History Main / UnexpectedSuccessor

** The aforementioned line of succession is somewhat...random. Currently, if something happens to Obama, the office passes first to Vice-President Biden, then Speaker Pelosi. Okay so far. If something happens to all three, the man my nation will turn to is...Daniel Inouye, the 85 year-old Senator from Hawaii who holds his position solely by virtue of being the longest-serving member of the majority party. (The spot was held by the even older Robert Byrd until his recent passing.) The Secretary of Homeland Security, who you'd think ought to be in charge after a decapitation strike, is ''last'' in the list. This is because the rest of the line of succession is determined by the age of the office, and since the Department of Homeland Security is the newest department, the Secretary of Homeland Security is last in line, while the fourth in line is the Secretary of State.

* In ''VForVendetta'', following massive social upheaval, the monarch of Great Britain is "Queen Zara." Zara Phillips is currently twelfth in line for the Crown.

** The aforementioned line of succession is somewhat...random. Currently, if something happens to Obama, the office passes first to Vice-President Biden, then Speaker Pelosi. Okay so far. If something happens to all three, the man my nation will turn to is...Daniel Inouye, the 85 year-old Senator from Hawaii who holds his position solely by virtue of being the longest-serving member of the majority party. (The spot was held by the even older Robert Byrd until his recent passing.) The Secretary of Homeland Security, who you'd think ought to be in charge after a decapitation strike, is ''last'' in the list.
*** This is because the rest of the line of succession is determined by the age of the office, and since the Department of Homeland Security is the newest department, the Secretary of Homeland Security is last in line, while the fourth in line is the Secretary of State.
*** Also, Daniel Inouye is a RealLife BadAss. And he has the Medal of Honor to prove it.

* A sketch in one of Spike Milligan's shows had a Britain devastated after a nuclear war where the national anthem was "God Bless Mrs Ethel Stokes".

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* In the novel ''Alas, Babylon'' the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare inherits the presidency after nuclear war.

* Even though he didn't want to, Ryuuki from SaiunkokuMonogatari unexpectedly becomes the heir to the throne at age eleven, during a conflict in which four of his brothers kill each other and Ryuuki moves from being sixth heir to first heir. The only other heir, the prince Seian, is in exile. Ryuuki resists ruling and even [[{{obfuscating stupidity}} acts dumb]] because of his fear of ruling the country and causing civil war if Seian ever came out of exile.

** AndrewJohnson was a prominent War Democrat from a Southern state (Tennessee) and put on a ticket with AbrahamLincoln to attract Democratic voters. (He did not leave the Democratic Party, he and Lincoln ran on the Union Party ticket). Things could have turned out differently on April 14, 1865, though, as Booth and his co-conspirators also targeted Johnson, Secretary of State Seward and General (later President) U. S. Grant. However, Seward was only wounded, the man assigned to kill Johnson lost his nerves and spent the night drinking, and Grant luckily for him happened to leave Washington before the attempt on his life could be made.

* Henry VII would not have been expected to be King. He was the half-nephew of the King at the time of his birth, Henry VI, but his claim actually came through his mother's side and was fairly weak. (She came from the line of a legitimized bastard.) Still, he was next in line after Henry VI's son Edward. Then Edward IV took over, and he had two sons of his own, not to mention a brother. No one thought Henry Tudor could beat those odds. Possibly not a straight example since Henry himself forced his succession via a battle, but he was still an unlikely pretender.

** JohnTyler was another example, a longtime Democrat placed on the ticket by the Whigs to attract cross-party votes. In that case, it was easier to understand why the politicians didn't account for the possibility that the President would die in office -- they'd gone a half-century without it happening at all, as opposed to a half-century where it had happened twice.

* In the Bastard of Kosigan, your character is the illegitimate son of the present Count's younger brother; the present Count has two legitimate and one illegitimate son, and the elder legitimate son has a wife and son. Over the course of the game, all five people in line ahead of you (your father is already dead) get killed off by you/Alex/each other/French assassins, leaving your character with the best claim. The French plot initially involved killing you off as well, which would have left a French general with the title by virtue of being of a branch of the family that diverged several centuries ago.

* In a vastly less complicated example, this is how TheodoreRoosevelt was perceived. He had made lots of enemies during his time holding various offices in New York's state government, and at the time, the office of the Vice President was regarded as a dead-end position (despite the deaths of AbrahamLincoln and JamesGarfield being within living memory). Thus, interests within the Republican Party conspired to have him [[KickedUpstairs placed on the ballot as Vice President]] under William McKinley. When he was shot at the World's Fair, the [[{{HoistByHisOwnPetard}} last person many people wanted to see President became so directly because of their support.]]

* In a vastly less complicated example, this is how TheodoreRoosevelt was perceived. He had made lots of enemies during his time holding various offices in New York's state government, and at the time, the office of the Vice President was regarded as a dead-end position (despite the death of Lincoln being only a generation or two earlier). Thus, interests within the Republican Party conspired to have him placed on the ballot as Vice President under William McKinley. When he was shot at the World's Fair, the [[{{HoistByHisOwnPetard}} last person many people wanted to see President became so directly because of their support.]]

* Margaret Valentine in ''YTheLastMan'' was the US Secretary of Agriculture. When [[{{Gendercide}} all the men died]], she was suddenly President because everyone ahead of her in the succession was male or died in a car crash.

In the United States, rules for succession beyond Vice President -> President are not written in the Constitution, but are instead legislated by Congress. Currently, if both the President and Vice President are unable to hold office, the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes President. If ''she'''s dead, the President ''pro tempore'' of the Senate becomes President. After those two, it goes to Cabinet members, starting with the Secretary of State. In fiction, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is almost always not a member of the President's political party. Usually the Speaker resigns as President out of courtesy, but for added turmoil, she won't.

** King Robert Baratheon hails from an 300-year offshoot of old the Taragaryen line, but his succession was just as unlikely. By all accounts he graciously accepted the position of King after he smashed the Targaryen dynasty, but before he could even be crowned there were a few tense moments where anyone from Ned Stark, Tywin Lannister, and even Jaime Lannister could have proclaimed themselves king, but didn't. Then there's also the unfortunate fact the legitimate successor that he killed (Rhaegar Targaryen) would have been a perfectly decent king compared to his father Ayres.
*** Robert's royal descent wasn't quite that distant. If memory serves, his grandmother was a Targaryen.