#asoue the end

[ratmans-notebooks]

rewatched The End this morning cause i love being miserable

commission meee

[free-my-boy-grumbot]

what are the religious themes and parallels of ASOUE part thirteen?

I’m so glad you asked! and completely unprompted, too :)

okay so you know that karl marx quote “religion is the opium of the people”? and how that means that religion allows its followers to turn a blind eye to societal problems and to ease people’s concerns about their life? yeah well lemony snicket did that literally. the island in The End is a result of Ishmael realising that he had lost control of VFD. originally, he wanted to create a peaceful society of noble, well-read people — this led him to enforce a black-and-white view of morality onto its members. obviously, there were people who criticised this, but believe it or not ishmael is not an open minded man. once again, he believes that there is an objective view of morality, and those questioning it are inherently evil. so, he convinced the volunteers that those people were dangerous, which led to a schism, which led to. well you know. anyways that was a gross oversimplification because that’s not what i’m talking about! what i was GOING to say was that he took some people affected by the schism — people who were also seeking an escape from the horrors that VFD had put them through — and he created a civilisation for them on an island. the only source of drinkable water on this island was cordial contaminated with opioids, and he knew this. in fact, he actively stopped newcomers from creating a water filtrations system. he then did everything in his power to make the inhabitants forget their old lives. he convinced them they’d ended up here by shipwreck, he made them bring him anything that washed up to determine if it was “safe”, he stored any reminders of the past on the other side of the island and banned the inhabitants from going there.

“nothing wrong with a little opium for the people!!” SIR. SIR THERE IS. Ishmael believes that peace should be achieved through any means necessary. therefore, if a problem has become too difficult to solve, he is all for simply pretending it doesn’t exist. This is why he gives the opiates to the islanders. He believes that maintaining a peaceful VFD has grown too complicated, and that the only way a peaceful society can exist is if its members unquestionably accept his rules. He not only believes morality to be black and white, but enforces this belief onto the volunteers, teaching them that following his authority is inherently “good”, and those who oppose or even question it are inherently evil. Since he couldn’t run a society like this in the “real world” — he would always have opposition, which would always mean conflict — he simply created his own, smaller world, where the civilians were too high off their balls to think critically about his leadership. After that, he only had to seem benevolent on the surface because they would all be too comfortable to dig deeper.

Now, black-and-white ethics, dictation of peace, dismissal of societal issues, and lack of scrutiny towards authority are all classic criticisms of the catholic church, and you could definitely draw some parallels between Ishmael’s style of leadership and organised religion. This has all been quite generic antitheism so far. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!!

There is an apple tree on the “bad” side of the island. the tree is hollow. there is a library inside, containing any books which may remind the islanders of their past life. these mostly include books from the volunteers and firestarters, the “good” and “bad” sides of the schism. one might say it’s a sort of. a s. a sort of tree of knowledge of good and evil, if you will.

And then later in the book, klaus and violet, a man and a woman, are given an apple from that tree by a snake. classic daniel handler subtlety <3 so ofc this represents genesis, but here is where we get Wierd With It.

The apple saves the baudelaires. They were poisoned with the medusoid mycelium, and the apple immunised them. in fact, the apple is not presented in a negative light in the slightest. this has VERY interesting implications in my opinion and it makes me think that daniel handler is saying, in the bible, eve was also never wrong for eating the fruit! we would be nowhere without the knowledge of sin and death and suffering, there would be no art without it, nor would there be appreciation for the good (ok this part might be me)! eve was in the right, and so was the snake!! which is also incredibly fitting because everyone thinks that the incredibly deadly viper is evil but it actually wouldn’t hurt a fly (we know because monty tried to feed it flies :))

“ohhh ur overthinking it” yes on purpose overthinking this series is my number one hobby. anyways i just thought daniel handler was making an interesting point here :33 anyways i will add more stuff if i think of it

[peteytheparrot]

A Series of Unfortunate Events liberated me as a child in the way that it shows how utterly incompetent adults can be about children, like none of them care to understand how these children are feeling because they don’t see them as real living human beings, because they’re just kids! They don’t know any better!

[ahoohahoohahooha]

“Im straight” “Im gay” okay?? There’s no happy endings?? Not here and not now?? This tale is all sorrows and woes?? You may dream that justice and peace win the day?? But that’s not how the story goes????

[pipbellerophon]

jacques and kit, age four, conferring on what they should name their baby brother. coming to a decision and approaching the adults of vfd. we have decided that his name shall be lemony. becuase his hair is yellow. like lemons. but he is NOT a lemon. just lemon-y

[random-dragon-exe]

Okay hot take, but I wouldn't mind if adult Timmy doesn't appear in FOP A New Wish.

Maybe it's just me, but I think it'd be great to have some ambiguity to his fate.

Think of it like the fate of the Baudelaires in ASOUE, at the end of The End, the audience doesn't know their fate. However, it's up to the person's imagination to create their fate. Sometimes, we won't get all the answers, and it's up to the audience to fill in the gaps.

I honestly think it'd be for the better for the show to continue the stories of a couple of OG characters to further the plot, except for Timmy.

Mainly because I'd like the show to continue on its own merit, not just for the nostalgia of showing the OG characters we've seen.

For example, I like the direction that we've seen so far, allowing a few OG characters to return to have an actual impact on the plot, and it feels natural to their story.

A.J founded the Galaxa Institute

Crocker is a janitor at the Institute still with a fairy obsession

Vicky is a birthday princess who terrorizes kids when the adults aren't looking

Again it's a hot take for a reason. I'm aware that I'm in the minority here.

[pocketneophyte]

Day 16 Snicketober catch up:

uhhh UHHH UHHHH favourite ship is (SORRY) sugarbowl gen era olaf and kit <\3333333333

never would I want them to actually be together but the implied angst / tragedy / betrayal just adds so much GRAHH feelings to the characters we see in asoue

Prompt by @free-my-boy-grumbot , ref photo under the cut!

[palmolli]

both of my comfort shows don't have a single moment of comfort lmao

love them anyway

[cult-of-the-eye]

Lemony Snicket is an avatar of the eye oh my god his series of unfortunate events could absolutely pass as a series of statements by the Baudelaire siblings like actually

[eirescent]

Illustrations based on the ending of the book “The Vile Village” by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)♡

</3

[stew4]

I think reading lemony snicket at the wrong age in the wrong mindset is terrible for you.

I think reading lemony snicket at the right age with the right mindset is the best thing to happen to a person.

[free-my-boy-grumbot]

i wish people would just check up on me more. a simple “how are you?” “have you eaten today?” “what are the religious themes and parallels in Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events part 13?”. is that too much to ask

[astheworldgoesonitswickedway]

Putting this together was kind of sad but also sort of satisfying. Also I kind of forgot how many people actually die, considering this is only the V.F.D. members. And Olaf too, he was unavoidable in those pictures of Kit so I just went with it but it felt sort of fitting too I guess. Well anyway, I'm kind of obsessed with this song now, so you know what they say. Memento Mori.

[peteytheparrot]

Ok but only A Series of Unfortunate Events could open with such a good quote every episode like ‘Darling, Dearest, Dead’ goes SO hard wtf…

[vfdinthewild]

"she didn't understand why he kept leaving to go to the vet for days or hours at a time..."

-via a random cat video that Instagram showed me

[theatre-artmuppet]

if i had a nickel for every time my favorite character from a piece of media i love was a chaotic good, kind of crazy, italian, herpetologist— i’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice