#GAIL CARSON LEVINE

[fairytale-poll]

CINDERPOLL FINAL MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Ella of Frell:

She’s had a “gift” of obedience placed on her, and her quest is to figure out how to get rid of it. I love her

he’s under a curse that makes her obey any order given to her. She met her Prince Charming (Char) when they kids, and they became friends. Her stepsisters found out about her curse while they were at boarding school, and because of that (and some things they made her do) she ran away to try and find the fairy that cursed her. When she does, the fairy says that she doesn’t do magic anymore, because she realized her gifts were actually curses, and refuses to remove it. Ella goes back, and is eventually demoted from “lord’s daughter” to “maid”. She still writes letters to Char (currently in a foreign kingdom, but before that, when he came to try and talk to her, her sister forbid her from leaving her room so she would have all his attention), but eventually stops and even writes a fake letter from her sister to convince him that she never cared/doesn’t care about him, because she realized it would be too dangerous for them to be together; with her curse, she could easily be made to hurt or kill him. Flash forward, and Char returns home. The king throws balls, and she goes, because even if she can’t be with or let him know who she is, she just wants to see him again. Char is drawn to her, and for a lot of the three balls, they’re together. At the end, her stepsister gets jealous, and right as Char proposes (because Ella, despite having to lie about her identity, is the most honest person at the ball and a friend already), she grabs her mask, revealing her identity. Char reaches her home before she can leave, and there’s a whole scene where he finds out she’s a scullery maid, that the letter was a lie, and says that she doesn’t have to be Ella if she doesn’t want to be, and she says she’s not, and he asks if she loves him, and she does– and then it’s all ruined because he accidentally orders her to marry him, and then her stepmother tells her to, and all the while she’s fighting the curse, because she doesn’t want to endanger him and their nation, and doesn’t want her step family to be rich and powerful, and finally– she says no. She gets so excited to say no, to refuse, that she didn’t even fully realize she broke the curse until Mandy (her fairy godmother) tells her. Anyway, they all lived happily ever after. Ella is one of my favorite Cinderellas ever and I really hope I did a good job of explaining her and what her story is about (it’s been a while since I’ve read the book)

I was so enraptured with this book as a kid, it had such an impact on my young mind. Got me into fantasy.

BEST CINDERELLA!!! please use the picture from the book cover and not the movie 🙏

She breaks her curse spell in such a magnificent way. Like yes she embodies the whole “kindness” and “courageous” characteristics that Cinderellas are known for, but for her she’s been forced to be obedient as well. And while she thinks can rise above anything she soon learns she will just hurt so many more people that way. She chose to be self-sacrificing because it was the one way she could express her love that wouldn’t harm anyone (then). But! But! She also ends up getting to be selfish! And that is also a great kindness! To herself and to those whom love her and she loves in return.  All that after she breaks the curse.

She can mimic languages. :) She refused to marry the love of her life and thus broke her curse. :) She fell in love via letters. :) She lied to the royal family that orange carriages are very popular in a nearby city.

brave, smart, a linguist, a nerd, she evolves steadily and beautifully throughout the book, with a sharp voice that never stops being distinctive and fun to hang with.

complex character coool as fuck premise and also. the nostalgia of it all

Cinders:

She spent decades searching every moon and planet trying to find her wife (Rose), who was kidnapped on their wedding day. Eventually, she found Rose, and they embraced, only for Rose to die in Cinder’s arms. And so Cinder killed the king who had kidnapped Rose by punching through his chest and into his heart.

And then Cinder got a somewhat happy ending, in which she met Rose’s clone who had Rose’s memories.

What if Cinderella was a Sci-Fi lesbian? Well here she is. She has a whole love song about searching the stars for her girlfriend after their wedding was interrupted and she was taken away. She spends years searching only to when she finally finds and embraces her watch her be shot. Cinders is so devastated by this that she plunges her wedding ring into the heart of the man who shot her love killing him.

