#and anastasia and drizella could become kind instead

[airasora]

Cinderella AU idea

What if Lady Tremaine quickly realized that Cinderella was far more beautiful than her own daughters and instead spent time and lessons on her, forgetting and leaving her own biological daughters instead of the other way around?

Just an idea that popped into my head.

I would kinda genuinely love to see this take on that fairytale somehow.

#cinderella #cinderella au #it can be done in quite a few ways too! #cinderella could become the snobby arrogant brat #and anastasia and drizella could become kind instead #or they could turn just as vicious bitter and jealous and then everyone sucks #OR cinderella anastasia and drizella are all good and kind but carry resentment for each other due to lady tremaine's favoritisim #and maybe they could learn to love and support each other and leave lady tremaine behind #there's so many possibilities! #i already like my own au more than the original #but i also have never been a big cinderella fan overall

[thefreakishmuffin]

Why Cinderella is actually a good Disney Princess (you guys are just mean)

Alright, nobody asked me to make this post, but here we are. I post whatever I want.

People over the past years have come to really dislike the older Disney Princesses. They see them as weak, submissive pushovers who always need a man to save them. But of all the older princesses such as Snow White, Aurora, and even Ariel, the one that I see get some of the most hate is Cinderella. And honestly, as a woman myself who is all for helping empower other women, I don’t necessarily think she deserves the hate.

People like to say that she is just a helpless damsel in distress who lets a man solve all her problems for her. That she never does anything for herself. And while I can see where people are coming from, I have to say that I don’t believe this is true. (And for those who are really salty about Cinderella, it’s obvious that all they know about her is from that one really crappy Cheetah Girls song).

Let’s start out from when Cinderella was born. She was born to a wealthy man and his wife, but his wife died very early on in young Cinderella’s life. And so her father remarried to Lady Tremaine, and she brought along her two young daughters, Anastasia and Drizella. 

(Look at the way she’s petting that cat. EVILLLLL!!!!)

But not long after their marriage, the father passed away. (I’m pretty positive Lady Tremaine killed him, but whatever). And so what did Lady Tremaine do? Without a man of the house having a hand in how things are done, and leaving Lady Tremaine as the sole head of the house, this gave her the opportunity to do whatever she wished with little Cinderella. And so she made her a servant in her own home.

You could argue that Cinderella was weak for letting herself become a slave in her own home, but you know what? The girl was like, seven. Maybe eight. So chill.

And so the years pass by and Cinderella is still serving her stepmother and two ugly stepsisters. And this is where I see people start to get upset. “She’s certainly old enough now! Why doesn’t she just leave?” Well, here’s why. This is all she has known. As far as we know, she has no other family or friends (outside of animals), out there in the world to go to. And even if she did run away, what do you think would happen to a beautiful young woman all alone on the streets in the mid 1800s? Any number of bad things could happen to her. And there is also the emotional abuse she has been though with Lady Tremaine. This woman has dominated this girl’s entire existence, likely making her feel trapped.

(Yo dude where do I get magic soap like that? That’s pretty dope!)

In fact, while we’re on the topic of Cinderella’s home life, I want to point out something. I think it’s important to understand that Cinderella was very much a victim here. She was a victim of emotional and verbal abuse by her stepmother and stepsisters. She was growing up in a really crappy situation. If she wanted to play the victim, she had every right to. She totally could’ve done that. 

But she didn’t.

Instead of sitting back and moping about how her life sucks and allowing herself to wallow in misery, she instead chooses to look on the positive. While she doesn’t like her situation, she makes a conscious effort to be positive. And honestly, I think the ability to be optimistic and joyful even through the worst of circumstances is a very admirable trait to have. One that I think we can all learn from. She had every right to be miserable, but instead chose to look on the bright side and find happiness in her everyday life, even if it was just a little bit here and there.

(*smiles like Flynn Rider* Guys I want a castle)

And then we get to the ever so important plot point of the royal ball. Wanting to be a grandpa, the king sends out invitations to every eligible young maiden in the kingdom to attend a huge ball so that his son, the prince, my find a future bride. Lady Tremaine, as the mother of some eligible young maidens, receives an invitation as well and reads it to her daughters. 

It’s here where people like to say that, “Cinderella only wanted to go to the ball because of the prince, and that’s a dumb, stupid reason.” But really pay attention here. I mean really pay attention. We see the stepsisters get all giddy and excited about the prince, but Cinderella makes no mention of him. Like, none at all. She, for the first time in her life, has actually been invited to a party, and a huge one at the palace at that! She’s not excited about the prince here, she’s excited about having the opportunity to go to a big party in a pretty dress. And you know what? If I had to deal with all her family’s crap for the past several years and never got a day off, I’d be pretty stoked too. It’s not until after she meets the prince that she actually gives a crap about him.

And then we get to the next bit of discourse I’ve seen a lot of people fight over. The Fairy Godmother, and how she swoops in out of nowhere and fixes everything.

(Sparkle baby SPARKLE!!!!)

I’ve seen people get really bothered by this part. Some people don’t like the Fairy Godmother, saying that she’s random and that her helping get Cinderella to the ball is, once again, making Cinderella a helpless damsel. But here’s how I personally view it.

I see this somewhat as symbolism as well as an important plot point in the story. To me, this is Cinderella getting rewarded for all her hard work. She’s worked day and night almost her entire life under abuse and terrible conditions, but has kept up a brave face, positivity, kindness, and grace through it all. But then people argue that, “Why didn’t the Fairy Godmother appear earlier when Cinderella was being pushed around for all those years?”

My response to that question is a quote from the Fairy Godmother herself, when she states, “Even miracles take a little time.” This means that good things will come to you in due time, when they are meant to come to you, if you keep your head up and don’t let yourself be weighed down by the world around you. The pumpkin carriage and dress were all rewards for Cinderella’s life of hard work and perseverance, and though we might not get our miracle in the form of some random sparkles, it can always come in other ways.

And then we have the whole scene at the ball blah blah blah...

And onto the next point the internet likes to whine about! Cinderella needing a...man to save her?

(Not gonna like, those looks painful to walk in. I can barely even walk in regular heels.)

Alright here’s the deal. The prince didn’t do anything. He sat at the palace the whole time. I don’t know where you’re getting this “she needs a man to save her” bullcrap, because it ain’t there, snowflakes. 

Around the end of the story, Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella upstairs in the attic, hoping that she’ll remain trapped up there when the Grand Duke comes a knocking with the glass slipper. I’ve seen people get upset about this, but seriously, what else was she gonna do other than ask her mice friends for help? Yes, she could’ve jumped out the window, but she was really high up and that fall likely could’ve killed her, if not at least horribly wounded her. But I do admit that she could’ve screamed really loud for someone to hear her. That makes sense and probably could’ve worked, but whatever. It’s Disney. 

And then people get upset that she went and married a guy who only seemed interested in feet, but you know what? Given the options of either remaining a slave to your abusive family, or living in a palace with the chance of becoming Queen one day? I think we all know which one we’d choose. (Also the prince actually is funny and gets a personality in the third movie...which is surprisingly really good).

(Waking up with flawless makeup and hair is #goals, to be honest.)

And there you have it. Cinderella, is in fact, a good Disney Princess. Now I’m not saying that she’s by any means perfect. But this Disney Princess brings a lot more to the table than just pretty looks and excellent cleaning skills. 

And if you still want to get up on your soapbox and scream about how she is an enemy to feminism, then I feel really sorry for you. Because she possesses some positive traits and qualities that I think everyone, not just women, should have. 

#disney #disney's cinderella #cinderella #movie analysis #disney analysis #disney princess #disney princesses #cinderella disney

[verreprincesse]

My Bio for the Descendant AU, eventually I’ll have it up on my blog but for now it’s gonna be on this post. I wrote soooo much and ugggggh if anything sounds off pls let me know....

cenerentola – città di vetro city of glass cinderellasburg city – farfalla paradisoville butterfly paradise villas rocky point court – corte rocciosa

charming castle – charmant château

cinderellasburg – verrelac

Charming – Leo ( lion ) Thibault

Charming Father – Andre ( manly; brave ) Thibault ( courageous people )

Charming Mother – Noemi ( beautiful, gentle ), Rainelda ( independent, self-reliant, and determined

Cinderella Father — Éduoard

Cinderella Mother — Astrid

Long before Auradon brought the kingdoms together, Verrelac was two kingdoms. One ruled by Prince Charming’s father’s family at the Charmant Château and the other ruled by his mother’s family at Corte Rocciosa. Not due to war did the two stay separate but due to a magical forest that cut them off. Stories of wild beasts and monsters kept them from travelling too deep into the forest, but his mother’s people were dying. Their soil no longer produced healthy food for them to eat and the animals they hunted had learned to stay away from the edge of the forest. In an effort to save her people CM and a small retinue of people braved the forest and pushed to CF home. She pleaded on her people’s behalf, promised a good alliance between her court and his. Her people were known for their glassmaking, down to how they could mimic rare stone without the need to mine for them or pay such high prices, in return for food.

They agreed and the two kingdoms paved a safe road from each place for travel, which also was used by the prince and princess just as often for they found each other in good company. He admired her passion for her people and her kind heart, and she loved his fair ideas and quick wit. He also loved she couldn’t dance. Every time she would end up trampling on his feet. She could make a graceful sculpture out of blazing glass but as her to be graceful on the dance floor and it was pure disaster. Over time the two fell deeper in love and convinced their parents it would be beneficial to their kingdoms if they were to marry and become one kingdom. They agreed and both kingdoms celebrated for a week. A tradition they continued to even this day. A holiday called Festival of Miracles celebrated every year with feasts and festivals. A time to remember the good that came of their union. A year later, Noemi gave birth during the festival, as did another woman.

Astrid, the wife of a very wealthy merchant had gone into labor early, two months early, with her daughter. It was a fight for both mother and child. Three days it took to bring Eleanor into the world, and she was as perfect as could be. Their little miracle. In more than one way too. Eleanor was the eldest of many sisters and was meant to marry rich but one of the times she had gone off by herself, often to just have a clear mind, she had ended up at Glass Lake. A strange phenomenon where the lake was both a solid and a liquid. If met with force, the lake defended itself by becoming solid and protecting the life within it. It was said fairies were born by the lake with its magical properties. Another story is that a queen once was able to trick the lake into giving up a piece of itself to be made into a large mirror.

No matter the stories, Astrid enjoyed the quiet solitude she gained from visiting. It was during one of those times she met Éduoard when he and his father took the newly paved road to take their wares. His father had people who could do the tedious work, but he wanted to teach Éduoard an honest living and to do that, he took his son with him. Astrid’s horse had become spooked and dashed out, nearly toppled Éduoard and his father’s cart over. No mater what she did, her horse wouldn’t rein in and her only choice was to jump. When she did, she and her horse were already by the lake and Astrid braced for the lake to harden, for the pain that would come but instead she plunged into its depths.

Éduoard and his father rushed after her, his father for the horse and Éduoard for Astrid. He was able to pull her out, despite his fear of water, and get them both safely to the bank. From then on, the two would see each other often at the lake. She had fallen for him, though she was often told it was only because he saved her. She didn’t care. The two married shortly after though their happiness didn’t last for very long.

After Eleanor was born, Astrid was very weak and grew sick with childbed fever. A week later she was gone and Éduoard was left to raise their little girl. He and his father grew their business until they were a large name in the kingdom in trade, even becoming one of the richest tradesmen. Eleanor, often called Ella, wanted for nothing. She was raised kind, and gentle, her father always keeping her mother’s memory alive. When she turned six, he remarried, and she gained a mother and two sisters. She had always wanted a sibling to get into mischief with but her new sisters were snobbish and often teased her and left her out of their merriment.

Even as she tried to make the best of it, more death struck her home when her father fell gravely ill and passed when Ella was only nine. It was then her stepmother showed her true colors. A black widow is what Ella often heard others say. Some even whispered that her stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella were fathered by two different men Lady Tremaine had killed for money. It could be true with how different the two looked. Anastasia was kinder to Ella, often bringing Ella extra blankets in the winter or giving her her old gowns. It was Drizella and her stepmother who were cruel, treating Ella like a slave and taking away her comfortable life.

The one thing she looked forward to, however, every year was the Week of Miracles. Even her stepmother couldn’t forbid her from attending, despite her trying every time, and when she was nineteen she had made herself a gown, thanks to Anastasia giving her some old fabric, and would have attended had her stepmother not ordered her daughters to ruin the gown.

Bereft, Ella was sure she’d never get to attend and ran to the forest to the lake where her parents first met. She felt close to her parents there every time she visited. She cried for her losses and for her triumphs and to just tell her parents of her life. She was kind to the wildlife there and if something magical happened, she never questioned it, nor took it for granted. It was there her fairy godmother appeared, helped her to attend the festivities every day of that week, no matter how many times her stepfamily would sabotage it. Everyday in a gown more beautiful than the first.

It was at the festival she fell in love. She didn’t believe she could be given more but when she met Henri her world flipped. He was handsome but she learned he was more than just a face. He cared for his people, he worried about their struggles and he wanted to make things better like his parents had. Every day she met with him and fell deeper in love with him but knew her stepmother would never allow her to rise above her daughters and so she always made sure to leave without him seeing so she’d not be followed home. On the last day, however, he laid tar on the steps of the palace where her shoe caught. Either she stayed where she was and be found out or she would have to run barefoot home. The fear of her stepmother finding out had her running instead. She never expected that he would search her out though.

He spent days taking the slipper to all the eligible maidens and no matter what happened either the slipper was too small or too big, none fit the slipper. When he arrived to Ella’s house she was in the garden in the back finding food for dinner while her sisters tried on the slipper. To no avail, they couldn’t fit. Just as they were leaving, Henri saw Ella come out of the backyard and insisted she try the slipper even though her stepmother stood in the doorway, threatening her life if she so tried. Promising her safety, he encouraged her and easily, the slipper fit as if it had been made only for her. True to his word he kept her safe from her stepmother and they were wed, on a condition he helped her stepsisters find good marriages. She still wanted them to live well.

For some years they lived well, and she was able to form somewhat of a relationship with Drizella, her relationship with Anastasia blossomed especially after she fell for a baker. It was short-lived however, as many things in her life seemed to be as when Belle and Adam formed Auradon and sent the villains away, he sent her sisters and stepmother as well despite how many times Ella tried to say her sisters had changed. They were villains though; they had tormented her, and it meant they could no longer share in Auradon’s wealth. Drizella was pregnant when she was sent away, meaning Ella would never get to meet her niece or nephew when they were born.

Ella often stayed away from Auradon if she can as she was quite upset with Belle and Adam for what they did, not seeing that her sisters had changed, until her own son was born. She knew it meant she would have to send him to Auradon Prep when he came of age and she would have to attend the many invitations. Otherwise she stayed in her kingdom and helps her husband rule fairly and justly.

#♕▐┆❝ v: descendants au tag

[dukereviewsxtra]

Duke Reviews Xtra: Cinderella (Remake)

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Xtra Where We Continue Our Look At The Movies Of Disney...

And Yesterday I Looked At The 3rd Cinderella Sequel, Cinderella 3: A Twist In Time So, Today Is A Day I've Been Dreading Ever Since I Started Looking At Cinderella, Let's Look At The Remake...

No Synopsis Today, Let's Just Dive Into (Sighs) Cinderella...

With The Fairy Godmother (Played By Helena Bonham Carter) Narrating, Our Story Starts With Ella, Living With Her Wealthy Parents In A Beautiful Estate In A Peaceful Kingdom...

From A Young Age, Ella Is Taught By Her Mother (Played By Agent Carter) To Believe In The Existence Of Magic, Allowing Her To Befriend Many Of The Animals On The Estate But In Particular The Mice...

Yes, Everything Is Perfect In Ella's Life Until Her Mother Contracts (Name Fatal Illness Here). On Her Deathbed, She Makes Cinderella Promise That She Will Always Have Courage And Be Kind To Other People...

Which Leads To The First Problem I Have With The Film, They Overplay The Message A Little Too Much...

It's Like They Want To Hammer Into Your Head By Saying It A Million Times Or In This Case, Seven Times Throughout The Damn Movie And It Just Gets To The Point Where You Want To Say...

Years Later, When Ella Is A Teenager (Now Played By Lilly James) Her Father Marries Lady Tremaine (Played By Cate Blanchett) Who's The Widow Of An Old Acquaintance Who Has 2 Daughters Named Drizella And Anastasia...

But When The Father Is Getting Ready To Leave On Another Business Trip, He Admits To Ella That He Likes Ella's Mother More Than He Likes Tremaine As Tremaine Overhears Their Conversation...

After The Father Leaves, Tremaine Takes Advantage Of Ella's Hospitality By Persuading Her To Give Up Her Room To Drizella And Anastasia And Making The Attic Her New Room Temporarily...

While The Other Ones Are Painted. We Get A Sing, Sweet Nightingale Reference As Cinderella Helps The Workers Around The House Before One Night, Ella Finds Out That He Father Has Died On One Of His Trips From A Friend Of The Family...

Dismissing The Servants Shortly After Ella's Father's Death, Ella Does All The Work Around The House And Is Relegated To Nothing More Than A Servant As She Is Subjected To Cruel Mistreatment By Tremaine And The Stepsisters...

To The Point That She Is Forbidden To Eat With Them And Is Spitefully Renamed Cinderella After Waking With Soot On Her Face After Sleeping In Front Of The Fireplace...

Which Leads Next Problem With The Remake, Her Breakdown Here...

After Being Not Allowed To Eat With Her Stepmother And Stepsisters, Cinderella Breaks Down In The Kitchen, And It Is Understandable, She Has A Reason To Be Hurt...

But The Only Problem Is When She Has The Breakdown Here, It Takes Away The Impact Of Her Breakdown Later When The Stepsisters Tear Her Dress Apart Or In This Movie's Case, Slightly Rip It...

Anyway, Going On A Ride In The Woods To Get Away From Her Evil Stepsiblings, Ella Encounters A Hunting Party Where She Meets One Of The Hunters Who Claims To Be An Apprentice Named Kit (Played By Richard Madden)...

Who Lives In The Palace. But Unbeknownst To Cinderella, He Is Actually The Prince Of The Kingdom And Despite Never Learning Her Name, He Becomes Infatuated By Ella After Talking With Her...

Returning To The Palace Afterwards, Kit Discovers That His Father, The King (Played By The Master) Is Going To Die And Regenerate Into John Simms Soon...

So, He Insists That Kit Finds A Bride At The Upcoming Ball But Despite The Law Saying That The Prince Must Marry A Princess, Kit Can't Get Over Ella And Gets His Father To Invite Every Eligible Maiden In The Land To The Ball...

With The Ball Announced, The Tremaines Are Ecstatic At The Possibility Of Being Married To Royalty But Refusing To Buy Ella A Dress, Ella Fixes Up An Old Dress Of Her Mom's With The Help Of The Mice...

But On The Night Of The Ball, Ella Tries To Join Her Stepfamily But Claiming That Being Seen With Her Would Only Disgrace Them, They Tear The Dress Up (Or As I Said Slightly Rip It) And Leave Without Her..

Seemingly Breaking Down Into Tears Again, Cinderella Encounters An Old Beggar Woman Who Asks For Some Water, Getting It For Her, The Old Beggar Reveals To Ella That She's Her Fairy Godmother...

Which Leads To My Next Complaint That Whole Scene....

In The Original, As Cinderella Was Crying The Fairy Godmother Just Appeared And Comforted Her Like A Grandparent Would....

Where Here, Ella Is Put To A Test First To See If She's A Good Person When The Fairy Godmother Oughta Know That She Is A Good Person And Just Help Her

Turning Her Old Beggar Look Into The Look Of A Fairy Godmother (I Guess) She Turns A Pumpkin Into A Carriage, 4 Mice Into Horses, 2 Lizards Into Footmen And A Goose Into A Coachmen Before Turning Cinderella's Tattered Dress Into A Gorgeous Blue Gown With Glass Slippers...

Which Leads Me To My Next Complaint, Why Aren't The Songs In This?

Now I Understand Not Having The Mice's Song And So This Is Love From The Film In This Movie And I'll Live With The Reference To Sing Sweet Nightingale That They Had Earlier But Why Did You Not Have Bibbidy Bobbity Boo In This Scene?

You Have Helena Bonham Carter Singing The Song In The Soundtrack...

