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ograndebatata · 5 years

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My thoughts on some issues with Season 3 of Elena of Avalor

Disclaimer: This post is only an exposition of my personal opinions on what I think are bad aspects of a series that I overall like. It is not meant to reflect my thoughts on the series as a whole, on the show’s creators, cast members, or anyone else involved in its production. It’s also not meant to reflect my thoughts on fans of the show who don’t find any problem with the things I’ll be pointing out.

However, while I will do my best to go about it politely, said opinions are still about ‘less good’ points of the series.

I’m not saying any of you has to agree with everything I said, or even with a word with it. And I’m also not saying I posted this because I wanted to start an argument. I just happened to find enough issues with the series in too few episodes that I wanted to put forth my thoughts on them.

All those who feel curious as to what those are, feel free to read on.

Introductory words

This one is a first for me.

To the best of my memory, I never actually wrote such a lengthy piece of text offering criticism on any kind of media, be it a book, a video game, a TV series, or anything else.

But despite how little my Tumblr may or may not reflect it, I am a fan of various TV series and book series and film series, and many books and films that aren’t part of any series as well.

Two shows that I can safely say I am a devoted fan of are Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor. Yes, it may sound odd that a guy my age likes TV shows meant for preschoolers (at least regarding Sofia the First, as I have seen some debate on whether Elena of Avalor actually is for preschoolers) but both of them, in my opinion, are good for all ages.

To those who might be dropping in out of nowhere and are at a loss on what I’m talking about, I will offer some context, in case you’re interested in reading more about this. However, I strongly recommend you watch both series before diving in, especially because this will contain spoilers for recent episodes.

Sofia the First is a series that aired on Disney Junior from 2012 to 2018 (in the USA, at least, as other countries had different release dates), about a princess whose widowed shoemaker mother falls in love with a king. As a result of her mother’s eventual marriage, Sofia gains a new father and two new siblings, but also the responsibility of learning to be a princess, even though she doesn’t become the crown heir.

It was a fun show, with lots of good elements, such as likable characters, fun adventures, defiance of gender stereotypes (both from girls and from boys) and occasional cameos from various Disney Animated Canon characters, such as Snow White, Mulan, and Olaf. I strongly recommend it.

Elena of Avalor started airing in 2016, and takes place in the same universe as Sofia the First, with its intended premiere actually being a spin-off of Sofia the First called Elena and the Secret of Avalor, meant as a backdoor pilot to the series, but which eventually became an episode with a framing device in present day added in. It premiered on Disney Channel, but it was eventually reclassified as part of Disney Junior.

In my opinion, it is even better than Sofia the First. Besides including the same kind of likable characters and fun adventures, it also focuses on elements like family relationships, dealing with trauma, mourning deceased loved ones (with onscreen murder of the protagonist’s parents actually being committed by the show’s starter villain), and a few characters that can’t be so easily labeled as heroes or villains. It also has character growth from the leading characters, which by itself makes it stand out. I recommend it even more strongly than Sofia the First.

However... I do feel both series have their points where they seem to show lack of work put into them, for lack of a better description.

For Sofia the First, I feel those started in the fourth and final season, when the series became more serialized. And coincidentally or not, they seem to be starting in Elena of Avalor in its (so far, at least) final season (in this case, its third), which has also been said to feature a single, largely serialized arc.

This is, by and large, my attempt at laying out the current on that front in Elena of Avalor, and my general feelings on them.

I will give from the get-go that the bulk or even the entirety of these are bound to go over the heads of the target audience, which is not made up of adults like me. However... I am someone who likes consistency and continuity in the media he consumes, and while I don’t mind some wiggle room, I find that there are limits. And while things like action and humor and the like aren’t handled the same way for all audiences, I feel that general attention to detail should be applied with the same rigor whatever the target demographic.

Anyone is welcome to read, but once more, people who didn’t watch the series are bound to have no idea what I’m talking about, and will get spoiled in case they decide to watch either series later.

To use somewhat of a stereotypically stern sentence... don’t say I didn’t warn you

Overview of Season 3 so far

Let me make one thing clear. Just because I’m speaking of negative points in Season 3 of Elena of Avalor, it doesn’t mean I hate the season. It’s not horrible, or even bad.

It already showed a lot of strong points, of which I will list a few.

