#literally like it’s just a medieval version of Sleeping Beauty

[theredandwhiteknight-if]

Once again thinking about how Perceforest makes Lancelot a descendant of Sleeping Beauty. Absolutely wild

[erijuice]

My Revision of Wish

As someone who loves the concept of Wish, I thought it was a decent addition to the Disney Animation Canon. I enjoyed the songs, the gorgeous hybrid artstyle, and the homage to Sleeping Beauty's wide cinemascope aspect. Unfortunately, the more I think about Wish, the more disappointed I was with the final product. For what was supposed to be a celebration of Disney's legacy, it ended up being shot with the blandification ray by the studio itself, because they had a lot of interesting concepts planned for the film. It's just impossible for me to hate Wish like everyone else on the internet, because I know there's passion behind this idea, it was just muddled and screwed over by the despicable corporate side of Disney.

Now, while I did love the final product and was also simultaneously disappointed over what it could’ve and should’ve been, I wanted to showcase my version of the film with a heavier emphasis on the wishing star’s untold origin story. This is actually an updated/edited version of my original draft, and I added a little bit of characterization as well.

SPOILERS FOR THE ACTUAL FILM BTW

Wish (in my version) is fully 2D-Animated, and contains music, orchestration and lyrics from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, with additional output from Julia Michaels.

Cast:

Alycia Pascual-Peña as Asha

Chris Pine as King Magnifico

Amara Le Negra as Queen Amaya

Roman Banks as Orion (Star)

Summary: 

“Have you ever wondered how the legendary Wishing Star was born?… Set in a time centuries before Snow White wished by the wishing well, or Geppetto wished for his little wooden puppet to become a real boy, Wish takes place in the medieval city of Rosas, a fantasy kingdom off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea where your wishes can literally be transformed into reality. The kingdom is ruled by King Magnifico (Chris Pine) and Queen Amaya (Amara Le Negra), respected by all as the kingdom’s sole wish-granters. They live happily in peace with their royal daughter named Asha (voiced by Alycia Pascual Peña), who was set to take her parents’ throne once she turned 17. 

Princess Asha is sharp-witted and wildly smart beyond her years: a young philosopher in the making, who believes that the stars are always there to guide her. She's a shy bookworm who is very creative, she draws animations in her notepad and paints with watercolors all over her bedroom, much like Rapunzel. Asha also wants to be a musician and to inspire the people with her music. While being devoted to her goal to ensure that everyone gets their wish to come true, Asha also struggles with poor leadership skills, and she doesn't know how to be a good leader to her friends, or her kingdom. Her parents seem to make it look easy, and sometimes Asha prefers to rely on them to make her dreams come true. However, Asha believes that a bigger and stronger wish requires a much more difficult journey, and in order to achieve her wish, she must confront her own parents, two of the fiercest and most powerful villains the Disney universe has ever known.

King Magnifico is almost the same as his canon depiction, except he has no backstory of him losing his family to destruction which would've make him more sympathetic, and does not mesh well with him being a villain. He uses his magic to remove wishes from people's hearts and keeps them in his own "wish orbs" for personal keeping, but we don't find out what he does with them until the first act. Before he praticed magic, he was a philosopher who believed in the power of the stars in the night sky, inspiring Asha to develop her belief that there is magic in the stars.

Queen Amaya is a female villain who is madly in love with Magnifico and pressures Asha to be a perfect royal daughter, much in the vein of Yzma and Maleficent, with shades of Mother Gothel. She is a black dark-skinned Latina, and Asha's birth mother. Queen Amaya owns has a pet cat assistant named Cleo, who is a callback to Maleficent's crow Diablo, or Lady Tremaine's cat Lucifer.

Alright, now back to the story!

On her 17th birthday, during a beautiful royal ball, Asha notices that her parents have wondered off from their thrones, and she uncovers a dark truth about both of her parents and how they want to keep the wishes of the people for themselves. Even worse, she peaks through the cracked door of the throne room to witness that the King and Queen are crushing the people's wishes, and infusing their energy, in order to make their own magic more powerful, and thus manipulating the townspeople and giving them the false hope of their wishes being granted. Asha tries to keep what she saw a secret from her parents, but she argues that the wishes must be free and sent back to the people. After a heated argument with her parents, she runs to the forest and makes a passionate cry for help to the stars, in the hopes that they will give her guidance and strength to help her entire kingdom. (‘This Wish’ is staying btw, but with adjusted lyrics) Her plea pulls down the brightest star out of the sky and transforms it into a glowing ethereal humanoid being without a name.

Here is where we meet Orion. Orion is THE wishing star of legend. He is a glowing, Black-coded, humanoid boy around the same age as Asha. Newly formed, he has no name and no sense of right or wrong, much like Pinocchio, but he reveals himself to be a powerful shapeshifter with magic celestial powers. The starboy is aided with the tiny, Luma-like canon version of Star, named Little Dipper, as his personal companion. Little Dipper is more mischevious than Orion, but it's also a powerful wish granter in a tiny celestial body. With a reworked, more orchestral version of "At All Costs", Orion takes Asha on a gorgeous flight, explaining his purpose to help Asha, as the duo sings in harmony above the stardust-sprinkled woodlands, with Little Dipper setting the scene. After the song ends, Asha tries to name all the constellations off the top of her head, and ultimately names the starboy Orion (serving as a subtle callback to Kiss the Girl). Asha brings Orion back to the kingdom, and she tries to teach him how to grant the peoples’ wishes. As the two plans to give the wish orbs back to the people, Asha notices that her parents are angered over the townspeople praising Orion’s descend, hoping that he will grant the wishes of all the people. Feeling threatened by Orion’s presence, the King and Queen scheme to use dark magic to kill Fate and steal her magic, so that they will remain as the only wish-granters in Rosas, but at the risk of permanently being surrendered to the dark side. (This Is The Thanks I Get, except it's reworked into a grand, badass, orchestral villain duet with Magnifico on the first verse and Amaya on the second verse)

Desperate to warn the kingdom about her parents’ true colors, Asha disguises herself (a la Sleeping Beauty) as a peasant girl, while Orion tries to disguise himself as a normal human boy. As the two try to grant the wishes of the townpeople who haven't given their wishes to the king and queen, the town descends into chaos with some wishes spiraling out of control. While it is a moment of hilarity, Asha and Orion come to a realization that some wishes should never be granted in the first place, as they're more likely to cause harm and chaos than pure good. The two comes across a group of seven teenagers modeled after the Seven Dwarfs, Asha's longtime team, and Orion starts to get to know each one of them, before planning a rebellion against her parents, and yet, Asha is secretly hesitant to disobey her parents, she confesses to Orion - in a short reprise of At All Costs - about how she used to be perfectly obedient and a perfect princess to her people. Meanwhile, Orion reveals to the Seven Teens that he’s still learning to grant wishes, but they also end up horribly wrong, but he comes to a realization that he shouldn't grant wishes that could cause harm, no matter how much they beg for it. The Teens make a promise to Asha that they will protect her secret, as well as Orion's. The duo and the teens team up to stop the King and Queen, with a reworked version of "Knowing What I Know Now."

During the epic climax, Orion and Asha create a diversion, with Asha freeing the wishes with her team and learning to be a good leader in doing so, while Orion shapeshifts into multiple forms to battle the King and Queen and distract them away from the castle, but they capture Little Dipper into the scepter, and use Dipper's magic to transform their cat Cleo into a giant dragon (akin to Maleficent's dragon form) that flies them to the top of the castle, with Orion chained up. The parents chain Asha to the top of the castle where the battle occurs, and they force their daughter to watch Orion suffer. Engulfed by the pain of losing her protector, Asha breaks into the This Wish reprise, as do the other residents of Rosas. The King and Queen try to push Asha off the castle to her death, but the townspeoples' voices lift her up, as does Orion's, and he uses his magic to make her float above in mid-air. Everyone's hearts beginning to glow and attract their wishes back to their hearts as they sing in unison. Orion transfers most of his celestial powers into Asha, who uses her temporary celestial powers to free Little Dipper from the scepter, and blast the King and Queen to their death, while Orion simultaneously creates a powerful sword to throw into Cleo's heart, killing her as well. After a moment of silence, Asha breaks down into tears and feels bittersweet that she’ll never have her parents again, but more optimistic about being the ruler the kingdom desperately needed - someone who will choose only the best wishes to come true. Orion comes down to Earth to comforts Asha with a hug, and the kingdom rejoices with the evil King and Queen gone for good.

Cut to a few months later with Asha hosting her first royal ball for Rosas, and dancing with Orion, similar to the endings of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Before Orion flies back to the night sky to become the Wishing Star, he gets Little Dipper to create a magic wand and grants her the role of a honorary Blue Fairy guardian, transforming Asha’s purple queen gown into a beautiful, glittering, baby blue gown. Orion informs to Asha that Asha will be reincarnated into a true Blue Fairy after her time on Earth comes to an end, but Orion will descend back down to Rosas every now and then to help Asha. As a final gift, even though he admits his magic is not perfect just yet, Orion finally grants Asha’s wish and creates a lute for her to play for her people, but Asha realizes what her true wish was all along: To be a good leader to all of Rosas.

After Orion forms into the glimmering Wishing Star in the night sky above Rosas, Queen Asha looks down on the townspeople of Rosas with hope in her smile and she looks up at the wishing star above her, with a hope that everyone will have a wish to come true, because now, Queen Asha knows that there is no force, no magic more powerful than the power of a wish, for a wish is more powerful when it’s inside your heart.

Cut to a few nights later, after the credits have rolled, when Asha walks out onto the balcony above the kingdom. She pulls out a music sheet, and begins to play ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ for the stars, as an homage to Orion.

My version of Wish will also contain hundreds of Easter Eggs that all pay tribute to ALL 61 FILMS in the Walt Disney Animation Studios library, all worked seamlessly into the context of the story, not just containing the ones that inspire the film like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. Anyway, all I’m saying is that Disney should’ve hired me and put me into the writers room, because as a Disney fan, I know how to make this story work and how to make it even better, and I hope you guys love this version of the story! Oh, and also, screw Disney for donating to a genocide. Goodnight Kingdom of Rosas!

[honeysuckle-venom]

Hi!

🦴 - do you have an innerworld? what does it look like?

💀 - is your system more overt or covert?

Thank you so very much for asking!!!

🦴: We do! We actually have two? For many years the answer to this was no, because most of us didn't have access/didn't know about them/possibly they didn't exist? Unclear. Both inner worlds were like...kind of created during therapy. But they were creating by my therapist asking questions and the answers coming from somewhere deep and true inside and didn't feel like consciously making something up so much as discovering something?

The Dolls have an inner world which pretty much just consists of a snowy Main Street in an undetermined Past (anywhere from like 1850-1950), on which there is an old fashioned toy shop. The toy shop is magical, secret, and slightly sinister, and only appears to certain people. Inside there's the main store as well as a workroom in the back where the dolls are made. The store is full of warm woods and yellow lighting, and on the shelves are dolls, doll houses, doll furniture, doll clothes, and a few other toys like stuffed animals but like 80% of the toys are dolls/doll accoutrements. The dolls move around when you turn your back on them, but freeze when you look. The backroom is slightly darker, and colder, and has dolls in various stages of completion, as well as assorted doll parts and a large bin of broken/failed/rejected/unfinished-and-never-to-be-finished dolls. So yeah, that's what their world looks like.

The main system now has an inner world as well, which we only started to discover about a year ago. There's a part I've mentioned I think only once before on this blog, I call her C. She woke up after over a decade of dormancy almost exactly a year ago. But she hadn't just been dormant; symbolically/internally she had been experienced as dead. But a year ago internally she literally took a deep breath and crawled out of her grave, and when my therapist asked some questions about that it led to the discovery of our inner world. She crawled out into a meadow, surrounded by forest. There's a path through the forest, and it leads to a warm a cozy cottage with a large garden. Cypher had been keeping the cottage ready and set up for when C would arrive and start living there, and Cypher lives there most of the time and takes care of C there. It's a very medieval fairy tale setting. The cottage is deep in the woods. Outside of the woods there is a village, where C and Cypher go on market days. Cypher goes there more often as well, as she's sort of a protector/guardian/knight there and sometimes helps people in the village with things or runs errands for C. The village is in a kingdom and several villages over you can reach the capital, where the palace is. I live in the castle, and in this internal world while C had been dead I was asleep like Sleeping Beauty, as were the other inhabitants of the castle and the immediately surrounding town. C waking up also woke me up. I'm still in the castle, and can't get to C yet, but Cypher and I use magical crows to pass messages back and forth, and if I need to communicate to C then Cypher can pass along a message for me. The rest of us used to be living in various villages and/or the capital, but now that most of use are fused really the world is mostly populated by NPCs if you will, with just me and C and a version of Cypher as distinct alters living there I believe. Cypher and I had/have fused as well, but we kind of split off a piece of Cypher solely internally just to take care of C. Just realized that description was more about internal dynamics than it was a visual description of the world, but whatever, it's a fairy tale world, I'm sure you can picture it.

💀 We used to be pretty overt, but over time we've gotten more and more covert, especially with fusion (which is kind of obvious). So these days we're almost entirely covert, and even though there are times even when fused when a certain part will be a little more in control/we'll be in a [alter's name] mood, it can be very hard to tell I think.

Thank you again for asking!!!

[ultraericthered]

This post, I believe, actually encompasses a core oversight shared between people who criticize this film (or straight up despises it like OP): the valid critique of how overtly derivative Disney got with this movie, its story, its cast, and its general presentation tends to wander into this tunnel vision where the Disney animated films of the past they recall to compare and contrast with Wish are those from either the Renaissance Era or Revival Era. They forget the very oldest of the Disney animated films that Wish is most primarily a throwback to.

The Princess Character is meant to wish for only half of the movie's message, and go through an adventure that teaches her what the other half is; what her dream was missing.

So what was Snow White missing? What was the other half of her wish? What did she learn from her adventure? She makes friends with dwarfs and animals, but she still starts at "someday my prince will come" and ends at that prince coming and her going off with him to be wed, leaving the rest of her friends behind. Cinderella seemed to get her lesson and dream completion halfway through her movie, finally following her heart and gaining confidence to get shit done herself rather than rely on the mice or the Fairy Godmother. And Aurora...literally nothing. She goes into a trance, nearly dies, is put into a sleeping coma, is kissed by her prince, and lives happily ever after without speaking another word. There was no arc to be had.

The Villain is meant to highlight the opposite of the movie's message.

I'd argue Magnifico does highlight the opposite of his movie's message; he views the wishes that come from other peoples hearts and belong to other people to dream and realize for themselves as things to hoard away as his private property for the sake of his own power and ego, and only grants the ones that he can rationalize as being in his kingdom's best interest (really just his best interest) and safely keeps the denizens of Rosas as slothful husks devoid of personal autonomy and wholly dependant upon him to be their godly lord and savior who'll tend to their needs and answer their forgotten prayers whenever he feels like doing so. Asha, and the movie's narrative moral stance along with her, stands for the very opposite against this. It's a conflict of total selfishness wrapped in cynical adult rationalizations for authoritarinism that pushes the deprival of personal aspirations and restriction of individual liberties VS total selflessness wrapped in optimistic childlike faith in the inherent value of the wishes one's heart makes and the means to pursue them.

Abridged version: it's a conflict of Disney corporate executive overlords VS Disney studio creative staff. Yes, I do subscribe to the "hidden cry for help" take on the film's story.

The sidekick is supposed to compare/contrast with the main character's qualities.

Can't really defend Wish on how it handled any of its sidekicks save for Star (who's big on compare with Asha's qualities and goals but we sadly lost out on the contrast that could've come with the initial vision for Star), but I again find it odd that it's only three Renaissance films mentioned and nothing is said of older films. Pinocchio would be the original sinner in this case, as Figaro and Cleo served no useful narrative purpose, thus could've been cut from the film entirely and nothing would've changed. This can also be said to be true of the non-Diaval and Samson animals in Sleeping Beauty, the comic relief in The Fox And The Hound, and the funny animals of Pocahontas.

The setting is supposed to show off the characters and highlight the movie's message

And you conveniently leave out Walt's princess trilogy, where the settings are different variations of "medieval style kingdom with castle" with only Cinderella's being particularly distinct since aside from Maleficent's domain and the insides of the kings castles, Sleeping Beauty's setting is almost identical to Snow White's.

So I don't agree with this point of contention with Wish being that it didn't use the Disney formula and its ingredients "correctly." The real issue is that the filmmakers applied it all in the way one would want and expect it to be applied at the most basic level, and for the most part just left it at that, giving more love and attention to all the little homages, references, and Easter Eggs to past Disney movies they could cram in there than to the actual story, cast, and going ons of the movie that was constructed to hold them in the first place.

Disney doesn't need to change "the formula." That's the last thing that Wish proves.

What Wish proves is that "the formula" only works when you know why the ingredients are in it, and you use them the correct way.

The Princess Character is meant to wish for only half of the movie's message, and go through an adventure that teaches her what the other half is; what her dream was missing. Ariel dreamed of understanding but she was missing love. Tiana dreamed of achieving her goals but she was missing faith. Jasmine dreamed of freedom but she was missing trust. Belle dreamed of adventure but she was missing being understood.

The Villain is meant to highlight the opposite of the movie's message. Jafar gets what he wants through trickery and manipulation; that's the opposite of Aladdin's "truth will set you free" message, and he gets imprisoned in a lamp. Scar thinks being a King is having his way all the time and can't learn from his past of living in Mufasa's shadow; that's the opposite of The Lion King's "Let the past remind you of your responsibility to selflessness." Gaston loves only himself and is always obsessed with appearances; that's the opposite of Beauty & the Beast's "true love is found within a heart of self-sacrifice." That's what makes them such good villains. (and that clear direction is what drives good villain songs, since Magnifico's is what everyone is talking about)

The sidekick is supposed to compare/contrast with the main character's qualities. Abu is a greedy thief, which is what everyone in Agrabah thinks Aladdin is; when he scolds Abu and teaches him selflessness, it shows us who Aladdin actually is. Flounder is easily frightened and looks at the glass half-full; when Ariel coaxes him and leads by example, we see her bravery and positivity reflected in Flounder's tiny character arc. Timon & Pumbaa do whatever they want all day just like young Simba always dreamed of; when Simba goes to live with them, he finds that "getting his way all the time" makes him forget who he really is and feel empty.

The setting is supposed to show off the characters and highlight the movie's message. Rapunzel's tower is designed to be pretty on the inside because of her influence; if it were too dark and prison-shaped, we'd wonder why she didn't work up the courage to leave sooner. Just like how Quasimodo has made his corner of the bell-tower beautiful, too; they're taught the world is cruel and they're not strong enough for it, but they make their own worlds beautiful enough to hint that that's wrong right from the start. Ariel's grotto is shaped like a tower with no roof so that she only has one window to the forbidden Surface, and it's the light that comes from that forbidden world into her dark grotto which literally makes her able to see human things differently. Tiana's apartment has no interesting features except her father's picture, a perfectly made bed, a drawer with no extra outfits but stuffed with tip money, and only two dresses; both of which are for work.

None of that is happening in Wish, because they didn't know why the formula ingredients are there. Disney needs to understand and return to the formula the right way; forgetting it was what got them here.

Asha learns nothing to add to her dream, unless you count "the power to grant wishes is in me." Which you shouldn't, because we didn't even know she was confused about that until the animals sang a song that was completely off-topic and she had the chance to jump in and sing "I'm a Star!"

Magnifico does not demonstrate the opposite of Wish's message effectively because his character has nothing to do with a philosophy against making wishes, and everything to do with power. (He is the strongest character in the film. But because the message and core concept of what wishes are are so bad, that's not saying much.)

Valentino, and Asha's friends, do not highlight anything about her character through compare/contrast. Valentino is brave and all over the place. Her friends are seven-dwarfs parodies. Happy, Doc, Sneezy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, Grumpy. None of that contrasts with Asha's vague characterization of "cares too much." None of it compares to that characterization, either.

The setting is empty. There are no interesting details that teach you something about any of the characters. None in Asha's home, none in the neat-and-tidy one-dimensional forest, none in the Rosas square, and none in the bland, empty castle. Magnifico's study is the closest anything gets; there's a loose concept that all of Asha's friends have to work together to open the roof, and take a leap of faith to weigh the pulley system down. Unfortunately, none of these characters is shown struggling to work together, OR to take leaps of faith, at all, before this point.

The ingredients of the formula are in Wish. They're just not being used correctly. This is how not to use the formula; it's not the formulas fault. If it ain't broke. They should never have let people convince them to try and fix it.

