Times where someone demands others kneel before them in Literature.
- In Alexis Carew: Mutineer, Captain Neals' sexist hatred of Alexis culminates in demanding she begs forgiveness for her men on bended knee. She refuses, stating she will bow to no one but the Queen, and he disrates hernote and has her flogged. This triggers the eponymous mutiny while Alexis is recovering. Fortunately the Court Martial sides with Alexis and the crew upon viewing the video from the ship's log.
- The Watcher in the Cemetery, a Cthulhu Mythos short by Ian Watson. The protagonists encounter Cthulhu who promptly kills several of them in a gory and physically impossible manner, then stops to observe their reaction. A pastor shouts for the others to pray to God for salvation. The group falls to their knees, only to stop in embarrassment when they realize it looks like they're worshiping Cthulhu instead.
- In John Shirley's "Demons", a demon leader plays out this scene with the President of the United States, then foregrounds the subtext of the scene by proceeding to orally rape him.
- Discworld: Subverted in Interesting Times. Rincewind has no trouble with "Kowtowing" to anyone who orders him to... It gives him the opportunity to get into a sprinter's stance after all.
- The Yillian Way by Keith Laumer. Members of an Earth diplomatic mission are told to crawl on their bellies to the banquet table to "honor the gods". They refuse which turns out to be the right thing to do, as Yillian culture is based around rituals of submission and domination.
- In The Dresden Files book Dead Beat, Queen Mab gives a relatively subdued version of this trope. She tries to recruit Harry, and when he refuses she simply says "one day, you will kneel at my feet." This comes true as of Changes, when Harry accepts the mantle of the Winter Knight from her in order to rescue his daughter.
- The Gilded Chamber: Haman forces his fellow members of Xerxes's court to bow to him, and retaliates against one who refuses by attempting genocide on his entire demographic.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book, Voldemort orders Harry to bow before dueling him after being resurrected. Harry refuses, so Voldemort simply uses magic to force him. The film implies that he uses the Imperius Curse to do this, whereas, in the book, Harry has demonstrated his immunity to the curse and Voldemort simply telekinetically forces his body to bow.
- The Last Days of Krypton: Unsurprisingly, the Trope Namer has a moment where he browbeats several disgruntled city officials he suspects of sabotaging a superweapon and demands that they "kneel before Zod."
- In a reversal of roles, Nicolae Carpathia's humiliated bow before Jesus Christ in the Left Behind book Glorious Appearing was made even more of that kind of moment in the Dramatic Audio presentation. Of course, Nicolae was left powerless to resist after Lucifer was cast out of him. Lucifer, on the other hand...
- In Pact, Conquest is an Anthropomorphic Personification of the concept whose name he bears, and therefore is extremely focused on forcing his enemies to submit to him, forcing them to kneel before him and then enslaving them, in order to most fully fulfill his concept, from which he draws power.
- In The Pillars of the Earth: Once the villainous Hamleighs have captured Aliena's castle, Lady Regan forces Aliena's stiff-necked father to kneel before her in front of his people, at threat of Aliena getting her ears cut off, and tosses off a triumphant rant to the crowd warning them that this is what happens to people who disrespect the Hamleighs.
- In Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, when The Inscrutable Machine hits a middle school to distract from their true identities, Penny gets all hammy and demands everyone on the playground kneel before her.
- A Practical Guide to Evil: One part of Akua's final defenses in Liesse against the protagonist is a spell called Trifold Reflexion. When Villain Protagonist Catherine steps into it, she lives through different alternative lives she could have led. All of them, her as a heroine, a crimelord, or a general, end with her ambitions getting crushed and her standing before Akua as the empress who orders her to kneel. Naturally, she refuses in all cases.
- Played with in The Reynard Cycle. Early in Reynard the Fox, Reynard claims that he bows to no man, Duke Nobel in particular. When he is finally made to kneel before Nobel, however, he is delighted to do so, as he is being made a member of the nobility against Nobel's will.
- The Running Grave: Mazu Wace, the evil leader of a terrifying Cult forces Robin (who is actually a detective that has infiltrated the cult) to kiss her feet, solely to humiliate her.
- A Song of Ice and Fire. Torrhen Stark did this to save the North from the Targaryen conquest, earning himself the nickname "The King Who Knelt". Dropping to one knee is a routine act of acknowledging higher authority in this feudal society, as one is effectively offering their lives to the authority (literally and figuratively).
- Randall Flagg demands Glen Bateman kneel to him near the end of The Stand. Bateman's response? Laughter. Of course, he gets killed, but it's a serious break to Flagg's aura of invulnerability.
- Star Wars Legends:
- In the New Jedi Order series, Supreme Overlord Shimrra uses a gravity-controlling creature called a dovin basal to force Luke Skywalker to bow to him when they meet face-to-face during the climax. Then between his own formidable Force powers and his nephew Jacen's rapport with the Vonglife, Luke is able to resist gravity and pull himself back to his feet, to the stunned amazement of Shimrra and his court.
- In The Thrawn Trilogy, Joruus C'Baoth has foreseen that Mara Jade will kneel before him. She does, in order to strike him dead.
- In Legacy, Darth Krayt forces Cade to sleep with Talon.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Horus Heresy: In The First Heretic, the Emperor psychically forces the Word Bearers to kneel before him in the ashes of Monarchia as he chastises them for their failures in keeping up with the rest of the Great Crusade. Only Lorgar seems able to withstand the force of the Emperor's psychic might, but he too kneels when the Emperor shoots him a Death Glare and very firmly reiterates his command. The 17th rises again as the first Traitor Legion, and proceed to orchestrate what would become the Horus Heresy.
- In Ben Counter's Soul Drinkers novel Chapter War, the apparition of Periclitor demands that Sarpedon kneel before him.
- In John French’s Thousand Sons novel Ahriman: Unchanged, Inquisitor Malkira asserts her authority over a gathering of Space Marines and naval officers by commanding the Space Marines to bend their knees.
- The Wheel of Time
- Protagonists do this too. Rand at one point snaps at the Aes Sedai:Rand: I forget nothing, Aes Sedai. I said six could come, but I count nine. I said you would be on an equal footing with the Tower emissaries, and for bringing nine, you will be. They are on their knees, Aes Sedai. Kneel!
Taim: Kneel before the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt. - Before that, Ishamael (as Ba'alzamon) did this a lot in the first book.Ba'alzamon: Kneel! Kneel, and acknowledge me your master! In the end, you will. You will be my creature, or you will die.
- Protagonists do this too. Rand at one point snaps at the Aes Sedai:
- Worm has an excellent example in Imago 21.3 where Skitter asserts her dominance over a hero.
