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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"You do qualify to marry my daughter."''
[[The Hero]] has done it. The dragon/demon/evil wizard/whatever terrorizing the kingdom is slain, and now all he needs to do is head for the palace and collect his reward.
What is his reward you ask? The
While slaying a villain is the most common deed that leads to this specific reward, it is not the only way. As long as the hero has solved a serious enough problem threatening the kingdom, he can get this Standard Hero Reward.
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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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'''Do not put examples that are merely offering the Princess's hand, without someone doing something heroic first.'''
{{examples}}▼
{{endingtrope}}
== Advertising ==▼
* The ''Capital One'' commercial, where the hero has ''lots'' of other terms and conditions to meet before getting his package (and that's a damn ugly princess, to boot).▼
▲{{examples}}
▲== [[Advertising]] ==
▲* The ''Capital One'' commercial, where the hero has ''lots'' of other terms and conditions to meet before getting his package (and that's a damn ugly princess, to boot).
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* While the 80s anime ''Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics'' usually played its adaptations straight, one of the last episodes used ''[[The Brave Little Tailor]]'' as a subversion - the princess was so [[Gonk|hideous]] and [[Abhorrent Admirer|obnoxious]] that the story ended with him [[Keep the Reward|rejecting the reward]] in favor of [[And the Adventure Continues...|seeking further adventures]] rather than getting stuck with her.
* ''[[Murder Princess]]'' hints at a lesbian and [[Freaky Friday]] version of this trope.
* In the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Amagi Brilliant Park]]'', Princess Latifa Fleuranza was put under a curse because her father '''reneged''' on such an offer. Not smart, Dad, when dealing with a wizard who'd defeated the dragon your army couldn't take down....
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* A gender-flipped High School version takes place (off-screen) in the ''[[Ranma ½]]'' fanfic ''[[Ranma and Akane: A Love Story]]'': Sayuri's bravery in the face of Daken's attempt to ambush Ranma and Akane at Furinkan earns her a very nice date with a very nice boy. Sadly, it coincidentally puts her in the wrong place to be the victim of a [[Trojan Horse]] gambit by one of Ranma's old enemies.
== [[Film]] ==▼
* Greek legends, whence this trope originated. In prehistoric Greece, inheritance was passed in the female line. When a foreign warlord was invited into the country to help deliver it from barbarians or the like, marriage to the king's daughter was a useful pay-off that also served to strengthen the kingdom. As a legendary example of this, Menelaus was king of Sparta through his marriage to Helen, despite the fact that Helen had living brothers.▼
** 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 choice -- but not here; the soldier declares that since he's not young himself, he will marry the oldest.▼
** 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]" -- the king tries to wiggle out of it and fails.▼
* "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/dapplegrim.html Dapplegrim]" -- the king tries to wiggle out of it and fails.▼
* 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.▼
* "[[The Brave Little Tailor]]" pretty much bluffs his way to the kingdom and the girl, though the princess and her father both try to wiggle out of it when they secretly learn of his low class. He gets to keep the goods with another bluff that leaves every soldier in the kingdom too afraid to do anything against him, thus leaving the king and princess with no way to get rid of him.▼
* The Norwegian folk hero Espen Askeladd, who features in dozens of different fairy tales across the country, commonly wins "the princess and half the kingdom" as a reward for his heroic deeds.▼
▲== Film ==
* The end of ''First Knight'' has the mortally wounded King Arthur inexplicably hand over Excalibur and rulership of Camelot to Sir Lancelot who, before then, was a roving entertainer who fought people in town squares for money. Earlier on, Arthur had knighted Lancelot for rescuing Guinevere over Lancelot's (and the Round Table Knights') protestations. So he gives his Kingdom (and his soon-to-be widow) over to somebody who he barely knows, who had fallen in love with his wife, and who has no desire or ability to rule.
* It took a while, but [[Loveable Rogue|Han Solo]] got his reward at the end of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy.
* More or less at the ending of ''[[Pocahontas]]'', where John Smith, after {{spoiler|throwing himself before a bullet meant for Chief Powhatan}}, is told by Powhatan that he will allways be allowed to return and be part of his tribe. Powhatan then watches on as [[The Chief's Daughter|his daughter Pocahontas]] makes out with Smith. It may not have been literal, but it was definitely implied that Powhatan allowed for Smith to ask Pocahontas' hand in marriage, {{spoiler|but as Smith leaves for medical treatment, whether or not he returns is ambiguous.}}
* It took ''two sequels'', an ongoing series, and a ''lot'' of heroics before it finally happened, but [[Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin]] finally got to marry Jasmine in ''[[Aladdin and the King of Thieves]]''.
