My blog will never be more important than your health. I'll still be here when you get back.
I draw and I ramble. Surprsingly, that warrants organization.
Pretty much all I do is make fanart, scream into the void, and reblog posts from people who are much funnier than me.
My art can all be found under the tag #Giraffe's Scribblings, and my text posts are under #giraffe's ramblings! Additional tags and info below the cut!
Personal
I am a mormon, and I sometimes post about it. All my mormon posts are tagged with #tumblrstake, and all my religious posts are tagged with #cw: religion. Block these tags if you don't wanna see mormon content. If you are also mormon, hi, hello, I cuss here and don't tag it. You've been warned.
My faith is personal and I do not support many of the church's policies. I'm happy to answer questions asked in good faith, but I also understand and encourage it if you need to block me to keep tumblr a safe space for you.
My family is super cool, and they come up with some regularity. Quotes are tagged with #shit my family says, posts featuring my dad are tagged with #discussions with dad, posts featuring my mom are tagged #madness with mom, and posts featuring my brothers are tagged #babbles with brothers.
I do have two brothers that I post about on here, both older than me. I don't get along with the older one, who is either named Sandwich God or just "my asshole brother." The other one is my best friend, the co-parent of my singular braincell, and nicknamed J-Dog, and he's who I'm talking about 90% of the time when I say "my brother."
I have social anxiety and am very introverted. If you send me a message and I don't respond, it's not because I hate you or you did something wrong, I'm likely just tired and need a day before I can talk to people. I might also completely forget you sent it, so feel free to poke me multiple times! If I'm actually upset with you, I'll let you know, I promise. I'm also only really active on tumblr because discord is bad for my mental health. I check it once a month or so, but this is the best place to get a hold of me.
My ask tag is just #asks because I'm boring and my tag for asks I sent is #pestering successful
(Also, this blog runs on queue about 80% of the time)
Fandom
I'm in far too many fandoms to count. I don't ever leave fandoms, I just go through cycles of where I'm most active. I will randomly jumpscare you by reblogging art from the most obscure piece of children's media that you've never heard of.
Currently, the ones I make posts for are DC Comics, Miraculous Ladybug, Wizard101/Pirate101, Ever After High, and Splatoon. I mostly just use the regular fandom tags for all of these, but there are some oddballs.
For Batman/Batfam DC content, INCLUDING REBLOGS, I use the tag #abby's batshit. I DO NOT tag non-bat DC posts with this, so if you're a non-bat DC fan who is tired of the Bat-Epidemic, I strongly recommend blocking this one.
I'm currently developing a Titans West Crack AU with @redplanetlobster ! We have a sideblog for this ( @cotton-eye-joes ), but I post most of my art to both accounts, and tag joe-centric posts with #cotton-eyed-joe mention.
I'm currently developing a Scarabella and Kitty Noir AU for Miraculous, which I tag with #KittyBella WIP. Please ask me questions about this, it'll help me work on it more!
I am also slowly picking apart season 1 miraculous episodes on my sideblog @unhinged-domestic-raccoon. I created that one because tumblr flagged me as explicit, and now it's just kinda there. My analysis is currently on hiatus for my mental health, but I hope to pick it back up eventually.
Most of my OCs, including Wizzy/Pitty OCs, can be found under the tag #oc: character name and #my ocs, but 101 OCs can also be found under #abby's spiral souls. Pitty OCs are #abby's plundering pirates, and Wizzy ones are #abby's wandering wizards. I also use the tag #the motley crew for side character OCs on my Pirate Captain Kestrel's crew (which don't get tagged with their name)
You can also find my wiz fan comic under #Spiraling into Insanity, where I catalogue the misadventures of Melody Hexbolt and Benny Feignrite (my brother's wizard). It's literally just stuff that we actually said/did while playing the game that I thought was funny and translated in universe.
My eah ship tier list is still in progress! If you're looking for it, it's under #giraffe's eah ship tier list on my blog. PLEASE LOOK BEFORE SENDING A REQUEST, there are high odds I've already done the one you want.
When I talk about or draw the agents in Splatoon, odds are very high it's my OCs specifically. All of that will be tagged with #giraffe's squidbeak splatoon, while more regular canon content will not. I have a masterpost for their introductions here. Anything pre-Splatoon 3 is usually canon compliant, but I have an agent 7 and an agent 9 oc who do significantly affect Return of the Mammalians and Side Order, so if you're confused, that's why.
Aroace leaf dividers by @animatedglittergraphics-n-more
the main talking point of a lot of people that love eah but bash on descendants is that "eah was deep!! descendants was just a disney knockoff that meant nothing and was just a cashgrab" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP (to be clear i am an eah lover). analytical thoughts to follow:
consider also, that auradon is portrayed as very technologically advanced in direct opposition to the isle being associated with magic (even with its ban) and a lot of of clearly second hand, worn and torn fridges and tvs and whatever
also, the fact that she felt PRESSURED to not only culturally assimilate into auradon culture, but alter her physical appearance to assimilate further. consider mal's costuming in the first movie. on the isle, we see her with (what i assume is her natural) purple hair, leather, etc. she is even, to a degree, gender nonconforming. pretty much the ONLY time we see her in skirts is when she's trying to impress ben for her plan to work
compare this with the hair costuming in descendants 2:
(i actually can't remember which scenes the third one was in but whatever) they have taken away her sparkle!! she's assimilated firstly into auradon fashion by dressing in pastels like them, and in SKIRTS which she textually only wore in the first movie when she wanted to impress ben. now with the added context of her wanting to impress auradon. and it really speaks a lot that she feels she has to conform to gender norms more in order to be accepted by auradon
and what about hair. she's felt the need to not only change the way she dresses, but change her hair to the eurocentric standard, so blonde that it's almost WHITE to conform to auradon's society (because let's be real, her mum's a fairy/dragon and her dad is a greek god. i'd be MORE surprised if she was DYING her hair purple than it being natural). changing your natural hair in order to to conform to and be accepted by the majority... where have i heard that one before??
shoutout to @soniccat
(to be clear. it is not a one for one analogy. "hey using a spell to force someone to forget what you did is an invasion" to me is like going "well actually people were right to fear mutants in x-men because some of them were walking weapons" IT'S A METAPHOR THAT IS ALSO A PLOT DEVICE)
('backwater' being used ironically, do not let my meaning be misconstrued here. a better way to word it is that immigrants are guilttripped into having to be 'grateful' for their oppression in a first world country because microaggressions or assimilation is considered better than the alternative, being back in your home country where living conditions may be considered poorer)
in the sense that for instance, jay put a VK spin on supporting feminism. like yes, he could've done it the rulefollowing, create a petition and gather signatures route, but INSTEAD he finds and exploits an existing loophole to let lonnie join the team. or evie shouting out dizzy's creations, uplifting her voice despite the fact she could've still taken the credit since she was the one that paired the outfit with the accessories. etc
are the descendants movies objectively bad movies?? yes. but this was to me, one of the most compelling analogies for immigrant struggles. take particular notice how almost ALL the main VKs are either racebent from the original disney movies (evie, carlos, uma) or were already based on an ethnic character (mal, jay)
but wait, mal is the whitest white girl to walk the planet. how is she already based on an ethnic character?
glad you asked. it is quite unclear in the descendants movie (basing its portrayal of maleficent on the disney sleeping beauty) is a fairy or a dragon. while the maleficent movie isn't canon to the descendants universe, i'm still going to use the fact that she's a fairy with the magical ability to turn herself into a dragon
a lot fairy folklore comes from ireland. the name maleficent itself, and i quote
shares similarities to the name millicent. millicent has irish (or scottish) roots (even a coat of arms) as in
thus one could argue that maleficent herself could potentially be irish coded
whether or not you agree with the idea that maleficent is irish coded, it is undeniable that mal is the daughter of hades, a greek god. it's a shame that that was a retcon in the third movie and not planned from the start, because the role could've gone to an actually greek actress (please google the ottoman empire and greek independence day if you still think it's not fitting for me to group mal with the others)
where was i going with this?? right. it's extremely telling that most of the main/side VKs, save for gil, are ethnic, in the story of a group of misfits finding themselves in an unfamiliar country with new social norms for them to learn as they try to fit in with and become accepted by their peers
Sorry, I'm working on a project and am excited, but I gotta go to bed and go to work so I won't get to make the post with the full concept for like 3 more days. Teaser rambles underneath
Making a thing that technically barely legally qualifies as a coffee shop AU, but the badass unhinged canon character is somehow the most sane person who works there.
We've got a hardcore stoner who takes edibles on lunch break, an undergrad student who's always two seconds from committing homicide, a depressed washed up theatre performer, a cryptid night manager nobody's ever seen, and the world's most apathetic boss who's barely keeping the business alive simply because she has nothing better to do. Oh and I guess the delivery truck driver is normal, but he doesn't actually work there, he works for their supplier.
All other employees of this miserable cafe last about 3 months before their shitty coworkers break them and they quit. Compared to this lot, the canon character (whose biggest flaws are being reckless and irritating and is otherwise a ray of sunshine) is positively ordinary and is lowkey carrying the business.
Oh and btw, a lot of the regulars are just as trashy lol. A select few of them are cool, but most of them match the staff's curmudgeonly attitude beat for beat.
Before Pride Month comes to an end, I wanted to memorialize my husband unintentionally calling me a bisexual failure at the start of the month. (We laughed about it later, and I wasn't really offended!)
