Reading Notes: The Lord of Lanka Comic

Ravana is born to Kaikesi and Vishrava along with his siblings Kumbhakarna, Shoorpanakha and Vibheeshana. He already has ten heads and is arrogant and ambitious. The plan is to hopefully describe the beginnings of his strength and power. Kumbhakarna will also be described as Vijaya. Ravana performed penances just as Hiranyakashipu did to gain his semi-immortality. Vibhishana must be described as noble through the story as he is the noble son of Kaikesi. Vedavati presents the first conflict between Vishnu and Ravana as she turns away Ravana for Vishnu. When she says no, there will be a flaming flash of hatred in Ravana as the “Reverse Jaya” in him makes Ravana hate Vishnu.


After Ravana loses Vedavati and she becomes Sita, I will have to describe that he continues to torment people and grow his land. Nalkoober’s curse will come back to haunt Ravana when he takes Sita. For my storybook I might deviate from the comic and tell the Narayan version of how Ravana takes Sita. Shoorpanakha reports about Sita and Ravana does the Golden Deer trick. Might tell the Hanuman story where he lights Lanka on fire and then have Ravana react as though he knows that he is Shiva’s avatar. When Rama calls him Jaya he will react as though he has heard the name before, indicates he is getting closer to being back with Vishnu. Kumbhakarna will die by Hanuman’s hand, then Ravana will notice Hanuman. The epic battle between Rama and Ravana will be more detailed than in the comic as the flying chariot battle is iconic in my opinion.

The Lord of Lanka Cover

Indian Epics: Amar Chitra Katha

Bibliography:

The Lord of Lanka: The Rise and Fall of a Demon King by Anant Pai and Pulak Biswas

Week 10 Lab: Crash Course Mythology

All the areas of study and knowledge coming together to make mythology is very interesting and it will be cool to see how they are represented in mythology. When the man talked about one reason why it is hard to talk about mythology which is that there are multiple versions of a story, that hit home. All these different versions and retellings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata make it difficult to keep up. Some names become different in the same story and can be confusing.

The line between myth and religion is also very interesting because I might be reading these stories under the pretense that they are just that, stories. However, to a different person these may be their religious texts and sometimes I have thought about that. Staying power of a story is definitely one the main characteristics that I would prescribe for a myth.

Interesting that the Persephone myth explains how we got the seasons while the traditional folklore theorists explained that folklore describe how the world came to be. This causes a mix between traditional folklore and mythology. Euhemerism makes me think of Star Wars with the “a long long time ago,” where the Force and all the lightsabers may have actually occurred or were retold incorrectly as distorted by time. The thought that myths were used to explain the impossible sounds very reasonable and appears many times.

These theories on the hero story subparts are cool because I can see them occurring with Rama and other mythological heroes. Other heroes will have different mixes of these subparts and it is very interesting to find the subparts when you know what to look for.

Mount Ngauruhoe, the real world Mount Doom

Wikimedia Commons

References:

Crash Course: Overview of Mythology

Reading Notes: Epified: Krishna Part B

Brahma praising Krishna’s divinity is very interesting as this might show that Vishnu is more powerful than Brahma. Their status in the Trimurti makes them seem to be equals. The feeding and flute playing for Hastin by Krishna reminds me of Hagrid and Fluffy. Wow, so apparently Krishna’s destiny is to save the Dharma, which is the nature of reality. His destiny seems to be so different from other avatars.

Vishnu presenting himself makes it seem that his avatars are like a mixture of himself and his children in terms of power. It’s not that Vishnu is locked up as Krishna, and Krishna doesn’t have all the power that Vishnu has. Destiny is destiny. That means it’s going to happen so we know Kamsa is just delaying the inevitable. I feel like when you see the face of a god, you should know that it’s over.

Krishna defeats Kuvalayapida

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna by Epified

Reading Notes: Epified: Krishna Part A

Kamsa’s rage seems similar to Duryodhana’s with them trying to kill innocent people who have threaten their throne in some way. Obviously the two stories are linked, which may be a reason for this. If Vasudev was so sure that nothing on Earth could harm his son, why was he worried when Kamsa came for his son? If nothing comes to light with the seventh son, I might make a story with him coming back.

The serpent protecting Vasudev and Krishna shows how much power that the gods have given Krishna as he is a powerful incarnation. Why did Putana want to kill Krishna? There could be a backstory there. Rather how did Kamsa gain control of demons? Could do a Game of Thrones thing where Krishna is a Dany, who is exiled but has immense power. Kamsa is on the Iron Throne as Robert Baratheon who sends assassins (demons) to kill Krishna/Dany. It is interesting that Krishna is never seeking to kill these demons but he is simply protecting himself. Radha drinking the scalding milk is similar to Sita walking into the fire for Rama.

Krishna holding up Govardhan Hill

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Krishna by Epified

Tech Tip: Word Counter

I find word counts to be kind of tedious as I am working. The constant checking of my writing to see its number of words is annoying. That's why this tool is really nice. I don't have to keep copying and pasting into a new window, just a simple highlight and right click. I'm usually okay with hitting word counts, but if I have to meet a requirement, knowing my word count is important.

