Basic Trope: The aristocrats are bad guys.
- Straight: The main villain the heroes have to face is Baron Evulz.
- Exaggerated:
- Baron Evulz is a Complete Monster.
- Every single villain in the entire multiverse is an aristocrat, and every aristocrat a villain. The moment someone gets a title (even an honorary and non-inheritable one), they become Drunk with Power.
- Downplayed:
- Baron Evulz and his family are The Family That Slays Together, but other aristocrats are Affably Evil.
- The Upper Crass
- Justified:
- Drunk with Power.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!.
- The king is evil and only hands out titles to his equally evil henchmen.
- Baron Evulz obtained his title through immoral means (possibly even having stolen it).
- Or, he was once loyal to the king, but then betrayed him and was stripped of his title, stealing it back as revenge.
- Inverted:
- Aristocrats are good.
- Everyone without a title is evil.
- Subverted:
- Baron Evulz is a Fake Aristocrat and not a real baron.
- Baron Evulz turns out to be under Mind Control of a real, non-aristocratic Big Bad.
- Baron Evulz is nice and kindly.
- Double Subverted:
- Until he does get the title.
- He pretends to be so to frame someone else for his crimes.
- But it's just him being Affably Evil.
- Parodied: Baron Evulz is the name of a parrot that sits in a cage all day and says nothing but "Baron Evulz is evil!"
- Zig-Zagged:
- Baron Evulz is all for Pragmatic Villainy, which leads to him committing only as much evil as fits in his version of the bigger picture.
- Some aristocrats are evil, some aren't.
- An aristocrat is stuck in a Heel–Face Revolving Door.
- Averted:
- There are no aristocrats.
- There are aristocrats, but their status is not indicative of their morality.
- Enforced: The author is against aristocracy due to their political and/or religious views.
- Lampshaded: "Listen, don't ever go near these castles if you value your life! Better stay with the forest outlaws!"
- Invoked: Bob pretends to be an aristocrat because he needs to do a Zero-Approval Gambit.
- Exploited: The Rebel Leader uses the peasants' hatred of the aristocrats to start a revolution.
- Defied: The king makes sure to award titles only to the people who deserve them.
- Discussed: "Do you know who'll be the next baron?" "No, but it doesn't matter, all of them are the same."
- Conversed: "The author was an active Socialist, what else would you expect?"
- Implied: The villain's title and social position doesn't get revealed, but he is addressed as "Your Excellency", and The Dragon as "Your Lordship".
- Deconstructed: The aristocrats are so hateful that the lower classes rebel, and a civil war nearly wipes out the entire country, but leads to the aristocrats' downfall.
- Reconstructed: And then the formerly lower classes get the titles after the war and begin to oppress the former aristocracy and everyone else.
- Played For Laughs: Laughably Evil courtiers openly discuss their evil plans, punctuated with the necessary amount of "Mwahahahaaa".
- Played For Drama: The lower classes are oppressed mercilessly.
