anyway, kicking depression out of my mind by being a nerd

or:

my thoughts on the connections between mahoyaku characters & the books they take their names from

SO FOR RUSTICA, MY MAN

there isn’t really a direct connection with cavalleria rusticana, BUT! i feel like there are some parallelisms

first of all, rustica's way of expressing love is kinda over the top + egocentric (he wants to find his bride & keep her inside his cage)

which fits with cavalleria rusticana where the MC comes back from war & is still so in love with this girl that, even if she's now married with another man, he seduces her again & ends up dying in a duel of honour against her husband

basically, rustica reflects that binomy of love/jealousy which is very present in most stories written by verga

still, his story doesn't exactly fit 100% bc rustic chivalry has nothing to do with being a noble & elegant bitch (which i love him for)

cavalleria rusticana is a short story from the collection "vita dei campi" (the life of the fields), and literally means "rustic chivalry" where "rustic" implies "of the countryside", which was known to be more unrefined & unsophisticated

verga is actually a verista (the italian version of realism, more akin to naturalism for its themes though), so he basically is interested in describing the lives of the "poor people" - nothing that would fit with rustica being a noble

BUT!!!! verga also wrote another book called "storia di una capinera" ("sparrow: the story of a songbird") where the title comes from the story of this bird dying in its cage bc of its desire to be free. even if its captor loved it, that forced love does nothing to keep it alive

and after reading this part of rustica's affection story!!!!!!! it just makes sense!!!!! i mean, the story is there: one's (rustica's) love being so suffocating that the receiver (his bride) can't stand it - she either dies bc of it or runs away

tl: https://healingbonds.dreamwidth.org/68170.html 

& rustica's bride being nowhere to be found + him not remembering... it DOES feel like he might have been the reason of her death? it would also be very nice bc of the way rustica talks to chloe, like chloe deserves to be free like a bird - it makes a nice juxtaposition with

rustica's love for his bride. almost like this is some kid of "new" rustica who's learned how to love without forcing his loved one into enclosure???? idk. that would be cool

i'm quite probably reading too much into this but. it just fits somehow

anyway i love rustica and italian literature and rustica being an italian bi icon thank you hell for this life

anyway.

murr. please realise. i am going mad bc of all the connections. murr's story is just so nice and it is full of hints towards german romanticism and i am in love with german romanticism and therefore i am in love with murr's story. i am a simple bitch

AS FOR MURR:

- his madness
- his love for the moon
- the two murrs
- the fragments
- his scientific discoveries

ALL FIT WITH HOFFMANN'S STORIES!!!!! BOTH WITH THE TOMCAT MURR AND!!!! THE NIGHT PIECES!!!!! YES I HAVE 5 BOOKS OUT AND OPEN RN I REREAD EVERYTHING I HAD ON THIS SHIT

so anyways murr's name comes from the book "the life and opinions of the tomcat murr (together with a fragmentary biography of kapellmeister johannes kreisler on random sheets of waste paper)" which says a lot on its own and not just bc the title takes half of the page

the books is a "double biography", meaning: the life of the cat AND the life of the kapellmeister get mixed up together. the fact that the cat is egocentric and whimsical and the kapellmesiter is instead the (musical) genius

WHICH!!!!! NEW!MURR & OLD!MURR!!!!!

as for murr's love for the moon: that's intrinsic in german romanticism. the love for everything that happens in the night, the moon being the quintessence of it bc it represents the beauty and potential danger of nature - it's basically the definition of the sublime theory

this connects to the fragments!!!!! bc german romanticist philosophy pushes for the use of "fragments" - that is, not using fully formed stories, but simple small pieces. that happens in the tomcat murr too where actually the fragments are part of the storyline AND the background

of the story. the tomcat murr is literally writing ON TOP OF OTHER SHIT and sometimes the scraps of papers get lost, so you have situation like this one below where suddenly the topic changes bc there are just missing pieces here and there

