Alex Mouse from Fantasyland

But for the many of you who wonder what I am talking about, "Chaudron Magique" (Magic Cauldron) was a short-lived French magazine (from 2007 to 2011) entirely dedicated to fantasy in all of its shapes and forms (including supernatural adventure, mythology, science-fantasy and more). While officially "from 8 to 1000 years", it was a magazine aimed at children and teenagers. Each issue came with little goodies and additional material (at least until 2011, when the magazine due to a lack of funds stopped making them... which partially accelerated the downfall of the brand).

For example, for the year 2010 they released this lovely, humoristic "fantasy-calendar", disponible in a poster format:

Scans by yours truly, don't mind the dates I circled at the time.

This calendar presents in a mix the days of "magical events to celebrate" (Epiphany, Easter, Walpurgis, Halloween, Samhain...), the anniversaries of "classical authors" (Maupassant, Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, Collodi, C.S. Lewis, Dickens, Jules Verne or L. Frank Baum...), and those of "modern authors" (Robin Hobb, Douglas Adams, Tad Williams, Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock and more) ; all sprinkled with mock-"folk sayings" parodying the typical "weather sayings" of almanachs.

Each month is renamed after a pun associating it with a fantasy creature. January is the Giant month, February the Elf month, Mars the wizard's, April the dwarf's, May a gorgon month, June a demon month, July is for the zombie, August for the hobbit ; Septembre is for the Wraith, October for the Orc, November for the Gnome and finally December is the dragon's month. And each season is also given an imaginary figure to be associated with (all the credits for every artist's work is to be found on the poster itself).

Winter's is Ymir. "Born at the dawn of time, when the cold breath of Niflheim the world of darkness met the heat of Müspelheim the world of fire. He is the father of frost-giants in Norse mythology."

Spring's is the Ent. "At the end of winter sap spreads again in the veins of the Ents, who can move once more their branches and roots to go wake up the inhabitants of their forest-realm."

Summer's is Surtr. "At the end of times, according to Norse mythology, this prince of the ember-giants shall leave his burning realm of Müspelheim to set ablaze the entire universe with its smoldering sword."

I know it's not meant that way, but I love that there's a junecubus for priDEMONth.

Also, Surtr looks damn good here.

And sometimes fanfiction is, ‘Watch me do a fucking KICK FLIP off this cool sentence!! Also here's some sex'

My complicated feelings about "girlboss Cinderellas" would take a long time to unpack.

But for now, I'll say this: when I see a new version of Cinderella, all I want is for Cinderella's portrayal to be different from any other Cinderella who came before her. She shouldn't always be gentle and defined by patience and kindness, but neither should she always be a feisty action girl. What she should always be is a different kind of heroine, to help us see the story in a fresh light.

These are all traits that are very different from a "girl boss" concept (which usually relies on pride, capitalism and relating to power without actually trying to dismantle structures). Characters like Miranda Priestly, Glinda and actually many iterations of Stepmothers and Stepsisters fall into this more frequently. The semantic implication of the "boss" in "girl boss" is that there's a hierarchy and structure of power. There's a boss, because there's workers (that's why this tends to fit the step family, who under some surface level interpretations you could read as being "empowered", when in truth they tend to have a fixation with power one way or another).

My complicated feelings about "girlboss Cinderellas" would take a long time to unpack.

But for now, I'll say this: when I see a new version of Cinderella, all I want is for Cinderella's portrayal to be different from any other Cinderella who came before her. She shouldn't always be gentle and defined by patience and kindness, but neither should she always be a feisty action girl. What she should always be is a different kind of heroine, to help us see the story in a fresh light.

Mind you, men have a hundred years of power fantasy fiction, but women's power fiction is too cringy and boring, and not allowed to exist anymore.

This wouldn't bother me that much if we didn't have a current cultural push to lock women back in their gender roles positions. We see young women and even some young girls being daily indoctrinated that following gender roles and being subservient to men is desirable.

I can't help but feel that they are weaponizing fairy tales and old movies to push this idea that women should be always passive, docile, and content in domestic roles.