Side note: Thank you for looking at my art! I actually read every note and comment (though I'm a bit shy and don't always respond). I don't think I'll ever stop being surprised and grateful that my silly doodles make others happy. :)
To be quite honest with you all I do think that aro/ace-spectrum fans in fandoms where people are desperately inventing crossover ships and humanizing non-human characters in order to have a conventionally attractive guy to ship the main character with, instead of possibly having to enjoy a story with no romance in it, have the right to refer to everyone else as cowards.
its crazy that megan thee stallion is not considered a queer artist by some people. the woman is not shy about the fact that she finds women attractive and likes having sex with them. she references it pretty frequently in her music, she made a whole song about enjoying having threesomes with a woman and a man, she made a Jennifer's Body-themed music video, she had Victoria Monét full riding her thigh on stage at a coachella, and there's literally a video of a lesbian interviewing glorilla at a party & asking who she would date if she was queer and her immediate response is "megan. megan like girls!" and then megan turns around and immediately starts flirting with the interviewer. i don't know what more you want. that woman is Bi Sexual and we should all be thankful every day for that. bi women are still bi when they wanna fuck men too you know. the fucking of men is also done bisexually.
Shoutout to Disney’s Descendants for having the most vibes based worldbuilding I’ve ever seen in my life. Legitimately thinking about any of it for more than two seconds makes everything crumble apart logistically and I think there’s an art in that.
Faybelle hating Raven cause she reminds her of a certain candy witch who also doesn't want to follow her destiny, and Faybelle hating Apple not only cause Apple is "perfect", but because deep down, Apple reminds her of herself, especially Dragon Games Apple (pushing all people away because of her actions, both of the girls being EQ's lackeys, want to be their best at their respective roles as the Dark Fairy/Snow White, etc)
Not a litteral 1:1 between the characters them self. But i was watching the Beach Episode of ATLA and i realize a thing specifically to Faybelle/Duchess gang:
Note: Zuko is also working for Raven,and Ty Lee for Lizzie
I was rereading the post about Descendants, and now I'm suggesting this swap: The General Villainy kids swapped with the VKs in Neverland (so ofc Core4+Uma's crew). Who's surviving better, the GVs in the fairytale Hood, or the VKs stuck in class with Badwolf and his lack of pacient
(if you want, you can also swap the Auradon Prep).
Oooh yes more Descandants/EAH crossover stuff!
So this all kinda depends on the circumstances, but GENERALLY, the VKs are surviving EAH much better than the General Villainy class is surviving the Isle. This is partially because the VKs canonically go to school on the Isle with classes that teach them how to be better at being evil (because all the teachers are also villains with the exception of Yen Sid, which is a plot point in the second Melissa De La Cruz book). We also know that while they will hate it, they are capable of surviving private school because that's basically the premise of the first two movies.
Meanwhile, the EAH kids have to survive, as you put it, The Fairytale Hood, which is literally a magic prison complex where everyone hates each other and survives off Auradon's trash. Considering that General Villainy consists of Duchess, Raven, Lizzie (princesses used to the living conditions of royalty), Ginger (extreme doormat), and Faybelle (heavily reliant on and accustomed to magic), the ONLY member of the canon General Villainy class who isn't struggling severely is Sparrow.
If we break it down more specifically:
The Villain Kids in Ever After:
I don't really think these kids reform just because of the improved living circumstances. Things weren't perfect in Auradon, but they still were being encouraged to forsake evil, and it still took them A While to decide "actually maybe we like it here and don't wanna hurt people, huh." With Ever After society pressuring them into being evil without forcing them into horrible living circumstances, I think they'd see it as an upgrade.
-Mal is more or less exactly how she is on the Isle as seen in the first De La Cruz book. Without a major change in society encouraging her to discover her inner goodness, she's basically Faybelle. She actually does good at practical assignments about scheming and magic and theft and stuff, but she's constantly skipping class and never turns in paperwork because ignoring schoolwork to focus on having your own fun is ALSO how to be the evilest of them all. She's no star student, but she's definitely well-known around school as "cool but dangerous."
-Evie is interesting because she's actually very smart, but feels she has to play up the ditzy pretty princess role to please her mother and find a good husband. She easily participates in the same kind of delinquency as all the other Isle kids, but you see once they get to Auradon that even when they're planning on stealing the wand, she gets along pretty well with the other princesses due to her cool unique fashion and her interest in having their life. But in EAH society, the reputation set by Raven's mom means she's not expected to be a ditzy princess who finds a rich husband, she's expected to be an aspiring tyrant. Plus Evie basically always goes along with Whatever Mal Is Doing until the second movie, so that complicates things even further.
All in all, I think she'd be more like what people WANTED Raven to be. She's besties with another much eviler character (Mal), and she does well enough in class, but she can navigate the royal social class quite well and actually gets invited out with them to do Princessy stuff. She's not The Evilest of Them All but she does "well" for herself. Enough spite and malice and crime to prove she's capable of villainy, enough social poise to prove she's capable of being an effective queen someday.
