# It's kind of sad when you think about it. POSSIBLE SPOILERS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862 "2011-11-23T12:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/61 "2011-11-24T15:51:50Z")
The Professor Layton games all seem to have horrible endings. To borrow a post I wrote in a previous thread on the subject, at the end of the first game:[spoiler]The Professor and Luke “rescue” Flora from the Tower (which she could leave at any time, mind you). The Professor becomes her guardian, and she elects to leave her fortune behind so that the “people” of the village can continue to go on as before with their (artificial) lives. Or, to put it another way: A young girl has been given away to a strange man as a prize for solving a bunch of puzzles. I’m fairly sure that’s illegal in most Western countries. Bruno, the only other actual human in the village, who has been keeping up all the robots out of devotion to Flora and her late father, is now condemned to stay in the village on his own and continue to repair the robots (which appear to break down frequently, judging by the number of “disappearances” mentioned earlier in the game). Bruno will have to do this without his workshops, which were in the Tower, which is now a pile of rubble. And that’s assuming Bruno got out of the collapsing Tower (which he probably did - Luke escaped from a point much further from the exit, and the drawbridge crank turned up at the end which Bruno had). [/spoiler] The second game (Pandora’s/Diabolical Box) is marginally better, except that you discoverthe entire second half of the game was a hallucination. A hallucination that everyone shared. Thus making all the wandering around collecting clues and making goddamn tea for everyone entirely pointless. I half expected to see Bobby Ewing coming out of the shower. But the third one (Lost/Stolen Future) takes the biscuit. We are asked to [spoiler]feel sorry for Clive, who lost his parents in a tragic accident caused by the Prime Minister’s meddling. Except that Clive has just killed _thousands_ by ripping a hole in the center of one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and stomping on other parts of it with his giant robot. And a goodly portion of the city is also likely to subsequently fall into the now-unstable hole. How many vengeful orphans is _that_ going to create? Meanwhile, after being presented with evidence that the PM had caused the death of several people through his actions the police punish him by giving him a stern look. Justice done, I guess.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/62 "2011-11-25T20:18:24Z")
_Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ would end with Charlie fighting off lawsuits from the other 4 kids for the next twenty years, all of whom were too young to legally enter into a contract like the one they signed. They came there being explicitly promised before millions of witnesses a lifetime of free chocolate and instead they had their lives endangered and left with nothing. Best case scenario is that Charlie would probably at least get a decent settlement but it’s doubtful he’d ever get the chocolate factory as Wonka is clearly out of his mind and the contract is easily invalidated, but even if he does get the factory a boy and a semi-invalid old man are going to be completely unable to contend with the Labor Board/Immigration/Health/etc. (or whatever the corresponding agencies are in Wonka’s country) all swarming in like Visigoths when reports of Wonka’s practices and the Oompa Loompahs emerge. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/63 "2011-11-26T00:39:41Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > A similar but much more extreme example is the recent film **Source Code**. > > The bombing may have been averted, but the teacher’s personality seems to have been erased from history. The soldier knows no-one in his new life at all, and is not equipped to hold down his job. Marty at least knows his family somewhat, their changed circumstances won’t have completely altered their personalities. What I read into that ending was that the teachers personality perhaps moved onto the body of the solider in _that_ reality, and in a few weeks or day would have their turn to move on… He was (like everyone else on that train) dead anyway… So it was a second chance for him, after death, like the soldier had… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/64 "2011-11-26T02:17:40Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > At the very least, [in CE3K], Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss’s character) abandoned his wife and children for however long. And of course before he left, they thought he went nuts, so they’re not even going to have happy memories of him. Spielberg said in a recent interview that that was his biggest regret about the movie, which he made before he had a wife and kids of his own. At least he hasn’t tried to change it since, a la substituting walkie talkies for guns in _E.T._, or making Greedo shoot first. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/65 "2011-11-26T04:10:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The above mentions **Toy Story 2**. I’d add the origional **Toy Story** as well. > > The toys revealed themselves to the bully kid. Admittedly he’s not a likeable sort, but it’s worth remembering he was taking out his emotional problems on _inanimate objects_- at least he wasn’t blowing up animals or shooting kids in the eye with BB guns. Now he’s just realized that toys are alive and sentient and capable of confrontation. One of three things will come about: Consider the implications of Woody’s message to Sid. I thought there was some sort of metaphysical force which made the toys inanimate whenever there was a human around. But it turns out that’s not the case. Woody is able to talk to Sid. Clearly, they can be sentient beings when there is a human about, but they choose not to. What assholes! You think