The Flames of Love and War/Tropes

Tropes for the film

 * Actor Allusion:
 * Aqua has a wolf-esque plush toy, referencing how her voice actress played Clawdeen Wolf in Monster High.
 * Upon learning of Aqua's crush on Phoenix, Amalia shows a level of Genre Saviness you'd expect from Luz Noceda. She also mentions having troubles with her girlfriend's mother after revealing their relationship, even througth she notes they weren't all that subtle. This exact scenario happened in The Owl House episode "Clouds on the Horizon".
 * The Alcoholic: Phoenix appears to be the film's equivalent of one.
 * An Aesop:
 * Prejudice is a destructive force 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. In fact, learning new things can actually be helpful for both yourself and others.
 * 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.
 * Awesome Moments:
 * Phoenix rebelling aginst her father by pointing a gun towards one of his henchmen and ordering to take her to the Voyager or else she'll shoot. And when they arrive, she reveals the gun wasn't loaded.
 * Little dog-esque Amabilia manages to track down her owner with the mere use of her nose, and bites one of her captors' leg to help her escape. She's a good pup, indeed.
 * Casting Gag: John de Lance appears in a cameo as a librerian named "Q. Stewart".
 * Central Theme:
 * War Is Hell. Emphasis is put on the physical and psychological consequences war had on many characters. And, at the end of the film, the war is revealed to be a senseless conflict started by prejudice.
 * Love and its power over hate. Aqua seeks love but fails because her father is an abusive a-hole that dosen't truly care for her. Phoenix starts prejudiced towards Water people abd holds them in contempt, but ultimately lets go of her hate by loving Aqua, that love also allowing her to come to terms with her PTSD. Meanwhile, the kings' inability to let go of their hatred for one another's species is what drives them to villany and madness. In the end, the princesses chose love and live to create a better world together, whereas the kings chose hate and die because of it.
 * Company Cross-References:
 * In his introduction scene, Basileus is wearing Emperor Belos' outfit as he eats what resembles the Poisoned Apple and holds a gun similar to Gaston's. His horse-esque creature also looks like Frollo's horse.
 * The skeleton in Basileus' room is that of the Beast.
 * To The Little Mermaid (1989):
 * Aqua's first scene has her recreating Ariel's iconic hair scene.
 * During the third act, Aqua and Basileus have a discussion about the Fire people that finishes with Aqua admitting her love for Phoenix by saying "Father, I love her!", homaging Ariel and King Triton's argument scene from The Little Mermaid.
 * While trying to convince Phoenix to go to a dance club, Aqua says the line "We'll have fun. We'll meet new faces" from the Mickey Mouse Club theme song.
 * Aqua's room has a Winnie the Pooh doll.
 * Phoenix has tattooes of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the name "Iwerks", referencing Mickey Mouse co-creator Bob Iwerks.
 * Fire people release more fire from their body when angered, much like Hades in Hercules.
 * During their second meeting, Phoenix calls Aqua a "big palooka" and later shouts "Awww, phooey", two of Donald Duck's catchphrases. Doubles as a Production Throwback, since director Dana Terrace previously was an episode director on DuckTales (2017).
 * A snipet from Night at Bald Mountain can be heard as Aqua and Basileus argue.
 * Some of the shots of Amabilia attacking some guards were inspired by Pongo and Perdita saving their pups in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Phoenix also plays some notes from the ending song "Dalmatian Plantation" at one point.
 * 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 film animation, with War Is Hell being a promenient aspect in addition to its exploration of racism and psychological trauma. There are also two main villains who engage in attempts to murder their own daughters, and one of them having killed his wife in cold-blood. There's also a case of Curse Cut Short (a geniune curse, not like when Timon stopped Pumbaa from saying "farted" in The Lion King), which can be quite startling to see in a Disney animated film.
 * Didn't Think This Througth: Phoenix apparently didn't thougth that entering an enemy nation and requesting an audience with the princess would not end in trouble. Thankfully, Amalia shows up before anything bad happens.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: After Aqua admits to her father her love for Phoenix, Basileus claims she was "corrupted" and that he will "cure" her after killing her species. Seeing as both are women, this feels eerily similar to coming out to an homophobic parent.
 * Elemental Embodiment: The film centers on people who embody water and fire elements, and even have them in some parts of their body, while the rest of the Fire people's body is made of rocks and the Water people's resembles the biology of marine creatures. Word of God is that they took this approach to further distance the film from Pixar's Elemental, another film with themes of prejudice about the romance between physical embodiments of water and fire, but otherwise different in tone and execution.
 * Elemental Personalities: Played with. The fire woman Phoenix holds a fiery temper, but otheriwse comes off as cold due to her PTSD. The Water woman Aqua, on the other hand, is ironically the warmer of the two.
