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 Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:17 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:18 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:18 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:18 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:19 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:19 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:21 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:21 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:21 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:21 pm
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"I must now pass quickly over many years... during which the Queen of Glome had more and more part in me and Orual had less and less. I locked Orual up or laid her asleep as best I could somewhere deep down inside me; she lay curled there."
— Orual, Till We Have Faces
A princess or a queen who is the supreme ruler of her country. She is usually beautiful but certainly clever, strong-willed, and charismatic and she cares about her land and her people.
The problem is, her people — for all that they need a ruler — don't want her. They don't want a young woman, or they don't want any woman, or they just don't want this particular woman on the throne. But she is the one best equipped to see them through the current war or other disaster, and she sure as hell isn't going to turn the country over to the treacherous aristocrats who would be next in line if she stepped down.
So she takes the reins with silken force and makes them follow her through brute cunning and charisma, overawing her detractors through her impeccable style, speech, imperturbability, wisdom, indomitable will, disdain for frivolity and — where necessary — utter ruthlessness. Even her love life is coolly calculated and orchestrated to best effect, often involving Arranged Marriage setups like Altar Diplomacy.
And if it wears her out, she'll just have to drink more coffee and soldier on. Her personal happiness is a small price to pay...
An important part of this character is that she isn't in a trusting and happy relationship (platonic or otherwise) as this would make her burden less heavy for her and thus remove much of the conflict inherent in this archetype. (It would also make her less alluringly lonely.) Naturally, this sad state can change over the course of the story.
While this trope could be applied to a male regent, the key dynamic making this trope Always Female is the inversion of gender dynamics adding an element of exquisite tragedy — the gender popularly seen as less proactive and more reactive is thrust into an atypical position of power and must cope with it. For the male public, there can also be something appealing about such a character. Who wouldn't love to make her laugh, and keep her company in her leader's loneliness? Care is needed, however, as Don't You Dare Pity Me! may come into effect. Suddenly Suitable Suitor may also be required, leading to plentiful anguish before the discovery.
Compare the Ermine Cape Effect, which she takes full advantage of, and Decadent Court, which is often her greatest threat. She can sometimes be seen as a royal version of the Stepford Smiler. See also The Wise Prince — a tragic male royal.
In terms of the ranks of Authority Tropes, the tropes that are equal are God Save Us from the Queen!, The High Queen, The Good King, and President Evil. The next steps down are The Evil Prince, Prince Charming, Prince Charmless, Warrior Prince, The Wise Prince, and all Princess Tropes. The next step up is The Emperor. Silk Hiding Steel is near the bottom; she's not in charge and not supposed to have authority, but uses similar methods to pursue her goals.
If the character does not have these duties thrust upon her, but rather freely chooses to take them on, chances are she's a Go-Getter Girl or an Iron Lady.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Baccano!: Luck Gandor is a male example working on the Just a Kid axis. He was pushed into running "the family business" after his father died before even reaching fifteen years old (to give you an idea how well that's accepted, his friend Firo's initiation to a similar position at eighteen was met with "Wait, you can possibly... Really...? Just how many executives did you sleep with to get there?"). So, to be taken seriously, he overcompensates like hell and puts up a front of ruthlessness that even he starts believing — though his best friend and adoptive brother both see right through it.
Berserk:
Being the second in command in the most successful army in Midland - and being the sole woman at the same time - Casca always had to deal with this and was quite cold because of her job. However, this became more evident when the Band of the Hawk got into some deep s**t after their charismatic leader, Griffith, got arrested and imprisoned after Guts, a man who got both of their affection (one a bit more extreme, which led to his erratic behavior in the first place), left the Hawks, which left Casca in charge. Casca became so physically and emotionally drained during this time, not only because two men that she respected and loved were not by her side, but because she was in charge with keeping the Band of the Hawk together AND alive (since they became fugitives upon Griffith's arrest). She was able to keep her cool for the most part... but when Guts comes back after a year, Casca just lets it all spill out, and almost attempted suicide.
