this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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Worldbuilding
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I know where the concept began. But there is a modern idea in fantasy literature that it is possible for kings and queens to be "good" and "moral" and could transform their countries singlehandedly to their "goodness" which is made up nonsense. All of those monarchs listed obviously thought they were good and moral, but very few people living in those times actually thought that way and we have ahistorically thrusted the love of monarchs onto the masses back then. Nowadays, it seems that the all fantasy literature is obsessed with this entirely mythical concept.
No. People did love their autocrats. To a degree that was not rational. Even when the autocrat was objectively unfit or cruel to their subjects that got blamed on secondaries because people loved the autocrat. Countries with autocratic monarchies had borderline cultist devotion (And in Russia and Denmark, actual cultist devotion) to them among the peasantry and working classes
Earlier, before the rise of "modern" absolutism, people literally ascribed divine power to monarchs.
Thais love and adore their monarch IME
The current Thai monarch doesn't have the popularity of the previous guy, but extremely harsh lese majeste laws are in force.