The Princess Blog

It's barely been over a year since I reviewed "Sisters in Arms," the series premiere of Mysticons , and we've already arrived at the show's short-lived finale. They've been dropping like flies lately, haven't they? Sofia the First just ended last week, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is on its final run next month along with several other popular shows . Many of my favorite television series in the past have only lasted for two seasons, but they usually take some time in between for the writers to figure out where the story will go next. That, unfortunately, was not the case for Mysticons. It jumped through two seasons containing a total of forty episodes with virtually no downtime in between, leading up to this weekend's series finale "The Age of Dragons." Before I start, I feel obliged to apologize that this review is coming out a bit later than I had hoped as Nickelodeon has always been very inconsistent when it comes to updating shows on  their...

The latest Mysticons episode, "Game of Phones,"  began with Princess Arkayna calling up her newly-discovered twin sister Zarya and asking for her tiara size. "I don't do  tiaras," Zarya scoffed in response. Of course, in perfect comedic timing, the next shot was of a very unhappy Zarya sitting on a griffon with a small yet hilariously out of place golden tiara fastened to her short purple hair. This scene was very funny because it portrayed a symbol of femininity on a character who openly dislikes all things girly. It also goes to show how far the princess trope itself has gone  in modern times from being a symbol of feminity to being a symbol of strength. More and more princesses are now warrior archetypes , while damsels in distress have become all but obsolete. Of course, Zarya, in particular, is a special case. Like Proxima, the red herring in the "twin sister" story arc , Zarya was raised without a family or an identity. However, she and...

When writing about shows that haven't ended yet, there is always a risk of analyzing something that may no longer be valid a few weeks later. This has happened to me twice with Once Upon a Time  when I pointed out that Tiana did not appear to be a princess by birth in the series , which turned out to be false a couple of weeks later and later that their Rapunzel storyline wasn't actually about Rapunzel, whose storyline turned out to be covered the following week. Despite these minor incidents, though, I have never felt quite as duped by a TV show as I did with last week's episode of Mysticons  entitled "Twin Stars Unite." You may recall my post about the new princess in Mysticons , in which Proxima, who had mainly been a background character up to that point, was revealed as Princess Arkayna's long-lost twin sister. The writers proceeded in having us believe this lie for an unprecedented five episodes, which translates to over a month in viewing time, before ...

The action-packed girl-power Nickelodeon cartoon,  Mysticons , just had a plot-shattering reveal in their latest episode. Before you begin reading, please be aware that this thread contains major spoilers for the episodes "Three Mysticons and a Baby" and "Star-Crossed Sisters." If you don't want the episodes spoiled, feel free to watch them on Nickelodeon's website and come back after you've finished. I was surprised to learn that the series did not have much of a  break between seasons one and two . Instead, they decided to kick off the second season in a big way. Are you ready for it? It turns out that Princess Arkayna is not the only daughter of Queen Goodfey. Years before the show began, Nova Terron, the authoritarian leader of the astromancers, separated Arkayna from her (fraternal) twin sister at birth in order to prevent a dangerous prophecy from coming true. Who is the new princess who spent her life in isolation without knowing her family?...

Princesses can't be damsels in distress all the time. One day, they will need to rule an entire kingdom. Though many princesses start out sheltered and powerless dreaming of freedom , some of our favorite animated princesses start out early and learn how to lead their companions in the fight against evil. Though these stories do give princesses more freedom than they would probably realistically have, they also open up the range of female-targeted entertainment to different types of girls.  Magical Girl  groups usually have a princess leading them, but it's becoming more common among Disney Princesses as well. This is a tribute to all the princesses who can wear pretty dresses  and still be strong and powerful leaders at the same time. For me, Princess Gwenevere  from Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders was the first one to show me that a princess can be a great leader. Even though she l oves dressing up and flirting , she aggressively refuses to wait aro...

Last week's episode of  Mysticons  called "All Hail Necrafa"  was a low blow for Princess Arkayna, the dragon mage leader of the Mysticons. The series has had an ongoing trend of episodes that end badly or unresolved, which is unusual for a princess show. This episode, in particular, ended on a huge cliffhanger with the most powerful villain in the show's universe freed from her dimensional prison. Queen Necrafa is a perfect example of how all queens seem to be evil  in stories that center around princesses. There is a good queen in the show, but as is also common in princess tales, Arkayna loses her parents in the first episode and is forced to fend for herself. All is not lost, however, as they were not dead, but merely placed under a spell that turned them to stone. Arkayna wishes to use the Codex to free them from this rocky prison, but the astromancers, who are supposed to be magical allies to the Mysticons, do not want her to risk using it before destroyin...