Sunday, April 6, 2014

Day 461: Peter Pan

The following blog post could really turn out as a rant, but I'll try to restrain myself. Also, if you have never read Peter Pan and still wish to do so spoiler free, you have been warned.

I read Peter Pan this weekend. While my parents and brother and Godfather went to a concert, I stayed at my Godfather's house and read almost all of Peter Pan (I had started it a couple days earlier). Of course, the novel is the inspiration for the famous Disney film as well as many others and the entire plotline of S3A of Once Upon A Time. With a favorite OUAT character like Hook, it's kind of hard NOT to love the idea of Peter Pan. I mean, without Peter Pan, there would be no Hook! And how sad the show would be then.

So I'm happily reading along, laughing at things here and there (HA HOOK AND PERMS) and so on and so forth. Except I guess I missed the memo. HOOK. DIED. Like WHAT? One page he's fighting Pan and all confident and then you turn the page and he DIES. I was so distraught. But I kept reading anyways, and then TINK DIES. And at that point I just wanted to throw the book at the wall. Still, I keep going to finish it off and it basically says that Wendy's family (daughters and grand-daughters, etc. specifically) is eternal slaves to Peter when it comes to spring cleaning.

It's a good thing it was the end of the book because I was done with this nonsense.

But I guess overall it made me realize how brilliant Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (the creators of OUAT) are. I mean, the story they created when it comes to Peter Pan and Neverland fits perfectly with the themes of the original story. Ok, so maybe Hook is a bit off, but I'm ok with that. PLENTY. OK.

Thinking about it though, and we were learning this in Fairy Tales, Peter Pan never wants to grow up, and it's basically like having children of your own is a symbol of that stage of growing into an adult. So Pan refuses to go with Wendy and scolds her for having children of her own. On Once Upon A Time, we all hated that he abandoned Rumple and that Pan was Rumple's father, but personally I now think it was a great idea. Rumple is, basically, the symbol of Pan's adult life, and in order to revert to childhood, Pan must get rid of it. Hence the abandonment.

Brilliant, right?

But there's more! Pan also doesn't really care whether or not anyone dies. If Wendy had died he probably would have just gone off and found another girl. The same goes for Hook when Pan kills him, as well as countless others in the story (lost boys that have come and gone), etc. Well on Once Upon A Time, it seems to me that the same theme is there: Pan doesn't really care if Liam (Hook's brother) dies, and he does really seem to care if Henry dies (HE KILLED HIM BASICALLY).

Again, Brilliant.

Anyways, overall I really didn't enjoy Peter Pan the book. I think my expectations are a bit high when it comes to pirates, so that makes it a bit difficult. But I will soon be reviewing the classic Disney film as well as the ever popular "Hook," so that should be coming in the next few weeks for sure!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on April 8 due to travel).

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