Big cats and Daredevil - April 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – I just lot quite a bit of important data; it is important to me, anyhow, so its’ loss is being felt. By me, but still.

What is next? ‘Daredevil’ S2 is proceeding apiece; yesterday, two episodes aired. Fancy that! Looks like MCU might be in a hurry to get through their latest show; I wonder why.

The ‘Supergirl-2026’ movie is a strong contender; so far, it shows itself to be a thorough adaptation of a Supergirl comic book arc, one that was a one-time rather than a part of a greater continuum. In this one, Supergirl is not as wholesome as she usually is, but perhaps her newfound heroics, newfound friend, and the need to save Krypto before the latter dies, will change her outlook. Given how DCEU/whatever already tried to introduce a Supergirl in the Ezra Miller ‘Flash’ film, I am thinking that the odds of it are quite good.

The trailer itself… it is what it is, apparently. The other characters are one-shot themselves, the odds of them dying by the end of the movie (antagonists), or just vanishing afterwards (protagonists) are quite high too; the creative team here brought Lobo along for the ride; the main man of the DC comics appeared in various DC-based media since Superman/Batman Animated Series of the 1990s, so by now he’s tested and relied upon, at least in a certain sense of word. He just might liven up the movie and make it into something more than a by the numbers antihero journey, where Kara becomes a hero, or at least begins to become one. Pause.

In S2 of ‘My Adventures with Superman’, Superman, Lois and Jimmy had to deal with a Kara/Supergirl who was manipulated by Brainiac into becoming an oblivious villain, and who remained one for a long time – and that was only a part of Brainiac’s greater plan. Put otherwise, Supergirl is known to be going dark in the DC multiverse by now, eh? This version of Supergirl is relatively mild still. What next?

Well, I wanted to speak about the upcoming (Christmas-2026) HP TV series, how people are wound up about it, and perhaps – even the racial issue.

…And then I looked at the Nat Geo Animals YouTube channel, and what did I beheld? An ‘episode’ where Mr. Boone Smith held a ‘sport competition’ between African lions, tigers, and cheetahs. Pause.

First, the monikers. Modern DNA analysis showed that the Asian lion is a part of the same lion subspecies that still lives in Western and Central Africa too. (The lions of Eastern and Southern Africa are the other subspecies). Tigers, on the other hand, are divided into two subspecies, with both the Bengal and the Siberian tigers being a part of the same – the mainland - subspecies, and the cheetahs are tentatively partitioned into several subspecies, one of which lives, or lived, in Middle Ease, or Asia, rather than in Africa. So, if the lion is the African lion, then so’s the cheetah, while the tiger is something of the odd one out.

From the genetic/biological/evolutionary p.o.v., however, the cheetah is the odd one out. From the human p.o.v., the big cats – the ‘roaring cats’ – are the oldest modern cats, (as opposed to Smilodon and other alternate models that are not around anymore), while the ‘newest’ models are the domestic cat and its’ immediate kin; the cheetahs are not close relatives of lions and tigers, but proportionally are closer to them than they’re to the housecats. However, lions do kill cheetahs when they can, while the tigers… they and the cheetahs live, or lived in different parts of Asia… where are we?

When Mr. Smith compared lions, tigers, and cheetahs, he compared two close relatives, and an outright outsider. Lions and tigers are not as closely related as they look, (the same under the skin), there branches are separate – one is lions, leopards, and jaguars, the same is tigers and snow leopards, and the third is clouded leopards. The cheetah is related to the puma and the jaguarondi instead; the latter looks like an anti-cheetah, but that is not the point – the point is that the comparison was flawed: the cheetah’s too different, the lion and the tiger – too similar to each other, so the show just was not too satisfying to watch. (The tigers won, BTW). What else?

For the moment – nothing. DD is still a technical masterpiece, but so are Ms. Haynes’ books, as I wrote before. They are enjoyable to read, but nothing more, and DD S2 is enjoyable to watch, but nothing more. The data that I lost… might be recovered, in part, but nothing more. Real life sucks, eh?

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon.

Medea and Daredevil S2 - March 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Several of my documents were lost and I cannot recover them, I almost missed the Daredevil S2 premiere, and people are bothering me about the latest Ms. Haynes novel – ‘No friend to this house’ – that I should read it. Let me start with that one.

Am I going to read ‘No friend’? Well, eventually, maybe. Again, the reason why I’m not the biggest fan of Ms. Haynes is because she’s not the radical firebrand she’s assumed to be, it’s quite the reverse, (usually).

What does Ms. Haynes do? She re-tells the Greek myths, both as fiction and not. As not-fiction, her works are one thing, but her fiction – it is what it is. The Greek myths had been public property for a long time now, and people in general know how they go – Perseus will defeat Medusa and marry Andromeda, Atalanta will kill the boar and lose the race because of the apples, Odysseus is going to get to Ithaca and save his house, etc. Those stories are read, known, remembered, de-facto etched in stone. They can be re-worked, of course… and then they become something else entirely.

Let us get back to A.I. When I experimented with it to write fiction, I quickly uncovered that the fiction it writes follows certain guidelines – couples are heterosexual (unless made otherwise), social strata fall into the strata of priests, aristocrats and peasants, (no workers or entrepreneurs unless made otherwise), characters choose to remain themselves than to change to please others (unless made otherwise)… Pause.

Here is the thing. If you are using A.I., you are free to use it or not. No one forces you to rely on A.I. alone, even if you are commissioned to write something, it is you who is commissioned, not the A.I. You are free to write your own things, not follow the A.I.’s guidelines if you do not want to. Fiction?

By now, there is plenty of fictional novels that feature Greek mythical characters, including the Argonauts. They do not claim to be ‘a mixture of dark tragedy and witty satire’ as Ms. Haynes’ take on them is, supposedly, is, but they were often quite derived from the original Greek myths, much more so than Ms. Haynes’ novels are; she just tries to add the feminist angle to the myths; as a rule, her female characters are positive (unless otherwise), while her male characters are negative, (unless otherwise). Nothing exactly radical here. Yet she is praised for her derivative works so much that I wonder if her political progressiveness is a neophyte’s zeal… or a masterful plan of playing the political progressivity system for personal gain… just as the system is beginning to break for real thanks to the Donald’s meddling… where were we?

In her non-fiction book of essays on the mortal women of Greek Myths, (‘Pandora’s Jar’, PJ), Ms. Haynes talks about Medea and Jason, comparing them to a modern divorcing couple, save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am betting that this is how she is depicting them in ‘No Friend’ – as a modern couple, (where the wife is smarter than the husband is, just not that much smarter), save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am willing to wait a few months until the excitement dies down, (such as it is), and then read about a modern divorce dressed in ancient Greek trappings, such as the murdering of the children. Ms. Haynes does not really try to justify Medea’s actions, she just re-tells them in her own language, maybe dumbed down for her audience, maybe not, and moves on. (To Penelope of Ithaca, but that is unimportant). What else?

