Line #20 Fridge/TheNeverEndingStory


1	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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3	!! [[Literature/TheNeverEndingStory The Book]]:
4	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
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6	* The first letters of each chapter form the alphabet. This might seem obvious to you if you have one of the first German pressings, otherwise not so much. Other translations (such as the Brazilian and the Italian ones) kept it.
7	* The story contains [[ShoutOut lots of references]] to Creator/JRRTolkien and Creator/WilliamShakespeare because Bastian probably knows a lot about their works.
8	** The story also states that Shakespeare went to Fantastica. Near the end, Mr. Coreander says that there are more ways than one to Fantastica; it's possible that Tolkien, with his interest in old epics and mythology, was able to go to Fantastica himself, which inspired him to write his Legendarium.
9	* Gmork says he can move freely betwen Fantasia and the human world, and he can't call either his home, this is why he helps the Nothing. But wiping out Fantasia and probably other worlds apart from the human one (since the human one is CAUSING it, it would just grow dull instead of become nothingness) would leave Gmork with only the human world to live in- a world he would be most probably able to settle down in permanently, even if it wouldn't be exactly a home.
10	* The apparently misleading title – the neverending story – is often the butt of jokes seeing as the story does, in fact have an end. However, the ending is a cornerstone of any story, you can't have a never ending story in the literal sense. However, all throughout the original book, there are what appears to be lead-ins for other stories. For example, one passage states that Engywook (The gnome who was studying the Southern Oracle) went on to become rich and famous for his outstanding findings. However, each of these ends with the line 'but that is another story and shall be told another time'. In this way, the story itself spawns other stories to go off of, and those would presumably do the same. The story itself is not neverending, but the chain is.
11	** The story is also, in a certain way, never-ending; it is all but outright stated that this is not the first time a human has had to enter Fantastica to give a new name to the Childlike Empress / Moon Child, nor will it be the last. Hence, it continues in a cycle; Bastian's contribution to the cycle is made, but someone else will have to do so again at some point.
12	** Of course, there was a neverending story within the Neverending Story when The Old Man of Wandering Mountain started to read the book he just wrote, writing everything he is saying, creating a neverending story within Bastian's mind that forces him to give the Childlike Empress her new name.
13	* The DeusExMachina events which allow Atreyu to complete his quest make no sense, from Y'gramul's poison working as a magical teleporter to anywhere in Fantastica, to Falcor's presence as a companion, to the Sphinx gate arbitrarily letting Atreyu pass through. These fortuitous events seem set up to help Atreyu which makes no sense, until you remember that Fantastica can be changed and added to by the wishes of a human brought there. Y'gramul, Falcor and the Southern Oracle could have been created by a previous human who named the Childlike Empress before Bastian's time in order to ensure that the means to bring a human to Fantastica would always exist.
14	** It was also shown that Bastian's words sometimes had a direct result in the story such as guiding Atreyu to the No Key Gate or asking questions or thinking them, prompting Atreyu to ask the right questions for the Childlike Empress to answer the questions. It is also possible that his subconscious thoughts created each DeusExMachina since he wanted the story to continue. He was, after all, within the Nevernding story at that point.
15	* The Childlike Empress is shown to have a lot of BlueAndOrangeMorality, only caring if the humans that come to Fantastica can dream. However, being childlike, she could have and incomplete understanding of morality like how some children don't understand why you lie to protect other's feelings.
16	** The reason for the Empress's blue-and-orange morality could be that she views all Fantastica from the point of view of a story''teller,'' rather than one of the characters. For someone whose only concern is the story, the only thing that matters is that something ''happens.'' It doesn't matter if a character is good or evil as long as they advance the overall narrative, hence the Childlike Empress regards all Fantasticans as equally important and necessary, while expressing no opinions on their actions. She doesn't actually do any governing, even though she's the Empress, since enforcing restrictions on behavior by passing laws or punishing evil-doers would discourage plot elements. It's also why the only action she ''does'' take comes when the whole of Fantastica is in peril, which would mean the end of ''all'' stories.
17	** Or she just understands that as long as she keeps Fantastica's existence safe, anything that happens there with her chosen saviors is fair game because the end result will always be the same. After all, isn't a boy's descent into a mad power trip and his subsequent desperate attempts to reclaim enough of himself that he can get back home a good story? ''You're'' taking the time to read it, after all.
18	* A small one, but... in the book (completely absent in the film), when Bastian meets Mr Coreander in the first chapter, Coreander pokes fun at Bastian's name being Bastian Balthazar Bux (three B's), only to then reveal his own name is Carl Conrad Coreander (three C's). So we have three B's and C's, but what about three A's? Simple: Atreyu, Artax... and Auryn.
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21	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
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23	* When Bastian decided to create a dragon for Hero Hynreck, he described one that is about 1,000 years old and captures young maidens who are forced to be its servant for the rest of their lives. Bastian also stated that none had ever been rescued, meaning that at least 20 women each who served the dragon for an average of 50 years (Bastian stated) had been kidnapped in the past as a result of Bastian wanting to give Hynreck a dragon to slay.
24	** It actually becomes a moment of ''in-universe'' FridgeHorror for Bastian, who after Hynreck has left to pursue the dragon, realizes that he just retroactively created a monster who has been terrorizing innocent people for a millennia. He doesn't ''quite'' have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction, but he does think to himself that doesn't want to be someone who creates monsters and causes a lot of grief, and resolves not to do anything like that again.
25	* When asked about her armored soldiers, as they are merely empty suits, Xayide says that they move by her will as "her will can control anything that is empty". Later, during the preparations for Bastian's coronation, she "keeps everyone so busy they barely had time to think" and when the coronation day arrives, she somehow has an entire army at her disposition. It implies that her giants once were living beings that she has "emptied" until they were under her control. MindRape and BodyHorror, enjoy!
26	** This makes the huge throne of mirrors where Bastian sits during the coronation day and how "it made him look as small as a doll" and Xayide's manipulation of him even creepier.
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28	!!The Song:
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30	[[AC: FridgeBrilliance]]
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32	* The song recorded by Limahl for the soundtrack of the movies begins by fading in to a melody that's already underway, and then fades out at the end. Thus giving the illusion that the song, like the story, is never-ending.

Context Fridge / TheNeverEndingStory