A/N Hey everyone! Was the extra-long a/n last time difficult to read? I typically put them in bold to separate them from the rest of the story, but after I posted the last chapter I realized it might not be so easy on the eyes.

Anyway, I have a favor to ask: I'm planning out future chapters, and I ran into a problem. I'd like to know what you guys want to see; so if you're interested, please see the end of the chapter where I'll describe the issue and the options I'm considering to fix it. Essentially, it involves the characters possibly watching something else before the end of this film.

To anyone interested, please see the A/N at the end and share your feedback in the reviews.

Okay, on with the story!

The Once-ler slid on a pair of green gardening gloves.

Hey, green gloves again! thought Ted. At least his imagination hadn't been completely off with the green hands thing.

"About to make a Thneed, about to change the world," he said, picking up the ax.

"Uh huh," said Kristoff cautiously, wondering why doing that involved an ax.

All the animals watched intently. He paid them no mind as he walked off-frame with the ax.

That made some people feel a bit better. It looked like he clearly didn't plan on using it on the animals.

He walked over to a Truffula tree and looked it over, clearly about to chop it down.

Does he have any idea what he's doing? wondered Jack. Hopefully the joke wasn't going to be that he doesn't do it right and it falls on top of him and hurts him.

He started to swing, and the animals gasped.

The people from other movies mostly understood the animals' fear. After all, it didn't seem humans coming in and cutting down Truffulas happened very often. But it wasn't as if one fallen tree was going to harm them.

As he began chopping into it, the animals got scared and ran off.

Not understanding why the film was portraying this so dramatically, Elsa turned to the Once-ler. "They're really not used to people, are they?" she asked.

When neither he nor Ted answered, their eyes instead glued to the screen, she realized something after this must have gone horribly wrong.

The tree fell to the ground with a loud thud. The Once-ler examined the stump, pleased with himself. "Check it out guys-" he started to say, but then realized the animals were no longer behind him. "Where'd everybody go?"

Shrugging it off, the Once-ler bent down to pick up the tree by the base and began dragging it away.

"I'd have brought something to drag it with," said Ned.

In response, the Once-ler just shrugged. "It really wasn't that difficult," he said.

The screen abruptly cut back to the Once-ler telling the story from his Lurkim. "Little did I know that by chopping down that tree," said the Once-ler. "I had just summoned-"

So, here's where I arrive thought the Lorax. He knew he must feature somewhat prominently if he was the titular character, but he couldn't help wondering what exactly the Once-ler had included in his tale to the boy.

The camera cut to Ted on the ground as the Once-ler continued. "A mystical creature as old as time itself,"

Ted smiled mischievously. He couldn't wait to finally see the little mustached-creature he'd heard so much about. And he anticipated seeing the rest of the theater's reaction to the next part of the story, too.

On the ground, Ted's interest peaked. The camera cut back to the Once-ler behind his boarded window. "The legendary," he paused, "slightly annoying,"

This elicited several snorts from the audience.

"guardian of the forest," he paused for a beat as lightning flashed."The Lorax,"

The Lorax nodded in approval at his introduction. He was glad to see the Once-ler had finally come around and now believed him, at least in that regard. Although "as old as time itself" was a bit of an exaggeration. Sure, he'd been around a long time, but the universe had existed much longer.

The screen cut to the animals gathering around the tree stump.

Many of the characters from other films were wondering what was so special about this one specific fallen tree.

One of the Humming-Fish knocked on it, akin to a lumberjack. Suddenly the stump started shaking, and clouds began to swirl in the sky.

The Once-ler mumbled something about "well now I get to see it,"

Another Humming-Fish slapped the one that'd knocked on the stump, blaming him for the strange sky. Animals began to run away in fear, some attempting to stick their heads underground.

Ted found that little odd. He'd have thought the animals would've known they needn't fear the Lorax.

Lightning began to flash, and a large beam of light shot up to the sky from the trunk.

"And somehow, Beanpole didn't catch any of this," the Lorax mumbled to himself.

