LIZ GOTAUCO: THE SNOW QUEEN FOURTH STORY

Liz Gotauco does analyses of fairytales by playing ALL THE ROLES (in different costumes, you'll see) and the Snow Queen is also her favourite! So I add her version of the Fourth Story plus my two Knuts (including that her Clever Princess wears MAKEUP and her Clever Prince has a soul patch, ie FACIAL HAIR --like his moustache in The Fairytaler-- to characterize them as YOUNG ADULTS and contrast them with child/teenage Gerda and Kai!-- On TikTok I nerded to the max by saying that in the Dumas version the Princess is 18 (elle monta sur le trône a l'âge de DIX-HUIT ANS) and her Prince is in his early twenties (DE VINGT À VINGT-ET-CINQ ANS), a detail that maybe canonized their iconography as young adults?

I ask: Are the prince and princess young adults in this version? She wears makeup and he has facial hair (soul patch)

Liz Gotauco's reply: I interpreted it that way (partly becasuse I only have so many ways to distinguish characters). 

Sandra Dermark: They are my favourite characters because I identify with them, and they're normally portrayed as young adults (Dumas says the princess is 18 and the prince is 20-25).

Liz Gotauco: Oh good! That was my intention

Sandra Dermark: Why did you want to portray them as young adults? Tradition or some other reason?

Liz Gotauco: Since my channel emphasizes the saucy side of fairytales, adult characters provide more opportunities and the costumes are more fun, also they're depicted in bed together! And I love them too!

I ADD: Same bedchamber, different beds. And her bed is WHITE, some critics have analysed that she may still be a virgin... 

----------

Gabriela C. Chávez: I LOVE the princess (in The Snow Queen)

Artsavannah: (quoting Liz Gotauco as the Clever Princess) I want a good brain in a good body LMAO

Kayleigh: I'm with the princess

Sandra Dermark: Me too <3 my favourite part of my favourite fairytale, starring my favourite characters!! I identify with her, very clever, polyglot enough to read every newspaper in the world, but critical enough to forget everything but the culture sections - and in pursuit of intellectual equals <3 

Other nerds on TikTok saw themselves in my favourite Snow Queen characters and diagnosed them with ADHD (I have both ADHD and autism), by noting that both the Prince and Princess avoid "tiresome" (kedelig, translated as both "dull" and "boring" in more recent translations) things like a partner who only looks good and is not interesting or intelligent (Princess) or standing still for hours beside a door as a royal guard (Prince). This is called thaasophobia (THAY-ah-so-PHOBIA; the fear of boredom / idleness / sitting or standing still - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH thalassophobia, the fear of deep waters / the ocean) and is very common in people with ADHD including yours truly. 

Artemis: Also I think maybe that princess has the same flavour of ADHD that I do, LOL

Sandra Dermark: Me too - and her prince has the same flavour too. If you read the original Andersen  story, both loathe boredom (kedelig things, like a bad brain in a good body or sitting still for hours)!

Maybe Andersen used this thaasophobia to characterize my favourite characters as young adults, rich, and intelligent... maybe they also had ADHD / enneatype 7 / ENFP personalities with the ensuing thaasophobia? There are many characters in fairytales and YA literature from the nineteenth century whom you can diagnose with conditions like your own...

Anyway: on to the Liz Gotauco version of the Fourth Story!

***************************

(Edmund Dulac TSQ-IV illustration)

NARRATOR: ...about a nearby princess who was so clever she read every single newspaper in the world, but was smart enough to forget every single word once she'd finished. HEAR THAT, JOURNALISM?! YA BURNT!! Recently, the princess had decided to marry...

PRINCESS: I'll only marry a man who knows how to hold a conversation. Oh, also, he's got to be handsome! I want me a man with a brain, but I want that brain in a (singsong) good bo-dy!

MALE CROW: Anyway, a huge crowd of suitors came to woo her, but they were all dumbstruck by the glamour of the princess and her court...

