#a princess sacrificed by her royal family and rescued by a hero who loves her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

writingstarling · 4 years

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Is it just me, or do y'all also want a story scenario that instead of Princess Zelda, we have Prince Link?

Like, their roles are still the same. Zelda incarnate of goddess Hylia and Link the Hero of Hyrule. But imagine instead of Zelda being exposed to royalty all these times, it's Link that gets that treatment since the day he was born and Zelda being the once nobody but suddenly has magical powers. And in every story we know how Link's task other than defeating Ganon or whatever evil is to rescue or protect Zelda right?

Now, hear me out. Imagine having this prince who's used to being waited on, whether he wishes so or not, suddenly being tasked to find this girl named "Zelda" from all those legends he's heard of and then rise up to being this big hero while as well protecting and working together with a girl he's never met that holds no social status in her name other than her legend.

Imagine the shock of it all when the royal family decided to name this son of theirs "Link" in honour of the Hero or smth and have their son become it without prior knowledge whatsoever. Since it has always been Zelda that's in royalty after all. Imagine looking at this prince that has no idea on what's happening suddenly having to face off an incarnate of a god of evil and protect someone when he himself is used to being protected all his life.

I honestly really want to see him struggle and rise to be the Hero his name is so famous for. I want to see him learn how to wield a sword like how SS Link first did. Someone who didn't need this knowledge and skill suddenly have to train himself to be the best at it??? Link learning basic life skills from Zelda, the angst of him doubting in himself like BOTW Zelda did, the feeling of discovery and just the joy of accomplishment he's going to feel everytime he manages to defeat a Bokoblin on his own or just managing to light a campfire without any advance tools or help.

I just want for once Link to be the clueless prince in all this without having a role swap between them. I want to see him being this Prince that has been protected all his life learn how to actually be independent and stand on his own. Even better, learn to protect others not just using his name, but physically sacrificing himself for his people.

Why am I specifically referring to only Link in all this? Because Zelda has actually been in a position where her name holds no privilege. SS Zelda wasn't someone worthy of much noting in her society before everyone discovered she was the incarnate of a goddess. (She was also a pirate, but technically being a captain's daughter is still some form of royalty to me)

But Link has always been this nameless child that rised up to be a hero. A nobody that swooped in and saved the day coming from all sorts of places. The only time Link was truly acknowledged from an early start was in BOTW, other than that, no one really blinked at Link with much acknowledgement to his name.

I wanna see Link struggle like BOTW Zelda. I wanna see him learn basic skills and feel this overwhelming accomplishment from managing to cook up this recipe that Zelda taught him. I wanna see him being scared of everything going on around him, but having the courage to face everything still. I wanna see Link, after having his heritage revealed to him by having that symbol on his hand like TP did or smth, spend casual time with Zelda other than just swooping in or knowing her just because he has to save her all of a sudden. I want a relationship between them like what SS and BOTW had.

I wanna see this prince strive to train himself and become worthy of the Master Sword. I wanna see this prince that has always had everything handed to him on a silver platter work his ass off to be worthy of his legacy. I wanna see him grow from a seemingly fragile prince into this strong, dependable young man that is on par to his ancestors before him.

And on the side, I wanna see his parents being supportive of him. Not just because of the calamity closing in and them having to rely on their son to have him save them all, but because they truly love and cherish their son and want him to fulfill his destiny. They might have not named him that on purpose, but they sure are gonna support him to the best of their abilities.

Link needs to learn how to wield a sword? The captain of the guards is gonna take some time off to train the prince.

He can't seem to figure out how to do what the trainer tells him to?? The king tries it out and when he succeeds he's gonna try to teach Link how to do it himself.

Link has been training exceptionally hard even in harsh winter??? The queen's gonna work hard too and knit him some gloves (or at least, try to).

Link is feeling unworthy and depressed because he's been unable to master the sword???? The king and queen take time off from their duties to comfort their son.

Just, let me see soft familial relationships. Don't always just omit their parents or make them a sort of ass (looking at you here, BOTW Rhoam). I want good parents that raised good kids. That are supportive of them and what they love.

For Zelda, I'm pretty content with one who's like SS Zelda. A normal girl merely enjoying life suddenly bombarded with a destiny to help seal away an evil incarnate with a boy who's supposed to be an incarnate of a legendary hero. A boy who wields a sword worse than her. A boy who doesn't know a lick about how to survive on his own. A boy who is still wandering through the dark in all of this, same as her. She herself still doesn't understand the extent or how to use her powers, and no one to teach her. The least they could do for each other was to be of solace for one another when things are getting tough and one needed comforting. To hold each other's hand through it all. To not be alone in the dark.

I want all the potential fluff and angst I can get from this AU. They're both scared for they don't know of their destiny until the time is short and the burden of it all is far much too large for their shoulders. But they can lean on each other. Better yet, they also have people supporting them.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I wish I can write this on my own, but my writing skills have been failing me these past few months so I really wish someone would take this up and write it.

PS: if someone really did write this out, please, please, please, ping me. I desperately wish to read it.

#link #zelda #the legend of zelda #zelda x link #zelink #supportive parents #loz #tloz #tloz au #tloz ss #tloz botw #if there's a story remotely close to this please ping me #prince link #villager zelda #legend of zelda #tloz majora's mask #tloz oot

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sifeng · 4 years

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Long Dramas for Your Quarantined Soul

Stuck at home with nothing to do? Watch a long, angsty drama and find yourself crying over fictional characters!

1. Goodbye My Princess (东宫)

Episodes: 52

Genres: Historical/Romance

A young prince striving for power decides to use the ninth princess of Xi Zhou as a pawn in his game, but he finds himself falling for her in the process. Thus sets forth a tragic romance that even forgotten memories cannot stop from spiraling into chaos. Add in some beautiful cinematography, gorgeous costumes and great actors and you get a fantastic drama!

This will be you after the finale (spoiler alert!)

2. The Untamed (陈情令)

Episodes: 50

Genres: Wuxia/Mystery

During his training, Wei WuXian of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect met Lan WangJi of the Gusu Lan Sect. Even though they are polar opposite, the two are suddenly tied together after discovering a plot by the land dominated Wen clan to acquire all the pieces of the Yin Iron. However, during a battle against Wei WuXian, now known as the infamous Yiling Patriarch, he is presumed dead after falling off a cliff due to Jiang Cheng, who was like a brother to him. Sixteen years later, Wei WuXian suddenly wakes up after a crazy cultivator called Mo XuanYu performed a ritual sacrificing his body in exchange for bringing back Wei WuXian to fulfill his revenge plan. To hide his real identity, Wei WuXian pretends to be Mo XuanYu. However, he is soon reunited with Lan WangJi and the pair then works together to solve a series of mysteries and expose the secret figure pulling the strings behind the evildoings now wreaking havoc in the land.

3. Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜)

Episodes: 63

Genres: Xianxia/Romance

A story of many lifetimes of romance between the flower deity and the fire deity. She might not be able to love, but he loves her with all his heart, and so does his brother. As secret identities are revealed, love begins to develop, and age old promises end up causing massive chaos and destruction. (sorry for the bad intro, but I wanted to include all the angst I could)

4. Eternal Love (三生三世十里桃花)

Episodes: 58

Genres: Xianxia/Romance

After a devastating war, the immortal tribe paid a heavy price to seal the demon lord. 70000 years later, in an attempt to re-seal the demon lord who broke free, Bai Qian was sent to the mortal realm. In the mortal world, she meets Ye Hua and falls in love with him after forgetting about her life as a goddess. Ye Hua gifts her the name of Su Su. Su Jin, who is jealous of Ye Hua's love for Bai Qian, intentionally creates a series of misunderstanding between them and causes Bai Qian to lose her eyes. Thinking that Ye Hua has betrayed her, the devastated Bai Qian jumps off from the Zhu Xian Terrace. At her request, all her memories have been erased and she forgets Ye Hua. 300 years later, the two meets again as deities. Another lifetime another world, Ye Hua recognizes Bai Qian but the latter remains indifferent. Three lives three worlds, her and him, are they fated to bear an entangling love?

