howaboutsomeschmolly

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

The sheer, unadulterated excitement of Schmendrick when he does true magic in the movie...

Just look at him go, motormouth on, twirling around, losing the ability to read the goddamn room and stfu when bragging might not be most tasteful of choices... So cute ❤️

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

How good the TLU cast is with children?

The Lady Amalthea: not so good. Kids are naturally drawn to her, but she is mostly indifferent to them. She kinda shares their sense of newness to the world, even though hers is more of a dreadful feeling rather one of wonder. Does not like loud noises so being around energetic kids is exausting and stressful. Does not lash out but gets withdrawn, 0 attempts to interact.

Molly: the Ultimate Mom, 0 doubts. Loving, nurturing, adores children of all ages. Are you alone and hungry? Molly’s your mum now! Always ready with a kind, reassuring word, food, and affection. Maybe too tired to play sometimes (give poor Molly a break, she has already so much physical work to do!) but never dismissive. Authoritative enough to keep the most troublesome kids in line without too much of a fuss.

Schmendrick: cool uncle/big brother vibes. He is used to be around children (carnival wizard, anyone?), very at ease with them and prone to keep an eye on unattended children and to "babysit" them. Playful and ready to perform tricks to keep the kiddos entertained, knows a lot of stories and fairytales, extremely patient and surprisingly good at keeping unruly children at bay. Of course, he is petty enough to give the most misbehaving ones back to their parents with a nice, extra-sugary drink and a kazoo...

Prince Lir: loves children and likes to hang with them. Extremely popular among kids for roughousing and other energetic games. Likes to feel like "one of the gang", but sometimes he is not sure how to behave and has very little practical sense or knowledge of kids' needs. Very easy for him to be walked all over by children and to lose control of a situation, ending up with kids doing whatever they want.

King Haggard: kids don't make him happy.

Mommy Fortuna: has 2 attitudes towards children. 1) she likes to scare them; 2) think children labour laws are way too strict!

The tree: ... that's not suitable for children, the fuck is wrong with you?!?

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

So, Schmendrick tries to act threatening and brags (a LOT) in TLU and in other short stories about him. Sure, it is often played for laughs, and Schmendrick is essentially pulling a 'red panda-trying-to-look-menacing' stunt.

Soooo dangerous and fierce...

He knows he cannot count on magic working properly in dangerous situations and even though he is impulsive enough to jump into a fight with much stronger people on desperate occasions, he cannot expect to end up victorious.

Schmendrick you weigh 30 kg soaking wet, what did you think would have happened?

But thinking again, I believe Schmendrick is not doing this only because he is afraid of being unable to defend himself. That is one possible outcome, mind you — a spell not working at all or backfiring and damaging him, for example. However, it is hinted that Schmendrick is very aware that he can be extremely dangerous with his uncontrolled magic, even deadly.

Think about it. In The Last Unicorn he is endangering the unicorn while attempting to free her by magic, with the summoning of the demon and the cage shrinking. His short stories are riddled with examples of his mistakes being hazardous to those around him, being it accidentally summoning a 8-day long uninterrupted snow storm or almost running over Nikos with an entire horse while attempting to float a horseshoe. In Schmendrick Alone he ends up killing a man. He had 0 intention to do so, just wanted to scare the man off, but ended up unable to control the demon he summoned.

The moment you realize you have blood on your hands while you were just trying to gallantly protect a girl from an unwanted suitor

In the end, Schmendrick makes a big talk about his skills because, yes, he is aware his prowess is anything but, but also (and more meaningfully) because he knows he can be a danger for those around him, he knows he is capable of accidentally offing someone if his magic runs too wild.

Even when people mean him harm, he still wants to avoid dire, unwanted consequences (he cries about Mommy Fortuna being gutted by the harpy, and he definitively did not like the lady, ffs!). Just think about what might happen when someone with such uncontrollable power gets cornered... Schmendrick, in my opinion, tries to avoid to end up in such situations, so he brags and boasts and hopes that that's enough to keep any potential foe at distance, for everyone involved's safety.

