Unless you have been living under a rock, by now you will doubt of heard that Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign has come to an end. As a loyal citizen of the United Kingdom I can tell you that this somehow still came as a great shock to me and many of my fellow Britons. She’d been a part of our lives for so long and was so ubiquitous (stamps, money, Christmas TV) that I never really imagined what life would be like without her. Well life, as they say, must go on, but while we are still mourning her loss, this very sad news got me thinking about queens in general and their representation in video games. And so, in honour of her Majesty, I present to you some of the most iconic queens to have ever graced the medium. There is one caveat I should make clear before we start: This list features queens only – not future queens (i.e. princesses). So those of you expecting to see Princess Peach and Princess Zelda may need to manage your expectations. Needless to say that spoilers exist for all the games mentioned so read on at your peril.
10) Queen Himiko (Tomb Raider)
We begin with the main antagonist of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. Now you might have thought that the big bad was the crazy, cult leader Mathias, but you would be wrong. Mathias is hell bent on the return of the Sun Queen Himiko, who ruled the island on which Lara is stranded hundreds of years ago. As Lara explores the island, she picks up old diary entries and the like which reveal more and more about the Sun Queen and her powers. Revered and feared in equal measure, the Sun Queen once ruled Yamatai for countless centuries. When one queen’s life drew to a close, an elaborate ceremony would be held to transfer her power to the next queen. However, as Lara eventually learns, it is not the queen’s power which is transferred, but her soul itself, which takes over the body of its willing host.
Unfortunately for the Sun Queen, her last host committed suicide shortly before being possessed. This trapped the Sun Queen in a decaying body – neither living nor dead. Her resulting rage and fury is the cause of all the storms, which have plagued the island for centuries and made escape quite impossible. It’s up to Lara to make sure that her BFF Sam doesn’t become the next host for Himiko and to lay the Sun Queen to rest, once and for all.
9) Rachni Queen (Mass Effect)
Ah the first bugoid on our list, but not the last. Mass Effect is an epic trilogy that tells the story of how Commander Shepherd saves the galaxy from a sentient race of machines (the Reapers), who cleanse the galaxy of all technologically advanced life, every 50,000 years or so. During the first game, Shepherd is sent to investigate the colony of Novaria (a small frozen research outpost) on the trail of Matriarch Benezia. Shepherd quickly discovers that the research labs are overrun with a hostile, insectoid like race called the Rachni. If you delve into the backstory enough (and you definitely should because the world building in Mass Effect is second to none) you discover that the Rachni were first encountered some 1000 years ago and promptly went to war with the council races. It was wrongly believed that they were all wiped out, but one Rachni egg managed to survive the slaughter and was resurrected by the shady science team on Noveria. The queen that hatched from that egg was forced to produce an entire army of warrior Rachni, which escaped confinement (they always do don’t they) and reeked havok upon the colony.
When you finally come face to face with the Rachni Queen herself, she is not (surprisingly) the monster you might have expected. She expresses remorse that her children were the cause of such disaster and agrees that they have to be destroyed. You are then faced with a choice: destroy the Rachni Queen or release her into the galaxy. Like many of the choices in Mass effect, this one has far reaching consequences. Allow her to live and she promises to help Shepherd in their fight against the “coming darkness”, which she makes good on in ME3. In my humble opinion, the Rachni Queen storyline is one of the best pieces of writing in all of Mass Effect. I love the way that the stereotypical, monstrous, alien queen is actually revealed to not be evil but rather the victim of cruel experimentation. It’s also to be commended that Bioware ultimately puts her fate into your hands, leaving the player to deicide if they are capable of overcoming their own prejudices in order to save her.
8) Queen Marika the Eternal (Elden Ring)
Elden Ring is too massive and too recent a game to ignore. In addition it includes not one but two queens that could both easily make this list. They are Queen Marika the Eternal and Queen Rennala: The Full Moon Queen. Sticking to my self imposed rule of “one queen per franchise” though I had to choose between them. Now Queen Rennala has the advantage of being an actual boss fight in the game. However Queen Marika is much more important in terms of the overall lore of the game. The jury is still out as to which queen is more iconic, but in light of her importance to the story I had to go with Queen Marika.