So Why Not Use It In The Film During That Scene?

The Same Goes For A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes Which You Had Lilly James Singing In The Soundtrack Too?

You Could Have Had Her Singing That In The Attic Instead Of That Song From So Dear To My Heart When She Was Locked In The Attic...

And It Would Have Made It A Better Scene Than What It Was...

Idiots!

So, Getting In The Carriage, The Fairy Godmother Warns Her That The Spell Only Lasts Till Midnight Before Sending Her On Her Way...

Arriving At The Ball, The Entire Court Is Entranced By Ella Including Kit, Who Gives Her The First Dance Of The Night As He Reveals Who He Is To Her...

This Irritates The Grand Duke (Played By Erik Selvig) Who Has Secretly Promised Kit To A Spanish Princess Which Lady Tremaine Overhears...

This Leads To My Next Complaint, Making The Grand Duke A Bad Guy!...

What...The...Hell...

The Grand Duke Was Fine The Way He Was In The Original Movie, There Was No Need To Make Him Another Bad Guy When Lady Tremaine And The Stepsisters Are Enough For This Movie

Come On!

After Dancing With The Prince, Ella And Him Look Around The Palace And The Grounds Where They Slowly Fall In Love But Before He Can Learn Her Name It Strikes Midnight And Ella Is Forced To Flee Where She Accidentally Drops One Of Her Slippers On The Stairs As She Rides Off...

Getting Away Before The Final Stroke, She Hides The Other Slipper In Her Room While Back At The Palace, The King Gives His Blessing For His Son To Find And Marry The Girl He Fell In Love With...

Making An Announcement That The Prince Will Marry The Mystery Girl If She Only Present Herself, Ella Races Home To Get The Slipper Only To Discover That It's In The Hands Of Lady Tremaine Who Has Figured Out Her Identity Through Ella's Attitude After The Ball...

This Leads Her To Blackmail Ella, Telling Her That When She Is Queen, Tremaine Will Be Made Head Of The Royal Household And Drizella And Anastasia Will Be Given Proper Husbands...

Refusing Tremaine's Threat, Saying That She Regrets Not Protecting Her Father From Her But She Will Protect Both The Prince And The Kingdom From Her Evil No Matter What She Does To Her, So, Smashing The Slipper, Tremaine Locks Cinderella In Her Room...

Taking The Shoe To The Grand Duke, Tremaine Reveals The Name Of The Mystery Girl To Him As She Makes A Deal With Him That In Exchange For Her Silence, She Would Get The Title Of Countess And And Drizella And Anastasia Would Be Given Worthy Husbands...

Taking The Broken Slipper To Kit In An Effort To Discourage Him, It Instead Makes Him More Determined To Find His True Love As He Orders Them To Take The Slipper They Have And Try It On Every Maiden In The Kingdom...

Amusing His Highness, The Grand Duke And Captain Of The Guard Lead A Garrison To Try The Slipper On All The Girls In The Land. Eventually Arriving At The Tremaine House, They Try The Slipper On Anastasia And Drizella But Of Course It Doesn't Fit Them...

Turning To Leave, They Soon Stop When They Hear Ella Singing Through A Window The Mice Opened While She's Dancing Like An Idiot...

Which Leads Me To My Last Problem With The Film, Cinderella Herself...

People Like This Cinderella For Being A So Called Smart And Independent Character, But Unlike The Original This One Is A Dummy For 2 Reasons...

The First Reason Comes From This Scene, When She Was Locked In Her Room In The Original, She Cried, She Screamed And Like A Regular Person Would But Here She Just Gives Up And Dances Like A Dummy As She Sings That Song I Mentioned From So Dear To My Heart...

And Like I Said If It Was A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes I Might Feel Different But Since It's Not, It's Just Dumb

And The Second Reason Is Her Reasoning For Staying With The Tremaines...

In The Original Movie, After Her Father Died When She Was A Child, Tremaine Manipulated Her Her Entire Life By Making Her Feel Guilty And Serve Her Family To The Point That She Doesn't Know Much About The Outside World And Could Never Really Leave The House...

Where In This, She Could Have Left Anytime She Wanted But She Promised Her Dad That She Would Look After Their House Which Makes No Sense Later When She Leaves Anyway At The Very End Of The Movie...

We're Obviously Going To Like The Cinderella That's More Human And Relatable To Us And I'm Sorry But That's The Original...

The Grand Duke Tries To Leave Anyway, But He Is Shocked To Discover That One Of The Men Is Kit In Disguise Who Demands That The Captain Thoroughly Investigate The Sound...

Of Course, Once Ella Is Found Tremaine Forbids Her From Trying On The Shoe But Telling Her That She Has Never Been Her Mother, Her And Kit Are Reunited And She Tries On The Slipper To Which She Fits...

With The Stepsisters Asking For Her Forgiveness, She Forgives Tremaine As She Leaves (Despite Promising Her Father That She Would Look After The House) And To Live Happily Ever After With Kit While Tremaine And The Stepsisters Soon Depart The Kingdom With The Grand Duke...

And That's Cinderella And Despite People Saying That This Is The Best of The Disney Remakes It's Honestly The Worst Until Mulan Comes Out...

While You All Know My Reasons For Hating This Movie, The Story Was Interesting At Times And I Do Like What They Did With The Prince And Tremaine And If There Was One Good Thing I Did Like About The Cinderella Character It Was Her Ball Gown...

But I'm Sorry The Negatives Just Outweigh The Positives Of This Movie So For That I Say Skip It And Just Watch The Frozen Short That Played Before The Movie Because You'll Get More Entertainment Out Of That Than Of This Movie...

Next Week Is Wonderland Week As I Look At Not Only Disney's Original Animated Version On Duke Reviews Movies But The Tim Burton Film, The Burton Less Sequel And 1 Other Version Of The Tale Done By Irwin Allen In 1985....

Anyway, Till Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

#cinderella #lilly james #richard madden #cate blanchett #stellan skarsgard #derek jacobi #helena bonham carter #hayley atwell #disney #disnerd #disney + #disney remakes

[xweofmanyfaces]

Finding Love in Neverland

@compcndium​

     She had worked so hard on it, fixing her mother’s dress. She had taken it in to match her own measurements, fixing the slightly frayed hem at the bottom of the dress. No one had worn it in years, not since her mother had been alive. She didn’t think it would be a problem, since it didn’t run her stepmother up any money. The first comment she had made after the death of her father was what they were going to do about money, yet she had no problem spending a small fortune on gowns for herself and her daughters for the prince’s ball. What could it possibly hurt if she took in her mother’s old dress? It was nothing special. And it wasn’t as if she would meet the prince anyway, she simply wanted to be like all the other girls in the kingdom and be allowed to go. 

     Perhaps she was naïve for thinking they would let her go, but after all this time in the same home that perhaps she had rubbed off on them and taught them some semblance of kindness by never complaining when they asked anything of her. She had never talked back when being told what to do without any please or thank you, she had never stopped them from calling her Cinderella no matter how much it upset her, she never complained when her stepmother tricked her into giving up her room. She had let life happen to her, had done everything she could to be overly kind to them. Only to be repaid with a broken heart and a ripped up dress.

     It seems like one moment she had a heart full of hope, the next it was being shattered. She hoped that perhaps her gentle argument that the king had requested every unmarried maidens in the land attend the ball would somehow make her stepmother realize it was unfair for her to take Anastasia and Drizella but not to take her. What a foolish thought, a naïve and hopeful thing. She really thought that it would work. At least that was until her stepmother started to slowly walk towards her, her daughters and tow right behind her. It all happened so quickly, almost a blink of an eye. She made a comment about how her mother’s dress was practically falling to pieces before reaching up and ripping the sleeve away from the bodice, making a comment as if the fabric was already frayed before she got there.

     She reached up to the trim along her neck line and ripped it off, sounding amused as she accused her of wearing a dress that was falling to bits. Only a moment later, Drizella had reached up and ripped off part of the skirt and called it a ridiculous and old-fashioned joke. Her stepmother looked so pleased, as if she were a child that had just stepped on a bug that was a million times smaller than her. She cared not for her stepdaughter’s tears, she cared not for the disrespect, she cared not for the heartache. She cared only for herself and what happened to her daughters. Ella had half a mind to say she didn’t even care about her daughters, only what their marriages could bring to her, only what the status of their future husband could give her as far as wealth and entitlement. She had hoped that maybe one day her stepmother would grow fond enough of her to simply be tolerant of her, perhaps even kind. But after this moment she knew there was no going back. Her stepmother was the very definition of cruelty and her daughters just the same. It wasn’t fair, but when was life ever fair?

     “How could you?“ She whispered, her tone disgusted. Her stepmother knew very well what her mother had meant to her, she knew her father had told her. But she didn’t care. She would never care.

     “How can I otherwise?“ She asked, the look of amusement on her face changing to that of astonishment, as if the question was so silly that she couldn’t believe she actually bothered to ask it. “I will not have anyone associate my daughters with you. It would ruin their prospects to be seen arriving with a ragged servant girl,“ She said, leaning in closer to her, though Ella was a bit taller since she still stood on the bottom step of the staircase. “Because that is what you are. And that is what you will always be,“ She said, reaching up to point her long finger in her face. “Now mark my words!“ She said, raising her voice in a way that made Ella flinch and her muscles tense as if she thought she might be struck. “You shall not go to the ball!“ She shouted in her face. Ella stood frozen, watching as her stepsisters giggled and walked towards the door where the carriage waited out front, her stepmother recoiling away from her as if disgusted by standing too close to her, as if she thought she might catch moneyless filth simply by standing too close.

     They had left the door wide open, a practice that they often kept up because they didn’t think they needed to shut it behind them. Cinderella would close the door. It was just like everything else in life. Why clean up after themselves if Cinderella would clear the table? Why make their own food if Cinderella would cook for them? Why offer to help with the animals if Cinderella could care for them? Why get themselves dressed for a party if Cinderella could do it? Why take care of the house they had overtaken if Cinderella could do it? Why tend to the fires and clean the silverware if Cinderella could do it? Why run the errands and do all of the unpleasant things that need to be done in life if stupid and worthless Cinderella could do it? That was all she was to them. Stupid and worthless.

     She had been standing in the open front door as she watched them load themselves into the carriage and pull away, her eyes burning with tears that were rolling down her face, once she hadn’t bothered to try to hold back. She grabbed a hold of her skirt and she ran a few feet out the door, stopping at the archway in the middle of the front yard before breaking down and falling to her knees, bracing herself on the stone pedestal that sat there. She began to sob, unwillingly though she couldn’t stop it. She tried to catch her breath though she couldn’t, the pain in her knees radiating up her thighs and making it hard to breathe. She looked up at the sky, as if she were looking up at someone that she was disappointing. And in her mind, she was.

     “I’m sorry mother,“ she sobbed. “I’m sorry. I said I would have courage, but I don’t. Not anymore. I don’t believe anymore,“ she said, her crying only becoming harder as she gathered up the skirt of her ankle length dress and running around the house, through the backyard filled with animals and to the back porch where she braced herself on the cement that outlined the ground. This was a nightmare, absolutely a nightmare. There is no way around it. How could this possibly be real life? This kind of pain, this kind of life. This wasn’t life, this wasn’t reality. Perhaps if she closed her eyes tight enough, she could open them once more and her father would still be alive and her mother had never died and this would all just be a very very bad dream brought on by having too much sweets before bed.

     She stood there and allowed herself to cry, her mind racing and never able to stay on one thing. She cried for her father, she cried for her mother, she cried for what her stepmother had done to her dress, she cried for the fear of what she thought might happen when her family came home. She cried over her ripped dress, she cried at being deprived of the chance to go to the ball of a lifetime, but most of all she cried because she thought that she would sooner die than get out of this place. She had nowhere to go, she had no money to leave with. And if by some chance she did leave, they would destroy her parents home. But at this point, what was Home anymore?

     “Excuse me?“ The voice asked from behind her, startling her and causing her to turn around. “Can you help me Miss?“ Asked an old woman who was standing in the corner, hidden by the shadows as she held onto what seemed to be a walking stick. “A little crust of bread or a cup of milk?“ She asked, looking almost dazed and confused. Ella no longer seemed to care about her problems, because they didn’t seem important anymore because someone needed help. She was still so lost in the fog of her own pain that it didn’t seem to occur to her that this woman was standing on her back porch instead of her front porch, one that she shouldn’t have any way to get to unless she wandered in through the back of the property which would have required her walking through the woods near where her mother was buried.

     She looked at her curiously as she walked onto the other side of the cement wall to get her a bowl with milk, sniffling softly, her blinks now rapid as she tried to clear her vision. “Why are you crying?“ The old woman asked, her tone still slightly pleasant, albeit curious .

     “It’s nothing,“ She said, shaking her head as she forced to smile while filling a bowl with milk. she didn’t want to force her problems upon a stranger, especially a stranger who seemed to need help. The older woman seemed to begin mumbling to herself about the bowl of milk and about kindness, though Ella had trouble hearing her because she was mumbling so much. As she drank the bowl of milk, she dribbled all over herself, eventually burping softly which caused a little laugh. She needed that at that moment, something to feel carefree about. She knew she would go back to her misery as soon as this woman had left, but what more could be done? For at least this moment, she had a distraction..

     The stranger bent down to put the bowl on the ground, looking back up at her as if she were talking about the weather. “I don’t mean to hurt you but you really haven’t got long Ella,“ she said, gesturing at her as if she were missing something.

     Ella raised her brows, her mouth opening just a little bit in surprise. “What… How do you know me?“ She asked, her eyes whining. She knew that she didn’t know her, she had never seen her before in her life. It was a small kingdom, she had met everyone. “Who are you?“

     “Who am I?“ She asked, slowly smiling. “I should think you had worked that one out,“ she said, only smiling a bit more when Ella shook her head in confusion. “I am your hairy dog father,“ she said, her arms opening as if she were presenting something so grand Ella was supposed to understand, though that simply left her more confused, tilting her head down and she studied her. “I mean – fairy godmother!“ She exclaimed, trying not to laugh at her own mistake.

     The woman was preening, as if she was expecting Ella to start jumping with joy, though Ella seemed to laugh without amusement. “You can’t be,“ she said, as if she were about to tell a small child the truth about Santa Clause.

     The older woman’s smile fell “Why not?“ She asked, clearly confused by her reaction.

     “They don’t exist,“ Ella said, as if it were so matter-of-fact. And if you asked anyone else in the world, it was matter-of-fact. “They’re just made up for children,“ she said, wondering if this woman was mocking her pain.

     “Well didn’t your own mother believe in them?“ Her supposed fairy godmother asked, causing a pit to grow in Ella‘s stomach. “Don’t say no, because I heard her,“ she said, wagging her finger as if to prove a point.

     “You heard her?“ She asked in confusion. She began mumbling to herself again, that strange old woman,  as she began walking past Ella and speaking about getting changed into something more comfortable. Ella didn’t understand, thinking that perhaps she was simply going to take off her cloak. Oh how wrong she was. She threw her walking stick up into the air, a glittering substance falling from it as if being shaved away to be left with a sparkling and much smaller stick, looking down at the older woman who is now younger and more beautiful, dressed like a princess in a story

     “Oh!“ Her fairy godmother said, leaning her head to the side and cracking her neck. “That’s better!“ She said, Ella moving closer out of surprise and interest. “Now, where was I?“ She asked, it was clear to Ella that she was asking herself and not Ella this question.

     “How did you do that?“ Ella asked in astonishment, watching as her fairy godmother began looking for something that she thought spelled out coach. What does she mean by coach? She wanted something that resembled a carriage? Her stepmother and stepsisters had already left in their carriage! What did she need a carriage for? The woman clearly had magic. “What are you doing?“ She finally asked.

     “Well dear! I’m glad you asked! We have to make your coach, the night is young but still aging away! And we have to get you to that ball somehow!“ She said, as if it should’ve been so obvious. Something an Ella’s heart fluttered, the idea of being able to go to the ball. Meeting the handsome young apprentice that she met in the woods, she could show up her stepmother and stepsisters by showing up to the ball even though they had told her no. But there was a part of her heart that feared the abuse that may follow if she truly went, even with the help of magic. But why should she want to go anyway? What was so great about the ball.

     “I’m not sure I really want to go anymore,“ she said, her words hesitant, though she still stuck by them.

     The other blonde turned to look at her, her features screwing up in confusion. “What do you mean you don’t want to go anymore? Ella, this is the chance of a lifetime. It’s a chance to be a princess for a night,“ she said, her eyes searching hers. Though they had only just met, it was clear this woman had been watching out for Ella her entire life, because she was looking at her as if she knew her so well.

     “It won’t really make me happy I don’t think,“ she said, shaking her head as she looked down at her ruined dress. “Because even when the night is over, I will still be unhappy. I will still have to come back here to this place with these people. I don’t have anywhere to go and I don’t know what to do. All I know is that one night in a dream won’t make up for the rest of the nights spent in this place,“ she said. “I’m sorry… I know you’re only trying to help. But I don’t think going to a party and pretending to be something I’m not is going to help. But I do appreciate your offer, so very much,“ she said kindly.

    Her godmother studied her for a moment, looking her up and down, taking a moment to notice the shreds in her dress before looking back up at her face. “Then what can I do to make you happy?“ She asked, reaching out to hold Ella’s hands. “I can give you one thing in the world, whatever it is that would make you happy. Within reason of course. If sending you to the ball won’t make you happy… Then what will?” she asked, her tone meaningful and helpful all in one. Ella thought deeply for a long time, thinking of all the things she could wish for. She wanted her father back, to sit by his side and read to him once more. Ever since her mother had died he was not the same, as though he were a shell of the man he once was. She wanted back the memory of her father that she oncw had, the man who used to dance with her on top of his feet. She wanted her mother back, in full health with rosy cheeks and bright eyes. She wanted her family back, but she knew that even magic couldn’t bring them back now.

     She looked up into the eyes of the other woman before looking down at their hands, thinking about what life could be like without her stepmother and stepsisters. But something about sending them away didn’t feel right. She wasn’t thinking about how she would be able to support herself, her first thought was where they would live and what they would do. They were cruel, they were monsters to her, but they were still people, and taking away their ability to have a home seemed wrong. “I want to leave,“ she said, lifting her head once more. “I want to go somewhere new, somewhere that no one knows me. I want to go somewhere far away, somewhere so far I cannot see this kingdom anymore. I want to go somewhere that I can find happiness, where I can find joy. Somewhere far away from my family… Somewhere that I can truly be happy, even just for a moment,“ she said.

     Her godmother raised eyebrow for a moment, staring down at the grass as if she was lost in deep thought. “There is something I can do for you, but all magic comes with a price,“ she said, looking up at her. “No magic can last forever. If I send you away, it won’t be forever. When the magic is done, you would have to come right back here,“ she said, squeezing her hands apologetically. “If I could send you away forever I would. But I can’t,“ she said.

     Ella sniffled softly from her old crying, looking at her hopefully. “How long would you be able to send me away for? A day? A week? A year?”

     “I don’t really know,“ she said. “Magic is a very fickle thing, I don’t really control it, I simply bring it out into the world. If your wish is to go somewhere that you will find happiness, I can send you to a place that happiness waits for you. But it is most likely that once you finally find that happiness, the magic will wear off and you will come right back here,“ she said. “I worry that perhaps it is more cruel for you to find happiness only to lose it,“ She said in worry.

     “I would rather know happiness, true happiness again, for one moment than to dream about it here and to never be able to find it again,“ she said. “Send me somewhere I can find happiness on my own, even for a split second, a place I could know freedom and love, where I can really be happy. If that means coming back to this place and dreaming about that happiness for the rest of my life then I will. If only I get to have that happiness for a little while,“ she said.

     The other woman looked hesitant but she nodded, squeezing her hands before taking a step back and holding her wand up in the air. “I don’t know where this will take you, only the magic knows. But wherever you go, however far, I won’t be able to hear you and you won’t be able to come back until the magic is done. Do you understand?“ She asked, causing the younger woman to nod enthusiastically. No matter the outcome or the location, anywhere was better than here. With what was still hesitance as clear as day on her face, the older woman raised her wand and slightly flipped it in Ella‘s direction, pale colored magic coming out of the end of the pointed stick and heading for Ella, wrapping her in it until she felt like her feet were floating off the ground.

