Category Archives: Focus on the Foes

Women and Demons

Posted on August 18, 2022 by Nathan

Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, by Natalie Haynes – I believe I first saw this book mentioned in a list of online recommendations, but it was also discussed on the Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! podcast. It focuses … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Chinese, Christopher Moore, Feminism, Final Fantasy, Focus on the Foes, Gender, Greek Mythology, History, Humor, India, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Relationships, Religion, Roman, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things Lived On

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Nathan

I wrote about Slimes in the Dragon Quest series eleven years ago, and mentioned the fact that they were inspired by Creeping Cruds from Wizardry, but Akira Toriyama drew them as cute. There was also a mention of Slimes in … Continue reading →

Posted in Board Games, Cartoons, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Focus on the Foes, Food, Games, Gender, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Big Big Whoredom

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Nathan

There often seems to be an undercurrent of fear of female sexuality in religion and mythology. It isn’t always that direct, and sometimes male sexuality isn’t viewed that positively either, but it’s pretty blatant sometimes. The idea of the whore … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Focus on the Foes, Gender, Health, History, Judaism, Language, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Persian, Religion, Roman Empire, Sexuality, They Might Be Giants, Video Games, Zoroastrianism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Yikes, Spikes!

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Nathan

I thought it might be worth looking at the Mario enemies known as Spikes, since they seem to be rather prominent nowadays. I’ve even seen them as stuffed animals at the Nintendo store in Manhattan, although I don’t have one … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Donkey Kong, Fairy Tales, Focus on the Foes, Magic, Mario, Monsters, Mythology, Norse, Russian, Toys, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Orc My World

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Nathan

This past weekend, Orcs were trending on Twitter, based on a tweet about how a description of them in Dungeons & Dragons was pretty racist. (Full disclosure: I haven’t played D&D, although I’ve come across it quite a bit in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Biology, Christianity, Ethnicity, Fairy Tales, Focus on the Foes, Games, History, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Norse, Prejudice, Religion, Science, Star Trek | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Conquer Yourself

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Nathan

My wife has been playing Kid Icarus: Uprising, and there’s a character in it called Dark Pit. A little bit of research reveals that there’s also a Dark Samus and a Dark Link, or rather several Dark Links and Shadow … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Captain N: The Game Master, Cartoons, Comics, Focus on the Foes, Greek Mythology, Kid Icarus, Kirby, Magic, Mario, Metroid, Monsters, Mythology, Relationships, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Television, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fearsome Furnishings

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Nathan

Living versions of inanimate objects are common in fiction. The Oz books have a lot of them, although most of them are friendly. There are, however, many animated objects that are deadly, especially in role-playing games. I was recently thinking … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Discworld, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Focus on the Foes, Games, Jack Snow, Kid Icarus, Magic, Mario, Monsters, Oz, Oz Authors, Terry Pratchett, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Joker’s Not the Only Fool

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Nathan

Joker – SPOILERS! PRETTY MAJOR ONES AT THAT! My wife wanted to see this one, which is perhaps kind of weird considering that I’m the one who’s more into comic-based movies, and that there were rumors it was misogynistic (which … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Focus on the Foes, Health, Prejudice, Relationships, VoVat Goes to the Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Just a Clown Dancing to the Sins of Mankind

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Nathan

3 from Hell – SPOILERS! This film is the follow-up to Rob Zombie’s earlier House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects brings back the Firefly family, a bunch of psychotic redneck serial killers, many of whom are named after … Continue reading →

Posted in Focus on the Foes, Humor, VoVat Goes to the Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What a Piece of Crap Is Man

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Nathan

It’s interesting that Satan’s rebellion against God has become such a significant part of the mythology of the Abrahamic religions, when there isn’t a whole lot of support for the idea in the Bible. It’s described in Revelation, but the … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Focus on the Foes, Islam, Judaism, Mythology, Religion, Snobbery, Zoroastrianism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments