History Main / KingmakerScenario

* Captain Jack Sparrow is in this position in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd''. Every other pirate has voted for themselves for Pirate King, and if he does the same, the result will be a deadlock and no one will be Pirate King. [[EnlightenedSelfInterest This is against his interests, so he gives one of the other candidates the vote needed to make them Pirate King]].

* ''VideoGame/Killer7'': The Smiths are hired to take out Matsuken, the leader of a significant 10 million US voters, before he can rig the elections. 10 million is technically less than 1% of the vote - BUT since the state elections are near-tied, if Matsuken herded them all into a single small state and had them vote he could win the election for whichever kiss-ass the Japanese favor. [[spoiler:And then you find out this was all a big distraction so nobody would realize the Department of Education has been swapping out ballot machines]].

* Inverted in the ending of Creator/GoreVidal's ''The Best Man'', in which two presidential candidates, played by Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, are tied in their race for the nomination. [[spoiler:Fonda's idealist, unwilling to falsely smear Robertson's sleazoid as a homosexual in order to win, yet also unwilling to let Robertson win the nomination on the strength of allegations regarding Fonda's medical history, throws his support to the dark horse candidate who has been mired in third place throughout the balloting, who goes on to win.]]

A Kingmaker Scenario occurs when two sides in a conflict are [[BalanceOfPower evenly matched]] and [[MeleeATrois the third one]] is unable to overpower the other two. The third power then becomes the "King Maker": while it cannot win itself, it can ally itself with one of the other two, breaking the stalemate and bringing victory to its chosen side ([[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning "crowning them king"]]). The term "kingmaker scenario" comes from the game theory and was most likely inspired by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick Richard Neville]] a.k.a. [[TropeNamer Warwick the Kingmaker]], who, while not suitable for the English throne himself (owing to a lack of RoyalBlood), installed and deposed two sovereigns in short succession during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses.

* The ''Series/{{Yes Minister}}'' 1984 Christmas Special episode "Party Games" hinges on this. Over the course of a Cabinet shakeup necessitated by the unexpected death of the Prime Minister, the party is evenly divided over who should be their next leader (The Chancellor Of The Exchequer or the Foreign Secretary) and thus the next Prime Minister. Hacker (as Party Chairman) is the last remaining member who has yet to declare one way or the other, and so both leading candidates try to persuade him to back themself. The problem is that the two candidates are extremely divisive figures from opposing ends of the Party's political spectrum; the only question is if the party splits in months or weeks. Hacker is unable to decide one way or the other until Humphrey, with some help from the Chief Whip, suggests an alternative - enter the race himself, and persuade both of the other frontliners to withdraw and back him instead to prevent the other from winning (achieved through Sirs Humphrey and Arnold supplying Hacker with plenty of Blackmail material from each candidate's Confidential Files). The episode ends with Humphrey delivering three important words to Hacker: "[[spoiler:Yes, Prime Minister!]]"

* The ''Series/{{Yes Minister}}'' episode "Party Games" hinges on this. Over the course of a Cabinet shakeup, the party is evenly divided over who should be their next leader and thus the next prime minister. Hacker is the last remaining member who has yet to declare one way or the other, and so both leading candidates try to persuade him to back themself. Hacker is unable to decide one way or the other, until Humphrey suggests an alternative - enter the race himself, and persuade both of the other frontliners to withdraw and back him instead to prevent the other from winning. The episode ends with Humphrey delivering three important words to Hacker: "[[spoiler:Yes, Prime Minister!]]"

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'''s Battle Mode, anyone who runs out of Balloons when there are still 2 or more players left becomes a Mini Bomb Kart. They've officially lost that match but can drive right up to any remaining players and explode in their faces, then respawn in a few seconds to do it again.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Diplomacy}}'', being a game based around negotiations and personal politics, incurs kingmaker scenarios frequently by players who are still alive but are far behind the leaders in terms of supply centers by choosing to ally with one of them to help them to victory. Especially skillful players can also Subvert the scenario altogether if they end up taking the lead themselves and winning outright, which however improbable is always possible so long as they aren't eliminated.

A Kingmaker Scenario occurs when two sides in a conflict are [[BalanceOfPower evenly matched]] and [[MeleeATrois the third one]] is unable to overpower the other two. The third power then becomes the "King Maker": while it cannot win itself, it can ally itself with one of the other two, breaking the stalemate and bringing victory to its chosen side ([[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning "crowning them king"]]). The term "kingmaker scenario" comes from the game theory and was most likely inspired by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick Richard Neville]] a.k.a. [[TropeNamer Warwick the Kingmaker]], who, while not suitable for the British throne himself (owing to a lack of RoyalBlood), installed and deposed two sovereigns in short succession during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses.

** Near the end of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]''[='s=] main quest, you come into possession of a powerful artifact which allows a person of royal blood or supernatural power to control the [[HumongousMecha Numidium]]. You cannot utilize it yourself[[note]]you can ''try'', but it causes a NonStandardGameOver with [[ApocalypseHow Tamriel-wrecking]] results[[/note]], but you can choose one of several Iliac Bay powers to hand it over to, allowing them to tip the balance of power in the region in their favor. (Later games reveal that, canonically, ''all'' of the possible endings happen in a MergingTheBranches scenario, thanks to a [[RealityWarper Reality Warping]] TimeCrash known as the "Warp in the West."

