I finally got my hands on the second volume of 'The Courageous Princess', 'The Unremembered Lands', after revisiting and enjoying the classic first story.
A lot of new characters and ideas are introduced, that are crammed in and seem to be fighting for attention. There is a new history and backstory for the protagonist, Mabelrose, and her royal family - mainly, its added-in members who were supposedly always there - when nothing of the sort was alluded to before. It's like a retcon, and revision of the original.
Even the artwork is a bit too clean, crisp, and standard in comparison. It is not as carefully detailed, fresh, richly coloured, and charming as before. Some backgrounds, like forests, mountains and landscapes, are clearly photographs. Not to mention, there's the creepiness of blot-eyes and empty-eyes on characters when they are not that far away in perspective in a panel.
The pacing is rather inconsistent, seesawing and jolty. The first 46 pages are dedicated to introducing new characters, where Mabelrose - you know, the titular courageous princess - isn't even present, and the next 11 pages are dedicated to the rewritten backstory for her (or is expanded upon, depending on your mileage). Everything culminates in a rushed ending (with a few reused character art panels).
Still, the actions scenes and set pieces are excellent and creative. Despite so much stuff going on, and characters to keep track of at every turn, they are there for a reason and are relevant. 'The Unremembered Lands' does progress the story and arc of Mabelrose, so it does not suffer from the typical middle book syndrome. The humour is clever, witty, effective and on point for the better part of the volume. The fairy tale inclusions, homages and influences are everywhere. Greek mythology characters are even added.
With an ungodly amount of (mostly male) characters vying for page time, Princess Mabelrose, the Courageous Princess herself, manages to outshine them all in every panel she's in.
She's a wonderful and fantastic heroine. She's not a typical action girl - she's a good and caring person trying to survive, train, and find her way home to her family. She is a leader and strategist in this volume. When men and male talking critters are not saving her, she is ordering them around and trying to keep them safe.
You see Princess Mabelrose and immediately think home, warmth, love and safety, regardless of being "the fairest in the land".
She is an absolute pro on a magic carpet. Makes sense, as she's canonically a descendant of Aladdin.
She has earned her character development. She really is a "strong female character", and she is no Mary Sue.
It's a shame that she has the worst fairy godmother ever. Seriously.
To go back to that retconned backstory of Mabelrose's: apparently Giovanna, the beautiful princess who outshone her at a prince's ball in the previous book, is her cousin! Whom she grew up playing with, along with Giovanna's twin sister, Anastasia. The cousins grew and eventually drifted apart, yet when Giovanna did appear in the original book, there was no indication that Mabelrose knew her at all. Or was that a different blonde Princess Giovanna? Or was the author reusing names?
Mabelrose's cousins - her mother Helena's older sister's daughters - are not real characters, anyway. I've read the third and final volume of 'The Courageous Princess' trilogy, and they are never given any dialogue, nor any interaction with Mabelrose; they only appear in the background of a few panels. Seems a bit wasteful, and a wasted opportunity to me.
Why can't Mabelrose have any female family and friends who aren't either absent, useless, treacherous or evil? Don't leave the female empowerment and non-stereotyping entirely on this teenager's shoulders! She needs strong girl power support and influence.
Is Gaze, one of the princes recruited by Mabelrose's father, Jeryk, in joining him in finding and saving Mabelrose, supposed to be of ambiguous gender or sexuality? "He" is thought to be a girl once by the other princes (including womanising git Hearfar), because he isn't interested in beautiful female fairies. Gaze (who is that Medusa's child, BTW) is never shown to be interested in Mabelrose romantically, unlike the other princes (with varying degrees of shallowness). Queercoding in children's media in the 2000s and early 2010s was weird.
'The Unremembered Lands' also has the best iteration - the coolest cat - of Puss in Boots since Antonio Banderas.
That's all I'll say. Fortunately, in my opinion, the final instalment in 'The Courageous Princess' comic book trilogy, 'The Dragon Queen', is an improvement on this one.
Stay tuned for my review of that, and my concluding thoughts on this particular, unique fairy tale princess series.
Final Score: 3/5
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