zmichelle1234

[zmichelle1234]

I am a FIRM believer that Nya and Garmadon should have had a serious conversation about Lloyd !!!!!!

So enjoy a little snippet of him and Nya post Garmadons little self discovery journey having a little mock therapy session 🫶🫶

I also really like the dichotomy of kais solid distrust of garmadon vs the moment where Nya sees through garmadons facade in Crystallized 🤭

[zmichelle1234]

I fixed it

It can’t have just been me who was bugged by apples silver jewelry in dragon games right? I mean it would be one thing if they decided to switch to silver for Apple because it does brighten her features but they still literally had a gold crown on her and a whole bunch of other gold accessories. Like why would they do that?!?!?!?!

[zmichelle1234]

I'm really intrigued by apple white in a metatextual sense actually... like, my feelings on her and those of others in the fanbase fascinate me

(Current) apple thoughts below the break:

she's a teenage girl; i have the staunch belief that there is nothing you can do at age 16 that makes you forever irredeemable to everyone. But also it would be foolhardy, actually, to fail to acknowledge that she's playing into some DANGEROUS ideology. This is concerning for everyone. we should be talking about that. but also she is just... CONSTANTLY being manipulated by every single adult in her life: her mother wants to live her own life over again through her -"OUR happily ever after"- Grimm plays her like a video game protagonist, watching her do every dumb thing he tells her, and the evil queen takes advantage of her being in a very vulnerable place emotionally to threaten her with the one thing she fears most: uncertainty. but ALSO she allows that fear to make her genuinely cruel to Raven at times, albeit largely unintentionally, despite Raven being her only really constant ally??? dragon games in particular is a really fascinating special to me because it shoves Apple into such an interesting light....

I think my opinions on her change a lot but I'm really intrigued by her and the ways she makes me and others feel in the fanbase. fascinating little lady

[zmichelle1234]

What I say: I’m fine.

What I mean: Raven Queen should have been the one to wake up Apple White in Dragon Games. Although Apple’s prince being Darling was a good twist and did it’s job at shaking Daring’s faith in his story, it didn’t fit as well as it could have when considering the events of Dragon Games, and the story as a whole. Ever After High is about Raven and Apple, and their opposing ideologies conflicting with their deep love for each other. This is mirrored (haha pun) by the narrators, who are a married couple. Raven being Apple’s true love would have been an excellent bookend (haha pun take 2) to their relationship. This is furthered by Apple and Raven being the ones to defeat the evil Queen. Additionally—

[zmichelle1234]

From "Thank God you're alive" to "Bitch, what'd you say?!" in .05 seconds!

[zmichelle1234]

isn't it interesting how the poisoned apple in snow white can be seen as a reference to the forbidden fruit from the garden of eden and snow white in dragon games is turned into a snake by the evil queen...

the serpent in the garden of eden is the one to first tempt eve and set off the entire situation of humanity's first sin... similarly snow white's phone call at the beginning of dragon games pushes apple further into being manipulated by authority figures and doing so many messed up things and setting up the events of the special

and to pull in the allegory further... apple is first enthralled by an apple. she first sees an apple and follows it to the evil queen's mirror, and under the evil queen's manipulation it is that apple that she uses to break the mirror and free the evil queen...

so not only is her pursuit of the poisoned apple as a whole/her entire destiny causing her big "sins", but her physically taking an apple is what allows her to commit her first major "sin"— freeing the evil queen from the mirror prison

i also think its interesting how both the evil queen and snow white can fit that serpent role— its interesting in terms of the biblical allegories too since the devil can come in multiple forms. similarly, the evil queen and snow white manipulate apple in different ways, but ultimately their motives are both the same when you boil it down: make raven evil. both are also wrong and lead to apple's downfall

[zmichelle1234]

Dragon games Maddie :]

SHEEESSSHHHHHHH it's been a while since I posted anything. Things have been hard 😔 I hope y'all like this piece as much as I do :D I drew this while watching this dragon games review, and I remembered just how much I love Maddie's design in this special.

Have a good day everyone! :3

[zmichelle1234]

y'know how in ATLA, the writers put sokka in a hole as their B plot, because if he stumbled into the A plot, he'd be too smart and solve the problem in like 2 minutes and the whole episode would be over in 5 minutes? so they stuck him in a hole in the ground for the entire episode to prevent that.

it's kind of funny how they did that in to daring in dragon games. like a writer went: "ah if daring was there, he'd kiss apple and they'd immediately find out he wasn't her prince. we need a few more dramatic shots of apple in her coffin before we can have him enter the scene" and they decide to put him in the eah version of ALCATRAZ to solve their problem.

they put that boy in PRISON. because he decided to look in a MIRROR.

mattel could have had him helping the others escape from the school during the eq's takeover and that's why he was late to apple's funeral. but nope. to alcatraz with you boy and have some ptsd.

