avalor-blog

[avalor-blog]

Ok so I had so much fun trying to pitch Sofia’s vocals for an older au I may have gone a little crazy pitching some other songs AND all kinds of audio clips from the series where she interacts with Cedric. So if anyone’s interested, I have uploaded all the ones I’ve done on BOX. And above is a sample of one of the audio clips. 

Songs Pitched:

Sofia The First (Main Title) // Rise and Shine // Anything // The Amulet of Avalor // Mystic Meadows // I Belong // Not Ready To Be A Princess (slightly edited) // All You Need // Royal Fun // Sorcerer’s Secret (not full)

I experimented with a few different pitches on the songs based on what sounded best on that particular song (to me) and to give a little variation for what she could sound like idk lol. 

For the audio clips, I used the same key for Sofia, but there’s some inconsistencies on how old she sounds based on the voice actress’ varying octaves from one episode/line to another. (Also some of the clips are edited/truncated using creative license lol.)

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[avalor-blog]

ckattime

replied to your

audio post

:

DOWNLOAD Ok so I saw that other people were trying...

Too hard on yourself, sweetie. :P It sounds neat, but I’m still not finding original version on iTunes (though this will be a suitable addition to my Playlist^^)

Aww well thank you for that encouragement. I’m definitely a Type A lol.

I really wish they had released the studio version :(  

[avalor-blog]

If at first you don’t succeed

Thank you all for liking the other version so far. I decided to make a version of it in Audacity after theotherdynamitegal peeked my curiosity. 

So here it is half an octave lower (for those who want a slightly deeper Sofia though it’s almost not noticeable lol). Overall, I think this turned out smoother and crisper(?) so more HQ. 

DOWNLOAD

[avalor-blog]

Yes, you need lame (windows dl, mac is right below). All you have to do is double click the installer and then once it’s installed Audacity should automatically find it and export your file as mp3 :)

Ok so I saw that other people were trying to age up Sofia’s vocals so I thought I would try too (this song’s probably been done to death lol) . 

I played around a lot with where I thought her vocal range might fall believably after it matures a little. I could have taken it deeper, but I decided 1. Disney princess voices are almost always on the higher end and 2. I know from experience as a soprano with a voice similar to Sofia’s in my childhood that my voice did not deepen all that much after maturing, I simply just had to retrain a little or it sounded rough (like this pitching of Sofia does lol). Because Ariel voices Sofia with such a childish flair, my biggest goal was simply trying to get rid of that overly young connotation without losing the pitch too much, but as a result she still sounds, to me, like a feisty 16ish here (which I guess might work since Cedric is still a villain in this song so it could be early on for au’s where she comes to the palace as a teen?).

You’ll likely note the inconsistencies. I tried hard, but specific things:

- I slightly pitched Cedric, and you can tell obviously, but I didn’t pitch him along with Sofia because then he would have been just TOO deep and wouldn’t have sounded much like the sorcerer we are familiar with. Because of this, the places where his audio fades in/out it gets a little wonky and the pitch of the underlying track is not exact. I tried to smooth it and add some reverb to make it not so noticeable though. Hopefully it’s not too distracting. 

- There’s a part that I swear was a nightmare so frankly I just gave up. Basically when Sofia sings “but I’m not giving up just yet” (ironic lyrics are ironic). I don’t know if the flange just destroyed it or if it’s due to editing or autotuning of Ariel’s vocals on the actual track (or a combo), but it’s just bizarre. “giving up” sounds like autotune from hades and then with “just yet” nothing I could do would get rid of her little kid sound - I tried isolating it and pitching it alone, but then it didn’t mesh with anything and made “giving up” sound even more like an autotuned mess so it is what it is in the end and probably ruins the whole thing. Sigh. 

All in all, I guess I should get a “You Tried” star because that’s all this amounts to lol. (This was done in Sony Vegas, by the way.)

[avalor-blog]

Nothing to be ashamed of at all! I personally love Harnell’s lower range...more than I probably should.

Ok so I saw that other people were trying to age up Sofia’s vocals so I thought I would try too (this song’s probably been done to death lol) . 

I played around a lot with where I thought her vocal range might fall believably after it matures a little. I could have taken it deeper, but I decided 1. Disney princess voices are almost always on the higher end and 2. I know from experience as a soprano with a voice similar to Sofia’s in my childhood that my voice did not deepen all that much after maturing, I simply just had to retrain a little or it sounded rough (like this pitching of Sofia does lol). Because Ariel voices Sofia with such a childish flair, my biggest goal was simply trying to get rid of that overly young connotation without losing the pitch too much, but as a result she still sounds, to me, like a feisty 16ish here (which I guess might work since Cedric is still a villain in this song so it could be early on for au’s where she comes to the palace as a teen?).

You’ll likely note the inconsistencies. I tried hard, but specific things:

- I slightly pitched Cedric, and you can tell obviously, but I didn’t pitch him along with Sofia because then he would have been just TOO deep and wouldn’t have sounded much like the sorcerer we are familiar with. Because of this, the places where his audio fades in/out it gets a little wonky and the pitch of the underlying track is not exact. I tried to smooth it and add some reverb to make it not so noticeable though. Hopefully it’s not too distracting. 