The Daredevil S2 premiere. From the technical P.O.V., it is stunning, but the content… MCU itself had Matt Murdoch point out that the Sokovia protocols are dead in the ‘She-Hulk’ the series, so why is Fisk running NYC as if it is? The AVTF (or whatever they are abbreviated to), may be his personal army, but how is he getting away with it? During the Donald’s first 4 years, Marvel comics tried to reflect reality, but the Joe Biden became the 46^th U.S. president, Marvel comics and MCU had to redirect themselves or whatever, and now, unlike Thanos of MCU, the Donald is back and is causing the U.S. and the cause of democracy a lot of damage, and MCU is going for Fisk in NYC instead. Bravo! Innovative stuff here indeed! Real life sucks!

No, wait, that’s probably Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, as it has the Punisher in it too. That deserves its’ own discussion, and we will have it some other time.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

New story - March 11

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here's an original story from  me for a change. Don't judge it too harshly.

Darla woke with a prickling sensation, like the last hint of static after a storm. Not a bad feeling, just...alerting. She slid out of bed, the cool floor a grounding contrast to the unease that vanished quickly, too. Dressing was a simple act for Darla; her body, a well-oiled machine built for activity, moved with grace and efficiency.

The corridor hummed with the quiet industry of early morning. There, near the window, was Stacy, scrubbing diligently, her brow furrowed in concentration. Even with her pronounced limp and clubfoot, Stacy held herself with a regal air.

"Morning, Stacy!" Darla chirped, injecting warmth into her voice. Stacy beamed back, a flash of brilliant white teeth. "Morning, Darla! Almost done here!"

Darla gently laid a hand on Stacy's shoulder. "You know, your sister and Mum are still a bit wobbly this morning. Maybe we can help them get ready?"

Stacy's face softened. "I get so caught up in being able... I forget they need me."

Together, they navigated the hallway to Lisa's room. Lisa, her long, delicate neck drooping, lay patiently on  her bed. "Good morning!" Lisa's voice, though soft, was full of enthusiasm.

"Morning, sunshine," Darla said, grabbing Lisa's new custom brace. "Ready for adventures?" With practiced ease, Darla and Stacy carefully placed the brace, securing it with gentle clicks. 

The moment it was on, Lisa's posture straightened, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Adventure awaits!" she proclaimed, bouncing slightly.

Finally, they arrived at Simone's room. The older woman struggled to pull a dress over her head, her arched back contorting in pain. Darla gasped, snatching the embroidered corset from the bedpost.

"Mum, you know you shouldn't be doing this alone!" Darla chided playfully, her fingers flying as she expertly laced the corset.

Simone sighed in relief as the supportive garment eased the strain and she stood straight and not bent almost double. "Thank you, darling girl. I sometimes forget how much I need... well, you." She grasped Darla's hand, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "It means the world to me that you see us, truly see us. Most of our family wrote us off as... broken."

Darla squeezed Simone's hand. "Don't be silly. You're not broken, you're brilliant. And you're my family. I just know that." Darla paused then said: "And besides you're a mum to me as well."

Simone smiled, a genuine, radiating smile that lit up her face. "Then let's get this family fed. Pancakes, anyone?"

As the four of them made their way to the kitchen, the morning's disquiet faded for Darla. The static had cleared, replaced by a clear, bright chord of belonging. This was where she was meant to be.

Dinosaurs and PJO - March 09

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but sometimes it is just weird. A while earlier this year, I found several Montoy™ Toy Dinosaurs down at the recycling room; they were in good condition, so I took them. (Childish, I know, but they are still good, my life sucks, and so I took them). There were five of them – a T-Rex, a Dilophosaurus, a Triceratops, a Velociraptor, and a Pteranodon – I was really lucky, for once.

This is when things got odd. Most of the dinosaurs, (yes, I know that the Pteranodon was not a dinosaur at all, but their cousin, but those are toys, so this doesn’t matter), are realistic enough, and looked just how they were depicted on the box… except for the T-Rex, which is built much… less robust than the Dilophosaurus and the Velociraptor; his head and torso are horizontal, parallel to the ground, and it doesn’t look much like a T-Rex… or how it is depicted on the box.

How do I know how it is depicted on the box? I went looking for the Montoy™ toy block dinosaurs at the local dollar stores… and I found them. I found the Dilophosaurus, the Velociraptor, and the Pteranodon easily enough, but the Triceratops and in particular the T-Rex – with much more effort. Why?

Because those dinosaurs are depicted much less realistically, I guess. They both are smaller than the Dilophosaurus and the Velociraptor… but they are toys. ‘Assemble yourself’ toys for preteen children. Realism does not have anything to do with them, so why Montoy™ is apparently ashamed of them, and is calling them back, I do not know. Real life sucks… but it is also weird.

Another manifestation of this weirdness involves the cobra snake. The YouTube search engine is not very different from an A.I. – it runs on human algorithms… so when you put down just ‘cobra’ you get many videos of… people who give themselves that name as their moniker or something similar. Fair enough, so you put in ‘cobra snake’ as your search and what you get are videos… of king cobras, either by themselves, or as parts of videos that talk about venomous snakes in general, including king cobras – king cobras are still representatives of the elaphid clan of the snakes, it just that now the videos talk about other snake clans as well.

Humans made the term ‘cobra’, and it applies to several snake groups that are related to each other, but are still distinct. The king cobra, in particular, is separate from the ‘other’ cobras… and there might be several snake species in that genus, and not just the default one. That is interesting, but does not explain as to why the king cobra is the ‘default’ cobra on YouTube – to find any other, you need to be even more specific, it is not a bother exactly, but it is still strange.

(Not as strange as the plaster Dilophosaurus I found – it is not as much a toy as a painting model, it had the feet of a raptor and the front claws of a T-Rex – clearly Dr. Wu and his hybrid dinosaurs are more important than how it comes across). Anything else?

Just a point about PJO S2, two points, even. First, in the novel, young Clarisse commanded a crew of the resurrected… Confederate soldiers – and in the TV series, her crew are anyone but the US. Confederate soldiers – Disney might be progressive, but it has a limit, apparently.

And second, in the original novel, Tantalus is banished to Tartarus and Chiron is rehabilitated – and he’s brought back in a much later novel, ‘The Court of the Dead’, where he’s one of the main antagonists. In the TV series, the Lestrygonians kill him instead. Why – I have no idea again, but, clearly, Disney is taking PJO somewhere, we just do not know where… real life sucks, true, but it is also weird.

Well, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Perseus and Medusa - Feb 28

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about Medusa for a change.

Why? She is a fad. Let us begin.

Medusa’s origins are vaguer than you might think. In the modern version, she was a human transformed into a monster by Athena. Originally, she was never human, but some sort of a supernatural entity who was slain by Perseus in exchange for his mother’s freedom. Expanding further, we learn that Perseus was a son of Zeus. His mortal grandfather, Acrisius, put both him and his mother into a chest and set them adrift, for the oracle foretold that his grandson – i.e. Perseus – would end him. Acrisius tried to defy fate, but failed ultimately; this part of Perseus’ story is often left out, so let us put it aside for later. What next?

…Danae and Perseus ended on the island of Seriphos, whose king, Polydectes, wanted to marry Danae, but she refused. Since this myth is really a Bronze Age fairy tale, Danae managed to defy the king until Perseus became of age. Therefore, king Polydectes declared that he is marrying someone else and that everyone should bring them a present. Danae and Perseus were poor, so Perseus could not afford one, so the king sent him after Medusa’s head. The rest is known well, except for the death of Acrisius: he was the king of Argos, so when he heard that his demigod grandson was coming to visit, he fled, and lived in hiding for many years, until there were some proto-Olympian games. Acrisius attended them in disguise. Perseus was participating in discus throwing, and threw his discus so hard that it hit the audience stands, killing Acrisius. Therefore, Perseus had to purify himself, and leave Argos for several years – but that is another story. Back to Medusa?

