Pan's Labyrinth/Headscratchers

• Now, it's been about 3 years since I've seen the movie, so details are a bit fuzzy, but this part of the ending really bothered me: Just what's so bad about a little baby blood?? Now, I know that when people say that they want some of your blood-- even just a little!-- then that usually means that they're going to kill you and drain you of all of it. Were that the case, I could understand how this test would be a pass/fail re: becoming a princess of a magic fairy kingdom. But mystical creatures, so far as I've come to know them, are literal to absurd proportions. So, if they say "just a little blood", you could totally get away with giving them just a drop, and they'd just have to say "Well, I guess that is what I said..." and deal with it. Going with that line of reasoning, this implies that drawing even a drop of blood from a baby-- even if it's to complete a series of tasks while on a mystical quest wherein all of your other tasks have been presented on the level (i.e. not secretly devised to kill you or otherwise full of trickery and underhandedness)-- means you're going to die alone and no one will ever know about it, instead of being transported to a land of magic and wonder. Now that is some underhanded mystical creature shit right there. The reason this pisses me off so much is because I so totally would have given him the baby blood. I mean, Jesus, he's a baby, not a Romanov; it's not going to kill him to have a drop of blood lost. Unless causing even mild, momentary pain to another person, even with legitimate reason (magical quest! magical quest!), is enough to destroy your Innocent Little Girl status? To which I say: What Do You Mean It's Heinous? Damn mystical creatures.
  • I have not viewed the film in a long time, but I recall that look on her face. She seemed to suspect it was more than a cut.
  • It's not her's to give.
    • Remember that Ophelia is Genre Savvy, as well. The Faun could have meant "just a little blood"-- but he also could have gone the other way and told her that the little bit of blood she gave was not enough. Also, I think this is a testament to her strong character-- the child is only her half-brother, and his father is a vicious murderer. And it would have been very easy to blame the baby for her mother's death. But when the Faun gives her an easy proposition-- causing pain (albeit momentary) to a baby in order to go into the other world-- what answer does she give? "No."
  • If I'm not mistaken, though, what the Faun had said was that she needed to use the "blood of an innocent" in order to pull it off... so why not use some of her own blood? Or did disobeying the Faun earlier cause her to become non-innocent?
    • Well, if you think about it, that's exactly what happened in the end. Her own blood was spilled into the portal, and it worked, so she was the innocent in question.
  • Perhaps she had a fair awareness of the war around her that she does not fit that standard of innocent.
  • Humility? She doesn't think of herself as innocent or good enough to be able to open the portal. Maybe.
  • Also, to the original post: because hurting the innocent and helpless for your own gain is what Captain Vidal does.
  • That, and the Faun's not the most honest fairy in the movie.
  • It's been three years since I've seen the movie too, but I still remember that scene and how it looked. The thought definitely occurred to me "Well if it's just a drop..." but I felt like I was looking at two characters neither of whom believed for a moment that it was really just a drop. The Faun had been acting creepier and creepier and now was acting extra creepy. And he had a HUGE knife. I think if he'd had a needle I'd have felt quite differently.
• Alright, I know this has been discussed before, but it's a major wallbanger, so it should go here, too. The problem is, why the bloody hell did Ofelia eat the damn fairy food!? Ofelia is a smart girl, and reads fairy stories; shouldn't she have learned something? And if you learn anything from fairy stories, it's that You Do Not Eat The Fairy Food. It's one of those things that I learned so early I don't remember when - Do Not Go Places With Strangers. Do Not Leave Things For Other People To Trip Over. Do Not Eat The Fairy Food. They are Not Like Us, what is Theirs is Not Ours, you Do Not Mess With The Fey. It's not that they're evil, but they're not human. So how come we expect them to be like us? Anyway. Sure, she was hungry, sure she's curious, sure it's a demonstration of how not all orders are obeyed, whatever. A fairy himself told her not to, even! But noooooooooooooooooo, she just had to eat them. And so it all goes down the drain. Gee, thanks!
  • Magically tempting food maybe? Or the fact it's a huge feast and she IS hungry. Not just 'oh growly tummy' hungry but "when the hell was the last time I had an actual meal can I even remember what that tastes like?" hungry.
  • The food is enchanted -- I'm always surprised by how many people don't get that. Look at the way she suddenly turns toward the grapes and the camera does a little sweeping pan to follow her gaze, with the Universal Standard Harp of Magical Mischief playing in the soundtrack. Genre Blind yourself.
