#society of explorers and adventures

[nnicholasyuen]

Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disneyland: The Ultimate Guide

why does mystic manor have no ghosts?

- in chinese culture, people typically see ghosts as their ancestors so it would be considered quite disrespectful and weird if disney decided to place a haunted mansion with ghosts there

what year is mystic manor canonically set in?

- the actual manor was built in 1896 but the museum was not completed until 1909 or 1910. this is the same time when lord henry acquired the balinese music box

if there are no ghosts in mystic manor, what drives the storyline?

- part of mystic manor’s story heavily relies on both historical and mythological allusions including references to key historical and mythological figures throughout the attraction including hercules (in the form of a greek amphora), medusa (in the form of a mosaic) , striborg, the slavic god of winter (in the form of a painting), the tragedy of ragnarok (in the form of a vanity mirror), ra and ihy, the egyptian gods of the sun and music (in the form of clay tablets), and the monkey king from chinese mythology (in the form of a carved statue)

- references to 18th, 19th and 20th century royalty can also be found through both objects and names. both lord henry and albert’s names are references to two sons of king george v; prince henry, duke of gloucester and prince albert, duke of york (later king george vi) to which their father ascended the throne at the same time lord henry found the balinese music box (circa 1910)

- additionally, there are also references to the french and russian royal families in the form of a vanity fan depicting king louis xvi and marie antoinette within the queue’s display case and a violin belonging to tsar alexander i inside the russian room of the explorers club restaurant

what architectural style is the manor?

- creatively dubbed, “tropical victorian eclectic”, the manor’s architectural style is based on traditional victorian queen anne architecture, as well as gothic revival and second empire but also includes other architectural elements from different countries such as traditional chinese and muscovite russian

[landsccape]

[skadario]

the door with light

[gideonisms]

Htn is about grief but it's also like. Harrow does one thing to preserve someone she cares for and Immediately loses respect, is marked for death, and becomes alienated not just from her peers but from her former self. And it wasn't even intended as some type of rebellion against her society because she still falls in line with imperial goals throughout the book. It was an act of preservation so personal it didn't even disrupt the workings of her society. and she's still completely alienated from it as a result. All she had to do was care for a second about someone else's existence and she experiences immediate negative results. The grief is not limited to the personal because it can't be, because Gideon's life was meant to be subsumed by harrow for imperial goals and it wasn't, so now someone has to pay. So as readers we're experiencing Harrow's grief and the grief of the situation behind it, and Muir is STILL reminding us through the very structure of the novel (narrative payoff/lighter tone the second gideon arrives) that the important thing is, Gideon's soul has survived. The reason harrow doesn't accept Gideon's death (on a narrative level) isn't Just that she is stewing in grief or unable to move on. She can't accept Gideon's death without accepting the terms under which it happened, the conditions that made it possible. So now we have a commentary not on Terrible Ways To Deal With Grief but on the ways personal loss becomes political in a society where death is necessary to propel the empire

[pi-the-theme-park-guy]

Have you ever noticed the hidden connection between Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park and Atlantis the Lost Empire?

So, it is all about the family raft ride (ya know, the kind where 4 people ride together) called Miss Adventure Falls.

Because this is Disney, it isn't just a regular water slide. It has a story and characters and all that stuff. This ride is specifically about Captain Mary Oceaneer! An explorer, sailor, scientist, bad bitch, treasure hunter, etc...

She is also a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (aka S.E.A.) A secret society that works as a sort of meta narrative tying a bunch of Disney rides from around the world together. But that's not important right now, just cool to mention. I've talked about S.E.A. before anyways

What IS important right now is her sub! Rightby the exit to the slide you can see her underwater exploratory vehicle which has been blown ashore by the huge Typhoon that transformed the Placade Palms Resort into the Leaning Palms Resort and created Typhoon Lagoon (the story behind the water park as a whole)

(Notice the two beach chairs next to the sub. one for Captain Oceaneer and one for her parrot, Duncan)

Look real close at the sub and you'll see something a little odd

Look at those squiggles! Those aren't just squiggles! That's Atlantean Script! The language made by Mark Okrand (the guy who made Klingon) for Atlantis the Lost Empire! And we can translate it!

Captain Mary Oceaneer wanted the Atlanteans to know "I Come in Peace" as she explored the ocean! And I think that's neat as heck

[disneyparktournament]

Enjoy this terrible meme.

Disney Park Character alignments.

Apologies for the poor lighting on “chaotic Evil - it’s meant to be the Pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean.

[ettelenethelien]

Comparative Studies, or Twice on the Verge of Falling  

The Rimôn fresco of Elwing is considered to be one of the greatest artworks of the Late Classical Era. Found in the courtyard of the old Helcaril Villa (itself a marvellous example of architectural trends during the reign of Tar-Elendil), it occupies a relatively modestly-sized, but excellently exposed niche across from the entrance. Aside from the considerable fame the artist had later gathered, it remains remarkable both for its vividness of emotional expression, contrasting to the usual art style of the era, and for the number and fame of its copies.  

The best known of these is the one gracing the lesser courtyard of the villa Surë-or-Falmar. Indeed, the glory of the two is so closely interwined that it seems impossible to ascertain which had contributed to the fame of the other more. And yet the effect of the copy wildly differs from that of the original artwork.

The Rimôn Fresco depicts the figure of the young Elwing standing on the cliff with her back to the churning waters below. She is poised halfway toward the drop, as if on the verge of throwing herself in, one hand clasping the Silmaril at her neck. Wind whips at her torn dress and loose hair. A rarity among artworks confronting the subject, it depicts neither the enemy she is facing, nor the the transformation into bird itself. The figure stands alone - and seems strikingly young. Beholders oft remark that it is hard to believe she is meant to depict a wife and a mother.  

The wild and violent atmosphere of the fresco, even though, as with most Classical works, it depicts no blood, and despite the aforementioned lack of actual fighting shown, made its artistic quality fall under scrutiny in its day. From diaries, journals and letters of the period we can, however, see that it proved intriguing enough that people would come visit the Helcaril Villa only to see it in person - and that it won over many of those who were originally critical. Thus it is difficult to ascertain whether the changed nature of the Surë-or-Falmar villa Fresco was intentional on the part of the copyist, or the sign of an inexperienced hand.  

The name of the copy's painter has unfortunately escaped history. The style is typical to the reign of Tar-Meneldur, though an exemplary of its genre rather than a dull attempt at imitating fashion. The colour combinations are soft, slightly more so than in the Rimôn Fresco, the lines clean, and the light hazy. The figure depicted is in the exact same position as that in the original artwork.  

Viewers of both frescoes predominantly agree, however, that despite the technical skill the painter has exhibited, the Surë-or-Falmar Fresco lacks something of Rimôn's Elwing. The posture is just a little less dynamic; the cliff's edge (perhaps unconsciously or accidentally) removed slightly father from Elwing's feet, making her situation seem something less desparate. The wind's effects hardly seem those of a real gale, and more an aesthetic choice. One of the most interesting judgements has been pronounced by Herunimon of Eldalondë in a letter to his cousin, Rilendur, son of Verahil, dated 24th Nárië, 901: "The S.o.F. figure seems less the Lady Elwing fenced in by foes and making a tragic choice, but more the heroine of one of those new romances, unsure whether to flee the scene after a man has confessed his love to her, or to accept his proposal - or, I hardly know, perhaps such heroines lead more exciting lives than I would guess (...) - but anyhow, the fresco seems more like a coloured plate in a rich novel, than a mural depcting a tale of the Elder Days. All in all, there is not one element which does not fit. But taken together, the effect is incongruous." (Collected Letters, volume II, as accessed from the Royal Library in Romenna)  

(from the Romenna Journal of Artistic and Literary Studies)  

***

Editor's note: Remembering the considerable public outcry after the publication of Songs of the Elder Days: Lyrics, History and Analysis, the University of Romenna along with its subsidiary organisations seek to make it understood that the views of authors, as regards the addition or not of Lord and Lady before the names of Lord Eärendil and Lady Elwing, do not necessarily represent its own. Were the University to be flippant, it might also seek to ask why proper respect being accorded to the Lord and Lady seems to be held in greater importance than that it be accorded to the Valar, but the University understands that this would bring on public outcry against it from people on both sides of the moro-political divide, so it shall keep its silence.

[kawa1i-imh0tep-ap0logist]

Damn all the shit that happens in PM could’ve been prevented IF HENRY’S WHITE ASS LEFT THE NATIVE AMERICANS AND THUNDER MOUNTAIN AND THE THUNDERBIRD TF ALONE

[bound-books-and-glowing-clouds]

the fact that the man who voices zim is also shiriku utundu hits me like a brick to the face sometimes

[fnulr]

Now I watched the haunted mansion movie and...

I enjoyed it, idk if I loved it or anything but I swear I just had a decent time just relaxing and seeing it all play out

I am however a little sad there weren't any S.E.A references, it had the great potential to IF NOTHING ELSE introduce the idea of it or a recurring character

Oh well, I honestly think you should go watch it

[vath-and-such-vinluv-s-stuff]

Being stuck in the 5th Dimension isn't so bad when you got company

[formicarum-rex]

SEA is problematic in that it values "exploration" and "adventure" but nearly always within the framework of white guys "discovering" exotic lands and cultures in places other than europe.

On the other hand, there is a slight current of anti-colonialism within Tokyo's Tower of Terror (2006). Harrison Hightower was forever doomed to a life of torment because of disrespecting the native culture of the African nation he "found"/ profited from.

Meanwhile, because Disney parks have more recently been focusing on making their park characters more inclusive, you have PoC and female members of the Society, seen in the Jungle Cruise Skipper Cantina (2015) and Tokyo's Soaring (2019).

If Disney ever decides to bring SEA into a medium that is more naturally narrative than theme parks, I feel like it has to center around the tension between the frankly nearly-inherently colonialist nature of the Society, and the vague anti-imperialist and inclusive undercurrents.

It may be that the Society was always open to non-white members, and technically defined my exploration in any domain, and in any location, but even then it's Watsonian founding within the European "Age of Explorers" and flourishing during the Imperial era, let alone its Doyalist influence from western, imperialist views of Africa, Asia, etc as seen in comic books, movies, and the disney parks themselvesm, will lead to a strong tension. So strong, that I feel any possible SEA movie will feel unsatisfying if its ignored.

[disneyremnants]

On this map inside of Skipper Canteen you can find a sketch of a blimp. This sketch is taken directly from concept art for Disneyland's never built Discovery Bay! The map also mentions Jason Chandler, a character created for the Bay who was later reused as president of S.E.A.!

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Ever since I could remember, my boredom threshold had been so high that it scarcely existed at all. With the exception of a minute handful of physical and mental types, surroundings and landscapes and atmospheres and orders of conversation, I was unboreable, like an unsinkable battleship . . . My trouble was that practically everything, not only the most disparate, contradictory and mutually exclusive things and people, but many others that everyone else found repellent, painful, unrewarding, and above all tedious, filled me with the same wild fascination.

- Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO, The Broken Road

Paddy Leigh Fermor was the master of a lush and vivid literary idiom that managed to be simultaneously poetic, learned, philosophical, and mundane, a unique writing style his friend, fellow expatriate, and fellow-philhellene Lawrence Durrell called a “truffled style and dense plumage.”

Partly because so much of The Broken Road is taken directly from Paddy Leigh Fermor's contemporary diaries and notes, it may well be the most revealing volume of his many writings, and perhaps the most personal. It is certainly the most introspective. His other travelling tomes are rollicking and detailed, and the pace hardly lets up. In The Broken Road Leigh Fermor slows down occasionally to reflect, and his meditations on himself are quite revealing, because they are honest and straightforward and unfiltered by expectations or excessive editing.

[katiestardoodles]

More sona stuff :3

My own spidersona I drew last year, the amethyst spider✨ (I might redraw her eventually)

My main fursona/furry me

And explorer me inspired by jungle cruise, the adventurers club and Disney SEA the secret society 🤌🏻

[bonetrousledtrouble]

If you know what disney's society of explorers and adventurers is i will marry you on the spot. i have the ring goddamnit.