The Art of Betrayal

Written by Shae Rufe

Throughout the history of forever writers and story tellers have done wonders for our imaginations. One of the oldest tricks in works of fiction, so to speak, is the art of betrayal. Let's face it, what's more shocking than a character betraying those we love and hold dear? Or what's worse is if we like that character when they choose to betray others. Think you really know a person? Boom! You don't! From the fictional works we have all come to love, some character betrayals are far worse than others. What is one to do when this happens? Hang on and hope for the best.

While Firefly was only one season long, it held one of the hardest betrayals to swallow. Yes, Jayne wasn't always the best or most lovable character, but he had his moments. We all knew he was a money driven, small brained, brute. We just never expected him to betray the crew of Serenity for money. When Jayne sold out Simon and River to the Alliance, we all lost a part of our hearts. Sure, he tried to make up for it later, but our respect for that character died and we never felt the same about him. Jayne's betrayal never did sit well with Mal, and it definitely didn't sit well with me. Sure, Simon and River eventually found out and forgave him, which was pretty awesome. Did Jayne ever really earn his redemption? I'm not entirely sure...
 
From the vast open space of the 'Verse to the frigid air of Arendelle, the most shocking betrayal of all didn't come out of a sister hiding her ice powers, but from a prince hiding his intentions. Disney has always done an amazing job of having us believe all princes are good. Yes, some of them have a lot of flaws, but for the most part our princes are pretty with it. Hans from Frozen had almost everything going for him. He was a handsome, wealthy prince from a well-off kingdom, and he met a gorgeous princess. From there we are just led to believe that Hans is one of the good guys, right? Wrong! When we finally get the reveal that Hans was the villain the whole time we are genuinely surprised. Okay, I was genuinely surprised. Apparently, a lot of people saw that one coming; just not me. Either way, Hans made us love him and then promptly made us want him utterly dead.
 
A while back I was watching How to Train Your Dragon with my sister. While I was watching it, it got me thinking of how dark the second movie really is. Toothless is literally mind controlled into attempting to kill Hiccup, and well, he doesn't...because Hiccup's dad, Stoik, takes the hit. Toothless had no control over the betrayal, yet it broke our hearts on so many different levels. This movie had me crying in the theater loudly. When Toothless killed Stoik we all stopped and tried desperately to be in denial. The beloved leader of the Vikings fell at the hands of his only son's pet dragon. Talk about hardcore. Okay, no, it's not really the fault of Toothless. He didn't know what he was doing, and he couldn't control himself. Thankfully, Hiccup forgives Toothless and they save the entire island of villagers. Making that one of the hardest character deaths and one of the saddest moments in cinema history.

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