gleefully-macabre:

magic-and-moonlit-wings:

dubiousculturalartifact:

sheriffjessie:

people will see gross ships where the woman fixes the bad abusive boy or w/e and say “oh just like Beauty and the Beast” but y’all fail to realize Belle didn’t fix Beast. She’s not sitting there screaming about how “I know there’s good in you!!!!!!!” after he does something horrible. She’s not making it her goal to change him. Beast changes because he actively wants to become a better man. Belle is just existing around him and he’s like “hmm I wanna do something nice for her. I wanna learn how to read, and relearn how to eat properly so I don’t gross her out, and wear clothes properly instead of just ripped capes,” like he’s actually trying to be better, which is why the story works. Kyle Ron is not that. Edwin Cullen is not that. They’ll never have what The Prince has babes I’m sorry.

people keep thinking they’re writing the Beast as their love interest, when they’re actually writing a horrible, awful AU of the story where Belle leaves the Beast’s corpse rotting on the rooftop, and cheerfully marries Gaston

If the Love Interest Character has not taken initiative to improve themselves as a person by the end of the story, then the story is not using this plot arc. Paraphrasing another comment I’ve seen about this general topic, the Beast turning human at the end was not Belle’s reward for sticking with an asshole long enough to ‘fix’ him - it was his reward for pushing himself through personal growth and no longer being an asshole.

Belle didn’t love him in spite of his anger issues and violent outbursts. He, and the curse was quite explicit about this, earned her love by fixing his shitty personality. The only reason he had a chance after he scared her off with his destructive tantrum was because he had gotten injured protecting her from the wolves and her conscious and humanity wouldn’t let her leave him to possibly die. If he hadn’t been hurt, she’d have gone. She almost did anyway.

He realized that a temper isn’t an excuse for cruelty after Belle showed a bit of her own temper, then gently thanked him for saving her, since she has enough self control to chill out when the argument is done and isn’t too proud to give credit where it’s due.

He respected her for helping him and not backing down (I’m convinced respect is what he “never felt… about anyone”, not love. Not yet). He found being kind has a dopamine kick that aggression just doesn’t provide (library). She doesn’t look down on him for being illiterate, which he was embarrassed about, and started teaching him because by that point they had become friends. He probably would have let her go then if she’d asked, and been spared the broken heart by letting her go after he’d fallen completely.

Remember, folks, BATB takes place over several months. It starts early Autumn; she changes places with her father in later autumn, leaves the first time in winter— probably not that late in the season since the lake wasn’t completely frozen— and returns home when the thaw is setting in (no snow during the mob scene).