Chapter 2: True Hearts' Day [All Parts]

The first real special and not extended webisode. 

Spring is in the air at Ever After High, and following their true heart's desires is the only thing on students' minds. Or it was, until C.A. Cupid came across The History of True Hearts Day book and rallied the students to spellebrate the long-lost True Hearts Day holiday.

Welcome to Spring! The season of romance! And brief character catch-up introductions!

•  Ashlynn and Hunter are in the forest! 
• Apple is walking around being admired by every boy within arm's length.
• Another girl is behind her and gets ignored by everyone except a goat. 

Don't be rude to the goat.

Who is that? Why, that's Duchess Swan, daughter of the Swan Princess, though truth be told they never really say verbally that she is the daughter of Odile. I mean, she would kind of have to be, right?

She's unlikable because she has olive toned skin, because that's the visual coding we're working with still in this franchise, even though her appearance is a lot cooler.

Raven approaches some background characters (Though I do know that the one with purple hair is a one of the people who worked on the show. Unfortunately, she didn't actually voice the lines this character has in the show), who run in fear, leaving Raven alone at the table and Dexter lurking in the doorway, looking at her...and Cupid slightly behind, looking at him.

This gets annoying.

Dex is going to give Raven flowers! Isn't that nice...

Well, not anymore. 

Cupid is sitting in the library doodling in her notebook - and here is where we break from convention. Now characters have these introduction asides, but only for this special. Mind, with the exception of Way Too Wonderland, there's not a special that introduces a character that actually sticks around and goes to the school.

I like these introductions. There's a tiny song motif and hand drawn scribbly art. It's youthful and charming.

It would have been really nice and kept with the story book theme if they kept this up through out the entire franchise.

Dexter comes over with a forbidden book he found, presumably the week prior, as he says that the Evil Steplibrarians made him catalouge all the forbidden books.

A book! In a Library! Oh, wonders, never cease.

"The History of True Hearts Day?" This is good news, and Cupid goes to tell Headmaster Grimm, who is playing with toys in his office.

I actually think this sequence is hilarious.

True Hearts' Day is about, you guessed it, following your true heart's desire. But apparently, it hasn't been celebrated in years. Did someone update the book with that information? 

Grimm doesn't want the holiday celebrated. "Some students might see it as a sign, to break from their destinies. You are not to talk about this. To anyone. Do you understand?"

So why is the book even in the school? Take it out. Sure it was 'forbidden', but that doesn't mean anything if it could be found. It was intended to be more of a 'take a chance on love' thing than abandoning destinies, but if it's taken out of mainstream circulation, you could just remove it. There's a giant attic full of stuff students aren't supposed to touch that we'll get to down the line. Put it there! 

This is what happens when the status quo is never challenged; Obvious things are obvious and no one does anything about them. But that's more a failing of human nature than of this show.

Cupid promises not to say anything. Keyword say; So she does charades to explain it to the best party-planner in school;

The best girl.

Briar, of course, is all for it 

Book Canon Alert! While True Hearts' Day is mildly alluded to in the story, Grimm does say something akin to "We've already lost our Evil Queen, and I don't want to lose our Sleeping Beauty too," on an unrelated note.

Back to The Enchanted Forest, where Sparrow has been roped in by Duchess to look for Hunter and Ashlynn.

Since it's never really bought up again in the cartoons (But it is in Duchess' book, Next Top Villain), here's her deal.

While Duchess likes the prestige and title of being a fairytale princess, she and everybody else knows that her destiny is probably not going to be a happy one; either she will die as the good swan or live as the evil one, and she likes to think of herself as good.

Unsurprisingly, we never get any kind of a resolution to her inner conflict, or anything else about her,  really, after her book. She's my fourth favorite just on appearance and attitude alone. The only difference between her and my favorite character, Faybelle (who she is ""canonically"" best friends with - I quote that because after Duchess' diary entry, it's literally never alluded to again.) - is that she has a bit of a conscious, and Duchess really doesn't.