- We get to see interesting new locations, both within Avalor itself (like Xotep and the Sunbird Temple) and outside (like the Grotto Metamo in the realm of Vallestrella and the Kingdom of Norberg)

- Old characters that haven’t been seen in a while return, such as the noblins, Princess Valentina, and the sunbirds Lama, Qapa, and Hool.

- We got to meet fun new characters, such as Queen Abigail and Princess Chloe of Norberg, and the vulture-humanoid imp Zopilote.

- We’re seeing more character development, both for heroes, like Elena, Isabel and Migs, and for villains, like Victor Delgado, Carla Delgado, and King Hector.

- The animation is still overall great, despite minor goofs here and there.

But overall, I do find this season ‘less good’ so far when compared to the previous ones, as well as indicative of a certain sloppiness from the creators. And the main reasons why are below.

Just where is the source of all magic?

In Sofia the First, a plot-point that has been accused of being tacked-on is the element of the Mystic Isles, a floating magical archipelago which forms an important plot-point of the series’ fourth and final season, and was only introduced in said season’s first episode.

Overall, I see where that statement is coming from. While there was nothing before that directly contradicted said place’s existence, it did suffer from a lack of foreshadowing.

Granted, one thing many shows end up falling into is having to come up with new plot points for upcoming seasons if a series lasts longer than expected even though the creators had been planning to wrap everything up before. And sometimes, that’s difficult.

And despite it seeming relatively out of nowhere, the Mystic Isles had fun elements (like Sofia’s general exploration of the Mystic Isles), interesting characters (like Chrysta, Sofia’s trainer as a protector) and lessons relevant to the target audience being taught (such as being accepting of differences).

However, in Sister of Invention, the premiere of Season 3 of Elena of Avalor, we are introduced to the concept of Tacaina, which is said to be the source of all Maruvian magic, and a place that supposedly can be found through a special map which is only obtained via the cracking of a special puzzle.

Fans who never watched Sofia the First most likely will not notice this element, but as someone who did watch it, I’m a little confused. After all, both shows are set in the same universe, with both series referring to the world they’re set in as the Ever Realm. And in Sofia the First, the Mystic Isles were specifically said to be the source of all magic, period.

I will give it is possible that said information was give by someone, shall we say, not fully informed on the matter (in Sofia the First, it’s given by a painter seen at the Conjurers’ Conference in the Season 4 premiere). But in Sofia the First, the Mystic Isles seemed to be enough of a widespread secret there that wizards knew about them and what they were. So I’m not sure how likely this is.

Overall, some kind of actual confirmation on this would be nice, if one is to determine what is specifically canon.

Otherwise, it’s a plothole, although one that’s admittedly hard to spot.

What makes a villain?

One thing that has been praised, and fairly so, is how most villains in Elena of Avalor are not only fun to watch, but well developed enough to have some kind of motive. Those motives may be simple, but they do exist. Troyo wanted to be King of the Jungle, Fiero wanted revenge for not having been Royal Wizard, Victor and Carla want respectively respect and an escape for loneliness, and the list could go on.

The only two villains which were so far shown to have a complete lack of a motive (going only by what we see on the series) are Shuriki and Zopilote. The former was an evil old hag who wanted to oppress, the latter is an evil old creep who wants to destroy.

Adding to that, many villains were shown to be dead serious and had genuinely unsettling vibes even for an adult audience. Shuriki committed onscreen murder and oppressed a kingdom for 41 years, Fiero could have left a whole ballroom’s worth of people petrified for eternity, and Marimonda could have killed thousands or even millions with her magical gardening if her rampage had continued.

For Season 3, we have Ash Delgado, who despite being tamer than other villains in the show, already proved to be a threat to be wary of, having come almost as close to killing Elena as Shuriki (although I do still think Shuriki is scarier).

But... there are things about her which don’t seem to add up.

For one, in her first villain song, The One And Only, she claims that Zopilote took everything he wanted from her town, including her two pet mice, and that the deed made her realize that the most wicked always wins and caused her to say goodbye to goodness.

A bit simple, but I think it still serves its purpose, especially if those pet mice were, for some reason, the only family she had.

But then, she tracks down the very same malvago that took her pet mice from her and wants to learn magic from him specifically.

It seems odd.

There’d be other malvagos as well for sure. Why would she want specifically that one? After all, supposedly she would hold a grudge against him for taking what she had. Yes, she specifically alluded to saying goodbye to goodness, but... even from a practical sense, it doesn’t seem like a good decision. After all, there were all sorts of inherent risks.

Could this actually be some kind of long game at revenge? Or was losing her pet mice just an excuse to be a shit, which she actually always was from day one after all?

I’ll give it’s the kind of thing that we can get actual confirmation on later in the series, but... it’s still a bit of a confusing setup.

When are we again?

One thing that I personally always found strong in Elena of Avalor, and which I loved since it was first implemented, is the general attention to continuity. While some episodes, most notably Realm of the Jaquins and Two Left Fins, did have their first airings out of order, they were somehow conveyed to be out of order, and could be retroactively fit into their right place in an appropriate way.

Overall, it largely seemed like there was a clear timeline of events, despite a few minor hiccups.

But now, things are just getting confusing there.

First, Sister of Invention seems to show a sort of graduation/end of the year diploma for Isabel after she finishes her stint at college. However, the bulk of indications suggest that said stint should have ended months before, given the duration of the average school year.

Yes, it’s possible that the school year in Avalor is one of those that goes from February to December, like those in the Southern Hemisphere in the real world. However, going by the very long vacation Isabel took in Nueva Vista, it doesn’t seem likely, unless the time we saw her in Return of El Capitán was some kind of temporary leave to attend Dia de los Muertos with her family.

Which is a possibility, especially given how the upcoming Carnaval episode (which has to be set in either February or March) will take place shortly after Season 3 begins, but it’s another kind of thing that would be nice with some concrete indication.

Second, the episode The Incredible Shrinking Royals has a feast of friendship somewhere between January and March. Season 1 showed it to be somewhere in July or August (given how Party of a Lifetime was specifically said to take place in July, and Masks of Magic seems to have taken place either afterwards or not very long before), but now we have it in February or March.

Fair enough. Maybe this year’s Feast of Friendship happened earlier... but then there is another problem that comes from a line of dialogue in the episode. It’s when Elena tells Doña Paloma that it was she who told her that what matters is what people do when they arrive where they want to be... at the previous year’s Feast of Friendship!

Which I’m sorry, doesn’t add up.

Between Masks of Magic and The Incredible Shrinking Royals, there was one Dia de Los Muertos in The Jewel of Maru, and another in Return of El Capitán. By that reckoning, more than one year has passed between the two. And also, Doña mentions that the feast in the latter episode will be her thirteenth, when it should be her fourteenth. Yes, maybe there wasn’t a Feast of Friendship on that missing year for some reason, but still, the Feast of Friendship on which Doña told that to Elena would have been two years before not the previous year.

This one is actually a repeat of a prior error, as in All Kingdoms Fair Julio told Doña that she helped them build their float last year and they had a parranda. Granted, things could have happened exactly that way in the Christmas we didn’t see, but well... it just seems more like a goof.

How much time to traditions?

I will admit, this one is largely nitpicky.

But it’s still something I noticed, and thus I felt it should be included.

In Father In Chief, Chief Zephyr briefly sits down on what seems to be some kind of magical stone that makes his statue, which in turn is inside the Commander’s Rock, which we first saw in Shapeshifters. Skylar calls it a jaquin tradition. Which on itself, seems fair.

But in Shapeshifters, Chief Zephyr specifically mentioned that it was Alacazar who built the Commander’s Rock. Alacazar, who was King Raul’s Royal Wizard, less than fifty years before. Yes, Alacazar could have been the Royal Wizard for longer than that, but given how long-lived jaquins seem to be (King Verago has ruled for over fifty years and still looks fairly youthful), Alacazar would have to be very long-lived to have built the Commander’s Rock long enough ago for all those jaquin chiefs to exist. Which doesn’t seem likely, given how in Elena and the Secret of Avalor he seemed to largely age at the rate of a regular human.

Yes, I will plead guilty to wizards in my fanfic continuity also being more long-lived than non magical humans, so I can’t fault canon for doing the same, but.. by that much? It just seems... well, unnaturally rushed.

