Princess Hildegard is a character in the Disney Jr. series Sofia the First. She is one of Amber and Clio's best friends and one of the most popular princesses at Royal Prep.
Background[]
Personality[]
In terms of personality, Hildegard is very much like her friend Amber, in that she tends to be snobbish, self-centered, a bit of a brat, and have a tendency to act aloof to those she finds beneath her, a result of being indulged too much by her father King Henrik. Hildegard is also very proud and confident in herself. Her stoic personality is what separates her from the other princesses. Usually, Hildegard will be seen wearing her haughty smile and carrying herself in a manner that tells others she's "a cut above the rest." In fact, as Zandar finds out in trying to impress her, she is only truly pleased when in the spotlight. However, that image withers away In "The Princess Test". When Hildegard feels the pressure of an important test, she tries to hide away, not wanting her friends, especially Amber, to see her in doubt. However, Amber, donning the maternal role Sofia played to support her, offers some words of encouragement and Hildegard regains her confidence, thus passing the test. Hildegard, though mostly like Amber in nature, does have some contrasts: Unlike the flamboyant Amber, Hildegard has a taste for simpler styles. She liked Sofia's small garden tea party, saying it reminded her of countryside picnics. She is also willing to try new things if only to find something to impress her. She can also be very insensitive to others, such as when she accidentally hurt Sofia's feelings by telling her that King Roland was her stepfather and not her biological father in "Dads and Daughters Day".
Biography[]
In "Once Upon a Princess" when Sofia first came to Royal Prep, Hildegard was one of the popular princesses at Royal Prep, she was friends of Amber but only looked down on Sofia. She did start to somewhat soften in the series, although during "The Big Sleepover", she still looked down on Sofia and her friends and disapproved of their behavior she had to explain to Sofia how princesses behave.
In "The Shy Princess" she and Amber are put together for the Dream Castle assignment which they declare is perfect. When Sofia is put with shy Princess Vivian she along with Clio and Amber point out the stories they have heard about her living in a cave with gnomes and bats but also Vivian has a dragon. A day later when Vivian runs away again Hildegard is unsurprised, but she does invite Sofia to eat with them if Vivian doesn't come back. When Hildegard and Amber present their dream castles there are two: one for gowns and one for shoes. During Sofia and Vivian's presentation through song, Hildegard held her fan up but became amazed by Vivian's mandolin playing. At the end, Hildegard expressed how amazing her castle was, even if it was just one.
In the episode "The Princess Stays in the Picture", Hildegard finds herself confessing to Sofia that she acts the way she does because she thought that, after embarrassing herself on the first day of school, the only way to get other people to like her as if she acted like a perfect princess with the answer to everything. Sofia told her that it was better, to be honest, and humble so people can see the real Hildegard. In the end, Amber noticed that Hildegard changed and that Hildegard and Sofia are now closer as friends.
Her friendship with Clio is explored more in "Sidekick Clio". It's revealed that she won't let Clio do anything she likes unless she likes it and they do it together. It took some choice words from Amber and watching Clio on stage to realize that she had been acting very selfish. Reconciling with Clio, she agreed they could do what Clio wanted, from now on as well because they didn't have to do everything together. In "The Royal School Fair", Hildegard is shown that she hasn't quite learned from the former episode as she wanted Clio to go with her to the School of Royal Fashions and unsuccessfully tried to get Clio to go with her. However, during the unveiling of the Wall of Next Steps, Hildegard says that she's okay with Clio going to the Performing Arts Academy.
She is shown to be demanding and wanting anything she sees in an instant. This is shown in "Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle", when she sees Olaf and asks her father for a talking snowman. This is also shown further in "Dads and Daughters Day", when she tells her father that she wants at least one animal from the Enchanted Animal Park which leads to trouble.
She can be pretty selfish when it comes to getting credit. This is shown in "The Lost Pyramid", when she realizes that she's the only one in the Princess Adventure Club who hasn't made an amazing discovery after Zooey presents the Scroll of Discoveries. While out on an adventure to find a lost pyramid of Khaldoune, Hildegard tried to take all the credit for herself despite it not being the truth. Only after being trapped by the Sphinx due to lying that she found her way to the Oasis stone by herself does she finally learn to give credit where it's due.
