#source: osp

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

Ma: *about Chang'e* Given a choice between boyfriends and the moon, girls pick the moon every time. Tang: Technically she had no other choice but, yeah, pretty much  

[ashenmind]

aspirations

i wanna be a transmission tower when i grow up

[quote-of-the-whenever]

“What is a D&D podcast if not competitive commitment to the bit?”

[m0dernchr0n1cles]

New Gods meet DC Monkey Prince

Monkey Prince: "Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

Li Yunxiang: "No, it's not. Look Marcus, you're going to fail a lot before things work out."

Monkey Prince: "This is supposed to make me feel better?!"

Li Yunxiang: "Even though you'll probably fail over and over again..."

Monkey Prince: "Seriously, you're not helping!"

Li Yunxiang: "You have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail."

[eyeball-freak]

Bitches will rag on Disney’s Hercules for being mythically inaccurate and then continue to post the same 5 inaccurate memes everyone’s already posted to death

“They did Hades totally wrong in this movie everyone knows he’s a goth bad boy who loves his wife!!” (Gag me)

“Omg I can’t believe this movie didn’t have my twink bisexual icons Apollo and Hermes who I totally ship even though I joke about mythologic incest being weirdddd” (Stfu)

“Omg I can’t believe they portrayed Zeus as a good dad when erm ACTSHULLY ☝️🤓 he was a MAN WHORE who would FUCK ANYTHING THAT MOVED and had ZERO REDEEMING QUALITIES AND WAS SOLEY A JERK!!! My source? The people on tumblr and the one osp video I had playing in the background 🤭” (KILLS YOU KILLS YOU KILLS YOU)

[darkchemistryfanboy]

The absolute worst instinct one can have while looking at a fact is "yeah, that seems about right". Many times it is not, and even when it is, you may be missing crucial information. Research. Even if it looks true, research. You'll be better for it.

just as a general reminder

learn how to fact-check for yourself, cause soon enough, most online sources won't be reliable

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

Spindrax: I keep trying to shoot people in the head, and they keep not getting shot in the head by me, and it’s very frustrating. 

[comicaurora]

Hello! This isn't comic-related, but concerning the Frankenstein's Eyes Incident, I thought it might be worth it to drop by and say that the main thing your classics summaries inspired me to do is actually read more, especially the source materials, including Frankenstein, which became my favorite book a few years ago, and still inspires basically everything I create (the amount of homunculus and artificially constructed characters in my writing are... something). And after being introduced to it through OSP, Dracula was my gateway read into the horror fan I am today. ith the risk of putting too much feels into an ask to a stranger, if I haven't stumbled into OSP when I did, I might not have ended up being a writer at all, and now a few weeks ago my first short story got actually published and that rekindling of love for the art of storytelling sorta kinda maybe changed my life. It's frustrating when people on the internet misinterpret what you're saying and use it as basis for misinformation, but there's also other cases! I'm sure you know about that already but still, a quick "hey, your fascination with stories was so contagious it made my life better" wouldn't hurt, probably. That's all I hope you have a good day!

cool cool coolcoolcool-

[loverofstufflof]

Ways to consume Journey to the West (without needling to buy and read a full translation)!

I’ve noticed that a lot of people can’t read the book for a lot of different reasons, so I’ve compiled a couple of my favourite ways of consume the story while bypassing these problems, categorized by the various issues I’ve come across.

Note that this is mainly for English speakers, as that’s the language I default to for translations.

The book is too inaccessible/expensive for me to obtain physically

Journey to the West Research has an entire blog post dedicated to compiling free PDF versions of the book. This includes many languages, not just English.

I struggle with reading text in that quantity

There are abridged versions of the story, my personal favourite is the one by Julie Lovell—it’s approximately a quarter of the original story’s length, and mainly focuses on the most iconic chapters. These versions are also typically more easily found in local bookstores.

I struggle with reading novels in general

The story has been converted into audio form! Here are the ones off the top of my head, each listed with their own pros and cons:

Journey to the West: An Audio Drama Series is an original translation told in a read-aloud format, in which the host, Lin, acts as a kindly librarian reading to a group of awaiting 1st graders. She gives every character a distinct voice and personality, and she’s obviously delighted to be able to share her culture with the listeners. The show used to have free translation notes, where Lin gets to act as a disgruntled translator going on about the intricacies of the Chinese language and historical/mythological contexts, but these now require a subscription to access. This show is the reason why I know how to pronounce these characters’ names.

