OUaT Manifesto: Why I Ship Regal Princess
Welcome to your introduction to Regal Princess, the portmanteau for the relationship between Regina Mills and Princess Abigail/Kathryn Nolan on Once Upon a Time.
Who's involved?
Regal Princess consists of Regina Mills, aka the Evil Queen, and Kathryn Nolan, aka Princess Abigail.
Regina, of course, is a main character who is in pretty much every episode of the series to date. She is the Evil Queen and stepmother to Snow White, the one trying to kill her at every turn in the Enchanted Forest. When the curse brings everyone to this land, Regina gets the plum job of being mayor to the "hidden gem" known as Storybrooke, Maine.
Abigail is the daughter of King Midas, initially betrothed to Frederick, then to Prince Charming, and then to Frederick again in the end. In Storybrooke, Regina's curse artfully cast her as the unseen wife of the comatose David Nolan. When he woke again, she appeared and was shown to apparently be Regina's only friend in the whole town. While Kathryn/Abigail only appears in eight episodes, she is a relatively rounded out secondary character in both the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke.
How do they interact in canon?
Technically, in the Enchanted Forest, they don't interact. We never once see them in the same scene. I don't even think they're actually in the same scene in episode 03x21 "Snow Drifts" when Regina crashes King Midas' ball that Emma and Hook are attending. Yes, we know that Abigail is at said ball, but she's only briefly seen and that is in relation to either Charming or her father.
In Storybrooke, however, we find the bulk of their interaction. These women are cast in the best friends light, despite Regina clearly showing discomfort in Kathryn's open displays of affection toward Regina. Not that Kathryn is shown to be an overly demonstrative person, but she is definitely more touchy-feely than Regina is. And certainly more than we saw of the cold, standoffish Princess Abigail.
Why and how do I ship it?
This is a pairing that not a lot of people seem to ship, and that's okay with me. I love the little ships that I can nurture into something that's wholly mine, so to speak.
For the most part, I ship Regina/Abigail, rather than Regina/Kathryn. I have issues with Regina/Kathryn mostly because of Kathryn's marriage to David. It's clearly from the pilot that Regina intended for David to remain in his coma forever, which rendered Kathryn a non-entity for the most part. That a friendship between them came about is lovely, as it ends up working in Regina's favor to cause Snow pain once Emma comes to town and the curse starts breaking down.
I have begun to slowly warm to the idea of Regina/ Kathryn as a pairing, but am mostly only writing little one shots for them. If I can't figure out some sort of "background headcanon" for them, I won't likely move past the random one shots. There's far more canonical information to work with for Regina and Kathryn, that's for sure. And given that Kathryn thought David had left her, I can actually see her not rebuffing any of Regina's overtures of "friends with benefits" at the very least, particularly when the Evil Queen's need for vengeance was still so very strong. Kathryn would make a lovely co-mother/auntie for Henry when Regina first brings him home to Storybrooke as an infant, too.
I've been shipping Regina/Abigail since November 2013, when I got an assignment for an exchange to write for them. But I also ship them within a very specific AU that I created from that original exchange. This AU is called Brighter Destiny, and is one where Regina and Abigail end up betrothed to each other, rather than Leopold and Charming respectively. In that AU, the betrothal still happens just after Daniel's death, and Abigail is the more worldly, experienced, and older of the two. She has still lost Frederick, and is mourning his loss, but the relationship between Regina and Abigail helps both women through their mutual grieving.
This is an AU where no curse happens, so they can rule Midas' kingdom side by side when he steps down from the throne.
Original post @ Dreamwidth with
comments. Commenting is welcome on either post.
Who's involved?
Regal Princess consists of Regina Mills, aka the Evil Queen, and Kathryn Nolan, aka Princess Abigail.
Regina, of course, is a main character who is in pretty much every episode of the series to date. She is the Evil Queen and stepmother to Snow White, the one trying to kill her at every turn in the Enchanted Forest. When the curse brings everyone to this land, Regina gets the plum job of being mayor to the "hidden gem" known as Storybrooke, Maine.
Abigail is the daughter of King Midas, initially betrothed to Frederick, then to Prince Charming, and then to Frederick again in the end. In Storybrooke, Regina's curse artfully cast her as the unseen wife of the comatose David Nolan. When he woke again, she appeared and was shown to apparently be Regina's only friend in the whole town. While Kathryn/Abigail only appears in eight episodes, she is a relatively rounded out secondary character in both the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke.
How do they interact in canon?
Technically, in the Enchanted Forest, they don't interact. We never once see them in the same scene. I don't even think they're actually in the same scene in episode 03x21 "Snow Drifts" when Regina crashes King Midas' ball that Emma and Hook are attending. Yes, we know that Abigail is at said ball, but she's only briefly seen and that is in relation to either Charming or her father.
In Storybrooke, however, we find the bulk of their interaction. These women are cast in the best friends light, despite Regina clearly showing discomfort in Kathryn's open displays of affection toward Regina. Not that Kathryn is shown to be an overly demonstrative person, but she is definitely more touchy-feely than Regina is. And certainly more than we saw of the cold, standoffish Princess Abigail.
Why and how do I ship it?
This is a pairing that not a lot of people seem to ship, and that's okay with me. I love the little ships that I can nurture into something that's wholly mine, so to speak.
For the most part, I ship Regina/Abigail, rather than Regina/Kathryn. I have issues with Regina/Kathryn mostly because of Kathryn's marriage to David. It's clearly from the pilot that Regina intended for David to remain in his coma forever, which rendered Kathryn a non-entity for the most part. That a friendship between them came about is lovely, as it ends up working in Regina's favor to cause Snow pain once Emma comes to town and the curse starts breaking down.
I have begun to slowly warm to the idea of Regina/ Kathryn as a pairing, but am mostly only writing little one shots for them. If I can't figure out some sort of "background headcanon" for them, I won't likely move past the random one shots. There's far more canonical information to work with for Regina and Kathryn, that's for sure. And given that Kathryn thought David had left her, I can actually see her not rebuffing any of Regina's overtures of "friends with benefits" at the very least, particularly when the Evil Queen's need for vengeance was still so very strong. Kathryn would make a lovely co-mother/auntie for Henry when Regina first brings him home to Storybrooke as an infant, too.
I've been shipping Regina/Abigail since November 2013, when I got an assignment for an exchange to write for them. But I also ship them within a very specific AU that I created from that original exchange. This AU is called Brighter Destiny, and is one where Regina and Abigail end up betrothed to each other, rather than Leopold and Charming respectively. In that AU, the betrothal still happens just after Daniel's death, and Abigail is the more worldly, experienced, and older of the two. She has still lost Frederick, and is mourning his loss, but the relationship between Regina and Abigail helps both women through their mutual grieving.
This is an AU where no curse happens, so they can rule Midas' kingdom side by side when he steps down from the throne.
Original post @ Dreamwidth with
comments. Commenting is welcome on either post.