As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- The foreshadowing of Ansel’s Harping on About Harpies nature:
- His overall appearance is avian- a pointed nose and slicked back hair that resembles that of a bluejay or woodpecker, and which is even more prominent when seen in silhouette.
- During the interview about his plans for Seaside, he pulls a pigeon out of a boot, and surprisingly gentle with it despite it being in rough shape.
- His apartment contains a painting of a peacock and a statue of a Winged Humanoid.
- A bird is engraved on the piano he plays in his library.
- He uses two bird-related phrases during “Better Life”:
- When explaining his plan to tear Seaside down and modernize it to Arlo, he describes it as “like a phoenix from the ashes.”
- He suddenly appears on top of a chandelier (calling it “my perch on all this land” in the process) after the room briefly goes dark- and reappears right beside Arlo shortly after, carrying a feather in his hand. It’s initially confusing as to how Ansel even got up there in the first place, as there’s no way he could've done it without flying... and the brilliance kicks in when you realize that's exactly what he did, and that the feather was one of his own.
- Near the end of “Wash the Hurt Away,” an image of Ansel suddenly sprouts a pair of wings.
- At the Met Gala, Ansel wears a cloak that has feathers and gives the impression of wings.
- In contrast to Ansel's backstory, there's hardly any prejudice for the rest of the cast in the present. People either take them in stride or are entertained by them, and none of the folks at the Gala seem to care about The Reveal. Some sensible explanations for this are:
- Society changes. People in general are less prejudiced than they were in the past, but Ansel in his paranoia never bothered to get to know anyone personally, fearing they might discover his "secret".
- The racism was limited to a select few Jerkasses to begin with, but since they were among the people Ansel interacted most frequently with, he naturally assumed everyone else was just as bigoted.
Fridge Horror
- Near the end of the movie, Ansel reveals that he was the one who abandoned Arlo in the sewers, an act he's clearly become remorseful about. However, there's still one other matter that's never really addressed: Arlo's mother only makes a brief appearance in Ansel's flashback, and is nowhere to be seen when Ansel first sees baby Arlo. Her name's not even on Arlo's baby ID bracelet. Did she end up abandoning her son and her husband? Or even worse, did she not survive her son's birth?
- In a Freeze-Frame Bonus of Arlo's birth when Ansel goes to the hospital, you can see two broken eggshells on an empty bed, meaning he was hatched. So it's likely that his mother (or someone else) dropped the egg off at the hospital anonymously, and informed Ansel of the fact later, giving credence to abandonment.
- One World Trade Center can clearly be seen among the skyscrapers forming this version of New York City's skyline... which means that 9/11 actually occurred at one point in this movie's universe.
