#MOTHER GOTHEL DOES NOT BELONG HERE

[c0nfessions-of-a-writing-freak]

Protective Flower

Pairing: Harry Hook x Fem!Reader

Wordcount: 1.4k

Summary: While making your rounds of the Isle making sure everyone still fears your name, you run into an old acquaintance. Someone oversees this and doesn't take lightly to others touching what is his.

Bingo: @eclipsingbingo with the square 'Jealousy'

*Gif does not belong to me

Boots clicking with every step, you had not a care in the world as you walked through the Isle of the Lost. Why would you? You were the daughter of Madame Gothel, the Mother Gothel. Everyone on the Isle knew of your mother's story and with that came protection, a blanket of safety that her name alone offered you.

That didn't mean you let the glare on your features fall or had your back turned on anyone for too long. With brisk steps you passed through different sections of the Isle, never staying for too long. It was only when you saw the back of someone's head whom you never thought you'd see again.

"Jay?" You slowly question, your voice hesitant in case who you thought was in front of you was an illusion or just an insanely good look-alike whom you've never seen before that day. It was only when the boy's head of long brown hair turned and a whisper of your name left his lips that you knew it was him. "What are you doing here? I thought you had gotten off this island and were at Auradon."

"Some circumstances have changed," He muttered with a coy grin, bounding his way over to you. The fast approach made you take a few small steps back, trying to put distance in between the two of you in case he decided to try something, though Jay bypassed this easily, one of his strides making up for three of yours as he wrapped his arms tightly around you. "I've missed you. We all have."

You froze immediately as you were engulfed, not expecting the embrace and hardly knowing what to call it. The feeling that arose from being trapped within Jay's arms was odd, almost comforting. That didn't matter though as you kept your arms glued to your side, not raising them to return the gesture.

"I'm sure it would've passed," You mumbled, voice gruff as you remembered what it had been like before Jay, Mal, Evie and Carlos left the Isle. How things have changed since then. Your words caused Jay to finally pull back, which you were both grateful for since the action was weak, though also longed for it to return, the simple contact something you have never experienced on the Isle evoking something within you. It must have been some trickery Auradon had taught them. "You never did say why you were here. And if you're here, I'm assuming so are the others."

"About that," Jay trailed off, hand sheepishly going to rub at the back of his neck. The action instantly had you quirking an eyebrow, never before seen such an action from the taller VK. Or former VK. "Carlos actually sent me to come and find you. We were wondering if we could use your help. Like old times-"

"What do we have here?" A taunting voice called out, cutting off the end of Jay's sentence, not that you needed to hear the rest of it to know what he was asking of you. You didn't even bat an eye to the new voice, coming well accustomed to it in the past year, more so than before Jay and his little redeemed squad had run off. "Runnin' into ya two times in a day has got ta be a good omen."

Jay's whole deemer immediately changed at not only the sight of him but also the sound. Turning an annoyed glare that held more heat than you knew Jay could still muster onto the newest arrival, Jay greeted him with a less than pleased grunt, "Hook."

Harry Hook, in all his glory, came out from the shadows he had previously lurking in so the deranged grin he was flashing could be seen by all.

"Don't sound so sad ta see me," Harry's laugh felt as if a harsh bite had sunken into you. It wasn't unwelcomed but such a stark contrast to what Jay had offered you moments ago. His eyes fell on you quickly, blue irises sucking you in as he walked closer, sealing his spot at your side as he wrapped a tight arm around your waist and pulled you flush to his side. "I was wondering when the two of yer would meet again. It was only a matter of time I suppose."

Jay's eyes locked in on the hand on your waist, Harry's fingers flexing at the sight as they curled in tighter. The sensation didn't hurt, not when you've felt it before. It was almost comforting, though in a different way to how Jay tried offering it. You weren't oblivious enough to not understand that Harry was staking his claim, however, making it known to Jay how things were running this time around.

"I didn't know the two of you had buddied up since we've been gone," Jay had to drag his eyes away from where the two of you were connected, never taking his eyes off of you as he refused to look into Harry's.

"Things have changed since you and the others were taken off the Isle," You shrugged your shoulders up as you spoke, giving it to Jay plainly. After he and the others left you were without a gang to call your own, leaving you to resort to other means of getting by. "Not all of us were whisked away to be Princesses and Princes."

"I can see that," Jay breathes out as if the words were vile on his tongue. You weren't ashamed of this. Just because you had grown closer to Harry and his crew in his and the other's absence didn't mean you were going to flip a switch now that they were back. "It was nice catching up with you. If you want to talk more, you know where to find us."

"I'll see you around Jay," You bid your farewell, surprised that Harry was able to remain as quiet as he did. Not sparing you another word, though his eyes flickered down to where Harry kept his hold on you, Jay turned away so he could make his way back to the hideout he must've come from.

"Now wasn't that a lovely chat," Harry chirped, rounding on you once Jay was out of sight. His other hand came down to your hip, resting there tightly as he slowly began to back you up. "I was just on my way to warn ya as well of Mal and her little crew's arrival. Somehow ya always beat me to it though."

"I must just be lucky at sniffing out people with pretty faces," You say, not a second later your back came in contact with the wall behind you, a small huff leaving your nose at the contact. With a cruel quirk of your lips, you bring a hand up to pass through some of his hair. "Maybe that's how I found you all those months ago."

"Cute," Harry barked out a bitter laugh, bringing his face closer to yours. Some of that bitterness seeped into his face as he looked down at you, his next words coming as a sting. "Uma doesn't want ya going near them. Who knows what they've brought from Auradon. And we all know how close ya were with them before they left."

"Good thing Uma doesn't control what I do then," You dipped your face to the side as Harry tried to trap your lips in a harsh kiss, his teeth ready to make an appearance. Instead, a kiss was left on your cheek, the pirate recoiling back once he realised. With a smirk of your own, you leaned in, trailing feather-light kisses across his neck and jaw. Your lips ghosted his skin, never staying in one spot for too long. "Though I'm sure an exception could be made if you asked nicely."

"Stay away from Jay and his friends," Harry spoke lowly, lips chasing after yours as you continued to evade him. With a raised brow, you stared at him as if you were waiting for more, leaning back so he couldn't reach you. With an eye roll from his dark eyes, an abundance of eyeliner smeared around them, he grinned out, "Please."

You waited a few moments, bringing both of your hands up to cup his face. Dragging him slowly, you brushed your lips quickly against his, muttering before finally giving him what he wanted, "I'll consider it."

[genericpuff]

I really can't wait to see how you write Demeter! Is she going to be the villain?

yaay it's a good day for asks! sorry because I'm about to go on ANOTHER HUGE TANGENT LMAO but I hope it answers your question thoroughly enough ! 😅 (and if it doesn't at all lmk LOL) Demeter's gonna be an interesting one. I think you already know the answer to this, but I really can't stand how she's villainized like some Mother Gothel archetype, especially when it comes to how Rachel portrays it, because everything Demeter thinks/does/says is honestly justified, try as Rachel might to make her seem like some insane overbearing 'evil' stepmother. Everything always comes back to "Demeter bad!" whereas reading her depiction of Persephone is like watching The Little Mermaid as an adult.

(it's very frustrating, to say the least LMAO)

Personally I'm gonna be going for what LO started with, but never followed up on - Demeter wants to see her daughter gain independence, but is fearful of her being taken advantage of and hurt the same way she, her "sisters", and her "mother" was (and yes, I have my own way of tackling the incest and familial labels in a way Rachel could have but didn't, I don't wanna reveal too much but it's very fun and I can't wait to explore it haha). All this is gonna affect how her relationship with her daughter plays out - it won't be exactly like the Hymn of Demeter, focusing solely on Demeter's grief, but it won't be exactly like LO either where it throws aside the purpose and messaging of the original myth entirely. All the gods are nuanced and morally problematic in their own way, and that includes Persephone and Hades.

Honestly, I think the reason why so many myth 'retellings' like LO end up being this Flanderized in their characterizations ("Demeter bad, Persephone good!" and "Zeus bad husband, Hades perfect husband!") is because there's so little material surrounding Persephone and Hades compared to all the others. While this can make it fun for having more freedom in re-interpretations, it unfortunately has the opposite effect as well where people tend to forgo the entire point of the original story so they can have some feel good cute story where Hades was some "soft" husband who did nothing wrong and Persephone was some "boss babe" icon with no nuance in between.

I see this type of fetishization of the original myth in a lot of these interpretations but especially Rachel's work. I'm not sure if "fandomification" is a word that can be used here, but I definitely get the feeling Rachel idolizes and fetishizes Greek myth the same way a lot of young Westerners often idolize and fetishize Japanese lore and content, or, more personally, Indigenous cultures (as I myself am Indigenous, specifically Mi'kmaq) - by reducing it down to its most "consumable" formats and turning it into something more 'palatable' and 'fandom-y' for modern audiences that almost comes across as pandering and demeaning to anyone looking for anything with more depth than a teaspoon (and especially to those who belong to the respective cultures being portrayed through this lens).

This isn't to say that creators have to stick to their lane when writing about other cultures or myths, but you can tell when someone hasn't done their research and is working from a very romanticized template they've built up in their heads. Rachel's, in this case, feels like it's definitely come from her time on Tumblr back in the day, when Hades x Persephone writing prompts were all the rage and people were coming up with all sorts of feel good AU content. The thing with AU prompts like that though is they're just that - prompts, memes, mere thought experiments or hypotheticals, not something that can necessarily work as an actual serious long form story unless you know what you're doing. I think creators who want to go so far as to 're-interpret' these stories through their own lens have a huge responsibility to still recognize and treat the original source material with some semblance of respect. In this regard, LO in its current state really should have stayed as a slice-of-life type series if it wanted to keep things light.

