Category Archives: Top Tens

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (16) Horned God & Sacred King

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Cernunnos or at least a similar figure on the Bronze Age Gundestrup Cauldron (public domain)

 

 

(16) HORNED GOD & SACRED KING

 

“He is the laughter in the woods.”

Pan and Cernunnos may be the most famous or iconic (the former more so) but there are more horned deities, particularly if you include deities that are represented or symbolized by horned animals.

“Deities depicted with horns or antlers are found in numerous religions across the world. Horned animals, such as bulls, goats, and rams, may be worshiped as deities or serve as inspiration for a deity’s appearance in religions that venerate animal gods”.

Like the Triple Goddess, modern witchcraft and neopaganism have adapted the horned deities of paganism to the Horned God, representing the male aspects of divinity and second only to the Triple Goddess, typically as her consort among other roles.

“The Theme, briefly, is the antique story, which falls into thirteen chapters and an epilogue, of the birth, life, death and resurrection of the God of the Waxing Year; the central chapters concern the God’s losing battle with the God of the Waning Year for love of the capricious and all-powerful Threefold Goddess, their mother, bride and layer-out. The poet identifies himself with the God of the Waxing Year and his Muse with the Goddess; the rival is his blood-brother, his other self, his weird.”

Of course, supernatural horned beings are depicted much more negatively in Christianity, with the devil and other demons typically as horned (or is that horny)? Interestingly, there are the occasional exceptions, with no less than Moses famously said to be or depicted as “horned” upon being radiant or glorified by God. That is usually attributed to mistranslation but has recurred throughout artistic depictions of him, including by Michelangelo.

“The Horned God has been explored within several psychological theories and has become a recurrent theme in fantasy literature” – with my favorite example of the latter being the titular Horned God in “Slaine: The Horned God” by Pat Mills.

And then there’s the mythic figure of the sacred king, overlapping with that of the horned god, at least in modern paganism and a recurring theme in fantasy.

“In many historical societies, the position of kingship carried a sacral meaning and was identical with that of a high priest and judge…The monarch may be divine, become divine, or represent divinity to a greater or lesser extent.”

The figure of the sacred king was famously propounded by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough – behold the monomyth of the sacrificial sacred king!

“A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Frazer in The Golden Bough…was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. Frazer seized upon the notion of a substitute king and made him the keystone of his theory of a universal, pan-European, and indeed worldwide fertility myth, in which a consort for the Goddess was annually replaced. According to Frazer, the sacred king represented the spirit of vegetation…came into being in the spring, reigned during the summer, and ritually died at harvest time, only to be reborn at the winter solstice to wax and rule again. The spirit of vegetation was therefore a ‘dying and reviving god’. Osiris, Dionysus, Attis and many other familiar figures from Greek mythology and classical antiquity were reinterpreted in this mold…The sacred king, the human embodiment of the dying and reviving vegetation god, was supposed to have originally been an individual chosen to rule for a time, but whose fate was to suffer as a sacrifice, to be offered back to the earth so that a new king could rule for a time in his stead.”

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Animated TV Series (Complete & Revised 2026)

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Iconic image of two of the most iconic animated characters – Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner

 

TOP 10 ANIMATED TV SERIES

 

I’ll be blunt – my favorite TV series are always animated TV series. It was that way when I was a child, watching animated series for children, and now it is that way as an adult, watching animated series for adults.

Hence, my top animated TV series would also tend to be my top TV series in general – as well as ones that I can (and do) watch repeatedly. I look forward to new series or seasons of my favorite series. And whatever the animated series, whether for children or adults, I’ll usually enjoy checking it out, at least for an episode or so.

That said, my Top 10 Animated TV list is more fluid than most of my top ten lists. The top one or two entries may be set in stone, at least for the foreseeable future, but there tends to be a high turnover of entries below them as I tend to turn older series (or series that have run past my enduring interest in them) into special mentions and replace them with newer series at a high rate.

Note also that while I dabble in anime on occasion, it’s nowhere near the extent to which I watch ‘western’ animation on TV – so I keep anime TV series in their own separate lists.

 

 

Netflix promotional poster art

 

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL

(NETFLIX 2025: SEASON 1)

 

 

“This hotel has a dark history, Ms. Freeling. Murders, suicides, disappearances. Before it was a hotel, this was an asylum. Before that, a prison. Before that, a different asylum! Evil is drawn to this place, and legends say these grounds hold one of the six gates to hell.”

