Okay guys, I'm doing it. I'm officially on break, which means I have time to do a full rant about Apple's Royally Ever After doll and what it says about her character! Now, if you're lucky enough to not know what this fuckass doll looks like, I'll show you:
Fun fact, for years this was the only Apple doll I owned until I got big girl money and could buy myself her core doll. For those who don't know, the Royally Ever After doll is supposed to show characters after they have completed their destinies.
But here's the issue; this doll doesn't look like Apple White. Like, at all. Which, I fear, is actually proving a very good point about Apple's relationship with her destiny. When I originally got this doll, I remember being very confused because this doll didn't look anything like Apple. It shows her having completed her destiny, but she doesn't look happy. According to Apple in both the books and show, she should be the happiest she's ever been now that she's completed her fate, but her doll doesn’t look happy at all. In fact, I’d say it’s the only Apple doll that actually looks angry.
Not to mention the style is all wrong for Apple. Her character is very cohesive in the way she’s styled, and this goes for her dolls as well. They very consistently have low (often sweetheart) necklines, a poofed skirt and a lot of red in the palette. White is her accent colour, it’s not the main colour in most of her outfits, so having it be so absent feels strange. Her hair is straight, which it just… isn’t. She has curly hair, and always does. Her dragon games doll may have straight hair, but even in the special she had curly hair. It’s an odd choice to make. The mermaid skirt feels weird compared to her usual puffy skirts where at most she has a dropped waist. Not to mention the eyelashes being weirdly emphasized and the gold collar.
Oh, the collar. That’s what really gets me about this outfit, because it’s such a characteristically un-Apple like thing to wear. However, there is someone else who wears a collar that looks almost identical to the one she has on, someone who is a lot more known for her mermaid skirts, someone who never got a Royally Ever After despite being the other main character in the show.
For a character not present in this doll line, Raven truly has a way of haunting this design. And I think that’s the point.
For all Apple’s posturing about destiny and how much she wants to be the next Snow White, time and time again we see that she doesn’t actually want to follow through on her story. She just wants the happy ending, without having to go through the conflict with Raven. She consistently treats Raven being evil as a fun character quirk that will go away with the end of their story, but we the audience know this isn’t the case, and I think this doll really shows how Apple’s worldview would have shattered upon following through with her destiny. Ironically, the doll Apple’s Royally Ever After doll looks most like is SDCC Raven, where she’s in her Evil Queen attire.
Apple after her destiny isn’t happy, she’s haunted. This whole doll reeks of longing for a friendship that no longer exists, and a shattered belief in a destiny that wasn’t as happy an ending as she thought it would be.
To quote wicked, there’s a kind of a sort of cost and a couple of things get lost.