#eah darabella

[eah-confessions]

I would like to preface this with Epic Winter is my comfort special and I will adore it till I die. I am also a big Darabella shipper.

However: It is not objectively very good and good fucking lord it does so many of the characters in it DIRTY! The love hate relationship with it is real. I see it's potential and that's why I love it. But also it's really shit and incredibly sad that's the note the series ends on

-

[xbomboi]

rosabella “i can fix him” beauty.

[keepingeahalive]

Miss Rosabella Beauty: The Queen of Wasted Potential

Okay, I'll admit it. I do ship her and Daring. I'm a sucker for Beauty and the Beast, and I couldn't help myself. That said, objectively, this ship and Rosabella's character.... yeah, it kinda sucks.

Maybe I didn't want to admit it because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairytale. But the more I look into her character, the more I realize she embodies virtues that contradict her own story. Epic Winter was more about "fixing" Daring's supposed selfishness than addressing the real elephant in the room, and Rosabella was a plot device to push that narrative. I think she could have been an interesting character with flaws and a lot of depth. But she wasn't, and I am very very disappointed.

Her Character

The first time I saw her, I was really rooting for her. She's an animal rights and monster activist. She could have been great friends with Cerise for that reason. She could have even had interactions with Ramona in the past. But she comes off as self-righteous and preachy.

I get she's an activist and that's the joke; activists are inherently self-righteous. But this is Ever After High. Where's the nuance? She could be an animal and monster activist because she's experienced prejudice herself. She's the daughter of Beauty and The Beast. Look me in the eye and tell me she doesn't have any Beast genes. I dare you!

It's canon that Beauty and the Beast is considered a bad destiny story, with the stigma of the heroine falling in love with a creature most fairytales would pin as the villain, and a handsome prince carrying the stigma of being of being a beast even after the curse is gone. She should understand that better than anyone. And yet, this kindness and compassion she tries to convey comes off as condescending. She inserts herself into situations because she feels she's needed when nobody has asked for her help.

2. DARABELLA

Rosabella was only introduced in one minisode and suddenly gets a big role in Epic Winter? She and Daring hadn't had a meaningful conversation up until that point. Really, she barely knows Daring.

For the daughter of Beauty and the Beast, she's so .... judgmental. She's supposed to have the ability to see people's true intentions, but why does she get it so wrong? She immediately assumes Daring is self-centered and narcissistic. On the surface, I can see where she's coming from. But, that's only on the surface.

Daring is more complex than she made him out to be, and Epic Winter wanted the audience to think she was in the right. We know this isn't true. Daring loves being a hero and saving people. He loves his siblings and does what he thinks is best for them. He certainly cared about Lizzie enough to respect her wishes. He's chivalrous to a fault!

Daring is clearly going through some things, and it doesn't seem like anyone's paying attention to what's really bothering him: He has no purpose anymore. He's been brought up his whole life thinking he would be King of Ever After, and now his world is shattered. He's not coping well. And Rosabella thinks he's full of himself when she's barely met this guy.

Having him become the Beast from Beauty and the Beast felt natural to me in the story progression, but Rosabella's inclusion felt forced. She gives him the same old advice from her original story when she should be hinting at something greater. This should be the turning point in Daring that destiny is malarky, and he can break away from the expectations his family and peers put on him. But she doesn't understand that. She only sees that he's obsessed with his looks because his main form of coping is gone.

He's not really upset about his looks. He's upset that his destiny is gone, and either that's not as important to her as him getting over his looks or she doesn't know him well enough to know what's been put on him. Assuming it's the latter, why wouldn't she try to find the root of the problem instead of fixing what she thinks needs fixing?

Daring is the victim here, even if he has issues to work out. And it doesn't seem like she's really listening to him.

3. The Cousins No One Talks About

Yeah. Rosabella and Briar are cousins. And there is very. little. BACKSTORY!!

