Trying to think of one you haven't done yet, hmmm... Have you given Snow White the treatment yet? I know you've touched it a lot for other plots but has it specifically gotten the Grifalinas treatment? (Shhh this was totally an ask first, not a reply, shhhhhhhh)
I have no idea what you’re talking about /discretion
As for touching all over Snow White, I used it as the base tale for Interrupted, but that’s not really the same thing given what it became, and I touched all over so many tales for Interrupted that I consider that a separate list than the ones I’ve given the Grifalinas treatment to. So. How would I go about giving Snow White the Grifalinas treatment?
So the main reason I avoid Snow White (and Sleeping Beauty) is because I’m not crazy about the somnophilia thing, so I think I would approach that from the angle of “how do I get rid of that in an organic way”. In this situation, I kind of work backwards: why does the somnophilia happen? Because Snow White needs true love’s kiss to break the curse, and for some reason a complete stranger she’s never met who kisses a dead girl because she’s that pretty counts for true love.
So in this case I think we start with “what if the dwarfs’ love for Snow White is enough to break the curse, what with them actually loving her and not being creeps who creep on dead girls in glass coffins?”
This is all well and good, of course, but this isn’t the Grifalinas treatment. This is just spinning the end of a fairy tale. So. We’re rid of our prince and the ending is different, so what’s next? Well, first of all, I’m genderbending Snow. I think rather than getting rid of her stepdaughter because she’s jealous of her beauty, the queen gets rid of her stepson because she wants the throne for her own children or something idk. That’s all setup it’s irrelevant. Moving on,
Okay so you know how there’s another Snow White in fairy tales? Snow White and Rose Red? I think I’m going to solve this problem by queering up a second story and blending those to together with elements of a third. This actually involves reinserting our ‘prince’ and the kiss, just with a twist. So here’s what I’m thinking:
In the forest where Snow keeps the dwarfs’ cottage after fleeing his stepmother lives the Big Bad Wolf. Not an ordinary wolf, rather a wickedly enormous wolf with an almost human intelligence and a red kerchief tied around his neck. The dwarfs are afraid of this wolf and warn Snow to keep away from it, but in the dead of winter he finds it half frozen trying to get into the cottage and lets it in to warm, and ends up giving it food and shelter every day during the dwarfs’ absence during that winter.
On the last day of winter, the dwarfs come home early and find the wolf in their home, and when the leader attempts to take his axe to the wolf Snow flings himself between the axe and the wolf, which, you’ve probably already figured out who the Big Bad Wolf actually is- the act of devotion is enough to break the spell on the wolf, who transforms into a handsome young man. This young man, we learn, is called Red, and when he left the safety of the path and crossed wits with a witch he was cursed into the form we knew him in. It was Snow’s kindness that thawed his curse and eventually broke it.
Red informs the group that he’s been away from home for awhile and really needs to go home and tell his family that he’s not dead, but promises that he’ll be back once he’s able to, and he leaves the story for awhile, and we get back on track with the actual Snow White. I feel like sticking the Snow White and Rose Red plot in the middle is cheating, but we’re getting to the payoff.
So, the Snow White story goes as planned from here- the queen finds out Snow is still alive, and doesn’t want him turning up to claim his throne, so she goes to find him and finish the job, etc, etc. Snow offers hospitality to the old crone he finds in the woods, etc, the dwarfs come home to find Snow extremely dead.
Or so it would seem. Dwarfs are actually pretty magical and can tell the difference between death and magic sleep, so they set Snow up somewhere he can sleep safely and then go about trying to find a way to save him.
Fast forward to the following spring, when Red is finally able to return. He’s pretty upset to find out that his friend is in enchanted sleep, and kinda just moves into the dwarfs’ house to help them find the answer. At some point during this, Red is sitting by Snow’s bedside talking to him, and it’s very late and we get a very cliche trope that I love, which is character a spills their secrets to comatose character b, in this case Red telling Snow all about his secret backstory- he didn’t so much ‘wander off the path and stumble onto a witch’ so much as he left it deliberately to seek her out, and he didn’t so much cross wits with her as he challenged her to a contest where if he won she would grant his heart’s desire. He won, so she gave him his heart’s desire, but then for good measure she cursed him cause, you know, she’s a dick. His heart’s desire, as y’all’ve no doubt guessed, was to be a man, because I’m sure y’all were wondering where the trans element was going to come in.
He also tells Snow the other secret, that he’d gone home to square everything with his family so he could come back and beg Snow to marry him, because he’s in love with him. Of course he’s holding Snow’s hand the whole time he’s saying all of this, and he cradles it against his cheek and even does the palm kiss trope, and then there’s a really tense music swelling moment before Snow’s hand moves, just a little, and then cups his cheek properly, and there’s a very emotional moment and etc, etc, happily ever after.
