Badass tropes - now on: Action Girl

Xena: Warrior Princess was about a woman that everyone called a princess. I don't recall if she actually had royal parents, but when you run around and capture towns and call yourself a king, the people that complain you're not a king don't last long. So first-generation princess would not be misapplied to Xena, for her backstory. She is mocked with her name during the actual series because she abandoned her army.

Warrior Princess or Military Princess sounds more indicative for the "leading armies as a professional combatant" definition. Plucky Princess sounds like a better name for what is now Badass Princess, which right now sounds like "a princess who is not a professional but still pretty tough".

As The Other Wiki says, 'Lao Ma gives Xena the metaphorical title "Warrior Princess," intending that she be a major catalyst for change in the land.' Military Princess is way too specific and professional. Amazonian Princess might work.

Amazonian Princess may risk confusion with a princess who is an Amazonian Beauty.

I don't like using the term "Amazon" unless we're talking about genuine amazons. The term will decay if we use as a synonym for "action girl".

Yeah Warrior Princess is most likely the best, we can just put 'despite her show being called Xena Warrior Princess she is in fact not a princess' in the description. If we have a Faux Princess trope it could be potholed there.

edited 23rd Oct '15 2:00:45 PM by Memers

Oddly, we don't. You'd think we would, to cover stuff from honorary titles like Xena, not quite royalty like the Kennedies, and maybe even all the way down to parents calling their daughters princess.

But that's a bit outside the scope of this thread.

But would make for a great ykttw.

I still say being a princess in fiction is even more likely to fall into Women Are Delicate than most women, so Badass Princess being a contrast to that should be a consideration when revising the trope.

Do check Title Tropes or Naming Conventions to see if the trope already exists.

A Plucky Princess gives occasional moments of breaking that but still will tend to mostly follow 'delicate' rule somewhat.

A Warrior Princess however is all like 'fuck that where is my skimpy battle armor!'

But honestly with those two tropes Badass Princess will not need to exist. Which I think should be the general rule of this threadnow 'get rid of the badass named subtropes for something far more tangible, even if it is just a rename'.

On Faux Princess any use of Hime-sama in Japanese works and they are not a literal princess would be one as well, a young The Ojou with a Hime Cut is the most common choice.

edited 23rd Oct '15 2:59:32 PM by Memers

Not sure "plucky" should be in the name, since it has a variety of meanings.

I think Badass Princess could be possibly split in two somewhat related meanings:

• Warrior Princess: A royal with a title of princess who fights or leads armies
• Hidden Badass Princess: Subtrope to Hidden Badass. A Princess Classic who you wouldn't expect to be a Warrior Princess, but turns out she is

Not sure what a proper title for Hidden Badass Princess could be (obviously not Hidden Badass Princess).

edited 23rd Oct '15 3:53:21 PM by Rjinswand

"Plucky" as in courageous when it counts,

• they are well Princess Classic but are willing to break that if needed to say grab another person's gun and shoot someone if needed
• break out a basic can of whoop-ass on occasion just to show they are not fully a default Princess Classic,
• be well versed in fighting but avoid the hell out of it because that's their personality but when push comes to shove they will fight ala Lala in To Love RU,
• or just be defiant as all hell and cause a much trouble as they possibly can like Relena Peacecraft in Gundam Wing.

When comparing the two Millhiore Filianno Biscotti in Dog Days is a Plucky Princess in the first two seasons she looks like a Princess Classic personality but she fights when she has to, although normally leaves it up to the hero and generals, late s2 and s3 she decides its fun and jumps into a Warrior Princess style mode complete with new battle armor in a stark change from before.

Leonmitchelli Galette des Rois in the same work is Warrior Princess personified, if she isnt leading the army going into battle she is leading the ambush that is going to make the enemy lose. She takes the warrior part as far as to pull a Best Her to Bed Her for even a chance at a potential date.