5. The Rise of Phoenixes (天盛长歌)

Episodes: 70

Genres: Political/Romance

Feng Zhi Wei is the unfavored illegitimate daughter of the Qiu Family, who is then banished from the clan after being falsely accused of a crime. Zhi Wei cross-dresses as a man to attend the prestigious Qingming Academy and stuns the world with her talent and knowledge. She remains loyal and honest to the reigning Emperor during the princes’ fight for the throne, yet soon finds out she is the only surviving royalty of a fallen kingdom. Manipulated into thinking that the current dynasty was built upon the corpses of her loved ones, Zhi Wei ultimately decides to take revenge against her enemies, including her lover Ning Yi. Will they be able to put their vengeance behind them and live a life without hatred?

6. Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜)

Episodes: 58

Genres: Wuxia/Political

In sixth-century China, during a war between Southern Liang and Northern Wei dynasties, General Lin Xie took his only child, the 17-year-old Lin Shu, to the battlefield to fight the Wei army. Unexpectedly, General Lin Xie was framed by a political rival, causing the unjust deaths of 7,000 army soldiers and the poisoning of his son. Lin Shu survived the war but to be cured of the poison, he underwent a treatment that changed his appearance completely and left him in a weakened state unable to perform martial arts again. Lin Shu change his name to Mei Chang Su and later became the chief of the pugilist world and established the Jiangzuo Alliance. Twelve years later, Lin Shu returned to the capital, Jinling, with a secret plan after being sought after by Prince Yu and Prince Xian during their fight for the throne. He then decides to covertly assist Prince Jing, the unfavoured son of Emperor Wu, and wisely rids the court of all scheming officials. (there might not be romance, but the genius of this show is more than enough to make up for it)

7. Legend of Concubine Zhen Huan (甄嬛传)

Episodes: 76

Genres: Historical/Political

A young woman born of Eight Banners family marries the Emperor. After surviving through many murderous scandals and betrayals, she prevails as the most powerful woman in the Emperor's harem, the Empress dowager. In the process, she transforms from a kind-hearted, clever girl to a power hungry, manipulative woman. (again no romance, but so genius!)

8. Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace (如懿传)

Episodes: 87

Genres: Historical/Romance

The road to becoming an empress is paved with treachery. Ruyi (Zhou Xun) is a consort who quickly learns to navigate the treacherous politics of the the royal court and move up the ranks. After becoming Empress, Ruyi still must survive the many conspiracies against her. Her relationship with Emperor Qianlong (Wallace Huo) becomes eroded even when Ruyi is able to overcome the challenges. Can Ruyi maintain her role as Empress under such difficult circumstances?

9. Eternal Love of Dream (三生三世枕上书)

Episodes: 56

Genres: Xianxia/Romance

Two thousand years of enduring love and obsession between the female monarch of Qing Qiu and the ancient god of the Heavenly Kingdom. When Feng Jiu was practising immortal cultivation alone in the wilderness, she was attacked by a beast and rescued by Dong Hua Di Jun of the Heavenly Kingdom. The encounter becomes deeply ingrained in Feng Jiu's heart and to repay her debts, she decides to follow Dong Hua into battle. She soon realizes that her good feelings towards him have evolved into love, but Dong Hua is a god who has forgotten what love means. In order to protect Feng Jiu, Dong Hua sends her to the human realm which results in the death of a friend. Feng Jiu enters the Winged Tribe Princess Ah Lan Ruo's dream sequence in search of a sacred fruit that can bring the dead back to life but gets trapped to relive Ah Lan Ruo's life for eternity. Dong Hua finds a way to save Feng Jiu and realizes that he already reciprocates her love for him, but another hurdle crosses their path.

10. Find Yourself (下一站是幸福)

Episodes: 41

Genres: Slice-of-Life/Romance

He Fan Xing's company is at risk of being acquired while her relationship with Yuan Song faces societal pressures due to their age difference. The consecutive blows in her work and love life push her to an emotional quagmire and it is during this time that Ye Lu Ming enters her life. Being older in age, he is mature, stable and knowledgeable. He becomes He Fan Xing's life coach and the source of conflict between the couple. For He Fan Xing, it's not merely a matter of choosing the man that she loves but considering the contradictions of adopting the traditional mindset on marriage.

If You’ve Already Watched Those: Royal Nirvana (60 eps; political/romance), Return of the Condor Heroes (41 eps; wuxia/romance), The Story of Yanxi Palace (70 eps; political/romance), Joy of Life (46 eps; wuxia/political), Love and Destiny (60 eps; xianxia/romance), Glory of the Tang Dynasty (60 eps; historical/romance), Siege in Fog (50 eps; historical/romance)

#Cdrama #Chinese Drama #the untamed #find yourself #Ashes Of Love #have fun!#eternal love #wuxia #Xianxia

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lassluna · 4 years

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Swan’s Hourglass (1/?)

Emma Swan had a mission. Find a place to start New Hyrule, her kingdom apparently. It was her mission as Princess or Savior or whatever. It’s going terribly if she’s honest. No one ever gave her Princess or Savior lessons growing up. She really has no idea how to be a Savior. She doesn’t even really want to in the first place.

But when the Demon Ship kidnaps her son and she gets stranded on a strange island with only an old woman and peppy fairy for help, Emma will have to do what she has to do to rescue her son, even if that means putting a certain self-proclaimed pirate captain in his place.

Legend Of Zelda AU

AN: I am SO EXCITED to start posting this. This has been in my documents for YEARS and I can’t wait to share what it is become. Thank you SO much @cssns for giving me a reason to commit to writing this. Thank you @spartanguard for being a fabulous beta and making sense of this thing, it would not be what it is without your fabulous input. Thank you @eastwesthomeisbest for creating such an amazing image, I love it to pieces!!!!

FFN Ao3

Prologue

“Our story begins not long ago; there was a young man, head to a band of lost boys, thieves of the kingdom. His name was Baelfire. Baelfire was cunning, smart and mysterious. They wanted to explore the unfamiliar land.

One day Baelfire met a young girl on her first adventure outside her parents’ home. She was young and curious and ready to make her own destiny.

After a series of strange events, the girl began traveling with the group as she’d become smitten with Baelfire. Through many adventures, they found old ruins, hoping to make off with treasure. Instead, however, light enveloped the girl, revealing that her lineage wasn’t just sheep farming as she once thought, but that it traced back to a line of legendary heroes known to their time as The Saviors. She was the lost princess prophesied to save her people from a terrible fate.

When her identity was revealed, a wicked witch appeared and carried the princess away from Baelfire as she knew that the Savior was destined to destroy her. Instead she sought to take her power for herself. She used her power to destroy the kingdom many years before.

Baelfire chased after the princess in order to rescue her. He crossed mountains and ocean, slayed terrible beasts in order to be reunited with his True Love. When he finally found her, the princess was not alone as she had been with child when she was taken and bore his son while in captivity.

They used their power to become true heros and slay the Wicked Witch once and for all, and the princess and her infant son were rescued at last. However, during the battle to rescue her, Baelfire sacrificed his life to ensure the safety of his family.

The princess decided to honor his memory and find a new land to restore her kingdom to what it once was, surrounded by her new family of Lost Boys…”

There is a loud sigh coming from a mop of dark hair.

“Come on, Henry? What did you think?” insists a voice. It’s the same voice as the one who told the story. He is tall and skinny, dressed in traditional sailor’s wear with hair a slight shade darker and freckles all over his face.

She always enjoys listening to her friend’s storytelling from a distance.

“Boring,” came the reply, much to her amusement.

“What? How?” the story teller says again in surprise.

“Johnnn,” Henry groans. “You tell the same story every time,” he says in exasperation. “You don’t even add to it.” He looked up at her from the lower deck as she stood on an upper section watching him. “At least Mom sometimes tells me of Dad’s adventures,” he insists, standing up from where he’d been sitting and stretching. “You were there, shouldn’t you know more than Mom about this?” he asks skeptically. “Mom was captured when all the exciting stuff happened.”

She watched as the man looked up at her, exchanging a careful look with her. She keeps her gaze firm.

It was a very direct, don't you dare.

“I’m forgetful,” John retorts to her son.

“You’d forget years of your life?” Henry asks, yet again. “I still don’t buy that.”

She could tell that Henry was starting to get around John’s story, as he always was. Ever since Henry was a toddler, he’d always been so curious. Now that he was growing up, he’d become desperate for more details, more information, more of anything interesting, especially details of his father.

