Maeve of Winter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maeve_of_winter) wrote2016-07-13 10:20 pm
maeve_of_winter) wrote2016-07-13 10:20 pm
Speculation on Mal's Parentage (Descendants 2015)
I'll be honest about Descendants 2015: I liked a lot of the ideas, but not the execution. Obviously, time constraints are an issue, but the world-building felt very rushed and poorly thought out. However, I liked a lot of the characters and concepts introduced, so I am very happy Descendants was created.
Warning: discussion of non-con beneath the cut.
Enter your cut contents here.
We're not told very much about Mal's father (and I don't believe, any of the villain kids' other parents), All the information we're given is that Mal's father was a human, Maleficent doesn't like to talk about him, and that she blames any of Mal's faults on her half-human heritage.
I'm really intrigued by the idea of Mal as half-fey, ie, a different species than human, who might have different abilities (beyond just magic) and different physiology. And I'm also curious about Mal's dad.
One theory that's been brought up a couple of times is the idea that Prince Philip (the prince who rescues Sleeping Beauty) could be Mal's father, either tricked by Maleficent into sleeping with her in rape by deception, or outright raped by her. While this theory has a very slim possibility of becoming canon, due to the violence implied in the backstory, I do like the dynamic presented by the idea of Mal and Audrey being half-sisters. I think it could lead to a lot of development for both characters.
Another idea that is much more frequent is the idea that another Disney villain is Mal's dad. Personally, I like the idea that it's Gaston; I think it would be an ironic twist that Gaston's daughter would date Belle's son. In my intensely optimistic view, Gaston reformed-ish (as much as he was able) and cared about Mal and disliked the way she was treated by her mother, but was warned off from contacting her by Maleficent.
Another theory I had was that Mal's dad is actually another fey, but Maleficient told Mal she was half-human in order to manipulate her and prevent Mal from ever leaving her side, She was worried that Mal might ally with someone else, and then Maleficent would be robbed of a valuable tool.
What theories do you have about the parents of the villain kids?
Warning: discussion of non-con beneath the cut.
Enter your cut contents here.
We're not told very much about Mal's father (and I don't believe, any of the villain kids' other parents), All the information we're given is that Mal's father was a human, Maleficent doesn't like to talk about him, and that she blames any of Mal's faults on her half-human heritage.
I'm really intrigued by the idea of Mal as half-fey, ie, a different species than human, who might have different abilities (beyond just magic) and different physiology. And I'm also curious about Mal's dad.
One theory that's been brought up a couple of times is the idea that Prince Philip (the prince who rescues Sleeping Beauty) could be Mal's father, either tricked by Maleficent into sleeping with her in rape by deception, or outright raped by her. While this theory has a very slim possibility of becoming canon, due to the violence implied in the backstory, I do like the dynamic presented by the idea of Mal and Audrey being half-sisters. I think it could lead to a lot of development for both characters.
Another idea that is much more frequent is the idea that another Disney villain is Mal's dad. Personally, I like the idea that it's Gaston; I think it would be an ironic twist that Gaston's daughter would date Belle's son. In my intensely optimistic view, Gaston reformed-ish (as much as he was able) and cared about Mal and disliked the way she was treated by her mother, but was warned off from contacting her by Maleficent.
Another theory I had was that Mal's dad is actually another fey, but Maleficient told Mal she was half-human in order to manipulate her and prevent Mal from ever leaving her side, She was worried that Mal might ally with someone else, and then Maleficent would be robbed of a valuable tool.
What theories do you have about the parents of the villain kids?
no subject
So much yes to the 'love the idea, not the execution'. I have SO Many Feels about the ideas behind Descendants, and so much cranky about the execution.
I have been running with the idea that it's Prince Philip, but you have interesting ideas in Gaston or Fey-ness for the dad.
no subject
If you want to tell me all your thoughts and feelings on Descendants, I'm right here, lol.
no subject
So I got beyond frustrated with the sloppy lack of worldbuilding, especially after I got the Isle of the Lost novel and found out that yes actually the villains do all remember dying.
So, being me, I started trying to figure out how you could actually possibly get all of those different time periods to interact with each other PLUS modern tech... which meant I wound up blaming the Mouse for it.
In the tenth-finished, stupidly massive, ridiculously complicated story of the birth of Auradon that lives in assorted documents and my head, Mickey Mouse decided that he wanted to host a party of all of the heroes of the classic tales. So it had to be somewhere that touched all times (sort of like House of Mouse).
Except when he went to make the invitations -- with some help from his Sorcerer self -- he messed up and wound up creating a new world that pulled copies of each palace and some of the surrounding area into one continent, with small support populations. But because magic always has a cost (and/or Chernabog decided to mess with the Mouse) it also pulled the villains back from their deaths.
no subject
As someone who really enjoys the worldbuilding aspect of stories, the wordlbuilding for Descendants was absurdly slapdash. It is crystal clear that someone was like, "Wow, let's have the next generation of Disney villains, but they turn good!" with absolutely no further thought about how all the different canons are connected. :-/
Then again, it leaves more room for us to finagle and play with the "rules" of the movie's universe, so I suppose it's not all bad.
no subject
No, no there's just not any way for it to happen without a serious influx of magic.
+chortles+ Absurdly slapdash covers it SO Well, doesn't it? +fistbump+
Heee, also a point, but it's just frustrating for me.
Another frustration is that, well, Maleficent wasn't terrifying anymore, and there wasn't a good reason for her not to be. I mean, unless being cut off from magic just drove her insane. I love Kristin Chenoweth to bits, but... she had no gravitas, which is soooooo far from okay with me.
Like. This is Maleficent we're talking about.
Back on the topic of how to wind up with Auradon, you've got 12th century somewhere (Sleeping Beauty) and early-18th century France (B&tB), 12th-century "Arabia" (Aladdin), 1800s India (JB), 420s China (Mulan), and 1900s London (101Dalm), 1909 midwestern America (L&tT), 1912 New Orleans (P&tF), 1930s New York (O&Co.), and gods only know which other times...
I'm off to sleep but I'll be back tomorrow!
no subject
Agreed about Maleficent! If I ever get around to writing the fanfic I'm considering, I want to retell the Descendants movie with some solid worldbuilding and characterization for the villains. None of the villains felt particularly menacing to me, but I can't help but wonder if that's a deliberate choice? I suspect Disney didn't really want to make the villains too scary or imply that the kids were really afraid of their parents because they didn't want to hint at child abuse abuse, even inadvertently. So the parents ended up kind of silly and cartoony as a result.
12th century somewhere (Sleeping Beauty) and early-18th century France (B&tB), 12th-century "Arabia" (Aladdin), 1800s India (JB), 420s China (Mulan), and 1900s London (101Dalm), 1909 midwestern America (L&tT), 1912 New Orleans (P&tF), 1930s New York (O&Co.), and gods only know which other times...
Hmm, now I'm kind of considering Disney as a multi-verse, with each time period as its own earth and Auradon being the "prime" earth where they can call join together.