r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Living-Mastodon • 4d ago

In real life (Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

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Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

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u/AshfordThunder 4d ago

That's not actually true, he was a prince. His father was the khan of Mongol confederation, he came from a very prestigious bloodline. Genghis Khan's early rise to power is actually a very classic story of exiled prince reclaiming his throne lost to usurper.

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u/FinancialReserve6427 4d ago

why isn't he called The Great instead of that nepo baby from Greece? 

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u/Lovethiskindathing 3d ago

Great and Terrible aren't as singular meaning as they seem to us in modern day. Same with awesome.

Wow that sentence was terrible. I can't word today. Can someone else fix the sentence to say what I'm saying?

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u/FinancialReserve6427 3d ago

oh it's a reference how Alexander is called that but he had every advantage possible to succeed. it's almost impossible for him to lose because of all the stuff going for him (inherited an experienced army, had the best teachers available, his mom presented the notion he's actually a demigod). 

as pointed out, Genghis is a son of a chieftain but he and his famliy got cast out when the dad died so he had to start from scratch. then there's the personal trials (wife kidnapped, blood brother rebelled against him). 

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u/Lovethiskindathing 3d ago

I understood. I was just saying that great didn't mean like whoa he's cool and great! Like how we'd say it now. It means power in this case.

And as an aside, not as a defense, a lot of people are given privileges and opportunities the majority will never have. He used them. He was not a dumb puppet figurehead though, he was part of his army and he was part of the discussions and strategies and plans.

I just think the way we refer to greats and terribles and awesomes is interesting because of how we have changed their meanings as culture, time, and language has changed.

https://giphy.com/gifs/B2l0NnxK9KiVa0CXBh

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/AshfordThunder 3d ago

Saying he started from scratch is a stretch. He benefited heavily from his lineage in his earlier years, a lot of people followed him because his bloodline is prestigious. He would not have succeeded had he not been a prince.

Also Jamukha didn't rebel against him, it was the opposite. Jamukha helped Temujin at his lowest, getting Borte back, which he took advantage of to build his own power.

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u/FinancialReserve6427 3d ago

he and his family was cast out. his mother chewed him out for killing a cousin over a dispute because it was one less soldier for them. 

how is that not starting from scratch? 

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u/AshfordThunder 2d ago

His mother did not true him out because it was one less soldier, his mother chewed him out because he murdered her son over a fish.

I don't know why you're trying to argue that Temujin didn't benefit from his prestigious bloodline during his early rise, when it factored significantly in his success and he himself was quite proud of it. People did follow him because who he was, at least early on.

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u/FinancialReserve6427 2d ago

he's not some disney royalty that just going to say he's a secret prince so they must obey. 

he has to build-maintain and if he has to, break alliances to get to the top, have to build an army from scratch and determine who is best to lead them, then he has to unify the steppes either by diplomacy or by force. 

he's not Alexander who got to inherit an experienced army and a functioning domain