Pretty sure I've posted at least one of this videos before (probably with some variant of this exact title), but it's been a while so I don't care.
If one is a fan of Japanese mecha, Dai-Guard is a series that one is obligated to watch because of moments like this:
If you don't understand why someone would shout "rocket punch" while throwing his own robot's severed arm as an impromptu attack, it's because Mazinger Z, one of the super robots that inspired everything that came after him, has rockets built into his detachable arms so that he can throw punches over any distance. Silly, but fun.
And in the most recent Mazinger Z series, someone got the same idea as the guy from Dai-Guard did.
That's coming full circle.
(Incidentally, the titanic gold/yellow robot is actually supposed to be Zeus from Greek mythology. Yes, really. ...I honestly can't imagine mythological Zeus having that reaction to a rocket punch. One of the Viking gods, on the other hand, would have that exact reaction. Those guys had parties where they had the indestructible guy sit against a wall and chucked things at him. That happens to be how and where Ragnarok got started, as it happens. Vikings were metal.)
-Signing off.
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
So I've Been Reading An Old Book...
...leaving me distracted.
The old book in question is Journey to the West.
It's been very odd and rather enlightening, as Journey to the West is one of the biggest influences on East Asian pop culture that I'm aware of.
Case in point:
One of these characters was probably largely inspired by Sun Wukong/Son Goku/Monkey, the main character of Journey to the West. The other is Monkey.
Other characters probably take a lot of inspiration from Journey to the West, such as the anime Gurren Lagann. (Key difference: The story of Gurren Lagann is like Journey to the West's prologue chapters, but one in which Monkey wins.
Another interesting thing is that if you take dialogue seriously, the world in the novel is larger than the real world-the minimum distance between China and India is around three quarters the length of the equator.
It also might possibly be older, because depending on interpretation (mine being both liberal and literal), a piece of dialogue describes the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven, as being at a minimum nearly 83 billion years old. (But then, a lot of Asian mythology talks about the world itself reincarnating, so who knows?)
Anyway, yeah. Crazy old book.
-Signing off.
The old book in question is Journey to the West.
It's been very odd and rather enlightening, as Journey to the West is one of the biggest influences on East Asian pop culture that I'm aware of.
Case in point:
One of these characters was probably largely inspired by Sun Wukong/Son Goku/Monkey, the main character of Journey to the West. The other is Monkey.
Other characters probably take a lot of inspiration from Journey to the West, such as the anime Gurren Lagann. (Key difference: The story of Gurren Lagann is like Journey to the West's prologue chapters, but one in which Monkey wins.
Another interesting thing is that if you take dialogue seriously, the world in the novel is larger than the real world-the minimum distance between China and India is around three quarters the length of the equator.
It also might possibly be older, because depending on interpretation (mine being both liberal and literal), a piece of dialogue describes the Jade Emperor, the ruler of heaven, as being at a minimum nearly 83 billion years old. (But then, a lot of Asian mythology talks about the world itself reincarnating, so who knows?)
Anyway, yeah. Crazy old book.
-Signing off.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Orcs Vs. Orcs
(Sorry, guys, got distracted reading Halopedia. Never played any Halo games, and I've got no particular interest in them, but boy, that's some epic storyline stuff, in the real sense of the word. I still have this short notion that I forgot yesterday, though.)
You know what I wonder?
What possessed J.R.R. Tolkein to decide to rename the goblins of Middle Earth "orcs?"
It's an established name from legend and myth, sure, but it had a radically different meaning from the creatures depicted in The Lord of the Rings and numerous imitative media since then.
Mostly, orcs were sea monsters. Aside from the fact that there is a genus of large dolphin often known as orcas (or killer whales-though I might explain sometime that there's evidence that orcas and killer whales can actually be considered different things), the orc was generally a massive, betentacled sea beast, sometimes paradoxically with the face of a lion.
Yes, really.
I also don't know why modern fantasy orcs are sometimes described as "pig-like," but there you go.
-Signing off.
You know what I wonder?
