#source: maleficent 2

[roseofithaca]

Mary: I don'ts trust her, darling girl. She be a witch!

Silver: I'm a witch!

Mary: And I has never held that against thee!

Robin: *clears throat*

Mary: ....In recent times.

[vivziepoparchives]

Maleficent fanart posted to Viv's tumblr June 2, 2014.

[source]

[slashingdisneypasta]

Disgraced Prince Hans of the Southern Isles x SleepingCursePrincess!Reader || Oneshot

*feat the Evil Queen, Ursula and Maleficent as 3 evil witches.

Plot: When Hans' true loves kiss actually breaks a curse. // Or // Imagine prince charming waking you up from your sleeping curse,, except YOUR prince charming is bound in cuffs and chains and a guards big strong hand on his shoulder when you wake.

Also, Hans is having recurring nightmares of being stalked by 3 long-dead fairytale witches (Well, 2 and a fairy) from somewhere very far away (Or very far below). That cant have anything to do with this sleeping curse can it?? 🤔

Warnings: Save for the cursing- nothing that's not already in Disney Movies. Unedited. Also may or may not make sense at all.

Tagging: @asperol-with-izzy , @disney-android-foundation , @lady-love88 , @marinerainbow , and @ryantryan6969 .

All the way back home, Hans was having dreams. Or nightmares. Nightmares of sharp nails scraping and grabbing him, eyes on him, and mysterious whispering voices. He'd wake up and he'd still be half back there, he would still hear their voices, even with the ship swaying and dipping under his body and dirty water trickling under the door into his cramped little cupboard-cabin. The long journey felt even longer with these dreams hanging over him; there being nothing else to occupy his mind except the humiliating near-miss Hans suffered in Arendelle.

Ugh.

He's new~ What's he in for, hmm?

You know I don't know that, sea witch. He's no use to us anyway.

Some powerful witch, you are. We can see him but we don't know anything.

-I don't see you doing anything, fairy.

No matter darlings~ He's cute. Much better then our old one-handed captain barnacle breath, hm?~

Don't get too excited, Ursula. He could be as boorish as Gaston.

Oh don't say that. What do you think, queenie?

Whatever.

The names swam around in his head like whatever beasts lived under the sea beneath the ship. Ursula, Gaston. But then there were more.

What are you hoping to find in these baby villains you keep watching, anyway, queenie?

I don't know. A necromancer, maybe. We need to get out of here, don't you agree?

We already had one of those, remember? That 'horned king' creature was no help to us.

I'm open to suggestions, fish. Well? Any ideas in that tiny pathetic goldfish brain?

Oh, certainly none for you~

Great. Get out, go harass Claude or something.

What the hell was a 'horned king'?? That wasn't something that Hans would imagine himself. He's never had an interest in dumb fairytales, magic was no use to him. Power was power, and that came from being in charge. Being King. But... the closer to land Hans got, the fainter the voices became. As if the ocean had a closer connection to the source, like a looking glass. And that, surely, was the work of magic wasn't it??

... -then it got worse.

I think you need to leave this one alone, Hildie. He's becoming aware, like Yzma.

She was crazy, Maleficent.

Still.

Maybe its a good thing if he knows we're watching. It has been a while since we had any quality entertainment...

... Oh, now now dear Hildie~ Don't short-change yourself; you make an excellent fool.

Just for that, I'm not going to tell you what I plan to do to him.

By the time the ship docked, the disgraced Prince was all-nerves. And not entirely about seeing his dumb older brothers again or the punishment they're bound to enjoy giving him. What were those nightmare-witches talking about? 'do to him'?

It never crossed his mind once that whatever that meant could hurt you.

~

When Hans left, you were perfectly fine. A little upset that he was leaving you, and you knew his plan to marry the Queen of Arendelle- but, mainly fine.

So why are you laying in your bed in the middle of the day, now? Why did you look... dead?

Hans found his voice for the first time since Arendelle, an accusatory tone lacing through his words, turning to look directly at the dignitary that lead him here to this room. He was loud and clear, as if he was still important here. "What happened to them?"

"I believe they were cursed, sir, while you were gone." When Hans eyes narrowed slowly, the little man sped on. "Your- your brothers do not wish for you to know ab- about this, but I believe it to be the only way to save the princess."

"... how do you mean? Talk faster, or I'll have your throat slit in an instant."

Surely the man knew that line was just an empty promise, because he clearly had no power anymore- he had bars wrapped around his wrists, a short chain between them, and a guard (Well-paid by the dignitary) glaring at his back. But the dignitary spoke faster anyway; a nervous man. "I- I believe a true loves kiss could wake her, sir! I believe that true love to be you!"

"True loves kiss?" Jesus christ, that pissed him off. If he never heard those words again it will be too fucking soon.

The man looks surprised, at this harsh reaction from the prince. His voice goes pathetically small. "... Well, aren't you and the princess be- betrothed!??"

"Yes." That was true. You were. And you did love each other- since you were kids. Since he was 6 and you were 5, and you would send him letters every week even when everyone else forgot he existed.

That didn't make Hans like any of this any better.

"P- please your highness." The dignitary begged, his eyes flickering from him to you and back.

Hans looks back to you, a scowl still on his face. You looked alive, at least. Just... very still. And you never slept this way, flat on your back. graceful. You weren't supposed to share a bed until you were married, but you had- so he knew you slept like a graceless freak. There was definitely something wrong.

And there were those dreams... "The witches." Hans whispers, glaring at your form. Except he wasn't glaring at you, he was glaring at Them.

Not that you weren't used to that look on his face. That was pretty much just his face.

"... P- pardon me?"

"What!?"

"You said some something, sir."

"No, I didn't." With that, Hans shrugs the guards meaty hand off his shoulder and kneels by your bed. Picks up your hand on his and holds it to his chest. His eyes soften a tiny bit this close to you, where the other men in the room couldn't see it happen.

Goddamnit, he thinks. Its worth a try.

~

When Hans' lips touch yours in that quiet room, watched by a cranky guard and a nervous dignitary, he feels scarcely a breath slipping past yours. The only way that he knows you're alive is by the very very slow rise and fall of your chest.

In just a manner of moments, though, your fingers come to life and grip his, and you breath in deep through your nose, kissing him back. Like magic.

Despite himself, a small smirk slithers across his face after he finishes kissing you, watching your pretty eyes open up and look foggy- then confused- and he's yanked back up to his feet by the oaf of a guard in charge of him. "Time to go."

"Hey! Wait, I demand you- "

"You're no boss of mine these days, princey." The man growls into his ear, a note of cruelty in his voice. What did I ever do to this guy? Hans wonders, scowling again.

"Wait!- " That was your voice, oh so confused. Your eyes are big and round, taking in the scene. The dignitary quickly helps you to stand, but doesn't let you approach Hans.

"Please princess, he has to go. Everything will be explained."

"But- "

She cuts herself off, this time. But she doesn't need explanation. Hans watches the realisation dawn on her as her calculating eyes drift slowly from the guard, to him.

The plan went awry. Now he's in serious trouble.

"Don't worry, Y/N."

"How am I supposed to not worry!??"

"Just promise to write to me, huh? Promise."

"... fine." And I'll yell at you with every letter of the alphabet, her eyes tell him. He chuckles. Yeah, I got it.

"Come on now, lover boy. To the tower."

~

Not 10 minutes later, the tower cell slams shut on him. Dust from the roof falls down on his shoulders and hair, and his cuffs are still clamped down tight around his wrists creating dark purple bruises.

... after a moment, Hans curses and kicks a hard stone wall. "Fuck!"

-and then a familiar voice creeps into his mind again. The witch. 'Hildie'.

"Great. Now that I know you're hearing me, prince, I have some instructions for you.

And understand; if you don't do as I say I am fully prepared to give your sweet little princess another gift. One she wont be broken so easily out of. So listen carefully.

... first of all my name is not 'Hildie'. You may call me your majesty."

[perfectwitchcrown]

Make the Exorcist Fall in Love – Witches Part One

Ok, I finally finished this meta! I've broken it into two posts because it was getting a little too long. I’m covering some of the literary and historical references that Ekuoto plays with in regards to its witches hehe.. Regardless of whether Arima Aruma and Fukuyama Masuku are engaging with the actual history of witchcraft beliefs or the way it’s been filtered down into the contemporary cultural consciousness, I think it’ll be fun to present the real-life inspirations behind these ideas. Scholarly sources are cited so you can feel free to check out the information I discuss, and links are provided occasionally when I got lazy. All citations are in MLA form at the end of the second part because I didn’t feel Chicago footnote format would function well on Tumblr, so I apologize for any issues with the citations as I’m rusty with MLA. Take this all with a grain of salt, as I’m not an expert and also had to cover a lot of regions/periods of time. Hope you enjoy!

