#I also wish Disney would do more original works

[universe-of-peoples]

Unpopular opinion: you can be excited about upcoming sequels and spinoffs and at the same time wish that Disney (and other studios) would make more original stuff

[flowerandblood]

Play with my heart (Epilogue)

[ modern actors • Aemond x Strong • female ]

[ warnings: semi-public sex, smut, angst, fluff, sexual tension, little domination & praise kink ]

[ description: He gets the main role in a series about a great family and dragons, which could change his career. He is set to play the uncle and love interest of his childhood friend. When he meets the actress who plays her role, he begins to lose track of what is an acting and what is his real feelings. Sexual tension, grumpy, withdrawn, thirsty Aemond. ]

Author’s note: Yeah. I talked about it and I did it. You don't even know how much fun I had doing this. Of course, my characters play in a series whose script is an exact copy of my story The Fall from the Heavens. In this universe, Aemond (playing the One-Eyed Prince) and Rhaenys (playing the Princess) are of course not related – the other characters are also just actors. This three-part series is my gift to all fans of the original series, thank you so much for your support. "Rhaenys" in this story is her artistic pseudonym which she use instead of her real name. You can read this as a standalone story.

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

My other works: Masterlist

_____

The first months after the shooting were both wonderful and terrifying for him. Contrary to his grandfather's predictions, he did not stop thinking about her; moreover, he missed her so much that he did not know what to do with himself.

He got used to their daily conversations, the embrace of her warm arms, falling asleep between her soft breasts, watching Disney movies together with her with a big bowl of popcorn.

She brought a breath of fresh air into his life, a smile, lightness and laughter, forcing him to let his inner child that he had always suppressed within him come to the surface.

With her, he was not ashamed to be weak, tired, sad, discouraged. She gave him the comfort of knowing that all his feelings as a human being were natural and desired by her, no matter how ashamed he might be of them.

They tried to see each other every two weekends, taking turns visiting each other. Although he wanted to spend time with her walking around museums and parks, they usually ended up staying in bed all the time off, trying to make up for lost time.

They also saw each other at interviews to promote the series, for which the producers sent the actors in pairs, and unfortunately, although they tried to hide it, a few gestures and glances during them caused both her and him to be flooded with a wave of comments from fans so large that they had to block them from being added to their profiles.

Nooo, they're not a good match. 😫

It's just a promotional trick. They're going to break up after they finish airing the series. 😒

Leave my prince alone!!! 🤬🤬🤬

I'd love to fuck her myself, not gonna lie 👀

It's already clear where the chemistry between them comes from, lol. Pathetic. 🤮

Both of them were very much affected by the nasty comments and criticism, fearing that the production would draw some consequences against them, but it turned out that this made the whole project generate even more interest before the premiere, which pleased them.

However, in between the nasty, bitter remarks, they also received messages filled with good emotions, wishing them luck, saying that they were great to watch, that they complemented each other perfectly in interviews, that it was clear from the trailers that there was genuine affection between them.

They tried to cope with it all by talking for hours on the phone, sometimes crying together from sadness and exhaustion, falling asleep with speakerphone on, waking up in the morning and seeing that they hadn't hung up all night.

He felt he was ready to move on and thought everything through, at the same time wanting to surprise her.

"– how was your audition? –" She asked softly, excitement in her voice.

"– unfortunately, not very successful –" He lied, fiddling with his pen between his fingers, sitting at his desk, having just exchanged emails with the director of her theatre, with whom he had spoken personally a few days before about the terms of his future employment.

"– oh no – I'm very sorry – how are you feeling? –" She asked clearly worried, making him feel remorseful for a moment that she would believe he was suffering.

"– fine – I wasn't feeling that role – I'm lucky that I can be more choosy now – and how are you, little one? –" He hummed, writing back in an email that, as agreed, he would turn up in three days to sign the contract in their town.

His girlfriend grunted, clearly very excited by the news she had to share with him.

"– apparently they've hired a new actor in our theatre, but no one knows who it is – the director is very mysterious –" She said, her voice light and warm, filled with joy.

"– mmm – are you excited to have a new colleague on stage? –" He murmured as he sent the email, closing his laptop with a quiet click.

He heard her laugh at his words.

"– not in the way you suggest –" She said.

"– are you a good girl when I'm not around? –" He hummed, licking his lips involuntarily, feeling the pulsation in his trousers at his words.

"– well –"

"– are you touching yourself? –"

"– I –"

"– answer me – don't lie –"

She was silent for a long moment making him grin, biting his lower lip.

"– so you haven't been a good girl, or am I wrong? –" He sneered and heard her swallow hard.

"– you know what happens to bad girls, don't you? –" He asked, looking at the display of his screen, feeling his heart pounding fast.

"– but –" She finally mumbled out in embarrassment.

"– mmm – I'll see you soon –" He murmured and hung up, knowing that he had left her in complete shock for sure with her panties wet with her moisture.

The third thing he enjoyed most right after fucking her and talking to her was teasing her.

The next day the removal van took his things to the flat he had rented on short notice figuring they would find something together later, and after two days he drove to her town straight to the theatre building.

He went inside through the main entrance and ran quickly upstairs, praying not to meet her on the way, heading for her director's office. The man welcomed him warmly, saying that he was very happy that an actor with such charisma would be performing on his stage.

From the audience it was impossible to see whether his eye was real or fake, and his scar could be covered up with make-up if necessary.

His grandfather was furious, saying that he was giving up a world-class career for second-rate theatre, but he was relieved.

He didn't want to go through again what he was going through now – being torn apart by paparazzi and fans, being in the spotlight all the time.

He was tired of it and decided that, although it was a great adventure, like her he wanted to work in theatre, where artistic sense, monologues and dialogues counted more than nudity and sex.

It was what he wanted for both of them.

The director said it was time to introduce him to the whole crew.

"– I kept it a secret from everyone so that she wouldn't accidentally find out about anything –" The director laughed, a short, grey-haired man with a warm voice and a good-natured face, a visionary and a lover of the classic literature he was staging in his theatre.

"– I can see you with the eyes of my imagination in the roles of Hamlet and Ophelia – you've been wonderfully matched, I have to give you that –" He said softly, and he nodded, thinking in the back of his mind that indeed, this was a fantastic idea.

He felt excited like a little child and thought in the back of his mind that it was because of her, that she had changed him, making him fight for his fulfilment, his comfort, his joy.

"– my dears –" He called out, stepping onto the stage during their rehearsal for The Wedding of Wyspianski, his Rhaenys dressed in Slavic folk costume and a garland on her head turned towards them along with several other people.

Her eyes grew big in disbelief at the sight of him.

"– I would like to introduce you to your new colleague, who from now on will be playing on the stage of our theatre – I am very pleased –"

Everyone looked at her and she just stood there, looking at him and his grin full of satisfaction, breathing loudly through her mouth, her bright eyes hot with affection, disbelief and happiness that apparently shook her body.

Several people laughed as she threw herself into his arms and burst into a loud, panicked sob, whooping and panting with her own tears, his broad hands stroking her hair and back while his lips placed warm, reassuring kisses on her face hot with emotion.

"– shhh – it's okay, little one –"

She looked at him in disbelief, gushing with energy and joy as she introduced everyone to him one by one. He was relieved by the warm welcome given to him by the other actors, some of whom could have been his parents or even grandparents.

They seemed very close to each other and addressed each other warmly.

He was allowed to stay in rehearsal to see how they worked, so he watched as his girlfriend played a young bride, a village girl marrying a nobleman, during whose wedding many unexplained, mysterious events occur.

He smiled the whole time, watching her, satisfied that apart from one brief kiss there was no intimacy on stage between her and her partner, exactly as she had described it to him in their telephone conversations.

When it was all over she ran up to him in her folk costume, all hot, breathing loudly through her mouth, field flowers entwined together on her head.

"– what do you think?! –" She asked, and he hummed under his breath.

"– I really like your staging – I need to read this drama – you look amazing –" He hummed. He smiled under his breath as she sat on his lap – the seats in the audience were sunk in darkness so the people on stage couldn't see very well what they were doing.

"– I can't believe it – you've been lying all this time –" She muttered simultaneously embittered and delighted. He shook his head at her words.

"– I told you I had an audition – I just didn't say where –" He stated.

"– you said you did badly –" She said, wrinkling her eyebrows – she squealed as he caught her around the waist and pulled her closer, making her feel the hard bulge in his trousers.

"– that was my subjective assessment which was clearly not shared by your director –" He grinned, looking at her with his lips slightly parted. They both sighed as her hips rubbed against his pulsing erection, her gaze hot and misty.

"– my little girl can't stand it? – shall I take you to the toilet? –" He sneered and she swallowed hard, red with embarrassment and nodded.

Nothing more than panting and moans left their throats as they locked themselves in one of the cabins, their mouths immediately clinging to each other in greedy, loud, messy, sticky kisses. Their saliva clicked each time their lips pulled away from each other, his hands pulled up the material of her skirt and petticoat, pulling her panties off her thighs.

"– turn your back to me –" He commanded, and she did so without a word of objection, in a natural reflex leaning over and bucking her buttocks towards him, knowing what he wanted to do. His hands exposed her bare hips to him and what was between them, her opening glistening from her wetness, pink and swollen.

He hit her womanhood with a sharp, short slap and she jumped up with a quiet squeal and whimpered.

"– quiet – I warned you – I said: no touching – didn't I? –" He asked, gently rubbing and massaging the little spot that pulsed all over and leaked from his stroke, teasing the puffy bud between her plushy folds.

"– 'm sorry – I tried –" She confessed with embarrassment, panting heavily, rolling her hips to the rhythm of the strokes of his hand, trying to find a better source of squeeze.

"– the deal was different –" He said coolly, parting and rubbing her throbbing, dripping wet slit, her cheek pressed against the wall all red with pleasure, her lips parted in a helpless moan.

"– it's all mine – the sight of your fulfilment, your moisture, your little cunt is meant for my eyes –" He continued, as if he was explaining to her some essential, eternal principle, something obvious and logical that she could not change. She trembled as two of his fingers slipped between her slick, throbbing walls, stretching her core.

