The World of One Piece by Emma Wakefield

Welcome to the wonderful world of One Piece. A series about adventure, exploration, being free, and personal treasure; also pirates. Let me first give a quick introduction before diving into this wacky world. One Piece is a Japanese manga created by Eiichiro Oda. The series started publication in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump on August 4th, 1997, and is ongoing to this day. One Piece has sold over 490 million copies world wide spanning 100+ volumes (which yes, this means it has sold more copies than Peanuts, than Tintin, than even Batman. It’s only behind Superman in sales). The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young boy hoping to become King of the Pirates along with his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, and find the ultimate treasure known as the One Piece. 

You’re probably wondering, Emma, but what is the one piece, what’s with this pirate stuff, why does Luffy want to be king of the pirates anyway? My god slow down, we’re like 2 minutes in we’ll get to that. To answer these burning questions, first I have to tell you about Gol D. Roger (no relation to Monkey D. Luffy). 

Gol D. Roger was the King of the Pirates, before he was captured by the Marines and publicly executed. But before he died, he had one final message to the world: “Do you want my treasure? You’ll have to find it first. I left everything in that place.” 

This started the Golden Age of Piracy, with thousands of inspired hot-blooded souls setting sail in the hopes of finding the one place where Gol D. Roger hid it all, the One Piece. And the one who finds the One Piece will be King of the Pirates, just like he was. So there’s just all these people becoming pirates in order to get this guy’s treasure and the Marines can’t do a thing about it. It’s awesome. Now even though this guy was super vague about exactly where he hid the treasure, people strongly suspect it’s in this one island called Raftel, because he and his crew are the only people who have ever been to this island as it is at the end of the Grand Line. We’ll get to what the Grand Line is in a second. 

First, we need to make a distinction about pirates. All pirates in the One Piece universe are kind of divided into two philosophies: Morganeers, who value treasure and personal ambition above all else, and are your classic rape and pillage type pirates. They’re violent and greedy and bad basically. And then there’s Piecemain pirates, who also strongly value their freedom, but don’t want to hurt anyone, and they also profit off of taking down Morganeers. This is a good time to mention that pirates are not an organized group at all, they’re just doing their own things with their own crews. And the people who stand in opposition to the pirates are the World Government. The real “crime” that any pirate does, even non violent Piecemain pirates, is they’re declaring by raising the pirate flag that they are not a part of the World Government, they aren’t under their control. Speaking of the World Government: 

I lied, we’re going to talk about the globe for a second. Very quickly just want to show everyone that this world is basically entirely made up of islands and like one really long thin continent that wraps around the whole globe. 

The World Government united over 170 countries into a UN style agreement that they’ll have basically the same goals and priorities. Not every country in the world is under the World Government, it should be noted. Though the World Government controls the vast majority of the world’s legitimate governments. They control international policy, but do allow each country to run their own ship for the most part. They only have to pay taxes to the World Government. These taxes go into a few factions: 

First the Marines. The World Government’s military. They’re viewed generally favorably by your average citizen. Prioritize this concept of Absolute Justice. Hate pirates, hate chaos. Want total order and control. Pretty cool. Next is Cipher Pol. Basically the CIA of the world government, they’re the secret spies and agents. Next, the Seven Warlords. Seven pirate crews that the World Government teams up with with some caveats and rules in place. Their bounties have been excused, and are even allowed to get away with various crimes as long as they help the World Government out when needed. Next, the Celestial Dragons. They are the descendents of the people who founded the World Government, and are privileged above all others. Last but not least, the Five Elder Stars. Supreme authority in the World Gov. They do all the policy making and tell all the other factions what to do. Interesting thing to note, the Celestial Dragons

truly think they are actual gods, and literally wear astronaut type helmets because they don’t want to breathe the same air as normal people. They suck. 

Now the World Government hunting down pirates, including Luffy and his crew, is a huge conflict throughout the series. But it gets personal too. For example, our main character Luffy’s grandfather is in fact a vice admiral of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp. Not only that, but this guy has another grandkid, Portagas D. Ace, who is Luffy’s older brother, and also a pirate and is a part of the Whitebeard pirates but we don’t have time to talk about them. Monkey D. Garp actually raised Ace and Luffy to be Marines but they both became pirates anyway which he’s a little bitter about. They do all love one another though, and things have been fine since they haven’t crossed paths after Luffy and Ace left their home island to become pirates. UNTIL in one part of the story Ace gets captured by some other Marines and is sentenced to execution, and is currently being kept at the Marine Headquarters jail called Impel Down. Luffy tries to break into Impel Down to save Ace, and Garp has to stop him, but Garp is in moral turmoil because he loves his grandkids but also is extremely loyal to the World Government, and Luffy doesn’t want to beat up his grandad either. But then it’s all in vain because Ace dies and it’s really sad because he was super cool. 

Anyway another major player I want to mention is the revolutionary army. While the pirates are just doing their own thing as the World Government hunts them down, the revolutionary army actively opposes the World Government with terrorism and stuff. And it’s actually lead by LUFFY’S FATHER except he doesn’t even know that’s his father he never even met him. 

A huge part of this world’s history is the Void Century. The Void Century is a century-long gap in history that has been forbidden from being researched by the World Government. This century happened 800-900 years ago, and it was after this century that the World Government suddenly existed. From this century also emerged the Poneglyphs, which are divided up into Historical Poneglyphs (reveal pieces of history from this century), Instructional Poneglyphs (gives clues about the locations of Historical Poneglyphs), and Road Poneglyphs (which allows one to find Raftel). There are 30 of these total, written in a language no one can speak, and are the only pieces of documentation we have from this century. 

Now we can finally look at a map of the whole world. The crew all mostly meet in East Blue, go up Reverse Mountain, and enter the Grand Line. Reverse Mountain is this mountain in the center of the four mountains that, because of the four currents of the four mountains acting against it, flows upwards, and is able to send ships into the Grand Line. 

So there’s just an absurd amount of islands in this series. The story falls into this routine of going to a new island, meeting weird new characters, getting to know the culture, fighting the World Government a bit, and running away to the next island. And every single one of these islands is given an insane amount of depth too. On the One Piece wiki, you can find the names of the major cities on each of these islands, the weather patterns, economies, cultural traditions, and local cuisine. There are dozens of these. There’s Water 7, this Venice type city with water roads with huge ship building businesses connected to a train that runs along the top of the water. There’s Alabasta, this desert type island with cool casinos and these big bird things that people ride around on. There’s Skypiea, an island in the sky. Yes an island resting atop this super dense cloud with a culture completely different than the people of the oceans. There’s Sabaody Archipelago, which just has these cool pretty bubble things and tall trees and like high air pressure. Fishmen Island, a huge city state underwater which houses the Fishmen who are a completely different species than humans. There’s even an island that sits on top of a massive 1000 year old elephant who just walks along the ocean floor. It’s awesome. 

So you must be thinking, is there some magic system of some sort? Yes, kind of. All around the world there are a series of oddly shaped fruits called Devil Fruits. They are very rare and if you bite into one, you gain a unique power of some sort. No one else can get that power even if they bite into the same fruit. If you die, the fruit re-grows somewhere in the world. The fruit tastes terrible and makes it so that you can’t swim (literally makes you drop like a rock in the ocean). For example, our main character Luffy ate the Gum Gum Fruit, which made his body have the properties of rubber. He can stretch his body and stuff, it’s cool. We have people who can turn into animals, Ace can make his body fire, we even have this girl who can sprout limbs from things.

