Dragon Games
Feb. 2nd, 2016 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyLet's try this again, only without falling down a well of blather. We're gonna discuss Dragon Games, the new EAH special. Clearly there will be spoilers.
Basic recap: Evil Queen tricks Apple White into breaking the magic mirror by pouncing on Apple's fear of losing her happily ever after, disappointing her mother, and basically not being good enough, along with some jealousy over Raven's popularity rapidly eclipsing her own. It doesn't help that Snow White, Apple's mother, was pressuring her earlier to get her story back on track.
EQ disguises herself as Mira Shards and promises to help Apple get things back to the good old ways since they both want Raven to fulfill her destiny. Apple tries to bail, but Mira points out that everyone will hate her for freeing Evil Queen. Apple then introduces Mira to Darling, Cerise, and eventually Raven. Mira acts like a big ol' fangirl and immediately tries to buddy up to Raven by impressing her with tales of how awesome EQ is and by how evil she can be. Neither of these things is going to impress Raven, Mira. Duh.
Still, Raven does have a mischievous streak and Mira plays on that in a way we'll come back to later.
Meanwhile, Daring Charming's dragon friend, Legend, is not a boy and is in fact about to have a bunch of eggs. Raven and Mira both cast magic to speed up the hatching process and voila, dragons are once more running around EAH in abundance. Mira decides that the thing to really get Raven evil will be to make her super competitive with Apple as they face off in Dragon Games. But how...
Snow White sees Blondie's Mirrorcast of the new dragons and decides that she'll revamp the dragon arena at EAH, say it's Apple's idea, and basically buy back Apple's popularity. Also, she recognizes Mira as Evil Queen in record time. (Faster than Nevermore, and Nevermore was actually right there, physically in the same room!) But she doesn't say a word until after unveiling 'Apple's' brilliant plan.
Mira is unmasked but claims to have reformed and isn't EAH all about second chances? (uh, no, that's MH, but who's ever heard of a high school for monsters?) Snow and EQ train the new Dragon Riders and the first game goes from a walk through to an actual game in no time flat when EQ uses her magic to age the dragons again.
Raven is disgusted by Apple's actions (intentionally hurting Darling in the game) and breaks up with her. Apple is crushed and my Xena/Gabrielle sense is tingling almost as hard as it was during the first episode of Rizzoli and Isles, okay?
Throughout all this, Faybelle has been working as EQ's minion because FINALLY someone evil has come along and Faybelle is ready for something more advanced than whatever BS Badwolf is calling villainy these days. Turns out that the easiest/only (?) way to imprison EQ is with the Booking Glass, and Faybelle is sent to retrieve it. She does, only then Daring Charming comes along and the BG gets mixed up with one of Darings millions of mirrors. Daring winds up locked in the BG (of course he does) and Faybelle is left hanging in front of EQ.
EQ goes all evil queen and destroys just about everything (the castle is now a mile above ground, in the sky, because magic) when Raven leaves campus and really, anyone who is surprised by this should be taken out back and dunked in the Wonderland Well because they're clearly Mad.
Apple resigns from her reluctant minion position and EQ "This is Sparta!" kicks her out the window. I'm not making that up, btw. Apple lands safely and heads off to find Raven and makeup, with Faybelle following.
There's some weird hiding in the forest with the pixies I don't care about (sorry?) and Raven accepts Apple's apology eventually. Pretty much immediately afterward, Faybelle slips Apple a poison apple and the Snow White story kicks in. Apple's been put to sleep, but she's snoring, so she'll be fine. Y'know, once Daring can be found, as he's still in the mirror.
Darling frees Daring by accident, still not realizing she's got the BG, and Daring panics that his destiny is starting so soon, but eventually calms down enough to kiss Apple and break the curse.
Only his kiss does nothing. None of his kisses do.
Daring Charming is not Apple White's prince.
GASP.
Only not, because that's a plot twist that everyone in the world has seen coming since Daring/Apple were introduced. You get no flipping cookies if you guessed it because it was spelled out in bright neon letters on Day One.
