Featured story discussion: Positively Princess

My opinion…

Personally, I don’t think Positively Princess was intentionally a copy of Instant Princess.
To be completely honest, the whole “I didn’t know I was a princess but was randomly crowned one and the drama is real!” Has been a common plot throughout stories and movies. Just look at the movie princess diaries for example. THAT MOVIE WAS AN ICON.

Things Instant Princess and Positively Princess have in common:
-Both have similar plot (Again, it’s a common plot.)

That’s about it?
Lmao

However,
I do believe Positively Princess could take some pointers from Instant Princess. The whole “takes place in England and Blah blah” is pretty bland. Although I will admit, the story was entertaining. But it wasn’t persay a story that left me thinking afterwards or questioning it. Frankly, it’s pretty predictable especially since the first scene showed her pregnant and in the description says so.
It could use more diverse characters, a far more unique place of kingdom, and maybe they should take advantage of the plot?
Like imagine, a girl who didn’t know she was a princess… BUT IT TOOK PLACE ON A SPACE SHIP/SPACE CITY. That would be lit and complex.
The whole England crap is BORING and WHITE. Shoot, it would’ve been neat if it was set in China or something. They had such a cool history with royalty and such (concubines, empresses, etc.)
I want to LEARN from what I read,
I see England royalty crap all over the TV :unamused:

Conclusion
Positively Princess isn’t an intentional copy of Instant Princess.
Positively Princess could take some pointers from Instant Princess

I don’t think episode would intentionally put them-selves through the backlash. They’re smarter than that.

That’s my opinion!

If you disagree tell me why and we can talk about it!
If you’re offended by this statement or feel the need to hit me with a long negative reply, take it to the PM’s.

:kissing_heart:

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Oh god thanks a lot for Clarifying things!! I didn’t know there was an ink version too😳 but still I won’t accuse anyone of riffing off cuz episode is way too ignorant to read anyone’s story so I really don’t think Episode read instant princess. But instant princess definitely has my favorite plotline but positively princess has my favorite features!

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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Episode checked out the old Instant Princess before contacting the author, LB, about making a new (featured) version.

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Judging by the negligency of episode towards user stories, I don’t think so. Episode hardly reads user stories despite of how popular they are. They don’t even read all the contest entries so reading instant princess by episode is really rare.

You don’t think that Episode read Instant Princess before buying the rights? Do you think that’s a sound conclusion to draw?

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I’d like to point out that this is the reason people are upset. Instant Princess was set in a fictional African country and celebrated various African cultures, along with others. There was also a suitor from Korea, one from Nicaragua, one from the Ivory Coast, one from Switzerland, and a biracial female love interest from another African country (somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember if Aminata’s country was ever mentioned). People aren’t saying that it’s an exact copy when they say it’s a rip off. People are upset because instead of them promoting a story about a young adult finding out she’s a princess and having to date a suitor for political purposes that celebrated various countries and cultures, they chose to make their own whitewashed version about a young adult finding out she’s a princess and having to date a suitor for political purposes AFTER acquiring the intellectual property to Instant Princess (which is perfectly legal although perhaps morally bankrupt). This means the original author can’t take Instant Princess to another platform. She won’t get compensation from any profits from Positively Princess, and because she can’t take Instant Princess anywhere else since it now belongs to Episode, she cannot do anything with Instant Princess outside of the Episode platform, meaning Instant Princess will never get the true accolades, promotion or credit it deserves. And not only does the original author lose out, but the community also loses out on a richly diverse featured story that celebrates various cultures and countries. This story also would have shown the community that Episode was serious about their promise to improve diversity on the app. Instead, they chose to give us a stripped down version of Instant Princess with a slightly different plotline, with just one person of color as a suitor, and that suitor sometimes speaks in very strange, cartoonish stereotypical language (both stereotypically black and stereotypically lesbian). They slapped the name Okoye on her and really thought that was supposed to do something.