The Queen of Midland to a degree, in that she's a naturally passionate woman expected to act like a queen to a distant husband, which is why she ended up having an affair with the king's brother (that the king has the hots for his own daughter due to her resemblance to his first wife doesn't help). Unfortunately, Griffith's meteoric promotion led to the king's brother getting shafted, and she took it on herself to have Griffith removed, which didn't work out well for her.
Lolopechka from Black Clover seems very dignified as the princess of the Heart Kingdom but is in truth an awkward, clumsy girl. She thinks of herself as an inadequate princess for getting cursed and being clumsy and dull. And she's terrified of being cursed to die, feeling bad for crying in public. Thankfully, her friends Noelle and Mimosa comfort her.
Black Lagoon: Yukio Washimine is forced to do this in order to protect Yakuza faction from being wiped out by Hotel Moscow and the higher-ranking Yakuza clan in charge. She doesn't get any slack after.
As time goes on in Code Geass Lelouch turns out to be a Rare Male Example; though he Jumped at the Call to become Zero, the persona of a confident rebel leader, strategist, and ruthless Big Good starts to take a toll on him. Underneath his bitter cynicism is a Nice Guy who genuinely wants to help the world and hates the fact he has to even kill innocents to change the world. However, with his multiple secret identities, the only one he can rely on is C.C. for support. This is especially evident when he's forced to kill his Brainwashed and Crazy half-sister Euphemia after a careless phrase and Power Incontinence sent her on a massacre. He makes a glorious speech as Zero against her actions and Britannia, then goes off alone except for C.C. and cries over having to kill her and make her The Scapegoat.
Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund is the sort of person whose first instinct even in the middle of an un-life-or-final-death fight is to protect a human child. Between that and the fact that she looks 12, it is hard to imagine how she can hope to maintain herself as Queen of the Vampires without the whole Stone b***h pose and a good bit of doing what goes against her better nature.
Fairy Tail: Erza is an interesting example, even if she is not a Queen. She is basically one of the authorities in the Guild Fairy Tail and was given the temp rank of Guildmaster since she was the only one who could keep the rowdy gang of misfits in line though her sheer force of personality. However, she did not want the position and Makarov eventually recovered.Also, Queen Shagotte of Extalia.
The Familiar of Zero: The position of Queen demands a confident, competent, and most of all spotless image, and so Princess/Queen Henrietta has to maintain this image for the public. She takes solace in her friendship with Louise when no one can see her.
Gundam:
This is what happens with Haman Karn over the course of her young life: from being a naive-yet-well-meaning girl in Char's Deleted Affair to the cold, manipulative, and nigh-genocidal 20-year-old regent of Neo-Zeon.
Ex-Rebellious Princess Cagalli Yula Athha tries to be The High Queen in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. To say it FAILS... well, it's an understatement, and she ends up as this. It may have worked a bit better later, with the help of her close friend Lacus Clyne, after she's made leader of PLANT.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had Relena Peacecraft, another teenage Rebellious Princess who was forced to become The High Queen, though under different circumstances than Cagalli (and worse still, she had to be the figurehead leader of the militaristic organization that attacked and nearly destroyed her kingdom). She completely owns this, turning it into Reassignment Backfire and being well on the way to bringing peace when things got worse.
A non-royal version occurs in Crossbone Gundam, where Cecily Fairchild aka Bera Ronah is forced to be The Captain despite the fact that, for most of her life, she was an Ordinary High-School Student. Best illustrated in volume 2 where she freezes up during an intense battle on Io, and the Mother Vanguard's helmsman gives orders and politely criticizes Bera for spacing out when they need her the most.
Queen Dianna of ∀ Gundam. Her public persona is impeccably serene and composed. Around her Identical Stranger Kihel (and later as her), she shows her whimsical and sensitive side.
Hellsing: Sir Integra Hellsing as the leader of the Hellsing organization. The family can be quite cutthroat. She is coldblooded but she has her moments of weariness. Also, she has the special duty of keeping Alucard in check. Anyone might get a little stiff after years of that.
