Putting a bit of creativity in Fairy tales...

[Bandit no Miko]

Hey everyone,
it's been a while, but I decided to open a discussion on the subject of my choice...so I decided=Fairy Tales.
To be honest, I like fairy tales. I enjoy a good read of Grimm and folklore anytime, since it's a simple getaway to a world I sometimes know and don't know.
So, as a subject for my shcool's art prtfolio, I decided to design well-known fairy tale characters...in a totally different style!

For instance, today I drew a picture of a slender girl snarling at the viewer, clad in a mix of furs, byzantine cloths and iron armour, her hand clenching on a mean-looking battle-axe.
I drew her to be the famed Sleeping Beauty, except being the complete opposite of the Disney's version I grew up with.
I was pretty happy with the result, I mean, it sounds like a good inspiration of something. Regular fairy tale heroines can get pretty dull and samey, all being too sweet, kind, beautiful, hard-working and always being under the thumb of some random step sister or stepmother until she gets some justice in the end.
So this leads me to my question to all of you, if you were to design a fairy tale character, even form one from a common fairy tale heroine, what would they be like?

Take my Sleeping Beauty, for example. I hate fairy tale princesses, all born to be special throughout their lives, so I made her into a ruthless and violent duchess from some dark medieval age, battling against neighbours for land and surviving assassination plots as if she grew up just doing that. Thus, the wee fairy fairy folk got so tired of her iron fist that they put her to sleep, a curse of rendering her helpless.
So what's your fairy tale heroine? Belle from beauty and the beast? Or Dorugly from Green Snake? Go ahead and talk about your ideal heroine from such a similar tale!

[Roku Ni-San]

Yes... I get tired of the "fairy-tale princess" stereotypes as well. Too often I read about fairy-tale families where the older siblings are always mean and nasty and ugly in appearance, portrayed as the most evil characters possible. The younger (or youngest) siblings, however, are always the most beautiful, the kindest, the sweetest and gentlest, and always the ones who win in the end. Bleah. Why can't the older siblings ever get a chance...?
Also, I'm getting tired of the old "damsel in distress" scenario. It's getting as old as the plot in Mario games. I'd like to see a fairy tale where the prince is the helpless character in distress, and a female hero has to go and save him, battling monsters and dragons along the way. And the one that captured the prince would be one of those seemingly-helpless, beautiful and kind fairy-tale princesses who was really nasty and evil underneath...

That would make a great fanfiction.

My favourite fairy-tale princess would have to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid. However, if I had to rewrite her story, I'd make it so she wasn't so lovey-dovey over Prince Eric. It's a fairy tale plot that's used a little bit too much in my opinion. Well - I have to give them credit for one thing - they did seem to reverse the stereotypical roles in this fairy tale. Ariel saves the prince instead of the prince saving her, and usually, it's the guy who gawks over the girl.

But still, if I could change something about the plot, I'd make it so that Ariel would want to go to the surface for a reason other than to gawk over a prince... ^-^

That's my rant on fairy-tale princesses.

[Bandit no Miko]

Yeah, I agree about the whole idea that the younger children are "special".
It's like the Puss in Boots/The Lame Fox story, all the older siblings are sly, idiotic, jealous, mean, opportunistic or just as plain as a minor character.

[jocelyn]

wow! Do any people like to read fairy tales???

[Bandit no Miko]

You're talking to one here. *Points to self*

But say! Speaking of fairy tale stereotypes, I had jsut read a short fairytale which was recently written. It's called "Switched", and it's a story in a point of view of a teenaged girl, whose father remarries a darkly beautiful woman, who also has a daughter. Of course, the stepmother is a cunning and sneaky woman, while the stepdaughter is a spoilt and grating girl. However, unlike most stories, the stepmother one day makes two cakes for both her daughters, one is white while the other is dark chocolate. She gives the dark one to the heroine, and the white one to the stepsister. Interestingly, the girls gradually change. The heroine finds herself getting darker, more meaner and despisable, while the evil sister gradually becomes the perfect princess.
The story itself is what I'd call a unique fairy tale. ^^

[jocelyn]

??

[Roku Ni-San]

I still read fairy tales as well, and enjoy them. ^^ I'd love to read that one about the girls changing their personalities.
It doesn't sound so "typical", like those other ones where the youngest daughter is always so special, while the older ones are evil or not special at all. I have 2 sisters and I'm the one in the middle where ages are concerned, which is the worst place to be in my opinion... Nothing special about being the second of three daughters. (Although... it would make a pretty good fairy tale if the second child of three was the protagonist... maybe I should write one.)

I really like the idea of that new Mario game they came out with - Super Princess Peach. The name is terribly cheesy, but I love the idea - for once, the princess isn't the hostage, she's the hero of the whole game, while the "usual" heroes (Mario and Luigi) are the hostages. I love seeing the princess on the offensive side for once.