Project Topic Brainstorm Week 3

Last week, I looked at 3 options for my project that seemed viable. This week, I will focus in on only one of those options::

Ravana.

I decided to go with Ravana because even though I am not done with my Ramayana reading, I am still liking his character, and how he isn't wholly good or wholly evil but a good mix of both, and I think he could make an interesting project.

To get more research done on him, I clicked on the page you put together that acted as the hub for sources for him here. I looked at past projects and I want to look at Ravana: Roar of the Demon King, along with prior knowledge of Ravana from Ramayana and wiki articles I've already read to brainstorm possible stories.

For my first idea, I have thought about a type of origin story with Ravana. Since the gods seemed to have a great interest in Ravana, I think it could be interesting to explore his early relationships with those gods (like how Ravana has that curse on him from Brahma that only allows him to have consensual sex), and explore his time before Rama.

For a second Idea, I think I could flip the story in Ramayana around a little bit, and have Ravana bow down to Rama, and then when Shurpanka gets her ears cut off, instead of Ravana getting angry and going after Rama, he decides to side with Ramam since he is wise and can see that he would be no match for him. I think there are a lot of ways I could go with this story, I would just have to be creative and descriptive and give good reasons for his actions that still are true to his character.

For the last idea, I've thought about changing the story to where after Ravana takes Sita away from Rama, he is unable to get her back for a long long time because of reasons I will think of later, so she ends up reluctantly liking Ravana more and more until she eventually shares mutual interest with him, and she becomes Queen of Lanka. This story would be pretty crazy, because there are a lot of ways I could go with the story.

This is how I think of Ravana; How could Sita not want this?

Week 2 (3 actually) Topic Brainstorm

Some possible topics I could use for my storybook project:

Weapons of the Gods:

This topic stood out to me because ever since I was young, I was intrigued by the weapons used in combat throughout history. I remember being maybe 9 or 10, and receiving a book of every tank that had ever been made, and loving it. Since this brainstorm is really my first one, I will for now use the wiki list of all the weapons just to be able to browse and narrow down what I want to use. List of Weapons. The weapon that immediately stood out to me is the Arrow of Brahma, which was used by Rama to kill Ravana. I like this weapon because I had just written a story abut Ravana, and could see myself exploring that arc more.

Creation Stories:

This topic interested me because I was raised Lutheran Christian and was in Sunday school so of course I knew the most famous western creation story. I would like to know more about Indian creation stories, so this topic could satisfy that curiosity. To start researching this, I first looked at the wiki articles for Hindu cosmology and Hindu evolution. If I decide to go more in depth with this topic, I will continue to read more stories (the one of the first man sounds interesting, as does the one about Brahma). I am especially intrigued by Hindu evolution, because the concept is very unique and mind-blowing to me.

The Avatars of Vishnu:

What stood out to me about this topic was just the concept of a god using a mortal body as an avatar. Coming from a christian background, the idea is familiar to me, but I really like the way it was implemented in Ramayana (from what I have read so far). I'm sure once I do more and more of the readings, it will help me understand more about how the avatars work and how they are supposed to fit into the overall epic. I read the wiki article on Dashvatara, the Ten Avatars of Visnhu. If i decide to go more in depth with this topic, I think I'll read the comic books about the avatars. Also it makes me think of James Cameron's Avatar. (Also they are blue like Rama is usually pictured!)

Ravana:

Lastly, this topic grabbed my interest because of my past storytelling blog where Ravana was the main character. After reading some about Ravana in reading A and B of Ramayana, I really like his character because he isn't decidedly evil or good; just powerful and looking out for his family. I read the wiki article on Ravana to star my research brainstorming, and if I decide to go more in depth with this topic, I will be sure to read more about his people, the Rakshasas and his family members,