Toyed with in the interactions of Maria Theresa and Austria in Hetalia: Axis Powers. Since this is Hetalia, though, it's Played for Laughs.
Naruto: Hiashi Hyuga is another male example. He's the head of the Hyuga clan's main family (of Konoha's upper class) and, when we first meet him, he appears to be a very strict, stern-looking man and a Well Done Daughter Guy for his daughter Hinata. However, it's later revealed that he's been carrying around inner grief for the Heroic Sacrifice pulled over a decade earlier by his twin brother (who was delegated into the clan's branch family because Hiashi was born first) and the rift between both sides of the clan exacerbated by said sacrifice. He's been searching for an opportunity to tell his nephew Neji the truth of the matter (Neji believed that his father was made to sacrifice himself because he was a branch family member, not because it was his own choice for the sake of his family), and he finds that chance after Neji's defeat at Naruto's hands in the Chuunin exam, complete with him bowing to Neji in apology for not owning up earlier. Subsequent appearances in both canon and filler show him to smile more easily and get along better with both Neji and Hinata and this allows him to make amends with his brother when the latter is revived with the Forbidden Resurrection technique later on.
Later chapters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi begin to reveal Arika to be this. Nagi makes many attempts at lowering her unflappable guard.
The Rose of Versailles portrays Empress Maria Theresa as this, mixed with Knight Templar Parent.
Another male example is Shi Ryuuki in Saiunkoku Monogatari. As summed up by Shouka in the first season finale:
"He is a man who is possessed by loneliness, from which he cannot escape. The more he behaves like an Emperor, the lonelier he becomes. ... From now on, just as he adds to his reputation as the Emperor, the people who see him as 'Ryuuki' start to vanish. ... That's why Shuurei is the only person who always did and always will call him by name. ... Right now, Seiran is able to take everything that he cherishes into his hands as much as his heart wishes. However, from now on, Ryuuki-sama will never be able to obtain anything anymore in his lifetime. Since he knows that, he can't let go of the one dream he has left."
Ayeka shows signs of this in the Tenchi Universe continuity. She tells Tenchi at some point that while she's the First Princess of the Juraian Empire, she doesn't exactly like it as it's more of an honorary title than anything, and she feels very trapped in her role.
One of the main plots of The Twelve Kingdoms kicks off when Youko not only has to fight her way into Kei to claim her throne but once crowned she starts having serious doubts about her own ability to reign over the Kei kingdom.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Zig-zagged with Pharaoh Atem. Over the years he has gotten used to adopting the visage of the strong king, but he shows doubt over what is right, and his need to protect everyone and constantly be victorious causes problems even after he loses his memories.
Comic Books
Heart of Empire had Anne, Queen of the Universe, appearing to be this at first. Later, we find out the terrible truth...
The X-Men has Majestrix Lilandra of the Shi'ar, who always struggles and frequently fails to hold on to her throne and keep her kingdom from turning into The Empire, despite all the challengers to her rule and the corrupt and warmongering bureaucrats under her.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Princess Projectra left the Legion because of this following the (first) death of her husband, Karate Kid and the need to rebuild her homeworld. She later returned to the team in secret, under the guise of Sensor Girl.
Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Hippolyta. Diana mentions that her mother has to make sure to present the exact right image to the other Amazons and that she can never act the way she wishes to without considering the consequences.
Fan Works
Dungeon Keeper Ami features this in a very interesting manner. Ami, after becoming the Empress of the Avatar Islands has to put on a cruel facade in the presence of most of her minions, as most are underworlders, and would not respond to a gentle hand attempting to govern them. She actually had this problem before, the Queenly mask is more her efforts to deal with the Lightworld Kingdoms, which require an entirely different approach.
Composure: One of the two central conflicts is Princess Celestia's struggle to maintain her calm, dignified demeanor after centuries of emotional repression, irrational fears of her reformed sister, an unacceptable affection for her former student Twilight Sparkle, and being blown up.
