WHY DANGEROUS CROW BOY FITS INTO AARNE-THOMPSON-UTHER INDEX OF FAIRY TALE MOTIFS NUMBER 425C
It doesn't
Well probably it doesn't I don't actually know the background enough but I assume Miss Australia doesn't have jealous older sisters nor does she end up in the Fae as a payment for a stolen gift, unless that's how you want to interpret the nuclesr bomb or whatever the background story is,
HOWEVER.
ATU 425 is just "animal as bridegroom". It also includes the subtypws "The Witch's Tasks", "The Search for the Lost Husband", "The Vanished Husband", and "Enchanted Husband sings Lullaby"
While some of these are very similar the only actual unifying theme they have is that a human woman marries an animal, monster, enchanted human, or artificial person.
I don't have a tag for "ATU 425"
I do have a tag for "ATU 425C"
The post that inspired this one specifically referenced archetypes and motifs
I am working on a Girl Genius AU in which Agatha essentially gets raised by the Castle, and -
listen. LISTEN. I have a plan with this one so she has to be alone. But I keep cracking up at the idea of the prisoners still being sent in like normal. First of all the castle is fucking enormous - they're making their way in and through veeeeery slowly, they haven't found the master kitchen OR the bedrooms OR the library. Clearly the Castle could hold the prisoners AND one strange little girl in her private wing.
But also. The hilarity of everyone going hm this kid is really young to be sent in here and her splodey collar looks kinda different to ours but I'm sure it's fine? But how does this ditz who isn't even a minion to any of the sparks here KEEP SURVIVING??
and then my brain travels further. Megamind AU
Girl who has been born into a Atrocities family and was raised in a prison. Girl who DOES manage to break through. Girl who decides to leave the castle and explore the world and immediately becomes Crimes Georg.
Boy who has been trying really hard to prove himself to his father and be a hero. Boy who keeps arresting this girl. Girl who keeps being sentenced to Castle Heterodyne.
Prisoners who at this point just cheer whenever she comes back home
One thing about me is that I am happy to invent Beauty and the Beast AUs for every fandom and some that don't exist. I already have multiple angles for Girl Genius! I don't need another.
But there are some facts that need to be faced. And one of them is that there is one (1) singular character in this comic who is more Belle-coded than any other.
Villeneuve Accurate Beauty and the Beast AU (yes this is a phrase nobody else uses but I make up for it in frequency), but for Miraculous Ladybug.
You might say, yeah yeah Marichat, we've seen it, but AHA! It is only TECHNICALLY Marichat. Yes, Adrien is the Beast. Yes, Marinette is just Marinette. But!!! For Villeneuve reasons, their dynamic comes up much more Ladrien than expected.
Adrien hasn't seen his father for years. He's been touring the world, doing shoots and public appearances, all while glued to Lila Rossi.
He is afraid of her.
She's been getting worse and worse as they've been getting more famous, and sometimes it feels like the entire world is wound around her finger, and of course - well, they're not dating. Half the world thinks they are, but they've never confirmed it one wqy or the other.
Until Lila asks him, out of the blue: "When are you going to ask me to marry you?"
She's already planning the specifics, the most media-friendly location for the proposal, and what time of year should the wedding be? And he can't just - he can't just say no, she'll go to the next reporter and tell them she's pregnant, and then his father was going to kill him.
His father.
"I'm sorry," he says. "You know I need permission from my father for things like that."
It's the perfect solution. Adrien hasn't seen his father in years, not even on a video call. He's always too busy. He won't ever be able to ask for permission, and so he can continue as they are: vaguely miserable, but at least with something like a future.
Lila smiles and says, okay!
Three days later they are in Paris.
There are a million interviews to give. "Paris' darling returns home! Keeping up with the Agrestes - is Gabriel releasing a new fashion line?" He's almost glad to have Lila by his side, throughout it. The sight of the old skyline makes him so homesick that it hurts, but she keeps the conversations running smoothly.
It's been years since he's been in the same city as his father. The same country, maybe. He'll do something wrong to embarrass him, and anyway, Lila is so competent. Gabriel will give his blessing, and he'll be chained to her forever.
Gabriel hears the proposal and scoffs. "Marry Adrien? Certainly not. You should be grateful you've been allowed to be the setting to this Diamond for as long you have.
Lila argues. She's the one who turned him into a diamon, she says. Do you think he'd have gotten this far on his own?
Gabriel looks her over, tells her that she's fired, and turns away.
“So it is the beauty of this precious son of yours that makes you so vain,” she
told her, “and this is what exposes me to such a scandalous refusal. You believe
me an unworthy spouse. Well, then,” she continued, raising her voice to a furious
pitch, “after taking such pains to render him charming, I must now crown my own
creation, and give you both a new and visible reminder of what you owe me. Go,
wretch,” she told me, “and boast that you refused my heart and hand; go and offer
them to the woman you find worthier than me.”
(Madame de Villeneuve, 'The Young American Girl and Tales at Sea', translated by Aurora Wolfgang)
[The Amazon Queen] scoffed at the imaginary honor that this Intelligence offered her. . . Thus, without responding as the old Fairy desired, she stood motionless and fixed her eyes upon me. I was as astonished as she was; we exchanged glances with the same look on our faces, and the old Fairy recognized quickly from our silence that our feelings were the exact opposite of the joy she expected to inspire in us. “What does this mean?” she said bitterly. “Why do mother and son remain silent? Has this delightful surprise deprived you of the ability to speak? Or are you blind and brazen enough to reject my offer? Speak, Prince,” she said to me, “will you be ungrateful and imprudent enough to despise my kind offer? Do you not consent at once to give me your hand?”
Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve: Beauty and the Beast (trans. Aurora Wolfgang)
Old Fairy: i want to marry my godson
The Prince and his mother, having not seen each other in years and yet sharing the exact same side-eye:
