#fairy godmother ex machina

[martianbugsbunny]

Fairy Godmother ex Machina in TSATR and Why it Kinda Works

at this point the movie I'm talking about is OLD so like...I'm putting my thoughts under the cut more for the potential rambling than for spoilers bc I doubt there are many people out there going "wait no don't tell me!!!! I gotta see it fresh-brained" but I found it on accident and I really enjoyed it so I'm gonna talk about it

read on and enjoy!

the biggest cheesy plot contrivance in The Slipper And The Rose came right at the very end. it's a Cinderella movie, as you might've guessed from the title, and so it comes with some classic Cinderella tropes that have to be overcome by the characters:

A) One of the driving forces for the whole story is that Prince Edward has to marry for alliance, and about fifteen (? I can't estimate time) minutes from the end of the movie his father has conspired to exile Cinderella and coerce him into marrying the daughter of a king who's threatening to invade. if this alliance falls apart, there's going to be war and the entire reason it was so important in the first place is that Euphrania is too small to defend itself, so it will be destroyed if Edward doesn't marry the Princess.

B) It's not emphasized much, beyond the ball only having foreign royalty and home nobility (to round out the numbers) in attendance, but it's in the constitution of Euphrania that the prince can't marry a commoner, which Cinderella is.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

Enter the Fairy Godmother ex Machina. She points out to the king that because he is, in fact, the king, he can unwrite the part of the constitution that prevents Edward from marrying Cinderella; she says something to him along the lines of "absolute monarchs should act absolutely, it's very becoming," and the king agrees to do it. One problem solved, one to go. But it turns out that the Princess and Edward's cousin have fallen in Love At First Sight, as officially confirmed by the Fairy Godmother, who knows a thing or two about it, and their marriage will preserve the alliance because you apparently can't attack your in-laws in this universe. Both problems solved at once within the span of like five minutes! But to me, it actually didn't feel super obnoxious or contrived, even though it was very much contrived, and I'm gonna tell you why.

Earlier in the movie, while Edward is resisting the idea of marrying for alliance instead of love, his best friend John is having a similar crisis but kind of in reverse: he's in love with a noble lady who loves him back, but he can't propose to her because he's a commoner. Edward's solution, once he thinks of it, is to knight John on the spot without a second thought, because as a prince he can just do that. Thus, the king amending the law to allow Edward and Cinderella to marry is made acceptable by means of precedent. John sets the tone and makes the solution for Edward feel a lot less out of nowhere by being the recipient of similar royal grace first.

The other plot device is admittedly more noticeable, although it still has one redeeming quality. The cousin appeared just often enough in the rest of the movie that it would have been strange and maybe even disappointing if he hadn't had any kind of resolution, but as a side character, it's not like he was ever going to get any significant emotional nuance or depth in a storyline of his own. Thus, while instantly falling in love with the Princess and solving the second problem keeping Edward and Cinderella apart, the cousin actually get the closest thing to a satisfying ending for him. In fact, in my personal taste, the contrived feeling is a worthwhile tradeoff for not having to be disappointed that his character never had a point at all.

So there you have it! There was definitely some magical solving-all-the-problems-in-the-last-ten-minutes going on here, but once I stopped to think about it, it kind of comes out in the wash. Besides, I wouldn't be happy with Edward and Cinderella not having a happy ending. I'll take the hit on reality for this one.

[grandma-susan]

❓

( back at ya haha)

Does my muse trust yours?   

If it ever came down to it, she reluctantly does, but she will say she doesn't trust him because she has no idea how long it would take him to actually deliver.

"I trust that he intends to do what he says he'll do, but it will likely take a millennia for him to actually do it, because he's wading through all his woes, anxiety, depression, inferiority complex, superiority complex and ducks, so...."

Does my muse dislike yours?

"No" But she treats him like she does. Do you like him though, Susan? "No."

Would my muse kill someone for yours?

Susan looks up from sharpening her garden tools, "Does he even need me to? He was one of the founding Angels of Mankind, King of Hell, doubt he would ever needs me or my foxes to rip someone's throat out. But if we make a written agreement on a hit, I would."

Would my muse kill your muse?

Susan takes a long sip from her tea cup, racking her brain for that answer. "No. So long as he never becomes God. God is the number one bastard on my hit list. So if he doesn't become god then he has nothing to worry about."

Would my muse save yours? 

"No one can save him from his crippling depression."

I think they mean like in a dire situation.

Susan nibbles on a cookie, thinking of hypothetical scenarios. "Assist, yes. Save, Ha! Ha! Ha! Let's be real sweetheart, the day he needs saving from an old Sinner like me is when Earth implodes, Hell freezes over and Heaven crumbles under its own lies. He's the 'TANK' the deus ex machina, as the kids say these days. What a comedy it would be if I threw a saucer at someone's head for them to be distracted long enough for him to do the killing blow. Don't angels heal pretty quickly too? Don't think he'd need my medical knowledge. But if he ever did....sure, but dont expect to be coddled. Striker can vouch for me."

Does my muse find your muse attractive? 

Susan grimaces, "Like a cockatiel? Maybe? Oh mean sex appeal?" Susan looks over at Lucifer. "If it weren't for those aviator pants maybe he'd look smart."

Is my muse disgusted by yours? 

"When he blubbering and spiraling, yes."

would my muse go on a date with your muse?  

"Like what? Bring your grandma to work day? Free ice cream with grandma? Free admission with a senior citizen?"

would my muse kiss yours?  

"1 in a quintillion chance." So there is a chance? "This is not a Disney Movie and I'm not a Disney Princess or a Fairy Godmother!"

would my muse betray yours?   

"I pledge loyalty to no one, but I don't break promises."

my muse’s favorite thing about yours is ____

"When he's not in the corner farming mushrooms, he at least attempts to put an effort into things, despite his uncertainty. I can see the optimist under all that garbage he carries around. Its a matter how he delivers it."

the thing my muse dislikes about yours is_____

"His insults are lacking. He's been down in Hell for so long and he's still got the mouth of an Angel on his first day to Hell."

[agnerd-bot]

Fanservant: Frau Trude Gothel, Wicked Witch of the Fairy Tales(Caster)

Ascension Stages:

First Stage: Gothel is dressed in an elaborate dark ballgown that reaches all the way to the floor, the dress ornate with gold and silver accents. On her ring finger, a shining golden ring gleams in the light. Long pink hair flows down to the small of her back, topped by a black crown, and a pair of gleaming golden eyes shine as she stares down the Master.

Second Stage: Gothel’s outfit has changed to a more ‘traditional’ witch’s style, with long, flowing sleeves extending out from her robes, and a witch’s hat resting upon her head, replacing her crown. Her dress has shortened, revealing her long legs, and her hair has grown out to be much more wild and unkempt. Her sclera have darkened to become pitch-black, and a fiery aura has begun to surround her entire being.

Final Stage: Gothel’s form has changed from that of a witch to a true Devil. Out from her back sprouts black feathered wings, and her skin takes on a deathly white pallor. Her nails lengthen into demonic claws, and a pair of monstrous horns sprout from the sides of her head. The ring has been corrupted slightly, becoming immersed in hellish flames.

Theme:

Character Theme: Healing Song - Tangled

Battle Theme: BlazBlue CentralFiction - Walpurgisnacht (Nine the Phantom theme)

Fatal Battle Theme: 破壊神

Traits:

Class: Caster Alternate Class: Berserker, Alter Ego, Beast True Name: Frau Trude Gothel Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic Evil Attribute: Earth

Known as: The Witch of the Story’s End, The Witch of the Tower, the Forest Witch, The Villain of All Fairy Tales, The Devil Incarnate, Diabolus Ex Machina 

Voice Actress: Noto Mamiko

Deck: QABBB

Parameters: Strength: D Endurance: A++ Agility: B Mana: EX Luck: C NP: A

Passive Skills:

Territory Creation(Fairy Tale) C++:

As a Fairy Tale character, Gothel is uniquely capable of altering her environment, creating the backdrops of the stories to be told. Gingerbread houses, massive towers, fantastic castles, all can be made by Gothel with a mere wave of her wand.

However, as much as she is the creator of the world around her, the majority of her creations are simply temporary structures of illusions made to trap victims, meaning this skill is less effective than a true master’s handiwork. While her creations could be much more impressive if she chose to apply herself more properly, she’s content to lazily throw together false illusions to suit her needs and then smash them to pieces when she is done.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Arts and Quick performance by 10%.

Item Construction EX:

The power of one of the most famed witches to ever exist, and yet one of a witch who melts away among all the rest. Gothel’s ability to create fearsome cursed items and magical weapons is among the best among all Servants, thanks to her status as an offshoot of the legendary Baba Yaga. There are few Servants that could ever hope to match her raw talent in magecraft.

In at least one Fairy Tale, The Dragon of the North, it is even said that a witch-maiden held the power of King Solomon’s Ring, and knew of its incredible secrets. While this story is likely nothing more than a fantasy, it speaks testament to the incredible and fearsome powers that Gothel has at her beck and call.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Debuff success rate by 12%.

