u/WritingNerd91

Living with moral OCD is so exhausting - mine manifest itself through fictional characters - where I analyse their every little line, every little picture, to make sure I'm not committing some moral sin and over thinking every little thing. I also might have another form of OCD too - I don't know but I need things to be confirmed/just perfect even though that is not always possible. I miss my life before OCD. I miss when I could enjoy things without overthinking it.

Living with moral OCD is so exhausting - mine manifest itself through fictional characters - where I analyse their every little line, every little picture, to make sure I'm not committing some moral sin and over thinking every little thing. I also might have another form of OCD too - I don't know but I need things to be confirmed/just perfect even though that is not always possible. I miss my life before OCD. I miss when I could enjoy things without overthinking it.

Living with moral OCD is so exhausting - mine manifest itself through fictional characters - where I analyse their every little line, every little picture, to make sure I'm not committing some moral sin and over thinking every little thing. I also might have another form of OCD too - I don't know but I need things to be confirmed/just perfect even though that is not always possible. I miss my life before OCD. I miss when I could enjoy things without overthinking it.

So does anyone else only write AUs for their fandom or canon divergent or even just post canon fix its because you feel the characters could be so much more?

Ben's writing is so bad. So he eats a love potion cookie and declares his love for Mal. Did I Mention despite being played for laughs, you can tell he's not fully in control. However, when Ben and Mal go on their date before Ben swims in the Enchanted Lake, Ben says to Mal "your mother is the mistress of all evil. And I have the poster parents for good but we don't have to be like them. We can choose who we want to be. I can look into your eyes and I can tell you're not evil. I can see it" while he's literally under the love spell. I won't talk about after it officially wears off and I know immediately after he says this, he suggests to go for a swim so you could argue he felt like something was off but I feel it's written very badly because when you compare it to Uma, it's treated like a violation in Descendants 2. Granted, I don't know how Ben would know something is off in both scenarios - is he semi-magical due to the Enchantress's curse on his Dad?

Ok, let's go to Descendants 2. Oh boy, this one is the worst contenders. On one hand, Ben calls out Mal this time when she tries to magically wipe his memories. But on the other hand, he apologises for calling her out and yelling at her which kind of negates it. Also, did anyone else feel that Ben was trying to turn Mal into Audrey 2.0? He may have made the portrait for her but he genuinely enjoyed her having good manners and turning her into a pretty pink princess. And the fact that when she's overwhelmed and runs away, he cares more about bringing her back and being pushy than giving her space to think. "I love you, don't you love me?" almost felt like guilt tripping.

I actually liked Ben in Descendants 3, even with the Did I Mention Reprise because he had more depth to him and its easier to understand his reasons. He clearly cares a lot about Audrey and he loves Mal very deeply. But does anyone else feel D1-D2 Ben isn't written very well.

So I was looking at the Wiki - is Agrabah outside of the walls of Auradon? In Auroria, Cinderellasberg, Tangleton, Arendelle, Ben and Mal are listed as the high rulers or owners. In Agrabah/Lone Keep, they’re simply listed as visitors?

I know Aladdin and Jasmine’s son Aziz was cut and could that be a reason? Because he’d be just as powerful as Ben, becoming the King of his own region and that would clash a lot with the Leah/Audrey plot of Audrey being groomed to become Ben’s Queen. What do people think?

Ok so I like Audrey because Leah to me feels like the Auradon version of Maleficent. And I see little tidbits in the movies that show me that Audrey was broken far before Mal cast the love spell on Ben. I’m not excusing Mal. But there’s a few things I picked up on. One - Leah never hugs Audrey on Family Day in Descendants 1. She gives her a flying kiss (a behaviour we see Audrey express with Ben too, likely modelling off Leah). Next up are the photos in Audrey’s room during Queen of Mean. We have a photo of Ben and Audrey looking into each other’s eyes smiling and they look happy. However Audrey looks a little confused as to why Ben is hugging her. The second photo, Ben’s smile is very forced and Audrey is smiling brightly towards the camera but again he is the one initiating the physical contact. Her hands are a bit awkward/raised somewhat in terms of positioning. Then we get a picture of them as five year olds.

Audrey looks like she doesn’t really want to be there and her body language is closed off from tiny Ben who’s smiling and trying to give her a toy crown. But at the same time I hate her writing in the movies! Yes this is despite noticing these details.

I feel the writing made her very one note at times so it is hard to tell whether she wanted Ben or she wanted the crown/his title because her writing is so bad. In Descendants 1, they tried to make her a generic mean girl even though we only see her bullying Mal after Ben is stolen from her and being short with Ben once. But in Descendants 3, they wanted to make her have a huge arc of hero to villain to redemption. Now, all of this makes her fanfic potential really good because you could make her a redeemable hero or a tragic evil villain similar to the likes of Lotor from Voltron: Legendary Defender.

Does anyone else have a character in Descendants they feel this way about? Like you can see what they could have been but hate how they were written and felt they could be so much more. I mostly am talking movies only so no prequel books because I haven’t even brought up Audrey’s diary here.

EDIT: Thank you for all the upvotes, guys!! I felt I wrote the most contradictory post ever so it's nice to see people understood my rambles.

Hello!

I am new to original writing - I have only been writing for the last 1-2 years when it comes to my own world and characters though I have been writing fanfiction for the last 16 years. It's been an interesting transition and I still write fanfiction though interestingly enough I lean more into AU fanfiction while before I was more into canon compliant stuff. I was wondering are any of you here those who started with fanfic too or even if not, just new into starting out?