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The Prince and The Star (Wish AU Concept/Teaser?)

(image credit: cj.doodles)

Antonio sighed , dangling his legs over the tree branch. “This isn’t right, Felipe. My mother is taking people’s spark- a part of their soul for crying out loud- and they don’t even know it. And I’m doing nothing about it!” He rested his chin in his hands and huffed. “Not that I probably could do anything to stop her…”

Felipe bleated and nudged Antonio, rubbing his head against his side. Antonio reached out and gently scratched him behind the ear. He looked up at the starry sky, and a thought popped into his mind. He remembered when he was younger, Abuelo had talked about people and the stars being connected. He couldn’t remember the much of what he talked about. He remembered one story however. Once, a peasant girl had made a wish upon a star and the star had come down to help her and her kingdom from danger. His mother had always despised the story, and told Antonio it was complete nonsense. It did sound very far-fetched to him. But he was desperate for help and answers. And maybe…just maybe…

Antonio took a deep breath and stood up, looking up at the sky. He scanned the stars and settled his gaze on a dimmer one to the north. He clasped his hands together and closed his eyes tight. “I wish…I wish for all the people of Navarra to have their sparks back, and for my mother- Queen Maria- to stop using dark sorcery.” He slowly and opened his eyes. The night remained still and silent, apart from a few distant crickets. He sighed and glanced down at Felipe “I knew this was a stupid idea-“

Just then a bright light filled the entire sky, making Antonio shield his eyes from the glare. A strange rumbling filled the air, and Antonio could swear he felt something rush past him. The light dimmed and Antonio looked back up at the star he had wished on, only to find it gone. “What- what was that?” He half-said, half-shouted. He trembled and took a few deep breaths, hoping to calm his nerves. “We should probably head home. Before mother realizes I’m gone and gets mad.”

Felipe bleated excitedly and bucked, running off towards the woods. “Hey! Wait!” Antonio quickly ran after his pet, weaving through trees and bushes as he tried to catch up to the kid. When he finally did, he found Felipe staring at a pile of clothes that had been knocked out of a basket. He panted as he slowly approached the goat. “What has gotten into you buddy?” He was about to grab the young goat when he saw the clothes shake. A little at first, then more and more. Slowly he approached the pile of clothes and lifted it up. He expected to see a rabbit or a raccoon under it all, ready to dash away at the first sight of him. But that’s now what he found at all. He found a girl.

(Apologies if this sounds bad, I sort of got a random itch to write this and caved in, so it’s very first -drafty)

Upon a Star (A Wish Rewrite)

Synopsis: On an island deep in the Mediterranean Sea stands the kingdom of Rosas. Everyone in the kingdom lives happily, believing their beloved and magical rulers- King Manuel and Queen Amaya -will make their wishes come true. In truth however, the two are collecting wishes to fuel their magic and harness power.

Not everyone is fooled however. Deep in the Uncharted Forest lies a quaint village, where people live peacefully away from the rulers. One citizen is Asha, the one person who occasionally ventures into Rosas to steal supplies and money from nobles, known to them as “The Alondra of Rosas”.

Time is running out before the King and Queen find the village, and Asha knows it. One night in desperation, Asha makes a wish on a star, and to her surprise, the star falls from the sky. The star takes the form of a young boy with magic of his own, and Asha believes with him there is still hope for her people. Joined by the star and the young Prince Flazino, Asha sets out to stop the evil rulers once and for all.

Rewrite

(🚧Work In Progress 🚧)

Chapter One: Welcome to Rosas

Chapter Two: A Humble Yet Cozy Abode

Chapter Three: Star Light, Star Bright

Chapter Four: So I Make This Wish

Chapter Five: You’re a Star!

Chapter Six: A Chance Meeting

Characters

Asha (The Alondra of Rosas)

Earendel

Prince Flazino

King Manuel

Queen Amaya

Bonus Features

Asha’s Character Arc

Character Fun Facts

Asha (The Alondra of Rosas)

I have no idea how to start one of these so let’s just dive into the madness-

I took a very different take on Asha, to say the least. Instead of being a cheery peasant girl or a gracious princess, she’s a charismatic, cunning, and emotionally distant thief. so an accidental puss in boots ripoff-

My main goal with Asha in this rewrite is to give her more of a personality, as well as a character arc. She had a little personality in the movie, but ultimately just falls into that “quirky female protagonist” trope Disney has been doing lately. I drew a lot of Asha’s personality from characters like Meg, Raya, and especially Esmeralda. As far as a character arc, she doesn’t really have one in the film. The only change she really goes through is becoming a little sparkly and becoming the fairy godmother or whatever (which was such a stupid idea especially after they JUST defeated Magnifico but for another day). Not to spoil much here, but in this rewrite I decided her character arc will mainly revolve around opening up to people and vulnerability.

As a quick side note, her nickname means “The Lark of Rosas”. The citizens call her lark because of the way she glides across rooftops so gracefully, and for her singing voice.

As far as her design goes, I wanted her to closer resemble Brittney Lee’s concept art, shown below.

Her facial features and hairstyle just seem more fitting to her in this rewrite, and the warmer colored clothing would make her stand out against the other citizens of Rosas, who wear a lot of cooler colors.

(credit unknown)

As for her outfit, I went with the classic Spanish Musketeer look like the design above (minus the pistol). The art is pretty close to what I imagine, though I’d probably have her just wear a shirt and not the blue vest seen above.

Now, I know what you may be asking: What about Valentino? Well, he’s still here, but um…

…he changed quite a bit too. This is a genet, a catlike animal native to Spain, and a much more fitting companion to a thief than a goat. Think of him like Abu from Aladdin.

Now for the fun part: angst

Asha was born in Rosas to Thomás and Sakina. A few years after she was born, her mother died during the raids. Afterwords, her father guided her and many others to the Uncharted Forest, where they built the hamlet.

Like Asha, her father was a thief who stole supplies for the hamlet and gave money from the nobility to the poor of Rosas. He became well-liked by many, and stood as a symbol of hope for poorer citizens. He was basically the closest thing the hamlet had to a leader. Until one day he disappeared when Asha was just 14. (This will be somewhat important later in the story)

Asha felt she had to take her father’s place to keep hope alive in Rosas and began to steal from the nobles, sharing their riches with commoners as he had done. Around this time she was taken in by an older man named Sabino, who had been friends with her father.

Sabino never really approved of Asha’s thievery, but since she was the only one bringing supplies into the hamlet he didn’t say much. Asha eventually became very closed off to people, and had Sabino and Valentino as her only real companions. Although most people like her, she doesn’t really have friends in Rosas or even the hamlet. She’s too scared of failing their expectations of her, and avoids growing close to anyone besides Sabino.

This girl has a lot of expectations weighing on her, and they’re only about to get a lot heavier. But this time, she won’t have to carry them alone.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

Earendel

And here he is, the little lad himself.

Like with Asha, I took a different spin then what most people have been doing with Starboy. Some of the early concepts took inspiration from Peter Pan, so I decided to go all in with this idea and make him a young boy instead of an older teenager. Which was also an idea mentioned in the Art of Wish.

He has a similar personality to what was shown in the movie, being the definition of chaotic neutral while also being very sweet and naive.

I wanted him to really be the emotional glue of the trio, letting Asha and Miguel open up to him about their feelings. He also has his own character arc, learning what it means to be human. That they can be very malicious and cruel, but also compassionate and empathetic. This was something mentioned briefly in the Art of Wish book I wanted to incorporate, shown below.

His appearance is very similar to the one above, especially in terms of clothing. He has a typical prince getup that’s black, and a long cape made of stardust. Also the little hood with the antlers. He appears to be around 12 years old, being a much younger star. Minus the clothes, his appearance is also similar to the art below.

(via Saira Vargas)

He doesn’t have an important backstory in this rewrite (at least at the time I’m writing this) so this section will instead explain the star’s and their magic.

Stars exist in a place known as the Celestial Realm. It is sort of hard to explain exactly what it is. The Celestial Realm is technically another dimension, though it can be seen through the night sky via magic, and can even be accessed by very powerful magic.

Older stars have the power to go from earth to the Celestial Realm through conjuring a portal fairly easily due to how powerful their magic can be. Though they mostly choose not to. More on that in a minute.

Very few humans have the ability to go from one realm to the other. Only those who have studied magic their entire lives are able to do so.

However, most people don’t try, thinking the Celestial Realm is just a myth. Meanwhile, the stars believe the humans are selfish and hollow beings because of their lack of natural magic and some bad history, so they don’t bother with them.

So, what can stars actually do? Well, nearly anything, as long as it does not bring harm to others. They can transform things, give inanimate objects life, let things talk, create physical things from stardust. The stardust can also be used to just create pretty visuals. The only things they cannot do are make people fall in love, or again bring harm to anyone in any way.

Phew, alright. That was quite a bit of rambling to get through. Hopefully I explained everything well, but feel free to ask for clarifications if needed.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

Prince Flazino

The Crown Himbo, everybody

So yeah, quite a bit to say about this character. At first my plan was to just use one of the seven friends and make them the prince/princess, but as I developed the concept more I felt that none of them really fit. They won’t all be completely scrapped though. Dahlia will be kept in, and the others may have cameos, but otherwise they’re gone from the story. It wasn’t until a little later until I found out about Flazino from a deleted scene, and decided to use him since not many other people were.

Since Earendel has a different role now, I first came up with Flazino as the love interest for Asha. I decided to make him Manuel and Amaya’s son, and his character became a lot more fleshed out. He’s young man who’s very passionate about music, but due to his parents insistence on him learning magic instead, he doesn’t show that passion often. With how much Manuel and Amaya control him, he’s very reserved in general, making him seem like a cold and grumpy individual. Though around his friend Dahlia, he’s a bit more open. Being the son of THE villain power couple, a lot of his arc revolves around toxic and found family, which I’m very interested in developing. (Also I’m only just now realizing how similar he is to Miguel from Coco but let’s not worry about that-)

Flazino’s design is inspired a lot by the concept art of Abuelo Pedro above. It’s just generally the closest to what I picture Flazino looking like, minus the facial hair. I also imagine he has clothes similar to the concept art below.

Now for his backstory I cobbled together at 12 a.m.

Flazino was born to Manuel and Amaya only a few years after Manuel gained power, and was immediately put to magic lessons, despite his clear disinterest in it. (I thought about making him adopted instead, but I thought it would create a stronger arc if they were his biological parents, also Disney hasn’t made many if any biological parents THIS intentionally shitty so…)

As he grew older he found a passion for playing music, but his parents, especially Manuel, quickly snuffed it out. They told him it was a useless peasant’s wish and that he should focus on more important things.

One day met Dahlia in the kitchens as a pre-teen while he was hiding from his parents, and the two became quick friends. He talked a lot either her about things he couldn’t with many other people. Sometimes Dahlia would try and get him to talk about the king and queen, but Flazino avoided the topic as much as he possibly could. (As a side note, Dahlia isn’t a cook in this rewrite, just a regular servant)

When he turned eighteen, Manuel actually didn’t take Flazino’s wish, but he also wouldn’t grant it. This became Manuel’s main source of manipulation towards his son, threatening to take his wish away or worse if he set a foot out of line.

Now the whole trio is done, which means we’ll move onto the villains very soon. I’ll admit now that they aren’t too different from what most people have been doing, but I think it will be a nice refresher from all this new character stuff.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

King Manuel

The Audacity of Dis Bitch

Can we all agree that Magnifico is kind of a dumb name? Yes? Coolio. In this rewrite the king probably has the least changes, at least when it comes to design. I wanted to keep him closer to what we see in the first half of the movie, where he tried to act sincere, but you can also tell he’s kinda bullshitting and hiding more then he’s letting on. My main focus was to make him (and by extension Amaya) more of a threat in the story. In the movie he really doesn’t do anything that’s all that bad. Sure, he steals people’s wishes, but they don’t seem too upset about it, and he just keeps the wishes in a tower. In this story however…well he may end up having a kill count.

Again, I really wanted to lean into the show host side of Manuel’s personality. He takes a lot of inspiration from Hades in this rewrite, able to crack jokes here and there while still being a large threat to our heros. He’s highly manipulative, even towards his own family. He presents himself, Amaya, and Flazino as the perfect royal family, when behind the scenes he’s a power-hungry dictator, his wife is a witch who may or may not have married him just for power, and their son is kinda broken.