- There’s a part that I swear was a nightmare so frankly I just gave up. Basically when Sofia sings “but I’m not giving up just yet” (ironic lyrics are ironic). I don’t know if the flange just destroyed it or if it’s due to editing or autotuning of Ariel’s vocals on the actual track (or a combo), but it’s just bizarre. “giving up” sounds like autotune from hades and then with “just yet” nothing I could do would get rid of her little kid sound - I tried isolating it and pitching it alone, but then it didn’t mesh with anything and made “giving up” sound even more like an autotuned mess so it is what it is in the end and probably ruins the whole thing. Sigh. 

All in all, I guess I should get a “You Tried” star because that’s all this amounts to lol. (This was done in Sony Vegas, by the way.)

[avalor-blog]

I thought about doing this in Audacity, but Audacity is such a pain to isolate audio compared to just splitting the video where appropriate in Sony lol. But I just started playing around with it in Audacity out of curiosity after reading your comment and if I can find the patience I might remake it because it already sounds a bit better to my ears. 

Ok so I saw that other people were trying to age up Sofia’s vocals so I thought I would try too (this song’s probably been done to death lol) . 

I played around a lot with where I thought her vocal range might fall believably after it matures a little. I could have taken it deeper, but I decided 1. Disney princess voices are almost always on the higher end and 2. I know from experience as a soprano with a voice similar to Sofia’s in my childhood that my voice did not deepen all that much after maturing, I simply just had to retrain a little or it sounded rough (like this pitching of Sofia does lol). Because Ariel voices Sofia with such a childish flair, my biggest goal was simply trying to get rid of that overly young connotation without losing the pitch too much, but as a result she still sounds, to me, like a feisty 16ish here (which I guess might work since Cedric is still a villain in this song so it could be early on for au’s where she comes to the palace as a teen?).

You’ll likely note the inconsistencies. I tried hard, but specific things:

- I slightly pitched Cedric, and you can tell obviously, but I didn’t pitch him along with Sofia because then he would have been just TOO deep and wouldn’t have sounded much like the sorcerer we are familiar with. Because of this, the places where his audio fades in/out it gets a little wonky and the pitch of the underlying track is not exact. I tried to smooth it and add some reverb to make it not so noticeable though. Hopefully it’s not too distracting. 

- There’s a part that I swear was a nightmare so frankly I just gave up. Basically when Sofia sings “but I’m not giving up just yet” (ironic lyrics are ironic). I don’t know if the flange just destroyed it or if it’s due to editing or autotuning of Ariel’s vocals on the actual track (or a combo), but it’s just bizarre. “giving up” sounds like autotune from hades and then with “just yet” nothing I could do would get rid of her little kid sound - I tried isolating it and pitching it alone, but then it didn’t mesh with anything and made “giving up” sound even more like an autotuned mess so it is what it is in the end and probably ruins the whole thing. Sigh. 

All in all, I guess I should get a “You Tried” star because that’s all this amounts to lol. (This was done in Sony Vegas, by the way.)

[avalor-blog]

Thank you! (I guess listening to it over and over while editing, plus being a perfectionist, made me hate it more and more lol.)

Ok so I saw that other people were trying to age up Sofia’s vocals so I thought I would try too (this song’s probably been done to death lol) . 

I played around a lot with where I thought her vocal range might fall believably after it matures a little. I could have taken it deeper, but I decided 1. Disney princess voices are almost always on the higher end and 2. I know from experience as a soprano with a voice similar to Sofia’s in my childhood that my voice did not deepen all that much after maturing, I simply just had to retrain a little or it sounded rough (like this pitching of Sofia does lol). Because Ariel voices Sofia with such a childish flair, my biggest goal was simply trying to get rid of that overly young connotation without losing the pitch too much, but as a result she still sounds, to me, like a feisty 16ish here (which I guess might work since Cedric is still a villain in this song so it could be early on for au’s where she comes to the palace as a teen?).

You’ll likely note the inconsistencies. I tried hard, but specific things:

- I slightly pitched Cedric, and you can tell obviously, but I didn’t pitch him along with Sofia because then he would have been just TOO deep and wouldn’t have sounded much like the sorcerer we are familiar with. Because of this, the places where his audio fades in/out it gets a little wonky and the pitch of the underlying track is not exact. I tried to smooth it and add some reverb to make it not so noticeable though. Hopefully it’s not too distracting. 

- There’s a part that I swear was a nightmare so frankly I just gave up. Basically when Sofia sings “but I’m not giving up just yet” (ironic lyrics are ironic). I don’t know if the flange just destroyed it or if it’s due to editing or autotuning of Ariel’s vocals on the actual track (or a combo), but it’s just bizarre. “giving up” sounds like autotune from hades and then with “just yet” nothing I could do would get rid of her little kid sound - I tried isolating it and pitching it alone, but then it didn’t mesh with anything and made “giving up” sound even more like an autotuned mess so it is what it is in the end and probably ruins the whole thing. Sigh. 

All in all, I guess I should get a “You Tried” star because that’s all this amounts to lol. (This was done in Sony Vegas, by the way.)

[avalor-blog]

DOWNLOAD

Ok so I saw that other people were trying to age up Sofia’s vocals so I thought I would try too (this song’s probably been done to death lol) . 

