#an uncommon romance

[noxthesleepymoodyoverthinker]

Thinking of the Disney Cinderella Timeline

Here's how I think the Cinderella Disney animated movies are supposed to be viewed -- or basically, how it might have happened in linear time in the Disney Cinderella universe:

First, there's "Cinderella", of course. The one where she meets the Fairy Godmother for the first time and gets a lovely gown and glass slippers to go to a ball.

Then it's Cinderella 2's story "Aim to Please". And it makes sense, as it's clearly stated that the Prince and Cinderella have just returned to the palace after their marriage -- the marriage that happened at the end of the first movie -- before the Prince is whisked off by his father to attend to "Important Matters Of State". So of course that's what happened next.

After that, I'm guessing that "Tall Tail" happened sometime the same year Cinderella started taking over Princess Duties.

Because she says, "We sure have a lot of parties around here," indicating that the Banquet she dealt with in "Aim to Please" was likely not too far in the past. Or else, she's had a lot of parties to plan since then.

Now the next story is what is important. I think "Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time" happened next, not "An Uncommon Romance".

And then, after what happened in "A Twist in Time", with Anastasia not giving in to Lady Tremaine's scheme in the end, and the Prince and Cinderella marrying again, and them continuing to live their lives again...

After all that is likely when "An Uncommon Romance" happened.

So the actual order is: Cinderella, Aim to Please, Tall Tail, A Twist in Time, and An Uncommon Romance.

Let me justify this idea:

First of all, in Cinderella 2, the mice were bringing up random stories they remembered. Except for the first story, where it's clearly stated that it happened right after the married couple returned and Cinderella was officially a princess, the other 2 stories could have happened at any time at all. (We don't know when the mice are writing these stories, after all. How many years it's been, or how much time has passed. We only know that they're writing stuff that's already happened.)

Secondly, look at the state of Cinderella's old house in "A Twist in Time". It's awful and the stepsisters are basically given the tasks of cleaning the large house.

And this actually fits with the first movie, which mentions at the beginning that the chateau was falling into disrepair as Lady Tremaine squandered all their riches on Anastasia and Drizella.

Basically, Cinderella being a servant was all that was keeping the house together. And after she left with the Prince, the state of the house obviously got worse.

But look at how the house looks in "An Uncommon Romance".

I didn't notice this the first time I watched Cinderella 2. But I certainly noticed after watching Cinderella 3.

But, the house falling into a further bad state makes sense since the house was already not maintained by anyone other than Cinderella at the very beginning of her story.

So here's my theory:

After Cinderella was taken to the palace by the Grand Duke, she likely put her family right out of her mind. And that makes sense. She's not vindictive at all. But after being treated as she was, keeping them far away from her and never turning in their direction again makes sense. If nothing else, she lays no claim to her house even though it was rightfully hers and she has been maintaining it for years. She just leaves them be and never interacts with them again.

But after the events of "A Twist in Time", while Lady Tremaine is a world-class b**** and horror, Cinderella, with her kind heart, and perfectly aware of how awful Lady Tremaine can be, likey decided that paying for the house's upkeep and inviting her stepsisters to balls might be necessary.

For one, she likely feels sorry for Anastasia, while also understanding how much courage it must have taken her to go against her mother. She also likely figured that Drizella was in the same position as Anastasia, even if she didn't show it or realize it. Finally, after Anastasia defied her mother in such a way, keeping an eye on them in general might have been necessary to ensure that she didn't mistreat Anastasia.

So, as generous as she is, Cinderella likely put aside her step-family's awful treatment of her to help her step-sisters (and to also likely keep an eye on her step-mother too).

This is further supported by the fact that, in "An Uncommon Romance", Anastasia has a music box with a couple that looks like the Prince and Cinderella. I doubt Lady Tremaine, as vindictive, malicious, and jealous as she is, would have let her have that -- unless she was now living under Cinderella's power.

Lady Tremaine even mentions them going to Cinderella's Ball. Yet another thing I doubt she would have let her daughters go to -- unless snubbing Cinderella that way would be pointedly "not good" for her.

Yet another point was how, when Lady Tremaine finds Anastasia and the Baker together, while berating her and also manipulating her by saying that she only has her best interests at heart, she says nothing more when Anastasia declares that she is going to Cinderella's ball together with the Baker. No declarations of disowning her. No further manipulations or arguments or forbiddances. Like mentioning Cinderella's name and her ball left her with no option but to stalk away while just ordering Drizella to come with her. Like the only thing she could do now was to assert control over the one remaining daughter she still could control.

Very different from the woman in "A Twist in Time" who spelled the Prince's memories when he recognized that Anastasia was not the girl he had danced with at the ball.

Very different from the woman who sent spells right and left when Anastasia refused to marry the Prince in the end.

Rather, she held back probably because she knew she would land in hot water if she tried anything. Something was likely holding her in check: The fact that she was basically under probation and lucky to roam free now after attempting treason and murder in Cinderella 3.

Anastasia's reaction is also telling: She is cowed and sad as her mother and Drizella berate her. But the moment her mother says, in a seemingly kind way, that she only has her best interests at heart, it's like a switch flips in Anastasia. And that's when she declares she's wrong and that she IS going to go with the Baker whether she likes it or not.