As far as his design goes, I would change very little. The only significant change I would make would be to make his clothing more gold and blue like above. It would add a lot more color to his design and make him stick out better from the subjects of Rosas, like with Asha’s design. (small side tangent here, but I hate how muted the colors are in the movie. like it’s not a problem in any of their other 3D films, so why is it here?)

Onto his backstory:

In this rewrite, Rosas was founded by Manuel’s father, Enrique. He was the first to discover wish magic and used it to grant people’s greatest desires. He didn’t take their wishes away however, simply held a ceremony every month where he granted a handful of people’s wishes.

As Manuel grew up, he discovered that people’s wishes could make his magic more powerful, so he started to collect wishes from prisoners behind Enrique’s back. Through his youth he also became friends with a young man named Tomás (remember him for later), who taught him about the Celestial Realm. Manuel became obsessed with the realm, and was determined to find a way to use it to fuel his magic further.

When he was around his twenties, he met Amaya during one of the wish granting ceremonies and instantly fell in love with her. It was hard to say if Amaya reciprocated those feelings at first, but when she discovered Manuel was the prince, she quickly warmed up to him and they became married.

One day, the kingdom was attacked by thieves, who burned farmland and plundered as they went, even managing to kill Enrique. Manuel eventually defeated the thieves with his own magic and blamed their wishes for what had happened. He mandated that everyone had to give up their wish when they turned eighteen so that the kingdom could be protected from more harm.

Most people agreed to give up the new policy, still shaken up from the previous events. However, a small amount of citizens were suspicious of Manuel and his intentions, especially Tomás. His and Manuel’s friendship had been on a gradual decline over the years, but after an huge argument between the two where Manuel even lashed out at his friend, Tomás left the kingdom with a small amount of people, never to be seen by the king again. (or was he? who knows? oh, only I do!)

Admittedly I don’t know how I’ll convey some of this backstory in the story yet, if I will at all, but I feel pretty good about what I came up with here. And now we just have Amaya to go, for now anyways.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

Queen Amaya

The Audacity of Dis Bitch- Part 2

I’ll admit up front, I was the least interested when it came to developing Amaya as a villain. Not that I’m disinterested in doing so. It’s just that there are so many other characters to explore, and I don’t know what I could really offer with my reinterpretation that’s new or interesting. So, I just decided to have fun and make an unabashedly evil gal that harkens back to villains like Maleficent.

Amaya is very manipulative like Manuel, but she’s much more subtle about it. While Manuel mainly focuses on keeping up appearances, Amaya focuses on keeping things behind the scenes running smoothly. When she’s not helping run the government, she’s often alone in her study brewing potions. The study is off-limits to everyone except her husband and son, so rumors float around about what actually goes on in there. In reality she just really likes her privacy but hey that’s not as fun. It’s also heavily debated amongst citizens whether or not Amaya actually loves Manuel. She seems to generally like him, but isn’t as passionate about his as he is for her. She does at least love her son, in her own kinda messed up way.

I took a very similar approach to this redesign, using the deleted storyboards and concept art of Mother Gothel above as a basis for Amaya’s appearance. The facial features and the hairstyle fit better for her in this rewrite. Her clothing would stay the same, though I would probably make it have a closer color pallets to Manuel’s clothes.

Amaya also has a cat, still named Charo. I debated a lot on whether to use a cat or a lynx. I ultimately decided on a cat as a little nod to Lucifer in Cinderella. He’s your typical pampered pet that messes with the protagonists at every turn (especially Flazino).

And let’s wrap this up with a much simpler backstory then Manuel’s:

Amaya and her family moved from Northern Spain to Rosas during the early days of King Enrique, when she was very young. They left to get away from accusations against Amaya’s father and the poverty of their village.

The next several years of Amaya’s life were fairly uneventful. She lived in a poorer part of the city and helped her mother run an apothecary. This peaked her interest in potions. She studied them extensively and began to hone her skills. She was bullied by her peers for her poor status and was called a witch for her interests, which left a sour taste in her mind.

One day she was leaving a wish ceremony when she tripped over a step. As she collected her things a young man came and helped her. They made a little small talk and Amaya continued on, thinking nothing of it.

A few days later Amaya was in the woods gathering ingredients when she found the young man riding a horse through the forest. He stopped when he saw her and tried to make conversation. Amaya was very hesitant at first, but when the man revealed himself to be Prince Manual himself, she became a lot more intrigued.

And from there the rest is history, Amaya gets married a few years later, becomes queen, has a son, and helps Manuel in his quest for power.

And that’s all for the characters, which means I have no reason to procrastinate on the story and songs ;-;. I’ll try to post little bits and pieces of stuff until the everything is finished, but no promises.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

Chapter One: Welcome to Rosas

We begin our story with Disney’s 100th anniversary logo.

It fades to black, before panning across a study and zooming onto a book sitting on a desk. The book has no title, instead having a large star on the cover.

The book flips open and shows a page depicting a night sky, filled with glowing people where the stars should be. A castle rests in the middle on a bed of clouds. A man begins to narrate.

Once upon a time, there was a realm far far away, known as the Celestial Realm. There lived stars, beings who possessed great magical power and could do amazing things.

The page flips showing some stars on one side of the page, while humans are on the other. One of each is in the middle of the page, shaking hands.

For a long time, the stars traveled between their realm and our realm, helping us achieve many great things and granting people their hearts desires.

We pan to the next page, showing the humans and stars again, but this time the humans look more like evil creatures, with black silhouettes that only show two green eyes and a mouth like a jack-o-lantern. The stars meanwhile are cowering away from the humans.

But it did not last. The humans became more and more greedy, and demanded more from the stars. Some even tried to take the magic of the stars for themselves

The page flips, showing the stars high in the sky and looking down at a city below. The humans look distraught, praying and begging to the stars. In the middle of the stars is a tall figure with a glowing dress and a wand.

The stars fled back to their realm and stayed there, using their magic to watch over the humans. The people below were of course upset, and begged the stars to come back. Their queen came down for the final time and told them “Listen well. Only when you have proven yourselves to be brave, true, and unselfish creatures will we come back to your aid.” And since that day, the stars remained in the sky, watching and waiting.

We fade to black, where a title appears: “Upon a Star”. •◌•◌•★•◌•◌•

We fade back in, panning across the city of Rosas.

The camera focuses in on a young woman dressed like a musketeer sitting on a rooftop. On one side of her there’s a large empty sack, and on the other a genet nibbles a berry. “Look at that Valentino. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and all is calm. The perfect day to steal stuff, wouldn’t you agree?” The girl asks the genet, who chitters and licks his paws. I’m glad.” She grabs the sack and slides down the roof, Valentino following her.

(via unknown) We cut to a different location, now at the docks. A young man paces, rubbing his temples. He has shoulder-length dark brown hair. His clothes are plain, apart from his dark blue tunic and cape.

“I can’t believe he put me on tour duty again! Just because I was a few minutes late to one of his lessons…” He sighs. “Let’s just get this over with.” He stops and straightens up as he see’s three adults, a couple teenagers, and a child disembarking a ship. He clears his throat and waves to them. “Ah, Hello! Hola, Shalom, Salam! Welcome to Rosas, where your all wishes can come true! I’m Flazino, and I’ll be your guide!”

🎵 Welcome to Rosas 🎵

Flazino

Group

Citizens

Welcome to Rosas Come along, come this way Where the greatest creations are all on display There's no other place as full of surprise Where your dreams and your reality can collide

(Flazino guides the group through the city gates, making grand gestures around the city. They pass by a man operating a large machine similar to the one Belle’s father had in Beauty and the Beast, and stare in awe.)

You wanna touch the sky? Or to feel more spry? Make your dreams come true? Well, hey, do we have good news for you

(They pass by a man on stilts, then an older woman dancing with the grace and ease of someone much younger. More citizens start to appear as Flazino gives the group a wink. The stock characters other citizens start to dance)

'Cause here in the city of Rosas You can turn all your wanting to wishing No what-ifs and no wonders Oh, here in the city of Rosas  It's unlikely that you'll be unhappy With so much to discover

(Flazino dances in the center of it all as he sings. The group watch with delight, a couple even joining in. Flazino twirls the little girl, who giggles.)

A home for me (me) For you (you) And all of us (us) The city of Rosas

(Flazino points to people in the group and leads them over to a puppet show similar to the one in the movie)

So like, we have this king name Manuel And years ago he saved us with a spell

(A puppet that looks like the king holds up a scepter, warding off several evil-looking puppets.)

With lightning for hands and eyes that can glow No, no, no, I'm totally kidding! But he is powerful He’s just like us with a twist So much power, so much to list!

(He holds up his hands creepily at the little girl, who gasps in fear. He quickly stops and ruffles her hair playfully.)

A magic swish And there you have it, poof, there's your wish! Ooh and, hey did I mention when you turn eighteen? You get to give your wish in a ceremony And he keeps them safe, every wish he acquires  And once a month he grants someone's greatest desire  It could be you someday, or you, or even you Ooh, who could wait?

(A citizen puppet gives puppet Manuel a blue ball, then jumps around happily. Flazino points to three of the citizens on “you”. A couple glance at each other with doubt.)

(A man) Does it hurt? (The child) Do you cry? Oh, no, and you won't even miss it when you say "goodbye"

(Flazino looks a little hesitant at first as they ask, but brushes it off with a little wave and smile.)

'Cause here in the city of Rosas  You can turn all your wanting to wishing No what-ifs and no wonders Oh, here in the city of Rosas It's unlikely that you'll be unhappy With so much to discover

(The group, looking a little more reassured and confident, join in on the singing and dancing. Flazino looks relieved.)

A home for me (me) For you (you) And all of us (us) The city of Rosas

(Everyone dances until the end of the song, where Flazino and several citizens strike a pose on the steps outside the courtyard of the castle, similarly to the movie.)

The citizens clap and cheer, chatting amongst themselves with delight. Flazino is used to it by now. He’s seen it all before, the sheer delight before the inevitable happens. His smile falters a little as he overhears some of the group.

“Wow, this place is amazing!”

“I wonder if the king would grant my wish?”

“This is such a magical place to live!”

The little girl smile and tugs at presumably her mother’s sleeve. “I can’t wait to give my wish to the king someday!” Flazino fakes a chuckle at this comment.

A loud commotion comes from a ways down the road, though it’s hard to see what’s going on through the crowd. The tour group perks up at this with alarm. “What was that?” One woman asks.

Flazino waves a hand dismissively. “Probably just a spooked horse or something. Why don’t we go see the artisan district?” He quickly ushers the group away to a different part of the city.

We cut back to the girl from earlier, who’s running across a roof and holding a small sack. She stops a the edge of the roof and turns around, where we see several guards stalking toward her. “Stop right their Alondra!”

The girl, who's name is really Asha, crosses her arms and chuckles. “Ah, hey there O’Donohue. Good to see you again, you look great. Is that a new helmet?”

“Your sweet-talking won’t save you now. You have committed crimes against Rosas and her people. Pay for your crimes or suffer the consequences.” The guard grumbles.

“Or I could do this.” Asha quickly grabs a clothesline and cuts it, swinging down to the street below. She lands seamlessly on her feet and looks up. “You won’t get away that easily, thief!” The guard shouts from above. “Ha, I already have!” Asha calls back before quickly running down the street. After a minute she stops and looks around, clutching the bag.

A couple other women are standing by washing clothes. One looks up at Asha and chuckles. “Getting into trouble a little early, aren’t we Alondra?”

Asha puts her hand to her chest in pretend shock. “Who, me? I would never.” There’s more shouting from up ahead, and we see around ten guards now barreling towards Asha. She clears her throat and draws a rapier from its hilt. “Excuse me ladies.”

Asha tucks the bag into her belt and rushes at the guards. The guards draw their swords as well. Asha takes on one guard at a time, dispatching each with ease. She parries their blows and sends one into a wall. Another trips and fall so into a wheelbarrow that Asha kicks away. Yet another is knocked down by a barrel Asha rolls at him. She smugly smiles as she faces the sixth guard in her path. Another grabs her. “I got her Simon! I’ll-“ he’s cut short as Valentino lands on his head, spinning his helmet.

“Good timing, Val.” Asha says, wriggling free. Valentino chitters and jumps onto her shoulder as they run off again. The remaining four guards pursue. Residents watch from the sides of the street or from their windows as Asha looks around for a quick escape. She notices a cart filled with bags of gold outside a wealthy-looking house. She bolts to it and tips it over, letting gold spill into the middle of the street.

