I read your analysis on how Lady Tremaine only cared about improving her social status and it made me wonder how things would be like if either Drizella or Anastasia becomes Prince Charming’s wife. Let’s face it: the Tremaine girls are awkward, vain, selfish, spoiled & on top of it all, lazy. And considering the kind of people they are, it seems so likely that when their mother told/ordered them to study in order to master a skill (or to polish them in Lady Tremaine’s view), they did it out of reluctance. So once their mother is satisfied, they would just completely forget what they learn. Like when we were in elementary/middle/high school and we have to study for upcoming exam(s) (especially if the subject(s) was/were our least favorite), we would just study said subject(s) for the purpose of passing the exam(s) only. Once we pass, we completely forgot it, because for us, those aren’t important. But if we love the subject(s)-and passionate about it/them, we would learn over and over again, at every chance we got, even if there were no upcoming exams. Now it’s hard to say about both Drizella & Anastasia regarding the example I stated above, since they’re not the main focus. And it’s unknown whether they have any hobbies/interests, since it was never spoken of. But I have a feeling that they don’t have any, due to their upbringing, being extremely spoiled & pampered by their mother. Meaning they lack common skills, which would be disastrous in the future. If we keep on practicing our hobbies, it could develop into skills, which would be useful & necessary in the future when we’re searching for jobs/interacting with other people. Given the time period the film is set, it’s likely that the Queen wouldn’t have to worry about things the King always deal with, like taxes/economics, politics, geography, history, philosophy, diplomacy, etc. It’s possible that the Queen lives the life of leisure: making appearances, attending balls/parties, socializing, sumptuous foods, music/poetry/art, etc. But what if the King has an unexpected thing outside the kingdom that he must take care of? The Queen must take temporary responsibility of the kingdom of course. And here’s where skills are highly needed. Say the King retires so he can rest. His son Prince Charming becomes King Charming and either Drizella or Anastasia becomes Queen. But then King Charming has an urgent business and he’s required to leave his kingdom. So he left his wife in charge until his return. And here’s where things started to go downhill. Knowing what kind of people the Tremaine girls are, we can be certain that when people came to them, telling their problems, the Tremaines would just ignored them. And if they insisted to be heard (especially if they’re really in desperate need of help), the Tremaines would completely dismissed them, and worse, calling the guards to kick them out. And then they realize how terrible their new queen is. They told their horrible experience to other people. Other people who had experienced the same thing would confirmed it. Words began to spread through the people that their new queen is untrustworthy. And when King Charming returns, his people began to demand him to find a new queen. When Lady Tremaine hears about it, she would realize that her royal status as King Charming’s mother-in-law could be in danger of plummeting to the bottom. Oh the horror… On a different scenario, still related to the Tremaine girls’ lack of skills, I wonder what would happen to them if Lady Tremaine died. They would have no one to support them. I read your analysis on how they’re completely dependant on their mother, and it makes sense. Say Lady Tremaine dies, both Drizella and Anastasia no longer have someone to rely on. And because they have no skills, they just rely on the leftover fortune, which eventually would ran out & the girls had no choice but to sell the chateau & everything in it. And eventually, they would ended up becoming beggars on the streets. This is all because they don’t know how to spend money wisely.
I absolutely agree! If there is a good synonym for lazy, it would be a better description of Anastasia and Drizella. And yes, I don’t believe the girls have any hobbies except for bossing Cinderella around because we never see them do any skills that they would improve over time. They just don’t know how to take care of themselves, think for themselves, or really do anything at all! They have no sense of independence because only Cinderella or their mother has done everything for them growing up, further adding to their extreme laziness.
You make a really excellent point at how poorly Drizella or Anastasia would do as a queen and taking care of the kingdom if they had to do it. I think they only think that being the queen means that they will always look good, can do whatever they want and go wherever they please, order people around for their own amusement, and only do leisurely, fun things that involve no work whatsoever. But the girls never had any real responsibilities of taking care of others and listening to problems and concerns. So not only would they not know at all of what to do in such times, but the worst part of it is that the Anastasia/Drizella would not care, and this is because they’ve never cared about anyone except themselves!
Being a princess or a queen doesn’t mean having an image of being wealthy, bossing others around, and doing whatever you want. It’s a commitment that involves being responsible for the kingdom and everyone in it. A good princess/queen is fair and kind, and that’s what makes people love her. But Drizella and Anastasia show none of that, so they would do to people exactly what they did to Cinderella and worse, and those people would hate them for it. So yes, the more people to whom they were mean or ignored, the more they would tell more people, making their words absolutely honest, and then complain to the prince and his father about how awful they are. And everything would eventually come to it being their mother’s fault due to her being a poor influence on them and not a better enough teacher to educate them on being royalty.
In fact, even though it’s never portrayed in the film, if Drizella and Anastasia were faced with such big or scary challenges, completely unlike Cinderella, I think they would just act like cowardly fools. See, since their lives have always been easy, the girls have never dealt with pressure or stress like their stepsister. So if the opportunity ever came, they just would not know what to do because they’ve never experienced it before. In fact, Lady Tremaine thought she was helping her daughters by having everything done for them all their lives, but the truth is, she was helping Cinderella, not them. This is because they sorely lack independence and skills, have never done any sort of work, and have no ability to spend money wisely. Besides my headcanon that they are almost broke, I think Lady Tremaine was also demanding that one of her daughters marry the prince so that they would have someone wealthy to take care of them when she finally dies.
The Tremaine girls are definitely heading for trouble regarding their future, but Cinderella has the happy ending she completely deserved. It’s even because of her upbringing that Cinderella will be a wonderful queen who will be loved by all. She’s far greater at everything than her stepsisters will ever be, and more!