Ancient wisdom, in High Jewellery form.
The nine-tailed fox of Asian legend curls protectively around a 12-carat white opal in a unique High Jewellery ring, sculpted from nearly 2,000 cognac, black and white diamonds. A talisman of love and wisdom, from Chopard, The Artisan of Emotions.
Regarding my previous post, I only had vague intuitions at first, drawing things purely by following my imagination. Still, I’ve tried to sort out these thoughts with the help of AI.
Since I translated it straight from my original Chinese text, some parts might not come across accurately.
In Tibetan Buddhism, buddhas and deities are generally depicted in two major forms, namely the peaceful manifestation and the wrathful manifestation, such as those featured in the One Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Intermediate State. (中阴文武百尊)
Peaceful manifestation: Gentle and serene in appearance, like Avalokiteśvara, Tara and all Buddhas. They symbolize great compassion, emptiness and merciful salvation.
Wrathful manifestation: Characterized by 3 wide-open eyes, bared fangs, flaming red hair, fiery halos and skull ornaments, seen in deities like Yamantaka, Hayagriva and Mahakala, looking extremely fierce and formidable.
What I drew is clearly a wrathful manifestation statue.
Since the destruction of the Potala Palace being destroyed…I still cannot bring myself to accept the plot written by Sente in La menace atlante
Peaceful manifestation and wrathful manifestation are equal in essence, being two sides of the same coin and different manifestations of the true nature of Dharma.(法性)
They differ only in the way they enlighten sentient beings:
Peaceful ~ are revealed to beings with gentle and receptive minds, guiding them with mild compassion.
Wrathful ~ appear before those deeply trapped by greed, anger and ignorance who refuse to listen to reason, using drastic and forceful means to shatter their ego attachments and delusions.
Such wrathfulness represents extreme compassion expressed in stern ways.
1⃣The skull crown (partially broken in my drawing) symbolizes the elimination of the five poisons: greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and jealousy.
2⃣Flames, fangs and triple eyes stand for conquering fear with dread, countering malice with resolve and fighting fire with fire.
3⃣Stepping on demons signifies crushing one’s inner ignorance and worldly troubles.
Fundamentally, the wrathful ~ is never a fit of temper, but the ultimate embodiment of boundless compassion and resolute wisdom in action.
Now how does this relate to Olrik?
He has nothing to do with compassion whatsoever, and is inherently amoral.
Yet striking similarities remain. Out of selfish desire or vengeful fury, he eliminates countless unreasonable and stubborn people. Even without any merciful intentions, his deeds can well be regarded as a worldly form of "spiritual transcendence by force". (超度，当然是物理意义上的)
Moreover, he embodies this dual nature, a trait shared by every protagonist in Blake & Mortimer who harbours a hidden Mr. Hyde side.
In his usual state, Olrik presents his so-called peaceful manifestation: elegant, restrained, noble, rational, orderly and elite. He always maintains an impeccable refined demeanour, shuns vulgarity, and acts entirely in accordance with Machiavellian principles. This calm exterior is the source of his profound thinking, aloof pride and extraordinary intellect.
His true dark side lies in his wrathful manifestation. If Mortimer’s Mr Hyde is capable of indiscriminate killing, Olrik’s hidden ferocity is far more terrifying.
I’ve tried to work out a logical motive behind his obsession with world destruction and his reverence for Basam Damdu.
The wrathful ~ is never the opposite of peaceful ~. It is the inevitable combative outburst when one’s peaceful nature gets suppressed, wounded and pushed to the brink.
Once his will is denied, his existence ignored or his dignity insulted, he instantly transforms into a ruthless, violent and unscrupulous being who stops at nothing to assert himself
We can even elevate this trait to the level of nihilism and world-destroying extremism from another perspective.
"The ultimate purpose behind the birth of Tibetan wrathful guardian deities like Mahakala and Vajrapani is neither venting anger nor seeking revenge. Instead, they wield overwhelming wrathful power to overthrow established worldly orders, rigid social norms, mortal vanity and blind conformity among the masses. All their acts of destruction serve one supreme goal: to uphold absolute subjective will and establish its supremacy over all worldly rules."
