Basic Trope: A woman rules under a masculine title.
- Straight: Alice is crowned "King" of Tropeland.
- Exaggerated:
- This has happened to many women before Alice; in fact, Alice's father was the first male "King" in 375 years.
- Alice is crowned "God-Emperor, Patriarch of the Kingdom of Man".
- Downplayed:
- Alice is named Troper magazine's "Man" Of The Year.
- Alice is a knight, but she is "Sir Alice" rather than "Dame Alice"
- Alice has a masculine noble title other than King, such as Duke or Baron rather than Duchess or Baroness.
- Alice's official title is "King", but it's only used in very formal situations. Almost everyone refers to her as "Queen Alice" instead.
- Justified:
- It's a case of Loophole Abuse; Alice cannot rule as "Queen", but there is no written rule that the so-called "King" must be male.
- The title of "King" is considered gender-neutral in Tropeland.
- The nobles of Tropeland want to make it clear that Alice is the monarch by blood rather than by marriage.
- Alice is very masculine in appearance and/or personality, and in Tropeland, the title denotes masculinity rather than actual gender.
- Alice is biologically sexless, and the title defaulted to the masculine pronoun.
- The Tropelandian language does not have a word for "queen", so "female king" is the best they got.
- Due to double standards, "kings" are granted more power than "queens", so Alice would rather be a king, regardless of gender. Or the title of "king" just has greater connotations of power.
- "King" and "Queen" are a very rough chauvinistic mistranslation of gender-neutral titles. "Queen" means a reign transferred peacefully, "King" means through conquest. A more accurate counterpart would be "Heir(ess)" and "Usurper" without the negative or positive connotations.
- Inverted: Bob is crowned "Queen" by marrying "King" Alice.
- Gender Inverted: Bob became the ruler of Tropeland and is crowned "Queen".note
- Subverted
- Alice is not the rightful heir to the throne.
- It turns out that Alice is a guy looking like a girl.
- After the coronation, Alice comes out as a trans man, but keeps the King title.
- Double Subverted: The rightful heir is also a woman.
- Parodied: King Bob looks like and sounds like a Manly Man, yet "he" is a "she"! No one knows why.
- Zig Zagged: It looks like Alice is going to be crowned King, but it turns out that she is not a member of the royal family after all. The rightful heir is also a woman, but they crown her Queen. Why they almost crowned Alice "King" is a mystery. (Triple Subverted)
- Averted:
- There are plenty of possible male heirs to choose a king from.
- Alice is crowned Queen.
- Anyone who became the ruler is simply crowned by a gender-neutral term, "Ruler".
- Enforced:
- "We want to include a case of Loophole Abuse somewhere on our show." "Let's have Alice become 'King' rather than 'Queen' when her father dies."
- It was originally a non-English work, and a gender-neutral royal title is translated into English as "King". The translators didn't know that the "King" of Tropeland (whose only child is Alice) would die in the fourth book.
- Lampshaded: "Alice can't be the king of Tropeland! She's a lady!" "Actually, she can't rule as Queen, but there's no rule requiring the 'King' to be a man."
- Invoked: The nobles discover that Tropeland's constitution does not explicitly state that the "King" must be male. They crown Alice, the only surviving member of the royal family, to avoid a potential Succession Crisis.
- Exploited: Alice takes advantage of her crowning as "the King" to successfully pull off Samus Is a Girl.
- Defied:
- Alice is next in line for the throne, but the nobles crown her Queen.
- King Bob sets up a rule to make sure women can't take the title of king. This way, women aren't allowed to rule, period.
- Discussed: "King Zacharias is probably going to die any second now. I wonder if his daughter Alice will be crowned 'King' once that happens, or will she crowned 'Queen'?"
- Conversed: "They crowned her King and not Queen? Exactly how does their system work?"
- Deconstructed: Alice being crowned "King" will likely lead to a change in the law in the future, allowing Alice's daughter, Claire, to reign as "Queen".
- Reconstructed: The country's system is that "King" is specifically defined as the ruler of Tropeland, while "Queen" is the term referring to the spouse of the "King", not necessary wife. Alice's daughter, Claire, reigned as "King", with her loyal and devoted husband, Daniel, as "Queen".
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice is openly a woman, but reigns under the legal fiction that she is a man.
- Alice's personality is so far outside Tropeland's expectations of gender that everyone keeps forgetting she is a woman. She eventually gave up trying to correct them, so the title of "King" stuck.
- Untwisted: The constitution is amended to allow a woman to reign as "Queen". However, it will not come into effect until "King" Alice dies.
- Implied: It is said that Tropeland has a "King", but a woman seems to always represent them at international meetings. The meaning of this is not explained.
- Played For Drama: This strange state of affairs indicates that while Alice is an honorary man while most Tropelander women are second-class citizens.
Back to She Is the King. All hail King Alice!
