Gnhrrr.

[camwyn]

One of the things I do with my characters from time to time is work out where they fall in the Chinese zodiac. I've got very little interest in Western astrology, but the Chinese system is really kind of fascinating for some reason. I don't feel particularly inclined to say it's accurate about the real world- I've never bothered to study people closely enough to see how well or poorly they match- but when it comes to generating characters, or trying to fill in a bit of a character's personality, I often find that the Chinese animal sign and element cycles provide a lot of fascinating ground to work from. Usually I confine this to Asian characters, but every so often I go to see how it applies to one of the Western ones.

(For reference's sake, before I go any further, I was born in the Year of the Wood Tiger. The animal cycle is twelve years long. The elemental cycle is five elements- earth, water, fire, metal, wood- and runs in yin-yang pairs of years so that certain animals are always yin and others are always yang.)

Last night, purely out of curiosity, I went to my favourite Chinese horoscope site- Twilight Zone's Chinese Horoscope- and looked up twoeyesonthesky's sign. Reign of Fire starts in the year 2000, as far as I can tell. Quinn is twelve years old at the time, which gives him a birth year of 1988. I had given him a birthdate of 27 February when I created his journal- most of the time I pick dates more or less at random for my characters, rather than using the same day and month as the actors involved. I put this into the 'find your birth sign' feature on the TZ site.

In 1988 Chinese New Year fell on the 17th of February. As a consequence, Quinn was born in the Year of the Earth Dragon. And because of the twelve year animal cycle, the dragon under London awakened and escaped into the world in the Year of the Metal Dragon.

Throw in the bit where he got unignited flame-stuff directly in his eyes as the dragon was starting to stir, and GOD DAMMIT, this movie could have had enough mythological significance to choke Joseph Campbell…

Comments

[blackswanevent.livejournal.com]

Man-the year of the dragon was right after 1987? I got gypped as far as signs go. -_-; It goes straight from the Rabbit to the dragon?

[camwyn]

Yep. Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar. Rabbit's one of the always-yin animals; Dragon and Tiger are always-yang.

[blackswanevent.livejournal.com]

Yin animals are the girl animals right? and Yang are the boys? Light and dark, Anger and kindness-polar opposites sorto thing right?

[camwyn]

Well, it's not that the specific zodiac animal is conceived of as being male or female, necessarily- just that the prevailing energies and influences are split out rather the way you describe. Yin for female, darkness, sinking, coolness, moisture, etc.; yang for male, brightness, rising, heat, dryness, and so on. Yin for the shaded part of the riverbank, yang for the sunlit one.

[parke-matru.livejournal.com]

. . . woah. That? Is spiffy.

And possibly unintentional.

[camwyn]

I'm almost sure it was unintentional. There's no magic or myth in this movie at all, unless you count the crapola science. The closest they get to anything at all of a tie-in is that at one point Quinn tells his friend Creedy that someone else says he's a dragon slayer, and Creedy responds with 'Oh, a dragon slayer? Very good. And I suppose that makes you King Arthur, then.'

No indication whatsoever of any intention on their part towards the zodiac, or of any significance to the flamestuff in the eyes, although I haven't watched commentary or special features and so could not be entirely sure.

[parke-matru.livejournal.com]

Best-case scenerio, I'm thinking, is along the lines of references to the comic in LXG. When I watched it, I was still among the geeks who had a vague degree of hope that it would somewhat resemble the comic, but the only spot-on part was the poster in the alley that was identical to the credits box in one issue(including Alan Moore's name). Point being, it may have been poorly researched on the whole, but there's the off chance someone stuck in a spiffy detail that was largely overlooked.

That, or it's an amazingly kickass coincidence.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Dude. He was born the same year as my bigger little sister. :->

That said, she and I are both dragons (I was born a cycle before her, which I think makes me metal?).

[camwyn]

No, if you were the cycle before her you would be 1976. Fire Dragon.

Lunar Years of the Dragon in the western calendar.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Huh. I haven't looked it up in forever. I'm definitely still a Pisces, though. :-> My husband (I believe, as does he) is a paper/wood Tiger, and a Leo.