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cefonteyn · 2 years

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European History and Sensibilities in 1899 season 1

Please forgive the length of this post -- I know I'm rambling, but I am so taken by the depth and brilliance of this show. For context, I'm an Indian immigrant to the United States, who studied American and European history and literature in the U.S. As you might imagine, I have many, many thoughts about 19th century European history and ideologies evident in 1899.

One of the really fascinating things to me about 1899 is how European it is -- obviously in terms of the nationalities of the actors and the characters, but also in terms of one of the show's leitmotifs: you cannot run from your station in life.

There were populist revolutions across Europe in 1848. They broadly failed, and the monarchs won. So in 1899, Europe was still a land of kaisers and czars (both words that come from Caesar, immediately locating 19th century Europe within a two-thousand year history of inherited status).

This is in direct opposition to the American myth, right? The idea that you can come from nothing and become the king of the world. That's a story Americans love to tell and hear, and when we Americans talk about European immigration in the 19th century, that's the way we tell the story. "All men are created equal," we say. This is where you're supposed to come if you're the "poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free." New York, specifically, is where Lady Liberty holds her lamp beside the golden door. (Lady Liberty is European, of course -- but she is French. France had a successful republican revolution in 1791, relapsed with a series of emperors, but by 1899 was a republic again.)

That's why the Kerberos is bound for New York, and not Buenos Aires or Sydney or Bombay. The American myth calls to all our friends on the Kerberos. The show begins with an American poet's words. Olek repeatedly looks at an image of the Statue of Liberty. Virginia explicitly says, "Everyone is running from something." They all hope to escape their pasts and begin anew in America, specifically, because of America's foundational mythos. Maura hopes to become a woman doctor. Tove hopes to lead a normal life with her baby and siblings. Iben hopes to establish a church rather than toiling in the fields.

But they never make it to New York. They've tried "dozens of times," Daniel tells Maura, but the ship never reaches its destination. Because New York isn't real. These European have no hope, ever, of successfully becoming the masks they wear. Angel says exactly this to Ramiro: "You cannot change the nature of things." Later on, it seems that he has had a change of heart, but his realization comes too late, and he's never able to act on his epiphany and become a better person.

Consider the stories of Ling Yi, Lucien, and Franz.

In the British colony of Hong Kong, Ling Yi tries to steal her way into a better life. The results are disastrous: she loses her best friend. Later, she loses her mother. Even though she acknowledges to her mother that she's not entitled to have dreams, she begins a dreamy relationship with Olek -- and then loses the boy she loves. By the end, she's lost everyone she cares about. There is nothing left of the better life she tried to steal from Mei Mei. The ship isn't real. The ocean isn't real. Even her beautiful stolen kimono is gone. The only familiar presence left in her life, the only person with whom she can communicate, is her pimp.

Like Ling Yi, Lucien tried to steal an identity. He returned to Paris from French Algeria trying to live out a dead man's life, and learned that the universe would not allow it. He accepts his death as soon as Eyk announces that he's heading for the Prometheus, and later tells Clemence, "I didn't get what I wanted. I got what I deserved." He understands his fate as almost a karmic balance. He stole a dead man's life, and now he has to die, too.

And then there's Franz. He's the "American" on board, in the sense that he does what a prototypical American would appreciate. He's clearly of a lower-class background and builds solidarity with the working class. He attempts to democratize the ship by empowering the underclass -- giving them arms. And when he feels that the ship's leader is not doing a good job, he seizes power to redirect the ship to its original course. It could almost be in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which starts by justifying the American Revolution. His actions are so very American that he could almost be heroic.

Of course, the name Franz is related to France. France gave critical support to America in its revolution. Then, as I said above, it had its own bloody revolution and deposed its king. By 1899, France was a republic. So maybe it's more accurate to say that Franz is the French revolutionary, not the American.

But either way, in 1899, he's not a hero. His coup fails. Nobody shows him any respect at all, from haughty first mate Sebastian, to dignified first-class passenger Maura, right down to humble stoker Olek. The crew that was initially on his side turns against him (before he's deactivated, Wilhelm admits that Eyk had been right all along). Even the third-class passengers Franz empowered lose respect for him by the end, when he can't explain the mysterious Calling.

So, in the second half of the show, Franz returns to his proper place: under Eyk's command. (Just like France returned to imperial rule under Napoleon, even after its revolution.) Eyk is above deck, seeking philosophical enlightenment, exploring the nature of the mystery with Maura. And Franz is lower than ever, in the lowest part of the ship, performing manual labor: shoveling coal. When the storm hits, he doesn't even know until someone comes down to tell him.

In contrast, consider Olek. He never, ever subverts his station in life. Even when he's frustrated by Eyk, he does everything the captain requests. He treats everyone with deference, not even meeting their eyes, because he understands that he's lowest ranked. Even the relationships he forges -- the friendship with stowaway Jerome and relationship with prostitute Ling Yi -- are with people in his own class/rank.

Notably, Olek is Polish. In 1899, Poland hadn't existed for over 100 years; it had been divided between the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarians, and Prussia (later the German Empire). Olek is literally nobody, from no land.

And for knowing his place in life, he is rewarded by the universe: he ends up acting in stead of the captain, steering the ship. (Brilliantly, Olek's name comes from Alexander, as in Alexander the Great. It may not be immediately apparent to people who dismiss him as a "Polack," but Olek has rich history and leadership in his name.)

And finally, there's Eyk himself. His old-fashioned name also means "ruler," from the word for oak trees under which village heads issued their rulings. And he is the definite ruler of the ship. He is imperious and stern to start, and Maura immediately recognizes from the way that he carries himself that he is the ship's captain. He knows Morse code, and how to read naval maps, and the depth of the sea. He also knows how to read his crew and order them around.

Eyk exhibits a magnetic charisma, which works on everyone. Jerome and Ramiro, who would rather have kept their heads down and stayed out of the spotlight, end up risking their lives for him. Sebastian apologizes to him before deactivating him. Even Daniel -- for whom Eyk is a romantic rival -- helps Eyk, agrees with him publicly, and eventually just moves him elsewhere rather than deactivating him.

But as events get stranger, Eyk's behavior becomes erratic. He drinks heavily on the job. He treats officers, crew, and passengers poorly. He makes an imperious decision against the wishes of every single person on board. George III lost America for the same thing. Julius Caesar died for that, and so did Louis XVI.

But the mutiny against Eyk fails. Tove, who points a rifle at Eyk and informs him that they're turning the ship around, is also the first person to defect from the mutineers. She says to him, "Du bist der Kapitan." After the Calling, everyone again acknowledges Eyk as the captain. When the crisis of the storm begins, it's Eyk they seek first, before turning to Sebastian and Franz.

The show presents this as the correct order of things. Eyk is sympathetic, intelligent, and noble, in every sense of the word. We, the audience, love him for it. Even when we sympathize with Franz, we never agree with him and turn against Eyk.

So, the first season reifies the 1899 European idea that one ought to act in accordance with one's class status. Escaping one's station in life is impossible, and attempting to do so always leads to disaster.

(Here I would be remiss not to mention the relationship to Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea that everyone's life circumstances are a reflection of their actions in their past lives, and therefore should not be avoided or changed? That's Hinduism. The idea that the universe is an illusion? It's called maya, and it's in Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea that attachment to the illusory things of maya necessarily brings suffering, that suffering distracts you from your true self as part of atman and your goal of achieving moksha -- of being blown out of existence like a candle (nirvana) -- of achieving liberation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth: all of this is in Hinduism and Buddhism. It's exactly what Daniel tries to tell Maura.

Europeans in the 19th century were familiar with these concepts. Knowledge of Hinduism and Buddhism was quite fashionable not only in Britain, but across the continent, and it remained so into the 20th century. See, e.g., Hermann Hesse's 1927 German novel Siddhartha about the Buddha, or this Polish translation of the Sanskrit Ramayana from 1937.)

Of course, European history didn't end in 1899. Major shifts were on the horizon; a century of war was about to begin, reshaping Europe's map several times. European nations bit into one another, sometimes spitting each other out, sometimes swallowing each other whole.

The British empire continued to lose its global power. World War I ended Eyk's German Empire and established the Weimar Republic, setting the stage for the Third Reich. The 1917 Revolution ended Imperial Russia and established the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Paris reestablished Olek's Poland. Civil war raged in Angel's Spain. World War II began in 1937 on the Sino-Japanese front, and Ling Yi's Hong Kong was occupied by Japan. Olek's Poland was occupied by Germany, as was Clemence, Lucien, and Jerome's France.

And then the Cold War raged. Europe was split in two. America became a superpower and spread its sensibilities across war-ravaged Western Europe, while the Soviet Union did the same in the East. Eyk's Germany was itself split.