Heartbroken, Raven heads off to trick the EQ into thinking she's finally accepted Mother/Daughter World Domination. Faybelle flips out because are you kidding me, she's been all about the evil lifestyle from day one but Raven, Miss I Don't Want To Be Evil changes her mind and suddenly it's all "your services were never needed, Faybelle"? Oh hex no. Faybelle quits and flits off to tell the good side how to work the Booking Glass.
And here comes the moment that derails all the conversation about this: Darling pulls Daring off to the side to try and shake some sense into him (he's wallowing because his destiny is a lieeeeeeeeeee) and then Apple starts to... choke? Die? I dunno, it's not entirely clear. She wakes up briefly and then stops breathing and everyone's too stunned to do anything.
Everyone, that is, except Darling, who rushes to Apple's side and breathes life into Apple. And with the kiss of life, Apple is saved. We'll touch on this, too.
Apple leads the army to save Raven annnnd they team up to defeat EQ and trap her in the mirror and then break the Booking Glass which somehow undoes all of EQ's spells except the one to age the dragons.
Everything is back to normal, with Raven visiting her mother, and then they all head off to play some Dragon Games.
---
Scary to know that's my edited down version, huh? :P
Kay. Let's go with the obvious discussion piece first:
Darling and Apple
Let me be completely clear here: It was ballsy as hell for Mattel to have Darling be the Charming to wake Apple. Because even though it's very clearly not your standard fairytale kiss (those don't generally begin with you pinching someone's nose shut, k?), it's still framed as the kiss to wake the sleeping princess. That shit is intentional and if you don't think it is, you're being willfully blind. It's as close as they could come to having it actually be a standard kiss between two female characters while still being able to pretend it was totally JUST CPR.
Which brings me to my second point: Darling was pretty obviously chosen because she's the school's unsung hero. She's easily the most heroic of all the EAH characters (she was a freakin' Knight for who knows how long, given how wonky Wonderland's time runs) and it makes sense that she'd have taken it upon herself to know how to save someone via science and not just, y'know, magic. It's who she is. So it's magic of a different sort. She is the Charming to most embody what the family thinks they're about (bravely saving everyone from everything, especially damsels in distress) and with Raven out of the way... well. Darling makes the most sense. She's the safest choice, really, while still being an unsafe choice.
Cuz dude, I don't really 'ship anyone in EAH, but even I'm starting to 'ship Apple/Raven because we've definitely veered into Xena territory. As soon as Apple got poisoned, I knew we were getting Darling or Raven waking Apple up because they'd put in too much effort to not use one of them. The question was whether they were going all true love (even if you spun it as friendship love) or heroic Charming. There were literally no other options that would work in the special. Noooooooooone.
So no. I do not believe Apple/Darling is a thing. But I think it's awesome that Darling saved Apple. I'm sad that I don't have the... energy to go looking for this being discussed, although the rational part of my brain realizes this is probably nothing more than 'shipping wars at this point.
Onward! Let's talk about Mira's subtle sway to evil. I honestly would have enjoyed Mira sticking around longer. I think she could have corrupted Raven if she'd just kept at it in a very lowkey sort of way. Raven's not a complete stick in the mud, and especially with that magic she gained back in WtW, she'd be an easier sway to using her magic for evil. The little evils seemed to be fun for Mira and it would have been a fun arc to watch Raven slowly become everything she didn't want to be. I honestly thought they were going to go this route after WtW made it pretty clear that the magic she's using comes with a price if she's not careful.
But no, let's speed through that. Sigh. What could have been...
That actually leads us to the great Snow/Evil Queen rivalry. I think it's really, really interesting that Snow was the first and only person (Nevermore is a dragon, people) to recognize Evil Queen when she was in her Mira disguise. I mean, Apple knew, but only because she was there and saw it happen. Snow takes one half a glance at her mirror pad and knows her old nemesis immediately. Once more, the Xena bells go off, although not in the same way. Snow clearly misses having someone to spar with and really, who else is going to? None of the villains seem like the type to just taunt their queen for funsies, and Snow is clearly not the sweetheart one might just assume. She needs a challenge and hasn't had one for awhile.
