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writingaboutdisney · 1 year ago

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This is a long analysis, so my reply is going to be a bit long, and probably out of order from the points you brought up. But I feel like there's some context and finer details missing, so I want to bring attention to those.

Let's start with the comparison of how Asha and Anna respond when Magnifico and Elsa "lash out." I put lash out in quotes because I think there's better terms for it, but getting to that later. What happens AFTER the event is, to me, more important than them blowing up, and really plays into why Anna and Asha would react differently. Elsa, after freaking out and making ice shards shoot toward people, fleas the scene. Her body language and actions afterward make it clear to Anna that she did not intend to hurt anyone. So, it makes sense Anna would want to chase her down and help her. Elsa is showing signs of not being happy with her actions. I'm not sure if I'd call this lashing out on her part. Anna is pressing her buttons, Elsa is telling her to stop. Anna keeps pushing, and Elsa then looses control of her emotions. If she hadn't had magic, yelling at Anna "i said that's enough" after trying to walk away from her sister would be more than justified. The magic is what makes the situation dangerous and more high stakes than it'd otherwise be. Otherwise? It would just be a normal sibling argument.

So then, what about Magnifico? After he gets angry at Asha, what does he do? He doubles down. He forces Asha to have a front row seat to seeing him crush her grandfather's dreams. He smirks at her. He's enjoying her pain. Amaya is confused by this reaction, and Asha is, understandably, hurt. Asha wouldn't have any reason to think that he hadn't gone mask off and revealed a darker side of himself. We as the audience might have had a reason to think that, depending on how he acted later. If he'd talked to Amaya, shown some form of regret of his actions, etc. It doesn't have to be a direct apology to Asha. I know someone who lashes out who, to show they regret their actions, will buy the person they lashed out at their favorite candy. I know another person who apologizes. Some people will react like Elsa and try to leave the situation. To show no remorse for his actions in any way means Magnifico was not lashing out. He meant every word he said and he doesn't regret making Asha miserable and making her suffer.

Also, as you've said, It's not Asha's responsibility to take care of Magnifico. But to go further, just because Magnifico has a tragic past doesn't mean he's a good person or capable of redemption. Just as tragic pasts don't make someone a villain who should be hated, they also don't make someone a good person. It's a past. It's not the present. Magnifico was hurt and had his dreams crushed before him in the past. He goes on to do this to Asha and her grandfather, well before he uses the dark book and starts destroying the wishes of the rest of the kingdom. He learned nothing from his past except for how to protect himself. Even if he started out forming the kingdom with good intentions to protect people, by the time Asha is talking to him, he has let the power go to his head. And we see him enjoy exerting power over Asha and later in the movie, others. Disney didn't just "throw out" Magnifico's motives. They show that his motives changed, or perhaps he wasn't fully honest with his motives from the beginning. We would need more details, but what we do know is that what drives Magnifico isn't protecting people anymore. It's having control, getting to be the one to decide what happens, and having people look up to him.

Also, by saying Asha isn't trying to help Magnifico but instead is focused only on her "goals," you're leaving out that her goal IS to help not just her grandfather or herself, but everyone in Rosas who hasn't had the chance to have their wish come true. Magnifico is the one more at fault for not considering other perspectives. He won't consider how people would feel about knowing their wishes would never be granted even when Asha brings it up to him. Asha, on the other hand, walks through town and can see people's wishes and how the lack of knowing what those wishes are has effected their lives. Asha is taking into consideration many people's best interests; just not Magnifico's. And again, given that Magnifico has been hostile to Asha, she wouldn't automatically consider his view. And as the audience, since we never see him regret yelling at her, it becomes clear he wasn't lashing out. He was showing her his true colors, what lies beyond the charisma that he puts on for the public and even his wife.

Lastly, I know you said that you wouldn't judge people in real life for how they respond to situations like this, even though you're criticizing Asha. But it's hard to separate the art from real life like that. Asha has no information besides that Magnifico had his parents die when he was young, and you're saying based on that alone, Asha should go out of her way to forgive and help him. So if people in real life know someone is having a rough time, should they automatically forgive them? You say no ... but how is this different from Asha's circumstances in the movie? Besides Asha being fictional, what is the difference here?

