#in the scene she means how the citadel tricked them into imprisonment

[shatteredsnail]

i’ve made myself depressed with spirit lore

[dragonofdarknesschaos]

Chase Young Can’t Read

Okay, but do we ever actually SEE Chase reading?  He’s never shown writing.

I know he’s sown looking at Evil Housekeeping in “Judging Omi,” but there is no proof that he was actually reading the magazine.  Magazines have pictures too, and who’s to say that Chase doesn’t just subscribe for the pretty pictures?  Have you SEEN the man’s lair?!

Further proof of Chase’s illiteracy is in how Chase’s underlings convey messages to him.  One of Chase’s fallen warriors is a Gaelic werewolf that can transform into a crow and play back or show what it has seen and heard from its’ eyes.  In “Hannibal’s Revenge,” “Omitown,” “Oil in the Family,” and others the crow is shown whispering to Chase or sharing a look.  Another scene shows the crow flying back to Chase’s lair, transforming to a warrior, and presumably telling Chase the information it gathered in person off screen, before walking out of the throne room on screen.

It’s one thing to be a spy and not leave a paper trail, but it’s another thing entirely to be a spy and leave your post to convey information  Most spys only leave their posts if their cover is blown, the information they have gathered is too sensitive to document on paper, their assignment has been completed, or a mix of all three.  The fact that the crow repeatedly goes back to Chase to report directly for all messages, no matter how trivial is a bit suspect.  About 99% of the time the Monks do not even notice that the crow is watching them.  Why fly off to report to Chase that they’re on the move?  “Phoning in” and reporting remotely would make more sense to continue the mission of watching the Monks.  The fact that time and again the crow is shown watching the Monks means that this is a recurring, if not ongoing, mission of some importance.

What the Food Tells Us

“But what about the recipe for Lao Mang Long soup?”  You ask.  Yes, the recipe is written down in a book about Chase, but that doesn’t mean Chase ever wrote or read the book (though he is vain enough he at least knows it exists).  Canon doesn’t go into it deeply enough to form a concrete decision, but Hannibal made the Soup, Chase turned evil and imprisoned Hannibal.  Now Chase makes the soup for himself.  Chase is never shown reading a recipe--why would he?  He’s been making this elixir for the last 1500 years (or more), by now the recipe is routine; Chase has no need to refer back to any written document of the elixir.  Or maybe, he could never read a recipe in the first place?

It is unclear if the Lao Mang Long soup ever spoils as evidenced by “Time After Time, part 2″ wherein Omi hides the soup, and then digs it up over 1500 years later, still steaming.  But most who work with any kind of food, or food prep, or both, know that dating food and packages is mandatory to know how fresh the products are.  Chase is often shown using CANNED soup.  If he’s caning the soup himself, why are there no dates?  Surely one as methodical as he would want to use the oldest batches first.  Without written dates he must have an elaborate system of organization (otherwise it’s like having no soup at all--and Chase says he’s very attached to the soup, as it’s what keeps him forever youthful and pretty [”Master Monk Guan”]).

Chase is making the soup for himself too, so there’s not even a need to list the ingredients on the package.  However, there is no written label--there is only a picture of a dragon on the can.  While this was done to cinematically highlight the fact that each can contains at least one whole dragon (don’t forget this is a TV show for 6-12 year olds), it then questions why Chase would label his elixir in such a way.  Why label your food with a picture of one ingredient instead of writing what the can contains?  It would be like labeling lasagna with a picture of just noodles, or a chocolate cake with just a doodle of chocolate chips.  Why label food in this way, unless you don’t know how to read or write?

The League of Overcompensating Villains... with Giant Citadels!

