Awesome Moment Of Crowning - Television Tropes & Idioms

This is the end. The protagonists have defeated the Big Bad, saved the Distressed Damsel, and even stopped The End Of The World As We Know It. Hurray for them!

But now what? What happens? Are they going to get some sort of reward or something?

What's the chancellor/high priest doing with the royal crown? He's bringing it to the heroes?

Oh, they're being crowned King and/or Queen. Awesome!

This is when, (not always) at the end of the story, the main character or characters are crowned the leader of the land they just saved. Reasons can vary:

The hero is part of the royal line, so this is the Return Of The King.
There was an Ancient Tradition.
The hero(es) defeated the old ruler(s), so You Kill It You Bought It.
It's part of the Standard Hero Reward.
The hero is Born Lucky.

Sometimes, it doubles as a coronation wedding with a prince / Princess or the hero's Love Interest, guaranteeing a Happily Ever After of Happily Married conjugal bliss.

Considering that this is an Ending Trope, once again, beware the spoilers!

Not to be confused with Crowning Moment Of Awesome, though it might also be one. Nor any tropes relating to giving birth, which is an entirely different meaning of the word 'crowning'.

Compare Knighting.

Examples

Anime and Manga

Twisted in the end of the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga, considering how mermaid politics work. Aqua Regina gives her throne and powers up so that Lucia can be the new Aqua Regina. Makes one wonder, though, where the new princess is going to come from, considering Someone Has To Do It. There is a possibility that Lucia's pregnant, but what's a baby going to do in an emergency, you tell me.
In Code Geass R2, Lelouch managed to kill his father and named himself the emperor of Britannia. There were many who refused to acknowledge him, but that was before he showed them his Power of the King. In the end, after Lelouch's death, his younger sister Nunnally is crowned as the 100th Empress of Britannia.
In the manga Vampire Game, everything is leading up to the princess marying the Captain of the Guard. Which actually happens, but he gives up the throne and just stays a military man. He leaves the ruling and the title to her.
In Vinland Saga, the king has been trying to eliminate Prince Canute from contention for the throne, one way or another. After threatening to attack Wales unless the prince was killed, Askeladd beheaded the king, killed about a dozen soldiers, and then allowed Canute to stab him, thus "avenging" his father. The prince, bleeding from the face, dons the crown and takes control of an army whose leader had wanted him dead minutes before. Badass.
Esther at the end of Trinity Blood
This Troper got a twitch when reading the "and/or" bit above, because she remembered Space Pirate Mito. Where we find out that since Mito abdicated the throne, it's Aoi's job to take it over. Unfortunately, it's puberty time, which for Mito's species means deciding which gender you are.

Film

At the end of The Court Jester, the rightful king is finally revealed by his distinctive birthmark.
Spoofed at the climax of Johnny English.
The ending of The Lion King.
At the end of Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick becomes the Lord Marshal of the Necromongers when he kills the old one.
In Anastasia, Anya receives her crowning moment from her grandmother despite no longer having a country to rule.
In Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, James T. Kirk is demoted from Admiral down to Captain; but then he is assigned his old and rightful job as The Captain of the Enterprise.
- At the end of the 2009 Star Trek, grounded cadet Kirk's reward for saving the world is to be promoted all the way to Captain and given command of the Enterprise. Definitely Rule Of Cool.
At the end of Stardust.
Repo! The Genetic Opera has a great one during Epitaph, even though the people involved aren't technically royalty. Rotti Largo publicly renounces all three of his children and offers Gene Co to Shilo. She turns it down. Rotti dies just minutes later. In the ensuing chaos, Rotti's daughter Amber has her brothers—both as embittered as she is by their father's rejection of them—back her as she takes control of Gene Co and becomes at a stroke the most powerful person in the country.
"Gene Co will live on, under new management... me."
Hilariously subverted in Ella Enchanted. Char's coronation was a setup by the Evil Chancellor, who then, once exposed, crowned himself, forgetting that he had poisoned the crown with intent to kill Char at the moment of crowning.
Subverted in The Sword and the Sorcerer, Talon, having returned to his kingdom and slain the evil Titus Cromwell for usurping his rightful crown and killing his parents, gives the crown to the rebel leader, because it's way, way, way more fun to go riding around fighting bad guys and bedding beautiful wenches than it is ruling a kingdom.
Knocked Up... wait, that's the OTHER kind of crowning...
"And to the clear northern skies... King Peter, the ''Magnificent''!
Twisted somewhat in Chronicles Of Riddick

Literature

Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings was the true heir to Isildur, but could not ascend to the throne of Gondor until after Sauron was defeated.
In both the book and movie of Neil Gaiman's Stardust, Tristran is revealed to be heir to the throne of Stormhold. However, in the book he hands the kingdom to his mother until after he's traveled the world with his lady love...twice, while in the movie he becomes King.
At the end of CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, all four Pevensies are crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia. This is actually a plot point, as there was a prophecy saying that once the two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit on the throne at Cair Paravel, the White Witch's endless winter will end.
At the end of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn doorstopper trilogy, Simon Snowlock is crowned King.
In Wyrd Sisters, the crown prince doesn't want the throne at all, and it ends up that the court jester becomes King when he's finally revealed to be the prince's illegitimate half-brother. The twist is, the crown prince isn't the King's son at all, but the result of the Queen's affair with the jester's father. So they are half-brothers, but the new King isn't royal at all.
- Played closer to straight in a later Witch Series book, Lords and Ladies, which ends with Magrat marrying the king as planned, after almost running out and then saving everyone from the elves. Made especially awesome by the ceremony; after the elf invasion, the only suit left for the king was his old jester's outfit, while the bride wore the tattered remains of her wedding dress over the fearsome spiked plate armour she wore during her rescue of the kingdom, and the king waited to get Granny Weatherwax's approval before physically crowning Magrat.
- In another part of the Disc entirely, averted thus far, where even though everyone, even people who haven't been to the city since before Carrot arrived, knows he's the rightful heir to the throne, he hasn't been made king yet.
  - Probably because Carrot is well aware that things in Ankh-Morpork work better with Vetinari in charge - although it's implied, every time it comes up, that there's also the fact that Carrot is equally well aware of Vimes's feelings about monarchy, and doesn't want to upset him. Considering that Vimes is the descendant of the Captain of the King's Guard who killed the last king after the city found out about...certain activities the monarch had been up to - it's never said outright, but when Carrot and Vimes are looking at a statue of the last king, Vimes does say - very bleakly, even for him - that the king was "...very fond of children." It's also implied, in the same section, that this wasn't even the worst of what he'd done. Anyways - considering all that, it's to be understood that Vimes would have a hereditary dislike and severe distrust of monarchs.
  - Even better, both Vetinari and Carrot know that Carrot is the rightful heir to the thrown and could actually take over in a heartbeat, if he wanted to.
- To go along with the previous example, this trope has been perhaps been Subverted the best in Guards, Guards the false hero that the wannabe man behind the man was going to be crowned for the 'defeating' of the dragon was eaten by said dragon during the coronation, and the Citizens decide to crown the Dragon as king since, well - they still had the crown, and 'still needed a king'. When the Dragon was made to leave later in the book, they went back to the Patrician, mainly because the real heir refuses to acknowledge the fact he is the heir. Not that it didn't stop further attempts at crownings in future books.
- Although it's rather clear that Terry Prachett LOVES to make fun of this trope, he plays it relatively straight in Mort, where the Not Quite Dead Princess Keli bullies her faithful wizard into organising a coronation for her, which (due to unfortunate circumstances involving an elderly priest, a warp in the space-time continuum and an elephant) he ends up having to conduct himself, placing the crown on her head and ceremoniously chanting ''Iplaybetterdominoesthanyoudo' - which seems to have the desired effect!
In the original book of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz The Scarecrow takes the Wizard's place ruling over the Emerald city because the Wizard said so, the Tin Woodman gets asked by the Winkies to lead them and eventually accepts; and finally, the Lion becomes King of a forest full of animals when he defeats a giant spider.
In The Marvelous Land of Oz the protagonist, a boy called Tip is crowned ruler of Oz. This is because he is revealed to be the rightful ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma, transformed into a boy when a baby, and Glinda forces the witch Mombi — who transformed him to begin with — to turn him back into a girl.
Bone: Thorn, taking her rightful place after the royal family had previously been exiled by a war and the kingdom usurped. Oddly enough, the usurper never had to be dealt with, having died at the beginning of the climactic battle.
In the Apprentice Adept trilogy by Piers Anthony, Stile ascends from the status of a serf to being a fabulously wealthy aristocrat. This happens just into the third novel rather than at the end, but it still fits the trope.
Subverted in ''Elminster: Making of a Mage''. Elminster Aumar is the last rightful prince of the Stag Throne. After wresting it from his uncle, the Magelords standing behind the throne and apparently an undercover malaugrim riding evil dragon playing puppetmaster, Elminster gives the crown away to the last faithful knight of his father's throne before riding off into the sunset.
In Messenger, the 'sequel' to The Giver, it is indicated that Jonas, the hero of The Giver, is somehow made Leader of the new Community, despite having just been a thirteen year old kid on a sled when he arrived.
In Garth Nix's The Old Kingdom trilogy, the long-lost prince is first discovered as a Human Popsicle, and reluctantly reveals his heritage (he was the bastard son of the ruling Queen and the only survivor of the royal family.) When we revisit the Kingdom fourteen years later, he is definitely King and married to the heroine from Book One. Squee !
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series.
Averted in Wizard's First Rule, the first book of Sword Of Truth. Richard kills his father, Darken Rahl, but doesn't know about the family connection. Everyone bows down before him and salutes him as Lord Rahl, and he just kinda figures that it's a thing of respect or something and takes his leave, muttering "I'm just a woods guide."
In the Ea Cycle Atara (who became a Chiefess earlier in the last book) is crowned the Queen of Alonia and Valashu (who became a "plain" King earlier in the last book) the High King of the whole world.
This occurs slightly differently in The Belgariad and The Elenium by David Eddings- in each of those, the main character becomes royal (Garion of the Belgariad becomes the King, Sparhawk in the Elenium is Prince-Consort) at the end of the penultimate book in the series (or possible the beginning of the last one), before going off to kill an evil god using their magic rock.
- Also, Garion's crowning causes a Big No on the part of his queen-to-be.
In the first book of A Song Of Ice And Fire, Viserys finally gets the crown he's been badgering Khal Drogo for. Unfortunately for him, it's made of molten gold.
- And is the size of a barrel and poured down his throat and all over his face
- Played Straight at the end of the same book when Robb Stark reclaims the ancient title of his house and proclaims himself the King in the North (aka The King Of Winter)
In a bit of Back Story that's never directly portrayed in any of the original Howard stories, Conan The Barbarian, on his first day after arriving in the kingdom of Aquilonia as a drifting mercenary, beheaded the king in his throne room, took his crown, and declared himself king. The people rejoice at his ascension.
The last chapter of the fourth book of the Empire of Man (or Prince Roger, after the main character) series, co-written by David Weber and John Ringo. It's also a good example of a Chekov's Gun, since Prince Roger starts out in the first book as a Royal Brat.
- The scene in question can also can serve as a Tear Jerker, in regards to the fate of Empress Mac Clintock.

