Maria/Blaine Relationship

Princess Maria and Prince Blaine were formerly engaged to each other. They were happy with their betrothal and are in love, until long held secrets and a plot by hidden forces caused the engagement to end.

Maria and Blaine’s relationship began when their respective fathers arranged a triple arranged marriage of the Pastel Princesses to the Plaid Princes. Maria and Blaine fell in love at first sight. Maria in particular wanted to marry him as soon as possible, and even tried to sip from Blaine’s glass to make her “first kiss,” but failed to do so as her sisters took it away from her, knowing that there was alcohol in it. Although she loved him, she was willing to cut ties with him in the beginning if any of the Plaid Princes insulted or harmed Princess Gwendolyn in any manner.

She also loved him at first because of his looks and was quite surprised when Blaine interrogated her about herself and asked about her life and goals. When she discovered why he was interrogating her, she confessed about her flaws to him and told him that he didn't have to improve overnight for her. Then, she came back, wearing Prince Blaine merchandise. Just when she thought that there would be no more barriers for Blaine and Maria to become husband and wife, the Plaid Queen gave a remark about what she thought of the engagement with the Plaid Princes. Therefore, she decided not to tell Blaine because she didn't want to trouble him, and it seemed as if he did not know of her remark about the engagement.

Maria accepted Blaine's invitation to the gala when she found it in her gift in the jewelry store, and when Blaine offered her to hold a secret performance for her in the Pastel Plaza for everyone to attend, she gladly accepted it, though she was a bit disappointed at first. Then, they both practiced for Maria's performance. At Gwendolyn's dinner party, she asked Blaine questions regarding curses. Maria also enjoyed yoga because of her craving action/excitement around Blaine. After the meditation session, she went up to Blaine and told him that she agreed with his father regarding something, told him that she extremely desired to kiss him, show that that he's her greatest wish, the object of her desire. However, that only upset Blaine even more, much to Maria's disappointment, and wanted to apologize to him.

While Maria struggled with her sadness and wondered how to fix things, Blaine struggled with losing his father’s approval as the most successful Plaid Prince. On the unwitting advice of Beckett Dandridge, Maria came to realize that what Blaine really needed for their relationship to thrive was to be seen as a human with flaws, and not as a perfect idol. She attends his piano competition, and sees him falling behind Argyle Prince Ace, and runs out of the room. She returns a minutes later with her and the Prince Blaine Fan Club dressed in red plaid cheerleading outfits and holding pom-poms, declaring that they would cheer to help Blaine win the contest, which would be decided by majority cheer. She leads an elaborate cheer for Blaine, but is escorted out by security. Nevertheless, Blaine is touched by her devotion and sticking by him even when it looked like he’d fail. He confides his past concerns about failure to her, and Maria assures her that she loves him regardless, seeing as he still stayed by her even after her messy incident and showing her fangirl side at Lance’s birthday. She tells him she’s "not rooting for [his] perfection; [she’s] just rooting for [him]". Blaine reflects afterwards how nice it is to have Maria standing by him despite his failures.

Later, Blaine sent Maria a costume for the gala, of the main female lead of a musical called The Ogre of the Opera, where they would attend the gala as the two leads. The musical’s premise about an ugly man and a beautiful kind-hearted girl who saw his inner beauty reminded him of how Maria had accepted him flaws and all, even though he admitted it was not a perfect analogy when Maria pointed out that the female lead had ended up with someone else. They attended the gala together, and at the end of the gala, he summoned her and her sisters to a private room where he and his brothers all formally proposed to their respective fiancés. As they danced, Maria confessed that she wanted to marry right away despite her father’s objections and interference. Blaine proposed a compromise, that they hold the official triple wedding with them and their siblings on the last day of month, at the Corduroy Canyon halfway between their kingdoms during sunset.

However, right after that, the last remaining member of Blaine’s fan club showered the Princes and Princesses with pamphlets, the result of a plot by the Plaid Queen to prevent her husband from enacting his evil scheme for revenge against King Jack, which relied on the arranged marriage between their children. The pamphlets revealed that Frederick had called Princess Gwen ugly at Jaime’s wake, which angered Maria and Lorena, although Gwen begged them that she needed Frederick’s love to be whole. Maria accused Blaine of deliberately keeping Frederick’s initial digust of her beloved sister a secret from her, then accused him of lying to her all along, despite Blaine’s insistence otherwise. The final nail in the coffin was when Maria accused Blaine and Lance of thinking that she and Lorena were ugly, too, to which Blaine carelessly blurted out that she was being absurd because Maria and Lorena were “actually beautiful”. Maria was devastated, tearfully throwing away her engagement ring and calling off the wedding before storming out of the gala with her sisters and a broken heart.

## Gallery

From LambCat's Twitter: *A Cursed Princess Club take on Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus"*.official art to celebrate winter holiday .
1. ↑ https://twitter.com/iamlambcat/status/1283825477065469952
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/iamlambcat/status/1342149085881516032?s=20&t=x4MthhrBSVcCGTYzvoWvdQ