Chapter 2: Thronecoming / And The Thronecoming Queen Is...

On this very special school holiday, life is turned upside down when a Royal and Rebel switch sides… and the Storybook of Legends goes missing.

Thronecoming! Possibly my very favorite of the specials. In the doll world, this was another 'super expensive froofy dress' line, and frankly I loved every bit of it. I had Cupid (I still have those cool wings though), and still own Raven and that gigantic book playset with the Briar. Every so often I will take it out, unfold it, and stage pictures, because it really is just amazing.

This one clocks in at almost a full hour, and we're treated to the slightly extended theme song. Fun fact, for the final special, Epic Winter, I'm pretty sure they replace it with that 'Power Ballad' Power Princess Shining Bright.

We open on a parade through Book End, where we see students on floats that signify their stories...except Daring, who is dressed for the Bookball game!


Bonus pretty brown princesses.

Back at school in a flash forward, Dexter says that all the Thronecoming Court voting is online - but Daring is sure that he will win Thronecoming King.

Apple sees Raven and points out that she voted for her - a real, civil conversation that doesn't involve Apple being pushy. Nice! Raven is this called to the Headmaster's office.

Grimm offers her a dragon-egg omelette. That's probably quite a big omelette. Or just a name. I hate to think they eat dragon embryos. He asks how her float is going, and she says fine. So I guess the opening was a flash...forward and this is a flash back. Awkward placement.

"Why are you being so nice to me? Ever since I didn't sign the book on Legacy Day," Raven fidgets, in what is some really nice animation. "I always thought you saw me as, well, trouble."

He laughs - of course he didn't! - before saying that the Storybook of Legends is taken out and displayed to the public, and that, well, she could sign it then -

Of course, Raven declines and leaves, prompting Grimm to pick up a picture of him and Giles as children and trigger a flashback of them racing to a tree, ending with those words that damn every brotherly friendship from here to kingdom come - "We're always gonna be best friends, aren't we?"

Spoiler: You end up locked in a library. Which is where we return back to, Giles' library, where he's watching the preparations. "The door is open!" ....

Meanwhile, in their dorms, Ashlynn and Briar are preparing their celebrations - Ash goes to work on her float, and Briar is sewing up something for her dress...with a needle.

She pricks herself, realizes what she's done a second too late...

Blondie is walking into the Charmitorium, where decorating is happening, with boxes of pizza for her classmates.

Holly, always so irritatingly one track, goes moony-eyed over the guys, who are talking about the Bookball game. "Don't you just love it when they act all heroic?"


Then it cuts to Dexter saying that they're never going to win against Beanstalk High. Daring tells him to stop worrying! After all, how hard is it to beat a bunch of beans?....until Hunter tells him that they're not facing beans, they're facing giants.

"Well - then we are in a lot of trouble! Aren't we?" He chuckles. It legitimately made me laugh!

Cerise comes over and offers to try out because she's fast - but hur hur she's a girl!

Apple is building a float. You know, schools in media always seemed far cooler than IRL. Between this and X Middle School and Monster High, reality fucking blows.

Anyway, Raven compliments her float, and Apple says that it involves the tree that grows the apple that she will be poisoned with by her. "Or, might be..." and adds that Raven will come around after the other grows exasperated.

Why does anyone like you, Apple? Oh, because most of the rest of the fairy tale world is also dumb as donkey shit.

Raven finally tells her that she is being selfish. There we go! The crowd gasps, and Apple herself is surprised by it, probably never having got feedback about her personality ever before. There's a really cool bit of music that kicks in here. You know, you can find a fair amount of resources around about the art design and concepts - "fun" fact, Briar was initially just as pale and same-faced as Apple/Blondie/O'Hairx2 - but I don't think I've ever heard the soundtrack listed anywhere.

Apple comes back with that manipulative nonsense, saying she wants her to sign the book so that nothing bad (besides Raven turning evil, I guess) happens to the people she loves - "Including you."

It's a small detail, but I do like how often the girls say that they love their friends or family in this show.

A NICE ROOM!