* After offering Eggsy [[Rescue Sex]] at the end of 2014's ''[[Kingsman: The Secret Service]]'', Princess Tilde of Sweden eventually marries him at the end of the sequel, 2017's ''[[Kingsman: The Golden Circle]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* Spoofed in the [[Discworld]] book ''[[
▲== Literature ==
▲* Spoofed in the [[Discworld]] book ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'', where a bunch of heroes won't save Ankh-Morpork because Vetinari doesn't have a kingdom and a princess to offer as a reward.
** Later, Vimes does get a variation of this, albeit in a nontraditional way. He rescues a virgin aristocrat (old maid Sybil Ramkin) from the
▲** He does however have an aunt and a dog. At least one person considers it for the dog...
▲** Later Vimes does get a variation of this, albeit in a nontraditional way. He rescues a virgin aristocrat (old maid Sybil Ramkin) from the Dragon attacking the city and ends up marrying her. She is one of the wealthiest people in the entire city, and with their marriage, Vimes is elevated to the aristocracy. Especially amusing because Vimes doesn't want ''any'' of it, with the sole exception of Sybil herself.
*** To say nothing of what the Watch hero who actually ''defeated'' the dragon got out of the deal: {{spoiler|he '''married the dragon'''. The King was bested by Errol the swamp dragon in air-to-air combat, and turned out to be a female for whom [[Love At First Punch]] evidently applied.}}
* Invoked in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''Five Hundred Kingdoms'' series. The 500 kingdoms quite literally run on fairy tale tropes. In a stroke of [[Genre Savvy|genre savviness]], one of the kings hires a sorcerer to "kidnap" his daughter (even though she just plays around when she's "held captive") and offers her hand to the man who rescues her. This is because he knows that the only one who can overcome the sorcerer's trials will be clever, compassionate and heroic, and thus an ideal heir for his throne.
* 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]].
* The Red Cross Knight in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' is rewarded Princess Una's hand in marriage after he slays the dragon... and then almost loses it when the [[Master of Illusion]] announces to everyone at the celebration that the hero's already slept with [[The Vamp]].
* [[The Bible
* Simon of ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'' basically gets this package. It should be said, though, that he and the princess had already fallen in love with each other during the story, he was {{spoiler|[[Moses in the Bulrushes|the rightful heir all along]]}}, and the kingdom is [[Earn Your Happy Ending|in pretty sad shape]] when he gets it.
* In Patricia McKillip's ''The Riddlemaster of Hed'' the titular hero uses his riddling skills to defeat the ghost of a dead king and win his crown, which he proceeds to keep under his bed. He doesn't find out about the princess's hand until a visiting harpist tells him. First he is shocked that the king her father would do something that dumb. Then he's dismayed because even though he's a Prince his very humble and countrified court isn't at all what the princess is used to. On the other hand her brother was his
* Used at the end of Garth Nix's ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' book ''Sabriel'', where the two heroes rule the titular kingdom together.
* The titular hero of Tom Smith's Last Hero On Earth is offered the hand of the princess he saves from the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Ninja Pirates from Dino Isle]]; the trope is [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] by the queen, who says "It's a very fine Old World Tradition to give the Hero a most precious thing!" and "How this circumstance has lead to romance is a wonderfully hoary cliche..."
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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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* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': After Sauron is defeated, Aragorn from gets to marry a beautiful Elven princess.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* [[Played for Drama]] and nastily [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]].'' The shepherd boy brought in as a last-minute swap for the deceased prince slays the dragon and saves his widowed mom's farm. Unfortunately, the kingdom is flat broke, meaning he's being ''forced'' to marry some [[Royal Brat]] in order to secure a fat dowry for the land's empty coffers. Otherwise, the king is going to destroy his mother.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
== Tabletop Games ==▼
▲* Greek legends, whence this trope originated. In prehistoric Greece, inheritance was passed in the female line. When a foreign warlord was invited into the country to help deliver it from barbarians or the like, marriage to the king's daughter was a useful pay-off that also served to strengthen the kingdom. As a legendary example of this, Menelaus was king of Sparta through his marriage to Helen, despite the fact that Helen had living brothers.
* Analyzed in one edition of ''[[GURPS]] Fantasy''. The book mentioned that, if a king has no sons, this can be more of a cunning political maneuver than a simple romantic gesture. The reward motivates a hero to solve a major problem, the king's daughter is married off, and the successor to the throne will be a hero who has already won the respect of the people and lords by a heroic task (so a civil war isn't guaranteed to break out the moment the king dies).▼
▲** 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 "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131017031044/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]"
▲* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130527143315/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 "[https://web.archive.org/web/20190207162855/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.
