Agatha's Protection Squad At Tagatha Wedding Lol. Base On This Post By @pumpkinpaperweight

SOPHIE'S TRAUMA (Or lack thereof)

Something that's always irked me about TCY is how flippant Sophie is toward references to Rafal. This old ass bitch groomed and took advantage of her, manipulated and brainwashed her with the Swan Gold, and by the Ever-Never Handbook she's talking about him like he’s an unfortunate ex and not, you know, a fucking monster.

In TLEA it is specifically stated that Sophie is terrified of Rafal before he gives her his ring. Even after that, she makes numerous comments on feeling unsafe around him. There's no denying that she was affected by Rafal's behavior during the time they were together, so why is he written off as another guy Sophie couldn't keep? Why does Rafal become a punchline from the Handbook forward, not even a year after his death?

To put it simply: Sophie was taken advantage of by an older man. She showed obvious signs of how this was negatively affecting her in TLEA. It's safe to assume that she would gain some sort of trauma from this, but such is never exploited in QFG onwards.

Sure, Sophie is a very frivolous person, so her making a joke at the expense of an ex or commenting on how he's “still hot” doesn't come unexpected. But Rafal isn’t a Tedros or a Hort or even a Rhian. Sophie was never actually in love with Rafal—she thought he was hot as a teenager, yeah, but her romantic feelings for him were made up by the ring, and the rest was about her desire to become Evil’s queen and her jealousy toward Tagatha.

It’s like… shouldn’t the memory of Rafal affect Sophie in some way outside of, “yeah he was evil but at least he was hot”, or whatever? Isn’t there a chance that maybe the reason she was happy on her own at the end of TLEA was because being with Rafal had scared the concept of having a prince out of her? And that her lunging for the first cute boy she sees in QFG is completely out of character?

Trauma and grief affect people differently. I’m not going to pretend to be a psychology major when I’m not. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I can confidently say that Sophie “getting over” Rafal as quickly as she did felt shallow and lazy.

The closest thing to a reaction at the mention of Rafal that we see from Sophie is her comparing theSnake to him in QFG and getting a little unnerved. I find it bizarre that Sophie’s pretty much moved on from the whole ordeal not even a year later.

The argument that displaying a character suffering from trauma in a children’s book is inappropriate doesn’t work here, either, because Soman’s already written the toxic relationship she would be suffering trauma from into the damn book. That’s not to mention Tedros getting tortured in book 2, Callis getting burnt at the stake, Sophie being brutalized and left to die by the Elders—seriously, I could go on for years about the things that aren’t “suitable for a M.G. novel” in this series.

In fact, I believe it would be important to show Sophie having nervous or negative reactions toward references to Rafal. It would display the damage a relationship like theirs can have on a person, and then maybe less 12 y/o’s would find Rafal and Raphie less hot.

This can be applied to more than just Sophie, too. Literally every character in this series has lost a parent or guardian. Tedros was tortured, Sophie died in book 1, Agatha watched these horrible things happen to her friends… the list goes on. It amazes me that not one character has mourned or shown grief for a dead character or has had a breakdown over the immense amount of shit they’ve been through. Callis is mentioned maybe three times over the course of TCY. It’s insane.

Is this comprehensible? I’m not sure. It’s vvv late but I need to get these thoughts out.

Bottom line: I don’t think the Sophie/Rafal situation was handled well post-TLEA, and the representation of the trauma these kids undoubtedly should have is nonexistent.

i feel like being in a fandom long-term has a very specific repetitive cycle that kind of looks like this

My missing school for good and evil hours mostly consist of just being so angry at how bad the whole tcy series is, and that the live action adaptation wouldve been revolutionary if its a series, not a movie

And the occasional thinking about agatha, you know, the usual

Rewriting the Entirety of SGE: The School Years

All of this is solely up to my own preference. Yes, some parts may be messy because I am inexperienced. I don’t even know what a plot is. Here we go.

I didn’t have any major problem with Book 1 until Agatha’s Glow Up, so we’re starting there.