And I'm saying this entirely as someone who grew up on weeb content in the freaking West and got more into Greek myth because of LO. That's why I don't entirely chastise it, fandom-y type stories like LO can definitely help introduce people to cultures and stories they wouldn't have batted an eye at before (as I've started to detest LO over the last year, it's made for even better learning because I've had to research the original myths just to see how Rachel is misfiring on them entirely LMAO) but there comes the added responsibility of making sure you're not erasing or reducing the original material in favor of the silly cutesy stuff. It's an entry point, not the entire course! And that's a responsibility that falls both on the audience and the content's creator, IMO.

Yay, more text dumps! Sorry if a lot of that seems weirdly gatekeepy, it's def not what I'm trying to get across, just trying to voice my own frustrations with the depiction of LO's characters as best I can, I feel like a lot of it comes down to Rachel just not having done proper research and relying solely on tropes and self-fulfilling fantasies. If LO stayed as a slice-of-life thing that would have been fine, there's definitely a place for that sort of feel-good goofy storytelling, but by trying to be super ultra serious, it's tripped over its own feet because that's just not what Rachel is capable of depicting at this moment. She's trying to write a super serious story, but doesn't come across as if she actually takes it seriously by extension and it shows.

TL ; DR: Basically, we're gonna actually hone in on Demeter's trauma from the Titanomachy and how it affects her parenting style and 'controlling' tendencies, not only of Persephone, but of the community of nymphs she's fostered over the years. It's not about whether Demeter is the hero or the villain, because that would be missing the point entirely - it's about her role and experiences as a mother and leader of her community, a woman in a struggling position of power among a patriarchal system, and a mother who lost her child to that same patriarchal system, whether by choice or through forced marriage. No matter how one wishes to tell it, whether it's in tragedy or celebration, you can't have the story of Persephone and Hades without Demeter. That is the core of what I want to focus on and bring back to the retellings of Hades and Persephone.

[aspectabund007x]

Repugnant! Yandere Platonic Mother Rapunzel x daughter Reader

PROLOGUE

Summary: You are Rapunzel’s illegitimate daughter, and you were snatched away at birth and sent away by Dame Gothel. 

WARNING : This is an AU of the Grimms Brothers version, and the Grimms tales are quite dark and disturbing. So this AU will be too. If there are any questions about this AU, ask away! Not everything is cannon, obviously.

This includes body-shaming, gaslighting, insanity, gore, murder and child abuse.

(All images used do not belong to me but their rightful owner)

Locked all alone in curiosity, sorrow, and desire 

Up in a tower, so high. Nor did it have any doors or ladders

But only a small window…

There was no escape…

The Doe would often ponder: Did she have any other purpose than that long, golden, luscious hair on her head?

Often did Dame Gothel run those brittle, cold and boney fingers of her’s through those fine strands of hair. 

“Mother, I long to see the outside…please! I beg you!” she’d cry, in hopes that the selfish witch would succumb in Rapunzel’s despair.

“Rapunzel, aren’t I enough for you? Why go to the outside world when you have me? I accompany you, protect you from the harsh danger and this is how you repay me? You ungrateful skank!” 

A pang of guilt would tug into her heart, she loved her Mother. Who’d preserved her from brutal hands! And… this is what Rapunzel gave in return? 

Defeated, she accepted her Fate.

It wasn’t until a very special encounter…

That would change her life forever…

"O Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" 

Gothel would cry, but it was not her. No, the voice belonged to a young man…

In fear, she’d quickly unbinded  her hair and threw it down the window.

“Why have you come here, please don’t hurt me!” the girl cried. Astonished, the man defensively raised both arms, as if to symbolize he’d meant no harm.

“Do not fret! I could not help but be charmed by your singing! I had to see you!” he confessed.

Rapunzel had learned that he was no ordinary man, but the king’s son. Who just happened to be taking a stroll in the forest. The royal palace had been suffocating him, and he needed fresh air.

The two had since become inseparable, Rapunzel would gush about the outside world whilst the prince would promise to fulfill her wish. 

Friendship soon evolved to companionship.

Behind the witch’s back, the prince would climb onto the tower within the help of Rapunzel’s hair. 

The girl had read stories in books, about two beings falling in love… starting a family…

How she desired to experience Motherhood, she’d often wonder what it would be like, to have a part of her running around in nothing but pure joy.

She’d make sure of it.

“ Someday, Rapunzel… you will become my Queen.” He pondered for a moment. “And we shall have a little princess…” Rapunzel, in confusion, glanced towards the prince and gave him a questioning look. “And what shall happen if we conceive a prince, my dear?”

He heartedly laughed. 

“My beloved! My Father, right? He insists that daughters are inferior to sons.”

“Really now?”

“Oh yes, yes! He’d gush how joyful he is to have a prince, an heir to his throne!”

The prince chirped that any daughter of his would have the heart of a warrior. He’d believed that all their children would inherit their Mother’s beautiful and long hair.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The witch held a lifeless man in one hand. He hung from it, pale as his once gleeful eyes were bloodshot and wide-open. 

Rapunzel could not utter a word, she could only hold her stomach where she bore another life.  She howled in despair, realizing that her curiosity, desire for the outside world had gotten her darling’s life robbed of him. 

“You are to not keep that bastard Rapunzel, you know none of what being a Mother is!”

She strolled to the pale girl with a knife, as the blood on it drooled down to her slender fingers. 

“No! Please, do not take my child away from me! Please Mother, I beg you!” Rapunzel grieved. The human being in her womb meant the world to her, both her and her beloved’s blood ran in their veins. Their love had made a human being altogether. 

Dame’s boney hand was shaking recklessly, with spider veins that looked to almost be ripping out of her dry skin. 

“A deal could do… right, my dear?” She snickered.

“ After all, it is how your foul parents gave me to you. Some Lettuce was what they desired more than their own child” she snarled. Rapunzel choked in broken sobs, she was not wrong at all. 

“You can bear the Bastard alright…” she proceeded, a tug of relief swarming the young to be Mother. “However, they shall not stay with you in the tower. I’ll leave it on some land of grass or whatsoever. I could care less.”

Rapunzel’s heart sank down her throat. No, she could not live without her baby! She screamed as Gothel dragged her down to the dungeon where she’d spend another gruesome nine months in…

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eyes dry, red and blurry, Rapunzel suffered from a headache. Her child had been conceived a month earlier, during the cold and brittle winter. Giving birth was a tragic experience, she’d been tied down by her own hair in the freezing dungeon. Throat sore from screaming in agony, head pounding by the harsh yelling from Dame, body aching from the position she had been in, and the cold. 

The worst of all was when Dame Yanked out the baby after the last push, holding them carelessly by their ankle. 

Rapunzel screamed with her sore throat to let her child into her arms, heart clenching from seeing her baby in pain. She did not get to hold them, the moment was robbed from her. She did not know whether she had a son, or a daughter, like her beloved desired for one. 

She was once again upstairs, sitting on her chair as she stared at the wall. 

All numb…

In a sudden, rage consumed her. 

This was her child! A part of her! And that witch dare take that from her!?

She stood up on her feet, not minding the pounding headache she’d been enduring since the delivery. And furiously braided her hair very tightly, she made sure of it.

The witch had ridiculed her swollen stomach, whereas she embraced it, for it was a gift from her baby. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!”Dame cried.

In no time, Rapunzel’s long, golden braid was thrown down. 

She climbed up the braid and was met with a pale Girl in front of her.

 Disgusted, she scoffed.

“ That saggy belly of yours has really ruined your once beautiful, slender figure, Rapunzel” she sighed. “I almost regret not stabbing the bastard while it laid in your womb.” 

She strolled to the counter where she laid a casket full of potatoes. But before she could start laying any, a very tight and thick grip strangled her neck.

“I have to say Mother… I never thought that my beautiful, long hair could be used for pain…! Your pain!”

Rapunzel pondered, thinking about her child. How they’d been mercilessly taken away from her. How Dame treated them brutally. The more she thought about it, the more Gothel’s life started to fade away…

And in a matter of time, the witch was no more…

The corners of Rapunzel’s lips curved upwards, realizing she had killed her child’s abuser. 

She was going to find her baby and never let them go…

[twotangledsisters]

Since Cass loves spinning tops, did Cass and Raps ever play with spinning tops in the tower in your au?

Oh, I wasn't sure, bad memory, so I actually searched 'spinning' into my fic document to see!

