Basic Trope: A princess looks dainty, but she's just as capable of fighting as her guards and army.
- Straight: Princess Éclair is trying on a lacy, pink dress that her mother The Queen gave her for her birthday. Just then, ninjas burst through the wall... and then Éclair delivers a flying kick to the closest ninja before the rest of them can make a move. "Éclair" is French for "lightning", after all.
- Exaggerated: She also got a white mink jacket from her father The King, and she uses that like a weapon in a Jackie Chan movie.
- Princess Éclair is not only a tiny powerhouse, she's a straight up Lightning Bruiser who proceeds to take out a whole army of ninja's while still in her elegant formal dress.
- Downplayed:
- She calls her guards over to fight the ninjas, but she can hold her own with a rapier while they arrive and fights alongside them after.
- Éclair isn't anything special in a fight, though she can keep her cool in one; she is, however, an excellent leader and tactician.
- Justified:
- She just acts like a dainty princess to make her enemies underestimate her.
- She lives in a Decadent Court, and has been fending off assassination attempts since childhood.
- Éclair is part of a lineage of Royals Who Actually Do Something.
- Éclair has made a deal worshipping an Eldritch Abomination in exchange for power
- Inverted: She looks big and muscular, but really wants to learn to crochet.
- Subverted:
- Éclair does the flying kick, and then misses and hits the floor.
- Éclair does the flying kick but unfortunately for her, Faye has far more actual combat experience then she does. Faye swiftly takes her down and stabs her to death.
- Éclair attempts to do the flying kick, but then Faye grabs her on the arm and puts her on a very painful armlock, rendering Éclair helpless.
- Double Subverted:
- It's just because she hadn't "broken in" her new dress, and she wasn't used to fighting in it. She regains her stance quickly.
- The kick was a feint to get within grabbing distance of a pair of Combat Hand Fans. Now she is better able to fight them.
- Faye's dagger rebounds off Éclair's bodice because it is actually a piece of armor. The moment of surprise leaves Faye vulnerable to a counterattack.
- Then Éclair judo-flips Faye because she learned from experience. Or she armlocks Faye in return, and then mocks how she can't escape her own technique.
- Implied: The ninja's appear, but after the Commercial Break Cliffhanger, we only see a group of unconscious ninja lying at Éclair's feet.
- Parodied: She swings her mink jacket at a ninja, and it decapitates the ninja, all without getting any gore on herself or the coat.
- Zig Zagged: She seems to alternate between fighting back and screaming for help, to the point where the ninjas don't know if she's messing with them or not.
- Averted: Éclair doesn't fight, because she has trained and dedicated guards to help her.
- Gender Inverted: Prince Toffe looks like a fop, but he can take on the ninjas just as well as Éclair can.
- Enforced:
- The studio's parent company just acquired a toy company, and this includes the liability of a couple of warehouses full of unsold ninja toys, and fashion doll dresses. The president of that studio realizes that one of their upcoming Summer Blockbusters just needs a little rewriting to make it about an ass-kicking princess, and now they have a brand to sell both toys.
- The series is undergoing a Continuity Reboot, and Éclair's previous Damsel in Distress characterization won't fly with a new audience. But she also just wouldn't be Éclair without all the other Princess Classic trappings. This is the result.
- Lampshaded: "Boss, maybe we should have done more recon on our target first."
- Invoked: The king lets his daughter be as feminine as she likes, but still trains her to defend herself.
- Exploited: The king hired the ninjas, and Éclair knew of it, just to publicly show that this princess was not to be messed with by the kingdom's enemies.
- Defied:
- The ninjas don't take her on directly. They find a way to hypnotize her, and keep her in a trance, just so she comes with them peacefully.
- Éclair never gets a chance to learn any sort of martial art (armed or unarmed), because her parents fear No Man Wants an Amazon and/or insist that diplomacy lessons are more acceptable for a princess.
- Discussed:
- "Should we really try kidnap her this way? We may be underestimating her."
Guard 1 "Are we here to save the princess or …?"Guard 2 "I think we're here to save the idiots that are now learning why kidnapping her is a bad idea." - Conversed:Bob "I like this trend of princesses being more badass than they appear."Alice "Because it helps girls understand they don't have to be weak?"Bob "Um... yes. That's exactly it, and certainly not because I get turned on by tough women."
- Deconstructed: All this time learning to fight has stunted her leadership training, and when she ascends the throne, she turns the country into a military junta.
- Reconstructed: The king and queen see how confident and proud their daughter is, and realize that the royal family being Idle Rich for the past few generations has decreased the quality of their rule. The "military junta" thing is focused into the palace guard and village militas.
- Played For Laughs: The ninjas try to catch Éclair, she defeats them, but they keep trying to best her over and over again, so it becomes a Road Runner vs. Coyote situation.
- Éclair is willing to surrender and fight another day until they find out that the ninja's have captured Prince Bob from the nearby kingdom to hold her off... that threat does not go over well and the ninja leader doesn't have time to run before she shows up and utterly demolishes him
- Played For Drama: The No Man Wants an Amazon attitude is in full effect in this kingdom, and so the king and queen are more terrified that their daughter hurts people than the attempt to kidnap their daughter. This strains their relationship and is exploited by enemies in their court.
- Played For Horror: Éclair is brutal and merciless in taking out the ninjas, with their screams echoing across the capital.
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