The original Beauty and the Beast had an epilogue where it turns out Belle is half-fairy and destined to break the Beast's curse, and the Beast was meant to be nice, just ugly, because he was a decent prince who refused the advances of the evil fairy that cursed him. The story itself was meant to be an instructive tale for young upper-class girls in finishing school, encouraging them to look past the external ugliness of a potential husband, especially if the guy in question is good and kind.

Very different from, say, the Disney version of the Beast who's beastly in both senses of the term!

I only remember certain stories from articles and folklore anthologies read very long ago, but I do know that for instance the original Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Rapunzel were somewhat, uh... more adult than the children's tales found in most fairytale anthologies nowadays. For example, Cinderella's stepsisters' fate in the version I'm familiar with is straight up gory, man. I love finding out more about the stories I grew up with so I adore the "original" Cinderella, but then again, my disturbing meter is rather differently calibrated than most folks'.

Of course, this being folklore, there are several versions floating around. But if you're interested you could go to a certain fairytale's Wikipedia page or even look up the brothers Grimm, and see what sources are cited in the relevant entries. For example, look up Persinette if you're interested in the early and more mature version of Rapunzel that I myself have read as a teen. (Mind you, it was a translation and some aspects were still toned down, but the prince's fate most assuredly wasn't.)

I love modernized fairytales, but that, uh... is an interesting take for sure. I wonder if in the planning stage no one took a step back and went "Wait a minute..." :D

My inspiration for my project came from various places, but one that really stuck with me was a quote I saw from Angela Carter where she talks about how a lot of fairytales of old were rooted in everyday experiences of the poor and the working class that were sometimes horrible (see Hansel and Gretel, although that story hits several Blacklist items so I won't go deeper into what she said). And then she goes into how those tales became sanitized and divorced from their roots once they started to spread and were adapted more widely. I already knew some of that, but it still was pretty eye-opening to see it put so concisely. I can count on one hand the genuinely good fairytale retellings I've read or seen, but I feel she's one of the authors who can do it right (although hers are borderline Gothic horror with some pretty twisted imagery, so check them out at your own discretion). And there's also the fact that the only queer fairytales I've managed to read were fairly awful, but that's a long and very salty story.

Also fun fact, I blame Sleeping Beauty for my obsession with Gothic stories. :P When I was a kid, I had an audiobook cassette of the tale with a cover where Sleeping Beauty was a dark-haired and very pale, scared-looking girl in a blue gown, being menaced by the evil fairy looming over her. Formative experience for itty-bitty Oculus, seeing imagery like that.