Sita is Over You
After leaving Ravana's hometown in Sri Lanka, Sita was so glad to see one of her favorite people, Rama. She ran toward him and jumped into him with a flying hug, but to her surprise, Rama did not return her embrace. "Rama, is everything okay?" Sita asked. With a dull look in his eyes, Rama replied "No, you have been sleeping with another man - how dare you! I come in here and put myself out here, but you are not loyal to me. How can I move forward in this relationship??" Sita was taken aback - this is not normally how Rama had responded to pressure situations in the past - and with Ravana in the picture, Sita had thought Rama had been a good sport. But now he had cracked. His confidence was shattered, and now he thought she was sleeping with another man! Even though Sita knew she and Ravana had not slept together, she let Rama go on with his tirade. After he ran out of anger, Sita calmly said "So that's how you really feel? That I have betrayed you? Do you know how this show works?" Rama looked confused. Sita continued: "you know on the bachelorette, there's one woman, me, and all of you princes and kings trying to get my hand in marriage. Besides, I haven't been sleeping with Ravana - on our hometown date he showed me his weapons and monster collection. He's not the villain you make him out to be; in fact he's more of a giant nerd." Ultimately when that week's rose ceremony came around, Rama was packing his bags, left to rue the fact that he couldn't keep it together and get the girl of his dreams.
Author's Note: After watching Sita Sings the Blues, I started thinking about what would happen if Sita had broken up with Rama instead of sticking with him and going through trials by fire to prove her purity. I also thought it would be fun to mix in a twist by adding some modern flair with reference to the TV show, The Bachelorette - something relatively similar happened on the show last season, so I thought it would be a good crossover. I incorporated the narrators' general positive attitude toward Ravana from the film as well, making him a weapons nerd rather than a evil king.
Source: Sita Sings The Blues by Nina Paley
After leaving Ravana's hometown in Sri Lanka, Sita was so glad to see one of her favorite people, Rama. She ran toward him and jumped into him with a flying hug, but to her surprise, Rama did not return her embrace. "Rama, is everything okay?" Sita asked. With a dull look in his eyes, Rama replied "No, you have been sleeping with another man - how dare you! I come in here and put myself out here, but you are not loyal to me. How can I move forward in this relationship??" Sita was taken aback - this is not normally how Rama had responded to pressure situations in the past - and with Ravana in the picture, Sita had thought Rama had been a good sport. But now he had cracked. His confidence was shattered, and now he thought she was sleeping with another man! Even though Sita knew she and Ravana had not slept together, she let Rama go on with his tirade. After he ran out of anger, Sita calmly said "So that's how you really feel? That I have betrayed you? Do you know how this show works?" Rama looked confused. Sita continued: "you know on the bachelorette, there's one woman, me, and all of you princes and kings trying to get my hand in marriage. Besides, I haven't been sleeping with Ravana - on our hometown date he showed me his weapons and monster collection. He's not the villain you make him out to be; in fact he's more of a giant nerd." Ultimately when that week's rose ceremony came around, Rama was packing his bags, left to rue the fact that he couldn't keep it together and get the girl of his dreams.
Rama did not get one of these that night (Source: Wikimedia)
Author's Note: After watching Sita Sings the Blues, I started thinking about what would happen if Sita had broken up with Rama instead of sticking with him and going through trials by fire to prove her purity. I also thought it would be fun to mix in a twist by adding some modern flair with reference to the TV show, The Bachelorette - something relatively similar happened on the show last season, so I thought it would be a good crossover. I incorporated the narrators' general positive attitude toward Ravana from the film as well, making him a weapons nerd rather than a evil king.
Source: Sita Sings The Blues by Nina Paley
Wow wow wow, I thought I knew what you were going for until you switch to the bachelorette. That was quite a twist and so entertaining. It flowed really well into it, right when I thought I had the direction of the story figured out, you completely flipped the script on me. I think its a really interesting question, what if Rama and Sita just fell apart. With everything that went on, it was almost like a heart wrenching episode of the bachelorette. Right when you think you know who is getting a rose, it all switches. I also found it really interesting that you started to make Ravana more likable by appealing to the more unknown side of him. Was that apart of the bachelorette angle? Making Ravana more of a threat to Rama by showing that Ravana treated her better? Or was it for the drama?
ReplyDeleteLoved you rendition of the story! I look forward to reading more of your work!
Best,
Christopher
Amazing Justin! I love the idea of Sita moving on with her life after Rama was such a jerk to her. I've gotta be honest: I don't really watch the bachelor/bachelorette type shows, so the introduction of that framework was a little confusing for me until the part where Sita says "Do you know how this show works?" Having more of an obvious set up in the beginning would be helpful. You could also just put your author's note at the beginning rather than rewriting the story! It would be amazing to see a storybook project that develops this set up further. Maybe you could write about the tour of Ravana's monster and weapons collection that gets mentioned? Who else could be one of the potential suitors (is that what they're called on the show? I really don't know anything about the Bachelorette.) Overall, it was really creative and fun to read! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Justin!
ReplyDeleteOkay, this was great. I loved every bit of it haha. The big WOW part for me is the creativity. You did a good job at using imagery and descriptive language. By using that language, it was easy to get lost in your story. I also liked how you modernized it with the bachelorette reference. I wonder who the other contestants were? It would be interesting to see who they sided with. You could use this idea to create a storybook. This would be such a fun read! Concerning the structure of the story, I found it confusing at the very beginning. I did not know this was about the bachelorette until later. What if you made the title more descriptive to the story? It could add a bit more information about the story before reading. One idea would be to include an episode number! Like The Bachelorette episode 8: Sita Is Over You. That was the only thing that stood out as confusing. Well done.
Hello Justin,
ReplyDeleteAwe this part of the Ramayana makes me sad! I understand where Rama is coming from, but Sita was so loyal to him even while she was held captive. I like your twist on things. It was a refreshing way to tell a slightly different story. The bachelorette twist was also a great idea! Sita had the power and she decided to let Rama go. Rama was left lonely checking his ego and evaluating where he went wrong. Making Ravana a nerd and weapon geek was a cool play as well. Seeing him as an evil gagillion headed demon monster can sometimes bore the reader or desensitize them, but the new character trait you added was nice.
Why couldn't Rama just keep it together on set? He just had to let jealousy take over and consume him.
I think this approach would make a great addition to your semester project. One of your stories could incorporate the bachelor into it to spice things up! Great work!
Hey Justin! I saw the title and knew I had to read it! I wanted Sita to leave Rama so badly in the Ramayana, he was a huge jerk in my opinion. I didn't expect the Bachelorette addition to the story, but it added such a funny element to it! I've never seen an episode of the show that turned out like this, you made me want to figure it out and watch it! Thanks for the fun story, it was a nice change of pace.
ReplyDelete