History Main / RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething

* During his brief reign as king of the planet Sakaar, [[IncredibleHulk The Hulk]] did a lot of things, from actively achieving peace with a group of StarfishAliens to personally helping in the reconstruction of his damaged kingdom. After the three days of peace and prosperity, he personally lead an army to earth to do a lot of other things, which [[WorldWarHulk amounted to punching a lot of people who deserved it in the face repeatedly.]]

This has some TruthInTelevision, such as the court at Versailles or the Forbidden City in China, but not uniformly so. Just as often as not, royalty would actually do something worthwhile with their time. For centuries from [[strike:classical Greece]] prehistoric Mesopotamia through to the Middle Ages, kings were expected to be strong warriors to defend their holdings and inspire the men around them; in fact, "strong man who can lead the other men of the village in fighting off enemies" was probably the original meaning of kingship. Three notable examples are Alexander The Great, Charlemagne and Genghis Khan, kings who gained and kept their power through their skills as generals and warriors and, in the case of the latter two, administrators, making this trope {{Older than Dirt}}. [[hottip:*:Sadly, there are many royalty who conspired against their people in their free time. This in turn gave them greater power, so an incentive to carry that out, as well. Many of the nouveau riche, for instance, were generals and warriors who started wearing crowns and intermarrying, while taking out their competition.]]

This has some TruthInTelevision, such as the court at Versailles or the Forbidden City in China, but not uniformly so. Just as often as not, royalty would actually do something worthwhile with their time. For centuries from classical Greece through to the Middle Ages, kings were expected to be strong warriors to defend their holdings and inspire the men around them; in fact, "strong man who can lead the other men of the village in fighting off enemies" was probably the original meaning of kingship. Three notable examples are Alexander The Great, Charlemagne and Genghis Khan, kings who gained and kept their power through their skills as generals and warriors and, in the case of the latter two, administrators, making this trope {{Older than Dirt}}. [[hottip:* :Sadly, there are many royalty who conspired against their people in their free time. This in turn gave them greater power, so an incentive to carry that out, as well. Many of the nouveou riche, for instance, were generals, warriors, that started wearing crowns and intermarrying, while taking out their competition.]]

** The same series brings us [[YggdraUnion Yggdra and Gulcasa]]. [[spoiler:Milanor probably counts too.]] And in the same ''game'', there's Arlier... and although Nordische doesn't get too far, he tries.

** [[DavidVersusGoliath King David]] was a famous warrior, not only for his fight with Goliath but also his massacre of Philistines to earn King Saul's daughter Michal's hand in marriage. Saul asked for 100 foreskins as proof--Philistines were not circumcised, and taking a Philistine's foreskin entailed killing him. David came back with ''200'' foreskins. As [[CartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse Larry Gonick]] put it:

** In ''Series/TinMan'' [[spoiler: her granddaughter (and Ambrose)]] were holding off a coup from the possessed Azkedellia. They may have lost the coup, but [[spoiler:Possessed!]]Az was a pretty efficient tyrant. Then the ''second'' Dorothy, DG, shows up...

** In ''Series/TinMan'' [[spoiler: her granddaughter (and Ambrose) were holding off a coup from the possessed Azkedellia. They may have lost the coup, but Possessed!Az was a pretty efficient tyrant. Then, the ''second'' Dorothy, DG, shows up...]]

* A [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen villainous example]] is the Queen of the Crowns from GalaxyRangers. She is attempting to hold together a large and crumbling EvilEmpire, and is doing well enough at it to pose serious threats to most of the galaxy. Several episodes, including "Mindnet," show that she is a capable and lethal sorceress and her favorite bit of Magictek, the Psychocrypt, is used for [[PoweredByAForsakenChild stripping the souls out of compatible beings]], mashing them down for LifeEnergy, and using them to create constructs [[PsychicLink through which she can see and hear]] - [[BigBrotherIsWatching administering her empire personally]].

* A [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen villainous example]] is the Queen of the Crowns from GalaxyRangers. She is attempting to hold together a large and crumbling EvilEmpire, and is doing well enough at it to pose serious threats to most of the galaxy. Several episodes, including "Mindnet," show that she is a capable and lethal sorceress and her favorite bit of Magictek, the Psychocrypt, is used for [[PoweredByAForesakenChild stripping the souls out of compatible beings]], mashing them down for LifeEnergy, and using them to create constructs [[PsychicLink through which she can see and hear]] - [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou administering her empire personally]].