and then, one thing that is notable about hoffmann is the way he explores the themes of scientific & technological discoveries. that can be seen in many of his short stories, but in "the night pieces", and specifically in "the sandman" that can be seen VERY vividly

in most of hoffmann's work science is just a manipulation, a trick of the mind (or the eye). every time these technological innovations are used they don't get the results they want, far from it - they actually create even more chaos and make real life look even more distorted

which :) the whole magical technology shit :) it's not like people are abusing of it - it's just that the discovery of magical technology went the diametrically opposite way. instead of being of help & bringing people closer, it actually creates even more distance & deceit

this is particularly relevant bc!!!!!!!! it's murr who basically invents it!!!!!!!!!!!! it's literally his fault and it just fits so well with hoffmann's literary view of all the scientific discoveries!!!!!!!!! i am extremely pleased by this connection!!!!!!!!!!!

& this brings us to murr's madness. from the tomcat's book: "i would've run away if i weren't bound to my master by my innate tendency towards higher culture. the more culture, the less freedom, that is true."

and from the sandman:

the more you know about real life (by exploring it with scientific purposes) the madder you get bc if real life is madder than fiction and real life binds you until you can't have your freedom anymore... then sooner or later you will reach a point of breakage, no??? yes

so anyway please read the sandman

ellome might have made me realise that the connection between tomcat murr & the sandman wasn't necessarily clear....................... but they're from the same author i swear i'm not just connecting things

literally me in this thread

i'm reading riquet with the tuft. this is hilarious. this is literally the first sentence

IS STHERE INCEST???????????????????

ah no shit i got confused lmao i was getting worried here............

ok, at this point i'd say:

- tale!ricky's tuft → riquet's mark being on his forehead
- ppl doubting that tale!ricky has "human form at all" might be a connection with the devil... therefore magic in the eyes of myhk's religious circle

bro i'm learning french to understand what the fuck is going on in this stupid ass tale

seems like riquet contains the prefix "ric" which in germanic means "ruler" and it's often used as a connection with the devil/something coded as the devil it would fit with riquet being sealed in the church. also implies that riquet's power was also being stunted

also!!!!! in one of the most famous take on the tale, riquet isn't just ugly, he's an ugly gnome with powerful magic!!!!!!!!!

and it seems like the tuft on the head mirrors the horn that you'd usually find on the head of the devil

still the plot makes no sense. either i'm stupid or there is actually no deeper connection or there aren't enough canonical info on riquet's story. i am feeling dumb anyway

i found some essay on the tales. i could be studying for my thesis but here i am

LISTEN THE ONLY CONNECTION I CAN THINK OF IS

tale!ricky is born intelligent but ugly → falls in love with a pretty but stupid girl → gives her intelligence in exchange of beauty

mhyk!riquet is born in the religious circle (intelligence = religious ideals; ugliness = lack of freedom) → gets summoned as a sage's wizard (stupidity = the way the wizards live, not necessarily to serve other people, which is blasphemy; prettiness = freedom & knowledge,

like learning how to read and write, what's Actual Good Food, what's like being loved, etc.) → he gives them his ideals of what magic should be used for in exchange of freedom and care

but there's so much stretching and reaching in this thread... back to being dumb

riquet does not exist anymore

FIGARO INSTEAD IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING CASES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

first of all, the name just fits. from "largo al factotum" from the barber of seville

"factotum" is "handyman", but a literal translation would be "the one who does it all"

also, in the past (ie. in the middle ages) there weren't many doctors available, especially not for the common folks, so barbers used to take on the role of surgeons. they would do little surgeries like removing teeth or removing fleas. so, figaro = barber = doctor fits

as for the "everyone asks for me, everyone wants me", does this not.... remind you of something.... stupid ass mhyk figaro.... said canonically?????????