Her kid was growing up so fast…

“Henry,” she calls out, making him notice her for the first time. She stands overlooking the lower decks. “Aren’t you supposed to be on lookout?” she asks. “You know the Captain wouldn’t like it if her first mate is slacking on the job,” she teases.

Henry’s eyes light up, all thoughts of the story gone from his head.

Well, not that fast. She muses silently.

“Oh yeah!” he says excitedly, “We’re looking for the Demon Ship,” he reminds her, grabbing John’s hand and darting off towards the edge of the ship. She could hear him rambling about it from the other side of the vessel.

“You know Emma,” says a new voice. Emma had had a suspicion she had been listening too. “You’re going to have to tell him the truth eventually.” Emma didn’t look back at her.

“What I tell my son about his father is my business,” Emma reminds the Captain. “You promised me you’d honor that,” she reminds her. The last thing she needs is someone telling her how to raise her kid.

“I just think that Henry’s a smart kid and will figure it out. Shouldn’t it come from you and not when Michael and John have conflicting stories?” she presses. Emma turns towards the brunette sea captain, looking her straight in the eyes. Captain Wendy Darling did not waver.

“We’ve been over this a dozen times Captain,” Emma says as politely as possible. “I will protect Baelfire’s legacy, Henry’s hero until I see fit to tell him otherwise,” He’s her kid, and the last thing she needed was for him to dwell on the past; lord knew she dwelled on it enough.

“I just think—“ But Emma cuts her off.

“Bae’s already dead; what good will the truth do any of us?” she snaps. Wendy raises a brow.

“Maybe it would let your son see you less as a damsel and more as a hero, Savior,” Wendy replies with an almost whimsical sound at the word ‘Savior’ and it fills Emma with dread. “Maybe it would let you see yourself that way too,” she adds.

“I am no Savior,” she says sternly, barely resisting another snap. “If I was, Baelfire wouldn’t be dead. He saved us from the Wicked Witch and that’s all I want to hear on the subject,” she says firmly.

Wendy shrugs slightly, conversation over for now. It’s a common argument for them. It feels like they have it every day. She’s supposed to be some Savior, but she doesn’t feel like one, she never has, even after years free from the Wicked Witch. All Emma’s been was the daughter of a sheep farmer, and after the death of her parents before she met Bae, she was lost. She never meant to save the world; she never meant to be the one destined to find some new land for her people.

Emma doesn’t want to be the Savior. She wishes she could just hand off the job to someone way more qualified.

Emma watches Wendy look up at the sky, face stern. Emma never really understood why Wendy has been helping her for all these years; at first, it was some obligation to Bae, but yet she’s been talking about telling Henry the truth about his father since Henry was old enough to hear these stories. She doesn’t understand it; Emma would think she’d want to protect his image.

Emma doesn’t think she’ll ever truly understand her. “Besides,” Emma continues, “Shouldn’t you be trying to find a way to avoid this Demon ship Henry keeps talking about?” she asks, still eyeing the brunette.

Henry had taken up talking to other sailors whenever they reached port. At first, he wanted to try to trade some of his treasures for different things, and then it turned into him hunting out stories from dock workers or deckhands. He was always very excitable when it came to adventures so Emma was barely surprised when Michael came to her that first time he caught Henry wandering off to engage in a conversation with a stranger.

Wendy takes the change of subject gladly. Wendy rolled her eyes. “There is no Demon Ship,” she insists. “It’s just some pirate gang or something, an urban legend to scare people.” She crosses her arms and she looks insulted by the accusation.

“Are you sure?” asks a voice from the hull; Emma recognized Michael, slightly pudgier than his younger brother holding the wheel of the ship, looking at Wendy in uncertainty. “What about all those ships that have gone missing?” he asks nervously. “No survivors or ship remains were ever found.”

Wendy sighs in annoyance, but Emma can see it’s barely contained outrage. “We’re going to be fine,” she says again. “These seas are protected,” she reminds them.

Emma raised a brow in disbelief. “Protected?” she asks. Emma didn’t see any royal colors on this piece of the map; she thought this area was uncharted.

“By the Ocean Queen,” Wendy retorts as if it’s obvious.

“Ocean Queen?” Henry asks, being drawn in by the talk of adventure and stories. His eyes lit up. “Who’s she?” he asks.

“No one’s told you?” Wendy says in disbelief. “She’s a benevolent ancient ruler who protects all sailors in this area of the ocean,” Wendy replies. “Legend has it that she rules with three helpers, but not much more is known.” It makes Henry’s smile widen at the thought. Emma was sure her son’s head was filling up with ideas of meeting this ruler one day.

But at ten years old, Emma was not having it.

“You believe in an Ocean Queen and not a Demon ship?” Emma asks. It seemed a little one sided to her.

Wendy snickers. “Of course I don’t!” she exclaims. “I only believe in the wind and the stars; everything else is just fairy tales,” she says with a laugh. “That’s just an old story my mother used to tell me. She grew up around here,” she informs them. “A little place called Molida Island.”

Henry groans. “Aunt Wendyyyy,” he says with a sigh. “That’s mean.”

Wendy sticks her tongue out at him, looking like the kid Emma had met all those years ago. “That’s what you get for slacking off on your duties, mate.”

Henry sticks his tongue out right back at her. It wasn’t often that Wendy acted her age, only barely being 23 herself; but when she did, it was refreshing to Emma. It reminded her of the fierce Captain who could see them all through any storm in the sea and yet still had a soft side.

Emma’s relaxation was short lived, as before anyone realized it, a dark and thick fog rolled over them.

“What the—“ Wendy cries in surprise. “Everyone get to your stations,” she snaps at her two younger brothers. “We’re taking a detour from this place,” she orders. Emma looks around unsure. She has a dark feeling in her gut. She feels tingling in her soul, but she blocks it out. She doesn’t need more to deal with right now. She just needs her kid.

“Henry?” she calls out. She wanted her son with her while the crew worked on getting them out of here.

“Wind’s dead, Wendy,” John calls out.

“How can the wind be dead when a fog literally just blew in?” she snaps back.

“Mom, look!” she hears Henry say. He was sitting on the edge of the ship pointing out. “A ship.”

Emma looks over and realizes that Henry was right: there was a ship heading towards them and fast. “Henry, get away from there,” she orders, rushing down the steps in her dress. She barely reaches him as the ship descends upon them.

Emma sees its superior size loom overhead and dark wooden hulls cast a shadow upon their smaller vessel. Its ornaments are all a faded ivory color looking almost like bone. It looked like death itself had come for them.

“It’s the Demon Ship!” Emma hears Michael cry out. “These waters really are cursed!”

“It’s just a ship,” Wendy snaps at them. “Emma, Henry get below decks; let us handle things,” she orders. Emma nods in agreement, reaching over to gather Henry’s hand in hers and hide below deck. This was dangerous and Emma needs to keep Henry safe.

She just wants to take her son where it’s safe.

Henry pulls away from her. “It is the Demon Ship!” he insists. “And there could be a lot of treasure on board.” He reaches up for a stray piece of rigging, much to Emma’s horror.

“Henry!” she shouts, trying to grab him as her son swings over to the ship. “Henry get back over here!” she calls out once he lands safely. She is going to ground him for life for this.

“It’s fine, Mom; it’s—“ Suddenly as if possessed, the fog around them gets much denser and it is hard to see Henry at all. Then she hears a piercing sound that shakes her to her very core.

“Mom!” Henry screams. He screams for her.

“Henry!” Forgetting every ounce of her fear, Emma grabs the rigging, same as Henry had, and attempts to swing over to the other side. She needed to get to her son now.

However, the Demon ship started to move away from them so Emma’s leap of faith lands her clutching to the side of the ship.

“Emma!” She hears a chorus of voices call out in dismay. But she doesn’t care; she does her best to scramble upwards, trying to find something to catch the edge of her feet, anything to just hold on.

She hears a snickering laughter, sees a flash of dark hair and then someone uncurls her fingers from around the edge.

“Henry!” she shouts helplessly as she splashes into the water. Both the sky and the water were dark and grey and she couldn’t seem to make out either the Demon ship or her own ship in her confusion.

“Henry!” she cries one last time before the water swallowed her whole.

