This is a post of self-dare (i.e. ownself dare ownself). I was bored and see what was trending in Google. The difference between using a smartphone (no, it doesn't make me any smarter and I'm thankful for that) and the PC is that smartphones do reveal the trending topics in your local Google search engine. Imagine my surprise when one of them happened to be "billie eilish met gala". Being the curious human being I've always been, I decided to see what's the big deal. All I can say is this: Singaporean guys are likely the same as American ones. I'm a guy and therefore I know what I'm talking about.
In case you're asking what's the big gala deal about Billie "not Enuma" Eilish's Met Gala appearance in the eyes of Singaporeans, search and figure this out yourself. I'm not about to do it for you.
Yes, I'm mad bro...
Aristotle once associated madness with genius. While this may pose some serious problems for my country, I'll be the first person to say I'm not a genius unless my country has been lying to me. In other words, I'm not a genius although I know my capabilities. Long story short, the looney in me decide to play a game of ownself dare ownself.
So what was the dare? Try to do a blog post NOT inspired by a lass of nineteen winters but Enuma Elish.
Dude, I only heard of Billie Eilish! Enuma Elish? Never heard of it
I'm very sure some know both Billie "not Enuma" Eilish and Enuma Elish, so let's not talk about others who only know one and not the other. I'll be brutally honest here: How I know about Enuma Elish was due to the Fate/stay night series. But one thing led to another. That's how I knew the real Enuma Elish.
Also written as Enūma Eliš (possibly that's the original spelling), it was the Babylonian version of Genesis (yes, laugh at me for all you want because I got nothing to lose by saying this). Interestingly, Enuma Elish seemed to be associated with the oldest literature in human history. Namely, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Clearly, either I'm too lazy to do an explanation or I'm not a PhD student like my friend Claudia. Therefore, I'll just link the contents of Enuma Elish.
So what this post is all about?
It's actually a rambling post leading to nowhere. However, there's a topic. Namely, A Requiem From Winter Past. As a Singaporean, I know there's no chance in hell I'll ever get published. My work is an act of rebellion against the local Singaporean market. Names like Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan and Kyla "unrelated to Zhao Yun unless proven by science" Zhao could get their works published because they knew the right moves to make. Status, if you're to ask me, is secondary. For me, I admit I don't write to please people. Maybe, just maybe, I could get published if I'm Japanese. But that's it.
A/N: Interestingly, how many of you actually know a guy called Dazai Osamu and his work Ningen Shikaku? The dude clearly didn't write that to please people. Also, I'm still wondering how Oda Sakunosuke managed to anger the Japanese government when Japan was too busy bombing Singapore and other countries. I don't know what's the big political deal about Seishun No Gyakusetsu if you're to ask me. Refer to 1939 only if you understand kanji. And don't ask me whether he's a descendant of Oda Nobunaga.
Gilgamesh, Gilgash, and Jinn
In my earliest script, there was a hero whose name was Jin Gilgash. Now that's a horrible way to name a character and let me tell you why: Ever tried modifying your fanfic into original fiction as if you're the next E.L "50 pairs of Shades" James? I actually read somewhere that the most famous (?) erotica literature of the 21st century started as a Twilight fanfic entitled Master of the Universe (no He-Man jokes please).
Jin Gilgash belonged to the same category. The name was badly done and I had to do something about this. Some kinda Total Recall, that is.
This was where I needed to make changes. Yet, I wanted to retain a certain "Gilgamesh" feel since the King of Heroes happened to be my intended inspiration for said hero's name. This was where the last name el-Lish hailed from. Again, let me stress this got nothing to do with a girl called Billie Jean King. Instead, it's inspired by Enuma Elish.
This comes to another change. One thing about the fantasy genre is that there's no such thing as a POC protagonist. Myth or fact? I don't know, but the planning process resulted in Jinn el-Lish being a POC. This comes to mind the question of Jinn. Why Jinn? Are we talking about an East Asian character? After all, the word Jin can be used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Note that I used Jinn instead of Jin from the BTS fame. Jinn is a real word. In Arabian mythology, two prominent names would be there: Djinn and Efreet. Those growing up rolling the die in Dungeons And Dragons, white guy or not, would know what I'm talking about. Like efreet also known as ifrit, the djinn is also called jinn. And that's where I got the name Jinn from. Not East Asian or BTS but Arabian mythology.
This comes to the next part...
Tamurians, Arabs, and... Ainu?!?
