A Series of Unfortunate Events/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Books

Fridge Horror

  • In The Bad Beginning 14 year old Violet is being forced to marry the much older Olaf who is her guardian (in a play so no one will object to her being so young) because he has her sister Sunny and will kill her if she doesn't, all so he can have her fortune. However, this becomes Squicky when you consider all the lines he throws around about how pretty she is and how "You may not be my wife, but you are still my daughter". He also decides that he'll let her live even after he has the fortune. In the next book he has a knife to her THIGH under the table. This implies that he intends to rape her.
    • And don't forget the line, "Violet imagined sleeping beside Count Olaf, and waking up each morning to look at this terrible man." Handler must have known what that would imply to his older readers. Then there's this line "Now if you'll excuse us, me and my bride will be off to have our wedding night..." This indicates that rather than just the money he's possibly interested in Violet in that way as well. This coming from a psychopathic criminal who looks like an old man, and who was most likely behind the fire that burned down her house and killed her parents, just makes the implications even creepier.
    • When the hook-handed man has Violet cornered in the tower during the rescue attempt for Sunny: "Yes, boss. Yes, boss, of course I understand she's yours, boss." The emphasis is the author's. It sure seems like Olaf has to order the hook man not to rape her because he plans to do it first.
      • For that matter, quite a lot of Olaf's incredibly creepy group of sidekicks (most of whom are male) describe Violet as being very pretty. One such time is in The Hostile Hospital, where they comment on how pretty Violet is while she is unconscious, Strapped to An Operating Table, and about to have her head sawed off (which they remember, given that they comment also about how smart she is and how it will do her little good in a short while). Erm...
  • In the fifth book "The Austere Academy" the school's motto is Latin that literally translates out to "Remember You Will Die". It can also be translated as "Remember Your Mortality", which also indicates that you aren't anything more than a human. Which means that if you are a troublemaker (or if the teachers see you as one) you can - and will - be broken down, by any gruesome means possible.
  • In the eighth book "The Hostile Hospital", the eponymous hospital is set on fire with the Baudelaire siblings still inside. "Mattathias" (Count Olaf) orders everyone to catch the children... before getting the patients out of the burning hospital.
    • Not mention the fact that it was ambiguous as to if any of the patients got out. In fact, it didn't describe ANYBODY getting out.
      • Same for the hotel fire in The Penultimate Peril. While the children do warn everyone to escape, the narrator himself says the he doesn't know who survived and who didn't. Also, everyone was afraid to take off their blindfolds, so even if anyone did try to escape, they'd be stumbling around blind. While the entire building is burning down.
  • In The Penultimate Peril, either Frank or Ernest uses Sebald Code upon the ringing of a bell to ask the Baudelaires I can't tell if you are associates or enemies please respond. But even if the Baudelaires had known Sebald Code, they still wouldn't have been able to respond correctly because 1) the message gives no clue as to which twin it is, and 2) both sides of the schism know the codes.

The Movies

Fridge Horror

  • Count Olaf tries to marry Violet. Violet is a teenage girl and he's really old. And what do you do when you are married?
    • In the movie, it's all about the money. In the book, however, it's much more explicitly suggested. Also, Olaf was related, albeit distantly, to the Baudelaires, which is why they were sent to live with him. Think about that for a second; he has no problem with sleeping with his own, fourteen year old... let's just say cousin, for the sake of brevity.
  • There's a deleted scene where Olaf and his troupe play spin-the-bootle and the white-faced women get picked. In the book, they are SISTERS.