UNNECESSARY AND UNHINGED RANT ABOUT CINDERELLA'S CHARACTER FROM CINDERELLA (2015) INCOMING
Lemme talk about Cinderella from Cinderella (2015) for a bit actually yeah because these changes to my girl completely baffle me
She has friends now
Goes outside on her own
Says the only reason why she's staying is because it's her parent's house- bruh.
All of this takes away (+ more reasons down the cut) from the true cruelty of OG!Cinderella's backstory and how it all connects so well to inform you of her character and the actions she takes
OG!Cinderella has been indoctrinated into accepting her life as a maid to her step family since she was a small child. She is never seen going outside of the house besides the night at the ball. The only friends she had were random animals around her she couldn't even fully converse with. She had no other human perspective on her situation or how to get out of it. It makes sense why she's just taking her stepmother's tyranny while holding everything in because this isolation and neglect is all she knows. This is the entire limited scope of her world. A sad reality to many cases of abuse in real life.
And they just. Erased all of this for some. Reason???
The night at the ball was a big deal because she literally NEVER gets to go out. This is the only time she interacts with the outside world aside from the ending. The impact of that was HUGE in the original movie. The new one just cheapened that imo by implying she goes out in town and talks to others regularly. This event was an impossible, fantastical dream come true to someone who is never treated as anything but a servant to everyone she knows.
Basically OG!Cinderella has it way worse which is what makes the ball such a huge deal in the first place.
Third point I don't think I need to explain how Cinderella staying in her abusive home bc the house is "hers to love now that her parents are dead" is not a good character change and doesn't make sense. I would understand if her dad was alive and insisting on staying, but he is GONE. It is a building you grew up in sure, but that's all it is. Not something you sacrifice your wellbeing for. So that's a shit reason they didn't need to make up to say why this character is stuck in her abusive household. The isolation and years of gaslighting were enough. (Also showing how much of a frightening presence and manipulative villain Lady Tremaine is.)
And she sure left it quick after getting hitched lol
The Fairy Godmother having the audacity to test Cinderella with that "oh I'm a poor old woman and I want some milk please" nonsense
Not very godmotherly of her in this version. 🥴 The Fairy Godmother appeared in the original to offer pure comfort to Cinderella in a time of desperate need, when this resilient and kind spirit finally reached her breaking point. The dress, slippers, pumpkin carriage, and magic were all given freely as a present to make her feel better at least for one night.
Meanwhile this goofy ass Godmother has the audacity to be like "hey is she gonna be nice or not even though she's crying in tattered, recently destroyed clothing- I need to see that or else she doesn't get the magic juice". Like why did this become a way to test her morality all of a sudden? Why did you need something from her to give up the magic goods?? It's not even a good test she just walked a couple steps and poured some milk in a bowl,,,
Idk man they made their relationship transactional for no reason which taints the original purpose of this scene imo. The original Fairy Godmother already KNEW Cinderella was kind without having to make sure by disguising herself as a rancid old lady. 😭 Weird and unnecessary addition.
Kinda nitpicky here but this film did not at all match the terror of the torn dress scene which really shows you how horrifying and humiliating it was to Cinderella
Comparison
AND THE BIGGEST OFFENDER: THE WAY SHE "ESCAPED".
I NEED TO TAKE A BREATH
BECAUSE LIKE. WHAT WAS THAT.
Original Cinderella, seeing a real chance of escape from her abuse, uses everything in her possession to do so. She's yelling for the mice to get the key, to get Bruno to chase away the cat, running down to meet the prince's attendants to make sure they get the proof of her identity from her- and that moment she oh-so-casually pulled out the second slipper??? SEEING HER STEPMOTHER'S SLACKED JAW??? GAGGED US ALL.
ICONIC
But 2015. Bitch. What is going on. She gets locked up and easily accepts her doom. She just twirls and sings in her prison like a dunce because cINDerELLa wAs aLReADy cONTenT wIth her sMaLL mOMEnts oF hAPPIneSs anD dREamS wItH thE pRinCE.
Just. Gives up.
Not the mice begging her to get up and save herself come on now
The mice have to do their best on their own to push open her window so the prince and his crew hear her on time.
And yeah, all she had to do was open a window.
WHAT. WHY. HOW. WAS THIS??? MORE EMPOWERING???
1950: use your brain to fight to the very end
2015: quit while you're still ahead, or don't try you just gotta dance and sing all pretty then someone will come along and save you
I'm sorry, but for a production that was so critical of the notion of "Cinderella just waited around for a prince to save her"...is that not literally what they changed the ending to?
