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Series: Dr. Seuss’s the Lorax
Series' Medium: Both a book and a movie, but I’m using movie-verse
Character: The Once-ler
Age: His age is never specified within the movie, but likely around his late twenties from the point that I’m taking him. Twenty-eight would be the listed age.
Sex/Gender: Male
Canon Role: Sort of an anti-villain/anti-hero combination.
The Once-ler came from a harsh family. His mother emotionally abused him by telling him that he would never be a success, his aunt was similarly nasty, his uncle was a complete doormat to the women, and his brothers were too simple-minded to do anything besides follow the lead of their relatives. The Once-ler’s father was never mentioned; it is likely the man left his family when the Once-ler was very young.
However, rather than let the circumstances bring him down, the Once-ler became determined to prove his family wrong and to make himself successful. He had plans; he had come up with the idea of the thneed, a wondrous thing everybody would need. It would be able to do a huge variety of things, acting as a hat, a scarf, a butterfly net, an umbrella, and countless other uses. All he needed was to find the right material to make it from. His exact age was never specified, but he looked to be around 20 or 21 when he set off, which matches up with him being a young man at the time.
The Once-ler set off with all his worldly possessions in a wagon, telling his family that he would show them all that he would succeed. He then spent several weeks wandering the world, steadily becoming more and more maddened by the constant traveling, until he stumbled upon the Truffula Valley. The valley was like nowhere else in the world; Humming Fish that could walk on land and sing, the small bear-like Barb-a-loots that played beneath the trees, and the graceful Swomee Swans that filled the sky. And the Truffula trees! Thousands of them, in pink, purple, orange, yellow, and red, filling the valley with the sweet scent of their softer-than-silk tufts.
The Once-ler was immediately taken by the valley’s beauty, the friendliness of the animals, and most of all, the tufts of the trees. While he angered the animals with the mess he made while setting up his home, they quickly returned to friendly terms after being introduced to marshmallows.
When he chopped down the first tree, however, the animals scattered in fear. The Once-ler was surprised by their sudden disappearance, but shrugged it off and set about to gather the tufts from the fallen tree.
He was so engrossed in harvesting the tufts that he completely missed the arrival of the Lorax, the guardian of the Truffula forest, despite the flashy manner in which the guardian was summoned. When confronted by the Lorax, the Once-ler failed to take him seriously. Rather than owning up to chopping down the tree, the Once-ler instead pretended he hadn’t been responsible. He continued to treat the Lorax as just another animal, offering marshmallows to the guardian, until the Lorax started pulling up the pegs that held his cottage up.
In his rush to keep his home from collapsing, the Once-ler nearly hammered one of the Barb-a-loots, which the Lorax pounced on. The Once-ler protested that he would never hurt the animals, but the Lorax would be someone he’d gladly hit. He stormed into his house, only to be confronted again by the Lorax, who appeared to have teleported. Surprised by the appearance, the Once-ler listened to the Lorax’s warnings, but was unimpressed when he had to open the door for the guardian, who was too short to reach the handle.
That night, the Once-ler used the tufts to knit the first thneed. Proud of his work, he settled into bed and fell asleep. He was rudely awakened, however, by suddenly being submerged in water: the Lorax had put his bed into the river while he slept. The guardian’s plan to send the Once-ler away had gone awry when one of the Barb-a-loots, Pipsqueak, had remained on the bed, and only got worse when, in his sleep, the Once-ler accidentally dropped his leg in the water and steered the bed off its intended gentle course and into the rapids.
The bed miraculously didn’t sink in the rapids and the Once-ler and Pipsqueak had a moment of relief before noticing the waterfall up ahead. Panicked, the Once-ler briefly tried to paddle the bed with his pillow before giving up and clinging to the bed in fear. The Lorax was able to save the pair against incredible odds, catapulting the two off the bed with a boulder right before it went over the falls. While in the air, the Once-ler grabbed Pipsqueak and shielded him from the impact. The Barb-a-loot was fine, but the landing had knocked the Once-ler out.
The Lorax panicked, having not intended any harm to the Once-ler and revived the man with a jolt (courtesy of a pair of electrostatically charged Barb-a-loots). The Once-ler was extremely grateful, hugging the Lorax and thanking the guardian for saving his life, until he began to question how his bed had ended up in the river in the first place. The Lorax admitted to putting the bed in the water, to which the Once-ler responded angrily, dropping the Lorax and walking away. The Lorax protested, saying that it had been an accident and that the intention had been to send the Once-ler away peacefully on the gentle fork of the river, and never meant any harm.
Despite being angry, the Once-ler stopped and listened as the Lorax explained his reasoning: all the animals depended on the trees, and if the Once-ler was chopping them down, there was a problem. The Once-ler promised then to never cut down another tree; he hadn’t known before how much the animals depended on them. The Lorax accepted, adding that he would keep an eye on the Once-ler, and the Once-ler, after locating his battered bed, returned to his cottage to get some sleep.
The next morning, the Once-ler awoke to the Lorax sleeping next to him and the animals of the valley curled up everywhere in his one room cottage. The combined presence of animals using his dishes for beds and nests, his toothbrush being used by his almost-killer as a mustache brush, and all the food being eaten by one Barb-a-loot proved too much for the Once-ler to deal with at that moment. Pulling himself together, he announced his intention to sell his thneed in town.
The Lorax was shocked by the thneed, calling it a piece of garbage. The Once-ler was offended and immediately launched into a sales pitch, showing several uses for the thneed and leaving the Lorax thoroughly unimpressed. The two exchanged barbs, the Lorax stating that no one would want to buy something as ridiculous as the thneed while the Once-ler informed him he was not the target market. The man left for the nearby town of Greenville, confident that his thneed and accompanying musical jingle would gain eager customers.
The Once-ler’s determination showed during the time he attempted to sell his thneed. Each day he would head into the town of Greenville to throw his sales pitch, and in return was pelted with tomatoes and mocked by the citizens. Nevertheless, he kept returning, even after having his guitar snapped by a young girl. But he finally gave up, threw his thneed away in disgust and returned home to his cottage. While the amount of time that passed was not made clear, it was long enough for the Once-ler and the Lorax to have developed a friendly relationship, a far cry from their earlier friction.
The Once-ler then settled into a nice life in the valley, happily cooking absurd amounts of pancakes for the animals, which were now welcome to come and go as they pleased within his cottage. He had no idea that when he had tossed his thneed away, it had landed on a teenaged girl and gave her a trendy new look. The thneed experienced a rise in popularity in town, and after a few weeks the entire population of Greenville descended upon the Once-ler’s cottage, singing a modified version of his advertising jingle.
The Once-ler was frightened at first by the horde of people, many of whom had pelted him with fruit, but became delighted when they surrounded him and practically threw money at him, all wanting a thneed. This was his break through; he had finally done something successful, and he immediately called his family to tell them about his success, and to have them come to the valley right away. He was going to need help if he wanted to continue his success.
The arrival of the Once-ler’s family marked the start of his fall. Their arrival in the family RV broke the tranquility of the valley, and their disdain for the valley and its inhabitants distressed the Lorax. The Once-ler, however, was overjoyed to see his family. While his uncle hugged him enthusiastically, his mother informed the Once-ler that all those times she had told him he would never amount to anything had been her way of motivating her son. After mentioning how that had really hurt him, the Once-ler introduced the Lorax as his friend.
The Lorax interrupted and called the two acquaintances. The Once-ler added that they were very good acquaintances; he at least considered the Lorax a friend. But the two clashed when the Lorax told the Once-ler’s family to leave. Pulling the guardian aside, the Once-ler told him to be nice to his family, and that they couldn’t leave because he needed them. This was no longer a one-man project; if the Once-ler were to continue his success, he needed help.
Realizing that the Once-ler was determined to move forward, the Lorax reminded him that a tree falls the way it leans, and that the man should be careful which way he leaned. The Once-ler did not fully understand what the Lorax meant, but he pushed it aside and set his family to work.
The Once-ler had his family harvesting the tufts from the trees, rather than chopping them down entirely, so that he kept his promise to not chop down any more. But the thneed continued to rise in popularity, and soon enough it became evident that the slow process of plucking individual tufts would not keep up with the demand. The Once-ler had already planned to construct a factory to speed up production, but his mother pointed out that the harvesting was too slow.
His mother confronted him about this, stating that thneeds were not being made fast enough. She suggested that instead they started chopping the trees down entirely. The Once-ler was hesitant; while he did want to continue his fledgling company, he also wanted to keep his promise to the Lorax. But his mother insisted, telling her son that he was running a business and needed to do what was best for it and his mother.
Unintentionally or not, his mother manipulated him into agreeing to cut down a few trees, since it couldn’t hurt. There were still more. The decision was reinforced in his mind when he received genuine affection from his mother, whom he had for years been trying to please. It really couldn’t be all that bad.
