The Princess Blog

This is not a typical discussion about an upcoming princess story, but it's still an important topic for those of us who desire to live the princess lifestyle . Princesses are generally known to be upbeat and spread happiness to those around them . While this is a wonderful trait, it can create some misconceptions about people who love princesses or want to portray them . Similar to the misconception that princesses never get angry , they are not happy all the time, nor are they unwilling to admit when something is wrong. In fact, this is a big reason why their "happily ever after" is so impactful. Pretending that everything is perfect all the time and denying the bad in any given situation can lead to toxic positivity. A great example of toxic positivity is Mother Gothel. By constantly reminding Rapunzel how lucky she is to be safely locked away from the world in a tower, she uses gaslighting to make Rapunzel think that there is nothing wrong with her situation. This ca...

For this year's National Princess Week , I am reopening a new discussion on an old topic. If you haven't read my "Damsel in Distress" Stigma post  from when I started this blog five years ago, I recommend starting there. ( Has it really been five years? ) Since then, it seems like the decline of femininity in mainstream media has gotten increasingly worse. Every new princess is either a Mary Sue warrior princess clone or a "corrected" version of a relatable flawed character from our childhood. Once upon a time, the damsels in distress were the characters we rooted for onscreen, but now they are us, the regular flawed human audience who need to be rescued from poor storytelling. Let's start with the most anticipated upcoming movie, Disney's remake of The Little Mermaid . The original 1989 animated film is my favorite movie of all time, and Ariel will always be my favorite princess. She is a vivacious and energetic redhead who rescues her own prince...

Tangled  wasn't the first movie to feature a mistreated girl who learned she was a princess, but it was the first to popularize the "lost princess" archetype. Why is this trope so appealing throughout so many recent books and films? Secretly being a princess is a fantasy that many little girls have when they're growing up, especially when they face difficult times. This popular story narrative gives a literal interpretation Sara Crewe's philosophy from A Little Princess  that every girl is a princess even if they don't know it. One of the reasons this is such a common theme in princess stories is that it goes along with one of the seven basic plot archetypes , the "Rags to Riches" trope. In the past, that trope was used more often for stories based on  "Cinderella,"  but the "lost princess" trope has become more common in modern media due to the lack of dependency on a man that the "Cinderella" trope  requires. The first...

There are many things that we are missing out on  these days thanks to the extended lockdown order. For instance, Disney's remake of Mulan  has been postponed indefinitely  from its last August 21st release date. However, there are other things that the virus in Corona  has brought to our towers that we may have never been able to experience otherwise. One of the most exciting is the  professional recordings  of Broadway shows  that we can watch from the comfort of our own home. Disney joined in on this excitement earlier in the month when they released a professional recording of Hamilton  on their Disney+ streaming service . They intend to follow up this new trend later in the year with a professional recording  of their 2014 Aladdin Broadway musical . Three months ago, Disney shared  an abridged "virtual viewing" of the Beauty and the Beast musical  they produced for their cruise lines.  Disney Cruise Line shows  are r...

There has been a growing trend among princess shows over the past few years. Princesses always forgive the ones who hurt them the most . Though the Warrior Princess archetype  has grown more popular now than ever before, it is still an inborn characteristic of a princess to choose the path of the lover over the fighter unless she is given no other option. The parallels between the endings of Tangled: The Series and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power this year are so prominent that they could have been written by the same person. Both shows feature a princess who is betrayed by her best friend and end with the two frenemies working out their differences and confessing their love for each other with the fate of the world at stake. Even though both Cassandra and Catra chose to lash out against their former princess allies with violence, Rapunzel and Adora proved to be the bigger person by refusing to fight back because violence only leads to more violence. This is an important and p...

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there during this tough time. I don't usually write fanfiction, but I've heard so many people making Tangled references about the coronavirus that I thought I'd have a little fun with it. This story takes place after the ending of Tangled: The Series and the "Tangled Ever After" short . Enjoy! A Virus in Corona One sunny day in the kingdom of Corona, Shorty went out exploring and found something he had never seen before. A purple mushroom with green polka dots had sprouted near the area where the Sun Drop and black rocks had appeared. Many people would have been afraid to come near a mysterious new formation in such an ominous spot, but not Shorty. In fact, as soon as he laid eyes on it, he wondered what such a rare and exotic mushroom might taste like. He was disappointed to find that it didn't taste very different from any other mushroom and decided to go to his favorite pub, the Snuggly Duckling, to find...

"I'm not one to walk away from a fight when my friends are in danger, no matter what the odds. Just something I picked up from Rapunzel." Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is a theme that was heavily encoded into the storytelling DNA of Plus Est en Vous , the series finale of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. The show formerly known as Tangled: The Series  reached its ultimate conclusion today, neatly tying up loose ends to make way for the "Tangled Ever After" short , where we see Rapunzel and Eugene tie the knot at last. All in all, Plus Est en Vous  was a mediocre finale for such a strong series, but that was primarily due to how the third season was dragged out. In general, I find that shows tend to lose their traction after the second season, which is why many of my favorite shows, such as Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders , ran for two seasons or less. Destinies Collide , the season two finale of Tangled, was the pinnacle of suspense and emot...

Today marks the last multi-part special on Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure  before the series finale on March 1st. I had high hopes that Cassandra's Revenge  would resolve Cassandra's heartbreaking betrayal arc once and for all, but it looks like that is being saved for the finale. Though there were some revelations in this special about Rapunzel and Cassandra's powers, they weren't quite as big as I was hoping. The special brought back Varian for a gorgeous new Alan Menken duet  with Cassandra. It also progressed the sinister plans of the mysterious blue girl, who is the true antagonist likely has some sort of connection to Zhan Tiri, the show's final boss. It was an enjoyable special in terms of art and music, but I felt let down by the fact that they are saving all the big resolutions for the finale. Cassandra is beginning to feel like a broken record, saying the same things over again until the plot allows her story to progress. The special kicks off wi...

Last year was quite possibly the biggest year for princess media  ever. I don't think anything from 2020 will compare to the sheer number of princess anniversary events , TV shows , books , and movies that 2019 bestowed upon us, but that doesn't mean we won't have anything to look forward to in the coming year. Two of our favorite Disney Princess cartoons will be ending soon, leaving us with a tiara-shaped hole in our hearts. Fortunately, the advent of Disney+  allows for even more original content from the studio than feature films or Disney Channel specials, promising some low-key princess entertainment while the cinemas get overrun with live-action remakes . One such upcoming Disney+ original princess movie is Secret Society of Second-Born Royals . Secret Society of Second-Born Royals  stars the immensely talented  Peyton Elizabeth Lee,  who played the title role in Andi Mack , one of my favorite shows from the last decade. In this upcoming Disney+ or...

Betrayal has been a common theme among princess shows as of late , and I think that may be something worth exploring a little further. I incorporated an act of betrayal into my own story, The Stolen Jewel , even before it appeared in three of my favorite princess shows. The betrayal of a princess by someone she cares about is a big trend among Disney properties within the past five years or so. It began with the popularity of Frozen  which had a novel twist for a Disney movie in which Anna's true love turned out to be using her for power and tried to kill both her and her sister. Once  Frozen  became the cultural phenomenon that it did, Disney decided to duplicate the formula with varying results . In my opinion, the most effective of these was Cassandra's betrayal of Rapunzel. The Tangled series gave us over two years to feel as close to Rapunzel's  lady-in-waiting  as she did, which made it sting that much more when she stabbed her in the back during the p...

There are few season premieres  as anticipated as the third season of Tangled. The season 2 finale, Destinies Collide , left fans with chills as Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel within the final seconds of the episode by snatching the Moonstone Opal right out of her hands. I avoided jumping too deep into the fan theory vortex since only one explanation for Cassandra's actions would ever truly be canon. That explanation came within the opening minutes of today's season premiere, Rapunzel's Return . It was a shocking twist of events, but not one that was completely unfounded . According to series creator Chris Sonnenburg , the final season of this series had been planned since the beginning, which is made clear by Cassandra's character design as well as some subtle foreshadowing in the second season. Let's just say Rapunzel and Cassandra have a lot more in common than they may have thought. For me, the most disappointing thing about Rapunzel's Return  was learn...