[gideongriddle]

fave reads of the past year (2022)

kind of a wild one!!! three books i read because i had to review them in my top nine, nice mix of 2022 releases and older stuff, big wins in my october spooky reading era, and most importantly, i never stopped thinking about melanthe from the second i started reading for my lady's heart.

in the order that i read them:

for my lady's heart by laura kinsale unspeakably grateful to @chelsebooks on tiktok for starting me on my vintage historical romance journey with this beauty. medieval knight/lady with very sexy repression, devotion and revilement intertwined, political shenanigans, and one of the hottest romance heroines of all time

calling for a blanket dance by oscar hokeath one of the most moving depictions of how a community shapes a single person's life that i've ever encountered and how complicated but worthwhile it is to break cycles of violence. every narrator was totally arresting

transgender history: the roots of today's revolution by susan stryker such a smartly organized and profoundly accessible overview of the transgender experience in the u.s. a nice personal reminder of how affirming it feels to read about the queer past!!

last exit by max gladstone gladstone hive never loses. a rip-roaring urban fantasy that so so smartly interrogates the corrosiveness of the american cowboy ideology. made me cry about the possibility of making a better world than the one we live in (complimentary)

the sleeping car porter by suzette mayr fast-paced but richly detailed historical fiction about a queer Black man working on a train in 1929. the most visceral depiction of fatigue and the surreality of sleep deprivation i've ever read

i keep my exoskeletons to myself by marisa crane i need everyone and their mom to read this when it comes out in jan 2023. speculative fiction about queer family and grief and the failure of punitive justice with a striking poetic sensibility. maybe my favorite child character in fiction that i've read recently??? invites deep thought about abolition and what it means to resist the state by loving and protecting others

burnt offerings by robert marasco absolute banger of a horror novel. 99% creeping dread (complimentary), with the kind of 70s pulp prose that i just love. excellent entry in the hungry house genre and a very fun exploration of anxieties around stay-at-home moms feeling stifled by their role

carrie by stephen king hot take but this guy is kind of a good writer!!! i live in a society so i knew the broad strokes of the story but i didn't realize there were epistolatory elements—we love lil experiments in form!!! honestly felt more like a tragedy than a horror novel—there's such a dreadful sense of inevitability throughout, even as you can see glimpses of a world in which carrie could be happy and protected from cruelty and violence

even though i knew the end by c.l. polk honestly???? huge win for gay ppl who were raised catholic, anyone fixated on barbara stanwyck in double indemnity, and those who have a fake good version of the cw's supernatural that lives in their head (me)

i've read 64 books total (just shy of my goal of 69!!!), only 6 of which i had included in my list of 2022 releases i was most excited, so the clown nose stays on for the foreseeable future.

books i am most excited kick off 2023 with:

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by gabrielle zevin (my irl book club's january pick). zevin's YA novel elsewhere freaked my bean as a teen, and i'm thrilled to finally read the book that literally every outlet has included on their best of 2022 list

the city we became & the world we make by n.k. jemison (got halfway through the first book and purchased the second during my december trip to nyc). handshake meme between this duology and dimension 20's the unsleeping city and the dnd game i'm in rn. it's about places being made of people and what it means to resist commodification!!! very close to home while living in austin in this economy!!!

the stars undying by emery robin (just got from my library hold list). queer space opera adaptation of cleopatra's life???? i'm often skeptical of shakespearian adaptations bc i feel like they often flatten the plays but a friend loved and blurbed this one so curiosity has gotten the better of me. also i am not immune to dyke marc antony

the spear cuts through water by simon jimenez (i need to pick up the copy i ordered from bookwoman today or tomorrow). stories about stories??? on MY tbr??? it's more likely than you think

fingers crossed for 69 books FOR REAL in 2023, a lil more nonfiction, and more restraint re: buying books so i can make more headway on the enormous pile of books by my bed

[agentrouka-blog]

Hello! I’ve just finished reading some of your posts about Sansa’s similarities to Disney princesses, and it’s astounding how Sansa and the princesses (particularly the classic ones) are treated by audiences. They’re so generally hated that liking them and saying something positive about them is an “unpopular opinion”.

The parallels and traits Sansa shares with them are the reason many people hate them.

Snow White: 14-year-old princess that has been enslaved since her stepmother the Queen seized the throne, then has to run for her life. She’s considered useless, naive and everyone hates her, never mind that she’s literally a child and that the Queen wanted her dead (really, what was she supposed to do against the most powerful person in the Kingdom?).

Cinderella: daughter of a nobleman that, after his death, is enslaved and abused by her stepmother. Again, she’s pretty much universally hated for being meek, passive, useless, and not standing up for herself. What could she have done in the 1800s? Call child protective services? Talk about victim blaming. She literally had no choice! If she left home (with no money or place to stay), who knows what would have happened to her. Besides, if those people actually bothered to watch the movie, they’d see that Cinderella is everything but meek: every chance she gets she tries to speak up, she’s very active in trying to make the best of her situation (hello? She completes all of the chores and finds a gown to go to the ball. She fights for freedom in the end. She’s not passive at all!). Waiting for a prince to save her? Please, she rescued herself. Fairy Godmother rewarded her for her resilience and kindness, and again she was not passive at all.

Sleeping Beauty: a secret princess raised in a very sheltered environment, dreamy and romantic, who dreams about true love. Despite finding a prince and falling for him (they all consider her shallow for this, but how can we blame her? She’s an adolescent who’s probably never seen a man her entire life, and Phillip was wow. Plus, their encounter was straight out of a medieval poem of courtly love, which coincidentally is when the story takes place), Aurora accepts her duty and responsibilities and, with a broken heart, takes on the role of princess.

The Little Mermaid: a redhead princess who is extremely fascinated by the human world, that falls in love with a man and is very determined to live out of the sea, not only for him, but first and foremost because she wants to live her life as a human. Defies her father to fulfill her dream. Again, she’s deeply condemned for her decision, deemed ungrateful for wanting to leave her home (hmm, would you say that to all the thousands of people who migrate to another country? Or that wish to live somewhere else, or that follow their loved ones to their home country? That’s awful).

Why is Sansa, like Cinderella, considered passive when she’s clearly not? Sansa does everything she can in her circumstances. Meeting Ser Dontos, subtly manipulating Joffrey and Tyrion, trying to do whatever she can to survive.

Why is Sansa, like Ariel, despised for wanting to leave her home and live her dream? I’ve never seen anyone criticize Arya for going to Braavos or taking water dancing classes.

Why is Sansa, like Aurora, considered shallow for her romantic nature and feminine and graceful demeanor? So much hatred for soft-spoken and sweet girls.

Why is Sansa, like Snow White, victim blamed so much? Why are the children considered culpable for the mistakes or awful actions of the adults around them?

To me, the people who hate Sansa and the ones who criticize mercilessly the classic princesses are the same. They only see/read what they want to see/read, conveniently overlooking or ignoring the circumstances, twisting words and facts, and not paying attention. If only they watched the movies and read Sansa’s chapters without their obvious bias.

Hi anon!

I’m not sure I have seen quite as much vitriol against Disney princesses as you, but I agree with the principle of your words. I guess I have seen more of a move to “reclaim” them, and I am closer to the original fairytales than some of the Disney versions, and there have been very interesting approaches to them, including deeply psychoanalytical. It’s rich and universally human stuff contained therein.

Disney is lighter fare, but still I utterly agree with you that often it’s not the princess that is 'problematic’, but a lack of respect for what usually tends to be female-coded, non-violent, enduring and constructive reactions to life and its burdens.

Thank you so much for the compilation!

[raeynbowboi]

Dating Disney: Tangled

So, let’s just rip this bandage off quickly. This movie is not set in Germany. It simply doesn’t fit. The film is set in France. And before you get your torches and pitchforks, allow me to lay out the evidence.

Persinette

In the movie, Rapunzel’s hair has magical properties. Now the problem with that is, Rapunzel in the German version doesn’t have magic hair. But fret not. For there is a version of her story where she does have magic hair. The French story of Persinette, written in 1698 by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. In the tale of Persinette, her hair has the magical power to change shape, length, and density at will, allowing her to turn her hair into a shield or wings. The witch was also named Dame Gothelle, which the Brothers Grimm used for their 1812 version.

Corona

The Kingdom of Corona’s design was inspired by Mont Saint Michel, a commune in Normandy, France. Even the name, Corona, comes from Latin for “Crown”. Latin is a Romance Language, just like French. And what is the French word for Crown? C’est Couronne.

The map above shows where Hazelnuts grow in Europe. If Mother Gothel can find them in three days, then she must live in one of the green areas where the common Hazelnuts grow. Originally, I wondered if she might live in a white area near the green border. However, with all of the evidence pointing at Normandy, France, I was willing to argue that they live in Normandy, but that at the time, there are just no wild hazelnuts in her local vicinity. Just because apples can be grown anywhere doesn’t mean they’re growing every 5 feet apart.

Fashion

Rapunzel’s gown takes on a Jane Austen aesthetic, her novels set during the Regency Era of English history from 1811-1820. This is not a guarantee of a period as Mother Gothel could very well be dressing Rapunzel in out of style dresses she’s collected over the centuries.

Mother Gothel’s attire is a combination of a Rohan gown and a girdle belt. While I could not find an exact era when these fashion elements emerged, I could find this image of a 12th century Norman Noblewoman. While it’s not perfectly hard evidence, it’s sufficient. The look is often labeled as a medieval celtic outfit. Although people often associate the Celts with the British Isles, but there were European mainland Celts in Gallo-Roman France. So whether it’s a 12th century Norman dress from medieval France or a celtic dress from Gaul, she’d still be wearing a very old dress that could be found in Normandy, France.

Rapunzel’s parents seem to be wearing 16th century clothes, with her father really channeling Henry VIII who ruled from 1509-1547. Their clothes are almost as out of date as Mother Gothel’s, but it is possible that they’re wearing “traditional national costumes”, as we only see them during important events. Only in formal portraits and when making public appearances, which might encourage them to pull out very old-fashioned costumes. Otherwise, I have no real excuse for their clothes.

Pop Culture

While in the Snuggly Duckling Tavern, one of the patrons mentions Mozart, who started composing music at the age of three in 1759. Because Rapunzel’s dress is a regency gown from the 1810s, Mozart has already died long before her dress would have been made. Even if the dress is old and out of date, Mozart has already impacted the musical world.

Technology

The fact that Flynn Ryder has mass produced wanted posters, this either means that people are hand-drawing every single poster, or they’re being mass produced with the 1439 invention of the printing press. While the noses change between posters, the sheer quantity suggests mass printing, especially the use of colored dyes in the red text. We also see the queen reading a printed book toward the end, which helps support the time period.

The modern shape of the guitar was invented in 1850. However, since Frozen takes place in 1840, and canonically after Tangled in the timeline, this guitar is an anachronism. However, not entirely. There were other guitars. Just not shaped like this. Pictured below Rapunzel is a Baroque Guitar from a 1672 painting. However, if we choose to ignore the cameo of Rapunzel and Eugene in Frozen, then an 1850 time frame is otherwise perfectly logical for this movie.

Rapunzel can be seen reading Beauty and the Beast (1756), Sleeping Beauty (1812) and The Little Mermaid (1837).

Conclusion

All of the evidence is pointing me to declaring definitively that the movie is set in Normandy, France in the year 1850. Much as I’d like to keep the headcanon that Frozen happens after Tangled, the inclusion of the Guitar says otherwise, and her cameo in Frozen is just that: a cameo. Most crossovers and cameos are second tier canon, and I must go by the evidence in the film. If you simply cannot part with that headcanon, the film could take place in 1837. it’s still 3 years before Frozen, and keeps it plausible for Rapunzel to read The Little Mermaid. Otherwise, I have to go with the primary canon of the film and its stand-alone context to decide its time period. Of course, now we run into the problem of the French Revolution because literally every part of this movie is screaming Normandy. Then again, the king and queen are dressed from the 16th century, Eugene’s jerkin is straight out of the 17th, while his white rolled up sleeves are much more modern. Simply put, this movie just takes place Once Upon a Time, and is a bit of a temporal headache. So, I’m just going to say 1850, Normandy, France. Just block out the people screaming “but the revolution” because this movie is kind of a hot mess when it comes to time periods. Honestly, if you have a better suggestion for how to make sense of this movie’s time period or placement, be my guest, cuz this one is a bit of a headscratcher. We can’t even argue that the French Revolution never happened in the Disneyverse because Napoleon was referenced in Beauty and the Beast. So hit me with your own theorizes because your guess is likely as good as mine on this one. This one may end up getting a second post if I find better evidence.

Setting: Corona (Normandy), France Kingdom: Kingdom of Corona Year: “1850″ Period: Victorian Era Language: French

[my-mind-is-a-weapon]

I'm confused by your post saying Jaskier is there for the female gaze while implying Geralt isn't. Geralt is the most sexualized character on the show. Whose gaze are they trying to appeal to with all the zoom ins on his ass, his topless scenes, and the soft and hesitant way he lets his partners take the lead in love scenes? He wouldn't be out of place in a romance novel. He even looks like he escaped off the cover of one.

Henry Cavill is a very attractive man yes and he is the main character and I like Geralt's character a lot and that's what it's expected. He is insanely classically handsome in black leather pants. Of course he is hot. In the post I literally said "he is a whole snack"He is the epitomy of masculinity and the whole men are strong and dont have feelings (although we all know he does) and they kill monsters which is cool and it is the classic archetype of the Strongman Hotguy. He is objectively attractive but also what men think is the epitome of an attractive man when they are writing an attractive man.

Jaskier on the other hand is a soft emotional romantic guy with delicate features and a great singing voice and sense of fashion who is respectful and towards the object of his affection. He is not what most other (straight) men would consider as a goal of being attractive man. . He is not what we are used to seing as the type of man that get's all the ladies usually it would be Geralt's type because, as you said he looks like a romance book cover.

And yet women go absolutely nuts for Jaskier not only in the plot but us the actual fans whatching this. Me personally I prefer Jaskier to Geralt and I see a lot of other fans saying the same thing. That doesnt mean Geralt is not attractive but it's looking at what is attractive from a different lense. And I called that lense the female gaze because it's not something that most men would think is attractive. but it actually is for a lot of women.

Another example that comes to mind is Yennefer and Queen Calanthe.

Yennefer is a very attractive classically beautiful young woman who spends a lot of time in sexy dresses and with her titties out. Still very attractive in the usual an objectified way. As a bisexual woman I appriciate it in the way I appriciate Geralt being hot. In an objective detached way.

Calanthe, on the other an older woman for hollywood standards walking in in full plate armor covered in blood and later swinging a two handed sword and heading into war is honestly one of the most attractive characters I have ever seen in a medieval type setting as a wlw.

I think in the year of our lord 2020 we can stop pretending that "equality" simply means substitution of the objectified woman with an objectified man and calling that the progressive "female gaze"

Sometimes finding someone attractive doesn't mean objectifying and sexualizing them and that is what I chose to call it the female gaze in this scenario because it's something that contrasts with the usual ideals of masculinity and attractiveness that we see in every man made self jerk off action movie ever made.

Just as a note: Geralt being a decent person and having a lot of good qualities does not mean he is not the archetype of Strongman Hotguy (we are all expected to find automatically attractive) the same way as Jaskier being a "ladies man" in the series with a lot of women willing to sleep with him does not mean he is not the archetype of the Sidekick ComicRelief. (we are expected to laugh at)

Again. Henry Cavill is very very hot. Geralt is sexy af. Very muscles. Nice ass. Soft insecure boy who wants to be loved deep down. am not saying he is not or that he is a bad character I love him. I was simply drawing attention also to Jaskier being a completely different and unusual manifestation of male desirability that is a lot of women's cup of tea but we very rarely see portrayed as such.

I think the show did a very good job balancing both their tropes and their characters honestly like your point is completely valid about geralt being a sweetheart deep down and that is what a lot of us want when we read romance books.But we do see it sometimes in various forms in various characaters in series and books and tv shows. It's the classic Dark brooding guy with the heart of Gold. We love that trope we are here for it 100%. It's just that jaskier's version was more unexpected me and that's why I drew attention to it in that post.

Sorry for using very broad terms when talking about gender and sexuality I am talking in terms of what it is usually marketed as and english is not my first language. Please be aware I do not assume that all women = cis straight women with a communal hivemind and same for men. I am talking in broad terms please feel free to add any clarifications.

Sorry for the long post I was trying to turn the absolute clusterfuck of stray thoughts in my head into a somewhat comprehensive text lol.

[yandere-flower]

A Knight’s Desire

Hey so this wasn’t one of my prompts but I was inspired to make this blog due to @yandere-love-love-love, and I was inspired to writing this fantasy/medieval Knight!Hawks x Reader AU through some of their own imagines and also I apologize for the steep decline in quality halfway through this fic as I was pulled away to go have a couple of glasses of wine and a few shots but wanted to finish this tonight SO anyway some smut, non-con, and somnophilia down below enjoy darlings!

Ever vigilant, Sir Hawks was around his princess almost every hour of every day. It was his duty to protect the royal family, her more so than any member. At first, Hawks dreaded the assignment. Watching a princess stay in her castle all day wasn't the kind of action Hawks expected from being a royal guard, but he was honored nonetheless. Over time however, he found himself thanking the gods for allowing him to be responsible for such a woman. Everything about her enticed him. Her beauty, her kindness, that naivete that makes her believe in people. Her little tokens of affections, whether a hand on his shoulder or a mere glance was enough to send Hawks to heaven. He was in bliss, his version of his eternal reward. But this was reality, and his princess was bound to steal the heart of another.

He was a king of some warring nation, someone grand and rich Hawks presumed. The knight was of course heart broken at first, but he knew this day would come. His princess had her role to play, and he is own. Only in his most depraved nights did he wonder what life would be like, if their roles were different. He would touch his cock and pleasure himself at the thought of being able to see her naked form, to watch her moan while he impales her on his length. He found those nights to become more and more common as the day of his beloved’s wedding grew closer.

It was his responsibility to guide her there, to literally hand her to another man. Hawks loved his kingdom, none could deny that. Yet, his bitterness grew as everyone clamored on about the wedding. Every glimpse of white fabric, or talk of marriage drew him up a fucking wall. They didn't know this man, not really. She could be marrying anyone. She should be marrying him. thought the knight in his darkest moments. When the day finally arrive for them to depart, Hawks felt himself shaking at the thought of her no longer being his princess.

He just wanted more time with her.

It was easy to arrange, to separate themselves from the giant royal guardsmen that followed them at every moment. Just a rumor or two about a threat, and him declaring the need for them to lie low in the outskirts of a small town. A cabin, where the loyal knight could protect the soft princess while the rest act as a decoy in town. Everyone trusted Sir Hawks, he was after all the royal family's most trusted knight.

That day Hawks almost felt like another person. Gathering food and wood for his beloved, who waited patiently inside for him. Both of them removed of armor and crests, anything that reminded them of their cursed lives. Hawks wondered if she ever thought about the handsome knight that followed her every move, that would kneel and praise her at her whims. Hawks would tend to the fire, heating the room to a cozy temperature for the night. The two would make idle chatter about things like the beauty of the land, but the mere mention of the royal wedding made Hawks face turn grim. That man doesn't deserve his princess, Hawks would ponder. Oh if fate were different.

He would continue to think along that line of thought, well into the night. She had already fallen asleep, barely able to hold on to consciousness after such a long ride. After a while, her soft groans alerted him, and he went to check on her sleeping form. He could've sworn she was an angel by the way she looked, her chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. She must've been cold, barely covered by her blankets. But the shivers her body made wasn't the focal point of the knights attention. Under the thin fabric of her white dress gown he could see the hard buds of his lovely girl. He knew it was wrong to linger, but the ache in his heart, and manhood, told him there was no harm. It was natural for a man to admire the body of the woman he loved.

He pulled back what little cover she had, revealing her plush thighs that clasped together in exposure to cold, the satin fabric brunched up towards her heat. Hawks had spent so long thinking about her like this, under him and exposed. The pressure within his breeches started to test the mans boundaries, his aching cock begging for attention. Rough fingers worked at unlacing his trousers to reveal the throbbing sword of the knight, weeping over the form of his sleeping princess. With hesitation, Hawks stroked his member as he lovingly swept his fingers against the bare skin of the maiden before him, his knees pressing against the side of her bed. She could awaken any moment, but Hawks told himself this was his final moment with her, and that he deserved this.

He deserved to be with his princess.

The thought echoed in his mind as he continued to stroke his length to the silent whimpers of the slumbering girl, his pace quickening. Even as he crossed a boundary he never dared to venture over before, he felt empty. Surely if the princess had slept this long, she must be in a deep rest. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck as he felt the grip on himself loosen, and his leg slowly moved to reach over the other side of her sleeping form. There he hovered over her, practically straddling her form with his anguished cock resting so close to her maidenhood. Thoughts were rushing in Hawks head, the man overcome with his desire for the woman. She deserved better, she deserved love and respect from a patient and virtuous man. Despite his cravings, Hawks knew he was that man. Why deny their love because fate was so cruel to thrust them into these roles. From here, they could create a new fate, one of unity and passion. He's always provided for her needs, and he doesn't see why that would change now.