What possessed J.R.R. Tolkein to decide to rename the goblins of Middle Earth "orcs?"
It's an established name from legend and myth, sure, but it had a radically different meaning from the creatures depicted in The Lord of the Rings and numerous imitative media since then.
Mostly, orcs were sea monsters. Aside from the fact that there is a genus of large dolphin often known as orcas (or killer whales-though I might explain sometime that there's evidence that orcas and killer whales can actually be considered different things), the orc was generally a massive, betentacled sea beast, sometimes paradoxically with the face of a lion.
Yes, really.
I also don't know why modern fantasy orcs are sometimes described as "pig-like," but there you go.
-Signing off.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Move Aside, Lancelot...
...and excuse me while I gripe about Arthurian legend.
Specifically, while I gripe about what Wikipedia claims is the only "fairy tale" which is set in the midst of Arthurian legend-the tale of Lanval. More specifically, it was written by somebody I've never heard of called Marie de France. This is sad, because it's a story that offends me on the level of feeling sympathy for excessive cruelty and lack of sympathy for a female character.
Lanval is the story of some knight, who was everybody's favorite knight, because he was just so darned nice! (If you are wounded by the sheer level of my sarcasm, I apologize. It's just that Lanval has nearly surpassed Lancelot as my absolute least favorite Arthurian knight of all time.) He gave everything he had to the poor, and spent all his time doing knight things. Thus, he had little money left over, and relied entirely on the charity of the king.
But that rhymes-with-witch, Guinevere, hated him because he'd refused her advances on him. (Sorry again about the sarcasm.) So she told Arthur all kinds of fibs to make Arthur hate him and not give him money. He got poor, and had to sell his armor and his horse and stuff, and leave. Poor Lanval! (Stupid unintentional pun.)
But then Lanval met a beautiful fairy queen, and she gave him magic armor and a giant horse and a bottomless moneybag, and also love. (I am not making this up. That's exactly what she gave him.) Yay, Lanval! Now, he could give stuff to the poor again. But she warns him not to tell anybody about her and their relationship, or she'll never speak to him again.
Then, after Lanval gives tons of money to the poor and returns to Arthur's court, Guinevere accuses him of "not liking women," i.e. liking men instead. (The exact phraseology of her accusation depends on the text, as many versions were bowdlerized.) He responds that his girlfriend is much prettier than she is. Oops, mentioned the fairy queen! Poor, stupid Lanval!
Lanval runs around like a ninny, his gifts gone, looking for her, but he can't find her. Poor Lanval. Meanwhile, that mean old Guinevere tells Arthur that Lanval slandered her by claiming his girlfriend was better-looking than her, and Arthur sends his knights to catch him. They round him up and put him on trial.
Fortunately for Lanval, the fairy queen shows up just long enough to prove that yes, she is indeed prettier than mean ol' Guinevere. But then she leaves really fast. He chases her, catches up to her, and nobody in the mortal world ever sees him again, because she took him to the fairy world.
What a stupid, stupid story.
The Arthurian tales are subject to a lot of interpretation, but the one thing that always bothers me (other than Lancelot) is treating Guinevere like some kind of shrieking harpy.
-Signing off.
Specifically, while I gripe about what Wikipedia claims is the only "fairy tale" which is set in the midst of Arthurian legend-the tale of Lanval. More specifically, it was written by somebody I've never heard of called Marie de France. This is sad, because it's a story that offends me on the level of feeling sympathy for excessive cruelty and lack of sympathy for a female character.
Lanval is the story of some knight, who was everybody's favorite knight, because he was just so darned nice! (If you are wounded by the sheer level of my sarcasm, I apologize. It's just that Lanval has nearly surpassed Lancelot as my absolute least favorite Arthurian knight of all time.) He gave everything he had to the poor, and spent all his time doing knight things. Thus, he had little money left over, and relied entirely on the charity of the king.
But that rhymes-with-witch, Guinevere, hated him because he'd refused her advances on him. (Sorry again about the sarcasm.) So she told Arthur all kinds of fibs to make Arthur hate him and not give him money. He got poor, and had to sell his armor and his horse and stuff, and leave. Poor Lanval! (Stupid unintentional pun.)
But then Lanval met a beautiful fairy queen, and she gave him magic armor and a giant horse and a bottomless moneybag, and also love. (I am not making this up. That's exactly what she gave him.) Yay, Lanval! Now, he could give stuff to the poor again. But she warns him not to tell anybody about her and their relationship, or she'll never speak to him again.
Then, after Lanval gives tons of money to the poor and returns to Arthur's court, Guinevere accuses him of "not liking women," i.e. liking men instead. (The exact phraseology of her accusation depends on the text, as many versions were bowdlerized.) He responds that his girlfriend is much prettier than she is. Oops, mentioned the fairy queen! Poor, stupid Lanval!
Lanval runs around like a ninny, his gifts gone, looking for her, but he can't find her. Poor Lanval. Meanwhile, that mean old Guinevere tells Arthur that Lanval slandered her by claiming his girlfriend was better-looking than her, and Arthur sends his knights to catch him. They round him up and put him on trial.
Fortunately for Lanval, the fairy queen shows up just long enough to prove that yes, she is indeed prettier than mean ol' Guinevere. But then she leaves really fast. He chases her, catches up to her, and nobody in the mortal world ever sees him again, because she took him to the fairy world.
What a stupid, stupid story.
The Arthurian tales are subject to a lot of interpretation, but the one thing that always bothers me (other than Lancelot) is treating Guinevere like some kind of shrieking harpy.
-Signing off.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Worldbuilding Tip #1
(Don't read too much into the title of this thing. I'm just calling it that in case I get more "specific" world building ideas that are very general. I might never revisit this idea, or I might add an entry once a week for three years.)
One obvious technique for quickly and easily building cast members who may or may not play major roles is creating parallels to characters from other sources. For instance, it's fairly common for superhero universes made by smaller groups parallel the Justice League in broad or even very specific strokes. (Their opposite number in the other big company, the Avengers, are slightly less iconic for the most part, although they've had their share of riffs.)
Another option, if one is writing fantasy or something like it, is to export parallel roles of mythological characters. Indeed, even the old mythologies exported and imported pretty freely with each other; Roman mythology as we know it is almost a straight ripoff of Greek mythology.
The real trick, of course, is doing this kind of thing in ways one doesn't expect. For instance, if one was building a Great Old One "pantheon," one can actually build it in parallel fashion to the old Greek, Norse, and whatever groups. And the keystone, of course, is Cthulhu as the mighty greybeard "king" (like these guys) of the group.
His tentacles even look a bit like a beard. Bonus!
-Signing off.
One obvious technique for quickly and easily building cast members who may or may not play major roles is creating parallels to characters from other sources. For instance, it's fairly common for superhero universes made by smaller groups parallel the Justice League in broad or even very specific strokes. (Their opposite number in the other big company, the Avengers, are slightly less iconic for the most part, although they've had their share of riffs.)
Another option, if one is writing fantasy or something like it, is to export parallel roles of mythological characters. Indeed, even the old mythologies exported and imported pretty freely with each other; Roman mythology as we know it is almost a straight ripoff of Greek mythology.
The real trick, of course, is doing this kind of thing in ways one doesn't expect. For instance, if one was building a Great Old One "pantheon," one can actually build it in parallel fashion to the old Greek, Norse, and whatever groups. And the keystone, of course, is Cthulhu as the mighty greybeard "king" (like these guys) of the group.
His tentacles even look a bit like a beard. Bonus!
-Signing off.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A Random Proposal
You know what really needs to be made into some kind of comic or anime? Greek inventors.