[...]

MALE CROW: On the third day of wooing, a young person walked up. He had a great head of hair, but his clothes indicated someone of lower means... [...] Carries a knapsack!

[...]

MALE CROW: What I do know is; the boy arrived, looked at the long-ass line, and declared: 

"PRINCE" (imagined as Kai, b/w, in knitted cap and without facial hair): Well, this seems like a huge waste of time!

MALE CROW: Then he just walked on in ahead of everyone else! His boots were creaking, which everyone knows is humiliating, but he didn't give a shit! The confidence on that young man! [...] Anyway, the boy walked right up to the princess on her throne, which is a huge round pearl by the way, and she looked INCREDIBLE! I would marry that woman myself if I wasn't a crow!

[...]

MALE CROW: Ehhh, let's get back to the story! Anyway, that cool cat knew THE PERFECT THING TO SAY!

"PRINCE" (imagined as Kai, b/w, in knitted cap and without facial hair): I'm not here to woo you... but I would love to hear the wise words of the cleverest princess in the world!

[...]

GERDA: [...] Could you help me get into the palace?

[...] 

NARRATOR: So the crow's girlfriend, whom I am creatively calling Girlfriend Crow, helped Gerda sneak into the castle through a back door. [...] Girlfriend's got a good job, she is loyal, she is crafty, [...] Anyway, they all conferenced in the palace hallway.

FEMALE CROW: [...] Hold the lamp and we'll sneak in this hallway, and no one will know we're here.

(An armed shadow rider crops up behind them).

GERDA: Um, actually, we appear to be being followed by a bunch of ghosts on horses!

FEMALE CROW: No worries, girl! Those are just the prince's and princess' dreams! Good thing too, 'cause we are totally gonna sneak in and watch those motherfuckers sleep.

NARRATOR: They reached the royals' bedroom, and it was a magical little place. The princess and her maaan each had a bed that hung from the ceiling in the shape of a lily. [...] (The beds' colours --his is scarlet and hers is white-- are not mentioned). 

PRINCE (real prince, with long hair and soul patch): Aoow, strange girl in my bed!

[...]

PRINCE: Who the fuck's Kai?

PRINCESS: What the hell is going on here!?

[...]

PRINCESS: Oh, you poor thing!

PRINCE: I'm honestly not sure how you could have possibly mistaken (hand on his chest) me for your friend, but you know, I feel for you.

PRINCESS: Okay, before we deal with all of that, I have to give it to these two crows for bringing you to us! Would you two like an elevated position here at court?

MALE CROW: Does it come with a pension?

PRINCE: Oh, trust me, the benefits are very good.

MALE CROW: We'll take it!

NARRATOR: The prince gave Gerda his bed for the night. And the next day they dressed that girl head to foot in silks and velvets, and invited her to stay at the palace for a while.

GERDA: All I want is a pair of boots, and a small horse-drawn carriage, so I can find my friend!

PRINCESS: All right, but I'm also gonna throw in a nice warm muff for the cold... The carriage is gonna be made of gold, with the palace (coat of) arms on it, you'll gonna get a whole slew of footmen, and oodles of cakes and cookies stored in the seat. That's how we do it here!!

NARRATOR: [...] and Forest Crow escorted Gerda out of the palace to her new ride. [...] Everybody was so sad to part from one another that they fucking cried. And with that, Gerda rode off to find her Kai into the thick creepy forest in a bright golden carriage, completely open to any band of thieves that might take a fancy to it. [...] So Gerda and her royal posse are riding the golden horse-drawn carriage through the forest.

(Edmund Dulac TSQ-V illustration)

NARRATOR: And the sight of such a glamourous ride attracted the attention of a band of robbers. They were not about to let a literal golden opportunity like this pass them up! Those bastards attacked Gerda's posse, murdering the footmen and the driver. They pulled Gerda out of her carriage [...]