Both of these girls get full fledged books, but their friendship is non existent in them. Way to go, Mattel.

"It's not like we're just going to find them in the middle of some romantic moment." You underestimate how stupid your classmates are, Sparrow.

Yeah, she's Odile's daughter. At least she doesn't die. I guess she just pretends to be good after having stolen the prince and gotten married? I'm struggling to find what exactly is the bad ending she gets when she lives.

Duchess basically calls them out with some of the best voice acting to come out of the show.

Ashlynn begs Duchess not to tell, but the latter says that she will. "This is going to knock you out of the Royal Rankings!" Which is never alluded to by anyone else in the franchise. Not even minutes later.

You know, this franchise could have been a lot more engaging if the students really could lose their destiny to another student, but the concept is never expanded upon. So this is basically a game in Duchess' imagination that she can steal a better destiny for herself. That's kind of sad. 

Also if she really wanted the Cinderella destiny, she would die prematurely after having a daughter, so what is the problem with Duchess' given destiny again? The Swan Princess was never a story I read too often so maybe I'm missing the finer details, but 

evil wins ---> she'll be evil but she'll be alive.

If she wants to be in a story where she is a Good Princess, sure, but still picking Cinderella's was a silly move. But it doesn't matter, since she can't legitimately steal it anyway.

---

Cupid has her own Mirrorcast - one about relationship advice. I always liked the idea of students being free to make their own shows and broadcast them to the school. This gets expanded on later in Ginger Breadhouse's book.

I love Briar.

If you wanted to be anonymous, you could have just sent in a letter or disguised your voice - pixellating your face like this is To Catch A Predator and then facetiming Cupid is stupid.

Honestly Cupid is a little dense, I'm surprised she didn't say "Dexter?" loud enough for her listeners to hear like how she said "You have a crush on Raven Queen?!"

Dexter says how he gets tounge-tied, and yet again, Cupid tells a boy to simply write down his feelings. She puts aside her own feelings for what her crush (thinks) he wants. Cupid is another character who ends up shoved out of the narrative later on after Through The Woods. It was probably intended for her to go off to another school (There was a trademark for Cosmic High, which I would have 100% liked to see) to be a bridge yet again for a new franchise.

Back in Book End, Apple makes her first speaking appearance. She's all a glimmer about True Hearts Day, "finding our pre-determined princes,",  going into the Glass Slipper, where Ashlynn sits sadly.

"Oh, sweetie, what's the matter? You can tell me. We are best friends forever after, after all."

"I'm not so sure you'd understand," Ashlynn says.

If you can't trust your friends, who can you trust?

Meanwhile, back at school, Dexter has left Raven a love poem, only signing it D. Charming.

And when Daring walks by and greets them, Raven assumes that it's from him and not Dexter.

 I mean, sure, why not. Not like he regularly talks to you anyway despite being all - confident and stuff. We need manufactured drama here.

---

Part 2;

With Duchess Swan about to flip the script on Ashlynn Ella and Hunter Huntsman's romance, Huntlynn decides to enlist the help of their friend 'til THE END Cedar Wood to see if they should take matters into their own hands.

I love Cedar's intro motif.

Ashlynn and Hunter contact the only person who they can trust about them as a couple, Cedar, and the three talk in Hocus Latte, with Cedar advising them to come clean before Duchess does.

"It's-a me!"

Cupid, Briar, and Hopper, in his final meaningful appearance, are sneaking around, setting up the True Hearts' Day dance under Grimm's nose.

Pink Power

Duchess is trying to get Blondie to broadcast news of the Huntlynn relationship on her Mirrorcast, but Blondie is adamant not to.

Also, I genuinely love this look and gesture by Duchess. "Like I CARE about the right thing,"

She has journalistic integrity; Good. That carries over from her Signature Diary, where she thinks that Cerise is plotting to ruin the Legacy Day dance.