Wicked Witch of the Story’s End A:

As the Villain of All Fairy Tales, Dame Gothel reigns supreme as one of the most powerful Fairy Tale Servants alive, surpassed only by the Big Bad Wolf and the Persecuted Heroine, and matched only by her equal opposite, the Fairy Godmother.

Where there are stories to be told, a villain will naturally arrive to cause strife and pain.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own critical damage by 12%. -Increases own damage by 250.

Active Skills:

Devil’s Contract B:

While many in the world feared witches and blamed them for countless misfortunes and disasters that happened to them, few, if any, ever truly laid eyes on a witch and recorded their experiences. As few understood witches or how their powers worked, many associated their existence with that of the Devil, believing them to be Brides of Satan who had sold their souls to evil in exchange for power. As a Fairy Tale whose existence was based off of these false notions, Gothel has imprinted upon her a ‘contract’ with Hell itself.

This contract with Hell has granted Gothel incredible powers, and is the source of some of her more powerful magic. She can summon pillars of hellfire that can erase even a victim’s soul, drag victims off to the deepest pits of Hell, and summon monstrous creatures from the Pit to fight for her in combat. Her powers are effectively limited only by her sick imagination and sadistic cruelty.

Most notable of her powers is a form of pseudo-immortality. While her body can be destroyed by an enemy, she can resurrect herself each and every time, so long as the enemy she faces isn’t a god or similar divinity. It is through this power that Gothel has survived things like being burned alive by Handel and Gretel, dancing to death in Snow White, being hacked to pieces, and other similar fates.

No matter how often the villain dies, or how often the hero beats her, she will always return when the story begins anew, ready to ravage the lands at her leisure.

(FGO Effect:)  -Increases own Debuff Success rate every turn for three turns. -Apply a state to yourself: Gain NP Gauge when attacking with Buster Cards (3 turns). -Apply Guts to self for two times, five turns.(Stackable with other Guts).

Wicked Transformation A:

In Fairy Tales of old, there were hundreds of tales of witches using their accursed powers to transform unwilling victims into horrible monsters, helpless animals, or inanimate objects for some reason or another. Whether it be envy of another’s virtue, punishing the wicked and foolish for incurring their ire, or twisting a victim’s wish into something terribly ironic, the ability of a witch to alter the forms of those she chooses is unlimited, and when these powers are unleashed, it is all too easy for Gothel to dispose of her victims.

If need be, Gothel can turn this transformation unto herself, shifting into the form of an eagle to fly through the air, an old beggar woman to disguise her appearance, a ferocious bear to fight off her enemies, and so much more, all with a mere magic word and a wave of her wand. It is through this power that Gothel gained her reputation as the Villain of All Fairy Tales.

However, as with all fairy tales, this ability does have a caveat. Each transformation comes with a condition that, once fulfilled, will release the victim from its binding. If a victim is able to escape from Gothel and find someone to free them from their curse, then they will be returned to their true form.

(FGO Effect:) -Inflicts Buff Block status for three times on one enemy. -High chance to Stun an enemy for one turn. -Gains Critical Stars every turn for three turns. -Increase Critical Damage for yourself for three turns

Mesmerizing Banquet of Cockaigne B:

Poisoned Apples.

Gingerbread Houses.

Irresistible Rapunzel.

In the fairy tales of old Europe, food and drink has often served as the greatest tempter of man, and witches like Gothel have preyed on these temptations for ages, able to prey on the hunger and greed of humanity by creating food that no human is able to possibly resist.

This power over food has only grown in power after Gothel has consumed the mythical Land of Cockaigne and further bolstered her power. The mere presence of her cooking is able to drive victims mad and lure them into the land of food and drink that is Cockaigne, abandoning all precepts such and former memories to become self-indulgent and hedonistic, like cattles to the slaughter.

Surprisingly, while Gothel can easily summon food and drink by means of her magic, she seems to have a preference for making her food from scratch. When cooking, a faint smile can be seen on Gothel’s face, even when not preparing a meal to deceive or hypnotize.

“Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble… Rampion flower on the vine… return to me what once was mine…”

(FGO Effect:) -Significantly increases NP Gauge. -Removes own Debuffs. -Low chance to lower Critical Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Buster Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to reduce NP Charge for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Attack for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Healing for all enemies for three turns.

Noble Phantasms:

Noble Phantasm: Die Teufelsmaske - Feed the Devil’s Fire Rank: A Maximum Targets: 1 Range: — Classification: Anti-Unit(Self)

A terrifying Noble Phantasm that removes all guises and illusion from Frau Gothel’s form to reveal who she truly is: The Devil, villain of Europe's very first fairy tales. In this state, she takes on the form of a terrible demon straight from Hell itself. Gnarled horns as red as blood pierce through her skull, her hair takes on a deathly pallor, angelic wings burst out from her back, and her teeth sharpen into deadly fangs. The world around her shifts and darkens, becoming a dense, foggy forest filled with dead trees and ominous winds, all isolating the devil and her victims from the world.

She is not the true Devil, but rather “Mankind’s Approximation of the Devil”, a false image who bears but a fraction of the true Adversary's power. Simply put, she is the ultimate evil for a hero to face in a fairy tale, a monster with the potential to become an Evil of Humanity itself.

It is not just her physical form that changes upon activating this Noble Phantasm, but her magical prowess surges to seemingly limitless heights, able to weave her own story and alter the world around her how she pleases. It was through this Noble Phantasm that the Hausmärchen Singularity Collective was born, where the Beast of Ignorance would attempt to consume all other stories in order to destroy Humanity to its very roots, and where Gothel would attempt to destroy the Chaldeans on her orders, by altering these beloved fairy tales and corrupting them with her immense power.

So ferocious, so dreadful is this power that even the nascent Beast of Ignorance, Red Riding Hood, didn’t dare face this monster head-on in combat, instead choosing to let the Chaldeans distract and weaken her so she could land a mortal wound on the demonic witch.

“Fufufufufufu… Do you understand now? I am not some mere ‘thing’ that goes bump in the night… I am not just the paltry scratches at your walls… I am the monster that all children fear. I am the evil that makes you lock your doors. I am the witch that lives just next door. I am Evil. I am Wicked. I am Frau Trude, and I am very real, child.”

(FGO Effect:) -Remove all Debuffs from self. -Increase Debuff Resistance for three turns. -Increases own critical star absorption for three turns. -Grants self On-Attack-Activate buff for three attacks, three turns. --Increases own Critical Damage for one turn when attacking with Buster Cards. -Increases own damage against ‘Fairy Tale’ or ‘Fated Hero’ enemies.

Noble Phantasm: Kleine Verlorene Kinder - Happily Never After Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Army

Dame Gothel has the ability to summon massive golems made of gnarled wood and hellish flames, each one standing over ten feet tall. These golems are nigh-immortal, soulless husks of incredible power, akin to the Olympian Soldiers of the Fifth Lostbelt. They feel no pain, are able to regenerate from nearly any damage, and will not cease until their targets have been completely and utterly eradicated. They know nothing but destruction and death, and wickedly relish in it any chance they can.

Truly, these must be monsters straight out of Hell, demons created from the darkest pits mankind has ever known. There is nothing else that could explain their sheer malice and relentless nature.

Alas… if only that were true.

In reality, these monsters are the children slain by Dame Gothel, the foolish and wicked children who disobeyed their parents. They strayed from the path and ended up caught by the wicked witch. Their bodies were killed and eaten by the monster in the woods, and their souls were left to burn in the Devil’s fire, fueling these monstrosities. What memories these creatures held have been long forgotten, and all they know now is to obey, a monstrous punishment for their foolishness in life.

Now, all these children have left is resentment and anger. Hatred for the ones who got away, who had a chance to escape the monsters of the world. It is unfair, they say, that they alone must suffer. So they will drag down anyone and everyone they can into the darkness, using their powers to twist and distort their victims into more of these monstrous creatures, until nothing is left behind but death and chaos.

Noble Phantasm: Rapunzel, Rapunzel - The Maiden in the Tower Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Fortress

The fabled tower in which Dame Gothel spent the rest of her days, and where the fair maiden Rapunzel was locked within. It is a prison akin to Merlin’s Garden of Avalon, a nigh-inescapable maze of hewn stone and wood. This tower serves as a great and terrible prison in which escape is nigh impossible. The tower itself is protected against magical attacks of all kinds, and is far sturdier than its appearance belies. The only way in or out is within a window high near the top of the tower, where Gothel herself lays in wait for anyone who would dare escape or enter.

Gothel can summon this tower in parts, summoning the walls as a bulwark against enemies and their attacks. However, the tower is at its most fearsome and powerful when the full structure has been erected, serving as the central lynchpin of the Hausmärchen Singularity where all Fairy Tales were forcibly distorted.

However, for those trapped within, there is a single thing to serve as a guide. A long, golden rope of hair, which can be seen throughout the tower. Despite the obvious trail it leads, Gothel does not do much as touch the hair, content to leave it be.

Voice Lines:

Summoned: Bow your head, human. You stand in the presence of Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End. Hmm… So I have been summoned to serve Humanity, is it? Hah! What a joke. But I suppose I can spare you for now, Human. Though be warned. If I find you irritating, I will cook and eat you like all the rest before you.