"– yes – I'm sorry – I missed you so much –" She mumbled, rocking her hips to the rhythm of the thrusts of his fingers, which teased and pressed the spongy bud between her fleshy folds deep inside her, from which a trickle of her moisture ran down her thigh.

"– mmm – I know, baby – I missed you too –" He confessed, recognising that although he wanted to, he couldn't last much longer. This sight and the euphoria that gripped his body made him let go of her as his hands slid down to the belt of his trousers, undoing it – her eyes opened in hope, her breath accelerated and uneven.

"– please –" She muttered.

"– shhh –" He hushed her, grabbing her by the waist, the other releasing his throbbing, fat erection, the tip of which he guided to her leaking, swollen slit.

"– thaat's it – there you go – fuck –" He exhaled, slowly forcing his way between her hot, fleshy walls, clenching greedily around his cock, sucking it inside her.

"– yes – yes, God, please, yes –" She mewled, immediately beginning to roll her hips to the rhythm of his impatient, fierce thrusts, fitting his pulsing erection inside her again and again, though they tried to restrain themselves, their panting and moans echoed around the restroom.

"– Rhaenys –" He muttered, sinking his face into her fragrant, hot neck, her scent wonderfully familiar, her insides moist and warm, welcoming him with ease. He thought about it, thrusting into her with slick, sharp stabs – how deep he was in her body, how much they united in this chaotic, viscous act of desire.

"– Aemond – o-oh, fuck, fuck, oh, God –" She cried out as he imposed a fast, aggressive pace on her, pounding into her with the deep, sharp pushes of his hips, opening her wide with his manhood throbbing painfully with longing.

"– shhh – shhh, little one – just a little more – yes, that's my girl –" He praised her, panting heavily as he felt her reach the edge, her breath heavy and loud.

Nothing more than moans and grunts left her lips, her little cunt gave him a few more thirsty, steady squeezes before she shuddered with sweet fulfilment, her wetness running down his thighs as with the last, loud slaps he reached his peak inside her with a sigh of delight.

Since she was taking the pills, he could fuck her whenever and wherever he wanted.

"– fuck –" He breathed out, embracing her tightly from behind, while still rocking his hips inside her and hugging her like a little, longing child.

He wished she would say that they were going to watch some new cartoon or comedy in the evening, that they were going to lie in their sweatpants, spread out comfortably on her bed, cuddled up, eating popcorn, kissing and caressing each other.

"– m-maybe – maybe let's go to my place – we'll watch something and relax – I can cook you something, but we need to do some shopping –" She whispered, stroking his arm, and he purred, delighted by her words.

"– yes – yes, that's what I need –"

[masterhallmark]

Credit for discovery: @misscloudiedays

So a lot of people are confused as to how Epic Mickey Rebrushed meaning Disney probably isn't getting profits works, so let me explain real quick:

What's the Sitch?

If you go to the Steam Page, Disney is not publishing EM Rebrushed themselves like they did with the original EM games, another company ,THQ Nordic, whom Disney does not own is.

This likely means they sold the licensing rights to that company rather than accepting profit cuts.

How this works

Copyright holders often do this if they think the product would make less profits than what they sold the licensing rights for. For example, this happened with the author of the Witcher books, who thought the games would flop and sold the licensing rights instead of accepting a percentage of the profits. He later acted like the victim when the games actually ended up being wildly successful. This also happened to the writer of the American Pokemon Theme Song, who didn't know the Pokemon franchise was going to go on for decades and remain popular, though he was more chill about it and worked something out.

Basically, Disney likely had so little faith in the game, they chose to sell instead of accept profits, which would mean whether you buy or pirate the game wouldn't affect them, since they would have already gotten the agreed upon amount, and they'd probably piss themselves if the profits Purple Lamp gets is more than what they sold it for.

Would they actually do that?

For anyone who questions if Disney would really be dumb enough to do this, REMEMBER THIS IS THE COMPANY WHO:

SHUT DOWN AND ENTIRE VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT COMPANY JUST BECAUSE EPIC MICKEY 2 DIDN'T MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS EPIC MICKEY 1

THOUGHT PEOPLE WOULD ABANDON CONSOLE GAMING IN FAVOR OF MOBILE GAMING

THOUGHT KINGDOM HEARTS COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE SEQUELS

HAD A CEO WHO THOUGHT ADULTS DON'T ENJOY CARTOONS

AND THE MOST RECENT BLUNDER OF ALL, THOUGHT DISNEY FANS WOULD PREFER A LUMA KNOCKOFF OVER STARBOY IN WISH, BECAUSE THEY WANTED A MARKETABLE PLUSHIE

Yeah, I think they're that dumb.

Bottom Line

For those participating in the Disney boycott, it is probably safe to get the game, and will not be a breach of your boycott. Buying the game would instead show support to those who actually care about the game while not benefitting the company that abandoned it.

That being said, this is not guaranteed to be completely correct. Keep an eye on things as it develops, and make your own decisions on the matter.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Happy with the staff content this year but am I the only one who is disappointed with the PV we got? It's basically a slideshow of art we've already seen, major downgrade from the year 1 PV that had literally all the events. There was a drop in quality of the anniversary PVs over the years and it really shows this year. Sorry if you find this too negative I don't mean to hate I just wish Twst would do better for it's ANNIVERSARY.

[For everyone's reference, here are the anniversary PVs in order of release: 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024]

Mmm, now that you mention it, I noticed this trend with the Halloween PVs 🤔 For year 1, there was a video that showed all members of the NRC casy, even those that did not receive cards at that time. There were then several short variants of the PV released for year 2/Endless Halloween Night (part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4). Altogether, they feature all of the characters, including the students from year 1 but heavily shadowed and with glowing eyes to indicate ghostly possession. Even Glorious Masquerade features all of the students that get new cards for the event plus Rollo, although there are notably more still shots here. The Stage in Playful Land CM, by comparison, is significantly shorter and only shows us the three SSRs (Ace, Ortho, and Kalim) as well as the two new characters (Fellow and Gidel).

As this anon has said, the anniversary PVs have changed a lot over time too. The first one was the most animated and integrated several event outfits. The second one was also animated a fair amount, but you can tell corners were cut in some places where they transition to photographs/still images. This alone works thematically given that the player is a photographer, but you can still catch dips in quality when it comes to the art style. I remember finding Deuce running and the Kalim + Silver flying scene odd, as well as Jade and Trein's faces strange in general. Then the third PV rolls around and it only features the third years; the animation also seems to be much more sluggish (although this could be a stylistic choice; not sure). A friend actually recently pointed out to me that Lilia's pose looks like he was pulled straight from other assets; his artwork in the animation is almost the exact same as his smiling expression in the game. This year's is the most different (+ most static) and, like year 3's PV, only provides "new" content for a select few characters (the dorm leaders). They also reuse pre-existing illustrations already found in the game that don't seem to be picked for any particular reason (like, there are random Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles groovies in there). This direction, I'm guessing, is less costly and more efficient than making an entirely original animation, which is what was done in previous years. (Not that Disney or Aniplex is hurting for money to fund this, lol) Would I have preferred another PV in the style of year 1's? Yeah, for sure. I want to see other events and their outfits animated! Was what we got this year bad? Not necessarily; I think the production and editing was very technically impressive, but I'm still sad we didn't get anything substantially "new" to chew on (as someone who isn't a fan of most third years or the dorm leaders). Maybe it's just something we perceive as a deficit only because year 1 set the bar so high. It is what it is; whoever was in charge of the anniversary PV was probably doing the best they could with whatever budget they were given 😔 Let's hope that next year's will be a return to form, or that at least the money/effort is being redirected to other bigger projects (maybe the anime?).

[somenerdfromwhatever]

I haven’t seen The Owl House but can we just talk about how Disney did this show dirty?

Let me preface this by saying that, as of the time of me writing this, I have NOT seen The Owl House in its entirety l yet. I could be in the progress of it after posting, but honestly as an outsider looking in given the entire Season 3 fiasco, Disney did this show dirty.

Like three specials only? Nothing more nothing less? With that happening due to outcry because originally it was going to get canned after the release of Season 2?

I don’t think it was a fair deal to end with three specials. Season 3 should’ve gotten the fanfare it deserved even with the outcry. Like, it is the weakest compromise possible even with mass support.

I’m going to paraphrase some bits of what I addressed to people on discord and additional information I learnt.

I’m surprised there wasn’t more of an active effort to fight back against the cancellation since it first blew up upon announcement. Like “doesn’t fit the branding?” Didn’t Gravity Falls face something similar? By that logic, this doesn’t make sense at all. I feel like Disney’s “brand theming” excuse is really dodgy, and it seems like there was some foul play involved. But I didn’t see the fandom actively pushing back, even the creator, who did speak out about it. (Note: I haven’t been on Twitter for over a year and a half, so I might not be fully aware of everything.) If I watch it and it’s as amazing as people say… given how I am passionate about things in this world, I won’t let Disney live this down. It’s like treating art as a joke just to fill their pockets and the corruption the industry has over artists. We saw this last year with the strikes and given the current state with the companies running the industry nowadays (the streaming bubble, and that the whole cartoon mass purge thanks to Max)... artists are now having their creativity die out because of industry folk like Disney.

If there was pushback, I’m glad there was at least some effort to score these three specials. But if this is how far it went, it feels like an unfair compromise. Three specials aren’t enough, honestly. Even if they’re good, it doesn’t negotiate anything at all as it still feels like Disney did this show dirty. Let me be clear here as well: I am NOT beating down anyone who has taken the effort to get this. Why the hell would I do that? I'm happy you guys managed to get your voice out there and left and impact. Those three specials were hard fought, I just wish there was more because honestly, it isn't enough. And if the resentment I'm seeing is anything to go by a year later, I say keep fighting. I am also not beating down Dana, the showrunner. Dana is an amazing creator, and the fact that she stood her ground at all with her cast and crew is incredible. My problem is with the corporation, with Disney, and how they put her in a position where that fight couldn’t be won in the way it should have been. I understand the fight it takes to get your foot in the door of the industry. If I were to turn around and beat down someone like Dana, who fought for her vision just like I’m fighting for mine? I would never live that down. It would stain me for life. Considering the industry itself is small and how I am going into it in post-production, sometime down the line, I will be faced with working with her. The last thing I want is burning a bridge inadvertently. I can understand why she acted the way that she did with her crew, it's just with a lot more vocality and support, things might've been different.

