Michiru-San goes all Jimmy Hendrix on her Violin

I hope all the remains episode are so easy for me to nickname.

Also Rei says half o the Legend of Zelda line.

I was reminded this episode how the Deathbusters arc is kind of the most Lovecrafting Sailor Moon Storyline.

People sometimes forget how much Sci-Fi is in Lovecraft's supernatural horror.  The idea of miniature sentient Universes is totally something he cold have thought of.  And the Daimons definitely have the right look.

Pharaoh 90 is either Azathoth or Yug-Sothoth, I can't decide which.

Ami suddenly goes all Ninja during Kaolinite's usually forgettable Mirror of Galadriel scene.  That really took me by surprise.

And Pluto is back at the end, yay.

But no Hotaru this week?????

The new closing theme was fun.

Gundam 00 and Classic Science Fiction

Gundam 00 is the only Gundam series I've watched thus far.  I first checked it out when the SciFi channel aired Anime on Monday nights years ago.  I wish they'd bring that back.  I only recently completed it however.

I know enough vaguely about Gundam to know that it does not seem very representative of the Franchise in general.  It's not part of the original Continuity, and is the first to use dates clearly linkable to our real life calendar.

I enjoy it for reasons similar to why Code Geass is one of my favorite Animes.  Tense battles, complicated geo-politics, with good people on each side and moral ambiguity.  And lots of eccentric and quirky interesting characters.

What I want to comment on today is how Gundam 00 draws inspiration from a lot of classic works of Western Science Fiction.

Another thing it has in common with Code Geass is it clearly modeled it's 3 major Superpowers after the three Geroge Orwell envisioned in 1984.  These aren't nearly so blatantly Dystopic however.  The main variation is both put Japan (the native country of their creators) in Oceania rather then Eastasia.  Why (in universe) it's there is different however, in Code Geass it's conquered by Britannia, but in Gundam 00 Japan being in the Union seems much more consensual.

The logic behind putting Japan in the same Power Block as America, rather then with China and Russia I fully get, Japan has becomes a very Westernized and particularly Americanized nation.  Thing is that same logic in my mind ought to put South Korea with them as well, but Korea seems to be ignored in Anime.

I also recently before revisiting Gundam 00 began familiarizing myself with Isaac Aismov's Foundation series.  And immediately I thought of Aeolia Shenberg as Hari Seldon's plan was revealed.  That's largely what inspired me to return to Gundam 00.

But what's really meaty is all the Arthur C Clarke.  Clarke interests me, even though I firmly reject the logic behind Clarke's third law.

The first Clarke connection is of course the Orbital Elevators which are evocative of The Fountains of Paradise.  It's a shame more writers don't draw on that concept, a Christian writer drawing on Biblical Themes could easily go for a Tower of Babel reference with one.

Throughout Series 2 as the metaphysical and Trans-humanist aspects of the story became more and more apparent, I started wondering whether or not a comparison to works like Childhood's End would be accurate.  Then the series ended with a quick little promo for the movie saying that "Humanity's childhood is about to end", so that settled that.

In the Movie, the ESLs have a Lovecraftian vibe to them at first.  But they ultimately aren't really Evil.  And in the end the 2001 and Childhood's End aspects of the story fully come to fruition.  I also suspect where it ultimately goes is something Gene Roddenberry would appreciate.

So it's an Anime I recommend checking out if your into Hard SciFi.

Lovecraftian Pokemon

Because of the Anime people have a notion in their heads that all Pokemon are basically good, even the ones that seem to be designed to look like The Devil or Demons.  They can be chaotic and destructive at time but always inevitably calmed down, and the big fights the Legendies often have with each other are always misunderstandings.

But that isn't always how it is in the Games, the Games can be pretty dark beneath the surface.  And I've come to notice lately a lot of Lovecraftian influence.

Because of his status as a Creator Deity, Arceus tends to get refereed to as the God, in a Monotheistic Judeo-Christian sense, of the Pokemon world.   And thus comparable to Eru Iluvatar.  But while he's a creator of sorts he's not outside space and time, he's still a Finite being rather then Infinite.  So at best more like a Platonic or Gnostic Demiurge.

In fact he is described as falling asleep right after creating the world.  Making him a lot like Lovecraft's Azathoth.  Who was in turn molded after Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Shushai from The Gods of Pegena.

Meanwhile Giratina who was banished into the Distortion dimension outside our tangible universe, is a lot like Yog-Sothoth.  While Dialga and Palkia rule Time and Space.

While the Fourth Generation Legendary Pokemon may be the Outer Gods, the Third Generation ones seem like the Great Old Ones.  Groudon and Kyogre are primordial beasts of the Earth and Sea constantly at war with each other.  They have been dormant for eons and their awakening would likely destroy all life on the Planet.

Regardless of how destructive their awakening would be Team Magma is obsessed with awakening Groudon and Team Aqua is obsessed with awakening Kyogre.  They aren't Pokemon Mafia like Team Rocket or Pokemon P.E.T.A. like Team Plasma, they are cults very much like Lovecraftian cults.

Rayquazza however, who is supposed to live in the Ozone layer, possibly serves the role of Nodens, he alone is able to stop the conflict between Groudon and Kyogre.  However unlike Nodens he doesn't seem like Odin or Orome, he is a very primal force of nature himself.

One could also be suspicious of Deoxys, an Alien Virus from the depths of Space.  I've often felt inclined to compare Deoxys to Jenova of Final Fantasy VII.

So really a Nyarlathotep figure is all the Pokemon universe lacks.

And then if you decide to consider the Glitch Pokemon canon, all bets are off.

