“That’s what I love about fairy tales; they tell the truth, not organized politics, religion or economics. Those things destroy the soul.” – Guillermo del Toro
The fairytale, a story of mythos that draws upon morality and justice, has long been a tradition of conveying ideals to those listening. Typically employing fantastical elements such as ghosts, mythical creatures, and impossible standards of feat, a strong fairytale also employs a strong, central protagonist that seems to be perfectly fit for the story and the trajectory of the fairytale and all its components. Guillermo del Toro, a masterful Mexican director who has won immense notoriety and awards for his films, carefully employs the fairytale structure of storytelling alongside protagonists who are seemingly born for their specific tales. Furthermore, his films carry fantastical imagery and creatures that form relationships with his fated protagonists. Both of these elements, including the fated protagonist in particular, are used to convey strong implications of morality, purity, anti-corruption, and disobedience. Somehow end this.
The fated protagonist, equipped with the correct timing and complexity to put their first foot forward into a narrative and propel it through their destiny, is often accompanied by fated creatures, regardless of the creatures’ moral alignment. Furthermore, these creatures are capable of reality by being placed in a fantastical realm, lending the relationship between creatures and protagonist to be inextricably tied to one another. This is emblematic in one of del Toro’s earlier films, The Devil’s Backbone (Spanish: El espinazo del diablo). The film follows Carlos, an orphan who joins an orphanage in a remote area of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. One of the first interactions Carlos has is with the ghost of a young boy, Santi, who has died on the premises at the hands of the antagonist of the film, Jacinto. During the unfolding of the narrative, including the hidden legend of Santi and his hauntings amongst the other boys, it is Santi and his guidance that allows for Carlos and the other orphans to fight against Jacinto after the orphanage begins burning – again, at the hands of Jacinto.
Santi is originally seen as a malevolent source of evil in the film, and the film allows a narrative to occur where Carlos and the other forces are experiencing a haunting at the hands of the ghost. This is most easily seen when Jaime leaves Carlos alone in the kitchen during an excursion to fetch water, effectively leaving Carlos alone with Santi under the presumption of a potential haunting to occur. However, once Jacinto begins to turn on the others at the orphanage, Santi begins to aid the boys against him, and it is through this trajectory where the audience learns of Santi’s death and his desire to take vengeance on Jacinto. This ultimately culminates when Jaime, Carlos, and the other boys repeatedly stab Jacinto with sharpened sticks, leading to Jacinto falling into the cistern – the same one which Jacinto originally dumped Santi’s body to cover his involvement in Santi‘s death. While Jacinto struggles to swim out of the cistern and survive, it is Santi’s ghostly hand which continues to drag him down, effectively showing how the ghost, while initially a creature to be feared, was ultimately a moral character that was misunderstood and greatly helped the protagonist, and it was Carlos’ fate to help Santi reach this goal.
The destined protagonist and the fairytale creature motif is prevalent in another of del Toro’s works, Pan’s Labyrinth (Spanish: El Laberinto Del Fauno). While The Devil’s Backbone follows an unassuming boy who uncovers the truth of another boy’s fatal story, Pan’s Labyrinth is more robust in its fairytale. Following the story of a young girl, Ofelia, the film follows her journey as a child living during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, in which she must return back to her fantastical world as its rightful princess by completing a series of tasks to prove her morality. Following the title’s name, a key character in the story is simply known as the Faun, a towering, humanoid mythical creature whose features resemble elements of the Earth. It is this character that aids in Ofelia’s journey back to the magical realm in which the Faun inhabits, though the Faun is only a small catalyst for Ofelia’s story. Instead, Ofelia, like Carlos, is aided by the fantastical creature to ultimately carry out their destined paths.
Throughout the film, Ofelia repeatedly disobeys the instructions of other characters, even including that of the Faun. This is most clearly seen in the final act of the film, in which Ofelia is coerced to spill her younger brother’s blood in order to return to the magical realm of the Faun. When she disobeys, protecting the boy’s life, multiple sequences commence. Caught talking to the Faun, Vidal shoots Ofelia before he eventually leaves the labyrinth. With this done, Ofelia passes away, but not long after, the blood spilt from her mouth lands on the ground, rendering Ofelia to transition into the world of the Faun. Through her disobedience, it was her pure blood that was needed to allow Ofelia to complete her final task, which was predestined for her story and a secondary task meant to test Ofelia’s morality in the face of disobedience. Similar to del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, the creature in the film was a guiding hand to the fate of the protagonist, working alongside them to fulfill their destiny.
While del Toro likes to employ fairytales and fantastical elements in his films, not all of his work is characteristic of this. The famed director also has created feature films that deal with the very realistic world of today, while still employing that of a fated protagonist and mystical elements that coincide with the protagonists’ story. For example, del Toro’s The Shape of Water follows a mute protagonist, Elisa, during the Cold War era of the United States in the 1960s. While rooted in very realistic and historical terms, completely doing away with fantasy, there still remain remnants of creatures in del Toro’s narrative, emblematic in the Amphibian Man. Stolen from the Amazon, the Amphibian Man, while diegetically a realistic creature, is still a fantastic example of the mythical aiding the protagonist on their fated journey.
During his time in captivity, Elisa gradually falls in love with the Amphibian Man, again showing the relationship between creature and the protagonist, but more specifically, Elisa’s morality. The Amphibian Man makes no direct contributions to the actions of Elisa. Instead, it is entirely on Elisa and her friends to help release the Amphibian Man from captivity, due in part to the romantic feelings Elisa holds for him. However, it is shown that Elisa’s morality and purity is what contributes to her actions towards freeing the Amphibian Man and disobeying the rules and demands from her sadistic boss, Strickland. This is further emphasized in her muteness, which is meant to be a direct correlation to her still having voice and agency despite her lack of verbal communication. With this, it is Elisa’s overall strong morality and purity that leads her to be an agent in her life, as well as that of the Amphibian Man’s.
What also must be noted, however, is the direct inclusion of fate within Elisa’s character, despite the lack of fantasy and the mystical world. Early on in the film, it is revealed that Elisa has scars on the side of her neck that are eerily similar to gills since a very young age as an orphan. These scars are used to describe her muteness, but in conjunction with following the narrative of the film, the scars help explain Elisa’s connection with the Amphibian Man. In the final scene of the film, Elisa and the Amphibian Man are able to be together, floating in water and holding each other in their arms. Elisa’s scars are clearly visible, and it can be inferred that, while Elisa’s origin story is unknown, it may have been fated that Elisa is meant to be with the Amphibian Man as love that may or may not transcend species.
Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley also follows the story of a fated protagonist in a world where magic and mysticism is not entirely believed nor discredited, though both are arguably correct. Stan, a man running away from a traumatic past, is a morally corrupt character who manipulates his way into living a lavish lifestyle as a fake mystic at the detriment of his customers, who believe him to be gifted. However, bad luck befalls Stan as he flies too close to the sun of his own corruption, and reverts back to a lowly man who is in desperate need of a job. Similar to Eliza’s gills/scars in The Shape of Water, Stan begs for a job position at a circus that he encounters, eerily similar to the one that gave him his start. When the man Stan speaks to mentions that the geek gig he is offering is hard to manage, Stan laughs to himself and tells the man that he was “born for it.” This utterance, as well as the parallels between his current situation and that of the beginning of the film, fits neatly into the fated character archetype, where no matter Stan’s standing throughout the film, he inevitably becomes that which he was running from.
While Nightmare Alley does not hold creatures or monsters in the typical sense, mysticism is prevalent in the very nature of the film through its associations with the circus, geeks, and tarot. While mysticism is heavily discredited throughout the film, due in large part to Stan’s nature, there are hints in the plot that point to the realism of mysticism, similar to that of Eliza’s scars/gills. In one instance, Madame Zeena, a fortune teller, does a tarot card spread for Stan during the height of his career. The reading tells of Stan venturing into a dangerous career path, emblematic in the hanged man card. Stan easily rejects this notion, and flips the card upside down to depict the man upright and continues with his manipulative career. However, when a turn of events leads him to once again be on the run, Stan is seen lying down beside chicken coops in a train car, with his arms crossed and one leg bent, entirely similar to the stance of the hanged man tarot card. Whether entirely coincidence or incredible foreshadowing, Madame Zeena’s tarot card reading for Stan and his later positioning is entirely aligned with allowing mysticism to be real, despite Stan’s beliefs otherwise.
Evidently, the fated character following through on their destiny is an incredibly strong theme within multiple works of Guillermo del Toro. Regardless of setting, del Toro expertly includes mysticism, creatures, and balances the lines between reality and fantasy to help convey strong moral themes of purity and disobedience. The fated character, while on their own path that they are unaware of, is accompanied by creatures and mysticism that cannot always be described as morally pure or impure. Notwithstanding the moral positioning of the mysticism, it nevertheless coincides with the protagonists’ destiny in a story that culminates in an ending that was meant to be, for better or for worse.
Filmic Rhetoric 
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