Canon: Agatha realizes she was beautiful all along and literally two minutes later Tedros falls in love with her.

However, I think it would’ve been so much more impactful if she simply changed her perspective on her “ugliness” from a negative light to an objective standpoint.

We already know that Agatha is badass, so I think she should view herself that way. Insecurity is nothing if she amounts her features to the raw human ability that they possess. Her frame is tall and skinny because she’s athletic, her big eyes serve her the purpose of seeing. Agatha may not be pretty, but every bone in her body was made so that she could eat, breathe, laugh, fight, do parkour around School for Evil.

It’s obvious that Ever Girls only care about their appearance because they want to impress boys (in School for Girls, they are shown as letting themselves go). Agatha is characterized as having no interest in boys, and therefore she doesn’t need to be pretty in the first place. Now, I know that princesses need a prince in order to have their fairytale, but Agatha already thinks that’s bullshit – why not go against it?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I’d rather have Agatha have some kind of deformity, like a cleft lip or crooked spine. It would really sell the idea that she was different. As a kid, even if Soman screamed in my face that Agatha was canonically ugly, I couldn’t imagine how she could be if the features she was described with were SO normal. Of course, her deformity remains throughout the book, because that is Not Cool if it’s magically removed.  

I’ve said this before in my I Don’t Really Like Agatha post, and I’ll say it again. She is ungrateful for the opportunity she could have at School for Good. I’d literally kill to be there, I’d sit through every mind-numbing, subtly sexist class about smiling and posture just so I could practice magic, and I’m sure a lot of people think the same.

[edited: didn’t mean to sound so callous, it’s only an opinion]

Agatha isn’t even using this to expand her power. She uses her wish a total of 2 times in this book, and it’s not like she didn’t have time to use it. It’s disappointing.

So, imagine that Agatha just GRINDS in her school-work. Sure, she fails the challenges related to Strategic Blushing and Matching Outfits, but everything else she excels. At first she just didn’t want to be turned into a plant, she was only studying to survive. Now, it’s more than that.

Agatha is introduced as having a fondness for villains, and it’s apparent that beauty is irrelevant in their success stories. Although she is hurt when Sophie alludes to how she’d “fit in” with the immature, trigger-happy Nevers, she can apply those values of dismissing outer appearances while still being Good. It’s not as if Agatha is greedy or deceitful. She saves the Wish Fish, forgives Sophie countless times, and doesn’t do anything outright vicious. There’s no reason to question that she’s NOT a Never. She can be ugly and an Ever at the same time, wasn’t that the original message?

Hypothetically, she gains more knowledge and strength in spells and potions and such, and just like Sophie, even if everyone doubted her, she could rise through the ranks. There’s no point in worrying about your looks when you’re the most powerful girl in school. (Did I make Agatha too close to Evil? Maybe. But she doesn’t need to push people down to bring herself up, she’s just a natural like that.)

Also, if she needs a boy to ask her out to the Snow Ball, she 100% hates that. She could just talk to Dovey, are they really gonna fail the baddest bitch there?

No. They’re not.

Okay, here’s the biggest part that everyone will hate me for. No Tagatha. At least, not until TLEA.

When Agatha comes out of the Groom Room having just kickstarted her self-esteem and everyone’s drooling, Tedros is attracted to her instantly. I guess that’s fine. Reasonable. But consider this:

Agatha doesn’t love Tedros back.

When Tedros asks her out at the Circus of Talents, she declines. Because if she really knew her own worth, she wouldn’t say yes before making friends with him first. That’s only fair. Actually, I’d say a part of insecurity is settling for any guy who gives you attention (aka Tedros). Y'all are gonna hit me with the damning “We accept the love we think we deserve”.

EVEN IF SHE BELIEVES SHE DESERVES HIM NOW, IT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’LL JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO DATE HIM. THAT’S MESSED UP.

Okay, I know Sophie threw her bitch fit because Agatha was being a hypocrite and dating Tedros. So, tweak that and have Sophie throw a bitch fit simply because Tedros asked Agatha out in the first place. That still makes sense with her entitled selfish personality.