Until, finally, came the mostly peaceful Revolutions of 1989 (the same numerals as 1899!), fulfilling the populist promise of the 1848 revolutions. Round Table Talks -- beginning in Olek's Poland -- spread capitalist democracy across Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall came down later the same year in Eyk's Germany.

(Jantje and Bo are German, too, of course. Their age and vantage point in Central Europe means they have a wonderful perspective on late 20th century European history.)

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving America as the sole world power. Obviously, Europe is not America. To this day, America is a very libertarian country, ruled by a worship of individualism and the belief that riches and success are only a reinvention away. European countries are not ruled by this same fundamental ideology.

But in the 20th century, we Americans exported (read: forced) some of ourselves across the world, including in Europe, very often in evil ways. A lot of it was horrible and self-interested. We ruined lives. We ruined generations. We ruined entire nations.

But not all of it was bad. (Black Americans invented jazz and rock and roll, after all, and it's the latter genre that plays at the end of every episode.) And one of the things we exported was our foundational myth -- our belief -- now widely accepted in many parts of the world, including modern Europe: that it is inherently right and correct that people should chart their own destinies rather than being forced into roles determined at birth.

(Not to suggest that self-determination is uniquely American. Other cultures have this belief indigenously, of course! I only mean that we exported our own version.)

At the end of the first season, we see the same people that we've gotten to know, but in a new historical context. They no longer believe that they are in 1899; now it seems they're in 2099. They're not exactly in America, but they are in the territory that America claimed to have won spiritually in 1969, in its space race with the Soviet Union. (Of course, we now acknowledge space as a place for all humans, not for any race or nationality. That kind of unity is reflected in post-WWII organizations like the United Nations...and the European Union.)

And so I wonder if the same leitmotif will play in the next step of these characters' journey, or if the next season will reflect Europe's 20th century: changing social roles. Democratization. Mass murder and genocide. Waning empires and anti-immigration sentiments. Homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and gender equality and increased LGBTQ+ rights. Socialism and austerity.

I really hope the next season embraces the next chapter in Europe's history. If so, it promises to be a very interesting season, marked with sharp internal and external conflicts and contradictions. Because, to borrow a phrase from the American poet Walt Whitman, Europe is large, it contains multitudes.

#1899 meta #1899 theories #1899 spoilers #1899 analysis #1899 netflix #1899 #sorry again about the absurd length of this post

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persephoneflowerpetals · 1 year

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So one of my Friends had this HC that what if The Big Three actually grew up together with Zeus' Foster Caretakers from the Mythos?

We all know that in Myths, Zeus was the last born to escape and was taken care by the Nymphs, Kouretes, and even breast-feeded by the She-Goat, "Amalthea".

I imagine that an alternate version where the Six Siblings actually grew up together would've been fascinating, especially on how that we would've imagine the moments where The Kids bond with their Step-Parents besides than their Biological Mother.

None of the less, do you have any headcanons you'd like to share about the Golden Age in the Hercules Universe? I'd like to hear your own thoughts/opinions on Zeus' caretakers (especially Amalthea).

Also, would it be heartwarming to imagine that whenever Hades has terrible flashbacks about the Titan War, Persephone would always be there to comfort him about his Troubled Past with his Father?

Oh wow! I actually didn’t know Zeus had foster parents! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a dummy when it comes to original Greek mythology sometimes lol.

(long rambles ahead lol)

I did find out through the Hades Challenge PC game that Zeus was raised in Crete (it was one of the little trivia questions Hades asks in the game lol), so I guess that makes sense lol!

Honestly, my whole headcanon/theory I guess for the “Golden Age” of Greece is that (of course) Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades were all born from Rhea and Kronos on the island of Crete. Back then, the world was run by the titans, some were good and some were bad. There were some Olympians that existed as well during this era like Demeter, Hermes, Athena, and Ares (and more of course). The three brothers had a pretty decent childhood and got along with each other (for the most part). They had a great relationship with their mother who loved them with all her heart, but their father was mean and cruel to them, so to protect them from their father’s wrath, Rhea sent her sons away to be raised by nymphs. The boys really missed their mother, though, and wished to stay with her forever.

One day, Kronos decided to start a war against the Olympians and the titans after learning about a prophecy that one of his sons would defeat him and the Olympians would rule. Kronos then kidnapped his two youngest sons (Poseidon and Hades) and swallowed them. Zeus and Rhea found out about this and made a plan to rescue Poseidon and Hades. Rhea would then trick Kronos into eating a rock, claiming it was Zeus. Zeus then leaped into action and defeated his father and rescued his little brothers. Kronos ended up coughing up the rock and placed a curse upon it, so if any Olympian ever looked at the rock they would fall into a deep sleep, but the rock was lost and forgotten for ages. Zeus and Poseidon (and possibly Hades, though, I doubt it because Hades seemed to be in good terms with the titans in the movie) worked together to take down the rest of the unruly titans and locked them away under the sea. For his heroic efforts of saving the cosmos, Zeus became a god and the new ruler of the universe. Rhea decided to become a guardian of the universe and watch over it so it wouldn’t end up the way it was when Kronos ruled. Zeus then created Olympus and granted all Olympians a role as a god and gifted his younger brothers their own realms to rule over, Poseidon: the sea and Hades: the underworld. Hades, of course, wasn’t happy about his new role as a god and to make matters worse, Zeus then commanded that their father, Kronos (as well as some other unruly titans), be sentenced to live in the underworld for the rest of eternity as punishment.

Eventually, Prometheus and Epimetheus (good titans) were given the task of creating mortals and animals with the help of Athena (who was given a city-state that became the capital of Greece: Athens, while her brother was granted his own land: Sparta). Mortals didn’t have much down on Earth though, so Prometheus sneaked up to Olympus and stole fire (which was only used by the gods) and gave it to the mortals and well…we all know what happened after that.

But yeah, that’s pretty much my “Golden Era” theory/story for the Hercules universe lol! I’ll give you a few headcanons about the Big Three when they were kids!

Zeus was the most popular of the three and had the most friends.

Zeus was the first one to discover Amalthea and make her their pet goat

Poseidon and Hades looked “normal” as kids, but after they became gods of their domain, their realms started to change their physical appearance over time.

Hades was actually pretty soft as a kid, but his personality toughened up as he got older.

Poseidon’s favorite activity was swimming when he was younger, but Hades wasn’t too fond of it and preferred playing on land.

Oh and yes! Persephone ABSOLUTELY comforts Hades when he has flashbacks about his father. It’s so freaking sweet lol! They usually come in night terrors and he either wakes up in the middle of the night panting and sweating or he’s tossing and turning and making noises in his sleep. Either way, Persephone wakes up with him and comforts him until they fall back asleep. He gets kinda embarrassed about having the nightmares at first because he didn’t want Persephone thinking he was some wimpy, pathetic god that’s afraid of his own father, but Persephone reassured him instantly that he had nothing to be embarrassed about and his feelings were absolutely valid, so from then on he was much more comfortable talking to her about it. Some nights when he struggles to fall back asleep after his night terrors (when Persephone is not around) he’ll drink a cup of hot tea or coffee (caffeinated, of course, because Hades is well known for hating decaf lol) and basically stay up until morning (of course, he’s much more irritable on those days because he didn’t get much sleep). But yeah, he does his best not to think about his dad or talk about him because it brings up bad memories of his childhood and the day he was nearly killed by his own father.

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freakin-edikan · 3 years

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Actually I have something to say about the proliferation of hyperspecific pride flags, labels, and identities specifically in online black communities: Stop taking random West African goddesses you think are cool and slapping -ian at the end to make the 17,693rd version of sapphic! Stop it!!!! At the risk of starting a diaspora war, kindly, cut it out.

For one, linguistically I’m sure none of these words actually make sense. -ian/an/ean, -ic/ique, and other suffixes like this are Latin. And they’re being applied to languages that are very not Latin. If the point was to avoid Greek/Latin you messed up right there on square one: trying to fuse words from a different language family into English. Because these are never languages the coiners speak or cultures they practice, this happens all. The time.

For two, idk about Y’ALL but for ME personalmente, I am averse to using labels and flags based on the practices of ethnic groups I’m not a part of. I’m not Yoruba, I’m not Akan, so I’m not gonna use labels based on Yoruba or Akan traditions.

Whether or not there is a label for black LGBT ppl that is based on a mythos I recognize, though, is beside the point. Just West Africa is a large place consisting of thousands of ethnic groups with their own histories, cultures, languages, and communities. How are you gonna take one (1) deity from one (1) religion and extrapolate it to all black people? You can’t, you shouldn’t, and idk why people on Twitter keep trying. Way to flatten an entire region of a continent before even getting to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

To be clear, I have no issue with Black Americans taking from different aspects of different African cultures and languages, but the recent phenomenon I’ve noticed of an Internet user making a black-only version of [x] LGBT identity with a label from an African god/spirit and its own flag is not allowing these identities to form organically, based on the time period and space the people coining it occupy. It’s just an African twist on a preexisting white-dominated framework: label + horizontal-striped flag with hamfisted color meanings.

If we want to make space for ourselves in a movement dominated by whiteness, I don’t think it’s useful for us to use an individualistic framework sold to us by white capitalism. Political and organizing symbols are supposed to be uniting, easily recognizable, and easy to reproduce. They form based on community ideals and are iterative. The rainbow flag, for example, despite “technically” being a “poorly designed flag” (too many colors, they say) works because the rainbow is easily and near-universally recognizable by people, and it was iterated upon not only by Gilbert Baker, but by other LGBT community leaders, members, and organizers. Notice how there are different variants on the Rainbow flag, how it can be combined with other symbols to represent new things, how it can merge with other communities to symbolize solidarity, and how there is room for the diversity of the LGBT experience within it. That’s not something a flag *only* for black lesbians or black gay men or black bisexuals or black trans people can accomplish.

There is room to criticize the whiteness of the LGBT movement, but to section ourselves off is counterproductive, I think, because when we continually remove ourselves from these spaces, we in turn fail to challenge the white people on their racism and their antiblackness. In order for us to enact change we ought to be visible. Otherwise, they won’t even register if we left. Yes, we can mobilize the black people marginalized within the LGBT movement. No, I don’t think claiming any West African god as the patron of all black LGBT people is going to help us do that more easily.

Although, it is empowering to take African gods and affiliate them with black LGBT people under homophobic post-colonial African society. But that’s a different conversation and most of the time the people coining these terms are not living in Africa.

Nonblacks do not interact with this post.

#black lgbt #nonblacks dni

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darkqueenofshadows85 · 3 years

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More like this:

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chaos-of-the-abyss · 4 years

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Daenerys Targaryen & Varda Elentári

This post is more for my own pleasure than anything, as someone who loves both Dany and Varda. It basically sums up the similarities and/or parallels that I see between the two characters. Anyone else who has anything to add is free to do so.

[Source]

Known as the Queen of the Stars and the Star-Kindler, among other titles, Varda is the queen of all of Arda, a planet of the universe Eä created by Eru, the Creator and All-Father, which the Valar and many of the Ainur inhabit. She is the wife of Manwë and considered one of the most powerful beings in the entirety of the Tolkien universe. Varda is intensely beloved by the elves especially due to the fact that she created the stars. It’s said that she’s so beautiful that she can’t be described in words, and that the light of Eru shines from her face.

Not much is known about Varda personally, as the direct appearances that she makes in Tolkien’s works are few. Off the top of my head, I can only recall her being mentioned in person in The Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. In all other instances, she is only prayed to, but one can get a pretty good understanding of just how revered she is.

The following is a Sindarin poem directed to Varda, A Elbereth Gilthoniel, by the elves, which they were heard by Frodo saying as they departed to the Undying lands.

Snow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear! O Queen beyond the Western Seas! O Light to us that wander here Amid the world of woven trees!

Gilthoniel! O Elbereth! Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath! Snow-white! Snow-white! We sing to thee In a far land beyond the Sea.

O stars that in the Sunless Year With shining hand by her were sawn, In windy fields now bright and clear We see your silver blossom blown!

O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! We still remember, we who dwell In this far land beneath the trees, Thy starlight on the Western Seas.

—The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

With a basic idea of who Varda is, let’s get into the similarities between the two. Some of these are likely just a coincidence, but I find it fun to explore anyway.

Beautiful

This one is the shallowest, and the easiest to draw comparisons when it comes to the two characters. Varda is said to be unbelievably beautiful:

With Manwë dwells Varda, Lady of the Stars, who knows all the regions of Eä. Too great is her beauty to be declared in the words of Men or of Elves; for the light of Ilúvatar lives still in her face.

—The Silmarillion, Valaquenta

Dany, too, is extremely beautiful, described as some to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

Her silver shied as the merchant prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos rode up to her; the horses could not abide the close presence of camels, she had found. "If you see here anything that you would desire, O most beautiful of women, you have only to speak and it is yours," Xaro called down from his ornate horned saddle.

—A Clash of Kings, Daenerys II

The most beautiful woman in the world, thought Quentyn. My bride-to-be, if the gods are good. Sometimes at night he lay awake imagining her face and form, and wondering why such a woman would ever want to marry him, of all the princes in the world. I am Dorne, he told himself. She will want Dorne.

—A Dance with Dragons, The Merchant’s Man

Granted, many times, people are trying to flatter Daenerys when calling her that. Nevertheless, Valyrians are known for their otherworldly beauty, and Dany is also undoubtedly beautiful.

Good judges of character

I can confidently say that Varda is also probably quite a good judge of character. Before any of the other Ainur, she was able to see the darkness of Melkor, a Satan-like figure in the Tolkien mythos who was once the most powerful Vala but rebelled against Eru out of pride and became Morgoth. Thus, Varda distrusted Melkor, rejected an offer that he made to her, and Melkor was said to see her as his greatest rival.

Out of the deeps of Eä she came to the aid of Manwë; for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her, and feared her more than all others whom Eru made.

—The Silmarillion, Valaquenta

This is pretty impressive, considering that it’s possible that at the time referenced, when Varda “knew” Melkor, even Melkor didn’t know that he was heading down a path of evil. Yet Varda could see the darkness inside him. Besides, Melkor is said to be very good at deception, so the fact that Varda could see through this is a testament to her skill in gauging other people.

Dany is also a good judge of character. At just thirteen, she’s able to see through much of Illyrio’s flattery and lies when her significantly older brother Viserys was unable to:

"They are your people, and they love you well," Magister Illyrio said amiably. "In holdfasts all across the realm, men lift secret toasts to your health while women sew dragon banners and hide them against the day of your return from across the water." He gave a massive shrug. "Or so my agents tell me."

Dany had no agents, no way of knowing what anyone was doing or thinking across the narrow sea, but she mistrusted Illyrio's sweet words as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio. Her brother was nodding eagerly, however. "I shall kill the Usurper myself," he promised, who had never killed anyone, "as he killed my brother Rhaegar. And Lannister too, the Kingslayer, for what he did to my father."

—A Game of Thrones, Daenerys I

She’s also aware that people are much more treacherous than depicted in the books she reads:

"I'm cold," Dany lied. "Bring me the book I was reading last night." She wanted to lose herself in the words, in other times and other places. The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children's stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history. All the heroes were tall and handsome, and you could tell the traitors by their shifty eyes. Yet she loved them all the same. Last night she had been reading of the three princesses in the red tower, locked away by the king for the crime of being beautiful.

—A Storm of Swords, Daenerys VI

Opposition to evil

Significantly, Varda’s realm of power is the light:

—The Silmarillion, Valaquenta

Other titles for Varda, besides Queen of the Stars, include Snow-White, Lady of the Stars, and Star-Kindler. There’s an obvious association with light here, especially because stars are the most beloved form of light by the elves, not to mention the earliest sources of light in Arda.

Melkor, meanwhile, being the overarching villain of the entire Tolkien universe, is associated heavily with darkness.

Last of all is set the name of Melkor, He who arises in Might. But that name he has forfeited; and the Noldor, who among the Elves suffered most from his malice, will not utter it, and they name him Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of the World.

—The Silmarillion, Valaquenta

Other titles for Melkor include The Black Foe, The Corrupter, The Marrer, The First Dark Lord, and Lord of the Dark. It’s pretty glaringly obvious how strongly Tolkien meant for us to picture him as being the embodiment of darkness.

This places the quite literally brilliant Varda in direct opposition with him in terms of their elements. In other words, she is heavily associated with and symbolizes something that is the very antithesis of everything the main evil of Tolkien’s works is associated with.

Just like Varda is heavily associated with light, Dany is heavily associated with fire. It is the element of her house, but beyond that, it’s a personal element for her.

They filled her bath with hot water brought up from the kitchen and scented it with fragrant oils. The girl pulled the rough cotton tunic over Dany's head and helped her into the tub. The water was scalding hot, but Daenerys did not flinch or cry out. She liked the heat. It made her feel clean. Besides, her brother had often told her that it was never too hot for a Targaryen. "Ours is the house of the dragon," he would say. "The fire is in our blood."

—A Game of Thrones, Daenerys I

No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don't you see? Don't you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her. Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children.

—A Game of Thrones, Daenerys X

Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. "Mother!" they cried. "Mother, mother!" They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them...