Content warnings for discussion of sexual violence, execution, images of cartoon nudity and violence (all Ekuoto panels), also major spoilers for Ekuoto and minor spoilers for Berserk, the movie Perfect Blue, and the movie The Craft

Link to Part Two of the meta (including works cited)

Witches – what did it mean to be a witch? Demonic Pacts, witch marks, and more

First off—what is a witch? This question is actually deceptively difficult to answer. For example, you can’t simply say that a witch is someone who practices magic: that’s too broad. “In September 1398 the theology faculty at the University of Paris approved a set of twenty-eight articles condemning the practice of ritual magic”—the targets of this were largely clerics (Levack 49), and there seems to have been a decent number of them (Apps and Gow 126). Those accused of witchcraft were considered distinct from these magic using priests for whom “this magic was practiced with grimoires or books of learned enchantments” (not that this was approved of by the church either) (Mackay 30-31).

What a “witch” was, is also something that could be wildly different depending on time and place. There was, however, a coalescence of ideas during the 15th century in Europe, followed by the “witch craze” of the Early Modern period (16th-18th centuries), in which there were an uptick in witch trials, provides an answer to what a witch is that has had a lasting impact in our present cultural consciousness (Witch Trials in Early Modern Europe and New England). This definition of witchcraft, then, I think, is the most relevant one to consider in this meta, although it will require a bit of generalization.

Essential to understanding this coalescence of ideas about witches is a book known as the Malleus Maleficarum, or “The Hammer of Witches,” a text on witchcraft published in 1486 by two Dominican friars, an order that focused on heresy (Mackay 1-2). Please note that mention of heresy, as it will be relevant later. How, then, did it imagine witches?

Christopher S. Mackay, in the introduction to his translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, calls this construction of witchcraft “the elaborated concept of witchcraft,” and defines it as follows (this is a direct quotation I just can't format it right on Tumblr LMFAO):

A pact entered into with the Devil (and concomitant apostasy from Christianity)

Sexual relations with the Devil

Aerial flight for the purpose of attending:

An assembly presided by Satan himself (at which initiates entered into the pact, and incest and promiscuous sex were engaged in by the attendees),

The practice of maleficent magic

The slaughter of babies. (Mackay 19)

The Malleus’s construction of witchcraft “represented a special form of heresy that played an important part in Satan’s plans for the Final Days” (Mackay 33) and borrowed elements from accusations made against earlier heretical groups (Saunders 85-86). It focused on women from the lower classes as opposed to priests who were practicing magic (Mackay 30-31). Heresy is key then to understanding witchcraft in this period. The Malleus’s construction of witchcraft also had a sexual focus, repeatedly bringing up the impact of demons on the genitals (Garrett 38). For example, there’s a whole section that details whether or not witches can take your penis away. The Malleus’s findings? No, but they can cast an illusion that makes it appear as though your penis is gone (Mackay 323-329). Breathtaking.

In Ekuoto, we see that the what makes someone a witch is a demonic convent, which involves erasing their names from the book of life and writing it in the demon lord’s book of death (which I will go further into depth on in the section on Sabbaths!), receiving a seal on their body, and merging bodily fluids through kissing or sex.

This process actually is pretty faithful to early modern beliefs about how one became a witch. The Malleus describes the process as involving a “sacrilegious avowal,” in which witches either make this vow to serve the demon ceremonially “when the sorceresses come to a certain assembly on a fixed day and see the demon in the assumed guise of a human as he urges them to keep their faith to him, which would be accompanied by prosperity in temporal matters and longevity of life.” While there, a new witch-to-be would be presented, and if determined to be “ready to renounce the Most Christian Faith and Worship,” signs themselves over (as in with a literal signature) (Mackay 281, 283). Non-ceremonially, a demon might just pop up when someone is in trouble and promise to help them if they help him (Mackay 286-287). So, here we see the idea of witchcraft granting long life and a physical signing over of the self to a demon.

But, witchcraft beliefs weren’t only constructed by books like the Malleus Maleficarum—those accused of witchcraft also contributed to these beliefs in their confessions (Roper Witch Craze 117).  As historian Lyndal Roper in her book Witch Craze describes of Early Modern witch confessions from Germany, “Intercourse with the Devil was the physical counterpart of the pact with him—and it was sex with the Devil which many accused witches talked about at length, rather than the pact which, according to demonological theory, actually made them Satan’s own” (Roper Witch Craze 85). Roper speculates that a large reason for this that many accused during this time period were illiterate, and so in their confessions, sex as the form of pact appears far in confessions than physical signatures (Roper Witch Craze 85). Regardless, we can see this as where Ekuoto borrows the idea of sex or kissing as a part of the demonic convent.

Sometimes, in these confessions, we also saw that the Devil would “give the witch a special diabolical name” as a sort of reversion of the baptismal process where a Christian name would be gained (Roper Witch Craze 116). Vergilius taking a new name as a part of his demonic pact then is completely in line with historical views of witchcraft, which I think is very fun of Arima Aruma.

Another idea of that shows up regarding people becoming witches is the idea of witch’s marks and devil’s marks, which were pretty significant in English witch trials. A Devil’s mark was a mark that was believed to have been left by the Devil when the witch becomes his, while the witch’s mark was believed to be a teat that the witch would use to nurse familiars their blood, although the terms were often conflated (Garrett 49-50). In England, searching for these marks was a major part of trials, and the experience was violating, the marks often being found near women’s genitals after they had been stripped of all their clothes, and pricked repeatedly on any mark that might be a witch’s or devil’s mark (Garrett 37).

Devil’s marks have been mentioned in Ekuoto, as seen in the earlier image, although we have not had any specifically pointed out. Vergilius’s heart under his right eye is likely a devil’s mark in my opinion, as he did not have it as a child when he was not a witch. I’ll be interested in seeing if it comes up and if there’s any significance to its shape. I could totally be wrong and it could just be like make up or a tattoo or something. This under the eye heart mark isn’t original to Ekuoto—heart patches for facial application have existed at least since the 17th century (not citing out of laziness but look up beauty patches), and under the eye heart make up was like a trend back in 2019 on Tiktok—but hilariously, 2012, when Marina and the Diamonds released Electra Heart, featuring MARINA with a heart mark under her eye, is also is presumably the year Vergilius became a witch (based on Daniel’s statement in one of the chapters that he’s been active for a decade). Maybe he’s just a really big Electra Heart fan lol.

The Witch’s Sabbath

A witches Sabbath was “where witches gathered to worship the Devil, dance, feast, indulge in sexual orgies, and practice cannibalism and infanticide” (Apps and Gow 120). As previously mentioned, the book Malleus Maleficarum set the stage for a lot of early modern witch beliefs within Western Europe. This text was written within a school known as demonology, “Commonly viewed as a branch of theology, philosophy and metaphysics” (Roper “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination” 119). Demonological descriptions of the witches Sabbath are an example of elite construction of witchcraft beliefs, and they focused on Christianity inverted: “The witches were bent double, candles in their anus, and in the place of the kiss of peace in the Mass, they had to kiss the Devil’s anus (Roper Witch Craze 113).

Of course, as also has been mentioned before, Early Modern witchcraft beliefs were also shaped by those accused of witchcraft drawing from their own experience in confessions. The dance, an element of the witch’s Sabbath, appeared in Witch’s confessions as an inversion of their village dances (Roper Witch Craze 107-108, 111, 116). At these dances it was said that music might be played on the fiddle and the bagpipes (Roper “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination” 128).

Make the Exorcist Fall in Love both presents the witches Sabbaths using ideas of inversion of Christian doctrine and of social gatherings with dance and music. For one, the witches set up shop in an abandoned church in France, where they place a statue representing Beelzebub in the sanctuary. Symbolically, then, they’ve inverted the worship of God to the worship of a demon.

Additionally, you can see the Witches lined up to kiss the statue on what seems to be a phallic protrusion. They’re inverting, then, the kiss of peace the same way historically witches were thought to kiss the Devil’s anus. Roper has a description of a woodcut that bears similarity to this image, describing it like so: “At the centre of the image, witches perform the anal kiss on a giant goat, while long lines of assorted pairs of Devils and witches wind their way in a snake like spiral around the picture, playing phallic-looking bagpipes and horns” (Roper “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination” 137-138). Now, traditionally this kiss is delivered on the anus rather than the phallus, but I’m not an expert so I can’t speak to whether there were regional descriptions of Witch’s Sabbaths that varied that Make the Exorcist Fall in Love is drawing from. I can say, though, that Berserk’s portrayal of a witch’s Sabbath, which imagery-wise definitely seems to draw from woodblock representations, does feature the diabolic kiss being received on the phallus rather than the anus. It is possible that this scene was visual inspiration for Ekuoto’s witch’s Sabbath. For those who are interested in independently checking what I’m talking about, it’s in chapter 139 of Berserk.

Now, in the same above panel in Ekuoto, we also see that the witches are singing a song. This song is an inversion of the Anglican hymn “Holy Holy Holy”—the original lyrics, that the witch’s invert, are “Holy, Holy, Holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, Though the eye of sinful man, thy glory may not see: Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, Perfect in power in love, and purity.” The hymn is originally about the trinitarian god, so this inverted version becomes a worship of Beelzebub.

If you want to give the original song a listen, here’s a link to a recording:

This song later also appears in the flashback to the 2011 Beelzebub fight (where, interestingly enough, an eclipse is featured very prominently. Eclipses are pretty common “ooh spooky eek” imagery but it also made me wonder if there’s potential visual influence from Berserk). This also further establishes it as a song associated with Beelzebub.

Inversion also shows up outside of the Sabbaths in Ekuoto. Dante in the below images is invoking the Trinitarian formula: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” which is from Matthew 28:19 in the Bible. Verge, and other witches in Ekuoto, invert the Trinitarian formula: “in the name of the mother, the daughter, and the evil spirit.” Not only is this an example of inversion, but it also aligns with a neopagan concept, the Triple Goddess (although usually the triple Goddess is expressed as the Mother, the Daughter, and the Crone). I’m not going to cite this because I’m lazy, but if you want you can check this one out on Wikipedia. The Triple Goddess in neopagan beliefs harkens back to older religious forms where goddesses appeared in groups of three—one of these, from Hellenistic religious beliefs, is associated with witchcraft: Hecate was associated with magic, and often depicted in a triple form (Also too lazy to cite this but you can check this out also on Wikipedia in both the Triple Goddess (Neopaganism) page and the Hecate page. You can also check it out on Encyclopedia Brittanica). Interestingly, and as I’ll touch on later, Baba Yaga also sometimes appears in three forms in folklore (Forrester xxxiv).

Walpurgisnacht

Now, the description of the woodblock of a witch’s Sabbath mentioned in the previous section wasn’t of just any Sabbath—it was a Sabbath on the Brocken, where according to legend witches would have a Sabbath every year on Walpurgisnacht (Roper “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination” 137-138).

Walpurgisnacht is on April 30 into May 1st, and is an actual real life religious holiday, celebrating the canonization of Saint Walpurga. It’s celebrated through festivals, some of which involve dancing around bonfires. In the 17th century, a book written by Johannes Praetorius cited the peak of the Harz mountains in Germany, the Brocken, as a site in which witches would meet for a Sabbath on the eve of May 1st (Weishaupt). It was this book, the Blockesberges Verrichtung, that features the woodblock mentioned in the Sabbath section, and would inspire some of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama of the mind, Faust (Roper “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination” 135-138). Faust also has a famous presentation of Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken (Weishaupt).

So yeah, Ekuoto’s mention of Walpurgisnacht is in reference to this! Moving on to what they’ve also mentioned in conjunction to Walpurgisnacht:

Baba Yaga

First and foremost, Baba Yaga has nothing to do with Walpurgisnacht in folklore, this is an invention of Ekuoto. The Harz mountains are in Germany, whereas Baba Yaga is a figure in Slavic folklore.  

Stories in which Baba Yaga appears often have several themes: “she lives in the forest, which is her domain” (Zipes VIII); that her house has chicken legs (Forrester XXVII); that her “house may be surrounded with a fence of bones, perhaps topped with skulls (Forrester XXVIII). She sometimes also has a black cat (Forrester XXVIII). Jack Zipes, in the foreword to Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales, describes her as “not just a dangerous witch but also a maternal benefactress, probably related to a pagan goddess” and “inscrutable and so powerful that she does not owe an allegiance to the Devil or God or even to her storytellers” (Zipes VIII). Sibelan Forrester, in that same book, describes her as “both a cannibal and a kind of innkeeper, a woman who threatens but also often rewards” (Forrester XXXV). Skulls with light coming out of their eye sockets shows up in the fairy tale Vasilia the Beautiful—“the eyes of all the skulls on the fence lit up, and the whole clearing became light as midday” (Forrester XXXVIII, XLIV, 175).

Now, so far in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, we’ve been presented with Baba Yaga as a witch who Satan calls different from the other witches, who tried purifying the angry souls of those killed by the church until she became corrupted by their rage and desired the power to kill god, and has at least three contracts with Satan, Asmodeus, and Beelzebub (but not Leviathan). She also appears as a black cat.

The parts that most clearly draw upon traditional Baba Yaga folklore are the skulls, the chicken legged house in the middle of the woods, and the idea of her being a total wildcard. As far as I can tell, the backstory they’ve given her about purifying souls killed by the church is completely original to Ekuoto, although it could be in reference to either some piece of folklore or literature that I’m not familiar with. Traditionally, the bones and skulls in Baba Yaga’s home are presumably a threat that the hero might next be a victim of hers (Forrester XXIX). Here, they are victims of the church.

The closest thing I have been able to find is the invented backstory is from Dubravka Ugrešić’s book, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, published as part of the Canongate Myth Series (themed around reinterpreting international mythology): “That they would finally stop bowing down to men with bloodshot eyes, men who are guilty of killing millions of people, and who still have not had enough. For they are the ones who leave a trail of human skills behind them, yet people’s torpid imaginations stick those skulls on the fence of a solitary old woman who lives on the edge of the forest” (Ugrešić’ 243). Here also the skulls are affiliated not with her cannibalism but the killings of patriarchal power. The book was originally published in Croatian and has several different languages it is available in translation, although, as far as I can tell, Japanese is not one of them, so I don’t know how familiar Arima Aruma would be with it.

I’m also fascinated by the beheaded, veiled skeletal figure with the large stomach wound we see who points towards Baba Yaga’s house. Baba Yaga is sometimes presented as a mother (Forrester XXXVIII) and the large stomach opening to me almost looks like the surgical removal of a child from the womb, although that may be a stretch.

Contemporary c-sections are also often horizontal, although historically in Europe and the Americas, up until developments in surgery and gynecology in the nineteenth century, they were only performed when the mother was dead or had no hope for survival. The images I’ve seen depicting c-sections in the 15th and 16th centuries seem to depict vertical incisions though, which lines up more with this figure’s wound. (I’m not citing these but will provide links: https://www.webmd.com/baby/what-happens-during-c-section; https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part1.html ). I think it would also line up with some of the other imagery that’s been established in series, such as the wound/vagina/pregnancy image combo we got in the first chapter with Asmodeus.

It's also been implied that she had something to do with binding Beelzebub from entering Germany:

That file really closely follows the contours of a Baba Yaga fairy tale—getting lost in the forest, the flaming bone torch like in Vasilia the Beautiful. I’m extremely fascinated by the way in which Baba Yaga is being presented in Ekuoto and can’t wait to see more about her motivations.

Continued in Part Two

[kitkat-the-muffin]

After running an entire experiment for over a year and a half

I have finally perfected the best order to play the Kingdom Hearts series in

The aforementioned best order has been completely play-tested by an outsider new to KH in order to verify its effectiveness, and it goes as follows:

Kingdom Hearts 1

Kingdom Hearts X [chi] and Kingdom Hearts Union X [cross]

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep • (start with Ventus, then Terra, and end with Aqua. Include Final Ending. Exclude Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain Of Memories

Kingdom Hearts 2 • (followed by Kingdom Hearts BBS’s Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days • (read Roxas’s diary alongside the cutscene movie if not playing the original release. Then read the secret reports after finishing the game)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded • (you may also play Coded if so desired)

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind

Kingdom Hearts Missing Link

Kingdom Hearts Melody Of Memory

Kingdom Hearts 4

Extra notes:

DON’T FORGET THE SECRET BOSSES! All the cutscenes that precede and follow every secret boss fight is important, so I recommend looking them up on YouTube if you can’t beat them

ALWAYS READ THE SECRET REPORTS!!!! All of them. For every game

Look up BBS’s Secret Ending on YouTube, unless you feel like beating all three routes on Proud Mode (including the Mysterious Figure boss… I think. Idk, look it up)

As of writing this post, Missing Link and 4 have not been released yet, so they may be skipped for now. However, based on their trailer vibes alone, I’d still recommend this order whenever they do release

The mobile app for KHUX and KHDR has been discontinued, so the only source we currently have for them are cutscene movies on YouTube and Damo’s fandubs

The Dark Road fandub is not out yet as of posting this chart, but hopefully I can update this post whenever it does release (same with Missing Link cutscenes)

If you have any questions please reply to this post because I have answers!

