#what does it mean to be born human vs divine vs monster

[hundredsspoons]

Do we ever get an explanation for why Midvalley can kill people with his saxophone.... or is that something nobody really questions

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Susie, Kris, Two Frisks, Chara, Monster Kid And Flowey The Flower

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Credit For Undertale & Deltarune goes to Toby Fox

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I do have another drawing of this version of Undertale Susie,

which is in a crossover drawing.

(the only difference is that this drawing of Susie has black boots) 

but I will wait another time to post it up on here.

M.K. is called Monster Kid in the game,

the name Monroe is just a Fan Dub Name given to them.

Monroe is both a boy and girl name.

the last name Keidd is suppose to be M.K.’s Family Name.

I could of had their last name be spelled Keid

or have their last name be Kidd...

I will post this at the other place I post fan art at...

the Kris and Susie in this, are suppose to be the Undertale counterparts of the Susie and Kris from Deltarune.

I’m just gonna go watch Anime, and try to forget some stuff.

besides watching Anime, I do plan to watch a movie too.

I need to get something to eat too.

and later do some reading....

good thing about today, I was able to post that Tuckrif (Tucker x Grif) ship drawing over at the other place I post fan-art.

I’m a shipping dirtbag,

and Tuckrif is my new ship of Peanut-butter & Jam.

also Amazon better stop overdoing it with the Prime,

it’s not fair fans of SVTFOE can’t get the DVDs to have be send to their homes through the mailing.

Star Vs The Forces of Evil, Wander Over Yonder and any other Series that is still on Prime Only, Should Just Hurry and get to DVDs so fans can buy them.

I think before I watch some Anime, I will just watch Helluva Boss.

I think I will watch Ah My Goddess either tonight or tomorrow.

I think I can relate to Urd from Ah My Goddess,

because of my spiritual heritage.

no matter how many times someone reincarnates,

the spiritual heritage is stuck with you.....

for all your lives, past, present and future.

sometime when I feel really down, I think I would like to try to just lay down on the floor like how Blooky does in Undertale.

but the bed will have to do for now.

right now I’m doing okay, was feeling a little down a little bit ago.

I’m listening to Born Without A Heart by Faouzia.

so after I listen to that song, maybe a few times....

I will go watch some Anime, and I don’t care what Little Light Studios says....I still should try to watch their full videos....that talks about Anime and another video that asks if Disney Safe for Christians.

I wonder if it’s just me that is viewing the Little Light Studios,

as Toxic-Religious, it’s no wonder I want Mother/Goddess to get custody of me....even though I still believe in God and even Jesus,

and there are some friends and family that don’t act the way some toxic-religious people do.

but seriously I can’t stand when humans get all toxic-religious,

a person can be semi that way, so long as they don’t become the full thing that ends up hurting someone and causing tears.

I had a bad experience with a toxic-religious person a few years ago.

as I had explained before.

maybe it’s a good thing that I found out I am really a

Neo-Christian/Ma-Acolyte.

one of the things I really can’t stand

that some toxic-religious people do, is force convert.

converting to a religion should be of someone’s free will and heart.

plus you don’t have to go to church to prove your faith.

going to church can be optional.

I have to stay in the Aroaceflux, Gyno-Agender and Neo-Christian/Ma-Acolyte Closet with my family.

I did want to tell my Mom that I’m a Ace, but that didn’t go too well.

like I said before, I had to pretend I wasn’t after asking her thoughts about Asexuality and well I had decided not to tell her.

once I got into my room, I cried my eyes out.

there is different types of Aces, some will be Heteroromantic

or Biromantic or Panromantic, everyone has a different type of Asexuality/Sexuality/Romantic Identity.

I think things becoming better and more people becoming accepting,

might have to do with The Divine Mother/Goddess.

but that is just my view on it.

but yeah I have to stay in the Ace, Bigender Identity and New Found Religion Closet.

I still love my family, but I know I can’t come out of that closet.

I know even if I do, they wont try to do what some aggressive families do to try to “fix” someone who comes out of those closets.

they might still try to “fix” me, but still have love for me.

but the whole “fixing” wont truly make me happy.

even if there might be some positive videos from that Little Light Studios....they still shouldn’t bad mouth Anime or even Disney Movies.

