Episode 734 - When love turns to hate
Apr 7, 2025
When love turns to hate… It's a common trope in fiction: partners split up and their once loving relationship turns to one of bitter acrimony! We see hate turning to love frequently too, that's another common trope, I saw both when I watched Willow again last night. Mad Martigan and Sorsha went from hate to love to hate to love again, and Sorsha and her mum Queen Bavmorda went from love to hate. It's a staple in fiction because it's a staple in reality.
Topics and Show Notes
It's such a solid staple in reality that many violent crimes and even deaths are caused by it at the extreme end. It's nasty in reality, but in fiction it's used for drama, comedy, plots, and inciting factors. It's fascinating to me that two very opposite feelings can be so closely related, I'd suppose that it's because of a few factors: passion can apply to anything, once you reach a level of extreme emotion, you're turned up to 11, it's very easy to switch from love to hate and the same passion level applies regardless. When you open yourself up to love you become very vulnerable and it's easy to be betrayed and hurt because of that. There are also biological and neurological factors: if the brain becomes used to the release of things like dopamine and oxytocin due to certain interactions but those hormones are no longer associated with those activities then you could feel rage and disappointment as a reaction instead as a sort of withdrawal- obviously I am NOT a neurologist.
This doesn't just apply to people but ideas and politics too. Saruman from the Lord of the Rings is a great example, his hate of the evil powers is twisted into it's own kind of love. In reality I notice that whenever a person shows a lot of passion over an idea they are apt to switch to its opposite: religious people who become atheists and vice versa. People on one side of politics (left or right) can be apt to switch if they're crazy passionate enough. Mussolini is the posterboy for that. For me I feel this with creative pursuits, when a creative partnership dissolves I can feel very badly about that person. I also feel this more with friendships than loving relationships.
So what are some good stories about love turning to hate or Vice Versa? War of the Roses is a classic of this genre. The relationship between Stirling Archer and Lana Kane is this back and forward, over and over. The Anime Masumune-Kun's Revenge follows the long plot of the lead character attempting to get revenge on the person he once loved and in the process falls in love with them again. One of the prettiest folk songs in the world is a song about hate: Scarborough Fair. It sounds like a beautiful love song but if you understand the lyrics you know that it's the opposite. The singer asks a person to relay messages to a person they once loved: if they can perform a bunch of utterly impossible things then they'll be a true love again. But of course those things can never be done because the true meaning is that the relationship over and all the lovely verses actually mean “GO F*** YOURSELF!”.
This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Clint - This is a Best-off Gunwallace from way back in the day, Quackcast 215! No idea what Clint was like because it’s been deleted totally from our site, but who cares, this music is what’s important! This is heavy, atmospheric, striking, panoramic and evocative. Gunwallace is a master at work.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
A Wing To The Stars - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/apr/01/featured-comic-a-wing-to-the-stars/
Featured music:
Clint - by 1rd2th3st.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Episode 706 - wrong
Sep 23, 2024
Being right on the internet is Sooo important… Being right in life and at all times is essential too! At least that's how a lot of us tend to think. Being told we're wrong, especially on the internet, can be so embarrassing and shameful that we try and avoid it at all costs. But realising you're wrong and being able to admit it and to learn from your mistakes is actually more empowering, powerful, and fulfilling than any amount of rightness can ever be.
Episode 692 - Benevolent racism and other isms!
Jun 17, 2024
Benevolent racism, sexism, ableism, and whatever other “isim” is an interesting aspect of those otherwise negative things. It's not as obvious in its negativity, it's well-meaning and yet quite misguided. So what is it? The term “Benevolent” makes it seem nice and harmless and that IS how people mean it, but that's because they're a bit clueless and ignorant. Benevolent sexism, ableism, and racism is basically using a “positive” stereotype to characterise someone based on their ethnicity, gender rather than as a real person etc, like “all black people have natural rhythm”, or “women are more sensitive and in touch with nature”, or “blind people have all their other senses massively heightened”.
Episode 675 - Lurv
Feb 19, 2024
It was Valentine's Day last week so let's talk about lurv. Love makes the world go round, love solves all problems, love heals all, love is eternal, love is all you need, all you need is love… Well those are all the typical and utterly meaningless pop culture platitudes but they sound good.
Episode 665 - Eyes
Dec 10, 2023
This week our talk is an art one: eyes! We talk about how to draw them, adding meaning and expression, the way different cultures use them, different styles for doing eyes, reflection, shadow, focus and a million other things!
Episode 661 - Steaks... stakes
Nov 13, 2023
Stakes are a part of a story. What does a character want? What means the most to the character? What are they after, what do they care about? Stakes can be really subjective like that and they can also be objective and more universal like death, debt, a threat to a home, nation, planet or even the universe. The most important thing though is that you can communicate the value of those stakes to the audience! It doesn't actually matter WHAT the stakes are as long as the audience understands that they're important.
Episode 636 - The Cusscast
May 22, 2023
We're talking about swearing! Swearing in comics, types of swearing, the use of swearing, causing offense, taking offense, swearing used as a term of endearment, and some history behind various types of swearing. We barely even scratch the surface! We don't swear in the Quackcast if we can help it so we're talking around and about the language without using it, though we DO swear in our Patreon vid, which is free to all patrons, even the $1 level.
Episode 635 - Warcast
May 14, 2023
We're talking about WAR here! Trying to leave out politics, though that's really hard with war because it's basically ALL politics but on fire. So we're talking mainly about depictions of it or at least aspects of it, in art and the media. Both Tantz Aerine and myself work on war comics, Without Moonlight and Pinky TA respectively (plus Tantz also does Brave Resistance with Pitface), so we have some knowledge of the subject from a creator perspective.
