#just thinking about how rapunzel was said by one of the creators to be a role model for boys and girls and people in general

[always-a-joyful-note]

I was re-listening to Tangled the Series' Girl Who Has Everything song and it really just struck me how....incredibly grateful Rapunzel is. Like at this point in the series, she's still has lost one of her best friends to the darkness and is dealing with an uncertain looming threat. But there's still her beloved's birthday to celebrate, her friend group is still so large, she has her parents, she's got Eugene, Pascal's still there, and even with all the danger and threats and tragedies that have befallen her she's still so thankful to where she's come to!

And I love her so much for that because her gratitude for her life has always been a part of her, even in the tower. I know the movie is all about how Rapunzel discovers the beautiful world she's been caged from, but at the same time, I love that she's still so grateful for her life even while stuck in the tower and how it coexists with her longing to go out and see the world. It's like she's telling us that we can still be thankful for life in the worst situations, that longing for something more and gratitude are not mutually exclusive. You can long for something that's just in reach or that you know you can never get but STILL be thankful for what you have and I love that so much about our sunshine princess

[tangledbea]

I found this interesting post talking about Varians' age and the general series timeline.

Link: https://www.tumblr.com/rachelbethhines/623037451732123648/tangled-timeline?source=share

There are some interesting tidbits, and I have questions about a few of them. The OP references Varians fanon birthday of March 24, which makes sense when discussing Varians' age, but they also reference Rapunzel having a fanon birthday of May 12th. I know about the Varian birthday headcanon, but is this a common birthday headcanon for Rapunzel? If not your headcanon of the summer solstice, I would've figured people would headcanon her birthday being in July or August because it is canonically in summer. If it is a common headcanon, why May? Isn't that a bit early?

It also talks about S3s timeline a lot, particularly Coronan holidays that happened more than once in the series. The post says the day of hearts is 6 months after Rapunzels birthday, yet it's just a few episodes after Rapunzels return (the S3 premiere may not have involved Rapunzels birthday, but it definitely happened arounf that time.) I can explain the S1 goodwill festival happening 6 months after Rapunzels 18th birthday and S2 goodwill festival happening a few weeks after her 19th because it wasn't the real Coronan event, it was something Rapunzel planned in Varados. But the other holiday discrepancies can't be explained this way. So this post says S3 takes place over 2 years instead of 1 like the other seasons. It also says "the series creators" said 4 seasons were originally planned instead of 3. This is why S3 is theorized to take place over 2 years. Thus, due to this extra year, Varian would be 17-18 at the end of S3, not 16-17, as many people think. It would end on Rapunzels 22nd birthday, not her 21st. But is this true? Were 4 seasons originally planned? Was S3 meant to be 2 years instead of 1 as a result?

Also, sorry again if this is really long.

(Lately, I've been finding myself apologizing a lot at the end of these long asks, ever since you said you were gonna turn off anon. I don't even know why I'm apologizing, I know you don't mind...)

Let's tackle this one question at a time.

If you Google Rapunzel's birthday, you'll get May 12th. This is because someone at some point read the star charts she painted on her ceiling in the movie to determine her birthday and decided it meant her birthday was May 12th (for some reason -- I can't read star charts, so I have no idea how they're getting that). I, frankly, like my headcanon for her birthday much more and completely ignore the May 12th thing. It's not her official birthday, though, any more than the summer solstice is.

No one who worked on the series ever said the series was going to be four seasons. No one. Ever. At some point, towards the end of season three, people started saying there would be a season four, partly because they really wanted one (even though it had only ever been planned to be three seasons), and likely partly because originally the series was announced to have more episodes than it ended up having. I more than covered in my FAQ why this is. And therefore, S3 was not meant to take place over the course of two years. S1 is six months, S2 is (approximately) one year, and S3 is (approximately) one year when you include the epilogue (even though we don't know how long after the end of the episode the epilogue takes place). Varian is 14-15 in S1, 15-16 in S2 and 16-17 in S3. Or, alternately, he might be 13-14 in S1, 14-15 in S2 and 15-16 in S3. After all, we don't know when his birthday is, and since the series begins six months after Rapunzel's return, we don't know if his birthday falls before or after hers in the calendar year.

As for the inconsistencies of the holidays, have people even seen the writing of that show? It's inconsistent. They literally do what they want when they want. Maybe the Day of Hearts is based on a lunar cycle, rather than on a day on the calendar, and so the date it falls on fluctuates. Maybe the episodes aired out of order (some of them definitely did). There is definitely an inconsistent amount of time between episodes. It's not like one episode takes place every two weeks.

Maybe the fans just put more thought into it than the writers did.

[takkapakka]

Cassandra (Tangled) and queercoding

Interacting with the TTS fandom, everyone (including myself honestly) seems to agree that Cass is a lesbian. It’s not canon, because Disney sucks, but the coding is generally viewed to be pretty strong to the point that it’s taken to be canon in every way but on paper. Despite being such a popular view though there was absolutely nothing online that I could find (apart from a deleted tumblr post linked on reddit) that actually specified the exact coding that lead people to think this??? So, I decided that I would myself try to compile some of the reasons that might lead people to view her as a lesbian. This might be complete nonsense, but I am a huge fan of Cass and the show in general, and I just wanted to think a bit deeper about what it is, exactly, about her character that made so many lgbtq+ folks latch onto her as representation within the show. Also on top of already being extremely technologically illiterate this is my first ever post on here so excuse any issues on that part.

First off, just to preface this I think I want to outline my thoughts about coding in general. I think the line can often blur between stereotyping and queercoding, but I think queercoding is different to stereotyping because coding generally happens when someone creating an lgbtq+ character is physically not allowed or unable to say the character is queer. Obviously stereotyping is a pretty major problem within portrayal of marginalised groups in the media, but for gay characters (who are more often that not created by people who are lgbtq+ themselves) it can sometimes be the only way to actually express to your audience that you did intend for the character to be interpreted as gay without outright saying it because, as I said before, this may be something you are just unable to do. Tangled is a Disney property, which is known for being pretty homophobic and overall just majorly limiting gay characters in their media, which means that it must be hard for someone wishing to portray a queer character to do so. Having to lean into stereotypes to express a character as being queer sucks, but I personally think there’s a big difference between using stereotypes on a canonically queer character and one that you can’t actually say is queer. There’s still a loooot of progress to be made with queer representation in the media, but when you cant even outright say that a character is queer, coding is the next best thing because often queer people in the audience will pick up on this and interpret that character as lgbtq+ because they can recognise the intentions and want to believe the creators meant it because there’s so little queer media elsewhere compared to straight media. In addition to this, it can be comforting to think of your favourite character as similar to you in a way that you may have suffered for before.

Now to the actual purpose of writing this. One big thing I see people talking about is the fact that actual story board artists of the show have said they intended Cassandra to be interpreted as a lesbian. This is obviously huge because it leads on to all the other elements of her coding that I’ll discuss because this is coming from someone who actually worked to create the show. I’ve never been apart of a creative team so I don’t know how much actual control a story board artist has on the content of a show, but they still helped make it, so it has to count for something right?? I found a link to a tweet off Cass’ page on the lgbtq+ characters wiki (this is actually REALLY sparse for some reason and it basically just states her sexual orientation to be lesbian without very much evidence to back it up apart from the tweets, which even then seemed to only be one tweet, and her apparent feeling for Rapunzel (double bracket will get onto this later) so honestly this wasn’t as much help as I hoped it would be) which basically stated that Cass was fully intended to be interpreted as queer. Linked here: amboo 👻 on X: "@MegLegbird im glad the gays can recognize how gay cass is like, that's the only job we wanted to be successful" / X . The creator of the show, Chris Sonnenberg, actually joined a Right-Wing news company around  2022 and has been working for their children’s streaming platform which aims to “rival the output of “woke” media companies” which is incredibly sad and might be why the idea of Cass being a lesbian remained just within the artists, because it may be very likely that Sonnenberg himself is homophobic. He was also known to be incredibly salty towards the fan base for Tangled which I can’t comment on because I have zero solid explanation as to why this might be.

In the replies underneath the linked tweet there was some more discussion between the artist and another user. There’s discussions of the female artists agreeing to throw in “sapphic looks” because outright saying she’s gay was impossible, so it’s very clear that any coding was intentional and should be taken as valid. Some people may say that she has not been explicitly said to be a lesbian so saying she is one holds absolutely no validity, but I disagree with this because things in media do not have to be stated outright in the text for it to be taken as true. That’s what literacy analysis is for. Things carry denotations, its literal meaning, but there are also connotations, which is what the writer was trying to convey without explicitly stating it. So, by this reasoning, to say Cass isn’t a lesbian just because it was never stated in the show isn’t completely true, because the subtext is literally overflowing with hints, and subtext is a completely valid thing to talk about and to ignore would be failing in the role of a consumer. Text is meant to be interpreted in different ways, but when you are literally ignoring things the writers have put in on purpose in order to twist a piece of media’s meaning to what you want it to be, it just turns into ignorance. Interpretations of coding is heavily down to a person’s personal experiences and ideas, but it gets to a point where people can just blatantly ignore certain elements of media, and in this case I believe the coding is pretty strong because someone working on the show has actually confirmed that, in at least a portion of the show, Cassandra was fully intended to be understood as being a lesbian.

In terms of how she was actually coded within the show, one episode that springs to mind immediately in particular is the episode where Andrew (my biggest opp) is introduced. This episode is called “Under Raps” but I can’t tell you what episode number it is because I don’t have Disney plus anymore. If you don’t remember what happened basically Cass introduces mr ugly bugly himself to Rapunzel and Eugene as her boyfriend or whatever but it turns out he was trying to manipulate her to be able to steal this ancient book in order to overthrow Corona. In the end, it’s revealed Cass was only pretending to like him because she knew his plan all along and defended the book from him. They have a swordfight and its insane 10/10 no notes there. The reason I think of this as an example of queercoding is because it’s the only instance in the whole show where a male love interest is even referenced surrounding her (apart from Varian having a crush on her but I’m not even gonna mention this apart from now because of course she wouldn’t have any interest in him because he’s a literal child and she’s early to mid-twenties) and the fact that it’s shown she was just putting an act on the whole time makes me think this was intentional to show she would never have romantic relations with a man. Some of this might sound pretty speculative or far-fetched, but I think it’s valid to mention since I’ve already established that it was intentional from some of the creators to have her be interpreted as a lesbian in the first place. Any indication of her being interested in men ends after this episode, which I believe is significant because the concept was introduced for a short time until the reveal of her faking it when it is completely disregarded and never brought up again. I think this may be the creators indicating that attraction to men was never in the cards for her.

Another thing that may be taken (this is getting into the territory of being stereotypical which is why I mentioned it at the beginning) is lesbians in media are often depicted in such a way that they are cold, critical and even aggressive towards male characters. Think Santana Lopez from Glee, Vaggie from Hazbin Hotel, and Villanelle from Killing Eve. I believe this is shown in the way Cass interacts with Eugene, which is in sharp contrast to her much gentler demeanour with Rapunzel. She is extremely quick to bicker with and insult him, and will miss no opportunity to pick a fight with him. From the very first episode, this is shown in the way she repeatedly insists that Rapunzel cannot tell Eugene the true story behind her hair reappearing, due to the fact that Cass doesn’t trust him. She eventually tells him anyway, but Cass isn’t happy about it. Even off the top of my head, there are many, many, more examples of Cass instigating arguments between them, this is just an example of one very plot-relevant occasion of her appearing to dislike him. While it is of course not true in real life that lesbians dislike all men just because they are men, I believe this is used to code Cassandra because it is used directly to emphasise her softer, sweeter attitude towards Rapunzel, along with the fact that the “man hating lesbian” is already a common trope used to depict lesbians. Stereotypes are not a good thing, but they are often a device used by writers to indicate a character as possessing specific traits or mannerisms. In this case it’s used to convey a characters’ sexuality when you are unable to say it outright.

Furthering from Eugene being used to contrast Rapunzel in relation to Cassandra, another massive thing that signals Cass as a lesbian in my opinion is the way she interacts with Rapunzel. Some of the screenshots of Cass looking at her are extremely and undeniably fruity, and if I was more technologically competent I might be able to insert some of them here, but her expressions are often filled with longing and admiration. This can be directly attributed to the story boarders, which was mentioned prior in replies to the tweet. I know that Rapunzel had just eaten incredibly spicy fruit, but I refuse to believe that Cassandra flirtily tucking her hair behind her ear while Rapunzel was bright red and choking on her breath wasn’t intended to be at least a little bit gay.

In addition to all the fruity looks that Cass gives Rapunzel like I just mentioned, there is a whole episode where Rapunzel loses her memory, and guess who is in Eugene (her canon love interest)’s place? Cassandra! Whether this was intentional or just because Cass was the closest one there is, I suppose, up to you, but a great many scenes in that episode directly mirror those in the movie, including Cass gazing lovingly at Rapunzel while she uses her hair to swing around a tree for the first time. In my humble opinion, this is extremely gay. I don’t personally think this is a coincidence, but even if it was, it still contributes to my belief that Cass is a lesbian.

The actual ship of Cassandra x Rapunzel is something I don’t personally enjoy, mainly because I love Raps and Eugene too much to even consider thinking about them with anyone else, but I do believe that Cass was in love with Rapunzel, who just viewed her as a best friend. This is due to the aforementioned evidence of the abundance of examples of fondness she displays towards her, and also the fact that this is used in very obvious contrast to how she interacts with Eugene. I think this contrast was either on purpose or enhanced by people on the team who intended for Cassandra to be interpreted as a lesbian, because it is VERY obvious how different she is with Rapunzel and Eugene. She is also very close with Rapunzel in general, showing her to be the only person she accepts hugs from, and also spending a lot of time with her and clearly caring for her greatly. I know some people dislike this ship because they interpret their relationship as sisterly, but I don’t personally view it as such because Gothel was extremely abusive towards Rapunzel and was barely in Cass’ life at all so I don’t think they have relation on that front, as well as the fact that the way their relationship began doesn’t, in my opinion, lead naturally into a view of each other as being similar to siblings. The dynamic between them is more best friends I think.

I’m not an expert on coding in fiction by any means to it’s very possible I may have gotten things wrong within this, but from evidence from the show mentioned within I think it is fair to say that this is at least a little bit indicative of some of the reasons why so many people so strongly believe Cass to be a lesbian. As I mentioned before, it’s a very nice feeling to see elements of yourself that you may have suffered for before represented within characters you love, which is why I believe people are so enthusiastic about Cass’ sexuality, not to mention the fact that it has been confirmed to be intentional by actual creators within the show. Queer characters, especially in children’s media, are so few and far between that it can be really lovely to see even a little bit of yourself depicted in a character you really like in a show you really enjoy. All in all, I know characters’ sexualities can be a very heavily debated topic within fandom spaces, but the idea of Cass being a lesbian seems to be pretty unanimous so the purpose of writing this was just to put into words exactly why I think this is such a widely held belief. There are no rules around how you choose to interact with characters within fandoms, and everything is up to complete personal interpretation, so just have fun and remember to be respectful of others who may have different opinions to you!!