Relationships[]
Family[]
King Henrik[]
Hildegard loves her father very much and he loves her. There are some instances where she wants to help her father as shown in The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle. When the King has to cancel the snow flower festival because of the lack of Snowdrops but Hildegard comes to father and explains that Sofia and Olaf can help with the flowers. However because she is a princess, Hildegard will ask her father for whatever she wants. This is shown in Dads and Daughters Day where she asks him to get her one of the exotic animals she likes or wants he obliges even though she can't take it. The King even mentions that making her angry is not a good thing. In the end though, Henrik finally puts his foot down on getting her whatever she wants especially since it almost cost everyone's safety.
Princess Astrid[]
Hildegard looks up to her sister, it is even revealed in The Princess Stays in the Picture that on Hildegard's first day of Royal prep she had a hard time fitting in like Sofia did. She spent time with Astrid and acted proud as well as know it all. It was because of this that Hildegard acts the way she does as a princess should act like they know what they are doing.
Friends[]
Clio[]
Both Clio and Hildegard have an unconditional bond as friends as they are constantly together. Although there are many times where Clio will follow Hildegard's lead as shown in The Big Sleepover and in Two to Tangu. It is soon revealed in Sidekick Clio that even though she and Hildegard are best friends Clio will always follow Hildegard and do what she wants. Because of this Clio has a hard time speaking up for herself and doing what she wants, so when Hildegard left for a week Clio tried to come out of her shell and do what she wanted. However when Hildegard returned early, Clio was not able to do what she wanted to anymore. Clio however tried out for the school musical and got in, this made Hildegard angry but with some words from Amber, Hildegard understood that friends need to share what they do. Afterwards Hildegard was more supportive of what Clio did. The only other instance where she wanted Clio to follow her was in The Royal School Fair. All the students would be deciding where they would be going to their next school, Hildegard really wanted Clio to come with her to School of Royal Fashions but Clio wanted to attend Performing Arts Academy. In the end, after hearing from the fairies how choices made at one point are not final, Hildegard wished Clio well at her new school.
Amber[]
Next to Clio, Amber is Hildegard's other best friend as the two are very proud and vain. In the episode The Big Sleepover both Amber and Hildegard wanted Sofia's friends Jade and Ruby to behave in a more ladylike manner instead of being themselves. In The Shy Princess she and Amber are put together for a dream castle project which they declare to be perfect. The two made two dream castles one for gowns and another for shoes showing there love of fashion. In contrast to Hildegard, Amber is shown to be nicer especially in Dads and Daughters Day when Hildegard told Sofia that King Roland is her step father and not a real father but Amber immediately defends Sofia and called out Hildegard for being unkind. Amber is also shown to be firm with Hildegard as seen in Sidekick Clio when Clio tried out for the musical, Hildegard disliked musical theatre and Clio was doing something Hildegard didn't want to do. Amber having taken notice of the relationship between Hildegard and Clio tells her friend firmly that it's more important to have a friend then do what you want, it was this statement that made Hildegard soften and be a better friend.
Sofia[]
When Sofia first came to Royal Prep, Hildegard was neither nice nor mean, she simply acted with grace and looked down on her. In many episodes Sofia did try to gain Hildegard's favor which was not easy. In the episode, "The Princess Stays in the Picture," both Sofia and Hildegard were paired for a painting project, while Sofia paid attention to the instructions, Hildegard did not and assured Sofia she knew what to do. When they were caught in some paintings, Sofia told Hildegard firmly that she should have listened to the instructions before starting. Hildegard was finally honest with Sofia and explained that on her first day of Royal Prep, she was very much like Sofia but when with her sister, Hildegard came to believe that Princess should hold her head high and know what to do. With Sofia's advice Hildegard finally understood that you don't always need to have the answer, after that Hildegard and Sofia got along better.
Trivia[]
- Hildegard is a female name derived from the Old High German words hild ('war' or 'battle') and gard ('enclosure' or 'yard'), indicating 'battle enclosure'.
- Her outfit is homage to her Kingdom of Freezenberg, which is known for having Forever Frost
