Hans My Hedgehog: An Incoherent Musing on the Staying Power of Certain Themes and What Lets Some Fairy Tales Be Forgotten

When viewed from a broad angle, the similarities between "Hans My Hedgehog" and "The Frog Prince"—here not as a reference to any particular version of the tale but simply the general basis that has become so ingrained in the modern culture—seem to be such that the disparity in how recognizable the two are for any layman selected off of the street becomes inexplicable. I will argue here, however, the importance of two key differences in themes that very much affect the staying power of the two tales and why those differences, however minute, have had such a profound influence on the longevity of the two tales.

Because both have a happy ending, it is here taken for granted, but it is undeniable that the stories most celebrated by our society end in such a disgustingly happy way that the happier and more "complete" the ending the better the chances of surviving the test of time and memory.

1) Princes are better than normal people:
Let us face the facts. The vast majority of fairy tales that have been embraced by our society have princes as the main characters because princes, in our culture, have somehow become synonymous with goodness and desirability on all levels—perhaps as an effect rather than a cause. Because princes are seen as being on a higher level (much more so than princesses) the value of a character that is a prince drastically increases, likewise increasing his chances of being celebrated. The only other type of male character that is typically celebrated is the "everyman" that is witty and uses his cunning to get ahead, which Hans My Hedgehog cannot be on the grounds of his deformation.

2) Fathers love their children and are irreproachable:
The primary moral conflict that is presented between the two is that, in the Frog Prince tales, whether the frog is automatically accepted, accepted through a trick, or accepted through an act of duty, he is only ever rejected in his humbled form by those who hold no ethical obligation. In contrast, the father and mother of Hans My Hedgehog who hold the paramount obligation to him reject and repel him twice. This undermines the important image of the parental figure which is almost always protected in children's literature. This is the very reason that the evil mother is always a stepmother instead of simply being a mean mother.

I am not currently in the mood to expand much further on the topic, so I shall leave it at that. I'm sure you can make the necessary associations remaining in order to finish affirming the claim, or else you can go on living your life eternally unfulfilled and in a perpetual state of anxiety as you struggle to complete the circle.
You can choose to agree, disagree, or whatever… It doesn't matter…
Either way I'm right…