Epics of India

Hanuman jumps to Lanka, and finds Sita in a garden. Hanuman shows her the ring of Rama, and Sita regains hope. She gives him some jewlery of hers, and Hanuman starts wrcking the garden. Indrajit captures Hanuman, and he gets his tail set ablaze. Hanuman jumps around Lanka and burns everything. Maya rebuilds it, but Ravana is already pissed. Everyone is telling Ravana what to do, and he eventually kicks out Vibhishana for being doubtful. Vibhishana goes to Rama and tells the army how to fight and kill Ravana. Rama prays and the sea god build rocks in the ocean which Rama's army crosses. Ravana tries to trick Sita into thinking that Rama died, but she doesn't fall for it. Indrajit poisons Rama and Lakshmana and Sita thinks they are dead, but Tijata explains that they are just stunned. Hanuman, with Rama on his shoulders, jumps to Ravana's flyimng chariot and Rama wounds Ravana and breaks his crown. They call it a day. Next day, Kumbakarna wakes up and fights. Rama finally kil

Ravana, disguised as a hermit, approaches Sita. She says no to his advances, and Ravana kidnaps her. Jatayu tries to rescue her, but Ravana kills him. Rama and Lakshmana find the dying bird but doesn't figure out where Sita is headed. Rama and Lakshmana go towards the monkey kingdom, and Hanuman meets them. Rama sees through the disguise, and explains the history of the monkey kingdom. Vali went to the cave to fight a demon, and when he wouldn't emerge, Sugriva blocked the entrance and Vali got pissed and fought him and stole his girl. Rama decides to help. The monkeys find Sita's jewelry and Sugriva says he'll help Rama if Rama helps him. Rama shoots Vali during the fight for king. Vali argues that Rama cheated, but then finally agrees that it was okay, and dies. Sugriva never fulfills on his promise to help Rama, so Lakshmana goes to talk to Sugriva. After getting caught being lazy, Sugriva promises to never drink again. Next, he builds a huge army and the search part

The Hulk Battling in the Arena  Source Life wasn't easy for the "hero" known as Bruce Banner. In fact, Banner lived in a constant struggle to control his inner rage. See, Banner was born a brilliant intellectual, but he lacked physical prowess. One day while researching gamma radiation, Banner became exposed to harmful rays and began to grow to massive size. To call Banner "monstrous" wouldn't be the half of it. Now he is known by the entirety of Earth as "The Hulk," a massive green monster whose destructiveness power is only matched by its inability to control it. After what felt like the last death Banner could help seeing, he decided to launch himself (as the hulk) into space in hopes of never hurting another innocent person through the collateral damage of his rampages. The Hulk wound up on a strange planet called Sakaar, a world where gladiatorial combat is the most high honor. The Hulk couldn't have ended up on a better planet to st

Uncle Iroh at the liberation of Ba Sing Se Source I would like to say that I grew up like any other child in the fire kingdom, but that would be alive. See, my name is Prince Zuko, son of fire lord Ozai and heir to the throne. Living in the royal palace may seem like heaven on Earth, but I lived a childhood that is fairly similar to other children in the fire nation. I awoke early every morning, I would train with the best teachers in all of the land, I would eat a balanced diet and spar with my younger sister, Azula, and then I would attend to my studies. I would attend a family dinner every night where I would eat with my father, fire lord Ozai, my mother, Ursa, my younger sister, Azula, and my uncle, Iroh.  My uncle Iroh and my father were always very competitive growing up, and rarely agreed on anything. One of the common topics of debate was that of my future. On one hand, my uncle wanted me to grow into the feircest warrior anyone had every seen. Uncle Iroh was a brill

Rama and squad in exile Source Everyone is pissed that Rama is exiled, and the squad decides to join him in the forest. Dasharatha dies from a broken heart when Rama leaves. Bharata learns about what's going on, and gets pissed. He asks Rama to come home, but Rama says he can't cause promises and whatnot. Bharata explains that "the sandals" are for the true king and decides to rule in an outside village and won't go back to Ayodhya until Rama is back. Rama and squad walk around the forest and run into a sage's wife who gives Sita jewelry and Jatayu (the big bird) makes a pact with the squad to help out. Shurpanakha finds the squad and tries to get with Rama. Lakshmana captures the homewrecker stalking Sita and cuts off her ears and nose. She asks her brothers to kill the squad, but squad wins. She runs to Lanka to tell Ravana. Ravana has made gods his servants, and Ravana goes to kill Rama for what he did to his sister, but falls in love with Sita. Rav

A painting of Rama Source Fairly similar to the Ramayana I had already read earlier in the semester. The king of Ayodhya, Dasharatha, was childless, and the gods were trying to plan on how to deal with Ravana. Dasharatha gets Rishyashringa (rain bringer) to do a sacrifice. Dasharatha feeds the rice he got to his 3 wives. The sage, Vishvamitra, asks Dasharatha if Rama can go kill demons with him in the forest. Dasharatha says fine, but bring your brother. Rama and squad kill Thataka. Rama and squad continue to kill demons in the forest, and Vishvamitra decides to take the boys to Mithila. Vishvamitra tells the boys how the Ganges came to Earth. Rama accidentally wakes up Ahalya from her curse of being stone, and we learn about why Indra is the thousand eyed god. Rama meets Sita in Mithila and they fall in love. Rama is challenged to bend the bow, and he does, so they wed. We learn of how Dasharatha killed a boy in a forest and cause of this, he owes Bharata's mom 2 IOU's

A magic lamp Source Ricky, Thomas, Sara, and Kevin all grew up in the same foster home, and though they weren't technically siblings by blood, they were all about to be bonded for life. According to Ricky, there were rumors that a genie's lamp had been found in the woods by some college kids, and if you rubbed the lamp and made an offering, you would be granted one wish. Though these were just rumors, it did help explain how Tom grew 18 inches overnight. Tom was a nice kid, but he never really hit his growth spurt. Everyone at school would tease him that he'd be the only freshman at college who was under 5'4. Sadly enough, Tom went his freshman year to the University of Oklahoma and came back the same Tiny Tom we all grew up knowing. But, out of the blue, Tom grew to be one of the tallest kids in his classes. "Guys hurry up! I can't wait forever to be rich!" Ricky yelled out to his friends as he raced through the forest. Ricky was the most am

Ravana fighting off Jathayu while abducting Sita Source Ravana fought Indra, but luckily his children helped and Indra fell. Ravana singled out Kubera in front of everyone and killed him. He now conquered the heavens. He stole shape-shifting flying machine and chained Indra in the town square of Lanka to show their king's power, but Brahma came to Ravana and ordered him to release Indra, and Ravana did.  While in a river to meditate, the river closed up cause the thousand armed human king Arjun dammed the river so his wife could bathe. Arjun had a boon that nobody could defeat him, and though Ravana tried, he lost. Ravana Was taken into Arjun's city and chained up (Just like Indra was in Lanka) and though he could have escaped by breaking the chains, he decided to stay and meditate/repent for his sins (Karma). Ravana's paternal grandfather pleaded with Arjun and had Ravana released. He told Ravana that he needed to pick his fights, and anger always leads to down

A Statue of Ravana Source Parents had to cast a spell to hide Ravana's ugliness (10 heads) All animals roared when he was born Father, Vishrama, taught him a lot as a kid (Sacred texts). Perfected every teaching except non-violence All rounder  Grandfather (Maternal) taught Ravana about his demon heritage while his father taught him about Brahmin (reading, music, harmony). Ravana was half demon and half brahmin All the siblings hated Kubera cause Kubera thought that Ravana's maternal grandfather Sumali was to blame for why Vishrama left Kubera's mom Went to pray to their great grandfather, the creator of the universe. Everyone asked for boons, and Ravana received immortality and to never be slain (only by a man). He got his 9 heads he cut off back, and Kumbakharna misspoke and asked for eternal slumber instead of life.  Ravana asked Vishrama for an army, and he said "Okay, but what king has no kingdom?" To which Ravana  said "I'll take L

The fountain/river of youth Source Long ago, the many creatures that inhabited Earth coexisted peacefully, that was until two twins were born from a tree. One was outgoing and reckless, while the other was reserved and careful. The twins were called Lu and Ir respectively, and they were friendly with all of the creatures that surrounded them. One day while deciding what to eat, Lu became aggravated that everything was always the same. "Agh! I am so sick and tired of eating fish! Every day we wake up, walk around, say hi to the animals and the other human family down the road, go fishing, give some of our fish to the giants in the North, and then eat our fish. Every day it is the same Ir! Hear me out, what if we went to the jungle and caught a lion? We could eat its meat and grow strong like the lion!" Ir thought carefully, though he was opposed to killing, he also realized that in order to keep the whole community thriving, he needed to keep everyone, including his r