Summoned(Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”): I see now… This is why I was called by the World to save mankind. How irritating... Does this world expect me to play the role of a hero now? But I suppose if that is the role the story asks me to play, I must play it out to my best. Don't think I'm getting soft though, human... I am Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End, and a monster I will remain until the end of days.

Level Up 1: More fuel to the fire… Good, let the flames grow higher.

Level Up 2: Another ingredient to the cauldron... How delicious.

Level Up 3: Another offering for me? My, my, you're too kind.

1st Ascension: Ah, now this is more to my tastes. This is a dress most befitting a witch like myself. Fufufufufu… What do you think, human? Beautiful and fearsome, am I not? Perfect for the monster that I am.

2nd Ascension: You insist on pressing onward? Even if what you see may be frightening? I wonder... Would you consider yourself brave or foolish? I suppose time will tell.

3rd Ascension: Fufufufufufu... Finally, you see me for who I truly am. Do you understand, child…? You've strayed too far from the path of light, and now The Devil has come to make you pay for your sins. Tell me, was it worth it, selling your soul?

4th Ascension: Good and evil... Light and dark... They are but roles we are meant to play in the story. I did not choose the path I have taken, it was thrust upon me. The story dictated that I was to be the villain, and so I took upon that title with pride. I do not regret a single action I have taken... ...I wonder, did she think the same? Did she not once look back?

Fight Start 1: By all means, welcome to my humble abode… You’re not going to leave it anytime soon…

Fight Start 2: Well, well, well, it seems like a lovely little morsel has arrived. And just when I was getting hungry, too…

Fight Start 3: You know, you shouldn’t go walking around the woods by yourself. Who knows what monsters lurk in the shadows…?

Fight Start(Fatal Battle): Ah… Ahhh…! Rapunzel, Rapunzel…! Why…?! Why did you leave me?!

Skill 1: Double, double, toil and trouble…

Skill 2: Fire burn and cauldron bubble…

Skill 3: By the pricking of my thumbs…

Skill 4: Something wicked this way comes…

Command Card Select 1: Is that all?

Command Card Select 2: I suppose I haven’t used this trick in a while.

Command Card Select 3: This should be more than enough for the likes of you!

Noble Phantasm Select 1: It’s time we cast off this illusion…

Noble Phantasm Select 2: Tell me… Are you afraid?

Attack 1: Burn, down to your very bones!

Attack 2: By all means, scream…

Attack 3: You are going to taste exquisite…

Attack 4: Crush them, Tower with No Doors!

Attack 5: Hell awaits you!

Attack 6: Do you think you can survive this?!

Attack 7: Bind them, Seal of Solomon!

Extra Attack 1: The final chapter has been written… It’s the end of your story!

Extra Attack 2: Oh, do you think you can escape…? How foolish!

Noble Phantasm 1:

Heeheeheeeee… Hahahahaaaaa…!

Now the real fun begins…

Now the feast shall commence…

Now, little ones…

It’s time.

Let. Me. In.

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 2:

The Witch’s Night has come and gone…

Now the Devil comes to play!

So run and hide, it’s all the fun!

NOW HAS COME THE TIME TO SLAY!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 3:

Bolt your doors…

Hide your children…

For the witching hour has arrived…

Die Teufelmaske.

AHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!

Noble Phantasm 4(Fatal Battle):

I am a monster…  I am the Devil… 

I am a demon who holds no love for anything in this world… 

Then why…

Why does my heart hurt so much?!

Rapunzel… Rapunzel… 

It's all your fault!

YOU DID THIS TO ME!

AHHHHHHHH!!!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Damage from Noble Phantasm: How annoying…

Regular Damage: Tch.

Defeated 1: If the story says so…

Defeated 2: I’ll come back another day, just you wait.

Defeated(Fatal Battle): No… Please… Just let me end this!

Victory 1: Unfortunately for you, there is no happy ending.

Victory 2: And so the story reaches the end. The hero has been slain, and the wicked witch claims another victim.

Bond Level 1: So, we really are doing this, hm? Very well, as per our agreement, I shall lend my aid in your task to save mankind. In return, the moment I get bored with you, or I grow irritated by your words, or I am offended by your presence, I can and will eradicate you, completely and utterly. This I swear. Such is the binding of our contract. ...fufufufufu. Congratulations, young Master of Chaldea. You've made a deal with the Devil.

Bond Level 2: What's with that strange look you are giving me? ...ah, I understand. You don't trust me, do you? Don't worry. I may be the Witch of the End, but even I understand the sacred nature of an oath. Even if it is an annoyance to me, I intend to fulfill my side of the bargain to the fullest. I expect nothing less from you. Otherwise... *snaps fingers* Your soul is forfeit. Do I make myself clear?

Bond Level 3: Ghhh... Must you insist on following me around like a lost duckling? Surely, there must be other Servants that you could bother aside from me? ...hm? Lonely? ... What a joke. I am a monster. The Devil Incarnate. Whoever heard of a creature like that being lonely?

Bond Level 4: Your presence... It's annoyingly familiar to me. You remind me too much of my daughter. No... That's not right. Unlike her, you truly do fear me, don't you? I can smell it. And yet, you still choose to approach me? How strange... Still, I suppose I can't begrudge you, given our contract. But stay out of my way.

Bond Level 5: What is it now? ...ah, I understand, a revision to the contract. Very well. I suppose we are due for some additions. First off, your terms wish for me to... be more open in Chaldea. Tch. What an annoyance. But I suppose it is an acceptable one. I do not promise to be kind, or to be sociable, or any of that nonsense. But I suppose I can make an effort to do more around here. As for my terms...? You are not allowed to leave. ...oh? Do I see hesitation on your face? Then allow me to explain. Your life and mine will become bound to one another. If you are to leave me behind, I will follow. If you are to die, I will put you back together. If you are to vanish from this world, I will use every bit of my power to return you to it. Your fate and mind will become connected for all eternity, until we both agree to annul this contract. Simply put? I will not let you abandon me. So... do we have a deal?

Dialogue 1: Tell me child, when you think of the villain of all Fairy Tales, who comes to mind? …eh? The Big Bad Wolf…? Tch. What a pain. It appears I’ve been slacking in my efforts.

Dialogue 2: So, you too are a dreamer? Feh, I should have known. You have that annoying air about you. One of hoping and dreaming…

Dialogue 3: Are you just going to sit there and gawp at me while I work? If you have nothing better to do, here. Get me these ingredients. What? You’re worried it’s too dangerous? Well, it’s not my problem. Now go!

Dialogue 4: The end is fast approaching… I wonder, what will you do when the time comes? Will you cower in fear? Will you fight? Or will you simply accept it…? No, that’s foolish of me to ask, I know the answer.

Dialogue 5 (If you have Pinocchio): Little Pilgrim Made of Pine… The boy has apparently got it into his hollow head that he is to be my ‘conscience’. …heh. Isn’t that funny? A monster having a conscience? I’d laugh if the boy didn’t seem to mean it with all his heart…

Dialogue 6 (If you have Cinderella): Ah yes, the Persecuted Heroine… She reminds me all too much of my dear child. Such a pity, though… To have all the fortune in the world and still be unhappy. 

Dialogue 7 (If you have Red Riding Hood): The Beast of Ignorance… Yes, she summoned me to create her own Singularity. In exchange, she would give me the salvation I desperately wanted. I was a fool to think I could trust a wolf. Be that as it may… I don’t enjoy being tricked.

Dialogue 8 (If you have “Goldilocks”): Ah, it’s you… I was wondering for the longest time why you of all characters felt so out of place… To think that it would be that a fallen deity stood before me. …how irritating.

Dialogue 9 (If you have any “Angel” Servants): Have you come once more to mock me, angel? Fine. Make your jeers and your judgements, they’re all the same.

Dialogue 10 (If you have Beni-Enma): Have you come to cast your judgement on me, little sparrow? I suppose it’s only fair. But if you expect me to make it easy for you, then you are a fool.

Dialogue 11 (If you have Mephistopheles): Oh? The Demon of Faust is here as well? How interesting… What a shame that he is not a true demon, though. I suppose his trickery and deceit is entertaining enough. I wonder, clown. What tricks have you up your sleeves?

Dialogue 12 (If you have Oberon-Vortigern): You too… have lost something important to you? Ah, Titania… No, I sadly have never met a woman such as that. Have you by any chance…? No, I suppose you wouldn’t have. In any case, I wish you luck, Fairy King.

Dialogue 13 (If you have Kintoki Sakata): Golden hair… The son of a witch… And an annoyingly chipper outlook on the world. Ghhh… He’s clearly not the same, but still, he’s too familiar. I best keep away from him for now.

Dialogue 14 (If you have Nursery Rhyme): Hm? What do you want, child? …you wish for me to read you a story? … No, there are other Servants better suited to that-OW! Hey, stop pulling on my dress! Ghhh…! This is why I hate children!