A more detailed examination of possible Kingmaker Scenarios can be found [[http://ynnen.blogspot.com/2005/08/king-is-dead-long-live-king-kingmaking.html in this article]], at least until the link dies. A subtrope of MeleeATrois. Compare XMustNotWin. The party that makes the difference may be VicariouslyAmbitious for one of the sides in the stalemate.

* During the second season of ''Series/{{Jericho}}'', this plays out between the Allied States Of America and the remaining pieces of the United States Of America. Whichever side can convince the now-independent Republic of Texas to ally with them will be able to defeat the other.

* The Drinking game in ''YohohoPuzzlePirates'' can result in a Kingmaker Scenario when played with three or more players. It is possible (and not terribly uncommon) for two players to be one move away from a win simultaneously, while a third player is active with possible moves that would allow them to "steal" 20 points from either of the two leaders, allowing the other leader to win on his/her next move.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': This is the Modus Operandi of the Grey Wardens. In exchange for unwavering duty towards fighting the darkspawn for a lifetime, the Grey Wardens have iron-clad treaties from almost every nation that demand drafting from ALL citizens - from the lowest criminal to the highest king, all crimes and duties are dismissed in the face of wardenship. In between Blights, Wardens are encouraged to avoid politics, as it's ended badly before, and the treaties are as binding "as a clever tongue can make them". ''During'' a Blight, however, their authority is theoretically absolute. In the first game, the Warden protagonist can decide the ruler of two separate nations:

* In VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII, you play as a quartet of new royals. Halfway through the game, you have to choose between allying with the side of light or the side of darkness. The side you ally with wins, because [[spoiler:one of your main quests is to tip the political balance in your favor by killing the other team's counterpart to the one who gives you the quest in the first place]], all for the sake of getting one more Control Cube. IF it were possible to not choose a side at all, you would then have to kill the leaders of both sides, and you'd never be able to repair the Heavenly Forge anyway or the portal to the Gateweb [[spoiler: (as you wouldn't know the location of the Lincoln)]]...

** In VideoGame/MightAndMagic III, one of the quests is to give eleven (out of thirty-one) Orbs of Ultimate Power to the King of Good, Neutrality or Evil, which gives them theoretical governance over Terra and destroys the other two kings.
* The Darkling class in ''VideoGame/DokaponKingdom'' is made for kingmaking; they can't advance in the quest for gold, and only the player in last place can fall to darkness, but the class is designed for dragging ''other'' players down. Also, through an [[GameBreaker exploit]], the Darkling can be used to give overpowered equipment to another player with no penalty: Darkling gear vanishes when you stop being a Darkling, but only if it's in the Darkling player's hands. (In theory, a Darkling player could trade his equipment off to another player and then ask for it back when he comes out of it, but expecting the other player to follow through is a wee bit unlikely.)

* Happens in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', where the seemingly innocuous choice of which house Byleth chooses at the beginning of the game and the far more nocuous choice of [[spoiler:whether to side with Rhea or Edelgard]] at the end of one version of Chapter 11 determines who wins the war at the end of it. That said, [[spoiler:the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind endings result in Byleth becoming ruler of a unified continent, Azure Moon places them in a position of power as Archbishop of the Church of Seiros, and both Azure Moon and Crimson Flower allow them to marry the ruler of the continent and become their consort]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 5'': The City-States are the kingmakers for the Diplomatic Victory path, which requires a supermajority vote at the United Nations. They don't count as world powers themselves, but each adds its voting power to the civilization with which it's allied; a civilization that's gained the support of every city-state can sometimes[[labelnote:*]](Albeit usually only with additional means of inflating its votes.)[[/labelnote]] appoint itself World Leader over every other civilization's opposition.

** In ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'', the mission to avert Empress Celene's assassination turns into a scenario where you decide who will rule Orlais by the end of the party. Note that choosing anyone other than Celene [[spoiler:means ''allowing'' the assassination to take place, with you stepping up to "avenge" her.]] In fact the situation ends up having ''four'' factions involved in addition to yours, two of which were trying to play kingmaker themselves (one openly and one in secret); the Inquisition's influence on the result is less about direct influence and more about what uncovered plots and counter-plots from the resulting mess they reveal to who.

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald''. Grindelwald is trying to take over the world. The only wizard powerful enough to fight him on even ground is Dumbledore; it's implied the two are so powerful that no other wizard or collection of wizards has a chance against either. However, Dumbledore and Grindelwald refuse to fight each other directly [[spoiler:because they quite literally ''can't''; a blood oath made in their youth binds them not to.]] Grindelwald thus spends the entire film trying to recruit Creedence, who's [[spoiler:Dumbledore's long lost brother, and thus a third wizard on equal ground with the two who could turn the tide for either side. The film ends with Credence joining Grindelwald,]] though we won't know how things shake out until later movies are released. It's worth pointing out that Credence- not being familiar with the wizarding world- doesn't know about the war and is completely unaware of his status as Kingmaker.

