Line #32 Main/TalentedPrincessRegularGuy


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_rapunzelflynn.png]]]]
6
7	-> '''Naveen:''' But when you're living in a castle, everything is done for you: all the time they feed you, dress you, drive you... brush your teeth!
8	-> '''Tiana:''' Aw, poor baby.
9	-> '''Naveen:''' I admit it was a charmed life, until the day my parents cut me off, and suddenly I realized...I don't know how to do anything.
10	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog''
11
12	In a lot of {{fairy tale}}s, there is one hero and one heroine (though Literature/ThePrinceAndThePauper and the like are notable exceptions), there will be a lot of emphasis on how infinitely talented the girl is, but not as much on the guy. The girl (who is usually either a princess or a regular girl who will become a princess later in the story) can have any range of talents, including singing (obviously), dancing, cooking, painting, or even [[ActionGirl kicking people's asses]]. This can occur in one of three situations:
13
14	* She spends most of her time living in her castle/house, and likes to keep a few things in practice so she doesn't get bored. Same if [[GirlInTheTower she's been living in a tower.]] Or maybe, in some cases, it's part of her job.
15	* She is required to be talented in order to marry the prince.
16	* Her talents were given to her at birth by a magical being.
17
18	As for the guy? The guy may or may not be a prince, but he is usually given one of three talents:
19
20	* Swordfighting/any other kind of battle
21	* Thievery
22	* [[DeadpanSnarker Snarky comments]]
23
24	Subtrope of MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial. Compare UselessBoyfriend.
25
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
31	* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'', we begin thinking Fiona is a typical DamselInDistress until she gets kidnapped by some singing Frenchmen who want to kill Shrek, at which point she resorts to kicking their butts. It's revealed that since she lived alone in a tower for years, she put a few things into practice. Shrek, on the other hand? Ah, he's just a rather short-tempered ogre who doesn't socialise much and is a bit set in his ways, and who was dragooned into this quest very much against his will anyway. He gets better.
32	* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler''. The Cobbler has his own trade, but Princess Yum-Yum laments the fact that her father won't let her help out with anything.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' inverts the trope twice, giving us Talented ''Girl'' Regular ''Prince.'' Prince Naveen is apparently unable to take care of himself, whereas Tiana is tough, hardworking, and a great cook. This is debatable, though, since he does play the ukelele and speak French. The implication is that Naveen is a smart guy and can pick up on stuff, but his lifetime of hedonism made him unwilling to exert the effort to do so. Tiana, meanwhile, is forced to have a strong work ethic to get through her lower-class life.
34	* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' has Rapunzel and Flynn. While the bulk of what Flynn can do involves stealing from people and making snarky comments (though, according to some fans, his other talent is [[PuppyDogEyes the smolder]]), Rapunzel can paint, dance, cook, play guitar, sculpt, and knit, among other things. Plus her hair alone has many different uses, and she sometimes utilizes it in defending herself.
35	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', the heroine cooks, cleans, sews (and tiny little mice-sized clothes, no less!), dances, while the prince won't even go after her himself (though probably justified as the handsome local prince visiting every single girl would probably cause more trouble than it's worth).
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
39	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Han Solo and Princess Leia. He's a snarky and badass smuggler, she's a Force-sensitive princess of Alderaan and a leader of LaResistance. They fight the empire.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder: Literature]]
43	* The ''Literature/HeavyObject'' character Milinda, a prodigy who was technologically enhanced to pilot a superweapon, develops a crush on Quenser, who is strategically brilliant by ordinary standards but not much else.
44	* Inverted in ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries''. Aside from being a princess, Mia is a completely normal girl. Her main {{Love Interest\|s}} and boyfriend, Michael, is a genius, great with computers and even managed to build a robotic arm that revolutionized medical science. Her other various love interests/boyfriends could qualify too: JP is talented, smart, and manages to write a play by his senior year that gets optioned to be a movie while Kenny is a science whiz who managed to ''build a bomb all by himself'' in their junior year.
45	** It's revealed near the end of the series that Michael [[InsecureLoveInterest believes]] this trope was played straight. He reasons that Mia has done a lot of important things- like fundraising for environmental causes, staunching a classmate's critical injury, and [[spoiler:revealing the truth about Genovian democracy]]- in her position, even if she didn't earn it, and he had to work very hard so the media would not see him as a hanger-on. Mia, who thought he was a special person before ''either'' of them got famous, [[SympatheticPOV can't believe what he's saying]].
46	* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'' the hero, Maia, is not talented at, well, anything, because his mother died when he was eight and the cousin who then became his guardian disliked him and wasn't much interested in teaching him. By contrast, the woman he has a crush on is a very talented opera singer, and the woman to whom he gets engaged in an ArrangedMarriage [[spoiler: has to teach him how to dance.]]
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
50	* The ''Series/FaerieTaleTheatre'' rendition of Literature/SleepingBeauty puts a lot of emphasis on this trope. Sleeping Beauty grows up to be Bernadette Peters, while her prince is less than appealing. She uses her talents to "audition" for her soon-to-be father-in-law, who enjoys her performance and says she can marry his son. That being said, she would have been safe from the curse if she hadn't looked out her window and noticed how humiliatingly selfish and unimpressive the prince was; she then ran away and hid from him, and that's where she found the fatal spinning wheel. So in a sense, it is this trope that killed her.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Theater]]
54	* Winnifred and Dauntless from ''Theatre/OnceUponAMattress'' fit this trope to a T. Dauntless is a timid mama's boy who hasn't even had TheTalk yet, while Winnifred (a.k.a. [[spoiler:Fred]]) can swim, sing, dance, wrestle, lift weights, and even survive through large amounts of wine.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:VideoGames]]
58	* ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'': Played straight as anything with Yggdra and Milanor. Not only are Milanor's only talents fighting, snarking, and stealing, but he's only around to be a surrogate for the male players; Yggdra carries the plot completely. At least they're not actually a couple.
59	* Played with in the various ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games. Because Link is the character that the player controls, he starts out able to do very little besides walk around and, occasionally, jump ledges and lift rocks. By the end of the game though, he can wield a wide variety of weapons {{p\|ossessionImpliesMastery}}erfectly. Zelda's skill level, on the other hand, depends on the game. In the earlier games, she was pretty much a DamselInDistress. Later games gave her psychic powers and the gift of prophecy, which she would have at the beginning of the game, usually to contact Link. Notably, ''Wind Waker'' has her starting off as a worldly pirate who laughs at the idea of Link being a hero. Some games also have her gain abilities as well, like the ability to turn into a ninja, wield magic, use a bow and arrow set, ride a horse, swordfight, and possess a suit of armor to fight.
60	* Creator/SquareSoft likes this trope, although few characters ever stay "a regular guy" for the whole game. Let's count 'em:
61	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'': Princess Sarah, who really knows how to use her magic items, fighting alongside four kids barely into their first HowDoIShotWeb days.
62	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'': Reina, [[spoiler:Faris and Krile - a WhiteMage princess, a {{Bifauxen}} pirate captain princess and a psychic teen alien princess]], traveling with Bartz... a hobo on a chocobo. [[spoiler:He turns out to be an alien too.]]
63	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'': Princess Garnet Til Alexandros IX, a white mage princess and summoner who trained to escape her castle and plans to use diplomacy to resolve conflicts plaguing the world. She is traveling with Zidane, who is a thief, a warrior ''and'' an actor. At the start of the game, Zidane's competence in his areas surpasses her because her sheltered upbringing leads to problems and she can't use summons until later. She improves while Zidane's skillset stays the same.
64	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Lady Yuna, daughter of High Summoner Braska, traveling with Tidus, a not-too-bright jock. [[spoiler:He turns out to be a dream of the Fayth based on Shuyin.]] They're both equally instrumental to taking down Sin: [[spoiler:her summons must be sacrificed and Tidus can distract his zombified father Jecht]].
65	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Princess Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca, a diplomatic mastermind and leader of LaResistance, traveling with Vaan, who... is able to hold a sword and is passingly good at pickpocketing.
66	** ''VideoGame/BahamutLagoon'': Princess Yoyo of Kahna, an all-powerful summoner, traveling with Byuu, a knight. In Byuu's defense, he's good at what he does -- but he's got a supporting role at best.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Western Animation]]
70	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' plays with this trope. First, it has [[KidHero Finn]] and [[EmperorScientist Princess Bubblegum]]. While she ''is'' much more talented than him, their relationship never develops past a PrecociousCrush on his part. Finn later shifts his romantic intentions towards [[NaiveNewcomer Flame Princess]], who, thanks to [[SealedGoodInACan an extremely sheltered upbringing]], knows very little about the world and [[PuppyLove is Finn's age to boot]].
71	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' has Star, a monster-fighting magical princess from another dimension, and Marco, an ordinary Earth teenager who most only know for his obsession with safety.
72	[[/folder]]

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