The White Prince - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): White Prince

"But, when you live in a castle, everything's done for you. All the time — They dress you, they feed you, drive you, brush your teeth. I admit it was a charmed life, until the day my parents cut me off and I realized...I don't know how to do anything."

— Naveen, The Princess And The Frog

A male counterpart to the Ojou, whose major difference from the female is in the stock personality types given to either. A White Prince will often have lived a life sheltered from the everyday trivialities the lower classes have to contend with and will be puzzled and even intrigued by these when he encounters them, thus creating a number of jokes based around class differences. Sometimes the irony will be taken further as the White Prince proclaims himself to be an expert having studied the lower class from textbooks, only to be proved very wrong.

Subtypes include the clownish but charming buffoon, the pompous, arrogant meanie (who might also be a buffoon) and the composed, reserved and usually highly intelligent one.

The third type is often used for younger characters as well, in which case their innocence (often to the point of naivety) and kindness will be emphasized. He has a good chance to mature during his adventures into the honourable and melancholic Wise Prince.

Examples

Literature

Prince Edward Tudor (later King Edward VI), in Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.
Trevor James Goodkind, one of the heirs to the billions of the mutant-hating Goodkinds, in the Whateley Universe. He's the third type: reserved, intelligent, sheltered, and sandy-blonde. Right until he manifests as a mutant and becomes the Ojou.
Prince Jen from Lloyd Alexander's The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen. Upon embarking on a pilgrimage to a mystical kingdom, he sniffs the air and asks his servant what that wonderful, invigorating smell is. His significantly more wordly-wise servant hazards a guess that the odors of rotten food, body odor, the occasional goat, and the distinct lack of cash comprise "The Essence of Misery."
Another Lloyd Alexander example, this time The Chronicles of Prydain introduces us to Prince Rhun, who is the "clownish buffoon" type, easy on the "charming." He irks Taran, especially for being engaged to Princess Eilonwy. Rhun gets better, and he dies a hero's death.
Prince Daren in The Heralds Of Valdemar series starts off this way. He becomes more of The Wise Prince later in the series.
Prince Kerish in The Seven Citadels starts out this way, even putting the lives of his men in jeopardy due to his over-confidence. He grows out of it, though.

Live Action TV

Kamen Rider:
- Sano Mitsuru from Kamen Rider Ryuki was thrown out and forced to get a day job. His rich father hoped it would build Mitsuru some character. It didn't.
- Kamishiro Tsurugi from Kamen Rider Kabuto. If you're wondering which kind of White Prince he is, consider that his personal motto is, "I am the man who will replace God and slash with a sword". He eventually discovers that his family coffers are more empty than he had ever imagined (as in, completely) and resolves to restore his family wealth whilst learning about the joys of "the common people", becoming much more quirky and likeable in the process.
Green Wing plays this to great comedic effect when Guy attempts to convince Mac he is a man of the people and invents a friendship with a janitor who happens to be very good friends with Mac.

