword''. In a talk with his advisors, the king says that "the traditional reward is half the kingdom plus the princess's hand in marriage," and he is prepared to offer this. But the advisors point out various political problems involved in dividing up the kingdom in this way, and in cancelling the [[Arranged Marriage]] that the princess had already been set up for. The king ends up offering the reward of being the count of a small fiefdom called Ok, so small that being in charge of that dump is a very [[Blessed with Suck]] reward. When the princess is rescued, she is quite insulted that her father was too cheap to offer the
* Inverted in the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]''. King Mendembar fights the princess (verbally) and then goes to rescue the dragon. Played straight in that they do get married at the end.
** Also, Cimorene's father ''does'' offer him half the kingdom, but Mendanbar turns it down, on the basis that he's busy enough with one kingdom as it is.
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* ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' does this semi-straight. Cecil does eventually become King of Baron and marries Rosa. However, his relationship with Rosa was already rather developed before the game began, and Rosa isn't a princess but the leader of Baron's white mages. And the DS remake of FFIV tells us that Cecil was actually King Baron's adopted son, which makes his rising to the throne upon the King's death less of an explicit reward and more of what would be expected.
** Of the people who weren't already in a line of succession, only Yang winds up as a King. But he was already married, so it doesn't quite count.
* ''[[King's Quest]]'', but not in a standard way. The first game has Graham gain the crown (but no princess since there is none). The fourth game has a nasty subversion where the evil queen will marry Rosella to her son, which leads to a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] unless you stop her (whereupon it's revealed that the son is actually a pretty good guy after all, and understands that Rosella needs to save her dad before she can even think of a relationship). The good ending of the sixth game does have Alexander receiving the full
** At least Alexander and Cassima had met previously. King Graham met Valanice for the first time when he entered the tower to rescue her. Within ''minutes'' the two were married.
* Surprisingly, by the end of ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]] 2'', for driving out the [[Evil Overlord]] you do get married to the village chief's daughter. The third game reveals you've also got a steady job in this chief's new company (that's ''almost'' as good as "half the kingdom"). Of course, the third game also gets you kicked out of both job and marriage rather quickly.
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* In ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'', the Prince and Farah fall in love without any outside intervention over their quest. {{spoiler|Then Farah dies. Then the [[Reset Button]] gets pressed, and Farah's alive again but no longer has any memories of the Prince. After the Prince defeats the [[Final Boss]], Farah says she owes him thanks, and the Prince grabs her and kisses her. When Farah objects, the Prince uses the [[Mental Time Travel|Dagger of Time]] to [[Mundane Utility|rewind time so that Farah doesn't know she's been kissed]].}} They finally get together at the end of ''The Two Thrones''.
** Played with in the [[Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time|movie]], where Prince Tus does end up in an arranged marriage to Princess Tamina, although the movie makes it clear that, as happened so often historically, the marriage was for political reasons, and not so much as a reward. Tamina agrees to the marriage mostly because her city has been invaded and conquered, and that this is the easiest and most painless way to keep the city under control. At the end of the movie {{spoiler|the [[Reset Button]] was pressed, and Dastan revealed the conspiracy to cause the invasion. Afterwards, Prince Tus proposes that Tamina marry Dastan to form a political alliance between Persia and Alamut.}}
* In ''[[Odin Sphere]]'', Odin bribes Oswald with a
* Inverted in ''[[My World, My Way]]''. It's a princess who wants to marry the [[Prince Charmless|hero]], and she goes on a quest to earn him, and {{spoiler|she rejects him in the end}}.
* Lampshaded in the best ending of ''Kid Kool'':
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