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blueberry-bubbles130 · 4 months ago

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An analysis comparing Queen Genevieve and Aunt Josephine

While I do enjoy a lot of media, there’s a special group that I enjoy more. Said special group of media includes both Barbie Princess and the Pauper and A Series of Unfortunate Events. And by now, most of my followers will probably know my life pretty much focuses on obsessing over fictional parents. Especially ones that have very unfortunate events happen to them. So it’s only natural that I would obsess over Queen Genevieve and Aunt Josephine. Both have experienced some form of tragedy. So after some more thought, I realised they have quite a few similarities when you look into it. But also some interesting differences. Therefore I wanted to make a post comparing them. For this post I’ll specifically be comparing Queen Genevieve to the movie adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events, as well as the specific book Aunt Josephine is featured in. Of course this post will have spoilers for both Barbie Princess and the Pauper. As well as A Series of Unfortunate Events. Though only spoilers for the third book, The Wide Window.

As a disclaimer, I have not actually finished A Series of Unfortunate Events in its entirety. I have watched the movie and show, but I haven’t finished the books. Or read anything else in the Snicketverse. So some bits of information may be missing. Please if you have finished the books add any information you want to in the reblogs.

For those presumably very few who may be waiting, I swear I’m still writing my post about Queen Genevieve. I’ll finish it eventually, it’s only been almost over two years in the making. Though now I’ll probably start writing a post about Aunt Josephine. But I don't know when I’ll start that, let alone finish it.

Before I start I’d like to thank Karolina Żebrowska on YouTube, because she is the only reason I know what era Genevieve’s outfit comes from. I got to watch her videos again, which is so fun, although I should be doing work. The point is go check out her channel. I’d also like to thank @moldygreenblue for helping me actually somewhat understand how Josephine is actually related to the Baudelaires. As well as @magiquartz and their post that also helped me understand the family tree. I’m also giving a thank you to @simperingsimp for their theory/analysis of whether Preminger knew Annaliese’s opinion about marriage. I must also give thanks to the Preminger subreddit, specifically Present_Resource6405 and Inked_Catharsis. Present_Resource6405 posed the question of how tall Preminger is and Inked_Catharsis gave the measurements for nearly all the characters in the movie, which I’ll be using. A large thanks must also be given to @vexingcosmos and @sailorjade125 and @match-your-steps and @queerpiratebrainrot for their posts and contributions in regards to possible outcomes of Preminger’s plan.

Let’s start with a bit of background information. Because I haven’t made an actual essay style post about either of these characters specifically. Yes, I made the theory about Preminger killing the king, that did heavily talk about Genevieve. But she wasn’t the primary focus of that post. And I haven’t talked about Josephine at all in depth. For release dates both films were released in 2004. Princess and the Pauper came out on the 28th of September, 2004. A Series of Unfortunate Events came out a few months later on the 17th of December, 2004. Queen Genevieve is voiced by Ellen Kennedy and Aunt Josephine is played by Meryl Streep in the movie. In Princess and the Pauper, Queen Genevieve is the mother of Princess Annaliese. And in a Series of Unfortunate Events, Aunt Josephine is the aunt to the three Baudelaire orphans; Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. I am not sure specifically how Josephine is related to them. I’ve looked at the family tree now multiple times and my brain just can’t comprehend it. After @moldygreenblue’s help, I think she may be related via marriage. Because apparently she may have a sibling I never knew about. I’ve also read @magiquartz’s post where they say that she’s their “second cousin’s sister in law.” I don’t know, the family tree is far too complicated and it’ll probably take me another few years to fully comprehend it.

Moving on, I’ll begin with the design similarities, because there’s a few. Plus it’s the easiest place to start. My first point is that you can see both women wear dresses that are historical. Genevieve’s dress style is the oldest; and from Karolina’s video we know Genevieve’s dress is a mixture of different aspects of historical dresses around the 16th century. And she does specifically state the collar of her dress is from the 16th century. On the other hand, Josephine’s dress is from a much later time period than Genevieve’s. I know for definite that it's from the Victorian Era, specifically the late Victorian era. I’ve seen a few people say it’s from the 1890s, so we’ll go with that. Both are floor length dresses and pretty much cover every part of their body. They are also different colours. Genevieve’s dress is a pinkish purple colour. However Josephine’s is black. With both colours of their dresses linking to their character in some aspect. Though we’ll discuss that later.

Another similar thing they share is their hairstyles, as they both wear updo’s. Though the hairstyles are still a little different. Josephine’s bun sits atop her head, that may line a little more the time period her dress comes from. Although I don’t know much about historical hairstyles, just the fashion itself. So please if you know anything about historical hairstyles and if I’m wrong please say so. Genevieve, who I think has a bun, has her hair more so just to the back of her head. And both of them are blonde. I still don’t know how they still have any colour left in their hair though. Josephine is a nervous wreck most of the time; she’s under stress 24/7. However it’s important to remember that in the book, Josephine is explicitly explained as having white hair. And if I had Preminger as my royal advisor for 10 years, and went through what Genevieve went through, I’d definitely have grey hair by now. So hats off to Genevieve for still being dedicated after that time. She’s got more dedication than I ever will.