[zmichelle1234]

apple white is so horrible but she is also so kind and thats why she's awesome

(super long yap session below because i want to ramble about apple because she is so interesting to me just as a warning lmao)

i feel like i see sm ppl on like tiktok and all (which maybe my first mistake was expecting nuance on tiktok) acting like she's like the evilest character on the show and i feel like thats just so reductive of her character

like apple is so kind she genuinely loves her friends so much; she's always been so excited and kind around raven when everyone else was afraid of her; despite the fact that her happily ever after is essentially nepotism, she works so hard to prepare to be a good ruler and wants the best for her future kingdom; she's constantly seen helping people and trying to enact change as leader of student council(i.e having the duck crossing or smth along those lines, i don't remember exactly), etc etc.

but at the same time she fails to realize how cruel she can be at times and thats why shes so awesome. like hello, the daughter of snow white, this elegant, perfect, delicate princess also simultaneously being so selfish is so good?? even though she loves her friends so much, she fails to realize or understand why they wouldn't want to uphold the status quo; even though she is kind to raven, that kindness comes with the expectation that raven will sacrifice her life to uphold the system for apple's happily ever after; even though she grinds and grinds to be a good ruler, she is still unaware of the privilege she has; even though she helps people, she can just as easily say out-of-touch and cruel things(like when after legacy day, she takes a dig at the rebels because they don't have happily ever afters)

honestly apple's privilege in and of itself is so interesting to me- because she does go through so much and she is a victim of the system— imo everyone is a victim of the system because even those with happy endings have to sacrifice their free will in order to obtain it(i.e ashlynn's ending is good but she'd have to sacrifice her relationship with hunter for it, cerise also technically has a good ending assuming she goes w the red riding hood destiny but she sacrifices half of her identity for it). in apple's case, she was conditioned to accept everything that came with her destiny with a smile on her face, conditioned to accept a man as her destined prince when in reality they had no idea who her destined prince was and she's gay so she would've just been trapped in a loveless marriage, lied and manipulated to so she could maintain the system. assuming that eah's snow white follows the canon of the original fairytale(ik there's some differences like how raven technically wouldn't become apple's stepmom, and raven's mom wasn't apple's mom's stepmom), apple has to knowingly go through 2 near death experiences and one that basically works, only to have a someone she doesn't even love beyond accepting the fact that that he's destined for her to wake her up. one detail i've always liked about dragon games is how they went all out in the scene where apple is poisoned- the detail is visceral and horrifying, she is genuinely struggling, etc; and the reason i really liked that they animated it that way is it adds to the horror of apple's story, because the path to her happily ever after is horrible.

at the same time, the reason apple is willing to go through any of this is because she can afford to. i don't think(???) her parents die(someone pls feel free to correct me on this because im not actually sure) unlike ashlynn's (im only assuming because its explicitly mentioned for ashlynn but never talked about for apple). she isn't poisoned for long. she may not truly love daring, but he's a good enough guy, conventionally attractive, heroic, and a nice friend to her. and she goes through all this to be the most beloved person in the world, the ruler of like everyone, and get a life of absolute luxury. in the long run, she pays pretty small prices to get the best life ever. i think most of the fandom is in agreement when i say that she easily has like the best destiny on the show.

but from apple's perspective, her destiny isn't the best. she only knows her hardship, and she does have to go through a lot for her destiny— the point i mentioned earlier about how horrifying the animation is when she got poisoned is proof of that. its so telling that she cant understand why her friends would be hesitant of their destinies— especially her formerly royal friends like briar and ashlynn. briar and ashlynn similarily also get ultimately happy endings of a life of wealth and being beloved— but the price they pay is a lot greater than what apple goes through(not to mention ashlynn also has the extra motivation of being in a relationship with hunter). i feel this is especially obvious in thronecoming where apple tells briar that "we all have a part to play"— apple feels that she is also sacrificing a lot to uphold the system anyway and the way i see it is that she thinks its unfair that others are questioning their roles when it's the natural order of the world to make big sacrifices. but what she can't grasp is the others r willing to risk it all because their destiny is so tragic— like how raven tried to find everything she could about potential rebellion before she rebelled because if there was even a chance she didn't have to contractually obligate herself to a hellish life forever it was worth the risk(mostly emphasized in the books). apple upholds the system not only because of the way she has been lied and manipulated to, but also because she can afford to make sacrifices; raven rebels against the system because her sacrifice is sacrificing everything about her, including her wellbeing and life.

like shes so much more interesting than just being "the real villain of ever after high", she's another teenager a victim to the system— except she has more to gain than others so she simultaneously religously upholds the system. shes so interesting because of her sharp contrasts in character and i feel that reducing her like that takes away from the complexities of her character

obv i get why people don't like her character anyway, a character being complex doesn't mean people have to like said character. i'm definitely biased towards her because i do like her a lot but i get why people don't but idk man i feel like going in the direction of "she's the real problem!" takes away from the entire idea that this system is harmful to everyone, even those with privilege, and it also just makes her less interesting because part of why i like her and why she is such a compelling character is because she's so crazy in the sense that she is so kind and horrible at the same time— she's so hypocritical but her headspace makes sense at the same time and i find the duality she has to be really strong writing

if you made it all the way to the end thanks for reading my long ass yap session i wrote this instead of preparing for my lit essay i think i should get diagnosed-

also feel free to correct anything i said if i accidentally spread misinfo- theres always tiny details about this show that i get confused about every now and then and i always want to know more about this show

update i did my lit essay and unironically writing this helped me somehow so my lesson is that not doing my homework and yapping about ever after high is always the solution

[zmichelle1234]

5 times Apple hugged Raven…

————————

…and the one time Raven hugged back.

(see my previous eah comic here)

[zmichelle1234]

the cast of dragon games still makes absolutely no sense to me, i understand that ever after high has so many characters and they were trying to utilize them all but they did a terrible job at it, half of these characters don’t even have speaking lines during the entire arc ( most of this is due to the seasons only being 4 episodes and there’s only so much you can do in such a little amount of time ) but here’s who i personally would put in dragon games

obviously we are keeping darling and apple, it makes sense for both their characters AND both way too wonderland/dragon games is setting up their relationship with one another

very unpopular opinion but i would keep ashlynn and melody i feel like it makes sense for both of them to participate. we don’t see melody a lot but from what we do know of her is that she’s very edgy and adventurous, honestly it’s based off pure vibes but i like it. ashlynn also makes sense ( kinda ) i mean she adores animals and would 100% be involved with the dragons. now,, i dont really see her as a sporty person but she would do anything for the people she cared about and would definitely join to support/help her friends. however, i personally think ashlynn should’ve been on snow whites team. it would’ve been interesting to see her joining so she can help her BFFA just for her to end up being picked for the opposing team. i love ashlynn but comparatively she is a little boring and i would have liked to see her people-pleaser complex to be explored more and challenged during dragon games.

also i would keep poppy. i mean look at her. that’s a sporty lesbian haircut if i’ve ever seen one.

that means i’m replacing holly, lizzie, and maddie. holly just isn’t that interesting to me, she’s very pretty but i feel like the only reason she was even in dragon games was because of poppy. also lizzie and maddie were just heavily involved in way too wonderland, i also feel like the jabberwock incident would’ve left them a little scarred. and while i love these 3 characters, i feel like they were giving nothing during this entire arc.

so to replace them i would add briar obviously, i don’t even have to explain that one. the entire fandom thinks she should’ve been involved. also faybelle is one of the main villains of this season, briar being involved would’ve added a lot more tension and set up for their dynamic in epic winter. AND i would add cerise and ramona for a number of reasons. they’re both sporty and come from a VERY competitive family, also if we’re trying to add under explored characters to the line up ( like poppy and melody ) ramona makes the most sense to also add. she is SUCH a cool character with an amazing design and correct me if i’m wrong but i don’t think she even has a doll ? also ramona and cerise have a very complicated relationship, they’re perceived as enemies when in actuality they are sisters who don’t really get along due to the pressure of keeping their secret. seeing them on opposing teams and struggling with that would’ve been so cool. it also would’ve been an amazing set up for when they later on rescue their dad together, because while the scene is very cute, it kinda comes out of nowhere. it would’ve been absolutely amazing to see them fighting the entire season and being super competitive against one another only for them to turn around and team up in order to protect their dad. they are both fiercely loyal and prioritize their family, they just have different ways of going about it, which is what causes them to butt heads. so them saving their dad together could’ve been a beautiful moment where they come to truly understand one another.

so to summarize what i believe the teams should be

evil queen: apple white, briar beauty, melody piper, and ramona badwolf

snow white: darling charming, ashlynn ella, poppy o’hair, and cerise hood

this post ended up being a lot longer than i intended, while dragon games is genuinely my favorite season of ever after high, i just feel like it had a LOT more potential. if only ever after high was more popular and had a bigger budget it could’ve been a flesh out show similar to winx club, my little pony, or any other fleshed out cartoon with amazing plots.

