#allumina

I’ve always thought that Sarah’s real struggle in the Labyrinth was not to get Toby back (I think given Sarah’s tendency towards narrative self-awareness, she’d just assume that was always going to happen) but instead trying to figure out choices and consequences while still taking ownership of her story.

This is where the “not fair” thing comes into play as well.  Sarah’s thing through the film is that she’s impulsive and strong willed.  She is also 15. This leads her to make a lot of decisions she feels should be excused because “she’s sorry”.  The point of the Labyrinth is to prove that yeah, bad decisions can be unmade, but it won’t be easy.  You don’t get to lash out in anger and expect everyone to let it go because you didn’t mean it.  You have to be conscientious of the world around you and how your choices affect other people. By the end of the film Sarah is still strong willed and impulsive but she’s learned how to turn them into positive traits.  She holds firm in turning down Jareth because she knows that the price of that choice is more than she is willing to pay.   

It’s also why I think Sarah does like Jareth (but definitely not love).  She’s into that shit; Jareth represents the concept of love and sex and that’s why it’s so hard for her to pull away from him in the ballroom.  She does struggle with it and I think it goes beyond ‘because magic’.  It’s so easy to lose yourself in that moment and forget because the idea of love is so intoxicating.  

I also think that’s why the Within You scene is so revealing.  There’s a moment after Jareth tells Sarah that her “eyes can be so cruel” where you kind of see Sarah break out of fight mode.  It’s a tiny moment where she finally realizes that she was right, she *was* always going to get Toby back because it was never about the baby.  It was about her.  She finally got what she wanted, a story all about her and how much the handsome king loves her, and she’s utterly fucked. 

Because now, now she’s got to give up the story and make it about Toby instead.  While she likes Jareth, she likes the story more.  The nameless Goblin King who is handsome and loves her.  But there’s a real, handsome Goblin King standing in front of her telling her he loves her and she doesn’t love him, just the idea of him. Thems the breaks.