Here are some obvious ones tho:

Days is AFTER 2 to preserve the Riku plot twist

Dark Road is BEFORE DDD to increase player attachment to Xehanort before he takes full control over the narrative

Ventus is played FIRST in BBS because it helps the narrative make more sense (sorry Nomura, Xehanort being evil is not a plot twist)

Any spoilers for future games revealed in the prequels are intentional (like Maleficent thinking about Master Xehanort in Union X, or Terra seeing a vision of KH2 Riku in BBS) and are meant to serve as foreshadowing

If anyone feels like streaming the games in this order please let me know. I skewed the results of my experiment a little by being present for the Test Subject’s playthrough, so it’d genuinely benefit from another account played entirely in a vacuum

But also we kind of sped through the games rather than relishing them. There’s so much to do in all the games but to get to the rest of the story we didn’t really play them to their fullest. I hope future players can enjoy all there is and take their time with it :3

Anyway, please reblog this post if you found it interesting! I want to share this order with the world because I genuinely think it’s the best way to play the games! And again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thank you to @goldensunset @8golden-harvest8 @share-the-skye for acknowledging my experiment’s existence a couple times, y’all are real ones 💕💕💕

[lazykatie]

What could’ve happened at Castlecoming Week (Part 1)

Pairing: Young Captain James Hook x Princess Bridget of Wonderland

You can find the part 2 or part 3 here.

You can find the Aftermath of the Castlecoming Ball here (part 1, part 2, Part 3).

James Hook is bored, to say the least. The thing that happened to Uliana earlier has been a source of amusement for him. But, it didn’t last long as the said girl was hard to calm down afterward. 

Now, he’s on the bustling streets of the town right next to Merlin’s Academy. He rolled his eyes at the couples on the street, all buzzing about Castlecoming. Sure, he understood it was a big deal, even Hades and Maleficent were going. Heck, even Uliana and Morgie are going. Although, that’s just going to be Morgie following Uliana like a lost puppy.

He sighs and stops at the store, or rather a boutique. Yes, he’s going too whether he liked it or not since his, ugh, “friends” insisted on him going. What can he say, if he’s going, he needed to impress the ladies.

He enters the boutique. The first thing that stands out to him is a certain bubbly, pink-haired princess of wonderland. She was trying out, ugh, pink dresses, no less.

This is going to be fun.

“Why fancy seeing you here, Pinkie.” Hook said, his voice dripping with mock surprise as he circled around her.

“Hook!” Bridget jumped, clearly startled. She seemed tense, likely still rattled from the fiasco with Uliana.

He continued to circle around her as he scanned her from top to bottom, with his hook on his chin.

Bridget gulped before she started, “Uhm, how is Uli doing? Is she alright?” 

Hook stopped in his tracks and laughed, the sound sharp and humorless.

“Uli,” he stressed, “is doing fine. You shouldn’t worry about her.”

He moved in front of her, using his hook to gently lift her chin, bringing her face close to his. “You should be worrying about yourself after the stunt you pulled earlier.” 

“I didn’t mean any harm. I warned her about the flamingo feathers.” She said, looking down, guilt clouding her expression

Hook smirked, stepping back. "Bold of you. Most would just stay out of her way." His gaze lingered on her dress. "And even bolder to be out shopping for a dress, knowing Uliana’s got it out for you now."

“Was it really that bad?” She asked with hope in her voice.

“Well, lass.” He moved his face over to her shoulder and whispered, “Why don’t you tell me.”

He moved away with a smirk on his face, curious. What in Merlin's world is running through her head? She’s constantly tried to bribe them with some treats to be her friends. No one can actually be that nice, right?

“I-” Bridget struggled to find the right words.

Hook raised his eyebrows, urging her to continue.

“I’ll make it up to her!” She declared with a determined face.

He just laughed, hysterically. He couldn’t really predict her.

“Whatever you say, Princess.” He said as he proceeded to find a tuxedo suited for him.

Before going any further, he stopped on his tracks and turned to Bridget’s direction.

“Red.” He said as she glanced in his way. 

“Red would suit you, Pinkie.” 

“At least with red, it wouldn’t look like a unicorn barfed all over you,” he added, then headed to the men’s section.

