#and ursula really tried but failed to mess the sisters relationship up

[thetimelordbatgirl]

One more design for now for the random Winx AU me and my friend, @dani-luminae , have going on, this design being for:

Hailing from the realm of Atlantica like her twin sister, Uma, known as the Witch of the Depths, despite her mother's best efforts to ruin the twin's relationship once Una turned out to be a fairy and Uma a witch like the rest of their family, still keeps in contact with her sister while studying at Cloud Tower...or at least the best she can, anyway, given the relationship between the tower and Alfea, both sister's seeing their respective schools as an escape from home and their mother, really. But despite Una's worry about Uma potentially getting corrupted over time by the school due to it's...reputation and rumors, Uma so far has yet to do so, keeping to herself, sometimes helping her sister and the Winx and slowly leading her own group, consisting of a mix of witches and specialists...

[princeasimdiya12]

Dreamworks Princess AU Part 2

(Please see this post in reference to the other AUs involved).

@tornrose24 I’ve honestly thought about that too. It would be pretty extreme since the two movies are so different. I especially love the idea of the MvA cast in utter confusion over the musical numbers with Susan trying to question how everything is coordinated. Bob being Bob wouldn’t be bothered by it at all.

We can have it set that Susan was a princess from the human kingdom of Modestelle while Poppy is the princess of the neighboring troll kingdom Troll Town. The two were best friends when they were little despite their size difference and had so much fun together doing all sorts of things. That is until Susan accidentally knocked her aside during their games which caused her to fear that she may have hurt her. So she’d try to avoid Poppy while Poppy just wants to see her friend again. And she gets her chance when the king and queen announce Susan’s arranged marriage and have invited the citizens of Troll Town to attend. But when she gets hit by the radioactive meteor and turns into a giant, Susan panics because of her height and is fearful that she’ll hurt someone. Especially when she sees Poppy trying to help her. She runs off to the mountains in self exile while Poppy and her band of friends run off to find her. It follows the same path with Susan embracing her new height after befriending the monsters who have inhabited the mountains while Poppy comes across Branch who has more experience living in the deeper parts of the forests but isn’t keen on Poppy’s excessive optimism or her merry crew. We can also include the Alien dictator trying to take over the kingdom in a way similar to the Duke of Weaselton and Creek would be suited for Hans who’s (SPOILERS) trying to take over the kingdom of Troll Town and is secretly working with the Alien dictator to get rid of the two princesses. (I also want to avoid including the Berken since I want to include them and their culture for Bridgette’s story).

And yeah, we’d really have to be careful with how we treat the characters from the Prince of Egypt. It’s too enriched in religious significance that it would be pretty offensive if the story turned too…Disney. Maybe we can have Tzipporah’s goal as to be the new chief after her father.  Jethro still passes away just like Tia’s dad so now Tzipporah is in charge and is doing everything she can to keep the caravan strong and healthy. But her sisters are worried that she’s working herself too hard and isn’t enjoying her life like their dad would have wanted. They’d also recommend that she try to look into finding a husband. But she doesn’t have time for that. As for Moses, he’d still be the playful and reckless prince as before but he ends up in the clutches of the court magicians. They’re tired of his pranks and how he’s causing trouble for Egypt. So they figure they could try to ‘get rid’ of Moses by tricking him into going into their private office to foresee his future. But with the use of flashing lights and homemade remedies, they end up erasing his memory, dress him as a peasant, and have him thrown out of the city. (The use of Friends on the Other Side would be similar to the magicians using the Egyptian gods as their friends and having them help with their schemes). And that’s all I have so far. I’m not sure how Ramses would fit since he goes from brother to antagonist later on and I don’t know how to include the ‘freeing of the slaves’ subplot. We may have to omit these parts if necessary.

I figure for that AU, the story would begin with a ceremony being held for Toothiana. She’d be given her wings after her years of selfless work with children and she’d be assigned to live with North, Bunnimund and Sandy. But Pitch crashes the party and casts his curse on Toothiana making it so that in 1 years time, the memories she’d create and inspire among the children of the world would become corrupted resulting in the guardians being hated by the children and ultimately forgotten.  So the new group decides to head out to a secret base that will protect Toothiana from Pitch’s curse while continuing their work. And eventually Jack would come on in as a new guardian to help them defeat Pitch and would end up winning the interest of Toothiana.

