Shore up above

– How do I look?

– Stunning... as always.

It was more of a feminist, anti-toxic masculinity message: male vulnerability being rewarded, fake masculine facade being punished. With both the thugs and Flynn.

This is also why Flynn was failing miserably when he tried to use his dashing rogue exterior to get ahead in life and it was only when he chose to shed said exterior in the flooding cave, in what he believed to be their last moments, and revealed his real name and his vulnerability to Rapunzel that he started to triumph. It was a man being vulnerable - not dashing, not arrogant and not a male savior - that actually saved them both and prompted Rapunzel to remember she had magical glowing hair. It was not a magical girl TM moment, it was a human moment.

Obviously feminism - all waves of it - is intrinsically tied to politics but in this case the thugs segment was less about the left wing vs right wing propaganda and more about a woman - of a royal background, unbeknownst to her - feeling safe around unconventional men when they showed their sensitive and vulnerable side. Again, this applied to both the thugs and Flynn. Rapunzel saw them as untrustworthy before said vulnerable and protective side came out (smacking and threatening Flynn with the frying pan, hitting Hookhand with the tree branch using her hair and yelling at him). But immediately regarded their point of view when they treated her like an equal whom they were willing to share said point of view with.

I did some concept work for a Flynn

Rider prequel fan project ☀️ I wanted

to explore what his life was like as an orphan and how he became a thief.

You’ll see my ideas for what he looked like as a kid/teen/etc, some scenes from the noexistent prequel in my brain, and some art of the Trunchbull-like villain

In the movie it is largely ambiguous but Flynn does have a satchel with the Kingdom's sun emblem on it. Additionally, during the campfire scene he mentions how his childhood book hero, Flynnigan, could "go anywhere he wanted to go" whilst he was "a kid with nothing". Indicating he might have felt trapped in that kingdom where he knew mostly loss and oppression.

Storybooks take it further and some all but confirm that as a kid, Flynn/Eugene was indeed living in the "sun" Kingdom (Corona is not an official name as far as the movie timeline goes; as much as I don't like using anything series related it was, however, unofficially used by the movie creators in some interviews) and indulging his nerdy side throughout his childhood.

This illustration is from the Celebration of the Lost Princess storybook, set immediately after the movie events, where little Flynn/Eugene is immersed in a book with kingdom's emblem on it while other kids are playing outside:

In this magazine issue, "Once a thief", Rapunzel has a conversation with him that indicates that even as the "dashing rogue" he never got the chance to travel further than or outside the kingdom, even if he had seen most of it "on his travels". It's implied she drew that conclusion from Flynn's own stories and that he only told her of adventures limited to the kingdom:

Your version is consistent with the way the movie and post-movie materials handled his arc and, in the same vein, emphasizes his childhood struggles and abuses that were likely to occur when he was growing up at the orphanage. Explaining why he became disillusioned despite clearly growing up as an imaginative, hopeful kid (your illustration where he launches one of the lanterns is especially bittersweet/heartbreaking in that sense).

TANGLED JUNE BRIDE DAY 1: Proposal

Secret double proposal on a hot air baloon? Hell yeah!

You mean that's NOT how their proposal went in whatever post-movie materials, that obviously never happened outside of storybooks and magazines and never ever retconned and nullified everything the movie stood for. Never turned Rapunzel into a pursued object rather than a pursuing subject she was in the film, giving her out of nowhere marriage anxieties spanning 3 years even though her movie trauma and imprisonment had nothing to do with marriage let alone Flynn (the one person who gave her freedom at the expense of his life). And never returned Rapunzel's magic hair and reframed it from the symbol of oppression into the symbol of girlpower or erase Flynn's sacrifice, once the most feminist moment in Disney Princess franchise, and never turned it into a punchline and Flynn himself into a present day bumbling clown and past day armed robber and deadbeat fiance to another, "wrong" woman.

Especially when the fetish they endorse is coming from a right wing bigot Sonnenburg who harassed women and children online and wanted the female lead with his sexualized waifu OC reportedly modeled after his decades old creepy unrequited crush. All while he was bending over backwards to exact his man-child revenge on the male lead and the "pretty boys" said male lead represented, the likes of whom presumably upstaged Sonnenburg in real life.

It is not that those people are wrong about the series having a malicious agenda against Flynn and Flynn/Rapunzel. That's the one point they actually get right and are more objective and accurate on that account than the uncritical canon/endgame fans. Who refuse to recognize said agenda even existed and like to pretend the romance and the characters individually were not retconned and bastardized in the show.

It's that those people are the ultimate proof of how conservatives and "progressives" are one and the same, are fetishizing women, backing abusive men when said abusive men give them the content they want (see also Whedon's crumbled empire) and want to take away female power fantasies that the OG Tangled movie used to be.

But it ended up being a story about how "dumb" and "desperate" Anna was to hope for respect and love and how she needed to - literally - die a sacrificial death to "grow out of it". Women dying to "repent" for wanting respect and love is the new "progressive" after all. At least for Disney.

From what I know of the Pokemon fandom apparently it really has a lot of toxicity and misogyny in it but unfortunately it applies to most anime fandoms. Sailor Moon the 90-s anime fandom is misogynistic to the bone and most of the misogyny comes from the women who adapted the narrative that Usagi had to embrace her forced Magical Powers and forced Magical Mission TM against her will and without her consent. Her rejection of said mission in favor of her own desires, interests, relationships formed of free will and personal needs was framed as the show of shallowness, stupidity, hormones "taking over" and her "just not getting it".

Dumb woman was told (by whom?) she should risk and sacrifice for the good of mankind through magical girlbossing and see her female friends bending to this "higher purpose" and submissively dying for the good of mankind (see the season 1 final). Whereas she, a "dumb crybaby", dared to believe they all *gasp* deserved better?!

That they deserved *another gasp* normal lives, education, hobbies, romance they wanted (but it's "hetslop" so definitely not as "progressive" as dying a violent sacrificial death like being impaled or magically tortured and battered)?!

Usagi should think again and also die for the good of mankind to redeem herself! After all, a talking pet cat and the higher power the origins of which Usagi didn't even know said so. If the dub of my country is correct - can't vouch for that since apparently not even the ENG dub that had a lot of resources invested in it is entirely accurate to the original version - the first thing Usagi says in the 90-s anime when receiving her forced power and forced mission is - "I still don't get why I have to do this". Silly dumb hetslop loving crybaby, how dare she think she is entitled to make informed choices?!.

To add insult to injury, the SM anime also took away the one singular comfort, female driven trope of a girl having a beloved pet cat as her confidant.

Usagi and Luna the cat relationship could have been a legitimately interesting avenue to explore. I loved it originally, or rather the idea of it. I have not yet read the manga by Naoko but there were several illustrations where it at least visually looks like Luna fulfills that exact "confidant cat" role for Usagi. I may be wrong though, not passing judgment on something I'm not informed on. But the anime running "male feminists" led by Ikuhara had other plans.

They could not even let Usagi be the "crazy cat lady"/"shallow cat girl", which undeniably is a sexist trope but it only became a trope because media does not want to let women and girls have comfort and strong bonds of any kind. And a lot of women and girls DO find comfort in their pet cats (I inherited mine from MULTIPLE dead women in my family).

But Ikuhara and co said "lol, no, it would not be progressive and feminist TM if Usagi got to show her nurturing side with Luna the cat. So let us shame and suppress said nurturing side by having the CAT - not even Usagi herself! - be the judgmental and dismissive one. Let the cat explain to her dumb crybaby self that she needs to prioritize the greater good over her natural desire to love and be loved, haha, that desire is a product of her being an emotional woman who loves too easily. What a moron, didn't she know she had to earn being loved by subjecting herself to bloody battles and deathly sacrifices!".