Bridget watched him go, a smile forming on her face. She couldn't help but feel she might have gained a friend—an unexpected one in Hook.

~~~

A/N: (○•○) Maybe that’s why she named her daughter Red. I totally ship!!! (♡v♡)

Edit: Sorry for adding this here but I hope you can make time to see this post. Someone is in need of our help. Click here to see

[charlilovesknights]

How'd each twst character get their name

♥️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥️

♥️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥️

Chapter 8 of Heartybul Manga Riddle: His dad was like "Answer my Riddle 3 to get the answer you seek" when asked what to put on his birth certificate. It didn't fit so the doctor just put Riddle. Ace: Parents lost a bet with a friend (Headcanon that all the Trappolas are gamblers) Deuce: When asked for his name his dad misheard the doctor and said "Deuces" thinking the doctor said bye (His dad is a tad stupid) Cater: His mom really likes caterpillars, but his dad wouldn't let her name him caterpillar Trey: Named after his grandfather

Chapter 3 of Savanaclaw Manga (Can you tell I had to stretch it?) Leona: His parents just liked the name (After looking up what Leona means I actually really like the name for him) Ruggie: His parents wanted to manifest a wealthy future for him (Ruggie means wealth among other things) Jack: His full name is Jackie but everyone uses Jack for short

Azul's Dorm Uniform Groovy Azul: His mom really likes the color blue Floyd: When his clutter was born, he was actually named something else, but his parents mixed him up with one of his brothers when he hatched.

Jade: So fun fact eels can change their genitalia, typically male to female for mating season. It's called sequential hermaphroditism! Physical appearance can also change, which is called sexual dimorphism. I like to think she was female but changed so she could get into Night Raven. Gender is a bigger thing on the surface than under the sea, so she really doesn't care about what pronouns are used for her or what she's defined as.

Kalim's Tsumsitter Groovy Kalim: His parents wanted a regal name for him. (But I find it ironic that his name means 'The lecturer')

Jamil: His mom just really liked the name. (And oh boy it fits~)

Vil's Birthday Jacket Groovy Vil: I saw this name meaning Protector, but one source said it meant hard work and beauty. His parents were looking at Google for names together, found Ville with the first result and chose it and removed the le. Rook: His mother went into labor during hunting a Rook (it's a type of bird) Epel: His dad thought it'd be funny to name him Apple. His mom didn't want to. However, they believe that the dad should chose a boy's name, so she went with it. He accidentally pronounced it wrong when the doctor asked for the name, and it stuck. His mom grew attached to the name overtime.

From the Lesson Chats. (This is literally the only official picture I could find with both of them together.) Idia: His mom was very insistent on it; his dad didn't have a strong opinion on it. Ortho: It's a molecule at the 1st and 2nd end of a group of atoms. Mama Shroud really wanted to name her kids something science-y when she was younger. She didn't remember that dream until Ortho came along tho, so she chose to use the name for him.

From Toboso's Twitter when Maleficent 2 premiered. (Translation) Malleus: Mal is an important staple for Draconia first names. Maleanor thought long and hard about the name and once Malleus popped up in her head she loved it. Silver: Well, his is canon... But if you don't know, Lilia chose it because of his hair color. However~, When Silver was younger Lilia wanted to give him the middle name Levan but forgot he did. Sebek: His mom wanted to give him a fierce name, so she chose to name him after the Crocodile God. (Sobek) Lilia: Like under the sea, I like to think gender isn't big in Briar Valley either. Lilia might be a feminine name, but it didn't really matter to whoever named him. !BONUS! Sam: Has the same name as his great great great grandfather.(The one Lilia knew) It's a passed down name. !BONUS! Crewel: Not his origin although~... He almost didn't get hired but then Crowley noticed they have similar first names. (Divus and Dire)

SO HERE WE ARE AT THE END!! WOWZAS!! THIS TOOK LIKE 2 HOURS?!??! HUH??! I blame the fact I was also assigning baby dolls to twst characters while typing this. Plus Epic songs... Those are SOSOSOSOOS good. Underworld Sagas coming the 26!!

But anyways thanks for reading Requests are open!! Comments appreciated Have a wonderhoytastic day!

[likeablechelsey]

Why Mother Gothel Is the Worst Disney Villain—And Not in a Fun Way

Mother Gothel isn’t just selfish—she’s dangerous. Here’s why she’s the most disturbing Disney villain of all.

She Doesn’t Just Hurt Rapunzel—She Gaslights Her

Mother Gothel doesn’t steal a voice or turn into a dragon. She does something worse. She traps a child and convinces her it’s love.

That’s not clever. That’s abuse.

Mother Gothel isolates Rapunzel in a tower for 18 years. She controls her completely—what she reads, what she eats, how she dresses. But the real damage isn’t physical. It’s psychological. Gothel manipulates Rapunzel into believing the outside world is too dangerous. That she needs her. That her captivity is protection.

That’s gaslighting.

Dr. Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist and expert on narcissistic abuse, explains it this way:

“Narcissistic parents don’t just lie. They twist your reality. They make you doubt yourself at every turn.”

That’s what Gothel does for almost two decades.

She Doesn’t Love Rapunzel—She Uses Her

Gothel never loved Rapunzel. She loved her hair.

The magic in Rapunzel’s hair keeps Gothel young. That’s why she kidnapped her. That’s why she kept her hidden. That’s why she said “I love you” but never showed it.

When Rapunzel confronts her, Gothel doesn’t apologize. She mocks her. She doubles down. And when Rapunzel tries to leave, Gothel says the quiet part out loud:

“You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I’m the bad guy.”

She always was.

A 2024 study published in The Journal of Child and Family Studies found that psychological abuse in parent-child relationships leaves long-term damage on self-esteem, decision-making, and identity development. That’s exactly what Gothel does. And Disney plays it terrifyingly straight.

She’s a Coward

Gothel doesn’t fight heroes. She doesn’t outsmart kingdoms. She hides in a tower and preys on a kid. That’s not cunning. That’s cowardice.

Most Disney villains have big goals—power, revenge, chaos. Gothel has one: eternal youth. That’s not ambition. That’s vanity.

When she dies, she doesn’t sacrifice. She doesn’t redeem herself. She grabs at the magic like a junkie chasing her last hit. She fades into dust.

Good riddance.

She’s the Most Realistic Villain

That’s what makes her so disturbing.

Ursula? Fantasy. Maleficent? Myth. Gothel? You’ve met her. Maybe she was a parent. A boss. A partner. Someone who smiled to your face and controlled you behind it.

She uses love as a weapon. That hits closer to home than a poisoned apple ever will.

This makes her more dangerous than any spell-caster or sword-fighter. She’s subtle. She’s charming. She’s familiar. And you don’t see the damage until it’s already done.

Disney Didn’t Flinch—And That’s Good

“Tangled” doesn’t sugarcoat Gothel. It shows the damage, the control, the escape. That matters.

In 2025, more people will recognize psychological abuse for what it is. According to the CDC, nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men experience severe emotional abuse in their lifetime. And we’re only just starting to talk about it in the media.

Gothel’s story isn’t just fiction. It’s a warning.

Final Thought: Stop Calling Her “Complicated”

Gothel isn’t “complicated” or “misunderstood.” She’s manipulative. She’s selfish. She’s dangerous.

Disney made a villain that doesn’t need claws or curses. Just control. That’s what makes her the worst.

⸻

Sources:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). Children’s mental health: Data and research. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/children-mental-health/data-research/index.html

• López, M., & Jiménez, J. (2024). The effects of psychological abuse on children’s emotional and behavioral development. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 33(2), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02715-0

• Durvasula, R. (2022, July 22). 6 telltale signs of narcissistic abuse [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cheHaFs9Xn0

[twstunes]

(slight spoilers for Book 7, tho i take it a lot of us have seen Hornton's overblot form + mama Draconia's design at this point lmao. also i'm calling her Draconimom until we get a confirmed eng spelling for her name)

Overblot mask analysis – Malleus + Dark Mirror v2

it's probably been brought up already but i'm gonna be annoyed w/ myself if i leave overblot hornton out of my overblot mask analyses, it's pretty straightforward overall but STILL

Similar to Vil, the main body of Malleus' mask takes on the shape of a cowl, echoing that of Maleficent's own headgear. This widow's peak-esque shape was already present in the design of Malleus' forehead scales (which aren't normally visible), but the mask better emulates Maleficent by bringing the point down closer to the brow line.

The central V of the mask has a fiery exterior trim; on closer inspection, the "flames" appear to be made solely of shapes based on Malleus' (and Maleficent's) horns. In comparison, the motifs on the further edges of the mask seem to be just basic fire patterns.

Arcs of spikes & scales make up both the interior trim of the mask and the portion connecting to Malleus' eyes. These directly mimic the spines and purple underbelly of Maleficent's dragon form. (The scales on his cheekbones don't correlate to any part of Maleficent's face, humanoid or dragon, and are likely there just to complement this part of the mask.)

Of note is the spiked line extending from the peak of the mask down over Malleus' nasal bone. Rather than representing part of Maleficent's face design, it appears to take after a different source–

–the main body of the mask is literally his mom's crown. which hurts a bit! own it tho ig, like hey if he's gonna be under so much pressure due to being prince then he might as well get an overblot mask to represent that. "heavy is the head that wears the crown," etc

Anyway this is like a field day for me bc Draconimom's design is literally so fantastic to analyze. I'm getting hit with the urge to make diagrams. Do u realize how rarely this happens

1. The horns? The horns. I don't think I have to go over this one again. However, the little bumps near the horns on the mask could signify the two…ear guards(?) of the crown.

2. The upper two curved prongs lined w/ dots and spikes on the Dark Mirror's mask match up strikingly well with Draconimom's pauldrons! The lower two prongs bend in the opposite direction, and seem to be there just to balance out the top pair.

3. Like the tattered edges of Maleficent's robes, the lacy edges of her cape could easily be compared to the fiery edges on the upper half of the mask. Comparatively, the frills along the bottom of the mask are distinctly rounder and less flame-like, which matches up well with the softer, almost fluffy-looking edges of Draconimom's skirt. The netting on the mask could then, logically, represent the fabric of the cape/skirt as though they're being dramatically flared out.

(Off-topic, but: if you look closely at the lace cape, you'll see roses worked into the design! This isn't part of the analysis, I just think it's neat owo)

4. Just under the mask's central 4-pointed star, there are 2 small extrusions on each side. These bear an uncanny resemblance to the 2 main lines used in the flow of the embellishments on Draconimom's bodice(?), with the upper one curling upwards while the lower one is just slightly curved.