A flying elephant Source 1:The bodisat was a marsh crow. There was a famine so all the crows left the kingdom, and one crow found the bodisat near a pool of water catching fish. The crow asked to be the bodisat's servant and over time he thought "I can do this by myself, I don't need the bodisat" and went to the pool and drowned. 2: The king's sons asked a charioteer to take them to the Judas tree. The driver took the sons one at a time They all disagreed on what the tree looked like cause it was in/out of bloom when each of them saw it. 3: The bodisat was born in a family of a landed proprietor and grew to be wealthy. Him and his brother finished their father's business when he died, and was gifted a lot of money. While the bodisat was asleep, the brother tried to nab the money but the money was dropped into the Ganges. The spirit of the river made a fish eat the money, and the fishermen that caught the fish tried to sell it to people for 1K, b

The golden Banyan deer Source 1: There was 2 hawks, an osprey, a turtle, and a lion. The haws needed friends, so they made friends with the other animals to protect eachother if danger ever arose. Later, a bunch of fisherman came and heard the sounds of the hawk's children and wanted to eat them, so the dad hawk went to the osprey and it helped extinguish the fire until midnight. Then, the turtle's kid put out the fire and dragged the men into the water. Then, the hawks asked the lion to help, and he scared away the men. 2: The Bodisat was a tin and brass dealer. He and another dealer (same merch) decided to split a town in half so they could sell equally. His competitor went to a house where they tried selling their gold (covered in dirt so disguised) plate for his tin, he denied to make them think the plate was worthless. Then, the Bodisat went to them and told them their plate was gold. They were convinced that the Bodisat turned the plate gold (cause the other guy

A comic panel showing Darkseid and his destructive capabilities  Source The supreme overlord of countless worlds, Darkseid, was casually strolling through the universe looking for a new world to conquer. As he was going about his planning for the invasion of this new galaxy called "The Milky Way" he was stopped by his most trusted adviser who warned him about invading dangerous planets, as he had already been beaten out of Oa by the guardians. Darkseid pondered this intrusion, and decided to play it safe instead of possibly risking another failure and have his army begin to doubt his power as a leader. "Who are the most powerful beings on this planet" Darkseid ordered as he pointed his finger towards Earth. "Bruce Wayne and Kal-El" the adviser responded. "Here is a brief history of their lives" he said as he gave Darkseid a vision detailing the lives of the 2 beings. "Batman and Superman huh?" Darkseid paced. "This ma

Standing Buddha Statue Source 1: The bodisat was born as a bull, and was brought up very well by his brahmin keeper. The bodisat told the brahim to challenge a farmer to see whose bull's could carry the most weight. The brahim did so, and a bet was made. The brahmin got on the bull and set "Giddy up you brute!" To which the bodisat's feelings were hurt and he didn't move and the brahmin lost the bet. Later, the bull asked the brahmin why he called him that and told the brahmin to ask for double or nothing and as long as he was nice to the bull, he would win. The brahmin did so, and called the bull "beauty" this time and the bull dragged the carts and the brahmin won great wealth 2: Still as a bull, the bodisat was sold to a woman. The woman raised the bull as her own son, and the bull wanted to repay her. He took a job with a caravan whose bulls couldn't move their carts. The caravan owner tried to sell the bull short, but the bu

100 Jataka Tales Source 1: Buddha is born as a lion. A hare was convinced that the earth was going to cave in and started a mob of animals running away from "where the earth was caving in" and the lion (Buddha) asked what the commotion was about. The hare told him, so he and the lion went to the spot where the earth was caving in and realized that the sound was just a fruit that had fallen from a tree. They went back to the other herds and told them that there was no caving in of earth and everyone went home. 2: A croc's wife asked her husband to kill a monkey so she could eat its heart. The croc tells the monkey that across the river is a bountiful amount of fruits, and the croc volunteers to take the monkey over the river. The croc tries to drown the monkey for its heart, but the monkey tells the croc that monkeys keep their hearts hanging from trees, and if the crc takes him to the tree than the monkey will get the heart. The monkey gets to the t

Lando and Han gambling in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" Source "Don't worry about it Chewy, I know my way around this part of the galaxy. And besides, Lando just invited me to play cards, there isn't anything that could go wrong." Chewbacca roared in disagreement and went into the kitchen of the ship and awaited their arrival at Lando's location. Han and Chewy had been traveling around the galaxy for weeks doing odd jobs, all in hopes of earning enough money to spruce up the millennium falcon, and luckily for them they just got invited to a high stakes card game that could win them enough credits to not just clean up the falcon, but completely upgrade its flying and combat abilities.  Han was confident in his ability to gamnble, as this is the reason he got the falcon in the first place.  "No doubt Lando is trying to win back his ship huh Chewy? But when will he learn that if you can't beat me once, then how could you beat me the seco