Like I don’t get Disney’s thought process here. You have a big, popular show, and then you “old yeller” it, giving it this slow death and then dragging it out with this… in my honest opinion; weak compromise. That is scummy and why us artists and creatives need a reform to the entertainment industry where we drive the vision and what Disney and others do come second.

At best, it did what it was supposed to do. At worst… it’s not enough.

With everything that the fanbase done including the cast, crew, and even Dana, while I'm happy they managed to end it, I feel like there should have been more active effort. I do notice there is still a lot of resentment and I mean A LOT OF RESENTMENT. I noticed a lot of the fandom got a hashtag trending, some fanart mailed into Disney itself, but I'm surprised there isn't like a full on physical protest. Online can only do so much. Like imagine a D23 but everyone is in their cosplay of the show with signs having references to whatever the show has going on. I mean, sure, it is unheard of, but consider the compromise, how it was censored in other countries, maybe even how mistreated it got during the making of Season 3. Go to the heart of where decisions are made. If you feel strongly about the compromise, take that energy and turn it into real action. As an outsider who is about to come on, I feel you so much. I hope the show is really good when I watch it, but in case if I don't, you guys really deserve better. Honest. I could be wrong in all this there's more to the story then I realize, so please go easy with this. Thank you.

[gamerbearmira]

My Take On Wish

I liked it. Now, it’s not the best. But it’s still pretty good in hindsight. They had a good idea, but they executed it poorly.

I think a big reason is the movie had such high expectations. It was the movie for the 100th anniversary, which is huge. But they had no time and no money. The movie feels rushed, there's so much that happens too fast in such a short amount of time. That brings me to my next point.

Time. This movie should have been longer. Of the most recent movies, like Turning Red, Encanto, Luca and Elemental, they run for about 1 hr and 35-49 minutes. But they don't feel rushed. Everything us spaced out and works, at least for the most part. Every movie has it flaws in run time. Wish runs for the same amount of time as Encanto; but it feels so much more rush. The movie should have been longer, and I feel like people wouldn't have been too made at an extra 20 to 30 minutes. It would've given a lot more to world and established things, and answer questions that were left unanswered.

Characters. They weren't bad! They had some good characters, and the designs were...good. I like them, and I can see what they were doing. Like Magnifico and Amaya, I really like their designs! Same with the teens (save for a few things, mostly color, but I digress). Valentino is cute, but I don't like how they gave him a deep voice. Asha and Star? They're ok, at best. Looking at the concept art in the book, there was SO much potential that they didn't use.

Asha looks a lot like Isabela. It's a running joke. But the closer I look, she looks too much like her. Literally, if you look in the book, you can see that she actually had a floral dress that seemed a little too similar to Isabela's. The thing is, she had a lot of other really good designs, which I used in the redesign below, among other things. Star, he's cute but...it's sad. He was so obviously going to be a love interest. AND YES DISNEY. IT'S OK TO HAVE A HEROINE FALL IN LOVE. I took one of his designs that nearly stuck and tweaked it a little. He still has a star form, for other purposes.

The songs. They were ok, but I'm sort of understanding the joke if "They were written by ChatGPT". They sound so empty? But when you listen to the demos they sound better. That brings me to "At All Costs". I heard it in the movie. It's sung by Magnifico and Asha, when it was so obviously meant to be sung by Asha and her love interest, which would have been Starboy. And the demo is actually really good.

For my redesigns? I changed quite a but on Asha. Her friends are supposed to be like the seven dwarves. So why in the world didn't they utilize Snow White for Asha? I'm not saying she had to be a carbon copy, but jeez, it would've been nice. In my design, I gave her a mix of other dresses she had in the book, changing it a bit to look like snow white's but still being original. I changed the colors, toning them to be more similar to Wish's colors.

Valentino stayed entirely the same. I saw that he was originally he was going to be much larger, pretty much grown. So, I took that and gave him a sister. They aren't really "siblings, Valentina was born way before Valentino, but he's always following behind her, so Asha deemed them "honorary siblings". And I mostly wanted Asha to have more animals around her, like Snow White.

Star is still Star, but he also has a human form. In my opinion, it wouldn't be very present until later in the story. The more tine he spends around Asha, the more he feels more comfortable using it to help Asha. And also, he wants to be like Asha. He loves humans, and watches them from the sky all the time. He may or may not be the North Star. I'm still debating.

Maybe I'll do more with other characters.

Story. I want to try a rewrite. Not now, cause I still have a bunch of Encanto that I'd want to finish, but definitely in the future. I may do more Wish posts on my designs and what I'd worldbuild with some ideas were:

Asha is already Magnifico's apprentice.

Magnifico used the book before he founded Rosa, and built Rosa to take people's wishes for his power under the guise of what he does in the movie currently. He keeps some wishes alive to grant them. No one knows, not even Amaya. Asha finds out. This means he's evil from the start and stays evil. No redemption. No return.

Wishes affect a person not just emotionally, but slightly mentally and sometimes physically. When ita given away, the person feel not just an emptiness, but also heaviness in their body physically.

Amaya is a bit more morally gray, being in Magnifico's side, and even helping him, but slowly shifting to Asha after seeing what he's doing.

Star plays a bigger role much earlier on. The Teens do as well. I feel like they had no character in the movie. Not even Dahila, who I do I love.

It's closer to Asha's birthday. So when she finds out about Magnifico, she's scared of losing her wish, and being unable to restore everyone else's that was already lost, like her Saba's.

Asha may or may not have a staff like Magnifico's. But like?? A training staff??

Magnifico may or may nit being trying to corrupt Asha with the book. She is subject to hus magic still, and sometimes it seeps into her mind, but Star is there to counter it.

Star is much stronger in terms of magic, enough to be on par, or almost on par with Magnifico.

TL;DR: I like Wish. But it has flaws. I wanna try my hand at a rewrite one if these days.

[uva124]

ASHA (MY AU)

Emmmmm how the hell do these types of blogs get started?

This post is just going to be me rambling on about what I want to do with Asha.

So let's get started?

INTRODUCTION: -As I said before I'm still developing this story (damn I don't even have an outline) but I wanted to start this rewrite (or plan it a little) because of something that really frustrates me about Wish, literally in a movie that commemorates 100 YEARS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT STUDY OF ANIMATION IN THE WORLD and the topic of art has not been given the importance it deserved, you know? It's like, yes, Asha shows her sketchbook in certain scenes, but then what? It literally seems like it's just for decoration, damn, Disney could have done the same thing as with the Miles Morales sketchbook in Spiderverse, but I'm already getting distracted from the topic, so one of my goals with this was to emphasize how important art can be , and not just the drawing, but all the forms that exist of it.

-So Asha is a little different from previous Disney princesses.

2. HISTORY:

CHILDHOOD: Yup! I'm joining the angst ship, I don't really blame anyone *cough* *cough* Flicker *cough* Bo *COUGH* *COUGH* ANNY *cough*, damn my allergies are getting worse. So Asha at this stage is quite cheerful and positive, basically like Rapunzel, Moana, Anna and this princess trope, however this takes place in the modern world (the movie would be set like in the princess and the frog movie only the world It's a little more modern) Asha discovers her passion for drawing, and as she grows up she wants to dedicate herself to that and is full of a lot of dedication and determination, but what would happen if we corrupted her dreams?

PUBERTY: “It's fine as a hobby…but it won't work Asha”, “Don't you like doing other more…useful things?”, “Come on, you have so much talent, are you really going to waste it on this?” , “Have fun without having a future” “Really this is more important than your other things Asha?” ,Yes, I am adding this, Asha wants to dedicate herself to animation, so Asha at first, like every Disney princess with character, ignores these types of comments, which came from anyone in general, some said it with good intentions and in a calmer mode and others in a more aggressive way (you know, being idiots), but when you receive this type of comments your entire life, it will somehow affect the protagonist, and it will only get worse *Insert evil laugh*

ADOLESCENCE: I didn't mention it but I plan to include Asha's family, or at least at the beginning, she was living with her parents Sakina and Tomas as in the official movie (I'm still debating whether to add Sabino or not), her father gets sick as in the original movie, so Sakina and Asha do their best to help him, then Asha has less and less time to concentrate on practicing drawing and in general her hobbies (I also want to emphasize that here Asha was doubting more and more about drawing as a professional way and started to despise her talent a little bit, not completely but that little seed had already been inserted in her head), her father was her biggest motivation, he was a dreamer like his daughter, her mother was more down to earth but equally supportive of her family, Tomas was always the first to see his daughter's drawings.

So continued the life of our protagonist, studying, working a little and drawing in the little time she had, and in those jobs she met Magnifico and Amaya, I'm still debating how I'm going to write them, but I'm sure I want them to do a scene with Asha that I'll explain later, for now let's continue.

One day Asha's father can't take it anymore and dies…….. all Asha could do was watch her mother running to her room because she really didn't want her daughter to see her in that state.

With that you're probably wondering, “Well, Asha can get a motivation to keep being a dreamer and pursue her dreams to follow her father's legacy rigth? “ Well actually………no, Asha in my Au unfortunately had already endured TOO many comments that referred to her dreams of being an entertainer or artist, even her mother had referred to it in a not so positive way (no, Sakina is a good mother, she's not perfect, but she cares like every mother about her daughter's future) , and without her major support in life, that…..eso ended up deciding that she would just give up on those dreams… or at least until a certain day.