The fact that she had every intention of saving the day when things started to look at all dicey, well... she's not stupid. It's all part of the plan. But the way she delights in EQ being back? She's thrilled, man. She has numerous chances to immediately take EQ out and doesn't because she missed her. She missed the thrill of competition and having someone who clearly made her a priority... at least until world domination came up. I could go off on so many different tangents here, but I won't. The Snow/EQ dynamic is fascinating to me, though. Especially when contrasted with Apple/Raven.
Lesse. What else. *muse* Oh! When Darling is doling out some tough love to Daring just before she saves Apple, I was once more struck by how little the Royals and Rebels really get one another's stance on the whole destiny thing.
(For the sake of this post, Royals are those who want their story to unfold as is and has nothing to do with actual royalty. Rebels are those who want to choose their own destiny, or want a tweaked version of their story. Maddie is technically defined as a Rebel in the line, but I think of her as a Royal with Rebel leanings. She likes her own story but gets why Raven or, say, Duchess, wouldn't want to be forced into theirs.)
Daring has a couple of breakdowns over the course of the movie which is par for the course, really, but two stand out.
One- When he thinks his destiny, something he thought was years away, is about to start. That panic is painfully relateable. Daring's one of the least mature characters in the franchise, and once he assumes his role of Prince Charming to Apple White, his life, as he knows it, will change forever. And he's not ready for that to happen just yet. It was always some far away notion and then, bam! Time sped up and it's time to put up or shut up and Daring isn't ready.
But he rallies and does what he needs to do. (Ohlord, all these things are sounding way too much like the highschool guy who gets his girlfriend pregnant and then feels he has to marry her. Not intentional!)
Which leads us to panic #2:
When he realizes he is NOT Apple's Prince Charming, he comes apart at the seams. Hell, he's actually holding it together better than I would have thought (shock, it's a helluva drug) but still. Everything he's ever assumed about his future just got wiped away in an instant, and that's not even taking into consideration the fact that he and Apple are actually friends and he can't save her. Nope, his whole life just changed in a matter of seconds and it happened in front of everyone, and holy crap, can a pretty boy get a moment to process?
And that brings us back to my point: the Royals never really gave it much thought that the villains in their story might want more out of life. They might not want to possibly die painfully or do horrible things (before possibly dying painfully) to someone they've grown up being friends with. They might want their own happily ever afters, and not all the villains are going to get them. Duchess, for one, is pretty much SOL. But the Royals are getting their happily ever afters (even though most of them come at a very high price) so... why overthink, right?
Now you've got the Rebels who've decided the good old ways aren't so great. They want choice, they want a new chapter. But their new lives come at the cost of someone else's old life, and while I wouldn't begrudge most (any? There's probably at least one who's got it pretty good) of them a new life, I do think it's a bit rich to complain mightily that no one's given their outlook any thought when at this point just about EVERYONE is up in the air. It takes time to come to terms with the fact that your life isn't going to be what you thought it would, and that's in a world where no one is promised anything. In their world it's all basically set in stone til now, so it's going to take longer.
So maybe let the Royals freak out for an extra five minutes when they need to, ok? Unless you're Raven dealing with Apple. Girl has had plenty of time and freakouts. :P
Holly/Poppy: When not even dragons can make you interesting... well... *cough* I mean, they're cute and all, but I expect more by now. I wish Maddie had been the exclusive because her look was/is ADORABLE and I want dolls of all the dragon looks. So I'll need Maddie, Lizzie, and Ashlynn. Also, I'd totally take dragon rider EQ and Snow. :P
Nevermore remains adorable and awesome and basically yes, I'd like some more. Why didn't she get an older release and not just the baby bobble wing? I get why Raven didn't get a dragon set, too, because that'd be infinitely more spoilery than just showing her in her armor was, but still. I'd buy a stand alone Nevermore if she was half as cute as her animated counterpart.
Wow. That was a lot longer than I intended. Sorry? I apparently had many a thought that just wouldn't be shortened. Sigh.
Btw, if you're waiting to watch the movie, don't watch the music video for their new theme because holy crapmuffins does it spoil EVERYTHING. No, seriously, it does. Someone else made that warning and I went and watched it and it really, really does.
