Canon Babble Essay
Mar. 6th, 2011 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
royallyshaftedOkay! This post is here for me to roll around in Star Driver theories.
I like Star Driver! I do! I watch it as soon as I can get it every week. But it drives me crazy. It has some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in an anime. I don't care about a good 60% of what happens. Every time there is another useless cybody battle where Takuto in trouble for all of 2.5 seconds I want to beat my face with a brick. All of the characters who we spent like eight episodes giving stories to are apparently inconsequential to the overall arc of the plot, so while I enjoy Watanabe-san and Benio and etc individually, I don't get what the hell the point was! And while I am SUPER INTERESTED in a LOT OF THINGS Star Driver is hell bent on not answering any of my questions until I imagine the last five minutes of the last episode.
THEN AGAIN this is the guy who wrote Utena, so I may not ever get answers. Sugata may just turn into a motorcycle and Wako will ride him into the sunset and Takuto will explode into blood red sakura petals and THAT WILL BE THE END.
IDK
But!! I also know that one thing Utena-dude has a major boner for is overly symbolic symbolism. So far there have been two major points of symbolism in Star Driver! The first is Sakana-chan's story, which she tells to Head in the first eight episodes of the series. While Head acts mostly impartial in hearing it, it does get a reaction a few times: First when it turns out the Emperor was an immortal looking to die, and secondly when Sakana-chan reveals the unsatisfying ending of 'Sam killed his girlfriend and it was all for nothing'. There may be more I haven't actually rewatched all of it.
The second thing is the play in the most recent episode, which is overall much more direct in the story telling and easier to place. It's the story of Samekh's first driver. But I will get to that in a sec. Below is Sakana-chan's story:
"So the boy fell in love.
He fiercely and passionately fell in love with the girl he met on the shore."
"It was... on the fish planet."
"The boy was a skilled fisherman and his name was... is Sam all right?"
"The boy named Sam dreamed that he and the girl he met got on a boat and sailed away into the shining galaxy."
"But did Sam love the girl he was with or the brilliant galaxy around him?"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"There was only one ship that could sail from the fish planet out into the galaxy. That ship belonged to a king."
(Head) "A king's ship... a good ship like that isn't just going to fall into your hands."
"Right. But one day, the king issued a proclamation."
"Whoever defeated the Squid Emperor and brought back his blue blood would have any wish granted."
"You see, on the fish planet, there was a Squid Emperor who ravaged the land as he pleased every night."
(Head) "It's not tasty at all..."
"The boy, Sam, resolved himself to defeat the Squid Emperor and get the ship that could sail into the galaxy."
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"Take the chance!" thought the girl.
"You have to beat the Squid Emperor and get the boat that can sail into the galaxy!"
Sam took up his spear and began practicing with it, training for the day he would do battle with the Squid Emperor.
Yah! Yah! Hyah!
(Head) Good. It would be boring if he won easily.
And so the name of Sam, the Squid-Piercer, began to spread throughout the kingdom.
(Head) Sam the Squid-Piercer. I like it.
So the girl waited in her cottage by the seaside for Sam to return.
(Head) What? They didn't go together?
Of course not! They were a boy and a girl in their prime!
(Head)I guess the fish planet kept turning, huh.
And also, the two had a secret.
(Head) What secret did Sam the Squid-Piercer and his girl have?
They ate the squid. On the fish planet, squid are the servants of evil. It was forbidden for their flesh to pass your lips, but still, the two ate together.
(Head) I guess he wanted to be Sam the Squid-Eater too.
They shared that dark secret and their bond grew even deeper. And so the adventure of life goes on.
"If you want something, don't falter!" said the girl.
"They had learned who the Squid Emperor was. But in the previous year, a huge storm had risen and the waters had become dangerous. Sam the Squid-Piercer faltered."
"So the girl berated Sam."
(Head) "Yeah. If you really want something, you can't be afraid to take risks."
(Head) "That girl got it right."
"And that's when Sam the Squid-Piercer left the girl and the cottage, and went out into the wild and dangerous sea."
