On the subject of rewritten fairytales–
I once taught a fiction class where I assigned that as a topic. (This was a class of mostly students in middle school, for context.) And this one boy, who was probably 13 at the time, wrote a variation on Sleeping Beauty where the protagonist was a prince instead of a princess.
And his parents knew the prophecy in a surprising amount of detail, and so once he was in, essentially, a magically induced coma, they knew that their son would only be saved by a True Love’s Kiss.
But the trouble was, they never really were that close to their son, and so they had no idea who he was in love with. So they essentially round up every single woman in the Kingdom who their son has ever met and ask them all to kiss him. Alas, their son stays unconscious and no one’s kiss wakes him.
At a loss, they ask his BFF (another prince from another Kingdom who was literally named Price Fabulon, pronounced “Fab-you-lon” like fabulous and Mulan pressed together, and I know this because he read his story out loud to the class) if their son might have been in love with someone they didn’t know about.
Prince Fabulon then surprises everyone by kissing the unconscious prince himself, and it works! And then they get married and live happily ever after.
And that was the literal best variation of that story I’ve ever read in my entire life. I hope wherever that boy is, he’s met his own prince somewhere.
:)
2016 wasn’t all bad as Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield explains. Humanity did some good this year.
So Lu and I went to watch Rogue One again today, and sitting in the row in front of us was this lesbian couple and their two sons. The younger son, who looked about 6 or 7 (although obviously it was pretty dark so I couldn’t be sure), talked throughout the entire film, and usually this would be annoying, right? Not this little guy. He was such a huge Star Wars nerd. He kept explaining things to his mum so that she’d understand what was going on, and it was so sweet??
(By the by, RO spoilers ahead)
He’d be like “That’s the Death Star. That’s important, remember that.” Or “That’s Tarkin!!! He’s a baddy.” But he also had the greatest reactions to things, like when the rebels all agreed to fly to Scarif he shouted “THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER” and he actually fist pumped the air when C-3PO and R2 had their cameo. Like all kids, though, there were a few things that went over his head and he would loudly ask if one of his mothers would explain what was going on. My favourite of these moments was when he asked if Baze was sad about Chirrut’s death because Chirrut was his boyfriend.
But I think my overall favourite point was when Krennic flew into Mustafar, and upon seeing the familiar streams of lava this boy leaned over and said to his mum: “This is where Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi had a fight because Anakin had gone to the dark side, and Obi-wan Kenobi said he loved Anakin but Anakin didn’t say it back so he chopped all his legs off.”
Like, you’re not wrong, kid.
On the way out of the cinema I could still hear him babbling excitedly about Princess Leia and how cool he thought she was, and how he wanted to watch A New Hope when they got home, and how much he’d loved the film. It was so sweet. I enjoyed the film ten times more than I would have done if that boy hadn’t been there, I’m sure. Honestly, god bless that gay Star Wars family.