Legends Summarized: The Journey to the West by Overly Sarcastic Productions is one that I’m sure I don’t need to include (because of how widespread it is) but feel I should because someone is gonna mention is anyways. It’s a very summarized, very sarcastic retelling of Red’s favourite chapters in the book, accompanied by fun visuals and the excitement of someone who clearly knows and loves what they’re talking about. As Red has said herself, this series should not be your only source of JTTW knowledge, as she simplifies it a ton to make it more digestible. Great for people who are just getting into the story and want a general overview, not great for people who want a more in-depth understanding of the themes and other complexities.

Journey of the Monkey King is a podcast akin to a longform, more in depth version of the OSP series. It consists of two Irish comedians discussing one chapter per episode; one of them (Caoimhe) has read the book, the other (MJ) hasn’t. The format is mainly Caoimhe giving a comedic abridged version of the chapter while MJ gawks in horror at whatever absurdity the Monster-of-the-Week presents. Because it’s hosted by Irish people, there isn’t much cultural context given, and some names are butchered, however I do find this one a lot easier to follow in comparison to the Audio Drama Series, and it’s far more detailed than Legends Summarized.

Journey to the West English Amateur Audiobook is one that is on my radar but have not started. To my current knowledge, it is an audiobook version of the WJF Jenner translation, which is notable to me because most of these types of podcasts are derived from the Anthony C Yu translation, so this one would be a nice listen to compare how the two went about handling the text.

Please know that this post isn’t intended to shame anyone into consuming the story; it’s not for everyone! But I’ve come across my fair share of aspiring fans who couldn’t access the book in a way that suited them (including myself) so I wanted to make this knowledge more generally know for anyone else who might need it :]

[the-mountain-flower]

To quote Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions: "if you're gender non-binary: you're magic, Ishtar loves you, and even the queen of hell thinks you're hot."

A history and mythology lesson reminding you that trans and non-binary people have always existed! [Long post]

[the-mountain-flower]

Aurora memes sourced from "OSP ANIMATED", enjoy :)

@comicaurora

[aquarius-cookie-jar]

Ok so I've been wanting to do headcanons of the pastry pantheon of Earthbread (the legendary elementals of nature). (I'm also a big fan of mythologies, big thanks to OSP for fueling my interest tbh lol).

Starting off with the gods, minor (but noteworthy) deities and their domains.

General Info: Domains, power, mythos and as a Pantheon

• Major deities •

Millenial Tree - creator god of nature; attributed to the flora and earth itself.

Sugar Swan - creator goddess of life; attributed to the fauna and sentient creatures; goddess of childbirth (in humanized aus).

Moonlight - goddess of dreams and magic; a protector deity who can also see visions of the future.

Sea Fairy - the embodiment of the sea; holds power and control over all bodies of water. Her tears create life, thus giving life to all creatures of the water.

Wind Archer - god of winds, protector of the millennial forest, and messenger to the higher deities.

Fire Spirit - god of the flames and rebirth; protector of children; patreon god of the cookies in the Dragons Valley.

Stormbringer - goddess of the sky, lightning and storms; also serves as the goddess of war and one of the patreon deities of the Dark Cacao Kingdom.

Frost Queen - goddess of the frost and protector of children; often misattributted as the goddess of death, but more so acts as a guardian to lost spirits who cannot enter the afterlife and leads them back to the source of all magic; second patreon goddess of the Dark Cacao Kingdom, but her worship is moreso found in the more isolated areas of the kingdom.

Timekeeper - goddess of chaos, guardian of the fabric of time and space; creator of the many timelines that exist within the cookieverse. Rarely stays in one timeline for long, so contact between her and the other deities is sparse.

---

• Minor deities (in Cookie Run: Kingdom specifically) •

Sherbet - Messenger of Frost Queen; acts as a guide to lost wanderers who are trapped in the snow.

