katPT 1: WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS MOVIE…
Have you ever felt hopeless or stuck, feeling you’re destined for more, but not quite sure what?
Yes? Ok, then you’ll like the topic we’ll be discussing today. Today we’re going to talk about our purpose and what fulfills it, but also good and evil~
But first I must ask- have you ever wished you were dragged away to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Ok then the movie we’ll be discussing today will definitely be right up your alley.
The movie is called “The School of Good and Evil,” which I watched this past Tuesday evening.
After going through the hard task of scrolling through Netflix and trying to find a single good movie in the plethora of trash, I finally landed on something that seemed ok. Upon choosing it, I felt a strong feeling that God might teach me something through the movie. I’m the kind of person that tries to find meaning through most of my lived experiences. I firmly believe God is always speaking to us.
Not coincidentally, the next day (Wednesday evening) I went to my church’s midweek service. I was so shocked when the title of the message was delivered. Well there were two titles. The first was, “With the Choice of Good and Evil, Do Good at All Hours,” and the second title was, “The Standard of Good and Evil.”
This sort of thing happens to me every week. It’s why I love my church; because the word I hear is always so pertinent and in line with what I experience through my life. I truly feel God speaking to me everyday and every week.
PT 2: THE PLOT *do it for the plot lol*
Back to “The School of Good and Evil,” I have to say despite the bad reviews I really enjoyed the movie. However, at first I thought it was a show, about one quarter into the movie I realized it wasn’t, but it definitely feels like a show just from the filming style. I saw a few reviews saying how they wished it had been made into a show rather than a movie.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, the movie follows two best friends who are the outcasts of their town: one of them is a witch and the other is idk, a wanna-be princess (which lowkey same, so pop off queen). The wanna-be princess stands up against the kids who bully the witch and she’s kind to her so they become besties. I read this movie is based on a book series and I never read the books so if I butcher the premise completely, I’m sorry.
So the wanna-be princess has an intense desire to leave the town, because her mom- who passed away- told her she’s destined for great things so she plans to leave despite her witch friend begging her not to and despite promising she wouldn’t. She’s fake though lol, so she goes out to the forest at night with the intention of leaving, when her friend suddenly appears and busts her! She’s like, “Hey you’re gonna leave even though you promised me you wouldn’t?” So they go back and forth for a bit when suddenly a huge bird carries them off to some Harry Potter looking world. In this world there are two large castles next to each other: one is the school of good and the other is the school of evil. In a good ol’ switcheroo moment the witch is dropped off at the school of good while the wanna-be princess is dropped off at the school of evil. Later we find out, the schools are separate because they’re training up future heroes and villains who will then take part in this world’s real-life fairytales. Anyway, the girls each insist that they were placed in the wrong school, however their pleas are ignored and they’re not allowed to go home. They go to the head master and he suggests that the wanna-be princess gets a true love’s kiss because a true love’s kiss is the only way they can both be freed. I’m not sure why, don’t ask me- I guess that’s common to fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
So the rest of the movie they scheme and plot to get the wanna-be princess her true love’s kiss, which she plans to get from her crush whose name is “Tedros.” In fairytale land, he is like King Arthur’s son or something (ok, Descendants!). Meanwhile, her best friend, Agatha, played by the AMAZING Sofia Wylie (yes, I’m a fan) who is so sweet also starts developing a crush on this guy Tedros who lowkey flirts with everyone so I don’t like him lol. Anyway, Agatha is so determined to get her and her wanna-be princess friend, Sophie (yes I finally remember her name) out of the school. As she tries to, we get to see her immense empathy and goodness. Whereas, her friend Sophie who at first tries so hard to prove to everyone she is good- shows more of her evil traits and ends up gradually becoming more evil. Turns out she is being influenced by this weird gross spirit guy named “Rafal” who I guess is supposed to resemble or symbolize Satan.
It’s a really interesting premise. I really liked the friendship between the two girls; that was really well portrayed, especially at the beginning, setting us up to develop this bond with the girls so that we can’t help but root for them to get out of this crazy situation. Though I do think Sophie was in the wrong with a lot of her actions throughout the movie; there were many times she wasn’t a good friend and if I was Agatha I don’t know if I would’ve stuck by Sophie’s side.
Anyway I still have many questions, but overall I did enjoy this movie and I didn’t mind the length. It is a 2 hour and a half movie.
Now if you don’t want any more spoilers stop here! Though lowkey I already gave the whole movie away! If you choose to continue because like me, you don’t care and will still watch a movie even if it’s completely spoiled, then you’ve been warned! But if you choose to continue because you simply don’t care and aren’t going to watch it anyway then props to ya!
