A partnership from Hell?

[Clem]

I'm seeing quite a few Wagner resonances in Strange Daze. Jack seems to have made the Alberich Bargain - trading the ability to love for power. He hangs with Thera/Hel - who has Valkyrie training. Loki (Loge) and Odin (Wotan) are around somewhere. By his own admission, Jack is a "real prick" - like Siegmund, Siegfried, most of the other Ring cycle characters and Wagner himself. Wagner and Lovecraft - what combination could be more ominous?

The Ghoul Nazi's hair
looks very much like Jack's own.
A flawed prototype?

PS Now that I think of it, Thera looks like a prototype "Wagner soprano" complete with armor.

[Guildenstern]

Odin... Odin... one eyed, clever bastard, kind of into self-mutilation? Sounds a bit like Hephaestus, actually.

And Loki might just be boffing Landers at the moment. Hope he doesn't miss his cue.

[Mirober]

While I'm aware OF Wagner's play, I've never really found the time to investigate it in-depth. Unfortunate, since it sounds like something I'd like.

[Tamayo]

Das Ring der Nibelungen is a very modern version of the story, and it takes about twelve hours to present in its entirety. You don't have twelve hours to waste. Instead, read Volsungasaga and/or The Younger Edda of Snorri Sturlasson which are the original sources.

On the other hand, if you are a Tolkien fan, Wagner is absolutely essential. You can hear duhh-da-duhh-da-da-DUHH! as Frodo and Sam climb Mount Doom -- because the stories are the same.

Tamayo, apprentice illuminata

[Acolyte]

You can hear duhh-da-duhh-da-da-DUHH! as Frodo and Sam climb Mount Doom -- because the stories are the same.

As Tolkien put it, "Both rings are round. There the resemblence ends." I've never been able to detect much similarity between them myself.

The strongest "Ring cycle" correspondence in Tolkien isn't LoTR, but Narn i Hin Hurin in Unfinished Tales. The story's abridged in The Silmarillion so you don't get the full flavor there.

[Acolyte]

Jack seems to have made the Alberich Bargain - trading the ability to love for power.

Jack never struck me as the power-hungry type, and on the one previous occasion where he exercised his power he seemed to find it distinctly unpleasant. What he was really after here was more like self-possession, and he was driven to an apparent soul-suicide more from horror at what he was being compelled to do against his will than anything else. So it's far more ironic: out of love, he gave up his ability to love. It's also nobler. If the ending is as tragic, we can probably trust that it will have come about for different reasons.