-Jay is like book Sparrow on steroids. Even better and much more frequent at stealing stuff, even better at charming girls even when they know he's a troublemaker, and unlike Sparrow, he's actually good in a real fight and can be a genuine rival for Daring in this way. Also like Sparrow, he's habitually lazy about school and sees it as a waste of time, so even though he's good at being a petty criminal, none of the teachers like him, ESPECIALLY not Badwolf. Like. We thought Sparrow pissed him off already, but Jay is so much worse. He'd be looking for any excuse to give Jay detention, but he doesn't ever want to supervise said detention cuz he hates spending time with the punk, so he only does it when he can be sure he won't have to be the supervisor.
Grimm also doesn't like him because he has no interest in doing any of his destiny-assigned villainy of being an evil advisor scheming to become the sultan with a specific powerful artifact. He's generally happy to be Mal's number two and cause whatever chaos the two of them feel like in the moment, irrelevant to their destinies. So Jay is popular with the other students, but seen as a slacker and a scoundrel by the teachers, but they're kind of just assuming he'll shape up eventually and fall in line when the time comes, which is the attitude they seem to hold towards Sparrow.
-Carlos is crazy smart but also the worst at actually being a villain. He's not strictly bad at it, but he's too busy getting over his fear of dogs and being very happy to have actual internet access to cause much trouble once they get to Auradon. Additionally, Carlos also strikes me as the gifted kid who, if he's not being sufficiently challenged by his schoolwork, will be a smartass and an annoyance in class out of boredom. I suspect Carlos is opposite to Mal---he gets his homework and paper assignments done, but doesn't lead well on practicals, especially if it has to relate to his story because Carlos has never shown actual malice towards a dog in his life. He's always been either very scared of them and responded with flight or been absolutely adoring of them.
I do think the whole crew of four tends to team up to make Badwolf's teaching life absolute hell when they actually deign to show up to class. He hates every single one of them because they're all annoyances and brats in their own special way who have no qualms about sassing teachers. So they're in trouble at school a lot, but it doesn't have the same weight behind it as being in trouble at Auradon Prep. It's just sort of what you'd expect when you stick a bunch of villains in a classroom together, and if Badwolf didn't want to keep an eye on his daughters while they're at school, he'd be handing in his resignation letter.
-Uma is very similar to Mal, and the two of them turn every practical General Villainy assignment into a competition, no Blondie required. Badwolf actually had to start toning down his assignments because even when he specifies that you can't do stuff like blow up school property, they're still gonna do it when the idea gets put in their heads. I do think Uma is a lot more aloof to the rest of the school, especially since Evie and Jay are popular which makes Mal popular by proxy, and Uma never wants Mal's leftovers. Again, I don't think the better living conditions would really encourage reformation, because while Uma seems to care less about her mother's opinion, she is motivated by beating Mal at absolutely everything. The entire school hates it and is sick of their rivalry because they're always getting caught in the crossfire.
-If Jay is Sparrow on steroids, Harry is Jay on steroids because Harry is even more willing to do crime than Jay (and more serious ones too, Jay is mostly theft, Harry is mostly assualt/kidnapping/threats), just as willing to flirt like his life depends on it (although seemingly to more mixed success), and even less likely to bother in class. I think with Harry, it gets to the point where the only reason he really shows up to General Villainy is to hang out with Uma, and half the school thinks he's not a student, he's just Around. Like a campus cat or something. I also don't know that he's popular, because while he is handsome and fun, he is also very off-putting. So Harry is probably doing the worst of the whole VK gang, and he's still not dead, he's just barely hanging on with Ds and Cs in grades.
-Gil, as per usual is just happy to be here. He's not the sharpest cookie in the crayon box, so he's probably not doing WELL in class, but I think he might actually show up with more frequency than Harry. Badwolf doesn't like him because Badwolf is an impatient teacher not willing to deal with a dork like Gil, but he harbors less burning hatred for Gil than a lot of the other students.
The EAH Kids on The Isle:
This is where a lot of the "depends on the circumstances" bit comes in. Because if the EAH kids only have to survive the Isle for like a couple months before being transferred to Auradon Prep, they're not WELL but they're, y'know, surviving. If they're not getting transferred though, this is going to be HELL for them.
-Sparrow is doing the best of everyone involved. He's grown up poor, he's grown up doing crime, he's grown up neglected by his parents, and he's grown up doing whatever the hell he wants with a huge disregard for the rules. He even already dresses like an Isle resident. He slots right in and nobody really questions it. If he gets really lucky and plays his cards right he establishes himself as a new middling gang leader, but since Sparrow doesn't do well with competition for his role, I think it's more likely he stays a lone wolf.
Also, he has to spend his time babysitting the other EAH kids because while he doesn't LIKE any of them, he doesn't really want them dead in a ditch somewhere. He's not gonna actively pull them out of bad situations, but he'd let them crash at his hideout sometimes and occasionally be willing to dust them off after a particularly bad scrape.
