Fate Be Changed: A Twisted Tale Review

Hello everyone! Apologies that this book review is coming almost 3 months into the year when I said I was going to be reviewing these books in 2026. I’ve had some personal stuff happen, got really sick in the middle and back end of February, and now here we are in the middle of March. Sorry about that! I’m still planning on reviewing these books, but I can’t promise a consistent release schedule as of now, especially since my time is going to be pretty packed in the latter half of the year due to being accepted into the Disney College Program (yay!). I do intend to read and review the newest Twisted Tale based on Pixar’s Up when that comes out, and I’m currently in the process of reading “Almost There” (the Princess and the Frog retelling) whenever I have the time. Life’s just busy, busy, busy! Anyway, enough with the updates. Enjoy the review and I’ll update you all when things get settled down for me to write again (as I really do love reading and reviewing these for you guys) 😊 Cheers! – GP

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“What if the witch gave Merida a different spell?”

Welcome back to my review of the Twisted Tales series! This book was a blast to get through, and I can’t wait to discuss it. If you aren't familiar with the books, each story contains a “what if” question that can sometimes drastically alter the plot and events of the original movie they're taken from. Today, I’ll be discussing and reviewing the 18^th book in the series, “Fate Be Changed” by Farrah Rochon based off the 2012 film, Brave. Even though the Twisted Tales series has chronologically covered other Pixar films before (“Suddenly Super” for The Incredibles as a mainline novel and two short stories in the “Twisted Tale Anthology” focused on Ratatouille and Brave), I feel like it’ll be interesting to see how Disney will continue to adapt and write stories from Pixar. This is considering that each studio has sometimes drastically different styles and aversions to risk when it comes to subject matter and presentation. I’ll put a pin in this observation for now but keep this difference of studio intention in mind. It’ll be very important for later when it comes to my critique and improvements. In the meantime, this review will follow my usual format; my overall thoughts and feelings throughout the first half of this review, a brief discussion of tone, writing style, and pacing, the “twist” itself and my critique of the book, as well as what I thought could be improved. With all that covered and out of the way, let’s begin with my overall thoughts.

Overall Thoughts

            I thought that overall, the book did a really good job of staying cohesive throughout the way that it retold the story of the film. There were obviously still some scenes that were added to the beginning of the book to give more emotional weight to the new story, most notably King Fergus and Queen Elinor being absolutely smitten with each other, that I could still imagine being in the actual version of the film. As with most of the Twisted Tale books though, there are some parts that almost go beat-by-beat from the original and I felt that it gave the beginning strong emotional legs to stand on. By the time that Merida, the main protagonist and princess in both the movie and the book, interacts with magic, the core conflict is already firmly established and doesn’t waste time getting to the interesting part, time travel. I'll focus more on the time travel element when I talk about the twist, but I'll end this section by saying that I thought the character voices, theme and tone were strong and stayed in line with the original movie. That isn't necessarily the best praise that I can give it, considering that the book is a drastic deviation from the original movie, but overall, I thought it was still a solid retelling of Brave. Don't worry, I do really enjoy this book and the way that it was written. There's just a lot of baggage that needs to be addressed from the original movie that I will get to later in this review. I'll still keep addressing its praises when it's necessary as there is a lot to commend, but keep the original film in mind when I get to my critiques and improvements.

Tone, Style and Pacing

            In terms of tone, I felt that Rochon took a very interesting take on how the setting of medieval Scotland was represented. There were moments in the book where Merida would speak Scottish or even reference something historical that happened during the actual time period. One of the examples that she brings up is that her family clan of DunBroch fought with Vikings during their time as one of the presiding clans. I thought that it really blended in nicely with the style of historical realism that constantly exuded throughout the book in a lot of small, really neat ways. In addition to that, this book focuses on a lot more darker elements that the Twisted Tales seem to be known for. In my reading and understanding of the books that I've read so far, there doesn't seem to be an extremely dark element in every book of the series. However, there can be elements that are more mature than the original movie alludes to or even focuses on. For this story, the added complexity of the political landscape of each of the warring clans of DunBroch and MacCameron are shown to be a driving force throughout the novel as a secondary conflict to Elinor and Merida’s relationship as a mother and daughter.

