Starscream: Who disrupts my coronation?!
Galvatron: Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.
Starscream: Megatron? Is that you?
Galvatron: Here's a hint! (transforms into a Cybertronian laser cannon and blasts Starscream)
Galvatron: Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.
Starscream: Megatron? Is that you?
Galvatron: Here's a hint! (transforms into a Cybertronian laser cannon and blasts Starscream)
The wrong person is about to be crowned the ruler of the land. Once that happens, there's no way to undo it. (After all, it's not like there would be any authority above them to remove their power.) Now the heroes are in a race against time to get there and stop the coronation before the Tyrant Takes the Helm.
How does this happen? Maybe The Usurper is being declared the ruler under false pretenses, and the heroes have evidence proving the villain actually shouldn't be crowned. Maybe the intended "ruler" is actually second in line and believes they successfully, well, took care of the competition, or at least has convinced everyone necessary that the first in line has died. Maybe they're an impostor, and the rightful ruler will have to prove their identity once they get to the coronation. Whatever the case, the truth won't make a difference if it doesn't come out before the coronation.
This type of climax shares its urgency and sense of finality with the Wedding Deadline and Wedding Smashers, including the Willing Suspension of Disbelief that there is no way in the context of the story to undo the act once it's been done.
Contrast Awesome Moment of Crowning where the right person is being crowned.
As almost all examples of this trope take place during the climax and include critical events directly linked to twists and endings, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Happens unintentionally in Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics: In this adaptation of "The Water of Life," the evil brother Franz who framed the hero Joseph is about to be crowned king when Joseph's love interest Anna bursts into the room. When she heard the king was going to pass on his crown to his son, she assumed it was Joseph and came to officially ask him to marry her. She's confused when she sees it's someone she's never met, which is how the true story of Joseph, not Franz, being the one to save her and find the Water of Life comes out. Franz's coronation (and his freedom) are immediately cancelled.
Comic Books
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): In a case of Right for the Wrong Reasons, Sonic wants to stop Evil Antoine/Patch from being crowned king not because he knows he's not the real Antoine, but because he doesn't want Sally stuck in a loveless marriage. Sally's brother, Elias, arrives in time to reclaim his heritage and become king, and only when Evil Antoine tries to kill Elias does Sonic finally put two and two together.
Film — Animated
- In Barbie: Princess Charm School, Blair learns that she's the long-lost Princess Sophia and thus meant to inherit Gardania's throne rather than her former rival Delancy. While Dame Devin tries to stop her, she manages to crash Delancy's coronation and reveal this, with her story being verified when Gardania's magical crown activates in her presence. Unlike most examples of this trope, Delancy was in on this from the start; she learned Blair could be Sophia by eavesdropping on her and her friends, and subsequently assisted her because she didn't feel comfortable taking the throne from her.
- The Great Mouse Detective: Ratigan plans to replace the Queen of England with a mechanical doppelganger to appoint him the new king and allow him to pass a bunch of cruel laws such as taxing the infirm, elderly, and children. Basil stops this plan by taking control of the mechanical queen and exposing his plot.
- Shrek 1 combines this with a simultaneous case of Wedding Smashers. Farquaad is already the ruler of Duloc, but his sole motive for marrying Princess Fiona is so he can upgrade his title from "Lord" to "King". Technically, Shrek fails to stop Farquaad from marrying Fiona or proclaiming himself king, but fortunately Dragon is on hand to eat Farquaad alive and Fiona promptly marries Shrek instead.
Farquaad: [as battle rages around him] This marriage is binding, and that makes me king! [puts on a crown and points at it] SEE?! SEE?!
- The Transformers: The Movie: Interestingly, the heroes never know that Starscream tried to coronate himself as the new leader of the Decepticons. Unfortunately for him, Galvatron did and his first course of action was to disintegrate the traitorous usurper before taking back control of the Decepticons.
Film — Live-Action
- The Adventures of Robin Hood: Prince John, brother of King Richard, has usurped the throne after Richard is taken prisoner during The Crusades. Near the end of the movie, Richard has escaped and returned to England, and with the help of the title character, he kidnaps the Bishop of the Black Canons, so they and their Saxon followers can stop the coronation and restore Richard to the throne.
- A Christmas Prince: In the climax of the film, Amber must rush to stop the coronation of Count Simon after finding the documents that prove that, despite being adopted, Prince Richard is still the rightful heir to the throne.
- Ella Enchanted climaxes with Ella and a band of elves, giants, and ogres crashing Prince Char's coronation, to stop Char's Evil Uncle Sir Edgar from murdering Char with a poisoned crown and claiming the throne for himself.