     “Godmother!“ She cried out in panic, her feet dangling but touching nothing. She heard her godmother shout something to her about remembering the magic wouldn’t last forever. And then the energy around her seemed to get worse and worse, gliding around her until she was blinded. She could hear air around her, the scents in the air changing from the smell of the farm to some thing like cinnamon and fruit. The air felt thinner, as if she were farther away from the ground. It was the way her father once described what it felt like the one time he had flown in a hot air balloon, but it was similar to a feeling she got when she climbed the tallest tree in the kingdom when she was small, it was a tree in the woods behind her house, one that her mother was now buried under. She felt weightless, but at the same time she was grappling for ground out of fear.

     She couldn’t tell you how long she was in the air, seconds or minutes or even hours, but the next thing she knew, the glittering light all around her seemed to dissipate, so now she could see the blue sky above her until suddenly she was falling with absolutely nothing to catch her. She screamed before falling into the water, having not had the chance to take a deep breath before hitting it. The water was warm, something she was grateful for since a cold splash of water probably would’ve shocked her caused gasping and taking water deep into her lungs. She pulled herself up to the surface, coughing and gasping for air. Her godmother couldn’t have landed her anywhere on the ground?! Where was she? Was she still in England? She wiped at her eyes as she noticed she was only a few yards off of a beach, no ships or people or civilization of any kind in sight. Where was she?

     She was thankful her father had taught her to swim when she was small, making her way to the shore and dragging herself out of the water. In a way it was good that her mother’s dress was already ruined, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about the fact that the water had further damage the old fabric. She wasn’t sure if her shoes had fallen off when she was in the air or when she was underwater but she noticed she was suddenly barefoot as she walked up onto the beach, sand sticking to her wet feet and legs. She was panting heavily, so full of disbelief. This night had not gone at all how she planned. Her stepmother and the girls were going to be so angry when they saw she was gone. How long is she going to be here? Her godmother had said it would be until she found happiness, though if she were being honest seemed almost cruel for her to find happiness only to let it go. But she was willing to do anything to know happiness even for a moment, she had said it and she had meant it..

     She heard rustling in the trees near the beach, swallowing thickly as she looked up while trying to catch her breath. “Hello?“ She called, swearing that she heard more wrestling. “Please, is anyone there? I have no idea where I am I… Is someone there?“ She called. What if she had just landed somewhere terribly dangerous? She had no way of defending herself, she had no idea what to do or to say and she didn’t exactly have a weapon hitting up her wet dress.

     Out of the lining of trees came a small boy with curly hair, what looked to be paint on his face and close even more messed up than her own. They stared at each other, her with confusion and him with curiosity. He walked up to her, staring up at her in we and wonder. “Are you our new mother?“ The small boy asked. Ella seemed to freeze, goosebumps forming on her arms as her eyes widened.

     “Your mother? I… Did you say our? Are there more of you? Please… Could you tell me where I am?“ She asked. The small boy smiled and reached out to grab her hand, not giving her much choice before dragging her up the beach and towards the trees. Where was she? Why was she running into a child instead of an adult? The boy dragged her through the woods, her feet scratching up on the ground causing her to wince. “Where are you taking me?“ She asked, though he didn’t answer as he continued to drag her through the woods. She had no idea how long he had been dragging her before they came to what seemed like a small colony in the middle of the woods, houses in trees and lights everywhere.

     “Lost boys! Lost boys! I finally found us a mother!“ The young boy screamed. Ella looked down at him in confusion, looking up at the houses where little boys seemed to all come rushing out. Some of them jumped down and hit the ground on their feet, others swung down on ropes. They were all talking at once, all of them rushing over to her. The boy who had grabbed her seemed to be about eight years old, all the children here seemed to range between his age and probably twelve years old, maybe maybe thirteen or fourteen but it was hard for her to tell.

     “Please, can anyone tell me where I am? What is this place? Do you all have a mother or father who I could talk to?“ The lost boys all stared at her, as if confused by something she had said, something that should’ve been obvious.

     “We don’t have any parents, that’s why we’ve been looking for a mother!“ said the boy who had dragged her into the forest. No parents? None at all? Who was in charge of them then? Who is taking care of these children? Even she had a father, even though it sometimes seemed as if she was parenting him because he had changed so much after the death of her mother.

     “No parents at all? But then who takes care of you?“ She asked. In a way, she supposed she was just as much an orphan as these children.

     “We take care of ourselves!“ said a boy who was a few inches shorter than her. “But you can be our mother now! You can take care of us!” he said excitedly, all of the other little boys cheering on with him.

     “Please! I’m too young to be a mother yet, I don’t even know where I am. Is there no grown-up I can speak to?“ She asked, in hopes of finding answers as to what was going on.

     “All grown-ups are pirates,“ said a boy who suddenly appeared, though he wasn’t standing behind them, he was floating in air a few feet off the ground. She stared at him, bewildered and confused. He seemed to be taking in her wet attire, studying her as if she might pose a threat to him and the other boys.

     “Pirates?“ She asked in disbelief. “I didn’t think they existed anymore. And how… How are you flying?“ She asked.

     “Fairy dust of course!“ He said mockingly, laughing at her as if she had said something so funny. “Of course pirates still exist! That’s exactly what a pirate in disguise would say!“

     “No Peter!“ Cried the little boy who still had hold of her hand. “She’s our new mother! See? All the Pirates are men! She’s a girl! That must mean she’s our mother now!“ He cried.

     “That’s exactly what they want you to think! They’re trying to win! They want to win our trust and make us weak by sending us what we think is a mother. We don’t need a mother, we have each other! I take care of us! She’s a spy!“ He said, causing the boys to quickly turn on her and back away, pulling out what looked to be miniature swords.

     Ella gasped loudly, taking a step back and putting her hands up. “Please! I’m not here to hurt anyone, I don’t work for anyone! I don’t even mean to be here! I don’t know how to get home, I don’t know where I am!“ She said. This could not be happening, this cannot be happening, this cannot be happening. She could not be killed by small children with tiny swords today.

     “Exactly what a pirate spy would say!“ Peter shouted. “Tie her up! Hang her from one of the trees! If the Pirates want to play spy, they can come and get their spy!“ The boy named Peter had shouted, taking off from the ground again. Ella didn’t even have time to run before the boys had all surrounded her. She didn’t want to hurt them, even though if she was really trying she could have. They were all so much smaller than her, but it would’ve been cruel to hurt a bunch of confused children. One of them pointed his sword at her, making her flinch as she was walked towards the tree houses. In only a few moments flat, they had tied up her wrists together and made her sit in the middle of a net that they had hung over a tree branch. They tied up the top of the net and pulled on the rope that would raise it higher and higher until it was hanging from trees that were taller than any she had seen in her kingdom back home. Suddenly she was afraid of heights, unpredictable heights.

     “Please! You’ve made a mistake! I’m not a pirate!“ She shouted, watching as the boys tied the rope around a raised stump coming out of the ground, hoping that the way they tied the rope would hold enough that at least she wouldn’t fall to her death several feet below her on the ground. She was tied so high she couldn’t even make out the freckles on the boys faces anymore.

     “Excellent! The games can begin! Hook can come get his spy! And we will defeat him!“ Peter cried, a battle cry seeming to leave him and echo through the woods. All the boys echoed back, laughter irrupting from them. Ella felt tears burning her eyes again, trying to pull her wrists apart though it was no use, the rope burning her skin. This was a nightmare. She had gone from one Hell to another.

     “Help me! Anybody! Please! Help me!“ She screamed, her wet hair sticking to the sides of her face as she continued to try to pull her hands apart, though eventually huffing, tears rolling down her cheeks. This has been the worst day of her entire life. And now she had been kidnapped by children, accused of being a pirate, and now she was hanging from a tree that was a hundred feet tall. She had been sent here to find happiness, but so far all she was finding was humiliation, confusion and a very very wet dress.

#compcndium #thread: finding love in neverland #c; ella #v; au

[hamliet]

Disney Princesses as Strong Women: Cinderella’s Courage and Compassion

Ah, time for one of my favorite princesses and perhaps the most common target of, for lack of a better term, haters. As a film, Cinderella is a surprisingly realistic portrayal of abuse and how abuse survivors cope, as well as an optimistic fairytale.

As a disclaimer, there is room for legitimate criticism of Cinderella and this is not going to invalidate any valid criticism of her film, but rather offer a different perspective on her film and specifically on Cinderella as a character. 

Cinderella is too girlish! Cinderella waits for a man to save her! Or so the criticisms go. As for the latter, that’s blatantly not true according to the story, and as for the former, well... I’ll quote part of what I said in my Snow White analysis here, adapted for Cinderella:

If you... devalue her based on the strong presence of her traditionally feminine traits while ignoring her very real and very present strength[s], perhaps you should be reexamining your own sexism.

As for Cinderella herself, her defining traits are not that she cooks and cleans--she sings as she does so, but she also doesn’t voluntarily do any of it, unlike Snow White. She does however do almost everything out of compassion both for others and for herself. Why compassion is seen as a feminine trait is honestly another discussion all together and it’s disturbing that this does appear to be a common assumption. Compassion is good. The answer isn’t to not emphasize  compassion in a female character (who, by nature of existing in a fairy tale for children, is going to be a relatively simple character), but rather emphasize it for male characters as well. Cinderella (1950) does also play with gender roles several times, notably with Lady Tremaine (the wicked stepmother) and with the Grand Duke. 

This film goes out of its way to highlight Cinderella’s compassion as the trait that is most beautiful about her, though it’s certainly a valid criticism that the stepsisters are noted to be “awkward” (the film never uses the word “ugly”) and Lady Tremaine is noted to be jealous of Cinderella’s beauty--but also her charm, aka her personality. 

It’s noted that Cinderella’s father married Lady Tremaine only because he felt his daughter “needed a mother’s care.” In other words, the man’s own insecurity and belief that he wasn’t enough led to him marrying the woman who would later abuse Cinderella. In other words, because he didn’t think he could be enough of a feminine influence on her, she wound up being abused. Damn you sensitive masculinity. 

But it’s also notable that the father is noted to love his child very much, and that compassion is clearly very important to Cinderella’s journey. Under her father’s care, the chateau she grows up in is noted to be beautiful, but once he dies Lady Tremaine “squanders” the fortune on her daughter’s “vain and selfish” interests, letting the chateau fall into disrepair. The chateau can be seen as symbolic of Cinderella herself in some ways, but also of Lady Tremaine--the more energy and time she spends on her selfish jealousy, the more she doesn’t realize that her inner beauty is falling into disrepair.

Cinderella’s got a backbone. The girl is not a pushover even when she’s being ordered around. Starting from her very first proper scene, wherein she teases the birds for waking her up and tries to stay asleep. But she can’t, because she’s got to face the world, which is not as kind to her. She grouses at the clock, complaining that “even he orders me around." When Anastasia and Drizella accuse her of deliberately putting a mouse in her cup, she starts the conversation with her stepmother with “oh please, you don’t think that I--” She tells them “I’m still a member of the family.” She is smart. She is polite to her abusers, yes (often, unfortunately, that’s realistic and a survival strategy) and even kind to Lucifer, the privileged fat cat (and the best character). And yet Cinderella doesn’t take Lucifer’s bullshit, sarcastically telling him “I’m sorry if Your Highness objects to an early breakfast.” She has spunk.

However, Cinderella is also naive and prone to losing herself in dreams. Dreams are coded as positive in Cinderella, but also as something that doesn’t suffice as a long-term solution. Instead, dreams are tools that help you escape. For example, the Fairy Godmother’s illusion is basically a waking dream that enables her to reach her escape. But the Fairy Godmother also warns her the dream comes with a time limit, and she needs to pay heed to it (and almost doesn’t): “But like all dreams, it can’t last forever.” The next morning, Cinderella again loses herself to her daydreams, humming and singing and so lost in her dreams that she doesn’t hear her animal friends trying to warn her that Lady Tremaine is about to lock her in the tower. Which she does. 

Yet without dreams, Cinderella could not have survived the years leading up to her dream becoming a reality for a few hours. As she directly states, while Lady Tremaine can take almost everything from her, no one can order her to stop dreaming. While Cinderella is trapped in an abusive situation, she desperately wants to leave, and she believes she will escape some day. A dream, for Cinderella, is escapism, because she can at least be free from something the film itself directly calls “abuse” and “humiliation.” Dreams are not silly; speaking as an abuse survivor myself, sometimes that’s all you have. In her song “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” she sings: 

In dreams you will lose your heartache 

Whatever you wish for you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday

Your rainbow will come smiling through

No matter how your heart is grieving

If you keep on believing

The dream that you wish will come true.

Is it simplified? Sure. But that’s a beautiful message to give kids suffering. And given the dual coding of dreams as being something you cannot lose yourself in either, it gives a practical message of acting on your dreams as well. 

Cinderella’s compassion is primarily shown through her treatment of the pesky animals, the ones that disgust her stepsisters (like mostly mice, but also birds and Bruno, the dog whom Cinderella warns the stepmother wants to kick out).  But she encourages the mice to be smart and Bruno to learn to like cats (aka Lucifer) if only for practical reasons (because they’ll throw him out otherwise). I think this reveals a good deal of Cinderella’s mindset: that she does what they want her to do because she wants to survive. She wants a warm bed and food, and running away all on her own would ensure she’d lose that. Abuse victims do genuinely weigh their options like this, and choosing to stay (especially as a dependent, like Cinderella is) is not something that should be condemned. 

The moment Cinderella hears that a mouse (GusGus) is in the rat trap, she stops what she’s doing and rushes down the stairs. In other words, while she can’t yet escape, she’ll be damned if she’ll let someone else suffer abuse in a trap they can’t leave. Not only that, but GusGus is terrified and Cinderella notes as such, and asks for someone who better understands (Jack) to talk to him, and even though GusGus is aggressive at first, Jack’s insistence that they like him and Cinderella likes him coaxes him out of the cage. In other words, compassion and kindness enable him to make a courageous choice and leave the cage. 

GusGus is the opposite of Cinderella in some ways: he directly wants to challenge Lucifer until Jack begs him not to. He wants to fight, but practically speaking, it’s just stupid for a mouse to go up against a cat, and Cinderella too lacks the means to go up against her stepfamily. It’s a realistic portray of abuse. GusGus also repeatedly makes naive choices, but in contrast to Cinderella, he tends to be more active (taking risks that aren’t exactly the wisest). For example he gets attacked by the more powerful chickens in a quest for food and they steal his food (it’s foreshadowing to the later scene where the stepsisters will tear Cinderella’s dress from her), but Cinderella intervenes and she gives a downtrodden mouse some food.

Like Snow White, Cinderella’s kindness is rewarded, in that the mice and birds are genuine friends to her (it’s a kids movie don’t take it too literally). They help her make her bed, shower, etc. in the morning, and they then make her dress for her when she doesn’t have time to do it herself. And again, there is a realistic portrayal of abuse in that the stepmother dangles a false hope/dream in front of Cinderella: finish all your chores and get something nice to wear, and you can come--but she fully intends to never let Cinderella come by giving her extra chores. 

Despite being a fairytale, in Cinderella, compassion is not always rewarded by things working out. The stepsisters are not just jealous of Cinderella’s looks and her own compassion, but the compassion given to her. They don’t want the beads or the sash, but Lady Tremaine manipulates them into tearing them from Cinderella. Again, it’s realistic to abuse, because parents will often mobilize and manipulate other children to target one. 

This is Cinderella’s nadir, in which she sobs, “It’s no use. No use at all. I can’t believe. Not anymore. There’s nothing left to believe in. Nothing,” That’s pretty dark for a kid’s movie, but honestly... don’t we all know that feeling? I certainly do. Cinderella’s arc is about learning to be courageous and take steps in that courage, and this is the moment all of it deserts her, because the one thing she has that connects her to others--compassion--appears to have all been for naught.

What gives Cinderella the push of courage she needs to leave the chateau? The compassion of the fairy godmother. And the fairy godmother makes the ordinary things, the despised things like mice and Bruno (an old dog at risk of being thrown out) into magical things, again reinforcing the theme that the ordinary can be extraordinary, and that the real magic is in the compassion and love she shares with her friends (who are animals because it’s a kid’s fantasy movie). In the end, though the dress they made for her was destroyed, she still couldn’t get to the ball without her friends. 

So Cinderella is off to the ball, and that’s when she will meet the prince--who is having to deal with his own issues. The Grand Duke is not nearly so abusively coded as Lady Tremaine, but he is kind of unreasonable and threatening towards his vizier. He also plays with gender roles in that he is the father begging his son to marry and make babies because he wants to hear the little feet of his grandchild. He literally dreams about it, and again shows the potential danger of becoming too attached to dreams in that he’s not very nice and is pretty controlling in his wishes to make dreams happen (aka, there’s not a ton of compassion). That being said he’s coded comically and does want his son to genuinely fall in love. Also of note: usually the nagging parent desperate for grandkids in fiction is a mother, not a father. 

At the ball, the Prince’s sees Cinderella wandering around, lost and out of place, and goes to comfort her. His compassion leads him to her. 

They sing a song together, and, well, to quote this amazing article about Snow White: 

they share a song together, which is Disney/musical theatre code switching for “romantic/sexual love.”  Generally speaking, the big waltz that Disney’s romantic duos share at the end of the movie is their act of sexual consummation—sex without sex on Disney terms

Again, it is not sexual. It just conveys the same emotional meaning for the characters as sex would in a romcom. It’s a fairytale for kids so of course they fell in love in a few hours--that isn’t meant to be a recipe for real life love advice. She also doesn’t know he is the prince and says as much when she leaves, telling him “I haven’t even met the prince yet!” as an excuse to run. In other words, contrary to the common narrative that she went out looking for a man to save her, she did not. She went out looking to have a good time and happened to find a man. 

The song they sing is “So This is Love” and includes the lyrics “My heart has wings/and I can fly.” Because Cinderella--she’s free now. And throughout the rest of the film, she is free. The guards try to stop her as she flees under the time restriction but she makes it through the palace’s gates. No one and nothing--not the royal guards, not the chateau she grew up in, not the cruelty of her stepmother and stepsisters--can hold her back now. Even though she does go back to the chateau as many abuse victims do, her compassion has enabled her to make connections that will have set her free, and she will run to physical freedom soon enough. 

Her stepmother realizes it too: once Cinderella hears the man she was dancing with was the prince, she drops the trays (symbolic of her servanthood, as she’s repeatedly shown carrying those trays) in shock, and as Anastasia and Drizella threw clothes and orders at her to help them get dress, she dreamily shoves them back into their arms and goes to get dressed herself instead. 

When the stepmother locks her in the room, it’s the mice who face off with Lucifer, but this time not for mere food, but for their friend, and they free her. The mice dive straight into the teacups to get the key from Lady Tremaine, which is also a callback to an earlier scene in which GusGus was trapped in a teacup to hide from Lucifer.

The man is also about to give up and is distraught when Cinderella is finally freed but Lady Tremaine smashes the slipper. But Cinderella pulls out another slipper, again showing herself capable of helping other people scared of people in power over them. Her compassion saves her, and saves others around her. When Cinderella gets married the mice and old horse and Bruno, who all played a role in freeing her from Lady Tremaine and also escorted her to the ball, are celebrating with her. Because Cinderella’s story is meant to give hope to the people in her story, and to the audience. 

A dream cannot save you, but it can give you a chance to escape by giving you the hope you need. Compassion and courage is what will save you. I think that’s a beautiful message within Cinderella. 

Thanks for reading! Up next, Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty--which was one of my favorite movies as a kid. For previous entries in this series, see here:

Snow White’s Self-Esteem

#disney meta #Disney Princess #cinderella #cinderella meta #lady tremaine #prince charming #feminism #abuse

[libertasrpg]

We welcome Drizella Tremaine to the city. She’s 27 years old and is a socialite. Driz is often mistaken for Allison Williams. She’s open.

→ Background Information

Drizella was always taught to think of herself first, and then consider everyone else after. Her upbringing was incredibly strict and half. The loss of her father taught her to always think of herself first. At the time, her mother was too busy stressing about money and her sister. So she had no choice but to take care of herself in that situation. After an incredibly comfy childhood thanks to her fathers career as a film director, Drizella obviously struggled when the purse strings were tight for a while. Then her mother remarried and thankfully her new stepfather had money. Driz was simply delighted to be able to return to her old life, even if it meant having to deal with another sister.

