History WMG / Anastasia

[[WMG: Sophie is the second chance of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning Marina Del Rey]]. Vlad is Benjamin the Manatee.]]

Everything we see of young Dimitri suggests he was interested in Anastasia when she was a child. He's introduced sneaking out to watch her at the grand ball at the beginning of the film and he risked his life to save her during the siege at the palace (and was hiding by her room for somereason). Having a crush would also explain why he kept her music box for years rather than selling it [[note]] The con to present Anastasia to the Dowager Empress was only a recent one, he couldn't have known she was going to offer a reward for Anastasia's return and the music box could be useful.[[/note]] and his wistful "princess I've found you at last" line. Plus if he liked Anastasia before that adds a lot of depth to why he's so devastated at Anya's true identity and why he's so certain he can't be with her despite changes in circumstances: He internalized that inferior mindset as a child when the old social hierarchy was in place, and a servant falling for royalty was utterly unthinkable.

The real Anastasia was still a child when she was shot. It was a dream she made up to keep herself happy, about marrying a handsome con artist, having her family be safe, wear lots of nice clothes, live happily ever after like in a fairy tale. She was probably too young to realize why she and her family were being persecuted, so she made Rasputin, a friend of the family, the magical villan.

* Fitting into that, Rasputin's curse is what caused the timeline to diverge. He was nearly killed the same way he was in real life but survived and found out members of the royal family were involved (thus his revenge motive, that is true). So he sold his soul to the devil to survive and have the power to take his revenge. His curse caused the February Revolution to work with the help of his minions, but in the process this allowed Anastasia's escape unlike in the real world (somehow, if all else fails, ForWantOfANail can be the cause). So ironically, Rasputin's curse saved Anastasia's life because had he not cast it, she'd have died like in RealLife, not that he would've known that. As for age, like you said, she was just born at a different time.

* Fun theory, but there's one problem. The the fact that Anya knows how Anastasia and Dowager Empress Marie escaped from the palace. The movie implies that only the Dowager Empress, Anastasia, Dimitri and possibly Sophie would have known that.

[[WMG: Sophie is the second chance of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid Marina Del Rey]]. Vlad is Benjamin the Manatee.]]

[[WMG: Sophie is [[Disney/ThePrincessandtheFrog Charlotte's]] mother.]]

[[WMG: Rasputin's Dark Forces are the [[Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Friends on the Other Side]]]]

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Since his curse was unfulfilled in 1916 when Anastasia survived, the unfulfilled curse was the only thing keeping him alive (since he was basically a zombie -- i.e. literally a rotting corpse). So if he did succeed in killing her, the only reason he was still alive would have been gone.

[[WMG: In the stage musical, Gleb's father was somehow involved with Anastasia's survival.]]]]

* It's worth noting that a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAca pooka]] is a type of (mostly) benevolent spirit.

Exactly how Anya escaped the bloodbath of her family's fate is left very ambiguous. The circumstances of their execution in the musical lines up pretty well with historical fact (unlike the film's version of events), and one theory is that Gleb's father, a soldier stationed at the Ipatiev house who was definitely involved in the killings, may have been responsible for Anya's survival. Whether he helped her escape or simply turned a blind eye when he realized the initial assault hadn't done her in, it's entirely possible that he was involved. It would have been extremely difficult for her to escape without any form of outside help. Perhaps Gleb's father's guilty conscience after that night was due to more than just the innocent blood he shed; perhaps he was also wrestling with the fact that he had betrayed his revolution by allowing a Romanov to survive. If this were the case, it would lend a kind of poetic balance to Gleb's HeelFaceTurn at the show's climax. Perhaps he is more his father's son than he believes.

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[[WMG: Sophie is [[PrincessandtheFrog Charlotte's]] mother.]]

* This theory is now also on ''[[Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog The Princess and the Frog]]''[[Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog 's WMG page]].

Everything we see of young Dimitri suggests he was interested in Anastasia when she was a child. He's introduced sneaking out to watch her at the grand ball at the beginning of the film and he risked his life to save her during the siege at the palace (and was hiding by her room like he wanted to make sure she was safe). Having a crush would also explain why he kept her music box for years rather than selling it [[note]] The con to present Anastasia to the Dowager Empress was only a recent one, he couldn't have known she was going to offer a reward for Anastasia's return and the music box could be useful.[[/note]] and his wistful "princess I've found you at last" line. Plus if he liked Anastasia before that adds a lot of depth to why he's so devastated at Anya's true identity and why he's so certain he can't be with her despite changes in circumstances: He internalized that inferior mindset as a child when the old social hierarchy was in place, and a servant falling for royalty was utterly unthinkable.