I played around a lot with where I thought her vocal range might fall believably after it matures a little. I could have taken it deeper, but I decided 1. Disney princess voices are almost always on the higher end and 2. I know from experience as a soprano with a voice similar to Sofia’s in my childhood that my voice did not deepen all that much after maturing, I simply just had to retrain a little or it sounded rough (like this pitching of Sofia does lol). Because Ariel voices Sofia with such a childish flair, my biggest goal was simply trying to get rid of that overly young connotation without losing the pitch too much, but as a result she still sounds, to me, like a feisty 16ish here (which I guess might work since Cedric is still a villain in this song so it could be early on for au’s where she comes to the palace as a teen?).

You’ll likely note the inconsistencies. I tried hard, but specific things:

- I slightly pitched Cedric, and you can tell obviously, but I didn’t pitch him along with Sofia because then he would have been just TOO deep and wouldn’t have sounded much like the sorcerer we are familiar with. Because of this, the places where his audio fades in/out it gets a little wonky and the pitch of the underlying track is not exact. I tried to smooth it and add some reverb to make it not so noticeable though. Hopefully it’s not too distracting. 

- There’s a part that I swear was a nightmare so frankly I just gave up. Basically when Sofia sings “but I’m not giving up just yet” (ironic lyrics are ironic). I don’t know if the flange just destroyed it or if it’s due to editing or autotuning of Ariel’s vocals on the actual track (or a combo), but it’s just bizarre. “giving up” sounds like autotune from hades and then with “just yet” nothing I could do would get rid of her little kid sound - I tried isolating it and pitching it alone, but then it didn’t mesh with anything and made “giving up” sound even more like an autotuned mess so it is what it is in the end and probably ruins the whole thing. Sigh. 

All in all, I guess I should get a “You Tried” star because that’s all this amounts to lol. (This was done in Sony Vegas, by the way.)

[avalor-blog]

(Re-reading this and editing it, I realized I’m such a rambly incoherent person who overuses asides and parenthetical thoughts mid sentence. Sorry if it’s difficult to read through.)

Thanks for adding to the mix! I love hearing the reasoning of those who age him older than 30. I actually used to age him and Roland at 33-35 for the longest time at the start of the series, although at the very beginning I did just assume Cedric was 40+ because villain and skunk stripe. Mostly I used to age Cedric at 33 and Roland at 35 typically and still do depending on where I want to go with whatever piece I’m working on - or I’ll use the “sorcerers age differently” theory. I like mixing and matching and playing with all the ideas. But I’m pretty sure being in the fandom and season 2 is what started moving me towards the 28-30 mark (I usually use 30 myself) on a regular basis in my newer and/or published works. Using the 20-22 year age gap in fics helps ensure a wider audience so I’m shameless that way and won’t even deny it haha.

It’s because like you said, age gaps can squick people out so I tend to try to have wider appeal, but personally speaking I’m pretty tolerant of them in real life and in fiction. I didn’t even bat an eye at your saying that in your world you see Cedric as at least 25 years older than Sofia because in real life one of my favorite couples is Celine Dion and her husband who have a 26 year age gap and stirred up controversy with how young she was when he first met her (she was on the other side of 25 when they finally married). Heck, I’ll probably never publish it, but I even have a good friend in real life who ships Amber and Baileywick as crazy as that sounds so I’ve been writing a fic just for her where an aging spell makes him younger (25 while she’s 21) and all kinds of magical chaos ensues and the topic of age is obviously a heavy theme so frankly I get into some weird stuff especially where fantasy worlds are concerned. It’s just something that doesn’t bother me so long as age of consent is there and mutual love/respect *shrug* (I’m even problematically conditioned [aside: thanks Jane Austen] to tolerate 17 as the typical coming out age for females in historical/fantasy settings - but I understand your sentiment there COMPLETELY just the same since it gets tricky for me trying to balance between not romanticizing the past, but also working within the setting; idk hard to explain and admittedly still problematic no matter Cedric’s age). Sorry if I just freaked anyone out being open about my strangeness.

Anyways, I started questioning Cedric’s age and if it’s at least plausible to age him at the 28-30 mark (I personally think 25-27 is pushing it, but I don’t care if people want to just the same since that’s the joy of fanon) when I started realizing how ambiguous ages are on this show and how logic seems to not play such a heavy role in character designs, or anything else after a while. No debating on my end either in case I’m not obvious (I sometimes jump in with my thoughts and forget to make that clear lol) just some more of how my reasoning started changing:

1. Baileywick had gray hair as a child and we only know that he’s older thanks to his older brother Nigel’s hair having grayed as well.

2. Cedric has all of the marks you mentioned as a child only less prominent so they could have gone with the logic that he inherited them genetically.

Also, and this is a personal line of logic, I’m 28 (too darn old to be analyzing this show) and have nasolabial folds and horrible bags/wrinkles due to genetics (my younger siblings have the same nasolabial folds only even more prominently than I do - my sister actually has almost identical face contouring as Cedric and she’s the youngest), stress on my body and insomnia :( So I guess to me it doesn’t strike me as impossible, but I understand it’s not the norm for under 30 - heavy sigh. Ok enough of that pity party moving on.