You wanna talk about lack of agency in princess stories well here you go 😭
You know what's sad about all this in the end is this is still the best recent live action Disney remake imo LOL
Anyways hello if you've made it all the way down here I rest my case
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Toothless (and generally most dragons) lost all his personality in thw.
Gone was the loyal, protective, intelligent, curious, silly, expressive, understanding, and sassy/snarky dragon we adored more and more through each new installment in the franchise.
Who is this puppy in thw and what did he do to Toothless?
Look me in the eye and tell me that if anyone, dragon or not, was to pluck Hiccup off his back and send him into the ocean to die, they wouldn't get a minimum of two blasts in the face.
Yes, Toothless is playful and silly and adorable, but only around the people/dragons he trusts, and especially around Hiccup specifically.
Otherwise, his guard is up, he is wary, and he himself has to evaluate whether or not someone is safe to be around.
"Hey, I guess Dean dumbed him down because he wanted to show the effects of domestication—"
Woah there, big words.
Domestication? The definition of domestication is "the process of taming an animal and keeping it as a pet or on a farm".
That is not what's happening on Berk.
Dragons were never pets to humans. (If anything, humans were their pets.)
They stood by the Vikings' sides out of their own volition, and were free to come and go as they pleased.
We see this clearly in GoTNF.
They wouldn't let a human they didn't trust so much as touch them, let alone allow them anywhere near their backs.
They are the ones that choose their riders, or if they even want one, not the other way around.
And they weren't exactly "tamed" either. Or rather, nobody tried to alter their nature and innate instincts.
In RoB, we clearly see that Vikings are the ones who adjust, who adapt accordingly, because dragons are gonna do what dragons do.
And those instincts of theirs were honed. They weren't tamed, they were trained.
The notion that wild dragons are more powerful because they're wild makes no sense to me, because while wild dragons have raw power and raw instinct, trained dragons arguably have more than that.
They learn to work with other dragons, and they're able to pull off some incredible moves, because their bodies are, well, consistently trained.
They go on dangerous missions on the regular, for fuck's sake. During which, they also have to think. The dragons aren't told what to do, nor are they steered by their riders constantly (and when they are, the dragons trust them to do so)
They can take the reins as well (and when they do, the riders trust them to do so), but most of the time, they both move together in sync, understanding what, and how it, needs to be done.
In what world would such a lifestyle weaken them, or threaten to erase their aforementioned instincts?
I don't get Dean's point.
And Hiccup? What's up with the poor decision making?
Because I know damn well Hiccup wouldn't let dragons take over Berk to the point where, within the first ten minutes of the movie , half of it collapses. An event which apparently everyone is used to, because nobody worries about it.
He put an ocean between Garff and a couple of dragons because of how incompatible they were, in terms of needs and way of life.
He relocated dragons constantly, so as not to overcrowd and/or to protect the Edge.
Even when he was, what, 15 in RoB/DoB, he was mindful of the way he handled situations, to ensure Berk and the Vikings wouldn't be overwhelmed with dragons.
He understood that it's impossible for thousands of dragons to cohabitate with humans, and with each other, peacefully and without chaos.
Not to mention, he respected dragon culture and understood that some spaces were not made for the human eye. He made such a big deal about revering Vanaheim, and you expect me to believe he'd be okay with just exposing a place called The Hidden World, a delicate draconic paradise?
And wow, way to go, let's uproot the ENTIRE village, and go searching for this place that we don't even know for sure exists? Yes, very responsible.
And why not just make a life-changing call without consulting anyone, or thinking it through, based on what you alone think is best, while you're at it? Sounds like a great idea.
It's not like in previous installments he always made sure to have a team huddle to discuss (or at least inform the group of) their next move, even in the tightest of spots and with the littlest time; no, of course not.
His leadership abilities, his tactical and strategic thinking, his caution, his conviction and determination? Gone. Erased.
Who is this guy in thw and what did he do to Hiccup?
And as for Toothless and Hiccup's dynamic in this movie, something that Astrid said bugs me to an unfathomable degree.
"You gave him his freedom back, what did you expect?"
Woah there, big talk.
This paints a horribly ugly picture. It makes Toothless seem like he'd been held captive by Hiccup, that if he could've flown on his own, he would never have stuck around this long.
Which, much like the rest of this movie, is a load of horseshit.
Toothless is just as free, if not free-er than, as the rest of the dragons. Because while all dragons love and trust their riders, and vice versa, nobody has a connection quite like Toothless and Hiccup (save for perhaps Valka and Cloudjumper).
Toothless could've been flying on his own for a long, long time now. But he didn't want it. He was vehemently opposed to the idea.
Why? Because to him, flying was no longer worth it if Hiccup wasn't right there with him. Because Hiccup took the loneliness out of flying. Because Toothless wanted nothing more than to be by Hiccup's side. Hiccup was the one that made flying worth it.