Quick Character Bios: 

Monkey D. Luffy 

Born in East Blue. Wants to create a pirate crew, find the One Piece, and become Pirate King. Our happy-go-lucky protagonist. 

Roronoa Zoro 

Born in East Blue. Wants to become the strongest swordsman in the world. Uses three swords at once. He just puts one in his mouth. 

Nami 

Genius map maker and navigator. Obsessed with money and actually makes the crew look for treasure. 

Vinsmoke Sanji 

Born in North Blue. Chef who’s trying to find an ocean called All Blue that contains all the fish in the world, probably in the Grand Line. Also a huge womanizer. Interesting tidbit about Sanji, he was actually the last person to get a poster, as he coincidently would be elsewhere when news people came to take photos of the crew members for their wanted posters. This actually was extremely useful, since he could walk around unbothered and do some reconnaissance since his face didn’t have a bounty. 

Usopp 

Jack of all trades type guy. Marksman and handyman. Is a coward but wants to be a cool big strong man. Now let me explain his poster for a second. So this guy was such a coward that he would wear this mask and call himself Sogeking the Master Marksman in order to psych himself up. So his first wanted poster was a photo of him wearing the mask when he called himself Sogeking. Eventually he ditches the mask 

and starts calling himself God Usopp, and this picture was taken after a pretty intense battle when he’s pretty beat up. 

Chopper 

Reindeer who ate the Human Human Devil Fruit. The doctor of the crew. The reason his bounty is so low is that the World Government assumed he was just the crew’s pet, not knowing he was an actual fighter too. 

Franky 

Cyborg man and shipbuilder. Is powered by coca-cola and testosterone. Repairs the Going Merry. Was hit by a train and managed to stay alive by creating cyborg parts for himself because he landed in a trash heap and made do with what he had. His back doesn’t have any cyborg parts because he couldn’t reach it. 

Nico Robin 

Archeologist. Use to work for Cipher Pol before joining the Straw Hat Crew. The only person who can read the poneglyphs, wants to find all of them. Is the only crew character who is interested in unlocking the secrets of their world, everyone else is just there for a good time or their own goals. 

Brook 

Human who ate the Life Life fruit and was revived after dying out in the Grand Line. Talented musician. The reason he’s a skeleton actually is kind of sad. So he and his entire old crew died in this extremely thick fog out in the Grand Line. Turns out, the devil fruit he’d eaten ages that seemed to have no effect at the time basically gave him another life. But the fog was so thick his soul couldn’t find his body until he’d already rotten and he was only a skeleton. The afro stayed because supposedly his hair is just that strong. Also the reason his wanted poster looks different is that in a 2 year span where the crew was separated from one another for complicated reasons, he accidentally became a famous rockstar. The person who makes wanted posters in the World Government is a fan of his.

Discussion Questions: 

1) In One Piece we have evil pirates, evil marines, and evil revolutionaries, but also good pirates, good marines, and good revolutionaries. And often there will be personal relationships that complicate things like the one I described previously. What are the benefits of having a story where not only are characters themselves morally gray, but are positioned on opposing teams? 

2) This is yet another story that features a world encompassing government that wants absolute control and lawfulness. Why does this archetype show up in so many fantasy type stories?

The World of Gideon the Ninth by Caroline Woods

What is the Cosmere? by Natalie Hampton

Miraculous Ladybug: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir—The Intricate Worldbuilding Behind the Kids’ TV Show That Resonates With Emotionally Starved Teenagers by Lakshmi Sunder

Synopsis:

The story takes place in Paris. Each episode, the iconic duo Ladybug and Chat Noir work to save Paris from a new supervillain. Some examples of villains include Dark Cupid, who has the power to turn love into hate, or Guiltrip, who makes everyone she affects feel guilty of things they can’t control. These villains are possessed by the main supervillain, Hawkmoth’s, cursed butterflies, turning their negative emotions into something catastrophic and destructive. That is, until Ladybug and Chat Noir work together to “deakumatize” the villain by breaking the object the butterfly is absorbed into. While this happens in every episode, the different ways in which these dilemmas are solved through Ladybug’s lucky charms (creates an object to help her solve the problem) and the dramatic irony of Ladybug and Chat Noir not knowing each other’s identities infuses tension and drama into every episode.

Miraculous Ladybug’s Magic System in a Nutshell – Kwamis and Key Characters:

Here are some basic characteristics of Kwamis/Miraculous:

● Divine, spirit-like beings who embody “abstract” concepts such as destruction, creation, or emotion.

● The first ever Kwami was Tikki, the Kwami of creation (Ladybug’s Miraculous)

● Kwamis are immortal

○ Five thousand years ago, a Chinese mage figured out how to create Miraculouses — magical jewels for their power to channel through, which allow Kwamis to be seen by humans and other mortal organisms

● Kwamis are inherently good-intentioned beings, however, they sometimes fall into the wrong hands (Ex: Duusu/Nooroo and HawkMoth)

○ Kwamis are forbidden from speaking their holder’s name to other Kwamis unless another miraculous holder already knows the holder’s identity.

● Kwamis can fuse their powers together

● When Kwamis use their powers on their own (without a holder), the effects can often be catastrophic

○ ex: Plagg, the Kwami of destruction, caused the extinction of the dinosaurs

● Inactive Kwamis are held in something called the Miracle Box, which is possessed by the Guardian of the Miraculous

○ Later in the series, Marinette becomes the Guardian of the box

● Kwamis can’t be seen on screens, and can “turn of” their life to look like a toy if passersby see them

● Kwamis possess their holders with a special phrase

○ “Tikki, spots on!”

○ “Plagg, claws out!”

Key Superheros/Villains and Their Kwamis:

1. Ladybug/Marinette Dupain-Cheng – Kwami of Creation; Superpower – Lucky Charm 2. Chat Noir/Adrien Agreste – Kwami of Destruction; Superpower – Cataclysm 3. Rena Rue/Alya Cesaire – Kwami of Illusion; Superpower – Mirage

4. Carapace/Nino Lahiffe – Kwami of Protection; Superpower – Shelter 5. Viperion/Luka Couffaine – Kwami of Intuition; Superpower – Second Chance 6. Ryuko/Kagami Tsurugi – Kwami of Perfection; Superpower – Elemental Powers 7. Pegasus/Max Kanté – Kwami of Teleportation; Superpower – Voyage 8. King Monkey/Lê Chien Kim – Kwami of Derision; Superpower – Uproar 9. Vesperia/Zoe Lee – Kwami of Subjection; Superpower – Venom

10. Polymous/Mylene Haprele – Kwami of Multiplication; Superpower – Multitude 11. Pigella/Rose Lavillant – Kwami of Jubilation; Superpower – Gift

12. Purple Tigress/Juleka Couffaine – Kwami of Exaltation; Superpower – Clout 13. HawkMoth/Gabriel Agreste – Kwami of Emotion; Superpower – Akumatization

The Worldbuilding of Miraculous Ladybug in Terms of Double Identity: The importance of double identity when it comes to good and evil — HawkMoth:

Like most magic systems present in fiction, from Harry Potter to The Last Airbender, there is a gradation of good and evil present in the main television show and movie specials. Other TV

shows targeted towards child audiences tend to box good and evil into two separate spheres. For example, the villains in Wild Kratts are purely evil, existing only to feed their own greed at the expense of wildlife. However, Miraculous Ladybug’s treatment of good and evil subverts this polarization from an early age in young viewers, leaving them to look past the surface level of who is considered good and who isn’t.