tl: https://healingbonds.dreamwidth.org/89597.html 

as for figaro being here, and there, and over there too, that's just how it is. figaro is literally EVERYWHERE. he appears out of nowhere, but more importantly he knows almost all the other guys. he's basically omnipresent in everyone's story lol

btw I think that figaro's name doesn't come from the marriage of figaro but the barber of seville instead. it doesn't change that much bc the marriage of figaro is basically a sequel to the barber of seville, but there's a difference in the main plot obviously

also figaro's character from the barber of Seville is known to be a shrewd guy who always has a new plan up his sleeve. most of the time his plans are just there to trick people….... like a certain guy we know…………. who's always bluffing his way out of every situation………

I'm still thinking about Cain but I feel like we don't have enough information about him. he wasn't exactly relevant in the main story so far. the only thing I can think of is the mark of cain, which is owen's swapped eye

bc in the religious tradition the mark of cain serves the purpose of protecting cain after having become a fugitive bc of his crimes against god

which. owen's eye protecting cain from getting killed + cain getting expulsed from the knights

tl: https://healingbonds.dreamwidth.org/75269.html 

there could also be a parallelism with cain looking for forgiveness (feeling guilty for not having saved the other wizards from the catastrophe; see: his affection stories) & not being given any, especially from the reign/people of central

also fun fact! in some folk belief, which appear in dante's inferno too, cain is said to be exiled from earth to the moon where he was condemned to hold a bundle of thorns on his shoulders...... it means shit in this thread but it is a fun fact

about mithra... thinking about how he's usually considered a god of the sun (see: his red hair, not being able to sleep which you'd usually do during the night) & the fact that in religion he has a sibling who's a god of the sky/moon. & in game nova gave his name to mithra only

& we can all agree that nova is probably either the incarnation of the great calamity or anyway something connected to it... the fact that he's interested in mithra specifically is kinda interesting

esp bc mithra being the most powerful wizard (after oz) AND the "personification" of the sun would mean that we'd have a sun vs. moon situation what with the great calamity being (connected to) the moon itself

extremely sexy shit

SO BASICALLY MITHRA'S NAME MEANS CONTRACT (AGREEMENT) BUT SPECIFICALLY DONE OUT OF PIETY/LOVE...................... him with tiretta + the flores boys

from the hymn to mithra:

mithra is described as sleepless & ever awake
daevas are supernatural beings (with a negative connotation in this case)
mithra being both "bad and good" → in mhyk canon he's pretty whimsical with what he does with his magic

i think currently the one who fit their names better are figaro & mithra tbh. murr is also pretty close, but there's some interpretation there that isn't necessary with figaman & mithra

as for mithra's mana area being a lake... it could have something to do with mithraic temples being found next to sources of water (in some mythology tales, it is said that mithra was born from a rock next to a stream)

i've been dreading faust's analysis but. it might be time to go with it

my issue with faust is that i don't know if his name is taken from the general legend or if takes inspiration from a specific source; still, we can't deny that the legend is internationally known also thanks to goethe's faust, so you can't really separate the two things

starting from the obvious:

faust's mana area being a forest: nature is pretty important in german folklore, but specifically in goethe's works nature is the place where you understand yourself and others thanks to the connection you all share by being part of the same world

the whole of the faustian legend is about faust making a pact with the devil in exchange of knowledge; but throughout the text it becomes obvious that divine knowledge (which you lust for) holds nothing in comparison to human love (love =/= lust)

which could easily be: faust "selling his soul" to alec (by becoming his ally) thinking it's the best way to live in harmony with the non-wizards, but he gets betrayed by alec like legend!faust gets betrayed by the devil

the fact that we first see faust almost dying is pretty interesting bc in goethe's faust he tries to poison himself but he's stopped. it's also pretty funny bc in canon faust is looking for death and is disappointed when he's saved

also pretty interesting the story of the prison & the key of the cell, now in leno's hands. bc the image of the prison in faust is pretty obvious: life/existence itself is prison, while magic, love and nature are the key to freedom