I still need to check that video that talks about Disney,

but I don’t want to right now.

but if they misunderstand the Frozen Movie, then here is a clearing up.

an Act of True Love, doesn’t always have to be Romantic

and can be Family type love, which is even shown in that Maleficent Movie, where it was Maleficent’s Motherly Love for Aurora, that saved Aurora.

so of course the kiss from the Prince in that movie wouldn’t of worked,

because they didn’t have a deep bond and connection,

the kiss from the Prince would of only worked if the two of them got to know each other and fell in love, they had just met after all.

sure in some cases it can work like in the original disney’s sleeping beauty movie.

but in the Frozen I and Maleficent Movies,

both show that a true love’s kiss or a an Act of True Love,

doesn’t necessarily mean the romantic type of love,

and can be platonic family based love.

like a sister love or a mother’s love.

it does appear that there is a video called "All Are Welcome In The Church, Even LGBT" as one of Little Light Studios’s videos.

I can only hope it is full of something positive.

so I guess the first video I will try to fully watch, will be that one.

but not now, because I really don’t want to watch

any of their videos right now.

still want to wait a week or so before I watch any of their videos.

 even if there might be some positive videos from them.

I still don’t like the negative that is a bunch of pony spit.

in theory I think that the green color magic in disney,

represents the negative feelings, while the gold color represents the positive, pink could be a perfect balance of the two.

I want to try not to let toxic-religious people get to me too much.

I think I will watch Red Vs Blue, before I watch Anime.

 anyway so long as I don’t think about some stuff that make me feel bad, I should be good.

hope some of you like this drawing,

and now I’m gonna go get something to eat.

and even though I did a drawing on the day that red super-moon was suppose to happen, I ended up sleeping through it when it did finally happen.....might of been a good thing I did.

probably didn’t miss much.  

 fantasy & dreams is my sweet escape, and I know I’m a real weird gal.

see ya later and stay safe everyone.

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 1.2.7 “Profoundest Despair” - Valjean vs. the Lower Mines of Society

I know I already posted a thing for 1.2.7, but I just cannot stop thinking about Hugo’s portrayal of Valjean and his discussion of Patron Minette and/or the “lowest mine” of society described in 3.7.2.

Just, I keep thinking, what makes Valjean redeemable and others, like Patron Minette and those in that lowest mine, not redeemable?

Valjean is poor, uneducated, and--for lack of a better word--“empty” when he is a pruner, before he goes to prison. He doesn’t think, he doesn’t stop and contemplate society or life or love or the people around him or beauty or whatever. He just unconsciously goes through life, one foot in front of the other, surviving. He checks the marks that Hugo lists when describing that lowest rung of society.

Hugo says:

“Jean Valjean was not, as we have seen, born evil. He was good when he arrived at the prison. There, he condemned society and felt himself becoming wicked; he condemned Providence and felt himself becoming impious.”

But he also says:

“Can human nature be so entirely transformed inside and out? Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man? Can the soul be completely changed by its destiny, and turn evil when its fate is evil? Can the heart become distorted, contract deformities and incurable infirmities, under the pressure of disproportionate grief, like the spinal column under a low ceiling? Is there not in every human soul--was there not particularly in Jean Valjean’s soul--a primitive spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world and immortal in the next, which can be developed by goodness, kindled, lit up, and made to radiate, and which evil can never entirely extinguish.”

What makes Valjean so different, that the goodness in him can be kindled and relit, while those in that lowest mine, those like Patron Minette, cannot?

When talking about the lowest mine, Hugo repeatedly points out that ignorance and lack of education is a huge factor. Why, then, is M. Thenardier--who is mildly educated--not redeemable, while Valjean is? Claquesous lives a double life, so we can presume he’s mildly educated at least as well.

Not to mention, Valjean educates himself for a similar reason that Thenardier is educated. Valjean doesn’t decide to learn to read etc because he wants to better himself--he learns because he “felt that to increase his knowledge was to strengthen his hatred.” Thenardier uses his education and skills for “swindling.”