Black Pearl - Immortal siren who claims reign over the Duskgloom Sea and the remains of the fallen mermaid kingdom.

Stardust - Keeper of stories and deity of the fallen stars; not counted as a god despite having equal power to Moonlight due to being relatively unknown by the larger population.

---

• Unknown (lacks context in canon to draw upon, but still seems like an important figure) •

The Divines

Are relatively unknown in origin, but is believed to be the patreon deity/deties of the Creme Republic. Their dominions are unknown, but are thought to be victories, protection and the arts (include the art of war). (Interpretation inspired by Athena and Minerva).

Assumed to be the divine angelic cookie statue received as rewards in the arena.

The Witches

The creators themselves.

Not all are truly good and not all are truly bad. They are really just humans with magic.

Details are obscure and kept hidden by the Saint Pastry Order.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Character: Theia

Source material: Aurora (webcomic)

This must be drawn by the lady that does OSP!

Rubric

[comicaurora]

oh yea that's my fault, somehow I'm continually surprised that people who use me as a substitute for literary analysis don't seem to literarily analyze me when I tell them I'm a funny haha internetter and not an academic source

I’ve seen this comment a few times on my art here and on insta and I’m genuinely curious— WHERE did people get the idea that the Creature “just had creepy eyes”?? That Victor only ran away because the Creature���s eyes freaked him out?

I’ve seen people say this repeatedly and it couldn’t be further from the truth like. He is explicitly described as an eight foot tall cobbled together corpse with skin that barely covers his veins, yes his eyes are creepy but that would probably be the last thing anyone would notice about the Creature tbh 😭

[arkon-z]

"If humanity was truly enlightened, we'd be bisexual normative instead of heteronormative." - OSP Blue.

Source.

Blue is correct.

[hyperpotamianarch]

So. Here's the thing: I didn't read the entire Odyssey yet, just the first five books or so. But I'm fairly certain of my knowledge of the events there, and I did listen to Epic the Musical, so I decided that hey, maybe I should see if I can point out what is and isn't in the Odyssey from the musical!

Major sources of knowledge on the Odyssey for me include Percy Jackson, Judissey (an Israeli comic book about the Holocaust that's structured around the Odyssey), Epic the Musical and of course some random things on the Internet. I think I've watched OSP's video on it? And I may have read some Wikipedia articles. Of course, this will likely only be entertaining if I'm mistaken on a really funny thing, but eh.

I'll start by the order of the Odyssey, because as mentioned I have read the start so I should get it out of the way. So:

God Games is the first event in the Odyssey... to a degree. Athena suggest they free Odysseus, but Zeus has no problem with that and Poseidon is in Ethiopia for some festival or something. No convincing a bunch of gods needed, they just make the call to free Odysseus.

Legendary+Little Wolf are kind of next. Telemachus has to deal with his mother's suitors and the mess they're making of his house and property. He hates that and tells them to go the hell away and court his mom in the usual way by asking her father. They reply that she should go back to her father's house then. Telemachus does want his father back, but the whole wishing to be him angle is not really there, and he doesn't fight the suitors physically. He is very explicit in his displeasure towards them, though, which took me back a little. The suitors also discuss the shroud thing with how Penelope's been stalling (mentioned in The Challenge in Epic), and Telemachus goes on his "diplomatic mission" AKA find out where in Hades Odysseus is through the advice of Athena (elements of which can be seen in "Little Wolf", "We'll Be Fine" and "Hold Them Down"). The suitors, once they learn about it, scheme to murder Telemachus when he returns ("Hold Them Down", though the rape part... I don't think really makes an appearance?).

Next events aren't included in Epic - it's Telemachus' journey to ask Nestor and Menelaus what happened to his father. Oh, and there are constant mentions of the murder of Agamemnon, which was a big deal but only appears in other plays. I think Electra is the one about how Agamemnon's children kill Clymenstra (sorry if I misspelled that) in vengence for that? But that's neither here nor there. Anyway, Menelaus finally tells Telemachus that he didn't see Odysseus since Troy, but that this one sea god he captured told him that Odysseus was still held up. Also, the Trojan horse is mentioned, so I suppose it's one point for "The Horse and the Infant". I'm going to claim it's the only one, because I believe Asynthax (IIR Hector's son's name correctly) doesn't make an appearance here at all. Plus, Neo is the one to kill him in some versions of the story.

