History Main / GoodPrincessEvilQueen

[[quoteright:287:[[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imageedit_13_4210127829.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:287:A back-to-back example.]]

* Downplayed in ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans'', in which Princess Andromeda is the pure heroic love interest. Her mother Queen Cassiopeia is the idiot who brags that her daughter is more beautiful than the goddess Thetis - who then punishes her by ordering Andromeda to be sacrificed to the Kraken. The 2010 remake increases this dichotomy by having Cassiopeia being part of a misguided rebellion against the gods, ignorant to the people's suffering and making the aforementioned vow in open defiance of the gods. Andromeda by contrast is then established as giving food to the poor in the city.
* ''{{Film/Elizabeth}}'' opens in Queen Mary I's reign, portraying England as a CrapsackWorld under her regime. Her younger half-sister Princess Elizabeth is persecuted and sent to the Tower of London (which did admittedly happen in real life), and is presented as the innocent good character who becomes TheHighQueen when Mary dies.

* ''Film/MirrorMirror'': Being a retelling of the Snow White fairytale, naturally has the lively and beautiful Snow White as the rightful heiress to the throne, and the witch queen Clementianna as her stepmother who schemes to gain control of the kingdom.

* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'': In "Why All the Princess Hate?", the Critic [[ConversedTrope criticizes the trope]] for continuing the [[UnfortunateImplications implication]] that royal women should be satisfied with the title of "princess", which tends to have connotations of some power and responsibility, but not all, instead of imagining themselves in positions of the highest power.[[note]]This became very discredited once ''{{WesternAnimation/Tangled}}'', ''{{WesternAnimation/Frozen|2013}}'' and ''{{WesternAnimation/Moana}}'' featured heroic Disney Queens.[[/note]] He lampshades it with a comic conversation between Literature/SnowWhite and the evil queen:

Queens contrast princesses in several obvious ways. The queen is usually older than the princess, which may play into the plot -- for example, the queen might [[FairestOfThemAll be jealous of the princess's youth, beauty, and potential]]. Because of BeautyEqualsGoodness, the Queen will be ugly, or at least less beautiful than the princess. Alternatively, she's an example of EvilIsSexy, but the princess will almost certainly have the purer and "[[SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains more wholesome]]" type of beauty. In terms of powers, princesses who are TheChosenOne or bear other types of magic will have powers of traditionally heroic alignment like [[LightIsGood light magic]] or [[HealingHands healing]], while the Queen will be a {{Vain|Sorceress}} SorcerousOverlord.

* ''ComicBook/EdgeOfSpiderVerse2022'': Played straight, then downplayed. In Spinstress's debut story, which is a parody of Disney Princesses movies, the protagonist is Princess Petra, heiress to the throne and another spider-themed heroine, who comes to blows against her mother, queen Mysteria (a female version of Mysterio, another villain from Spider-Man's gallery).

* In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", the antagonist is the prince's mother, a queen: she tries to kill her granddchildren and calumniates her daughter-in-law, and, years later, sends her grandchildren, the titular "Three Golden Children", in a dangerous quest so that they fail. However, the queen's granddaughter, a princess, succeeds in the quest, rescues her elder brothers and unmasks their grandmother, restoring their mother to her proper place.

* In many variants of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", the antagonist is the prince's mother, a queen: she tries to kill her granddchildren and calumniates her daughter-in-law, and, years later, sends her grandchildren, the titular "Three Golden Children" in a dangerous quest so that they fail. However, the queen's granddaughter, a princess, succeeds in the quest, rescues her elder brothers and unmasks their grandmother, restoring the prince's wife to her proper place.