Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[Alex]

For me the significant departure was not the "didn't get a boyfriend" but that she was the primary actor throughout the movie. She got herself in trouble, she got herself out of trouble and she took responsibility for the former on her own.

It is far more common in fantasy that the "hero" is extremely passive in their own story. Often they're just living out Calvinist prophecy (Harry Potter, Aurora, etc.) or reacting to events they had no hand in causing.

Then they are guided to the solution for their problems by others with greater knowledge manipulating them. Then maybe at the end they get a little bit of control.

I found a protagonist actually driving their own story to be refreshing in a princess movie/fairy tale.