- “All I wanted was a kingdom of my own, but I guess I had one all along.”
- ―Princess Ivy[src]
Princess Ivy is an antagonist, later a minor character in Disney Jr. animated series Sofia the First. She is the former evil princess from a faraway black-and-white kingdom whose main desire is to have a kingdom of her very own.
Background[]
Princess Ivy was born in a faraway black and white kingdom. At some point in her life, she learned very powerful black and white magic which she manifests in her butterflies and dragonflies. She considered her magic superior to all others to the point where she let the power go to her head. When her older sister became the new ruler of their kingdom, Ivy became consumed by jealousy and tried to overthrow the queen, but the attempted coup failed and Ivy's sister immediately banished her from the kingdom forever and ordered for her to be marooned on a desert island.
Personality[]
Ivy's most defining character trait is her hunger for power. She wasn't satisfied with her exceptional magical abilities, she wanted to rule the kingdom. Her wishes come before everyone else, even her own sister who she betrayed and attempted to dethrone. She had no qualms with conquering someone else's kingdom, enchanting people, or harming innocent children. She won't help solve a problem if it doesn't affect her. She is proud and will not easily accept help from others or admit that she has a problem.
Ivy is very intelligent. When she was freed, she quickly adopted a kind personality to fool Amber and find out how she got to Enchancia and how to keep herself from being sent back to the island. She uses flattery to get people to open up to and trust her but will quickly betray them when she gets what she wants.
However, she isn't vindictive. She cares about her butterflies who she knows by name and was worried when she couldn't find them. She willingly helped Roma and let him stay by her side and even grew to care about him. When she thought she lost Roma, she realized she cared for him and was heartbroken at the thought of losing him forever. With Sofia's help, she accepted this feeling and became a caring person.
Physical appearance[]
Princess Ivy is a very beautiful young woman with a slender figure, ice-blue eyes, pink lips, and a pale complexion. She has long flowing hair with slight waves and curls, which has two halves that are a different color; the right side is black, and the left side is white. She wears a diadem of light gray diamond shapes with dark red gems in each diamond. She wears a black-and-white gown the top of which has long sleeves with lacy cuffs and is predominately white with a gray dragonfly design on her chest and light gray ivy leaves beneath the bottom wings and along the sleeves. The skirt is black with dark gray ivy leaves and white dragonfly designs.
Powers and abilities[]
Ivy's magical memory-erasing dragonfly.
Ivy has her own black and white magic to create black and white butterflies that, upon touching something, drain all its colors, leaving it black, white, and gray.
However, her main weapon is her ability to create dragonflies. These bugs can take away memories by circling its victim. The sting, though not painful, is strong and victims will fall to the ground in a daze. They will not remember anything since they woke up that morning. However, more stings can take away more memories. Ivy implies that enough stings can make a person forget their own name. This power makes Princess Ivy much more dangerous than she appears as the memories her insects take are gone forever. Even after she was defeated and her bugs vanquished, Sofia's family had no recollection of the wicked princess. If Ivy had gone through with her promise to take away all of Sofia's or Amber's memories, they would have remained oblivious to their real identities till their dying days.
Ivy's butterflies are living creatures with their own minds. While they are usually obedient, they can refuse to help Ivy if they wish. Ivy has complete control over her dragonflies probably because they are merely a magical manifestation of her magic that disappears once they accomplish their task.
Role in the series[]
Ivy made her debut in the special "The Curse of Princess Ivy" as the main antagonist. Ten years after Ivy's imprisonment, Princess Amber of Enchancia, who has always resented the secrecy of her little sister Princess Sofia and curious about her odd behavior, spies on Sofia. While doing so, she catches Sofia talking to her "pets" in a way that reveals she can understand what they are saying. Amber confronts Sofia later and demands the truth. After Sofia reveals the truth about her amulet, Amber tries to persuade Sofia to let her borrow it. However, Sofia refuses to do that because she promised their father, King Roland II, that she would wear it always and never let it out of her sight. So, Amber jealously steals the Amulet from her little sister so she can get a Princess to appear for her. However, stealing the Amulet is a bad deed and activates its safeguard against thieves, and as a punishment for betraying Sofia, it puts a curse on unsuspecting Amber that summons Ivy. The two princesses greet each other warmly and Amber invites Ivy a tour of the castle. Unbeknownst to Amber, Ivy's magical black and white butterflies begin to change everything in the castle black and white.
Meanwhile, Sofia discovers that her amulet was stolen and realizes that the perp was Amber. Sofia begins to look for her, and soon she finds Amber outside the castle along with Princess Ivy. Realizing that something is amiss, Sofia explains to Amber the Amulet only summons princesses when there is an emergency and then sends them back. Hearing that, Ivy sends one of her butterflies to take it from Amber and finally shows her true colors as an evil princess. Now free from her isolated prison, Ivy plans to claim the kingdom of Enchancia as her own by overthrowing King Roland and turning the whole land black and white to suit her taste. She also decides to destroy Sofia's amulet so she cannot be sent back.
She and her butterflies go to see Everburn the Elder Dragon to melt the Amulet. Cedric, Sofia, and Amber distract Ivy and Everburn with a flock of birds to frighten the butterflies. Amber returns the Amulet to Sofia, but it is not enough to break the curse. After the sisters fall down a chasm outside of the cave, Ivy tells her butterflies to get the Amulet, but Everburn threatens to roast the butterflies if she does not leave the Princesses alone.
At the castle, Ivy has hit Sofia's and Amber's family with her memory-erasing dragonflies. When Amber refuses to give Ivy the Amulet, Ivy is about to hit Sofia with a dragonfly when Amber jumps in front of her, letting the dragonfly erase her own memory. Ivy is about to hit Sofia with another dragonfly, but it keeps disappearing. Amber's self-sacrifice for Sofia has broken the curse, and Ivy is sent back to her prison island. When the curse is broken, nobody except Sofia and her animal friends remembers Ivy or what happened because her dragonflies erased everyone else's memories.
At some point after her return to the isle, Ivy took in an injured skunk and named him Roma, helping him recover and feeding him.
Ivy makes her reappearance in "Ivy's True Colors", where the Amulet summons Sofia to help Ivy. Due to their previous encounter, Ivy treats Sofia with disdain and initially refuses her help, until Sofia informs her that the Amulet cannot send her back to Enchancia until she helps Ivy. After Roma informs Sofia that Ivy's butterflies have gone missing, Ivy relents. Together with Sofia, they find the butterflies circling a patch of colorful flowers. Although Sofia helps Ivy retrieve her butterflies, the Amulet doesn't send her back; Ivy dismisses Sofia's predicament as not her problem and returns home.
It turns out that Miss Nettle grew the flowers, Wake Upsy Daisies, as a cure for the "Deep Sleeps": a magical phenomenon that affects animals and puts them to sleep indefinitely. The magic in Ivy's butterflies allowed them to grow, and without them, the flowers cannot survive. Ivy refuses Sofia and Miss Nettle the use of her butterflies, forcing them to free the butterflies with Roma's assistance.
Ivy crying for the first time.
Upon discovering this, Ivy is angry at Roma for his betrayal and chases after Sofia and Miss Nettle, sending her memory-erasing dragonflies after Miss Nettle to harass the fairy. Unable to disobey Ivy, Roma helps her recover the butterflies but soon falls victim to the Deep Sleeps. To Ivy's surprise, she begins experiencing genuine sadness and worry over losing her only friend, and when Sofia points this out to her, this convinces Ivy to free the butterflies.
Having come to realize that it feels good to help, Ivy assists Miss Nettle in growing the Wake Upsy Daisies, and the local animals gift Ivy a wooden throne out of gratitude. Ivy realizes that her original goals of wanting a kingdom of her own were misguided, now that she has one in the form of her island prison, surrounded by friends. This realization allows the Amulet to send Sofia home.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- She shares the same hair color as other villains, most closely resembling Cruella De Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
- Ivy also shares the same name as Cruella's niece, Ivy De Vil, from 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
- The hair color scheme is also commonly used by other villains, such as Cedric the Sorcerer, the evil Alex Russo from The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, and also the future counterpart of Shego from Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time has a similar white streak in her black hair.
- Both of them are imprisoned at sometime (long time but reformed for Ivy).
- Both are obsessed with a black and white animal (Dalmatians for Cruella, insects for Ivy).
- She is the first princess summoned by the Amulet that is not a Disney Princess and doesn't appear with benevolent intentions.
- She is the second princess, not of the Disney Princess line-up, that is not a child and is much older than a preteen to appear on Sofia the First; the first is Cora from "The Floating Palace".
- She is the first villain in the series to try and destroy the Amulet of Avalor instead of stealing it for its power, unlike Cedric and Miss Nettle and this was because she was summoned by the Amulet; if the Amulet is destroyed she cannot be sent back.
- She is the first evil princess to appear on the show that is not a copy of someone else.
- Ivy is the first princess to be summoned by a curse instead of an emergency.
