There once was a lass sent out to sea
Ordered by the king to stay away from me
A princess should not fall in love with a commoner and a thief. Ha!
So Iâll sing a siren song
In hopes one day she will come home
With more than her weight in gold
To take me fatherâs throne
So I accidentally ended up thinking up this big complicated AU for this post I saw a while back, AND I havenât posted Moanida in a hot minute, so...itâs moodboard time!!!
Basically this is in an AU where Motunui is actually a fairly sizeable kingdom instead of a small island village...and Moana really is a princess here XD I imagine maybe the village grew larger and larger because Motunui was taking refugees from the other islands as the Great Darkness was consuming the land. Thereâs an ever-present sense of dread, and King Tui worries his kingdomâs days are numbered. He tries to proceed Business as Usual, though, not wanting to cause a mass panic among the people. Fortunately, the darkness and disease plaguing the seas has not yet reached Motunui, and food is plentiful. King Tui hopes theyâll be safe for a while yet.
Princess Moanaâs whole life has been planned out for her--marry someone of high standing, produce an heir, someday take her fatherâs throne. She longs more than anything for adventure on the seas, and to save her kingdom from the encroaching darkness. She also finds herself yearning for meaningful connections outside her family, unsatisfied with the distant and formal relationship she has with the palace staff and her subjects. So many seem to other her due to her royal status, and she sometimes feels completely alone--even in a kingdom that reveres her. No one sees her as she is--not Princess Moana, daughter of King Tui, heir to Motunui, but merely Moana of Motunui.
As the darkness spreads, more refugees come in, and the kingdom grows. Fish arenât as easy to come by as they once were, and resources grow tight as the mouths to feed increase.
Itâs no surprise that as the kingdom grows, so does the criminal underbelly. When finery and jewelry from the palace begin to go missing, King Tui and Queen Sina wonder if the staff are in cahoots with someone unsavory. Upon searching the servantsâ quarters, though, there is no evidence of any robbery or foul play.
When Moana starts seeing flashes of red out of the corner of her eye, and just out of reach around castle corridors, she thinks sheâs imagining things. That is, until she walks into a drawing room and sees a scraggly redheaded girl in filthy street clothes attempting to climb out a 3rd-story window. In her scramble to escape, the intruder breaks the outside tree limb she was attempting to climb onto, and Moana hears a number of branches snapping and cursing in some strange, singsong accent. Both intrigued and amused, Moana runs to the floor below to make sure this poor unprepared thief doesnât fall to her death.
Moana finds her hanging on a lower limb for dear life, tunic even more ripped and mouth spewing profanities that the princess is sure would make her blush--well, if she could understand any of them. Still laughing, she extends a hand to help the thief in through a lower window. The thief swats her arm away the first few attempts, but finally grabs her hand when the branch starts creaking a little too much.
Apparently this girl is so far into the criminal underworld that she has no idea who Moana is. The thief can tell sheâs important--not everyone walks around in glimmering red-orange dresses and shiny shell and pearl-studded tiaras. Sheâs nobility of some kind for sure. But not a princess.
Regardless of her noble status, the thief girl has no interest in groveling, or begging Moanaâs forgiveness. Sheâs quick to pull a weapon on the princess--a lethal-looking bow and arrow whose bad side Moana does not want to be on. The thief girl assures her that sheâll âshoot yeh right in yer pretty face if yeh even think about shoutinâ!â Moana canât hold back her laugh, and assures the thief she has no intention of shouting. Not when this is the most interesting thing thatâs happened in months. Maybe even years--the castle has certainly never had thieves this brazen.
Moana takes the thief girl to her room to get her cleaned up; her parents are too busy managing the kingdom to pay much attention to what sheâs doing, anyways. She puts her in cleaner servantsâ clothes and finds a cloak to conceal her hair before sneaking her out a back door, extending an invitation to come visit sometime. The castle could do without a few pearls, Moana figures--that, and the thrill of abetting a criminal could make her princess life a little less dull.
Besides, meeting someone who has no idea who she is is a gift too precious to waste.
And so Moana takes to âaccidentallyâ leaving many a palace window open, and many a door unlocked. Sure enough, the thief girl comes back--although she claims itâs only because Moana is âa wee soft little lamb who makes thievinâ far too easy!â Nonetheless, sheâs quick to tell her story after little resistance.
