#-ten everything

[youkaigakkou-tl]

(I don't know how to read japanese, and my speech is loosely based on anime, so apologies if I'm completely off target...)

I'm fascinated with etymology and like looking/studying the potential meaning behind the characters name, especially when names are a word play on the nose regarding their abilities.

I looked on an "online dictionary for Youkais", and most of the translations contain the word "Monk" in the name.

Regarding what had been said in YoHaji, about humans becoming Youkais after commiting a crime (sin?), does it means the first Youkais were unfaithful monks?

(sorry for the long ask, unable to word stuff concisely==;)

this is actually something that has plagued me for literal years, words for "monk" being in youkai names. im just not good enough at japanese to read analysis by japanese folklorists myself, and this is perhaps too obscure of a topic for there to be translations of. (an obscure linguistic detail of youkai, an already somewhat niche topic)

to preface, the words that often appear in youkai names and mean "monk" or some other position in a buddhist temple, are:

kozou (小僧): lit. "Little monk"; also just used as a word for "child"

nyuudou (入道): lit. "Entering the (buddhist) way"; someone who has shaved their head and entered buddhism.

bouzu (坊主): lit. "Owner of the monastery"; but later became a general word for monks.

douji (童子): lit. "child"; but in the context of buddhism, this is used as the translation for the sanskrit word "kumāra", and refers to children who become disciples at a buddhist temple and do servant work for the most part.

if i may be so bold, i think there's (at least) 2 layers to this

layer 1: it's a superficial resemblance

this seems to be the most common take i've seen.

most of the youkai that have these in the name have some superficial resemblance, whether they're described as having bald heads, or maybe they're seen walking slowly alone at night, perhaps chanting something to themselves. this is somewhat to the effect of calling something "the bald monster", wherein it gives a superficial image of how to know when you've seen this "thing".

and for some cases, mostly with the word "kozou", the word is just used as a general term for "boy" or "person", much like we have words like babygirl and catboy (which unexpectedly does not have an exact japanese equivalent, now that i think about it. closest thing thats used casually is nekomimi) perhaps just as we find the use of words that mean "boy" but also "monk" in youkai names strange, someone from a different background might find it strange that the combination of "baby" and "girl" refers to a disheveled adult man, or that catboy can refer to an adult man with cat traits even though "boy" clearly insinuates "child".

although, it's hard to tell what the original form of such youkai with these words in the name were or were intended to be, and how much of their visual resemblance to monks by artists who came afterwards was inspired by the fact that a word for "monk" was in the name. chicken and egg problem. (much like how youkai media nowadays, and series that involve humanized versions of inanimate objects use past stories and etymology to inspire their look. the artists of old probably didn't expect the works they left behind to be used as a record of what life was like back then, imagine if future historians use FGO and touken ranbu as historical reference LOL)

the idea of these youkai being something that became of a monk for one reason or another seems to be present in english perspectives on youkai, although not corroborated by japanese authors, so perhaps this is again a case of inferring and assigning meaning that wasn't there, or wasn't meant to be there. (source)

but this all begs the question...

layer 2: what does it mean linguistically?

the word for "child" also meaning "monk" is strange and specific, isn't it? or is it the other way around?

im so mad. its like this every time. when i trace every question about japanese linguistics or folklore back to the source it always goes all the way back to 1500 years ago (about 5th century AD) to the arrival of buddhism and the advent of written records in japan!!!! im not a linguist or historian im not good enough to disentangle all this!!!! or keep all my history facts straight!!!

the long and short of it is, buddhism contributed a large part to the advent of writing in japan, with the importance it placed in copying scriptures. buddhism was largely influential throughout early japan written history, and prior to the heian era was incorporated into the governance system. the heian era saw the founding of enryaku-ji on mount hiei, one of the most influential temples of the time and origin of the tendai school of buddhism, which was the leading school at the time, and founders of later schools of buddhism in japan almost all originated from it. this is all to say, enryaku-ji and mount hiei are two very prominent locations that appear in a lot of folklore and youkai stories.

mentioned in the essay "story of the shinoda wife" by folklorist orikuchi shinobu are "doji villages", specifically mentioned in the context of mount hiei, which are servant villages to buddhist temples, where the children go to work in the temple and are called "douji", which in turn becomes what their villages are called. the fact that he goes into detail about what these are, and also explains the use of "douji" to refer to buddhist child disciples rather than just "child" in general, could mean that these are particularly obscure tidbits.

