#neverafter speculation

[violetren]

My read on the Princess situation is that there is a terrible confluence of clinical depression and cult of personality.

They are all so disempowered and traumatised and aware of the unfairness surrounding their lives on a multiversal scale. It's knowledge that crushes them and makes an already hellish existence so much worse.

They are also princesses. Main characters with all the charisma and expectations that come with that. Of course it's them trying to do something in this situation, who else would it be? Town person B whose whole existence is to stand there and clap when a princess's wedding parade goes past.

They say they're fighting to put an end to all of it, to erase existence so that something new might be written. And there is such tremendous hubris in that. This idea that they will wipe everything out and then of course the beings, The Author's that wrote them, will write something new and kinder. Because that's what happens in stories when the heroes sacrifice themselves right?

[notalexgrey]

please tell me i’m not alone in thinking that the fairies are just a ruse and the stepmother is just going to show up and wreck shit? like baba yaga isn’t running away, let alone dying, from fairies. that’s some stepmother shit

[artemisfangspeaks]

do we think that the princesses realize that by blotting out their story they’re also destroying the lives of those within? their parents, anyone who helped them, anyone who even exists within the realms of their stories- all gone. i’m hoping that cinderella realizing that not everyone has their own stories eventually leads to the revelation that their stories aren’t just theirs, and that by taking back their agency through the destruction of their books means that they are taking away the agency of other “minor” characters

[feelingtheaster99]

Poor Gerard. He was really going through it in this episode and lashing out at Tom Thumb and NOW as we see from the sneak peak that that he is being forced to confront whether or not Elody still loves him

[sparkystar26888]

I think it’s really interesting how it’s obvious that Elody still has love for Gerard, and so that’s not what’s wrong. In fairy tales, princes do not choose to be monsters, they are forced. But Brennan has always asked how frog-like *Gerard* is feeling. He has a choice, in some part, in his monstrosity. And I like to think that the true love is now meant to be Gerard finding himself, his true self, and then learning to love it. He’s so close, yet so far.

The other thing that has stuck out to me is the princesses. When they were proposing their plan, it reminded me of the Good Place a bit. At the end, they decide to let people end, because no one wants to go on forever. And I know it’s not the same here; that it is rather they want a new, more just world, and believe that cannot happen with them in it. They are tired of living forever without free will, and can think of no way out other than to just end it. They can see no answer, and are willing for everyone else in their stories to go because of it. And I don’t know what the right answer is, but I feel a deep sadness for these women. Who just want some freedom, and do not know how to get it in any other way

[let-me-sleep-or-die]

Pinnochio and his patron

Ok so I've had this thought for a while and after episode 7 I really think it could happen. So we all thought Pinnochio might sever ties with his mother at some point and gain a new class or patron, right? ok great, I’ve always wanted this and the second the golden goose entered the picture I wanted it to be her.

I think the golden goose could become Pinnochio’s new patron, the sword becoming his new staff and and and…

senator the ram is his new familiar. I think that it would be very very cool to have Pinnochio have a whole new path of his magic based in truth and the people (and pets) he chose knowing the sword would see how these people truly care for him where his mother did not. these are my thoughts and I really just want this poor child to be happy.

[anthony-burchs-dog]

no fr neverafter is straight up like… the fairies are fucking “back to normal” democrats and the answer to the bad shit is straight up burning the system down and creating a new one. like. likeeeeeee the authors are the fucking billionaires who rewrite laws and the lobbyists who keep things horrible just to make more stupid money you know like. i don’t think capitalism is a boring thing for neverafter to be about because it’s not just “oh nooooo capitalism bad” it’s feels like we’re trying to imagine ourselves BEYOND “oh no it’s bad make it not bad” and BEYOND “the authors are all powerful and there’s nothing we can do to find them” and BEYOND “you don’t know that what comes next will be better so it’s better to just keep what we have now”

[waterdeep-wizard]

Updates in my Fairytale research that I thought were relevant

there’s a fairytale called The Fox and The Cat in which The Cat tricks The Fox into being hunted and killed by hounds and their human.

there’s also a fairytale called The Wolf and The Fox where The Fox kills the Wolf

The version of The Frog Prince where Gerard is thrown against a wall is also the version in which the Princess is spoiled and rude and just as selfish as he is (ELODY I SEE YOU)

in the Wanda Gag Translation of the Frog Prince, the Princess and the Prince are children and the Frog is someone who just wanted a playmate and it was only speculated that they got married not confirmed.

there are two wolves in Little Red Cap and while the first one is cut open by the Huntsman the second one is boiled alive by Red Cap and her Grandmother.

The fairytale The Golden Goose involves the youngest son of a pair of laborers meeting an “old grey man” who after sharing some beer and cakes with him points him in the direction of a Golden Goose which provides the youngest son with a windfall of fortune.

The Original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella has no mention of Fairy Godmothers or talking mice, but birds do blind the Stepmother and her stepsisters.

There are seven fairies in the Sleeping Beauty of the Andrew Lang collection but thirteen in the original print, HOWEVER, the “Old Wicked Fairy” makes eight in the Andrew Lang one.

the opening pages of The Snow Queen involve a hobgoblin who has a mirror that shows the ugliness in the world, when he’s flying one day he drops it and it breaks into shards. some people got glass shards in their eyes and could only see the ugly side of things BUT SOME PEOPLE ended up with glass shards in their hearts which would turn their hearts to ice.

In both versions of the Frog Prince that I have, there is no mention of a kiss breaking the curse.

The Frog Prince is not actively rude or selfish in the fairytale he just imposes on her after the Princess loses her golden ball and then breaks her promise to play with him and be a companion to him after he retrieves it for her.

The Prince that wakes Sleeping beauty is one hundred years younger than her and when he finally wakes her, her entire castle and kingdom disappear in the Andrew Lang version.

However in the Original Grimm version, the briars are mentioned to be “as if they had hands” and the princes that got caught in them “died miserable deaths”

In the Andrew Lang version the Good Fairy is said to be the one who put everyone else in the palace to sleep and “gave her good dreams” but in the Grimm version there is no mention of her past the first page where she changes the curse

Animals are also much more present in the Andrew Lang version than the Grimm one.

In conclusion, I believe Rosamund’s original timeline was the Grimm version of the story and now she’s in the Andrew Lang version.

In contrast, I think Gerard was living the sanitized/Wanda gag version of the Frog Prince but is now in the Grimm version of the fairytale.