[marciabrady]

I am so heated over his TikTok I saw where this girl was comparing the ages of the princesses and princes, and when they got to Snow White they said "She was 14 and he was a pedophile" and I just about died, and then the comments were all agreeing with them??? ON TOP OF THAT the age comparison they did for Rapunzel and Flynn Rider they were literally praising him for waiting the extra day till she became 18 to start actually dating her. I can't make this shit up.

There's a lot about TikTok that's concerning when it comes to Princess discourse. While Tumblr creators also always loved a trend, TikTok editors will literally choose the same song, clips, and caption for a myriad of edits, trying to cash in on the success and clout of bigger influencers. One of the saddest things I've witnessed is the fact that people, who never even liked Snow White to start off with, are jumping in on this edit trend that reveals the Princesses ages and always list Snow White as 14 and the Prince as 31. They're trying to claim ped*o... and it's so inappropriate because they're not meant to have canonical ages. Also, their relationship stood up to 1930s STANDARDS, which was basically a renewal in purity culture- if people that were that rigid about what was acceptable liked this film, I find it disingenuous that so many "tolerant" people in 2023 take such issue with a princess and prince riding alongside a horse together lol and the Rapunzel thing shows you how small minded people are. Just because 18 is the minimum age in our government and society and culture, it's okay? It Rapunzel was a day younger, it'd be illegal by their standards, and I think people should reexamine and look into that a little more than try to make disgusting arguments and write really problematic content into a film from over 80 years ago.

[fnaffersblog]

Okay hold on HOLd UP

Spoilers below for 'Earth's ORIGIN STORY in VRCHAT'

Trigger Warning below cut for: Cursing

Not five seconds after making a 'LUNAR!!!' post we get Earth lore, I am being fed today on the richest of content.

Look look look I get it The Princess and the Pauper movie is great but you cannot go wrong with Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus okay? Alright? This is now. This is now a Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus blog alright? In this house we love Barbie and the Ma

Princess and the Pauper came out in 2004 for anyone who was also wondering, but didn't look it up.

Lol.

The return of the true villain of the series: That one fuckin bouncy, physics defying plush cylinder in the theater.

The music change had me wheezing, the fucking dramatic chase music for this bouncy toy.

Followed by all three of them legitimately walking around trying to catch the damn thing.

I'd love to see an episode where they have a discussion, like a serious discussion or something in the theater, and someone throws the toy and it just bounces around forever while they're having a serious talk, and it's played completely straight the thing is bouncing and no one addresses it or tries to catch it this is wishful thinking but the idea had me laughing so hard i forgot hwo to use punctuation

Sun and Moon sitting down on the little plushies seats like kids listening to story time was so cute.

"You will refer to me as Creator" "Hello Father!" "That works as well I suppose!"

It's strange seeing how... kind? The creator is towards Earth. Like, he's always been kinder to Earth than he has been to Sun or Moon or Killcode, but it's still weird. Like, he lets her decorate her room and got her movies in preparation for her activation, and doesn't get upset when she calls him father, and he's gentle when he asks her to leave them at the end.

"I abandoned mortal flesh for eternal life as a brain!" "Oooh! That seems clever!" Lol

Huh a Garbage Guy.

...

BLOODMOON'S GARBAGE GUY??? HWAT????WHAT>>>???

I like... whatever is going on between Garbage Guy and the Creator. Like, GG is so annoyed with the Creator, but he's speaking so casually to him? Exasperated with the Creators antics. They're like... a goddamn sitcom couple or something. The Creator gives no shits about this guy's irritation. They remind me of Chatot and Wigglytuff from PMD:EoS.

So, Earth was activated around November-December 2022, during the Bloodmoon arc. She showed up in... April? I think? Late March, early April? Though she said she got lost trying to find the daycare/Sun and Moon, so she left/was sent away from the Creator sometime just before that.

Also, whos they? Fazbears? Sun and Moon? Some third party? Why would they get shut down? I may have missed something. I assume it's Fazbear's inc the two of them are talking about.

Earth raising her hand to ask questions.

They have a connected background??? The Creator got the garbage can stuck on this guys head?? Did he make him immortal too, or did he just get hired because he was immortal? What's the dealio with these two?

"Why do you have a trash can on your head?"

"Why don't we ask your Creator, hmm?"

*THE EYE*

"Can you not, with the whole brain eye thing!?"

"IT WAS UNINTENTIONAL!"

I'm crying it was mostlikely a misclick im crying that was so funny

"Um. You see. It's a, um, fashion trend that he's trying from another country."

"Oh fashion trend today is it?"

WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE ARE THEY DIVORCED WHAT AM I LOOKING AT This can't be just me can it?? I want more of it.

"Too bad. My lab." LOL

"I acquired the entire collection of Barbie movies!"

Creator enforces gender 'norms'. Asshole!

I know there's other things happening this episode but. "Was that all?"

"Nooo I wanted to ask you TAKE THIS DAMN THING OFF MY HEAD!"

Also is that the Arthur jingle? Like, the scene transition jingle from Arthur? That's what it sounds like.

"He could see?!" THAT'S what you're taking away from this Moon????

Earth out here being very right about the Barbie Rapunzel movie too, that magic paintbrush was banger, I wanted one too.

This episode was fuckin' fun. So many good quotes, I was laughing the WHOLE time. Also we might have a set up/ worldbuilding for the Creator's enemies and also more Creator and Garbage Guy stuff. Still wondering if he's dead. StG Killcode mentioned putting him to eternal rest at one point.

Also the thumbnail, again the thumbnail! IT's so pretty! The details are amazing, I wish I could look at them closer somewhere. Do we know yet who does them? I've seen suggestions in the comments of both videos featuring art so far that these new ones are done by Kiwi_Artz, but they aren't credited in the descriptions and they haven't post the thumbnails on Twitter anywhere. :(

I feel like this will most likely be the last calm episode before the 16th. This feels like a 'calm before the storm' situation and I cANNOT wait. 9 days till the 16th, that's probably 4-6 lore episodes/ 5-6 VRCHAT episodes, presuming anything is going to happen on the 16th. I'm both not ready for it, and 100% ready for it.

[come-along-pond]

Hello! This is @rebel-author-chick and you are on my OC Creator Bingo card! I gotta say your OCs sound amazing and I will definitely be checking out their stories!

1. Florence Hargreeves, what are her powers? Which sibling does she get along with most? What did she think about Vanya's book?

2. What are Carola's thoughts about Thor? Does Loki trying to take over earth cause a rift between them? Does she have any powers?

3. What are Olive's hobbies? How did she feel seeing Steve for the first time after he got frozen? Did she and Bucky have a favorite thing to do together?

4. What is AU!Rain's relationship with Audrey? Who are her closest friends at Auradon (besides Ben)?

5. How does Rain feel when she meets Rapunzel and Eugene for the first time after finding out the truth? How much does she take after Gothel? Does she ever get to express her feelings about being taken away from her family to Gothel?

omg hi!!!! im so glad you like my ocs and i love the ones you chose, super excited to talk to you more if you wanna stick around my blog! answers below the cut!

1. Florence Hargreeves, what are her powers? Telekinesis and mind control! Which sibling does she get along with most? Klaus! They had similar coping mechanisms and personalities! What did she think about Vanya's book? Hm, she understood why they wrote it, but was really hurt by what was said about her and her everyone else’s trauma was ignored.

2.What are Carola's thoughts about Thor? Besties!!! In another life they so get together. Does Loki trying to take over earth cause a rift between them? Yes!!!! Cara is on earth at the time and he tries to get her to join him and she’s like ‘no lol’. Does she have any powers? no! but she does know a few spells! im thinking she lowkey becomes an asgardian witch

3. What are Olive's hobbies? In the 40s, she was really interested in cosmetology, now she likes journaling. How did she feel seeing Steve for the first time after he got frozen? Oh she threw up. She saw him on TV and was so shocked and anxious she had to go to the loo. Did she and Bucky have a favorite thing to do together? Bucky liked dancing, Liv liked the cinema. They LOVED people watching.

4. What is AU!Rain's relationship with Audrey? They’re friends, in the most basic way. Audrey thinks she’s better than Rayne, Rayne thinks Audrey needs to go to therapy. Who are her closest friends at Auradon (besides Ben)? Jane! I’m thinking of maybe giving her some oc besties but shes a bit of a loner, some could say she was destined to be with Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay.

5. How does Rain feel when she meets Rapunzel and Eugene for the first time after finding out the truth? How much does she take after Gothel? Does she ever get to express her feelings about being taken away from her family to Gothel?

Okay imma answer this one as a chunk because they all link together really well! I’m a firm believer in nurture over nature, but that includes the society you grew up in. So Rain learnt a LOT from her friends. But still, before going to Auradon, she has no problems manipulating and using people, she got that from Gothel.

So! at the end of D1, Rain is skeptical about Gothel (and so is everyone else lol), and has spent the weekend with the a Fitzherberts cos Ruby is her roommate, and that family is like 👀. SO she goes to the isle and confronts gothel and there’s a screaming match. Rain returns to o her dorm and Ruby us in bed and she just gets in next to her and SOBS.

Rain is avoiding it all for a month lol, and Ruby is still her roommate, and Ethan is still running photography club, and Ben is trying to get her to see her parents. She’s confused and upset, but also comforted when she meets them again.

[glorytoukraine2022]

For the ask game, Elena of Avalor or Tangled the Series?

Over a year ago, I would have said Tangled the Series, but now? Elena of Avalor all the way. During the end of season 3, I got back into Elena of Avalor and haven’t gotten out of it since. And after reading heavy critiques of Tangled the Series, I have come to realize just what a poorly written show it is, and just how awful a lot of the characters actually are.

Tangled the Series is a show that claims and tries to act like it is a mature, complex show, but when you look deeper into it, you’ll see that it’s just sloppy writing and plot mismanagement. Elena of Avalor, on the other hand, has a meaningful, emotional plot. While written for a young audience, actually manages to touch upon some mature topics regarding family and trauma in a realistic way, making it interesting for adults too.

I do not need to explain that Elena ten times the person and ruler that Rapunzel will ever be. I know that I have touched upon this in other posts before, but not only is Elena a better person and friend than Rapunzel, but she is allowed to be human and fallible. She’s allowed to make mistakes, to make decisions that people and the audience don’t necessarily agree with and get called out for it. I know that the main reason for this is because Elena isn’t an official Disney Princess whereas Rapunzel is, meaning that there are rules and regulations to how Rapunzel is written that don’t apply to Elena.

The antagonists are better too. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about reformed antagonists such as Victor and Carla, or unreformed antagonists like Shuriki. All of the villains/antagonists from Elena of Avalor have much better development than Cassandra. They have actual reasons that motivate the things they do, and have developed plans and schemes to achieve their goals. Cassandra has none of this. She was just a violent imbecile who hurt people because she felt like it at the moment, and took genuine pleasure in doing so.

The closest thing she had to a “motivation” was that Gothel “chose” Rapunzel over her, as if it was some sort of competition. Cassandra blamed Rapunzel, an abuse victim who was ripped away from her parents and isolated from the world during the most important important years of her life, for her own kidnapping. Oh, and she gets a quick, forced redemption during the last few minutes of the series finale.

They tried to pull a fast one by making the big bad, Zhan Tiri, female. However, it was clear that she didn’t start out as a female villain, given that one of her minions referred to him with a male pronoun. She wasn’t even important anyways. She only existed to serve as a scapegoat for Cassandra because the executive producer did not want Cassandra to be held accountable for her own actions.

Of course, people are probably thinking “what about Varian”? Yes, Varian is a brilliant reformed villain who I will forever love. He was a brilliant villain and his redemption was wonderful. However, there is one problem: He was a mistake.

The creator of the show never intended us to sympathize with Varian. Varian was to be the strawman. You can clearly see by the way he was depicted in “Secret of Sundrop”, that we were meant to see Varian as a psychotic, mad scientist. Think of the way that Rapunzel calls him an “unstable alchemist.” We were never meant to sympathize with the fourteen year old who was abused by the Royal family and lost his only parent.

The reason for all these disturbing moral breaches was finally revealed to us this August. As everyone in the Tangled the Series now knows, Chris Sonnenburg was hired by the Daily Wire, run by Ben Shapiro, an ultra right conservative. This tells us everything that we need to know about Chris Sonnenburg. While we always knew he was bad, this confirms that he is an ultra Wright conservative that sympathizes and supports tyrants just like King Fredric. He supports the new, evil version of the GOP ( Also known as The Republican Party) that is destroying my country.

I do not like to get politics involved when it comes to creative decisions that I disagree with. Yet knowing what we know: the misogyny, racism, Rapunzel’s characterization, the treatment of Varian, sympathy towards Fredric, the justification of the persecution of a child, everything makes sense. Chris Sonnenburg truly believes that authoritarians are “good” because they are “the authority” and those young people who haven’t accepted the authority and are fighting against them (Varian) are the bad guys. Chris Sonnenburg is for “Law and Order”, just like his party.

This is why Elena of Avalor is better than Tangled the Series. It was written by a person with good moral values who understands human decency. And wanted to write a Princess protagonist and show that upheld those values. Whereas Tangled the Series was written by a narcissistic member of the ultra Wright. An ugly party that spreads lies based on fear and hate. The party of Authoritarianism and Fascism.

[rachelbethhines]

I think Cass is pretty much only bad because instead of getting 40 episodes like they wanted for season 3 they got like 19.

It makes literally no thematic sense for Cassandra to take the Moonstone for the reasons she did. Not when the contest of the brave, freebird, and everything that happens at the tree all point to Cassandra being inclined to protect Rapunzel from making fatal decisions.

It's super out of character for Rapunzel to have to be the one to bring up how the Moonstone probably would have killed her in the *finale.*

Especially considering Cass was right there, next to Adria when she said it and even reacted, iifc.

The line "Be careful who you trust" is a cliffhanger sure, but it also doesn't explain who isn't to be trusted. Especially when we even get confirmation that yes, combining the stones is a fatal move and Cass did save Rapunzel's life there.

Its also worth mentioning that the Moonstone and Sundrop are at least semi-sentient. They want to be reunited and will show the path to each other. Cass was the facilitator for Rapunzel even findings the rocks in the first place and is pictured with the moon in fame from the beginning in the movie.

If the Moonstone didn't want Cass or it didn't think it was the right move, it wouldn't have let her take it, exactly like it did with Eugene's dad. Why would the Moonstone want to go with someone who actively wants the Sundrop dead? Why wouldn't it just kill the usurper and get with the Sundrop in Rapunzel? Because Cass took the Moonstone to save Rapunzel's (aka the Sundrop's) life.

Villain Cass is so wildly OOC because she probably would have been made a guard if she brought Rapunzel back safe. But she couldn't do that because combining the stones would have killed Rapunzel so her situation was lose lose. Her arc makes more sense if Cass takes the Moonstone and tries to get Rapunzel to give her the Sundrop so she can sacrifice herself to combine them and save Rap's life. Of course we'll never know if that's the case because S3 is what it is and threw characterisation out with the bathwater.

TLDR, I bet season 3 had to be massively rewritten and Cass made a much worse villain, when her original intention had been, as always, to protect Rapunzel. (y'know, the girl she has a crush on according to word of god.) The show made no sense for Cass to go about this the way she did and it absolutely ruins the good things she had going. Especially her sudden motivation to kill the girl she worked so hard to protect.

I mean you can't fake that reaction in Freebird. Also Rapunzel straight up blames Cassandra for what happened to her arm, even though Cassandra was 1000% in the right to have stopped Rapunzel there. Rapunzel has a 100% failure rate with controlling the decay incantation, she was never in control. Cass saved everyone.

The writing for Cassandra, and for everyone else, is terrible in season three is because of mismanagement. Plain and simple, and they knew well in advance how many episodes they were getting before ever going into production. However, the creator, Chris, just was bad at his job and shouldn't have had the final say on anything.

That said, villian Cass was always the original plan. It was just a poorly executed plan because the head producer/head writer didn't know what he was doing half the time.

[doctenwho]

Moonlight Getaway

Hello! Thank you for the prompt, it was a lot of fun to write! This idea is adorable-- I always love a good dancing-in-the-moonlight trope, so hopefully you enjoy!

Bit of a disclaimer, since I’m uncreative, the planet I used is basically just Corona from Tangled, because for the life of me I couldn’t stop thinking about when Eugene and Rapunzel were hanging out and dancing in that scene when I read the prompt. So, oops if that influenced the fic?

Warnings: None.

Word Count: 3,450

Summary: Read the request above! :)

(Gif doesn’t belong to me, credit to the creator! :D)

You let yourself sink down, arms crossing across the table in front of you, and forehead resting on your forearms. You gave a heavy sigh into the room, blinking your eyes shut.  

You’d been travelling in the TARDIS all day—had been since you left the last planet you and the Doctor had visited, where you’d almost died. Twice. Three, if you counted the part where the Doctor slyly talked the two of you away from the space guns pointed at you.

It had been far more running than you’d ever like to happen, and as it turned out, running for your life really took all the energy out of you. Normal running be damned to the crash that followed an adrenaline ‘fearing-for-your-life’ run.

You’d been travelling with the Doctor for a while now, but you still weren’t quite used to... well, the threat that came with travelling Outerspace with an alien Timelord. How everything seemed to want to kill you, or chase you, or, well, kidnap you.  

And all the running you did on a daily basis. The running just to survive whatever you happened to be doing.

It wasn’t usually as bad as it had been the past couple days-- you’d just run into some problems on the planet, and were unfortunately unable to leave as quickly as you would’ve liked. You and the Doctor had been stranded, in near constant danger for the better part of two days before you’d managed to escape to the TARDIS and make a quick getaway.  

You weren’t even sure you’d done anything wrong, but perhaps the Doctor had at some point or another and it was just his past catching up with him. And you’d just kinda been roped along for the journey.  

It still ran you ragged. The past couple days. You wanted to flop into your bed, and never get up. To hibernate for at least a week before you were ready to join the world of the living again.  

You knew you couldn’t though, even though the Doctor would probably let you and not say anything about it, because he was just so soft with you. The thought of it just didn’t sit right with you though, no matter how good the offer looked. It would be a waste. Not everyone got what you got—to see space, and time, and travel with the last Timelord in existence. It really was worth a bit of exhaustion in the end.

That didn’t mean you couldn’t be tired right now though. Because you were. You’d slept all night, and into the day after returning to the TARDIS and getting off that planet, but you were still so tired. It was more mental than physical at this point.  

You just needed some down time where you weren’t in danger, which you were thankfully getting as you sat safe and sound in the TARDIS kitchen, and you hoped it would last for at least a while longer. Hopefully.

“(Y/N)?” the Doctor’s voice called, almost sing-songy.

You shifted around on your chair, lifting your gaze to peek your eyes out over your forearm to look at the Doctor. He was leaning against the kitchen doorframe, arms crossed over his chest and one ankle kicked up over the other. His head was tilted, blinking at you as a smile curled onto his lips.  

“Yes?” you breathed out, letting your chin drop down on your forearm, keeping your gaze on the Doctor. He gave you a grin, finally stepping into the room and sitting on the chair opposite to you.

“We’re here,” he told you.

“Here?” You raised an eyebrow in question, since you hadn’t thought the Doctor had any destination in mind, just that he’d been in a hurry to get you off the previous planet. He hadn’t said anything about it when you’d left him in the console room to retire to your bedroom yesterday evening, and he hadn’t mentioned it when you’d seen him when you woke up either. “And... where exactly is here?”

“Corona,” the Doctor told you, smile wide. “It’s a beautiful planet with friendly inhabitants. It's always very fun to visit, and I thought you might like a break from our usual travels.”

You hesitated for a second, still feeling so tired, and really not up for more running around and fearing for your life today. That usually was the Doctor’s definition of fun.  

Today was supposed to be a day of downtime.

“None of that, don’t give me that look,” the Doctor snorted a laugh as his eyes lit up happily, “no danger whatsoever. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you’d be completely safe after the last few... perilous days.”

You lifted your eyebrow once more, finally sitting up from your slouch on the table, “promise?”

“Of course,” he gave an honest nod, “I promise.”

You gave it one last thought before finally ducking your head in a nod. You really did trust the Doctor. It was hard not to trust him. He was just very trustworthy.  

“Great!” The Doctor grinned, “I promise you’ll have fun; don’t you worry. Now, why don’t you go get dressed, and I’ll wait for you in the console room, yeah?”

“Dressed in what?” You rose slowly from your seat, rubbing your tired eyes. He hadn’t said much about the planet, like what kind of clothes you should wear. Should you dress for hot weather, or cold weather?

“Something nice,” the Doctor shrugged, a playful twinkle in his eye, “but comfortable.”

You tilted you head, finally noticing what the man was wearing. It wasn’t his usual suit and jacket. The clothes he wore every day, his signature look.  

He was wearing a tuxedo classy and pristine—down to a perfectly tied bowtie. You’d seen him dressed up in this attire only once before, when he’d led you into some kind of gala back when you’d first started travelling with him.

“You’re in a tux,” you stuttered out in surprise, mouth agape, “...just how fancy should I be dressed for this planet?”

“Depends on the night,” the Doctor gave a cheeky grin, “you’ll look perfect in whatever you decide though.” He stood up, turning away from the table and walking towards the door, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

And then he was gone, turned down the hall and disappearing out of sight.  

You shook yourself from your stupor, finally managing to trail down the halls to your bedroom. You picked out an outfit—it was nowhere near as fancy as the Doctor’s clothes, but you liked it, and it suited you well. Just enough class to be considered fancy, but also comfortable to wear.  

The Doctor was waiting in the console room, as promised. He was perched over the TARDIS console, looking over the screen before he was pushing some buttons. His attention perked up to you when he finally noticed you stood in the doorway.  

“You look lovely,” he grinned, giving you a quick once over where he ducked his gaze off you when he realized what he’d been doing. He was quick to stand to his full height, clearing his throat as he adjusted his jacket cuffs. “Ready then?”

“You’re not going to tell me anything else about this planet?”

“No,” he laughed, “but I’ll show you?”

You gave a huffy laugh of your own before giving him a halfhearted one shoulder shrug, “I guess I’m ready then.”

“Lovely!” He chirped, striding towards the doors, and waiting briefly for you to follow. You didn’t bother hesitating anymore, now you were more curious than anything else. What did the Doctor have planned?

It was beautiful outside the doors. Something almost out of a fairytale.  

Stone walkways and street lights that lit up the darkening sky as the sun started to set above you. There wasn’t much street life, a couple families, children running around and being children—couples dressed in classy-casual outfits. Flowing dresses and skirts, and fancy slacks and dress-shirts as far as the eye could see.

Everyone obviously on their way somewhere, as they all trailed up the stone path, laughing and talking-- in generally good moods.

It looked almost like earth, and the human race, but with subtle differences. Just enough to remind you that you weren’t on earth. It was easy to forget you weren’t though—especially since they were speaking English.

“Ah, perfect,” the Doctor hummed to himself beside you, looking pleased as his eyes travelled over the sight outside the TARDIS doors.

“What’s... happening?”

The Doctor finished his gazing around quickly, before dropping his attention to you and a smile lifted onto his lips, “I knew my timing was right, this is a traditional festival. It’s yearly, I believe, but there’s always one gathering or another to attend around here. I’ve never seen any other planet quite as big on their celebrations as this one.”

“A festival?” you tilted your head in interest, “so... nothing dangerous?”

“One would hope not,” the man gave a light laugh, offering his hand to you, “I’ve never run into any problems here before.”

And that was enough answer for you, as you finally allowed some of the tension to ease off your shoulders. The Doctor attracted danger like a moth to a light source, so if he’d not come across anything dangerous here then you could relax a little.  

You managed a small smile as you settled your hand in his. The Doctor was quick to tighten his hand around yours, before he was leading you up the walkway with the rest of the townsfolk. The chatter exchanged was light, and friendly. The towns people invited you and the Doctor into conversation easily, and the children ran amongst the adults, weaving between them playfully.  

The atmosphere was refreshing—especially after the past few days of fear and struggling. And, as much as you hated to admit it, it was even better than being on your earth.  

The towns people were gathered in the town square, it looked like the entirety of the population was gathered for whatever they happened to be celebrating. There was singing, and dancing. Children playing around and couples swaying to the live music.  

“What do you think?” the Doctor leaned close to your ear so you could hear him over the full-swing of the festival taking place, “like it?”

“I do,” you gave him a shy nod, looking around at everything happening before settling your gaze back on the Doctor. “It’s like being home. Almost.”

“I’m glad you like it,” he gave you a smile, and it was almost too loud to hear him, “I hope this makes up for the past few days, they were definitely a fluke.”

“No, they weren’t,” you gave a bright laugh, “if anything, this planet is the fluke, Doctor.”

The Doctor gave a surprised laugh, before he was giving you an almost guilty look at the completely true accusation, “yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

“I love travelling with you, even though we almost die sometimes,” you told him fondly, batting your eyelashes at him, the action accompanying your words. The Doctor’s hand squeezed around yours for a second before he let his grip return to barely hanging on.  

“I’ll always protect you,” the man scoffed, though his eyes trailed over you fondly, “you’re safe with me, (Y/N).”

“I know,” you bowed you head, hiding your flushing cheeks casually.  

“Anyways,” the Doctor cleared his throat, thumb fluttering across you knuckles softly, “how about we check out the food? They’ve got amazing baked goods, if I remember correctly?”

“Let’s do it,” you gave an excited nod, grinning brightly at the Doctor, who returned it.  

“Allons-y!”

The food was pretty good. It wasn’t earth food by any means, and even if this place looked almost like earth, the food certainly didn’t. You still tried some of it, and enjoyed some of the pastries and desserts (which were amazing, like the Doctor had promised).

When the two of you were finished eating, the Doctor led you around to see everything happening.  

There were games occupying the kids in attendance, and the two of you had even been dragged along to join in one of the games by a cute little boy who you just couldn’t say no too.  

And it was fun. Playing around with the kids, and watching the Doctor let himself relax and enjoy their little games too. He seemed just as relaxed as you felt, even though he usually had an air of levelheadedness whenever you were around him, you knew it was just an act sometimes.  

Even though he was a nine-hundred-and-something year old Timelord, you knew he still got overwhelmed by some things, even if he attempted to hide it behind a mask of confidence.  

So, it was nice to see him so completely okay. A small, real smile as a little girl tugged him by his hand to the center of the game, bright eyes as a toddler tugged on the edge of his tuxedo jacket to get his attention.  

The two of you made your way to the live music next, watching the band play.  

There were instruments like the ones on earth, like a set of similar drums, and a guitar that looked pretty close to the ones on earth, but some instruments you didn’t know too. Everything blended together perfectly though, sounding beautiful and smooth.  

It was lively, and the surrounding crowd was enthused and dancing, enjoying their evening.

You weren’t exactly sure how you’d gotten dragged into a mixer dance. Or when one had even started?

You weren’t against it, instead laughing and following suit with the man who’d gently tugged you into the growing dance, away from the Doctor. You feared briefly that you’d be separated from the Doctor, but you didn't have to worry for long though, as you watched a woman tug the Doctor in just as the man had to you, pulling him along into the dance with her.  

You let out a laugh as you were twirled around, trying your best to follow the man’s footing as he danced with you. You glanced at the Docter every so often, watching him play the part just as you were. The man twirled you, and led you along following the rest of those dancing along with you.  

Before you knew it, you were twirled into someone else’s arms, another happy face who was returning your grin. The woman leading you along this time laughed, interlocking your fingers together with hers as you both twirled yourselves under your interlocked arms, laughing brightly together.  

It continued for a while, partners swapping around, following what you assumed was precise steps correlating to the music; dancing with men and women alike, before you were finally spun into a familiar chest. You didn’t even have to look up to know it was the Doctor, his arms wrapping around you, firm but careful, and the familiar scent of the TARDIS enveloped you.  

“Having fun?” the Doctor asked with a teasing grin. His cheeks were dusted red, as you were sure yours were from the dancing, and the laughing too.  

“So much,” you told him brightly, nuzzling your nose against him before following along in the dance as best as you could. You’d done it enough now, through the course of swapping partners, to know the gist of it, but still, neither you nor the Doctor actually knew all the steps. So, you missed a couple steps, and ran into each other awkwardly once or twice, but it was all laughs.  

Others around you joined in on the laughing—not at you, but with you—like everyone knew the two of you had no idea what you were doing. Like they knew you weren’t from around here- and maybe they did?

The music to the song you were dancing too faded off, and everyone gave the band a round of applause before laughter broke out once more. It was just so light, and refreshing. Generally happy. Just what you needed after the past few days.  

What you didn’t know you needed, but really did.  

You didn’t feel as drained anymore, not when your hand was still locked in the Doctors as the two of you joined the crowd in cheers for your own dancing. Prideful at being a part of the dance, and keeping those watching entertained.

The band didn’t stay quiet for long, and before you knew it the guitar look alike and what almost sounded like a keyboard was playing a slow song.  

You watched as couples joined together, swaying to the slow song. Some people watched, smiling along, happy on the sidelines, while others found themselves a partner to take onto the makeshift dance floor.

It was getting dark now—you'd arrived later in the evening, but you were sure it was at least midnight at this point. Most of the kids had left at some point, and it was mostly adults here now.  

The moon was casting gentle rays down on you, and you stared in awe at the starry sky above.  

It was beautiful. Possibly even prettier than earth’s view. Maybe.  

It was clear above you, not a cloud in sight, making the twinkling stars even nicer.  

“Care to dance?” You turned to look up at the Doctor, looking up from his lips to his honest eyes. He was still holding your hand, but his other hand lifted from his side, reaching out in front of him as an offering.

You couldn’t help but let your other hand fall into his, as a familiar blush lit up your cheeks. You weren’t going to say no to the Doctor, especially not when he had such a fond look in his eyes. Not that you’d ever pass on the offer even if his eyes weren’t twinkling adorningly in the moonlight.  

“I’d love too.”

He pulled you close, following suit with everyone else lost in their dancing. It was fairly generic slow dance; the mixer had been the planet’s own version on something similar you had on earth, but it was hard to change up a slow dance. It was all proximity, really.  

You let your arms settle around his neck, as his hands fell to your waist.  

You swayed together to the music. Getting lost in the notes being played, and each other all the same. There really was nothing better than being curled in the Doctor’s arms. It didn’t happen often—not like this, at least.  

It was usually little, subtle touches from the man-- a hand on your shoulder to ground you, or him grasping at your own hand as he steered you out of danger on some unknown planet.  

You let your cheek settle against his chest, smiling as your eyes slipped shut.  

He didn’t stop swaying the two of you, instead keeping you going as you let him take full control. His thumbs brushed smooth lines up and down the curve of your sides.

“This is nice,” you whispered, just loud enough for him, and no one else, to hear. You felt him nod against you, where his chin had been resting on the top of your head.  

“It is,” his voice was soft, “I’m glad you had fun.”

“Thank you,” you looked up at him with tired, hooded eyes.  

You didn’t need to add anything more, because you knew he understood. You knew he knew what you were thanking him for—for taking you away to somewhere peaceful like this, where the two of you could just be, undisturbed.

He returned your smile, giving you a shallow nod as a reply instead of answering. He didn’t have to reply, not when his eyes said it all. This was just as much a get away from him, as it was for you.

You let your ear fall back against his chest, and his grip around your waist pulled you just a little bit closer to him before he carried on with the smooth sways of your bodies.  

You’d never really thought you could enjoy dancing in the moonlight as much as you were. It had always seemed so out of reach-- something you only saw in movies, or on TV. A romantic action that connected people, which always seemed... unrealistic.  

So far away.

But you understood it now.  

You were sure nothing would ever give you the same fuzzy butterfly feeling igniting in your chest as you looked up at him, catching him staring down at you. As your eyes connect and a soft, fond smile curls onto the Doctor’s lips.  

You’d never forget this. Dancing in the moonlight with one of the most important people in your life.  

<><><><>

Hopefully you enjoyed! I wasn’t sure how to go about the dancing, but like I said before the fic, it’s probably heavily influenced by Tangled, so credit to Disney for that!

Thank you for taking the time to read, and as always, feel free to send me another ask if it wasn’t what you were looking for! Have a good morning/afternoon/night, whenever this happens to find you!

[magpiemorality]

Oh! It’s Saturday! I can send in a prompt! So way back when Altruistic Skittles did the first of the nightmare series, with Remus, you reblogged and said you might want to write something based on the picture. Last I knew, she said that people can write fanfictions from the pictures, as long as they’re properly credited. If that’s still something you’d be interested in, I’d love to see it!

This is very big, somewhat in honour of Remus’ birthday today, a very long and dramatic origin for him.

Check out the amazing art that prompted this fic here :) and thanks to @altruistic-skittles​ for making it and allowing works based off it!! 

Also thanks to @omgsomeonesomewhereonearth for giving this a glance over for me on very short notice :)

Warnings: unreliable narrator, Anxiety is viewed as a bad guy, Remus isn’t particularly friendly, long post.

AO3

***

Roman had been feeling off for a while. He was far from the only one; puberty was tough on every aspect of Thomas, including Logan who had been stretched to his limits trying to keep up with all the demands of an average American high school life. But with Anxiety suddenly in the picture things were even more complicated. Who was he? Where had he come from? And why wouldn’t he leave?

In all honesty Roman hadn’t actually known there were other sides. He’d sort of, maybe naively, assumed that the three of them were the sum of Thomas’ parts, and that they covered everything Thomas would ever need. Sort of like Inside Out, which had in no way at all influenced their existence; they were the pilots who tended to the world inside Thomas’ busy head, just… minus the less good parts. Maybe Thomas didn’t need avatars for those things; maybe he didn’t value them that way, or maybe he just didn’t view them as part of himself?

It was an unfinished theory, but Roman mostly left those sorts of things to Logan, and Logan was too busy for much introspection these days. Which was why Anxiety had gone unchecked for so long.

Sometimes it felt like only Roman was the target of his attacks. Logan faltered, sure, but he was stubborn as all hell when it came to his routines and priorities and Anxiety hadn’t managed to shake them too much just yet. Logan was too established in Thomas’ head to allow wiggle room for anxious thoughts to disrupt his work. Patton also seemed to get away with coexisting with the guy; they fed off each other, or perhaps Anxiety had seen Patton’s power and figured it was easier to work with him than against him, turning good feelings to worry and guilt.

Okay so maybe Patton wasn’t unaffected, but he was so good at putting on a brave face that Anxiety had evidently seen fit to back off out of pure pity, and that left Roman. 

Roman, Roman, Roman, trying his best to stay afloat on the sea of schoolwork and stress, to throw creativity into Thomas’ days so his smile wouldn’t fade. Until stupid, miserable, Despicable He, came along and took it upon himself to thwart Roman’s noble goal.

Their fights were spectacular, unfortunately often feeding into the influence Anxiety had clawed for himself over Thomas and leaving him feeling worse than before Roman had begun the battle. Not that Roman ever started things! He just kept trying to do his work, to do his best, and then Anxiety would show up and bam! Thomas’ hand would falter when writing his cathartic fanfiction, or his mind would blank as he searched for the lines to his latest monologue, or his voice would wobble and break on the notes of a song.

So things were weird, and that wasn’t all.

All it took in the end were a few cutting remarks from Anxiety that didn’t make any sense, and Roman was lost to that edge of paranoia, forever wondering what he meant. A jibe about Thomas not being a perfect person; a sneer laughing at how none of them had even known Anxiety existed before he’d appeared; a scoff that came with the bold assertion that just pretending you weren’t like that didn’t mean you actually weren’t. He seemed to reference someone else sometimes, with a vicious sort of victory that was at least in part tainted with misery, someone who- if Roman was interpreting the clues right- Thomas didn’t even know worked for him, who Anxiety had escaped from. 

And then there was the matter of the tower.

~

Roman stared out of the bedroom window. It was his bedroom, his own copy of Thomas’, and if he focused hard enough he could see the shimmering after-images of the original, with Thomas’ homework on the desk, his clothes on the floor, his posters not quite matching up to Roman’s. He wasn’t in his room like Roman was, downstairs at dinner with the family, and not thinking too hard with his creativity. It left Roman free to do what he so often did these days; stare out of the window. 

Spread out below him was the familiar, comforting sight of the backyard, with its play area and the patio and the grass, the treehouse in the far right corner looking shabbier than ever from its lack of use. Thomas’ dad had been talking of taking it down soon now the kids were too old to use it, but both Patton and Roman- and in fact Anxiety in a rare display of unity- had dug their heels in as Thomas instinctively balked at the prospect of losing just another tie to his childhood. Patton had discovered nostalgia recently and Anxiety had discovered how much Roman feared the term ‘growing up’ and the treehouse was just a big old symbol for all of them to cling to. A beacon of bad things; a final point of no return. 

Roman hadn’t been inside in years, in all honesty, but curiously Thomas had, and more than once. Whatever occurred in there Roman wasn’t sure, but he felt a sense of… something faintly off whenever he looked at the treehouse, that hadn’t entirely started after he’d stopped going inside. This time was no different, and he wondered what the slight churn in Thomas’ gut meant, now that Roman had inadvertently bent his thoughts in the direction of the bottom right corner of the garden. Why picking at the faint memories of the interior of that shadowy wooden structure made their creator push his food around the plate and focus extra hard on talking about his classes, shutting Roman out soundly. 

The treehouse was still there, still dark and foreboding and strange. Roman’s eyes started to water slightly, warping the image, until it flickered ever so quickly.

 He gasped, shoving his whole body forwards, pressing his nose to the glass as it fogged around him with his quick breaths, trying to see it again. 

It remained stubbornly as it always had been, leaving Roman to wonder if he’d imagined the flash of dark, crumbling tower that had blinked into and out of existence. 

But he hadn’t, because as he lay in bed that night, doodling ideas into his notebook while Thomas tried to fall asleep, the shadows outside his window lengthened and the light that should have fallen on his curtains was slowly, steadily blocked out. The darkness felt cool, and thrilling in the way watching a horror movie when you weren’t supposed to felt thrilling, with that edge of risk to it that got your heartbeat going and made your palms clammy. Roman could feel the moment Anxiety noticed it as well, because Thomas’ brain whirred back awake in an instant, the tossing and turning that disrupted him more and more often these teenage nights starting up yet again. Logan began gamely battling to get Thomas to continue on to sleep, Logic coming up against Anxiety for once, but Roman… 

Roman got out of bed, creeping out of his room and down the hall, sneaking carefully down the stairs one by one so Logan wouldn’t notice and stop fighting with Anxiety. The tiled floor was cool under his bare feet as he crossed it to the back door, sliding it open with a soft whoosh of the well-used mechanism. 

The tower awaited him, taller than the treehouse had ever been and far more foreboding. It was made of dark, black brick, slimy and badly worn, surrounded by thorns and with no discernible entrance. A real Rapunzel tower, straight from the Grimm brothers themselves. 

A fairy-tale come to life. And Thomas hadn’t imagined Roman in the image of a dashing Disney prince for nothing; so he started forwards, heedless of his lack of shoes or weapons or anything. He had his curiosity and that was a thousand times more powerful in that moment than anything else. He wanted to know, and whatever thing (maybe a monster? Roman had only vague theories but he was leaning towards trapped monster) was imprisoned within; it felt close to escape. 

Were he Logan in that moment, Roman would theorise that the tower held some kind of dark aspect of Thomas that he’d hidden from himself, and that in the darkness before sleep it was hardest to maintain the lie, confronted with the harsh truth of oneself. But Roman wasn’t Logan, and he didn’t think too deeply beyond thing bad- must know more. 

He got through the thorns with relative ease, considering how large and deadly they looked from across the garden. All it took was a stick from the pile they kept for a bug hotel, a brief flash of inspiration turning it to a shining sharp sword that sliced neatly through each thick tendril until they started to wither away from him as he approached and revealed a door with no lock nor handle, carved into the base of the tower. 

Curiosity won again as Roman kicked it in, crumbling the ancient wood. He gasped, coughing as a thick gust of stale air wheezed out. It left Roman’s stomach twisting with nausea, but the need to be the prince and climb the tower was too strong to be deterred. Inside the house Anxiety upped the ante and Logan turned too late towards his own window, missing seeing Creativity take a step forwards and disappear into the treehouse. 

~

It was dark inside, that was the first thing Roman noticed. It was obviously going to be dark, a tower with no windows, but the darkness felt more than that. It felt like it hid an endless number of bad things waiting to come forwards, to pounce at any moment. The walls were horribly slimy when Roman used them to find the winding staircase, and the smell… Better not to mention it at all. 

Suddenly, the sound of whispered movement from above. 

“Hello?” Roman called softly, hoping he’d imagined it. Nothing replied, but the darkness felt closer, and he hurried upwards with the sword ready. “Anyone there?”

A pair of yellow eyes watched, waiting, from below, but Roman never looked down, intent on reaching his goal. He didn’t see the way the door was repairing itself, or how the thorns had regrown. His only thoughts were for the top of the tower and what lay in wait. 

There was the tiniest crack of light when he got up at long last, feet sore and eyes dry from straining to see something. It was a sliver from under a door, faint silver light, the only hint there was a door there at all until he felt it under his fingertips. 

It didn’t budge when he touched it, and once again there was no sign of a handle. Roman kicked it with a frustrated sigh, only to freeze totally still when the whisper of movement came again, -only this time, closer and clearer- it sounded a little like rusted metal, sliding against itself. 

The eyes down below, having followed the prince’s progress, narrowed in thought, but before they could make a decision Logic gained the upper hand over Anxiety back in the house and for a brief, shining moment, the tower was lit up bright and the door clicked open. 

Roman threw himself in before it could close again, and just in time too, because the light faded not a moment later, the door sealing itself up again. How he was going to get out, he wasn’t sure. But that was a problem for later- the fairy-tale dictated he had reached his goal. This was the end of the story. 

So what was his prize? 

There was a shape, in the room. A figure, about his own size, sat facing the window. Roman blinked hard to clear the spots that danced over his vision in the wake of the sudden flash of light, and the figure came slowly into view in the murk. A boy, with poufy sleeves and an outfit to match the setting, staring out of the window back towards the house. Back towards Thomas, back towards where Roman had been staring out from. The boy yawned, stretching his arms up and it was then that Roman noticed the chains. 

He was chained to the floor. Was this the monster at the top of the tower? Or the… dude in distress?!

This wasn't actually a fairy-tale, so the former seemed exponentially more likely, and Roman gulped as fear took root. 

“I know, I know, come to shut me up again. I just wanted a bit of fun, D-“ 

The boy stopped, frozen as still as Roman’s heart as it skipped a beat. Two identical faces, two sets of identical eyes, stared in horror and dawning, dim comprehension at each other. 

“You’re Roman!” The other boy shrieked, loud enough to make Roman flinch back. It stopped the grin on the chained boy’s face in its tracks, and he tilted his head, eyes turning cold and calculating in a heartbeat. 

“Who are you?” Roman squeaked, barely able to get his voice to work. “Why are you locked up? Are you evil? Does Thomas have…” his voice fell to a whisper. “A Dark side?”

The boy cackled, a joyful sound that shouldn’t have been as unsettling as it was. The clanking of the chains as he doubled over only heightened the feeling that something was wrong, and Roman screamed when the boy darted forwards suddenly. 

He was yanked back by the chains, snapping his jaw in Roman’s face with a wild snarl and snorting with amusement when Roman’s back hit the far wall, sword out and shaking in his unsteady grip. “A dark side? Everyone’s got a dark side, Prince Perfect. If you think you don’t, you’re just not looking hard enough." 

"Thomas is good!" 

"Thomas is real,” the boy purred, moving back to sit at the window again, gazing back towards the house. The distant sensation of Logic and Anxiety fighting for the upper hand grew when Patton joined, his constant underlying guilt swelling support for their anxious antagonist. The chained boy laughed, fingers tapping against his face too quick for Roman to even see, lips moving soundlessly on words Roman definitely didn’t want to hear. “Have you come to defeat me, Roman? No, you didn’t even know I was here, did you. Locked in my tower, kept from my one true calling. It’s for my own good, you know? D- the dragon that guards me says so. It’s for everyone’s good that I don’t get out, most of all Thomas’.” The name felt reverent the way the boy said it, softly and sweetly, like calling the name of a deity. It made Roman wince. “It’s only right that a villain should be kept away.”

“Who are you?" 

"I’m you, but stronger,” the boy retorted, breaking into cackles. “I’m you but scarier. That’s what they thought, anyway. I think I’m just something else. I think I’m bad news. I think Thomas is bad news…" 

Roman wouldn’t stand for that. He held his sword out more confidently, raising his chin. "Thomas is a great guy! He’s the best! He’s full of good things and light and-”

“And darkness and wondering, wandering thoughts and impulses, just like anyone. Even you. You would kill me if you thought you should, if you thought it was your Disney story, wouldn’t you. Without hesitation, but Roman! Killing is wrong!”

“Not in Disney!" 

”Even in Disney!“

A howl of rage echoed around the tower, along with the sound of metal on stone as Roman brought the sword down on the window ledge beside the boy’s hands. The chained boy didn’t flinch, just beaming victoriously at Roman, cackling his disquieting cackle. 

"Who are you really?! Tell me!" 

The boy opened his mouth to speak, a hunger in his eyes that Roman didn’t understand, but the tower shuddered. His eyes darted to the door and Roman’s couldn’t help but follow. "Oh dear, Roman. You shouldn’t have come here. Curiosity killed the cat, you know, and the witch is on his way to toss you out of the tower…”

“I thought you said it was a dragon?”

“Dragon, witch, there was a time when there wasn’t any difference to you. Maybe you’re learning some nuance now though. That’s gotta be rough, buddy, you’re practically made from simplicity.”

Roman narrowed his eyes at the insult, and the tower shuddered again. The boy picked up his cackling again, louder and louder as the shuddering turned to heavy footsteps approaching up the stairs. And Roman wondered, if this was the monster that guarded this boy, what did that make the boy?

“He’s here.”

The door burst open, a hazy shape flying in and grabbing Roman, what felt like giant claws snatching him up and carrying him out of the tower, dropping him hard onto the lawn before it whirled back around and vanished back into the… treehouse? 

The tower was gone. The treehouse looked like it always had, dark and grim, but it was definitely just the same treehouse as ever. 

He fell back, sprawling on the grass as his limbs turned to jelly from the residual adrenaline, while inside Anxiety let up at last and Logan won the battle for the night. Thomas slipped uneasily into dreams.

The tug of unconsciousness grew heavy, dragging on Roman’s very being now his creator had finally fallen asleep. He just about managed to drag himself inside to bed before succumbing at last, glad to leave the whole strange night behind him. 

-

Masterlist | Buymeacoffee

[thelittlehansy]

Things that Annoy me in the Treatment of Prince Hans character

Because i love this gif gonna here is it : 😅

Over identification to Elsa and Anna : 

literally what happen in the movie : Prince Hans try to took advantages of a princess title later let her to died to took over her kingdom with also murdering a queen in order to escalated in a monarchy in order to be king also to reverse the winter cant ignore the fact that arendelle was literraly Frozen. 

people : Their Ex or A guy ( hans)) try to manipulated them or their daughter ( Anna) and later try to kill an other girl. ( possibly also them a friend , or their daughter or sister) 

this is basically how act a lot of fans , the cast , the creators a good part of people. This is annoying let fictonal character be fictional dont hold them in hostage because " i want to relate"

people in sleeping beauty after Maleficent try to murder aurora , threaten her during 16 whole years , succeeded to murder Her kidppap Phillip tried to murder him later because she wasnt invited at the baby shower of aurora : 

Aurora and phillip are boring: I wish maleficent would have won.

what people will said if phillip and aurra where as adore as elsa and anna : They both have post traumatic stress disorder.

Treatment of Hans fans 

imagined living in a fandom that think liking a Disney villain and finding him interesting is worse that put down mock several people  and  treat them like trash reject them and talk about them with disgust as basically “those small tiny delusional Hans community who promot abusive relationship” ? just told people they are invalid because they find him interesting.  fortunly didnt happen to me but sick ! 

Chidish and immature behavior :

sorry but there are a lot of hans antis who act this way 😅 WITH THING WRITE LIKE THIS BECAUSE THEY THING THIS IS FUNNY OR TO JUST SHOW THEY ARE ANGRY LIKE LOOK I M SCREAMING RIGHT KNOW and are gonna added you : 😡😡😡😡😡 ireedeamble monster 😄.

Different treatment :

Not treat like the others Disney villains FACT !! no one hate the others disney villains the way Hans is hate even tremaine and frollo dont have that hate so the argument "he is just a random human so he connect more with reality wrong" gaston is even love ! so some will say but no one tried to justify what the others disney villain did !!! Well first no one justify what hans has done but here is :

maleficent : justified actions by her being  a fairy and having a different morality also in tradition this was a big offend to not being invited. Also we ve got also The awful remake ( sorry if you like the movie i hate it) tried to justfy her bahvior.

gaston : a hunter ? he saw a beast he had to klil it ! read several time !

The evil queen : again...like have you ever see someone hate the queen to have give snow white the apple ? Nope ! But snow white is insult to have eat the apple ! So no one defend her but no one blame her also. The one that took all the critiscm is snow white and modern interpreation tried to defend her behavior.

gothel : she is also kind of defen like this is that bad what she did but she give rapunzel a tower she was a little nice ? 

Ursula : seriously There is literally no one that blame ursula to have trick ariel but everyone blame Ariel to have trust Ursula could you imagine prince hans in this situation ariel will not be blame at all. and you even got the Urusla didnt break the rules of the deal and she was acting as a buissness woman.😅

Facilier : blame naveen and also his background is sometimes used to defend his actions.

Hook : i see also a lot of times him being defend !

so others Disney villains actions are justify or reduct. I have never see someone honestly defend Hans action and said this le alright was he did.

Dismiss Hans life in the southern isles

we have Hans quote in the movie ,  lee words , A Frozen Heart , comic but this is not  enough and you will always heard people said that hans exaggerated his life with his brothers.

The lack of morality : ( that one is more subjective )

i m a very empathetic person personally but i cant help find that some person took  the excuse of Hans is the villain to tolerate abuse and even justify it. to me  whatever his crimes in Frozen he does not deserve to be punished by his abuser and people who know about his life in his homeland choose to ignore it on purpose sometimes. me personally it bother me ! it bothers how people who know about how mess up his life in the southern isles is choose to ignore it on purpose because he is the villain. Sorry but it work also in the others sense to me hans actions does not justify the abuse he goes throught by his family. I dont like vendetta so i m sorry but the fact he tried to kill a favorite disney princess does not justify anything. So then this is very convenient to reject it : by this is not canon but sorry a frozen heart or not this is canon that Hans live in an unloving environment.

Not funny humor

those cameo are just not funny even when i was no interest in the character i was finding them useless. hahaha the villain is hit !!! how many years old are you if you laughed at that ?😅

Bad lesson for kid 

Disney :  yeah litle kid see your princess is punching the villain

kid : hahahahahhahahaah

 Disney : see kid now the horrible villain receive a snowball in the face that makes go him in horse poop. 

kid : ahahhahahaahahahaha

Disney : hey look at our ester egg in big hero where the statue is smashed ? 

kid : AHAHAHAHAHAHA

disney : see kids see kid elsa is smashing his statue ! 

kid : AHAHHAHAHAHAHAA elsa is smashimg Hans statue.

Me : hey kid what about go saw cinderella live action and how piss off was tremaine when she ignore her and forgive her at the end To go take Her happy ending and forget her😅

So well i dont know if kids really laughed at all of That but you have understand the point.

If Hans was a girl...

Well i m sorry but i Cant not notice that if hans was a girl first the punch will not exist. Keep the same actions that Hans his crimes never the evil princess would have been punch. And you know what never the evil princess would have been humiliated at the end when he is violently throw in the cell with the bucket on his head And never the evil princess would have be hit by a snowball or smashed. I think there are actually high possibilities that the evil princess would even have more compassion and no one would have choose to dismiss her backstory. The evil princess would not even have bother people if she was ship to one of the Nice prince. So thats make a lot of thing i cant ignore. If Hans was not a man but keep the same actions he would have less hate.

[luescris]

So today I decided to watch the rest of Tangled the Series for Varian's birthday. I hadn't had the chance to watch the rest of it or anything and I thought that "hey, why not do it today since it's my alchemist son's special day??" When I finished, I couldn't help but to burst into tears. The ending was so good, as well as the fighting, the story, and everything in between. I'd recommend it to anyone who would ask!!!

But then I couldn't help but to get salty.

Varian didn't get as big as a part as I thought he would've. I thought they would like... Have him help defeat Zahn Tiri. But he did absolutely nothing. Now you can argue that the focus of the show is just for Rapunzel and Cass, which is what the creator would agree with.

But if that's the case, then what was the point of season one????????

Like he was made out to be this whole new character/dangerous villian, gave his father some depth, and then did absolutely nothing with any of it????????? How do the creators not expect us to think he has a bigger, deeper story behind him after having done all that?! But then they just... Throw him off to the side as if nothing really mattered. We don't even get to see what the letter said!!! Rapunzel never confronts Varian about anything! In my personal opinion, I think that he also deserves an apology from her, because the way she just... Immediately believed that he was this horrible, terrible person and never really listened to him is so awful.

But then Cassandra can do far worse to the castle and otherwise, and Raps still finds it in her heart to forgive her?? Multiple times?????? I mean sure, they're best friends. I can understand that. Cass was tricked, lied to, used. And I feel really bad for her because she deserved better. But they don't lock her up for all her crimes, they don't look at her like she's evil. They let her go off and do what she wants. They listen to her. Varian doesn't ever get that chance. Not even after all this.

And what's even worse, Rap's decides to go and say that "this is the biggest challenge we've ever faced" and Eugene jokes "No offense, Varian" and Varian just shrugs it off and goes "eh" and I'm just?????????? It was???? Worse for him in many ways and he just shrugs it off????????? His dad was encased in rocks. He was thrown out into the snow. Everyone hated him.

Someone PLEASE tell me what the point of his arc was if it was just thrown off to the side like that. Like I'm sorry but that's infuriating.

Varian honey I'm so sorry they treated you so terribly.

Edit: Oh also happy birthday Varian I lobve you very much. <3

[bestworstcase]

i talk a lot over here about the structural weaknesses in cassandra’s villain arc and the plot of s3 more generally but something i don’t... think i’ve ever gotten into in depth is how this effects zhan tiri? 

i’m not really into creator interviews and that sort of thing so i’m working off of hearsay here, but my understanding based on cliff notes i have gotten from a friend and general osmosis from seeing other people talk about what chris has said about zhan tiri is that zhan tiri exists in the narrative to generate conflict between cassandra and rapunzel; they needed somebody to reveal cass’s parentage, they needed something to fuel cassandra’s downward spiral, and they needed a big bad to replace cass as the true Villain. so fundamentally zhan tiri is a plot device, and on the one hand that’s... fine? as a writing choice, it’s valid to have characters who exist in service of the plot. and i respect that chris is upfront about that being the case with zhan tiri instead of trying to bullshit his way through answers that don’t truly exist the way some writers do.

but... i feel like there’s a disconnect between the way zhan tiri was written and the narrative purpose she was ultimately intended to serve and that this disconnect ends up doing a big disservice to her character. 

like... is zhan tiri a cunning manipulator who uses the bare minimum required force to achieve her goals, or is she a power-hungry monster who considers raw strength to be the only true measure of worth? these are very mutually exclusive character archetypes, and yet zhan tiri embodies the former throughout most of season three before abruptly, and without any explanation, switching gears into the latter. why?

well, because she was a plot device and the extent of her characterization was... wanting the sundrop and moonstone, and using cassandra to get them. there’s no internal consistency in how she pursues this goal, because... well how could there be when the writing team didn’t... develop her beyond the goal? 

she needed to be the driving force behind cassandra’s villain arc, so she was manipulative and clever.

but then she needed to be the big bad rapunzel and cassandra could work together to defeat and thus resolve their interpersonal differences and... so she just reverted to a generic power-hungry disney villain personality and picked up an idiot ball to enable them to do that. 

and we get a few scattered bits of backstory that sort of vaguely gesture at a fuller characterization than that but even the flashback in plus est only exists to show us how demanitus imprisoned her in the first place—it doesn’t tell us anything about zhan tiri that we didn’t already know, because frankly there wasn’t anything else there. 

which is so frustrating to me because when her manipulation was shown on screen, it was written so well and so effectively and combined with the pieces of her lore, the personalities of her disciples, the hints about her past with demanitus... like, there’s a reason i’ve gone so hog wild with developing her as a character for bitter snow and it’s because the seeds we were given in canon are really compelling and she’s like, she’s so close to being this magnificent villain but as a character she’s hamstrung by the decision to just treat her purely as a plot device. 

and again it’s like... it’s valid, i can fully understand why they did it this way, but as the resident ziti fan it’s also very frustrating. trying to cobble together a real character out of this plot device and like... fill in the gaps. i literally can’t write fully canon-compliant s3 fic because i can’t figure out how to bridge the gap between sly, subtle, manipulative ziti and big dumb monster ziti like— it would be one thing if she just went on a power trip but for her to suddenly start saying things that are wildly at odds with her behavior throughout the rest of the season...

idk. i wish more thought had been given to not just her basic motive but also why she wanted it and even just... a basic sketch of what she valued beyond the power of the drops themselves? you really don’t need much to get a character that feels cohesive—they managed just fine with ziti up until she got the drops in plus est—but it feels like they just kinda dropped the ball right at the end. and i’m convinced that it’s partly because she started off as a plot device and never got more thought put into her beyond that.

[therealjordan23]

Do you think Disney TVA has the whole last season is the weakest curse in its series? After all Gravity Falls had divisive episodes cropping up in its still well liked second season, MML's second season is well liked but seen as a step down from the first due to Doof, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure's final season is weaker from Cassandra's arc, BH6 season 3 is less like for the new format, and we all know the infamous Star vs season 4. With Ducktales thrown in there, does that make you worried?

I agree with you when you say that Disney has a notorious reputation for cancelling TV shows when they’re at their prime. I disagree when you say Gravity Falls, because I know Alex Hirsh himself wanted to end the show at 2 seasons, and I respect him a lot for that decision. And even though SVTFOE messed up, Daron Nefcy was fully aware that she was getting 4 seasons. For the other shows, however, I’ll take your word for it :)

It does make me worried, because I think after the Gravity Falls era, there hasn’t been a good TV  Show. there hasn’t been a Phineas and Ferb, Recess, or Kim Possible, or anything memorable. Nowadays, we’re given a show, and then Disney just takes it away, and for what? When somebody recommended DuckTales to me, my first thought was, “Where is it being produced?” Because if it was being produced at Disney, all my hopes just shatter, because I know it’s not going to last. Nonetheless, I gave DuckTales a chance, and I’m glad I did. But, like I said, did or would DuckTales make a mark like something like Recess? My guess is no. And I know what you’re thinking: “Well, Jordan, what about the earlier seasons of SVTFOE and DuckTales?” Well, a show is a show guys, right? When you talk about a show, you’re talking about the whole thing. Just imagine how silly you’d look when someone is like:

“Hey, is DuckTales a good show?”

“Yes, Seasons 1  and 2 were enjoyable, but you should probably stop there, because the third season ignores important storylines, plot, and character development! It adds way too many characters, and then tells its fans after 2 hiatuses, that it’s going to end!”

Like, you’d sound like a lunatic! You can't divvy up a TV Show, and you can’t tell somebody to just lower their expectations for a whole new season. It’s not fair to the new watchers and new fans. Like yes, at one point, it was the show you looked forward to after a long day, and yes, it was the show you waited until midnight to watch, but now, it’s lost its spark. Am I worried for DuckTales? Yes, very, but I have faith in Angones. I just hope that with this hiatus, the creators and writers take a step back, listen to their fans, who are pointing out the obvious problems, and be like, “Okay, we’re doing this wrong, so why don’t we try this…” Because we’re not here to nitpick on you or criticise,  we’re here to help you see the obvious.

So, hopefully, this show can have a satisfying ending. 

[halfblood-fiend]

Star Trek Bingo 2020: Vertical Prompt 1/Horizontal Prompt 4

TRANSFORMATION

Show: The Original Series

Words: 7,940

Rating: General Audiences

Warning(s): pining! and Kirk is an idiot! Also, this was the last prompt that I speed wrote today so, hopefully the editing isn’t 100% awful!

Here, There Is No Golden Ball

A First Contact with a hyper-telekinetic race called the Haijinn turns quickly from routine to devastating when Spock has an un-frog-ettable run-in with one of the race’s priests. Captain Kirk, with the begrudging help of Bones, has to find a way to turn Spock back or doom him to a long and des-pond-ent life.

Read it on AO3.

“Captain’s Log: Stardate 4846.1. We have encountered a new post-warp civilization on the outer reaches of Federation space. Xenosociologists have been monitoring this planet’s rapid technological march and were pleased to ask the Enterprise to be their Federation liaison. As part of our routine First Contact procedure, we have invited a handful of delegates to break bread with us up here on the Enterprise. They are a fascinating people on paper, but their unique telepathic and telekinetic abilities far surpass my own lofty expectations. On the surface, they seem able to conjure matter out of thin air. While basic laws of physics say this is impossible, it is still a wonder to behold. If I believed in such things, I could almost describe it as… well, like magic. Luckily, the Haijinn’s are just as fascinated with our own technological advances, but for a far different reason…”

The High Priest Mailak blinked his large, bulbous milky blue iris-less eyes at the control panels in the Engineering Room. His small head on his long, spindly neck swayed side to side, reminding Kirk a bit of an ostrich from Earth. With the large, but squat body hidden under the many folds of his robes, the similarities were striking. All the High Priest and his people were missing, Kirk thought, were the long legs.

“And you have managed to build all of this on your own? With your hands?” Mailak inquired in a gravelly dialect punctuated by clicks emanating from the back of his throat and deep within his chest.

Scotty waited until the communicator in Kirk’s hand had translated Mailak’s sentence to Standard before he answered, “Well, not by meself, personally, but, aye. Other Human Beings built the Enterprise with their own hands and tools. And maybe a service droid or two, but ship buildin’ is mostly a work of the people.”

A pause while the communicator translated back into Haijann, and then Mailak and his entourage emitted a high-pitched series of clicks that Kirk felt fairly confident interpreting as “oohing and ahhing.” He smiled. “Scotty is my Chief Engineer, and it’s his job to see that I never lose the total functionality of my ship. He keeps the Enterprise running in top shape.”

Scotty bit his lip and clasped his hands behind his back. “If yeh don’ mind me askin’, Your Excellency, sir, how do you make your ships, if not by your hands?”

Mailak’s wide, flat mouth and delicate, thin lips parted in a near grimace. Kirk wondered if he was trying to mimic a Human smile or if the Haijinn normally did that. The first possibility was somewhat endearing; the latter would take some getting used to. “We envision the creation and it becomes so.”

Blinking, Scotty cocked his head at the High Priest before turning to Kirk. “Is that communicator warkin’, Captain?”

Not all his senior staff had a chance to look at the dossier, apparently. Kirk decided to give Scotty a break—this time. Smiling warmly, he answered, “I assure you, Scotty, it is.”

Mailak looked between them both and then, bobbing his head in such a way that Kirk wondered if there was a body language component to their language, said, “For such a large object as a space-faring vessel, the oiimaige takes many highly tuned minds working in conjunction for long stretches of time. But for my people, anything we can imagine, we can create. It is our unique gift, our connection to the Oiim. Hold out your hand and observe.”

Even as he did as he was told, Scotty glanced at Kirk and said, “Now I know that thing’s busted.”

“Not everything has a perfect translation all of the time,” Kirk reminded him gently as Mailak closed his eyes and concentrated.

The ship-wide intercom chirped from over on the wall and a voice rang out from it. “First Officer Spock, to Captain Kirk.”

Mailak’s eye’s fluttered closed as he focused, and Kirk decided that Scotty would live for a few moments without the Universal Translator. He strode towards the intercom and pressed the switch. “Kirk here. Spock, what is it?”

“Captain, we will most likely be unable to rendezvous with you in the briefing room at the appointed time.”

“Why the delay, Mr. Spock? We are nearly finished showing His Excellency, The High Priest our Engineering Room. That should have been plenty of time for you and Her Eminence.”

“Indeed, Captain. However, Her Eminence, the Southern Priest, is quite enthralled with the ship’s library computer. She requests that she should be granted more time for study.”

Well, that certainly rubbed Kirk the wrong way. Glancing back at Mailak and Scotty, he spoke in a low voice and hoped the Haijinn’s hearing wasn't extremely good. “I don't think I have to impress upon you, Mr. Spock, the danger of—”

“Quite right, Captain,” Spock's voice cut him off in an equally low tone. “I already took the liberty of locking her out of the more strategic data regarding the Federation. Her interest does appear to be genuinely curious, but it seemed prudent not to take chances. At present, she is studying Terran folklore.”

Both the relief of the stress in his shoulders and the image of a Haijinn reading things like Paul Bunyan made Kirk smile. “What kind of folklore?”

“Fairy tales, Captain.”

Ah, so stories like Rapunzel. Even better.

“Well, carry on, Mr. Spock, and let me know if anything else arises. I'm sure we can entertain the High Priest for another hour or so.”

“Thank you, Captain. I believe Her Eminence will be most pleased. Spock out.”

Kirk flipped the switch on the wall-mounted comm panel and wondered which part of the ship that Mailak and his Entourage might like to see next. The Rec Room, perhaps? That might be diverting enough. Or maybe even a holodeck? Or—

“Captain!” Mr. Scott's excited shout drew Kirk's attention “Would you look at this!? It's like nothing I've ever seen before! I cannae even believe it!” In his outstretched hands was a clear flower that was unfamiliar to Kirk. He decided that it must be something native to the planet below. It was beautiful and dazzling, catching the light and throwing rainbow arcs across the bulkhead.

Mailak shook his head. “A pale comparison,” he sighed, “but the oiimaige has its limits. We cannot create living things by thought alone. It defies nature, and so does not allow for us to do it as we are living creatures ourselves. The Oiim, however… it is the Great Creator, and has made everything we know.”

Kirk nodded, another smile gracing his face. The Haijinn culture must be a fascinating one. What kinds of creation myths did a people who had the power to create things themselves devise to make sense of their universe? He made a note to inform Marlena and ask if she had ever heard anything else about the Haijinn from her contacts back on Earth.

“Real or not, Your Excellency,” Scotty replied with a laugh, “it’s all amazin’ to me!” He held up the flower and turned it in his fingers so that more colors bounced off into boundless arcs.

“Yes, well, if Your Excellency is ready, we can move on with our tour. There are other parts of our ship that you might find—ah—fascinating.”

Look at him, he was starting to sound like Spock.

“Certainly, Captain, though it was our belief that we would soon sit to discuss the merits of trade with your Federation.”

Kirk nodded. “In good time. Mr. Spock had just informed me that Her Emminence, the Southern Priest requested more time in our library. I am nothing if not an accommodating host. We have more to share if you wish to see it.”

Mailak made more high-pitched clicks, his neck swaying forwards and backwards. “Ah, that girl. Always so eager for knowledge. I do hope you will not find it tiresome, Captain Kirk.”

“Not at all, Your Excellency. It’s certainly no trouble.”

An hour later and Kirk, along with Mailak and his people were gathered in Briefing Room Two, with no sign of Spock and the Southern Priest. He seated Mailak and his most important attendants and served everyone replicated refreshments (that the Haijinns all found rather amusing) but nearly twenty minutes later, there was still no sign of his first officer, nor any word from him at all. The unusual behavior from Spock was making Kirk as anxious as he was getting cross.

Mialak blinked his large eyes at Kirk and swayed his head. “You must not be so angry, Captain. This is just like Eimmeel. She can hardly be torn from her studies. It’s what makes her such a serviceable chronicler and devotee to Oiim.”

Kirk made a mental note to add ‘emotional telepathy’ to the list of the Haijinn’s already formidable range of traits. But maybe, he was just being obvious, with his knee bouncing and his hand cupping his chin as he leaned on the table. He quit all these actions and sat up with a shake of his head. “It’s not like Commander Spock to be so late. My first officer is also stubborn, Your Excellency, so I’m sure he and Her Emminence would have figured something out by now.”

And Spock hadn’t even comm-ed him… It was highly unusual.

“Or, Captain, they are locked together in a battle of wills and we will be here all day if we wait for them to arrive.” Mailak did his strange impersonation of a smile but Kirk felt far from better.

Kirk swore that the reprimand Commander Spock was going to receive from him would be legendary…

He reached forward and flipped the switch for the intercom laid into the meeting table. “Kirk to Spock.” His voice sounded brusque, even to him. “Commander Spock, come in.”

But the line remained dead. There was no answer from any comm anywhere on the ship.

Kirk pressed a button on the interface that linked him to the bridge directly. “Uhura, is there any problem with the ship’s intercom systems?”

He knew that there wasn’t, but Kirk wanted a record of his attempt at troubleshooting before he disciplined Spock.

Lieutenant Uhura’s voice came in over the speaker, confident and clear, “No, sir. No communications malfunctions of any kind.”

So, Spock was purposefully ignoring him then. Just perfect. “Thank you, Lieutenant, that’s all. Sulu, find Commander Spock using a ship-wide scan. Then connect me a direct line to him.”

Both Uhura and Sulu answered with sharp, “Yes, sir”s.

Kirk’s fingers drummed on the table. In all the first contacts that they had overseen together, all of their separately given tours, Spock had never been so…thoughtless. Spock, who arrived twenty minutes early for every shift, suddenly late to a meeting without any warning? It didn’t add up. And something in Kirk’s gut was making him uncomfortable. A bad feeling. Bones might have agreed with him, but Spock would have reminded him that his feelings had no influence on the possible outcome of events. They couldn’t tell him one thing or another. Spock would remind him that Kirk couldn’t make any assumptions without all the facts. And the only fact that he had was that his First Officer had not appeared when he was supposed to, and that was out-of-character.

“Captain, we really can proceed. Eimmeel’s presence here as record-keeper was merely a precautionary measure. There is nothing she knows that I do not.”

Kirk listened but didn’t respond—How to explain that his desire to find Spock was more on principle now? —when Sulu’s voice cracked over the speaker. “Er…Sir? Commander Spock is…not on the ship, sir.”

His eyes drew sharply to the intercom as though Kirk could see Sulu’s face through it and intimidate him into telling the truth. “What do you mean, ‘not on the ship’? Have there been any unauthorized shuttle launches?”

“That was the first thing I checked, sir.”

“Unauthorized transports?”

“Negative, sir. There have been no unauthorized functions of any kind. Ship’s log places the Commander’s last known location in the computer library facility.”

The last place Kirk knew him to be…

He glanced up at Mailak, who looked just as shocked as Kirk was (so far as he could tell). The High Priest leaned over to the Haijinn on his left and spoke quickly to them in sharp tones. They spoke so fast that the Universal Translator couldn’t catch any of it.

Convenient, Kirk found himself thinking, but quickly reigned in any suspicious lines of thought until he had more information.

Mailak stretched his neck to the ceiling and pressed his hands into the base of his throat, one folded over the other. A low humming filled the room.

“Captain, what—”

“Just a moment, Sulu,” Kirk ordered, watching the High Priest with rapt attention.

A heartbeat later, Mailak resumed his normal posture, although the humming hadn’t completely left the small space. Kirk thought he could still feel the ghost of rumbling echoing on his skin.

“Eimmeel is still where your crewman says, Captain,” Mailak said. “She has not moved for much of the duration of our visit.”

Kirk’s eyebrow raised. “And…Spock?”

“Him, I cannot find. He is not a part of the Oiim,” the High Priest replied, rocking his head forwards and back.

Understandable, but worth a try.

“If you do not mind the continued delay, Your Excellency,” Kirk said, choosing his words carefully, “I would very much like to find my missing First Officer.”

Mailak’s head swayed. “Of course, Captain. The Haijinn will assist you in any way we can.”

Kirk rose from his seat in a fluid motion when he heard Sulu again. “Orders, Captain? Shall I send a security team?”

He had almost forgotten the intercom was still on. It was strangely thoughtless of him.

“No need,” yet, Kirk added mentally. “Maintain orbit and communication with the planet. We will speak to Her Emminence, the Southern Priest. I’m sure she will know what happened to Commander Spock and this will all be sorted in short order. Kirk out.”

And if not, Kirk would lock down the ship, and report the Haijjin’s malicious intent upon the Enterprise, and let them deal with the fallout of it.

While the library computer could be accessed from nearly any terminal on the Enterpise, they still maintained a specific room for those crewman who wished to research outside of their quarters or the usual terminals located at every work station. The room was lined on three walls by data banks with glowing lights, while the last wall opened to the exterior hull, allowing a spectacular view of the planet in orbit down below, the yellow pinprick of the system’s sun in the distance, and the spattering of far distant stars in inky space. It was a semi dim room, opting for personal lamps at the worktables instead of overhead lighting, to suit each individual’s need.

There was only a single occupant in the room when Kirk stepped over the threshold. Seated at one of these worktables, her personal light switched on, illuminating a scattering of colorful isolinear chips all around her, was another splendidly robed Haijinn.

The Southern Priest, Kirk assumed, was larger than all her male counterparts. Her skin was lighter and more wrinkled than Mailak’s and Kirk couldn’t tell if that was age or merely a variation in sex, because he realized, upon seeing her alone, she was the only female Haijinn to have come aboard.

Maybe not anything worth noting, but Kirk noted the discrepancy all the same.

Mailak brushed past Kirk and approached Eimmeel in the Haijinn version of a huff. He was already clicking before he had made it halfway to her. “What is the meaning of this, Eimmeel? What are you still doing here? You and Commander Spock were supposed to have been at the meeting place already!”

Eimmeel’s long furrowed neck raised from her terminal, and she swung her orange gaze upon her intruders, although she appeared to look through them as if she didn’t quite see them.

Kirk strode forward as well, his eyes searching for any sign of the Vulcan among the tables or data banks. The fact that he found nothing churned unease heavy in his stomach.