-Raven I'd argue is doing second best, because while she isn't used to this and doesn't like being nasty, we see that she can put on a commanding presence and defend herself even without her magic. It's like she slips into playing a much more confident and menacing character until the danger passes. I think she probably gets herself a legitimate job in food service somewhere and keeps her head down well enough.
BUT! I think she'd only do this for a few months max before she decided that this whole situation is fucked and something's gotta change. Raven is the one who started the rebellion against their stories, I CANNOT believe she'd be okay with so many innocent people living in the prison complex. I just think it'd take her a second to get her bearings. I'm not 100% sure how she'd accomplish it (My current thought is grassroots revolution where she finds a bunch of kids like Yen Sid's misfits and they find some way to broadcast their fucked living situation to Auradon), but if Raven is here for the long haul, she's making some shit happen.
-Ginger is the Dizzy of this crossover. She ends up basically being someone else's errand/whipping girl while doing her best to stay positive and cheerful and PINING for a better life. Nobody really has specific malice for her, but if she's in the way they have no qualms about hurting her/robbing her/etc. etc. If she makes it to Auradon, she adapts immediately. Dream come true. If not, she relies a lot on her friendship with Raven to keep her safe and sane. TBH I can see her ending up as friends with Dizzy very quickly.
-Faybelle flipped the fuck out when first transported to the Isle because now her magic is gone and she has to do all that work HERSELF, this is an outrage, she should not be subjected to this level of peasantry. I think the loss of her flight would hit especially hard. She goes into a deep depression for the first little while, unable to properly act like a villain, and mostly hiding out in Ginger's basement (wherever that is) and bumming off Ginger's goodwill. Given some time, I think Faybelle's huge amounts of Spite return in force and she teams up with Duchess and Sparrow to start getting vengeance on everyone who ever wronged them. The trio may eventually rise to prominence as a new gang to be afraid of.
-Duchess had a bad adjustment period because of the awful living conditions, but unlike Faybelle, Duchess isn't afraid of hard work. She spends some time getting babysat by Sparrow before he annoys her enough that she strikes out on her own and starts unleashing her inner vengeful bitch, and she feels super weird about it because she's GOOD at it and it's getting her respect, but she still feels lonely as ever and it all feels wrong and she's still miserable and has to live in the garbage. If given enough time, I think she'd start skulking around Raven and may or may not fall in with her.
-Lizzie is having the worst time. I didn't watch Rise of Red so I don't know what's going on with the Wonderland situation in Descendants, but Lizzie is more isolated than ever, is in worse living conditions than she's ever been in, and she's having to mask harder than ever to fit in and get by. I think she'd be able to put on an intimidating persona well enough to get people to leave her alone, but she is emotionally In The Straits and will leave this experience extremely traumatized.
(BTW, sorry this one took me so long to answer, we've had A Holiday which is crazy for my work)
Look, tell me, allow me to add, tell me what you think, also the seventh honorary GV to complete the symmetry of the cast: POPPY (since in the diaries she follows GV). Poppy on the island is a fascinating case because I think she would believe she could make it: She has the look, unlike the others she can easily find a secure job at Madame Tremain's salon, and we know she has no problem going up against monsters/bad guys/etc since she always argues with Duchess, Faybelle and the Trolls. But let's face it: Poppy is a poser! In five minutes her princess nature would come out and above all the boys on the island are not as respectful as they are at EAH - Poppy will collapse in 24h! She would end up living at Sparrow's house to avoid problems and like... argue with Duchess all day because obviously we know how Duchess uses it.
I was rereading the post about Descendants, and now I'm suggesting this swap: The General Villainy kids swapped with the VKs in Neverland (so ofc Core4+Uma's crew). Who's surviving better, the GVs in the fairytale Hood, or the VKs stuck in class with Badwolf and his lack of pacient
(if you want, you can also swap the Auradon Prep).
Oooh yes more Descandants/EAH crossover stuff!
So this all kinda depends on the circumstances, but GENERALLY, the VKs are surviving EAH much better than the General Villainy class is surviving the Isle. This is partially because the VKs canonically go to school on the Isle with classes that teach them how to be better at being evil (because all the teachers are also villains with the exception of Yen Sid, which is a plot point in the second Melissa De La Cruz book). We also know that while they will hate it, they are capable of surviving private school because that's basically the premise of the first two movies.
Meanwhile, the EAH kids have to survive, as you put it, The Fairytale Hood, which is literally a magic prison complex where everyone hates each other and survives off Auradon's trash. Considering that General Villainy consists of Duchess, Raven, Lizzie (princesses used to the living conditions of royalty), Ginger (extreme doormat), and Faybelle (heavily reliant on and accustomed to magic), the ONLY member of the canon General Villainy class who isn't struggling severely is Sparrow.
