Thank You For Getting Into Starkid And Going To See The Show With Me! This Is Definitely A Core Memory

Here’s a sad thought about Princess Jasmine in Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier, courtesy of listening to the soundtrack again and feeling the feelings about her and Ja’far: this version of the Sultan must be a really bad father.

We never see him interact with his stepdaughter. He already seems rather senile when he steals Scheherazade, and that’s sixteen years before the present day. His sanity may well have completely gone in that time. Even if it didn’t, he makes it clear in his one appearance that he considers everyone in his power to be objects defined entirely by how they can benefit him and remorselessly will torture, enslave and murder them on a whim. I doubt that he’d be sensitive or nurturing toward his child. Now, I think Scheherazade would be a great mother - but she never got to try.

The Sultan has evidently been very neglectful and distant, failing in his duties to teach the Princess how to be both a good person and a good member of royalty. Despite her being his only heir and old enough to marry and rule the kingdom, which apparently has no problem with a female sovereign, he’s let her grow up to be extremely sheltered and not at all adequately prepared for responsibility and politics. It doesn’t even occur to her that having her tiger assault a neighbouring country’s visiting prince might have consequences. The Sultan, and on his behalf the Captain of the Guard, don’t let her know important news and royal decrees: neither what a menace Aladdin is, leaving her vulnerable to him, nor the Sultan’s mass execution of the 2D Department, since for as insensitively egocentric as she is at the beginning, she’s still deeply sentimental and quick to empathize with the homeless peasant Aladdin, so I can’t believe that she wouldn’t be at least a little upset with the Sultan (or more likely Ja’far) over so many lost human lives.

More than that, her immaturity speaks to bad parenting on the most basic level. She hasn’t internalized the Sultan’s cruelty, but has learned his selfishness, entitlement, impulsiveness and poor emotional regulation. Her social skills are notably clumsy and underdeveloped (not picking up on Aladdin’s numerous red flags, “No high five”, “At least Abdul had a family who loved him!”, even cringing herself at the last one). The Sultan’s passed down absolutely zero wisdom of any kind.

Instead it’s Ja’far with whom she has a familiar father-daughter dynamic (“What’s up, are you mad at me?” “Where are you going?” “There she is!”). It’s him who shows concern when she runs away and gives the order to find her before all else, notices that she’s upset and talks her through her feelings, warns her about sexual predators, appreciates her idealism and effort. It’s him who provides the gentle but firm, healthy guidance and challenge that she needs to grow. Who sees her potential, respects and believes in her. Who loves her. However, he is ultimately in her service. Between the imbalanced power dynamic making him wary of treason (after all, the last time he had a stronger relationship than the Sultan with a woman the Sultan called his, it didn’t end well) and his other responsibilities taking away from their time together, he can’t be as influential a presence in his life as he’d like.

Maybe this why she’s initially so resentful of him. Subconsciously she does see him as a father all along, but he hurts her and lets her down sometimes. Like the Sultan, her only official parent, always has. That stings. The differences are that the Sultan hurts her much more, more consistently and without her best interests at heart… but Ja’far is the one she can lash out at and complain to and be a messy adolescent around, because firstly, he’s her subject instead of her ruler, and secondly, he’s actually involved in her life. He cares, and therefore yelling or halfheartedly trying to poison his wine will make an impact. The Sultan is untouchable. We know that she conflates the two in her head as unjust authority figures keeping her trapped and crushing her aspirations (“All the people who say I’m just dreaming, like Father and Ja’far”, one of the only times she mentions the Sultan). It’s easier to blame your problems on an employee everybody else hates than accept that your parent is a bad one.

Maybe this is the root of her discontentment as well, her yearning that she can’t articulate for something more than what the life she’s been given. The joke of “Everything and More” is that she doesn’t need anything besides what she has… but she does. She needs a competent, reliable parent. One who she can trusts loves her the person as her parent, not a servant of her bloodline, and she knows to love as such in turn.

No wonder she falls for “Orphaned at Thirty-Three” hook, line and sinker. She’s never known her mother. Her relationships with her paternal figures range from terrible to complicated. Having unconditionally loving, supportive parents and then suddenly losing them must be the worst thing she can imagine.

But in the end, the Sultan dies and her dad has to leave her. Although he found a way to live forever, it wasn’t enough to save her from the pain of being orphaned at sixteen.

Omg I just realized!!

Ella still got her first wish!

one thing i love about cinderella's castle is how it's a dark retelling of cinderella, yes, but it doesn't needlessly insult the original fairy tale. every beat of the fairy tale is woven into the show wonderfully without there ever being a joke about something being weird or not making sense

And that's not even everything.

Full spoilers review of Cinderella’s castle

Ok so now that I’ve had some time to ruminate, I really want to share my thoughts on Cinderella’s castle

First of all, I think the song that has stuck with me the most was “I want you to watch” (I’m pretty sure that’s the name) I think it stuck with me so much because of the insane vibes. It was such a banger song, played to the chorus of Cinderella being tortured to death. The song was so haunting and insane. And just that one line “I want you to watch” has been stuck in my head all night.

That being said I wish we had access to the cast recording because I already miss the rest of the songs. Like I remember the song about starlight being so beautiful but I can’t even remember it (Cinderella moment amiright)

In terms of costuming it was the sort of thing that felt like it worked so well you didn’t notice it until suddenly Cinderella came out in her Led starlight dress and suddenly it hits you how amazingly accurate all of the clothing has been.

The actors were all amazing. Idk if there’s more to say than that. Everyone slayed, and Jeff was serving cvnt the entire time.

The characters were absolutely amazing. I feel like Nick lang looked at the moment from NPMD, where Richie says “I love being alive” and the audience started crying, and just made a whole play about it. There were so many immediately beloved characters that died (some brought back thank goodness) that the audience were sobbing about loosing.

Honestly I think the show is amazing. I can’t wait for the digital ticket and if I had more money I’d probably go see it again.

Oh also I saw Curt Mega before the show and all of my friends missed him except my mom. I was shaking so hard just from him walking past us. It was nuts

Lautski Week: Day 7 (Morning)

For the last day of Lautski week, I have a pretty simple Werewolf AU.

Steph is a werewolf and it’s the morning after a full moon. She’s tired and weak after a long night. Pete, being a good boyfriend, prepare some breakfast for her. They then cuddle in bed with Pete reassuring Steph that she’s safe. This leads to them sleeping in late.

Funny how my boards started the week with cuddles and is now ending the week with cuddles. Hope everyone had a good week.

(I do not own anything.)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

VIVE ME A FUCKING CHANCE

PLEAS

SIR

Ohhhhnnbghh god boy Jerry PLEASE

"Don't kill the part of you that's cringe, kill the part that cringes"

-Richie probably

(Stephanie and Grace's first time eating lunch with the trio ☆)

day 6: storm

i don't like this one as much but oh well lol

@lautski-week

I found this again while scrolling and...it hit me a little too hard

So that means it's time to trauma dump :]

Part of why I love Steph so much is because I relate to her a lot (not just personality wise). Back in elementary school/middle school, because of my ADHD I struggled a lot and I was seen as stupid by a lot of my peers. And I didn't grasp that it was just my ADHD so I believed that I really was an idiot. But thanks to some friends I met at my high school (who I love dearly and would gladly die for) I realized that I couldn't be more wrong.

So seeing Nerdy Prudes and Steph's character growth, and seeing her going through the same things I did, AND get a happy ending with Pete who loves her and sees past her self loathing and sees how smart she really is, helped cement that for me that I wasn't stupid and that I shouldn't give a shit if other people think I am, and I shouldn't give a shit how other people perceive me in general.