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Gryphonadmin
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Jan-12-07, 01:32 AM (EST)
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"(S56) Sympathy for the Devil"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Apr-02-10 AT 02:00 PM (EDT)
 
9 This piece doesn't quite fit the earlier use of the "Intermezzo" title convention - none of it takes place in Cephiro - but it fits thematically, since this piece is set far from the normal run of events and has a more dark, menacing tone. "Sympathy for the Devil" is the title of a Rolling Stones song from their 1968 album Beggars Banquet, and though the song's lyrics tend to evoke Akio's part in the story ("Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name / But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game"), the literal reference in the story's title is to Corwin's interaction with Nanami later in the piece.

38 This is another of the key Corwin-involving Symphony pieces that is much older than its release position implies (though not as much older as For Tomorrow). It was complete in draft form (pending some pretty significant revisions, about which more later) not long after I finished the critical scenes in Endgame, the last part of Knights of the Tenth World - immediately after the bits of For Tomorrow that set it up.

101 Touga's speech is pretty much exactly what he said before every trip some poor jerk took to the End of the World in the last story arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Corwin's reaction to it is... atypical.

183 Nanami dares not speak Anthy's name - especially not in Akio's presence.

188 Corwin's asking if he's in top gear. Five-speed transmissions in cars are a relatively modern innovation. In the 1950s, this T-bird's day, a four-speed was cutting-edge tech.

257 They resemble Sith robes - a nod to Darth Venger, who is helping Akio set up the Order of the Black Rose in Oriphos at this time.

288 In Greek mythology, Persephone is doomed to spend part of the year in the Underworld as the bride of Hades after he tricks her into eating pomegranate seeds. (This is the ancient Greeks' explanation for winter.)

319 Despite their well-earned reputation for evil, svartelves are not demons; in fact, as denizens of the lowest of the heavens, they are technically minor celestials, what mortals might call angels. There are quite a number of svartelven demons, however, who earned the "honor" as Akio did - by living lives of such consummate wickedness that Surtur raised them to demonhood after their first deaths.

325 Not even Surtur's power can erase an Ęsir blood curse. It's possible that Odin and/or the three Norns working in concert could do so, but why would they?

360 Demio, Dios's predecessor as Prince of Cephiro, continues the MKR-inspired tradition of naming prominent Cephireans after cars. The Mazda Demio is a tiny city car which, in its fully-hopped-up racing form, is the single most hilarious thing in the original Gran Turismo.

370 I'm rather proud of the name of Pillar Diamante in this case, since it not only matches the "gems" convention of the canonical Emeraude, but is once again the name of a kind of car.

436 Up to this point, much of what Akio says is, if not true, at least founded on truth. The relations between Dios's Trinity and Anthy were not, perhaps, quite as he describes them, and Anthy's motivations in taking the power of the Prince from Dios are certainly misrepresented, but there is more truth than falsehood in his story so far. The gap, however, will steadily widen from this point on.

486 Akio does not know, and indeed could not comprehend, the strength of will it took for Corwin, having lived through Interlude at the Hotel Monolith, not to kill him where he sat and the consequences be damned, never mind retaining his composure.

531 We know this part is false; we saw what really happened in Tower Shrouded in Frost.

563 This may be the ultimate "I meant to do that" in the history of history itself.

569 Specifically, though it doesn't come up here, Akio is Duke of Cocytus, the province of Muspelheim which is the special fate of betrayers.

692 As Corwin noted -- Akio may be able to fool a lot of people with his twisted tales, but Verthandi, Norn of Today, Goddess of Fidelity? That's another matter entirely. Looks like Akio missed out on the memo that Belldandy absolved Anthy of what she had done... too bad. Really. PJM

697 Nithling is a particularly foul Norse curse, implying that the person being spoken to is a vile coward and a wretch without even the faintest vestige of honor, not merely unworthy of respect but fit only to be actively reviled (and he probably has a tiny dick as well). So grave an insult is this that Corwin skirts the razor's edge of starting an Asgard-Muspelheim war merely by pronouncing it in the hall of a Muspel-Duke.

710 Akio isn't angry because what he just attempted didn't work - he didn't expect it to. He's angry that Corwin took control of their meeting and left in full command of himself rather than either committing some aggrieved blunder of fleeing in disarray. And that he called him nithling.