Even with the choir of dark thoughts in his head and the creaking of the bed, she slept soundly, dreaming of her future husband and kingdom. She barely registered the calloused fingers sweeping across her thighs to her breasts, the finger tips pressing into her soft skin. Her trusted knight brought his unworthy hands to her heat and tested the boundaries of his ambition. A soft nudge between her folds and he was rewarded with the slick of her heat, as if she was calling to him. He couldn't help but feel like it was the song of his sweet princess, beckoning him to embrace their love. He blushed at the thought of his charge thinking of him in that way, that perhaps she had loved him all this time. Of course she did, he was hers and hers alone. Without another thought he pushed his fingers into her seeping core, eager to feel the tightness of her embrace. It took everything to hold back the moans from escaping his lips, as he finally felt so close to his desire. But desire isn't so easily sated. If his drowsy princess could sleep through this, he could truly reward his dedication. Indulge himself in his love in a more intimate manner. He began to curl his fingers, hoping to entice some cloudy moans from the girl underneath him. The circling of her clit with his thumb seemed to illicit the response he desired, as her thighs tightened against his hand and a meek whimper littered the air. He could bring her so much pleasure, a true man for the finest of women.

He desire ran rampant through him, his body heated from the excitement for what he was about to do. Hands moved to embrace her thighs, shifting them ever so gently so he could present himself against her sopping core. He gritted his teeth as he brought his cock against the welcoming folds of her heat, pondering just for a second on whether he was doing the just thing before slowly forcing himself into her velvet embrace. He was flooded with emotions, from surprise at her barely shaken form and by the overwhelming feeling of her tight hold. As he fully sheathed himself inside her, her walls clasped around his sword. In that moment Hawks knew they were truly meant to be. Duty, laws, and gods be damned, Hawks would make this woman his. She had owned him for so long, and now he could finally make her his own. The knight no longer cared for delicateness, instead gripping firmly on her hips as he wildly thrusted into her. Moans escaped her lips as she began to stir, but the man paid no mind as he was lost in his own bliss. His thoughts were occupied by the lovely home he'd build his wife, and how he could so easily provide for her. He'd return home with fine silks and treats, welcomed by his fertile young wife, so eagerly awaiting to be ravished by her husband. Even the hands pushing against his chest couldn't deter him from his fantasy, his pride swelling as he got closer and closer to his goal.

The maiden was no match for the formidable mass of man above her who was so aggressively thrusting inside her. She could barely recognize the man that she had trusted for so long. With each rough clash of his hips against her thighs, his cock would hit the deepest caverns of her heat, bringing pleasure to her inexperienced body. Her distraught soon turned to cries of pleasure, as she was overpowered by new sensations the man was giving her. Her hair clinged to her face as her mouth opened with awe. An opportunity raised for the knight, his grip moving from her thigh to pulling her close by her back, all to explore the beauty that is her mouth. As his member thrashed inside of her, his tongue found itself sweeping the walls of her mouth, anything to bring himself closer to her. Her arms would find themselves around his shoulders, confused by their intent. One moment she was scratching to get free and the next she was pulling her knight closer to her.

Hawks felt like a man possessed, astonished by the eager clutch of his love, how she was so clearly accepting his love. To think, the knight would be the first and only man to see the princess like this, writhing underneath him as she came undone on his cock. How he would be the only man to ever pound into her body, to knead her breasts between his fingers as he shoved his tongue down her throat. The depravity of the situation should have hit the man, but the mere thought of being the only man to cum deep inside her, to flood her womb with his thick seed and impregnate his own princess became the fuel that drove him. His cock twitched inside her, impatiently leaking cum from his tip. No one could ever take his princess away from him once she was swollen with his child, and his thrusts became more erratic. With one final deep thrust, the knight released himself in the tight embrace of his lover's womb, hoping that tonight would be the night he would create the fate he so desperately desired.

[upontheshelfreviews]

Whenever I discuss Sleeping Beauty with someone who doesn’t share my enthusiasm for Disney, they have an irksome tendency to get it muddled with Snow White; their excuse being “it has the same plot”. I’ll admit, there are some surface similarities that even the most casual viewer can pick up on: a fairytale where a princess is forced into unconsciousness and wakes up with some necking, the comic relief and villain being the most beloved characters, a little frolic in the forest with animals, the antagonist plunging off a cliff, you get the idea. In fact, Sleeping Beauty even reuses some discarded story beats from Snow White, mainly our couple dancing on a cloud and the villain capturing the prince to prevent him from waking his princess. Yet despite that, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are two wholly different movies shaped by the era and talents of the time.

I’ve discussed how Walt Disney was never one to stick to a repeated formula, no matter how successful it was. He must have noticed the parallels between his first movie and this one, but decided to make one crucial change for Sleeping Beauty that would forever differentiate the two: the look. We all know the traditional Disney house style: round, soft shapes, big eyes; charming as it was and still is, Walt was sick of it after several decades. Meanwhile, artists like Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle were producing gorgeous concept art that rarely made a perfect translation into the Disney house style.

Walt wanted to make a feature that took the pop artistry of their designs and made the animation work for it instead of the other way around – which brings us to another animation studio that was doing well at the time, United Pictures Animation, or UPA.

UPA didn’t have the kind of budget Disney normally had for their animated projects, but what they lacked in fluidity they made up for in style. Watch The Tell-Tale Heart, Gerald McBoing-Boing and Rooty-Toot-Toot to see what I mean. UPA were pioneers of limited animation, taking their scant resources and creating some striking visuals with bold geometric designs. Through this, they defined the look of 50’s animation. Though perhaps unintentional, Sleeping Beauty comes across as Disney’s response to UPA, or what would happen if UPA had the funds they deserved. The characters’ contours are angular but effortlessly graceful, defining their inherent dignity and royalty. And the colors, ohhh the colors…

Because of the immense amount of work required to animate in this difficult new style (and in the Cinemascope ratio, no less) as well as story troubles and Walt barely supervising the animation studio now that he had his hands full with live-action films, television, and a theme park, Sleeping Beauty had a turbulent production that lasted the entirety of the 1950s. For a time, Chuck Jones of Looney Tunes fame was set to direct. Director Wilfred Jackson suffered a heart attack partway through production and Eric Larson, one of the Nine Old Men, took the mantle from there before Walt Disney replaced him Clyde Geronimi. And even after that, Wolfgang Reitherman teamed up with Geronimi as co-director to get the film finished after no less than three delays. Also, Don Bluth got his foot in the door as an assistant animator for this feature, beginning his short-lived but impactful tenure at Disney. Did all this hamper the movie, or did they succeed in what they set out to accomplish?

Well, one of the reasons why this review took so long was because I had a hard time not repeating “MOVIE PRETTY” and “MALEFICENT AWESOME” over and over. Make what you will of that.

The story begins as most fairy tales do with your typical king, Stefan, and his queen suddenly blessed with a baby girl after years of wishing for a child. They christen their daughter Aurora (middle name Borealis, localized entirely within their castle) and throw a huge celebration in her honor. People come from all over the kingdom to pay homage to the princess and OSMKFKSBFHFGILWBHBFC…

Movie pretty…

Movie pretty…

MOVIE PRETTIEEEEEE…

John Hench, Academy Award-winning special effects man and art director, turned Walt on to the idea of basing the look of Sleeping Beauty on classic medieval artwork. Thanks to him and Eyvind Earle’s insanely detailed designs and backgrounds, this is one of Disney’s most visually distinct and beautiful films. A single still from this feature wouldn’t feel out of place up in The Cloisters.

Among the party guests is King Stefan’s old friend King Hubert (Bill Thompson) bringing his young son Prince Philip. Stefan and Hubert wish to unite their two kingdoms and formally announce Philip’s betrothal to the infant Aurora.

“We were going to do it during the second trimester, but we decided to wait until she was more mature.”

By the way, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is Aurora’s mother, Queen Leah, alive and well and named. And frabjous day calloo callay, she even gets some lines! The most common joke about Disney princesses is that they don’t have moms (even Ralph Breaks The Internet went out of its way to highlight that), so as a hardcore Disney fan who often has to put up with this generalization, Leah’s existence leaves me feeling vindicated.

Once that happy revelation is out of the way, we’re introduced to our main protagonists.

Oh, you thought I was referring to Philip and Aurora? Nonononono, my friends. THESE are the true heroes of Sleeping Beauty, the Three Good Fairies.

The fairies started off as one-note side characters sharing the same personality. Think pre-Ducktales-reboot Huey, Dewey, and Louie in dresses. But the studio had a difficult time giving Aurora more depth and was having a lot more fun developing the fairies. Naturally, they became so fascinating and appealing that more screentime was given over to them. Now the story’s carried by three wonderfully fleshed out ladies who are distinct in both looks and personality: Flora’s the pragmatic tradition-adhering leader, Fauna’s the sweet scatterbrain who mediates, and Merryweather’s the feisty young upstart.

With the plot now focused on characters who held a traditionally minor role, it’s easy to read this as a perspective-flipped version of the fairytale, but there’s more to it than that. Remember in my Clash of the Titans review how I mentioned the gods literally play chess using the heroes as pieces? I tend to view the main conflict of Sleeping Beauty in the same way. The Three Fairies and Maleficent are in a constant game of good vs. evil, moving Aurora, Philip, and the rest of the royals as pawns in their plans. There’s plenty of plotting and intrigue, with both sides constantly guessing and second-guessing the other’s next maneuver, and even if you’re already familiar with the story’s trajectory you’re still left on the edge of your seat as it inches towards the fiery climax.

And dare I say it but…the fairies and their power dynamic make this Disney’s most feminist film. Yes, really. You could argue that some of the other animated movies from the Renaissance and Revival period have more notable, stronger female protagonists, and many of the live-action remakes try to be woke without really grasping the concept, but consider this: The cast of Sleeping Beauty is mostly female, the leads aren’t objectified in any manner (that is if you count Aurora as a supporting character), nor does their gender factor into their competency, each one differs in age and body type, and most of them are working together towards a common goal as opposed to against each other. Name a movie in the past decade that does the same and still manages to be entertaining (no, really, I’d love to see it). There’s even one scene that unintentionally provides great commentary on the divides in the feminist movement, but more on that later.

Flora and Fauna bless the baby with beauty and song respectively which are accompanied by a short chorus and some sumptuous graphics. I don’t think I need to reiterate that when this movie goes extra with the visuals, it GOES EXTRA with the visuals. Next comes Merryweather with her gift. To this day, no one knows what Merryweather intended to give Aurora. Flora’s the most traditionally feminine of the three so her giving Aurora beauty comes as no surprise. By comparison, Merryweather is the most forward (or unconventional, depending on your point of view). I wouldn’t put it past her to favor Aurora with intelligence, or humor, or passion, or creativity or humility or confidence or decisiveness or physical fitness or great swordsmanship or telekinesis or ice powers or one million YouTube subscribers or comfort in her female sexuality.

Me personally, I think I’ve got the best gift of all:

“O Princess, my gift shall be…getting all reviews posted on time for once!”

Alas, before Merryweather can bestow such a wondrous quality upon the child, she’s interrupted by a horny party crasher.

Maleficent. The Mistress of All Evil. Chernabog’s right-hand witch. The Disney villain all Disney villains strive to be. She has it all – the looks, the poise, the power, the laugh, the cunning, the ruthlessness! She doesn’t even need to sing a song because she’s already awesome enough without one. Marc Davis’ gothic design cuts a fine figure and Eleanor Audley’s subtle icy voicework is trés magnifique. As much as I enjoy Audley as Cinderella’s evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine was but an appetizer in comparison to the four-course banquet of pure villainy that is Maleficent.

This leads to a small point of contention some viewers have with Maleficent in spite of hitting top marks elsewhere: her motivation. Putting a hit out on a child for not getting invited to a measly party? Not exactly compelling, is it? And yes, it isn’t a deep motive…is what I would say if I wasn’t well-versed in folkloric tradition. In the original fairy tale and the movie (though it isn’t outright stated in the latter), the party for Aurora isn’t just your average royal kegger, it’s a christening. Back in ye olden days, christenings were very big deals. To not receive an invitation to one was a grave insult, so not extending an invite to your semi-omnipotent magical neighbor is just asking for trouble. In the fairy tale’s defense, no one had seen the evil fairy for years and assumed she was dead, though I can’t imagine how nobody thought Maleficent wouldn’t find about it eventually.

“You dare to deny me, foolish mortals? Very well, then! I shall have my own christening! With blackjack! And strumpets!”

Maleficent is proof that sometimes you don’t have to have an elaborate backstory, a god complex, a tragic past or the unfortunate luck to be on the wrong side of a conflict. Sometimes all you need is some magic, brains, class, and a whole lot of flair to be a perfect, intimidating, and unquestionably iconic villain.

Basically what I’m saying is these movies never happened. Got it?

Maleficent is disarmingly polite over being snubbed, even after Merryweather bluntly tells her nobody wanted her to come. She even brought her own gift for the baby – sixteen years of life cut short by the prick of a spinning wheel spindle, because why change into a dragon and destroy everyone all at once when you can draw the torture out over an agonizingly long time and deliver the coup de grace in the prime of a young woman’s life? That’s how Maleficent rolls, baby. She could dole out capital punishment when she has to without batting an eyelid, but causing human suffering is her bread and butter.

Stefan begs the fairies to undo Maleficent’s curse, but it’s too strong for them. Flora and Fauna insist, however, that Merryweather can use her gift to lessen the spell’s potency. Now instead of dying from that fatal prick, Aurora will sleep until she receives True Love’s Kiss™. Stefan’s not one to throw caution to the wind though, so he orders all of the kingdom’s spinning wheels to be burned in the meantime.

I just pray his kingdom’s economy wasn’t based on textiles otherwise they’re screwed.

As the peasantry celebrates Guy Fawkes Day several centuries early, the fairies ponder their next move. They’ve been around long enough to know that removing spinning wheels from the equation won’t put a damper on Maleficent’s scheme. This scene is incredibly effective in establishing two things:

Maleficent’s near-omniscient presence in the film

How well the fairies’ differing  personalities play off each other

Maleficent rarely miscalculates her opponents, and that guile puts her one step ahead of the heroes, making her one of the few Disney villains to nearly reach their goal. The only mistake she makes in the entire movie is trusting her henchmen to do their jobs when she isn’t directly supervising them, though that’s more on them than her. The different methods the fairies propose to deal with Maleficent fantastically illustrate what kind of people they are. Fauna believes she’s just a miserable soul who could be reasoned with if they talk things over. Merryweather would rather take the fight to Maleficent and turn her into a toad. Flora, however, is wise enough to know Maleficent’s too wicked to plead to, too clever to bargain with and too strong to face head-on, so their best course of action is to focus on protecting Aurora through any means necessary. Her initial idea is to enchant the princess into a flower (her namesake is her specialty, after all), but Merryweather reminds her that Maleficent enjoys creating bitter frosts just to kill her flowers.

“Well we could try that but stick her in a castle with a beast for a while…nah, that’ll never work.”

Yet never one to give up, Flora alters the plan so they’ll raise Aurora as a peasant girl out in the woods. This means disguising themselves as humans and giving up magic for sixteen years so as to not attract Maleficent, but that amount of time is like twenty minutes to the fair folk. Stefan and Leah reluctantly agree to the plan, and the fairies spirit little Aurora away from the castle that very night.

Sixteen years later, Maleficent is infuriated that her minions have failed to locate Aurora, even more so when one reveals that they’ve spent the whole time looking for a baby instead of a maturing woman. In an interview with the Rotoscopers podcast, Don Bluth called Maleficent a very flat antagonist because she surrounds lackeys dumber than her so she could be the smart one among them and, again, her supposed lack of motivation. But come on, let’s not entirely condemn the bad guys for having too much faith in their underlings. It’s difficult to find minions smart enough to carry out orders but dumb enough to stay unquestioningly loyal. Usually you have to register as Republican in order to get some.

Maleficent gets her anger out in the most therapeutic way – throwing lightning bolts at her orcs, awesome – then leaves the job of finding Aurora up to her trusty raven Diablo. We then finally see the grown-up Aurora herself, whom the fairies renamed Briar Rose as a nod to the Brothers Grimm version of this tale.

I know I’ve made the occasional case for the princesses from Walt’s era compared to the present day, and yet I have a hard time defending how…I don’t want to say bland. Bland would mean there’s nothing interesting about Aurora, and that’s a lie. She’s gorgeously designed and drawn, and even in her peasant dress she has an air of elegance and sophistication. She carries herself like a queen; her innate royalty reveals itself in her graceful movements. Mary Costa also gifts her with an excellent set of pipes. Hearing her song echoing through the forest is nothing short of magical. She’s a flower child who can talk to animals. She has dreams of escaping her adopted aunts’ loving but stifling care and being allowed to grow up, see the world, actually talk to people, and even find a life partner. She has some strong potential. It’s not that Aurora’s boring, she’s just not quite as developed as we’ve come to expect our animated female protagonists to be. I’m grateful for what we’ve got, but I only wish we could have more. What was her childhood like? How did she learn to communicate with animals? When did the fairies trust her enough to let her spend time out on her own? Did the fairies ever subtly teach her lessons in royalty through lessons and games? Heck, nobody bothers to keep her informed about Maleficent or her curse, and they act surprised when she’s shocked to learn she was a princess the whole time. I want to see what Aurora could have been like if she had known the truth already and what kind of steps she would take to defend herself. Blame the source material for this; it’s difficult to write a compelling main character when she’s supposed to sleep through most of her story.

The fairies send Aurora on a fetch quest so they can plan a surprise birthday party for her. Merryweather wants to bring their magic wands back out for the job, but Flora insists on taking no chances now that they’re in the home stretch. Fauna gets to live her dream of baking an elaborate cake (it’s thanks to her referring to a teaspoon as a “tsp” that I do it too), and Flora insists on making Aurora a gown fit for a princess using Merryweather as a dummy. And we also get one of the best burns in the Disney canon:

Merryweather: It looks awful! Flora: That’s because it’s on you, dear.

The fairies fall into reminiscing over raising Aurora and get teary over having to let her go soon. I see where they’re coming from, they’re the ones who raised her for sixteen years. They must have so many fond memories, not to mention they put all that work into learning to properly raise a child let alone live like normal human beings seeing how two of them still can’t sew or cook without magic. I wonder what that was like –

No, NO, you CGI abominations DO NOT exist! Go back to the fires from whence you came!!

“Ugh, I’m gonna need something strong to expunge that from my eyes.”

There we go.

Aurora wanders through the forest, drawing out the usual bevy of cute woodland critters with her singing. She also catches the attention of a grown-up Prince Philip (Billy Shirley) who’s more dashing and considerably less blonde than he was sixteen years ago.

By this point, the Disney animators were far more confident in their ability to draw realistic but expressive leading men, hence Philip’s expanded role from the story. He’s also the first Disney prince to have a personality; not a terribly deep or defined one, but it’s a step up from his nameless plot-device predecessors. There are some signs of him being a hopeless romantic, he gets a few funny lines here and there, has a sturdy friendship with his horse Samson, and is fiercely determined when it’s time to kick some ass. He does have the same problem as Aurora in he randomly decides to stop talking for the rest of the movie once he reaches the midway mark (at least Aurora has the excuse that she’s sleeping for that remainder), but I suppose you could chalk this up as to him wanting to spite Maleficent with his silence.

The animals steal some of Philip’s clothes so they can pretend to be Aurora’s dream prince. Aurora plays along as she sings the movie’s standout song, “Once Upon a Dream”. Philip and Samson watch until he smooths his way into the dance. Once Aurora discovers the switch, Philip gets a little too up in her personal space for my liking, constantly grabbing her hand so she doesn’t run off and pulling her closer to him. Not as horrible as what the prince does to the sleeping princess in the original story (a questionably consensual kiss is a trifle compared to how the scumbag of a prince treats her there), but still a bit iffy.

“It’s a good thing my aunts taught me to never go anywhere without a loaded pistol taped to my back.”

But once Philip backs off a little and joins in her song, they both dance together and OEHSGBJSGBLL…

I think I’m going to need surgery to get my jaw off the floor back into its proper place thanks to this movie.

As per Disney tradition, Aurora and Philip’s waltz means the two are head over heels in love with each other. But when it comes time to finally exchange names, Aurora panics and runs away, though she sticks around long enough to tell Philip to meet her family at the cottage that evening.

Back at home, the party preparations aren’t proceeding as planned. Flora’s dress looks as good as my attempts at dressmaking, and Fauna’s dessert wouldn’t feel out of place on Cake Wrecks.