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"They began to fight. In the dark, wild night sea. Sam fights on with his spear."
"And in a fierce battle that cannot be described in words, Sam slew the Squid Emperor and took his blue blood."
(Head) "Damn… No details on the battle scene, huh?"
"From in its bottle, the Squid Emperor's blue blood sparkled and lit up the dark night sea."
(Head) "Sounds like legendary stuff."
"Sam took the blue blood and went back to the king."
" 'My King! I have brought the blood as promised. Here it is!' "
"The King took the bottle and suddenly drank the blue blood."
"That blood was the one potion that could remove the King's magical immortality and end his eternal life."
" 'Thank you, Sam. Now I can finally sleep and never awaken."
(Head) "That was certainly a twist."
"This juice isn't very good."
(Head) "So, what happened to Sam?"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
(Head) "Right at the good part...
"The King offered him his throne. From the beginning, the King had planned to give it to the one who brought him the curse-breaking blue blood."
"But, Sam refused it."
'My King, all I ask of you is your galactic ship.'
'So that I may sail it into the dazzling world of the galaxy.'
'I have no desire for your throne! I have no want for your country!'
(Head) "How… interesting."
(Head) "This is why your stories keep me going, fish girl."
"…And so, the King said,"
'Very well, young man. I did promise to give you anything you desired. I have no intention of breaking my word.'
'I shall give you that galactic ship.'
'But, young man… Sam the Squid Piercer, heed well these words,'
'To make the ship move, you must fill the engine with every last drop of your beloved girl's red blood.'
'Yes, you must kill the girl you love.'
'It won't move if you don't.'
'Now, take it. It belongs to you.'
(Head) "This candy is sweet…"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
Sam killed the girl.
To sail into the shining galaxy, he offered her red blood to the ship's engine.
In the end, what Sam truly loved was not the girl,
but his longing for the world out in the galaxy.
The girl he loved had never been more than a flower adorning his journey.
Sam got on the ship and sailed out into the galaxy.
But soon, Sam realized...
Though he was in the galaxy he had dreamt of, all those worlds were different from the fish planet of his birth.
The fish planet was but one world in the vast galaxy.
The galaxy was not some far off world.
Sam had been living in its brilliance all along."
Why did he kill the girl?
(Head) Is that all?
(Head) Is that really the end of the story?
(Head) Fine. I'm done with your story.
(Head) Get out.
The thing about Sam vs the Squid Emperor is that we don't know who Sam is. The initial assumption is that it is must be Takuto, but later it seems more like he makes the choices Head would have. Head is surprised by the King's immortality, and later we find out that Head himself has stopped aging, but he gets cranky about the story's end and we also find out that uuh. Head is super the type to fall in love with a girl and promise to do anything to be with her and then get distracted by something shiny and sacrifice her to get to said shiny thing only to find out it wasn't worthwhile at all. WHOOPS.
I think ultimately Sam is probably Head, 'the girl' could be Sora or Sakana-chan or both. We don't know how Sora died, but I doubt Head literally sacrificed her blood. But he has lost two girls he loved now to his ambition. Regardless, I don't think he can be the Emperor, immortality or no, because 'finding a way to die' does not appear to be Head's ambition at all.
Now, the last episode was a play written by Sarina with Takuto, Wako and Sugata playing respective appropriate parts. I am not going to transcribe everything, but here is basically what happens:
There was a young girl named Kreis who, upon her birth, was cursed to be invisible to everyone. However one day she met a man named Columner who fell instantly in love with her. Though he could not touch her, he was content to see her smile every day, and they lived together happily.
One day, Columner was approached by a witch named Ayin. Ayin seduced him with a red gem that would allow him to touch Kreis, all Columner had to do was go find a ship and sail it.
Columner did as asked, but upon sailing the ship found it could fly anywhere and had great power. But flying was forbidden on the world, because the Queen felt that she has to be the highest in the land. This world (which is apparently a fish world) was ruled by her and in order to be able to do whatever he wished, Columner killed the Queen and became King.
