- "I'm pretty good at drawing!" "I'll teach you how to sing."

- "My... Hopefully better-than-average singing skills!"

- The bar set too high by singing Princess Ellen (the very next comic)

- "If I can't get to him naturally, I have options."

Sarah used Sing! It was super effective!

"Um, actually, the move 'Sing' can't be super effective. It doesn't even do—"

SUPER EFFECTIVE!

Final boss: Guy with a mustache.

His mustache is maximum, and he stands between Sarah and this fairy tale's happily ever after.

Eyes have locked, cue dramatic music, and roll for initiative.

"Sincerely, your highness, you were meant to mingle and improve relations with various noble houses."

"Yes, but... If I hadn't told the truth, mingled, and still ended up pursuing Cinderella afterwards, might that not have created another form of resentment? One far worse?"

"It is not my job to favor logic contrary to an objective the king has given me."

Me, several days ago while writing this: "In the first panel, she'll explain that Prince Elliot would subconsciously resent anyone who tried to woo him while he was still pining for someone else."

Me, the day I made this comic: "There is absolutely no room in the layout I want for that explanation."

Me, some time after that: "Um... Um... 'His heart lingers in the arms of another!' Yeah, that fits."

Waxing poetic is actually a consequence of authors trying to fit complex feelings into small windows of time or space. The results sounding romantic is an unintentional side effect that writers have learned to roll with. Prior to the realization that people care about pacing, the concept of romance simply did not exist.

That, "or each other! Hi!" bit was the last thing I wrote for this comic, and was mostly added to fill negative space. Therefore, if you like that part, you have negativity to thank.

Sort of.

Not really.

GRAMMAR!

I'm pretty sure "fairly" can fairly go before or after "assessed" in panel two without making English grammar aficionados cry, but I'm not a hundred percent certain on that.

One might think that an odd thing to comment on, but I was genuinely looking up videos on adverbs trying to sort that out. I seem prone to having trouble with adverb placement, and I often find myself second guessing where words should go. Some arrangements are easy for me, while others leave me guessing.

Of course, this is character dialogue, and not formal writing. It doesn't have to adhere to any style guides, and it's not being graded by a teacher.

Still, I prefer to break rules on purpose, darn it.

Several hundred years in the future, scholars would review Prince Elliot's "greater respect" statement and unanimously conclude that it was the least romantic thing anyone had ever said.

This was, naturally, hyperbole, but as it was easily identified as such, it was allowed to stand on official record so as to emphasize just how unromantic it was.

Less unanimous were opinions of how romantic the concept of the ball itself was. While some insisted it was something out of a fairy tale, others argued it was "messed up" on several levels. A third faction insisted it was both of those things, which everyone else found infuriating.

Historical realism says he wouldn't have to make it "an order," and that talking to him like this would be genuinely dangerous.

Fairy tale comic fun, however, says she can totally get away with this (particularly given that she's talking to Prince Elliot).

Tragically, we will never be able to deduce who from off-panel is asking these impertinent questions. There simply isn't enough information, and it shall remain a mystery forever.

Okay, so it's exactly you think it was from two comics ago. She might have to show up again in the main canon, though possibly with a visual redesign. Fortunately, even if she does look significantly different in the main canon, it will still, somehow, mysteriously, very obviously be her.

- Prince Elliot first entrance

- Prince Elliot second entrance

- What's expected of Prince Elliot

It's Raven's own fault, really. He could have ended his thought with "diplomatically disastrous," but he just had to follow it up with "and." That's a setup for something to go wrong if ever there was one.

- Three of them seen previously

"To be clear, my objection was of the boring outfits and accessories, not the waiters themselves. If, for example, the waiters were dressed as maids..."

I considered the return of the woman who believed earthworms to be "quite confident," but I choose to believe she's already met someone with an interest in gardening and has no remaining interest in the prince.

The next EGSNP after this MIGHT need to get delayed to Thursday. I'm uncertain of how long something I need to do Monday will actually take, and I'm trying to avoid staying up late to work on comics anymore.

Y'know, right after I get done posting this one.