Lesbian space princess who elopes with the terrifying soldier who was previously conquering her planet and spends decades searching for her when they’re separated. Listen to her song https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6w9V-gMgBF4

I think the way she punches the evil king through the heart as revenge for her wife is pretty neat.

She’s a revolutionary married to a woman, what’s not to love? From Cinders’ Song: “ When I was a little girl, my mother always told me / “Someday your prince will come, my love” / But as I grew, I knew it was a princess who would hold me”.

her girlfriend got cloned and most of said clones were brutally slaughtered in war and she searched for her girlfriend all throughout the galaxy and when they were finally reunited on the battlefield her girlfriend died. and a clone of her girlfriend who due to technical errors retained her memories, so does that count as the same girlfriend? theseus’s girlfriend? anyway vote for cinders she’s been through hell

Lesbian!! Has to search for her lost love Rose with her glass wedding ring that changes color when its near its partner!! Gets to embrace Rose once again for one final moment before the villain kills Rose right in front of her!! So Cinders kills him in return!! And she’s left as (almost) the only surviving main character from her own album but!! She is eventually reunited with a clone of Rose, and while they cannot have a truly ‘happy ever after’ together they are the ones graced with the closest thing to it

SPACE LESBIANS (she’s in love with Rose Red, who gets kidnapped on their wedding day and Cinders searches the galaxy to find her, waiting for her white ring to turn crimson, indicating that its twin was near) She took her name from the ashes of her burning planet <3 She also killed Old King Cole >:)

shes a tragic lesbian and killed a violent dictator shes literally the best

shes gay shes traumatized she dates both rose red and sleeping beauty. badass space wanderer looking for her wife

Her wife Rose gets kidnapped on their wedding day and Cinders spend the next thirty years looking for her. She finds her (:D) and then Rose dies (D:) and then Cinders kills the guy who killed Rose (girlboss).

shes a lesbian. she lost her wife, Rose (yes, as in sleeping beauty) the day they got married bc she was kidnapped. she spent 20 YEARS looking for her. as soon as she found her wife, Rose DIED IN HER ARMS. Cinders has gone through Too Much to lose this poll

(Her info from the wiki) the Princess of a planet burnt by King Cole’s army, after it is ceded by her stepmother. She is imprisoned, meets Rose and plans to marry her. She is released by her godmother for the wedding, then flees when the attack happens, spending thirty years looking for Rose. Her half of the wedding ring will light up when she finds Rose.

“When I was a little girl, my mother always told me 'Someday your prince will come, my love’ But as I grew, I knew it was a princess who would hold me I looked to the stars for you, my love” She’s lesbian Cinderella IN SPACE. She fell in love with her wife in prison and they ran away to have a secret marriage but the empire kidnapped Rose on their wedding night and Cinders had to leave her behind. She searches for Rose for decades with the glass ring that guides her to its twin on her wife’s finger. She finally reunites with her love after Rose rips three supersoldiers to pieces with her bare hands (hot) but then then the evil king kills Rose so Cinders fucking punches through his heart. And then a clone of Rose (who is also lesbian Sleeping Beauty IN SPACE) finds her cradling her wife’s body and they have a happy reunion(?) and maybe they didn’t have a happy ending BUT WHAT IF THEY HAD EACH OTHER? HUH? AAAAAH

she’s everything. she’s a princess from a long since conquered planet. she was imprisoned to make a statement of the brutal reign of old king cole. she met her wife while she was in prison, a beautiful brutal soldier covered in scars from battles. cinders and rose fell in love, so cinders’ godmother in white broke her out of jail so rose and cinders could be together. they were going to be married, except that OLD KING COLE intervened and kidnapped rose to make her the genetic base of his unholy army. so cinders spends THIRTY YEARS searching the galaxies for her love (and sings a really cool song about it called “Cinders’ Song”) until finally she arrives during the final battle just in time to see old king cole SHOOT ROSE DEAD. so cinders punches the king so hard (with her wedding ring) that he just Crumples Into Dust. the end! (no we do not talk about the fiction.)

lesbian, for one, and for two i don’t really care i just think it’d be cool if she got in/if she made it past the first round

no one seems to have linked cinder’s song yet, so here [Link]

better yet, listen to the whole album too, for context and also what comes after. it slaps and also tragedy it’s such a good album suhc a good band too

Someone already sent the song as propaganda, so I will provide SPOILER propaganda. [Click link to see spoilers.]