And other than the Fountain Arc scene with her showing Frederic there was one other instance of a Spinning Top! But it was in the deleted scene folder. But I think it answers the question, so, here it is:

New toys were few and far between. But whenever a new toy arrived it filled the girls with a intrigue and excitement that not even the fairy-tales or Pascal could compete with. Today Gothel had brought them a round little wooden toy. She didn’t explain how it worked or what it was supposed to do, just insisted she’d been very generous and went through a lot to get it for the girls. Rapunzel didn’t seem entirely convinced by the toy’s value as she stared at the unpainted wood. But Cassandra bounces and smiled. “Thank you, mother! Thank you!” When Rapunzel didn’t follow suit Cassandra gave her a slight shove, this got the blonde to look up. “Oh… Um… Thanks. Did you get me the paint I asked for?” “No darling. I can’t possibly get you everything your heart desires!” Rapunzel frowned. “Otherwise you’d be spoilt and turn rotten. Like the fruits you do not eat, that would be your fate. Yet another thing your beloved mother protects you from.” Rapunzel frowned but didn’t say anything. After their mother had gone the girls sat on the floor to inspect their newest belonging. “What do you think it is?” “Hmmm…” Cassandra lifted it and tilted her head, face scrunching up as she concentrated, rattling her brain for ideas. “It looks kinda similar to the stairs!” Cassandra turned around. “Huh… You’re right.” She held up the spinning top, the spherical form kinda matched the wooden stairs to their room. “Why would Mother bring us stairs? We already have stairs!” “Come on Raps, this a mystery to solve! I bet its something super exciting!” Rapunzel shook her head before taking the spinning top from Cassandra, turning it around in her hand and then throwing it. It bounced but not very much. “Not a ball.” “Nope.” Rapunzel ran to pick it up. “But it does roll!” Cassandra hummed. “Maybe that’s the point? To roll it?” Rapunzel placed it on the floor and rolled it back to Cassandra. Her older sister smiled and grabbed it. “It’s like catch, but safer!” “Safer seems to be a running theme with mother…” Cassandra pushed it back and Rapunzel caught it with a smile. “But it is kinda like catch, you’re right.” She pushed it again and this time it went to the left. Cassandra moved to pick it up. “It’s not very well balanced… Maybe that’s part of the game? You have to have aim so the other person will get it?” “Maybe.” Cassandra rolled it again and it went too far left. Rapunzel laughed, she grabbed it and pushed it, this time getting it just right. “Yay!” Cassandra cheered. “Well done Raps!” “I am the champion of… Whatever this is!” “You are.” Cassandra tilted her head, she touched the bottom of the top. “It’s pointy… I wonder if we’re meant to use it like a needle.” She rolled it back to Rapunzel. The blonde picked it up. “Too big.” Cassandra nodded catching it when Rapunzel rolled it back to her. “Ooooh! Oooooooh!” “What? What?” Rapunzel ran over. “What if it’s not supposed to spin on this side?” “I don’t understand.” Cassandra put it on the floor, the pointy end against the hardwood flooring and spun. They both gasped at the sight and soon Cassandra was clapping. “It’s so cool!” Rapunzel laughed. “It is.”

Despite the initial excitement, Rapunzel actually got bored with it pretty quickly. Cassandra, on the other hand seemed to find joy in the little spinning top, sitting and twirling it, watching it spin then twirling it again. Rapunzel thought her big sister was very boring some days. One day Rapunzel came downstairs to find Cassandra was no longer playing with her spinning top. She thought that was odd and asked about it. “It doesn’t… It stopped being interested…” She looked sad. “I did try, I spun it like twenty times! But… It stopped bringing me joy.” “I’m sorry.” “It’s okay… Mother will bring as a new toy! Eventually…” She looked so sad. That gave Rapunzel an idea.

“Cassandra! Cassandra!” Cassandra looked up to see Rapunzel holding the spinning top. “What?” “I painted it!” Rapunzel knelt down and showed her sister the newly painted top. It had little clouds with more and more rain coming from them. “That’s so pretty Rapunzel.” “You haven’t seen the best part!” Rapunzel span it and the little rain cloud became animated, raining. Cassandra gasped. “That’s amazing!” “I know!” Rapunzel clapped excitedly. When it stopped spinning Cassandra immediately spun it again. And again. And again. Rapunzel got bored but Cassandra didn’t stop spinning it and giggling until they went to bed. Cassandra spun the top every day for a few more months. Then Rapunzel got to paint a new animation! It became one of their traditions. Cassandra loved her little spinning top. Eventually, thought the point became blunt, and it stopped working. Despite both girls begging Gothel for a new one their mother just scolded them for not caring for the first, blaming the paint for its eventual breaking, not understanding the toy had simply been used and loved to death. The spinning top still sat atop one of the bookshelves, painted with a little sun peering out from behind a cloud. The girls would find new things to entertain themselves moving forward.

[snowbellewells]

Once upon a time for the ask game thingy hehe

Okay, both you @itsfabianadocarmo and @cosette141 asked for my answers on this for OuaT, so here goes!!! 😜

Fandom Ask Game

Send me a movie/book/show and I'll tell you:

favorite character: I mean, the obvious answer here is Killian Jones. And, believe me, I do love our pirate hero very, very much. But my true favorite character of the entire show (hopefully no one throws me out of the CS fandom for this) is Sheriff Graham/the Huntsman. I just adored him from the first time we met him. My heart still breaks for him. And I am always going to think he deserved better (and we deserved more of him!)

least favorite character: Probably either Cora/the Queen of Hearts or Gothel/Eloise Gardiner in Season 7

brOTP: I do really enjoy some Captain Charming - they have such a fun bros and family both connection! - but my heart really belongs to Killian and Belle. Captain Book/Captain Beauty, whichever you want to call it is such a lovely friendship. I treasure every teeny little scene of it we got to see. There’s something so redemptive and wonderful in them overcoming their past animosity and becoming friends, and I absolutely adore them bonding and having each other’s backs! 💖

OTP: It’s Captain Swan, absolutely, all the way, they’ve really taken over most of my imagination and free time! 😅 (In all fairness, I did at the start think Gremma, or HuntSwan, could be my True Love OTP, but the show very literally killed that possibility. And of course, we then met a certain dashing rapscallion who managed to win Emma’s heart… 😏)

OT3: This isn’t really a category I give lots of thought. I have read some amazing fic though with Liam/Killian/Emma as an OT3. The one that I’d call my favorite though is what I’ve sometimes seen called Irish Swan Trio: Killian/Graham/Emma. (That I would happily read more of, if it was more commonly written. 🤭)

NOTP: I have (very rarely, thankfully) stumbled upon mostly modern au fics that have Regina and Graham hooking up, or friends with benefits, or friendly exes. I absolutely cannot handle that; it is so far from what that situation truly was and it’s just upsetting to his memory. I’m also not at all a fan or HookedQueen or SwanQueen. Neither of those make much sense to me, nor does Regina even seem to like either of them much or treat them at all well. Why would they be in a relationship?

favorite storyline: It’s probably, honestly, season one. Where we first see Emma coming to Storybrooke, getting to know her son, discovering magic and fairytales are real, figuring out who all the townspeople were in the storybook, all of that. The magic is so enchanting in that first season, and it seems the most tightly well-written to me. I often say the first season’s only real flaws are Graham’s death and Killian not being there yet!

If that’s too huge a chunk to be a favorite storyline, then I’d probably say the Save Henry trip to Neverland.

least favorite storyline: I am not a fan of the second half of Season 2. It gets all convoluted and disjointed to me, and Greg and Tamara were so pointless and annoying. I don’t know if that’s so much a storyline as a least favorite segment because there doesn’t seem to be as clear a storyline, but there you are all the same. 🤷🏼‍♀️

what I wish had happened but didn't: I’m never going to stop wishing that Emma and Killian had gotten a rainbow blast True Love’s Kiss like all the other True Love couples. I know their True Love was proven in another way, but still, come on!!! 🤨

Even more than that though, I wish

1) that Emma and Killian would have had a secret small, private wedding in the Underworld with Liam performing it so he could be there, which would be an excellent callback to Snow and Charming’s first private wedding performed by Lancelot so Charming’s mother could be there.

And 2) that when we learned about the meanings behind the gravestones in the Underworld they would have gone and found Graham’s and at least learned that he had passed on and was at peace.

**Maybe I should have mentioned 5b as a not-so-favored storyline - so much potential wasted!

what happened that I wish hadn't: I would have loved them to do so much more with Jekyll and Hyde (and Jafar, for that matter) rather than split Queenie and the Black Fairy in Season 6 😝 I also would not have had Ruby run off with Dorothy.

[yumnasfunblog]

Dark Tangled AU: (In this AU Gothel never kidnapped Rapunzel) Rapunzel's parents figure out about Rapunzel's powers and how to use them early on, and Rapunzel is used as a healing depot ever since. She's a great boon to the kingdom of Corona, and helps several people.

But Rapunzel is also treated more like a tool than an actual person, and she's kept in a tower so she's protected (from assassins), isolated, and kept far away from anything that could motivate her to leave the tower or not play her role. She's also gaslighted into thinking this is her duty, a must, that she's a horrible person if she doesn't heal others.

And while Rapunzel DOES believe that healing is important and her calling, she feels cooped up, restless, like she belongs somewhere else. Healing somewhere else. Healing people who are not rich powerful people. She hates how poor people come to the tower and are turned away because they don't have money, even though they are clearly sick and about to die.

Eventually, Rapunzel runs away, with the help of Flynn Rider and a lady named Mother Gothel (I'm going to be diverging from canon, here, and giving her a more antihero-y role rather than leaving her the abusive gaslighting very undeveloped lady she was in canon.)

There's probably more, but I can't think of anything for now, but I'll probably add something if I think about it. If you want you can add suggestions.

[tadhannahj]

disney and pixar really said it's time to confront your mommy issues

[locktobre]

Here’s a breakdown of when the villains/antagonists meet the heroine (as in, the Barbie character) in Barbie movies, just for fun (not for fun, I have a very specific point to make).

They meet for the first time in the movie:

Nutcracker (Mouse King and Clara)

Swan Lake (Rothbart and Odette)

Fairytopia (Laverna and Elina)

Magic of Pegasus (Wenlock and Annika)

12 Dancing Princesses (Duchess Rowena and Genevieve)

Magic of the Rainbow (Sunburst and Elina)

Island Princess (Queen Ariana and Ro)

Mariposa (Henna and Mariposa)

Diamond Castle (Lydia and Liana)

Thumbelina (Myron and Thumbelina(?))