771 A female demon, the least of the major demons of UF-Muspelheim. Succubi are compulsive seductresses, unable to approach any situation as anything other than an act of sexual predation without intense mental effort, and most of them prefer not to bother fighting their nature anyway. They and their male counterparts, the incubi, are the most personable of major demons, for obvious reasons, and are often employed as diplomats and intelligence agents in the service of the Dread Lord of Flame. In Midgardian myth they visit men in the night and steal their strength, not to mention precious bodily fluids. In reality they rarely leave the Pit, and when they do it's usually to go to one of the heavens. They certainly don't make a practice of raiding hapless Midgardians in their sleep; there's neither sport nor gain in it.

814 Another song about cars (in particular the early-'60s Chevrolet Bel Airs with the 409-cubic-inch big-block V8 truck engine, which were popular among hot rod enthusiasts of the day).

841 Inasmuch as Nanami liked anybody back in the day, she rather liked Miki, or at least thought he deserved better than to be saddled with Kozue.

892 Refers to an as-yet-unchronicled incident that took place during the "exile" in Asgard that's just ending for him. One of the Valkyrie was involved, but oddly enough it wasn't Vigdis Brightblade.

900 In the original draft of this story, Corwin does decline, and sends Nanami on her way. As I was preparing the piece for release, though, I - like Corwin - had to take a step back and really take a hard look at his state of mind (and spirit), and his motivation in turning her down. Eventually I concluded that it would open up more opportunities for me if he accepted - and that under the circumstances, he wouldn't say no.

925 For instance, he and Nanami could never have had this revealing little conversation if he'd turned her down and sent her packing.

957 Some days it seems to Corwin as if his entire dharma is tidying up after Akio and/or Touga. Which is admittedly a noble calling, but one has to admit that it does get a bit old after a while.

1007 Well, he had one choice, but he was too tired to think of it and it might not have worked anyway. There are certain legal technicalities having to do with the circumstances of her damnation and his standing as a Valkyrie he might have attempted to exploit. Corwin is no lawyer, however, and he was utterly exhausted, so the possibility never occurred to him - and besides, she might have taken being forced to stay in Asgard even worse than being asked.

1060 The trickiest part of this Intermezzo, as I recall, was to somehow balance Corwin's natural reluctance to believe anything Akio said with making it still seem plausible to him and to the reader that what's being spoken is worth considering - especially given all the Symphonies that had been produced so far. Whether it was successful is an exercise for the reader, but as far as the characters involved, this piece served its purpose. PJM


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Meagen Jan-12-07 1
     RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Gryphonadmin Jan-12-07 2
  RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil jadmire Jan-13-07 3
     RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Peter Eng Jan-14-07 4
         RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil jadmire Jan-14-07 5
     RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Gryphonadmin Jan-14-07 6
         RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Wedge Jan-15-07 7
             RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil MOGSY Jan-15-07 8
                 RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Berk Jan-15-07 9
                     RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Moonsword Jan-16-07 11
                 RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil StClair Jan-15-07 10
  RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Moonsword Jan-16-07 12
     RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Gryphonadmin Jan-16-07 13
         RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil Moonsword Jan-16-07 14
  RE: S4I: Sympathy for the Devil Meagen Jan-27-08 15
     RE: S4I: Sympathy for the Devil Zemyla Feb-01-21 16

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Meagen
Member since Jul-14-02
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Jan-12-07, 07:05 AM (EST)
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1. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #0
 
   >892 Refers to an as-yet-unchronicled incident that took place
>during the "exile" in Asgard that's just ending for him. One of the
>Valkyrie was involved, but oddly enough it wasn't Vigdis Brightblade.

Huh. I thought he was thinking of the occasion he related to Anne in Ash Knight.

--
With great power come great perks.


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Gryphonadmin
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Jan-12-07, 12:08 PM (EST)
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2. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #1
 
   >>892 Refers to an as-yet-unchronicled incident that took place
>>during the "exile" in Asgard that's just ending for him. One of the
>>Valkyrie was involved, but oddly enough it wasn't Vigdis Brightblade.
>
>Huh. I thought he was thinking of the occasion he related to Anne in
>Ash Knight.

No, that was as graceful as Corwin figures it could've been, under the circumstances. Or at least, if there was a lack of grace involved, it wasn't necessarily on his part.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/


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jadmire
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Jan-13-07, 07:23 PM (EST)
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3. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #0
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jan-13-07 AT 07:28 PM (EST)
 
257 They resemble Sith robes - a nod to Darth Venger, who is helping Akio set up the Order of the Black Rose in Oriphos at this time.

Most curious. We know that it was Big Fire who rescued Venger (a/k/a Roger Tremayne) from Terminal Island in The Revolution Will Be Televised. However, this makes me begin to wonder just what connections Big Fire has with Akio, and how Akio made contact with Roger in the first place (indeed, how Akio knew that Roger was someone whom it would be to his benefit for him to do business with). I'm not generally one for Big Shadowy Conspiracies, but there seem to be a lot of suspicious links here. I was going to propose the possibility that Akio even did the raid on Terminal Island himself, disguising it as a Big Fire operation, but from what we see in Blades, that obviously can't be right (Akio probably doesn't have the resources at this point to mount such a big operation in Midgard, anyway).

One thing you didn't comment on here was the paragraphs discussing how the roads between the Celestial and Infernal realms have, as technology advances, been upgraded to modern multi-lane superhighways. I was skeptical about this at first, given the long history of hostility between Asgard and Muspelheim, until I remembered the real-world example of how the superhighway (Autobahn, to be precise) networks of West and East Germany were connected at several places during the Cold War. I wonder if there are checkpoints at the celestial/infernal borders, too...)

-Joe-


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Peter Eng
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Jan-14-07, 03:25 PM (EST)
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4. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #3
 
   >257 They resemble Sith robes - a nod to Darth Venger, who is
>helping Akio set up the Order of the Black Rose in Oriphos at this
>time.

>
>Most curious. We know that it was Big Fire who rescued Venger (a/k/a
>Roger Tremayne) from Terminal Island in The Revolution Will Be
>Televised
. However, this makes me begin to wonder just what
>connections Big Fire has with Akio, and how Akio made contact with
>Roger in the first place...

There might not be any connection. As seen in other stories, there's a certain amount of freedom of action within the Magnificent Ten, along with a bit of friction. It's possible that Akio and Roger were working together without telling Shockwave Alberto, with Roger considering it a temporary alliance for his own gain, and not necessarily Big Fire's.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."


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jadmire
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Jan-14-07, 03:30 PM (EST)
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5. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #4
 
   >>257 They resemble Sith robes - a nod to Darth Venger, who is
>>helping Akio set up the Order of the Black Rose in Oriphos at this
>>time.

>>
>>Most curious. We know that it was Big Fire who rescued Venger (a/k/a
>>Roger Tremayne) from Terminal Island in The Revolution Will Be
>>Televised
. However, this makes me begin to wonder just what
>>connections Big Fire has with Akio, and how Akio made contact with
>>Roger in the first place...
>
>There might not be any connection. As seen in other stories, there's
>a certain amount of freedom of action within the Magnificent Ten,
>along with a bit of friction. It's possible that Akio and Roger were
>working together without telling Shockwave Alberto, with Roger
>considering it a temporary alliance for his own gain, and not
>necessarily Big Fire's.
>
You're right. And here I was just filing my latest reply in a thread over on UF-General where I'd said exactly that thing, that there don't necessarily have to be Big Connections among the various things that happen.

Come to think on that, as we saw in Blades, Roger was using Big Fire for his own purposes then, so it's only reasonable to surmise he was doing so from the very beginning. For that matter, he may have been arrogant enough to think that he could use Akio for his own purposes (with Akio thinking just the same thing about Roger).

-Joe-


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Gryphonadmin
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Jan-14-07, 04:14 PM (EST)
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6. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #3
 
   >However, this makes me begin to wonder just what
>connections Big Fire has with Akio

None. Darth Venger pretends to serve many masters - Big Fire, the Order of the Black Rose, his Sith teachers - but in truth, he serves only himself.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/


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Wedge
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Jan-15-07, 01:58 AM (EST)
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7. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #6
 
   >>However, this makes me begin to wonder just what
>>connections Big Fire has with Akio
>
>None. Darth Venger pretends to serve many masters - Big Fire, the
>Order of the Black Rose, his Sith teachers - but in truth, he serves
>only himself.

"There is no room in Tupolev's heart for anyone but Tupolev."


Chad Collier
Smirking Kilrathi
The Captain of the Gravy Train


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MOGSY
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8. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #7
 
   >>None. Darth Venger pretends to serve many masters - Big Fire, the Order of >>the Black Rose, his Sith teachers - but in truth, he serves only himself.

...all of whom are people who:
1) probably don't appreciate being played or double-crossed by their own pawns
2) probably know or at least have a sense he's got his own agenda and are letting it go so long he doesn't get too big for his britches

Venger thinks pretty highly of himself and his abilities because I'd say he's playing a really dangerous game, with plenty of enemies as it is on the whole Forces of Good side. He'd be pretty screwed if managed to get all three of his string-pullers pissed at him too.

