The most obvious thing that comes to mind is, of course, the release of the fourth season of the Crown a few weeks ago. I watch the crown when it first launched then the first season, but I hadn't seen anything since the cast changed. When the fourth season launched I had no intention of watching it right away, but there was so much controversy about it, so much talk about how the actress playing princess Diana looked exactly like her, and things like that, that I decided to give it a try. I could write entire posts about that season, but for now, it is enough to say that the stories they showed populated my mind for days after I'd seen the show, and I found myself reading about all sorts of trivia and titbits of information about the royal family, something I had never done before... I was too young when princess Diana died to really be aware of what was going on, so, in many ways, I am learning all this for the first time...
Earlier this year, however, another royalty-themed story came under my radar. Entirely fictional, and this time in the form of a series of novels: The selection series, by Kiera Cass. To keep it brief, the Selection is a story about a common girl who lives in a dystopic version of what used to be the United States, now under a rigid cast system, and this girl is selected to go to the palace and participate in a contest with several other young ladies, one of whom will become the country's future queen.
I had some criticism to the books while I read them - mostly that I wish the worldbuilding had been more careful and more detailed, I would have enjoyed it more that way - but I did enjoy the books and they turned out to incredibly fast read... I read the entire series in a few days and when it was over I immediately set out to look for something similar, only to come across The Royals, by Erin Watt. Contrary to what I was thinking, this one didn't actually involve royalty (just an ordinary girl becoming a part of an incredibly wealthy family), but the theme was more or less the same...
Then there was the throne of glass series (I am currently on the second book) in which Celaena, the main character, is an assassin for the court of Adarlan (spoiler alert: I recently found out she herself is the heir to a different throne). The Saxon chronicles (I am currently on book six) in which Uthred's wishes frequently clashes with the plans his king has for him. Even the classic Daredevil stories I had been reading for a while had Matt Murdock becoming a "king" at some point - this was a much more loose interpretation of the term, but still... Royalty was everywhere this year.
Taking into account all of these influences, it is not surprising that, when the time came to pick a theme for this year's Christmas Marathon, the theme was: "Christmas with Royalty".
There is a surprisingly high number of those movies! When it comes to Christmas stories, specially hallmark romantic comedies, there seems to be a couple of basic rules: if the movie is set in the US, things usually happen in a tiny little town perpetuously in love with the Holiday spirit. If it's in Europe, on the other hand, the setting is usually a small sovereign state no one has ever heard about, and the story involves a dashing prince and a common (by birth, but unique in every other way) girl who's about to become a royal. Coronations, engagements, weddings... every big thing in these places always seems to happen around Christmas... Which is a great idea, if anyone asks...
So, here we go: one movie a day, every day, for 25 days until Christmas.
May the blogathon begin, and merry Christmas to all!
Merry Christmas. Yeah it is on. I hope you keep it up :D
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