Tagging:

@phiralovesloki

#Cssns #Captain Swan #Legend of Zelda AU #Swan's Hourglass #captain swan au

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tumblunni · 7 years

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okay HOLY SHIT

I just remembered that show Gargoyles that I loved as a kid, and I decided to rewatch it, and its SOMEHOW EVEN BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS?? Like holy fuck?? It has one of the best introductions to any show ever! Did I just never see the first episode as a kid, or did all the implications fly over my head when I watched it??

Okay so.. like.. I knew the PREMISE but I didnt expect it all happened in the least expected way! The friggin theme tune tells us that blablabla ancient magical guardian creatures fell under some sort of curse and now they’re revived in modern times, such and such, there you go a one sentence plot. BUT HOW IT HAPPENED HOW it happened oh GOD And like the show starts with a whole hour long flashback to the gargoyles back in olden times?? like thats a really bold move! usually in kids shows theyre like ‘you MUST establish the status quo/episode formula right away’. here we literally only saw two minutes of modern times america. TWO MINUTES! some person we dont know finds some mysterious monster. now lets throw that all away and spend a whole glorious hour establishing how much of an upstanding man that damn monster is, and how the universe treats him like shit. like weirdly enough it raises hype for the modern day episode formula even as it shows none of it?? it makes the audience think ‘WAIT WTF THEYRE NOT EVIL, OH NO WE ALREADY KNOW THE MODERN POLICE IS GONNA ATTACK THEM’ :< And then also we get ANOTHER HOUR AND A HALF of establishing the modern day status quo too?? theyre labelled on dvds and stuff as the first five episodes, but really this was just one big 2 and half hour movie premiere! i wish i could have seen it in its original form back when it first aired, i just remember that it was really hard to catch reruns of the multi part stuff cos toon disney had a lot of airing issues

anyway WHY IS THIS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER?

okay

OKAY OKAY

Here’s our premise! We start off in some ambiguously set medieval kingdom where everyone dresses like a mashup of vikings and englishmen yet have scottish accents ok seriously thats kinda distracting And we’re introduced to this small castle kingdom that’s protected by mysterious guardian creatures of amazing character design. Like seriously i wish they didnt focus so much on this ‘all the main gargoyles have to look more human’ thing, the comic relief teenagers trio was my favourite and also THE COOL GRANDPA EYEPATCH GARGOYLE ok ok im getting offtopic So in this universe gargoyles are a sentient species of winged noble warrior doods, who just happen to have a problem of turning to stone in sunlight. And they protect these humans but the humans are all assholes who’re like WAH BUT THEY LOOK LIKE CHRISTIAN DEMONS THEY MUST BE EVIL even as theyre like.. mid-being-saved. Absolute dumbasses. And seriously YOU BUILT YOUR CITY ON THE GARGOYLES’S LAND! You should count yourself lucky their leader is Niceman Mc Patience who agreed to a peace treaty instead of kicking your ass. Seriously Goliath you kinda comprimised too much! It really fuckin sucks!! The gargoyles are like.. employed by the humans for no form of pay?? They get literally nothing out of it! Except less room to live in their own home, and constant degredation.

Okay so THE HUMAN CHARACTERS AND THEIR CONSTANT DEGREDATION

We’re introduced to the princess and royal vizier dude when the kindly knight captain is like ‘hey you should say thank you to the gargoyles, not me’, and she’s like HOW DARE YOU LET THE BEASTS INSIDE THE HOUSE! Like seriouslt the gargoyles arent even allowed to be seen by humans?? Theyre supposed to protect them every damn day but also should never speak and never have any form of rights as sentient beings. WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR DAMAGE, MEDIEVAL DOODS?? So yeah here’s our brief summary of the everyone here: * Fucking asshole princess who acts like you let your dog shit on the floor if you give a friggin sentient being and king of another civilization the basic courtesy of being allowed to STAND INSIDE THE HOUSE * Cliche evil vizier lookin dood who doesnt really have much personality shown yet except being a sycophant to her anti gargoyle shit, and like.. from his character design you totally expect he’s gonna be evil. *shrug* * Niceman mc guardman who treats Goliath like a friend and is being all activist for gargoyle rights amoung the court. But also he’s really low ranking apparantly, and doesnt have any power to affect change. It seems that he’s been treated like shit by these royals for a long time... * One innocent nice kiddo who wants to hug the gargoyles for saving him, but his jerkass mum is all OMG HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HIM HEY EVERYONE YOU SAW THEY TOTALLY ATTACKED US RIGHT Like seriously he just fuckin tries to start a conversation with the younger gargoyles, and is all ‘youre my hero!’ and they have a nice talk that establishes a load of worldbuilding like how gargoyle culture doesnt have any form of names and Goliath only has one cos the humans gave it to him. Screw you, worldbuilding interruption predjudice mom!

Okay so now we have our premise, and we see some mysterious guy in a hood sneaking out of the castle to ally with some raiders who wanna overthrow the country and steal all its riches. Also a minor scene of the teen and kid gargoyle group being sent to their room for 'causing trouble’ even though seriously the humans started it >_> So like.. we all know where this is going, right? Its a pretty big omen when you give us a contrived circumstance for the children to be the only ones who can be safe from this impending catastrophe... And the voice was very gruff and deep so its probably not the princess doing this shit, plus duh she already has all the power so why would she need to stage a coup? Really, the question now is just what vizier man’s motives are for wanting to betray her!

... EXCEPT

This is where the story gets fuckin great, and also where My Soul Is Pained

hey guess who was really the traitor? its.... nice guard man! fffffuck its sooo creepy when the princess is running for help and she’s like HEY THANK GOD YOURE HERE and then he has this big slasher smile and reveals his plan T_T And like.. he’s still.. not really evil?? Nobody here is evil, except the personalityless plot device raider guys who just exist to set up this circumstance. The princess is an ungrateful predjudiced asshole, but she’s beloved by her human subjects and i mean., she never actually does anything evil, she’s just rude and nasty. And the vizier was a complete red herring and actually all his mysterious shit was just him hiding a crush on the princess, so he breaks down when he thinks she’s dead :( And then guard guy also wasnt lying about caring about the gargoyles. he tried to get them to leave so that only the humans would die, but then like.. his ambition overtook that one shred of loyalty he had to his friends. He thought he could get through all this without having to kill them, but when the raider guy insists upon it he ends up agreeing rather than lose his chance at stealing the throne. And then its really slimy how he’s all ‘BUT I DIDNT INTEND THIS ORIGINALLY, ITS ALL RAIDER GUY’S FAULT’ after goliath shows up and cries over the corpses of his family, like seriously what the fuck dude dont try and weasel out of consequences for your actions. But still it feels like he was once a genuinely good guy who just gave in to his selfishness and abandoned his morals?? And i mean its super justified for him to be angry at how he was treated by the princess, and to want to affect change in this society. WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!! Seriously its so fuckin surprisingly deep to have some guy who’s a fakeout hero in the first damn episode. And some guy who’s a villain just because he stooped to any means necessary to carry out his once-heroic ambitions. Instead of changing society for the sake of the people, he’s sacrificing all the people just to gain the throne, and forgetting why he ever wanted it! SERIOUSLY HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO BE EVEN WORSE THAN ASSHOLE PRINCESS

so yeah then the plot just goes in SO MANY UNEXPECTED DIRECTIONS to get to the same expected conclusion! Instead of just being cursed by the bad guys, the gargoyles were betrayed by the one closest to them, while those bad guys all died innefectually offscreen. And the curse wasnt even an evil act! It happens because of a REALLY COMPLEX GREY MORALITY SITUATION, where the princess and vizier were gonna be sold off for cash, but then because the gargoyles tried to save them the guard guy decided to just execute them instead. So after their triumphant rescue of all the villagers, they find the vizier man sobbing over his dead love, and then he tells them its THEIR FAULT IT HAPPENED. And he doesnt want to live without her, so he makes a really stupid reckless decision and decides to attack the last few living gargoyles. And like RIGHT AFTER he casts the spell on them, he finds out the princess is still alive and its all oh Fuck What The Fuck Have I Done So vizier man tries to undo the curse, but his book of spells got damaged in the fight and (OF COURSE) coincidentally the page about curse lifting is gone. Cue fuckin Everyone Crying. SO FEW EVIL PEOPLE IN THIS STORY SO MANY EVIL ACTS DONE BY THOSE WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE THE HERO like even the vizier and princess realize they were wrong about their anti gargoyle bigotry after they have to see the consequences of it here but its just WAY TOO LATE FOR THAT