In the stupid war of Evers and Nevers, (which was like, strange considering they’re kids but they’ll have a similar conflict for the next two years), Tedros and Agatha are not together. You could throw in a bit of “Tedros wants to prove to Agatha he’s a hero” but for god’s sakes we are NOT putting in that little chauvinistic “how dare a princess question me”. That one line gave me a bad feeling about Tedros — foreshadowing for AWWP? And it’s crazy that Soman wrote that, along with his lack of brain cells. Are you trying to make readers bully him in memes and instagram group chats? Not from personal experience.

Oh, and this is more of a complaint. But, why did Soman make Sophie bald, pockmarked, and toothless in her transformation of embracing Evil? I thought this was about breaking stereotypes.

The Evil stigma that’s drilled in their heads about being pretty and in general taking care of yourself, is completely inane to me. I can’t believe that Sophie’s “trickery” of Tedros was so revolutionary. None of the Nevers, in 200 years, thought of that?

Instead of her beauty regressing, I’d actually want it to be heightened. It’s what set her apart from the Nevers the moment she walked in. It should be the icing on top of the cake. When Sophie is at her peak of power, she’s a princess. Who could kill you.

If you’re worried about reducing women to be pretty objects or seductresses, stop. It’s okay. Sophie has other powers like summoning ravens, wasps, locusts, bats, using her singing voice for torture, and she is skilled in curses and death traps. In short, the Hot Evil Lady trope works for her. (I think. Someone correct me.)

At the end of SGE, Agatha chooses Sophie over Tedros. Needless to say, Tedros feels betrayed. If you wanted to make him an idiot, with anger issues, daddy issues, and an inferiority complex, this is the easiest way out. He’s under the misguided impression that Agatha belongs with him simply because 1. He loves her. 2. He’s the prince of Camelot, damnit. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Not to mention that his father pressured him not to make the same mistake. And Tedros thinks that School for Good is his pool of suitors since Arthur married his classmate Guinevere? There is no line of logic in this man at all, did you miss the part where Guinevere cheats and runs away? Maybe Ever Girls isn’t the only place you should look! There are thousands of other girls in the Woods and you intend to find your soulmate at 14?? Goddamn. 

In conclusion, Tedros’ hurt feelings continue to AWWP. Easy.

And if y’all gonna come for me about how Tedros is easily swayed by looks (he’s convinced that Sophie and Agatha are in the wrong schools for half the book) I’d want to make him a bit smarter. I know that’s impossible.

In canon, Tedros turns on Sophie because her true colors showed, and her witchy phase gives him that confirmation bias. He goes feral with testosterone and heroism, as we know.

I’d like him to understand that just because his solely physical attraction to Sophie grew when she’s evil and pretty, it doesn’t mean that she’s not any less dangerous. If Tedros, of all people, learns the difference between appearances vs reality, it would really drive the point home.

All right. You’re still here?

Here’s some extra headcanons you could add in here and here.

In the meantime I’ll think of more.

If there were any hard-hitting themes I was supposed to include, please tell me, I usually gloss over them while reading. 

But anyway, thanks for reading this far.

The Switch

What if they actually switch???? this is my take on how that will happen.

Set in,, first book, empress new clothes and the roach and the fox

what if sophie used the notes-- the notes agatha made to help sophie study-- against agatha and convinced the teachers to make them switch.

Very quick sketch about how I think Agatha might have looked like (during the beginning of book 1).

Wanted to make her hair extra choppy and thin, since I headcanon her as being a very anxious mess, and with self-esteem so low she doesn't care about her hair.

Basically, she has the bad, bad habit of brushing her hair with force (ends up breaking it and It thins out her hair), and no vanity to take proper care.

When it gets too long to be practical (in her opinion) she just chops it off with whatever.

Anyways, probably going to draw her in more detail soon??? Dunno? If my hands comply

If you ask me back then what I wouldve done with this AU? It's too Tagatha indulgent LMAOO

I would've kept the by gender tributes, with agatha competing and sophie staying at home (sophie being gale in this au).

