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The Swan Princess/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
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* What happened to Odette's kingdom? It has to be active, with Odette somehow still the legal heir, or Rothbart would not have put her through all this hell. Yet, her father is dead, and no mention of made of what happened to it, even in the sequels.
** I guess it was the same people taking care of the kingdom when they went away every summer? Maybe the sea dividing the kingdoms is very small? I mean, if they can get from their kingdom to Uberta's quickly enough and back, to afford to stay "every June until September" then it can't be that far. If that's the case, it would be pretty easy to just have an adviser rule and send letters back-and-forth, with the occasional visit.
** It's very possible that another member of Odette's family was made king/queen. That's how the line of succession works with normal royalty (though I know it's a futile effort to try and bring any real world logic into this film). Since Odette married Derek, and is now his queen, she would probably be taken out of the line of succession in her own kingdom. So, whoever was after her in line probably rules now.
* Why didn't William just marry Uberta, rather than go through all that arranged-marriage hassle? They clearly have a thing for each other, ''and'' Derek is a perfectly viable heir to the throne.
** Because then William wouldn't have been able to be dramatically killed by Rothbart, thus giving Derek the motivation he needed to search for Odette. Also, there was probably some kind of arcane law or something. Just try to not think about it too hard.
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** Unless his wife died in childbirth, it was pretty common. Though he hardly appeared to be mourning…maybe he was just shallow.
** Or maybe...[[Mister Seahorse|yeah]]
** Or maybe it's been a
** Well, the intro mentions that he's getting older, and Uberta has clearly greying hair, plus the fact that she only has one child in such a time period suggests that she might be infertile already. So maybe it's a "We're both getting older, we don't want this merger to only last until we die, let's have our kids get together to ensure it for much longer than either of us could manage if we hooked up."
** I second the above. In the sequel, Uberta celebrates her 50th birthday. She's clearly getting on, and it's not possible to have any more children. If Uberta and William married, the kingdoms would only be united for say...twenty years or less. Odette and Derek could unite the kingdom for another fifty years, and don't forget they'd have children, so there would be a legitimate ruler of BOTH after them. And it's not like the two kingdoms are at war; they could afford to wait twenty years.
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** Because he would have tricked Odette into marrying him which would make the marriage illegitimate and prevent him from having any right to her kingdom. Marrying anyone else would also prevent him from gaining control of Odette's kingdom. He probably figured eventually she would get sick of being a swan and give in to his demands.
*** But who would know. Odette would be a swan and no one would think that clone!Odette wasn't the genuine article. Do they do DNA test at the crowning, or something?
*** Also, she is a woman! Rothbart totally could have gotten away with that. No one in the kingdom is going to believe her over the king! Or if they do, he'll behead them!
* And while we're on the subject of getting Odette to marry him, why does he want to let Odette die by the end (I mean besides the fact she's really irritating). Wouldn't that mean he lost his one chance of getting William's kingdom legally? And since when he's he so caught up by what is lawful. I'm sure that kidnapping and regicide is illegal and he doesn't seem so worried about that.
** By marrying Odette he would have had a legal right to be king that the rest of the kingdom would have to abide by. Once he became king, it wouldn't matter how he came about it since it was his word against a woman's. Most people would side with him against her and he could just lock her up or kill her once he has the throne. By the end of the movie, he's realized that she's not going to change her mind and is angry enough that he's willing to let her die. At this point, she's no longer necessary since he can make a fake Odette.
*** Wait...what? This is a magical animated universe, we have no reason to believe it will have the same seixst standards and laws as our world. Even if it was, you've got to factor class into it. Odette is the princess/queen, and sole heir to the throne. Rothbart is a sorcerer who was banished for treason, which apparently all the kingdom knew about. They are not going to listen to someone who was caught conspiring to take the throne, over their beloved rightful ruler.
** Apparently, he didn't expect her to ''try and escape''. At all. The fact that she'd nearly succeeded ticked him off too much, the chance she broke the spell wasn't worth begging for her hand anymore. She'd have probably been declared dead (everyone in Uberta's kingdom believed it) so it would be pretty to take over without a legit ruler. Though why he felt he need to make a fake Odette and send her to the ball, when he can just…I dunno, whip out that Power to Destroy? Or stab her? Yeah, it baffles me.
* AND! AND! Why doesn't he just force her to marry her? He's a villain for heaven's sake! Surely there are better ways of making her marry him that turning her into a swan. [[Mind Control]]. Threaten Derek's life if she doesn't. Get a dodgy priest to perform the wedding while she's asleep. In fact out of all the ways to get her to marry him, turning Odette into a swan is as out there forcing her to wear a dress made out of smelly cheese until she gives in. [[
** His magic might not be able to do much more than change other people's shapes. A swan may be the best thing he can do. Plus, "I wouldn't marry him so [[Monty Python and
*** The above troper got the part about the magic completely right. Across all three movies, the exact nature of the Forbidden Arts is [[Magic A Is Magic A|repeatedly stated to be limited to creating, changing, and destroying]]. For example, if you didn't like your couch and you'd mastered the Arts, you could use the Arts to create a new one, change the old one to something more to your liking, blow it to smithereens or any combination of the three. You couldn't use the Arts to, for example, brainwash professional movers to haul your old couch away for free.
