Basic Trope: As a reward for his deeds, The Hero gets the princess' hand in marriage and becomes heir to the kingdom.
- Straight: The Hero, Ace, saves the world by defeating Emperor Evulz, and is rewarded by King Goodland with Princess Paula's hand in marriage and the knowledge that he will take the throne after Goodland passes on.
- Exaggerated:
- King Goodland drops everything and abdicates on the spot when Ace returns, while Princess Paula also drops everything on the spot.
- Ace is a wandering hero who has earned the right to marry all the princesses in every kingdom he visits. Hello, Polyamory!
- Downplayed:
- Ace saves the princess, and the king rewards him by letting him go out on a date with her. It is not shown whether they stay together.
- Ace saves Princess Paula, and she falls in love with him of her own volition. King Goodland doesn't formally give Paula's hand to Ace, but he doesn't get in their way either.
- Ace receives a small castle that the king no longer uses, the rights of a noble in the court and gets Princess Paula's hand in marriage, but Paula's older brother is the heir to the throne. Ace thus earns a high-ranking place in the kingdom, but not as an immediate heir.
- Part of Ace's reward is that he is considered an appropriate suitor. Per traditions Princess Paula may choose anyone from her list of suitors including Amazon Princess Zarya.
- Justified:
- The king needs a trustworthy male heir, Princess Paula and Ace have fallen in love. Therefore, with this arrangement, everybody wins!
- It was an Engagement Challenge.
- Paula and Ace had been dating, but the king refuses to wed them. Then, Paula gets kidnapped and only Ace knows how to save her, forcing the king to reluctantly recruit him. The king then agrees to wed the couple upon Paula's rescue.
- The mission was intended as a Uriah Gambit by the King to stop Ace from marrying the Princess (whilst saving face) but, as the King's word is law and cannot be repealed, Goodland must honour his promise.
- The King chooses to honour loyal and exceptional service by means of granting priveleges as a means of ensuring loyalty amongst his prominent subjects; what greater privelege can be granted for the most exceptional service of defeating the King's greatest enemy?
- Inverted:
- The princess is a gonk and Ace really really doesn't find marrying her a reward.
- Ace “receives” the princess's hand after failing to defeat Emperor Evulz.
- Ace offers himself to the princess after saving her.
- The evil knight in black armor earns the right to marry Emperor Evulz's daughter after "saving" her from Ace.
- Ace is rewarded by being divorced from Princess Paula.
- Paula is a Pretty Princess Powerhouse whose reward for Saving the World is getting to marry Ace, the greatest hero in the land.
- Ace offends the king. His punishment is having to marry the king's nasty daughter.
- Gender-Inverted: The heroine Alice is rewarded with Prince Paul's hand in marriage.
- Subverted:
- King Goodland promises to let Ace marry the princess if he saves the day, but while Ace is away, he hands Paula off to Lord Romand Ike Fauxlead, The Magnificent.
- Emperor Evulz makes a counter-offer, and Ace seems quite taken in by Lady Dominatrix.
- Ace saves the princess, but King Goodland lets his daughter decide what should be Ace's reward. For his bravery, she makes him her knight.
- Before the king offers a reward, Ace says, "Just so you know, Your Majesty, I have a girl back home."
- Ace turns out to be a girl.
- Ace turns out to be more into princes than princesses.
- Turns out Paula was actually using Ace for her Evil Plan.
- After Ace saves the princess, it turns out that King Goodland isn't going to let Ace marry his daughter.
- After Ace saves the princess, King Goodland decides to clean up the loose end.
- Double Subverted:
- Lord Romand Ike Fauxlead is actually The Dragon in disguise; once he's dispatched, King Goodland is finally convinced to let Paula marry Ace.
- Lord Romand conveniently dies.
- Ace declines the counter-offer and stays with Princess Paula.
- After being made her knight, Ace and Paula fall in love. Then he saves her life a second time, prompting a Rescue Romance.
- Ace and the Princess wind up talking at the celebration feast, and fall in love anyway.
- By "girl", he meant a daughter.
- Ace marries Paula and becomes an addition to his harem.
- Paula doesn't care that Ace is a girl and falls in love with her.
- Paula isn't Ace's type, but the king's younger brother certainly is.
- Ace foiled Paula's scheme and the king rewards Ace with his other daughter, Satine, who is a pure-hearted Princess Classic.
- Paula runs away in the middle of the night and elopes with Ace anyway.
- King Goodland is offed, either by Ace, Paula or Chancellor Dios, in the attempt to have Ace executed where he stands. Ace and Paula succeed him immediately, with or without Dios's blessing.
- Parodied:
- The king finds out too late that Ace is a woman. Awkwardness ensues.
- The princess is secretly a lesbian, and does a poor job of disguising her disappointment at being Ace's prize.
- Ace is rewarded with the princess's amputated hand. The princess names it "In Marriage".
- Zig Zagged: King Goodland offers marriage to one of his daughters in reward for saving his kingdom from some problem. Ace solves the problem and comes back for his reward, but some issue has come up that prevents him from marrying the princess in question. King Goodland offers marriage to another daughter if Ace will resolve another problem. This repeats with multiple daughters (of which King Goodland has plenty)- one runs away, one joins a convent, one is engaged to someone else, one dies, one elopes, one is a gonk, one is inexplicably a robot, one refuses to marry Ace, one is secretly evil, and so on. Eventually King Goodland is left with a problem-free kingdom and his youngest daughter, whom an exhausted Ace is finally allowed to marry.
- Averted:
- Ace's reward is something else.
- There are no available princesses to marry.
- The marriage rules prevent Ace from qualifying for the match.
- Ace is a woman in disguise.
- There is no reward.
- Enforced: "We've got an entire line of Bridal Dreams Paula dolls to launch, so this has to end with her getting married. And, obviously, she and Ace are the Official Couple."
- Lampshaded:
- "If you wish to marry me, sir knight, you must earn my father's trust. Slaying a couple of dragons ought to do it."
- "And the winner gets.." "The princess's hand in marriage?" "How did you know?" "Easy. It's the Standard Hero Reward."
- Invoked:
- Ace travels between kingdoms after kingdoms, looking for a chance to save a princess and then marry her.
- Princess Paula or her father want to make certain the next king is suitably brave, compassionate, and skilled, and they set up trials which only such a person could overcome.
- Exploited:
- Ace is actually Emperor Evulz in disguise; he set up a reasonable facsimile of a threatening army, just enough to get the citizens of King Goodland's kingdom seriously worried, and then defeated it himself with ease to win the hand of Princess Paula. Now he's in line to inherit The Good Kingdom...
- Alternatively, Paula is actually Empress Evulz in disguise, she disguised herself as a damsel just to get into Ace's home, and now she'll exploit everything Ace has.
- Alternately, both Ace and Paula are from the Evulz clan and as soon as they are married, they take over the kingdom and rule together.
- Two suitors compete against each other for Princess Paula's hand in marriage. The princess deliberately trips up the one she doesn't particularly like (who also happens to be the evil one), ensuring the victory of the one she does.
- The sons of nobles that Princess Paula would normally marry one of do not have the kingdom's (or Paula's own) wellbeing in mind. She points out to her father that Ace is not like that (either because of his loyalty to the country or to the princess) and by making him his heir the king can prevent a potential disaster from happening.
- By relying on the commoner Ace, a man not sworn directly to the service of King Goodland, the king has shown that he is unable to deal with problems like the ones Ace dealt with. This has put the king in a delicate political situation and gave Ace political clout that the King's opponents are more than willing to use against him. By marrying his daughter to Ace the king both strengthens his own position with Ace as his heir and takes away a powerful political tool from his opponents.
- Defied:
- Ace is offered the rewards but he turns them down.
- Ace asks for money instead of princess.
- The king insists on giving Ace a different reward.
- The princess refuses to marry Ace.
- Ace turns out to be an assassin hired by Emperor Evulz to kill both the King and princess Paula, he outright killed both of them and fled from the kingdom.
- It is impossible by law for a commoner to marry a noble, much less the royal heir.
- Discussed:
- "What is this 'I deserve the princess's hand' business? You'll take this sack of gold and be satisfied."
- "I'm flattered, Your Majesty, but I have a girlfriend back home. Can't I just have some gold or something instead?"
- "I'm flattered, Your Majesty, but I'm only in for the money, I'm not interested in marriage yet."
- "I'm flattered, Your Majesty, but I'm just a kid, how am I supposed to marry anyone?!"
- "I'm flattered, Your Majesty. but... I'm a girl, how am I supposed to marry a princess?"
- Conversed: "Is this part of the plot supposed to be an adventure or a matchmaking service?"
- Implied: At first, King Goodland refuses to wed Ace and Princess Paula. However, they are married after Ace defeats Emperor Evulz and his dragons.
- Deconstructed:
- Just because Ace is a hero doesn't mean he makes a good ruler. Princess Paula isn't too thrilled at being forced to marry some uncultured commoner, either, hero or not. After King Goodland's death, he struggles to deal with a Decadent Court, an Evil Chancellor, and his wife's distrust and disapproval.
- Heroes start to expect this, making it difficult for kingdoms without princesses to get any help at all.
- King Goodland makes Ace the heir to the throne after Ace defeats Emperor Evulz. But King Goodland already has a son who's supposed to inherit the throne, Prince Bertram. When King Goodland dies, Civil War breaks out between those who want Ace to be king and those who want Prince Bertram to be king.
- When King Goodland dies, Ace becomes king. But the peasants really don't want Ace to be king, so they take matters into their own hands.
- Because Ace doesn't know the first thing about ruling, the Evil Chancellor uses him as a puppet and becomes The Man Behind the Man.
- Ace hails from another world, and taking the offer would likely mean abandoning their old home and life for good.
- Reconstructed:
- But Ace ultimately manages to reform the corrupt court, win Paula's love, and earn his happy ending.
- Paula persuades him to put most of the power in her hands, because she is more familiar with court; then, she finds that his outside point of view often lets him see what others miss, so she relies heavily on his advice.
- Before succeeding King Goodland, Ace learns politics and trains himself to be a good ruler while bonding with Princess Paula to where they now genuinely love each other.
- Heroes can be male or female, so kingdoms with only princes can also expect help. Also, some heroes are already in a relationship or don't want a reward.
- The king elevates Ace to a noble rank high enough to be eligible to marry Princess Paula, making the newly-minted Duke Ace a Suddenly Suitable Suitor.
- The king says, "Screw the Rules, I Make Them!" and decides that Ace can marry Paula, regardless of his status.
- Crown Princess Paula is going to inherit the throne no matter what, and is the trained administrator/diplomat/etc. Ace knows he can never hope to be. But she is honestly interested in the fellow and his victories make it clear that he brings more to the table as a consort than any available diplomatic match.
- However, he eventually decides to work out how to live a double-life, going back and forth between the two worlds from time to time.
- Played For Laughs: Ace learns that Paula was offered only because she had no chance of marrying otherwise. Then he learns that she was impossible to marry off because she is sharp-tongued and witty. He loves it.
- Played For Drama:
- Ace was not aware this was being offered when he started out; he already has someone he's interested in, and isn't sure if he wants to rule... but King Goodland has already ordered that The Hero be brought before him to receive his reward. When he refuses the princess, Ace is executed.
- Paula was actually in love with Lord Romand. Romand's defeat makes her resent Ace.
- Although Evulz was slain and Ace took the throne, remnants of Evulz's regime remain. King Ace struggles to stabilize the realm due to the growing influence of Evulz sympathizers.
Back to Standard Hero Reward to collect your customary princess and kingdom, then!
