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A special case of Chekhovs Gunman. The heroes and/or villains run into a seemingly unimportant person, usually a beggar or common criminal. Later we discover this person is actually someone of great fame and importance (a king/powerful wizard, etc), and that he/she had disguised him/herself to walk among the general populace unnoticed.
This may be a Rags To Royalty situation, if the king must stay hidden for his own safety. However, it is never a case of a Secret Legacy; the king always knows that he is the king, and is generally plotting the Return Of The King. If the central character is the King Incognito, then this is I Am Who.
Frequently serves as a Deus Ex Machina, or can lead to a Right In Front Of Me moment. Kneel Before Frodo often results. God Was My Copilot is the supernatural version.
Compare Modest Royalty.
Contrast Ermine Cape Effect.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Chazz runs into a scruffy-looking guy outside North Academy who tells him about the requirements to get in. When he finally does get in and beats every student in the school, the scruffy guy reappears and reveals that he's actually the one who runs the academy.
- Mai-Otome plays a double case of this with Mashiro and Takumi both sneaking out be among the general population and unknowingly meeting up with each other while their bodyguards try to keep up the Masquerade.
- Crusnik #3/The Methusela Empress/Seth in Trinity Blood; She poses as a human tea vendor around her city using an Amidala/Padme decoy system (though the decoy is much older).
- The Principal in Great Teacher Onizuka learns of Onizuka's true nature this way.
- In The Twelve Kingdoms, King En does this a lot. He claims that listening to gossip in brothels is a good way to find out what's really going on. It seems to work.
- Hotohori in Fushigi Yugi is always doing this.
- Used absurdly straight in Moetan, where the Badass Longcoat Dandy is revealed to be the King of the vaguely defined Magical Kingdom all along. Ridiculously shounen battles ensue.
- In Rose Of Versailles, Queen Marie Antoinette tries to go to a party incognito (just not revealing she's the queen, since she's still clearly a noble in a Pimped Out Dress), but her bodyguard Oscar just has to challenge the guy chatting her up. And so began another one of the series's sources of drama.
- Lelouch, just Lelouch Slight subversion in that he's only a prince, and not even close to being the crown prince. (He's 17th in line for the throne, at least he is at the beginning of the series)
- Happens frequently in The Five Star Stories. It's a favorite activity of Emperor Amaterasu, but then, disguising yourself is the easiest thing in the world to do when you're a literal divine emperor.
- Shi Ryuuki from Saiunkoku Monogatari does this a lot. Not that he always succeeds; Shuurei saw through his disguise immediately when they first met (he was using the name of someone she had met not ten minutes ago, among other things). He does manage to pull it off at other times, though.
Comic Books
- In the World Of Warcraft comic, Lo'Gosh, an amnesiac human with uncanny fighting skills who was forced into being an Orc gladiator, turns out to be Varian Wrynn, the kidnapped and subsequently shipwrecked king of Stormwind.
Film
- Queen Amidala of Star Wars frequently disguises herself as one of her own handmaidens. (OK, in this case it's just so that the assassins will shoot the wrong woman, which proves to be entirely justified.)
- In Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (which later went on to influence Star Wars), a princess and a general of a defeated kingdom disguise themselves as peasants in an attempt to smuggle themselves and their kingdom's treasury to safety.
- One of the princess's servents also dies in her place earlier in the movie (off camera). Look familiar?
- Prince Edward in A Knights Tale, who pretends to be a knight of no great repute in order to compete in tournaments.
- In Dogma, God herself takes a human form in order to visit the Jersey Shore and play skeeball.
Folklore
Literature
- Used by Thomas, Lord of the obscure British castle of Magnus in Sigmund Brouwer's Wings Of Dawn; officially, he's terribly sick and close to death for the last six months, while in reality he's been in hiding from the Druid conspiracy that seeks his castle and his books, and terribly sick of being stuck inside that long, so he goes undercover to get some fresh air and find out what's happened in the meantime. Good thing, too, since the Druids strike while he's gone.
- Happened at least once in The 1001 Nights: In Two Sisters Who Were Jealous of Their Younger Sister, the Sultan, having just buried his father and assumed the title, disguises himself to check out how his people are receiving the change. He overhears three sisters discussing their "If I could have one wish" fantasies, in which one says she'd marry the Sultan's chief baker, the next says she'd marry the chief cook, and the youngest says "Nothing less than the Sultan himself" - so the Sultan decides to make their wishes come true.
- According to these stories, caliph Harun al-Rashid also liked to do this.
- In a way, Carrot in the Discworld books.
- Elsewhere in Discworld, Nanny Ogg reflects on an (unrelated) story that fits this trope and her suspicion that the King in question sent his people around beforehand to make sure everyone knew what was really happening "in case anyone tried to get too common."
- Prince Heinrich of Zlobenia in Monstrous Regiment serves in his own army as Captain Hortenz, and tries to get too common with a serving girl (actually the heroine disguised as a boy disguised as a serving girl), who naturally kicks him in the "Royal Succession".
- When we first meet Aragorn, the rightful king, in The Lord Of The Rings, he's a ranger named Strider. We don't find out his true identity for quite some time.
- Tolkien said when he first showed up in the story he didn't know who the guy was either. Hell, the original character concept was a hobbit with wooden shoes.
- Of course, at that point in the story, Aragorn is king of nothing more than a band of nomads who spend their time keeping monsters out of Eriador and a large, rolling plain with some rocks.
- And before the events of Lord Of The Rings, there was this mysterious advisor to Steward Ecthelion (Denethor's father) of Gondor...
- Nat Whilk in The Dragons of Babel. It helps that he's been gone for a number of years and no one saw that much of him to begin with. And at the end, Will comes back after twenty years or so and does the same thing.
- The Eternal Emperor, Ruler of the Court of a Thousand Worlds, in the Sten series by Chris Bunch & Allan Cole, liked to take a break from the Imperial rulership thing by dressing up as a seedy starship engineer named "Haroun al-Raschid" (in a deliberate homage to the Arabian Nights) and go out bar crawling. And getting in bar fights.
- The Connatic, benign dictator of the Alastor Cluster in Jack Vance's Alastor trilogy, not only frequently goes out into the public in disguise, but makes sure that the people know of this habit. He only appears as his official self once in the series and it is implied that Ryl Shermatz, a government agent who appears in two of the books, may be one of his cover identities.
- Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe features King Richard I going around as a mysterious knight searching for adventure upon his return to England. His loyal retainers' advice not to risk his life in this manner is ignored.
- In Fiona Patton's The Painter Knight, the mildly insane king goes bar-crawling. This doesn't work, however, because members of the royal family are quasi-divine and have literally flaming eyes. Whatever tavern he enters is forced to uncomfortably maintain the fiction, under pain of having the bar burned down. When he is assassinated and his daughter and heir is on the run from her enemies, her eyes are disguised by blindfolding her with a thin cloth, so that she can see but others think she is blind. Her distinctly red hair, another family characteristic, is darkened with dirt.
- Prince Jonathon in the Song of the Lioness quartet.
- Prince Roger and his surviving bodyguards do this in John Ringo's We Few, literally remolding their bodies with supertech to go undercover.
- King Arthur did this in A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court, to no one's benefit. Twain hated the monarchy.
- The King and the Duke from The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn claim to be this, but Huck can tell they're just con men on the run almost immediately after meeting them.
- In James Thurber's The 13 Clocks, the wandering ministrel is, in reality, a prince. (The wicked duke finds him out by finding his real clothing: the Ermine Cape Effect strikes.)
- In the Chivalric Romance Sir Orfeo, Orfeo wanders in the wilderness because of his grief at the loss of his wife, kidnapped by the king of Fairy. However, when he finds the fairy court, he exploits it to present himself as a ministrel. When the king promises him a reward, he asks for his wife back. The king objects because he is so tattered. Orfeo says that breaking his word would be worse, and gets her.
- In Greg Costikyan's book Another Day, Another Dungeon Vic, the senile old man who tells long, pointless stories and begs for spare change, turns out to be the last polymage, a type of sorcerer thought to have died out more than ten thousand years ago. This definitely counts as a Deus Ex Machina, but it's completely forgivable because it's hilarious.
- In Edgar Rice Burroughs's Chessmen of Mars, Gahan the Jed of Gathol met, and rather repulsed, John Carter's daughter Tara. He disguised himself as a panthan, a wandering swordsman, named Turan when they met again.
- Ruthlessly subverted in Yulia Latynina's Wizards and Ministers, when the naive young emperor Varnazd tries to be this and ends up being coerced to join a street gang which then just betrayed him and took him hostage, easily recognising who he was. His Prime Minister was honestly relieved that this was as far as it went, haing previously noted that all the wannabe Haroun ar-Rashid emperors in the Wei Empire tended to end up as irresponsible Robin Hood-wannabe gang leaders with complete immunity from law enforcement that was afraid to arrest anyone right or wrong for the fear of accidentally arresting the Emperor.
- 1632 has Gustavus Adolphus as in Real Life below.
- The initial love interest in Variable Star is addicted to this in an almost literal fashion, discovering just how much she can find out if nobody realizes who she is. (She's not technically royal, but her financial status is about a step above Richie Rich.)
- Murtagh of the Inheritance Cycle, despite seeming to be an ordinary rogue, is the son of the Empire's most powerful general, the Dragon Rider Morzan, who died fifteen years earlier
- In Andre Norton's Ruritanian novel The Prince Commands, Michael Karl, soon to be King of Morvania as a result of his cousin Urlich Karl's death, is captured by a bandit known as The Werewolf, a prime suspect, who makes no secret of his dislike for the royal family. Protests too much, methinks, because The Werewolf is Urlich Karl, using that role to build a loyal army while also posing as an American journalist to ferret out traitors among the nobility.
Myth And Legend
- Zeus frequently disguised himself as mortal humans/plants/animals in Greek mythology, making this Older Than Dirt.
- He and the other gods would also take turns running around in the guise of old hags or beggars, so they could reward those that showed them kindness, or punish those that didn't.
- Norse myth has Odin doing this a lot as well, sometimes accompanied by Loki.
- Jewish tradition has this as one of the prophet Elijah's favorite tricks too.
- And Japanese folklore has youkai which fill this role. I suspect there are no bodies of folklore without someone playing this role.
- This Troper suspects that even if somewhere, such legends did not spring up by themselves, someone took it upon himself to invent such convenient be-nice-to-each-other-'cause-he-may-be-god tales. He knows a local version with a certain well-respected historical king, which may slightly subvert the trend - after all, if the king in question is dead for several centuries, he obviously won't visit you incognito.
- According to The Bible, God the Son became a mortal man in order to reconcile with fallen humanity, and even after his return to heaven remains The Son of Man as much as of God.
- Saint Martin of Tours, one of the most popular Catholic saints, was converted after having shared his cape with a freezing beggar, who turned out to be Jesus.
- King Solomon, of Jewish history/mythology, was said to have been thrown down from his throne and replaced by a demon impostor. He was forced to roam the land as a commoner, so rather than by choice, this one was against his will.
- Also used by Odysseus in The Odyssey, to gain entry into Troy (as well as his home, after the suitors took it over).
Theater
- In Gilbert And Sullivan's The Mikado Prince Nanki-Poo disguises himself as a minstrel to escape the advances of Lady Katisha, a much older woman who wants his hand in marriage.
- A favorite of Shakespeare:
- Several characters in King Lear.
- In Henry V, King Henry dresses as a common soldier and wanders the camp the night before the battle so he can hear what the foot soldiers think of him. It is not always complimentary.
- The Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure spends most of the play disguised as a friar in order to spy on his subordinate, Angelo, who he has left in charge of governing the city. Good thing, too, since Angelo proves to be ruthless and corrupt.
Video Games
- In Jade Empire, the hero encounters a mysterious female ninja named Silk Fox. She later turns out to be Princess Sun Lian, trying to discover the source of corruption in her father's government.
- Also, Master Li of a rather small martial arts school, starts off as a somewhat important character (master of your school, but its out in the middle of nowhere and all). Then, you find out that he's Sun Li, the Glorious Strategist, and you're a crucial part of his plan to get his brother off the throne so he can get on it. It isn't a precise fit, but its quite close.
- In the third Elder Scrolls game an old man in imperial armor gives you a lucky coin on your way to face the Big Bad if you have done certain things in the game. You never see him again, but it turns out he was the spirit of a past emperor that had ascended to godhood. So Yeah
- The player character's history stories in Daggerfall generally involved the player helping one of the Emperor's sons without knowing who he was, and later being rewarded by the Emperor's for it.
- Three Fire Emblem games have a prince joining your party in the guise of a bard, a healer or swordsman. L'Arachel (8th game) tries to hide her identity as a princess, but enjoys drawing attention to herself too much. Other cases are Levin from the 4rth game and Joshua from the same 8th game.
- Radiant Dawn. Micaiah. She always knew, but all sorts of political and racial hilarity made her keep it secret.
- And, of course,
Prince Mildain Elphin the bard from the sixth game.
- Princess Nadia of Chrono Trigger disguises herself and takes on the pseudonym Marle in order to see the Millenial Fair. It's only after they're sucked into the past that the heroes figure out who she really is when she's mistaken for her ancestor Queen Leene.
- More a Princess Incognito, but from Zelda, the titular princess, while disguised as Shiek in Ocarina of Time, or Tetra in Wind Waker.
- Not at first for Tetra. She has no clue about her royal lineage in the first game, but then she continues to disguise herself as her normal Tetra persona at the end of the first and the whole second.
- I got the impression she was having more fun as Tetra. Also, should that be spoilered?
- Well, would you rather be princess of a vanished land, or a pirate? This comic
 sums it up nicely.