(i actually came across this essay when i was looking up kuzunoha, and the play where abe no seimei was named "doji" as a child. orikuchi posits that monks started a temple in the village called abeno, and so "abeno doji" became a familiar phrase to locals, and so it became part of stories and plays)

if i may be so bold as to make assumptions, i think its possible that monks, who were influential, literate, and the source of not an insignificant amount of literature from the time, referred to figures in stories with honorifics from the organizational structure they're familiar with, and common folk adopted the vocabulary too. (this is perhaps similar to how you're referred to with honorifics like "sir" or "madam" in letters from official organizations even if you're not necessarily on the same level of importance as the person the letter represents.)

of course, this is just assumptions, and if i had any concrete conclusions this wouldnt have and continue to plague me for years.

resources:

hyakumonogatari.com - a huge blog of translations of essays on youkai

kotobank.jp - japanese dictionary thats particularly good for words with more cultural background

japanesewiki.com - an accurately, manually translated resource of the japanese version of japan cultural wikipedia pages

Shinoda Tsuma no Hanashi by Orikuchi Shinobu - an analysis essay on the play "Ashiya Douman Ouchi Kagami" (which is actually about abe no seimei LMAO and prominently features kuzunoha), doesnt have a english translation

The Artist is Absent (The Beginners Guide analysis) by Innuendo Studios - yeah this one isnt relevant at all. its a literary analysis of the videogame The Beginner's Guide (2015). but i just think anyone who wants to do any amount of thinking about stories and folklore should watch this video and also play this game.

[egophiliac]

since Eng is getting 7.5 soon(?), I felt motivated to go back to my Meleanor rig and make her a couple of lesson animations! ...except for alchemy, because the cauldron bubbles proved too hard to photoshop around, whoops.

maybe she just got lost on her way to the classroom...?

(credit: backgrounds are from the game, I just put her on top of 'em)

(aside from the backgrounds, this is not an edit, I drew her from scratch! please do not tag or treat as an edit!)

[starry-bi-sky]

Out of Context Stuff for a Danyal Al Ghul au i haven't posted - Pit Beast Danyal

Damian, 13: Look, Danyal, -- I am so sorry for everything that happened between us in the League, I hope you can forgive me.

Danny, 10 (allegedly): (has been secretly plotting to murder Damian this whole time, is still gonna do it obvs, but is going to make it significantly less painful now)

Danny: I-- of course, older brother. :]

--------

Bruce: what do you have there, Damian?

Damian:

Danny: (a hulking 10ft pit beast standing beside him, growling idly with ram horns gouging out his eyes and a second set of horns jutting into the air, spines down his back, and a long, spiked tail with an animalistic, skull-like face)

Damian, who smuggled him in (they've made amends): a smoothie, father

----------

Damian: this is my little brother Danyal, i murdered him when he was five. He festered in rage for the last half-a decade, took over a League mountain base in Switzerland, murdered everyone inside and then tried to murder me when I went to investigate with Drake.

Danny: hello!

Damian: we're cool now

----------

Damian: thoughts on resurrection

Danny, (a full ghost): i will succeed in murdering you if you try it

Damian: we'll put a pin in it then

----------

Danny (still instilled with League values): why don't we just murder him??

Damian, on patrol (Danny followed him): we don't murder people, Danyal

Danyal:,,,,are you sick, Dami?? Have you been possessed? Why not!?

(There is raucous laughing through the comms)

----------

Danny, five, pre-death: Dami! :D

Danny, dead, vengeful: Older brother (:

Danny, post-forgiveness: Dami! :]

-------

For some actual context: Danny is fully dead in this au, its a result of the classic DPxDC Demon Twins "death duel" trope but instead of Danny getting revived, he stays fully dead. Danny was five, Damian was seven. His ghost lingered though, and due to the proximity of the pits his ghost steadily absorbed the ambient energy it was letting off. The pits are not corrupted ectoplasm in this au, it's just liquid ecto.

