The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: Bruton the Iguanodon on November 05, 2011, 11:26:20 PM
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"She should have known better. That was Sharptooth! It's all her fault!"
What in the world would possess you to say that about your dead mother?! Okay, I can understand he was frustrated and confused, but...I'd thought he loved her too much to even consider taking his rage out on her. Whatever would have been wrong with saying, "It's all Sharptooth's fault! Why did he have to be so mean? She'd never done anything to him!"
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Keep in mind that he was still very very very depressed over his mother's death. At this point, what is going through his mind is "what if this happened?", "what if I did this?", etc. Littlefoot wasn't really hateful towards his mother nor was he being nasty. He is simply going through a state in which he is obsessing over "what ifs". If I recall correctly, he later shifts the blame on himself. "Why did I have to wander so far from home?"
He also might have blamed Sharptooth earlier. We can't be for certain he did or didn't. We see the death, and then next shot, Littlefoot has wandered away for some time and it's the next day. During this time, he might have blamed Sharptooth before he started blaming alternatives (himself and his own mother). I wouldn't be surprised if he even blamed Cera at some point while trying to cope with the recent loss of his mother.
In the end, I don't think Littlefoot blames his mother for her own death. He was just so distraught that he wasn't thinking clearly.
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He was very young and hurting a lot. Irrational anger is just one of the many faces of grief. He wasn't being hateful, he was just being a depressed kid confused about the circumstances.
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Give Little foot a break here everyone. He never meant to say what he said. He just lost his mother. And he was very made and upset.
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I'm sorry...I just thought he loved her to the point where even in the bitterest of frustration, even if he wasn't thinking clearly, he couldn't possibly blame her!
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He does love her very much. Him blaming her out of total grief and despair isn't proof that he loved her any less. People will say things they don't mean when they're very upset. To me, Littlefoot's grief felt more believable when he played the "blame game". And again, he doesn't love his mother any less. He cared about her a lot. But understand just how powerful loss is, and understand the pain he was going through.
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For the record, I just changed the title of this thread from "Why?!" to "Why did Littlefoot blame his mother for her death?" so that one look at the title will tell a visitor of the forum what the thread is about.
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Maybe he was so mad that she risked her life for him. But that is what a mother is suppose to do.
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I just to say I'm not trying to be hard on Littlefoot or anything, I just had to discuss what he said about his mother. I know he was frustrated, but...it was just wrong. Thank you for assuring me it doesn't mean he loves her any less, I think that's what I was worried about. Because if he truly meant what he said, then the whole mourning scene, him running towards his shadow thinking it was her, or him yelling at Cera to take back what she said about his mother would all feel insincire---which I thought some of those things were for a while, kinda.
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I wondered that too. But I also pondered that, maybe Sharptooth is a female, so when he said "It's all her fault" He was reffering to Sharptooth...just an idea.
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I'm afraid that can't be so. I mean of course Sharptooth may have been female, but Littlefoot's reference was clearly to his mother because Rooter asked him whose fault it was and Littlefoot responded: "Mother's".
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*slaps forehead* That's right! It's been a while since I've watched the movie :oops
Yeah, Im sure he was just having a moment then...almost like "How dare she die!"
It can be tough on a small child after seeing a parent die like that...I can see why he'd be a bit mad at her leaving in such a way.
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Precisely. Having recently gone through the loss of my own mother nearly a year ago, I went through the phases of "Why did she have to die" and all this as well, even though I didn't go quite as far in my emotions as Littlefoot did. I've since made peace with it, but I can totally understand what he was going through.
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I thought about this and depression and traumatization can really mess up your intelligence. When I was young, around 5 or 6, I was thinking the same as Littlefoot. Your mentality is completely disrupted when a sudden or shocking feeling is upon you. Littlefoot just didn't know how to control it so he said those words to at least say something.
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I don't think he intentionally meant to.
And like DH said, he might just not have been thinking clearly during the time.
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To my knowledge, after someone (in this case Littlefoot) experiences a traumatic event, they go through 5 key stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
By the time we get to the scene where Littlefoot encounters Rooter, he was clearly in or on the borderline of anger. so when Littlefoot blames his mother for her death it is an expected reaction from someone that just experienced a traumatic event in their lives.
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OK, it's just that Littlefoot, being a kid, doesn't strike me as the type to be able to go through the angry phase, at least not towards someone he loved.
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I think it was because he was feeling slightly bitter and sad at the same time about his mother's death, and had to find someone to blame. Because his mother was his main caretaker and the only other person (i mean dinosaur :oops ) that he was ever close to.
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Keep in mind, he was pretty young; I'm not saying we're all exempt from grief (would be nicer, tho), but for such a young child, they're conflicted inside - their main caretaker and companion is suddenly ripped away, forcing them to forego a possibly dangerous journey to a place they don't even know... O_o Still, the worst scene of that sequence is when he sees the shadow and he thinks it's her, and he gets all excited and runs up to it and licks it, and then.... *sniff*
Momma Longneck, give the child a break!!