In The Vow, after Lady Lianne becomes Gongmen City's ruler, she keeps it prospering for twenty years with the people's support, but privately she's sad and lonely for losing her closest loved ones. She focuses on her duties to try and forget her pain so much that she no longer keeps up her passion for painting.
Both the Princesses Equestris in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, though it's somewhat Deconstructed as the strain has gradually cause problems for both of them. In Celestia's case, untold centuries fighting to keep her ponies alive wore away at her until she Jumped Off The Slippery Slope and became Corona, the Tyrant Sun, seeking to rule every last detail of her ponies' lives in order to ensure their safety. Luna, on the other hand, has been consumed by fear of following her sister into madness, and that fear has crippled her and made her reluctant to use her authority to reign in the excesses of her Night Court.
Deconstructed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess oneshot They Are Wrong. Zelda's detached attitude makes her an unpopular queen because others mistake her for cold and uncaring.
In In Sotto Voce, the Wise Beyond Their Years 16-year-old Zelda is crowned queen after her father's sudden murder. Despite her wisdom, Zelda is still just a teenager whose father was brutally killed in front of her. She's unable to emotionally handle the role of queen so she hides behind a mask of stoicism. Zelda's cold even towards Impa because she believes Impa betrayed her.
Deconstructed in Their Bond. Queen Zelda is so emotionally detached predominantly because of past trauma. She has trouble accepting or understanding love.
Queen Sunsparkle tries to act like this in Wishing Well, but everyone sees past her solemn image. She isn't respected because she's barely an adult, the second youngest pony in their "kingdom" of only twelve.
Hinata from Princess Of Konoha is an Ojou and is the heir to the most powerful clan in her village. She keeps her emotions in check and normally seems like an Emotionless Girl.
When Scorpia voices her insecurities with being a leader in She-Ra: In The Wake, Glimmer admits that she knows just as much about being a leader as her, something that surprises Scorpia.
Son of the Sannin: Downplayed with Kurotsuchi. Given that she's recently become Tsuchikage, the prospect of having to lead her village in the wake of the 4th Ninja War was clearly a heavy duty for her, and during the Five Kage summit, she vocally opposed to forming an alliance with the other villages out of fear of this being taken as a sign of weakness. It gets to the point she almost broke down crying upon returning from the summit, but thankfully, her grandfather was there to support her.
Film — Animation
Frozen (2013): Elsa represses her feelings and isolates herself from others because she is next in line to the throne...and she is absolutely terrified of screwing up. Unlike other queens, she has the additional burden that anxiety makes her Power Incontinence worse...and her magical abilities are potentially deadly. "Conceal, don't feel". Unfortunately, after one argument with Anna, she snaps and outs her powers by accident which causes her mask to whittle down. In the end, she completely abandons it and becomes a benevolent queen who entertains her people with her powers and has fun skating with them as well.
Somewhat subverted with Queen Elinor in Brave. She fits the trope very well, being the more level-headed sovereign. Her husband, King Fergus, is a Boisterous Bruiser with a good heart who is much more prone to being ruled by his emotions than his wife. Elinor is the one who is able to calm a crowd of feuding Scots simply by walking through it with the utmost dignity and takes care of details such as the betrothal of their daughter. The subversion comes in where it doesn't appear that Elinor is remotely ruffled by her holding this position. She doesn't seem to find it at all wearying, and it's only later in the story that she comes to realize that she's adopted the mask a little too well, and learns to let her hair down again (literally, in fact).
Film — Live-Action
The movies Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age depict Elizabeth I this way. Both films are largely inspired by her Real Life story.
The Star Wars prequel trilogy has Queen Amidala of Naboo. Her gowns make her look larger than life, and her painted white face is firm but never emotional. Where the queen cannot go, Padmé Naberrie does, leaving her handmaid Sabé to take her place as a decoy, letting Padmé Amidala be both The High Queen and an invisible common girl.
The 2006 movie The Queen is about what happens when the public doesn't like the Queenly Mask, but the Queen doesn't know how to be anything else.
The Queen: One in four wanted to get rid of me?
Tony Blair: For about a half an hour. But then you came back to London, and all that went away.
