it’s folklore thursday, the theme is the fae, and i’m definitely not working on any more projects tonight, so it’s TIME
FOR
LABYRINTH

something something must not look at goblin men must not buy their fruits something something who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots

MMMMMMM LOVE ME SOME BLUE AND ORANGE MORALITY

THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS THO
god this scene blew my mind when i first saw it

THE SONG

jareth is utter manipulative /scum/ sure but also
...... him hot?

(i mean who DOESN’T want an unthinkably powerful otherworldly being to form a mild obsession with you and twist the laws of space and time to... either trick you under his power... or put himself under your power? unclear exactly what jareth’s weird power play fantasies are tbh)

an excellent genre of movie: spoiled brat tossed into quest to save family gets called on shitty personality traits, grows as a person

this is some chihiro spirited away shit right here

GOBLIN FRUIT ALERT

delightful design choice to have the bog of eternal stench look like a million farting buttholes

to this day whenever i encounter a particularly vile odor i instinctively go “[ludo voice] THE S M E L L”

sir didymus and ludo swearing a chivalric oath of brotherhood is /everything/

protip: DON’T DO THIS SHIT

Top 10 Anime Betrayals

idk why this feels so fuckin raw but here we are

listen if i were ever to get married this is EXACTLY the dress and styling i would want, massive 80s hair and everything

the labyrinth ballroom scene changed me as a person

okay let’s be real here
the rest of the movie also fully supports it
but the ballroom scene was really the starting point of my “labyrinth is the most accurate depiction of the fae in modern media” thesis

the whole thing is so floaty and confusing and faaaaintly eerie
like a dream where you know something is just slightly off
but also you find it indescribably compelling (the way she keeps SEARCHING oh my GOD)

it’s so pretty and dazzling but in the kind of way that would ONLY work in a dream or some other altered state of reality
because if you were fully awake, every cell in your brain would be screaming at you to flee on foot holy shit
this? this is a glamour right here

everything about this is a pretty fantasy made to look like an incredible gift and enticement
but it’s all smoke and mirrors (or in this case, a soap bubble)
not only is it FAKE but it’s also a TRICK to distract her so the fae don’t have to hold up their end of the bargain

uhhhhhh yeah sarah we’re taking a creepy drugged fae fruit hallucination and turning it into the romantic fairy tale dance of your dreams so that we can trap you in the fairy world forever and keep you from claiming your rightful goal
(and oh boy is it working... the AESTHETIC)

is that the only reason? is it also for shits and giggles? does jareth actually want her there? is anything anyone is saying true? unclear
which is the point
fae wants and motivations are confusing at best and often utterly incomprehensible
usually safe to assume dangerous tho

and of course
the only way out of the charming fae illusion is to see through it and to break it

ANYWAY ENOUGH RAMBLING ABOUT ONE TINY MUSICAL SEQUENCE (even though it haunts my every waking thought and has STILL managed to capture all of my aesthetic senses)

. @softcannoli: i’m pretty sure if you’re making a movie about the fae and you can understand WHY they’re doing what they’re doing, you fucked up

oh you thought the bubble was the end of it? from the /goblin king/? please he’s harder to beat than that

something something bogged down by material goods

something something family and love a greater treasure than physical possessions

oh ho ho breaking a SECOND “bubble”
jareth you are sneaky but sarah is onto you

the fact that gates mcfadden choreographed the fight sequences is part of the reason this is perhaps the perfect movie

i say “fight” as if you couldn’t easily be playing yakety sax over the entire goblin city sequence

THAT FAIRY TALE LOGIC

and the /greatest/ thing
is that it’s true
in the fairy world words and bargains and “the rules” are /important/ and sarah /gets it/

and the others get it too because they belong in this world and UGH i have so many FEELINGS

sarah may have started out as a whiny spoiled brat but she also followed all the standard fairy tale rules and collected the allegiances of an entire group of people she met and helped

and all the while learned from what she was experiencing and genuinely grew as a person ;w;

AH YES WE ALL LOVE THE ESCHER ROOM

kinda seems like you do tho
my pal

what is your DEAL buddy

is it admiration? is it longing? is it pride? is it just plain /spite/???
is there any actual affection or even interest there or is all this just something to fill the time???

