#Twisted Fairy Tales ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Is Based On

[jmadorran]

So this month’s Twisted Fairy Tale theme is…..

Beauty and the Beast + The Addams Family = Twisted Beauty and the Beast

…and this is a character design exploration for Belle and Beast based off this theme. 

To lend your support and/or see behind the scene process work and/or get this month’s Patreon rewards join my Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/jmadorran

[kuroyuki-kokuyoku]

Random TCF Related Thought - Fairy Tales

In canon proper, we know that fairy tales do exist in Nameless 1, or at least, fiction geared towards children.

Well, I was reading some TCF React fics and found a hilarious moment where Heni!KRS was explaining fairy tales to Cale's kids and was shooketh to find out that Cale had butchered some of Earth's classic fairy tales into loosely-based-on stories (to put it gently) cuz apparently the "princess-in-distress" trope would not be relatable if every princess IRL they know could easily save themselves in a simailar or same situation. Therefore, Badass Action Girl!Princesses FTW.

Where am I going with this?

So my shower thought is that Cale one day decided to invoke his inner Brothers Grimm and published his own book series based off of Earth's classic fairy tales.

But here's the twist: He uses the Walt Disney versions but made every Disney Princess BAMFs.

Sorry, Mr. Walt Disney. Your own versions of Earth's classic fairy tales were a product of your time, but your 50s sensibilities won't fly when all of the princesses Cale knows can easily break a full grown man man in tiny little pieces, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Besides, he wants little girls like On and Lily to have strong female role models to aspire to be even if it's in fiction.

Sleeping Beauty? Aurora is based on Roselyn. She finds out that she got cursed by Maleficent, who is a whole Dragon that her father had offended by failing to invite her to his unborn daughter's christening like he promised, so she threw away her status as crown princess to become a mage out of spite and break the curse on her own. In the end, she succeeds and managed to tracked down Maleficent to her lair. Maleficent is so impressed by her moxie that the Dragon took her on as an apprentice. By the time, Prince Phillip shows up hoping to slay the Dragon and take Aurora back to his kingdom so they can be married, the story is already over.

Beauty and the Beast? Belle is the village chief's daughter and the most beautiful girl in the tribe. Belle is a Tiger and Lion mixed-blood Beastman and also pining after the cute human bookworm named Adam in the next village over. Dorph the greater value Gaston can go fuck himself for all she cares. TLDR: Role Reversal AU and Belle is Dark Tiger!Alberu.

Cinderella? Cinderella is a secretly a Shaman. Everything is the same up until the whole dress ruining scene. After that, Cinderella invokes the spirit of Queen Jopis, stopped giving a shit, and turned the rest of the plot into a shitshow. Her evil stepfamily is given the OG!Brothers Grimm treatment.

Pocahontas? Everything is the same except the Powhatans are all Elves. Ratcliffe is the White Bitchless.

Hunchback of Notre Dame? The plot is the same, but Esmeralda is a Dark Elf, and Quasimodo is half-Dark Elf. Frollo is replaced by Adin just so he can fall off the roof a second time.

Aladdin? Jasmine is also a thief. She looted what should've been her dowry from the Sultan, her annoying suitors' wealth, Genie's lamp, Carpet from the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin's heart, and Jafar aka the White Hobo Looking's dignity and respect, not in that order, then whisked Aladdin off of his bare feet and away to her own personal kingdom. Basically, Cale reimagined her as Fem!Hong Gildong.

The Little Mermaid? Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending where Prince Eric is a Whale Prince and Ariel is still a Mermaid, and both their families got scammed into finally burying the hatchet by Ursula.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Snow White is a Dwarf too, and the plot is basically an otome where she has seven suitors from different tribes, and the Evil Queen (*couch*Elisneh*cough*) is, of course, the jealous villainess.

Brave: Everything's the same except Sayeru gets abused more than Mor'du in this book.

Frozen: Everything's the same except Prince Hans is swapped out for Sir Bernard cuz Hans the goodest butler doesn't deserve to be associated with scum.

Tangled: Everything's the same except it's Adin who takes a swan dive off of the tower.

Mulan: Everything's the same except the Huns are replaced by Arm.

[aziraphales-library]

Hello! i really appreciate your work! do you happen to know any fics with a sort of elden ring vibe or a dark fantasy theme? thank you in advance!

Hi! We have a #fantasy au tag. I can't find any Elden Ring specific fics and I know nothing about it or its vibes, so here are some darker fantasy fics. Mind some of the tags!...

The Dancing Serpent by theRavenMuse (E)

The man who is called Ezra Fell sees The Serpent dancing and becomes entranced, but darkness hides in the most beautiful of places.

Azi and the Demon by Optimistic Starlight (E)

He stared at Azi appraisingly. “So. You have agreed to come here, of your own free will? To live with me, as my… companion?” Azi nodded. He supposed that was true. “Hmm.” Crowley’s tongue appeared briefly between his lips. It was very red. “Tell me, Azi. Have you ever met a demon before?” A Good Omens fairy tale, loosely based on the original story of Beauty and the Beast.

Sea Foam on Golden Sand by ShesAKillerQueen98 (M)

It has been 270 years since Sirens were cursed to live under the sea and tensions have only been rising like steam from a boiling pot. Crowley, a Siren in his late two hundreds, has felt out of place his entire life and wonders where he is meant to be. He figures he'll never find that answer until one day he meets a human, the prince Aziraphale. He'll do anything to stay with him, even make a deal with the notorious Sea Witch, Lucifer. Will he be able to keep his end of the deal or will Lucifer claim his life? Will he be able to stay with the man he loves or will he live the rest of his life under the sea?