The Queen: I have never been hated like that before.
Tony Blair: It must have been difficult.
The Queen: Yes. Very. Nowadays, people want glamour and tears, the grand performance. I am not very good at that, never have been. I prefer to keep my feelings to myself, and foolishly I believed that that was what people wanted from their Queen; not to make a fuss, not to wear one's heart on a sleeve. "Duty first, self second!" ... That was how I was brought up. That's all I have ever known.
Tony Blair: You were so young when you became Queen...
The Queen: Yes... yes, just a girl...
This is why the later exchange between the Queen and the girl with the flowers is heartwarming.
The Queen: Would you like me to place those for you?
Little Girl: No.
The Queen: Oh. (hides her heartbreak, and is about to move on)
Little Girl: They're for you.
The 2009 Tamil/Telugu movie, Arundhati takes this to the next level, with the Princess/Queen ousting tyrants, battling fiends, and even suffering voluntary torture and death for her people. Yet the while her queenly mask of composure never slips...
The Masterpiece Theater production Bertie and Elizabeth is a romance about a marriage between a Wise Prince (George VI) and The Woman Wearing A Queenly Mask (the Queen Mum) sharing The Chains of Commanding during World War II.
A Royal Night Out suggests this was the case for Elizabeth II at age 19. There's one scene where she wistfully talks about what life would be like if she didn't have any responsibilities - but then does use her authority to her benefit at many points during the film.
In Kingdom of Heaven, Princess (later Queen) Sibylla tells the protagonist, "A woman in my place has two faces, one for the world and one which she wears in private." Her characterization throughout the film is largely in keeping with this idea.
Literature
A Brother's Price: Ren isn't really keen on all the responsibility that comes with being Princess Eldest. Her sister Halley, who was more respected, vanished and left her to do the job, but they both were born as younger sisters and didn't expect to ever have to shoulder that much responsibility. Halley later reveals that she vanished on purpose, at least partly in order to make people look up to Ren more.
Indu Sundaresan writes about Mehrunnisa, better known as Nur Jahan, in both The 20th Wife and Feast of Roses. She married Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Empire in 17th-century India, only to see her dominion destroyed by her own aggressive tendencies.
Michael Moorcock, in his novel Gloriana; or, the Unfulfill'd Queen, portrays Elizabeth I as a queen so intent on her responsibilities as a monarch that she is incapable of reaching orgasm no matter how kinky she gets. And she gets very kinky.
Ward of Hurog became ruler of a small piece of land after his father died. He had been Obfuscating Stupidity for quite some time, and when he drops that act, he puts on another mask, this time using as an example a legendary hero he admires, whenever he has to do something connected to his title and responsibility. He tells a friend that he has no idea who he himself actually is, after wearing masks for so long.
In the first book of Tad William's Shadowmarch, Briony has to rule at age fifteen and though she has a hard time, her brother is completely hopeless.
In Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia inspires awe and fear in her people, and she certainly isn't nice but her job isn't easy either. Specifically, she was forced to marry a much older man who completely disregarded her, most tellingly eating her food and drinking from her glass without asking permission. So she poisoned her own wine.
It doesn't get any easier when our good friend Eugenides wins her love and becomes King of Attolia. He's happy as a clam to be married to the woman he fell in love with so long ago, but he isn't so hot on the job that comes with it. Now, not only does the poor woman have to rule the country, she has to keep reminding her husband that now it's his country too, and he needs to take an interest in ruling it.
Historical/literary example: Pearl Buck's interpretation of Tsu Hsi (Ci-xi) in the historical novel Imperial Woman. In real life, it's still debated if Cixi truly as much of an Evil Matriarch as usually depicted or if Red China and its propaganda made her worse than she really was. Considering other testimonies, Cixi was a polemic and very shady figure, but not the uber-horrid monster that she's portrayed to be.
Another example discussing Ci Xi is Anchee Min's books Empress Orchid and The Last Empress, which portray her as more harassed, tired, and maligned than anything else.