I will give it’s also possible that the jaquin statues and the plaque that makes them were elsewhere before and were moved to the Commander’s Rock later... but again, it seems something that could have had more of an explanation in canon.

If love really is in the air, it started floating a bit suddenly

If the page about him on TV Tropes is anything to go by, Craig Gerber isn’t big on romance in the series he conceives, at least between the main characters.

That said, for a series where romance isn’t the main focus, he and his team overall do a very good job of portraying nice romantic relationships in it, whether they’re between couples that have been married for decades (such as Francisco and Luisa, who in their time together are clearly shown as very much in love after all these years) couples that fall in love at first sight (like Charoca and Charica, who were just adorable) or what appears to be a sum of both (like King Pescoro and Queen Camila, who look like they fell in love at first sight, but have nurtured that relationship over time and been together for around twenty years, if not longer).

And if Elena and Mateo end up becoming a romantic couple, I can say without exaggeration that it will be the best progression from friends to lovers that I have seen in recent television.

Still... I can’t help but think they kind of dropped the ball in the most recent relationship they have apparently introduced.

I will give I may be unduly biased, given my shipping preferences for the characters... but I promise I’m trying my best not to be.

In a recent Twitter post, I called it a romance that seemed out of nowhere.

In a more recent Twitter post, I said it seemed less out of nowhere, but still an abrupt leap.

And well... as I write this, I still stand by the latter statement.

I’m sorry, but I feel that, on a canon level, if Gabaomi is really meant to be portrayed as romantic, it got the short end of the stick on portrayals of couples in Norberg Peace Prize.

Maybe it has to do with different expressions of affection across cultures, as well as with my personal views on affection. I mean, I hug my best friend when we meet after we don’t see for a while, and we’re both guys and hetero. And it’s not at all unusual here in Portugal for friends of different genders to greet each other with hugs and cheek kisses. On a familial level, it’s also common for mothers and children of both genders, as well as fathers and children of both genders, to greet each other with cheek kisses.

So to me at least, mere hugs between two friends, even if of a different gender, don’t exactly scream ‘ROMANCE!’.

I will give that Gabe and Naomi had subtle moments so far that could be interpreted as romantically coded, such as their dance in My Fair Naomi, their hug in Song of the Sirenas, and their hug in Naomi Knows Best. But... well, again, it doesn’t exactly shout like there was a romantic relationship upgrade.

I also know it’s a Disney Junior show, and that there possibly is some form of rule against explicit romance, at least between younger characters, in the series. But unfortunately, I feel that only makes the whole thing even more confusing.

Is it romantic, or is it not romantic?

If it’s not... then perhaps this is all a mountain made out of anthill.

If it is... it does feel a bit sudden, despite those subtle moments. I feel there should have been some kind of ‘more overt’ display between Naomi Knows Best and Norberg Peace Prize. As is, it feels a bit too sudden of a leap.

At least to me.

I have no idea what lies in store on that front. It’s possible that this was never romantic to begin with. It’s possible that this ends up being a relationship that doesn’t work. And it’s also possible that this is it.

Either way... well, the whole plot point doesn’t outright have me go ‘EW!’, but it does have me a fairly bit puzzled.

Again, maybe it’s something else that will turn out to be clearer as the show goes on.

But if the current status of things is really it, period, then I have my doubts.

Full sum

To reiterate the point I made in the beginning, Season 3 of Elena of Avalor still has a lot of good things going for it.

To add a few to the list I made above:

- The cast members’ performances are as good as always, like those in the scene where Elena and Esteban have their... tense moment after Esteban admitted he sabotaged the Feast of Friendship hosted by Julio.

- There are plenty of hilarious moments, such as the antics between Queen Abigail and King Hector.

- The action scenes so far, such as the battle in Sister of Invention, are great.

Once more, the list could go on.

But despite that, if Season 3 already has so many issues in so few episodes (and I’m not even including things like animation goofs in these things I point out) I feel it’s not presenting the best image of itself so far.

Yes, individually, each of these things is fairly small, but when all of them add up and one keeps in mind that the average is basically one issue per episode... well, being as gentle about it as possible, it doesn’t exactly give as good an image of the series as it once had.

It’s not an awful series for sure, but I do feel sad that it started to show so many signs of ‘less effort’ in a row.

That said, it’s true things can still improve on the remainder of the season. And being a fan of the series, I hope they do.

Thank you to all those who actually made it to the end of this essay. I look forward to knowing your thoughts on this, whatever they are.

Peace out.

#elena of avalor #elena of avalor spoilers #eoa spoilers #spoilers #essay #my opinion on a few things

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ograndebatata · 6 years

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Prisma headcanons

Well... here’s a bit of a variation of headcanons as far as series goes, if still keeping in touch with the general theme (by which I mean I’ve temporarily switched from headcanons on characters from Elena of Avalor to a character from Sofia the First, while still keeping the theme of villains).

So... I’ve chosen to tackle Prisma this time around.

As I mentioned in my last headcanons post, I don’t think I’m the best at coming up with headcanons for villains, as I struggle with the balance of making them ‘ultimately pity worthy’ and at the same time ‘clearly in the wrong’, which is, in my personal opinion, how the average villain should be if you want to make him or her three dimensional and not entirely evil.

To those more coming over from the Sofia the First fandom, please note that my headcanons can stray into dark territory, including things like deaths in the characters’ pasts and heavily implied or even explicit violence.

This one is also a bit different in that it involves some, shall we say, bad parenting (and unlike other instances of it, it comes from biological parents rather than adoptive or step parents). I’m not absolutely sure it crosses the line into abuse, but I’d say it very likely does. I welcome any feedback on that matter should you wish to provide it.

At any rate, reader discretion is very much advised when reading this.

To those who still want to do so, please check below the cut for my headcanons on Prisma.

Prisma

No chip off the old block

Like all crystal-makers, Prisma was born in the Mystic Isles, the realm where all of magic originates. Her father Littrow and her mother Iolite, were Crystal Masters of great renown, and her sister Azurine, about four years older than her, already showed signs of being a promising Crystal Master in her own right, with some saying she could be even better than her parents.

But if their expertise on that field was said to be top of the Mystic Isles, the same could not be said about Prisma’s.

Granted, the start of her life was not the best ever. While most throughout the Mystic Isles liked Prisma, finding her a clever, sweet, well-mannered and cheerful child, even if her appearance did not favor her in the least. Granted, they knew she was not to blame, but there was something about her chalky complexion combined with her auburn hair and her pale cat-like eyes that made her look unsettling, even as a child. That wasn’t helped by the fact her parents held quite the reserve of judgement about her, thinking her demeanor was just too cheerful and bubbly, not proper for a Crystal Master in the least. Also, she seemed to ask too many questions, and had a bit too much curiosity about things they would rather not talk about. She would also be too reluctant to study certain subjects and too eager to study others for their taste. Azurine had been much better on all those aspects, with a far more proper demeanor and far more willingness to obey her parents and far less tendencies to question them. And, while they wouldn’t say this to their daughter, they too couldn’t help but be a tad put off by her icy feline eyes, even if her character did not match them in the least.

But if Prisma’s parents had their reservations, her big sister loved her dearly from the first time she laid her eyes on her. Prisma, in turn, loved and idolized her older sister, though she responded to her parents’ reservation with a rather healthy measure of wariness. Azurine was sad at what the relationship between her sister and their parents was like, but did her best to make up for it.

Things grew worse Prisma was seven, and her parents had her making her first crystal, as per tradition of all Crystal Masters. While crystal-makers are very long-lived, they age at about the same rate as humans for the first two decades or so of their lives, and their art is to be started at as young an age as possible.

As Prisma had been excellent at the theory in the classes she had already been getting (even with her reluctance for them), both Littrow and Iolite had high expectations for her first crystal. And both had them nearly-shattered once Prisma put her first crystal to use.

Both her parents had been expecting something spectacular, such as an Aqua Crystal, or a Ventus Crystal.

But instead, it turned out to be an Energy Crystal.

Even Azurine was shocked by that one, although unlike her parents she made the effort to smile and compliment Prisma on such a well done crystal, given that it was a technically perfect Energy Crystal.

But her parents were less understanding. Energy Crystals had very little practical use, because as their name would suggest they could only shoot blasts of what could only be described as ‘energy’ - beams of ‘solid light’ that damaged or even destroyed what they hit. Worse, they tended to be sought after by human magicians who would normally use them to wreak havoc in the living world, or even, on a few rare occasions, be used by evil crystal-makers themselves.