You’re very welcome for that Rose. ^_^ And sure, I can think of some more ideas for the other princesses.

So I mentioned Bridgette before and her story would be very similar to the Cinderella setting. She’d have loving parents who ended up dying and left her in the care of Chef the evil stepmother. She’s more occupied with her image as a celebrity chef so she has Bridgette take care of the cleaning and washing of the house. One day Chef gets an order to make an exquisite feast using several trolls for the king and his son so she’d have Bridgette come with her as her ‘assistant’. While Chef is preparing the feast, Bridgette ends up chasing after an escaped troll which is when she comes across Gristle Jr. The two have an adorkable moment together where Jr is interested in learning more about her while Bridgette is amazed that someone as important as him would be interested in a homely girl like herself. But the moment is cut short when Chef is kicked out after failing to provide any trolls for the feast thus separating the two. Chef takes her anger out on Bridgette by doubling her chores and forcing her to work nonstop; she’s also petty enough to make even more messes after Bridgette finishes something. But Bridgette distracts herself with her encounter with the prince and imagines what life would be like if she lived in the palace. I’m wondering if we should include Poppy and her posse as the mice friends for the sake of cameo. Maybe Poppy could fill in as the ‘fairy godmother’ who gives her a new look and the means to sneak out to attend the ball.

For the Croods in the Little Mermaid setting, I imagine Eep and her family as mermaids who are fairly content with living in their not so open range of ocean. It’s really old, is devoid of sealife, and is filled with large craters and rock structures. But Grug is the patriarch and isn’t bothered by this as long as his family is safe. Eep however wants to explore beyond the ocean and see the other parts that have more life. Guy would be a normal human boy who ventures around in his boat with his pet sloth. The two become amazed by each other’s presence since they’ve never seen anyone like each other. I also feel that there would be a sense of evolution involved in the sense that Eep would spend more time on the surface that her tail fin would slowly change into two legs giving her the ability to walk. Much to her father’s horror. From what I remember from the movie, there wasn’t really a human antagonist who could fill in for Ursula so the evolution thing could fit in for how she’d be able to walk on dry land. But if you have another idea for this, I’m more than willing to hear it.

Chel’s story would follow the same path for the Pocahontas AU. Although like with the Prince of Egypt/Princess and the Frog AU, we’d have to be extra careful with how this is done. Mainly because both of these stories are set in the colonial era and we don’t want to get into anything too controversial. So for Chel, she’s more along the lines of a…escort but she doesn’t want to follow that path anymore. She initially tries to leave her home until she secretly discovers Cortes’ fleet docking several miles away from El Dorado. She also ends up finding Tulio and Miguel during her path and she ends up learning about Cortes’ colonization plans and desire for gold. She initially considered leaving everything behind but thinks twice after the men question what she wants in life. I’m not exactly sure what would motivate her to try and save her home (maybe after seeing Cortes being a sadistic monster and mistreating his men). And there would also be a love triangle involved where she ends up falling for Tulio who is in a relationship with Miguel. (They were originally written to be gay in the first draft of the movie so it only makes sense if they ended up being gay for this AU).

And for Marina, her role in the Brave AU would be about her struggling to come to terms with her arranged marriage. In this AU, she has to choose between the righteous and moralistic friend Proteus or the ‘bad boy’ Prince of the Sea Sinbad with the choice of her hubby resulting in changes to the relationships between the kingdoms. Sinbad’s kingdom is more like an unofficial system involving various criminals, pirates and anti-government citizens. I figure Eris could be involved as the witch who ‘offers’ to help Marina with her choice in the matter. Except it ends up with Marina unintentionally leading Sinbad to turn Proteus into a Cthulu type creature. Eris hoped that Marina would choose Sinbad and the three kingdoms would be at war over the result. So now the three friends have to reach Eris’ domain to discover the secret to saving Proteus while Marina finds a path in which she can make her own destiny.

