How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Pan's Labyrinth.
Quote #4
[Ofelia has retrieved the blade from the behind the lock and is walking back toward her room when a plate of grapes catches her eye. She looks at the lifeless Pale Man and plucks one from the vine. The fairies try to stop her but she shoos them away. She eats one and then another, unaware until the last moment that the Pale Man has awoken and is coming to add her shoes to his collection.]
This might be one of those moments that makes us want to face-palm and yell, "Why, Ofelia? Why?"
But let's not forget that the she's just gone without dinner and that both the Book of Crossroads and the fairies haven't been very trustworthy with the whole key thing.
As for the Faun, we'd trust him as far as we could throw him. Disobeying is portrayed in such a positive light that even in this scene we have to ask if it was really an error.
Quote #5
VIDAL: Now I'll make you a deal. If you can count to three without st-t-tuttering, you can go…Don't look at him, look at me. Above me, there's no one. Garcès—
GARCES: Yes, Captain?
VIDAL: If I say this asshole can leave, would anybody contradict me?
GARCES: No Captain, he can leave.
VIDAL: There you have it. Count to three.
Sometimes Vidal just has to make up rules for fun. He relishes the feeling of power and control and uses these kinds of games to assert this over other people like our poor stutterer. Is Vidal a man of his word? Would he have let him go? We'll never know.
Quote #6
VIDAL: Why did you do it?
FERREIRO: It was the only thing I could do.
VIDAL: No, you could have obeyed me.
FERREIRO: I could have, but I did not.
VIDAL: But it would have been better for you. I do not understand. Why didn't you obey me?!
FERREIRO: To obey without thinking—just like that—well, that's something only people like you can do…Captain.
[Vidal shoots him.]
Ferreiro is the only person who stands up to Vidal and now you know why: he gets killed for it. But the Doc lays it down before he goes out. Only someone as subservient and unquestioning as Vidal could possibly do what he does. His earlier profession of choice may have been a farce. He is compelled by his father's legacy and his obsession with his name to carry out these deeds about which he does not think, only act.