Sonnenburg undeniably watched too much anime when he wrote the Tangled Series and warped it into the opposite of that the movie was about. The movie was the subversion of the Magical Girl/Self Sacrificing Woman trope. The one sacrificing was a man - Flynn - and not because "men bad" but because the movie made it clear that a healthy relationship is the one where a man would never take advantage of vulnerable woman's exploitation (and mind you, Rapunzel was exploited by another woman). Yes, even if she "chooses" to be exploited, if she "chooses" to sacrifice for him a la Bulgakov's Margarita.

Except Flynn was no Master. He too was oppressed, he too knew injustice, he was almost hanged by Rapunzel's bio parents for crying out loud (Master could never). And he still said "no" to her exploitation and her sacrifice for his benefit.

And that is what girls and boys alike loved about the original Tangled movie. It taught girls they don't need to be "useful" and it taught boys to be selfless for the person willing to be selfless for them too. It taught self respect for everyone no matter what's between their legs. It taught partnership over an "advance payment" in the form of a sacrifice that in 99.9 percents of cases won't be appreciated. Especially if the one sacrificing is a woman (Freya from God of War learned it the hard way).

Sonnenburg came around, spat on all of its messages, returned Rapunzel's magical girlboss hair 6 months into the timeline, undid Flynn's sacrifice, reframed the magical hair as "girlpower" rather than oppression and literally made it so that Rapunzel's destiny was "to die" and Flynn, the bumbling clown in the series (not the romantic lead/female power fantasy he was in the movie), took that destiny away (how dare he?!). And progressives ate it up except Sonnenburg was not even on their side. He was just playing along with those who have the power (which now happen to be the progressives).

If Sonnenburg is fired from a conservative outlet he would run crying to a progressive/leftist outlet, would pledge his loyalty to magical girl anime culture and promise to only produce self sacrificing girlboss narratives and that is all the progressives need to accept him into their cult. No matter his abuses of women and children.

From what I gather progressives think it is "okay" to abuse women and children as long as they don't subscribe to a certain ideology or don't glorify sexualized anime fetishes.

I also tend to check myself on crying "problematic" whenever it is simply something that is not up my alley. Because it would be entering dangerous waters, proclaiming myself an authority no one asked for and calling anything I personally find disturbing unacceptable. Not to mention that content creators are allowed to examine the themes and topics that make me feel uncomfortable and in ways they make me feel uncomfortable and it does not mean they are endorsing the things I or someone else would deem immoral and wrong and harmful.

Charmed is one example of that. It is on the surface a typical Magical Girl show. It has the element of forced power none of the female heroines chose, it has the element of said forced power and forced mission disrupting their daily lives and routines and them hating every minute of it. It has the element of the forced magical destiny preventing them from accomplishing their personal goals related to career, romance and personal lives. The difference is that the show actually gave those women a voice and did not shame their "Rejection of the Calling" when the mission they never chose interfered with their individual desires.

But you know when it went from "sometimes you are hit with responsibilities you never asked for and you have to learn to balance between them and your own long running plans" message and the Magical Girl and Self sacrificial Girlboss whose Destiny TM is to die for the good of mankind (even if she wanted an "outdated" form of happiness aka family and love)? When the pseudo progressive Alyssa "go have abortion if you want to be as rich and powerful as me, what do you mean you are not born into the same privilege, haha, you're funny, vote Democrate uwu" Milano DEMANDED that her co-star - now late - Shannen Doherty be fired. As in, that her heroine would die a typical self sacrificial Magical Girl death. Not too long after Prue, Shannen's heroine, expressed a sheer anxiety over potentially dying young like her mom when what she really wanted was to have kids and take care of her sisters (not to find a husband - just to become a mother and love her sisters, the "husband" part was optional).

