#the brides are only allowed to exist in relation to their duelists

[dreamerslovechaos]

*wakes up in a cold sweat* the reason the black rose arc had to be forgotten by everyone is because its foundational tenet operated on giving the Brides agency to protest against their role in the dueling system and seek to leave it, further exemplified by its final shot being that of anthy's complicitness in the dueling game. the black rose arc gives a 'voice to the voiceless' and exploits their rage against their lives into rage against the Bride - which though it furthers ohtori's system of oppression (the dueling game is built upon exploiting the internal conflicts of the duelists after all), the methodology of giving 'voices' to the Brides by allowing them to Speak Their Mind within the framework of 'self improvement' via seeking out therapy is shown to be antithetical to ohtori academy as a whole because true self actualization of the bride will mean the end of ohtori academy as a system. in this essay i will

[ograndebatata]

A variation to headcanons in series and type

Well... as I have said in another post, I am also a fan of Sofia the First. And after some work I’ve been doing on an Elena of Avalor oneshot that involves Sofia the First characters, I decided to post my headcanons on one of them here. 

Technically, I’m not sure they even count as headcanons, given they involve an original character who the series hardly gives an actual confirmation exists: Lucinda the witch’s father. 

For anyone who mostly follows Elena of Avalor, Lucinda is a witch who appears in that series. She starts out as wicked, but becomes good in her first appearance and remains one of Sofia’s friends from then on. 

We see her mother, Marla, in a few episodes (though her name is only given in the credits) and while she starts out as a wicked witch in her first appearance, she does good spells for her daughter’s sake once her daughter reveals she’s become a good witch, and by her next appearances she seems neutral at worst. 

We never actually see Lucinda’s father, but I have been headcanoning so many characters as orphans from at least one parent that I wanted to change things up.

To answer the question of where he is in the series, these are the answers.

- He doesn’t appear in ‘Mom’s the Word’ because that was Mother’s Day, and Lucinda and Marla were on their special activity, so he was not around at that specific time.

- He also doesn’t appear in ‘Cauldronation Day’, because that’s a witches only event, and thus men are not allowed. 

- As for ‘Too Cute to Spook’, he doesn’t appear because he was handing out treats or pulling tricks depending on the kind of scare he got. 

So, check below the cut for a few headcanons of a lighter nature about a quasi original character, with references to Lucinda and Marla.

 Lucinda’s father, Marla, and Lucinda

His name is Sören, but he is better known as Sören the Strong, which was the title given to him after he was a victor of many magic duels. He was born in the kingdom of Norberg, and looks like the typical man from there - tall and brawny with sharp features. He has blue eyes, and honey blond hair darker than the average Norberg native.

Like his wife and daughter, he was born to a family of magical people, with a warlock father and a witch mother, and had magic himself. But instead of a magic wand, he uses a magic warhammer, like wizards in Norberg typically do. He was gifted from a young age, and as an adult he became a professional duelist, like he had wanted to from when he was a kid.

While it sounds evil and problematic to those who don’t know about it, it’s not as much as it sounds by the least. Any events of magical dueling as a form of sport always have trained healers on hand, and there are rules that forbid things like the use of any permanently damaging, much less lethal, magic. While it is true that not everyone respects the rules and there are accidents, the overall rate of dueling-related deaths or permanent injuries is no greater than for any other magic-related sports like enchanted ice dancing or flying horse races. All the same, only adult challengers are accepted and they have to consent to the inherent risk before enrolling in any competition.

Unlike his wife, Sören was never particularly wicked. No saint maybe, but certainly no devil either. He never resorted to underhanded means to win his duels, and while he was both a bit of a sore loser and a bit of a sore winner, he was not so to any unbearable extent.

He met Marla during one such competition (as magical dueling allows mix-gender matches) where they were set up against one another. Marla did not expect to win, as she had only joined in to prove herself to other wicked witches she knew, but she was very much set to defeat Soren after the ‘nauseating support’ she saw him being given. Sören was more skillful than her indeed, but when she, out of desperation, used another kind of spell to defeat him, he lost soundly. It was the least far he ever got on a magical dueling event of such a high level.

Sören sulked at first, but the day afterwards, when her next match was about to begin, he went to Marla and wished her luck. Surprised, Marla could only stare dumbly until the referee shouted at her to come in.

She lost that time, as she dueled against another witch, and one who wasn’t of the sort susceptible to fall for any of her wiles.

When the event ended, Sören told Marla he’d like to see her again. Marla was surprised, as all other men she knew either ran in terror from her (which she liked) or tried to use their masculine charms to be spared from her curses (which she didn’t like, and for which she ended up cursing them more violently than she would otherwise). Sören simply seemed to accept her as she was, wickedness and all. That softened Marla enough for her to agree to see him.

They saw one another for years afterwards at many sorts of events where magic practitioners gathered, and eventually got married. Not exactly a big affair for the bride’s side, as wicked witches don’t have many friends, but the groom’s side was not all that numerous either, as Sören had deliberately kept the wedding private and many guests who would have otherwise come were turned off by the fact the bride was a wicked witch.

Once their daughter was born, both Marla and Sören were involved parents from the beginning, which was not looked at very favorably by either side of the family in general. Sören’s family was overall not impressed that he had retired from competitive dueling after he got married, and Marla’s thought in general that her husband was too not-wicked, if not outright good.

It was hard for both, but they stood by their decision. At first, Lucinda grew up as a wicked witch like her mother had, which Sören accepted - she was his daughter, and he loved her dearly. 

When it turned out she wanted to be a good witch instead, Sören was a bit surprised - after all her mother was wicked, her grandmother was wicked, her great-grandmother was wicked, and any previous witches in her mother’s side of the family were wicked. His family had a few good witches, but not that many either.

All the same, she was his daughter, and he loved her no matter what.

Marla was a bit more disappointed - she had kept hoping that her daughter’s goodness was just a phase. But she kept supporting her daughter’s decision, she slowly found her own wickedness decreasing… and eventually, realized she had already placed herself on the side of neutral that leaned closer to good.

By that point, it had become natural enough that she simply kept being so, and realized she liked it enough. At any rate, her husband’s feelings for her did not change, and that was the most important.

Perhaps neither of their lives had turned out like they envisioned them, but both Sören and Marla were satisfied in the end.