But Ayin showed up to collect her ship, but by then Columner no longer cared about Kreis and would not give the ship up. He used the ship to resist her power and killed her. However, by this point Columner and the ship were one. He was both as powerful and as immortal as it. He ruled the fish world as a king, but disappeared and was never seen again.
In time, the ship was locked away since no one could destroy it. And even until this day, Columner and the ship live on.
Meanwhile, Sarina introduces herself as a member of the race of 'Entropeople'. They are people who remain neutral on the subjects of ships and their drivers, and cannot help or interfere and do not judge. Sarina does this with lines that are not from the play, so it is basically her telling Takuto that she is a nonhuman here to tell Takuto the story of the ship, but that she can't do anything else from him.
After that, Mark tells her that he lives only for Kreis, and will defeat the King of the Fish world, and kisses Kreis, and the play ends.
This is obviously the origin story of Samekh, and perhaps the first Sugata. 'Columner' is of course the same reference that saturates all of Sugata's symbolism. 'Samekh' is a phonecian symbol which has meanings for 'support' and strongly resembles the Egyptian symbol of 'djed' which is a pillar and represents stability. Quoting wiki here: "During the Renewal Festival, the djed would be ceremonially raised as a phallic symbol symbolizing the "potency and duration of the pharaoh's rule".
So yes, king and pillar symbolism abooounds.
When the ship is mentioned in the play we see a gigantic cybody standing over some dinosaurs, and when Columner sailing the ship is mentioned, we see a massive King's Pillar go off. Whiiich makes me wonder if they aren't saying that Samekh is responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs...
Later, when Ayin the witch dies, we see a massive cybody hand crushing Ayingott, the cybody which Marino used but had to be repair because for some reason it was already broken.
Finally, Sarina explains that she is a member of a race of entropeople which can't be directly involved in the matter of cybodies, because they don't use magic. Neither Wako or Sugata seem shocked by this reveal or by her going off her lines, so it's probably they already knew and perhaps people with revealed marks like the maidens and the Shindou family have always have connections with the entropeople. Sarina also says that Takuto shines with the same light as Columner. It could be that Sugata is not the one destined to use Samekh, despite his birth and being the first Shindou to be able to repeatedly use the King's Pillar.
So, I think what we have between the two stories is one prediction and one history lesson. Sakana-chan was a maiden, and all maidens seem to have some unique attributes. It's possible she knew Samekh's past and made her story to fit, or that she knew it for other reasons. Sakana-chan's story follows Samekh's origin story loosely, in the sense that a king/queen was killed and a girl was lost and a ship became a sort of prison. It is also possible that this is the story of how Head's heart got trapped in Zero Time, since he lost Sora and somehow became ageless. Or it could have been Sakana-chan's way of saying that he was giving her up for his power but was going to find that it wasn't what he wanted afterall.
I'm still unsure about the purpose of the Squid Emperor. If Squid People = Entropeople I......still dk. I get that Columner can only die by drinking the blood of the Squid King, if the Entropeople are really antimagic maybe that means that the ruler of the Entropeople has the secret for actually killing him.
Finally! Is Sugata Columner? He is the Driver of Samekh, and each member of the Shindou family is named Sugata. A reincarnation? Sugata also holds the general properties of being the type to get fixated on power over love (though I maintain that he is doing that for Wako more than himself).
I don't know. Reincarnation seems possible. Sugata was actually born with his mark rather than having it passed to him. Also all Sugata's seem to have a similar fate of ultimately comaing.
But it could be that Samekh's mark passed into the Shindou family for other reasons and when he apprivoises he is apprivoising with Columner as much as Samekh. This also has me wondering if Sugata didn't get an info dump like Wako's when he apprivoised. It would explain his mood upon waking up. I am probably going to lock out his two memories post apprivoising until the series is over so I am sure there was nothing else going on there.
Anyway. Whee my canon which I love and also want to stab repeatedly \o/ FOUR EPS TO GO. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED ABOUT A CANON ENDING
I like Star Driver! I do! I watch it as soon as I can get it every week. But it drives me crazy. It has some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in an anime. I don't care about a good 60% of what happens. Every time there is another useless cybody battle where Takuto in trouble for all of 2.5 seconds I want to beat my face with a brick. All of the characters who we spent like eight episodes giving stories to are apparently inconsequential to the overall arc of the plot, so while I enjoy Watanabe-san and Benio and etc individually, I don't get what the hell the point was! And while I am SUPER INTERESTED in a LOT OF THINGS Star Driver is hell bent on not answering any of my questions until I imagine the last five minutes of the last episode.
THEN AGAIN this is the guy who wrote Utena, so I may not ever get answers. Sugata may just turn into a motorcycle and Wako will ride him into the sunset and Takuto will explode into blood red sakura petals and THAT WILL BE THE END.
IDK
But!! I also know that one thing Utena-dude has a major boner for is overly symbolic symbolism. So far there have been two major points of symbolism in Star Driver! The first is Sakana-chan's story, which she tells to Head in the first eight episodes of the series. While Head acts mostly impartial in hearing it, it does get a reaction a few times: First when it turns out the Emperor was an immortal looking to die, and secondly when Sakana-chan reveals the unsatisfying ending of 'Sam killed his girlfriend and it was all for nothing'. There may be more I haven't actually rewatched all of it.
The second thing is the play in the most recent episode, which is overall much more direct in the story telling and easier to place. It's the story of Samekh's first driver. But I will get to that in a sec. Below is Sakana-chan's story:
"So the boy fell in love.
He fiercely and passionately fell in love with the girl he met on the shore."
"It was... on the fish planet."
"The boy was a skilled fisherman and his name was... is Sam all right?"
"The boy named Sam dreamed that he and the girl he met got on a boat and sailed away into the shining galaxy."
"But did Sam love the girl he was with or the brilliant galaxy around him?"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"There was only one ship that could sail from the fish planet out into the galaxy. That ship belonged to a king."
(Head) "A king's ship... a good ship like that isn't just going to fall into your hands."
"Right. But one day, the king issued a proclamation."
"Whoever defeated the Squid Emperor and brought back his blue blood would have any wish granted."
"You see, on the fish planet, there was a Squid Emperor who ravaged the land as he pleased every night."
(Head) "It's not tasty at all..."
"The boy, Sam, resolved himself to defeat the Squid Emperor and get the ship that could sail into the galaxy."
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"Take the chance!" thought the girl.
"You have to beat the Squid Emperor and get the boat that can sail into the galaxy!"
Sam took up his spear and began practicing with it, training for the day he would do battle with the Squid Emperor.
Yah! Yah! Hyah!
(Head) Good. It would be boring if he won easily.
And so the name of Sam, the Squid-Piercer, began to spread throughout the kingdom.
(Head) Sam the Squid-Piercer. I like it.
So the girl waited in her cottage by the seaside for Sam to return.
(Head) What? They didn't go together?
Of course not! They were a boy and a girl in their prime!
(Head)I guess the fish planet kept turning, huh.
And also, the two had a secret.
(Head) What secret did Sam the Squid-Piercer and his girl have?
They ate the squid. On the fish planet, squid are the servants of evil. It was forbidden for their flesh to pass your lips, but still, the two ate together.
(Head) I guess he wanted to be Sam the Squid-Eater too.
They shared that dark secret and their bond grew even deeper. And so the adventure of life goes on.
"If you want something, don't falter!" said the girl.
"They had learned who the Squid Emperor was. But in the previous year, a huge storm had risen and the waters had become dangerous. Sam the Squid-Piercer faltered."
"So the girl berated Sam."
(Head) "Yeah. If you really want something, you can't be afraid to take risks."
(Head) "That girl got it right."
"And that's when Sam the Squid-Piercer left the girl and the cottage, and went out into the wild and dangerous sea."
"So the adventure of life goes on."
