#eah royals

some artfight 2026 prep (2/3)

commission info here

in general i don't much like the idea of overusing labels defined by personal ideals (that makes it easy to dismiss/dehumanize those who disagree with you, which is definitely something that we see happen in EAH, or to apply inaccurate generalizations). but we're humans, and we're kind of addicted to categorizing ourselves, and most of the time it's harmless and even helpful, so i don't think that "choosing a side" in EAH is necessarily a bad thing, either.

so, what people seem to be saying is that "Royals and Rebels" should no longer exist after destiny has been abolished. the main reason they give for this is that Royals were on the side that meant to follow the story at all costs, aka "the wrong side." i agree with that reasoning; the Royals lost the discourse. however. HOWEVER.

not all Royals wanted to perpetuate "destiny" from the start. i do not believe that all Royals supported the idea that everyone should stick to their stories--that's something only a few were shown to explicitly express throughout the series. remember the webisode "Blondie Branches Out"? Cupid says a very important line here that i think summarizes the in-universe definition of "Royal":

"Blondie, Royals make choices too. They choose to follow tradition and honor their stories."

for some reason a lot of people seem to have the impression that Royals are against choice and free will, when i don't think that's what it's meant to imply at all. Cupid said this pretty early on in the story, and Poppy O'Hair and Kitty Cheshire are good examples of other characters that were probably meant to embody this, even before the destiny conflict was "resolved." I put that in quotes because as Dragon Games exists to remind us, it obviously wasn't resolved very well Poppy's case was a lot more unserious tbh, but the point made is that following tradition and progressing forward are actually not in conflict. in other words, the labels "Royal" and "Rebel" do not fundamentally contradict each other, but are meant to be different paths that a person can choose to take. that's like... that's literally what freedom means, actually. the original conflict was never between Royal and Rebel; it was about the freedom to choose how to live your life.

so, in my opinion, Royals shouldn't be considered irrelevant after destiny was abolished. i'd argue they're actually even more relevant now that Rebels exist and the possibility of losing stories becomes realizable. i mean, new stories can only be written with the help of old ones. the existence of tradition is nonnegotiable; it's only when it's indiscriminately enforced upon people that it becomes an issue. the writers of EAH understood this, the actual Royals (not including Apple...) understood this, Rebels like C.A. Cupid understood this! after all, Ever After High is a show about fairytales, all of which are more than a hundred years old!!

now Apple's arc in Dragon Games, which deals with her fear over not being able to realize her destiny with Raven no longer slotting in as the Evil Queen, explores the aftermath to some degree. but that is a personal arc, not something shared across all Royals. Holly O'Hair, for example, is a Royal because she loves stories and is excited to live through her own (honestly, as a writer, i can kinda understand why). Royals like Meeshell Mermaid came later, so while we aren't given much insight as to why they're content with their legacies, it's likely because it's nice for them and they don't care all that much for nowww. which makes sense for royalty, if you think about it. especially as teenagers hello?? have we forgotten Cerise's iconic "we're in high school, for Grandma's sake"??

tldr: the term "Royal" in-universe refers to someone who, as Cupid explained so succinctly, chooses to follow tradition and honor their stories, in their own way.

I don't understand why people in the fandom would call themselves «Royal». I'm not talking about liking the Royal characters, I like my share of them. It just doesn't make sense to me that you'd choose this side. I've always gathered that the overall message of EAH was «We can be more than what is expected of us». Anyway. I might be off.

These are the Rebel semifinals! Whoever wins will face off against Cupid one more time for the title of best EAH doll.