It wouldn't be surprising if Anastasia heard her having "her best interests at heart" and remembered how her mother had tried to turn the wand on her when she had not married the Prince and instead said that she wanted someone to love her for herself.

And that, in fact, it was Cinderella who had stood up for her to protect her, and the Prince who had deflected the spell to protect Cinderella.

And finally, at the end of "A Twist in Time", the credits scene almost immediately shows the Baker meeting Anastasia. Which we know happens in "An Uncommon Romance". So "An Uncommon Romance" likely happens after the events of "A Twist in Time".

[ On another note, it really is more poignant when Anastasia tells Cinderella at the end of An Uncommon Romance, "Oh, thank you, thank you! I never dreamed I could be this happy!" and hugs her half-sobbing. Because, in A Twist in Time, she tells Cinderella, "I want what you had," and then, at the end, desperately tells her mother, "I want someone who loves me for me." And Anastasia gets that here. :) ]

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Some books by Asian authors to read this may!

Edit: thank you @linkedsoul for letting me know that I misused the term AAPI in the original post. I’m very sorry about that, and have changed the title to accurately reflect what this list is.

[aro-culture-is]

aro culture is getting so fucking tired of people using the fact that there's a queer romance in something as a reason you should watch it. like haven't allos had enough of romance? queer or otherwise? I'm not saying queer representation is bad, of course, I'm just fed up with asking what a book is about and in response all I get is "oh it has queer people in it" cool! what is it about? having queer representation is not the be all end all of media can we please have ONE thing without romance in it. please.

.

[utilitycaster]

A few recent books I've read and disliked led me to this conclusion but it feels like there's been this switch over time with queer stories. It used to be that queer relationships (or queerness in general) had to be Show Don't Tell because, well, you could not make them textual! So you get, for example, shows like Legend of Korra, or Xena: Warrior Princess, where you have women who are clearly devoted to each other to a degree that goes beyond mere friendship, and a ton of effort and care is put into that depiction because they can't actually be shown in an explicitly stated relationship. And as a result, these relationships, while they never receive confirmation in the show, are rich and complex.

Now not only is it much easier to make explicitly queer stories outside of niche areas; it's even popular (and, cynically, a marketing tactic). The problem is I've run into a bunch of stories that are marketed very clearly as A Queer Story that forget to like...be a story, or show me why these characters should be in a relationship. It's All Tell No Show: I'm told that the characters are gay and are in a relationship, but no work is done to actually explain why I should care about this beyond "well they are gay and in a gay relationship."

I'm not going to rehash what I discussed here, but Baru Cormorant is an example of those books where I'm given no real reason to care. The protagonist is a lesbian but the prose reads like a phone book. On the other hand, while Starless has a queer disabled woman as a one of the two protagonists, it also provides her with traits other than "queer, disabled, woman, important" and grants her a rich interiority (even though the story is told entirely from the first person point of view of the other protagonist.)

And the thing about the good examples in that link (Starless, Teixcalaan): they show and tell. It's both explicit that these are queer stories with a canon romantic relationship, but the little moments that make up the tapestry of a relationship are given the time that moments in a subtextual - or frankly, even a queerbaiting work are. That's the real tragedy; for queerbaiting to work, you have to actually make the relationship compelling enough for people follow it until you pull the rug out from under them; whereas you can slap a cold fish kiss on a cold fish queer relationship and technically you are Better because it was Explicit Representation even though everything about it was poorly constructed. I would rather have an lazy and shoddy explicit relationship than queerbait just on principle; but honestly I'd rather have a good story that does neither.

One of my more cynical interpretations of this is that writers are either intentionally or inadvertently taking advantage of the legacy of the Show Don't Tell era of queer coding to place the burden of those small moments on the audience. They know that people looking for queer relationships in fiction are used to having to dig for moments and subtext; but instead of providing that subtext, they set up the clunky text and assume the subtext to support it will emerge from the fandom. Or perhaps, more generously, especially for younger queer writers, they are just so used to having to provide that work themselves that they forget they are doing the writing and are able to (and should) layer subtext and text together and weave something actually good.

Either way, it's this that's led to the "Lesbian necromancers in space, need I say more"* era of recommendations, taglines, and writing, in which explicit representation is, if not plentiful, at least available; but a worrying amount of it forgets to actually write realized characters or a relationship with chemistry or a plot that makes sense.

I should also note: there's obviously a TON of straight romances and books that range from mediocre to abominable. I am under no circumstances arguing that "gayboring" media shouldn't exist. But while I don't think queer stories should be held to a higher standard, I don't think I should be obligated to settle for a lower standard either simply because it's gay. I know it's fraught, in that we're at risk of publishers and producers taking away the message "people hate this because it's gay" rather than "people hate this because it's poorly developed," but like...at the very least, could we recommend things in terms of "this is a great book that has a wonderful queer romance" and "this show is gay but it is also deeply mediocre, and if it weren't gay I wouldn't recommend it at all; do what you will with this information."

