Basic Trope: A prince plots against his family to free his own way to the throne.
- Straight: Prince Bob schemes to murder his father and two elder brothers to gain the throne.
- Exaggerated: Card-Carrying Villain Duke Bob, 23rd in line for the throne, personally murders the twenty-two people in his way, along with their female relatives, even though it's a medieval fantasy and women can't be crowned even in theory.
- Downplayed: Prince Bob rules in everything but name and keeps his father and brothers in exile, however, he doesn't want to murder them.
- Justified:
- Prince Bob was raised to want to usurp his competition, either because his father thinks he'd be a better ruler and can't just proclaim him his heir or it's just the (un)spoken terms of royal succession.
- His father and brothers are abusive, so Prince Bob wants to get back at them.
- Inverted:
- King Bob schemes to get rid of his younger brothers because he feels they're usurping his power.
- Bob is the staunchest supporter of his father and brothers.
- Bob kills people to keep his father or brother in power.
- Gender Inverted: Princess Alice plots to kill her male relatives to gain the throne. Her female relatives, including her mother, are only safe if they stay out of the way, otherwise...
- Subverted:
- Prince Bob is The Mole in a real conspiracy plot.
- Bob isn't a prince — he's an Evil Chancellor and only styles himself as royalty before strangers.
- It turns out the reason Prince Bob tried to kill his family is because he was under the influence of The Corruption. After Faye purifies him, he goes back to his old self.
- Prince Bob schemes for the throne...however, he wants to free his people from his tyrannical father.
- Prince Bob's father and brothers were abusive and cruel to him, constantly treating him like a servant and threatening exile if he tries to fight back. Nobody feels sorry for them, and Edelgard even admits that they had it coming.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob's a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent – he is on the conspirators' side after all.
- Chancellor Bob turns out to be the previous king's illegitimate son.
- Bob'a corruption was More than Mind Control, and he eventually becomes corrupted again.
- Bob turns out to be just as bad as his father.
- Parodied: Bob is Obviously Evil, going "Mwahahahaa" and kicking puppies all the time - and The Good King still treats him as a loving brother and doesn't heed any warnings about him.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Sometimes Prince Bob is on his relatives' sides and sometimes not, depending on the political climate.
- While Prince Bob is malicious in nature and plots to murder his family members, he has no interest in claiming the throne for himself and instead has a much more personal motive to want them dead.
- Averted: There are no princes.
- Lampshaded: "Are you sure this baby won't become a backstabbing traitor in twenty-five years?"
- Defied: The king is careful to maintain a good relationship with the princes.
- Deconstructed: When Bob has upsurged his brothers and father he gleefully sits on top the bloody throne, only to realize one thing, he never actually learned how to run this nation, and so as this epiphany struck him he sits and wonders, is it worth it to slaughter your family just to claim as title, one of which that will be stripped by an angry mob, Bob has come to the conclusion that, no, it isn't worth it.
- Reconstructed: Bob only wanted the title, he dosn't care about actually running this nation, in fact he would take glee in seeing it burn.
Back to The Evil Prince.
