#Xandu

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

That is some big names to take on "Xandu" of all people... very much feels like we are trying really hard to get people to pick up this book...

[touhoutunes]

Title: Shallow

Arrangement: wasi

Vocals: Maguro & Xandu

Album: wither.

Circle: Takamchi Walk

Original: Eastern Mystical Love Consultation

[utaitemusic]

Lost One's Weeping【Metal Remix】ft. HIRAGA & Xandu

[doctorstrangereview]

0117: Marvel Team-Up #21

Cover Date: May 1974 On-Sale Date: February 19, 1974

Taking a brief leave from his two main series, Doc gets a visit from his old buddy Spider-Man. Not only does Spider-Man drop in but so does their old sparring partner Xandu. Even the Wand of Watoomb makes a return appearance. The issue is even written and drawn by the same team on the Defenders. Jump on in!

After a funky splash page showing our two stars and the object of someone's affection we being Spider-Man breaking up a robbery. Spider-Man's name comes first in the book's title so this is expected. Spidey dispatches the muggers. The "victim" ominously confronts our hero. He reveals himself as Xandu and puts our spider-themed teen under his power.

Conveniently he's point his new weapon at Doc. He goes with what he knows and he knows and the gang is back together. Xandu dispatches Spidey to Doc's Sanctum Sanctorum with the charge to retrieve something called The Crystal of Kadavus. We'll find out his other ulterior motives shortly.

Popping into the Sanctum, Spidey is guided by Xandu's creepy floating eyes just like he used in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2. Entranced Spidey knocks over some pottery and startles Doc out of his meditation.

Xandu's entrancement stems to altering Spidey's senses and these altered perceptions are depicted as creepy green.

Oddly, neither version of Doc asks "How the hell did you get in here and why didn't all my magical and physical protection work?" After a decade Doc's security is still a major problem. Do better, Doc! The two engage. Doc's holding back because he doesn't want to hurt the web-slinger. Spidey gets the upper hand by throwing a really ugly statue at Doc and knocking him unconscious and locating the crystal.

Xandu transports Spidey back to his apartment where he's got the de-powered Wand of Watoomb waiting. Xandu plans to use the funkily named crystal to reinvigorate the wand, take control of the cosmos and more blah, blah, blah. After the megalomania he recounts he last defeat, how he got his mojo back, how he met his girlfriend and how she got caught in friendly fire. Poor Melinda.

Melinda isn't dead, but in some sort of mystic coma. Xandu wants to wake her up and take over the cosmos. At least he's got his priorities in order. Xandu is about to take out Spidey when Doc pops in. Xandu realizes that Doc is now sorcerer supreme and needs to shift the odds so he uses a double page spread to transport them somewhere else where he's the head magic honcho.

Xandu, armed with the Wand of Watoomb, funky dyed eyebrows and sinister new goatee proves he can handle the pair. He takes out Doc and traps Spidey in his own webs. Spidey frees himself and distracts Xandu long enough for Doc to recover. But Xandu isn't done yet. He transforms Spidey's webs from a subsequent attack into marionette strings entrapping the pair of heroes.

Xandu, being the head magician in charge of this realm removes the pairs power (maybe.) Doc has something in mind and Spidey has an independent plan involving his web-shooters and Xandu's face. The moment arrives and Spidey looses his webs and has a big surprise.

Xandu is surprised as well. Doc has switched his and Spidey's powers which somehow circumvents Xandu's ban.

The pair gang up on Xandu and manage to make him drop the wand, significantly cutting him down to size.

Docs next move is throw the wand away. This is even worse than the last time where at least drained its power. Now we've got a super-dangerous magical artifact floating around.

Going back to Xandu's crappy apartment, Xandu explains why he's doing all this. Doc says he might be able to do something. He examines Melinda. Unfortunately, she's not really alive. Rather she's a corpse that looks like she's asleep. Xandu isn't pleased by the news, doesn't really accept it and plans to continue attempts to restore Melinda. Apparently this is okay with Doc and Spidey as they don't appear to take any further action.

The story is very much a rehash of this trio's previous encounter with a few added bells and whistles. The addition of Melinda does add some character growth and emotional depth to Xandu. His mission is a bit more than the megalomaniacal rule the cosmos.

Unfortunately the story has many of the mistakes of older tales. Doc doesn't clean up his mess! Xandu is left on his own. He may be an emotional wreck but that won't last forever. We know even without the wand he's formidable. The wand itself is just left floating. It's a supremely dangerous weapon and Doc didn't even bother to depower it again. These will all come to bite the heroes in their tushies in the future. Ultimately it's unsatsifying.

