The absurdly incompetent adults in Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events are a staple of children’s fantasy, teaching the lesson that kids must learn to become self-sufficient and rescue themselves.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:00
it is a nice day I have some very bad
00:02
news for you children your parents have
00:04
perished in a terrible fire viewers may
00:10
rejoice to find themselves back in the
00:12
land of dark elaborate children’s
00:13
fantasy with Netflix’s Lemony Snicket’s
00:16
A Series of Unfortunate Events based on
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the book by Daniel handler as the
00:20
precocious Baudelaire orphans flee the
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grotesque villain Count Olaf the limited
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adults around them prove absurdly
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unhelpful often catapulting the children
00:29
into further danger the series of oak
00:31
Salman Rushdie’s observation about The
00:33
Wizard of Oz that the film’s driving
00:35
force is the quote inadequacy of adults
00:37
even if good adults and how the weakness
00:40
of grown-ups forces children to take
00:42
control of their own destinies looking
00:44
closer at unfortunate events and the
00:46
genre of dark children’s stories since
00:48
Oz we notice a number of common features
00:51
that might seem surprising incompetent
00:54
and unreliable adults who stubbornly
00:55
refuse to ever listen to children
00:57
surrogate families and friends who
00:59
substitute for the actual family bond
01:01
weird wild wacky worlds that are vibrant
01:05
and fun but also disconcerting real
01:07
darkness and danger including a wicked
01:10
potentially world destroying villain
01:12
that the child must somehow vanquish and
01:14
ultimately the need for children to grow
01:16
stronger by realizing they can’t depend
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on these disappointing adults the
01:20
children in the story or watching or
01:22
reading it must overcome their fears of
01:24
inadequacy slay the Beast and become
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whole self-sufficient beings parole for
01:29
the madman we can’t stay with struck
01:31
loss across the face I’m sorry you don’t
01:34
have a good first impression of him at
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the beginning of each episode narrator
01:38
Lemony Snicket played by Patrick
01:39
Warburton exhorts viewers to I beg you
01:42
to turn this program off now imagine
01:44
this story has a happy ending
01:47
‘we shall wreck your evening your life
01:52
and your day every single episode is
01:55
nothing like it we can’t say we haven’t
01:57
been warned but like kids being told no
02:00
we immediately want to do exactly what
02:02
we’re told not to do so we keep watching
02:05
naively hoping for a happy ending even
02:07
though we’re told this is not going to
02:09
happen
02:09
no shoes oh no Sam is also chosen as
02:14
this forbidding adult figure Snicket
02:17
turns us into the kids even if we’re
02:19
actually adult viewers we root for the
02:22
wonderful children violet Klaus and baby
02:24
Sonny appalled by the terrible adults
02:26
causing mischief and disaster all around
02:28
them I have my Star reporter write an
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article for the front page so that
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everyone will know your home was
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destroyed in your orphans now the
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children have been orphaned by a fire in
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the family mansion thus the first way
02:40
they’ve been abandoned by adults is
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literal and physical their parents are
02:44
dead and gone but as I believe mr. Poe
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has explained to you I can act loco
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parentis e in loco parentis poco de la
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renta in loco parentis the point is I
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can order you to participate and you
03:01
must obey obvious crude unintelligent
03:06
villain Count Olaf barely bothers to
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disguise his goal of stealing the
03:09
Baudelaire fortune or enormous fortune
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who else’s our apocalypse in such a
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large amount I’m handsome and I’m
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talented and
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Olaf and his theatrical troupe of
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comically vile hench persons are hardly
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evil masterminds or even very good at
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what they do yet this doesn’t stop Olaf
03:32
from repeatedly gaining guardianship
03:34
over the children because this world of
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adults is so exceedingly blind and
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incompetent he’s only three miles away
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and your parents will was very specific
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about you being raised by your closest
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living relative if you really think
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that’s what the closest little
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relatively most strikingly the adult
03:48
world refuses to ever listen to the
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children and their frustration is one
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that many real kids can identify with
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can’t you see mr. Poe that’s Count Olaf
03:57
natural scene this is not the sea
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captain this is how NOLA we’ve already
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told you captain chairman sound Olaf in
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the sky no then I know you three have
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had some terrible experiences but you
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mustn’t start letting your imaginations
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get the best of you remember when you
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were staying with uncle Monty you were
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convinced that his assistant de fondo
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was actually Count Olaf in disguise
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Tufano was actually Count Olaf in
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disguise mr. Poe the banker who appoints
04:22
guardians for the children epitomizes
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the incompetent adult though I may be in
04:27
line for promotion so that’s how you
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spell for promotion PR om might be our
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loss those orphans are they do promotion
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right now adults like Poe never learn
04:39
from or take responsibility for their
04:41
mistakes nobody came from you put us in
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his care and are easily brainwashed by
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the most flimsy disguises or
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explanations as long as they use adult
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sounding language and formats the
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Baudelaires do attract some would be
04:55
friendly sold kind lonely neighbor
04:57
justice Strauss heroic herpetologist
05:00
uncle Monty and fragile on Josephine but
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Olaf can manipulate all of them by
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tapping into their delusions and
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unfulfilled desires whereas the
05:09
Baudelaire kids fee without delusion
05:11
like the kids in Narnia the Baudelaires
05:13
resemble adults in miniature with
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excellent ability hours a month while
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the adults are far more childlike than
05:19
the children Olaf can barely spell or
05:22
speak grammatically whereas the
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Baudelaire kids speak with the precision
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of professors you don’t know the
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difference between figuratively
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literally do you
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what emerges embodied by po is an
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inverted world in which the smartest and
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most reliable people are three young
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children on one level this inverted
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world in which adults are stupid and
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children are smart is simply a fun
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storytelling technique it’s an enjoyable
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reversal for viewers who are constantly
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being told the opposite that kids don’t
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know anything I’m smart you’re dumb I’m
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big you’re little I’m right you’re wrong
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and there’s nothing you can do about it
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even adult viewer is all too aware that
05:58
they don’t know everything
06:00
find a cathartic to see their flawed an
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artificial grown-up world so exuberantly
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mocked in a child’s eye on another level
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this world creates a void against which
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the children can grow and shine
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instead of being spoiled by parental
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love and health thus this miserable
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world which gives them nothing at least
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provides them with the opportunity to
06:20
become fine human beings on their own
06:21
back in 1939 young Dorothy Gale of
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Kansas also found her adults frustrating
06:27
and unfair but even in Oz when Dorothy
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and friends arrived at the brilliant
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green Emerald City the wizard they’ve