Immediately citizens rush over to the gold, grabbing whatever they can. The guards try and push through, but once they make it to the front, Asha is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, her voice comes from above, on a rooftop. “Good citizens, accept this gift from the Alondra of Rosas!” She waves her hat and bows before making her escape. Valentino waves as well before following. The citizens cheer and clap. “I’ll get you one day, Alondra! I’ll get you if it’s the last thing I do!” The first guard, O’Donohue, calls.

We cut back to Asha, a little later in the day now. She’s in an abandoned house, carefully placing clothing and food in the large bag from earlier. “That should do it. Now, why don’t we watch a little show before we take this home?” She asks Valentino. He nods happily and skitters up a flight of stairs onto a balcony. Asha follows and leans against the railing, looking down at the courtyard of the castle below. The entire kingdom is gathered, talking quietly amongst themselves as the sun begins to set. The trumpets begin to play. There’s a huge flash of light and the crowd cheers loudly. King Manuel himself jumps out to the front of the stage.

“HELLOOOO ROSAS!”

The crowd whoops and hollers, though it sounds somewhat dry. Nevertheless, they continue to clap and cheer. Queen Amaya and steps out from the main door, making short curtsy’s before seating herself near the back of the stage. She looks perfectly content and even a little bored. We cut back briefly to Asha, who sneers and rolls her eyes at the king.

Manuel smiles, drinking in the attention, beaming and twirling his staff. “Thank you, thank you. You’re too kind.” He waves his hand for silence. The crowd immediately goes quiet. “Now, first things first, we have two new residents ready to give their wishes.” Two people from the earlier tour walk up the steps. “Elena and Stefan, welcome to Rosas. You’ll love it here.” Manuel holds his hands out. “Now make your wishes.” The two close their eyes right, and a glowing emanates from their chests. They take a deep breath and two wish bubbles appear. The new residents blink, suddenly looking deeply saddened, though they try to hide with smiles. “Don’t worry. They’ll be perfectly safe.” Manuel says. He waves his staff and sends the wishes up to his tower. The two nod and slowly walk back down the steps. “Forget without regret!” The crowd chants.

We cut again to Asha, who watches the king with a mixture of disgust and sadness. “Now, who is ready to have their wish granted?” Manuel shouts. The crowd cheers again with more sincerity. “Now, I have thought very hard about who’s wish will be granted tonight, and I have decided on someone who has waited long enough.” Murmurs ripple through he crowd. “So it is with great pleasure, that I announce Anya Ivanov will have her wish granted tonight.”

The crowd applauds, and Anya gasps. “Did- did I hear that correctly? I- Oh my goodness!” She bounds up the steps, her face filled with relief and joy.

Manuel chuckles. He waves his staff again. “Anya, it if my great pleasure to grant your wish to sow the most beautiful dresses in all the land.” A pair of scissors magically appears in front of Anya. She smiles and holds the scissors gently. She looks happy but also somewhat…underwhelmed. As though she hadn’t expected her wish to be that simple.

The crowd cheers for Anya as she leaves the stage. Manuel waves and twirls his staff one more time, sending more sparks out across the courtyard. “Thank you all for coming. Get home safely and have a good evening.”

Asha stretches. “Well, that’s our cue buddy.” Valentino hops onto her shoulders and the two make their way back down the stairs, grabbing the sack of goods. We cut to the edge of the kingdom, where Asha is loading the sack up onto a black horse. It snorts and paws the ground. “Oh, don’t be like that Maximus. If you behave this time, I might let you have an extra scoop of oats, or even a special treat.” The horse’s ears swivel at this and it straightens up. “That’s what I thought.” Asha chuckles. She climbs onto Maximus’s back and rides off into the woods.

Author’s Notes

I looked up. So much sword terminology. Only to use two or three specific words. The life of a writer can be quite a tedious one, I must say.

But anyways, it’s finally here! I hope you all enjoyed this first glimpse into Rosas. My main goal with this chapter was to mainly set up some characters, setting, and lore. As well as hint at later themes. I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out. Except for the action scene. It’s not my strong suit, and I think I bit off a little more then I could chew for the first chapter. But I’m relatively okay with it.

I originally planned to rewrite “Dream a Little Harder” from Twisted and use it as the opening song. Ultimately however, I wasn’t sure how to fit in all of the information needed, so I just stuck with a Welcome to Rosas rewrite. If anyone wants to use that idea for their rewrite however, I would really encourage it. Especially since Twisted is a parody musical of Aladdin (and a lot better then that movie in my opinion but I digress).

I had a lot of fun figuring out Flazino and Asha’s personalities. I can tell Asha is going to be fun to write. She does have that “cool guy” persona, but there’s still a glimpse at empathy for others that might emerge more. As for Flazino, he’s kind of just some guy, but that’s why I like him. He’s someone who obviously wants to do the right thing, but doesn’t know how or even if he could. He’s actually inspired a bit by Phineas Thatch from the podcast Midst, with less of a temper.

As for the king and queen…I’ll talk about them more when the time comes. Speaking of them though, with the wishing ceremony I wanted to give a feeling of unease. Everyone is putting up a front, the people who give up their wish are saddened by it, and the lady who gets her wish is underwhelmed. It makes the audience suspicious of Manuel’s intentions and brace themselves for him to be revealed as the villain. Though that’s a story for…two or three chapters from now.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter Two: A Humble Yet Cozy Abode

(Let’s just pretend this shot is at night alright?)

We watch Asha ride through the thick forest. She glances back a couple times, but there’s only thick branches and bushes behind her. She finally pushes away a cluster of branches to reveal a clearing with several little houses. A tree stands tall in the middle of the huts. She’s finally reached the hamlet. Asha dismounts Maximus and grabs the large sack, slinging it over her shoulder. Valentino crawls onto the saddle and sits down.

“Welcome back, Asha,” and older voice says. Asha stops and turns around to see an older man standing by one of the huts, leaning on a cane for support. A lute is strung over his shoulders.

“Aren’t you up a little late Sabino?” Asha says with a teasing tone.

“Ha, I could say the same to you young lady,” Sabino says.

Asha chuckles and walks towards a tree in the middle of the clearing. Sabino follows. “Well, I had to travel to Rosas and back in the cover of darkness so I wouldn’t get caught and beheaded. What’s your excuse?” She sets down the bag in front of the tree.

“Insomnia,” Sabino says, “And I wanted to make sure my favorite adopted child made it home safely.”

“Your only adopted child, Sabino,” Asha teases. “You don’t have to worry about me. I have mastered the blade and the art of theft. I can take care of myself out there.” She grabs Max’s reigns and leads him into a small pen. Sabino hesitates, his smile fading as he glances away. Valentino notices Sabino’s look and rubs his head against the older man’s leg. Asha notices it as well and stops pauses after taking off Max’s reigns. “Is something wrong?” She asks, her tone more serious.

“Safi was in the eastern woods earlier today and spotted a couple knights by the edge of the tree line.” Sabino says.

“Is he okay? We’re there dogs this time?” Asha asks, looking worried.

“No and no. They left after a couple minutes without spotting him.”

Asha sighs with relief and shuts the gate to the horse pen. “Good.” She takes off her cavalier hat and pinches the bridge of her nose. “That’s the second time this month. I would hate to force everyone to stay in the hamlet for a few days again, but those knights are getting closer and closer to searching the forest, and I don’t know what else to do…”

“Perhaps just advise them to stick closer to the western side of the forest instead. It has less to forage, but it’s safer,” Sabino suggests.

“Good idea, Sabino,” Asha says, relaxing.

“I have those from time to time,” Sabino jokes to lighten the mood. “Now, let’s get some rest.” Asha nods and picks up Valentino, walking into the hut next to Max’s pen.

We transition to the next morning, where Asha emerges from the hut in a very different outfit from the previous day. Instead of a plain shirt, pants, cape, hat and boots, she sports an orange dress with flat shoes and her hair in a large bun.

We get to see a montage of an average day in the hamlet. First Asha gives the hamlet morning announcements and hands out the supplies she had gotten from the previous night: food, cloth, seeds, a couple books, and a few toys for the children. We see some people washing their clothes and collecting water from the river. Others are preparing food for their families. A few collect berries and wild mushrooms in the woods. Several men and and women tend to the fields and their livestock.

Near the end of the montage we have a scene of Asha sitting alone in a stump, sketching. Valentino sits in front of her. His ear twitches and he strikes a goofy pose. Asha looks up from her sketch of the genet and giggles. She reached out and scratches him behind the ear.

We transition to dusk. Asha is brushing down Max when a couple teenagers walk by and stop. “Hey Asha!” One, a boy, calls.

Asha jumps slightly at the noise and turns around. “Oh, hey Safi. Need anything?”

“Well, my sister and I wanted to come by and ask if you wanted to come over for dinner. Our mother is making some Shish Tawook tonight that’s to die for,” Safi explains. His sister shyly nods.

“Uh- sorry. I wish I could, but I have some work I need to catch up on around the house,” Asha says.

“You always say that,” the girl says. “Why don’t you take a break from working for once and relax with some of us?”

“I-I know, I just-” Asha hesitates, clearing her throat. “I’m very focused on, um, taking care of Sabino, you know? I mean, someone has to look out for him these days.” She stumbles over her words, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

Safi’s brows furrow. “Is everything alright, Asha? With you I mean.”

“What? Yeah, of course I’m fine, everything’s fine. I’m totally fine.” She takes a deep breath. “Look, I know I don’t hang out with anybody these days, but I have my reasons, alright?”

Safi nods and walks away with his sister. Asha leans against the fence and sighs.

We cut to Sabino, who’s sitting in a chair and watching Asha from the window. Valentino is curled up in his lap, sleeping. Sabino gasps and grabs his chest, coughing. Valentino wakes up and whines, watching Sabino with worry. Sabino gently pets Valentino as the coughing stops. “I’m okay. Im okay.” He watches the sun for a few moments as it sinks down the horizon, and gets up.

Asha walks out of Max’s pen just as Sabino walks out of their hut. “Asha, would you care to join me on a walk?” He asks.

Asha perks up. “Where to?”

“You’ll see,” Sabino says with a wink. Asha hesitates before following Sabino into the woods.

We skip to a little later in the evening. Night has settled over the forest, and Sabino is still walking with Asha. Valentino trails just behind them. “Are we there yet? This dress wasn’t exactly made for long strolls in the night,” Asha says, a little irritated.

“Almost. Have patience, child,” Sabino replies. He pushes away some branches. He slips out of the forest.

Asha follows him and stops, letting out a small breath. “The old willow tree…”

“Well don’t just stand there gawking, hurry up,” Sabino calls from ahead. Valentino hurries after him and helps him up onto the tree’s roots. Asha makes her way over and climbs onto the tree with ease. “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” Sabino says.

Asha nods. “It’s lovely.” She pauses, gently running her fingers down the bark. “Papá took me up here a lot. He’d tell me lots of stories about the stars, and how they helped people long ago. He gave me his sword that last night we came up here. Said I would need it more than him. I guess I really did…after he disappeared….” She trails off, looking downcast.

Sabino frowns and rests his hand on Asha’s shoulder. “I miss him too.” He takes a deep breaths and sits down on one of the roots. “When I came here with Sonia, Jon, and their families, he did everything to make us feel safe and happy. Even after we had lost our wishes.”

Asha looks at Sabino with surprise and a hint of sadness. “You lost your wish? I had no idea.”

Sabino nodded. “I only learned about the hamlet after the king took it. I try not to think about it too much. I’ve lived a good life. It was modest, but I’m alright with that.” He frowns. “Though it doesn’t stop the pain, knowing my wish may never come true-“ He’s cut off by a coughing fit, startling Asha and Valentino.

“Sabino?” Asha says, putting a hand on his shoulder with concern

Sabino waves his hand. “Ah, I’m okay. I just forgot to breathe for a moment.” Valentino whines and licks Sabino’s hand.

“What can I do?” Asha asks. “You know I would do anything to help you and the hamlet.”

Sabino sits thinking for a moment. “You can stop the king,” he says firmly.

“What?” Asha blinks and leans back in shock. “I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’m good with a sword, sure, but he’s a sorcerer king. There’s no way I could defeat him and save the kingdom, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Well, there’s your first problem,” Sabino says, holding up a finger. “You can’t think about saving the whole kingdom, you have to think about saving one person.”

“Like you?” Asha asks.