Which means Danny's corruption from an angry and hurt little ghost boy to an unrecognizable monster is from his own doing. It's a result of him stewing in his hurt and anger for years, it physically warped him. He's very powerful. Danny can travel between League Bases but chose a small, out-of-the-way base in the Swiss mountains to fester in and then just. Never Left.

His influence steeped into the very foundations of the building, allowing him to transform and warp the rooms and hallways for his own bidding, Meaning he could turn it into a seemingly unending labyrinth if he so wished to, and block the entrance.

Eventually, blinded (both metaphorically and physically) by his own rage, Danny grew powerful enough to appear physically in the living realm and attacked everyone in the base, slaughtering them all and leaving the base abandoned. He attacks anyone who dares enter -- whether that be other league members, or the unfortunate hiker who stumbled across the base. His conscious is steeped into every nook and cranny of the building, there is nowhere you can hide where he can't find. Nobody leaves without his explicit say so. Nobody ever does.

Him appearing as ten years old before Damian in the skits above is his own physical doing. First it was to prevent Damian from being suspicious of him. Damian initially thought Danny was revived with the pits, he was too busy with his own training afterwards to notice that Danny never showed up again, and when he did notice, he assumed it was because Danny was too ashamed of his loss to face him. He'd always forget to ask about him.

Then it becomes a personal choice to appear as ten. It's how old he would've been had he been alive.

danny forgiving Damian is kinda for an offshoot branch of the main au. Whereas the main au takes the form of a ps4 first person horror game where Damian and Tim are investigating the Base for Plot Reasons. There's no sign of the rumored "monster" living inside until the end, where Danny, who was found inside the Base and has been happily "helping" them look around, manages to persuade Damian into splitting off from Tim in order to "show him something."

This something turns out to be Danny revealing that he never really forgave Damian for that fight, and he reveals through a horrifying transformation, that he was the monster the whole time. Which the game subtly hints at throughout as Danny's strange behavior becomes harder to ignore.

First from his insistence to only refer to Damian as "older brother" (when before the duel he always called him Damian or Dami), to him right off the bat denying the existence of a monster when questioned. ("There's no monster here, older brother. It's just me.") To other various things, like his knowledge of the outside world not matching up to modern times or things going on with the league outside of the base, or what happened to the other league members.

This whole idea was inspired by the song "Scylla" from Epic the Musical, with Danyal being the voice of Scylla as well as Odysseus, while Damian stands as Eurylochus. The instrumentals after Scylla says "hello" is him turning into the pit beast, and Scylla's "drown in your sorrow and fears" part is danny, as the pit beast, snarling at Damian while he attacks him.

There's a Good Ending, a Bad Ending, and a True Ending. The Bad Ending results in Damian being killed by Danny, it happens when Damian decides not to question or suspect Danny and treats him kindly. The Bad Ending is a cutscene, where Danny kills Damian quick and painlessly.

Meanwhile the Good Ending is Damian killing Danny. This is a boss fight, and it happens when Damian treats Danny coldly and suspiciously the whole time. Danny as a result, decides to make Damian's death painful as he had planned to, which is why it's a boss fight because it only causes him to double down on his anger.

The True Ending is Damian escapes with Tim. It happens when you treat Danny warmly up until the last minute, where when Danny proposes to Damian that he wants to show him something, Damian goes to talk to Tim and finally, reluctantly agrees that something is off with Danny, and that he'll be careful going in. It starts off with the boss fight until a third through, where it then changes to a cutscene where Tim manages to get the door open and Damian escapes out. It's then a chase scene down a never-ending hallway as the building actively works to keep you trapped inside. But you eventually make it to the exit so long as you avoid all the projectiles and doors.

Remember when I mentioned that Danny only lets people leave when he wants them to? That's where the treating Danny kindly throughout the game comes into play. It causes him to second guess himself and, eventually, reawaken and strengthen the love and admiration he had for Damian prior to his murder. It's why in the Bad Ending he kills Damian quickly -- because by then, he loves him enough that he doesn't want him to suffer, but is still so consumed by his rage and need for vengeance that he kills him anyways. That quiet part is what allows Damian (and Tim) to find the exit, because some part of Danny still loves Damian enough that he wants him to live.

