listen its about the last unicorn being fundamentally no different from the harpy and feeling more compassion for her than she does the trapped animals or the humans trapped by circumstance. it's about haggard grabbing the unicorn only once she has become human enough for him to drag her down and realise her eyes are empty. it's about schmendrick and the magic that lives in him more than he wields it, it's about "never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention" while walking slowly from an unspeakable horror devouring an old woman, it's about "how dare you come to me now, when I am this?". it's about the unicorns staying in the water until they can't anymore, until the castle crumbles and the one unicorn who is different from the others now - she lowers her horn and she digs her hooves in and she stands her ground for a dear, dead boy. it's about the trade of immortality between schmendrick and the unicorn, it's about stories needing to be told, it's about lir loving the unicorn enough to know that she cannot stay with him, and to let her would be to do her a disservice.
it's about "your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. i would tear myself to pieces to call you once by your name." it's about regret.
(it's also about little 5 year old me renting the movie from the library whenever i could and watching it on loop for hours. it's about just how much this story has shaped me and my understanding of storytelling.)
Laetitia Casta at Cannes, 2013, in Christian Dior, cape by Erik Halley
Landscape with Grotto and a Rider, Joos de Momper the Younger, ca. 1616
if you write a strong character, let them fail.
if you write a selfless hero, let them get mad at people.
if you write a cold-hearted villain, make them cry.
if you write a brokenhearted victim, let them smile again.
if you write a bold leader, make them seek guidance.
if you write a confident genius, make them be wrong, or get stumped once in a while.
if you write a fighter or a warrior, let them lose a battle, but let them win the war.
if you write a character who loses everything, let them find something.
if you write a reluctant hero, give them a reason to fight.
credit:@aj-eddy
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