At Disney Castle, Gabriel was waiting alongside Silver and Aline to meet a very special guest: the newest protagonist on the Disney family! It was standard to give a proper introduction for newcomers to the Magical World, but this one was special enough that both Silver and Aline begged to be a part of it.
"It's just an introduction, guys, no need to freak out," Gabriel said to his friends.
"Gabriel, you don't understand- it's the newest Disney Princess! This is a big deal!" Aline said, getting so excited that she needed to turn into her cat form to shake off the energy.
"Well, we don't know if Asha is an official princess or not," Silver said.
"Come on: a female lead of the Disney movie in a fantasy kingdom with lots of singing, and it's being released during the 100-year anniversary? She's totally going to be a princess," Aline argued.
"Mirabel isn't a princess, and she fits most of what you just said," Silver pointed out.
"Guys, guys, let's calm down here," Gabriel said, getting between the two. "Let's just wait for our special guest to arrive, then we can have this discussion."
The doors to the room soon opened, revealing a girl with braided black hair pulled to one side of her head with brown eyes and wearing a purple dress. "Introducing Asha!" one of the castle guards said before closing the door.
Asha looked to the trio before giving a polite curtsey. "Thank you for being here for my introduction. I was told it was being done by the Dream Keeper?"
"That's me! The name's Gabriel," Gabriel greeted, holding a hand to her.
Asha looked at him with surprise. "Oh, I didn't know you would be a bird person. I'm still getting used to all the fantastical magic I saw on my way here."
"Yep. The Magical World is pretty great," Silver chuckled. "I'm Silver, by the way, official aid to the Disney Princesses."
"And I'm Aline, Co-Dream Keeper of the Magic Kingdom," Aline greeted, giving a bow to Asha. "It's an honor to meet you, Princess."
"Woah, slow down there. I'm just Asha, not a princess," Asha said.
"For now, maybe, but that could change by the time your movie comes out," Aline shrugged. "Plenty of princesses don't start off as royal but end the movie as one."
"She could also just be a strong female protagonist," Silver rolled his eyes. "I like princesses as much as you do, Aline, but not every girl has to be one."
Gabriel and Asha watched on as the two started bickering. "…They're going to be at that for a while I fear," Gabriel apologized.
"I'm just confused as to why they think I'm a princess," Asha said.
"It's mostly the speculation about your movie, Wish, which hasn't come out yet," Gabriel said. "While I agree with Aline that you'll probably be a princess by the end of the movie, I'm willing to wait until it comes out to find out if the rumor is true or not."
"Do you get a lot of princesses around here?" Asha asked.
"We do have quite a few, but being an Official Disney Princess is also a big deal," Gabriel said. A lightbulb went off in his head as an idea came to mind. "Silver, Aline! How about we explain to Asha here what being a Disney Princess is all about?"
Silver and Aline stopped arguing and smile. "Okay then!" they said as one, quickly straightening up as Gabriel gave a sigh of relief. The raven pulled down a projector screen in the room as Silver and Aline pulled out chairs for everyone, Gabriel snapping his fingers as a PowerPoint presentation appeared on the screen.
"This is the Official Disney Princess crash course!" Gabriel said. "Silver, Aline, you two may answer any questions that Asha has on the topic as I explain it to her, got it?" The two nodded. "Alright then, let's start here-"
The slide changed to show the official lineup of Disney Princesses. "So, who can tell me what it takes to be a princess?"
"You have to wear a dress and have an animal sidekick," Aline replied with a giggle.
"No, no, there's way more to it than that," Silver shook his head. "And for the record, there's currently thirteen Official Disney Princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Moana, and Raya."
"That's a lot of royalty," Asha mused.
"Hm… I feel like that leaves out a few names that should be there," Aline hummed. "I can think of at least five characters that should be on that list, and where are Anna and Elsa? They were in the princess scene from Wreck-It Ralph 2!"
"Well, there are some rules in order to be an "Official" Disney Princess," Gabriel said. "First, you have to have a primary role in a Disney animated movie. Second, you have to be human by the end of the movie. Third, you have to primarily star in the first movie of your series, not a sequel."
