Sleeping Beauty Deserves a Better Ending by Noralities

06.02.2025
Table of Contents 0:00
Intro 3:10
Brothers Grimm 3:41
Little Briar Rose 7:42
A Gap in the Story 11:27
Charles Perrault 16:28
Sleeping Beauty in the Woods 23:17
Filling in the Gaps 27:56
Giambatista Basile 29:29
Content Warning 29:55
Sun, Moon and Talia, 34:36
The Worst One 37:08
Perceforest 38:42
Troylus and Zellandine 49:03
A Fascinating Variant 53:32
Core Components 54:08
Danäe 56:07
Deadalion 57:07
Tale of the Doomed Prince 1:01:24
Actually Cursed 1:02:30
Trail of Breadcrumbs 1:10:34
Modern Adaptation and Retelling 1:15:52
I’M BACK IN THE BUILDING AGAIN 1:20:38
Outro 1:24:07 Patron Names
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Sources

• D. L. Ashliman was an invaluable resource for fairytale variants and the differences between the different editions of the Grimm’s versions, and the Perrault and Basile version. This video would have been impossible without him. His translations are freely available on his website:
• https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/ashliman...
• https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410...
• The battle of the ancients and the moderns by Conor Walton
• A Perceforest Reader by Nigel Bryant
• THE COMPLETE TALE OF TROYLUS AND ZELLANDINE FROM THE "PERCEFOREST" NOVEL: translation by Susan McNeill Cox Persinette translated by Laura Christensen
• THE PENTAMERONE, OR THE STORY OF STORIES, FUN FOR THE LITTLE ONES. TRANSLATED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. 1850 second edition This version is freely available on wikicommons
• Stories from the Pentamerone by John Edward Taylor, selected and edited by E. F. Strange, illustrations by Warwick Goble, 1911 This version is freely available on the internet archive, but it’s also the most censored, removing the Cinderella murder and saying the children in Sun, Moon and Talia just wandered in “from I know not where”
• The Literature of Ancient Egypt, An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry Third Edition by William Kelly Simpson.

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• Music Evil Plan by Kevin MacLeod
• Local Forecast - Elevator by Kevin MacLeod
• Nimue - The Lady of the Lake - Medieval Love ballad by JuliusH Rose by kawaiiwork