A major theme of this movie is learning to fly on your own. Toothless had to learn how to fly without Hiccup, and Hiccup had to learn how to fly without Toothless (I mean, personally I'd rather them remaining inseparable soulmates that are mildly codependent. I recognize it's not necessarily the healthiest dynamic, but fuck if I care)
Toothless did this through meeting his mate, and falling in love (no matter how horribly written and designed she is, and no matter how I personally would've preferred for the Hicctooth bromance to remain undisturbed).
He met a creature that he wanted to follow and be alone with, a creature that made flying alone, with nobody on his back, worth it.
And more importantly, Hiccup had to realize that he's not who he is because he has Toothless, and subsequently the dragons. It's the opposite.
This is growth, and the realization that they don't need each other is important.
But why the fuck does that mean they have to say goodbye?
I don't need most of the people in my life. That doesn't mean I don't want them here.
The point was that Hiccup doesn't need Toothless in order to be someone.
Not that he didn't need Toothless, period.
(Even if the point was simply that he didn't need Toothless, which I could concede to, that again doesn't mean that Toothless had to leave, and take the entire dragon population with him.
To me, that sends a message of "if you don't need them, then they gotta go".
It's not what outgrowing a friendship looks like, despite the fact that many people choose to interpret it as such.
Sure, this movie shows what outgrowing a friendship is; if outgrowing a friendship means making room in your life for other people. If outgrowing a friendship means you found romance. Which is ridiculous.)
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To further clarify:
I am well aware the shows aren't canon.
This, however, doesn't change the fact that all these series tie in with HTTYD 2 really well, and that they make sense.
They expand on the characters and give us a better grasp of the world in httyd. They allow us to understand everything better.
When you only have, at most, 150 minutes to tell a story, every minute of it needs to somehow add to the plot. To further the narrative. There is very little time for fluff.
In a movie, it's practically impossible to properly explore the characters' different dynamics, to give everyone their own arc, to let the audience bask in the slow moments and to let the characters just be.
In a series, however? Well. You've definitely got time.
For someone who only watched the movies, it would be pretty damn difficult to understand the mis-characterization in say, Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins.
You don't know these characters that well. You don't know the well-established dynamics between the gang in the same way that someone who's watched the series does.
Which is exactly why I think that people who've watched them are the ones that dislike the hidden world the most.
I, too, am usually opposed to using non-canon material to make a point, but RoB, DoB and RTTE are the only spin-off series from a successful movie franchise I can name that make perfect sense. That succeed in accurately portraying the main cast, in realistically expanding on the secondary characters (like Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins, who now have the space to become part of the main cast), and in smoothly integrating new characters.
They also manage to beautifully explore this magical universe full of dragons, adventure, and mystery, while firmly establishing the dragons as an important part of ecosystems all around.
Whether it's subconscious or not, they create an unshakable image of how all the characters think, act, and interact. You spend a hell of a lot longer with the characters in a lengthy eight season series than in two movies.
But it's not a bad thing, because this image carved by the series fits in nicely with the image carved in all the canon installments of the franchise.
Well. Except for one, cough cough.
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Rant, because this KEEPS happening:
Dude, I help whomever I can whenever I can--When I had money, I've helped people get dentures and pay for medical care, bought food for people's kids, contributed to GoFundMes, regularly gave money to homeless folks, and a couple of times even took people into my home that I barely knew.
But I don't have it now; anyone who knows me or follows my blog KNOWS that, and knows WHY.
And even if we HAD money (again--we don't), sending me insulting messages and DEMANDING it wouldn't be the way to get it.
Like, we're barely keeping our heads above water with the 14K USD (and growing, because interest) debt from straightening out El's paperwork snafu, even WITH all the generous donations (for which we will always be grateful).
Right now we're TRYING to make ends meet without doing more crowdfunding, and while keeping up on debt payments, and although we're getting by for now, there really isn't much to spare. If there were money to spare, it'd mostly have to go towards saving for the surgeries I need, and yeah, if we manage to end up with anything to spare, it's going to be set aside for our toddler and for emergencies.
Like, I'm happy to reblog fundraisers for mutuals, or for other folks I'm pretty confident are legit, but even then, if our FIRST INTERACTION is you messaging me about fundraising, especially from a blog that was created like, a week ago, followed me an hour ago, and contains nothing BUT links to your fundraiser, I think it's normal that I'm gonna be suspicious.
And again, insulting me, attempting to guilt trip me, and DEMANDING money, or repeatedly pleading with me after I've said I don't have it, is only gonna get you blocked and reported--and that would be the case even if we HAD money. (Which--I repeat--we DON'T.)
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