A fed-up Merryweather reads Flora and Fauna the riot act and convinces them to finally take up their wands again. This produces more desirable results, though Merryweather still gets stuck with cleanup duty.

Enchanting a broom to come to life and do your dirty work? I don’t see this going wrong in any possible way.

Things start to go south when Flora and Merryweather argue over the dress color and it escalates into a full-blown wizard’s duel. This gag was supposedly based on the animators’ arguments over what was Aurora’s proper dress color. I think they should have compromised and combined both colors to make purple, which would go lovely with Aurora’s violet eyes, but what do I know. I’m just the illustration major writing a blog. Unfortunately, while the fairies remembered to cover every door, window, and crack that could expose their magic, they overlooked the fireplace. The sparkly residue of Flora and Merryweather’s fight fly up the chimney, alerting Diablo to their hideaway.

Going back to what I said earlier about this movie providing some commentary on feminism, consider this: Flora is obsessed with pink, a traditionally female color, and she gives Aurora an attribute that is oft preferred in a woman but not the most important quality, beauty. Merryweather, on the other hand, is all about blue, a color usually geared towards boys, and she has much more common sense and practicality about her. Though Merryweather and Flora are able to put aside their differences in personalities and approaches for a common goal, it’s when they refuse to compromise and begin prioritizing which color – ie. which ideology and extension of themselves – that they want Aurora to step into that they lose sight of what’s important, and allow everything they worked for to collapse on itself. It’s played for laughs very well, sure, but if not’s symbolic of the dichotomy between traditional femininity and modern sensibility that tears apart the feminist movement then I don’t know what is.

The fairies manage to fix their messes in time for Aurora’s return. She’s thrilled with their gifts but shocks them all when she announces her new boyfriend is coming over for dinner. They come clean about her heritage and betrothal to Prince Philip, and Aurora runs up to her room in tears over the fact that she’ll never see her one true love again. That and her entire life has been a lie and she’s being carted off to meet parents she knows nothing about to marry a man she’s never met and rule an entire kingdom with no prior experience or knowledge. But mostly the true love thing.

Meanwhile, Stefan and Hubert are making wedding plans over wine with “Skumps”, the preferred toast between me and my friends. Also adding to the humor is a minstrel who keeps stealing sips until he literally drinks himself under the table.

This was also his way of getting through the Black Plague, co-opted by the rest of the world six hundred years later.

Philip returns and Hubert goes to greet him. He thinks his son is thrilled at the prospect of marrying Aurora but is disappointed to learn that he’s fallen for an anonymous peasant.

“At least tell me if she’s royalty in disguise so you don’t elope to Sicily!”

Philip rides back into the woods for his big date, leaving Hubert with the unenviable task of breaking the bad news to Stefan. As for Aurora, the fairies smuggle her into the castle and prep her for her homecoming. She’s still blue over having to ghost her forest hubby though, so the fairies give her some time to herself.

Biiiiiiiiig mistake.

So imagine you’re me, growing up watching this movie on tape on a television set with a very standard but not spectacular sound system. Then years later you download the remastered soundtrack and give it a listen while you’re falling asleep. You’ve got the whole score memorized, the volume is nice and low, it’s all good.

And then, just as you’re drifting off, you hear a ghostly voice singing in your ear “Auroraaa…Auroraaaaa…”

That reminds me, I haven’t had a chance to talk about the music yet, haven’t I? Forgive me for waiting so long to do so but my reaction to it is equivalent to the visuals. The score is taken straight from the Sleeping Beauty ballet by Tchaikovsky, the same composer as The Nutcracker, and it is lush, sweeping, sumptuous, just…

While George Bruns was mostly faithful with how the score was represented within the context of the ballet, at certain points he took the same approach as The Nutcracker Prince and rearranged the music order to underscore totally different scenes to staggering effect. The beautifully ominous music where Maleficent appears as a ball of green flame and leads the hypnotized Aurora to her doom? It’s from one of the ballet’s divertissements where Puss in Boots dances with his girlfriend. But tell me which is more fitting for a musical composition such as this – two cats pirouetting around each other in a crowded ballroom, or eerie pitch-black spiral staircases illuminated by green fire as a cursed princess inches closer to her dark destiny against her will?

The fairies realize their error and frantically search the maze of secret passages for Aurora. Though the princess resists Maleficent’s commands for only a moment, they are still too late to save her from fulfilling the curse. Maleficent gloats and leaves the fairies to wallow in their failure. It’s made even worse as the merrymaking from the oblivious revelers below ring out while they put Aurora to bed in a tower and mourn over her. It’s heartbreaking: they raised and loved her as if she were their own daughter, and they still couldn’t protect her. Everyone talks about “Baby Mine” and Bambi’s mom as huge tearjerkers, but why is this scene constantly forgotten?

Stupid onions, stupid stupid onions…

Fauna and Merryweather can’t even begin to imagine how heartbroken Stefan and Leah will be, but Flora has a solution: put the kingdom to sleep along with Aurora until she is woken up. I understand her wanting to spare Aurora’s family some pain, but conking out an entire principality for god knows how long to cover up their failure? AND at a time when Europe was all about invading and conquering itself? Are we sure this isn’t just part of Maleficent’s overarching plan for revenge? This sounds more like something she would come up with instead of the leader of the good guys.

“So what happens if one of the neighboring kingdoms decides to attack while everyone’s sleeping?”

“Then we’ll put them and their armies to sleep, too.”

“And once Aurora is saved, both kingdoms will immediately wake up to find themselves thrust into a war they’re barely prepared for, is that correct?”

“Oh, you’re right, that’s a terrible idea.”

“Finally, thank you.”

“I’ll just turn them all into flowers.”

“THAT’S NOT AN OPTION!!!”

The fairies flitter about the castle grounds spreading their spell over the unwitting royal court, even putting the candles and sconces out. We have another reprise of the “Gifts of Beauty and Song” chorus now altered to sound like a lullaby, providing an interesting bit of symmetry between it and its earlier use in the film. Whereas it first underscored their blessings upon Aurora, now it plays as the fairies are giving the “gift” of sleep to the entire castle.

While Flora knocks out the throne room, she overhears Hubert muttering about Philip eloping with a peasant girl and she makes the connection. The fairies speed to the cottage just as Philip arrives there. But once again Maleficent beats them to the punch. Her goons ambush Philip and she watches them wrestle and bond him with fiendish glee.

You magnificent, kinky bitch.

Maleficent was only out to capture the one man who could break Aurora’s curse; the fact that he’s really the son of her nemesis’ allies is just icing on the cake. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather resolve to rescue him from Maleficent’s fortress in the Forbidden Mountain.

Some movies reach the brink of greatness only to falter when it comes to the final act. Sleeping Beauty is not one of them. Everything that happens from the moment we slowly zoom in through the purple mist on to the Forbidden Mountain itself up until the storybook closes is perfection. The perfectly paced action, the animation, the music, Maleficent’s hideaway in all its decaying glory (I swear it’s like Jean Cocteau meets Frank Frazetta meets Giotto) all make for the climax of climaxes.

The fairies shrink to insect size and silently sneak through Maleficent’s creepy domain, narrowly running into guards and gargoyles at every turn. They traverse the stronghold until they find her overseeing a hellish bacchanalia in honor of her supposed victory.

“My old gaffer would have a thing or two to say if he could see us now.”

Soon Maleficent gets bored and goes to “cheer up” her captive. Then we have it: The Moment.

I’ve talked about this before, that one small, devious step further the villain takes to make themselves more heinous in our eyes. It’s the Wicked Witch taunting Dorothy with visions of Aunt Em. It’s the Beldam hanging Other Wybie’s remains. It’s virtually everything Heath Ledger’s Joker does. And it is this simple scene where Maleficent details what she plans to do with Philip. She spins “a charming fairy tale come true” of Aurora sleeping without aging, waiting for her prince to come to wake her. And Philip will escape the dungeon, ride to her rescue and prove true love conquers all – in one hundred years, when he’s a broken old husk of a man on the brink of death. DAMN. If you want to know why Maleficent is considered the best of all the Disney villains, it’s not just all her previously praised qualities, it’s her sheer sadism and the pleasure she takes in it.

The fairies enter and free Philip once Maleficent departs. The course of true love never runs smoothly though, so they arm him with the Shield of Virtue (licensed by Carefree Maxi-Pads), and the Sword of Truth to aid in his escape.

“So, why’s it called the Sword of Truth?”

“Anyone who’s subjected to it speaks only the truth…as they bleed out and die, of course.”

“Cool, cool. On an unrelated note, I think I’m gonna go to DC for my honeymoon.”

Diablo sounds the alarm and the Battle With the Forces of Evil kicks off with Philip slashing his Sword of Truth through Maleficent’s goons.

“I steal lunches from the break room fridge!” “I broke wind last Tuesday and blamed it on the dog!” “I cried like a little girl during The Good Place finale!” “I only wash my hands for NINETEEN seconds at a time!”

Philip makes his getaway on Samson and the music reaches truly operatic levels as Maleficent does everything in her power to end him. Yet Philip soldiers through it like a boss. Crumbling mountainsides, Maleficent hurling lightning from the sky and summoning a forest of thorns to block the way? Fuck that shit, he’s gotta go save his girl.

Then, as Philip cuts his way through the briars, Maleficent looks at her watch, realizes it’s No More Fucking Around O’Clock, zooms over to the castle, throws down the most intimidating challenge ever  –

“Now you shall deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of HELL!!”

– and with that, she takes her final form: a massive fire-breathing dragon.

Every Disney villain who’s gone kaiju in the final act owes everything to this gorgeous terrifying beast. The dragon is an awe-inspiring unholy fusion of style, power and darkness. There’s a reason why she’s the final boss in Fantasmic; the chance to watch a live dragon battle is too cool to pass up.

Speaking of battles, Maleficent’s dragon form was animated by Woolie Reitherman, who previously brought us such gargantuan monster clashes as the T-rex brawl in Fantasia and the escape from Monstro The Whale in Pinocchio. And when you have a dragon confronting a fairytale prince, well, you know what’s coming.

Maleficent backs Philip on to a cliff surrounded by flames, leaving him only one desperate shot. With a little extra magic from the fairies, he throws his Sword of Truth at Maleficent and it plunges right into her heart.

“I liked…Frozen 2…more than the first one…”

Maleficent’s spells die with her, clearing the way for Philip. He gives Aurora that wake-up smooch and everyone in the castle slowly rouses, owing their inexplicable simultaneous twenty-minute blackout to the unusually strong wine.

He can attest to that fact.

The royal families are happily reunited, and the film ends on Flora and Merryweather fighting over Aurora’s dress color yet again as she and Philip waltz together on the clouds using animation Beauty and the Beast would borrow thirty-two years later.

Sleeping Beauty is a movie I can never have on in the background because the moment I look up from my work I am spellbound by it. Do I need to elaborate on how this is one of the most beautiful looking and sounding movies Disney’s ever produced? Sleeping Beauty is the swan song of Disney’s first golden age of animation. For better or for worse, their animation process would switch to the rough, cost-cutting Xerox process starting with their next feature, 101 Dalmatians, and few films would reach Sleeping Beauty’s level of gorgeousness ever since.

Though a massive financial and critical hit on release, it wasn’t enough to make up for the monstrous production costs, not unlike Fantasia. Thankfully, home video sales revived interest and made it Sleeping Beauty of the top-selling VHS tapes of the decade, cementing it as a bonafide classic. It’s one of my favorites from Disney for its stunning visuals, gorgeous music, phenomenal villain and overlooked but great cast characters. Revisit it if you haven’t already.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this review, please consider supporting this misfit on Patreon. Patreon supporters receive great perks such as extra votes for movie reviews, movie requests, early sneak-peeks and more! Special thanks to Amelia Jones, Gordhan Rajani and Sam Minden for their contributions!

Artwork by Charles Moss.

Screencaps from animationscreencaps.com

March Review: Sleeping Beauty (1959) Whenever I discuss Sleeping Beauty with someone who doesn't share my enthusiasm for Disney, they have an irksome tendency to get it muddled with Snow White; their excuse being "it has the same plot".

[takaraphoenix]

So Aurora is your favourite Disney princess? And what's your opinion on Maleficent? Not the life action movie, just a character.

Very solid clarification there in the end! xD But also, thanks for asking, because I do love talking about the things I love and I do love Maleficent.

Yeees, Aurora is my favorite Disney princess. Maleficent is my second favorite Disney villain (sorry, Hades takes the win, Mal).

And - well, now I do have to mention the movie because prior to its release, or even shooting, it was pitched as a “Wicked twist on Sleeping Beauty”, you know, like my favorite book that takes a classic villain and makes her the heroine. And I LOVED that pitch. I was looking forward to Maleficent and Aurora having an Elphaba-Glinda like dynamic. But clearly that didn’t happen.

But the point is, I do think that Maleficent has the potential to be such a type of character. The misunderstood one who isn’t actually the villain. And yes, that potential could have been achieved without a freaking r@pe-analogy personal vendetta body mutilation plotline. That’s it, I swear I’ll limit myself to that one dig on the movie, but I can’t not say it. That was incredibly disturbing and unnecessary considering that literally the only thing we already know about Maleficent is why she cursed Aurora...

Maleficent is a powerful fairy! One of only eight powerful fairies around. But she was the only one not invited to the baby shower. The only one. That’s incredibly offensive, like why would you be dumb enough to do that. You invite the very scarily powerful magic user. She ain’t gonna show up anyway because she doesn’t really care but the gesture matters. (Seriously, it matters a lot, because in medieval times this kind of slander, not inviting her as the only one, was insanely offensive.)

Show us what makes Maleficent special. Why does she have green skin, why doesn’t she have wings, why can she transform into a dragon. She is such an insanely unique character, I am head over heels in love with her character design.

And it really is such a peculiar choice in character design. I mean. Green skin. Why. Where are this fairy’s wings? Or does she just choose to not use them, posing as human the way the other three fairies did when raising Aurora? And why can she so easily turn into a dragon?

There is so much potential to explore there, in the same way that Wicked did for the Wicked Witch of the West. The actual origins of her powers and her looks.

And her villain gig gets me too. Cursing the baby makes sense, far as anything makes sense, considering it was the baby shower that she wasn’t invited to. But the curse was, even before the other fairies made it better (which, also: the intrigue as to why the fairies are on opposing sides. Fairy diplomacy and lore to explore!), one that... you could have... avoided if you just watch your kid for one damn day in her life.

Seriously, Stefan and Leah never made sense. They sent their kid away for sixteen years. Why. The curse was always very specifically about her sixteenth birthday, you could have just -- just watched her one bloody day of her life. Also, you know, even with the precautions you still managed to fail to watch her that one day. Never mind why they had to do it so early? Just? Just keep her in hiding one day longer and celebrate after her birthday? You guys are ridiculous.

Also, why a spindle. I was serious when I said there are many things about Disney’s Maleficent that could be explored and oh I would love to have seen it actually explored.

Though, admittedly, all those things are what make her such an appealing villain.

I mean, look at a Cruella and her motivation is very clear and her character design is incredibly on the nose for what the movie wants to achieve with her - that’s not a dig on Cruella, I love her as a villain too, but she is very much a piece that fits perfectly into the overall picture of her movie.

Grimhilde? An averagely beautiful white lady. Wants to be the prettiest so she’s trying to kill her stepdaughter. Sure. (Admittedly, could also easily get a Wicked treatment, but for all intends and purposes, both her visual design and her motivation are very settled.)

But Maleficent! They went so hard on the visual character design, they gave her all these fascinating little things that make her different from what she ought to be. They could have made her an easily fitting villain by just making her a thinner, taller version of the good fairies, but dressed in black. But she got them cheekbones and the hornes and the green skin and the animal sidekick and the peculiar lack of wings and the power to turn into a dragon and her own entire castle filled with minions and I love it and I’d love to see the character more explored, even if I never will.

(Unless Gregory Maguire himself will finally turn his attention to Sleeping Beauty. At this point in his career, I am really just... waiting for it, to be quite honest.)

[cruecifymesixx]

Love and Leather /part forty four/

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N: lmfao I lied. I said I’d update tomorrow but I wanted you guys to have it tonight! Enjoy! Feedback is always appreciated!! And yes I know it’s not Douglas Booth! Nikki Sixx for the gif but tbh, I stopped picturing Douglas Booth as Sixx like 20 damn chapters ago sooo...you’re free to imagine which ever version you want!

Warnings: SMUT!!!! And language

Taglist: @brideofdraculana , @xstarryeyes , @aryssav , @miserablecunt , @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol , @inthebackofmycarlaytheirbodies, @fandomshit6000, @anntheboneless, @venus-calum, @justjodeye, @supernaturalvikingwhore, @are-we-real, @hi-my-name-is-riley, @extremesadnerding, @thatbandchick39, @awkwrdcait, @countrygirlswonderland, @baiabouk @awesomealmostdopestudent, @martabastic, @romanticvengeance , @tashy-bear, @krazykatkay456, @terror-triplet, @shouttatthedevill @beachystars, @rodriguez025, @kickstart-myheart-sixx, @s-outhie, @anxious-diabetic, @awkwardblackgirls, @rockersbox, @brooklyn-antiques, @shamelessobsessions, @jerseytaint, @lilytalebi, @criminalyetminimal, @motley-queen, @trapt-in-a-dream, @lunamadhatter99, @broke-n-bitchy, @thanks2pete, @slowandangry, @lovesick-heart0, @keepcalm-and-beyou, @miriampraez, @teenwolflover28, @lilyhw1, @swoopygorl, @motherloovebone, @random-internet-user-4471, @falcon-arrows, @talranocchia2001, @wheresmyvodkabitch, @waywardprincess666, @malibubarbievince, @iluvmesomemarvelndc, @zoenicoles, @vamprlestat, @supersoldierballerina, @primal-screamer@electradestiny, @marshbev, @n0-sh0rtage-0f-faults, @cruebaby, @ggorehorror, @valentines-in-london, @miss2001babe, @nassauartist @emmaelizabeth2014, @cmft-jr-winchester, @bokkie92, @notworthyofyou1120 @xrosegoldwolfx, @cranberribread, @lauravic, @mgkobsessed, @chaoticvybe, @opalrustad, @kellysimagines, @dillightfulpickle, @marvelismylifffe

*Nikki’s POV*

My brain was scattered, I double checked everything again. I lit the candles making sure they weren’t going to catch anything on fire. I walked around the beach house I had rented just for us with baggies of fresh red and white rose petals, sprinkling them all around the floor. They began in the dining room where I had a table set for two, for just me and her.

The food wasn’t anything special though, I failed in that department. I just had Chinese takeout delivered a few minutes ago, but I got all of her favorite dishes. I walked down the hallway to the bedroom, dumping the rest of the baggie of rose petals before opening up another one. I scattered them around the bed before lighting more candles of some of her favorite scents, vanilla and honey.

I looked around the bedroom, exhaling. I hope this wasn’t overdoing it. But Christ, when did I become so damn romantic? Either the drugs blocked it off or rehab made my cold heart a little bit warmer. Vanity deserved this. She deserves to be swept off her feet. She deserves to be treated right. She deserved this more than she deserved me taking her into some grimy bathroom and bending her over the sink, she didn’t deserve what I did to other girls that didn’t mean jack shit to me. I mean, I would still gladly bend her over a bathroom sink, but I wanted to show her I loved her, respected her even. I want to show her that she means so much more to me than just being a fuck and then a fight.

I cursed under my breath when I heard the doorbell ring. I quickly tossed the bag into the trash before stopping in front of a mirror and readjusting my tie. Mick had to show me how to tie one earlier today.

*Vanity’s POV*

I pulled down my black cocktail dress as I stepped out of the rental car. Nikki had given me an address on where to go earlier today. I looked around at my surroundings. We were at some beach house, I could smell the salt in the air as well as hear the crashing of the waves against the shoreline. I walked up the path and rang the doorbell, I waited until Nikki answered.

The door unlocked and opened. I smiled at him as I held my breath. This is the most dressed down I’ve ever seen him. He was wearing a dark blue dress shirt, with sleeves rolled up to his elbows and showing off all his tattoos. He was even wearing a black tie to go with it. His hair wasn’t all over the place as it was tamed and combed through. He looked very handsome and had me in the palm of his hand already.

“Hi.” I said shyly, smiling still as he smirked down at me. He held his hand out as I gladly took it, he bent down to give me a kiss on the cheek, “Hey Princess, you look beautiful.” Nikki expressed, his eyes wandering down my body before bringing them back up to me.

“You look nice too.” I returned the compliment as he smiled cheekily. Nikki’s hand found its way to my lower back as he led me through the house and to the dining room. His presence behind me was intimidating and I was drowning in it.

I marveled over the display he had going on. There was white candles, plus his touch of black and red that were flickering in the lightly dimmed room. I looked down seeing rose petals along the floor followed by some fallen on the table.