@nosieposie
"I am your fate" is such a raw line. Screaming. The story not having an end is a CRIME
@Breloomancer
it's kind of poetic that the version where sleeping beauty is able to take her fate into her own hands had the ending destroyed and lost to time. the prophecy of doom was so powerful that it exceeded the bounds of the story it's kind of poetic that the version where sleeping beauty is able to take her fate into her own hands had the ending destroyed and lost to time. the prophecy of doom was so powerful that it exceeded the bounds of the story
@bookishblossom8670
After all the other stories, the amount of agency the princess in "Tale of a Doomed Prince" had was really refreshing. She embraces him first! She convinces her father to let her marry him! She kills a snake to protect her beloved!! She's awesome and I love her
@nexzahhak4491
This is why I really love Briar Beauty from Ever After High. Her story is that she's set to be the next sleeping beauty and she HATES it and wants to avoid her destiny because she LOVES her life as is, she doesn't WANT to be asleep for 100 years and lose all her friends, and before she figured out she could shape her own destiny she decided to cope with this by partying all the time so she could have the most fun BEFORE she had to lose everything. It's a great take on the myth imo even if its not really a retelling lol. Amazing video and art, I loved pausing and looking at all the beautiful character designs ESPECIALLY the fairies!!
@phoenixmesmer3396
"Man, I like how the story previews are in an Utena-esque silhouette style!"
Visual foreshadowing... You got me there.
@Alias_Anybody
Regarding the Perrault version where the fairy just curses the whole castle so the princess can keep her staff: I think this would be prime material for a social parody. Imagine the story happened to an aristocratic family in Austria-Hungary, but in 1905. The princess naturally wakes up in 2005 but the prince is just some dude who likes to hike but went off path. "What do you mean nobility was abolished?! When did that happen???" "Well, after the first World War" "What happened then?" "The second World War" "And then?" "Occupation, the Cold War, Fall of the Iron curtain, the European Union" "My Gawd" (Inspired by a Simpsons episode) The rest would be equally a fish-out-of-water comedy and commentary on how society did and didn't change in 100 years.
@morganh2272
The idea of Sleeping Beauty being denied autonomy in her own story reminded me of a short manga I read recently which directly focused on that in her appearance. In After Marchen, the main characters are hired to dispose of remnants of fairy tales that are no longer needed after the ending. For Briar Rose, she is acting out after waking up because her life was ruined due to no fault of her own and she would rather stay asleep than deal with the broken reality. She is being replaced by an adopted sister Thalia (like the earlier title) , the prince broke the engagement, and her father has arranged for her to be disposed of due to not following the correct path of the ending. Watching this video has made me realize the author shares similar knowledge and perspectives on the princess's autonomy as the ones you explained! Gaining a greater appreciation for a lesser known manga I already enjoyed was a great bonus to an already amazing video
@t413-f5n
The Sun Moon and Talia reads so much like one of Zeus' escapades. -The name of the kids, Sun and Moon, are just straight up referencing Apollo and Artemis. -The r*pist king first getting inside the building because his eagle: Zeus constantly turns to an eagle to search for prey. -The jealous wife being vengeful to the nth degree, she's acting just like Hera. -The threat of the baby mama being burned alive, just like on of Zeus' victims literally burned alive. -King has 0 negative consequence and his actions are approved and applauded.
@Pepagg8
I find regional differences in fairy tales fascinating for example, in czechia we replace the generic word for fairy with "sudička" which are mostly unknown spirits of fate in slavic folklore which determine a childs fate before childbirth mostly similiar to the godmothers also speaking of czech versions of the sleeping beauty. The prince entering being coincidental reminds me of the czech movie "Tři bratři" which is a musical fairytale mashup where not only is the guy (not prince) entering completely coincidental but also the last godmother/fairy is replaced by an old hag who gave the king and queen a potion that effectively worked as a cure for the queen not being able to have a child only for the price of the Hag being able to visit the newly born child along with the fairies. And then the King and queen just kinda forget to invite her (also theres 3 fairies now as according to slavic myth or the disney/modern version) The reason im telling this is that this is by some younger folks probably the most well known version of the story.
@cramerfloro5936
@Pepagg8 that's so interesting! And it makes sense to exchange them for the sudičky, since the french Fée come from the latin spirits of destiny, the Tria Fata. Even the Grimms' change in the text has a similar reason: the expression they used, "wise women" (weise Frauen) is very close to a type of german fairy that is known for predicting the future to people, the "ladies in white" (Weiße Frauen). I had heard of "Tři bratři", I still need to watch it.
@VioletSterling-137
Random person’s guess on the end of The Doomed Prince: The prince accepts this deal - on one condition. He faces his fate with dignity once he’s gotten a son. The deal is struck and, while the prince plays bait for the water spirit serpent, his temporary ally strikes and takes down the snake. The prince is left to live his days, finally married, uniting their kingdoms, and has a handful of daughters until child number [insert number that is considered one of bad luck/death in that era of time here] is the fabled son. The prince - possibly now a king - knows he doesn’t have much time left and uses a banquet as both a celebration of his latest offspring and to say farewell to his family, friends and kingdoms. Everyone is distressed for obvious reasons but he tells them that this is what he chose and cannot defy the gods any longer. His faithful dog - who has lived an INORDINATELY LONG TIME - appears by his side with some gold accessories reminiscent of Anubis. He shepherds his human out of the palace and wards off any who follow. And so the Doomed Prince (who might be a king at this point) is led to a less populated area of The Nile and…let’s say he meets the actual Anubis and eventually Osiris…
@Dreadjaws
You know what? I'm probably not the first person to think about this, but I feel The Doomed Prince has an incredibly powerful meta ending. He is bound by fate by three creatures (a dog, a crocodile and a snake), all of which are said to cause his death. He escapes one of them only to run into another, which happens to lead him to another, who offers him a deal to help him battle another version of the first one. His destiny seems sealed. He can die in battle with the snake, or survive it and be at the mercy of the crocodile, who might be lying and kill him anyway, or escape the river and meet the dog again. And even if we take into account that the water spirit being a snake might be just artistic license by this video's author, who's to say there aren't any other dog, crocodile or snake to show up later if he avoids the first ones? So how does the prince escape his fate? Simple. By destroying the ending of the book. If there's no ending then there's no fate to ever be reached. The prince's destiny is now complete uncertainty: the exact opposite of fate. He has successfully beat his curse.