"That's why Ariel's daughter, Melody, isn't on the list," Silver said. "Fun fact, by the way: Ariel is the only Disney Princess we've seen have kids!"
"Are there any other rules to become one?" Asha asked.
Gabriel flipped to the next slide. "Yes, but the next set of criteria you only have to meet one of the qualifications to get in: be born royal-"
"That's Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, Merida, Moana, and Raya," Silver chimed in.
"Marry into royalty-"
"That would be Cinderella, Belle, and Tiana," Aline said.
"Or perform a significant act of heroism," Gabriel finished.
"That one is for Mulan," Silver and Aline said at the same time.
"They made a whole rule just for Mulan?" Asha questioned.
Gabriel shrugged. "Mulan is a popular character, and while you want to market all of your most popular female characters together, you do what you can to get Mulan onto that list."
"But what about Anna and Elsa?" Aline asked.
"Ah, that would be because of box office earnings," Silver explained. "You see, Frozen did so well in both movie sales and merchandise that Disney spun it off into its own separate franchise separate from the other princesses. While they can appear alongside the other princesses, they don't have to be marketed with them as a group due to how popular Frozen is."
"Hm… Almost seems backhanded towards the other princesses when you put it like that…" Asha hummed.
"Hey, all of the princesses are great! Anna and Elsa just did so well that they have their own little thing going on. We all still hang out together," Silver defended.
"There are still some ladies on there that feel left out," Aline said.
Gabriel nodded, moving to the next slide. "Now then, while those thirteen are the official princesses, there are a few characters that also qualify due to certain appearances. For instance, Kairi from Kingdom Hearts and Alice from Alice in Wonderland are both Princesses of Heart, meaning they could technically count as Disney Princesses."
"It would be neat for Kairi to be the first Official Disney Princess from a video game," Silver mused.
Gabriel then put up a picture of an anime girl with blonde hair wearing a small silver tiara. "There's also Kilala Reno from the Kilala Princess manga."
"Who?" Silver and Aline said, tilting their heads in confusion.
"She's from an official Disney manga where she uses the power of magic gemstones to visit six Disney princesses in order to save her kingdom from evil," Gabriel explained. "She's pretty obscure, but she fits all the criteria for a princess."
"Now I have to see about inviting her to our meetings…" Silver muttered.
"I'll also bring up Vanellope Von Sweetz here, since she isn't part of the official lineup but was featured alongside the princesses in her movie's sequel," Gabriel added in.
"They all sound like interesting people to meet," Asha nodded. "But since you mentioned the rules for what it takes to be an Official Disney Princess, is it safe to say that there are other characters that could be part of the lineup but didn't fit the qualifications?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Silver nodded. "The most obvious ones are Princess Eilonwy and Queen Kida. Both of them meet all of the qualifications, but their movies didn't do too well in the box office, so they didn't get to join the team."
"I think Jane Porter from Tarzan should have been included personally," Aline chimed in. "I mean, Tarzan in "King of the Jungle," so marrying him should count as marrying royalty."
"There's also Giselle from Enchanted, though I think she doesn't count because her movie was mostly live action," Gabriel added.
"Oh, and we can't forget about Sophia and Elena," Silver snapped his fingers. "Those two would totally count, they're just from TV shows instead of movies."
"They count in my heart," Aline said. "Oh, I also know that Tinker Bell was original part of the lineup, but she got dropped at some point."
"To be fair, I don't recall her being a princess, but she has done a few acts of heroism," Silver hummed. "As for a few others that could count but didn't make the cut: Wendy Darling from Peter Pan, Esmerelda from Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Meg from Hercules."
"Don't forget Queen Nala and Maid Marian! I can't believe there's a rule saying they have to be human. Those two should totally count!" Aline exclaimed.
"So you have animal royalty as well," Asha asked.
Gabriel nodded. "Yes, Nala is Queen of Pride Rock, and Maid Marian is royalty of Nottingham Forest. Oh, you could also add Princess Atta and Princess Dot from A Bug's Life to that list of animal royalty as well."
"Don't forget that you're dating the Queen of the Hyenas," Silver pointed out.
"You're dating a queen? How did that happen?" Asha gasped.
