#engywook

[iviarellereads]

The Neverending Story Chapter 7 - The Voice of Silence

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Neverending Story, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which I get really tired of verse.

Gladness(1) buoyed Atreyu's heart as he strode into the forest of columns which cast black shadows in the bright moonlight.

He still doesn't know who he is or why he's come, but he passes through the columns, which are described at length. After going for some time, he hears a sound in the distance, a sad singing voice. It moves toward him even after he stops moving, and soon he can hear the words, as she sings about how she must die someday.

Atreyu asks who she is, and she asks back, and he says he doesn't know, though he knows he knew once. The voice sings that Atreyu must reply in rhyme, because she cannot understand anything that's not in poetic form.(2) It's difficult, but Atreyu manages to ask who she is, and the voice thanks him, acknowledges she can hear him now, and says she's "Uyulala, the voice of silence" and that they are in "the Palace of Deep Mystery."

Through more exchanges, Atreyu establishes that Uyulala exists only as sound, and that she sounds so sad because the CLE is dying, and so Uyulala is dying. Atreyu doesn't remember his quest, but when Uyulala talks about the Empress needing a new name, he asks who can give one to her. Uyulala gives a half-page verse about how he must remember her next words carefully, then a full page of explanation of there being another world, where humans live. Only they can give the CLE a new name with every age of Fantastica, but no humans have visited in so long, they have forgotten Fantastica, so only a child of man can save the CLE.

Then, with prompts between from Atreyu, Uyulala gives another half-page of verse saying only Atreyu can decide what to do with this information, and that now it's time for her to die, and the first verse in the chapter is repeated, and then no more.

Atreyu falls asleep, and when he wakes, he remembers his quest, and Uyulala's words. He knows what to do now.

Bastian thinks how he'd love to help if he could, if Fantastica were real and he could go there and give the CLE a new name. He whispers that if there's any way he can help, Atreyu should tell him, and he'll come.

Atreyu, for his part, sees a patch of Nothing and starts running away from it. He keeps running until he comes to what look like the mountains where he'd first entered the Great Riddle Gate. He keeps running, and finds the stones now look grey, not red anymore, but it feels the same. Eventually, he finds the Great Riddle Gate collapsed, and the sphinxes have disappeared. He can't see the way he took from the gnomes' cave, so he calls out, and Falkor comes out to retrieve him, saying they'd almost given up hope. Atreyu thinks it's only been a day, but Falkor brings him back to the gnomes to explain.

Engywook launches into questions, but Urgl insists they let Atreyu eat and drink first.

Bastian thinks of the two chocolate bars he keeps in his bedside table, in case he gets hungry at night. He would have brought them as rations if he'd known he'd run away like this, but no matter.(3) Falkor finally says that it's been seven days and nights since Atreyu left, which is why he's almost fully healed. Engywook says space and time must be different inside the gates.

Before Atreyu can tell his story, he asks what's been happening out here since his journey. Engywook points out that colours are fading, and the gate collapsed in the same moment as the sphinxes disappeared, with no apparent action on anyone's part,(4) leaving the ruins of the gate looking hundreds of years old and moss-covered.

Finally, Atreyu tells them his whole story, and Engywook wails that his life's work is over if Uyulala is dead. Urgl says she needs to start packing, now that Engywook will be willing to leave and they can escape the Nothing. Falkor and Atreyu offer the gnomes a ride to wherever they're going, but Urgl says no self-respecting gnome would ever fly, and the best thanks they can give is to get the Great Quest underway again. So, they do.

When some hours later [Urgl] and Engywook stepped out into the open, each was carrying an overloaded back-basket, and again they were busily quarreling. Off they waddled on their tiny, crooked legs, and never once looked back. Later on, Engywook became very famous, in fact, he became the most famous gnome in the world, but not because of his scientific investigations. That, however, is another story that shall be told another time. [...] Involuntarily, Bastian looked up at the skylight, trying to imagine how it would be if Falkor came cutting through the darkening sky like a dancing white flame, if he and Atreyu were coming to get him. 'Oh my,' he sighed. 'Wouldn't that be something!' He could help them, and they could help him. He would be saved and so would Fantastica.

