JOJO'S REFERENCES IN THE SEED OF THE HANGED

Due to the author's love for anime, progressive rock, Italian food, and fashion, a legion of JoJo's references often crop up in StrixAlluka's Enjoltaireverse. Especially in her epic saga El semen de los ahorcados / The Seed of the Hanged: 

from the characters' poses -- to the psychedelic colours in key scenes (for instance teal, orange, and chartreuse together - a frequent colour scheme!), to Grantaire, Jo-Lee, and Bossuet being modelled physically and personality-wise on Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu respectively (and Musichetta on Koichi's girlfriend Yukako, the one with Love Deluxe) -- to "Kono Parnasse da!" and "I, Paragon Enjolras, have a dream" (and the core members of AS-SORTED doing the Torture Dance) to La Squadra Esecuzioni being anti-villains in the UK Starforce Auror gaiden (and in As the Luck Would Have It, the Toll AU). To a combined Stone Ocean and Dolly Parton reference where Musichetta tells Jo-Lee about Bossuet: Jo-Lee, Jo-Lee, Jo-Lee, Jo-Lee, I'm begging of you please don't take my man...  

But what stands out is surely a JJBA reference combined with a Date Everything reference: already R and friends had unboxed in the Gryffindor commonroom, in an omake, a Rebel-based (Rebel as an object) rubber duck-chicken hybrid, using a wizarding camera (that's the "honorificabilitudinitatibus" omake where the Gryffindors play chubby bunny using such ten-dollar --ten-dollar is an understatement-- words as "antidisestablishmentarianism," "hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian," and the name of a certain railway station on Anglesey in Wales, and a certain hill on the North Island of New Zealand - hilarious! Grantaire wins the competition but knocking on death's door; he almost gets an impromptu tracheotomy because the "whaka" part of the hill's name is pronounced "fucka" and he has a baker's dozen marshmallows in his mouth and throat! The entire gaiden is HILARIOUS!). 

The reference to JJBA is in Éponine's fanfic QUIDDISTAR, a TENNISTAR AU with Courfparnasse (who want to become QuiddiStars in the AU) as her crack OTP, set on a Quidditch training camp (Courf and Parnasse are obviously not amused!). The titles of the fic's acts, or Matches, are Quidditch puns on the Parts of JoJo's, a reference to the seasons of TENNISTAR being puns on those same Parts! In order, the punny titles are: 

Match I: Phantom Quidditch

Match II: Quaffle Tendency

Match III: Quidditch Cup Crusaders

Match IV: Leather is Untearable

Match V: Boccino Aureo / Golden Snitch

Match VI: Stone Bludger

Match VII: Steel Bat Run

Match VIII: ParnasseLion (4 Balls!)

Match IX: The COURFEYLands

:::::::::::::::::::::::

In TENNISTAR, the punny titles are:

• Volley Tendency is a play on Part 2's subtitle, Battle Tendency.
• Grand Slam Crusaders is a play on Part 3's subtitle, Stardust Crusaders.
• Nylon is Unbreakable is a play on Part 4's subtitle, Diamond is Unbreakable.
• Golden Spin / Giro Aureo is a play on Part 5's subtitle, Golden Wind / Vento Aureo.
  • While not a direct reference, a battle technique known as "Spin" features prominently in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, mainly in Part 7: Steel Ball Run.

LA LLEGADA DE PANURGO

 LA LLEGADA DE PANURGO 

Un temazo de Gentle Giant, inspirado en Rabelais

Traducción de Sandra Dermark 

24 de septiembre, MMXXV

.........

Ved, en el puente de Charenton,

¿no veis a aquel que es rico 

pero un pobretón?

¿Qué quieres tú y adónde vas?

¿De dónde eres, cómo te llamas?

Descansa aquí, tu amigo soy,

yo te quisiera ayudar...

Dijo él:

¿Cómo hablar con tanta sed?

Me arde el gaznate...

Ayúdame y te responderé,

¿mi amigo, tú me ayudarás?

.....

ESTRIBILLO:

Y él dijo: "justo Pantagruel,

soy Panurgo

y del infierno llegué".

.....

Mira alrededor, mira alrededor...

Mira alrededor, mira en torno...

Mira alrededor, busca en torno...

Mira alrededor, halla en torno...

Alrededor...

(Interludio)

....

Así que les unió la hermandad...

