#Jim Heson

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[yourclownpal]

miss piggy sketches/studies!!!

i used Michael K Frith, Bonnie Erickson, and Edward Eyth!!

(also Calista Erickson!)

[brainpandrogeny]

From Jim Henson’s  The Storyteller Episode seven The Soldier and Death

[we-are-trickster]

The Morality of The Dark Crystal - A Trickster’s Analysis

((Mostly inspired by @wearepaladin’s recent forays into the Morality of Star Wars and the Force. I was reminded of my personal favorite 80s Fantasy flick with a somewhat similar moral quandary. What follows is a loooong-ass post with my thoughts on the matter....))

“Another world, another time in the age of wonder….”

So starts my favorite 80s Fantasy Cult-Classic Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal,” what at first glance is a simple story about good and evil set in an alien world populated by the strange and fantastical but when you really start to dig you find some very interesting moral questions about the nature of good and evil and their proper places in the world.

The Dark Crystal was probably Jim Henson’s most ambitious project. Released in 1982, every creature that appears on the screen is a puppet, which really opened up a lot of possibilities for a visual and stylistic language that usually only animation approached at the time. It came out right on the heels of Star Wars and in-fact was produced in conjunction with Lucasfilm and even shares a producer with the Sci-Fi Classic. It was more ambitious than 1986’s Labyrinth in the sense that you had no human characters to connect with - despite the very humanoid appearance of our heroes, the Gelflings Jen and Kira – but it still managed to tell a very human story.

The basic plot is as follows: As far as he knows, Jen is the last of his kind. Raised by a group of wise and peaceful beings known as the Mystics in a valley untouched by conflict, Jen is mostly content to live out his life free from the dangers of the world. On his master’s deathbed, he is told of a prophecy that reveals a Gelfling will end the power of the Skekis, a race of evil beings hell-bent on destruction. They rule from a castle far, far away from the Mystic’s peaceful valley. As a reaction to this prophecy and in a bid to shore up their own power, the Skekis have nearly destroyed the Gelfling race. It’s up to Jen to locate a Crystal Shard, broken away from the source of the Skekis power the titular Dark Crystal. Only by locating the shard and using it to heal the Dark Crystal will the Skekis be defeated. Jen has to do this before the next time the three suns of their world meet in a “Great Conjunction” or the Skekis will rule the land forever.

With the stakes set very high, Jen feels the weight of the world on his shoulders as he sets out on his quest. He knows that if he fails, everything he loves could be destroyed. However, this doesn’t keep him from doubting himself, he says to himself several times over the course of his journey “I’m just a Gelfling” in a tone of voice implying he doesn’t understand why he’s so important in the grand scheme of things. There is a moment at about the midpoint of the film where he decides that he isn’t important and he should put a stop to his quest, this moment comes after he meets the only other known Gelfling, Kira and experiences a Garthim Raid, a very traumatizing event that he feels personally responsible for causing. At this moment, it is Kira who convinces him to continue the quest. Mostly because she knows the stakes better than anyone else, while Jen has been living in the relative peace and safety of the Mystic’s Valley she has been living among the Pod People - a race that the Skekis has targeted for use as slave labor and regularly conduct violent raids against. She has always experienced the violence of the Skekis as an undercurrent of her life and knows that the only way to stop it is to see the prophecy fulfilled – literally to the point that when Jen points out that she doesn’t have to help and that the prophecy doesn’t say anything about getting help she responds that “prophets don’t know everything!”

