The Rabble King: A Trope and Why It's Great

Time to talk about another one of my favorite tropes! This time it's the Rabble King, another trope that may already have a name but I named anyway. For the record, I'm pretty sure I had a better name for this trope, but I forgot what it was, so we're going with the Rabble King.

So who is the Rabble King?

The Rabble King is a trope I've been noticing more in some of my favorite stories. In essence, he's a subgenre of the anti-villain trope. He's normally one from the underbelly of society, and he runs his own kind of kingdom. Some rabble kings own casinos, some run pubs, some just have a bunch of lackeys that do things for them, but they normally tend to be in charge of somebody.

(Let me quickly clarify that while I'm using the word 'he' for this post, the Rabble King can also be a she.)

Another strong trait of the Rabble King is his morality. The Rabble King doesn't care about sides. He'll just assist whoever can afford to pay him more. He always wants to know what's in it for him. He'll sell us out in a heartbeat if it promises enough cash or advantage.

And that takes us to the final trait of the Rabble King: we love to loathe him. Sure, he'll sell us out, he'll send us to jail with an apple in our mouths, but he'll have us shooting finger guns and shaking our head with a grin because that's just classic whats-his-name, that old dog.

Examples

So you can get a real grasp on who I'm talking about here, let's have some examples. Some Rabble Kings that come to mind:

Zuse from Tron: Legacy

Grandmaster from Thor: Ragnarok

These two are textbook Rabble Kings, down to every detail. Their morality depends solely on the paycheck, and they run their own little kingdoms from places in the sky. Now for some that loosely fit the description:

Barbossa from Pirates of the Carribbean

Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows

Ripred from Gregor the Overlander

Like I said, these three aren't strictly all around Rabble Kings. Technically Kaz is a protagonist, and Barbossa is an antagonist, where a Rabble King is normally not involved with either side and is more of a secondary character than someone essential to the story. Ripred meets almost all the criteria, but at the end of the day, he technically doesn't run any kind of operation the way the other ones do. He's more of a loner.

Obviously, like all tropes, the Rabble King can be bent or stretched into whatever shape you want. You can create beautiful, awesome, unique characters by forming this trope to your artistic vision, and I look forward to it! But I wanted to point out the differences so you could really see what I'm talking about when I describe this trope. Because this trope is awesome.

Have you ever noticed this trope before? Who's your favorite Rabble King? Let's talk in the comments!