REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost, don’t reblog ! tag 10 ! good luck ! TAGGED. @murroyilodel the actual love of my life TAGGING. oh my god dude it took me like a year to finish this so if you wanna do it, just do it man, go nuts,
BASICS. FULL NAME : Belle Tống Thayer NICKNAME : a ton of pet names from her father, but not anything in particular. AGE : 21 BIRTHDAY : January 22nd ( she’s a winter child ) ETHNIC GROUP : Mixed-race: half Vietnamese ( father ), half white ( mother ) NATIONALITY : French ( Or French-Vietnamese, depending on who you ask. ) LANGUAGE / S : French, Latin, and limited Vietnamese. After obtaining the Beast’s library, she eventually becomes fluent in Vietnamese, Chinese and Greek. SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Asexual. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Biromantic. RELATIONSHIP STATUS : Married to Beast in her canon verse. CLASS : Peasant at the beginning of the film, royalty at the end. HOME TOWN / AREA : The farmlands of northern France. CURRENT HOME : Unspecified...castle.... PROFESSION : Acting royalty and writer in canon, a student and aspiring novelist in her modern verse.
PHYSICAL. HAIR : Black, a little longer than shoulder length, pretty thin. EYES : Small, dark brown. NOSE : Small, short and wide. FACE : Oval-shaped with a trace of dimples when she smiles. LIPS : Full and red. COMPLEXION : Very fair, no matter how much time she spends in the sun. BLEMISHES : She has a few freckles on her arms. SCARS : A few scrapes on her knees from when she tumbled from trees as a child. TATTOOS : None. HEIGHT : 5′4″. WEIGHT : 135 lbs. BUILD : A very average build for a young woman. Her hips are a little less wide than most, and she has long and lanky legs -- points of self-consciousness as an adolescent -- but the rest of her physicality does not stand out among the common. Except, of course, her race. FEATURES : A high-pitched laugh; stamina to walk or ride for hours on end; small hands with plenty of callouses from farm work; fingertips almost always stained from ink. ALLERGIES : None USUAL HAIR STYLE : Tied back in a bow, though a bang or two likes to escape from it. USUAL FACE LOOK : "With a dreamy far-off look”; the villagers see her as distracted at best and unsociable at worst. Those who know her well knows how her eyes brighten with passion when she’s talking about something she’s excited about. USUAL CLOTHING : A regular peasant’s dress and apron, sometimes with a shawl or bonnet in the summer; her mother’s ring; work boots. After joining the castle, she dresses in upper-class dressings, including stays and heels, but she doesn’t wear wigs. After marrying the beast, she will occasionally wear wigs, but prefers not to.
PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR / S : Losing her father, either to death or circumstance (as she did her mother); not reaching her full potential. ASPIRATION / S : She hopes that once her father finds success, the two of them can move to Paris, where she can publish her novel. After becoming a princess, she hopes to improve the quality of life for immigrants and other disabled people. POSITIVE TRAITS : Determined, kind, creative, adaptable, imaginative, empathetic, resolute, self-sacrificing, clever, accepting. NEGATIVE TRAITS : Curious to the point of reckless, judgmental, angry, holds grudges, defensive, closed-off, impulsive. MBTI : MEDIATOR PERSONALITY (INFP): “ Mediator personalities are true idealists, always looking for the hint of good in even the worst of people and events, searching for ways to make things better. While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, Mediators have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine. Comprising just 4% of the population, the risk of feeling misunderstood is unfortunately high for the Mediator personality type – but when they find like-minded people to spend their time with, the harmony they feel will be a fountain of joy and inspiration.” ZODIAC : i literally don’t care. TEMPERAMENT : Dreamer. SOUL TYPE / S : Caregiver & Creator. ANIMALS : A Turkish Angora cat; sleek and beautiful, but so much more than her outward appearance. Like Belle, the feline is extremely curious and intelligent, and needs lots of intellectual simulation to be satisfied it’s whole life long. It also forms strong bonds to family and those who earn it’s loyalty. Tenacious and fearless, the Turkish Angora is anything but a lap cat. VICE HABIT / S : Her curiosity can lead her down dangerous roads, especially when she stubbornly ignores warnings. As for habits, she constantly brushes her bangs out of her face, which keep coming loose from her ponytail. She also tends to unconsciously mouth words when she’s reading, and sometimes speaks them without noticing due to her deafness. FAITH : Like the majority of French people at the time, she is Catholic. Her father converted when he moved to France and raised Belle in the faith. She doesn’t consider herself a