#felinis

It was a warm evening, as most evenings were at the Nile valley. Ramses Mau III was sitting on top of the small temple watching the sunset and licking his paws. After finishing his cleaning ritual he jumped down the steps, planning to go down to the fishing village and maybe steal some little fish from the fisherman. Just as he was passing in front of the temple door, something caught his attention. There was a funny smell coming out of the small temple and a soft purple glow was lighting up the walls. This needed to be investigated, so Ramses went in. In the small inner chamber was the High Priest, the same one that had kicked him 3 years ago and who still received a daily dose of piss-in-shoes for that horrible trespass. In front of him on the floor, there was a big red circle with numerous funny characters written on its outer edge. What really caught Ramses' attention though was within the circle, or rather above it.

Fifty centimeters above the ground at the center of the circle something was... levitating. It seemed alive and it would have passed for an animal, as it had the correct number of limbs, eyes, and ears, only they were all in the wrong places. It had a mouth though and from this mouth, a chant came out in unison with the humming coming from the High Priest. As Ramses stood there watching the chanting grew louder and faster and the light coming out of the thing's mouth grew brighter. Ramses wasn't one for action but at that instant, he had the unmistakable instinct to kill. And he always followed his instincts. As the chanting grew to a pitch so high it was painful to listen to he leaped through the air, his talons out, fangs ready to bite, at the same instant as a purple lighting bolt jumped from the levitating mass to the Priest's staff. The rest was a quick blur of lightning fangs, claws, screams, and a lot of blood. When Ramses came back to his senses several hours later he didn't remember much of the fight. But he had a sudden feeling of clarity, something he had never felt before.

There is some possibility that this is what happened. At least that's Ramses' version of it. There are, of course, other versions, some including a clumsy cat falling inside a cauldron which was at the time being used to boil a potion infused with elder magic. Whatever the exact situation was the result is the same - at that instant, Ramses Mau II seized being a normal cat and became a Felini - a cat with intellect rivaling that of humans and the power to channel the magic of the elder gods. One particular manifestation of that power was the ability to hypnotize humans with lower willpower and turn them into mindless slaves, creatures whose only purpose is to serve their Felini masters, and who call themselves "cat-people". Using his newfound powers Ramses quickly set about enslaving everyone he could lay his eyes on. His conquest was unfortunately cut short when he encountered the High Priest and found out that not only did his hypnotism not work on the man but that there are others much more adept at the use of elder magic than he himself is.

Ramses was lucky though because at that time cats were revered as sacred in Egypt, so instead of killing him, the priests just entombed him in a pyramid buried under the timeless sands of the Sahara desert.

This would have been the end of the Felini race if some pesky archeologists didn't excavate the tomb some 10,000 years later. By that time nobody remembered that there are cats who can wield elder magic and enslaved humans, so the main emotions when they saw Ramses emerge from the tomb, were a mixture of pity, and some disgust (nobody had seen a hairless cat for some millennia). The archaeologists were promptly enslaved, and those who couldn't be enslaved were promptly executed. In the ten millennia he has spent underground Ramses had learned a trick or two on how to use his newfound powers and several unlucky archaeologists found themselves locked in the same dimension as a thousand elder gods. Not a pretty place to be in, even if you ignore the smell of rotten eggs.