Le llevó a casa y le cuidó,

vivieron juntos,

aquel día no fue igual a otros,

hicieron votos de lealtad,

son uno desde aquella vez...

....

ESTRIBILLO:

Y él dijo: "justo Pantagruel,

soy Panurgo

y del infierno llegué".

.....

the hare who lost his spectacles

THE HARE WHO LOST HIS SPECTACLES!

By Jethro Tull

Owl loved to rest quietly whilst no one was watching.
Sitting on a fence one day, he was surprised when suddenly a Kangaroo ran close by. 

Now this may not seem strange, but when Owl overheard Kangaroo whisper to no one in particular, "Hare has lost his spectacles," well, he began to wonder

Presently, the Moon appeared from behind a cloud, and there, lying on the grass, was Hare.
In the stream that flowed by the grass, a Newt.
And sitting astride a twig of a bush, a Bee.

Ostensibly motionless, Hare was trembling with excitement, for without his spectacles he appeared completely helpless!
Where were his spectacles? Could someone have stolen them? Had he mislaid them? What was he to do?

Bee wanted to help, and thinking he had the answer began:
"You probably ate them, thinking they were a carrot."
"No!" interrupted Owl, who was wise. "I have good eyesight, insight, and foresight. How could such an intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?"

But all this time, Owl had been sitting on the fence, scowling!
Kangaroo was hopping mad at this sort of talk. She thought herself far superior in intelligence to the others. She was their leader, their guru, she had the answer: "Hare, you must go in search of the optician!"

But then she realized that Hare was completely helpless without his spectacles. And so, Kangaroo loudly proclaimed:
"I can't send Hare in search of anything!"
"You can Guru, you can!" shouted Newt. "You can send him with Owl!"
But Owl had gone to sleep. 

Newt knew too much to be stopped by so small a problem. "You can take him in your pouch!"

But alas, Hare was much too big to fit into Kangaroo's pouch. 

All this time, it had been quite plain to Hare that the others knew nothing about spectacles

As for all their tempting ideas, well Hare didn't care...
The lost spectacles were his own affair!
And after all, hare did have a spare a-pair!
A-pair!

*****************************

¡Esta es la HISTORIA del CONEJO que PERDIÓ los QUEVEDOS!

Traducción de Sandra Dermark

A Búho le encantaba reposar tranquilo mientras nadie le observaba. Estando posado sobre una valla un día, le sorprendió ver de repente a Cangura pasar, pegando saltos, muy de cerca.

Esto no podrá parecer raro, pero cuando Búho escuchó que Cangura le susurraba a nadie en particular: “Conejo ha perdido los quevedos…” Bien, entonces sí que empezó a hacerse preguntas.

Entonces la luna despuntó por detrás de las nubes y allí, tumbado en la hierba, estaba Conejo. En el riachuelo que discurría entre la hierba… Ajolote. Y posada a horcajadas sobre una ramita de un arbusto… Abeja.

A primera vista inmóvil, Conejo estaba temblando de la tensión, ya que sin sus quevedos estaba completamente indefenso. ¿Dónde tenía los quevedos? ¿Los había robado alguien? ¿Los había extraviado él? ¿Qué iba a hacer?

Abeja quería ayudar, y, creyendo tener la respuesta, intervino: “Tal vez te los comiste, tomándolos por… zanahorias”.

“¡No!” interrumpió Búho, que era sabio. “Tengo buena visión, reflexión y previsión. ¿Cómo podría un conejo tan listo cometer tamaña estupidez?” Pero todo el rato, Búho había estado posado en la valla, ¡poniendo mala cara!

Cangura estaba que pegaba saltos de la rabia con tal conversación. Se consideraba a sí misma muy superior en inteligencia a los otros animales. Era su líder, podría decirse. Ella tenía la respuesta: “Conejo, ¡debes ir en busca de la óptica!”

Pero entonces, se dio cuenta de que Conejo estaba completamente indefenso sin sus quevedos. Así que Cangura proclamó en voz alta: “¡NO PUEDO ENVIAR A CONEJO EN BUSCA DE NADA!”

“¡Tú puedes, Cangura, TÚ PUEDES!”, gritaba Ajolote. “Le puedes enviar con Búho”.

Pero Búho se había dormido. Ajolote sabía demasiado como para que le detuviera un problemilla tan pequeño. “Le puedes llevar en tu marsupio”. Pero, por desgracia, Conejo era demasiado grande y no cabía en el marsupio de Cangura.

