Reality Bites Back 29 August, 2008

Why are people so nitpicky these days? Why can’t they let fairy tales remain just that, fairy tales? Why do they have this need to make their lives so much like a fairy tale that they blur the line between fantasy and reality? In fact, why do they want lives that resemble fairy tales? Fairy tales pale in comparison to real life. In fairy tales, there is nothing real involved, no love, no trust, no sacrifice, no nothing. Everything is easy. It’s all fake.

‘…and your mother loves your father, ‘cause she’s got nowhere to go…’

Let’s take a look at Cinderella. The prince falls into Cinderella’s lap, for no apparent reason. He took her because she was pretty, and her foot fit that damn glass shoe. She took him because he was rich, and she had to get away from her abusive family. Tell me, where is the love in that? Where is the wooing, the sweetness, the sheer fluff that comes with falling truly madly deeply in love? They spend one night together, and then suddenly decide they want to spend the rest of their lives with each other? Did they have divorce back then?

‘…I want to take you for granted, and I will…’

Aladdin lied to Jasmine to marry her and become a legitimate prince, and got her in danger for it. He didn’t love her, only what she stood for. Fame, fortune, power… And what kind of father was the sultan to auction off his daughter to some stranger because he claimed to be a prince and had a fancy carpet? Or to his advisor, who is many, many, many years older than she is? Aladdin’s wishing the genie free was an ingenious bit of manipulation, and for all his thousand years, Genie was still too naïve to see through it.

‘…if I was a rich girl, nanananananana…’

In The princess and the Pea, who else is the princess but some spoiled, pampered brat, who has no qualms about making people rush to and fro to fulfill her each and every stupid whim? Haven’t we all met her before?

“…and, darling, you look wonderful tonight…”

When the little mermaid became human to marry Eric, she left her family, her home, everything behind, and for what? Some guy who cared only for her looks and not for what she actually had to say? It says a lot about him that he fell in love with her during the time that she didn’t talk. Ursula was portrayed as the villain, but she was the nicest person there. She laid down the truth, real and simple, for Ariel to see. But guess who still decided to give it all up for a crude facsimile of love?

Fairy tales embody real life more than we think. It’s no coincidence that quite a large number of Disney princesses are married to a Prince Charming. That’s polygamy in the making. The Princess and the frog, Alice in wonderland? They are so, so high.

To want a Disney life is to not want a life at all. To want a Disney life is to want nothing more than a mere fantasy, an imitation of life. The hardships that we go through, the trials we encounter, they mould us. They are a part of living and of us. They make us who we are. Problems prove that we bleed, breath, eat, sleep, laugh, cry… Problems are proof that we are alive.

Believe me, what little we see of life is sugar coated, just like Disney. Really. None of us have been through the hardship of not eating for a day, because we couldn’t afford it, or of eating but feeling like dirt, because we sold our bodies or our souls for it. None of us know what it’s like to be truly useless, to be completely and utterly worthless. None of us can claim to be familiar with the knowledge that nobody cares. Some of us may have experienced love, yes, and some of us may even know what it feels like to have truly earned the food that we eat…

‘…there she stumbles, falling to her knees. I think she tripped on reality…’

…I want to have it all. The good, the bad, the meaningful, the meaningless….There, out there, beyond the fairy tales, beyond the fantasies, beyond simply sitting there watching the goddamn T.V., there is this thing called Reality, called Life.

Take it, it’s yours.

—

These two, “Reality bites” and “Reality Bites Back”, were actually articler for our one issue only Class Magazine for english last year.

“Reality Bites” –Disney

BY: Sarah A. Oxales (a classmate of mine in Pisay)

Sometimes, Disney irritates me with how gets its stories all wrong. It messes up so many of the good parts in a classic story.

I noticed it a couple of days ago, as we were watching The King and I. The movie’s last scene was of Anna and the king having a giddy ballroom dance in a gazebo. In the movie, Tuptin has a happily-ever-after life with a prince. But, as most of you probably know, The king dies in the end in the original story, and so do Tuptim and her lover.

Have you ever heard of Disney’s Hercules? Remember his uber-dramaic ending, where Hera’s all sweet with Zeus? It’s not real. Hera hates Zeus. She has a long history of plotting to get rid of him. Why? It’s because Zeus is a flirt. He has so many illegitimate children; the gods who are not his children are the minority. As for the main character, Hercules kills Megara later on. That’s the original story.

And Mulan? She was punished with death for her deed. The little mermaid killed herself.

Now, do you see what happens? They sugar coat every story so that it’s ‘child friendly’. They mean well, I’m sure and I remember (and admit to) singing and dancing to a couple of those songs when myself when I was little.

“…No chance, no way, I won’t say it, no no…”

Haha…. until now.

