Dress Like A Princess, Fight Like A Ninja

[redbrunja]

natural_blue_26: Talk to me about princessess- in ancient lore, modern fiction, Disney or their OUaT counterparts. Which have you enjoyed, and which make you throw up your hands in dispair? Anything, really.

(Also, she mentioned that she had a wedding today? Is that your wedding? If so, congrats!)

I'm going to talk about my two favorite Princess Tropes.

First, The Badass Princess. By which I mean, Leia Organa, leader of the rebellion. (Kahlan and Snow are worthy daughters, imho.) Nothing like a clever, privileged, scrappy, princess who through circumstances and/or a desire for change, takes up arms. MY FIERCE LADIES IN WHITE. Which leads into my second trope, Fallen Princess. In my head, I have a slightly different definition than tv tropes - I'm thinking of the Princesses who lose everything (or almost everything) and then continue on. This overlaps with several badass princesses (especially Leia and Snow White) but the really key factor to me is the refusal to let misfortune prevent the princess from living a happy life (where badass princesses are often focused on political/social goals, fallen princesses are more focused on personal goals). For example, Caroline from 2 Broke Girls handled her loss of wealth "like a badass" and then joined forces with a friend to start a business. Another example is Aurora. I didn't have much emotional attachment to Aurora until the audience learns that after losing her True Love and having her entire world destroyed, she was intending to travel to a NEW WORLD to build a NEW LIFE for herself including NEW LOVE.* I just absolutely adore characters with that kind of motivation to make their lives better.

*There are many reasons why I'm sad that Philip is going to be rescued but the one relevant to this post is that I would absolutely love getting to see someone from FTL choose to come to Storybrooke/the modern world and then build a life there. Plus, I want the show acknowledge that it is possible for someone to have more than one True Love.