I'm not demonizing fairy tales and old movies. I'm a massive Disney Adult and fan of fairy tales. Cinderella is my favorite Disney Princesses and fairy tale protagonist ever, and I will punch you in the face if you tell me that being feminine is weakness.

But I'm highly suspicious of this new wave that says that every "girl power" story is inherently bad and ridiculous.

There's a conservative push to erase girl power stories, and sadly, I feel like too many gullible in fandom spaces are eating that up.

All three of them form the series known as "Iron Henry and the Devil in Conflict" (aka Das Märchen der Märchen). It was @grimoireoffolkloreandfairytales who made me aware of the existence of this series, and you can see all the scholarly passion for fairytales poured in there through the "notes" section.

In fact, after this one epic of German fairytales, the author went on and did another "massive fairytale crossover" for... French fairytales, specifically those of Charles Perrault and madame d'Aulnoy, titled "The Courts of Glass and Briar", trying its best to imitate the style in which the stories were published in English... And this dedication to pastiching fairytale styles while studying their cultural areas led to a THIRD series: Cinche Cunti, overo Lo juorno de li juorne (Five Tales, or the Day of Days), this time based onto the Pentamerone.

But for the many of you who wonder what I am talking about, "Chaudron Magique" (Magic Cauldron) was a short-lived French magazine (from 2007 to 2011) entirely dedicated to fantasy in all of its shapes and forms (including supernatural adventure, mythology, science-fantasy and more). While officially "from 8 to 1000 years", it was a magazine aimed at children and teenagers. Each issue came with little goodies and additional material (at least until 2011, when the magazine due to a lack of funds stopped making them... which partially accelerated the downfall of the brand).

For example, for the year 2010 they released this lovely, humoristic "fantasy-calendar", disponible in a poster format:

Scans by yours truly, don't mind the dates I circled at the time.

This calendar presents in a mix the days of "magical events to celebrate" (Epiphany, Easter, Walpurgis, Halloween, Samhain...), the anniversaries of "classical authors" (Maupassant, Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, Collodi, C.S. Lewis, Dickens, Jules Verne or L. Frank Baum...), and those of "modern authors" (Robin Hobb, Douglas Adams, Tad Williams, Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock and more) ; all sprinkled with mock-"folk sayings" parodying the typical "weather sayings" of almanachs.

Each month is renamed after a pun associating it with a fantasy creature. January is the Giant month, February the Elf month, Mars the wizard's, April the dwarf's, May a gorgon month, June a demon month, July is for the zombie, August for the hobbit ; Septembre is for the Wraith, October for the Orc, November for the Gnome and finally December is the dragon's month. And each season is also given an imaginary figure to be associated with (all the credits for every artist's work is to be found on the poster itself).

Winter's is Ymir. "Born at the dawn of time, when the cold breath of Niflheim the world of darkness met the heat of Müspelheim the world of fire. He is the father of frost-giants in Norse mythology."

Spring's is the Ent. "At the end of winter sap spreads again in the veins of the Ents, who can move once more their branches and roots to go wake up the inhabitants of their forest-realm."

Summer's is Surtr. "At the end of times, according to Norse mythology, this prince of the ember-giants shall leave his burning realm of Müspelheim to set ablaze the entire universe with its smoldering sword."

@professorlehnsherr-almashy Ummmmm both Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise are very much alive

Also you will be forgiven for not knowing Zachery Levi and Seth Meyers but I am legit shocked you dont know Nathan Lane ,you need to watch the Birdcage and the Producers remake asap

And I am fairly certain that it is a reference to an earlier "Imagerie" book that Fleurus published: L'Imagerie du Fantastique, all about mythical beings, legendary creatures and the supernatural as a whole.

This book opens up with the two main types of magic users: wizards and witches. There is, of course, a very clear and neat divide. The wizard is an elderly man, a respected scholar and wise intellectual, who works hard studying the world and preparing magic tricks to entertain the court ; he is a healer, and a diviner who helps avoid disasters and enemies...