Now, Hugo does seem to imply that the reason for this “lower mine” to be so irredeemable is because it deliberately does not seek an education and deliberately attempts to undermine all other levels of society above it. But this doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. Of course those in these lower depths won’t seek an education; they have no way to access it. Of course they’ll turn to crime first before anything else; they live in a state of desperation and society isn’t about to help them. “This incurable ignorance possesses the heart of man, and there becomes Evil” Hugo says in the last line of 3.7.2, but he doesn’t seem to take into consideration why it’s incurable at this point.

It’s just fascinates me because in 1.2.8, we have a whole lot of Valjean thinking about his choices, about how he can either work to become the “best of men,” or ignore that and return to his old, comfortable state of hatred and become “a monster” and someone “lower than a convict.” So it’s not as though Valjean was someone inherently better than any of those in the lowest mines of society. I mean, maybe the fields of Waterloo were a similar test for Thenardier, but he already seems irredeemable even by then.

I just have questions for Hugo about what makes someone redeemable or not. Because he says it’s education, but then the two “lower class” main characters who are educated (Valjean, Thenardier) both educate themselves explicitly for “bad” reasons. And the ones who are pretty much uneducated (Eponine, Gavroche, Fantine) are framed in a more positive light, even in their misery. For a moment I thought the formal education part was important, as opposed to autodidactism, but Valjean becomes good by educating himself, so that doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps at least some of it is about religion. I mean, a lot of everything in this book is about religion, so it would make sense. Valjean doesn’t get to start redeeming himself until he starts to believe in and rely on god, instead of rejecting god or “judging providence.” I don’t remember if we ever hear Thenardier’s opinions on religion or the existence of god, so I’m not sure whether this is an accurate theory or not. Oddly, in 3.7.2, Hugo never mentions rejection of religion, only lack of education. So I’m not really sure what to do with this, because it seems a little inconsistent.

I don’t know, Hugo just sends some mixed signals about how to and who can be redeemed, who gets to have that “primitive spark” rekindled and restored to goodness. And I just don’t know what to make of these opinions, especially considering the utter lack of resources for people in those “lower mines” whether they might want to be educated or not.

[occupyvenus]

On why Dany should be an antagonist ( ≠ villainy villain )

Season 7 is right around the corner and I have some thoughts, opinions, speculations and theories I have to get off my chest. I will try to keep any book-specific analysis out of this discussion. This is (as much as possible) show only.

Something that always struck me as odd was the existing controversy sorrounding Daenerys’s character in the fandom. With all other characters, the audience can generally agree on where they fall on the “morality-spectrum”, so to say. Jon Snow is an unproblematic fave, if there ever was one, Joffrey and Ramsay are among the most evil characters to ever grace our TV screens, the Hound made a text-book antagonist-to-protagonist transformation (even receiving in-show absolution via Arya taking him of her kill-list) and show!Stannis - before the daughter-burning incident - was clearly planted in the middle. People liked him and even rooted for him, but no one’s arguing that he was involved in some very dubious, evil, amoral shit. Show!Cersei was ripped of most of her book-counterparts cruelty, but the fandom generally agrees that she is one of the clear antagonists / villains of the series. 

The point is that the audience - minus some radical stans or antis - can generelly agree on where characters are on the good-evil, protagonist-anatgonist chart at any specific time of the story or during a particular arc. If not on the exact point, at least on the general vicinity. 

But Daenerys? Her placement jumps all over from divine saviour to unreedimingly mad queen depending on who you ask, unlike any other character on the show. 

In the end what’s really important isn’t to wether a character’s behaviour is 100%, 75% or 50% evil/good but wether we - the audience - root for them (protagonist), root against them (antagonist) or aren’t really sure about it.  

If there are any clear protagonists, or hereos if you will, in GOT and ASOIAF it is the Starks. There is nothing they could do that would actually turn the audience against them. I know I promised to keep any book stuff out of this, but there is a reason A Promise of Spring’s original title was A Time for Wolves. The Starks are the heart of the story.