Just like in the movie, someone going through a hard time might end up being also a mean person who will hurt others. There are plenty of people in prison for horrible crimes who had a terrible past. Once again, a terrible past doesn't make someone terrible, but it doesn't make them fantastic either. Asha was sympathetic to Magnifico, but once he made it clear he thought he was the only one who got a say in things, she decided he couldn't be reasoned with. And based on what we saw in the movie? She was right. But even if she was wrong, trying to protect herself wouldn't have been wrong, just like it isn't wrong in real life.

Basically, I don't think you took into consideration enough of Magnifico's later scenes when writing this analysis, nor did you consider that Asha's working to help the entire kingdom, and it leads to an inaccurate character analysis when it comes to the Wish characters.

THE SHARED TRAIT BETWEEN ANNA AND ASHA (CHARACTER ANALYSIS)

🌟———————————————————————

Before I begin, this post was inspired by the YouTuber Aldone and the recent upload of Why Anna Is A Good Character

Let’s begin!

While both characters share the same ‘quirkiness’, they also share the concept of persistence. At least for the start of their respective movies. But persistence can go either down a good path or a bad path.

Anna’s is the good path. Why? Because she not only reaches for her goals in every way possible, but she also REACHES OUT to people in need. That person would be her sister, Elsa. Anna recognized that her sister is afraid of her own abilities, afraid of hurting anyone, and is afraid of experiencing that pain again or causing pain to others. That last part sounds very familiar to another character. Who is that?

It’s King Magnifico. At this point, you can easily compare Elsa and Magnifico in terms of traumatic behavior. Elsa tries to keep her abilities in check and even refuses to use them in hopes of keeping her sister and her kingdom safe. King Magnifico on the other hand uses his abilities to protect his people and his kingdom. They do these things to provide a safe place AND so that others won’t experience pain like they have. It’s clear to connect the dots there.

Anna learns about Elsa’s abilities and that she’s worried that something bad will happen if she uses them. When Anna finally knows, she REACHES OUT. She doesn’t demonize her, she doesn’t betray her, and she certainly doesn’t neglect her. She becomes determined to not only rekindle her family connection to Elsa, but she also tries to help Elsa see that she’s not a bad person, and that she’s not alone. That it’s okay to feel that way and that she’ll help Elsa no matter what. Listen to ‘For the First Time In Forever Reprise’ and you’ll see what I mean. She even says that Elsa doesn’t have to be afraid, and that even if she is, they can face the problem together. Because Anna RECOGNIZES the reason why Elsa did what she did and felt what she felt. She locked herself away so that she couldn’t hurt anyone. She kept her gloves on to limit the chance of another incident. And even after all these years of shutting the door on Anna, she still accepts Elsa’s fears and decides to comfort and understand her.

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Now to bring my focus onto Asha; her’s is the bad path. Compared to Anna, she went through the same little scenario where she learns about the reasons and motivations PLUS the trauma behind King Magnifico’s actions. He kept his kingdom safe with his magic to prevent another homeland under destruction. THAT’S his motive, and I hate how Disney just threw it out in the second half of the movie.

Asha learns all of this during her interview. When Asha understandably questions Magnifico’s ways with the wishes, he snaps at her and later that night Asha runs off into the woods (I will get back to the snapping part later on). Like okay, I understand why Asha felt that way. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I do want to talk about is how she KNOWS this information and decides to do nothing about it. Now am I saying that it is her obligation to make sure that a literal grown man is comforted and treasured and reassured? No, most certainly not. That’d be Queen Amaya’s job as his wife. What Asha should’ve done, however, is acknowledge his views and perspective and not run with just her own. She practically just took what he told her, then when she’s told that most of the wishes won’t ever be granted— she paints Magnifico as a bad person for doing so despite his reasons and motives (I will not be going into who was right or wrong, because that’s a messy topic).