Dialogue 15 (If you have Hans Christian Andersen): Hans Christian Andersen… I suppose I owe my existence partly to him. What a sad little man he is. Putting up a front of coldness and disdain, but he’s just a coward too afraid of intimacy. …hm? What do you mean ‘he reminds you of someone’?!

Dialogue 16 (If you have any other “Fairy Tale” Servants): It appears my reputation precedes me… Yes, all the looks of terror and fear surrounding me… Fufufufufu… Now this is my element!

Dialogue 17 (If you have Lostbelt Morgan): The Witch-Queen of the Britons, as I live and breathe. You may be from a time and place not of this world, but I can sense your magical talent all the same… How frightening.

Dialogue 18 (If you have any “Child” Servants): Well, well, well… Lunch has arrived. Fufufufu… Don’t worry, Master, I’m only kidding. For now, at least.

Likes: There’s no greater pleasure in this world than eating. If there’s one thing God has done right, it’s grant all creatures, great and small, the ability to eat and cook. And of course, thanks to my magic, I can change my appearance however I wish. In other words, I can eat as much as I want, and suffer none of the consequence!

Dislikes: Something I dislike? Children. They’re terrible little things, talking to you, invading your homes, taking things from you… Yes, what rotten, horrible things children are. Only good to be a meal, nothing else.

About the Holy Grail: The Holy Grail…? Hmph, do you take me for a fool? That thing is clearly cursed. To make a wish on it, one must either be desperate, or an idiot. No, my magic is more than enough to surpass that paltry little thing.

During an Event: Oho? Now what has come a-knocking at my door? My, it seems that some festivities have begun, and here I am without an invitation. This cannot stand… Come, let us go see what all the fuss is about. I happen to know a thing or two about crashing parties…

Birthday: What? Oh, you wish to celebrate your birthday with me, do you? Hmm… I suppose I can whip something up from scratch. It may be a bit of a rush, but I suppose I can indulge you just this once. Don’t expect me to make this a habit, though.

Profile:

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Once Upon a Time, in a faraway land, there was a witch. Or rather, there were many witches. Monsters that stalked the dark forests, looking for children to kidnap. Women that had sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for fantastic magical powers. Tricksters that caught victims in riddles and traps for their own sick amusement.

These stories would eventually become fused into one, a witch who would symbolize the fear all children hold in their hearts, and the looming threat that lay beyond the walls of their home. One of the few named witches, who terrorized the tales of the Brothers Grimm told to children at night. Gleefully, she tormented those who walked in her forests, cooking children for her meals, burning wayward fools who entered into her hut, and tearing families apart, all to amuse her.

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 1:

Height/Weight: 176cm • 75kg Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic • Evil Gender: Female

Once Upon a Time, in a faraway land, there was a witch. Or rather, there were many witches. Monsters that stalked the dark forests, looking for children to kidnap. Women that had sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for fantastic magical powers. Tricksters that caught victims in riddles and traps for their own sick amusement.

These stories would eventually become fused into one, a witch who would symbolize the fear all children hold in their hearts, and the looming threat that lay beyond the walls of their home. One of the few named witches, who terrorized the tales of the Brothers Grimm told to children at night. Gleefully, she tormented those who walked in her forests, cooking children for her meals, burning wayward fools who entered into her hut, and tearing families apart, all to amuse her.

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 2:

The witch's cruelty comes in many forms, some benign, some sinister. Some overt, some subtle. In some stories, she is The Devil, extending a gentle hand to bind a victim within a horrifying contract, cackling as another fool sells their soul and loses everything to her. In other tales, she is a temptress, luring children into her home with promises of sweets or enticing mysteries to solve, only to kill these innocents and use them to sate her vile hunger. In still others, she is a vain sorceress, tormenting younger beauties in envy of their purity and goodness, forcing a hero to come and save the maiden from her monstrous cruelty.

However, on very rare occasions, the witch is not the villain of the story, but rather a guide and teacher for the hero to seek out. And at times rarer still, she is a mother, a guardian, and a protector, watching over her child with the rage of a loving parent. How strange it is, that this self-admitted monster can be so versatile, how a being who claims to be heartless can come to care for anything with true love.

And here, in truth, does the story begin in earnest.

Bond Level 3:

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, the witch Dame Gothel lived, laying deep within a forest by her lonesome, relishing in the fear and terror her very name brought to the land. Mothers locked their children behind their doors, fathers carried torches and pitchforks in the night, and all prayed to God for salvation from this monster. She was content with this, all too happy to be the monster she was meant to be.

One night, the witch heard a rustling outside her door, and found that a neighbor from a nearby home had ravaged her garden, stealing the rapunzel plants and placing them in a basket. Incensed, the witch accuses the man of theft, and readied to kill him on the spot. The man, in turn, fell to his knees and begs.

"Please, miss! My wife needs to eat these plants to survive! She is to give birth soon, and I fear that she is wasting away! For the love of God, have mercy!"

The witch stayed her hand at the man’s words, but her mercy was not bourn out of kindness. Rather, she came to a terribly wicked idea. A bargain that would drive the man to the deepest pits of despair.

"Very well, I shall spare your life, but in return, I ask for one thing: your child that is to be had. I should like to keep her, and in exchange, I will let you eat of my plants."

Desperate, the man agreed, and upon the child's birth, she was given to the witch, at both mother and father’s despair. Frau Gothel took the child with her to a tower with no stairs or doors hidden deep in the forest. She named the child Rapunzel, after the very plants that secured her imprisonment to Gothel, and locked the baby into the highest room of the tower, where no man could ever hope to find her.

Bond Level 4:

Dame Gothel never truly intended to keep the child for herself. She had no use for a progeny because of her immortality, nor did she particularly want one in the first place. Children were far too noisy and prying and irritating for her to keep, that much was clear. No, if anything, the child would suffice as a meal. Perhaps not as she was now, but in due time, the baby would serve as a meal, nothing more, nothing less. It was as she was named: Rapunzel. Merely an ingredient to be cooked in a stew or served in a salad, just like all the other children before her.

And yet...

As the years went on, the child grew and grew, and Dame Gothel couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness as she watched. The child looked her in the eyes with no fear, unlike anyone else who had met her before. She did not care of the magical power she held, or the terrible atrocities she had done. No, the young Rapunzel saw no evil in her mother's eyes, and in turn, Dame Gothel beheld something she had truly begun to love. Eventually, all thoughts of eating the child were gone, and in their place were a mother's protective heart. She would shield the child from the cruelty of the world, protect her within this tower with all her might. Nothing and no one would ever lay eyes on her precious daughter, and they would live together within this tower, just the two of them.

They would all live Happily Ever After.

Alas, if only it was meant to be.

Bond Level 5:

She did not know when the man came, nor how he came to find their hiding place, or even why he climbed the tower to begin with. But it was unmistakable, the stench of that 'prince' violated the tower, just as much as he had violated her dear Rapunzel. Gothel confronted her child, and soon, the relationship between mother and daughter began to strain.

"You... You let him in here?! Moreso than that, you bear his child?! How could you do this to me?! How could you do this to yourself?!"

"Mother, I love him! And he loves me! We are to be wed, and I will not let you stand in the way of our marriage!"

"Love?! Marriage?! Rapunzel, you are a fool! You've only known him for a few months, and you're talking about marrying him?! You're just blinded by your naivete!"

"Whose fault is it then?! You call me naive, and yet you're the one who locked me in this tower, never able to see anything beyond these walls! If I am blind, then it is because you are the one who has blinded me my whole life!"

"How... dare you?! I did this all to protect you!"

"No, you did this to keep me all to yourself!"

At her daughter's words, Gothel was overcome with a monstrous rage she had not known since taking in the child. In a fit of blind rage, Gothel cut off Rapunzel's precious locks, her golden hairs falling to the ground all at once. The two fell silent as mother and daughter looked each other in the eyes. Horrified at what she had done, Gothel could not even speak a word of protest as her child left the tower, never to return again. Silently, she extended a hand towards the one person she had ever loved… And did nothing as she faded away into the dark forest.

Extra (Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”):

Upon Rapunzel's departure, the Witch of the Forest remained in the tower waiting, hoping for the day that her child would one day return, and they would live out their lives as they always had. Just the two of them together. She did not eat. She did not sleep. She did not even attempt to leave her prison of her own making.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years, and yet neither hide nor golden hair of the child had made her way home.

So, the Witch of the Story’s End did something she had never done in her long years of life: she prayed. Clasping her hands together, Dame Gothel, who had sold her soul to the Devil, who wickedly defied Heaven without remorse, begged Heaven for a sign, an answer from God that her beloved daughter would come home to her, that her family would be made whole once more. After many sleepless nights of prayer, Heaven would eventually answer Gothel’s prayers, sending an angel from on high to speak to the monstrous witch.

"Dame Gothel, wicked and cruel tormentor of mankind... You dare ask God for intercession? You, who has torn apart countless lives, murdered hundreds of children, now beg for your own child to return? Do you not realize that your daughter left you because you refused to give her happiness? That you marred her own beloved just to selfishly keep her in your tower? ... You disgust me. The only reason why I do not damn you to Hell here and now... Is because I see that no punishment could ever surpass your torment here and now. So lay here and rot until the end of your life, Dame Gothel... Forever knowing your daughter is far happier now that you are gone from her life."

