#mal descendants

Following the recent panphobia here’s some pan positive cards!! I hope y'all like it and use for the greater good ️‍

Descendants Mystery Box (Mal Moodboard!) for @little-babi-bee

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Okay so given that I’ve basically become a Descendants fan account at this point I’ve decided to share my thoughts on something.

I don’t like Mal.

Like, I REALLY don’t like Mal.

I LOVE Dove Cameron and I think she’s super talented, gorgeous, and obviously lucky for getting to date Thomas (if they’re still together? is that a thing?) but I REALLY dislike Mal.

AND I AM GONNA TELL YOU WHY.

1) More of a disclaimer but most of my reasons and evidence are gonna come from the second and third movie bc tbh I don’t remember a lot from the first movie. The main thing I remember is that the whole reason Ben fell in love with Mal in the first place is because she made a love drug cookie or brownie or whatever and gave it to him without him knowing it had a love potion/drug in it. Which BTW is NOT HEALTHY AT ALL I REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE DON’T TALK ABOUT IT MORE. 

2) She has a strong, strong STRONG case of main-character-syndrome where basically all her flaws are either overlooked or briefly talked about then never spoken of again because she just so happens to be the main character. I know that’s not very specific to Mal and that happens with A LOT of main characters (especially female main characters..which, like, why?) but that’s just a story trope I hate in general.

3) Kinda goes in line with #1 but when Mal finds out that Ben was love spelled by Uma towards the end of D2, she acts super shocked and appalled and all ‘how in the world could she do that’ when she LITERALLY DID SOMETHING SIMILAR IN THE FIRST MOVIE?

4) Now since Mal was kinda sorta tolerable in D2 (bc the main toxic person in D2 is Ben..more on that if you want it) I’m gonna go into her D3 behavior because oh my GOD do I have a lot to say.

5) Her first solution to the whole Hades problem is to IMMEDIATELY close down the barrier forever? When her and the rest of the Core Four LITERALLY just got done taking four more kids from the Isle to Auradon? They couldn’t think to maybe statue him like they did with the Core’s parents in the first movie or put him in some kind of stronger prison that I KNOW Auradon can afford until they feel like he’s not as much of a threat? Like, one little fight with dad along with the *possibility* of having to deal with Uma and Mal’s just like ‘NOPE! Close it down! We’re done!” Has some strong immigration issue parallels, not gonna lie.

6) While we’re on the whole closing the barrier for good thing, not ONLY did Mal keep this from her friends BUT when they find out, she doesn’t even try to get ideas from them on what to do? I know they don’t bring up any ideas but I GUARANTEE if Mal said something along the lines of “well what would you guys have done?” then Evie or Carlos (most likely Evie, but, you know) would have brought up some pretty dang good ideas. So not ONLY did Mal keep a HUGE secret from people she’s allegedly been friends with since childhood, she essentially shut down their ideas.

7) This can also kinda be put on the people of Auradon in cases like the ending battle where Uma pretty much helps Mal defeat Audrey and the royal cabinet doesn’t even give her a thank you, but this mostly goes for Night Falls. Uma is SUCH. A. NATURAL. BORN. LEADER. and she never ONCE shows any sign of defeat, giving up, or unpreparedness throughout Night Falls (there’s a whole post by another account that gives deeper evidence of this but I haven’t read it in forever so have my half assed explanation of it) and yet, despite showing fear through both her body language AND her verses in the song, she’s the one saying “we will never run for cover” like suddenly she’s the one that’s gonna get them riled up enough to win the fight? I don’t think so.

Honorable Mentions (aka silly reasons that don’t anger me but kinda make me laugh a bit): none of her ballads are that good to me (except Space Between), and despite her dad abandoning her for basically her WHOLE life she kinda sorta forgives him just because he helped her save someone who’s been her enemy the whole movie? Even though he barely helped? He just kinda…woke her I guess?

Overall, there are good and bad sides to pretty much every descendants character (except for the Sea Three, bc they’re the Sea Three) but let’s just say there’s a reason why Mal is the main antagonist in Evil Karma.

Did it bother anyone else that in D3 the Rotten Four just like… forgot that they hated their parents…??

D1 and D2 canonically say that the Rotten Four do not like their parents, are afraid of their parents, and do not want to go back to them. I present to you the following movie-based evidence of this (since I’m pretty sure there’s also some in the novels):

Several bits of dialogue suggest (to me) that the relationship between the VKs and their parents is based primarily on fear. The Rotten Four are scared of the consequences that come with disobeying their family, of retribution:

Directly below are the Rotten Four after their FaceTime/Zoom call with their parents on the Isle. As you can see, they look anything but happy. Jay’s expression specifically stands out to me as particularly emotional… he looks so distraught just to see and hear his father again…

Also, this scene in D2 is a brilliant (for lack of a better word) example that really emphasizes the point.

Mal:Carlos, don’t you ever miss screaming at people and just making them run away from you?

Carlos:

Carlos’ expression in the first frame says it all. He’s looking at Mal as if she’s crazy for even asking — of course he doesn’t miss his mother, and none of the VKs should.

Scenes with Uma and her mother also highlight this anti-parent theme well:

Uma’s mother, crashing the Shop with her tentacles, and zero regard for anyone’s safety or life. And here we also see Uma reassuring her crew that everything is fine after Ursula does this. The fact that Uma even has to ensure her crew’s safety also speaks volumes about what it’s like to live with villainous parents, and how said parents don’t give two shits about their kids.

I cannot emphasize the established canon enough, and it is a wonder to me how the writers in D3 ever forgot this.

On the other side, I understand how some VKs do want to see their parents again. Dizzy, Celia, Squeaky + Squirmy have good parental relationships, so obviously these characters would be excited to see their families after leaving to Auradon.

So, given all this…

For some reason, at the end of D3 we still see the Rotten Four suddenly excited to see their parents? And running across the bridge towards them ecstatically? I do like parts of D3 but this last scene is especially irritating. D3 erased a lot of characterization that D1 and D2 established, and it was just so random for Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to suddenly forget the years of terror and abuse their parents imbued in them, and get excited to see them again.

It’s just incredibly irritating to me, and I will forever be confused about the complete destruction of canon in the last 10 minutes of D3.