Look, I'm going to try and fix my sleep schedule starting tomorrow! It doesn't apply retroactively!

Unless it does. In which case, like, three hundred new comics are about to appear out of nowhere.

PROPER commentary

Look, we all know that Sarah's going to have to resort to whatever it is she's talking about in panel three. You know it, I know it, that dog over there who can't even read knows it.

However, for the sake of fun and wonderment, I must ask each and every one of you to pretend there's a chance she'll be able to simply walk up to Prince Elliot and talk to him.

Unless her being able to do exactly that somehow turns out to be the twist, but what are the odds of that?

Hope, of COURSE what's expected is inevitable.

In fact, if you refer to the 1889 English translation of Cinderella by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book (because I don't speak French), you'll see that each and everything that's happened in this story was foretold and expected since long ago!

Look, I'll go through it right now to confirm, and...

...

...

The heck is this?

I'm not sure if fairy tale tradition actually demands that characters who've just met be okay with getting married immediately. That feels accurate, but if I read through all the fairy tales in the collection that contains Cinderella, would that be true? I'm genuinely not sure. There are a lot of fairy tales I haven't read / watched / played movie tie-in games based on.

Of course, only fairy tales with romance would count towards this. The Three Little Pigs would have no impact on the statistics of this.

At least, not in the original version.

- Not the most concerned of suitors, no

"Seriously, I think we cases for why you should be queen. Or co-king. King? Whatever it is you two wanna do."

That "how quickly a heart can be broken" bit from the previous page was Cinderella referencing both their own heart and Elliot's. I think that's pretty easily assumed after this comic, but I just felt compelled to toss that out there.

- "We can't be together, can we"

- When last we saw Fairy Godmother Hope

This was a difficult scene for me to start writing. Once I properly got the ball going, it was more difficult to stop writing it, but that ball was stubborn. There was like, a block in the way? Or something? I dunno. Once I got around whatever that was, the challenge became not making Tedd sound too poetic.

Then I remembered this was Cinderella, and Tedd's allowed to do that in this continuity with reckless abandon. Main canon Tedd can, too, but they need an excuse and/or greater moderation.

"Mission... Accepted." And then Sarah leapt into the flight deck of her super cool giant robot suit. After a series of stylish button presses, the robot morphed into jet mode and flew off.

Ashley looked up at the departing robot jet piloted by her sister Sarah. "She's been shopping at Anachronistie and Finch again."

- Anachronistie and Finch

- The difficulties Ashley refers to are the fewer opportunities given by their society.

Ninja!

Ashley originally compared Prince Elliot to a ninja, but ninjas probably aren't common knowledge whenever or wherever this is. Granted, this is my story, and I could claim they were common knowledge, but why do that when Ashley can awkwardly struggle to think of what to refer to Elliot as?

I think "grab a spoon" works in context as simply a strange thing to say, but it does have an origin. It's from the pilot episode of Friends. Recently divorced Ross is worrying that there might only be one woman for every person, and he lost his. Joey scoffs at this, claiming that's like saying there's only one flavor of ice cream. After listing a variety of flavors, he tells Ross to "grab a spoon."

How Incredibly Evil Stepmother Bishop knows about this line from Friends is anyone's guess, but I'm pretty sure most of her expressions are relatively modern, so her speech raises several questions even without it.

Also curious is shooting for the moon and hitting the stars. The idea is that, even if you miss the moon (a lofty goal), you'll hit the stars. I don't think that's how space travel or goals work, and If all we had to do to reach distant stars was miss the moon, faster than light space travel would be both solved and very strange.

- She was much less concerned after the first night

- Liz, wearer of a suit

When characters are having calm, sensible discussions, a significant difference in heights can be a headache for me to work with.

When the tall character's being a bit unhinged? I get to have FUN. And possibly ignore canonical scale for a panel for a two.

I've discovered I like writing word repetition like in panel three. See also my reaction to learning this fun fact about "was":

Wait, so… “was” is not only a verb, but it’s a form of “be”?

“What did you think was was?”

I DIDN’T THINK ABOUT WHAT WAS WAS! WAS WAS WAS!

"MWUH-HAHA! You merely delay the inevitable!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I... What?"

"Sure, if you have a chore or something you have to do soon, that's a great point. Get it over with, have the rest of your day free. But if I can prolong my enjoyment of something, or put off an outcome that's especially bad, how is 'merely delay the inevitable' an argument against further delay? Delaying the inevitable sounds fantastic under those circumstances."

"I was mostly expressing the confidence I have in my success—which is inevitable—while taunting you. 'My success is inevitable' was the real point."

"And yet you've made me consider the many benefits of delaying that supposed inevitability! I'd say your bravado has backfired rather severely!"

"Ridiculous. My victory remains inevitable!"

"Actually, while we were talking, I got a message out to my friends. Your plans should be thwarted right about... Now."

"CURSES!"

"The kingdom needs you to be more assertive, but I need you to not be so reckless!"

And so concludes part 5, and we shall return with the beginning of part 6 on Tuesday, February 3rd. Assuming Elliot doesn't see his shadow on the 2nd, of course. If he does, that's six more weeks of hiatus.

(That was a Groundhog Day joke, please don't panic)

At least, it's the end of part 5 as things are currently split now. I don't think I've quite done the part splits as I should, so that might change later. That's a manual per-comic thing, however, so I'm going to wait to mess with it until I'm darn certain where I want the actual part changes to be.

So this is the end of part 5 going into part 6 in a week, but it might possibly be part 6 going into part 7 in the future. I don't know. We'll find that out together.

Anyway, I genuinely and for true assumed Cinderella would be under a hundred comics.

- "We're in pursuit of a fairy godmother"

- Prince Elliot making Hope an honored guest

- Brazenly reckless Prince Elliot writes a note (this was apparently kingly)

There exists the idea that the best leaders do not want to lead. Depending on what one actually means by that, there could be truth to it. Whenever such complex ideas are reduced to a single sentence, there is likely important nuance being left behind. In this case, I think the single sentence overlooks the importance of finding someone for a job who actually wants it.

One generally doesn't want a leader who is entirely selfish and seeks out power first and foremost to benefit themselves. These are the worst sorts of people to be given power, as they fundamentally cannot be trusted with it. They will abuse it however it suits them to as far as they think they can get away with.

When someone says they want someone in charge who doesn't want to be in charge, I imagine they mean someone who doesn't crave such selfish power for themselves.

There is, however, a very serious danger that comes packaged with a leader who doesn't want to lead: They don't want the job. People who don't want the jobs they're in do those jobs reluctantly out of feelings of obligation. However noble that might be, that is not ideal in terms of mental health and drive to do the job well.

It is, frankly, a recipe for a weak leader, though maybe not in the short term. The person who rises up in a crisis can ride on the power of the moment, and do great things regardless of whether they'd volunteer for such a role under normal circumstances. Ask that same person to keep it up for a decade, and they might not do so well.

Ultimately, I think the best person for any job wants to do it. Maybe not all of it. I want to write and tell stories, but that doesn't mean every aspect of it is fun for me. After all, I don't always want to draw or write everything I need to. Overall, however, I do want the job, and that keeps me going.

For a long term leader, I don't want the only available person who reluctantly stepped up. That person may well be a hero, but the additional strain on them wouldn't be good for anyone. I may not want someone rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of personal power, but I do want someone who feels satisfaction from the more positive aspects of leadership. I want someone who is happy to help their people, but it is also willing to make tough decisions. There is a certain amount of drive that is necessary to truly do any job right, and I want that in a leader.

Granted, I will accept and applaud anyone who steps up when it's necessary. I've been that person (though usually in situations far less mundane than running a kingdom). We're talking about what I would ideally want. An emergency situation in which someone steps up is naturally less than an ideal situation.

Point being, no, Prince Elliot. You don't make it out of this story without getting called out on this.

(Though, really, let's be fair, here. He's LITERALLY A PRINCE. This is starting with him being pushed. It's up to him if it ends that way.)