actually can we just talk about how even more fucked up the swan lake story is in the context of the eah world??? Like in the ballet, when the prince fails to recognise his princess, she just straight up dies. And he’s so devastated and can’t live a life without her that he just kills himself. But ofc eah is a kids franchise made to sell dolls and can’t talk about death!!! So instead, the princess is doomed to spend the rest of her life as a swan, and the prince again, cannot live his life without her that he instead chooses to become a swan as well. In next top villain, duchess looks into the lake, wondering if any of the swans could be her mother, so it’s also implied that her parents lose their human memories when permanently turned into swans and have the level of intelligence of a swan. Like your parents are not only completely unrecognisable to you now in their new forms, but they also have no idea who you are, cannot remember how important you used to be, reduced to nothing but birds. It is a fate worse than death, that they are so near, yet so far. And the worst part of all, is that to Duchess, her father abandoned her to become a swan. That he chose her mother over her, a vulnerable young child that needed love and care and support. That Duchess wasn’t worth sticking around for, that she wasn’t enough for him to stay. So she pushes herself to be perfect, to get the highest grades and to be the most flawless ballet performer. She’s begging to be loved. And if that’s not a horror movie, I don’t know what is