[Link]

[bookcub]

was thinking about ella enchanted again and how the message to kids is to encourage them to fight for autonomy in their lives and how they can have more control through creativity and it is always worth fighting for and how the message to adults is hey, remember how kids have very little autonomy and control in their lives, and stop trying to control their every momemt of every day!!!

[thesweetnessofspring]

"No one is here," Char said. "You need resist temptation no longer." "Only if you slide too." "I'll go first so I can catch you at the bottom." He flew down so incautiously that I suspected him of years of practice in his own castle. It was my turn. The ride was a dream, longer and steeper than the rail at home. The hall rose to meet me, and Char was there. He caught me and spun me around. "Again!" he cried. We raced up. Behind me he said, "Wait till you try the banister at home." His home! When would I do that?

I haven't yet earned enough money to give Ella Enchanted a proper movie adaptation, but I can and did commission @charlunday to give us a book-accurate Char and Ella. I cannot tell you how much it means to see these two in such a beautiful piece of art, and all of the attention to detail Charlie put in that makes it all the more special. 💖

[daisywords]

Ella Enchanted really said True Love will break your curse—not just because it happens to you but because of the strength of will that love will give you. You will break your own curse because the love in you is stronger. and I never recovered

[theeccentricraven]

"Writing is a skill, and the more we do it, the better we get at it. I expect to be learning to write till I die. There's always more to learn, and that may be the best thing about being a writer." Gail Carson Levine

[book--brackets]

Round 1, Poll 13: Young Wizards vs Ella Enchanted

Now, I'll always be a Gail Carson Levine stan, but I have to admit that So You Want to Be a Wizard occupied a unique space in my brain for many years; thank god I'm not voting

Remember to reblog for a bigger sample size!

[millefioricore]

The Disney Fairy universe gets insanely dark when you combine the books and the movies together.

The Disney Fairy wiki states that the Home Tree used to produce pixie dust before it was destroyed by a fire that consumed Neverland. (Most likely started by the dragon Kyto but I’m too lazy to verify) The only reason that fairies can still fly is because Neverland transferred its magic from the tree and into an ordinary dove and her egg. This became Mother Dove.

There are four seasonal realms in Pixie Hollow. In the books, only spring and summer exist. It would make sense for the cooler seasons to be completely eradicated by dragon fire.

The Disney Fairies movies ended before Tinkerbell met Peter Pan. My theory is that the fire hit shortly after the events of the final movie, (Neverbeast) and she fled after watching many, many fairies (including her friends and sister) die. This drove her to the outskirts of Neverland where she found Peter and the Lost Boys.

There are now fairies on the mainland year round to make sure that the seasons stay consistent. Not sure how this is carried out, because the winter and autumn fairies were killed in the fire.

Oh man, the freaking queen. The things she’s had to live through if you think about it-her kingdom’s been threatened multiple times throughout her lifetime and finally one succeeded in destroying it. She’s literally had to rebuild everything she knew from the ground up. Plus, if you’re going off of SOTW lore, she’s lost the same lover, Lord Milori, TWICE.

And yet, new fairies are still being born, ones who know nothing about Pixie Hollow, only the renamed Fairy Haven. A new era had begun but, if you’ve read the Gail Carson Levine trilogy, the dangers were far from over.

[readtilyoudie]

“Marry me, Ella,” he said again, the order a whisper now. “Say you’ll marry me.” 

Anyone else could have said no or yes. This wasn’t a royal command. Char probably had no idea he’d given an order. 

But I had to obey—wanted to obey—hated to harm him—wanted to marry him. I would destroy my love and my land. They were in danger, and no one could rescue them. We were all doomed, all cursed. 