—A Clash of Kings, Daenerys IV

Especially in the above quote, Daenerys is the embodiment of the fire, as acknowledged when she gives “herself” to the slaves that need “the fire”. In addition, fire as life is an ongoing theme in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s shown above in the quote by “the fire, the life”. And the force in direct opposition to the fire is the ice, the cold, the death, which also stands for the undead, who are the main antagonists of the series.

The real enemy is the cold.

—A Game of Thrones, Prologue

Similarly to how Varda, light, symbolically stands in opposition to Melkor, darkness, Daenerys stands in opposition to the Others, death, thanks to her association with fire, life. Their positions as important, central figures of goodness and hope are expressed through their association to certain elements which contrasts them directly with the elements that the great evils of their respective series are associated with.

#daenerys targaryen #varda elentári #asoiaf meta #tolkien meta #a song of ice and fire #tolkien #tolkien and asoiaf parallels #asoiaf quotes #tolkien quotes #my asoiaf meta #my tolkien meta

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multi-fandom-nutjob · 5 years

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10(ish) Characters I want in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga! (and not as DLC)

So yeah. They’re remaking one of the greatest games I grew up with and it’s coming out in like a year. Well, not remaking, so much as going back to the drawing board and rebuilding it from scratch! Which is awesome!

But from what I’ve seen, there isn’t much buzz about this on Tumblr, so imma make a post and see if it gets any traction.

(((((No Legends characters will be mentioned, since I didn’t think they’d make it because of the Mouse.)))))

1. Ahsoka Tano (S1-3, S3-5, Rebels, Rebels Finale, S7)

Ahsoka is straight up tied with Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi for my favorite characters in the entire franchise! Not only that, but she was in LEGO Star Wars 3 as one of the major recurring playable characters and in LEGO Star Wars TFA as DLC, but only in the Rebels form.

Now, the definitively preferred outcome is for all five versions I mentioned to be unlockable, but from what I’ve heard, the Extended Universe isn’t getting much rep in the game, so she might get relegated to DLC. This would be pretty sad, especially since LEGO Star Wars 3 never went past Season 2 of the show, when it honestly got so much better.

Not only that, but each version of Ahsoka would bring something new to the Jedi gameplay. One of my biggest criticisms of the Complete Saga was that most of the Jedi played the same, so there wasn’t any incentive to play as them over the Sith. Ahsoka’s lightsaber style, however, could prove to diversify the combat greatly.

2. Asajj Ventress (2D, TCW, Bounty Hunter)

Asajj Ventress is an absolute queen! Among the Seperatists, she ends up being a scalpel amongst hammers. Because of Prequel Rep, we know Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and General Grievous will get their just dues, but Ventress’s fate is a lot more uncertain.

The biggest obstacle in her way might be whether it comes down to her or Savage Oppress, and ultimately, I would much rather have Ventress than Savage! Don’t get me wrong, Savage is great too, but with the inclusion of Maul, we already have a Double-Lightsaber wielding Nightbrother on the roster. They could certainly have different styles to it, with Maul’s acrobatics compared to Savage’s brute force, but I’m not certain TT Games will go that far. Ventress’s dual wielding would force some creativity to come through.

Ventress is also, frankly, a more fleshed out and entertaining character to add to the roster. Her inclusion could a lot of fun banter in all the action.

3. Wampa (Empire Strikes Back)

The Wampa was intended to be a playable character in both LEGO Star Wars 2 AND the Complete Saga. I’d say the big guy’s debut beyond a cutscene is long overdue!

Some might argue that he’s too big and too one-note to add anything to the gameplay. I’d argue, however, that the Wampa could play very similar to the big, beefy character in the LEGO Marvel and DC games, slamming into the ground and charging at opponents. In a game full of force-sensitives and bounty hunters, a wall of muscle would definitely be unique!

4. Yaddle (Prequels(I wanna say Phantom Menace?))

Do you know who’s cooler than Yoda? The mom of Baby Yoda, that’s who! Yaddle is one of those weird additions to the Star Wars Mythos that came back in a big way with the Mandalorian. While it isn’t exactly confirmed who Baby Yoda’s parents are.... c’mon, we all know.

Not to mention, Yaddle is one of the very, very, very few character in Legends and Canon to have an orange lightsaber, which would be really cool to see in gameplay. Sure, you can just make an orange lightsaber for your Custom Character, but isn’t it cooler to have a character on the regular roster with one?

5. Rey (Yellow Blade) (TRoS)

(((Sorry, that was the only pic I could find and it was too funny not to use)))

Speaking of oddly colored lightsabers, Rey finally made her own lightsaber in the last two minutes of RoS and it needs to be in the game! Honestly, I’ve been wanting Rey to make her own blade since she reached out to Luke at the end of TFA. She never got the chance to really develop her own style whenever she just used the “Legacy Blade” as I’ve called it. They desperately need to make this an unlockable in the game and not DLC.

(And was it just me, or did it really look like it was double-bladed from how the bottom looked?)

6. The Inquisitors (any of them) (Rebels, Fallen Order)

Okay, so, truth be told, I kind of hate these characters. Like, really hate these characters. The Grand Inquisitor and the Second Sister were the only ones that ever narratively struck a chord with me, and that was really only even in backstory. As actual antagonists, they’re all on par with Team Rocket in terms of threat and are far less endearing...

Hence why they’d be perfect in a LEGO game!! With a more comedic tone overall, the Inquisitors would fit right at home! Heck, mixing the lightsaber combat generally exclusive to Sith with characters only able to do Jedi Force Powers would make for an interesting dynamic.

Plus, the “helicopter-blades” as they tend to be called would honestly kinda work in a LEGO game? Sort of? Like, it’s stupid-looking, but we know it’s stupid looking, and it would help a lot with getting over huge pits and that sort of thing(like Artoo!). So there could be some precidence for them, so long as they were used right.

7. Ovissian Gunner (Battlefront 2... 2)

Just... just look at this doofus! He’s high as a kite and he’s packing a mini-gun! I don’t even play Battlefront 2 and I love him so much. I would take him home and introduce him to my parents. I would treat him right because he deserves the Galaxy. And he deserves to be in this game!

8. Kirak Infil’a (Darth Vader comics)

Ever wondered where Vader got the Kyber Crystal for his new lightsaber? He killed this guy and corrupted his Kyber Crystal to do it, and kept the same hilt for a long while before he rebuilt it to be what it was in the Original Trilogy.

As one of the few Disney Canon characters added to the Prequel Era, I’d say this guy has earned his stay in the new game, especially since I had to keep Legends characters off the list(((for unfortunate reasons))).

Not only that, but he kicked Vader’s ass for a good bit before dying, so having a badass grandpa who left the Jedi Order like Ahsoka on the roster would be fun!

9. Cal Kestis (Fallen Order)

I mentioned him before, but this guy and the Ovissian Gunner are the only two characters on the list with Video Game origins, which I think would be fun to explore in arguably the most famous video game series for the franchise!

Not only that, but he’s the only Jedi(besides this one jackass in the Clone Wars) that has a double-bladed lightsaber, which he can also detach into dual wielding blades! That alone brings merit to him being on the list, but the fact that the player can decide the color of the lightsaber in the game also poses an interesting concept I’d like to see them implement! That idea being, that every time you reignite his blades, it randomly slides between all the Custom Character options besides Red. Either that or it goes in a specific pattern, of course.

((And is it just me, or is his name very suspiciously close to that Kyle Katern guy from Jedi Knight II: Outcast?))

10. The Mandalorian (not gonna spoil his actual name)

You’ve gotta admit, Mando and Baby Yoda took the world by storm when they first premiered. One of their main creators was Dave Filoni, the same guy who directed The Clone Wars and Rebels! I think, from his help with the franchise to the overabundant success of the show, that Mando ought to be put in the base game as an unlockable(maybe as a sort of 100% completion reward?).

Not only would that just be great for the fans, but he’d be tons of fun to play as as well! His evaporating rifle and underhanded fighting style would be tons of fun to play as, and a character who passively deflects blaster fire would add a whole new dynamic to the roster, though he’d have to take damage to lightsabers to not be completely broken.

I can’t fucking believe I forgot Leia with her lightsaber!!!

Do i expect these characters to all make it into the game? Hardly. If even three make it in, you can call me impressed. But you can’t tell me that these ten wouldn’t be a ton of fun in a LEGO game!

#lego star wars #star wars #lego star wars the skywalker saga #ahsoka tano #asajj ventress #inquisitor #the mandalorian #yaddle #cal kestis #wampa #rey of jakku

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adreemurrcalledkris-blog · 5 years

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(((Blog going under stasis.)))

I’ve made the decision that I can no longer RP here in this blog’s current state.

Because the canon of Deltarune is so vague, and we are unsure of so much going on in that universe, I believe that rping a character from the canon is too much of a shot in the dark.