=====

(1) The G is superimposed on the corridor of columns, with vine scrollwork on the sides of the page. (2) I know this is a children's book for kiddos but it's such a simplistic view of poetry. ;-; I don't even usually particularly enjoy poetry as a form but this hurts me. (hyperbole) (3) Some of these asides really push home to me how much the style of writing has changed in fifty years. I re-encounter this every time I read a book older than me, but WOW has writing generally changed, even aside from what you can write off as translation discrepancies. This feels so pointless. Like, yes, it technically has a point, to establish Bastian in the scene and add to what we know about him, just like every other aside, but… none of these asides really tell us much about Bastian that wasn't implied by explicitly calling him fat, soft, and weak in the intro. It feels beside the point and intrusive to the story inside Fantastica, even though that's also part of the point. (I guess what I'm saying is, I'm increasingly frustrated with this style of writing, and it's wordier and antiquated compared to what I more typically read today.) (4) I think we're meant to assume the sphinxes Nothing'ed.

[arlequinelunaire]

Let's Read The Neverending Story Chapter 5

Previous | First

Summary

Ygramul's poison teleports Atreyu and Falkor all the way to the Southern Oracle. There they are healed by the gnome Urgl, whose husband, the researcher Engywook, tells them about the three gates before the mysterious Oracle. One guarded by Sphinxes who'll force you to answer every riddle ever at once if they see you, one a Magic Mirror that shows your innermost self, and the No-Key Gate (...the translator knows 'keyless' is a word, right?) that will only open if you abandon your willpower. Atreyu passes all three, seeing Bastian of all people in the Mirror which Bastian tries to brush off, and meets Uyulala the Southern Oracle. She turns out to be a disembodied voice who speaks in rhyme, a sentient song essentially. He asks her who can give the Childlike Empress a new name, and tells him only a human from outside Fantastica.

As this is my first Let'sRead, I'm still experimenting with the format, hence my trying out headings along with covering multiple chapters at once.

Engywook & Urgl

Reading these chapters a second time for the review, I was surprised at just how unlikeable I found Engywook, especially since I remember him being pretty fun when I saw the movie years ago. He basically dragged Urgl out here for his own pet project, sticks them there for years for their lives (however long those are for gnomes), and still complains about her whenever she does anything. His whole Honeymooners-style 'I hate my wife' shtick may've passed back in 1979 but has aged beyond milk in 2025. That said, it does help that we barely have to put with him for long, and that while I don't think Ende meant for Engywook to be that unlikeable, he at least doesn't expect us to sympathise with him that much. Bringing up The Honeymooners does remind me how weird the third movie trying to give the Rockbiter a sitcom-style family was, given Engywook and Urgl were already the most sitcommy thing in Fantasia.

Urgl being easily able to heal Atreyu and Falkor from Ygramul's poison also makes it feel even more like a plot device, and makes me more sympathetic to the movie just cutting it out and having Falkor fly Atreyu all the way to the Oracle. The convenience is explained by Falkor's species being naturally lucky, and while I would've raised an eye at this in any other context, that Falkor was introduced trapped by Ygramul does show his luck still can't get him out of every situation (as we'll continue to see in the future). Helps that his wounds mean he can't come through the gates with Atreyu and cheese them for him, though given the gates' nature I'd wonder if Falkor even could pass through them... especially since would he even fit?

I'd also question the need to include gnomes when the book had already introduced the tinies, but The Neverending Story is far from the only fantasy series to have multiple species of short people, and it's not as jarring here given Fantastica's meant to have every fantasy creature ever. Engywook and Urgl's future also becomes our third recipient of 'that's another story for another time', with Engywook becoming famous but not for anything scientific he does (*insert trombone noise*). Though saying the characters are going to have any future at all kinda undercuts the threat of The Nothing.

I've been quite critical so far, so I want to stress that I did enjoy these Southern Oracle chapters quite a lot, just that the stuff around the gnomes was the black spot on the banana.

The Gates

So the movie simplified the Sphinx Gate to 'they shoot lasers at you unless you feel your full worth (or just run really fast 'cause that's dramatic)', rather than the more complicated 'their stare forces you to answer every riddle ever, so you get frozen to the spot'. The book also never confirms how Atreyu could walk past the sphinxes without their eyes opening, with Engywook for all his years of research still not knowing how you get past them (again, unlike the movie). Though the book's answer is implied to be walking without fear, similar enough to the movie.

The sphinxes are also depicted in the book as having a bull's hind legs and specifically an eagle's wings, giving them as much in common with the Mesopotamian lamassu. You could also draw comparisons to the Abrahamic cherubim which are also human-lion-bull-eagle hybrids, though these sphinxes and their lamassu co-inspiration obviously don't have four heads. Lamassu aren't associated much with riddles, so it still makes a little more sense to call these creatures sphinxes, especially since Oracle is also a Greek word.

The riddle-blasting being automatic before the sphinxes can even see AURYN (if they can see at all) is another instance of the story cleverly getting around AURYN's power and authority potentially making things a cakewalk for Atreyu. It's like the opposite of restrictions breeding creativity, where giving a character a whole load of power makes the author get smart about how they can still create tension in a scene. I'm trying to write something similar with my Verthandi in the Middle story, so I know it's not easy. Though it's implied the sphinxes could be outside the Empress' authority anyway... which implies a whole lot of things.

The scene at the Mirror Gate is about the same as in the movie, though with some snow to contrast the desert. It does sap away your memory and identity once you pass through it, but at least the Oracle's nice enough to remind Atreyu what he was originally going to ask. Before that though he has to pass through the No-Key Gate, but his memories being wiped makes him losing his motivation pretty easy actually. The No-Key Gate was left out of the movie entirely, which I'm guessing was partly to save time, partly because having another gate after the shock of Atreyu seeing Bastian could take away from that moment's impact, and partly because of how it clashes with how the movie portrays the Sphinx Gate. 'Feel your full worth' and 'lose all your willpower' don't easily mesh together, even if it'd tighten the Oracle's defence system. Or maybe the movie didn't include it because the identity loss makes the Gate not much of an obstacle.

The No-Key Gate adding ego-death to the requirements needed to reach the Oracle does instill a spiritual element in the Gates, which the movie subsequently loses. Having to go a bunch of spiritual barriers which include ego-death actually reminds me of the Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, which I have no idea if Ende was inspired by, probably not, but he sounds well-read enough that he'd have likely heard of it. Speaking of 'probably wasn't an influence but would be cool if it was', the Tests guarding the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, particularly the first and third, feel like they could fit right in with the Gates.

Incidentally, characters go to ask the Southern Oracle things all the time in the animated series, which cheapens just how difficult it is to clear the Gates in both the book and first movie. The third movie would do the exact same thing with another character, but that's another story and shall be told... a few updates from now.

Uyulala the Southern Oracle

No mirror-sphinxes in the original book, Uyulala here is a disembodied rhyming voice who lives in what's basically a massive Greek temple that happens to have no roof. A lot like how Greco-Roman ruins can look, which are in no small supply in Italy where Ende was living at the time. You also have to speak in rhyme too to get her to answer you, which I'm pretty sure was left out of the movie (though it's been a while), maybe because they were worried it could ruin the seriousness of the scene? Actually, did the movie even call her Uyulala, I just remember 'the Southern Oracle'?

Anyway, the book never says who arranged the Gates leading up to Uyulala, nor would I want it to given how haunting the mystery is around her. Knowing what Fantastica is, it's likely the Gates and Uyulala exist just 'cause someone thought them up. Or someone from Amarganth made them, BTASFAT. But I think one thing that's clear is that the Gates exist not to protect her, as being a disembodied voice she wouldn't need protection, but to keep people away from her, despite her meaning no harm. Combined with her trouble communicating and that she already knows she's about to die from the encroaching Nothing makes her a rather melancholic if not tragic figure, in contrast with the movie making her more imposing. Of course, since she knows about the human world outside Fantastica, it's logical people wouldn't want her to be found so easily (...like in the animated series).

Wait, if Uyulala knows about the human world, the Mirror can show the human world, and it's possible the sphinxes are beyond the Empress' command... could the Gates have been set up by Earthlings? You may point out that we don't have sphinxes in our world, or at least not living, riddle-blasting ones, but a character we'll meet soon will provide a workaround to that. And yeah, Fantastica has a Narnia thing going on where it says it has no native humans, even though we see quite a few people who are pretty human-looking. Well, I think that was more a thing in TLTW&TW and later Narnia books dropped that, but I digress.

There's also some slight time dilation after Atreyu leaves Uyulala's hall. While it doesn't affect the plot much, it does emphasise Uyulala's eeriness and makes me wonder if her hall isn't fully within Fantastica. Though if you want Michael Ende to go way more into the nature of time, there's his previous book Momo (...which I still haven't read yet). Because Engywook totally sucks, he's more concerned that Uyulala's death by Nothing means all his research is ruined than that she just, y'know, died. Shows where his priorities lie. Atreyu also straight-up tells him that Uyulala was a disembodied voice, which everyone who'd previous met her had kept secret. Makes me wonder if something about Uyulala still being alive then somehow kept them from doing so.

The whole Southern Oracle sequence, with its mirrors and keyless doors in empty plains, roofless temples, and sentient songs, really puts Ende's Surrealist influences front and centre (not that things were all that normal before). I briefly mentioned this earlier, but Michael Ende was the son of the pioneering German surrealist painter Edgar Ende, which explains a lot of the weird imagery in his books, even if TNS won't be making any direct references to Edgar for quite a while. As you'd expect of a German surrealist at the same time, the Nazis labelled Edgar Ende's art degenerate, forbade him to keep painting, then conscripted him, with the teenage Michael ending up part of the resistance. I bring up the Nazis as they're about to become much more relevant a couple of chapters from now.

Incidentally, the Nazis would most eagerly slap the degenerate label on one of their own artists, Emil Nolde. But that's another story for another time.

Bastian

First, Bastian has to sneak out to the bathroom, making him think about the relevance of characters never shitting in stories. Eleven years later, the show Round the Twist would premiere with an episode about a haunted outhouse, so there you go. I appreciate this segue into discussing what does and doesn't matter in fiction, though as a writer I've heard 'Why doesn't anyone shit?' enough from people thinking they're clever that I just shrug at it.

Then Bastian runs out of food, then light, and has to rely on a handy candelabra to keep reading. Then he shows up in the book's own narrative again when Atreyu sees him in the Mirror, but insists it has to be a coincidence. The mirror scene actually made me regret this not being a blind LR, as due to seeing the movie years ago, I already know the reason why Atreyu sees Bastian in the mirror. I could've come up with a ton of theories otherwise... but I've already been doing that a bunch in this post anyway, so not much lost.

I'll be covering Chapters 8 and 9 together, but expect the next post to mostly be about Chapter 9. The confrontation with Gmork the wolf in the movie was already one of its most intense scenes, yet it's peanuts compared to the book. And "I'd rather die fighting!" isn't even in the book (nor is "They look like big strong hands, don't they?").