And it’s Kira’s actions after meeting Jen that really reveal the moral heart of The Dark Crystal. More-so than being a story about Good versus Evil, it’s a story about Action versus In-Action. The Mystics, for all their wisdom and knowledge, have a very simple goal of “living in a dream of peace.” They sequester themselves away from the world in their valley. They literally only leave the valley to get involved with the rest of the world only after Jen has left on his quest. The Skekis, on the other hand, are very involved in the world. Their desire for mastery and conquest have ensured that they very actively get involved in events, utilizing their soldiers the Garthim to destroy their enemies and prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled – a goal that they very nearly achieve since there are only two known Gelflings left in the world. Being raised by the Mystics and having very little knowledge of the things outside of the valley, Jen can be a very passive character at times. He is a very reactionary hero for the first two-thirds of the film and has to very quickly get up to speed on what’s going on around him. As the old hermit Aughra states when Jen meets her “You have much to learn, and you have no time.” He has to learn how to make quick decisions and stick to them, something that Kira knows far better than he having been someone who has lived in a dangerous world all her life.

Kira’s entrance to the film is a fascinating moment, she seems to be tracking Jen in the wilds, able to sneak up on him and not openly approaching until she knows it’s safe to do so. Their meeting is punctuated by a fascinating moment, something Kira calls a “Dreamfasting” in which they share their memories with one another and reveal even their deepest pasts to one another. Jen was found by the Mystics as a baby, Kira was spared from a Garthim raid by her mother hiding her in a tree. Jen learned the ways of the Mystics and was confined to the expanse of the Valley, while Kira was allowed to roam freely and learn everything about the world around her, the good and the bad. His limited experience with the greater world is off-set by her wealth of practical knowledge, he is the idealist while she is the realist. And it is only after finally seeing what the Skekis are willing to do in order to maintain their power that Jen finally makes an active choice – he will go to the castle immediately and see the prophecy fulfilled, Kira by his side.

However, the climax of the film sees Jen falter. He has leapt onto the Dark Crystal, and in the process dropped the shard. Kira manages to get to it before their enemies, but is surrounded by Skekis. She is willing to die to see the prophecy fulfilled, to bring peace to their world but Jen isn’t willing to lose her. He still doesn’t fully understand that making the right choice can require sacrifice, Kira does. She knows that healing the crystal is the only real hope for their world, that the Skekis will never keep their word to not harm her if she and Jen comply with their demand to give up the Shard (“Give us the shard and you can go free!”). So, instead of making the easy choice to hand the Shard over, she instead throws it to Jen, begging him to heal the crystal. She is the one who makes the choice to save the world, Jen just ensures that her sacrifice isn’t in vain.

Healing the Crystal has a fascinating effect and reveals a powerful ending. While the Skekis are running about in a blind panic, the Mystics finally show back up and a truth is revealed – that the Skekis and the Mystics are two halves of one whole, a race of beings known as the urSkeks. They reveal that it was their own arrogance that caused the crystal to crack in the first place, acting like a prism and splitting them into their two different parts: the Mystics (or urRu as revealed by the production notes and novelization) and the Skekis. The Mystics represented the passive collection of wisdom, while the Skekis represented the active application of knowledge and it is only a combination of the two that creates a workable balance and allows a world to function in a healthy manner.

This is what I like about the Dark Crystal’s moral quandary, it’s not merely a simple “Good versus Evil” story. The Skekis are a cruel and evil race mostly because while they have knowledge and power, they lack a moral compass to use it correctly. And while the Mystics have wisdom and a strong sense of morality, they don’t have the passion and drive to affect real, lasting change. It takes the active choices of individuals who have a mix of both to ensure that the world changes. Kira has the knowledge of “all living things” and the wisdom to know which ones to call upon to help in a given situation. Jen has the knowledge of what he needs to do, that he needs to heal the crystal, but he lacks the wisdom to understand that his inaction will cost the world everything. He knows that the Skekis will rule forever, but he doesn’t understand what that fully entails never having truly lived under their threat.      

Joseph Campbell sums it up pretty well: “The true goal of the hero’s quest must never be ecstasy nor relief for one’s self, but the wisdom and power to serve others.” It’s only after he learns that his choices do matter in the grand scheme that Jen is rewarded, the urSkeks restore Kira to life and they are given guardianship over the purified Crystal of Truth. This doesn’t invalidate her sacrifice, neither Jen nor Kira were aware that the urSkeks or the Crystal of Truth had this power going into the final battle. Now they have to figure out what the Crystal of Truth can do, the pair of them being told to “make their world in its light” by the urSkeks who then leave in a flash of brilliant light and leave the two Gelflings, seemingly content that the pair will have the wisdom, knowledge, and now power to make a better world.

