Analysis | Drama vs. History
The Royal Example: C-Drama: The Story of Minglan* (2018)
The Drama's Portrayal: While Minglan herself is a commoner who marries a Duke, the drama beautifully contrasts her active agency with the fate of women in the highest positions. The drama shows that to achieve power and security, characters must be active, cunning, and often operate outside the rules. The women who pursue the highest royal status, like the Empress figures, are shown to be constrained, constantly plotting, and often deeply unhappy, their lives defined by the needs of their clan.
Artistic License Breakdown: The Failure to Romanticize Passivity
Writers consistently choose the Crown Prince's journey because it offers a ready-made canvas for active conflict and personal choice (Duty vs. Desire). The Crown Princess's life, however, offers a pre-written story of passive endurance and prescribed duty.
To make the Crown Princess a compelling protagonist, writers must resort to Artistic License that completely breaks the historical framework:
The Incognito/Revenge Trope: The most frequent solution is to focus on her life before or after she becomes the Princess. By having her seek revenge or go incognito to solve a crime (a la the "Dumbed Down Disguise" trope), the writers are literally removing the Crown Princess from the palace, thereby granting her the active agency necessary to drive a plot. The story only becomes a drama when she stops being a Crown Princess.
The Power Struggle Trope: The only female royals who are consistently granted lead roles are the Empress or Empress Dowager. These women have transcended the "Princess" status and are actively wielding power, either through their own son's claim or through political maneuvering that directly impacts the outer court. Their ambition involves genuine, high-stakes political conflict—unlike the Crown Princess, who is merely waiting for the power to be conferred upon her.
The core structural failure is that the audience demands active agency—a heroine who makes decisions and drives the plot. Since the historical role of the Crown Princess offers none, the most structurally sound choice for a writer is to either sideline her or promote her to an Empress who can genuinely fight.