The Beginning - The World of Ever After High

The Beginning is before the actual first storyline and outlines everything up until the end of what is called Chapter 1.

1. The World of Ever After High
2. Apple's Tale: The Story of a Royal
3. Raven's Tale: The Story of a Rebel
4. The Tale of Legacy Day

No other chapters get this benefit, but in fairness the conflict is more or less non existent after Chapter 1 anyway.

Here is the episode to refresh yourself!;

The two narrators (who were probably intended to have a much bigger role later down the line, for reasons you'll see eventually), start out with outlining the basic reason the school exists - children who are the descendants (Heh.) of fairy tale students go to this school to learn how to take up the mantle and follow in the footsteps of their famous parent. 

Can you tell which of the characters in these shots will end up with names and dolls?

Come to think of it, I don't think we ever see the girl on the right, by the door, closest to the EAH logo again, even as a background character. 

Nor do we see the dude talking to the girl on the right again.
(I know who she is but I'm trying to pretend I'm NEW at this!)

Which characters get dolls? If you said "The girls in clear focus with detailed outfits," you'd be partially right!

"It's a special tool that will help us later." 

This is the first named character in the franchise - Raven Queen, daughter of The Evil Queen. Her destiny is to be evil and she doesn't want to. Hilariously, the male narrator blurts out "Well, can you BLAME her? Who wants to be the MOST HATED person in the WORLD?" & I'm glad SOMEONE gets it. She's considered a Rebel.

This does not sit well with the Royals, led by every visual trope for "goodness" up there, Apple White, who is the Daughter of Snow White. She's concerned that she won't get the fairytale life she was promised as a child.

There's something to be said about being concerned that your life, which has been the same as your mother's life and her mother before her and dating back two hundred years (There is something in the canon, be it this show or the books, that says Ever After High was established in like the 1800s) might fly off of the rails, but in the beginning, Apple is incredibly short-sighted.

Neither girl is my favorite, honestly.  That honor goes to the girls of another story. We'll get there. 

The episode continues to basically reiterate the same information, now talking about Apple's Royal friends;

Me when I go to the movies.  

• Briar Beauty, Daughter of Sleeping Beauty. Since she will sleep for a hundred years, she likes to live her life to the fullest, by competing in dangerous extreme sports and partying late into the night - but she's totally fine with sleeping her life away! Really!

• Ashlynn Ella, Daughter of Cinderella. Kind, hard working, and loves animals almost as much as shoes. There were actually a series of short stories that were available for free - I only remember her's and two other characters, but Ashlynn's acknowledged the fear she had, knowing that her mother would meet an untimely death.

• Blondie Lockes, Daughter of Goldilocks. Strangely, besides her catchphrase of "Just Right!" (Which is also the name of her webshow), her story does not get a lot of attention in any medium of the franchise. The diaries and books emphasize that she's insecure about not being a princess and kind of puffs herself up to be more important than her reality.

You're going to see that many girls in this franchise look similar to Blondie and Apple.  But not with Raven's friends;

• Cedar Wood, daughter of Pinocchio, can never lie, wants to be a real girl, likes painting and art.  She's on the rebel side because she does think that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want, and she just happens to want to be human and not easily flammable.

• Cerise Hood, daughter of Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. That's not a spoiler, they point it out.  This is yet another storyline that gets dropped after one episode but somehow comes back, I kid you not, two years later when another character comes calling.

• Madeline Hatter, daughter of The Mad Hatter of Wonderland. Yes, there are Wonderland characters, and somehow the most irritating one ended up being the sidekick to one of our main characters. Most of the others are fairly chill. 

 The short stories and books point out that Raven's mother damned Wonderland, causing I guess the most important Wonderlanders to escape to the world of Ever After High and the rest were left to their own devices. I don't remember if it's said WHAT the Evil Queen legitimately did to Wonderland, but years later, there's a special that takes place there, and everything seems reasonably fine, so...what?

They also (very briefly) outline some of the princes that the background girls swoon over. Then the male narrator hurriedly points out that there's "SO much more to say!" during the last few seconds of the video - and I will spare you the plot bunnies that do not go anywhere and just conclude.

It's an extremely rushed setup - I think we could have done without the aside glances to the other characters for now, especially considering we won't see many of them outside of Briar and Maddie for a few episodes. It was enough to get people excited back in the day, a promise of a serious story that hinted at the following: Changing your life might mean welcoming your death.