Deep Waters: Of Rogues And Salvation by AutisticPumpkin (E)

Deep Waters is a canon-divergent fantasy universe set in the 1680's and follows the journey of what happens when the angel Aziraphale encounters and is kidnapped by pirates, and the demon Crowley must be the one to rescue him - But there's so much more going on than either of them could possibly ever imagine; close to home and out on the open seas. Embark on a tale of good, evil, and unimaginable power and what must be done to ultimately save the human race from certain doom. MAJOR CONTENT WARNING FOR RAPE/NON-CON

Chasing Shadows: In the Beginning by greenteazy (M)

Aziraphale's life seems to jump the tracks after a run in with a mysterious redhead during a bad date. As the man begins to infiltrate his life, more and more strange and dangerous things start happening to Aziraphale and the people in his life. What does Crowley want with him and what secrets does he hold over Aziraphale? A wild mystery, a twisting tale of love, magick, drama and so much action.

- Mod D

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you have any OCs besides Miss Raven? Like, other NRC students twisted from other Disney villains, etc. Apologies if you’ve answered this before; I’d love a link to the post if you had!

I have a lot of OCs that I'm constantly workshopping, but very few are detailed enough to formally introduce to the public. I had a lot of RSA OCs in the early days of my blog, but those were so far back that they've pretty much been lost to time. It's also pretty funny considering that Twst ended up introducing "official" twisted versions of the Disney protagonists I made OCs of. One of them that I'm particularly fond of is Jinx Skelton (though he doesn't have his own tag). I have a batch of unintroduced NRC OCs that need a lot more baking. (One of my recent favorites has been a King Candy-based Ignihyde student who is the complete opposite of an introverted otaku; instead, he's an extroverted daredevil and speed demon.) I have a few OCs based on the Twst mob students (Octavinelle A-kun, Scarabia B-kun, Pomefiore B-kun, Ignihyde A-kun, etc.), but I wouldn't consider those super fleshed out. There are unreleased Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, and Diasomnia mob OC too. They have their own tags if you'd like to look at their stuff. For the most part, they're just easy filler characters or Easter Eggs for me to insert every so often. I also shared my ideas for various Yuus I considered, but never actually implemented. More recently, I've been thinking about Sumire and the older lawyer!Yuu, but I don't think any of my Yuus will actually become a reality.

My most fleshed out Twst OCs are actually a collection of them that exist to expand upon Miss Raven's lore. I briefly mentioned them + showed design concepts here. Of the group, Estella is the one I've thought about the most. She is someone I describe as a fusion of the Enchantress (Beauty and the Beast), Giselle (in both Enchanted and Disenchanted), Isabela (Encanto), Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and Mother Gothel (Tangled) and Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2). Estella is meant to be the black swan/femme fatale to Miss Raven's white swan/ingénue, her mirror. Technically, Estella has had cameos in the Tale of the Cursed Raven. Still, she remains largely a mystery. Maybe one day we'll learn more about her 🙏

[yuurei20]

Strange question but!! Yk how the villains are treated as heroes? How on earth did the heroes stories work if they, uh, yk, dont have the villains? Like i briefly remember TWST!Jafar hijacking Aladdin’s plan to fake being a prince, so theres not rlly any more “aladdin” story, but im curious how other stories went if u know! Are the OG heroes still treated as heroes, etc etc, that fun stuff

Hello hello! Thank you so much for this question!!

The different interpretations of history that seem exist in Twst are fascinating, and one of my favorite things is the part in Book 6 where Lilia seems to insinuate that the Disney stories that we know might not actually be what really happened, because history is written by the victors:

These "classic" stories--were they, too, twisted to suit an agenda? Is the truth closer to what is taught as history in Twst, or is it somewhere in the middle? It is so interesting to think about!

For the most part it seems that the heroes from the stories we know are not turned into villains in Twst, and the deeds that are attributed to them were actually done by multiple characters from different folklore:

For example, Harveston has stories about miners and customs based on "a young lady who made a wish at a well," a "traveler" who cleaned a stranger's home and then a tale about "some princess who wished to fall in love right away," as if the young lady, princess and traveler are three separate people.

While basing their traditions on the miners, the lady and traveler, they also deify the Fairest Queen, as if they are all independent individuals with no overlap.

One of the more interesting parts of the Fairest Queen's history, in particular, is that there is actually a "dastardly villain" in Harveston folklore that stalks a woman who is then saved by forest creatures.

The huntsman is--just like the queen--not a villain in the Twst universe. Who was who, and what really happened? 👀

For the Scalding Sands, it seems that the unnamed princess and the sultan from local stories are just as revered as the Sorcerer of the Sands himself, with the sultan known to be the person who named the Sorcerer as his vizier and retaining their connection from the story we know.

Much like in Harveston, the history of the Scalding Sands seems to attribute what we believe to be the history of just one character to multiple individuals: Kalim talks about the Sorcerer saving his country from a street rat, who was a swindler/charlatan/usurper who tried to trick the sultan and princess, in a rare case of a "hero" being vilified.

But they also have folklore about "a poor but kind-hearted young man" who shared his food with children, and whose marriage to the beautiful princess they celebrate every year with a festival.

Whereas the Disney movies make the charlatan and the kind man into one person, in Twst's history it seems they were two different people.

Diasomnia is very big on the Thorn Fairy, and they also talk about the human king who feared her, the princess whose birthday she was not invited to (Silver: "Was their king raised in a barn?") and the three presents that the princess received.

Lilia talks about a trio of fairies that were not able to break the Thorn Fairy's curses and also put an entire kingdom to sleep, while Silver comments on how Lilia is consciously, intentionally emulating the three fairies from that tale with his cooking.

