Hey there, how would Kubo and the two strings be different if Hanzo was with his wife and son when they live in the cave, or if Sariatu never hither head?
Hello! Thank you for sending in this ask but unfortunately I no longer intend to answer these kinds of 'What if?' questions. Kubo and the Two Strings remains as one of my top favourite films of all time. But I don't think sending a direct ask to me is a fun way for me to engage with this sort of discussion. I would encourage you to make a post with your own head canons instead and open up the discussion to other fans rather than just solely relying on my response. I also don't want to encourage these kinds of conversations on my art Tumblr. Though it is currently inactive due to my ongoing artblock, I don't want to stray away from the purpose I had created it for.
Why didn't Sariatu use the monkey charm after her head injury? After Hanzo died, why did the paper one spring back up, albeit briefly to aid Kubo? And what would've happened if Monkey and Beetle had survived and what if Kubo had gone through with killing his grandfather? Why wasn't there any payoff with the armour? I mean it should've done SOMETHING in the climax, during the ghost scene? Why did Monkey lie about Kubo's mum being dead, when she could've just told at the Farlands?
This ask was sent in a very long time ago but I haven’t had the chance to post a response to it until recently. I have decided to answer only one of these questions because I think it brings a valuable and interesting contribution to the wider discussion on Kubo and the Two Strings. I do apologise that I was unable to answer the rest of your questions.
I have decided to post my response on my main Tumblr as its not really the kind of content I want to post on my art Tumblr anymore.
I’m quite a fan of Rooster Teeth’s Dungeons and Dragons show, Die is Cast. This is what I imagine the cast of Die is ... Cast ... looks like. (Do I get an inspiration point for that awkward pun?). From left to right: Dorjin, Karol, Lunko, Judge Bread and Professor Leuce.
This took me longer to draw than expected so these character designs are a little outdated now. Next up is their winter outfits and the addition of Judge Fred.
holy fuck i thought your header was a screenshot of a scene
GOTCHA!!!!
I love it when I trip people up with my fanart. That one was drawn just after the first trailer for season 4 dropped! I tried so hard to match those clouds to the canon art style and I only had some blurry trailer footage of Glimmer as my references. Figuring out the colours and shape of her new outfit was madness, ahahahahaha. I got SO CLOSE to drawing her hair right!
I have never been so angry at unnecessarily sexy character designs in a video game. They were secret agents in a puzzle thriller game, for goodness sake.
I have never been so angry at unnecessarily sexy character designs in a video game. They were secret agents in a puzzle thriller game, for goodness sake.
I have never been so angry at unnecessarily sexy character designs in a video game. They were secret agents in a puzzle thriller game, for goodness sake.
I recently had the pleasure of playing an old game called Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward. It was the second installment of the Zero Escape series and was a sequel to 999. I had previously played 999 as a teen, and then again as an adult. So I thought to give Virtue a go. The Zero Escape series is a puzzle thriller where through sheer wits and intellect, nine characters try to survive a deadly game of life and death. Overall, I had about 77 hours of fun playing Virtue. The story was a bit crazy but the puzzles were pretty good.
Unfortunately, two of the character designs were pretty sexist. Everyone else had suitable and practical outfits (including three other ladies in the cast, one of whom is not shown in the line-up below). But these two ladies were given the short end of the character design stick.
Meet Alice (dark skinned lady) and Clover (pink girl). They are highly trained secret agents who are currently hunting down a terrorist organisation. Alice is a math genius who can do astronomical equations in her head. Clover is a new recruit with supernatural telepathic abilities. For some reason the character designers thought they should look like eye-candy strippers instead of, you know, secret agents. And no, they weren’t undercover at a super sexy nightclub if you were wondering.
Normally I would give these character designs an eye roll and forget about it. But unfortunately for me, I had spent about 77 hours with them. After all that I had more than enough spite to fuel a quick redesign of their outfits, plus three in-game sprites for comparison.
I picked their colour palettes from their 2D illustrations - which were used in-game and to promote Virtue. So, their 3D counterparts do have a slightly different colour palette. For my redesigns, I kept the majority of the patterns, shapes and colours which they had on their canon designs. I just shuffled things around and gave them what I thought were practical yet fashionable outfits.
If Monkey and Beetle were their own characters, instead of straight up being Kubo's parents, how would that play out? Why did the Moon King loose his memories and how would things be different if he had kept them? What if Kubo and Kuna, through AU-crossing magic, were able to interact off of each other? Imagine the possibilities of Saru and Monkey interacting together!
My responses were a tad long, so I’ll put them under the Keep Reading Bar.
If Monkey and Beetle were their own characters, instead of straight up being Kubo’s parents, how would that play out?
I’m not sure what you meant by “their own characters”. If you meant that Beetle and Monkey were completely unrelated, enchanted creatures that happen to be able to talk to Kubo, then I think that would notably change the story and theme of Kubo and Two Strings – namely, its poignant theme on the death of family members. This change would leave Kubo alone to struggle with the loss of his parents with two animal sidekicks. It might give Kubo the opportunity to see that there are other things in the world to live for (adventure, new friends, etc), but it wouldn’t bring him any closure on the death of his parents. I think it would be likely that Kubo would end up killing the Moon King or die trying.
Alternatively, if you meant that Beetle and Monkey were tangible echoes of Sariatu and Hanzo (such as their love and/or memories magically reincarnated in very mysterious circumstances), then I think the theme and story would remain mostly the same. Kubo would still get the closure he needs and the loss of Beetle and Monkey would be similarly tragic for him. By changing what Beetle and Monkey are, it makes Kubo’s theme on the death of parents more wistful. Kubo would be interacting with the ghosts of his parents in an opportunity which none of them had.
Personally, I think this wouldn’t be as dramatic as the canon story. Kubo literally meeting his parents via animal avatars was an opportunity that all of them needed. Hanzo “died” when Kubo was a baby; Sariatu spent all of Kubos’ childhood in constant fear and with a deteriorating mind; and Kubo never got an ordinary, peaceful childhood with both of his parents. I think the closure Kubo gets in the canon storyline is stronger this way.
Why did the Moon King lose his memories and how would things be different if he had kept them?
I have never been a part of the production of Kubo, so I can’t speak for its crew as to why exactly it was decided that the Moon King would lose his memories. I can only speculate. From what little we saw of him, it seemed that the Moon King believed he was inherently better than others due to his status as a deity. He was also very unwilling to ever change this perspective. Hence, his memory loss can be seen as a desperate bid by Kubo to get the results Kubo wanted: a second chance for his grandfather, instead of sentencing him to death.
The Moon King’s memory loss was a controversial topic. Some people thought it made sense, others argued it was cheap. I would agree with both parties. Kubo’s actions show that forgiveness is more powerful than vengeance, and that every person deserves a second chance no matter what they have done. Kubo ended the cycle of death and revenge which his father and countless other samurai had attempted. Overall, a great outcome and story lesson. But all of this was forced by Kubo; the Moon King had no say in this. Character redemption arcs must be willingly taken by the character themselves. That character must be genuinely remorseful for their actions and be willing to resolve the impact they had made as a villain. By removing the opportunity for the Moon King to decide what he wanted to do, his forced second chance brings no justice to his victims. The Moon King can never do right by Kubo for all the suffering he caused if he can’t remember it.
Let’s look at the arcs of Zuko and his father, Fire Lord Ozai, from the masterpiece that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Zuko’s time spent in the Earth Kingdom opened his eyes to the suffering the Fire Nation had caused. This eventually led him to join Aang and lead the Fire Nation towards a peaceful path. Zuko’s arc is a proper redemption arc. In contrast, Ozai was taken down in a similar fashion to the Moon King - but with actual justice. Like the Moon King, the threat of Ozai was removed. Aang took Ozai’s firebending away and Zuko led the Fire Nation to remedy the impact from a century of war and colonisation which they caused. But Ozai is hardly remorseful after all of this. So, he ends up in jail for his crimes. Ozai’s jail sentencing brings justice to his victims because his jail time acknowledges the wrong Ozai committed. This is the key difference between Ozai’s and the Moon King’s arcs. It is the reason why Ozai’s arc is satisfactory and the Moon King’s isn’t.