A tangent; There are two things in her diary that are of interest -

1. Holly is introduced yet again. She and her twin Poppy won't be in the visual medium until episode twelve of this season.

And two;

During breakfast, I asked Briar what happened at Book End, but she really didn't want to talk about it. In fact, she and Apple weren't talking at all. Usually they're both so royally ready to embrace the day, but they couldn't even look at each other.

Basically, when Blondie put the idea into Briar's head that Cerise was trying to sabotage efforts, Briar escaped from Orientation and took Apple with her for some fun, and both were ratted out by Duchess to Grimm.

I mean, I'm glad the animation isn't 1:1 from the diaries, but what's in the diaries is way more interesting and (a given, really) personality-filled.

GODMOTHER, WELL, anyway back to the episode i'm supposed to be reviewing;

Before Duchess or Blondie can reveal the scoop, Huntlynn does it themselves, with a wink and a nod to Duchess that's the G-Rated version of "Fuck you."

People are stunned, some are happy, but Apple is... not.

"But you're a Royal. And he's a Rebel!" And here is where the dichotomy gets messed up again. Nothing said that Hunter didn't want his destiny in the visual medium. In his short story, he doesn't like eating animals and frees them from traps. In the tales he's in, 'huntsman' wasn't necessarily someone who went about hunting animals so much as a general woodskeeper. 

Blondie asks for people's reactions;

• Raven is fine with it, "They decided to rewrite their destinies. What's wrong with that?", once again, everyone involved here assumes that a teenage romance is the end-all be all of life.
• Apple runs in and throws a tantrum on the bed behind her.
• "Keeping secrets is hard," says Cerise
• "They're from two different worlds," says Daring, while casually fighting a dragon.
• Apple has gotten over her fit and speaks reasonably; "If they don't follow their destinies, their books could close. Forever." 

Of course, Apple is wrong considering Raven closed her own book and lived to tell the tale, but whatever.

This is Mrs. Her Majesty, The White Queen, who I wish we saw more of. There's bits of her in Lizzie's Diary (Which is a very good diary).

Also for the longest time, I thought this was a hallway and that she was just handing out papers there for some reason; It's a classroom. The visuals are really creative in this franchise.

One thing I really, really like here is that Apple is hurt that Ashlynn did not trust her enough to tell her about the relationship. For maybe two minutes, Apple sees how trying to force her friends to stick to a dichotomy would strain relationships with her as well.

Of course, she still doesn't realize that forcing people to live the lives she thinks is best for them is a fruitless (ha) endeavor. "I don't want to see something bad happen to someone I care so much about."

The problem with this franchise at this point is that everybody sees that Apple is wrong except her, and it's no fun at all following a protagonist who is well meaning but naive and, frankly, as dumb as a doorknob. She doesn't even try to understand or emphasize that maybe everyone's futures aren't as great as hers. That's the climax of this special, that she doesn't get it and thinks you're on a one way path to death, but she'll support you.

 And even if she was right, it's not her life.

There's more Pink Squad shenanigans. You don't care about this.

Ashlynn is walking in Book End, and looks in the Tower Hair Salon to see Apple surrounded by some friends, including Poppy O'Hair on the left.

Duchess comes by and is pleased with how Ashlynn revealed her secret so that she could take her Cinderella destiny when IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

Ashlynn thinks she made a mistake when her friends aren't happy for her but the mean girl is...

Bonus Humphrey Dumpty. You know, as I haven't rewatched these earlier ones in years, maybe there is a chance that we see Faybelle earlier than Chapter 3?

So they break up.

I guess it's because I come from the adult perspective / someone who has read all the books and diaries and kept up with the franchise since it's reveal in 2013, but there's never any mystery or stakes here about permanent repercussions until they decide to throw the destiny nonsense out the window. I guess it'd be better as a child.

