eescorpius
Catastrophic Captain
Posts: 58
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Post by eescorpius on Apr 27, 2021 16:21:45 GMT -5
After all these years, it's still upsetting to see the end of The Reptile Room.
I have just gotten around to watch the TV adaptation, because...well...when it first came out, I stopped at The Reptile Room episodes because I didn't want to see Uncle Monty die again. Finally braved myself to watch it. It's still as devastating as ever.
I mean obviously the entire book series is suppose to be miserable and unfortunate, but it was told in a dark, humorous tone that would not cause nightmares for kids. Throughout all 13 books, even though all the unfortunate events were upsetting, none of them made my heart ache like this for the Baudelaires. And because this heart breaking incident happened so early in the series, all the other subsequent horrible events didn't even seem that bad.
I think I first read The Reptile Room when I was in Grade 6. It's unbelievable after 20 years, the death of Monty is still just upsetting to see.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Apr 28, 2021 6:10:23 GMT -5
Yes, I have to agree.
The death of the Baudelaires' parents was painful for them, and the reader only feels sad for them, but we did not have the opportunity to seriously care for their (anonymous, back then) parents. However, we relate to Uncle Monty. We need to break the suspicion that we had of him at first. I think this was asoue's first break in expectations ... If we imagined that all Baudelaire tutors would be bad and dangerous like Count Olaf, we soon realized that this is not the case. After that, we are sure that Uncle Monty will die before it even happens.
So we experience each page with a sense of pity, because we know that he will die, but he himself does not know it, nor do the Baudelaires. It's like I heard: asoue is about depression while ATWQ is about anxiety.
Evil will come, and there is no way to stop it. And that feeling of helplessness is new to children. Children are subjected to happy endings. But asoue warns that the ending will be sad and don't lie about it. Unconsciously, the child may begin to realize that death is inevitable in this world.
I think the impact is less on other deaths, because Aunt Josephine is not as pleasant as Uncle Monty. In addition, Aunt Josephine died after throwing away an opportunity to survive. And she was to blame for her own death after disregarding a safety standard that she knew very well. Then we have the accidental death of a villain. This death impacted me because it was very painful, and imagining that children literally saw a woman being torn apart gives me the creeps. But I wasn't exactly in mourning because of her death ... Let's say I was a little shocked at the time.
Then we had the death of some villains, and finally the deaths of Dewey and Kit. These deaths were really sad. But kit chose to die to save his daughter. While Dewey chose to take a chance to protect an important secret. In both cases, the deaths of these good characters was by a greater cause. Besides, we did not have time to relate us so much with them when we compared to Uncle Monty. We did not see them as true guardians. They were members of a secret organized and we knew that. With respect to Quagmire and Esmé ... we do not know for sure if they died or not. The doubt is the worst enemy of mourning.
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eescorpius
Catastrophic Captain
Posts: 58
Likes: 21
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Post by eescorpius on Apr 28, 2021 16:30:41 GMT -5
Yes, I have to agree. The death of the Baudelaires' parents was painful for them, and the reader only feels sad for them, but we did not have the opportunity to seriously care for their (anonymous, back then) parents. However, we relate to Uncle Monty. We need to break the suspicion that we had of him at first. I think this was asoue's first break in expectations ... If we imagined that all Baudelaire tutors would be bad and dangerous like Count Olaf, we soon realized that this is not the case. After that, we are sure that Uncle Monty will die before it even happens. So we experience each page with a sense of pity, because we know that he will die, but he himself does not know it, nor do the Baudelaires. It's like I heard: asoue is about depression while ATWQ is about anxiety. Evil will come, and there is no way to stop it. And that feeling of helplessness is new to children. Children are subjected to happy endings. But asoue warns that the ending will be sad and don't lie about it. Unconsciously, the child may begin to realize that death is inevitable in this world. I think the impact is less on other deaths, because Aunt Josephine is not as pleasant as Uncle Monty. In addition, Aunt Josephine died after throwing away an opportunity to survive. And she was to blame for her own death after disregarding a safety standard that she knew very well. Then we have the accidental death of a villain. This death impacted me because it was very painful, and imagining that children literally saw a woman being torn apart gives me the creeps. But I wasn't exactly in mourning because of her death ... Let's say I was a little shocked at the time. Then we had the death of some villains, and finally the deaths of Dewey and Kit. These deaths were really sad. But kit chose to die to save his daughter. While Dewey chose to take a chance to protect an important secret. In both cases, the deaths of these good characters was by a greater cause. Besides, we did not have time to relate us so much with them when we compared to Uncle Monty. We did not see them as true guardians. They were members of a secret organized and we knew that. With respect to Quagmire and Esmé ... we do not know for sure if they died or not. The doubt is the worst enemy of mourning. I have to say, I didn't expect to be devastated by Jacques' death before watching the series. In the books, he was sort of this good guy from the organization that we kind of know that died. Sad, sure, but we didn't exactly know him that well. But they fleshed out his character in the TV adaptation and Nathan Fillion was very lovable in it. That made me desperate hope that he'd make it out somehow miraculously even though I know his eventual fate.
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