Tamurians are originally intended to be my version of the Malay ethnicity. As a member of the racial majority in Singapore, I decided not to rescind my act of racial blasphemy. However, Tamurian naming did undergo a certain change. Initially, Jinn wasn't intended to be a POC. The POC part came as an outcome of a serious change to a dumb mistake. This resulted in another domino block falling down. Namely, the transition of the Tamurian naming system from a Malay-centric approach to the Arab-centric version today.
I need to search my past blog posts to verify whether the current version is El/el for men and Al/al for women. But you get the drift. Interestingly, I decided not to go full Arab here. The naming system is closer to the Ancient Near East feel rather than the descendants of Ishmael. But because I'm no scholar or Claudia's PhD schoolmate, I have to rely on the feel of the deal. This is where my artistic instincts kick in. I can't explain to you how it works because I don't even know how it works. All I know is that it works. Well, sort of since I require some actual Ancient Near Eastern names to create something.
But because I'm more familiar with how Malay names flow instead of Akkadian or Sumerian, I decided to mess around with things. All in the name of creativity like how others mess with people in the name of social experimentation spelt in German. A prominent example would be a female character named Roshamahat (I need to think over my choice of her last name). This is a combination of Malay and The Epic of Gilgamesh. The first syllable is a common sight in Malay naming from Rosmah to... well, any Malay name starting with Ros. The remaining syllables were inspired by Shamhat, a vital female character in The Epic of Gilgamesh and an important woman in Enkidu's life.
As for the Ainu influence, it actually came much later. It wasn't from the beginning that I realised there's something not right with my facial features. In fact, sometimes I now suspect the reason why I had no friends was that I don't look Singaporean. Instead, I resembled more like half an Ainu even though I didn't realise they're 100% real back then. Yes, I knew Nakoruru and Rimururu of the Samurai Shodown fame. But that's it.
The Ainu facial features can be very interesting. While at first glance they're related to ethnicities like Indo-Aryans or Turkic, not all of them resemble your local ang-moh gentleman dating a local Singaporean girl. One thing I noticed in Ainu men is that their jawline can range from the well-chiselled kind synonymous with Caucasians to a smoother shape similar to a Persian. As for the women, it's predominantly roundish like Maru. Anyway, I did a Google image search and compared them with the facial features of an Ainu girl named Asirpa. On top of being more culturally accurate than Hollywood, Golden Kamuy is also spot on where Asirpa's facial shape is concerned.
That's where I zeroed in. Initially, I intended Tamurian women to have heart-shaped faces. Going through images of Ainu women and using my brain, I made the jawline... well, Ainu. Albeit it's likely inaccurate and equally over-patronising. I wouldn't be surprised if women of Turkic ethnicity also have this kind of facial shape, though.
A/N 1: When I say Turkic, it means I didn't say Turkish. But they're related terms though.
A/N 2: Come to think of it, little Shannah reminded me of Maru when she's a toddler. Hope KBS 장로 won't execute me for saying that about his younger daughter.
Homosexual characters and why you shouldn't assume inclusivity
As a guy of creativity, I'm not above creating homosexual characters. As a guy of creativity, however, I do commit mistakes. Writing A Requiem From Winter Past actually involved dumb mistakes and having to learn from them. One of the most notable acts of idiocy would be using Park "The Force is strong with this Park-Choi pair" Shin-hye as the physical blueprint for Alestrial Eliaden. While this wasn't a historical first, using someone else to justify an act worthy of seppuku is... well, an act worthy of seppuku. I just don't want to go into the specifics. Seriously, I don't.
For Lukas Broun, I allowed the impetuous fire of youth to consume me. Less than ten years ago, I knew less than ten times what I know today. I'm a method learner for a reason: I was taught the importance of learning but no one taught me how to learn. As a result, either I learn by making mistakes or I can be an idiot until I die by not making mistakes. It's not my parents' fault though since they're being manipulated by the social Darwinian values of the educational system. They're ignorant, but not guilty. Of course, things aren't that bad as in I still can learn without making mistakes. It's just that certain things broke and I can't maintain consistency as a result. I really have to thank my church because I could have been more than ten times worse off.
Back to Lukas Broun. In the earliest draft, he was portrayed as an idealistic youth. After all, who doesn't like such a character? Be you SJW or part of the moral majority, you'd love an idealist instead of Emiya Kiritsugu. It's actually a good thing I didn't need a disastrous Battle of Mikatagahara to sober me up. But the stupidity was real and I made the right call to create a darker Broun.