Ashlynn goes back to her dorm - where Briar is still asleep, and wakes her up, saying that she missed the Float Building Party, and Briar breaks down, finally realizing that she will sleep for a hundred years and miss quality times with her friends and family. Ashlynn says that Briar had not signed the book yet, and that she herself regrets doing so - "I'm saying...you have choices."

Brilynn 2017

Parallel-y, Raven is asking herself if she did the wrong thing...

The next day, Baba Yaga is taking a class into the forest with her chicken-house.

Does it eat food?

The crowd doesn't even show their entire class? Not even every student who has been introduced so far is here.

She has taken them to Heritage Hall. Some of the fairytales are placed in windows in the hall;




Briar's mother looks more like Apple, the Evil Queen (while probably in what is honestly a very poor  disguise here) doesn't look like that, and Pinocchio...is pretty cool. Considering The Blue Fairy ends up as a character, that probably could have been more detailed on her as well, but she was probably a twinkle of a copyrighted name when this was released.

The parents left their students gifts - Duchess is especially happy about this, and considering her mother is a swan, it makes sense.


Blondie gets heeled running shoes.

Cerise gets an electronic picnic basket, which is honestly kind of cool. Also;

Does Ever After At Large think that a random stranger is her father? Then again, it doesn't seem like the spouses of fairy tale subjects get that much attention.

Briar gets a neck pillow.

Cedar gets what are called Revealer Rays - and immediately, they out Duchess' dress as fake, saying that it isn't a real Hans Christian Dior lmao that is clever.

Raven simply gets a coin to put in a wishing well...throwing in the coin, she wants to know what happens to her friends if she doesn't sign the Storybook.

Grimm is there, manipulating the outlook to be this Fury Road esque world where the Princesses are in shambles and the Stepsisters ride dragons and go after the girls...? That could happen no matter what.

The imminent threat of the cancellation of your franchise is closer than it appears.

Raven doesn't like it and runs away. Lucky for us, this wishing well was convienetly placed near a cave Milton and Grimm explored as kids, and we are treated to another flashback, where Milton does not believe the stories and goes to explore an Ogre's cave.

Raven goes from group to group, looking for Apple - she finds her during a council meeting (Hey, it did come back), where Cerise is advocating for "Meat Days" in the Castleteria.

"I want to sign The Storybook of Legends."

"Whoa!" *Knight is crisped to death*

Grimm is happy she sees the situation from their point of view, which has no legitimate backing besides a manipulated image from a Mirrorpad. I mean, we all know that in the end nothing will have changed - Raven will not have signed - but still. About three people in this world have critical thinking skills.

We see reactions from other students;

• Blondie is happy because it's a big scoop.
• Ashlynn is sad. She thought there was a real possibility of change. Keep in mind that not everyone signed yet, and someone else could still be brave enough to buck the trend. Milton can't manipulate them all.
• Duchess squeals, "This changes everything!" although it doesn't change jack shit for her.
• "This changes nothing," Says Cerise.
• Briar pretends to be happy, but she's not. "I"ll sleep...for a hundred years," YOU can buck the trend, sis!

The girls are now getting ready for Thronecoming with GIANT DRESSES, half of which were never sold as dolls. Whee!

They're based on the motifs of the pets the girls have. Duchess owns a pet swan - I wonder if that's her mother and she just doesn't know. Cedar has...I'm not sure let's see - ah, a 'wooden cuckoo bird named Clockwork' that is literally the first time I'm hearing of that.

Ashlynn has a phoenix named Sandella, Apple has a fox named Gala, and Briar has a Unicorn named Divacorn. If you thought that was stupid, Cupid has a pegasus named Peggy.

I'm surprised they never quite tried to push the pets more. Make it like a 'oh look, give this to the little 4 year olds until they're old enough to play with the dolls' like Poppy has a damn squirrel monkey. Holly has a lion cub that's enchanted to stay young forever. That's demented. Let Rapunzel have a giant lion in her tower!

Apple is thrilled - "It's like my birthday and New Chapter Day and True Hearts Day all wrapped into one!"

New Chapter Day is apparently either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. As someone born on December 31st, I would not like to have been born on "New Chapter Day".

