Since today is February 29th, I
figured now would be as good a time as any to bring up the question: where did
Leap Year come from? Who invented it? How did it start?
Well, two of my fandoms have come up with answers—two
interesting, funny, and quite different answers, at that.
From Adventures in Odyssey:
From Milo Murphy’s Law:
Which one is right? You be the judge.
Guys, I think I’ve figured out shipping.
Now, whenever you’re watching a movie or a show or reading a book or something, if the story is SPECIFICALLY a romance, or something where the romantic outcome is a given from the beginning, it’s not really shipping. It’s just reader (or viewer) expectations.
I mean, nobody doubts that Philip and Aurora will be together by the end of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. That’s just how fairy-tales work. We EXPECT it to happen. What makes it most interesting is how they manage to get there—through curses, orc-hordes, thorn-forests, and a witch-fairy dragon and, quote, ‘all the powers of Hell’. We know what’s coming, but we want to see the journey it takes.
But ‘shipping’, in my mind, is taking the reader/viewer expectations for a romance, and applying it to EVERY story and EVERY relationship. It’s assuming that every genre of story is just a subgenre of the romance.
It’s looking at every relationship—be it a band of companions on an epic mission or quest, a bitter rivalry, a mentor and learner, a pair of bickering best friends, or even a FAMILY (just think about THAT for a minute)—as a relationship that invariably leads to romance.
It’s ignoring the storytellers and the intentions they have for their own movies, shows, and books. And I don’t think that’s the way we should look at stories. It’s downright disrespectful. I mean, who’s telling the story here?
Sure, sometimes there’ll be a romantic relationship that’s seriously just cardboard, and anybody can see that there are better people for either of them. That’s just bad storytelling. There, I totally sympathize. (Example, even though I haven’t watched it in a while: Harry and Ginny)
Sometimes there’s a romantic relationship that people have come up with that I think seems sweet, but unlikely. And I kind of enjoy those, if only to imagine it in an alternate timeline or something. (Example: Jason and Connie in Adventures in Odyssey)
Heck, sometimes people come up with crossover ones, where characters from totally separate stories meet and fall in love. Those, of course, are usually INCREDIBLY implausible, but they are sometimes fun to imagine. (Example: uhh… I know Jack Frost and Elsa are one that goes around on the web)
And yes, occasionally I do just go all in and see two characters as a couple. It’s rare, and really only when there’s not another existing relationship it breaks up, but it happens. Example: Reuben and Shirley from The Partridge Family.
(Hey, he’s the only one that can really handle them! Besides, it’s better to go with someone you actually know than a guy that showed up a week ago (like all the guest stars that pop up so they can have a romance episode.) Plus… well, okay, I just really like it and feel like it fits. See, I can do it too.)
But aside from those rare instances and the fun-to-imagine ones, there aren’t a lot of exceptions for the rule of canon for me.
(And don’t even get me started on slash. It’s the worst. It basically slashes the ties of friendship (or even hatred, oddly enough) between two male characters and shoves their faces together. So stupid.
Oh, and if you decide that you see the two characters as friends, as brothers, as father and son even—literally as ANYTHING besides romantic partners—you get endless flak for it. @julientel knows about this firsthand. It’s tough being a non-shipper. Why doesn’t anybody appreciate FRIENDSHIP anymore?
Now, I love a good romance as much as the next person. Honestly, I do. Heck, I’m posting a theory about one of the sweetest ones in all creation tomorrow.
But unless the story is a romance, I just wait to see what the story does, where AND IF they bring in that sort of thing. And unless the story itself comes right out and says ‘these two are a couple,’ I don’t generally assume otherwise (or ‘ship’). Friends until proven lovers, amirite?
In short, enjoy character relationships for what they are. Enjoy the romantic relationships, yes, but enjoy the friendships too. There’s more to love than the ‘kissy-and-touchy’ kind.
So far as I’ve found in the Princess And The Frog fandom, there are three fan theories about Ray’s star-love, Evangeline:
#1 – She is the Blue Fairy (from Pinocchio)
#2 – She is the Second Star to the Right, and the Portal to Neverland (from Peter Pan)
#3 – She was once a firefly too, but died
(of course, some people might think she’s just a star, but come on, where’s the fun in that?)
Most of the time, these theories are at odds. But I think the answer could be all three.