Furthermore, much of Chase’s lair has boobie traps and combinations to turn off or activate security systems.  There are no number pads, or combination locks, or physical keys of any sort.  There are only “super old school” “classic” secret levers, buttons, walls, and compartments for Chase to utilize, like in the regular Showdown of “Master Monk Guan,” how Jack opens the front door to Chase’s lair by pushing a hidden button in “Evil Within,” and the various boobie traps the Monks encounter in “Finding Omi” as well as a hidden Wu safe room.  Since Chase is unable to read, an alphanumeric combination or security key is meaningless to him.  Physical key holes are too easy to pick and bypass.  What better way to cover up your lack of literacy than to use really cool, distracting tricks and illusions?  One would have to be really smart to remember all the tricks and hidden items and how to avoid them, right?  Or at least that’s the stereotype.  This elaborate, over the top method of covering up an apparent “lack” is Chase’s modus operandi and he does it constantly throughout the series.

What does it all mean?

Chase not knowing how to read or write would cast him as a poor person in ancient China, as around 500 AD only the sons of Nobles were educated and learned to read and write.  This goes in stark contrast to many who headcanon Chase as the [bastard] son of a nobleman.  Coming from a poor, likely farming, family would make the life of a Monk seem like a step up.  It could also be indicative that Chase is an orphan.  Why strive so hard to achieve and prove your greatness unless you came from nothing?

While the desire to “prove oneself” is universal, it’s usually explored by characters who either have great power and prestige and want to prove themselves worthy of wielding their own power (Marvel’s Thor) or characters who have nothing and want everything because they believe they deserve it in some way (Marvel’s Loki).  The only thing Chase knows for certain about his destiny on either the Xiaolin side or the Heylin side is that he will become a great warrior.  Joining the Xiaolin Order would have been the first step towards receiving military or battle training through the art of Kung Fu.  What he does with that training is up to him.

Can XC Chase Read?

XC Chase is potentially in the same boat as XS Chase.  The biggest difference is that in XC, Chase is shown looking at and reacting to a text only status post on Facelook from Jack (”Who Shrunk Master Fung?”).  While text-to-speech is a thing, it’s unlikely that Chase fully understands how to operate the tech.  Chase dislikes Jack enough that, despite Jack installing the Wifi Chase used to access Facelook, as well as the giant monitor Chase was viewing the status update on, and never adding Jack as a friend, I doubt Chase would have tried to figure out the text-to-speech on his own.  Even if Shadow helped him, she is out of the lair at the time of him reading the status, and also temporarily transformed into a bird with Chase’s magic.

There is another scene in “Princess Kaila and the Thousand Layer Mountain” where Chase says that great tales will be written and told about his coming victory against the Xiaolin Order, and perhaps he or the cats can read it.  But can the fallen warrior cats even read?  Questions for future victorious Chase to answer.  Chase is also shown crumpling up a resume Jack hands him in “The Laws of Nature.”  If Chase is illiterate it’s just crumpling up a bit of useless trash.  However, it also asserts how little Chase cares about Jack’s credentials and achievements.

To summarize, Chase likely cannot read in the XS canon.  He goes out of his way to cover up this flaw by having intellectual puzzles as security precautions, has all his underlings report verbally, visually, or both, usually in person, and does not label any of his canned foods with words or numbers, instead only using pictures.  His illiteracy is indicative of a life lead by a poor farm boy or orphan who joined the Xiaolin Order as a stepping stone to achieve his destiny of becoming a great warrior.  XC Chase is possibly illiterate too, but there isn’t enough evidence either way to confirm or deny this possibility.

TL;DR:

XS Chase can’t read.

XS Chase goes out of his way to cover up this little fact by having intricate boobie traps throughout his lair.

All of Chase’s underlings report to him in person.

Chase doesn’t label any of his canned food with letters or numbers; only pictures.

Only noblemen were able to read and write in 500 AD China, so Chase was likely a farm boy or orphan.

He then joined the Xiaolin Temple as a stepping stone to achieve his destiny of becoming a great warrior.

XC Chase is likely illiterate too, but there are too many inconsistencies to confirm.

Random Headcanons under the cut:

I’m not saying Chase was kicked out of the Xiaolin Order because he couldn’t read, but what if that was literally the only reason?

Please consider dyslexic Chase.

Remember all those various scenes where Jack asks for Chase’s autograph and Chase just glares at Jack, as if the boy genius knows that he, Chase Young, is illiterate and is taunting him for it.

Chase never responding to emails because he literally cannot.

For that matter, why and how does Chase have an email?!  Who was Jack messaging?????????

Someone writing a really witty and heartfelt love note to Chase, but he can’t read it.

Chase turning Wuya solidly just to read his mail because she can read for some reason???  IDK?????????

Wuya is shown reading a magazine called “Woman”--likely a parody of Womens Day--but finds it too drab and changes it to “Wuya” (“The Citadel of Doom”).

Even if Wuya is in the same boat as Chase and just “reads” magazines for the pictures, she still formed an opinion about the magazine being “drab” and changed the entire thing.  Most people would just get a different magazine.

I guess Wuya took that mag from “drab” to “FAB?”  Amirite?  XDDD

Okay, but please imagine Jack teaching Chase how to read and write.

Also, Omi trying to teach Chase how to read and write, but he’s really bad at it, and Raimundo steps in to help because he’s got the highest reading comprehension.

The Monks are all shown reading and writing at various points throughout the series, but all are shown writing out their ideas for quests in “Hannibal’s Revenge.”

I believe Dojo said this in XS, but “penmanship wasn’t always a strong suit of the old masters.”  Big oof.  However, this means that the Temple will teach literacy, so then why didn’t Chase pick it up?  (more fuel for dyslexic Chase)

[geekade]

Revisiting The Two Princesses of Bamarre

I have a problem with romance in YA novels. I’m the first to admit it--almost the moment the “dreamy guy” comes into the picture, I consider a book substantially worse than I had the moment before. While there’s nothing wrong with it, I just personally don’t enjoy the style of romance in most YA novels, wherein only by exchanging glances, or worse, by exchanging only your darkest secret with someone, they become your soulmate. One author, however, excels at writing complex romances where personality and the factors of daily life do affect the relationship between two characters in love in a way that makes them more realistic and less of a turnoff for me personally. Gail Carson Levine, revered author of Ella Enchanted, wrote two books in the Bamarre universe, but Two Princesses of Bamarre is by far my favorite. It tackles loss, love, and realistic romance in a mature way while still sticking to the target age level. The female hero of the story is driven to her epic quest, and driven through it, by those forces, to save her sister and her kingdom.

I first read this book when it came out in 2001, and I’ll admit I chose it for its cover art, as I often did when I was 10. I didn’t realize at the time that the author was the same as that of Ella Enchanted, a book that I loved and a movie that I hated, but looking back, it’s very similar. In both stories, the hero faces a gauntlet of real dangers and practical problems without the ‘plot armor’ that you sometimes see in these stories, where it’s unlikely there will be blood or death because of the character’s purity of heart or immense luck. However this story, more so than that retelling of Cinderella by Levine, follows the conventions of an epic journey, like those of Odysseus and Beowulf. The story is actually strung together with verses from the fictional epic poem “Drualt,” about a mythical hero represented in the story of the kingdom's founding. In a magical world constructed with a history and mythology which directly impact the fate of both princesses, Princess Addie makes herself and her mission a concrete part of that history and mythology in very unexpected ways.

Bamarre is a country torn apart by a plague called the “Grey Death,” which inevitably kills its victims over the course of three distinct stages--weakness, sleep, and fever (which proves fatal). The weakness can last any amount of time, during which the host can fight off the coming sleep as long as they can, but the sleep lasts nine days exactly, and the fever three. The country is also plagued by a number of mythical monsters--gryphons, dragons, specters, ogres, dwarves, and fairies--however it is also partially populated by sorcerers and elves (the fairies have not been seen for a long time, and people have come to believe that they may not have existed). When Princess Meryl, the stronger, braver, and fairer of the two titular princesses, falls ill with the Grey Death, Princess Addie recalls a prophecy that the Grey Death will end when “cowards find courage, and rain falls over all of Bamarre.” Cowardly though she is, Addie sets herself to the task of saving her sister’s life before time runs out.

Every time I read this book, I am frightened. It does not matter that I know how it ends. Addie and Meryl, and their friend the apprentice sorcerer Rhys, each face their individual struggles so bravely with expected futility, and it’s impossible not to empathize. When the story begins, we’re given a picture of Meryl and Addie’s childhood, playing out scenarios where Meryl quests to find the cure for Addie, the maiden stricken with the Grey Death. Addie is adamant that the illness can be beaten just by struggling against the lethargy that precedes the sleep phase, and promises to Meryl that she will never die of the Grey Death, in exchange for a promise from Meryl that she will not begin to hunt the cure until Addie herself is happily married. Addie is overcome with fear that Meryl will die on her future adventures, as Meryl is Addie’s ‘protector’--saving her from everything from shadows to spiders to social situations. But when Addie’s handmaid falls ill with the Grey Death, it stops seeming like a game to them, and Meryl’s desire to leave her sister and go to seek a remedy grows.

This is the moment where the ‘dream guy’ enters the picture, shaping a pillow from the clouds for Addie’s dying maid and complementing the embroidered works Addie has up around the castle. Rhys is a sorcerer, apprenticed to the royal sorcerer in Bamarre, and he, being a different species from her, is both fascinated by and alien to Addie, at first. Sorcerers in Bamarre are born when lightning strikes marble. They’re born fully grown, able to speak and fly, and they never fall ill. They don’t have to eat or drink, but can be killed in battle or by mishap. Otherwise, they live until they are 500, and die when the flame in their chest goes out. They are all tall, with dark wavy hair and white eyelashes, and usually never marry. As annoyingly typical as I find this immortal, youthful, handsome, tall, romantic interest, Rhys manages to divest himself from the trope by having a number of responsibilities and interests which he prioritizes equally, if not more heavily, than his romantic interest in the younger princess. Eventually, when his work brings him to the castle, he gives Meryl the gift of a sword, and Addie the gift of fabric and a needle. In return, Addie gives Rhys a work of embroidery, and Meryl offers to re-enact scenes from the epic “Drualt.” Throughout her performance, Rhys and Addie watch Meryl falter, grow tired, and eventually collapse. Despite her protestations, it’s clear that Meryl has fallen ill, and Rhys tries to tell Addie this, but Addie runs from him.

The King of Bamarre, father to both princesses, sets out to ask the Elf Queen Seema for a cure, despite having no evidence that she has one, and around the same time, Rhys leaves for a conference of sorcerer's apprentices that is, for his species, mandatory. However, after a week, the King meets with Queen Seema and is told there’s no cure. He comes home, and gives up on finding a remedy, opting instead just to say goodbye to his daughter. Rhys warns Addie that Meryl has, at most, 19 days left to live, and Addie comes to the realization that if it were her who’d fallen ill, Meryl would already be questing for a cure. Before she leaves, and before Rhys takes off to the sorcerers’ citadel, he gives her a set of equipment to help on her journey. In the bundle he gives her are a cloak which will hide you completely if in shadow, a tablecloth which when given certain commands produces unlimited food, and a set of maps of the kingdom, and beyond. Meryl gives Addie her sword, named “Blood-biter” after the sword from “Drualt”; their elf-doctor Milton gives Addie “moily herb” which can soothe pain and help with illness; and their maid Bella gives Addie some common clothes, a backpack, a spyglass, and seven-league boots.

