How often in fairy tales does the brave knight rescue the princess and they live happily ever after? Well, Daniel Errico’s added a bit of a twist to that old story with The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived, which just premiered on Hulu.
“LGBT relationships are typically avoided in children’s media or labeled age-inappropriate, putting kids at a disadvantage towards understanding later on in life,” Errico told The Huffington Post about putting the fairy back in fairy tale. “It’s important for kids’ movies and TV to introduce the world in a nurturing and positive way, which means creating multi-dimensional LGBT main characters.”
The story follows Cedric, an aspiring knight who grows up to be big and strong and brave. But when he rescues both a prince and a princess, he summons all his courage to admit his true feelings:
Princess, you are kind and I am glad that we are friends
But now I must be brave and say that isn’t how it ends
There’s someone else I love and I believe we’re meant to be
I’d like to wed the prince if he does feel the same for me.
Eight-year-old me started openly weeping when I heard that. Stories like this didn’t exist when I was a kid but I’m glad they exist now. Though my heart goes out to the princess, who I imagine got shwasties on mead during her brother’s nuptials and started screaming about how she’ll die alone before face-planting in the wedding cake. But that was — understandably— left out of the story.
“I would like for kids to see courage and kindness in Cedric,” Errico continued. “This is a story about reaching your potential and being true to yourself. Regardless of whether kids grow up to relate to Cedric or not, I hope that they find a message of acceptance for themselves and others.”
And what a lovely message it is. Check out The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived here.
Les Fabian Brathwaite — someday my knight will come?
John Quin
Why bother posting this worldwide when you can only view it in the U.S.A?
Cináed O'
This same story was placed on Vimeo with a slightly different variation of illustrations. https://vimeo.com/user21156251/bravestknight
jwtraveler
Good story for all the gay daddies to read to their kids. On the other hand, why do the ‘fairy” tales have to be about princes and knights? Why not stories about ordinary people who do brave and heroic things? Throw the elitism out with the hetero-stereotypes.
RobvR
@John Quin: I’ve already listened to this fairytale thanks to a link on a Dutch website last week. So it’s not just for Americans 😉
Charlie in Charge
Super cute
dustashed
I saw this concept more than a year ago. The same video cinaed posted. cant watch the new one since its only US