At the end of the day, I am eternally fond of “The Dark Crystal” because it is a story that you can dig deeper into if you want and it does have an interesting moral spectrum – you have the Skekis on one side, the Mystics on the other, and the Gelflings somewhere in the middle. It also shows that Good isn’t just a thing you are, it’s a choice you have to actively make. Is there anything inherently Good in simply refusing to participate in the struggle of the world? Not necessarily, as Evil was only able to flourish because no-one really stood in its way. It is a prime example of the quote “The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” Had Jen chosen to give up his quest once it got too hard, once it was revealed that his choices wouldn’t be easy, then the Skekis would have won. Their thirst for power at any cost would have won-out because they destroyed the opposition. Jen’s success was riding on his ability to make an active choice to utilize the wisdom of his youth tempered by the knowledge gained through his journey and finally amplified through the Crystal’s power. That is what I feel is the true moral – that we have to be active players in our world, we can’t just hope that things will get better. An important message in these times, wouldn’t you agree?  

[graphicpolicy]

Toy Fair 2019: Funko Reveals new Pop! Ad Icons and one Icon

Toy Fair 2019: Funko Reveals new Pop! Ad Icons and one Icon #funko #toyfair

POP! AD ICONS – OTTER POPS

There’s nothing like sweet frozen juice on a hot day, especially when that frozen juice pop happens to have an adorable otter packaging. Bring home Pop! Alexander the Grape, Pop! Poncho Punch, Pop! Strawberry Short Kook, Pop! Little Orphan Orange and Pop! Sir Isaac Lime and increase your collection’s color and cuteness factor exponentially.

POP! AD ICONS – GREEN…

[incorrectbnhaquotes]

Jirou: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye

[spankystokes]

Another one... indeed!!! Meet Ugly Unicorn by artist Jon Rampage aka @jmrampage of Rampage Toys. Originally produced in Japan, the Ugly Unicorn was birthed in a fit of inspiration from a Jim Heson exhibit. He's a unicorn you see, but he's ugly. He likes cupcakes🧁He is clumsy. 🙃 - and as a Dunny, he is awesome! Iv’e know Jon for a long time, long before he got into the sofubi stuff... when his main focus was small keshi figures, so this is seriously awesome to see... and I had no idea the head was sculpted until it was pulled from the box... he’s so friggen ugly and fantastic! This particular colorway has a ratio of 3/48! Grab Ugly Unicorn and the rest of his monstrous friends in the Kidrobot x Clutter Studios Kaiju Dunny Battle Mini Series releasing TODAY - Friday, February 15th on www.kidrobot.com! #Dunny #Clutter #Kidrobot #KaijuDunnyBattle #RampageToys #uglyunicorn #spankystokes #blindbox #vinyltoys https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt61boplAd0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cw6e5x9aw28

[thunderpibb]

every jim heson creation is my friend. even the frightening self-dismembering men.

[jessecobbart-blog-blog]

The Fearless Leader •Working on this 1990 style Leonardo for @bmj_tmnt Jim Heson and company did such a great job on those costumes. 🐢 #leo #leonardo #tmnt #teenagemutantninjaturtles #teenagemutantninjaturtlesthemovie #jimhenson @mark_caso #markcaso #eastmanandlaird #art #pencils #ninja #ninjatoitles #ninjaturtles #turtlepower #swordmaster #strathmorepaper #artofjessecobb #popart #wip #1990s #necatmnt #fearlessleader #commission https://www.instagram.com/p/BnXFaLvlgYh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=m1ch13nuj6a4

[effortlesslygeek]

We lost this creative genius in May of 1990. We still miss you Jim. 

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