If we break it down more specifically:
The Villain Kids in Ever After:
I don't really think these kids reform just because of the improved living circumstances. Things weren't perfect in Auradon, but they still were being encouraged to forsake evil, and it still took them A While to decide "actually maybe we like it here and don't wanna hurt people, huh." With Ever After society pressuring them into being evil without forcing them into horrible living circumstances, I think they'd see it as an upgrade.
-Mal is more or less exactly how she is on the Isle as seen in the first De La Cruz book. Without a major change in society encouraging her to discover her inner goodness, she's basically Faybelle. She actually does good at practical assignments about scheming and magic and theft and stuff, but she's constantly skipping class and never turns in paperwork because ignoring schoolwork to focus on having your own fun is ALSO how to be the evilest of them all. She's no star student, but she's definitely well-known around school as "cool but dangerous."
-Evie is interesting because she's actually very smart, but feels she has to play up the ditzy pretty princess role to please her mother and find a good husband. She easily participates in the same kind of delinquency as all the other Isle kids, but you see once they get to Auradon that even when they're planning on stealing the wand, she gets along pretty well with the other princesses due to her cool unique fashion and her interest in having their life. But in EAH society, the reputation set by Raven's mom means she's not expected to be a ditzy princess who finds a rich husband, she's expected to be an aspiring tyrant. Plus Evie basically always goes along with Whatever Mal Is Doing until the second movie, so that complicates things even further.
All in all, I think she'd be more like what people WANTED Raven to be. She's besties with another much eviler character (Mal), and she does well enough in class, but she can navigate the royal social class quite well and actually gets invited out with them to do Princessy stuff. She's not The Evilest of Them All but she does "well" for herself. Enough spite and malice and crime to prove she's capable of villainy, enough social poise to prove she's capable of being an effective queen someday.
-Jay is like book Sparrow on steroids. Even better and much more frequent at stealing stuff, even better at charming girls even when they know he's a troublemaker, and unlike Sparrow, he's actually good in a real fight and can be a genuine rival for Daring in this way. Also like Sparrow, he's habitually lazy about school and sees it as a waste of time, so even though he's good at being a petty criminal, none of the teachers like him, ESPECIALLY not Badwolf. Like. We thought Sparrow pissed him off already, but Jay is so much worse. He'd be looking for any excuse to give Jay detention, but he doesn't ever want to supervise said detention cuz he hates spending time with the punk, so he only does it when he can be sure he won't have to be the supervisor.
Grimm also doesn't like him because he has no interest in doing any of his destiny-assigned villainy of being an evil advisor scheming to become the sultan with a specific powerful artifact. He's generally happy to be Mal's number two and cause whatever chaos the two of them feel like in the moment, irrelevant to their destinies. So Jay is popular with the other students, but seen as a slacker and a scoundrel by the teachers, but they're kind of just assuming he'll shape up eventually and fall in line when the time comes, which is the attitude they seem to hold towards Sparrow.
-Carlos is crazy smart but also the worst at actually being a villain. He's not strictly bad at it, but he's too busy getting over his fear of dogs and being very happy to have actual internet access to cause much trouble once they get to Auradon. Additionally, Carlos also strikes me as the gifted kid who, if he's not being sufficiently challenged by his schoolwork, will be a smartass and an annoyance in class out of boredom. I suspect Carlos is opposite to Mal---he gets his homework and paper assignments done, but doesn't lead well on practicals, especially if it has to relate to his story because Carlos has never shown actual malice towards a dog in his life. He's always been either very scared of them and responded with flight or been absolutely adoring of them.
I do think the whole crew of four tends to team up to make Badwolf's teaching life absolute hell when they actually deign to show up to class. He hates every single one of them because they're all annoyances and brats in their own special way who have no qualms about sassing teachers. So they're in trouble at school a lot, but it doesn't have the same weight behind it as being in trouble at Auradon Prep. It's just sort of what you'd expect when you stick a bunch of villains in a classroom together, and if Badwolf didn't want to keep an eye on his daughters while they're at school, he'd be handing in his resignation letter.
-Uma is very similar to Mal, and the two of them turn every practical General Villainy assignment into a competition, no Blondie required. Badwolf actually had to start toning down his assignments because even when he specifies that you can't do stuff like blow up school property, they're still gonna do it when the idea gets put in their heads. I do think Uma is a lot more aloof to the rest of the school, especially since Evie and Jay are popular which makes Mal popular by proxy, and Uma never wants Mal's leftovers. Again, I don't think the better living conditions would really encourage reformation, because while Uma seems to care less about her mother's opinion, she is motivated by beating Mal at absolutely everything. The entire school hates it and is sick of their rivalry because they're always getting caught in the crossfire.