Basic recap: Evil Queen tricks Apple White into breaking the magic mirror by pouncing on Apple's fear of losing her happily ever after, disappointing her mother, and basically not being good enough, along with some jealousy over Raven's popularity rapidly eclipsing her own. It doesn't help that Snow White, Apple's mother, was pressuring her earlier to get her story back on track.
EQ disguises herself as Mira Shards and promises to help Apple get things back to the good old ways since they both want Raven to fulfill her destiny. Apple tries to bail, but Mira points out that everyone will hate her for freeing Evil Queen. Apple then introduces Mira to Darling, Cerise, and eventually Raven. Mira acts like a big ol' fangirl and immediately tries to buddy up to Raven by impressing her with tales of how awesome EQ is and by how evil she can be. Neither of these things is going to impress Raven, Mira. Duh.
Still, Raven does have a mischievous streak and Mira plays on that in a way we'll come back to later.
Meanwhile, Daring Charming's dragon friend, Legend, is not a boy and is in fact about to have a bunch of eggs. Raven and Mira both cast magic to speed up the hatching process and voila, dragons are once more running around EAH in abundance. Mira decides that the thing to really get Raven evil will be to make her super competitive with Apple as they face off in Dragon Games. But how...
Snow White sees Blondie's Mirrorcast of the new dragons and decides that she'll revamp the dragon arena at EAH, say it's Apple's idea, and basically buy back Apple's popularity. Also, she recognizes Mira as Evil Queen in record time. (Faster than Nevermore, and Nevermore was actually right there, physically in the same room!) But she doesn't say a word until after unveiling 'Apple's' brilliant plan.
Mira is unmasked but claims to have reformed and isn't EAH all about second chances? (uh, no, that's MH, but who's ever heard of a high school for monsters?) Snow and EQ train the new Dragon Riders and the first game goes from a walk through to an actual game in no time flat when EQ uses her magic to age the dragons again.
Raven is disgusted by Apple's actions (intentionally hurting Darling in the game) and breaks up with her. Apple is crushed and my Xena/Gabrielle sense is tingling almost as hard as it was during the first episode of Rizzoli and Isles, okay?
Throughout all this, Faybelle has been working as EQ's minion because FINALLY someone evil has come along and Faybelle is ready for something more advanced than whatever BS Badwolf is calling villainy these days. Turns out that the easiest/only (?) way to imprison EQ is with the Booking Glass, and Faybelle is sent to retrieve it. She does, only then Daring Charming comes along and the BG gets mixed up with one of Darings millions of mirrors. Daring winds up locked in the BG (of course he does) and Faybelle is left hanging in front of EQ.
EQ goes all evil queen and destroys just about everything (the castle is now a mile above ground, in the sky, because magic) when Raven leaves campus and really, anyone who is surprised by this should be taken out back and dunked in the Wonderland Well because they're clearly Mad.
Apple resigns from her reluctant minion position and EQ "This is Sparta!" kicks her out the window. I'm not making that up, btw. Apple lands safely and heads off to find Raven and makeup, with Faybelle following.
There's some weird hiding in the forest with the pixies I don't care about (sorry?) and Raven accepts Apple's apology eventually. Pretty much immediately afterward, Faybelle slips Apple a poison apple and the Snow White story kicks in. Apple's been put to sleep, but she's snoring, so she'll be fine. Y'know, once Daring can be found, as he's still in the mirror.
Darling frees Daring by accident, still not realizing she's got the BG, and Daring panics that his destiny is starting so soon, but eventually calms down enough to kiss Apple and break the curse.
Only his kiss does nothing. None of his kisses do.
Daring Charming is not Apple White's prince.
GASP.
Only not, because that's a plot twist that everyone in the world has seen coming since Daring/Apple were introduced. You get no flipping cookies if you guessed it because it was spelled out in bright neon letters on Day One.