For the first time, Littrow and Iolite truly made Prisma sad. She couldn’t understand what was so bad about her crystal. She had worked hard on it, and while she hadn’t been expecting it to destroy the boulder she had used it on, surely crystals like that would be useful for something. Azurine was quick to reassure her that it meant nothing - the kind of crystal she had produced did not change who or what she was - but her parents undid that right away.

Both were in agreement that they simply would not have a maker of Energy Crystals in their family. The gossip it would cause, the damage it would bring to their reputation… it simply could not be. Their younger daughter simply had to have some other crystal-making talent somewhere within her, and they would bring it out if it was the last thing they ever did.

One can say they certainly tried. And to her credit, Prisma did have the intellectual capacity to understand how other kinds of crystals were done. But there was something else at play, something her parents knew and which Prisma herself also learned soon enough.

A crystal-maker’s ability was genetic to a great degree. When it comes to their personal ‘brand of magic’ one is overall born with it. It can be strengthened and practiced, but it can’t be ‘actually’ changed. Azurine had been born with more than one brand of magic, but Prisma only seemed to have the ability to make Energy Crystals.

Sadly, her parents kept refusing to accept that. And as they kept trying to change what could not be changed, the gulf between them and their younger daughter only grew.

At first, Azurine didn’t mind. Sure, it seemed like Prisma needed help, but a lot of people throughout the Mystic Isles needed help with things. Once she had been helped, surely she would be better.

But as time kept passing, and Prisma only looked like she was getting worse, Azurine started to feel sorry for her and did her best to cheer her up, doing fun things with her to compensate for the strain of her so-called studies. They would go on walks through the many isles, study crystals, create many kinds of crystal contraptions (their best creations were the crystal locks) and Azurine would tell Prisma stories. And unlike her parents, she would actually answer Prisma’s questions to the best of her knowledge.

Prisma treasured the time spent with her sister… but as they both kept growing up, and word about Prisma’s lack of talent got out, far too many people started throwing comments about how sad it was that she couldn’t live up to her sister’s potential.

The best that could be said was that the other residents of the Mystic Isles did not have as many problems with Prisma’s Energy Crystals as her family feared, even if they did use them to bring up how talentless she ultimately was.

Publicly, Prisma acted sweet and bubbly and cheerful and like it didn’t bother her in the least.

But in private, at every chance she got, she would take one of her Energy Crystals and use it to blast at things to relieve her frustration.

It largely worked at first.

But as she grew older, it stopped having effect. And other following events did not help in the least.

Distancing and banishment

As time went by, Azurine started having a more active role in crystal manufacture and maintenance, thus leaving her less time to be with Prisma.

Her parents, however, kept dedicating themselves to her day and night, bent on bringing some kind of talent to create crystals that weren’t Energy Crystals out of her.

After a great deal of work that took up literally years of their lives (Prisma was already twelve by this time), they did manage to teach Prisma to make Terra Crystals, and while they were of a very basic sort, it was enough for them to be sure they were on the right path, and thus keep at their efforts.

But the task of creating Terra Crystals was too difficult for Prisma. They were so distant from her natural talent that even making one left her extremely tired. And Terra Crystals were still the simplest sort to make - all the others were even more complex. The idea scared her so much that she literally trembled in fear at the idea, because she knew her parents would keep at it.

For the worst possible reasons, they never got the chance to do so, as months after Prisma finally managed to force her magic to produce Terra Crystals, a wicked witch named Illura invaded their home Mystic Isles, planning to steal their trove of knowledge on crystals and use it for her purposes on the Ever Realm - purposes they could all guess were not good, given the kind of foul power they could sense was boosting her already great inherent magic.

Azurine pointed out that there was no way she would be getting out with what she sought, as the Protectors would be arriving shortly even if she managed to defeat all four of them, which would be difficult as it stood, but Illura pointed out that she had left a little something behind to handle that problem. It took no tactical genius to realize that she meant a magical barrier.

And worse, she had brought along some similarly boosted humans, although they were not boosted to the same degree she was.

But Prisma had an idea. Perhaps the kind of barrier she had made could be broken through with her Energy Crystals. Thus she asked her parents and sister to keep Illura and her soldiers busy while she tested out her idea.

