Finally posting my piece for @mirrormirroreahzine :) This was such a lovely experience, I was so lucky to be able to work alongside such talented and passionate people <3 Leftover sales are open rn if you missed out!
i really really really hate how people bend over backwards to discredit ravens canon music taste simply bc it’s not THEIR music taste. i don’t care if you don’t like taylor swift or think raven shouldn’t bc it “doesn’t fit her aesthetic” bc at the end of the day it’s not up to you. you can hc whatever you want but so can other people, and discrediting her CANON MUSIC TASTE when it’s something that’s mentioned over and over again is making it less about what you think she likes and more about projecting YOUR OWN likes and dislikes on to her. it’s the basis of ravens entire relationship w dexter. it’s one of the first things they every truly bond over. are you going to try to claim it doesn’t fit his aesthetic either ? ravens whole thing is “don’t judge a book by its cover” by assuming she’s evil just bc she looks dark and gloomy, and assuming she’s isn’t allowed to like pop music bc of the same reason defeats the entire purpose of her entire character. just bc raven is alt / gothic doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy pop music. the music she plans to play for the talent show is also very soft and airy and pop-adjacent and people just ignore that. she only plays something more rock based after being dismissed repeatedly throughout the entire episode bc they refuse to accept what she actually likes.
on this note, i do really like the hc that raven, despite her dark aesthetic, leans more towards softer music like taylor and gracie abrams and clairo and lizzy mcalpine and such while apple (who although she does canonically like one direction) is the one who leans more into the harder more rock/alternative/emo side of music, like pierce the veil and paramore and evanescence and such.
Briar Beauty is turning 16, the day she'll prick her finger on the spinning wheel and fall asleep for 100 years. Raven is forced to attend the ball to stay in Milton Grimm's good graces, but he couldn't anticipate the influence she would have on the young princess.
It had been a long time since Raven Queen had been to a ball, especially one this lavish. Everyone with a fairy tale destiny had been invited to spellebrate Briar Beauty's sixteenth birthday. (Everyone, of course, excepting the Dark Fairy.) Tomorrow, she would prick her finger on the spinning wheel and her story would truly begin.
Well, it would begin after she slept for a hundred years.
Despite the gorgeous decorations, Raven could feel the sadness in the air. The dancehall was covered floor to ceiling in the princess' favorite hot pink, but the usually cheerful hue harbored no warmth. It was clear that the King had given Briar's parents full control over the party. The best he could do for them before they had to say goodbye.
Raven's stomach churned at the thought. Another family was going to be torn apart, all because of destiny.
She sat at her table, not really listening as one of the Charmings - authors only knew which one - tried to flirt with her. Doesn't he know who I am? She took a moment to appreciate the irony of actually wanting him to be scared of her, before excusing herself to slip out onto the balcony.
Once she arrived, however, she was disappointed to find that the balcony was already occupied. She watched the princess lean over the railing and stare at her future kingdom. Raven had never actually met Briar Beauty, but her decadent gown left no mistaking that this party was for her. The dress had a long train that reached almost to where Raven was standing, and more lace flourishes than she could count. Yet the girl inside it stared into the distance with tears falling down her face.
"Sorry," Raven tried. "I can go."
Briar startled at the sudden noise and quickly turned around, gathering as much of her dress as she could and turning to run. She wiped her eyes frantically, smearing glittery makeup onto her gloved hands.
"I really didn't mean to make you leave! You… look like you need to talk?"
The princess stopped and slowly turned back to whisper, "I- I don't think you'd understand."
"Try me." Raven sat down in one of the cold wrought-iron chairs and gestured for Briar to sit next to her.
The girl hesitated, but only for a moment before taking the empty seat.
"I'm scared," she admitted, and visibly took a sigh of relief.
"That makes sense," Raven tried to reassure her. "Sleeping for a hundred years sounds…"
"Horrifying? Devastating?"
"I was going to say 'daunting,' but, yeah. Those also work." Raven chuckled a little, but Briar wasn't amused.
It was quiet for a few moments, except for the sound of Briar's soft sniffling. She wiped her face again and then looked down at her gloves in disgust. "How can I go back in there like this? I'm a mess."
"If you want, I could punch you."
The sound of sniffling stopped entirely as Briar blinked back at her. "What?"
"Give you an excuse to be a mess. 'Oh no, the Evil Queen attacked me.'" Raven raised her hands in mock panic. "No one could blame you then."
"The Evil..?" Realization dawned over her face. "You're Raven Queen."
"In the flesh." She gestured over herself with a sarcastic smile.
"From the rumors I've heard, you don't even have flesh." And doesn't that sound just right?
Raven rolled her eyes. "Well, I certainly hope I do. Otherwise I don't know what this is." She grabbed at the skin of her arm, stretching it in her fingers, and it finally pulled a laugh from the princess.
"You don't seem very evil."
"Destiny's not all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes I think they picked the wrong kid." Raven, of course, didn't remember the day her destiny was set, but she certainly knew what had happened. She had barely been an hour old when Milton Grimm came huffing down the door of her parents' little cottage. As soon as they learned that the fates had called her the next Evil Queen, they didn't want her. She was sent away, and had never seen her birth parents again. She'd been sent to live with her "mother," the previous Evil Queen, and had been trained her entire life to follow that path. She often wondered who decided that it was a good idea to give a baby to someone who had 'Evil' in her name, but Milton Grimm had apparently never seemed to think this was a problem.
"They never get it wrong." Briar's eyes were wide and captivated, and something in her expression made Raven keep going. She stood and walked to the edge of the balcony, staring out at the kingdom below her.
"I wonder what it would be like to choose your own destiny, you know? I get so jealous when I think about the people who don't have any stories to follow."
Briar stared at her. She was clearly trying to process what had just been said. "But they don't know what's going to happen to them. Their lives are… uncertain."
Raven mulled this over for a moment. "Maybe I'd like a little uncertainty."
"Why are you telling me this? I could report you." Briar's fists were clenched and her shoulders had tensed up, but her wide eyes still looked interested.
Raven just shrugged. "Then it's a good thing you're about to sleep for a hundred years."
And that was definitely the wrong thing to say. Briar closed her eyes to keep more tears from falling and tipped her head back. "Right. Because everyone I know is going to be dead when I wake up."
Admittedly, Raven hadn't even thought of that. "Happily Ever After, huh?" She mused.
A dark and bitter laugh escaped from Briar and it sounded so out of place against those wide, innocent eyes. "Yeah. Something like that. I'm supposed to be kissed awake by a prince who isn't even born yet."
Again, Raven hadn't thought about that. "Destiny sure is a bitch." They didn't talk for a while after that, both just staring off the balcony. Something in the silence was comfortable, like the air had shifted.
"Thank you, Raven." Briar said. "I need to go back in there before people start looking for me, but… thank you. When I do wake up, I promise I'll remember you."
Raven smiled. "Funny. That's the first time I've been happy to leave a legacy behind."
"Glad I could help." And with that, she steeled herself and walked back into the ballroom, leaving Raven alone once again.
The rest of the party passed fairly quickly. Raven stayed on the balcony a long time, going back in just long enough to make sure Milton Grimm knew she was in attendance. Then she called her carriage and headed back to her dorm room. While she wasn't interested in being the Evil Queen, the queen part at least came with perks like private carriages.
After the ball, things were quiet for a few days. But Raven couldn't stop thinking of the sleeping princess. She supposed most people had already forgotten the girl, and wouldn't even be there to remember her when she woke up.
As it turned out, nobody would be forgetting Briar Beauty anytime soon. Not with the events she would set off.
"What's going on?" Raven was still rubbing sleep from her eyes when Apple shoved her mirror-phone into her roommate's face.
"Look at this! They didn't find Briar Beauty in the tower with the spinning wheel."
Raven was too tired to understand. "So?"
"Soooooo," Apple said, drawing the 'o' out in a long whine, "she didn't prick her finger and her story is off track! No one knows where she is."
As this sank in, Raven let herself smile for just a moment. She knew she had liked that girl. Then the reality of the situation set in. What would this mean for the other stories?
But among all the questions swirling in her head, one thing was certain: Raven was going to protect Briar Beauty if it cost her everything.
I have a curious feeling that the storybook of legends isn’t from ever after but from the world of authors. How it got there and who brought it or created it I don’t know. But with its role in stories being a literal book that tells the story of your supposed fate and literally being called a storybook. Maybe the book changed and adjusted a bit for the realm of ever after for the fairytales to interact with by allowing them to sign and choose. But hey it’s just a thought.
Do yall ever think about the implications of what happened when Raven had to sign the book to fight Courtly? Sure, they were able to snap her out of it, but, at least temporarily, it *changed* her.
Maybe Apple and the others were only able to snap Raven out of it bc it was so soon after it happened. Maybe, if they hadn't destroyed the book mere hours later, surges of overwhelming evilness like that would have overcome her more and more frequently until they couldn't snap her out anymore and it'd be permanent. What if that's what happened with every Evil Queen before her, even her mom?
We know her mom stole the storybook of legends. What if that was one thing that actually wasn't an evil scheme? What if she hated the EQ destiny just as much as Raven does? What if that was the last dregs of the real her crying out to intervene? A final, desperate act in her last days of lucidity. It was too late to save herself, but maybe she could save her child, her child she didn't even have yet, from sharing her fate. Maybe she didn't trust herself to know it's location, knowing she'd be ful-evil soon. Maybe she gave it to her roommate, Red, and told Red to hide it where no one, not even her, would ever look. Maybe Red is the one who put it under the floorboards in their room.
What if it was always the story book making the Evil Queens evil? Raven was just the first to break free?
I really HATE the ending of "ever after high: a wonderlandiful world"
The book was sooo good, just for the characters memories to be erased in the end (except Maddies).
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
The new dynamics in that book were soooo good, only for them to be wasted.
For example, Lizzie and Cedar, their interactions throughout the whole story were simply SO interesting, only for them to FORGET EVERYTHING , that just bothers me. And i know they became friend even if they didn't remenber what happed.But why would you write an entire story exploring so many new thigs and give some characters important development if they are not going to fucking remember what happened and just "feel it"? be fr
Thinking about it, for the longest time until recently, I legit thought that Snow White was a single mom
When someone mentioned Apple having a dad, I just immediately went, "Where is it mentioned that she has a dad?"
With Raven and her dad, the Good King, he's an actual character with a personality of his own, raising Raven alone while his wife is in jail. He's only mentioned in the books as a one-off character, but he's still a pretty important figure in Raven's life.
If Apple has one, too, then what is Apple's relationship with him? Why is it less important to be in his own daughter's life than Snow indoctrinating Apple to follow her destiny?
Does he enable his wife's ideals due to being her husband? Is he against them much like Raven's dad is with the Evil Queen? Is he a Charming who's unrelated to Daring's family?
EAH animated series Dexter: He isn't confident in himself because he can't ask out Raven.
EAH books Dexter: He's a victim of child abuse, being emotionally taken advantage of behind closed doors by his father. He grew up thinking that he is always meant to be second best to Daring. His destiny crisis leaves him wondering what his future would be like at all if he doesn't even know who his true love is. He tries his hardest to please his father to let him know that he has what it takes to be like his brother (even though he might be doing it out of fear of being useless or poofing away if he doesn't). He influenced Raven to question her own destiny, causing her to identify as a rebel later after that.
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
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