The Flames of Love and War/Tropes


 * An Aesop:
 * Racism and prejudice are destructive forces that, if left unchecked, will result in the destruction of all parties involved.
 * Sometimes, love is all it takes to change the world.
 * There's nothing wrong with being curious and embracing what's new.
 * War Is Hell and nothing good ever comes from it. The only way to preserve peace is to teach peace so that others do not seek conflict.
 * Awesome Art: The film's hand-drawn animation is a beautiful splash of art and color that feels reminiscent of the Disney Renaissance.
 * Awesome Music: Melissa Ethridge truly rocks it in this soundtrack.
 * Corrupt Character Copy: Basileus is one to King Triton. Both are prejudiced fathers and kings who try to rein on their daughters' curiosity. However, that's were the similarities stop. Whereas Triton, while trying to discourage Ariel from learning about humans, generally lets his daughter have freedom in her life, Basileus takes active actions to derail Aqua's curiosity via lies and manipulation, leaving her afraid of her own curiosity. In fact, Triton quickly knew he made a mistake when he destroyed Ariel's grotto, yet Basileus has no problems taking his daughter's things on a regular basis and essentially denying her freedom. And, as prejudiced as King Triton was towards humans, he never engaged in any conflict with them and tried to avoid them at all costs. Basileus, on the other hand, engages in a war against the fire people out of each other's prejudice. Finally, Triton learned to let go of his hatred of humans and let his daughter live happily ever after, but Basileus never let his own prejudices go and ends up dying because of it.
 * Darker And Edgier: The film is one of Disney's darkest love stories in animation, with Grey-and-Gray Morality and War Is Hell being both promenient aspects in addition to its exploration of racism.
 * Heartwarming Moments:
 * Aqua and Phoenix' entire relationship is this. While Phoenix at first hates her and Aqua is indifferent towards Phoenix, the two develop a bond upon getting to know each other more deeply and discpver an emotional connection. They also help each other with their issues, with Phoenix helping Aqua embrace her curiosity and Aqua in turn helping her heal from her battle scars and subsequent guilt. That bond blossoms into a love that manages to end their people's war without bloodshed. By the end of the film, they even get married.
 * As the navigate througth a river, Phoenix shows Aqua the local flora and fauna. She is marveled by the sights, while Phoenix begins to experience happiness for the first time in years. And when Aqua wants to run alongside some of the creatures, she impulsively grabs Phoenix hand. Instead of being repulsed as she would have been at the beginning, Phoenix is touched. The two soon realize their feelings for each other... and all it takes is a look to each other to make clear that, yes, they feel the same.
 * The looks Aqua and Phoenix give each other as thry go to their honeymoon. Awwww.
 * Inspiration for the Work: Dana Terrace cited The Little Mermaid (1989), Lady and the Tramp, and Fantasia 2000 as inspirarions for the film's animation.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Phoenix can be racist abd quite rude, but its hard to not to feel bad for her upon seeing she suffers from PTSD.
 * Narm Charm: Aqua's comeback to her father's assertion that she dosen't know how to use a sword is a simple "She taught me". This out-of-context seems like a Lame Comeback. However, since Basileus has been telling her to avoid learning anything new in her life, it instead comes off as her rejecting her evil father's teachings.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * The opening. After the Disney logos, we see a group of fire soldiers hiding in a trench, as they prepare themselves for an attack by enemy forces. And the water enemies do appear... in planes. We are then followed by a bombing. In a Disney movie. And its clear the fire soldiers are not only losing, but on the verge of death. We even see a few ones dying onscreen. The entire sequence effectively showcases this film will be darker than usual for a Disney love story.
 * The mere fact that two nations have been lead to war by leaders who only want the destruction of the other's race merely because of their own prejudices and feeling that the other should not exist. The worst part? It happened in real life.
 * Production Posee: Dana Rerrace brought from The Owl House writers Rachael Vine and Molly Osterag and cast memvers Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Zeno Robinson, Matthew Rhys, and Bumper Robinson.
 * Realism-Induced Horror: Arguably one of the scariest part of the film is how realistic both war and its psychological effects are potrayed.
 * Rule of Symbolism: While watching the local fauna with Aqua, with whom she is already in love, Phoenix is forced to drop her armor outside of her water-proof suit. Metaphorically, she finally drops her façade and shell of a tough warrior and allows gerself to feel again.
 * Salvaged Story: The film having LGBTQ+ leads is a great relief following Disnry's poor attempts in cinema to potray queer characters. The fact that most of the film's writers are queer certainly helped.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Aqua's look is partially inspired by Ruby Gillman.
 * Phoenix at one point describes Aqua as "the incredibly annoying girl in front of [her] with the staring problem", calling back to episode 2 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
 * The scene where Phoenix prevents Vasileus from killing her father was inspired by when Peter-2 stopped Peter-3 from killing the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
 * Shown Their Work: Phoenix shows a lot of accurate symptoms of war-related PTSD, such as apathy, sleeping problems, and irritability.
 * They Also Did:
 * Director Dana Terrace and co-writers Rachel Vine and Molly Ostertag were the showrunner and writers, respectively, for Disney's The Owl House.
 * ND Stevenson, showrunner of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power also co-wrote the script, in addition to voicing a character himself.
 * Melissa Ethridge previously wrote song for Disneytoon Studios' Brother Bear 2.
 * War Is Hell: Surprisingly for a Disney animated movie, the film goes deep in exploring this. Phoenix even developed PTSD thanks to her experiences as a soldier.
 * What Do You Mean Its For Kids?!: Being a love story by Disney may make people think this is good family-friendly fun. But its potrayal of war is eerily realistic and one of the lead characters explicitly suffers from PTSD. Safe to say, this isn't one for little kids.