Sleeping Beauty
Princess Aurora, Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty- she's gone by a lot of names over the years. Continuing with Disney's trend of "Royalty pretends to be a peasant," which we hadn't seen since Snow White, Sleeping Beauty tells us a story once again adapted from the Brothers Grimm.
While other movies that Disney had put out were, yes, beautiful, Sleeping Beauty was the first movie where the beauty was prioritized over the characters, creating a movie that is visually stunning but has many people bemoaning the depth of character we never got to see. If you are one of those people, please take a seat, because clearly you did not understand the movie. While yes, I do admit that compared to some of the other princesses, especially the later ones, Aurora's characters is a bit lackluster compared to many of the main characters of today- Aurora, as interesting as it is, is not the main character in her movie.
No, the 3 good faeries- Fauna, Flora, and Merriweather, are the central characters; and in that regard, protagonists in the movie. We learn more about their characters than Aurora's, which, while a bit upsetting, does make them intriguing protagonists that yes, are more well-developed than our princess that we are supposed to care the most about. Although, in my case, I do care a bit more about her than the faeries.
While Aurora is, in the grand scheme of things, regretably to me, a under-appreciated princess, the villain of the story, Maleficent, is one of Disney's most iconic evildoers. She is, in many ways, the face of Disney's villain catalougue. She is the main antagonist in many games as well, often taking a larger evil role than many of the others, who you can often recruit to be partners. There are obvious reasons to this: she is the first truly dangerous antagonist, in my opinion. Snow White had her stepmother, who had some magical powers, as seen by the apple, and cinderella... also had her stepmother, who had no magic powers at all. No, Maleficent is the first truly magical villain: a faerie, who has command of a dark army who, in reality, are quite bad at their job. She is more intimidating than the previous two: she looks like the more traditional depiction of faeries, with green skin and horns. Yes, in the minds of many, she is the symol of Disney villains- intimidating, magical, and feared.
Of course, there would be no story without the villains' motivation, and Maleficent has every reason to be evil, in her situation. From what people have theorized, Aurora's story is set in France in the 14th century. During this time, christenings, especially of a new royal child, were, to put it simply, the party of the year. Everyone important was invited: royalty, nobility, and if we are taking Aurora's story at face value, faeries, who would be considered royalty as well, or well-respected scholars, maybe. Maleficent, who is a more important faerie with a larger range of magic, would obviously be invited. The fact that she was not? Aurora's parents were royalty. They would have known royal procedures: the only way she would not have been invited is if she was purposefully forgotten. But why?
I belive that Maleficent was not invited on purpose. That in of itself is obvious. I belive that she was forgotten because Aurora's parents wished her not to curse their child, without knowing that inadvertently, by not inviting her, she would show up. Perhaps they hoped she wouldn't even realize- they figured that Maleficent, locked away in her castle, would not deem them important enough to come down. And it is doubtless that if they had invited her, there would be no issue: I'm doubtful that she would have made an apperance at all. There was certainly no reason for her to curse the child if she was invited. But she was not, and now we are where we are.
I don't believe, either, that the King nor Queen knew Maleficent's power. Was she born with it? Cursed? Oh, look at me, I'm diving too deep into Maleficent. Continuing on. The 3 "good" faeries- what made them considered good? Was it their actions? What had they done before this? Gave their gifts to the newborn Aurora. These gifts, to be rude, were party tricks. Beauty, song- these were ridiculous gifts, especially when you compare them to Maleficent, who literally cursed the princess to die. If the good faeries' powers were weaker, like I suspect, then the basis of their power would have to be lower than KILLING SOMEONE. But it is doubtless why they gifted Aurora with meager presents- if they presented their powers to everyone in full force, it would require them to no doubt give said powers to any children that came after; setting a terrible pre-requisite. I have no doubt that the faeries served other kingdoms, either- they all appeared older, meaning that if they were trained in their powers, it took a while, and if they were born with them, it was rare. It would make the most sense, logically, for them to travel to many kingdoms to be either magical advisors or "court faeries."
The faeries, of their own idea, take the young Briar Rose, under her new false name, into the forest to raise her as a foundling child in a woodcutters' cottage. As much as I can appreciate the magical and fantasical elements of this story, I have much doubt that King Stefan would allow his only child to be raised in such a situation as this, especially considering that he's a king; who just had a very public birth of a baby girl, subsequent fit of lunacy, (burning spinning wheels,) and then, as it was, radio silence on his daughter for 16 years. Especially considering, of course.... his betrothed daughter.