Merida, Moana finds out her name is. Sheâs been on the run a long time--how long she wonât say, but from the rugged, toughened state of the girl, Moana imagines itâs plenty long enough for her to harden her edges and teach her how to take care of herself. She claims she doesnât need anyone--and never has--but from the way sheâs more than willing to have heart-to-hearts with a near stranger, Moana doubts that. It must be lonely in the thief world--always watching your back and never being sure someone wonât stab you in it. Moana gathers Merida has deemed her naĂŻve enough to trust.
Moana is hardly naĂŻve, but if thatâs what it takes to believe sheâs worth opening up to...so be it.
Merida, it turns out, is a runaway from a kingdom far, far away--oceans away, even. She never felt at home there. She always felt like she was being twisted into something she wasnât--made to fit an image, with no one caring who she actually was. She took off, flitting from place to place. She pickpocketed enough to eat until Wanted posters of her adorned every wall in town--and only then would she vanish without a trace, off to change her name and her backstory for her next grand adventure.
Moana has a feeling that Merida isnât making up the backstory this time, but she doesnât say as much.
After a while, Moana admits her own malcontent. The kingdom only continues to grow as her parents do nothing about the encroaching darkness that leaves so many homeless in the first place. She tells of her strange connection with the ocean, and how sometimes the waves themselves would part for her as a child. She talks about how badly she wishes she could help, and how a strange green emblem from her late grandmother Queen Tala might be the key to everything.
Maybe itâs terrible to think, but Moana finds herself wanting to inherit the throne sooner. She really thinks she could do some good, and sheâs determined to conquer the darkness and save the kingdom. Merida, she finds, could be a surprisingly big help--sheâs tough, she can fight like no oneâs business, and sheâs lived among the downtrodden and destitute in the slums and knows firsthand the kind of life more and more will be condemned to if something is not done about the darkness. Sheâd make an excellent bodyguard, and could even help with law-making and battle strategy--sheâs politically savvy in a way Moana didnât expect.
Things shift between them after a while. There are more and more stolen touches during their meetings, more physical affection. Moana finds herself looking at Merida for longer than she means to. Merida brings her gifts and trinkets from the seedier markets royals donât usually go to--tiny, pretty seashells, wildflowers from hidden crevices, knives that are usually considered âimproperâ for a young princess to use.
For the first time since Queen Tala--perhaps for the first time ever--Moana feels like someone sees her for who she truly is. Not a princess, not some otherworldly, ethereal authority to be worshipped, but just Moana.
And when Merida inevitably learns the truth of who her new luxuriously-clothed friend is, Moana is surprised to see she barely bats an eye. She shrugs, says âyeh, I figured you were someone important, from the way yeh dress like a fancypants. But yer not some self-righteous snob like the rest of them, so ah like yeh.â, and then moves on like nothing happened.
By the time Moana realizes sheâs fallen in love, the palace staff have gathered thereâs something suspicious about the princess sneaking out the back door as often as she does. Moana was just starting to be less cautious when King Tui walks in on her and Merida kissing.
The king is furious. No princess should grow feelings for a dirty peasant--and a criminal, at that. Although Merida is spared the noose, she is exiled from the island for good, given a ship and told to never return.
Before the thief is sent away, Moana is allowed one goodbye. Merida vows to come back one day--despite what Tui says--with her ship stuffed with treasure. Sheâs gotten a fruitful tip from the criminal underworld, and if all goes as planned, they should be able to buy the kingdom for themselves. Then, no one can stop them from being together--and, at last, conquering the creeping shadows.
In her absence, Moana writes Merida songs. Crude, scrawled haphazardly on palm paper, but full of heart. She shoves them into corked glass bottles before sneaking out and dropping them into the sea. Maybe theyâll never reach Merida...but then again, maybe they will.
The days without Merida drag, and Moana has never felt more alone. Nonetheless, she has faith that her love will return with riches, and the two of them will take the throne and save the land, just as theyâve always planned.
@takaraphoenix so anyways I accidentally made a super in-depth Moanida AU with that lesbian thief x princess TikTok that was going around a while back, thought you might enjoy ^^
As always, moodboard pic credits available upon request!