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I did in the end enjoy this albeit I needed to take a break before resolving the south-east corner of the grid. I think the grid construction is something of a marvel.

re the reference to a king or queen in the preamble, I don't think this has anything to do with chess. As the preamble says, one letter has to change forming new words. Given the D description, there is only one letter it can change to. If you look up both of the new words formed in BRB, they share a definition, albeit that for one of them it's obsolete slang (and not one I previously knew). That shared definition might fit a king or queen...

But not sure what 'Royal' adds to the title of the puzzle.

I am fortunate in knowing the theme well (it is the subject of a chapter in a book I wrote!) and so the two names and the characterisation in D made perfect sense to me. In what follows, I hope I am careful not to give anything away.

I was not very happy with the 'additional feature' which makes the impossible possible, but at a stretch it will do. In any case, there is no alternative if we are to retain real words.

I assume that we have to shade cells in three different colours, though that is not entirely clear in the rubric.

But how do I now indicate that the final solution is 'fit for a king or queen'? I can see it, but there is no more room for shading, so how can I prove I have seen it? I could, of course, make a comment below .... . This 'final step' does not add anything. Another hare, maybe?

I am not sure you do need to show it. Which colour are you shading the additional C? The rubric seems clear that it is shading first, then the change and it only says change the letter (not the cell) so I am inclined to keep the original colour. This seems like an unnecessary ambiguity, that ought to have been spotted before publication.

But surely it looks better if you change the colour. Sometimes the rubric can’t spell everything out

I agree CD, as if you do not do that you both do not "present a solution" nor satisfy the instruction from D, BUT I do see that there is an inconsistency wrt how the rubric is worded. If this IS another hare, then I may have to write a letter of complaint somewhere, as, after hours of grid staring, I will be very annoyed to be defeated by such an ambiguous finale - i.e. B or C both could qualify in a sense.

I agree there is ambiguity about the colour of the changed letter, but I did change it. The preamble presents D as a 'description', not a one-off instruction. The last bit of the end game requires you to 'then' add something (from Cs corrections) to the picture associated with A, and on that basis what I added was consistent with the rest of the picture as described by D.

I think you have to retain the colour but change the label, since otherwise the ensemble does not have the desirable property, and this is surely the purpose of the puzzle.

Another alternative, which I rejected as being unsuitable, is to use the letter above the one which was changed. There are in fact three possibilities which would retain real words. This is surely another hare.

There may be other letters that make real words but it’s pretty obvious which the correct letter must be.

Not sure I follow your first para but I’ve just thought the picture looked better with changing the colour as well as the letter

I am extremely worried about what is intended here. If you change the colour the "picture" becomes compromised, but if you choose the letter above the assumed change, and read "solution" as an answer and "fit" as a verb, not an adjective, everything satisfies the rubric - or am I becoming paranoid? I sense a tantrum in the making. I am surprised that such different possible solutions have escaped the checkers. I am not impressed!!

I think you’re becoming paranoid. The preamble clearly tells you what letter to change it to. You obviously need to add an extra thing to solve the problem

I doubt it matters if the colour is changed or not

And anyway, it’s just a crossword and meant to be a bit of fun!