 * Fridge Horror: The way Phoenix looks at her hands after learning pf the truth behind the war strongky implies she killed Water soldiers. This makes her backstory among the grimmer ones in the Disbey Princess canon as, while she isn't the first Disney Princess to kill, Mulan at least did it in a good-guy/bad-guy war. Phoenix, on the other hand, probably killed at least a few soldiers who were good-but-indoctrinated by a lunatic.
 * A God Am I: While Basileus never actually says this, the fact that he thinks the world works according to what he says and thinks to the point of thinking he's justified in killing a race he dosen't like clearly points to this mindset.
 * 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.
 * Of note is how they avert the Plot-Mandared Breakup so common in these stories. They never stop loving each other after realizing their feelings, nor do they deny them.
 * Upon realizing Phoenix is unwell, Aqua dedicates herself to research on PTSD to help her. And when Phoenix suffers another flashback, Aqua actually puts what she learned to use, helping her to heal.
 * When Amalia finds out Aqua loves the princess of the Fire kingdom, she has no problems with it, nor any of their friends. In fact, Amalia is worried more for Phoenix and her relationship with Aqua.
 * And when Phoenix shows up looking for Aqua, Amalia's first instinct is to help her.
 * 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.
 * At the climax, as the battle between the Kimgs destroys everything, the girls make sure to save the other's people, both to further promote a peaceful co-existence and because it's the right thing to do.
 * The looks Aqua and Phoenix give each other as thry go to their honeymoon. Awwww.
 * Hidden Depths: Phoenix is an adept pianist.
 * 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: Disney is known for adding a bit of terror in their stories, and romantic ones aren't the exception. Nor is this one, which has the backdrop of war in its story and the showrunmer of one of their darkest shows yet at the helm.
 * 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.
 * Phoenix' literal nightmare. Or more accuretly, a flashback to her time in war. Since this is a Disney film, they can't show us soldiers being killed in a war. So what do the filmmakers do? They hide it. They use shadows or cut back to Phoenix reacting to the nightmare. Still, they leave the rest to the audiences imagination. The result? The closest thing Disney will get to making A Nightmare on Elmm Street. And an eerie showcase of what having PTSD is like.
 * We see the remains of a Fire village destroyed by the war. Between its crumbked buildings and emptiness of the area, it almost seems as if Aqua and Phoenix wondered into the post-apocalypse. Even worse is that we never know exactly what happened! War Is Hell, indeed.
 * The scene where Water soldiers take Aqua away is disturbing as shit. Not only are they silent, giving them the feel of a mindless horde, but we have to see poor Aqua being forcibly dragged as she pleads them to stop.
 * Aqua and Basileus' argument is arguably the film's creepiest moment. First, Basileys reveals with a straight face he's planning to commit genocide, as of it was nothing horrifying. And when Aqua reveals she loves Phoenix, Basileus takes on a creepier vibe as he begins to talk about his daughter being "corrupted" by "monsters" in a fanatical yet silent tone. In that moment it dawns you. She is Alone with a Psycho, and said psycho is her own father. The King. The scene is distressing enought that it makes you wonder what he will do to her. He then crosses the Moral Event Horizon by destroying his daughter's property (which is effectively parental abuse) and ordering his daughter to a dungeon.
 * Adding to the creepiness, a snipet of Night at Bald Mountain can be heard as Basileus calls his daughter "corrupted", implicitly comparing him to Chernabog.
 * When Aqya emphasizes the Fire people (outsode theor leader, whom she describes as "the evil exception") are friendly because of her experience with them, Basileus angrily shouts "NO! YOU'RE WRONG!! THEY ARE MONSTERS!!!! THEY ARE EXACTLY WHAT I SAY THEY ARE!!!!!", exposing in the process his true personality: A narcissistic megalomaniac with no morals who believes the world is the way he thinks he is. Just like the villain of a certain other Disney property helmed by Dana Terrace...
 * While mostly a Moment of Awesome, a few shots of Amabilia as she helpsAmalia and Phoenix free Aqua are quite scary, showing how ferocious a dog (or this film's equivalent of a dog) can be when provoked.
 * Shortly before the climax, Basileus reveals the real reason behind his wife's death: She opposed to his ideals of killing the Fire people... so he killed her implicitly by beating her. He even brags about it to Aqua.
 * At the end of the film, both Basileus and Caladi attempt to murder their daughters. Their behavior as a whole is also incredibly terrifying. Caladi remains as cold and calculated as ever in his attempts to kill Phoenix, almost making him look like The Terminator in that aspect. And Basileus? He's become a vicious animal. And unlike Phoenix, Aqua is a civilian with little experience in conflict attempting to defend herself against a maniac.