Live Action TV

The Doctor gets elected as President of the High Council of the Time Lords (for the second time, having no memory of the first case in "The Invasion of Time") at the end of "The Five Doctors". He accepts, gives temporary authority to Chancellor Flavia and leaves in the TARDIS. He gets said position taken from him at some point between that and "Trial of a Time Lord".
- Romana also ends up as President of the High Council, according to Fanon and/or Expanded Universe continuity.
- Harriet Jones ends up Prime Minister after "World War Three".
- Nicely subverted in "Tooth and Claw", however, in which the Doctor and Rose are knighted by Queen Victoria for their services to the Crown... and are then immediately banished from her realm, their flippancy about the horrific events that had taken place there (which had bordered on callousness at times) having so offended Victoria that once they're gone she orders the founding of the Torchwood Institute to make sure they don't return, which ends up biting them big time later on down the track.
Colonel Jack O'Neill gets promoted to General and is put in charge of the whole Stargate Program in ''Stargate SG-1.
- Likewise, Samantha Carter, who started the show as Captain, eventually reaches full Colonel and is given charge of the Atlantis Expedition on Stargate Atlantis.
In Babylon 5 Delenn of the Grey Council gets this quite a few times. First, being elected to the Grey Council when she used to be in Lennier's position. Second, she pointed out that Minbari rules on Civil Wars meant that to prove you had the MORAL high ground, you had to SET YOURSELF ON FIRE! And die. Her opponent wasn't willing to do so. She was. She lived anyway thanks to a Heroic Sacrifice, and became unquestioned Queen of the Minbari. (Abdicated) Later, she became President of the Interstellar Alliance.
In a very literal example, the first episode of Kings ends with David being appointed as God's new chosen one by a flock of butterflies that settle on his head in a crown. Really.
In The Unit series finale, Colonel Tom Ryan becomes a Brigadier General. But it is obvious that he was somewhat forced into accepting the promotion.
Octavian/Augustus gets a terrifying one at the end of the series Rome, even though most of the characters don't realise what it really is.