Upon the angel's words, Gothel's heart had shattered into pieces. The wicked witch, who had gleefully tormented families and left them in despair, was now trapped within her own sorrow, having lost her dear Rapunzel. She had nothing to live for, nothing to smile about. Without Rapunzel, she was left as nothing more than a living corpse, left to waste away until nothing remained of her.

Never to regain her Happily Ever After.

The End.

[crownprincessoftherusalkas]

Cinderella

The story of Cinderella is often full of plotholes.

Some versions have it where it's actually the spirit of her mother providing her with fancy gowns and things, and in others it's the more widely-known and almost-never explained (I have yet to see an explanation) fairy godmother.

The fairy godmother, especially in Disney's Cinderella, is a true deus ex machina, coming in to save the day when all seems lost, with very little rhyme or reason (I still really love Disney's Cinderella). She's here to sing a song, make Cinderella's dreams come true, winds up setting Cinderella up to find a way out from her terrible life, and she's only here for one scene. Never comes back. Never talked about before or after that.

And then there's The Prince. In Disney's movie, the whole point of the ball is to force the prince to settle down (and start a family so his father, The King, can see his grandchildren), and I guess hes been avoiding it. He greets every other maiden politely, but with no discernible interest, no matter how beautiful she is,  much to the chagrin of The King and The Duke. However, when he sees Cinderella, standing in the shadows, across the ballroom, he's immediately smitten, and at the end of the night is already ready for marriage. That's just odd (and may have something to do with fairy activity? Food for thought.)

And Disney is not the only adaptation I've seen where Prince Charming is reluctant to marry until he meets Cinderella.

All in all, pretty strange when you think on it, but it's also an example: not everything in the story has to work "perfectly" to be a good story. 

[howifeltabouthim]

. . . while Agatha lay in bed, a pillow over her head, clinging to the hope that happiness would fall like a fairy godmother from a star.

Soman Chainani, from The Last Ever After

[campingwiththecharmings]

*These weren't necessarily written and/or posted in January, but that's when I read them so lol*

🔥 - explicit/mature content

Star Wars

🔥Aphelion (Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @oscarseyebrow

Salt and Sky (Poe Dameron x Reader) - @clints-lucky-arrow

Pretending (or not) (Cassian Andor x Reader) - @dameronscopilot

Taking Flight (Modern!Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

Undoing (College!Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @groguspicklejar

🔥Corner Booth (Din Djarin x F!Reader) - @magpie-to-the-morning

🔥Tender Loving Care (Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @clints-lucky-arrow

Risky Kiss (Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @dailyreverie

🔥Tender (Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

I'm Scared / 🔥Safe and Sound (Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @the-little-ewok

You Are In Love (Modern!Poe Dameron x F!Reader) - @alwritey-aphrodite

Triple Frontier

🔥Illicit Affair (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

🔥I’ll Be Back Again To Stay (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @alwritey-aphrodite

Home is a Person (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @tropes-and-tales

🔥Thank Me Later (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @writefightandflightclub

🔥Big Red Bow (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @villainvindicator

Fairy Godmother (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @tropes-and-tales

Home (Santiago Garcia x Reader) - @bullet-prooflove

🔥Good Form (Benny Miller x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

🔥Watercolor Eyes / Blocked by the Snow (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @psychedelic-ink

🔥Take Care (Santiago Garcia x F!Reader) - @wyn-n-tonic

🔥Patience (Benny Miller x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

Moon Knight

Nocturnal | To Be Alone (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @moonlight-prose

🔥First Time (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @luvpedropascal

Cute Aggression (Steven Grant x Reader) - @kittyofalltrades

🔥Fast Lane (Marc Spector x F!Reader) - @shewhohangsoutincemeteries

Stone Heart (Steven Grant x Demisexual!Reader) - @magpie-to-the-morning

🔥Fire & Desire (Jake Lockley x F!Reader) - @marc-spectorr

🔥Friends (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @foreverinadais

A Sunday Kind of Love (Marc Spector x Reader) - @moonlight-prose

First Snow (Jake Lockley x Reader) - @softlyspector

🔥Forbidden Delights (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

🔥Spirals and Skin (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @clints-lucky-arrow

Purloin (Marc Spector x Reader) - @laters-gators

🔥Say It Too (Marc Spector x F!Reader) - @astroboots

🔥Gold Skinned and Eager (Steven Grant x F!Reader) - @fettuccin-e

Tales Untold (Marc Spector x Reader) - @softlyspector

Egg Fried Rice (Marc Spector x F!Reader) - @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction

A Simple Misunderstanding (Jake Lockley x Reader) - @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction

Do You Want to Dance? (Steven Grant x Reader) - @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction

Ex Machina

Amende Honorable (Nathan Bateman x Reader) - @laters-gators

The Last of Us

🔥Mule (Joel Miller x F!Reader) - @laters-gators

🔥Radio Static (Joel Miller x F!Reader) - @foli-vora

🔥The Light is Blinding (Joel Miller x F!Reader) - @writefightandflightclub

🔥Code Breaker (Joel Miller x F!Reader) - @inklore

🔥Told (Joel Miller x F!Reader) - @the-ginger-hedge-witch

Tulsa King

🔥Just Like That (Mitch Keller x F!Reader) - @dameronscopilot

The Bourne Legacy

Long Promised Road (David/Outcome 3 x Reader) - @nowritingonthewall

Thank you to all the wonderful writers for sharing their stories with us 🥰❤️

*For more recs, please feel free to check out my fic rec tag.

**If you'd like to have your fic removed from the list, I completely understand, just let me know

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Tattercoats

Favorite Thing About Them: I like that she's a Cinderella character who has a real relationship with her "fairy godfather" figure, the Gooseherd. People always ask "Why doesn't Cinderella's fairy godmother come to her sooner?" Well, in this variant, her helper is there from the beginning, and is her best friend. Presumably he waited to use his magic until it could help her in the best possible way, but in the meantime, she has his emotional support all along.

I also love the idea of a magic flute's music being used to transform her rags into a ballgown. Maybe it's my attachment to the opera The Magic Flute that makes me particularly enjoy it, but I think that's a very charming and creative form of magic for a Cinderella type of story to use.

Least Favorite Thing About Them: That she has to be bullied by the household servants as well as neglected in rags by her grandfather, poor thing. Most Cinderella retellings that have actual servants in the house portray them as being good friends to Cinderella, just powerless to stop her abuse (e.g. in Three Wishes for Cinderella or Ever After). It's horrible that these servants are so cruel instead.

Three Things I Have In Common With Them:

I like music.

I like elegant parties.

I think geese are nice birds.

Three Things I Don't Have In Common With Them:

I'm not blonde.

I'm not an orphan.

My grandparents all adored me when they were alive.

Favorite Line:

When the Prince first declares his love for her:

"You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife! Go and ask one of the great ladies you will see tonight at the king's ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats."

brOTP: The Gooseherd and the Nurse. In crossover-land, she might obviously be good friends with Cinderella, Donkeyskin, or any other rags-to-riches heroine.

OTP: The Prince.

nOTP: Her grandfather.

Random Headcanon: After her mother died in childbirth, her distraught grandfather blamed her father as well as her, and he either killed him in an insane fit of rage, or else her father left because he was afraid that would happen. This is why he isn't around.

Unpopular Opinion: Her story deserves to be adapted more often. I understand why it's not, because it's so similar to Cinderella, but it has great potential. In the first place, because the magical helper isn't just a deus ex machina, but Tattercoats's best friend whom she has a close relationship with from the start. Secondly, because a grandfather's scorn could be even more painful and poignant than a stepmother's. Third, because the Prince meets and falls in love with Tattercoats in her rags before the ball – so many Cinderella retellings change the story to make this happen, but here it already does.

Song I Associate With Them: None at the moment.

Favorite Picture of Them:

This illustration by Arthur Rackham:

This illustration by John D. Batten:

This book cover illustration by Margaret Chamberlain (my fifth grade teacher had this book in her collection of Cinderella variations rom around the world):

This illustration by Margaret Tomes:

This illustration by Shirley Hughes:

This illustration by an unknown artist:

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

"..." a frown took residency in Nami's face, all because of the story in her hands. Raven should be glad that she had the patience of an inhuman being otherwise she would have crumpled this piece of parchment and chuck it out of the window.

"I don't understand." She sighed in a frustated manner and handed Raven his story. "Don't get me wrong, it's not how you wrote the story it's what you wrote in it. Why do you give the main character of this story such a depressing fate? To wave the promise of a happy ending infront of them only to take it away as soon as it touched their fingertips.."

"Reading that story made me want to become their fairy godmother. Take away their curse and get revenge on that traitorous bastar- Um, sorry." Nami's face fell even more as a theory began to sink in, "By any chance, does this story happen to be inspired by a true event you or someone close to you had experienced?"

[This post references Raven’s curse/backstory, which you can read about here!]

