History Main / TopWife

* ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'': When [[DoesNotLikeMen Tsukiumi]] gets "winged" as Minato's Sekirei, she tries to save face and declares herself to be his wife before finding out that she's, in fact, his ''fourth'' Sekirei (in order of acquisition). Musubi and Kusano take offense to this, and declare that they're ''also'' Minato's wives[[note]]Matsu sometimes does too, only because [[TheGadfly it annoys the other girls]][[/note]], and when Tsukiumi then insists that she's the ''main'' wife, they insist ''they'' are as well.
-->'''Tsukiumi:''' Do you know what "main wife" means?!\\

* ''Videogame/{{Catherine}}'': Pictured is the "True Chaos Ending", in which Vincent decides to marry the succubus Catherine and travel with her back to the underworld. In TheStinger, we see that Vincent has [[HellHasNewManagement conquered the entire underworld]], with Catherine as his queen and several succubi as his concubines. Catherine is the only one who shares his throne.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': The 2-part episode "Stan of Arabia" has Stan defect from the USA and convert to Islam, whereupon he takes a second wife for himself whom he nicknamed "Thundercat". Thundercat makes it very clear that she plans to usurp Francine's position as "first wife", and does as much as she can to butter up Stan while undermining Francine. At one point, Stan smugly tells Francine that Thundercat is a better wife because she's "scored more points".

If there's dissension amongst the harem, however, the spouses will [[CatFight fight over]] who gets [[CockFight to be the one at the top.]] This is usually because the top spouse enjoys privileges, authority, or prestige that is denied to their "sibling" spouses. In softer examples, the top spouse may be the one who occupies their lover's bed the most, or the only one who does so ''at all''. In extreme cases, they may be able to boss the others around or even kick them out of the harem altogether.

-->'''Tsukiumi:''' "Do you know what 'main wife' means?!"\\
'''Musubi:''' "[[IdiotHero No I don't!]]"

-->"Think on it, Chani: the princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine -- never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine -- history will call us wives."

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Aegon "The Conqueror" Targaryen [[BrotherSisterIncest married both his sisters]], Rhaenys and Visenya; however, he loves the former more than the latter. Of course, both of them compete for Aegon's affection. Later on, Visenya puts her son, [[TheCaligula Maegor the Cruel]], into the Iron Throne ahead of Rhaenys' grandsons who are lawful heirs of Aenys I, Aegon and Rhaenys' son. Ironically, the majority of the Targaryen descendants came from Rhaenys' bloodline.
** Though he was never married, Prince Oberyn Martell is very promiscuous and had eight bastard daughters from five women. Among the five women who bore his daughters, Ellaria Sand is his closest and most favorite lover and is also the mother of his four younger daughters. If ever Oberyn marries someone else for political reasons, Ellaria would be considered to be his mistress

In HaremGenre fiction, this trope is an evolution from the SupportingHarem trope and is far more rare because it requires MarryThemAll already established as an acceptable outcome but within the industry, NoRomanticResolution or a single OfficialCouple are still the most common outcomes. As the genre evolves, however, that is slowly changing.

* ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'': When [[DoesNotLikeMen Tsukiumi]] gets "winged" as Minato's Sekirei, she tries to save face and declares herself to be his wife before finding out that she's, in fact, his ''fourth'' Sekirei (in order of acquisition). Musubi and Kusano take offense to this, and declare that they're ''also'' Minato's wives[[note]]Matsu sometimes does too, only because [[TheGadfly it annoys the other girls[[/note]], and when Tsukiumi insists that she's the ''main'' wife, they insist they are as well.

In HaremGenre fiction, this trope is an evolution from the SupportingHarem trope and is far more rare because it requires MarryThemAll already established as an acceptable outcome, but NoRomanticResolution or a single OfficialCouple are still the most common. As the genre evolves, however, that is slowly changing.

This trope is an evolution from the SupportingHarem trope and is far more rare because most of the HaremGenre's conflict is based on WillTheyOrWontThey relationship drama and jealousy. As such, either NoRomanticResolution or a single OfficialCouple are still the norm. As the genre evolves, however, that is slowly changing.

See BalancedHarem, where this is often avoided.

[[quoteright:350:[[Videogame/{{Catherine}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catherine_throne.jpg]]]]

!!Examples

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* ''Videogame/{{Catherine}}'': Pictured is the "True Chaos Ending", in which Vincent decides to marry the succubus Catherine and travel with her back to the underworld. In TheStinger, we see that Vincent has conquered the entire underworld, with Catherine as his queen and several succubi as his concubines. Catherine is the only one who shares his throne.

-->'''Maou:''' I'll take the bed, and you take the floor.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicles'': Once all the principal love interests are established, the women reluctantly resign themselves to the fact that they must share Lux between each other. That doesn't mean they don't want to be his favorite, or seek to gain some sort of advantage/claim over the other (such as Lux being their fiance, knight, master, etc.).

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire:

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/catherine_throne.jpg]]

* ''LightNovel/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone'': Invoked trope by Yumina, the first girl to propose to Touya. When she learns that the other girls in their group love Touya, she's happy about it and [[HaremSeeker deliberately makes arrangements]] for all of them to become brides. When Touya does indeed MarryThemAll later, Yumina become the chairman of the "Bride Conference". Despite this, Yumina becomes [[NotSoAboveItAll absolutely livid]] when another girl steal's Touya's SacredFirstKiss, shouting "Even ''I'' haven't done that!", and all of the girls still compete for Touya's immediate attention in more light-hearted fashion. Further, Yumina later tells Touya that she doesn't care if he has a handful or dozens of concubines--but he had better take care of and love all of them.

* ''LightNovel/InAnotherWorldWithMySmartphone'': Invoked trope by Yumina, the first girl to propose to Touya. When she learns that the other girls in their group love Touya, she's happy about it and [[HaremSeeker deliberately makes arrangements]] for all of them to become brides. When Touya does indeed MarryThemAll later, Yumina become the chairman of the "Bride Conference". Despite this, Yumina becomes [[NotSoAboveItAll absolutely livid]] when another girl steal's Touya's SacredFirstKiss, shouting "Even ''I'' haven't done that!", and all of the girls still compete for Touya's immediate attention in more light-hearted fashion.