Her role in the story is quite passive, in fact. Whatever her backstory is, when Perseus arrives, she is just there, confident that her deadly gaze will protect her. Since Perseus arrives fully equipped, (in the original, antique versions anyhow), she is slain instead, and – wait.

In the modern versions, Perseus uses Medusa’s head as an ultimate weapon, but originally – he did not. When it came to Andromeda, Perseus killed both the sea monster and her original suitor the old-fashioned way – wait. No, he didn’t… but what original groom?

After slaying the sea monster, (without using the head), Perseus and Andromeda have their wedding, and on the feast in walks Andromeda’s former suitor with a small army. He tries to force Perseus to back down, but Perseus stands is ground, and proceeds to slaughter a lot of enemy warriors, before he does have enough and uses Medusa’s head to petrify all those who remain, including the original suitor. (His name was Phineas, supposedly). Pause. You do not usually see this part of the myth in the modern interpretations either. However, what about Medusa?

In fact, she is a fad. Originally, she was the embodiment of death, a death goddess, the female counterpart to Thanatos, perhaps. Unlike modern depictions of her as a snake-woman, originally she had both arms and legs as well as a pair of wings, so she was quite mobile and could even fly. It goes for Thanatos too, but Medusa did conflict with the Olympian pantheon, especially Athena, and was destroyed; her head is carried either by Athena or by Zeus himself, perhaps signifying that the Olympians are immortal and are greater than death itself. Of Medusa there is just the Perseus’ myth, of Thanatos – slightly more, but not much. Pause.

…If one treats Medusa as a fallen deity that became a mortal monster, then her story does become more interesting rather than just a mortal woman physically mutated into a monster; as a story of victim abuse, Medusa’s modern story is tragic, of course, but also limited; there’s nothing new, no divergence…

Natalie Haynes’ novel ‘Stone Blind’ is just another retelling of the same old story, with some new details, but the focus is mostly on Medusa and her backstory, (here she’s the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, at least); plus, in this novel the female characters are mostly positive, while the male are mostly negative – must be politically progressive, of course.

Bernard Evslin’s ‘Medusa’ book was written in the late 20^th century, quite earlier than ‘Stone Blind’ was, and this book, while quite slimmer than ‘Stone Blind’ is, manages to make Medusa a tragic character, while keeping Perseus the protagonist, and giving the entire Medusa-Danae-Perseus-Andromeda story an original twist – but Mr. Evslin wasn’t concerned with socio-politics unlike Ms. Haynes is, but we talked about her several times before, and let’s not start again.

So, in conclusion, Medusa’s story became quite limited, as is Perseus’; they are depicted in CGI online, but it is the same story, and as such, it risks to become unfashionable and forgotten; guess that the Olympians are having the last laugh over the gorgons’ after all. However, this is real life. It sucks.

…This is it for now. See you all soon.

'Knight' S1 finale - Feb 23

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Life is turning out rather for the worse; I really do not want to make it until late spring of 2026, but the odds of me achieving that are quite high. I am so happy – no, really. Real life sucks; I swear an oath upon it. Next?

Well, ‘Knight’ had its’ S1 finale last night, so we are going to talk about it, but in a roundabout way, I suppose. First stop – the A.I. It is not going to take away jobs from humans because humans make it, and does only what humans programmed/designed it to do – make pictures, or stories, or etc. There is a story about how people had A.I. make Brad Pitt fight Tom Cruise, and now Hollywood is huffy – but because the people in question are Chinese… yeah, Hollywood will deflate even more rapidly than how it inflated.

As I wrote before, A.I. has its’ flaws – you often need to be precise with your instructions to it to get exactly what you want, (and sometimes, not even then). Otherwise, you are liable to get something else entirely – it might be bad, it might be good, but it will not be what you wanted, and that is the point. You need to know what you want to get what you want, for otherwise? You do not need to start the process, what you will get will be something else entirely. Of course, you might have no problems in working with the new result, (it’s called a compromise when you’re dealing with other people rather than A.I.), but it doesn’t apply to everything, and, again, when it comes to A.I., it’s either your job, you get paid, and so you don’t really need to get emotionally invested in your A.I. works, or it’s not, and you are emotionally invested, and-

Where were we? Ah yes, RPG. An RPG – especially the 3.5 D&D generation and the like – is not unlike an A.I. – you need to design the characters, the obstacles, the setting, the lair, the traps, etc. You need to be precise and accurate in your designs too, or else you will fail and your ‘tenure’ as a DM is over.

Again, an RPG is a luxury good – it needs to be demanded and desired, or else it is over, done, as Pathfinder (2^nd edition) shows – this franchise is dying, however, slowly – people just aren’t buying enough of its’ products to sustain it, so it cuts down on the released product, but there’s even less of it for people to buy and to spend their money on; Pathfinder’s income diminishes further… you get the gist. Where does it leave the ‘Knight’?

As it was written before, ‘Knight’ is positioned between the other HBO Westeros TV shows… and an RPG. When he was writing the ASOIAF book cycle, Mr. Martin had one agenda… no, wait. In ASOIAF, the end game is the return of the rightful dynasty, the Targaryeans, in the characters of Jon and Dany. GoT did not do that, so it ended badly – though that was only one of the reasons. However, GoT and ASOIAF are two different aspects of the same franchise, and since then both HBO and Mr. Martin himself moved onto the Targaryeans proper – ‘the House of the Dragon’.

…HoD is returning to the screens only in the summer of 2026, so all is still I the air, but the point is that for Mr. Martin, the Targaryeans are just ‘fire and blood’, and HBO does it’ best to do so with its’ TV shows. If that is a good thing is debatable, but the point is that when ‘Knight’ didn’t have any of the Targaryeans, (and Egg was undercover, cough), it was just an RPG – Dunk went here, Dunk went there, Dunk succeeded on Diplomacy checks, Dunk failed on Bluff checks, etc. It is not bad, but it is generic – and then Egg’s adult relatives arrived, and the plot accelerated like a spurred-on horse; suddenly there is death, and drama, and the Blackfyre rebellion – fun. Well, fun for the fans of Mr. Martin, HBO, and Westeros at least – and ‘Knight’ does not ask for more. Ser Dunk, who is still a hedge knight, or rather – a landless knight; legally, he is a noble, sort of, but in reality? He is right there with the proletariat; his status is not higher than that of Bronn (the one and only), who is a man-at-arms instead, (technically). Still, Egg is now his official squire, (I think), the other Targaryeans appear to like him, and Aerion (who right now is not as bad as GoT’s Aeris was), is sent to Essos instead. Overall, it is not a bad place where he is right now.

…Ok, right now he is between yet another Targaryen HBO drama on one hand, and a generic fantasy RPG/TV show on the other. However, hey, ‘Knight’ is not pretending to be more than that either. Its’ first season made it an OK show at least – better than real life, which just sucks.

This is it for now. See you all soon.