- Johnny English: After Johnny and his allies fail to stop Pascal Sauvage from completing most of his plan to usurp the British throne, they ultimately decide to crash the coronation, where after a series of hijinks Johnny gets crowned instead, and somehow being vested with the royal authority uses it to finally apprehend Pascal.
- Princess Protection Program: Both downplayed and inverted as the General Kane crash the coronation rehearsal of princess Rosalinda instead of the ceremony proper. Plus he's the villain, and Rosalinda the rightful ruler who he's trying to take the crown from.
Literature
- The climax of Book 23 of the Lone Wolf series has the usurper, Baron Sadanzo about to be crowned King of Siyen, only for the rightful heir Prince Karvas (whom he had forced into exile years ago — long story) to crash the ceremony with the New Order Grand Master and expose him as a traitor. Sadanzo is ultimately executed on the very same altar he was to be coronated on, and Karvas reclaims his throne, to much rejoicing.
- The Prince and the Pauper: Tom Canty the pauper is about to be crowned king (telling everyone when the switch first happened that he's a commoner from Offal Court who just happens to look exactly like the prince just convinced everyone he was insane, so he just went along with it, and now there's no way he can stop it) when the real Prince Edward runs up in rags and yells for them to stop. He almost gets himself arrested, but fortunately, someone is smart enough to notice the two boys look identical and asks Edward a series of questions that prove he's the real prince.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: In the episode "Grey 17 is Missing", the Minbari warrior Neroon is fully intent on doing this to keep the religious caste leader Delenn from being installed as the Entil'zha, or leader, of the Anla'shok (Rangers). He is stopped from doing so by the Ranger Marcus Cole and, after seeing how Cole was willing to sacrifice his life for Delenn, drops his opposition to Delenn leading the Rangers.
Puppet Shows
- Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince: In this version of "The Frog Prince," Taminella, the witch who cursed Sir Robin into frog form, also cons King Rupert II into believing she's his long-lost sister. Since Princess Melora is onto her, Taminella puts her under a curse to speak in Spoonerisms so she can't tell anyone. Taminella then uses this to convince the king that she should be made the queen instead of Melora, since no one can understand her. Taminella is about to be crowned queen at sunset, but Kermit arrives with the other frogs from the well and they ambush the company, stopping the coronation.
Video Games
- Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Following Megatron's demise at the city-sized hands of Metroplex, his second-in-command, Starscream, assumes command of the Decepticons but his leadership is self-centered and overall incompetent. Seeking to cement his authority, Starscream assembles a raid on an Autobot transport carrying what is likely the last amount of energon on Cybertron. Starscream ultimately botched the operation but the Combaticon's salvaged by disobeying him. Furious with their disobedience despite saving half the energon, Starscream organizes their execution in conjunction with a coronation for himself. Soundwave, meanwhile, secretly reassembled Megatron with a new and more powerful body. Restored, Megatron crashes Starscream's coronation, much to the former sky commander's shock. Nonetheless, Starscream dons a golden crown and orders his supporters to attack Megatron but their efforts are futile, with Megatron attacking Starscream directly, wounding him and destroying his crown, sending the treacherous seeker fleeing. Bonus points for the coronation chapter being based on The Transformers: The Movie.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: After the heroes split up in "Into the Inferno," Zuko and Katara head to the Fire Nation to stop Azula from being crowned Fire Lord. For her part, Azula's perfectly happy to delay the ceremony by challenging her older brother to a duel for the throne first.
- The Dragon Prince: At the end of "Bloodthirsty", just as the reluctant Opeli is about to crown Viren, Amaya and Gren arrived just in time to announce that Callum and Ezran are still alive (Viren lied that they were killed by assassins along with their dad King Harrow).
- The DuckTales (1987) episode, "Jungle Duck", has the heroes find a Tarzan Expy lost prince in the jungle who ended up there due to machinations by his Evil Uncle. They manage to get him back right in time to stop said uncle's coronation.
- The Prince and the Pauper: Just like in the original tale, Mickey, as the titular Pauper Tom Canty, swaps places with the titular prince due to how hard of a life he is having while the prince is having a fantastic life. Mickey then finds that his desires to do so nearly result in him being crowned a Puppet King for the corrupt guard captain to take control of the kingdom. The actual prince reveals his identity to Goofy (one of Mickey's pals) and Pluto (Mickey and Pluto's dog), and they storm the castle to prevent Mickey's coronation.
- StuGo: In "Plantcis", Pliny goads Francis into taking care of her mimosa while she and Merian are rescuing Chip from his latest bout of dumbassery. Thanks to a monitor that was intended to inform her of the plant's needs, Francis learns that the mimosa is sentient and is in fact a prince... of plants. Pliny accidentally removed him from the greenhouse which served as his kingdom, and he needs Francis' help to return there before his evil usurper is officially crowned king... of the plants.