→ Living Situation

With a very uncertain money situation, the Tremaine sisters had to be smart about where they were going to live. They were going to have to get a place together. Obviously Drizella had no issue with this. It meant she’d still be able to manipulate Ana however she wanted. Drizella’s influence on her sister would be especially needed now that they were in a new environment. Driz couldn’t very well let Ana think this was somewhere to turn over a new leaf with Ella. When it comes to Drizella’s own bedroom, it’s as close to her own bedroom as she could get it. Hours spent searching online helped her find slightly cheaper versions of the furniture in the bedroom she had growing up. It doesn’t look like an exact replica, but it’s pretty darn close.

→ Relocation Explanation

When her stepfather died, Drizella was worried initially. She was worried it would happen again where her sister and mother would be strapped for cash. Fortunately, their mother was quite certain they’d be okay. But then Ella disappeared. Drizella joked about throwing a celebration party. She’d never really come to care for Ella to be honest. But then her mother informed her that without Ella, they would lose access to the funds. So, Drizella and Anastasia were sent after Ella. After Ana figured out where Ella was, the girls went straight away.

→ Her Personality

There is no place in Drizella’s life for weakness. To get by in the world, you have to be as strong as possible. Showing emotions is also a weakness. It opens you up to things like heartbreak. For this reason, Drizella laughs at romcoms. They’re awful. The kinds of women who enjoy romcoms are bound to get nowhere in life, because they’ll waste time on things like relationships. Instead she spends her time on becoming as perfect as possible. She also tries to make those around her as perfect as possible. You’re only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. So she cuts any weak links out.

→ Her Qualities

Confident, creative, smart

Impatient, unorganized, rude

→ Her Relationships

Anastasia Tremaine (Sister): Drizella absolutely revelled in being an only child. But then Ana came along. Her parents started to pay all attention to their cute youngest and Drizella despised it. Over the years, she decided the best way was to use Ana to get back at her parents for forgetting about her. She became best friends with Ana, acting like the best sister in the world. Drizella’s intentions were never pure though. All she’s ever wanted to do is corrupt Ana, so that she’s not the golden girl her parents treated her like.

Ella Cenerentola (Enemy): Ella is far too kind. It’ll get her nowhere in the world. That is how Drizella has always felt about her younger stepsister. It’s pathetic, and Drizella can’t think of anything worse than pathetic. So, Driz makes it her mission to put Ella into her place. There is no way someone so average should be allowed to be so happy, and have such big dreams.

→ Possible Connections

Mary Ferrari (Enemy): Mary is one of the most pathetic people Drizella has ever seen. She could only dream of living a life like the Tremaines and Drizella thinks it’s hilarious that Mary even dreams of it to begin with. Plus, Mary is best friends with Ella. This basically means that Drizella hates her by default.

Jackson Checkers (Enemy & Potential love interest): Drizella kind of feels sorry for Jackson. He’s such a charming and attractive young man, he could have anything and everything in the world. Driz can’t help but feel like that with her guidance, he could live an incredible life. Obviously she has to play her cards right as he is so close to Ella. Plus, a good portion of the reason Drizella wants Jaq is so that she can use him to ruin Ella’s life a little more. There aren’t really any genuine feelings for him. It’s just all a game to Driz.

Octavius Checkers (Enemy): Gus is everything Drizella despises about men wrapped up into one bundle. It baffles her that he’s even related to Jackson, who is so put together. She hates how idiotic Gus is, and thinks that his sense of humor is childish. She thinks he’s smelly, messy, and genuinely pities whoever ends up with him. No one would date him unless it was out of pity anyway.

Drizella is based on Drizella from Cinderella.

#disney roleplay #disney rpg #disney rp #cinderella rp #cinderella #drizella tremaine #Allison Williams #Emmy Rossum #Phoebe Tonkin #open #26 to 30 #open female

[ladyinsilvcr]

                                              𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠                                                     

                  .・゜゜・    𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞     ・゜゜・．                    

a dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. in dreams you will lose your heartaches. whatever you wish for, you keep. have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through. no matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟏: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒

What is your full name?

Ella Amalie Tremaine.

Where and when were you born?

She was born in Echo Creek on December 27, 1996.

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Gabriel Tremaine and Adaline Tremaine (née Perrault) were Ella’s birth parents. They provided her with a golden childhood where she never felt unloved for even a moment.

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

No blood related siblings, but three stepsiblings — Drizella, Anastasia, and Lucifer. After growing up as an only child, Ella had hoped that they could be as close as real siblings. Unfortunately, those dreams were dashed after they decided to make Ella the subject of their torture.

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.

The Charming’s were gracious enough to permit her a small room within their country home to stay in, since she didn’t have enough money for her own place when they first hired her. She doesn’t want to take advantageous of their kindness for too much longer, but the thought of moving further into town where she may run into her stepfamily is enough to keep her at the country house for now.

What is your occupation?

Maid at the Charming country house.

Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

Ella is 5′6″ with light honey-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She has a very light splattering of freckles across her face, but they’re only really noticeable in the summer and her skin is otherwise fair. Along her right cheek she has a faint scar from when her stepmother once slapped her while wearing a deceptively sharp ring. She also has an old scar along her left arm from when she fell out of a tree as a child and a nasty branch snagged her on her way down.

To which social class do you belong?

Previously upper class, currently lower class.

Are you right- or left-handed?

Right-handed.

What does your voice sound like?

Warm and soft, with a lifted quality that’s reminiscent of a transatlantic accent. She has a refined way of speaking that leaves people wondering what kind of life she led before becoming a maid.

Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?

She hums a lot without realizing it and fiddles with her hands when she’s nervous.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐: 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏

How would you describe your childhood in general?

Golden.

What is your earliest memory?

Running around the garden on a sunny day. She ended up falling and getting a nasty cut on her knee from a rock, but her mother was there to wipe away her tears and clean up the wound.

How much schooling have you had?

She attended a school in Echo Creek until she was thirteen. After her father died, her stepmother pulled her out to be homeschooled instead and enrolled her in online classes. Although she wasn’t given the opportunity to attend college, she still tried her best to continue learning about everything she could from any book she could get her hands on.

Where did you learn most of your skills and other abilities?

At home! Her mother taught her how to tend to a garden and care for animals, while her father taught her everything he could about their vineyard and tips she would need to run the family business one day. It wasn’t really until her stepfamily began using her as their servant that she developed skills like cooking/baking, sewing, etc. Her talent for singing is something she inherited from her mother.

While growing up, did you have any role models? If so, describe them.

To this day, Ella’s mother remains her greatest role model. She was everything Ella aspires to be and she still lives by her mother’s words to always have courage and be kind.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

She had a rampant imagination and her dreams of the future were always changing. One day she dreamed of being a princess who spent her nights dancing until her shoes were worn down, and the next she was wanting to be an adventurer who traveled the world helping people.

As a child, what were your favorite activities?

Drawing (albeit not very well back then), horseback riding, taking care of the garden with her mother, dancing, visiting the ice cream parlor with her father, reading fairytales and then acting them out for her parents, etc.

As a child, were you popular? Who were your friends, and what were they like?

When she was still in school she was well liked among her peers, though her quiet disposition kept her from being ‘popular’.

Are you a virgin?

Yes.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟑: 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒

Who has had the most influence on you?

Her parents, especially her mother as previously mentioned. They molded her into the person she is today.

What is the most evil thing you have ever done?

Steal the gold broaches off of a pair of her stepmother’s shoes. (not very ~evil~ but it’s Ella, she doesn’t really do much wrong)

When was the time you were the most frightened?

After her father died she suddenly found herself in a house of wolves

If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why?

She’d go back to the night she left home and leave the shoe broaches behind. Even though she took them because she had no money for food, it was still wrong to do. And they weren’t even worth much anyway.

What is your best memory?

The last picnic she went on with her family before her mother got sick. Also, the night of the Charming’s ball.

What is your worst memory?

Her parents’ deaths — watching her mother take her final breaths and seeing her father collapsed on the ground years later.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟒: 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐅𝐒 & 𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?

Optimistic!

What is your greatest fear?

That her stepmother will figure out where she is and have her arrested.

What are your views on sex?

Ella believes that a person should be allowed to engage in as little or as much sex as they please without judgement. Personally, she’s waiting until the right person comes along, but doesn’t agree with the abstinence-until-marriage ideology.

Are you able to kill? Under what circumstances do you find killing to be acceptable or unacceptable?

It’s highly doubtful that she could ever be capable of taking a life. The only circumstance in which it could happen/that she could find acceptable would be as purely self defense in a grave situation.

In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?

Taking a life in cold blood.

Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?

She certainly believes in true love, though she finds the popularized concept of soulmates to be a tad limiting. Soulmates aren’t always romantic and it doesn’t meant that there is only one predestined person out there for you.

What do you believe makes a successful life?

Ella doesn’t base success off of wealth or any other material factor. As long as a person is kind and follows their heart, she believes that happiness is all that needed for a ‘successful’ life.

How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings (i.e. do you hide your true self from others, and in what way)?

Half of her life was spent having to suppress her true thoughts and feelings within her own home, which has resulted in her generally still withholding her ‘true self’ from most people. The guard she has put up surprises most people due to her otherwise warm and friendly disposition. She doesn’t like hiding herself from others, but feels like she needs in part to stay safe and partially because it’s been conditioned in her.

Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why do you refuse to do it?

Be intentionally cruel. It goes against her morals and is something that she’s experienced too much of in her own life to do to anyone else.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟓: 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 𝐖/𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒

Who are your friends? Do you have a best friend? Describe these people.

Ella’s circle of friends is surprisingly small, but she likes it that way. Currently, her closest friends would probably be Rapunzel Gothel and Celine Potts. She and Rapunzel bonded over their shared circumstances and the other girl helps brighten up any rainy day Ella might be having. Celine is like an older sister to Ella and one of the few people she’s comfortable enough with to break down in front of. Ella trusted both of them enough to tell them about her situation.

Do you have a spouse or significant other? If so, describe this person.

Tragically not.

Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened.

When Ella met Kit on the night of the ball she certainly felt something, but with everything that happened afterwards she didn’t have the time to figure out if it was anything more than fleeting infatuation. Now that she’s working as a maid in his household and is getting to know him better, those feelings are beginning to blossom again and she’s still not sure what to make of them.

What do you look for in a potential lover?

Someone she can rely on, who understands her, and is kind. Being charismatic certainly doesn’t hurt either.

How close are you to your family?

Ella was incredibly close to her parents, but the relationship she has with her stepfamily is anything but loving.

Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help?

Definitely Rapunzel. Although she’s a new friend of Ella’s, Rapunzel also one of the few people who know why she’s become so guarded. If something were to happen involving her stepmother, Ella knows she could rely on her friend to help at least hide her. Celine is a good friend to reply on as well, but she doesn’t want to become a burden for the older girl who already has a son to take care of.

Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why?

In her heart she wants to say Kit, but she worries that if he found out the truth about her he’d feel betrayed and cast her aside. Otherwise, Rapunzel — she’s allegedly great with a pan.

Who is the person you despise the most, and why?

She’d like to claim that she doesn’t have hatred in her heart for anyone, but there were days when it was hard to not despise her stepmother. The older woman has been cold and callous towards Ella from the moment they met and she’s never understood why. But at the end of the day, she’d rather just leave her stepmother in her past rather than waste the present hating her.

Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?

She definitely avoids conflict, though not because she’s scared of it. Debating a topic is one thing, but arguing just feels pointless to her — it doesn’t solve anything and hurts everyone involved.

Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not?

Ella is definitely more comfortable talking to a small group of people. She’s not used to having a lot of attention on her, nor does she want it. Besides, smaller groups allow her to talk to people on a more intimate level.

Do you care what others think of you?

To a certain degree, but she doesn’t let it influence how she acts and she refuses to change herself for anyone.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟔: 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒 & 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒

What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?

Ella spends most of her time outside simply enjoying nature or at the library reading.

What is your most treasured possession?

Her mother’s wedding ring.

What is your favorite color?

Light blue.

What is your favorite food?

It’s a tie between blueberry muffins and vanilla bean macarons.

What, if anything, do you like to read?

She’ll read just about anything, but definitely prefers fairy/folktales and the classics like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, etc. Anything with magic in it is sure to spark her interest.

Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit?

She does not smoke or do any drugs. Drinking is also something she doesn’t regularly partake in, but when she does it’s always a white wine or champagne. Rarely does she ever drink in excess. 

How do you deal with stress?

She tries to work through stress by busying herself with chores. Baking, doing laundry, running errands, etc.

Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?

Most all of Ella’s moments of spontaneousness have ended badly, so she prefers to have a plan laid out.

What are your pet peeves?

When rooms are left especially messy or dirt/mud is tracked into the house, when people are talking loudly in quiet spaces, chewing with your mouth open.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟕: 𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 & 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑

What is your greatest strength as a person?

Her kindness.

What is your greatest weakness?

Having an open heart also makes it easier for people to try to hurt her.

Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

Introverted.

Are you generally organized or messy?

Always organized.

Do you like yourself?

She would say so, yes.

What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death?

For being good to people.

What three words best describe your personality?

Kind, hardworking, and intuitive.

What three words would others probably use to describe you?

Honestly probably the same thing!

#animaniahqtask #in my own little corner | 𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙

[ellatremaiine]

Ella Tremaine || Twenty-Seven || Maid || Pansexual || Magical

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Death and Potential Murder

At a young age, Ella learned the true meaning of you never know what you had until it was missing when her mother passed away. Not to say that she had been one who took her life for granted because despite bing born from wealthy parents, Ella wasn’t a spoiled rich girl who never lifted a finger in her life, but rather, she was a kind and courageous girl who was taught to appreciate the smaller and good things in life.

Even so, the lost of her mother did still affect Ella in a way where she wanted to grieve at the thought of never getting to have her mother within her life as she grows up, but she also knew she needed to be strong for her father who had lost the love of his life. Seeing her father grieve was even more painful for Ella, and that was why she had decided upon herself to become the strong one between the two and do whatever she can to make him happy.

One way Ella was able to cheer her father up alongside with herself was whenever she brought up happy and fond memories that had her mother within it. Ella especially enjoyed reminiscing whenever it was time for bed, as it allows her to dream about the wonderful times the three had together even if it also causes her to imagine how her mother would’ve reacted towards events within their lives that occurred after her passing. However, recalling fond memories could also only do so much for a person, and as time continued to pass, Ella’s father soon found himself remarrying to a woman named Eleanor Tremaine who had three kids of her own. A son named Lucifer and two daughter named Drizella and Anastasia.

At first, Ella was curious at the prospect of having a stepmother and step siblings. Yes, a part of her felt hurt at her father remarrying because that meant her mother wouldn’t be the only mother she would have in life, but Ella also believed that her father deserved to find love again and if he found it within her new stepmother than who was Ella to complain if Eleanor made her father happy? And at the time she first met the woman, Eleanor looked pleasant enough, although there had been a cold aura to her that Ella chosen not to comment about, and having step-siblings? As someone who grew up as the only child, it was exciting to now have siblings of her own.

Unfortunately, life with her new step family started off rocky. Her stepmother barely paid Ella any attention and at times, the younger felt she was regarded nothing more than a nuisances to the woman, and as for her step siblings, they weren’t exactly the most accepting of people nor did any of them welcomed her as a new sibling despite Ella’s efforts to connect with all three of them. In a way, it felt like the household in which Ella grew up in that use to be filled with so much love and warmth was suddenly stripped away of it all once Eleanor and her family moved in.

At least Ella still had her father though. Even after remarrying, her father had made sure to give his daughter all the love and attention she needed, always making space for some quality time one-on-one with her even while he also tried to make time to give all four kids the attention they deserved. And for that, Ella was still content for the most part, convincing herself that although things had changed, at least having her father was still consistent.

Then the news of her father passing away on a business trip a couple of years later was made and Ella found herself stuck and alone with a family who didn’t care about her or wanted anything to do with her. Although she was still young at the time, a part of Ella had been certain that her stepmother would kick her out of the estate but instead she was forced to move into the attic and eventually, she wasn’t even viewed as a step daughter but as one of the maids— and was even treated as one too.

Years continued to pass by and life continued to be difficult for Ella. It pained Ella to see her stepmother live within the estate her mother built and then see the woman take over her father’s winery business as if all it had originally belonged to her. But Ella knew she couldn’t do anything about it, still being too young to regain control of everything her parents had worked hard to make but had hope that once she became of age and her fathers will is read, she could finally take it all back from her stepmother. But even when Ella became old enough to inherit her fathers winery and everything her parents had left her, her stepmother refused to hand the will over and insisted that her father rewrote his will and left everything to Eleanor. Ella didn’t believe that was the truth but even if she wanted to see the will for herself, she couldn’t do so as her stepmother kept her father’s will close where no one could take it without the woman knowing. With how tightly secured her stepmother chosen to keep the will, Ella realized that something odd had to be happening, more so after hearing rumors of how her fathers death hadn’t been an accident and that her stepmother may have something to do with it. If that is all true, Ella knew she had to get his will one way or another.

Living and working as a maid within her own childhood home wasn’t a fun experience for Ella that at times brought her into a depressing mindset whenever she recalled how this wasn’t what either of her parents would’ve wanted for their daughter. But being a maid also wasn’t all bad for Ella because it was working as when is where she met her closes friends, Jaq, Gus, Mary, Suzie, and Perla— all whom didn’t like her stepmother and did whatever they could to help Ella during her hard times with them. They were all such kind people, even taking the blame for things that Ella had accidentally caused despite her insisting that they shouldn’t do so, and as well as at times pushing her to take a break whenever she has to or do her own work so she could focus on figuring out what truly happened to her father. That being said, Ella feels very fortunate to have them around and wishes for the day she could repay them all back for their kindness and selflessness.

Ella would never call herself wild or someone who would break into places, but one night she let her friends convince her to sneak her into one of Kit Charming's extravagant parties and there she met the bachelor himself. She hadn’t intended to meet him nor did she expect to spend majority of the party talking with him at the gardens, but he has a charm to him that Ella couldn’t resist yet was still a mystery to her. Nevertheless, she thought her time with Kit at the party would stay there and she would never see or speak to him again. But that all changed when he kept coming back to Walt Grove and found moments to spend with her. She showed him all around the town while still getting lost into deep conversations with him, but whenever the two would meet, Ella couldn’t help but feel like there was more that Kit knew in which he never disclosed. Things that may involve her father and the town.

After working as a maid for years now, she learned to find cleaning as a calming and relaxing past time for her. She especially enjoys dong so whenever she’s alone and has no one interrupting her, but also found that cleaning away her frustrations also helps whenever she’s in an especially aggravated mood.

Ella also learned to really like cooking. After being forced to wake up earlier than everyone else in the manor and make her step families breakfast every morning, one needed to find enjoyment in cooking in order to get by with life and Ella discovered that she likes to experiment with what she makes whenever she has the time for it. She never feeds it to her step family though, but her friends are always happy to give her food a try whenever she made something that’s out of a typical recipe.

Is a mean seamstress too who knows how to fix and stitch up anything thanks to her friends teaching her. She isn’t as good as Mary, Suzie, or Perla and doesn’t believe she could be, but learning how to sew sure does come in handy whenever one of her step siblings would ‘accidentally’ ruin one of their clothes and then berate her for ruining it.

Ella’s actually not mad that she’s treated like a maid and slave by the people who should be her family, but what upsets her the most is how her father was tricked into loving a woman like Eleanor who went on to strip everything precious that belonged to him and may be the cause of why her father was dead in the first place. And with the way Ella always felt how cruel and heartless her stepmother was, there was no doubts within her mind that said her stepmother didn’t have anything to do with his sudden death.

That being said, the only one within her step family who Ella doesn’t see any good in is her stepmother. Although she never got along with any of her step siblings, Ella always felt like there was some hope within them even to this day. Drizella may seem like a long shot since she’s a lot like her mother as the eldest, but Ella has hopes that if Drizella met the right person she could become good. Lucifer was always the more confusing one of the three because he often did whatever he wanted but throughout the years, Ella learned that it was easy to bargain with him to get him to listen even if it’s temporary and he always seemed like the easier one to communicate with even if their conversations weren’t always so pleasant. And finally with Anastasia, Ella always had some kind of hope that she was the one from the three who she could make a breakthrough with. She always could tell that Anastasia followed her older sister and mother than do things on her own and even though that didn’t excuse how cruel she treated Ella while growing up, she still felt like if any of her step siblings had a greater chance in changing the most, it would be Anastasia.  

She is ind and gentle towards all kinds of animals, especially the smaller ones. Living in an attic that wasn’t fixed, all sorts of smaller critters would find their way inside but instead of freaking out at the sight of them or trying to kill them, Ella would handle the animals gently and help them back out or she would care for them until they decide to leave on their own.

Sings soft tunes whenever she’s alone, usually when she’s daydreaming about something.

Discovering that she was magical had came as a shock to Ella the first time it happened, but she is hopeful at how useful her abilities in being able to change her appearance can be. It’s not something she’s planning on taking advantage of, but she sure will take advantage in using her magic to figure out what her stepmother did to her father.

Is unsure of what she wants to do in life once all of this is finally resolved. Ella imagined that she would run her father’s winery business like he intended once she gas control over it but she was unsure if making wine was what she wanted to do. Maybe making clothes?

Has a high alcohol tolerance whenever she does drink.

Is 9/10 most likely the mom friend of the group and Ella has no shame about it.

#( i guess i forgot about everything; even the time; but…but it was so wonderful : headcanons )

[ahtohallanhq]

despite feeling like the world has played cards against you, you retain your kindness and wonderous warmth. a servant in your own childhood home, that of which since your parents deaths has felt so devoid of the love it once held. you found that feeling of love again when your fairy godmother helped you find your way to the ball, and then to the prince of elsera. however, now that feels like a dream that has slipped away as you’ve been shipped off to the island with your stepsisters. all you have left from that night is your glass slipper and the memories you hold close.

❧ CINDERELLA TREMAINE

age & birthdate: 28

birthplace: KINGDOM OF ELSERA

occupation: WAITRESS AT THE LONELY MOON TAVERN

time in ahtohallan: ONE MONTH

faceclaim: IM JINAH

❧ BEFORE AHTOHALLAN

Her dreams of late had been filled with soft music, gentle swaying, and warm hands on her back as she glided across the marble floor. And when she woke, Cinderella would swear on every star that she could still feel a slight tingle where he placed his hands. Life was much easier when you were floating on air.

Ever since the night of the ball, Cinderella walked with a spring in her step. He danced with her. A scullery maid with ash stained fingers and strong arms from the manual labour she’d been performing from a young age. The lies that her step-family had hurled her way - ugly girl, dirty child, oh you poor thing - no one will ever love you - were swept aside and replaced with the gentle way the prince had held her hand, the firm grasp on here waist, the way his eyes softened as they danced on the balcony.

It was a grand moment and as she watched the horses race past, her torn clothes gently lifted by the night breeze, she clutched the glass slipper to her chest and thanked every star in the sky.

Cinderella snuck back into the castle the next two nights, not dressed as a princess, but as a maid. Slipping down the servants entrance, it was easy to blend in and pretend she belonged to one of the wealthy families attending. Whenever she could, she would glance out from the servant’s corridor at the party, watching as the prince yawned and smiled dutifully at each woman that approached. In her heart, she wished that she wasn’t imagining the way he glanced around, looking for a princess with only one slipper.

The morning following the three nights of parties, Anastasia and Drizella were loud, arguing about who received the most dances while Lady Tremaine stared thoughtfully into her tea. If Cinderella were a betting woman, she would have thought something was wrong - a small furrow in the brow, a tenseness to her shoulders. And if something was wrong for Lady Tremaine, that something would soon become Cinderella’s problem.

It happened at the end of breakfast. Cinderella was clearing away the plates and saucers, worries forgotten as thoughts had turned back to the prince of Elsera, when Lady Tremaine spoke.

“Girls, we will be going on a trip in three days time.” Protests rose and were silenced with a wave of her hand. Steel wove through her next words. “Enough. Something is coming and we must leave soon.”

The sound of shattering porcelain filled the air as Cinderella stared at the matriarch in horror. Leaving, leaving, leaving - the word repeated itself over and over in her head. A dawning realization came over her as she stared into the dark eyes of Lady Tremaine.

She was going to be free.

“You stupid girl! After the work I went to secure your passage in the servants quarters instead of leaving you to be swallowed up by the approaching darkness.”

She would never be free.

❧ AFTER ARRIVAL

The boat ride was long and Cinderella discovered a new hatred for ships. Spending most of the time hanging over the edge of the desk, her arrival in Ahtohallan wasn’t by any means glamorous.

She stumbled down the gangplank and, without a second glance, walked away from her step-family. Shouts and threats were flung at her back but she forged on, into the new world, into a new life, into anything that wasn’t indentured servitude.

Her eyes welled at the thought of what she left behind, what could have been had she had one more chance to meet with the Prince. If she’d been able to show him who she was, how their hands fit perfectly together, and told him how safe she felt in his arms.

Cinderella’s head knew that this was foolish, that the Prince was destined to marry a princess, to align his kingdom with another, but in her heart, she held an ember of hope that what they had could have been real.

Pushing open the door to the first building she saw, Cinderella found herself in a noisy tavern, full to the brim of folks from all over the world. She watched as one server ran from table to table, drinks precariously balanced on a rough tray and a frantic look in their eyes. Without thinking, Cinderella dropped her bag and ran over to help, placing drinks where they pointed.

By the end of the night, Cinderella was exhausted and had a job. A real job, one that would pay her and treat her well. Any guilt that she felt about abandoning her step-family was shoved into a box and put to the side. They would have to learn how to fend for themselves, without her there to help them with every little thing.

Cinderella giggled to herself as she pictured Lady Tremaine washing dishes and Drizella trying to launder her clothes. Anastasia would figure it out - of the three, she was the one that had screamed the least. They would be okay, the sleepy thought crossed her mind, maybe she would check on them later…

❧ CONNECTIONS

PRINCE CHARMING — acquaintance  the night you danced with him was absolutely the best night of your life, and such a dream come true — but the dream has ended, and now you only hold the memory of dancing in the courtyard in your heart. you wonder if he holds the memory close too, but unlike you, he has no idea who he danced with that night. to him, surely you were just another girl. 

DRIZELLA & ANASTASIA TREMAINE  — stepsisters your step-sisters only copy their mother, there’s no way they could all be so cruel, you tell yourself. sometimes, that’s hard to believe with how little they seem to care about your own humanity. you see your stepmother favor them, but still say cruel things to them — perhaps they’re like you, a little bit trapped. 

THE ROLE OF CINDERELLA IS CLOSED

#c: cinderella #m: cinderella #c: princess #skeleton rp #closed

[thelordstears]

Oh I wrote more, what a surprise

"You can't spark a revolution without a flame. And where there is flame, there is casualty, where there is casualty, there is history.” - Corvenstain Bonstellos

“ If I am the enemy of the world for fixing it through violence so be it. May I be remembered as a conqueror despite my efforts to destroy broken dynasties and might I be remembered as a villain for killing those who're damned by their actions.” - Corvenstain Bonstellos

“I can not fight for peace because it isn't what I strive for. Freedom was never once peaceful. Do you think the African Americans who were enslaved earned freedom through peaceful means? Abraham Lincoln had to wage war on his own country to free them. Nothing good is done through peace. Good things come out of harsh circumstances.” - Corvenstain Bonestellos

"Time don't stop for no man woman nor child, so I certainly ain't gon' stop for no man who only wants ta see me fall. The game was rigged from the start, spose that means I oughta cheat, just like them. I got all my cards in the deck, every single one of em wild, because in a wild world, you gon' need some wild, wild cards.” - Scow Witson

“ When life fucks you over, you oughta fuck it back twenty times as hard, cuz your demons ain't gon' take a break, they aren't the hare, and you ain't the slow and steady tortoise. You're a human, so act like it and face your demons god damn snarlin'.” - Scow Witson

“ I'm a demon of a man, shotgun trained on those who wish me nothin' but death. I ain't gon' pretend I'm a good man, I'm a shark swimmin' towards the scent a tangy iron and blood, because my demons bleed, and so they can fucking die, eh?” - Scow Witson

"I can feel teeth sink into my soul, because these days I'm nothing but a feast of misery and bone trodden pathways.” - Roxane Vanderburg

“ I'm holy in the sense that I'll die for my sins. I'll be crucified for everything I've done, but when you fear for your life, you'll do anything to keep it.” - Roxane Vanderburg

“ These days I'm just a ghost, because every piece of pain consumes me and turns me into a relic of the past. If an archeologist dug me up he'd consider me a fossil. Because I am nothing but my past.” - Roxane Vanderburg

“ I'm a man who plays games with people's lives, I'm the gamemaster, the Monopoly man, stealing from a bank of lost souls.” - David Faim

“ One day I shall be nothing but flesh and bone buried in a casket of pearl or pinewood. But before I'm buried beneath the soil, I shall be a man who holds fate in his hands and plays games that lead to fatality. I roll on snake eyes and I could perceive it as faith wanting two bullets in a man's skull. I could land on six and poke six holes into a man's stomach, because that's what the die landed on. “ - David Faim

“ I waged a war on my heart, and I lost it.” - David Faim

"You believe the seers write your destiny. But how do you not see that they have shackled you to a destiny that is not your own? If my fate was in the hands of what I could not see, I would write my own." - David Faim

"In theory if the seers are something to be believed in, if they are not another myth, which I find highly unlikely. They wrote a tale of pain for me in 1990, a boy of eighteen so distraught by the loss of the only family he ever had. They should fear me, because if I discover they are a reality, then I will make them a fiction and cut the strings of fate and become fate itself. You can not control my destiny, for it is not written in the stars nor the threads of a mistresses yarn. For what is fate to someone who doesn't believe?" - David Faim

"Fate itself does not follow the laws of mortality." - David Faim

"I see the reflection of another in my eyes.' - David Faim

“ How can I hope in a world that makes you lick it off of daggers?”  - Hanzo Sabian

“A man once told me I was a victim on his board of sacrificial pawns and knights with blood soaked blades. And I ask the question, am I the pawn, or the knight? Because this dagger of mine is so covered in blood I can't help but weep, but I've also made sacrifices of self.” - Hanzo Sabian

“ I'm on a board playing against a man who controls my fate, I wish to call a stalemate, end this game in a draw, but all I can ever do is be the Queen's Gambit, because in his eyes, I'm just a sacrifice.” - Hanzo Sabian

“My mistakes never cost my life, only other's.” - Hanzo Sabian

"I'm broken, and I don't got the tools to fix that. How is it, that in all my years I've never acquired the means to patch myself up? I can fix up old houses, build a tree house for my sons, but somehow, I can't fix myself.” - Shane Hoffs

“ Somedays I'm dancing with the sun, and other's I have a bottle of barebones whiskey in my hand, and all I can do is remember the past.” - Shane Hoffs

“ Do you really think, the shadows are a friend of yours? They hide you from untrained eyes, but I know what lurks in the night, for it is me.” - Luther Woolhaun

“ I am a hunter, I've hunted every kind of animal thinkable, I've gunned down giraffes in the savannah, defended myself against a lioness with only a dagger and my wit, and I've fought in war, and thus I've hunted men of honor.” - Luther Woolhaun

"The destination ain't worth the damn price, so what am I doing in the struggle of the path?” - Denis Polmer

“ So I'll raise a glass to my past, because all it ever was is poison against my damn lip.” - Denis Polmer

“ This city I roam is a graveyard of bone trodden railroad tracks and corrupt gardens of wickedness.” - Callum Valstone

“ We're crushed underneath the boots of the powerful, they say flowers grow back once stomped on, but when the boot stays, the flower can never spring from the soil without being crushed all over again.” - Callum Valstone

“ How am I to trust anyone, when even preacher's speak with crooked tongues?” - Callum Valstone

”I’m myself, and there’s something unholy about that.” - Sadri Sabian

“ No sun could melt this Arctic storm inside my heart, I'm so cold, that even the brave who'd climb Everest would freeze when walking a mile in my shoes.” - Sadri Sabian

“ I am a fairy tale, but not one re-written for children to laugh at, I am the crows pecking at Anastasia and Drizella, I am Pinocchio hanging from the strings that brought him to life, and I am the dagger that plunged into the Little Mermaid's heart upon being given a difficult choice. I am the dark ending to beloved stories.” - Sadri Sabian

"The less I reveal, the more you wonder what made me who I am. You ask more questions, I flip on your intrigue switch, and leave it on until I decide it so that you get too know one piece of the broken puzzle you'd call my life." - Sadri Sabian

"You'll never know what's best for you. All you can do is hope your choices lead to the right path.” - Solomon Bones

“ When all you can do is cry, remember the moments where you could laugh. Because those memories, are strength. They're fuel that keeps you alive.” - Solomon Bones

“ My brother is my hero, really. He doesn't wear a cape, he doesn't have laser eyes, and he can't fly. He wears scars and burdens, but he also wears a golden heart on his sleeve.” - Solomon Bones

“ Isiah is a strange man, but that doesn't make him a bad one. He's built for this world, his soul wiser than one could ever possibly imagine. It takes such a deep pain to be so deeply wise, and my heart hurts, knowing that he's been through so much. But I know my heart beats for him, and I'll always dance underneath the sun, just to feel warmth upon my skin as we twist and twirl through life with a perpetual smile on our lips.” - Mardeca Blackfall

“ I'm a lioness baring her fangs pouncing on those who do me wrong, a huntress in a world where all I can do is stain my paws red.” - Kadlin Paulson

“ I have scars that cut deep into my soul, but I am strong, I am a warrior of Valhalla, and one day the Valkyries shall claim me, but today is not that day. I have battles yet to fight and victories yet to claim.” - Kadlin Paulson

“ I bare my fangs and pounce into battle, I am no coward and so I shall not cower.” - Kadlin Paulson

“ I've lived through so much, but the tale of the little man is never written in the pages of history, they only ever reside in the pages of his mind.” - Marv Callemritz

“ She is no Countess Bathory, for all we know Elizabeth Bathory was a victim of falsehoods and corrupt politicians. For all we know, she could've been a scared little girl. But Tilda is no scared little girl, she wears savagery as a gown, she dances before me in all of my pain, and she haunts my mind.” - Marv Callemritz

“ My life is a battlefield, just as the Civil War, I wage war upon myself. Because I must conquer these demons that reside inside of me, and find a way to rise despite the war I wage being against the man in the mirror. I must make a revolution of oneself, and instead of dumping boxes of tea into the ocean, I must cast my fear off the side of this haunted ship of my cruel, cruel past.” - Marv Callemritz

“ By God, history is a warning and we ignored it.” - Marv Callemritz

"You're not the fantasies of your mind, kid." - Marv Callemritz

"I could play a game of Russian roulette with six bullets in the chamber and still I'd win, after all, six regrets doesn't change the amount of men dead, only the mind set of the man who watched six bullets fly and saw six good men die.” - Osbourne Smithens

“ My mother is a sweet woman, but she couldn't catch me on my fall from Heaven. I slammed into the concrete of reality, realizing I can't be a scared little boy. I have to be everything my brother put on death's row.” - Osbourne Smithens

“ They say to catch a killer, you have to think like one, analyze their every move and walk a thousand miles in their shoes. So I took a walk inside the man who scarred me's mind, and you know what? I've become a monster, just like him.” - Osbourne Smithens

“ I will not rest until that man is dead, he can run, he can hide, but he can't outrun his past. Because I am, his past. And I am the only bullet left in his revolver of secrets." - Osbourne Smithens

"I'm wrapped in crimson bullet casings and sins. I suppose all I am is an empty magazine to an AK 47, because all I hear is the ricochet of death.” - Scarletta Bonewhistle 

“ I could give you a thousand metaphors, or tell you a thousand lies, but none of it would let you know how I feel, only I know that torture, I suppose.” - Drew Dreadful

“ It's almost as if my mind is the atom bomb, destroying the very man who lets it continue existing. I guess as Robert J. Oppenheimer said, I have become death, destroyer of worlds. But the only world I ever destroyed was my own, because I can't let myself live in the world everyone wants me to see.” - Drew Dreadful

"I am nature's excuse to be violent. I can not find the beauty in the trees when I've seen them crashing onto soldiers and catch fire from an enemies spark, I can not see the river run clear when I've watched men fall into the stream and color it red with the paint that spilled from their veins. I can never know the beauty of the world, when I've always been shown it's ugliness.” - Max Caldiph

“ My life has been an ashy torment of a whisper ever since I was sixteen and stepped into the mines I would soon discover were hell on Earth. Three chipper young'uns stepped into those mines on a dare from foolish boys, and three broken souls would walk out.” - Max Caldiph

“ You could see everything I've been through if you saw the scars I wear on the face I hide.” - Max Caldiph

"I'm a travesty of myself, I present who I am in such a distorted way, that not a soul could believe this is who I truly am. But alas, I look in the mirror, and I see my own worst enemy staring back.” - Armen Barrowmore

“ Ya know, an old friend of mine told me I was falling, and asked why I stand at the edge and leap, after all these years, I think I finally have an answer. Because in all this pain, in all this wickedness I've seen, it's better to jump into freezing waters and wrap yourself in a thick coat of ice to protect yourself from those who seek to shatter you.” - Armen Barrowmore

“ I'm not strong enough to be a hero, so I might as well be a villain, even if it's only in my own damn story.” - Armen Barrowmore

“ She's everything I never knew I needed, the way her eyes sparkle in the madness, I don't know how she makes chaos look so damn beautiful, but she does, by God she does. She's my warrior, she'd fight for me any day, and I'd fight side by side with her. Because this love is worth fighting for, we've fought, struggled, but by God have we always loved a lot louder than we've ever hurt.” - Lucille Ramaswami

“ I've let this world crush me, been caught in a riptide of bad decisions and seen the pale red moon shine against my back as I lifted a brick and ended my first damn life.” - Lucille Ramaswami

"I am a revolution, my heartbeat is a war cry, and so long as I'm still standing, darkness has won. Look around, the darkness outweighs the stars these days and the blood spilt is mostly human, the world is broken, and we're in shambles looking for a purpose, so why not find glory in death? Why not show the world you are no cattle to be plucked out of the fence, you're the bob cat that stalks the mountains and drags livestock into it's little corner of blood and bones and makes death your home.” - Velzwakem Boncoat

“ Behold the truest form of nature, blood soaking the fields.” - Velzwakem Boncoat

“ I follow the law of combat, it's kill or be killed, and I'm just not ready to die.” - Velzwakem Boncoat

"Ze black vaters of my heart capsize ze capability too feel anything but hatred. And yet, Lucille clears ze river, and finds a vay to drag me to ze shores of love.” - Marlene Dayvrack

“ I have had blood on my hands since ze age of thirteen, a hired gun because all I vas made to be, vas a killer. But here I am, cocking my AK-47 for justice instead of greed.” - Marlene Dayvrack

“ I have found family, and though zey are not by blood, zey are ze only family I have ever known. Zey'd swim through shark infested vaters to save me from myself, light a candle in ze dark to show me light peaks through ze cracks, and zey taught me, ze vounds are vere ze light seeps through. Izn't it beautiful? To find strength in other's?” - Marlene Dayvrack

"Not all light equates to holiness, after all, even the flames of Hell emits a pale glow. You can hold onto the light all you wish, cling to the street lights as if they'd save you from a man who wanted you dead, but the stars implode, and not even they have the power to stop it.” - Sam Dellwotfire

“ I could give you lies, I could tell you a thousand stories that aren't truthful, but all I can say, really, is I lost my light, and so I plummeted into the dark.” - Sam Dellwotfire

“ I'd say I have regret on my mind, but I pushed it away and accepted who I am, because if I'm being honest, regret only brought me pain, so why let myself feel pain when it's all I've known? I'd rather cause it, because in a sense, I'm powerful, and that's addicting." - Sam Dellwotfire

"I've changed many times through the years. Not all change is good, but it is inevitable." - Sam Dellwotfire

"Life in all it's simplicity is often to complex for a simple mind to bear. So I suppose life is easy for one who doesn't know what it is to become more than someone following the path given to them." - Sam Dellwotfire

"The past tarnishes the present, more often than not." - Sam Dellwotfire

"These days, science is a sin." - Olympus Woods

"I am doomed to be the last one standing. And if I am not, perhaps the world will spin in a direction that sheds light on the atrocity that is I. I have walked a lie, and so I shall become one." - Olympus Woods

"I've already lost my humanity, so all I have left is immortality. Even if I die, I am immortalized in the sense that I am remembered, all the best things end, all the worst things crumble to ash and dust. And perhaps I was never meant to be of bad intent, or a man of wicked science, but alas it is what I've become. I bound just behind the sun, but never touch it, because if I did I would burn alive and become nothing but ashes in the crimson sunset." - Olympus Woods

"I could blame God, I could blame fate or existence itself. But I am to blame, and perhaps that is what makes me continue. Because if I dared turn to face my shadow, I'd become it." - Olympus Woods

"I've never fought. All I've done is lose, but I call it winning because it boosts the goal I've set in my mind. In theory I could win if I just took a chance and leapt towards fate on a mere one percent chance." - Olympus Woods

"Feeling often leads to tragedy. All my life I've dedicated to wiping emotion from my slate, and yet I find I can give other's my wish, but never can I hold it." - Olympus Woods

"I fear change, because it's all I've ever done. I am an everchanging beast, and all change has ever brought me is sorrow." - Olympus Woods

"Rosabella, you romanticize me in such ways that could not be possible. You believe in me, but belief will get you nowhere when I do not believe I can change." - Olympus Woods

"I have marked my back with many a scar for this country. For my Government I became a soldier of the dark, spinning tales of sin for the damned of this country. And yet, they spun me the exact same damn tale in favor." - Earl Mumford

"I can succeed, just not in the tasks you give me. I fear if I let myself regret even more, my lungs would fail to keep the black waters from crawling up my throat and drowning me from the inside out." - Madam Stephanie Rose

"I'm a sin wrapped inside of trickery and black blood." - Richmond Venwokebridge

"Lost are the pieces I wish I had. But I suppose we don't always get what we want, and I have to learn to accept that." - Pablo Havelock

"When one fears for their life, they give away their darkest secrets." - Tilda Hawsberry

"No one acts like that. Not even on a stage." - Hermann Pastel

"I'm a survivor. But how can I be proud of that when so many other's don't hold that title?" - Hermione Vallwing

"The King can wail, beg and confess. But that never stopped him from swinging my mother from the gallows, and so it shan't stop me." - Magenta Starwidth

"Well then.. looks like we're damned.. on Earth." - Abraham Carlson

"I find it kinda funny, that people will damn someone for what their mind did to them. You condemn the person, yet forget it's the mind that's the villain." - Lilah Smith

"Don't let yourself become so ensnared in a person that them hurting you, would shatter your perception of trust." - Lilah Smith

"You can't fall trick to their schemes, you can't just surrender your dreams too those whom spin nightmares." - Lilah Smith

"Glory was never found in death, only life." - Russell Cormellius

"We are victims of a world that burns before us due to the hatred we let go wild." - Salvador Boardman

"I will never fear the world, I will instead fear what the world holds." - Salvador Boardman

"The world will never favor you. We're all the same in the eyes of the stars." - Corrie Vendowoft

"One can never understand the complexity of love. It's a rarity to find a love so whole and complete that it leaves you star struck, looking for any reason to hold onto the one you've found." - Lizbeth Samwick

"My best'a intentions have gone up in damn smoke." - Chase North

"Difference 'tween me and a preacher, Roman, is I leave it up to God to forgive you. Cause my bullet's got your damn name on it." - Chase North

"The ashes of my soul stand before me, and all they do is crumble between gloved fingers." - Victor Hughes

“ Oh broken soldier of my past, doth thou know it is someone else dancing before the stage? Doth thou know I am but behind the curtain, wondering oh why won't you save me? Why would you condemn me without once trying too show me salvation? But no, I'm just somebody else, a shadow of the angel you once called brother." - Victor Hughes

"Us humans are vile beasts. We rip and tear at each other's hides knowing it was but choice of our own too grow claws when we were always meant to have but hands barren of a beasts tool for survival." - Victor Hughes

"No sleep works through this tired mind, there's sparks in my head, perhaps one might call me insane? But no. There's a very thin line between insanity and being broken. And yet I walk upon the rope, knowing one day it shall wrap around my neck and watch me swing." - Victor Hughes

"I cracked the halls in my mind simply so I may hide as the feeble house around me collapsed. In my head I hear a million conversations, and yet one voice." - Victor Hughes

"If you hold onto the smallest of good moments, even.. a butterfly landing on your finger, or.. when your mother would cook your favorite meal, you'll realize it isn't the darkness that has a hold on us, we can't dwell on the past and expect the future to be any better. I've learned to carry on through all the bullshit." - Lilly Van Velk

"I shall dance with my demons, let them take lead, and when they think of themselves in charge, I shall make them bleed." - Timotheus Naziger

"I am as lost as Alice, as mad as the Hatter, as confused as the Rabbit, as wise as the caterpillar, I am Wonderland, all mixed into one mind." - Timotheus Naziger

"My deepest pain does not make me a warrior, it just makes me.. broken." - Angelica Hippens

"I don't grieve what happened.. I grieve what didn't." - Grant Filepen

"My demons destroyed me in the most beautiful of ways, for I loved them, and what you love, often is the most prepossessing of undoing's. It is in what we cherish we find our darkest of desires, for too save what you love, you would end what you do not." - Vessemir Hussane

"I'm no hero, mate, I'm just a broken man, wearing the tattered cape of a dead man." - Abraham Vanfelt

"Blood is a finnicky thing ta stain your pages. It can be your own, it can be an enemies, it can be a friends, a lover, a father a son. It doesn't discriminate. No matter the purpose of it upon your pages. We're all sinners friend, some of us just accept it. We all have demons, some of us just feed them." - Bill Duster

" All my life, I've looked for the sun, but once I held it in my hands, it's burn was too hot ta the touch. And I was consumed by the very flame I thought my salvation." - Buddy Duster

"When pain is all I know, I tip my hat ta the stars, and tell 'em ta guide me through the dark." - Ellen Duster

"The sound of my heart poundin' tells me I'm still alive. The tinge of pain in my bones tells me I'm still breathin', and the twist in my heart tells me my heart ain't broke yet." - Ellen Duster

"I have lived a life of partial luxury, and I know you say, "You've only known small amounts of suffering, and you think you understand pain?" And yes, I would understand pain. For it only has to be dealt in small amounts too be understood." - Katrice Foltick

" I charge into battle with reckless abandon, I raise my rifle, yet forgot it is I who shall taste the dark, not the one whom falls inta the dirt." - Natasha Law

"We do not decide our fate, but we do decide who we are." - Rando Ballsy

"The world told unto me a thousand lies, so I told unto it my a thousand truths. It told me I would live in sin, so I told it I would live in tranquility. It told me the darkness was my ally, so I simply said light was my friend, and the sun was my lover." - Rando Ballsy

"For when the wind is howlin', and my pain is soarin', that's when I know I am whole. For I can stand in the rain, and remember it is too drink, not too drown. So oh fallen brother's of mine, I'm doing the best I can, and I can only hope, I'm not doin' what you'd do, but doin' what I would."  - Alonzo Graves

"As I stand here, rememberin' my brothers whom have fallen, I wonder what it is they'd do now? What would Sandusky do if he was in my shoes? What would Joseph do if he was walking my miles? What would Mike say if it was he who had too inspire? What is it Nathaniel would do if he was the one breakin'?" - Alonzo Graves

"Time and time again I drag myself to her, she is but nicotine upon my lip. She is but my addiction. And yet she is no mortal, she is no real woman, she is simply the cold in which I stand when warmth is but one step forward, and yet I take two steps back." - Hoshino Akinori

"There was but a time I grew so close with the darkness that she touched my skin, but oh, she marked me with sin. I grew so far into the dark, that she simply gave me warmth in the fires she knew would consume this cold soul." - Hoshino Akinori

"Delusions lead to sin, and sin leads to damnation. So why dance in a bitter delusion when you know it leads to hell?" - Roman Hemlock

"I'm a strange mix of corrupt and lawful." - Karstellonius Alexander

"The torch was not past down to me, and yet still I felt it's burn." - Cadencia Malrosa

"My reflection is a twisted variant of me. How am I ever to find peace if I'm trapped in a web of the lack of a sane mind?" - Mack Morfellos

"I leave the forgiveness of me up ta God, cause my enemies don't deserve the word mercy in their vocabulary." - Jeffrey Newhunt

"They put us in boxes and expect us to stay put. No living creature ever stayed inside a maze." - Wyatt Demouchett

"The secrets I hold have never tarnished me. Only other's." - Samuel Javencrocks

"Believe me, or don't, either way my story is one written in the devil's book." - Warren Shanaghost 

  "I ain't so scared of others, really. Just myself." - Friella Beckenheimer 

  "Give me a penny for my thoughts, and a drink for my memories." - Vector Beckenheimer 

“We're sinners by design, but whoever said one can't stray from the path?" - O'Neil Morikstead

"Sometimes our darker side writes our story, and if you see that little bastard writin', take the quill from 'is hands, and start writin' your own tale instead." - Frank Smilowitz 

 "As my lungs filled with water I realized I had lived a life full of regret, and then I pulled myself outta the water, and I started again. Cause if I can realize I'm filled ta the brim with sin, I can stop myself in my tracks, and turn the other damn direction." - Frank Smilowitz 

"When we're young we see the world through a dreamers eyes, but why do we sell those dreams when we grow?" - Michelle Smilowitz

"I'm screamin' out loud, can you hear me now monster above my cell? You can run, you can hide, but you forgot too build your arc before the storm. What's the storm? Oh she's brewin' just under your floorboards, and she's sick of being the secret you keep in this broken home. You tore into my heart and forgot I had claws, I'm screamin' loud monster, so build that arc, before it's too damn late. Cause the flood is comin' to your gates."  - Michelle Smilowitz

"I have lived my life in a cage, I'm far from home, I've sent a message of blood and bone.. hoping you know what it means. My love if you get this, come and rescue me in the dark, my son, if you get this, please find me, let your heart guide you forth through the dark, dear mother, if you hear this, please know it is not your fault that I am lost, and oh father, if you get this, please know you were never broken, you were just a hero hiding behind a thin mask." - Michelle Smilowitz

"You say faith is what keeps me alive, but it was not strong enough, but hate drove me forward, hate kept this heart pumping. Faith is not enough too keep us alive in the dark. It's a tiny spark, but hate is a wildfire that rages through out the dark and singes our souls." - Fiend Masters

"In all chaos there is calculation, you can not tell me God didn't create evil, he created all, did he not? So there was a method to his madness.. and it was all made within the span of three days. On the first day, tranquility was made upon these lands, the trees, the bird who sung.. on the second day God created the storm.. and on the third and final day, God would make his first mistake, making a life sentient." - Holland Gursoch 

#alotofthisisold #author #writer #writing #characters #dialogue #characterwriting #coolstuff

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OUAT Episode Analysis- One Little Tear

Well, things certainly got interesting in this episode.  There were a few times I actually had to pause the episode so my brain could reboot itself.  That’s how much new information they dropped on us.

So we open on a dark and stormy night, with a young woman racing to save her husband’s life.  Apparently, the husband was gravely ill, so the woman was searching for a magical cure, which was said to reside in a witch’s garden.  It’s revealed that the woman’s name is Rapunzel. Turns out Blonde Rapunzel really is an actual person.  She wasn’t just a false identity Gothel took up to deceive Wish Killian into impregnating her.

Anyway, Blonde Rapunzel enters the witch’s garden to find the cure for her husband’s illness, leaving the husband in question under the watch of their two daughters.  Before she can find the magical plant, Blonde Rapunzel is confronted by Gothel.  It’s here that we got a really interesting nod to the traditional version of the Rapunzel fairy tale.  Remember how, in the original version, Rapunzel’s father enters the witch’s garden to fetch some radishes for his pregnant wife, and when the witch catches him in the act, she makes a deal with him that involves him taking the radishes while the witch will lay claim to the baby when she’s born?  Well, in this version, it’s Rapunzel herself who enters the witch’s garden to safe her husband’s life and encounters the witch. And instead of the witch claiming a baby as payment, Gothel makes it so Rapunzel gets trapped in the tower. Basically, Gothel gets Blonde Rapunzel to say she’d be willing to do anything to ensure her husband lives and her family remains safe, so Gothel makes it so the price Blonde Rapunzel has to pay to ensure that would happen would be for her to be separated from her family.  As you might expect, Blonde Rapunzel is not pleased when she finds out the nature of the fine print, and she cries out desperately into the night for her family, who are unfortunately too far away to hear her.

However, this leads to the first big twist of the episode.  When calling out to her family, Blonde Rapunzel reveals the names of her two daughters are Anastasia and Drizella.  Which means Blonde Rapunzel is actually a younger Parallel Stepmother. The interesting thing about this is that I saw some people speculating that this would be the case from the moment they made the casting announcement for Blonde Rapunzel, since the actress playing Blonde Rapunzel bore a strong resemblance to the woman playing Parallel Stepmother/Victoria Belfry.  But still, the fact that this turned out to actually be the case is still pretty amazing.

So anyway, Blonde Rapunzel/Younger Parallel Stepmother eventually escapes from the tower after six years go by, because her hair had grown long enough to be used as a rope.  She manages to locate her lost family rather quickly, as Young Anastasia had taken to releasing some sky lanterns periodically, in the hopes that they would help her mother find them again.  And Blonde Rapunzel is overjoyed to see her two girls again, and is especially happy to see her husband, Marcus, also lived.  But then, the reunion ends with a piecing record scratch.  Turns out, Marcus believed Blonde Rapunzel to be dead after so many years and has moved on, marrying a widow named Cecilia, and becoming stepfather to Cecilia’s daughter, Ella.

 Well, how’s that for a twist? So the father Parallel Ella clearly loved so much, the one who was eventually murdered by the prince Parallel Ella wanted to kill in revenge was actually the biological father of Parallel Ella’s stepsisters.  And the stepmother was the original wife.  That really was an interesting turn of events.  I admit, I do feel really bad for Marcus, as he must have been finding the whole situation extremely awkward.  Because he obviously loved Blonde Rapunzel, but he also loved Cecilia just as much.  So he can’t just dump his new wife because it turns out his original wife was alive. (And before any Outlaw Queen shippers try to argue that that’s what Robin did when Not Marian entered the picture, let me remind you that Robin and Regina weren’t married, and had only been together for a week at best.  So it’s not the same thing!)

 Thankfully, to Cecilia’s credit, she seems to take the whole thing in stride, and Blonde Rapunzel apparently ends up living on the estate with them, in order for her to maintain a relationship with her daughters.  But it appears Young Drizella isn’t exactly warming up to her mother.  It isn’t exactly clear why.  I suppose it’s possible that it’s just because she was quite young when Blonde Rapunzel disappeared, and she doesn’t remember her as that well, so Cecilia was the only mother figure she can remember having.  But at the same time, there doesn’t seem to be that much of an age difference between Drizella and Anastasia, who is clearly thrilled to have her birth mother back.  So I’m not entirely sure what Drizella’s issue is supposed to be.  Is she angry at her mother for disappearing on them so abruptly?  Because that was hardly Blonde Rapunzel’s fault.

That’s when Gothel pops up again. At first, it kinda looks like she’s there to gloat or something, but she them presents Blonde Rapunzel with a test. She gives her the toadstool from Parallel Wonderland, which is the key to casting the Curse of the Poisoned Heart on a person.  She tells Blonde Rapunzel that all she has to do is place a few drops of the toadstools toxin into Cecilia’s drink, and that will end up forcing her away so Blonde Rapunzel can reclaim her place as the main mother figure in the family.  At first, Blonde Rapunzel refuses the temptation, as Cecilia is a really nice woman and has done nothing to deserve such treatment.  But sometime later, at Drizella’s birthday party, Blonde Rapunzel ends up snapping after witnessing Drizella call Cecelia ‘mother,’ especially after Drizella had barely acknowledged her birth mother’s present.  So Blonde Rapunzel ends up placing the Curse of the Poisoned Heart on Cecilia.  And we know from Parallel Ella’s account a few episodes back what happened next. Cecilia ran off to Parallel Wonderland and Marcus went after her, only to come back empty handed because, unbeknownst to them, Cecelia ended up being killed by Parallel Jabberwocky.  So Marcus ended up remarrying Blonde Rapunzel.

For a time, things are pretty normal, with apparently no one knowing the hand Blonde Rapunzel played in Cecilia’s disappearance.  But then, during the winter, Young Anastasia, Young Drizella and Young Parallel Ella are playing together when a sudden gust of wind blows their snowman’s hat out onto the frozen pond nearby.  So Young Parallel Ella goes out to retrieve it, not noticing the ice is cracking beneath her feet.  Young Anastasia, however, does notice, so she heads out after her stepsister.  This results in both girls falling through the ice, with Marcus jumping in to save them while Drizella and Blonde Rapunzel watch from the shore.  To Blonde Rapunzel’s horror, Marcus ends up pulling Parallel Ella out first.  Which really upsets her, as she apparently sees this as Marcus choosing Cecilia’s daughter over their own flesh and blood. Which I guess, in her mind, is the same as Marcus showing he loved Cecelia more than he did her.  While I get why she felt that way, I don’t think that was what Marcus was doing, even subconsciously.  I’m just saying, it was undoubtedly really cold and dark under the icy pond. Chances are, he just grabbed onto the first girl he saw without even knowing which girl he grabbed until he made it to the surface again. It’s kind of like how it was with Robert and Ruth, in the Murder Most Foul flashback.  It wasn’t as if they chose to give up Baby James because they loved Baby David more. It was just a random chance that James was the baby that was taken to be raised by King George.  It could just have easily been David that was whisked away.   I could have misinterpreted this scene, but I think it was the exact same thing going on here.  Marcus wasn’t intentionally choosing Ella over Anastasia. He just happened to grab hold of Ella first.

In addition, this moment does show that Parallel Stepmother had no legit reason to blame Parallel Ella for Anastasia’s condition.  Because it clearly was no one’s fault that they fell through the ice.  It was just a tragic turn of events that no one could have predicted or avoided.  So Parallel Ella has no reason to feel guilty for what happened to Anastasia.

In any event, Blonde Rapunzel ends up brining the frozen body of Young Anastasia to Gothel, begging the witch to save her daughter’s life.  Come to think of it, it’s a bit odd that Blonde Rapunzel ended up turning to Gothel for help, considering their history, but I guess she was just that desperate. Gothel manages to place the girl in a state of suspended animation, so she would be preserved in the state between living and dead until they found a way to revive her.  That’s when Gothel says she gave Blonde Rapunzel the poisoned toadstool as a test, to see if she was pure enough to not be corrupted by evil and put her happiness over the happiness of others.  And she ultimately failed that test, which led to Gothel deciding that Blonde Rapunzel couldn’t possibly be The Guardian.  Because Gothel’s apparently looking for the Guardian, too, for reasons I don’t think they’ve disclosed yet.  However, Gothel now suspects that Anastasia could be The Guardian, so she plans to seal away Anastasia in the tower.  And this time, she’s placed a blood magic spell over the tower to ensure the next occupant could never escape the way Blonde Rapunzel did.  But before Gothel can enact her spell, Blonde Rapunzel, unwilling to let the comatose Anastasia get trapped in the tower, pulls a fast one by swiping the blood magic vial from Gothel and splashing the contents onto the witch.  Which explains how Gothel ended up trapped in the tower herself.  But now, Blonde Rapunzel/Parallel Stepmother is now left with the comatose Anastasia.  As well as a bitter heart, because she now believes that there are no happy endings, even if you’re good.  Because everything she did was to ensure her family would remain together, but now her husband supposedly loves another woman, one daughter is near dead, and the other daughter barely acknowledges her.

In present day Hyperion Heights, we get a confrontation between Parallel Stepmother and Drizella, who is apparently now angry that Parallel Stepmother seemingly favored Anastasia over her.  Which is a rather bizarre thing for Drizella to be angry about because the flashback showed Young Drizella wanting nothing to do with her birth mother.  And it was Blonde Rapunzel’s desire for Drizella to accept her as her mother that drove her to curse Cecilia.  So I’m a bit iffy on what Drizella’s malfunction is.  Maybe she’s just bipolar?  I don’t know.

Anyway, Drizella soon leaves, but then meets up with Gothel, so they could continue to find out where Parallel Stepmother hid Anastasia’s body.  Still not entirely sure what they want with Anastasia yet.  I suppose Gothel still suspects Anastasia might be The Guardian, but what does she need The Guardian for?  And what is Drizella hoping to gain from their alliance?  Hopefully, they’ll explain that soon.  Regardless, they soon decide to follow Parallel Stepmother when Rumpelstiltskin helps her get out of jail through some legal loophole or something. Because Parallel Stepmother was able to bribe him with information on The Guardian.

