The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: babidikrakenguard on June 16, 2009, 05:35:17 PM
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Just something i thought of while making another Blue, Green and Purple Dragon on Spore(Pretty weird place to get this idea, huh?)
In the first movie, when the narrator tells us "Cera was still to proud to admit that she'd gone the wrong way.." What is he refering to? I always thought he was refering to Cera going to wrong way to the great valley, now though i just remembered..
When Cera and Littlefoot are hiding from Sharptooth inside that forest of thorns(Whatever you want to call it). Littlefoot says "This way." But Cera goes the other way and that leads to Sharptooth chasing after them, and then the battle against Sharptooth and Littlefoot's Mother. Could the narrator be refering to that incident, or not going the right way to the great valley? Or maybe both?
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I don't think he was referring to that incident. I'm certain that he's referring to going the wrong way in regards to the Great Valley. I'm sure she was thinking about how she had put herself in danger (she probably didn't know the others were in trouble) all because she "went the wrong way".
Personally, I think it would be weird and make too little sense if Cera was upset because of when she went the wrong way during their first encounter instead of what had happened to her very recently, like minutes ago.
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I do believe he was referring to the second incident, but either way...:( she's done some damage to the group during that movie.
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Or it could have been both? :unsure:
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Although the statement applies to both incidents (we never see Cera admitting that Littlefoot was right about which way to go in the thorn bushes OR the Great Valley), I'm sure the narrator did NOT mean both when he said that.
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I think it was the second incident. I believe she was embarrassed for goin' the wrong way but did not want to face it, at least right away.
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Although I think it was referring specifically to the second incident it does indirectly refer to the thorn bush incident. I'm sure the whole run through the thorn bushes did cross Cera's mind while she was crying on the rock as it was another time where she contradicted Littlefoot and it turned out poorly. This recurring theme probably occurred to her. Still, I'm pretty sure this wasn't the point of the narrators statement.
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When Cera and Littlefoot are hiding from Sharptooth inside that forest of thorns(Whatever you want to call it). Littlefoot says "This way." But Cera goes the other way and that leads to Sharptooth chasing after them, and then the battle against Sharptooth and Littlefoot's Mother. Could the narrator be refering to that incident, or not going the right way to the great valley? Or maybe both?
Interesting! :)
What we don't know is what would have happened in that sharptooth fight if Cera had followed Littlefoot. The results may have been basically exactly the same when everyone escaped the thorns.
I've always been curious about that line from the narrator, too:
"Cera was too proud to admit that she'd gone the wrong way."
It still begs the question to me though: while a straight line is the most direct path to a point in space, it may not be the most efficient. Let's look at how the modern world builds roads through mountains. In many cases, being able to build around the mountain when possible is friendlier to both the drivers and the costs of building the road.
One could argue that Cera's ability to think beyond simply "blindly following the bright circle" and realizing that she could, indeed, go around the rocky, unstable hilly area to get to the same location makes her a 'better leader' in this sense (though she wasn't able to explain this logic to the rest of the Gang so I still wouldn't call her a charasmatic or effective leader); able to react and respond to the situation rather than decide, hey, the sun is this way therefore we have to take a disgustingly difficult route, even though this path may lead around and be much safer.
Littlefoot's route was probably more dangerous than Cera's in the end, especially considering how exhausted everyone was by this point. I would like to argue that Cera made the 'right' decision here after all, not Littlefoot.
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It was quite obviously meant to refer to the second case as none of the characters had spend any thought on the earlier one. Besides, we have no real idea whether the way Littlefoot would have picked in the thorny thicket would have lead to any better ends. The choice of ways over which Littlefoot and Cera got into the fight is the only interpretation that makes sense beyond the letters of the word. The one thing I notice though is that we never ever learned anything about whether or not Cera took back the attack on Littlefoot's mum which, I suppose, was even more serious at the time to Littlefoot than Cera's picking the wrong way was. This is what I had based my first LBT story on.
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I always took it that she had gone the wrong way in the second instance, not the thorn instance but later on as in going to the wrong way to get to the Great Valley.
Yet, did she really go the wrong way or was she just taking a convienent path that thus enabled the gang to eventually end Sharptooth. Basing on what action9000 mentioned, as Littlefoot took the harder path, we have to remember that he was very angry and very upset (and possilby sore) from his fight with Cera. After all, she did insult Littlefoot's Mother. As we know, Littlefoot is a thinker and a natural leader and whilst Cera did make the easier yet not very safely way to get to the Great Valley, I feel as though they could have talked about which way would be easier to go. Thus, I do believe that Littlefoot (if the prior incident did not happen) may have listened to Ducky and Petrie and had gone with them through the 'Burning mountains".
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I don't think so. Littlefoot did not take the harder path out of a whim, but because it was the way described to him by his mother (following the bright circle), so deviating from it meant never reaching the Great Valley. The original cut of the movie had Littlefoot find the Great Valley shortly after the quarrel with Cera but return to get her and the others rather than entering the Great Valley right away. Through the final cut of the movie as we know it the point that Littlefoot's way at the point of the quarrel really had been the one and only way to the Great Valley has become a little blurred.
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I think that I worded this wrong...
I didn't mean it to come across that Littlefoot took the path that he chose on a whim. Perhaps this is due to lack of insight and confusion as to what the directions actually were meant to be but, I always did think that he was taking a harder direction and not initally what his Mother had meant. Thus Cera's way was the actual way...confusing, especially given that it became clear as to what the narrator meant.
Perhaps they should have explained this in more depth...