History Fridge / PansLabyrinth

** Given the line to the doctor about saving the "son" if it comes down to a choice between the mother and child, I don't think he would have had her killed, but probably would have handed her off to a nanny with the intention of shipping her to a boarding school (preferably overseas) when she was old enough. He then would have remarried as soon as possible to try again at getting a son. Also, I get the feeling he would have no problem cheating on his wife but would want his son to be "legitimate."

* Actually Del Toro states that the film is designed to match the belief of the user, but that his personal vision for the movie was that it was all real. Reference: http://twitchfilm.com/2006/12/pans-labyrinthinterview-with-guillermo-del-toro.html

* Captain Vidal has been haunted all his life by his father's death, thanks to the memento of his broken watch. This must be why he wants a son so badly, so he can be a papa to his boy like his own father never was. He should have started with being a papa to his daughter.

* When Ofelia asks the faun why shy ought to trust him, his reassurances aren't all that convincing. [[spoiler:This may have been intentional. If she ''had'' trusted him, the SecretTestOfCharacter might not have been applicable.]]

* Captain Vidal has been haunted all his life by his father's death, thanks to the memento of his broken watch. This must be why he wants a son so badly, so he can be a papa to his boy like his own father never was. He should have started with his daughter.

* Just what would [[CompleteMonster Vidal]] have done if his child had turned out to be a girl?

* When the narrator talks, notice that the story refers to the heroine as "the Princess." There's the detail that the narrator ''never says the Princess and Ofelia were the same person.'' Taking that into account, one can argue that it wasn't real. YourMileageMayVary, of course.

** I feel that it would be "cheesy" if it all was a hallucination and confirmed as such. It would suck all the genuine beauty and magic out of the film and reduce if to a boring run of the mill plot where people where to cowardly to ascribe something to magic. Not magic as in the standard american hock, but genuine magic, scary and overwhelming.The brilliance is leaving how she got out open to interpretation. Open to the hope, that it was magic.

* Just what would [[CompleteMonster Vidal]] have done if his child had turned out to be a girl instead?

* Everyone says that Ofelia holds the IdiotBall when she eats the foot set out at the Pale Man's table. How hard is it to resist the food that belongs to Mr. NightmareFuel when you ''know darn well'' the consequence of eating food of the Underworld! But... is Ofelia really that much more oblivious than her mother? Her mother who marries Captain Vidal, allows herself to be dominated by him body and soul, and must know how cruel he is, but is blinded by the wealth, comfort, and prestige that he offers. "Look at the beautiful clothes your father gave to us!"

*** Wow... this debate reminds me ''so'' much of my TOK-lessons. It depends on sense perception and fantasy. How can reality be defined? Mostly via an individual's sense perception, of course. In other words, it may have been true and reality for Ofelia. This, however, does ''not'' mean, that it was reality for anyone else. It depends who you are/who you support in this movie; Ofelia, or anyone else. --Jeezer

! FridgeLogic:
* Captain Vidal barely acknowledges Ofelia's existence unless she does something wrong, but it's pretty weird that her mother, Mercedes or anybody else doesn't have problem with her just wandering around alone in the woods filled with partisans at the height of civil war.
** It isn't, so much, that Ofelia's mother (and Mercedes) have no problem with Ofelia wandering around in the woods. It's that the only time Ofelia goes out there, she's already most of the way back before anyone realizes she might have gone to the woods. As for them stopping her...well, she manages to evade the notice of the guards around the mill, her mother is on enforced bed-rest, and Mercedes is busy organizing a dinner party on limited supplies while also funnelling supplies and information to the rebels. They ''do'' notice that she's gone and organize a quiet search for her (you can hear Ofelia's mom asking if they've found Ofelia yet, just before the dinner party scene) but they can't search the woods; that would require having Vidal send out his men - and ''that'' would make Ofelia's punishment his decision, rather than her mother's, since he had to expend effort to find her and bring her back. And Ofelia's mother is unlikely to want that to happen, since Vidal would probably do something worse than just send Ofelia to bed without dinner.