#Disney Antiheroes

[slashingdisneypasta]

Oh wait, Iago and Meg would have so much to bond over!

'... Don't thank me just yet.'

'Aghh, don't thank me... really.'

#Disney #Disney Meg #Disney Iago #Disney Antiheroes

[galaxygolfergirl]

WIP WIP

'Cause you colour me clear

Now, what you, what you waitin' for?

Yeah, you colour me clear

Now what are you waitin' for?

(@frozenvanillaz credit for the reference pose)

#helsa #disney #artists on tumblr #illustration #fan art #wip #hans x elsa #back on my bullshit #I miss my angsty kids #and honestly I missed drawing my version of Hans #I know in fandom we tend to extrapolate and spin wild fanon and theories but this guy was fun to draw for me #if we ever do get a frozen 3 and Hans comes back I’ve always imagined him to be a jaded antihero #his ruthlessness and sardonic attitude would still be there but it would bely his bitterness and anger from the trauma of his past #that’s honestly too deep for this franchise targeted at little girls so anyways enjoy

[empyreasheart]

i have ONE question, my friend, that i simply must know. fave kh villain and why :D

i think it definitely has to be larxene. shes so ridiculous and funny and well i guess she doesnt have as intricate of a story or motive as the other kingdom hearts villains but shes a cunt and hilarious about it and she also has antenna. what else do you want

also she looks so much like a bug in this picture *steps on her*

#in general i tend to gravitate more towards female villains #which aside from anti aqua and like. a few disney characters which im not counting #we dont really have much of in kh #so as much as i want to put a bunch of thought into this i feel like this is a very easy answer #i do like villain-axel #i just didnt count him because i feel like he goes from villain to antihero (if you can call him that) pretty fast in the series #and i fear larxene is funnier anyway. sorry axel #ask #thank you for the ask i love talking abt kh and my opinions on the series / characters :)

[septembergold]

-Tom Keir Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes)

-Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid)

-Christian Coulson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

#prince #actors #english #disney #tom riddle #tom blyth #jonah hauer-king #christian coulson #movies #fans #love #hunger games #antihero #hero

[firstbrains]

#sixfanarts #six fanarts #digital art #challenge #artwork #olaf #anton ego #hector #edna mode #margaret gesner #merlock #disney #antiheroes

[rapunzelcrossoverqueen]

My favorite au for kitty softpaws x Judy hopps is hero x villain 👀

#More like villain as an antihero #Or something like catwoman #Softhopps #Crossover ship #Crossover #non/disney #Femslash #Au #Hero x villain #Hero x antihero #Zootopia #Puss in boots the last wish

[faintlysmiling]

i love nanami getting fucked up by all these animals all the time i've always wondered what cinderalla would be like if everything fucking hated her

#nanami is the real alt disney princess rep shes an antihero to frozen #compendium

[ultimatelyunassuming]

The mcu wanted wanda to ve a vriska sooooo bad but they reverse engineered her into a aradia because they couldnt make hwr do anything "too bad" or just didnt realize how fucked up the town thing was

#[uu] is online #they want her to be this edgy feminist antihero but. its disney theyre never gonna fully commit to it so shes in this weird state #instead of this devisive figure that tries to do good but fucks up shes just like. stuck in a shitty situation that causes her to lash out- #-CONSTANTLY and sure that doesnt excuse her actions but its because of the framing. the series frames her as a tragic soul instead of like- #-an actual antihero if that makes sense?

[duskwingarts]

If your a Moon Knight fans then you should check these out!!!

#khonshu #Moon Knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake lockley #anti hero #Antihero #MCU #Marvel #egyptian #duskwingarts #etsy #buttons #pinbacks #pins #badges #getyourgeekon #classic #comics #Disney #disney plus #moon #night

[xraynarvaez]

It’s me

Hi

I’m the problem, it’s me

#descendants #disney descendants #mal #mal bertha #mal daughter of maleficent #mal is very much antihero by tswift coded #i love mal so this is coming from someone rooting for the antihero

[kinsey3furry300]

Disney's Robbin Hood marries Maid Marian at the end of the film. Since marriage between commoners and aristocracy were illegal in the time period, we can infer then that Disney's Robbin Hood uses the cannon from Richard Grafton's 16th century Chronicle at Large or latter, when Robbin Hood goes from a yeoman to a member of the aristocracy, either the Earl of Huntingdon, or the later lord Locksley.