that’s a pretty /fucked up/ way to show affection my guy
though actually that seems really on brand for an eldritch fae being now that i think about it

you could describe them in a lot of ways, but “emotionally healthy” or “even remotely safe” are NOT among them

genunely cannot tell what emotion you’re trying to convey here champ

ah i see you ‘re pulling out ALL the stops here with a vaseline shot and a brand new outfit

you’ve got him on the ropes sarah he’s getting desperate

GET ‘IM

the CONTEMPT on her face oh my GOD

this is why you’re not going to win jareth
the glamour has been broken once and she’s not gonna fall for your soap bubbles again

literally EVERYTHING he’s done has been smoke and mirrors
he responded to her call in the first place and everything since then has been intimidation and trickery to hide the fact that she could have ended him the entire time if she had only realized how

he played almost perfectly into what she wanted out of a fairytale villain and as long as she went along with his games he could keep the upper hand

rules and bargains and words are EVERYTHING
he could obscure the original bargain by sidetracking her into different games where the rules favored him and she stood to forfeit what they had agreed on
but it was always contingent on her actually going along with the new games

... are- ..... are you /scared/ now?

he legitimately sounds like he’s looking for assurance that he did the shit good and for the life of me i DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS
WHAT IS HIS /DEAL/

say your right words

he is feeling THREATENED he is DESPERATE his sneaky tricks and illusions are FAILING because she IS NOT PLAYING HIS GAMES ANYMORE

that didn’t work last time what makes you think it’ll work now

HER GAME NOW, BITCH

1. that makes no sense. so, you know, exactly as expected from the fae.
2. that seems like a pretty bad deal, actually, if the entire basis for her power is not going along with his games.
3. you are into some WEIRD-ASS power play shit, my guy. (not that we’re judging)

that’s a lie, we are ABSOLUTELY judging. she’s /fourteen/, buddy.
i know that skeevy boundary-crossing nonsense is the fae’s whole deal but /come on/. pick on someone your own size. (i volunteer as tribute don’t @ me etc etc.)

lol get rekt

you know what that is? growth

OKAY SO MORE OF MY FEELINGS ABOUT LABYRINTH AS THE STORY OF SOMEONE TAKEN INTO THE FAIRY WORLD

the thing about that shit is
you don’t come out of it unchanged

you’ve gone into the fairy realm, you’ve eaten their food, you’ve danced to their music
you are fae-touched, for better or for worse, for the rest of your life

in a lot of old folklore going to the fairy world could be very bad & coming back could have serious consequences

tam lin was in danger of being tithed to hell until his true love managed to rescue him from the fairy queen
thomas the rhymer came back with the gift of prophecy

you also get the stories of people who come back to the mortal realm, break some rule they’ve been given, and instantly age 100 years and die
which is obviously not great

and you get bits of it in other fantasy stories too
like the whole thing with the end of lotr is that frodo could not go to the places he’d been and go through the things he’d gone through and then expect to fit back into the life he had before

even when it’s a positive change, like in spirited away (which is probably much closer to labyrinth in terms of impact on the protagonist), chihiro is never going to be the person she was before she crossed into the spirit world and she’s never going to see the world the same

the thing i get emotional about in both spirited away and labyrinth is that
in spirited away it’s kind of implied that haku at least will try to track her down on the other side once he solves his shit
but i really love how fandom seems adamant that she also Sees Stuff now

just like chihiro, sarah goes from being petty and bratty to being able to put others’ wellbeing and happiness above her own

and in both cases, yes, they come back changed forever
but they also come back with /friends/

it’s /so cool/ because sarah’s definitely been changed and will definitely be this universe’s equivalant of “fae-touched” for the rest of her life

but in these modern fairytales this /doesn’t/ always have to be a punishment or a barbed gift

continued contact with magic and wonder, even into adulthood, doesn’t need to be something that hurts you

as long as, like sarah and chihiro, what you take out of it is an increased sense of kindness, a desire to help, and the willingness to befriend what you don’t understand

idk i just
i get emotional about this shit

(also it’s VERY fae)

"malay" you say "wasn't this thread going to be about how labyrinth is the closest modern movies ever come to the old sinister themes in fae folklore?"
yes
sometimes a story is more than one thing okay let me just sit here in my feelings