Next time, Atreyu's luck runs out

[mexican-cryptdez]

This is definitely enlightening as this fixes some things that left me confused. Also funny that the only name I spelled right was the Dragon. (Pretty on par with who I am) Also I thought Engywook was calling Urgl a wench not witch, which btw had me shook. I'm glad my commentary sparked joy somehow somewhere.

Live posting: The Neverending story

Damn this movie is old

Aw mom is dead

Wtf dad I feel like there's a better way to handle the obvious grief of your son and give him some leniency and his coping mechanism

OH NO BULLIES (not super surprised but man this kid needs a break)

Why is door open if you don't want visitors sir?????

Ok boomer

Maybe this nerd boomer showing a bit of compassion to a fellow nerd is nice

"this is something special" oh I see

Can't use his escapism against him like that sir

Oh that was on purpose

His little note is so sweet

"math test oh no"

Why does he even have a key to that storage space?

[shirtoid]

Enter the Fantasia by DAObiwan

[wallflowerglitter]

The names from the never ending story are just my absolute favorite.

[drcatpaintblog-blog]

Southern Oracle (at IVORY Towers)

[zladdsmith]

How is your Wednesday going? So far so good over here! This month is just flying by! Anyway, back to my artwork - more Neverending Story! This time I've got Engywook and Urgl - I admit, I enjoyed working on these guys - they have so much character! It's fun watching movies and seeing how much care goes into even minor characters like these guys.

[miscreantbread]

Engywook and Urgl are underrated queer guys

[maharelillo]

Engywook, from the Neverending Story 📖 Inked drawing as it appears in the @foliosociety edition, along with the initial sketch that I inked over. Have a lovely week everyone, stay warm and cosy 💛 — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/Ww1Slob

[wry-and-erring-stimmer]

Engywook from The Never Ending Story

for @spiritanointed 

+ + + | + + + | + + +

[iviarellereads]

The Neverending Story, Chapter 6 - The Three Magic Gates

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Neverending Story, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we get a tantalizing glimpse of something heretofore only hinted.

Falkor(1) was still sound asleep when Engywook brought Atreyu back to the gnomes' cave.

Urgl has laid out a small feast(2) to help Atreyu rebuild his strength. Atreyu protests that there's not time to sit back and eat, but Urgl insists, and Engywook says they have matters to discuss. Throughout the chapter, Engywook is dismissive of his wife's abilities and strengths.

Bastian grows hungry, eats the rest of his sandwich and his apple, then realizes that was his last meal and tries not to think too hard about the logistics of the situation.

Engywook suggests Atreyu ask him questions about the Oracle, so that he doesn't just start rambling, but then tells Atreyu to start with something easier when he asks who or what Uyulala is. Atreyu and Engywook discuss the mechanics of entry to the Oracle.

The sphinxes' eyes radiate all the questions of the world, so only when they close their eyes can one proceed past that point where their eyes meet(3) and through the stone Great Riddle Gate, although they have admitted fools and the treacherous, as well as the brave and wise, and seem to have no preference for either serious reasons or flippant ones for consulting the Oracle in the first place.

Bastian hears the clock strike three, and wonders if his father has realized he's not coming home, has called the police to start a search, where they might look if he did. He paces around the attic for a bit to calm his nerves, and is startled by his reflection in a huge old mirror. He looks at himself for a moment, then says "No!" and sits back down with the book as it grows darker.(4)

Engywook and Atreyu continue discussing the path, and the second gate, the Magic Mirror gate, which is both and neither open and closed. It's a mirror that shows your innermost self, which you have to face and walk into to proceed.

Then there's the third gate, the No-Key Gate, which is just closed, with no knob and no keyhole. Engywook's theory is that it's made of Fantastican selenium(5) which responds to the will of willful creatures. He thinks that if one can forget their purpose, can come to want nothing, they may pass and speak to Uyulala.

Atreyu is worried that he won't be able to make it through all three gates, and asks again who Uyulala is. Engywook says nobody who's made it has ever told him, and asks Atreyu if he'll promise to tell what he finds beyond the No-Key Gate. Atreyu, cleverly, deduces that if nobody has told Engywook, there must be a reason, and he cannot promise without knowing why it might not work.