Immediately his brothers set about to chopping trees down. The Lorax tried to confront the Once-ler, but was held back by his aunt. The guardian yelled at the Once-ler that what he was doing was wrong, he was better than this, but the Once-ler, unwilling to face his friend, simply closed the blinds on his window. He asked himself (and a Swomee Swan chick) if what he was really doing was so bad. A good thing had finally happened to him, and the Lorax was trying to stop it. Somewhere in his mind he knew it was wrong to break the promise, but the praise from his mother and the joy in actually achieving success were greater. The Once-ler decided he was doing nothing wrong and chose to go ahead with his company.
The Once-ler’s descent into greed was not sudden, but gradual. While in the movie itself this transformation is portrayed through a three-minute song sequence, in universe it was spread over the course of several years. At first there was very little change; the Once-ler still enjoyed spending time with the animals of the valley despite chopping down more trees. The animals had grown used to him since that first tree, and with the newfound support of his family the Once-ler convinced himself that it wasn’t really all that bad. It wasn’t as if he was cutting down every tree; there were so many that it was hardly making a dent in the overall population.
But the thneed became more and more popular. The Once-ler had construction on his factory started, as well as crafting himself a new public image. Gone were the simple clothes; he started wearing a custom tailored suit and, for some reason, sparkling blue sunglasses. As the demand for thneeds kept rising, more and more trees were chopped down. The Once-ler soon designed the Axe-Hacker, a machine that could be driven by one person and cut down trees with much greater efficiency.
The Once-ler himself became swept up in running his business. He oversaw his factory, traveled far and wide for publicity stunts, and handled logistics. With the demand for thneeds still rising, he stepped up his production rate. The factory was enlarged, and the Super-Axe-Hacker came into use, able to cut down four times as many trees as its predecessor with a single swing. Eventually he bought the entirety of Greenville and began planning to build a new town over it: Thneedville.
The Once-ler enjoyed his life as the head of his own company. Having never gone to a business school, the Once-ler had to learn everything as he went along, but he took the challenge head on and came out on top. He was a multimillionaire, had his family’s praise, and had power. He had come so far from the young man trying to sell his product with a guitar and a jingle. The Once-ler involved himself in every part of his business, from PR to logistics. He made sure everything went smoothly, and that the demand for thneeds was met.
However, his dedication to being so personally involved with his company meant that as it grew, he had less and less time for anything but business. Soon after the company’s beginning, he no longer had any time for the animals he had befriended. He made a point of ignoring the Lorax, who desperately tried to stop him. He turned a blind eye to the pollution his factory was generating. But despite everything, there was still some lingering guilt over breaking his promise to the Lorax.
Around five years after the company got started, the Truffula valley was almost entirely barren. Only a few trees remained, and the hackers continued to chop. Construction on Thneedville had started, and the Once-ler enjoyed spending time working on the scale model of the town in his office. It was during one of these moments that the Lorax came to him one last time.
The Once-ler immediately ordered the Lorax to leave. The guardian responded, asking if his presence made the man uncomfortable since it was a reminder of who he used to be and what he had done. He asked if the Once-ler was truly satisfied with his life, forcing the man to think about his guilt.
The Once-ler became outraged. He started to justify his actions, stating that he had done nothing wrong, that he was completely within his rights to continue what he was doing, and that he intended to keep going with the production of thneeds. Nothing was going to stop him. At that moment, both man and guardian looked out over the devastated valley, as the last tree was felled.
The Lorax quietly commented about the last tree, and how that might stop the Once-ler. His words struck the Once-ler with realization, and for the first time in years he truly saw what he had done. He had been running away from the truth and deluding himself, but with the last tree gone he was forced to face reality.
It devastated him, and his company rapidly fell apart. The abrupt end triggered his family to abandon him; they had expected the company to continue and were disappointed with the Once-ler. What hurt him more, though, was watching as the remaining animals were sent off by the Lorax to find somewhere they could live. The animals had been his friends once, and he had destroyed their home. As they marched away, the Once-ler turned to the Lorax, who simply shook his head before lifting himself away. The Once-ler watched as the Lorax disappeared into the sky, unable to say anything.
All that remained were his factory, the devastated valley, and a mysterious stone with the word UNLESS inscribed on it. The Once-ler did not understand what the meaning of the stone was, but he became determined to find out. He went into a self-imposed exile in the wasteland he had created, so that he would never again be able to avoid what he had done, and to understand the meaning of UNLESS.
