Final Treatment

Farahilde is picking the lock to her cell door. She manages to open it and she escapes. While running down the corridor of empty cells, she notices a boy in one of them. The boy sees her too, and beckons her to help him out. Farahilde hesitates. She turns and is ready to leave the boy, but turns back to help the boy. She opens the cell door with a hairpin. The boy walks out and reaches out his hand to Farahilde as a form of thank you. She ignores him and hurries along herself. The boy scurries along behind her. They come up to a tunnel rather high in the wall. Farahilde climbs up first, disregarding the boy; who is not strong enough to climb up himself. As Farahilde is about to walk away, she hears the boy calling her. She gets rather annoyed, but jumps back down to help him. After she boosts him up, the boy spots a guard coming after them in pursuit. The guard begins firing his rifle at Farahilde. She quickly runs and hides behind a wall, avoiding the shots. As she looks up at the tunnel, she sees the boy backing down. She grimaces in frustration, but the boy appears again with rocks in his hands. The boy uses the rocks to distract the guard, giving Farahilde an opening to strike. She pulls out the scalpel in her hair and stabs the guard’s neck. She finally climbs up the tunnel and gives the boy a smile of approval. They then finally find the exit. Farahilde walks up to the door and opens the door. But she steps aside and offers to let the boy pass through first. The boy smiles and go out, followed by Farahilde.

Theme of this story: You help yourself by helping others.

Moral of this story: Farahailde would not have escaped successfully if she had not decided to help the boy.

Character development: Farahilde is at first annoyed at the boy for tagging along. She is even unwilling to help him in the beginning. However, after she realizes the boy is not all a drag, she is glad she helped him. Her attitude towards him changes from nonchalant to rather caring. It is seen in the first two situations that Farahilde only begrudgingly helps the boy. She unlocks his cell because her conscience made her feel obliged; and she is irritated that she has to go back down the tunnel to help the boy. She is angry when she thought he left her on her own. Her character is quite selfish in the beginning. But in the end when they reach the tunnel, Farahilde becomes a bit more altruistic, and lets the boy exit the door first.

I feel like this story is much more convincing in terms of characters and their motivation. The protagonist is strong but not perfect. I think this character is more relatable. I also got rid of one of the guards, as it would be a pain to animate two of them; there is no reason to have two guards anyway. The new story establishes the characters better and creates a more in-depth development. Hopefully my lecturer feels the same way.

Here the frames in Klaus' running animation.