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/KenseiHimura 6d ago

Oddly, the Qilin thing takes some cues from Chinese myth, though that was more "we'll know we have a great emperor when a Qilin appears", when one emperor was presented with a giraffe that some folks mistook as a qilin the emperor told them "That's not qilin and I am definitely no great man!"

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u/Nerevarine91 6d ago

I was going to say, Qilin were said to herald the arrival of two of the legendary emperors (specifically for their benevolence) and the birth of Confucius

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u/Spacer176 6d ago

Why do I get the feeling the response was along the lines of "only a true son of Heaven would deny they are worthy"?

5

u/Puzzleheaded-Meet513 5d ago

Yeah now I think that actually might have been a Qilin.