and then yo the EVEN MORE UNEXPECTED AND SAD BIT cos our protagonist gargoyle was the only one who didnt get cursed thats unexpected and he basically COMMITS SUICIDE TO BE WITH HIS FAMILY THATS KINDA MORE UNEXPECTED Well its more like a g-rated suicide metaphor?? Everyone thinks the curse will never be broken, so he curses himself too cos he cant live without them. And its really depressing cos even though we know they all eventually get uncursed, so many others just straight up died and also theyll never see their human friends again and also the castle is all destroyed so the fate of the kingdom is really ambiguous too?? we just know that the now-redeemed princess and vizier are gonna do anything they can to protect their citizens and atone for what happened. and they take the last few gargoyle eggs that werent destroyed, and promise to raise them with all of the love and respect they nevr gave poor goliath... and seriously they never say whose children those eggs were but he’s like the only person left who could have given them a proper gargoyle childhood. So like its morally grey that goliath is choosing death together with the people he knows, rather than living and trying to ressurect his dying civilization. i absolutely wouldnt blame him for it though, its not like suicide is an active choice, he wasnt exactly in his right mind at the time! But its just REALLY NICE AND COMPLEX! And raises a lot of questions about what will happen to these new gargoyles who’re raised by humans, how different would they be if goliath and co met them someday? i really hope thats actually a plot thats gonna happen, i cant rememebr ANYTHING about this show lol...

so yeah theres all the FUCKIN COMPLEX DARK MORAL AMBIGUITY IN ANCIENT ENGLANDSCOTLANDGERMANYKINDA and it is AMAZING and it absolutely baffles me how they ahve such great plots when other parts of the writing are kinda awful standard disney cliches?? like seriously they wasted so much screentime on Comic Relief: A Fat Guy Exists. Seriously he just.. exists. They show these really slow and overanimated scenes of him just.. eating things. not even exaggerated or comedic. he ate one pie, lets all make fun of him for twenty minutes but man, no show in the 90s was perfect, lol! this is still pretty damn great! AND VERY EMOTIONAL

oh oh oh and i didnt mention THE OTHER CRYING BIT cos the guard guy gets a cliche disney villain death, the whole accidentally falling off a cliff due to his own actions, so the protagonist isnt morally responsible for killing a man but then what makes it a really unique scene is that THATS NOT THE MORAL STANCE THE SHOW TAKES goliath WANTED to kill that damn man or, at the very least, give him some sort of punishment for what he’d done goliath has a fucking huge despair moment over the fact this villain man died and he wasnt the one who did it “you took everything from me, even my chance at revenge” cue ugly sobbing as this buff ass demon man screams at the heavens and cradles the stone dust that was once his damn wife what the fuck show why are you doing this to me

ITS REALLY GOOD

#blunni thoughts

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smorsh · 7 years

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Long Voltron au storyline thing

Alright so this is really long and probably has more information then really needed plus I'm not the best writer so be warned. I just wanted to get my ideas down somewhere and I thought y'all might like to read them. The crew has a mixture of their own and the characters traits and I had to move some stuff around in Canon to make it work so enjoy! (Also minor spoilers for Voltron so beware) • Flitz is an exploration pilot for the Garrison (a school that teaches students about space travel and trains them to go into space). He accompanies Keith leak jr and Matt raub to a mission to Kerberos, pluto's moon. As they collect the samples needed for their mission, the galra (an evil alien species) captures them all and takes them prisoner. Since they never returned to earth from their mission they were all declared as dead do to pilot error. Matt raub was sent to a work camp and Keith and Flitz were forced to fight as gladiators against other aliens for Zarkon, the emperor of the galra. After about a year when they were originally captured by the galra, Flitz escaped and made it back to earth with little memory of what happened on the Galra's ship and a metal arm. The Garrison found him and set up a place to investigate how he got back and what his new arm was. There he was rescued by Shayne and the others and taken away from the Garrison and to a much safer place. Flitz is a calm, caring, and patient leader that struggles with a little memory loss and PTSD. He is a very fun and positive energy with a gift for giving people amazing pep talks and blowing their mind with philosophy. •Shayne was a close family friend of Flitz and before Flitz got captured he was attending the Garrison to become a fighter pilot. Since he was orphaned at a young age Flitz was the only person he had left. After Flitz was declared dead, Shayne started to act out. Soon after, the Garrison expelled him and he went on to living alone in the desert. While he was there he noticed something was fishy about the area and he started trying to put all the pieces together. After a long time he notices something crash down from space. He immediately goes to see what was happening and makes a distraction so that he could go inside and investigate. Upon seeing Flitz he immediately breaks him out with some unwanted help from damien and his friends who were there investigating as well. Shayne is loner who is impulsive, intelligent, and an unpredictable guy that can be a tad hot headed at times and he jumps into situations with no plan in mind. He can be extremely funny when he's comfortable with the people around him and is very passionate about things that interest him. •Damien was good friends with Shayne when they were younger. They were always very close but when Shayne joined the Garrison he felt people always compare them. Shayne was always the better pilot so Damien would always feel as if he was second best. This only got worse when Flitz disappeared because Shayne was meaner and he started to separate from damien causing their friendship to end. During this damien got a new roommate named Wes. Him and Wes became very close friends. After Shayne got expelled, Damien got moved up from cargo pilot to fighter pilot. He also got put into a team which consisted of Wes and Boze. The three were not very well at working together so they failed many space exploration simulations. After one very rough simulation he decides to take Boze and Wes out to bond and become a better team but it was interrupted when they saw a ship crash nearby. As they went on to investigate they figured out it was Flitz who was the one who crashed. Since Flitz was always a hero in Damien's eyes, he wanted to help him out. Once he saw Shayne sneaking in he decided he wouldn't let Shayne one up him again thus fueling their rivalry, so he and his team went down to help free Flitz. Damien is a free spirited, adventurous, brave and friendly person who though at times can be cocky he's actually very self conscious and incredibly homesick. •Wes is Damien best friend and roommate. He and damien met at the Garrison because he wanted to become an engineer. He is big softie and the voice of reason to the incredibly energetic damien and the headstrong Boze. He accompanies them when he sees Flitz's ship crash because he doesn't want Damien or Boze to get into trouble. he always seems nervous but he loves the adventure it's the main reason he applied to the Garrison. He helps his friends and Shayne get Flitz out of the Garrison's hands and to somewhere safe. Wes is the powerhouse and the heart of their team. He wows the other with his incredible cooking and engineering skills. Sometimes he could be a little single minded when it comes to protecting others and jumps into harm's way to help them.He does have the tendency to try to hard and blame his tech is he does something wrong. •Ericka is the sister of Keith and daughter of Matt raub. Once they went missing and the Garrison reported them dead she refused to believe it so she started searching for any signs that her family was still alive. After she kept hacking into the Garrison to find proof of what really happened they caught her and banned her from going near the Garrison again. She still wanted answers so as a result she cut her hair,put on glasses, and applied to the Garrison as a cadet under the name Boze. Once she was accepted she was assigned to Wes and Damien’s team. She never really socialized with them because she was always on her homemade technology looking for her family. When she would search for her family, some of her equipment would pick up an alien language and the word Voltron over and over again. One day Wes and damien followed her to the roof and damien demanded her to hang out with them so they could learn how to work as a team. Once they saw her equipment they asked what was she doing and she explained what her tech was picking up. Though skeptical they didn't have much time to question her since they all saw Flitz’s escape ship crash. Hoping it was her family she went with the other to go check it out. And when she saw it was Flitz she helped the others break him out of the Garrison. She knew Flitz worked with her family so she wanted to ask him about what happened to Keith and her dad. Boze (as she still prefers being called) is an excitable, hard headed, and determined tech genius that can at times be head strong and persistent if it means she can find her family. She is always in awe of all the new alien things she finds. Boze is a high energy,loud, and at times standoffish person that will kick your ass even though she's very tiny. Once Flitz wakes up he tells them a story about a weapon called Voltron (which they find out is a giant robot made up of mechanical lions) that can defeat the evil Zarkon. They locate the blue lion on Earth with help from shayne’s research, and Wes and boze’s smarts. When they finally find it they realize that damien is connected to the blue lion mentally. Everybody goes inside the lion and Damien pilots the it for a bit until the lion goes on autopilot and takes them into space. It lands onto an alien planet in front of a castle and they search inside until they found two aliens who were asleep in pods. After letting them out they meet Princess Mari of altea and Uncle Joe (her royal advisor). Mari and Joe find out that they are the last of the alteans when they remember that Zarkon destroyed their planet. Mari’s father ,king Sunny, put her and Joe into pods and sent the castle to a safe planet while he sacrificed his life in order to save them. Mari explains to them that her father had created 5 lion robots to be piloted by 5 paladins, that when they combine form into Voltron the defender of the universe and with Voltron they could take down Zarkon and his empire who have taken over and destroyed many planets. She explains that they are the new paladins of Voltron and each of them control their own lions now(Flitz is the leader and is the black lion paladin, Shayne is the second in command and is the red lion paladin, Damien is the blue lion paladin, Wes is the yellow lion paladin and Boze is the green lion paladin). As they all find their lions they start training to become the defenders of the universe and stop the galra empire together as Voltron.

