#0 writes

so. despite my best efforts my Descendants brainrot has returned. i sincerely apologize for the person i will become. if you don’t want me interacting with your stuff just block me, i promise i won’t be offended. i know i can be incredibly annoying about this stuff.

anyways! here are my main Descendants takes:

Mal is a horrible person and one of the most terribly written protagonists i’ve ever seen.

Ben deserved better. Evie deserved better. Audrey deserved better. Uma deserved better. Carlos and Jay deserved better. Pretty much every character except Mal deserved better.

Even if I did like Mal, I’d still want to see other characters given more screen time.

The premise of Descendants is very fucked up and one of my favorite parts about interacting with the fandom is exploring the ways in which the world of Descendants is inherently traumatizing.

I am a multishipper. Honestly the only ships I hate are the ones with Mal in them because I don’t want her toxic ass near any of my babies.

I didn’t watch Descendants 4 and I don’t intend to any time soon, so I don’t feel that I’m in a position to speak on it. However, in terms of fandom discourse around it, here are my thoughts: Respect queer headcanons just as you would any other, even if you don’t agree with them. Glasshearts is cute. Leave the actresses alone. Brandy and Paolo ATE. I would die for them. From what little we’ve seen of Red, she’s already a better protagonist than Mal ever was.

Please learn to separate actors from their characters.

I can’t even begin to describe how sad it makes me that people blame Mal’s victims for her volatile mental and emotional state throughout the series. Usually, Ben takes the brunt of it, but I’m unfortunately not surprised that poor Evie catches flack for it too.

“I’ve been thinking about about how Evie sort of exhibits the darker side of the team mom personality trope.”

I agree. Evie is treated like garbage by Mal and is still expected to drop everything and be there for the person who traumatized, bullied, assaulted, and attempted to physically torture and curse her. Evie and her story show how easy it is for characters (especially women of color) who are shoved into the “mom friend” category to have unrealistic expectations forced upon them (both in canon and by the fandom), and thus be exploited by an (often racist) narrative to cater to their psuedo “child” (usually the white protagonist).

“Everyone thinks she’s a Mrs Weasley. But sometimes she can come off more like a well intentioned mother gothel.”

I KNOW you did not just compare Evie to Mother freaking Gothel- a woman who kidnapped and imprisoned an infant and went on to emotionally manipulate that child to completely control her in order to further her selfish goal of staying young and beautiful forever. On what plane of existence are you living on my guy??? (And, no, adding “can come off more like” and “well-intentioned” does not negate that you just compared an emotionally abused, traumatized teenager who did not choose or ask to be Mal’s emotional support punching bag, to an emotionally manipulative, neglectful, narcissistic full-grown woman who both chose to raise a child and used that child for her own selfish gain. To clarify, Evie is not any of these things, nor has she ever done anything on par with the crimes Mother Gothel has committed.)

“And Mal suffers from it most often.”

How??? Where??? When does Mal suffer by Evie’s hand in the series at a point where the real issue was not caused by external factors, or by Mal herself? Evie does the best that she can. She is not a therapist, nor is she actually Mal’s mother, and she cannot possibly solve every single one of Mal’s problems. However, that does not stop her from trying. The fact that Evie does so much and gets no credit from Mal stans simply because she cannot stop Mal from having negative emotions really frustrates me. Even from a story-telling standpoint, the only possible way for Evie to save Mal from any pain whatsoever was if she was more powerful than Mal and/or she was the main protagonist instead of her. And I’m pretty sure that neither you nor other Mal fans would like that too much.

“But a lot of the fandom have their bloody shipping goggles on so they think Evie being Mal’s beloved smother is romantic chemistry instead of fully unhealthy.”

YES ^^^^^ THIS!!!!!! I fully agree with everything you just said here. Hit the nail right on the head, my friend.

“At least once in each movie she doesn’t really think of what Mal herself wants before she acts.”

Oh. My. Goodness. You. Are so right. Evie doesn’t put Mal's needs over everything in her own life, or considers the needs/safety of a group over the emotional needs of an individual (Mal) at least once in every movie. I don't know how I didn't see it before, she's a horrible friend. -_- /sar dude seriously what are you on? (can i get some???)

