#moarida

This manips are not mine! Credits to owner!!! I only added ao3 tags!

a romantic Moana x Merida moodboard with summery, poolside vibes

Requested by:anon

Say what you want Just don’t say that you’re leaving I hope this summer breeze Will last more than a season Will you write to me? In time, we’ll see Maybe spend your whole life with me

We’ve packed our suitcases We’ve shut up all the windows Hold tight Soon you and I flow anywhere the wind blows So make life to me Hold tight to me Stay awake the whole night with me

Can I keep you as a souvenir? Can I take your shirt to dry my tears? Can I meet you here this time next year? Can I keep you as a souvenir? We could take a chance and disappear We could run away, get out of here Can I keep you as a souvenir? Wish you were here

I taste salt in the air In your sweater that I sleep in I dream of us riding bikes At sunset by the ocean Those were giddy days, lazy days Sipping rosé, time to waste

Can I keep you as a souvenir? Can I take your shirt to dry my tears? Can I meet you here this time next year? Can I keep you as a souvenir? We could take a chance and disappear We could run away, get out of here Can I keep you as a souvenir? Wish you were here

And if I leave here, you’re coming with me If you leave here, I’m going with you

Can I keep you as a souvenir? Can I take your shirt to dry my tears? Can I meet you here this time next year? Can I keep you as a souvenir? We could take a chance and disappear We could run away, get out of here Can I keep you as a souvenir? Wish you were here

***

...so I guess I should probably post that summer-themed Moanida moodboard I made before summer’s actually over huh

Luckily, the songs that inspired this take place at the end of the summer anyways, so I guess it still works XD

Long story short, I finally got around to listening to the latest Avril Lavigne album a few months ago and for whatever reason both Souvenir and In Touch have huge Moanida vibes to me, so...I made a little modern AU about it!!! Fuck it, I haven’t made content for these girls in a while, so it’s long overdue.

Anyways, the basic story here is that Merida’s family, the wealthy heirs to some old, old, old money that supposedly comes from their Scottish monarch ancestors, often use the rather cushy funds to take lavish vacations. The summer after Merida turns 16, her mother sets her sights on the Polynesian isles, hoping for a relaxing three months of beach-lounging and daintily sipping classy drinks. Although Merida rolls her eyes at her mother’s lackluster vacation plans, she hopes that if Elinor is preoccupied enough in her suntanning quest (as fruitless as it is--Merida knows damn well their pale Scottish skin will go straight from pink to lobster-red), she won’t be paying much attention to her wandering daughter.

Then one day, after several hours of making sandcastles and then stomping on them to pass the time, Merida meets Moana Waialiki. Moana is a local, her family having lived on that very island for hundreds of years. Generation after generation, they’ve made a life right where they are, never seeing any reason to leave. Additionally, Moana’s people are wary of the dangers of the outside world--especially her father, who lost his best friend to a faraway accident that he didn’t get word of until months later.

Moana wants more. She isn’t content to stay cooped up on her town’s island, and dreams of one day being some sort of community organizer...or perhaps the captain of a tour boat. Anything that lets her meet lots of different people and gets her off the island. Merida can understand--she longs to be free of her parent’s strict rules and expectations, and wants to see and experience so much more than the small world they’ve built for her.

Before they know it, they’re sneaking off on adventures together. Moana’s parents are too busy with their town to pay much attention to where she is, while Elinor, bless all the powers that be, is also taking a vacation from micromanaging her daughter’s life, evidently.

Fergus, meanwhile, is honestly thrilled--his daughter finding someone with her same fire and stubbornness who she can truly be herself around is truly all he could have wanted. He loves his wife, but he knows how lonely Merida can be when she feels like no one really understands her. And Elinor’s sternness hardly helps matters.

They steal an entire summer together. Licking ice pops while meandering their way along jungle paths. Sipping cherry-pineapple cocktails smuggled to them by Moana’s rebellious cousin Maui. Sharing lavish fruit bowls, legs dangling into the fancy pool Elinor and Fergus blew tremendous funds to include as a resort add-on. Having beach picnics and biking across palm tree-covered cliffs. Feeding ever-growing “cool shell” collections. “Accidentally” straying off hiking trails and roaming uncharted parts of the island they’re definitely not supposed to be in. It’s full of mischief and hijinks and perhaps something just a little more than friendship sparking...and it’s the most magical summer either has ever had.

