MORE ON THE CLEVER PRINCESS

Laura Athena, in January 2013, has consecrated a shrine to the female cast of "The Snow Queen", devoting one of the altars to my favourite supporting character, whom she defines as: "a princess of surpassing cleverness and beauty":

The princess is a supplementary character who only appears in one of the chapters of the Snow Queen story - but she is nonetheless an admirable and inspirational female character, whose story hints at a much longer and grander untold narrative.

"In this kingdom in which we are now sitting, lives a Princess, who is so immoderately clever; but then she has read all the newspapers that are in the world, read and forgotten them again, so clever is she. Lately she was sitting on her throne, when she began to sing, and the theme of her song was "Why should I not marry?" "Well there is something in that, she said, and so she determined to get married; but she must have a husband who knew how to answer when spoken to, not one who could only stand there and look grand, for that is too stupid."

What a fantastic introduction to a character! And what a refreshing change from the fairytale standard of princesses being first and foremost beautiful! The Princess decides on her own that she wants to get married, and she then goes on to specify what kind of a husband she is looking for - one who is intelligent, unabashed by royalty, unafraid of her power and one who "feels at home" with her.
Andersen then goes on to describe the meeting of the princess and her husband-to-be:

"He was merry and well behaved, but had not come at all to pay court to the Princess, but only to hear how clever she was. He had every reason to be satisfied with her, and she no less so with him."

Again, what a refreshing subversion of the princess trope! The princess' chosen husband is bright-eyed and merry; a poorly dressed "little person" - a wanderer with creaking boots and a knapsack on his back. No dragonslayer he - but one who can match the princess' intellect, rather than impress her with feats of arms.

As well as being clever, the Princess is later shown to be generous and sympathetic, willing to help Gerda into her new golden carriage herself without formality. Though her part is small in the overall story, and she and the Prince go away to "live in foreign places", one feels sure that such a great character must be the heroine of her own legend. "

And I identify with her for being "clever" (erudite, learned), confident, and kindly like me. Thus I make Sophia Eleonora the heroine of my Ever After High fanverse, and her beau Charles, a male Alice, the one she'll wed in the end. Charles and Sophia had already met at EAH before she returned to her palace of Lilienstengel and he took the plunge into Wonderland, where he received the announcement of Sophia's engagement challenge after that Lizzie had surrendered and proposed to him... A rather emotive re-encounter, in which they finish each other's sentences and switch language a couple of times, ensues. He doesn't look down or kneel before her... and, finally, they kiss and embrace! ("Get the cannons!" "Get the fireworks!")
Though they've had to earn their happy ending: after Charles is freed from Katla's spell, a couple of threats more separate them and endanger especially his life...