Silver and Malleus discuss "some faeries" raising a child for 16 years without magic, but they do not seem to know why they did so, and it is unclear if they believe that those faeries and the three faeries that put the kingdom to sleep are the same or different people.

Heartslabyul seems to separate Alice into two different characters as well, referring to a 1-km-tall giant that the Queen of Hearts tried in court and a child that got lost in the castle as if they were two people.

The only reference we get of the "heroes" of the Lion King tale are Jack referring to the King of Beast's "rascal of a nephew" and Leona mentioning that he deposed his brother "to build a better, wiser kingdom."

While the characters seem similar to the stories we know it's possible that the timelines are slightly different, with the rebirth of the pridelands being attributed to the King of Beasts himself rather than his nephew.

The history of the Sea Witch in Twst might be the most fascinating: the characters reference the Sea Witch taking someone's voice for a contract and making a shapeshifting potion to facilitate love between a mermaid and a human, but also turning herself into a human and being proposed to by a prince the next day, with no acknowledgement that the human from the first tale and the prince from the second might have been the same person.

They also talk about the eels flipping over a boat and a mermaid princess who had trouble walking on land, but there is no mention of the princess being in the boat in the eel story.

Octavinelle even acknowledges that the Sea Witch once made herself huge and sunk a ship with a whirlpool and "some even labeled her a monster," saying that she was later lauded as a compassionate figure after turning over a new leaf. (While the less-than-pleasant deeds done by the Sorcerer, the Fairest Queen and the King of Beasts in the stories that we know are never mentioned.)

Silver's tale from Halloween seems to be an exception to this rule. Everything done by the "hero" in the tale we know is still attributed to the hero in the story that Silver knows, and the enemy army is still the enemy army.

To the initial question: it seems that the heroes from the histories that we know are still being regarded as heroes in Twst (though they tend to get separated into multiple people), while the characters that we know as villains are also highly regarded. This sometimes includes their pasts (in the case of the Sea Witch and the Queen of Hearts), being separated from their pasts (in the case of the Hunter) or with no mention of their pasts (the King of Beasts, the Sorcerer of the Sands, the Fairest Queen, the Thorn Fairy).

(Not a lot of information about the King of the Underworld when compared to the others! Idia mostly just talks about how charismatic he was. Ortho suggests something about "the truth" about him being closer to Idia's own situation than they have been taught, but Idia is not convinced.)

Also: there is a reference to a hero rescuing his ladylove from the Underworld in Book 6, so it seems the hero in that tale remains a hero in Twst as well!

[safarigirlsp]

Wicked Fairytales

My fun little series in which I give my own twisted twist on some classics.

Bah Humbug

Flip Zimmerman x Reader

Kylo Ren x Reader

Charlie Barber x Reader

Clyde Logan x Reader

Henry McHenry x Reader

Jacques Le Gris x Reader

Commander Mills x Reader

Word Count: 35.4k

Warnings: NSFW. Extra Smut. Language. Angst. Romance. Graphic Violence. Murder. Main Character Death. Light Violence Against Reader. Old Timey Sexism. Bastardization of Classic Literature.

AO3 Link

Based on A Christmas Carol

A Comedy of Eros

Jacques Le Gris x Reader

Word Count: 13.5k

Warnings: NSFW. Humor. Romance. Soulmates. Violence. Non-Con Elements. Physical Aggression Toward Reader. Possessive and Jealous Behavior. Dominant Men. Bitchy Women. Conniving Wizards. Drugging - Kids today might call it Sex Pollen. Confusion. Duplicity. Bestiality. Orgies. Cuckolding. Exhibitionism. Misogyny. Old Timey Sexism. Toxic Men. Jacques/Pierre Canon as Developed by Silky and Myself aka Shithead Behavior. Bastardization of Shakesperean Tropes. Misuse of Shakespearean Quotes, try to count them all. Fear Not, No Attempts at Ye Olde English Contained Herein. ☠️Rey☠️

Don’t let the warnings scare you! This is Romance and Comedy.  

AO3 Link

Based on A Midsummer Night's Dream

Outrun the Devil

Lawyer Kylo Ren x Reader

Word Count: 14.9k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Blood. Gore. Murder. Beheadings. Supernatural Themes. Romance.

AO3 Link

Based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Love & War

Regency Kylo Ren x Reader

Word Count: 15.5k

Warnings: NSFW. Language. Smut. Non-Graphic Mentions of Violence and Death. Old Timey Sexism. Fluff. Romance. Humor. Stilted Language.

AO3 Link

Admiral Ren in Love

Top notes of Pride & Prejudice with undertones of Cinderella.

The Beast

Vampire Kylo Ren x Reader

Word Count: 5.3k

Warnings: None! Shocking! Some light horror and sexy themes.

AO3 Link

Notes of Beauty and the Beast, Dracula, and The Raven in my best Poe-ish attempt.

Music of the Night

Victorian Kylo Ren x Reader

Word Count: 14.4k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Graphic Violence. Fires. Guns. Murder. Old Timey Sexism. Romance. Dark Phantom of the Opera Vibes. Victorian Kylo.

AO3 Link

Based on The Phantom of the Opera

Here There Be Monsters

Pirate Captain Jacques Le Gris x Reader

Word Count: 51.4k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Action. Adventure. Romance. Light Violence. Swords. Guns. Orgies. Bar Fights. Pirate Shenanigans. Old Timey Sexism. 

AO3 Link

This is the result of my love for Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, it's a classic.

Maneater

Commander Mills x Lawyer Reader

Word Count: 37.5k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Violence. Blood. Gore. Graphic Dinosaur Violence. Enemies to Lovers. Idiots in Love. Sexism in Survival Situations. Hot Toxic Masculinity. Character Crossovers. The Commander Mills Jurassic Park AU that had to happen.

AO3 Link

Mixing two of my favorites together for a fun AU - Commander Mills and Jurassic Park! Yes, it's a classic.

Ghost Town

Gunfighter Flip Zimmerman x Reader

Word Count: 14k

AO3 Link

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Alcohol. Graphic Violence. Gun Violence. Lots of Violence. Horror Themes. Possession Themes. Supernatural Themes. Shameless References to The Shining. This is a Darker take on Flip than I usually write, but it’s Halloween!

Inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins.

Everything A Big Bad Wolf Could Want

Word Count: 5.2k

Warnings: NSFW. Smut. Fluff. Language. Chasing kink. Primal Play. If there’s such a thing as Lumberjack kink, it’s in here. Extreme bastardization of fairy tale dialogue.

AO3 Link

If I were Little Red Riding Hood...

Cinderella

Kylo Ren x Reader

HCs Only

Word Count: 1k

Warnings: NSFW. Language. Light Smut. Fluff. Happy Murder Thoughts. Humor.

Cinderella Themes.

[sokovianfortune]

i’ve never had a more horrifying realization of being surrounded by heterosexuals as the one time in my college screenwriting class when i brought in a script treatment based off my toxic yuri slasher and final girl ocs and instead of actually asking questions about it, the entire class looked at me like i had three heads. one guy asked me “but how are they in love? how is that healthy?” to which i could only respond “… it’s not?” and then to add insult to injury the guy who went after me presented a ~twisted take on beauty and the beast~ where the beast was an incel trying to reinact the fairy tale by holding a girl captive in his basement and everyone went wild for it

[jisreal64]

You know, since there were commercials for both the live-action remakes of Lilo and Stitch and HTTYD during the Super Bowl last night (go birds), it got me thinking on how so many animators, cartoonists, artists, and people within the animation community bitch and whine about how much they hate that Disney keeps making remakes. I’m not here to give my opinion on any of them, BUT one of the complaints I often hear from people is that these movies are “excuses from Disney to not make original stories”, which is arguably the dumbest excuse out of all of them. First of all, these movies aren’t being made by the main animation studio, they’re being made by the live-action film division, second of all, MOST OF DISNEY’S MOVIES AREN’T EVEN ORIGINAL STORIES TO BEING WITH!!! Literally every movie made by the main animation studio prior to the movie Dinosaur was an adaptation, spin-off, or sequel of some kind; in fact, Disney has only ever made 11 original movies, with those movies being Dinosaur, Lilo and Stitch, The Emperor’s New Grove, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Bolt, Wreck-It-Ralph, Zootopia, Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto, and Strange World. Because Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Song of the South, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Chicken Little, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Frozen are all based on fairy tales; Bambi, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, The Fox and The Hound, The Many Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh, The Rescuers, The Black Cauldron, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, and Meet the Robinsons are all based on books; Dumbo and The Aristocats are both based on unpublished books; Fantasia is based on various orchestral pieces (as well as incorporating elements from Greek mythology, Slavic mythology, Christian mythology, and the fairy tale The Sorcerer’s Apprentice); The Sword in the Stone is based on Arthurian mythology; Hercules and Atlantis The Lost Empire are both based on Greek mythology; Moana is based on Polynesian mythology and Hawaiian mythology; Robin Hood is based on British folklore; Mulan is based on an epic poem; Big Hero 6 is based on a comic book series; The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, The Lion King, and Treasure Planet are all revisionist adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Hamelt, and Treasure Island respectively; all but two of the War Time era movies (those two being Song of the South and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) all feature Mickey Mouse characters, and thus are spin-offs of the wider Mickey Mouse franchise; Pocahontas is loosely based on true events; The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, Winnie-The-Pooh 2011, Wreck-It-Ralph 2 Ralph Breaks the Internet, Frozen 2, and Moana 2 are all sequels; and the movie Wish is a prequel to their 1940 Pinocchio movie. Hell, even with the original films I listed, they also borrowed heavily from other work, Dinosaur is often compared to the biblical story of Moses, and both The Emperor’s New Groove and Home on the Range were both originally going to be revisionist adaptations of The Prince and the Pauper and The Pied Piper respectively. So whether you like the remakes or not, please just keep these two things in mind before you complain about them:

A. They aren’t being made by the original animation studio

And B. Most of those stories weren’t even original to begin with.

[ladydeath-vanserra]

tbh I think SJM thought she was spinning fairytales on their head by making Feyre into a "beauty and the beast" but makes the core Belle traits of being a scholar and an avid reader who WANTS adventure into an illiterate who wanted a quiet life and then did the same thing by trying to also make Feyre into a Cinderella-esque type character with Nesta and Elain written as the 'evil step sisters' and their mother was obviously a Lady Tremaine stereotype but actually!! she dies! and the father doesn't! so clever

but Feyre does not embody the traits of these core fairy tale characters. SJM also completely missed the mark of what fairytales ARE. Fairytales are meant to teach basic empathy and morals. Cinderellas moral of the story is to have hope and kindness even in the most bleak of places. Beauty and the Beast is ALSO about valuing kindness and character over superficial looks (which SJM missed based on her interview where she complained about the lack of romance with the "handsome prince" in Beauty and the Beast)

Quite frankly, if I dare be controversial, Elain fits the criteria of who Cinderella is at her core moreso than Feyre does. And Nesta actually has the traits of being an avid reader who wants adventure and experiences like Belle does

she MISSED the point of these characters and decided to go haha! I'm going to twist up these fairytales and turn them on their head and then fucked up the core values of those damn fairytales considering people are actually thinking Tamlin was supposed to be "Gaston all along" nevermind that he,, literally turns into a Beast BUT ANYWAYS

[wutheringmights]

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid is a book that takes its sweet time getting to the dang point. I usually don't mind if a book lingers in the set-up. Honestly, a lot of books move too quickly. But it feels as though the first 250 pages meanders through world building and character exposition, only to deliver about 50 pages of plot.

