Artist Envisions Disney Princesses as Dungeons & Dragons Players

StewShearerOld

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Jan 5, 2013
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Artist Envisions Disney Princesses as Dungeons & Dragons Players

Artist Alexandra Mihai recently transformed Disney's princess lineup into a group of dice throwing D&D players.

When you think about Disney princesses what comes to mind? While the first answer for a lot of recent moviegoers is probably <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk>Let it Go, the follow-up mental image likely involves some improbably gorgeous young woman singing about how much more they want from their lives with a chorus of friendly woodland creatures. Probably the last thing most people would think of is Dungeons & Dragons. It's not hard to see why either. While the fantasy sensibilities of the game would seemingly fall right in line with many of Disney's films, the game's frequently dark and violent tone perhaps isn't the best match for the ultra pink, hyper-femininity at the center of Disney's highly profitable (and <a href=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/13/brave-director-criticises-sexualised-merida-redesign>occasionally controversial) princess marketing. That being the case, there are some who believe that D&D and Disney are a perfect fit.



Take Romanian artist Alexandra Mihai, for instance. An avid fan of both Dungeons & Dragons and Disney, she recently produced a piece that envisioned the company's princesses as players at a tabletop RPG. According to Mihai the piece (inspired by another artist's similar <a href=http://thanley.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/wwdungeons.jpg>DC comics illustration), was in part a response to the way Disney markets and sells its princess products.

"I really have a big pet-peeve against how Disney Princesses are marketed towards little girls. They're dumbed down, sparkled up, and uber-pink," she said. 'Despite this, knowing the stories they come from, I can't help but appreciate them. They have strong personalities, they may not make the best choices, or for the best reasons, but they're capable, brave, kind, and they don't let adversity alter their essence." This quintessential imperfection, in turn, reminded Mihai of her experiences playing D&D. "To me, the beauty of a character comes from its rough edges, its flaws, not from the pedestal they're put on, as a paragon of beauty and perfection. So that's why I chose to draw the princesses, as D&D players. I think it shows that every princess is a heroine, above all else."

Mihai would go on to affirm that her work overall has strong ties to her experiences with tabletop RPGs. "Dungeons & Dragons is amazing. It's the best hobby I've ever participated in," she said. "Ever since I learned how to play, a big focus of mine has been portraying my characters and those of my friends, and the amazing environments we were experiencing via the DM's descriptions. It's been one of my biggest motivators throughout the years."


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josemlopes

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StewShearer said:
"I really have a big pet-peeve against how Disney Princesses are marketed towards little girls. They're dumbed down, sparkled up, and uber-pink," she said. 'Despite this, knowing the stories they come from, I can't help but appreciate them. They have strong personalities, they may not make the best choices, or for the best reasons, but they're capable, brave, kind, and they don't let adversity alter their essence." This quintessential imperfection, in turn, reminded Mihai of her experiences playing D&D. "To me, the beauty of a character comes from its rough edges, its flaws, not from the pedestal they're put on, as a paragon of beauty and perfection. So that's why I chose to draw the princesses, as D&D players. I think it shows that every princess is a heroine, above all else."
And here I was thinking that this was just some simple fan-art, guess not.

And with the exception of snow-white everyone's expression is so blank, for something with such premise it would be expected to at least have the characters show those "rough edges" and "flaws".
 

Rednog

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I know that Disney Princesses inserted into nerdy culture is a thing and always gets posted in the news...but this is kind of stretching it.
I don't know maybe I'm being overly critical but this seems like the laziest one out of all the ones I've seen. I mean it's essentially the princesses sitting around a table with a few D&D props present.
Why not have characters rolling dice, squabbling over actions, eating chips, drinking soda. There's just a thousand and one things you could change to make it feel more natural and not just plopping down every princes in a sitting position around some D&D stuff and calling them D&D players.
 

Chester Rabbit

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uh oh, Bell's reading, she's gonna go all Pierce Hawthorne on their asses once she is through with that thing.
 

Deathfish15

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Please just "Let it Go" with this whole Disney Princess fad. It's getting old and is starting to make me regret reading the Escapist at all. This site used to be a good one about Video Games, Science, and just general geeky culture news (i.e. comic movies and Game of Thrones; entertainment). Now we're getting just junk stories that should otherwise be on Deviant Art's front page and stay THERE instead of here. Go fig...
 

Alterego-X

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For the love of God, what's up with all these weekly Disney princess posts? Yes, fan-art is a thing. There are millions of pieces of it on the Internet, many of them higher quality than these are.

Or if you insist on posting them, then at least also post some pony themed ones just as frequently. ;)
 

The Great JT

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How would you have a functional party with that many players? Split up into two groups of five and then carve through a dungeon?
 

Skeleon

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Why are so seemingly many people doing this? Variations on the Disney princesses? We even had post-apocalyptic Disney princesses for crying out loud!
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
You know whats better than Dinsey princesses playing dungeons and dragons?

Ponies

 

TilMorrow

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I can't help but have the impression that Snow White looks like she is on crack whilst DM'ing cause I keep seeing her eyes as bloodshot (unless I look closely) combined with her expression.Plus Mulan and Cinderella's expression both looking like "***** please, dragons?" is priceless.

OT: So aside from it being another piece of Fan Art highlight of Disney Princesses be cool, what exactly is meant to be discussed here? The Escapist's sudden rediscovered attraction to Disney Princesses? Artists be good at what they do and the sky is blue?