She blinked and then spoke in a much higher and clearer voice than Kirk had expected given all her wrinkles. She said, “Has it been a ‘Standard Hour’ already? Time for these outsiders flows so quickly. How do they ever have time to write all these stories?”

“Your Eminence,” Kirk began, fighting to keep his voice even, “where is First Officer Spock? I…must speak with him.”

He couldn’t help continuing to let his eyes rove around, trying to probe the shadows for any sign of Spock. Kirk felt his heart race as panic began to grip his chest. The ship thinks he isn’t here, and if no one left on a shuttle or was transported, that could only mean—

Kirk didn’t dare finish his thought.

The Southern Priest turned her gaze on Kirk as if she had only just realized he was there, then her neck swung around in several directions. Like a bird looking at something past their beak. “He was only just here…” she muttered. “Where could he have gotten off to?” Then she swung her face back to Kirk and said something that chilled him to his bones: “You had better not let anyone else come inside, Captain. And mind where you put your feet. Until we find him.”

Mind his…feet…?

Mailak placed his hands at his throat again and rocked his entire body back and forth. “Oiim al’mak teek. What have you done now, Eimmeel?”

Ice froze in Kirk’s veins as he looked around him. His eyes began scanning the floor now. His hands curled into fists. But he could not afford to lose his temper. He could not afford to jeopardize the mission or his duty as Captain but oh, the things he wished he could do about now!

And Spock! What in the hell had this woman done to Spock?

Kirk took tentative steps forward, now almost too scared to move, as Mailak uttered a long series of high pitched clicks and words that were too fast for his Universal Translator to decipher. This time, Kirk didn’t care.

He bent forward and peered beneath the nearest table.

Oh, god, Kirk didn’t even know what he was looking for! A body? Or something worse?

"Ribbit!"

His head snapped up. Mailak fell silent.

That couldn’t have been a…

"GrrrIBBIT!"

Kirk leaped to his feet and followed the bellowing sounds of a frog­—of all the things on his ship!

“RrriBBIT, ribbit, grrrrRIBBET!”

Close to the window, Kirk found it: a mottled green and brown bullfrog the size of his hands and… with dark, knowledgeable eyes…

“Ribbit!” the frog’s throat expanded to reveal brilliant green skin as it…ribbit-ed at Kirk.

Open-mouthed, he looked back at the Haijinn priests.

Eimmeel waved a hand and emitted her gleeful high-pitched whine. “Ah! There he is!”

Kirk looked back down at…Spock, the bullfrog, who ribbit-ed again, indolently.

“Now, with all due respect, Your Eminence,” Kirk really had to focus in order to remember that he needed to attach the Southern Priest’s diplomatic title when he spoke to her, especially when all he wanted to do was rage, “I do not think I am being particularly unreasonable with my request to restore my first officer to his proper species, however, I am starting to think that you are being purposefully unhelpful.” Without thinking, Kirk waved Spock the Frog around as he spoke, his little limbs rather comically swinging through the air.

“Ribbit,” croaked Spock the Frog dolefully, punctuating Kirk’s final word with a poignant sense of irony.

With Mailak’s help, Kirk had been able to wrestle Eimmeel from the library computer room, though not without her grabbing a handful of isolinear chips as she left. Not knowing what else to do, Kirk had scooped Spock the Frog up in his hands and comm-ed Bones to come straight away the second they had made it back to Briefing Room Two.

The Southern Priest blinked her large pupil-less orange eyes at him. “I’m sorry, Captain, but I cannot. I cannot disrupt the oiimaige from its intent once it has been woven.”

The High Priest made several sharp, agitated movements in his chair beside her. He asked her, “Why would you do this to another being at all, Eimmeel? We were their guests! The Federation has only just arrived—”

“You did not read their stories, Your Excellency. I thought it was a gift. I did not think it would be so difficult for them to change him back themselves!”

Kirk’s brow furrowed and he bit his lip to keep from screaming out of sheer frustration. “Our people are not like yours,” he said to her when he had more control. “We can’t just… wish for something to happen and then it happens! Where did you get the impression that we could restore Mr. Spock by ourselves?”

Back and forth went the Southern Priest’s head. “From all your wonderful stories, of course!”

“They’re fairy tales!” Kirk ground out from behind his clenched teeth.

“Ribbit.”

Ever with the best timing, the door slid open and Bones strode into the room with a medical kit and a tricorder slung over his shoulder.

“Now, Jim, I’m not sure what all the fuss was about, but you sounded nothing short of hysterical over the—” His eyes fell on the frog still clenched in Kirk’s hand. “Funny. I didn’t think they made those on other planets. Are we having a grade-school dissection, then?”

Kirk clutched Spock the Frog to his chest and held him away from Bones reflexively. “I should hope not. Doctor, this…this… frog is Spock. They… Her Eminence, the Southern Priest, has turned Spock into a frog!”

Bones raised his eyebrow and glanced over at the fretting High Priest, speaking to his counterpart in low tones. “Why in the world would Her Eminence do that?”

“Good question.” Kirk held Spock out to Bones. “Just take him and look after him until we can figure this out.”

Wrinkling his nose some, Bones took the wand from his tricorder and reached for Spock with his free hand, and began scanning him. “Seems fine, Jim," he announced. "Perfectly healthy.”

“Perfectly healthy,” Kirk echoed with a shake of his head. “For a Vulcan or a bullfrog?”

“One and the same now, I think,” Bone replied, holding Spock up with a smile as he replaced his wand.

“Just…take care of him. And try not to seem too happy about it. And, uh, don’t let him…dry…out…” Kirk shrugged and went to wipe his face with his hand—before he remembered it was covered in frog mucus. He wiped them on the front of his pants instead.

“Don’t you worry, Jim. I think I’ve got a nice little terrarium with plenty of water to swim in and some pond scum to eat. I'll keep him away fro the flies. That'll just give him indigestion.”

“Bones…”

“You’ll figure it out, Jim,” his friend told him in a low, soothing voice, clapping him on the shoulder. “You always do.”

“Ribbit,” Spock agreed.

Grinning, Bones held Spock the Frog up to their faces. “Do it for him, will you?”

Kirk shook his head. “Won’t you try to treat him with a little respect?”

“’Course! Wouldn’t dream of doing anything less.” Bones then turned to their guests and bowed to each in turn. “Your Excellency. Your Eminence.”

The Haijinns looked up at Bones and clicked distractedly.

“Now, one more time—” Kirk began with a sigh as soon as the doors had hissed closed behind Bones.

Mailak stood. He looked, for the first time, deflated, like a tiny creature wearing too many clothes that didn’t fit him. “Captain,” he crooned, “while regrettable, it is as Eimmeel has said. There is nothing we can do to undo the oiimaige once its intent has been sealed by the Oiim. I am sorry.”

Kirk waved him away and leaned forward onto the table, not yet ready to believe what he was saying. “There were some words that aren’t translating. I don’t want to misunderstand. Can you explain—”

“When my people create something, we must define certain…parameters around our creations. A set of rules that can cause our will to exist in the physical plane. Once something has been created within the confines that we set, it cannot simply be undone unless the creator has made specific rules to do so. We cannot help your first officer. Our interference was not woven into the fabric of the reality of his transformation. I am sorry, Captain.” And he did look sorry, for whatever that was worth.

Which was very little to Kirk in this particular moment.

He tapped his finger on the table.

They couldn’t change Spock back because of some law of physics around their powers and how they connected to it, that much he understood. He hated to hear it, but he refused to believe there weren’t other avenues to de-frog Spock.

Someone had to have the technology or the ability. Kirk just had to find them.

“I can’t very well have an amphibious first officer,” Kirk sighed. “And what do you think I should tell his family? There has got to be another way and…you are the only ones that can help me find it. Please. No one else in the galaxy will know your Oiim the way that you do.”

The Southern Priest bobbed forward and chittered excitedly. “But I did factor in the parameters to change him back, Captain,” the translator recited her words through its speakers.

Kirk hardly dared to hope. “Great. How?”

“I was inspired by all your stories!”

“Our…fairy tales. Yes, you’ve said that. But, how does that help Spock?”

“You have to change him back like in the story!”

Dread trickled into Kirk’s chest and made it difficult to breathe. Which story? There were thousands—no, millions—of possibilities. He was already calculating how long it might take for him to search the computer terminal where the Southern Priest had sat and attempt to decipher which story had inspired her.

He didn’t need Spock’s computer-like brain to know that would take too long.

“Forgive me, but, you’ll have to be more specific,” he said hoarsely.

Eimmeel turned sharply to the pile of isolinear chips beside her and picked through them until she produced a blue one. Kirk took the proffered chip, and glancing at her, slid it into the slot beneath the table.

An image appeared on all the triangular screens. It was the title page of a very old and well-worn Earth book. An illustration of a violently green frog gazed demurely at them from a lilypad. The gilded golden lettering over the cover read: The Frog Prince.

Kirk blinked. He really had no idea what to say.

But Eimmeel rocked back and forth with obvious excitement. “A gift!” she squealed. “So many of your stories are centered on true love. I asked Commander Spock if he had ever known it and he replied that his kind do not love. I felt so sorry for him. The stories all made it sound so beautiful and fulfilling. I thought, that if he became the frog in the story, then he could find his true love and become whole! True love's kiss will turn him back!”

So many thoughts rushed through his mind but Kirk was stunned into silence. True love’s kiss? For Spock?

Oh, god…

Kirk was going to have to inform Sarek that his son would be a frog forever.

After profuse apologies on both sides and a joint promise to reconvene to discuss trade relations at a later time, Kirk had seen all the Haijiin transported off the Enterprise—good riddance—and half-sprinted to sickbay.

He was out of breath with a small stitch in his side when the doors slid open to reveal rows and rows of unoccupied biobeds beneath bright overhead lights. Kirk nodded at Nurse Chapel and continued straight into Bones’ office in the center of the room.

“How is he?” Kirk asked as soon as he entered.

His friend looked up from his PADD and glanced back at a glass terrarium on the wall behind him. Within sat Spock the Frog, half-submerged in water, half sitting on a raised flat stone. He croaked, his throat expanding briefly��� and then licked his left eye with his long pink tongue.

Kirk sighed.

“Never did understand a single word he said, Jim, but we do always have a mighty fine time,” Bones said with a smile.

Kirk stared blankly down at the doctor. “Glad you’re so enjoying yourself,” he said dryly.

“It’s not so ter-ribbit-able.”

“Leonard, please!” Kirk cried, throwing himself into the chair sitting across from Bones’ desk. He propped his elbows on his knees and let his head fall into his hands.

“Oh, come on, Jim. I’ve spent the last hour thinking up a whole plethora of frog puns!”

“I don’t want to hear them.”

“Well,” his friend replied, chewing on the inside of his lip as he turned his attention back to his PADD, “your loss, then.”

“What am I going to do?”

“They say anything about how to turn him back?”

“Apparently, it’s all linked to that ancient story, The Frog Prince. They said ‘true love’s kiss’ would turn Spock back into a Vulcan.”

Bones looked up at him, his eyebrow arched. “That so…?” he murmured thoughtfully.

“I know!” Kirk cried. Unable to contain his restless energy anymore, he leaped from the chair and started pacing the small transparent aluminum-enclosed room. “Does such a thing even exist for a Vulcan? True love doesn’t even really exist for Humans, and we’re the idiots who made the damn thing up!”

“You need to take a deep breath, Jim,” Bones sighed, laying his PADD aside and interlacing his fingers over his stomach as he leaned back in his chair. “Why don’t you think about it logically?”

“Ribbit!”

Bones grinned and stuck his thumb out over his shoulder. “See? Spock agrees with me.”

Kirk thought Bones was taking the entire thing too lightly— making jokes at Spock’s expense, sticking him in a terrarium, and now trying to tell him to relax. He was about this close to exploding on his friend.

“Is there anything you can do?” Kirk asked instead. “Anything in some medical file or—”

“That’ll undo magic? No. Can’t say that I’ve found anything like that.”

“It’s not magic, Leonard, it’s—”

“I know what it is, Jim,” Bones raised his voice over Kirk’s and the tone surprised him out of pacing. “It’s far too advanced for anything we have in the Starfleet medical database and it’s like nothing that I’ve ever heard of, besides in tales about evil witches. What do you expect me to do? I can’t turn a frog into a Vulcan through medical science—it’s simply not possible! The only option we have is to follow their directions. If we need ‘true love’s kiss,’ then that’s what we need. You need to think logically and figure out what you should do next.”

But Kirk was flummoxed. He had no idea what to do next. Spock never loved anyone. ‘True love’ wasn’t something that he thought any Vulcan would be familiar with.

Unless the definition of ‘true love’ could be broadened somehow…

Bones broke Kirk’s train of thought by speaking softly but with determination. “Think, Jim. Think back to all of Spock’s past actions. I think you’ll find his ‘true love’ there.” He leaned forward, a partial smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “I think you’ll know what you have to do…”

Kirk narrowed his eyes at his friend. “You’ve already got an idea, haven’t you? Well, out with it, then.”

Shrugging, Bones leaned back into his chair and picked up his PADD again. “Just a theory, really. I’d rather you come to the same conclusion yourself. If I tell you, well, then that’s just too easy. After all, the frog prince had to convince his princess to kiss him, didn’t he?”

“Ribbit!”

“You’re incorrigible,” Kirk told him, rapping his knuckles on Bones’ desk. He decided not to call his friend’s bluff because Kirk didn’t need his help. Kirk already had his own idea of what he needed to do. He just hoped that it would work.

Nerves bunched up in Kirk’s stomach long before the lovely face of a grey-haired Human woman appeared on the screen on his personal communications terminal in his Captain’s Quarters. A thousand explanations had run through his mind, but in the end, he’d decided that saying as little as possible would probably be the best course of action. After all, no mother wanted to hear that their only son had been cursed into a frog.

“Captain Kirk,” Amanda Greyson greeted with a bright smile. “This is a most unusual but welcome surprise.”

Kirk smiled back, but it only went skin deep. “Hello again, Lady Ambassador. I hope I did not disturb you.”

“Oh, no. It’s quite alright, Captain,” she replied with a wave of her dainty hand. “The Ambassador is resting and I was happy to take your call in his stead. Tell me, how is Spock?”

Kirk’s gut wrenched painfully. “Doing well,” he lied. “Busy…with the First Contact we are delegating.”

“How just like him, to be so busy working and miss his mother’s call. He is so like his father.” Her eyes grew unfocused and faraway. Any other time, Kirk might have asked after her. He was quite smitten with Spock’s mother and liked to think the two of them got along quite well.

But he was here for business, not pleasure.

“Lady Ambassador,” Kirk began, tapping his fingers against his chin. He’d rehearsed his question several times over before even making the subspace communication to Vulcan, but that didn’t stop him from being anxious about the questions Amanda might ask back. “I was wondering if you had a way that you could put me in contact with…with T’Pring.”

Even over the video, Kirk could tell that she started. “Spock’s betrothed? Whatever for?”

