Smoke & Mirrors ⚜️ {Athena + Gaston}

WARNING: this video contains some blood and violence. Not a whole lot, but it's there, so.
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Whoo boy, posting my first video. This is so nerve wracking!
Oookay, so. Many moons ago, TheNamelessDoll posted an edit of Ariel in Anastasia's dress on tumblr (here: thenamelessdoll.tumblr.com/pos...) and for the first time in my life I was overcome with the desire to make my own crossover videos. I had been watching this community and the wonderful content you created from afar for a few years now, but this was the first time I really wanted to join you. Then the first story I came up with, inspired by that edit, went into production--albeit very slowly. There was so much that I wanted to show, that months later I realized I would not be able to tell the story I wanted in one video. So I started working on a prequel video to the original story, quickly realized that with my extremely mediocre editing talent it would be the quicker and easier story to tell, and now it's what you're watching. It's taken me a long time to finish this, partly because of life's hectic tendencies and partly because I'm a noob, but hopefully it's semi-decent and coherent.
All the masks were created by me except the Snow White one at the very end (made by TheNamelessDoll). I didn't have the movie, and to be frank, I was not looking forward to masking it anyways.
And another thing: this was pretty much all made with after effects and sony vegas, but rendering the final product was hell and I ended up reconstructing everything in Premiere Pro. I was having a hell of a time and if anyone has any suggestions on how I can fix that stupid "low on memory" popup that kept crashing sony vegas, I'd be glad to hear it.
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Now, onto the story.
Quick note: Although she's portrayed by Ariel here, the girl is actually supposed to be her mother, Athena. I couldn't actually use Athena because of the lack of footage, so just use your imagination. The baby is Ariel, and the mom is Athena.
STORY: Athena is a young, unmarried Queen with a young daughter, Ariel. No one knows where the child came from, and Athena won't tell. The fact that she's unmarried with a child causes a lot of unrest in the kingdom, and rumors have been spreading that she's actually a Siren with the ability to transform into a human. This rumor is spread even further thanks to Gaston, who rallies the townsfolk to plan a revolt and overthrow the Queen. Because a party is happening at the castle that night, it's the perfect time to strike and they quickly gather what they will need and make their way to the castle. Athena catches a glimpse of them outside the window as she is coming down the stairs, and hurriedly goes to warn her guests but she's too late. She watches in horror as the assailants break through the door and begin to reak havoc on everything she has. Determined to save at least one thing she holds dear, she retrieves baby Ariel and takes off into the night, with Gaston in close pursuit. She doesn't realize this until after she's hidden her baby, but by the time she does, it's too late.
Epilogue: Esmeralda comes across Athena's broken and battered body in the woods, but there's nothing she can do as she is already long dead. As she is quietly mourning her Queen, she hears a baby cooing, and goes to investigate. Hidden in the bushes, in a small basket, is the little princess. Knowing that no one was left to care for her, Esmeralda takes the baby with her.
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