Disney: ‘Descendants’ Couples

Hi! It’s Annie!

So I let it slip, I think early last year, that I actually kind of like ‘Descendants’. As someone who was into franchises such as ‘Monster High’ growing up, I was always into the sons and daughters of famous characters concept. I also, (as most of you who have been reading this blog know) have been really into the cheesy, lighthearted, and hopeful content recently. And nothing says that quite as much as a DCOM. Though I am a little hesitant to even call it that. This is by far the biggest budget that Disney has ever expended for a Disney Channel movie expect for maybe the later ‘High School Musical’ films. And while the general High School drama of those movies doesn’t appeal to me so much; I really like a really well integrated movie to the Disney characters and stories that I know and love so much. Because it also focuses so much on the villains in particular, my want for another holiday and cooler weather has made this the perfect pre-Halloween escape. But, of course, now that I’ve started talking about Disney Channel couples on this blog, that was all that I could think about when I was most recently rewatching these movies. So I’m going to go over the most popular ships from this franchise and give my personal opinions on them. This is your warning, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALL THREE MOVIES!!! If you haven’t watched these yet, I would actually recommend them. You might end up liking them more than you think you will. Or at least the first two; the third one isn’t very good.

Mal and Ben:

I don’t think I could start anywhere else if I wanted to. This is the centerpiece couple for all three movies. Mal is the daughter of Maleficent and Ben is the son of Belle and the Beast; and we were all expecting this before the movie even begins. The main VK is going to end up with the Prince. Pretty obvious. But this relationship takes a bit of an unexpected route compared to other Disney Channel movies. Instead of naturally falling in love, for most of the first movie she actually gives him a love spell. Little does she realize that he was pretty much already in love with her. It’s cute in concept but a little questionable in execution considering, you know, consent. But Ben acts very sweet throughout and you at least know that Mal has a rough upbringing which makes it a very very slight bit more understandable. But, still. The second movie makes this relationship even rougher because Ben is willfully not understanding how much of a change Mal is struggling to go through for him while Mal attempts to literally modify his memory at one point. I’m not exactly sure how you trust somebody after that. Both of them were sweet to each other in the first movie at points, but it all falls apart here. And with all of the lying in the third movie, it just confirmed for me that this couple just doesn’t make any sense at all. They both have some bright points on their own, but each of their characters seem to suffer while together.

Evie and Doug:

One of the other cannon couples and probably my favorite overall. And yes, I am kind of biased because Evie is my favorite character. Evie is the daughter of the Evil Queen and Doug is the son of Dopey, which already sounds like a very cute match up. For Doug it’s more like love at first sight, while for Evie she has to come around to the idea because she’s been set on finding a Prince with a giant castle. Doug steps up to defend her often and helps her study; his caring nature and belief in her intelligence being the true thing to endear her to him in the end. And what I really like about these two is that you actually get to see them as a couple. You see how he supports and helps her out with her business and how their un-labelled friendship slowly grows into love. To the point where she’s unsure if he loves her in the third movie, but ends up waking him with true love’s kiss. The moment that they share afterwards is far too brief, but still says a lot. Evie gets angry at Doug when he very briefly pretends to still be asleep but they share a cute moment after that shows that they at least kind of acknowledge what just happened. I just wanted more of Evie and Doug! I loved that he was so devoted to her and so constantly supportive of everything she wanted to do. True boyfriend behavior. And she always seemed so confident around him because he never encouraged her to be anything but herself. This is what I really want my couples to look like in movies in general!

Carlos and Jane:

Carlos is the son of Cruella De Vil and Jane is the daughter of the Fairy Godmother and this couple doesn’t get time until the second movie. Carlos spends much of the movie trying to get the courage to ask her out and she spends most of the movie being oblivious and also annoyingly interrupting a bunch of conversations other characters are having. Jane is better in the third movie, but still doesn’t really have much to offer the plot at all. While this couple kind of works at surface level, there’s nothing that really seems to build up to these two being together. And when they are together, we don’t really see much of them as a couple. I feel like I can’t really make a judgement about them because we only see them as a couple in theory and not really all that much in practice. Overall, I really like Carlos and based on what we see of Jane, she’s not necessarily my favorite. So, my opinion on this is mostly negative and I’m also still a little bit confused.

Jay and Gil:

Jay is the son of Jafar and Gil is the son of Gaston. Ok, this might not necessarily be canon but I at least feel like some of it is. Are we all forgetting the third movie when Jay and Gil were excitedly finding things in common and planning trips together? No? Just me? I personally thought there was a lot of chemistry there and I would love to see Disney embracing a LGBTQ+ couple in one of their major new-ish franchises. Neither of these characters really get a whole lot of plot whatsoever, so it was nice to see them carve out a little bit of plot together.

