Princesses. We know them well. Pretty girls spinning around in pretty gowns and waiting for handsome men to save them. Yuck. How can you avoid yuck you ask? Avoid the trope.
1. Princesses can be pawns
Princesses don’t have rights to the throne in some kingdoms. So what to do with them? Marry them off like cattle of course! Men see princesses as pawns. Break that trope and subvert it. Or blow it up, or something.
2. Majesty and authority, peasants
Princesses don’t need tiaras or gowns to be princesses. They learn from early ages how to be queens. Sometimes princesses don’t get to be queens but they can take on the image of one. Be Majestic.
3. Rules
Princesses are women. Some societies will have rules to constrict them. Some princesses might live by strict rules. Princess Alexandrina Victoria (Queen Victoria to you) was raised by the Kensington System. It sucked. She hated it.
4. Princesses do rebel
Some princesses don’t like rules and social norms. Princess Mary Tudor was married to the elderly French king when she was a teenager. When she was widowed she married her brother’s best friend, Charles Brandon. Princesses are human, remember that.
5. Duty calls
Perhaps the male heir to the throne dies before the king. Now the eldest princess takes up the role as heir. This can be unexpected and world changing but it happens. Empress Matilda of England was named heir after he brother died. Whilst she never took the throne, she answered duty’s call.
6. Badass Bitches
Princesses are no Cinderellas or Sleeping Beauties. Princesses can get shit done. Who needs a prince when a princess has got it handled? Warrior princesses may seem a little Xena to some people but history is full of badass princesses. Read up on Khutulan if you don’t believe me.
7. Not always a happy ending.
Princesses are people. Fairytales don’t always come true. Some princesses find their prince but die like Charlotte, Princess of Wales. Or find their prince and he’s a slimeball like Prince Joffrey in ASOIAF. Read the story of Mary I of England. It reads like a fairytale but has a dark ending.
~My Tumblr Back-Up And Stuffs~ 