Basic Trope: A group of people that includes several adults is led by a child.
- Straight: In the show Tropestan, King Bob the Nth is the absolute ruler of the titular kingdom of Tropestan. He's also nine years old.
- Exaggerated:
- King Bob is an infant.
- King Bob has yet to be born, but he has been crowned already.
- Every single king in the show is a child.
- Downplayed: King Bob is in his late teens.
- Justified:
- Tropestan is an absolute monarchy that follows male primogeniture, and Bob's father died before he reached maturity.
- Tropestan kings are often assassinated before their children reach majority so that the assigned regents for young kings can have a Puppet King to control.
- King Bob is very wise for someone his age.
- Inverted:
- King Bob is 114 and crowned king.
- King Bob is the adult ruler of a nation that is otherwise inhabited solely by children.
- Subverted:
- King Bob looks like a child, but he is Really 700 Years Old.
- King Bob of the Tropestani may be six years old, but Tropestani have a life span of ten.
- Double Subverted:
- King Bob's successor, however, is really a child.
- King Bob is Really 700 Years Old, but he's ruling a race of immortals who aren't considered adult until they're at least 10,000.
- Tropestani reach adulthood at the age of eight.
- Parodied: The court runs to fulfill every childish idea of King Bob without question, including the abolishing of schools, the mandatory eating of french fries every day, and the mandatory rule of every restaurant including ice cream with sprinkles.
- Zig-Zagged: King Bob is overthrown by his cousin Prince Chuck, who is an adult. However, Chuck dies young and leaves the throne to his son, King Dick, who is 3.
- Averted: King Bob is an adult.
- Enforced:
- King Bob wasn't originally supposed to be played by a kid, but a child actor gave his best audition.
- The series needed a Kid-Appeal Character, so they decide to add King Bob.
- Lampshaded: "Nine? You let children rule you?!"
- Invoked:
- Bob plots the murder of his father to take the throne as soon as possible.
- Grand Vizier Jafar poisoned Bob's father so he could use King Bob as a puppet and reign in practice.
- Tradition dictates that the king of Tropestan must be a child. When the king comes of age, he is ritually sacrificed and replaced with another kid.
- Exploited: Bob ascends to the throne without foul play, but is young enough that his courtiers manipulate him to rule the kingdom as they wish.
- Defied:
- A faction rebels against King Bob under the reasoning that a child can't be a competent monarch.
- The kingdom's laws state that if the current heir is a child, a regent must be appointed to rule until they reach majority.
- Discussed: "If King Charlie died, his son Bob would take his place, right?" "Probably, but dunno how long he'd keep it. He's just five, you know."
- Conversed: "Remember that book about a boy who took the throne at the age of seven?"
- Implied: Alex the Ambassador visits Tropestan to forge an alliance. He meets Grand Vizier Jafar and the king's ministers in the throne room, but he never sees the king. He notices, however, that the empty throne is surrounded by a young child's toys.
- Deconstructed: Tropestan is plagued by disorder and corruption, as several factions try to use the king as a puppet, or ignore the crown altogether. Nobody takes Bob seriously because he is a child, and Bob himself shows no interest in government and spends the day playing in the palace gardens like any other kid of his age.
- Reconstructed: However, Bob is actually Wise Beyond His Years, and when he climbs the walls and sees the Tropestanis killing each other in his name he decides that he must do something. He gathers a number of supporters and gets rid of Jafar and all the other conspirators, gaining the acclamation of the people of Tropestan an reigning on his own from then on.
- Played For Laughs: No Tropestani seems to realize that King Bob is underage but treats and talks of him as a fully capable adult.
- Played For Drama:
- King Bob is too young to bear The Chains of Commanding and suffers as a result.
- King Bob is Lonely at the Top.
- A revolution breaks out because of King Bob's bad government and seizes the palace. Though he was a Puppet King with no understanding of politics and had no imput in the rules, he is tortured and executed with the rest of his ministers to prove a point.
Now go back to A Child Shall Lead Them. His Majesty forgot a doll there.