Despite the original film focusing more on Merida’s perspective, the book gives a dual perspective to both Merida and a young Elinor throughout. I didn't honestly think that the book would go into giving each of them their own perspective, but pacing wise, it never felt in a way that was jarring or confusing. Whenever the point of view switched to the other person, you could still understand how the other person was thinking because most of the time the perspective would be elaborated on in the next chapter. This writing choice also allowed for there to still be cute, fun character dynamics when it came to the main plot of Merida trying to make her parents fall in love in the past. The influences of both Fergus and Elinor are very evident within Merida’s character, and it’s clear that Rochon knew how to convey these traits by just having them all interact with each other. The chemistry comes across as very natural, and I thought that heavily contributed to the pacing because it could always fall back on its characters and own voice to propel the plot forward. This naturally made the twist more compelling, which initially drove my interest to check out the book in the first place.

The “Twist” (SPOILERS)

            Right off the bat, not much has changed from the original half of the movie. If you know the plot of Brave, which if you don’t, thank you for reading this far. Go check out the original movie if it does at all sound interesting to you. Be warned, however, the book and the movie have a completely different plot from each other so if you are going to check out the movie, just know that they are not the same story. I’m going to be talking about the original twist from the movie in order to fully dissect and emphasize the difference of both versions, so like how I did in the last review, I’ll give you my rating early to avoid spoilers. All in all, I give the book an 8/10. If you’re still going to read on, final warning for spoilers just for good measure.

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For a retelling that decides to ultimately ditch the second half of its original source material, I believe it more than makes up for it by still keeping the thematic message of independence versus societal expectations from the first half of the film. The twist of the story just adding time travel into the narrative allows for a different use of perspective while making sure that the themes from the original don’t get lost. When I first heard about the book and its premise, I was very excited. Brave didn't necessarily focus on the fantastical aspects of the story that it showed in the initial marketing of the film. Instead, we got two plots flimsily stitched together; one about a teenage princess dealing with the struggles of gender and societal pressures of royalty while combating with her mother, who absentmindedly forces those pressures on her as the queen… and one where that same queen turns into a bear.

            In hindsight, I felt pretty embarrassed that the movie didn't really focus on the more interesting plot. Pixar had the makings of a potentially incredibly moving film and instead, they squandered it for a plot that already had been done before. The magic was only relegated to points when it was necessary to move this story forward, but not necessarily in a way that contributed to the overall message. There's a really good video from a Youtuber by the name of “Eliquorice” that I would highly suggest if you would like a deeper analysis of the film, including a look behind the scenes about how Brave was pitched and framed as this Frankenstein of a movie. I'm going to go into a few of his points, as I feel like they could be related back to “Fate Be Changed” as an overall much better retelling of the original plot.

            The first third of the movie focuses on the key conflict between Merida, her mother Elinor and society, who’s represented by the three clans of Macintosh, MacGuffin and Dingwall. The movie clearly establishes these three figures as sort of the focal points of the film, but as we approach the second act, everything changes. The beginnings of a political plot that focuses on interpersonal relationships with clear drama and stakes completely gets switched to what Eli calls the “Plot Bear-Bear Plot”. For the rest of the movie, we watch as Merida has to contend with her mother as a bear as they find a way to remove her mother’s curse and unite the clans. As Eli points out, this film is all over the place. He breaks down the film as follows:

Intro & Marriage Plot: 30 minutes

Bear Plot: 35 minutes

Conclusion: 15 minutes

            In this example, you can clearly see that the intro and marriage plot (or the drama between Merida and Elinor that is crafted in the beginning) is overwhelmed by the bear plot and somehow, both must conclude by the end. There’s no time for either one to fully breathe due to the runtime, and I think it sullies both of their impacts as effective stories on their own. On the other hand, in “Fate Be Changed”, the time travel aspect is just something that adds to the already previously established magic in the movie. Sure, it may be something that totally derails from the original movie, but I think that in the end that just makes it a better story that remains consistent and grounded in its own world and characters. The politics from the original are reshaped in a way that audiences can understand and interpersonal conflicts between mother, daughter and society are apparent. The tension and conflict are always front in center if not hovering in the background, and the dual perspective of Merida and Elinor invites the audience to empathize and get invested with how the story ebbs and flows with each of them. Tension invites conflict, which invites drama, which invites investment, and that to me marks a good story, if not a great one.