I usually reserve my tenth place in my top ten lists as a wildcard entry for the best entry from the present or previous year – that is, in the case of TV series, a series with its first season in the present or previous year.

There were a couple of contenders for animated TV series with its first season in 2025. I considered Creature Commandos for this entry but as at this time I’ve only seen the first three episodes – in the limited time that they were available free on Youtube, so the wildcard winner was this series which premiered on Netflix in 2025.

I mean, the horror genre just screams out for comedic parody or satire skewering its tropes and I’ve always had a soft spot for the latter, such as the Halloween specials on The Simpsons – still arguably the best and most enduring episodes of that series (which features in my special mentions). Sometimes the genre even does it to itself but more usually it’s done by animated TV series like this.

Although I’d never quite thought about how many ghost or horror stories are set in, well, haunted hotels, before I was prompted by this series. Of course, the most famous or archetypal is Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining – the most obvious source of inspiration and reference for this series, not least in the name of the hotel as The Undervale mirroring that of The Overlook in the Shining.

Indeed, haunted hotels tend to be fantasy kitchen sinks for horror – that is, the trope in TV Tropes as a punning quip on throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. In the case of haunted hotels, the whole hotel seems to be a hellmouth for haunting or evil supernatural forces, and not just a haunted single room or so.

And that’s pretty much the premise of Haunted Hotel, but with the comedic twist that the ghosts can’t actually do anything threatening being, you know, ghosts – except financially, as the female protagonist struggles to make a business out of the hotel she inherited from her deceased brother, who is foremost among the hotel’s ghosts and in fairness tries to be helpful. You’d think that an actual haunted hotel would be a thriving attraction, particularly when the ghosts can’t hurt you – although there are some supernatural entities other than ghosts that can be threatening.

As per the precis on TV Tropes (without the voice cast names) – “The series follows Katherine, a single mother who inherited a hotel called the Undervale in upstate New York from her late brother Nathan, and is now stuck trying to turn a profit from a hotel filled with ghosts, demons, poltergeists, and pretty much any spooky weirdos you can imagine. Thankfully (or not) Nathan’s ghost has been added to the hauntings of the hotel, providing some dubious assistance. Meanwhile, Katherine’s hormone-addled 13-year old son Ben and scheming, magically savvy daughter Esther adjust to living in the hotel, along with Abaddon, an ancient demon possessing a little boy from the 18th century.”

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

Promotional poster art

 

 

(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI
(NETFLIX 2023 – PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

Who doesn’t like a roaring rampage of revenge?

I liked it as film with Kill Bill. I liked it as (live action) TV series with My Name. And I like it here as animated TV series with Blue Eye Samurai.

So now I have a holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge. Well, those and John Wick, but John Wick is more my Hail Mary (or Ave Maria) of roaring rampages of revenge. (And yes – that’s a somewhat lapsed Catholic joke about squeezing in a fourth person when you already have three people in a trinity, particularly when that fourth person has their own complicated mythos going on).

Kill Bill even used the phrase – its protagonist Bride stating that she “went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a roaring rampage of revenge” (which Tarantino characteristically borrowed from the tagline to a 1972 film Bury Me an Angel).

Interestingly, all my holy trinity are either east Asian (My Name is Korean) or a fusion of east Asian and Western popular culture. Japanese and Korean film or TV are growing influences in Western popular culture – and they certainly do roaring rampages of revenge well.

This animated series is set in the seventeenth century Japanese shogunate that had isolated itself from the world, in what is called the Edo period, albeit a somewhat alternate historical version given some of the plot details or events.

That makes life even more difficult for our protagonist, the titular blue eye samurai – whose blue eyes immediately mark mixed-race ancestry. That’s on top of another problem for the protagonist in sixteenth century Japanese society, which is something of a spoiler, albeit one easy to guess by the voice (and voice actor) and soon revealed in any event.

Which makes for yet another interesting characteristic of my holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge – the sex of their protagonist. It’s also interesting to compare the different sources for the roaring rampage of revenge in each case – the Bride is seeking to avenge herself on her ex-lover, the protagonist in My Name is seeking to avenge her father, and the Blue Eye Samurai is seeking to avenge herself on her father.

Its standout feature – consistently noted by reviewers – is “its breathtaking animation quality” and never more so than for its exquisitely crafted fight scenes. Our Blue Eye Samurai is almost supernaturally skilled with a blade (consistent with just a hint of fantasy to the series) but does take a beating from time to time. It’s not just the fight scenes – it’s the visual attention to detail with character and background design.