My stomach was doing somersaults, I turned to look up at him. He was already looking down at me with a smile and his bottom lip between his teeth, “I hope this isn’t...like too much or whatever.”

Over the soft rock that was playing from somewhere and the overwhelming romance factor, I was in awe, “Nikki...I’m speechless.”

“Clearly not, if you spoke.” He teased as he let out a laugh. I playfully nudged him in the side, “I wanted it to be perfect for you, doll.” He explained as he pulled me to him, lazily wrapping his arm around my shoulder and kissing the top of my head. I breathed in the scent of his cologne as I smiled and nodded, “Well thank you, baby.” I stood up on my tip toes and pecked his lips.

Nikki gently took my hand before pulling out the chair before pushing me in when I sat down on it . Who knew Nikki Sixx could be so...so chivalrous. He sat across from me, grabbing a bottle of wine and pulling the cork out. He poured me a glass of deep red wine, more than likely it was super sweet. He had himself a water as he took a sip of it.

“I just wanted our last night together before you leave tomorrow to be special.” He says, digging through a bag filled of Chinese takeout as he pushes over two carry out containers. I opened them seeing it was orange chicken and white rice, he then tossed over a whole bunch of little packets of soy sauce. He knew me so well.

“I wish you didn’t have to go back home yet, just stay with me, I’ll be home in a month.” I took a bite as I watched him frown and pick at his kung pao chicken.

“I know, I wish I could stay too but Francisco says I leave to much, which I mean he isn’t wrong. I don’t know how many times I’ve left and came back now.” I gave him a small smile as I took a sip of the wine, “We can survive a month, it will be fine.”

“I just can’t wait to be home with you. I mean, I have the guys and everything, but it’s lonely here and the strippers are frowned upon in rehab. There’s only recovering ones.” He lightly joked as I let out a small chuckle, “Bet that was a nice sight for the eyes.” I retorted, picking at the food as he started talking again.

“They were uh, the job took a toll on them definitely. Most were cokeheads anyways.” He explained, “I can’t wait to get back home and then finish the album down there. I’m sure the fans miss us.”

I nodded, “Oh they do, trust me. After you left and everyone still thought you were dead, fans were leaving roses and candles outside the gate. I had to tell them to stop because it was starting to keep the gate from opening, I told them you would appreciate the gesture but it was becoming a little too much. Then when it came out you were still alive, I came back to your house after work and it was a fucking mad house. Doc had to send Fred over to deal with it.” I explained as he let out a laugh.

“Then your uh, drug dealers and friends and some chicks came by a lot.” I shrugged taking a rather large sip out of the glass.

He cleared his throat, “I am sorry for that. I hope they weren’t too much of a problem.” He replied, taking a sip of his water.

“It wasn’t a problem until one of the girls came into the house in the middle of the night. She scared the fuck out of me, I was sleeping. She knew where the spare key was...”

Nikki’s face scrunched up, “I’m so sorry, I guess maybe I should find a new place to live.” I shrugged, “It’s up to you. I mean, if I were you, I would. I would get out of the drug house and start somewhere fresh.” I mumbled, finishing off the glass of wine before pouring more.

“You wanna help look? The house in Van Nuys was literally the first one I saw so I bought it but I ended up hating it after a while. It’s not what I even wanted to begin with.” He explained as he watched me put the cork back in the bottle.

I pondered on the idea, “Yeah, I’ll keep a look out for medieval Gothic castles in Los Angeles.” I teased him as he chuckled.

“I wouldn’t say I’m against the idea of a castle. I just want something nice, no closets I can turn into my own little sanctuary. I’m done with that. Is the wine good?” He asked, I stopped mid sip as he pointed to the glass.

I nodded, “Yeah, it’s really good actually. Not too bitter and not too sweet.” I explained as he nodded.

“Are you done eating?” He questioned, motioning to my plate. I pushed it to the side, “Yeah, whats for dessert?”

I saw his lips turn into that arrogant smirk I love to hate, “Me.” He bluntly said, pushing his plate away from him as he leaned back into the chair.

I laughed, taking a sip of the wine again as my eyes didn’t leave his for one second, “Yeah, right. You’ve been denying my advances the whole time I’ve been here. We’re probably just gonna cuddle like we have been until you fall asleep on me.” I shook my head, rolling my eyes as I took another sip of the wine.

Nikki stared at me before that confident smirk reappeared, “Because I wanted to wait till you had to leave. I have to let you go with a good impression.” He retorted as I watched his ringed fingers loosen up his tie before they slipped down and unbuttoned his shirt half way, exposing the tattoos on his chest and a necklace he was wearing.

My heart started racing as the shit eating grin I had going on faded away. I watched as he got up from the table, my eyes not leaving his for one second as he tugged on my hand and led me to the bedroom, his grip was tight around me.

When Nikki pulled me in to the bedroom, he wrapped his hand around the nape of my neck before crashing his lips onto mine. I groaned when my back hit the door. He held me close to him, the kiss was deep and it was hungry. Hungry for me, hungry for him.

His hand traveled from my neck down to my back, pushing me against him as I felt his fingers pull the zipper down. My hand tugged at the shirt that was tucked into his tight leather pants. He broke the kiss as his lips trailed down to my shoulder when he pushed the straps off of me, letting the dress hit the floor. He exhaled deeply when he saw that I wasn’t wearing any panties.

He raised an eyebrow as his gaze met mine, “I forgot?” I laughed nervously as he smiled. I chewed on my bottom lip, “Kiss me again.” I said, grabbing him by his belt buckle and pulling him towards me. He obliged as my hands cupped his jaw and as his arms wrapped around my waist. Without breaking the kiss he walked us over to the bed, laughing as he fell on top of me.

His lips soon found their way to my neck and chest as I quickly unbuttoned the rest of his shirt before pushing it off his shoulders. The tie was still wrapped around his neck, I gently tugged on it to bring his lips to meet mine once more. He propped himself up as he looked into my eyes, “I love you, Vanity.”

I smoothed his hair out, nails running over the shaved sides, “I love you too, Nikki.” He smiled before he lowered his lips to my neck, hands wandering down my body. He reached underneath me, skillfully unclasping my bra and pulling it off my skin.

Nikki was quick to lower himself, placing light bites as he moved his way down south. He pushed my legs apart more before grazing his teeth against my hips. I watched intently as I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to close my legs as he nipped and sucked at my inner thighs.

He suddenly flicked his tongue across my clit, groaning as he started making figure eights. I let out a breathy moan as he dived between the folds, his hands gripping my hips to keep me from moving.

He brought his hand in between my legs, his thumb brushing over my clit as he continued pleasuring me with his mouth.

He teased my entrance with his fingers before slipping one inside slowly before pulling it out again, “Nikki...” I moaned quietly, closing my eyes as he readjusted himself: laying flat on his stomach with my legs draped over his shoulders. His hands came up and gently cupped and kneaded my breasts.

He slowly inched a finger inside of my core, his moans sending vibrations through me as he started to curl his finger inside, before quickly adding another one, his tongue still lapping at my clit feverishly.

“God, Nikki.” I moaned, roughly tugging on his hair with one hand while the other gripped the bed sheets. Nikki licked his lips as he looked up at me, gently pressing a kiss against the wet skin as he leaned back on his knees, still deeply fingering me as his thumb rubbed deep circles into my clit.

His fingers sped up, curling against my sweet spot as I reached for his wrist, “I-I’m gonna cum..” I moaned out, hips starting to grind into his hand as he chuckled. Nikki crawled on top of me, hand still in between my thighs as he placed his lips on mine. I groaned into his kiss, tasting myself on his tongue. I broke the kiss, gently nipping his bottom lip as I felt myself tighten around his fingers, “That’s it good girl, show me how much you missed me.” Nikki praised, seeing that arrogant smirk as I closed my eyes shut, choking on my own moans and breath as I felt myself release around his fingers.

My moans became louder when Nikki wouldn’t stop, pushing me over the edge once more. He gripped my hips, making me stay pinned to the bed as I cried out for him, “Fuck! Nikki!!” I reached for his hand, he slowly pulled out as I felt empty and needing more.

I watched him as he sucked his glistening fingers dry. He sighed in contempt as he watched me sit on my knees in front of him, “So god damn beautiful.” He moaned, pressing a soft kiss on me. My fingers trembled as I reached for his belt buckle, quickly undoing it as I pulled his pants down slightly, exposing the red lips that were tattooed on his hip before he stopped me.

“As much as I love your lips wrapped around my dick, I’m gonna pass for right now.” He said, gently pushing me down on my back again. I watched him tug his pants off, his hard member springing up at full attention. I placed my hand on his chest, nails clawing down as he rested in between my legs.

He reached over to the nightstand, opening it up as he pulled out a condom. His hips jerked forward when I lightly tugged on his cock, thumb brushing over the tip. He quickly smacked my hand away as he rolled the condom onto him.

“I just wanna feel you.” He mumbled, lowering his head down to the side of my neck, gently dragging his teeth down the side before kissing my shoulder.

Nikki’s eyes stayed locked on mine when he entered inside of me slowly. My lips gaped open, head being thrown back as he kissed my chin.

Nikki’s thrusts were slow into me as he whispered sweet words into my ear, “I love you so god damn much.” He kisses below my ear, “You’re my whole world, Van. You’re all I want and need.” He kissed the side of my temple.

“You’re-“ I interrupted, “Are you making love to me, Sixx?” I asked, giggling underneath him as I rubbed the back of his shoulders.

He smiled, pecking my lips, “If you could shut the fuck up for once maybe I can.” He retorted, shaking his head as he looked down at what he was doing.

“I don’t have too, though. I may be sober but...” he stopped talking, immediately wrapping his hand around my throat as I let out a sigh, “But I’m still as sleazy as before.”

I brought my bottom lip in between his teeth as he tightened his grip around my neck, only for him to give me deep and hard thrusts. He let go of my throat before pressing his lips against mine as he continued his movements, filling me up to the brim of explosion.

Nikki reached for my legs, throwing them over his shoulders as he gave me every inch of himself. By the look on his face, I could tell he was enjoying every moment of this, which I mean, Why wouldn’t he? Everything was in perfect view. He watched his cock slide in and out of me with ease as he grabbed one of my tits. His free hand massaging the sensitive bud as I felt myself tighten around him. Hot white emotions flashing over me as I held my breath.

“Nikki, don’t stop. Oh my god.” I moaned out, feeling myself cum around him. He grunted, his hips not stuttering for one moment as he threw his head back in pleasure.

“So warm...so fucking wet for me. Fuck.” Nikki moaned before wrapping his arms around my back, rolling us over so I was on top of him.

My hips skillfully grinded against his, making myself take all of him as I rested my hands on his chest, nails digging into him as he began forcing his hips up to meet mine.

He placed a well timed slap against my ass, causing me to puncture him with my nails even more. He grimaced before smiling, taking my hands into his as he held them at my hips.

“Fuck, Van!” Nikki groaned, tilting his head back as I leaned over and peppered kisses down his neck and chest, his moans vibrating onto my lips.

“On your fucking knees, now.” I bit my lip, getting off of him. There’s the vile and sleazy Nikki I knew.

“You got the sweetest little pussy, Y’know that?” He groaned, lining up his hard member with my core as he gently rubbed against my clit before slowly pushing inside of me, moans simultaneously erupting from the both of us.

“All mine, all of you.” He moaned, placing his hands on my hips, gripping tightly as he trailed his lips down up my back before roughly biting the top of my shoulder.

He freed one of his hands, wrapping it into my hair as he yanked me up against his chest, my hands resting against his sides, “You still belong to me, even after all this god damn time. Always have and always will be mine, understand?” He grumbled, with lips placed against my ear. His thrusts inside of me didn’t subside for one second.

I nodded my head, wincing as the grip on my hair became tighter, “I’m-im yours.” I said quietly, placing my hands on his forearm that was wrapped around my waist.

“Are you now? Because I don’t believe you. Could you repeat that for me, darling?” He said, his hand letting go of my hair and wrapping around the front of my neck once more as he thrusted into me hard, almost to the point where it hurt but the pleasure it gave me was more rewarding.

“Fuck! I’m yours Nikki! I’m yours!”

I saw that smile out of the corner of my eye. He relaxed his grip around my body as he continued the merciless thrusting into me. His hand came in between my legs, rubbing deep circles against my clit.

I moaned his name, arching my hips up to his. I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the overwhelming rush of ecstasy that was tipping over the edge, “Nikki, I’m so close.”

He pulled out of me, yanking me down to the bed as I was on my back. I looked up at him, my hand going in between my legs as he smiled at me. Nikki crawled on top of me, quickly situating himself inside and kissing me deeply as I moaned into his mouth. He broke the kiss as he watched what was going on between my thighs.

“God damnit...” He groaned, trailing his lips down my chest before they connected with my tits, his mouth going back and forth between them before he kissed me again, “So fucking perfect, Van.” He panted into my ear as he started speeding up, his fingers now toying with my clit once more.

My lips parted as I dug my nails into his back when he gripped my thighs so he could fuck me deeper. I placed soft kisses and a rough bite against his neck.

“C’mon, Princess. Cum for me, let me know how good I make you feel.” He breathed into my neck, and right on queue I felt myself release around his cock, “Nikki!!” I cried out as he groaned loudly, his thrusts began to get sloppy as I felt his release right after mine like clock work. He stayed inside of me, riding out both of our orgasms. He moved his lips slowly against mine, my hands sprawled out over his back that was covered in a thin layer of sweat. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer to me. He moaned into the kiss, moving strands of my hair out of his way.

I gently nipped the bottom of his lip, resulting him to tug on my hair, tilting my head back as he kissed down my neck then back up to my lips. I felt him leave my over stimulated heat, but he still stayed in between my legs. He rested his head against my chest as he laid down on top of me. His fingers dancing over my collar bone as I raked my nails through his jet black hair.

“I love you, Nikki.” I told him, as he perched himself up, hands on either side of my head, “I love you too, doll. So damn much.” He pecked my lips before finally leaving the bed and left the room.

“Fuck.” I laughed at myself, pushing my hair out of my face as I sat up in the bed. He came back in, now wearing a pair of black Calvin Klein boxer briefs.

He walked over to his dresser, pulling out a Girls, Girls, Girls shirt and handing it to me. I slipped it on, pulling down the covers for us as we both laid underneath him.

He laid on his stomach, wrapping an arm around my waist as he had his head turned towards me, “Van, do you really have to go tomorrow? Just stay with me and we’ll go home in a month.”

I relaxed under his touch as I turned my head to him, “I wish I could stay too but Francisco will put my head on a chopping block.” I chuckled as he did too.

“I still don’t get why you have to work, you have a fuck load of money, and I do too.” I scrunched up my eyebrows, “What’s that suppose to mean?” I said, poking his cheek as he smiled with closed eyes.

“You don’t gotta work if we’re together, you have money and I have money so you’ll be taken care of.” He explained as I let out a laugh.

“Good joke, sixx.” I rolled my eyes as I felt him kiss the side of my arm, “I work so I won’t be bored. I like working.”

It was his turn to laugh, “Nobody truly likes working. I’m just saying doll, if you didn’t want to work anymore , it’d be cool with me. You could go on every tour.”

I shook my head, “let’s...let’s play it by ear, okay?” I said, sinking into the bed as I moved closer to him, my finger tips running up and down his bare arm compared to the other one that was decked out in multiple colors.

“Sorry, I’m not meaning to jump the gun. I’m just..I’m just excited we’re together.” I smiled wide at his words.

“We’re gonna have so much fun, you and I.” I whispered, pressing my lips to his as I felt his form a smile into the kiss.

“Just Vanity and Nikki.”

[cottonblush]

excalibur | ljn

❧ word count: 10,079

❧ genre: fluff because that’s literally all i know how to write lmao

❧ notes: the way that jeno is so pure and precious i couldn’t stop smiling when i wrote this,,, ugh HIS POWER! once again, tysm kp for the feedback! i hope this version is a lot better:)

❧ moodboard

The heat of the forge is something that used to bother you, but after spending almost a decade at Ulric’s Forge, your skin has developed into a shield of sorts. The heat of the thousand-degree flame no longer dries out your eyes and you can proudly say the sparks that fly off the forge feel no stronger than a bug bite. Over the years, you’ve developed into a strong and independent woman, or as strong and independent as a woman could get in such medieval times. You’ve gained the respect of most of the men at the forge, though it took walking into a sleeping dragon’s lair to convince the oldest blacksmith, Cedric, that you’re tough enough to make it at Ulric’s. The whole ordeal was worth it because not only did you gain respect, but also a family. The guys at the forge are people you can trust with your life, people who have your back. A specific instance is when your single father passed away during one of the many wars that swept the nation. You were only ten years old at the time, but your father worked at the forge and no one hesitated to bring you in and teach you the trade.

Speaking of which, your specialty is swords. You’ve always been fascinated with them and figure that if you could keep on developing better weapons, people would be able to defend themselves better and fewer people would die; fewer children would be left without their fathers. You’ve slowly amassed a reputation for making quite strong and dependable swords as well as new types of swords. You’ve actually been testing out designs for a curved sword and are currently working on one, hand repeatedly striking hot iron, when you’re interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

You look up from your work, eyes traveling across the figure standing in front of you. The young man, Na Jaemin, is a famous sorcerer who holds a lot of power in the kingdom. He also happens to be a close friend since birth. He’s squinting due to the immense heat coming from the burning coal, but even then you can see his pleading eyes and you can tell he’s about to ask you for a troublesome favor.

Your premonition is correct as Jaemin is asking you to make him a sword mere seconds later. It needs to be perfect, he says; if possible, it needs to be more than perfect. The weapon needs to be made out of the most durable material and has to be able to cut straight through stone. When you ask who it’s for⁠— Jaemin has never even touched a sword in his life and doesn’t plan on it since he fights with his “superior magical prowess"⁠— you’re told that the sword will be for the new king. Instantly, your brain comes up with a barrage of questions. Has the new king already been selected? Why do you have to be the one to make it? And realistically speaking, couldn’t Jaemin just conjure up one in the blink of an eye?

Jaemin answers all of your questions fast enough that you’d think he read your mind, but you know he didn’t because the two of you agreed he wouldn’t after he tried to once, found out about your first crush, and subsequently teased you about it for months on end, receiving a cold shoulder in return.

"I guess I should specify that it’s not just for the future king but for the selection of the future king. Of course, I could conjure a sword since I am that powerful, but I could only make a generic sword. You guys are the ones who can experiment with designs and materials. And before you complain, it has to be you. You might not be the best or most experienced, but there’s intention behind what you do. Your hopes and dreams are passed down into every single one of your creations. I can feel it. There’s no one else I know who would fit the job better.”

“Not even Johnny? He may only have two years of experience under his belt but he’s quite the prodigy when it comes to this kind of stuff.”

“Not even Johnny.”

You groan externally, but your insides are bubbling with excitement. You’ve never said no to a request unless you knew it was going to be used for something immoral. Plus, you’re sure the reward for this sword is quite hefty. However, you try to keep a serious façade because you know Johnny and Woojin would mock you by copying whatever sentiment you express except at a higher decibel. You place your hands on Jaemin’s shoulders, his smooth robe feeling strange and foreign under your rough, weathered palms, and steer him out of the forge. The smoke and heat are clearly starting to take a toll because once he gets outside, he wheezes so hard you would think he’s had weak lungs since birth.

“Leave it to me,” you say, hand coming up to wave him goodbye as you tell him you’ll give him an update after two weeks.

Returning to your forge, you spread out the coals, allowing them to cool down at least a little bit before turning your attention to the notebook in your bag. You pull out the old leather book and take a seat on a stool, propping your chin up on your hand and ignoring the dull pain of your elbow digging into your thigh. You flip to a new page, paper feeling slightly unpleasant against your hands that have had the moisture sucked out of them by the dry heat. Making a list of all of the possible metals you can use and the combinations you can try, you also draw in a column on the side and give each an individual score based on practicality, weight, cost, and durability. However, you don’t do any eliminating yet as you never know which metals you may need for the design you end up choosing.

You head out to talk to your suppliers, asking each if there are any new alloys that have been made or if any new materials have been discovered. Most say the same, scratching their chins and going down the same list of precious metals and steel mixes. You’ve just about given up hope and are walking back to the forge dejectedly, feet gently kicking up small clouds of dust along the rocky path. At the last minute, something catches your attention in the outermost corner of your peripheral vision. There’s a cloaked figure resting against one of the trees of the forest that borders the market. You don’t know why but it feels like the person is calling to you so you turn back, taking hesitant steps toward them.

“Excuse me,” you call out. “I’m looking for different precious metals and materials that can be used in a sword. They have to be really strong, though. Do you happen to know where I can get any? I already have a sufficient supply of iron so I’m not really looking for that.”