CURRENTS: In the movie Asha is presented as a girl who studies a career that she does not like for the most part, but she says to herself “It's too late to redeem herself, there is no turning back, I just have to continue and everything will be fine, for me and my family”, she also works as an assistant to Magnifico and Amaya, during years of having met them she was getting closer little by little, in fact they knew the protagonist's family for some years but they had distanced themselves, they also “tried” to help with Tomas' illness, but as it was shown before that did not work out, now they gave Asha this job opportunity and she is not going to waste it, since she still has to help her mother.

Let's say that Asha doesn't draw much anymore, she still makes small sketches because, well, when you are really passionate about something you keep doing it despite the adversities, right? Even unconsciously (you're understanding what I'm trying to say, right? ), besides, it's not like she still deep inside has not stopped wanting to fulfill her dream, although she every time says that making drawings will not lead her to anything or just saying “it's a hobby that will not lead me to anything useful or important” is just to have a constant reminder that she might not make it, that it's not worth it, that no matter how much she loves to create and draw, it just doesn't make sense anymore.

Remember I told you about a scene between the villain duo and Asha? well this is what I have in mind:

Asha somehow or another is going to end up asking Magnifico and Amaya for help, which would lead to Asha maybe not working with them anymore or something so she can pursue a small glimmer of hope of fulfilling her dream of being an animator (as I say before, this post is just me rambling), the villain duo simply proceed to manipulate the poor girl by making snide and manipulative comments about her “insignificant goals” and her “wasted talent”, if Asha herself was already quite doubtful about these issues, this just makes her worse, she's lost, she doesn't know what to do, she's afraid of her future, she doesn't want to let her mother down, she doesn't want to end up being a disappointment (maybe I overdo angst, it doesn't matter, it's important for ✨character development✨).

Now a multiversal cosmic thing happens (that I'm still thinking about) but the point is that my Starboy (Haedus) and his 2 protégé/small brothers (Nembus and Naos) arrive, at first Asha is VERY SCARED AND CONFUSED, I mean, this is not possible right, she must be confused from crying so much - I mean this only happens in the movies and fantasy stories she saw as a child right?! (lmao)

At first she doesn't get along with Haedus, not at all, with the little ones at first she is a bit distant, but little by little she starts to develop a great appreciation for them, the little starlets (and then Haedus) throughout the story bring back to Asha that dreamy and positive side of her.

Also Asha is not the type of person who makes derogatory comments when it comes to the goals or dreams of other people and her friends despite having received them all her life, no, she is not that type of person, of course everything she has lived through makes her more sarcastic or pessimistic at times, but she doesn't want someone else to feel like her, she doesn't want anyone to go through what she went through, and this is only reinforced with the arrival of the stars.

I have to mention that Nembus and Naos make Asha remember how she was as a child: cheerful, positive, dreamer, and seeing how the antagonists want to hurt them, how that can destroy the hopes and illusions of the little stars, that just makes her more determined to defend the little ones at all costs.

“They still have dreams, and they can still fulfill them, that's why I won't let others destroy those dreams, not like me.”

3.PERSONALITY:

-Sarcastic -Negative to a certain extent -Empathetic -Indecisive -Calm -Organized

FINAL COMMENTS:

That's all I have for now, I hope I haven't bored you, as I said before, this is all just my rambling, I still don't have an outline or plan for this, anyway, I hope you had a good time reading this, see you next time!✨✨✨

[agentoffangirling]

With all this discussion of "Rick Riordan is running out of ideas", "Rick should've stopped at Heroes of Olympus", "He's only writing Sun and the Star part 2 bc he wants more money", I wanted to add my 2c

I think something we all, including Riordan, recognizes is that Greek Mythology can only go so far. Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of stories, but at some point, he will run out. Unless he feels like creating his own myths, he's going to run out of Greco-Roman myths to adapt in PJO

70% of those myths were used in the first PJO series; HOO and TOA had a slightly easier time since they were fighting a consistent enemy (giants/Gaia and the emperors, respectively), but by the time you get to the last TOA book, you get the sense that Riordan is nearing the end of the well. That might be part of the reason why Sun and the Star felt so fanfiction-y, why Chalice of the Gods is so short. There's just not a lot left

And hey, I genuinely think Riordan wants to branch out from Greco-Roman mythology. Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase are the obvious examples, but also books such as Daughter of the Deep. While it is technically a standalone, there's a very rich mythos Riordan can choose to dive into and expand upon. I also recall that a few years ago, he talked about travelling to Ireland bc he was interested in the mythos and wanted to learn more about it. He could also pause his works in general so that he can put all his energy into adapting the PJO show. So why does he keep cranking out more obscure myths when he obviously has other ventures?

I believe the main answer to be Disney. Ofc Riordan has a major hand in it, I don't doubt that he wants more money, but it's most likely Disney that keeps pushing him to do the PJO line specifically. It's successful for a reason, so why wouldn't they? From what I gathered, Riordan does want to do more outside of the series, but it's not like he's going to object to their wishes

Riordan please do more original stories, I would kill for more Magnus Chase--

[signed-sapphire]

The Fallen Star ✨

A Wish rewrite

(Scrapped) Act I - Prologue

We hear a woman’s voice reminiscent of the Golden Age of Disney, narrating events from a book:

Once upon a time, Stars roamed the earth. Magical beings from the sky that used their magic to help people, to assist them in fulfilling their dreams.

However, the Stars soon started to simply grant wishes, and people became lazy and dependent, demanding the stars make their wishes reality. The Stars became full of themselves and mad with power, almost destroying the kingdoms.

[Author’s Note: Take my messy sketches! Idk I’ll try to do little doodles per part IT WAS RUSHED OKAY]

One survivor, Magnus Arman, escaped his burning homeland. He saw the wreckage the Stars had caused, and vowed that he could never lose the people he loved to the Stars again.

On his journey, Magnus came across another wrecked kingdom. Another land the Stars had destroyed. Another land with no survivors… but one. Magnus heard a faint sob in the distance. Once he followed it, Magnus came across a child— Asha Arabella.

Magnus took Asha under his wing, and started working to stop the Stars. He studied their magic, bringing his young daughter with him on his adventures.

While he studied, he met a young woman named Amaya, who cared for Asha like her own. Soon enough, the two fell in love and wed.

[Amaya’s dress is a callback to the classic Golden Age princess wedding dresses]

But one day, more Stars fell from the heavens and attacked, wanting all the magic for themselves.

That day, Magnus almost lost his family.

So Magnus, determined to protect his family, used all his magical knowledge and became the Wishgranter, one who would decide what wishes were good and what could never be granted.

Note that the book doesn’t tell exactly how Magnus defeated the Stars… but anyways now he has a sick-ass white outfit like the one we see in the canon movie.

He defeated the evil Stars, and together, Magnus and Amaya founded the Kingdom of Rosas, a safe haven across off the Iberian Peninsula where people could give their wishes to Magnus and he would keep them safe from harm, from the greedy Stars. Magnus became known throughout the lands as Magnifico, the master of wishes.

And often, the wishes people gave Magnifico were good, and he granted them.

We see Magnifico granting a wish [I can’t find the picture but let’s say the dressmaker one we saw in the movie with a callback to Sleeping Beauty’s dress. And you know what, it’s blue.]

Little Asha was raised in the castle where she was doted on by her parents.

Teen Asha, just a bit younger than she is now, so around fourteen, and the page flips to Asha now, seventeen years old.

And this is where our story begins.

Next (coming soon)

So! Epilogue! I guess! Halfway done but I need to get it out bc I want to start random doodles and I need somewhat of a starting point!

Heavy heavy thanks to @annymation and their INCREDIBLE rewrite, go check it out, it’s amazing and wayyyy more of a tribute to the original Disney than mine will be. And @gracebethartacc/@gracebeth3604 (hey, I was the one who asked about whether your rewrite was written or thought dumps/ etc, but btw your rewrite IS well known, my roommate’s friends know of it and Anny’s) bc they have a popular rewrite with their amazing art doodles and thought dumps, so… I said fuck it and posted this.

I will update with more doodles! These are messy but I wanted to put SOME there… also! Check out @uva124 if you want to see some FANTASTIC wish art!

[geekyoftheweeky]

Been waiting for a bit to show this off on here. Got my finalized designs for Asha done for my big wish rewrite project!

One thing I want to make clear in this project is that I have no qualms with the creatives who worked on Wish. They put their all into trying to make this movie as good as it could be with the time, material, and skills they had. My qualms are with the suits who pushed them to turn this movie into an advertisement for Disney rather than a celebration of their legacy. That's why I tried to use as much of the original concept art of the film as possible when making this designs for the video essay!

For Asha, I had a lot of work ahead of me considering my decision to make her Magnifico and Amaya's daughter. Mostly designing both proper princess attire that matches her parents, and her own outfit to make her stand out more as an individual.

I know a lot of people enjoy her warmer colorscheme from her early concepts, but I decided to keep her purples from the original film. With my Starboy's design being primarily gold, it meant the two of them would have complementary color schemes. And considering I'm going with the ever popular decision to make them romantically involved in my rewrite, I think the complementary colorschemes work perfectly in that regard! I also kept her braids. While they don't serve the same purpose as the design choice does in the original movie(showing off Asha's amazigh heritage with her intricately braided hair), I think it looks nice regardless! I just wish the movie didn't keep it magnetized to her shoulder like they were trying to emulate Elsa.

Most of my other design notes are in the images themselves as annotations, so feel free to give them a read if you're curious about some of these decisions!

I'll post Starboy soon, I've just gotta refine some things on his little reference before I do.

[your-ne1ghbor]

Magnifico's "Wish Stealing form" design/some Character Dump (Disney Wish)

Oh boy ya'll in a BIG BIG Story beat plus some more information on Amaya and Magnifico in my rewrite:

The Kingdom of Roses and Thorns

Oh yeah...this is another long post and Ik @oh-shtars @chillwildwave @signed-sapphire @annymation @uva124 @rascalentertainments is gonna love this idea

For starters...

I Had this nightmare of Magnifico because of this form and now you all will see it too :3

There were also other posts that inspired this design too, so I'll link them here:

Anyways, this post is mainly an MAJIOR STORY IDEA DUMP for my sweet sweet emo Maggy- erm Magnifico (he is glaring at me guys send help please)

Soooo....

