Oh God, I'm still making Descendants headcanons...
You all know what you signed up for.
This headcanon has to deal with Chaudrey, Baudrey, and Chloe Charming.
To start, let's all use our retconning pocketwatches and look back at D3, specifically the moment after Ben proposes to Mal at Auradon Prep. Leah is disappointed at Audrey for losing Ben. She says this:
"A lifetime of plans. Gone. Our family status, gone..."
This line has always puzzled me, because prior to this, we're to assume that Ben is the High King of Auradon and the smaller kingdoms that encompass Auradon have their own individual monarchs (Ben refers to Audrey's grandmother as Queen Leah in D1, Doug refers to Chad as a prince when introducing him to Evie, and in ROR and WW, Cinderella and her husband are referred to as King and Queen). So what status would Audrey lose from not marrying Ben?
Well, let me ask this question: what happens when two crowned heirs in Auradon marry each other?
More specifically, what are the political ramifications of two heirs from Auradon marrying one another?
Initially, many would assume a merger of two nations would follow after a union between the heirs. But in this specific case, Auradon is already a conglomerate of kingdoms, so the two kingdoms in question can't fuse together twice; logistically speaking merging two smaller kingdoms could work, but that could also potentially cause a power imbalance if a handful of kingdoms fused together to create one sub super kingdom, whose power then rivals and threatens that of the high king/queen/monarch.
Which means, the only other option is for one of the heirs to forfeit their birthright to their throne.
So for Audrey, marrying Ben was the perfect solution. She loved him, he was royalty (her family has a history of arranging marriages between other royals, so Ben was someone they approved of), and marrying him would allow her to forfeit her right to the throne of Auroria, while still being the Queen of Auroria and the other kingdoms as well.
Which now means, Audrey has to gamble. Sure, let's say there are other princes besides Chad that are around their age who are the crown heirs of their respective kingdoms. Whose to say any of them would be willing to forfeit their right to be a prince consort of another kingdom that isn't theirs when Audrey could simply forfeit her right and retain her status? Audrey could find another prince who wasn't a crowned heir to their kingdom and marry him (or her, or them), but Audrey isn't looking to marry for status alone, otherwise Audrey wouldn't have reacted the way she did in D1 and D3. And her grandmother would never approve of Audrey marrying a commoner to keep her immediate family in power.
So D3 happens, Audrey moves on, what happens next?
Enter, Chad Charming: misogynistic, ignorant, self-centered, but stuck by Audrey when no one else did. Realistically, in canon, these two characters ending up together is plausible (sorry Haudrey shippers, I'm CODFISH 4 LIFE โ๏ธ). While Chaudrey isn't my favorite Audrey ship (nor my favorite Chad ship tbh), I do like them. And I think the perfect little bow for them would be for Chad to marry Audrey and forfeit his birthright as the heir to Cinderellasburg. This allows Chad to mature as a character, and this gives Audrey someone who's willing to give her the world, which is exactly what she deserves.
So now, fast forward to Rise of Red when Cinderella says this to Chloe:
"Thatโs why youโre a great princess, and why youโll make a great queen."
This line implies a lot. But if we consider that Chad is no longer in the running to rule Cinderellasburg, then it only makes sense for Chloe to be next in line, as both Rise of Red and Wicked Wonderland vaguely imply ("keep the kingdoms going strong"), which could also explain and add to the pressure Chloe suddenly feels from Cinderella.
And if we take this another step forward, this could allow Red to forfeit her right to Wonderland and make Glassheart canon!