We know their dads don't get along. Briar's is a monster hunter. Rosa's is The Beast. Their moms are sisters. That's all we know. What's her relationship with Briar? Is it a tragic sisterly bond? Or did the two drift apart/fall out because of their family conflict? Rosa's mom is likely the black sheep of the family, so do she and Sleeping Beauty still talk anymore?

How does Briar feel about all this? Does she have time to feel anything about it at all? She has her own family and her own destiny to worry about. What kind of influence did Briar's parents have on her views on beasts? She hadn't even been to Rosa's home until they were both well into high school. How much do they even know about each other?

We know so little about their dynamic. Family conflict shapes a child, and both of them probably have some deep-seated trauma relating to their families. But did the writers forget that they're cousins?

4. How I Would Write Rosabella (and maybe Daring)

First, give her the ability to transform into a beast. It's not hard.

She's advocating for people like her to exist. She wants people to see both sides of her and those like her to be seen as more than monsters. But she's had her fair share of prejudice, even within her own family. Her uncle is a monster hunter, so a half-beast niece would be considered an abomination. Because of this, she suppresses her anger to better the image of beasts. She doesn't want to, but she feels like she has to, for her own safety and to make herself more palatable in society. However, the more anger she holds in, the less control she has over herself. Her judgment becomes clouded, and this makes her jump to conclusions about people's behavior. She wants things to be fair so much that she gets in trouble for it. She wants to be understanding and patient, but having a hair-trigger temper gets in the way of her goals.

Give her a backstory with Cerise and the Hood-Badwolf family. Her family would know more than anyone the hardships that a human-beast family goes through, and they should be very good friends because of that. Her growing up around Cerise and Ramona would give her more of a reason to protect the beast population.

If any sort of relationship with Daring were to work, they would both have to learn from each other. Daring would learn to let go of people's expectations of him, and Rosabella would learn to let her anger out in a healthy way and pick her battles. Daring can't be the only one learning from her, and Rosa shouldn't see anything to fix in him. She needs to accept him for who he really is, not just preaching about appearances.

She should be embodying both Beauty and the Beast, all the kindness and grief that comes with it. She's not meant to be a paragon, and the writers should not have portrayed her as such. She needed to be a character with her own development. She needed to be portrayed just as in the wrong as Daring was when they met, not about appearance but about each other. She needs to admit her mistakes and acknowledge she is not always right about everyone. Or, at the very least, have her see right through Daring's facade about looks and realize there's something deeper going on.

The writer's dropped the ball on this ship, and they did Daring so dirty here. But they also did Rosabella a disservice by making her so two-dimensional and preachy, almost not even her own character. There are so many routes they could have taken with her. She could have been great, but she wasn't.

[randombook4idk]

daring: oh please, i don't have a type

the type:

[zyn0nn]

Chat, would you hate me if in my Ever After High rewrite I:

- Have Darling be the one to find the real Storybook of Legends lost in Wonderland

- Made Dexter steal Ravens place in the Storybook of Legends, essentially giving her his role and happy ending whilst he becomes the main villain thinking it’s all to help his loved ones

- Made Apple fall down the Well of Wonder instead of a water well as a kid (Beginning her first arc with Darling)

- Wrote their evil counterparts from Spring Unsrpung as their deepest fears and desires, making Apple want to destroy their world because she deeply hates and resents her fate

- Made Apple actually act like a bad bitch

- Daring the Beauty and Rosabella The Beast

- Wrote Appling friends to frenemies to lovers

- Wrote Dexven lovers to enemies to—

- Daring = Golden Child, Darling = Mothers Disgrace, Dexter = Fathers Failure

- Changed Hopper to not crush on Briar for only her beauty, but because he admires her effort and courage in making memories and forming connections with others even if she might lose them to fate

- Made Hollys fate be Rapunzel’s mother instead of being Rapunzel herself and have her question if signing her child’s life away and never see her grow up is actually for the greater good

- Aged the characters up to 19-22 because I can’t mentally deal with how young and traumatized they are in the show

- Fixed up their Magic touches to be a little more useful

- For the betterment of humanity fixed Hunters haircut

[thelilylav]

I’ve gotta admit as much as I know Darabella is a flawed ship (and some of the ppl who are anti for it have legit criticisms I love y’all for pointing it out cause it frustrates the hell out of me too trust) they’ll always just kind of be it for me.