A little sidenote on starkbowl and Sansa becoming an antagonist (which I really can’t see happening): Sansa turning into a villain also comes at the cost of her being a Stark, just like Tyrion tuning into a good guy severed him from the Lannisters. When talking about “the Lannisters” you mean Cersei, Jaime and Tywin. Tyrion and his family have become two separate entities in the collective mind of the fans and show watchers. If Sansa really were to team up with Littlefinger and turn into an antagonist/villain she wouldn’t be ‘a Stark’ anymore. Even now, with her clearly being a protagonist of the series, anti’s will always fall back on the ‘she isn’t a real stark anyway’ rethoric. A Stark simply cannot be evil. (grr martin and D&D might let me fall straight on my face with this prediction, but I’d say that its veeerrrrryyyyy unlikely.)

But Daenerys? There is no other character in GoT who’s ultimate and inherent good-ness or evil-ness is so bitterly fought about. While misogyny definitley plays into it, I think it would be false to see it as the sole or main source or reason. Her character is set up to be ambigious. I disagree with those who accuse her of being a ruthless tyrannt, willing to do anything to achieve her goals and those who see her as a benevolent messiah who can’t do anything wrong. She is - at the same time - both of those things and neither. 

To the general audience she is very much set up as a protagonist. It’s easy to root for her when she overcomes her abusive brother, fights for agency in a partriarchal world, destroys slavery or is on a subjectively honourable quest to restore her families legacy and reclaim her home.   

But what happens when her goals and desires clash with those of our other protagonists? If the Starks are our heroes and her enemies/rivals, what does that make Dany to us, the audience? 

But why can’t she just team up with the Starks and be a good guy ???

Two reasons: Drama and avoiding a clear good vs evil dichotomy.  Going into season 7, our main-ish characters are set up as follows: 

The Protagonists / Camp “Good Guys” Team Stark (Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran, et al), Team Targaryen (Dany, Tyrion, Theon et al) 

The Antagonists / Camp “Bad Guys” The White Walkers, Team Lannister (Cersei, Jaime et al) & Euron, Littlefinger

Has Game of Thrones really introduced us to some of the most sympathatic villains, problematic heroes and placed almost every character somewhere in-between only to have it end with various constellations of Camp “Good Guys” batteling differing fractions of Camp “Bad Guys”? No, I don’t think so. (Unless D&D stray faaaaar from grr martins original plans and intentions, which could happen, sure....) In order to prevent merely explicit good vs evil fights one or more characters/parties have to move towards the opposing camp. In my opinion, the most likely candidates for that are The White Walkers turning more good-ish -or less less bad-ish, if you prefer - and/or Dany expiriencing a similar shift in the opposite direction. 

The show already laid the groundwork for the first option by revealing that the White Walkers originally were first men, who were turned into ice monsters by the children of the forest. [ The Youtube-Channel “A Theory of Ice and Fire” has some really good videos on the Origin of the White Walkers and the True Colors of the Children of the Forest. I recommend everyone to watch them and his other videos. His analysis and theories are very insightful and definitly worth a watch.] But humanizing the White Walkers can only go so far. It will be really hard, if not impossible, to make us actually feel any kind of remorse over their demise. They are such big threat to all of humankind, that any moral ambiguity about destroying them is lost and any question wether our heroes should oppose them becomes obsolete. Comparisons that come to mind are eradicting a virus or putting down a rabid dog. The dog isn’t responsible for the state it is in, but ultimalty it is for the best.

I will go into Daenerys transformation from pro- to antagonist at the end of the post.  

To make for some interesting drama we also need tension and conflict between characters that are on the same side. Finding possible sources for this within Camp “Bad Guys” is pretty easy. Jaime is probably going to turn on his sister at some point and every alliance with Euron is going to be fragile at best and will turn into chaos for one or both parties at worst. 

What about Drama within Camp “Good Guys” and it’s individual fractions?

Jons parentage is going to cause some tension within Team Stark, yes, but I don’t see any of the remaining stark children ‘throwing him out Winterfell’ because of it. I don’t see Jon discarding his identitiy as a Stark neither, especially after Arya and Bran come back into the picture. His relationship with sansa is so controversial that I don’t want to touch on it, but he isn’t going to go full Targaryen with his little sister and brother around. Can we at least agree on that? They will insist that he still is one of them and so will he. (I stand by my opinion that R+L=J and more importantly Jons reaction to it will cause a rift between him and Dany, not him and the starks).