The main villain in the show is HawkMoth, later known as ShadowMoth. Each episode, he bewitches a black moth with dark magic and sends them off to possess a human who is being afflicted by negative emotions, such as anger, guilt, shame, or sadness.

One can already see the classic binary between good and evil being questioned. The villains that are created each episode aren’t inherently evil — in fact, many of them are Marinette and Adrien’s closest friends and family members, whose negative emotions are often rooted in good intentions. However, it is still possible for them to be possessed and turned into a villain for the episode, until Ladybug and Chat Noir work together to “deakumatize” them. This represents a central point of the show, that it is possible for good people to do bad things, and that it is possible to ultimately redeem yourself.

Even HawkMoth, who seems like the root of evil himself, has potential for a redemption arc. Strangely, one could argue that he is similar to Ladybug/Marinette and Chat Noir/Adrien more than most others — all three have good intentions, and all three are forced to keep their identities a secret. In fact, HawkMoth’s alter ego is Gabriel Agreste, fashion tycoon and father of Adrien Agreste (AKA Chat Noir himself…omg). Gabriel’s whole motive for turning ordinary

Parisians into villains is so he can obtain Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous (the jewels that connect them to their Kwamis, the small magical beings which give them power). Since Ladybug and Chat Noir have the power of creation and destruction respectively, HawkMoth/Gabriel believes he can use this power to revive his dead wife and love of his life, Emilie.

In this case, the creators of Miraculous Ladybug make use of double identity to complicate the nature of morality. While Gabriel Agreste is no more likable than his supervillain counterpart, his identity still serves to humanize HawkMoth, particularly in rare moments of pure care for the people he loves. For example, it is as Gabriel that he visits his dead wife and promises to bring her back to life:

The importance of double identity when it comes to interpersonal relationships — Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the friends they make along the way:

The crux of Miraculous Ladybug is the fact that Ladybug and Chat noir must keep their identities secret from everyone, except the sentient Kwamis which give them their power. The fact that, for a majority of the show, the Kwamis are the only ones who know their identities creates a bond between these small beings with extreme power and their holders. It also encapsulates a key theme in the show by showcasing the importance of responsibility, especially to your community, while not romanticizing the sacrifice it takes. It’s clear that this big secret is not kept easily, but Ladybug and Marinette do it because they have an innate sense of goodwill. This also happens with Master Fu, the former Guardian of the Miraculous who gave up his memories to not be a threat to the world when he passed the duty onto Marinette.

This dramatic irony is what holds the tension every episode. In their non-superhero forms, Marinette is in love with Adrien, but cannot bring herself to tell him. In their superhero forms, Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug. While he makes this clear, Ladybug being in love with someone else prevents her from fully feeling the same way. For the safety of themselves and of Paris, neither Adrien nor Marinette can reveal their secret identities. Furthermore, if this were to happen, dynamics would shift greatly. This is because the personalities of these characters differ greatly between their non-superhero and superhero forms, united only by basic things like a natural draw towards treating others kindly (which made the former Guardian of the Miraculous give them the Miraculous of creation and destruction in the first place).

You can even tell from the above images how much their personalities vary. It’s clear that their superhero counterparts are much more secure and confident than their non superhero counterparts. Furthermore, there is a role reversal. While Marinette is more meek around Adrien, she tends to take charge of rescuing Paris as Ladybug, leaving Chat Noir to cover her as she saves the world.

These double identities not only affect Marinette and Adrien’s relationships with each other, but also their relationships with friends, family, and other priorities. For example, we are introduced in later seasons to Luka, who creates a love triangle in the already existing love square.

Marinette feels comfortable with Luka in a way she never felt with Adrien, though she still has feelings for the latter. They even end up dating in season four. However, due to the fact that she must keep on making excuses for why she has to leave during their dates (because she must transform to save Paris), she breaks up with him. Here, Marinette is more distraught with her

identity than ever before, realizing that she cannot truly love who she wants to love because of the nature of the world she lives in and her role in it.

Perhaps the relevance of double identities in the story resonates with teenage audiences so much because it connects to the identity crises that tend to arise during puberty, as people struggle to identify who they are and what their purpose is in this world. Furthermore, Marinette in some ways represents a typical frazzled teen who has to balance a lot of things — school work, extracurriculars, time with friends and family, and, specifically for her, saving Paris.

Chat Noir/Adrien is another interesting case study, particularly because of his daddy issues. In the season four episode “Wishmaker,” Adrien grapples with his identity at a career fair, wondering what he truly wants to do with his life. The akumatized villain of this episode is supposed to reveal your childhood dream, but when Chat Noir is struck, there is nothing there because he doesn’t have any dreams that are separate from his father’s wishes for him. This is also seen in characters like Kagami, whose strict mother structures her whole life for her. Thus, despite the magical elements of this world, there are clear parallels to what teenagers go through now — such as the tension between wanting to pursue your own dreams vs. the dreams your parents have for you.

Ultimately, it is the implications of double identities, first with its complication of morality, and second with its complication of the connotations that come with responsibility and selflessness, that makes Miraculous Ladybug a show much more intricate than it seems at first.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does Miraculous Ladybug organically integrate its magic system — particularly with Kwamis and the Miraculous — into the show? How can we use their approach in our own writing?

2. Other than the aforementioned, what aspects of the worldbuilding, plot, or characters makes this show resonate with older audiences?

3. How does the concrete worldbuilding and abstract conceptions of emotion complement each other? How does the situation created by the magic system change our views of the moral complex of humankind?

4. Even minor characters can be deeply studied in an episode due to the structure of the show. What message does this structure send to viewers?

the cruel prince: a glimpse into faerie courts, mind games, and twisting old stories by Deonna Ford

The Cruel Prince is one of many works by Holly Black set partially in Faerie – a world closely based on English and Scottish Lowland myths. So far, two other works take place in this world: Tithe and a standalone The Darkest Part of the Forest. In its initial release, The Cruel Prince was marketed as a darker, grittier, and more character-driven glimpse at both Scottish folklore and Holly Black’s take on it, prizing a cast of obscure morality and violent, shifty plotlines centered around court intrigue.

The bulk of the series takes place on Insmire, the largest island. You can hop from island to island on big stones.

The series follows Jude Duarte, a human girl who’s whisked away to Faerie with her twin sister after witnessing her parents be murdered by Madoc, her mother’s old lover and the father of her older sister, Vivian. While in Faerie, she becomes hateful toward the gentry she’d grown around and has aspirations to become a knight in order to prove herself to Madoc. The fey in question who torment her are Valerian (he’s killed off 50 pages into the book and we know nothing about him except he’s the meanest); Nicasia, princess of the Undersea; Locke, the emotionally manipulative theater kid; and Cardan, the infamously sadistic youngest prince of Elfhame. It’s established early on that all fey have animal properties; Locke has fox eyes, Vivian has cat eyes, and Cardan has a tail – though not everyone’s animal traits are described in the novel. By all other regards, fey appear similar to humans, albeit a bit smaller, slighter, and generally more beautiful. The fey mock Jude and her twin sister Taryn for being mortal, forcing them to kiss their feet, eat charmed fruits, and just engage in elevated schoolyard bullying. After being denied a chance to prove her knighthood, Jude instead is offered to become a spy for Dain, the third-oldest child of the High King, who covets her for her ability to lie whereas fey cannot. He offers her immunity to fairy charms and thrusts her into a plot to stop his older brother’s plan to seize the crown. She’s forced to navigate the world of the morally grey gentry, and eventually enters a grudging relationship with Cardan.

