Gemwing2012: Having seen the infamous scene where Rudolph was disqualified and banned from the games, I was disappointed that Arrow doesn't face similar consequences and won by default. The only thing he gets close to a comeuppance was Zoe calling him out on his lack of positive qualities and breaks up with him.
So, I thought about a A Want For a Nail and thought about what if he and Zoe had never dated to begin with and wondered what Cupid had thought about Arrow's attitude and he had tried to set him straight while scolding him offscreen when he and Rudolph were younger.
Blackwolfen: Writing an alternate Story with different endings can be easy or difficult. But in this case here it was the first. Giving Arrow a piece of his own and showing him that actions have consequences is one of the few things I wished the Movie would have showed. I mean Rudolph has trouble on his own with his red nose and he couldn't control it at that point so disqualifiing him was a no go for me as a child and as an adult.
Arrow had thought it would be an easy win.
It was a gambit that worked too well given how Ruddy the Red-Nosed Reject can't seem to stop that glorified lightbulb of a nose of his glowing whenever he gets emotional.
If he gets that loser disqualified, he could win the race by default and his chances of getting Santa to notice him would be a shoe-in.
After declaring to the emotionally defeated Rudolph that he's banned from the rest of the Reindeer Games, the elf referee removed the winner's wreath away from him and walked away. But just as Arrow was waiting in anticipation to be declared winner by default, the referee just glared at him with a stern look.
"You have nothing to be proud about, mister." The referee chided. "Because you're also disqualified."
Arrow stiffened with shock and disbelief, unable to fathom the meaning of the word echoing in his ears to his brain.
Disqualified.
"WHAT?! Whaddya mean I'm also disqualified?!" Arrow exclaimed in disbelief and pure outrage. "That's crazy! Disqualified for what?!"
"For sabotage by deliberately ramming your sleigh into the other racers' sleighs to cause crashes halfway across the racetrack." The referee answered in a disapproving and disgusted tone. "I had been near the finishing line when that happened so I wasn't able to see what was happening. But… someone in the audience stand has witnessed the whole incident and voluntarily left their seat to tell me everything."
Arrow couldn't believe this. He was disqualified all because someone in the audience had ratted him out!
From the corner of his eye, Boon, the elf charged with being his driver, could only shake his head with a look of disgust on his face, indicating he agreed with the referee. That, and he too had witnessed Arrow's lack of good spotsmanship.
"Oh come on! That's not fair!" Arrow protested angrily, pointing his hoof at Rudolph as if he was to blame. "You disqualified and banned that red-nosed reject over there!"
The referee simply shrugged in reply which only fanned the flames of Arrow's anger and frustration further.
"I had to disqualify and ban him from the rest of the games, because a glowing red nose that lights up at random is too dangerous and distracting to the other competitors." He stated. "But you… well, you've shown quite an act of poor sportsmanship with zero regards for the safety and well-being of others. Which means, I have no choice but to have you banned from the rest of the Reindeer Games as well."
Without so much another word nor a parting glance at the rigid Arrow, who was frozen in shock, horror and anger, the referee breezed past him, wreath in hand.
Banned from the rest of the Reindeer Games.
Arrow barely registered those very words as the announcer's voice blared out through the megaphones.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The judges have made up their decision. Arrow, who had been second in line, has been disqualified! Hence, the judges have decided that Zoe, who came in third, wins by default!"
The crowd cheered as the referee casually placed the wreath over Zoe, who just looked on sadly, knowing she didn't deserve to win by default. She looked up at Rudolph who could only smile at her sadly, silently congratulating her.
Over in the V.I.P stand, Santa and his wife were not celebrating as they were too heartbroken by Rudolph being unfairly disqualified and banned from the rest of the games all because of an honest accident with his nose.
"Oh Santa, it's just not fair." Mrs. Claus spoke, not having the heart to finish her knitting.
"My love, that's for the judges to decide, not us." Santa answered sadly.
Of course, deep down, he felt glad that the victory was passed onto a fine young doe like Zoe. During his frequent visits, Rudolph had been open enough to tell Santa that Zoe was the only one at Reindeer School to be sincerely nice to him and was very accepting towards him, even telling him that his glowing red nose was unique.