5. I cannot stress this enough. I'm putting this in image format just so you can see how much I'm not joking. The central line of the mask is not just repeatedly utilized in Draconimom's outfit, it's literally integral to her overall character design. (It's a little hard to see due to her default pose unfortunately, as it interrupts the linear flow)

tl;dr get in losers we're getting hornton's mom out of that mirror

[kneesheee]

50 Things to Know about the Disney-verse

1. Ursula and Maleficent are rivals so Uma and Mal being rivals also tracks.

2. The Evil Queen and Maleficent are rivals for Hades' affections and for the status of "The Evilest of Them All'.

3. The Evil Queen claims not to be Hades' girlfriend, but they just had "an interesting weekend" on Castaway Cay. And therefore, I headcanon that she is Hadie’s mom. Probably conceived sometime around Evie’s banishment.

4. In the Disney Villains: Top Secret Files, Maleficent is featured in her own section. According to the pieces of information provided, Maleficent's last name is Faery.

5. She was actually invited to Aurora's birth ceremony and that the invitation simply never got to her castle because she burnt the postman to death (believing him to be a trespasser) before he could deliver it.

6. Her dragon form also appeared in The Little Mermaid series episode "Heroes" as a sea dragon.

7. Captain Hook tried to charm her, only to be zapped away leaving behind his hook. Jafar also tried to woo her while they sat together, only to end up being literally burnt.

8. It was revealed in "A Christmas Cruella" that she did want a puppy before becoming her villainous self.

9. Cruella has a brother named Cecil and a niece named Ivy. However, Cecil is not Ivy's father, meaning that Cruella and Cecil must have another sibling (most likely a brother) who is Ivy's parent.

10. In 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue, Cruella has set up a toy factory next to DeVil Manor. She seems to have tried online dating, where she has supposedly wed herself to Professor Farzboom, a meek professor who helps her make her toys. So there’s Carlos’ dad.

11. In "Max's Embarrassing Date", she went on a date with the Beast and asked if he came in a medium, which the Beast became annoyed of. After the Beast gets soaked with soup he was eating, Cruella is unhappy as she would have to get him dry-cleaned.

12. Walt Disney's early vision for The Rescuers revolved around the kidnapping of a polar bear from a city zoo; writers considered reusing Cruella as the main antagonist (presumably driven by her desire for the bear's fur).

13. The concept art of the film shows Cruella wearing an outfit made out of crocodile leather. Because The Rescuers was set more than a decade after 101 Dalmatians, Cruella was given a period-appropriate update. Aside from her '70s alligator-chic outfit, Cruella is accessorized with Sly and the Family Stone-style sunglasses. In other sketches, De Vil is depicted in bell-bottom pants and a pair of platforms. Other concept art showed Cruella driving a water vehicle similar to the one Medusa uses in the final film.

14. The Prince is usually known as Prince Charming, though some source material shows that his name is Henri, or Henry. However, he was never referred to by name anywhere in the film. Not even mentioned as "Prince Charming".

15. The story takes place roughly in June. In the movie, the sun rises slightly before 6:00 AM (in France), as it would within a few weeks of the summer solstice. Also, by this time, a pumpkin would have grown to 20–40 pounds.

16. The debate of the setting of Cinderella has always been a problem, but most people can agree it is French; however, there is a small amount of people who think it is Spanish because the female names end in "A" but that does not really cut it so deeper research shows that the thing on Anastasia's head is a peineta or headdress used in Spain along with formal attire also the French furnishings and the Spanish furnishings within the same time period are very similar in style.

17. Cinderella is the “oldest” princess in the official franchise being 19 while Snow White is the youngest being 14. Also, Snow White’s prince was suppose to be 18 according to Disney’s records.

18. In the third movie, Cinderella’s shoe size is mentioned to be a size 4½ in women's. According to Disney's Villains' Revenge, Snow White has smaller feet than Cinderella.

19. Cinderella was actually rich at the beginning, even before she married the prince. This was exempted, however, as she was forced to work as a servant.

20. In some stories, Cinderella's real name was Ella (short for Eleanor), and because she would always lie in cinders, her stepfamily would call her CinderElla. However, in the Disney film, "Cinderella" is truly her name by birth.

21. Cinderella's last name would likely have been Tremaine since her stepmother's name was Lady Tremaine unless Lady Tremaine kept her maiden name.

22. According to Disneystrology, Cinderella’s birthday is September 6.

23. According to the Disneystrology book, Snow White’s birthday would be on March 6.

24. Cinderella is magical. She has a special ability to empathize with animals, perceive what they say and communicate with them.

25. Melody is the very first human-merperson hybrid in history, making her birth a significant historic moment in both human and Atlantican history.

26.She is also not considered a canon descendant’s character and considered to be from an AU, but apparently, Beauty & The Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid are considered to be happening roughly around the same time in the disney timeline.

26. Melody's bedroom is Ariel's guest room when she first took human form and stayed with Prince Eric, albeit recolored with brighter colors.

27. Contrary to popular belief, Jasmine's age has never been confirmed or even referenced in any of the Aladdin movies, television series, or other spinoff projects. In the original film, the Sultan declares that Jasmine must be married "by her next birthday", but never specifies how old she will become on said birthday.

28. An early story concept for the original film had the Sultan saying, "Jasmine, the law says you must be married by your sixteenth birthday.", which would have made her fifteen years old. This concept was scrapped when Jeffrey Katzenberg became worried about sending the wrong message regarding the idea that fifteen year old girls can get married. Thus, the line was changed to "married to a prince by your next birthday.", leaving Jasmine's canonical age unknown.

29. One of the Disney Princess magazines has a story about two of Jasmine's cousins named Farah and Nadine. Whether they are considered canon is unknown.

30. Although the exact date is not clear, Jasmine's birthday is in late January or early February. This is because when Aladdin and Jasmine fly on the magic carpet, Chinese New Year is being celebrated over in China. This holiday can fall anywhere from January 21 to February 20.

31. She also has another cousin named Sharma who teaches at The Royal Academy.

32. Nasira is the better sorcerer between her and her twin brother, Jafar.

33. According to Disneystrology, Tiana’s birthday would be on December 25, Christmas Day.

34. The trailer implies that Gaston may have been aware of the Beast's curse, and had ulterior motives besides wanting Belle as his wife for attempting to kill the Beast, as the trailer described him as being "one man who wants to keep the spell alive," although it is unconfirmed whether this was the case in the film itself.

35. Despite various concept materials, as listed above, give Gaston the surname of LeGume, the Bimbettes during the song of "Belle" refer to Gaston as "Monsieur Gaston" and Belle in the reprise twice sarcastically refers to herself as "Madame Gaston" suggesting that Gaston is his surname in the final version.

36. The Bimbettes (individual names Claudette, Laurette, and Paulette) are blonde identical triplets who fawn over Gaston. They are inspired by Belle's sisters from the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.

37. They are the first Disney characters to possess green eyes without being villains

38. These girls worked their asses off in the comics to get Gaston to notice them. 😩

39. Its implied in one comic that Belle and Gaston were friends when they were children.

40. Ironically, despite Belle being considered by the village to be the most beautiful woman in the village, Laurette once disguised herself as Belle flawlessly enough to fool Gaston initially, which conflicted with the claim that Belle's looks had no parallel.

41. Even though he is referred to as a prince in the opening, none of the characters directly refer to him by that title. In addition, the first draft for Woolverton's take of the film indicated that the Beast was intended to be a duke instead of a prince.

42. According to the first stained-glass window featured in the film's opening sequence, Adam’s family motto is "vincit qui se vincit" (meaning "The winner is who wins himself").

42. Though the Beast's official age is not mentioned in the movie, it is strongly indicated by the narrator's statement that the rose "would bloom until his 21st year." As the rose has already begun to wilt by the time Belle arrives at the castle, it is very likely that the Beast is 20 years (i.e. on their 21st year) of age by this point.

43. In authorized supplementary comics, most notably The New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, the Prince is never shown as being older than a preteen when he's shown as a human; moreover, the palace staff all refer to his pre-curse self as "a young boy" or "child". Two individual comics show that the Prince was originally a few years older than Chip, who didn't age during the curse, and shows him as being a couple of years older than Belle herself. The comics also show that the Prince has had a few run-ins with the disguised Enchantress, meaning that he'd still be a preteen when he was cursed.

44. Despite her slim figure, Belle seems to have considerable strength. She may have lifted the Beast, as evidenced by the Beast being placed onto Philippe's back, although this was never shown on-screen. Later on, she was able to pull the Beast up onto a balcony.

45. Belle is currently the only official Disney Princess to have hazel eyes.

46. In the beginning of the original 1989 storyline, found on the Diamond Edition DVD, Belle's birthday is celebrated, and the cake reads "Happy 17th Birthday Belle", providing evidence that she is 17 in the movie, or at least that she was originally planned to be 17.

47. Contrary to popular belief, it's not made clear whether Belle was actually born a peasant, as she implies that she wasn't born in her home village in the opening song, but rather moved there. In addition, her owning books at her cottage implied that she is, or at least was, considerably wealthy (as back in the time period of the film, books were considerably expensive).

48. In the musical, specifically the song "No Matter What" one of the lyrics had Maurice stating "You are your mother's daughter; therefore you are class ... crème de la crème", implying that Belle was part of the social upper class. This was also supported by Belle having a portrait of her and her mom in the Enchanted Tales of Belle attraction.

49. In earlier drafts, Aladdin had three human friends named Babkak, Omar, and Kassim.

50. In the episode "Two to Tangle", it's revealed that Aladdin has unexplored magic powers hidden within his soul. This may possibly be a link to him being "The Diamond In The Rough".

[viperwhispered]

Aunt Nerine: inspiration and design thoughts

You can find more information on aunt Nerine in her intro post

Character inspiration

Figuring out aunt Nerine was a very different process to Emi, since this time I actually was pulling inspiration from Disney (and other) sources. Like, you could pretty much say she's twisted from the general concept of a fairy godmother.