Critique and Improvements

            One of the key points that Eli made that I found surprising is wondering why Eleanor had to morph into a version of her daughter by the end of the film. He makes the point that it robs Elinor of her own agency and instead of seeing her progress into a different more empathetic version of herself, it just feels superficial by having her be “hip and nice”. I agree, but I feel like the book does a way better job at establishing the familial thread of having to deal with society's pressure at the beginning of the book from the original plot. Merida has to balance the ways of society’s conformity along with still empathizing with her mother's own struggles of personal independence throughout the book (while still trying to make Elinor and Fergus fall in love). This still allows both characters to follow separate arcs, while the audience can still see how their connected through their mother/daughter relationship. If anything, it also makes it even more real when the audience is shown the relationship between Elinor and her mother and how the use of control and power that the queens possess blinds them to their own daughter’s dreams and ambitions. It’s a familial cycle that’s doomed to repeat itself. Additionally, Eli makes another good point that earlier versions of the movie had Elinor act similarly to Merida, but they removed it from the final film. For the original movie, this obviously doesn’t work for Elinor’s character, but I feel like they do a good job of establishing in the book that Merida’s bow skills and more masculine leaning passions like fighting come from her father. It also especially does a good job starkly putting the two sides of her parents at odds by literally having Elinor not possess any survival skills when she's younger and having to strictly rely on Merida. This dynamic makes their bond feel more organic and the audience can clearly see that it allows for Elinor to have a natural evolution of initially using Merida as a means to an end to eventually caring about her at the end of the story. I guess I can just say that I’m glad that every main character that was used from the original conflict of the movie was granted the opportunity to be fully fleshed out and used to the fullest potential that Rochon was allowed to adapt. Yes, even the bear plot…

            While writing this, I considered giving this element its own little mini heading. However, there’s so little to talk about that I’ll just get to the point with it: the bear element is just used as it is in the original. I didn’t find anything extremely wrong or offensive about it. The descriptions did feel a little off at times, with Merida now being the one that transforms into a bear (which felt more like a troll than a bear at some points). Other than that, it was just eh. There’s not much more than that, and that’s where my main improvement/critique would come from. PICK. A. PLOTLINE! 

I feel that both stories could fit on their own (even though the “human-transforming-into-animal” plot has been done to death even by Disney), but each do have their merits. The story of viewing life from another perspective is a powerful one, even when its used with something as silly as cartoony animals or as serious as a political drama. Ultimately, the runtime and lack of direction left the original film in an awkward place, which forced the book to practically be made from the ground up into something that honestly the original should be remembered for.

Final Thoughts

Now, after all that, do I like this book? Honestly, yes but with a big catch: it took something that was broken and made it unique with the elements that it already established. The magic in Brave is just very cool from a conceptual standpoint, and I think not running with that is subjectively a major shame. You could do a lot with it, especially with the vast influence of Celtic myth and legend implied in the original. In the end, Mark Andrews, the director of the film, decided to turn away from the gender focused story of the first half and focus on the magic and elements like the film’s bear “antagonist” Mor’du after the original director Brenda Chapman was let go because of “creative differences”. Pixar can take risks, especially in something as adult as familial dynamics wrapped up in complex political drama. It isn’t a matter of trying to relate only to kids. I could imagine the more “adult” story relating to both kids and adults, especially mothers and daughters. Brave is just a case of lost identity. In trying to play it safe with the bear plot, it sabotaged itself from telling a cohesive story that the book was able to fully realize as something that could’ve been great. In my opinion, this greatly makes the book suffer but only because of the work Rochon had to put in to salvage plot ideas from the original. Overall, it is a good story with some memorable moments and characters, but it’s hard to escape the film’s shadow looming over this book as something that could’ve been this epic and grand to begin with.

8/10