At this, Engywook gets angry at Atreyu, saying all he gets for his life's work is ingratitude. He goes back into the gnomes' home cave and slams the door. Urgl asks Atreyu to pay Engywook no mind, he's just set himself up for disappointment, looking for such an answer as he does. Atreyu says of course, and thanks Urgl, and asks her to pass on his deepest gratitude to Engywook. He says if it's allowed, he will try to tell if he comes back. Urgl quietly wishes him luck as he walks toward the first gate, saying he'll need lots of it.

Atreyu, for his part, feels fear as he approaches the sphinxes, though it doesn't stop his course. It grows, and grows, and just as he's about to feel he can't go on, he feels it lift, and knows he will never fear again.(6) Somehow, the sphinxes have let him pass.

He sees the Magic Mirror gate, and when he walks up, he sees an image that very much resembles Bastian's hideaway.

Bastian, reading this, freaks out a little, and then tells himself to pull it together, and keeps reading, thinking it would be wonderful if they had heard of him in Fantastica.(7)

A faint smile of astonishment played over Atreyu's lips as he passed into the mirror image -- he was rather surprised that he was succeeding so easily in something that others had found insuperably(8) difficult. But on the way through he felt a strange, prickly shudder. He had no suspicion of what had really happened to him. For when he emerged on the far side of the Magic Mirror Gate, he had lost all memory of himself, of his past life, aims, and purposes. He had forgotten the Great Quest that had brought him there, and he didn't even know his own name. He was like a newborn child.

Baby-Brain-Atreyu has forgotten why he should go through the No-Key Gate, but in seeing it, he becomes fascinated with it. He considers leaving, for which Bastian yells at him not to, but then returns to it with curiosity. As he strokes it, it opens a crack, and then more, and soon he sees a strange place filled with columns and staircases and pillars but with no roof, and he passes through the No-Key Gate, which closes behind him.

The clock strikes four. It's getting too dark for Bastian to read. He looks for a light switch, to no avail. But, he has matches in his pocket. He finds the candelabra he saw earlier, and lights all seven candles on it. By this light, he can read.(9)

=====

(1) Illuminated F sits atop what I assume to be the Magic Mirror Gate. (2) Pun fully intended, on my part and I'm sure on Ende's and Manheim's. (3) Not asking for much, are they? (4) It doesn't feel as dark in November as it does in January or February, for most of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is. (Source: I have some sort of seasonal affective thing, but it's literally tied to daylight hours, not to the winter season keeping me indoors, so it hits for about a month on either side of the solstices. I'm just coming out of the summer daylight-hour-induced insomnia as I write this, in fact.) (5) Selenium is the name of a real element in our world. It's not particularly special to us, we need trace amounts but it can be very toxic in even small quantities. One is left to wonder (me, I am "one") what's supposed to be so special about Fantastican selenium, or if it was just selected because it's an element most people aren't familiar with. (6) This is so often framed as a positive thing in children's literature. But, fear preserves, in moderation. Just like pain sometimes tells you the limit of what's safe after an injury. I just think it's rather reductive to suggest that all fear is negative and to be avoided. (7) So, on the one hand, I think I understand where this sentiment comes from, because who didn't want to be special as a kid? Hell, who doesn't want to be special as an adult? But a tiny, cynical part of me is still angry at the kids in stories who get to be when I didn't. It's not their fault, it's the fault of trends in children's literature that make what is escapism for some and cruel teasing of what could but does not exist for others. I had a bit of a troubled childhood, yes, why do you ask… (8) Insuperable - impossible to overcome. (9) Buddy, you could have just lit the one at a time, don't you understand conservation of resources?!

[carolinecottage]

“...kind people find that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards. Confronted with their true selves, most men run away screaming!”

