I’ve always wondered, since I was very small, why ‘The Emperor’s New Cloths’ as commonly told doesn’t include the scene where the Emperor has the Imperial Guard clear the street with a sabre charge.
Because, once the child had said it and everyone was laughing, it was too late. Everyone knows the emperor is an idiot now, his authority is pretty well broken. If he gets violent at that point his head will be on a spike by sundown.
Which… Not all emperors in real history have been that smart. So it could be a fitting end for the story nonetheless.
I’ve always wondered, since I was very small, why ‘The Emperor’s New Cloths’ as commonly told doesn’t include the scene where the Emperor has the Imperial Guard clear the street with a sabre charge.
Probably for the same reason as that the proverb doesn’t go:
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is burned at the stake for espousing the heresy of light in our kingdom of blessed darkness.
People are trying to make their own point with proverbs… and don’t like them to be turned back upon themselves.
That sounds like a H. G. Wells story (you can listen to it here).
Because, once the child had said it and everyone was laughing, it was too late. Everyone knows the emperor is an idiot now, his authority is pretty well broken. If he gets violent at that point his head will be on a spike by sundown.
Which… Not all emperors in real history have been that smart. So it could be a fitting end for the story nonetheless.