[zmichelle1234]

Imagine if you got wrongfully stuck in the world's worst, most psychologically torturous solitary confinement prison on complete accident without anybody knowing you ended up there and being completely unable to ask for help or even see yourself and the only reason you escaped is because of an accident that you're not even given a moment to process cause now you need to fulfill your entire life's mission only to fail and realize everything you've ever been told is a lie and you have no time to process that either since you need to take down your world's biggest villain and even after that you have to go back to pretending like it never happened and you have no idea how or even who to talk about it to because you've never been given the space to be genuinely emotionally vulnerable with anyone wouldn't that be fucked up or what

[zmichelle1234]

rewatching dragon games and i gotta say genuinely so impressed with the way apple's VA delivers the "your mom broke out of mirror prison and literally WALKED across broken glass just to be with you!" line because it is SO hurtful I love it so much.

i just love the way she DELIVERS the line so perfectly; the way apple's voice is so high-pitched, frantic and breathy, you can tell how desperate she is, how desperately she's grasping at straws right now and you can tell just how much pressure she's under. and on top of all of that, to add insult to injury, I LOVE how you can hear how she MEANS what she says, how she's emphasizing that the evil queen went through all that just to be with raven, how can raven not see that and acknowledge it and appreciate it?

addition: i love how raven's animated and also amazing job on her VA's part too because it manages to get across how frustrated and angry and irritated raven is with her mother because she KNOWS her mother. raven knows her mother is up to no good, and she knows she's causing nothing but problems and I LOVE how you can tell raven's thinking 'just when things were starting to go right, just when people stopped being scared of me and started to like me, you had to show up and ruin everything for me just like you ruin everything else".

and ik apple's LOSING it right now because whoops she's the one who freed the evil queen and all haha (also I mean this is literally the scene where raven finds out and confronts her about it, but-) but I love the BITTERNESS and envy you can feel radiating off of her; of how the evil queen is so powerful and capable, just like raven, and how she did all of this, she broke out of a seemingly unbreakable prison and quite literally walked across broken glass to BE with her daughter, and yes, she's THE evil queen, but she's promised to put things right and fix things and all, and why can't raven see any of that, why can't raven just please see that and please stop questioning everything and see that her mother is here.

i am getting this across very poorly <3 but I love the layers to this conversation and how both of their voice actress's get those layers across but I just particularly LOVE the 'walking across broken glass line' because it's so haunting to me just how UPSET apple looks.

apple white my deeply traumatized and complex character I love you SM it's insane

[zmichelle1234]

hey pals, i actually REALLY don't like the dragon games lineup

like... this is just so random. it doesn't fit. i don't like this. if ever after high didn't solely exist to market dolls, these are the students that i can see playing in the dragon games. but first, i wanna start with an explanation of why i'm removing who i'm removing from the lineup

the wonderlandians: i'm gonna be so fr, if scott morrison came to my hs and was like "yo guys i'm starting a basketball team" i am NOT joining that shit. and bro wasn't even incarcerated for poisoning the other country i have citizenship in OR idk stealing some other lady's job. he's just a prime minister that i don't really like. and i'm not a refugee. the wonderlandians on the other hand... yikes. they would NOT have played dragonball with the evil queen

the o'hair twins: now first of all, holly has expressed nothing but wanting to follow her destiny, which very much includes damselling and distressing. plus that hair is a fire hazard ;-; as for poppy, when i first watched dragon games i deadass thought that the twins ONLY got armour because they were just modelling what everyone else would get, and they wouldn't take part. especially because i think she'd be more concerned with maintaining the integrity of the armour and doing routine checks just making sure that a piece of equipment wouldn't become faulty and responsible for one of her friends or classmates getting injured

melody piper: what do you MEAN that this girl isn't emceeing the event?? she was born for that

who would actually play:

raven queen, for the exact reasons in the show

apple white, but only because the evil queen blackmails her

now, an argument could be made against darling charming, since she'd been working so hard before this point to maintain the whole "damsel in distress" thing she had going on since her parents were legacy book-thumping royals, however i think she would've been able to make the case to them "well daring is gonna marry apple one day so i think it's good for me to start getting along with snow white now since she's his future mother in law", plus everyone practically worships snow white

daring charming. bro has a DRAGON RIDING LICENSE. yet he wasn't on the field lmao

cerise hood. girlie is canonically a jock. she would live for dragon games. all she'd need to do is pin her hood to her hairline and she'd be fine

briar beauty because she's literally an adrenaline junkie. it's honestly more surprising that she WASN'T the first one to sign up. like make it make sense

i can see jillian beanstalk also joining since she's got that big ol sense of adventure

now, last spot is a bit of a tossup. i could probably see hopper croakington joining just to try to impress briar, or sparrow because it's "rock 'n roll". i'm leaning towards hopper slightly more since sparrow's whole thing is "i look out for the number one: me" or whatever and he's probably more afraid of dying than like. looking cool. especially because i actually don't think he does any hero classes or anything (just going off memory)

[zmichelle1234]

Started rewatching ever after high and GOD THE DRAGON GAMES ARE STILL PEAK

[zmichelle1234]

can we just take a minute to agree that dragon games was peak outfits?