#smosh #smosh games #smosh sqaud #Flitz #shayne topp #damien haas #wes the editor #boze #mari takahashi #joe bereta #Voltron au #enjoy

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popcartoonkabala · 7 years

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New Gods vs. Old Gods: The Juvenile as Divine Elder, or foil. Tammuz = Yesod she b Malchus

Jack Kirby, in his fixing of Super-hero Mythology for DC in the 70′s, conveniently avoids the war between the Super-modern and the inaccessibly ancient by having the Old Gods, obsolete and yet eternally important, enshrined in the Source Wall, out of commission as is truly the way of the Ancient of Day שביתין ושבקין / חבילין דמעקין.

The challenge is of this: who is satirized out of power, in the freshest story? Who is lionized into the spotlight as the moral of the story gives him the torch of grace? Part of the pop problem is the great parent-punch, where the wicked old gives way to the awesome: how to retell without vilifying the ACTUAL patriarchy of beloved family? This is the ultimate challenge of any non-dualistic narrative, religion, or experience of the schism that makes the world.

Narratives find ways by splitting the distinction between Good Parent and Bad Elder. Note with curiousity: The Angelina Jolie vehicle-version of Malificent takes the Evil Queen and spins her into grace as the Raven Fairy who only loves and is betrayed by the man that turns out immediately to be the Lame King, father of “Sleeping Beauty.” The infinite purity/ecstatic naivety of princess Aurora is very contrasted with the wounded and knowing of Malificent, but the movie REFUSES to be enlightened enough to overcome the need for a villain, and so the Lame Father dies unrepentant for his crime against the goddess, falling out of a building. His daughter never appears, even for a moment, to mourn his death.

The Illumination is coherent, and one god must be sacrificed for the rest to live. This is a fundamental part of Old Egyptian religious covenant, Set-as-Joker: one of the royal family must be villain in order for the heavens to be whole. Because informed masonry demands sacrifice, and cosmic order depends on the self-sacrifice of the highest angel-turned-enemy. The is the friendly gnostic Satan; Leviathan co-operative.

This is the secret of the moon of Tammuz, who is also Adonis, the aspect of Who Knows but Alas! And Woe! For the great king is lost, fallen. But good news! He returns every few months and so does life. Why does he die? According to ld Sumerian myth, it’s because he rules oblivious to the damnation of his beloved Innana. She’s dragged to Hell by Irresistable Cosmic Forces that demand sacrifice for the sake of existence. Accepting this and yet still demanding to return to the earth, that there might be love, life and delight, she is given permission on condition that she bring down someone of equal stature. She returns to Earth in search of unfamiliar kings, but they are all humiliated, dressed in sackcloth and mourning her absence. Not so, her beloved Fisherman, King of the Satisfaction, Tammuz. He sits on the high throne, joyful and fruitful, so that there would be bounty. This offends Innana/Ishtar so, and she casts him down to Sheol/Hel, where he remains until his twin sister convnces Innana/Ishtar to take his place for half the year. So that the world can be. The Romans digest this story, calling Innana “Venus” and Tammuz “Adonis”, de-emphasising his divinity and instead emphasising his beauty and powerlessness before tragedy.

"Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these." —Ezekiel 8:14-15

Things could always be worse. Ptolemy, strangely, claims that Phoenicians worship Mars as “Adonis” even as the comentary of his translator makes clear that Adonis is to be identified with Phyrigian Atys and Egyptian Osiris. Adonis as an epithet like “Ba’al” could be any number of “people.” Literary readings, specifically of Shakespeare’s version of Venus and Adonis, offer to identify him with the Sun, defeated, which could be why the Crab that cuts down the Herculean SunGod is identified with the Moon, like in the Kabbalistic myth where the Moon indicates the problem in Sun and Moon sharing one crown, a criticism that leads to the weakening of the moon into cycle of wax and wane. Egyptian Osiris, alternately and meaningfully, was the Sun (Ra) when he was alive but became Saturnine and next worldly upon his castration and defeat by the trickster villainGod Set, leading to the claiming of the Sun Throne by Horus, alternatingly refered to by the Hellenists as Mars or Apollo This Osiris, you’ll recall, is identified by Heraclitis and Plutarch as identifiable with both Saturn, Hades, and Dionysus, all one “for whom they wage and wail”. The Talmud in Avodah Zara further identifies this composite Vegetation, Fertility, and Underworld deity with the Biblical Patriarch Joseph.

Mishnah: IF ONE FINDS UTENSILS UPON WHICH IS THE FIGURE OF THE SUN [or a dragon, they are prohibited].

Therefore the first and last clauses deal with the act of finding and the middle clause with the act of making!

Abaye said: That is so,

the first and last clauses deal with the act of finding

and the middle clause with the act of making.

Raba said: They all deal with the act of finding,

and as for the middle clause it is the teaching of R. Judah.

For it has been taught: '

R. Judah also includes the picture of a woman giving to suck

and Serapis.'

A woman giving to suck alludes to Eve who suckled the whole world;

Serapis alludes to Joseph who became a prince [sar]

and appeased [hefis] the whole world.

Avodah Zara 43:a

The implication here is profound: There is a difference between the one who feeds the world and the one who creates the world, the feeder being inherently more vulnerable, because he is closer to you. Friedriche Nietche identifies Prometheus with Dionysus, Sarapis and Tammuz, another face of the tragic hero, in his Birth of Tragedy. All drama and all tragedy, as well as all idealism as to the value of crime-as-liberation-as-concience are expressed through the divinity of theater. The similarity in the Joseph story in the bible is undercut by the tradition connecting Joseph’s death to the Summer Solstice, as well as his Messianic identifcation as the Hero who Appears To Die but Actually Feeds The World. The irony, biblically, is the degree to which he also innovates selling the world into slavery, for his grain, much like agriculture and intoxication make a certain sort of willing slaves out of us all.

Slaves to a good master, are his sheep, happily sacrificed as are all the innocent people killed in the background of every exciting explosive hero moment. Kurt Vonnegut in his pinnacle work Breakfast Of Champions tries to break the cycle, and set his characters (heroes?) free. It’s important to try and break a cycle, if we can. The heroes themselves want to be better, and stop all wrong from being, and for this, we the incapable appreciate them.

One ancient proto-Cinderella is the proto-Buddhist deity Kwan Yin; the poor, righteous orphan worked to death, but then sainted into immortality as the Goddess of Yin. She will not stop from her chores, so she gains the power to set anyone else free. Building merit in the Buddhist narrative comes with the promise that labors will, ultimately, be appreciated. She is the Tammuz here, except even more virtuous.

Biblical Abraham finds a way out of sacrificing child, partly by putting Bull in his place. But sacrificed the child is, the circumcision compels caution and restraint of vision and creative imposition of will. Siegfried and Sigmund, Gilgamesh and Horus are all untroubled by parent-imposed wound; on the contrary it is the Osirian Father and The Wild Man who is castrated, Votun whose spear shatters. This is what is offensive about the civil impulse of Abraham: it's a first step in what pretends to be a trustworthy, eternal stability, relatively likeable over the nightmare of Babylon and Ur. Vonnegut is in a proud tradition.