also, worth to note the scene with margarete

in prison faust steals the key to save her from her execution, but she refuses bc her idea of prison is actually deep guilt. which is funny, and by funny i mean i'm gonna start crying, bc this actually flips mhyk!faust story by making him margarete & making leno legend!faust

this last tweet makes no sense bc i got emotional. what i meant to say is:

in goethe's faust, faust tries to let margarete escape from prison where she's sentenced to death, but she's delirious and doesn't allow faust to save her

the same happens in mhyk, but this time it is faust who doesn't want to be saved by leno

so i have been thinking about bradley's story and i understand shit

so the thing with fessenden's world is that it's about this mad scientist (fessenden) that manages to create many microcosms, on which he likes to make experiment, to the point where he basically kills all the people living in them for fun

the end implies that bradley, the narrator and student of the scientist, is now questioning if god in heaven is doing what fessenden was doing to the little people in the made up universes

the story has virtually no connection with brad, but that could be bc his story has yet to be developed in canon.

also, i guess it would be interesting to see bradley being somehow connected to the people who are actively trying to bring on the great calamity

the only parallelism i can see with mhyk!brad is his love of humans and his idea of justice, that is skewed towards the people who more disadvantaged

for a moment this afternoon i thought that fessenden could be a parallelism with brad's father (the experiments = brad's father impregnating people until he gets the Perfect Child) but actually... that's such a stretch and would it really make sense in the main story?

bc like until now all the characters who have a clear, visible connection with their original works have been shown in the main story, which makes sense bc???? if that has to be the base of the characters, it cannot be used as a backstory that's never expanded, no?

brad is like riquet. they do not exist

IT'S LIKE, BRAD & RIQUET ARE SUCH SPECIFIC NAMES. LIKE. SO OVERLY SPECIFIC. it's not like in the case of rustica where his name literally comes from the opera play, not from the specific character. so you don't really expect to see a visible connection. but riquet and brad are

just so confusing??????????????????? idk. idk. i'll put them with cain and hope the connection will become clearer with more canonical info

y'all on priv worry me.

so anyway until here i'd say:
- faust, figaro, murr & mithra are kind of easy to understand
- rustica need a little bit of reach, BUT his name is not as specific as the other characters, so there's that
- riquet, cain and bradley are a mess

the ones i'm missing:
- oz, arthur
- chloe, shylock
- shino, nero, heath
- rutile, mitile, leno
- owen, snow, white
- cock robin lol

well, i guess that snow & white are also pretty much self explanatory. the story of snow white has snow white being both alive (before eating the apple) and death (apparently, after eating the apple). she then comes back to life afterwards

which would make:
snow = SW before dying
white = the "apparently dead" SW
white, after being killed = the SW who was brought back to life

the fact that they're twin and are always together is pretty much explained by the fact that there is only one tale!snow white, so snow & white are part of the same soul

them being enclosed in their portrait bc of the lunar injury could be something connected to the magic mirror that's in the tale? idk the injuries are weird

OH SO TURNS OUT PEOPLE HAVE MADE A CONNECTION BETWEEN RUSTICA & WILDE'S THE HAPPY PRINCE!!!!!! I have an excuse not to postpone wuthering heights and bring out one of my favorite books!!!!! look how pretty

so, funny shit: the first person that the happy prince helps is a poor seamstress. extremely funny shit. no possible connection with chloe whatsoever

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. the connection isn't really obvious here. other than the swallow's scientific name being hirundo rustica and the fact that the swallows loves to travel but decides not to do it to help the happy prince

i guess that what's missing is the image of the birdcage, which is pretty relevant in rustica's story

i think that the issue is that rustica story has yet to be discovered, so he's gonna go with riquet and the other. i do agree that the connection with the happy prince is much more linear than whatever i did with cavalleria rusticana/storia di una capinera lol

this thread is a disaster but that's life. also, fun fact, but in russian espionage "swallow" is the name given to female spies who use seduction to reach their objectives. so anyway sex spy rustica au anyone

so i've read magic by akutagawa bc of the connection with mithra. i actually see no connection other than the fact that one character is called mithra and he uses magic, but maybe i am just dumb???

