Cyberfrog Bloodhoney Revisited: An Analysis Pt 1

hello everyone I'm Professor geek welcome back to the channel and welcome to what I'm calling cyberfrog Revisited going more in depth more into literary analysis going to give a little intro as to what that means and what that is here if you're not interested that you want to skip forward I'll put chapters in to the the video I will say though that if you just skip ahead and get into the analysis and it starts to be a little you thinking that's getting a little too deep or whatever come back and hear the introduction about what this is because it's not something that people are used to doing if they haven't been trained in it this is something that that I do for a living I'm a literature Professor I I read lit I I do literary analysis I teach it I understand it from both the writer perspective and the reader perspective and if you're not used to it you should know a few things about it first of all it it takes into account both authorial intent and reader interpretation and the two don't negate each other okay so what you start doing with the literary analysis is you look at patterns and you look at um themes and you look at things that reoccur and whatnot and you start making connections and drawing Connections in in in keeping with the meaning and the plot of the story as well and sometimes you'll hear you know an author of a work say wow I didn't even think about putting that in interesting that you caught that and that doesn't mean that it wasn't there or it doesn't mean that you know you you were you were off on in your interpretation because the author didn't think about that is they putting it in uh on extreme cases you might even have the author no I didn't mean to say that but if the reader genuinely and authentically uh sees that in the work then it's there for the reader and that's just as valid as as the authorial intent within reason right I mean uh I'm not going to go off the mark too far on Cyber frog or whatever but I can't say fyber frog is really about a Milkman whose wife leaves him you know obviously within reason you know that the reader interpretation has its own uh validity so you do look for things um it's it can get complicated at times but you you every writer has their own themes their own sometimes obsessions things that are important to them values and whatnot and whether they mean to weave them into the stories or not they're going to be there sometimes it has to do with the the the time they write it in things they might be going through or whatever this is just all part of of literary analysis taking into all of this account so I've already been on record talking about cyberfrog I love it I did a review I'm a big fan now this is all I've read thus far at the time of doing this literary analysis all I've read is cyberfrog blood honey and the little Ash can that came with it cyberfrog 1990 1998 so um these this is all I'm talking about right now I do have wrecked planet after I finish recording and uploading this revision I'll start to or this analysis I'll start working on my literary analysis of wrecked planet and uh look forward to reading more as soon as I can get my hands on it but it ain't cheap so um Thomas Valiant is on its way to me that's coming too I'm going to do a literary analysis of that as well so you know stay tuned for that I'm going to be looking at cyberfrog blood honey this this package that came blood honey and then cyberfrog 1998 as three separate arcs because that's really what we have chapters almost you know even the Cyber frog blood honey book it has two different uh chapters in it there there's book one and book two there's the intro the the origin of cyber frog and sellam Android s's uh trip to Earth and then there's the the arrival of the Vespas cyberfrog 1998 goes into Heather sween's diary telling us a little bit more about her life and how it was with cyberfrog and and S but also the the coming of the vesas really from her perspective so it's interesting it's it's great these are three distinct arcs like I said I I really don't think any of them are to be missed obviously if you just got the very base level I don't remember if the ash can automatically came with every copy of blood honey or not or if this was a separate tier but uh I can't remember but it's um it's worth reading it's definitely worth reading it's more more of the story flushes everything out so I'm going to start uh kind of in chronological order I think the best way to start is with cyberfrog uh the book One cyberfrog blood honey the uh the part one here and in part one we have as I said chel son's arrival to to Earth and immediately we have this character chelen who's this benevolent power from above a benevolent power coming to Earth from above who believes in Earth believes in the the potential believes in humanity and also knows that there's danger coming the the home planet that chelen comes from Pani if I'm pronouncing that right Pani Pani I forget how Ethan had pronounced it um Pani cared so much about you and your planet that you built what you were and what you could be now that kind of language right there automatically should make you think of something you know we've got a a benevolent power from above coming to Earth to uh interested in the future of humanity the safety of humanity we're going to get into something now that's called intertextuality and this is a literary analysis term it's when a story references another story if if you if you understand another story that the story a is referencing you can understand story a on a whole new level you can still just understand story a on sort of a surface level if you