"They began to fight. In the dark, wild night sea. Sam fights on with his spear."
"And in a fierce battle that cannot be described in words, Sam slew the Squid Emperor and took his blue blood."
(Head) "Damn… No details on the battle scene, huh?"
"From in its bottle, the Squid Emperor's blue blood sparkled and lit up the dark night sea."
(Head) "Sounds like legendary stuff."
"Sam took the blue blood and went back to the king."
" 'My King! I have brought the blood as promised. Here it is!' "
"The King took the bottle and suddenly drank the blue blood."
"That blood was the one potion that could remove the King's magical immortality and end his eternal life."
" 'Thank you, Sam. Now I can finally sleep and never awaken."
(Head) "That was certainly a twist."
"This juice isn't very good."
(Head) "So, what happened to Sam?"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
(Head) "Right at the good part...
"The King offered him his throne. From the beginning, the King had planned to give it to the one who brought him the curse-breaking blue blood."
"But, Sam refused it."
'My King, all I ask of you is your galactic ship.'
'So that I may sail it into the dazzling world of the galaxy.'
'I have no desire for your throne! I have no want for your country!'
(Head) "How… interesting."
(Head) "This is why your stories keep me going, fish girl."
"…And so, the King said,"
'Very well, young man. I did promise to give you anything you desired. I have no intention of breaking my word.'
'I shall give you that galactic ship.'
'But, young man… Sam the Squid Piercer, heed well these words,'
'To make the ship move, you must fill the engine with every last drop of your beloved girl's red blood.'
'Yes, you must kill the girl you love.'
'It won't move if you don't.'
'Now, take it. It belongs to you.'
(Head) "This candy is sweet…"
"So the adventure of life goes on."
Sam killed the girl.
To sail into the shining galaxy, he offered her red blood to the ship's engine.
In the end, what Sam truly loved was not the girl,
but his longing for the world out in the galaxy.
The girl he loved had never been more than a flower adorning his journey.
Sam got on the ship and sailed out into the galaxy.
But soon, Sam realized...
Though he was in the galaxy he had dreamt of, all those worlds were different from the fish planet of his birth.
The fish planet was but one world in the vast galaxy.
The galaxy was not some far off world.
Sam had been living in its brilliance all along."
Why did he kill the girl?
(Head) Is that all?
(Head) Is that really the end of the story?
(Head) Fine. I'm done with your story.
(Head) Get out.
The thing about Sam vs the Squid Emperor is that we don't know who Sam is. The initial assumption is that it is must be Takuto, but later it seems more like he makes the choices Head would have. Head is surprised by the King's immortality, and later we find out that Head himself has stopped aging, but he gets cranky about the story's end and we also find out that uuh. Head is super the type to fall in love with a girl and promise to do anything to be with her and then get distracted by something shiny and sacrifice her to get to said shiny thing only to find out it wasn't worthwhile at all. WHOOPS.
I think ultimately Sam is probably Head, 'the girl' could be Sora or Sakana-chan or both. We don't know how Sora died, but I doubt Head literally sacrificed her blood. But he has lost two girls he loved now to his ambition. Regardless, I don't think he can be the Emperor, immortality or no, because 'finding a way to die' does not appear to be Head's ambition at all.
Now, the last episode was a play written by Sarina with Takuto, Wako and Sugata playing respective appropriate parts. I am not going to transcribe everything, but here is basically what happens:
There was a young girl named Kreis who, upon her birth, was cursed to be invisible to everyone. However one day she met a man named Columner who fell instantly in love with her. Though he could not touch her, he was content to see her smile every day, and they lived together happily.
One day, Columner was approached by a witch named Ayin. Ayin seduced him with a red gem that would allow him to touch Kreis, all Columner had to do was go find a ship and sail it.
Columner did as asked, but upon sailing the ship found it could fly anywhere and had great power. But flying was forbidden on the world, because the Queen felt that she has to be the highest in the land. This world (which is apparently a fish world) was ruled by her and in order to be able to do whatever he wished, Columner killed the Queen and became King.
