Kevin's Watch

It might just be me but with the recent rash of Snow White themed films and television shows that have popped up I have realized something I've never noticed before.

The evil Queen in the story has nothing to be worried about.


The woman must have a paranoid schizophrenic delusion because in no instance, that I can recall, has Snow White been half as beautiful or attractive as said Queen. (At least with regard to the actresses playing the roles or the way the animators have drawn the characters.)

The latest example is rather stark in my opinion. Why would a Charlize Theron queen be jealous of a Kristen Stewart Snow White? I mean seriously. There's no threat there. A beauty contest would be pointless. I could go into more depth, more specifics but it would be unnecessarily mean spirited. However you get the point.

My wife and I have been watching the television series Once Upon A Time and frankly the same situation pops up there too.

Maybe its my misunderstanding of the central point. Maybe I don't really know what it means to be "the fairest of them all".

Define fairest and I guess it might explain why these casting choices are made. Of course beauty is incredibly subjective so I am willing to accept that there may be other perspectives on the subject.

Just something that crossed my mind.

Just my humble opinion, but...

I always assumed "fairest of them all" refers to inner beauty, as well as outer comeliness. In that instance, as the two are typically depicted, Snow White beats the Queen hands down, nu?

Although maybe that's a gender way of interpreting it...

The inner beauty aspect was one that I hadn't considered being a male and having a male perspective which is completely superficial.

The evil queen has a heart as black as midnight while Snow White is the epitome of virtue and kindness.
While balancing the intangibles the scales do indeed fall towards Snow White's favor and that is certainly the heart of the matter in regard to the basic fairly tale I suppose.

However from the Queen's perspective "goodness" isn't part of the equation since she can't hope to compete in that she is incapable of understanding what it means to be a good person just the most outwardly beautiful.

aTOMiC wrote:However from the Queen's perspective "goodness" isn't part of the equation since she can't hope to compete in that she is incapable of understanding what it means to be a good person just the most outwardly beautiful.

Truth. All part of the "moral of the story."

Also, while Snow White is underage, the mirror tells the Queen that she (the Queen) is the fairest. If inner beauty does play a part, does this mean the Queen becomes more evil over time once the king passes? I assume Snow White's father would have seen the blackness of her heart, if he was as wise and good as most versions of the tale say he was.

Or does the mirror's perception of "the fairest of them all" evolve over time?

kristen stewart's stoned gaze is attractive, but less than afrikkaners theron.

but i also go with the total package of fairest as well.

Also, while Snow White is underage, the mirror tells the Queen that she (the Queen) is the fairest. If inner beauty does play a part, does this mean the Queen becomes more evil over time once the king passes? I assume Snow White's father would have seen the blackness of her heart, if he was as wise and good as most versions of the tale say he was.

Well, while I admit my memory of various fairy tales has faded over the years, I feel like a good and kind father who marries/remarries a wicked mother are not unknown (bad men are not unknown in fairy tales, but I think bad fathers are relatively unknown...?).

Or does the mirror's perception of "the fairest of them all" evolve over time?

Heh. Now that is an interesting proposition.

This thread is turning out to be somewhat less tongue in cheek hilarious than I intended.

Since when did any woman need a logical reason to be jealous?

Yet another retarded take on a fairy tail. Lovely.

(Not this thread. The upcoming film with prerequisite young stars and swords-and-sorcery pulled from Peter Jackson's waste bin.)

I always read it that as the queen begins to age she loses her confidence and the more that happens the more she becomes evil. I mean after all, if your youth and position has been determined by one fleeting thing alone then when it starts to go away and you have no fall back plan you have to do something, right? If you can't compete anymore than why not take out your competition? I too think the queens cast in both films are far more physically lovely than the snow whites they have to compete with.

If it was inner beauty, Snow White wouldn't be the only one who was fairer.

Anyway, the movie was really useless. I didn't expect much, and I got less.

If the queen was ugly, then the story would not make sense. Think Cersie in Game of Thrones. She is beautiful, but also completely aware that it was her Beauty that got her there, and men (being as aTOMic put it) are more visual...age will only sap her of her one asset. Thus, a younger girl would be a threat.

Especially like the take Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel had,

W.H.: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the UGLIEST one of all.

Mirror: Thou WERE't the ugliest, that is true, (looks at Bug's mask) but THAT BAT's uglier FAR than you!"

FWIW.

Doc

the new julia roberts fable movie looks horrible...

I agree with you. The queen is always more beautiful than Snow White and I don’t see what the problem is. She’s definitely one of the best fictional queens I’ve seen in movies.

Hi petter65, welcome to the Watch!

Come along over to The Summonsing, and get a proper welcome. (You can tell us a bit about youself as well, if you like )

Be Welcome and True!

u.

dANdeLION wrote:Since when did any woman need a logical reason to be jealous?

You have a point, there. Also, we're talking about a woman who takes advice from her mirror. Clearly, she has some issues. Maybe she should have just invested in some magic make-up instead.

I like the "inner beauty" angle, coupled with the idea of the story being about growing older and the fleeting aspect of physical beauty. However, in the original story, the prince rides by SW's glass coffin and instantly falls in love with the comatose beauty. I don't think it was her bubbly personality that won him over. I think it's all about physical beauty after all. Even a magical mirror might have trouble knowing the inner beauty of every inhabitant of the kingdom.

I haven't watched any of the recent movies, but we suffered through a couple seasons of Once Upon a Time. It was okay at first, but quickly went downhill once every "evil" character started being good. When they brought in the evil queen's mom to fill the role of villain, we called it quits. I did like how they gave the evil queen a motivation beyond beauty. Makes a better story. However, I think the theme of physical beauty is still a very deep issue in human experience, and not superficial at all. We suffer quite a bit of angst, longing, jealousy, etc. over this "superficial" quality. It's a fundamental part of our existence, and literally tied to our mortality. Beauty is youth, health, strength, fertility ... all of which are slipping away. Even taken at the surface level--skin deep--it's quite an epic tragedy. The stuff of legends and myth.