Reading that back to myself, that feels like an unfair assessment on my part. This by no means is a bad book. It's very good actually. I really like how it explores abuse through the lens of fairy tale logic. I like the prose, and that last 50 pages really was a punch to the gut. Yet, something just feels off. There's a mystery about beast attacks that never feels all that important until the end, there's a romance that feels like a rehearsal of other romances, and a lot of world building that never quite feels relevant (apparently this is the second book of a larger Slavic-based fantasy universe by the same author; the story stands on its own, and the world building is just there to give original readers an idea of how everything fits into place).

The competition between the suitors feels like it should be the main plot. But, again, everything meanders at this slow pace until it happens in the last 100-ish pages. That's not to say that nothing before it is important. It just feels like the plot has no focus until the moment the competition is announced.

I think I'm the problem here. I have a very specific gripe against modern retellings of fairytales. A lot of them are bogged down by their prose. The author wants to mimic a whimsical atmosphere or aesthetic, so they will spend so much time describing specific images or things that you find in fairytales. Or they use a cadence or narrator voice they are obviously not used to. Either way, you can just feel how much the author is trying, and then the whole story feels exhausting to read.

For the prose, Reid walks the line. There are more moments than not when Reid's prose was genuinely beautiful, creepy, or unique. Then there were times where I could feel Reid twist herself up trying to replicate that fairytale-esque voice. But then, the fairytale framing is a coping mechanism for the main character. That exhausting effort works in favor of the story. I can't be mad about it.

Before I end, I really need to emphasize that I loved how the story handles abuse. It's dark and uncomfortable, but it was effective. That last 50 pages where everything came together was an exquisite thesis statement on monstrosity and, if I had not rented this book from the library, I would have highlighted about 5 different lines.

--

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

[jmadorran]

So this month’s Twisted Fairy Tale illustration theme is…..

Beauty and the Beast + The Addams Family + The Empress (Tarot Card) = Twisted Beauty and the Beast

…and this is the illustration created based off this theme 😁. This will join my Inprnt.com print line up at the end of this month. 

November Patreon Moon Tier - Will receive a coloring page png of the line work of this piece at the end of this month.

November Patreon Sun and Nebula Tier - Will receive a double sided mini art print (the other side will be the line art in tarot card format) of this illustration in the mail along with this month’s sticker reward (design has not been chosen yet). And will also be receiving a coloring page png of the line work of this piece at the end of this month too.

To lend your support and/or see behind the scene process work and/or get this month’s Patreon rewards join my Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/jmadorran

[2010s-nostalgia]

frozen hate discussion??? 👀👀 take my hand

no but really. even just aside from how they took a pretty good fairy tale and did... um, nothing with it? nothing interesting at least, frozen is still just a mediocre movie with bad designs and music that's really just okay.

what really bothers me more than anything else is that frozen just comes off as cynical. it's making fun of older movies that are better than it.

every single time someone tries to make a fairy tale edgy/adult or feels the need to point out every unrealistic aspect about it an angel dies. "you can't marry a man you just met" represents a fundamental misunderstanding of both the genre and the disney movies based on it. it's this annoying tongue-in-cheek tone and utter pessimism that quite literally sucks all the magic out of the movie, and then they have the balls to make fun of better films. it's just cynical and grating and honestly coming from disney itself just annoys me. oh you think snow white and cinderella are unrealistic? you think love at first sight is stupid? should we throw a party? should we invite buzzfeed.

whereas movies like shrek, which also try to deconstruct the fairy tale/disney genre, actually work because instead of someone busting out an "erm, actually!" line every five minutes or pulling some cheap twist, they simply tell a story that reverses the tropes. and there's no moment in shrek where the movie turns to the audience and goes "you dumb dumb fuck ass idiots came here to see a fairy tale? well fuck you! twist villain attack!"

I don't much care for tangled either but at least you can tell it was made in earnest. also literally everything frozen was applauded for has been done better before. the sisters thing? lilo and nani have an actual bond. playboy villain? gaston. taking time to fall in love? beauty and the beast? tarzan? hercules? literally like most disney movies? anna and kristoff were together for like a week before saying I love you. get real.

okay thanks mod love your blog <3

I agree with everything. Honestly, making fun of past movies would be okay if it succeeded at all. Enchanted exists, it made the same points, and it worked soooo well. In Frozen, Anna is told she can't marry a man she just met, then gets with Kristoff within like two days. Love's not supposed to be a major part of the story? A whole song is sung by the love interests' family about how they should get together (they get together later). So much of the movie is focused on a romance with so little chemistry instead of being about the sister relationship the film claims to be about!

I should say I don't hate Frozen. It's fine, but I don't want fine, ya know? I want great!!! (Also didn't love Tangled either. Idk what management change happened in the animation department in the mid 2000s, but they really lost the groove around that time. Maybe Bob did a shake up)

[princesssarisa]

What is your best advice for any writer who wishes to write a story inspired by Beauty and the Beast but wants to make sure it feels creative and fresh and new?

Hmm... there are a lot of possible answers to this question.