A bunch of wind blew, knocking the animals back. Lightning struck the stump before the skies returned to their normal blue.

Most of the audience held their breath in anticipation, apparently having forgotten they'd seen the Lorax in the opening. Especially those from Thneedville who had never heard of this Lorax, but were eager to see this legendary guardian of the forest.

A small orange creature popped out of the stump and landed on his head.

Giggles filled the hall at seeing that after all that build-up.

"It's you?" Audrey asked incredulously, turning to the orange creature next to her.

"'Course it is," the Lorax said gruffly. "I speak for the trees,"

The conversation drew the attention of the rest of the seat-section, causing many exclamations of "You're the immortal forest guardian?" and "He's the mystical creature?".

Shaking it off, the Lorax saw the stump and jumped up. "What the w- Who the- Oh!"

"It…talked?" said the Duke of Weselton.

"Well…yeah, why wouldn't it?" asked O'hare, not understanding why that was what the Duke thought was strange about this story.

He shook his head. "You're world is a bizarre one,"

The animals watched as he collected some rocks and placed them around the stump, creating a memorial. Pipsqueak brought over a rock and offered it to the Lorax. The other animals joined him. When they are finished they took a moment of silence for the stump. Pipsqueak walked over and holds the Lorax's hand.

"Seems like a bit of an overreaction, no?" Gobber said, completely ignoring the solemn mood thus startling everyone.

They did have to admit, though, he had a point. At least, most of them thought so, anyway. Obviously that one fallen tree on its own wasn't going to lead to the devastation that they'd seen in the present day.

"So, you did see this part?" Ted asked the Once-ler quietly, figuring he must've if he'd included it in the story.

The Once-ler nodded. "Yeah, from a distance," though he hadn't paid it much attention. "I thought it was a bit much at the time, too," he admitted.

The Lorax noticed the Once-ler by his tent, whistling as he collected the tuft of the Truffula into big sack.

The Once-ler grabbed another handful, but found it was connected to something. He looked down to see the Lorax staring up at him angrily. "Hey!"

Several snickers of amusement sounded.

The Once-ler yelped in surprise and fell backward, startled. The Lorax walked up the tree trunk to the edge. "Did you chop down this tree," he asked accusingly.

"Uh, no," the Once-ler denied. He got up onto his knee. "Who did it?" he asked.

The characters from other films glanced at each other. The Once-ler was sure reacting to a talking orange thing remarkably calmly.

He dropped the axe onto Pipsqueak. "I think he did it,"

Laughter sounded throughout the room. Toothless gave the Once-ler an annoyed glare.

The Lorax huffed angrily. "Leave!" he yelled. "Vacate the premises. Take your ax and get out!" he commanded.

The Once-ler looked at him, unimpressed. "And who are you?" he asked, giving him a poke.

"How are you talking to him so…normally?" asked Hiccup.

The Once-ler looked a little confused. "And, this interaction isn't normal because?" he asked. Some of the other characters looked at him like he'd grown two heads.

"You mean you really weren't…shocked at all, by meeting a bright orange…creature?" asked Anna. Sure, she and Kristoff had run into some talking snowmen and magical trolls on their adventure, but she at least hadn't thought of those instances as a completely ordinary occurrence.

Slowly, the Once-ler shook his head. "No….?" he said, brow furrowed. He hadn't known who the Lorax was at this point, but it wasn't like there was anything unusual about running into some guy that didn't look exactly human.

"Even when it started talking?" asked Elsa.

His eyes narrowed. "What's so strange about that?" he asked. He could understand if Ted or Audrey reacted this way, having grown up so isolated in Thneedville. But he hadn't gotten the impression these other characters had been so sheltered.

Jack failed to suppress a laugh. "Man, that's perfect!" he snickered. When the others looked at him questionly, he explained. "It's the world of Dr. Suess, and they're both Dr. Suess characters. Of course he doesn't blink twice at meeting someone who looks like that,"

"I'm the Lorax!" he said, pointing to himself. "Guardian of the Forest. I speak for the trees," he shrugged.

The Once-ler mimicked his facial expression before standing up straight and placing a hand on his chin.

"So you're telling me, you just didn't see me magically appear out of that stump?" the Lorax asked in disbelief. "With all the lightning and thunder and stuff! You didn't see any of that?"

Laughter filled the auditorium.

"I like when movies make fun of themselves," said North.

"No, but that sounds amazing? Can I see some of that?" asked the Once-ler.

The Once-ler thought back to the moment the Lorax had picked himself up by the seat of his pants and floated away. In the end he had seen a glimpse of the spirit's power, but by then it was too late.

"Uh, yeah I could show ya," said the Lorax. "But that's not how it works," he said, crossing his arms.

"Did…did you ever find out how it does work?" asked Ted, unsure he understood even after hearing the full story.

The Once-ler sighed. "Nope! Not really,"

"Okay," said the Once-ler, skeptically. "Um, didn't really happen," he said.

"You didn't believe him?" asked Horton.

"No," admitted the Once-ler. "I mean, I believed his name was the Lorax, but not the part about the magic. I just thought he was some guy who-" he bit his lip, deciding not to finish that thought. Who cared a whole lot about the trees.

A/N Okay, I'll stop using the bold text now

So the issue involves that scene near the end, when the old-Once-ler looks out the window and you see his face for the first time. I feel like that moment loses a lot of its impact if you don't already know he was completely faceless in the original. However, these characters won't be aware of that if they've only seen the 2012 film.

I don't remember what I was planning to do when I was 14; probably just straight up tell them during one of the flashback scenes. But I don't want to do that because, as I mentioned last chapter, I'd rather have the characters have to figure things out for themselves. I thought of a possible solution, but it comes with its own drawbacks:

I'm considering having a few of the characters (perhaps the villains?) get up to some mischief on their own. Eventually-I'm thinking either right before or right after How Bad Can I Be?-they end up finding a copy of the 1972 special, and announce it to the rest of the theater. Everyone argues over whether or not to watch it, but eventually they decide to load into the projector. Thus, they watch the 1972 version before finishing the film.

Obviously, there's a few downsides to this. The biggest one being that it would spoil things in the film, like the last tree falling and Ted getting the last Truffula seed. I can make them still somewhat surprised when those things happen, but not nearly as much as they would be if they watched the 2012 film completely blind to the original. Plus, most of the characters won't realize the Once-ler is a villain until How Bad Can I Be? if they only know the 2012 version. Showing them the original before the song would definitely spoil that.

But on the other hand, it might be kind of cool to see them find out the main character is actually the villain that way. When seeing how awful the Once-ler is in the original special, they'd have trouble believing it's even supposed to be the same character. It'd instill a lingering worry that the same thing will happen with the 2012 Once-ler. When they eventually get to the villain song in the movie, they wouldn't feel the same shock and disbelief. But instead everyone would feel dread, thinking "please don't let it happen here too".

And the same thing applies to things like the fall of the last Truffula tree or the Once-ler giving Ted the seed. Those moments still hit, they just hit in a different way. The movie characters would still have reactions to those scenes, it'd just be less about surprise and more about recognizing bits from the original, and appreciating how they were adapted. Just like how it is for people in real life who already know the original story. And, as I mentioned, they'd also see the Once-ler was faceless in the original, so they could understand why the reveal scene in the 2012 movie is so important.

I should probably mention I was always planning on having them watch the tv specials of The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who, but not until they'd finished the movies. I was going to put it between chapters without really detailing their reactions as I transitioned from one film to the next.

So, that leaves me between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, there's a lot I don't want to spoil by showing them the 1972 version. But I also want them to know about the original faceless Once-ler before the end of the film, and there's a lot of fun things that could come with them watching the 1972 special without knowing how the 2012 movie ends. So, I'm asking what you guys want to think should happen. Let me know if you thinks this is a good idea, and if so, when it should happen in the movie. Right now, I'm leaning towards right after How Bad Can I Be?, but if you think another point would be better, let me know. And if you have any other ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you all so much for your time and feedback! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!