- Engywook The Neverending Story

[corvus--rex]

Neverending Story casting. No idea if I'll ever actually do it tho

Lance - Bastian

Keith - Atreyu

Kosmo - Artax

Shiro - Falcor

Allura - Child-like Empress

Pidge - Teeny Weeny

Hunk - Rock Biter

Romelle - Night Hob

Sam - Engywook

Colleen - Urgl

Lotor - G'Mork

Coran - Carl Conrad Coreander

Tavo - Cairon

Listened to this on repeat while I made the cast list

[nicnacsnonsense]

The inevitable follow up to my last post, the Good Omens/The Neverending Story fusion:

Warlock as Bastian Balthazar Bux

Adam as Atreyu

Aziraphale as Carl Conrad Coreander (the grumpy bookseller)

Crowley as Falkor the luckdragon (book!Crowley is an optimist. Also dragon, snake, shut up it works)

Madame Tracy and Shadwell as Urgl and Engywook, the old gnome couple

Brian, Wensleydale, and Pepper as Rockbiter, Nighthob, and Teeny Weeny respectively

Gmork (wolf dude) can shift between War, Famine, and Pollution (not Death though; we’ll get to him in a second)

God as the Childlike Empress. This isn’t so much a fusion as it is just an observation of how Fantasia/Fantastica works, honestly

Death as Old Man of Wandering Mountain (read the book, you heathen)(in the book (spoilers), after Atreyu returns to the Childlike Empress believing he failed, Bastian still doesn’t say anything. So the Childlike Empress puts him and Falkor someplace safe to rest (more on that in a minute) and goes to find Old Man of Wandering Mountain. He writes down everything that happens in Fantasica in a book. Aha, says clever you, he’s writing The Neverending Story book Bastian is reading. False. He is writing The Neverending Story book we are reading, complete with the parts about Bastian. The Childlike Empress makes him start rereading what he’s written, trapping them in an eternal loop until Bastian finally says her name.)(This also isn’t so much a fusion as it is just an observation of how Fantastica works)

Remember that safe place I mentioned? So it turns out the AURYN, the Childlike Empress’ pendent, is also a place, the one that exists at the border of Fantastica and the real world (and it has the Water of Life, but that’s besides the point at the moment). Inside are the two snakes on the pendent, a white one and a black one. And, plot twist (that I just made up and has no basis in canon), the snakes are also Aziraphale and Crowley. While they are always in the pendent, they are simultaneously capable of leaving and taking on other forms to nudge things along. Aziraphale can go to the real world and Crowley can go to Fantastica. Did I just make this plot twist up for no other reason than ensuring my OTP can still be together? Yes. Absolutely. Why is that even a question?

[pjmcquade]

The NeverEnding Story Xmas Cards & Ornaments now avail on my shop, link on bio. 🎄📖🎄 Falcor, Rockbiter, Cairon, Teeny Weeny, Engywook & Urgl & Gmork! Ornaments avail individually or as a set - Free card with set! Tons more Geektastic Xmas goodies as well, swing on by - 🏰 https://www.instagram.com/p/B5RVKJRD7ex/?igshid=jhlcj5ybdgyc

[godofwarshow]

Cory Barlog confirmed via twitter to have been influenced by #TheNeverendingStory. This is already evidenced somewhat by #Jörmungandr addressing the travellers in a similar way to another Millennia-old ocean/swamp dweller, #Morla. We also see this influence in #Atreus’s name, shift resembles #Atreyu, and the bickering dwarves (#Sindri and #Brok #Huldra, which evoke #Engywook and his wife #Urgl)...what other vibes, character dynamics and sequences will we see that will tap into the shared DNA between this classic #80sFantasy tale and @santamonicastudio’s upcoming masterpiece-in-the-making? #NorseMyth #Falkor #TheChildlikeEmpress #SwampsOfSadness #Artax #Leviathan #theninerealms