The Power of Disguise

In my Mythology class a few years ago, my College Professor explained that you can learn a lot about a person by their disguises. Halloween itself is an archetypal holiday where people dress up as someone they admire, fear or want to be like. This lecture stuck with me as I learned about theatre, writing and the choices I've made for my costumes. Every character I have dressed up as is someone I admire or aspire to be.

When I was ten, I wanted to be just like Sailor Moon. She was brave, powerful, kind and beautiful. I dressed as her for Halloween because I admired her courage, kindness and her ability to overcome any obstacle thrown at her. Sailor Moon was my favorite character because I wanted to be just like her.

Belle has always been my favorite Disney Princess, and when I read the original fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast, I admired many elements of Beauty or Belle's character. Belle is kind, true to herself and very smart. Her love of stories is something I relate to. Belle is also brave, and made the decision to stay at Beast's castle on her own to protect her father. I can't even count how many times I've dressed as Belle for Halloween. She's been a role model of mine for a long time. 

Yuna is my favorite Final Fantasy heroine, because she taught me how to find my own path, despite what I believed people expected of me. Yuna is a character that represents hope, courage and wisdom. Her difficult path made her stronger, wiser and insightful. As Yuna learns how to overcome obstacles, she discovers who she wants to be. I look up to Yuna's ability to face adversity and create her own path.

Serah was only in Final Fantasy XIII for a short time, but I was able to relate to her. Not only did we share the same name, but we have similar fears. Serah was afraid of becoming a burden, and even though she couldn't change the past, she guided her sister and the lcie to change their fate. In FFXIII 2 Serah is a main character with a difficult quest ahead of her. She makes the decision to do something instead of sit and wait for things to come to her. Serah doesn't let fate control her, she creates her own. This is why I dressed as Serah for a convention.

Alice has quite the story in the Tim Burton film. During the time when the movie came out, I was facing a big decision about facing fears, living my own life and not focusing on the expectations of people my age. I remember watching the film, and feeling exactly like Alice the entire time. All I wanted to do was run away. I didn't want to solve my problem. I wanted to run from it, as far as I could. But by the end of the film, I realized, just like Alice, that the only person who could solve my problem was myself. If I never faced that fear, I would never grow and change into the person I wanted to be. I dressed like Alice because I admire her bravery, and I believe that one day I will slay my own jabberwocky.

Lizzie Bennet is my current role model. She's smart, creative and cares for her family. Lizzie is even my age, or turns my age at the end of the show. Lizzie's character is a beacon of hope for my generation. She lives at home, and has a hard time deciding what she wants to do in the future, but she never gives up, and stays true to herself. She knows that she's not perfect, but she accepts her flaws and learns what she wants to do in her life. As a modern day Lizzy Bennet, Lizzie's character is a wonderful role model for the twenty something generation fresh out of college. I hope to be as creative, clever and true to myself as Lizzie is.

Every Halloween, I dress up like a character who inspires me, or who I aspire to be. A few other characters I remember, but couldn't find pictures for are : Megara from Hercules, Queen Amidala from Star Wars, and Mulan.
What about you? On Halloween do you dress up as a character who inspires you, frightens you or who you aspire to be?

Facing the Shadow

It's not something that everyone wants to do.
We take pride in success rather than failure.
We relish in our strengths and ignore our faults.

It's a challenge in most stories.
The villian is usually a foil of the hero.
The obstacle always involves a hero's weakness.

It is painful.
You discover things you don't want to accept about yourself.
Fears and bad habits
Grudges and guilt.

But facing the shadow is accepting yourself
For who you are.
You understand your behavior,
Your actions and reactions.

You come to terms with your personality.
You learn what you can change.
And what you must accept.

