#maddieryn

[lttlewing]

maddie & ryn (siren)

maddie: "because i believe ryn is good. and i care about her. she's different, xander. she's special."

[disneycritical]

Most of the other Disney live-action films had ways I could see the original film being changed to fit modern times and they failed because they didn't really do them (or do them well in some cases). For Lion King, I can't really think of anything I might change to make it better (which does ultimately make it something of a pointless remake). Do you have anything about the original film you think could be changed/updated for a modern audience?

I’ll say right now that I’m very biased since I believe it’s a perfect film but there’s really nothing that needed updating or changing. 

It’s honestly timeless. Modern audiences like the movie just fine: I’ve shown it to my kindergartners and they love it just as much as we did 20 years ago.

-pink

[lttlewing]

“some people i trust, some people hurt me.” “that’s right.” “like man in car.”

[persephoneofhades]

I love that the show clearly knew that Maddie’s absence from the last episode was going to need some balance in this episode and had Maddie entirely involved in Ryn’s main storyline while Ben was off in a B Plot with his parents. Maddie’s teaching Ryn to read and taking her to the doctor while Ben is excavating graves of Helen’s family members.

If nothing else, Maddie and Ryn are still STRONG as ever.

[tflatte]

maddieryn replied to your post: i’m claiming sandry “i refuse to have any interest...

I think Tamora Pierce has basically already confirmed this. The ace part at least if not the aro part, but I’m pretty sure that’s come up in her q&as on tumblr before, you should go check it out!

wait really? i knew she’d confirmed kel as aro(and i love her for that because kel was my all-time hero as a kid) but i didn’t know about sandry!

[persephoneofhades]

blakebat replied to your post “The OT3 feels were strong in this episode, but I can’t help but be...”

personally, i'm more drawn to maddie and ryn because (theres more tension there imo) even tho we know ryns feelings for the both of them are true, ben was sang to. maybe thats why hes drawn to her. while hes was being affected by that, instead of opening up to maddie, he kept his troubles to himself and even pulled away from her because he was so obsessed. and this didn't happen just once. it happened twice. when he first found her and then when she went away.

and then theres the fact even if he doesnt directly hurt mermaids and is long run trying to help them, he supports his friends who do. instead of talking to them like he said he would, he procrastinated until it was too late and people were hurt. ik hes good deep down, but hes been walking the line.

tho i would love for all of them to end up together and for bens issues to be addressed and learned from instead of ignored.

This is such a late response and I’m so sorry, but RL got way in the way with my job and I wasn’t able to actually even WATCH the last three episodes so I didn’t feel like I could answer this without having seen them even though I knew kinda vaguely what had happened.

That being said, I’m all caught up now and Siren may be over for now (I even changed my url to reflect it), but I’m answering this anyway.

I understand where you’re coming from and to a certain extent, I think the show sorta means for you to feel this way.

Ben’s feelings are very clearly made out to be not completely natural and even potentially harmful, both to himself and to others. That’s made ESPECIALLY clear in the last few episodes. So it’s less that Ben’s “issues” are addressed and need to be learned from as much as Ben needs a cure that doesn’t yet exist since he’s essentially been accidentally given a few doses of a drug that he’s deathly allergic to and is now in withdrawal from.

He’s a flawed character, sure, but a majority of his actions from about episode 5 on were influenced by the song. You could also make a pretty strong argument that he was influenced from the second he heard the song back in episode 1, but as Maddie says, he was still acting like himself then and really only started changing after Ryn left at the end of episode 4, the first time he went into withdrawal.

Maddie’s relationship with Ryn is, by comparison, more genuine and healthy because there is no outside influence, however innocently meant. Maddie knows where her boundaries are and has been able to keep a clearer head this entire time which explains why Ben was so flustered by the kisses and Maddie wasn’t. It meant something else to Ben, it probably felt like something else to Ben.

Which isn’t to say he’s completely excused for all of his actions, but the poor dude has a pretty good explanation for his behavior and it’s not like he MEANT to be drugged in the first place. He saw a girl who had just been attacked and tried to help her and got drugged for his troubles because she was curious about him and happened not to be human. 

His actions on the boat I think you’re looking at in a way I don’t really understand, though.

Ben had just found out that there was a military boat on the water that was trying to hunt the mermaids. He knows they’re trying to lure in Ryn’s sister and Ryn by proxy likely. He runs out to find Xander about to set sail ALSO to hunt mermaids. Ben knows that this is a doubly dangerous journey due to both the mermaids AND the military and he also knows that he can’t actually say that to Xander (or Chris or Calvin who were also in the vicinity and would have likely demanded an explanation) so he does the best he can at the time and just goes along to hopefully help everyone avoid a terrible outcome.

And he fails. Because he is vastly outnumbered and doesn’t totally know what he’s dealing with, but he’s doing the best he can with what information and resources he has. What would have happened if he HADN’T gone with them and “supported” them as you claim? They’d all have been killed, all four of them: Sean, Xander, Calvin, and Chris. They MIGHT have believed him if he told them the whole story, but they clearly already believed there was a mermaid out there and were planning to go exactly BECAUSE of that so confirming their theory wasn’t going to keep them off the water. He had NO good options. None. He goes because he’s now the only one on that boat who has any clue what they might be going up against and the fact he’s still unprepared for the severity of what’s actually out there is not his fault.

I’m not sure what you think Ben should have done in this situation that would have changed anything for the better because I can’t think of one. 

It’s very very rare that I feel the need to defend the white boy in a show this strongly, but Ben just feels like one of the rare straight white male protagonist characters that isn’t a complete pile of shit. 

Maddie is amazing and I love her dynamic with Ryn a lot and I love her relationship with Ben and I love how she stands up for herself and isn’t afraid to call off her relationship with Ben when she can tell it’s no longer working for her even though she loves him. I’d love to see Maddie’s background explored more and see more of her relationship with her dad and continue to grow her relationship with Ryn as well as Ben (especially since Ryn is trying to stay away from Ben, she may end up having to spend more time with Maddie by process of elimination). I’d love to see Maddie teaching Ryn about how to be human now that she’s here to stay. I’d love to see Maddie showing Ryn around town and going shopping with her and getting her to help at the marine research center. I’ve got a lot of hopes for Maddie and Maddie/Ryn.

I’m just not against it including Ben as well and I don’t feel quite as negatively towards him as you do. I just want him to get better and see his relationship with Ryn grow more from there since I do believe he has genuine feelings for her that weren’t all influenced by the song. I want to see him rebuild the trust between himself and Maddie and slowly integrate all three of them together. I want to see him build up a relationship with Helen now that he knows they’re family. I want to see more of his friendship with Xander especially now that Xander is in the know and will know exactly what Ryn is and may be Ben’s only support without Maddie and Ryn. I want to see the two of them team up to help protect Ryn when Calvin’s stunt with the news comes out.

This show has a lot of potential with ALL of its characters, Ben included. So while I understand where you’re coming from, I can’t agree with you.