Jareth & Company

Jareth, Goblin King of the Underground. He's sexy, charismatic, powerful, magical, lord and ruler over everything in his domain but he was defeated in the hands of a young woman.

He never did stand a chance against Sarah right from the beginning. He lost even before he began.

It really isn't fair to him. After all, he only wanted to be real for Sarah and for Sarah to love him. Is that wrong? Sarah created him in her subconscious and brought him to life and yet cruelly defeated him. As he said, all that he had done, he did for her. She wanted to be free of Toby, he took Toby away. Then she wanted to rescue Toby, so he gave her the adventure of her life by presenting her with the Labyrinth. He just wanted to be real, to exist in his own right and not as a fantasy creation in Sarah's mind. But Sarah took away everything by wrestling power over from him, banishing him by simply uttering the words "You have no power over me."

However, let us take comfort in the fact that he is not the only one. There are others like him. They all have something in common, they did not get the girl in the end and they all have no surnames.

Name	Jareth	Julian	Tarabas	Erik
From	Labyrinth	The Forbidden Game Trilogy	Cave of the Golden Rose (Part III & IV)	Phantom of the Opera
Category	Movie	Novel	4 part TV mini-series	Broadway musical
Creator	Jim Henson	L. J. Smith		Andrew Lloyd Webber
Hair	Blond	White blond	Black	Black
Eyes	Blue (Mismatched)	Blue	Green	Blue
Age	Ageless	Ageless	Ageless	Late thirties
Talents	Magick Singing & Dancing	Magick	Magick	Singing
Residence	Castle in the centre of the Labyrinth, Underground	Shadow World	Under the ground in the forest	Under the Paris Opera House
Minions	Goblins	Lurker (wolf) & Creeper (snake)	Clay soldiers & Vegetable mutants	None
Love interest	Sarah Williams	Jenny Thornton	Princess Fantaghiro	Christine Daae
Love rival	Does Toby count?	Tom Locke	Prince Romualdo	Raoul

Julian - youngest member of an ancient race known as the Shadow Man. From his Shadow World, he watches Jenny Thornton, waiting for an opportunity to bring her to his world. An opportunity presents itself when Jenny went into the More Games store to buy a game for her boyfriend, Tom's birthday party.

Julian tempted her with the Forbidden Game but unknown to Jenny and her friends, the game is for real. The players first erect a paper doll house, then they drew their nightmares on a piece of paper, shuffled them and place them faced down in each room of the house. Next they sworn an oath that says they are playing of their own free will and that they understand the game is for real.

Trouble begins after they sworn the oath, a wind blew and they fainted, to wake up and find themselves in the paper house. Julian appeared and told them that they have until dawn to reach the highest level of the house and get out, otherwise they lose.
The prize of the game: Jenny Thornton and their freedom
The stakes: All their lives

The Forbidden Game is a trilogy comprising of Volume I: The Hunter, Volume II: The Chase and Volume III: The Kill. The above summary is just from The Hunter.

Similarities to Laby (excluding those mentioned above)

1. The first thing that struck me is Jenny Thornton - 16 years old, doesn't her name remind you of somebody?

2. Jareth's Labyrinth is ever-changing. In Forbidden Game Volume I - The Hunter, Jenny and her friends have to make their way out of a magical Victorian 3-storey paper doll house which keeps changing. The labyrinth is a maze, on the second level of the paper doll house, there is a mirror maze.

3. The creatures Sarah met in the Labyrinth can be found in her room. In the Forbidden Game, the rooms and things or scenes they see/come across were all brought up from the players' subconscious.

4. Jareth offered Sarah a crystal for her to give up Toby. Julian offered Jenny anything she wants to give up playing the game and to surrender.

5. Like Jareth, Julian visits Jenny from time to time when the game is in play.

7. Jareth assumes the disguise of a beggar (some say the worm and the junk lady as well although this is debatable). Julian assumes more disguises, as a games seller, as an alien, as the Erlking and as Jenny's cousin Zach.

8. Julian loathes to see or really hurt Jenny, he keeps rescuing her, giving her clues. Jareth is similar in that he sends Hoggle to get Sarah out of the oubliette - he could have kept her there until 13 o'clock.

9. Sarah drops into the oubliette. Jenny and her friends were pushed into the Dark Elves' cave below the ground.

10. Sarah marked the first stone maze with her lipstick. Jenny marked the mirror maze with a crayon.

11. Jareth kept Toby with him and showed him Sarah with a crystal ball. Julian kept Tom (Jenny's boyfriend) with him and showed him Jenny with a mirror.

"How do you like the Game so far?"
"Be careful, Jenny" vs "Beware, Sarah"
"It's not fair"

Not a long time ago, they've been showing the fantasy TV series name
Fantaghiro, the cave of the Golden rose...the first season, was nice.
magical, beautiful, but nothing special..as well as the second one..but
thrid, when an evil, but really handsome magician gets involved, strangely
reminded me of Labyrinth.
The smilarities are quite obvious.
1) Tarabas, is evil, sarcastic, gracefull and re-e-e-aly handsome. (In fact
I would evne picture him as Jareth in a way, if ONLY mr. Bowie never
graced the Earth)
2) Fantaghiro's quest (besides saving her "charming prince" may he br thrice
damned) also implied saving children who were stolen from human world and
turned into slaves at Tarabas's kingdom which was underground by the way!!
3) Fantaghiro encounters Tarabas a long before she gets to his castle, and
he advises her not to go there many times... (she doesn't know it's him
though)
4) he falls in love with her, being as evil as he is!
5) in the end, he begs her to stay...
6) of course that idiot doesn't....

doesn't that sound Labyrinth like? Not to mention that there are lots of
dolls, very Jim henson like, and the costumes and the make up of the
character is rather familiar to labyrinth...