But Ayin showed up to collect her ship, but by then Columner no longer cared about Kreis and would not give the ship up. He used the ship to resist her power and killed her. However, by this point Columner and the ship were one. He was both as powerful and as immortal as it. He ruled the fish world as a king, but disappeared and was never seen again.
In time, the ship was locked away since no one could destroy it. And even until this day, Columner and the ship live on.
Meanwhile, Sarina introduces herself as a member of the race of 'Entropeople'. They are people who remain neutral on the subjects of ships and their drivers, and cannot help or interfere and do not judge. Sarina does this with lines that are not from the play, so it is basically her telling Takuto that she is a nonhuman here to tell Takuto the story of the ship, but that she can't do anything else from him.
After that, Mark tells her that he lives only for Kreis, and will defeat the King of the Fish world, and kisses Kreis, and the play ends.
This is obviously the origin story of Samekh, and perhaps the first Sugata. 'Columner' is of course the same reference that saturates all of Sugata's symbolism. 'Samekh' is a phonecian symbol which has meanings for 'support' and strongly resembles the Egyptian symbol of 'djed' which is a pillar and represents stability. Quoting wiki here: "During the Renewal Festival, the djed would be ceremonially raised as a phallic symbol symbolizing the "potency and duration of the pharaoh's rule".
So yes, king and pillar symbolism abooounds.
When the ship is mentioned in the play we see a gigantic cybody standing over some dinosaurs, and when Columner sailing the ship is mentioned, we see a massive King's Pillar go off. Whiiich makes me wonder if they aren't saying that Samekh is responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs...
Later, when Ayin the witch dies, we see a massive cybody hand crushing Ayingott, the cybody which Marino used but had to be repair because for some reason it was already broken.
Finally, Sarina explains that she is a member of a race of entropeople which can't be directly involved in the matter of cybodies, because they don't use magic. Neither Wako or Sugata seem shocked by this reveal or by her going off her lines, so it's probably they already knew and perhaps people with revealed marks like the maidens and the Shindou family have always have connections with the entropeople. Sarina also says that Takuto shines with the same light as Columner. It could be that Sugata is not the one destined to use Samekh, despite his birth and being the first Shindou to be able to repeatedly use the King's Pillar.
So, I think what we have between the two stories is one prediction and one history lesson. Sakana-chan was a maiden, and all maidens seem to have some unique attributes. It's possible she knew Samekh's past and made her story to fit, or that she knew it for other reasons. Sakana-chan's story follows Samekh's origin story loosely, in the sense that a king/queen was killed and a girl was lost and a ship became a sort of prison. It is also possible that this is the story of how Head's heart got trapped in Zero Time, since he lost Sora and somehow became ageless. Or it could have been Sakana-chan's way of saying that he was giving her up for his power but was going to find that it wasn't what he wanted afterall.
I'm still unsure about the purpose of the Squid Emperor. If Squid People = Entropeople I......still dk. I get that Columner can only die by drinking the blood of the Squid King, if the Entropeople are really antimagic maybe that means that the ruler of the Entropeople has the secret for actually killing him.
Finally! Is Sugata Columner? He is the Driver of Samekh, and each member of the Shindou family is named Sugata. A reincarnation? Sugata also holds the general properties of being the type to get fixated on power over love (though I maintain that he is doing that for Wako more than himself).
I don't know. Reincarnation seems possible. Sugata was actually born with his mark rather than having it passed to him. Also all Sugata's seem to have a similar fate of ultimately comaing.
But it could be that Samekh's mark passed into the Shindou family for other reasons and when he apprivoises he is apprivoising with Columner as much as Samekh. This also has me wondering if Sugata didn't get an info dump like Wako's when he apprivoised. It would explain his mood upon waking up. I am probably going to lock out his two memories post apprivoising until the series is over so I am sure there was nothing else going on there.
Anyway. Whee my canon which I love and also want to stab repeatedly \o/ FOUR EPS TO GO. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED ABOUT A CANON ENDING