PT 3: MY THOUGHTS ON THE MOVIE
So back to my review.
Personally, I love when movies take us to the very last resort, like when things look so bad, we don’t know how things will ever get resolved.
Sophie and Agatha’s situation in both schools just kept getting worse and worse. Like some of the things Sophie was doing made it seem like she was at the point of no return.
From a faith-based perspective, it was interesting to see their depiction of “good” and “evil.”
Clearly in the movie this is just a label rather than a reflection of the characters true nature. As we see, some of the “good” characters do evil things and some of the evil characters show a bit of goodness, which I guess is the whole point of the movie to say that there is no such thing as truly good or truly evil beings. However, I greatly disagree with the idea that evil should be celebrated which is something I saw a lot in Descendants too. I think our culture is moving more towards this idea of having us sympathize with all villains and portraying them as having a really good reason for being evil. We’re also obsessed with redeeming toxic characters, or finding “good” in really bad characters. We support characters with questionable morals and deeply troubled hearts- especially if they’re good looking- and I personally don’t think that should be tolerated.
Anyway, back to the rest of the movie. Sofia Wylie, or Agatha, joins the good school and blatantly points out how evil the people in the school are. For one, the girls who bully Agatha are hypocritical, superficial, and judgmental. On the other hand, the girls each have to go through a series of classes and if they fail and get 3 F’s they’re done for, literally. So I understand where some of their vanity and bad character may be coming from; there is an immense pressure to come out on top or they might literally be killed and be deemed un-fairytale worthy. We see Gregor- I think he’s the son of Prince Charming who doesn’t want to be a prince but instead wants to own a grocery store (lol)-unfortunately he has this kind of sad ending. He agonizingly vanishes out of thin air in the forest only to come back as a bird who Tedros accidentally kills.
Sophie also is against the school of evil but she doesn’t quite point out what is wrong with it in a fundamental or sympathetic way. I guess it goes without saying because our audience knows that the things they do fit the description of what we deem evil and not right. Being unhygienic and unnecessarily abusive, or mean is not within the norm. Our consciences know that, it kinda goes without saying- no matter how much our culture tries to make evil seem ‘cool’ through shows like ‘Wednesday’ or ‘You’.
When Sophie criticizes the school of evil it comes off a bit conceited or self-centered rather, seeing as she only wants to be known as “good” so she can go to the school of good where conditions are better, cleaner, more princess-y, and she’ll have the chance of finding a prince. Maybe she expects to fulfill her destiny of doing great things in this way. But her idea of goodness is shallow. It comes down to her looks as we see when the principal of her school cuts off her hair, which she attributes to her beauty. She is quite defeated until Rafal returns to her in spirit and grossly coaxes her. He tells her she’s been good and patient and it’s time to stop asking for things and just take what she wants. She then changes her entire outward appearance, owning the short haired ‘Edna Mode’ look. So we get this hilarious sequence of her walking through the school with this newfound “confidence.”
Sophie then goes on a hunt to use her beauty to capture the prince’s attention. However, Agatha, who has also grown to develop a sort of mutually reciprocal relationship or connection with Tedros knows that Tedros won’t fully fall for Sophie unless she shows she is good, so Agatha uses her powers to help Sophie act in a way that will capture Tedros’ heart. Agatha successfully helps Sophie fool Tedros and they start dating.
One day a feud takes place between the school of good and evil over Tedros and Sophie’s relationship; so the deans and professors of the school forbid them to date unless they want to go through some sort of trial to prove Sophie is good. They’re both taken to a dark forest and have to find each other while overcoming all these scary mythical obstacles. Only if the both of them come out alive proving Sophie is truly good, can they date.
Sophie almost lets Tedros die, showing she is truly evil, but Agatha interferes in the trial and saves Tedros.
This really turns Sophie over the edge as she then starts to believe Agatha likes Tedros and is against her. Things go downhill from there. I think the Rafal guy appears to Sophie again, coaxing her further and giving her more powers. A whole showdown takes place between the school of good and evil, she tricks the good school into attacking the evil school claiming that this makes them evil because “Good only defends, never attacks.” Sophie eventually marries the Rafal dude, after he proposes, claiming they will both rule over the world together if she accepts his proposal to be his “love”, which is really weird because I feel like he’s way older (yep he’s 29 and the actress is like 22, but mind you this was released like two years ago and probably was filmed a year before that…). I hate age gaps! Anyway he kisses her and basically evil now rules over their world.
