Also Lindsay Ellis is the GOAT [but not Djali]
In my perspective, I think that Esmeralda lives in the end not just because it's a Disney movie, and all Disney heroes and heroines must live to have a happily ever after.
But to give Esmeralda fully agency and bodily autonomy.
While I do think that her living on the end to showcase the real difference between Quasimodo and Frollo is a very interesting and insightful theory, that's not how I see it personally.
The whole theme of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is "Who is the monster? And who is the man?".
Both Quasimodo and Frollo both objectify Esmeralda in different ways on the spectrum.
Similar to the Madonna-Whore complex.
Quasimodo viewed her as an "angel" who can do no wrong and puts her on a high pedestal.
Meanwhile, Frollo viewed Esmeralda as an "exotic beauty", a "witch", and a "temptress" whose body he not only that he needs to claim, dominate, hurt, and control for himself for extremely creepy, gross, predatory, and disturbing reasons.
But also blames Esmeralda, who did nothing wrong, for his own lustful thoughts, actions, and behavior towards her.
Especially inside the Cathedral.
But in the end, Quasimodo let Esmeralda go, respected her, still chose to be her friend, and supported her relationship with a man (Phoebus) she's genuinely in love with just as much as that man genuinely loves her back.
But Frollo?
He chose to proceed to try to claim Esmeralda as his, and attempting to kill her when she refused his unwanted, creepy, fetishizating, cruel, bigoted, delusional, and lustful advances.
And guess what?
He falls into the fiery pit to his demise for it.
Obviously, there are loads of DP products, especially now, aimed at Disney adults like us [e.g. adult sized merch, collectors edition dolls, wedding dresses,] but that doesn't mean that we're the overall brand's target audience and I think we should remember that when we look at their decision making.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that we shouldn't criticise Disney. We absolutely should and they deserve a lot of shit. I'm saying that it's nonsensical to criticise business decisions that make perfect sense when their audience is kids who won't have seen all of their movies. They can annoy us, sure, but they're not bad decisions. It's like Scrappy Doo- adult Scooby Doo fans hated him, but he was so popular amongst the series target demographic of children that he single handedly saved the show. Just because you like the same film or character as a 5 year old doesn't mean that you like it for the same reasons. If you want to see what a whole brand aimed at 18-45 year old Disney adults looks like, then there's the Disney Villains brand.
Let me know if there's anything that I missed!
I prefer Marina as a character, but I think Atlanta had better chemistry with Troy. I was very tempted to make "they both deserve a man who can make up their mind" as a third option! 😂
I love the opening titles, but the characters in Joe 90 are so bland [so far, at least]. I do admire how dark it was willing to go with character deaths and such though and it may well grow on me!
I think that the Secret Service would have worked a lot better if it was all in love action except for tiny Matthew.
Cross Post from r/aliceinwonderland All I could think of was Richmond when I saw this.
Most of the comics if anyone wants to give them a read: https://archive.org/details/lady-penelope/Lady%20Penelope%20001%20%5BProject%2021%5D/page/n17/mode/2up
It didn't include the lead up to Atlanta and Commander Shore finding her manuscript, which I found in this upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdNdCDK0MGc&pp=ygUPbWFyaW5hIHNwZWFrcyAy
Enjoy!
Here's the comics if anyone wants to read them: https://archive.org/details/tv-century-21/TV%20Century%2021%20001%20%5B2065-01-23%5D%202021Edit/page/n7/mode/2up
She originally had that strip in TV Century 21 before getting her own comic which focussed on female Anderson characters and other TV shows. https://archive.org/details/lady-penelope/Lady%20Penelope%20001%20%5BProject%2021%5D/mode/2up