3. Slickwell has many of the same features as Cedric: Large, sharp nose and the nasolabial folds (and a face that narrows to a pointy chin)

And the whole underlying arc of Slickwell is that he’s a younger guy gunning for an older man’s position. So I’m left to wonder if the above features are more to do with coding antagonistic characters (like maybe why Winifred has them also?) rather than any indicator of age. But obviously who knows how young they were intending Slickwell to be as well lol.

4. Then there’s the subject of Goodwin and Winifred which ironically led me to the opposite conclusion as you which is super cool to me because it shows just how subjective fanon can be and reaffirms how everyone is cut from a different cloth and analyzes things differently. So I LOVED reading your thoughts. But first, I actually agree COMPLETELY with everything you’ve said about Goodwin. That he was older when Cedric was born has been my headcanon from the beginning. That said, and I touch on this in my commentary for Cedric’s Apprentice and Mystic Meadows, I also headcanon Winifred as younger. Not sure if many people do since I’m so sporadically engaged in the fandom, but I headcanon Goodwin and Winifred as being an aged-gap pairing that can serve as a nice mirror for Cedric/Sofia (showing both the positive and negative that could come from the pairing if I’m being honest). The only kicker is, on the same merit of points 1-3, it’s impossible to base it on looks alone and that’s what frustrates me so much about this show. Yes, Goodwin has crow’s feet, but plenty of the other sorcerers at the retirement home don’t (a few look young). Similarly, Winifred’s hair hasn’t grayed nor has her eyebrows, but there are other similar sorcerers there - with purple and brown hair respectively. Nothing makes sense so I’m left to just make it up on my own subjective desire lol. Thus, I headcanon that Winifred is definitely not quite old enough to justify being there, but is there because Goodwin is. But I can see why this headcanon would be rejected by others lol.

I actually have a point about Greylock in regards to how I age Cedric coming in my Baileywhoops commentary, not having to do so much with how he looks rather his comment about the big reunion, but I’ll admit that it gave me pause and made me think about it hard because of the slight crowing eyes. I think though because I no longer factor in looks as an immediate factor, but just one small possible piece of the puzzle, I don’t find it hard to age him at the 30 mark either, for my own subjective purposes (even if logically it probably works better for your headcanon). I mean he doesn’t look like a handsome 30, but superficially speaking my line of logic is that he’s supposed to be intentionally less attractive than Cedric (portly -although next to Cedric that’s an unfair comparison lol, goofily rendered face, superfluous looking monocle, weird hairdo, clothing style, etc.). I find him nonsensical and still full of zest like a younger sorcerer - Cedric calling him the jester makes sense to me. Also, you mention that Cedric doesn’t carry himself young, but I always assumed, even when I aged him older than 33 for a very brief time, that it was because he’s become so reclusive and bent down metaphorically and that Greylock is a visual representation of someone who’s been basking in the glory of being considered a good sorcerer and so is the opposite: still peppy, carries himself youthfully, etc.

And this really doesn’t support anything, but this frame has amused me for a while so yay I can finally use it...

Since this is basically a good representation of how my brain sees them even if not logical: dramatic super model Cedric and not super model Greylock (or else Steve Martin + Martin Short which obviously helps your aging of them and not mine but eh that’s fine by me)

I want to conclude all this by saying, I still find myself partially agreeing with or wanting to agree with how you’re able to age him up and fondly remembering my days of aging him strictly at 33. I was reading your commentary like “oh yeah great point!” and “ooh that would be great to play with in a piece” so thanks again for sharing your thoughts! And if you have more to continue the discussion, I’d love to hear them. It’s fun bouncing ideas back and forth even when they’re not in sync (which can get boring lol).

Oh and I almost forgot, no matter the age I agree 100 percent with your comments about Sofia having the mental upperhand. I have some points about that in my later commentary and believe it fully. She is miles ahead of him in terms of maturity and he’s got manchildness bad. And your statement about how all she’d have to do to break him is turn up her nose gave me chills to the bone because it’s SO true. The power play between them is so fun to consider for both positive and negative outcomes. While I do think Cedric has the potential to be cunning and even cruel (or at least did so early on before his progression), I think half the reason he never gets there is because he’s stunted and also because I think he’s trying to be competent at being bad, but that’s not where his strength will lie in the end (seems they’re going the “he’s an ironically good teacher” route?). I mention it in my Curse of Princess Ivy commentary, but I think Cedric could be possibly headcanoned as a Jack of Spade card that has fallen to the negative spectrum where he wallows in mediocrity and petulance even though he has the potential for greatness if he were to find his special talents and really invest himself.

AVALOR'S Overreaching Cedfia Commentary (2/?)

Over the past several months, I’ve been writing up personal commentary on Cedfia as I watch each episode that has what I view as Cedfia hints and/or tidbits that can be overanalyzed for meta, headcannoning, brainstorming fanfic ideas, etc. Meaning, I often watch the same scenes over and over, frame by frame, gif them at times, etc. all while simultaneously spewing all of my off the cuff thoughts about what could be going on in the scenes as it pertains to Cedfia - it ranges everywhere from stating the obvious things we already know to sharing pet headcanons.

