Those Left Behind
It used to be... you could go on a fantasy adventure to another world and no one really cared about what happened when you went to that other world. You'd arrive back at home like you'd never left and no one was the wiser. Heck, can anyone tell me exactly how many times the Pevensie children went off to Narnia and arrived back home a moment after they left and no one was the wiser or cared anyhow? I mean, yeah, Diggory Kirk knew where they were going, but let's think seriously about this a moment...
The professor knew that the children were going off to a fantasy world that really existed with a real life evil witch and... he was okay with it! He was all, "Harrumph! I'm British! It's WWII! Those kids can't get into another war! Not with that evil witch I set free in there last time! No siree!" Of course, anyone who's read the books would know he was wrong and those poor kids had to watch Jes--I mean Aslan die. Because Professor Diggory Kirk didn't care that they went to fantasyland so long as they came back a few seconds later.
Do you know what Modern Times calls that?
Negligence. Child Endangerment. Soo many bad things...
So now, whenever someone goes on a trip to fantasyland, movies at least will show shots of the parents actively worrying about their missing kids. Or, it'll have the parent around at the end wondering what the heck is going on and why they're child who previously had commitment issues is making out with that construction worker that found her and got her to a hospital at the end of the story. For those of you who don't know, that last bit was in reference to Syfy's Alice miniseries. That's literally how it ends for the mom.
The story from her POV is: Daughter disappears to chase after the guy who's proposal she just turned down. Constuction worker finds daughter unconscious in an abandonned building that may have had a gas leak or was about to collapse or something like that. Daughter is unconscious for a couple of hours. Daughter wakes up, and they go home where daughter suddenly seems to be getting over all her issues confusing the mother to no end. Construction worker calls and he wants to check on the daughter so he's coming over. Daughter sees construction worker. Daughter and construction worker start making out. Mother stands there confused as hell.
And that's one is light on showing the way other people react to a person's sudden change of character.
The old Peter Pan movies dropped the parents the minute Wendy and company left and didn't pick up with them missing their children until the end in a similar fashion... and then had them be perfectly okay with it because their children were back, in one peace and ready to do what they wanted. The 2003 Peter Pan movie showed footage of the parents being concerned the whole time. Heck, the mother would sleep by the children's bedroom window leaving said window open at all times. Peter and the mother even battle eachother on the position of the window with Peter trying to close it and the mother trying to force it to stay open. That's a pretty big change from the olden days.
It's even gotten as far as Doctor Who which develops entire plots and plot points around those his companions leave behind. A companion even leaves the Doctor because she can't do that to her family any more after her family went through over a year of hell because their daughter got involved with the Doctor. From what I've heard, that hadn't happened in the previous serials.
In the new miniseries The Witches of Oz, a similar thing happened as part of the story. In it, Dorothy was the daughter of Frank Baum, author of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which he wrote after his daughter disappeared and his wife found a snowglobe through which he could watch her adventures while she lived in the other world... for years. Uncle Henry isn't Dorothy's uncle, he's her nephew. She arrived back in our world appearing the same age she did before she left and Frank was dead, but Uncle Henry heard the stories from his mother and his grandfather and knew who the strang little girl was. There are scenes of Frank watching his daughter in the snowglobe and trying desperately to talk to her, scenes of Frank Baum looking utterly broken at the loss of his daughter. It's pretty heart-breaking and impressive.
And it's the trend I've just caught on to...
More and more, people want to know what happens to the people left behind when Main Character #845983 goes off to fantasyland. It's not enough that we see them before and after. If the kid goes to fantasyland, we need to see that family looking for the child and trying to find them and being worried for their safety and relieved when they get home. Now, the last bit's always been there, but the rest? It's pretty new as far as I've seen. Feel free to point me to literature that will prove me wrong.
I like it.
It's interesting. It adds another layer to the story. And it makes you worried, not just if the character will make it through the story alive, but if the character will make it home in one piece so that those people don't have to worry anymore. More importantly, it'd add layers to the sequels where the person gets called back to fantasyland. Especially if those left behind conclude that something so horrible happened to the main character while they were "off on an adventure" that their mind made up the fantasyland. What sort of things would they come up with? Or what if they thought the person wanted attention and it leads to alienation?
