Basic Trope: A title or responsibility is forcibly handed down to whoever killed its previous holder.
- Straight: Alice hunts down the Queen of Nightmares and kills her, only to find herself the new Queen.
- Exaggerated:
- Every title in the Kingdom of Slumber is given to whoever killed it's previous owner.
- Alice not only becomes the new queen with all her dark powers, but becomes the legal guardian of her children and Royal Harem, as well as her legal documents.
- Killing the Queen of Nightmares gives you the power of the current queen, as well as the powerset of everyone that has ever become the dark queen.
- Alice has killed a half-dozen supernatural rulers and taken each of their powers in turn,
- Downplayed:
- Alice steals a mirror from the Queen of Nightmares and ascends to the title that way.
- Alice defeats the Queen of Nightmares in single combat, but spares her life, and the title passes to her.
- Alice kills the Queen of Nightmares and gains a slightly lower title in the Kingdom of Slumber.
- A few specific kinds of being can never become the Queen of Nightmares even if they kill her, gods, angels, and those who are incapable of dreaming and have never dreamed before are always ineligible and may kill them for real.
- Justified:
- The laws of the cosmos dictate that there must always be a Queen of Nightmares because As Long as There Is Evil, There must be a Queen of Nightmares to protect the Balance Between Good and Evil.
- It's the law of the land that murderers gain access to their victims's possessions, on the basis that if you can't protect your own lands, you don't really deserve them.
- The role of the Queen is to shield her people first and foremost - if she dies then she already lost and transfering power protects them from an extended conquest.
- Inverted:
- Alice saves the life of the Queen of Nightmares, and finds herself the Queen... and the former Queen is a little miffed (or relieved!)
- Alternatively, Alice becomes Queen. This causes the former queen to die.
- The title of any gentry of dreams may be passed by any means except for killing the previous holder - killing any of them bars one from ever holding any title in the dynasty permanently and its powers permanently and strips any related ones. Despite their differences this is the one rule held constant among their kind.
- Subverted:
- Alice kills the Queen of Nightmares...and after a massive release of dark energy, nothing happens.
- It looks like this is happening, but Alice actually has Power Copying and stole her power the "normal" way.
- Double Subverted:
- It's a Slow Transformation, which will complete itself in 666 days.
- Alice is later killed by Carol, who lacks the Power Copying, and Carol gains the power of the Queen of Nightmares in her stead.
- Parodied: The Queen of Nightmares is Squashed Flat by a falling rock. The rock then surges with dark power, becomes the next Queen of Nightmares!
- Zig Zagged: Alice defeats the Queen and transforms into the next Queen...But the original was Not Quite Dead! The twin queens vie for superiority, and Queen Alice wins...But it turns out that, through a Timey Wimey Ball, Alice was the original Queen of Nightmares all along. She then travels back in time to be slain by herself, in order to end the endless chain of regicide and inheritance by Sealed Evil in a Duel.
- Averted: Alice kills the Queen of Darkness, and that's that.
- Enforced: It's the Start of Darkness for Alice, but the company still need to sell the original Dark Queen toyline, so they improvise.
- Lampshaded: "I keep what I kill!"
- Invoked: The Queen of Nightmares puts it in her will that whoever slays her in single combat will receive her estate.
- Exploited: The Queen of Nightmares lets herself be killed by Alice, which makes the latter inherit her strength...and her weaknesses, which proves instrumental to Alice's' defeat.
- Defied:
- The Queen of Nightmares has a small army of Royal Brats as children...and whoever kills her has to become their mother. The threat of this allows her to stave off many assassinations attempts.
- Not wanting to become the Queen of Nightmares, Alice seals her away, defeating her without taking her role.
- The Queen of Nightmares hides herself away, waiting to die of old age in order to avoid spreading her curse.
- The Queen of Nightmares ensures that her power goes to /literally anyone else/ other than her killer.
- Discussed:Alice: So the Queen's assassin becomes the new Queen? Not a great way to discourage treason...The Queen of Nightmares: The logic goes that if you can successfully kill my imperious person, there's no-one that can stop you taking over the kingdom anyway.
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: After Alice kills the Queen of Darkness, she disappears mysteriously. Soon, there is a new Queen of Darkness.
- Deconstructed:
- The people who kill the previous queens are usually the heroes who oppose them,and are universally horrified by their sudden transformation into a being of darkness, forever unable to return home. As a result, the inheritors have little-to-no interest in running their newfound kingdom correctly, and the Kingdom of Slumber becomes ever-more damaged, leading to more would-be heroes trying to kill the queen...
- The kingdom is crippled by constant assassination attempts by people greedy for the queen's power.
- Reconstructed:
- For the Elder Evils, this is all working as intended. If a hero kills the queen, they become the new Queen of Nightmares, removing their greatest opponent and restoring their strongest minion in one fell swoop. If the queen is killed by The Starscream, their incumbent pawn is replaced by a more competent Bastard Understudy. And it the queen isn't killed at all, it means their most powerful minion can reign unopposed. As for the fact that the Queen of nightmares tends to become a raving tyrant... well, they're called elder EVILS for a reason.
- Alice knows that killing the queen will only result in her replacing her... and volunteers for the role, intending to undo the damage to the land by becoming a benevolent Queen of Nightmares.
- Played For Laughs: Bob kills the The Queen of Nightmares, and inherits her powers, her title...and her wardrobe. Bob becomes intensely frustrated at his new career as a loudly male "Nightmare Queen."
- Played For Drama: Carol ventured into the Kingdom Of Slumber to save the previous hero, Alice, and to slay The Queen of Nightmares. As she enters the nightmare court and sees the possessed Alice, she realizes she cannot do both.
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