Andy would rather have a real, thinking friend he can interact and converse with, or a floppy-limbed cowboy whose repartee never rises above “there’s a snake in my boot”? This is the silent treatment on an epic scale. The toys are basically torturing children. > [@](#): > > 2- He now knows that toys are there and they are watching, and after his initial defeat at their hands he’ll never let that happen again. He will carry out a lifetime vendetta against toys- Buzz and Woody saved a beat up old doll and some army men but they’ve just created the Toy Holocaust as this guy dedicates his life to destroying the little mass produced demons before they grow stronger and more powerful. Little plastic bastards deserve it. > [@Miller](#): > > They don’t steal the limo in 1974, though. Bart shoots Hedley, and he and Jim watch the movie. In the movie, Bart and Jim are back in Rockridge, and ride off on horses for about twenty yards, when they dismount and get into a waiting limo. The limo is obviously waiting for them, and they’re back in 1874, with a car that’s a hundred years ahead of the technological curve. Clearly, Bart ends up founding General Motors using his borrowed future-tech limo and lives like a king until the end of his days. While buzzards pick over the remains of Count Basie and his orchestra. Seriously, anybody think they could survive out in the desert? > [@Sampiro](#): > > _Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ would end with Charlie fighting off lawsuits from the other 4 kids for the next twenty years, all of whom were too young to legally enter into a contract like the one they signed. They came there being explicitly promised before millions of witnesses a lifetime of free chocolate and instead they had their lives endangered and left with nothing. Best case scenario is that Charlie would probably at least get a decent settlement but it’s doubtful he’d ever get the chocolate factory as Wonka is clearly out of his mind and the contract is easily invalidated, but even if he does get the factory a boy and a semi-invalid old man are going to be completely unable to contend with the Labor Board/Immigration/Health/etc. (or whatever the corresponding agencies are in Wonka’s country) all swarming in like Visigoths when reports of Wonka’s practices and the Oompa Loompahs emerge. Maybe that was Wonka’s plan all along. He knew there were legal problems down the road, but was such a recluse there was no way he’d be able to avoid the legal liabilities. The whole Golden Ticket thing was a scam to install patsy Charlie at the head of the company before the shit hit the fan. Meanwhile Wonka has cashed out a bunch of gold eggs (getting a head start on Easter, yeah, right.) and flown off to an island in the tropics with no extradition where he can exploit the natives to carry out his every whim. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/66 "2011-11-26T04:52:55Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Similar to The Graduate, the 1972 The Heartbreak Kid ends with Cybill Shepard inexplicably married to Charles Grodin, when her whole family just loathes him. But it’s more of a ‘you win, but you are such jerks that you lose’. It’s not just that; it seems pretty likely that Lenny (Grodin) will tire of Kelly (Shepard) and leave her eventually, as he did with his first wife. Their relationship was really based on nothing but a brief infatuation. And if they do wind up staying together, they will in all likelihood be _miserable_ with each other. Len Cantrow, as portrayed by Charles Grodin, is a thoroughly unlikable character, and also seems mentally subnormal in some way - his style of speech almost sounds like Rocky Balboa’s punch-drunk mumbling. He also displays strong sociopathic tendencies. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/67 "2011-11-27T05:18:20Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > If the sharks stop eating fish, it will finally bring _culture_ to the ocean. > > Both The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Jumanji have the problem Big had, to a much higher degree — children who have lived well into adulthood suddenly regressed back to where they were, but with full memory of their past life. I can’t imagine a normal life for them after that. (For the Pevensies, it may not be so bad since the world’s going to end soon enough). The sequel, _Prince Caspian_, addressed this near the beginning. The older kids, especially Peter, were having trouble adjusting to life as ordinary teenagers again. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/68 "2011-11-27T05:44:27Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#): > > Sort of the Space Alien version of the Dread Pirate Roberts? “I’ll likely eat you tomorrow.” Oh it was a fine time. I was learning all sorts of things. How to operate a star ship, how to use a ray gun. Then one day it happened. The alien captain came up to me and said “We am not the original space faring aliens. My race was picked up just like you were. In fact, the original race has been retired and living on Omicron Perseid 8 for over 3 million years.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/69 "2011-11-27T05:55:49Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > The sequel, _Prince Caspian_, addressed this near the beginning. The older kids, especially Peter, were having trouble adjusting to life as ordinary teenagers again. Probably one of the reasons Susan decided it was easier just to repress it all. And talk about depressing, now she has to live with the trauma of having her entire family die on her. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/70 "2011-11-27T05:56:49Z")
In **How to Train Your Dragon** , it seems pretty obvious the big gigantic dragon is the “queen”, analogous to an ant or bee queen. Which left me thinking if rather then making peace with the dragons, the Vikings didn’t doom them, or at least that particular nest of them, to extinction by removing their one member that can reproduce. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/71 "2011-11-27T05:57:00Z")