Alyssa demanded the men on set to fire Shannen. Specifically Brad Kern, a known creep, an alleged predator and a male feminist of a smaller caliber than Whedon. A woman who ruined another woman's life in real life also ruined the story that could have been meaningful and empowering and one of the few good examples of the magical girl trope.

Piper's character in particular is still disparaged for daring to want a "normal" life outside of forced magical destiny and credit where credit is due - she did get it despite remaining a witch. But it is still problematic that her husband Leo, a "magical boy", got to revoke his magical powers to become a family man like he wanted but a woman had to keep fighting and sacrificing for anyone and anything other than her own family. Even though no woman is obligated to do that and to suggest otherwise is extremely sexist.

Especially when the fetish they endorse is coming from a right wing bigot Sonnenburg who harassed women and children online and wanted the female lead with his sexualized waifu OC reportedly modeled after his decades old creepy unrequited crush. All while he was bending over backwards to exact his man-child revenge on the male lead and the "pretty boys" said male lead represented, the likes of whom presumably upstaged Sonnenburg in real life.

It is not that those people are wrong about the series having a malicious agenda against Flynn and Flynn/Rapunzel. That's the one point they actually get right and are more objective and accurate on that account than the uncritical canon/endgame fans. Who refuse to recognize said agenda even existed and like to pretend the romance and the characters individually were not retconned and bastardized in the show.

It's that those people are the ultimate proof of how conservatives and "progressives" are one and the same, are fetishizing women, backing abusive men when said abusive men give them the content they want (see also Whedon's crumbled empire) and want to take away female power fantasies that the OG Tangled movie used to be.

But it ended up being a story about how "dumb" and "desperate" Anna was to hope for respect and love and how she needed to - literally - die a sacrificial death to "grow out of it". Women dying to "repent" for wanting respect and love is the new "progressive" after all. At least for Disney.

From what I know of the Pokemon fandom apparently it really has a lot of toxicity and misogyny in it but unfortunately it applies to most anime fandoms. Sailor Moon the 90-s anime fandom is misogynistic to the bone and most of the misogyny comes from the women who adapted the narrative that Usagi had to embrace her forced Magical Powers and forced Magical Mission TM against her will and without her consent. Her rejection of said mission in favor of her own desires, interests, relationships formed of free will and personal needs was framed as the show of shallowness, stupidity, hormones "taking over" and her "just not getting it".

Dumb woman was told (by whom?) she should risk and sacrifice for the good of mankind through magical girlbossing and see her female friends bending to this "higher purpose" and submissively dying for the good of mankind (see the season 1 final). Whereas she, a "dumb crybaby", dared to believe they all *gasp* deserved better?!

That they deserved *another gasp* normal lives, education, hobbies, romance they wanted (but it's "hetslop" so definitely not as "progressive" as dying a violent sacrificial death like being impaled or magically tortured and battered)?!

Usagi should think again and also die for the good of mankind to redeem herself! After all, a talking pet cat and the higher power the origins of which Usagi didn't even know said so. If the dub of my country is correct - can't vouch for that since apparently not even the ENG dub that had a lot of resources invested in it is entirely accurate to the original version - the first thing Usagi says in the 90-s anime when receiving her forced power and forced mission is - "I still don't get why I have to do this". Silly dumb hetslop loving crybaby, how dare she think she is entitled to make informed choices?!.

To add insult to injury, the SM anime also took away the one singular comfort, female driven trope of a girl having a beloved pet cat as her confidant.

Usagi and Luna the cat relationship could have been a legitimately interesting avenue to explore. I loved it originally, or rather the idea of it. I have not yet read the manga by Naoko but there were several illustrations where it at least visually looks like Luna fulfills that exact "confidant cat" role for Usagi. I may be wrong though, not passing judgment on something I'm not informed on. But the anime running "male feminists" led by Ikuhara had other plans.

They could not even let Usagi be the "crazy cat lady"/"shallow cat girl", which undeniably is a sexist trope but it only became a trope because media does not want to let women and girls have comfort and strong bonds of any kind. And a lot of women and girls DO find comfort in their pet cats (I inherited mine from MULTIPLE dead women in my family).

But Ikuhara and co said "lol, no, it would not be progressive and feminist TM if Usagi got to show her nurturing side with Luna the cat. So let us shame and suppress said nurturing side by having the CAT - not even Usagi herself! - be the judgmental and dismissive one. Let the cat explain to her dumb crybaby self that she needs to prioritize the greater good over her natural desire to love and be loved, haha, that desire is a product of her being an emotional woman who loves too easily. What a moron, didn't she know she had to earn being loved by subjecting herself to bloody battles and deathly sacrifices!".

Sonnenburg undeniably watched too much anime when he wrote the Tangled Series and warped it into the opposite of that the movie was about. The movie was the subversion of the Magical Girl/Self Sacrificing Woman trope. The one sacrificing was a man - Flynn - and not because "men bad" but because the movie made it clear that a healthy relationship is the one where a man would never take advantage of vulnerable woman's exploitation (and mind you, Rapunzel was exploited by another woman). Yes, even if she "chooses" to be exploited, if she "chooses" to sacrifice for him a la Bulgakov's Margarita.

Except Flynn was no Master. He too was oppressed, he too knew injustice, he was almost hanged by Rapunzel's bio parents for crying out loud (Master could never). And he still said "no" to her exploitation and her sacrifice for his benefit.

And that is what girls and boys alike loved about the original Tangled movie. It taught girls they don't need to be "useful" and it taught boys to be selfless for the person willing to be selfless for them too. It taught self respect for everyone no matter what's between their legs. It taught partnership over an "advance payment" in the form of a sacrifice that in 99.9 percents of cases won't be appreciated. Especially if the one sacrificing is a woman (Freya from God of War learned it the hard way).

Sonnenburg came around, spat on all of its messages, returned Rapunzel's magical girlboss hair 6 months into the timeline, undid Flynn's sacrifice, reframed the magical hair as "girlpower" rather than oppression and literally made it so that Rapunzel's destiny was "to die" and Flynn, the bumbling clown in the series (not the romantic lead/female power fantasy he was in the movie), took that destiny away (how dare he?!). And progressives ate it up except Sonnenburg was not even on their side. He was just playing along with those who have the power (which now happen to be the progressives).

If Sonnenburg is fired from a conservative outlet he would run crying to a progressive/leftist outlet, would pledge his loyalty to magical girl anime culture and promise to only produce self sacrificing girlboss narratives and that is all the progressives need to accept him into their cult. No matter his abuses of women and children.

From what I gather progressives think it is "okay" to abuse women and children as long as they don't subscribe to a certain ideology or don't glorify sexualized anime fetishes.

Peter Pan is Wendy’s coming of age story. Wendy who decides to run away from home. Wendy who realizes that she must grow up - and that there’s no shame in that. Wendy who sees Peter as deficient and sees Hook as empty and decides that, no, she doesn’t want to be a part of that. Wendy gets the adventure she’s always wanted and she turns away because she realizes that it’s lacking. She’s the only one who truly sees the hollowness of being young forever. Barrie even says “You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than other girls.”

People always debate on who the hero is. When they learn that Peter could be horrid they assume it has to be Hook. Of course, the answer is that neither of them are the hero. Wendy is the hero of the story. You’re not supposed to be like Peter, who kept every good and bad aspects of being a child and can’t tell right from wrong. You’re not supposed to be Hook, either. He let go of everything childish and loving about him and became bitter and evil. They’re both the extreme ends of the scale. You’re supposed to fall in the middle, to hold onto the things about childhood that make it beautiful - the wonder, the imagination, the innocence - while still growing up and learning morality and responsibility. You’re not supposed to be Hook. You’re not supposed to be Peter Pan.