The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A [[Princesses Rule|princess]] or a [[The High Queen|queen]] who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed and charismatic and she does care about her land and her people.

The problem is: They're at war, have a drought or a bad case of corrupt administration. And she wants to protect this people but they [[Stay in the Kitchen|don't want to follow a woman]], or someone [[Just a Kid|so young]] or anyone at all.

 

 

In fact, she can't act like a human being anymore. She has to be [[The High Queen]] or [[God Save Us From the Queen|worse]] and finds it tiring.

 

{{examples}}

* This describes Integra from ''[[Hellsing]]'' as well. She's not a queen and she ''is'' coldblooded but she has her moments. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.

* One of the main plots of ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'' kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne, but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own hability to reign over the Kei kingdom.

* ''[[Rose of Versailles]]'' portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with [[Knight Templar Parent]]. See [[Real Life]] below.

* Ex [[Rebellious Princess]] Cagalli Yura Attha tries to be [[The High Queen]] in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]''. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. {{spoiler|It may have worked a bit better later, with help of her soon-to-be sister-in-law Lacus Clyne after she's made leaderss of PLANT.}}

 

== Film ==

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life and her painted white faces is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padme Amidala be both [[The High Queen]] and [[Action Girl]].

* The 2006 movie ''[[The Queen]]'' is about what happens when the public ''don't'' like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.

'''The Queen:''' I have never been hated like that before.

'''Tony Blair:''' It must have been difficult.

'''The Queen:''' Yes... yes, just a girl... }}

** This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is such a [[Tear Jerker]].

'''Little Girl:''' They're for you. }}

* The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXlNlkWZXcM Arundhati] takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends and even suffering voluntary ''torture and death'' for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...

 

 

== Literature ==

* Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both ''The 20th Wife'' and ''Feast of Roses''. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.

* In the first book of Tad William's ''[[Shadowmarch]]'', Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.

* Megan Whalen Turner's ''[[The Queen's Thief|Queen of Attolia]]'' inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't ''nice'' but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.

*** Well, them telling her [[Cassandra Truth|wouldn't have helped at all]], anyways, and they knew it; she was too infatuated with the prince, at the time, and saying bad things about him - however true they might be - without ''very'' strong evidence to back it up would only have turned her against them. So they ''had'' to wait and hope she'd start seeing the truth about her [[White Prince]]. {{spoiler|Pity it took him trying to capture one of the [[Sapient Steed|Heraldic Companions]] in an attempt to ''become'' a Herald (and thus eligible for the throne), and then throwing a tantrum and trying to order Caryo killed when she kicked him. To make matters worse, Caryo was Selenay's ''own'' [[Bond Creatures|Companion]].}}

* Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's ''Daughter of the Empire'' and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.

* [[George R. R. Martin]]'s ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent [[Everything's Better with Princesses|princess]] to this over the course of the series.

** I would say that Dany's line "I am just a young girl and unexperienced in the ways of (blank), but..." would qualify her for an inversion: [[Obfuscating Stupidity|the Queen with the Girlie Mask]]?

** Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of [[The Kingdom|Manticore]] was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for a some time in her youth, after her parents were assassinated by [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Haven's]] sympathizers, who hoped that teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. [[Badass|Very]], [[Royally Screwed-Up|very]], ''[[Determinator|very]]'' [[Determinator|wrong]]. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just her close allies' one.

** Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book, and coming in full-force after the fourth.

* {{spoiler|[[Gender Bender|Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír]]}} in [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling's]] ''The Oracle's Queen'', until close to the end of the book. {{spoiler|At which point, the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.}}

* ''Tin Princess'' by [[Philip Pullman]] is a shining example of this trope.

* Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books ''Empress Orchid'' and ''The Last Empress,'' portrayed as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.

* In Mary Hoffman's ''[[Stravaganza]]'', the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] version of Venice) would not accept anything ''but'' a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bitch]] levels.

** Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident [[Witch Species]] who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.

*** For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).

* [[The High Queen]] in ''Wicked Lovely'', Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.

* The Childlike Empress in ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'' (''Die Unendliche Geschichte'') is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Black Colossus" Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.

* While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy]]'' has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. {{spoiler|She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel}}. Yet, all those [[I Did What I Had to Do|acts she had to take]] in her long life now [[What Have I Done|began to weigh on her conscience]] and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.

* Shakuntala in the [[Bellisarius Series]].

* Orual from ''[[Till We Have Faces]],'' as the page quote notes. In this case she ''literally'' wore a mask/veil as well.

* Nasuada from ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]'' isn't a queen, but she is [[Lady of War|the leader of]] [[The Alliance]] and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.

* In the ''[[Young Royals]]'' book about Marie-Antoinette ''The Bad Queen'' she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.

* Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess]]''.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Lao Ma from ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.

* Blair Waldorf in ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena).

** Of course, as soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius]]'''s Elincia was a [[Everything's Better with Princesses|princess]] during ''Path of Radiance'', but as the queen of Crimea in the sequel, her lot sucks considerably more.

** {{spoiler|Princess Nyna}} from ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]'' as well.. Specially after {{spoiler|marrying the future Emperor Hardin not for love but because she thought it was the best for their kingdoms, ''and'' sacrificing her love for [[Black Knight|Camus]] in the process. Guess what, [[It Got Worse]].}}

* Garnet/Dagger goes through this once or twice in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]''. She's certainly unprepared for the responsibility of being a ruler, but her sense of duty is far stronger than her personal desires - for the most part.

** It's pretty bad when {{spoiler|Lancelot}} apparently figures out after his death that he kinda goofed on that one, and {{spoiler|Bedivere}} was the only one to suspect the mask was exactly that before she died. Other than that?.... She seemed to get along okay with {{spoiler|Merlin}}.

** On a * much* smaller scale, Rin's character could be known as 'the woman wearing the model high school student mask'.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

{{quote|"...I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field...." (Elizabeth to the troops at [[wikipedia:Speech to the Troops at Tilbury|Tilbury]] as the Spanish Armada approached.)}}

** Queen Elizabeth I wore quite literally a Queenly mask, painting her face white and bedecking herself with jewels as she got older, to emphasise the cult of youthful virginity that grew around her.

** Elizabeth II, as mentioned in the entry about the film ''The Queen'' above, has quite a bit of this trope in her story, too.

* Urraca, Queen of Leon and Castile from 1109 AD to 1126 AD. She was Queen in her own right, and reigned alone from 1110 onwards.

*** Or perhaps she just wore the mask ''very, very'' well.

** She was also a major [[Badass]]. How many women can you think of that give birth then rushed of to command her troops in battle with the baby in her arm? (Admittedly she lost that battle.) The only thing I can think of that is more [[Badass]] is The Boss from MGS giving birth by C-section while on the battlefield and winning.

* [[Catherine the Great]] ''had'' to be this in the beginning of her reign, because her claim for the Russian throne was dubious at best - she wasn't Romanov or even Russian at all, seriously, what the hell? But when her position was somewhat stronger, she [[Really Gets Around|relaxed a bit]].

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Authority Tropes]]

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Always Female]]