This fox is, and always has been, a member of the aristocratic 1% defending his inherited wealth, power and privilege. His vendetta against Prince John and his denouncement of him as a tyrant is personal as Prince John infinged on the rights and privileges of the Nobles, which was illegal, and lead to him taking up arms abd leading a guerilla campaign, and as soon as a Absoulute monarch he personality agrees with returns, he bends the knee in exchangefor a pardon, the restorationon his estates, and a policaly benifical marrage.

Behold the friendly face of Absoulute hereditary power!

In DnD terms, this verson of Robbin Hood is Lawfull Evil, fighting to uphold his own legal power and staiuts against an usurper.

Sad to say it given, he gave me my sexual awakening, but this fox is, and always has been, a fascist.

I mean I'd still fuck both of them but the sex with Rob would be far angrier.

This fox, this guy right here:

He's just a depressed millennial with childhood trauma running a gig economy job. He's not even doing anything particularly illegal, as shown by the only thing Judy (a frighteningly effective cop) can find to charge him with is tax evasion. He's a high functioning borderline genius level guy running street scams due to racial profiling barring access to higher education and better jobs, and once someone gives him an in he proves very very good at solving crimes. He had no ideological stake in this, he's in DnD terms true neutral tending towards chaotic neutral, but he does risk his life to stop and actual fascist coup that was happening hidden behind a facade of public safety (looks at canera), which is something. He's an everyman antihero who sells out for a job with helthcare and/or bunny boobies at the first chance he gets, very relatable.

This Fox, is and always has been, Moray grey.

and he fucking knows it, the sexy beast.

In conclusion, Disney has always been a Conservative company filled with left leaning creators, and Sometimes thier furry kink critique of the current system leaks out and they are at their best when it does.

#disney #Robbin hood #Disneys Robbin hood #zootopia #zootropolis #nick wilde #Nicholas wilde #Nicholas piberius wilde #judy hopps #maid marian #ace attorney #fascisim #shitpost #humor #furry shit

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

One small pet peeve I have about Chapter 7 is that it's making Maleficent look like "a victim." This is a personal thing but I always considered the Evil Queen to be Disney's most evil villain, but the title has Maleficent being considered "evil incarnate." And I understand, she has powers and transforms into a dragon. What a cool thing. But on several occasions I feel that content creators who partly work for Disney do not respect that she is an evil being and end up softening her character, either giving her a tragic background or making her a mother. Going back to TWST, the part that bothers me the most is right at the beginning of the chapter, when Yuu dreams about Maleficent and the only option to choose implies that they feel bad for Maleficent for not being invited. And it's like WHAT? Didn't you see that she cursed a baby? Or better yet, why didn't you feel bad for the other villains? And seeing the theories of the most recent update, with the inclusion of the senate and seeing that almost the entire fandom hates them, it makes Maleficent's descendants seem more like victims (which they partly are). Sorry, this is something personal that I wanted to share with someone. But in conclusion, no other medium outside of the original film can well portray Maleficent as the embodiment of evil that she is supposed to be. And yes, I know the Draconia family is not Maleficent but they are still related.

Disclaimer: I’m coming at this from the POV of someone who has no attachment to Maleficent as a character and is frankly confused as to why she’s the Big Bad that Disney chooses to promote as their villainous icon 🤡 so take my opinion with a grain of salt!🧂

To quickly correct something before the discussion: Malleus being a relative or a descendant of Maleficent is NOT canon. It is a popular headcanon, especially during the early days of the TWST fandom when we didn’t have a lot of lore about the Draconia family. From the way Malleus speaks about the Thorn Witch, she is considered a separate ancient entity and not someone he personally knows or has blood ties with.

Knowing that, it somewhat detracts from the points made in this ask 😅 since it seems like the Anon was trying to draw a parallel between Maleficent and Malleus… Conflating Maleficent with Malleus may be the result of mixing up the dreams with the differing mediums and presentations of Maleficent and Malleus in the context of their own works. I feel they can be treated like two entirely separate cases, and with different intentions behind them.

Maleficent has been written as a tragic antihero in the live action movie(s) of the same name. That is one interpretation of her, just as the Descendants Maleficent is much goofier in attitude. They are Disney’s properties and so they are free to twist Maleficent however they wish to suit the circumstances or to chase a modern trend of redemption, even if it’s different than the “mistress of evil” she was introduced as. In my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with this (although that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to enjoy or to agree with every iteration of Maleficent or the new direction she’s being led in). This doesn’t automatically make her a “victim” (for lack of a better term) either, she feels more… “girlboss” to me, if that makes sense?? Tragic things do happen to her, but they don’t define Maleficent as an individual (if I recall correctly, she acts on her own and rises up + regains power in spite of humans hating her). I think it’s just a different way to spin a story. However, I can see why maybe this doesn’t bode well to some people who like her for being evil and not for being redeemable.

Malleus is the “final boss” of a gacha game. The intention behind his design is to endear the players to the character so they’re willing to roll for him. That’s why Malleus in particular has a “special” role compared to the other boys, and why they try to establish a friendship with Yuu early on in the main story. He is treated differently in the narrative because of that. We may not necessarily like it or find the method effective, but that’s the design TWST went with. (I’m personally not a fan of this either, it grants Malleus specifically a lot of grace and favoritism that I’m not on board with 😅)

I also want to point out that when the other villains were introduced in Yuu’s dreams, it’s not really in situations that would immediately warrant sympathy. The Queen of Hearts is unreasonably mad, the King of Beasts is plotting against his brother, etc. It’s not that Yuu doesn’t “feel bad” for the others, it’s that the others didn’t give Yuu anything to “feel bad” about right away. For the dream with Maleficent, it’s different: Yuu first learns that she is “unwanted” and THEN she casts her magic. Yuu then fixates on the reason behind Maleficent’s curse (because at this point in the story, we’ve seen 6 cases of how one’s motivations and past fuel one’s actions in the present). The other villains don’t get similar scenes or lines to show off the potential reasoning behind their behaviors (no showing of how the Queen of Heart’s rule benefits her people, no jeering at Scar, etc.) so of course Yuu won’t be as gracious about them.

We should also consider that each of these dreams is prophetic and ties back to the current OB boy’s troubles. In Malleus’s case, loneliness is a huge issue and he’s been Yuu’s “friend” since book 2. These will naturally play into Yuu feeling more sympathy towards Maleficent, who resembles Malleus and is left out like he is. The other OB boys didn’t have this “special” connection, and their issues don’t center so strongly on wanting companionship. If you refer back to Yuu’s dreams of each villain, Yuu’s reactions to each reflect the ongoing dilemma of each boy and their dorm mates, such as wondering why the card soldiers don’t intervene and not understanding why Scar used the methods he did.

That being said, I’m not sure if I agree with the use of “victim” to describe the Draconias. The term’s definition varies by person (and I’m not sure what the asker’s own definition is, so there may be some disagreement here), but personally I see “victim” as a binary. It puts one person in a weak and passive position—with them being the one acted on—and the other person in a position of power—the one doing the acting. It creates an easy “us vs them” narrative. I don’t believe this is the case for any of the TWST characters; to call them “victims” implies a lack of agency to act and a clear good vs evil worldview.

Back to the Draconias. Yes, bad things have happened to them and some of those bad things were the result of the senate’s decisions. That doesn’t make the Draconias (or even Maleficent, in my opinion) “victims”, and certainly not “victims” to the senate alone. There are so many other factors to consider in Malleus being isolated and turning out the way he did. These include, but are not limited to: Maleficia being too busy to spend time with him, his parents being absent, Malleus still managing to meet and interact with Lilia anyway, Malleus himself being so powerful/high status he scares his servants and peers, royals having duties to tend to and thus limited freedoms, previously existing tensions with humans, etc.

TWST does do a lot to make you feel bad for and to pity Malleus. From the moment we first saw him, the “loneliness” of Malleus was a major part of his character. Many factors outside of his control compounded as an unfortunate situation that… wasn’t very conducive for him to grow up feeling normal and loved. It’s not that he was just now made a “victim”, it’s that we’re now getting all the context for why his character is the way it is—and it’s a whole slew of traumas and personal experiences. I would argue the same happens for all the OB boys; this isn’t something exclusive to twisted Maleficent, Malleus. TWST is trying to present these issues with more nuance than the classically evil G7 they were inspired by; the OB boys in general they aren’t defined by their “victimhood, but rather how they respond to and cope with those experiences.

#twst #twisted wonderland #Malleus Draconia #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #spoilers #notes from the writing raven #Maleficent #Yuu #Lilia Vanrouge #Scar #Queen of Hearts #Maleficia Draconia

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Preliminary Poll

Artemis Fowl

Submission reason

The film adaptation absolutely massacred Artemis' character. The cold-hearted, logical, intelligent youth from the book series is replaced by a "family friendly" cardboard stand in character. In the Disney film, Artemis is blandly "lovable". Perhaps the best way to show this is with the casting call for the film: "Inquisitive and possessing both academic and emotional intelligence [...] *Most importantly,* Artemis is warm-hearted and has a great sense of humour; he has fun in whatever situation he is in and loves life." Now contrast this to the Artemis from the books: initially an adversary, progressing to an antihero; while he may be inquisitive and intelligent, Artemis Fowl II uses his intelligence to build his family fortune through crime. Artemis is cold, cynical, and ruthless in his manipulation of others; he has a strong love for his own. Though he comes to regret his first kidnapping, he is certainly far from "emotionally intelligent" or "warm-hearted".

#look how they massacred my boy #artemis fowl #artemis fowl movie #look how they massacred them poll

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA - ZELDA

PROPAGANDA

Tetra (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)

1.) Wind Waker actually has a point with its misogyny and kinda condemns the misogyny. We first see Tetra as a helpless girl in the clutches of a giant bird monster. A pirate ship catapults a boulder at the bird, which drops Tetra on the hero's home island. We find out that young Tetra is the rough-and-tumble captain of an entire pirate crew, and the brains of the outfit. We later learn that bird monster has been kidnapping a bunch of girls to find the reincarnation of the legendary Princess Zelda. It is revealed that Tetra is the next Princess Zelda. Because she is Zelda, she transforms from a tanned pirate captain into a pale princess in a dress, and her role requires her to wait in a castle for the hero to finish his quest. Which is what she does. And the point of the story is that this is wrong! The villain is wrong, and the hero's mentor is wrong—they're both hurting children and forcing them to reenact old roles in an old story, in their selfish quest to resurrect their long-dead kingdoms. Then breaking tradition, (I believe) Wind Waker Zelda is the first Zelda to wield the sacred Light Arrows and to take up an active combat role in the final battle. The happy ending is that Zelda turns back into Tetra, and she and Link set out to forge their own future. BUT THEN. The cheap sequel Phantom Hourglass (the equivalent of a direct-to-DVD Disney movie sequel tbh) pretty much opens with Tetra being turned into a stone statue. And she's a stone statue for the ENTIRE GAME until the hero rescures her. Clear-cut sidelining of a compelling female character, smells like misogyny to me. At least Tetra's identical granddaughter was a playable co-protagonist in the next sequel, but arguably Tetra founding a new monarchal country named the same as the ancient one and then actively continuing the tradition of making Princesses Zelda undermines the conclusion of Wind Waker. Tetra possibly has the most personality and most meaningful role out of all the Zeldas, and she's far from the biggest victim of misogyny here—but still, let's remember that even Tetra deserved better than she got.

2.) Was built up as a super-cool pirate leader antihero who helped out Link. Then, as soon as it's revealed that she's that era's incarnation of Zelda, she gets magically put in the standard Princess Zelda dress (which also makes her skin lighter for Some Reason), and she ends up being sequestered in a basement for her safety until the finale, where she actually gets to do something again.

3.) Idk if anyones talked about windwakers sequel game, phantom hourglass yet so i will. Dont go into ph expecting a lot of cool pirate zelda action because shes a statue for like most of it. Shes a statue and you have to go save her.

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of

1.) Oh my god. Oh my goooooooood. She was like. Ok in botw (I don't know). But then in totk, they COULD have had her take a more active role, especially with her whole sage of time thing and the era she was in not having a "hero", but NO. She barely did anything, and then in the end she ended up sacrificing herself (at least turning into a dragon is new. Like I don't really have a problem with the dragon thing but man they dropped the fucking ball with everything else). Like one of the creators literally stated that Zelda HAD to be the damsel in distress (rescue her from a crystal, a castle, whatever) and yeah, they definitely continued that in totk. Please just give a mainline Zelda a sword or an active (fighting) role in the game I am BEGGING YOU. Damsels in distress aren't cool, especially when you hype them up to be super powerful!!! She fucking deleted the Calamity from existence in botw you could have done SOMETHING

2.) WHY CANT I EVER HAVE A MAINLINE ZELDA GAME AAAA

I hope someone else gives good propogands but this is specifically about Tears of the Kingdom. So before it came out, I tried to avoid anything and everything about the game so I could go in 100% blind but I did see a few images of course because internet people don’t tag or algorithms lol but the point it looked like Zelda was the protagonist or at least a swap where they’re both playable choices and you can swap between them because she and link looked so alike and I was so happy to play her and was like as much as I like link free my girl from never ending Princess saving needing and it was happening!!

It did not happen and she was again lost and felt like a repeat of the last game where I need to save her (not exactly the same but COMEON)

3.) forced to be a magic sealing princess when she wants to do science and build robots

#polls #preliminary round

[keira-kaz2y5]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

SPOILERS FOR NEW MARVEL STUFF! ⚠️

Finally got around to watching The Marvels on Disney +!!!!! It’s the best mcu film this phase istg omg it’s SO GOOD and immediately you can tell it was written by a woman NOT TO MWNTION THE INSANE END CREDIT SCENES WTFFFFF KATE BISHOP PIZZA THE DOG AND XMEN?!?!??!!!!!!! Omg I’m ecstatic this is the best marvel film in years it’s finally giving avengers early phase vibes! And I’m actually happy with every single plot moment! Unlike no way home where there were many questionable plot moments and bad scenes and bad cgi and multiverse of madness was something different entirely like I loved the horror and stuff and it made sense but as a whole that works with the rest of the marvel universe I didn’t like how it went and wandas “death” or “fake death” and the whole x men stuff. Loved America in that tho! Her whole moment made sense and ugh I can’t explain it properly plus the shitshow that was the She Hulk series and overall it just made me lose faith in marvel and that’s why I didn’t see The marvels in cinema like I usually do bc guardians of the galaxy 3 was so shite and I thought this would too maybe that’s why it flopped cuz the hype on past films wasn’t lived up to. But this FINALLY brings back early marvel vibes and I’m so into it. (Plus the reign of the cats 🐈‍⬛ 🐈😆)

Cuz as much as I liked NWH there were questionable parts yk, Dr Strange characterised Wanda badly from start to finish and didn’t do her justice, Wakanda Forever was amazing don’t get me wrong I really loved it and cried A LOT, but I wasn’t too keen on the whole Namor thing or unnecessary deaths, and some characters really just deserved better than what they got, like Okoye.. and Black Widow was great but it could’ve been a bit better with cgi and plot-wise like the deleted scenes should’ve been kept and so on.

For the first time I just really enjoyed every part of this film, since marvel has gone downhill lately, this is new for me. also I loved the queer undertones for Kamala and Carol, although they should’ve been braver and put it in explicitly if they wanted to show Carol and Valkyrie together instead of the kiss on the cheek and no talk of them being together. But headed in the right direction for sure and not to mention the Kate and Kamala scene? Female avengers team? Finally not outnumbered by men? Also I really ship Kate and Yelena so I hope she comes onto the team too, though she might just stick with the Thunderbolts antihero theme. I love that it’s so clearly written by women and directed by them plus the brilliant casting and having the villain also be a woman and with a realistic villainisation like I get why she turned out the way she did, she just wanted her home back for her people, also it’s Zawe Ashton, Tom Hiddlestons wife so it would be cool to see them act together perhaps, but either way brilliant casting and script and everything, I love Kamala really speaking for the fans in a lot of it, and the musical scene was fun in a mystical way, like when we first got introduced to Asgard way back when, I just wish we saw what happened there at least a small look in at the end with Carol checking in on them because they left in the middle of a battle and then we don’t find out what happened to that planet. But other than that small detail the film was fantastic and I loved how even Goose got a good storyline.

(My dreamteam avengers would be Bucky🦾, Yelena🕷️, Kate🏹, Carol💫, Kamala👊, Monica🌠, Shuri🐾, Riri 🛠️(ironheart), America⭐️ and Cassie 🐜 and Morgan Stark. Plus some xmen if that’s now an option?? And AOS team but marvel would never do that

Maybe Peter🕸️ Sean⭕️, Wanda and Moon Knight🌙🤺 boys too but idk )

#the marvels #gay #kamala khan #carol danvers #monica rambeau #Valkyrie #kate bishop #hawkeye #ms marvel #goose #spoilers #nia dacosta #lesbian #bisexual #dream team

[gowns]

excerpt from article about sarah polley and her experience as a child actor

Almost twenty years ago, Polley considered making a documentary about former child actors, and interviewed several adults who, like her, had been stars in grade school. In 2011, Polley told me, “My memory—and it’s a genuine memory—is that I really wanted to do it as a little, little kid, and that my parents were jaded about the industry, and they knew better and resisted, but I had a will of steel and forced my way into it.” All her interview subjects had told the same story, she explained: “There’s not a single child actor you’re going to meet who’s going to say, ‘My parents pushed me into it’—even if they have terrible stories about their parents being stage parents. Shirley Temple, who started when she was a toddler, insisted that she forced her way into this. I frankly don’t believe it. And so, if I don’t believe their stories, why do I believe my own?”

Indeed, Polley’s family history belies the notion that she chose to act professionally. John Buchan, Polley’s brother, the second of two children from Diane Polley’s first marriage, told me, “We were all child actors. We can all find pictures of ourselves with our names and the color of our eyes and a phone number listed on the back.” Buchan did a little TV work, as did their sister Joanna and their brother Mark. “But, with Sarah, she hit the big one,” Buchan said.

Polley started acting at the age of five, appearing in a live-action Disney movie, “One Magic Christmas.” She was subsequently cast in many television roles, including a stint as Ramona Quimby in a series adapted from Beverly Cleary’s novels. In 1988, when Polley was nine, she played Sally Salt, the diminutive sidekick of the eponymous antihero of “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” a zany spectacular written and directed by Terry Gilliam, of “Monty Python” fame. Gilliam was an idol to Polley’s parents—particularly her father, Michael, who was born and raised in England.

The shoot took place largely at Cinecittà Studios, in Rome. Polley has happy memories of the city: she and her parents ate dinner every night on the Campo de’ Fiori, where she sometimes joined in with a band of roving musicians performing for tourists. The set, however, was often chaotic—and scary for a child. In one scene, she had to run through a mockup of a war-torn city as bombs exploded. The first take was terrifying enough to convince Polley that the detonations had gone awry; she ran straight into the camera, ruining the shot. For the second take, she was so frightened that she ran too fast, again rendering the scene unusable. In “Mad Genius,” an essay in her book, she writes, “I sobbed in my father’s arms in between takes and pleaded with him to intervene, to ensure I didn’t have to do it ever again. But when an assistant director came over to say they needed another take, my father said, with genuine remorse, ‘I’m afraid they have to do it again, love. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.’ ” (Gilliam has said that, even if the set felt dangerous, it wasn’t.)

There were moments during her career as a child actor when adults, rather than just overlooking her vulnerability, appeared to cynically exploit it. Polley had only recently started work on “Avonlea” when her mother died—a tragedy for which, she says, she was entirely unprepared. (In her memoir, Polley writes with candid self-awareness of the gratification she took in being the pitiable child of a mother with cancer while at the same time being certain that her mother would recover.) During the show’s second season, Polley, who played a character named Sara Stanley, was presented with a scripted monologue in which her character cries over her mother’s death; unsurprisingly, she delivered an utterly persuasive performance. But the experience of this scene and others in which her character recalled her mother derailed Polley’s ability to mourn. “Because some of the first tears I shed about my mother’s death after the day she died were in aid of a performance, I was unable to produce genuine tears of grief for years to come,” she writes. In the aggressively wholesome world of “Avonlea,” which was made by Disney, Sara Stanley comes across as singularly sad, gaunt, and complicated.

Polley’s account of her life as a child performer—of being locked into extended contracts, and working “crushingly long” hours, and being beholden to adults whom she didn’t want to disappoint—raises disquieting questions about the ethics of having children act for commercial gain. Polley’s experience also underscores the fact that a child’s sense of volition—both in the moment and retrospectively—can be an expression of the sublimated desires of parents or other authority figures whom the child is eager to please. (The family, no less than the patriarchy, involves a structural imbalance of autonomy.) When Polley meets stage parents who insist that their child wants to perform, she replies, “Yes—and lots of kids want to be firefighters and doctors, too. But they must wait until they are no longer children to assume the pressures and obligations of adult work.”

sarah polley profiled by rebecca mead in the new yorker, nov 14 2022