Next we get the equivalent for "I'm Not Sorry for Loving You", Calypso having to say goodbye to Odysseus. Doesn't go down the same as in the musical - she's not happy that she has to say goodbye, and he is happy to leave, but they did have a possibly more mutual relationship. Odysseus takes the raft - though I don't believe Hermes makes an appearance, so point off from "Dangerous", and Charybdis also doesn't appear here. Neither does Poseidon. So yeah, everything between "Dangerous" and "Six Hundred Strike" just didn't happen. Charybdis was probably mentioned, but I believe Odysseus didn't meet her because he went through Scylla's route.

Odysseus' raft does not survive well, he washed ashore on some island kingdom, found by their princess or something and is taken to the palace. None of this is in Epic. I also don't remember the island's name. Odysseus then is asked what his story is, and he goes back to the end of the Trojan war (I think).

Maybe horse mentioned, could be a side mention of Hector's son. Not sure. At this point we get to the equivalent to "Full Speed Ahead" - not achieved due to the gods being pissed of with the Achaeans because of stuff Achilles did? This part comes from the Olympians comic book series by George O'connor

'God Games is the first event in the Odyssey... to a degree. Athena suggest they free Odysseus, but Zeus has no problem with that and Poseidon is in Ethiopia for some festival or something. No convincing a bunch of gods needed, they just make the call to free Odysseus.

Legendary+Little Wolf are kind of next. Telemachus has to deal with his mother's suitors and the mess they're making of his house and property. He hates that and tells them to go the hell away and court his mom in the usual way by asking her father. They reply that she should go back to her father's house then. Telemachus does want his father back, but the whole wishing to be him angle is not really there, and he doesn't fight the suitors physically. He is very explicit in his displeasure towards them, though, which took me back a little. The suitors also discuss the shroud thing with how Penelope's been stalling (mentioned in The Challenge in Epic), and Telemachus goes on his "diplomatic mission" AKA find out where in Hades Odysseus is through the advice of Athena (elements of which can be seen in "Little Wolf", "We'll Be Fine" and "Hold Them Down"). The suitors, once they learn about it, scheme to murder Telemachus when he returns ("Hold Them Down", though the rape part... I don't think really makes an appearance?).

Next events aren't included in Epic - it's Telemachus' journey to ask Nestor and Menelaus what happened to his father. Oh, and there are constant mentions of the murder of Agamemnon, which was a big deal but only appears in other plays. I think Electra is the one about how Agamemnon's children kill Clymenstra (sorry if I misspelled that) in vengence for that? But that's neither here nor there. Anyway, Menelaus finally tells Telemachus that he didn't see Odysseus since Troy, but that this one sea god he captured told him that Odysseus was still held up. Also, the Trojan horse is mentioned, so I suppose it's one point for "The Horse and the Infant". I'm going to claim it's the only one, because I believe Asynthax (IIR Hector's son's name correctly) doesn't make an appearance here at all. Plus, Neo is the one to kill him in some versions of the story.

Next we get the equivalent for "I'm Not Sorry for Loving You", Calypso having to say goodbye to Odysseus. Doesn't go down the same as in the musical - she's not happy that she has to say goodbye, and he is happy to leave, but they did have a possibly more mutual relationship. Odysseus takes the raft - though I don't believe Hermes makes an appearance, so point off from "Dangerous", and Charybdis also doesn't appear here. Neither does Poseidon. So yeah, everything between "Dangerous" and "Six Hundred Strike" just didn't happen. Charybdis was probably mentioned, but I believe Odysseus didn't meet her because he went through Scylla's route.

Odysseus' raft does not survive well, he washed ashore on some island kingdom, found by their princess or something and is taken to the palace. None of this is in Epic. I also don't remember the island's name. Odysseus then is asked what his story is, and he goes back to the end of the Trojan war (I think).

Tumblr started glitching at a certain point, so I'll leave it here for now. Obviously, I didn't detail every point in the Odyssey, but I think I pointed out most of what's not there that's in the equivalent songs in Epic. Will continue soon, hopefully.