To Queen or Not to Queen

**"To Queen or Not to Queen**" is the seventy-sixth episode of the Disney Channel animated series *Elena of Avalor*. It premiered on August 16, 2020 and is the twenty-seventh episode of the third season.

## Plot

At Avalor Palace, Naomi, Gabe, and Mateo are giving Elena their birthday gifts for her. They then play a game of What If. When it's Elena's turn, Gabe asks her what she would be if she wasn't becoming Queen soon. Elena can't say as she never really thought about that, or even considered it. After her friends go home for the night, Elena can't sleep. So she goes out to where her father's picture is. Zuzo appears and casts a spell so Elena can see what the world would be like if she wasn't becoming Queen. The casting makes Elena fall asleep.

When Elena wakes up and comes to, she finds that no one knows who she is, as if they have gained amnesia or she doesn't exist to them. She is horrified to learn that Esteban and Doña Paloma are King and Queen of Avalor. She is even more horrified to learn that they have made Avalor a place where people can only do the jobs they are assigned. Elena helps Mateo and Gabe enter a contest, only for Esteban and Doña Paloma to declare some other team the winners. Elena discovers that this is because the pair paid Esteban to declare them the winners, bribing him to rig the contest in their favor so Mateo and Gabe would lose. Elena confronts him, only to be thrown in the dungeon.

Naomi, Gabe, and Mateo break Elena out. Elena asks them what's the plan, and Naomi says they get her out of the palace and hide her in Mateo's mom's basement, then Gabe tells her they could get her a job and that she could work in the bakery with him, but Elena says she doesn't want to live in a place where a King rules with an iron fist. She says she wants to make life better in Avalor for Naomi, Gabe, Mateo, and everybody. She is thinking that it's time to stand up to that bad King Esteban. Together, the four of them rally the citizens of Avalor into open revolt against Esteban and Paloma and end Esteban's reign once and for all. Elena suddenly wakes up again. Zuzo reveals the spell was to make her sleep and dream what life would be like if she was not born royalty and wishes her a happy birthday. Elena heads back to Avalor Palace.

## Cast

* Aimee Carrero as Princess Elena
* Jillian Rose Reed as Naomi Turner
* Jorge Diaz as Gabe
* Joseph Haro as Mateo
* Keith Ferguson as Zuzo
* Christian Lanz as Chancellor Esteban
* Constance Marie as Doña Paloma
* Mikey Kelley as Higgins
* James Monroe Iglehart as Bronzino
* Alma Martinez as Lady Yolanda
* Joe Nunez as Armando

## Trivia

* The title is a parody on *Hamlet's* famousquote "To be or not to be"
* This is the penultimate/second-to-last episode of the show
* Mateo references to the time when Princess Elena first used his shape-shifting potion to turn into an adult jaquin, in "Shapeshifters"
* It is revealed that spirit animals are capable of casting strong spells.
* The game "What If" is quite similar to "Truth or Dare"
* The fateful day that Princess Elena ultimately becomes Queen of Avalor is, in fact, on eighteenth birthday.
* The alternate self of Mateo is, in fact, a jester as opposed to a very strong wizard.
* In the alternate reality, Gabe runs his dad's bakery after his dad retired.
* In the alternate reality, Mateo is the court jester, Naomi sells fish, Gabe is the baker, Armando sells cheese and Higgins is the Captain of the Royal Guard.
* In the alternate reality, the king's royal wizard is The Great Bronzino.
* In the alternate reality, Esteban loves cheese, tres leches cakes, has a court jester and a favorite baker.
	+ Also, as revealed in Island of Youth, Esteban loves tres leches cakes.
* In the alternate reality, Chancellor Esteban and Doña Paloma are married and they are King and Queen of Avalor while Elena isn't a princess.
* Princess Sofia is mentioned in the alternate reality.
* In the alternate reality, there is no princess of Avalor.
* In the alternate reality, Naomi, Gabe, Armando, Mateo and Esteban have no clue who Elena is at first.
* In the alternate reality, King Esteban holds the Scepter of Light, which is naturally inactive as he possesses no light magic whatsoever but when Elena holds the scepter, it glows.
	+ It foreshadows the final episode when Esteban can use the Scepter of Light once he redeems himself.
* In the alternate reality, Naomi mentions that Armando's family owns a dairy farm as revealed in All Kingdoms Fair.
* In the alternate reality, there is a King's Challenge which allows the two winners of the event for each year to choose the jobs that they want to do while everyone else have to stick to the jobs that they are assigned by the king and queen.
* This is the first and only time Gabe is shown outside of his royal guard uniform even though he isn't wearing it in the alternate reality but he is only shown to be wearing it at the beginning of the episode.
* The episode ends right on Elena's birthday/coronation day.
* Moral: Everybody must be free to choose their own path.
* In the alternate reality, Naomi mentioned her dream of sailing the Seventeen Seas from the episode The Last Laugh when her childhood friend Veronica visits Avalor. Also, Elena mentioned Gabe's dream of becoming a Captain of the Royal Guard and Mateo's dream of becoming a Royal wizard.
* In the alternate reality, men have Esteban's hairdo and women are carrying fans and wearing Doña Paloma's hats.
* When Gabe asks Naomi who's Elena talking to in this episode, it's similar to the way Rapunzel and Varian asked who's Cassandra talking to in Tangled: The Series episode Cassandra's Revenge.
* This episode plot is similar to That's 70s Show episode It's a Wonderful Life, iCarly's episode iChristmas, Hannah Montana's episode When You Wish You Were Upon the Star and I Didn't Do It's episode Merry Miss Sis.

## Gallery

*The image gallery for **To Queen or Not to Queen** may be viewed here.*

## References

https://mobile.twitter.com/DisneyTVANews/status/1281658689921978368https://mobile.twitter.com/Sofiathe1stWiki/status/1288644086405234691