These posts will typically be long and incoherent - as I’m commentating while watching specific scenes. I will likely add links between them once I’ve gotten them all posted.

Obviously, most everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s all done with shipper goggles on so tight that it borders on delusion. But it’s a happy delusion and if you’d like to join me, please feel free to reblog with your own overanalysis on any of the points or with ones I might have missed. In general, let’s have fun being delusional, fellow shippers.

P.S. Not everything will be strictly pertaining to romantic implications, as they could just as easily stay really good friends. But since I do ship it romantically, that definitely slips in more times than not. Big sorry to those who only brotp it.

The Big Sleepover & The Shy Princess (grouped together because neither is long in and of itself)

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[avalor-blog]

AVALOR'S Overreaching Cedfia Commentary (2/?)

Over the past several months, I’ve been writing up personal commentary on Cedfia as I watch each episode that has what I view as Cedfia hints and/or tidbits that can be overanalyzed for meta, headcannoning, brainstorming fanfic ideas, etc. Meaning, I often watch the same scenes over and over, frame by frame, gif them at times, etc. all while simultaneously spewing all of my off the cuff thoughts about what could be going on in the scenes as it pertains to Cedfia - it ranges everywhere from stating the obvious things we already know to sharing pet headcanons.

These posts will typically be long and incoherent - as I’m commentating while watching specific scenes. I will likely add links between them once I’ve gotten them all posted.

Obviously, most everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s all done with shipper goggles on so tight that it borders on delusion. But it’s a happy delusion and if you’d like to join me, please feel free to reblog with your own overanalysis on any of the points or with ones I might have missed. In general, let’s have fun being delusional, fellow shippers.

P.S. Not everything will be strictly pertaining to romantic implications, as they could just as easily stay really good friends. But since I do ship it romantically, that definitely slips in more times than not. Big sorry to those who only brotp it.

The Big Sleepover & The Shy Princess (grouped together because neither is long in and of itself)

The Big Sleepover

Not much to see here really. I’ll be using it to share some of my thoughts on how I personally age Cedric in the series. And then one other point lol.

1. We learn that Cedric had 15 years of sorcery training so that at least gives us a little to go on for manipulating his age when paired with other things learned later in the series (I’ll save some of this meta for points I make in my commentary for “Mystic Meadows” and “Baileywhoops”)

Ok so I have to begin by saying I think they might have later retconned the whole 15 years line when they realized how popular of a character he is and/or when they truly decided where they wanted to take his arc. This is only the third episode so that would be understandable. Still we can work with it as we like.

We know that he was around Sofia’s age in the flashback sequence shown in “Substitute Cedric” and on average school starts at around age 5. So if he was 20 when he finished sorcery training then it’s really no stretch of my imagination to age him between 26-30 as many do (I lean towards 28-30 in my own works). That said I also don’t care if people age him older or as aging different because of magic (I’ve used both before depending on the headcanon or piece). 

Anyways, because Disney fairytale settings usually have monarchs getting married and/or taking over around the 18-20 mark (on average) it’s plausible to run with a theory where Roland was around that age when he became king of Enchancia and that Cedric was likely phased in shortly after to take over under his rule (because how awkward would it be to just randomly be forced to the background for several adult years waiting for the former king to die off/retire(?) and your father to die off or retire idk maybe that’s a possibility that could explain his issues but...). Amber and James are under 10 presumably so that helps bolster an argument for Roland’s age based on how life typically goes, especially where fantasy/royalty settings are concerned; Roland becoming king between 18-20 and having an heir by the age of 22 is, in my opinion, totally plausible for fanon purposes. And this is just my line of reasoning, but Roland losing his young wife is also more likely to make sense as a reason for him to wait 7-8 years before marrying again. And frankly, Roland just doesn’t read as an “old” father to me, but dang it all if this show isn’t super ambiguous with how they indicate age (as someone who has worked with kids, they consistently read as 9 and 10 at minimum and sometimes a few of them, especially Amber, toe the tween line, but that could be a combination of older voice actors, time period maturity levels being different, etc.)

We also know that Cedric has a sister so that might be meant to be a parallel between himself and Roland (as well as himself and Sofia but let’s not jump ahead) since they set up his struggle as being against Roland pretty specifically at the start of the series - he wants Roland’s throne and/or his respect. Both have sisters who don’t get the birthright of taking over the family office. These parallels as well as Cedric’s inferiority complex around Roland may be further implication that their ages are similar if not outright the same.

Lastly, I highly doubt he could be much older than 30, if he is, because why wouldn’t he have been just as inclined to take over the kingdom if he was old enough under Roland’s father’s rule? Why wouldn’t Goodwin have noticed sooner and if he had why would he have trusted him with the position and its temptation? Wouldn’t it be his duty to not allow that chance if he’s so noble? Similarly, we know that Roland’s mother wore the amulet so his chances of knowing it was in the palace would have been higher if he had been old enough to recognize it in, I don’t know, a painting or something, but I guess that’s debatable and depends on how long she wore it.

