We both know the show made a huge fumble with the Charming siblings, our babies. So at this point I ask you: Rank from the most mistreated to the least fumbled (even though I think we both know the answer).
You're right, we do both know the answer, but that won't stop me!
We're actually doing reverse order because it's easier! Daring was BY FAR the most unscathed. This is at least half because he isn't a focus character in the books so there isn't much material for the show to mess up. His personality is remarkably consistent across the media---whether you're a show fan or a book fan, you know that Daring is boisterous and heroic and excitable, and also vain and self-absorbed, and also cares a lot about his friends and siblings even if he isn't the best at expressing it. The real error with Daring is just lost potential, and that's applicable to the books and the show. Although I do hold the show more accountable since he WAS more of a focus character over there, and was part of the main cast for the final special.
They set up a LOT of stuff for him to have to reckon with and in my humble opinion, they didn't pull it off. He never has to face off to his parents or properly recognize his siblings or rebuild his bond with them. Him getting over his vanity and learning to rediscover life without his destiny was almost entirely glossed over and forced by extraneous circumstances. So instead of an introspective arc that naturally arose frome where things left off in dragon games, we got a ham-fisted and half-done delivery that has to share the spotlight with all the other shit happening in Epic Winter. It doesn't really resolve his relationship with destiny (giving him a new one instead of forcing him to find his own way) and it absolutely WASTED whatever potential Darabella as a concept has (while sidelining Rosabella in her own plot).
BUT. It's not like the books give us anything for that either! Late series books really fell off in quality, and while a lot of the fanbase chalks this up to Suzanne Selfors being the primary writer, I need to remind everyone that she also wrote Next Top Villain and A Semi Charming Kind of Life, and that Shannon Hale wrote The Legend of Shadow High. While I haven't personally finished it, I have a few major gripes with what I did read and haven't heard many positive reviews. I really really really think the executive meddling that caused the quality drop in the show is the real culprit.
I can't in good conscience say the show fumbled him, because as sad as Epic Winter was compared to what it could have been, at least Daring behaved believably in character. Compare that to Daring having stupid OOC cheating plots with DUCHESS of all people in the diaries, and I think the score is even. The only other notes I have to add here is that book Daring comes across a good deal more competent than show Daring, who tends to be the butt of the joke. I don't really have a problem with this, and I honestly prefer people to take both interpretations as accurate, since I feel it gives him the most depth.
Screwed Over Score 0/10
Unlike Faybelle, he doesn't get a reverse score. He's of equal quality in both. The series OVERALL screwed him over, but it's not exclusive to one type of media.
HOOOOOO BOY! I am really really really excessively annoyed by what the divide between book and show Darling has done to fandom discussion about her.
I said in the Duchess post that a well-executed Suzanne Selfors book should be required reading for it's focus character. While this is true for A Semi-Charming Kind of Life, I do NOT think someone as important to the plot as Darling should have been primarily explored over there. Like. Duchess is a minor antagonist and they completely tie up her plot in the show before redeeming her in the books. While Next Top Villain is required for a complete understanding of her character, you do still know who she is without it---you can tell me what motivates her and what her strengths and flaws are.
Not so for Darling, because they did it in REVERSE. They INTRODUCED her in the Shannon Hale books---she didn't exist in the show when those were being published. Then, when they decided to import her, they gave her a Suzanne Selfors book to introduce her to everybody. This was a BAD decision. All of Darling's flaws and backstory and internal motivation are left in A Semi Charming Kind of Life, and she proceeds to become a major character who is critical to the plot of the next THREE specials without EVER bringing any of it up in the show.
People who didn't read the books know that Darling doesn't like being a damsel, but they don't know about the history of abuse that led her to where she is. They don't know WHY she would choose to keep it a secret even after Raven openly rips out her page and Huntlynn reveals themselves. They don't know about her deep but complicated bond with Dexter or how she envies Rosabella or how she loves Daring but simultaneously looks up to him and looks down on him and considers him a threat.
They don't have any context for WHY Darling behaves the way she does. Her motivations are incredibly nebulous in the show. If that's the only context you were given, you could reasonably say that Darling has been living her life as a good little princess until she arrives at Ever After High, at which point she decides to take up a sword mostly out of boredom. That wouldn't be a bad hypothesis based on the info given to you!!!
Again, I wouldn't be anywhere near as upset about this if Darling wasn't so damned important. People misinterpret Ginger or come up with incorrect headcanons for her all the time if they didn't read her book. And I don't care near as much because she's in like 4 webisodes and 1 special, and you don't have to get her whole backstory for her actions to make sense. Understanding why Darling behaves as she does, understanding what ANY of her character interactions mean, and even knowing who she is as a person REQUIRES knowledge from the books.
Show Darling (unlike show Dexter who WE WILL GET TO) is not an inaccurate portrayal of her. It is a wholly INCOMPLETE portrayal, and that's unacceptable for such a major player. The show barely even lets her and Dexter in the same ROOM together, and they're one another's best friends in the books. It fails to acknowledge that Darling's secrecy stems from a long history of abuse and that her major flaws are selfishness and cowardice. It is something that she needed to OVERCOME and because the show didn't do the legwork to tell us that, her WTW reveal just doesn't hit the way it's supposed to.
