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Super Jay Mann posted:My big worry with this game was that they would just be making La-Mulana again which, well, is not necessarily a bad thing but it'd just be kind of a blah result I thought. Nod Yup, even though I haven't beaten the third boss yet (whichever that'll end up being for me. :P ), this is one I'm actually looking forward to writing the review on. Also, looking forward to seeing your approach, Agent355, because laying out the clues sounds like a drat fine way of going about it. 
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Aug 6, 2018 02:55
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Procrastine posted:
Is, and it's normally spelled Annwn, which will become important in a sec. Alas, Annwn isn't terribly important in La Mulana 2, because most of what it seems to take there is the whole "Land of the fairies" dealio, with a healthy dose of Gaelic (Irish) myth. Which, y'know, understandable, because Welsh myth doesn't really do much with Annwn, and a lot of it's of dubious authenticity because of a whole slew of things that can be boiled down to "Speaking Welsh was illegal for a hella long time, nobody kept written myth until post Christianisation (Itself after a dose of "Nope, you're not allowed all this pagan bullshittery") , and folklorist pigeonholing and mistranslations decades down the line." But still, Annwn does have three interesting things going for it. It's where the Cauldron of Plenty came from, a cauldron that could resurrect the dead (intelligent, more resilient, but completely unable to speak) and endlessly produce food. Its most likely literal translation gives you a good clue as to how blase the mythical Welsh were about magic and other worlds... Because that literal translation is "Not this [here]" (An Hwn , Hwn often being used as a synonym for Yma, the word for "Here") Yeah, no big, other world... What the gently caress ever. And the great friendship that came about because one of our kings was just too fuckin' nice: Between Pwyll and Arawn. How'd that happen? Well... One day, Pwyll and his men are out hunting, and see dogs of a kind they've never seen before (white furred, with blood red ear-tips, noses, eyes, and paws), gnawing on a deer they'd been chasing. Slightly miffed, Pwyll orders the hounds run off, and, very shortly thereafter, their owner comes to say how pissed off he is that his bagsied deer has been poached. Considering this other person then introduces himself as Arawn, one of the two Kings of Annwn, this is a big ol' diplomatic incident, and Pwyll, basically being a decent sort, asks what sort of reparation he can give for the insult. Arawn's answer? We'll switch places, literally switch looks, and spend a year in each others' kingdoms. At the end of the year, he wants Pwyll to ice this other king that keeps pissing him off, because no matter how many times Arawn hits him, no matter how fatal those second and up blows are, he keeps getting up. Considering there's only meant to be one king of Annwn, this is a problem, and Pwyll agrees. So, Pwyll rides back to Arawn's court. It's super luxurious, and Arawn's wife is smoking... Otherworldly beauty kinda dealio, and, being a loving wife, she expects him to perform his husbandly duties. Buuuut Pwyll is, as mentioned, an extremely polite feller, and, every night, turns his head away and tries to avoid sleeping with another man's wife... Even if it would have made his life easier. The year ends, and the duel with Hafgan, this other king, is arranged. Pwyll, being a good spearsdude, strikes a mortal blow on his very first try, and Hafgan begs him to strike again. Pwyll declines (okay, so it's hard to say he's a nice guy here, but this ends up making sense), and Hafgan is done for, because the secret of his coming back is that he was blessed to always come back if he'd been ganked in two blows, or somebody finished him off, etcetera. Since Pwyll got him the first time round, and refused to finish him, exit Hafgan, stage left, and the year is over. The kings switch places again, and both have interesting surprises waiting for them when they come back. Pwyll, when he gets back, finds a whole load of laws have been laid down that have actually improved the kingdom, and, after explaining that it wasn't actually him that was king all that year, the people ask him to keep them. Seeing that Arawn had done him a solid, and seeing these laws in effect, Pwyll immediately says yes, and is p. happy. Meanwhile, Arawn ends his busy day, safe in the knowledge that his kingdom is his, and gets into bed with his wife... Who immediately turns around and is very confused when Arawn is confused. "Why, my husband, you haven't slept with me a single night this past year, why now?!" Arawn has some explaining to do, but, thankfully, his wife takes this pretty well, and points out that if this guy did all that, and didn't sleep with his wife when he had the chance, he must be a pretty good guy. And so, Arawn and Pwyll became BFFs, and sent each other presents each year, in recognition of how each had gone above and beyond despite their rocky start.