 * As scary as the scene is, arguably the worst part comes when Basileus says: "You ungrateful brat! I gave you home, food, everything you ever needed! And this is how you repay me!". He expects Aqua to "repay" him for basic descency. A mindset shared by many Abusive Parents.
 * Basileus as a whole is terrifying. He's essentially the amalgamation of Emperor Belos and Odalia Blight's personalities and Batman's voice, a dangerous manpulator who gives the vibe of being a bit of a Karen, yet you have this... off-putting feeling about him that tells you he's not a good man even before he reveals himself as a monster. And when he loses it, is as if Benedoct Cumbertbatch was voicing Khan instead of a character in a Disney movie. An abusive piece of shit willing to kill anybody for his vision of the world, Basileus fully establishes himself as one of the most monstrous Disney Villains in recent film memory.
 * Througth the film, we see the kings using media and misinformation to manipukate their kingdoms into vontinuing the war. Tge idea of the media being manipukated so that the gpverment can cpbtinue with inmoral actions is not only petrifying and a good Paranoia Furl, but also utterly realistic.
 * Oh Crap!: Phoenix' reaction to duscovering Aqua, her only partner in their investigation, has no idea of how to fight is to utter: "Oh, core. We are going to die".
 * 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.
 * Production Throwback: While different enough to avoid being consodered an Expy, Basileus does share some (superficial) similarities with Emperor Belos, the main villain of director Dana Terrace's show The Owl House: Both are the oppresive leaders of nations who seek to destroy an species out of Fantastic Racism whose reaction to learning a family member has fallen in love with a member of said species is to assume they were enchanted, and later choose to kill them. While Basileus is far less successful than Belos while trying to kill his daughter, he is eventually revealed to have killed his wife.
 * Realism-Induced Horror: Arguably one of the scariest part of the film is how realistic both war and its psychological effects are potrayed.
 * Retraux: The film's animation is intended to replicate the Xerox animation style seen in films such as One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Robin Hood.
 * 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 herself 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.
 * Some fans have criticized Disney for its perceived Lighter and Softer approach to their animated films in recent years. This film by contrast takes a much darker tone, more in line with that of the Renaissance period, thanks in part due to its realistoc examination of war and villains incredibly dark for what is supposed to be a family-friendly film, all while avoiding discarding the idealistic themes Disney is known for. Director Dana Terrace even said the film would "bring darkness back to the House of Mouse" and compared it to films of the 90s that balanced dark and light content, such as Tarzan.
 * Shout-Out:
 * 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.
 * Upon learning of the weapon her father created to destroy the fire people, Aqya says "I may not be the smartest water person, but I know what madness is", a paraphrasing if tye line "I may not be a smart person, but I know what love is" from Forrest Gump. She also calls him a "diseased maniac".
 * The shot of Phoenix walking througth the Kingdom of Fire is reminiscent of Bruce Wayne walking througth a crowd near the beginning of The Batman.
 * Sodalistas is seen watching an aquatic version of The Outer Limits.
 * Phoenux' unit used to call themselves The Dirty Dozen.
 * The scenes of Aqua after briefly leavimg her kingdom were inspired by Princess Mononoke.
 * The opening is an homage to the V-Day scene from Saving Private Ryan.
 * The reason behind the war is a darker version of Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book: Both sides hold a strong dislike of each other for being different, that slowly escalates into minor conflicts and later a full-on war. The climax even sees both Fire and Water hilding a weapon capsble of destroying the other, and wait for the other to use it. The depiction of the conflict's beginning is also a darker spin on how the Yookia/Zookia conflict started in Green Eggs and Ham.
 * Phoenix and Aqua's first kiss was inspired by the kiss scene from Moonlight.
 * The shot of Aqua discovering one of the machines created to destroy one of the sides of the war is an homage to the ending of Planet of the Apes.
 * The reveal of Basileus having killed Aqua's mother was intended to reflect 1985-A Biff revealing to Marty McFly that he killed 1985-A George McFly in Back to the Future Part II.
 * Speaking of Back to the Future, when Aqua grabs her first word, she struggles to lift it and says "This is heavy", leading an annoyed Phoenix to say "Great Scott", referencing Marty McFly and Doc Brown's catchphrases from the trilogy.
 * The blades on Basileus' gauntlets during the climax resemble those worn by the Shredder in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. His suit as a whole, meanwhile, behaves more like the Venom symbiote as depicted in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
 * A number of these are done to the Star Trek franchise:
 * At one point in the film, Aqua tells Phoenix a part of her longs to "Travel. Learn new things. Explore strange new worlds. Go where no one has gone before".
 * Phoenix' plane resembles the USS Cerritos from Star Trek: Lower Decks, througth its named "the Voyager". The shot of her plane escaping also resembles the warp speed effect from the franchise.
