Basic Trope: A princess who doesn't want to be a princess.
- Straight: Princess Alice finds her parents overbearing, her advisers condescending, and all the restrictions on her life frustrating. So she revolts against it all, running off in disguise to help The Hero on his journey to defeat Emperor Evulz.
- Exaggerated: Princess Alice finds her position so stifling that she decides to help overthrow her own family, joining La Résistance.
- Downplayed:
- Princess Alice finds her royal life frustrating, but just responds by being passive-aggressive or otherwise difficult to get along with.
- Alice is a Proper Lady who doesn't like her strict, wealthy family.
- Justified:
- Inverted:
- Princess Alice is a mild-mannered and proper Princess Classic. However, she's the princess of a nation of pirates and adventurous rogues, and her reserved, demure nature makes her the black sheep of the royal family.
- Princess Alice is strong-willed and not as proper as the other princesses, but is still completely loyal to her parents and accepts her role with pride. Meanwhile, all the "prim and proper" young noblewomen always rebel against their parents.
- Princess Alice is the younger cousin/sister of Princess Robin, and Alice mainly thinks being royalty is boring because she hasn't done any ruling yet. When she complains about her life, Robin takes an assignment to check on Trope City, and tells Alice to help run things while she's gone. Alice finds out that The Chains of Commanding are heavy with diplomacy discussions, citizens asking for help, Sacred Hospitality for guests, and all the logistics needed for the first three. Moreover, with Robin at Trope City and Alice filling in at the royal palace, the bodyguards she complained about soon end up foiling an Assassination Attempt. She quickly realizes that her role as the spare heir is VERY cushy, so she sends a fleet of messengers begging Robin to come home.
- Gender Inverted: Rebel Prince
- Subverted:
- Alice runs away to escape the restrictions of her life as a princess… but she has no knowledge of how to get by in the world outside the castle. Shocked and overwhelmed, she goes back after only ten minutes.
- Princess Alice chafes at the restrictions put on her life as a princess... so she learns to manipulate people around her to gain power within the court.
- Alice accepts that such things are in her life, so she makes the most of what she has.
- Double Subverted:
- She runs away again.
- Alice acts obedient just to lure the castlefolk into a false sense of security so that she can run off and do rebellious things behind their collective back.
- Her subjects realize what she’s doing and stop listening, so she runs away.
- Parodied: Alice is a Spoiled Brat who disagrees with everything anyone says or does simply to be contrary, because she thinks that's what a princess is supposed to do.
- Zig Zagged: While she dislikes certain aspects of her station, Alice also recognizes its many advantages. Though she disagrees with some of the decisions made by her parents, she doesn't openly oppose them... but does work to undercut some of the decisions she finds most distasteful. When push comes to shove and she must choose To Be Lawful or Good, she decides to screw the rules and follow her heart... but still agonizes over the decision afterward as she deals with the consequences.
- Averted: Alice is an obedient Princess Classic.
- Enforced: "Modern audiences are bored with the Princess Classic trope, so let's give Princess Alice more autonomy by having her reject her royal status."
- Lampshaded: "Let me guess, you're a sheltered princess who just needed to run off and do your own thing, right?"
- Invoked:
- Princess Alice's parents purposefully restrict her freedom so that she will run off and learn how hard life outside the palace really is, hoping that it will make her wiser about her nation when it comes time for her to rule.
- The King and Queen deliberately drive Princess Alice up the wall so she'll run away and join Bob. They can't be seen supporting him or Evulz will take it out on their people, but if she "runs away", well, they aren't responsible for that, now are they?
- Exploited:
- Learning that Princess Alice has a rebellious streak, Emperor Evulz has his minions spread rumors amid the populace of her kingdom that she doesn't care for its citizens.
- Alternately, he has one of his moles ply the princess with lies painting the royal court in an even worse light, hoping to provoke further confrontation and grief.
- Alice's Evil Chancellor tells Alice that maybe she could be free if something unfortunate happened to the King and Queen...
- Defied: "Run away? I'm living a life that most of the girls in the kingdom would kill to have!"
- Discussed: "Alice, why are you always rebelling like this?" "Because I’m tired of being treated like everyone’s innocent dolly!"
- Conversed: "You know, these girls always say they're not ‘like a princess’, but really, they're like ever other princess story I've ever seen."
- Deconstructed:
- Life in the castle didn't prepare Alice for the harsher realities outside. Since she ditched her duties, she's seen as a traitor, with her former subjects viewing her with scorn.
- Though Alice didn't appreciate and/or realize it, the rules she chafed under were put there for her protection. Her rebellion just leads her to flounce right into Emperor Evulz' hands.
- Princess Alice is the sole heir to the throne. When she runs off to escape palace life, she's effectively dooming the entire kingdom to falling into anarchy or being taken over by Emperor Evulz once her parents die and the only heir has run off to God knows where. All because she felt bored.
- Alice is seen as a flighty and immature youth and gets unpleasantly surprised when her parents not only send out search parties for her the moment they realize she's missing, they ALSO send messengers to her next-oldest siblings/cousins and bring them to the palace as a backup heir. When she's found and dragged back home after a few days, she's chewed out for her recklessness.
- Alice becomes the Rebel Leader and resorts to outright terrorism to oppose her parents.
- Alice's rebellion is portrayed in an unsympathetic light, as she's essentially whining about a privileged life. She has no clue how the working class live or think about their current situation, but acts like she is fighting for the people's rights, while in reality it's more of a publicity stunt to make her more liked.
- Reconstructed: Despite the hardship, Alice still finds satisfaction in escaping her oppressive past and carving out a new life for herself.
- Implied: Princess Alice runs away from home, but it's never said why.
- Played for Drama: After finding out that she's run away, the King and Queen are genuinely devastated and so is Alice's younger brother Charles, believing her to be dead. Alice is on an emotional high at first, but soon finds life outside the palace hardly satisfying; the first month, she's attacked by bandits and left for dead, with all of her money pilfered. When she reaches the next town over, it's a complete shithole run by thieves and other scum of the earth. Since she has no other skills, Alice is forced into walking the streets just to make a living. When Prince Charles comes across Alice decades later, he can hardly believe that this pitiful, barely recognizable being before him is his sister.
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