Three Musketeers (Philippe and Corinne)

Mermaid Tale (Eris and Merliah)

Fashion Fairytale (Jacqueline and Barbie)

Fairy Secret (Crystal and Barbie)

Princess & the Popstar (Crider and Tori)

Pink Shoes (Snow Queen and Kristyn)

Fairy Princess (Gwyllion and Mariposa)

Pony Tale (Philippe Cheynet and Barbie)

Secret Door (Malucia and Alexa)

Rock N Royals (Clive, Olivia and Erika, Sloane and Courtney)

Great Puppy Adventure (Joe, Marty and the Roberts sisters)

Spy Squad (Agent Dunbar and Barbie)

Video Game Hero (Cutie and Barbie)

Dolphin Magic (Marlo and Barbie)

Princess Adventure (Johan and Barbie)

They knew each other before the movie:

Rapunzel (Gothel and Rapunzel)

Princess and the Pauper (Preminger and Anneliese, Madame Carp and Erika)

Barbie Diaries (Raquelle and Barbie)

Mermaidia (Laverna and Elina)

Magic of the Rainbow (Laverna and Elina)

Fashion Fairytale (Raquelle and Barbie)

Fairy Secret (Raquelle and Barbie)

Mermaid Tale 2 (Eris and Merliah)

Pink Shoes (Madame Natasha and Kristyn)

Princess Power (Baron von Ravendale and Kara)

Spy Squad (Patricia and Barbie)

They would have technically met in the past, but the heroine doesn’t remember:

Princess Charm School (Dame Devin and Sophia)

Pearl Princess (Caligo and Lumina)

No real villain/antagonist:

Christmas Carol (Eden is hero antagonist)

Perfect Christmas (N/A)

Star Light Adventure (Constantine is antagonistic but not a villain)

Puppy Chase (N/A)

So you can see, the majority of villains/antagonists meet the heroine in the movie. Of the 12 that don’t, 4 are carrying over from a previous movie into a sequel (Laverna twice, Raquelle, Eris). Of the remaining 8, 3 are classmates or former classmates (Raquelle, other Raquelle, Patricia) and 1 is just doing her job (Madame Natasha). Of the remaining 4, 2 begin the movie as antagonists (Gothel and Madame Carp). So that leaves 2 who actually begin the movie in a position of trust and power and reveal their true motivations along the way: Preminger and Baron von Ravendale.

Baron von Ravendale does not have anything specific he wants to do to Kara. He wants to destroy/eliminate/whatever (I forget the wording he uses, if any) the royal family, bc he thinks the throne rightfully belongs to him. Kara’s a part of that family, so he’s against her, but it’s not about her. She’s just there. Even tho he’s peeved that she got his superpowers, once he gets his potion remade he doesn’t even care about that iirc. She’s basically irrelevant to what he actually wants to accomplish, except for her becoming a hero and fighting him.

And then there’s Preminger. Unlike the Baron, Anneliese is central to Preminger’s ultimate goal. He wants to marry her. Of course, he wants to be king--but if that was all that mattered, Genevieve was already a widow, and she proves serviceable to him once he’s decided he doesn’t need Anneliese and attempts to have her killed instead. But his first choice was Anneliese, who, and I can’t stress this enough, he’s known since she was a child. He’s been working toward this goal since she was a child. (I doubt they meant it to be taken that way, similar to the “10 years we’ve been rusting” / “bloom until his 21st year” thing in BatB implying the Beast was cursed when he was 11. Sorry that’s what you actually told me, it’s not my fault if you didn’t think about what that meant.) I don’t think they were close, but this was someone Anneliese trusted. She’s happy to see him when she thinks he’s there to rescue her. So his betrayal of her, his attempt to kill her when she’s no longer useful to him, is very, very personal and specific in a way that none of the other villains really come close to, imo.

So like, I can’t think it’s funny to see Preminger turn into a stupid meme. I can’t. Bc I can’t stop thinking about how fucked up it was that he did that to Anneliese. I can’t stop thinking about ppl claiming to love PatP, to love Anneliese, and then... just laughing at her villain like he isn’t a complete and utter monster who betrayed her trust, her mother’s trust, the whole kingdom’s trust and ALMOST got away with it all. He was going to marry Genevieve like he didn’t bankrupt her in the first place, like he didn’t just murder her daughter, and ppl think that’s somehow funny? It isn’t. No amount of camp can make Preminger funny to me. I know I take things too seriously, but how can you look at everything he does and just excuse it bc he sings a half-decent song? What is WRONG with you?

[glorytoukraine2022]

Hi. I’m here for another post. This post has one topic: The mothers of Elena of Avalor and TTS (or in the case of the latter, the lack-thereof). In this post, I will be comparing the treatment of mothers in Elena of Avalor to the treatment of mothers in Tangled the Series. So tighten your seatbelts!

I don’t know about all of you, but in the first half of season 1 and season 2, I found myself wondering about who Carla and Naomi’s mothers were. Did you? And lo and behold! Our questions were answered! We were given insight into who they were, explainations for their absences from their children’s lives, and their relationship with their daughters.

Of course, Ash turned out to be a terrible person and mother, but given that there are many wonderful mothers in Elena of Avalor, I would hardly call Ash’s existence a referendum on how Elena of Avalor treats and views mothers. As horrible as Ash turned out to be, I’m still glad we found out about her and who she was. Compare this to Tangled the series, where members of the fandom are still scratching their heads and wondering who Varian and Eugene’s mothers are, over a year after the show ended. The only thing we ever got of them were portraits!

One can ask, “Can it get any worse?“ and the answer is yes, yes it can.

The answers lie within the post series works of “The Rise of Flynn Rider” and “Varian and the Seven Kingdoms.”

I never read “The Rise of Flynn Rider” myself, but I know that the writer of that book got all the lore and backstories for Eugene from Chris Sonnenburg. According to the information I have recieved from those who have read the book, Eugene’s mother didn’t even have a NAME. Yep that’s right. She was just “Eugene’s mother.”

Based on this, we can assume that no thought was put into her character, or who she was, even for the show. This is infuriating, and shows a clear lack of respect for Eugene’s mother. We can only assume that the same applies to Varian’s mother as well, who was given just as little coverage as Eugene’ mother, even less, since at least we know how Eugene’s mother died. However, some amazing storyboard writers from the show who love Varian, tried to remedy that.

For those of you who don’t know, “Varian and the Seven Kingdoms” was an attempted graphic novel continuity of Varian’s adventures by two storyboard artists of the show, as mentioned above. However, Disney did not green light it. The plot was, that Quirin would give Varian an old journal that belonged to his mothe, Ulla, who was an Alchemist like him, and Varian woul set across the Seven Kingdoms to complete her work. However, by the end of the novel, it turned out that Ulla was not only alive, but evil.

At First, I was fine with this plot twist. I had nothing against Varian’s mother turning out to be the antagonist. That is, until I found out where it came from. Or rather, who.

Chris Sonnenburg.

Honestly, the more I find out about this guy, the more I begin to hate him and his twisted worldviews. According to writers behind Varian and the Seven Kingdoms, Chris Sonnenburg had the idea to make Varia’s mother evil, with the idea that Varian had inherited a “dark streak” from her. Hearing this greatly disturbed me beyond imagination. It was hearing this that made me denounce Varian and the Seven Kingdoms, or consider anything or any characters from it as canon. To this day, just the THOUGHT that this concept could have become canon TERRIFIES me.

Then, I had an epiphany.

If this was the mindset that Chris had in regards to Varian’s mother, than he must have had this same mindset in regards to Cassandra being Gothel’s daughter and her villain arc.

I want to make this clear to anybody who might be reading this, but the idea that a child inherits a “dark streak” from their parents or is destined to be a bad person because of who their parents were before them is a FALSE and outdated idea. Both Varian and Cassandra’s villain arcs were a reaction to trauma. Trauma that stems directly from Rapunzel and her mistreatment of them. A bad reaction to trauma does not make you a “villain“, or even remotely a bad person. It has NOTHING to do with inheritance or who you’re related to. The choices you make in life are completely disconnected to your relatives. Varian and Cassandra’s biological relations to their mothers have nothing to do with their trauma or decisions. They weren’t even raised by them!

When you put all this information concerning Varian and Eugene’s mothers, together with the lack of mothers in the show, or having them either be evil or insignificant, than this paints a very dark picture of the Executive Producer of the show and how it was written. Especially In regards to mother figures and how they are viewed by Chris Sonnenburg. Tangled The Series is a show insulting to mothers everywhere.

In Elena of Avalor, there are so many wonderful and heartwarming mother figures. We have Queen Lucia, Elena’s mother, who, despite her murder at the hands of Shuriki is depicted as a loving and supportive mother to Elena, even as a spirit. There’s Bianca Nuñez, Gabe’s mother, who is supportive and understanding of her son’s goals and has a loving relationship with him. There’s Rafa De Alva, Mateo’s loving, albeit overprotective mother who raised him alone as a single parent. She allowed Mateo to practice magic and even taught him how to dance, despite both being outlawed under Shuriki’s rule. She stood brave and strong, even under oppression. There’s Scarlet Turner Who despite being absent for a lot of Naomi’s childhood, always loved her and sent letters. In the show, she saw just how attached Naomi was to Avalor and how attached the Avalorans were to her, and decided to settle down in Avalor with her family. And an honerable mention, Luisa Flores, who tragically outlived both of her daughters, yet raised her grandson Esteban as her own and acted as a mother figure to both of her granddaughters, Elena and Isabel. Ash is the only rotten apple.

Yes, there are some parental figures who go unmentioned, such as Mateo’s father and Esteban’s mother. We know nothing of her besides her name: Margarita. However, given all of the positive mother and father figures this show has, I can forgive these few holes. Just like I said regarding Ash, I don’t view this as a referendum on the treatment of mother and father figures in EOA. There are so, so many loving mother and father figures in this show, and they are treated as equals. Mothers and fathers have an equal significance and impact on their children’s lives in Elena of Avalor.

