Unexpected Successor: Difference between revisions

* King Airyglyph in ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', who was known as Airyglyph the Unlikely.

* Ashnard in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance'' killed his father and everyone who was ahead of him in order to get the throne of Daein, starting from fairly far down the line of succession. The sequel claims he killed everyone else of by {{spoiler|making his father sign a blood contract, then invoking it, everyone but his father died randomly in what people thought was a plague}}. This is unpopular among the fanbase as it seems to have been thrown in there to demonstrate the power of the {{spoiler|blood contract}} (which was never mentioned in the first game), and takes away from Ashnard's personality of loving to kill people firsthand.

* This can happen to the player in ''Shogun: [[Total War]]'', and possibly its sequels. Because of the way that births of heirs, aging, and succession are modelled, if you fail to manage your family properly, odd stuff can happen. Only the player's current character can die of old age or sire children, and the chance is random on any turn with penalties for age. For instance, the 90-year-old uncle of the current Daimyo, immune to age since he's not the head of the family, could be the only one left if the Daimyo's sons all die in battle or assassinations. He succeeds the throne when his 60-some year old nephew dies, and then himself dies the next turn on a random old-age roll buoyed up by 30 years of penalties, ending the game.

** In later games in the [[Total War]] series, the game doesn't end, your country "merely" goes into civil war as any general with a drop of royal blood tries to claim the throne. The player is allowed to pick one of the claimants to make the ''de facto'' legitimate heir, and everyone else gets treated as a Rebel faction by the game. Players at risk of this have been known to marry a princess to their best general, which gives him a claim to the throne too. After all, if you're gonna have to fight your own guys, might as well do it with your best commander and biggest army. In in-game terms, this can result in a minor lord, knight, or even ''commoner'' being vaulted onto the throne.

* ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' is in love with this trope. The previous monarch, King Dorgalia, was a commoner who managed to become the first king of Valeria by defeating his biggest rival, King Roderick, in the middle of a bloody ethnic civil war. Dorgalia has a legimate son with a Bacrum noblewoman, but he dies at a young age and so does the Queen. This leaves Valeria in yet another civil war, which each one of the ethnic groups being led by a different pretender, all trying to become King. Ultimately it turns out that Catiua, the protagonist Denim's adopted sister, is the unknown bastard daughter of King Dorgalia, and thus the rightful Queen. Depending upon the ending, either she can be the [[Unexpected Successor]], or it can be Denim himself if she gets killed. Denim's military might is really the only thing that holds together either crowning. Literally every other rival is dead by then. {{spoiler|God only knows who will become King in the bad ending, where Denim gets assassinated on his coronation day. But Catiua becoming Queen seems to be the canon ending.}}

* A [[Succession Crisis]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' leaves nearly everyone with a semi-legitimate claim to the throne either dead or otherwise disposed of, paving the way for Delita, a once-poor [[Farm Boy|stable boy]] who worked his way up through the military via masterful [[Xanatos Speed Chess]], to take the throne of Ivalice by marrying Ovelia, the only surviving claimant just before her coronation. Ovelia's ascension was just as unlikely and just as masterfully orchestrated, only by powers beyond her own control. She too was a commoner who was [[Changeling Fantasy|switched at birth]] with the ''real'' Princess Ovelia, who had already died, and raised as the ailing king's younger sister. She was then used as a political pawn by Duke Goltana, who intended to place her on the throne, assume power as her regent, and then have her executed. Ultimately, Goltana is betrayed and murdered (by Delita), even though his faction wins the War of the Lions, so Ovelia ascends to the throne as a proper queen ... or would have, had Delita not married her and become king by default. {{spoiler|He then goes on to kill her, but that's just because she went crazy and tried to kill ''him'' first}}.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' sees command of the [[The Empire|Imperial]] army fall into the lap of Judge Zargabaath, the rarely seen low man on the Judge Magistrate totem pole simply because all the other Judges are either dead or have jumped ship.

* In the ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' module "The Bastard of Kosigan", your character is the illegitimate son of the present Count's younger brother; the present Count has two legitimate and one illegitimate son, and the elder legitimate son has a wife and son. Over the course of the game, all five people in line ahead of you (your father is already dead) get killed off by you/Alex/each other/French assassins, leaving your character with the best claim. The French plot initially involved killing you off as well, which would have left a French general with the title by virtue of being of a branch of the family that diverged several centuries ago.

* The player character in the ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' reboot is fourth in line of succession for his family, the planetary rulers, and ends up becoming a lazy, party-loving [[Jerkass]] as a result. Then the rest of his family is assassinated and he suddenly finds himself in the front lines...

* Happens twice in the same country in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]''. King Clavius of Argonia only became the king because his elder brother deserted the country. Then his useless son [[Prince Charmless|Prince Charmles]] is expected to be his heir, until {{spoiler|the [[Rite of Passage]] ceremony, where he needs to get a jewel called an Argon Heart from an Argon Lizard. The heroes are sent to assist him, and get a decently-sized Heart after obtaining a bunch of small ones. Then he goes back to town and ''buys'' a larger one, which his father witnesses. In the [[Good Ending]], the Hero is revealed to be Clavius's long-lost brother's son, making him a potential heir. And care to guess which potential heir produced a legitimately-obtained Argon Heart?}}

== [[Web Comics]] ==