#it would fit right in with slaying medusa or a draugr

[thevagabondexpress]

I think the thing a lot of authors of things using mythology (be they set in ancient times, modern times, or some intentionally anachronistic postmodern thing) forget is that mythology is not about killing these specific monsters with these specific kinds of ancient weapons or retrieving these specific artifacts or these ancient evil things that were locked away long ago.

In reality, mythology is: X and Y are canonically eternally mad at each other because of Z, "The affair was bogus do not believe the Daily Mail!", the guy you put on a pedestal in middle school turns out to be a drunk, and there will be a monster-or-something-of-the-week problem for your protagonist to McGyver their way out of, or filibuster-like-a-Starfleet-Captain their way out of, or sleep-with-someone their way out of, or prove-they-didn't-sleep-with-someone their way out of, or get-Q-to-provide-a-cool-gadget their way out of, but then this problem will never occur again because either you'll be best buddies now or the thing will be gone for good because the Hydra is like Napoleon, these things are individuals, not genuses and species.

tl;dr, mythology isn't IKEA furniture. the point is to capture the right kind of character dynamics and the right kind of narrative hijinks, not whether you have AA batteries and philips head screws.

[thevagabondexpress]

@tleeaves

I think the thing a lot of authors of things using mythology (be they set in ancient times, modern times, or some intentionally anachronistic postmodern thing) forget is that mythology is not about killing these specific monsters with these specific kinds of ancient weapons or retrieving these specific artifacts or these ancient evil things that were locked away long ago.

In reality, mythology is: X and Y are canonically eternally mad at each other because of Z, "The affair was bogus do not believe the Daily Mail!", the guy you put on a pedestal in middle school turns out to be a drunk, and there will be a monster-or-something-of-the-week problem for your protagonist to McGyver their way out of, or filibuster-like-a-Starfleet-Captain their way out of, or sleep-with-someone their way out of, or prove-they-didn't-sleep-with-someone their way out of, or get-Q-to-provide-a-cool-gadget their way out of, but then this problem will never occur again because either you'll be best buddies now or the thing will be gone for good because the Hydra is like Napoleon, these things are individuals, not genuses and species.

tl;dr, mythology isn't IKEA furniture. the point is to capture the right kind of character dynamics and the right kind of narrative hijinks, not whether you have AA batteries and philips head screws.

[thevagabondexpress]

#actually the original japanese godzilla/gojira movie follows a pretty similar narrative structure to a lot of both greek and norse myths#it would fit right in with slaying medusa or a draugr#so i think the thing ultimately is if you can get things to have the right vibe you have a lot of leeway#but a vibe isn't a collection of museum artifacts

reblogging my own tags.

I think the thing a lot of authors of things using mythology (be they set in ancient times, modern times, or some intentionally anachronistic postmodern thing) forget is that mythology is not about killing these specific monsters with these specific kinds of ancient weapons or retrieving these specific artifacts or these ancient evil things that were locked away long ago.

In reality, mythology is: X and Y are canonically eternally mad at each other because of Z, "The affair was bogus do not believe the Daily Mail!", the guy you put on a pedestal in middle school turns out to be a drunk, and there will be a monster-or-something-of-the-week problem for your protagonist to McGyver their way out of, or filibuster-like-a-Starfleet-Captain their way out of, or sleep-with-someone their way out of, or prove-they-didn't-sleep-with-someone their way out of, or get-Q-to-provide-a-cool-gadget their way out of, but then this problem will never occur again because either you'll be best buddies now or the thing will be gone for good because the Hydra is like Napoleon, these things are individuals, not genuses and species.

tl;dr, mythology isn't IKEA furniture. the point is to capture the right kind of character dynamics and the right kind of narrative hijinks, not whether you have AA batteries and philips head screws.