Mothers everywhere are important. While it is understandable, In some cases, that some parental figures are not plot revenant or that there just isn’t enough time to include them, the lack of mothers and their insignificance in Tangled the Series. There’s no reason as to why Queen Arianna didn’t play more of a role in Rapunzel’s life in the Series. Just because they wanted to focus on her relationship with Fredric didn’t mean that there couldn’t have been more time for Arianna. We should have had more attention with Varian and Eugene’s mothers as well, and their spouses and children’s feelings regarding them. In Elena of Avalo, we get all of thi. There are moment, even songs, regarding the feelings childre have regarding their mothers. Even if they don’t get a lot of screen time, it is clear that they love their children and have a special place in their lives and hearts. Just like our own mothers.

[atiny-piratequeen]

since you dont know many german tales, how about the original story of rapunzel?

~~

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world.

One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion - Rapunzel, and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, and had the greatest desire to eat some. This desire increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get any of it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.

Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, "What ails you, dear wife?"

"Ah," she replied, "if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die."

The man, who loved her, thought, sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will. At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her - so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening, therefore, he let himself down again. But when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.

"How can you dare," said she with angry look, "descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it."

"Ah," answered he, "let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat."

Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, "If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world. It shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother."

The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. "If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune," said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up. At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her. But the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought, he will love me more than old dame gothel does. And she said yes, and laid her hand in his.

She said, "I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse."

They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day.

The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her, "Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son - he is with me in a moment."

"Ah! You wicked child," cried the enchantress. "What do I hear you say. I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me."

In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried,

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.

"Aha," she cried mockingly, "you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest. The cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you. You will never see her again."

The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife.

Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.

~~

so i have been taught a version that is a little easier on children, where rapunzel was basically safed by her prince and they lived happily ever after. and no birthing twins either. BUT this version has been the one read to children for decades since it was written.

i liked the disney movie, but as usual it glossed over the original everywhere. thats fine tho, it was fiction in the first place and an accurate verion might be more of a thriller, or horror movie... or just a very sad one. it just saddens me sometimes when so much detail is lost. just like malificent wasnt called by her original german name (malefiz) in the german dub of her movie. that irked me greatly.

(also if this is starting to get annoying, tell me!! i just really enjoy revisiting fairytales and telling people about them uwu)

Its not annoying at all. Again, i always appreciate this so much. Plus you're sharing part of your culture, for folklore and fairytales, even those with more wider known adaptations, are still important to people's culture. So even if you tell me a Grimm or something that i do know, i still appreciate it so much.

I know a lot of fairytales have gentler adaptations for the kiddos but ive never seen the traditional one for rapunzel so thank you sm!

[mcheang]

Lila the evil witch

Inspired by the Disney evil sorceresses: Mother Gothel, Ursula, the Evil Queen...what if Lila was an illusionist...but what was she after? The Disney villains were literally after a physical component: hair, voice, heart... the exception was Queen La of the Leopardman, she wanted Jane’s Husband

WARNING: THIS IS A DARK STORY...involving religion and exorcism.

The Daughter of Mrs Rossi was dead.

Inhabiting her youthful skin was an evil witch’s spirit named Lila. She even legally changed the name of the diplomat’s Daughter.

In the past; Lila had posed as a sweet Wiccan in an American village, living humbly. But she wanted more! (Inspired by Sarah Ravencroft from Scooby-Doo)

Lila was in truth a witch, and she longed to have the materialistic desires that everyone else desired. She was just willing to risk her soul in the process.

Lila cast love spells on the richest boy, causing him to obsess over her. She stole the beauty of the fairest maidens in the land to heighten her own. And those that opposed her soon found themselves sick.

It was the second issue that got the reverend concerned. His own daughter had suddenly gone from pretty to having burned skin.

He prayed in the Church for wisdom and guidance.

And perhaps it truly was holy intervention that caused a hypnotizing ray of moonlight to lead the reverend into the woods where he found Lila the Witch preparing a bath in a sunken pit of dark liquid. (Inspired from the book Another Faust where Belle took a painful chemical bath to maintain her beauty and allure.)

It was a repulsive bath. There was nothing so horrifying as the smell of blood, but there were crushed butterfly wings floating on it.

The reverend had seen enough. Lila was no innocent Wiccan; but a witch!

He wanted to expose her right there and then, but Lila had the male youth population on her side and was engaged to a very wealthy lad.

The reverend left the witch to her evil bath salts without alarming her to his presence.

So, the reverend gathered trusted adults for a secret plot to drive out the witch to the community.

He waited till the next moonlit night to lead them to the sunken pit and there they exposed Lila as a witch.

Lila snarled at them and raced out, her stinking naked body painted red. The men raced after her, determined not to let the evil escape.

They succeeded when one of their own threw a pitchfork at her torso. Lila lay dying in agony.

The villagers gathered around her in grim triumph.

But Lila had the last laugh, while she mocked them about their daughters’ disfigurements, she secretly cast a spell so her soul would not leave the earth. She knew hell awaited her for her crimes.

But being a disembodied soul is no picnic. And yet Lila knew currently, the judge’s Daughter was wasting away in bed from her curses.

Lila waited until the girl’s soul had passed on, before moving in on the still warm body.

When the judge returned from the witch hunt, he was jubilant that his Daughter had been cured.

Lila played her role carefully, lest she arouse suspicion again. She waited years before deciding to move to another town. By this time, Lila’s stolen body was middle-aged. She kept her eyes out for young blood.

And so it went on, Lila looked for a body with a wonderful lifestyle for her to steal. With her acting skills, it was a breeze. The few who noticed were silenced.

Of course, there were the other magical folk who realized what she was. The goody kind sought to exorcise her. They never succeeded.

One day, she came across a diplomat’s Daughter. She had a good life. A sufficient allowance, fabulous travels around the world, and little parent monitoring. She became Lila’s next victim.

After a couple of countries later, she legally changed her name.

Then Mrs Rossi announced they were moving to Paris. Lila initially had some concerns. The Miraculous were ancient relics lost to time. But given Hawkmoth’s failures and the heroes’ inexperience, Lila suspected they were not well versed in identifying magical creatures.

She studied her talented new class, looking for possible new victims. Living a life of travel was fun and all, but it wasn’t fully luxurious.

Obviously those with artistic talent like Marinette, Nathaniël and Kitty Section were out.

To be fair, the only viable candidate was Chloe. The girl was served hand and foot and got to be mean! That sounded ideal to Lila.

But, with Hawkmoth around, Lila suspected the mayor would get akumatized trying to cure her. Or even Sabrina.

Ugh, she’ll have to wait till he is busted then. What a bummer. Who knows how long that will take?

In the meantime, Lila might as well have some fun. Her gullible classmates were her new servants. But Adrien and Marinette kept their distance.

You see, upon first sight, the kwamis saw her for what she really was and warned their holders to be cautious. Thankfully they were strong enough to counter whatever magic tricks Lila could come up with.

Lila didn’t do that though, she relied on her lying talents.

As a result, Marinette never got the chance to spy on Adrien once Tikki strongly told her to not raise the liar’s suspicions.

Also, Plagg thoroughly was alarmed by this Lila girl and warned Adrien to keep his distance while they were separated in the library, and don’t let her take anything that belonged to him. As a result, the book is safe. And Lila doesn’t have a chance to be akumatized.

Ladybug and Chat Noir discussed how to exorcise her. It would take joint efforts but the original soul inhabiting Lila’s body was gone. After the exorcisement, the body would be a corpse.

The action itself was simple, Lila was physically no match for them. All Ladybug had to wind her magical yo-yo string around her and let its magic nullify Lila’s own. (Tikki’s magic can’t do that for Nooroo’s akumas) then all Chat had to do was literally push her with his baton.

Plagg’s power would destroy whatever was anchoring Lila’s soul and force her out.

But how to go about it? In public? In private? How do they convince Mrs Rossi her real Daughter is dead and an evil spirit now possesses her body?

No, the real daughter of Mrs Rossi deserves to be given closure. Her Mother should be mourning for her real daughter, not the Lila ghost!

Ladybug and Chat Noir brought in Alya’s help for this, as well as tell her Ladybug is so not BFFs with Lila!

Lucky charm: an actual recent video of the real Miss Rossi at the zoo for her birthday. Apparently she has an intense fear of snakes.

Ladybug and Chat Noir visit Mrs Rossi at work and ask to speak with her in private. Mrs Rossi is of course, disbelieving, until Ladybug suggests they use the snake test. If Lila acts as Mrs Rossi expects her to, they won’t perform exorcism. But if she does not, Mrs Rossi will let them go through with it.

Mrs Rossi is still skeptical about this bargain before Ladybug points out that with all the akumas and superpowers, how can she doubt what was happening? Even New York has superheroes!

Mrs Rossi admits she doesn’t want to face the truth that her Daughter has been dead all this time and she never even noticed.

Chat consoles her that she can at least give her real Daughter justice.

Alya and Marinette organize a class field trip to the zoo.

Mrs Rossi disguises herself as a zoo attendant.

Lila is paired with Alya to study the snake exhibit. Lila shows no apprehension whatsoever.

At the dim, empty snake exhibit, Ladybug and Chat Noir act. Lila shrieks and demands to know their reason behind this. She pleads for Alya to intervene but Alya just stands back, with the zoo attendant. Both watching silently as Chat Noir gently pushes her with his baton.

Lila’s body collapses. And a visible spirit manifests, still trapped by the yo-yo.

The spirit of Lila the witch is no longer youthful, and they finally see what her real form looks like. An ancient, withered hag snarling and screeching in hatred and agony.

Mrs Rossi condemns Lila for killing her Daughter.

Lila spits at her. “What can I say? A Daughter with little to none parental attention? She was such easy bait! I’ve been here for years and you never noticed.”