Yes, we have indicators as to what Kris is really like, but that’s all they are. Indicators. It’s possible that much like Frisk and Chara before them, Kris won’t ever amount to having much of a personality outside of a few select, distinct characteristics, and for some RPers, canon is not much of a concern, I myself am canon divergent as it is.

However, if I’m going to RP a canon character, I want to make sure I AM rping the character I’m choosing to write for, regardless of whether it completely fits the bill or not, the boot still needs to fit just a little bit, and with the unsureness of what the future will hold for Deltarune or the general Undertale-Deltarune mythos, especially in terms of the character and general development of Kris, I don’t think it’s worth trying to continue trying to understand a character who may turn out completely different in the end.

This is where things get complicated, though.

Because I just don’t know, Kris may actually turn out to be like how I envision them, or maybe they won’t, and that vagueness frightens me. I’ve done this song and dance before with another roleplay blog in which the canon heavily shifted and presented a lot of change I wasn’t ready to make, and I ended up rewriting the character completely and am still struggling to find a proper niche for them.

Besides this, I’ve lost a lot of drive to write for Kris as a character, in part because I feel like I can’t truly understand them, or I’m rping them the wrong way. I’ve made strives TO understand them, but there’s a lot that’s still very contrary. I was very excited about Deltarune when it first came out, and I thought for sure that because it would be released in chapters, I would stay excited about Kris for lengthy periods of time and would persist in the face of doubt, but it seems that it’s had the opposite effect on me instead.

To add, there has been a lot going on in my life, College life is very stressful and is very demanding, on top of some recent tragedies I’d rather not publicly discuss. I feel that I can write just fine, but I don’t want Kris to be the thing I dedicate myself to when at any given moment, the canon could take a complete U-Turn and trash every headcanon and bit of lore I have for Deltarune.

Thusly, I believe the best decision is to step away from Kris’s blog for the time being, and see where Deltarune ends up going and what Kris turns out to be.

I don’t want to step away from Kris completely, but when the time comes for Chapter 2 or any subsequent chapters, I may make radical changes to them.

As such with any hiatus, all current ‘threads’ are dropped. Not that I think I was running any anyway with all this shit going on.

I’m sorry for any disappointment

- Mod Jenny

If you still want/need to get in touch with me I’ll be on my personal blog ( @jenikku ). It’s possible I may open a blog for a different character.

#Out of HP (Mun);

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dcarsi-95 · 3 years

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My Mythos

Okay, this has kinda taken me a while, but here are some of the mythos I’d thought up, and for those who aren’t yet familiar with me coming up with some mythos of my own, you can refer back to this old post.

I’ll start with what I’ve come to term as the ‘Beyonders’ in substitution for ‘External Ones’ — hope that’s a tad more original.

First up is Urrthrall-Mothrama, basically a black cloud sprouting pincer-tipped tendrils, eyes, and a serrated beak, at least that’s how I first pictured him, but his form can have a plasticity, depending on who views him; sometimes his beak is more like the mouthparts of some monstrous insect, sometimes it’s more like what Helicoprion’s jaws were once thought to look like, sometimes it’s just a barbed tendril, and in other cases it may even resemble a tapir’s snout, but with sharp teeth at the end. He is also able to make himself resemble a spider when manifesting in a physical universe, or even as a cluster of eyeballs or beaked blobs, as shown below.

Otherwise intended to be the kraken of the metaphysical macrocosm beyond space and time that he inhabits, I imagine him to be a rather malevolent deity with a personality similar to that of Nyarlathotep.

Next, we have what is universally known as ‘The Green Phosphorescence’, though I’ve been thinking of also giving it an actual name like ‘Sklatumia’ or ‘Sklatumio-Rsh’. The idea for this deity sorta came to me while listening to the song ‘Colour Me Green’ by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, but I think it also draws some inspiration from Tulzscha the Green Flame, which I believe I first learned about from this Lovecraft Mythos Bestiary I found a long time ago.

Haven’t really thought out much on this one’s personality, but I pictured that it’s the parent of the Primal Titan Zug-Ya, a crocodilian demi-god who was, for lack of a better word, “parasitized” by some of Sklatumia’s essence in prehistoric times; might also have a brother/sibling called ‘The Purple Sound’.

Then there’s Ulloth-Shaggath. Not much to her design, I guess, besides mostly just being an ever-stretching, gelatinous, green tube lined with circular rows of skulls, but this is mostly what just popped into my head a while ago while trying to brainstorm for eldritch abominations. In terms of her character, though, I’ve kinda pictured her being time itself, or at least the temporal continuum of our universe, with each skull along her length embodying all of space itself at a certain instant in time. I’ve also pictured that the skulls on closer inspection are actually turtle-like entities that support all of space on their backs, sorta drawing inspiration from the turtle god Maturin of Stephen King’s work and from the mythological World Turtle that probably also inspired Maturin’s creation.

Alternatively, I’ve considered simply making Ulloth-Shaggath a psychopomp of sorts who collects the souls of the deceased and adds them to her own being. Personally, I’m more fond of the former option where she is the embodiment of time, but what do you guys think? What’s your opinion?

This here is probably just another one of Urrthrall-Mothrama’s physical manifestations, or it might be one of Ulloth-Shaggath’s; not quite sure. What do you guys think?

Moving on to the Primal Titans, we have below Kalath-Koth, or Kaia-Kamang; I haven’t really decided between the two yet.

Don’t know too much about their character yet, but you’ve probably noticed that their design draws some inspiration off some depictions of Nyarlathotep, what with the hood-obscured features and everything. Also figured that they can take the form of a mysterious hooded person when interacting with humans, or other beings of the physical world.

Then there’s this guy, for whom I haven’t thought of a name yet, nor have figured out much on its character, but it was inspired by something I once saw in a dream, and I decided that it might make a neat character for my mythos.

Borrowing a little inspiration from the 2019 movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this guy here was basically supposed to be a Lovecraftian take on King Ghidorah, but also owes some heavy inspiration design-wise from an art piece done by John Kenn; real fascinating, as well as creepy, work. I imagined it to be a colonial super-organism composed of specialized polyp zooids born from a queen polyp creature who spawns different zooids that each have their unique function and can combine in any combination of parts to produce a variety of super-organisms. As to its history, I still need to figure that out. I’ve also considered making the ‘heads’ more polyp-like, but what do you guys think?

Next we have this sphinx-like creature, for whose design (in the case of the central one, at least) I’d borrowed some inspiration from some creations or interpretations made by Michael Bukowski, such as this “Hideous Prehistoric Beast” and his interpretation of a Saturnian cat. Flanking it are either a couple of alternative designs for it or lower castes of lesser sphinxes subordinate to it, with the one on the lefthand side inspired off of this “Dweller” and the righthand side one inspired by the bust of an unused Demigorgon concept art, but given a different body, as that was the body I had originally pictured for the aforementioned bust when I first saw it before seeing the rest of the body. Also, the yellowish disk on the central figure’s chest is supposed to be some sort of compound eye with four lenses, each one for taking in light at different wavelengths; the magenta one takes in red and blue light, the yellow one takes in red and green light, the cyan one takes green and blue light, and the black one in the center takes in all three wavelengths.

Still haven’t really planned out much yet what the sphinx-creature’s history is or where it came from, but kinda got the idea for it from H. P. Lovecraft’s short story Under the Pyramids, or Imprisoned/Entombed with the Pharaohs, as it is alternatively known as (don’t really know which version of the title is most familiar with most H. P. Lovecraft fans), and figured it’ll likely be some Cthulhu-esque deity to some group/cult/society in some short story I might write.

Now this one here I’d gotten the idea for after having listened to the audio in this section of a video I found on YouTube; those slobbish sounds had given me an idea for a story about a flabby, bloated, frog-like monster in the dank, flooded cellar of some abandoned gothic castle, and I thus came up with this guy here. I also have a few alternative versions below.

I think this one looks a bit more slobbish.

This one might be a completely separate character of its own, or maybe not.

Here I switched the positioning of the eyes and mouth(s) — the mouths even have smaller mouths inside.

This one, of course, borrows some pretty heavy inspiration from Stephen King’s IT in that it’s basically a giant spider-like creature from outer space with malevolent intents upon humanity after having recently awoken from an eons-long dormancy, but I’ve given this one a more Cthulhu-esque take on it in that that it had come to Earth many millions of years ago in effort to colonize and people it with its legion spawn, only to fall dormant for many eons after a most cataclysmic event (which I imagine involves the continent they settled on being subducted under the Pacific coast of the North American tectonic plate), but intends to displace humanity as the dominant species on the planet and either outright completely eradicate humanity or utilize it as a food source.