Queen Selenay of Valdemar. She has to be The High Queen and a Lady of War when the need calls for it, but it helps that she has the entire Heraldic Circle to trust. Part of the problem, though, is that these are the same Heralds she must often send into deadly danger.
Naturally, the one time she fails to ask her Heralds for advice (and they fail to speak their minds), she makes a disastrous marriage that nearly gets her killed.
Lady Mara in Raymond Feist's and Joanna Wurtz's Daughter of the Empire and its sequels must take command of the noble house of the Acoma when her parents are killed. Complicating matters is a societal proscription against showing emotion in public.
Queen Keli in the Discworld novel Mort, only allows herself to be a confused and whiny teenager in front of Cutwell and Mort. The Duchess of Borogravia in Monstrous Regiment turned into this after her own death thanks to the power of belief on the Disc.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys Targaryen, who goes from an innocent princess to this over the course of the series.
Gregor in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga seems to be a rare male version of this. Much talk is made about the "mask" he wears as an Emperor.
In Honor Harrington:
Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore was forced to wear the Queenly Mask for some time in her youth after her parents were assassinated by Haven's sympathizers, who hoped that a teenage queen would be easy to manipulate. They happened to be wrong. Very, very, very wrong. She had it tough for some time, though, until she won a broad popular support, and not just that of her close allies.
President Eloise Pritchart of the restored Republic of Haven, as well — she's not, strictly speaking, a queen, but she is a President with the same responsibilities. And all the more so because she, Thomas Theisman, her lover Javier Giscard, and a few other people had restored a true republic that hadn't existed for two centuries, and so she absolutely must be this in order to ensure it survives.
Honor herself is not exactly royalty, but her capacity as a commander suffers from this on-and-off starting with the middle of the second book and coming in full force after the fourth.
Prince Tobin/Queen Tamír in Lynn Flewelling's The Oracle's Queen, until close to the end of the book. At this point, with the war over, she acknowledges her feelings for her childhood friend and ends up marrying him.
Princess Marla in Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade Trilogy starts out as a spoiled princess but becomes more and more this as the books go on, despite the fact that her brother is the High Prince. Several people recognize that she is the one who makes all the decisions in Hytria instead of her no-good brother even while she continues with the charade of being a spoiled brat.
Played with in Piers Anthony's Isle of Woman, during a segment that follows a Chinese royal concubine. She follows the trope pretty much to the letter and later becomes the Queen in all but name.
Rhian in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy who constantly has to prove she is worthy to rule in her own right and this includes dueling with vassals who will not submit to her. She only has sex with her childhood sweetheart once after she marries him, and that's only to consummate the marriage.
Queen-Mother Muriele of Greg Keyes's The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, after her brother-in-law attempts to seize power by having the entire royal family murdered (thankfully he missed a few). This event leaves her mentally challenged son as the official king, and she has to act through him to lead her kingdom through some very serious conflicts, with only a handful of advisors remaining loyal to her.
Queen Ketricken from the Tawny Man Trilogy is this. She has lost her husband, all family and friends, and has had to clean up a kingdom after a war. She also has to deal with the persecution of certain of her people by others of her people. Although she wears plain clothing and little jewellery in public, she still only lets her guard down in private.
Queen Sharleyan of the Safehold kingdom of Chisholm inherited the throne at a young age after her father was murdered. While her uncle and her first councilor were instrumental in helping her stay on the throne, Sharleyan herself was quick to develop into a strong young woman. Additionally, she did it with the precedent of a less able queen hanging over her.
C. J. Cherryh's Bangsian Fantasy Legions of Hell has a passage portraying Hatshepsut as a case of this. She sent out explorers, listened to their reports when they returned, and all the while she wanted to be an explorer, not just hear what they had to say.
And if she were not Hatshepsut the pharaoh, she might blurt out, simply, with tears: I want to go, the way she had ached when her explorers had come back to her and told of great waterfalls and strange tribes and unknown coasts and vast seas. I want to go because she had ruled two-thirds of the known world and had no freedom ever to see those things, she could only send others...
In Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza, the Duchessa Silvia is this trope to the letter, even to the mask that she legally must wear as an unmarried woman. However, she does not have to worry about doubts of a woman ruler, as Belleza (the Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Venice) would not accept anything but a female ruler. And furthermore, she takes this role to Magnificent b***h levels.
Elayne Trakand in The Wheel of Time is kind of this. Her problems are not caused by her sex or youth, but by her not actually being a queen yet. She has to deal with a civil war caused by other aspiring queens, not to mention some highly irritating magic wielders and being pregnant to a man whom (and whose children) dozens of people would love to kill. Oh, and did I mention approaching End of the World as We Know It yet?
Egwene al'Vere kind of fits this, too. Or at least she used to. Sure, she's no queen, she's "just" the leader of the resident Witch Species who put her on the Amyrlin Seat as a puppet and nothing more. She had to really take charge and prove them wrong.
For that matter, Queen Morgase too. Not the age part, but having to act the very picture of a queen (and the loneliness part, if her fling with Thom is any judge).
The High Queen in Wicked Lovely, Sorcha, seems to suffer from this. As she puts it, 'the unchanging queen wasn't allowed to show such emotion'.
Subverted in The Lord of the Rings. Éowyn was ordered to be this and refused.
The Childlike Empress in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) is this. She's quite different in the film version, though, because the film never truly shows the burden she has to bear.
In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", Princess Yasmela. Her brother the king is prisoner and she is ruling in his stead, and when she finds Conan attractive it produces a guilty start.
While not a Queen per se, D'ol Falla in the Green-Sky Trilogy has a lot of this. Chosen as an Ol-zhaan at thirteen (the usual age) her psychic gifts and personal charm were such that she was made High Priestess only two or three years later. Like all Ol-zhaan she could have "close communion" love affairs but was forbidden to pair-bond (marry) or have children. She had to keep up the serene and regal mask of the High Priestess for the Kindar people, and even her fellow Ol-zhaan. She also has to keep up a mask of ruthlessness as Grandmistress of the Geets-Kel. Yet, all those acts she had to take in her long life now began to weigh on her conscience and ended up injuring Green-sky in the long term, to say nothing of what it did to her psychic powers. Her Choosing Raamo, guided in part by a prophetic dream she'd had, was a way to try and repair some of the damage done.
Shakuntala in the Belisarius Series is locked in a guerrilla campaign against one of the most powerful empires of the sixth century AD with few allies due to other kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent not wanting to draw the rapacious attention of said empire.
Web writer Tygati's short story A Fairy Tale has a subversion of this: the outwardly calm, beautiful and regal Faerie Queen is really a man, the real Queen's servant who was forced to pretend to be her after her mysterious disappearance, lest the country erupt into chaos.
Orual from Till We Have Faces, as the page quote notes. In this case, she literally wore a mask/veil as well.
Nasuada from the Inheritance Cycle isn't a queen, but she is the leader of The Alliance and theoretically equal to her royal supporters. She has workaholic tendencies and once noted that she cannot indulge in romance, though she has considered proposing a diplomatic marriage to one of her allies. Murtagh has a one-sided crush on her, which will probably turn out to be important in the last book of the series.
This turns into a more literal example at the end of Inheritance when Nasuada is declared Queen. Good call on the Murtagh thing, which also enhances this by not allowing the two to be together.
In Fred Saberhagen's Third Book of Swords, Princess Kristin was prepared to marry Mark, who was just a common soldier, and was completely informal with him, right up until they arrived back in Tasavalta and learned that her older sister Princess Rimac had been killed, and the principality was on the verge of civil war with no clear heir to the throne since everyone thought Kristin was also dead. Kristin then agreed to take the throne, but that of course meant she could no longer marry Mark or be his lover. After that, she had to be totally formal with Mark and hide her true feelings. The mask slipped once or twice, as when her uncle, the wizard Karel, was reluctant to leave them alone together, and Kristin angrily pointed out that it was way too late to be worried about that. It all worked out in the end when Mark was revealed to be the son of the Emperor, and as such an appropriate consort for the princess after all.
