roommate and i watched seminal film barbie: princess charm school (2011) last night and locked in a bit too hard. here i will document our discussion. cut for length
THE INITIAL QUESTION: what the fuck is up with dame devin (and gardania in general)?
SO. dame devin is the mother of delancy and main antagonist of the movie. her Whole Thing is that she desperately wants to get delancy on gardania's throne so that she can proxy rule the country through her #emotionallyabusivemomthings. but dame devin was sister of the late king reginald and sister-in-law to the late queen isabella. she orchestrated the car crash they died in. the thing is, as the only living adult relation of the king that we know of, she should ALREADY be queen??
like. look. i don't know how monarchies work and i don't care. but if delancy's not ruling, that means SOMEONE has to be running the country. and if delancy's the heir, that makes dame devin the most likely candidate to be doing so. like, if william and kate and their kids all suddenly died, wouldn't harry become the new heir to the throne automatically? why wouldn't that apply to dame devin?? it can't be a gender thing, because delancy is explicitly going to be the next ruler. so why the fuck does dame devin want to put her on the throne and rule through her so desperately if she's theoretically already doing that WITHOUT her daughter as a proxy??
aside: if dame devin really is ruling gardania, why the fuck is she also wasting her time teaching at princess charm school? like, given the shitty state gardania is in overall, she might not be doing a good job, she has to at least pretend to be locked in, right? the queen can't also be a college professor. unless this is a pr publicity stunt approval rating diplomacy thing, because princesses from OTHER countries also come to princess charm school? (btw that raises so many more questions, like why hadley and isla got punished for "stealing jewelry" when i'm 100% sure everyone at that school would have complete diplomatic immunity. the logistics of running princess charm school as an academic institution make my head hurt. how tf do you punish a student who's done something bad if they're also royalty and heir to the throne of an entire country?? it would be believable if lady royals generally took the fall, and would also explain the only 27% pass rate lottery winners have, but that's not what's shown on screen. ANYWAY.)
our first thought was that the ruler of gardania was actually queen isabella, not reginald, and he married into the royal line. that would probably disqualify dame devin from having any sort of power after the royal family passed. but that would also mean that delancy wouldn't be heir?? unless her dad was also part of the royal line and related to queen isabella?? which is possible, i guess, but just headcanon. but the thing that throws a wrench in this theory is that the royal crown of gardania glowing when it's placed on the head of the rightful heir couldn't be a legend, because everyone would've seen it when isabella was crowned. it's pretty explicitly a woman's crown, and isabella was wearing it in her portraits. i mean, maybe in the scenario where she married in reginald gifted it to her, but it's the royal crown of gardania, and seems to be restricted to the rulers. but again, if isabella was the ruler and reginald married in, why would delancy, someone not directly related to her, be the heir to the throne?
1. did reginald or isabella marry into the royal line?
2. who the FUCK is running the country during the movie?
explains why isabella was wearing the royal crown in the portrait
explains why he's barely relevant during the movie and the focus is on isabella LOL
why would delancy be the heir? potential explanation/headcanon: dame devin married someone related to isabella
why would the crown glowing upon being placed on the head of the rightful heir be a legend if everyone saw it when isabella ascended? potential explanations/headcanons: coronations being televised is a new thing and it was very private in isabella's time like british coronations used to be iirc; it being a legend was just hadley exaggerating because i don't think anyone else calls it that despite making references to it
WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY? a relative of isabella we've never heard of?? a temporary cabinet??? who is delancy taking power from someone answer me
explains why delancy would be the heir
dame devin would probably already be running the country, so why would she be so fixated on delancy being on the throne and gaining power that way? like she literally slips in the movie and says she's going to be the queen instead of delancy; that doesn't make sense if she's already ruling. potential explanation/headcanon: she's Just A Regent and has limited power. but why?? in this scenario, she's literally sister to the king. there is zero reason she wouldn't be queen
dame devin being the queen or regent or whatever was literally never mentioned during the movie
dame devin having that much power makes it a little strange she's teaching at a school. potential explanation/headcanon: it's a pr publicity stunt approval ratings diplomacy thing, except in that case she'd probably try to be nicer to students lol
ultimately i think there's more evidence for dame devin being kind of irrelevant--ergo, isabella was the ruler and reginald married in. the plot holes this opens up are less egregious and more easily explained, and all around it just fits better with what's presented in the movie.
WHO THE FUCK IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY BEFORE DELANCY ASCENDS???????? DELANCY'S MYSTERIOUS FATHER WHO IS PROBABLY RELATED TO ISABELLA IN THIS SCENARIO?????????? SOMEONE ANSWER ME. HOW THE FUCK IS DELANCY THE HEIR IN THIS SITUATION.