Although I think the largest physical similarities appear when you look at their faces, are the glasses. Their glasses are very close to being the exact same. Both pairs have the bridge go in a higher curve above the rims and lenses. The lenses and rims are almost perfectly round. Said glasses rest entirely on their noses with no temples. (Temples are the parts that go around your ears to hold them in place) And both pairs are fucking silver! The only visible difference is that there’s an extra bridge and a small chain on Josephine’s glasses.

The last physical similarity that also is something I might discuss later is their age. It isn’t story important, but I just want to point it out. Both are middle aged women. While we don’t have exact ages for either of them, the common opinion across different internet spaces is that they’re most likely in their late 40s to early 50s. They’ve been through a lot in their lives by this point. And I like how you can tell they are middle aged women. Obviously it’s easier with A Series of Unfortunate Events, because Meryl Streep is 75 now. Meaning she was middle aged in 2004. But even with Genevieve, her model has been created in a way that reflects how a middle aged woman would look. Or at least most women look around that age. I just think it’s really neat.

But there are also physical differences I want to explore.

Obviously in Barbie Princess and the Pauper, Genevieve has a pretty healthy complexion. She probably works a hell of a lot, but it doesn’t seem to be taking that much of a toll on her physically. And any emotional effects she’s experiencing aren't really explored. Unlike Josephine who is pretty pale, and is again explicitly described as being pale when she’s first introduced. It’s specifically when they’re talking about the radiator and how she’s scared it’ll explode. This makes a lot of sense for Josephine seeing as she’s probably never out of her house. Or at least very limited contact with the outside world. So being pale would be an effect of not being out of her home and not getting a lot of sunlight.

One thing I can’t place as a similarity or a difference is their height. I’m not sure about how tall they are, and I can’t really compare it. The closest I’ve been able to get is finding Present_Resource6405’s Reddit post where they asked what Preminger’s height was. From Inked_Catharsis’s reply, I learned that Annaliese is about 5ft 9, and that Genevieve is 5ft 10 because she isn’t that much taller than Annaliese. But as of this post being published, I can’t actually find anything on Josephine’s height in the books. Meryl Streep is apparently 5ft 6, so that’s how tall Josephine is in the movie. But for the book, I can’t tell you anything about that.

While not a physical similarity, difference or something I can link in relation to their characters, I’d like to very quickly talk about their names. Both Genevieve’s and Josephine share a similarity in their names because they both have three syllables in them. Again not an important point, just another small similarity I can point out.

Now this is where things start to get more detailed as I try to do more analysis here. So bear with me, because I’m not actually that good at in-depth, critical analysis. It’s been a common critique of my school and college work and I’ve still not improved. Getting back on track, I’d like to discuss how the events they go through before and after the story are similar. But this is also where the major differences appear in their characters. It’s why I believe their characters are reflective of each other. As well as being similar. Especially seeing as they react differently and end up at different positions by the end of the story.

Of course I’ll start with a similarity in terms of their character. Both Genevieve and Josephine are widows, having lost their husbands sometime before the stories take place.

We pretty much don’t know anything about Genevieve’s husband, which makes sense. As I realised while writing this, Genevieve being widowed is a plot device for much later in the movie, where Preminger tries to marry her to become king. Which again after thought, even if Preminger did marry Genevieve, it wouldn’t work for multiple reasons. I’ll be dedicating a small section to it for my essay on Queen Genevieve. As well as linking and talking about other people’s posts about his plan, because they bring some really good points that I never thought about before. Anyway, the most we ever see of him is in the beginning stills, where we can see he wore blue. His hair seems to be a reddish-brown. And that’s it.

However Josephine’s husband is expanded on in much more depth. We are explicitly told quite a bit about her husband. Josephine’s husband was named Ike Anwhistle. He could whistle with crackers in his teeth. And most depressingly of all, we learn absolutely how he died. Ike was literally torn apart by man-eating leeches. And she probably saw that. So this definitely explains a large part of her paranoia and extreme anxiety. Apart from all the VFD stuff. It also explains why her dress is black, she’s still in mourning and hasn’t been able to move on with her husband's death. Alongside everyone else involved in VFD dying during the story. It’s shown to take a toll on her mentally.