ROBBER MAIDEN: [...] I'll strip her of her pretty dress and accessories, and she'll sleep in my bed, but first we're going to take a carriage ride together! Drive us, minions!!

NARRATOR: As they rode in the carriage together, [...] They reached the robbers' place, which was this huge cottage-gothic castle, [...] 

***************** (7TH STORY)

GERDA: Oh robber girl, you're so silly! Tell me about all the other people we met in this story, that you definitely know!

ROBBER MAIDEN (as an adult, in red, with a ribbon on her hat): Well, the prince and the princess are travelling...

*****************

One of the best retellings ever! Kudos to Liz Gotauco, six stars out of five!! ******

MEET THE ARTIST (BLOGGER)!

 Meet the artist (blogger)

Sandra Elena Dermark Bufi 

Half Spanish 🇪🇸 half Swedish 🇸🇪

33 years old

ENFP / 7w6

Ace/Aro ♠️

Autism (verbal) 🧩, ADHD

Sun in Aquarius (31/01/1992), Ascendant in Virgo, Moon in Leo 🌞♒/ASC♍/🌝♌

She (female) ♀️

❤️ Loves

Baroque and Aestheticism/Decadentism

Sweets🍨🧁🍫🍪

Fantasy fiction🧙🧛🧝🐲

Steampunk

Progressive Rock

Helping others

Caffeine ☕ and Lithium

🖤 Hates

Onions🧅, Bell peppers, tuna🐟

Caquetage (when many people speak at the same time)

Waiting and getting bored

Algebra

Cold Water (on my skin, not drinking it)

Landfowl 🦃🦚 (serious phobia)

Injustices (Wars, genocide, child abuse, grooming)

🌈Favourite Colours: Orange and Violet 🧡💜

Favourite Food: fiocchi di pera 🫔🍐 

Favourite Bands: Genesis, Mägo de Oz

Favourite Authors: Victor Hugo, J. K. Rowling 

THIS POST IS CONSECRATED TO TY LEE

THIS POST IS (ALSO) PINK AND FULL OF ELATION

Ty Lee (voiced by Olivia Hack) is an acrobat who fights alongside Azula, notable for her appearance of vivacity, innocence, and youth and for her ability to disable enemies by temporarily obstructing the chi from their limbs. Having abandoned Azula, she joins the Kyoshi Warriors, whom she had earlier impersonated.

Ty Lee (voiced by Olivia Hack) is cheerful, energetic, and somewhat of a valley girl who, along with Mai, accompanies her childhood friend Azula on her quest. She is one of seven sisters and joined the circus at an early age to appear "different from a matching set". She is a peerless acrobat and can paralyze people or temporarily neutralize their bending powers by striking pressure points. In Book Three, she was temporarily imprisoned after she supported Mai against Azula, and released when the Fire Lord was defeated. She later joined the Kyoshi Warriors, whom she had earlier impersonated in Book Two.

Daughter of Fire Nation nobles, Ty Lee made an effort to distinguish herself from her six identical sisters. After joining a circus, Ty Lee was forcefully recruited by her childhood friend Azula. Although she's an expert martial artist able to stop bending by striking pressure points, she's more interested in doing handstands and being girly than doing villain work. Nonetheless, she's easily cowed by Azula, making her a loyal, if very quirky, minion. At least, that's what Azula and Ty Lee herself thought.