                                  Cardan Greenbriar and Jude Duarte by @phantomrin on Twitter

Fey in Anglo-Scottish folklore have been categorized in different ways; however, The Cruel Prince takes directly from Scottish folklore in separating them in Seelie and Unseelie courts, or light and dark. The Seelie are traditionally more benevolent, though still dangerous, but would only act out when offended, while the Unseelie are inherently evil, and in this novel includes the Court of Teeth, Court of Moths, and the Undersea. In exploring the morally ambiguous side of Faerie, Holly Black establishes the Court of Termites, ruled by Roiben (from Tithe), which acts as a joint between Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

All fey courts are ruled by a High Court, overseen by the High King and/or Queen of Elfhame, historically descended from the House of Greenbriar of which owns a Blood Crown; the ruler of Elfhame must be a member of the Greenbriar line and be crowned by a member of the Greenbriar line. This makes it difficult for outsiders to usurp the throne; however, it doesn’t not condone a member of the Greenbriar family to try at the throne. Similarly to real European “rightful heir” feuds a la Lancaster and York, there are multiple squabbles over who the next ruler of Elfhame is to be after Eldred, the aging High King, dies – he intended to crown Dain; however, Balekin, the eldest, wants the throne the most. After a chaotic scene where half of Eldred’s children die, eight-year-old Oak, who is Jude’s foster brother and Locke’s half-brother, is learned to be part of the Greenbriar line as he is Dain’s biological son, so he crowns Cardan as the High King of Elfhame, which creates this absolutely horrible family tree that’s confusing at best.

Queen Mab in this novel is the founder of the Greenbriar line, about 100 years before the start of the novel. She is first referenced in passing by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet; it’s unknown whether or not she existed before Shakespeare, but she’s included in media surrounding fairies. Queen Mab is also a character in other YA works like SJM’s Throne of Glass series and Jullie Kagawa’s Iron Fey.

Faerie is populated by goblins, pixies, humans, merfolk, and imps; however, the majority of the population is faeries. Although it seems as if most feys don’t have any special kind of power, they do hold the power of compulsion over humans, through glamours, consumption of faerie fruit, poison, and curses, a dynamic that fosters a parasitic relationship between faeries and humans. Humans don’t usually stumble in this world by accident as you’d expect out of most fairy stories: they can only end up in Faerie if they are kidnapped, as crossing from the mortal realm to Faerie is only possible if you cross a magicked border. If you couldn’t already guess, the fey really, really hate humans, but it’s not completely uncommon (just looked down upon) to see fey take humans as lovers. Vivian, Jude’s older sister, is half-fey, and the daughter of the faerie who kidnapped them as children, Madoc. Fey are immortal, and humans who live in Faerie for a long time will also stay the same age; however, if they return to the regular world they’ll instantly become their actual age.

            Because they cannot lie, the feys’ power relies significantly on wording; additionally, giving or taking a faerie’s “true name” would give you power over them. This element is a remnant of the old belief that if you give a faerie your true name, they can manipulate you to their will; however, if you have their name, they’ll be forced to leave you alone. This might be a little confusing; for example, Cardan’s true name would be an alliterative three-part C-name instead of something different altogether, which is what I thought when I first read the book. The fey love interest of an earlier series, Roiben’s true name is “Rath Roiben Rye.” The emphasis on riddles, mind games, and psychological torture fosters a unique environment in Holly Black’s Faerie.

Faerie is inspired by Scottish folklore and settings, even though the main characters easily and often travel between Faerie and their former hometown of Portland, Maine.

The Cruel Prince is one of Holly Black’s most acclaimed works for giving readers a darker look into the high-spirited world of fairies and Scottish folklore, rich with clever manipulation, violence, and an intense enemies-to-lovers romance between the bloodthirsty, headstrong Jude and sadistic yet troubled Cardan. The success of this series is further proof of readers’ desire for high fantasy works that subvert classic good-versus-evil binaries and instead challenge the lengths of our sympathy.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Holly Black’s world is heavily inspired by Scottish folklore. What are the benefits of using pre-established stories as a base for a world? What are the limitations?
2. Many of the other worlds we’ve covered in this class have featured morally grey characters and organizations, and Black adapts her world to cash in on this trend. Do you think the future of narrative media is going to rely on complex morality arguments, or do you see us ever returning to a stark good/evil contrast?

The Arcana Worldbuilding by Alessa Perez

You, the player, are a magician’s apprentice with no memories of your past aside from the last three years are left to your own devices by your wanderlust mentor. In his absence, you stumble into the center of a dangerous yet intriguing adventure and all eyes are on you. As you uncover a mysterious murder, you must choose who to trust and be careful of the secrets you reveal. Vesuvia is a city-state built into a cliff by a Mediterranean-like sea, located in the southern hemisphere of the world. As a port city, it is a center for trade, travel, and cultural exchange, and is known for its tangled, multi-layered network of canals and aqueducts, which is used to divide the city up into its many districts. Much of Vesuvia is inspired by the Italian Renaissance, including the Middle Eastern influences.

Heart District

The elite and nobility live among the gleaming white architecture of the Heart District and it is where the Vesuvian Palace is located. It’s most notable places include the Floating Market and Red Street, both popular shopping destinations that provided When the Count was still alive, Red Street was the hotspot of luxury and fashion, but has since been almost entirely abandoned due to the plague.

Center City

The Apprentice’s (otherwise known as you, the player) neighborhood includes their Magic Shop, the Town Square, and the Marketplace. The streets by the Magic Shop are calm and peaceful while the Marketplace is filled with liveliness and bustling bodies. With how many people cross through here, the Palace often makes its news and proclamations heard in Town Square.

The interior and exterior of the Magic Shop.

Temple District

Because it is a seaside port, Vesuvia is home to a wealth of culture and beliefs. The Temple District reflects this with its variety of monasteries, shrines, and all manner of places of prayer to whatever one might pray to. Unfortunately, while it is a place of great beauty, it is also the home to terrible poverty and the poor due to unevenly distributed wealth pouring in from the Count’s conquests.

Goldgrave

Considered the arts district of Vesuvia, Goldgrave is home to the Community Theater and includes as much glitter as it does gore, though the gore has significantly decreased. This can be seen in the Coliseum which, once teeming with blood and bone, now secretly hosts the underground Red Market that sells a variety of contraband that most likely slipped into the city through the East Docks.

South End

The people of this neighborhood may be poor, but most of them are determined to make the most of it and look out for each other. Among this tightly-knit community is the Rowdy Raven, a tavern that serves a drink called Salty Bitters, and the South End Market. Many might argue that South End, not the Heart District, is the true heart of Vesuvia despite its many misconceptions.

Flooded District

Once known as the Shopping District and a hub for merchants, the Flooded District is what the name says; a neighborhood slowly drowning under the encroaching tides. This is due to the Count’s incompetent leadership and Vesuvia’s placement on the edge of the sea. Without proper maintenance or preventative measures put in place, the canals have overflowed and the buildings are crumbling.