Bhima victorious after killing Baka Source This time around, I chose to watch the Mahabharata rather than read it. I really enjoyed this telling of the story, as it incorporated my favorite aspect of the original reading: The massive world it creates that you can become immersed in. I also was a huge fan of the artistic style they chose to present the epic in. The hand drawn cartoon-like figures made me think back to the "Draw My Life Challenge" that went around the internet a few years ago, in which internet personalities and celebrities would tell their life story while drawing images to go along with the story. These images were commonly cartoon-like, just like the Mahabharata video I watched. I also enjoyed how they told the entire story, not just summaries like I read in the version by C.A. Kincaid. One of my biggest complaints with the original Mahabharata was how long it took to read and how confusing the family trees were, and this online film really helpe

The death of Karna Source This week I was prompted with re-reading the Mahabharata, so I chose to read one of the online versions of the Mahabharata, The Princes of Elephant City by C.A. Kincaid. I thoroughly enjoyed this version of the Mahabharata, almost as much as the first version I read during weeks 6 and 7. One of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much is that is was severely condensed. Though I absolutely loved the original, being tasked with reading it is quite the commitment. There are many pages which vary in length and complexity, as well as changes in story telling from page to page. Sometimes the story is told in a traditional way, while on other pages it is told in the form of a song with rhyming couplets taking the place of paragraphs. Also, understanding the family tree is very confusing in this version, as in some pages it throws many names with many relationships at you at once, leading to you having to reread the same paragraph many times to fully under

Motivational quote from my favorite superhero (Green Lantern) from one of the worst movies of all time (The Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds) Source When I first started this class, it sort of overwhelmed me. I was always stressed out and rushing to finish assignments for this class as I would spend most of my day working on homework for other classes. Thankfully, I eventually found my groove and now I am not only less stressed in this class, but I am enjoying it quite a bit more. In the beginning of the semester, I would do the assignments the day they were due, but now I either work 1 day ahead, or 1/2 day ahead. This tactic has made me realize that I have so much time to finish assignments for this class if I either do them a day earlier or get a head start on them, so when I get home with all of my other homework I have one less thing to worry about. I am going to try and continue this habit, and hopefully get to the point where I am working 2-3 days ahead so I c

21 Components of Effective Feedback Source I chose this image in particular, because I think it gives some pretty important things to keep in mind while giving feedback. Granted, not all of the 21 squares are always applicable to every situation (for example, when giving feedback on story posts, I couldn't necessarily give feedback that is backed by data and multiple sources, as I am giving feedback on how I think a story might flow better) but I think it is important to try and hit as many squares as possible when giving feedback. Feedback is one of the most important things when it comes to bettering oneself, especially when trying to become a better writer. I think the inclusion of weekly feedback assignments is very helpful for all, as we all become better writers by analyzing what worked and didn't work for others in their stories, as well as reading the comments on our own stories. I also really enjoy the inclusion of introduction blog comments, as even though I o

The demon king Ravana Source This picture was from my week 3 reading post. The reason this picture stood out to me, is that it really helped me better visualize what Ravana looked like. When I first started reading, the concept of the rakshasas puzzled me. The multiple limbs that they possessed made me think of an insect-looking thing, whereas this picture helped me better understand and visualize what the rakshasas looked like. When looking back at my earlier blog posts, I have realized that I have an issue of writing too much or too little when taking notes. In my earlier reading posts, I would basically retell the entire story as if I were talking with a friend. This lead to fairly long blog posts over mid-small sized stories. As the weeks went on and I got used to the flow of this class, I began taking more condensed notes. Granted, this was during the Ramayana and Mahabharata readings, which were reading assignments that were split into 80 pages. Here, I would take n

Promotional poster for the movie "Justice League" Source "Listen up men! Both the Penguin and the Scarecrow's goons are tearing this city apart, and Batman and the rest of the JLA are still out of commission from last weeks battle. So there's no backup, just your brothers watching your back. Be safe out there. Now, move out" police commissioner Gordon yelled at his men before turning turning back towards his office and slamming the door. "It looks like a war zone out there. They're going to destroy Gotham and rebuild it in their image" Gordon paced. Gathered in his office were the members of the Justice League of America (JLA) who were all looking onto the city with fear and wonderment. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg had all been ambushed a few days earlier, and were still recovering from the battle. When they thought they had the penguin cornered, scarecrow used a special concoction of chemicals to dis