Hollywood and The Titans of Myth

In Hollywood movies based on Greek Mythology, the term Titan keeps being applied to entities that don't actually seem like the Titans at all.  But rather more primal monsters, even though they are refereed to as the parents of the Olympian gods who are shown as idealized Super Powered humans.

The basis seems to come from intentionally confusing them with the other offspring of Ouranos and Gaea.  The Cylcopses, the Hundredhanders, the Gigantes and Typhon.  They are very inhuman creatures, like the beings created by or corrupted by Morgoth in Tolkien's works.  But in the actual Mythology the Titans are defined as being not like those monsters, they were the successful offspring, and were entities very much like their Olympian children, entities that would in Tolkien more resemble the Valar.

This trend started at least as early as Disney's Hercules animated movie.  Where in addition to making Hades seem like the Devil, they also used the word Titans when what the climax was clearly actually based on was the legend of Herakles helping the Olympians fight off the Gigantes.  The Gigantarchy not the The Titanarchy.

Then there was The Immortals, a very garbled version of the Theseus legend.  Where the name Hyperion is given to a Human king who should have been Minos.  And the Titans just look like very big Orcs.

And in Wrath of The Titans, the only entity we see who shares a name with a Titan is Cronos.  But this Cronos is more like Typhon.  And in Clash of The Titans which that is a sequel to the remake, the justification for putting Titans in the title is the Kraken.  The Kraken isn't actually Greek at all but exploration era sea faring folklore derived from Norse legends.  The monster Perseus actually slays at Joppa is the Ketos/Cetus, who was not a Titan.

All this is perhaps done to try and give Greek Mytholgoy a more Lovecraftian vibe.  While some Greek mythical ideas likely influenced Lovecraft, in Greek myth the age before the known world was a Golden Age, not the primal demonic wasteland of Lovecraft and the Buffyverse.

A few times they've just been depicted a Giants (like that one Xena episode).  Likely influenced by Christians associating them with The Nephilim/Genesis 6, which itself is because the word Giant comes from Gigantes.  This trend probably helped inspire the anime Attack on Titan.

DC Comics however has depicted The Titans of Myth how they were (in-spite of getting plenty else about Greek Mythology wrong).  There were different story-lines for them between Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis, but in both were depicted a plausible parents of The Olympians.

Wonder Woman is the initial basis for bringing Greek Mythology into the DC Universe, but The Titans of Myth are usually involved with the Teen Titans.  Their Pre-Crisis appearances are collected in New Teen Titans Archives Vol 2.  And for Post-Crisis appearances get New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy and Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death and Return of Donna Troy.

I think Dracula has an overlooked relationship to the Yellow Peril trope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_peril
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YellowPeril

Dracula is not usually mentioned when discussing the Yellow Peril fear in fiction.  But I shall explain why I think maybe he should be.  (Note, The above linked Wiki sites could add Dracula in the future, but as of my writing this Post they don't mention Dracula).

Fu Manchu was not the very first such characters in fiction.  What he's usually considered to be is the first who's a really good Charismatic Super-Villain, but even that's disputed.

Fu Manchu himself was originally a much more sympathetic character then he's given credit for.  He has a Code of Honor, and was originally an extreme Revolutionary fighting to liberate the East from the British Empire.  Which makes me inclined to view him as being a lot like an oriental version of Paul Feval's Henri Belcamp or Fergus O'Breane., or Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.  And there was a genuine mutual respect between him and the British detective opposing his schemes.

The Yellow Peril Trope also has a strong connection to Gothic Horror.  H.P Lovecraft and some of his known influences like Robert W. Chambers. 

Above is a Police Sketch style drawing of how Dracula is actually described in Bram Stoker's Novel.  You may notice he looks kind of Asiatic.  The kinds of actors that pop into my head as someone who could look close to that are the ones that used to float around for The Mandarin before Iron Man 3 was cast.

In the Novel he is described as a Sezkely, and takes great pride in his believed descent from Attila The Hun.  Attila like Ghengis Kahn is among the historical figures that Yellow Peril style Super-Villains tend to look up to or identify with. The way western Super-Villains often tend to admire Napoleon Bonaparte or Alexander The Great.

The Novel also has a West vs East theme to it.  About an Ancient Evil from the old uncivilized Eastern Europe coming to infect Modern London.

And the Book does predate all or most major fictional works with a Yellow Peril theme.  And is only two years after the term is believed to have been coined in Germany.

It is no secret that Dracula is a very well known, popular and influential novel.  So why would it's connection to the Yellow Peril trope be overlooked?

To being with, Stage and Film productions have always cast White Actors to play him (with no offensive make up job like they get when they play Fu Manchu or a Fu Manchu knock off).  Bela Lugosi actually was more ethnic then most, but still did not have the features seen in the sketch.  And Dracula's appearances in Comics and Animation have followed suit.  So most people think of someone like Christopher Lee when they visualize Count Dracula.

Another reason is the overemphasis on his thin connection to Vlad Tepes, which was originally only a small thing Stoker threw in and by no means central to how he viewed the character.  None the less it has taken over how people choose to expand on his history.  Here is a good discussion of that issue.

Vlad Tepes himself had some Asiatic ancestry too probably.  So why would that contribute to Dracula originally being a Yellow villain being obscured?

First off would be more of the above reason, Cinematic depictions of Vlad always use white actors.  Hollywood typically just sees Europe and thinks white (especially when pre-1500), being uninformed that Eastern Europe was and is more ethnically complicated.

Another reason however is characterization.

While the Dracula of Stoker's Novel chooses the Asiatic aspect of his Ancestry to take Pride in, (Attila as discussed already).  Vlad Dracula was the opposite, he hated the Asiatic Turks, and thus hated the thought of sharing any kinship with them.

So, that's my rambling for today.  I hope I've given fellow Nerds something to think about.