"A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week" - Gen George S. Patton, Jr.


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Berk
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Jan-15-07, 01:24 PM (EST)
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9. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #8
 
   The amusing part of it all is that in the end Venger really has only one direction he can go.

- Berk Watkins
Student of Quantum Bogodynamics


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Moonsword
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Jan-16-07, 03:12 PM (EST)
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11. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #9
 
   As I recall, ultimately, that direction was straight down, about two meters and encased in a cheap box, which is about par for the course for every Sith Lord we've seen yet other than Sidious and Vader.

The Sith, other than those who belong to Vader's school of thought, seem to me to be largely defined by hubris and glaring gaps in their perception in Undocumented Features.


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StClair
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Jan-15-07, 09:27 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #8
 
   >Venger thinks pretty highly of himself and his abilities

Why, yes. Yes he does.


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Moonsword
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Jan-16-07, 03:17 PM (EST)
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12. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #0
 
   *blinks, looks marginally confused*

Uhm, since no one else has mentioned it, shouldn't this thread be titled S4I or are you planning to move "Sympathy" to Symphony 5?


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Gryphonadmin
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Jan-16-07, 03:18 PM (EST)
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13. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #12
 
   >Uhm, since no one else has mentioned it, shouldn't this thread be
>titled S4I or are you planning to move "Sympathy" to Symphony
>5?

Surprisingly, the 4 and 5 keys are adjacent.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/


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Moonsword
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Jan-16-07, 03:22 PM (EST)
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14. "RE: S5I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #13
 
   ...I'm aware of that. I was just checking to see if it was a typo, a Freudian slip, or a really strange way of announcing a change to the UF canon. While I doubted it was anything but a typo, I felt strangely compelled to ask.


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Meagen
Member since Jul-14-02
555 posts
Jan-27-08, 11:17 AM (EST)
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15. "RE: S4I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #0
 
   >1060 The trickiest part of this Intermezzo,
>as I recall, was to somehow balance Corwin's natural reluctance to
>believe anything Akio said with making it still seem plausible
>to him and to the reader that what's being spoken is worth
>considering - especially given all the Symphonies that had been
>produced so far. Whether it was successful is an exercise for the
>reader, but as far as the characters involved, this piece served its
>purpose. PJM

In my mind, the danger isn't so much that Corwin could be deceived. It's more that in his grief (and being lonely, miserable and dead tired makes him especially vulnerable), he might *let* himself be deceived, pretending to himself to be buying into Akio's story, just to get the chance to be with Utena.

But in the end, his iron-bound loyalty prevails. It hurts him, definitely - I'd go as far as to call it "emotional torture" on Akio's part - but his integrity is undamaged, and what's more, he doesn't come to resent Utena and Anthy for the pain he's feeling. That, more than anything, is what Akio is angry about.

(The nithling thing probably doesn't help, though.)

--
With great power come great perks.


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Zemyla
Member since Mar-26-08
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Feb-01-21, 02:37 PM (EST)
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16. "RE: S4I: Sympathy for the Devil"
In response to message #15
 
   >In my mind, the danger isn't so much that Corwin could be deceived.
>It's more that in his grief (and being lonely, miserable and dead
>tired makes him especially vulnerable), he might *let* himself be
>deceived, pretending to himself to be buying into Akio's story, just
>to get the chance to be with Utena.
>
>But in the end, his iron-bound loyalty prevails. It hurts him,
>definitely - I'd go as far as to call it "emotional torture" on Akio's
>part - but his integrity is undamaged, and what's more, he doesn't
>come to resent Utena and Anthy for the pain he's feeling. That, more
>than anything, is what Akio is angry about.
>
>(The nithling thing probably doesn't help, though.)

The danger I saw was that Corwin might pretend to be deceived, in order to get closer to Akio with the intent of ending him, until the pretense becomes reality.

The thing is, Akio is better at lying than pretty much everyone. We see this in Taken by Storm, where he repeatedly fools the entire Trinity into thinking they're safe, and that's on opposite ends of a battlefield where he's a declared enemy. In Lightwalker, he's also managed to get inside the head of Freyja, who is not only suspicious of svartelves and demons but is vastly older than Corwin. If Corwin were to pretend to be on Akio's side, that would involved listening to what he says, but his honey-sweet words are dripping with poison.

The game is rigged from the start, and the only winning move is not to play. This is what Corwin did; he laid his cards and walked away.


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