Santa is a prick is a lot of Rankin-Bass productions, but yeah, he’s at his worst here.
On the other hand, red-nosed aside, if his parents didn’t want him teased, shouldn’t they have named him something besides “Rudolph”?
That’s worse than “Dancer” and “Prancer”? Not to mention that drunken lout “Blitzen”.
And Donner had to be muzzled lest he take a chunk out of a passing reindeer.
Shouldn’t he be, though? He is the boss, and everyone’s welfare depends on him.
It’s fine that Rudolph has to prove himself to be part of the team, but there’s no excuse for harassing the youngest and smallest one.
But did they ostracize him for being different, or for lying to them for years? Remember, it was his own parents who covered up his nose literally from the moment of his birth. To all the other reindeer, he appeared to be perfectly normal (expect maybe for always talking like his nose was stuffed up), and he was accepted until this deception was discovered.
Perhaps the reindeer were merely expressing their displeasure at having been not only deceived, but also having been presumed to being racists before they even had a chance to meet Rudolph.
The verb tense used, “used to call him name” is used for actions occurring before the period being discussed, so no, the bullying was not a reaction to Rudolph being outed, which happened during the period.
I don’t know. I don’t remember anyone but Santa being upset by the deception. Santa tells Donner he ought to be ashamed of himself. But the others all zeroed right in on the nose and cruelly teased Rudolph solely because of it. And Clarice’s father was adamant that he did not want his doe hooking up with a red-nosed reindeer. The Donner family fears about the communal reaction seem justified.
Donner was wrong, but he did understand how difficult it was going to be for Rudolph. Kids can be very cruel too each other. Coach Comet however, should be fired. He was Donner’s teammate on the annual sleigh pull and should have stood up for his co-worker’s son. I wonder if there was some historical animosity between the two?
Jack Johnson addresses this in his version by adding a last verse.
I’m still charging them triple.
This is how I justify Rudolph overlooking the taunts.
Forgiveness demands empathy and the willingness to surrender one’s own needs and pride in furtherance of something greater. I can think of no greater strength than to not take insults personally, and instead recognize them as evidence of ignorance and insecurity of the offenders. All they understand is hurtful behavior, so returning it won’t improve anything. Answering hate with patience and love may not work every time either, but it’s got a better chance of making the world a better place. If you want better, be better.
This thread makes me wonder about what happened after that Christmas foggy night. Did the other reindeers still accept Rudolph as one of them? Or, once he wasn’t needed anymore, did they shun him as an outcast once more?
I can imagine the elves cobbing together a new headlight system for the reindeers to wear and exclaim “Now that we’ve got these high-beams to cut through any fog, we won’t have to rely on that FREAK anymore!”
For that matter, what were the reactions of all the girls and boys who received misfit toys on Christmas morning? “Who wants a CHARLIE in the box???” Were there demands for refunds? Did a lot of those misfit (or “defective” as some might put it) toys end up at the bottom of boxing day garbage pails wailing “Oh, I wish I’d stayed on the island! What was I thinking??”
Mmm, I don’t agree with that definition of forgiveness at all. That is forbearance and charity and tolerance. Forgiveness is personal and individual. It is moving past the pain, but not a surrender.
But, then, I’m charging triple.
??? That doesn’t even come remotely close to scanning. It doesn’t even scan with itself.
The guy made a list. He checks it. Twice, even. Don’t tell me he wasn’t aware of exactly who was naughty and who was nice.
??? That doesn’t even come remotely close to scanning. It doesn’t even scan with itself.
[/QUOTE]
I hear Satchmo growling & laughing the lyrics
Potato/Potatoe
The other reindeer were only pretending to love Rudolph after he saved the day. They simply knew *he *was now Santa’s favorite, not Dasher, and they needed to keep on his good side or get laid off.
Furthermore, Santa would have realized the value of the glowing-nose gene and would have wanted to breed it in his herd, so Rudolph was about to get all the action he could stand. That prospect would be enough to sustain him through a long Christmas Eve.
Way back in the mid 1990s on USENET, I remember coming across a short story titled “Rudolph’s Last Goodnight” on this note.
The only link to it I could find via Google was this, which has formatting problems, but the text is as I recalled it:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FOLKLORE/2000-12/0976111129
“He’d go down in history all right. Yeah, he would.”
Forgiveness is great, and I very much recommend it. But I do not agree with this.
If you just forgive everyone, then there will be no consequences for the actions, and thus no reason to stop doing the bad things. Rather than love and patience helping, you’ve become an enabler.
There is a reason the Christian version of forgiveness requires repentance. The person has to express sorrow that they hurt you and a desire to not do it again. This isn’t necessary the only line, but it’s a good one for determining whether love and patience will help work. You can choose to forgive without repentance, but you need a good reason, like it making you happier or it making things better for others.
You’ve got to differentiate between those who need forgiveness and those who would take advantage of it. I mean, taking such advantage is a common tactic of abusers. It’s how they push the boundaries.
I wish life were a simple as “X is always good.” But it rarely is.
That said, Rudolph has a good reason to forgive. The implication is that all the other reindeer realized that, even though Rudolph is different, that doesn’t mean he’s bad. They “love him,” as the song says. It’s not just them using him while still thinking of him as a freak.
So, while not explicit, that suggests repentance, seeing the error of their ways.
(The movie makes it even clearer, with the Misfit Toys and Hermie also there, and some explicit apologies.)
All this said, it wouldn’t be wrong for Rudolph to insist on being in charge of the next reindeer games. And he doesn’t have to be all buddy-buddy with the worst namecallers or anything.
It’s also good to remember Rudolph and Hermey were accepted by Santa and the others *prior *to Santa getting that final disastrous weather forecast. It was merely a coincidence that Rudolph was suddenly needed. And Hermey got to open his dentist practice before any widespread tooth decay or cavity issues swept through the North Pole. So the charge that Santa and others only wanted the misfits around when they proved to be useful is false.
If Rudolph was going to refuse his acceptance into the Christmastown community, he should have done so immediately, not after the community asked him to be a good citizen.