I find it very interesting how since the readers are not actually from one specific fairytale, they kind of narratively embody lots of them at the same time. there are overt references (like the red-hot shoes in surviving fairy tales and grimm the cupid) but the whole narrative takes pieces. sophie starts off as a cinderella type candidate; dying mother deeply affected her, father remarries to a woman she hates who has two stepchildren, glass slippers and homemade dress, good deeds; but she refuses to cook for her father (the oil and smoke would clog her pores!), she is far crueller to honora than honora is to her, and frequently her inner monologue slips into something very un-cinderella like. by the time they get to school, agatha takes over, and gets the fairy godmother and the blue dress and the iconic shoes (lol) and the prince. she also accidentally does things like help animals, and do lots of work on someone else's behalf... also, agatha's transformation (or, lack of) is ugly-duckling reminiscent; nothing had to change, she just had to grow into herself. (what's for dinner? duckling.) sophie, instead, becomes more of a wicked queen type; disguising herself as an old woman, using ravens (no one seems to remember that but she did, like the original wicked queen), green w jealousy bc the magic mirror on the wall has declared agatha the fairest of them all, instead (both in magic in the mirror and when she sees her snow ball reflection in the barrier.) which probably explains why sophie sticks agatha in that ice coffin at the no ball. very snow-white. and tedros rescuing agatha from the thorns is very sleeping-beauty-wall-of-briars, as well, and then the camelot stuff doesn't rly need to be explained. also grimm the cupid, named after the grimm brothers lmao. nicola, for her part, is a capable bookworm from a provincial town dragged off into a magical world and into a love affair with a man who's can turn into a beast; but unfortunately that curdles pretty badly...