Next to Rudolph, the young doe has courage, a lot of character and a pure heart that is true. All three positive qualities that give her a lot of potential to be a great flyer to guide Santa's sleigh every Christmas Eve.
All three qualities that Cupid's shallow and misguided son lacked.
Rudolph had been reluctant at first but he eventually opened up to Santa that Arrow had been the main reindeer who had ridiculed and bullied him about his nose.
It was rather unfortunate since Cupid had high hopes that his son would one follow in his hoof steps and take up the family legacy. Of course, Santa had no place to argue otherwise with his own reindeer and question their judgement of their own children.
This was something Cupid had to witness for himself. If he had witnessed his own son had been a callous bully lacking the true qualities of the flyer he had hoped he would be someday, it would break his heart.
"This is stupid!" Arrow fumed inwardly. "Me?! Disqualified and banned from the rest of the games?! They can't do that to me! I'm the son of Cupid, one of Santa's best reindeer! Dad said so himself! I'm meant to be a great flyer just like him! Stupid referee! Stupid jerk tattling on me! It's all that loser, Ruddy's fault!"
He glared over at Rudolph, who had just turned his back and started to slowly trot away, head hanging low. So low in fact, his stupid glowing red nose could have touched the snow.
"Hey! Loser!" Arrow yelled out at him. "Where do you think you're going?! This is all your fault you know! You're really enjoying this hollow victory aren't you?! Now I'm gonna be a laughing stock and a huge embarrassment to my dad all because of you!"
Arrow did have the tendency to get under his misfit cousin's skin when they had been calves but today was different.
Rudolph did respond to the scathing and accusing barbs. He didn't stop to turn with a scowling glare. He didn't even flinch at being called a loser.
He just continued walking away as though he didn't hear anything, which made Arrow even more angry.
In Arrow's eyes, it was like Rudolph was deliberately doing something he should have done a long time ago. Something Arrow had feared and hated since he was a yearling.
He was ignoring him.
"Hey! Get back!" Arrow demanded. "Don't act like you can't hear me! I'm talking to you! Don't just walk away and ignore me! I said-!"
"Stop it, Arrow! You brought this upon yourself!" A familiar voice rang out from behind.
Arrow whipped around in surprise to see a justly upset Zoe glaring coldly at him. He hadn't seen her give him that sort of look since they were very young. Mostly when she was defending Rudolph after Arrow insulted him.
"It wasn't Rudolph's fault you were disqualified and banned from the rest of the game. It's YOURS!" Zoe snapped. "The referee was wrong to disqualify Rudolph, but he was right to disqualify you because you cheated!"
Arrow practically rolled his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to be lectured. By his own doe friend no less.
"So what if I cheated?" He scoffed in annoyance. "I should have won and Santa would have noticed me!"
"You're NO flyer, Arrow!" Zoe reprimanded. "A real flyer has courage, character and a true heart, like Rudolph!"
Arrow sputtered in disbelief. He couldn't believe what he just heard. How could that freak of a reindeer with a light up Christmas ornament for a nose have any chances of being a better flyer than him?!
He had said so himself back at school that red-nosed reject will never be a flyer. How could his doe still defend him after all these years of growing up? What does she even see in him? Why is it that she keeps going all this way to be friends with such a loser like him?
"He had been wearing your pendant!" Arrow exclaimed defensively. "He's a loser, Zoe. A freak! Why can't you just cut it out with the act already?"
This only fuelled the fire burning in Zoe's brown eyes even further. Their old teacher at Reindeer School, Mrs. Prancer had been right about Arrow getting out of order.
"What act?" Zoe practically screamed, making Arrow actually recalling in alarm.
Her cry of outrage actually got the attention of the other reindeer competing in the games, the very ones who had gone to school with them and who had also bullied Rudolph. Even the shallow doe who had callously suggested to Rudolph about joining a circus instead was taken aback by the argument between her former schoolmates.
"I'm nice to Rudolph because I sincerely wanted to be his friend!" Zoe shouted angrily. "I wanted to be a good friend to him of how you and everyone else at school had treated him! I actually like his nose! I wasn't lying to him when I told him that it makes him unique! Unlike you, he has all of the true qualities of becoming a flyer someday! How can you or any of the reindeer we went to school with ever become a flyer after how cruel you've all been to him?!"
Hearing this, the reindeer either looked away in shame or tried (the key word is "try") to act like they weren't guilty of their part in the bullying.
The shallow doe simply scoffed in annoyance before she was taken aback when her friend just shot her a disapproving look.
"Hey don't look at me like that! You took part in all of it too!" The doe protested.
"I gave him my pendant for luck in winning the race and to show that I care, because that's what a TRUE friend does!" Zoe continued. "And he's your cousin! He's family! You're supposed to be his friend and defend him, not bully him! How could you actually be so cruel to your own blood relative?! Why do you hate him so much?!"
The question struck Arrow rather hard. It just came completely out of nowhere. Not even the other reindeer watching on from the sidelines had seen it coming.
"Because… because…" Arrow hesitated, lost for an obviously honest answer.
He had never given much thought about his constant antagonism towards Rudolph. Glowing red noses aside, Arrow had always been most aggressively callous towards his cousin because of his jealousy of how chummy Rudolph and Zoe had been as kids. And seeing them nearly kissing underneath that mistletoe after Santa's take off still seared a burnt scar in the back of his mind ever since.
"Because… he's got a red nose." Arrow finally spoke. It was a predictable and very weak excuse but that was all that came to mind.
And it certainly didn't help his own cause as Zoe just looked even more angry and disgusted with him.
"Ugh! You're so shallow!" She snapped.
"B-but Zoe…!" Arrow started but he was unable to say anything else when Zoe simply shut him down.
"Enough Arrow! I had never been your doe friend! Ever!" She claimed. "I just wanted us to be friends but nothing I said ever got through to you! I'm not a trophy you're hoping to win, Arrow, and you, of all reindeer, have no right to treat me like one!"
Arrow felt a massive and cold wave crash into him as he recalled Rudolph's response to his hostile claim about him and Zoe as they were getting into position at the starting line. The red-nosed reindeer's retort ironically echoed at the back of his mind.
"She's not a trophy and you shouldn't treat her like one."
"I had hoped you could change and maybe reconcile with Rudolph, but I was wrong." Zoe said coldly, turning away. "Don't ever talk to me again because I don't want to be friends with you anymore! What do you even know about what makes someone a loser when you're the one who's lost everything?"
That question struck Arrow like a slap to the face.
How ironic. Years of tauntingly calling his cousin a loser just to spite him, Arrow suddenly finds himself being outed as a loser himself. By the very doe he had been bullying his cousin over since childhood had implied him to be as such.
Without another word, Zoe turned around and started to walk away from Arrow, leaving him completely alone.
He stiffly looked around to see all of the other competing reindeer, his old schoolmates, giving him cold stares. Much to his further humiliation, some were muttering to one another.
"Can you believe this guy?" One young buck questioned. "Can't believe he was playing dirty. Someone could have gotten hurt."
"For someone who claims to be a great flyer like his dad someday, he's got a funny way of showing it." The reindeer with the glasses and blue bow tie said with a frown.
"No way he's ever gonna take up his dad's legacy as a flyer after that disgraceful display earlier." The doe with the small bow on her head agreed.
The snooty doe and her companion scornfully trotted past Arrow with frowns on their faces. The companion stuck her nose up to the air, letting out a "Hmph!"
"Hey, loser, why don't you take up a job pulling a cart of firewood instead?" The snooty doe scoffed as she and her companion continued past Arrow.
"Arrow's never gonna be a flyer." Another buck claimed a bit too loudly Arrow wanted to hear.
Again, irony had hit Arrow very hard.
Those had been the very words Arrow had tauntingly claimed as he and all of the other reindeer (except for a sympathetic Zoe) had laughed at Rudolph that day in Mrs. Prancer's lesson about the history and qualities of being Santa's reindeer team.
Hearing that remark wasn't so funny when one's on the receiving end of such scorn.
Humiliated, Arrow couldn't take it with thousands of people — elf and reindeer — watching him with disapproving and disdainful eyes. He began to leave the field to take refuge inside when…
His dad, Cupid, was there, obviously waiting for him. And from the dark frown clouding his face, it was clear he was not happy with him either.
"Arrow." Cupid spoke, his tone stern and very displeased. "We need to talk."
Arrow gulped, knowing what his father wanted to talk with him about. Cupid's face wasn't new for Arrow and he knew it meant trouble. Big trouble.
"What were you thinking?!" Cupid yelled angrily as he and his son were inside the building. "Cheating?! This is NOT what I had trained you for! You could have gotten someone hurt! I just don't know what to do with you, young buck!"
Arrow had those times of getting scolded and reprimanded for somethings wrong he had done, but his dad was beyond angry, he was furiously serious.
His eyes were burning in anger. He couldn't believe his son was capable of doing something like that.
"Your mother and I had raised you to be better than this!" Cupid scolded. "And I thought we had settled with this whole thing with you picking on your cousin Rudolph! I had promised your Uncle Blitzen that I would set you straight and stop bullying Rudolph! And now, thanks to that little stunt you had pulled, Bliztzen's gonna lock antlers with me!"
"But Dad his nose-" Arrow started to protest.
"NO excuses!" Cupid snapped. "I know that Cousin Rudolph has… special needs but he's still family! As his cousin, you should have been defending him when he's being ridiculed! You should have been his friend, NOT bullying him!"
But Arrow wasn't having any of it and protested, "Why should I? He's a freak and shouldn't be here but work in the circus with his dumb glowing nose!"
"Don't you dare speak about family like that or talk to me in that tone of voice, young buck!" Cupid shouted. "How can you expect to be a great flyer with that attitude! What do I always telling you during training? A true flyer should have courage, character and a heart that's true! Given your attitude just now, you lack all of those qualities of being a flyer!"
Arrow scoffed and ignored him as he started to walk away but his dad stopped him.
"Don't walk away from me!" Cupid warned. "You're completely out of order, Arrow! Walking away isn't going to change anything! The only place you're going is home! Because you're grounded in the New Year! And you won't be attending any future Reindeer Games anytime soon!"
Arrow's shocked face was hard to miss followed by the tears of anger.
"Your mother and I had told you many times that bad decisions have worse consequences, Arrow." Cupid sighed, feeling subdued and disappointed. You have to face the consequences of your actions sooner or later."
Blitzen noticed him and decided to help his brother out.
"I heard everything you two have talked about and it's hard to ignore the fact that my son isn't in the games anymore." He sighed.
"I'm so sorry, Blitzen." Cupid apologised sincerely. "I thought I had set him right since the previous incident at Reindeer School. And… I'm sorry that Rudolph had been wrongly disqualified and banned from the rest of the games. He raced really good out there and he actually has a lot of potential to be great a flyer one day."
"It's okay Cupid, I know you mean it well but the referee won't allow Rudolph to enter even with your son being the cause of all this problem." He signed yet again not knowing that Rudolph was listening to all of it.
"I promise, Blitz, I'll make sure that Arrow will make it up to you and your son in any way he can." Cupid said while shooting his son a warning look.
Arrow rolls his eyes in annoyance while the announcer is announcing the next round.
"I'd better get my son home and discuss with Angel about how he can properly apologise to Rudolph." Cupid stated. "Be sure to tell Rudy he did good out there for me."
"I will once I find him of course." Blitzen said and started looking for his son.
Cupid nodded before he turned and gave Arrow another glare but it was more disappointing.
"I'm very disappointed in you." He spoke.
Those words were the very thing that broke through Arrow's barrier of arrogance and shattered his ego completely. All he could do was hang his head low in shame.
There was no way he could blame Rudolph in the fact that his dad was very disappointed in him.
"Is Dad right? Did I really bring this on myself?" He thought reluctantly.
Arrow had learned the hard way of discovering what makes one a loser when he had lost everything.
He lost his chances of Santa noticing him. He lost his efforts of being with the doe of his dreams. He lost the respect and support of his peers.
And, worst of all, he has potentially lost his father's faith in him.
All because he had wasted his years of ridiculing his cousin about his nose?
Even though he will have to face the consequences of his shallow arrogance, stubbornness and pride, Arrow was left with having to face the most difficult challenge of his life: making amends to the red-nosed reindeer he had bullied.
And… it wasn't going to be easy.
To say the least, aside from being disqualified, banned from the rest of the Reindeer Games and being grounded, he really can't think of how much anything else could get worse.
Is there?