... while the witch is an ugly old woman who casts evil spells, brews violent poisons, curses people with ugliness and only helps criminals. Insert your Pratchett-and/or-Discworld reference here as the need to subvert the witch/wizard divisive with its connotations.

Mind you the book does provide more positive female depictions of magic users - for example, the book has a section about the "good witch" to contrast with the "wicked witch"... But there's no section for the "evil wizard", there's just the "good one".... *cough cough*

And of course, there's the fairy:

Beautiful, winged magic users living in a realm hidden from humans and who leave stardust everywhere they go... Now the interesting thing here is that after describing the fairies for some times, the book has a specific section about... "Fairy-Men". I talked about this previously, but in French "fée" (fairy) is a female word, and thus tradition, culture, and before it legend have it as a term describing female species and female entities. In France, a "fairy" is a woman, mainly and primarily. This can cause quite a shock to those used to the more British, neutral "fairy", but that's cultural gaps for you. So, the book introduces to the little kids this idea: the one that there can be "fairy men".

And the "fairy man" as presented here is an interesting character, for us, because of its ties to... fairytales.

The fairy men are presented as "the knights of princes of the fairy realm", with "the prince who woke up Sleeping Beauty" being identified as a "fairy-man", and the implication being that most if not all of the "prince Charmings" of fairytale are "fairy men"...

The book presents a fairy-man's life as such: at his birth he receives magical powers from fairy godmothers. Always growing into a beautiful young man, he is also gifted a magical golden horn so that he might never age beyond his ideal years. He then goes to "fight horrible dragons, send back demons into the fire of hell and set free beautiful princesses from evil black knights". [You can see the medieval chivalry-tales being thrown in there].

It is one of the only two times in the book where the "traditional" fairytales are invoked, alongside this section describing among various monsters (like werewolves and vampires) the "ogre":

Described as a "giant who feeds off human flesh, and especially enjoys children because they are more tender under the teeth". And the four examples of ogre given being: the Little Thumbling ogre, the Jack and the Beanstalk giant, the Hansel and Gretel witch, plus Gargantua. It is quite a good illustration of the large confusion that surrounds "ogre" in culture when connected to giants and other human-eaters. (And, as I told you, in French the "ogre" motif is so implanted that very often the Hansel and Gretel witch is rather called an "ogress", or an "ogress-witch")

But anyway here is the story of "The Beautiful Héloïse", or at least a loose recap.

Once upon a time in a far-away land lived a king and a queen who loved each other very much and had everything to be happy - a prosperous land, bountiful harvest, subjects that adored them... But as the years passed they grew sad, for they could not manage to have a child. They consulted the greatest minds, and the queen drank a witches' brew, and followed the advices of a famous wizard, all to no effect. The queen grew melancholic, until the ambassador of a neighbor land told her of a magical water-spring, inhabited by a fairy who was said to help pure-hearted women have children.

The Queen went to the famous stream and, seeing no fairy, tried to drink some of its water. As she did so she noticed a small fish out of the water, struggling to return to it. The Queen helped the fish and as soon as it touched the water, it turned into a strange young woman, almost translucid and dressed with water - it was the Fairy of the Springs. She had turned into a fish to test the Queen's goodness. She advised her to follow a specific path, that would lead to the castle of her sisters - them being the ones who would help Her Majesty obtain a child.

The Queen entered into the dark forest, down a thorny path, but it turned into a path of flowers with beautiful butterflies in the air - and finally she reached the castle, entirely made of crystal so that the blue of the sky reflected itself all over it.

The three fairies were waiting for her and invited the Queen to have some tea and biscuits, asking her a thousand questions to which the Queen answered with a smile - the Fairies were filled with curiosity and wanted to know everything before doing anything. Once it was all done, each of the fairies gave the Queen a jewel, telling her they were magical items - if the Queen ever needed them, she just had to blow on them once and they would appear. The Queen thanked the fairies, who promised her she would soon be a mother.

