Spirit+Winternight Trilogy, Horse Girl Content

    Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) is, at it's basic level, a cartoon starring a horse. According to the synopsis for the movie, Spirit sets out on 'an action-packed quest against impossible odds to regain his freedom and save his homeland...' things happen, people are met, story happens. It's an incredible movie that had a deep impact on me when I was a kid and it's never lessened with time. If anything I appreciate it all the more. If you have seen it, you know. If you haven't, ignore this whole post and go watch it. If you have seen it and decided you don't like it, this blog is not for you. Get out.

As the on-the-nose-yet-necessary-name-Spirit suggests, he's the embodiment of the wildness, the spirit of the west. In the movie Spirit gets captured after spotting evidence of humans and out of curiosity he goes off to investigate. After getting captured (mostly because he is protecting his herd, but originally because he was cocky) from his herd and home to be bought by this militant Calvary group. The Colonel in charge decides the way to break his spirit is to starve him for 3 days with no food or water. But Spirit can't be broken. When the Colonel tries to ride him to show his domination if you will and finds that even when Spirit is on the verge of falling over, he will fight back and this challenges the Colonel's image and ego. When the Colonel realizes that Spirit is refusing to be owned, he goes for a gun to kill him. Because he can't have him, no one will.

When Spirit is in the camp of Little Creek, he is not bridled or tied down. He's in a pen. A much looser containment system then the rigid Calvary, but he's still not free. The thing with Spirit, is that he will do whatever he needs to do to be free. The Calvary's attempted mark of ownership was going to be a brand. Little Creek tries to paint a brand on him. Obviously this is a far less intense version, but it's still a mark of ownership and Spirit doesn't give him the satisfaction.

The key difference after this failure to show this mark of ownership was that the Colonel tried to kill him. He wanted to own him. Little Creek simply laughs it off. While this process clearly worked fine for other horses, Spirit won't be something owned. That's kind of the point. Spirit had deep loyalties, but he was never something that was ever going to be owned. He had his own things. He had his own herd, his own home. His home/family being the most important thing that he would do anything for. He wasn't going to stay for anyone. This wasn't his. It wasn't home.

In The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, there's a fox. The little prince and the fox have a conversation where they talk about being tamed. The fox explains that being tamed means that one has to establish ties. That those ties are what tames him. Then he can play with the little prince because now they mean something to each other. Now they have importance to each other, rather than just being like any other little boy or fox.

Everyone trying to keep Spirit didn't realize one very critical thing about him. They made the mistake in thinking that because he was wild, they could 'tame' him. But really he had already been tamed in his own way. His home was his ties. Hence the importance in the narration when Spirit says that he wanted to share his homeland with Rain later on in the movie.

 Little Creek eventually starts to understand Spirit. He treats him less like something to be kept. When he goes to ride him, he already knows Spirit won't be bridled, so he doesn't try. Every time he tries to ride him, he takes away anything that makes Spirit feel contained. Eventually he lets Spirit go altogether. This is the only moment that Spirit ever shows indecision. For a moment, he almost stays. Suddenly this thing has gotten more complicated. What was so clear at the beginning he's now a little less sure of. Incidentally, Little Creek is the only person Spirit lets ride him willing. The only person that he knew wouldn't hold him back. In saying this, Spirit also puts his own initial plan on hold when the ones that he cares about are in danger. When Little Creek's camp his attacked, Spirit goes to save them.

It's funny the moments of symbolism that happen so naturally. When Rain looks at the apple in the tree but knows it's too far for her to reach. She has a moment where she longs for it, but then shrugs it off and eats the grass. She wants something, but doesn't know that she can take it. It's too far and so she can't have it. Spirit doesn't have to make the discovery that she can have it. He already knows. It's not a matter of not getting it, he's going to. But he did notice that she wanted it. So he made it something reachable. He sort of defies his own limitations. Because sometimes he believes he can fly. And yet it's not even a passing thought to him. He just does it.

There's an argument or at least an observation to make between the parallels of her looking longingly at this thing out of her reach and Spirit's look where it's already his. It's just a reminder of what he already has. There's several moments in the movie where it shows that Rain longs for the same thing, the same need for freedom that Spirit has. She just hasn't let herself take it yet. Also the hilarious part about her, considering everything that Spirit does, she really knows how to mess with him. 

When he's captured and on the train, he kind of gives up for a moment. For a moment, he doubts and that it's ever going to work out. He has his own sort of dark moment where he stops fighting. But he had friends and they saw him. It didn't really change anything in the moment, but when he realizes he still has the want inside of him, when he regains his self, he goes over to them. The spirit that couldn't be broken, almost, almost, had a moment where it broke. But then it came back. He remembered what he was fighting for. He started the movie so reckless and sure of himself. While he does mature, it never changes who he is. I don't know. This movie emotionally comprises me and inspires me every time. This isn't news. Moving on. I could talk for ages about this movie and there just isn't time enough.

This past year, I read the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden. It changed my life. I honestly think each book gets better and better. I'm really not even sure where to begin. The protagonist is Vasya and the books are loosely inspired by a Russian folktale which they bring up in the books. Vasya is one of those characters that I'm always looking for but find incredibly hard to find. Her ability to just seem so human and yet bigger than life and her ability to not take no for an answer and draw things out. She's a force to be reckoned with and I don't know Katherine Arden did it. The books feel so alive. While Spirit and Vasya are clearly very different characters, I mean one is literally a horse, there's quite a few parallels between them. The way that Vasya goes from feral girl to the wild fate-changing 'witch' that she becomes. I just... Characters hunt her down, try to claim her if that makes sense, or try to tame her, somehow she's too big to be contained. She has her loyalties, she has intense feeling, and somehow the world itself changes for her. In other books, I'd find a character like her to be too contrived. They would get it wrong. But these ones. These books are special. Even Vasya as a character aside, these books are written so beautifully. They feel like clean air. They're incredible. 

Essentially this post is me doing my version of 'if you like this thing, you'll like this other thing'. Keeping in mind of course, while there's similarities, they're both completely different things. 

But then again, maybe you won't. Who knows really.