Basic Trope: A person who seemingly controls an organization secretly takes orders from someone else.
- Straight: King Bob of Tropeland, is secretly controlled by Lady Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- King Bob makes no decisions of his own. Lady Alice decides everything down to what's for dinner.
- Complete power inversion" King Bob can't make decisions at all, lest he anger Lady Alice, Lady Alice is constantly monitored by Duke Charles, who in turn is the personal servant of Baroness Danielle... And the lowliest peasant is a literal example of Almighty Janitor.
- Downplayed:
- Lady Alice decides most things, but King Bob does make a few decisions on his own.
- Despite his title, King Bob is just another nobleman, with only slightly more power then the average earl or duke.
- Lady Alice leaves the task of keeping the kingdom actually running to King Bob, but when she gives an order, he listens.
- Justified:
- King Bob is unfit to rule and needs someone to control him, otherwise the kingdom would be run into the ground.
- King Bob has a different passion, doesn't want to rule, and would much rather make his own way like his subjects, but he can't simply Abdicate the Throne, so he delegates his authority to Lady Alice.
- Lady Alice is a brutal dictator who uses Bob as a decoy for potential assassinations.
- Inverted:
- King Bob makes every decision; Lady Alice is the puppet, though she is supposed to be his advisor.
- Tropeland is officially a ceremonial monarchy where the royal family exists mainly to spread goodwill and the prime minister is the head of state. Key word being "officially" — in practice, the prime minister is the puppet of King Bob who does whatever he asks, allowing Bob to rule as a king and bask in the people's praise while keeping assassins focused on the "real" rulers.
- Subverted: People assume that because King Bob is young Lady Alice is ruling the kingdom through him; however, Bob is the one in charge, while playing the role of a controlled puppet.
- Double Subverted: That's what Lady Alice lets him think. Bob may be smarter then he looks but Alice is even smarter and is the one who comes up with the plans.
- Parodied: King Bob has literal puppet strings attached to him.
- Zig-Zagged: King Bob and Lady Alice each decide some very important and some comparatively trivial things.
- Averted: King Bob rules on his own.
- Enforced:
- The writer or a producer likes this setup.
- It's a Period Piece written by somebody who prizes historical accuracy.
- Lampshaded: Lady Alice says, "You may be king, Bob, but I'm your Almighty Janitor."
- Invoked: Tropeland was an absolute monarchy, but its constitution is rewritten to take away most of the royal family's power.
- Defied: King Bob refuses to let anybody dictate his deeds or words to him.
- Exploited:
- Foreign diplomats can go straight to Lady Alice, who (they think, rightly or wrongly) doesn't have the gravitas of King Bob, to try to cut deals with Tropeland that favour them.
- Alternatively, they can just go directly to The Man Behind the Man rather than wait on King Bob all the time.
- Implied: Cathy, the Troperian ambassador, is supposed to meet with King Bob frequently, but she always meets Lady Alice first.
- Discussed: "King Bob of Tropeland is a king in name only. He just acts on government officials' advice and consent — and by advice, I mean politely worded all-but orders."
- Conversed: "King Bob is the Only Sane Man on this show. No wonder things are in such a mess — if he had any real power, he'd clean it up quickly!"
- Deconstructed: Lady Alice faces opposition from both monarchist factions within the kingdom, due to her not being on royal blood, and anti-monarchist factions, due to her being a de facto Queen.
- Reconstructed: Lady Alice is able to keep the country running smoothly and keep all of her citizens satisfied with her rule.
- Played for Laughs: Lady Alice writes a speech for King Bob and, though her writing, his delivery, or both, it comes across in-universe as pure narm.
- Played for Drama: King Bob tries to bring up some grave danger, but Lady Alice elects to ignore it and it wreaks major damage on Tropeland.
- Played for Horror: An Eldritch Abomination is controlling King Bob, as well as the entire royal dynasty since the founder of the kingdom.
Back to Puppet King.