I won’t speak of whether or not it’s intentional because intent is hard to prove. However, given the timing in which everything happened, the way all of this happened, and Episode’s past record with diversity, this whole incident leaves a sour taste in my mouth. They missed the mark here, and they did one of the community’s writers wrong-whether they meant to do wrong or not. Again, I can’t speak to intent. I personally absolutely adore some of the Episode staff that I’ve interacted with (believe it or not), and I know from experience that some of them are not malicious in intent and in fact can be caring and considerate. If anything, this could have merely been an unintended consequence of recklessness from focusing solely on profits (which is never good for a business. Yes, profits have to be a high priority but you also need to be aware that your consumers are people and not just dollar signs, and treat them accordingly). But as I’ve said before, this isn’t a good look and the damage is still done.
I truly hope whoever was behind this can understand why people are upset and why this doesn’t make them look good.

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I want to read it to see the directing but im sick of the shitty plots episode writers come out with. Shitty pregnant stories and how dumb and helpless they make female leads irk the inner depths of my soul. The worst part about this is that they force their stories down your throat and hide other writers. Put them in the background. Why are the shitty featured ones the only ones on the main page. They used to make it easir to see whats new and coming in the community. Now you really have to search for stuff or check the forums for something good. I guess they think this way its easir for them to steal ideas and white wash it without people noticing :sleepy::sleepy::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

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Only Episode knows what they have done really. :expressionless: But all I know about them clearly by the recent contest (h and v) winners is that they don’t read all the stories of contest entries… but since instant princess was so fantastic… it might be read by Episode. :thinking:
It’s really flawed if Episode copied such a wonderful diverse story and made it into a whitewashed replica.

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Give them some type of credit. Episode is a business, not a casual after school club. They are not going to go into a contract with somebody to acquire their intellectual property without knowing the content of the story.

Aside from that, Instant Princess was released in test mode, which means it had an entire team of people- editor, product manager, etc- that looked at the story to make sure it was ready to be released.

They make silly decisions sometimes, but they’re not that incompetent. Lol

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hiii so i finally decided to read this story and ima give my thoughts

.sexy stranger is not sexy and it was so obvious that he was Craxis’ son they look sm a like fgs also jada kinda looks like them too
.lowkey cliche
.and omfg a lot of fantasy stories be like “I hAvE tO gEt MaRrIeD tO a PrInCe!1!!!1!1!!! UNACCEPTABLE!!!”
.this is not really like instant princess- maybe like a knock off that wasn’t anything like the original :woman_shrugging:
.DID I JUST SEEEEEEE AN ANIMATED HORSEEEEEE AND AN ACTUAL TATTOO :0000000000000 istg if episode doesnt put these new things-
.why are the people NOT freaked out by the evil queen showing up??? like im waiting for an entrance like the evil queen in OUAT
.omg lets stop with the “oH eMMM gEE hEs/ShEs aLrEaDy iN a ReLaTiOnShIp!1111111!!!1!!!”

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Regardless of the plot, I honestly just want the new features and the backgrounds (spoken from someone who also has a royal story in progress :slight_smile: ).

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Of course it wouldn’t be Episode without those cliches. I mean, really add some drama from LI’s past like, they’ve been accused of killing their fiancé. Or they and MC completely disagree with marrying for political reasons

The summary reminds me a bit of Instant Princess…no?

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its not like instant princess tho :slight_smile:

I don’t know about instant princess, but episode isn’t just for entertainment, they’re trying to get your money as well. (I don’t know how this is going to work for this one) Anyways, they’re focusing on what the majority of people like (the forums is still quite small and many readers like the love triangles, love squares, love quintagles…)
well…
So far, what I’ve seen is that there are currently a few love interests and Dalton is consistently in the lead, no matter what you do.
Fine, I won’t argue with that, because many readers like this, authors have a bias over a love interest, and well, it’s not my decision to make.Other than that, this happens in a lot of stories, so I can’t argue in this case for something in many stories.
As you can see, I don’t really like the plot line either. SO far, here’s what I see:
A girl meets a hot gu… ahem… man, and they conceive a plot to embarass someone.
Here’s my first problem- no matter how mean she was in high school, no matter how it’s your birthday…
these are not valid excuses to ruin someone’s birthday party. She’s a waitress there. She was HIRED. Therefore this is a horrible thing to do and ruining someone’s birthday- stealing their wardrobe outfits- is even worst. ( according to choices you can choose) Then, the hot man and her go on the beach and strip and sleep.
Fine, it’s a little romantic, I suppose, but that went really fast. From sabotaging a birthday to- then I went to the beach and stripped. A little random, but I suppose we each have our own opinions.
(Oh and in the process, he reveals she’s a princess, and when she asks him why they didn’t get her back sooner, he says because he wanted to see if her life was horrible enough to go)
Here’s the major problem, in my opinion, The plot moves along much too fast, and the excuse is also horrible. Fine, say they watched from a distance and decided to see if she had a family, and was very happy.
Alright, I guess I can’t complain with that.
HOWEVER, have they mentioned her family, even once? Here’s a major problem with many stories: The main character’s (Unless in high school) do not have any parents, (or they do but are never mentioned or seen) or if they are there, when they do horrible things they aren’t there to reprimand their children, or if they do, they’re dead, strict or… anyways- I might be wrong, again, it’s all up to you.
She says yes (without her family’s consent?)
The next day, she leaves for her homeland (and comes with her best friend, who also didn’t have parental consent, I’m afraid.)
This process was fast and confusing- it went from the beach to showing the palace. Fine, if you at least explained how they got there, I would be alright. But they didn’t, and it was too rushed. How did she get into this country?
Then she meets the villain, who is somehow allowed into the palace at all times and at every ball (this does not make sense) Other than that, there’s a lot of drama between her suitors (which, in their defence, makes the story longer and shows a personal side of them)
Still, I haven’t watched many episodes, but Dalton (the hot man) is always a little in the lead.
Yes, you might be thinking, I critiqued it too much. So here are words of praise:
I am pleased they added diversity (not only in love interests colour, obviously, but their gender preferences, such as Jada)
They showed some of the pressure she had (But, not trying to advertise, but I do enjoy the story from Choices: Desire and Decorum, much better)
They showed both the good sides and bad sides of the characters.
And I think, they did well in adding those new outfits, those hairstyles, the backgrounds, Craxi’s lips- the animations, the horses- all very well, and spectacular to the eye. Now this is the reason why I will continue reading it- I love the aesthetic.
Now, if you’re wondering whether they’ll come to us, I’m not sure, but I see many hairstyles are also versions of ink and I do love Sir Asher’s hairstyle,
Last time they added new animations and dresses, and all that, it was for a contest (dirty dancing), so perhaps they’ll slowly come to us as more of the contests come and they incorporate them?) or they might just make us wait for them (they would, as I would, probably want their stories to only have these first, because it’s special, and after awhile and the stories end, give it out. I’m not certain, as you can see there are also featured stories with these hairstyles and all, but they haven’t put it in the hair section, lips section, backgrounds, and outfits.
However, I do realize recently (or might be I didn’t see them) that they added new night versions to many backgrounds, so I am quite pleased.

End of talk and let me go back to my homework.
Thank you for all of you who stayed with me through.

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The guy who talks to her in the first story is sorta creepy looking. Idk but his face looks bad what do y’all think?

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the girl is apparently an orphan (i think) plus she is an adult (i think) because the mean girl was like "omg i knew you from high school and you are still nothing!

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agreed.

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The story is cliché, and I don’t understand why our MC can’t have the new and beautiful features like love interest. I only read it cause I LOVE the new features!!! PLEASE EPISODE RELEASE THE NEW FEATURES AND ANIMATED HORSE :weary: :heart_eyes:

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You watch that show too?

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