But Agatha won’t give up so she asks Tedros for his help and he’s like, “Nah dude she’s too far gone.” But Agatha is like, “I don’t care about all the bad stuff she’s done” and so Tedros is convinced and helps Agatha get to where Sophie and Rafal are. Then once Agatha finds them they have this conversation and Agatha says this really iconic line “Do you know why good always wins? Because we fight for each other, that’s what good love is,” which is honestly one of my favorite lines of the movie. I think it’s so true. Evil is selfish and only cares for itself. Because Good comes together, it will always win whether through the power of true love which defeats all hatred or through power in numbers.
Rafal tries to kill Agatha but Sophie gets in the way because she has a sudden change of heart and finally comes to her senses about what she’s done. She’s all like, “This isn’t what I wanted,” etc. So Sophie is impaled which reverses the curse so everything slowly comes back to normal. Agatha also takes a sword (I’m not sure if it’s Tedros’ I forgot) and kills Rafal. Then Agatha holds Sophie through her last moments as she’s bleeding away. Sophie apologizes and they have this very tender moment where Agatha cries and kisses Sophie which felt quite innocent like kissing a sister or mother. I wonder if she did it out of desperation because she wanted to try out the whole “true love’s kiss” theory, in hopes it might free them both. True love doesn’t always have to be romantic as the movie Frozen showed us. And yes this scene was giving Rapunzel, with the tears and Sophie’s short hair.
Not even a second later surprise, surprise! Sophie comes back to life!
The school of good and evil then is merged as shown in that one scene where the deans of the schools almost hug but it feels so unnatural so they’re like, “Ok, let’s not rush it.” That was funny lol. I love Kerry Washington and that other lady was pretty good too.
Then Agatha and Sophie are free to go back to their old life. Sophie tells Agatha it’s ok if she wants to stay with Tedos and that she will take care of her mom. Agatha kisses Tedros but says she can’t leave her best friend and they go back to their old life, hug their families and live happily ever after as besties.
P4: IS ANYONE TRULY GOOD OR EVIL?
But what I really want to discuss is this implication that no one is truly good or evil, which I agree with somewhat.
During the midweek service my pastor said something so profound. He said, “If you do righteous deeds, you cannot do unrighteous deeds at the same time. A person has two hearts when they are not taking action. Whatever it may be, when you do it, you have one heart. If you do righteous deeds, the heart of unrighteousness gets deleted. There is only one heart and righteousness.”
So while I agree that people can have both good and evil in their hearts, I don’t think people can be both good and evil at the same time. As my pastor said when a person isn’t doing anything they can have two hearts, however, as soon as they take action they can only have one heart: it’s either good or evil. It’s not both, it’s one or the other.
Another one of my favorite lines was when he said, “You have to discern and judge ‘good and evil.’ Only then will you not sin, not go to the domain of death (Hell), walk the path of life, go to God’s world and live there forever.”
Sophie failed to do that. She was easily swayed. Her heart was weak and she was manipulated.
He further explained it like this, “When a person is on the side of ‘goodness,’ they know ‘what is unrighteous.’ However, when a person is doing what is unrighteous, they don’t know ‘goodness’ because they are doing what is ‘unrighteous.’
When you are in the light, you can see the darkness. However, when you are living in darkness, you cannot see the light. Therefore, in the course of living in the darkness, you don’t even know it is dark.
When a person is taking action, he becomes one with it. When a person is not doing either good or evil, he knows both goodness and evil. However, when a person likes one thing and does it, they will justify even evil as being good and think it is good.
Even though God has defined good and evil, when each person does whatever they like, they live thinking that [whatever they are doing] is goodness. Between ‘idol worshipping’ and ‘worshipping God,’ God has decided that ‘idol worshipping is sin, evil, and unrighteousness’ and established the law that ‘worshipping God is goodness and righteousness.’ However, when people like something and worship it, they live thinking that what they do is goodness. Idol worshippers think that [idol worshipping] is goodness and live bowing down to them and worshipping them.”
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Idol worship is something so prevalent in our world now. We put TV shows, movies, parasocial relationships with online influencers or celebrities, over our relationship with God. Why? Because it feels good and it’s packaged as ‘good’ so we see it as good. It feels good so we don’t recognize those things or people as idols. We don’t know that what we’re doing or engaging in can be evil only because it doesn’t look evil. So I really liked that point and it made me realize how easy it is to justify bad things as good simply because they ‘feel’ good or ‘look’ good.
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He continued, “God, repays [people] eternally according to what they have done. Therefore, they know it after they take action. But by that time, there is no more time to live life again. People live life only once. They can’t live it twice.”
Good and evil might seem vague. But it is not so.
God works through your conscience to tell you to “Do” or “Don’t do.” When your conscience is immature, sometimes He will tell you directly “Don’t do it” or “Do it.”