The voice that responds is just a little over a whisper, like a gentle breeze tickling the shell of your ear, but you can hear the response clearly, “I can get you what you need, but it’ll be pricey.”

Your eyes light up and you almost skip over to the mysterious figure, grabbing a hand to shake. The action startles the stranger, causing their shoulders to shoot up and the loose hood that covers their face to fall down behind them. A sharp breath escapes your mouth as your hand releases theirs and raises so your fingers are ghosting over your lips. Your soft petals are parted in shock from the sight before you, a light pink flush spilling over your cheeks. It turns out that this mysterious person is not an actual person, but a faerie. The young man before you is the first of his kind you have seen and it is truly a shame because he is breathtakingly beautiful in an understated type of way. His hair is a pink that appears softer than even the freshest of tulips and his ears are small, dainty, and pointed at the top.

“You’re a faerie,” you breath out, partly in shock but mostly in awe.

The faerie, who introduces himself as Renjun, does not try to deny it. He explains that his kind usually prefer to keep to themselves, but he has personally had an interest in humans for as long as he can remember. Renjun also adds that the metal that he has access to is something that only faeries know about, so it will truly be one of a kind in the human world.

When you ask him why he is so eager to offer up something that has been kept secret for so long, Renjun admits that he was spying on Jaemin earlier and happened to hear your conversation. He says that if he plays a part in making the future king’s sword, perhaps the ruler will offer them protection from any future enemies and faeries will finally be able to rejoin the human world. Overall, his explanation seems legitimate enough so you decide to make a deal. You’ll pay him as much as you can for it, and you’ll also find him someone who’s willing to show him around the world beyond the borders of Avalon.

In the meantime, you return to the forge and plan to test out different materials for the hilt of the sword and for new creations as well. As you hammer into different kinds of metals, you think to yourself with a soft smile that this really is something you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life. The aspect of discovering something new is something that you constantly yearn for and through this job, you’ll be able to meet new people and constantly learn new techniques.

You’re so lost in thought, the thick smoke wafting off the glowing hot coals also seeming to cloud your mind as well, that you don’t even notice that you have visitors. There are three men standing at the entrance, eyes drifting around and taking in their surroundings. They’re tall and lanky, disinterest seemingly tattooed onto each of their faces. The man in the middle starts to saunter around, perking a brow at anything that brings the slightest bit of interest. The other two that flank his sides walk over to one of the other blacksmiths in the forge, Jinyoung. Your eyes go back to the anvil you’re working on, noticing your steel bar has gone cold and you need to place it back in the flames.

The bar has regained its bright orange glow when you pull it out, aligning it against the surface of the anvil. You bring your hammer down several times, each hit precise and filled with purpose.

A voice interrupts you as you’re flattening out the steel rod in order to make a handle, “What are you making there, sweetheart?”

You grit your teeth at first, rolling your eyes and hoping if you ignore this guy then he’ll eventually leave you alone. Unfortunately, that’s not the case as he just begins to pester you even more.

“Are you sure you can handle that? Want a strong guy like me to help you out?”

Having had enough, you look up to the man and meet his eyes, this time striking down your hammer with an unnecessarily excessive amount of force. The irritating and unwanted visitor visibly stiffens, intimidated and surprised by your display of strength, and backs off. He walks backwards slowly, eyeing you warily as he rejoins his friends.

You can vaguely hear him saying, “Jinyoung, where did you guys find that weirdo? She’s scary strong, for a girl anyway.”

You smirk to yourself, but then you look down and notice that you’ve used so much strength in that last blow that you’ve accidentally broken the hammer you were using. It’s your favorite hammer, especially efficient in flattening surfaces and absorbing some of the impact so it creates less of a strain on your wrist. You doubt anyone has one that’s just like yours, but you decide to ask around anyway. Unfortunately for you, no one you know seems to have it. But there is one person you have yet to ask. He’s wearing goggles to protect his eyes as he gets up close and personal with whatever he’s working with. You don’t recognize him so you figure he’s new around the forge, but you might as well give it a shot and ask him. Walking up to the man, you wait for him to finish with whatever he’s doing before clearing your throat.

"You don’t happen to have a hand hammer just like this one, do you?”

The man takes off his goggles and repositions them on his smooth forehead, eyes scanning over the broken hammer you’re holding in your hands. He thinks for a moment, fingers leaving their place on his cold chisel to drum against the wooden table he’s leaning against, before rummaging through his own tools.

“Sorry, I don’t have one; I just have chisels and maybe two or three hammers,” he says, voice softer and calmer than you were expecting.

You nod slowly, shoulders slumping slightly in dejection as you rock back and forth on your heels and contemplate what to do next.

“Hey,” you start, “are you new? I haven’t seen you around here before.”

The man, who had turned back to face his own forge, jumps a little in surprise, probably not expecting you to continue the dialogue.

“N-No. I mean, yes! I just joined around a month ago but I haven’t really taken the time to introduce myself to everyone so I guess it’s my fault no one recognizes me.”

You laugh and wave him off, assuring, “Don’t worry about it! It gets kinda busy around here so I totally understand. I’ll make sure you’re invited to our next group trip to the cavern. I’m Y/n, by the way. What’s your name?”

The young man reveals his name to be Lee Jeno, smiling a warm smile at you and waving slightly.

“Well, Jeno, it’s certainly nice to meet you. Anyway, since no one has the kind of hammer I’m looking for, I might as well go visit the market. Even though I just got back from there.”

You whisper the last part but even in the midst of the chaos of the forge, Jeno still manages to catch what you say. He hesitantly offers to come with you, wanting to check out the different stalls to see if they have any new hot chisels for him to use. The two of you walk side by side on the familiar dirt path that leads from the forge back to the center of town. You take the time to observe the man beside you. Your eyes start by sweeping over his figure and taking note of his impressive height compared to your own and how his slightly tanned skin seems to glow under the sun. Jeno is looking ahead, deep pools clearly reflecting his surroundings. You’re pretty sure if you squint, you could check out your own reflection. When his head starts to turn towards you, you snap your head forward, acting as if you weren’t just checking him out.

Your companion asks, “So how old are you? I’m nineteen.”

“Eighteen,” you respond, “but I’ve been working in the forge since I was ten, so I actually have more experience than some of the older guys. My dad used to work in the forge as well.”

“That’s really cool. I was actually in training for something else before I joined Ulric’s. But I really like it there. Everyone’s like one big family.”

“Exactly! I’m glad you feel that way too. Don’t forget that if you ever need anything, you can come to any one of us and we’ll be glad to help.”

Jeno’s lips curve upward into a smile and you can’t help but notice how his eyes form the shape of a crescent moon as if they too are smiling. He’s about to express his gratitude towards you when you’re interrupted. A guy, a stranger to you, walks up to Jeno and wraps an arm around his shoulders, punching him lightly in the side with his other hand. Jeno seems to recognize the two because he offers them the same kind smile you received moments before.

“Hey, Jeno! How’ve you been, dude? Still pursuing that pipe dream of yours?”

Jeno tenses up beside you and you start to notice that his smile wasn’t the same genuine smile to begin with. His lips are stretched thin and his jaw is taut. You can tell this man is Jeno’s old friend, but even so, you won’t stand for the way he acts.

“Jeno’s actually a really good blacksmith, for your information,” you say in your companion’s defense. “He’s probably the best person in our forge to go to for detailing.”

The stranger, who deems you unworthy of knowing his name, decides to ignore you and take a step back to look at Jeno, giving him a once over. He narrows his eyes in scrutiny and looks like he’s about to continue his attack on Jeno’s already meek personality when a second person joins the conversation.

“Oh! Jeno, is that you? It’s been forever!”

A girl, rather a beautiful young lady, runs up to the three of you, throwing her arms around the man she called out to. Her voice is light and airy, like a wind chime on a calm summer day, and her long hair flows down to her hips, curling ever so elegantly. She has flowers laced in her hair and her gown is made of a rich red satin, not a stain to be seen. She’s everything you’re not and even you have to admit that you’re stunned by her beauty. When she lets go, her eyes flicker toward you, as if just noticing you for the first time.

She asks, now blatantly staring at you, “Who’s this?”

“She works in the forge. We just came to the market to look for new tools.”

The girl’s expression lights up, no longer deeming you a threat, and introduces herself, “Oh, hello! I’m Yoona, Jeno’s friend. My brother, Yonghee, and I have known Jeno since we were little kids.”

The way Yoona says the word ‘friend’ has a bitter tinge to it and you can instantly recognize the crush she’s harboring for Jeno. However, Jeno is completely unaware, eyes nervously darting about. You’ve had enough of it and decide it’s time to go, grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward a stall that you know to have high-quality tools.

You call out behind you, “It was really nice meeting you, Yoona, but we’re in a bit of a rush right now. Maybe we can talk some other time.”

You don’t give them a chance to respond, instead turning a corner and going into the alley where the shop is located. You step in, welcomed by the cool air of the building. Realizing you still have a hold of Jeno’s wrist, you let it go and turn to look at some of the sledgehammers on display. You expect for Jeno to do his own thing and look at the chisels since you know that’s what he came with you for, but you find him following you like a little duckling follows its mother. His attention is not on you, but on the hammers resting in a display case. He runs his fingers along each one, grabbing some to see how they would feel under his hands.

He asks you and the shopkeeper, “What would be the best hammer for a beginner? I hate to admit it but I’m really not that strong yet, so I’d like something easier to maneuver.”

The shopkeeper leads the two of you to a section with smaller hammers, stating that they’re lighter, though they’re not as strong. Jeno raises a brow towards you as if asking if he should purchase one or not. Of course, you’re not one to say no and if he has the money for it, you don’t see the harm. Not long after, the two of you are walking back to the forge, both having purchased a hammer. Jeno stops in his tracks, free hand coming up to rub at his other arm.

He clears his throat and says, gesturing to his newly acquired hammer, “Actually, I was wondering if you could teach me how to use this properly.”

Of course, you agree, eager to share your passion. However, you want to add something else, eyes stuck on the way Jeno’s figure seems to cave into itself.

“Why aren’t you more confident in yourself?” you ask.

You don’t mean it offensively. It’s just that Jeno lets himself be bossed around so easily. He’s too nice for his own good. He explains that he’s just always been this way and he doesn’t really see anything to be confident in. You don’t know why but your heart throbs at his words. Can’t he see that he’s worth more than the value he’s placing upon himself? You want to help him, though you’re not sure how. Contemplating it for a few moments, you come up with the beginnings of an idea: you’re going to help Jeno get in shape. You think maybe if he feels more confident in his figure, he’ll start standing up for himself.

Introducing the idea, you watch as Jeno plays with the idea for a bit. Eventually, he agrees. He admits that although he’s not sure it’ll help with his self-esteem, it won’t hurt when it comes to his work in the forge.

There's a clearing in the forest by the forge that you two decide to meet at. It's not big, probably a circle with a diameter no more than fifteen feet, but it'll do for what you have in mind. It's rather calm too, the bustling sounds of the townspeople completely out of earshot and the thick smoke of the forge nowhere to be seen. Trees surround you, tall enough that several families of birds have built nests, their chirps and calls echoing sonorously. And yet, they're short enough that the sun's rays can clearly filter through.

You arrive first, setting down your canteen and satchel against the trunk of one of the trees along the perimeter. You've brought two swords from the forge with you, one light and one heavy but both blunt; you're not aiming to damage anything. You hold the lighter sword out as soon as you see Jeno approaching. He takes it, features morphing to show his surprise at how easy it is to wield.

"It's for beginners," you explain. "I made it myself, actually. Just for you, so consider yourself lucky."

Starting with basic drills, you teach Jeno how to dodge and parry with the correct stance. He practices against a still target at first, blade making small cuts along the thick trunks of the tall trees. The young man is making quick progress and soon you decide he's ready to start practicing with you. You take it slow at first, repeating the same exercises that you had him do with the trees, except you shift your weight from one foot to the other, bouncing back and forth. Jeno tires easily and you can understand why. The heat in the forge is strong and dry, but this summer day is humid, beads of sweat lining both of your foreheads. The sound of heavy breathing fills the air as the two of you slump down against the trees.

"Is it always this hard?"

Your eyes flicker up to look at Jeno as he practically wheezes out his question. You tilt your head back and let out a laugh.

"No, I promise it's not. But have you ever really worked out before?"

The man sighs and hangs his head in shame, causing you to laugh once again. You reassure him that it's okay but you think it'd be good for him to work on building muscle too. His expression is distraught but you can tell he's joking from the way his lips are twitching, a hint of a smile peeking through.

"Take off your shirt," you say.

Jeno splutters, surprised by your sudden request, "W-What? Wait, like right now?"

"Yes, now. I want to see what I'm working with if we’re going to bulk you up. Don't worry, I don't bite."

You're teasing him, but you do want to see his physique without the blacksmith apron or baggy shirt he always wears. He slowly peels off his shirt, sweat causing it to stick to some parts of his back and arms. You're not shocked when met with the sight of an outline of ribs and a flat stomach. However, you're pleasantly surprised when you see that he already has some definition in his biceps from working at the forge and his shoulders are actually quite broad. His skin is fair but still has a healthy tan, and you have to stop yourself from staring for too long.

Jeno feels as naked as the day he was born as he watches you scrutinize him like a hawk. He wants to curl up into a ball but he knows you'd probably reprimand him and tell him to be more confident. At that thought, a smile settles on his face. Your presence has already made itself known in his mind, reminding him whenever he feels small that he is worth more than he thinks. He appreciates it more than you'll ever know and the only thing he can think to do to repay you is to listen wholeheartedly to what you have to say and make you proud.

You clear your throat, realizing that even though you tried not to, you ended up ogling the boy before you. Jeno gets back to practicing, completely oblivious to the embarrassed flush that has turned your ears and neck a hot pink.

Between slashes, he asks, question coming out low as he quickly becomes short of breath, "Where did you learn how to fight like this? I mean, you're so good that you could even be a knight."

You're in the middle of picking up your own sword when you freeze, the question bringing back some delicate memories. Sensing the sudden shift in the air, Jeno panics, waving his free hand frantically. He assures you that you don't have to share if you don't want to, but you silence him by waving him off.

"It's okay, Jeno. I don’t mind talking about it. You see, my dad was one of the top blacksmiths at the forge and he had a lot of knight friends that would come to him with custom requests. He'd often travel to the castle and to the training grounds to visit them and sometimes I would tag along. 'Sometimes' turned into weekly visits, even when my dad didn't go. I was just fascinated with how cool the knights looked. I wanted to be a knight so much back then."

Jeno inquires, "What made you change your mind?"

"Well, there was this one time that I actually got to watch the knights from the inside instead of observing from over the top of the fence. I saw some kids watching them too and I went to introduce myself, but they all laughed at me, making fun of how dirty my clothes were and how I didn't belong. They ran away before I could even get in my first word. I never went back. I wanted to prove to them that I didn't need their fancy training methods to become a knight. But then I started going with my dad to his job and I fell in love with his work even more. I guess I kinda gave up on that old pipe dream."

Something settles in the pits of Jeno's stomach that makes him feel uneasy. The story feels familiar to him, though he doesn't quite know why. It isn't until you turn your face directly to him and give him a toothy smile, telling him the past is in the past, that he fully registers what's bothering him.

You don't know it, but Jeno was apart of that story. He was one of those kids you saw, one of the kids that you showed your smile to, eyes unwavering in their innocence and kindness. He didn't say anything mean to you, yet he did nothing to stand up for you either. He thought nothing of it at the time, truly believing his friends when they told him a dirty kid like you would probably be carrying several diseases and that you should just be avoided. When Jeno tells you all of this, your reaction definitely is not what he was expecting. Your pearly white grin morphs into a gentle smile, and your eyes are holding the same innocence and indiscriminate kindness that they did years ago.

"At least you're making an effort now," you offer, though it doesn't do much to help the guilt making it's home in his heart. "If you really want to make it up to me, you can do the detailing on the sword I'm making for Jaemin. Everyone knows you're good at it."

"It's a deal," Jeno says as he shakes your hand, not missing the little spark that makes its way through his arm when you first make contact or how he can still feel it even when he goes home for the day.

Jeno's mother sends him out to the market to get some ingredients to make a dessert for his father's upcoming birthday. He arrives at a farmer's stall, eyes raking through his list to see what ingredients he can cross off. After the farmer hands him some eggs, milk, and flour, Jeno hands over the necessary amount of money. He's pocketing the leftover change when something, or rather someone, catches his attention.

"Jeno," you call out, arm raised above your head, waving back and forth. As you jog towards him, Jeno's eyes draw together in confusion.

"Are you talking to me- Oh! It's you, Y/n. I don't know why I didn't recognize you."

Jeno does know why he doesn't recognize you. Your hair is down and thoroughly brushed through, soft locks tickling the skin of your neck. You're free of the smears of charcoal that usually taint your face. The starkest difference, however, is your choice of clothes. Instead your usual work trousers, you're adorned in a soft cream-colored dress, delicate ruffles capping off puffy sleeves. You look like you've had years of worry shaved off of you, smile light and carefree. More so, you look like an angel, the sun's rays surrounding your frame like a large halo. When you reach him, you're only slightly out of breath, a blinding smile gracing your soft lips. Jeno feels tongue-tied; he knows you're the same person you've always been but it's like he's seeing a new part of you.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," you say, tucking a couple of loose strands behind your ear.

You look a bit uncomfortable, out of place, hiding your dress behind the large bag of vegetables that you're holding.

"It's fine, I was just distracted. Are you done shopping?"

"No, I actually have to get a couple of fruits as well. You're welcome to join me."

Jeno agrees, of course, and offers to carry your bag. It's a cute gesture, really, but you can't help but giggle as he lets out a grunt, arm shaking under the weight of it. You tell him you're fine, taking back the bag with ease. You pull him along to another stand that sells fresh fruits, grabbing some strawberries, cherries, and peaches. As the afternoon sun bears down on you, Jeno offers to walk you home, an offer which you accept after a bit of convincing.

"Let's take a little break," you say, setting down your bag on a grassy hill and flopping down to sit with your legs crossed. You dig around in your bag and bring out a bunch of cherries, pulling one off of its stem and popping it in your mouth. You hand a couple to Jeno as well, the two of you enjoying the sweet, yet tangy fruit. While you enjoy the change of pace, a meek voice pierces through the peaceful silence.

"Excuse me," says a small child, "may I have something to eat? I haven't had anything in days."

The child is skinny to the point where you're wondering how he is standing up on his own, bones prominent against his thin and dull skin. Of course, you oblige, not only handing over a cherry, but the whole bunch.

"Come and sit," you say gently, not wanting to scare the poor child away. You hand him your canteen and he takes a big swig, several drops dribbling down his jaw. Wiping away at his chin with the fabric of your sleeve, you tell the child to take it easy. Your eyes are soft as you speak, hand gently rubbing at his back.

It's a day full of new experiences for Jeno as he looks at the scene unfurling before him. He likes this side of you, the one that doesn't seem to have such a tough exterior. He can't deny how his insides melt a little when the sickly child falls asleep on your lap and you carefully card your fingers through his thin and tangled hair.

"It's nice seeing you like this, you know," he tells you. "You look so carefree and feminine that I almost forgot you're a total god when it comes to swordsmanship."

"Hey," you reprimand, "you can be feminine and be great with a sword."

Jeno puts his hands up in defeat, but the point he made still hangs in the air, causing you to let out a soft sigh.

"Not everyone is as nice as you, Jeno. You know I've been through some things and I don't think I've seen enough to prove that my views on people of the other class are untrue."

Your voice is laced with sadness as if you wish you could say otherwise, and looking down upon your watery eyes that reflect the setting sun, Jeno vows to right all the wrongs that have happened to you.

Images of you fill his mind, those of you in the forge, the orange coals casting a soft glow upon your features; visions of you training with him, wiping the sweat from your brow; and pictures of you and your carefree smile under the afternoon sun. They're all he can think of as he shuts the door to his house behind him.

"Had a nice day, sweetheart?"

Jeno's eyes flicker up to see his mother looking at him with an accusatory gaze. Her eyes are narrow and her thin arms are crossed across her chest, weight shifting to one leg.

"Y-Yeah," he replies. "Why do you ask?"

"A little bird told me you're spending even more time with that commoner girl. You know that's not good for you or our image, Jeno. We're people of nobility; we can't be seen with just anyone. First, you choose to go to that silly old forge and waste your time away, and now, this?"

"Mother, you know that blacksmithing is my passion, my dream. And there's nothing wrong with that girl. She has a name."

"You're getting attached, Jeno," comes his mother's mocking sing-song voice, clearly not taking his argument seriously. "You already know that Yoona is the girl for you, so I suggest you stay away from that… peasant girl from now on."