---

Part 3

All the students are getting fairest for the most hexcellent school dance, though Duchess Swan has a sneaky plan under her wing that could blow the house down on the big event.

We open with seeing the first set of dolls intended to be for sale; The Getting Fairest Line, a sleep-preparation line that came with a shelf and three accessories. It was really stinking cute.

Ashlynn goes to put her make-up on...and sees a picture on her mirror; Her and Hunter. Now she's sad again :(

Unfortunately, only the main quartet got a doll in this line. It would have been perfect to put these out as a continual line for 16$ or so, get rid of the shelves and have an accessory.

There's a Blondie that we see in the visual media, and she's the one I wanted most of all. I'll show you when we get to that point.

They're sneaking out of the dorms! Cupid comes to get them.

Duchess has plans to ruin the dance by letting Grimm know about it. She tries to enlists Sparrow's help, but he says that he's done, because no one told him the location because he's friends with Duchess.

"Someone must know."

"You really think anyone is going to tell you?"

And then she spots Cedar....

Two background characters enter the party, and we see it's really rocking;

Ash is really not having a cool time. There's also quite a few backgrounders listed that are going to appear in the next episode. We'll get there though.

Briar gets Raven's attention. Guess she isn't mad about Legacy Day anymore.

They talk about the DJ - Melody Piper, Daughter of Professor Pied Piper. This is her first appearance, and she gets one webisode near the end of the franchise.

"Now, follow me!"

Duchess goes to Grimm's office, where he and the rest of the teachers are filming a .... I dunno, quarterly earnings or statistics video. Sounds cool to me.

And apparently there's no real video recording equipment in this world and everyone uses Mirrorpads. Cool.

 She rats the students out and he tells her to show him where.

Back at the dance, Raven confronts Daring about the letter he didn't write. He's very cordial to her, I guess the royal kids really don't care that she 'ruined' their future. They're smart enough to know better, unlike their leader.

Cupid goes to talk to Dexter, who is lamenting that his brother gets all the girls. You're the one who half-assed addressing a letter, kid.


She tells him to stop comparing himself! And puts her hand on his shoulder!....which Raven, after realizing her error, sees, as she was about to go confess her feelings in turn.

"I'm too late." God, am I glad this gets cleared up immediately so we can continue on to the over arching plot that doesn't make a lick of sense.


Meanwhile, Duchess is leading Grimm through...a forest? What's going on?

Meanwhile meanwhile, Cupid tells the dancers about the legend of True Hearts Day - there was a tree. A Hearts tree, and it bloomed, and the ancestors gave the blossoms to people on the titular holiday, and Cupid has some fake hearts (Well.) to share with the partygoers. She tells them to "Give your heart to someone special!"

These two stay together for the duration of the series. It's a neat detail.

Ashlynn interrupts the speech and says that her true heart says she loves Hunter, and who gives a flying fairy fart about her 'destiny', and declares herself a Rebel.

Apple randomly shows up out of nowhere, and Ashlynn apologizes. Girl, who cares about Apple White.

"I might be worried about you, and I might think you're doing the wrong thing, but we'll always be friends, no matter what."

Aww, isn't that....some more of that take benevolence I talked about entries and entries ago. She might as well have said "Hate the sin, love the sinner." I guess we could say that she's slowly starting to at least tolerate it, which is still bunk.

No wonder this franchise failed; By the time Mattel realized they made their lead downright unlikeable despite her "super good" appearance, it was too late.

Cerise asks where Cedar is. Well, good question...she was lied to, because everyone knew that Duchess would be able to get the information from her. If Cedar didn't know it wasn't the truth, she could say it. That's pretty clever.

Duchess and Grimm find Sparrow and his band practicing, not a party, and the girl gets detention.

The dance ends.

All in all, this special did nothing much more than truly reinforce that the 'conflict' isn't going anywhere, and had our first Royal girl go to the other side. We had real introductions for Duchess and Sparrow, who will be minimized after this season.