To her dismay, as she left, she heard her father shouting “Don’t do that! I forbid you!”. For once, she ignored his command and went on with her plan.

The first attempt did not go well. Blasting directly at the barrier with the energy from her crystals did nothing to it but strengthen it. Prisma counted herself thankful that she had only blasted a little amount of energy, otherwise it would be even more difficult to break through.

With that first step out of the way, she analyzed it to the best of her ability, and realized that Illura was using several metal rods she had installed in concrete places to sustain the barrier. And to prevent the Protectors from handling them, she had configured them so that the barrier would be outside them. As Prisma and her family were crystal makers, they should supposedly be unable to dismantle the metal rods.

Prisma knew she would be taking a risk with what she was about to do, but it was their only chance. Gathering herself, she aimed her Energy Crystal at the closest rod, and fired it with as much strength as possible.

To her relief, it worked. The metal rod shattered like a toothpick under the energy impact, and she felt the barrier weakening right away. Bolstered by her success, Prisma ran around and sought all the metal rods, and blasted them with her crystal. She succeeded in her task, but the effort was so intense that she had passed out.

Once she woke up, she made her way back to their damaged home, and learned that the Protectors were able to get through once she brought down the barrier, and Illura had been killed, while her soldiers (at least those that had survived) were simply sent back home, as they, besides being boosted, had also been brainwashed.

Unfortunately, she had brought down the barrier too late, as her parents ended up being killed.

Prisma didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, those had been her parents. On the other, she couldn’t remember a specific time when they had loved her for what she was. Ever since she could remember, they’d always had some sort of reservation with her, and she could see the clear differences between their interactions with her and the ones with Azurine.

She was sad about their deaths, but not in the way Azurine was.

At first, Prisma’s instincts were to comfort her sister, but upon seeing how all the Protectors were already taking care of that - and how no one at all seemed to have spared any thought for her, the first seed of bitterness was planted within her. Not even Azurine coming to check on her after the initial shock had passed and thanking her for bringing down the barrier did anything to change that.

And as the years went by, her bitterness only grew, for even though she had proved that her Energy Crystals did have their use - after all, without them, the barrier wouldn’t have been brought down - no one cared. All who wanted magic crystals went to Azurine, all who had praise to give only gave it to Azurine, and more than a few made disparaging comments about her.

Once more, Azurine did try to comfort her, saying that Prisma was her little sister and she loved her no matter what, and pointing out that if not for Prisma, the Protectors couldn’t have gotten in, they all would have been killed, and who knew what Illura would have done. And after all, what mattered the most was that Prisma knew she had done it.

But to Prisma, it was easy for Azurine to talk when she was the one who got all the attention and credit and praise. Just for once, she would like to be respected and loved and seen as talented.

And in a very ironic twist, Illura gave her the means to do so.

For whatever reason, she had brought along the notes she had collected on crystals, which had things even Prisma and Azurine hadn’t known about. Upon studying them and improving on them, Prisma was able, after almost twenty years of work, to build an enhanced Terra Crystal, with which she could create the most powerful crystals that had ever existed, something that Azurine could never hope to match.

It did have the unfortunate drawback of draining the isles she would make her crystals on… but Prisma was past caring about that. If they had never cared about her, she wouldn’t care about them either. The only thing that bothered her, if only on a subconscious level, was that she had to cheat to get that far.

And in the end, her plan failed anyway when Azurine managed to get the Terra Crystal away from her. And worse, by losing her enhanced Terra Crystal, she ended up losing her magic too. Somehow, she had put so much of herself into the crystal that its loss lead to her looking by and large like a regular human - her chalky skin became a dark tan and her auburn hair a dark brown. Only her eyes remained the same.

But even with her powers gone, Prisma managed to escape to the Ever Realm, vowing that someday, she would achieve her goal.

Wicked whiles

It turned out Prisma had been severely underestimating what she would need to do to achieve her goal. While getting to the Ever Realm from the Mystic Isles was easy enough, the other way ‘round was much more difficult. She made several attempts as the years went by, but none got anywhere close to success. And not having her powers to help put even more of a dampener on her attempts.

But one attribute that had not been stripped away by the loss of her crystal was a crystalmaker’s long lifespan, so she did have time to wait and plan. As she could sense her crystal had not been destroyed, she was also motivated to find a way.