Story idea 2 - Feb 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, even the weather, so here is another story idea; but first, a shout-out to the ‘Knight’: HBO’s Westeros underdog is coming into its’ own at last.

Why? Because it is finally moving past the bloody tourney and into the greater Westeros: in the penultimate S1 episode, we have to see a bit of a Blackfire rebellion, and, um, we have an active Targaryen killing Targaryen action once more. This time it is Baelor who is dead and Daeron (the Waffle) who did the deed – unintentionally, unlike how it went down in HoD…

What does it mean for Westeros? Strife and war, of course, because those are the only things Mr. Martin makes there; there’s also scheming, of course, but as a rule it leads only to violence and little more. At the beginning of D&E S1, the Targaryens are at peace with each other, Westeros is peaceful, inasmuch as it can be, but now peace is ending again – the heir to the throne is dead, and his siblings, children, and so on will soon be jousting for the Iron Throne because, hey, it’s Westeros. I am no so desperate to research in depth just how many Targaryens there are in Westeros at this point In Westeros’ history, but since we know that the throne will go to Egg in the end game of ‘Knight’, it doesn’t matter anyhow.

…I do not know if Mr. Martin intended it or not, but a lot of Westeros action ends up being rather pointless, as the throne is kept by the Targaryens no matter what. In the novels, in particular, it is becoming clear that Jon and Dany will eventually occupy the Iron Throne, (i.e., the Targaryens will recover their rightful kingdom and domain), and in the TV series… well, HoD has Targaryens fighting each other while everyone else plays a supporting role, and ‘Knight’ until now it was almost a Medieval RPG, with Dunk trying to find his place in the Westeros society now that his father figure, mentor, and master, is dead and he is anchorless… So now, the choice is the familiar, by now, Targaryen vs. Targaryen violence, or more of the lukewarm and rather shallow Medieval RPG that we had before. Maybe HBO will throw in another CGI-looking robin in for a good measure…. Where were we?

My latest story idea, seeing how real life sucks, thanks to the Donald and his late friend Jeff – but also thanks to the Donald’s opposition, and how they’re handling the situation; spoilers – they don’t. Let us get back to fiction, shall we?

…A world populated primarily by the ‘goblinoid’ races (trolls, orcs and ogres are not a part of them, they are separate). To wit, they are, as follows.

The bugbears. They are the physically biggest of the goblinoids, but also the least numerous. In a big part because they are also anti-social loners – they hate most other sentient beings, including their cousins, as well as each other. A bugbear is quite happy dominating hobgoblins and goblins and never meeting another bugbear in their lifetime – hence the low population numbers. Only now, with more powerful beings, such as evil dragons and the mind flayers being also around, this lifestyle is no longer working, and bugbears need to re-think it, or else they just might go extinct.

The hobgoblins. If the goblins are smaller than the humans are, and the bugbears are bigger, (and stronger, and more formidable and imposing), then the hobgoblins are human-sized and are rather humane in their lifestyles, etc.

Enter the dragons. They are blue dragons, meaning that they exhale lightning (electricity) rather than fire, and are immune to electricity, not fire; they’re also lawful, as in tyrants, and have enslaved the hobgoblins, (not that they resisted much, because hobgoblins themselves are lawful evil). As a result, the hobgoblins became racially diverse, (among other effects).

There are now four races of hobgoblins. There are the ‘ordinary’ hobgoblins, (the ancestral race), the half-dragon hobgoblins (obvious), the draconic hobgoblins, and the ‘sunscorch’ ones. The draconic hobgoblins look like scalier, more feral versions of ordinary hobgoblins, while the sunscorch are really just ordinary hobgoblins, but smarter, and with blue eyes or blue-tinged hair. The hobgoblin society is acutely hierarchical, of course, and plenty of them are trying to rebel – well, trying to figure out how to rebel, not just because they are afraid of dragons, but also because they are not good at rebelling in the first place. (Scope aside, the hobgoblins aren’t that better than the blue dragons are).

The goblins. They are the smallest and the most numerous of the original goblinoids… and are dominated by the mind flayers. (Some of whom are liches, or alhoons, in the mind flayers’ tongue). Therefore, some of the goblins become Dekanter goblins – a mix of goblin and anthropomorphic rhino – and they are more formidable, given their relatively small size…

The Dekanter goblins serve the mind flayers loyally, (moreso than the ancestral goblins), but the mind flayers meddling had unexpected side effects. First, some of the goblins are born with blue skin color, eyes…, and psionic powers of their own; they are smarter than the ancestral goblins are, and are slowly forming their own councils, trying to counteract the mind flayers.

Second, some of the goblins are born as worghests instead – those are the goblin analogues of tieflings, but rather than from demons or devils, they are descended from barghests instead. (The barghests themselves may still be around, but they are not making themselves known in the immediate moment). Those worghests are anarchists instead, spreading chaos, (not that that goblins themselves are bad at it but their worghest kin are even better).

…The blue dragons and the mind flayers are aware of each other, of course, but neither side is ready to be actively hostile – not yet. In addition, their goblinoid pawns are slowly discovering their own free will and initiative as well.

This already heterogeneous mix of related races and conflicted interests develops on the background of a greater conflict – the orcs are going to war against humans, elves, and dwarves. How will the goblinoids (and their puppeteer masters) affect the conflict is an open question…

Therefore, this is my new story idea. I hope that you will like it, too. See you all soon!

Minions and Monsters 1 - Feb 10

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us turn to the movies, and… what is that? The seventh ‘Minions’ movie? Why, for the love of God?!

Let us try again. The DM1 film (I am just numbering them, come on, all know which DM movie is which); the DM1 film was about Gru adopting three orphan girls as his stepdaughters and becoming less despicable and villainous. DM2 introduces Lucy, his love interest; DM3 – his brother, and the trilogy was complete.

The DM4 film explained the origins of the Minions as well as their metaphorical journey to become, well, the Minions. DM5 – showed them becoming, well, minions to Gru when he was a teen or some age like that. DM6 introduced Gru and Lucy’s new baby son, as well as Poppy, a teenage girl that becomes somewhat of a family friend – eventually. It also introduces the Super-Minions, but they do not appear to be in this film, at least – thank God for small mercies. What next?

The DM7 film appears to be a new expansion of the DM-verse, as the Minions are going for the Monsters to have them star in the Minions’ movie. Guess someone watched MCU’s ‘Wonder Man’ series, eh?

Right, Disney/MCU’s ‘Wonder Man’. It is more ambiguous than it looks. Namely, on one hand, it looks to be the culmination of Disney/MCU’s desire to have a mini-series with a P.O.C. in charge; they tried it with RiRi ‘Ironheart’ Williams, and when her own series failed first, and Marvel Zombies cartoon series were almost just as bad, they went with Wonder Man instead. Therefore, on the other hand, WM appears to be more like ‘Agatha All Along’: it is connected to MCU but doesn’t appear to influence it; as Agatha and co. were dismissed after AAA finished, so did the WM – it is done, it is gone, Disney/MCU has its’ feel-good, and it puts WM into the storage, right next to AAA, if it ever will need either of them again. (It will not). What next?