Week 9 Story: Mjolnir

A shimmering sea was seen from the heights of Valhalla. Odin looked out upon the realm of Asgard with great pride, especially in this two children sparring in the courtyard. Thor and Loki were both formidable fighters, even at their young age. However, Odin could already see the differences between the brothers with Thor progressing slightly faster, with more focus and poise. Loki had shown to be more reckless with his actions inside and out of battle, where he made brash decisions in an attempt to surpass his brother. These types of actions would prove to be important as they had predictive power for Loki’s future personality.

Odin took notice and great interest in the development of Thor’s skills in both his physical strength and tactical abilities. All the strength and power in the world will be of no use if it is employed without direction. Along with the development of these physical attributes, it was important for Thor to be able to control his god given powers. Being the god of thunder, if Thor could focus his powers, his strength would be immeasurable.

In order to facilitate this, Odin decided to visit the dwarves of Nidavellir to have them fashion a hammer of great power. Because of the progress that Thor had made in training, Odin felt that it was time to grant Thor what would be his famous hammer, Mjolnir. It would help the god focus his celestial powers and attain new strength. This kind of power was not given lightly with only the most disciplined receiving a gift of such power. Loki was one that showed too much ambition and brashness, so he couldn’t be trusted with this weapon.

Loki had felt slighted by the news of Odin giving Mjolnir to Thor. Even if he wasn’t Odin’s direct son, it was known that he cared for Loki deeply. This lead Loki into a fit of rage which further showed Odin that he wasn’t ready. Mjolinr wasn’t the only source of supposed favoritism for Thor in Loki’s mind. As these perceived experiences continued, it pushed Loki further and further until he made a plan to rid Thor of his hammer. When the god of thunder was suddenly found unworthy of his hammer and his godly power, Thor was banished from Asgard. The cunning god of mishief, Loki, had succeeded in fooling his father. 

Thor and Mjolnir

Flickr

Author’s Note:

This story is intended to highlight the development of Thor and Loki as warriors in Asgard. I decided to use the Marvel counterparts of these gods because my knowledge of the actual Norse gods is lacking. It was intended to describe the acquisition of devastras by Arjuna (Thor and Mjolnir), but not by Duryodhana (Loki). This lead to Loki using a suspect method to get his brother banished, just as Duryodhana got his cousins banished. I chose not to finish the connection to the Mahabharata, but Thor would come back just as the Pandavas did.

Bibliography:

Mahabharata Episode 16 - Drona Trains the Pandavas

Reading Notes: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution Part B

The mantra seems like it could have been used later for different purposes. I don’t really know why Kunti got rid of Karna, unless it was simply because she was unmarried. Pandu seemed to get some rough karma even though he didn’t mean to shoot those people. It’s odd to me that Pandu was so happy that his wife could have a child with someone else, even if it is a god. I always thought that Yama was the god of death so Yudhistira would be very powerful. It seems that Yama is better known as a god of judgement and truth which would make Yudhistira a good leader for the Pandavas.

The two Pandavas that were not Kunti’s sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, seem like the least important of the Pandavas. When I think about the story, these two didn’t show the level of responsibility or power as the other three, and even Karna. The music for the birth of that lump of flesh was very appropriate and kinda terrifying. I don’t remember the birth of the lump and the splitting of it into 100 sons from Narayan’s Mahabharata and I feel like I would remember something so disturbing.

Seeing the arrogance of Duryodhana again really hurts me, why does he think he can defeat his demigod cousins. This story of the underwater realm sounds like a snake filled Atlantis and this is also a new story, unless I forget. If Drona was a brahmin, how did he know so much about combat and warfare? Didn’t Drona also teach the Kauvaras? The astras are some of the coolest parts of the Mahabharata when it comes to weapons. (After the thumb is cut off) Wow Drona sucks.

Ekalavya cutting off his thumb

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Epified: Mahabharata, Part B

 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution

I like how the Mahabharata is going to be shown in a different view. Using karma as the main driver will be interesting to see in the stories. Karma seems to appear when Ganga put her children in the river to release them. I really like the animation for the telling of the story because it can be helpful in distinguishing who a character is between the all the names.


The vow of Devavrat is presented with much more significance than in the Mahabharata by Narayan. That must be part of the benefit of telling the story in this way because the narrator can break out of the story telling to discuss a topic. In hindsight, I know how important this oath is because I already know about the Pandavas and Kauvaras, while when I first read this, I didn’t know how important this oath would be.


It’s nice to see this again because I had forgotten the earlier lineage of the cousins and didn’t really understand it the first time through. Now, I can remember a little bit so it’s good to hear it again. The Amba story is one that I definitely forgot and might be a depiction of karma to come. I don’t see how Vyasa’s children would become the heir because they would not be descendents of Shantanu. I have to say I completely forgot who Vidura was when reading the story. This makes a lot more sense for him being in the Mahabharata. Now I also know where Sakuni came from as well and it seems like he is the main issue.