------------------ In one of the first stories published and circulated, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the sacrifice of the fallen lover of the Queen of the Dawn is noted as a model NOT to be imitated. Gilgamesh distrusts the Goddess, because her love destroyed the greatest mythic heroes. This offends her to a fairy tale degree, and he must contend with this hostility/affection. This cannot make him trust her more, but it does keep HIM from becoming a divinity, enshrined in the stars and months as the summertime moon of mourning and tears, “Tammuz”. Also known as Dumuzi “The Sheperd/The Fisherman” Superman, like Tammuz, is an often dead-and-ressurected Solar deity. He is not failed by love, or made vulnerable by either idealism or corruption-- nonetheless, he is not, and may never be, a father god. To the degree that he ever has children, he cannot raise them, an idea explored in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and in Greg Weissman's Young Justice alike, both of which treat superman as a very uncomfortable absentee father, unable to take almost any emotional or functional responsibility for the bastard children cloned from or identified with him. The best he can do is rescue and preach, but he cannot devote himself to specific children-- in 1950's superman “imaginary” apocalypse literature, being responsible for wife and child is exactly what finally cripples and destroys superman after all. It's a bit different for Batman, formed from the duality represented by his two horns. Conflicting duality, Black and white, is the very definition of Gothic. Metropolis is not, and can never be, Gotham, even in narratives as inversionary as Kingdom Come or Dark Knight Returns: Gotham is Black & White, Metropolis is gleaming bright gold and steel. And yet-- Both are New York City, just as equally. Or wherever the capitol of the world is. This is part of the absurd theatre that the city becomes. Age plus success equals implication in the eternal crimes of the city, or increasing merit in the construction of that which is beloved about it. Superman's and Spider-man's eternal youth is partially their innocence and alienation from the source of the problem. Batman is different-- he is not a solar deity except in the context of his own internal cosmology; barring that, he's as lunar as it gets. One of the main mythic responsibilities of the Moon is to literally second guess the Sun, with a question that divides the kingdom but restores wholeness and insists sensitivity to the failure of the normative order. This is the moral advantage that Batman tends to have over Superman-- although in Grant Morrison's post 52 Action Comics, this order is inverted-- with Batman being the super-mainstream expression of society's natural beneficence, and Superman as the radical socialist, come to critique and overcome the corrupt excesses of the Great City. This will not last, hardly lasting into Morrison's brief run, any more than the original populist Superman of 1938's Action Comics #1 was able to be anything other than a cheerleader for the American Way, once exposed to the wider airwaves. Superman is also categorically NOT a child, but most Superman villains for all intents and purposes are; it's the nature of tyrants. Superman's presence, and functional stasis, are in the space in between the super maturity/responsibility of a new adult, freshly but firmly out of his parent's home, but not building a life of his own. Numerous brilliant efforts at writing the story of Superman as father have been written, but none allowed to be canon. The Super child of Kingdom Come appeared once, and then becomes unavailable, the great Kurt Busiek “Birthright” treatment could only occur in distant earth prime, a reality conspicuously destroyed in the Infinite Crisis. Contrast this with Batman, who is defined by his pack of children and lovers.

The problem of lovers and sidekicks: First, it's meaningful how easy it is to confuse the two in relationship to Batman, as opposed to Superman. A lover, a ward, and a friend, all of whom can share the occasional title of “partner” if they're so graced, but generally come to play the part more of some kind of a cavalry; a children's crusade as training unit to take care of peripheral missions (which often tend to wind up being crucial situations that the kids get stuck in.) There must be a pattern, occult logic hopes, to how these peripheral helpers form naturally off the sweat of the overwhelmed human hero. First is Robin. Notably somewhat gender neutral in impression, or at least too young to feel overtly masculine, the role has been taken by a range of kids over the generations.

Two girls, four boys, not counting the myriad alternate realities, Robin is the defined First Supplement to the super-competent Batman, and traditionally, the stand in for the reader themselves. All Robins, unlike Batman himself, must be trained to some degree before the traumatic event that leads them to abandon normative childhood to become child soldier vigilantes. Compare this with the Batgirls-- similarly trained before the signal to masked vigilantism in some variety of acrobatics or combat-- in either case, it is the existence of something like a Batman that pulls these boys and girls out of the wood work to support the Batman's apparent mission. This is powerfully satirized in the film Super, where one man's psychosis, borne out of a combination of some kind of brain damage, sexual frustration, weird religious fundamentalism and exposure to pop-television, inspires him to become a ferocious vigilante, dealing out justice to anyone he witnesses offending him somehow, with his chosen weapon: a wrench. This inspires the girl who works at the comic book store to want to come along, help in whatever (violent) capacity, which can be as simple as screaming at a defeated foe, and at a crowd surrounding the action, about how fucking hot they are.

There is a similar relationship described in many astrological systems between the Sun and Mercury, described in the Talmud as “the scribe of the Sun.” ( Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 155b) The mythic relationship between Apollo and Hermes, between Horus-Ra and Thoth, between Sol and Odin all describe this similar intimacy that all have witnessed in the physical movements of the literal star Mercury (just called “Kochav” in Hebrew, literally “Star” or even “Mark”) in direct correlation with the movements of the Sun itself. The narratives that emerge to describe why and how this arrangement came to be are meaningful whenever they are. Mercury is known traditionally as the Greco-Roman tradition as the “youngest of the gods,” stealing, working, tricking and charming his way to godhood after most of the worldly and divine order are established. But when Julius Caesar and Tacitus witness the main father god of the Norse and the Celts, Odin, they readily identify him with Mercury, as do all subsequent generations of syncretists. Mercury and Thoth, the gods of intelligence and communication, who teach language to the world-- there's some mystery about how much they are the ones who initiate creation, and just stay aloof enough not to have to rule. This model goes back to African Anansi, who although the most vulnerable in most of the stories, winds up with all the stories, tricking his way to the very beginning of creation, and perhaps made the whole origin possible. Hebrew Kabbalistic tradition, relating to the biblical Seven days of creation, attributes the creation of divinities in the heavens, stars and angels alike, to the Fourth day. The original light that filled all creation from the first moment was pulled back and hidden away also smaller forces, priorities and characters would shine. Tuesday night at 6pm is already Wednsday in this model (“It was evening and it was morning the fourth day,) and so the tradition makes clear that Mercury was the first amongst the stars, before even the Sun and the Moon, although the sun and the moon are identified with the conflicting primordial masculine and feminine that divorce on the second day of creation, they come not into their minor fullness and place in the heavenly heirarchy until Mercury emerges, followed by Jupiter, and then Venus. Saturn takes it's place at the center of of the week, just as the Sabbath is the center of the weekdays, surrounded by three on each side, on the opposite end of Mercury. Theres a whole game-mystery of reverse-on-reverse, where the attributes of one is expressed only in the other, hence much of the confusion and evolution of the heavenly hierarchy-- who ever acts as if they're in charge must not be in charge, whoever acts as if they're foolish is the smartest one there is. Hence that traditional self mutilation and even partial suicide of Odin, who hangs himself and lets himself be pierced in the side in pursuit of Knowledge, also indenturing himself like biblical Jacob as a shepherd, just to learn, furiously. The fool, the child, stepping blindly, might actually have a plan all along, all the plans even. But it's not clear, because we're being tricked.

Venus, on the other hand is never tricking you-- it's your own will that compels you forwards, and hence the deep confusion about how originative she is. Greek philosophers came up with two distinct Aphrodites: one, the cosmic, celestial and originative, borne out of Uranus's castrated phallus, once it fell into the great ocean, and second, the lower earthly one, “Pandemos” identified with worldly passions, as opposed to originative cosmic yearning. The main distinction between a moon goddess and a Venus is how much they are defined by their wildness and independence vs. civilizing eroticism in the context of consortium chambers. Wonder Woman is not a Venus; she's an Artemis, a Diana. The Moon might depend on the light of the sun, but it's not trying to impress the sun, and that's the dignity of the moon vs. the intoxicating intimate irresistibility of the morning star. Every other plastic come hither is more of an Aphrodite, like Poison Ivy, Catwoman, or Vampirella.