Heartbroken, Raven heads off to trick the EQ into thinking she's finally accepted Mother/Daughter World Domination. Faybelle flips out because are you kidding me, she's been all about the evil lifestyle from day one but Raven, Miss I Don't Want To Be Evil changes her mind and suddenly it's all "your services were never needed, Faybelle"? Oh hex no. Faybelle quits and flits off to tell the good side how to work the Booking Glass.
And here comes the moment that derails all the conversation about this: Darling pulls Daring off to the side to try and shake some sense into him (he's wallowing because his destiny is a lieeeeeeeeeee) and then Apple starts to... choke? Die? I dunno, it's not entirely clear. She wakes up briefly and then stops breathing and everyone's too stunned to do anything.
Everyone, that is, except Darling, who rushes to Apple's side and breathes life into Apple. And with the kiss of life, Apple is saved. We'll touch on this, too.
Apple leads the army to save Raven annnnd they team up to defeat EQ and trap her in the mirror and then break the Booking Glass which somehow undoes all of EQ's spells except the one to age the dragons.
Everything is back to normal, with Raven visiting her mother, and then they all head off to play some Dragon Games.
---
Scary to know that's my edited down version, huh? :P
Kay. Let's go with the obvious discussion piece first:
Darling and Apple
Let me be completely clear here: It was ballsy as hell for Mattel to have Darling be the Charming to wake Apple. Because even though it's very clearly not your standard fairytale kiss (those don't generally begin with you pinching someone's nose shut, k?), it's still framed as the kiss to wake the sleeping princess. That shit is intentional and if you don't think it is, you're being willfully blind. It's as close as they could come to having it actually be a standard kiss between two female characters while still being able to pretend it was totally JUST CPR.
Which brings me to my second point: Darling was pretty obviously chosen because she's the school's unsung hero. She's easily the most heroic of all the EAH characters (she was a freakin' Knight for who knows how long, given how wonky Wonderland's time runs) and it makes sense that she'd have taken it upon herself to know how to save someone via science and not just, y'know, magic. It's who she is. So it's magic of a different sort. She is the Charming to most embody what the family thinks they're about (bravely saving everyone from everything, especially damsels in distress) and with Raven out of the way... well. Darling makes the most sense. She's the safest choice, really, while still being an unsafe choice.
Cuz dude, I don't really 'ship anyone in EAH, but even I'm starting to 'ship Apple/Raven because we've definitely veered into Xena territory. As soon as Apple got poisoned, I knew we were getting Darling or Raven waking Apple up because they'd put in too much effort to not use one of them. The question was whether they were going all true love (even if you spun it as friendship love) or heroic Charming. There were literally no other options that would work in the special. Noooooooooone.
So no. I do not believe Apple/Darling is a thing. But I think it's awesome that Darling saved Apple. I'm sad that I don't have the... energy to go looking for this being discussed, although the rational part of my brain realizes this is probably nothing more than 'shipping wars at this point.
Onward! Let's talk about Mira's subtle sway to evil. I honestly would have enjoyed Mira sticking around longer. I think she could have corrupted Raven if she'd just kept at it in a very lowkey sort of way. Raven's not a complete stick in the mud, and especially with that magic she gained back in WtW, she'd be an easier sway to using her magic for evil. The little evils seemed to be fun for Mira and it would have been a fun arc to watch Raven slowly become everything she didn't want to be. I honestly thought they were going to go this route after WtW made it pretty clear that the magic she's using comes with a price if she's not careful.
But no, let's speed through that. Sigh. What could have been...
That actually leads us to the great Snow/Evil Queen rivalry. I think it's really, really interesting that Snow was the first and only person (Nevermore is a dragon, people) to recognize Evil Queen when she was in her Mira disguise. I mean, Apple knew, but only because she was there and saw it happen. Snow takes one half a glance at her mirror pad and knows her old nemesis immediately. Once more, the Xena bells go off, although not in the same way. Snow clearly misses having someone to spar with and really, who else is going to? None of the villains seem like the type to just taunt their queen for funsies, and Snow is clearly not the sweetheart one might just assume. She needs a challenge and hasn't had one for awhile.