Ash Beach

Ash Beach is home to orphans and sailors, though as merchants began to abandon the Flooded District, the influx of trading vessels into Ash Beach slowed, strays and runaways far outnumber the ships at the Ash Docks now. During the years of the Plague, the smoke and waste from bodies burned on the Lazaret drifted to the shores, the deathly gray sands now truly living up to their name.

The Lazaret

Originally meant to be a place to quarantine the victims of the Red Plague (coined for the red beetles), it quickly became a graveyard of ash, a crematorium. It was a death sentence. Now, with the plague gone, the island is abandoned and has become a ghost story whispered about from the safety of the city’s shores.

Asra Alnazar the Magician

The first character you are introduced to is your mentor, Asra. You live and work together at your magic shop in the Center City district. Through him, it is quickly established that the magic system is very simple and, depending on your progress in the game, easily accessible to anyone. He also has a familiar named Faust, a purple snake with very broken speech, that he leaves behind with you along with his handmade tarot deck. During the introduction, it becomes clear that he leaves you alone often and avoids answering too many questions. He clearly cares for you, but there are secrets he seems to be keeping from you and it’s holding him back. He is 5’8, a Gemini, favors belladonna, and nonbinary (he/him).

Countess Nadia of Vesuvia

The second character you meet is the Countess of Vesuvia. She approaches you seeking help (or more so demanding it) after having prophetic dreams, inviting you to her palace. She comes across as imperious and stern, fitting qualities for a leader of a city-state. Once at the palace, she reveals that she called you to the palace because she plans to throw a masquerade party and requires you to capture a murderer before its start. Throughout the prologue, she has a strong presence and mystifying air about her. She is 5’10, a Cancer, and loves lavender flowers.

Julian Devorak the Doctor            

He breaks into your shop. Twice. The first time is after Nadia’s departure while in search of Asra (implying a history between the two characters, especially when he insinuates that Asra isn’t who you think he is) and quickly leaves after a tarot reading from you. At the palace, Nadia accuses him of the Count’s murder and leaves you to investigate his belongings from his time at the palace when he was trying to discover a cure for the plague. The second time he breaks in, it is to return a key to the backroom of the shop, claiming he will no longer need it. Every interaction leaves an impression of charisma and more questions than answers, as well as the slight angst of an emo theater kid. He’s 6’4, a Pisces, and favors wolfsbane.

Muriel the Hermit            

At 6’10, this giant of a man is the fourth character you meet through an encounter outside your shop as you’re on your way to answer Nadia’s summons. He gives you a cryptic warning about the palace before vanishing. You quickly forget him the moment he is lost from your line of sight. When you return to the shop, there is a satchel of myrrh on your doorstep, to which you later recognize the scent from a hulking form in the town square. You follow him and receive another mysterious warning, forgetting him as soon as he disappears once again. Little remains known about him unless you play through his route. He’s a Virgo with a love for forget-me-nots.

Portia the Head Servant

You meet Portia the next morning on your way to Nadia’s palace and she takes it upon herself to guide you there, coming across as energetic, talkative, and a bit of an airhead. While at the palace, there are many minor interactions between you and her since she is the Head Servant, notably her response to Nadia’s plan to hang Julian before the masquerade in which she drops what she is carrying, shattering it on the ground. When you go to check on the shop, Portia suddenly arrives in the middle of you questioning Julian after he had broken in. Shocked and teary-eyed, she embraces him and berates him before excusing herself and dragging him behind her when she realizes you’re still watching. She’s 5’1, an Aquarius, and loves sweet pea flowers.

Count Lucio of Vesuvia            

Straight from the prologue, we discover that Count Lucio has been dead for three years. Cause of death? Murder. And on his birthday of all days during an annual masquerade in his honor. Though there is minimal interaction, his presence is oppressive yet alluring, especially in what remains in his wing of the palace where you spot a one-armed, anthropomorphic phantom goat out of the corner of your eye. It closely resembles Count Lucio’s depiction in the Feast painting, which features an anthropomorphic goat with ruby red eyes, the same eyes you saw peering at you in the dark of the abandoned wing. He is 5’10, a Capricorn, favors white roses, and is frequently described as High-Class Trash by the developers.

Western Beauty Standards and its Influence on Representation

This otome-inspired game, without a doubt, was designed with the female gaze in mind.

Firstly, Nadia and Portia are perfect examples of women who don’t meet typical western beauty standards. Nadia is tall, brown, assertive, has strong facial features, and feels comfortable within her own skin. Within the views of toxic masculinity, her strength would be seen as unearned confidence and her beauty denied simply because of the color of her skin and her height. However, these masculine attributes of hers appeal even more to femininity even though they are not classic portrayals of womanhood. As for Portia, while she has more ideal characteristics according to the patriarchy (pale skin, petite, softer features, approachable personality), she also does not smoothly fit into the mold because she is curvy and has quite the mischievous and irrepressible personality.

Secondly, the ages of the love interests range from late twenties to early forties, the oldest among them being Nadia and Lucio. Obviously, they are attractive. That is their purpose, to be attractive so to entice readers into playing their routes. This also shows readers that being older than twenty-nine isn’t as ancient or unattractive as the media insists on portraying, with women in bathrobes and a glass of wine at hand and men with beer bellies and receding hairlines (though there is nothing wrong with that). If anything, Nadia is more regal and refined because of her age, and Lucio is… Lucio. Immature as ever. Depending on the route, he is either a self-centered nuisance who refuses to take responsibility for anything or the love of your life who goes through a redemption arc with your support.

Thirdly, the game’s depiction of gender and gender roles is unlike that of any other otome-esque game I have ever played. There’s Asra with him being canonically nonbinary and wearing skirts for formal occasions, and Lucio (with his love for high-heeled boots) and Nadia’s dynamic. Though their marriage is more of a business relationship, I think we can all tell who is the top between two.

I believe I’ve made my case.

And then there’s Julian during his love confession in his route.

Men in romance media, from games to books, are usually portrayed as the ones who take the lead in their relationships, with more influence and authority than their counterparts. In The Arcana, you’ll see our lovely men—Muriel, Julian, and Lucio—weak in the knees for the apprentice and sharing moments of softness and vulnerability. As for women, they’re usually depicted as the passive partner (though in recent years there has been an increase in stories where women are the aggressive ones while the men remain more passive). In Nadia’s route, she is persistent in her pursuit with the apprentice, showing them in gifts and sultry looks. In Portia’s route, she is flirty and loves to pull bold moves to see what the apprentice will do.

Discussion Questions

1. How much world-building would you deem necessary for a game with a short timeline?
2. How do beauty standards influence fictional love interests and representation/diversity?

Assassin’s Creed: Peace, Parkour, and… Murder? by Rey Cooper

Assassin’s Creed is a sprawling, multi-platform universe that follows the story of two battling factions and their fight that spans thousands of years. Those two factions, the Assassins and the Templars, include real-life, notable figures such as Leonardo de Vinci, Jack the Ripper, Cesare Borgia, Cleopatra, and Queen Victoria, as well as the numerous fictional protagonists. On top of the Assassins and Templars, there are also new god-like figures called Isu and multiple calamitous events within the world of Assassin’s Creed that affect the characters and their stories.

Some of the most iconic members of the Assassin Brotherhood. No, this isn’t all of them.

Assassin’s Creed is mostly a series of video games, with novels, a movie, and a developing TV show acting as accompaniments to the games’ main story. There are two ways to approach the timeline: by game release date and by in-game chronology. For the sake of clarity, I will be using the chronological timeline to better align it with our own history.

