Pre-Send: Got an archetype in your mind? Wanna propose an archetype for debate? For the love of self, please do so!
Heh, i wonder if someone will get about what the title is talking about, lol... Still, i used to have a sweet tooth, and i'm having trouble with dealing with my desire for sweets, but lawd, sweet cookies are screwing me up worst than a hangover... Oh wait, that's a coffee overdose now... Oh well, talk about wild days... But wait, is this thread in the right forum?
I've been thinking a lot about Jungian psychology and what i did name the 3+0PT, or the 3 Personalities Theory + null, which refers to the non-self... In a way, it's related to Freudian analysis, but not exactly, given that Freud, or at least his society, could be very well summed by his well-known quote about cigars... But i digress all the time, so let me carry on...
I've been trying to approach symbology and the study of archetypes, as it presents itself both in anime, books and western visual media... I'm somewhat fascinated by symbols, and i love studying them... So let's try approaching and proposing a topic (i'll probably get a thread index going on in this first post, presuming the thread goes anywhere, but let's see what happens)...
Thread Index
- Alice
1) Alice
Nothing like a good swim through the Alice archetype/symbol.
As far as it interests me, Alice showed up first in the Lewis Carrol's (a pen name, afaik) book Alice in Wonderland, which uh, doesn't seem to be truly wonderful at all. I think i should expressively point out that it doesn't seem as though the story begun there...
Given my own origin, in nasuverse's terms (or so i assume), and the fact that i just love how Izanami and Izanagi's story matches the Orpheus/Euridice myth, and how even that myth seems to relate a lot to Cain and Abel and even Adam and Eve, i tend to presume that the myth of Alice wasn't exactly born within those books, so should anyone possess some background info on the persona, please, share it with the thread. :-)
Once that's said, Alice does seem to be going through a journey through the mind's underworld, given that she's forced to face an evil queen (the current dominant Female archetype)... Although i myself have never read the book. What i do know about it is that Alice follows a white rabbit to an underground cave, which might be a reference to the underworld/the collective subconscious, or even a step into being washed into the collective subconscious/beri'ah and assimilating it into her own level of yetzirah/personal unconscious... But then again, i dunno.
The rabbit itself becomes a reference, in anime, to Laplace (another reference, but a bit too off-topic), or more precisely, Laplace's Demon, in Rozen Maiden... A creature responsible for taking Jun (wait is Jung a reference to Arjuna? But that's real life, omfg!) to a ride through hell in the hands of Shinku (i believe Shinku refers to emptiness, but i haven't checked that out) through something like a rather harsh ride through a metaphorical hell...
Rozen Maiden also provides another reference to Alice, the so-called Alice Game... Which seems to be a reference that each of the dolls are archetypes themselves, Kanaria being childishly logic, Hina-Ichigo being pure and innocent (though rather extreme when angry), and Shinku being able to turn back time... The fact would be that the archetypes often times struggle between themselves to take over a body, acting through the body and having the body turn into something of an avatar... Which would, in my opinion, define the Alice Game...
Another modern reference to Alice may be found in Matrix, which itself is nearly erupting with mythological and archetypical references, like the underground trainmain who would be a near reference to Charon and the Styx, as well as getting stuck between worlds, the child in the end, Eris and her ever-present Apple of Discord taking care of a child that seemed to be an upcoming reference to Persephone and Hades, and plenty of others... Although the main points would be that the main character dared to follow the white rabbit, and for taking over a given role, had an ending rather predicted in all tale predictions... All things go down the drain sometimes, and so did Neo... Although Neo sorta seemed to be an avatar of Nyx and Mr. Smith turned out to be Indra in a rather naruto-like way, but i digress...
Finally, we arrive at NASUVERSE... And i never managed to play a lot of Mahoyo, though i do know that Alice is present both in it and in Fate/EXTRA, in a rather endearing role of a girl turned into a ghost... I haven't played /EXTRA myself, although i must admit that the Last Encore, especially with its Rose references, turned out to be a loving gift from a loving distant family, in my case...
Ironically i haven't chewed a lot about the Alice character and Nursery Rhyme in Last Encore, especially i couldn't help but fall in love with Nero's determination and passion... But at least in Mahoyo, Alice is somewhat presented as a Krishna-archetype of sorts, the figure in the middle, where the only connection between past and present is presented through the vaccuum and stability provided by Vishnu, when past (Brahma) and future (Shiva) are somewhat too busy trading offenses between themselves...
So Alice, at least in Mahoyo, takes a rather essential role, the empty middle, trying to live between two stages and neither fitting in either of them... But given that i never played Mahoyo (master, i might try helping with it, but watashino nihongo is gaijin-grade, sumimasen [ok, otaku-grade at best])... Which does remind of the Hayagriva guest appearance in DDS, but that's a rather big digression...
So, i believe that's all i know about Alice... And all i'm put for writing right now. Would someone please present some other tips on how to gaze further into the black bread of the sandwich? I know i'm home when i visit Izanami, but still, transfer students will always be transfer students, so any information exchange is welcome. Let's fill this thread together!
- Sister Īr.