King Magnifico isn’t a bad person. Does this make Asha the bad person then? No. It just makes her heavily naive and a little ignorant of someone else’s perspective. Really, people in the movie just didn’t explain things well enough to her so she had to go with her own views. If Asha took a peek into a different lens, the story would’ve gone differently in a positive way. And, of course, I cannot blame Asha for whatever the hell happened with Magnifico. Those are his actions. I repeat: No one is responsible for someone else’s actions, *unless you are directly and SURELY threatened*. Yes, someone’s actions can be influenced by another’s, but as long as it is not FORCING then it is not the other person’s fault for your own actions.

I’m saying this because I know there are Asha fans (like myself, though really just for the concept of her intended character and her designs. Not really sure on the movie Asha.), who really love her. And I just want to reassure you guys that she is not a bad person. In my eyes, she was just misguided and naive. Deadass whenever she asked a question, they were never answered. For example- the questions she asked the animals before ‘I’m A Star’ played. They didn’t even answer them. They played it off and she helplessly joined in on the dancing because oohh I’m a star. Back to the post.

Would it surprise you if I said that Asha did ATTEMPT to reach out? Probably not in the way that you’re thinking because it’s only subtle. Asha tries to paint a better picture of the wish granting system during her interview. She’s freaking out because she knows that Magnifico is holding most people’s best parts of their hearts forever, including her grandfather’s. She continues to try to reason with Magnifico that the people are good yadda yadda, but then Magnifico abruptly lashes out at her almost threateningly, even with a streak of magic escaping his hand for a moment there. That shuts her up. She’s scared and all hope to reason with him is thrown out the window in her eyes. Her attempt to reach our falters.

But THAT is similar to Anna. Anna attempts to reach out too at the beginning of her movie when she grabbed Elsa’s glove and her sister is walking away. Anna tries to reason with Elsa, just like Asha to Magnifico, but is then abruptly lashed out on by Elsa who creates ice shards pointed towards the crowd. Of course, it was either an accident or an instinct, but this is comparable to Magnifico snapping at Asha. Anna was scared too, and she hushed up as well.

And even after Anna was lashed out on, she STILL decides to stay persistent and CONTINUES to reach out and reason with Elsa. She does this again and again, failing most times until the ending. And she never gives up. Asha tried to reach out once, then gives up on that plan after she is lashed out at during her interview. That’s when she decides to trash that plan and makes a new one based on her own views. She decides to not take Magnifico’s perspective into consideration.

Hopefully that makes sense. Also, I’m not saying to apply any of this into real life. If someone does happen to get hella pissed off at you, make your own decision on what to do. These are Disney characters under different circumstances, and generally more safer considering they’re family friendly movies. So if you want to distance yourself away from someone who gets like that, good for you. Do what you think is best for yourself. Stay safe and happy. 💖

All in all, Anna shows true persistence to help others. No matter what opinions that other person had (Elsa), she strived to reassure and take her views into consideration throughout the film. She used her persistence to help Elsa and to succeed in her goals. Asha also wants to help others, and she shows persistence at the beginning of her movie. But it falls flat after the first 20 minutes where she decides to dedicate that persistence to only her goals.

I get that both movies have different storylines and values, but take away what Disney wanted to put out with Wish and focus in on the movie like it is its own world. Realistically, Asha could’ve done better. I do think that if Wish was about the same values as Frozen, Asha would’ve taken the ‘good’ path aka what Anna did. So really…

I blame all of this on the writing and the executive decisions. Asha is a great concept of a character that was written poorly and is only supported by the narrative of the plot, not by itself. You can’t expect a character to succeed as one if you have to tweak up a story to make it supportive of that character. It’s like Asha won by mere luck and bias of the narrators (Disney itself). A character has to have layers in order to support themselves and not have to rely on who is telling the story. The character has to be three-dimensional by the end of their story if you want them to be worthy of success in the eyes of the audience.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! 💖 I love both characters in my own way. Aight goodnight!

#disney wish #disney #long post

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