MovieChat Forums > Sleeping Beauty (1959) Discussion > It's almost like the fairies took Aurora...

It's almost like the fairies took Aurora away from her parents for not.


The fairies wanted to protect Aurora from Maleficent's curse by taking the princess away from her parents and hiding her in the forest. I thought it was a bit of tragic irony since Maleficent had located Aurora anyhow, thanks to her pet raven informing her of Aurora's whereabouts (and the raven only knew to fly near the fairies/princess' cottage because of seeing magic sparks from Flora and Merryweather's wands). So, King Stephen and the Queen didn't see their child grow up for no good reason.

Thoughts?

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It was for a good reason, albeit it was ultimately a failed attempt to save Aurora. It depends on whether you're judging by intentions or purely by the results.

Additionally, one could argue that it was a bit extreme, although this is a fairy tale, so that's par for the course.

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[deleted]

If Aurora had stayed with her parents then Male would of found her as a child


Well, Maleficent could have killed her on the spot if she had wanted to, but she wanted her curse to hang over everyone's heads for (up to) 16 years. In this way she succeeded, as Merryweather could only blunt the curse rather than negate it outright. Since the king and queen took drastic measures to help ensure that the curse would not come to fruition, destroying every spinning wheel in the kingdom, the fairies figured that Maleficent would eventually come over to make it happen herself, if it came to that, and thus they decided to hide Aurora away for 16 years. And they could not have done this much later or else it would have been difficult for Aurora and perhaps even more difficult for her parents.


and without falling in love there would be no one to save her. In a way going with the fairies saved her in an indirect way. Who knows how long Male would wait


On the other hand, hiding Aurora away from all other people significantly reduced her odds of falling in love. Yes, I know what actually happened with her and Phillip, but that was fate or incredible luck rather than the result of whatever the fairies intended or did.

As for how long Maleficent would have waited, that would be about 16 years to make the king, queen, and the whole kingdom suffer for that long--she only began searching for Aurora much sooner because she unexpectedly went missing right away, and Maleficent wanted to ensure, personally, that the curse would be fulfilled (her power to dictate fate was apparently not absolute and could be thwarted by the actions or magic of others).


or even if Aurora would've loved Philip they way she did after seeing him in the woods.


Who said that it has to be Phillip? Yes, I know how the story is supposed to go , but since we're speculating here, Aurora might have fallen in love with someone else if, hypothetically, she resented or shied away from Phillip for them being betrothed. At least she would have had a better chance of falling in love with someone or other than if she were hidden away deep in a forest. On this basis, I'd argue that the fairies' plan, though well intentioned, ultimately failed, and saving Aurora would have also failed if fate (or incredible lotto-winning luck) hadn't stepped in just in time (the fairies helped Phillip, but they would have had no chance to help save Aurora if he hadn't accidentally stumbled into Aurora in the forest).

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[deleted]

You mean "for naught."

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I personally think the fairies were idiots. While they had good intentions, they weren't exactly the sharpest tools in the fairy shed. There are also a lot of inconsistencies in the story regarding their raising of Aurora.

1.) Why would they take her to the forest, which is right next door to where Maleficent lives, if they were trying to keep her away from the evil fairy? This is also the same forest where she has animal spies, which makes the choice even more illogical.

2.) How is it that they spent 16 years living in a cottage in the forest, raising a human girl, and never learned the basics of how humans run a household? It seems as if they learned NOTHING while out there, despite being able to raise Aurora to "adulthood" clothe her, and keep all of them from starving. That still puzzles me to this day.

3.) They would have had to have been very stupid not to realize that if Flora and Merryweather got into a fight, that their magic would get out of control, and I have no doubt that was not the first time those two butted heads over who was right and who was wrong about stuff.

4.) If you're gonna have someone stand in as a "mannequin" for a tall, slender woman, why the hell would you have a short, chubby, very peeved woman do the job? Fauna would have been better off just using a wooden mannequin Aurora's size, rather than her sister, Merryweather.

I also think the fairies underestimated just how powerful this curse was. Even if they'd kept her from the castle during her 16th birthday, Aurora still would have gone into a trance and just walked up to the castle (with help from Maleficent) and gotten pricked by the spindle either way.

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Even so, they managed to free Prince Philip and helped him defeat Maleficent.
So they didn't screw everything up.

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Naught.

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