#Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki

[stil-lindigo]

image i made for a powerpoint night with friends

[hamable]

One concrete thought I have about The Boy and The Heron is that i believe the core of the story is Mahito overcoming the loss and grief of losing his mother and his home and life, and- after spending the latter half of the movie navigating a between space where souls exist before they’re born as well as other spirits- When Mahito re-emerges with his stepmother, they too are both reborn.

One other thing I’ll have to address later: so much of this film (and The Wind Rises as well!) resonates deeper after watching The Never Ending Man, the doc that came out in 2016 about Hayao Miyazaki. Knowing about losing his mother young, about looking up to strong women, about his father building airplanes and those filling him with wonder until WWII hit and they became tools of war. Knowing about how he views the world, used to view the world, and how he hopes to leave it; how he’s baffled death has not claimed him yet but taken everyone else- god, all of it informs so much of his movies especially his most recent ones. I’m so emo about this man.

[artistryiscomingback]

I'm so sorry, but if I was a young, hip animator who specializes in CGI, and I was called to meet with and show some work to Hayao Miyazaki, I would shit my pants. I wouldn't be able to show up to the meeting. This is insanity. These people have so much to live for.

[hiraya-sa-dilim]

the boy and the heron has a wisdom none of miyazaki's other final films do. it illuminates so much imagery from his previous movies as the themes that shaped his career and his personal life. it finally closes the never-ending chapter of his childhood traumas, and it's a folk tale for his family and animation industry descendants, whether or not they carry on his torch or light their own fires. and hayao is both mahito and the old man because after decades playing god in his high tower, he's finally choosing to go home.

[tylostoma]

never-ending man: hayao miyazaki (2016) dir. kaku arakawa

[robinwinged]

escapism in "the boy and the heron"

Interrupting my regularly scheduled programming of Good Omens brainrot for this attempt to process the wonderful, fantastical, and distinctly discombobulating experience of watching Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron.” 

Miyazaki’s films, at least to me, have never been straightforward to follow. Spirited Away, for example, is a beautiful masterpiece whose meaning is difficult to decipher on a first watch, and is only fully unveiled when you dive headfirst into research of Japan’s context and the movie’s many symbolic themes. The Boy and the Heron takes this typical Miyazaki complexity and ineffability and turns it up to eleven. There are so many elements that seem random, so many narrative arcs and characters all warring for attention (what is the tower? why are the parakeets so goddamn bloodthirsty? why is the blue heron such a creepy old man?), that combine to create a whimsical but overall also very strange landscape. 

I know that art in general does not have to have “meaning” or “a message” to be deserving of our love and attention. Art can be touching, affecting, disturbing, provoking - any number of things that would give it credit - and damn it if The Boy and the Heron isn’t all of these combined. But. 

But.

This is also a Miyazaki movie, and he has proven once and time again why he is the master of hidden meaning, and so here, in no particular order, are my half-formed rambles on what I have personally think each movie detail that I struggled to puzzle out initially is about. 

(spoilers below, so proceed with caution!)

The tower, time, and escapism 

The tower is the central mystery point of the movie - a literal mystical rock that crashed down from the heavens and later lured Mahito’s grand-grand uncle (let’s call him the Tower Master for convenience’s sake) into its depths. Within the tower is a mirage world filled with magic but no real living beings, controlled by the whims of the Tower Master and nothing else that remotely resembles logic or reality. The tower also contains a series of doors that seem to lead to different points in time, if the ending is to go by and how the 13 blocks are meant to be pieces of worlds the Tower Master has visited. So what is this strange and fantastic realm, and what role does it play in the overarching narrative? 

My hypothesis is that the Tower is a pocket free from the influence of time (think like the TVA in Loki) - a separate island running parallel to the fabric of the universe that contains portals to different points of past, present, and future. By itself, the pocket has no life or substance; it must be filled by the imagination - pure imagination, untethered to reality - of its main (human) inhabitant. This is why most of the ships are illusions rather than real objects, why the parakeets are so ridiculously odd and behave nothing like real

birds, why the fish is the size of Kiriko’s damn ship. Anything that is real, has to be brought in from the real world (see: the pelicans, Himi, and Kiriko). This is also why the parakeet king immediately topples the tower: yes, he is not the Tower Master’s descendant, but he is also not inherently a real sentient being, and an imaginary object cannot in itself sustain a further imagination. 

So why does the Tower Master choose to sequester himself in this alternate space, where he can only exist alone with his own mysterious creations? I think the Tower Master represents those of us who wish to escape from reality, to inhabit worlds which we can control, where pain doesn’t have to touch us if we don’t wish for it (whether I’m projecting reallyyyyy hard at this point does not matter ok). He is an insanely avid reader, with books literally piled in small mountains throughout his living quarters, and don’t we readers (i.e me, again) always wish for escapism? The Tower Master, then, is an example of those who would rather become entrapped in our own minds rather than deal with the world beyond us - maybe, even in a way, a little like Miyazaki himself, whose imagination is so powerful but is also extremely singular and all-consuming, anchoring him to his creative work without reprieve of retirement until his reserves run dry (not to imply that the man is a hermit or that I want him to retire, quite the opposite in fact, but parallels, no matter how shaky, can still be drawn). 

This, too, explains why the Tower Master needs Mahito to control the world for him. It is not because he’s grown old, since he cannot be affected by time in the Tower, but it is because his imagination is stagnating - he is no longer capable of finding new ways to balance the tower, he cannot sustain the fantasy any longer. In itself, this can already serve as a message from Miyazaki - we cannot hope to live only within the confines of our minds if we do not interact at all with the real world, because then at some point we will run out of material, of lived experiences to build on top of, and threaten to crumble the fragile imaginary world we have created. 

Himi and her fire powers

Himi is a strange hiccup in the system - a rare occurrence of a living person in this fantasy playland that wasn’t brought into it during Mahito’s own entrance, like Kiriko. This theory is a little bit out there, I can totally appreciate that myself, but remember that one year in which Mahiko disappeared from the real world and then came back completely unchanged? I think she chose to stay there for much longer than a year, knowing that time didn’t work the same in this pocket world and she always had the chance to return to her original timeline through the handy door-portals. I think Himi has stayed there essentially until she met Mahito - so long that she actually grew into a part of the fantasy, developing impossible pyrokinetic powers and becoming a set part of the landscape in exchange for extended youth. But this stay didn’t come without consequences. In the real world, Mahiko passes away in a fire, at a younger age than would be expected. Perhaps this, in itself, is a punishment for cheating time - the universe reclaiming the years that Himi spent in the Tower. It’s also definitely not a coincidence that Himi can control fire in the Tower, and dies by fire in the real world; a form of lethal poetic justice, if you will. Seeing Mahito was the trigger for Himi to leave, to embrace her own destiny, because she could now see and be proud of the outcomes of her life and not have regrets about missing out on the life passing her by. (This interpretation would then necessarily imply a deterministic version of life and time, so it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it makes sense in this version because you see doors way farther down than the present which Mahito steps into.) 

The starving pelicans 

The pelicans are another anomaly because they, too, are not figments of the Tower Master’s imagination, but instead have been brought into this fantasy world, for one reason or another, likely against their will. And this is where the Tower Master’s escape from reality cracks and burns at the foundation - he creates harm rather than good when he brings in the pelicans, because he does not account for the fact that they cannot exist without a source of food, and they then are forced to eat the Warawara to survive. The movie states that the Warawara are like baby souls, who ascend to become new lives, but I think it’s a little more metaphorical than literal rebirth. For me the Warawara are metaphorical ideas or seedlings of inspiration, the only parts of the Tower Master’s creations which aren’t fully formed, but allowed to grow by themselves and escape into the world - like passing the spark of creation to others outside the Tower. And the pelicans, involuntary prisoners of the Tower Master’s fantasy world, must prey on the Warawara before they have the chance to become real. This can be seen (if you squint real hard and do some violent spins so your vision is hella blurry) as the beginning of the end of the Tower Master’s reign - the forceful inclusion of other sentient beings inside his imagination doesn’t help him enrich his internal realm, but rather snuffs out the genuine inspiration that he could be passing onto others, creating pain where the Tower Master hoped to be spared from it. 

Mahito’s rejection of the Tower

So with this central “Tower as escapism” theory, what does Mahito’s rejection to take over for the Tower Master mean? There is a moment that was so subtly powerful in that final exchange between the two, when Mahito stops denying the truth by telling everyone that he got his scar from falling, and instead admits that self-harm was the actual cause. At the beginning of the movie, I viewed that moment of very painful self-harm as Mahito’s wish to withdraw from the challenges of life - to live in isolation away from the grief over losing his mother, the challenges of being the rich new kid in town, the overwhelming discomfort of seeing his father shack up with his aunt. His reality is agonizing for him, and the fantasy land is so beautiful in its strange way that it could become a safe haven away from his trauma. But when Mahito says “no”, he is choosing reality; he is choosing to do the hard work, to face all the hardships life can throw at him, because he feels finally strong enough to not need to use imagination as an escapist crutch. In those final moments, Mahito is choosing to live in a world that he cannot control, because no matter how tough things get, he doesn’t have to do it alone - and that’s what I think Miyazaki is telling us too. 

Of course, the movie also deals with themes of class conflict and war profiteering; grief and acceptance; continuing your ancestors’ legacies versus paving your own path, which many have already discussed and I don’t particularly have anything new to add to. Regardless, these themes are masterfully woven into the plot, as per usual, and serve to elevate the movie’s emotional impact into something heart-twisting and truly unforgettable. 

Alright, ramble over - back to fandom lurking! 

[lcdrarry]

LCDrarry 2024 Master List Part 1: Podfic & Art & Fic

Dear lovely Participants, Creators, Alpha and Beta Readers, Cheerleaders, Readers and Fans of this fest,

The 6th installment of LCDrarry has come to an end, and we'd like to thank you all for taking part in this fest, for creating so many amazing new Drarry works for us all to enjoy, for commenting on your favourite creations, for sharing and recommending the LCDrarry gems with and to your friends and blog followers, and for making this fest another amazing experience for everybody!

Fests would not exist without their participants or readers! You're all amazing! And we're so happy that you chose this fest in the vast and wonderful offerings of HP and Drarry events.

You can find out under the cut who created what ;D

~Your LCDrarry Mods Tami (@celilasart) and Suzi (@erin-riwen)

PS: Please have a look at the author notes and tags on AO3 for additional information and more detailed warnings. Thank you! PPS: You can find a link to Part 2 of this Master List under the cut. Enjoy!

Part 2 of this Master List with more lovely fics can be found here.

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Podfic

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A Mist That Appears (For a Little Time)

Prompt: “Sweet November,” 2001, Pat O’Connor Written by: dodgerkedavra Narrated by: reveriepi Podfic Length: 02:25:58 Rating: Explicit Warnings: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Vomiting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse

Summary: “Give me November, and I’ll teach you to be happy. There’s only one condition. You must swear on your magic that you won’t fall in love with me.” Harry’s so tired. His whole body hurts. If Malfoy can teach him how to be happy, then... “Okay.” Harry is working himself to death. Draco only has November to help him. Falling in love is strictly against the rules.

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As You Wish

Prompt: "The Princess Bride", 1987, Rob Reiner Written by: Pineau_noir Narrated by: Cailynwrites Podfic Length: 02:31:28 Rating: Teen and up Warnings: None

Summary: Draco was raised on a farm in the small country of Witshire; his favourite pastimes were flying on his broom and tormenting the hired farm boy. Though his name was Harry, Draco never called him that. On Harry's forehead there was a scar shaped like a lightning bolt, so Draco called him Scarhead.

Nothing gave Draco as much pleasure as ordering Harry around.

Or a story about fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, True Love, and miracles.

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The Pirc Defence

Prompt: "The Queen’s Gambit", 2019, Scott Frank Written by: sleepstxtic Narrated by: sweaters_in_the_summer Podfic Length: 01:05:00 Rating: Explicit Warnings: None

Summary: They were rivals, and they were lovers, and they were the greatest chess players of their generation. Exactly in that order.

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My Big Fat Weasley Wedding

Prompt: “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, 2002, Joel Zwick Written by: slyth_princess Narrated by: Melcarrianna Podfic Length: 07:17:21 Rating: Mature Warnings: None

Summary: A decade after the war, Harry Potter is lost. There was a time when he knew exactly who he was, where he was going, and what he wanted. He is not that man anymore. Until one day he decides he is done. No more wearing clothes that don't fit, stuck in a job that was meant to be temporary, and simply coasting through his life. He has a plan. And, unsurpisingly, every single Weasley and honourary Weasley seems to have an opinion about it. But it's fine. Harry knows he is doing the right thing.

What he didn't plan for, however, was to find love in the most unexpected place. And with the most unexpected person. Still, it's going to be fine. Like he said, he has a plan. Weasley opinions be damned. He's got it all under control. Doesn't he?

Featuring a million Weasleys, a daft labrador, and a whole bunch of people just trying to figure out their lives.

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Art

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Draco's Moving Castle

Prompt: "Howl's Moving Castle", 2004, Hayao Miyazaki Artist: Averily Art Medium: Digital Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None

Summary: Art for LCDrarry2024 fest. Prompt was Howl's Moving Castle.

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Go the Whole Wide World

Prompt: "Stranger than Fiction", 2006, Marc Forster Artists: julchen_in_red and m4g0rtz Medium: Digital Art Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None

Summary: When government employee Draco Crick was assigned to audit baker Harry Pascal, neither anticipated falling in love, but sometimes the person right next to you is the most welcome surprise.

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[Art] A Game of Horcruxes

Prompt: "Game of Thrones", 2011, David Benioff Artist: fantalf Art Medium: Digital Art Rating: Teen and Up Warnings: Duelling, Horcruxes, Blood and Injury

Summary: Art Post for "A Game of Horcruxes" written by sleepstxtic.

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Illustrated Fic

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[Fic & Art] A Game of Horcruxes

Prompt: "Game of Thrones", 2011, David Benioff Author: sleepstxtic Word Count: 118,635 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Brief Descriptions of Injury, Racism, Classism

Summary: It has been centuries since an attack on the castle of a royal scion. Centuries, until now.

The Realm of Hogwarts is ruled by eight noble Slytherin families, aided by their Gryffindor armies. Each kingdom possesses a Horcrux—the most precious source of magic to the throne. But when the Kingdom of Malfoy finds their Horcrux stolen, Prince Draco must break all protocol and enlist the help of a commoner, Harry, to find what's missing. All the while, an evil beyond the horizon stirs, Dementor attacks are increasing, and civil unrest is burning across the land. Can Draco and Harry recover the Horcrux and save the realm? And will they be able to resist their growing attraction to each other in the meantime?

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A Ferret, a ScarHead, a Weasel, and a Baby

Prompt: "Three Men and a Baby", 1987, Leonard Nimoy & "Taken", 2008, Pierre Morel Author: trishjames Word Count: 91,420 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Angst, Anxiety, Epic Fight Scene(s), Canon-Typical Violence, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Blood, Muggle Weapons, References to Past Child Abuse, Abduction, Injuries

Summary: They say becoming a parent is an unparalleled, priceless joy. Draco Malfoy finds himself putting that theory to the test when the star witness in his dangerous illegal potions case entrusts him with a powerful wish: protect her newborn baby at all costs. Now, it's up to Draco to fulfill that wish despite the looming threat of criminals hunting for the child. To think, just the day before, he was fretting over his inappropriate feelings for his annoying, bespectacled git of a housemate—not the mechanics of changing nappies!

Thank Merlin it takes a village to raise a sack of flour, ah, child.

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Fic

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White, Blonde & British

Prompt: “Red, White & Royal Blue”, 2023, Matthew Lopez Author: SortofShea Word Count: 40,058 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Mentions of death, drug and alcohol use and abuse, homophobia, racism, discrimination

Summary: Prince Draco Malfoy is known all over the world as “The Modern Day Prince Charming”, ask anyone - well, anyone except for Harry Potter, first son of the Indian president and (self) sworn rival of said stuck-up, snobbish prince.

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drag the past out into the light

Prompt: "Se7en", 1995, David Fincher Author: ChaosBitch Word Count: 20,796 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Summary: There's a serial killer stalking magical London. The murders are gruesome, bizarre, and somehow connected to the Voldemort wars. Auror Harry Potter is paired up with an analyst from the Department of Mysteries to piece together the clues in the killer's unsettling game before they kill again.

The good news? This analyst is the best one on offer. The bad news? It's Draco Malfoy.

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the beating of our hearts (is the only sound)

Prompt: "Pacific Rim", 2013, Guillermo del Toro Author: Pineau_noir Word Count: 12,675 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: canon (Pacific Rim) creature grossness

Summary: Do you want awesome, kickass fights between giant robots and aliens??!?!?

Go watch Pacific Rim.

This is a story about two flawed men who fall in love during an apocalypse.

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Draco Malfoy's New Guide to Old-Fashioned Dating

Prompt: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 days", 2003, Donald Petrie Author: caliowl Word Count: 52,377 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: Non-Consensual Drug Use

Summary: When Harry's job as an auror is threatened by his perceived negative attitude towards Death Eaters, he makes a desperate gamble with his boss to save it. Bring a Death Eater as his plus-one to the company holiday party. Unfortunately for him, there's only one person he can think of to ask...

Meanwhile, in order to save his best friend Pansy Parkinson from a terrible social fate, Draco Malfoy makes a bet with Pansy's mother. He believes that old-fashioned, traditional courting methods are the best way to repel, not attract, a potential suitor. Now, if only he can find a wizard who has no clue about those methods...

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Black Sheep

Prompt: "Shaun the Sheep", 2007-2020 Author: shushu_yaoi_lj Word Count: 10,808 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: smut, dirty talk, praise kink, soft d/s dynamics, begging

Summary: “You know, Potter, maybe all you need to win is a little—incentive, let’s say.” “An incentive?” Harry asks, his interest piqued. He takes a step closer to the fence, and then another one, until he’s standing so close that he can smell the intoxicating scent of Malfoy’s expensive cologne. “Shall we say that if you win, you can have whatever your heart desires?” Malfoy replies with a smile. “Anything.”

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Jackknife To The Heart

Prompt: "Mad Max: Furiosa", 2024, George Miller Author: sleepstxtic Word Count: 11,723 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Gunfights

Summary: Draco licked his lips, slow and sensual. He climbed over Harry’s lap and slid down onto his knees. “Keep making love to me, darling,” he said, gazing up at Harry, something starry in his eyes; and then he pulled down Harry’s pants and took his cock in his mouth.

Harry sucked in a breath, threw the shifter into gear, and drove.

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First Impressions

Prompt: "Pride and Prejudice", 2005, Joe Wright Author: ActuallyMoon Word Count: 87,934 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: Period-typical racism and colourism (only present in one chapter), A/B/O dynamics, Dubious Consent, Classism, Smut, Mpreg

Summary: At the Shacklebolts' ball, Ginny found herself irrevocably smitten at first sight with Ms Pansy Parkinson. Meanwhile, her brother, Harry Potter, became the unfortunate target of biting remarks from Parkinson's haughty and aloof best friend, Mr Draco Malfoy. Harry's disdain for Mr Malfoy grew, fuelled by the latter's evident arrogance. Amidst this burgeoning animosity, Ms Romilda Vane began to spread malicious rumours regarding Malfoy, further tarnishing his reputation. Yet, the true nature of his character was far from what these tales suggested. Could Draco overcome his pride and Harry his prejudice, allowing love to blossom between them despite the odds?

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Obscuro

Prompt: "Love is Blind", 2020 Author: stratigraphy Word Count: 35,227 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: None

Summary: Draco is grieving. His conversation partner is here against his will. It's a shameless rip-off of an insipid Muggle reality dating show. Hardly the occasion for true love, if you ask Draco. feat. a cat named Marmalade, a bird named Mumble, Lee Jordan's answer to Love is Blind, and two best friends who only want their dads to be happy.

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Eternalism is a Never Ending Day

Prompt: "Russian Doll", 2019 Author: JK_Terfling_Can_Suck_My_Silicone_Dick Word Count: 25,970 words Rating: Teen and up Warnings: Temporary Suicide, Temporary MCD, implied/referenced Depression

Summary: Malfoy has been reliving the same day for longer than he can keep track of now, and has just assumed that he was dead in the real world, which was fine to him. It isn't until the time loop stops doing what he expects that it occurs to him that maybe there's something else going on.

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Part 2 of this Master List with more lovely fics can be found here.

As always, reblogs here on tumblr are very much appreciated to share all the wonderful works of LCDrarry with more people. But of course, please also shower our creators with comments and kudos on AO3 ;D Thank you! Read you next year ;)

[unsoundedcomic]

Did you enjoy The Boy and the Heron? I don't think it's my new favorite Ghibli film but it's got me thinking a lot. I had the same sort of feeling about Wind Rises where the film itself wasn't my favorite work but I really appreciated the film's message/theme more than some of the other Ghibli films that I DO love. would love to hear your thoughts!!

No spoilers below--

I enjoyed the first ninety minutes very much. Some of the sequences in it are among the best Miyazaki's done. I like the heron a lot and I loved the character Kiriko. Mahito was a good kid too, he was a little less opaque than a lot of Miyazaki's protagonists and I loved his intense madness in the first half.

But then, man, does that movie fall down hard towards the end. All the modern Miyazaki movies do, he hasn't ended a movie coherently since Mononoke Hime, but it's at its most detrimental here. So much is dropped. There are so many elements that never have a pay-off.

Now you mentioned The Wind Rises and I think that's a fine movie to compare this one with. The Wind Rises also had a surface narrative - the highly fictionalized life of Jiro Horikoshi - and a personal thematic narrative - Hayao Miyazaki's rumination on what it is to be an artist. Both are very well managed in that movie and they each come to a satisfying, if characteristically rushed and choppy end.

How Do You Live does NOT, in my opinion, stick the landing with its primary tale about a grieving kid named Mahito. Instead it's constantly battling with its second function as a symbolic depiction of Miyazaki's creative process and advice to The Youth. The characters are given precedence as symbols rather than as people. I found this unsatisfying and frustratingly self-indulgent on his part. By the end I pretty much understood that Mahito was the the Youth, that the tower was the director working through the process of a film, that the mother was both a curse and a protective inspiration, that the pregnant stepmother was a new project, that the heron was Toshio Suzuki, yadda yadda. The film is much more interested in this self-indulgence than in resolving its primary story about Mahito. It all but abandons that kid's struggle in favour of its wanking.

There is so, so much left unresolved. And the resolutions it does come to feel unjustified, frantic, and like afterthoughts.

So yeah, not one of my favourites either. Just a mess of a movie. But the fact it was all pulled together by an eighty-something year old dude is impressive for sure. I don't think we'll ever see another animated movie like this again. For better or for worse :3

[goforth-ladymidnight]

On ACOTAR Faeries and Names

For some reason, SJM undoes most, if not all, of traditional faerie lore in her books. (I haven't read TOG or CC so I can't comment on those.) The cynical part of me thinks it's because faeries can be difficult to write well, therefore she took the easy route; the more forgiving part of me thinks it's because she set out to explore why humans believed certain myths about faeries, but then lost interest as she spent more and more time in the realm of the Night Court. (Side note: I find it odd that SJM chose to emphasize that the Illyrians are NOT really faeries, whether High or "lesser". I honestly wonder why that is.) Regardless, there's nothing very faerie about SJM's High Fae, etc. except for their ethereal beauty and pointed ears and the fact that they can do magic, I guess.

I've already written about Aging and Lying when it comes to ACOTAR's Faeries, and I thought I'd touch on another aspect of faerie lore that SJM chooses to ignore. (Heh, that rhymes.)

Names.

His [Rhysand's] eyes shifted to my face. “What’s your name, love?” Giving him my name—and my family name—would lead only to more pain and suffering. He might very well find my family and drag them into Prythian to torment, just to amuse himself. But he could steal my name from my mind if I hesitated for too long. Keeping my mind blank and calm, I blurted the first name that came to mind, a village friend of my sisters’ whom I’d never spoken to and whose face I couldn’t recall. “Clare Beddor.” My voice was nothing more than a gasp. ~ACOTAR ch. 26

Clare and her family are killed because Rhys revealed that name to Amarantha, even though he admitted later (in the next book) that he thought she made it up. So, Feyre's fears were not unfounded, but once she is Under the Mountain with everyone else, she is still reluctant to give her name when Amarantha asks for it.

Lucien is even brought forward and refuses to give away Feyre's name. For his defiance, Amarantha orders Rhysand to shatter his mind before Feyre finally gives in and shouts her name for everyone to hear. The Lady of Autumn even repays her sacrifice by helping her with one of Amarantha's "household tasks".

What is the sacrifice, though? It would seem that the only reason Amarantha wants to know her name is because Feyre knows hers, and wants to address her "properly":

“Feyre,” Amarantha said, testing my name, the taste of the two syllables on her tongue. “An old name—from our earlier dialects. Well, Feyre,” she said. I could have wept with relief when she didn’t ask for my family name. “I promised you a riddle.” ~ACOTAR ch. 35

In traditional faerie lore, it is said that names have power, so giving a faerie your name gives them power over you. (It is important to note that they cannot take anything from you. It has to be given.)

There is a scene in Hayao Miyazaki's animated classic in which the young protagonist Chihiro signs a contract to work for the sorceress Yubaba. In a beautifully animated sequence, her signature floats away and into Yubaba's waiting palm. She literally signed away her name. Chihiro is then given a new name in exchange: Sen. By the next day, she has already forgotten her original name and her purpose (freeing her enchanted parents). It is only when another ensorcelled young man gives her the bundle of her old clothes with a card in the pocket (with her name written on it) that she remembers who she was, and why she's there.

I just think it could have been very interesting to give Feyre a similar plotline in ACOTAR. By giving Amarantha her name, she no longer has it, and can no longer remember it. (And since the story is told in first person, it's easier to convey.)

How she gets her name back could be handled in one of two ways: Lucien gives back her name like the true friend he is, or she doesn't remember it until the very end.

If we explore the second option, this is what I'm thinking: Amarantha sought to break Feyre in mind, body, and spirit. The one thing she could never take from Feyre was her love for Tamlin.

“I love you,” I said. “No matter what she says about it, no matter if it’s only with my insignificant human heart. Even when they burn my body, I’ll love you.” My lips trembled, and my vision clouded before several warm tears slipped down my chilled face. I didn’t wipe them away. ~ACOTAR ch. 43

In my Faeries and Lying essay (linked above), I think it would have been more powerful for Amarantha to want Feyre to admit to lying about her love for Tamlin. In the same vein, I think it would be that much more impactful for Feyre to admit that even if she does not know her own name, she knows she loves Tamlin, and that's enough.

It's the one thing Amarantha couldn't take from her. It's the reason Feyre went Under the Mountain in the first place. And most importantly, it's the answer to the riddle. Love. And that's enough.

[tokiro07]

I had heard about the manga of the guy with 100 girlfriends, could you tell me about it.

Circa 2005, a child was born during a rerun of Hayao Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky

The God of Love, who had never seen Castle in the Sky, was so enamored with the film that he messed up the child's paperwork; instead of giving him 1 soulmate, as is customary, he inadvertently gave the boy 100 soulmates

Over the course of the next 15 years, the boy would easily fall in love with multiple girls, but as none were his soulmates, each and every one would reject him, typically very bluntly and cruelly

After his 100th rejection at the end of his third year of middle school, the boy, Rentarou Aijou, prayed to find love in high school, and was visited by the very God that had cursed him to such a long string of misfortunes in love

Learning that he would have his pick of the 100 objectively most perfect girls for him, Rentarou was ecstatic, but the God gave him this warning: as finding one's soulmate is a matter of extreme luck, failure to maintain a relationship with them will result in the complete depletion of their life's worth of luck, and will result in their untimely death. With the knowledge that he cannot simply pick and choose from his soulmates, Rentarou agonizes over the awful burden he now carries

The next day, he meets the first two of his hundred soulmates, the doting and alluring Hakari Hanazono and the brutish yet sweet Karane Inda. After meeting them, Rentarou realizes just what it means for one to be a soulmate; the very idea of choosing one over another is tantamount to ripping off one's own limbs! To make the relationships work, Rentarou considers dating both girls in secret so as not to hurt either of them and to ensure that neither is killed, but the guilt of betraying the trust of his perfect partners, whom he has searched for his entire life, proves too much, and so...

He resolves to openly and unabashedly date not only both girls, but all 100 of the soulmates to come, no matter what!!!

As they are his perfect soulmates, both girls of course agree to the polyamorous relationship, as they understand instinctively that this man will, without fail, make them happy

In the ensuing days, one by one, Rentarou meets his soulmates, each more eccentric than the last! And with those eccentricities comes insecurity, which make many of them feel reluctant to pursue a relationship. However, through Rentarou's love, determination, and frankly insane levels of dedication to those important to him, he is able to prove to each and every one of them that they are worthy of love and happiness, and invites them into his ever-expanding harem, affectionately dubbed "Rentarou's Family"

Sometimes games, sometimes drama, sometimes even battles! Rentarou's Family faces it all together to ensure that in this romantic comedy, there are no losing heroines!!!

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

I'm watching all of Studio Ghibli's movies in chronological order, and today I watched Castle in the sky!!

This film was directed by Hayao Miyazaki and released in 1986. The main character, Sheeta, is a girl who's being followed by a man from the government that wants a necklace her mother gifted her before dying because it's the key to finding the legendary island of Laputa. Pazu, a young miner helps her escape from him.

Laputa is inspired by an island with the same name described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. In the third part of the book the main character visists the flying island of Laputa. I've never read the book so I don't know much more about it, but apparently both islands have many similarities and it looks really interesting.

Now, I had watched this film once before and I remembered not really liking it that much, but this time it really surprise me because I really enjoyed it. Pazu's a really fun character, Sheeta is the typical Miyazaki protagonist, capable of doing whatever she puts her mind to, inspiring, and really something I love to see and I would have loved even more when I was younger. But some of the best characters were Dola and the pirates. They remind me of the Fratelli from The Goonies (a film I watched so many times as a child and absolutely adore) for some reason, and they're just really fun. Oh, and I really like the robots. They're so cute!!!! And the lonely one in the garden almost made me cry. Overall the technollogy in Laputa is so interesting, but sadly there isn't much shown of it.

I think I'm going to say this about every Miyazaki, but the soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi is just another level. I swear I love his music so much, and it always matches the films in such a perfect and beautiful way. It just makes the experience even better.

So yeah, it had been a while since my last ghibli post because I don't have a lot of time to watch films, but I'll try to watch the next one a bit sooner. I ended up really liking this film a lot and I'm glad I gave it a second chance because it's trully beautiful.

[gjdraws]

4, 14 and 20 please

4. Is there a film you love except for the ending? What would you change about the ending?

You know I mentioned two films in the previous post, but I think I've become less salty about this because after discovering fandom I know that all stories essentially belong to the watchers. And if the story wasn't to your liking, YOU GET TO CHANGE IT. And that is a thing of beauty.

But also throwing in there the Banshees of Inisherin because. you know. [and if you don't WATCH IT ITS SO GOOD. ENDING INCLUDED].

14. Who is your favourite director and why?

OOOHHH NICE ONE. I love Martin McDonagh [above plug will attest]. I can watch anything he comes out with tbh. And Shane Black, and Hayao Miyazaki ofc. That man is all in one with the stories, the boards the ... all of it.

20. What movies do you have to watch on your current to-watch list?

AHHHH HMM. Well the Boy & The Heron, 12th Fail (hindi), the JJK 01 movie, the Red Turtle.

OH YOU KNOW WHAT. Re: the alt ending post

I would love the ending of Limitless to stick to the ending of the book, bc the current ending diluted the message. or maybe killed it entirely. RIP dystopic scifi you will never succeed in public cinema spaces.

[maidenvault]

Hiya! 💕 Could I please have 🍓🍄🍬🦴🐚 for the Writers Truth or Dare ask game? 😊

Thanks for the ask! 🥰

how did you get into writing fanfiction? Going by a loose definition of fanfic, my sister and I wrote a Star Wars story when we were in grade school and I filled up many notebooks with a never-ending Animorphs one later myself. So when I got into my first internet fandom, Roswell, and came across fanfic on the most popular fansite, it was a no-brainer that of course I wanted to do this and I was off running with it immediately.

share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings Throughout much of their friendship, especially early on, Zuko and Katara are unspokenly conscious of having some level of attraction to each other with no real wish to act on it. But they grow closer than ever after they've been without their spouses for some time and end up getting married in old age.

post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character Kotetsu Kaburagi is a really flawed guy and not the greatest dad because of it, and the more significant arc in the original series is his own, not Barnaby's.

is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?

So many Hayao Miyazaki movies were formative for me and elements of them sneak into my ideas for original writing, but he's more of an inspiration to me as a person and creator himself. Miyazaki often despairs over the state of the industry and the seeming futility of making art in a world that's headed for disaster in so many ways, and in recent years he's had to reconcile with his own limitations as he gets older. (In the documentary Never Ending Man he says at one point, "If I try to focus like I used to I get exhausted, so I just fool around"...and fuck, at not half his age I already feel that way a lot lol.) In the end he just can't seem to not work no matter how he reasons with himself that it's time to give it up. His work is a constant demonstration that the value of life, and of art, is in humanity's drive to just keep going and keep creating even in the face of apparent hopelessness. It's that leper in Princess Mononoke saying, "The world is cursed, but still we find reasons to keep on living," a moment that always moves me like just about nothing else in film. It's an idea that has haunted almost his entire filmography and he still has no easy answers, there's just the work.

do you like or dislike surprises? In fiction they're great. Irl they better be good surprises.

[ladimcbeth]

Happy Birthday to the Never Ending Man himself, Hayao Miyazaki

Thanks for making the world more whimsical

[indiana-jonas]

The Unclear Inspiration Syndrome

Once upon a time one of my best friends had their period and a lot of pain. I decided I would make a soup to soothe the evil menstruation demons. Menstruation is strongly associated with red, so I decided to only use red ingredients. I felt extremely inspired to put my idea to the test and help my friend.

I grabbed anything red I could get my hands on. Three packs of crushed tomatoes, a couple of actual tomatoes, a dash of red bell pepper, and some chili powder. This stew didn’t soothe the demons, or our appetites (it made for a good laugh though).

This was a case of Unclear Inspiration Syndrome. Too much of the same. Yet, not quite the same.

Inspiration comes in two forms

One of the core skills of a creator is to take inspirations and combine them in unexpected ways. Kinda like a chef.

When you combine inspirations, you form an idea.

Inspiration + Inspiration = An idea.

But just as with cooking, you can’t toss any mix of ingredients into the pot and expect something yummy.

As I see it there are two types of inspiration.