This comes to the question of whether realism is a form of idealism. Inclusivity is widely celebrated in Hollywood because it is idealism. And idealism is the opposite of realism. It's an over-simple way of explaining how things work, but it's a good stepping stone to understand how reality functions instead of having others tell you how it works. Creating homosexual characters initially felt tricky to me. The reason being that whether people will mistake my realism for a hemisphere's worth of idealism.
That's where Borat came into the picture. The issue with Borat when it was released was never about whether it's anti-Semitic. If you think otherwise, that's because the media never stated the guy responsible for a supposedly anti-Jewish movie happened to be a Jew instead of Osama bin Laden. Sacha "The Baron Who Trolls Like This" Baron Cohen is a Jew. Therefore, how can a Jew produce an anti-Jewish work?
An appalling episode of people jumping the gun actually emboldened me to try jumping from one cliff to another. The reason why being this: Realism is my intention. If you want to cram inclusivity down my throat, know that I function more like an arrogant Japanese than an idealistic American. The world doesn't revolve around my whims, but this also means it doesn't revolve around your politics.
Shakespeare shaking things up?
In the previous scripts, I opted for non-Shakespearean names for some of my characters. Then things changed. While I don't recall a single male character, it's very true for female characters. I don't want to go in-depth on why I decided to utilise my inner Shakespearean wannabe because it's quite frankly a complicated affair. But I find there's a need to change certain things and Shakespearean names come to mind. Currently, only three Shakespearean names are used: Ophelia from Hamlet, Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Cressida from Troilus and Cressida. However, I'm intending to add a fourth. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter out since I got like 60-80% of the stuff done in my head.
Now I know there are plenty of intellectual activists critiquing Shakespearean works so let me just point out that if a female character was to be a victim, it's because the world was cruel. I'm not encouraging a victim mentality, but I believe understanding a cruel world is better than denying the factual. A victim's suffering is proof of what's wrong with human nature. This is my understanding of Ophelia's character. She's a victim but she didn't deserve it. On one hand, it's Hamlet's fault. On the other, it's the fault of a cruel world both happened to be in. Ironically, Hamlet's death was the strongest proof of Ophelia's innocence.
This comes to mind whether Aeravor happened to be an intentional Prince of Denmark (i.e. not this one). The answer is no. It's a coincidental clicking of the gears than anything else. When I decided to use Shakespearean-inspired names, I had to think about which ones would fit the bill. In the current updated version, only two. This means I'm motivated to find ways and means to make the remaining one or two matter instead of a Great Bird Kamuy's whims. Maybe I'll fail, though.
Napishtim, Deis, and... Berserk?!?
Believe it or not, I'm no stranger to a morally wrong church culture. I don't want to go in-depth because I understand myself better than other people even though I'm unable to do so 100%. They say you are what you speak, I say I am what you speak. Those who spent their lives talking at another person always risk creating another Fool of Owari. So no, I don't want to start insulting people because I know what I'm capable of.
It was from the truth (note that I never say my truth) that the idea of a literally underground church surfaced. The typical underground church is persecuted for doing nothing wrong. Look at nations where religious liberty is non-existent and tell me how many Christians were charged for rape or murder. Their only crime was worshipping God instead of Caesar.
The idea of Napishtim hailed from The Epic of Gilgamesh where there's a character called Utnapishtim. He happened to be the Sumerian version of Noah. However, it's a terribly stupid idea. This comes to an alternative: Deis. Inspired by the word deism, I find it a better fit since the philosophy of deism is that God can't be bothered. This is an actual belief of 404 God Not Found. Why 404 God Not Found? Because God can't be bothered to appear. You may think it's funny, but it is not. You may think I'm joking, but I am not.
One thing I made sure about the world I created is that it has to be dark. Another thing is the 404 God Not Found logic which notable works of Japanese dark fiction are known for. Therefore, everyone and every system must be subjected to the same standard. Deis is no exception.
In earlier scripts, Napishtim/Deis was created as a massive underground city. There were influences of the medieval church where things got ugly, dark, and political before Martin Luther started confronting the authorities. Not with a speech but the Ninety-Five Theses. Not with the Civil Rights Movement but the Reformation. I won't deny the location was a parody of what went wrong in a church culture where people have too much instead of just plenty. I did think about it, weigh the decision, and decide to let it stay. It's not an intentional parody but it'd be good if people can be provoked to think instead of repeating 6th January 2021.