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Aug 24, 2018 21:11
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Annwfn is pronounced "annoon"! it's welsh
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Reminder for somebody to prod me when we actually see Morrigan, Macha, whatever the third one they've named is (EDIT: Nemain), and Badbh Cath, because yeah, remember when I said "It's got a Welsh name, but it's p. Gaelic"? (Btw, fairly good job on "Annwn", Agent! Make the oo sound less an oo, and more an uhn, and you'll have it down pat! I'm not gonna moan, because hey, it's Welsh, and, even as a Welshman, we have some weird phonemes :P ) Well, the Badbh Cath are Irish as gently caress, although their presentation's a liiiiiittle screwy. But I wouldn't want to lore post until we've actually seen 'em. In game, as opposed to their lore. EDIT: I can, however, talk a little about the Redcap, so let's do that. Remember how I said before that folklorists just loooove to pigeonhole poo poo? Well, the redcap is a fine example, because it can refer to a murderous scottish "goblin" , a benevolent old midget that's meant to live in a specific bit of Scotland, Dutch hearth spirits that live in hills and act somewhat similar to what we'd know as gnomes, a traditional murder-ghost, and even as a reference to more benevolent "fairies" that just like to wear red caps. That's right, five completely different things, two of which enjoy killing people and look different to each other, two of which may just be mischievous or situationally nasty (the Dutch ones punish those who spy on them, for example), and one of which is generally benevolent. Thankfully, it's fairly clear that La Mulana is referring to the short, murderous types, which are named redcaps because they like to dip their caps in blood. Equally, we can see that second thing, the post-christianisation funtimes, in that holding up a cross or reading scripture will make them burst into flames rather than murdering the poo poo out of you. (EDIT: Gonna mark that solution down as "Of dubious provenance" , because if you believe post-christianity folklore, the amount of things that can be outright killed just by reading bits of The Good Book is... Not insignificant. We're talking a good third of supernatural nasties at least.) Folklorists: Driving down your survival chances through putting poo poo together that has no right to be together! JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Aug 25, 2018 |
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Aug 25, 2018 15:30
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AweStriker posted:Badhbh Cath, meanwhile, is Irish. Oh good, it's that time again! Irish War Goddesses: Why So Many Edition? So, Badhbh Cath. Hoo boy. As she's presented in the game, she is the result of three other goddesses of war, Morrigan, Macha, and Nemain, joining forces to create a bigger, badder war goddess. Oh, and they're fairies in this. Let's not forget that one. Eeeexcept... Badb Cath (as is more commonly written, or just Badb, for short) isn't the odd one out here. It's Nemain who comes from a different cycle (the Ulster Cycle), while Morrigan, Macha, and Badb are the three goddesses who kick rear end, all some aspect of war. Badb's thing? Sowing confusion and fear among the side that she doesn't particularly want to win, and breaking their morale. She sometimes takes the form of a crow. When she's not being a crow, she's not terribly well described. Morrigan, meanwhile, sometimes takes the form of a crow, and instills bravery and skill among those she does want to win (and fear into those she doesn't), especially if that ends up with a brave death. When she's not being a crow, she often wears bloody armour. Macha, of the main three considered to be the triune goddess (That's three goddesses who are actually one goddess, just with different faces), sometimes turns into a crow. When she's not listed as a daughter of fairies, the wife of the leader of the Second Settlement, the only High Queen of Ireland, or the suddenly appearing wife of an rear end in a top hat who she marries, then curses. Nemain, meanwhile... Might actually be one of these three sisters with a different name. It's not really clear, although she is not mentioned in most sources using that name as sometimes being a crow, so...  This is, honestly, one of those ones where we'll probably never have the story straight, although the idea that there's just a triune goddess fits well with the fact that there's another triune goddess set in Irish myth, Eriu, Banba, and Fodha (Goddesses of the Land.) Fun sidenote: Tuatha De Danaan means the people of ireland who had magical powers, could turn into animals, etcetera, and it roughly translates to "Children of Danu." Soooo, folklore immediately pegged them as fairies. Except one possible root of the word is the Welsh mother goddess Dôn, from the Mabinogion (who, you may remember, were christianised into either fairies or just normal noble folks.) Considering Welsh-Gaelic interactions of history, this isn't all that far fetched at all, although, surprise surprise, some folklorists think Dôn was actually a dude all along, because reasons. Folklore: poo poo's wack, a load of dudes read a load of texts wrong, and Assumptions Were Made in the service of an easier filing system.
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Sep 13, 2018 18:46
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