Although you never get to actually meet her, Marika has a very interesting backstory that sets the scene for the entire game. As the vessel of the Elden Ring, Marika achieved a sort of god like status. She was responsible for the creation of the first Tarnished. During the Night of Black Knives, a group of assassins descended on the capital and slew many of the demigods, among them Marika’s first born son Godwyn-the-Golden. Overcome with grief, Marika shattered the Elden Ring, and scattered it’s pieces throughout the Lands Between. Unable to remove Marika as its vessel, the Greater Will imprisoned her along with her consort Radagon, in the Erdtree, where she awaits a tarnished champion to set her free.
7) Nidoqueen (Pokémon)
Did you know, to date, there are six Pokémon who’s names include the word king (Nidoking, Kingler, Seaking, Slowking, Kingdra and Slaking) but only one that incudes the word queen. Doesn’t seem very woke, especially in this day and age. Nidoqueen has been around since the days of Red and Blue and therefore holds the honour of being part of the original 151 Pokédex. The finale of a three-tier evolution line, Nidoqueen evolves from Nidorina (using a moon stone), who in turn evolves from Nidoran♀. She’s a poison/ground type and a good all rounder, specialising in neither attack, defence or speed.
Perhaps her most notable appearance in the anime, would be as Gary Oak’s Pokémon which he used in a match against Ash during the Silver Conference. The Pokédex entry for Nidoqueen, makes reference to the hard, needle like scales that cover her body as well as how fiercely she defends her young. A quality she shares with the next entry on our list.
6) Queen Myrrah (Gears of War)
Queen Myrrah was the creator and leader of the Locust Horde. We first encounter her during the final moments of the first game, where her disembodied voice promises that the locust will continue to fight on despite their losses. She takes on a much more prominent role in Gears of War 2 and 3 but it isn’t until Gears 5 that we learn about her backstory. Myrrah was the child of an imulsion minor who was born with a genetic immunity to the imulsion. She was brought the the New Hope Research Facility to help treat children infected with rustlung, but was later relocated to a secret laboratory in Mount Kadar by a nefarious political group. Genetic experimentation on her stem cells and Sire DNA led to the creation of the Locust Horde, over which Myrrah is able to assume control.
During her time at the laboratory Myrrah conceived a human daughter Reyna who she was led to believe was killed while trying to escape. A distraught Myrrah sets the locust against all of humanity and established them as an independent race. Queen Myrrah was believed to have been killed by Marcus Fenix during the event of Gears of War 3, but her consciousness lives on within the Matriarch. She later attempts to gain control to Reyna’s daughter Kait Diaz (her grandaughter) the main protagonist of Gears 5.
5) Queen Amidala (LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga)
I’m cheating a bit here as Queen Amidala is strictly speaking from a movie franchise rather than a video game. However, there have been numerous games made about this particular movie franchise, the most recent being LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Furthermore, I was growing tired of every queen on my list being either an evil tyrant or a hideous monster. Queen Amidala is the exact opposite. A benevolent leader (not unlike our own Elizabeth II), Padmé Amidala became the beloved queen of Naboo at the tender age of 14. Shortly after her reign began, her planet was embargoed and then invaded by the Trade Federation. Fleeing the planet with her Jedi protectors, Padmé finds herself on the planet Tatooine, where she meets the then 9 year old Anakin Skywalker.
I probably don’t need to tell you what happens next, suffice to say that it doesn’t end too well for old Ani and Padmé. What we can all agree on is that Amidala always put the interests of her people, and the galaxy at large, above her own. She was committed to peace, to the senate, and (in her dying moments) her two children. She also never gave up on old Anakin. Right before she passes away Padmé tells Obi-Wan “There’s still good in him. I know there is still…”. We should all be so optimistic.
4) Queen Gohma (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Another bug. Revered as a queen by the deku scrub that live inside of the Great Deku Tree, Queen Gohma resembles some sort of cycloptic spider. Towards the end of the dungeon they start dropping hints about how to defeat her (twenty-three in number one) which adds to the looming sense of doom. I’ll never forget that moment when you walk into the boss chamber, accompanied by the sound of an ominous scuttling, and… nothing happens. You have to actually look up, and focus on that glowing eyeball, before the queen reveals herself. The actual boss fight isn’t all that difficult but it is notable for being the first ever boss fight in a Zelda game to be in 3D. Just make sure you use the slingshot to stun her and not a deku seed. There was rumour back in the 90’s that could crash your game.
