Descendants: An Equal Balance

Happy Tuesday, Fanaticals! Today we are going to talk about how Descendants manages to keep a pretty decent balance between good and evil in their series. This comes from a working theory about why Audry went bad in the third installment, and it actually can make a lot of sense.

As I have stated before, this blog will always contain spoilers and I generally don't mention them; however, today is has massive plot points discussed for the first three movies, so if you haven't watched them and don't want to know anything then I wouldn't suggest reading today. With that being said, onto the discussion!

Throughout the series, it is very obvious that the biggest theme was keeping good an evil separate, creating a form of imbalance. However, Ben sees something that most adults fail to see in general which is that keeping the VKs on the Isle is punishing them for their parent's sins. When you consider that their parents are Jafar, Gaston, Maleficent, Cruella, Lady Tremaine and her daughters, etc., it's not too hard to see that for the most part that is exactly what is happening.

In our world, the real world, we always find it wrong that a child is treated badly when their parents do something. "Oh, that kid's parent murdered these people, we should stay away." Yet at the same time, we claim that doing that is wrong. In the world of the United States of Auradon, Ben is only a Prince at 16 who recognizes that it is wrong and wants to include the VKs at the school; but he recognizes that it wouldn't be highly accepted and so he only brings over four to start, which honestly shows that he is thinking properly.

However, you have people who have lived in a peaceful world for so long where there literally IS no crime or anything, everyone lives in harmony, that they don't actually realize that bringing the VKs over is a GOOD thing. Every fairytale has balance, good AND evil. There actually is another movie that I look forward to picking apart soon called The School for the Good and Evil; and it actually makes some really good arguments about how life has balance, there is always good and always evil.

It makes you wonder, what Ben has gone through in his 16 years to make him realize that there is no true balance in Auradon, just pretend balance. I say "pretend balance" because while evil DOES still exist in Auradon, it only exists on a little island that is magically locked away from everyone else. The balance of good and evil may still exist, but it is not true balance.

So, while the theory surrounds itself specifically to the third installment, I will actually be breaking each of the first three movies apart to show you exactly HOW that balance happens to be kept. Now, the reason it needs to be kept is because you take four VKs who have known nothing but evil all their lives, in fact they don't even really consider it evil but their everyday lives. Why? Because what they know has been labeled evil by people who don't live where they do. The Isle is almost the equivalent of living in the ghetto of a city; children sleeping wherever they can, people stealing stuff while also managing an honest day's work (Uma or Dizzy), gangs leading everywhere (Mal and Uma), etc.

When these four come to Auradon and see what their hard work can really bring them, they change their ways because they have found outlets that are healthy. In that, we see this "balance" that has become normal in Auradon go from being upset, to being brought back to where it should be; Auradon being used to nothing but good and peace, and these four are changing their ways into being good so peace continues on. However, the balance attempts to restore itself again in the fact that Maleficent escapes the Isle and attempts to take over Auradon and thus, the first installment ends the way a true fairytale does; with a happy ending and peace being restored as evil is defeated.

With the second installment, we see the inner conflict of trying to keep up a facade and Mal beginning to crack under the pressure; missing the easy days of being evil when she could do whatever she wanted. Honestly, it's not a surprise. How many times in real life do we see people who are famous begin to crack under that pressure? Dating a Prince, and basically making yourself completely fake to fit in? Doesn't surprise me that she started to break.

Mal runs back to the Isle, but it's not HER that is our villain, but Ursula's daughter Uma. Very reasonably, Uma is upset that she was passed over to go to Auradon as she actually wants to escape the Isle just for adventure. You really feel that Uma isn't evil despite her mother, she is just a child sick of being punished for her mother's crimes. Unfortunately, she decides to follow the footsteps of revenge and now she is the villain instead of the hero like she is clearly trying to be. However, the message manages to get through to her in the end and (once again) happy ever after, Ben and Mal kiss, and Uma instead of returning to the Isle quickly but quietly slinks away. Fairytale complete.

At the beginning of the third installment, there is all the happiness as the VK program continues. It makes you stop and wonder if Uma had just waited a bit longer if she would have gotten her wish and been brought to Auradon. The first villain that we see is Hades, causing many people to believe that he is the villain of the show this time, so it is surprising to many when Audry goes and takes not only the Queen's Crown but Maleficent's Scepter as well. In a stunning display of musical magic, we watch Audry instantly become evil as she is searching for what she "deserves".

THIS is where the theory comes into play. By this point, Mal has fully aligned herself with good. As Audry and Mal are from the same fairytale, Sleeping Beauty, this fully upsets the good vs evil balance which is where the theory comes from that Audry HAD to turn evil to keep the balance of their story.

This is where some will argue that, no, Audry did NOT have to become evil, Mal had just taken so much from her and many of the kids in Auradon were kids who were completely spoiled and brats. Even stating that Audry would still be petty and selfish had Mal not come along, she would just be a Queen on top of it. However, in quoting what I find to be the more annoying song of this movie, Mal even says "Life is not a storybook, but life unfolds in chapters; turn the page and start to make amends." This is honestly just more proof that Mal has embraced the life of good.

Another thing that goes unconsidered is that in fairytales, the selfish and spoiled children generally are considered villains. Cinderella is a perfect example; her stepsisters were spoiled and bratty and got away with bullying her but ultimately are labeled as villains. Is that not what Audry does, herself, to Mal? She bullies her quite a bit in the first one and gets away with it because Mal is still considered evil to them; but yet Audry is still one of the good guys?

I agree with the theory that it was ultimately Audry's destiny to go evil, as a continuation to her and Mal's fairytale, there had to be conflict between them that ended in a true good vs evil battle to fulfill the true fairytale. Audry accepted the dark, for Mal to ultimately save her.

The only others in the entire trilogy that could have had this happen would have been Evie and Doug, as they came from the fairytale of Snow White. MY theory behind why this happened to Mal and Audry and NOT Evie and Doug, why Doug was not "destined" to turn evil like Audry was, is due to the fact that Doug was NOT the descendant of Snow White. If he had been Snow White's son, then the good vs evil destination could have easily activated the way it did for Mal and Audry as they are Maleficent and Aurora's daughters, respectively.

Due to the nature of how fairytales run, Descendants needed equal balance throughout their story lines. Audry becoming evil was a part of that balance.

What do you think? Did Audry really need to become evil? Could they have used Hades as the villain instead? Come tell us what you think! Join me tomorrow as we dive into The Rise of Red and the potential change it has on the rest of the series. Until tomorrow, keep on theorizing, Fanaticals!