Professional Wrestling

This is the traditional ending to WWE's "annual" King of the Ring tournament. Of course, this being wrestling and all, they're not really being crowned king of anything, but simply being honored in a faux-coronation ceremony for winning the tourney. This doesn't stop most of the Heel winners from snapping and starting to behave as if they actually were the king of something.

Professional Sports

Many sporting events have something similar to this for its winner. The event would be styled as 'King of the X' or something with 'Royal' in it. Often the winner ends up with a cape, crown, and throne for promotional photos.

Video Games

At the end of the first two Suikoden games, the hero is offered the leadership of the country they've just liberated/formed. They don't usually accept. (Riou can become the leader in II, but the 'true' ending has him leave.)
Happens in the Adventure Game King's Quest: Quest for the Crown.
- And in again in King's Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow when Prince Alexander becomes King of the Land of the Green Isles at the end of the game (in both endings, even).
  - As well in the Fanmade VGA remake of the second King's Quest by Webteam AGI, it features a flash forward with Connor from Mask of Eternity, where Graham, heirless, bequeths his throne on him.. Or not. It's playable.
Five of the playable characters end up as kings/queens at the end of Final Fantasy IV.
- Four of them make perfect sense (two were already princes and the sole surivors of their families, one was the highest-ranking survivor of a kindgom whose king died with no heirs, and one married one of the new kings), but the fifth was rather strange. He is the highest ranking soldier in his kingdom, and is well respected. He would be a shoe in for the kingship if there were an empty throne and no heir. The only problem: the king isn't dead. In fact, he is clearly visible during the ending, apparently having abdicated the throne for no explained reason.
  - According to this page, Cecil was the adopted son of the deceased King of Baron, which is why he became King of Baron at the end. The King of Fabul stated in the SNES version of the game that he was too injured during Baron's attack on Fabul to continue being the king, and that is why he abdicated and named Yang as his successor, if I remember right.
Arguably subverted in Tactics Ogre, where you have to allow some pretty bad things to happen during the course of the game in order to get crowned king at the end - and then you get a bad ending!
- Namely, someone rushes your coronation and shoots you. Whoops.
Though s/he doesn't get made a king, the scene in Mass Effect where Shepard is finally inducted into the Spectres fits beautifully, complete with a combination of a rousing and inspirational speech with epic heroic music.
- Shephard DOES, however, get to make a king if s/he plays hir cards right. In at least one ending, Humanity is invited to add a representative to the Council, a group of only three (now four) which hold apparently absolute authority over all of civilization. Shephard, having just saved said civilization, is asked to "advise" the process. Hir "nominee" immediately makes his stirring acceptance speech.
  - It's even more majestic, in a dark, chilling way, when Shephard is a Renegade after sacrificing the the Council, leaving humans as the Masters of the Universe.
Sonic The Hedgehog gets proclaimed as King Arthur in the ending sequence of Sonic and the Black Knight, much to his incredulity. He proceeds to run off back to his own dimension before anyone has the chance to get him to do anything bureaucratic.
Subverted in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, where Arthas crowns himself as the Lich King.
- Not to mention the scene after his transformation to a Deathknight, where he simply stabs his father to take over the throne. Not that he has much interest in breathing servants...
- No literal crowning, but by the end of StarCraft Brood War Kerrigan has established herself as undisputed overlord of the Zerg.
  Kerrigan: You see, at this point... I'm pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe.
The Dark Side ending to Knights Of The Old Republic has the main character being hailed as the true Dark Lord of the Sith to the cheers of Bastila and the Sith army.
- The Light Side ending isn't too bad, either, as you're hailed as a champion to forever be known as The Prodigal Knight.
  - Which is kinda hilarious, if you know what prodigal actually means.
In Fire Emblem 7, the ending involves the crowning of either Eliwood as Marquess Pherae (in Eli's route) or Hector as Marquess Ostia (in Hector's). Also used in Fire Emblem 6, which includes in the epilogue mentions of Roy's friend and protegée Princess Guinivere becoming Queen of Bern after her older brother Zephiel's death.
- And The Sacred Stones, and Path of Radiance, and... you know what? Let's just assume that Fire Emblem games end with an Awesome Moment Of Crowning by default.
Subverted in Dragon Warrior 3: after defeating the very first boss, you are presented with the option of becoming king. Once you are king, however, you can only walk around the castle: no weapons, no armor, no magic, no leaving... making this also a modified Nonstandard Game Over (though it can be reversed by talking the old king back into his job.)
- Arguably subverted in the original Dragon Warrior as well, wherein the Big Bad offers the protagonist the chance to rule half the world. However, if the player takes this path, the would-be Awesome Moment of (Evil) Crowning becomes an irreversible Nonstandard Game Over, in which not only is the protagonist killed but some have said that the entire save file is deleted.
An option in Aveyond.
Bubble Symphony aka Bubble Bobble II: After beating the True Final Boss, which you need Plot Coupons to reach, the four children are seen to have been crowned in a similar way to four other children in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
In the end of the first Destroy All Humans Crypto becomes the President of the United States for a decade or so.
- And in the third game Orthopox, now with a monkey body has ascended to the Furon Throne, becoming Emperor Orthopox after Crypto kills Meningitis and The Master, who was planning to ascend the throne himself.
Sam And Max has Max becoming the President of the United States, beating a giant statue of Abe Lincoln. He hasn't lost this job... Yet.
At the end of the second Quest For Glory game, the childless Sultan adopts you as his son, making you his heir.
- The entire fifth game revolves around this. And you can become king. Or give up the throne to the next in line, and have Elsa be queen. Or be king and marry her and have her as a queen.Or give up the throne to her and become her... Man..Queen?. Or marry the belly dancer.Or.. You know never mind. I'm sorry.
The "bad" ending of Blood Omen Legacy Of Kain had the titular character become Nosgoth's new Vampire ruler, at least till the sequel/spinoff.
In Lords Of The Realm, when you defeat all the other Lords, you're greeted with a sequence where the Archbishop formally presents you with the Crown of England. He's supposed to be walking up the aisle of a church (or a court?), but the sequence is animated so fast and there's only one frame of animation, so it looks like he's rolling up to you on a skateboard.
A common (and effective) strategy in Rome: Total War, where you can go into the "family tree" and name your greatest general as faction heir. Considering the faction leaders get all kinds of bonuses, the Awesome Moment Of Crowning inevitably leads to a few in-game chances at a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the character, as seen in many an After Action Report.