(Poem and Picture inspired by The Goddess Test series)

The Comfort of a Mask

       
           In my mythology class last year, my teacher told us that Halloween is the most revealing holiday, even though it is displayed as the most disguised. The reason is, a person's costume reveals something about them. it could be a personality trait, a similar emotion or even an admiration for the character. Under masks, we can reveal anything we want. What we are really afraid of. How much we actually care. I find this very interesting.
         Actors can relate to a specific role they play. People pretend to be characters from TV shows, movies and books online all the time. So what makes these aliases revealing? Why did the person choose that specific character or symbol to represent themselves by? This goes beyond nicknames, although sometimes nicknames reveal an inside joke among friends or family. Names in general can be revealing about a person, depending on the situation or the attitude a person has about their name. Many authors choose their characters' names very carefully to foreshadow or to reveal a specific part of the character.
         So what motivates people to act, dress or pretend to be someone other than themselves? My mythology teacher would say, "they are revealing someone they want to be or someone they already are." I think this makes sense, in many situations. It doesn't have to be Halloween. This is true with secret admirers, role play, even in writing stories. After all, author's generally relate to their characters, even in a small way.  I believe that this applies to actors, even singers and artists. 
         There is something comforting about a disguise, alias or mask. It is a way to reveal the self without worrying about judgement. No one will be surprised if you are not yourself. But in a way, you are being more true to yourself when you don't worry about what people think. The characters, archetypes and names allow a person to be honest and act truthfully. This is very common in movies, where a character is either forced to or chooses to pretend they are someone else, and then he or she discovers their disguise may be who they really are.
        Whatever you wish to represent reveals a lot about you. Name brands, costumes, keep sakes and aliases are all comfortable ways to show who you are. In a way, a disguise is like a story. It is a lie that tells the truth.
        (I thought about this when I read Dengeki Daisy today, since Kurosaki sends Teru messages under the alias of Daisy. Even after Teru discovers his identity, he admits that none of his messages were a lie, because he could be himself without any pressure of judgement on his character.)
      ( As a side note, many super heroes also discover this when they must compare their two identities.)

Conflict is Never-ending

I just finished playing the game Final Fantasy Dissidia which takes place in a timeless battle of good and evil. The Goddess Cosmos and the God Chaos are trapped in this never-ending cycle to battle. Even if they die, they are reborn again once the damage of the battle scars the world enough to destroy it. The destruction creates the rebirth of the same cycle. I have read stories and seen movies with a similar idea. Good versus Evil and Light versus Darkness are always the main conflict in any popular story. This observation brings an interesting philosophical theory. Once the conflict is gone, there is no purpose. Ironically enough, I read about this in my Mythology class. King Arthur and his Knights become idle once their quests are over. Arthur confides this to Guinevere who tells him that it is not so surprising. Without purpose, the knights have nothing. Cosmos and Chaos must always battle for this same reason, and once one is gone, the other loses all meaning.Even Sailor Moon, when she is given the opportunity to destroy the Galaxy Cauldron and end the rebirth of her ultimate nemesis, decides that the action would be pointless. This is also similar to the reoccurring theme in Kingdom Hearts that light cannot exist without darkness. Because I'm a writer and a thinker, I try to understand what these conflicts mean. You could say that this is a product of the common mythquest, or you could say it is the troupe of yin and yang. I choose to look at this theme in a different approach. Conflict makes us who we are. Every battle whether internal or external teaches us something. I'm not saying that conflict is good or even bad, it is conflict regardless. And conflicts push stories along. Everyone wants to see the ultimate battle where the hero faces the villain and conquers his or her fears. This symbolic battle displays a rite of passage and shows growth in the characters. It's an interesting concept to think about. Does conflict really define good and evil? Is conflict a necessary cycle in order to learn about oneself? Would a hero still be a hero without a nemesis? Maybe I can answer these questions in a story one day.