And eventually, about a hundred years after her escape, Prisma did have a chance to return to the Mystic Isles when she ran into two princesses from Enchancia, one of which had an amulet that could summon unicorns.

Despite some minor hiccups, her plan worked out, thanks to her appealing to Princess Amber’s desire for a personal amulet. But when Princess Amber and Princess Sofia managed to come back and Princess Amber looked past her own desires and at the common good, destroying her Terra Crystal. And this time around, Prisma was captured by the Protectors and put in a cell.

Unfortunately, they put her in the cell closest to the Locket of Vor, something Prisma had heard stories about since her childhood, about how its power was terribly incomparable to anything in any realm. She didn’t know the whole story, as her parents had been adamant they wouldn’t share it until she was old enough to not have nightmares. All she knew was that Azurine, after hearing the story for the first time, looked as pale as Prisma had when she was still in her full Crystalmaker form.

Prisma assumed that Azurine was just unduly sensitive, and surely the locket could not be that dangerous. But she also assumed it would be more than enough for her purposes.

And with the help of a strangeling named Twitch, she was able to obtain it. She got surprised to find a spirit inside it, but she didn’t complain, especially upon learning how the locket could lead her to the Wicked Nine, objects that also were unbelievably powerful. With all those, Prisma knew she could reach power even further beyond than when she’d had her enhanced Terra Crystal.

Her attempt to get the first one (the Falcon’s Eye) failed, but Twitch did bring her a Necessi-Key that she was able to use to get out of jail. Her attempt to get the second one (Maleficent’s spindle) also failed, but she was able to use her Necessi-Key to get away from Princess Sofia. Then, her attempt to get the third one, (Grimhilde’s crown) succeeded, and she was even able to get a weapon and a raven named Wormwood for a second animal ally out of it.

And Wormwood was a helpful ally indeed, happy to teach her anything he could about human magic, just as long as she would use it for evil. Prisma was not sure she could learn such things, given how she had lost her powers with her broken Terra Crystal, but it turned out human magic was different enough that she could indeed learn it. She even managed to learn enough that, though the Protectors were able to take Grimhilde’s crown away from her, she escaped.

She even started entertaining the thought of simply continuing her studies of human magic and get back where she was through that, which she believed would be possible. But the spirit within the locket put a stop to such ideas, reminding her just how far she could get if she absorbed the power of the Wicked Nine.

Eventually, Prisma was able to make her way back to the Mystic Isles, and release the power of the Wicked Nine. But it didn’t take her long to realize just what she had caused, once the spirit within the locket took a semi-corporeal form and dove into her body, to use her as a source of possession and put her plan into action.

In a second, she understood just why her parents would not share the full story about the Locket of Vor with her. There was so much darkness in that tremendously foul old spirit that it just about made Prisma petrified with terror. There was literally nothing there but joy at the horror and sadness and grief that she caused to anything and everyone. And a primary source of enjoyment to her was Prisma, even after what she had done for her.

Within Vor, Prisma did everything she could to break through and call for help, but it was useless. She could do nothing but be a silent partner as Vor unleashed her destruction.

In the end, she was released when Sofia used the sheer strength of her love to banish the spirit of Vor forever… and released again when Sofia’s friends pulled her out of the amulet, unwittingly dragging her along.

Now aware of the kind of horror she would have been unleashing, Prisma surrendered to the protectors, ready to meet her punishment, whatever it was.

In the end, she had quite a surprise when Azurine, upon seeing her, rushed to hug her, shouting how relieved she was to know that she was alright and that she had been so worried.

Upon such a display, Prisma could do nothing but return the hug and cry like a fountain in a mix of fear, relief, and joy. And that night, for the first time in around a century, the two of them sat down and talked, and the broken bridges between them started being rebuilt.

Of course, Prisma still had to wait for quite a few years before being allowed out of jail. And once she did get out, she had to do further work before earning her complete freedom.

But by the end of it, she could genuinely say she was happier than she had ever been her whole life, even with the marks of everything she had endured and made others endure.

#sofia the first #headcanons #headcanon #prisma #azurine #vor #twitch #wormwood #tw: violence #tw: parental abuse #or at least something that could be very much seen like it

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