‘Knight of the 7 kingdoms’ continues apace, with even more Targaryens that we ever wanted. The people are continuing to watch it; they like it well enough, but nothing more; the fan support is getting there, of course, but slower than they had with HoD, so there is that. Dunk and Egg are joined by Waffle – I mean, Daeron Targaryen and are about to go against Aerion the Monstrous; say what you will, but Aerys from GoT (ASOIAF) was much worse by far out of the two (for now). Guess we will have to wait to see if he does live up to his moniker, or not.

In addition, it will be curious to see just how Lyonel Baratheon’s friendship with Dunk and Egg will evolve. The Baratheons were Lords Paramount of Stormlands, and as such – just below the Targaryens themselves, but Egg is a Targaryen, (and will become king, cough), while Dunk will become the Lord Commander (and the ancestor of Brienne), so Lyonel’s friendship with them can easily become a Good Thing for the House Baratheon – and maybe it did. Certainly, until the Targaryens did that shit with the Starks the Baratheons were loyal to them well enough; why, everyone was loyal to them until Rhaegar listened to his inner Tarquin, and then almost no one was. (Just look up Shakespeare’s poem ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ would you? It is that Tarquin). What next?

Well, DM7 is going to be a cash-grab; good or bad is another story, but this one? It is going to be a cash-grab. ‘Illumination’ is already sticking Minions wherever, anywhere, regardless of whether people want it or not, and now they are getting their own movie. Again. DM4 was their first movie, and it did lay the groundwork for the second DM trilogy, but you have to admit that the DM6 film has a rather final feel to it, especially the last scenes that just re-introduce all the main characters from all of the six films in one capacity or another; it leaves Gru with his wife, daughters, son, and even brother (and some family friends) on his lawn – clearly, it was supposed to be the series’ finale. Now we are having a new Minions movie, (just when the U.S. movie industry seems to be struggling as it is). Why, for the love of God?! Oh, wait, it’s real life. It sucks. Yay.

Well, this is it for now anyhow. See you all soon, instead.

Clothes make the woman - Feb 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here's a drabble to cheer you up!

The empusa was still on the roof, tangled in the net like some sort of a giant moth or bat, her arms, legs and wings tangled in the wire.

Rafael approached the daemon carefully: “Still stuck?” he asked the obvious.

“Yes,” and his interlocutrix did not bother to hide the tears, and not just of frustration. “Can you please leave? If I am to die for real, I do not want an audience-“

Rafael took a deep breath and acting quickly, untangled the net, leaving the empusa on the roof, sitting on her butt without ceremony. “There, you’re free, now hide or whatever-“

“I can’t!” the empusa raced to him, still looking desperate. “I need human clothes, they’re in the apartment, the apartment’s locked and the key is inside. I need human clothing to make it through the day-!”

“I have only masculine clothing, and you’re standing on my leg,” Rafael muttered. “Listen, Lena-“

“You recognized me?”

“Up close – yes,” Rafael muttered as the two moved slowly into the building. “Hah, your hooves are soft-“

“And they need shoes,” Lena muttered, but then they entered Rafael’s apartment and she turned into a blur of motion as she grabbed shoes and clothing and raced with them into another other room, to change, apparently. Rafael just sighed:

“Same old Lena.”

Here you go, enjoy, see you all soon!

Robins - Jan 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Somehow, when we talked about the premiere of HBO ‘Knight’ last time, I did not expect to be suckered into talking about robins of all things. To Mr. Martin, robins are somewhat important, I think, as there are a couple of secondary characters that are named, or nicknamed, ‘Robins’, in the honor of the bird. I am guessing that Mr. Martin was inspired, a bit, by the British folk song ‘Who killed Cock Robin?’ here. If he was, good for him.

…Robins are an important feature in the British culture; even Shakespeare, (one of Mr. Martin’s most important inspiration sources) mentioned them in his plays from time to time. Those are the European robins, Erithacus rubecula, the robin redbreast of the British poems, songs, and the like. They are smallish songbirds, about 12.5-14.0 cm in length, and are members of the Old World flycatcher family – meaning that they specialize on insects, and forage on trees and shrubs rather than elsewhere. Their breasts and faces are orange-red; their upperparts are brown, while the underparts are white instead. Overall, the European robins give the European winters a splash of color, (they do not usually migrate south for the winter), and are popular birds, especially in the U.K.

The other birds named robins are different. The most known one, of course, is the American robin, Turdus migratorius. It is a member of the ‘true thrush’ family, and is a thrush itself. In the wild, it is an exclusively New World bird and is not found anywhere else, (i.e. not an introduced species). It is the bigger bird out of the two – at 23-28 cm in length, it’s twice as big as the European robin is, and like many thrushes, it feeds both on the ground and in the trees; its’ legs are long and strong; it has a red belly rather than a breast, its’ back is black, (especially in the adult male birds), as is its’ face. (Its’ beak is yellow). It lives on the North American continent and does not go further south than Mexico in winter. It is a lively and a common North American bird.

Other robins are much more exotic to the Western people. The so-called Pekin robin, also – the Pekin nightingale or the Japanese nightingale, is one of them. The modern name is the red-billed leiothrix, Leiothrix lutea, and it is a handsome and colorful bird. It is 15 cm long, about the size of the European robin and it behaves similarly – i.e., it forages among the shrubs, and it prefers animal matter (insects) rather the plant matter (fruit and the like). The American robin, conversely, is more of a generalist, (though the chicks do prefer insects), and it prefers to forage on the ground instead. Moreover, the red-billed leiothrix is olive-green, but its’ yellow throat does have an orange shade to it, as are the edges of its’ wing feathers – in fact, they are red, orange, yellow, or black, as is its’ olive-brown forked tail – at the end, it is more blackish in color. Overall, the red-billed leiothrix is vaguely similar to the European robin, but its’ family, the Leiothrichidae, while related to the Old World flycatchers (and thrushes), are separate from both.

It should be noted that Andersen, whose stories ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Snow Queen’ were adapted by Disney, also wrote a shorter story called ‘The Nightingale’ that was about the relationship of the nightingale and the emperor of China. The European nightingale that Andersen knew well doesn’t live in China, and neither does the red-billed leiothrix, but when did that stop Disney? The live adaptation of TLM was a biological/biogeographical mess in particular, so if Disney decides to adapt ‘The Nightingale’ next, why not use a red-billed leiothrix instead? It is more closely related to the common nightingale (and the European robin) than a gannet is to a sea gull…

Back to the robins proper, we have the scarlet robin, Petroica boodang, or rather several Australasian passerine birds known as the Australasian robins. Again, they have their own family among the passerines, the Petroicidae; the scarlet robin, as a sample bird, lives only in Australia in the wild. What does it look like? Unlike the previous three bird species, the scarlet robin is sexually dimorphic – the adult males and females of the species look different. Namely, the males are black and white with red, or even scarlet, underparts, while the females are much more drab and subdued. Up to 13.5 cm in length, they are roughly the same size as the European robins are too, as is their behavior – sort of. In the summer, they feed on trees, while in winter – on the ground. (Keep in mind that since Australia is south of the equator, the summer and winter months are opposite of ours).

Finally, we have the forest robins of Africa. They are three species in the genus Stiphrornis… and they are the closest relatives to the European robin out of all the birds mentioned here – they are a part of the Old World flycatcher family too. The orange-breasted species, Stiphrornis erythrothorax looks especially robin-like: is about 12 cm long, (the same length as the European species), has dark upper parts, while its’ throat and chest are deep orange… or yellow-orange – close enough. The behavior is similar too – foraging on trees rather than on the ground. Pause.

Are the African forest robins the most accurate imitations? From one point of view, they are the closest relatives of the European robin that we went through here. From another, the designation ‘robin’ is a human one, and all of the robins talked about here do not perceive themselves as ‘robins’; what do they perceive themselves is another question, one that we do not know the answer to – yet. The cow that used a human tool to scratch herself is Austria may very well know – we just do not know how to communicate with her… What we do know is that all of the ‘robin birds’ are perfectly adapted to life on trees, on the ground, or both… and that is good enough for them.

And for now, moreover, this is it. See you all soon!

Knight of 7, series premiere - Jan 21

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Toronto Public Library, of which I am a card-carrying member and all, decided to remake its’ website fully, and so now I had to re-register myself online and all. It was unnecessary, redundant, and all, but they did it regardless. Damn them.

The weather is just as bad – this winter is a bad one and the weather network cheerfully reiterates it day after day. Between that, and our apartment needing repairs, life sucks. So, let us look at HBO’s ‘Knight of the seven kingdoms’, shall we?

…Well, my first avenue of escape from reality was our RPG, based on D&D 3.5. (Why is a story for another time). One of our opponents was a Green Star Adept, that is to say something of a magic user who is slowly becoming a construct instead. The person who was designing this opponent just had the GSA be a wizard before becoming a GSA; one of our players wanted the GSA’s base class story to be more diverse, and so the gaming session just imploded; person 2 proclaimed that the GSA was just a basic wizard with the prestige class tackled on and that the base class history should’ve been more diverse, and person 1 pointed that a lot of GSA’s skill requirements were Knowledge skills, and so a wizard was a best choice… it was a mess. Onto the ‘Knight’?

Eh, after watching the series’ premiere I have one question: what happened to HoD? GoT was able to finish itself, though no one was pleased as to how it happened, and HoD? HoD ended with S2, so far there is no info when HoD will go onto S3, and HBO is already presenting an entirely different Westeros show. Is HoD on a hiatus or something? People would like to know, I bet…

As for ‘Knight’ itself… it is an RPG. It is a quasi-historical RPG, set in a quasi-England, with Dunk and Egg being the main players. They have to pass obstacles, surmount challenges, flat-out survive and all… it is not a bad concept, and not a bad delivery, and I, for one, have no problem with ‘Knight’, but that robin…

One of the scenes in 1x01 is Duncan hearing – and seeing – a robin in a tree. Since Westeros is based on England (of Shakespeare, and Chaucer, and even Bearns, just a bit), I am guessing that it is a European robin rather than some other – in our times the name ‘robin’ is applied to several bird species, not really related to each other. Of course, given how Westeros is imaginary, and that Mr. Martin tends to use animals in his novels as random monsters if at all, HBO could’ve used an American robin just as well, seeing how no one cared; but.

But what exactly did they do with the robin? I am reckoning that they could have gone into public video domain and got the footage of the European (or any other) robin to use in their show. Instead, I am mostly convinced, they used some sort of an AI to generate the bird; it is not a bad idea, it just makes the bird look rather fake. Duncan’s (ok, his actor’s) look at the singing bird only drives this point further – it’s quite fake and the show didn’t even tried to pretend that the fellow was really staring at an actual bird; instead, the actor just did his best to look incredulous… at nothing in particular. Fun!

That said, CGI-birds and the like aside, ‘Knight’ is a good TV series and I am surprised at the general lack of reaction towards it. Sure, there are reviews about it online, but little else; seemingly the Westeros fanbase itself is suspicious of HBO’s new move, even though ‘Knight’ does work. Oh, and Mr. Martin is teasing his new book, ‘The Winds of Winter’. Sigh.

Did not want to go there, but perhaps part of Mr. Martin’s, and HBO’s, problem is that people are moving past Westeros; his books aren’t selling as they did before, and overall the franchise’s popularity is waning; HBO tries to fix this, and they’re doing it better than how Disney did with SW, but regardless…

Regardless, it might not be enough. Right now, it’s winter 2026, it’s a bad and snowy one, and the Donald seems to be trying to destroy democracy on the planet, so of course people will watch anything to escape reality, and ‘Knight’ is a good show. Of course, so far, it is just the series’ premiere, so what happens next is anyone’s bet, but so far, the show is promising, so let’s be optimistic for the moment, even though real life still sucks.

Well, this is it for now, actually. See you all soon!

Story idea 1 - Jan 14

 Obligatory statement - real life sucks, so here's an idea for a fiction story if anyone's interested:

Story outline.

Aphrodite is a schemer, like most other Olympians are, and she planned to make one of her children into something more than just a demigod. Initially, she was going for Silena, grooming and preparing her for her potential destiny discreetly but Silena died during the war with Chronus, and Aphrodite had to start anew.

Not a problem, she has two candidates, the heir – Piper, and the spare – Drew. Well, Drew is mostly out because Piper seems to be perfect, doing exactly what Aphrodite wanted her to do, including saving Olympus from Gaia and the giants, but also a relationship with Jason.

Jason is the youngest son of Zeus/Jupiter, (so far, officially), and the latter has an ambiguous relationship with all of his sons: he keeps a close watch on them, and if they stand out and rebel (by the Thunderer’s standards), he ends them. Initially, Piper’s job was to occupy Jason’s attention and ensure that he did not do that – and in return, both she and her mother were to receive benefits from the king (and the queen) of Olympus.

At first, it worked, but when the pair moved to college, it stopped. The relationship ended, Jason stood up for Apollo, (who was in Zeus’s bad books now), and ended up dead with no chance of coming back, because you do not come back after you argue with Zeus. Hera is not happy and scheming, but Aphrodite and Piper are not a part of it.

Aphrodite tries to manipulate Piper by giving her Shel – who is almost a literal shell of a person, but it backfires: Piper is done with gods, demigods, and monsters, and takes what Shel de-facto offers her – a life as an ordinary mortal. (There is some squiggle room, but since Piper has de-facto renounced her status as the daughter of Aphrodite, none of the options are good). Aphrodite goes to Drew.

Drew knows that Aphrodite came to her only after Piper is done, and knows that for Aphrodite she is the last option. Still, Aphrodite is her mother, and so, when Aphrodite gets her to go on a quest, Drew accepts.

The quest is the first step out of several that are supposed to make Drew into something more than a demigod, almost like a junior partner for her mother. Drew suspects that something is off from the start, and though she loves and obeys her mother, she doesn’t do so without questions and doesn’t do all the right moves fully, and Aphrodite can’t manipulate/force her to do that, because that would ruin her whole plan – so now the mother and daughter are stuck in a very precarious position as both found themselves bound to each other by Aphrodite’s plot.

Add the Egyptian magicians, led by the Kane siblings. They do not know the Greek-Roman world too well, but Drew is helping them learn, (and learns back), and they recognize enough of Aphrodite’s plan to be wary. (Drew wants them to stop it, on some level). The story is set, and many people are going to have headaches before it ends.

This is it for now. See you all soon.

PJO S2, take 2 - Jan 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us return to PJO S2 once again.