you can find the tl here btw http://id.nii.ac.jp/1165/00000169/ 

bc like, the story is about greed. the MC wants to learn magic, but this mr. misra tells him that you can only learn magic if you discard your greed. he then basically tests the MC and in the end the MC falls for his own greed and fails

but i fail to see the connection with mhyk!mithra bc like... the misra in magic is a teacher who imparts moral lessons, but the mithra we know really isn't???? also, he is kinda greedy, not for money but for power. that's what makes a northern wizard, no?

but i'm also not used to jp literature so something might be flying over my head. still, i think that mithra could be one of the few cases where there is not direct connection with any literary work and the character is just taken from mythology, like with arthur

maybe chloe might also have some connection with the brand chloé??? idk. it might be

no, yeah, chloe has no apparent connection with froth on the daydream nor with daphnis and chloe, i'm not gonna even bother looking for the hidden meaning bc it just. isn't there lol

chloe might have the "still not explored in the main story" syndrome too

spent the afternoon going through the arthurian canon to find any connection with arthur, and at this point i have:

- king arthur born thanks to magic → arthur born with magical powers
- king arthur exiled from the kingdom at young age → arthur abandoned by his family

- king arthur being raised by a powerful wizard (merlin) → arthur being raised by a powerful wizard (oz)
- the knights don't support king arthur at first → idem with mhyk!arthur

the thing with arthur/oz and arthur/merlin is actually extremely nice bc it would give another layer of characterisation to oz. and thinking about when arthur complains bc the depictions that are going around about oz being hairy and old not being true to his character

is the same as merlin frequently changing his form, or at least being the common folks believing that merlin takes on different forms

wow the wording of this last tweet sucks. but anyway

ok so i was rereading some pieces of goethe's faust for nerdy reasons right and look at this

now, the image of a mirror of eternal truth is very. specific i'd say. also extremely beautiful, but specific nonetheless (it's used in the german text too)

very interesting also the fact that faust THOUGHT he had unveiled those truths, but in fact he hasn't, not completely. and when he overreached, thinking of himself too greatly, he gets punished for it

idk, i think it's too specific to have been used as base for the character,

but it's still an interesting piece of information

as for faust's mana area: both fausts find solace in the loneliness that only nature can offer

worth noticing that the spirit goethe's faust is calling in the first pic appeared to him in the form of fire in earlier scenes

this has stopped being a thread of connection and is now a source for potential characterisation analysis lol we are living the good life

also, mirrors actually appear in the story. i mean, it's just one single mirror, but it's the one in which faust sees the picture of a woman he falls in love with. the woman is actually no one and it's just the spark that makes him want to fall in love with margarete

so the mirror acts a revelation. it would be nice if faust could predict future or some shit..............................

oh btw yesterday night i read the translation of the summer event and i gotta say

i love how they showed that the thing about the birdcage is the complete exception in rustica's personality

in the summer event his love is shown to be completely selfless https://twitter.com/zenzeromante/status/1294707766557278209

(which would actually make sense if we're talking about the happy prince)

but that would still not explain the issue with the birdcage, bc it goes against everything rustica is shown to be

so actually i'm even more curious now. what happened to him to go yandere like that

i just want to say that i love how mahoyaku is slowly building up the characters' true personality and how the more you read the more you find out that every character has something hidden in them. extremely interesting bc it forces you to challenge your own perspective

also bc it kind of turns around many "established" tropes, or at least, it depicts them in a way that they stop being tropes and end up being rounded characters. i guess the way that it does it is very delicate and you only realise it if you think about it deeply

but most of the characterisation is shown piece by piece until at some point you reach a scene where you're like. well damn. i was tricked into this. which is extremely fascinating

i guess for example in a3 the characters at time keep being caricatures/tropes, even after 3 acts. like, yeah, they do expand on them, but some characteristics are just... there bc that's the trope the character fits into. while mhyk feels like it has a reason for everything