06:33
been seeking turns out to be yet another
06:35
incompetent adult in unfortunate events
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a running plot involves a pair of people
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we think are the returning not dead
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Baudelaire parents but spoiler alert
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this turns out to be a red herring in
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both stories we hold out hope that some
06:50
good and dependable adults will finally
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save the children from this nightmare
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but the stories reject this possibility
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apart from a few helpers with limited
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power the children are really on their
07:01
own they must rescue themselves the goal
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Dallaire children are a family unit unto
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themselves they learn to parent each
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other the children direct comfort and
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look out for one another many children’s
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stories provide a new band of companions
07:15
the stand-in family group becomes a
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substitute for the disappointing real
07:18
family a learning mechanism for bonding
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and working together with peers and on
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the symbolic or figurative level the
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companions especially animal or
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enchanted companions can represent
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pieces of a child’s self which need
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actualization and growth Harry Potter
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meets Hermione who excels in learning
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and intelligence and Ron who embodies
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loyalty and a generous
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beerus harry grows over the years
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largely thanks to internalizing these
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qualities from his best friends the Dark
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Materials trilogy goes further with the
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metaphor of the companion as missing
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parts of the child self the demon here
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is literally the child’s soul
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externalized we realize the journey and
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odds is really a journey inward the
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wizard final lesson is that all the
08:00
treasures they seek are inside
08:02
themselves all along you’ve always had
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the power to go back to Kenton
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just as any child might learn she really
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does possess all the brains hard courage
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and the inner compass she needs
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oz gives children the advice follow the
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yellow brick road sticking to the right
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path with your friends will eventually
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get you to your destination unfortunate
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events takes place somewhere not now and
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not here both more beautiful and more
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dreadful than our world
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the production design of the show
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creates the feeling of a storybook come
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to life the vibrant colors and
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dimensionality of the children
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themselves are alive against the
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frequently drab flat backdrop they’re
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forced to inhabit the interplay of
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bright and drive and around
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three-dimensional shapes against
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flatness visually embodies this clash of
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the child’s point of view or a live
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noble smart and right and the dead and
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adult point of view unfortunate events
08:57
takes after odds in this juxtaposition
09:00
of black and white sepia or gray tones
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and jewel tone primary colors color
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represents a child’s process of
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awakening to a world of dreams that
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somehow more real than waking life the
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world is scary and we should be afraid
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no matter where we go can also be there
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no matter who we tell no one will listen
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to us
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there is nowhere safe for no Guardian
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could help us with angular pointy images
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and the wild use of colour Alice’s mad
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Wonderland fills us with unease as much
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as excitement as the darkness is
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introduced the term young adult becomes
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appropriate these stories introduce a
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child to adult realities like the
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existence of evil the difficulty of
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immediately telling villains from
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friends and the complexity of the world
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which is both friendly and hostile in
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myriad
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even though it can be hard to identify
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good from bad at first these stories
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arrive at more extreme villains and
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heroes or evils and goods in battle with
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each other the heroes of these fantasies
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like the unfortunate children tend to be
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young and small the villains all possess
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the will to power terrifying physical or
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magical strength fight and hatred for
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the races they rule and the
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determination to extinguish all
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opponents Count Olaf is not exactly a
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destroyer of worlds yet he uses his
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seemingly puny talents to fool and
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conquer this messed-up incompetent adult
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world and he matches those others in his
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purely evil intention the pure evil
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represents a worldview of hate and
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selfishness that the children must
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vanquish and thus defeat the enemy
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within oneself yes there’s no happy
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ending not here not now
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trailers also rooms in many of these
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stories the alternate weird world is
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temporary the children return as better
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more grown people to their original yet
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altered real world in unfortunate events
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the Baudelaires wish very much to escape
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but they’re trapped in this nightmare at
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least for the foreseeable future in the
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threshold into young adulthood children
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realized that they’re entering a flawed
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world growing up means becoming strong
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enough to survive in this world that’s
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harsh and not fair and so we reluctantly
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learn to expect the worst
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whatever ending this Lemony Snicket
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adaptation finally lands on if the
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predecessors of dark children’s fantasy
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have taught us anything it’s that the
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answer won’t lie in the adults the
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children must rely on themselves and
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their peers to reach their fullest
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potential in a world that continues to
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disappoint we can survive Olaf
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Showtime
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[Music]
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video