History Main / AdoptedIntoRoyalty

* In the Amphibia fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550921/chapters/67385110 Raised by Frogs]]'' Marcy Wu (along with Anne and Sasha) wound up in Amphibia at a much earlier age than in the show and, instead of simply being King Adrias' protege, Marcy was officially adopted by King Andrias as his daughter and heir. And unlike most examples, Andrias did so with full intentions of having Marcy inherit his throne, to Marcy's dismay and to the skepticism of the people of Newtopia.

Conventionally, being a King, Queen, or a Princess requires you to be born as one, RoyalBlood is valuable after all, and as far as most monarchs are concerned, they have to make sure their bloodline keeps going if they want their kingdoms to last.

* Three of the first five Roman Emperors, and four of the "five good Emperors", were adopted as adults by their predecessors, explicitly to name them as successors. Adopting an heir was accepted practice in general in Roman society; if a family failed to produce an heir or the heir died prematurely (even barring assassinations, this was a major risk since military service was thoroughly intertwined with Roman politics and thus any upper-class young man was expected to go to war), adopting a worthy heir was the expected alternative. In the eyes of both law and society, an adopted heir was fully equivalent to a biological son. This also meant that adoption was serious business, and not to be done lightly.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': Callum became part of the royal family following his mother Sarai's marriage to King Harrow. While Soren teases him for being a "step-prince" and he is implied to harbor some insecurity regarding his relationship with Harrow, his stepfather and half-brother treat him well.

** As shown in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Leia Amidala Skywalker was adopted by Alderaanian Viceroy Bail Organa and his wife, Queen Breha. Leia's birth mother Padmé actually ''had'' been the Queen of Naboo, but that's an elected position.

* ''Fanfic/IAmSkantarios'': The Byzantine empire keeps adopting adult generals into its royal family because they never seem to produce male heirs.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': As shown in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Leia Amidala Skywalker was adopted by Alderaanian Viceroy Bail Organa and his wife, Queen Breha. Leia's birth mother Padmé actually ''had'' been the Queen of Naboo, but that's an elected position.

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful:'' While for most courts "Prince"/"Princess" is a purely honorary title, it's mentioned that all Radiants of the Court Of Hearts are actually legally adopted by the Queen of Hearts as part of an old custom from the days when Andarta was still a mass of independent city-states. 99% of the time it's irrelevant, but should you happen to run into a curse that only an actual child of a queen can break...

* Kiyi from the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' comics is the maternal half-sister of Fire Lord Zuko and is treated as an official member of the royal family despite not having a single drop of RoyalBlood in her veins (Zuko's claim to the throne comes from his father's side of the family). The fact that Zuko is both a shameless MommasBoy and happy to have a little sister who isn't constantly trying to murder him definitely played a huge role in hiss decision to take her and her parents in.

* In ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'', the king of Liones adopted Elizabeth [[spoiler:after she was carried out of the ruins of Danafor]] because, paradoxically, he [[{{Seers}} saw]] that he would. Also, he just really likes being a dad. No one's really worried about inheritance shenanigans because he has two elder daughters from his bloodline.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}: Chara/the Fallen Child is adopted by Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of the monsters, after falling into the underground.

* ''Fanfic/BecomingFree'': Queen Elsa adopts an orphaned girl named Katja and raises her as her own. Her wife-in-all-but-law Freya [[HasTwoMommies also helps]], though they keep that part a secret.