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Disney's The Princess Diaries has princesses, princes, and castles in it, so some might say its sort of fantasy. However the real reason I ask is that I want to ask about a possible connection between The Princess Diaries and Marvel and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is most definitely on-topic for SF&F.

I feel like SF&F is a better fit for my question since I get the feeling that movies.SE users tend to be more casual and less motivated to find answers than SF&F users.

So, can I ask a question on SF&F about a connection between Marvel and The Princess Diaries?

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    Just to ask, do you have anything beyond "Stan Lee cameos in both of them?"
    – Rogue Jedi
    Commented Apr 4, 2016 at 14:08
  • The site survived three disney-princess questions, so your question seems fine. But I'm only a humble 1.4k rep user.
    – Molag Bal
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 6:37
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    I don't see any connection between them and by this rule we can ask as many gorilla vs shark connection as we can. And i can't buy the movie.se criticism in this question.
    – Ankit Sharma
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 9:15
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    Movies:SE tend to be rather more generous with answers based on personal opinion (e.g. over evidence-based answers). That doesn't mean they're more casual or less motivated, just differently competent.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 13:19
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    @Richard Whoever you are, against personal preferences I have to remind you to please refrain from hacking Richard's user account. ;-)
    – TARS
    Commented Apr 8, 2016 at 11:20
  • @TARS - I was attempting to be even-handed :-P
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 8, 2016 at 12:32

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One of those works is on-topic, so questions about it would be on-topic.

However, you will need to be very careful in your question to avoid the dreaded "Gorilla vs. Shark" problem. Questions comparing elements of those two works from an in-universe perspective are off-topic.

If you think there is clear evidence of an out-of-universe connection between them (Easter eggs, story influences, etc), and want to know if the writers have commented on it, that type of question would be fine.

If you just think two things in the two universes are similar and want to know if they're supposed to be the same, that might be on topic, but without official statements from the author, any answers would be speculative and not helpful.

(Also, fair warning: depending on how much of a stretch your connection is, you might very well be the target of some heavy downvoting.)

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Echoing Mike's answer, if you plan to ask "What is the connection between X and Y?" you need to clarify why you feel there's a connection and highlight what you would consider to be an acceptable answer.

For example;

"Is 'The Princess Diaries' part of the MCU?"

would be an astoundingly poor question. There's no indication that this is the case and while Marvel is a division of Disney, it's never been the case that their properties have crossed over universe-wise. Unless you could show some reasoning behind it, it's likely that this question would be downvoted into oblivion even if it wasn't closed as opinion-based.

If, on the other hand you were interested in finding out whether there are any cast/crew crossovers between Princess Diaries and the MCU, that might actually work as a question. Something like.

Have any MCU crew worked on 'The Princess Diaries'?

is actually mildly interesting. A surprising number of people seem to have been involved with both studios, especially in relation to the music, visual effects and stuntwork.

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    I think that "Have any MCU crew worked on 'The Princess Diaries'" would be better on Movies.SE because it's about production details, rather than a sci-fi/fantasy work.
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 22:23
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    @Thunderforge - Yeah, but it's also about the MCU. Princess Diaries is arguably fantasy but MCU is definitely on-topic.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 22:30
  • @Thunderforge - I didn't say it was a good question, just one that might be mildly interesting and arguably far more site-appropriate.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 22:36
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    It seems to me like it's kind of tangentially connected. To give a counterexample, a question about Kevin Bacon in Footloose wouldn't be on topic just because he was in X-Men: First Class. But I guess asking about MCU crew could be debatable.
    – Thunderforge
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 22:38
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    @Richard We may as well ask "Are Jay and Silent Bob part of the MCU due to Stan Lee appearing in Mall Rats?" in that case.
    – Xantec
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 23:05
  • @Xantec - Ask it and you'll get an answer.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 23:11
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I agree with the other answers that in fringe cases such questions may be on topic. However, the question that has arose from this discussion is, I feel, not on topic for the site.

While questions about Stan Lee's cameos in certain media have been asked, the items in those questions have been about science fiction or fantasy topics. And while I've not seen The Princess Diaries 2, the plot summaries I've read don't make mention of any science fiction or fantasy elements. Apart from The Princess Diaries 2 being a Disney production, it doesn't appear to be linked to any fantastical elements.

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    There is nothing even remotely SFF about The Princess Diaries 1 or 2. I firmly agree with you, any questions about those movies are entirely off-topic.
    – Donald.McLean
    Commented Jun 7, 2016 at 18:10

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