It's like watching those butterflies with owl's eyes on their wings...

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

oh, the romance

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

Fun fact: frontal lobe development is usually completed around age 25.

Per canon, Schmendrick is cursed to be immortal at age 19 (explicitly said in the short story "Schmendrick Alone"), so since he has not physically aged since then, basically it is also canon that his brain has not completely matured.

One can argue about the life experiences he has had in the meantime, but I cannot stop laughing about Molly bringing up the issue to quickly win an argument.

(But then again, she has ended up with a partner who has the body and stamina of a 20yo very likely paired with the experience of a grown man, so she does not complain much in the end)

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

yr criminal for putting the tree on the after sex list

Speaking of which, guess where the tree is in this list?

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

*This* is what he was truly thinking about...

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

Carnival's officially over and I still cannot get over the idea of Molly and Schmendrick dressing up as each other in a matching costume contest.

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

I have finally read "The Way Home" and, consequentially, "Sooz".

Overall, as much as I like Sooz as a character, I could not find the story as compelling as I expected it to be. I may have not paid the right amount of attention, maybe I had a different set of expectations. Peter's prose is wonderful as always, but I really could not enjoy it fully. Just my personal, very quick, 2 cents.

That being said, I must address my man Peter Beagle.

Peter, what in the flying fuck?

That scene came out of nowhere – not even 1/3 of the story in – was uncalled for, and serves basically no purpouse other than traumatizing Sooz and "open her eyes" to the darkness of the world. Peter, no! No, no, no! Why falling into the cheap trope of SA as a plot device for the development of a female character? I cannot even praise the way Sooz is written after the fact, how it affects her but does not make her a helpless victim, because that would mean accepting a way too low bar that is much too common in fiction.

I do not agree with other reviews who criticized the scene for being too dark and out of place within the Last Unicorn lore. TLU universe is pretty dark in itself — the very existential woe of the Lady Amalthea is dark, Lìr getting senile in "Two Hearts" is dark, Schmendrick planning to unalive himself in "The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon" is dark, and let's not forget about Molly (who deserves an entire analysis on her own, god bless her). Sooz getting SA'd makes no sense because it has no reason to be there. Plain and simple.

It was baffling – and heart-wrenching – to see such a misstep from an author like Peter. I don't believe there was ill intent, just a poor plot choice that lead to an unnecesarily cruel scene with no real purpouse. Yes, these things happen in real life and they are senseless, traumatizing, and cruel for no reason, but that's why they should not be used lightly in fiction as a cheap trope to build a female character. This is what makes it even worse to see it in Peter's work, because the man knows and can do better.

Just to be clear, I do not advocate for censorship, which I am against. I am for awareness, though, and I believe that especially people who work with words should be mindful. There are work of fiction that deal with such topics and handle the matter in a contextualized way. Sensitive issues should not be silenced or removed from fiction. The problems raise when these issues get mishandled or misused, and Peter served us a perfect example of it. That's a huge pity but also a humbling memento that anyone can step into shit.

My best to Peter, I trust your next work will be great!

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

I swear I totally, absolutely, definitively did not choose on purpose a picture with my Schmendrick mug for my official profile on the blog I write for...

(Yes, I chose to quote Peter Beagle, and yes, I have submitted a review of The Last Unicorn that will be published the forthcoming weeks)

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

Just a liiiiiitle pinch of silly...

Original image by Shen Comix

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

HOLY SH*T I need to write something about why Destino is the perfect song for Lir and Amalthea and why the surrealistic, musical video, captures that so spot on!

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

Friendly reminder that a duet between Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee exists

And then, suddenly, the Schmendrick and King Haggard duet we’ve all been waiting for.

[howaboutsomeschmolly]

I finally got my copy of The Way Home!!! I was not expecting there needing to be a trigger for sexual assault. :(

Oof, thanks for the heads up, I haven't read it yet