Putting together her main influences, the collection would look something like this:

Which would be:

The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella

The three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty

Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2

Cadsuane Melaidhrin from The Wheel of Time (can't believe she snuck in smh)

and finally, Cupid

(so, is now a terrible time to admit that I've seen neither Cinderella nor Sleeping Beauty? oop)

So, looking at aunt Nerine, I'm sure you all can spot the visual similarities.

(as always, this particular art belongs to moonyasnow)

A vaguely historical dress (I'll get back to this later) like the fairies from the Disney movies, hair similar to Cadsuane's, wings similar to Cupid (& Shrek's Fairy Godmother to a lesser extend), a wand, but the end is a heart like Cupid's arrow sometimes is portrayed as. She also kinda shares the sparkliness with Shrek's Fairy Godmother.

Personality-wise – she thinks she is being helpful, but she is wilful and doing what she herself wishes to do or thinks is the best course (Cadsuane anyone?). She's also... not above being petty or getting back at you if she's slighted, and also has magical power in spades. These are all traits that certainly tie to at least one of her influences.

Plus just the obvious fairy godmother -like character she has in general, even if somewhat twisted in true twst style.

More detailed design notes

Not gonna lie, I had a lot of fun putting together aunt Nerine's outfit and looks. I wanted to pull from something historical, even if I wasn't necessarily going to stick to the historical styles too closely. Still, finally putting to use all those hours watching historical costuming youtubers, lol.

A fair few pics and stuff in here, so putting this below the cut for length.

Her hair actually started off with me thinking of like an Edwardian school teacher. So very voluminous, with a nice proper bun on top. It was only later that I realized that I was kinda going for Cadsuane's hair, too, especially once I realized that I wanted to add some extra bling.

So, this was the vibe I was going for when thinking about the hair:

Y'all can find more pics from this set here

The wings, as I said, were pulling mostly from Cupid imagery. And while it doesn't show in her design, there's just something very funny to me in the wings being something she just wears for the looks, instead of them being an actual part of her.

Gotta have some whimsy when you've been around as long as she has, you know? (No wonder she and Lilia get along, can't remember anymore if it was dio or moony who first suggested this point but you were so right.)

For the pink collar / chest piece I was thinking of a some sort of an partlet + Medici collar combo. A partlet is basically a neck/chest covering and its own garment, so I'm thinking in aunt Nerine's case it wouldn't be a part of the dress, but something that she can swap out. The same swappability goes for the collar and for the sleeves, to keep with the vaguely 16th century fashion vibes she's got going on.

This pic is what I mostly referenced for the idea, though with a lower collar that'd still give room for Nerine's earrings & hair.

The dress itself is definitely pulling from Elizabethan vibes. This is the particular image I used for inspiration, as it shows the shapes well. A conical bodice with a curved upper edge, narrowing out to the waist with a point that emphasizes the illusion of a narrow waist – especially when combined with the full, layered skirts.

I did decide to forego the shoulder rolls and Elizabethan ruffles, tho.

As for the spider web pattern on her skirts...

Since Nerine has a bit of a sona in her too (to let out my impulses to meddle with charas getting together, lol), I wanted to give her a name somewhat reminiscent of what I go by here. I originally thought of Nerrie (a name I've used elsewhere), but in the end figured maybe we could do with a bit more separation between the creator and the creation, lol.

So, I looked for flower names starting with ner – and found Nerine, aka spider lily. And with the name the spider webs became pretty much an obvious motif to include – both because she kinda tangles people in her webs, and because she's not just all sunshine and roses and love love joy joy.

And if you wanna find out what Moony had to work with (other than the reference pics & my rambles), here's the sketch I sent their way:

It really is wonderful what people can do when they actually know what they're doing, huh?

Tagging @diodellet (ty for enabling me to ramble!) @moonyasnow @scint1llat3 @bibi-cha

If anyone would like to be added to / removed from aunt Nerine's tag list, just let me know!

[roseofithaca]

Kitty: Thomas asked me to marry him.

Mary: Poor thing.

Annie: He'll recover.

[snobgoblin]

i know I've been yapping about Reise's birthday since literally 2 am but it's just something I'm trying to figure out right now.

(I can't embed links this time bc there's so many it'll just not work)

🥀 so. earlier we established that it can snow in Vesuvia, although logically it shouldn't. (https://www.tumblr.com/snobgoblin/778901890767437824/re-danny-suffering-pregnancy-in-the-winter?source=share)

🥀 we also established that a winter birthday would be best for a lot of reasons. namely- the snow symbolism is something to keep in mind. snow means death in a lot of ways in this world, and it literally is present in Death's Realm https://www.tumblr.com/snobgoblin/778884643222077440/that-said-im-not-particularly-attached-to-it-i?source=share

🥀 SO. I'm thinking we go "Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart" with it and establish Reise was born on the COLDEST night Vesuvia had ever seen. all symbolic and shit, this huge gesture

I'm also thinking. the night they were born, Valdemar came in a la Maleficent/Cruella LMAO

but finding an exact day is another story

[zara-draws]

Heart is emotional soul not a literal heart

Light and dark is good and bad not metaphorically but they are literal forces

When a person loses their heart or its overcome by darkness then it turns into a heartless

The body that is left behind is a nobody

If you are strong willed enough your nobody turns into one that looks and talks like you and if both the heartless and nobody is destroyed the original person is made whole again (whole people somebodies)

Kingdom hearts 1

We start I destinies island

So we have three kids we care about on this island sora the plucky one riku the angsty oneand kairi tjr one with no personality what so ever

They decide to build a raft to explore more other than their islands and suddenly a portal opens a bunch of heartless come out

Sora is fighting wirh his wooden sword but then a key blade suddenly appears

Then riku goes thru the spooky portal, the islands explode sora goes flying and kairi kinda phases thru him

Okay so not in the islands Mickey mouse is like I'm out of here guys

Donald and goofey are like ur the king u can't just leave and Mickley tells them to find a key blade users

So after flying thru space for a while sora wakes up in a place called traverse town

He meets Donald and goofey

Meanwhile riku goes thru thr portal and meets with maleficent and she is like sora doesn't even care for u anymore he has other friends now and riku ig just trusts her?? Totally not a suspicious person haha

Sora Donald and goofy travel thru the Disney worlds to find their friends they are not rlly as relevant to the plot (unless u want to look at parallels for the relationships etc)

Eventually they end up in this castle called hollow bastion

Sora find riku but he just takes his key blade :( Donald and goofey kinda abandoned him yayy

https://youtu.be/lE5qzSrfdjI?si=5tj8-buKvbcJxCuR

So him and beast go on a trip until they discover this creepy room with a bunch of sleeping princesses and a giant keyhole and riku is there with the key blade

Then sora delivers a cool monologue about friendship and hearts and stuff and the key blade just goes back to him

We kinda discover this guy an sem is possessing riku and kinda pulling maleficent strings and kairi is just lying there on the ground snd they only notice her when beast points her out

Riku saids kairi is the last princess he needs for his evil plans

Kairis heart has been inside sora this whole time so he kills himself with his key blade

This frees kairis heart and revives her, also frees sora heart (heartless) but kairi somehow turns him back to normal??

An sem and sora fight in thr destroyed destiny islands an sem is like im gonna open the door to kingdom of hearts which is the source of all hearts and its all darkness in there, then it was light so

Sora tries to close rhe door and then riku and mickey(with no shirt on istg it will come up later) helps him close it from the inside, all broken worlds mended they go back to destiny islands

Sora is like I gotta save riku and Mickey and kairi just stands there

Chain of memories

So a bit later sora Donald and goofy are walking when a hooded figure mumbles smth about mysteries

They continue down the path and arrive at castle oblivion

They go thru the castle and encounter more hooded figures that take off their hoods

Lar xene,mar lu xia, axel,lexa eus, zexion, vexen ,- cult/group organisation XIII (13) sora defeats them all but axel survives

The further he moves into the caste the more sora loses his memories and they get replaced by fake memories

He starts remembering naminé (kinda looks like kairi) he meets naminé and has to sleep in a pod to restore his memories

Oh ye Donald and goofey also sleep in pods

Riku and mickey kinda just leave kingdom of hearts

Riku in castle oblivion also encounters organisation 13 and meets a clone of himself (replica riku)

Riku bumps into diz

358/2 days

When sora killed himself and became a heartless ,this created his nobody who wakes up in twilight town

Found by this guy called xem nas and basically introduces him to organisation 13 and we meet more if its members

Lexord, demyx, saix ,xaldin and xigbar

Takes place the same time as Chain of memories

He becomes friends with axel and they love eating ice cream

Go to castle oblivion

14th member xion

Replica of sora with naminé memories taken from sora created by xemnas in case roxas wouldn't put up with his crazy schemes

Thanks to naminé some of sora memories are in roxas too

Programmes xion to kill roxas (sora won't get memories back) roxas defeats her, morphs into roxas

Riku shows up even more emo looking and tells roxas to go back to sora and roxas has no idea who this is and riku sends him inside this computer simulation

Kingdom of hearts 2

Starts with not sora but roxas(in computer simulation of twilight town), lost most of his memories and doesn't know he is inside a computer (we are not supposed to as well kh2 released before)

Axel appears and is like roxas u are in a computer and I am ur friend and then naminé shows up telling him he is soras nobody. Runs info diz who tells him just to merge with sora

He goes out of thr computer and merges with sora who wakes up and gets his memories back(not Chain of memories tho) Donald and goofy wake up too

Mickey sends them to meet a wizard called yen sid

They visit more Disney worlds

They keep meeting maleficent joined by Pete and organisation 13 members

Battle with a shit ton of heartless goofy gets hit by a boulder and just flat out dieshttps://youtu.be/NjcPItRt1Zw?si=t6a7HauiiFdjkG1q

Somewhere in all of this mess we get an exposition dump

A while ago scientist an sem the wise studying hearts and light

Apprentice-xehannort, had heart consumed by darkness his heartless is called an sem(bad guy in kh1)

His nobody is xem nas

Kairi moved like 4 metres on destiny islands and is in a new outfit when axel kidnaps her, wants roxas back, sacrifices himself so Sora can jump thru a portal to the world that never was