Ty Lee is exuberant and cheerful. Azula comes across Ty Lee after she has joined a traveling circus, and, knowing Ty Lee’s particularly formidable skills, invites her to leave the circus and join her on her travels. Ty Lee is a traditional martial artist who has the ability to quickly strike the vital pressure points that temporarily disable Bending. As many of her adversaries do not have non-Bending combat skills, her attacks neutralize her opponents entirely and leave them vulnerable. In terms of her personality, Ty Lee is unlike any other Fire Nation native, especially those in the upper classes. Where the Fire Lord’s family is full of rage, and Mai is sad and withdrawn, she is energetic and almost always has a smile, even in combat. She eventually reveals that her cheerful exterior is a facade she puts on, and that her impulsively joining the circus was a desperate attempt at differentiating herself from her six identical sisters. Ty Lee exhibits a deep-set motivation towards individuality, which in her case is successful since Aang is the only other A:TLA character with a comparably cheerful personality. She also shares the deep moral beliefs that Mai has, and betrays Azula. She is also unusually sexually confident, as she is both comfortable with her body and with the boys that approach her. Ty Lee’s approach to sexuality is notable in that it is a positive depiction of a female character who is popular with the opposite sex (particularly for a teenage character); she is not ridiculed, shamed, or jealously made a rival for it.

 

PIPPI

PINKIE

LUNA

HOSSHIIWA

ANNA

REGINA

AND THE MISTRESS OF THIS BLOG, WHOSE FACE IS NOW REVEALED

are

PALS WITH TY LEE

HYPER AND ASPERGER GIRLS IN FICTION

Most hyperactive characters in fiction (reflecting the gender ratio of the disorder in real life) are obviously male. And, when energetic girls like Luna Lovegood, Pinkie Pie, or Ty Lee -who, like yours truly, also are the rare kind of extroverted Asperger's- show up on screen, they appear in a lead role, but not one of the most important (they're either featured as "major supporting characters" [Luna, Ty Lee], or share the spotlight with the rest of a team in which they're not the leader). Or so I thought.

The books are not called Luna Lovegood and Whatever Features
(I wish they actually were!).
Notice her reading upside down in her Establishing Character Moment.

A deconstruction of a lighter shade comes with Luna Lovegood's Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies, which have left her an easy target of teasing and ridicule amongst the other students. (In example, she tells that the Ravenclaw kids prank her by hiding her stuff and forcing her to search for it all alone). Consequently, Ginny Weasley had been pretty much her Only Friend at Hogwarts until her 4th year at the school... However, neither of these facts bothered her significantly, and she does what she can to live her life at the fullest.

• It is also heavily implied that behavior (and that of her father's) is a coping mechanism for her mother's death.

Ty Lee is just the Perky Female Minion (hyper girl who happens to be a lieutenant in the evil organization), or PFM, in the enemy ranks. Like most other PFMs, she is good at heart and performs a heel-face turn at the end of the day, leaving and betraying Azula in The Boiling Rock.
Like Harley Quinn, now in the spotlight as part of that Suicide Squad...

• Harley Quinn deconstructs the Perky Female Minion into Cute and Psycho after helping the Joker torture Robin, showing us that she was just another psychopath. Batgirl conveniently forgets that the only one of Joker’s potential victims Harley defended in the series was Poison Ivy and Arkhan Asylum's inmates. Harley was perfectly okay with The Joker torturing and killing Harvey Bullock, Charlie Collins, Sid the Squid, Carl Francis, Thomas Jackson, Batgirl's own father Commissioner Gordon, etc...:

Batgirl: How could you help Joker do it, Harley?

Harley Quinn: Okay, so he roughed the kid up a little. But I'll make it right.

Batgirl: Yeah, you're Mother of the Stinkin' Year!

Pinkie is the Element of Laughter. The comic relief and upbeat one of the mane six, but not their leader.

• "Party Of One" deconstructs Pinkie Pie with her role as the Genki Girl. When people (well, ponies) start making up excuses to avoid her birthday party, and discovers them trying to do something without her, she extrapolates that everyone has gotten tired of her and gets clinically depressed as a result.

No hyper girls in lead roles, all of them restricted to the roles of the comic relief and the PFM. So I thought, until I met a couple of works or three that changed my mind on the subject.

France, nineteenth century, The Misfortunes of Sophie (Countess of Ségur).