The Queen announced the news to the King, and told him all about her adventures. A few months later her belly grew rounder, making the King more joyful than he ever was. The Queen gave birth to a small beautiful princess, and everybody in the castle came to bow down before her beauty. The King was proud and the news of the princess' birth attracted everybody in the kingdom - for the entire realm had been saddened by their Queen's misfortune. Everybody came to the palace to salute the newborn, and the baby was presented onto the balcony, wearing the same lace-dress her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother had worn at her age. The King generously made this day a festivity day for everybody.

After the King and Queen allowed their subjects to see the princess closer, and even to touch her, she was baptized in the castle's chapel with all the crowned heads of the neighboring kingdoms - and they named the princess Héloïse, for it had been the name of her mother and grandmother. Kings and Queens from the whole world came to celebrate the princess' arrival and shower her with gifts - precious gifts, strange gifts, unexpected gifts (the illustrations provide a list: a tiny music box, a doll that can talk to the princess when held in her arms, a chest filled with gold, jewelry made of beautiful gems and pure diamonds, a magic mirror telling the princess if she will be the fairest in the land, a very rare breed of dog, a white mouse that can tell stories for the princess to fall asleep, a portrait of her grandmother, an island-bird that sings lullabies when night falls, and many rare books)

As soon as the celebration was over, the Queen summoned the fairies to thank them for making her wish come true - and especially, since it was the tradition at the time, so they would lean over the baby's crib to gift her qualities with their magic wand. She breathed on the jewels and the fairies appeared in a cloud of star-dust.

The King and the Queen remained alone with the fairies, to honor them as required. They invited them to a feast of the finest pâtés, the most savorous fishes and the most tender meats. At the end of the meal the King offered each fairy a chest filled with gold and precious stones - and so the fairies went by the baby's craddle to gift the princess with their wands and strange magical formulas.

The first fairy said the princess would be very pretty and know how to make herself loved by her subjects. The second fairy said she would be a gifted student and very intelligent. The third said she would encounter a prince of a very great kingom and that together they would be very happy... But as soon had she finished that a loud noise was heard behind the door...

The doors flung open as an enormous amount of water flooded the room. It was the Fairy of the Springs, angry at not having been invited - she was surrounded by terrifying, howling creatures half-fish half-dragons. She denounced the Queen's ungratefulness, for without her the baby would have never been born. She announced she was here to avenge the offense done against her - to punish the Queen, she cast a wicked spell onto the baby...

Written by Emilie Beaumont and illustrated by Sophie Toussaint, it is divided in three sections. The first is about what princesses do in general, and it is quite funny because while it presents the kids-ideal of the princess a-la-medieval-style, it also mixes in more modern stuff (like princesses visiting hospitals) resulting in almost a Shrek-vibe.

More interesting for us is the second section, which is a collection of "princesses fairytales", exploring the most famous and traditional tales involving princesses and their fates. Four stories are selected: Donkey Skin, Snow White, The Frog Prince and Cinderella. They are mainly just ordinary retellings with the art being, you know, pretty okay. There's a few changed details I can share though... Like how they show in Donkey Skin that the donkey shits so much gold (hundreds of coins each day) they actually give it to their poorer subjects...

... and the "travelling chest" gifted to the princess becomes a cousin of Discworld's Luggage.

In Snow White the ending is changed so that the prince, while leaning in for a kiss "on the cheek", doesn't actually get to do so as Snow wakes up - as the prince lifted her head to better kiss her, it moved the throat, dislodging the piece of poisonous apple. As for the evil queen, in her rage to learn Snow White was about to marry, she breaks her mirror, who turns into a "snake that slithered around the Queen's neck and smothered her".

For the Frog Prince they also rewrite a lot the ending (obviously), so that when the Frog presents itself to the King and he recognizes the wedding promise, the princess faints. The Frog thus wonders what good a wife will be to him if she doesn't love him. She then locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to let the Frog enter, resulting in the Frog saying to himself he should be patient and they'll end up marrying one day. She does end up violently kicking the frog, but it is a few days later as she is walking in the evening by the garden's park (the same where the pond was where the golden ball was dropped). Spotting the frog she violently kicks it, but as night falls she leans too much over the pond to see the moon's reflection. Losing her balance, she almost drowns in the water (she doesn't know how to swim) but the frog saves her - just in time as a monstrous snake appears to try to devour the princess, but the Frog fiercly battles it. The princess is amazed at seeing this "small beast" fighting for her, and forgetting its ugliness understands it is an extraordinary being able to sacrifice itself to save her life...

After a long battle the frog wins, but is severely wounded and half dead. So the princess, regretting her nastiness, begs the frog not to die, swears to be his wife, and kisses him - thus causing a "Beauty and the Beast"-styled ending, as the Frog becomes a prince and tells her he was cursed by a fairy who punished him for being too proud, vain and wicked.

L'ORCO CON LE PENNE Storia di un Re molto malato e di un piccolo Eroe 

che lo vuole salvare con l'unica medicina possibile:

una penna dell'Orco.

Liberamente ispirato ad una fiaba popolare toscana 

riportata in “Fiabe italiane” di Italo Calvino. 

RIVISITATO E ILLUSTRATO DA MOX (Marco Santoro) IN 6 VIGNETTE 

In the movie Gretel and Hansel (2020), Gretel is both the main protagonist and also the older sibling (unlike in the Grimm story where she's the younger), giving her the provider role that Hansel originally had

In the game Gretel and Hansel, the player character is Gretel, who does everything Hansel does in the original story (discovers her mother's plot, gathers the white stones, etc) while Hansel is reduced to a blithering idiot incapable of taking care of himself

In the Land of Stories, Gretel is in prison for accidentally killing Hansel in a fit of rage, as she resented him for taking credit for killing the witch and reducing her identity to being one half of a pair. She pleads guilty so she can be "just Gretel" in prison. (Again, Gretel killing the witch is made the reason for why she should be the "hero" over Hansel)

Well, as you point out, it is a "small" trend X) But to this you should add "The 10th Kingdom" because in extra-material I think I remember one of the kingdoms was said to be co-ruled by two queens descending from Little Red Riding Hood and Gretel - because somehow, in an unexplained way, the "Hansel and Gretel" tale had Gretel elevated as a queen?

I feel it is part of something present in every Hansel and Gretel adaptation - that a choice is made between one of the siblings. While on a technical level they are very obviously a team who balance each other out (and it can still be used today in works like "A Tale Dark and Grimm" which pushes it to its extreme logic), various adaptations prefer to have one sibling "dominate" over the other.

Sometimes it is Hansel, sometimes it is a Gretel, each time with a different logic; do you favor Hansel leaving the crumbs and tricking the witch, to make him seem the more intelligent and explain why the little sister saving the day at the end is a big move ; or do you favor Gretel being made a slave and pushing the witch in the oven, making her the more "important" character and reducing Hansel to the mere "sacrificial victim"? As early as the Humperdinck opera I think there was a play on the siblings' "power dynamic" and "victim role"... But it is indeed an interesting thing to notice, why and how each adaptation balances out the siblings' relationship, especially since the age difference is also changed - with who is the oldest sibling changing (I believe "Gretel and Hansel" the movie was precisely the first adaptation to dare to have a notable age gap between the siblings, instead of the two being of close age).

I do wonder however if the trend of having Gretel be the "focus character" or "bigger sister" was not partially influenced by the fairytale "Little-Brother, Little-Sister", which has often been confused with "Hansel and Gretel" due to a similarity of titles, and where the sister is the obvious main character (with people projecting the little brother as a beast to be slaughtered, with Hansel trapped in the cage). In fact I DO recall that there is one set of web-fiction talked about, on A03 I think, that precisely mixed the two tales with Hansel being turned into an animal a la Little-Brother to be killed and eaten by the witch... I'll need to find it back in my notes.

This pains me because Hansel and Gretel is one of the few fairy tales that doesn't have antagonist siblings, and things like A Tale Dark and Grimm, and even other stuff like Gravity Falls and the Chronicles of Narnia show that you can have interesting dynamics between siblings.