Fic Talk > Updates
Drop it like it's hot! Or... Updates from Dee. :o)
nicksgal:
So the last little Author Chat I did, I talked about a trope I love: Five Man Bands. I was trying to think about what other tropes permeate PBox&Co and also had a little to do with what’s currently going on in PNecklace, so I guess let’s talk about wishes.
The Pandora Legend that gets discussed in the beginning of PBox is as follows (in case you don’t remember it, this is more a summary than a quote): Pandora appears to the demons who most longs for her, (“desperate” was the exact word used, which Nick took issue with, of course) then brings the demons who use pale blue light together and when they receive their powers back, they will fulfill the duties of their nation. And in return for this duty, Pandora gets wishes.
Now all of this is a little convoluted (in part from the abandoned constellation origins of this tale) and hasn’t fully been explained yet; we’ll start diving into it more as PNecklace continues, but if you’re familiar with the way myths work, then you may be able to start to piece it together despite the inherent vague vagueness of all of this. Meanwhile, let’s talk about wish tropes.
First the easy question, why three? Well, you always get three wishes. That’s really the only reason, lol.
The use of wishes in PBox really stems from two tropes that play on the inherent dichotomy of the major contrasts in the story: good versus evil, light versus darkness, hope versus despair, and so on (there are several of them, but those are the more major ones). These are: Bargain with Heaven and Deal with the Devil. Realistically, these are the same trope at their heart. Some mortal makes a deal with an all powerful being for something they want and the all powerful being gets something in return. There’s plenty of instances of mortals making deals with pantheons throughout history, but at their cores, these two really trace back to Christianity in their specifics. Bargain with Heaven is the older of the two, being present in the Bible’s text, and overall doesn’t have many ill-consequences for the mortal involved (unless they have some personal failing in their promise). Deal with the Devil, in the sense that we picture it, traces its codification back to Faust -- though it did exist before then and was really created as a subversion for Bargain with Heaven that included many more costs to the mortal involved. Interestingly enough, the subversion became way more popular and we typically see it more in media (guess everyone really does like Team Dark).
With PBox&Co being dominated by demons as major characters, you would think Deal with the Devil would be more prevalent in the story, but the wishes are presented as some sort of Bargain with Heaven. Though, as you know, the figure called “God” by Nick is hardly a god at all, so how much of the meeting with the “Emperor of the Heavens” is really bargaining with Heaven is up for debate. In fact, if you’re reading along, I encourage you to debate this. You know I always have fun things to reveal in the PBox&Co lore as time goes on.
The wishes Minako ultimately makes in the end would generally be seen as selfless, though clearly not permanent as all our characters have returned to demon land. This raises the question of if selfless wishes really open the box or make it serve its true purpose. Or, more realistically, is there a right wish to make on it? Minako and Nick spend a fair amount of time up to this point in their story discussing the power of wishes and what having that power would grant them. And in the beginning of PBox, Nick really wanted that power, hoping to receive “a light that makes miracles” in his own Bargain with Heaven. But, as fantasy often portrays, sometimes the journey is more important than the goal and along the way, Nick realizes that a light that makes miracles wasn’t necessarily the thing that would make him happy. Similarly, Minako becomes pretty adamant, especially after wishing on the box doesn’t stick, that wishing only does so much without action. So rather than a “right wish,” is there a “right action”? Everybody grapples with a lot in PBox&Co.
With all the focus on Bargain with Heaven in the end, Deal with a Devil is largely absent from the story. Many of the demons do make attempts at making them with the Pandoras (even Howie, even though he never gets far enough to “shake on it” with Minako, possibly just because she agrees without any sort of trade), but nothing’s ever fully solidified. There is one little demon constantly making promises and offering things… and that’s Nick, of course. And Minako does accept and reciprocate these things, and sometimes even initiates it. But it’s probably a fine line on whether this is any sort of Deal with the Devil; especially when Minako is offering “the deal” to Nick about as many times as he offers a deal to her. Is it inherently a Deal with the Devil if one party is a demon? But PBox&Co is a subversion by premise. As you know, the short way I describe it to people outside our fandom is “it’s about demons, but they’re the heroes.” And let’s be honest, it’s hard to make sinister deals when you’re the hero, even if you are a demon. This comes up again, but we’ll talk on that more next week when it’s probably time we went back to our mythology discussion.
