tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524743884416328260.post2317744265590843242..comments2024-03-29T02:26:39.005-07:00Comments on ONCE UPON A BLOG: Breaking Casting News: OUAT's The Shadow (spoiler warning)Gypsy Thorntonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05376146830985305127noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524743884416328260.post-43230070580129069772013-10-21T15:29:24.890-07:002013-10-21T15:29:24.890-07:00There are two interesting corollaries to your post...There are two interesting corollaries to your post, of which only one has to do with fantasy. The first, which doesn't, is Karl Schroeder's award-winning novel _Ventus_, which he later released as a free-download textfile on his website. In that novel, the entire galaxy is run by something called the Archipelago, which is so powerful that it literally cannot be overthrown, and therefore takes a largely hands-off attitude to people's affairs as long as people keep it informed and ask its permission to do things. The Archipelago is very much a Shadow as you describe it, but a benign Shadow that does a good job of being a living, mortal God. The second reference, as you might have guessed, is to Sauron from _Lord of the Rings_, who is the quintessential and archetypal fantasy Shadow. Sauron is malevolent the way most Shadows have been perceived throughout our species' history and prehistory with the struggle of those who are in someone else's power to attain freedom and self-determination. Schroeder's perspective seems to be that we have exited that long epoch in our species' growth and are ready to start perceiving those who have power over us as benevolent--which is something Christianity has advocated for two millennia and its critics have rejected on the grounds that the real God can only be a mortal man or woman just like us.Mickey Kocichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00958730256967198257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3524743884416328260.post-66230152353737014982013-10-19T02:41:20.948-07:002013-10-19T02:41:20.948-07:00Hi. Russian doll-сollectors have found parallels b...Hi. Russian doll-сollectors have found parallels between OUaT and EAH. What do you think about that?<br />http://sumerla.livejournal.com/82662.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com