Bhishma coming back to his father

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

Epified: Mahabharata, Part A

Tech Tip: Embedding YouTube

I embedded a video for a song from Rocky into my Week 7 Story.

Tech Tip: Favicon

I wanted to change my website's favicon because the blogger logo just isn't that appealing. So I went to look for an image that would work well. I decided against using an image as the source because I didn't like the compression of the existing images. The favicon I have know is the outline of India with the Indian flag's colors and I think that it matches this class pretty well. Plus it was made to be low in pixels so it looks better. It was a task to get it to actually show up and I had to do some external searching, but it all works now!

Basically what my favicon is

Pixabay

Week 8 Progress

My progress has been pretty steady so far. I started early and was a week ahead for about two weeks until I realized that I needed the deadlines to give me the drive to finish, hehe. Now I am on pace with the class and usually do okay with the assignments during the week, but could do better with the weekend ones. Because I have those extra days, it's just more time for me to procrastinate away.

I don't think I fit to my old schedule from the beginning because I usually do the same thing each week now. Start on Monday with the first reading, then Tuesday is the second, and so on until Sunday is a free day, unless I procrastinate. I really want to work on finishing up my project posts earlier so that the feedback came come back a little quicker.

Shia LaBeouf telling you to just do it

Do It! Shia Labeouf (Super Pack)

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The comments are hit or miss for me from everyone else. Sometimes the comments have a healthy amount of criticism and sometimes they are just way to nice on me. Obviously the nice ones just feel really good to read but probably don't give as much to improving the writing as the "means" ones. But I don't really like those either because at some point you want to feel like you're doing okay. I guess a mix of both criticism and praise would be best for my progress and morale. I hope that I do an okay job of providing this balance and I try not to be too hard or soft on someone. Using the WWW method helps me to give this balance as you can be wow'ed but also suggest something in the same comment. 

You can really see someone's personality if you wade through enough of their posts and if you were to see what they have commented. The introduction really hits the big points but you can only get the nuances from their stories. I want to keep giving comments with a healthy mix of criticism and praise so that people can get new ideas in case they are looking for some. I know that I got some cool ideas from other people's storybooks this weekend that I might use to help write my stories. 

cheezburger 

Okay so I just really liked this cat when I was scrolling through the images. I guess I might also be surprised when seeing super good feedback. But the real reason is that this is a good lookin' kitty.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

In the beginning of the semester I didn't think that I would fare all too well with the reading and writing. I have managed to slightly change my mind. The reading went really well even though I am not the best or quickest reader out there. I think it was because I actually started to like the readings. If they were just some bland topics, it would have been the end of me. However, I really got into the Mahabharata at some points were I was just reading a story for fun. I got physically mad when Yudhistira kept losing at the dice game, I mean come on man. Stop being dumb. It was like yelling at the character in a horror movie so that they don't go in the dark house. 

Writing was my other concern and it has gone okay so far. The assignments for storytelling usually take me a little longer than those for other people, but I get them done. I also feel like they don't completely suck, which I am proud of. The website introduction and story are the ones that are my favorite because I easily put the most time into them. It's also really cool to read about these characters (the comic books really make this enjoyable). My blog is also gonna get some aesthetic changes soon, but those are for the tech tips. 

This was definitely my favorite picture by far from my Sita Sings the Blues Part 1 post.

(Image created with imgflip)

Reading Notes: Prahlad Comic

I remember reading about rakshasas and asuras earlier in the semester and they, specifically asuras, were described as being good or evil. I'm not sure that I have seen either be labeled as a "good guy" yet.

Interesting. So I wanted to read this comic as a way to get some backstory to the Hiranyakashipu incarnation of Jaya as he faces off against Hopefully I can learn more about Hiranyakashipu because Vijaya's incarnation was dead in the first page. Prahlad will be an interesting element to use in my story but he can't be the main focus of the story. Making it so that Hiranyakashipu has no recollection of his time with Vishnu as Jaya is very important. Vishnu's avatar may get to know his true identity as it seems that Krishna was omniscient presence. 

Prahlad is a sleeper agent for Vishnu and his faith cannot be stirred. His father has an arrogance to him that will be exploited. However, Prahlad still appears to love his father. This long story of how they tried to kill Prahlad might be omitted. Seeing the hate of Hiranyakashipu is great to see as it shows a complete reversal from his time as Vijaya. There is a direct hatred of Vishnu. 

There is our Vishnu avatar. Narashimha. I might want to get him more involved into the story, maybe a little bit more dialogue. Perhaps it will relate to the gatekeepers and all of Vishnu's avatars are aware of the situation. I think that having each one of the incarnations be purified of their sins will be good for wrapping up the story and having them all come back to Vishnu.

Prahlad Cover

Indian Epics: Amar Chitra Katha

Bibliography: 

Prahlad: A Tale of Devotion from the Bhagawat Purana by Kamala Chandrakant and Souren Roy