Also, aside from a mostly spider-like design, I also wanted it to resemble a beached octopus, a tarantula, and—in some instances—a centipede at the same time, though I haven’t really added the centipede part ^^;, as well as throw in a bit of moth and bat into the mix; I wanted it to throw an uncanny reminiscence of ‘cute and cuddly’ while at the same time still also looking creepy and threatening — probably succeeded more on the ‘creepy and threatening’ vibe, though.

A couple of other Primal Titans whom I haven’t drawn yet are aforementioned Zug-Ya, whom I’d already mentioned earlier, being the “semi-divine” product of Sklatumio-Rsh The Green Phosphorescence and proclaimed protectorate and “Mother” of all crocodilians. She kinda draws some heavy inspiration from Yig, Father of Serpents, but the idea of her first came to me one day when imagining a story in which two treasure-hunters raid the temple of some crocodilian deity and subsequently receive a curse from it in which one of them turns into a crocodile. Haven’t made an illustration for Zug-Ya yet because I’m still trying to figure out her design, though I figured it’s obviously going to be a lovecraftified version of a crocodile — might try to take some inspiration from the Aztec deity Cipactli, which is depicted to have mouths where the joints of its limbs should be, which sounds pretty lovecraftian to me; I’ll later try to work on some design options…

Then there’s Ouroboros, a gargantuan sea dragon who rests at the bottom of the sea and encircles the entire Earth, and is probably what inspired mythological giant serpents like the World Serpent Jörmungandr of Norse mythology and Anata Shesha of Hinduism; I should also note that SCP-3000, who also goes by the name of Anatashesha, is what leant some heavy inspiration for this Primal Titan.

Ouroboros is a sea dragon “knighted” by the higher gods and thus serves as their high priest to all dragon-kind, or at least the sea dragons, but is probably still highly revered by other dragon varieties

Moving on to the ‘Many-Angled Ones’ or ‘In-Betweeners’ if the latter is less of a copyright infringement off Marvel’s Many-Angled Ones, I’ve only got a couple of ideas for now, starting with one whom I’ve had the idea for quite a while ago: Ulth-Nibagua

Now, I haven’t really made a picture for Ulth-Nibagua, but in essence, she manifests in our three-dimensional universe as a network of fleshy corridors and chambers, usually manifesting beneath cemeteries and burial grounds, and it is in these chambers that the undead make their homes upon burrowing down from their coffins, drawing nourishment from the flesh lining their living quarters. If one takes the right sort of turns through these corridors, they can also find themselves in an alternate Earth on another brane, as Ulth-Nibagua connects different branes together; please see my earlier post on branes and parallel worlds for reference.

So, basically, Ulth-Nibagua’s an inter-dimensional sarlacc who houses the undead and whom one can use as a portal to alternate Earths. I’d drawn a lot of inspiration for it off of the Mystery Flesh Pit and the “flesh interfaces” featured in the works of Mother Horse Eyes, both of which I learned about from a Youtube user by the name of azfk who posts these wacky, freaky videos on various topics which has given me some inspiration for some Creepypasta-esque stories, and I would recommend checking out these videos and subscribing to him if anyone here’s into that stuff.

Speaking of the works of Mother Horse Eyes, here a few alien designs I also came up with.

Here’s an alternative version that I hope looks less like…well…a certain female part…

Haven’t really figured out yet what’s the full scope of these aliens, but I’ve kinda had the idea that they may play a role similar the Elder Things from Lovecraft’s From the Mountains of Madness in that they came to ancient Earth in its early infancy and may or may not have had some sort of Promethean hand in the origin of life on it, or they may simply just be agent’s spawn of Ulloth-Shaggath; still haven’t really decided, but it’ll probably be the latter options, but I’m open to any differing suggestions any of you guys might have.

Returning to the topic of the “In-Betweeners,” here’s another one.

Based loosely from the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, this one was intended for a story series in which a girl somehow blunders her way into an alternate Earth in some alternate dimension which is populated by creatures loosely based off of those in the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, especially the poem Jabberwocky, and this story I will later elaborate on in a future post.

Now, this character here, being listed as an In-Betweener is hyperdimensional lifeform who often tends to manifest in three-dimensional space as a mouth, a pair of eyes, hands, feet, and sometimes even ears, and this mouth—as already stated in the diagram—can coil into any shape he chooses, and can sometimes even make a flying carpet out of his mouth. Sometimes, he even manifests as seemingly disembodied facial features, such as a grinning mouth, which can widen and curve back on itself to the point that the upper jaw can pop off from the lower one like the lid of a jar (an idea I got from this comic here by scythemantis; couldn’t locate it on his deviantart page, though), suspended at the end of a stalk, similar to the head of the Harlequin Demon from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The inside of his mouth can also serve as an inter-/transdimensional portal through which one could jump through to enter another dimension, but it’s highly suggested to close your eyes when jumping into the portal, as viewing the interdimensional nexus within could drive lower-dimensional beings mad.

I might also introduce him in other story ideas I have, but that’s all something I’ll expand more on in future posts.

So, that’s an introduction of some of my mythos, and if I come up with some more, I’ll post them in future posts. Feel free to comment your thoughts on the ones I have so far and share any ideas or suggestions you might have to expand on my mythology.

#worldbuilding #mythos #lovecraftian #Carsian mythology

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ironbloodaika · 7 years

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If there was a show you really wanted to reboot so you could go back and fix all the problems you had with it, which show would it be and what changes would you make?

Sorry for the delay in answering this Charlie. My memory’s been wonky lately. XD First off thanks for asking this, I love these sorta asks. I used to get these all the time from Jenn, but the less said about that the better.

I’ve thought about this and the one I REALLY think could use a reboot/fresh coat of paint is definitely Danny Phantom. It had a lot of strong points, but was also lacking quite a bit. Some I saw when it first aired and others only after re-watching and the gift of hindsight. So here’s a list of things I’d change/improve to the series if I could in no particular order.

*Have some solid continuity/character growth for the characters. A sad trend I’ve noticed with a lot of Butch shows is that they don’t tend to really have the characters under go arcs that span longer than an episode or even make reference or learn from past events. Occasionally they DO pop up, but they’re very rare and fleeting. It helps when you’re airing episodes without any regard to order, but it really hamstrings your ability to tell engaging stories or have the characters grow when there’s no guarantee that anything that happened is gonna carry over into future episodes.

*Give Danny a spine. Danny’s kinda stuck with one of the most annoying problems I see in a lot of cartoons, especially Butch shows I’ve noticed. The hero, despite having all these amazing gifts and powers, still doesn’t stick up for himself in even the most basic of circumstances. Look, I understand Danny can’t just go using his powers to push back against bullies or anyone who makes him mad. It’d be taking advantage of his powers and run the risk of abuse. But for the love of God, Danny, grow an f’ing spine! Despite facing Eldrich Abominations on a semi-daily basis, this guy still has to kowtow to the likes of Dash and the jocks for no real reason. For fuck’s sake kid, Peter Parker got bit by a radioactive spider and gained enough strength to bench-press a Buick. Yeah, he didn’t advertise he had powers and still acted meek around others, but he actually started standing up for himself. He didn’t fucking sitdown and take it. Instead the show seems to pain ANY attempts of him using his abilities for any sort of personal gain is wrong. And if we wanna play by that logic, fine, but have Danny at LEAST stand up to Dash. I’ve learned through my own experience that ignoring or running from a bully solves NOTHING. If Danny isn’t gonna tell a teacher or something of the blonde sociopath making his life hell, then fucking stand up for yourself. Teach kids to not take that shit.

*Okay that last one went on a bit. Sorry, that just really bothered me. Second thing I’d do is give Tucker some development. Of the main 3, he’s one who really never went through and arc and often times felt like a 3rd Wheel at best and an annoyance at worse. They keep playing up how his love of tech makes him unpopular, but it really comes off more he’s unpopular for just how grating he is. I’m not sure what school Butch went to, but in my days EVERYONE knew SOMETHING about technology. They weren’t fucking Luddites. Give Tucker SOMETHING to add to the story besides just being there and cracking wise.

*SAM. Sam needs a real overhaul. At first I didn’t mind her, but she’s really grated on me with the passage of time. I’ve shared my thoughts and feelings on her a LOT on this account, so I invite anyone who wants to check those pieces out to checked the Sam Manson tags for more on that. But to keep it short, give her SOME kind of depth. Sam really comes off as more shallow than the people she derides, constantly complaining about stuff by the mere fact it’s popular, propping herself and her interests up on a pedestal because they’re not “mainstream”, forces her friends and others to alter their life-styles to fit HER choices, and comes off as more of a contrarian lashing out at Mommy and Daddy than someone who legit BELIEVES any of the crap she’s spouting.

