Roland often tells this joke about
Satan entering a congregation of worshipers.
Frightened with his presence, the parishioners begin to flee the church
except for one man. Satan sits next to
him on the pew and after trying a few more scare tactics finally says to the
man, “Why is it that you are not frightened of me.”
The man just looks at him and shakes
his head and says, “Nothing you can do will frighten me. After all, I’ve been married to your sister
for the last twenty years”
Roland’s marriage to his last wife
did not make it to twenty years however.
But I think that is who he thinks about when he tells the joke.
When I saw the advertisements for
Disney’s Maleficent, I thought to myself:
“How quaint. A movie about
Roland’s ex-wife”
For those of you who have read my
blog from the beginning, you will know that Maleficent is the name I assigned
Roland’s ex. WARNING: I am now about to reveal some spoilers from
the movie itself. To distinguish
Roland’s ex and the movie character, I will refer to Disney’s maleficent
creature as “mal A” and Roland’s ex as “mal B”
The movie starts out revealing mal A
as a youth – though quite young, she appears to be the ruler. She cares about the other creatures within
the moors where they all live. She has a
sense of humor. She flies with large
black wings. She is happy.
I had once heard that mal B had a
heart at one time – must have been many years before I crossed paths with
her. I had heard that she would give the
shirt off her back to one who was in need.
I find that hard to believe.
Mal A meets Stefan – a young pauper
who has a desire to be a king one day so that he can live in the grand Castle
and rule over the humans. Mal A lets
Stefan know that humans are not welcome in the moors. Stefan is the first to
make a sacrifice to save their friendship when he tosses his iron ring so that
he may never hurt mal A and she is truly touched by his sacrifice. It seems
like an unrealistic friendship for either one of them to pursue but each does
wish to see the other again.
As the years go by, Stefan comes
around less often and seems to disappear altogether. He had made his way into the human palace and
stands a chance of gaining favor with the king.
A king who would like to make the moors part of his kingdom – but not
the creatures themselves. He promises
each of his sires that whichever one of them will kill mal A and bring him
proof – that sire will get to marry the king’s daughter and rule as king when
the current ruler has passed on.
Stefan goes to the moors to warn mal
A that the king has sent out a death threat against her because he wishes for
more land. I found Stefan to be sincere
– yet I knew that he desired to rule as king – and according to legend is the
father of Aurora.
Stefan drugs mal A and holds up a
knife to stab her, but is unable to do it.
He clips her wings instead. When
mal A wakes up from her sleep, she immediately notices that her wings have been
removed and she cries out with so many emotions: sadness, pain, anger,
resentment . . .
I had heard that mal B had been
robbed of her innocence when she was younger – though I don’t know how
young. But I heard that it had been by
people whom she trusted – those that should have protected her. She may have felt their presence disappear
the way mal A had with Stefan. At some
point she may have felt betrayed, as though her metaphorical wings (whatever
that may have been) had been removed.
Stefan is gone when mal A wakes, so
obviously he must be responsible. Mal A
seeks vengeance upon him. He must pay
for doing her harm.
Because she has no wings, she finds
somebody who does. A raven caught in a
snare. At first I think she saves him
just out of habit – but when he asks she decides to make him her servant. His first assignment is to find Stefan.
After the raven finds Stefan, he
reports back to mal A that Stefan has become king and that a princess has been
born and that there will be a celebration.
Mal A, of course, has not been invited, but she shows up nonetheless. Mal B used people all the time – still uses
people I would imagine. And ALWAYS inviting
herself into positions where she is not welcome.
Mal A curses Aurora with a spell
that she will prick herself upon the spindle of a spinning will and fall into
an eternal sleep that only true love’s kiss can wake. Mal A doesn’t believe in true love. I would imagine that mal B may have believed
in true love at one time, but she doesn’t anymore. I think any flicker of love that may have been
left has gone out from her life. And I wonder if she will ever get it back.
Stefan is upset that mal A has
intruded upon his little family. He is
upset with the very idea that she has cursed his little girl. But I think that deep down he is more upset with
himself – for the price he had paid to become a king. For once he had betrayed his friendship with
mal A, he had lost what once made him happy – never to find it again. He’d allowed himself to be engulfed in the
pain. But instead of trying to repair
the damage, he made things worse for himself and for his kingdom. He fell into a state of darkness – darker
than mal A dressed.
That made me wonder if mal B was
truly the victim or if she had gone after her desires in a way that Stefan had
and had betrayed someone she loved and never got over it and allowed the pain
to envelop her so much that she’d forgotten what made her angry in the first
place. Her heart needs to be
softened. Problem is that no one can
find it.
Mal A watches over Aurora who
constantly smiles at her. She has a
beautiful smile. Meanwhile Stefan seems
to forget about Aurora as he makes plans on how to destroy mal A. His pride continues to eat at him. And he is never happy. But mal A becomes happy as she watches over
Aurora – which she had never intended and does try to fight it a first. Aurora
finds mal A’s heart – who wishes to undo the curse, but just can’t seem to.
I love the twist of events as the
end when Phillip kisses Aurora and what follows when she doesn’t wake up from
his kiss. I would hope that perhaps one
day mal B’s heart can be found and that she may go from hero (Stefan) to
Villain (mal A) the way that this movie has depicted.
Often we may label what makes a hero
and what makes a villain. But there is
always deception. Maybe not always, but
often enough. We read about it in history. We live with it in the court rooms. We’ve seen corrupt rulers and governments and
we have seen true heroes that wish to remain silent. For that’s what true heroes are.