“Perhaps, but I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m old. I’ve lived an honorable life without my wish,” Sabino repeats. “But there are still so many young people out there whose wishes have been stolen from them. Asha, no one should have to live and die without a chance for their wishes to be granted.”

“If I’m not supposed to worry about you, then who do I focus on saving?”

Sabino smiles. “That is for you to decide.” Asha gives him a hesitant smile and looks up at the stars. We fade to a bush, where a pair of cat eyes narrow before fading into the shadows.

Author’s Notes

This chapter was a little heavy with the dialogue and exposition in the second half, but I like how it went. I feel like I’m really picking things up with this chapter. Asha gets some more characterization that will be important for her arc later, and we get to see the hamlet. I wanted to let her leadership qualities shine early on. None of that adorkable shit for this Asha. She does have her moment of awkwardness talking to Safi, but that’s there for a reason.

So far the hamlet citizens won’t be that important, so they don’t get much dialogue or screen time. But Safi here did get a cameo, as well as an unnamed cameo from Bazeema (his sister in this rewrite).

We also finally get to meet Sabino! I took a lot of inspiration from Gramma Tala from Moana when developing his character. He’s very mischievous and teasing towards Asha, but also offers a lot of guidance to her and acts as her advisor. A big change I wanted to make with his character was having him be more worried about other people’s wishes than his own. Like he says, he’s lived a fine life without his wish. The heartache is there, but for the most part he’s pushed past it. I just think it makes him more sympathetic than wanted his wish and his with alone to be granted. I really like how his speech turned out, especially the line inspired by the deleted Spiderverse scene. (“You can’t think about saving the whole world, you have to think about saving one person”). Again, it will be important to Asha’s relationships later on as well as the climax.

Next chapter will be back to the royals, so lots of fun stuff there. I honestly can’t wait to flesh out Flazino and his parents more.

Thanks for reading!

Some humble Wishverse memes (Unus Annus edition)

Upon a Star (yours truely)

The Kingdom of Wishes, specifically chapter 16 (@annymation @uva124 @emillyverse)

The Fallen Star (@signed-sapphire)

Reach for the Stars (@oh-shtars)

Wish Granted (@rascalentertainments)

Been having a really bad evening to say the least. So here’s a picrew I did of my wish trio and myself to cheer me up. Chapter Three of Upon a Star should be out tomorrow or Monday.

Asha

Flazino

Earendel (without his hood for once)

Me!

Chapter Three: Star Light, Star Bright

We’re right where we left off at the bush. A slim gray spotted cat slips out of it. We get a wider shot and see the cat is at the edge of the Hamlet. He stretches and walks out of the hamlet towards Rosas. We pan up to see the castle before fading into the royal kitchens.

The cat from before is walking through, head held high. He stops as he hears footsteps and spots Flazino walk in. The cat ducks behind a barrel. Flazino adjusts a satchel slung around his shoulders as he passes the barrel. The cat shifts from side to side before pouncing on the young man’s boot.

“GAH! CHARO YOU LITTLE-!” Flazino tries to shake the cat off of his boot before grabbing him by the collar and holding him up. “What are you even doing here? You're not allowed in the kitchens.” Charo pins his ears back and hisses.

Another pair of footsteps and a tapping sound come from nearby, and a girl around Flazino’s age using a crutch emerges from behind a door. “Flazi, is that you? Is everything alright?”

“Sí, Dahlia. Cat got my boot, that’s all.” Flazino takes Charo over to the door and sets him outside. “Now get out of here, shoo!” Charo gives Flazino a dirty look before pointing his nose to the air and walking away.

Dahlia chuckles and walks towards a line of shelves and cabinets. “What did you ever do to that cat to make him hate you so much?”

“I never did anything to him!” Flazino huffs. “He hates everyone except my mother. I say we should have named him Diablo.” He pauses before looking back up at Dahlia. “What are you doing up this late?”

“Oh, I came down here to get some ginger for tea. One of the other servant’s had a bad headache, so I offered to make some. What about you?” Dahlia glances at him sideways as she looks through a cabinet and grabs the herb.

Flazino shrugs. “Father wanted me to grab some old book from the cellar. He’s got something planned for tonight.”

“What planned?” Dahlia asks, grabbing a kettle and filling it with water before putting it over a fire.

“That’s confidential, I’m afraid. Very important sorcerer business.”

“…You don’t know, do you?”

“Well I…no. But it sounded important.”

Dahlia smiles and rolls her eyes as she continues making her tea. Flazino pauses before asking “Have you seen him this evening?” “A little earlier while I was cleaning,” Dahlia replies. “Did he look angry?” Flazino asks.

“He did seem rather peeved. I didn’t catch what he was saying though,” Dahlia says.

Flazino sighs and nods. “Okay then. Well, I shouldn't stall any longer. I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully.”

“Be careful. You know how he can be he’s angry,” Dahlia says, adjusting her crutch and watching Flazino make his way towards the door.

Flazino chuckles, sounding a little defeated. “Oh trust me, I know.” He shuts the door behind him and makes his way up the long, long staricase.

Flazino stops at the top in front of a set of double doors. Yelling comes from behind the doors, making Flazino hesitate as he reaches for the handle and pulls open a door.

Inside is the wishing chamber. Hundreds and hundreds of wishes float around the room, soft blue light pulsing from them. The roof is open, exposing the night sky. On two sides of the room there are tables littered with alchemy sets and various ingredients. Herbs, animal bones, liquids, and other strange things.

Amaya is working at one table, carefully measuring and brewing a potion while Charo sits at her side. Manuel paces on the other side of the table, running his fingers through his hair. “Maldita sea esa chica! Every time she shows up, she makes a fool of my guards, causes a scene, and disappears without a word. And the people love her for it!”

“Calm down, mi rey. It’s only one thief. We can deal with one little thief,” Amaya replies.

“Have you even been listening to what I’m saying?” Manuel snaps. “This girl is no ordinary thief. Whoever she is, she clearly takes after him. And that is the last thing I need.”

Amaya walks around the table and gently places her hand on Manuel’s cheek. “I understand dear, but don’t worry. After tonight, no one in this kingdom will dare to act out of line ever again.”

Manuel takes a deep breath and nods. “You’re right. As usual.” Amaya smiles and turns back to her potion. Manuel looks up as Flazino walks over. “Did you find it?”

“Yes, it was locked away in a case. The lock was enchanted, but I managed to break the glass.” Flazino explains, reaching into his sack and pulling out a leather-bound book. He sets it down, and we see the cover has two wolves circling a star symbol in the middle.

“Perfect,” Manuel says, grabbing the book and flipping through its pages.

“We didn’t see you at the ceremony earlier. Where were you?” Amaya asks.

Flazino tenses. “Uh, Samson escaped from his pen again. You know how skittish he can be.” Amaya looks at Flazino with suspicion, but doesn’t reply. Flazino glances at Manuel. “What are we doing up here so late anyways?”

Manuel ignores his son, scanning a page. “Let’s see here. Aha! ‘Harnessing a star’s power’.”

Flazino blinks. “How are you going to do that?”

“Well first, we pull it out of the sky, then drain it using this,” Manuel says, holding up his staff. “Mi amor, are you finished yet? I’m not getting any younger here.”

“I’m finished, I’m finished,” Amaya replies. She holds up a flask and hands it to Manuel. “Dragon scales for strength, rosemary leaves for focus, and unicorn hair for power.”

Manuel snatches the flask and eyes it carefully before raising it up. “Here’s to the most powerful king in all the land.” He drinks the potion and shudders, then smiles. “Oh yes.” He grabs his staff and the book, walking to the middle of the room. The king raises his staff and starts to read from the book.

“Stella lux, stella splendida. Primam stellam i videre noctem.” The tip of Manuel’s staff stars to glow brighter and brighter. Amaya, Flazino, and even Charo all watch intently. “Ego praecipio tibi in omni virtute mea. Habere potestatem, hac nocte impero.” Magic erupts from Manuel’s staff towards the brightest star in the sky.

Charo yowls and jumps into Amaya’s arms, who doesn’t look away from the sky. Flazino jumps back and watches with amazement. Manuel drops the book and grabs the staff with both hands. He pulls with all of his strength, gritting his teeth.

“Come on!” Manuel shouts, eyes locked on the star. He smiles as the star looks like it’s coming closer, and closer. “Yes. Yes, yes, YES!” Suddenly the magic snaps. It hurls back down to the chamber, sending Manuel flying back.

Amaya runs over to Manuel, dumping Charo into Flazino’s arms. The two look at each other awkwardly. “Mi rey! Are you alright?” Amaya asks.

Manuel gets up with a groan and grabs the flask, throwing at a wall. Flazino flinches back. “No, I had it, I felt it!” He storm over to his staff and grabs it, gripping it tight. “Why didn’t it work?! I had everything set up perfectly!”

“Darling, please calm down. Breathe,” Amaya says, gripping Manuel’s shoulder. “You were close tonight. Very close. That means your magic is working. Perhaps you should read more from that book and we can try again tomorrow night.”

Manuel sighs. “Yes. Perhaps, mi amor,” He turns around. “Go to bed. I’ll be there in a minute.” Amaya turns and walks out. Flazino hesitates before Manuel looks at him with a piercing stare. “You too boy.” Flazino quickly walks out of the room, leaving Manuel alone. He stands there for a few moments, taking in the silence.

The gem tip of Manuel’s staff is glowing dimmer than it was before, which he notices. He gently taps it “You’re a little low on power, aren’t you?” He pulls several wishes towards himself and sorts through them. “No, too soon, too weak.” He stops and grabs one, carefully examining it. Sabino appears, proudly staking a flag onto the top of a mountain. “Well hello. I thought you would have been dead by now, but apparently not. We can change that.” He crushes the wish.

Blue light flows from the wish into the staff. It glows brightly again, making Manuel smile. “There we go. All fueled up again.” He picks up the book and walks out the door, laughing to himself as his eyes glow green.

Author Notes

I’m sure Sabino is fine :) Anyways, sorry about the delay on this one. I’ve been caught up with some personal stuff recently, and overall I wasn’t sure how to go about this chapter. But I’m pleased with how it turned out. We get to meet Charo and Dahlia in this chapter, and get to see more of everyone’s favorite royal couple.

Charo is here to be an absolute menace. He helps our villains later on, but as of right now he’s mostly a source for jokes. Dahlia meanwhile is the only one of the seven teens I kept as a consistent character rather than a cameo. I felt like she would be a good companion to Flazino, and would be the first to fight alongside him, Asha, and Earendel. Her conversation with Flazino also allows us to see more of his character. He can be very pessimistic and sarcastic, but is a good friend.

And we finally get to see our royal couple in action. Now, I like all the rewrites that make Magnifico and Amaya madly in love with each other, but I personally went with their love being one-sided to contrast Flazino and Asha’s relationship. This chapter also shows the relationship between Flazino and his parents. They aren’t outright abusive yet, but do act somewhat neglectful and cold towards him in this chapter.

Amaya is definitely the brains of the relationship. Manuel is intelligent, yes, but more so in a social and book smart sense, while Amaya is better with emotional and adversity intelligence. She takes a lot after Maleficent, being very calm and collected, but wicked to a T as we’ll see in later chapters. And then we have Manuel. I can’t say he takes after any particular Disney villain. He kind of does his own thing, which I think is for the best. With their real introductions in this chapter, I wanted to confirm the audiences suspicions from earlier. And from there I wanted to make sure they were unlikable, but interesting. As Andres Deja, who animated Scar, once said “A villain always only works when he is interesting” (might be paraphrasing that) which is a sentiment I stand by. So, we end the scene at Manuel’s peak evil so far, and make sure everyone in the audience knows this guy is a threat. Basically have this relationship between him and the audience:

On a final note, I wanted to put in a little more foreign language in the dialogue. I thought it was a shame we didn’t get more Spanish considering the film is set near Spain. We also don’t get anyone in Rosas saying anything in their native language, which wouldn’t have added a whole lot, but I think it would have given Rosas a little more life. The spell Manuel recites is actually a twist on the “Star Light, Star Bright” poem. “Star light, bright star. I saw the first star at night. I command you with all my might. To have power, I command tonight”. It’s a little janky due to the Latin but you get the gist.

And now onto Chapter Four, where we’ll meet Earendel! I’m so excited to finally him. Oh I also have a post planned discussing Asha’s character arc in this story, because I have thoughts. a LOT of thoughts. So stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading!