Contextual inspiration is the way something looks, where it takes place, and who or what the characters are.

Fundamental inspiration is the underlying reason(s) for the idea to exist. It could be an emotion, to solve a problem, or to communicate an idea.

Look at this pot I prepared, I put some context inspiration in it.

Big dragon + Vampires + Fantasy land like Tolkien + A hero = A world.

That’s a world simmering! We could keep chucking more contextual inspiration in there. But looks like it could go on forever. It’s because worlds can grow infinitely big.

Let’s add a pinch of fundamental inspiration now.

Previous ingredients + Put yourself in other people’s shoes = Now you can see what might happen.

It’s starting to smell good! And it’s more nutritious.

Contextual Inspiration + Fundamental Inspiration = A nutritious idea.

You get more oomph with at least one of each inspiration type.

Only having context is kinda like having a pot full of spices. It’s just powder. It gets stuck in your nose hairs if you try to smell it. But at the same time, few dishes can go without any spices at all. It’s what makes food edible.

You need both types of inspiration to make a nutritious meal. Otherwise, you might end up with a menstruation soup that doesn’t even do its job.

Unclear Inspiration Syndrome is when you only have contextual inspiration.

Why we choose ideas that don’t blend

Hayao Miyazaki once asked one of his new apprentices to draw him a person who’s eating. The apprentice proudly handed over a beautifully rendered drawing of a man eating by a table.

“Do you have no idea how people eat!?” Miyazaki erupted. “You must have seen this every day of your life. Do you never look?”

The man in the drawing was sitting tightly pressed between the table and the chair. It was an unnatural position for eating that nobody would go into willingly. Despite the artist’s skills, the drawing didn’t feel believable.

Let’s look at what happened.

Table + Man + Chair + Food + Fork + Eating = A scene.

There are A LOT of ways this assembly of contextual ingredients could blend. The man could lie on the table and eat the food from the chair, technically it would still be “someone eating.” The artist’s rendition wasn’t that bananas. But something was amiss in the recipe.

Previous ingredients + A memory of someone eating = A real moment.

By recalling how a friend would sit by the lunch table in school, the artist added that touch of reality that was missing. This artist had focused so much on perfecting his understanding of anatomy and rendering that he didn’t consider the thing that are less visible. Human behavior.

Let me tell you about someone who got confused about his ingredients.

George Lucas had many sources of inspiration when he set out to make Star Wars. Like James Bond, Lawrence of Arabia, Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, Flash Gordon, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and more. He had a massive vision.

It took a long time for the script to click. He said the story didn’t fall into place until he noticed something within the project that was also true by looking at his inspirations. They were all following the journey of a hero leaving home, going on an adventure, and coming back changed.

When he realized this he compared Star Wars’ story to the steps of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey. Which gave him the clarity to fill in the missing gaps.

Among all his inspirations George Lucas had managed to find a common denominator. Perhaps his instinct had led him to pick contextual inspiration that shared the same fundamental idea.

Star Wars recipe:

Ingredients

James Bond

Lawrence of Arabia

Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress

Flash Gordon

2001 A Space Odyssey

Instructions

Mix all your inspirations in a pot

Crank up the heat

Let boil until you have reduced to a fine blend of contextual and fundamental inspiration

Give it a good stir until it starts to look like an idea

That’s Unclear Inspiration Syndrome and my home remedy against it.

What something fundamental really is

The Heroes’ Journey is a great example of something fundamental. The reason it helped save the story of Star Wars, was because The Heroes’ Journey is a cycle that represents the way of life. That’s why stories that make good use of it work so well.

Every type of project needs something fundamental. Different types of projects require different types of fundamental inspiration though.

A product needs to fix a problem that actually exists.

A video game needs to evoke a sensation that you can relate to.

Art needs to evoke the way things feel.

Fundamental inspiration always has its roots in reality.

Our instincts lead us to pick fundamental inspirations, even if they appear to be contextual at first. When we first experienced the sources of those contextual inspirations we were probably touched deeply. But with time we forget. The contextual traits become shortcuts in our brains to convey the real idea they were originally attached to. We associate the context with brilliance and we forget what’s fundamental.

I have been through this in reverse.

Before ever reading my favorite comic as a kid I thought it looked a bit ugly, and not very cool, maybe because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. My impression of it didn’t excite me at all. But in another comic series that I read, there was a snippet of my to-be favorite comic.

I ended up buying every volume I could afford. I got obsessed with it and started imitating the art.

The context didn’t mean anything to me until I got a taste of its fundamental qualities. The art in itself wasn’t enough to make me feel inspired until I had experienced it in its fundamental context (pirates and a specific type of romance).

Cook with love.

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Thanks for reading! If you wanna read more stuff like this, you can subscribe to Indie Notebook: www.indiana-jonas.com/newsletter

[sparks-olivarpente]

Seeing all the talk about AI generated art I wanted to share a link to this video, an extract from a documentary on film director Hayao Miyazaki where he reacts to ai generated animation.

"I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."

(translation found in another article. I saw the documentary the video comes from and recommend it, but I don't remember the title. It probably is 2016 Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki by Kaku Arukawa)