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An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A character is way down in the line of succession for some political office, to the point where it's reasonable to assume that they're never going to actually take it. Then everyone ahead of them dies or is otherwise disqualified. Usually this is either because a) some giant disaster occurs, or b) the character in question is evil and killing everyone ahead of them. It can also result from a Succession Crisis. Also contrast Offered the Crown, where the monarch is selected, and Succession Crisis, where ambiguity about who the rightful successor is causes problems.

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  • Unexpected Successor
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  • A character is way down in the line of succession for some political office, to the point where it's reasonable to assume that they're never going to actually take it. Then everyone ahead of them dies or is otherwise disqualified. Usually this is either because a) some giant disaster occurs, or b) the character in question is evil and killing everyone ahead of them. It can also result from a Succession Crisis. Also contrast Offered the Crown, where the monarch is selected, and Succession Crisis, where ambiguity about who the rightful successor is causes problems.
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abstract
  • A character is way down in the line of succession for some political office, to the point where it's reasonable to assume that they're never going to actually take it. Then everyone ahead of them dies or is otherwise disqualified. Usually this is either because a) some giant disaster occurs, or b) the character in question is evil and killing everyone ahead of them. It can also result from a Succession Crisis. In a monarchy, this usually means that some distant cousin of the previous monarch is ascending the throne, frequently leading to a great deal of Fish Out of Water humor. Also note that, due to the generally predictable nature of royal succession, it's possible for someone to start their life rather far down the line of succession and still be expected to become monarch someday. For example, Queen Victoria was born fifth in line to the English throne. However, everyone ahead of her was also at least a generation older than she was and old enough that they were unlikely to have more children. So she grew up expecting to be queen, and thus would not be a Real Life example of this trope. Also contrast Offered the Crown, where the monarch is selected, and Succession Crisis, where ambiguity about who the rightful successor is causes problems. In the United States, rules for succession beyond Vice President -> President are not written in the Constitution, but are instead legislated by Congress. Currently, if both the President and Vice President are unable to hold office, the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes President. If he's dead, the President pro tempore of the Senate (traditionally the senior Senator of the majority party) becomes President. After those two, it goes to Cabinet members - starting with the Secretary of State and then proceeding to Treasury, Defense, and the Attorney General. After that the succession goes to the other Cabinet members based on the date of creation of their office, so as of 2010 the eighth person in the official LOS is the Secretary of the Interior, and the eighteenth and last person is the Secretary of Homeland Security. In fiction, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is almost always not a member of the President's political party. Usually the Speaker resigns as President out of courtesy, but for added turmoil, she won't. During the State of the Union, the President usually sends a member of his Cabinet far away in case the Capitol gets blown up, as the "designated survivor." Usually this is someone who no one would notice actually showing up, like the Secretary of Agriculture. When the Capitol is blown up, the Secretary of Agriculture must go from teaching farmers how to grow peanuts to running a country. Hilarity Ensues. See also Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Super-Trope of Spare to the Throne. Examples of Unexpected Successor include:
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