Anyone else have thoughts on wishes in PBox or PNecklace? Let’s chat tropes, y’all! As always, see you next Wednesday!
nicksgal:
I'm a little behind on updating my updates thread because I was starving. So, update!
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Twenty-Six ("Altair and Vega") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Twenty ("Strengths") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this on AC since April. Chapter Nineteen: Weaknesses also went up last Sunday if you missed it.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers! Thank you again to everyone reading! I'll be posting Chapter Twenty-One on AO3 on Sunday, but won't be updating this thread then since you've been able to read it here on AC since May. See you next Wednesday! Feedback is always appreciated as I catch my two cross postings up to each other (or if you're loving what's currently on AC). :)
nicksgal:
Somehow, I thought I could staycation, keep the streak alive, edit this week's chapter, and write an author's chat over this weekend/early this week. An impossible undertaking, clearly. So no author chat, but there are updates! That author chat I was planning makes more sense after getting a chance to read this newest chapter anyway.
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Twenty-Seven ("Glow") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Twenty-Two ("Feelings") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this on AC since May. Chapter Twenty-One: Catharsis also went up last Sunday if you missed it.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers! Thank you again to everyone reading! I'll be posting Chapter Twenty-Three on AO3 on Sunday, but won't be updating this thread then since you've been able to read it here on AC since May. See you next Wednesday! Feedback is always appreciated as I catch my two cross postings up to each other (or if you're loving what's currently on AC). :) Let me know how my self-challenge went!
nicksgal:
Wow, it's late! But, it's still Wednesday, phew! Finished editing and updating by the skin of my teeth here.
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Twenty-Eight ("Adapt") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Twenty-Four ("Exchange") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this on AC since May. Chapter Twenty-Three: Memories also went up last Sunday if you missed it.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers! Thank you again to everyone reading! I saw a little uptick last week, so I hope everyone enjoyed it and welcome any thoughts on how I executed my challenge or any of the other new info that was in there. I'll be posting Chapter Twenty-Five on AO3 on Sunday, but won't be updating this thread then since you've been able to read it here on AC since the beginning of this month (we're finally into the same update month! Can you believe it?!). See you next Wednesday! Feedback is always appreciated as I catch my two cross postings up to each other (or if you're loving what's currently on AC). :) Hope y'all enjoy a little different POV in this week's update. And I promise, we'll finally get back to Author Talks next week. This next one is one I've been planning and meaning to post since I first started discussing mythology.
nicksgal:
I'm slacking on my Author Talks. Next week is summer break, so I have literally zero excuses! Please forgive my busier than expected summer.
If you would still like to read PBox, I will include both location links below. While all fifty chapters of PBox are complete, it is still undergoing the tiniest cursory edit where I change the paragraph alignment of the "~*~" and fix a couple errant commas, but otherwise it's all there. Feedback is always appreciated. :)
Pandora's Box on Absolute Chaos
Pandora's Box on AO3
Please find updates as follows (links included in titles):
Chapter Twenty-Nine ("Sacrifice") of Pandora's Necklace on Absolute Chaos
Chapter Twenty-Six ("Altair and Vega") of Pandora's Necklace on AO3 (You've been able to read this on AC since the beginning of the month. Chapter Twenty-Five: Cost also went up last Sunday if you missed it.)
Enjoy! Continue to feel free to ask me anything and get answers! Thank you again to everyone reading! See you next Wednesday! Feedback is always appreciated as I catch my two cross postings up to each other (or if you're loving what's currently on AC). :) This chapter is really the continuation for the turning point of the last third of the novel, so hopefully it gives you something to look forward to in these upcoming chapters!
On a side note, I'm skipping AO3's Sunday catch up this week due to the Fourth of July, but you can still read all those chapters here, so you aren't missing out on anything. :)
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