Awesome Moment Of Crowning / Video Games

• At the end of the first two Suikoden games, the hero is offered the leadership of the country they've just liberated/formed. They don't usually accept. (Riou can become the leader in II, but the 'true' ending has him leave.)
  • Suikoden V also has a subversion with Lymsleia's crowning ceremony. It SHOULD be an awesome moment for little Lym, but seeing as the Big Bad is effectively using her as a puppet and plans to use her new status as Queen to screw over the good guys even more, it's far from awesome.
• King's Quest:
  • King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown ends with Sir Graham returning successful from his quest to find the old King has passed away. He is promptly crowned as his successor.
  • And in again in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow when Prince Alexander becomes King of the Land of the Green Isles at the end of the game (in both endings, even).
    • Technically Alexander gets this twice. Seeing as his entire life he was a kidnapped slave. Suddenly finding out, out of the blue that he was a Prince all along could count.
    • As well in the Fanmade VGA remake of King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne by AGD Interactive, where it features a flash forward with Connor from King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, where Graham, heirless (due to the events of the sixth game and the Fanon assumption Rosella marries Edgar), bequeaths his throne on him. Or not. It's playable. An aversion also happens where Valanice asks to postpone her coronation until she can get a grand tour of Daventry. It's also played completely straight with Caldaur asking the people of Kolyma if they will accept him before starting the wedding ceremony.
• Five of the playable characters end up as kings/queens at the end of Final Fantasy IV.
  • Four of them make perfect sense (two were already princes and the sole survivors of their families, one was the highest-ranking survivor of a kingdom whose king died with no heirs, and one married one of the new kings), but the fifth was rather strange. He is the highest ranking soldier in his kingdom, and is well respected. He would be a shoo in for the kingship if there were an empty throne and no heir. The only problem: the king isn't dead. In fact, he is clearly visible during the ending, apparently having abdicated the throne for no explained reason.
  • According to this page, Cecil was the adopted son of the deceased King of Baron, which is why he became King of Baron at the end. The King of Fabul stated in the SNES version of the game that he was too injured during Baron's attack on Fabul to continue being the king, and that is why he abdicated and named Yang as his successor.
  • Also, the King of Baron is actually Odin (an Eidolon, and his speech at the end of his optional battle implies that he entrusts the kingdom to Cecil. The After Years supports this, in which Odin refers to them as Children of Baron, and given that kings would often call themselves by the name of their country, it makes sense.
• Henry "Yugi" Tudor gets one in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses, set to one of the best pieces of music in the game.
• Subverted in Tactics Ogre, where you have to allow some pretty bad things to happen during the course of the game in order to get crowned king at the end — and then you get a bad ending!
• The original Ogre Battle game, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, plays this trope straight in some of its Multiple Endings. Depending on the conditions you meet, the Opinion Leader may end up becoming King/Queen of Zenobia. The best ending has him/her giving the throne to its rightful heirs, however.
• Sonic the Hedgehog gets proclaimed as King Arthur in the ending sequence of Sonic and the Black Knight, much to his incredulity. He proceeds to run off back to his own dimension before anyone has the chance to get him to do anything bureaucratic.
• Subverted in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, where Arthas crowns himself as the Lich King. Then in the scene after his transformation to a Deathknight, where he simply stabs his father to take over the throne. Not that he has much interest in breathing servants.
• No literal crowning, but by the end of StarCraft Brood War Kerrigan has established herself as undisputed overmind of the Zerg.
  Kerrigan: You see, at this point... I'm pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe.
• Knights of the Old Republic:
  • The darkside ending has the main character being hailed as the true Dark Lord of the Sith to the cheers of Bastila and the Sith army.
  • The Light Side ending isn't too bad, either, as you're hailed as a champion to forever be known as The Prodigal Knight. Which is kinda hilarious, if you know what prodigal actually means.
• This happens plenty of times in the Fire Emblem series, usually toward the end of the game:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the ending involves the crowning of either Eliwood as Marquess Pherae (in Eli's route) or Hector as Marquess Ostia (in Hector's). Also used in the previous game Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, which includes in the epilogue mentions of Roy's friend and protegee Princess Guinivere becoming Queen of Bern after her older brother Zephiel's death.
  • Zealot's longer ending mentions that after the war, he manages to rebuild and unite the Knights' Union of Ilia and becomes the first King of his land.
  • And The Sacred Stones, (for Ephraim, off-screen for Innes and L'arachel, and likely Joshua too) and Path of Radiance, (for Elincia), and Radiant Dawn (for Micaiah)... and... you know what? Let's just assume that Fire Emblem games end with an Awesome Moment of Crowning by default. Except for Fire Emblem: Awakening, since Chrom is already the Exalt of Ylisse by the time the game ends. The closest to a coronation would be his marriage, featured before the Time Skip.
