"For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."
— A Roman Centurion to Jesus, Luke 7:8
Tropes about the different effects and displays of authority and obedience.
Contrast Rebel Tropes.
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Tropes about authority in general:
See also:
Leader Characters of:
Any kind of Institution:
- Action Politician
- Badass Bureaucrat
- Benevolent Boss: An employer who is nice and fair to the employees.
- Benevolent Mage Ruler
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the work, who is often in charge of all the lesser evils the heroes confront.
- Big Good: The highest in authority who is on the good guys' side.
- Cincinnatus
- Clueless Boss
- The Commissioner Gordon
- Corrupt Bureaucrat
- Corrupt Politician
- Evil Overlord
- Emperor Scientist
- The Generalissimo
- Go-Getter Girl
- Head-in-the-Sand Management
- The Hero
- Iron Lady
- The Man
- Mister Big
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: A bureaucrat who makes people file assloads of paperwork before they can be allowed to do anything.
- The Performer King
- Permanent Elected Official: An elected official who is always in office.
- The Philosopher King
- Reasonable Authority Figure: An authority figure who is fair and unbiased, choosing not to take sides and allow all parties to defend themselves.
- Reluctant Ruler
- Ruler Protagonist
- Shadow Dictator
- Tyrant Takes the Helm
- Unfit for Greatness
- Vast Bureaucracy
An Apartment:
A Company:
- Army of Lawyers
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The head of a corporation is evil or at least very unscrupulous.
- Honest Corporate Executive: The head of a corporation is honest and refuses to use their company to do anything illegal or unethical.
- Majority-Share Dictator
A Monarchy:
- Adipose Rex: A ruler who is overweight.
- A Child Shall Lead Them
- The Caligula: A ruler who is insane.
- Court Mage
- The Creon
- The Emperor
- Evil Chancellor
- Founder of the Kingdom
- God Save Us from the Queen!
- The Good Chancellor
- The Good King: A benevolent ruler.
- The High Queen
- The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask
- She Is the King: A female ruler is addressed with a title that typically goes to men.
- Just the First Citizen
- King of the Homeless: A leader who rules over homeless people.
- King of Thieves
- The Kingslayer: Killing a ruler.
- Princesses Rule
- Puppet King
- Regent for Life
- Royal "We": Royalty addressing themselves with plural pronouns.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: A ruler who doesn't just sit around on the throne giving orders and actually does things to help their people.
- Warrior Prince
Royalty Non-character tropes:
And Love...
The Military:
- The Brigadier
- The Captain
- Colonel Badass
- Commanding Coolness
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: A military officer who tends to yell at and berate his charges.
- A Father to His Men: A leader who is like a father figure to the soldiers he leads.
- Four-Star Badass
- Frontline General
- General Failure: A general who is very incompetent.
- General Ripper: A military leader who insanely pursues a vendetta against the enemy.
- Majorly Awesome
- Mook Commander
- The Neidermeyer
- Officer and a Gentleman
- Sergeant Rock
Military Non-character tropes:
School:
- Big Man on Campus
- Dean Bitterman: A school principal who hates everyone.
- Putting the "Pal" in Principal: A school principal who wants the students to see him as their friend.
- Save Our Students
- School Teachers
- Apathetic Teacher: A teacher who doesn't give a damn how well their students do.
- Cool Teacher: A teacher who is considered awesome by the students.
- Evil Teacher: A teacher who is evil.
- Fired Teacher
- Hippie Teacher
- Hot Librarian
- Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher
- Non-Giving-Up School Guy: A person who won't rest until children playing hooky are forced to go class.
- Politically Motivated Teacher
- Sadist Teacher: A teacher who enjoys tormenting their students and making things unreasonably hard for them.
- Scary Librarian
- Schoolmarm
- Stern Teacher: A teacher who may be a bit harsh at times, but actually does care about the students and is only being hard on them because they want them to do well.
A Town:
- I Own This Town
- Ultimate Authority Mayor: The mayor has more power than they would in real life.
- Mayor Pain: A mayor who is either sketchy or incompetent.
Underlings:
Others:
- Breaking Out the Boss: A gang of criminals break their incarcerated boss from prison.
- Bring Them Around
- Ditch the Bodyguards
- Doctor's Orders
- Government in Exile
- Heroic Team Revolt
- High Priest
- Insect Queen
- Large and in Charge
- Loyal to the Position
- My Country, Right or Wrong
- My Master, Right or Wrong
- No Badass to His Valet
- No Hero to His Valet
- The Dragon: The villain who is second-in-command to the main villain.
- Evil Minions
- Faceless Goons
- Feudal Overlord
- King of Beasts
- The Last DJ
- Might Makes Right
- Mooks: The generic underlings of the main villain.
- Elite Mooks
- Mook Lieutenant: The henchmen are led by one who has slightly more depth and difference from the rank and file goons.
- Mecha-Mooks: Robotic minions.
- Mistress and Servant Boy
- The Necrocracy
- The Quisling: Someone betrays the rest of his kind to side with the invading forces.
- Rebel Leader
- Rebellious Rebel
- Supernatural Elite
- Vampire Monarch
- Volatile Second Tier Position: The second-highest job in a hierarchy, but with some very demanding drawbacks.
- Wardens Are Evil
- Word of Mod