I had this terrifying idea for TKoRaT Maggy, even before I had this nightmare of him, where he legit becomes somewhat something like this, but with more vine core when he is taking the wishes/"monster in my closet" wrong vibes.

More like this for the idea I'm going for:

This is one of the ideas I had for Maggy when he is taking the wishes. This is might not be final in my final version of Maggy, hell, I might change that particular design to be Amaya's form when she takes the wishes too, since hers is more smoke which is more or not on par with her character in my rewrite/redesign. It might end up being more of Maggy's thing with Amaya helping him get into this state of transformation to take the wishes since I'd imagine it more of a whole process, but it could also just be something they both do together.

Some more design details I added was his scars from when his kingdom was attacked and almost everyone died because he showed mercy to the attackers. He doesn't really have them in his main design, probably because he covers them up with Amaya's potions or the wishes could have some form healing abilities? Idk I'm still firguring out the magic system of my story or that I just keep forgetting to put those scars in his design so awesome???����

In my post here, I said that they don't hold ceremonies that has them granting/taking the wishes like they did in the movie. This is mainly because I wanted to do a little something original and gives me the oppertunity to take in the horror aspects of the story (because I love scaring children(not in a bad way, but to show them that there are these kinds of people in the world yk?)). This is why I am intentionally making Maggy and Amaya horrifying in their own way because well...good people can become the bad guys if pushed in the right direction. Especially in what they do to other people. Mainly inspired from Hunchback and Prince of Egypt, with subtle, but TERRIFYING pieces.

BUT, They do have a ceremony, but it is not related to the wishes, it is just there to give them some sympathetic traits to Maggy and Amaya (after all they've been through, I just feel bad, they literally wanted to good things and the world just beat them with a 90 foot pole).

This one I tried making Maggy more jagged. Although it seems like he is a different character here, thats mainly my fault since I really tried to figure out what he would say to Star Boy in this "idea" scene but my brain blanked out and couldn't think of anything so wahoo

Star Boy in this scene doesn't even know he has a desire, he just didn't think stars can form desires (ofc Maggy and Amaya is going to manipulate the hell out of him and Asha :3)

ALSO

This is also the main reason I split Star Boy's powers between what Amaya and Maggy does.

Maggy has only 1 shape-shifting form, and it is only done to steal the wishes. He can't shape shift into anything else, but it is why when he steals star's powers, he becomes more of a terrifying shapeshifter.

Amaya creates dangerous potions, and more or not lurks in the darkness in some way like a cat to bring them to their doom. Although it would make more sense if Maggy has the creation part of Star's powers, I gave it to Amaya since it works for her too, and keeps the power system balanced in some way. If I do give Amaya the ability to also shapeshift into a monster from my dreams, I could also say the same thing can work in reverse too, I just personally think the creation part of her character conflicts with Asha's ability to create/draw magic.

Power wise for this design...

This form also gives Maggy the ability to see people's desires that HE could take. He can't really take them until they are 17-18 years old and older (ruh oh, 2 of our main protagonists fall under that age gap). Plus, he cant take them from children since they are young and dont understand these kinds of things.

This form also falls under the MAIN conflict of why the hell is everyone miserable when they turn around 17/18 years old? Oh yeahhh this is going to fall under how he steals the wishes, but I'm not going to say anything here yet because I really want it to be a surprise.

Nothing that he does is not without reason. He blames the stars for not granting his wish (there is a reason why they didn't), and for not stepping in when a star, or Aster (NOT STAR BOY) went "rouge" (not Aster's fault btw, they didn't have a choice). So, this presented him with this ideology (that I personally believe Amaya first started thinking this way, out of pain and wanting to blame someone for what happened a century ago) that in order for people to not wish on stars, is for them to never wish/dream again. The story in my version is the aftermath of this. Still figuring out THE MAJIOR STORY BEATS, but this falls under Star Boy as well.

Star Boy represents the thing Magnifico hates the most. Plus, Maggy has more of a personal beef with the stars so of course he is going to make sure Star Boy dies, becauseeee he didn't do it last time, so second times the charm, am I right? (OR MAYBE THE THIRD WHO KNOWS, LETTING THE STORY WORK ITSELF OUT ;3)

ORIGINALLY, this was going to be Amaya's thing, but as I said, this might end up being mainly Maggy's thing, or it is something they both do, since they share the same goal, but here is the designs I was going to show for that:

Anywaysssss, ya'll can ask me questions regarding to this design if ya'll want to! I'll gladly answer them! I also will accept suggestions for the design/abilities for this "wish stealing..." thing. I might come up with a better name for this form later. Soo have a happy weekend as your neighbor watches some marvel movies as I work on my projects for my classes.

explodes

Edit: Okay my imagination took my to the most tragic part of his character then randomly imagined star boy getting stabbed by this guy and said "now you feel the pain I felt when everyone died" and star boy, in the worst condition says "almost everyone" then gets a another stab from him💀

[thewaltcrew]

Chanticleer concept art by Marc Davis

Chanticleer is likely the most famous of all canceled projects at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Although these drawings were done in the early 1960s, the studio had been trying since the late 1930s to develop a feature film based on two French stories: the play Chantecler by Edmond Rostand and the Roman de Renart or Reynard the Fox, a literary cycle first collected in 11th-century Europe. The two stories were initially developed separately. Storymen Ted Sears and Al Perkins were the first to work on them, but they quickly ran into the same problem that would constantly plague Chanticleer for its entire development existence: how to make an arrogant rooster into an appealing protagonist.

Sears: We, or any other cartoon outfit, cannot depict a likable, interesting rooster character. Good animators have told me this, and only some revolutionary change or inspiration would make a rooster character sympathetic.

Development on Reynard also ran into similar problems of having a protagonist with a less-than-admirable personality, as Reynard the Fox is one of the most famous sources that propagated the image of a fox as a sly trickster. By 1945, the idea to combine the two properties came about, likely to help alleviate the problem of Chanticleer’s arrogant character by having a villain for him to play off of. Attempts to develop it again continued on through the 1940s, but nothing ever panned out.

In early 1960, Marc Davis and Ken Anderson, uninterested in any of the films in development at the time, took a trip down to the Animation Research Library to find ideas for a film they could develop on their own. Davis, being a fan of musical theater, wanted to do a big Broadway musical-style animated feature. They came across the old treatments for Chanticleer and jumped on the chance. They disregarded the original source materials (aside from the basic premises) and began to develop their own plot, envisioning it as a satiric comedy.

The story would have been about a rooster named Chanticleer who believes that his crowing makes the sun rise every morning. Everyone else in the village adores Chanticleer because they believe in his power too, and they elect him mayor of the town. However, he becomes an overbearing leader, ordering the hens to lay more and more eggs. The townsfolk come to resent him, and Reynard the fox arrives and takes advantage of the situation, wishing to exploit the village for his own benefit. He entertains the citizens, and the chickens stay up all night, becoming too tired to lay any eggs. An angry Chanticleer orders Reynard to leave, but Reynard announces that he will run for mayor against Chanticleer. Chanticleer finds himself in a duel at dawn against a Spanish rooster who works for Reynard and doesn’t realize that the sun has risen without him. Once he discovers that his crowing does not bring up the sun, he realizes his foolishness and is humbled, allowing the villagers to forgive him. Because although his crowing never made the sun come up, it did awaken the citizens for them to be able to start their days.

Cost cutting is what effectively ended Chanticleer’s chances. Walt was pressured to stop the production of animated feature films moving forward, as their already existing catalogue would have been enough for the company to profit off of during re-releases.

Davis: Walt was about ready to dump animation; then he got to thinking, “I owe these people something,” which he did. So he said, “Hell, these guys know how to make these films without me.” I don’t think the others realized how eager the members of this business gang were to get rid of animation. Everything after Dalmatians was done with a minimum of Walt’s supervision. I think he got spread very thin: he got terribly interested in the Parks, his vision of Epcot, and more.

But as preoccupied as Walt was, he didn’t have it in his heart to shut down animated film production for good. He did, however, reduce the output by setting a schedule of a new film every four years rather than every two. This meant that one of the two films in development at the time, Chanticleer and The Sword in the Stone, had to be cut. The decision was obvious, as Chanticleer would have been much more expensive to produce, and The Sword in the Stone was a simpler story with human characters and a cute underdog protagonist.

Davis: We had all the artwork up on the walls, and the money people at the studio came in like it was a funeral. We went all the way through the presentation and met with silence. Then a voice from the back of the room said, “You can’t make a personality out of a chicken!” They all filed out and that was the end of it.

Walt would soon call up Marc Davis to ask him to help out at WED (later called Imagineering), which is where Davis would stay for the remainder of his Disney career (where he would contribute to some of the most beloved Disney attractions of all time), thereby making Chanticleer the very last thing he worked on at the animation studio.

Davis: I had always kind of doubled up: I did story on an awful lot of stuff that was not made, including some damned good things. I think some of the best drawings I ever did for the Studio were for Chanticleer.

Chanticleer has grown a legacy of its own, perhaps solely because of how appealing and well-drawn Davis’ work for the project was. As animator Andreas Deja put it, “Marc designed some of the best-looking characters I’ve ever seen--those drawings want to be moved and used... The designs for Chanticleer show the same level of graphic sophistication as his paintings. When that’s combined with his very thorough knowledge of anatomy and the Disney appeal, the result is outstanding.”

Mel Shaw attempted to rework a new treatment for Chanticleer in 1981, but it was quickly squashed. In 1992, Don Bluth, an ex-Disney animator who, like everyone else, loved Marc Davis’ work on Chanticleer, tried his hand at the story himself with the film Rock-A-Doodle, though to little critical or commercial acclaim.