- Then, in Twilight Princess, there's Midna, who happens to be the titular Twilight Princess. But we don't find that out until near the end of the game.
- Final Fantasy XII is full of these. Lord Larsa starts out pretending to be a mysterious boy named "Lamont", Princess Ashe masquerades as Amalia, and Judge Zecht forfeits his rank and title and becomes the Pirate King Reddas.
- In Final Fantasy VI, by Post-cataclysmic Edgar. The heroes, having met him before, see right through the ruse. After several denials, he finally fesses up.
- To be fair, his Paper Thin Disguise wasn't supposed to stand up to the heroes, seeing as the disguise was supposed to allow him to hide among thieves breaking into his castle.
- In Tales Of Vesperia we have a subversion, Estelle thinks she's this, but the only one who didn't figure out that she's a princess on his own was Karol.
- Early on in Baldurs Gate you meet an unassuming "Old Man" in some very obvious bright red wizard getup. This being an RPG set in the Forgotten Realms and the old man's penchant for Cryptic Conversation, you should have no trouble figuring out that it's an Elminster cameo. Don't worry if you do, though — Elminster and Drizzt have cameos throughout the entire series (when it's clear who they are).
- One of Elminster's cameos has him taking the pseudonym "Terminsel" during Jaheira's personal quest. She figures it out quickly enough.
- Suikoden IV: Soon after making landfall on the Island Kingdom of Obel, the Player Party is given directions to the King's place by some guy on the street wearing worn sandals and an open, salmon pink vest. Congratulations! Hello Insert Name Here was just introduced to King Lino en Kuldes, one of the fan-favorite characters.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Emperor Kangxi was famous for doing this. As was his grandson, Qianlong. In fact, these visits spawned a gesture still found in southern China. In order to keep the Emperor's identity secret (he tended to serve his companions tea and do other little things), they developed a more discreet way to say 'thank you:' tapping the table several times with the knuckles or fingers.
- Also King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.
- And King Charles XI, and the first King Gustavus. Although the latter one did it, allegedly, while trying to escape imprisonment and execution as a rebellious noble outlaw, but still...
- After abdicating, Christina of Sweden dressed as a man and traveled through Europe.
- It's enough that you could say it was the hat of The House of Vasa.
- Peter the Great of Russia spent several years on tour of Western Europe, often going incognito as an ordinary worker to learn the skills he wanted to take home.
- This troper heard that he never fooled anybody, since he took a posse around with him.
- This troper heard no one was fooled because Peter the Great was 6'8" and people that large aren't common today, much less during Peter's time.
- This Troper heard he paid them well enough everyone pretended to not notice.
- The hungarian King Matthias Corvinus is said to have had multiple times dressed as a beggar and traveled around his country to discover and obliterate any injustice he found.
- It is said that the Doges of Venice had permanent reservations at various establishments as places where they go incognito, as for a Doge to just go out for a drink like a normal person was considered unfitting to the City's dignity.
- ...While one Polish king did leave his chambers frequently, go out for a drink incognito, get into barfights and do similar funny (if unkingly) stuff.
- Queen Elizabeth II did this recently, to enjoy a trip in a steam train.
- There was both a Bourbon Prince and a Bonaparte prince who served in the Free French Foreign Legion during World War Two, as both their families were officially forbidden French citizenship for fear that they might cause a Succession Crises.
- Nero was said to have done this and gone around beating people up (and robbing them), in a Paper Thin Disguise that everyone saw through but could do nothing about. After one senator beat him up anyway, he started having bodyguards follow at a distance.
- Richard I, the Lionheart, traveled incognito after returning from The Crusades, trying to escape capture (he wasn't succesful).
- The empress Mathilda, who had a claim to the English throne, escaped Oxford castle dressed completely in white sheets. Since it was snowing, she wasn't seen.
- James V of Scotland was said to wander his kingdom as "the Guidman of Ballangeich". ("Guidman" = "Goodman" = "Mister".)
- As mentioned above, Haroun Al-Raschid.
- Also, probably in direct imitation, Abbas the Great of Persia.
- King Frederik VIII (1906-12) of Denmark died suddenly on a street in Hamburg while travelling under an alias, and had to be located and sneaked out of the public morgue by his servants.
- After the Battle of Worcester Charles II spent six weeks attempting to flee the country (including in one instance an afternoon spent hiding in an oak tree), dressing as a regular citizen as he did so. He did usually have allies with him, who would help him move on and point to who could help him (including many Catholics, hence his general appreciation toward them later - and death bed conversion), but he also had to stand up to scrutiny to those not in the know and occasionally be almost by himself, even talking with Commonwealth supporters about that rogue Charles Stuart. He is said to have seen the time as quite character making for him.
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