* In the StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel ''[[Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra Serpents Among the Ruins]]'', the negotiations between the Federation and the Romulans at Algeron are in a stalemate. Both sides are trying to court the neutral Klingons to their side in order to gain leverage over the other side. [[spoiler:A Starfleet Intelligence FalseFlagOperation]] results in Romulans looking even more dishonorable than usual, so the Klingons have no choice but to take Federation's side. With the deck stacked against them, the Romulans decide to retreat to their space, only demanding that the Federation not make use of any cloaking devices, something they had no intention of doing anyway. Thus one problem goes away, and another becomes an ally.

* In the StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel ''[[Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra Serpents Among the Ruins]]'', the negotiations between the Federation and the Romulans at Algeron are in a stalemate. Both sides are trying to court the neutral Klingons to their side in order to gain leverage over the other side.

* Kingmaker scenarios are fairly common in more open-ended roleplaying games, as they allow some player agency without having to account for every possible action the player might carry out.
** ''Franchise/DragonAge'': This is the Modus Operandi of the Grey Wardens. In exchange for unwavering duty towards fighting the darkspawn for a lifetime, the Grey Wardens have iron-clad treaties from almost every nation that demand drafting from ALL citizens - from the lowest criminal to the highest king, all crimes and duties are dismissed in the face of wardenship. In between Blights, Wardens are encouraged to avoid politics, as it's ended badly before, and the treaties are as binding "as a clever tongue can make them". ''During'' a Blight, however, their authority is theoretically absolute. In the first game, the Warden protagonist can decide the ruler of two separate nations:
*** In the Orzammar portion of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', you come into such a scenario, between the named-heir Pyral Harrowmont, and King's son Bhelen Aeducan. Makes for an interesting scenario when your origin is Bhelen's older sibling [[spoiler:or his new wife's sibling]]. Of course, no matter what your origin is, you can't become the ruler of Orzammar yourself.
*** This also applies to deciding Ferelden's ruler if your character isn't a human noble. Otherwise, there's also an option to marry one of the contenders for the throne yourself.
*** In ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'', the mission to avert Empress Celene's assassination turns into a scenario where you decide who will rule Orlais by the end of the party. Note that choosing anyone other than Celene [[spoiler:means ''allowing'' the assassination to take place, with you stepping up to "avenge" her.]] In fact the situation ends up having ''four'' factions involved in addition to yours, two of which were trying to play kingmaker themselves (one openly and one in secret); the Inquisition's influence on the result is less about direct influence and more about what uncovered plots and counter-plots from the resulting mess they reveal to who.

* ''Anime/SengokuOtome'' has UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga faced with UsefulNotes/TakedaShingen and UsefulNotes/UesugiKenshin. Both of them hold a part of the [[MacGuffin Crimson Armour]] that Nobunaga is trying to complete; [[YinYangClash being Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin]], they've fought 598 fights to 598 ''draws''. UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide thus proposes that they join forces with one, claim the Armour piece of the other as spoils of war, and request the Armour piece of the first as payment. [[DefiedTrope Nobunaga takes away her glasses for even suggesting it]].

* For the longest time, the Capellan Confederation in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' was viewed as sitting in this scenario. They were unlikely to make it to the top of the heap in a setting full of political intrigues and HumongousMecha when they were often plagued by both [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen severely crazy rulers]] and the smallest army of the five Successor States. However, what they had was the ability to 'king' almost any of the other four houses by virtue of choosing who they fought. While such a fight could doubtless [[PyrrhicVictory reduce the Capellan Confederation to little more than a memory]], it would also weaken the enemy they fought enough for that nation's other foes to gain the upper hand. Flanked as they were by the Federated Suns and the Free Worlds League, throwing themselves fully at the Suns would result in the eventual victory of the Draconis Combine and the League, while spending themselves against the League would result in inevitable victory for the Lyran Commonwealth and by extension their Federated Suns allies. This UnstableEquilibrium ''almost'' fell apart during the Fourth Succession War.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', at the opening of the Battle of Marineford, Sengoku claims that Whitebeard was doing this when he took in [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace, who was actually Gol D. Roger's son]]. He states that the reason Whitebeard made him part of his crew was so that he could raise him to be the new Pirate King, which was something Whitebeard himself couldn't do. [[spoiler:Ace protests this saying he joined so he could make Whitebeard King]], but Sengoku retorts that he is the only one who actually believes that.

* During the Freeza Saga of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Vegeta tries to convince Krillin, Gohan, and Dende that they are in this position; they can't defeat Freeza on their own, but they ''can'' help Vegeta wish for immortality so that ''he'' can defeat Freeza. They're understandably reluctant, but end up going along with it - except [[spoiler: Guru passes away right before they can make the third wish.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Starscream manages to find himself in such a scenario. He has [[spoiler:the keys to reactivate Cybertron]], but he has no army to enforce his will or any ability to play this to his political advantage. So he's forced to pick a side. [[spoiler:He picks the Decepticons]].