Because as much as it was an “I can fix him” trope, as much as Rosabella could be selfish and Daring’s flaws got cranked up to 1000, she was also the first person to look at him after his destiny, the thing he dedicated his life to, failed, when people were questioning him as a prince and putting pressure on his and Apple’s relationship and tell him that, like, maybe it would be alright? Maybe this wasn’t his destiny, and maybe that was okay.

And the part that really gets me? She’s the first person after this happens to tell him that it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, which as much as you can like other Daring ships or him whatever he desperately needed to hear. Not even cause he was selfish, that’s not what I’m saying, but bc he placed his whole identity on this image that people concocted for him based on him appearing the perfect prince. He was handsome, he was talented, and he was handsome! So who cares about him as a person?

Idk man. You spend four seasons (I watch the specials on Netflix so that’s why four idk if it’s three to some ppl or whatever tho) watching him be praised for his looks, watching girls fawn over him, and of course he enjoys it so nobody really questions how much he enjoys it. And then you get this girl, this girl who owes him nothing, this girl who (contrary to popular belief apparently) has a life of her own and people she cares about outside of him, and she’s nice to him. And she’s the first person after everything happens to just be nice to him, for the sake of being nice. Something about that will always hit different for me

[rebelcharmings]

she’s everything… he’s just ken

[sadly-never-after]

I don’t have any real preferred endgame ships for Daring. I like Darabella more than the average tumblr EAH account and I love Dizzie but in a very different way than most shippers, I think.

Whenever I’m in my comfort place (my post canon extension based on Athena-xox’s amazing timeline (all time fave post. Truly an amazing accomplishment)) I like imagining that Daring will consciously decide to stay single and NOT mingle for a while, until he has come to terms with certain things. And I like imagining that Rosabella will be there for him, but rather as a friend with some unacted romantic chemistry. I want to believe that everything that happened since Legacy Day, culminating in his abrupt change of imagined destiny will trigger a more pensive side of him. And here’s when Lizzie comes. I want him to slowly become aware of how much he hurt her, even when it was never his intention.

I know this is a franchise made to sell dolls at tweens so it’s weird to get this dark about it, but let’s do this for the sake of my fantasies.

I feel like Daring has been hypersexualised and objectified through most of his life. His place as the most Charming of all the Charmings has turned him into a figure of lust and of status even before he was really aware of what those words meant.

The hypersexualisation can be seen through the recurrent jokes about girls fawning over him, following him, his dashing smile, and I honestly feel like Sparrow’s dare that lead to the entire thing with Lizzies was also based on that etc., etc., etc.,

When it comes to the objectification I think Duchess obsession with him is a good example. In NTV it becomes clear that she is not truly in love with him and when he scorns her she even daydreams about being the one able to reject him. Daring is not much of a real person to her. He is a symbol. He is the best of princes who saves his Princess and gets the two to live happily ever after. Everything that Duchess longs for and is denied.

To a lesser extent I also think that Ravens reaction to him (apparently) writing her a love poem could also be an example of this. Even if she has never been interested in Daring and has actually described her type as his opposite she still takes this as an accomplishment of some way.

Just to clarify: by no means do I blame neither Duchess nor Raven for this. They aren’t really at fault. This is more of a societal issue.

So, as he now realises all this things about his life, I want him to remember Lizzie. In my Sparchess heart the two are talking and Sparrow asks him about that one date Daring & Duchess had and after that a rush of unprocessed memories come at Daring and he can’t stop thinking about what he did to Lizzie for at least a week.