When Rogers/Wish Killian finds out that Rumpelstiltskin/Weaver helped get Parallel Stepmother/Victoria out of jail, he is completely livid over how his supposed partner keeps going behind his back and freeing the bad guys.  So he starts a side quest to dig up the dirt on Weaver.  It starts with him breaking into Weaver’s evidence storeroom. Inside, he finds extensive files on various people within Hyperion Heights, including himself and Sabine/Tiana. (He also finds his trademark hook tucked away in an evidence baggie, which is something that made me super excited. Here’s hoping he’s able to reclaim his hook before much longer.)

So, trying to find out why Weaver/Rumpelstiltskin is keeping files on everyone, Rogers/Wish Killian visits Sabine/Tiana at her food truck, which is almost ready for use.  He asks her about the arson case that Weaver was supposed to follow up on.  Sabine states that the story Weaver gave her was that the arsonist managed to break in by jimmying the lock with a dagger that was disposed of in a dumpster nearby. When Sabine draws a picture of the dagger for Rogers, it’s revealed, to no one’s surprise, that it’s the Dark One’s Dagger.  The strange thing is, Sabine states Weaver insisted on her holding the Dagger for a moment and asking if she felt anything.  I have no idea what Rumpelstiltskin was after in having Tiana hold his dagger.  Does he think she’s The Guardian?  I really hope it doesn’t turn out that Tiana somehow became a Dark One herself prior to this new curse being cast.  Because I don’t see how that would serve any kind of purpose.

While all this is going on, Drizella and Gothel manage to follow Parallel Stepmother and Rumpelstiltskin to the place where Anastasia’s body is hidden.  But Parallel Stepmother manages to smuggle it away before the duo could confront them.  We then get a scene with Gothel and Rumpelstiltskin confronting each other. Because they’re both looking for The Guardian.  Though we only know why Rumpelstiltskin is trying to find him/her.  Because he wants to give up his immortality to reunite with Belle in the afterlife.

Now, I’m going to birdwalk a bit, because this is something that I find rather iffy.  While it’s clearly supposed to be all romantic that Rumpelstiltskin just wants to reunite with Belle and all, will he just drop dead the moment he gives up the Dark One’s power?  Is that what he’s hoping that will happen?  Because that’s kinda jerky on his part, considering he still has a living son out there.  Yeah, do you remember Gideon?  The son that Rumpy Rumps was so focused on protecting in S6?  I think it stands to reason that he’s still out there somewhere. But it looks as if Rumpelstiltskin is only thinking about getting back with Belle, and is not sparing a thought for Gideon.  If that’s the case, I really feel bad for the guy.  He’s already lost his mother when he was still just a young adult.  Now his father is only focused on dying to be with his dead wife again.  I’m sorry, but this is not healthy.  I wouldn’t make a big deal of it, except for the fact that a large number of anti-CSers had gone on mouth foaming rampages when Emma forgave and took Killian back after his brief stint as a Dark One, accusing her of forgetting about her son in favor of a man.  But are they throwing a fit over Rumpelstiltskin seemingly ignoring Gideon’s existence to go on what is essentially a suicide mission?  Did they make a peep when Snow volunteered herself for a heart split to resurrect Charming, even though doing so was risking not just her life, but the life of her unborn son as well?  And if the heart split failed, then she would have once again made it so Emma wouldn’t have either parent in her life?  Why does only Emma get flack for wanting to be with the man she loves when she has never once chosen Killian over Henry?

Rant aside, Gothel puts an end to the confrontation when she asks Rumpelstiltskin if he knew where Lucy was. Because apparently, while the two were arguing, Parallel Stepmother was able to approach Lucy after school, where she shows her the original Storybook, proving that everything Lucy had believed about curses and fairy tales was real.  Lucy, not questioning how Parallel Stepmother managed to find the Storybook, and apparently forgetting Parallel Stepmother is supposed to be the bad guy, goes off with her.  While they’re alone, Parallel Stepmother tells Lucy a rather slanted version of the story that was presented in the flashback.  The way Parallel Stepmother sees it, she tried to be a hero and fight for her happy ending with her family, but instead lost it all.  So now Parallel Stepmother believes there’s no such thing as happy endings, and she tries to enforce this viewpoint onto Lucy.

Okay, once again, I completely get where Parallel Stepmother is coming from.  But at the same time, her logic is really warped.  In a way, she’s very similar to Ingrid.  Because Ingrid firmly believed that no one with the magical gene could ever be truly accepted by their family, and you could tell from her backstory why she thought that way.  But the problem was, she kept trying to prove her stance to Elsa and Emma by either framing Elsa for hurting Not Marian or feeding on Emma’s insecurities from years of isolation.  (Not to mention it was only Snow who seemed to react to Emma’s magical spike with fear and anger.  Everyone else was simply worried about Emma.)  In much the same way, Parallel Stepmother did kinda bring her misfortune on herself, by poisoning Cecilia in order to force her out of the picture. Cecilia did nothing to deserve that. She was shown as being nothing but kind and supportive to Blonde Rapunzel.  Sure, I get how it might be upsetting to watch the man you married happy and in love with his new wife and all, and how it would feel to see your daughter push you away while latching onto the second wife.  But wouldn’t the logical thing be for her to actually talk it out with Drizella?  At least figure out why she doesn’t seem to be willing to reconnect.  Because I don’t see how Young Drizella could have thought her mother loved Anastasia more than her back then.  There was no reason whatsoever for Blonde Rapunzel to punish Cecilia for Drizella’s attitude.

I’m just saying, Blonde Rapunzel was just a bit too focused on getting a happy ending that matched her specific specification.  That’s not how life works.  Sometimes, you have to be willing to be adaptable.  If your happy ending isn’t panning out the way you originally envisioned it, then perhaps it’s best to tweak it a bit.  Because maybe the happy ending you pictured isn’t your true happy ending.  Do you think I didn’t once believe my happy ending would involve me getting a job that was connected to my college degree and having a nice little apartment somewhere? Because, ten years later, I’m working a minimum wage retail job while still living in my parents’ house.  Does that mean I’m supposed to just give up on my dreams of eventually getting a better life?  Or does it mean that my happy ending is still on its way, and it’s simply not time for me to achieve it?

 In any event, Parallel Stepmother apparently manages to break Lucy’s spirit when she shows her a video clip of Jacinda kissing Nick.  There was an earlier scene when Nick announced he had built up a strong enough case to ensure Jacinda could maintain full custody of Lucy, and in the heat of the moment, they kissed in celebration.  But Jacinda quickly pulled away once she realized what she was doing. And then she returned to thinking about Henry, as evidenced by her smiling at the mix tape she’d made him. But the video Lucy saw only showed the kiss.  The weird thing was, how did Parallel Stepmother know the kiss was going to happen? Because she apparently placed a hidden camera in Jacinda’s apartment earlier in the episode in order to catch it on video.  Did Parallel Stepmother do something to engineer the kiss?  It just seems a bit too convenient for it to be otherwise.

Regardless, the sight of her mother kissing the man Lucy knows is not her father, and the knowledge that Henry left town without a word to anyone, ends up crushing Lucy’s spirit, and she sheds a tear before running off.  But this tear appears to be what Parallel Stepmother needed to revive Anastasia, which she is able to do successfully.  Unfortunately, the moment Anastasia wakes up, Lucy instantly collapses, much to Jacinda’s alarm.  Because the whole bit with Lucy’s life being the price for Anastasia’s revival apparently holds true.  So it appears next episode is going to be running at a mile a minute. The weird thing is, based on the promo for the next episode, the reinforcement Regina went to find in San Francisco is going to be Zelena.  I’m kinda wondering what Regina expects Zelena to do.  Didn’t Zelena lose her magic at the end of S6?  It all got absorbed into that Crimson Heart thing, didn’t it?  So how’s she going to help in a fight against Gothel, Drizella and Parallel Stepmother? Unless Regina plans on having Zelena utilize her trademark car attack.  Not gonna lie, I still get a chuckle from the mental image of Black Fairy being sent flying by Zelena’s green car.

So I have no idea what’s going to happen now.  Obviously, Henry’s going to return after his impromptu road trip with Regina.  And there’s no doubt he’s going to play a key role in reviving Lucy.  Maybe that will start to show Parallel Stepmother that she was wrong about there being no such thing as a happy ending, and the only problem was that she just gave up too quickly.  I just really hope the curse that’s keeping everyone from remembering breaks next episode, too.  Not only is it dragging on a bit too long for my taste, next episode is the winter finale. So if the episode ends with Lucy still unconscious and/or the curse still unbroken, I’m going to be so mad.

I’m also really wanting to see the final pieces of the puzzle.  Such as when Henry and Parallel Ella were supposed to have conceived Lucy, especially considering she’s ten and Henry and the others don’t look much older than they were in the flashback segments.  And why does Gothel want to find The Guardian?  (Not to mention how she somehow knows about Belle, seeing as how she mentioned her during the episode.  That was weird, as Belle died before Rumpelstiltskin set foot into Parallel Enchanted Forest.  So how does Gothel know about Belle? I can’t see Rumpy casually mentioning her to anyone, can you?)  Also, wasn’t Tiger Lily supposed to be a player in all of this?  When does she enter the picture?

On a closing note, I want to address the angle with Rumpelstiltskin and Rogers/Wish Killian.  This episode, we got a scene with Rogers confronting Weaver/Rumpy about the files he was keeping on everyone. Rumpelstiltskin ends up giving a vague answer, saying that everything he’s doing in Hyperion Heights is part of his plan to reunite with his wife, Belle.  This ends up with making Rogers sympathetic to Rumpelstiltskin, which makes sense since he probably subconsciously remembers his plight as Wish Killian, and how he was separated from his daughter, Alice. But I’m starting to wonder if the show is leading up to Rumpelstiltskin and Wish Killian being friends once the curse breaks and Wish Killian regains his memories.  Not sure I like the idea of them being friends. I think I prefer them as enemies, to be honest.  Not that I’m saying I want Wish Killian to become hell-bent on killing Rumpelstiltskin or anything.  Especially since his ire should be directed solely at Gothel at present.  The thing that’s making me raise an eyebrow is Rumpelstiltskin himself.  Does he know that the Killian he’s talking to isn’t Killian Prime?  And is he even capable of letting go of his grudge against Killian?  His actions during the Frozen arc and onward alone make me doubtful.

(Click here to read more Episode Analyses)

#ouat 7x09 #blonde rapunzel #parallel!evil stepmother #drizella #anastasia #rumpelstiltskin #slightly anti rumpelstitskin #detective rogers #wish world!killian #jacinda #sabine #lucy mills #mother gothel

[j-philly-b]

P1 Thanks! So, I’m trying to reconcile all the information and I’m partial to the Tremaine is Rapunzel theory, so be warned! My first instinct was Alice, coz Chess piece, but that felt too obvious, so I went back to the connection between Tremaine and WWH, but Drizella was still kinda obvious, and then I remembered the missing Anastasia who will show up later this season. So, I’m thinking: WWH hides in Rapunzel’s Tower a la Flynn Ryder, they share the night and he’s gone the next morning,

P2 leaving Rapunzel/ LT to face theconsequences (pregnancy), which is why she’s mad at him. They don’t appear tobe working together, so probably one of the following happened: 1) Rapunzel/ LTgets banished and her daughter is kept as replacement, which she doesn’t mindcoz she didn’t want the child in the first place, or 2) LT offers her daughteras replacement to gain her own freedom. Either way, she gets to leave the towerand doesn’t care about Anastasia, who becomes Rapunzel 2.0. LT and

P3 WWH cross paths and he finds out about hischild, which is when he goes back and starts sneaking in to be with her. Atsome point the witch finds out, WWH gets cursed and Rapunzel 2.0/ Anastasia ishidden away. The witch could be malicious or trying to protect her charge(misunderstanding), depends on her motivation for keeping a child, which Ican’t figure out so far. So LT is the mother, but uninvested; WWH cares onlyabout his daughter, not the mother; Anastasia is accounted for; LT and

P4 WWH connection is explained; the writerscleverly avoid drama over a hook love interest by only implying the relationand not showing them in love or anything; there’s a connection to Henry’sfamily, which is par for the course with this show; and I got Rapunzel into themix. Did I miss anything? Drizella would be either Jacinda’s halfsister or thechild of LT’s first marriage in this scenario. Granted, the whole thing iscomplicated, convoluted and pretty out there, but it’s not like OUAT

P5 isn’t, so… What do you think? I have toadmit, I did not like the wishverse mess in S6 so I never wanted it mentionedagain, but somehow, when 7x02 aired, I realized that this was probably the bestthey could have done, and after a few days, what used to be mostly relief thatCS got their HE turned into genuine interest in WishHook and his story? Itfeels fresh somehow? Wonder if they can do the same for Regina and Rumple, Imean, give their stories a breath of fresh air?Anyway, thanks again!

The wish realm, man don’t even get me started on that one…

Instead, let’s jump into theorizing about Hook 2’s daughter,way more fun for me. Your theory ties things up a lot more neatly than minedoes. Really well thought out, and certainly plausible. I’ve been thinkingabout it for a few days now, so I’ll offer my take in response:

At this point there are quite a few young women who are aboutthe right age to be the daughter: Alice, Anastasia (I missed the castingspoiler on that one), Cinderella, Drizella, Rapunzel, and Tiana. Am I missinganyone?

Cinderella is the only one who has mentioned her father sofar, when she confronted the Prince. But we also know that Hook 2 joins forceswith Cinderella and Tiana in the alt!EF, so that seems to eliminate both ofthem from contention. Leaving us with Alice, Anastasia, Drizella, and Rapunzel.

I found a couple of things interesting in the scene between Hook2 and Lady Tremaine. One, it was played more for comedy than high drama – the whimsicalscore underlining the scene, Tremaine’s reactions, etc. So I got the impressionthat the two might have had a mutually beneficial working relationship at somepoint in the past, possible in the realm that shall not be named. Two, Hook 2made a point of telling us that Tremaine is very good a procuring things, whichmade me wonder if she was a thief or con woman of some kind when she was ayounger woman and they had their run-in with each other.

Ok, so, if they did meet when Tremaine was a younger woman,then that would mean that Tremaine is also from the realm that must not benamed. But if she is, then she can’t really be either Lady Tremaine or Rapunzel,right? Why not? Because we know that EF prime already had those characters, andthe wish realm, as a bastardized duplicate of EF prime, would have had them aswell. Although it would not preclude a young Tremaine, whatever her real namemight have been, from being the baby mama, it would eliminate the theory ofTremaine being a grown-up Rapunzel full stop. It would also eliminate Rapunzelfrom contention of being Hook 2’s daughter, but not Tremaine’s daughters,although, again, the wish realm should have already had its own versions ofDrizella and Anastasia, so the versions we are dealing with this season, wouldhave been born with different names. (Am I getting too bogged down in details,making this overly convoluted?).

However, if Tremaine and Hook 2 met up after he left the verkaktewish realm, which to be honest is the version I prefer, and Tremaine is from adifferent part of the alt!EF, then her being Rapunzel is very possible. Althoughthat drastically reduces the chances that Tremaine is the mother of Hook 2’sdaughter, which to me eliminates Anastasia, Drizella, and Rapunzel ascandidates. Leaving us only with Alice.

So, yes, the white knight and black rook chess pieces maybemake it too obvious to think that Alice is Hook 2’s daughter, but she’s alsothe right kind of crazy to be Hook 2’s daughter, especially if she was isolatedand imprisoned by a witch for who knows what purposes. We often give the writersmore credit than they deserve for plotting clever twists, when it was in factthe obvious all along. I mean, come on, Hook 2 is his daughter’s white knight? Betweenthat and him stabbing himself in 7x02 and almost dying, I bet we see Hook 2sacrifice himself for his daughter by the end of the season. Not to say I thinkhe’s going to die, but I think it will be a very close thing to bring his storyfull circle.

There’s another component that I’ve been thinking of sincelast Friday – I think they are going to keep Hook 2 as “pure” as possible. I’vediscussed this with a few other people already, but I think the use of bloodmagic in 7x02 is going to come up again in relation to Hook 2. The more I thinkabout it, I think Hook 2’s daughter was conceived through a magical version ofIVF involving blood magic and knocking out the baby daddy. Mainly becauseA&E haven’t gone as far as they could on the creepy methods of babyconception yet. And two because I think they’re going to go out of theirway to avoid showing any version of Hook in a position with a woman that couldbe deemed sexual in nature, whether consensual or not.

I would not be surprised at all if Hook 2 finds out abouthis daughter because the baby is left on his doorstep (gangplank?), or he getssome mysterious message about an infant daughter that he goes out to seek. He,of course, falls in love with her immediately because one thing we know aboutHook is his capacity to love and to love deeply. So the daughter is his TL,doesn’t matter where she came from, who the mother is, she’s the TL that mayhave inspired him to start changing his ways but then she was kidnapped by thewitch. Why? No idea, I assume we’ll find out and it will be a silly reason. Butit leads to Hook 2’s heart being poisoned/cursed, and he and his daughter eachbeing driven close to madness trying to find each other?

#j rambles #anonymous #ouat speculation #ouat s7 spec #ouat s7 #thinking it ouat #ouat 7x02 #smart shipmates

[nellie-elizabeth]

Once Upon a Time: Wake Up Call (7x06)

Well... that's kind of depressing, isn't it? Yikes. I'm not even sure how to process this! Poor Regina!

Cons:

There's a part of me that's rolling my eyes, right, because Once Upon a Time likes to do this thing where it gets itself bogged down into too many rules and ceremonies with magic, but doesn't actually define the magic properly enough to justify this. We learn that Drizella enacted a dark curse that sent everybody to Hyperion Heights, but that she put a failsafe in that means that if the curse is broken, something bad will happen to the people that Regina loves. We're not sure what that is yet. Well, the way to break the curse is with True Love's Kiss, meaning that Regina is now in the position of trying to prevent Henry and Jacinda from getting together. It's a little too hokey and convenient.

I'm also not sure if I like how quickly Drizella developed from intriguing maybe-villain to outright mega-bad-guy. She's shown as a deeply conflicted and sad young woman, but in the space of one episode, she transforms and becomes truly vindictive and terrible. Maybe a little sudden.

Pros:

However, despite what I just said, in other ways I like the fact that things are moving along at a decent clip now. We got Rumple waking up recently, and now Regina is awake too. This is more interesting than just doing a repeat of what happened in Season One, where everybody figured out the truth all at once, right there at the end. Now we'll have to see if Regina and Rumple will make an alliance, as once again two awake people in a world of the cursed. And will they let Lucy in on the truth instead of contributing to the gas-lighting? Time will tell! Despite the convoluted way that the scenario has arisen, I like the idea of Regina being forced into this torturous situation. It makes for good drama.

I want to talk about one moment in particular that I enjoyed. Early in the episode, Roni and Lucy are doing some research into Regina Mills because of the mysterious picture of Regina and Henry. Roni is trying to humor Lucy's delusion to see if that will help her snap out of it. There's this moment when they ask Weaver if he can look up a name, Regina Mills. The expression on Robert Carlyle's face is what makes him such a talented actor. So enigmatic. So interesting. What does he know? And what does he think Roni knows? I can't wait to see the two of them get some more scenes together in the coming weeks.

The flashback stuff was cute. We see a bit more of Cinderella and Henry's early courtship, which is something I've been asking for, but most of the time is spent with Regina and Drizella. She tries to teach Drizella how to use her magic, but Drizella then finds out that her mother has been manipulating her so that she is filled with belief and her heart can be used to raise Anastasia from the dead. Drizella, in order to stop her mother from getting what she wants, decides to kill her fiance (some guy she doesn't care about) thus blackening her heart and preventing Tremaine from using it. This is yet another convoluted magic plot, but I didn't mind it as much because I like the implications for Regina's character. She tried to befriend this young woman, and it might have actually worked... but then she sees it all fall apart around her, and she's stuck blaming herself for yet another magical mishap. Poor Regina - is she ever going to catch a break?

I should mention that we also get a little more forward motion with the Rogers-missing-child story, but I have been continually putting off discussion of it until we get something a bit more substantial. It's looking like next week's two-parter is going to get in to the question of Eloise Gardner, and I'm excited to see that play out.