Edit:
The Great JT said:
How would you have a functional party with that many players? Split up into two groups of five and then carve through a dungeon?
It crashes and burns... terribly. Especially if you're DM is new to the job and deemed having 10 players and 1 or 2 more if they turn up being a good idea.
 

Nowhere Man

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And today's Disney princess picture is...

Seriously, what is up with all the Disney princess fan art lately?
 

Chris Ingersoll

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The Great JT said:
How would you have a functional party with that many players? Split up into two groups of five and then carve through a dungeon?
While true, it doesn't look like Snow has that problem.

Aurora is nearly unconscious, Belle's distracted reading a source book, and I'm not sure if Ariel can even speak since she's in human mode (have not watched that one in a long time, forget how that works). So that brings the party down to seven, which is a number this particular GM has been dealing with for a long time.
 

Mirrorknight

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Kinda cool. Would have been cooler if they were dressed up like their characters, at least. Judging by the relative few stories, it's a slow news day, and I applaud any attempt to bring the Disney Princess out of the Pink Zone a bit.

If they're running 4ed, and playing characters that match their movies...

Ariel - Bard (easy)
Merida - Ranger, focus on archery (also easy). Has a bear animal companion
Aurora - Sorceress or Warlock - Fey Pact
Mulan - Fighter (maybe Warlord, but we're kinda short on defenders)
Cinderella ... Warlock - Fey pact if Aurora is playing Sorceress. If Aurora is playing Warlock (she was there first), then Ranger with Animal Companion focus (little bit more difficult)
Belle: Wizard (yay, books!)
Jasmine: Rogue (she was one in an alternate reality, and was pretty good at it, too) She could also play a Ranger with an Animal Companion focus. Granted, a lot of Disney princesses have animal companions, but her's is a tiger, so, you know, actually lethal.
Rapunzel: Haven't seen it, but going by plot synopsis: Cleric
Tiana: Hmm...haven't seen Princess and the Frog...it was about voodoo and spirits...either Shaman or Warlock - Vestige Pact?
Pocahontas: Haven't seen it either, but by synopsis: Druid (she talks to a tree, good enough for me).
 

Madame_Lawliet

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I wonder what their classes would be...
I get a cleric vibe from sleeping beauty, Mulan is defiantly a Paladin (whatever that is), I can see Ariel as a bard maybe, y'know singing and whatnot. I can't really decide where to put Belle, I think Mage would probably be the best fit; I'm gonna say fighter for Jasmine and probably the same for Rapunzel. I'm tempted to say Druid for Pocahontas but it just seems to easy, so I'm gonna go Ranger for her, same for Merida. I can't really decide on Tatiana, I'm gonna say Bard 'cause that's a fairly catch all class; and were Snow White not DMing I can see her going Druid for obvious reasons.

Note: I didn't have a childhood with Disney and only know most of these characters from Kingdom Hearts, so that's the basis I'm profiling most of their personalities off of.

EDIT: Ninja'd, that's what I get for being a slow typist.
 

Kaimax

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It's honestly too bland to call it Disney Princess and DnD. Just not Geeky enough. The pic of the Ponies is a much better pic in spirit.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Mirrorknight said:
Kinda cool. Would have been cooler if they were dressed up like their characters, at least. Judging by the relative few stories, it's a slow news day, and I applaud any attempt to bring the Disney Princess out of the Pink Zone a bit.

If they're running 4ed, and playing characters that match their movies...

Ariel - Bard (easy)
Merida - Ranger, focus on archery (also easy). Has a bear animal companion
Aurora - Sorceress or Warlock - Fey Pact
Mulan - Fighter (maybe Warlord, but we're kinda short on defenders)
Cinderella ... Warlock - Fey pact if Aurora is playing Sorceress. If Aurora is playing Warlock (she was there first), then Ranger with Animal Companion focus (little bit more difficult)
Belle: Wizard (yay, books!)
Jasmine: Rogue (she was one in an alternate reality, and was pretty good at it, too) She could also play a Ranger with an Animal Companion focus. Granted, a lot of Disney princesses have animal companions, but her's is a tiger, so, you know, actually lethal.
Rapunzel: Haven't seen it, but going by plot synopsis: Cleric
Tiana: Hmm...haven't seen Princess and the Frog...it was about voodoo and spirits...either Shaman or Warlock - Vestige Pact?
Pocahontas: Haven't seen it either, but by synopsis: Druid (she talks to a tree, good enough for me).
And here I was hoping they would be playing Dark Heresy. Oh well, maybe next week.
 

Squilookle

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Can we all agree that pulling unimaginative 1+1 match ups off DeviantArt to post as news on The Escapist is not only a bad idea, but lowers the news-posting integrity of the site as a whole?
 

ecoho

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Worgen said:
You know whats better than Dinsey princesses playing dungeons and dragons?

Ponies


dear lord this just made my day I guess I shouldn't be surprised its coming from you worgen.

OT: yeah to all those saying 10 player group is hard to manage all you need to do is not alow rerolls and have everyone in the party know what the hell theyre doing.(had a 12 person party went really well but then half the group were people who ran other games.)
 

Tybalt85

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Well I, for one, think it's a good idea, and the quality of the picture is quite good. Of course a ten-player D&D scenario would require to split the players into two groups or something, and of course the image could be more original, more detailed and so on. But this is still a good idea. I like the excited face of Snow White and Aurora's slightly bored expression (like she's thinking "Geez, witches and dragons again, how exotic...").
(Also, John Joseco's picture of ponies playing RPG is cool too. The graphic style reminds me a bit of the French series "The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk", a D&D parody.)