3) Shadow Queen (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door)
The Shadow Queen is the main antagonist and final boss of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. She has spent the last 1000 years imprisoned in the aptly named Palace of Shadow. Eventually, Bedlam enacts a plan to revive her using the X-Nauts who kidnap Princess Peach. This obviously doesn’t sit too well with a certain portly plumber and builds to a final confrontation with the Shadow Queen herself. The Queen takes control of Princess Peach’s body to assume her rightful form.
Ultimately however, it is the goodwill and wishes of the people all over the world that are enough to permanently supress the Shadow Queen’s possession of Princess Peach. This gives Mario and friends the opportunity to destroy her once and for all. If you thought that the idea of a nefarious queen, that has been lurking quietly in the shadows for a thousand years, was a little far fetched then you obviously haven’t met…
2) Queen Zeal (Chrono Trigger)
Queen Zeal, ruler of the kingdom of Zeal, is the secondary antagonist in Chrono Trigger. She is first encountered in 12,000 BC, where she is portrayed as haughty, cruel, and maniacal in her efforts to acquire power and immortality. Her psychological deterioration appears to be tied to her use of the Mammon Machine, which she uses to absorb the power of Lavos. She shows little to no concern for any of her own subjects (including her own children) in her single-minded attempts to obtain this power. Her relationship with Lavos is somewhat unusual as she is able to exert some level over control over this omnipotent being, which she worships like a god. Lavos meanwhile makes no attempt to enslave or destroy her, which makes Queen Zeal unique in that respect. Sadly, the actual dynamic of their relationship is never fully explored so we can only speculate as to what prompted her devotion to such a destructive cause.
1) Metroid Queen (Metroid: Samus Returns)
The last queen on our list and it’s another final boss battle. The Metroid Queen is encountered on the Metroid home world at the end of the second chronological game in the series, Samus Returns (or “the Return of Samus” if you prefer the original Gameboy title). Metroid is a game which shares so much in common with the Alien movie franchise, so it was really only a matter of time before Nintendo’s answer to the Alien Queen made herself known. It is believed that the Metroid Queen is the final stage in the lifecycle of the metroids. She resembles a massive crocodile, with a cluster of eyes on each side of her head. Her powerful mouth is lined with rows of razor sharp teeth and on her back are a couple of dangling appendages which she uses to lay her disgusting eggs. Like all metroids, she has a weakness to the Ice Beam and Power Bombs. A similar trait she shares with her Metroid children is her ability to absorb the life energy of her prey through the use of a special membrane in her mouth.
She is destroyed by the bounty hunter Samus Aran, but a second Metroid Queen was later cloned from the remains of metroid DNA found of Samus Aran’s power suit, during the events of Other M. The Metroid Queen is without doubt, one of the most terrifying organisms that Samus encounters and that really is saying something. In my humble opinion she definitely deserves her place as the #1 queen on this list but I am sure there are those who think otherwise.
Summing Up
So what did you think? Was there anything you disagreed with? Did I forget to mention someone? Sound off in the comments below. This was a pretty fun list to put together but I must admit that while doing so, I was struck by two things.
The first is that nearly every queen on my list is either a malevolent, maniacal superbeing or a gigantic ferocious monster. This stands in stark contrast to good old Queen Lizzy, the benevolent, self-sacrificing, figurehead, which my country has rallied behind for just over 70 years. I suppose that is to be expected. People don’t play video games to meet kind and compassionate leaders. In fiction, the mantle of power is so often combined with evil and that makes for an worthy adversary in any video game. In games, royal benevolent, leaders are more often restricted to the rank of Princess, perhaps out of fear that too much power would go to their heads. Or more likely this harkens back to a time when the brave hero would have to go save the Princess. Whoever heard of riding off to save the Queen?
The second thing that struck me as odd was the under representation of queens, as opposed to kings, in the video gaming world. I already mentioned how the kings outnumber the queens in Pokémon by 6 to 1, but it’s a similar story wherever you look. By the time we get round to giving King Charles III his coronation, I’ll probably put together a top ten list of Kings to celebrate it. I imagine that I will have a much easier time of it as well. It’s not that I think video game designers are reluctant to create roles, with good women in positions of power. Not exactly. Storylines involving queens usually have their roots in fantasy, which is based on the past, and by today’s standards the past can be considered (among other things) sexist. Queens often play second fiddle to a king in games – just look at a deck of cards. But if Queen Elizabeth the Second has taught us anything, it’s that a queen can be just as incredible as a king. This is how I will chose to remember her and how I hope to see at least some future queens represented in modern day video games.