***Art is by tinyfantasminha!***

Raven was very familiar with paper—how it folded and crinkled and creased, and all the sounds it made. He could tell that something was grinding Nami’s gears, if the harsh indentation left on his story was any indication. When she handed the draft back to him, he raised a questioning eyebrow, but said nothing until finally prompted.

“... I don’t know what to tell you. That is just how this story goes,” Raven replied coolly. “The notion of every tale ending in a happily ever after is unrealistic. Moreover, if every story were to have a happy ending, then ‘happiness’ itself would lose its meaning, its coveted status as something to be sought out and treasured.

“Fiction is an escape from harsh reality, but it is also an avenue for exploring concepts which would otherwise mortify us in real life. Making the wrong decisions, having your heart broken and bridges burned, failing despite all your efforts, confronting death... And, sometimes, it is necessarily to witness the downfall of a character, whether to cope with a similar situation or to avoid meeting a similar fate.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed. “Please. If lifting the protagonist’s curse was as simple as a Fairy Godmother waving a magic wand, they would have been relieved of their burden a long time ago. That’s such an obvious deux ex machina.

“It also does you no good to be upset at the characters. A good story will certainly spark emotions, but... fixating on what you feel for the characters can lead you down a destructive path. Characters are just characters and nothing more than that. When you turn your back on the story, they stop existing—but what will stick with you are their actions. Learn from them, but do not dwell in the past with them.”

Raven’s cool expression slightly faltered at Nami’s question. He considered himself a calm and collected bird—but there was something about the way she said it that sounded in his hollowed heart and unnerved him.

Soft and small and awaiting to be swallowed by darkness. So pure in its curiosity that it almost hurt to listen to.

“... It came to me in a dream. No, maybe a nightmare,” he, at last, responded. “Yes... a nightmare sounds about right.”

His own living nightmare—words Raven refused to let out into the waking world.

[robininthelabyrinth]

ahaha, genuinely delighted by your use of the xuanwu of slaughter as a diabolus ex machina. it's so appropriate!!!

Isn’t it? :D And Nie Huaisang as the unwitting fairy godmother :)

[slayerscake]

What Vox Machina did on their summer vacation:

Grog

Got a bear tattoo on his back (the one Kevdak had)

Made a cup out of Kevdaks skull

Went to Vasselheim and defended his title in the Crucible. Said no to train his ex.

Went to the Slayers Take and fought some stuff.

Found a very, very lucky soul to pull a card from the Deck of Many Things (NPC got two wishes). Basically became his fairy godmother.

Pike

Went with Grog to Vasselheim. Checked on her temple.

Joined Grog in the Crucible. Became the 2nd champion under Grog

Thought Grog how to read (a little)

Learned how to be a bit more stealthy

Checked in on Wilhand. Fassbender has been reclaimed.

Sent some money to extended family (Pike plot)

Opened a bakery with Vex, Tary and Keyleth, called: The Slayers Cake.

Vex

Tried to find baby Grey Render. Found it but failed to tame it.

Built her house

Tary moved in

Became the ambassador to Syngorn for Whitestone. Now has a teleportation circle in her house.

Trying to make amends with her father.

Had Tary enchant Voragol scale armor for her

Did a lot of research on the Raven Queen

Vax

Chilled in Zephra

Got a tattoo of some antlers

Met up at Whitestone about once a month

Went to Vasselheim and spent time at the Raven Queen's temple.

Spent time with with each member of the gang.

Keyleth

Got a tattoo of her mantle on her back

Helped create the Crisis Orbs

Took a sprig from the Sun Tree to grow her own trees back home.

Spent some time improving her alchemy

Took some trips with Vax.

Took Vex, Vax, Tary and Pike to the theatre in the Feywild

Percy

Is now taking some responsibility over Whitestone. Created the Chamber of Whitestone.

Hired Tary to help run his workshop

Started working on new projects

Failed at making new glasses

Had Tary make him new glasses.

Created a royal guard but with guns

Is trying to turn Whitestone into a steampunk city

Tary

Was basically everyone's bitch and enchanted and helped with everyones projects

Built Doty 2.0 (with the help of Percy). Doty can now speak. And can fire a gun. Once.

Embedded some Umbrasyl scales into his armor.

Made an earing so that he can talk to the rest of the group.

Made his own flying broom.

Wrote in his book. A lot.

[yddraigwyllt]

8, 19, 48 for the Creators Ask game? :)

Thanks for asking! These are such good questions so I definitely made a bunch of mistakes while answering it))

8: List the 5 things you love the most about your creations

*disclaimer: it’s just my opinion about my own works, and it isn’t necessarily true, but...”

Ambiguity. I write about many different things, and I always try to make my texts complicate in a way; it’s a complicate world and it’s not just about black and white (ironically I like b&w in visual art, yup). I’m trying to write about people, and people are complicated too, they have their own motives, hurts, loves, etc. - and if we look on them closer we’ll realize there is no clear answer. World, just like people, is a spectrum of everything.

Psychology. I have a strange addiction to characters of any kind. For me, any character is like a real person, live and breathe - on pages or screens, doesn’t matter. And every person has its own nature, personality traits, experience, hopes, fears - well, everything. It’s not just a muppet I can put into a random situation just for fun (even if I want fun, there should be a reason why the character does what (s)he does - a set of coincidence, occasions, events, that sort of things). That’s why I’m trying to make my text psychological. 

Disturbing themes. Like I said, the world is complicated, and it contains many things. I don’t write only about disturbing themes, but I often refer to them, because I think it needs to be discussed. I can’t just close my eyes and pretend it never existed. Every single person faced ugly things at least one time (at best), so the least I can do - to write about it.

Realism. Relates to the previous thing. In the real world (how many times I write the word “world” here? xD) there are no magicians, miracles, fairy godmothers, artifacts, and magic wands; no deux ex machina. There are some laws, spinning the wheel of everything, and we can’t ignore them. And I like it. It feels real, I can almost touch this feeling by my fingers. Even if I write, er, about non-real things (werewolves, witches, magic, so on) I rely on these laws. They are different from case to case, but they still exist. And for me, it’s challenging and therefore more interesting.

Connection of people. It is my kink, I admit it. I adore situations, where one person meets another, and some kind of connection magic arises; one deeply understand another in a subconscious level, truly sees her/him, and accept her/him in her/his imperfect. Strong attraction (not just sexual - personal, I think) in every possible way, I can say.

19: Do you like mixing up your style and trying new stuff, or do you prefer to have a more consistent style?

I like to try new things, yes. It is challenging, and I like a good challenge)) In my native language, I have a kinda experimental compilation of works, short ones, where I write whatever I want to. I write stories with a limited number of words, I experiment with grammar, tenses, POVs, visual solution of text (like, I use brackets though it’s considered as a “bad” way to write) and so one; several times I even wrote poetry, even if I know I am bad in it xD Some of this things work quite good and I bring them into a “serious” texts))

48: What inspired you to start creating at first?

Hard question, it stunned me xD I’ve started to write in a middle school, and my very first story was about a vampire girl)) I know it because I found it on my hard drive recently xD 

I think I was charmed by the possibility to create something that doesn’t exist yet; to tell the story that no one can tell but me. After that, when I found myself on a border with “real writing”, I realize that I want to write about things that, err, worried me, bothering me, I suppose. Dark things, debatable things, hard things; I think, this is my way of looking for answers - and finding people who wonder about the same things. 

[movie-titlecards]

Maleficent (2014)

My rating: 5/10

Weirdly generic, with some truly nightmarish CGI (those fairy godmothers, though.), and for a movie that's all about delving into the villain's side of the story, the villains of this story are remarkably one-dimensional and devoid of real motivation. Also, I don't think they ever explained why her wings grew back, so that was a pretty shameless deus ex machina.

[bxebxee]

Why Cinderella Is Important To Me, an Informal Essay

There are some feminists who are vocal opponents of Disney princesses like Cinderella. Before I really go into why Cinderella is important (to me), I think it’s important to recognize that without the work of the feminists of the 60s/70s/80s/90s...etc., the world would truly be a worse-off place, and I am FOREVER grateful for all of their contributions. The world is not perfect, and neither is feminism. Older feminists got (and continue to get) a lot of important, good things right, but some of their views concerning Disney princesses in general rubs me the wrong way. (The article linked is from 2006, so take it with a grain of salt. I will reference this later.) 

I think there are some key generational differences in feminist culture of women who were born in the 70s versus women who were born in the 80s, and certainly for all women moving forward. When we are born into a society with a set standard (whatever that standard may be), we respond in a different way, and our priorities/activist attention will be centered on other issues. I recommend that everyone read this really good take by Anne Marie Slaughter concerning women, the workplace, and living. This article does a better job at explaining this than I could ever possibly hope to do. 

I don’t like to block-quote, but this is POWERFUL stuff from Anne Marie Slaughter: 

I owe my own freedoms and opportunities to the pioneering generation of women ahead of me—the women now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who faced overt sexism of a kind I see only when watching Mad Men, and who knew that the only way to make it as a woman was to act exactly like a man. To admit to, much less act on, maternal longings would have been fatal to their careers. But precisely thanks to their progress, a different kind of conversation is now possible. It is time for women in leadership positions to recognize that although we are still blazing trails and breaking ceilings, many of us are also reinforcing a falsehood: that “having it all” is, more than anything, a function of personal determination.