  • Actually he is right. The food is not enchanted, Del Toro Himself says in the audio commentary that she hasn't eaten anything at all since her mother grounded her, there was a scene that didn't make it to the final cut where Ofelia was offered some food but she declined because he thought it would have been very obvious to the viewer.
  • I posted this in the main page, but whether it will stay there is anyone's guess. Ofelia's acting like a character in certain fairy tales, which makes sense because she believes herself to be a fairy tale princess. In some fairy tales (but not all), the main character will fail to listen to advice, or do something they were told specifically not to do--and in the tales I can remember the reasoning is rather stupid, like not covering up the cage of a bird because it's too pretty (resulting in the bird's singing and alerting everyone in the castle that it's being stolen--admittably birds will still make SOME noise when they're covered, but not as much when they aren't!). And yes, if there is a person who is guiding the main character in their quests, they will get VERY pissed off about this. In some cases the tale ends here, but if it doesn't, the main character must do something to redeem themselves in the eyes of their quest-giver. Usually just listening to the instructions and following them to the letter is good enough, though sometimes (like in Ofelia's case) something more extreme is required. So Ofelia is just acting in accordance with the fairy-tale princess that she believes she is--and in her case, she's the kind of fairy tale character that messes up once in a while, because nobody's perfect. It took me a while to realize this, and I have read *tons* of fairy tales.
• Captain Vidal barely acknowledges Ofelia's existence unless she does something wrong, but it's pretty weird that her mother, Mercedes or anybody else doesn't have problem with her just wandering around alone in the woods filled with partisans at the height of civil war.
  • It isn't, so much, that Ofelia's mother (and Mercedes) have no problem with Ofelia wandering around in the woods. It's that the only time Ofelia goes out there, she's already most of the way back before anyone realizes she might have gone to the woods. As for them stopping her...well, she manages to evade the notice of the guards around the mill, her mother is on enforced bed-rest, and Mercedes is busy organizing a dinner party on limited supplies while also funnelling supplies and information to the rebels. They do notice that she's gone and organize a quiet search for her (you can hear Ofelia's mom asking if they've found Ofelia yet, just before the dinner party scene) but they can't search the woods; that would require having Vidal send out his men - and that would make Ofelia's punishment his decision, rather than her mother's, since he had to expend effort to find her and bring her back. And Ofelia's mother is unlikely to want that to happen, since Vidal would probably do something worse than just send Ofelia to bed without dinner.
• Why exactly is the pale man so threatening? Yeah, he looks scary, but he walks incredibly slowly, and can't use both hands at the same time without being blinded. The only way he can actually kill someone is if they deliberately go up to him, like the fairies. As far as we know, fighting him is as easy as fighting a single zombie. How did he manage to kill so many quick moving children?
  • They were paralyzed by fear? He is made of Nightmare Fuel.
  • Also add in the fact that the only way out of that room is to go all the way back, climb on a chair, and draw another portal. It's very easy ti become cornered in that room. You also have to take into account, these are simple, stupid children. Not some Genre Savvy adventurer.
• There was one thing that bugged this Troper when watching Ofelia's escape-from-the-Pale-Man scene. Why, exactly, did she have to get up on a chair and draw a trapdoor in the ceiling? Wouldn't it have been much easier- and, more importantly, much faster- to simply draw another one on the wall?
  • Because then it'll be harder for the Pale Man to catch her.
• Everything about the "other" world seems to scream faeries, but throughout it is referred to as the Underworld. Do they mean Underworld as in, it's underground, but essentially Fairyland, or am I missing something crucial about Spamish mythology? Otherwise it sounds like Ofelia's apparent birth parents aere the King and Queen of the Land of the Dead.
  • Might be a case of a mistranslation; in the original Spanish film, the other world is referred to as "Reino Subterráneo", which literally translates to "Underground Kingdom", hence no relation to the Land of the Dead. They probably translated it as "Underworld" to make it sound more fairy tale-ish.
• Anybody else wonder what would have happened if Ofelia had simply taken the grapes home and eaten them later? She certainly didn't have to eat them right then.
  • Imagine you've recently gone an entire day without eating. Now imagine there's a banquet of the most delicious, mouth-watering food you've ever seen in your life, all of which is probably enchanted to be irresistible. Would you be able to wait?