*Give the secondary characters some love. With how much we have episodes that focus on characters like Jazz, Valerie, Paulina, or Dash, they don’t really change all that much or have much going for them to begin with. Valerie has the strongest arc of the bunch, but it’s sadly dropped near the end of the series and doesn’t really get the resolution it deserved. Jazz played a roll as a secret keeper to Danny, but didn’t really do much before or after those episodes. It would have been cool to see the sort of relationship she had with her brother before knowing he had super powers and how their dynamic worked before then. Even get a glimpse to how she is at school. Maybe like how despite all the things Danny thinks about her being smart and perfect, it’s because of those things that’s she’s really not all that popular at school. We never DO see her really hang with anyone outside of Danny and his friends. And Dash and Paulina just serve to as foil to Danny or Sam respectively. Dash only serves to remind me how much the Casper High is dropping the ball on preventing very clear and public bullying and Paulina and Sam get into arguments that, let’s face it, are instigated 9/10 times by Sam for no other reason than she can. Have these characters GROW. There are a lot of parallels made between the cast of Danny Phantom and Spider-Man and here’s a bit some people tend to forget, the kids who bullied Peter Parker before he got his powers? They grew up. They stopped being bullies, made up for their short comings, and became actual adults. But everyone seems to wanna keep them as these static bullies who only serve to cause tension and nothing else. I’m not saying upgrade them to Sixth Ranger status, but if you’re gonna have them be in so many episodes and in such a chaotic series, have them add SOMETHING.

*Dig deeper into the Ghost Mythos. One thing they REALLY need to take advantage of is the fact that ghosts EXIST in this universe. There IS an afterlife or at the very least an alternate dimension we SUDDENLY have access too. I feel that this should be a much bigger deal to their world than it is, but everyone seems to just accept it and move on. Unless Danny really DOES live in the Marvel universe, I don’t think the fact his parents literally created a portal to the afterlife should be treated as an after thought. You have so many chances to explore with this concept, especially with the ghosts Danny fights themselves. So many different types of spirits and apparitions in folklore to take inspiration from. Hell, the series flat out tells us that a lot of these ghosts WERE people at some point. They had lives. Families. But they never really touch upon this fact and just treat them like a Monster of the Week. You’d think Danny would get tired of fighting and try to do something a bit more long-term with some of the ghosts who’d like to just be left alone. Instead we get a really weak ‘retcon’ that ghosts are just extra-dimensional creatures who THINK they’re the spirits of the dead. That seems like stupidly complicating the matter. Why even call them ghosts if they’re not?

*Speaking of ghosts, how about they finally explain why the fuck they can’t shut that damn portal down. Seriously. It’s the SOLE means the ghosts have of getting out as often as they do. Danny KNOWS this. But the fact he never ones tries to shut-down or disable the thing is astounding. If they just gave us a reason like it was too big to shut and the machine was there to keep it from getting BIGGER, that I’d buy. It’d at LEAST be an explanation. To me this is one of those elements that if you just removed, the series would literally end at that point.

*This is sorta looping back, but Danny seems to be very split in personality depending on the episode. He’s either cocky and brimming with confidence to the point of arrogance or a moppy sad-sack who is all to willing to quit and ditch his powers despite the levels of stupid such an act would bring. Look, I’m not saying a hero shouldn’t be confident or have low-points, but they feel very random and often time serve no other purpose than to force a scenario where he’s either humbled or turned into such a Butt Monkey by the narrative it starts getting sad. Even Spider-Man in the 90′s cartoon didn’t have it that bad. And he felt about quitting every other story arc.

*Give Sam and Danny better chemistry. IF you’re gonna have these two together, give us SOMETHING to work with. These two don’t have a lot of chemistry, all they do is blush and avert eyes. It’s really not that impressive. It’d be cute if they’re grade-schoolers and this was a story of young love, but they don’t really click in any kind of romantic sense with what we’re given. I know Valerie was given as a Romantic False Lead, but you wanna know something? They actually WORKED. There was some goddamed communication there. Some really adorable flirting, compliments, and sweet moments. They didn’t bicker every five minutes and made each other happy. Hell, if they had pulled an American Dragon and had Valerie find out about Danny and ultimately be okay with it after finding out she’d been played, I’d have completely been okay with it. Instead we have to accept him getting with a girl who can’t even bare the sight of him showing interest in another girl while STILL denying she has feelings for him. Look, I grew tired of that bullshit in Total Drama, Sam, don’t push me.

Well that’s all I’ve got to say on this end. Most of it springs down to character and story elements since I feel that’s where the show really frays out. Hopefully this answers your question, Charlie, and it was a good read. Thanks again for the question! :D

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swordsandrayguns · 4 years

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QuaranTV: Amazon Riders

So the good news is I have a new martial arts fantasy book coming out Wednesday, November 25 (you can pre-order on your favorite ebook retailer, unless that is Barnes and Noble, here). White Tiger, Black Leopard is technically a sequel to The Grand Tournament, but you can reader in any order. There are no rules.

And the bad news is I am under house lockdown awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test. I feel semi-crappy but not terrible. In the old world, you know, back in the day, I would consider this a minor annoyance and probably have gone to work. In this modern world, though... I am stuck at home. Luckily, though, the freezer is full and I have pretty much every streaming service known to man (except Disney+, which I recently cancelled, but that is a different story).

So what to watch while laying on the couch when you are cut off from the world with the 850,000 TV shows and movies on various streaming services your only source of entertainment? For me it was Amazon Riders on Amazon Prime. Why? I have been meaning to watch it. I had knocked out the first few episodes on plane flights but the problem with Japanese language stuff for me is that I need to read the subtitles (dubs blow) so that means I can’t type up or read or play with Lego sets while I watch. So this little Covid scare fever thing is the perfect time for me to watch this little slice of tokusatasu.

Amazon Riders is an installment of the Kamen Rider meta-series set in its own alternate universe. From what I understand it was produced to stream on Japanese Amazon Prime hence the working in of the term Amazon. One of the great things Amazon Riders has going for it (besides being easy to stream if you have Prime) is the alternate universe thing means you don’t have to be super familiar with other Kamen Rider series. I have seen a handful of episodes over the years and vaguely remember the American version (Masked Rider) in the post-Power Ranger boom of US tokusatsu kid programming but I am really not down with my Kamen Rider mythos.

The quick review: I am not really sure how Amazon Riders ranks among the rest of Kamen Rider but all in all I liked it. It is dark, violent and it does not always feature the tightest story telling. But it is interesting, violent and feels like grown up tokusatsu, especially compared to the Ultraman I grew up with and the various Sentai series I have been catching on Tubi.

Set more or less in the modern time, Japan is plagued by 4000 test subjects loose who eventually turn into cannibalistic armored bug people (after all, insects are kind of the Kamen Rider motif). The big, bad company behind all this has a group of mercenaries to hunt’em down with electrified knives, machine guns and a friendly (possibly mentally impaired) Amazon. When times get tough and the team is outclassed a mysterious Amazon shows up and kicks the crap out of everyone. Will the team survive? What the hell is the story with these cannibals? Who is the mysterious Amazon? Why is the big, bag company exec so over-protective of her children? That is basically what is going on with Amazon Riders and every episode brings everyone one step closer to an answer after beating the baddie of the week to death. And not a there is a fight and then the bad guys explodes kind of beating, either.

If you like your tokusatsu light, Amazon Riders is not for you. It is excessively violent with lots of CGI enhanced splatter. I am not sure how other incarnation of Kamen Rider get through their battles but in Amazon Riders you get a pretty healthy amount of severed limbs and removed organs. The good guys have giant forearm spines that cut their opponents to shreds (and have moves with names like Violent Punish) and the bad guys literally eat their victims in grand zombie movie style.

I am not sure if it is sloppy storytelling or poor translation but there is not a whole lot of subtlety in Amazon Riders. The mercenaries, who are a pretty major focus of the story, barely have backstories. How the test subjects got out into the population at large is kind of nebulous and where the trademark Kamen Rider motorcycle came from is not exactly fully defined. The second season, which is set five years after the first, actually has a little more going for it in terms of plot and story... it just takes you like 13 episodes to get there. I am not saying that all your season one questions will be answered in season two, but the important ones will be!

Bloody tokusatsu action pretty much sums up Amazon Riders. And I am getting a bit worn out. Check in again soon... I have been watching plenty of television lately so maybe I’ll check in with my thoughts on Sukeban Deka the movie or Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.

#tv reviews tokusatsu Kamen Rider Amazon Riders Indie author

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thebackloggamer · 7 years

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

I love Castlevania. I’ve recently played most of the games in the series and have enjoyed them greatly. Lords of Shadow has always intrigued me, but now that I have actual real experience with the series, I knew I had to move it up my backlog.