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Speaking of the difference between Lovers and Sidekicks: Who is closer? Superman and Batman or Superman and Wonder Woman or Batman and Wonder Woman? Generally the first, as often almost the other two, especially maybe in any given future, as too many World's Finest stories are told (god forbid) and maybe one of the other two. There was some investment in a Batman/Wonder woman romance for a time, and in a Superman/Wonder woman coupling occasionally, both and either treated as almost messianic unions. The child is rarely seen, or used as more of an omen, or future narrator, because he's too perfect to fathom for long.

This dreamchild is a huge issue in comic book apocalypticism, one which, to my knowledge, is rarely translated to Cartoon or film, perhaps because it's too disturbing except for horror. It's certainly one of the stranger parts of Kubrick's 2001: A space odyssey, and it's been coming up more and more: It was the major plot development of Alan Moores LOEG 2009, as well as Jonathan Hickman's extended Fantastic Four/FF run, where the previously similar Franklin Richards, oft hinted to possess invincible power in the future, emerges as a major character, both as a divine child from the chronological present, and as the nigh-omnipotent and apparently immortal that he grows up to becomes, a god over gods, who enslaves Galactus the world eater and fixes time. His introduction and incorporation is a testament to Hickman's narrative ambition, to make the shocking future more accessible; not humanized, but appreciable. This is the aspect of the redeeming child, which is who the old testament ends with the promise of, and in at least a few French and Italian traditions, who the Tarot begins with.

Noted Kabbalist R' Nachman of Breslov tells an allegorical story once about a master of prayer whose mission is, partially, to reunite a shattered royal family, torn apart by a hurricane. Very few of the actors in this family are able to actualize their redemption and reunification except through some degree of personal expression and actualization in the context of being found by those who seek them. The child is both the oldest and the youngest, last found most central. But who is the youngest of the gods? The inevitable answer: whoever is most compelling at their root, is who is infinitely focused on in youth, specifically. This is who can be “youngest of the gods” and oldest of fathers all at once. R' Nachman tells another story, about sailors on a great ocean marooned on an Island with a great tower. On this tower they find great food and clothes stored away, and upon feasting and relaxing begin to ask each other “what's the first thing you remember?” As they begin to describe progressively more originative memories of what becomes closer and closer to the first moment, the history of expressed kabbalistic exploration is also shared, with the approach to the earliest moment of almost-existence expressing the most innovative mysticism, as well as revealing which amongst the crew is secretly the oldest of all assembled. Naturally, ironically, meaningfully, the youngest amongst them is the one with the access to the most primordial memories, and is revealed by the stories end as secretly the oldest of them all, as the assembled sailors are met by the owner of the tower, the Great Eagle, who leads them out in similar fashion to biblical Joseph's arrangement of his brothers, in age order, with the first and oldest actually being the youngest. It occurs to me something similar occurs with certain Pantheons, where Mercury or Anansi are the youngest of the gods, and secretly the originators of all language and narrative, and, as such, all existence.

The advent of graphic literature came with two directions-- the violent and the romantic. But it started with the neutral gendered Kid. The original image that first spoke with an avian fowl surprising a medium into existence was The Yellow Kid. Although satyric images hewn into stone have appeared since as long as anyone can remember, the novelty of a sequential set of images, creating a popular story medium never before quite possible in the history of graphic literature. Heralded by that bald pre-heroic central pillar of engaged, powerless but invulnerable; infant-king recurs in Windsor Mckay's dream hero Little Nemo, but survives into modern hero cartoon as Kirby-Lee's Uatu The Watcher, The Last Airbender, Mxyzptlk, and even into as a number of specifically Superman Villains, notably Mxyzptlk, Lex Luthor and especially Brainiac, who also parallels a number child-monsters spawned from science or alien world-- the borg/Trelane, V-ger, Ultron, Moondragon assorted children of heroes who were transformed by any encounter with the cosmic. What is this original kid? The first card in the Tarot, 0/Aleph, is called the fool but identified with the divine child, the youngest one in the room who still remembers further back before any one else, even though all appear older than him. It's the very first moment, that remains as innocent and entirely original and revolutionary as it did that very first moment where a stupid blind step was taken out of nothing and no where.

His manifestation as Robot-alien is profound and the ultimate terror, literally. The dynamic relationship between Hank Pym and his two robot “children” (both notably bald) is indicative of this tension: one is profoundly noble, and even humanly capable of devotion, nobility and love, and the other is heartless, monstrously devoted to the death of all flesh, with an alarming tendency towards actual genocides and atrocities-- such is the gamble of blind capricious invincibility, that something wonderful and/or something terrible might emerge. Notice the moral flexibility of the Superman villains in this model too, their tendency to incarnate as heroic occasionally, if not often, bespeaks the degree to which the chaos that Superman is reining in actually can go either way in it's selfish fervor.

The secret truth of the universe is the degree to which we'd rather not acknowledge that the hunger is our own, The great hunger consuming all is the good that surrounds, filled with an astonishing depth of emptiness within. It's tail, it's tale, is the problem of how to end a story that lives to not end: the pickle of pop narrative myth.

What is the earliest version of the end of Herakles? He never does the thing that he's ultimately prophesied to do, that is, replace the father god as Master of the Universe as Zeus did to his hungry horrible father before. Hercules ascends to heaven, and there can be no more stories about him after that-- until the Cartoon serials resurrect him into modernity. The Greeks have no Apocalypse, because their stories, like the Egyptian, Vedic, and Babylonian astro-narratives before them, aren't meant to end; and by the time they might, slipping into mediocrity (Christianity) they lose control of their essential narrative, as the Roman Book of Revelations is written from a Greek island used as a way station for exiles from Judea. The ancient Egyptian apocalypses turn quickly into creation myths, reflecting the suspicions of cosmic cyclicalism reflected by the solar voyage. The exception to this rule is the Trojan War, from whose survivors the literary Romans claim descent as elaborated (or invented?) in Virgil’s Aenid, before he dies and guides Dante through the depths, as Innana was once guided. Story endings are invitations for strangers to pick up the charachters, now literally in the public domain.

The alternative to the Apocalype/Resolution model is a beginning and and end that are ultimately relatively unrelated, i.e. an ULTIMATE end that offers no future. Many characters are born from this scenario, this moment, and then brought back into the present. The X-men are replete with such figures, notably Cable, Bishop and the Rachel Summers Phoenix, who is dragged to the end of history to become the great goddess Askani, before being brought back to youthful modern triviality. Both Cable and Rachel Summers, it must be noted, shared parents, the great noble first couple of the house of X(-men.)

So too with Hercules, Samson, and King Solomon: another Christ child made immortal by his ability to travel into the future. The Legion of Superheroes only really comes back to see one particular hero--Superman, or maybe sometimes Abe Lincoln, or Julius Caesar. Super-villains just go back for Helen of Troy. Hercules comes to New York as easily as he makes it to Hollywood. Inevitably.

Later this week: more about the Divine Julius and the Romulan/Vulcan tension, in the context of Star Trek and Old Roman Religion. Plus: Audio cast about the mystery of Enoch and Markolis (Hermes/Thoth); i.e., how and why does a person become the voice of G-d, identifiable with and representing? Only on Pop Cartoon Kabalallalalalalalalalaaaaaa!

1Kurt Busiek, as opposed to contemporary diamond age adventists like Mark Waid, Peter David and Karl Kesel, suffers on explorations of characters and concepts that are inherently peripheral. This is his genius, and perhaps his curse, an eye that gazes specifically on the pop-awesome from a certain degree of alienation and distance. This is the way he was able to partially intiate the Diamond age of late nineties integration of Silver Age awe into super-modern dark age post-modernism, without the filter of Warren Ellis's cynical cleansing cinematude.

2Dark Knight Returns, at this point in our cultural discourse, might as well be considered cannon of sorts. The pre-apocalyptic vision of an aged Batman returning, somehow not to fight “crime” but to overcome military dictatorship by rallying the gangster children of Gotham into a militia army parrallels the transition from an alienated elite mission to a genuinely populist heroism, an authentically helpful radical Batman, at last on the same page with the people he was ostensibly protecting, but generally more just keeping down. This is the only moral triumph that can ever justify a weirdo like Batman, his personal crusade against the kind of “crime” that killed his parents being naturally extended to a socially intelligent revolution that would unseat the essential alienation that IS the cause of “crimes”.

3 Babylonian Talmud, mesechta Shabbat 155b

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