Webcomics

Subverted (or possibly averted) in this Order Of The Stick strip. Durkon rightly becomes King of the Bandits, but gives it up.
- Also subverted as the characters chit-chat during Hinjo's crowning.
This early Arthur King Of Time And Space strip, and this somewhat later one.
A rare villain example: at the end of the Sluggy Freelance story arc "That Which Redeems," Lord Horribus's much abused sidekick Psyk is crowned the new Demon Lord after Horribus is cast out.
Psyk (now Lord Psykosis): "Fellow demons and demonesses ... I ROCK!"
The current arc of Sam and Fuzzy has been screwing around with this A LOT. First Sam doesn't want to be crowned but he's being dragged into it by Blank and opposed by Black, then we meet Gertrude who really ought to be getting crowned and resents the crap out of Sam because he has a semi-legitimate claim and she doesn't, then we find out that Blank doesn't want Sam, he just wants somebody to validate the command structure while Black wants to tear it down, then oh just read it. I swear. Crazy.

Web Original

Life In A Game has one, when Subplott finally regains his throne.

Western Animation

Subverted in WITCH, when Elyon's Awesome Moment Of Crowning is actually a trap to allow Phobos to steal her power. After Phobos is defeated, however, Elyon gets a real one.
The Avatar The Last Airbender Grand Finale has Azula's coronation as the new Fire Lord interrupted by Zuko and Katara's arrival. Later, Zuko gets one, where the tells the people that as Fire Lord, he assures the people that the war is finally over, and he will help the nations recover.
Combined with what is listed as a Crowning Moment Of Awesome in The Transformers: The Movie, where Starscream tries to get himself crowned leader of the Decepticons and finally succeeds, only to have the reborn Galvatron fly in and shoot him.
Parodied in Futurama episode "That's Lobstertainment!" contains a movie-within-a-show. The film, The Magnificent Three, is a story about a son (the Vice-President of Earth) not wanting to follow in his father's (the President of Earth) footsteps. At the end, the president dies.
Aide(played by Zoidberg): Congratulations, Mr. President!
VP(played by Calculon): NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....
- Also used in "My Three Suns", when Fry gets crowned king of the Trisolians because he drank their previous ruler, and has to recite his new lineage or DIE. He makes it, and then gets embroiled in a battle to rescue the old king.
At the end of Barbie And The Diamond Castle, Liana and Alexa are crowned "Princesses of Music" for defeating the villain and restoring the muses to their rightful place. Not only that, their dogs get crowned, as well.

Truth In Television

After the Revolutionary War, George Washington was offered the position of King. Averted, obviously.
- His heir was apparently going to be John Adams, which makes sense because Adams, unlike Washington, actually had children.
  - Ironically, Washington became the first President, and was succeeded by Adams, whose eldest son John Quincy eventually became President.
- Realistically, an "aristocracy of merit" is the usual proposed model that the US would have followed had Washington accepted the idea and became "King George I of America", with each king hand-picking his own successor from among those most qualified as opposed to a simple patrilinear model of inheritance. The Nervan and Antonine Emperors of Rome followed a similar method (and are considered some of the greatest Emperors Rome ever had because of it), adopting their heirs by virtue of their political and military skill as opposed to simple blood relation. Though the Roman system only lasted for about 80 years, and was broken when Marcus Aurelius named his son Commodus his heir (as seen in heavily altered form in the movie Gladiator), it is traditionally considered to be the Golden Era of the Roman Empire.
And before Washington there was Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War. After executing Charles I and exiling Charles II, parliament decided in a fit of unintentional irony to offer the crown to Cromwell. In the end he was just made Lord Protector Of England (17th century speak for "president for life"), an absolute ruler with only slightly less authority than King Charles had held. More, actually, since unlike Charles there was nobody left to argue with him.
- He wished, its just they had no chance of actually resisting by force as unlike Charles he had a standing army (who were the ones who told him in no uncertain terms he better not accept the crown). Although Cromwell was never actually crowned, after he refused the 2 offers of the kingship when he had already been Lord Protector for 4 years, there was a lavish ceremony confirming his status after the new Constitution was agreed upon which included lots of royal imagery and he was called his highness. If the army hadn't been dead set against it, him taking the throne would probably have helped those behind the revolution stay in power as Cromwell would have enjoyed far wider support as King.
- When Richard Cromwell decided Lord Protectorship was hereditary, the army twigged that they had a King-by-any-other-name. Incidentally, this is why there's a Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and Royal Marines, but not a Royal Army; the British Army is an organizational descendant of Cromwell's men, not tied to the crown directly.
Napoleon's coronation culminated in his taking the crown from the Pope and crowning himself. He was just that good.
Wilhem I was already King of Prussia at the culmination of his Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck's political machinations, but at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, the German states, having systemically smashed France, leading to a republic and the fall of Napoleon III, decided that Germany needed to pick up on the "Emperor" slack this caused. They crowned Kaiser Wilhelm (no, not that Kaiser Wilhelm) in the Palace of Versailles, just to let the French know that they had been owned pretty hard.
- Wilhelm, King of Prussia, was proclaimed German Emperor Wilhelm I by acclamation in the Versailles palace. There was no formal imperial coronation, nor an imperial crown, because the emperor ruled over both Catholic and Protestant Germans, who hardly would have agreed on how to carry out a coronation. Also, the notion of self-coronation was unacceptable just because Napoleon I had done so; the Germans of those days did not like what the French Empire had done to their lands. The constitution of the German Empire stipulated that the King of Prussia automatically would serve as German Emperor.
Anybody who wins a major election, a recent and great example being the historic inauguration of President ~~David Palmer~~ Barack Obama.
Anyone who wins an Academy Award, especially after having been passed over. Consider Steven Spielberg, a four-time nominee who finally won for Schindlers List.