Jeno is far beyond angry at this point. Hot air blows out of his nose as his figure practically shakes. First, his family disrespects the dream he finally worked up the courage to pursue, and now they're judging you without even knowing you. He doesn't know how he never noticed how biased his family and friends can be.

"If this is how it's going to be, I can't say I'd be okay aligning myself with this family," Jeno declares.

Jeno's mother huffs indignantly, asking, "What will you do without us, Jeno? We're all you've ever had."

Before storming upstairs to stuff some clothes into a bag, Jeno makes sure to enunciate the fact that he has a whole different family, one that actually cares for him and his dreams, waiting for him back at the forge. He slams the front door behind him and walks toward the familiar building, his bag of clothes feeling extra heavy as if being weighed down by the consequences of his decision. He probably should've thought it through and planned ahead of time, now not knowing where to go. However, luck seems to be in his favor because there is a source of light in the forge, signaling someone is still working.

Jeno breathes a sigh of relief as soon as he pushes open the door to the forge and sees that Jinyoung is hard at work, flattening out an iron rod. The aforementioned man looks up, confusion filling his eyes as he notices the figure in the doorway.

"Jeno? What are you doing here?"

The young man scratches his chin as he replies, "I was planning on crashing here for the night. And basically from now until forever."

Jinyoung immediately sets down his tools, walking over and asking if everything is okay. He nods understandingly when told that Jeno basically ran away from home.

"Jeno, you can totally stay with me and my brother. We have a spare room in our house."

"Are you serious?"

Jeno wraps his arms around his friend, relief settling into his bones. It finally feels like he can breathe freely again and he can't express his gratitude enough. He's still thanking Jinyoung even as the two close up shop and head home for the night, no matter how many times the older boy reassures him that it's what anyone in the forge would do.

Jeno doesn't tell you about his situation, mainly because your relationship is running so much smoother these days. Your interactions are full of smiles and secret glances at each other across the flames of the forge. The strange faerie you met earlier, Renjun, managed to get his hands one the precious metal he was speaking of and you've started working on it, the material proving to be just as durable as claimed. Overall, everything is going really well.

It's one of those days that you and Jeno meet up in your secret spot in the forest. Lately, Jeno has started sparring against you, skills rapidly developing. You two are moving so fast and so fluid that it's almost like a dance, tiny sparks flying off every time your two swords clash. This time, you're about to go in for the kill (not literally, of course) when your foot gets caught on the root of a tree and you stumble backward into its trunk. Jeno takes advantage of this opportunity and holds his sword up, level with your throat. Slowly, he brings the sword back to his side and forms a cage around you with his body. There's a thick tension in the air as he approaches, eyes never leaving your own. Drawing even closer until he's mere inches away from your face, the young man feels the rough skin of your worn hands come up to caress his face. His eyes flicker over, smiling gently as he feels the hairs on his arms raise from the feeling of this much awaited skin contact.

You have other ideas in mind, hand suddenly wrapping around the back of his neck and pulling him into a chokehold. Your partner soon gives up, raising his arms up in surrender. You smirk as you let him go and lean back against the tree again.

"Never let your guard down," you remind Jeno. "I believe that was lesson number four or five."

Jeno rolls his eyes at your feigned cocky attitude, watching as you release on of your now trademarked carefree laughs. Seeing an opening, he takes a chance. Placing a hand on your waist, he pulls you flush against himself. Your breath is stolen as you place both of your hands on his chest. You can't help but let your hands wander across his now hardened physique. It's as if he's bulked up in the blink of an eye, chiseled abdomen making itself known against your own. This time, it's you who can't seem to look elsewhere as you swallow thickly.

"Jeno, are you sure about-"

The man before you makes the final move, hand snaking around to the small of your back to give you a gentle push closer, if you could even get any closer at this point. Your lips meet at the middle, soft pillows interlocking perfectly as if made for each other. The sun's rays are nothing compared to the heat of Jeno's hand as it finds a place along your jaw. You feel a tug of something in the base of your stomach as Jeno brings your lower lip between his teeth. You know that if you don't stop here, you could get too carried away, so you push him away, lips parting and foreheads now coming to rest against each other. Your breaths mingle in the little space between you as your chest heaves, partially because you're out of breath and partially because you feel as if your whole body is on fire and your heart has been stolen. You give Jeno one last peck at the corner of his mouth before fully backing away. Picking up your stuff, you adjust the strap of your satchel on your shoulder.

"I should go. I'll see you at the forge, Jeno."

You disappear into the thick maze of trees, but not before shooting one last dazzling smile his way over your shoulder.

"Y/n, you have a visitor," comes the voice of Johnny as he walks in, clocking in for the day.

You place your tools down and dust your hands against each other, rubbing them against your apron as an extra precaution. You take off the goggles that are wound around your head, blowing strands of hair out of your hair. Taking your hair out of its ponytail, you brush through the strands with your fingers before deeming yourself presentable enough. Usually you wouldn't mind so much about your appearance, but since you're at work, you never know if it'll be a friend or a potential customer. However, you're surprised when you step outside and find that neither is waiting to greet you.

"Y/n, right? I'm sorry to pull you away from your work, but there is something really important that I must talk to you about."

You can tell from the tone that the woman standing before you isn't the least bit sorry. However, you let her continue, not really bothered enough to interrupt.

"I don't know if you remember, but we met at the market once. I'm Yoona, Jeno's childhood friend and former betrothed."

"Former?"

"Oh, Jeno didn't tell you? He ran away from home just so that he could be with you. It's actually what I came to talk to you about. It's probably not your intention, but you've become quite a toxic person for Jeno to be around. Not only are you negatively affecting his life, but the lives of his family and dear friends."

"I- I didn't know. He didn't tell me."

"Yes, because he wants to live out this little fairytale that's in his head. But you and I know what's really the best for him. He needs to be with his family, not with some poor strangers that were forced to take him in."

You try to argue that Jeno would never be the type to purposefully be an inconvenience, especially to strangers. However, Yoona doesn't let up for a second.

"It's up to you, really," she says. "Do you want to be the girl who comes between Jeno and his family? And all for what? Some crush that you have on him that'll never be reciprocated?"

Yoona spins on her heels, hair whipping behind her and creating a sharp breeze that blows toward your face and causes you to flinch. You watch as she walks away, gait slow and delicate. Sighing to yourself, you realize that is the type of girl that's meant for Jeno, not someone like you. You do care about him, more than you've probably cared for anyone other than Jaemin and your father, but this means that you won't hesitate to do what's best for him. This is why when you walk back into the forge, your head remains low and your expression is stone cold, no form of sadness peeking through. You look down at the sword resting on your anvil, blade and grip already complete. All that's left is the detailing of the rain-guard, but that's where your problem lies: Jeno is supposed to do the detailing. Taking a deep breath, you pick up the sword and bring it over to Johnny, ignoring the blatant way Jeno's eyes follow your figure.

"Hey, Johnny," you start. "Do you think you can do this detailing for me?"

Johnny's eyes raise in surprise and you don't miss the way his eyes flit over to Jeno for a second before replying, "Are you sure? I have a bit more experience than you, but you know I've never been good with a chisel."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Anything's better than the sloppy job I'd do."

You hear the sound of a tool clattering on the floor and you know that it's Jeno who's dropped whatever he's been working with, but you choose to ignore it.

Jeno's eyes still haven’t left your figure since the moment you walked back into the forge, and he's plagued with confusion. Just the day before, you were taking a walk, hand in hand, stealing kisses on the cheek, forehead, and nose. And now? You're acting like he doesn't even exist. The change is too stark and he knows he has to figure out the cause, but for not, he walks over to Johnny, offering the older man to do the detailing instead. Johnny gratefully accepts, handing over the sword and agreeing not to tell you about it. As he aligns his chisel with the tip of the hilt, an idea forms in his head. He has an inkling of who could be behind your sudden behavior change and resolves to ask about it when he clocks out for the day.

"Mother, Father," Jeno calls out, voice echoing in the silence of his home. He hears soft footsteps and not long after, he sees his parents' figures descending down the main staircase.

"Jeno," the young man's mother all but squeals as she rushes up to him and wraps him in a tight hug. He has to admit that he's missed seeing his family, but there are more important things to be said.

"I have something to ask you… Did you say something to Y/n? I know you don't approve of her but you have no right interfering in our relationship. And even though she may not have had an official education, she's just as knowledgeable and eloquent, if not more, than any of my friends."

Jeno's parents shuffle uncomfortably for a moment before his father clears his throat and speaks up, "We know, son. And we're truly sorry for that. We see now how committed to your dream you are and we think that girl has actually had a positive influence on you. You used to never stand up for yourself. I really don't know why she would be acting that way."

It feels as if the weight of the world has been lifted from Jeno's shoulders. Sure, he would stay with you with or without his parents' consent, but now he can pursue a relationship with you and have complete confidence. Now, the only problem is finding out who or what could've changed your mind. His mind plays his memories with you back as if he's reading one of the story books he read as a child. One day seems to stick out in particular. It's the day you two first met. More specifically, when you visited the market. He remembers feeling insecure and shy around Yonghee. Then right after, he remembers Yoona rushing up to him, latching onto his side and making her presence known to you.

"That's it," he whispers, causing his parents to look at him weirdly. "It's Yoona. I can't believe I hadn't figured this out sooner. I know I just got here, but I have to go. I'm sorry."

Jeno's parents give him encouraging smiles as they see him off, mother stating, "It's okay, dear. We know this is something you have to do.”

It's not a long trip to Yoona's house, probably a five minute run at most, and as soon as he reaches the doorstep, he's practically banging against the door. His heart rate quickens as the door opens, but it's not who he's hoping for.

"Jeno, what's up? You look totally different from the last time I saw you."

"Not now, Yonghee. Where's Yoona?"

"I-In the kitchen. Why-"

Jeno doesn't give Yonghee the opportunity to speak, dashing towards the room where he knows the cause of all of his problems is residing. He runs up to Yoona and demands to know what she's said to you, restraining himself from physically shaking the answer out of her. Yoona's eyes dart around nervously as she tries to avoid his question 

"I don't know what you're talking about, Jeno."

"Yes, you do. Why else would she completely ignore me like she's doing right now? 

It takes a couple of tries, but Jeno manages to get some sort of an answer when Yoona reveals, "Ok, fine. I may or may not have told her about how you moved out and how it was all her fault."

"Yoona, I know we've been friends since we were four, but that doesn't excuse this. You had no right to interrupt like you did."

"I know. God, I know that now. You'll never love me like that and I see that now. Can I ever make it up to you?"

"I don't know if I'll ever completely forgive you, but if there's one thing you could do, it would be apologizing to Y/n."

With that, Jeno turns and retraces his steps back to the forge. Each step he takes makes him feel light and heavy at the same time, and he doesn't know why. It's like some invisible force is holding his heart in hand, ready to crush it into pieces if all goes downhill. At this point, all he can do is hope and pray that his chances at a real relationship with you haven't been completely ruined.

Jeno tries not to picture what his life would be like without you in it as the forge draws closer and closer. Pushing open the door, he's greeted with utter silence, realizing that the light he saw from outside was just a candle that someone forgot to extinguish. He curses aloud, shutting the door and pacing around, trying to remember the way to your house from one time when he walked you home. He has a vague idea of where to start, taking a narrow road to a residential area not too far away. However, the darkness of the night sky and lack of lighting along the rough pathways does nothing to aid him. He ends up taking a wrong turn somewhere along the way and is now lost among the many small houses lined up side by side. And just to make things worse, he feels a few droplets fall from the sky and splatter against his face.

By the time Jeno finds your house, a small one-story building tucked away in a maze of flowers and shrubbery, he's soaked to the bone, the loose white cotton shirt put on in the morning now sticking to him like a second skin. He knocks on your door once, twice, and then thrice, hoping you can hear him over the sounds of the storm that's brewing.

It takes a couple moments, but you do eventually pry open the door slightly, your face poking out and tiredness pulling your eyelids down. Bringing a palm up to rub at your eyes, you blink a couple times, finally acknowledging the person on the other side of the door.

"Jeno? Oh my god, what are you doing out there? You're going to catch a cold."

You swing the front door open wider, free hand reaching out to grasp his arm and pull him inside, all the while trying your best not to ogle at his clearly visible figure. Asking the drenched boy to stand in one place, you rush to your bathroom and grab a dry towel. You don't realize it but as you wrap the towel around Jeno, you're also pulling him closer to you, and it only really hits you when the two of you are almost standing toe to toe, his shaky breath fanning out across your face. Clearing your throat, you take a step back and leave him to dry himself. In the meantime, you warm up some milk for the two of you.

When Jeno is mostly dried down, you request for him to take a seat at the couch in your living room. You hand him the glass of warm milk, noticing how his hands are still shaking, and decide to light up your fireplace. Dusting off your hands and turning to face the man on your couch, you start to think maybe it wasn't the best idea, because the way the glow of the fireplace bounces off Jeno's skin already has your heart going a mile a minute. You settle for sitting on a chair across from him and looking down as if the milk in your glass is the most interesting thing you've ever seen. Eventually, you feel as though you have to say something, the silence seeping into your skin and creating a ball of anxiety that weighs down your heart.

"Why did you come here, Jeno?"

The man looks up at you, eyes full of sorrow, guilt, and something else as he formulates his response.

"Why have you been avoiding me?"

"I haven't been-"

"Yes, you have. You asked Johnny to help with your sword even though it's something we promised we'd do together."

You swallow thickly, knowing that you've been caught, and admit, "Ok, so I did try to distance myself a bit, but I just felt like we were moving too fast."

Jeno sighs deeply, frustration turning his knuckles white as he grips his mug tightly and says, "You're lying again, Y/n."

The way Jeno can see through you so well leaves you feeling overexposed, but somewhere deep inside, there's a part of you that appreciates it. He's looking at you as if you're the only thing that's ever existed and you've never felt so bare and content at the same time.

"It wasn't a complete lie, though," you say, tone slightly defensive. "You have so much going for you. You come from a wealthy family and you have good friends, and Yoona is head over heels for you. You could have so much. I just don't think you should be wasting all of your potential on me."

"None of that matters if I don't have you with me. Yes, my family is rich, but do you really think I care about that kind of stuff when I gave it all up to come work at the forge?"

"Well, I…"

"And do you think I'd be here right now, doing my best to fight for you, if I thought I could live a life with Yoona? Y/n, you're the only one I could see myself with; you're the only one that will ever make me feel complete."

"But your parents, Jeno. They'd never approve."

"I talked to them. Sure, they think still Yoona is my match, but they're willing to accept you. And so what if they weren't? It's my life and I'd be willing to give up all of it for you." 

He stands up, placing his mug on the little table between you and walking around it to stand before you. He reaches into the pocket of his trousers to pull something out, but it slips through his grasp, falling somewhere on the hard stone floor with a soft clink. It takes a minute but Jeno is able to find it, fingertips grazing across a familiar cold metal underneath the chair you're sitting on. He takes the object between his fingers and offers it to you.

The scene before you is something you'd never think would happen. Jeno is on one knee and in his hand is a small metal object, a ring that you can tell is handmade. It's not a perfect circle, not even close, and you can tell it was rushed by the lumps on the surface, but the mere sight of it has you flustered beyond belief

"Jeno, I hope that's not what I think it is. Never mind the fact that society wouldn't approve; we're not even twenty yet!"

It takes a moment for the man to realize the position he's in, but when it clicks, he jumps to his feet, startling you a bit. He takes your smaller hand in his, holding it as if it's a delicate flower, and looks deeply into your eyes.

"It's a promise ring I meant to give you. It means I'll always care for you, support you, and love you until the day that I die. I hope this proves how much you mean to me."

With that, Jeno slides the ring onto its designated finger. And in this moment, it's like you can see into each other's hearts and souls. In this moment, no one else exists and nothing else matters. Jeno thinks the smile that finally breaks your tense visage is bright enough to illuminate the whole world, if not the whole universe.

You jump up to your feet and wrap your arms around the man, your man, placing a kiss on his chapped and cracked lips. The feeling of your lips locking perfectly together assures you that this is how it's meant to be and you should've never tried to settle for anything less. The kiss is sweet and innocent and pure and you want to stay like this forever. Unfortunately, you both run out of air and pull away, though your hand is still tangled in the hairs on the back of his head and his palm is planted firmly on your waist.

"I love you too," you breathe out, reciprocating what he had said earlier.

Jaemin holds up a finished sword, the product of yours and Jeno's hard work, twisting his wrist to inspect the blade from all angles. The sun’s rays make it glow as if it’s molten silver, causing your friend to nod in approval. He makes a few slashes at the air, but they're sloppy and slow as the sorcerer has never been the fighting type.

"It's perfect, Y/n," he tells you with his pearly white smile.

You can't take all the credit though, elbowing Jeno in his side as you declare, "Jeno did a good amount of work on it too."

Jeno snaps out of whatever daze he's in and shyly rubs a hand against his neck, claiming he really didn't do much. Even still, you decide to split the reward evenly between the two of you. You think it's only fair since what's yours is his and what's his is yours. 

Jaemin snaps his fingers as he reminds you, "Hey, you never did tell me its name."

You and Jeno look at each other, smiles coming to your faces knowing you'd actually discussed this topic just the night before.

"Excalibur," you declare proudly.

And Jeno finishes off, "The sword that cuts through steel."

[tadcoopers-throneroom]

Galavant Sci-fi au

Star Wars. Doesn’t exist right now.  All these headcanons are based on tropes and Star Wars with it’s deep lore has probably shook that trope up that I use as evidence.  Star Wars is just too unique with too deep of lore that every entry I make will probably have to start or end with Star Wars did it or didn’t do that.   Like I don’t need Star Wars lore to thrown at me to say that this trope is used in every sci-fi thing, with Star Wars being an exception.  It’s Star Wars of course they did it or didn’t do it that one time.   Star Wars is too special to be painted with broad strokes of no sci-fi show has a human government like this or whatever example I use.  So I thought I’ll be upfront.  I pretended Star Wars isn’t Sci-fi when looking at these tropes for all our sanities. Also I may reference other things in Sci-fi shows as shorthand for what I am talking about.  It will probably just be things like Startrek.  You know super popular and well known but if there is confusion let me know.  

ao3

Galavant is a captain of a spaceship. He is human because there hasn’t been that many popular sci-fi media with an alien space captain as the lead.   His dad was also in this universe’s version of Starfleet.  I’ll call them Knights. His dad went missing.  Gal found him years later stranded on a planet with a whole bunch of alien children he was protecting.  Probably the only au I made where Gal wasn’t mad at his dad.

Isabella is an alien.  Human societies tend not to explore many different forms of government and I can’t think of any monarchy. Alien planets tend to be more willing to explore different forms of government.  So if a writer wanted a monarchy in their Space Opera. Alien.  I would say her planet would combine the medieval aesthetic of the show but would still have the tech of this universe.  Her life probably wouldn’t be that different growing up.  The only major differences before the plots of the show would be the tech and that she’s an alien.  She ends up being the representative of her race for the Knights.

Sid could be both to be honest.  Human or alien.  He could be a human adopted by aliens or an alien adopted by humans. I’d say his parents died in a battle and was left to one of their friends in the army to raise.   He is Galavant’s second in command.  He joined in the hopes to explore the universe.  

Madelena is one of those beautiful psychic aliens, like the Asari from Mass Effect.  I’d say she can use these powers to change how people see her (shapeshifting but her physical form stays the same everyone else just sees her as something else.), read minds and can bend people to her will. Also illusions.  She is one of the most politically powerful people in her race, using her powers for her own gains.  

Gareth is also an alien.   A warrior one like the Krogan from Mass Effect or the Klingon.  He made most of his money from mercenary work and is one of Madelena’s favorite warriors to hire.  People suspect that there is a romantic tie to them but the idea makes a lot of people angry at the very idea.  A beautiful alien that everyone wants to sleep with and an ugly brute, but no one would say that to their faces.  

Wormwood (wedding planner)-  He’s like Q from Star Trek.  A powerful alien no one understands and does what he wants.  He allied with Madelena because she seemed the most interesting to align himself with. 

Roberta is human.  Her family was a part of the Knights for generations.  Out of all the Knights Steingas is the most respected name.  She joined the knights at eighteen.  She would be a red shirt in the OG Star Trek.  Not like marked for death but she would be in the military specialization. 

Richard I got two head cannons an alien one and a human one. 

The human one he is a disgraced  ship captain.  He took Madelena on board his ship because he thought she needed help but she stole a bunch of information, and it almost cost Richard his life.  He was charged with treason but was saved when his brother Senator Kingsley pulled some strings.  He was labeled incomptent and fired.  He had no hope of redemption until Roberta showed up on a mission he accidentally got involved in.  Roberta managed to use her Steingas name to get Richard into the Knights as a soldier like her when the mission was completed.  Richard ends up falling for her after that.