Pause. I have been obsessed with seven-league boots since the day I read this book. When Google Earth became a thing, I’d click around and pretend I was Princess Addie, journeying seven leagues with each step, leaving landscapes streaking behind. They come more heavily into play throughout the story, but I have always loved the concept that they present, and the danger. Wearing the boots, you can accidentally slam into a building, or trip and travel seven leagues that you didn’t mean to. Addie’s caution and creativity in their use, combined with the spyglass and maps, for me represent the perfect use of a magical tool in fantasy. It is not a deus ex machina, it cannot solve all problems and in many ways creates new types of problems, but can be incredibly advantageous if used by the right hero, in the right way, for the right reasons.

To return to the story - Addie, predictably, stumbles with her first step in the boots, and travels backwards 14 accidental leagues, slamming immediately into her first opponent: a large ogre in a party of four large ogres. He grips Addie and readies himself to attack her, when she uses the seven-league boots to smash him against a castle wall and escapes. All of this has the effect of introducing a few elements to her journey very quickly--enemies, pain, and quick thinking. She goes from hapless princess to adventurer in these moments, and in my opinion, her agony at dragging the ogre another 14 leagues and ability to only barely save herself distinguish this YA novel from others. Rather than an easy escape or an immediate ogre-concussion, Addie has to actually fight, aim, and plan while travelling faster than she ever imagined.

Rhys takes breaks from the citadel to visit Princess Addie on her journey, finding her through what we can only assume are magical methods. When Addie reaches the forest of the specters (precognizant gaslighting tricksters, who appear as loved ones or innocents to lure travelers to their death) Rhys visits her and tells her there is a cure hidden in the forest. Addie only realizes the trick when the real Rhys appears. Demanding a prophecy from the specter, Addie is told that dragons and fairies know the cure, and that dragons are easier to find. But unfortunately, a dragon finds Addie first. Vollys, a dragon who has been the scourge of Bamarre and whom Princess Meryl had hoped to one day slay. Vollys takes Addie prisoner and demands from her entertainment, which Addie provides in the form of her embroidery. Vollys has a system in which she gives gifts to her prisoners when pleased, and takes them away when displeased. The gifts represent how much longer the prisoner has to live. Addie exchanges weeks of her life for the story of the cure to the Grey Death while she watches Meryl’s condition worsen with the spyglass, and waits for her chance to escape.

Addie’s imprisonment with Vollys represents, to me, the perfect marriage of fairytale tropes and the uniqueness of this story. Princess Addie was the quieter, more reasoned sister, whereas Meryl would have been a warrior, and would have been roasted after quickly boring Vollys with fruitless attacks and little conversation. So while there’s a young princess being kept prisoner by a fire-breathing dragon, the hero who rescues her is not a knight in shining armor but herself, a shy girl who likes to sew and is afraid of spiders. And that’s the hero that is needed. A knight would have become charcoal in this fight, but Princess Addie is the right opponent for this enemy. Addie’s escape with the knowledge of the far-off cure, a magical fountain with water that must be drunk at the source, comes at the end of Meryl’s third day of fever, when she has until dawn to live. The battle to reach the falls is as good as any epic battle I’ve read in my life.

I couldn’t spoil the end of this story if I tried. Too many elements of the story come together to break and heal your heart simultaneously, but I will say that it does not end entirely happily, and that Princess Meryl keeps her promise to Addie to postpone her own adventures until after her sister is happily married. But while the kingdom is saved, nothing is the way you would expect it to be. I will admit to being furious with this ending as a young reader, having up to this point pretty much only read books where everything works out for the heroes at the end. As an adult I can see the genius in this ending, while still being crushed by it. The cowardly and fearful of Bamarre rise up to save their princess, and they save the kingdom instead. I remember being ten or so and crying, freaking out, and running to find my little brother when I finished this book, just to make sure he was ok. In a book that mainly features battles of strength and wit against physical monsters--ogres, gryphons, dragons--the real pain comes from something that exists in the real world; loss. And sometimes, like in the real world, it’s unavoidable, and the love which nourished you is the same love that causes you to hurt when it’s gone. But in a book with incredibly strong mythos to begin with, it’s immensely satisfying to see the characters join the fabric of history and myth surrounding their world.