[Speculation] It is likely the Once-ler, overcome by the stress of losing everything, did have a brief mental breakdown and acted against the factory itself, which to him was a symbol of his company, and therefore his actions. After the Lorax left and his family abandoned him, the Once-ler had a mental breakdown. He viewed the factory that had once been his pride as a blight upon the land, and had everything shut down. All the workers were fired, and he set fire to the massive facility. The factory collapsed into rubble, and a good portion of the hill it sat on crumbled into the valley below, the earth weakened by the deforestation, leaving a sheer cliff upon which the only remaining structure perched.
The Once-ler adapted this into his Lurkim, where he lived. The difference between the landscape of the present and past in the movie show that the factory has all but disappeared over the years. However, buildings do not deteriorate into nothing over 40 years or so. It is confirmed that the Lurkim is a part of the factory, the only part that still stands, and that it sits on a cliff, whereas the factory was built on a hill.
During the first year of his self-imposed exile, the Once-ler came across something he thought he would never see again: a single Truffula tree seed. He kept it safe, recognizing that the seed contained the only chance for the valley to recover, as well as being his last hope of ever redeeming himself for what he had done. He would have planted it, but the valley was so heavily polluted he feared it would die in the ground. The Once-ler also feared that if the trees did return, he might repeat his mistakes, or that someone else would. So he waited, sitting in his Lurkim day after day, puzzling over the word UNLESS and wondering if there was anyone left who cared about the trees.
Overall, the Once-ler is a quirky man who has suffered greatly because of his own actions. He let his success and desire blind him to the damage he was doing until it was too late, at which point it all came crashing down. Ever since the Lorax left he has regretted his actions, which has led him to be disgusted with himself. However, he keeps himself together and rarely shows just how deeply he has been affected. He’s always been something of a smart-ass, although he has become somewhat more caustic since his company failed.
Despite his external abrasiveness, the Once-ler is lonely. He misses the animals and the Lorax, and will start to open up if he perceives someone actively making a point of interacting with him. To those he actually considers friends he is genuinely nice. His snark should not be mistaken for spite. The Once-ler is a trustworthy individual. Breaking his promise to cease cutting down trees is a decision he deeply regrets, and it’s not something he wants to repeat. He’ll keep any promises he makes.
He is very much a ‘see-it-to-believe-it’ man. He thought the Lorax was all talk for years until the guardian finally used his powers to leave the dead valley behind. After seeing that, the Once-ler is more open to the existence of magical occurrences and entities, though it will still take him some time to get used to the more bizarre things. Having only one experience with any supernatural event, the Once-ler will need to adjust to the nature of the institute. When he gets used to the idea that the supernatural is not so farfetched, he’ll find it easier to believe it when others make unnatural claims. The most bizarre concepts will still throw him for a loop, though.
The Once-ler is rather quirky, having a habit of talking to himself out loud and gesturing to supplement his words. He doesn’t just use his hands; the Once-ler expresses himself with his entire body. Others might view it as overly dramatic, but to the Once-ler it’s just the way he speaks. When he was younger, he had a ‘completely irrational sense of optimism.’ While he’s lost most of that attitude, a small bit of it remains in his hope that he might be able to redeem himself and fix his mistakes.
The Once-ler has a stubborn streak a mile wide. When he decides to do something, he’ll keep at it until he is successful or until it finally becomes evident that what he’s going for just won’t work out. The more strongly he feels about something, the longer he will persist. However, when he recognizes he’s fighting a losing battle, he will back down. If he's in the wrong and someone gets through to him about him being wrong, he'll not be bullheaded about it.
Since it’s only been a year since his company’s collapse, the Once-ler may still occasionally act as though he’s still in charge, especially if he’s trying to achieve something. He is proud of his success; he knows his rise to success was impressive. His guilt over the consequences, however, outstrips his pride. He also blames himself entirely for what happened. It’s clear that his family pushed him to break his promise to the Lorax, but he won’t hear of it. He made the decision on his own.
Despite everything he’s been through, the Once-ler refuses to give in. He needs to know what the Lorax meant by UNLESS, and with the discovery of the last Truffula seed he has some hope that he might be able to fix what he has done. He doesn’t allow himself to fall apart.The Once-ler is a gifted inventor. He designed the thneed, which possesses a wide range of uses, and developed the hackers that devastated the Truffula forest. He also was able to construct an elaborate trap system for his Lurkim using the materials he was able to salvage from the ruins of his factory. He has architectural knowledge, having drawn up the blueprints for his factory himself and later planning out the entirety of Thneedville for its construction. The Once-ler is also talented musically, and can sing and play guitar with great skill. He can also sew, knit, and draw quite well.
The Once-ler has no magical abilities.