Do good at all times. The righteous will live doing righteous deeds. If you do even a thread of goodness when facing good and evil, even if evil and unrighteousness are as big as a mountain, they will disappear by you doing righteous deeds. It tilts toward what you do.
Unrighteousness goes extinct if you don’t do it. You triumphed by destroying it. Unrighteousness belongs to Satan. If you don’t take action on unrighteousness, you destroy Satan.”
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So, there is room for redeeming yourself after making mistakes, just as Sophie was able to be redeemed. It’s truly as my pastor said. If you do goodness even if evil is as big as a mountain it will disappear. It’s like how at the end of the movie the situation seemed so far gone it felt like evil had won; but when goodness took a stand they were able to defeat evil.
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My pastor continued with another point that I think really relates to this movie.
“Instead of bodily love, we should feel spiritual love, God’s love, that is millions of times more through your heart and thoughts. If you feel it with your mind, heart, soul, and spirit, you will feel millions of times more than the body.”
This line reminded me of Sophie, who so badly wanted to be loved and wanted the validation of a prince like Tedros. She changed herself and acted flirtatiously to get him. Sophie is a good example of the lengths we can go to when we fail to value ourselves. That is why we should instead seek spiritual love from God. He doesn’t fail us and he loves us for more than our appearance. If we just try to feel God’s spiritual love we will feel it deeper than any “love” we’ve experienced in this world.
I think Sophie really felt this huge void in her heart and was looking for more but sought to fill the void of her heart with worldly temporary things. If she realized God’s deep love she wouldn’t have felt so empty and gone down the wrong path.
So again, human beings are capable of both good and evil. An evil person may justify their actions as good but it doesn’t mean they actually are good.
The pastor continued,
“There is no evil in goodness. There is no darkness in the light.
There is joy even in evil when it is acted upon.
There is joy even in goodness when it is acted upon.
You will eat deliciously even something you stole, and you will eat deliciously even food that you gained through hard work. However, the person who has done good has more authority than the person who has done evil.”
I really liked this part too because it reminded me that yeah, evil feels good, it can feel joyful, but it doesn’t actually mean it is. We shouldn’t be led by our feelings. An evil person can steal something and enjoy the same perks as someone good who worked hard for it. But good has more authority than evil, which is why in the end good always wins.
To summarize, “Good and evil lie latent in a person’s heart, thoughts, and body. It is always the case that one’s destiny is determined by what a person does when taking action and will turn that person into ‘a person of goodness’ or ‘a person of unrighteousness.’
People live thinking that the things they like and do are the side of ‘goodness.’
Good and evil seem to be vague but it is not so. The standard of good and evil are the things that God established. Doing what God said to ‘do’ is ‘goodness’ and not doing what God said to ‘not do’ is ‘goodness.’ Therefore, you can discern with God’s Word and prayer.”
So although, “The School of Good and Evil” claimed that no one is truly good or evil. While that may be true, people cannot be both good and evil at the same time. The lines shouldn’t be meshed. Good is good. Evil is Evil. We are repaid according to our deeds at each moment. When we strive for goodness we are good. When we strive for evil we are evil.
If we think of our lives in terms of the movie mentioned today we should think that everytime we do evil we are sent to the school of evil and everytime we do good we go to the school of good. We should do good so we aren’t like reeds swaying in the wind, but instead can remain in perfect love and peace. I believe human beings are innately good, and God predestined us for Heaven, but it’s up to us whether we choose to live lives worthy of Heaven. We should never cross the line and walk towards the side of Hell.
Reaching perfection might be difficult but to Jesus nothing is impossible. If we do goodness, it has the power to destroy evil, and goodness will prevail within us for eternity.
Let’s also strive to receive God’s perception of good and evil. Clearly the world’s perception of good and evil is flawed.
If we simply stop to study his Word and pray we can receive God’s perception and fulfill his purpose for creating us. Then we will live with God’s hope always in our hearts.
Lastly I want to share a few scriptures my pastor referred throughout his sermon.
Romans 6:12-13: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.”
Romans 6:16: “Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?”
Ezekiel 18:26-30: “If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will die for this. He will die because of the iniquity he has committed. But if a wicked man turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considered and turned from all the transgressions he had committed, he will surely live; he will not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are My ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?
Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.”
Proverbs 10:16: “The labor of the righteous leads to life, but the gain of the wicked brings punishment.”
May we all always strive for goodness, so that at the end of our lives we can come before God with full confidence. The Lord desires we strive for goodness. We will never be perfect, but the Lord does call us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Through our faith and continual repentance we can be redeemed and saved.
If we never give up, our continual striving will lead to good actions, and ultimately to our salvation and eternal dwelling in Heaven. But only through faith in Jesus Christ, for works without faith is dead as faith without deeds is dead.
