History Headscratchers / ThePrincessDiaries

** We're sort of skipping the middle bit of this plot hole, which is that Mia's father is referred to as Crown ''Prince'' of Genovia and Clarisse is still ruling, despite the fact her husband has died and all evidence suggests she is Queen Consort. Mia's father should have been King and her being heir apparent should have been an issue that would have presented itself ''years'' ago. It's plausible, given the marriage stipulation in the second film that applies only to princesses, that Genovia has male-preference primogeniture, and like in the book, it was expected that Philippe was to go on to have a male heir...but you'd think once Mia reached her teens and there still wasn't a male heir after her, that there would have been discussions with Helen about easing Mia into her role as princess.

*** Except there is no ''legal'' procedure for succession that would mean things are in limbo until that's completed--that would cause chaos, as a country would be left without a Head of State for an undetermined amount of time. The new monarch might not be formally crowned yet, but they still take over the title and duties. Whether or not Phillipe was "in a coma," he still would have become King Phillipe upon the death of his father, King Rupert, and Mia would become heir apparent. While it's plausible that Mia might not yet be eligible to be a full reigning monarch because she's a minor, ''she'' would still inherit the title of Queen after Phillipe's death and have a regent. Who may or may not be her grandmother. The SuccessionCrisis in the films is weird.

** After TheReveal, Helen does say that the plan was to tell Mia when she was eighteen years old. It's stated that King Rupert only died a year ago, and then Philippe only died two months ago. So perhaps for the last year, Genovia had all these legal procedures to sort through before Philippe could become king. We don't get clarification on how he specifically died, and Clarisse just says "that terrible accident". Maybe the accident itself wasn't fatal but it left him in a coma or with lingering problems he eventually passed away from. And outside of that, legal proceedings can often take longer than expected, so it might have taken them that year or few months to decide on approaching Mia about becoming the heir (there may have been opposition from the Baron and Baroness's side that Mia would be illegitimate since her parents were divorced and thus didn't have a claim).