I want him to stay up away at night and cringe at himself wondering if an actual apology would be welcomed or not. It would make him feel better, sure, but is it Lizzie or his guilt conscience whom he wants to console? I want him to remember things about Lizzie that he otherwise didn’t think of very often. I want him to suddenly tell all of this to Rosabella only for her to feel disappointed and conflicted. I want Lizzie to catch him looking at her during lunch with a strangely contemplative expression and to turn away in apparent apathy only for her to be weirdly sad for the rest of the day and remember how isolated and betrayed she felt not only by Daring but also by Duchess.

[athena-xox]

No because giving daring depth is my favourite thing ever.

We never ONCE get his perspective which means his ulterior motives can be whatever the fuck I want

[yolouat]

They just wanted us to believe that Daring (the guy who has dedicated his entire life to saving others) is selfish…

Anyone would become obsessed with their appearance if they were sexualized their entire life, which still doesn’t make you selfish.

Rosabella’s whole arc is about her trying to fix something that isn’t even broken to begin with, but also acting like she’s a much better person than him and has to teach him how to be more selfless.

That’s why I don’t fck with Darabella

[hjonko]

if it wasn’t obvious, they’re stupid-

also peep hopper being a girls girl and making sure no one falls over lmao

[eah-confessions]

Ngl I could never see Daring with anyone but Lizzie. Rosabella was too much of like a "mom friend" to him than a romantic partner.

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[xbomboi]

Daring’s Royal Retrospective (part 1/2)

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2

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read the previous comic —> here start from the beginning —> here

[dumbdolphin333]

tbh I feel like I haven’t rlly seen a lot of ppl talk abt how Daring’s character assassination also negatively affected Rosabella? Because we all know that Daring was done dirty, and that he was not the selfish baby epic winter made him out to be. Just going based off of the Netflix show (bcuz I haven’t read most of the books and we barely even see rosabella in the webisodes) we see Daring act selflessly. We see him care about people other than himself. Yes we see his flaws, but we know enough about him to not absolutely hate him.

Rosabella does not get that.

So her whole thing in epic winter where she tries to fix Daring just makes her seem like a jerk. Instead of the caring girl who wants to help people become better, she becomes a girl who can’t accept that people are flawed. She becomes a girl obsessed with fixing Daring, when really he just needed a bit of a wake up call. He wasn’t selfish, he was self absorbed. Yes he had flaws to work through, but his previous characterization was not bad enough for his entire arc to just be Rosabella fixing him.

I also feel like it took away from Rosabella’s chance to be a fully fleshed out character, to me she just feels like a plot device to fix Daring, when she could be so much more! (I have ideas for Rosabella’s character, but that’s for another time…)

This also reflects badly on Darabella as a ship. Instead of two characters who helped each other grow and in the process fell in love, it became “perfect girl fixed man baby and then he fell in love w/ her”

like JUSTICE FOR DARING. JUSTICE FOR ROSABELLA. THEY COULD HAVE BEEN SM MOREEEEEEE

[lelet-draws]

I feel like Epic Winter would have been much better if either:

A) Rosabella can turn into a beast and that is why she is an activist. She wants both of her sides to be accepted and is friends with Cerise and Ramona. Her romance with Daring puts him in the position of Beauty, being the one who has to learn to look past appearances.

B) Daring’s curse was accidental but everyone assumed it was destiny. He is forced to take on this new role and Rosabella is trying to follow her story and “fix” him. But at the end he learns to love himself regardless of appearances, embraces the beast, refusing to change back and therefore becomes a rebel. Rosabella learns that she doesn’t have to put herself in the savior position and they both start having a less forced relationship based on personal choice rather than destiny.

[randombook4idk]

*turns on a megaphone* dear eah fandom, i get this is a small fandom, but please keep in mind the tagging rules when discusing what you don't like. so if you don't like epic winter/darabella/apple/etc. please use anti or critical tags.

there are people who like these things so lets not rain their parade by filling up those tag with posts about how you don't like what they like. thank you

EDIT: this includes posts about Descendants too.