Why don’t they show the cold hard truth to the kids? Is it because they don’t want them to end up as pessimistic drones? They’re too late and it seems almost a shame that some children still acquire (seem to want to acquire) a world-weary point of view, despite their best efforts. (and, hello, kettle? This is Sarah, the pot, calling. I just want you to know, you’re black )

Sometimes, when you see your little brother or sister or cousin or niece or just some kid you don’t really know, laugh and sing and say the occasional “I wanna be a knight/princess!” line, don’t you feel more than just a little bit jealous?

Their lives seem so simple (thanks to Disney), with the harsh reality of life hidden from them.

Admit it, everyone wants a Disney life. Even a small shred of you wants a life where all the bad parts seem to disappear. Disney does life a favor; it makes the worst seem better

And if that seems foggy to you, think of it like this. If you were Meg, from Hercules, wouldn’t you rather have a boyfriend who’d pick you over being a god, rather than one that kills you, right after getting you out of that last horrible relationship? Of course you would.

Sometimes, I admire Disney as well. They make lies seem so much better than the truth.

—

I wish people weren’t so pessimistic….

Dub Vs. Sub 1

I just watched…

Episode 38 of Sonic X.
English Title: Showdown in Space
Japanse Title: Maria no Negai, Minna no Negai (Maria’s Request, Everyone’s Request)

This is the plot summary (Brought to you by Wikipedia, via me! Spoilerz ahead)

As Space Colony Ark heads for the Earth, the combatants put aside their differences to stop the descent. Shadow however, begs to differ, and refuses to help since he believes there’s no point to it and the humans deserve to be destroyed because of what they’ve done. But after Chris reminds Shadow of the true promise he made to Maria, he changes his mind and decides to aid Sonic and co. He does so by fighting off the Bio-Lizard, a Project Shadow prototype, while Knuckles drains the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald. At first it appeared as if the Bio- Lizard was defeated by shadow. However the Bio-Lizard uses Chaos Control to attach itself to the colony to become the FinalHazard which is also hell-bent on pulling it toward Earth even faster. In order to stop it, Sonic and Shadow go into super-form to stop it. For a last second victory Shadow sees Maria and takes off his rings to gain all the power he needs. Both he and Sonic use Chaos Control to teleport the Space Colony out of the atmosphere and back into orbit. Shadow vanishes at the climax of their victory (presumed to be dead). Chris is given only one of Shadow’s rings, and with that the episode ends in a sad note.

My summary would be more like this…..

SHADOW DIES!!! WAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

Anyway, I watched the episode in three languages. French, English, and Japanese. Granted, I can’t speak French and there were no subtitles, but I watched it anyway.

There are some pretty big differences in The English and the Japanese version. This is the Japanese subbed Version…

==Open Scene==

Shadow: “I am Shadow! Shadow The Hedgehog!”

(The Restriction rings fall off Shadow’s wrists and ankles)

Shadow: “Can you hear me?”

Sonic: “Yeah, I can hear you.”

Sonic and Shadow [Together]: “CHAOS CONTROL!”

(Enter The Final Boss Battle Theme “Live and Learn” from The game Sonic Adventure 2)

Shadow: (to himself or thinking) “Maria… is this… enough?”

==End Scene==

This is the English dubbed version…

==Open Scene==

Shadow: “I am Shadow! Shadow The Hedgehog!”

(The Restriction rings fall off Shadow’s wrists and ankles)

Shadow: “You ready?”

Sonic: “You bet! Here we go!”

Sonic and Shadow [Together]: “CHAOS CONTROL!”

(Enter generic “Exciting!” music)

Shadow: (to himself or thinking) “Maria… I did it… for you.”

==End Scene==

Do you see the difference? It just be me and my interpretations, but I definitley like the subbed version better. Both dialogues say something about Sonic and Shadow, but what they say….

In the Japanese Version, Shadow knows he’s about to die, and wants to reaffirm his existence before he does. Sonic understands and obliges. Then the awesome theme music to heighten the mood. Shadow dedicates what he did to Maria, and that is the last we hear from him.

In the English version, Shadow becomes some crude, Macho-bantering hedgehog who can’t speak in complete sentences. The I-am-Shadow scream becomes out of place, and there is depth taken out of the scene when Sonic replies. Shadow asking if Sonic is ready probably offends Sonic, because, hello? How many times has Sonic saved the world? Anyway, the music used there is generic and very UNmemorable, and Shadow ‘telling’ Maria that he did it for her makes it sound like he’s blaming her for what he’d done.

See the difference?

Even the titles change the mood!

I’m not really Anti-dubbing (the dubbing for YYH is REALLY funny sometimes), but this is one case where there is definitely something lost in translation.

Anyway, ON TO EPISODE 39! Wiki says Espio will make an appearance! GO ESPIO!!!

No, it did NOT happen like this. There is a good reason why.