---
First off, she is/has always been the Blue Fairy. She lives in the Star to the Right (only one as of yet). Hence, she is the unofficial Queen of Neverland. As long as she’s there, the portal to Neverland is open, and the star is visible. But, as the queen of the Wishing Star, she also goes down to Earth to grant some wishes personally. When she does this, the light of the star goes with her, and the portal closes. She also has to take different forms when she comes down. Mostly, she takes a human form, like in Pinocchio.
However, one night, she came down to New Orleans to grant the wish of a little girl. She appeared at first as a human, but when she heard someone at the girl’s door (her father), she changed into another form – the form of a firefly – and hid. The girl’s father missed her, and left, so she went (still in that form) to grant the wish. But someone else had seen her.
Yeah, I think you know who I’m talking about. ;)
Well, I think he’d seen the light from the window, and flew on up to see what it was. He peeked in at just the right moment to see her come out of her hiding spot. And Ray fell in love on the spot.
When the Blue Fairy flew to the window to go back to the sky, he came up and started to talk to her. I’m thinking she was just so surprised at him just coming up and starting a conversation, she wasn’t sure what to do. But she had to go, and so she did, without telling him who she was (or revealing what she really was).
But they did meet again, and the way it happened was that the Wishing Star found one that was surprising – Ray wished to see that firefly again, just talk to her a little. So she went down and granted the wish.
One thing I’m not sure about is the name. Did Ray try to guess her name, and when he hit upon that one, she liked it? Or is Evangeline her real name, that she’d never told anyone (since she’s mostly known by her titles)? You tell me.
So, they met, and they talked (well, I guess Ray did most of that), and they danced – I mean, you know Ray would want to show her a good time. And I don’t doubt she had a good time. Then at the end of the night, he asked if she’d like to come back again sometime, even just to talk. And… she said yes, she’d love to.
Fast forward just a bit. They’d met a few more times. But by now, she was starting to think about whether she should keep it up. She’s not supposed to keep coming down to Earth, or staying for extended periods of time. But she knew Ray was sweet on her (and worse, she was starting to feel the same).
So one night she came down, decided on telling him she had to leave. But something happened she didn’t count on – Ray saw her come down. He saw the star come down out of the sky and become Evangeline.
And I don’t know if he came out right then and asked her about it, or if he waited until later to talk to her. But he did ask her about it, and she had to tell him everything. She was a little worried he’d think she was just fake, and you know how she hates lies.
But Ray? He decided to make a wish, since she was the Wishing Star and all. He wished that he could come up there and they’d be together. He loves his Evangeline better than anything, and he wants to be with her, firefly or no.
Slight problem, though. For someone to live inside a star like she does, they’d have to be a magical being like her. And her magic isn’t strong enough to living things into other kinds of beings – not on a whim, anyway. To gain a new kind of life like that, you have to lose the old kind. That’s what happened with Pinocchio: he died to save his father, proving himself brave and selfless. Only then could he become a real boy.
So she promised that if he was faithful, one day, his wish would come true. He would become like her, so he could come join her up there. And they’d be together, forever. Because she loves him too.
Well, Ray clings to that promise for a long time. He’s happy to wait, if it means he’ll be with his Evangeline. And his family, they don’t know if that star up there is really that girl he met all that time ago. They think it’s sweet anyhow, whether it’s true or not.
But Ray knows. And one day, his wish comes true.
---
Well, that’s my headcanon. And I’m very much obliged to you if you managed to stay through to the end, because that was LONG.
Oh, and one other detail is that since Ray became a star right next to Evangeline, it made her the Second Star to the Right, which is how things are when Peter takes the kids to Neverland.
So yeah. Ray is true to her for all that time (and that time is in human years, as per rfr67gal's headcanon on DeviantArt), even when it's been so long that he could just pass it off as a dream, especially when other people say she’s not real.
But he's a faithful little firefly, as the film shows. He's faithful to Tiana - even after she yells some harsh words at him - and says she's just speaking out of a broken heart. He's faithful to Naveen - even when he saw him standing up there with Charlotte, human - and determines to find out the truth. He's so faithful to them both, he fights for them against shadow demons, which costs him his life.
And he's faithful to Evangeline above all else, whatever her true nature, whatever anyone says about her. And his faithfulness is rewarded in the end.
Really, you all, that faithfulness of his is a powerful example of true love—love of family, love of friends, love of his sweetheart, and a forgiving, sacrificial love that is both higher and to something higher than himself. And true love is what this day—St. Valentine’s Day—is all about.