Here is a game sporting the name of one of the most legendary and long lived video game franchises and yet it has very little to do with the games that came before it. Instead of the series’ now classic 2D-platformer-action-adventure-RPG style, this one is straight up a 3D action-adventure hack and slash game à la God of War or Devil May Cry.

Also, there’s a completely original story that reboots the series and has nothing to do with the lore and events that have transpired during the series’ history. There are certain nods to the old games for sure. We sill play as a Belmont; and the theme for enemies and locations is similar. We still have demons, vampires, werewolves and all manner of creatures of the night. Other than that, however, this is a completely new world with new characters, lore and plot.

Well, it may not be classic Castlevania but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a good game... Well I think that’s true and, overall, I found this to be a pretty good, albeit flawed, game. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.

The bad stuff

This game has many flaws gameplay wise. I think the most egregious one is the extensive use of invisible walls. At the earlier parts of the game, if felt like almost everywhere I tried to go there was an invisible wall. There was so much restriction of movement. That was beyond frustrating to me. And I never care too much, let alone complain, about things like these in games. But here, I felt it was just too much.

The worst part is that most of them are located in places where there’s no visual cue whatsoever that would tell you you can’t walk or jump through. I would go as far as to say that some places were even inviting until you tried to go through and hit the damn wall. Anyway, the good thing is that this problem gets so much less severe as the game progresses. I don’t know if it was just me getting used to it but later in the game these issues were basically all but gone. Those early levels though... Ugh. Not a fan.

In this corridor, you can only walk over the blue area :(

The invisible walls problem is part of a bigger issue of the game not effectively communicating what actions the player can and can’t do at any given moment. This is specifically apparent with the rappel mechanic, where you are always able to climb up and down the rope but only sometimes you can and run along the wall to the left or right in a sort of swinging motion. The game never tells you or lets you know when you can and when you can not.

Also, another part that I really found troublesome was the camera work. This game is a 3rd person action game but you can’t freely control the camera. The camera is always fixed and, as you move from scene to scene it moves around. Sort of like classic Resident Evil (1, 2, 3 and Code Veronica) where the camera changes as you traverse corridors and rooms. The difference is that Resident Evil had pre-rendered backgrounds and system limitations that the developers had to deal with. I don’t understand why a 3D action game from last generation would decide to go with a camera design like that. Anyway, that’s beside the point. To be fair, games like Devil May Cry and God of War (games from which Lords of Shadow borrows a lot in terms of game design) also use this style of camera. The problem here was that sometimes I felt it was disorienting, prompting one to get lost in some of the more intricate levels. I don’t want to make this sound like it’s a big deal though, because it’s not. It’s nevertheless, something that bothered me from time to time.

The good stuff

Despite its (sometimes infuriating) flaws, I ended up greatly enjoying this game. I think the aspect where this game excels the most is in its overall presentation. The game looks truly great with gorgeous vistas and flashy special effects. There’s also great variety in environments: we’ve got swamps, towers, lost cities, caves and everything in between. The overall art direction is incredible, from the characters to the enemies to the levels. Everything looks beautiful.

Oh yeah take it all in.

Even the menus look great. The menus in this game are stylized as a book that you use to look up things like attack combos, enemies descriptions and weaknesses, weapons, sub-weapons and other collectibles. Everything is accompanied with some beautiful hand drawn art. For the combos, there are even small hand drawn animations that show Gabriel (the protagonist, who you play as) performing them. An overall a great execution.

The art in these menus is beautiful.

I specially like how much care was put into building the world. Not only are the characters expertly designed, but there’s also lore that further enhances both the world and the game’s plot by shedding light into how things are and how they used to be in this universe. It certainly looks like the developers put a ton of effort in building a strong foundation for a new series mythos. I think they succeeded in that.

Also the game’s plot itself is pretty enjoyable. With fun characters and situations and good twists and turns.

In terms of game mechanics, the game is your typical God of War-esque, action affair. There are weak and heavy attack buttons that when pushed repeatedly chain together into various combos that you unlock as you progress trough the game and get stronger. There are two types of magic: blue and red. Using the red one makes you hit harder while the blue one replenishes your health with each hit. These are expendable resources, so managing them smartly is in your best interest. Also, there’s a focus mechanic that kicks in if you fight without getting hit for a while. This makes enemies drop magic replenishing items which you need to chose if it goes to the blue or the red magic.

There are also your usual dodge, block and counter mechanics. Counters are interesting. They are performed by blocking at the last minute before getting hit. Successful counters are rewarded by a boost in focus, but getting hit makes one lose all of their focus. This introduces a nice risk vs reward mechanic because you need to decide if you want to risk getting hit by trying to counter instead of just dodging.

All of these together make for a level of strategy that results in a game that rewards finesse, preventing the battles to degrading into mindless button mashing.

The combat system is pretty interesting overall. Just complex enough to have a good time but not be overwhelmed. It truly shines with some of the game’s most inventive bosses and enemies that put your skills to the test. Not everything is flawless here though as some of the bosses are just plain cheap making for some frustrating difficulty spikes. Other are just plain boring. Luckily most of them are pretty fun and unique.

At the end of the day, in spite of its flaws, I really enjoyed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It’s a beautiful looking game with some pretty cool environments and a fun combat style. It even got me interested in playing the sequel.

#castlevania #castlevania lords of shadow #lords of shadow #action #adventure #video games

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emmadutton1993 · 4 years

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Reiki Questions Stunning Cool Tips

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Learn Reiki In Kannada

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Reiki Healing Birmingham Al

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#Reiki Questions Stunning Cool Tips #Reiki Crystal Images

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friedesgreatscythe · 7 years

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wHAT'S THIS ABOUT ZYGONS AND TULPAS I AM ALL EARS AND AT LEAST THREE EYES

LIKE THE THREE EYED RAVEN?

Ok, well in Twin Peaks (and in real life, because Tulpa is a mysticism concept stemming from Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama himself has spoken about his own tulpa), tulpas are "a concept in mysticism of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers. The term comes from Tibetan "emanation" or "manifestation". Modern practitioners use the term to refer to a type of imaginary friend" (Wikipedia). To continue quoting Wikipedia, “The theosophist Annie Besant, in her book Thought-forms, divides them into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become "ensouled" by "nature spirits" or by the dead, and forms that represent "inherent qualities" from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions.”

Now, in Twin Peaks proper, tulpas can be see by other people besides the one who "manufactured" them. They can physically interact with the world, they have memories of their whole lives even before their creation, and often a family and friends (who do not seem to know anything is wrong). For all intents and purposes, they exist in the world as a real person, even if they were created recently (and even if they are taking the place of someone who previously existed--which puts them in the category of Besant’s first type of thought-form). One character in season three was recently revealed to be a tulpa (name withheld to avoid spoilers), and it is inferred by context clues that another character in season three, whom Kyle MacLachlan plays, was a tulpa as well.

There’s even some who speculate that Laura Palmer had a tulpa, though this theory is a bit up in the air as tulpas physically vanish when they are killed and Laura’s body was, as we saw in season 1 episode 1, wrapped in plastic.

That aside--the obvious connections here are, well, obvious. Zygon inverts are physical duplicates of the people they’re mirroring--and they are also mentally connected to their originator, but that connection goes both ways. Clara was able to mess with Bonnie’s aim and grip on the rocket launcher, as well as send coded winks through Bonnie to the Doctor to let him know something was up. In Twin Peaks: The Return’s episode 16, we see the recently revealed tulpa character have a similar problem (though her struggle was a mental battle against the person who made her). She also can be heard speaking in a sort of panicked mantra, including the phrase, “I’m not me!”, implying she was mentally overlapping with her originator (said originator not being her creator--sorry, confusing).

It also made me think of Clara’s echoes. Clara made her echoes (re: tulpas, if you want to get free and loose here) by jumping into the Doctor’s time stream and being torn apart, but each echo was connected to Clara in physical, mental, and emotional ways: they always had Clara’s appearance, they always had Clara’s name, they always had Clara’s goal (save the Doctor, warn the Doctor), and they were always perfectly, randomly strewn throughout his life and the universe.

All of this is far out there stuff, but it just makes me really excited because while tulpas are rooted in very real spiritual beliefs, their execution in Twin Peaks (which is all about doubling, twinning, mirroring, doppelgängers, and now tulpas [who are distinct from doppelgängers: tulpas have to be made, doppelgängersjust exist]) is very much a sci-fi spiritual concept. This makes me all the more excited to imagine just how David Lynch would approach a straight up out and out sci-fi mythos like Doctor Who, and aliens like the Doctor, whose regenerated faces are often chosen at random or coded messages to the self.

#ty for asking!!!#medinaquirin

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