Okay, now to the fun stuff. 

Let me summarize Cinderella:

Cinderella (Cindy) is a rich, privileged girl who lives with her single-parent father because her mother died when she was just a baby. Cindy lives in a de-facto castle with a Pony. Her dad is hella rich, and since he adores her, she’s probably the sole beneficiary. 

The dad feels guilty that Cindy doesn’t have a mom and then unilaterally decides to marry some woman for the sole purpose of having her act as a mother to his kid. Note: in the Disney movie, it’s expressly stated that Cindy’s dad went out looking for a mom replacement - nothing more. 

The dad dies. Cindyis then “abused and humiliated” by the stepmother and made into a servant in her own home. 

Cindy’s room is in the servant quarters. She hangs out with rodents and birds and basically lives at the whim of her terrible stepfamily. She has no life and does menial labor for people who make her life miserable. 

But One Day, there’s this Ball she wants to go to, and her stepmom is terrible human being who taunts Cindy by saying she can go if she has a dress. Note: this serves two purposes - (1) it’s a way of saying no; and (2) it’s a way of rubbing it in Cindy’s face that she has nothing and is nothing. 

Big theme that’s always repeated and is relatively true is that Cindy stays “kind and good” throughout all of this and perseveres through sheer “goodness” of her heart. Because she’s “kind and good” to the animals, they make a dress for her using the scraps luxury goods lying around the house. 

The stepsisters assault Cindy and rip the dress from her body. This is violent and humiliating, and tbh you should be locked up if you pull this shit! Anyway, they stepfam leave for the ball after twisting the knife and Cindy is miserable and probably at the Brink. 

Important: The Fairy Godmother makes an appearance and saves the day. I want to stress that it is not the prince who ends up saving Cinderella, but rather the Fairy Godmother. Without FairyG, you don’t have a happy ending. 

The Fairy Godmother is the one who presents the magical Deus Ex Machina for Cindy to get her life for one night. But FairyG knows that Cindy is a hot girl who’s been thoroughly sheltered for her entire life, so she gives a curfew of midnight. “The magic will wear out” is such bullshit tbh like just say you don’t want Cindy out too late. 

Cindy loses 1 slipper in her rush to get home, and that sets off the whole Find Cindy arc of the last 1/3 of the movie. 

The prince is so fucking into Cindy omg. He wants to wife her. 

Eventually, the search crew gets to Cindy’s place, but stepmom catches wind that Cindy might be mystery gal. Cindy gets locked in the tower but she breaks free due to the help from her animal friends!!

Stepmom trips the guy holding the glass slipper, causing the slipper to SHATTER so that Cindy doesn’t put it on. But stepmom is a cuck who doesn’t know Cindy is a real bitch with a backup plan. 

Cindy pulls out the spare shoe she has, puts it on, and we montage to the marriage scene and happily ever after. 

The supposed message that is distasteful to a lot of people is that Cinderella is a girl who doesn’t have a dream outside of marriage and aspires to being someone’s wife as her ultimate goal. She escapes one servitude for another. In THIS article, which I linked above as well, the author says this about Cinderella when she talks to her daughter: “It’s just, honey, Cinderella doesn’t really do anything.” 

Cinderella’s "Passivity” Explained: 

Now I agree with a lot of things in that article, but I am purposely pulling out that one quote because it Pisses Me Off when people categorize Cinderella as some jobless shut-in. 

Cinderella wasn’t like this by choice. Her dad died when she was too young to be independent, and her new guardian was a terrible human being who basically kept her around for inheritance purposes. Cindy was not financially independent, nor did she have any power. Let’s really consider her background!!! If her father thought that she “needed” a mother, he probably never taught her anything about finances or her rights (assuming we’re in an era where those existed). Like... I can see he loved her very much, but what it’s a very 1950s thought to assume your kid needs both a mother and a father. (Cinderella was released in 1950 LOL.) 

So Cinderella’s real problems started because her dad made incredibly poor choices related to co-parenting. And for all of the stepmother’s faults, maybe it pissed her off that she was only being wifed because this guy wanted her to act as a glorified nanny for his brat. The stepmother is still terrible though, no excuses. Anyway, it’s evident that Cinderella’s childhood and adolescence were not happy times, and she had very little time to adjust to this new world order. 

x

“Good and Kind” is Misleading: 

Cinderella is part of the union of Nice Princesses, the OG3 of Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. You have feisty Disney princesses like Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Merida...etc., and then you have girls like Cindy. 

One of the main themes of Cinderella that they push really hard is that she’s a good person. She’s kind, hopeful, and doesn’t let the meanness of the world change her. Her purity is related to purity of spirit, where the negative circumstances around her do not turn her heart towards bitterness. Check out this song for the proof. 

I agree that she’s a good person, but throughout the movie you’ll see a lot of places where Cindy gets snarky and shady!!! I mean the FACES that she makes when her stepmother gives her ridiculous chores: 

(You can watch the full vid here. Also, can you believe how hilarious that this face appears right at 4:20? LOL) 

“Good and Kind” doesn’t mean she’s not sneaky when she wants to be. There’s this one scene where Cinderella drops a tray of tea in “surprise” at the news that the duke is going around testing feet sizes of all the maidens. Now, I’ve seen Cinderella balance three loads of laundry while avoiding a nasty cat who always tries to trip her. She didn’t look like she dropped it in surprise because she HARDLY jumped. I guess you can say maybe she was so out of it and surprised that nothing else registered, but my take is that she dropped it on purpose to eavesdrop on the stepmother. 

Cinderella’s version of sneaky is also kinda funny too because when she escapes the tower, she has that other glass slipper with her. A Real Bitch Is Always Prepared!!!! And she had the nerve to chirp “if it would help~~~”

I love her. 

x

Cindy is Not Perfect:

The one thing I will say about Cindy is that she is Naive. She is Naive as HELL. She does try to believe in the goodness of all people/animals, and she gives people the benefit of the doubt. But she’s terrible at hiding her emotions when she’s happy. She’s transparent as Glass whenever she’s in a good mood, and she gets Radiant. The stepmother cannot stand this, and it kills her to see Cinderella happy. 

The only reason Cinderella gets locked in the tower right before the duke shows up with the slipper she left behind is because the stepmother notices Immediately when Cinderella is happy. The stepmom has this sixth sense for it, and she puts together two and two to figure out that Cinderella was the Mystery Gal from the ball. 

x

The Prince is Irrelevant:

People also dislike OG3 princess movies because the prince “saves” the princess for her happily ever after. I want to stress that it was the Fairy Godmother who was the mvp in all of this. The prince is an Afterthought, and he was a happy accident for Cinderella, but the person who made it all possible was the Fairy Godmother. 

I will always say that Cinderella was craving a life, not a man.

But back up for a second because frankly... Cinderella getting with the fucking prince is Peak Revenge on her terrible stepfam. I mean you have Cinderella who has lived the better part of her life as an abused servant-orphan suddenly getting married to the prince, who will probably have political and financial power over these terrible people. Also, can the stepfam do any better than the royal family? Probably not. Even at the ending, Cinderella flat out kisses the king’s head as if he was a child. The duke is probably pissing himself over keeping her happy because she basically saved his life by pulling out that the shoe letting him complete his task successfully. She has EVERYONE in the royal family eating out of her palm.

x

Conclusions: 

On a personal level, I feel emotional fondness for Cinderella because she hangs in there. She endured a lot of bullshit, but she eventually got out. That’s the happy ending that gives me hope. Marriage/finding a man is not what drives satisfaction of that movie. We cheer because Cinderella gets to leave her abusers behind in the dust while living her best life. 

SHE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER! 

The End!

[themousefromfantasyland]

I love everything about this movie. The way they handle Cinderella's story, the way the Fairy Godmother feels like an actual mentor instead of just a Deus Ex-Machina, and the way they have a colorful and diverse cast without having to focus on race.

But the thing that gets me are the costumes and the set design. It's so colorful, whimsical and just plainly unreal. It's perfect for a fairy tale

Tonight was the 25th Anniversary special of Cinderella

And it's the best adaption of any Cinderella hands down

It's still relevant, the songs are amazing, and it's hilarious. It also helps when you have Whitney Houston, Bernadette Peters, Whoopi Goldberg, and Brandy in the cast.

Now if we can only get a soundtrack release, that'll be great

As the Fairy Godmother says "Impossible! Things are happening every day!"

[theomnilegent]

Drag Teen by Jeffery Self - review

Drag Teen was Jeffery Self’s first young adult novel, the story of an insecure young gay man finding his place in the world. It is a lighthearted, quirky, occasionally laugh-out-loud little book, and it was an easy read on an evening in the library when I had no work to do.

This book isn’t bogged down with exposition – it is a very breezy novel, with a fast moving plot centered on JT, an aspiring young drag queen, Seth, his supportive (and sometimes a little too perfect) boyfriend, and Heather, his overweight and lovable best friend. JT wants, more than anything, to leave his homophobic small town and go off to college, which is a familiar story I’m sure a lot of LGBTQ+ readers will relate to. His best friend and boyfriend hatch a plot to get him there: winning Miss Drag Teen USA, a drag competition held in New York City. The three set off on a road trip to make JT’s dreams come true.