UaS!Asha’s Character Arc

Please keep in mind this all just personal opinion. Despite what I may say I don’t hate the movie Wish. If I hated it I wouldn’t be making this Rewrite/AU in the first place.

Hello everyone and welcome to my TedTalk. I’ve had this ruminating in my brain for a while, and now that I’m back to writing in Asha’s POV I feel like I need to talk about it.

I’ve said before how I don’t like Asha’s personality and character arc in the movie. There’s nothing wrong with the adorkable leading woman trope in Disney films, it’s just that they’ve done it so much throughout the 2010s and 2020s. So sort of as a joke, I thought “Hey, what if we subverted that trope and made Asha a sword-wielding badass?”. (I blame watching The Mask of Zorro around that time.) And so that’s what I did.

As I began my rewrite and started taking Asha’s character more seriously, I realized there was a lot of potential for a really interesting facet of her character arc. One that I haven’t seen too much in Disney films. Not having to bear your burdens alone, which ties into her arc about trusting people. Let’s dive into it.

Canon Asha and Strong Women

I have a few problems with how the writers went about portraying Asha. As I’ve said before, she has little to no character arc in the movie, and she suffers from it.

Now, it is possible to make a protagonist an audience can root for who doesn’t have a character arc. My favorite example is Cinderella. However, there’s a key difference between her and Asha. Cinderella was in an abusive situation, but remained kind and caring to others. It made the audience root for her and want to see her go to the ball. On the other hand, Asha lives a perfectly content life. Her family isn’t struggling to get by or act abusive to her, and the most people would kill to live in her home of Rosas. She can come across as very annoying and selfish, so you root for her less. It also feels like Asha was meant to have a bigger arc, but in the movie she changes her mind about Magnifico and Rosas in the first twenty minutes. It just makes her feel flat and less compelling.

Something that pops up a few times in the Deleted Scenes of Wish is how they wanted to be her own hero and feel like a stronger protagonist. Hence cutting Starboy (R.I.P). And it really frustrates me for two reasons.

1. There are several instances of Asha’s problems being solved for her or things just happening to her

2. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is ask for help.

I’ll only focus on a couple instances of Asha’s problems being solved for her because this post is long enough. Early in the movie, she has the interview with Magnifico and gets to see the wishes. But it feels unearned. She doesn’t demonstrate any knowledge of magic or qualities that would make her a good fit for the position. She just gives Magnifico a short sob story about her dad and he just lets her see the wishes. If she had shown an unusually high knowledge of magic or a deeper desire to protect the wishes it would have felt more justified. But no, she just bumbles around like an idiot. The second instance in the climax. Asha starts singing “This Wish (Reprise)” before Magnifico stops her. Then Dahlia starts singing, and all the other people in Rosas join in, which starts to break Magnifico’s magic. Asha only sings again during the last verse, which feels really dull and underwhelming. (Which goes for the climax in general). There was nothing stopping her from continuing singing, she was just laying there. Hell, Dahlia gets knocked over once and immediately gets back up to continue. It just doesn’t make sense to me why the person who does the least in taking down the movies villain is the hero, especially after saying you want to make them stronger and more independent.

Going back to Cinderella, a common complaint I hear about her is that she did nothing in the movie and needed the fairy godmother’s help. It boggles my mind, because…how do you expect her to get out of her situation? She has no money and no one to turn to. She’s practically a slave. Without the fairy godmother she would have stayed in an abusive household for the rest of her life. Sometimes in life there’s no other option but to ask for help. It doesn’t make us weaker, quite the opposite in my opinion. This is what the writers of Wish seemed to miss. It’s not an inherently bad thing to have Asha solve all of her problems on her own, but it sort of reinforces this stereotype of “strong women don’t need help from anyone”. Which really sucks, because you can make a good female character who’s strong but still has flaws and needs help. Just look at some of the woman Hayao Miyazaki writes. Someone Disney could learn from in those regards. *cough* Star Wars *cough* Marvel.

There’s quite a bit to fix when it comes to Asha’s arc. It feels at best flat and at worst nonexistent. Which can work, just not for this story. So, how did I go about writing UaS!Asha’s arc? Well first, we need to look at a certain fearless hero and his character arc.

Puss in Boots and Vulnerability

(Who knew the Spanish cat from Shrek would have such a huge influence on my rewrite?)

Okay, now for the stuff I really enjoy. I’ve joked before about how similar UaS!Asha and Puss are, but I think there really is something to be said when it comes to their arcs. A smaller part of Puss’ arc in The Last Wish that I wanted to expand upon in this rewrite is vulnerability. There are a few scenes in particular that highlight what I’m talking about. Spoilers ahead of you haven’t seen The Last Wish.

In the opening song of the film Puss sings about how he’s "Never been touched by a blade". Then in the scene where Kitty shaves him, it's shown as a moment of vulnerability as he's asking for her help, and she uses a blade to cut the beard. While the first encounter with Death is definitely the intention for that line, you can also interpret it as he's never allowed himself to be vulnerable on that level before. It’s a nice scene and from that moment of vulnerability Puss gains something: the gatito blade, which saves him in his final fight against Death.

The next scene is obviously the panic attack scene. This one is a little different, since Puss has no choice in how vulnerable he is in the moment. But it does lead to Puss opening up to Perrito about his fear of death and and how he regrets leaving Kitty at the altering Santa Caloma. Kitty happens to overhear this and reconsiders her view of Puss. It also results this exchange, which I think perfectly encapsulates Asha’s mindset in Upon a Star:

In Puss’ mind, he has to be fearless no matter what. He’s a legendary hero, he can’t afford to be vulnerable.

The last scene I feel is worth going over is the tree scene. In this scene Puss apologizes for leaving Kitty at the alter and admits he was afraid that day. And she forgives him, admitting she didn’t come to the wedding either. Through this moment Puss is able to mend his relationship with Kitty and get that day off his chest.

The main takeaway from these scenes (moreso the panic attack scene the the others) is that it’s okay to be afraid or vulnerable, as long as you can get back up and move forward. This is especially true in the final fight with Death. Puss is still afraid and even falters, but pushes past it. And in the other two scenes, it ultimately helped him to open up. This is what I mainly wanted for Asha’s arc. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at her. She is the main subject of this post.

How Does UaS!Asha Tie In?

I’ll try to spoil as little as I can here. Like I said, my message through Asha’s arc is that you don’t have to bear your burdens alone. Part of why I made her a sword-wielding thief is to emphasis this point.

At first, she seems pretty formidable. She takes down several guards and gets away from the remaining few easily. Later she continues to show her battle prowess and cunning. Until she meets with our antagonists and…well, you can imagine it doesn’t end good. Think back to the first fight with Death in The Last Wish. A couple scenes prior, we see Puss take down several guards and a giant 100x his size easily. So when Death comes in and absolutely wrecks him, even drawing blood, it makes it so much more impactful. It still works without the giant fight, but there’s a lot less weight to it as a result. As well as the scenes I’ve already talked about. That’s the effect I’m trying to achieve with Asha.

It’s also worth noting that she doesn’t mean to call down Earendel. I mean, I don’t think any of the Asha’s meant to, but they were still seeking guidance. In my version of “This Wish” however, Asha is just trying to gain some confidence and makes a wish for good luck. So when there’s suddenly a random glowing kid in front of her insisting on trying to help her, she’s a little frustrated. Because in her eyes, she shouldn’t need help. She’s the Alondra of Rosas! She’s the one who’s supposed to be helping other people. It’s also why she turns away from other people, fearing they’ll think less of her if they realized how vulnerable and insecure she is deep down. Through a new pseudo-sibling relationship with Earendel and a blooming romance with Flazino however, her walls start to finally come down.

Final Thoughts

send help

If you’ve read all the way through to this point, thank you so much! I enjoy talking about how I develop ideas for my creative works a lot. It helps me break down and understand aspects of my work better. The problem at this point in time is spoilers. Like I have a whole backstory for Manuel and Tomás, but talking about it messes up the big reveal later in the main story. Most people will probably have guessed it by then but still.

@rascalentertainments @hopeyarts @chillwildwave @wings-of-sapphire @tumblingdownthefoxden @oh-shtars @annymation @uva124 (+others)

I hope you all enjoyed my rambling :) One day I’ll I more of these, I swear.

Chapter Four: So I Make This Wish

The next morning is cloudy as we fade into Asha and Sabino’s house. Asha is laying in her bed, soundly sleeping. We see drawings covering one wall along with some other sparse decorations. She opens her eyes and blinks before sitting up. Valentino gets up from the foot of the bed and stretches, slinking over to Asha. She smiles and scratched him behind the ear. “Good morning Val.”

Asha gets out of bed and walks behind a divider. The smock she was previously wearing is tossed over the divider and Asha emerged in a red dress, tying her hair in a ponytail. She walks out of her room and looks around the main part of the house. Her expression becomes confused. The main room is empty. Sabino should have been up by now… “Sabino?” Asha calls. No response. She walks over to a window and looks outside. No sign of him. She finally walks over to his bedroom door and knocks. “Sabino, is everything alright?”

Taking a deep breath, Asha walks into the room. Sabino is laying in bed, facing away from the door. “Hey tonto, you slept in,” Asha says, walking over to Sabino with a smile. “Come on, time to get up.” She gives him a gentle shake, then frowns. Her voice trembles as she speaks. “Sabino?”

We cut to a small graveyard just outside the hamlet, where it’s raining around dusk. Asha is standing in front of several other people, looking sorrowful. We cut to a shot of a fresh grave with a tall rock as the headstone. A man dressed like a priest is standing in front of the grave, facing the crowd of people. It looks like the whole hamlet has gathered to mourn Sabino. He clasps his hands together. “Sabino was a good man. He helped Tomás aid many people who managed to escape Rosas. Without him, several of us would not live here today. When Thomás disappeared he took charge and acted as the Hamlet’s leader for several years. He was a brave, generous, and caring man that we will always be grateful for. May he now rest in peace.”

The other residents of the Hamlet repeat the last line and begin to disperse. Asha remains in front of the grave. Valentino softly whines and rubs against her leg. One girl with short hair lingers. She sighs and walks over to Asha “I’m sorry for your loss,” she says gently.

As soon as Asha notices the girl she instantly straightens up and changes her expression to a more neutral one. “He will be deeply missed. I don’t think it will ever be the same without him.”

There’s a few moments of silence before the girl speaks again. “Listen. If you ever need somewhere to go or anyone to talk to, my family will always be there with open arms.” She gestures to a man, woman, and a younger child who look similar to her, who are talking to Safi and his mother. “We knew Sabino quite well. He helped our family, and we’re willing to help his.”

Asha nods and looks away. “That’s very kind of you Hal. Although I think it would be best if I mourned alone.”

Hal frowns. “You don’t have to push us away Asha. We want to help you if we can. It’s the least we can do. You’ve helped the hamlet as much as Sabina had, and we want to repay you for it. Please, just let us help you.”

“I’m not pushing anyone away,” Asha says sharply. “I have a lot on my mind right now and the last thing I need is to do is let my guard down.” Hal looks surprised at Asha’s words. Asha’s expression softens and she sighs. “I’m sorry, I… I should go.” She turns around and walks away to her house. Valentino chitters and follows with his head hung low.

Hal begins to walk after her, but Safi grabs her shoulder, making her stop. “Just let her go,” he says.

The rain is beginning to clear as Asha walks into her house. It’s quiet as she looks around. Too quiet. She spots the chair where Sabino usually sat. His lute is leaning against it. Asha walks over to chair and sits down, picking up the lute. She gently plucks at the strings, then begins to strum it. Valentino leaps up onto the arm of the chair and presses against her. She blinks away tears and begins to do what any Disney heroine does when they’re distraught: she sings.

🎵 This Wish 🎵

Asha

Woman’s Voice

I thought our dreams were meant to set us free So why do I feel so heavy hearted? If I could show them everything I've seen What happens then? Do I dare to start it?

(Asha continues to play the lute, looking out the window towards Rosas. We can see the castle in particular standing high above the trees. Asha looks deeply conflicted)

But when I stand, my mind says "Sit down" But I’m done waiting on a wish that’s never coming I look around me now No, we’re not where we belong And I may be young, but I won’t hide this song

(Asha sets aside the lute and stands up on the second line. She walks out of her house with Valentino and gestures to the hamlet around her. She looks down on the last line before looking upwards.)

