Hat Plays Sims

That's... okay, that Pocahontas achieved noteriety among white folk for converting to Christianity has some steep unfortunate implications, but as long as I'm using TV Tropes vocabulary, it's also sorta fair for its day. (It's not fair, lemme just spit that out there right now. But humans do a really good impression of panicky herd animals when exposed to stuff we aren't used to.) These were people who believed that if you didn't convert to Christianity once you knew about it, you were damned for sure. That the pretty little princess was willing to convert was a big deal on the scale of proving Native Americans weren't (trope language warning again) an Always Chaotic Evil race.

White people can be pretty stupid. (Said the white girl.)

Large swaths of Agrabah were based on real-world locations, too. Less so the palace, but I don't think that much Disney royalty lives in actually historically accurate or architecturally plausible castles and palaces. (Prince Charming might get away with it, because their clothing puts them at the 'palaces are fine, we don't need to brace for siege engines' end of the housing spectrum.)

That headcanon is not unworkable. I feel worse for Frigga than for Odin-- Renee Russo put such... sad relief into the Frigga-and-Loki scene that I feel like she's always wanted to be honest with her children, but can't, because Odin forbade it and because she's Frigga and already knew she wouldn't. (Although my own headcanon, mythology aside, is that black-haired Loki figured out at least seven hundred years ago that his bronze-haired parents probably couldn't have pulled off that particular genetic trick.) ... You know, your headcanon means that adopted-Loki gets all the backlash from the stuff Uncle Loki is actually famous for and would make him a /d/ sensation today-- Sleipnir, Fenrir, Hel, eight years as a milkmaid... ... Maybe they don't talk about Uncle Loki because he's the one who dressed Thor up as Freyja to steal Mjolnir back again?

Yeah, my Christmas Eve tradition now that I'm an adult is to spend it at home, alone, wearing whatever I want, eating whatever I want, and not getting yelled at even once. It's an awesome tradition. So I hear you on dysfunctional families. I actually haven't seen Brave, though-- I was all excited from the trailers (and I still want ALL THE HATS), but when more of the plot came to light I got a little frustrated. Why does it always have to be magic, Family Entertainment? Can't we find some way BESIDES turning people into bears to move the plot forward? (Originally I thought Rebellious Archer-Princess Merida ran away from home, encountered a raging bear, killed the raging bear, discovered the bear was a mother with cubs, and then there were lessons in Responsibility and animal shennanigans.) I'll admit I'm also a little bit tired of the Rebellious Princess trope. Dear Disney, I would like to see one princess born and raised who, in her initial appearance, appears to give a crap about her kingdom and/or people and/or political responsibilities. Because the last one of the ten official Disney Princesses I can think of who knew she was a princess (which discounts Aurora and Rapunzel) but was born of the blood royal (sorry, Cinderella, Belle, and Mulan) and DIDN'T rebel in some story-driving way... was Snow White. Who ran for her life in a story-driving way.

Ariel is a major offender, but Ariel has six sisters, so her running away isn't exactly kingdom-threatening. Jasmine, on the other hand, is apparently her father's sole heir (and ohhh the headcanon I have about that). I love Jasmine. I love her a LOT. I know she's sixteen (at the END of her movie) and teenagers' brains aren't finished growing yet, which tips their risk/reward balances heavily toward 'this will get SO MANY YouTube hits.' But her scarpering puts the succession in jeopardy.

The scenes with her bio-parents were good for me because... okay, words. Words are a thing. Because I kind of liked the artistic decision to keep them silent (like Philip and Aurora never say a word after she finds out she's a princess and he finds Maleficent standing where his pretty peasant girl should be), because their expressions and interactions made it obvious that not only did they love and support each other very much, even after eighteen years they never completely gave up hope. They send those lanterns up every single year not knowing if they're lighting a beacon or a memorial. They're a big purple wall of silent, sad, loving hope. ... And that hope, that knowing that there are Good Parents, that she should have had good parents is... a sort of reward for Rapunzel, really. I mean, at the end of the story, she's got her freedom, she's got her man, she's got her lizard, she's got a dashing white charger, she's got a pretty frickin' secure tower, and she's got that very expensive crown. She and Eugene (Fitzherbert. So who's Herbert, that's what I'd like to know) could have sold the tiara, bought that private island Eugene's always wanted, and spent the rest of their days having exploratory sex on a great big pile of money. But she's seen the "lantern thing for the lost princess," and she knows that somebody out there wants her, even without knowing her.

That's why I like Rapunzel's parents. That eighteen years of not giving up hope, even when it was hard. I mean, in Into The Woods, when Mother Gothel showed up to claim Rapunzel in exchange for rampion, the Baker's mother died and the Baker's father ran the hell away to go live in the woods and narrate part-time. Hope can be a hell of a struggle.

If it weren't for Eugene's Sad Orphanage Origin Story, I would totally back you on his parents. Totally. But I don't want a sad ending to Road to El Dorado, so I fear I can't back you on that one. (Having to leave your small child at a foreign orphanage and go on the run from whatever counts as a sad ending.)

Keith David is one of the finer points. Mmm, Goliath. (Even if he was acting more like Thailog.)