Char was too precious to hurt, too precious to lose, too precious to betray, too precious to marry, too precious to kill, too precious to obey. 

Words rose in me, filled my mouth, pushed against my lips. Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, I love you. Yes! Yes! Yes! 

I swallowed, forcing them down, but they tore at my throat. A strangled noise erupted from me, but not words, not consent. 

He put a hand on my shoulder. I must have frightened him, but I couldn’t see his face; my vision had turned inward where the battle raged. I heard Lucinda’s voice, “My gift to Ella is obedience. She will always be obedient.” I saw Mandy telling me to eat my birthday cake. I saw SEEf leering at me and heard him. “No need to be persuasive with this one. It’d cook itself if we told it to.” I saw Olive counting my coins, Mum Olga standing over me while I scrubbed the courtyard, Hattie wearing Mother’s necklace. 

I’d eaten the cake, drunk the Tonic, given up the necklace, slaved for my stepmother, let Olive suck me dry. They’d gotten all they wanted of me, but they weren’t going to get Char. Never. Never.

-  Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

[zigazone]

Does anyone know what the 3rd Advance Reading Copy of the third book look like. I’ve never seen a listing for it online before. Was there one even made?

[firadessa]

✨Fairies Finds✨: New Early Artwork and Promotional Video from 2005 Disney Fairies Japan Website with Gail Carson Levine- Author of Fairy Dust Trilogy

Fly with you everyone and happy Friday the 13th! I have been looking into Disney Fairies pre-release stuff ever since some early stuff was posted into Art of Disney Fairies. I have also been interested in media preservation since late 2017 when I found Web Back Then. Truthfully, despite having this interest when trying to find the old Disney Fairies games from my childhood- I never really shared much with the world. I feel like I should remedy that! (this find is relatively recent though I found it yesterday!)

This is a video I found on the Internet Archive from disneyfairies.jp, a promotional page on the Disney Japan website that seems disconnected from the main Disney Fairies page which was a clone of the original website. See here

Through some research the gist of the video is this:

The video starts with an introduction to the original Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, which is interjected with clips from Disney's Peter Pan. Then we see more artwork of Disney Fairies- including unfamilar designs including early Vidia, Rani, Fira etc. According to Part of the Magic, Disney Fairies started development in early 2001- the series was launched fully in 2005. Then Gail (dubbed of course) begins to describe the plot of Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg whilst we see several pictures of this early Disney Fairies art. Interesting pictures as we get to see the very early designs of Disney Fairies characters that I have never seen before.

Interestingly, this video was never embedded on the page, you had to download it and play it through a video player such as Windows Media Player or Real Player, it was 2005 after all.

Here is the screen you'd see when you'd want to watch this promotional video. I recognize the leaves used in early flash games such as Lightball Challenge, Dragonfly Race etc.

A page on the website that I found with my decomplier, i couldn't view it normally!

I tried looking for this video in English to no avail, or any version on the internet. It must have only been accessible through this website.

Interestingly, I found this other page whilst doing my page digging thing again and found this, suggesting this was also a Japan exclusive and not for the American market ... and there is more early promotional stuff to be found in relation to Disney Fairies!

I also looked into one the main book artists on the creative team, Judith Holmes Clarke. She had a website I found on her IMDB page, that was live around 2017-2019. I saw this and wanted to add it as it had one of the stills in this video. It also has a sketch of Rosetta and Tink. This is what I found:

It is probably a scan of this magazine, Disney Newsreel, mentioned on her IMDB.

Overall, I'm super happy with this find and I'm so happy to share it with you all!! I will be happy to share more now that I'm publicly outing myself not just as this fan of children's fairy media- an archivist. gasp...

Also probably making a website/blog which I will share later and will be in the About Me link with my other socials.

And believe me, this is just the beginning

[disneyfairiesarchive]

Some rough pictures of illustrations from the advance copy of Fairy Dust and the Quest for The Egg

[fairytale-poll]

SEMIFINAL ROUND, MATCH 1 OUT OF 2!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Mofurun as “Mofurella”

listen. they do an episode where they’re all sucked into Cinderella and they make the trans teddy bear Cinderella. Incredible story writing, 10/10, no notes.