It just presses that storyline button in my mind so much. I almost want to write a story about someone after they return home from a fantasyland and how that would turn out. Wouldn't it be cool? If you've read a book like that, tell me so I don't go off and jump on someone else's bandwagon. Mind you, mine would be a stand-alone book.
The professor knew that the children were going off to a fantasy world that really existed with a real life evil witch and... he was okay with it! He was all, "Harrumph! I'm British! It's WWII! Those kids can't get into another war! Not with that evil witch I set free in there last time! No siree!" Of course, anyone who's read the books would know he was wrong and those poor kids had to watch Jes--I mean Aslan die. Because Professor Diggory Kirk didn't care that they went to fantasyland so long as they came back a few seconds later.
Do you know what Modern Times calls that?
Negligence. Child Endangerment. Soo many bad things...
So now, whenever someone goes on a trip to fantasyland, movies at least will show shots of the parents actively worrying about their missing kids. Or, it'll have the parent around at the end wondering what the heck is going on and why they're child who previously had commitment issues is making out with that construction worker that found her and got her to a hospital at the end of the story. For those of you who don't know, that last bit was in reference to Syfy's Alice miniseries. That's literally how it ends for the mom.
The story from her POV is: Daughter disappears to chase after the guy who's proposal she just turned down. Constuction worker finds daughter unconscious in an abandonned building that may have had a gas leak or was about to collapse or something like that. Daughter is unconscious for a couple of hours. Daughter wakes up, and they go home where daughter suddenly seems to be getting over all her issues confusing the mother to no end. Construction worker calls and he wants to check on the daughter so he's coming over. Daughter sees construction worker. Daughter and construction worker start making out. Mother stands there confused as hell.
And that's one is light on showing the way other people react to a person's sudden change of character.
The old Peter Pan movies dropped the parents the minute Wendy and company left and didn't pick up with them missing their children until the end in a similar fashion... and then had them be perfectly okay with it because their children were back, in one peace and ready to do what they wanted. The 2003 Peter Pan movie showed footage of the parents being concerned the whole time. Heck, the mother would sleep by the children's bedroom window leaving said window open at all times. Peter and the mother even battle eachother on the position of the window with Peter trying to close it and the mother trying to force it to stay open. That's a pretty big change from the olden days.
It's even gotten as far as Doctor Who which develops entire plots and plot points around those his companions leave behind. A companion even leaves the Doctor because she can't do that to her family any more after her family went through over a year of hell because their daughter got involved with the Doctor. From what I've heard, that hadn't happened in the previous serials.
In the new miniseries The Witches of Oz, a similar thing happened as part of the story. In it, Dorothy was the daughter of Frank Baum, author of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which he wrote after his daughter disappeared and his wife found a snowglobe through which he could watch her adventures while she lived in the other world... for years. Uncle Henry isn't Dorothy's uncle, he's her nephew. She arrived back in our world appearing the same age she did before she left and Frank was dead, but Uncle Henry heard the stories from his mother and his grandfather and knew who the strang little girl was. There are scenes of Frank watching his daughter in the snowglobe and trying desperately to talk to her, scenes of Frank Baum looking utterly broken at the loss of his daughter. It's pretty heart-breaking and impressive.
And it's the trend I've just caught on to...
More and more, people want to know what happens to the people left behind when Main Character #845983 goes off to fantasyland. It's not enough that we see them before and after. If the kid goes to fantasyland, we need to see that family looking for the child and trying to find them and being worried for their safety and relieved when they get home. Now, the last bit's always been there, but the rest? It's pretty new as far as I've seen. Feel free to point me to literature that will prove me wrong.
I like it.
It's interesting. It adds another layer to the story. And it makes you worried, not just if the character will make it through the story alive, but if the character will make it home in one piece so that those people don't have to worry anymore. More importantly, it'd add layers to the sequels where the person gets called back to fantasyland. Especially if those left behind conclude that something so horrible happened to the main character while they were "off on an adventure" that their mind made up the fantasyland. What sort of things would they come up with? Or what if they thought the person wanted attention and it leads to alienation?
It just presses that storyline button in my mind so much. I almost want to write a story about someone after they return home from a fantasyland and how that would turn out. Wouldn't it be cool? If you've read a book like that, tell me so I don't go off and jump on someone else's bandwagon. Mind you, mine would be a stand-alone book.
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