-If Jay is Sparrow on steroids, Harry is Jay on steroids because Harry is even more willing to do crime than Jay (and more serious ones too, Jay is mostly theft, Harry is mostly assualt/kidnapping/threats), just as willing to flirt like his life depends on it (although seemingly to more mixed success), and even less likely to bother in class. I think with Harry, it gets to the point where the only reason he really shows up to General Villainy is to hang out with Uma, and half the school thinks he's not a student, he's just Around. Like a campus cat or something. I also don't know that he's popular, because while he is handsome and fun, he is also very off-putting. So Harry is probably doing the worst of the whole VK gang, and he's still not dead, he's just barely hanging on with Ds and Cs in grades.
-Gil, as per usual is just happy to be here. He's not the sharpest cookie in the crayon box, so he's probably not doing WELL in class, but I think he might actually show up with more frequency than Harry. Badwolf doesn't like him because Badwolf is an impatient teacher not willing to deal with a dork like Gil, but he harbors less burning hatred for Gil than a lot of the other students.
The EAH Kids on The Isle:
This is where a lot of the "depends on the circumstances" bit comes in. Because if the EAH kids only have to survive the Isle for like a couple months before being transferred to Auradon Prep, they're not WELL but they're, y'know, surviving. If they're not getting transferred though, this is going to be HELL for them.
-Sparrow is doing the best of everyone involved. He's grown up poor, he's grown up doing crime, he's grown up neglected by his parents, and he's grown up doing whatever the hell he wants with a huge disregard for the rules. He even already dresses like an Isle resident. He slots right in and nobody really questions it. If he gets really lucky and plays his cards right he establishes himself as a new middling gang leader, but since Sparrow doesn't do well with competition for his role, I think it's more likely he stays a lone wolf.
Also, he has to spend his time babysitting the other EAH kids because while he doesn't LIKE any of them, he doesn't really want them dead in a ditch somewhere. He's not gonna actively pull them out of bad situations, but he'd let them crash at his hideout sometimes and occasionally be willing to dust them off after a particularly bad scrape.
-Raven I'd argue is doing second best, because while she isn't used to this and doesn't like being nasty, we see that she can put on a commanding presence and defend herself even without her magic. It's like she slips into playing a much more confident and menacing character until the danger passes. I think she probably gets herself a legitimate job in food service somewhere and keeps her head down well enough.
BUT! I think she'd only do this for a few months max before she decided that this whole situation is fucked and something's gotta change. Raven is the one who started the rebellion against their stories, I CANNOT believe she'd be okay with so many innocent people living in the prison complex. I just think it'd take her a second to get her bearings. I'm not 100% sure how she'd accomplish it (My current thought is grassroots revolution where she finds a bunch of kids like Yen Sid's misfits and they find some way to broadcast their fucked living situation to Auradon), but if Raven is here for the long haul, she's making some shit happen.
-Ginger is the Dizzy of this crossover. She ends up basically being someone else's errand/whipping girl while doing her best to stay positive and cheerful and PINING for a better life. Nobody really has specific malice for her, but if she's in the way they have no qualms about hurting her/robbing her/etc. etc. If she makes it to Auradon, she adapts immediately. Dream come true. If not, she relies a lot on her friendship with Raven to keep her safe and sane. TBH I can see her ending up as friends with Dizzy very quickly.
-Faybelle flipped the fuck out when first transported to the Isle because now her magic is gone and she has to do all that work HERSELF, this is an outrage, she should not be subjected to this level of peasantry. I think the loss of her flight would hit especially hard. She goes into a deep depression for the first little while, unable to properly act like a villain, and mostly hiding out in Ginger's basement (wherever that is) and bumming off Ginger's goodwill. Given some time, I think Faybelle's huge amounts of Spite return in force and she teams up with Duchess and Sparrow to start getting vengeance on everyone who ever wronged them. The trio may eventually rise to prominence as a new gang to be afraid of.
-Duchess had a bad adjustment period because of the awful living conditions, but unlike Faybelle, Duchess isn't afraid of hard work. She spends some time getting babysat by Sparrow before he annoys her enough that she strikes out on her own and starts unleashing her inner vengeful bitch, and she feels super weird about it because she's GOOD at it and it's getting her respect, but she still feels lonely as ever and it all feels wrong and she's still miserable and has to live in the garbage. If given enough time, I think she'd start skulking around Raven and may or may not fall in with her.
-Lizzie is having the worst time. I didn't watch Rise of Red so I don't know what's going on with the Wonderland situation in Descendants, but Lizzie is more isolated than ever, is in worse living conditions than she's ever been in, and she's having to mask harder than ever to fit in and get by. I think she'd be able to put on an intimidating persona well enough to get people to leave her alone, but she is emotionally In The Straits and will leave this experience extremely traumatized.