We start with ‘the Sea of Monsters’, obviously. Riordan’s novel was one thing, and Disney+ went with something visibly influenced by the PotC franchise – remember the entire Depp vs. Hearst RL story? Yes, that PotC. Disney is continuing to play fast and loose with its properties – guess the Sequel Trilogy of SW did not teach them anything…

No, really, let us expand. In the SW 7-9 films, Disney tried to push female power and other progressive politics onto the movies’ audiences, and failed. The state of affairs where Disney/SW just swung back and forth between bending backwards to appease the viewers to flat-out defying them (Witcher S4 style) to elsewhere made it worse. In PJO S2, this state of affairs is not present, instead we have POCs, especially young women of Afro-American origin, being the main characters – mostly. Circe took over for Medusa here, (sort of – out of the two, Medusa is the more appealing character), and PJ (who is played by an Anglo-American male), and Grover, (who is a POC, but male, rather than female), are still important to the plot. However, otherwise? Athena is depicted here as a POC. Not a problem – she is a goddess; in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ she tended to alter her appearance constantly whenever she was in the mortal world – she could appear as anyone, male or female, as well as human or bird. Right now, we behold her as a woman of color, just as Zeus is an Afro-American man – but that does not matter at all. Zeus courted Europa as a bull, Danae – as a shower of gold, Alcmene – as her legitimate husband, and Leda – as a swan to name a few; right now he looks like an Afro-American man; in the next moment he can look like an animal, an inanimate object, or, Tartarus, even a woman – he seduced and impregnated Callisto in the shape of his another daughter, Diana slash Artemis of the hunt, so, clearly, the divine equipment is different from the mortal on many levels…

Athena, of course, is supposed to be a virginal goddess. Pause. In the second series, Riordan made it so that Minerva is a virginal goddess, but Athena isn’t – and now, in ‘The Court of the Dead’, there are ‘legacy demigods’ of Minerva too. He is clearly doing his best to adapt to whatever Disney is doing with his franchise, for what else is there?

Calling it quits and leaving with some originality and integrity intact. As king Midas showed, you cannot have all the money in the world, and Croesus showed that you could be rich, but still have an unhappy ending to your life. (Neither appeared on PJO yet). Riordan has 15 books on the Greek-Roman myths, 3 on the Egyptian, and another 5 on the Norse – plus oodles of supplementary books. That is quite enough for a single person; the royalties for them should last him a lot – and then there are the ‘RR presents’ YA novels – but we’ll talk about them another time. Right now we reach the point that Riordan’s characters can be POC or WASP and move to the fact that Disney is trying to pull an ‘Ironheart’ here – Annabeth, Clarisse, even Thalia (in the flashback), all are POCs, and they almost steal the show from Percy, who is not. The show is good, but now the fans have reached the acceptance stage – they do not care about the race bending, (good for them), or about anything else. They just watch the episode of the week, and move on. Riordan and Disney tried to reinvigorate the franchise. It does not appear to have worked. Of course, if they kill Clarisse, (rather than Luke) on the show, I will be sad and disgruntled for one, but that is unimportant. I believe they are trying to make Clarisse almost like a mentor/big sister to Percy and that, again, is original content. Pause.

There is nothing wrong with original content; Hell, Tom Holland’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies are full of it, and if original content is delivered correctly, (in those movies it is), it works. Otherwise, you have ‘Ironheart’ or even ‘Marvel Zombies’, where it does not work. What next?

Clarisse’s heartfelt speech in the scene with Scylla. Of all the depictions they could have taken with the sea monster, this one was disappointing – a watered-down version of the PotC Kraken. Seriously, they just could have made her a giant squid and be done with it, ‘cause why not? In addition, on another note, it is Epic: the Musical. What?

In JRH’s version, Odysseus sacrificed a random half-a-dozen of his crew so that he, and the rest, could get through and to Ithaca, eventually. In Homer, Odysseus prepared to fight Scylla, but since six heads can be smarter than one, Scylla launched a surprise sneak attack and stole six of Odysseus’ crew before Odysseus could do anything. In addition, here, in PJO S2, we have Clarisse and co. doing their best to save Clarisse’s crew (who are not entirely human themselves, but Scylla does not care)… with mixed success, but still. I honestly wonder if the script of Epic: the Musical, (there the Scylla episode is something of a response to the ‘Survive’ song set in Polyphemus’ cave), hadn’t influenced Disney’s PJO script writers and they went the other way…

Polyphemus, of course, is Polyphemus, (just as Tyson is Tyson). Here, the PJO script did something different from the book again – the Tyson vs. Polyphemus fight, for example. Clearly, the PJO scriptwriters felt that they needed to do something different from the book (and the movie) here, and they did. It was certainly dramatic, too. Good for them. Pause.

Do I like the PJO S2? It is not bad. It is full of progressive politics, just like Ms. Haynes’ books, and as I wrote before, Ms. Haynes seems to be doing her best to be noticed by Disney and co. – but she does not appear to have much luck in this direction. As it was written earlier, her writing usually does not have any passion, any investment – it is not written by an A.I., but that is not necessarily an improvement.

What is the advantage of A.I.? It allows you to bounce your ideas around, to see what they look like as a draft.

…Ok, it can enable you to do a lot more – write an official letter, an essay, explain a complex myth to your child and so on. The A.I. is here to stay, but you must learn how to handle it precisely – a slight mistake and the result is nothing that you wanted. If this sounds familiar, it is. It is Athena and her wisdom – she can help you see clearly, (or clearer), what you want, but nothing else. You are in charge, in fact, you decide where to go from there, what to do with this advice, and so on. The ‘Odyssey’ shows this clearly – Athena, disguised as Mentor, (a man – therefore, for all that we know, she was hanging around Annabeth regularly, Annabeth just never knew that it was her mum), helps Telemachus to organize his thoughts, make up his mind, design his plan, and go off to execute it. It is clean, precise, methodical, and not exactly humans – but the gods of Olympus are not exactly human to begin with, and neither is A.I. I am not saying that Annabeth is the daughter of a divine Skynet, but wouldn’t it be cool if it were?

Back to PJO… it was not written by A.I., or at least – not purely by A.I., and neither were Riordan’s original YA novels, and therefore, the PJ franchise feels more emotional than Ms. Haynes’ works. Her non-fiction works are something else, and ‘1000 ships’… well, it has Odysseus and Penelope in it, and so it is a much more interesting read than ‘Stone’; as for ‘House’ (her upcoming 2006 novel), we will just have to wait and see.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon.

 

PJO, Riordan, and Ms. Haynes - Jan 11

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. My apologizes for vanishing for the rest of 2025, but real life sucks, and I did not have a regular access to computer until now. I really hate my life, you know? That said, the ‘Endlings’ have ended for now, (and we will talk about them some other time), MCU is about to bring forth ‘Wonder-Man’ by the end of Jan 2026, (and we will talk about it then), so what is left?

The second season of PJO, mostly. After the excitement of the first season, the second is going down much quietly, people have accepted this PJ reality and just go with it – or not. The sirens, for example, clearly designed via 3.5 edition’s D&D Monster Manual II, are just… not working. This probably brings us to Annabeth (and Clarisse). Pause.