EVEN for the thing that look like they could easily be explained as "that's just the type of character that becomes popular". dunno. i love that bc it shows that those character are necessary bc they're THEM & if you switched them with similar characters the story wouldn't work

i have lost so many plurals in these last tweets

but also. we must realise. most fandoms are not capable of being nuanced. i fear that. not only bc i know how shit goes down fast but also bc layered characters are difficult to handle..................... i7 has shown me that already

also, a retification bc i was lying in this tweet and when i say i was lying i simply mean i didn't have the info that i have now so we are making edits thank you for coming to this shitshow of a thread but https://twitter.com/zenzeromante/status/1299266285004611589

the happy prince is a tale about selfless love. the swallow wants to fly away, at first bc that's what he wants, and then bc his low for the prince has grown so deep the swallow doesn't want to leave his side. it fits with the way rustica is shown in the summer event

the selfless love is also shown in the way the prince keeps giving away everything of value that he has: the ruby on his sword (symbol o power?), his jewels (eyes), and his golden leaves (literally his skin, basically), and that makes him become a shadow of his glorious past self

it is in both way a tale of sacrifice. and the fact that it's not clear if rustica is the swallow or the prince makes it all the more interesting bc - what did he sacrifice? what has he lost? WHO has he lost?

just food for thoughts as usual but also

the swallow and the prince kiss at the end before the swallow dies and when he does, the prince's heart breaks in half. the feeling is still there even after the prince gets demolished bc that heart becomes indestructible

also worth noticing the gay relationship in a tale that's supposed to be a modern/fairy tale take on christian piety/sacrifice in wilde we trust

I MEAN I GUESS THEY DO DIE AFTER KISSING SO MAYBE......... NOT GOOD GAY REP................................................ but anyway bi icon rustica am i right

btw............. doesn't chloe's story kind of reminds you of cinderella

ok we're reading a dog of flanders it's only 50 pages i hope my attention span won't waver

I don't have a clear idea of anything yet but keeping notes just for the sake of it

I guess if nero is nello, that would make bradley patrasche?

but the fact that nero wasn't translated as nello if that's where they took their inspiration from it makes no sense to use nero

I mean. nello is not a good name. sorry if anyone name nello is reading this but. it isn't so I understand why they'd go with nero

attention span wavered. I called it

oh wait fuck might it be something flipped like with faust being margarete? we don't know much about nero's past so he could fit with patrasche's story, while nello could be riquet? idk. also i guess patrasche isn't as easy as nero to pronounce LOLOLOL

I have no idea what I'm doing btw my head is all messed up today. but we are thinking

Man I Hate Sexism

bro this story gave me depression when I really didn't need it

AND THERE IS NO CONNECTION WITH MHYK'S NERO SO WHY DID I GO THROUGH THIS PAIN..........

my attention span was telling me something one hour ago... I should've listened

anyways im thinking that nero can't be based on the roman nero simply bc none of the other characters take inspiration from existing people, and there is no roman nero inspired play/book that's famous enough to be considered canonical literature

which is also the reason why I don't believe nero's name is taken from nero wolfe: it is such a contemporary book, feels like it's a stretch. all the other characters come from literature traditions, many have literally changed the way we perceive literature, but more importantly

every other character (apart from chloe & bradley, I guess?) comes from books/legends that you simply Know Of if you have just a little bit of literature knowledge. basically, you don't have to look for it them too deeply

so I don't understand. either nero, brad & chloe come from very specific books that aren't popular around the world but for some reason are well read in japan, or simply the connection with their names is flying over my head