What if

"This isn't the story you were told."
That's how "Malificent" ended.
I took my oldest daughter on a date to see it with some friends of ours. 
When it ended, I wondered.  Having watched the original Disney cartoon and read the fairytale, I had some serious questions about this new version: 
What do we do in a world where there aren't any bad guys any more?  What do we do when everyone is just misunderstood and the real story isn't the one we've been told? 
What do we do when parents are the bad guys-- the liars and the abusers?  When parents are no longer portrayed as the protectors and providers?  What if parents are shown to be selfish and paranoid?  What if the caregivers don't care? 
What if true love can no longer be trusted between a boy and a girl?  What if it can't exist anymore?  What if true love is a broken fairy tale?  What if a princess no longer needs a prince, except as a periphery story line or a pretty face?
What if there is no repentance, only vengeance and sorrow?  What if a broken heart and a betrayal are a liberating excuse to wreak havoc on another life?  What if curses cannot be broken?

Disney has had a recent history of making parents out to be idiots.  Watch any of its shows aimed at preteens and teens.  There isn't a serious parent in the mix.  Their two latest blockbuster movies portray parents as abusive, paranoid, and the real villains. 
Now I see them creating a common story line where there are no villains, only the misunderstood. In "Oz the Great and Powerful" the wicked witch of the West, Theodora, is betrayed by a con artist man and her own sister.  First Oz falsely woos her and then her sister literally breaks her heart by feeding her a poisoned apple.  She is a very sympathetic character.  It would be very easy to say that none of what she did was her fault.  It was a reaction to what happened to her.  It was the same story for "Malificent". 

None of us can judge another's heart.  None of us know how we would react to the pain of the journey.  But.  There is a right and there is a wrong.  There is a good and there is a bad.  There are real heroes and real villains.  All of this is because of agency.  Heavenly Father made it clear that no one gets to take away our agency.  He also said there is no middle ground.  We are either for God or for Mammon.  It's that simple. 

Thank heavens for the truth of good parents, true love between a boy and a girl, and the ability for the atonement to overcome curses.    Thank the heavens!