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Okay, friends, I have consumed/reconsumed a frightening amount of the Netflix Cinematic Christmas Universe in the last few days, and we’ve got to talk about two things: 1) geopolitics and 2) magic.
Both of which lead to 3) a war which will probably not be *on* Christmas, but in which Christmas is definitely going to be heavily involved.
Let’s start with geopolitics. If we take real world nations out of it, we’ve got four NCCU countries in play: Aldovia (A Christmas Prince 1-3), Belgravia (Princess Switch), Penglia (Christmas Prince 3), and Montenaro (Switched Again).
I’m not going to analyse where these countries fit into real-world Europe. Others have done that, better and with more (or maybe less?) Hapsburgs than me. https://medium.com/@michaelagold/piecing-together-the-christmas-prince-timeline-8b51c3dfde45
More than one other - there is serious interest in the geopolitics of the region. https://theattic.jezebel.com/i-am-genuinely-shaken-by-a-christmas-prince-the-royal-1840364357
…but it’s worth noting from the map from Christmas Prince 3 that Aldovia and Belgravia share a substantial border, so they're all up in each other's festive business.
Notably, Montenaro does not appear on the map. It’s a 14th/15th century map, so perhaps it’s a newer nation, but we can assume it’s of strategic advantage, due to the Belgravians trying to marry their crown prince to a duchess from Montenaro in The Princess Switch.
Speaking of: the NCCU is quite clearly rooted in time. That Belgravia/Montenaro wedding, should it have happened, would have taken place in 2018: the same year as King Richard of Aldovia married Amber.
Aldovia had gone through a period of turmoil: first a leadership vacuum in an interregnum, and then economic struggles between Christmas Princes 1 & 2. Was a Belgravia/Montenaro alliance a proactive move to establish dominance in the region?
It’s also worth noting that the king of Montenaro “died” and the next in line to the throne “abdicated” in 2020 – leaving Duchess Margaret, who is notoriously a) impulsive and b) loath to be in the public etc, to become queen.
Is there someone pulling the strings here, trying to ensure weak/no leadership in Montenaro, in order to gain territory? The Aldovia/Penglia war mentioned in Christmas Prince 3 show that there’s a history of geopolitical tension in the region…
Long story short, I think we’ve got a combustible political situation in the Christmas nations. But now let’s add a complicating factor: magic.
There are numerous subtle suggestions all through the royalty movies that magic is real, but this is confirmed in The Knight Before Christmas, which references characters making a trip to Aldovia.
In this movie, not only does a time-travelling knight from 14th century England arrive in 2019 Ohio to fall in love with Vanessa Hudgens, but *a puppy is manifested under a Christmas tree*, apparently out of nowhere.
If Aldovia is real in the universe of this film, then so is Belgravia etc, making this Hudgens (Brooke) a fourth doppelganger to add to Stacy/Margaret/Fiona, and confirming that magic is indeed real in the broader NCCU.
(There is, of course, a paradox, in that Princess Switch characters watch A Christmas Prince on Netflix, but we can assume that either a) the latter is a doco in that universe or b) MOAR MAGIC)
All the little hints that magic is real in the royalty movies thus become more literal: such as the magic fountain in Belgravia which never freezes because of the warmth of the Christmas spirit.
Notably, in Christmas Prince 3, the dowager queen of Aldovia remarks that sorcery has been “discredited” – which is a very strange and loaded word choice! – and there is genuine concern the royal baby will be cursed.
The obvious example of magic, though, is the doppelgangers. We have FOUR separate Vanessa Hudgenses at this point. Two are royalty, one is aspiring royalty, and one is aligned with the universe’s most powerful magical figure.
(We’ve also got a potential Kat Graham doppelganger situation developing, with Holiday Calendar’s Abby aligned with magic and Operation Christmas Drop’s Erica with geopolitical power. It’s hard not to read into the significance of this.)
All the action in these films takes place at Christmas, a time when the magics are clearly (and explicitly!) intensified. Notably, said action includes a fair bit of geopolitical powerbroking.
Are the doppelgangers *seeking* power, magical or geopolitical? No – even the villainous Fiona of Switched Again just wanted to steal a bunch of money and holiday in Capri. But is power accruing to them? Absolutely it is.
I’m not surprised that Aldovia and Penglia were extremely anxious to renew their peace treaty. Belgravia and Montenaro were already seeking to cement power through the Edward/Margaret marriage…
…and now one doppelganger (Stacy) is Princess of Belgravia, another (Margaret) is Queen of Montenaro, and a third (Fiona) is presumably somewhere in the line of Montenaran succession, given she's Margaret's cousin.
There is another interesting link between the doppelgangers: bread. Stacy is a baker. Margaret marries a baker. Brooke’s time-travelling knight plans to open a bakery now he’s living in the present. (Fiona is just chaotic.)
Baking is strongly aligned with Christmas (the time of intensified magic and geopolitical upheaval) in the NCCU. Think Belgravia’s annual cake contest, or even Andie MacDowell teaching Eliza Taylor to bake in Christmas Inheritance.
So (this is related, I swear) if you know anything about me, you know I know some stuff about fairies. My Valentine trilogy is all about some very terrifying fairies trying to reclaim a changeling they left in a small Australian town.
One thing that crops up a lot in fairy stories is that fairies are not that keen on human bread (much like iron, probably because it’s emblematic of human civilisation). However, they will make their own: and a human who eats fae food *is lost forever*.
Are our ever-multiplying Hudgenses fae folk? The switches at the heart of the Princess Switch movies are exactly the kind of mischievous switcheroo hijinks fairies love (that’s why changelings are a thing).
Are Stacy’s baked goods themselves a power grab? Does she now have Belgravia under her thrall? Does Kevin, the baker Stacy trained, make good enough bread to satisfy the fae palate of Margaret? Was Sir Cole summoned through centuries because only his bread could satisfy Brooke?
As none of the Hudgenses seem to be *consciously* seeking power, but it keeps falling into their laps - is there a greater fae queen Hudgens behind them all, pulling the strings?
And is this going to culminate in an all-out humans vs fae war, where the human nations of Aldovia and Penglia need to combat the fae-controlled Belgravia and Montenaro? Probably at Christmas, when the magics are at their most powerful? /fin