The fact that she had every intention of saving the day when things started to look at all dicey, well... she's not stupid. It's all part of the plan. But the way she delights in EQ being back? She's thrilled, man. She has numerous chances to immediately take EQ out and doesn't because she missed her. She missed the thrill of competition and having someone who clearly made her a priority... at least until world domination came up. I could go off on so many different tangents here, but I won't. The Snow/EQ dynamic is fascinating to me, though. Especially when contrasted with Apple/Raven.
Lesse. What else. *muse* Oh! When Darling is doling out some tough love to Daring just before she saves Apple, I was once more struck by how little the Royals and Rebels really get one another's stance on the whole destiny thing.
(For the sake of this post, Royals are those who want their story to unfold as is and has nothing to do with actual royalty. Rebels are those who want to choose their own destiny, or want a tweaked version of their story. Maddie is technically defined as a Rebel in the line, but I think of her as a Royal with Rebel leanings. She likes her own story but gets why Raven or, say, Duchess, wouldn't want to be forced into theirs.)
Daring has a couple of breakdowns over the course of the movie which is par for the course, really, but two stand out.
One- When he thinks his destiny, something he thought was years away, is about to start. That panic is painfully relateable. Daring's one of the least mature characters in the franchise, and once he assumes his role of Prince Charming to Apple White, his life, as he knows it, will change forever. And he's not ready for that to happen just yet. It was always some far away notion and then, bam! Time sped up and it's time to put up or shut up and Daring isn't ready.
But he rallies and does what he needs to do. (Ohlord, all these things are sounding way too much like the highschool guy who gets his girlfriend pregnant and then feels he has to marry her. Not intentional!)
Which leads us to panic #2:
When he realizes he is NOT Apple's Prince Charming, he comes apart at the seams. Hell, he's actually holding it together better than I would have thought (shock, it's a helluva drug) but still. Everything he's ever assumed about his future just got wiped away in an instant, and that's not even taking into consideration the fact that he and Apple are actually friends and he can't save her. Nope, his whole life just changed in a matter of seconds and it happened in front of everyone, and holy crap, can a pretty boy get a moment to process?
And that brings us back to my point: the Royals never really gave it much thought that the villains in their story might want more out of life. They might not want to possibly die painfully or do horrible things (before possibly dying painfully) to someone they've grown up being friends with. They might want their own happily ever afters, and not all the villains are going to get them. Duchess, for one, is pretty much SOL. But the Royals are getting their happily ever afters (even though most of them come at a very high price) so... why overthink, right?
Now you've got the Rebels who've decided the good old ways aren't so great. They want choice, they want a new chapter. But their new lives come at the cost of someone else's old life, and while I wouldn't begrudge most (any? There's probably at least one who's got it pretty good) of them a new life, I do think it's a bit rich to complain mightily that no one's given their outlook any thought when at this point just about EVERYONE is up in the air. It takes time to come to terms with the fact that your life isn't going to be what you thought it would, and that's in a world where no one is promised anything. In their world it's all basically set in stone til now, so it's going to take longer.
So maybe let the Royals freak out for an extra five minutes when they need to, ok? Unless you're Raven dealing with Apple. Girl has had plenty of time and freakouts. :P
Holly/Poppy: When not even dragons can make you interesting... well... *cough* I mean, they're cute and all, but I expect more by now. I wish Maddie had been the exclusive because her look was/is ADORABLE and I want dolls of all the dragon looks. So I'll need Maddie, Lizzie, and Ashlynn. Also, I'd totally take dragon rider EQ and Snow. :P
Nevermore remains adorable and awesome and basically yes, I'd like some more. Why didn't she get an older release and not just the baby bobble wing? I get why Raven didn't get a dragon set, too, because that'd be infinitely more spoilery than just showing her in her armor was, but still. I'd buy a stand alone Nevermore if she was half as cute as her animated counterpart.
Wow. That was a lot longer than I intended. Sorry? I apparently had many a thought that just wouldn't be shortened. Sigh.
Btw, if you're waiting to watch the movie, don't watch the music video for their new theme because holy crapmuffins does it spoil EVERYTHING. No, seriously, it does. Someone else made that warning and I went and watched it and it really, really does.