There was very little sense of tension in this book, however. Every conflict that arose was quickly managed by either our three crafty protagonists, or a sudden deus ex machina in the form of a drag fairy godmother, an aging country star, or pretty much anything else the author could pull from his arse and set upon the page. I enjoyed the story very much, don’t get me wrong – but it had no real drama or tension outside of that which was created by the characters, between each other. JT’s journey from teen with low self esteem to beautiful, charismatic drag queen was a given, but it was just a touch unrealistic, and happened overnight. We see how he gets there, but it’s like, one makeup lesson and suddenly he’s a contouring master? One singing lesson and he can belt his heart out, ignoring all the stage fright he’s been shown to have previously?  It makes JT’s personal development a little flat.

The supporting characters weren’t particularly memorable. Seth isn’t given much characterisation beyond being the only other gay kid in town, and being wholeheartedly supportive of everything JT does. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted to see a happy, healthy gay relationship in fiction, and I was extremely glad to see JT’s insecurities about their relationship worked on and resolved in the novel, but it was all about JT. We never really get to see who Seth is. As for Heather, she’s the fat best friend who is full of self-loathing and poor life choices – and god bless her for it, because girl, we’ve all been there. That being said, though, her actively seeking out guys who are much, much older than her just because they give her attention? Not cool. A little creepy. Definitely not my favourite part of the book, though a lot of her banter with JT perfectly encapsulated the teenage voice.

As for the things I loved about this book – the numerous shout-outs (some obvious, some more subtle) to Rupaul’s Drag Race and the New York drag scene, the Club Kids, and notable gay icons were really well done. JT’s characterisation was a really well done look into the mind of a teenage gay guy in this day and age, probably because the author is a young gay man who first rose to prominence through YouTube. It definitely reads like it was written by someone who knows firsthand what this life is like. Unfortunately, some of the constant references to social media kind of come across as pandering, like an adult using outdated slang to seem cool.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and found it to be a really simple read. It wasn’t overly complicated, but it did rely a little heavily on random bouts of good luck to keep the plot moving. I really appreciated the happy ending, which is something often overlooked in YA literature these days. It was, in fact, probably the most realistic part of the story. It was really refreshing to read a YA novel about queer characters that ended with a unanimous happy ending.

[awed-frog]

I read on a confession blog that there's been foreshadowing this season for both/or Cas and Crowley dying and I was surprised but I'm really bad at media reading so I wanted to ask you since you are very clever. Have you seen foreshadowing and could you point me to specific examples? Thank you!

Hi and thank you for saying that! I’m not sure I’m all that clever, but I’ll certainly do my best to answer your question.

So, someone asked me last week about Crowley dying - I guess Mark said something I missed - and you can find my answer here. All I can add is that, narratively speaking, Crowley is still an antagonist (sort of), and since this is not a Haneke movie, the arc for antagonists generally ends in three ways: a bad death, a good death or redemption. What I mean by that is that a villain can be brought down as his schemes are foiled by the hero (sort of what happened to Ruby, for instance, and also Zachariah and Raphael), or they can have a change of heart and sacrifice themselves for the hero (Meg, Gabriel), or they can somehow earn a complete redemption and a happy ending (as was the case, briefly, for characters such as Benny and Cain). 

The way things are going, Crowley is being paralleled with Cas in that he too will soon(ish) have a choice to make: his destiny, or something else. I mean - just as Cas was programmed to be a loyal soldier of Heaven and help out with the Apocalpyse and still feels that pull to stand by his brothers, Crowley is brought low and pushed into ‘sin’ by his demonic nature. In the past, it was always obvious that whatever he did, his motivations were largely selfish. Sometimes I wonder if this changed after that ‘summer of love’ with demon!Dean - I think that was the moment Crowley truly realized that there was no way to trick his way into this one: if he wanted Dean’s affection and friendship, he had to earn it the old-fashioned way - the human way. He’d tried binding Dean to him before that - he’d blackmailed him and forced him to do his bidding in one way or another - and I’m sure Crowley always low-key thought, because how could he not, that what was preventing Dean from being fully his was that stupid heart of his - so big, and always, always bloody bleeding. So when Dean turned - that must have been a dream come true. Only, well, we know how it ended, and since then Crowley’s being trying both to be like Dean (exhibit a, a sudden interest in his long lost family: the old Crowley would have killed Rowena by now) and truly act for Dean, even against his own interests, because this is what you do for your friends: you love them and support them, no matter the cost. In this sense, Crowley saving Cas’ life was perhaps the most significant bout of character development we’ve seen on this show. This is why I’m not sure Crowley can truly take a step back now - we know he hates ruling Hell, after all, and I think we’ve never met a demon he actually likes, so his only logical way is forward - towards humanity (and ‘humanity’). As to whether this will mean his death - for the reasons listed above, I think we can rule out the ‘bad death’ by now, but I’m not sure they’re planning for Crowley to survive the show. He is clever, perhaps the cleverest of them all, but he also overestimates himself, and he’s way too emotional for his own good, so all these things are dangerous. Also - does he have someone who’d take a bullet for him if the time came? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. Maybe him saving Cas is foreshadowing Dean (finally) feeling some obligation towards Crowley and coming to his help later in the season (I don’t think he would have bothered otherwise, to be honest), but I’m not holding my breath. No, given the general landscape of this stupid show, I’m going to expect a ‘good death’ for Crowley - but I’d love, love love to be proven wrong.

(As to when that would happen: I’m hoping, as late as possible, and it would make sense, because Crowley is a great character to keep around - we don’t know much about him, so you can make him do and know unpredictable stuff and have him act like a daemon ex machina whenever needed. Plus, Mark’s great and gets along with everybody, so fingers crossed.)

As for Cas, things are a bit different.

Cas is no longer an antagonist, but he’s not a protagonist either. He’s a helper, but his personality and character’s journey are deeply interwoven with Dean’s, which complicates predicting what he’ll do next. Traditionally, the role of the helper is -

- to help the hero. They don’t have much of a scope beyond that, and, as for their fate, they can either bugger off into the sunset once the crown has been recovered and the prince has married the princess, or they can give their life for the cause (or, if not their life, suffer a heavy loss of some sort so the protagonist can go on with his quest: think Ron Weasley being beaten bloody by a six-foot chess queen, or Elliot Waugh renouncing his homosexuality so Quentin Coldwater can - hopefully - save the day). Most of the time helpers sacrifice themselves willingly, but this is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than an actual rule. To me, the most horrifying exception will always be Medea chopping her brother to pieces so she and Jason can escape with the Golden Fleece.

Now, as I said things go a lot deeper with Cas, because he’s not only Dean’s helper, but also Dean’s princess. His fate ultimately depends a) on which one of these two roles will prevail and b) on what kind of show Supernatural even is. 

If it turns out this was a tragedy all along, then Cas is fucked. It doesn’t even matter if he’s a helper or a princess - he’ll die in either case, because this is the endgame: for Dean and Sam to lose everything, and/or to die themselves.

If Supernatural is a quest thing, then the situation is a bit more hopeful. If TPTB get their heads out of their arses, Dean and Cas can get married in a darling little chapel and eat wedding pie until they burst, and if TPTB decide to no homo the entire story and pretend nothing ever happened, Cas will probably get a satisfying ending of his own, because quests generally end well for (mostly) everyone involved.

Finally, if Supernatural is actually the longest and most painful coming-of-age drama your side of the Atlantic (the one on my own side being The Odyssey, in a sense), then - I don’t know. Personally, I think Cas is someone who’s made Dean more mature, and more in touch with his feelings, and yet he’s not a father figure, so he can stay (and again, snog Dean into the next century or become a gardener or something), but it can be argued that the ways Cas is helping Dean to grow are, after all, a surrogate for parenthood (for instance, we have Cas getting Dean to ‘pray’ and have faith and believe in himself, like his parents should have done if Dean had had a normal, healthy childhood), which means his role will ultimately disappear when Dean is ‘old enough’ to make it on his own. Think fairy godmother, for instance. This view is supported, among other things, by the fact that the role Sully played for Sam was heavily paralleled to the present day relationship between Dean and Cas.

(However, if this is what they wanted to do, they had the perfect occasion at the end of S8 with that ‘E.T. goes home’ comment. The fact they didn’t seize what was a golden opportunity to make Cas disappear from Dean’s life in that kind ‘you don’t need me anymore, you’re all grown up now’ way leads me to think this is not where they’re going at all.)

As to when this will happen - again, Cas is a flexible character, he’s got a sizable fanbase and Misha gets along with everybody. The only problem they have with him are these cyclical accusations of queerbaiting they bring down upon themselves - and the fact that, judging from his emotional post-election day speech, Misha will want to do something else at some point. As I said, though - his arc is so strongly tied to Dean’s that I see a high likelyhood of Cas sticking around till the very end. Whether we’ll be happy about this, well - we know how things go with this show.