Death (or lack thereof) on the Isle of the Lost
The Descendants wave is still on for me and I have to take this thing out of my mind so I can (hopefully) go back to do irl things I actually have to do.
So, the Isle of the Lost. We (the fandom) already talked about many things, but there is one that always makes me ponder, aka the supposed mortality rate.
A lot of fanwriters/headcanoners and so forth insert the death of parents for many Isle kids, but how is it possible, I wonder, that Villains were brought back to life, only to die again? Then why bringing them back to begin with? Let them stay dead!
Unless there was a reason for it. Unless the Villains had already escaped death in the first place (like they did in the webseries Villain’s Lair) OR there was a concrete chance someone on their side could bring them back (and here I call back to Nasira, she’s been the culprit in my top tier headcanon until some time ago).
I already mentioned the Auradon Handbook hints that the Villains briefly ruled the world and there was a Heroes’ revolt to defeat them again, so it’s likely the Beast was elected King in one of the most ancient ways, aka for prowess on the battlefield.
And, if the Heroes had already killed their Villains in the past, and had to fight them again, then it’s likely there was a lot of fear going around it could happen again. Another war, more fights in the lands, more chances of the Villains taking control.
The Isle was made for this, to keep everyone in with no way out, not even death. Because death, for some Villains, is reversible. Because them being alive in seclusion was safer than having them dead.
What does it have to do with the Isle’s mortality rate, you ask? Everything. It means the Barrier very likely doesn’t allow Villains to die, hence no mortality rate in there, not for them.
Now, that would poise a problem, aka the Villains believing themselves invincible. “How to force them to keep each other in check?” someone must have been thinking during the planning.
Through the single thing more dangerous than despair: hope.
Follow me: some of the princesses (and perhaps a certain Fairy) likely thought that if Villains had their own kids to care for, their flesh and blood to protect and nurture, they’d learn love and the value of life and compassion (”even Villains love their kids” echoes very strong here, no?). Very nice, I guess, although a tad too idealistic. Someone with a bit more, uh, common sense may think that as a harsher punishment, not as a chance for redemption. Someone a bit less kind may say: you made us suffer, now watch as the one you may love suffers too, with the little inkling of hope they one day could break you out just to escape the misery. Learn compassion through pain.
Therefore the possibility geriatric characters had children. And one may argue men’s fertility has phases during their lives and older men can still procreate, but women? Once menopause hits, it’s done, no more babies. And yet! Yzma, arguably the oldest of the oldest female villains - biologically - has not one but two children. TWO! I always found it so very weird and the only explanation is that the Barrier’s system is even more cruel than it seemed at first sight, that it kept the Villains in good enough health to allow this for a precise aim.
Because adults can’t die, children can. Children did. All the deaths on the Isle are in the second generation.
Let that sink in. It’s impossible that children are equally immune to death because, otherwise Mal would have known she couldn’t drown when she and Uma were little, or the kids would be a lot more reckless than they are, therefore children can face death, that’s a fact. Perhaps the Barrier keeps them in better health than the living conditions would realistically allow, but death is still a real possibilty for Isle kids.
At the same time, adults can’t die, we said, but how to make sure they won’t ignore the need to protect their perspective progeny (especially before it existed) and go on bloody sprees against each other?
And here comes my idea. Adults can’t die on the Isle, but they can feel the wounds, suffer from the illnesses, feel the pain just as strongly and, in case of lethal situations, since they can’t die, they suffer a thing a few princesses did: a sleeping spell, or rather, a coma-like living death, with some perception of the outside, but no real consciousness nor ability to act. Fear of that would be enough to restrain even the most calloused Villains, especially the ones who are obsessed with control because what can be worse than not having control on their own selves for them?
There’s one more thing I headcanon the Barrier does, and it’s that it mellows the Villains’ minds. I already talked a bit about in the post mentioned above, so I won’t delve into this again, the point is that the weakening of the Villains from a mental point of view can be the Barrier’s doing. Why? It’s possibly the only measure put forth to prevent a too high body count for the kids, other than prevention in the remote possibility they might get out. Because, if the Villains are scatterbrained and uncaring and less evil overall, the kids have better chances of survival, and if they are less cunning they are easier to defeat (evidence of this? I’ll give you one that speaks for itself: Maleficent mistaking the fridge for a safe and being unable to open it).
OR it ould be that every time they should have had a death, they wake up from their coma a little less than they were. A little less smart, a little less quick, a little less elegant, less fearsome, less anything. The more time they “die“ the more is taken from them. As an unpredicted aftereffect of cheating death.
And, ooops, this is a lot darker than I anticipated when I eleborated the idea in my head.