Olrik is sharp-sighted enough to perceive the hypocrisy and inherent evils within human civilization, as shown in Eight Hours in Berlin, where he sharply berates his colleagues aboard Air Force One. His deep cynicism gradually evolves into total distrust of all social orders, ideals and human bonds, leaving him believing in nothing but his own will alone.
In line with the modern trend of in-depth psychological analysis of fictional characters: even when he thrives through smuggling, tomb-raiding and espionage, he is fully aware of his permanent identity as a globally wanted fugitive doomed to live in the shadows. No matter how elaborate his schemes are, they always end up being foiled by B&M.
I believe wealth and power are merely superficial driving forces for Olrik; his core motivation lies entirely in safeguarding his self-esteem. He craves constant proof of his superiority, yearns to defeat the two most outstanding elite investigators single-handedly, and strives to make his own will override everything else. However, he can never claim victory within the boundaries set by the existing social order after countless failures. Hence, the only way left for him to win is to overturn the entire gameboard.
His deliberate creation of chaos, covert manipulation of global situations and defiance against all authoritative forces are essentially acts of dismantling established social balance and breaking universally accepted survival rules. Olrik reinterprets Basam’s ideology in his own way: an absolute negation of all hypocritical existing orders.
Basam’s downfall stemmed not from his ambition to overthrow Western-dominated old orders, but from his excessive eagerness to build a brand-new empire and establish his own new regime. By making himself the core of this new system, he was doomed to perish along with his empire when the old forces struck back.
Living in an era marked by nuclear arms races and fragile peace maintained through nuclear deterrence, Olrik aims far beyond founding any new order. He is never meant to be a ruler. The scrapped line in the drafts I posted before — "Retour à zéro" perfectly sums up his ambition. He seeks to replace no ideology with another, but to erase all man-made rules, power hierarchies and social identities completely, sending everything back to its original primitive state.
Nevertheless, could Olrik truly transcend mundane worldly desires just like enlightened wrathful deities? The answer is negative. He also longs for ordinary people’s pursuit of stable life, fame, fortune and a peaceful haven. Nor can he stay eternally detached from worldly joys and sorrows. In fact, he possesses an extremely sensitive mind, and his anger, hatred, pride and joy burn far more intensely than ordinary people, which always become the key weakness exploited by B&M to defeat him.
The supreme essence of true wrathful manifestation lies in the absolute power to dominate oneself and the outer world, free from external control and emotional bondage, with all destructive deeds being fully voluntary choices guided by one’s original heart. This is exactly the ideal villainous state Olrik desperately pursues yet can never achieve. In short, the wrathful manifestation is merely his perfect vision of a supreme supervillain, while in reality he is nothing more than a seasoned yet vulnerable rogue who can easily be subdued by the two British protagonists, just as JLF once commented in the comment section of ActuaBD.
All the above are merely my personal interpretations. The official character settings shall always prevail.
BTW
As for the music I picked
In the first line of the lyrics, the wrathful manifestation of Acala is a solemn avatar niested by Mahavairocana in Esoteric Buddhism to subdue demons and obstacles. The following lines also speak of cutting off worldly afflictions and upholding unwavering Bodhicitta.
Besides, the Yellow Empire created by Jacobs is clearly based on WWII-era Japan,yet it is set in 1940s Lhasa, a place just like a demonic fortress. An empire ruled by militarism and religious domination is terrifying even by today's standards.That's why I think nothing fits better than heavy metal remixed Buddhist scriptures to capture this vibe--the sacred essence of religion getting twisted and corrupted into something dark and demonic.
Good news, everyone: the remake of our inaugural episode is finally available on the public Shadows feed!
We do of course remain proud of the original, but it is undeniable that most aspects of our productions have improved in one way or another since 2018. Now, old and new listeners alike can be treated to a full cast, studio recorded version of this thrilling original story and enjoy an introduction to our show that truly showcases the ever growing skills of everyone involved.
Gather around the fire, pour yourself some tea, and settle in for a tale of amateur archaeology, the local legends of Northumbrian coast towns, and the first step on Professor Troughton's journey of discovering there may in fact be more between heaven and earth than is dreamt of in his philosophy...
