Reading Notes: Heavenly Beings: Susanoo and Orochi
Story source: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).
The Number 8:
The number 8 is extremely prominent in the story. This is not something that I see as something integral to the story, besides being based on the number of tails that the serpent has, but it is something that I may look to play a bit more on.
The Comb:
This really did not have that much of an impact on the story either, but really drew my attention. Is there something that he could have turned the maiden into that would have actively aided him in the plot to defeat the serpent?
Hercules:
The very first thing that I thought of when reading the first couple of paragraphs was the scene in the Hercules movie where Hercules saves Meg from the Centaur. The two are pretty generic plays on the damsel in distress trope, so that is probably where I see the similarities.
Too Easy:
Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in this story's climax. I like that he used trickery to help slay the serpent, but I wish that there was a little bit of a fight. There was so much exposition for the whole defeat of the monster to take up maybe one-fifth of the reading. I think an interesting dynamic would be if the whole "just get him drunk" idea didn't work immediately or there was some other nuance to it.
Modernizing:
I will begin to think of a way to maybe modernize the story in a more lighthearted way. That may include changing details such as a serpent eating daughters and then killing the serpent for alternatives. However, I would like to keep the hero getting the monster drunk aspect the same because I think that is an integral part of the story.
The Number 8:
The number 8 is extremely prominent in the story. This is not something that I see as something integral to the story, besides being based on the number of tails that the serpent has, but it is something that I may look to play a bit more on.
The Comb:
This really did not have that much of an impact on the story either, but really drew my attention. Is there something that he could have turned the maiden into that would have actively aided him in the plot to defeat the serpent?
Hercules:
The very first thing that I thought of when reading the first couple of paragraphs was the scene in the Hercules movie where Hercules saves Meg from the Centaur. The two are pretty generic plays on the damsel in distress trope, so that is probably where I see the similarities.
Too Easy:
Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in this story's climax. I like that he used trickery to help slay the serpent, but I wish that there was a little bit of a fight. There was so much exposition for the whole defeat of the monster to take up maybe one-fifth of the reading. I think an interesting dynamic would be if the whole "just get him drunk" idea didn't work immediately or there was some other nuance to it.
Modernizing:
I will begin to think of a way to maybe modernize the story in a more lighthearted way. That may include changing details such as a serpent eating daughters and then killing the serpent for alternatives. However, I would like to keep the hero getting the monster drunk aspect the same because I think that is an integral part of the story.
Artist's depiction of Susanoo vs Orochi. Source: Deviant Art
Hey Andrew. I read this story as well and had several similar thoughts. I agreed with your thought about the comb so I did some research and found out that in Japanese culture, combs were once considered to have shamanic qualities which could mean that by turning the maiden into the comb, Susanoo was given the power to create the doors and defeat Orochi.
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