Here we come back to discussing their clothing! With the different colours While Genevieve’s dress isn’t black, the colour of her dress still does show at least a part of her character. Out of the main/supporting cast the only people that wear an outfit with a darker pink-purple colour scheme are Preminger and Genevieve. Preminger’s outfit is a full, deep purple. Which does make sense as at the time purple was super expensive to have. And Preminger has been stealing gold for 10 years, so he’d have the money to do so. Genevieve is presumably still rich in some regards, she is the queen after all, so her dress also has a purple shade. I’m guessing the reason her dress isn’t fully purple like Preminger’s, is to set him apart from the rest of the cast. He’s vain and egotistical and must stand out in every way. From his mannerisms, to his hair and obviously his clothes. He’s got the wealth for such extravagance and wants everyone to know it.

Another difference is between what exact roles they have. Genevieve is obviously the Queen of the kingdom in Princess and the Pauper. So she’s making decisions about ruling. Legislation and trading, stuff like that. We’re not shown much apart from her making decisions about Annaliese’s marriage to Dominic, and her marrying Preminger. I am pretty confident in my knowledge regarding the monarchy and their roles historically though, because I study history. So I do know what her role would be outside of the whole marriage plot. I’m not exactly sure what type of job Josephine had though. I know she did a lot of stuff that was extreme and dangerous. But I’m unaware if she had a paying job. Though she does have some sort of money, maybe a widows pension. Do widows pensions even exist in the Lemony Snicket universe? An inheritance perhaps. Either way this particular comparison of them is just another small one, like their names.

And with all those elements of their characters explored to the best of my current abilities. Let’s discuss the main reason I started to compare them and wanted to write this. That main similarity being how they were both betrayed by a man they thought they could trust.

With Josephine, we’re clearly shown that she’s rarely ever outside and with her anxiety it’s made it hard for her to trust people. When Count Olaf comes to Lake Lachrymose as Captain Sham, he recognises that and jumps onto the chance to manipulate her. Manipulating by flattering her, so she grows to trust and listen to him, as she has lost her husband. So having that type of attention in a positive way Therefore when he does reveal to her that he is Count Olaf, her anxiety combined with him manipulating her, she does what he says very easily. Despite this she does manage to get away and the Baudelaire’s do find her. Though she does eat the banana and doesn’t tell them, which……yeah, that was a bad move Josephine. I can understand that she might’ve not wanted to worry them, because of the whole Count Olaf situation. Still a bit of a bad move. She does make another bad move that leads to Count Olaf becoming angered when his grammar is corrected. So he does leave her to die, which he may have done anyway, even if she hadn’t corrected his grammar. And to my knowledge, that's the last we ever see of Aunt Josephine in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

On the opposite end of things, Preminger’s manipulation of Genevieve is a much slower process. I’d also say it's a bit more malicious in how he manipulates her. One reason I say this being that he’s known her for a lot longer. He’s worked for her for 10 years, which we know from his first song “How can I refuse?”. In those 10 years she’s grown to trust him, presumably seeing him as a friend and someone she can talk to. The evidence for this inference is that he is stated to be her Royal Advisor. It’s literally his job to talk to her and advise her on decisions to make for the benefit of the kingdom! And what does he do with that knowledge? He starts stealing the gold from the kingdom and plotting to take over the throne. All the while she's probably still grieving and trying to figure out what is going on with the mines. Then when she tries to fix the bankruptcy problem by marrying Annaliese to Dominic, what’s Preminger’s response? He kidnaps Annaliese and plans to become king by bringing her back with the gold he stole, intending to marry Annaliese. I'm not sure what logic he was using to try that, because Genevieve was probably never going to let Annaliese marry him. So I don’t know what he was thinking with that. And as many people have rightfully pointed out, Genevieve has been widowed for probably a few years by now, so she was always an option for him. If anything, as bad as it may sound, Genevieve was probably the easier option to take for Preminger to become king. She only has him to talk to, and while she doesn’t have a full dependency upon him, because she makes decisions without him. I’d say there may be some emotional dependency, as she’s the main male her age she talks to. @simperingsimp put this really well their post here, how Genevieve wouldn’t think twice with what she tells Preminger. Hence he could have just manipulated her into marriage, and then went from there. Though that does show how good he is as a villain as he had so many options to try and get the throne. In fact Preminger’s plan has a lot of problems, which for now, I’ll just link @vexingcosmos and @match-your-steps posts here and here. The posts themselves do a great job at showing problems with his plans and @sailorjade125 and @queerpiratebrainrot have added some great theories and information. With said information further explaining problems in his plans. So I heavily recommend you check those out.

Overall both Queen Genevieve and Aunt Josephine share a lot of similarities. Not only in their physical appearance but in their personalities and do reflect/compliment each other in a really nice way. Also they both need a break and deserve some happiness in their lives. So I headcanon that they’d be really good friends. I’ll make some art related to it someday. I just hope someone understands this bout of my ramblings. I’d like to say thank you all for reading and I’ll make another art post or essay when I can.

Bye everyone!

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