The Tale of Arthur Penfish and Guinefish

(This was an idea of Mom's and contributions by me and my obsession with Merlin and my Middle English class)


Hear ye, Hear ye!
I'll tell you a tale
A tale of magic
But it's not Finnish
The tale of Arthur and Guinefish
It begins in the kingdom
Of Swimalot
Where Merlin the dog
Threw in his lot
To protect the kingdom from Morgana-cat
Who took a spot by the tank
There she sat
By Lancecat who
watched a fish swim by
She was blue as the sea
And predictable as the sky
From his tank
The bold Arthur Penfish
Swam by his castle
With just one wish
To act with fishy chivalry
As Merlin the dog
Kept the cats from the sea
In a small town tank
Guinefish swam on
Swishing and diving
From dusk till dawn
When she caught the eye
of the Fishy King
Who wanted to take her
Under his wing
He wanted more
Than an aquatic fling
But knights must prove
Their love through worth
An oath they swore
From egg to fish
To protect his love
From the cat's dish
He puffed up his gills
With a mighty threat
But Morgana-cat wasn't done just yet
Lancecat strutted
And sat by the town
If a fish could
Arthur would frown
But Merlin the dog
Came in with a growl
The cats were on
A dangerous prowl
As Guinefish swam
Without any care
Arthur tried
To show he was there
He swam by the tank
With all his might
If only he could
Catch his lady love's sight
But the lady was busy
With Lancecat's gaze
Her fishy eyes
Were quite in a daze
But Merlin the dog
Both loyal and true
Starting chasing the cats
He knew what to do
For soon the owner of the pets
Lord Uther came in
He stared down at them
and stroked his chin
"I banish you cats"
He said with a glare
"For such treacherous behavior"
Thunder filled the air
The cats hissed with anger
As Merlin stood proud
He was the favorite
Of the fishy crowd
Guinefish danced
While Arthur bubbled
Now Swimalot
Would not be troubled
And so it was and came to be
The kingdom of fish and chivalry

Psychology in Alice in Wonderland

So, I'm working on my essay for my Mythology class and I have purchased the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland and I am currently reading the novel on the movie. I found it fascinating that Burton decided to do an emotional journey for Alice from the beginning. Anne Hathaway explains that the original version of Alice is a story where all the characters she meets are people she doesn't want to be. She's on a quest to find who she isn't. In this version of Alice in Wonderland, Alice must find who she is. As I've observed before, she does this through the myth quest. It appears that because the story revolved around Alice's internal world which mirrors the external, everything in Wonderland is a different approach at her situations in the real world. The sizes she goes through represent her confidence and her "muchness" increases through out the film. Another interesting observation is that the Bandersnatch wound she gets reflects her disbelief of all that is happening around her. This is an emotional battle with grief and self doubt. The prophesied battle with the Jabberwocky is really the internal struggle of Alice with her negative emotions. This can also be viewed through the battle between the passive White Queen and the aggressive Red Queen. Alice must find herself somewhere in the middle. I think this essay may go well.

Slaying the darkness within

I had to write a proposal for an essay on Mythology and a movie or book of my choice. So I popped in Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton while doing the dishes and lo and behold I saw the myth quest! The myth quest starts with society needing an object of some kind to become whole again. This object is the vorpal sword, a symbol of courage. They then search for the hero to go on a journey to retrieve the object and thus heal society. Alice is the hero in her own myth quest. She travels through Wonderland, which could also be her subconscious, because she is lost and doesn't know who she is. Along the way she meets the archetypes of the fool (Chesire Cat), mentor (Hatter), seer(Absolum), and caregiver(The White Queen) to aid her journey. Of course the ultimate climax is the end battle with the Jabberwocky and the queens, Red and White. Alice must now face the darkness within, as the passive side of herself must battle the aggressive side. The white queen and red queen are shadows of Alice at an extreme. One represents light while the other represents darkness. Thus the entire story of Alice journeying through Wonderland is the myth quest where Alice journeys through her subconscious to discover who she is. At the end of the film she has conquered the shadow (Jabberwocky) and banished the darkness (Red Queen). While Alice travels through Wonderland, she learns about herself and ultimately transforms into who she wants to be. It's no wonder I enjoyed this movie! It has a great plot and a timeless storyline.