The third princess Couvert Eschenbach Pastillage, is straight up a Plucky Princess and never actually gets into the fight preferring to let her hero do all the work but when attacked she has magic guns to fight back.

EDIT: Now that I think about it Leia in Starwars goes through the same evolution as Millhiore. Not really much more than a Plucky Princess in Star Wars A New Hope but by Return Of The Jedi she is a full on Warrior Princess by necessity.

edited 24th Oct '15 1:53:40 AM by Memers

Anyway if not Plucky Princess what other name ideas are there?

That's the only one I can really think of to show that while they are not the standard Princess Classic that go to their room and whine about waiting for their prince to rescue them, they are not in the ranks of badass warriors who carry around a weapon and actually use it on a regular basis.

edited 24th Oct '15 2:47:38 PM by Memers

"That's the only one I can really think of to show that while they are not the standard Princess Classic that go to their room and whine about waiting for their prince to rescue them"

That's not what a Princess Classic is. That's just the stereotype of the trope. Plus since Everythings Better With Princesses is the Super-Trope, what you wrote is, even if you didn't mean it, basically "every example that doesn't fit this Sub-Trope".

Well that is what Badass Princess currently covers, everyone who is not the stereotype. A Warrior Princess however is much much more than that. Those that take an active effort to avoid the stereotype though have merit too since the stereotype is there in the first place and very prevalent.

Also Princess Classic's examples are almost all written with strictly the stereotype in mind with a whole bunch of averted or justifications and such around the stereotype.

edited 24th Oct '15 3:22:07 PM by Memers

No, you're assuming all princess classic examples must also be a damsel in distress (it's a trait but not one of the required ones). Plus merely not being the damsel in distress is not enough to be a badass princess. It's why they aren't in distress, which is that they are too formidable to just kidnap normally (and that trope doesn't even exclude them being in trouble, just it's a rare thing).

edited 24th Oct '15 3:27:27 PM by DragonQuestZ

No, the trope examples assume that and Badass Princess is written like that is the case. which is my point.

There are two types written in Badass Princess

A Plucky Princess type you gotta you know show some courage under fire, have balls to stand up for yourself and your people. Attempted kidnapping isn't required or anything but they gotta show they aren't a doorstop and not a Faux Action Girl.

A Warrior Princess is way different than that and an actual Spear to Warrior Prince. From the first line of Warrior Prince 'This is where a male member of royalty actually takes part in battle himself, especially as commander.' That is what Warrior Princess should be not Badass Princess.

edited 24th Oct '15 3:59:50 PM by Memers

Well even a princess classic can have some plucky attributes. So it's not really a contrast to the trope.

I've been thinking it over and Princess Classic+Pluck doesn't sound like a trope. Maybe something like a "Non Professional Warrior Princess". It's like Merida from Brave. Her profession is to be a lady-like administrator like her mother, but she has warrior skills from her hobbies and considerable bravery.

Now that I think about it I agree with, "Yeah Warrior Princess is most likely the best, we can just put 'despite her show being called Xena Warrior Princess she is in fact not a princess' in the description." Merida is an example but I believe more often the warrior princess is "loyal to her nation, and would fight to defend it at any cost."

That sounds more like Patriotic Princess, regardless of warrior appitude.

Not really, it's just doing their role in their country as a future leader of it or in the case of a lot of works they are the actual leader of it. There are outliners of a Warrior Prince or Princess without a currently existing country sure like say Vegeta in Dragon Ball or Asuna in Negima but those are pretty rare.

edited 27th Oct '15 1:51:07 PM by Memers

Fair enough. Do you think that "princess who is an officier in her nation's military" is sufficently different from "princess who is part of the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits saving the world/general traveling and adventuring" to be different tropes?

To me, the former sounds like the Distaff Counterpart of Warrior Prince and the later sounds like it as well, or Rebellious Princess.

IMO, "princess who is an officier in her nation's military" seems like just Royals Who Actually Do Something, perhaps with a dash of Gender Is No Object (unless I'm misunderstanding this trope).