The 12 dancing princesses is NOT a "Happy Ending" fairytale
reviews
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reviews 〰️
The 12 dancing princesses is one of my favourite Barbie movie. When I downloaded the Grimm Fairytales ebook off of Project Gutensberg, and saw it included that tale, I had to read it.
Oh boy was I not mentally prepared for it. Pretty much every single character is an awful person to an extent. Let me explain.
the soldier
a questionable quest
I have a hard time considering the soldier a hero. We do not know how old he is, but he does not seem to be quite young. He is said to have fought for long and the oldest sister even makes a remark about how, judging by his state and physical appearance, he would have fallen asleep even without the potion. I assume he would be barely younger than the king.
So this man, who is not so young anymore, hears about a King who wants to know where his daughters sneak off to, and will reward the winner with the hand of the daughter of his choice, as well as the crown. And he does not see any issue with it? The princesses are not in danger, but sure, I guess their father is worried, however if the King considers them old enough to be married off to a stranger, he should also consider them old enough to go out without his constant supervision.
In other words, the soldier’s quest is to help a controlling father rip off the fun from his daughters’ lives and then marry one of them without their consent. Hardly a noble quest to pursue if you ask me.
a happy ending that isn’t earned
So I have established why I consider the quest not fitting for a good person to pursue, but now I would like to address the fact that he does not even earn its completion. The soldier is terrible at sneaking and spying.
He could have taken just leaves from the golden, silver, and diamonds trees, but no, instead he choses to break off a whole branch of each, even after realising the youngest sister noticed the noise the first time. Listen to me. The first branch was noticed, and he still decided ripping out a whole branch was the best course of action two more times. He does not learn from his mistakes and does not try to do better.
During the balls the princesses attend with their prince, he dances too, taking the risk to accidentally bump into someone, and he even drinks directly from the princesses’ glasses! Not only is the absence of liquid noticed and an unnecessary risk, he also reduces his reactivity by consuming alcohol while on a spying mission where his life is on the line!
I will excuse the stepping on the gown because he had to follow them fast, and the getting in the youngest sister’s boat because he then decides to go into the oldest, so there is evolution. But he shows more often than not that hewas not fit for the job.
The only reason the soldier succeeded in his quest is because he had been given an invisible cape by an old woman, which helped cover all his missteps, and because he was tipped off about the enchanted wine that would put him to sleep. Had he not been warned or given that cape, he would never have had his happy ending and would have been executed like the others before him.
the old woman
a fairy godmother or a witch?
I must admit I am very confused about the old woman. She could definitely be considered a fairy godmother. After all, it is only thanks to her that the soldier won his quest, the same way that, Cinderella could only go to the ball because the fairy gave her the dress. So she definitely has all the qualities of a fairy godmother :
good advice “Do not drink the wine offered by the princesses, and pretend to fall asleep.”
magic items “Take this cape that will make you invisible.”.
However, the nature of the “hero” she is helping makes me question if she is a fairy godmother or a witch. Why would she help someone win such a questionable quest? Besides, she is apparently an old dame, and while I am usually not one to judge by appearances, I cannot help but connect it to the fact that, for some reasons, fairytales often put old women on the side of Evil and makes them not to be trusted (which is kind of sad for all our grandmothers out there.)
So to me, the old woman could be a witch, after all, who has an invisible cape just laying in their bags? Especially since the power of invisibility is more often used for nefarious purposes than good ones.
mysterious motives
Why is she helping the soldier? Why is she giving him a magic cape? What did he do to deserve it? The tale does not mention anything he did for her, if she had this cape all along, why give it to him specifically and not the sons of the kings from other kingdoms who lost their lives during the quest? These crown princes were actually needed by their kingdom and died, we do not even know if there were other heirs to replace them, meanwhile this old soldier does not have any responsibilities that make him a priority to be alive.
I am not saying his life has less worth because he is not a royal, nobility has nothing to do with it, I am talking about responsibilities. If you had to chose between a parent of three and a random person who did not have any children/pets to take care of, the parent would be a priority because by helping them you are helping more than one life. The reason why she helps the soldier is very mysterious and not explained in any way. And my problem is, if it is from the goodness of her heart, he was definitely not an ideal candidate.
By the way.
How did she know all of this? How did the old dame know about the wine? Did she know where the princesses were going? How did she get all that information? Was she a spy? Did she work in the castle? None of these questions ever get answered, and because there is so much mystery surrounding that woman, and the questionability of the quest she helps, I have a very hard time trusting her.
the dancing princesses
needed to be rescued, from the King
I guess we could call the sisters the only “good” characters in that tale. If we gloss over the fact they were poisoning the princes to fall asleep, thus making them fail their quests. Now I wouldn’t say they were directly responsible for their deaths, their father was since he was the one gave that ultimatum “Figure out what my daughters are doing or I’ll kill you.” and the princes sall igned up willingly.
So this could be debatable.
Regardless, the princesses could definitely be considered princesses in distress, needed to be rescued from their father. They are not allowed to go out and have fun, and the second they do, the King employs men to discover how they do it and prevent them from doing it again. He kind of has a similar role as Mother Gothel and Frollo towards Rapunzel and Quasimodo. The ultimatim is also huge, “I am hiring these princes to figure out what you twelve are doing behind my back, and if they can’t I’ll have them killed.” That is a huge psychological threat put on them. Although it didn’t seem to affect them that much given the poisoning.
not a happy ending
I do not believe this qualify as a Good Wins ending. The princesses will most probably be forbidden from seeing their princes from the enchanted underground again now that they are discovered, and the oldest sister is being married off to a man she does not love and who is the reason she lost her prince. If anything, I would say this is a story where Evil wins.
the King
The King is a Villain. There is no doubt about it. He keeps his daughter locked up in the castle, and kills a load of princes for failing at a quest. He could have just sent the princes home, no, he decided to kill them. Preventing probably a good chunk of the nearby kingdoms from having heirs, and thus, making their unstable politics easier to take down and conquer. He is a cold-blooded, controlling man, and a Villain.
I don’t have anything else to say. I hope his death was painful.
the princes
illusions or reality?
I really wish the story dwelled more into what this enchanted place was, and the people that lived in it. Is it a place similar to wonderland? Who are these 12 princes? Are they brothers? Are they princes from different kingdoms? What is the name of their kingdom/s? Could the princesses have escaped there and married them?
the true heroes
I believe the enchanted princes to be the true heroes of the story, because they were the one rescuing the princesses from their sad life and bringing love to them. Ultimately, they were also the princes that the dancing princesses were actually in love with.
Or if we take into account no one was good in this fairy tale, maybe it was all a Coraline type of situation and nothing in that enchanted world was to be trusted.
Given that I mostly use stories to escape the harsh realities of the world, I will stick to the Barbie version.
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