(BTW, sorry this one took me so long to answer, we've had A Holiday which is crazy for my work)
Descendants continuity errors actually annoy me so much more than eah ones because the eah ones are smaller and easier to ignore and meanwhile descendants media will completely and utterly contradict something. Just thinking out loud here now but:
“Mal you are weak and pathetic just like your human father” her father Hades??? I suppose I gotta get to book 4 to understand how Melissa wrote around that, because I guess I can see Maleficent being evil enough to invent a human father to degrade Mal and make her insecure so she’d be more desperate for approval
“Auradon forgot about us after the core4 integrated” Freddie??? Is right there??? But tbf 1 single girl in like?? 6months-2years (icr the time jump) is lowkey kinda ass so I respect Uma for not taking their shit
At least I can KIND of reason that Allie is at Auradon because Alice literally returns to the real world from Wonderland at the end, and that Alice was friends with Hatter because pre-time travel he wasn’t evil
Melissa de la Cruz is so brave and smart for having to write around everything Disney throws at her LMAO
EAH's mistakes are forgivable because they had to create stuff from scratch and the main cast is 12/20 people. It is possible that,since they are also using the logic of fairy tales (so some things are intrinsically contradictory), something escapes
Descendants draws on years of Disney IP, is a true fantasy, and most importantly, has a small main cast. WHAT'S YOUR DISNEY EXCUSE??!!!
In fact, I should complain about a lot of cool stuff Descendants could have done if it had followed its own canon (use Melody from Little Mermaid 2 you bastards!)
FR OMG!! they do reference direct-to-dvd sequel stuff in the descendants books (like jafar's stint as a genie), and that the undersea and eric's kingdoms are deeply intertwined, so it could very well be possible that melody DOES exist, but given the villains were only sent to the isle after their respective franchises, melody would actually be in her 30s by the time d1 comes around. which would lowkey be a little wild cause like. she'd almost be the same age as snow by that logic. same with wendy's daughter in that peter pan sequel-- but wait i lowkey like the idea of the three of them being a friendly little trio in college/uni
and like. the movie writers DO evidently know about the books because like. ursula's fish and chips shop is referenced in book 1, and then we see it in movie 2. and the fact that the final chapter transitions into d1, which explains why mal and evie weren't always on the same page during the movie (like evie adoring their dorms while mal is disgusted by it). also, mal being fresh out of her dragon eye quest "failure" due to stopping evie from getting cursed, leads straight into her character arc in d1, ESPECIALLY evil like me
but then you get shit like the queen of hearts being referred to as having a salon on the island (which i've had to delude myself into believing that the isle, who don't know about wonderland, refer to the evil queen as the queen of hearts colloquially since she requested snow white's heart in a box. she could supposedly done hair appts during her banishment without leaving her castle)
and then there are some REALLY cool details that are totally ignored in the movies, like lonnie is a DJ??? that is SO fucking cool. and jay being besties with the kids of aladdin and the genie??? bro is healing ancestral beef and i love that for him. and the sidekick's association who are clearly metaphorically a union?? i LOVE how it's shown that auradon isn't perfect even after they've gotten rid of all the villains. it's amazing. and that's not even mentioning the post-d1 shipment embargo the isle faces from auradon, reducing what the isle receives even further and putting countless goblins out of work and making them homeless
the ONLY complaint i disagree with when it comes to descendants "continuity errors" is every time a new gaston/hook kid is introduces in live action like frankly that makes sense in my mind, like why would every villain be exclusive monogamists who have only a singular kid??? the isle only gets auradon's leftovers, do we really believe that they were sending condoms and plan b over to the isle?? like yeah of course captain hook has four kids and gaston has three, ofc hades has two kids, ofc facilier has two daughters, ofc the tremaines have plenty of kids
My question about the expanded universe actually concerned not only the DVDs but also all the spin-off series. I mean, besides for example having to use Morgana who is actually Ursula's sister (or Marina from Little Mermaid 3,Since Morgana the fairy exists in Descendants and could have created confusion, I mean that in my opinion they could have also made use of shows like Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor!!
I mean, princesses appear in Sofia! It would have been perfect! Maybe you could have had Shuriki from Elena as an antagonist at Merlin Academy. Or use Carol the Arrow as Robin's daughter. (Instead of calling those poor creatures Bobbie and Robbie). Having Among Harry's pirates are the children of Fiocco and Randa (don't know how they are called in engl) from the Neverland Pirates TV series! The canon is broad, so there are so many ideas. jib and mainsail
I honestly don't understand why people are so surprised that so many villains have offspring with multiple people. Especially Gaston and Hook: one is a pirate and the other is...well, Gaston!Of course they'll go and spread their seed around. I mean, the only Neverland villains I can see as monogamous are the Tremains and the Evil Queen, due to their upbringing and social background.But even there, it's not like Genoveffa and Anastasia are forced into the one-child policy lol. In fact, it's credible that Anastasia and her husband had more children.
Jake and the neverland pirates (can’t remember the girl’s name) or Fiocco and Randa never stole!!!! Very specific that pirates don’t steal in their lore!!! I think they’d be more like Robin Hood where they aren’t banished even if someone might stereotypically associate them with crime. God imagine sending those little babies to the isle, I’d cry
