Pixie

Prince Lir is one of those characters that I could talk about all day. But, instead, I’ll just settle for a REALLY LONG RESPONSE ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE HIM!

While I love The Last Unicorn movie and it is still my fav animated movie, it didn’t do Lir (or any of the characters for that matter) the justice the book did. 

Lir is introduced as this silly, nothing of a young man without a thought in his head. And when the party shows up at the castle, he’s infatuated for Amalthea before she’s even inside. So he decides that, in every stereotypical way expected, he’s gonna prove himself and win her over. He goes and becomes a hero. Like, he becomes ridiculously accomplished–saves tons of innocents, kills evil monsters, etc, etc. There’s a whole long paragraph in the book about just how awesome he is. So he develops from this empty-headed schmuck into this hero, but, low and behold, Amalthea doesn’t give a shit. She’s more concerned with the fact that he hurt his horse killing a dragon than the fact that he’s killed five dragons. 

But does Lir get all butthurt about it? No. He’s frustrated because nothing he does seems to get her attention, but instead of becoming bitter, he says, okay, this isn’t working. And THEN he goes a step further and realizes that, hey, maybe Amalthea just isn’t interested in me. I know she doesn’t really approve of my hero-ing, but that’s cool, I’m my own person, so I’ll keep it up because I like it, but I’ma not pressure her or anything. I’ll just be there if she needs me and to write poetry about how great she is. That’s fine. 

Does he complain about being “friendzoned?” No! He accepts that she’s not into him and instead of being frustrated with all the work he did to get her attention, he decides, instead, to realize that trying to get her attention made him a better person and that it’s probably better to keeping doing those things, even without her validation. Not a bad plan. 

Well, low and behold, actually talking to her gets her attention. Lesson learned, Lir has some character development and, well, I don’t really blame the kid tbh. I mean, he grew up all alone in a castle with a “father” that never viewed him as good enough and four old guys, plus a giant, rampaging bull. He’s gonna be lacking in social skills and awareness. 

ANYWAY! So him and Amalthea fall in love and everything’s cool. He spends time with her instead of trying to impress her and all is well. He’s respectful and never pushes her–it’s stated in the book that Amalthea doesn’t like to be touched, ever, so you know what he does? Never fucking touches her! He loves her and doesn’t complain about it! (this is different in the movie). He is fine with her boundaries and loves her unconditionally. They have a merry fucking time for the months they’re together and he helps her with her demons. He becomes a safe place for her, without a catch, without a clause. 

Now, at the end, it’s revealed that–spoiler–Amalthea is actually a unicorn turned into a human and in order to save the other unicorns, she has to get turned back and save the day. But in her mortal, love-blinded human form, she’s lost sight of the goal she’d been striving to achieve for years. Instead, she decides she wants to give up and basically run away with Lir because she’s afraid of what’s coming. 

You know what Lir says? He says, well, I’d love for our story to end happily and be with you, but hey, maybe we should focus on why you came all the way here instead of abandoning this quest you spent years putting your heart and soul into. Because he knows just as well as she does that they can’t just walk away from hundreds of imprisoned unicorns. It’s pretty much a certainty that they can’t be together, but with Lir’s resolve, Amalthea finds the strength to move forward. Support! How nice. 

So she eventually gets turned into a unicorn again and Lir can’t do anything to help her fight this giant evil bull, but damn if he doesn’t try. He doesn’t take over, doesn’t take the glory. Nah, he does what little he can. Which, in the end, leads to his death. As a result, he gives the unicorn the push to become something greater than she thought she could be. It’s not a sacrifice that was made to save a damsel in distress, but one that empowered. He went in knowing he’d die, and knowing he couldn’t save the unicorn himself, but, perhaps (in my interpretation) hoping that maybe he could give her the strength to save herself with what little he had to offer. 

And in the end he gets brought back to life, and is upset and gets kinda pouty, but hey, he doesn’t get the happy ending and that’s shitty, but forgivable. 

And, like, he never had any issues admitting that he was in love–no hyper masculinity made him secretive or reserved. He respected the other woman in his life and was even willing to help out with menial things like peeling potatoes because that wasn’t below him or something only for women. He respected when Molly talked to him and he listened. 

Like, he’s such a nice, respectful, good guy and he deserves more love. Read the book people. Lir in the movie is pretty good too, but he’s a lot better in the book. 

Honestly, he spent his whole life pretty much alone in that castle and he still turned out pretty great. He’s like the original sunshine child. 

READ THE LAST UNICORN! Lir isn’t the only great thing about it. 

Okay, I’m done. 

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-Silco