particularly devout woman, however. In her nobility verse she -- privately, with much skepticism -- follows Confucianism, as it is the major religion in Vietnam. GHOSTS ? : For most of her life she doesn’t, but once she learns about enchantments being real, a lot of her preconceptions are put to the test. AFTERLIFE ? : Yes. REINCARNATION ? : No. (In her nobility verse, while Buddhism introduced the idea of reincarnation to mainstream Confucianism, it’s not a shared belief, so I doubt Belle would believe in it either.) ALIENS ? : In her modern verse, she used to think of aliens a lot as a child. As an adult, she thinks it’s rather small minded to assume that this planet contains the only living being in the entire universe. She doesn’t “believe” in them, per say, but she’s open to them being out there. POLITICAL ALIGNMENT : She is, uh, royalty in her canon verse. Before that, she didn’t subscribe to any particular political party, being so far away from Paris. In her modern verse, she votes for the most liberal and immigrant-friendly candidates. ECONOMIC PREFERENCE : Canon verse, she goes from being a common woman to nobility. Nobility verse, she’s, uh, nobility. In modern verse, her father is lower-middle class, a blue collar worker, and on the lower end of even that. SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION : She’s first considered a farm girl in canon verse (and is debated on whether she’s even a French citizen), and then royalty. In her modern verse, she’s a working student. EDUCATION LEVEL : Canon, she was taught literacy alongside all the other children in the village, girl and boy alike. After her basic education ended, her father continued it as much as he could, before she eventually outpaced him. After that, Belle became mostly self-taught. Her mother taught her French Sign Language at a young age as well. Modern, she is a student at a local university.
FAMILY. FATHER : Tống Minh, later changes it to Maurice Thayer. MOTHER : Colette Villeneuve, later Colette Thayer. SIBLINGS : None. EXTENDED FAMILY : All dead on both sides of the family. NAME MEANING / S : "Now it’s no wonder that her name means Beauty.” Thayer has many different meanings, the clearest ones being “nation of the army” or “tea pot”. HISTORICAL CONNECTION ? : N/A
FAVOURITES. BOOK : Her childhood favorite is La Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty) and she rereads it often as an adult. Her mother used to say that they named her after the “Belle” of that storybook. As an adult, she’ll read pretty much whatever the bookshop has, but she’s grown fond of Shakespeare’s works. She wants to be able to read them in English one day. MOVIE : In modern verse, she mostly likes the quieter indie films. SONGS : A lot of French musicals, especially Notre Dame de Paris. DEITY : She likes learning about Greek mythology the most growing up, but she also enjoys Buddhism and Hinduism when she’s a student. HOLIDAY : CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS. For both canon and modern verse. For nobility verse, her favorite is Tết, Vietnamese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year. MONTH : No specific month. SEASON : Though she’s thought to be crazy for it, due to the harder farm work to be done, Belle thinks there’s a quiet beauty in winter. PLACE : The open meadow behind her cottage, facing the forest in the west. Modern verse, she loves the public library and the Jardin du Luxembourg on hot summer days. WEATHER : On the colder side. SOUND : She is almost entirely deaf. Though it’s faint, she enjoys the sound of her father’s laughter the most. SCENT / S : In both verses, the smell of pages on a well-loved book. Canon verse, the smell of ink, the smell of morning dew in the trees, the smell of grass by the riverside. Modern verse, the smell of green tea, the smell of ancient museums, the smell of the patisserie at the Victor Hugo metro stop near home. TASTE / S : Despite her Vietnamese heritage, Belle has a French pallet, since her French mother almost always did the cooking in both canon and modern verse. As such, her pallet is sweet rather than savory. She enjoys whatever sweets she can afford, which usually isn't much. Modern verse, her father does prepare Vietnamese dishes after her mother dies, and so Belle enjoys phở as well. FEEL / S : A well-loved hard cover book in the palms of her hands; the whisk of air around her ankles as she spins in her dress in the middle of a dance; her father’s beard scratching against her cheek; stained ink on her calloused fingertips; gentle snowflakes falling on her nose; a large and warm hand around her waist. ANIMAL / S : She loves almost all creatures, especially the ones on her farm. The more dangerous ones he regards at a distance with respectful curiosity, but he loves them all the same. She hates talk of hunting predators that do not bring any meat to the table and can only be used as trophies for boorish men after their deaths. NUMBER : None. COLOUR : Blue.
