In the past, I’ve only seen a handful of Guillermo del Toro films. I was glad to see two I had already seen (The Shape of Water and Pinocchio). In this video essay, I learned how there is a common thread in many of del Toro’s works that really shine when they are next to each other. This helps me to appreciate his films, because it is fascinating to “observe” how similar roles serve unique stories in such a way that they are integral to every film. When the films were next to each other, I could see how similar the roles looked to each other. The militarized masculine roles usually wear dark uniforms and sometimes wear a hat. The resistant masculinities are usually children. The two shots at (00:36) are almost the same shot even though they are different mediums. I learned that video essays don’t have to have spoken words. The ones I’ve seen before always have a voice narrated over clips or images. Sometimes the videos even had talking heads. I wasn’t used to the lack of speaking, but it was refreshing. I was confused with the use and meaning of the grid structure at (03:46). Maybe somebody has some ideas about that? I did notice that this video essay was the closest thing to an actual essay that I’ve seen so far. I learned that, while the childlike fantasy genre may seem unassuming on the outside, the aggressive masculinities described in the video essay can ground the films and give them their stakes.