Mrs Rossi flinched at the accusation.

Alya stepped forward. “And what about Marinette? Were you going to target her too?”

Lila laughed. “I target those with envy-inducing lifestyles. Marinette may have the connections but she’s no Chloe. I was waiting till Hawkmoth was defeated before I took care of her. Marinette though, was open game. I don’t tolerate people who call me a liar.”

Chat: you are a liar.

Lila glares hatefully at the heroes. “You won’t win. I’ll be back, and when I do, I’ll kill everyone you love.”

Chat: yeah, I don’t think so.

He plunges his baton through her spirit, into the earth. The baton channels the evil spirit away from the earth. In the afterlife, there are 2 paths. Lila obviously has shown no repentance...her destination is obvious.

Back at the zoo, Mrs Rossi weeps for her Daughter. The heroes assure her that Lila is gone and won’t return. Alya is preparing to tell her class the news. They decided to keep this matter private. Mrs Rossi isn’t ready for this to be public.

The fake story: Lila suffered a sudden stroke.

The class wants to hold a funeral but Mrs Rossi insists on going back home immediately. She can’t stand the thought of the class mourning for that horrible ghost. They never knew her real Daughter.

Oh, and btw, Plagg finally convinced Adrien to take pictures of the book and send the information to the Guardian.

[intothewickedwood]

Once Upon A Time Rewatch: 6x11 Tougher than the Rest

August, I love you but please help this kid.

Oh, maybe he did?

That lady looks a lot like Umbridge. That reminds me, gonna watch Order of the Phoenix for the gazillionth time tonight! It’s probably my least favourite Potter movie apart from the end but my literal ocd ass has gotta watch them in order. It’s one of my favourite Potter books though. I love how long it is! 

I digress. Back to the rewatch!

So, is Emma technically Wish Henry’s mother as well, since she is also Wish Emma? 

Yes, why didn’t he age?

There’s no time to wake up Snow, Killian. The hooded figure is out there right now!

Oh! Charming’s wish brought Gideon there!

Poor Gideon is so traumatised by the Black Fairy. I don’t remember/understand why she was so cruel to him. I thought her goal was protecting Rumple. So why torment her grandson?

I don’t think that’s how being a Savior works. I don’t think killing the Savior would make Gideon a Savior. Surely that goes against everything a Savior stands for.

Does Emma still have the memories of her life in the Wish Realm? 

Oh! She does! That’s a lot of jumbled up memories in her head. Does she have memories from the Heroes and Villains world too?

How the hell did Regina have time to right that long ass note in the two seconds she was off camera?? Magic, I guess.

Regina should have used a glamour spell.

How did that tree manage to survive after it was cut down for the first wardrobe? Must be magic! 

Wish Hook! 

Gideon, you angsty boy.

Wtf Rumple!! Why are you hitting your son?! He would never have done that to Baelfire. It seems kinda out of character. He’s not gonna win Gideon’s affections or get him to listen to him that way.

I wonder if the Wish Hook storyline was planned yet.

Okay, so a bit on my thoughts on the Wish Realm and Wish Hook plot holes: When the Evil Queen made the wish on behalf of Emma that supposedly created the Wish Realm she must have made it many years in the past as compared to the Wish Realm we see in 6x10 and 6x11. What I mean is, when the Evil Queen makes the wish, Emma not only ends up in a different realm, she ends up at least 10 years in the future. Why at least ten years? The only way the Wish Realm could have been created by a wish is if it was created before Alice was born. The only way to make that the case is if Emma created that place at least 10 years before visiting because Wish Hook looks older than he did when he was forced away from Alice in ‘Knightfall’. The reason the Wish Realm has to have been created before Alice was born (I’m still not entirely convinced it didn’t always exist) is because Gothel is Alice’s biological mother and Gothel is not from the Wish Realm so Alice cannot have been created by a wish. If Wish Hook was created by a wish, then that wish had to have been made at least 10 years before the events of 6x10 and 6x11. And Wish Hook likely did a little time travelling himself. I think Emma travelled 20 years into the future and Hook travelled 10 years into the future. I explain this more in my s7 timeline meta here.

Wish Pinocchio: “I’m sorry you put your faith in me, Emma. I hope you never make that mistake again.” Wtf Pinocchio?! That was so ominous. What does it mean?! Does she ever put her faith in any version of him again?! Is he suggesting he’s been shady in all realms all along??

Is it bad that I prefer this Robin Hood to the one Regina fell in love with? He’s kind of what I wanted from the other one, who started off a bit like this, someone a bit more villainous to pair with Regina. It makes him more interesting.

What happened to Wish Belle is so awful. 

That is an inconsistency. A true love’s kiss on the forehead should have awoken Snow and made David sleep, like Emma’s true love’s kiss to Henry’s forehead woke him.

Regina certainly seems to see this Robin as real, going so far as to care about his happiness. Why couldn’t she have given Wish Snowing the sane courtesy?

Regina came just in time. 

More than two can go through this wardrobe?

Do they ever explain why this Robin hasn’t aged? Is he using the six-leaf clover as a glamour? But then there would have to be a Wish Oz. Maybe it is because part of Robin’s soul lives on in Wish Robin as they suggested. That’s cool. They are pretty different though so it’s hard to believe.

Omg wish Pinocchio is right! Emma should have left the sword there! It’s unlikely Gideon would be able to find it! Why didn’t you Emma?

I wonder if Regina thinks the reason Wish Robin didn’t come through the wardrobe at the same time of her was because he wasn’t real or because he just didn’t wanna come.

Storybrooke looks huge from up there.

I told Emma she should have left the sword!

I love sword fights though! 

Uh oh! He’s got the sword!

Why does Gideon always feel like he belongs in Star Wars to me? I don’t even know, I know very little about Star Wars, he just looks like a Star Wars villain from what I’ve seen.

Use your magic Emma!

That was cool! Gideon’s magic is so pretty.

She broke the sword!

“Daaaaad, I don’t need your help.” hehe. 

Isn’t it a bit weird to kinda grab an alternate version of your dead significant other to potentially be your replacement boyfriend? Idk, feels a bit weird but if that’s your jam, Regina, go for it, girl!

How freaking loud is that typewriter if you can hear it down the street, lol?

Oh, he did tell her to go to the police station as a kid.

Belle is so freaking done with everything.

My boy Gideon’s just having a tantrum at the clock tower. That poor clocktower’s been through a lot. 

Gideon say grrrrrr. 

[bestworstcase]

“The s3 parallels fall flat because Cass is the opposite of Gothel” Please bless us with your analysis.

okayyyy this is about more than one incident but i’ll start with The Big One

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

this is THE line. and the manner and visual framing of how cass repeats it are identical to the way gothel delivers it in the movie. and you know what i honestly don’t know what the intention was here in terms of what this repetition says about cass as a character or her relationship with rapunzel but...

when gothel says this line, it is an act of dropping the mask. taking off the kid gloves. ending the charade of what meager affection and kindness she had used to control rapunzel up to this point and revealing her true nature as somebody who would go to any length to keep what she feels belongs to her. it’s gothel announcing her choice to escalate into physical abuse, and blaming rapunzel for it in classic abuser fashion. and it’s provoked by rapunzel asserting her independence. rapunzel can’t be controlled the “nice” (read: emotionally abusive) way anymore, therefore in gothel’s twisted logic it’s rapunzel’s fault that gothel has to get violent. it’s a calculated, cruel, manipulative thing to say.

when cassandra says this line, what she means is: i tried to come back, i tried to fix my mistakes, i believed you when i said it would be okay, and you shot me in the back, so fuck you. from her perspective, it looks like rapunzel’s plea for her to stand down because it isn’t “too late” was simply a ploy to distract her so they could encase her in amber, something that as far as cass knows is intended to be lethal force. (hell, team corona does treat the gun like lethal force.) so cass is looking at this situation, looking at what rapunzel did to her when she attempted to surrender, and saying, fine. you’re right. zhan tiri was right. she tried to do the right thing and everybody, including rapunzel, attacked her for it. so cass accepts that, internalizes it, and lashed out in anger. in once a handmaiden, cass is a villain because the citizens of corona (with a little unseen help from zhan tiri) made her one. every avenue she had to escape from that role like she wanted to was closed to her when that gun fired. cass says “you want me to be the bad guy? fine, now i’m the bad guy” and then destroys corona the way a cornered animal lashes out and mauls somebody. it’s a blend of panic and rage.

also the power dynamics are reversed. gothel delivers the line as an abusive parent-figure, looming over a helpless rapunzel, who is now isolated from all her friends and trapped alone with gothel in the tower. cassandra delivers the line after literally every single person at the gopher grab attacks her. cass is in an extremely vulnerable position at this point and (given what she knew or believed to be true) her options were essentially try to fight her way out, raze the city, or accept being murdered. she has no power over the situation except through violence.

they say the same words, in the same way, but they mean wildly different things. so where is the parallel here? what purpose does this verbal and visual callback serve for the narrative, for cass as a character, for her villain arc, or for her relationship with rapunzel? it doesn’t make any sense to draw a comparison between gothel and cass here.

and the same is true of cass and gothel in general. cass as a character is defined by her ambitions and drive, to be a guard and later to claim her own destiny; gothel spent two thousand years living in a cottage where her only real achievement was vlogging about compliments she received. cass is self-sacrificing to a fault until it becomes to much for her and she cracks, seizing the moonstone in the first truly, purely selfish decision she makes in the entire series; gothel is self-serving to the point of being utterly incapable of caring about anybody else’s needs or wellbeing or feelings. cass wavers and doubts and displays guilt repeatedly over the course of her villain arc; the closest gothel ever gets to remorse is transparently fake performances of it to guilt trip rapunzel for asking anything of her. cass suffers from a crushing inferiority complex and her own self-loathing; gothel is shallowly obsessed with herself and egocentric in the extreme. etc. etc. every time the show draws a parallel between them it just... doesn’t work, because they aren’t alike. up to and including the last one:

“Felled by your own ego, just like your mother.”

except neither of them were felled by their egos and they were defeated by two very different things this quote makes me lose my MIND because it’s the exact moment zhan tiri, the masterful manipulator who knew precisely where cassandra’s strings were, was lobotomized into zhan tiri, the big dumb monster.

in the film gothel’s vanity and ego drive her to hoard the flower and kidnap rapunzel, then go to great lengths to keep her under control, and in that sense ego can be understood as indirectly leading to her death. but it’s not chasing her vanity that kills her; it’s her failure to understand selflessness and genuine love. she lets rapunzel attempt to heal eugene because she can’t fathom that eugene would ever willingly give up the very same magic that gothel has spent centuries clinging to, in order to save the girl gothel just sees as a vessel for that magic. her fatal weakness is that she can’t predict eugene’s compassion. it’s classic Evil Can’t Comprehend Good.

on the other hand cass is defined by her insecurity and feelings of inferiority, which make her miserable. to say that her desire to have her own purpose and her own life separate from rapunzel is egotistical is to fundamentally misunderstand the pain she’s in. bc it’s not about her ego, it’s about her wanting to not hurt anymore. and her fatal weakness is a kind of inverse of gothel’s, in that she underestimates the lengths zhan tiri is able to go to to stab her in the back. i guess one could argue that her assumption that zhan tiri was trapped in that cage comes from arrogance, which is a form of ego, but that feels like a bit of a stretch because that’s not the root of the problem really. the root of the problem for cass is that she’s so caught up in her pain that she can’t see anything else, and zhan tiri steps in and twists her thoughts around so much that even after she gets away her mindset stays the same until she’s shocked out of it. cass isn’t driven by pride, she’s driven by pain. and zhan tiri should know this god damn it

[deep breath]

the point being, cass is nothing like gothel, and every attempt the show makes to draw parallels between them fails because as characters they are perpendicular to each other. rapunzel has much more of gothel in her than cass, and that’s why the single most effective gothel parallel in the entire series is “enough, cassandra!” but that is. a whole other rant.

[prognatae-a]

MAGIC - feat. evie, ginny, jay, mal, maddie, raven & annie

below the cut you will find a short description of the magic styles of each of my muses that possess magic in some form. as this will affect my portrayal of certain characters i would high recommend reading this post 

Evie Grimhilde

Evie is a self-titled witch, though most people often forget about that since she's so quick to drop the role of 'princess' long before she ever reminds anyone she's a magic user. But the truth is, she's been reading her mother's spell book since she could read, and has memorised every single page. She could, if she wanted, be a very adept witch. However, she also sees the magic ban as something that needs to be adhered to, so tends not to use any magic at all, which only helps perpetuate the idea that she doesn't have any.

The other thing of note is that Evie is also capable of making potions and poisons, these two are stored in her mother's books and these too she has memorised to be used if needed. She's incredibly competent at it, as it's just like chemistry really. This is another skill she has, but doesn't use. Underestimate her power at your peril.

Ginny Gothel

Loosely based off of the Mother Gothel villains book, Ginny is a necromancer. Gothel was one too, but her powers were weak due to an error in what should have been the magic handover from her own mother. While pregnant with Ginny, Gothel employed every technique prescribed to her by witches to assure her daughter the power that she had been denied. This leads Ginny to believe that her father, although a sore subject, might be a magic user of some kind.

Despite the obvious flaws in the plan, Ginny has been taught the skills she needs to be a necromancer, in the chance that the barrier were ever to fail. Her magic is skewed towards the dead and the dying and you should never accept the offer of healing from her, because it doesn't mean what you think it does. Breaking the laws of nature is no mean feat, however, and her magic quickly leaves her drained. It is a more ritualistic magic than a combat one. She can't use magic on the fly via rhyming couplets or anything like that, her spells require preparation.

Jay Ayad

Even though there is no magic on the Isle of the lost, it doesn't change the actual physical make-up of a person. and Jafar wished himself into being a genie. That doesn't go away simply because the Isle prevents the use of magic. Making Jay half-genie, though genie is the dominant magical gene there. He is, at first, unaware of this. There's no magical transformation the second he gets outside the barrier or anything, namely because his lamp is on the inside of it.

Somewhere in there is a lamp that belongs specifically to him, once he touches it, or someone else rubs it, his magic will trigger for the  first time and he will take on the role of a full genie. Since it would make sense for genies to come with their lamps, it is most likely his mother who has his lamp, but since Jafar won't tell him anything about her, he doesn't know and probably won't be able to find her.

His full genie powers encompass literally anything anyone could ever wish for, though while he is chained to the lamp he can only do so much. Should someone wish him free, he will retain some, but not all, of the power and exist as an incredibly powerful magical being in his own right.

Mal Faery

Mal is a very complicated magical individual. They are a dark fairy and a demi-god all in one. Their fairy magic operates almost exactly like that of a witch or sorceress, being capable of being used in quick-fire capacity as rhyming couplets, but also being able to prepare magical spells and concoctions over time (like the love spell cookies) and drop large scale curses. They also have the power to turn into a dragon, in which form they can breathe fire and fly. Most of this is standard magical practice. They also have the power to make fairy deals, meaning they can seal people into verbal or written promises with dreadful consequences if they don't adhere to it- but people can also seal them into promises too.

Being a demi-god, however, gives them the ability to utilise god items (like the ember), extra strength and stamina and, specifically, some powers akin to that of their godly ancestor. Mal could make soul bargains, or speak to the dead if they wanted.

There's probably more needs to go here. Mal is a powerful individual, but most of their magic is going to come from rhyming couplets or potions, or being an outright dragon.

Maddie Hatter

Maddie is not a magical being, in that she cannot use magic, she doesn't wield power like everyone else on this list, but she does contain some inherent Wonderland, that makes her slightly more magical than the average person. She can perform impossible acts, any impossible act, only as long as she doesn't know it's impossible. Once someone tells her that it should be impossible, she can no longer perform the act.

She also has the ability to produce almost anything out of the rabbit hole in her hat. It mostly contains the means for having tea at a moment's notice and she's never tried to pull anything more useful out of it. So it's possible she simply has a portal that can create the perfect tea time.

Raven Grimhilde

Raven, much like Evie, is a witch. Though she prefers the term sorceress. She was even given lessons in magic by her mother for this purpose. She is much more interested in using magic than Evie is, though her use for it is almost never personal gain. She's actual quite open with her magic. Most of her spells don't require rhyming couplets, simply sheer force of will, though they are nothing out of the ordinary for a witch. She can telekinetically lift objects and throw balls of purple fire from her hands if she needs to. She's also capable of some, rudimentary flight, if necessary.

Raven is capable of making potions, but she doesn't remember them half as well as her sister and tends to go off-book. Somehow, she always gets the result she wanted, though.

Rosanna Maudire

Annie is an enchantress like her mother. She specialises in curses and magic that teaches people lessons, rather than just using magic for the day-to-day. This doesn't mean she's not capable of it, she is, it's just not been a part of her training or something she's particularly interested in. She's an exceptional potion maker, though her speciality is healing poultices.

As an enchantress, she is capable of infusing items with power, enchanting them for a certain period of time with a certain property, like a sword with an extra sharp blade, or a flower that never wilts. Once the barrier drops she's happy to provide this service for people willing to pay.

She is more powerful with a wand.

[thelittlehansy]

7 Signs of A narcissist father/son relationship.

Going back one one of my favorite subject psychology/psychiatry 😁 and here well i find an interesting video talking about the sign of narcissist father/son relationship by a dr.Todd grande on YouTube ( There were some criticsm in the comment but i tought it was a good video)

So since Hans dad is Said to be one on tv trope and when you analyzed him a little better on the book he does show a lot of traits of the disorder if not all ( on the contrary of hans) and his family dynamic also works like a real life narcissist family ( golden child caleb , flying monkey rudi and runo scapegoat Hans , neutral child lars narcissist supply)

i tought what about took those 7 seven sign and see if it does Apply with the princes of the southern isles in the little stuff we got at the beggining of the book 😁 so here really thats about the princes of the southern isles relationship with their narcissist father as show in the book.

On thing : that video was not about distant narcissist father but too much involve narcissist father.

1- The father is gonna have a huge influence on a son life

I dont think i need to developp a lot there thats is 100% the situation for all the princes their father seems to be at the center of their life looking for approval of him constanly and spreading their father propaganda during the birthday of the queen at the start of the book. Even Hans his father is at the center of his life as he not only pass days daydreaming about being king but also be an only child sharing times with his dad and having his love and approval and basically de discovered that everything hans does his father does have a big influence that is impossible to ignore. All the choice he makes were about what his father taught him. Hans dad has a corrosive influence on him.

✔

2-teach the son a lot of maladaptive behavior regarding how to approach people.

"Maladaptive behavior is behavior that prevents you from making adjustments that are in your own best interest. Avoidance, withdrawal, and passive aggression are examples of maladaptive behaviors" in the video the doctor was telling that the dad is gonna teach things like dont trust woman or dont trust men also encouraging to escalate agressivness.

he taught all of them how to abuse others. that some pretty maladaptive behavior to teach your kids. So...

✔

3- the father has a strong influence on whether or not the son should have kids.

It seems also Thats is 100% acurate to what we get to saw.

