Ways to tell stories

[selenak]

Complaining will get you somewhere: SyFy has rewritten, or rather, edited, the offending character description for Gwen. (I.e. they took out the paragraph about her looks and the "most notorious adulteress in history" nominer). Meanwhile, this and the rest of the cast character descriptions still seem to be from another show ("If the world only

Comments

[deird1]

Because in both the French and the first Grimm version, the way the sorceress finds out Rapunzel has been seeing someone behind her back is because the girl gets pregnant.

Which is much better, really.

I get very annoyed by the rewrite, because it makes Rapunzel stupid. She's idiotic enough to absentmindedly mention that the prince has been visiting - rather than just being ignorant enough that she doesn't understand why her clothes are so tight.

*hugs the original version*

[selenak]

I'm all for the original vision as well.

[selenak]

*makes very very serious face of innocence in return*

[watervole]

THank you for the RApunzel links, that was very interesting.
I never know Rapunzel was a salad plant!

[selenak]

Rapunzel is indeed a salad, and a very tasty one, this one:

[watervole]

I think we'd call that Lamb's lettuce. Don't see it very often, but I've sometimes thought about growing it.

[wee_warrior]

All that salad talk makes me hungry! (And I had forgotten that they gave her away for a salad. Way to go, people.)

But at least the prince isn't a cad, which he was in Persinette

Not that this isn't technically dub con, since she apparently didn't know what she was doing, but compared with other fairytales, at least she was awake?

And as for Tangled, I suspect there are very few little boys willing to see a Princess movie, anyway, and if it's for peer pressure, so why bother with fiddling like this in the first place? Really, I miss the times when fairytale films could have male leads that were nice but lazy bums, like the one in Drei Nüsse Für Aschenbrödel.

[selenak]

Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel is my all time favourite among those gorgeous Czech fairy tale/fantasy films. *old voice* They don't make them like that anymore!

True about fairy tales where they aren't even awake. And classic literature. Helloooo, Heinrich von Kleist. Multiple times.

[fallingtowers]

O God, Die Marquise von O indeed. I vaguely remember the discussion it sparked between me and my German teacher in 12th grade, but what disturbs me most is the fact that I was the only one who spoke up about the incident hidden behind that bashful dash. And that was long before I identified as a feminist.
Really, what do they teach children in school these days?

(Although the 2001 modern-day Au version of Kleist's novella is far more horrible, since it's set in the late 1990s, and NOT in 1800...)

[selenak]

I remember most people in my class not getting why the Marquise, upon discovering her rescuer was also the father of her child, was so horrified and upset. "Why is she suddenly such a bitch to him?" was a phrase used more than once. I don't think our teacher used the term "rape" in reply, but she did say "sex without consent".

But the whole sexual-encounter-with-one-party-sleeping-or-thinking-they-do really was a thing for Kleist, wasn't it? I mean, it also happens in Das Kätchen von Heilbronn. And in Penthesilea. Just without ensuing pregnancy.

[kathyh]

Wrecked with insecurity and shyness due to his unassuming looks

Bwahahaha...I'm surprised you didn't hear me laugh at that in Munich. I suppose it is at least a step in the right direction that Syfy has edited Gwen's description, but a complete rewrite of all of them would have been better.

I didn't know Rapunzel was a salad. That association has been completely lost in English.

[selenak]

I knew you'd value this truly accurate description of Kerr A. :)

I wonder why the translators didn't call her someting like Lettuce?

[kathyh]

It was good enough for Lettice Knollys! Rapunzel does have a more exotic fairy tale ring to it though.