And tagatha,, would've been pEAK star crossed lovers, agatha from district 12 and tedros being a career tribute, falling in love in the middle of the arena,, oouuhhh

I also had plans for sophie, somewhat,, i was thinking that sophie would be ambitious and delusional enough to volunteer and believe that she would win the games. Because she wanted the fame and glamour and riches of what victors received. So when agatha volunteered for her, reality sets in her that the games are dangerous and that she could've died.

But watching agatha in the games, watching her survive, fall in love, and win. It fuels sophie full of anger and jealousy- how dare agatha take this from her, to get the glory and the fame. It should've been sophie who went to the games, it should've been her in those interviews, parades, and parties with gorgeous dresses, fantastic food, and meeting new people.

Anyway back to tagatha, i think agatha was helping another younger tribute the same way katniss was taking care of rue, and tedros sees this, made him reevaluate agatha- and that's started their allyship in the games. Maybe it wasn't full-on romance, but their chemistry got the capitol hooked. Ouh then after the games, they see each other again during their campaign- but knowing that they would probably not see each other again after it. Ooouugghhh.

After all that yap, idk what else lmao. I don't know what to do with the revolution part.

Movie!SGE - Hunger Games AU

These are old sketches and comic wips from 2023(?). I really like agatha and sophie's personalities and relationship in the movie. I think it fits more with hunger games AU than book!sge.

While both book and movie agathas are protective of sophie, movie!agatha being outspoken about her beliefs and actively challenging the status quo makes me think that movie!agatha is more fitting as katniss.

As for sophie, while both ambitious and wants something more in their life, also a bit delusional too. Movie!sophie feels more like a normal teenage girl with dreams, while dealing with a new environment. A little more selfish and vain- but a healthy amount of fear for their life. Book!sophie is a lot more comical in terms of villainous attitude that it's a bit hard to imagine her in a survival game setting. (I know both sophies faced the trial by tale, i still prefer movie!sophie in hunger games AU)

If we disregard the by gender tributes in each district, Sophie and Agatha can both compete in the games, with agatha volunteering to stay with sophie.

I think Tedros could be a career tribute actually...

With all that said, I'm not sure how to go through with this AU, or how to end it. That's probably why i never posted it back then.

I would love to hear ideas with people, brainrot together LMAOO

They completely missed the point of sophie's character

Sophie was an arrogant,selfish and a narcissistic person behind her sweet facade who didn't believe herself to be evil,who did terrible things including murder as her anger grew. movie sophie on the other hand? She's the "posessed victim" that the mainstream seems to be obsessed with these days

Making her an outcast with agatha was an odd choice,sophie didn't want to get away from a town who hated her,she was tired of her normal life and wanted to go the school of good because she thought that's what she deserves

She did good things (including being friends with agatha) just to change her school not because that she was a nice person,she discovered her evilness and powers on her own not because of rafal (who literally was supposed to remain in the bts and not let Sophie fail instead of brainwashing her) we as audience do know that she really is evil deep down and why rafal saw her potential despite her denial. The movie makes you wonder that what did rafal even see in her? She's a very sympathetic person in the film who goes through hell

She is a great friend towards aggy and only turned against her because of rafal's influence,the scene where she accuses agatha for stealing everything from her feels cheap because there is no build up;she was simply upset and seemed to forgive agatha while reading her letter,while in the book we saw how her jealousy grew over the time to the point she attacked everyone several times and killed all of the wolves and fairies but she barley hurts anyone in the movie,heck one of the first signs of her evilness is when she drowns the beast after he cuts her hair,but in the movie it was lady lesso for some reason and it only makes us feel sorry for sophie. Completely erasing it's meaning. A weak attempt to make her seem like a "bad bitch" in the aftermath when we were supposed to see her true colors

Sophie was such a complicated and complex character but they managed to remove her agency in her own story

fine i drew tamara... shes in her cute little dress from the third book except she looks twenty