While giving the Moon King a second chance at life with amnesia is merciful and incredibly kind, it erases the opportunity for justice for Kubo as a victim. Keeping the Moon King’s memories would have allowed him to face the consequences of his actions. I doubt he would be remorseful about it, but he’s an old guy outmatched by dozens of villagers. I’m sure they can put him in a makeshift jail.
An alternative outcome which I would like to imagine, is that perhaps the Moon King slowly regains pieces of his old memories over time. Canonically, we know lost memories never come back, but there are glimpses that pop up every now and then. Beetle and Sariatu went through this despite their memory loss. It’s not a far fetch for the Moon King to experience this too. This way, justice can eventually be served and it’s quite likely he would feel remorseful for his actions.
What if Kubo and Kuna, through AU-crossing magic, were able to interact off of each other? Imagine the possibilities of Saru and Monkey interacting together!
I’ve never given such an idea any thought before, so I think it would be kind of weird. It would double the trouble and double the comedy, haha.
Thank you for thinking of the Kuna AU, anon. Unfortunately, it’s something which I no longer feel passionate about. I would prefer not to talk about it anymore. I’m very sorry, but I hope you understand.
Teen prince gets rejected by cool foreign princess he has a crush on.
So. Remember my OC Prince Tyfrid? (If you don’t remember him, that’s okay; it’s 100% what I’m expecting/hoping for lol). I’ve been quietly revamping his story and world. Nothing big yet. It’s mostly just mulling around in my imagination at the moment. I might post a premise about the new and improved The Oracle Prince later if I end up drawing Tyfrid and Horako more often.
What I was trying to say, is that if Monkey wasn't Sariatu, would she still have the snarky personality, human intellect, and bather with Beetle? Also, the whole "What if X was their own person?" could just as easily be applied to Beetle, so, I wonder how that could've turned out? And finally, I feel like the filmakers missed an opportunity to visually show Kubo's dream of his father, after all, they showed him with the Moon King, so what would've happened if we got to dive into Kubo's mind?
In regard to your question about monkey, I'm pretty sure I have answered it in full.
As I have said before, I imagine that if Sariatu had only summoned a monkey from the netsuke instead of using it as a temporary body to cheat death, this monkey would look and act like a regular monkey. It wouldn't talk and would only have the intellect of an ordinary snow monkey.
The Monkey we see in the film is simply Sariatu in a monkey's body. All the intellegence, skill and banter with Beetle was 100% Sariatu. I do not think that when imbued with magic the netsuke would transform into anything more than an ordinary snow monkey. That is simply what I imagine would happen.
As for your other questions, I am very sorry but I just don't have the time to answer it.
Hi there, in the movie what would it have been like if Sariatu had summoned Monkey, but not put her soul into her before dying? How would this have changed the story? Would Monkey still talk or not? How would this affect her relationships with Kubo and Beetle?
Short answer:
A Sariatu-less monkey would make the story remarkably different on both a thematic and plot level. So much so, that I think it would have made it significantly easier for the Moon King to win (if not guaranteed it). This monkey would probably just look and act like a regular Japanese snow monkey. It wouldn’t be as fun to interact with nor be an effective warrior to defend Kubo.
Slightly longer answer:
If Sariatu had not put her soul into the netsuke and transformed into Monkey, it would remove the critical reason as to why Monkey existed as a character in the first place: closure for Kubo. If Sariatu didn’t become Monkey, there would be a void in Kubo’s story that would never be closed. I’ve touched on this topic before in another ask about how Monkey and Beetle fit into Kubo and the Two Strings’s theme about death and why I think they were necessary.
On a story-logic level, Kubo would be too vulnerable without her. He’s a child being pursued by armed goddesses. Even with the help of an origami guide, an amnesiac samurai beetle and the Sword Unbreakable, that’s still an easy win for the Moon King. Kubo needed his mother to defend him. She was an expert swordswoman and highly experienced in warfare. Out of everyone in the hero gang, she’s the only one who has the skills and experience to kill gods.
As to how I think this Sariatu-less monkey would behave, it would probably look like a regular Japanese snow monkey and mostly act like one too. Just imagine Kubo having a snow monkey as a body guard, I suppose. But this monkey can’t talk nor know how to use a sword. But apparently they can swim quite well - so that’s a plus, I guess?