“Film one. Tried to put make up on her when she’s plotting”

Okay, I usually hate it when people say this, but in this case: I don’t think it’s that deep. (with all due respect, sounds like you pulled this one straight out of your ass). The VKs are all obviously on edge, and I think Evie is just trying to calm herself down by doing something that’s familiar to her as well as comfort Mal in a way that isn’t explicitly touchy-feely, seeing as that isn’t really allowed on the Isle. We see that Mal was simply glowering off into space before Evie does this, something that is very characteristic that Mal would do all the time. Maybe Evie could have been a bit more considerate of Mal’s personal space, but it’s not like she knew that Mal was “plotting”. I think she was genuinely trying to help/make the situation better, and that this really doesn’t count as a “failure in friendship” on her part.

“Film two. The entirety of their talk after she pulled her away from Ben after the paps got thrown out”

Again, I truly don’t think that Evie had selfish intentions. We know that Mal tried to spell Ben with no reservations, hesitations, etc later in the movie, so I assume that she has done so consistently before. Therefore, I believe that Evie pulling Mal away from Ben was genuine concern for him on her part, as she could see that Mal was stressed and might have been about to cast a spell, likely on Ben. As for what you will agree with me about, Evie knows that Mal is stressed, and she’s stressed too. Evie probably hopes that knocking at least one thing off the list as soon as possible will help both of them.

As for their “talk”: While Mal seems a bit more vulnerable in this scene rather than the one with Carlos, mainly she's just whining to Evie about how she doesn't like being a "princess" (something that she inflicted upon herself, by the way). What Evie basically says is, "You should take responsibility, stop using magic, and appreciate what you have. All you have to do is read, it's not that hard." From Evie's reaction to Mal using the spell book, it’s easy to tell that Mal has used magic before, probably a lot. Many people try to argue that Evie was controlling and dismissive of Mal's problems in this scene, but it's pretty clear that she and Mal have been through this before. They only show us the one time that Evie is tired of listening to Mal's bullshit and trying to be empathetic. With all that said, none of it negates the fact that Evie was still coddling Mal. Their whole conversation was still framed to make Mal the victim and undeserving of the consequences of her actions. Everything Evie says in the scene is phrased so that Mal doesn’t have to take any blame for her actions. Evie says the line, “Haven't you and Ben had enough secrets between you?”, implying that both Mal and Ben have been mutually keeping secrets, when the truth is the only one who ever has been deceitful in their relationship is Mal. (Not to mention that she is continuing to deceive him.) After Evie doesn’t immediately give Mal validation of her victim mindset and assure her that she's completely in the right, she uses Evie’s trauma from the Isle against her. She "asks" Evie about being evil again after Evie confronts her about using magic. Evie experienced so much trauma at the hands of “being evil,” a lot of it inflicted by Mal herself. Using this against Evie to avoid blame is beyond cruel, and I don't care how overwhelmed or upset she was, it wasn’t okay.

“Film three. Accidental guilt trip after she got manipulated by the in laws.”

Oh no no no no no don’t you EVEN GO THERE. FIRST of all, FIRST of all, Mal was not manipulated by anyone. She made the decision to close the barrier completely on her own and in fact had to corner Ben into agreeing with her. She did that all by choice and with no prompting or even external suggestion from anyone else. SECONDLY, what Evie did was not a “guilt trip”. Evie was genuinely worried for the safety and well-being of CHILDREN on the Isle that Mal was threatening (not that Evie knew that part, since Mal went on to LIE ABOUT IT TO HER FACE).

“I love Evie. She’s my seventh favorite after Mal and before their cousin.”

Not to be rude, but it doesn’t actually sound like you like her all that much.

“But the fact remains. She isn’t as in tune with other people’s feelings as many would like to believe. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a very realistic flaw given who her mother is.”

I agree. However, I think that you and others are holding her to unrealistic expectations, despite many aspects of her character that would make it even more impossible for her to meet those expectations. So, yes, this is a realistic “flaw” for Evie to have, but I think that even in this context, that “flaw” is being blown out of proportion simply because it does some minor disservice to Mal.

“However, treating her like the ultimate example of a care bear isn’t really doing her justice

^^^ Yes, absolutely.

“Because like I keep pointing out. If you don’t acknowledge the flaws of the characters you like then you’re not liking every aspect of them.”