*I should note: I happen to like The Locked Tomb (of Lesbian Necromancers in Space fame) a lot! I know it's not for everyone; I know it can feel very gimmicky at times. But no matter how you feel, that tagline is DIRE and does a miserable job of representing the books. Like, that premise could suck, actually (and plenty of people find it does) if you're not sold on the mere fact that it's got lesbians, necromancy, or space in it. Worth noting that neither Starless nor the Teixcalaan books were heavily marketed as Queer Romance Fantasy/SF even though both very much are, which does further make me think this is a case of people writing good books that are queer, vs. people writing books with the intention to be on some New Queer SF list or, god forbid, Booktok.

[kazu-naito]

its always funny to me how everyone in hs immediately react to mc's last name being walker as if thats not like top 30 most common last names

[vulpinesaint]

everybody talking about wanting new asexual memes i think we need to go muppets sex and violence on this. not in the sense that sex should be the new asexual meme but in the sense that we counteract the cutesy stuff with incredible awful imagery. so. lose the sex keep the violence. i think the new asexual meme should be ripping someone's throat out with your teeth. i think the next asexual meme should be tearing flesh apart with your fingers. and the new aro meme is Knives. are we all on board with this

[not-poignant]

Just saw the utg excerpt and seeing flitmouse still managing to be relaxed by the mounting position, despite the ammount of traumatising events surrounding it,

It rreaaaallly cements the horror behind efnisien completely rejecting it entirely and having SUCH a visceral reaction to it

Gary wasn't lying when it was something fundamentally broken :(

Yeahhhh, I feel like how omegas - even traumatised omegas - respond to things like alpha persuasion, or being mounted etc. highlights just how profoundly Efnisien was - to the staff at Hillview - just having this radically aberrant, strange response. While they believed he was an omega, nothing made sense, and of course they couldn't predict his outcomes. When you have omegas like Flitmouse and even Nate still calming at alpha persuasion, every reaction Efnisien has is awful (far more like an alpha).

But his trauma around mounting is severe. It highlights just how much it's an act for omegas, and therefore, how much it's an act done to emasculate and harm alphas after say, a duel. It's something that almost no alphas experience these days in "humane" society, so for Efnisien to be going through it on a weekly basis was truly shocking to Gary.

I am so glad, in a way, that Gary could kind of hear the safeword, pause, and then be like 'oh no we have to stop' even if he can't articulate it in clear sentences. He was very horrified to find out what he'd been about to do, and it's a good sign of just how much those peak alpha urges take over cognitive thought in those states. Gary goes out of his way to avoid hurting Efnisien like that, unless he's in that state of mind.

That being said, I will always love Efnisien still managing to snark, in his state of sheer terror, about how the panic button's still too far away lol

[suburbanbeatnik]

Catriona Fergusson never expected to wind up in a London workhouse, but then, she never expected to be disowned by her family or to become a married man’s mistress. Falling pregnant when her protector believes he cannot father children is simply the latest calamity to strike her. Turned out of her home and stripped of funds, she has few choices and fewer friends. Recently elected to the House of Commons, Noel Langston is on a mission to reform England’s cruel treatment of the poor, especially women and children. So when he stumbles upon the pregnant mistress of his bitterest political rival during a visit to a workhouse, he sees an opportunity to fulfill his goals…and to ruffle the feathers of her former protector. First comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. Can love come last? The frontispiece for the brand NEW book by Jackie Barbosa in the House of Uncommons series!

Amazon Kindle

Kobo

Google Play

Nook

Apple

[swordmaid]

usually his ratty cloak is covering it up but he wears the drow poison she gives him as necklace hehe

[muchmossymess]

its a shame that fandom spaces are just as romance centered as the media we consume bc when i think of what would be a possibly insane dynamic that has strong comedic potential but also is not widely discussed, i cant articulate it shortly outside of "crackship" which implies insincerity (like no, i do think this is cool its just nowhere else especially the canon/s) or "rarepair" which implies a romantic/sexual nature thats just not there

[pigswithwings]

hello is it possible to be objectum but be attracted to humans too?

yes i do this

[kyinpeachichu]

Straight genshin ship couples are SO underrated.

Change my mind.

Jean x Diluc

Sucrose x Albedo (this one)

Yanfei x Xiao

Scaramouche x Mona

Kokomi x Gorou

Nilou x Cyno

Xiao x Ganyu

Zhongli x Guizhong

Bennett x Fischl (not my favourite but it should make the list)

Childe x Arlecchino (I did not know this was real-)

[tomewardbound]

"Legacy. It mattered for burritos. For donut shops. For violins." — Ryka Aoki, "Light From Uncommon Stars"

[callixton]

i’m going through a pretty intense phase of romance repulsion and i don’t know how to tell my boyfriend without hurting his feelings :(

[thatoneluckybee]

Here to remind you that Neil memorized Matt’s phone number by chapter eight of The Foxhole Court. He met him in chapter five. Neil didn’t even own a phone until chapter 5 of The Raven King. They’re the besties ever. I. Goes insane

(^Ramblings of an insane creechur)

Oguhhhhh dying I love this for them they are the besties ever