 Anyway, Briar is miffed

And then she rightfully tells Apple to shut up, that following your destiny is not easy for everybody, how everyone thinks she just likes to party. No one ever considered that she would lose all her friends and be alone and sleeping.

"We all have our part to play."
"Easy for you to say, Apple. You get poisoned for, what, like a week?" 

Fucking obliterated.

Apple is sorry she's upset. Not "I can see how tough that will be for you." And Briar says that maybe she doesn't want to sign the book now.

 She's a rebel princess, she's the best,

She's a ball of lightning in a hot pink dress.

We return to Milton's flashback; In the cave, an ogre is suggested to show up, Milton runs, leaving Giles shaking in fear in the cave.

Back in Book End, the floats (all three) are showing up in the Thronecoming parade, commentated by one Lance Charming of Ever Action News, which is a pretty cool pun. He looks a bit like Daring and Dexter, but shouldn't he be out there being a generic king?

He is nothing if not generic.

At the end of the route, Grimm says that Raven is going to sign the book - Cedar, wearing her Revealer Rays, says that the book is a fake!

It's Sports Hexillustrated? 

I appreciate Raven wanting to keep her word and sign the right book, so she refuses to.

Grimm is trying to play it off as a joke, but why isn't he concerned? He's not concerned because he knew it was a fake all along. And he knows who took it.

Ashlynn and Briar are back in their dorm, both relieved that the Storybook is fake...until they realize that Raven will probably go look for the real one.

Sure enough, Raven, Maddie, and Apple go find Giles, and we get yet another flashback to Giles and Milton as children, where Milton is chastised by his father - "The story -!", "I know, I know, I'm sorry..."

Giles is alive so I guess I don't see the real ... point. The story could have been a little more....permanent on that front.

It's Bookball game time! And when the giants show up, with toe protectors (because all giants have a universal weak spot of their little toes, of course), that puts a hole in the EAH Boys non existent plan and Sparrow goes running and singing off the field.

I feel bad for you, son.

As the team gets crushed (literally), Raven, Maddie, Apple, and Cedar leave the game, with Briar and Ashlynn following them. Everyone goes to Heritage Hall, where the clue Giles left them leads. Cedar's glasses show that the Storybook is in the Storybook itself.

Daring asks for Cerise's help in the Bookball game. Not a bad sequence, but not part of the main story. Moving on.

Blondie has also been spying on them, and unlocks the GIANT Storybook of Legends because Raven and Apple didn't realize that the book was locked period....somehow.

Briar and Ashlynn (and Cupid), show up, and the former gets an "I can't let you do that, Raven." because, once again, no one is really concerned with a girl losing the lifelong friends she has. It's a very "Whoever wins, we lose" situation for Briar and Duchess, isn't it?

They all jump into the book.

It looks like a squiggly thing in the human body.

There are eight books for eight girls, and a page of the real Storybook is hidden in each one, so let's get with the fetch questing!

Back in Giles' study...

That's not The Evil Queen. That's Brooke Page, Daughter of the Narrators. And apparently she's just a logo with a real body lol how weird is that.


We start with Cedar Wood and the Three Bears.

Then Raven White;

Followed by Ashnocchio;

Cupidella

Cupid got some really nice one-shot looks. 

Alice LookaLike in Wonderland;

Imagine what Way Too Wonderland Blondie would have looked like. Boring.

Cupid's not really part of a fairytale so...here's Maddie With a Weapon. If it doesn't sound like i'm saying much, there's truly not much to say. It's a bunch of brief glances.

Sleeping Apple in what is actually some legit uncanny imagery;

"Don't you want this destiny, Briar?"

 "I see your point."

 And Briar as The Evil Queen.

Back at the Bookball game, Cerise royally hands everyone their ass.

Back in the book, most of the girls have found their pages except our Core three Princesses. Raven gets hers by stealing it from the witch, Briar just shows up and goes "Wow Raven, your destiny sucks." As if the information was new.

Apple fell asleep in Briar's story, and with voice acting that is far too good for the kind of person Apple is, Briar insists on helping her because "She's my best friend!"

Oddly, this is not the last time we see Briar's story in a special. She gets attacked by....a tree spirit? That's scary!

Briar gets the page, saves Apple (Who is shocked and thrilled, honestly, with how Apple was acting, she should be good and damn well shocked that Briar saved her, but they are supposedly BFFA).

The pages are retrieved and they are transported to Giles library...the pages weren't from the book, but a spell to break his Wonderlandian curse. He says that he does not know where the book is, but he does know who took it.

Three guesses! 

The Evil Queen tried to expand beyond her story and bring 'evil to all the tales'. The Brothers Grimm stopped her. Then, being the OG Rebel, Giles was cursed with a Babblespell by Milton and trapped underground to keep him from harm.

But he can talk properly now, so the Headmaster better watch his back. Thanks to...

The Fairytale Girls.

(Girls get less best the further right you go).

There's some more unmade Getting Fairest. Seriously, I would have bought ALL of them. That Blondie is probably my favorite Blondie. She was one of a handful of characters I just never bought to own.

You can't tell me that Cedar's braids weren't the cutest thing.

Seriously this would have been as cute as a button to have as a doll.

Adventure done, Briar is sitting on her bed, still despondent. Whenever it's found, she might have to sign that book...but her rug begins to glow, and a keyhole shape appears for a moment beneath.

Bonus; Briar did get a Getting Fairest Doll, and besides the cheapo new ones and Way Too Wonderland, it's the only Briar I don't own for some reason. I should fix that, but the secondhand market...I have the accessories and maybe even the shoes, just not the doll.

Well, the big night is here, and doesn't the Grimmnasium look nice!

Grimm kicks off the festivities, saying that this was the time of year where they celebrate their stories as if the entire fucking school wasn't about that to begin with, and Melody Piper starts laying down some tunes.

 Most of the dresses are a little underwhelming, but I do like Kitty and Maddie's;

Daring goes to Cerise and apologizes for being patronizing to her, acknowledging that she singlehandedly saved them, and asks to dance with her.

I wonder if Grimm thinks Cerise is mad determined to keep her destiny with all these hoods.

Briar's not having fun; She pokes the point on her unicorn mask, remembers her story, and gets sad...the slideshow on the wall turns to a dorm with two girls; One waving at the camera, and the other on the floor, peeling back a rug, in what is honestly an impressive callback - 

Remember - Apple and Briar were supposed to bunk together initially, but Apple moved in with Raven. The people who had Briar's dorm in the previous class were Cerise's mother and Raven's mother. And, in fact Baba Yaga tells her that's exactly who they are.

Briar borrows Cedar's Rays and takes a hairpin from Blondie and goes back to her dorm to unlock the door in the floor. 

We never see the Revealer Rays again. Which is a pity. We could have gotten more Cedar and I like this little Blue Fairy AI.

Well, that's that then, isn't it? Give Grimm the real book, let Raven and everyone else sign it...including herself. 

It's almost time to announce the Thronecoming Court, and Raven and Apple are getting ready, with the former saying to Grimm that she would love to sign the book, the vision she saw in the mirror isn't something that she wants.

She pulls a "But I didn't say that, so I finally realized that you're the one who put that fake image out there." and even Apple is like "Wow, what the hell. She has to make up her own mind." Which she forgets comes Dragon  Games, so whoops!

Back with Briar, she tosses the book down a well that's connected to Wonderland. Of course she doesn't know that, but it is, and leads into Way Too Wonderland.

"She's making a mistake!" says the female narrator. "Oh, she'll realize that..." finishes the male. You can't take choices away from your friends. It's not fair.

There's a short bit with Melody encouraging people to keep voting for Thronecoming Queen - see the next episode, posted a bit below.

Bonus cool backgrounders.

And it was the last time Apple gave a fuck about Briar in this series.

 People reunite, and the final shot is the Book in Wonderland.

I guess I could be more disappointed that this ended up saving Giles instead of finding the book, but it does tie into destiny and choosing your path. 

There's a tiny follow up webisode, And The Thronecoming Queen Is... that announces the winner. It was different in multiple countries, with open voting.

 For some reason, the Ukraine had both a televised and a web show version - Apple won the TV version, and Cupid won the web version. Blondie won in Germany, and Raven won everywhere else, including the United States!

Also they get a chuckle from me just for the Kanye reference.