History Headscratchers / DisneyPrincess

* Lets set the historic facts straight. The head of state in China during Mulan's time period was Emperor, one level higher than kings, and military achievements are highly regarded and can earn you all nobility titles, hereditary or not, except the imperial ones reserved for the emperor and his immediate family. Mulan's achievement, beheading of Shan Yu, the emperor of an opposing and hostile force, will earn her a Queen Regent title ruling practically half of the country, all on her own right. So Mulan is not just a princess, she is a women created her own kingdom single-handedly.

** I'd ascribe it to {{Flanderization}} by a FanDumb (or a divided fandom that loves Mulan and hates the classic three.) Worth asking is if any of these people interpreting Mulan as an ultra-mean tough girl (as opposed to a GuileHero who puts her love for her family first) have seen the film in recent years.

* Why are people here saying Pocahontas isn't a princess? She's the daughter of an Native American chief. Doesn't that make her a princess?
** Princess is a specific title, daughter of a king or empress. It's not just something applied willy-nilly to anyone who is the daughter of a person in power. If that's the case, than a duke's daughter could be a princess, or a president's daughter. The Algonquin chieftain system differs from European monarchies. One term doesn't transpose into the other. Regardless, it's clear from the inclusion of Mulan that being a princess isn't necessary to make you a Disney Princess.
** She does admittedly refer to herself as a princess to the King of England in the sequel.
** And in real life, she was presented as royalty to the English. They didn't quite understand how the Native American chieftain system worked, and so they just presented Pocahontas as the princess. John Rolfe's family in real life even worried about him marrying so far above his station, since they thought Pocahontas was actually royalty.
** OP here: I just wanted to apologize for posting this if I offended anyone out there. I'd honestly just thought that the Native Americans had princesses.

** Short-haired dolls are a bitch to make, [[SailorMoon it is the reason the Sailor Starlights were given long hair]]; also, having long blonde hair is kind of iconic to the Rapunzel fairy tale.

** One, she's live-action, and despite Disney giving her a "redesign", she'd really stand out against the other girls who are much more, hum, "animated". Two, Star Wars is really a world of its own, and it doesn't really fit the "Disney Aesthetic" too well (compare Disney films having bright and sunny backgrounds, cute talking animals, and sweet morals over Star Wars which is much more..."cold" so to say compared to the cheery atmosphere of Mickey's world). Perhaps that's sorta why Disney knows it well and they often keep Star Wars stuff on its own, apart from the rest of Disney. I think if you even try to insert Star Wars images next to classical Disney imagery like in those crossover videos or stuff like Fantasmic! it'd look really out of place.

* If not Honey Lemon, why not [[Franchise/StarWars Princess Leia Organa Skywalker of Alderaan]]?

* If not Honey Lemon, why not [[Franchise/StarWars Princess Leia]?

** It's possibly because ''Frozen'' was such a success that there was no need to. ''Frozen'' itself has become a CashCowFranchise and was a cultural phenomenon - far more than any of the other movies.

** The criteria seems to be a) popular heroine from a popular movie and b) someone who can appeal to multiple demographics. Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Rapunzel are all from very popular movies and instantly recognisable. The others are from less popular movies but do have that minority demographic appeal. Tiana of course is the first black princess, Mulan appeals to the Asian demographic and Pocahontas to the Native American. Merida seems to be the odd one out but she's Scottish and more of a tomboy than the others, so that's demographic appeal too. With other characters, their movies weren't that popular - Esmerelda and Megara are considerably less known than say Ariel or Belle. Likewise they're not human - Nala, Maid Marian. Or perhaps too young - Alice and Wendy.

*** There's always been rumors, but Disney hasn't so much as suggested it in the past. They get included with Disney Princess stuff, but never quite branded as such.

*** There's always been rumors, but Disney hasn't so much as suggested it in the past. They get included with Disney Princess stuff, but never quiet branded as such.

*** There's always been rumors, but Disney hasn't so much as suggested it in the past. They get included with Disney Princess stuff, but never quiet branded as such.
* Amy's Pocket Princesses. I feel neutral about the series as a whole. Though the art style's cool, I think Amy mischaracterizes the princesses a little too much, showing Cinderella as a clean freak or Mulan as a messy tomboy who dislikes the more feminine princesses (even attempting to threaten them at one point with weapons!). I know she exaggerates the characters for comedy but I feel people are utterly convinced these flawed characteristics are the proper princesses and that's somehow flawed.

*** There's always been rumors, but Disney hasn't so much as suggested it in the past. They get included with Disney Princess stuff, but never quiet branded as such.

** I thought I heard someone say she was going to be formally inducted into the line, even though she was a queen. (Ironically, I think a lot of people are excited to have her in the line ''because'' she's a queen, and she's the oldest, and all that other jazz that gets fangirls and fanboys excited.)

** I thought I heard someone say she was going to be formally inducted into the line, even though she was a queen. (Ironically, I think a lot of people are excited to have her in the line ''because'' she's a queen, and they can all be like, "ZOMG! Elsa's a Disney Princess, and she's a queen, and she's 21 years old!")

** She is not, actually, one of the official Disney Princesses. As to why fans include her, probably because she fits with them aesthetically and her movie has all the hallmarks of a Disney Princess movie. Even so, being an actual princess has no bearing on being a Disney Princess--see Pocahontas and Mulan.

* Why is Elsa considered a Disney princess? She's not a princess, she's a queen!

** I actually wrote a visual analysis recently based on a still from ''Let It Go'' for a college class, discussing in detail how the song goes to portray Elsa as independent and self-confident, without caring what others are going to think of her, and how much of the marketing for the film chose to portray her as such, as well, even though throughout the rest of the film, all she wants is for her people to respect and appreciate her without fear. In short, I could sum up the paper by saying that many people seemed to care more about the Elsa that looked cooler and more badass and confident, as opposed to the character that could actually be seen as more relatable. (If you want proof of this, just google her name - half the images have her smiling smugly and casting magic with a flourish, something she probably wouldn't have been caught doing even at the end of the actual film.)