"It's a long story involving an elephant graveyard, the place where forgotten things go, and dancing under the stars," Gabriel replied. "Anyways, I think there are a few more royals we could mention, though they come from Marvel, Star Wars, and Fox so they didn't make the cut either."
"Princess Leia is one of those, obviously," Aline said. "She's an awesome freedom fighter and leader of the Resistance!"
"And since Disney acquired Fox, Anastasia could be considered a Disney princess, which is ironic since the movie was made to compete with Disney during its release," Silver said. "What about Marvel, though? Are you talking about Princess- I mean, Queen Shuri?"
"She could be considered, yes, but I'm actually talking about Gamora," Gabriel said.
"Who's Gamora?" Asha asked.
"She's a super cool space warrior known as "The Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy" and is a Guardian of the Galaxy," Gabriel explained. "I only bring her up because in the cartoon series there was an episode where Gamora got sent to an alternate reality where she was a princess. It was even animated by the team that made the Tangled TV series."
Asha looked to the trio and smiled. "That was a lot to cover but thank you for explaining that to me. I'm still not sure if I'm a princess, though…"
"Well, let's go over the criteria," Aline suggested. "You're a human, you're from a Disney animated movie, and you're a lead character not from a sequel."
"And while we don't know if you're born royal, and you're probably not going to marry into royalty since Disney has been shying away from that, you could always become the second princess to get in with a significant act of heroism," Silver said. "And even if you don't join the official lineup, that doesn't stop many of the Disney girls from joining the princesses on hang outs here in the Magical World. Mirabel and her sisters hang out with us all the time."
"Hm… You know, the Madrigal family are the leaders of their town, so you could technically could Mirabel as a princess like how Moana and Pocahontas are chieftain's daughters," Aline pointed out.
"At this point, I think Encanto might be going the Frozen route of being its own thing with how big the movie is," Gabriel chuckled. "Oh, but there are three more important factors, Asha: Do you were a dress?"
Asha looked down at her clothes. "Yes…?"
"Do you like singing?"
"I am planned to have a few musical numbers," Asha nodded.
"And finally: do you have an animal sidekick?"
"I have a pet goat," Asha replied.
"Well then, even if you don't make the official lineup, you'll be a princess in our hearts," Gabriel said with a smile. "Now then, let's all go get something to eat! I'm starving."
As the group left for food, Silver turned to Aline and said, "I still think the lineup we have right now is perfectly fine."
"Oh come on, you know that at least Meg should be part of the team," Aline argued.
"There they go again…" Gabriel sighed as the two started their squabbling once more.
Author's Note
A short chapter this week, but one I've wanted to do for a while. Who does and doesn't count as an Official Disney Princess is a fascinating topic, especially once you learn all the rules that go into the consideration (box office is a big factor, let me tell you…). This chapter goes over the rules as well as who is and isn't in the lineup, so I hope you learned something today!
We also meet Asha, the protagonist from the upcoming animated movie "Wish" that I'm really excited for. I hope you all get a chance to see it because it's the big 100-year anniversary movie for Disney, and it's going to have a short at the beginning where a bunch of characters from practically every Disney movie all meet and interact with each other "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" style. Asha hasn't been confirmed to be a princess yet, but I have a feeling she might be our next addition to the lineup from what we've seen of the movie so far.
As for myself, I feel like the characters most deserving of joining the official lineup would be Meg from Hercules, Jane from Tarzan, Kida from Atlantis, Kairi from Kingdom Hearts (because it'd be cool to have a video game princess in there), and Maid Marian from Robin Hood (because the "has to be a human" rule is silly- let Marian join the group!). I do consider most of the "unofficial" princesses as part of the lineup in my heart, though, and just want to see all of the girls hanging out together.
Next time will take us into October, which means it's time for some Halloween chapters! I have plans this year to give you all three spook-tacular stories: one with Gabriel in the Magical World, one with Ray in the Gamesphere dimension, and one with Azrael in the Epic Universe that will be a payoff to the cliffhanger from the Dimensional Cruise arc with a two-part Halloween Horror Nights event!
So, in the next chapter: Gabriel and friends team up with Moon Knight when the Devour of Souls is unleashed at California Adventure!