If you have not seen “Let the Right One In” don’t click the spoiler box, and watch the movie. That said Eli is inside the crate on the train, tapping “I love you” in morse code with Oskar, which he taps back. For a moment, you think everything is going to be ok, until you realize that in 30 years, Oskar will have replaced the man who was originally supplying Eli with blood at the beginning of the movie. She can’t ever love him the way he loves her. She was grooming him, all this time. He’s inescapably doomed. ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/72 "2011-11-27T05:57:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The above mentions **Toy Story 2**. I’d add the origional **Toy Story** as well. > > The toys revealed themselves to the bully kid. Admittedly he’s not a likeable sort, but it’s worth remembering he was taking out his emotional problems on _inanimate objects_- at least he wasn’t blowing up animals or shooting kids in the eye with BB guns. Now he’s just realized that toys are alive and sentient and capable of confrontation. One of three things will come about: > > 1- He’ll be a hopeless basket case for the rest of his life, unable to so much as eat a piece of lettuce for terror the lettuce head’s mother will come at him accusing him of murder and plotting revenge. And, in terms of body count, this is the _Best Case Scenario_. > > 2- He now knows that toys are there and they are watching, and after his initial defeat at their hands he’ll never let that happen again. He will carry out a lifetime vendetta against toys- Buzz and Woody saved a beat up old doll and some army men but they’ve just created the Toy Holocaust as this guy dedicates his life to destroying the little mass produced demons before they grow stronger and more powerful. > > 3- He’ll figure "I was reserving my greatest fucked-upedness for toys because they’re insentient and inanimate, but now that I’ve learned that they’re neither insentient or inanimate, hell, I might as well move on to animals and then other kids and finally just go full blown serial killer. The only hope for this scenario is that one day he’ll move to Miami and Dexter will catch wise and take him out. (And who’s the Special Guest Serial Killer on _Dexter_ this season? None other than Colin Hanks, the son of Tom- i.e. Tom Hanks made him, just as he did the horror that evolved from the kid next door who only wanted to take out frustration at his impotence in a bad home life on some old junk toys but now takes out men, women, and children in increasingly elaborate ways.) If it matters to you at all, we **do** get to see what happened to Sid during a brief 11-second cameo in “Toy Story 3.” While his choice of vocation _does_ suggest a lack of formalized schooling, we can still extrapolate that he doesn’t appear to be any worse for the wear. And he did manage to keep that spiffy skull shirt all these years. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/73 "2011-11-27T06:43:08Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I recently watched _Splendor in the Grass_, which is a screaming argument for sex education in public schools if ever I saw one, but the ending, which I think was intended to evoke a wistfulness for young love looked back on from adulthood, just makes me think the two main characters are going to be meeting in dingy motels every few months for the rest of their lives. I honestly thought Beatty’s character had accepted and moved on… but Natalie Wood… always going to be batshit crazy obsessed with him. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/74 "2011-11-27T09:14:34Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The movie _The Family Man_: > > Nicholas Cage wakes up to find that he’s in an alternate universe where he had married his old flame years earlier and had two kids with her. > > At the end of the movie, he returns to his original time line. So the two cute kids are dead! Gone. No more. They have ceased to be. I found it incredibly cruel. > > Alternate universe movies are just plain evil. Especially when the movie leaves Cage alive. What an awful future universe. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/75 "2011-11-27T09:36:41Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Well, in the first movie, Marty and his siblings were slowly disappearing from the picture and the assumption was Marty had until they had all disappeared to right his interference. Really, you’d expect all 3 to disappear from the photo immediately upon Marty’s intrusion on his father and mother’s courtship. (Actually, the photo should disappear as the events that led up to the taking of the photo will not have occurred.) So in a universe that apparently has a ripple effect for changes in chronology, I think his supposition makes as much sense as any. The photo fade/reappearance was compelling on a few levels, but the one thing I always found interesting, especially given how much Marty’s family had changed, was that they were all wearing the same clothes after they faded back in. You’d think that they wouldn’t have dressed so badly if the parents were more hip or had more money. Of course, living in the same house was also a strange thing. But not as strange as his brother still living at home while he’s working in an office somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/76 "2011-11-27T10:45:38Z")