And that’s what I have so far. What do you think?

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

6.18 Where Bluebirds Fly

I’m having a difficult time writing an intro this week, because every time I think about the second scene my brain shorts out for a minute. I know a bunch of stuff happened other than this, but what?

In the past: On her way to the Emerald City, young Zelena befriends a woodcutter named Stanum, an unusual youth who does not fear her magic and who is impressed by her kindness and her use of magic to help others. Many years later, when she rules Oz, Stanum returns to ask his old friend for help. He is under a curse that will turn his body to tin unless someone helps him retrieve a magical heart guarded by a terrible monster.

Slightly terrible anyway.

At first inclined to dismiss his plea, Zelena is goaded into accompanying him in order to prove that she is indeed the most powerful witch around. Although she defeats the monster and retrieves the heart, she scoffs at the idea that having a friend would be worth the price the artifact demands: giving up her magic. She abandons Stanum to his fate.

In the present: The Black Fairy approaches Zelena and suggests that an alliance would be best for her and her daughter’s well-being. Hook and Emma’s morning plans are interrupted by Snow, who is determined to get this wedding in motion, but they are sidetracked by the news about the Black Fairy. Zelena is minded to take her on by herself, and stalks off. Regina is supposed to investigate the wand piece Tiger Lily sent to Emma but does not get around to it.

Rumple tells Belle about Gideon’s heart. The Blue Fairy remains in her coma, unable to be wakened until her magic is restored; Rumple has played into his mother’s hands by removing the one person who ever knew the Black Fairy from the conflict.

Zelena asks Belle to babysit while she goes off to the mines to hunt down the Black Fairy by herself. Charming discovers that Henry has tried to force the Final Battle to a good end using the magic pen, but it’s not working; Emma must fight. Henry, too, is drafted into the planning activities.

Regina finds Zelena and attempts to stop her. The argument escalates into a physical fight, causing a partial rockfall that blocks the way back.  

Snow and Charming argue about the suitability of different venues and eventually of doing this at all with the Final Battle looming; Emma at last intervenes and says they ought to wait. They love each other, they’re comfortable, and there’s no need to get married at high speed just in case they all die.

In the mines, there is more arguing until the sisters stumble across a vein of fairy crystal. The Black Fairy and Gideon arrive. Assigning her minion to delay Regina, the Black Fairy leads Zelena down to her lair and baits her into doing magical battle -- which turns all of the crystal dark, meaning that they can now be used to fuel her evil, um, whatever it is she plans to do that will be the Final Battle. She then poofs the sisters away. Regina tells Zelena that she may as well go back to Oz while the rest of them clean up her mess.

Zelena summons a twister from Oz to bring her the Crimson Heart, and use it to destroy her magic, returning the crystals to their normal state and thwarting whatever the Black Fairy wanted. It was probably bad.

From Zelena, the others learn about Blue’s condition and that she is being kept on ice in Gold’s shop. Emma uses a piece of the crystal to restore her magic, meaning that she can now be wakened.

The Black Fairy appears unperturbed by the crystal setback; the really important thing is that Rumple doesn’t learn (presumably from Blue) why she gave him up as an infant.

Parallels: The very heavy-handed Oz flashback talked about how what Zelena really needs is friends, and if she wasn’t so messed up she would value their lives more than her magic, more than this idea that she needs to be the strongest witch around. In the present-day timeline, she makes that sacrifice even though other people are not necessarily behaving a friendly fashion to her.

The line “who’s ready to put their hearts into some wedding planning” feeds into “the Black Fairy has Gideon’s heart?” in one of their odder transitions to date.

Snow draws the parallel between her wedding to Charming under threat from Regina and her desire to plan Emma and Hook’s; “it gave people hope.”

Wardrobe Department:

In Hindsight: I’m gonna have to assume that Dorothy came along and rescued this guy later, and also that once Glinda got banished, all of the other witch positions went evil, because what the hell else do I make of the “wicked witch of the North”?