 * Additionally, Basileus' plan to start the war was codenamed "Project Dukat", a reference to Gal Dukat from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Terrace once said on her Twitter account that she personally considered him "one of the best written villains of all time". The final confrontantion between Aqua and Basileus also homages the final battle between Benjamin Sisko and Dukat in the Deep Space Nine series finale.
 * Also, one of the score's tracks is named "Live Long And Prosper With Love", named after the classic Vulkan salute.
 * According to the credits, all members of The Dirty Dozen are named after cast members from either Star Trek: The Original Series or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
 * One of Phoenix' gadgets resembles a Pokedex.
 * The scene where Aqua prevents Basileus from killing Phoenix was inspired by when Emily saves Victor in Corpse Bride.
 * Basileus and Caladi's deaths are inspired by how the Nazis' deaths in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 * During the wedding dance, Phoenix does the Batusi while Aqua does the Mario.
 * Shown Their Work: Phoenix shows a lot of accurate symptoms of war-related PTSD, such as apathy, sleeping problems, and irritability.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: As dark asthe film gets with its themes of war and prejudice, and its depiction of PTSD, the film ultimateky sits on the Idealistic end of the scale, being ultimately a romantic story about how The Powerof Love can make the world better.
 * Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Not everyone will buy propaganda, as much as a nation's leader tries. Not only do Aqua's circle of friends and others are show to lack any racism towards the Fire people, but neither do some of the Fire people towarss the Water people whenever Aqua is spotted.
 * Tearjerker:
 * Upon seeing the remains of a Fire village, Phoenix enters a panic attack, her time at war briefly flashing before her eyes.
 * After hearing Aqua being captured and learning that the war she fought and developed mental issues for was just two men letting out their prejudice on each other and millions of innocents, Phoenix can do nothing but unleashing her rage and cry.
 * Even worse when you remember her trauma comes from losing loved ones to the pains of what she just learned was a senselss war. ANd she just went througth that again.
 * She also briefly glimpses at her hands, imñlying that, on top of all of the above, she now also feels guilt over the fact that she possibly killed people who were in the end just indoctrined victims of a madman's delusions.
 * The mere fact that both of the film's leads are, in the end, people with severe mental health issues that want the love of approval of parental figures that ultimately aren't worth the trouble.
 * There Are No Therapists: Subverted. While Phienix has a strong PTSD, she is never seen attending therapy. However, she makes it clear is by choice, and is mentioned to be seeing one at the end of the film.
 * 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.
 * Througth the Eyes of Madness: Heavily downplayed, but when the film changes to Phoenix' perspective, it changes to a more aggresive art style. However, this is not to show how Phoenix sees the world, but instead how she perceives it as a product of her PTSD.
 * The World Is Just Awesome: This is Aqua's reaction after leaving her kingdom for the first time.
 * Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The film easily falls into one of the darkest Disney films in recent memory. And that can be mainly blamed on its villains: Basileus and Caladi. Aside from being each their kind of Abusive Parents, they are also corrupt kings that deliberatedly led their kingdoms into war simply because of their racism towards each other, and did they indoctrinated millions of people into following them and even to die in their senseless war, but are more than willing to personally murder their daughters if they oppose him even ideologically. As such, they are played straight whenever they appear.
 * 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.
 * Water is Blue: Played with. While the Water people themselves aren't blue, they are shown in blue colors while in their kingdom due to the blue lights in it. Outside it, they are transparent.
 * 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, one of the lead characters explicitly suffers from PTSD, the villains are particularly unsavory, we have eerily realistic depictions of parental abuse, and nightmerish imagery to spare. Safe to say, this isn't one for little kids.

Tropes for the series

 * Company Cross-References:
 * In episode 1, Aqua and Phoenix watch a photo of them in front of a potrait of The Owl House. Aqua also mentions having met twins named Dipper and Mabel.
 * In episode 3, Aqua hums the song "Try Everything" as she returns home.
 * In a season 2 episode, Aqua narrates her and Phoenix' baby a tale about a beggar who tricks an evil sorcerer into becoming a genie and getting trapped in a lamp, before marrying a princess.
 * Descended Creator: Co-showrunner ND Stevenson voices a shop owner named Nate.
 * The Danza: ND Stevenson, real name Nate Stevenson, voices a character named Nate.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Aqua and Phoenix's relationship is seen with disdain by more conservative groups. Keep in mind both are women and of different races.
 * Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
 * Even if the war ceased and people are willing to give other races a chance, that dosen't mean race relations magically healed overnight. Racism is still strong and discrimination is still common.
 * Even after the film's events, Phoenix still carries PTSD from her time in war. Because these things take months or even years to heal.
 * Tearjerker: Phoenix' reaction to camera flashlights is to experience a flashback. By the time she's done, she can barely speak.