So I look up at the stars to guide me And pray that he’ll send me a sign If no one else will rise up here beside me Then let me be the first to stand in line So I make this wish To have something more for us than this So I make this wish To have something more for us than this

(We get a brief shot of the sky as the clouds part, revealing the starry sky. She looks back at the Hamlet one more time before walking into the woods on the first “So I make this wish”. She stands in a smaller clearing and opens her arms wide on the last “This”)

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah More than this, oh-ah-ah-ah

(Fireflies fly up around Asha, making her smile a little. Valentino looks around with wide eyes and swats at a firefly.)

I’ve seen the fire inside you all aglow What you could be, what you could do The light that makes you whole But there’s a missing piece we buried long ago Now there’s an aching in my soul, about to overflow If I could shake away every hesitation If I knew where to begin Could I cut through the lies Open up their eyes To see the truth again?

(We cut to a little later as Asha continues to walk troughs he woods. She stops and looks back at Rosas. Then she looks down on “if I could shake away every hesitation”. There’s a mixture of emotions on her face. Fear and sadness, yet also determination.)

If you can hear me now, I’m begging you for a sign. Just tell me how to make it through My legs are shaking, but my head's held high The way you always taught me to

(She looks around the forest, as though she’s trying to find someone. She stops as she looks towards the willow tree, tears brimming in her eyes. A younger Asha and her father are sitting on the tree. They look up at the stars before fading away, and the camera pans up.)

So I look up at the stars to guide me And pray that he’ll send me a sign I know there will be challenges that find me But I can take them on one at a time So I make this wish To have something more for us than this So I make this wish To have something more for us than this

(Asha breaks into a sprint, climbing the tree and standing on a larger branch. She walks forward, holding her hands to her chest. She closes her eyes as petals swirl around her. Valentino chitters and looks around in awe.)

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah (so you make this wish) Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah (to have something more) More than this, oh, ah-ah-ah

(Petals swirl in the wind around Asha before blowing out towards the sea. Asha doesn’t notice the other voice. She opens her eyes on the last line and smiles. She looks towards a smaller star in the sky and focused on it.)

So I make this wish To have something more for us than this

(Asha looks more confident and determined on the last line. The camera zooms out to show more of the sky and the song ends on a softer note.)

The star begins to twinkle, and glows brighter. And brighter. And somehow brighter. Asha frowns and shields her eyes as the whole sky is enveloped in bright starlight. The light spreads over the kingdom.

Hal, Safi, and his sister look out from a window and smile, letting the light wash over them. A few citizens still awake in Rosas watch the light in awe. Flazino, who’s tossing and turning in his bed settles as the light passes over him. We cut to Manuel and Amaya’s bedroom. As soon as the light touches Manuel he jolts awake, clutching his chest as he gasps. He gets up and grabs his staff, running towards the window. Charo yowls as he’s knocked off of the bed.

Manuel stares at the light and shakes his head. “No no no no-“ He freezes before turning around and running up to the wish chamber. He slams the door open and see’s the wishes shaking and vibrating. He slams his staff down, and magic flashes at the wishes.

“STOP!”

The wishes slowly settle down. Manuel stands there panting, pushing his hair back into place as the light outside fades. Amaya walks in cautiously. Charo follows her and yawns, stretching. “Mi rey, what are you doing running around like a wild animal at this hour?”

Somebody did it,” Manuel says, looking at the queen.

Amaya blinks. “Did what dear?”

“Somebody summoned a star from the sky,” Manuel replies, turning back to the window. “And I think it landed in the Uncharted Forest.”

“What?” Amaya blinks, more awake and alert now. She walks up to Manuel and looks out the window. “Who would even attempt that?” Manuel’s eyes shift. Before he can respond-

We cut back to the forest. Asha is still standing on the tree, blinking and rubbing her eyes. “What was all that light?” She slowly gets down from the tree, holding Valentino. “You felt it too, right? It was so warm and loving and joyous.” Asha frowns and shakes her head. “I sound ridiculous. Light can’t be loving or joyous.” Suddenly a ball of light zooms past, making Asha jump back and yelp. Valentino chitters and squirms out of her arms, running after the light. “What- Valentino no! Get back here!”

The light barrels through the forest, making several animals scamper away. “Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry- OW!” The light crashes into a bush.

Asha slows down, cautiously approaching the bush. She pushes Valentino behind her with her foot. “Stay back.” She parts the bush, and the head of a young boy pops out. The two stare at each other for a few moments.

“Hi-“

“AAAAAHHHH!” Asha screams and fall down, scrambling back.

The boy, who looks to be around 12 years old, flinches back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He floats up from the bush and brushes himself off. He’s wearing a black tunic and pants with a long black cloak. The hood has little antlers. Curly blonde hair pokes out from the hood. The boy stretches and twirls around. “Man, that was a rough landing.”

Asha slowly gets up and takes a step back. “Who- Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Earendel!” The boy says, floating upside down. He grabs Asha’s hand and shakes it.

“Okay…what are you? Why are you glowing?” Asha asks.

“Well duh, I’m a star!” Earendel says as if it’s obvious.

Asha blinks in shock. “You’re a what?”

“A star! Haven’t you seen a star before?”

Author Notes

Generally I don’t have much to say about this chapter. I think it mostly speaks for itself, but I do have a few thoughts.

First of all, huge credit to Jonah Who Two on YouTube for the rewrite of “This Wish”. I thought it fit this story perfectly. I only had to change a line in the chorus and a couple pronouns to make it work. Check out his original video here:

So yeah, Sabino gets axed in this rewrite. I wanted to do this for a couple reasons. 1. It establishes the danger of having a wish crushed for later events. 2. It’s the perfect catalyst for Asha to finally stand up and do something. She doesn’t know his wish was crushed, but she knows it was stolen from him, and that he died without a chance to ever fulfill it or get it back. So she makes a promise to herself to never let it happen again, leading into “This Wish”.

With Asha’s song, I wanted it to be less about her asking for guidance from the stars, but instead guidance from her father. As well as generally ease her mind. So she makes her own wish. And accidentally calls down Earendel.

I’ll keep my thoughts on Earendel here brief since hell get a lot more screen time in the next chapter. With the last scene I wanted to give the audience a basic idea of his character. He’s established here as a sweet, naive and curious kid. His personality will really shine through in the later chapters, and he’ll be the emotional glue of the trio.

I’ll have more to say with the next chapter. We’ll get to “I’m a Star” and perhaps Flazino and Asha finally meeting. Depends on how the pacing ends up.

Thanks for reading!

Y’know I was debating on wether or not to rewrite “This is The Thanks I Get?” or just replacing it entirely in my rewrite. But now that I’m in the middle of redoing “I’m a Star”…yeah y'all are getting “Good To Be King”. So look forward to that.

Chapter Five: You’re A Star!

Asha blinks and shakes her head. “What- of course not! That- That’s impossible! You’re supposed to be up there, not down here.” She says, pointing to the sky.

“Well, usually yes,” Earendel says, floating around Asha. “But you called me down with your wish. So now I’m here too help you make that wish come true.”

“Make my wish come true?” Asha looks up at the stars. “So those stories my father told me about the stars granting people’s wishes were true?”

“Yep, they were!” Earendel smiles and nods. “Although, it’s been a really long time since a star has even come down to Earth.”

“Because people tried to steal your magic,” Asha replies with slight worry.

Earendel nods before straightening up and landing in front of Asha. “But don’t worry, I’ll help make your wish come true.” He clears his throat and bows to Asha. “Fair maiden, you have given so much happiness to others, you deserve to have your wish come true. It shall be my honor to- woah whAT IS THAT?”

Asha looks to where Earendel is looking. Valentino stands there stiffly, narrowing his eyes at Earendel. “That is my genet, Valentino. Valentino, meet Earendel, the star.”

“Woah ho ho! A real genet? I’ve never seen one up close before!” Earendel leans down close to Valentino, making him jump back and hiss. “Hey, it’s okay buddy, I’m not gonna-“ he’s interrupted by Valentino swiping a paw at his face, which simply phases through his nose, “-hurt you.”

Asha clears her throat and picks Valentino up. “Okay, this has been fun and all, but I really need to go home now. I have a lot to do tomorrow, and the last thing I need is getting someone else caught in the middle of it. Especially a child.” She turns around and starts to walk away.

“Wait!” Earendel flies after Asha, stopping her in her tracks. “Don’t you want my help? That’s kind of the whole reason I’m here.”

Asha scoffs. “I don’t need anyone’s help. I am Alondra of Rosas! Trust me, I can handle myself.”

“But-but wouldn’t it be easier if I helped you? I can do magic, watch.” Earendel sprinkles a little stardust onto the ground. In that spot, a flower blooms and glows with starlight.

“Look, I appreciate the thought, really. But I don’t need you you tagging along and slowing me down,” Asha says, walking around Earendel.

“Your wish is a pretty big one though. I mean, saving a whole kingdom? Without your own magic? That sounds almost impossible without a little help.” Earendel says as he trails behind Asha. At this point several animals poke their heads out of the bushes and start to gather around Earendel, following him.

Asha sighs and rolls her eyes in annoyance. “Oh, how hard can it be? All I need is my sword. Now if you don’t mind I need to go get ready. Go home back to the sky or wherever.”

Earendel stops in his tracks and looks away. His glow dims. “Well, about that…”

Asha stops and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath before she turns around. “Don’t tell me…”

“I don’t know how to go home.” Earendel floats up to a tree and sits down between two branches. “You see, I didn’t travel here by myself when you made your wish. My magic isn’t strong enough. Our queen sent me down here to help you. So I can’t go back until she uses her magic to portal me back.”

Asha sighs and runs her hand down her face. “And of course that idiota had to send down the most annoying star to try and ‘help’ me.”

“HEY!” Earendel flies down close to Asha’s face, making her and Valentino jump back in surprise. He glows more red now and his anger makes several of the animals scuttle back. “Don’t you dare speak of Queen Chiara that way! She’s the kindest and wisest star in the whole galaxy, and I will not tolerate you calling her an idiota. Look, I don’t know why she sent me specifically down here either, but she did not do it arbitrarily.”

“Okay okay, I’m sorry.” Asha says. Earendel floats back, his hair going back to yellow. Asha stays silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “So, I’m stuck with you until my wish comes true?”

Earendel shrugs. “Pretty much.”

Asha sets Valentino down and sighs, sitting on a log. “Great. And here I thought this day couldn’t get any worse.” She puts her face in her hands. Valentino whines and tilts his head.

Earendel frowns as he senses Asha’s grief and floats over to the log, sitting down next to her. “Hey, don’t worry, everything’s gonna be okay. I have no doubt you can make your wish come true. You know why?”

“Why?” Asha asks, looking up from her hands.

“Because you’re a star!” Earendel says, jumping up and holding his arms out.

“…huh?” Is all Asha says with a perplexed look. “I thought you were the star.”

“Well yes, but not like that. I mean, y’know,” Earendel huffs and puts his hands on his hips. “How do I explain this? Oh, I know!” He snaps his fingers and whistles for the animals. “Hey, could you guys come help me out?”

The animals gather around Earendel and he sprinkled stardust onto them. They look around and start to speak.

“Woah, it worked!” “Who knew I would sound like this?” “This is amazing!”

Earendel smiles and throws stardust at several trees, making them come to life. They yawn and stretch their branches. Asha looks around, still very confused. “What’s going on here?” Realization slowly dawns on her face. “oh wait no doN’T START-!”

(TOO LATE NOW!)

🎵You’re a Star🎵

Earendel

Forest Critters

Asha

Have you ever wondered why you look up at the sky for answers? Or why flowers in the wind are effortless and elegant dancers? Or how the tides in the sea move along to the beat?

(Earendel spins around and starts singing as Asha facepalms. He points to the sky. The stars form a flower constellation, then reshape and move like waves.)

What's passed down generationally, to him, to her, to you? And to me? And why our eyes all look like microscopic galaxies? Have you ever wondered why you look up at the sky for answers?

(Earendel points to a large tree, who points to another with its branch, who points to another, who points to a sapling that sings the last bit. An owl hops onto a branch in front of Asha, and we see a close up shot of its eyes. Earendel smiles at Asha and flies up after the last line, splaying his limbs out wide and sending stardust everywhere.)

Well, you don't have to look too hard Just find that spark inside your heart If you're try'na figure out just who you are Don't look far Don’t be ashamed of all your scars It’s all okay, let down your guard If you really wanna know just who you are You're a star!

(The animals begin to sing along with Earendel and dance around him and Asha. Asha still looks confused, but smiles a little. Valentino meanwhile looks terrified. Earendel dances around them, beaming.)

Boom! Now I know this must be a lot Well, I- Don’t speak, just free your thoughts! In the game of life, we're all shareholders

(Butterflies fly out from behind Asha. Earendel holds up his hands as he sings the second line. Asha glances away and begins to speak before Earendel puts a finger to her lips and gestures to the animals.)

We glow up! Like we’re about to go…solar! See everything’s looking up for us, every one of us Supernova to the brink of something wondrous The world aglow in shades of color all over So get up! Show the world you’re no poser!

(The animals take over for the next part as several rabbits dance around Asha. One pops up in front of the camera on “solar”. Earendel floats in a hammock-style position as he follows a turtle down a stream, nodding to the beat. He floats by Asha and jokingly punches her in the shoulder. Asha stumbles a little, but stays smiling.)

We eat the leaves and they eat the sun It’s no mystery where all our soul comes from Hey, you still look like you're hanging on by a strand Just open your mind up and you’ll understand

(Two mice sing on a leaf, and the camera pans up to the rest of the flower blooming against the moon. Earendel circles Asha and grabs a couple sticks, bearing them against some mushrooms like drums.)

So do you get it now? …I guess so? Good enough for me!

(Earendel tosses the sticks aside and looks at Asha hopefully. Asha does not in fact understand any of this, but hesitantly smiles and tilts her head. What else can she say? Earendel shrugs.)

Well, you don't have to look too hard You’re more then the sun of all your parts If you're try'na figure out just who you are You're a star! Don’t worry if your world goes dark ‘Cause you’ll find home, it’s not too far If you really wanna know just who you are You’re a star!

(A herd of deer run b, and two lift Earendel and Asha onto their backs. Stardust swirls around them like wind. They leap off a short cliff and Earendel flies off. Asha falls and lands

Here's a little tree allegory That gets me inspiratory You’ve got so much to explore We all have got to write our own story Don’t look down if skies are stormy ‘Cause your sun will rise in the morning Hope you get this metaphor-y You have got to write your own story

(Earendel runs through a clearing, making the plants around him light up. Two raccoons dangle from another branch and sing to Asha, nodding to the music. Several quail run around Asha, lighting up the ground in a similar shot as the film. More animals gather around on the final line.)

You don't have to look too hard/Here’s a little tree allegory It's been within you from the start/That should be inspiratory If you're try'na figure out just who you are/You’ve got so much to explore We all have got to write our own story No matter if you’re small or large/Don’t look down when skies are stormy Just get out there and raise the bar/You’re sun will rise in the morning If you really wanna know just who you are I'm a star!

(Everyone dances joyously, with Asha at the center. She takes Earendel’s hands and dances with him, smiling. Even Valentino looks happy. Earendel spins away on his final line and points to Asha, along with the animals and plants. Asha punts her hands on her heart and the song concludes with everyone except Asha laughing and cheering.)

Earendel waves to the animals as they start to leave, his hair glowing brightly. “Bye guys! Thanks for all your help!”

“Bye-bye Earendel!”

“That was so fun!”

“I wonder when this will wear off?”

Earendel turns around to Asha, looking up at her with pleading eyes. “So can I help make your wish come true?”

Asha still looks hesitant. Her and Valentino exchange a glance and look back at Earendel. She has a bad feeling about this. But oh, those eyes. That face. How could she say no?

“Fine, fine, you can come and help me,” Asha says with a sigh.

Earendel grins and hugs Asha tightly. “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much Alondra!”

Asha reaches up and pats Earendel’s head. “Please, call me Asha.” There’s a hiss from below and the two look down to see Valentino trying to claw at Earendel’s leg. “And, well, you’ve met Valentino already.”

“Oh yeah!” Earendel reaches down and scratch’s Valentino behind the ear. Valentino stiffens at first, but relaxes and chitters happily. Earendel stands back up and floats off of the ground. “Now, that’s enough talking. Let’s go save a kingdom!” And he flies off into the forest.

“Wait! I need to get my gear first!” Asha calls. There’s a few seconds of silence before Earendel comes back, looking embarrassed.

“Yeah, and I have no idea what we even need to do,” Earendel mumbles, scratching his head.

Asha jerks her head in the direction of the Hamlet. “Come with me and I’ll explain I everything to you.” Earendel nods and floats beside her as they go back to the Hamlet. Asha takes out her sketchbook and flips to a page showing the wish bubbles. “So, King Manuel and Queen Amaya make everyone give up their wishes when they come to Rosas or turn eighteen. But not just any wish, their deepest desire that drives their heart. Almost like a part of their soul. And about once a month Manuel will grant someone’s wish. But the rest he keeps locked away in his tower.”

Earendel shrugs. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Well, when someone is without their wish long enough, it starts to affect them,” Asha continues. “They become depressed and have no drive to follow their passions. And those are the lucky ones. The unlucky ones get sicker and weaker as time passes. I’ve seen it quite a few times in Rosas. And some…” she hesitates. “some die if they get too weak.”

Earendel’s brows furrow and he looks at Asha. “Then why do they take them away from people?”

“My father said that Manuel uses them to fuel his own magic,” Asha replies. “He never told me how he found out, but knowing Manuel it seems plausible.” The hamlet comes into view.

Earendel nods. “So we need to free the wishes and return them to their rightful owners.”

Asha nods. “Exactly. We’ll sneak into the castle and free the wishes. The details are a little fuzzy but I’ll figure them out on our way.” She looks around as she walks over to her house to make sure nobody sees them. “Okay, wait here while I get ready.” Earendel nods and stands to the side as Asha shuts the door. He looks around and sits down, poking a flower and making it glow. He smiles.

•◌•◌•★•◌•◌•

We cut back to the castle. Flazino is rubbing his eyes tiredly. “So let me get this straight: a star fell out of the sky all of a sudden, landed in the middle of the Uncharted Forest, and now you want me to go and find it in the middle of the night?”

There’s a wider shot, showing he’s in the throne room of the castle. Manuel is standing in front of his throne. “Yes, exactly.”

Flazino sighs. “Can’t this wait until the morning? It’s too dark out to go on a wild goose chase.”

“No, this cannot wait a moment,” Manuel insists, tapping his staff on the ground for emphasis. “We need to find that star before someone else does. Grimm only knows what some stupid peasant might try to do with it.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t go and fetch your little star?” Flazino asks, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms.

Manuel chuckles and walks towards Flazino. “You know…it was very kind of me to let you keep your wish. Especially since everyone else in the kingdom your age has to give theirs up.” He stops in front of Flazino and pushes the tip of his staff against his chest. “But if you dare to defy me, I won’t hesitate to take it away. I could even crush it. Would you like that, boy?”

Flazino looks troubled by his father’s threats and looks away, schooling his expression. “I thought so,” Manuel says, pulling his staff away. “Now go get dressed, your horse should be ready for you.” Flazino nods and quickly walks out of the throne room.

We cut to a shot of Flazino, who’s now wearing a dark blue cloak, taking the reins of his horse from a guard outside the castle and riding off into the night. He gallops through the entrance of Rosas, and we see a brief montage of him riding through the countryside before he reaches the woods. He stops just outside, scanning the tree line. His horse softly nickers and takes a step back with worry.

“Hey, it’s okay, shhh,” Flazino says, petting his horse’s neck. “Come on. The sooner we find the star, the sooner we can leave.” He pulls the hood tighter over his head and walks into the woods.

Author Notes

I see why you all were saying rewriting this song was hell. Again I used a cover by Jonah Who Two, but that did not help in describing the visuals. There’s just so much going on so quickly. It works fine for a movie, but is hell on earth to write down. And I’m still a little hesitant when it comes to the lyrics. Earendel already gave a description of how he works for Asha and the audience, so I wanted the song to focus more on cheering up Asha and giving her a confidence boost. But I wonder if it would have been better to explain stars through the song instead Oh well, too late now. I just want to get to the villain song as soon as possible.

And we get a good introduction to Earendel! I wanted to draw a lot of his personality from the movie. He is very sweet and naive, but ready to throw hands for the ones he cares about (I’m sure that won’t be a problem later…).

He’s also very insistent on being helpful, because, well, he wants to prove himself to the queen. Like he says, he doesn’t know why she chose him to help Asha, but he’s willing to do the best he can. After all, who wouldn’t love some help from a star? So when Asha tells him no, it knocks the wind out of his sails. But he’s very persistent. It’s in his nature to be kind and caring towards others.

And we see the first glimpse of Asha being vulnerable around a stranger. It’s very small and brief, but it leads to Earendel cheering her up through “You’re a Star”. And seeing him be so genuine towards her, Asha lets him tag along. But make no mistake, at this point she’s still very reluctant about the idea.

And there’s the final scene with Flazino and Manuel. I meant to extend it to Flazino meeting Asha and Earendel and ending it there, but at that point I was just so tired of writing this chapter, so I ended it a little early. So the focus of the scene is more so the first time we see Manuel be directly abusive to Flazino. Which is especially harsh after we see what happened to Sabino.

And with that we finally conclude this chapter. Next chapter the trio will finally come together, so a lot of fun stuff there. Now if you’ll excuse me. *collapses*

Thanks for reading!

We’re gonna need a group therapy session, because UaS!Flazino I has been and will go through some stuff too.

WG!Flazino: So wait, the King and Queen are your PARENTS?!

UaS!Flazino: Yep.

RFTS!Flazino: And they threatened to kill you by crushing your wish?

UaS!Flazino: Uh-huh, and my father almost did it.

RFTS!Flazino: And then the king tortured your girlfriend in front of you?

UaS!Flazino: As well as a child. After he turned into a horrific monster.

WG!Flazino:…Do you need a hug man?

Also some of this stuff may change so take it with a pinch of salt.

@rascalentertainments @oh-shtars

STOP TORTURING HIM, YOU ANIMAL. (I mean this in the funniest way possible)

Also:

Your Flazino seems more level headed, so I'd like to think he gives WG!Flazino free therapy since he notices he's stressed out all the time. Once my redesign of him is out, they'd probably end up talking a lot.

RFTS!Flazino: Why do you look so stressed all the time? Isn't working for the king, fun?

WG!Flazino: Cause my boss is secretly a tyrannical monster that's holding people's wishes hostage and I keep struggling with possibly losing everyone I care about in the Hamlet and leading a double life to keep them safe.

RFTS!Flazino: .....That's rough, buddy.

Awwww, you’re right! I can see them get along 😊

Also, quite bold of you to assume that Sueño would be my only victim :)

Character Fun Facts

Progress on Chapter Six has been a little slow, so I decided to offer something different in the meantime.

Asha 🗡️

She’s actually very good with children, and occasionally they’ll ask her to tell them stories from her adventures in Rosas. She also tells them a lot of the same stories Thomás told her.

She’s not very good at drawing people. She sticks to mostly drawing landscapes and animals.

Her sword was passed down to her from Thomás, who received it as a special gift from King Enrique himself.

She looks a lot more like her father then her mother.

She’s actually 20 in this story, while Flazino is 19. I decided to make her a little older in this story since she started stealing from Rosas at 14, giving her 6 years of experience, which made the most sense to me.

Earendel ✨

His real life counterpart is WHL0137-LS, which is actually the earliest and most distant star we know of at 28 billion light-years away.

His favorite animals are deer, hence the addition of antlers on his cloak. Quite a bit of the time he spent watching Earth was spent observing deer.

Since the sun is a star, his powers are connected to Rapunzel’s from Tangled. However, since he is a star himself, he doesn’t have to sing to heal people or make them younger.

He’s considered very odd for a star with his interest in Earth. The stars around him are old enough to still remember their conflict with humans, and they don’t understand how anyone could see them as anything besides monsters. But Earendel believes things could be different if they just tried to make peace.

Due to his beliefs he’s very ostracized from the rest of the stars. All except for Queen Charia, who seems to hold the same beliefs and treats Earendel with the most respect and kindness. Because of this he came to look up to her like a mother figure.

Flazino 🎵

On his eighteenth birthday, Dahlia scrapped up enough money to buy him a lute, which he absolutely loves. Which his parents watching him a lot closer however, he’s had very little chance to play it.

Although he lacks skill in magic, he’s very talented in things such as philosophy, literature, and the arts. Which really annoys Manuel, who is heavily into magic and politics.

Whenever he has a chance, he’ll slip off into the city wearing a cloak as a disguise and just pretend to be a normal peasant for a while. The only person besides Dahlia who knows this is Gabo, a local merchant’s son he befriended a few years before the story.

He’s actually a little allergic to cats, which he uses as an excuse to avoid Charo and Amaya.

Some rumors float around the castle that him and Dahlia are a thing, but that’s never been true. Him and Dahlia have always been just really close friends.

Manuel 👑

He always viewed Enrique as a weak and pathetic king who didn’t realize the potential of his own power. Although Enrique could never figure out why Manuel grew so distant from him.

He was actually the one to set Thomás up with Sakina when they were teenagers. He saw a spark between them and ultimately knew they would be a perfect match.

Instead of flowers, Manuel gifts Amaya bundles of herbs for special occasions that she can use in her potions.

He hates Charo just as much as Flazino does, but doesn’t dare to admit it around his wife.

He knew Asha before him and Thomás went their separate ways, back when she was a baby.

Amaya 🧪

There have been some accidents and shenanigans with her potions, like spilling a potion and making several of her books fly around the room, or Charo drinking a little and becoming huge.

Speaking of Charo, she found him as a kitten alone in a crate while walking through the marketplace. She took pity on him and took him in, even after Manuel told her no.

She’s actually very talented with the flute, and is probably where Flazino got his love of music from.

She always despised Tomás, viewing him as a dirty good-for-nothing peasant who just got lucky with the king. Completely ignoring her own history with Manuel of course.

She and Manuel never wanted kids, but since it would look off if they never had any heirs, the had Flazino out of obligation.

Chapter Six: A Chance Meeting

Flazino wanders through the forest on his horse, looking for any sign of the star. He doesn’t know exactly what he’s looking for, but he’s sure he’ll know once he sees it.

He spots an odd flower and stops, dismounting to get a closer look. It’s the same flower Earendel created while he was following Asha. He pulls it out of the ground and watches the petals gently glow. “I must be dreaming.” He stands up and looks around. “Unless the star did this.”

“Oh yeah, that’s Earendel’s handiwork.” A child’s voice says. Flazino spins around, trying to find the source of the voice as he puts his hand on the hilt of his broadsword. “Down here!” The voice says. Flazino looks down and sees a rabbit at his feet. The rabbit waves his paw. “Hello there!”

“…I’m definitely dreaming.” Flazino says after a moment of stunned silence.

The rabbit giggles. “Nope! You’re not. You see this star came down from the sky and gave me this special dust that let me and a bunch of other animals talk and sing.” He explains casually.

Flazino perks up. “Star? You’ve seen the star? Was it with someone? Where did it go?”

“Woah woah woah, calm down,” the rabbit says, holding his paws up. “He went to the hamlet with Asha and said they were going to go save Rosas. I can take you to them if you’d like.”

“Yes,” Flazino says, immediately getting onto his horse. “Yes. Please. Now.” The rabbit goes back to all fours and hops away. Flazino pulls his hood tighter over his head and follows.

We cut to just outside the hamlet, where the rabbit stops. “Here we are.”

Flazino dismounts his horse and ties the reigns to a branch. “Thank you.” The rabbit nods and hops away. Flazino pushes away some branches and steps through into the Hamlet. He stops and looks around in amazement, having never seen a community outside of Rosas. He looks towards one house in particular, the only one where light is coming from inside. A black stallion stands outside grazing, fully saddled. The light moves and briefly passes a window.

Flazino sneaks towards the house, his hand on his sword. He presses against a wall and ducks below a window. “Why didn’t you mention the prince before?” Earendel’s voice asks from inside.

We cut to inside, where Asha is tying a sash belt around her waist (like the one shown below). Earendel is sitting on the table, swinging his feet. “To be honest, sometimes I forget he exists.” Asha says.

“I’ve never seen him myself. From what I hear he barely leaves the castle,” Asha continues, putting on her hat.

“How come?” Earendel asks.

“Nobody really knows. But either way, I don’t think he’ll be much of a threat.”

Asha grabs her rapier and sheathes it. Earendel jumps off the table and floats next to her. “Are we finally ready to go?”

Asha nods. “Yes, yes, we’re ready. Let me-“ she stops immediately as she hears a snap from outside. There’s a beat of silence before Asha slowly walks towards the door. “Stay here, and keep quiet.” Earendel frowns and flops into a chair, putting his head in his hands.

Asha slowly walks outside and looks around. She peers around the corner where we last saw Flazino, but no one is there. The only things there are a broken twig and a few footprints in the dirt. Asha bends down to examine the prints in confusion.

A silhouette appears behind Asha, and a shadow falls over her. She freezes for a few seconds before quickly drawing her sword and spinning around, pointing it straight at the figure’s neck.

We get a better look at the figure and see it’s Flazino. He holds up his hands and steps back in surprise. “Woah, woah, easy there!”

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Asha demands.

Flazino clears his throat and pulls his hood down. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Prince Flazino of Rosas. I’m here looking for a star that I believe fell out of the sky and caused that light earlier tonight. And you are?”

Asha smirks and does a little bow. “The Alondra of Rosas, at your service your highness.”

Flazino blinks in surprise. “You’re the Alondra?”

“What, did you expect me to be taller?” Asha teases.

“No. I guess I didn’t think you’d be so pretty,” Flazino says.

Asha is clearly caught off guard by this remark. “Excuse me?”

“Nothing, nothing, nothing at all,” Flazino says quickly, his face growing red.

Asha rolls her eyes. “Alright, listen. I really don’t have the time for this. I have no idea where your star is, so why don’t you go back to your king and tell him there is nothing worth his time in the forest.”

Flazino glances behind Asha, and we see a light moving from one window to the other in Asha’s house from his perspective. “I think you’re lying. I think you know exactly where the star is,” He says with a smirk.

“And what if I did, huh? Do you really think I would just let you take him back to Rosas?”

“I suppose not,” Flazino says. He slowly pulls out his sword. “At least, not without a fight. If you win, you can keep the star and you’ll never see me again. If I win, I take you and the star to King Manuel and let him handle you. Deal?”

There’s a beat before Asha shrugs. “Deal.” She wastes no time before she takes the first swing, but Flazino blocks it. They each swing at each other rapidly, their swords clinking as they hit one another.

Flazino’s fighting is much more refined than the guards, with much more agility and precision. But Asha doesn’t seem worried by this. She has the same air of boldness and even arrogance that she did with the guards. The two press their swords close to one another, their faces close.

“Not bad,” Asha says.

Flazino kicks her back and catches her off guard, knocking his sword into a tree. “Not bad at all.” He replies. He points his sword at her chin. “Now, about that star-” He’s cut off as a ball of stardust hits him in the face. He coughs and wipes his face, looking at the dust. “What the-”

Earendel floats above Asha’s head, clenching another ball of stardust and holding it up, ready to throw it. “Come at me! There’s plenty more where that came from!”

Asha quickly takes the opportunity to grab her sword. “Earendel, go back inside. Now.”

“No way! I can’t just let him push you around and hurt you without doing something,” Earendel replies.

“He just caught me off guard. I’ll be okay now.” Asha glares at Flazino, but he doesn’t even glance at her. He’s too busy staring up at Earendel.

“You’re the star?” Flazino asks hesitantly.

“Yes, I am.” Earendel flies closer to the prince. “If you’re here for my magic, good luck trying to take it. It can’t hurt anyone, but that won’t stop me from trying.”

Flazino is silent for a few moments as he stares at Earendel. Finally, he looks away. “I-I can’t,” he says, dropping his sword. “I can’t hurt a child.” Asha looks surprised by his words.

Earendel blinks and tosses aside the ball off stardust, which dissipates. “Oh, um…good.”

“Great,” Asha grabs Flazino’s sword and shoves it into his hands. “Now get out of here. And don’t come back.”

Earendel looks between Asha and Flazino in deep thought. An exclamation point made of stardust suddenly appears above his head. “Asha, wait!” Earendel says, waving away the dust. “What if he helped us?”

“WHAT?” Asha and Flazino say in unison, snapping their heads towards the star.

“Earendel, do you realize how crazy that sounds?” Asha asks.

“I know, I know, but hear me out. He’s the prince. If anyone knows their way around Rosas, let alone the castle, it’s him. He could help us get to the wishes a lot easier than if we went alone,” Earendel says.

“And what if he tries to betray us?” Asha asks.

“He already said he didn’t want to hurt me,” Earendel looks at Flazino. “Right?”

Flazino slowly nods. “Right…”

Earendel floats closer to Flazino. “Hey, listen to me. Asha and I plan to free the wishes of Rosas and take down the king and queen. Your parents. You should know that it’s wrong of them to take the wishes for themselves. And what happens to someone when they loose their wish.” Flazino glances away. That’s all Earendel needs to see to know he does. “But we can stop them. We can give the wishes back to their rightful owners and make everything better. Asha and I could do it on our own, but it would work so much better with your help. Together the three of us have a shot at changing Rosas forever.”

“It would be impossible to stop fath- Manuel and Amaya.” Flazino says.

“Yeah, well…it’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” Earendel replies with a gentle smile. Flazino’s eyes shift in contemplation. “So what do you say? Will you help us?”

“I…I will,” Flazino says with a sigh. He looks at Asha, who still seems uncertain. He kneels down, sticking his sword into the ground in front of him, bowing his head. “I swear on my honor, I will protect both of you and help you free the wishes of Rosas.”

“Very well,” Asha says after a beat. “You can come with us.”

“Yes! I knew you two would come around!” Earendel says, pumping his fist in the air and spinning in the around before flying towards the trees. “Come on, let’s go already!”

“Okay, okay, just slow down.” Asha grabs Max by the reigns and leads him towards Flazino. “You have a horse, right?”

“Yeah, right outside,” Flazino says, getting up.

“Good.” There’s a whining at Asha’s feet, and she looks down to see Valentino pawing at her leg. She bends down. “You can’t come with me this time buddy. But I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She scratches his head and stands up. “If anyone asks where we are, play dumb.” Valentino nods dutifully as Asha leads Max out of the Hamlet.

Outside the Hamlet, Flazino is mounting his horse while Earendel flies around in excitement. Asha mounts Max. The two horses eye each other with suspicion.

Asha looks at Flazino as he pulls his hood over his head. “Hey. I know we had a bit of a rough start back there, but…let’s try to make things work for now. For Earendel’s sake, you know?” She extends a hand.

“Sure. For Earendel,” Flazino says. He reached out and shakes Asha’s hand.

“Are you guys going to stand their chatting all night, or are we gonna go?” The star asks, floating in front of them.

“We’re ready to go,” Asha says.

“WAHOO! FINALLY!” Earendel turns around and soars off. Asha and Flazino snap the reigns of their horses and gallop after him. The camera pans up to show Rosas as the sun begins to rise and the music swells.

“Kingdom of Rosas, here we come!”

Author Notes

And at last, our main trio is together. It was really fun to write Asha and Flazino’s interactions. They’ll definitely shine more during the later half of the story, but I’m happy with their banter and quips when they first meet. I wanted to give them a similar dynamic to Phoebes and Esmerelda in this rewrite. I’ve always found their dynamic to be really fun and I don’t think we’ve gotten one quite like theirs since then.

Like the first chapter I think the weakest part here is the action. But as long as you can get the general idea of what I’m going for I think that’s okay. In my opinion, this kind of story should save that energy for more emotional scenes. And boy, do I have some emotional scenes in mind for later.

We also get to see more of Earendel being Earendel. With him I want to convey that yes, he is still a child and acts as such, but he is a little older and knows when to be serious. And again, ready to fight in a moments notice. Because man, I wanna see that more in Starboys.

And finally, yes, for the time being Valentino will not be with the main cast. Juggling the trio is hard enough, and I feel like he would just get in the way and wouldn’t add a lot. But he will come back during the climax, so he still has a purpose.

So that’s it for Chapter Six. The next chapter we’ll head back into the city and see more of our villains and side cast, so lots of fun stuff there.

Thanks for reading!

Guess who rewatched HTTYD 1 and thought of a random idea sketch! :D (@your-ne1ghbor )

Note!: This isn’t actually how Flazino and Sueño first meet in canon. This is just a fun alternative “What-if” concept, you know? Like, imagine Flazi was in his work uniform and Sueño just went “Royal = Bad” and this royal dude was in dangerously close proximity to his only human “friend.”

Damn, having a magical shapeshifting partner sure has its perks-