This comes to an interesting question: Am I going to totally vilify Deis? As much as I hate what is evil, I must acknowledge what is real. Namely, the men of Nineveh were no more sinful than Jews and citizens of Sodom alike. Also, I have no intention to create monsters out of characters or institutes just because I don't like certain things.
I can only say this much. Speculate for all you want.
In what name am I doing this?
Magic swords, magic spears, and equally magic katanas... okay, the last one is ten stretches too long. In the beginning, I was under too much Nasuverse influence. So much so that I need to do something about it. There are two ways to do it: Either create my own language like Tolkien or come up with another way. Clearly, I chose the latter because I'm just a lazy mundane hack.
My decision to utilise actual mythology remains. This is because it's easier for me to come up with the new names based on the actual blueprint. This is where Voldermort comes to mind. Now I don't care about what J.K "not joking" Rowling did to anger evangelicals or what she said to anger liberals. As for the cancel culture, that thing can burn forever for all I care. Anyway, the major challenge lies in whether I can maintain consistency. Not in terms of naming but rather using actual mythological weapons as the blueprint. It's definitely a gauntlet I relish taking up.
Crazy Rich Asians
Another moment qualifying me as a crazy poor Asian would be Cinha. I don't want to speculate whether I was accidentally being a racist (i.e. there's no such thing as an accidental racist unless socio-political rules decide to lie). But the name Cinha was from a fictional nation called Cina. The said work was from Fictionpress and I admit I should have tried harder in the creative department.
Thankfully, my natural curiosity ensured things could be salvaged. If not, I'd be called a plagiarist. This was where Yaguryeo came into the picture. It's a combination of two words: Yayoi and Goguryeo. My idea of an East Asian counterpart has never been based on being Chinese, never mind the fact (?) my facial features look weirdly Japanese. Rather, my intent was to pull off a unification albeit not like Liu Bang, Tokugawa Ieyasu, or Seondeok. To be honest, it's not 100% done. Character naming-wise, I've already settled on a combination of ancient Japanese (i.e. examples given here) and Korean. This left only the architectural style unaccounted for. I don't have to tell you where I'm heading here.
Viva La Raza
How do you create a character? More specifically, how do you create an anti-heroic protagonist? It's very easy to create one while trying absurdly hard not to offend people. Storytellers are not meant to be teachers. While I believe in integrity displayed in creativity (something which a lot of people would call me a barking mad Israelite for), this merely means educators should display an actual semblance of integrity while the same goes for parents. If more people actually takes this seriously, we wouldn't be seeing that.
When I first created Aeravor, I never intended him to be... well, that extreme. It's like trying to creating a Steve "Texan not born in Austin" Austin only to create an Eddie "I don't care if you like me, everybody wants to fight me" Guerrero. Actually, it's more like a 2-in-1. But I guess that's what an anti-hero should look like. If you're out to win the popularity contest, create a heroic protagonist. If you don't care about public opinions, create an anti-heroic main character. After all, this isn't Japanese politics where even I find it easier to accept the popularity of Kono "not Jiro" Taro. Of course, I don't have to agree with him on everything.
Suffice to say, the current version is so much better than what I did from day one. Sure, he's more offensive. But that's what I want. I don't want to create a pseudo-sellsword. I want to create a real one. I don't want to create an anti-heroic paragon of morality. I want to create a character whose honesty can offend you because you know you're never that honest. Anyone can create a character telling so-called his/her truth. I'm out to create characters telling the truth of the world they're in.
In this sense, I'm possibly as crazy as loonies like Isayama "Hametus no Hajime" Hajime, Ishida "unrelated to Mistunari unless proven by science" Sui, Hirano "unrelated to Aya" Kouta, Urobuchi "The Notorious UBG" Gen, and... yes, you've guessed it... Miura "ドラゴン殺し" Kentaro.
If you managed to reach this far...
Then I have to say congratulations. It means you have what it takes to communicate with a madman. Either that or you happened to have the temperament of Oai. To be honest, I don't expect this post to be... well, coherent. If it makes sense, good. Otherwise, I'll just end this post with a few works of great music as compensation.
Before that, I decided to up a song which should be famous by now. While I don't recall Claudia being a BTS Army girl, I remember her as a Coldplayer.
P.S to Ryan and Ah-Hean: Please don't say anything. I'm very sure someone will kill me if you decide to talk. It's only going to be a matter of the surname.
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