Mofurdella is even plot relevant, that episode is how they get the Rainbow Carriage for their group attack anyway MOFURDELLA FIRST CINDERELLA PRECURE EPISODE TO GET ONE MOFURILLION VOTES

Ella of Frell:

She’s had a “gift” of obedience placed on her, and her quest is to figure out how to get rid of it. I love her

he’s under a curse that makes her obey any order given to her. She met her Prince Charming (Char) when they kids, and they became friends. Her stepsisters found out about her curse while they were at boarding school, and because of that (and some things they made her do) she ran away to try and find the fairy that cursed her. When she does, the fairy says that she doesn’t do magic anymore, because she realized her gifts were actually curses, and refuses to remove it. Ella goes back, and is eventually demoted from “lord’s daughter” to “maid”. She still writes letters to Char (currently in a foreign kingdom, but before that, when he came to try and talk to her, her sister forbid her from leaving her room so she would have all his attention), but eventually stops and even writes a fake letter from her sister to convince him that she never cared/doesn’t care about him, because she realized it would be too dangerous for them to be together; with her curse, she could easily be made to hurt or kill him. Flash forward, and Char returns home. The king throws balls, and she goes, because even if she can’t be with or let him know who she is, she just wants to see him again. Char is drawn to her, and for a lot of the three balls, they’re together. At the end, her stepsister gets jealous, and right as Char proposes (because Ella, despite having to lie about her identity, is the most honest person at the ball and a friend already), she grabs her mask, revealing her identity. Char reaches her home before she can leave, and there’s a whole scene where he finds out she’s a scullery maid, that the letter was a lie, and says that she doesn’t have to be Ella if she doesn’t want to be, and she says she’s not, and he asks if she loves him, and she does– and then it’s all ruined because he accidentally orders her to marry him, and then her stepmother tells her to, and all the while she’s fighting the curse, because she doesn’t want to endanger him and their nation, and doesn’t want her step family to be rich and powerful, and finally– she says no. She gets so excited to say no, to refuse, that she didn’t even fully realize she broke the curse until Mandy (her fairy godmother) tells her. Anyway, they all lived happily ever after. Ella is one of my favorite Cinderellas ever and I really hope I did a good job of explaining her and what her story is about (it’s been a while since I’ve read the book)

I was so enraptured with this book as a kid, it had such an impact on my young mind. Got me into fantasy.

BEST CINDERELLA!!! please use the picture from the book cover and not the movie 🙏

She breaks her curse spell in such a magnificent way. Like yes she embodies the whole “kindness” and “courageous” characteristics that Cinderellas are known for, but for her she’s been forced to be obedient as well. And while she thinks can rise above anything she soon learns she will just hurt so many more people that way. She chose to be self-sacrificing because it was the one way she could express her love that wouldn’t harm anyone (then). But! But! She also ends up getting to be selfish! And that is also a great kindness! To herself and to those whom love her and she loves in return.  All that after she breaks the curse.

She can mimic languages. :) She refused to marry the love of her life and thus broke her curse. :) She fell in love via letters. :) She lied to the royal family that orange carriages are very popular in a nearby city.

brave, smart, a linguist, a nerd, she evolves steadily and beautifully throughout the book, with a sharp voice that never stops being distinctive and fun to hang with.

complex character coool as fuck premise and also. the nostalgia of it all

[booksandboba]

My Favorite Books that I Read as a Kid 2/

Zel (Donna Jo Napoli) / Bound (Donna Jo Napoli) / Fairest (Gail Carson Levine) / The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Gail Carson Levine) / Artemis Fowl (Room Colfer) / Amy's Eyes (Richard Kennedy) / Heir Apparent (Vivian Van Velde) / The Hollow Kingdom (Clare B. Dunkle) / Coraline (Neil Gaiman) / The Borrowers (Mary Norton)

[thesweetnessofspring]

If I screenshot every part of Ella that stands out to me I'd have HarperCollins suing me so to sum up Chapter One:

Gail absolutely nails writing Ella as a five year old, nine year old. Ella's delight in her birthday, her feeling special about having a fairy curse and then realizing how people can abuse it.