  • There's always one seen at the end of Fire Emblem Fates, though which one you see depends on the path you chose. If you pick Birthright it's Ryoma of Hoshido's, if Conquest it's Xander of Nohr's, and if Revelation it's your Avatar being crowned king or queen of Valla.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Celica receives her mother's royal circlet and assumes her true identity as Princess Anthiese of Zofia midway through the game.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you are given the option to witness one character's coronation if your support level is high enough with them. Viewing this scene is a requirement for you to side with Edelgard and play through her story route. If you don't, the crowning happens offscreen, and Edelgard becomes a major antagonist for the second half of the game.
• Parodied and lampshaded in Devil May Cry 2. Sickened by Arius' delusions of grandeur, Dante "crowns" him by riddling his body with bullets.
  Arius: Oohh... No...! My dream... my life...! I was going to be the king of this world!
  Dante: King? Yeah, here's your crown!
• Dragon Quest:
  • Subverted in Dragon Quest III: after defeating the very first boss, you are presented with the option of becoming king. Once you are king, however, you can only walk around the castle: no weapons, no armor, no magic, no leaving... making this also a modified Nonstandard Game Over (though it can be reversed by talking the old king back into his job.)
  • Subverted in the original Dragon Quest, wherein the Big Bad offers the protagonist the chance to rule half the world. However, if the player takes this path, the would-be Awesome Moment of (Evil) Crowning becomes an irreversible Nonstandard Game Over, in which not only is the protagonist killed, but some have said that the entire save file is deleted.
  • Dragon Quest II: After Hargon and Malroth have been destroyed, the King of Midenhall retires, and his son the Hero becomes king.
  • Played straight in Dragon Quest V when you are crowned into a king of Gotha... then it's subverted right away when you get drunk and drugged with a sleeping pill that night, and your wife is snatched away by monsters. Ouch.
• The canon ending that the player can choose in Aveyond 1. What happens is that Rhen is actually the long lost princess of Thais and chooses to go take responsibility and do her duty as queen.
• Subverted in Aveyond: The Lost Orb. Edward is the Crown Prince of Thais and not happy about it, but his parents are retiring and he's forced to become king. His former party member and new wife Lydia would be an example, except she tricked Edward into marrying her and manipulates the circumstances so that she gets crowned queen while he's distracted by the Big Bad escaping during the ceremony and doesn't become king. The whole scene screams God Save Us from the Queen!.
• Bubble Symphony aka Bubble Bobble II: After beating the True Final Boss, which you need Plot Coupons to reach, the four children are seen to have been crowned in a similar way to four other children in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
• In the end of the first Destroy All Humans! Crypto becomes the President of the United States for a decade or so. And in the third game Orthopox, now with a monkey body has ascended to the Furon Throne, becoming Emperor Orthopox after Crypto kills Meningitis and The Master, who was planning to ascend the throne himself.
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police has Max becoming the President of the United States, beating a giant statue of Abe Lincoln. He hasn't lost this job... Yet.
• At the end of Quest for Glory II, the childless Sultan adopts you as his son, making you his heir.
  • The entire fifth game revolves around a competition for which the prize is an Awesome Moment of Crowning. At the end, you can become king, give up the throne to the next in line, and have Elsa be queen, be king and marry her and have her as a queen, or give up the throne to her and marry her, becoming her king consort. One way or another, someone gets crowned ruler of Silmaria at the end of the game.
• The "bad" ending of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain had the titular character become Nosgoth's new Vampire ruler, at least till the sequel/spinoff.
• Codename Eagle ends with the crowning of Tsarina Anastasia as Russia's New Queen in the game's FMV, now that the villainous General Popov who's ruling the country as a dictatorship has been overthrown and killed.
• In Lords Of The Realm, when you defeat all the other Lords, you're greeted with a sequence where the Archbishop formally presents you with the Crown of England. He's supposed to be walking up the aisle of a church (or a court?), but the sequence is animated so fast and there's only one frame of animation, so it looks like he's rolling up to you on a skateboard.
• A common (and effective) strategy in Rome: Total War, where you can go into the "family tree" and name your greatest general as faction heir. Considering the faction leaders get all kinds of bonuses, the Awesome Moment of Crowning inevitably leads to a few in-game chances at moments of awesome for the character, as seen in many an After-Action Report.
• In Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, this is shown to occur after the end of the game. Likely subverted since Alaron is the illegitimate son of the King.
• Gradius 2 on MSX: The ending states that for his brave efforts, your pilot is promised the throne to planet Gradius in the future.
• Laguna in Final Fantasy VIII becomes the President of Esthar because of his insane brilliant plan to depose Sorceress Adel. Subverted in the sense that a) we don't actually get to see it happen, and b) it happens somewhere in the middle of the game rather than at the end. Though it could be considered the end of Laguna's story, since he doesn't get any more playable parts and he's more or less relegated to background character status after that.
• Eva-Beatrice's crowning as the new Endless Witch in Umineko: When They Cry episode 3. However, this is a subversion, as more deaths promptly follow, this time with Eva-Bea as the cause. Or so we're supposed to believe.
• In Tales of Graces, Richard gets crowned soon after violently killing his uncle. Even with a special anime cutscene!
• You can influence two of these in Dragon Age: Origins, in Orzammar and Denerim, as part of the main quest line.