The end of that summer hits both of them hard. They hate the thought of being parted so much that they make a brief plan to run away together. It falls apart, of course--the island’s small enough that there’s nowhere to really go, and for all Moana’s boating dreams, no one’s ever actually taught her how to sail. So they do the next best thing--Moana gives Merida a sweater to remember her by, and Merida promises to do whatever it takes to convince her family to come back the following year.

Hope to make more content for these gals soon <3 I miss them!!!

Omg, I hadn't but I just did and thank you that was lovely! I absolutely agree but also specifically MOANA. She looks at the ocean from home and thinks about her girlfriend while she's being a responsible leader and then they take off into the ocean and just feelingsssssss❤

a Moana x Merida ship moodboard with dark nautical/ocean grunge themes

Requested by:anon

So, Merida is finally saying something. And she’s speaking very enthusiastically

And what expression did Moana have when Merida was speaking?

This one.

She looks so happy to listen to Merida, even though she doesn't understand her!

Then Vanellope asked what Merida was saying and Moana literally for only a second looked at Vanellope and then again she was looking at Merida

She’s like “I tried, but I can't take my eyes off her. Sorry Vannelope”

And then she told Vanellope that “We can’t understand her” but while saying that, she still didn’t stop looking at Merida! 

And then after she said that, she slightly changed her position and start fondly looking at Merida again

Just look at her eyes and her soft smile! 

She’s probably thinking “I ask her on a date after this.” 

because that's my only source

So, when all of them are saying “She *is* a princess!”, Merida’s first reaction is to look at Moana

sorry for the quality

and then Moana looks back at her and boom!

Just joking, nothing happened, but I love the way Moana is looking at Merida

That’s it, that’s the post.

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 I’ll sing a siren song In hopes one day she will come home With more than her weight in gold To take me father’s throne

***

So I accidentally ended up thinking up this big complicated AU for this post I saw a while back, AND I haven’t posted Moanida in a hot minute, so...it’s 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. There’s an ever-present sense of dread, and King Tui worries his kingdom’s 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 they’ll be safe for a while yet.

Princess Moana’s whole life has been planned out for her--marry someone of high standing, produce an heir, someday take her father’s 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 aren’t as easy to come by as they once were, and resources grow tight as the mouths to feed increase.

Enter Merida.

It’s 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 servants’ 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 she’s 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 doesn’t 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 she’s important--not everyone walks around in glimmering red-orange dresses and shiny shell and pearl-studded tiaras. She’s 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 Moana’s forgiveness. She’s 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 she’ll “shoot yeh right in yer pretty face if yeh even think about shoutin’!” Moana can’t hold back her laugh, and assures the thief she has no intention of shouting. Not when this is the most interesting thing that’s 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 she’s doing, anyways. She puts her in cleaner servants’ 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 “accidentally” leaving many a palace window open, and many a door unlocked. Sure enough, the thief girl comes back--although she claims it’s only because Moana is “a wee soft little lamb who makes thievin’ far too easy!” Nonetheless, she’s quick to tell her story after little resistance.

Merida, Moana finds out her name is. She’s been on the run a long time--how long she won’t say, but from the rugged, toughened state of the girl, Moana imagines it’s plenty long enough for her to harden her edges and teach her how to take care of herself. She claims she doesn’t need anyone--and never has--but from the way she’s 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 won’t stab you in it. Moana gathers Merida has deemed her naïve enough to trust.

Moana is hardly naïve, but if that’s what it takes to believe she’s 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 wasn’t--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 isn’t making up the backstory this time, but she doesn’t 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 it’s terrible to think, but Moana finds herself wanting to inherit the throne sooner. She really thinks she could do some good, and she’s determined to conquer the darkness and save the kingdom. Merida, she finds, could be a surprisingly big help--she’s tough, she can fight like no one’s business, and she’s 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. She’d make an excellent bodyguard, and could even help with law-making and battle strategy--she’s politically savvy in a way Moana didn’t 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 don’t usually go to--tiny, pretty seashells, wildflowers from hidden crevices, knives that are usually considered “improper” 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 “yeh, 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.”, and then moves on like nothing happened.

By the time Moana realizes she’s fallen in love, the palace staff have gathered there’s 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. She’s 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 they’ll 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 they’ve 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 ^^