For starters, I'd suggest going back to the original literary versions of the tale. If the length of Madame de Villeneuve's original novel is too daunting, just stick with the shorter versions: Madame de Beaumont's, Andrew Lang's, and/or Arthur Quiller-Couch's. You might also rewatch a few of the film adaptations (Disney's, Cocteau's, and at least two or three others – the Czech Panna a Netvor is a particularly acclaimed lesser-known version).

Then decide which themes stand out the most for you and emphasize those themes in your version.

Do you want to go back to the story's original meaning, an allegory for arranged marriage, but put a new spin on that theme that reflects your views on the subject? Or do you want to downplay that theme, as most modern adaptations do? Do you view the story as chiefly about gender relations, with the Beast's frightening looks and Beauty's initial fear of him representing female fear of patriarchal power and male sexuality, which she loses as he treats her with constant respect and chivalry? Or about different types of love, with Beauty learning to choose "companionate love" (based in friendship, mutual respect, and shared interests and values) over shallow, appearance-based infatuation? Or do you prefer the Beast to represent a social outcast: someone wrongly feared, hated, and forced to hide from the world, whose true value and worthiness of love Beauty discovers?

And what matters most to you about the ending? The Beast's transformation into a human, or Beauty's willingness to love him in his Beast form?

I still remember that post I once read about Beauty and the Beast-type stories, which discussed whether the central appeal of those stories is identifying with Beauty and the fantasy of "taming the Beast" (winning the love of something frightening and making it safe and gentle to you), or identifying with the Beast and the fantasy being loved despite being "ugly," "frightening," and "different"? Of course neither of those perspectives is the single reason for the story's appeal: why cant it be both?

There are more questions you'll want to ask yourself too. Who is the real protagonist in your version, Beauty or the Beast? Whose growth takes center stage: Beauty's as she learns to love the Beast, the Beast's as he earns her love, or both equally? Will your version include a villain, or do you see no need for one? Do you want to keep the air of mystery from the original tale? (e.g. "Who is the Beast, how did he come to be, and what does he want from Beauty?") If so, that will probably require changes to the Beast's backstory, because the familiar tale is so well-known. Or are you content to cut the mystery aspect and let the audience know exactly who and what the Beast is from the start? For that matter, how did the Beast come to be cursed? Would you want to go back to Villaneuve's original version and have him cursed by a wicked fairy whom he refused to marry? (That has interesting potential in today's post-#MeToo era.) Or follow the post-Disney tradition of making it a punishment for some wrongdoing? Or some other, completely original means of enchantment?

You might also want to draw on unique traditions from other cultures' variations on the tale. For example, in Eastern European versions like Panna a Netvor or Russia's The Scarlet Flower, the Beast hides from Beauty, so through most of her arc of learning to love him, she never sees him, but only hears his voice, and doesn't know he's a Beast. Only just before she goes back to visit her family does she finally see him, so the struggle of whether or not she can love a Beast becomes a late plot twist rather than a problem presented from the start. That could be an interesting choice to adapt.

And then there are the story's two most controversial aspects: the issue of "Stockholm Syndrome" and the ending. How are you going to deal with the fact that Beauty is the Beast's prisoner through most of their romance arc? A few modern retellings have avoided making the Beast the one who threatens Beauty's father or who accepts her as a prisoner in his place, but instead portrayed both Beauty and the Beast as prisoners of whatever higher power cursed the Beast in the first place. You could find an original way to do that too. Or, if you think that would rob the Beast of the moral grayness that makes him interesting in traditional versions, find some other solution to fend off accusations of "Stockholm Syndrome." Then there's the claim some people make that the ending goes against the story's message when the Beast changes into a handsome prince. Would you want him to stay a Beast in your version, possibly with Beauty becoming (or discovering that she already is) a non-human creature too? Or would you make it clear that the Beast's hideous form symbolizes some emotional unhealthiness within him (e.g. his "animalistic" selfishness and rage in the Disney version, or his trauma and depression in Megan Kearney's webcomic) and that his becoming human again represents his healing?

I hope I haven't gone on and on too much. There are many more things I could say, but this is enough for now.

Just find which aspects of the traditional story speak to you the most, and which aspects you don't care for as much and might want to change, and then do whatever you like with them.

[just-1other-nerd]

About "The Language of Thorns":

Our queen Leigh subverts common fairy tale tropes in her own ones, and I love this modern twist, I also recognised which fairy tales hers are based on. So I'll tell you my conclusions.

Btw I'll refer to fairy tales as Märchen from now on because I'm German and it's just the better word ("fairy tale" just doesn't feel like it includes all the tropes, creatures and characters, it feels like the stories only revolve around fairies and I think that doesn't do the genre justice).

Spoilers for the entire Grishaverse ahead.

Ayama and the Thorn Wood: This is basically a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling. The major subversion is that she is never really regarded as a beauty, and in the end, she also chooses to become a monster instead of him becoming human because that doesn't need to be fixed. Also every story she tells him is subverting tropes: the 1st one is about how unlikely a true happy ending is, the 2nd one is about how the things that seem like a threat can actually be a blessing and about how evil often disguises itself, the 3rd one is about how you shouldn't trust a stranger even though what he offers seems better than what you currently have and that you shouldn't be safed by a prince. The first of her stories is confirmed to be inspired by Tarrare's "Polyphagy".

The Too-Clever Fox: This is inspired by all of those fables where a fox is the main character. In those, he is normally a natural trickster and very smart. Oftentimes, it's about foxes utilising their wit to get what they want or escape a trap by using others and their flaws, and they normally succeed. The main subversion is that the too-clever fox isn't clever enough, he is trapped and was tricked, he didn't see that the girl was the hunter all along, he is stripped of his wit and the only way he survives is by the help of his friend Lula. Leigh wanted to show that hunters come in all shapes, they aren't always loud or muscular or male.