* And I ''know'' Rothbart "says" that Odette will turn back into a swan no matter where she is but I don't see how. You've got to have the water swirly thing going on by the looks of things. Does she ever test this out? Does she just take her insane kidnapper's word for it? For all we know she is ''willingly'' allowing herself to turn back into a swan because she's too dumb to think "Okay let's see if I change while I'm standing on land." I mean the worst thing that could happen is that she would STILL turn into a swan. I think I think too much.
** The magic might be that she can only turn back into a human by using the water swirly thing. Going too far would cause her to [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|forever be a swan.]]
* Am I the only one who thought Odette was a complete hypocrite? She and Derek didn't like each other (or at least, they outwardly displayed contempt for one another) until the scene in the ballroom. At that point, the only thing that has changed about him is his looks, so it would seem that this is what attracts her to him. Yet when she asks him, "Is beauty all that matters?" she gets mad when he replies, "What else is there?"
** You're not alone. But she's a woman, and that somehow makes it okay, I guess.
** While I agree that there may be a [[Double Standard]], it is also possible that Odette realized that BOTH Derek and her were only interested in looks and thought it would be disasterous for them to tie the knot.
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*** It wasn't a montage scene, they really ''did'' announce their engagement the moment they enter the room together.
** The simple answer is in Odette's line in the song:
{{quote|
** That means like him she ''was'' taken with his looks but looked further at the person she has know for years and his other qualities helped win her over completely.
** There's also the simple point that while Odette is clearly physically attracted to Derek, she's not the one calling for a marriage and citing physical attraction as the reason.
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** Why do the rest of the characters treat him as if he's crazy for saying that he's a prince anyway? In another setting, he probably would be, but there's a nearby sorcerer with the power to change the shape of anything or anyone which includes turning himself into a winged beast and casting a spell on the aforementioned Swan Princess so that she turns into a bird every night. That said, Jean-Bob's claims of being a transformed prince doesn't sound so far-fetched. Okay, yeah, at the end when he finally got the kiss he wanted from Odette that was supposed to change him back, he still remained a frog, though that could be due to it being a thank you kiss rather than the true love's kiss needed to break spells in fairy tales and Odette only liked him as a friend rather than romantically.
*** Perhaps a kiss isn't what breaks his spell. Must be [[Wrong Genre Savvy]], I guess.
* Derek's hair. I mean, what the steaming pile of fook was that? Even the kid from [[Treasure Planet]] had better hair! I know it's silly, but I just couldn't watch the movie having to look at his hair for so long.
** What about poor Brom? He had the same style, as did a lot of the males in that movie, if memory recalls.
*** ...who? Yeah, I didn't get too far into the movie, but oh is that [[Ear Worm|first song catchy]].
* Rothbart is shown in "No More Mr. Nice Guy" that he has freaking amazing powers and can magically create clones of people right out of thin air pretty much. He can magically pretty much do anything to his surroundings. He already has a pretty sweet castle of his own, why doesn't he just make his own kingdom ''right there''?
** Must be part of that [[Musical World Hypotheses]] thing.
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** She'd thought of it. When Puffin tells her to fly to him, she tells Puffin she doesn't know where she is or how to get to him. And as she needs to land on the lake every night, there's only so much exploring it would be safe to do.
* The villain's plan is pretty stupid as well. With the level of power he shows by the time he returns for revenge, he could have straight-up conquered both kingdoms with no problem.
** He explained that one. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life fighting rebel uprisings and armies from allied kingdoms, so he wanted to marry into power "legitimately". Of course, he was still an idiot for not realizing the uprisings would happen anyway unless he managed to avoid a [[
* In the sequel, Clavius succeeds in getting the Forbidden Arts. But does he actually use this godlike power to vanquish his foes and conquer kingdoms? No. He sings a 90's rock song [[Villain Song|bragging about his power]] (though it sounds pretty awesome).
* In the sequels, why are Derek and Odette living in the place where she was held hostage? Surely they'd have some bad memories and a bit of post traumatic stress, as well as two other kingdoms where they could live instead. And as they later discover, there's evil magic in the basement.
* Trivial, yes, but why on earth does Derek's mum's dress have a late-Victorian style bustle and skirt when the rest of the movie-- and even her own bodice!— are fantasy-medieval?
* Don't Derek and Odette see each other every summer? Why are they both so taken aback at [[She's All Grown Up|how the other grew up]]?
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