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/
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Episode 722 - Main characters with main character syndrome
Jan 12, 2025
Main characters with main character syndrome? What is main character syndrome? Well the way we're dealing with it here it's normally a snide criticism you level and someone who seems to think the world revolves around them, like social media “influencers”, selfish self centred people, that sort of thing. Popular figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are great examples: they imagine the world should bend to their whim, and normal rules don't apply, like a main character in a fictional story.
Episode 709 - Dragons!
Oct 14, 2024
Dragons are cool, aren't they? That's our subject for today, specifically the giant, monstrous beasties of myth, fantasy, and legend. They can be evil, they can be clever, they can be animalistic and wild, they can be friendly, they can be wise and all knowing, there's absolutely no common personality to dragons at all.
Episode 702 - Expression-cast
Aug 26, 2024
Following on from last week with our Quackcast on faces, this week we're chatting about expressions, which is a very natural progression! expressions are a great way to enhance communication in comics. they can be fun to play with but tricky to master. Though when you get them right they really help lift your game.
Episode 680 - Intelligence in Fiction
Mar 25, 2024
Today we're talking about the depiction of “intelligence” in fiction! There are a lot of ways this shows up: the genius detective who can understand any clue and uncover any lie, the amazing doctor who can understand any disease, the computer nerd who can do ANYTHING with computers, the genius savant with Asperger's, the crafty serial killer with plans within plans…
Episode 666 - Evil
Dec 18, 2023
We're up to number 666 Quackcasts so our topic this time is evil! Evil is a complicated subject, we all think we know what it is but we really don't, there are just so many aspects to it so it's very hard to fully encompass. Broadly “evil” can be something very subjective: anything that runs counter to our own well-being as individuals- people, things and situations that do us harm. You can expand that to your property, your family, friends, acquaintances, pets etc. As that definition gets bigger though to encompass your neighbours, street, suburb, city, state, and country it becomes more objective bit by bit, till we come to the idea that “evil” is something that runs counter to human rights, or the existence of life in general, or the right to self determination etc. A more objective view of evil.
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 664 - Parody and satire
Dec 4, 2023
We're talking about parody and its evil twin satire. There are good parodies and bad ones but we feel the better parodies are the indirect ones that make fun of and exaggerate the theme or the vibe of something rather that simply doing a direct copy but with jokes; For example, Austin Powers and Kingsmen are indirect parodies of spy films, Blazing saddles is an indirect parody of Westerns, The Princess Bride and Shrek are indirect parodies of fairy tales, Galaxy Quest and the Orville (first season) are indirect parodies of TV SciFi shows etc.