After that, Tarabas came in at the 3rd episode and I was like 'Argh, why did they (the scriptwriters) make her marry Romualdo and worse, in love with him still? His (Tarabas') blue grey eyes were so mesmerizing, so much more than Romualdo's.

As if their not being together was not bad enough, the 4th episode had a spoilt and extremely childish princess (Thai-looking with a plait) falling in love with him and harassing him. Yuck! And she isn't good to look at either but again they made him love her in the end. What a horrid ending. They were certainly not a matching couple!!
The fantasy story plot was good but you really can't say the same for the acting. But the soundtrack was very good.

Similarities and Differences between Jareth and Tarabas (From Episode 3 only)
1. Both live and rule in their own domain underground. Tarabas lived underground literally in caverns. Yet, while Jareth's kingdom is everchanging with a sky overhead, Tarabas' domain is dark and gloomy.

2. Jareth's minions are goblins. Tarabas' are mushroom gnomes, carrot gnomes, potato gnomes, etc, given life by magick. In addition, he has an army of clay soldiers that look like samurais which he called upon to go aboveground to kidnap the royal children.

3. Jareth kidnaps babies wished away, but Tarabas, a wizard, sent his clay soldiers to kidnap royal children aged less than 10 because there was a prophecy that he is destined to be defeated by one of them.

4. Tarabas has a living mother, the witch Xellesia (though she sacrificed her life in the 4th episode) but Jareth doesn't. And he was the most cunning, the most evil, the most ruthless of all wizards because he was
taught to be that by his mother. His powers would be greater if he's feared by all.

5. In this film set in the 13th/14th century, the aboveground where the humans lived are filled with all manners of fey. Many animals and non-living creatures that Fantaghiro met can talk, inluding her horse and a rock.

6. Tarabas changes into a beast (looking like a wild boar with long tasks) when Fantaghiro stole 'The Impossible Kiss" from him to free Romualdo from an enchantment.

7. "His name is forbidden to mortals" Queen of the Elves on Tarabas' name.

8. Jareth controls time and shape shifts into an owl. Tarabas has the power to become the elements - fire, wind, rain. He shape shifts into an eagle and with his eagle eyes, he is able to cast a spell by looking at them (or actually on Fantaghiro). Jareth has his crystal balls, Tarabas only uses his hand - a snap of the fingers, a clench of his fist and sometimes uses magic dust and chants spells.

9. Both dressed alike, in poet's shirt, vest, a cape and leather boots. But Tarabas does not have a pendant, he has a few rings instead. Tarabas favours dark green. Except for the hair and eye colours, both have pale milk-white complexion. Oh and Tarabas has a mustache and a bit of a beard which only enhances his good looks.

10. Jareth is always dressed but not Tarabas. Once he rests on his throne without a shirt (whoo-hoo! great body). [In episode 4, he swims in a crystal clear pool next to a waterfall.] The throne room is clean and uncluttered unlike Jareth's and it is always dark with only a few candles to light up the place.

11. When Fantaghiro met Tarabas at first without either of them knowing each other's identities, Tarabas said he's fleeing from a woman who swore him eternal hatred and Fantaghiro was seeking a man she hated. Fantaghiro also said the man she is seeking is evil but mentioned to Tarabas his eyes shone with goodness. Tarabas said he doesn't know since he's never seen himself in the mirror, his mother doesn't allow him to. But Jareth likes looking in mirrors as we saw in the ballroom scene.

12. Tarabas shed tears when he realised he fell in love with Fantaghiro before she knew his true identity. He cried since he knew he cannot love her, he would turn into a devouring beast whenever he feels love or the compulsion to kiss her.

13. Jareth was defeated when Sarah said the words. Tarabas was defeated by the prophecy and gave up his love for Fantaghiro since she only loved Romualdo. He traveled the world to learn to live as a mortal and gave up his evil ways.

1) There actually was a LABYRINTH in both stories.
2) The owners of this Labyrinth filled it with numerous traps, and in both some of those traps definitely led to a certain death.
3) Owners of the labyrinths wore long flowing capes, gloves, were known for doing tricks with their hands
4) they had mismatched eyes.
5) They were both known for certain musical talents and enchanting deep voices.
6) they somehow lured a girl into their domain.
7) They were the only ones who fell in love with the girl, since their fandom in general seems to dislike her, find her stupid and unworthy. (in most cases)
8) There was a Masquerade in both stories.
9) a music box with a certain melody was involved.
10) Everyone is in love with both, but the lead heroine.
11) Both seem to be villians, sarcastic, bitter and yet damn attractive at the same time and with a possibly hard childhood, and tender loving soul hidden beneath the cold facade.
12) Both pleaded for the girl to stay in the end.
13) both were rejected for the sake of a blue-eyed blond guy.
14) There was a mirror involved that shown not exactly what was posed in front of it.
15) Both stories gathered a huge amount of people that became obsessed, and spend hours discussing those stories, writing fanfic and such....

To relate Erik (the Phantom) to Jareth...yes, they both live "Underground".
Erik literally lived underground, in the fifth cellar of the Paris Opera
House. But Jareth lives Underground, which could be literally underground,
or just in "a land serene", in which case, the viewer can decide where the
Underground is physically located...

Both Jareth and Erik have pathos. We feel bad for them, although they have a
tendency to do rather evil things. (anyone else ever fast-forwarded through
the "You have no power over me" line? I do...Jareth's face is too sad!)

Jareth is a fictional character (as much as we'd like to deny that little
crucial fact of life) and Erik was a real living person (Phantom is a true
story) so that's one huge difference...but yes, I remember that list of
comparisons as well, and it was excellent. And they *do* both wear capes and
have snazzy fashion sense. ;)

JARETH & COMPANY