In Defense of Fairytale Magic

"There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish, sometimes." - The Fourth Doctor

That thumbnail Mickey Mouse is cursed and I love it

"You know what's the difference between an adult and a kid? An adult knows when he can act as a kid" My dad

I stan wholesome, lighthearted stories as much, if not more than dark brooding ones. As much as I love Niel Gaiman and Poe, my heart belongs to the unbridled joy and contented friendship of Terry Pratchett and Brian Jaques.

I highly suspect we all want some whimsy in our lives, even as adults. It's why we sometimes enjoy getting a little silly when eating lunch at the office with friends, go crazy with Halloween or Christmas decorations, and memorize our favorite songs from Broadway shows. Because all of that gives us the magic and whimsy we need in our lives. And I think that's beautiful.

I understand why people might well hate fantasy for mostly being for children. But I feel it being for children gives it well a child like wonder. And, this is my biased opinion, reading nice peaceful book on and fall nigh is a nice breath of fresh air from the creepy and outright disturbing books I read.

“Teens are merely big children And adults are even bigger children” -Queen, Deltarune

It's just berserk vs one piece, both are amazing in their own way. One is a dark fantasy full of pain, suffering and tragedy. A tale of a man who struggles against the very powers that move the world itself. The latter is a long adventure full of joy and laughter. Both are different animals. Yet the same beast.

Having actually read the Howl’s Moving Castle book, I can say with certainty that the part where Sophie and co travel to Wales is one of my favorites. It’s so fun seeing these characters from a world of whimsy come to our world, only to find it uniquely whimsical from their perspective. Glowing boxes and carriages without horses would no doubt seem quite strange to people who are more reliant on magic than technology.

Horror makes us humble, gives us hope, and grants us the strength to fight on Fantasy makes us wonder, gives us a glimpse of possibilities, and gives us the strength to belief Both are important to be human. They make the world special and makes it bigger than we can see. And there is a truth to it we don't often see. The world is an incredibly complex and weird place. Whimsey, to me, makes that fantastical weirdness and horrific complexity approachable. And that is powerful, no matter what age you are

That explains why shows like the Owl House, Amphibia, Hilda and Bluey have been popular with adults

I actually tend to like the lightheaded content as much as the dark stuff. The problem is some people are reluctant to accept their own bright and cheerful side.

That C.S. Lewis quote is one of my favorites! A good reminder that growing up doesn't have to mean everything turns into a miserable slog till the grave

My loved ones always tell me, "The world has enough scary stuff. The world needs people like you (referring to me), cute and always seeks out the magical, the impossible, the sweetness ❤️"

I've always absolutely loved stuff intended for child, not just with fiction, but any sort of media, with the obvious caveat of so long as it's genuinely written, not one of those "Sanitized" things you bring up in your "Why kids stories should be darker" video. I think the best way I've ever seen it explained was that, kids, due to their lack of knowledge about how things are, instead are full of an intense wonder about how the world around them is. The annoying cliche is of a kid who asks a question, then just never stops repeating "But why?" to their parent's frustration, but as annoying as it is, it does somewhat show that to be the case. They keep asking why because they want to learn, they want to understand why the sky is blue, why waves form on the surface of water, why some animals can only live on land or in water, while others can do both. I heard about that explination from a wonderfully well written Visual Novel called Katawa Shoujo. Throughout the game, you have a science teacher who has acted as a sort of mentor for your character, often being "the adult" that you go to see whenever your character is struggling with something they don't know how to deal with. Eventually towards the end of one storyline in the game, your character is trying to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their life, and ask the teacher why he decided to be a science teacher and not something else. He asks your character if, as a child, you ever played around with sticks, stones and puddles, tossing rocks into ponds or moving sticks around in gutters. You respond of course, lots of kids do things like that, messing with something or watching it for no apparent reason other than to do it. The teacher responds that the reason kids do that is because they're curious about how the water will flow and change if they mess with it, everyone, even at such young ages, have an "intense wonderment" about how the world around them works, even in its smallest forms. For him, he still held onto that wonderment, which led him into going into science, and becoming a teacher in the hopes of re-lighting that spark of curiosity in others before the weight of adulthood snuffs it out fully. Kids don't know, they know they don't know, and they want to know, so they experiment and play with things, asking why over and over so that they can learn. Just, unfortunately due to events in your life, the responsibility of adulthood, exhaustion from dealing with every day, and countless other things, that innate curiosity in kids gets buried until it no longer is there. So something intended "for kids" is often designed to fuel that "sense of wonderment", to get you to really understand what makes X so interesting. Like, personally, I find city engineering a fairly bland concept, building roads, laying power lines, ectect, but someone willingly chose to dedicate their life to that field and become an engineer out of a genuine love for it. I might not understand what makes it so cool, so seeing a channel like Practical Engineering that shows off "Why this is super awesome" with a very childish wonder and excitement makes me find it far more interesting. It's especially the case in regards to sciences, but I think it also applies to fiction too. Children haven't had their worldview "biased" by the understanding that "Animals do not speak like we do, and so they wouldn't have dinner together like we would", which makes the idea of the Three Bears of Goldilocks seem more real than adults would. Because of how "real" it feels for them, it lets them be taught things they don't know yet and need to learn, such as the idea of breaking into a house that isn't yours being wrong, and if they do it, they could get hurt.

I wonder where Made In Abyss stands in this spectrum. Between Cthulu and Fairy tales. On the one hand you have a magical hole filled with long lost relics and adventure, fantastical creatures and breathtaking landscapes. But on the other hand it literally melts you alive if you try to climb back up even a level and the animals are indifferent to your pittiful existence at best.

I looooove whimsy and im a little sad not more is done in fantasy novels for adults with it these days i assume many dont even know that youre allowed to use whimsy as an adult trope

Alice in Wonderland is my favorite children's novel specifically because it's whimsical and ultimately inconsequential. I wish more of my life were like that.

using howl's moving castle as an example was a great move. i never knew there was a book, and now that i do, i'm going to get it. i don't care if it's for kids and i'm technically not a kid anymore (i'm still a minor but my parents do expect a lot more maturity on my part). when i first watched the movie, i was enamored with it, genuinely. it was magical, beautiful, it moved me in a way i didn't know a movie could. i was listening to a playlist one time, and "The Merry-Go-Round of Life" began playing. The piece was amazing paired with the movie, but when all on its own... when i tell you i almost cried, i mean it. it made me feel emotions i didn't even know existed. the best words for it are melancholy and whimsy. truthfully, that feeling was the most "childlike wonder" feeling i have ever felt, along with watching the movie. i can't wait to read the book. i think i'm gonna go put the book on my wish list for my birthday or christmas, while watching the movie. thank you for reminding me it exists.

One of the things I've recently said was, why should I change what I like, how I act, or the way I walk just because of the number that I carry (age). Since I was a kid and until I became a grandma, I have and will always love fairy tales. For that, I have to thank Barbie movies. Barbie As Rapunzel specifically because that's one of the reasons why I became an artist, or it's the earliest I can recall as to why I chose art.