Here we are talking about a king so thats a different from real life...But in the book its does say that he encourage his sons to procreate so their argument he need a heir ? Well he has already 13 sons and plenty grandchildrens thats big enought to have heirs 😅 well he is happy with the idea of it and is even the one that set the match for all his sons the king literraly wants granchidlren. What is interesting is that in the video the doctor was explaining that some father just are gonna say do not have kid enjoy life or have kid because they see it as way to spread the legagy of the name of the family and well here with the king mentionning that the westergaard are lion not mices its does tell a lot that the princes dad belong to the second category.

✔

4-The father live viriacously throught the sons in a way that can fit the grandiose fantasy.

Well, the king ask his sons to reflect him they dont even have their own mind their really act like a fan club and when all the princes at the start of the book mock hans only to have his approval well he is not bother at all. Thats their duty to act like their father he wants them to fit his fantasy how westergaard are lion not mice and will not tolerate them to be mices. ( as show with hans) so here i think that a pretty big glue that he live trought his sons Caleb the most since he is the one he give all his attention.

✔

5- the father is not necesserarly emotionally distant but he does not focus on the emotions the son is having.

To be honest i dont really understand what the doctor explain about this one but sure that hans father do not focus on his sons emotions but only caleb and even Caleb that is not sure.he seems to only cares about his own emotions.

Talking About that .......

6- the son may get abandonned for another child perhaps a son or a daughter that makes him feel more fuller

Well that the case for Hans prince number 12 , 11 , 10 , 9 , 8 , 7 ,6 ,5,4 ,3 ,2 since the only one according to Hans at the start of the book who the king show strong interest is the oldest caleb and they all took drastic way to have a little part of his paternal attention even if this is at the expand hans. So i think we got that one also.

✔

7- in case of divorce the father is typically dividing or encouraging the son to side with him against their mother.

Thats what hans dad do toward him...he has makes all his brothers side with him against hans and also put rivalry between the brothers since hans said that everything is about rivalry at home with his brothers.

So know in term of divorce in a modern setting if he do that with Hans and his others son he can very much do that with their mother...if thats not already the case because apparently hans is called a moma boy by the twins and this is suppose to be a negative thing. So maybe the king has already put his sons against their mother without even a divorce 🤔.

✔

So well the princes relationship with their father seems to show the 6 sign except the one that i didnt understand 😄. Even with Hans who he is suppose to be the most distant there are some stuff so kind of complicated but then that means that maybe the king is not a genuine distant father toward Hans in some way.

So in conclusion that means that Hans and his brothers must have live since little with pretty high narcissist abuse 🤔. Thinking about tremaine, gothel, right know 😅

[darkpoisonouslove]

“Mother Is a Title You Deserve”

Summary: It's Mother's Day and Alice is faced with the reality that while Gothel has never been her mother, she did pass on to her that same title. She's Mother Nature now and she wants to keep her promise and do better than the woman who couldn't raise a child not to mention take care of nature itself. And she needs the support of the one parent she did have and that's always been there.

I haven't written these particular characters in four months (and those were headcanons so if we're talking actual fics, then six) so I would really appreciate it if you let me know how I did.

Alice grabbed the two cups and, after smiling at Granny who returned it, headed outside where her papa was waiting for her. She liked to be out in the open, in nature, where she could hear the voices of all life forms around and feel their company, and none of her close people blamed her or protested when she dragged them outside. Well, maybe just a little when it was really cold or it rained since Robin had grown up with the crackling sound of fire sealed into her mind and the warmth of it all around her. So on those days Alice relented–especially since her papa and Ella and Henry indulged her a lot as they were always ready for adventures–and opted for cuddling with her fiance while they listened to the rain hitting their windows or the wind howling outside.

Alice beamed at the thought of Robin and even the fact that they weren’t together currently couldn’t overshadow the happiness of having Robin in her life. They had all the time to make each other happy so she’d backed away and left Robin and Zelena have their alone time and do some mother/daughter bonding for Mother’s Day. The last part had the smile slipping for a moment but the sight of her papa caught it and brought it back where it belonged.

“Here you go, a steaming cup of hot cocoa,” Alice grinned even wider as she left it on the table in front of him.

“In cocoa mood today, are we?” he asked as he took the cup and looked at it as if he could see through the plastic and look at what was inside.

“Mhm,” Alice nodded enthusiastically. “Sweet like our time together.” It was always a good day when she could be with her papa and while she loved tea, she preferred to drink it in tea cups. She especially insisted after she’d given the chipped tea cup to Gideon and he’d left it at the joined grave of his parents. She did love the mobility of the plastic cups but some things were best enjoyed a certain way and she could do with some hot cocoa, too. It was Robin’s favorite and she and Henry had managed to make her a big fan, too, though she drank it clear instead of with marshmallows or cinnamon like they did respectively,

“Are you sure you shouldn’t be elsewhere?” her papa asked, his gaze moving on her and he raised his eyebrows slightly, his eyes as if full of hope that she’d change her mind and leave.

“I’m at the right place,” Alice said firmly as she sat down next to him and placed a hand on his arm.

Robin and Zelena had both invited her to join them and while she could agree it would be appropriate as Zelena was her mother too now, not officially yet, but they’d get there, she’d still refused. She wanted to give them the chance to be alone with each other just like she wanted to give it to herself and her papa. He was the one parent she had and he’d always meant everything to her, so she didn’t mind celebrating both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in his honor since he’d filled both roles.

“We agreed to have dinner together,” she said to further prove she wasn’t missing the opportunity to spend some more time with her new family. There was a time and place for everything and right now she was exactly where she needed to be.

“Al,” her papa started, but there was no way for him to continue the sentence without bringing up things that they both wished to forget so he had nothing to say.

“I think about her,” Alice said because it was true and she wanted to get it out and share her thoughts, and it was best to do that with her papa since they’d been together in that nightmare. He would understand since he’d been the one to find beauty and meaning in what Gothel had done to him and focus on what he’d gotten instead of on what she’d taken from him.

“Al,” he started again, his tone somewhat warning and pleading at the same time, reassuring, yet scared, and she would’ve dropped the topic but that was just a proof that they couldn’t do that. Gothel had done so much to them, caused them so much pain, that they couldn’t just pretend it hadn’t happened. And if they did, it would mean erasing their relationship and each other from their lives, too. She was a part of their lives whether they liked it or not and it had been her papa who had shown her how to move on after everything Gothel had done to her. She had the chance to return the favor now and she wanted to.

“I think about what she told me,” Alice said, returning back to the events in Hyperion Heights. Gothel had introduced her papa back into her life. She’d introduced the possibility of her having a mother, too, and while she knew it had been selfish and not really genuine even if the woman had thought so, had thought she’d been offering her the chance to have a mother that she’d always wanted, it had made her think. “She couldn’t be a mother. Not to me, and not to nature. Not with all that hatred she’d let touch her,” Alice said, remembering how nature had taken her side, helping her defeat Gothel and save the world from her. “But she wanted to.” The way she’d talked about the grove... it had meant a lot to her. Too bad she’d let herself get destroyed along with it. Alice would’ve loved to have seen the grove, and the other nymphs. But instead she hadn’t even had a mother. “I promised I’d do better.” She wanted to. She could see Gothel’s point of view but destroying humanity hadn’t been the way to go about it.

“You already are doing better, starfish,” her papa said quickly, the look in his eyes so focused on her as if he didn’t even want to compare her to Gothel for a moment.

She understood the unwillingness. But she couldn’t agree with it. Comparing gave her a way to do better. Gothel had left her a legacy of what not to do. She couldn’t have given her more with how consumed in hatred she’d been even if she’d wanted to. And Alice knew she’d wanted to but for the wrong reasons. Yet, now that she was gone, she could do it right, for the right reasons.

“I know, papa,” she said, letting go of her cup of cocoa to catch his hand and reassure him he didn’t have to worry about her. She hadn’t forgotten who she was. But she’d learned knew information about herself that she didn’t want to ignore. “But I want to do more. That’s why I want to talk to Robin as I’m hoping she’ll agree to come back to Seattle with me. I want to take a better look at the grove, unlock it, see if I can save it and restore it as it once had been.” She had powerful magic. She was Mother Nature now, and the title still struck her with the responsibility it was. But she knew she could do it, with help from her family and the love they shared. It was what Gothel hadn’t had and she hadn’t managed to take it away from them either so, naturally, she’d failed. “Maybe the love we’ll give it will help make up for the hate she spread in the world and finally give her the peace she never had.” They all knew she didn’t deserve it. But she also hadn’t deserved to have her life destroyed and her kind hunted down, and yet, it had happened. And she’d let it turn her into a monster but it had been love that had stopped her. So Alice thought it wasn’t a bad idea to treat with kindness what she’d been fighting for now that she wasn’t a threat anymore. “And I want your support because you’re the one who taught me how to love and you’ve always loved me. It was what saved me from becoming like her,” Alice said, feeling tears coming to her eyes at the mere thought.

Her papa seemed like he wanted to argue but instead gave her a smile, a little tight-lipped and not completely free of resistance form him, but he nodded. “Of course you have my support, starfish. You always have and you always will,” he said, anything else falling away to leave him with the seriousness that had never been there when they’d just been messing around and instead came out when he was dead set on doing something. And she knew that determination well, for she’d inherited it.

“Thank you, papa,” Alice said as she smiled at him, the tears only getting thicker in her eyes. Because it meant a lot to her to know she had his support even when the topic wasn’t easy for either one of them and he wished they could avoid it. He’d always put her first. He was the parent she’d deserved and he’d done a spectacular job at raising her so she wanted to take all the opportunities to celebrate the bond they had. It meant far more than the negativity that had been pushed on them.

I'm not excusing what Gothel did (I think that came through in the text but I'll mention it again). I just feel like that kind of empathy makes sense for Alice while she also doesn't accept being walked all over and does not excuse what has been done to her.