Uma and Harry:

Uma is the daughter of Ursula and Harry is the son of Captain Hook. Uma and Harry seem to have a very close friendship. Seriously, they have some really cute moments when they’ve been apart and reunite after a while. It’s clear that these two have had each other’s backs for quite some time. But the end of the third movie confirms for me that I never really saw anything romantic between these two. It feels a bit more like the best friendship between Evie and Mal than anything romantic. And I love to see a good girl-boy friendship without it having to turn into something romantic.

Audrey and Chad:

Audrey is the daughter of Aurora and Chad is the son of Cinderella. Both of them are awful! I’m not the biggest fan of Audrey even in the third movie and Chad is the ultimate example of what women mean when they say that all men suck. Even the third movie had no respect for this couple. And I definitely think that neither of these characters should ever be in a relationship ever.

Uma and Ben:

Now we’re getting to the couples that are definitely not cannon; but they are at least widely discussed. This ship was fairly lively for a while, namely because of the conversation that Ben has with her where he finds the commonality that they are both leaders. Uma later puts a love spell on him, and I do find it funny that this action is considered to be almost unforgivable because Mal does the same thing to him in the first movie. And earlier in this movie, again, attempts to modify his memory. But the real villain move here is that Uma attempts to use this power over him to take down the barrier for good. Literally the exact same thing as Mal in the first movie. And this isn’t actually that bad of a thing considering that this is the actual good ending of the third film. Looking at it, there’s a lot more respect and honesty between Ben and Uma than Ben and Mal. Uma never hides or sugar coats what it’s like for the kids on the Isle. And Ben also acknowledges that she would be helpful to have on his side for navigating his dream to take down the barrier. Overall, I think they would work much better as a couple because they are so honest with each other. My only grievance here is that Ben can sometimes feel like a bit of a wet blanket and I feel like Uma is far too cool for him. As much as I would completely love for her to be Queen. But I don’t mind this pairing. Mainly because I want Uma to be Queen.

Mal and Harry:

Mal and Harry had so much chemistry in the second movie that Disney actually addressed this by making it canonical that Mal and Harry used to date. And I’m not saying after the movie released; they addressed it because they noticed the chemistry on set. The actors created a backstory and everything. And I can tell you why the chemistry was so noticeable to everyone right off the bat. The actors were actually dating at the time of filming! And honestly, I can see these two as a couple within the cannon of the show. Throwing Harry off with Audrey at the end made no sense, so I’m not even going to talk about that. Especially because Audrey should have been doing at least some time in some sort of prison. The instant forgiveness just because she was from Auradon was even pointed out by Hades! But I digress. Mal is usually pretty sneaky and very much wants to continue to practice her magic. Harry is a bit of a psycho but he’s shown to be very loyal and supportive where it counts. And both of them find it difficult fitting their personalities into any friend group whatsoever. Neither is really satisfied without being true to themselves and what they want and sometimes they even take that to a selfish degree. I think they would both understand each other and possibly even each other out. Mal would be able to talk Harry down and Harry would push Mal to stop conforming. I could actually see this one working out.

Jay and Lonnie:

Lonnie is Mulan’s daughter (I really hate her name). Neither of these two have much in the way of personality and the only reason why I mention this is because it kind of looks like they may have gone together to Cotillion in the second film. But it’s definitely not cannon and even though Jay helps her, there is absolutely no chemistry here at all. Not even a little bit.

Evie and Ben:

I only mention this because it’s become an even more popular ship as the years go by. I think especially the second movie when Evie attempts to help Ben find Mal made this prominent in some people’s minds. I personally never really saw chemistry between them. Their dynamic in the second movie, to me, felt like an older sister taking care of and nervously following around her naive and clueless little brother. There was definitely no romantic chemistry in this dynamic in my opinion. Though I think Evie would make a great Queen, I don’t think that is at all what Evie wants either. I love that Evie threw the idea of marrying a Prince away, started her own business, and bought her own starter castle in the third film. This is such a strong feminist arc that would be ruined, in my opinion, by her having ended up with Ben in any way. And that aside, I absolutely adore her with Doug! I definitely don’t need to see her with Ben. Ever.

I know that I have some controversial opinions up there, but I absolutely stand by them. I think that some of the pairings in the movies were adorable, but some of the characters would have been better off with different characters. Let me know what you think! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be over here freaking out over the fact that I was actually able to get ATEEZ concert tickets.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie