When Elena wonders what her life would be like if she had not been born a princess, Zuzo casts a spell to show Elena an alternate reality.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: If they exist at all, it's unknown where Elena's family other than Esteban, the Jaquins, Victor, or even Shuriki fit in the new universe.
- Animal Motif: Paloma's throne is styled after the feathers of the peacock.
- Awful Wedded Life: Heavily implied with Esteban and Doña Paloma in the alternate reality. They serve as king and queen, but the latter continuously seeks to undermine and outshine the former (much to his frustration), even using him as a Human Shield when Elena and Avalor make their rebellion. Still a better marriage than Victor and Ash, though.
- Badass Boast:Paloma: How dare you!
Elena: I more than dare, I demand! - Because You Were Nice to Me: Even in the alternate reality, Mateo, Naomi, and Gabe are immensely grateful towards Elena for helping them.
- Call-Back:
- In the alternate reality, Armando still works for his family's cheese-making business, which he would have done if he hadn't gotten a job at the palace as revealed in "All Kingdoms Fair".
- Elena gathering the people of Avalor to march against their tyrannical ruler in a song of courage and unity? Sounds almost familiar, hmmm...
- Mateo offers to hide Elena in his basement, which, as we know from Elena and the Secret of Avalor, is Alacazar's workshop.
- Character Exaggeration: While everyone in the alternate reality has the same personality as in the main reality, Esteban and Doña Paloma have their worst traits exaggerated:
- Esteban in this reality is a greedy, attention-loving tyrant who cares about no one but himself, and only cares that people listen to him. In the main reality, Esteban feared being an outcast because no one listened to him like they listened to Elena. And, even during both of his Face Heel Turns, Esteban still had people he cared about and he wasn’t very judgmental towards others.
- Doña Paloma in the main reality cares about making money, but she takes her loyalty to Avalor very seriously. In this reality, Paloma is a complete narcissist (hence the peacock design of her throne) who likes being the center of attention and will keep trying to outshine Esteban.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mateo's gift to Elena is the shapeshifter potion from "Shapeshifters", and he also has the reversal potion handy.
- Gabe's gift to Elena is an olaball. He also says he would have stayed in his family's bakery if he didn't join the guard, which is what happens in the alternate reality.
- Antonia joins Elena's rebellion to be a guard instead of staying as the royal seamstress.
- It is once against brought up that Esteban's Trademark Favorite Food is tres leches cake, which is the only thing he allowed Gabe to make in the alternate reality.
- Dirty Coward: Both Esteban and Doña Paloma are this when they were confronted with Elena's rebellion. They are even willing to use the other as a Human Shield.
- Dreadful Musician: Yolanda and Ines are so bad as musicians they must bribe Esteban into giving them their dream jobs.
- Foreshadowing:
- Tres Leches cake? The strange hairstyles? Yep, that means Esteban is king, who else? To a lesser degree, all the women carry fans and wear hats like Doña Paloma's.
- Esteban being a king.
- Have We Met?: After reuniting with all her friends in the alternate reality, Mateo says he feels he recognizes Elena from somewhere.
- Heel–Face Turn: Esteban orders Higgins to defend him from Elena's rebellion, but the latter instead joins them.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: While Esteban's reign over Avalor is a legitimate tyranny, it's at least not as bad as Shuriki's, notably considering there's a jester and musicians, whereas Shuriki outright banned fun and singing.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Zuzo casts a spell on Elena to show her an alternate reality where she wasn't born a princess. In this alternate reality, Esteban is king and has put Avalor under a mild dictatorship where everyone is given a job by him, but can only do whatever they want if they beat his King's Challenge. Elena doesn't exist (and possibly her other family members as well), Naomi still helps her father with merchant work, Gabe works unhappily as the new owner of his retired dad's bakery, Mateo is a jester, and Armando is unhappily selling cheese for his family.
- Mythology Gag: After laughing at Elena's claim to be a princess, two guards point out that Sofia is a real princess name.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: The straw that breaks the camel's back for Elena after seeing Naomi suck up to Esteban and Gabe being miserable as a baker instead of a guard is discovering Mateo is a jester instead of a sorcerer.
- Official Couple: In the alternate universe, Esteban is the king of Avalor, and his wife is Doña Paloma, or rather, Queen Hortensia. This is rather ironic because in the main timeline, they hate each other.
- Or Was It a Dream?: It's kept vague as to whether Zuzo's spell is an actual alternate universe or just imagined by Elena and Zuzo. Details like how Esteban could be king when he's not in the royal bloodline, why Esteban still acts immature, why Esteban does not recognize Elena, what happened to Elena and Esteban's other family members, and so on are left unanswered, so it's possible this is because Zuzo deemed these unimportant to teaching Elena her lesson.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Naomi defends Elena from Esteban's wrath when the not-princess initially stands up against him, kissing ass to him to deter him.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Yolanda and Ines bribe their way into winning the King's challenge.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Not wanting to lose Gabe and Mateo as his best baker and best jester, Esteban accepts a bribe from Yolanda and Ines to let them win the King's Challenge.
- Subtext: Elena calling out King Esteban on how he can't put people's happiness above his own is very much subtext for her current feelings about Esteban's selfishness and how he made the choice to abandon his loved ones.
- This Cannot Be!: Esteban has this response upon seeing Gabe and Mateo as contestants for his king's challenge.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Elena has this reaction when she finds out that Esteban and Doña Paloma are the rulers of Avalor in this universe, and even more when she sees what the kingdom is really like under their reign.
