Velveteen Presents The Princess vs. Public Relations.

THANK YOU for more Velveteen (and friends)!

The Princess is so awesome, I love seeing what's going on with her while Vel's away. I have a friend who does not like or understand superhero stories at all, but even she was charmed by my description of the Princess (especially her Crowning Moment of Awesome in the battle against tSPI). Her appeal is universal for any of us who love fairy tales!

Also, sad Jackie. I'm glad to slowly be figuring out what happened with her. :/

This was such a wonderful story, and now I'm sad. But I'm also happy, because more Velveteen-verse stuff! Poor Jackie, and Jacqueline. Thank you for more stories!

Oh wow, that was wonderful thank you.

The princess is awesomeness personified

Yay for more Velveteen-universe! Also, The Princess is awesome.

"...here to be misled with facts!" I laughed so much. So. Much. This was gold. (The whole story was gold, of different sorts.)

Jacqueline. Jacqueline Claus.

Oh God I think I hate Vel's Santa.

I'm rather torn about him myself. He's as railroaded by his own Narrative as the Princess in some respects.

Yay, the Princess!

Poor Jackie and Jacqueline :(
(I am pondering over whether was a swap or a displacement now)

Seanan.

Thank you.

No seriously. Thank you. Thank for addressing disability and ableism in the Vel-verse. That means a lot to me, as a disabled woman who never sees herself or anyone remotely like her in fiction. Thank you for addressing sexual assault. Thank you for addressing trans* issues. Thank you for focusing your stories on characters on the margins. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Side note: Did Jackie and Jaqueline trade places??? how?? why??? did I miss something JACKIE COME BACK PLZ

Good work!

Now I’m wondering if the Princess’ employers are also effectively maintaining a lightning rod for the fears and nightmares of the world’s children, channeling them into forms that can canonically be defeated by people of common origins who stay true to their friends. Or does Halloween already collect those?

And press conferences need more bears.

:) Thank you!

“I am not one of your lapdogs, here to be misled with facts!”

Great line, really gets the mindset of some of the more rabid newsies--they have a narrative to tell, reality be damned! Excellent read.

this is actually my first exposure to this narrative and I really enjoyed it. Is there more? (please say yes)

'Misled by facts' .... wow. Why do I think this was a guy from Fox News?

Glorious story. I love Princess ... and everyone in the Velveteen-verse. Thank you for offering me a chance to read this. ...and when it gets collected into [hopefully] Velveteen Volume 3, I'll be buying it in dead tree form! Hugs!

OH MY GOSH. That was delightful. Gamergate personified and carted away! A frozen-type dress! Jacqueline!

JACQUELINE.

Thank you for this.

Thank you so much for writing this. It's been a pretty ugly week and this was the exactly the right thing.

I wanted to take a moment to say how brilliant I think the Velveteen Vs. series is. I found Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super Patriots on amazon one day and bought it because I like the October Daye series, and superhero fiction. The cover didn't inspire confidence (Sorry!), and I thought it sounded a bit silly... But then I read it and discovered probably the very best superhero story I've ever seen. I've read tons of superhero fiction, was a huge comic book fan in my younger days, so I'm not saying that lightly.

I read that first book, and then, waiting impatiently for Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse to come out, I discovered the blog, and read through to the end. I loved it, it was perfect. I assumed it was finished at that point, so I was delighted when I looked today and saw there was a new Velveteen book coming, and new posts on the blog! I read through to the latest post (And I made a comment there of dismay...) but I thought I'd comment on *this* post, because I loved this installment. The Princess is quite possibly my favorite fictional character. I think the idea behind her is brilliant, and the fact that she's trans is so *perfectly fitting*. The child who had even more reason to wish to be the beautiful princess, of *course* she was the one to receive the mantle. The concept of her is brilliant in general, she's *likable*, and the trans aspect simply ties the package up with a neat little bow.

As much as I like Vel, The Princess is my favorite character in this, I have to admit.

Honestly being gender fluid/bi-gendered myself this chapter made me mist up a bit, the idea is so beautiful. I wanted to say that. She makes a wonderful role model, while still being a perfectly natural seeming character, believable and real. Thank you for that.

Aside from that, I wanted to comment here because I saw people discussing how she had come out about her origins because she believed she owed it to the children, and... Nobody touched on the thought I had then, I don't think. It occurred to me that that was a test for her, in a way. Because what she did was what the fairy tale princess would do. Be brave, stand up for what's right, let the kids in the situation she'd been in know they aren't alone... I have to think that, at least once she realized that she had that choice, if she *hadn't* stood up and come out, she might have been in danger of losing her mantle. Of course, I'm sure part of the reason she was chosen is that she's a person who *would* stand up and do the right thing there. But yeah.

She's a beautiful character. Entirely feminine, and still one of the strongest characters in the story. Her origin is a part of her that isn't glossed over *or* made into a bigger deal than it is. Exactly as it should be, yet something few writers can manage. I wanted to say, "Bravo", to let you know what a wonder you've managed to create, and to thank you for sharing her with us :)