Grimm

Baby Roast

Strange, it seems the Chinese government has suddenly un-blocked flickr. I guess those Pirate Children did the trick! Go evil children!

When playing Grimm you’ll likely notice an underlying theme of “animosity” towards children in the dark versions of the tales. Children are run over by carts, fall to their deaths, crushed by church bells, trampled by animals, drowned, burned, and otherwise mangled, mashed, and murdered in almost every episode. Case in point, a campfire that transforms into a roasting baby:

“Why?” you likely wonder. Well, one core concept of Grimm is that present day versions of fairy tales have been made too light. The teeth have been removed from them - effectively rendering their morals and messages mute. Until the threat is re-instated, what’s the point? And that’s Grimm’s mission in a nutshell: return overly-sweet tales to their original forms - full of harm, hurt, and revenge.

A few interesting tid-bits as example:

• In the original “Pinocchio”, the character you know as “Jiminy Cricket” from the Disney version, is crushed and murdered by Pinocchio. (Yes, I know Pinocchio isn’t a Grimm’s tale.)
• Alternate endings of Red Cap (Red Riding Hood) leave Red and Granny rotting to death inside the wolf. In some versions where they are rescued, the wolf is subjected to torture, mutilation, then drowning in punishment for his “crime”.
• The original ending of Cinderella featured a gruesome revenge being visited upon Cinder’s wicked family: their eyes were plucked out by birds!

And that’s the thought I’ll leave you with today… treat your step-sisters/children badly, and you risk having your eyes plucked out by birds.