The True Ending ends with a cutscene of Damian and Tim tumbling out into the snow/grass outside of the base. Damian looks up back to the entrance to see Danny standing there. But rather than a ten year old boy, there's a little five year old Danyal Al Ghul instead. He stares at Damian emotionlessly, blood seeping from his chest, staining his clothes, and little, bloody sword in his hands and tearstains on his cheeks, before he turns away and disappears back into the building.

[feelingtheaster99]

Riz is much too tired to defend his friends to his mom but him saying “NOOO mom Kristen does CrossFit now” to explain how he’s not carrying Kristen was so fucking funny

[greatestwizardofthisage]

i would like to personally thank siobhan thompson for organising the bad kids secret santa

[teaboot]

you're so like. inspiring. or i wish i could be inspired. you reblog that post with the blue critter and you're like "im glad i was born on this planet". how do i manage to get that mindset. how do i manage to not want the pain to stop at any cost and enjoy what's still possible to enjoy

It's my first time here and I'm never coming back

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

My mom (and my sister) said that both baby Stan and Ford are adorable but Ford is cuter and she likes him better and I think my heart is shattered.

This post is dedicated to my favorite kid Stanley panels:

My mom didn’t even like him when I showed the one where he murders those two kids 😭😭😭 that’s the best part!!!

[jangmi-latte]

YUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY 😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝

[mobius-m-mobius]

one of the best/funniest dynamics on TV is: (in/sp)

[metacrisisdoctor]

While we danced I shed a little tear, he closed his eyes, all out at sea, I think he danced with her not me...

[queenlucythevaliant]

Honesty hours: I've been working a summer job at a bookstore for almost two months now. Here are the books I will discreetly shake my head at customers for buying. My literary red flags, if you will.

Anything tarot

Particular romance and romantasy novels that I've been told are basically just soft erotica (ACOTAR being the most popular)

Harlequins, which apparently still exist

Colleen Hoover

The Colleen Hoover merch we sell for some godforsaken reason

Heaven is For Real, When God Winks at You, and other theologically sketchy but inexplicably popular books. I'm always internally thinking, "oh honey, no!"

Giant stack of self help books combined with books from the business section. This suggests a very particular type of person. This type of person scares me.

Especially that one book we have about how to become a "superior man" (??)

More than one book by James Patterson. One book is forgivable; multiple suggests you follow him as an author

More than one book by Danielle Steel (same reason)

Parents buying their kids books that are just "Adult Thing: For Kids!" Like we have a picture book that's called "A Day at Dunder Mifflin" or the one adapted from the Dumb and Dumber movies and I'm like. Don't you think your kid would prefer something that's actually for them??

That guy who bought the collected writings of Lenin, the poetic writings of Mao, and a giant, thousand-page biography of Che Guevara all in one go. You okay there buddy?

[egophiliac]

I've had a beast of a cold for the last few days, but I wanted to get this out before the new year! while I've sort of made my peace with my first take on Lilia's UM poster, I really wanted to do a version with the new context that chapter 6 gave us. because. c'mon.

(don't worry, Lilia can carry ALL HIS KIDS AT ONCE)

[mwagneto]

please please please please god please lower the budget please i need everything to look like absolute shit again

[comicaurora]

Something I'm curious about is how much of the plot and world have you planned out in advance, and how much did you have planned when you first started out?

I'm personally trying to start a pretty big writing project, but I keep finding myself thinking "you shouldn't start until you've planned out x and y and z and built the world up enough," but another part of myself is telling me to just start already and go with the flow

I had a lot planned out when I started in earnest, but I've thrown out like 90% of the details beyond the broad shape of the world lore and the concept of the eventual grand finale. The act of writing it has made me a better writer and changed what tropes and concepts I find appealing or interesting to explore. If I'd stuck with my initial roadmap, the story would've been a lot worse. Make the plan because it'll make you better at planning, but don't marry it.

[thegreatyin]

this is such a fascinating list. congratulations to toxic wolfgirl yuri for absolutely sweeping, apparently

[christakisbang]

yes, lee know-ya i see you aging along with me you're the second oldest but, to me you'll always be the maknae~♡