Manga & Anime

Mendou from Urusei Yatsura and Kuno from Ranma 1/2 are the pompous and mean-spirited buffoon kind.
Most of the Ouran High School Host Club but especially Tamaki, the president of the club. He is the clownish charmer type, who is actually so fascinated by the middle-class customs of Haruhi that he plans activities and "excursions" to educate themselves about the lifestyles of the "commoners" to make Haruhi feel more comfortable — she doesn't.
- Mori would be the composed type, mostly because of his protectiveness of Hani and keeping his mouth shut.
  - Kyouya would give him a run for his money. He's actually involved in his family business, so he understands how the world works. He doesn't consider ordinary people to be quaint or insignificant, but he does regard them as less important than successful people.
Lelouch of Code Geass ironically has all of the traits of the nobles he despises. He is often nicknamed "the Black Prince" for that, with "the White Prince" being his half-brother Schneizel.
- Gino from the show's second season acts more like The Lancer, but has The White Prince's noble upbringing and a degree of cluelessness about how the real world works.
  - Prince Schneizel is a comparatively straight, though rather cynical version.
Helmeppo from One Piece is definitely the mean, pompous buffoon version of this, the way he uses his father's rank and reputation to get what he wants, but eventually does a Heel Face Turn.
James from Pokemon comes from an absurdly rich family and grew up with scads of tutors trying to teach him everything a rich kid should know... but as a member of Team Rocket and sort of a big idiot, he falls into the buffoon and meanie versions of this trope.
- He was more of a Lonely Rich Kid though, and this contrasts heavily with Jesse and Meowth, who were born into poverty. It's also pretty certain that he's been disinherited.
Prince Chagum from Seirei No Moribito is of the young and dignified sort. He gets used to life as a commoner and enjoys it, since the series very much avoids The Dung Ages and thinks Rousseau Was Right. Later he seems to develope to The Wise Prince.
Yuki of Fruits Basket has shades of the composed type, and is nicknamed "Prince Yuki" by the girls at his school. Of course, he's a very different person behind the facade he puts up for most of his classmates.
Deconstructed in Ashita No Nadja, where Nadja's love interest Francis Harcourt poses as your typical White Prince with a philanthropic edge, but deep down has severe self-esteem issues that become obvious once his idealism clashes with reality.
The Prince in Rune Soldier Louie - Though befitting the fantasy setting he was only naive and shocked when he came across mercenary behaviour and darker aspects of humanity. In other aspects he was quite educated and willing to give anything a try.
Touga in Gravion fits the composed variety, and forms an Odd Friendship with the largely mannerless Eiji often driven by his quiet curiosity about the "real world" (he's not a literal prince, but he did grow up in a castle ...).
Romeo Candorebanto Montague from Romeo X Juliet, in addition to being the Mad Dictator's Handsome Son. His best friend Benvolio di Frescobaldi also shows some White Prince traits, but once his family is stripped of its noble status, he adapts to peasant life very quickly and happily.
Prince Canute of Vinland Saga starts out as the innocent sheltered type, with a few minor subversion in that he is surprisingly well educated in peasant activities, then upgrades to the cool as sin, composed Bad Ass version.
- That's because the real-life Norse nobility differed from commoners mostly in that they usually ate better and called the shots at war. Otherwise they weren't that much different.
The F4 in all incarnations of Hana Yori Dango. Domyoji is of the arrogant meanie variety (at least initially) and Rui is the reserved type. Sojiroh and Akira are certainly both very charming, but seem much more aware of the lower classes, at least intellectually, than the other two.
Yuna Roma Seiran from Gundam Seed Destiny proves why letting one of these gain power can be a really, really, bad idea. Luckily eventually they Dropped A GOUF On Him.
Demando from Sailor Moon literally fits this role - being a white haired prince, though he doesn't quite fit the trope. Although he's shown as both intelligent and reserved, it's implied heavily in one episode that he's not at all sheltered and has along with his brother suffered the same sorts of deprivation as the rest of his impoverished people. The reason his subjects are so loyal to him is that he led them on a war against those who banished them from paradise to begin with.

Video Games

Prince Enrique of Skies of Arcadia, while living a sheltered life, is the highly intelligent, reserved type of prince and completely subverts the "naive, pompous idiot" part of the trope. He ultimately leaves his homeland with the pirates in hopes of trying to prove his mother's plans of conquest wrong. He later tries to return to Valua to personally convince Empress Teodora to protect her people, which appears naive on the surface, but when she refuses, he actually attempts to threaten her life when she won't see reason. He apparently was more than prepared for her to refuse him. Note that despite not being a naive idiot, the other air pirates tend to give him some light-hearted ribbing about his pampered life when he first joins up.
Video game example: Luke, the main character of Tales Of The Abyss, starts out like this.
- In Tales Of Vesperia, Estelle is a White Princess. Technically she's an Ojou, but her personality is more in line with this trope.
Eliwood from Fire Emblem was a bit like this in the beginning.

Western Animation

Lampshaded in an episode of the animated The Legend Of Zelda — the episode was actually titled "The White Knight," and featured a blond heroic prince in pristine white garments who charmed Zelda and her father and made Link look like a buffoon by comparison. When Zelda was stolen by one of Ganon's minions, the so-called hero wouldn't go to her aid because he didn't want to get his clothes dirty.
The Princess And The Frog's Prince Naveen, who provides the pithy quote at the top of this page.

Truth In Television

Siddharta Gautama aka Buddha, as one of the kind, naive types, makes this Older Than Feudalism. He grew up in the palace sheltered from pretty much everything low and evil. When he first went into Real Life (which was after he had married and fathered a son), and became witness of poverty, disease and death, he was so shocked that he left palace, wife and son in the night to become an ascetic monk. For the exciting conclusion, see Buddhism.
- This was apparently deliberate, as his father was given a prophecy that if he didn't experience suffering he would become a great king, while if he did he did he would become a holy man. So his father tried to shelter him as much as he possibly could.