The Dothraki and their way-of-life are probably going to cause some conflict within Team Targaryen. Dany isn’t as ruthless as some parts of the fandom make her out to be and she will be conflicted about bringing so much destruction to “her lands and people”. She might try to silence her conscience, because the ends justify the means, but she and her allies will have to face some really difficult choices. Tyrion might feel just a bit bad about attacking his home as well. 

It’s as good as impossible to predict or speculate on Bran’s or Arya’s story line, since they are kept top-secret, but I don’t think they involve one of them turning bad.

Sure, Sansa and Littlefinger could team up and cause some drama in camp ‘Good Guys’, but they simply don’t have enough influence to put the stakes sufficiently high. Seriously, against a Jon&Dany tag-team, what could they - or anyone really - do to oppose them? What use is an antagonist if he doesn’t pose a vital threat to our protagonists?   

Daenerys turning into an antagonist ( ≠ ultimate evil villain) simply makes the most sense from a storytelling-perspective. Both to cause tension between our  protagonists, shake up Camp “Good Guys”, color our final conflicts in a nice shade of grey and lead us toward a bittersweet ending. Why is Dany the best character to “break bad”? She is the most powerful human character right now. (With the threat of the White Walkers looming over everything, any secondary antagonist/”villain” will have to bring a lot to the table to form a interesting, engaging plotline. I think it’s safe to say that Dany’s help against the army of the dead will be crucial. Keeping her allegiance unstable or it coming at a great cost would be substantial enough to stand on it’s own, while still being connected to the bigger arc surrounding it.)   She is allied with some shady characters (As stated above, the Dothraki aren’t going to magically turn into peaceful people. Bringing an army whose entire culture revolves around raiding and raping and pillaging could be seen as a questionable move. Also, I do not think that her alliance with the Greyjoys is a coincidence. Yes, we all need to put our differences aside to face the White Walkers, but the Iron Born have caused so much havoc in the north, so recently, that their presence NOT causing any issue for a Dany-North alliance is hard to imagine. Specifically putting established enemies of the North - including Theon with his very complicated relationship to House Stark - on Danys side has to have some significance. As for the rest: I honestly believe that Olenna is going to kick the bucket very soon, she’s only still around because she’s so good at sassing people. I refuse to waste any more thoughts than necessary on the Sandsnakes, but murdering your family in cold blood isn’t exactly nice? Tyrion might be the only person on Team Dragon that has any kind of positive connection to the Starks. show!Tyrion, at least, does have a rather agreeable relationship with both Jon and Sansa.) Her political goals stand in direct conflict with those of the Starks (The Seven Kingdoms vs Northern Independece - and yes northern independence is actually important to numerous characters on the show) Jon’s parentage will cause some tension between them (some people believe that she’ll see him as a potential rival to the Iron Throne. I disagree. I believe the reason for Dany ‘turning against’ Jon won’t be him being a Targaryen, but him not wanting to be one. I am pretty sure that Jon’s initial reaction to R+L=J will be to utterly reject his Targaryen heritage, to get through this majore identity crises. And Dany will, understandebly, feel utterly betrayed by that. She won’t see him as a threat, she will try to persuade him to become ‘the man he was always meant to be’, she will want him to be a Targaryen and she will want him by her side -wether in a romantic way or not- when she takes the Seven Kingdom. And this is something that Jon will not give her. He will choose to be a Stark and that will be a hard blow for Dany. Her beloved brothers, Rhaegars son calling the “usurpers dog” his father. I don’t know who much this will influence the overall plot but it will definitely strain the relationship between Jon and Dany.) The North, Vale and - presumably- Riverlands allience (Having the same regions rally behind Jon/House Stark “against” a Targaryen queen smells of Rebellion 2.0 ~with a twist~ this time opposing a conquerer, not the established ruler. I admit that this leaves out the Stormlands but with Gendry coming back, who knows? He has a friendly - possibly romantic, *wink* *wink* -relationship with Arya and if he’s put in any position to make such a decision he will ally with her side.) She has shown the compasity for cruelty & violence (You can argue wether or not her opponents had it coming - yes for Kraznys mo naklos , no for the randomly crucified & burned masters of meereen, mayybe for the khals; but the fact that she’s willing to use such questionable, violant measures while having giant fire-breathing dragond at her disposal opens her up for a very dark path. Someone with nothing but swords going a bit too far wouldn’t have the same consequences as the mother of dragons stepping over the line. Speaking of dragons) Her dragons are a ticking time bomb, she can’t properly control (At one hand they will play a crucial part in defeating the army of the dead, but on the other hand they are fucking dangerous and Danys ~varying~ inability to control them is a well established plot point. Reducing their final role to being magicals weapons bringing down the big evil would be so chliche and go against many of the problematic themes concerning them. Btw when has one person having so much power ever ended well?) There will be no Iron Throne or Targaryen Restoration (I don’t believe that ASOIAF or GOT is about Dany restoring the Seven Kingdoms to it’s “ideal” previous state of absolute Targaryen rule. Not only would this render Roberts Rebellion meaningless, it would portray it as a mere temporal disruption of the rightful order which is just... no. The rebellion was a justified uprising against a tyrannical king, it’s the event that started the story and it should still have significance at the end of it. Sorry, not sorry, but Dany isn’t simply going to press the ‘reset button’ on Westeros. The Iron Throne is doomed, so is House Targaryen and so is Daenerys - unless she peacefully settles down as Lady of Dragonstone, which is ... rather unlikely.) The controversy about her character is exactly what grr martin wants (This whole long-ass post started with the extraordinary discrepancy concerning Danys position on the evil-good spectrum. People can’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to her. And you know what? That’s the point. No ones objectively ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Characters are on opposing sides for their own reasons, not because they are inherently evil or good. Everyone can either agree or disagree with those reasons and form an opinion accordingly. Having the audience “choose sides” between two fractions we both rooted for when separeted, once their stories collide would be an appropriate ending for the story. 

I propose the theory that this contradiction (rooting for the Starks and Dany) and Danys role reversel when switching from her own separate to the shared storyline (from protagonist to antagonist) is already in full effect within the more obsessed part of the fandom (who loves to speculate and “think ahead”) and will hit the the casual viewer in season 7.  

Last, but not least having all of our protagonists team up after meeting for the first time and descending on the evil dudes with immense force just feels so ... boring, predictable,anticlimactic, lord-of-the-ring-sy? Everyone coming together and defeating the White Walkers after having some serious beef with each other (sometime mid to end seaon 8) would be way more dramatically satisfying. I think that Daenerys will take a clear antagonistic role against the starks until the very end when she comes around to save the day. 

Since I know someone is going to bring it up: I am not saying that any of this would be an impregnable obstacle for any romantic relationship with Jon. It would complicate things, yes, but also make them a lot more interesting. Neither am I saying that Dany will turn bat-shit crazy and burn down all of Westeros just because.

In the end, these are only my thoughts and opinions. Maybe I’m wrong about all this and the show will move into a completely different direction. We won’t truly know until the last episode, will we? 

Thanks for sticking with me until the end, you’re a champ, and tell me what you think. 

[spirit-science-blog]

Is it just me...or is there a distinct lack of great staple Halloween-holiday movies? I mean, sure, we have stuff like Hocus Pocus or the creepy cacophony of horror movies like the Exorcist or the Conjuring to watch while hiding under our blankets and stuffing our faces with candy… I mean… Grapes, and other healthy snacks… But what’s the Spooktober equivalent of A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life? ….CUE the Pumpkin King. Ack, but even then, it’s like… this is more of a November movie. What with it being like a smashup betwixt Halloween and Christmas? Anyways, I’m a sucker for Tim Burton and the music of Danny Elfman. When you combine it with Christmas cheer and Halloween gothic macabre, you get one of the most ambitious crossovers since I mixed my orange and apple juice that one time. A Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t just a holiday favorite. It’s a stop motion masterpiece filled with spiritual lore and depth that speaks to Dharma's Vedic concepts, self-love, and coming to terms with your highest and authentic self. So… since covid is coming in for another wave while Biden miraculously comes out with a vaccine the day he’s elected, let’s have a mashup of our own by mixing last month and next month's holidays into the present moment and jump into some spirituality!

So look, this movie is a legend, and it also came out in 1993 - so we’re going to skip the summation and jump straight into the hidden meaning. If you haven’t seen it yet, well, you’re nearly 30 years late to the party, but here's your obligatory spoiler warning.

Subtly echoed in the overall narrative of this film is the Indo-Tibetan concept of Dharma. The wide-ranging belief that every organism has a role to play in a well-ordered cosmos and must play that role and no other, including our duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues, and "right way of living." Throughout the film, Jack discovers that as wonderful a thing as Christmas is, it is not his thing. He isn’t good at it. It’s not something in accordance with his natural flow... But more importantly, there’s an idea that he can’t give up who he is for who he wants to be. He’s confronted with the fact that he has to discover the inherent value of who he is instead of trying to be something else just because it’s apparently “good” or better.

This may be one of the most powerful truths of this movie. The fact that something is a good thing–whether it is Christmas, a loving nature, or pretty much anything else–doesn’t mean that it is the only good thing. Adding to this is the idea that other things that strike us as scary or deeply uncomfortable can be good too, and this idea is mirrored in the sets. One could argue that Halloweentown and its inhabitants represent the darker or shadow aspects of ourselves, the parts of our being that are seemingly negative and often “scary” to us. Conversely, Christmastown is reminiscent of all the beneficial elements. Much like Yin and Yang, the two towns act as reflections of each other, helping to balance the world they’re in.

When these holidays interact with our world, we embrace them in their appropriate set and setting. But it’s when people expect Christmas and get Halloween that things go haywire… perhaps if each town represents our inner natures, there’s an idea we can take from this about how when our light side and dark side cross into each other, they can cause us some confusion and chaos. Yet, in the end, it’s through that interaction that we grow and learn, and these aspects augment their original power and balance. They learn about each other, discover ways to coexist peacefully, each part of ourselves respecting the other, and their part of the whole.

The challenge arises when Jack feels he’s mastered Halloweentown, his current domain. It’s not just boredom he’s feeling...if you listen to his lament at the beginning, his sentiment echoes one I’m sure most of us on a spiritual path have thought at some point, a yearning for something more significant than the world he’s currently in. His rendition of “Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones, an emptiness began to grow, there’s something out there, far from home, a longing that I’ve never known” is reminiscent of C.S Lewis’ Mere Christianity “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another one.”

What’s funny is that Jack is basically like a king in his domain. He’s got it all, he’s the boss of Halloween, but all the acclaim and vindication he gets feels hollow in comparison to his inner search for meaning. Ultimately, his inner knowing that something greater is out there isn’t one that material pleasure can satisfy; it’s spiritual. Something that is seemingly echoed in his little song when he reaches Christmastown, his own Hall of Amenti..he states, “And in my bones, I feel a warmth that’s coming from inside...This empty place inside of me is filling up”.

When Jack finds Christmastown, he is fascinated with this new world's innocence and solace and recognizes that this is what he was being called to experience….Something that is interestingly reminiscent of many people’s first Astral Travel experiences. Funnily enough, his first approach is to study it scientifically and lock himself away in his tower, to find the “Christmas feeling” inside objects. Much like trying to find a feeling or aspect of consciousness within the brain, this approach fails. It points to how the mechanistic approach to the psyche has been unsuccessful in explaining the phenomena arising from brain region correlations. Jack sings, "But what does it all mean?” as he tries to understand an experience, not a thing. And yet, ironically, he’s studying *things* trying to find meaning. He ultimately concludes that "just because I cannot see it doesn't mean I can't believe it."

After Santa is kidnapped, that’s when things start to go down hill...and interestingly, Sally, the rag doll woman who is crushing on Jack, actually has a vision that it’s all going to go wrong. Still, Jack is so blinded by his lust for new experiences that he ignores her. Wait a minute...the dichotomy between action and vision...masculine and feminine...feeling vs. action...sigh...this whole Sacred Masculine/Divine feminine thing is getting easier to spot.

