I know it’s a strange question, but I have to ask, because in my mind they do. When they screw up royally (pun intended) it seems to me that the vast majority of people will do their best to cover up the indecency due to the celebrity and pedestal to which said princess has been raised. Maybe make excuses for it even.

I’m not making any references to a real princess, btw. I’m a fiction writer for heaven’s sake, not a gossip columnist. 😉 I am drawing from my general observance of how people act when someone with fame and standing in society says or does something less than stellar that an ‘ordinary’ person would not be able to do without censure or punishment. Of course, I have also seen the pendulum swing the opposite, making said celeb into either a villain or a martyr.

A very sweet blogger, in giving me feedback on my first book The Beauty Thief,  spoke of concerns about one particular princess’s behavior. It seemed like an opportune time to consider character motivation, so here we are. 🙂

See, I’ve got a teenage daughter, and I used to be a teenage girl. I know lots of teenagers, and I’ve seen how one act can change a person without dire consequences to themselves but instead to someone they love. I can’t help but think the whiny princess, the manipulative girl, could also be the broken, shamed one who regrets her actions and doesn’t need to be thrown in the dungeon to pay for her sins. You know?

No one I know is perfect, and we all go through times where we are so blind to anything outside our own happiness that we take that of others for granted. We might whine, we might manipulate, we might make excuses, or do things we wouldn’t normally do. We might then sob and weep over our crimes, repentant and broken. My princess did this and regretted it, just like I have at times in my life. I wish I could say I was a perfect individual, never selfish, never self-serving or desperate.

The question is really, who does she become out of this tragedy of selfish ruin? Is she changed for the better? Does she revert to her old sinful ways?

So, what do you think? Do princesses get special treatment? Are their foibles more likely to be overlooked, especially in light of honest regret?