The affects of parental figures on children: Travis Beast

Regal Academy, for being a kids’ show with fewer rules than kindergarteners’ games, has some very detailed characterization, naturally forming relationships, and behavior linked to the little things in their lives. I’ve done a LOT of musing on the subject, and whether accidentally or intentionally, the characters have deductible struggles and inner worlds that are strongly connected to what we know of them and their home lives. Next up: Travis

A few things to get out of the way for those who don’t know Regal Academy. The show is a “fairytales are real” setup and focuses on the grandchildren of classic fairytale heroes in a school, Regal Academy, located in The Fairytale Land. The school breaks the classes up into teams and teams collect grades more on group effort and success rather than individual. Our main team consists of Rose Cinderella, Travis Beast, Astoria Rapunzel, Hawk Snow White, Joy Le Frog, and after season 2, LingLing Iron Fan. Their grandparents, with the exception of Princess Iron Fan, are teachers at Regal Academy.

Travis’ case is one of the healthier ones, but still not pretty good. He is the grandson of Beauty and the Beast. Shockingly, he doesn’t have absent parents. But he does have a grandfather with the characteristic constant pressure attitude one comes to expect from any Regal Academy teacher. His grandmother on the other hand is just plain awful. And while not bad parents, Mr. and Mrs. Beast’s actions did affect him.

Professor Beauty is perhaps the easiest to get out of the way. She’s insanely judgmental. Which at this point doesn’t need pointing out. She blatantly insults Travis’ art, being a hypocrite in the meantime as it is she who said that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” so how can Travis’ art be bad? She doesn’t seem to care at all about Travis’ effort, the affect her blatantly rude criticism has on him, or just Travis in general. The only interaction she has with him is about rudely insulting his art. Implying that Travis and Professor Beauty don’t interact. She doesn’t seem to care about Travis at all and Travis is justified in not wanting to interact with her.

Coach Beast is a different scenario. He is involved with his grandson. In the classic “You must become this!” way as most grandparents. Beast wants Travis to become a Beast like him, living up to the family name. From episode 2 it becomes obvious that Coach Beast views whatever Travis is doing by whether it lives up to his standards for a Beast. And it usually doesn’t. Travis doesn’t have what it takes to be a Beast. Nor does he want to be. Which he tells his grandfather on multiple occasions. Beast, however, never hears it. Every time Travis messes up or doesn’t do enough by Coach Beast’s standards, he berates him.

Coach, however, has a strike that none of the grandparents mentioned so far have. His expectations for Travis aren’t stronger than his love for him. Rapunzel needed a deal to stop pestering Astoria and it’s clear that she never dropped her expectations, merely shut up about them. As for Snow White, she needed a kidnapping, essentially her original loss of Fala triggered, to show any sort of care for Hawk. In Coach, the judgmental grandfather is still stronger than the caring side, but there are clear moments where the expectations take a back seat. He agrees to Rose’s deal about hanging Travis’ art in Beast castle if she wins the Dragon Olympics and begrudgingly acknowledges Travis’ talent. He lets Travis enjoy second place in the Dragon Race. He has genuine faith in Travis’ capabilities. In The Masquarade Ball, when everyone gets knocked out of the fight and Travis remains in it alone, Rose informs Coach of this fact and he says “Don’t count my grandson out just yet! He can do it.” Showing that he has a clear understanding of Travis’ abilities. And when the fight takes a turn for the worse, Coach is loudly upset, showing that he cares about Travis’ safety.

HOWEVER, he never shows any of this to Travis. He is quietly proud of him from the sidelines. When it comes to interacting with his grandson, he’s all judgment. Because Travis never hears his grandfather’s faith in him or love for him, he believes that his case is just like his friends. It causes him to be insecure. All he ever hears is that he’s constantly failing and that who he is isn’t good enough. Imagine how Travis could grow if Coach Beast actually expressed his faith in Travis to him! But since he doesn’t, Travis remains convinced that he’s a failure.

It’s also worth noting that despite his insecurity, he does also have confidence. He knows who he is and confident in it. He’s capable of telling his grandfather he doesn’t want to be a Beast, something not all his friends are able to do. His insecurity stems from the fact that Beast, while never denying who Travis is, doesn’t accept it. He grew to understand that while he is okay with himself, others aren’t. Until, you guessed it, Rose. But about that later. Now we talk parents.

Travis’ parents aren’t seen much. From what we do see, they’re chill and laid back. Travis is able to be the artist when at home. There’s little way he’d be the artist he is if his parents didn’t allow him. They are also cool with Rose and we can only imagine that they adore LingLing. However, they did leave the Fairytale Land. Travis is a second-generation immigrant. It’s clear he grew up on Earth while also being heavily involved with the Fairytale Land from early childhood. Now I don’t know anything about second-generation immigrants or even biracial kids, but one can imagine that Travis is likely experiencing a sort of pull in two directions. He was raised on Earth but he also belongs in the Fairytale Land. Or alternatively, he might be certain that he belongs in the Fairytale Land, unlike his parents. Whatever the case, he is being pulled in two directions.

It’s also important to point out that his parents, while accepting of Travis’ desires, don’t seem interested in standing up for him in front of Beast. Granted, they don’t go back to the Fairytale Land at all, save two episodes. But they are either unaware of Beast and for that matter, Professor Beauty’s actions, or don’t take action against it. Now the latter is actively ignorant, which based on what we did see, doesn’t seem entirely implausible. The scenario where they’re unaware is similarly bad. If children don’t talk to their parents about certain things, it’s because they learned in their childhood that the parent isn’t a safe space and can’t be told about that thing. If Mr. and Mrs. Beast are unaware of how his grandparents are treating Travis, it’s because Travis believes, he shouldn’t be telling them. Which in their case I believe could be because he believes they wouldn’t do anything about it or maybe give him the staggeringly unhelpful advice of “Learn to stand up for yourself!”. And Travis certainly doesn’t look like the type of person, especially combined with his parents’ vibes, who would be ashamed to tell them.

As mentioned, Travis’ troubles are helped once again by Rose. Rose is the ultimate cheerleader for her friends and believes they should all be allowed to be themselves. Thus Rose actively advocates for Travis. She also admires his art, which at this point is a huge rarity, and encourages him when it comes to the things he feels he won’t succeed in. Her help is allowing Travis’ insecure bits to start healing. With the idea that he is just destined to fail eradicated from his head, he could grow up to be an absolute epic artist and person.