The Princess Blog

It's no secret that Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders was my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid. There are few others who share this passion with me as the show is still obscure even in an era of countless nostalgic reboots , so when I first heard that Mad Cave Studios  was partnering with 41 Entertainment to make a series of Jewel Riders graphic novels , I was skeptical. A few days ago, my cynicism  was laid to rest when a press release revealed the cover art and release date for the novel. It's really happening! On May 28, 2024, the first issue of the brand new YA Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders graphic novel will be available wherever graphic novels are sold. It's even available to pre-order on Amazon right now! Take a gander at the gorgeous new official cover art below that stays true to show's color palette and art style while adding a modern manga-inspired flare. I am absolutely in love with this new Magic Girl anime-style cover art that features...

Magpie Tower is the newest visual novel in  the Time Princess app . It came alongside a massive update that made the game even bigger and more comprehensive than it was already. This story is not based on any pre-existing property, so it isn't obvious what it will be about without playing through it. The story takes place in modern-day Korea like a few of Time Princess's previous visual novels  and includes free Korean voices for several of the main characters during key scenes. It is a disability-friendly story  that focuses on the hardships of living with numerous difficulties that are not obvious at first glance. Though it does not contain any royal characters due to its modern realistic setting, the story focuses on one of the most important themes of what it means to be a fairy tale princess: kindness and compassion . Magpie Tower takes place from the perspective of Ha-yeon, who runs a fried chicken restaurant called Yummy Fried Chicken. While this setting seems a b...

I've been stepping around the controversies regarding Disney's new Snow White  movie for some time now. Several new revelations have come out in the past few days, so it's time to discuss it. Everything about this movie has gone up in flames, sometimes quite literally . The fact that Disney is remaking the first feature-length animated movie of all time in live-action was already a sign of poor showmanship. After adding the fact that the lead actress Rachel Zegler seems to hate the original film  and that the leaked photos so far have been less than flattering , many people are wondering if it's a good idea for this movie to still happen at all. As it turns out, so is Disney. As of today, Snow White  has been officially delayed from its March 2024 release date to March 2025 . Although Disney is blaming the Hollywood strikes for this more so than the controversy, it does give them some extra time to smooth out the movie's rough edges that have had countless fans u...

I received  Feathers of Snow  by Alice Ivinya in a book promotion some time ago and recently got around to reading it. After reading her ARC of The Golden Prince  I knew that Alice Ivinya was an expert at fantasy worldbuilding. This book is a retelling of "The Goose Girl"  that puts a unique spin on it by switching the role of the oppressed protagonist from the princess who was forced to work as a goose girl to the lady-in-waiting who was forced to be a princess against her will. Though the princess role swap is an overused trope, it is less common for a girl to be forced into the role of a princess unwillingly. That said, the plot of this book is nearly identical to Camille Peters' Identity  only with less focus on romance, making it less of an emotional journey. Brianna is a lady-in-waiting to the spoiled and selfish Princess Elyanna who loves to manipulate people and get her own way. When a political marriage alliance is proposed for Elyanna to Prince Jian...

The new anime season has begun, and yet again, there are three new princess shows  to follow for the next three months. Each of them has only aired a single episode so far, so opinions may change over time, but I believe I've already picked a favorite. Even though there are so many new shows each season, many of them follow similar formulas such as the isekai trope , in which a character is reincarnated into a story they are familiar with and must try to change the outcome in their favor, and the yuri harem trope , which often features an all-female or mostly female cast, most of whom idolize one specific heroine in a romantic or sexual way. Two of the princess shows this season follow these archetypes, making them familiar and trite despite boasting new stories and characters. The third is unique and stands out as my favorite new show of the season. You wouldn't think that a show called  I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness  would p...

The Scarecrow King  by Jill Myles  was recommended to me a while ago, and I just recently got around to reading it. It is a delightful retelling of "King Thrushbeard"  in a traditional fairy tale world where all stories are connected. Though there were few references to other fairy tales in this book, it was a clever touch that the main character was the daughter of the protagonist from "Rumpelstiltskin"  who was blamed for her mother's incompetence of being unable to turn straw into gold after becoming queen. The book plays on a lot of the questionable elements of "King Thrushbeard," which was originally a pretty messed-up story about an abusive relationship with a princess who was lied to and manipulated to teach her a lesson. Here, the book expands upon why the princess acted the way she did and forces her husband to face the consequences of his actions, making for a more well-rounded story that fixes the problematic issues of the original fairy ta...

There have been quite a few Broadway musicals  about royal ladies over the past few years, but most of them were closed before they truly had a chance to shine . Both Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella  and Britney Spears' Once Upon a One More Time  only lasted a few months on the Great White Way before they went dark . One of the most contemporary shows about female empowerment that has stood the test of time is Six , the British musical about the six wives of King Henry VIII. I recently saw this show six years after its 2017 opening, so it lasted at least as many years as its namesake. What is it that made this show dominate so many other contemporary female-empowering fairy tales? For one thing, Six stands apart because it is not a fairy tale. The six historical queens who are featured in it had miserable lives for different reasons. By encouraging its audience to learn more about history, Six benefits from the success of other historical musicals like Hamilton , which ...

When the multi-author collaboration was announced for the newly launched Once Upon a Prince series , the last prince I was expecting anyone to focus on was the cowardly Prince John from the Robin Hood legend. Yet, Celeste Baxendell has taken another twist on the enemies-to-lovers trope and turned it into a touching romance . This book is the most original I've read so far in the series, taking whatever liberties were necessary with the original lore to make it work for this new take. The ARC I was provided of  The Wicked Prince  presents a gender-swapped Robin Hood, the beautiful cousin of Maid Marian who is propositioned into marrying Prince John so she can stop running from the law and pardon her merry men. The result is an unconventional love story that follows the recent trend of falling in love after marriage . In this upside-down Robin Hood retelling, Robin is a noble lady who lost her family and possessions in a fire and became an outlaw when the kingdom's taxes...