Durante todo el rato, estaba claro como el agua para Conejo que los demás no sabían nada sobre quevedos.

Y en lo que respecta a todas sus ideas,

ninguna le podía importar…

¡Perder quevedos era su forma de ocupar

el tiempo, y, después de todo, tenía

recambios!

NEWS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

European Parliament Planning Motor Law

The safety crusade had been well done at first. The few harebrained schemes were quickly ruled out and a sense of rationality developed. But [···] The regulations concerning safety became tougher. 

The Motor Law mentioned in that Rush song --ie outlawing personal internal combustion engines-- may no longer be the stuff of science fiction. Scandinavian MEPs concerned about global warming and climate change are thinking of making it a reality before 2021, "if everything goes down smoothly."
"The damages and injuries will actually decrease; the new school of personal vehicles will save your life (usually) in a 50-mph crash. They will give even less thought than before to the possibility of being injured in a crash. As a result, the damages and injuries will actually decrease a steady six percent every year, so the governments will be happy, the insurance industry will be happy and most of the owners will also be happy -- not to mention the Earth or, for instance, the polar bears," has said Kustaa Huhtikuu of the Finnish Green Party to a happy few leak channels on the Net, including our source for this article.

Prog as a Dead Horse Genre

ie: A music genre that critics (and the mainstream) hate on principle. If a work or creator is from one of the forbidden genres, it is automatically bad, no matter what the creator or work makes. A critic who actually likes any of this stuff has to bend over backward, apologizing that these works are Guilty Pleasures and they know they shouldn't like the stuff. Some critics seem unable to write a review of works they like without an obligatory kick to the dead horse — "this is so much better than that other crap!" Times when these genres were mainstream popular are declared to be the Dork Ages (by mainstreamers at least).

Amateur critics on the Web aren't quite as dogmatic as the professionals, because the amateurs aren't part of an establishment that declares who is hot and who is not. But since anybody with an internet connection and library can be a critic, amateurs often have their own personal Dead Horse Genre, which they flog as hard as the professionals do with theirs.

Of course, a lot of these genres really are full of rubbish. But so are genres that the critics like — Sturgeon's Law strictly applies. If you're a fan of this stuff and you want reviews, you may have to go to a specialized web site that only covers that one genre.

So why kick a genre until it's a dead horse? Because critics regard what they do as Serious Business. They're trying to calculate the canon of Great Works here, and there's no room for anything less. They seem to think that if enough people consume good works, people will start giving out flowers and candy and overthrow The Man and cure cancer, but if they consume bad works, people will have their souls crushed and vote to establish fascism. Some music critics with strong political beliefs go further — some are still angry that the decline of music in the late 60s prevented the revolution that was so, so close at hand! (They seem to forget, or never even realized, that so many of these works were brought to us by - and perhaps never would have been without - corporate entities.)

Another reason for this is that entire genres have been created by taking a style the creators hate, and then doing the exact opposite. Critics who like these rebel genres have to pan the ones they rebelled against. Maybe both genres have something to offer? Don't be silly! This is art, and there's only one way to do things.

Sometimes, a genre turns into a dead horse through a mix of Hype Backlash and It's Popular, Now It Sucks!; the work hit a peak level of popularity where it appears to be everywhere, and both the public and the critics get sick of it.

Most of these genres have one or two exceptions, the creators that the critics like in spite of it all. Of course, the critics usually spend their time trying to explain that no, these bands aren't really part of the hated genre at all— although it should be noted that in some cases this is more true than others.

Arena Rock

There ain't no respect for 1970s bands who made songs specifically for arena spectacles, like Foreigner and REO Speedwagon. Critics regard them as pompous, fake, and not real music because their songs aren't really played — they're performed. Especially to fans of Three Chords and the Truth, this is unacceptable. And since arena rockers usually wrote straightforward lyrics, those who feel that True Art Is Angsty have nothing.

Arena rock is notable for being a Dead Horse Genre that also has a band that is usually loved or liked even by the people who hate the genre: Queen, who were a lot more willing to experiment and do odd things than most Arena Rock bands.

Progressive Rock

Similar to the criticisms of Arena Rock: these bands offend critical sensibilities, which tend sharply toward Three Chords and the Truth. Not only do they do extremely long songs, they tend to write incomprehensible lyrics to go with them.