Alien Richard would be born on a monarchy planet like Isabella but it got destroyed by Madelena making him go on the run as the King of the planet.  He ends up joining The Knights in the hopes to protect others from his home’s fate.  He would be in a political section though.  Makes first contact and makes deals with other aliens.  

Chef is an alien from a  poverty stricken planet.  He is the ship’s cook and falls in love with ships medic/robot Gwynn. 

Gwynn was built for medical purposes.  And is one of the first AI’s made to start experiencing emotions.  The idea was that a Doctor Robot should be able to simulate emotions because sometimes you need a chipper doctor but at other times your doctor cheerfully telling you your father is dead is not good.  That was the main reason people struggled to have medical AI.   They couldn’t give bedside care and give bad news.  Gwynn was supposed to change that.  But what happened was her inventors accidentally programmed emotions into her.   No one knew until she fell in love with the chef.  She was hesitant to get into a relationship like in the show but now it’s because she was literally not programmed for this and was confused and a bit scared.  Chef was very patient with her.

Jester is a pilot.  He reminds me of Wash and Joker. He is considered an alright guy to come to if you need someone to cheer you up.  He also has a bit of a reputation for being a playboy. 

The pirates full of humans and aliens alike.  Though the captain is an alien because a lot of other space ships in sci fi media mix things up with alien side ships.  They are sometimes friends to The Knights when they give information about the criminal world or sell stolen goods. Other times a major pain in the ass for the knights, stealing from them or their allies.  Or The Knights were fucking with one of their criminal allies.  

Jubilee is an alien.  She and her family was a part of a planet wide rebellion.  The Knights came to their aide and placed Jubilee’s parent’s on the throne.  She doesn’t like the idea of her planet being a part of another government’s hold, even if the planet is under an alliance a large portion of the galaxy is in.   She figures the idea of leaving the thumb of one forgin government to jump into the arms of another is idotic.  And is working on a second rebellion.  

Enchanted Forest was an abandoned planet.  But soon a group of queer people abandoned by their families or societies mistreated them made sort of a found family and settled there.    They soon set out and found more queers to bring to the planet. And soon any queer kid that needs a place to stay knows where to go.  The planet is of course forested with weird sci-fi plants to make it look magical.  And ships are leaving all the time hunting for other queers.

[aoibaratraveler]

UK Road Trip Week 4

Ok, so I was actually semi productive with this, this week and finished typing it out on Tuesday morning but then my tumblr app stopped working on my phone and then when I tried to use the browser on my phone it uploaded all weird. So I am finally able to upload this from a Starbucks on the bf’s laptop.

Day 22:

I woke up feeling lucky to have done Snowdon a day before because torrential rain came down all night and seemed to persist well into the morning and afternoon and looking at the forecast for the next month...well, its bleak. I did, however, feel much better after a good night's sleep and even though I am a bit sore, I think that I am more than ready to do another hike or scramble like Snowdon because I just enjoyed it so much. If the rain does let up then I would love to do Scafell Pike in England and Ben Nevis in Scotland, the tallest mountains in each. Soon after we woke up, we decided to head to Llandudno for a walk along the coast and to get some coffee but after charging up for a bit and grabbing some pasties from the local bakery, the bf had the grave misfortune of having half his pasty stolen by an aggressive seagull. In fact, most of the seagulls in this town were rather aggressive, one of them swooped down at my head while I was eating my pasty. After this unfortunate event though, the bf's mood took a dip so we decided to leave and head to Betws y Coed where we would be meeting up with T, the bf's friend later on. It was certainly a cute little village but because of the torrential downpour, we couldn't explore much and so we retreated to a hotel for some Welsh cream tea and to have a safe shelter to watch the rain. After a couple of hours T showed up and we attempted to go on a walk to a nearby lake since it seemed to have stopped raining but not even 10 minutes into our walk and it came down hard again and we were properly soaked. Luckily, it was warm rain so I didn't mind it too much. We retreated to T's car where T and the bf reminisced on their uni days. The rain seemed to let up a bit so we took a chance and explored the other side of Betws y Coed where there were a cute train station and a rhino made of metal that encased bottle caps to promote recycling. Near the station there was a lovely little suspension bridge with a backdrop of a field scattered with sheep and a forest. We played poo sticks there for a couple of minutes and then decided to head to a restaurant called Olif for Welsh Tapas and we were very happy that we did because not even a minute later the torrential rain came back which didn't seem to let up for the rest of the night. It was great timing for us. The Welsh Tapas was delicious, we thoroughly enjoyed the croquetas which was a breaded ball of melted cheddar cheese, potato, and leek, yum. We ate, drank, and were merry for a couple of more hours before heading to a nearby nature reserve to pitch up for the night; the rain still coming down with a fury.

Day 23:

Today was a bit disappointing only because we really just couldn't do anything for there was torrential rain for most of the day. We set off from the spot we were parked and drove through the gorgeous valleys that gave off an almost ominously beautiful atmosphere to it because of the rain. We made a stop near Tryfan, a cool mountain that is mostly a scramble that the bf had wanted to take me on but because of the rain he couldn't. We tried to wait out the rain for a bit but to no avail so we retreated to a Starbucks for a few hours and read. When we got hungry we decided to leave and we grabbed some Chinese takeaway before heading to T's place to stay for the night. I got to play with her gorgeous border collie so not a bad end to the day.

Day 24:

Today we initially had plans to meet up with another friend of T's but he bailed on us so T decided to be our tour guide around Snowdonia. We had a delicious full breakfast in her town and then set off to a town called "BeddGelert". It was a lovely little town that had a beautiful nature walk and river and where the legend of Gelert is said to have taken place.

"According to the oft-told legend, Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd and the most powerful man in the whole of Wales, had a hound called Gelert. In some versions of the tale, the dog had been given to Llywelyn by none other than King John of England. One day Llywelyn went hunting, leaving Gelert behind to look after his infant son. When Llywelyn returned he found his tents in disarray. There was no sign of his son and Gelert, when he jumped up to greet his master, had jaws stained red with blood. Instantly assuming the hound had killed the baby, the Prince drew his sword and ran the dog through. Only then did Llywelyn discover the unharmed baby lying beneath its upturned cot and the body of a wolf that had tried to kill the child, in the corner of the tent. The faithful Gelert had defended his charge and killed the wolf. The hound was buried with great ceremony and, legend says, prince Llywelyn never smiled from that day onwards." (https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/e6f11332-ae6f-3364-96a4-1af14401369b)

We had a long stroll around the river and then had coffee and cake at a cafe. We decided to get three cakes and split them; chocolate fudge, coffee-walnut, and carrot. They were scrumptious but personally I liked coffee-walnut the best. Afterward we drove to a place called Black Rock Sands--in English, the Welsh name is supremely hard to pronounce. It was a vast, sandy beach with an outstanding view of the mountains. There were a few really cool caves that we were able to explore because the tide was low. I imagined how cool it would be to swim in these caves and I hoped that maybe someday I'll get the opportunity. We then climbed on top of a cliff edge to get a better view. It was awesome. I wanted to walk across the cliff but T said that if it was closed off then we may risk being able to get down while the tide is low so we made our way back down and walked some more along the beach. After our walk T remembered one more cool place that she wanted to show us which was an ancient Celtic forest within Snowdonia National Park and was surrounding a lake. This forest had so many traits to it that made it feel like you were walking inside a forest straight out of a fairytale, from the most covered slate walls to the ancient trees to the lush green nature enveloping a fallen over tree to the misplaced plant life like bamboo trees. It was such a whimsical walk that felt almost therapeutic. It was nearing 17:30 so we decided to grab a bite at the pub outside the forest but were quite disappointed with the portion sizes they gave us of the chips we ordered so we set back to T's town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and purchased some more (which ended up being too much) chips and a couple of spring rolls that were the size of paninis from a local Chinese takeaway. We ate our takeaway next to a lake for a bit...before being attacked by midges so then we ran to T's car to finish it off. We felt properly full of grease after this so we went for a short walk around the lake (by now you can guess that Snowdon National Park is just full of picturesque lakes, mountains, and forests and is very much the scenery that I've been craving to see all year). We then headed back to T's place, said our goodbyes to her and her lovely parents and dog and then set off towards Conwy to pitch up for the night.

Day 25:

I'm so pleased that I've been able to see so many castles on this trip. Last time I lived in England, I hardly saw any although I saw a few castles in mainland Europe during my 2 month backpacking trip before starting my university exchange in Preston. This past year as well I don't think we saw any castles. We started the morning by driving back through Conwy and having a look at the medieval castle there. I unfortunately didn't get a photo though. We then began our drive out of Wales. We did, however, stop in a place called Prestatyn before fully leaving to nip into a Tesco's and use their facilities and get some caffeine. Here, I had the most ridiculous experience. I've dealt with some, let's say not so knowledgeable customer service people before in supermarkets in the UK but this took the cake. I decided to buy some Redbull and in the UK red bull is age restricted to people aged 16 and over (any energy drink is). But then there is also the think 25 policy here where customer service employees ask to check ID for anything age-restricted if they think you look under 25. This is completely fine because even though I am 25, I'm well aware that I could pass as 18 or younger so I always have my ID on me when I buy energy drinks. The thing is when I pulled out my Canadian driver's license that has my photo and age and everything that a normal ID has and which has been accepted literally everywhere else I've gone to (which is what I told her), the checkouts girl (who looked to be my age or younger) rejected it and refused to sell me the Redbull. I couldn't believe it! At first she looked at it and then immediately showed it to her associate who then said she would go and ask the manager about it. She gave me the absurd reason that because she had never seen this kind of ID before or don't get them often in the store (what do you mean "them"? Foreign ID?) that she needed to check that it was legit...I couldn't believe what I was hearing...so essentially because my ID was foreign and she'd never seen it before, she questioned whether it was real. Well, I've spent some time working at another supermarket here called Sainsbury's and we were taught that as long as the ID has their photo and age and looks like ID then it's acceptable. I said that to her (although didn't mention that I had worked at Sainsbury's) and she just kept giving me the most condescending look and said "you'd be surprised what people could fake! And I can't sell you this item if you are underage" ...well she showed it to her manager and she said that even the manager said they couldn't accept it! I tried to remain calm and reiterate that, that just can't be right but she stuck to her guns and said she couldn't sell me it. I went to tell the bf what had happened and he was equally shocked and angry on my behalf and said I should try and argue it so I decided to go back in, directly to customer service and ask to speak to the store manager myself. The customer service woman herself agreed that my ID should have been accepted but said I should be flattered that they thought I look younger than my age...that isn't the point though? I know I look younger than my age and I'm always happy to show my ID (I don't look younger than 16 though) but the point is that checkouts people (1 of which was apparently the checkouts manager!?) refused to accept my official, government-issued Canadian driver's license because it was foreign to them which is really just due to them being ignorant and clueless more than anything, but that's unfortunately how a large portion of the UK is now...when the manager came, he agreed that my ID should have been accepted. Vindication. So, feeling a bit petty, I went back to the same checkouts girl, asked her which manager exactly she spoke to because I had just spoken to the store manager and he said that my ID was completely fine. She gave me another stupid excuse but I just thanked her as a way of saying "fuck off" in my own way without actually saying it. She never apologized. I then used the self-scan machine right next to her but the coward that she is stormed off and got her friend to authorize my red bull instead while she grabbed a basket and aggressively threw it right next to me to pretend she was putting it away. I gave her a smile on the way out and felt victorious but still in complete disbelief at how unprofessional that whole interaction was. We then drove to the top of a hill that had a gorgeous viewpoint of the entire city that wiped away the frustration of that whole event. We drove to Preston from there and had German doner for dinner and then to the Forest of Bowland AONB to chill for the rest of the evening (my favourite AONB so far).

Day 26:

Waking up in the Forests of Bowland was spectacular with the mountains on one side and the sun on the other, it was beautiful. We drove through such gorgeous valleys and fields, it didn't feel like the England that I'd been living in for the past 11 months. I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to see it but a bit sad that I was missing out on sights like this all year. Once we'd driven through the forest, we filled up on petrol at ASDA and freshened up in their washrooms. We then headed into the city of Lancaster where we first had dessert for breakfast at a place called Kaspa's (oh my I'm going to be working off a lot when we get back home). From there we ventured off and walked around the city and up to the Lancaster castle which served as a prison for some time but now houses the Crown Court and is open to the public in some parts. I was pretty tired owing to having a restless sleep the night before with the storm being easily audible from inside the car. At about 5 we decided to set off towards the lake district and Scafell Pike. This drive was probably just a bit more amazing then the one we had this morning. It was absolutely stunning, the bf had to pull over so I could take more photos but my camera most likely doesn't do it any justice. Just absolutely breathtaking and just what you want to end the night on before going to bed.

Day 27:

Ahh! Scratch what I said about need 2 1/2 to 3 months for the UK and Ireland (well I suppose you can do if you want to take your sweet time), we have covered so much ground and expect to cover a lot more by the 31st, so this trips need at most 2 months and we reckon if we were to do the whole of Ireland then we could probably do it 10 days but we're still saving that for another time. You know those days when you feel like you did a lot but didn't really accomplish anything? This would have been one of those days. I don't know, I guess it was because of the rain as well but the bf and I were also feeling pretty grumpy all day and were short with each other a lot. We had parked just outside Scafell Pike hoping that maybe there was a chance we could wake up and the weather would be great for a hike but it had rained all night and it didn't look like it was going to let up in the morning so unfortunately, we had to give up on the idea of hiking Scafell Pike at least at this part of the trip. The bf told me it always rains in the Lake District and that it's hardly ever sunny but I was really hoping that I would get to see the lakes in all their glory. There was nothing around (except for the lakes and mountains of course) so we decided to drive 15 mins North West out of the lakes to a small seaside town called Seascale. It was very quiet there and we found a small, family-run cafe that served breakfast, cakes, coffee, and tea. We managed to freshen up there and made a new plan for the day which was to drive to Windermere, Grasmere and then watch the Liverpool game somewhere. Well, when we got to Windermere, it was absolutely packed with tourists and still raining which just made us more grumpy. The bf and I don't do well in big touristy crowds. We walked around for a bit and then the bf got more coffee but we quickly gave up on trying to enjoy ourselves since it was just so noisy and busy and the visibility of the lake was horrendous because of the rain and honestly I was just really bummed out about not being able to see the lake properly. So off we went to Grasmere. It was a tiny village but really cute. The reason we went to Grasmere was because of the gingerbread shop that's been there for hundreds of years with an old recipe that claims to make unique gingerbread that is crumbly and gooey. Well, let me tell you that, that claim is not unfounded. There was a big line outside the shop too so you know they're popular. They weren't mind-blowingly delicious or anything but they were yummy. After that, we were at a loss of what to do. The weather was miserable so we couldn't really do anything outdoorsy which is also sad because half the point of this trip was to explore Britsh nature and wilderness and do a lot of hikes but we're in the second half of this trip and that seems unlikely to happen now. Especially since I'm kind of running out of funds for this trip now. We debated whether or not to go to a hotel for afternoon tea but it was getting too late for that. We settled on just cutting our losses and leaving the lakes early. We decided to drive straight up to Glasgow. On the drive up I could really feel how burned out the bf was getting and I started feeling really guilty. I'm used to roughing it up for long periods of time but I don't think he is. I mean we've both been grumpy today but for different reasons. I'm sad this trip isn't going as I hoped it would because of the weather and not being able to save up enough this year and he's just tired and growing more and more irritable as the days go on. I booked us a night's stay in an Airbnb for the day after because we both need to do laundry anyway and he just needs a good night's sleep. Once we got to Glasgow, we watched the game (Liverpool won, yay!) and then we drove up to a country park to pitch up for the night.

Day 28:

When we woke up it was rainy and windy so we decided to head to a nearby shopping mall from the country park to charge up with some coffee. After a couple of hours there we drove into Glasgow for some sightseeing. This proved to be a bit difficult because we soon found out that Glasgow is an outrageously expensive city with exuberant parking charges. It took us a while to find something, but after around 45 mins of driving around we chanced upon a car park that was behind a pub that looked to have absolutely no parking charges or restrictions and seemed to be somewhat of a mostly unknown free car park. After double-checking that it really was free we set off to explore the city. Glasgow is really cool. It has an interesting mix of old school buildings and historical architecture as well as more modern ones with a TON of incredibly artistic graffiti on the side of buildings everywhere . We walked around for a while and tried the famous deep-fried Mars bar which I thought was yummy but it wasn't to the bf's taste. We were still hungry so we grabbed lunch at a place called Bread Meats Bread because I heard that they do great poutine and boy was I right. The poutine was massive and absolutely delicious with tons of gravy and cheese curds, probably the best poutine I've had in the UK. We also got a pastrami sandwich and a fried chicken grilled cheese melt that were both oh so good and served in some pretty spectacular toast. After exploring more of what the city had to offer which included a Tardis propped up in the city square and a statue of a colourful laughing child. At around 4 we decided it was time to head to the Airbnb that we booked for the night but not before stopping in Morrisons to grab some instant noodles for the road. This Airbnb was lovely, clean and just what we needed to have a proper charge up. We took the rest of the night easy, did our laundry, played with the host's dogs and had a shower. The host, herself, was also really friendly and was into all the same fandom as us from Marvel to Doctor Who to Game of Thrones to Harry Potter. The tv in our room was also massive so we watched an episode of Doctor Who before calling it a night.

[thefloatingstone]

teirrart replied to your photoset: Starting in 1941, Mickey Mouse was given a...

anything involving mickey’s design always hooks me in. like his name was gonna be Mortimer Mouse but Disney’s wife told him it was a dumb name lmao

This is actually true.

Also fun fact, “Mickey” is short of Michel, pronounced “Mee-schale” not Micheal as one would think.

Also also, this isn’t the only time Mickey went through a redesign that’s been largely forgotten.

in the 1950s when UPA was the new hotness on the animation block, changing animation forever by introducing a flat, minimalist animation style inspired more by graphic design than looking realistic, Disney made quite a few changes to ride the coat-tales of this new aesthetic (ironic seeing as a lot of UPA animators were Ex-Disney employees who felt Disney’s animation style of trying to be as realistic as possible was stifling their creativity)

One such application went into the movie “Sleeping Beauty”. Despite characters moving and looking quite realistically, a lot more abstract shapes were used in their designs (like Aurora’s hair) and the backgrounds, inspired by medieval tapestries, having a much more geometric look to them, while still trying to appear realistic (the backgrounds were a major reason for the movie’s inability to make profit but that’s a story for another time)

Another much more obvious UPA influence could be seen on Disney shorts, especially the likes of “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom” which I don’t even need to elaborate on if you see what the short looks like

As well as “Donald in Mathmagic Land”

Anyway. My point is, in the 1950s, with television exploding onto the scene and with a demand of animation but a restriction on production costs, the UPA art style became EXTREMELY popular for television, but it did not go to cartoon shows first (as there was no such thing just yet) but instead, the first real applications of television animation went to shows that were basically just filmed story-boards, or TV commercials for products.

Disney actually had their own commercial production division in the 50s, and, with all the information I’ve just given you, you can probably guess that I am leading up to the point that Mickey Mouse was given a redesign during this period, SPECIFICALLY for use in TV commercials. Designed by Tom Oreb, considered to be the founding father of the UPA graphic style in the first place

You can see this designed used in the 1955 commercials for American Motors.

However, this redesign was EXTREMELY short lived.

According to the book “Cartoon Modern” by Amid Amidi, and I QUOTE:

“There was a little kid that used to write to Walt telling him to stay away from modern art because it's Communistic. So when the commercial came on, he got a letter from this kid, a little malcontent sitting somewhere, and he wrote, "I'm disappointed Walt. I never thought you'd succumb. What happened to you?" and Walt went crazy. He stormed down there and outlawed using any of the Disney characters in the commercials...spelling the end of the unit.”

Basically some Far Right teenaged asshole who in modern times would probably be making posts on twitter about chemicals in the water turning the frogs gay tweeted at Walt "lol u commie” and Walt lost his shit and set his own house on fire and Modern Art Design Mickey was killed.

Incidentally, although this little fuckhead was being the kind of little fuckhead we’re all too familiar with, I believe his stupidity came from the fact that communist propaganda in the 1920s looked like this;

However, as we have seen, this level of jingoism did not stop Disney from doing it again anyway, althoughthis time in 2013

Anyway I just wanted to ramble about Mickey Mouse’s character design for a little.

Personally I’ve always preferred the 1980s design for him, but that may just be nostlagia as I grew up with it, but also because during this time (much like now) Mickey had multiple designs, one being the more “Disney” fleshed out version, and one being the “vintage” version which had come back into popularity. Or more accurately, Disney’s new CEO Michael Eisner (who was behind literally ALL of the 2D Disney Renaissance movies) was pushing to save the then failing Disney Company and more than likely a massive marketing and merchandising campaign felt using both designs would be the best course of action.