Righteous Rulers

There are tyrannic, hedonist, ignorant ones, but good, glamorous and exemplary ones also exist. Whom I am talking about? The fictional rulers in fairy tales and other fantasy stories – king and queens, emperors and empresses, princes and princesses. Yesterday I was watching Narnia, and although I have seen it already 1000 times, this last occasion made me think a lot about my childhood, about imaginary worlds and role models. My favourite tales and stories are all about royalties – not because the characters are royalties, but because of the story itself, however, once it turned out like this, I would like to collect my favourite imaginary monarchs.

The Pevensie kings and queens of Narnia

I think it was neccessary that both of them, all the four Pevensie-siblings became monarchs of Narnia. Together they could compensate each others’ weaknesses, and also, unifying their virtue was a privotal point to the children, as they were really young when they ascended the throne of Narnia. Peter was the real leader, his nature and way of thinking was really like of a great king, but without Susan’s cautiousness and Edmund’s justiceship he would have jumped to wrong conclusions. Susan’s character was mother-like, she had the wisdom to see most of the consequences and to take care of her siblings and their people as well. Edmund was not as brave as Peter or Lucy, but after the successful solution of his affair with the White Witch he became fair and more mature. And in Prince Caspian he showed that he also can be the leader of the group, not just Peter. Lucy was the bravest and she had the faith that her siblings lacked – the faith in Aslan, in the nature and in whole Narnia. It maybe seems to be unimportant, but in my opinion it is one of the basic things a ruler has to have.

Princess Ozma of Oz

Did you know that after the Wizard flew away from the Land of Oz, with taking an adventurous journey, the new ruler of the Emerald City was no other but Princess Ozma? She was beautiful, kind, polite, smart and apart from this, she was the legitimate heir to the throne of Oz. Despite her young age, she took her responsibilities seriously. The people loved her and it was thought that – although officially she was not a magician – she has magical power, as she could bring happiness into the people’s heart and smile onto their face. Ozma is an exceedingly benevolent and compassionate ruler, who never resorts to violence and who does not believe in destroying even her worst enemies – she chooses other methods to overcome them, such as in the case of the evil Nome King, who turned the royal family of Ev into pieces of furniture.

            In some aspects Princess Ozma has some similarities with the Childlike Empress (Kislány Királynő in Hungarian) from The Neverending Story. They are both wise, pacifist, fairy-like and very young, yet very capable to be a ruler. However, the Childlike Empress is a passive monarch, as she doesn’t legislate, judge or anything. She is Fantasia itself, as without the empress her land wouldn’t exist.

Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo

Sorry for the soon-to-be overwhelming admiration for her – Cecile and me as well already mentioned her several times, but I just cannnot skip her from this list. Maybe we can say that she is the sci-fi version of Princess Ozma (apart from the family-part of her life).

King Éomer of Rohan and King Aragorn of Gondor

Needless to say anything, I think.

Imperial Consort Irulan

From the Dune-universe. For some reasons, I always sympathized with her: she was sacrificed by her own father and was forced to marry Paul Atreides with the knowledge that he never loved her and that they can never be a really married couple. The princess was a great writer – author of several royal biographies –, a good politician and after the death of Chani, the concubine and lover of Paul Atreides, Irulan took care of Chani’s twins, Leto and Ghanima.

I cannot remember more at the moment. Of course, there is King Baldwin IV from the Kingdom of Heaven, but he was a real person, not a fantasy king.

by Alla