I do acually like him
Unlike every other princess we had seen so far from Disney, Princess Aurora is the first one to show realistic 14th century customs and be betrothed to a prince the week she was born. Luckily in this case, for her, it was a prince she would have known, had she grown in the castle. Phillip, as King Hubert's son, (Hubert being a close friend of King Stefan's), would have grown up with Aurora, probably being encouraged to play together from birth. Even though, as we saw in the opening scenes, he is quite a bit older than her. I would assume about 5; making him 21 when Aurora is 16- which is the most realistic thing in this movie.
In many ways, Phillip has a very interesting personality: when he meets Aurora in the forest, he immediately gives up any idea of his future wife, some princess he's never met, and insists to his father on marrying this peasant girl instead. Like many 20-year olds, he throws away his future- the kingdom, castles- anything, for some random girl he's just met. Of course, it is Aurora, and it works out in the end, but he is the first Prince we've had with some idea of a personality. Which, I agree, is what we need.
Getting back to Aurora, though, it's time to move onto the main topic. This might be a controversial statement, but I believe that Aurora not only holds magical potential, but also, if she was given over to the faeries for proper training, she could have become incredibly powerful and perhaps even rivaled Maleficent.
Walk with me. If, we assume in this world, that magical potential people are born with- which is the route I'm taking- people would have to be scouted out early, from birth. Classifying the Good Faeries, we can assume that they're another species altogether- they state as much in the movie, they're not mortal. Either they have been granted immortality from their work, or they are, as I suspect, simply "faeries." I believe that faeries cannot, by their nature, perform evil- they state this in the movie. This is why I believe that Maleficent is not a faerie- or at least, not the same faerie species as the Good Faeries. She is a something else, warped and corrupted by either evil magic or some pursuit of immortality. She can perform evil magic; as the Good Faeries cannot truly, wildly, do evil. I would like to argue she is something... older. Therefore, her power would need to be scouted out early; trained- Aurora, I theorize, also has magical abilities, as previously stated, but I believe, and please correct me with your theories, that Maleficent knew about them. Why not? Would a powerful witch such as her not be the perfect person for finding others? Perhaps Maleficent meant to offer her services to train her. It makes it all the more upsetting that she didn't recieve an invitation, and all the more reason for her to curse Aurora to die: she didn't want competition.
But Maggie, I hear you screaming, why do you think Aurora has powers? Simple, really. Her dreams. Throughout the movie, Aurora's main theme is that she knew about Phillip before she met him. How? Her dreams. Why would she know about him? Unless her dreams are premonitions. Unless her dreams are glimpses of the future, of her married to him, that she can see. And now we're getting somewhere. Oneiromancy, or the practice of using dreams for magic, is a definite thing that exists: interacting with your subconcious, seeing what could be- I fully believe that is what Aurora is doing; and if she had been identified from childhood and had proper training, it is very possible that she could have grown to be incredibly powerful- all the more reason for a resentful Maleficent to want to kill her.
I do not, on the other hand, think that the Good Faeries knew about Aurora's latent abilities. They aren't mortal- their goal is not to snuff out the magical individuals in society, their goal, if any, is to perhaps train them, although I am doubtful on that as well. The only "realization" that they could have maybe gotten was when Aurora's magical gifts were bestowed upon her. In that scene, all of the gifts given show a dream-like quality and a scene as she recieves them. Do I think the Faeries saw this? Yes. I think it didn't register with them at all.
If Maleficent was invited to the ceremony, this is what I believe would have happened. Firstly, she would have during, or before, if she was watching, realized Aurora's potential for magical arts. I think she would have given an actual gift to her- unsure what that would be; maybe 'power?' She would have then, by some way- either poising as a mentor or teacher- Maleficent is well-respected, although feared- taught Aurora the ways of magical arts. Doubtless it would skew heavily evil, but I digress. Maybe she would have learned how to turn into a dragon like her mentor.
I'll stop rambling now. Thank you for listening! If you want to hmu with questions.... feel free. I could talk about this all day.
Lied. There's more.
So, I have just learned that, in-universe, the Good Faeries are referred to as "diurnal fae." Turns out, these are faeries only active during daylight. This could explain why they only do good- (daytime is associated with good, nighttime with evil, blah blah.) But Maleficent is called a "Thorn Faerie." Can't belive I didn't talk about her thorn powers.
Princess Aurora.
Fun Fact!
