Warrior Prince: Difference between revisions

A subtrope of [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]. See also [[Authority Equals Asskicking]], [[Lady of War]], and the [[Distaff Counterpart]], [[Badass Princess]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Badass Princess|Female example]]: Princess Cornelia li Britannia in ''[[Code Geass]]''. Lelouch himself also qualifies, despite being an exiled prince. He commands Japanese rebels to battle against [[The Empire|the Holy Empire of Britannia]], and he enters the battle himself while he orders his army to do the rest. It fits his mantra of "If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" and he even manages to pin Cornelia down at the Battle of Narita.

* Vegeta in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. Still likes to refer to himself as Prince of Saiyans, [[Last of His Kind|despite the fact he's one of the two full blooded left.]]

* The three Merman Princes; Ryuboshi, Manboshi, and Fukaboshi from [[One Piece]].

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'': [[Sissy Villain|Prince Garma Zabi]] of [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|Zeon]] leads the Earth Invasion Fleet and is a decent fighter pilot. [[The Brute|Prince Dozle Zabi]] is a [[Four-Star Badass]] and [[One-Man Army]] who comes ''this'' close to soloing [[The Federation]] fleet at Solomon. Even [[Non-Action Guy]] [[The Evil Prince|Prince Gihren Zabi]] takes an active role as [[Big Bad|Commander-in-Chief]], organising the army, [[Rousing Speech|keeping up morale]], and directing [[The Strategist|strategy]] for the entire conflict. Their [[Badass Princess|sister]], [[The Baroness|Kycilia]] is equally active, as a fleet commander, researcher, and [[Lady of War|pilot]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* Iolande of the [[Green Lantern]] Corps would ''like'' to be this, and was for a while, but the deaths of the rest of her family meant she had to take the throne. Being the ruler of an entire world leaves little time for ring-slinging.

 

 

== Folklore ==

 

 

* Prince Roger of the ''March Upcountry'' series, against the desires of his bodyguards. ''Very'' much to their surprise, he's a good one, and towards the end is fighting more to protect ''them'' than they him. He is assisted by Rastar Komas Ta'Norton, the alien Prince of lost Therdan, who joins Roger as a mercenary, and Rastar's cousin Honal.

* Aileron, the elder prince in the ''Fionnavar Tapestry'', contrasting with his younger brother Diarmuid who is more of a dandy, albeit a cool one.

 

 

* The [[Traveller]] volume ''Nobles'' has a character template for a nobleman in the [[Space Navy|Imperial Navy]].

* Quite common in [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. With [[Authority Equals Asskicking]] and armed with [[Ancestral Weapon]] this means that several of them are capable to take down large monsters and demons.

 

 

* Prince Jarvan Lightshield IV, the Exemplar of Demacia of ''[[League of Legends]]''

* Common in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', but probably most exemplified in Prince Marth of ''FE1'' and Prince Ephraim in ''FE8''.

* Another female example: Princess Zelda is shown in such a capacity in the flashback sequence of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]''.

* King Mickey, he can save your ass in the hard boss battles, and is basically [[Expy|the Yoda]] of the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series.

* Prince Ariona Allant, aka Ostrava, from ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' counts, but it's stretched a bit as he needs rescuing two of the three times you meet him in the Boletarian Palace.

* Arthas Menethil, Prince of Lordaeron in ''[[Warcraft]] III'', until his [[Face Heel Turn]]. Kael'thas Sunstrider, Prince of Quel'thalas (although he uses magic) in ''Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne''. Varian Wrynn, King of Stormwind in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.

** {{spoiler|[[Doomed Protagonist|Prince]] [[A Father to His Men|Liam]] [[Badass|Greymane]]}} is this in the ''Cataclysm'' expansion.

* Bart from ''[[Xenogears]]'' appears to be a pirate, but is really a prince in hiding.

* In ''[[Total War]]'', as your generals are all members of your royal family, this is commonplace.

* King Graham in [[King's Quest]], justified in the fact that he was a knight before becoming king. Alexander may also count - although he's not really one for physical confrontation or battle, he's still accomplished some pretty badass feats, including quickly mastering many magical spells and ''riding Death's horse into the land of the dead''.

 

* Pella Brightwing from ''[[Twice Blessed]]'' is a deadly pixie warrior princess.

* Gilgamesh Wulfenbach from ''[[Girl Genius]]'', as well as [[Action Girl|Zeetha]].

** Jillian is a female variant, much to the disappointment of her father who had wanted a son and a philosopher.

 

* The [[Chaos Timeline]] has Prince Alasdair, later king Alexander of Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, and (shortly) elected king of Poland and Holy Roman Emperor. Later inspires this world's most famous modern fantasy epos.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Simba from ''[[The Lion King]].''

* In ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'', Mark is technically the "warrior prince" of Yugopatamia... but it's pretty much in title only.

* [[Prince Valiant]]

 

* It would be better to list the exceptions, as the examples would run on for too long. That said, Prince, later King, John, called the Soft-Sword.

** In fairness, as John was the fifth and last son of Henry II, he was actually expected to go into the clergy, and as such, he received a good deal more education than his older brothers, all of whom received land, titles, and the expectations to defend all that. He did lead armies into battle; he just wasn't that good at it.

* William I and his son were among the last European rulers to personally take the field, and did reasonably well too as was appropriate given his [[Prussia|country.]] His opponent the Emperor of France, though less qualified, also led in the field which was appropriate given [[Napoleon Bonaparte|his grandfather]].

* As recently as 1914, Albert I, King of the Belgians, personally led his army when Germany invaded Belgium at the start of World War I.

* In the Ottoman Empire, much like in the trope in general, the exceptions are more noteworthy. Almost all of their sultans, princes, and top aristocrats were some variety of Warrior Prince, [[Cultured Badass]], or [[Ambadassador]].

* Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, was elected monarch ''precisely'' because of his accomplishments as a military commander. Those skills also came in handy [[Siege of Vienna|after his election]], too.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Always Male]]

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Badass]]

[[Category:Badass in Charge]]