The Witch of Duva: This is (confirmed by author's note) based on "Hänsel und Gretel" by the Gebrüder Grimm (brothers Grimm). Btw I immediately knew that Magda was going to appear in this tale because of the opening and because I read "The Lives of Saints" just a few weeks prior. The subversion is obviously that neither the witch is the villain nor is the stepmother. Instead, they even help our main character. The real evil is closer than she ever thought. In the author's note, Leigh even confirmed that she did this because it always didn't sit right with her when Hänsel and Gretel returned home because the father who seemingly had no problem with abandoning them wouldn't protect them in the future.

Little Knife: This is inspired by all those tales where the guy (be it a prince or a commoner with a golden heart) has got to go through 3 trials to win the girl (be it a princess, a nobel woman or a very pretty commoner), the Gebrüder Grimm alone wrote many of those for example "Das tapfere Schneiderlein" (The bold Tailor). Leigh thought that trials are a weird way to find a fiancé. The subversion is that the poor guy with the supposed gold heart is just another man who doesn't love Yeva for herself, doesn't care what she wants and doesn't even deserve her because the river did all the work for him. This results in the river who won all the trials asking Yeva to leave those who are unworthy of her and only see her beauty, to which she agrees. Also they are sapphics and nobody can tell me otherwise.

The Soldier Prince: This is 100% based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's "Nussknacker und Mäusekönig" (Nutcracker and Mouse King), and yes, I googled he is the original author Tschaikowsky only adapted and changed the story. The subversion is that he doesn't want a romance, that's just what everyone expects of him. He wants to live a life of his own, and the Mouse King isn't the antagonist but rather helps the soldier accomplish what he already did. I loved the existencial crisis angel of this Märchen and Leigh said in her author's note that this was added because of her childhood trauma caused by "Velveteen Rabbit" (I don't know what that's about but I still can relate because like the amount of childhood trauma "Pinocchio" - especially the whole island plotline - caused in my case is so huge that I'm actually crying right now).

When Water Sang Fire: The author's note confirmed that it's based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" and it is basically an origin story for the sea witch. The protagonist Ulla undergoes a corruption arc (set in motion by her ambition and loyalty towards Signy), instead of how Märchen usually deal with outcast protagonists. Normally, those proof themselves worthy of love, friendship and glory by doing something that was regarded as impossible (once again the trials trope). Leigh wanted to show that princes can be cruel and dayum that betrayal hurt (I audibly gasped in public like 4 times even though I did see it coming). Do you think her brother spread the rumours that led to her becoming Sankta Ursula?

Thanks for reading.

[adarkrainbow]

Some references of Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales

Still in preparation for the “spooky season”, I wanted to make a brief post about the “Grimm fairy tales” comic book serie(s) by Zenescope. It is a comic book franchise that keeps popping back up when you search or go around looking for fairytale-based fantasy. And... I expressed my opinion before, but I’ll still repeat it here.

The “Grimm Fairy Tales” comic started out as an actual decent and interesting piece. It was a horror anthology about twist-retelling of fairy tales that had parallels with various real-life situations and problems. Imagine Once Upon a Time season 1 - but with more nudity and more gore. If you passed by the vulgar appeal of “boobs and gore”, typical of Zenescope’s product, the series was actually quite interesting and I personally was into it. But then, it became a full fantasy story - and it was the blended, most generic and boring fantasy story I ever saw, which to add offense to the crime, didn’t even reuse fairytale logic or tropes and just did random generic “fantasy things”! And then, as the series went on, it became some sort of generic X-Men/super-hero school/Harry Potter rip-off dealing with the teenage descendants of fantasy heroes going into some sort of instituton... Blerg. 

I gave up. After the failure of the main series, there is a series of spin-offs and side-series which vary wildly in quality - some being very entertaining and interesting despite the typical Zenescope flaws (I did fall in love with the Wonderland spin-off... at least at first), others being just... not good ; and some starting out as great and devolving into some sort of stuff you can’t really describe, a generic shapeless mess. 

Overall I do not advice this franchise. Half of it is bad, every great idea ends up becoming boring, and it clearly shows a lack of understanding and interest in the original material it takes inspiration from - it just twists it for shock value, and mostly uses Disney as a reference. There are good things - but you need to be ready to dig into the filth and to be very concentrated to find them. I mostly would advise people to stick to the very first issues of the very first series 

Anyway - while I re-read the series from the beginning, and before I completely gave up, I still took note of all the fairytales the comic used, reused or made references to. I also threw in some additional cultural references (because the franchise is all about parodying and twisting existing stuff) - so I’ll still throw the list, in case some people are interested.

I) The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm

Little Red Riding Hood ; Cinderella ; Hansel and Gretel ; Rumplestilskin ; Sleeping Beauty ; The Robber Bridegromm ; The Frog King ; The Pied Piper of Hamelin (not a fairytale but still) ; The Juniper Tree ; Rapunzel ; Snow White ; Snow White and Rose Red ; The Devil’s Brother ; Godfather Death ; The Boy who did not know what fear was ; The Glass Coffin (which is NOT Snow-White, but a different story)  ; The Three Snake Leaves ; The Seven Ravens ; The Lord’s Animals and the Devil’s ; The Girl Without Hands ; The Elves and the Shoemaker.