I still find myself on the fence about this season's experiment. But there are enough things I'm excited about to want to keep watching - Henry and Regina, Henry and Cinderella, Rumple and Regina... there could be some really cool stuff coming down the road. We shall see if they can milk out another season or two on this concept!

8/10

#review #once upon a time #once upon a time review #ouat

[shanastoryteller]

cinderella: redo

so i was watching cinderella while doing my nails and waiting for them to dry which was clearly a Mistake because now i can’t help but think -

the evil stepmother was always evil, okay. say her abuse of her own daughters was different than that of cinderella’s - but it was still abuse. giving them impossible expectations, telling them they were never good enough, never pretty enough, never smart enough. and then she gets married, and anastasia and drizella are ecstatic because this man seems kind and warm and maybe just maybe he can temper their mother, maybe with him around she won’t be so cruel. so they’re on their very best behavior in the beginning, they do just as their mother taught - they trot out their best upper court manners in an attempt to get their new stepfather to like them. but it just comes off as cold and snooty and they’re trying, they are, they’re just bad at it. and they see how he is with cinderella, the smiling girl their own age, and they are jealous. they don’t mean to be, they try not to be, they know it isn’t becoming of young ladies. but she gets hugs and kisses and affection and they get rulers slapped on their hands when they reach for desert and sharp jabs to their sides when they slouch and - soon they hate cinderella, not for anything she’s done, but for what she has and they dont

but then her father dies. and it’s all a tumble of things and cinderella is crying and they’ve lost their only chance at escaping their mother’s clutches and it’s terrible. and everything settles and there’s no reason to be jealous anymore but resentment is hard to let go of and they don’t know what to do. they’re only kids too after all. and they’re so terribly bad at comforting people, they can do flowery words and know all the right bows but cinderella is so sad and they just don’t know what to do with that, because they’re supposed to be sisters but they’re not even friends

and slowly but surely their mother starts abusing cinderella, starts making her a maid in her own home, and she’s their mother, what are anastasia and drizella supposed to do? she rules them with an iron fist, and cinderella doesn’t even like them anyway, it’s none of their business.

except one night anastasia crawls into her sister’s bed in the middle of the night and wakes her up. “i was thirsty,” she explains, eyes wide and shiny, and they’re bad at this with other people but drizella has no problems with pulling anastasia into her arms. the younger girl clutches her sister and continues, “i was thirsty and i went down to the kitchen to get some water and - and cinderella is still up! she’s doing the dishes, and she should be asleep, mom is going to make her make breakfast in the morning and -” she cuts herself off with a hiccup and whispers, “it’s not fair.”

“life isn’t fair,” drizella says, echoing one of their mother’s favorite phrases. but her sister is staring at her with wet eyes, and it’s not like their mother is likely to get up before sunrise anyway, she hates waking up, so she pulls herself and anastasia out of bed and off they go.

~

cinderella hands are cramping and she’s so tired her vision’s gone fuzzy when a hesitant hand touches her shoulder. she whirls around and drizella presses a finger to her lips. she pulls cinderella away from from the sink, and anastasia steps forward, a determined set to her mouth even though washing dishes isn’t something she’s ever done before.

drizella leads her to her bed in the attic, and her mouth turns down at the corners at the state of it all. “stay here,” she whispers to cinderella before darting away and cinderella is too confused and too tired to do anything but collapse face first into her bed. she falls asleep almost instantly, and is awoken briefly by the feeling of something soft and heavy being put over her, and for the first time the chilly draft of the attic can’t reach her and she falls into the first peaceful sleep she’d had since her father died.

she wakes up the next morning, thinking it had to be a dream, but she’s covered by drizella’s comforter instead of her threadbare blanket. she rushes downstairs, certain it’s all been a mistake. but the dishes are done, sparklingly clean if haphazardly stacked. the ashes from the fireplace have been swept, although the bag containing them has been put by the door instead of taken out, and the counters and floors are scrubbed clean, although the bucket of rags is stuck by the sink, because cinderella doubts they know where the trash or laundry goes. there’s even a basket of eggs waiting for her to start breakfast, which means anastasia and drizella hadn’t finished until nearly dawn.

she stands in the middle of the kitchen and cries. it’s the first bit or kindness she’s been shown in so long - and what a show of kindness, from girls she thought hated her, from girls she knows have never cleaned anything in their lives.

she makes breakfast and wipes at her eyes. her stepmother comes down to eat, but drizella and anastasia brush past them, dressed to go out, and cinderella immediately focuses on the gloves they’re wearing, a fashion statement they don’t normally make. it’s likely to hide the red, blistered hands they must have from cleaning. “we’re going to town,” drizella says imperiously, nose turned up, “we’ll be back for lunch.”

they’re too young to go to town on their own, cinderella thinks, drizella is her age, not even fourteen yet, and anastasia is only twelve.

“very well,” her stepmother says, clutching her tea and not fully awake. “do try not to get lost this time.”

cinderella doesn’t think that’s very fair, because the roads here are very windy and narrow and it’s not like a city, where everything is all neatly planned. many people get lost here. but the sisters don’t flinch, only say, “yes, mother,” and are out the door.

cinderella spends the day gardening, the sun hot and eventually painful. she’s desperate to ask the sisters about what they did, but she doesn’t want to risk it. it was probably just a fluke, a moment of pity that isn’t likely to be repeated. still. it’s not a moment she’s likely to forget.

she drags herself to her room, dishes undone but garden finished by the light of the moon, and decides she’ll wake up early to do them instead of staying up even later.

but when she enters her room, the breath leaves her lungs and she’s suddenly wide awake. drizella’s comforter is gone, but in it’s place is a thick quilt and new pillows and she takes trembling steps closer and lifts back the quilt to reveal soft, clean sheets that don’t have any holes or stains. she was just going to collapse into bed but it’s all too new and clean to ruin with her dirt covered body, so she cleans herself as quickly as she can, cold water and a rough cloth, but she’s so desperate to get into the bed that suddenly looks so inviting.

she wakes up early, more refreshed and energized than she’s felt in a long time, and goes downstairs. but she freezes at the bottom of the stairs, because she can see drizella and anastasia standing side by side at the sink, talking softly as they clean yesterday’s dishes.

she wants to go to them, thank them, ask them why they’re doing this. but she’s afraid that it’s like a spell, that if she acknowledges it that they’ll deny it and take it all back, she’ll be right where she started. so she carefully steps back up the stairs and goes back to bed, grabs another precious hour of sleep and then comes back down at the normal time. the dishes are done and the eggs have been gathered.

~

anastasia likes this, it feels like a secret, and she’s never had a fun secret before. the chores aren’t as fun, but she does them with drizella, laughing and talking together, so that makes it okay. when cinderella does them, she does them alone, and that makes her sad.

“she’s smaller than me right?” anastasia asks, “do you think my old dresses would fit her? we can’t get her new ones, we spent all our pocket money getting the bed stuff last week.”

“and mom would be suspicious if we asked for more,” drizella agrees, frowning, “but she’ll also recognize anything of ours we give to her.”

“oh,” anastasia says, “that’s true.” they’re silent for a moment, then she says, “what if - what if we use my dresses to make - different dresses? plainer ones, ones mom won’t recognize.”

drizella pauses in scrubbing the countertop, considering it. “we can’t sew.”

“but the seamstress can!” she enthuses, and regrets it the second it comes out of her mouth because their mother would snap at her for stating the obvious and call it a waste of air, but drizella only nods for her to continue. “she can do it. and - and we don’t have any money. but you’re really good at embroidery, maybe we can trade?”

“i’m not good at embroidery,” drizella tilts her head to the side, confused, “i’ll mess it up and then we’ll end up owing the seamstress even more.”

“you are,” anastasia insists stubbornly, “i know mom says - but i’ve seen other girls’ okay, and you’re good. really good.”

drizella shrugs, non committal, and anastasia doesn’t push. but she digs out a half dozen of her old dresses that she doesn’t wear anymore, just in case, and tucks away a grin when they disappear and a skirt with delicate, intricate flowers at the border takes it place.

this is another thing they have to hide from their mother, so for a week straight anastasia does the chores alone while drizella sits at the kitchen table and embroiders by candlelight. they’re both exhausted and drizella’s fingers are sore and bloody, but the seamstress is delighted with the work and happily hands over the two dresses made to plain and boring, and four skirts and shirts that she salvaged from the rest of them. “this was a bargain,” the seamstress says when they thank her, marveling over the perfect flowers her sister had done, “you ever want to make a trade again, you let me know. or if you want some side work. i could use hands like yours.”

and this is something their mother would consider to be “below their station” but anastasia sees the way her sister lights up at the praise, and it becomes a thing, whenever the seamstress needs some complicated embroidery done she calls on drizella, who does it not in the bright light of day, but by candlight in the dead of night.

they leave the new clothes for her that night as soon as their mother goes to bed. they’re just leaving when cinderella steps inside, face smudged with ash from cleaning out the fireplace. the girls stare at each other for a moment, each of them terrified to make the first move, but the sisters’ manners kick in first and they give a shallow curtsy and murmur “cinderella.”

she doesn’t say anything, still staring with wide eyes. anastasia blurts, “we’re sorry for going into your room without not asking. but we got you some new clothes.” she points to the parcels on the bed and then wilts a little, “well, not new new. they’re my old dresses, but the seamstress in town spruced them up. or down, really, because we didn’t want mom to know. but they don’t have any rips or stains or anything! so. yeah,” she finishes lamely, and drizella is so tense next to her that she fears her sister is going to snap in two and her face is so hot she has to be bright red, and she regrets everything, they never should have gotten out of bed that night, cinderella is going to laugh at them and call them stupid and -

cinderella throws herself on them, a skinny arm around each of their necks and sobs into their shoulders. “thank you,” she says, “thank you, thank you, thank you!”

and they fold their arms around her, cautious, but when she only cries harder it’s easy for them to pull her close and not let go.

so that’s how they play the game for the next five years, until they’re nineteen. anastasia and drizella get up in the middle of the night to do the dishes and mop the floors and clean the kitchen and clear out the fireplace and gather the eggs for breakfast. they go to bed right before cinderella gets up and sleep for a few more hours until she wakes them up for breakfast.

they keep giving her things, stuff they get at the market and their own things that they think their mother won’t notice, and slowly and surely cinderella’s room becomes a place that’s comfortable and pretty instead of depressing, and her wardrobe goes from rags to simply plain, and the sisters fret that it’s not enough, that it’s not fair, but their mother is a hawk and a tyrant and they don’t know what more they can do.

cinderella says it’s enough. sure her stepmother orders her around, but she also ignores her. she aches to defend drizella and anastasia against her harsh words and constant criticisms, but she knows it’s no use. they’re all stuck under her step mother’s thumb. but she does her best, compliments drizella’s needlework and tells her she’s clever, smuggles anastasia her favorite sweet buns after their mother forbids them because she thinks anastasia is getting fat.

she may be only a servant in her own home, but she’s also invisible. when it comes to her stepmother, invisible is the best thing to be.

then the ball is announced. no one is under any illusions about what stepmother will allow, and drizella and anastasia are upset but cinderella shrugs it off and tells them to have fun for her instead. but that’s not good enough for them, so they go to the seamstress and strike a deal, and drizella spends the time until the ball up to her eyeballs in embroidery. anastasia slips out to the baker’s, her favorite place, and to the baker’s apprentice, a kind boy with a wide smile an stub nose, and asks him a favor. he agrees, eye twinkling, and asks for nothing in return. anastasia leaves before she can get any more flustered.

so on the day of the ball the sisters and their mother ride off in the carriage. not ten minutes later there’s a knock on the door. she opens it to the baker’s apprentice, grinning and holding out a box. “special delivery to one miss cinderella.”

she takes it, confused, and opens it. she gasps and takes the gown out. it’s gorgeous and sparkles like thousands of diamonds, and it looks more expensive than either of the gowns her sisters were wearing. “how?” she demands, wide eyed.

“drizella did a lot of embroidery for the ball, apparently,” he says, “so the seemstress made you a dress equal to that work.” he holds out his hand, a pair of glass slippers on his fingers, “here, these were my mother’s. i don’t know if they’ll fit, but when i saw the dress i knew they had to go together.”

“your mother’s?” she gasps, “oh no, i couldn’t -”

“i’m never going to wear them,” he says practically, “besides, i know it will make anastasia happy. so. please, take them.”

“thank you,” she whispers, accepting the slippers.

he beams and says, “now hurry up and get dressed. i have deliveries to make after dropping you off,” and she looks out the door and the baker’s cart is outside and she beams and gets dressed and made up as quickly as she can, using her sisters’ make up because she knows they won’t mind, and is delivered to the ball.

and it goes just like it does, she meets the prince and they fall in love, and she has to run away to avoid getting caught by her stepmother. her sisters sneak up to her attic when they get home and demand she tell them everything, and they stay up gossiping and talking and she thanks them over and over again for the dress and for this one night they all feel like normal girls

her stepmother discovers part of what happened and locks her up, but anastasia finds a guard who finds another guard who finds one of the royal servants who knows a duke who gets her an audience with the prince, and she tells him everything. so the prince goes marching to their home and frees cinderella and asks her to marry him.

she agrees and she’s about to leave with him when she - stops. and looks at drizella and anastasia and then she turns to the prince and says, “that woman is not my mother, but those girls are my sisters. please can - please?”

and he smiles and looks at them and winks at anastasia and says, “but of course.”

and so the sisters move into the palace with cinderella and their stepmother gets nothing. they teach cinderella how to act in court, how to bow and curtsy and the right thing to say, how to know when someone hates you by the way they smile. drizella becomes a master seamstress in her own right with a particular talent for embroidery, and is eventually persuaded to marry a duke who is head over heels in love with her and whom she likes very much and thinks she could grow to love. anastasia marries the baker’s apprentice who becomes the baker and she’s pregnant almost immediately and is delighted by it. they plan to have at least three more.

and they all live happily ever after.

#my fic #disney #cinderella #jesus christ this was long #i didn't plan that #i never do honestly #on the bright side my nails are dry now #fandom ficcery #retold fairytales

[droo216]

I was wondering if there was a reason behind the names you chose for the cursed names of characters in your OUaT reboot? I was looking at some that weren't already in the show and was wondering you chose those ones specifically?

OH YEAH. One of my biggest complaints about the real show is that Kitsis and Horowitz know nothing about fairy tales (or how to use Wikipedia tbh) and so they kind of just name their characters however they feel like, without giving the careful consideration they should. An example I’ve cited before was how it was Ginnifer Goodwin who pointed out to them that Snow White is sometimes believed to be based on the real-life Bavarian baroness Maria Sophia Margarethe Catharina, which actually makes the name Mary Margaret quite fitting. This was just a happy accident rather than being the intentional touch it should have. I actually wanted to change more of the names - David Nolan was Will Ferdinand for a long time in our rewrite - but in the interest of keeping the characters as recognizable as possible, we kept a lot of them the same. Here are some of the new ones (that we’ve met so far) and what their names mean:

Evelyn Oxford - “eve” for evening and oxford is a shade of blue, tying Storybrooke’s current mayor to her identity as the Blue Fairy

Sydney Glass - Uh, this is a boring one, but I just like this spelling better. I shuffled through several name options for Sydney, including using names like Lohr (the name of Maria Sophia’s town and her father’s mirror manufacturer) and Moroni Olsen (the voice of the mirror from Disney’s Snow White) as well as some other things that would be rather spoilery at this point… but as with David Nolan, things got too confusing when such a central character went through too much rebranding. 

Ruby Connor - means “wolf lover”

Widow Agatha Lucas - Angela Lansbury played the grandmother in the film The Company of Wolves, she is also quite famous for playing Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d, based on the novel by Agatha Christie. It’s a bit of a stretch, mostly I just like Agatha as an old lady name.

Helen Connor - Granny’s Storybrooke alter ego, Helen is related to “selene” meaning “moon,” suggesting her werewolf connection

Marco Collodi - The Adventures of Pinocchio was originally written by Carlo Collodi

Graham Buchanan - The huntsman in Disney’s version of Snow White was voiced by Stuart Buchanan

Dominic Leroux - I bet you forgot this character even existed… he’s there though, and his name does have meaning! I just can’t tell you yet!

Luciana - The name “Abigail” was particularly worthless. We gave her a Greek name, since her father is Greek, and Luciana means “light,” loosely connected to the gold nature of her myth.

Zoe Nolan - According to some accounts, Midas’s daughter is named Zoe! That name felt weird in the Land of Ever, so we used that name in Storybrooke instead.

Matthew Llewelyn - Matthew comes from Sir James Matthew Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, and Llewelyn comes from the Llewelyn-Davies family, on whom Barrie based the adventures of Peter Pan and the Darlings.

Ivy Langland - Ivy just comes from Robin Hood’s connection to the forest. One of the earliest mentions of the Robin Hood character comes from the poem Piers Plowman by William Langland.

Matilda Fitzwalter - Matilda Fitzwalter was an actual historical woman, on whom many legends of Maid Marian are based.

Judge Lyman - Oh wait… you don’t know who he is yet, do you? Not yet, at least…

Annie Orleans - Flora Annie Steel is sometimes credited for being the first user of the name “Goldilocks,” a character who has seen several different incarnations over the years. Orleans is related to the French word “or,” meaning gold, and I also was inspired by the person of Joan of Arc, aka the Maid of Orleans, for the character of Goldilocks.

Coquelica - Most of the names from the Land of Wonder were lifted from the Tim Burton reboot, but the princess that becomes the Red Queen is named for coquelicot, a shade of red and a French term for wild corn poppies.

King Hubert - The grandfather of Cinderella’s prince shares a name with a king from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. I wonder why…

Prince William - Like I said, David Nolan was going to be Will for a long time until I decided it was just too confusing to rename such a major character. It’s just as well, because Prince Charming from Disney’s Cinderella was voiced by William Phipps.

Timothy Rupert - We let Timothy keep his name from the show, only because calling him "Christopher Rupert" felt too on-the-nose - because yes, the Rodgers and Hammerstein middle name for the prince is exactly where this surname comes from!

Ashleigh Glaser - I actually thought naming Cinderella “Ashley” was cute, I just liked this spelling better (same as the Sydney thing honestly). “Glaser” means “glass blower.”

Nancy Kennedy - Since Lady Tremaine inspired Nancy’s last name in Disney’s Enchanted, I used Nancy’s first name for Lady Tremaine’s Storybrooke persona. Kennedy is derived from an Irish surname that means “misshapen head” - inspired by the term “ugly stepsisters.”

Rhoda Kennedy - Rhoda Williams voiced Drizella in Disney’s Cinderella

Lucy Kennedy - Lucille Bliss voiced Anastasia in Disney’s Cinderella

Vladimir Mangiafuoco - Vladimir means “great, famous,” which makes sense for an entertainer like Stromboli, and in the original The Adventures of Pinocchio, the puppet master character is name Mangiafuoco.

Ryan Booth - Honestly, Ryan is taken from the guy Emma meets in the opening sequence of the pilot and Booth we just took from August Booth since that character wasn’t going to appear in our version. But Ryan does mean “little king,” so I wonder what that could mean for his future…

Sylvia Wren - One of my favorite names in the whole lot, Sylvia comes from Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies, the mother of the family that inspired the Peter Pan stories. As for the surname, in the original stage production of Peter Pan, the program credited “Jane Wren” as Tinker Bell, despite the fact that the character was just lights and sound effects, as a wink and a nod and a way to add mystique to the character. The best part is that H.M. Inspector of Taxes wasn’t in on the joke, and sent “Jane Wren” a tax demand.

Monique Hamilton - We’ll get there… her name definitely means something though!

Moira Henley - She takes her name from her great-grandmother’s middle name. Margaret Henley was a young girl who was an acquaintance of Sir J. M. Barrie. The legend goes that she called him “friendy” but could not pronounce her Rs, so she actually said “fwendy.” Allegedly, Barrie dropped the letter F and found his heroine’s name - Wendy.

Nathaniel Thorn - Who is he? I’ll tell you one thing: this name is the only one that means absolutely nothing.

And I think that’s everyone so far! Forgive me for indulging, but I really like questions like these. Also, I didn’t keep good track of where they all came from, so I had to do a little digging myself, which was pretty fun! I hope you like the new names, we put a lot of thought into them, and there’s certainly more characters coming still!

#anonymous #drew answers #drew talks ouat