Sally embodies the feminine quite well; she’s wise, understanding, loving, intuitive, and even seemingly taps into the Source to see a future outcome. She loves Jack even before his failed Christmas fiasco, but is primarily locked away -symbolically and physically later on by Oogie Boogie, and also goes often ignored, but is a figure who is ultimately a guiding force and can see the higher perspective of things. Yep, she checks all the boxes for how the divine feminine has appeared in our world… Jack, her counterpart who embodies the Sacred Masculine, and maybe a bit of the King archetype at times - is a leader, has direction, and takes action and initiative. He takes care of his people, and his people help him follow his dreams… No matter how misguided. Albeit, as we explored, he can be stubborn, and when the two can’t work together or largely ignore each other, the natural order is upset, and things descend into Chaos.

And I mean proper Chaos… worldwide panic erupts as children encounter their scary presents, and the armies of the world shoot Jack and his sleigh out of the sky...he’s immortal though, so it’s no biggie. But as he falls into the arms of a Graveyard Angel. This probably signifies his spiritual death pending rebirth as his plans failed and he must evolve his consciousness to move forward; as soon after, he finally sees his blindness, coming to the understanding that he is meant to be the Pumpkin King and will carry out that role even better next year. After Jack’s failed attempt to do Christmas himself, both towns come to appreciate their differences and the good things each holiday has to offer. Jack’s attempts at Christmas were directed mainly toward the symbols and visible elements of the holiday. When he got around to pursuing the real, more profound meaning of it, his search was utterly clouded by his selfishness and perspective of trying to incorporate what he was already familiar with…

In a way, it is kind of like religious syncretism. Jack tries to practice Christmas and Halloween simultaneously. Doing so stays loyal to neither, showing us the dangers of artificially trying to combine cultures and beliefs without fully understanding them both... Despite his endeavor's colossal failure, Jack still sees the value of having experienced everything and regrets nothing. He learns the lesson instead of feeling sorry for himself and dwelling in self-hatred. He is happy he tried and put himself out there, and goes into making things right, even after his mistake, seemingly coming more into alignment with his true self in the process, and eventually finds a renewed love of his role.

It’s also interesting that our hero is flawed and comes from the seemingly “dark” side of things. Even though we all love Jack, he’s an Evil Lord type...and yet, this approach serves to humanize him and his town and what they represent, allowing us to understand where the darker characters and attributes are coming from, see the light in them as well. It teaches that darkness also has some value, and those who are born playing those darker roles in life are fulfilling their role in this life on earth. The Halloweentown’s people are all pretty supportive, caring, and collaborative with each other, not traits you usually associate with monsters and demons. Maybe there’s a lesson here that even the darker aspects of ourselves can still ultimately come from a place of love if we acknowledge their purpose and role in our experience.

After Oogie is unraveled like a ball of yarn, Santa sets off to make things right but leaves the residents of Halloweentown with a parting gift...making it snow, allowing all the residents to experience that same joy that Jack felt when experiencing Christmas for the first time, which in a way fulfills Jack’s original dream of genuinely understanding Christmas.

I’m sure there’s a part of this that speaks to experiencing things to truly understand them, rather than just being told about them by someone else. As he flies away, Santa shouts "Happy Halloween!" and Jack replies by yelling "Merry Christmas!" which is pretty funny, but also serves to show that each side has become more balanced and acknowledges the role each other plays in their world.

All in all, ANBC doesn't fit as a Christmas movie in the conventional sense, but it doesn’t work as a Halloween one either, which is really what makes it so great. It’s a part of both seasons and is itself a pretty balanced movie...which is so meta, I love it. What’s very curious here is that Jack makes the mistake of thinking his calling lies somewhere else, rather than where he already is. Yet, the longing within him for something more compelled him into this search and discovery of something new, even though it wasn’t meant for him to give, it was meant for him to receive. Though his intentions are good, he misses this critical point and nearly ruins himself and the holiday he has come to love. Yet through his failure, he realizes who he is from a different perspective. Perhaps there is an idea here that sometimes we also have to fail to discover who we are….and chances are, we often come back stronger and more in alignment with our goals every time we fall. After all, what is a failure but the opportunity to start over, only wiser?

Until next time, it still kind of feels like October, but then again, this year has blended into one long continuous stream at this point, hasn’t it… So Happy Holidays for whatever season you’re in when you end up watching this video! Toodles.