> [@Chastain86](#): > > If it matters to you at all, we **do** get to see what happened to Sid during a brief 11-second cameo in “Toy Story 3.” While his choice of vocation _does_ suggest a lack of formalized schooling, we can still extrapolate that he doesn’t appear to be any worse for the wear. And he did manage to keep that spiffy skull shirt all these years. 🙂 I guess the Pixar people wanted to make fun of Sid, and audiences going _“That nasty kid ended up with the crummy job he deserved.”_ However, in this economy, most of the audience’s reaction would be _“Lucky jerk! He’s got a steady job!”_ Speaking of the Dread Pirate Roberts and The Princess bride, it always bothered me that for years, and I mean, YEARS, Wesley was a pirate who basically murdered or ordered the death of every single person whose ship he assaulted. Women, children, babies, everybody. Dread Pirate Roberts explicitly left no survivors. I don’t think that’s something you can just shrug off and go back to the farm. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/77 "2011-11-28T06:22:30Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > …Speaking of the Dread Pirate Roberts and The Princess bride, it always bothered me that for years, and I mean, YEARS, Wesley was a pirate who basically murdered or ordered the death of every single person whose ship he assaulted. Women, children, babies, everybody. Dread Pirate Roberts explicitly left no survivors. I don’t think that’s something you can just shrug off and go back to the farm. Well, as Westley explains to Buttercup in the movie, the whole point for taking on the “Dread Pirate Roberts” persona was for “inspiring the necessary fear” in people so that they would surrender immediately, adding that “no one would surrender to the dread pirate Westley.” I think that the whole “never leaving any survivors” was just part of the schtick. It’s never explicitly stated whether or not anybody was ever actually killed by Westley or any of his predecessors, or if they were simply rumored to have done so. Seeing Westley’s personality and interactions with people in the film, it seems quite unlikely that he made a habit of routinely killing people. What’s not explained is why people would ever surrender in the first place when it was supposedly commonly known that the Dread Pirate Roberts never left any survivors. If so, why surrender? ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/78 "2011-11-28T06:26:41Z")
I can think of the inverse - in _Titanic_, there’s a happy ending. Rose dies and gets to dance with Jack again (hence the dream/dead sequence at the end). \ I thought it rather sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/79 "2011-11-28T11:59:59Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Well, as Westley explains to Buttercup in the movie, the whole point for taking on the “Dread Pirate Roberts” persona was for “inspiring the necessary fear” in people so that they would surrender immediately, adding that “no one would surrender to the dread pirate Westley.” > > I think that the whole “never leaving any survivors” was just part of the schtick. It’s never explicitly stated whether or not anybody was ever actually killed by Westley or any of his predecessors, or if they were simply rumored to have done so. Seeing Westley’s personality and interactions with people in the film, it seems quite unlikely that he made a habit of routinely killing people. > > What’s not explained is why people would ever surrender in the first place when it was supposedly commonly known that the Dread Pirate Roberts never left any survivors. If so, why surrender? Although I’m speaking from memory, it was implied that his predecessor killed everyone in his ship sparing only him, that he, the predecessor, wasn’t the original Roberts either and that whoever took over from him would have to do the same. I don’t know, maybe Roberts only massacred those ships who didn’t surrender. That’d still leave a lot of innocent blood in his hands. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862/80 "2011-11-28T13:35:22Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > Both The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Jumanji have the problem Big had, to a much higher degree — children who have lived well into adulthood suddenly regressed back to where they were, but with full memory of their past life. I can’t imagine a normal life for them after that. (For the Pevensies, it may not be so bad since the world’s going to end soon enough). Wrong for LWAW book - while they were growing up in Narnia as kings and queens, their memories of Earth faded (so they didn’t suffer from homesickness or miss their parents) : proof in the last chapter, when they happen onto the Lantern in the Forest, they’ve forgotten what it is. And as they slowly return into the wardrobe, the magic that compresses time and removes their royal clothes also apparently alters their memories. Proof: in the next book, Prince Caspian, when the children return, it takes some time for them to remember and relearn their old memories and skills. In the later books, it’s also explained that while some magic - wardrobes, rings, horn calls, doorways - are necessary to travel between worlds, also Aslan is necessary to allow it and to gently influence who comes when and how. It would make sense for Aslan to gently fade the memories to spare the children problems. In addition, growing up in a fairy-tale-like court with talking animals, Dwarves, Satyrs etc as companions and advisors and having exciting adventures is quite different from growing up in post-WWII London/ England, so that I don’t think too much confusion from overlap should result. As for Jumanjii, things were reset when the game was finished - Alan did shrink from 30+ year old man to boy. I suppose that he remembered only the accident of the later two children’s parent’s to make for a full happy ending. In addition, human memories in general are flexible and imprecise, not like videos you can rewatch. 30 years living in the jungle being hunted by animals and a crazy guy might be harrowing at first, but after one week of being re-united with his father and family, things will fade quickly. Likewise, memories of fighting wars with giants and of mermaids singing will quickly fade over the new memories of getting used to a new school or finding your family after the bombing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-sad-when-you-think-about-it-possible-spoilers/603862.md?page=5)