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Some Schwabl Appreciation

Adventure Time 2010-2018

The original concept for the film actually began in the 1970s with a few sketches by director Hayao Miyazaki. However, since there was such a wide gap between the initial concept and the actual production, many of the early ideas were instead used for My Neighbor Totoro.

The animation team used over 550 colors throughout the entire movie, and Miyazaki himself corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the 144,000 animation cells.

Princess Mononoke was one of two titles proposed for the film, the other being The Legend of Ashitaka. While producer Toshio Suzuki had the final say in the name of the movie, Miyazaki has always stated that he preferred the alternate. “The Legend of Ashitaka” was instead used for the main piece of the film’s score.

Iron Town is heavily influenced by the John Ford western My Darling Clementine, which featured a town that, according to Miyazaki, is full of “characters from outcast groups and repressed minorities who rarely, if ever, appear in Japanese films.”

“Mononoke” translates to “unknown thing,” and is commonly used to refer to vengeful spirits. The word dates back to the 11th century. On the same note, “Ashitaka” means “bright tomorrow,” and “San” means “three.” It’s implied that the character is named that because she is Moro’s third cub.

Miyazaki originally planned to retire after the completion of the film, but of course returned not too long after to make Spirited Away, which was released only four years later.

Princess Mononoke was the first animated film to win Best Picture at the Japanese Academy Awards (which began in 1978), a milestone that has yet to be achieved by the Academy Awards in the U.S. (which began in 1929). The same award was given to Spirited Away in 2001.

With a runtime of 134 minutes, it is the 4th longest animated film ever, ranking behind only Final Yamoto (1983), The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010), and The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013) - all of which were also produced in Japan.

The character of San was apparently used as inspiration by the creators of Star Wars: The Clone Wars for the character of Ahsoka Tano, taking heavy influence from her movement and fighting style.

There's this constant dissonance between being afraid of persecution and the loss of power on the one hand, and a earnest glee that soon god will take them away from the world, leaving all the sinners to die. Seriously, people would talk about the four horsemen and the angels who rise up ouy of the rivers in Revelation with this bright eye excitement. They were estatic over billions of people dying, like everything was a movie and that's when things would finally start getting good again.

But like OP said, it's really important to understand that there is no compromise with these people. They literally believe that the only true solution to the world's problem is for them to be the only ones in it. You can't gain their compassion because, if you're a nonbeliever, your death and eternal punishment is the world working as it should.

1) Recognize faith is not a virtue, no, not even when its put toward your god of choice. Having faith isn’t like having empathy, it does not improve you on the experiences of people around you. The amount of faith someone has/professes is no reflection on their goodness.

2) Enforce your religion’s own rules about false prophets among your own congregation. I’ll let you pick which law (man’s or god’s) you apply.

3) If you see abuse, report it to the actual law and media. If that means you get ostracized, excommunicated, or otherwise marginalized, ask yourself if you want to be accepted and loved by people who allow such things to happen. Do not trust your congregation to handle it internally. Chances are they already know.

3) Advocate for the elimination of unfair privileges for religious institutions, such as the revocation of tax exempt status, the use of religion in court-mandated alcoholism sentences, and the use of religious conversion as a merit for prison release. 

4) Speak out against people using governmental power to enforce religious behavior, especially when its your own religion. 

5) When others of your faith claim to be oppressed, call them liars to their faces. Be mean about it if you have to. Speak out against moral panics. 

6) If your congregation has any punishment for apostasy, of any kind, of any severity, find a new congregation.

7) Recognize that your virtues are yours. You and the fundie are both picking and choosing, you picked the kind parts, you choose the good parts, Take the credit. Do not engage in “no true Scotsman” behavior.

8) Do not support missionary work, charity-for-conversion, or any attempt to bring people “into the flock” when they’re at their lowest point. Speak out against these actions and other predatory behavior.

9) Re-read your holy book, only this time imagine that all the non-in-group characters are actual people with lives, dreams and hopes, and don’t make any excuses for the plain reading of the text. Think about what that means about the founders of your faith, and for the character of the deity in question. Recognize the fundies are on-board with what you just read. Consider if you should be.

10) If they’re divine when decrying others and only human and deserving of forgiveness when they get caught doing wrong, never listen to them again. If you catch them lying to you, never listen to them again. 

Adora’s spent so long denying herself her own needs for the sake of being useful to other people, and she’s defined her identity and self-worth completely in those terms. We’ve seen this behavior throughout the show, but these issues were brought to the forefront of her mind in 5x11 by Shadow Weaver and Catra.

On one side, Shadow Weaver has been convincing her to continue this pattern of self-denial and self-sacrifice for the greater cause. Personal desires will only get in the way of the mission and endanger your friends and the world, so get your act together, Adora. It doesn’t matter what you want, it only matters what you give. 

And as much as Adora has tried to keep her guard up around Shadow Weaver, you can see how effectively she crept back into her head. Or more precisely, she never really left. Shadow Weaver raised Adora to have these self-harming and self-denying beliefs, and a lot of what she’s experienced after leaving the Horde and becoming She-Ra has just reinforced them. So here, Adora is the one echoing those beliefs.

But on the other side, there’s Catra’s tearful questions. Why does it always have to be you sacrificing everything? When do you get to choose? What do you want, Adora? Catra challenges Adora to think of herself for once. Not even specifically to put herself above others, but just to consider that her life and what she wants actually matters.

And it’s clear that Catra’s words manage to break through and actually shake up Adora’s long-held beliefs. It’s the first time someone asked her these questions she hardly dared to ask herself, and it came from the person she cares about most, the person all her suppressed desires are about. So the part of Adora that took Catra’s words in and holds them close projects Mara, who fought against She-Ra’s enforced destiny and wanted Adora to be free from it. This projection of Mara echoes Catra’s words again, trying to drive them deeper, to make them as much a part of Adora as anything Shadow Weaver or the First Ones or anyone else forced on her. 

And that part of Adora that holds onto Catra’s words also carries them even further, daring to hope for more, daring to hope for herself something Catra hasn’t actually said (yet). “You deserve love too.”