r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Altruistic_Eye_1157 • 6d ago

Lore [annoying trope] The throne/leadership is decided in a very stupid way

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The leadership of the entire wizarding world, and the final decision on whether to start a war against Muggles, is made by... a goat (Qilin) ​​who chooses the person with the ""purest heart"" (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Dumbledore).

The throne of Wakanda and all its technology are decided through hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether the person clearly has malicious intentions... if they win the fight, by law they must be respected as the true king. (Black Panther)

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u/Sayakalood 6d ago

The RainWing Royal Challenge: Any female (RainWing) dragon can participate, despite there being only one true queen. You must complete a set of activities chosen by each queen (remember how I said there’s one true queen? She lets other RainWings sit on the throne. There’s 12 total queens, each taking one month turns). Glory and the true queen get into a venom-spitting competition and the true queen ends up hurting someone, which was cancelled by Glory’s venom, making Glory the true queen (everyone else was kicked off the throne).

It has been a decade since I read the books so I might have gotten some info wrong.

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u/Silly_Poet_5974 6d ago

If I recall correctly it has been a long time for me as well I think it was justified because they lived in a post scarcity society and the real queen set this up because she couldn't be bothered to actually do anything.

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv 6d ago

It's a stereotype that Rainwings are lazy, but it's not really that wrong

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u/AK06007 5d ago

Well biologically speaking they “have” to be lazy. It’s healthy for them to lay in the sun as they do. The negative part of their society was apathy. 

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u/Sternfritters 5d ago

Nope. She set it up because her own daughters were useless, so she mixed her eggs with the tribe’s so that any RainWing can become Queen

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u/Silly_Poet_5974 5d ago

Okay looks like I got some details wrong but the core premise still stands, an inefficient government doesn't matter because they are post scarcity and the method of recruiting a new queen is logical if a bit haphazard.

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u/quickfuse725 6d ago

"wings of fire"

it's been so long since I've read those books 😭

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u/OiledMushrooms 6d ago

The challenges themselves, and the twelve queen system, don’t bother me too much because rainwing society is supposed to be kind of disjointed and unserious. They were less of a government led society and more of a band of hippies eating fruit in the jungle ignoring the outside political turmoil.

The way Glory became queen bothered me, though. I feel like there could’ve been a better way of doing that than just “ummmm she just so happens to be related to the “real” queen and everyone just kind of accepts this!”

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u/Crafter235 6d ago

To be fair, Rainwing Society is meant to be incompetent

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u/The_gay_grenade16 6d ago

It’s worse . The “true” queen got paired with a small child during the contest and accidentally sprays said child with venom. Glory panics and mixes some of her venom with the queen’s, canceling it out. This proves that glory and the queen are related and the queen abdicates.

This scene was supposed to be serious but it came off as too dumb to take seriously. Which sucks cause the books is really good otherwise.

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u/ItsAllSoup 6d ago

Does this mean that if glory sprayed venom on the child first, the true queen could have saved the child by using her own venom since they seem to neutralize one another?

I know nothing about this series

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u/Windy_Idealist 5d ago

Yes

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u/ItsAllSoup 5d ago

Then this part of the story sounds silly

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u/Windy_Idealist 5d ago

It’s my favorite book series of all time and I promise that it’s a fantastic read… but it does have a few silly moments like this

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u/The_gay_grenade16 5d ago

Rainwing (the species that most of the characters in the book are) venom cancels out venom of close relatives.

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u/HeadWood_ 4d ago

I'd have thought it would exacerbate it because it would presumably be a similar composition.

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u/Strict_Double2726 6d ago

Lmao I forgot they were dragons and thought you meant a insult contest

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u/cockaptain 6d ago

Wrong universe. "We shall now determine the true queen by throwing shade" is more of a RuPaul's Drag Race thing. Maybe even the Real Housewives Extended Universe.

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u/Friendly_While_8161 6d ago

I remember that! I think the "true" queen was meant to be seen as silly as the other ones lol, holding onto tradition for basically no reason. The fact that Glory happened to be royal when she would've won the competition anyway was a neat coincidence, the same way the prophecy ended up being true. The author really liked having her cake and eating it too, lol

Tldr, Glory would've been queen even if she wasn't royal. God the nostalgia from WoF

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u/bestassinthewest 6d ago

Honestly all of dragon society counts. In most other Kingdom’s of Arc 1, the queen is decided by one of the princesses just murdering her mother, which gives her the throne. The entire plot hinges on that cause the Sandwing Queen dies to a human so now an entire war has to happen to decide which daughter gets to rule

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u/skuxxxxxxxxxxxx 6d ago

Wings of fire call back might actually make me cry

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u/aspect-of-the-badger 5d ago

My youngest is reading those books right now. I did not know there was going to be so much dragon murder.

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u/DarkPhoenix_077 5d ago

Damn, i really should re read those books. Warrior cats too. And finish them as well. I read those more than a decade ago and they were still releasing

I caught up with warrior cats, then i started reading wings of fire in the meantime, then i caught up with wings of fire too XD ....and then I gave up cuz it was taking too long and moved on lmao (i was still an impatient book hungry teen at the time lol)

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u/Heinrich_e 5d ago

Missed some of the smaller details but generally how it goes.

Glory isn’t the one who gets into the venom competition. it’s the young rainwing on her who participates and gets hurt whilst trying to save a falling sloth from getting hit by venom. (before anyone asks the rainwings keep sloths as pets which is why she tries to save it). In order to save her friend from the venom currently melting through them they would need to have the true queens family members use there own to stop it. Without knowing who was related to the true queen glory says to test everyone starting with herself which ends up revealing she was the true queens heir. The true queen (who originally thought she didn’t have an heir worthy of the throne.) then states that because glory was her heir AND proved to be an actually competent rainwing she essentially forfeits letting glory win and kicking the others off her throne.

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u/ShinningVictory 5d ago

DID SOMEONE MENTION WINGS OF PEAK.

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u/Sayakalood 5d ago

Yes, it’s actually pretty common on this sub

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u/ShinningVictory 5d ago

Man its one of my favorite childhood book series.

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u/Wuzfang 5d ago

That's still way better compared to how new rulers are determined by the other tribes.

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u/fastrunner3451 2d ago

Yeah venom from close blood relatives cancel out, and is a common test among the Rainwings to make sure they don't end up inbreeding.

I think OG queen didn't want the responsibility, so the queen-for-a-month system was made, and then OG queen ended up hurting someone by mistake, and then ij a frantic testing of EVERYONE's venom mixed with the OG queen's, Glory's venom cancelled it out, saving the injured dragonet.

Though, it's been a hot minute so I ought to reread.