30 Days of Disney: Day 4: Favorite Prince

[gryfndor_godess]

 




Whether he’s in his furry form or human form, I love the Beast and think he’s the best Disney prince. Except for Aladdin, he’s the only prince of the traditional six that actually, IMO, has a personality (kudos to Disney for making more three-dimensional princes as well as more feminist princesses in their new fairy tale movies), and I love how he evolves from a lonely, self-absorbed, scared jerk into a caring, considerate man. I love that he gives Belle the library, I love how tentative and hopeful he is during the snowball fight (“And when we touched, she didn’t shudder at my paw!”), I love when he lets her go, I love how he doesn’t fight back against Gaston until he sees Belle, I lovelovelove “You came back- at least I got to see you one last time”- wow, I am making myself want to watch this movie again.

I love how he thinks he doesn’t deserve her and yet loves her anyway and can’t stop hoping (funny how easily that statement could apply to someone else we all love…). After all those years in the castle he could have gone bonkers and turned into an actual monster, but instead he hopes. He tries to be better even before he realizes Belle is someone worth trying for. And then he falls in love with her and frees her and then he fights for her and fights for himself and aldjflakdhf;lakdh I LOVE IT. AND HIM.

In short, Spike may be my favorite bad-boy-turned-good, but the Beast is the one who ignited my love for the trope when I was still pre-k.

Also, and I know I’m in the minority about this, I think the Beast-as-Prince is handsome and sexy. I like his honey-colored long hair and how tall he is, and how loving he looks. It’s due to the Beast that I don’t dismiss guys with ponytails as some people do (it is quite possible that one of my ex-boyfriends subconsciously reminded me of the Beast). The Beast may also be the reason I have a huge preference for blue eyes…

And hmm, who else has natural honey-colored hair and blue eyes; there is more to this pattern than I first realized…

Anyway, I think furry!Beast is, hmm, attractive in his own way (I hesitate to say ‘sexy’…but let’s just say I’ve seen other people call him sexy and I wouldn’t disagree), but I also really like prince!Beast.



Isn’t that picture bee-yoo-tee-ful? If you haven’t seen the gallery of sexed-up Disney heroes, do yourself a favor and go look at it NOW. Seriously. *fans self*

Speaking of prince!Beast, what do you think his name should be? Lots of people call him ‘Adam,’ and I don’t know where that came from, but it is definitely not Disney canon and I do not like it. I think he needs a very rugged, manly, old-fashioned, possibly arrogant-sounding name. Also possibly French. ‘Alexander’ is my go-to ‘arrogant-sounding’ name, plus it’s got so many great nickname possibilities as the arrogance lessens and familiarity grows, but I feel like people would look at me strangely b/c it’s my name (only with ‘der’ instead of ‘dra,’ obviously). Then I thought (don’t laugh at me) ‘William’ (→ Will as familiarity grows) might be a good name. Not that it matters, obviously; this is just the sort of crazy thing I think about. Have you ever thought of what the Beast’s real name should be?

Comments

[snickfic]

I'm one of those folks who's never been very excited about prince!Beast, and I think mostly it's that he just looks (and sounds!) so different from the character I spent the whole movie falling in love with. So it is an appearance thing, but maybe not the way some people mean. I especially miss his deep voice. And Beast has a much more mature physical presence than prince!Beast has.

That said, I absolutely agree with you about his name - something old-fashioned and French. He's royalty, after all.

Speaking of this movie, I hope you'll allow me a bit of self-advertising. I've been meaning to mention that I wrote a Yuletide fic about Belle and the green triplet, which I'm still quite pleased with, all things considered.

[gryfndor-godess.livejournal.com]

The Beast's voice does change a lot, but interestingly enough, it is actually the same actor, Robby Benson. Supposedly- this is the really cool part- they mixed his voice with lion's growls and other wild animal sounds to get the Beast's growly voice. Hee, I actually find prince!Beast very imposing in his physical presence- I like how he stays so tall and still has such a huge back, etc. To me, at least, he really does still have the Beast's physical presence, only humanized.

I really like your fic! (the server won't let me post a comment there, so I'll just do it here) I actually skimmed it once ages ago before we were friends when I was looking at Spuffy-ljers' fic masterlists. I had forgotten, so I'm glad you reminded me. I really love the friendship that develops between Marie and Belle and how it confuses even them and works anyway; I like the idea (and it makes so much sense) of Belle wanting a normal human female friend to explore the castle with, and obviously she would be kind/open-minded enough to reach out to someone she'd previously had nothing to do with. I love how Belle thinks to ask about village gossip, how Marie thinks the prince is shy and jokes about if there's another, and how it takes Belle a while to get the other triplets straight. I rarely come across B&tB fic, and this one is really a gem.

[snickfic]

Yay, thank you! It was one of those things I never had any idea of writing until I saw the prompt come up on the Yuletide pinch-hit list, and suddenly there it was in my head. I do really love the idea of Belle having a female friend of her own age, and of at least one of the triplets growing out of that that tittery airheadedness.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)