I don’t particularly like the way they’re writing Snow, but I do feel that it’s consistent. She’s talking about her daughter’s wedding as if it’s a political stage event, not so much taking the lead on as entirely taking over the planning process in a way that makes Emma’s participation appear an afterthought, and this is, unfortunately, the way Snow seems to work. She talks a good game, but she never seems to be on quite the same wavelength as her daughter.

On to bigger issues. I have a problem with the writing on the show this season, at least as far as the Mills sisters are concerned. Maybe this is inevitable when you try to redeem a major villain, but it’s making me very uncomfortable. I feel like they’re crossing the line between explaining and excusing villainy these days. I posted this bit separately while I was writing this review, but I’m going to include it here and expand on it a little.

The show has not been all that big on showcasing acts of direct restitution. There have been a handful for Hook, there was Rumple’s death in 3a, and Ingrid’s death. But where they have done that, I always felt like the emphasis was where it ought to be, on the damage that was done to the other character. We know a lot about Baelfire, for instance, so Hook handing him over to Pan and Rumple letting him go through the portal are very meaningful events for all of the characters; the impact is clear. Ursula’s story was swiftly but fully sketched in “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”

With “Page 23″ and “Where Bluebirds Fly,” the emphasis is on the perpetrator’s emotional pain. We never learn anything at all about Stanum, about who he is or why he got cursed or why he’s so keen to befriend Zelena. He exists in the flashback purely to provide psychological analysis that is mirrored in the present day by the Black Fairy. In “Page 23” the focus is 100% on Regina -- not the fairy who destroyed her own life trying to save her, not the father she would later murder in cold blood, and not the villagers she terrorized for years.

With these two episodes, it seems like we are supposed to feel sympathy for Regina and Zelena while they are committing some of their most terrible acts of villainy, because the story has now gone to lengths to explain that they were sad the whole time. We ignore both the suffering they cause in others and the fact that they were sad due to situations they largely created themselves. The disposability of characters in this show has always been a problem, but it seems even worse than usual to me in these episodes. Ingrid became more sympathetic to us over the course of the season, but there was never a point where the show seemed to say “well, that’s all right then” about anything that she did.

(I can talk about “Swan Song” if anyone wants, but I feel the emphasis was very different there.)

When you provide a sympathetic focus to how the villain feels *while they are engaged in acts of villainy*, that’s… well, that kinda skeeves me out. It approaches if doesn’t downright become excuse-making; the audience is led to prioritize one character’s emotional state over others’ actual lives. The victims become invisible in this scheme. Given that we’ve already replaced Robin with a new version who was never Zelena’s victim -- a novel form of erasure I must admit -- I really cannot enjoy any of this storylne.

The Mills’ sisters relationship in this episode, in this whole season, has been one dose of high-octane weird after another. They start the season on a high note, but it quickly sours; even at her nicest, with all of the darkness(™) sucked out of her heart, Regina can’t forgive Zelena for her role in Robin’s death. The evil side of Regina, meanwhile, courts Zelena on the strength of their grotesque similarities, only to betray her and eventually try to kill her. Since the two Regina halves made up and split their evil difference, Zelena has barely been in the story at all, but it seems that Regina has extended no olive branches. In this episode, Regina -- who certainly doesn’t seem any nicer to me than she ever has in the past -- is quick to take on a self-righteous tone, quick to take offense and to dismiss her sister’s losses, quick to attack when Zelena fails to cooperate. She can be magnanimous at the end of the episode, of course, secure now in being the more powerful of the Mills sisters, but I am at a loss to figure how we’re supposed to take all of this.

It seems to me that they decided against Regina as the final villain at some point, but also that they forgot to write Regina as even marginally likeable after making that choice.

As much as I enjoy looking at her, the Black Fairy continues to be the worst villain in the history of the show, on a par with Hades. There’s no THERE there, no history, no connection, no motives -- a void where there should be a story element. Literally all she has done at this point is talk (and kill that one guy in the flashback). I could not care less about whatever additional bit of sad backstory they’re going to saddle Rumple with this weekend.