The world of Assassin’s Creed turns on two different hinges: the battle between the Assassins and the Templars as well as interference from the god-like Isu.

The two symbols of the Assassins and the Templars respectively.

The battle between the Assassins and the Templars started in 431 BCE, during the Peloponnesian War. While neither side had officially been established, proto-Templars and Assassins were operating while the war went on. The Templars, at this time, were called the Cult of Kosmos, and they were hoping to prolong the Peloponnesian War for their own gain by manipulating both of its sides. Their efforts were stopped by the first proto-Assassin: a superpowered misthios named Kassandra of Sparta. Kassandra’s “demigod” bloodline (she was descended from the Leonidas of Sparta, who was, in turn, descended from the Isu) was carried down to Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy XIII, and the Cult of Kosmos, in that time, reemerged and called itself the Order of the Ancients. Two new proto-Assassins, Bayek and Aya, were the ones to stop them, and in doing so, they created the Hidden Ones, the organization that would eventually become the iconic Assassin Brotherhood. From then on, the Assassins and the Templars took their fight worldwide, battling each other in the shadows of society for the next two thousand years.

Kassandra of Sparta in her iconic red outfit.

Bayek and Aya: husband and wife working to avenge their son’s death  at the hands of the Order of the Ancients.

Why are the Assassins and the Templars fighting each other, you may ask? The answer is this: they are two sides of the same coin, both fighting for world peace, and their fight comes from their differing opinions on how to achieve it. The Templars wish for world peace through complete control and subjugation of the world, while the Assassins wish for peace through freedom of choice. One of the most important parts about this fight is that neither side is technically “right.” As well as using immoral means to get what they want, both sides are fighting with absolutes that are overall not conducive to achieving their goal. What is needed in the world of Assassin’s Creed to achieve world peace is not absolute anarchy or complete totalitarianism, but rather a blend of both.

What exacerbates this fight? What’s kept it going for more than two thousand years? The Isu.The Isu are god-like figures that are also called “the ones who came before.” Their presence contributes to the canon of the gods that we now know, like Juno, Odin, Anubis, and Poseidon, among others. The Isu, during their time of power around 77,000 years ago, created objects called “Pieces of Eden” to use as mass subjugation devices against another one of their creations: humanity. But, through years of inter-racial breeding, so to speak, between humans and Isu, there began to be humans born that weren’t affected by the Pieces of Eden and their mind-controlling technology, and those humans eventually revolted against the Isu in a war called the Human-Isu War (such an original name). Such a revolt could be seen as the beginning of the Assassin and Templar ideologies: in this case, the resistant humans are the Assassins and the Isu are the Templars.

Two of the Isu: Aita (left) and Juno (center).

While the Human-Isu War went on, the Isu were unable to expect a massive solar flare hurtling towards Earth. Despite the scientific efforts of the Isu, they were too late, and the solar flare decimated most of the Isu and humans on Earth in an event called the Toba Catastrophe. After the Catastrophe, both humans and Isu began to rebuild, but the Isu never gained back the strength that they had before the war and thus dwindled away into myth and legend. The humans, however, used the Pieces of Eden to create their own societies, and the rest is history.

Not all humans are resistant to the power of the Pieces of Eden, so those who were in this transition period assumed the first positions of power. Over time, the Pieces of Eden were hidden away into vaults, citadels, and temples all over the world (and even on the moon!) through both human and the remaining Isu influence. In the present day, the Assassins and the Templars are fighting over those Pieces of Eden. The more Pieces of Eden a side has, the stronger they become and the easier it becomes to achieve their goal.

The Pieces of Eden are in the forms of Apples, Staves, Swords, and Shrouds, among others. All of them have their own powers and connections to one another.

In the modern day, the Assassins have been driven underground through multiple slaughters and genocides at the hands of the Templars, who built the company Abstergo and have ascended to become an international business empire. The Templars, through Abstergo, now control almost all facets of human existence, from entertainment mediums like the Animus to food supply and medicine production. They use their products to propagandize people’s perception of history: emphasizing the importance of order and telling the glory tales of the Templars while scrubbing away almost all Assassin influence. At the same time, the Assassins are nothing more than rats in the world’s gutters, hiding in the shadows to survive. However, both groups’ motives remain the same: gain as many Pieces of Eden as possible in order to create world peace. However, neither side’s methods are peaceful and their end goals are ultimately unconducive: using a black and white, good versus evil mentality does not work to wrangle the complex creatures that are humans.

There is so much left to be told in terms of information, as the canon of the Assassins and Templars spans thousands of years and has both fictional and real-life figures within it. Assassins took up posts in Renaissance Italy, Dark Age Scandinavia, Victorian England, Ming Dynasty China, and Colonial America, just to name a few. So many characters, both Assassin and Templar, were pivotal to creating the story and universe that is Assassin’s Creed. But at the end of the day, while some of them may have been hailed heroes of their time, their path to becoming so wasn’t without excessive violence and bloodshed. Maybe one day, the Assassins and Templars can unite in order to foster a common good for humanity and prepare themselves for the battle ahead.

An example of such togetherness above from the game Assassin’s Creed: Unity. They’ve done it once before; can they do it again?

Here are the two from Victorian England: the Frye twins, Jacob and Evie.

For their world, and ours, is so much bigger than this. It’s no longer just about the past, but also about a brighter, more peaceful, and safer future.

 

Discussion Questions:

1. How do certain views of history affect the outcomes of the future? How can viewpoints about both history and the future be changed through the omission or rewriting of key historical details?
2. To what extent can actions justify the means of accomplishing something? When is such a line crossed?
3. What are some groups or organizations in our society that mirror the Assassins and the Templars?

The Potterverse by Edlyn Escoto

The Harry Potter Universe, or Potterverse, as the fans refer to it, is a world much like our own, set in London (and Scotland) in the late 1900s. The world itself is set in our own world, except some people can perform magic, these people being Wizards and Witches. There are also other magical creatures, some of which have their own brands of magic but most of which are classified as “beasts” (meaning they cannot think for themselves – or so the Wizards say). They have established their own world inside the world that already exists, with their own government, their own healthcare system, and their own economy. Though the world was built mainly to house the main character, Harry James Potter, it expands further to showcase a world in which there is a deep longstanding history, including the classic good vs. evil wars long before Harry Potter arrives, and the main war of the stories begins.

The largest, most defining element of the Potterverse is the existence of magic. People born with magical powers can cast spells and fly on broomsticks and attend a school in the Scottish hills. But the magic has also been used for evil, and it is shown that the more “Dark Magic” that is used by a person, the darker they become. This is where the magic begins to take a more foreboding turn.

As I’m sure everyone is aware, the Harry Potter universe is, at its’ core plot, the age-old trope of good vs. evil. Unlike the way some books choose to portray the trope, there is a clear divide between good and evil characters (up until the later books but that’s for later). The world itself even has this unofficially established, especially in its’ main setting, Hogwarts. If you’re sorted into Slytherin, you’re destined to be evil, if you’re sorted into any of the other houses, you’re good.

This is where the aspect of magic comes into play.

The magic of this world is ingrained into every witch or wizard alive, and it is here that we find the underlying tensions of the world. The Wizarding World has, according to the history of the world, for the longest time been split between “good” magic and “dark” magic. Spells are even classified as such officially, and many are forbidden from being taught in magic schools due to the severity of their effects.