The fact that Ella didn't realize she had this "curse" until she was five!! That means Eleanor and Mandy (who does end up having a hard time not giving Ella "for your own good" commands) were parenting a preschooler without giving her direct commands!! They were consistently giving her choices!! While they probably did give her some commands (just spend five minutes with a two-year-old and you can see no commands would be impossible) the fact is that Ella didn't realize she was cursed until Mandy slipped up when she was five, so all commands were necessary to keep her safe and never to take away her choice.

The description of Ella eating slice after slice of cake and getting uncomfortably fuller and sicker with each bite is so visceral I feel my own stomach get bloated and pained every time I read it.

"If you commanded me to cut off my own head, I'd have to do it." You know this got the attention of every 10-year-old reading it. Stupid publisher. Also, yo, what high stakes here!

"I didn't know who my fairy godmother was." MANDY!!!

"Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." I've written about this before, but Ella doesn't give her mother the credit she deserves. Having this curse from birth means she could have been molded into a perfect little child. And we know from later on that Ella is far from the first child Lucinda gave this curse to. And I imagine that while the other parents were horrified and protective, they had to of used the curse to their advantage--and realistically, to different degrees of abuse. But Eleanor not only refuses to give commands to Ella, she eggs on the feud between Ella and Mandy! She is preparing her daughter as best she can to live in the world with this curse by using her wits. Mother of all time.

Ella and her mother sliding down the bannister, Ella so wanting to be like her, graceful but also fun! This book has Ella learning to develop into the woman her mother was and getting a happier ending.

Ella caring for her mother is so precious. Eleanor enjoying Ella's stories and encouraging her humor. Guh. I love that Eleanor isn't "elegant dead mother" but even in this one chapter is a full person. She's smart, funny, playful, regal, adoring of her daughter. I love her so much.

Ella's father. So absent, he doesn't know about the curse. Wasn't there for her birth. And so repulsive that Eleanor asks Mandy not to send for him when she's sick.

The candle grove as a nod to the hazel tree in some versions of the traditional Cinderella (including Grimms) where Cinderella makes a wish. Of course, Ella's in this case doesn't come true. :(

[appleinducedsleep]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge |☃️| December 4: Favourite Childhood Book

[book--brackets]

Author Stats for BFB

When putting together the Best Fantasy Book polls, I noticed that a lot of authors were popular choices, so I thought I'd do a little post about our most popular authors from ones that are in the list only twice to the most common author we have!

The preliminary round for BFB starts tomorrow!

2 Times

J. R. R. Tolkien

Erin Morgenstern

Cassandra Clare

Eoin Colfer

Terry Pratchett

Laini Taylor

Jim Butcher

Robin Hobb

R. F. Kuang

Samantha Shannon

Shannon Hale

Jonathan Stroud

Seanan McGuire

Enid Blyton

Clive Barker

Alix E. Harrow

Scott Westerfeld

Raymond E. Feist

Wayne Thomas Batson

Xiran Jay Zhao

Lloyd Alexander

Meagan Spooner

Katherine Addison

Christina Henry

Gene Wolfe

N. D. Wilson

Emily Rodda

Jude Watson

Ellen Kushner

Cliff McNish

C. J. Cherryh

Garry Kilworth

3 Times

Rick Riordan

Roald Dahl

Brandon Sanderson

Cornelia Funke

Gail Carson Levine

Garth Nix

T. Kingfisher

Patricia C. Wrede

Robin McKinley

Kieron Gillen

Francis Hardinge

4 Times

Holly Black

V. E. Schwab

Naomi Novik

5 Times

Diana Wynne Jones

6 Times

Tamora Pierce

9 Times

Neil Gaiman

Mercedes Lackey