I feel as though Turbo is the main shapeshifter to be found within Nina Laden’s novel entitled Romeow & Drooliet. My belief stems from the fact that Christopher Vogler characterizes the shapeshifter archetype as “shifting and unstable” in his novel entitled The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers (59). Later, Vogler expands his definition of the archetype by stating that “they are often difficult for the hero and the audience to pin down” and used to add “doubt and suspense into the story,” (59 & 61). I feel as though Turbo carries out each aspect of the shapeshifter archetype for several reasons. From the onset of Laden’s story, it is apparent that Turbo is the main antagonist because he does his best to keep Romeow and Drooliet apart. For example, he kicks the cats out of his family’s party, telling them to ‘“scram before this party turns into a kitty catastrophe,’” (Romeow & Drooliet read by Haylie Duff, 3:50). He also expresses his displeasure upon his discovery of Romeow’s and Drooliet’s marriage by stating that ‘“no cat is kin to me,”’ (Romeow & Drooliet read by Haylie Duff, 6:08). He even goes so far as to attack Romeow’s friend Marky before getting into a fight with Romeow himself. Yet, at the end of the novel, Turbo expresses a change of heart following Drooliet’s accident. Instead of trying to attack and destroy the cats in the area, he high-fives them, suggesting that he feels as though they’ve become kindred spirits on account of Romeow’s & Drooliet’s marriage. Secondly, Turbo creates a sense of doubt both in reader’s hearts and presumably, that of Romeow. Although there wasn’t enough character development in the novel to be certain, it stands to reason that Turbo’s actions disquieted Romeow because it made him wonder if he could ever be with Drooliet for three reasons. First, would he ever be able to overcome Turbo’s presence in their lives and be with Drooliet? Second, would Drooliet be willing to ignore her family’s wishes and be with him despite their disapproval? Third, would Romeow himself be willing to ignore his family’s displeasure and maintain his budding relationship with Drooliet? To a lesser extent, Benny, Marky, the Barkers and the Felinis may be considered shapeshifters as well. This is due to the fact that they have the same change of heart as Turbo—the dog-lovers and cat-lovers hate each other at the beginning of the novel but become friends at its culmination. Benny and Marky appear to overcome their hatred for dogs and become friends with them by the end of the novel as well. With that being said, I don’t feel as though the transformation these individuals make is as apparent as the one Turbo made because their roles within the novel were far smaller. Thus, I find it more difficult to view them as shapeshifters than Turbo.

Turbo is also the novel’s shadow, which Vogler describes as an individual who “challenge[s] the hero and give[s] her a worthy opponent in the struggle,” (66). In other words, the shadow is the entity that “create[s] conflict,” (66). Turbo is the shadow within Romeow & Drooliet because he is its main antagonist, who tries to drive a wedge between Romeow and Drooliet’s budding relationship. He accomplishes this feat through several different means: he insults Romeow at the party by saying that ‘“you can call him a freeloading Felini cat,’” by kicking Romeow and his friends out of the party, by expressing how he doesn’t approve of Romeow and Drooliet’s relationship, by attacking the cats, getting into a fight with Romeow, etc., (Romeow & Drooliet read by Haylie Duff, 3:50). Therefore, Turbo challenges Romeow—if he cannot overcome the obstacles that Turbo presents, then Romeow cannot be with Drooliet. Eventually, Turbo is overcome and Romeow and Drooliet (presumably) live happily ever after.

The allies in Romeow & Drooliet are Benny and Marky. Allies “can serve a variety of necessary functions, such as companion, sparring partner, conscience, or comic relief,” (Vogler 71). Benny and Marky are Romeow’s allies because they are described as being both his brothers and his friends at the onset of Laden’s novel. As the novel progresses, their role becomes more reluctant when they realize that Romeow is in love with Drooliet, a dog owned by the Barkers. This is due to the fact that Benny & Marky are cats owned by the Felini family, who hate dogs, especially those belonging to the Barker family. Benny even goes so far as to say “‘this is foolish… she’s a dog. She’s not worth it,’” in reference to Drooliet (Romeow & Drooliet read by Haylie Duff, 6:20). Even so, both cats support Romeow with their presence when he gets into a fight with Turbo. Marky gets into a fight with Turbo as well. Even though he is attacked by Turbo, their conflict suggests that Marky continues to stand by Romeow’s side despite his ill feelings toward Romeow’s love for Drooliet.

Finally, I don’t feel as though the book has a trickster archetype, which Vogler describes as “embod[ying] the energies of mischief and desire for change… characters… who are primarily clowns or comical sidekicks express this archetype,” (77).  I believe that the lack of a trickster archetype in Laden’s novel stems from its nature: it may be described as a dramatic work, which mirrors the events that transpire during the course of William Shakespeare’s tragedy entitled Romeo and Juliet. Since Shakespeare’s play may be described as a “darker” work meant to evoke both sorrow and heartache, Laden’s novel may be described in the same fashion until its culmination, which was altered in order to appeal to a younger audience. Despite this alteration, which was meant to give the novel a happier ending, Romeow & Drooliet isn’t a particularly light-hearted work, leaving there little to no room for mischief and/or comedy. Without the existence of either, a trickster simply cannot exist.

Works Cited:

“Romeow & Drooliet read by Haylie Duff.” Performance by Haylie Duff, Youtube, StorylineOnline, 21 May 2012.

pandas <3