However, the story of the wizarding world is not a pure divide between good and evil. As the overarching story progresses, we begin to see an underlying truth in the different sides. Even though the evil characters clearly don’t have good reasons behind their actions, and the good ones do, there are plenty of characters who have done the wrong things, for the right reasons, and vice versa.

Take Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape from the Dark Side, for example

Both Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape were characters built to become antagonists for Harry to contend with. They both would even eventually take the Dark Mark and align themselves with Voldemort. However, as we discover later (Half Blood Prince for Draco, Deathly Hallows for Severus), they both had their own motives for siding with the villains.

Draco was attempting to save his mother’s life, as Voldemort had threatened to kill his family if he didn’t accept his task. He even saves Harry during The Deathly Hallows (and would have twice in the movie had the director not decided to cut that scene, the git).

Severus, meanwhile, chose the dark side because, after being outcasted for so long thanks to the efforts of James Potter, he wanted a chance to feel powerful and took it. Though he eventually does make multiple sacrifices for the sake of James’ child Harry. It is through this that we learn he always loved Harry and truly wished no harm to come to him, because he loved Harry’s mother, and knew she would want him protected.

It can be stated that though both Draco and Severus joined the side of “evil,” they were not inherently evil characters. More like morally gray characters, in my opinion.

If we take the word “magic” and replace it with something else, then we find a hidden value in the Potterverse that can be tied to our reality. It goes something like this:

Everyone has the ability to be good or evil. But the lines between them are not always so clear, and it is imperative that we recognize the good are not always good, nor the evil always evil. The world must be viewed in shades of gray.

Discussion questions:

Do you believe that good vs. evil should be a clear divide? Why or why not?

Is it possible for someone to be on the “wrong” side for the right reasons?

…Who has the better reason for siding with Voldemort? Draco or Severus?

ATLA: real life parallels and social issues + magic and a children’s cartoon by Alika Jimenez

Brief Overview:

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantasy world based on the 4 elements of fire, earth, water, and air– it’s a world of people with elemental powers (as well as plenty without), divided into 4 nations for each element. To unite the four nations, one person is bestowed with the power to master all four elements– the Avatar. Each Avatar is not physically immortal, but their souls are carried on into new vessels (reincarnated). The Avatar Cycle follows a pattern of the seasons, in the order that the very first Avatar Wan first learned the four elements when trying to bring balance between the spirit world and the mortal world: summer correlates to fire, autumn to air, winter to water, and spring to earth. When one Avatar dies, the next is born into the next nation.

The show follows the current Avatar Aang (from the air nation), who is found in the first episode by two siblings from the water nation, after being stuck in a block of ice for 100 years. He goes on a journey to master all four elements in order to truly become the Avatar, and to stop the Fire Lord from global takeover.

By starting off the series with a history that keeps being uncovered through each episode, the story builds upon itself quite easily and character alliances/conflicts can be created and understood quite easily. There are episodes covering the background on the creation of the Avatar and past avatar lives, as well as the events that took place in the one hundred years that Aang was frozen in an iceberg, which nurtures the basis of the conflict in the series. At the start of the series, the Avatar has been lost for 100 years– throughout the series we encounter varying reactions to the reappearance of the Avatar depending on what history the children were told by their nation– in the fire nation schools, children learn an entirely different version of history than the other nations, giving them reason to believe in their own cause for taking over other nations and defeating the Avatar, while others fear the Avatar’s power, or rejoice in his return. Different areas of each nation have their own loyalties, each new group of people we encounter has their own grudges and conflicts to resolve that can benefit or get in the way of Avatar Aang on his journey. The relationships characters have to their history and each other influence the events of the series immensely.

Some main features of the Avatar World:

• Spirit world that the avatars can cross into and exists parallel to the world of mortals. The barrier between the mortal and spirit world weakens at the solstices.
  

• Four different nations based on the four elemental bending powers people have– water, earth, fire, air.

• Each nation and their fighting style is loosely based on a different culture and martial art.
• Hybridized animal species that vary based on location/ecosystem
• Different government/ruling systems that relate to our world
• Most conflicts, especially in Legend of Korra, which occurs in the same world 70 years later, based on wars and conflicts in history. Many of the antagonist in legend of korra are just people who want a good thing in theory for society, but take it too far ie. Amon, who advocates for the non-bending people against the abuse of power by those with bending abilities, but who takes it too far with cruelty towards benders

• Geography and maps:
• This map follows the journey that Aang and his team go on while trying to save the world from the tyrannic Fire Nation Emperor. Another huge part of the series is Aang trying to master all four elements, as he starts off only knowing airbending, so his journey through each nation is vital to his elemental skill development.

• A fan-made map of the world.

Earth Nation:

• A large continent made up of several provinces, the most prominent of which being Ba Sing Se (the capital, incredibly diverse and populated with earthbenders)
• Philosophies: peace and coexistence, ‘there is no war in ba sing se’
• Nation pulls cultural/visual inspiration from: China
• Government: confederate monarchy
• Fighting style based on: southern chinese hung ga (firm, solid stances)
• Geographic landmarks/habitats:
• The Great Divide is the largest canyon in the avatar world, in a rocky arid region, home to canyon crawlers.

• Si Wong Desert (largest, most arid desert), home to buzzard wasps and sand sharks.

• Foggy Swamp: high biodiversity, wet climate; catgator. Powerful kingdom with barriers that are difficult to cross.

Fire Nation:

• A collection of volcanic islands with the capital centering in the middle of a volcanic crater.

• Strongest power and instigator of the Hundred Years War, aiming to create a global empire and dominate the other 3 nations while the avatar had disappeared (conveniently, for 100 years, stuck in an iceberg). Fire Lord Sozin massacred the entirety of the Air Nomads excluding Aang, who had run away out of fear of his responsibilities of becoming the Avatar.
• Philosophies: respect, honor, dignity
• Nation pulls cultural/visual inspiration from: Japan
• Government: absolute monarchy under the Fire Lord
• Fighting style based on:  northern shaolin style (breathing, arm and leg powerful offense)
• Geographic landmarks/habitats:
• volcanic islands

• temperate climate contributes to high biodiversity
• Naval power and maritime trade is very strong due to the nation being strung along islands, fertile soil = local agriculture, volcano = power source.

Water Nation:

• Focused on the northern and southern parts of the globe, two separate tribes of the water nation that are fairly isolated from other nations. During the war, the men left the southern tribe to fight, and they were raided by the Fire Nation.
• Philosophies: Connection to the moon, waterbending grows powerful at night and full moon + harmony is important (yin/yang fish)
• Nation pulls cultural/visual inspiration from: Inuit/Alaskan natives
• Government: two chiefdoms for north and south pole under tribal system
• Fighting style based on: waterbending = tai chi (fluid movements and energy control)

• Geographic landmarks/habitats:
• the north/south poles
• low amount of animal species due to cold climate, but there are polar bear dogs !

