Tragedy is at the Heart

A few years ago, whenever someone would mention the word tragedy to me, I always thought about the famous Shakespearean play "Romeo and Juliet". You know, the one where there is a forbidden love between two people and they both end up committing suicide. How lovely.

Now, I have to be honest with everyone reading this blog: I do not like Shakespeare's work. I know! It's quite shocking that someone so in love with theater is not so in love with William Shakespeare, but I've just never been that big a fan of his. In fact, until about a year ago, I didn't like tragedies at all. They always made me feel horrible and I tried burying myself in movies that couldn't possibly make me sad. Like Disney movies! Oh... wait... hmm... Simba's dad dying, Flynn Rider "dying", Wreck-it Ralph destroying Vanellope's kart... maybe there's more to tragedy than I thought.

And that, my friends, is when I realized something: tragedy is at the heart of every film I've ever loved. Without feeling that emotion, the movie would be tasteless and not leave an impact on anyone. For instance: lots of people that I know adore Batman. He's totally epic in... almost every movie that portrays him (if you even mention "Batman & Robin"... I'll go ballistic). But Batman wouldn't have even come to be if on one fateful day both of his parents hadn't been shot. Without that horrible event, he would just grow up to be a rich kid who continues his family's legacy. Sure, that sounds like an OK film, but it makes it more awesome when he dresses up like a bat and fights with Liam Neeson or Heath Ledger!

Without that sad and serious part in a film, the audience wouldn't truly be able to connect with the characters being shown. How do you think "Silence of the Lambs" would have turned out if Agent Starling DIDN'T tell Hannibal Lecter about the screaming lambs on her cousin's ranch? Or if Jenny hadn't died in "Forrest Gump"? Those scenes in the films, in my opinion, shaped the movies into something spectacular (and since both films won a plethora of Academy Awards, apparently many people around the world agree with me).

(The picture below is a piece of fan art that I created for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" video game franchise. It depicts two of the central characters, Foxy and Chica, as Foxy shields Chica from the horrors coming towards them with tears forming in his eyes.)