2. Cedric’s magic show is a relief for Sofia. She’s so stressed out that she literally sighs in relaxation at the sound of a magic show because how could magic possibly be divisive for them? That implies that she sees magic as being suitable for rich and poor, peasant or princess. Overanalyze it another layer further and you can see why she would, in the future, not think twice about whether or not it’s appropriate for a princess to fall in love with a sorcerer because she just doesn’t see magic as below the station of a princess or above that of a peasant. She happens to be both and although it’s not until much later, the writers eventually address this aspect of her personal narrative. I’ll talk about it more when the time comes.

And that’s pretty much it for analysis on this one for my part. If anyone has anything to add, please do!

The Shy Princess

There’s only one Cedfia implication in this episode, but it’s very very telling. 

Sofia says that if there’s ANYTHING in the WORLD that she would want in even a make believe castle it would be a sorcerer’s workshop, butterfly garden and stable for flying horses - in that order. This is important and doesn’t even require deep overreaching analysis because I think the writers are being pretty transparent here. There’s no other way to read this.

Flying horses make sense because of her connection with Minimus and derby. Butterflies are used in the series, in my opinion, as a trope to emphasize her femininity and princess-ness (maybe also some underlying symbolism for her being a social butterfly or symbolizing new beginnings). Thus, her wanting a butterfly garden is a reminder, on some gender binary level, that yes she’s girly and princess-y. But at the top of this list, the first thing out of her mouth, is that she would have a sorcerer’s workshop for sure.

That means she can’t imagine a castle without a sorcerer. That is the height of what it means to have a dream castle. The castle of her dreams has to have a sorcerer or it’s not right just like Vivian’s has to have music or it would be otherwise empty. Sofia’s crush on Cedric and/or her enamor with magic is on full display in this moment. And when/how she says it is important, imo. She states it in the privacy of the bedroom of her soon to be close friend. It’s basically like a schoolgirl telling her bff which guy (usually way too old for her if we’re being honest) is dreamy. And she says it without overtly naming Cedric which is common since crushes at this age can be super embarrassing.

This is one of those hints that can stay perfectly innocent even in the context of the show. It’s ok for Sofia to have a crush on Cedric. It doesn’t mean that she will grow up and marry him by any means since that doesn’t always happen in real life (although sometimes it also does because life is weird that way). She may even outgrow her childhood obsession with magic.

On the other hand, there’s also absolutely nothing wrong with playing with this in fanon on her part. Maybe it's the seeds that will later sprout. Or maybe the feelings will merely deepen over time as she grows and understands them better. Heck, she may even set a cap for him and pursue him because she knows what she wants and doesn't care. The possibilities are many for how people can interpret it. Fact is, in a fantasy setting like this, where she will always likely be in close proximity to Cedric and likely to follow historically accurate social rules rather than strictly modern ones, the chances of this crush developing differently than in other settings can be considered. I have very little doubt that realistically she would have her mind made up on him no later than 16 (in Disneyverse lol) if the crush continued and if she retained the confidence she shows at 8ish. He's the one that would be harder to pinpoint since he is her senior and his personality a bit slippery.

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AVALOR'S Overreaching Cedfia Commentary (1/?)

Okay so over the past several months, I’ve been writing up commentary on Cedfia as I watch each episode that has what I view as Cedfia hints and/or tidbits that can be overanalyzed for meta, headcannoning, brainstorming fanfic ideas, etc. Meaning, I often watch the same scenes over and over, frame by frame, gif them at times, etc. all while simultaneously spewing all of my off the head thoughts about what could be going on in the scenes as it pertains to Cedfia - it ranges everywhere from stating the obvious things we already know to sharing pet headcanons. 

So I thought I’d finally start sharing my posts now that Season 2 is over (in the U.S.) - and since I haven’t posted here since like Christmas lol. These posts will typically be long and incoherent as I’m commentating while watching specific scenes. I will likely add links between them once I’ve gotten them all posted, which who knows when that will be as in Word it’s like 70 pages long <_>

Obviously, most everything here should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s all done with shipper goggles on so tight that it borders on delusion. But it’s a happy delusion and if you’d like to join me, please feel free to reblog with your own overanalysis on any of the points or with ones I might have missed. In general, let’s have fun being delusional, fellow shippers.

P.S. Not everything will be strictly pertaining to romantic implications, as they could just as easily stay really good friends. But since I do ship it romantically, that definitely slips in more times than not. Big sorry to those who only brotp it. 

Once Upon A Princess

1. Sofia doesn't seem to mind the mishap about the rain and is the only one to show intrigue about the rose petals.

2. Sofia's literal first run in with ANYONE (excluding her family) in the castle is Cedric. And it happens specifically right as they are moving her throne in. Cedric wants the throne so this can be symbolic of their being set up from the very beginning as each others' foil. Possible analyses could be: future romantic foil, Sofia being Cedric's foil that changes him, their being perfect contrasts that complement one another, their actually being more similar with just the difference in good vs. evil between them, etc.

3. When Sofia runs into Cedric it causes his wand to go off on its own. Which is kind of cute in and of itself (oh oh oh it’s magic you know). But if you notice, what happens is it causes a suit of armor to vanish. This is the first time we’ll see the suit of armor symbolism, but certainly not the last, intentional or not. We know that Cedric has had dreams of grandeur. I think there’s some play here on whether or not Cedric can be a knight in shining armor (Sofia seems to think so in her own way) or if that dream is doomed to disappear upon Sofia entering his life. On the one hand, it could be because she will bring about his further descent into villainy. On the other, it could be because he’s not the knight-in-shining armor here to save the day, rather she is and she’s here to save him.

4. Piggybacking on the knight motif, I might as well take a moment to get this pet fan theory off my chest. I currently see Cedric as a clever take on the narrative of Ivanhoe (although borrowing also from Oliver of the Roland legendarium). I think this because one, they seem to pick their names appropriately on this show (e.g. Roland was a knight who became legendary, James means successor and supplanter which could allude to his succeeding Roland as king and supplanting his older sister in the process, etc.). Two, the very name of Cedric itself originates from Ivanhoe. He was the father of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, the titular character. He was a Saxon king with a young charge whom his son falls in love with. What follows is a huge strain between father and son. The son himself is not exactly the most clever or skilled of heroes, but that’s the whole point. He manages to rise above this to become the hero. Obviously they couldn’t have named Cedric Ivanhoe without giving anything away, or without people side-eyeing the use of such a well known name, if that’s indeed the intention of his narrative. They made his mother Winifred which is suspiciously close to Wilfred. And by making him Cedric, they can allude to Ivanhoe by giving him the guise of the father who is slightly antagonistic. 

The point here is that if that’s indeed a clue, then Cedric + the knight motif may be intentional and it could explain his transformation from antagonist to bumbling potential hero as it seems to be currently going. Sofia may even be the combination of Rowena and Rebecca to his combination of Cedric and Ivanhoe.

5. Instead of being deterred by the fact that Cedric ran into her and then harshly reprimanded her, Sofia immediately becomes enamored when she realizes who it is. It literally turns into fangirl-like gushing complete with wide eyes, mouth agape, hands on cheeks.

6. Sofia's "it's so great to meet a real life sorcerer" line might indicate that she's been interested in magic or sorcerers before this -meaning finally meeting a sorcerer is a huge deal (meeting a sorcerer is her destiny?;D)

7. "That flower trick was AH-MAZING!" Notice that Sofia completely ignores the fact that Cedric screwed up the trick at first and jumps straight to thinking he's a great sorcerer (she thinks this according to later episode, Cedric's Apprentice). He really made THAT much of an impression on her with just rose petals...rose petals...yep, that's linked to romance, I'm counting it!

8. Cedric obviously doesn't care that she thinks the trick was amazing, but we learn that he has just as much the adventurous streak as she does. Kind of a hero complex and it's specifically set up that his innate desire is to be noble (even if pridefully) rather than a villain - going back to that possible knight motif. And he isn't shy about sharing his aspirations with her.

9. "Everything's going to be just fine." Cue Cedric. Literally, the scene cuts right to him after this declaration. And he’s in a very random part of the castle? It feels a little like destiny for Sofia to run into Cedric of all people at this moment, just after receiving the amulet and encouragement of a bright future. Destiny for both of them since the amulet is something Cedric has been looking for. The amulet pretty much brings them together lol. (Also love the recurring theme of their first two meetings being literally running into one another by chance...because that’s not usually how hero/villains meet but rather the two leads, so I think they’re definitely playing with Cedric being in the duel role of antagonist and Sofia’s male lead - even if not romantically in-series.)

10. Cedric is not only Sofia's first encounter in the palace halls on her first day, but also her last as far as we are shown.

11. "She has the amulet of Avalor." Cedric seems to be fawning for a brief moment before villain mode is activated. Not really a hint, but the way he says it and the way he's animated as he says it is amusing to me.

It kind of parallels Sofia's fangirl moment over meeting him earlier. Now he has a reason to be interested in her as well, even if superficially. And it sets up their relationship well too if you think about it. We’ll continually see her place merit in him while he places merit in the amulet.

12. When pretending to be nice, at the beginning of the series, Cedric uses endearments such as "my dear" and he's kind of touchy-feely (sometimes pseudo grabsy though, like he gets close but doesn't actually touch her). Seen again in later episodes, it basically establishes a seemingly villain/hero intimacy (e.g. think of Jafar/Jasmine or Hades/Meg). But then it later seems to evolve into a more genuine intimacy where it’s less psuedo grabsy and his fake endearments seem to vanish.

13. Stranger danger clearly means nothing on this show or to Sofia where Cedric is concerned. She trusts Cedric enough to go alone with him to his tower. And also Cedric giving her a tour is something she does seem interested in.

14. The tour of the tower sets up nicely for the future as Sofia will go there often as already seen in the series and perhaps even more as she gets older. It's good for her to know where the magic happens :)

15. "Irritatingly charming" sets up the friendly enemy trope that seems to exist between them so far. Sofia both frustrates Cedric and charms him at the same time.

16. Cedric says he knows how hard it can be adjusting to royal life which could be a throwaway line or a glimpse of his having shared similarities with Sofia.

17. Cedric halfheartedly offers his help, shutting the door as if to imply his door is actually closed and he's not there to help her, but clearly Sofia eagerly takes him at his word as we will see throughout the series so far. I also personally like to think that Cedric's robe getting caught in the door is symbolic of how he can now no longer shut Sofia out of his life without consequences. This is the beginning of a door motif that I will mention every chance I get.