Show-only fans seriously mischaracterize Darling as Apple's perfect girlfriend and think she's all sauve and emotionally available and proactive in her rebellion, when none of that could be further from the truth. She is awkward and messy and closed off and simultaneously impulsive and too hesitant to act when it really matters. And all of those things make her an interesting character.
For the score. . .How about 7/10
She's not a major character that got sidelined like Cedar or Maddie, and she's not totally OOC like Dexter, but the show fails to make her a complete person and is fully reliant on the books for her depth.
My son. My beautiful sweet thoughtful intelligent empathetic boy. What the fuck did they do to you?
I genuinely believe Dexter Charming is the single most screwed over character from book to show. Even more than Cedar and Maddie. Because not only is he a major character who gets significantly less focus and reduced to a joke, but he isn't even the same person. Not really.
To demonstrate this, let me tell you all who book Dexter is. We're not even doing a comparison because they're so different, I'm just going to introduce you to my son.
Dexter in the books is an abused child. Every character in Ever After High has suffered under their oppressive system, but many of them have parents who are at least trying to do their best. To Dexter? This does not apply. His ENTIRE life, he has been seen as sub-par for factors entirely out of his control. He has brown hair instead of classic Charming blond, he has an untameable cowlick, he needs glasses and his eyes are far too sensitive for contacts, and he has way too many allergies. His very genetics set him a step below in the eyes of his parents, and he spent his whole entire life being belittled for this.
His unlucky gene pool never stopped him from trying. He trained every day along side his big brother just as hard, and it DOES show! He's a very competent fighter and athlete in the books---he can wreck shop on the basketball court and he jousts like nobody's business when he doesn't have to wear a helmet that he can't fit his glasses under. He also learned to be a competent tactician and inventor who's in the tech club, spends some free time building catapults to launch cabbages with, and regularly rigs traps to ward off Darling's suitors. Add in that he's well read and has fantastic grades, and it seems like Dexter should be a shining star.
But he isn't. Hardly anybody cares. It's very seldom that anybody acknowledges his skills, and it is NEVER his parents. Because the standard is Daring, who is the perfect prince in ways that nobody could ever hope to live up to. For every classic hero skill that Dexter has honed, Daring has an insane natural talent that totally overshadows Dex. And because society and his parents are staunch traditionalists, they don't care about any of his unique non-classic skills, and as a matter of fact see them as a sign of weakness and unmanliness.
Appropriately, book Dexter's self esteem and self confidence are in the toilet. The only people who regularly express admiration and affection for him are his siblings, who are also more favored by their parents, so there's a whole complex there.
All of this sets him up to be VERY VERY VERY relateable to Raven. Book Snow White is actually a decent mother, so in the Shannon Hale books, the only other person with an explicitly terrible parent is Raven. Dexter understands what it's like to be judged unfairly for your heritage, to not meet people's expectations, to not be truly seen, the frustration of not knowing what your future holds and being worried about your destiny, and knows first hand how difficult it is to talk about these problems and advocate for yourself. So when Raven dares to ask questions during legacy day practice, he GETS it. He GETS her. And he tells her she's brave and cool and good. And it's exactly what they both need.
Across all of the books, Dexter continues to be a super compassionate person and a great love interest to Raven because they build each other up and depend on each other. He helps her with her plans to find out the truth about the Storybook of Legends, he gives her the friendship she needs in the diaries without pressuring her into romance, and the two of them just VIBE. But most importantly, he OPENLY and IMMEDIATELY supports her through her rebellion. Book Dexter isn't a fucking Royal or fucking undecided, he IS a Rebel. He's been helping Raven to rebel since BEFORE legacy day and when she rips out her page he goes to find her and comfort and congratulate her because everything is scary and he keeps being a person for her to lean on through the series.
Yes he stutters. Yes he's awkward. Because of COURSE he is because he's been compared to Daring "I can walk into a room and start a conversation about a subject I know nothing about" Charming his entire damn life. It never stops him from being a REAL hero.
And when I explain all this to show fans, they have to scrape their jaws off the floor because show Dexter is NOTHING like this. Not only do we lack context on the Charmings as parents, but show Dexter's primary personality trait is "wishy-washy." I can buy that he's a royal because he never does ANYTHING to indicate alliegance to either side except to have a crush on Raven and to oppose Maddie running for student council president. Instead of having super important advice and emotionally intelligent sentiment mixed in with his stuttering, he's just reduced to a joke about being unable to confess. Yeah, people compare him to Daring, but nobody understands WHY that's important and what it does to his psyche. He's not even FRIENDS with Darling. A lot of people who only watched the show dislike Dexven as a ship because show Dexter really does not bring anything to this relationship.
Good Lord/10
They just. They massacred him. He's barely recognizable. Come back Shannon Hale Dexter, I miss you so much.