And here it was. Remember: keep it simple! “I…believe that she might have some…invaluable insight on our current mission.”

Amanda tilted her head, regarding him, and Kirk hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions. “Doesn’t Starfleet have its own xenoscientists, Captain?” she asked in a calculating voice.

“We do,” he responded too quickly. “However, this race… they have strong telepathic and telekinetic abilities.” An idea occurred to him. “Spock had recommended I attempt to contact her about them. He would have done it himself but…after what happened…he didn’t think she would be as responsive to his call as to mine.”

“So why call me and not ask my son for her communication code?”

Kirk shrugged and a hysterical laugh escaped his lips despite his best effort to contain it. “I just didn’t want to bother him. Besides, I didn’t think about it until it was too late.” Hardly a good excuse, but it might just do the job. “Please,” he continued quickly, leaning forward and batting his eyes, “will you help me?”

She was silent a few moments more, with a crease between her eyes and then she sighed. “I can connect you to her, but I’ll make no promises about her responsiveness.”

“Wonderful!” Kirk released the breath he had been holding. Relief blossomed in his chest as he smiled. “I greatly appreciate it, Lady Ambassador.”

“Of course, Captain,” Amanda replied offhandedly as she pressed a series of buttons Kirk couldn’t see. “But, James?”

“Yes?”

Her eyes flashed. “I do hope you will tell me the truth the next time you call for a favor.”

“I—” he choked.

But Amanda had transferred his video. Only a series of Vulcan words remained in her place.

T’Pring had not answered. Kirk left her a message detailing their predicament as best as he could, but he didn’t really believe that she would return his communication. Something in his heart told him she wouldn’t, anyway.

He rubbed his face in his hands and tried to think of another logical thing to do.

How to find Spock’s ‘true love’s kiss’ and change him back? There was nothing he could think of because Spock didn’t actually love anybody. It wasn’t in his nature! He had said so himself over and over again.

Briefly, Kirk considered calling Amanda back in the hopes that a mother’s love would be considered ‘true’ enough to do the trick, but he immediately dismissed it. Not only did the original story not use such a loophole, but it would never matter how much Amanda loved Spock. That wasn’t how he remembered the story going.

Spock had to love the person who kissed him, in order to break the spell.

So who in this wide, wide Universe did Spock love?

Kirk dropped his hands to his desk and shook his head. He was about ready to hang up a sign on the sickbay doors and make it a free for all. Any woman willing! Come, line up to kiss a frog!

With a deep sigh, he decided to slouch his way back to sickbay. Maybe he could convince Bones to tell him his secret theory.

“Back again, I see,” Bones greeted the second Kirk was through his door. He glanced up from the biobed whose control panel was in pieces in front of him. When Kirk threw him a questioning look, Bones answered, “Just some software updates. Routine things, you know. You find what you were looking for?”

Kirk narrowed his eyes as he stepped closer, about to give the other man a piece of his mind, but he was interrupted by Uhura’s voice coming from the intercom.

“Lieutenant Uhura to Captain Kirk. Incoming subspace message from Vulcan, sir. Priority One.”

Grinning, Kirk grasped Bones’ arms and shook him gently. He didn’t bother explaining, despite Bones’ look of confusion. He bounded to the intercom on the sickbay wall and smashed the button.

“Go ahead and patch it into Doctor McCoy’s office. I’ll take it there.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Jim! You can’t just go and commandeer a man’s computer console—”

“Ah, yes I can,” Kirk sang, wagging his finger at Bones as he strode away and into his office, “because I’m the captain.”

He sat at the terminal, nervously ran his hand through his hair, carefully wiped the smile from his lips, and punched the accept button on the side of the screen.

T’Pring, as regal and unaffected as he remembered her to be, appeared on the monitor.

From somewhere behind him, he thought he heard Bones swear.

Kirk held up his hand in a Vulcan salute and T’Pring returned it. Though, somewhat begrudgingly, he noted.

“Thank you for answering my communication, T’Pring. I hope you are well?”

If possible, the hard line of her mouth deepened. “Save me the Human frivolities, Captain. I am uncertain that I understood your request. I require more clarification from you.”

“Well, you see, Spock is—”

“A Terran amphibian.”

���Er. Yes. And we need for you to—”

“I do not understand what the merits of ‘kissing’ would be.”

Kirk gulped. Somehow, he hadn’t anticipated T’Pring to be so… uncooperative. Thinking back to the way she acted on Vulcan, it was a wonder that he ever thought this would work.

“Its merit is that ‘kissing’ Spock in his present state appears to be the only way to turn him back into his regular self. I said that to you already in my message,” he said, staring hard at the screen, willing her to understand.

“And why should I kiss him?”

He had gone over this too, but Kirk drew a long breath and willed himself to remain calm and not let the hysteria that threatened to engulf him edge into his voice. “You…were betrothed to him. Surely there is some residual—” Not 'feelings', because she was Vulcan and Kirk didn’t want to offend his only hope of getting Spock back. Kirk wracked his brain for a different word. “—affection, that stems from that connection. Enough, to turn him back into himself.”

T’Pring raised a lovely slanted eyebrow and ‘harumf’ed so sharply that Kirk could have almost mistaken it for a laugh. “There was hardly affection when we saw each other last, and there certainly is none now. I am not the savior you seek, Captain Kirk.”

Kirk couldn’t help it. His face fell. His shoulders caved forward into his chest.

“Frankly, I am astounded that you contacted me at all—” She looked away for a brief moment, collecting herself. “—given your display in the ancestral sands.”

His eyebrows knit. What was that supposed to mean?

Behind him, Kirk heard Bones groan.

“I…” Kirk blinked, shook his head, and tried again, “I-I-I don’t believe I understand your meaning, T’Pring.”

She scowled. “It is not for me to say,” she responded roughly. “I cannot help you in this.”

A second later, her display darkened.

“Sir,” came Uhura’s voice, “I’ve lost the communication to Vulcan. Should I attempt to re-establish—”

“No, Lieutenant,” Kirk sighed. “Thank you.”

That was it. There were no more options. There was nothing else that Kirk could think of to help Spock. This was it! The end!

And now Spock would remain a frog for the rest of his life.

Would he have a frog lifespan or a Vulcan lifespan?

Kirk didn’t want to think about it—his friend trapped in a tiny frog body for another hundred years… What kind of life would that be?

“Are you finished making a damn fool of yourself?” Bones exclaimed so suddenly that Kirk jumped in his seat.

He turned to look up at his friend, confused. “What?”

“All this nonsense about affection—T’Pring was right! She can’t help you! I didn’t think you’d be fool enough to call her, of all people.”

Kirk’s mouth worked but no sound came out in the face of Bones’ icy stare. “W-well, now, see here, Bones—”

“No, you see here! I tried leading you to the obvious answer. I tried tellin’ ya to think back to Spock’s past actions and you thought of T’Pring? Lord in high heaven, have mercy. You’re more hopeless than I thought!”

Bones stomped past Kirk to Spock’s terrarium. He reached in and unceremoniously plucked Spock from his large, flat stone with a soft squelch then brought him back to Kirk. He watched Bones with his mouth open as his friend adjusted his grip and then held Spock the Frog out to him.

“Pucker up.”

“Are you out of your mind, Leonard McCoy?!”

“Kiss. The DAMN. Frog. Jim.”

He shook his head. Bones was crazy. This was his big theory? It was never going to work!

Softly, Spock croaked, and Kirk looked at him longingly. If only it could have been true, but Spock didn’t love him. They were friends, maybe. A team, definitely. There was no one else in the universe that Kirk trusted more, but…

No, it was impossible.

He looked up straight into Bones’ eyes. “You’re crazy.”

“Am I?” Bones replied softly. “Who did he trust with his greatest secret when he was starting to go through that Pon Farr? Who helped you identify your vicious half from your good half, and who brought the two of you together?”

Kirk shook his head.

“Who insisted you were innocent, even when Commodore Stone had all the evidence against you? Who pushed you out of the way and took those poisonous flower darts for you, for christ’s sake?”

“Yes, you’ve made your point, Bones…”

But he didn’t stop. “What did you say Spock told you when that infection from Psi 2000 ravaged the ship?”

“Ribbit.”

Kirk shook his head, but he remembered the words as plainly as if they were yesterday. “When I feel friendship for you, I…I’m ashamed.”

“Yes, Jim. Now, what do you think the only logical reason for a Vulcan to feel something like shame could be?”

“It’s not going to work,” Kirk sighed, but something new rose sharply in his chest. A question he hardly dared to dwell on.

But what if it did?

“So? Will you kiss the frog now? Or do you want to take him out to dinner first?”

He shook his head again, but Kirk held out his hands. Bones carefully placed Spock in them and took several steps back. He looked excited. Kirk glanced up at him, still doubtful.

But what if?

His heart raced.

What did kissing a frog feel like, anyway? Would kissing Spock’s wet cheek be enough?

Spock adjusted his delicate legs and nestled snugly into the palms of Kirk’s hands. “Ribbit,” he croaked quietly.

Kirk lifted Spock up to his eye level. He could almost believe the Vulcan had retained all his intelligence, and he knew what was about to happen. His gaze looked soulful and longing. It was much the same sort of expression that Kirk had caught a time or two on the bridge. Always when Spock thought he was too busy to notice.

But he had noticed, Kirk had just convinced himself that it was nothing.

True love’s kiss…

Would Spock really change back? For him?

“Ribbit.” Get on with it, he seemed to say. It is illogical to waiver when there are no other avenues open to you.

Kirk took a steadying breath through his nose—

—and raised Spock’s little frog lips to his own.

Heat tingled and blossomed between them. If the sun could be contained within a being, then Kirk thought that this was what that might have felt like. Kirk couldn’t pull away, even if he had wanted to.

The air crackled and swirled around them. The frog he had known to be in his hands grew larger and larger, expanding until a heavy weight settled comfortably in his lap, his hands laying on either side of it.

Kirk couldn’t hear anything outside of the roaring in his blood. He was overwhelmed by the sensation in his lips, in the pressure there, and in the soft caress of a nose against his cheek.

Spock pulled away, but Kirk didn’t want to open his eyes.

The weight in his lap, the mass in his arms… it had to have worked… but he was terrified that if he opened his eyes, the spell would be broken.

This spell, the spell of the true love that Kirk had kept himself from dreaming of.

“Captain,” Spock’s deep voice reverberated through his body from where they touched. Almost a purr.

Kirk allowed his eyes to flutter open and he found exactly what he’d always wanted: Spock, close to his face, his hands resting on Kirk’s chest, with his head tilted and the forbidden ghost of a smile on the edge of his lips.

Kirk wanted very badly, very suddenly, to kiss him again.

Bones grunted and had an obnoxious coughing fit, drawing both of their attentions.

“Now, we are all very glad that Spock is Spock again, and I will tell you that I told you for the rest of your life, but if you two are going to keep canoodling like that, you need to find a different room to do it in.”

Spock shook his head. “Doctor, after my dubious treatment at your hands, I believe that ‘you owe me.’”

Bones spluttered. “Dubious!? I didn’t feed you flies, did I? Get out of my office before I make you wish you were still a frog!”

[signor-signor]

My Last Long Post of the Decade

It’s been three years, nine months, and nearly 20 days since we learned from @crackmccraigen about Wander Over Yonder’s cancellation, found out about the plans for an unmade third season, and launched SaveWOY. It’s also been three and a half years since The End of the Galaxy premiered and left us wanting more because of a certain simian in a certain space pod. I admit I’m still irked Craig couldn’t tell us about Disney’s unforgivable action sooner (that happened four years and five months ago, one week before The Greater Hater premiered). I mean, what kind of multibillion, world-famous entertainment conglomerate brings up the hopes of an experienced cartoonist and, five months after S2 writing wraps up and a S3 pitch is presented in private, cold denies him the chance to show the public what’s worse than galactic destruction and how a lovable villain came to be? It’s not like he never lived up to his contract. All things considered, it’s no wonder Craig left the company to work for Netflix, where he has even more creative freedom to work on his upcoming cartoon, Kid Cosmic.

Even after SaveWOY’s launch, it’s almost apparent that our politely written comments expressing our interest in the supposedly promising concept of Wander’s post-Dominator adventures are completely wasted on Disney’s “higher-up bosses of bosses of bosses” (and also the creators of the more popular shows, those affiliated with said creators, and most of the fans of said popular shows). HOWEVER, now that we have Disney+, our chances of saving the show just got a little bit higher. Also, with a number of hints (including those brought up by @suspendersofdisbelief) and the breakthrough that is the cameo in Future-Worm, some of most dedicated fans of WOY, myself included, have been able to provide inspirational content to keep the movement going.

Some of my memorable achievements include the three posters inspired by the classic Star Wars trilogy VHS set, “The First 5 Years” image depicting more than 140 individuals, a microgame made with WarioWare: D.I.Y., Lord Hater’s attempt to escape, and a LEGO Digital Designer rendering of the Star Nomad. Speaking of which, I recently made something super special and truly extraordinary over the course of four months - not only am I the only WOY fan to pull this off, but also the only Disney employee to do so.

This little beauty was made with 1,200 pieces, give or take a few, and no more than a foot and a half of solder wire. It’s no secret that I really do care about those plans for S3, and this is the best evidence I can give. I would NEVER treat the show like a waste of entertainment, for that would mean I’d be treating everything associated with WOY’s production (such as the filming of the HATERV commercial at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the recording of songs from My Fair Hatey at Capitol Records, and the presentation of the pitch for S3) like a waste of time.

Anyhow, as the 2010s come to a close, I hope my motivational message will resonate with the WOY fandom and also the WOY crew. I look forward to 2020, but I’m not leaving the WOY fandom until I see the “true, long-awaited closure” on Disney+, where The Proud Family and Star Wars: The Clone Wars are getting another season. If other shows like Hey Arnold! and Samurai Jack can get closure after years of negligence, so can Wander Over Yonder!

Of course, we still have to wait until Craig is done with Kid Cosmic, which I know will turn out really great. As soon as we know what KC looks like, imagine the fan art of him saying, “Watch my show and tell your friends so we’ll make that Mousey Company bring back my half-brother!” I’m sure some other artists will think of something clever and similar.

Oh, and as for my SaveWOY ideas in the start of the new decade, I am considering making doodles of main characters from the Disney shows that get a moderate-to-high amount of love from the executives (Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls, 2013 Mickey Mouse, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures, 2017 DuckTales, etcetera - even the shows on Disney Junior) and having them say “Save Wander Over Yonder” and give a reason to do so. I don’t usually make fan art of popular shows, but big problems call for big solutions. I’m also thinking up more fan characters and figuring out the summaries for the list of fan made episode titles I posted a while back.

One last thing, and on a partially unrelated topic: those of you who are fans of SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog and wishing to know what happens after the S2 finale, you’re in luck. Team Sea3on, consisting of dedicated fans who are professional writers and artists, is working on the long-awaited third and final season, the first episode of which should be ready sometime in 2020 (or the year after that). There’s hope for everything after all!

Here’s to the new year and hoping we learn more about WOY S3!