  Crowning Orzammar's King: Let the Memories find you worthy, first amidst the lords of the houses, the King of Orzammar.
• If Hawke sides with the Templars at the end of Dragon Age II, they throw their support behind him/her and crown Hawke Viscount. Varric says that "the city practically got down on its knees and begged the Champion to rule."
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, after his/her heroic actions during Corypheus' attack on Haven, the Inquisitor is looked upon by the people of Thedas with practically religious reverence. The rest of the Inquisition, also having realized that s/he is willing to make the hard choices when they matter, decide to make him/her the leader of the Inquisition, with all of the leaders, soldiers, and civilians pledging themselves to him/her.
• Yggdra gets one of these, but stuff actually happens after it.
  • Blaze Union also has a couple of these done in traditional epilogue fashion—Gulcasa in the canon route (which, despite being bittersweet, still manages to be extremely badass) and Velleman in route C.
• Subverted when the Lich King dies in Wrath of the Lich King. There is an Awesome Moment Of Crowning, but it's for a new Lich King.
  • Also in World of Warcraft following the defeat of Garrosh Hellscream in the Siege of Orgrimmar, the Horde needs a new Warchief. Troll leader Vol'jin tries to get Thrall to resume the mantle, but Thrall nominates Vol'jin instead, to the approval of other Horde leaders. In the Alliance version of the Siege's ending, this all happens offscreen until Varian Wrynn demands to speak to the Warchief. The crowd parts to reveal Vol'jin.
    Vol'jin: I speak for the Horde.
  • Players can be crowned in Warlords of Draenor. After finishing the Spires of Arak questline and becoming exalted with the Arakkoa Outcasts, players are greeted by the spirit of Terokk who gives a speech thanking you for all you've done for his people before naming you their Talon King/Queen.
  • In the Dragonwrath questline and in Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, Kalecgos becomes the new Aspect of Magic.
• Pokémon Black and White has an awesome moment of crowning for N in the opening cinematic.
• Fable III has one when The Hero of Brightwall overthrows King Logan, he/she is crowned King/Queen of all Albion before an enormous ovation from the citizens of Albion.
• At the end of the central questline in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, if you abstained from killing Paarthunax, then you are treated to a scene where dozens of dragons gather around the Throat of the World and starts howling and shouting in their language, effectively crowning Paarthunax as their new leader after you destroyed Alduin. The Player Character gets one of a sort in the course of the main quest: being formally anointed Dragonborn by the Greybeards. One of the two new titles bestowed by the Greybeards is "Strundu'ul", or translated from Draconic, "Storm crown"
• In the "Dark Lord" ending of Dark Souls, the Primordial Serpents bow down to you, the lord of the Age of Darkness.
• In the "Usurp the Flame" ending of Dark Souls III, Pilgrims of Londor (successors to the Darkwraiths who served Kaathe) and the remaining Hollows left in the world all bow down to you, their gracious Lord, as you set out to make Londor whole.
• In the ending for Rubinas/Nanashi in Duel Savior Destiny it is implied that she and Taiga will soon settle down and become the new king and queen of Avatar though considering that both are homunculi, making a successor might be kinda tricky. On the bright side, they're almost immortal.
• In Super Robot Wars Compact 3, Folka Albark is named the new Shura King after he defeated Alkaid.
• In the Space Marine (and apparently canonical) ending of Dawn Of War: Retribution, Gabriel Angelos becomes Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens in front of a crowd of his men.
• Naturally, the main objective in Long Live the Queen is to keep Elodie alive long enough to be crowned the new Queen. Along the way, you had to have repelled an invading army in some form, so the crowning ends up being well-deserved.
• In Tears to Tiara 2, Ashtarte crowns Hamil as Hero-King of Hispania at the conclusion of Chapter 6. With a Tiara of Wheat for Hamil and a Tiara of Flower for herself. At the end of the story, though not a traditional crowning, the signal flares from the remaining legions of The Empire shows they acknowledge Hamil's Imperium as the new ruler of the Hegemonic Empire.
• In the Princess Maker franchise one can get the Daughter crowned as the Ruling Queen of the place she lives in.
  • Princess Maker: The King can Abdicate the Throne and transfer power by giving her his crown:
    King: You have delivered salvation to our nation.
    I do not have the ability to be the guardian of this nation,
    or even to give you a sufficient reward.
    In light of this, I wish to give my throne to you.
    The king took off his crown and offered it to [Daughter].
    The people cheered as they watched from afar.
  • Princess Maker 3: The Daughter can also be crowned as the Queen of the Fairies.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 seems to set Melia up for the mid-plot version, but she uses her new authority to postpone her crowning for a year so she can see to other matters, appointing her brother to her duties in the interregnum. Since said brother had an equal claim until their father chose Melia, this goes uncontested. Ultimately subverted. By the end of the game, there's not much of an empire left for her to inherit.
• Love of Magic: When Emily, now Queen of Camelot, marries the dying Owyn, the Mantle of the Once and Future King fills him with glowing power and heals him.

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