Once upon a time, there was plenty of racebending artwork – not just of PJ, but also of HP and the like – and then the first season of PJO came out, and racebending became official, and unofficially? The racebending stopped. Even via the AI, as well as the more traditional artwork. In fact, the popularity of the entire Riordan franchise still appears to be gradually dying down, which brings us to Ms. Natalie Haynes.

Ms. Haynes, judging by her books, both fiction and non-fiction, wouldn’t object being noticed by Disney or someone like that; to achieve this, she’s trying to be politically progressive, especially in ‘Deific Might’ (that features a particularly cheeky goddess Athena on the cover)… just when the progressive politics are dying – thanks to the Donald (at the moment). Moreover, as I wrote in 2025, most of the time, Ms. Haynes’ prose is more mind than passion, more Athena than Medusa (by her standards), and while she does get passionate (say, about Phaedra in ‘Pandora’s Jar’), most of the time she is not. Therefore, it is rather hard to get excited/involved/etc. in her writings as well. You read them, and you are done. Onto Athena?

Athena… is a special case for Ms. Haynes – she is clearly her favorite goddess, she tries to put her into every entry of PJ and DM. Ms. Haynes tends to be long-winded anyhow, (and it doesn’t always work in her favor), but when Athena, (or Odysseus, Penelope, or Homer), is talked about, she becomes especially so. Ms. Haynes has her favorites, and no matter how hard she tries to some across as a politically progressive person, she does not always achieve this. So what does Riordan has to do with this?

As we have seen the goddess Athena in PJO, she too is now Afro-American, as is Annabeth, her daughter. This means nothing, because Athena is a fully blooded goddess and can look like everyone. This is traditional, in fact, because in Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’, (as well as the later works, especially Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’) Athena was quite fond of disguises and could be anyone, before revealing her godly might and surprising the unlucky mortal. She got it from Zeus, of course – the king of gods and mortals really loved disguises, especially when it came to seduction; he usually didn’t go as himself (unless the other party themselves was divine, like Leto or Maia), but rather as someone else – as the lawful husband when he sired Heracles, as his own daughter when he seduced Calypso, as a bull, or a golden rain, or – you get the idea. How does Athena fit here?

Zeus was worried about himself being dethroned. After all, his father, who was dethroned by Zeus himself, so there was tradition, dethroned his grandfather and since it was in Zeus’s disfavor, he did not like it. Therefore, his Olympian children were rather worried about him whipping out his old thunderbolt and sending them off the Olympus into who knows where. There are actually myths about Apollo (and sometimes Poseidon) having this sort of experience – usually serving mortals as well. Riordan’s TTOA books have precedent on their side.

For Athena’s part, she was the daughter of Metis. Zeus was worried that Metis will bear a son, who will dethrone him, so he swallowed her, and Metis bore Athena, a daughter, instead. I.e., Athena is the son that Zeus always wanted – a daughter who cannot inherit his throne (or deposit him – theoretically). In addition, for her part Athena is always obedient to Zeus in the canon and usually does what he wants and nothing more. That is one.

Two is that Athena is wisdom, true, but… the wisdom she gives is the one that the person already has. Look at Aphrodite. As love, she can be anyone, so all of those depictions of her are all true – she can take any shape, from a skinny blonde-haired woman to a short and busty redhead, to anyone else – and she will always be Aphrodite. Athena, too, can be anyone or anything – an old woman, a bird (and not just an owl), your best friend or even your sibling – and she will always give wise advice. Only… everyone has their own wisdom (and common sense), and that is what Athena does. She tells the person not so much what they want to hear, but rather what they are already thinking; she helps them work through the thinking process and arrive where they want to go mentally – and that can be dangerous. In the ‘Iliad’, for example, Athena pretended to be one of Hector’s brothers (who wasn’t Paris), who promised to help Hector with his fight with Achilles – and so Hector went to fight Achilles, and his brother (let alone Athena) wasn’t there to help him, and that was one of the reasons he died.

The rub there, of course, is that it might’ve been one of Hector’s brothers (who wasn’t Paris), who wanted Hector to die so that he can be the next commander in chief of the Trojan forces, and Athena just helped him figure out how to do it – how to set Hector up. Athena, the wisdom, does what you want to do, she helps you get to your goal without caring about morality, and if you fail, or succeed, and the price is paid – Athena is already gone; she usually does not care about mortals, normally she does not care about the mortals at all…

You know who, or what, this sounds like? An AI or a robot. Athena is almost all intellect, normally; she does not have much emotions. Poor Annabeth has her work cut out for her trying to impress her divine parent – it is not that Athena does not care about her children; it’s that she doesn’t do that emotionally. Moreover, I do not think that she would have children without Zeus’ permission – he is not exactly grandfather material, he is always suspecting that there is a rival within his family and so he keeps his thunderbolt ready and primed. If he suspected that Athena was not loyal to him, he would smite her too – as he did with Apollo, most likely. Therefore, Athena can prance before Ares and proclaim that she is better than he is at war and his domains, but in reality? It is a superiority of a computer/robot over a human being (in a matter of speaking), and we all know how it goes does in a sci-fi movie (or a TV series) – the human eventually triumphs…

It would have been an interesting twist, if in PJO Riordan did not make Ares the villain in the ‘Lightning Thief’ book, but rather Athena: she could have started as this flawless, perfect being, and then gradually the titular hero and his friends realized that this perfection is hollow and that Athena is manipulating everyone without caring about anyone. Chronus, of course, would still be the puppeteer; Athena would be free from his control and would spend at least a couple of books putting her life back together after this disaster. (Instead of Trials of Apollo, we could have Trials of Athena – that would be interesting too). However, no – Ares is a stereotypical villain, Percy defeats him, and Ares recovers his standing by the third book of PJO, the end. Clichéd and boring – no wonder that Riordan’s world is slowly fading into overall oblivion, Disney+ series or not. Meanwhile, Ms. Haynes?

The same thing. Her fiction books, feel like they have been written by an A.I. (or Athena) – smooth, flawless, easily forgettable. Her non-fiction books… Ms. Haynes tries to be politically progressive, but sometimes she sounds like a neophyte who arrived at progressive politics late in her life and who tries to compensate for this fact with extra zeal – and sometimes she sounds more like an opportunist, who doesn’t care about the progressive politics but wants to use them to get ahead… isn’t that Disney? It sure is – no wonder Ms. Haynes is trying to hit all the right notes and be notices – after all, if Disney worked for Riordan, and made him successful and rich, why not for her?

…Because Riordan actually has passion in his writing and emotion. Some of his novels – especially the second pentalogy, where Percy and friends meet the Romans and have to ally with them to defeat the giants – are quite good. Ms. Haynes’ novels are not so much. (In addition, authors are publishing fictive books based on Greek myths quite regularly in the last few years, so Ms. Haynes is also getting lost in the crowd). However, hey, Athena would be proud!

…Athena is not the goddess of creativity or literature – that is the role of the Muses and Apollo. Riordan invested into the latter a lot – five entire books, a whole series. Maybe Ms. Haynes should try to do something similar rather than sticking with ‘girl power’ – something that Athena does not have much in common with anyhow. (Seriously, Athena does not care all that much for mortal women, unlike the other Olympian gods and goddesses). However, hey, it is her call. (The real life sucks, again – unlike the sirens of PJO who are not even good or bad – just bizarre, and looking like some animatronics gone wrong – but that is a rant for another time).

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!