10 Answers2025-12-24
I think a lot of people focus on the romance of this story. Instead, it is a very simple exploration of choice and consequence. The mermaid made a very cold and hard bargain with the witch – get the prince to fall in love with her and marry her, or die on the day another woman marries him. The witch never lied. So, the ending of the story is simply the fulfillment of the bargain that the mermaid made with the witch. It is a very grim, but very fair story. The ‘magic’ of the story is not in it finding some way around the terms of the bargain. Instead, it is in showing us how the mermaid deals with the consequences of her actions. She doesn’t rage against the world. She doesn’t beg for mercy. Instead, she accepts her circumstances and makes the one choice available to her in the circumstances that she has created for herself. The ending is therefore very respectful of the ‘rules’ of the world that has been created for the story. And it is very powerful as a result. It feels earned, not random.
8 Answers2026-04-08
This idea is kind of fascinating to me. I think it’s because so many cultures have created tragic, powerful female characters who rebel against divine authority. Lilith, of course, but also Morrigan from the Dragon Age games and Raven from the Teen Titans, for example. We don’t have a long enough historical list of these kind of figures, so we keep making new ones in games, books and anime.
This new set of meanings is being written in video games right now. In Bayonetta, the main character is a witch who contracts with a group of infernal demons. Within the lore of Bayonetta, there is much play with angelic and feminine/demonic power. The games of the Shin Megami Tensei series are another great example of this. This series contains a massive cast of demons and deities from every culture and mythology, most of whom are gender-bending or else some re-imagining of a mythological figure.
8 Answers2026-03-06
Talking about the ending of this book without giving away major plot points is kind of like trying to describe water without getting wet. The climax of the book centers around a crucial choice the main character makes regarding her identity and her power. As for the ‘mermaid’ part of the title American Mermaid, it becomes a real, terrifying thing in the story. The way the story resolves is very bitter but also, in its own strange way, hopeful. The book is definitely a subversion of the typical ‘fantasy coming-of-age’ story and it grounds the consequences of the main character’s actions in very real, very psychological space. I felt exhausted but satisfied at the end of the book. It didn’t end in a nice, tied up bow. In fact, the ending is very much not a happy-ever-after where the main character can just go back to her normal life. Instead, the book is more interested in asking the question of what normal would even look like for someone who is fundamentally and magically different from everyone else.
3 Answers2026-05-04
In mythology double eclipses are treated as a rather anomalous circumstance and are described in magnificent terms. It is the Inca’s conviction that solar eclipses are the manifestation of the sun god’s anger and that, consequently, a double eclipse would require double sacrifices. The Hindu mythology describes the circumstances of Rahu’s beheading and his subsequenttrackings down of the Sun and the Moon. A double eclipse must be his revenge.
A double eclipse has always been a great way for stories to describe beginnings and ends. Whether or not real double eclipses actually occur, they make a fine nature made Cliffhanger.
11 Answers2026-04-28
Music history has always fascinated me, especially when it comes to the personal lives of iconic artists. Tears for Fears, the duo behind hits like 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World,' have never publicly identified as gay. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have been pretty private about their personal lives, focusing more on their music and collaborations. While rumors swirl around many celebrities, neither has addressed sexuality directly in interviews I've read. Their lyrics often explore emotional depth, which might lead to speculation, but that's just artistic expression. Personally, I appreciate how they let the music speak for itself—it feels refreshing in an era where every detail gets dissected.
That said, their fanbase spans all identities, and their openness about mental health in songs like 'Mad World' resonates deeply. Whether or not their personal lives align with certain narratives feels irrelevant when their art connects so universally. At the end of the day, I’m just glad their music exists—it’s timeless.
1 Answers2026-07-06
The Basilisk is a monster which instills fear when one only hears of it. In mythology the Basilisk is known as the king of serpents. It does not kill its victims, it destroys them completely in the worst way possible. The majority of myths describe the Basilisk as being killed by its own deadly gaze. The victim is instantly killed when the Basilisk looks at them. This is similar to Medusa and her ability to turn people to stone, but instead of turning them to stone the Basilisk kills them instantly. There are also many myths that describe the reflection of the Basilisk to be fatal as well.
Its breath is apparently made of pure venom, and its presence is deadly. Legend has it that when the basilisk was in the wilderness, plants would wither and die, birds in flight would fall from the sky, and water would turn to poison where the creature traversed. I imagine a dark, cavernous space. You smell something foul. And then, before you hit the ground, you’re foaming at the mouth.
The myths surrounding it are over-the-top as if the ancients were competing to write the most unstoppable creature in all of mythology. No weaknesses, no mercy. It’s a creature you could read about in a dark fantasy novel and think the author had reached new depths of creativity and terror. The myths are that old and that terrifying.
5 Answers2026-05-03
I notice that many multi-headed creatures are found in threshold situations. Cerberus is found at the entrance to the underworld, while the Hydra is found in a swamp. In both cases, the extra heads of the creature may symbolize the chaos of the threshold between two states of existence: life and death, or order and chaos. That this kind of duality is present in these myths is what makes them stay with me.
10 Answers2025-09-01
Most of us interpret Charon in a pretty similar way. However, there are many scholars who believe he was actually an older, chthonic deity who was later demoted to the role of ferryman in later Greek myth. The name Charon and some very old fragments hint at this older character. Even the Greeks who first told the myths of old probably misinterpreted the original earth god of the threshold and Charon was merely a symbol of a function that was carried out by the god. Later cultures then simplified Charon’s role even further. So in reality our modern interpretation of Charon is three steps removed from the original power of the god. That in itself layers meaning.
6 Answers2025-09-03
How much do you care about historical accuracy in your novels? For some readers, Paula Marshall’s meticulous attention to 18th-century Hebridean life in ‘The Selkie’s Secret’ is almost as compelling as the romance itself. Pages and pages of descriptions of Hebridean life, peat-cutting, knitting patterns. I’m in the ‘it’s lovely’ camp, because it makes the magical bit of the novel so much more believable. When the selkie arrives, he or she arrives in a solidly-realised world of hard work and scraped-togetherness. Which makes the romance between, say, a practical widow and a mysterious stranger all the more compelling as they build a life together in a harsh climate. It’s not just about having feelings for someone.
8 Answers2026-06-21
It’s the sound of desperation locked into music. Even if we don’t know the specific myth that was used as reference for this song, we can feel the circular structure of it. The main riff repeats and goes back to the start, and the chorus rises and spins in a circular motion. The feeling is that of being physically locked into the music. The lyrics bargain with fate and with death. If one is granted just one more chance to do something, one will do it right the next time. This is Subaru’s deal. The feeling of being so close to having reached one’s goal, yet having to start over from the very beginning is the perfect theme for stories about insisting in the face of impossible odds.