EXTRA. TALENTS : Writing, horse riding, translating and reading texts of other languages (French and Latin and later Vietnamese and Chinese), dancing (folk and classical waltz, thanks to her noble born mother), money keeping (she’s in charge of her father’s funds since she makes the most runs for supplies for him), french sign language, gardening and planting, organization in general, critical thinking, empathy, and pretending she can’t hear someone when that someone is annoying her. BAD AT : Speaking and understanding other languages (her deaf ear leaves her at a disadvantage), sowing and needlework, mechanics and engineering, controlling her temper when someone insults her family, listening to her environment when she’s absorbed reading, avoiding conflicts. TURN ONS : Kindness, thoughtfulness, a willingness to learn, an ability to make her laugh, a good heart. TURN OFFS : Braggarts, egomaniacs, and overly-violent men. Being conceited, bigoted, and willfully ignorant. Calling her “exotic” is perhaps her biggest turn off. HOBBIES : For canon, she’s not afforded much free time, so reading is her main hobby. Same in her modern verse, but she also enjoys dance classes and occasionally blogging. (Writing is less a hobby than it is her career.) TROPES : Boy. a Lot. For this Belle specifically: Raven Hair Ivory Skin, Cute Bookworm, Small Town Boredom, Heroic Sacrifice, Disabled Hottie & Immigrant Parent. The tropes she averts are Most Writers Are Male, Magical Asian, Throwing Off The Disability and Bury Your Disabled. AESTHETIC TAGS : desired, but never loved; you can’t always be strong, but you can always be brave; “beautiful, what a lazy and lousy way to describe me”; make your life a story worth telling; there was once a girl known by everyone and no one; “i want to write and create”; a curious girl, a wanderer; non, elle ne ressemble à personne. GPOY QUOTES : “Je veux m'envoler dans le bleu de l'espace Je veux tout ce que je n'ai pas Un ami qui me comprenne Et des livres par centaines Sans m'occuper des gens qui jacassent...”
FC INFO. MAIN FC / S : Hoàng Quyên. ALT FC / S : None. OLDER FC / S : None. YOUNGER FC / S : None. VOICE CLAIM / S : None.
MUN QUESTIONS. Q1 : if you could write your character your way in their own movie , what would it be called , what style would it be filmed in , and what would it be about ? A1 : I’m pretty sure that’s....exactly what I’m doing by having this blog. It’s essentially the same story as the original animated film, except that belle is a first generation vietnamese french. and is deaf. and she’s more defensive yet curious about her racial identity. Q2 : what would their soundtrack / score sound like ? A2 : EXACTLY like the french soundtrack for the animated film. Q3 : why did you start writing this character ? A3 : i saw the trailer for the live action remake the november before it came out, i think, and i really wanted to revisit writing belle, since i’d done some light rping of her in the past. but i wanted to write a different interpretation of her, particularly ethnically, since asian girls have complicated and dangerous stereotypes about their beauty that has everything to do with white imperialism. vietnam has an old “relationship” with france, so i drew belle’s lineage from there. all the research i did since then about vietnam, france and that time frame has influenced my belle’s story, and therefor, her character. Q4 : what first attracted you to this character ? A4 : i’ve known her since before i can remember; like a lot of other people my age, batb was something i grew up on. i don’t think i really delved into the movie until my teenage years, however, at an age where romance was finally starting to impact me / i was learning to be more critical of stories / i gained an interest in psychology. a combo of those factors drew me to belle, who seemed to me to have a lot of agency in her story while being able to remain kind. those traits weren’t mutually exclusive like they are in a lot of female characters, and i started to really admire her for that. also, i was already tired of the stockholm syndrome jokes and studying the crap outta the movie gave me a good excuse to keep proving them wrong lmao. Q5 : describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse. A5 : she hates being judged, yet she makes pretty strong judgement about others, and cuts herself off from them before they have a chance to reject her. belle learns to let those walls down during the course of her story. Q6 : what do you have in common with your muse ? A6 : we find comfort in fantasy, and often lose ourselves to it, particularly when it’s easier than interacting with people who might judge and hurt us. we would do anything to keep our loved ones safe. we’ve never really had a country that felt like home. we still believe in the power of happy endings. Q7 : how does your muse feel about you ? A7 : i’d like to think we’d get along, though she’d be irked that i haven’t learned sign language after all this time. Q8 : what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ? A8 : her father, her mother, gaston, the beast, chip, mrs potts, lumiere and cogworth, her village in general. Q9 : what gives you inspiration to write your muse ? A9 : looking at her pinterest board, researching vietnamese history and culture, and listening to the french soundtrack. Q10 : how long did this take you to complete ? A10 : honestly? ... probably a year.
