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It's Spooky Month! Last year I did a bunch of classic horror story characters as pokemon: Count Dracula, Victor Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, etc...
I decided I wanted to do something like that again this year but with a little twist. First of all, instead of horror I decided to go a different direction capturing another side of Halloween: Fun (with some scariness mixed in)
This year the theme is Fairytales.
I had an idea I wanted to explore:
These pokemon are NOT meant to be taken as the characters from their respective fairy tales, these are kids who are wearing costumes that allow them to embody the story for which they are dressed as and gain abilities associated with their character/story, so a character might not just be the character who they resemble but a culmination of the entire story, and stories can be very powerful!
Hanna embodies the spirit of the story "The Little Mermaid" by Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Anderson. In the original version, the titular little Mermaid learns from her Grandmother that Humans have an immortal Soul that is accepted into Heaven when they die, while Mermaids live for about 300 years and then turn into Seafoam when they die.
Existentially terrified by the prospect of her own limited mortality, she goes to see the Sea Witch to learn how to get an immortal soul. The witch offers her a potion that will turn her into a human in exchange for her voice. The Potion she warms will feel like a sword is passing through her, the pain of losing her tail will never leave, and every footstep on land will feel like walking on knives. Moreover the potion can give her a Human Form but not a Human Soul. She must make the prince she rescued marry her and through his love part of his soul will flow into her making her a real human, but if he marries another then on the dawn of the first day after the marriage she will die of a broken heart and turn into Seafoam.
The Prince mistakes the identity of his rescuer for a girl from the monastery where he washed up and decides to marry her over the princess he was meant to be arranged to and the mute mermaid, so the Sea witch offers a new deal and a Dagger which her sisters had to trade their hair for. All she has to do is stab the Prince with the dagger and let his blood drip onto her feet and she will turn back into a mermaid free from her suffering and live a long life in the sea with her family. She however can not bring herself to murder the prince so she jumps into the water and dies the dawn after the wedding turning into seafoam, though because of her self sacrifice she is given a chance to earn a soul as a spirit of air by doing good deeds and maybe then she will be allowed to go to Heaven.
I have a lot of feelings about this story...Personally I feel like this ending is just moving the goal post to gatekeep her. They say she has to do good deeds for her whole life, but she already died so are they talking about the life she would have lived now in the form of an Air Spirit? (About 300 years of good deeds) How many good deeds does it take for her to earn a Soul anyway?
Also, if a drop of blood on her toes was all she needed she could have pricked the prince with the dagger somewhere it wouldn't kill him and drip a little blood on her feet to return to her family, but rather than hurt the Prince, even after he kinda unknowingly betrayed her saving his life by not reciprocating and marrying another woman, she decided to spare him and his wife on their wedding night even if it meant she thought she would meet her inevitable permanent end. That is just straight up self sacrifice, empathy, and proof she should already have a soul.
ALSO in a world where merfolk exist, why can't they have Souls? Why are Immortal Souls exclusive to humans!?
I decided I wanted to do something like that again this year but with a little twist. First of all, instead of horror I decided to go a different direction capturing another side of Halloween: Fun (with some scariness mixed in)
This year the theme is Fairytales.
I had an idea I wanted to explore:
These pokemon are NOT meant to be taken as the characters from their respective fairy tales, these are kids who are wearing costumes that allow them to embody the story for which they are dressed as and gain abilities associated with their character/story, so a character might not just be the character who they resemble but a culmination of the entire story, and stories can be very powerful!
Hanna embodies the spirit of the story "The Little Mermaid" by Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Anderson. In the original version, the titular little Mermaid learns from her Grandmother that Humans have an immortal Soul that is accepted into Heaven when they die, while Mermaids live for about 300 years and then turn into Seafoam when they die.
Existentially terrified by the prospect of her own limited mortality, she goes to see the Sea Witch to learn how to get an immortal soul. The witch offers her a potion that will turn her into a human in exchange for her voice. The Potion she warms will feel like a sword is passing through her, the pain of losing her tail will never leave, and every footstep on land will feel like walking on knives. Moreover the potion can give her a Human Form but not a Human Soul. She must make the prince she rescued marry her and through his love part of his soul will flow into her making her a real human, but if he marries another then on the dawn of the first day after the marriage she will die of a broken heart and turn into Seafoam.
The Prince mistakes the identity of his rescuer for a girl from the monastery where he washed up and decides to marry her over the princess he was meant to be arranged to and the mute mermaid, so the Sea witch offers a new deal and a Dagger which her sisters had to trade their hair for. All she has to do is stab the Prince with the dagger and let his blood drip onto her feet and she will turn back into a mermaid free from her suffering and live a long life in the sea with her family. She however can not bring herself to murder the prince so she jumps into the water and dies the dawn after the wedding turning into seafoam, though because of her self sacrifice she is given a chance to earn a soul as a spirit of air by doing good deeds and maybe then she will be allowed to go to Heaven.
I have a lot of feelings about this story...Personally I feel like this ending is just moving the goal post to gatekeep her. They say she has to do good deeds for her whole life, but she already died so are they talking about the life she would have lived now in the form of an Air Spirit? (About 300 years of good deeds) How many good deeds does it take for her to earn a Soul anyway?
Also, if a drop of blood on her toes was all she needed she could have pricked the prince with the dagger somewhere it wouldn't kill him and drip a little blood on her feet to return to her family, but rather than hurt the Prince, even after he kinda unknowingly betrayed her saving his life by not reciprocating and marrying another woman, she decided to spare him and his wife on their wedding night even if it meant she thought she would meet her inevitable permanent end. That is just straight up self sacrifice, empathy, and proof she should already have a soul.
ALSO in a world where merfolk exist, why can't they have Souls? Why are Immortal Souls exclusive to humans!?
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Pokemon
Size 796 x 813px
File Size 189.5 kB
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