Although Marc Davis never worked on an animated film again after Chanticleer, some of the designs he created for that film did find their way into his WED project America Sings and later Splash Mountain, when the animatronics from America Sings were repurposed.

research sources from [x][x][x], The Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art of Five Decades of Unproduced Animation by Charles Solomon, and Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man, Chanticleer chapter by Charles Solomon photo sources [x][x][x]

[synergysilhouette]

Plotting out "Rumplestiltskin" (Disney movie)

After I finished the Reinvention era, I decided I wanted to do more fleshed-out posts of original films I wish Disney had done during their previous eras. To start, I decided to work on the films suggested for the post-renaissance era, which I did a revision post that you can find here. It's best to read that to understand what I'm about to mention.

Background: By this time, Disney has not greenlit a fairy tale since the 90s, and when John Musker and Ron Clements come to them with an idea for "Rumpelstiltskin," they are open to it--albeit somewhat hesitantly; they've achieved unprecedented success with mostly original ideas, and the thought of going "back to basics" does bother them somewhat, with the fear that they'll be attacked for running out of ideas. Nonetheless, they let the film pass, scrapping their "Home on the Range" film. They enlist Alan Menken and Tim Rice for the music, and the team opts for a darker take than most Disney films (later said to have inspired Guillermo del Toro), and they consider briefly to do a non-European setting, but it's quickly scrapped, and a medieval England is considered, with particular inspiration from the Late Middle Ages to the Tudor period. While the specific setting and historical aspects (including pitches for Scandinavian, Slavic, Brazilian, and Iberian settings) are eventually removed for "magical purposes," Tudor-inspired fashion (eh, more 40% accuracy than 100%) is kept. They realize the unlikeability of having a king who marries a woman he threatens to kill three times over, and it's not a desirable trait for marketing, so they take influence from the king in "Cinderella," King Hubert from "Sleeping Beauty," and King Triton from "The Little Mermaid" to make a well-meaning but stressed and temperamental king who offers his much more benevolent son to the protagonist. They also scrap an early draft featuring a love triangle between the protagonist, the prince, and the antagonist, and the thought of doing 3D is considered, but eventually passed on. They planned on making the protagonist "older" (somewhere in her 30s), but Disney worries that this would alienate their younger audience, and move her to mid-20s--a bit older than they'd like, but not too young to be a mother without upsetting the parental audience.

(Note: This film will have been released in 2004, but several visual aids used are from media post-2004 and are serve to give the audience the idea of how the characters would look/act, rather than the influences Disney would use in the early 2000s.)

Plot

In a faraway land, a kingdom is wrought with misfortune. It is heavily in debt after a war has drained their coffers, and the economy has eroded. They're in debt to other countries, and not repaying them risks another way, and raising taxes could lead to civil war. A noble brags that his daughter will bring all the kingdom's problem to an end by turning straw into gold, and when the ill-tempered king hears of this, he gives her an ultimatum: spin several pounds of straw into gold for three days straight and marry his son, or her father will be executed for his insolence and she will be imprisoned for fraud. She undertakes this task successfully and falls in love with the much more amiable prince, and years later, she gives birth to a child. The day the child is to be christened, a guest bursts in, reminding her of a "deal" they made, revealing they spun straw into gold in exchange for gifts from her, the final of which being her child. When the princess begs to be let out of the deal, the creature humors her with a game: find their child, and discover the creature's name. With that, the fiend and her child disappears, and the princess only has 3 days to save them.

Characters

Aurelia--A quiet young noblewoman who lived a naive and sheltered life due to her upbringing, she was taught to be quiet and demure, and her station gave her a fairy tale look on life until she too was struck by poverty. Her father is an advantageous man whose kindness in these circumstances has been pushed down and seen as a sign of weakness. He had tried to suggest a match between Aurelia and Prince Aldous before, but was unsuccessful until he felt pressure by his contemporaries to brag about why his daughter deserved to marry the prince. When her father is threatened with death should she fail, she makes a deal with a mysterious creature that appears each night to spin gold with her, though they only tell her what they want after they do a day's work. In doing so, she gives up two things her deceased mother gave her that she promised never to give up: a necklace and a ring. But true to her word, she does, and she is horrified to realize a potential child is the price to be paid for a third night. When her son Caspian is kidnapped, she races to the far reaches of the country, following clues to the creature's hideout and their true name.

R--Hint, hint. People are always willing to make deals when they're desperate, yet they don't know what the price will be. No matter. R is quite a vicious fellow (or lady? Their form and associated pronouns change to fit the ocassion) who's all too happy to take advantage of the ocassion. Disney took the opportunity to make the shapeshifter's disguises appear as twisted parodies of iconic Disney characters, along with original designs. R is endlessly imposing and clever, managing to finagle Aurelia out of a necklace that tracks whoever she wants and a ring that can summon creatures to assist her--but since she had no idea about the true nature of these items, the only loss she felt from handing them over was of a sentimental nature. But now that they're in R's possession, they're able to not only track Aurelia's progress, but hinder it as well. Should she fail to find and name R in three days time, Caspian will become corrupted in R's domain and be their "son" forevermore. Tick tock, tick, tock...

Aldous--The crown prince of Sceptimar and the oldest of three brothers, he has to deal with his overbearing father's expectations. After the death of his mother, he sought to get away from home and was educated abroad, and both situations contributed to his father's bitter and controlling attitude. He is sympathetic to Aurelia's situation, though is not pleased that his hand is offered as a prize in exchange for her success. Similar to his bride, he starts off as superficially kind, good at keeping up appearances and saying nice things, but when he joins his wife on retrieving their child, his compassion becomes genuine, and his grief helps him develop sympathy and empathy for others. That said, he hasn't completely lost his sense of haughtiness, but most say his demeanor contributes to his charm, in proper doses. His cleverness compliments Aurelia's, and his physical abilities (fighting, horseback riding, etc.) rubs off on her. To put it simply, what was once a "reward marriage" became a relationship where both parties help them become better people. Before Caspian was kidnapped, Aurelia feared Aldous would become controlling similar to his father.

Songs

Sacrifice--The story of how Sceptimar, once a prosperous kingdom, fell into disrepair thanks to continuous war, and was financially bankrupt, and King Osric hoped to marry his sons off to powerful princesses in exchange for a significant dowries.

Golden Opportunity--Lord Ricard is quick to fold to pressure, but when his contemporaries turn their annoyance at the king considering raising taxes on him, he makes a reckless brag that his daughter has been blessed with the ability to spin straw into gold, and they relay this to the king, not believing him.

Don't You?--In despair, Aurelia prepares to be imprisoned for life, but laments the possible death of her father, and a creature hears her praise, appearing and offering to help her three days in a row. Each day they finish a task, they ask her for something, to which she hesitates, and they remind her that they can expose her at any moment, and it will be her fault at this point if her father is executed.

Something For Me--Aurelia must venture to find Caspian before he is corrupted by R, and prince Aldous joins her to help rescue their child. R scoffs at their urge to make deals, as Aurelia already agreed to the original terms of the deals and they had no reason to bargain further with her. But they do have some magical items that Aurelia so graciously gave them, so it's not like they won't win this game anyway.

Life Without--Aurelia and Aldous lament on their childhood and situations that led them to their current predicament, with each of them blaming the other's father for their situation. That said, they've developed a deep love for each other, and they've gained so much from their union, not least of all a child that they adore above all else.

Who Are You (with "Don't You" reprise)--Based on the hints that they've left behind (and an accidental one), Aurelia is able to deduce R's true identity as well Aldous finding Caspian hidden in the domain. R, despite their rage, is bound to the last deal they made, and relinquishes the child to the prince and princess. But they warn the couple that this isn't goodbye; anytime someone is desperate, anytime someone wants something, Rumpelstiltskin will be there to grant their deepest desire.

Hope you enjoyed this! Lemme know if you have any questions. Technically the next original film from my revision of the post-renaissance era is "The Chronicles of Narnia," but it'd pretty much be the same as the live-action film, just animated and a musical, so IDK if I'll post it. So that probably means I'll just move onto "Tam Lin."

[winwintea]

Blame it on my Disney Wish (Prologue)

PAIRING ▸ wayv x fem!reader 

GENRES ▸ romance, fluff, crack, angst, acquaintances to lovers, disney park au, college au

WARNINGS ▸ profanity, sexual jokes, alcohol consumption, chenle gets bullied a lot, kun also gets bullied a lot, everyone gets bullied a lot, 

SUMMARY ▸ kun takes the boys to disney world, funded by his sugar daddy chenle. however none of them were prepared for you to tag along, more or less even be affected by that cliche disney magic. but hey, maybe dreams really do come true? 

TAG LIST ▸ (send me an ask here if you’d like to be added! + those tagged will be in the tag list of all chapters of this series!)

RELEASE DATE ▸ no schedule haha... i work at my own pace guys!

WORD COUNT ▸ 1.1k words

AUTHOR’S NOTE ▸ welcome to my first ever fic? this is a “choose your own route” kind of series, so no need to read in order! i’ll be updating one chapter at a time, finishing off all chapter 1’s before i move onto the chapter 2’s. this originally started off as a crack fic idea that turned into a romance. thank u for taking the time to indulge in my silly fic. i’m very into disney parks so this was very fun to write. PLEASE ALSO READ THE PROLOGUE BEFORE READING THE CHAPTERS!

“Could we maybe go to Disney?”

Little did Qian Kun know, was that this innocent question would be the reason why Kun, and 6 other idiots were now at Walt Disney World with you.

That day, Dong Si Cheng, Kun’s roommate, asked a simple question. That had a simple answer: No. But what happened instead, wasn’t as simple. If it were any other one of his idiotic friends he would’ve turned them down straight away, but the request had to come from the mouth of Dong Si Cheng instead. There was no way Kun could resist the temptation of seeing those eyes look dejected after he rejected that wish of Si Cheng’s. 

“Sure, I’ll see what I can do.” Was what HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID. but he did.

As soon as Kun walked out of Si Cheng’s room, his smile quickly turned into a frown. How the hell was he going to accomplish this? They were pretty much broke college students, no freetime, and no clout. Actually the last part was a lie. They were pretty popular amongst most of the students of their school. Mingled with most people, went to parties, drank a lot, you get the gist. Yet, that wasn’t enough clout to magically grant them a Disney trip. That shit only happened in movies. Disney movies. 