Archimedes is purported to have singlehandedly been responsible for the defense of his home city, Syracuse, against the freaking Roman legions. Obviously, not through feats of physical prowess or any such thing, but by means of "toys" which had no "scientific value." Some of these supposed devices and tricks include the famous "heat ray" and the less well known but in some ways more impressive (and awesomely named) Claw of Archimedes. What was... The Claw? (Imagine that in the Little Green Man voice chorus from Toy Story.) It was, based on contemporary descriptions, a massive crane arm that tipped over attacking ships. Incidentally, the defenses, impressive as they were, were eventually overwhelmed, and Archimedes was stabbed and killed by a Roman soldier who had been sent to capture him, according to report because he was busy contemplating a mathematical diagram he was poring over. (His last words were supposedly "Do not disturb my circles [mathematical diagrams]!" although there's no mention of such in the earliest account of his death.) On a less exciting note, he was also supposed to have designed a number of implements, mathematical formulae, etc., including a massive ship which was supposed to have been the biggest of the era.
Then there's the amusingly named Hero (or Heron), regarded as perhaps the greatest inventor of the ancient world. He's supposed to be the originator of many useful inventions, such as the siphon (which he apparently applied in the world's first fire-extinguishing water pump). Of course, many of his inventions are probably improvements on the earlier inventor Ctesibius (AKA the hardest to spell Greek inventor), who made a number of things, including the predecessor of the pipe organ.
Then, there's the probably purely fictional Greek Inventor, Daedalus. He's most famous for designing the wax wings which Icarus flew too close to the Sun with. He also did a ton of other things, including, according to one myth, shove his brilliant nephew off of a cliff because his nephew was too smart. (His nephew was called Talos in some accounts. Also according to these accounts, Talos [also known as Perdix and Calos] was responsible for creating a way of housing human souls in machinery to make them immortal, which is an eerie and possibly intentional parallel to the other Talos, a giant made of bronze that defended the island of Crete, upon which Daedalus lived for many years, and for whose ruler he built the Labyrinth.)
How could an adaptation of these guys' lives, preferably a horrifically historically inaccurate one, not be totally awesome?
-Signing off.
Archimedes is purported to have singlehandedly been responsible for the defense of his home city, Syracuse, against the freaking Roman legions. Obviously, not through feats of physical prowess or any such thing, but by means of "toys" which had no "scientific value." Some of these supposed devices and tricks include the famous "heat ray" and the less well known but in some ways more impressive (and awesomely named) Claw of Archimedes. What was... The Claw? (Imagine that in the Little Green Man voice chorus from Toy Story.) It was, based on contemporary descriptions, a massive crane arm that tipped over attacking ships. Incidentally, the defenses, impressive as they were, were eventually overwhelmed, and Archimedes was stabbed and killed by a Roman soldier who had been sent to capture him, according to report because he was busy contemplating a mathematical diagram he was poring over. (His last words were supposedly "Do not disturb my circles [mathematical diagrams]!" although there's no mention of such in the earliest account of his death.) On a less exciting note, he was also supposed to have designed a number of implements, mathematical formulae, etc., including a massive ship which was supposed to have been the biggest of the era.
Then there's the amusingly named Hero (or Heron), regarded as perhaps the greatest inventor of the ancient world. He's supposed to be the originator of many useful inventions, such as the siphon (which he apparently applied in the world's first fire-extinguishing water pump). Of course, many of his inventions are probably improvements on the earlier inventor Ctesibius (AKA the hardest to spell Greek inventor), who made a number of things, including the predecessor of the pipe organ.
Then, there's the probably purely fictional Greek Inventor, Daedalus. He's most famous for designing the wax wings which Icarus flew too close to the Sun with. He also did a ton of other things, including, according to one myth, shove his brilliant nephew off of a cliff because his nephew was too smart. (His nephew was called Talos in some accounts. Also according to these accounts, Talos [also known as Perdix and Calos] was responsible for creating a way of housing human souls in machinery to make them immortal, which is an eerie and possibly intentional parallel to the other Talos, a giant made of bronze that defended the island of Crete, upon which Daedalus lived for many years, and for whose ruler he built the Labyrinth.)
How could an adaptation of these guys' lives, preferably a horrifically historically inaccurate one, not be totally awesome?
-Signing off.
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