• people make a living off of fishing, and are mostly isolated from interactions with other kingdoms

Air Nation:

• At the time of the ATLA series, the air nomads are no longer alive as they were wiped out by fire nation during the Air Nomad Genocide. There are four temples of the air nation, each located in a different cardinal direction of the world.
• Nation pulls cultural/visual inspiration from: buddhist tibetan monks.
• Philosophies: peace, that all life is sacred
• Government: theocracy led by four councils of monks/nuns
• Fighting style based on: airbending = baguazhang (agility, circular movement and avoidance)
• Geographic landmarks/habitats:

• Northern Air Temple housed only male monks and was located on a snow capped mountain top. It was the site of the Air Nomad genocide.
• Eastern Air Temple housed only female airbenders, located on isolated mountaintops.
• Southern Air Temple also housed only male airbenders, and was where the Avatar Aang grew up.
• Western Air Temple was the counterpart of the East, and it also only had female airbenders, and instead of being built on a mountain top, was built in several spired structures on the bottom of a cliff, making it much harder to locate and enter.

Real world elements and values of ATLA:

Some of the many issues tackled in Avatar: The Last Airbender and its succeeding show Legend of Korra include: war, genocide, imperialism, colonialism and totalitarianism, gender discrimination and female empowerment, marginalization and oppression, as well as the philosophical questions surrounding fate, destiny and free will. It’s like a fun-sized real world with elemental powers and an elemental master.

There’s also a heavily focused on redemption arc of one of the initial antagonists who started out hunting the Avatar. He was exiled and hurt by his father, the Fire Lord, and over the series he starts growing with the help of his Uncle Iroh and other hardships, learning that his value is not dependent on his father’s opinion on him, and that he can make his own life outside of what he’s been told. In addition to adolescent growth and highkey abusive relationship unpacking, there’s also a lot of diversity in the cast of characters due to the diversity of the world.

There are multiple representations of marginalized groups and addresses their perceptions by the public in an artful way to teach children empathy and that anybody has potential to be great– with main characters like Toph, a blind 10 year old earthbending girl that Aang begs to be his earthbending master,and Katara, who is told she can’t learn how to waterbend for combat purposes, because in the northern water tribe, combat waterbending lessons were preserved for men, while women were supposed to learn healing properties of waterbending.

Katara’s brother, Sokka, starts the series out as a stereotypical sexist jerk/class clown character, largely due to being the only male figure left in the village after all the men left for the Hundred Years War, feeling like he had to take care of his older sister and defend his village, despite being a child without much defensive capability. That hypermasculine compensation for being the only guy dissipates as he encounters the Earth Nation Kyoshi Warriors on his journey with Aang and is set straight on their incredible fighting ability, far above his. Throughout his adventures with the Avatar, his world view widens quite a bit, and, as he is the only member of the avatar team without a bending ability and shows his insecurity about this throughout the show, experiences a character arc where he learns his own values as a strategist, and develops his own combat skills with a sword.

Avatar: The Last Airbender manages to tackle realistic challenges of everyday life and even larger ones enveloping our real world– imperial conquest, the value of life, loss, discrimination, etc.– and carries it out in a way that children (and adults) can learn morals and lessons from the character’s physical and developmental journeys. I think there is incredible value and skill in pulling off a show with that amount of depth and keeping it timelessly entertaining to children as well as utilizing nostalgia to appeal to people who watched it in their youth.

Discussion questions?

How does the location of each nation in relation to each other, and their climates/landmarks show potential relationships between the nations?

How do real life social issues get resolved/explored with magical elements in a child-focused show?

How would the creation of this magical world for children have parallels to the real world and teach morals/lessons to children watching?

Where might geography affect the Fire Nation’s goal of taking over the world, or the Avatar’s travel throughout it?

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird: History’s Permanence and its Effect On Our Lives by Heather Smith

(SPOILER WARNING for The Two Lives of Lydia Bird! Obviously, I will be talking about the plot, setting, and characters, in lots of detail. So if you are interested in reading this story, I’d suggest perhaps zoning out when I start to go in-detail on the plot? However, I do believe that knowing the plot of this story pre-reading wouldn’t diminish your enjoyment of it. The best part is in watching Lydia go through every stage of her journey.)

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, by Josie Silver, makes its home in an unnamed UK small town, where everybody knows everybody, and everybody is holding their breath to see what will happen after golden boy Freddie Hunter dies in a car accident, leaving his fiancé, Lydia, alone. Obviously, Lydia’s not doing well, especially given that the day Freddie died was her birthday. She hasn’t slept properly in months, and her sister, Elle, is extremely worried; at Elle’s urging, she receives a prescription for a new sleeping pill. What harm could it do?

So she takes them. But when she does, Lydia wakes up in another world, one mirroring her own almost exactly, except here, Freddie is alive. It’s as if he never left. In this world, Lydia is planning for her wedding rather than always thinking about his funeral. She begins to split her time between this ‘asleep’ world and the real, ‘awake’ world.

The closest depiction of Lydia’s small town that I could find from Google Images.

Also the closest depiction of something from Google Images, but this time it’s Lydia’s apartment bedroom.

The obvious defining trait of these dual worlds of this novel is history, the conflicting history between Lydia’s two lives that she is left to fill in the gaps for. What makes (and breaks) these ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’ worlds are the contrasting events that occur in each; a ripple effect from their differences in Freddie’s fate. For example, one day in the ‘asleep’ world, Lydia wakes up to see that she and Freddie are on their way to the gym— something they had never done in her world, that apparently here, according to the people around her, they do all the time. We all know from every time travel show ever that messing with history is generally not a good idea. But Two Lives’ worldbuilding begs the question of what happens when someone is living through two different versions of history at the same time? Grief is an emotion that has overwhelmed most everyone in their life at some point or another, and when constructing a world that fulfills a common fantasy felt by those grieving (the ‘what if they never died’ fantasy), Silvers forces her readers to dissect the fallout that actually living that daydream would cause.

Living a dual life always comes with consequences, but literally, physically living a different life in a different world? That takes its toll. As time goes on, Lydia begins to see how her ‘asleep’ and ‘awake’ world are diverging. The company that Freddie is managing in her asleep world, goes out of business in real life. The weather is drastically different—when one is sunny, the other is pouring. Even her physical body starts to change when she goes to the asleep world (due to the previously mentioned gym-going). The disparity between Lydia’s two lives starts out as simple, the only change being that Freddie is dead here, and alive there. But the simplicity of this one worldbuilding element absolutely defines everything that occurs in the novel.

By creating a world with two options for her heroine to live in, both defined by what they have or haven’t lost, Josie Silvers showcases the harmful paralysis that loss can cause in someone’s life. Grief and pain is inevitable, and by trying to avoid it one only hurts themselves and those around them. Lydia’s predicament makes it so she can’t truly live in either ‘asleep’ or ‘awake’ world. Something’s got to give, and her desire to continue living in a world with Freddie causes her to ignore the friends and family still around in her reality. She distances herself, becomes a shell of the person she once was, and becomes almost completely isolated. She no longer has any connection to her ‘awake’, real, world. But in the other world, it becomes increasingly clear that Lydia does not belong. She can’t keep up with all of the tiny differences that have occured as an effect of Freddie’s being alive. She has to let go.

Clinging on to fantasies is a common coping mechanism, especially when a person is faced with such a traumatic event like a major death. In making a world where this fantasy can come true, Silvers breaks down the idea that “everything would be okay if that one thing had just not happened.” Life is permanent, and in order to enjoy life, we must understand that. In sum, we get more than one happy ending, in the words of Lydia by the end of the novel.

Discussion questions:

1. How can establishing settings with conflicting histories impact a story? How can these different histories impact our perception of a character?
2. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is set in a world just like our own, but with a few tweaks. When writing for more realistic worlds, how can we still apply aspects of worldbuilding in unique ways?