* {{Kings Quest}} sounds like it says it right there in the title, although the name probably refers to the King giving Sir Graham his quest in the first game. Following his promotion at the end of the first game, all [[ExecutiveMeddling but one]] of the other games involve royalty in a main role, either King Graham or his family members, personally saving their kingdom.

* The Entire King's Quest series. While they are involved with exploits of purely the personal variety, you have an entire Badass Family whose exploits involve a lot more than afternoon tea.

** Tutankhamun's grave goods indicate he grew up to be an avid hunter and charioteer.

** Convolutedly played with in [[spoiler: Micaiah]] and Pelleas' case. [[spoiler: the latter [[RagsToRoyalty discovers he's the prince]] as a young adult, procceeds to take his throne back from the invaders, and then realises he was just another commoner after all, prompting him to abdicate in [[MyCountryRightOrWrong Micaiah]]'s favour. Then the epilogue reveals she's actually the thought-to-be-dead older sister of another country's Empress, Sanaki, who offers her the throne. Micaiah refuses, choosing to lead the country she's fought for. SoYeah.]]

** Don't forget that [[spoiler: Arika is Negi's mother; Negi qualifies as a WarriorPrince.]]
** Which, by extension, meants that [[spoiler: Chao is also technically royalty. Maybe a duchess of some sort, depending on where on the line of succession she is.]]
** Which, by more extension, means that [[spoiler: Chachamaru could qualify, as Chao is her parent (kind of).]]
** Actualy, no. [[spoiler: Arika no longer hold royal position and her nation no longer exist, thus anu claim for the crown is moot and the royalty no longer exist. They can claim to be Nobles, but not royalty.]]
*** Tell that to the Greek Royal House

** [[DavidVersusGoliath King David]] was a famous warrior, not only for his fight with Goliath but also his massacre of Philistines to earn King Saul's daughter's hand in marriage. Saul asked for 100 foreskins as prove, because Philistines weren't circumsized, but he returned with 200 just for kicks.

** Peter I The Great of Russia was an accomplished ship builder, both designing them and physically helping to build them. To learn those skills, he lived as an ordinary craftsman in Zaandam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was responsible for creating the Russian Navy and has a [[CoolBoat nuclear ship]] named after him. He also personally travelled Europe in order to gain insights into how to modernise Russia, and ordered a number of his state officials to do likewise. He led the war against Sweden from the front lines, largely designed and took part in the construction of St. Petersburg, and [[AxCrazy personally executed many of his political enemies (of which there were hundreds), occasionally forgoing the use of an axe]].

* His father Frederick William I of Prussia was an ''extremely'' able administrator; not only did he reform and rigidly organise the civil service, he also personally ran the administration under a policy of frugal spending and careful investment, ensured that his household was never wasteful (and even payed his own taxes), encouraged farming and land reclamation, established primary schooling, and even though he created an extremely rigid and disciplined army he never started a war, viewing them as wasteful of resources. Frederick II may have been the great general, but his success was largely founded on the effiecient military, stable economy, surplus resources and capable bureaucracy left behind by his father.

** William IV had served in the Royal Navy and was called "The Sailor King" as a result.

* Prince Valerian Mengsk of ''{{Starcraft}}'' is shown to be a BadassBookworm trained in Martial Arts and swordsmanship as well as classical knowledge in the books. He's an AdventurerArchaeologist, to boot. The trailers suggest he'll reprise this role in the game's sequel.
* The king from ''Castle Crashers'' is a GIANT example of this trope- a bearded, midgety giant example. For one thing, though he starts out utterly terrified of the Big Bad, he gets his groove back real fast- and helps you by doing everything from dispensing useful advice to ''leading an attack boat filled with knights and cannons at a giant boss catfish''. He even saves you from a giant frog by filling its stupid face with cannon fire!

** One word- Midna. True, she was dethroned in Twilight Princess, but she still helped Link more than any other character in the entire series- she was more like his partner than his sidekick, which is more than can be said of the various fairys.