18. Even the shoes that Amber sabotages Sofia with are linked to Cedric. Amber accuses Cedric of always leaving things around the castle and tries to shift the blame from herself to him even though in this case he's not in the wrong. It seems like good foreshadowing of the strange relationship that will exist between these three characters later in the series.

19. Sofia's instinct is to go to Cedric for a way out of her problem instead of just facing her inability to dance. It's a bit dishonest, but also shows us that she inherently sees magic as a problem solver (even if she'll learn later that it isn't). I see her relationship with magic as vital to any possible future relationship with Cedric.

20. She opens up about her insecurity to Cedric - specifically that she doesn't want to look silly. Everyone else she just gives the basic "I can't dance" speech to. Seriously she trusts him a good deal already.  

21. "I don't know what I'd do without you."  Vague "That makes two of us" response. Cedric might be cheekily referring to the brilliance of his plan or referring to how without Sofia he wouldn't have had such an opportunity land right in his lap. If it's the latter then it is established that they both think they need one another. Or if only onesided it at least further establishes Sofia's regard for Cedric.

22. That Amber, Sofia and Cedric motif pops up again when Amber thinks of Cedric having a counterspell as well as knowing for a fact that Cedric's workshop is always locked (and she's forgotten about Wormwood). "Not if you have the key" could be symbolic of Sofia being the one who has the key to Cedric in general and hopefully foreshadowing of her unlocking his heart (she is the only one he shared the secret of where the key was after all, to our knowledge). The door symbolism actually shows up a lot in this series and much of it pertaining to Cedric's door. So get used to me talking about it lol.

[avalor-blog]

christmas everyday - sam tsui / wrapped in red - kelly clarkson / what are you doing new year's eve? - johnny mathis / cold december night - michael bublé / june in january - dean martin / kiss me babe, it's christmas time - owl city / my song for you - bridgit mendler & shane harper / winter dreams - kelly clarkson

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS

A mushy gushy holiday fanmix inspired by the idea of Cedric and (OLDER!) Sofia celebrating traditional (read: American/English?) winter holidays during a time they're either falling in love or having already fallen in love and gotten together. 

Idea inspired by when I first heard "Wrapped In Red" by Kelly Clarkson which made me imagine Sofia in love with Cedric over the years and then finally telling him. And then after that, I heard "Winter Dreams" also by Kelly and thought of Cedric being so over the top dizzy on the idea that Sofia is actually in love with him and they're together. 

Most of the songs chosen based on references to snow thanks to "Winter's Gift" lol. But most of these seem skewed towards Cedric's pov of being in love with Sofia oops. If you have any Christmas songs that remind you of Cedfia, preferably with the mushy gushy theme lol, please recommend them to me. I'd love to edit this to make it a bit longer than 8!

[avalor-blog]

I have all these different StF fanfic ideas (not all Cedfia but a lot of them) and I can't ever seem to find the time to write them. Mybe I should start with some flash fics or music drabbles to get me motivated to write longer stuff.

[avalor-blog]

Oaken Dusk - A Cedfia Fic

Note: This takes place in the future, after Sofia is of age. No mature content, just a short, cute drabble for my new OTP.

Read More

[avalor-blog]

I wasn't aware of the "wise" thing but whoa! That actually supports my headcanon (that I've had since Cedric's Apprentice") that Sofia is an inverted Winifred aka like Winifred in a lot of ways only good. I started thinking that because it struck me that of all the characters to be color coded that closely to Sofia (light purple + white + brown hair) it's Cedric's evilish mom...the person dearest to and most supportive of Cedric prior to Sofia's arrival.

Some screencaps of mine since I just bought the “Mystic Meadows” episode. Oh my- so MANY Cedfia moments! I loved this part the most, it was so cute and lovely! I just love how Sofia always gets Cedric out of a slump and pushes him to do his best! And she even gave him a title, yay! “Cedric the Sensational!”

Winifred loves Sofia now too and that is so cute! (And the line she says here about Sofia being his only/kindest friend is gold for Cedfia shippers!) Now that we know she is called “Winifred the Wise”, I think it is interesting if you think about Sofia’s name meaning- which is “Wisdom” and “Wise”, hmmmm…. 

Also,I’ll be uploading more art sooner or later guys, (I’ve been quite busy!) I’ll try to fit it into my schedule! :-) Thanks for all the likes/reblogs and follows! It means a lot to me, thank you so much! 

[avalor-blog]

All this time and I'm still not convinced that it was unintentional. Because yeah the longer you look at it the less logical it becomes. Break it down frame by frame and obviously you get what really does look like a kissy face (thanks for that cap by the way it's priceless!) If it's just a really awkwardly animated puff of breath (since we know he gets winded easily) then it's also really awkwardly placed. Like why did he have to turn specifically towards Sofia and downward towards her head?

Trying to gif some Cedric scenes from Two Princesses and a Baby and just

And then this whole bit gets even funnier in slomo like

I’m actually crying over this it’s just so IDEK

[avalor-blog]

Randomly imagining Sofia referring to Cedric as Ceddykins at least once. Maybe intentionally being silly or maybe because he's pouting idk at least once ok. And then they'd probably agree she should never use that as a pet name ever again lol.