Sophie is a gentry girl with dozens of wacky ideas and outrageous pranks, born and raised on a noble estate and "terrifying" all of its residents (parents, pets, friends, or servants). Making cold tea with clovers for leaves? Leaving a wax doll in the summer sun? Stepping on quicklime to take a shortcut? Passing out from too much cream and bread? Sophie does all of this and more! Her intentions are always good, but she gets always into scrapes...

Sophie, based upon the author's own childhood experience (she was a real-life "Sophie"!), became so popular that she wrote a sequel, The Model Girls. In which Sophie, unfortunately, loses her kindly parents in a shipwreck, when sailing to Louisiana, and gets a guardian who happens to be the textbook definition of "wicked stepmother." Does such a Dickensian turning point break her? Not even the least! In fact, the stern and somewhat sadistic Madame Fichini meets her Waterloo: the more she whips Sophie, the more pranks her defiant ward, afraid of the whip at heart, carries out. Snatching pears from a nearby orchard, keeping orphan hedgehogs as pets (Madame has a valet drown them in the garden pond), getting accidentally drunk on Madame's wine (she goes a little too far)... 

In the end, Sophie's friends and servants discover that she is rebelling against her guardian, finally convincing Madame Fichini to give her ward painless punishments.

Sweden, 1941, Pippi Långstrump (Astrid Lindgren)

Pippilotta Virtualia Rullgardina Crossminta Ephraimsdaughter Långstrump.
Crown Princess of Curlycurly Isle, on top of that!

Astrid Lindgren has also created some other book series about hyperactive girls, like Maddikins or Lotta on Troublemaker Street, but Pippi remains the only one to attain international fame. Why? Because Maddikins and Lotta were normal girls who didn't make such a fuss in their home communities. And they were muggles without any special powers. 

Margareta "Maddikins" (Madicken) Engström.

Lotta riding an oversized bike. With Oinkers, her favourite stuffed pig.

Pippilotta Virtualia Rullgardina Crossminta Ephraimsdaughter Långstrump (that's her full name, if you wonder!), on the other hand, has the strength of Hercules and the wit of Odysseus, an angel for a mother and a pirate captain for a father, a spider monkey and a speckled horse for pets, an impressive estate and treasure chests choc-a-bloc with pieces of eight. She's seen everything, learned on her travels how to do magic and to walk on her hands... and how to give the local Maths teacher, Mrs. Pryzelius, more than a disturbance. She's also helped in the arrest of criminals, leapt down a waterfall inside a keg, and most lately discovered that she's actually royalty (her father has been crowned king of Curlycurly Isle, which means she is...)!

I have seen Pippi many times on TV and on stage in Sweden, and I have even got a ragdoll of this freckled redhead, energetic and willful enough to storm the Bastille on her own!

USA, 2010, Phoebe Flower book series (Barbara A. Roberts)

I recognized myself in the titular character. A strawberry blond girl who makes trouble at school, at home, and on the streets. The people of her rather provincial local community (where she was born and raised, and she still lives) take for granted that her parents' divorce (she lives with her mother) is the cause of her impulsive behaviour and her excessively cheerful personality. But Phoebe Flower is always well-intentioned, meaning to cheer the others up or lend them a hand. One day, she is diagnosed with ADHD, which changes her perception of herself as well as others' percepton of her. Now Phoebe must learn to control herself and face the challenges ahead, while appreciating her own warm nature.

I wish these Phoebe Flower books were someday published in Spain!

There is even the Free Spirit archetype, which describes a hyperactive female!!:

The FREE SPIRIT: eternal optimist, she dances to unheard tunes. Playful and fun-loving, she travels through life with a hop, skip and a jump, always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the pretty colours. She acts on a whim and follows her heart, not her head. 
Motivated by following her heart.

Virtues:
-sincere
-upbeat
-imaginative
Flaws:
-impulsive
-meddling
-undisciplined 

MEET LARISA

Ladies and gents, may I introduce...

Larisa Korolev!!

Her life philosophy can be summed up in three words: “Life is now!” Larisa is doing whatever she wants to do, without thinking too much about the consequences of her actions. As a passionate pyromaniac, she’s always keen on setting things on fire, abandoned huts just as well as the hearts of more or less innocent boys. Larisa is a young femme fatale; a prime example of the chaotic neutral alignment of various role-playing game systems.

Larisa’s father Ivan works as an artist and mostly paints abstract and/or apocalyptic paintings to earn a living. Although Larisa has inherited his love for the arts, they don’t get along that well since she prefers landscape art to Pollock’s “masterpieces”. Her mother Yelena is still alive, and they are happily married.
Larisa is diabetic (she takes insulin shots) and suffers from allergies, aside from those personality issues of hers...
Hope you get used to her, for she stars in one of my favourite fusion fics: the epic "The Apple, the Pear, and the Plum", that I have written myself drawing from lost husband tales. In this fic, Larissa is the false/rival bride: a troubled royal who does not reflect on he consequences of her selfish attachment, but later on regrets and is pardoned...

STRANGER THAN FICTION

Since the 1810s, little girls have been forced to be demure.
However, there have always been exceptions to the rule, and I was one of them.
I am glad to see that, nowadays, caregivers are less disciplined than their Victorian predecessors.
There was a cautionary tale, "Romping Polly", in which a restless and active little girl was, after sustaining an injury, forced to lean on crutches.

I should be said that I once learned a similar lesson myself when I grew out of skipping in my teens.
Back then, such behaviour in me was regarded not as tomboyish, but as immature (it was a matter of age, not of gender).
It happened in Sweden, the day after Christmas Day. I was either 14 or 15 when, merrily and distractedly sauntering down the stairs to our cellar, I fell down on the floor. Luckily, I had only sprained my left foot. It took a lot of rest to recover.
And that is the reason why I limp when running.

SUN OF THE MORNING

Thus translates the name of Chamsous-Sabah, an Eastern girl-queen featured in the Michel Ocelot film Azur and Asmar. She has the run of her redoubtable palace, is taught by "the best preceptors in all corners of the world", and, unlike the common people, is not afraid of Frenchman Azur's blue eyes, can speak to him in his mother tongue, and thinks black cats don't bring bad luck.

Able to speak several languages, she constantly thirsts for knowledge, and challenges tradition and prejudice.  She has led a sheltered and solitary life with books and foreign adults for friends: all of her male relatives have either been poisoned by ambitious courtiers or slain on the battlefield. But, in spite of her age and gender, she is certain to outwit those who threaten her life.
Yet being the ruler of a vast empire does not mean she behaves like a little adult: she likes skipping and running as much as any ordinary little girl.
Chamsous-Sabah is courageous and optimistic. In her own words: "All the men in my family have either been poisoned or killed in battle, either against enemies or against each other. It's sad, but existence has got to come to an end. Now it's our turn to live and be useful!"
Based largely upon Queen Christina (transpose her from her medieval Eastern country to seventeenth-century Sweden and bleach her!: both are hyperactive and curious little girl-queens), she reminds me of myself and is thus one of my favourite fictional characters: when I got to know her, the traits that she shares with both Christina and me were revealed to be the same!
(I read some critics' remarks that Chamsous-Sabah, being an extraverted gifted and curious child, represents the future. Another critic, however, treats her as a symbol of "thirst for knowledge and curiosity for the diversity of the world." A third critic sees her as a personification of progress, an idea related to the future).
In spite of being merely a supporting character, she filled my eyes with tears: she reminded me of what I am and of those wonderful words I was once told: "If all people were like you, there would be no more wars!"
A rare combination of youth and erudition, that also echoes Shakespeare's lawyer lass Portia: so young a body, so old a mind, both in the same individual!
Thus, with a character I got to identify with, ends my cycle of posts on prodigies, aspies and ivory tower dwellers through the ages.