“Couldn’t help but overhear that sad conversation.” Kun turned his head to see a familiar face, one that happened to belong to his ‘bestie’ Ten. He was using the term ‘bestie’ lightly. They’d known each other for years, but still bickered and teased each other over everything. Ten’s real name was ‘Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul’, but of course no one could pronounce that so everyone just called him Ten instead. It made life simpler. 

“Oh yeah? Like you could do anything better.” 

Ten cocked his head to the side, “What? Can’t stop being a people pleaser for once and reject someone for a change?” “I’d love to see you try. Why don’t you go tell him ‘no’ instead, so we don’t have to shovel out our own money to pay for this damn trip?” Kun knew Ten loved a good challenge, and that Ten was as equally broke as he was, so maybe he could convince Ten to persuade Si Cheng.

Ten looked at him for a few seconds, rolled his eyes, and walked right into Si Cheng’s room. Kun glanced at his watch, wanting to see how long it would take. 

“You don’t need to tell me Ten. I heard everything outside, I… understand.” Kun could hear Si Cheng’s faint voice from the door, and his heart ached a little. The sadness in his tone was very obvious. “I was being selfish… I’m sorry.” 

“N-Nononoofcoursenot!” Ten blabbered out. Suddenly Ten opened the door again, spotted Kun and pulled Kun back into the room with him. “Tell him Kun! We were just planning the dates right, weren’t we Kun?” 

Fuck this bastard. Kun could imagine it in his head. Right here, right now. His hands wrapped tightly around Ten’s neck. And when he was done, he would know exactly where to put the bo- Err… Just kidding. There would be a witness anyways. A witness that was currently giving him a puzzled look. 

“Uhm… yeah yeah… yeah right we were just booking flights that’s all. And if it… sounded like we weren’t gonna go uh… we were just… joking, right?” Kun looked at Ten for support. If Ten was gonna throw Kun under the bus then he needed all the help he could get.

“Yeah yeah. We’ll go to your favorite park!” Ten winked at Si Cheng, still nervously looking at Kun. “I like all of them though…” 

That’s it. Kun grabbed on Ten’s arm, as equally hard as Ten had done to him earlier, dragging him out of Si Cheng’s room once again. This time, Kun and Ten positioned themselves strategically in the kitchen where Kun’s beloved roommate wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation. However as they made their way into the kitchen to see a shorter boy standing at the sink peeling an orange. “Chenle, how the fuck do you keep getting into our dorm room?” Kun stared at Chenle as he was nonchalantly peeling his orange. 

The younger boy grinned at the two. “Si Cheng gave me his spare key. He wanted to learn how to play basketball, so I’ve been teaching him.”

Chenle was a basketball prodigy and had gotten into their school on a scholarship because of it. He was only 2 grades below Kun, but somehow they shared most of their classes with each other. Chenle would always pester Kun whenever he could and did anything he could to make his life miserable. “Okay, so why are you here now? Si Cheng did not look like he was about to play basketball at all.” Chenle popped an orange slice in his mouth. “Silly! I’m here for you! Well, see I originally was going to bother you like I normally do, y’know” He ignored Kun’s glare and continued on, “But then… I was hungry so I got a snack.” He motioned to the orange in his hands and ate another slice, “Also whoever made that Pumpkin Pie, that was absolutely fire.” 

“Fuck you that was my last slice” Ten crossed his arms, and joined Kun in scowling at the younger boy.

“Yeah well. Sorry. I guess. Not really. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Regardless, while eating the pie I witnessed your little disney dilemma and I have a proposal to make.” Kun eyed Chenle suspiciously as he continued on, “I’ll pay for your little trip. Flights, Tickets, Fastpasses, Food, everything!” 

Kun completely forgot that Chenle’s family was loaded. He glanced at Ten then back at Chenle. “And what do you want in return? Is there a catch?”

Chenle looked at them with a more mischievous grin in comparison to the ones he had been giving them before. “No catch! You just have to take me and my best friend, y/n with you.”

MASTERLIST

[sunnybyler]

what descendants 4 would have been if i was given free reign

okay so idek if there’s a descendants community on here but i just have to get my ideas out SOMEWHERE bc the wonderland stuff had so much potential but disney just went such a bizarre direction with d4. like what even was that time travel plot. this was partly inspired by dylanisintrouble’s incorrect assumption in his reaction vid that it would be abt a group of wonderland kids bc that’s exactly what should have happened!! let me elaborate

fun fact this was written while i was getting torn to shreds on tiktok for my descendants song rankings but ANYWAYS

i’m keeping it realistic to what disney could have done, as in no cameos of the og cast that isn’t already in the movie. ofc in a perfect world we’d get more with those characters, but after cameron’s passing i’m respecting their wishes to not be in more descendants movies without him.

things i’m keeping the same:

the cast is p much the same except characters i have to cut since i’m scrapping the time travel aspect. cinderella and charming were basically the best parts of that movie to me bc i love their original cinderella so yeah we are ABSOLUTELY keeping that. and the cast is v talented they just got an ass script not their fault

red & chloe are still two of the main characters but i’m adding a third too (we’ll get there) and they’re basically unchanged personality/backstory wise

the whole beginning up through red’s song is basically unchanged. uma’s still in charge and invites wonderland kids to auradon prep, except in this case it’s more than just the one

the queen of hearts/cinderella backstory is somewhat the same; they were friends in school and then there was a prank that caused the queen of hearts to become the tyrant we now know. we get this knowledge through further exposition in love ain’t it

okay and that’s literally it LMAOO let’s get into the characters now

the main three

so as i mentioned two of the main characters are still red and chloe basically unchanged from d4. so the third mc is, and i feel genius for this…. bridget!! but an oc version, not as the young queen of hearts. hear me out. pretty much everyone seems to agree young bridget was such a fun character and loves her, myself included, so i had to find a way to make her an mc. in my plot, she’s red’s sister! either twin sister or irish twins idrk either works, but i will be calling them the twins in this post. she’d realistically have a different name but in order to not cause confusion i’m going to keep calling her bridget in this post. she has the same personality and appearance as the movie, except she also has a bit of blind loyalty towards her mom, unlike red. she’s a sweetheart and hates the idea of hurting people, but she’ll do basically anything outside of that for her mother. she also has such an intense need to be liked that she’ll sometimes do things against her morals or ignore red flags — as seen with her mom. she and red do love each other but there’s still a lot of disconnect in their relationship because of their different dynamics with the queen of hearts and how different they are.

the other wonderland kids

so just like the og descendants movie, i would have it be four kids. obviously the two girls would be the twins, and then i would also add the mad hatter’s son and alice’s son. i would keep the mad hatter’s son kinda similar to the one we see in the movie, except he’s red’s age and more eccentric. i’m keeping his name maddox as well but we’d have to recast since the actor is a bit too old. he and red are still good friends and he tries to have her back and keep her out of danger like in the movie. unlike in the movie though maddox is a lot more fun and unique. he’s still more grounded than his father, but he was boring af in the movie for the mad hatter’s kid so he’d be more vibrant in my version. he’s the comic relief. i named alice’s son alex and he’s kind of what you’d expect — very curious and eccentric but still kind and smart. ppl get annoyed with him because he’s always asking loads of questions. he’s close with bridget.

the side characters

okay so admittedly this is probably where i put in the least thought lmao i don’t really have parentage/names for anyone here. but i want there to be a relevant vk kid who’s kind to the wonderland squad just to remind fans that the vks are still here and not all bad. but they would befriend maddox and alex in particular and it could be a fun little c plot. and then on the flip side the “villain” character is actually the kid of hero characters. it’d have to be someone more unpopular of course, maybe like a side character or something. but this character pretends to be friends with the wonderland kids, specifically bridget, but is only doing it to make fun of them with her friends. but these characters would expand on the original movies concept that you aren’t your parents yk.

the parents

i wouldn’t really change the parents much if at all! the casting is great but they’d be seen a little bit less in their adult forms & we wouldn’t see their young self at all. as for the mad hatter and alice, idk if we’d even see them but if we do it’s a very brief cameo like in the first descendants.

okay actual plot time!! lmao

so like i said the first part of the movie up to red’s song is basically going to be unchanged. uma decides to invite the wonderland kids to auradon prep, specifically selecting the twins, maddox, and alex to be the first four to be invited. the first song is unchanged it’s still red. maddox still ends up saving red’s ass but the scene is more comedic relief than anything with maddox’s changed character. we then get a bridget introduction with a brief interlude of life is sweeter (the full song would be later in the movie but i don’t want too many full songs clumped at once) that shows the differences between the two sisters. we would then cut to auradon to meet chloe, and that sequence is basically the same too.

the queen of hearts enters in the next scene, announcing the invitations to the twins. we also get a similar scene as in the actual movie of the queen trying to get red to decide on a punishment for the guard and refusing to kill him. she then tries the same with bridget, who also wants to save the man’s life, but tries to appease her mother by kind of talking in circles about why him being alive is somehow worse punishment. she begs her mom to let her to something else to make her happy but she doesn’t want to hurt someone. this is clearly a recurring pattern with the twins and their mom. the queen is disappointed in both girls and expresses this, but it clearly bothers bridget more outwardly than red.

we’d then cut into the love ain’t it song just for exposition purposes. in this version it would be a cut between the queen warning the twins about auradon and cinderella explaining some of the wonderland lore to chloe after getting news of the wonderland kids attending auradon. so they’re not at the school yet, meaning chloe hasn’t met red or anything. lyric changes would be necessary but the purpose is the same. the song establishes that the queen and cinderella used to be best friends as two outcasts at the school, but at a school dance a cruel prank got pulled on the queen, causing her to drop out and leave to wonderland. the queen didn’t used to be some sweet innocent like we saw in the movie, but she was less jaded according to cinderella.

the scene then cuts to a new day when the queen of hearts has decided to let the twins attend auradon. they have to leave right away. she’s come up with a grand plan on using her girls as spies to get information on auardon so she can plan a takeover. she doesn’t follow them to the school or try to take over immediately bc in what world would one person be able to solo an entire school of powerful magic users. i get she’s unhinged but no. bridget is immediately willing, relieved to have a task from her mother that doesn’t result in her having to directly hurt someone, while red clearly is uncomfortable with the idea but doesn’t say anything to her mom. the queen leaves to go fetch maddox and alex to allow them to attend auradon as well to cover for the twins. the idea is that while bridget and red are snooping around, maddox and alex will be actually innocent to cover it up. but the queen insists they can’t know of the plan. red and bridget have an argument about spying, red saying they shouldn’t enable her but bridget arguing that the queen is their mom. it’s clear bridget is kind of in denial that she’d still be contributing harm even if she’s not being directly violent. it establishes that bridget is a genuinely good person in most ways but is way too loyal to her mother and makes excuses she shouldn’t for her.

the twins fight gets interrupted by them having to leave to auradon so it’s left unresolved. the four wonderland kids go to auradon alone, like in the first descendants movie. they have a similarly awkward meeting with the other students, but instead of being seen as evil/scary, the students seem to think they’re bizarre. alex is asking 101 questions without taking a breath, maddox is trying to make jokes/observations but is just sounding kind of out of his mind, and bridget is so overexcited it makes people uneasy. red originally seems like the most normal, so chloe approaches her trying to befriend her. red shoots that down immediately, and the girls have an instant distaste for each other. instead of people being scared of the wonderland kids, people just think they’re weird/outcasts.

there’s scenes that establish that bridget is giving the queen of hearts actual helpful information to help a potential takeover — including very useful information about the museum when they take a class trip there. red, on the other hand, is instead giving her mother vague/partially true information with some flat out lies sprinkled in. she doesn’t want to cause her mother to flip out again, but she doesn’t want to help her either. with her experience rebelling against her mom, she’s able to not get caught in her actions. red and bridget argue about the spying throughout the movie.

despite their awkward first meeting, red and chloe keep getting paired up for things and continue to get on each other’s nerves. chloe also begins to get suspicious that red is planning something with her mother after hearing stories from cinderella. there’s probably a song here about their arguing. chloe thinks bridget is sweet and doesn’t suspect her, but continues to question red’s motives which is beyond infuriating for her since bridget’s the one actually spying. but she can’t say that and expose her sister because despite their disagreements they still have love for each other. perfect start for a rivals to frenemies to lovers arc if you ask me 👀 if we’re being real disney would tell me to go fuck myself with that but i said it’s MYYY descendants 4 so there is a lot of clear romantic tension here. small moments like red getting distracted mid insult by how pretty chloe looks that day or chloe complimenting red’s outfit without thinking. just little things to establish attraction but they still dislike each other on principle.

unlike red, the other wonderland kids are starting to find some friends at auradon despite seeming so odd on first meeting. red and bridget are naturally suspicious at first that people’s motives aren’t genuine after their mother’s story. bridget is actually the one that caved first though, as she is desperate for real friends and wants to fit in. maddox and alex bond with one of the vk’s who is also a bit of an outcast and that’s a c plot of the movie but i don’t have many concrete ideas for them since i’m focusing on the 3 girls mostly. but just know that’s happening! lol. eventually bridget gets paired up with a character well call “the bully” for a class assignment (as chloe and red are somehow paired up — again). bridget goes out of her way to be nice to this girl but isn’t getting anything in return. at the end of the class, there’s a scene of the bully talking with one of her friends and complaining about bridget. the friend suggests that the bully pretend to be bridget’s friend since it’s funny to make fun of her. the bully ends up inviting bridget to eat lunch with her friend group, and they pretend to like her just to laugh at her. bridget doesn’t pick up on this though. red tries to warn bridget against them, but bridget thinks she’s just being paranoid/jealous and ignores her. she has such a deep need to be liked that she ignores the red flags. this is also when bridget starts to question following her mother’s orders, but doesn’t tell red.

red is starting to feel like an outcast even among the wonderland kids with the others making friends. there’s a scene where maddox forgets about plans they had because his was with his new vk friend and they have a little spat over it. they end up making up within a few scenes though and maddox encourages red to try hanging out with him, alex, and their new friend. despite this she refuses to cave and let other people into her circle. oddly enough the person she probably talks to the most during this time is chloe.

the bully ends up learning about the prank that was pulled on the queen of hearts by overhearing the fairy godmother talking about it with another teacher. the other teacher is questioning putting on castlecoming out of concern it will be seen as an act of aggression to her daughters. but the fairy godmother insists on it continuing. the bully ends up devising a plan to make bridget castlecoming queen (or maybe a different title since there’s an actual queen lol but same idea) and turn her into a gross beast in front of everyone. it’s the same prank that happened to bridget’s mom.

as bridget believes she’s making genuine friends, she starts to consider how her actions will actually affect them. shes been feeling guilty the whole time but there’s a ballad here where it all comes to a head and she admits that even if she’s not the one swinging the sword, by spying she’s still putting the sword in her mother’s hands. she stops spying for her mom and starts ignoring her letters. she doesn’t have experience rebelling like red, so she doesn’t think to do what her sister does to avoid suspicion. it’s a moment of character growth. bridget tells red that she’s stopped spying, and red expresses how proud she is and they make up.

so in this movie, we actually get to SEE castlecoming bc why the fuck wouldn’t we!!!! we see all the characters in their outfits getting excited — even red is a bit giddy due to maddox joking with her and hyping her up. in the bathroom at the dance, chloe overhears the bully talking about her plan to prank bridget just like her mom was pranked all those years ago. she tries to warn bridget, but she runs into red instead. she tells red what she heard and the girls reluctantly team up to stop the prank. red gets maddox’s help too, but alex is with bridget all night and they aren’t able to tell him either. they keep either losing bridget in the crowd or being blocked by the bully’s friends. at one point red gets up to her sister and tries to pull her away to talk. bridget wants to go with her sister, but has to leave before red can explain everything because she got called up on stage as part of castlecoming court. red tries to run after her but gets blocked by the bully’s friends. she gets into an altercation with them, but maddox jumps in and the two of them together manage to win.

everything comes to a head when bridget is on stage being crowned castlecoming queen. the sad part is most people voted for her in earnest because she’s a sweet girl, but they ended up leading to her being humiliated on accident. red and chloe both corner the bully who has a spell book. maddox is trying to keep the bully’s friends distracted. unfortunately, chloe and red are just a second too late and the bully casts the spell before they can intervene. the bully then drops the book and manages to escape before anyone else sees it was them since everyone is watching the prank play out. it’s a carrie type moment but without all the murder obviously lmao. more just like vibes idk if that makes sense. as people are looking around to see who did it, someone locates the spell book right by red and chloe’s feet. as the fairy godmother hastily tries to undo the spell, someone yells out that it was chloe and red that did it. the girls start to panic and accuse the bully, but it’s too late because the evidence points to them. the bully of course jumps on this and goes to console bridget while declaring how evil red must be to betray her sister like this, and how hypocritical chloe is by pretending to be so high and mighty. maddox tries to defend them but it’s no use. in her anguish, bridget believes the bully. the movie ends with everyone in chaos and the sisters truly divided.

maybe there’d be a scene of the queen of hearts crashing castlecoming and seeing what went down but idk i kind of want the prank to be the climax of the movie yk. her shenanigans would come at a different time

in my head i also have the sequel for this written out LMAOO. that movie it would be about red and chloe trying to clear their names and catch the bully, while also trying to figure out how to stop bridget from helping her mother attack auradon (bc bridget would def align with her mom again after what happened). not that anyone is gonna read this mess of a post but i might write up the sequel anyways bc this was sooo much fun lmao

[decepti-geek]

rewatching Cinderella 2015 for the howevermanyth time and THIS TIME the part that made me weepy was when the fairy godmother first showed up in her disguise.

Because in the original Disney version, and honestly in most versions - whether it's a fairy godmother or the birds/her mum/etc - the wish-granting entity coming to her aid in the moment is, I think, generally framed as a reciprocation for her determination to do good deeds in all the moments of her life leading up to this one. Then the animated Disney also film adds a line that makes it explicitly an identity crisis, where she's in danger of losing her faith that there's good in the world and that that matters, so the fairy godmother comes along to help restore her faith right when she's about to lose it. And that's a decent enough upbeat kind of story to tell in itself.

But in the live action film!! The fairy godmother doesn't even reveal who she is until after she's tested Cinderella one more time, right in the depths of her crisis of faith. I've always loved that moment cause obviously it alludes to traditional fairy folklore in a way that adds a smidge more depth and mystery to the way the magic works than you typically get in a Disney movie, so for me it's one of the little details that makes this like. just a really good fantasy/fairytale movie that's less of a Disney Movie™️.

And then on this rewatch, it's hit me that it isn't only about like... proving to Ella that she's not alone in the world, that kindred spirits who share her values do exist, with a dash of fairy folklore sprinkled on top. I never caught it before because I don't think Ella catches it herself at the time (she talks about magic not existing after the godmother pointedly mentions kindness, and those two concepts are pretty much fused together for the purposes of this film) - but the request for a cup of milk, made whilst Ella is still crying, is made in order to prove to her that kindness doesn't just exist in other people who also value it and will support her when she struggles to believe that's true. That part would be proved by the godmother just revealing herself immediately.

The request proves that kindness still exists in Ella. That even when she's in the absolute depths of despair, she has the capacity to practice kindness, and doing so comes so naturally even in her worst moments that she needs someone else to point out what it actively signifies. That even when she doesn't consciously believe in it, she does it regardless, so she really has no need to fear losing her faith. The existence of kindness isn't dependent on her faith in it, because it exists in her no matter what. And that's as much of a reward for her as the dress and the carriage and the shoes and it's one that goes deeper than building up enough Good Person Points to afford fairy gifts, because it's one which engages with who she is in the moments outside of her kindness, and which shows her that she's allowed those moments too, without it meaning that her capacity for kindness is in any way diminished.