▲* "[[The Brave Little Tailor]]" pretty much bluffs his way to the kingdom and the girl, though the princess and her father both try to wiggle out of it when they secretly learn of his low class. He gets to keep the goods with another bluff that leaves every soldier in the kingdom too afraid to do anything against him, thus leaving the king and princess with no way to get rid of him.
▲* The Norwegian folk hero Espen Askeladd, who features in dozens of different fairy tales across the country, commonly wins "the princess and half the kingdom" as a reward for his heroic deeds.
▲== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
▲* Analyzed in one edition of ''[[GURPS]] Fantasy''. The book mentioned that, if a king has no sons, this can be more of a cunning political maneuver than a simple romantic gesture. The reward motivates a hero to solve a major problem, the king's daughter is married off, and the successor to the throne will be a hero who has already won the respect of the people and lords by a heroic task (so a civil war isn't guaranteed to break out the moment the king dies).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The adventure game ''[[Shadowgate]]'' did this, although not every version lets you see the princess at the end. Don't the developers know that [[Everything's Better with Princesses]]?
* The first ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' game, sort of. You are offered both the kingdom and princess. You refuse the former, [[But Thou Must!]] take the latter... Unless you forgot to rescue her. Oops. But that requires [[Sequence Breaking]] later by "knowing" where something is hidden without the Princess's [[The Power of Love|love]] acting as a homing beacon (...or something) to give you the coordinates of an item. But that's not [[Canon]].
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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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** Princess Maker 3 plays it a bit more straight by having her be the daughter of the fairy queen.
* In ''[[Lufia]] 2'', Maxim can ask for the princess's hand in marriage after completing a task for a king, in what is ''meant'' to be a [[Keep the Reward]] scenario. The king will refuse, claiming that he's refusing due to the scowl on [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] Tia's face.
* ''[[Little
* It is possible to subvert this in the first ''[[Uncharted Waters]]'' game by refusing to settle down after saving the princess and instead return to the rough seas. It doesn't allow you to actually play afterwards, however. Also, you can subvert the kingdom-to-reign part and go for the marry-the-princess only, which is [[Cutting Off the Branches|apparently canon in the sequel]].
* 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'':
{{quote|"You want a box of jewels and a princess, don't you?"}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In the [[Web Comic]] ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'', the main character, November, is a princess who is [[Runaway Fiancee|running away from it]]. Her would-be husband (an [[Good Is Dumb|apparently-kind but not-too-bright]] peasant hero) is currently wandering the earth looking for her.
* In ''[[Exiern]]'' Typhan-Knee signed on for the reward of '''''[[Exact Words|A]]''''' royal hand in marriage and his weight in gold. Then he was hit with a [[Gender Bender]] spell during the rescue. She has received her weight in gold but has yet to realize that the Royal hand is not going to be the Princess' -- Or that the gold will (of course) revert to the royal treasury when she marries the king.
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* Spoofed and subverted in ''[[Oglaf]]'' (NSFW), when the hero is told that his dragon-slaying quest was one of self-discovery and "The princess was you all along!" By the last panel, he's enjoying his wedding night [[Yaoi Guys|with the prince]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* There was a [[Walt Disney]] short, ''The Valiant Little Tailor'', where Mickey accidentally got the job of stopping the giant ("I killed seven with one blow!" was misheard to be about giants instead of flies), and he was offered the hand of the Princess Minnie.
* ''[[Conan the Adventurer (animation)|Conan the Adventurer]]'' had a good twist on this. The king ''immediately'' reneged on his princess/future king offer when he actually met Conan. Conan, being Conan, decided to take what was his by force. (Pretty [[Unfortunate Implications]] [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|for a kids show]].)
** Considering that the original Conan became king of Aquilonia by his own hand...
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* This did happen in Medieval Europe. One example is Raymond and Henri, two French cousins who helped in the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. One was rewarded with the King of Castelle and Leon's legitimate daughter Urraca and the other his the bastard daughter Teresa (and also made him Count of Portucale). Neither of them became king, although the eldest son of both did: Urraca and Raymond's son was the next King of Castella and Leon, while Afonso, son of Henri and Teresa, fought his cousin to gain independence of his land and thus became the first King of Portugal.
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_19785_5-ways-modern-men-are-trained-to-hate-women.html
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