Subverted with Yambu, the Silver Queen, in the same series. After she became queen, she became detached and distant, and could never let her true feelings show; but at the same time was also pretty informal, and took any man whom she pleased as a lover, although she never had any feelings for them, of course. She's also a subversion in the sense that her emotional detachment is necessary for her to commit the crimes she proceeds to carry out in power, including selling her own daughter into slavery.
In the Young Royals book about Marie-Antoinette, The Bad Queen, she thinks that looking regal will make her people like her more.
Elizabeth Bathory in Count and Countess.
Song at Dawn Alienor is beloved in her home county of Aquitaine but despised in the capital, Paris. There she is called 'the southern whore'. The queenly mask is her only weapon against such gossip.
Goldmoon of Dragonlance fame was this during the years she waited for Riverwind's return due to her father's illness. Her mask becomes so thick that when Riverwind returns, he notices the change.
Journey to Chaos: Eric notes this sort of change in Kasile in Looming Shadow. When she was a princess she affected a cutesy and friendly persona. Now that she is The High Queen she is cold and regal. When in private with him, she drops the act.
In Vampire Academy, Queen Tatiana is eventually revealed to be this, being much nicer and more caring than the Ice Queen exterior she wears in public. She is open to having Moroi train in self-defense and wants to protect dhampirs from Moroi royals willing to take away their rights.
Queen Rachel in The Princes of the Air.
In The Goblin Emperor, Maia quickly becomes a male version of this. While he has the right sex, being half goblin is not exactly working in his favour. He tries to not wear the mask of the emperor, but when one of his bodyguards tells him that they cannot be his friends, he realizes that he has to. His attempts to make his Arranged Marriage at least a somewhat friendly arrangement are met with cold formality. He feels like a tyrant whenever he asserts his position but feels he has no choice. At the end of the novel he has figured out that he can have emotional connections to the people around him, even though none of them are, strictly speaking, friends.
Edmond Hamilton:
The Empress Thalarna of Sun Smasher.
'Princess' Lianna of Fomalhaut in The Star Kings and its sequel.
Live-Action TV
The Crown (2016) is basically this trope writ large as Queen Elizabeth II struggles to balance her personal life and the requirements of performing the duties of Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lao Ma from Xena: Warrior Princess. Regent both for her degenerate husband and degenerate son.
Not exactly a Queen as such, but arguably President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica has to fill this role.
Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl. Referred to as 'Queen B' and served by minions, she displays a constant need for perfection and order while suffering secret parental abandonment and insecurity over her classmates' love of her bubbly best friend (Serena). As soon as she leaves, her replacement is so much worse that even those she was worst to miss her.
Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who only takes off her mask with someone who doesn't technically exist and whose body is programmed to forget.
Delenn in Babylon 5 displays the traits of this despite not being a queen.
DG from the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man is often portrayed this way in fanfiction set after the miniseries.
Queen Anne from The Musketeers is distrusted and disliked by her subjects because she is Spanish-born (at a time when peace between France and Spain was delicate at best). She's often ignored, dismissed, or unfairly blamed when important things go wrong. She is often one of the few nobles in the French court to actually care about the poor and will always do what she can to help others, no matter how dangerous or risky it might be for her.
The Great: The first season of the show is about Catherine, who will one day be known as "The Great", learning how to develop that mask. We see her arrive in Russia's most decadent and murderous royal court as an idealistic and naive young woman who keeps blundering every time she says something, and as the season progresses, we see her become more steely and politically savvy until she is not only ready to stage a coup to seize power but is able to truly command the respect necessary for her to be able to do so.
Music
The Mercedes Lackey song "The Cost of the Crown" deals much in the grief of being queen. For instance, mourning dead soldiers and putting your kingdom's needs before your own wants:
The royal circlet of bright gold rests lightly on my brow
I once thought only of the rights this circlet would endow
But once I took the crown, on which I had been schooled and bred
I found it heavy on the heart, though light upon the head
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