Visually it's good, but the underlying story is mediocre.

[satorisignal]

Takamachi Walk - Empty

support doujin music

[lyraofthestarsss]

⚠️FLASH WARNING⚠️

Banzoin Hakka and XanduIsBored “KiLLiNG ME” cover mashup :))

[onlylonelylatino]

The Secret Defenders versus Xandu by Andre Coates

[gleekingdom]

I can not explain this,But I think xandu atleast the musical version ( I haven't seen the movie since I was a child) anyway Xandu seems to fit so well as an au of Blam from glee. IDK It just gives me Blam vides ( Sam as sonny, and Blaine as Caria) XD

And Blaine as a muse would be so interesting and sonny just in a way reminds me of Sam Evans. And caira gives me a similar vides to Blaine XD.

Especially in the number suddenly. XD I can't fully explain why. But I also enjoy Greek mythology as well as glee so maybe this is why I kinda like this idea.

Also just way caira helps sonny with things like when he doesn't think or know something. Or when kira gives him spare change I feel like that's similar to how Blaine would gently helps Sam. And they never treat Sonny or Sam like there dumb, cause I don't think they really are there just more naive then most. And sonny for most part really supports caira and well Sam does too even after his breakup with Kurt, and both sonny and Sam help caira and Blaine when there hard on themselves. Caira is hard on her drawing skills, and Blaine after his breakup with Kurt.

And Xandu is about support of the Arts and a love story, And glee cluds and singing is part of the Arts and that is one of main things glee was about as well as love Romatic and platonic being a big theme in the show.

Plus when Blam sings wake me up before you gogo, it makes me think of that 70s/ 80s asethic they have in Xandu.

Lol anyway this was just a fun thing to express how sometimes my brain pictures and combines two things I like.

And would sam would sing all over world, you can't convince me not.

[cinnamons1999]

primarina

[she-aint-no-slow-regard]

Me 🤝 orym

[ventus-selphus]

which of your ocs would this be

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

The Xandu/Melinda stuff is.. really not great every time we have to deal with it but Roy is gonna keep trying damn it. Also, Michael Bair's art always looks like he is getting all his poses for ladies from like porno mags or something and then he just draws clothes on top of them...

[vacantgodling]

she has a name now! it’s lahmara

number three done and all the major spell caster classes are finishedddd! :’)

still need to name them but they’re a ballerina wizard! they cast spells by increasingly complex ballet routines, and spell circles appear under their feet with each step they take. they have extremely high kinesthetic memory, so dancing is how they memorized most spells and their components, and they had special shoes created to channel their magic through their feet and steps :)

she’s also bald and has spell tattoos on her head as well :D

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Zanado / ザナド, Shambhala / シャンバラ, and Agartha / アガルタ

Zanado (JP: ザナド; rōmaji: zanado), also known as the Red Canyon, is the site of ruins that the Nabateans once called home in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This name comes from ザナドゥ (rōmaji: zanadu) Xanadu, more traditionally known as 上都, Shàngdū. Literally meaning "Upper Capital," Shàngdū was the summer capital of China's Yuan dynasty. When it was first constructed, the city was called 開平, Kāipíng; less than a decade later, it would be Kublai Khan who gave it the name we use today. In a century's time, Shàngdū would be abandoned, the people driven off or killed when the Ming dynasty wrested power from Toghon Temür, the last ruler of the Yuan.

Before its collapse, Shàngdū was a great city that even the Western world had heard of. Infamous Venetian explorer Marco Polo had visited during the reign of Kublai Khan. He referred to the city by the name Chandu or Ciandu, and thoroughly recounted the intricate, artistic structure of the city, remarking of rooms gilded and rich with paintings. The city held two palaces—one of marble, one of wicker—as well as a great park containing vast meadows, lovely fountains and brooks, and a plethora of flora and fauna. Three centuries later, the English cleric Samuel Purchas published a work that, for brevity's sake, we'll simply call Purchas his Pilgrimes, which collected descriptions of various locations and religions. Amongst this was a rewording of Marco Polo's account of Shàngdū, which Purchas instead called Xandu.

It was Purchas' documentation that reached English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797. He was struck by an intensely vivid dream after reading of Xandu, and from this begot his famed Kubla Khan. He exaggerated the beautiful land that Marco Polo wrote of, and gave the world the Xanadu. He also conjured up a canyon that ruptured, the burst releasing a great river through the land. In that moment, Kubla Khan received a prophecy of war. The poem is most commonly thought to portray Xanadu as an idyllic paradise, and that interpretation persists to this day, with the name being synonymous with paradise and being conflated with similar concepts like Shangri-La. Curiously, the concept of Shangri-La is a paradise hidden away in a Tibetan valley.

The Red Canyon leans into the idea of Shàngdū being this long lost paradise. Even the fact that is a canyon of all things is likely derived from the Coleridge's poem. It could be interpreted that both the destruction of Shàngdū by the Mings and the explosion of the canyon relate to the atrocity that befell the Nabateans. Similarly, the fact that Shàngdū was utterly abandoned and forgotten, and is now largely remembered for this idealized image made by someone who only read someone else's account could tie into how the actual significance of Zanado is lost throughout Fódlan.

Shambhala (JP: シャンバラ; rōmaji: shanbara) is the underground city that the Agarthans use as their stronghold. The name Shambhala originates from Hinduism: according to the Vishnu Purana, it is in this city that Kalki, the final incarnation of the god Vishnu, is supposed to be born. It is said that he will end a dark era of unrighteousness and bring about the most virtuous age before Mahapralaya, the end of the universe.

The concept of Shambhala would later be adopted into Tibetan Buddhism, first mentioned in the Kalachakra tantra. In the story, King Manjuśrīkīrti banished thousands of people of his unnamed kingdom for practicing Surya Samadhi, the worship of the sun. As it turned out, these sun-praisers, were the wisest people of the land, and Manjuśrīkīrti was soon begging them to return. The majority of the exiles would found a city called Shambhala, which is prophesized as the origin of a savior similar to the Hindu city. It is said that when the world is overrun with violence and avarice, the Kalki king Maitreya would come from Shambhala and bring about defeat to evil and peace to the world.

Western esotericism would twist Shambhala into another form. Rather than an actual city, it was common for individuals like Alice Bailey to interpret Shambhala as a realm on another spiritual plane where the deity presiding over Earth resides. Further building off the ideas presented in Buddhism, others will interpret Shambhala as a land of a mysterious faction that do good throughout the world.

The Shambhala seen in Three Houses is very much a twisting of the classic prophecies. The Agarthans, while exiled by the Goddess to their subterranean lands like in the Buddhist text, instead use their great capabilities as a way to bring war, chaos, and darkness to the world. They also corrupt the "mysterious faction" found in esoteric works, but that more has to do with the last name to talk about today.

Agartha (JP: アガルタ; rōmaji: agaruta)was a highly-advanced civilization whose people were driven underground into Shambhala. Agartha is a mystical land found at the earth's core appearing in various occult and esoteric beliefs. Despite this, the name is very transparently derived from modern literature: Louis Jacolliot's Les Fils du Dieu told of the rise and fall of a lost Indian capital of Asgartha. The story followed no Indian traditions, instead styling for a historic account of Norse mythology based on various preexisting theories. In fact, Asgartha is derived from the Norse Ásgarðr, the land of the gods.

However, the book (and its two sequels) were incredibly popular in Jacolliot's homeland of France, and the way he framed to books as being derived from ancient manuscripts led to the idea of Agartha evolving into its own entity. Just over a decade later, occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre would popularize the modern ideas of Agartha in his Mission de l'Inde en Europe. He claimed to have astral projected to an underground city with a population in the millions, all ruled by a powerful master of magic and advanced technology. From there, many occultists and esoterics would interpret Agartha as housing a Grand Lodge made up of the secret rulers of our world. It's easy to see how the concepts of Agartha and Shambhala are now commonly conflated with one another.

The Agarthans of Fire Emblem wear their inspirations on their dubstep-playing sleeves. They are a highly advanced people living under the earth's surface. They infiltrate the political scene of the overworld, manipulating the world to bring about a scenario that will let them claim revenge and utter domination of the world. Not to mention that their leader is a powerful spellcaster with actual missiles at his disposal. And in a sense of irony, all three of the locations we've looked at today are named after lands that have been viewed as paradise. Likely both the Nabateans and Agarthans thought what they once had was that perfect, idyllic life.

[doctorstrangereview]

0076: Doctor Strange #179

Cover Date: April 1969 On-Sale Date: January 2, 1969

Issue #179 is a reprint of the main story of Spider-Man Annual #2. The new cover by Barry-Windsor Smith actually features Doc on the cover. The story has been recolored with some interesting new choices. The title has been modified to "The Wonderous World of Dr. Strange Co-Starring Spider-Man" and the end blurb is an advertisement for the next all-original issue.

Click here for my previous review of this story.

[honeyscreations]

My Arcane oc for a roleplay- Xandus! I had fun with the background.