II) Other fairytales

French fairytales: Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots, The Yellow Dwarf (it is vaguely retold in the issue “The Fairy and the Dwarf”), Diamonds and Toads

English fairytales: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Man ; Jack the Giant Killer

Fairytales of Northern Europe: The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, the Seal’s Skin, The Princess and the Pea

Fairytales from the East: Vasilissa the Beautiful (Russian), The Golden Stag (Romanian) ; The Grateful Beasts (Hungarian) ; The Death of Koschei the Deathless (Russian)

The One Thousand and One Nights: Sinbad the sailor ; Aladdin

III) Fables

The Boy who Cried Wolf ; The Lion and the Mouse ; The Scorpion and the Frog ; The Goose and the Golden Egg.

IV) Nursery rhymes

Little Miss Muffet ; Three Blind Mice ; Jack and Jill ; The Old Woman in a Shoe ; Peter Pumpkin Eater ; Little Boy Blue ; Mary Mary Quite Contrary ; Humpty Dumpty ; Little Bo Peep ; Jack be Nimble ; Rock-a-bye Baby ; The Riddle Song (actually a folk-song, but I’ll place it here)

V) Other pieces of fantasy fiction

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ; Rip van Winkle ; Pinocchio ; The Portrait of Dorian Grey ; The Last Unicorn ; The Monkey’s Paw ; The Nutcracker ; Dracula ; Twilight ; Tolkienesque’s fantasy (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings) ; Alice in Wonderland + Alice through the looking-glass ; The Wizard of Oz (and the Oz book series) ; Peter Pan ; the works of H.P. Lovecraft ; The Divine Comedy of Dante (more precisely the Inferno part) ; The Jungle Book ; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ; The Chronicles of Narnia ; Ovid’s Metamorphosis ; The Invisible Man ; Paradise Lost ; Stephen King’s The Stand ; Bradbury’s Something Wicked this Way Comes ; Beowulf ; The Sword in the Stone (T.H. White’s novel)

VI) Other myths and legends

The legend of king Midas ; the figure of Mother Earth and the Greek goddess Gaia ; the Arthurian myth ; the legends of Robin Hood ; the figure of Jack Frost ; the figure of the Tooth Fairy ; the legend of Jack O’Lantern ; the myth of the Wild Hunt ; the figure of the leprechaun and of saint Patrick ; the legend of Bloody Bones

VII) A whole bunch of Christmas references

A Christmas Carol ; It’s a Wonderful Life ; Santa Claus is Coming to town ; the Krampus legend ; Do you hear what I hear? ; Frosty the Snowman ; I’ll be home for Christmas ; Twelve days of Christmas ; Have yourself a merry little Christmas ; White Christmas ; the Elf on the Shelf ; T’was the night before Christmas ; the legends of the Nisse, the Yulecat, and Gryla.

VIII) The mythical sword series

Excalibur (from the tales of King Arthur) ; Ame-no-murakumo-no-Tsurugi/Kusanagi no Tsurugi (from Japanese mythology) ; Mistilteinn (from Norse sagas) ; Chrysaor (the sword of Artegall in The Faerie Queene)

IX) Urban legends

“Men can lick too” ; the kidney thieves ; Bloody Mary ; the killer in the backseat ; the clown statue ; Hanako-san ; The Island of Dolls (not a urban legend, an actual place surrounded by its ghost legends - The Island of Dead Dolls in Mexico)

X) Some movies

Legend ; Labyrinth ; Twilight (though based on a series of novels) ; Hitchock’s Rope ; Leprechaun (the horror movie) ; The Howling

XI) Some pieces of non-fantasy fiction

The Grapes of Wrath ; The Fault in Our Stars ; Pollyanna ; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ; Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass ; Kenneth Patchen’s Come my child ; Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations ; No Country for Old Men

XII) Ghost stories of New Orleans:

The ghosts of Le Petit Theatre ; the Lalaurie Mansion ; the ghost stories of the Blacksmith Shop Bar.

XIII) Other general influences

The Bible ; the comic book “Fables” ; the “Tales from the Crypt” series ; the Twilight Zone 

[laserdog10]

one thing that annoys me is when bb shippers try to claim that the yellow beauty and black the beast in blake and yangs theme songs proves bb was planned from the start .

This is rwby they have shown a willingness to pull twists on the fairy tales have multiple characters allude to the same fairy tale etc. look at vine and elm they were never in a romantic relationship but the fairy tale they reference is an allegory for marriage.

Not to mention theme songs not being canon, goldilocks herself was stated in some versions to be beautiful etc

Plus even if it was planned from the start it wasnt built up from the start they gave blacksun 5 volumes of buildup teasing mutual attraction while bb didnt get anything that actually teased the ship. bb didnt get any moments that compared to that.

At that point they should have just changed the plan and went with blacksun. and yes even if it meant there wouldnt be a same sex ship including two members of team rwby

And there is no doubt that if sun was a girl and yang a man but everything else remained the same they would say the same thing. they will go but its an f/f ship there are only a few of those etc

then claim that if we criticize bb and say it shouldnt have happened that the buildup was nonexistent etc we wouldnt say that if yang was a man when they are the ones who make it about the genders involved when they try to act like bb being a f/f ship exempts it from criticism as if the only reason you could say something bad about it in favor of a hetship could be homophobia . or acting like being a f/f ship means it should have happened just based on the genders involved

which makes the accusation come off as projection

they didnt like blacksun because it was a het ship etc

good writing is more important then the rep.

GOOD. WRITING. IS MORE. IMPORTANT. THAN. REP.

People need to ingrain this into their heads, good writing of a ship matters more important the fact it's LGBT, it's how we got wonderful relationships like Harley and Ivy and Lumity.

Those two ships are what RT WISHED BB was.