don't know the other story that it's referencing story B but if you understand story B then story a opens up even more to you uh this is commonly done throughout literature uh there's a just a quick example there's a a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called rapin's daughter in which you have this evil owner of this Garden who deals with you know kind of subverts Nature and whatnot he's got this garden and his daughter is s poison this Garden she can't leave this garden and uh there's a man who falls in love with the daughter watching her through a window ends up getting there ends up being poison to you know and and rucini is sort of presiding over these two in his garden and there's this other Professor who is a bane a trying to be a thorn in rucci's side he's described as this big goatee and he's got these curly hair on the sides and whatnot he's trying to save the young man from going into that Garden okay seems like I'm going on a rant but it's a tangent but it's it's relevant I assure you that if you under if you read that story great it's a great story but if you know the story of the Garden of Eden then you know the second deeper level that rucci's daughter is really working on it's not an allegory by any means it's not you we're not reducing it just to that but you've got this uh this evil owner of this Garden is sort of a shadow version of God presiding over the Garden of Eden uh his daughter and then the the man that he tries to to you know bring in there with her you know this is this dark reflections of Adam and Eve and then the professor that's trying to be a thorn in his side with the long goatee and the curly hair on the Sid is a Satan likee character even though in rini's daughter he's contextualized as a good guy it's not a slight to Christianity it's just a literary uh reference it's it's um an illusion so that's what we're going to do here with with cyberfrog as I've said we've got this benevolent power from above I've said it before it's it's definitely hints and notes of jorel sending Superman to Earth what does jorel tell Superman tell call he says they can be a great people C they wish to be they only lack the light to show them the way so I've sent you my you sent them you my son so that you can you know lead by your example and so forth and that's very much what we have here as well but we also have a little Resonance of the Guardians of OAB you know coming down um uh I'm blanking abensur you know coming to Earth and giving Hal Jordan His Green Lantern ring you know here take this power from this other world you know you a an Earthling take this power that's going to course through you and use this power to save Earth so there's a it's it's not an allegory cyber frog is not an allegory for either of these stories but it's taking those those resonances of both of those stories because now we have jel sen coming to Earth and she is going to She carries these two Pani beings inside of her cybernetic womb and they desire they need a form to take so they they latch onto a frog and a salamander but are they are they aliens from the other world are they part Earth it's it's sort of like they're they're sort of both right it's just kind of really blurring these boundaries which makes them tricksters in terms of the sub archetype we'll get to that later and it's it's very fascinating now there are some differences okay there are obvious differences here chelen is a mother figure she's a maternal figure she is female it says that you know she says that in the uh text boxes she's female that's different than jorel the father sending call it's also different than you know the Guardians of AA the sort of the more patriarchal structure you know sending uh presiding over the intergalactic police force and whatnot so why that why that difference why that change well to answer that you have to start looking at some of the other changes you know whenever you have a question whenever you notice something in a piece of literature that that seems odd if it means anything it's going to have connections and resonances to other themes and other aspects of it so what else is different about chelen in her story here as opposed to jel or the Guardians of OA well she doesn't pick a human being now that was her original goal she came to try to find a Boy Scout because Boy Scouts embodying Purity and the the most noble you know values of humanity and of course Superman is called the Big Blue Boy Scout you know so we see the Echoes and the references coming through here but she can't find a human being so she picks a frog a a a creature of Earth and a salamander salamandro she submerges herself into the swamp after she's given birth and and after these um Trion and D Duran are are D Duran Ron are are um given their powers and they know their relationship to her and they're gone she submerges herself into the swamp this kind of primordial ooze right she's the mother in the in the very Earth itself so to speak it's a mother earth type character and again not strictly I'm not talking about allegories I'm not pinning anything down to one meaning but but this is the resonance we get it's this very maternal character she's in the earth in a swamp a fertile you know place and she doesn't just give power to one hero it's not just trick Ron it's not just cyber frog who's there lonely and has to to try and figure it out no she brings two she she's twin it's twins she gives birth to Salam Android as well who's there to protect his brother I mean that's that's Salam Android's there he's doing hero work as well but his soul you know his kind of primary you know objective is to protect his brother you know whereas cyber Frog's there to protect Earth what's think about the significance of that that already we're seeing a resonance a strong Resonance of family here in this book it's it's a mother it's it's there's a different Force around a maternal care than there is a paternal care you know men and women are different mothers and fathers have different you know cares that they give and it resonates with the idea of Mother Earth uh chelen herself even though she's there to save Humanity she's very concerned with Earth as well when the Vespas come later in book two you know she talks about the the vibrations like all the non-human entities of Earth are are crying out you know their their vibrations are on edge or whatever you know so she's very in tune with nature itself you know she's almost this mother nature like character uh in terms of her her uh activity there so uh so really great you know a wonderful imagery right there we're dealing with family so that's our first theme okay we're dealing with family and what does it mean to be really what does it mean to be human because chelen came to find a Boy Scout she couldn't so she she gives birth to these uh entities and they take on the forms of the frog and the and the salamander cyber frog and Sal Android but in her relationship with them it's a very human relationship I mean there's a very very touching scene when Salam Android is created and she's trying to give him his his mission and tell him about you know the things he can do as opposed to the thing cyber FRS can do or whatever and he gets you know tripped up he says you know are you my mother and she says yes and and he just says I I love you you know it's just it's just very sweet moment um and and it it's it's the dialogue Box gives a uh gives a you know ellipses you know it's like sort of chelen doesn't know what to say at first and she says uh to do Ron Ron uh there is my heart and there is you I know of no difference between the two that is that's a really touching thing to say you know and she says you know go with you know go I love you too and I'll always be with you and so forth you know and so this is this is heavily a maternal scene this is not something you get between Father and Son necessarily not at least not um you know displayed like this in this manner so so Humanity um Family motherhood even is a big theme that we're following here just as we're going along and building on things we do find that cyber frog himself um is is rejected at first by Humanity you know obviously so I would have liked to known a little bit more about his his how he is reject or how he reacts to the rejections you know we get this wonderful little uh page you know showing his um you know he's he's hopeful he wants to be there but then he starts to get a little you know wow you guys are really going to treat me like this and uh and you know he has a need for Heather Swain that we'll get to here in a moment but I I would have liked to known and maybe this will be shown in another book um maybe it's known more I don't know but what is cyber Frog's reaction to that does he cross the line cuz he seems very aspirational in terms of uh of heroic archetypes he would seem to be an aspirational trickster so far far but um unless he goes through a dark time where he's like ah I don't think you know Humanity even needs to be saved or whatever they're going to treat me like this if he de delves too far into that that would take him out of aspirational territory but I don't think he does because when he meets Heather Swain you know and she says uh I'd almost given up and he and he tells her never do that never do that you know as um you know something he believes in we never give up you know so so I think it's very quite aspirational his meeting with Heather Swain we'll talk a little bit more about this when we talk about the Cyber frog 19 98 maybe in another uh part but I do want to just draw attention first to the art I mean just the Glorious art Ethan man skyver I'm not comic art expert in terms of how to do it and how the you know um how it's it's it's drawn but I do you know have my my studies in art appreciation and whatnot and what I always loved about Ethan's work even back in the DC days long before You2 before New 52 even is that Ethan's work really pays a testament to the fact that these are mythological characters you know no it's yes it's obviously different these are our fictions they're are entertainment they're not you know religion or anything like the Greek gods or whatever but at the same time they still have that they do that mythological work you know that's a point of my channel it's something I talk about a lot and I and I think that characters in a comic book should be drawn they should be the type of character designs that you could put on the metopes of the Parthenon you know they should be that epic and that you know Grand and Ethan's always portrayed his characters like that you know it's it's a far cry from today this kind of nonsense of ah we need real represent ation in the world you know and Rand you know a modern feminist you know critics or whatever talking about U no we need this I mean look at Modern Marvel Comics you know if you just want an example of how that's degraded and how that's you know devolved into that and and that's not for Comics you know Comics are um if you understand the medium which is a story through both word and visuals then the visuals are there to convey the meaning too you know and you can look at you know a lot of I mean you can trace comic books back to cave paintings you know ancient man's cave paintings you know and the stories told by visuals alone you know we we put words on it later and it's a it's a great medium of the comic book words and pictures but it's uh it's necessary to both so just sort of paying uh homage to the art there a little bit but we do want to talk about Heather Swain because chel sen she's narrating this this origin story for us and she tells us you know she knows cyber frog is growing a little embittered it's it's becoming difficult for him to to serve humanity and they're not very interested in him until he meets Heather Swain and and the the the text is just great it says um when he met Heather Swain A Brave Young woman whose strength had been tested by the circumstances of difficulty of a difficult Family Life her father died in combat and her mother brought a violent physically abusive man into her home so she comes from a broken family and again we're seeing this family aspect here with even the talk of family over and over the talk of family she brings so she had an abusive upbringing I could feel Darkness growing in her as she struggled for someone to trust for a way to survive and she meets cyberfrog and in this relationship even in this meeting of cyber frog you know he he he rescues her from this attacker this man that's trying to assault her and she's on his back as he's leaping through the air and he keeps telling her I've got you I've got you okay well Superman fans know that reference right there you know Superman saves Lois Lane from the helicopter scene easy Miss I've got you you've got me who's got you and we also have this very Superman lowest Lane relationship between cyber frog and Heather Swain not in any kind of love interest way you know obviously there's no love interest between cyber frog and Heather Swain but what I mean about the Superman Lis Lane U relationship there is that they they both Inspire each other you know Superman is here to try and help people on Earth and and he sees people that aren't really maybe trying to help each other all that much and he's trying to inspire them to do better and then he sees Lois Lane this this spunky little you know reporter you know not all that physically powerful in terms of like the the the Heroes and Warriors of the of Earth but she's doing everything she can to make a difference using her job and so forth and that inspires him and likewise Lois is immensely inspired by Superman because here's somebody who actually has the power to help and is helping you know she's used to power corrupting she's used to she's a little jaded at the time that she meets Superman and we we see that same kind of relationship here and it's beautiful you know when um she tells him you know i' I'd given up and cyberx says don't do don't ever do that ever as long as I breathe I'll look out for you promise promise you know and it's just this wonderful um you know relationship there between the two and you see them doing that work in each other so again uh family and you know what they tend to they are a family she you know we get that Salam Android you know coming by is she giving in their names and so forth and we have this this uh we come from broken families to form new families and that's a theme in the work that's a theme in cyber frog is forming new families uh whether it's from divorce whether it's from abuse whether it's from whatever whether it's from different types of people you know a frog and a salamander and a woman but forming that family that Bond because it's really the the humanity of us is really what carries us through to that family now that is where I'm going to leave this for part one that's that's an analysis of part one now the things that I'm going to find and going to show in uh cyberfrog 1998 and book two of blood honey are going to hearken back to this part one we're going to continue to develop this whole analysis we're going to continue to do this and uh and and develop the whole picture of really what cyber frog blood honey is a story about but that's that's where we're going to leave it just for the analysis of what is in book one trying to keep to what's in book one so uh that's GNA I'm close out part one and I will be back um probably the next day I'm GNA probably hopefully post these in successive days and we'll look at um we'll start with 1998 and see how far we get whether it's part two is 19 1998 and then part three is part two or we'll um we might do part two in both of these but we'll see that's what's good about that's what's fun about reading when you really get into a story that that is well constructed and it's got these multiple layers to peel back and themes and connections to make and that's that's reading on a whole deeper level that's really enjoyment I think anyway uh it's a totally different experience than just sort of passively letting a story brush over you and then going and trying to consume something else this is real true story appreciation and yes it can be done even for a comic book there's there's no reason whatsoever it's a completely ignorant thing to say that comic books can't be literature or can't have this kind of thing in it yeah storytelling is storytelling whatever medium it's in and if it's quality storytelling then you can find this kind of analysis in it so thanks for watching that's where I'll leave it there I'll be back later with a continued analysis and we'll move into cyberfrog 1998 and eventually we'll get all the way through wck planet and more as long as I can get some of these great stories because I love them dearly

Channel: Professor Geek

Views: 710

Keywords: Professor Geek, Michael Critzer, comics, superheroes, cultural studies, analysis

Id: wYV1NwNGtk0

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024