The whole mess starts with her demanding that he lead her around the fair and entertain her, and then the first thing she does is get sucked back in time. Crono and Lucca have to risk their necks getting her back because she messed up history, and then throughout the rest of the game she’s assigning Crono moral imperatives and demanding that he do this or do that. (”Crono, we HAVE to help these people!”)

Although, I suppose that her actions that started all of this eventually led to the party saving the world, so I guess it’s a wash. Still, five crowns seems like a little much…

Mine is Cecilia Adelhyde from Wild Arms, because I saw her before FF9, and also because despite her family, identity, and kingdom all being destroyed in one day, she did not have an irritating emosad mute phase wherein her inability to concentrate got me killed nine thousand times.

I suppose FFV was similar, featuring not one but three princesses in leading roles who never get involved with the main character, but FFV had little character development compared to today’s RPGs.

Zelda is also an interesting example of a princess. She usually needs to be rescued at some point, but for the most part she doesn’t come off as helpless or dependent on Link (and when it does, it’s usually because she tried to do things herself and failed.) Also, the modern Zelda games don’t really trump up a romantic relationship anymore, it’s more like he’s her knight and you can draw the implications of that as you will. And, of course, for whatever reason the franchise is named after her..

@ Alison: I completely forgot about Cecilia! You raise a good point there, too. Quite admirable of her not to stand around crying her eyes out even though she had lost pretty much everything dear to her.

@ Peter: Initially I wanted to mention Ashe, but honestly, I didn’t care too much for FFXII or the story. I’m still not even finished with it, and I’m ashamed to mention that. Haha. You mentioned a few great candidates, and Lenna would have definitely worked as a fine example. I just had so many potential choices and a limited amount of time to fit them all into one article without it seeming like an enormous wall of text that people would shy away from reading or an exhaustive list. I didn’t include Zelda, however, because I already had chosen to use Peach as a prime example of what’s bad about gaming princesses. I had meant to pick and choose a mix of more popular and leser-known characters. Peach was an extremely known one of course, so I didn’t want to make the list bland by adding Zelda as well.

ANYWAY, love some of the princess you have here. I’m busy but I managed to read it all because it was enjoyable and fun. I’m trying to think of anything princesses you missed, but I can’t think of any (I hate Zelda so I’m glad you didn’t really rave about her anyway!). Speaking of Zelda, princess Ruto sucked. A lot.

I don’t think that Zelda is as bad an example as Peach, though, really, in terms of being a cliche brainless damsel-in-distress. I think the divergence in evolution of the two characters could merit a post in itself, really. But I suppose it largely reflects the fact that the Zelda verse has “grown up” and Mario’s has not..

Zelda is pretty useless, not because she is weak, but because she never fucking helps you at all. She is supposed to be some powerful magic user WTF! And when she assists you as Sheik, she is a Ninja! She is a Ninla/Mage COME ON. If you know so much about everything, why don’t you follow Link into the freaking temple and help him? That always bothered me about Zelda. Link gets a pretty raw deal if you ask me.

At least Ruto is useful. No one can hold a button down like she can.

I think you made the right decision not including Zelda. I mean, I’m a huge fan of the series, but it’s really difficult to pin “Zelda” down because she’s so inconsistent. In the first two games, she’s useless or asleep, in the second one she’s pretty useless again, in the N64 games she’s got identity issues and/or is not even there, and even in Wind Waker for some unfathomable reason it’s all, “You were totally kicking ass and helping out as a pirate, but now that we’ve revealed you’re Zelda JUST SIT HERE IN YOUR PRETTY DRESS AND WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THE WORK.” And she was cool with that. WAIT, WHAT? Of all the Zeldas, I really expected Tetra to get up ins and be like, “Screw that, I’m going with you.” And yet it did not occur. SO DISAPPOINTED. So anyway, too many incarnations, and Peach is much more consistent with what you were trying to convey. Not that you need my cheerleading.

Anyway, GREAT article, since I didn’t say that before.

Although Peach was badcore in Mario 2! You could do the whole game as her no probs and never even glance at Luigi, Mario or toad!

of course seeing as I was a young boy at the time I was forbidden to play Peach due to the unwritten rules of young boys… you know?
If you show an intrest in girls then you must be gay.

The character development wasn’t the strongest, but as far as princesses go, I think she characterizes the archetype in a similar way to Marle.