A lot of people freaked out about Mal and Ben getting engaged at a young age, the barrier being taken down, Audrey not getting punished for her actions, and Hades and Mal getting a little too intimate at times for a father-daughter relationship. And when I mean "freaked out," I don't mean it in a good way.
The first thing I want to put my two cents in about is Ben and Mal's engagement and Mal's age.
I watched a video of one gal's review of Descendants 3 on YouTube and I broke one of the rules of the Internet: don't read the comments. Generally, I avoid the comments section on websites and apps like the plague, the one exception being the comments section in books here on Belle. YouTube videos get some of the worst comments in the comments section. There was this one user who left the following comment twice: "Mal tells Hades, "sixteen years you weren't there for me," implying she is sixteen. Too young to get married." I checked Mal's page on the Descendants wiki website and it specifically says Mal is 19 in Descendants 3. So that user was wrong about Mal's age. Also, royalty used to get married when they were in the 15-19 age range for a very long time. No, it is not normal for people to get married at 18 in our society. Yes, impressionable people will probably get the idea that it's completely normal to get engaged at 18 from the entertainment industry, but it is the responsibility of parents, legal guardians, and even possibly educators in some circumstances, to have that discussion with their kids and students. Even Bella from Twilight has the decency and common sense to point out to Edward that she is not the type of girl who would eagerly get married at 18 and that the girl is usually pregnant if a couple gets married at 18. However, you can't apply our society's logic to everything that a Disney movie is depicting. It just won't work.
Next, my response to the barrier coming down.
Way too many people, in my opinion, looked at this part of the movie too logically. Mal's speech was about how people have the capacity to do both good and evil. Only two villains tried to escape (and one succeeded): Maleficent and Hades. The rest of the villains didn't really care. Yes, there are really bad people on the Isle. I'm not going to deny that because I don't want to and it would be stupid to deny it. They were on that island for 20 years, though, so I think they got their punishment. Besides, I don't think Hades is going to doing anything bad anymore and Maleficent is a lizard.
Honestly, did anyone see Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay run across the bridge to the Isle in the mid-credits scene? That tells me that the villains aren't really thinking about coming into Auradon and wreaking havoc upon its citizens. Besides, if anyone does do something bad, I like to think that Ben and Mal would create a magical prison in Auradon and send anyone who commits a crime to said magical prison.
Next, my response to Audrey not being punished. A lot of people think she should've gotten a punishment or a consequence for what she did. She kind of did get one when she almost died, peeps.
Lastly, my response to Mal and Hades being a little too intimate for a father-daughter relationship. This is the only criticism I agree with other people on. Mal and Hades did seem a little too close at times. The physical intimacy between them at times was more appropriate for a romantic relationship.
Here's what truly bothered me: Audrey stroking Chad's hair and treating him like a dog. Also, the way she touched Ben and said, "I'll wake everybody up right now, under one itty bitty condition...Bennyboo," bothered me, too.
The way she said itty bitty and the fact that she thought her condition was itty bitty drove me nuts. Both the stroking Chad's hair/treating him like a dog and the whole "itty bitty condition" bit made me feel like I wanted to deck her squarely in the face. I'm sorry, Audrey, but your request to be made Ben's Queen and rule side-by-side with him is not itty-bitty. It's a big request because he only loves Mal and wants Mal to be his Queen.
I'm OK, but I just needed to get part about being angry at Audrey and feeling like I wanted to deck her off my chest. I really wouldn't ever deck anyone. It's a good thing she's a fictional character, though.