Mysterious figure emerges it's riku but he looks like an sem for some reason

Sora goes on murdering spree

Diz reveals to be an sem the wise

He reveals the bad guys are trying ti make their own kingdom of hearts, his computer explodes which causes him to disappear and turns riku back to normal

Sora and riku fight xem nas

Back at destiny islands (namine is there too)

So the splitting of kairi and sora heart should of created 2 nobodies and 2 heartless(kairi princess of heart no darkness so no heartless)but kairis nobody has no body so its kairis heart but soras body

Goofey recovers from being dead ig

Letter washes up from the shore but before we open that envelope

Birth by sleep

10 years earlier

Aqua, terra and ventus, all trained by master eraqus to become keyblade masters , test mark of mastery also we are in the land of departure

Aqua passes

Meanwhile in radiant garden an sem the wise is researching and kairi (younger) is also there

Aqua and terra go thru a portal to destiny islands and they meet riku and sora (younger)

Ventus is somewhere and this guy on a motorcycle shows up like remember me? But ofc he doesn't bc he forgot a ton of important stuff

Before his master xehan nort

Trying to summon the darkness of his heart to summon the all powerful x blade(key blade)

Ventus doesn't want to so he gets the darkness out from him and creates vani tas

Meet in key blade graveyard

So long ago there was a war with a ton of key blade users fighting over the x blade but now there are just a bunch of key blades on the ground

Terra kills master eraqus

Go to graveyard for a big fight

Ventus vs venitas -they fuse it sort of

creates the x blade but then it explodes

Ventus goes asleep and his heart goes to live in sora

Terra vs xehan nort

Aqua vs this guy named braig

Aqua takes ventus blown up body to the land of departure and uses her keyblade to turn it into castle oblivion

Xehan nort possessing terra to create terra xehanort

They fight Aqua gets trapped in the realm of darkness and terranort gets amnesia

Calls himself xehan nort now is apprentice to an sem thr wise

Recoded

Jiminy cricket who has been documenting everything is with mickey

Chip and Dale digitize the journal and create a digital copy of sora-data sora to fight to bugs that have been corrupting the data

The journal turns into riku

Pete and maleficent are tjere

More Disney stuff

The journal is restored

Data namine and sora talk and the bugs are caused by her messing with soras memories and she is like ur a mess u have so many people inside of u

Data sora tells mickey this which causes him to write the letter

Dream drop distance

In order to become keyblade masters riku and sora must take the mark of mastery

To wake up the sleeping hearts of thr various worlds They have travelled thru

More Disney

Organisation 13-somebodies

X in names is recusant sigil used to track and it is on soras Clothes so they have been able to track him

Young xehannort shows up

Evil xe han nort is also here? (Old guy)

X blade exploded into 7 light and 14 dark pieces

Originally he wanted the 7 light pieces to come from princesses

But they could also be from the seven guardians of light

14 dark pieces-organisation 13

That's why he wanted young xexanort from the past

He formed the real organisation 13

He only has 12 members tho so he kidnaps sora but he gets saved by lea who is axels somebody

They go back to yen sid and riku passed by sora failed

Union cross

Long ago all of the worlds were connected and it was the age of fairytales

In this place called daybreak Town there was this guy called the master of masters

He wrote a book of prophecies with the help of his keyblade no name which can see into the future

6 apprentices he is like im gonna peace out u carry no name and bring it down thru the generations and a box that must not be opened , he game them a slightly different copy of the book of prophecies

They create their own little groups that learn to use keyblades

Fight in keyblade war x blade is shattered into 20 pieces

0.2 birth by sleep a fragmentary passage

Aqua after the events of birth by sleep

She wanders around some Disney worlds swallowed by darkness, fights her doppelganger phantom aqua and finds ventus and terra but they are not actually there

She eventually runs into riku and mickey

Aqua fends off darkness while riku and mickey close the door

Aqua is still trapped by darkness

Lea and kairi are keyblade wielders now

Yen sid tells sora to go to thr colloseum from hercules

Kingdom of hearts 3

Sora needs to relearn the power of waking

Go thru More Disney worlds

We are introduced to all of the members of the real organisations 13 but I'm too lazy to say who they are

He sets out to release roxas heart (but how I thought nobodies don't have hearts??)

Meanwhile riku and mickey are so bad at rescuing Aqua that she turns into anti aqua

Sora pops out of a portal and helps defeat Aqua with the help of the gay blade , she turns good again!

Aqua turns castle oblivion back into the land of departure

They find ventus sleeping, sora tries to use the power of waking and then vani tus shows up and fights aqua

Sora learns to actual power of waking

Ventus heart out of sora and back into his body

Back at yen sid place the seven guardians of light are finally assembled sora, riku, aqua, mickey, ventus, kairi, lea

Along wirh Donald and goofy they go to the graveyard and there are a bunch of heartless that sora defeats with a train

Terranort shows up and kills everybody

Sora wakes up dead in the final world and puts his soul back together, he brings everyone back to life

There a bunch of heartless again but they ride on a wave of keyblades

Yen sid tired of everyone's incompetence blasts a path thru thr heartless

Suddenly there is a maze and sora defeats some of the organisations members

He helps terranort turn back to terra

Replica riku defeats dark riku

Xion is also there and she is evil again

Meanwhile an sem the rise puts roxas digital heart inside a replica body and he enters the fight

Xion gets her heart back from sora and she is good again

Kairi is about to do smth but she gets kidnapped

Sora doesn't remember kairi xehanort kills her and in a frenzy he kills the last of thr members allowing xehanort to summon the keyblade

Mickey stops time and pulls sora aside and tells him that most of the members have travelled thru time and xehanort is the portal that allows them to do that

So they travel into xehanort and end up in scala ad caelum (the stairway to the sky)

for the ultimate showdown xehanort at one point turns into a goat

After he is defeated the ghost of eraqus appears (his soul was in terras hair)

Sora picks up the x blade and changes everything back to normal

Sora brings kairi back to life and fades away

Meanwhile Pete and maleficent find thr box they have been searching for

A hooded figures arrives and summon four of thr five foretellers

The hooded figure reveals themselves to be xigbar(luxu)

Sora wakes up in Tokyo and the game from verum rex is there(a video game from the toy story world)

Melody of memories

Fairy god mother, they go to final world find out Sora is in quadratum

Riku dreams, kairis memories

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Does the dark mirror know everything?

Like what if yuu went to the dark mirror during chapter 2 and asked who the culprit was or if yuu asked for the code for azuls safe during chapter 3

To my knowledge, the Mirror of Darkness isn’t stated to be (nor treated as) a magical object that is all-knowing. It mainly functions as a portal for fast travel to distant lands and sorts students into dormitories by evaluating their souls. Early in the prologue, we already see limitations to the mirror’s knowledge: it doesn’t know where to put Yuu, nor anything about where Yuu comes from.

The mirror is quiet in most other instances when we see it (such as during Halloween); it is not ever shown to be consulted for information, whether by the students or by faculty. If the Mirror of Darkness really was so omniscient, why wouldn’t NRC students immediately know to go to it to solve their problems (or, on a pettier note, to get the answers for upcoming exams instead of going to Azul for them 😂)? Wouldn’t Yuu ask the mirror about Mickey early on in their investigation for a way home? And for that matter, why wouldn’t the staff (like, why wouldn’t Crowley just ask the mirror who’s going around and injuring the magift/spelldrive players, then immediately go after Leona’s ass?)?? To that point, we can’t really say “maybe staff keep the mirror’s big brain a secret because they know the kids would be irresponsible with it” because then Crowley would then never approach Yuu to solve the mystery of book 2 in the first place. In fact, it would create various plot holes in the main story 🫠

I’m not sure where this idea that the Mirror of Darkness knows all comes from; there definitely is very little in canon which would support this. Does it originate from the magic mirror in Snow White knowing things like who is the fairest and where Snow White is?? 🤔 In that case, we should be careful with assuming what lore from the source material actually transfers over to TWST! There have been other instances where this is not the case—for example, Maleficent shows that fae are weakened and hurt by iron, to the point where it can burn their flesh. This is not true in TWST; the dialogue implies that while noble fae find iron unpleasant (it’s sort of like garbage to them), it does not appear to hinder their abilities or strength in a significant way.

[endollvors]

Taking a Propaganda

Propaganda is definitely a thing. It's been covered before, probably more throughly, that the Auradon sponsored Posters and Television channels on the Isle are, kinda wack. Like, that's a section of the budget that's being used judiciously when the main source of food is canonically garbage.

Consider also, the way that Mal, is framed in news footage in Descendants 2. (Rags to riches success story. Aspirational, A triumph of Auradon, look at her now. She's an example. etc.)

VK day in D3 being a holiday. The fact that the applications are Collected the same day as the children are Selected.

That's not what we're here for though. I'm taking you on a journey.

Ok, so School of Secrets, the promotional youtube shorts, not the book series, is I think, technically canon. It's canon the same way a guest passed out in the laundry room at a house party is still attending. They're a minute long and they fascinate me.

This is a screenshot from Episode 9. Where PC culture cancels the school play, (Weird series) which was Supposed to be an adaptation of What's that Spell? a stage dramatization of Maleficent's attack on Aurora's kingdom. Other provided options are 12 Angry Dalmatians, Book of Sultan, and 7 Brides for 7 Dwarfs before they settle on My Fair Lady and the Tramp. May I just say before I get going, fun puns. I would watch the hell out of Tramp's Pygmalion arc.

This begs an interesting question though. Because this isn't, in the world of the series, fiction. Not only are all the plays about a terrible thing that happened, they are about terrible things that happened within living memory to specifically the parents of these kids' peers. Things that caused so much damage that a Generational Prison Island was considered a proportional response and it's an incredibly unpopular policy decision to want to change that. Now, imagine for a moment, being a parent, and going to see your darling pumpkin be an extra in the school play, and then its about how your best friend's stepmother tried to get her killed when she was 14, and also you're a character. Your kid didn't get the role.

They do this twice a year.

Twice a year, the AKs go on stage to replay their parents' story and celebrate the overthrow of a villain. This is some 9/11 Never Forget shit.