It’s also not just the visual quality, as important as that is to animation. It has a compelling storyline, with twists and turns, as well as immersion into its setting. And it’s not just the Blue Eye Samurai whose story is engaging – almost every other character, major and minor, including the adversaries or antagonists, are also engaging or intriguing, boosted by the stellar voice cast.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

Season 1 promotional art

 

 

(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(PRIME 2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“We’re Vox Machina – we f**k sh*t up!”

Yes – it’s Dungeons & Dragons, the animated adaptation of the first campaign of Critical Role, a weekly web video of voice actors playing the game. And it would seem surprisingly effective condensing the story out of what is presumably much messier game play. Let’s just say the alignments tend towards chaotic

So yes – it features its ensemble cast as a classic D & D adventuring party: ax-crazy goliath barbarian Grog, insecure half-elf druid Keyleth, aristocratic human gunslinger Percy, brash gnome cleric Pike, snarky half-elf twins ranger Vex and rogue Vax, and of course everyone’s favorite lecherous comic relief, gnome bard Scanlon.

Because everyone loves bards! Does anyone not play bards as lovable sex maniacs? I’m pretty sure it’s a class feature

The first season also featured a superb antagonist necromancer-vampire duo in Sylas and Delilah Blackwood, the latter voiced by Grey DeLisle, who always does good villainess voice.

And again – Rings of Power take note this is how you do it…

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

Promotional art for the series, similar to the opening title credits

 

 

 

(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES

(2020-2025: SEASONS 1-6)

 

“Planet Shlorp was a perfect utopia… until the asteroid hit. 100 adults and their replicants were given a pupa and escaped into space, searching for new and uninhabited worlds. We crash landed on Earth stranding us on an already overpopulated planet. That’s right, I’ve been talking the whole time, I’m the one holding the Pupa, my name’s Korvo. This is my show. Bollocks! I just dropped the Pupa! Ugh, this is ridiculous! I hate Earth, it’s a horrible home! People are stupid and confusing…”

I’ve been able to catch this series now it’s on Netflix (except for the final sixth season) – essentially Rick & Morty crossed with Third Rock from the Sun, with epic fantasy drama thrown in the segments involving “the Wall”. That’s particularly so as voice actor Justin Roiland essentially replayed Rick as the leading alien Korvo, although he was replaced by Dan Steven as voice actor for…reasons. I’m a fan of Dan Stevens so I didn’t mind, particularly as they explain it in series by their recurring gag of “SF stuff””.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

Yes – it’s that girl from The Witness, one of the episodes from the first season.

 

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(NETFLIX 2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)

 

“Heavy Metal for millennials”

Love, Death, and Robots is an adult – very adult (or perhaps adolescent) – experimental animated SF and fantasy anthology series on Netflix produced by Tim Miller and David Fincher.

And it is very much an anthology series – consisting of stand-alone or self-contained episodes, usually 10-20 minutes (with the occasional shorter episodes) and produced by different casts and crews in different styles. It’s genre-bending (and blending) between science fiction, fantasy and horror, although leaning towards science fiction (particularly cyberpunk) – hence the robots of the title. Episodes tend toward the themes of – well – love, death and robots, albeit the former two are very broad (and often leaning more towards sex and violence). Most of them are adaptions of short stories from notable SF (or fantasy) writers – including Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Alastair Reynolds and Joe Lansdale.

And the tagline comes from its – ah – heavy influence or inspiration from the comic / magazine Heavy Metal, which highlighted original science fiction stories and art, mixed in with erotica, and the “raunchy, absurd 1981 film of the same name which took viewers a step beyond science fiction.”

As an anthology, it’s something of a mixed bag, but there’s bound to be something you like by way of “a striking or exciting style of animation” or “a genuinely shocking twist”.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Season 1 promotional poster art

 

(5) PRIMAL
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

 

Spear and Fang – a Neanderthal and his tyrannosaur. Or is that a tyrannosaur and her Neanderthal?

Those names – Spear and Fang – are never given in the episodes themselves, which are a marvel of mute mood, only in the titles or credits. Mute in that Spear, our Neanderthal protagonist, does not speak any language as such – although he can be very vocal in grunts or bellows and is otherwise extremely expressive in face and body language. Fang, the tyrannosaur is no slouch in expression either. Primal’s creator, Genndy Tartakovksy, is famous for being light on dialog in his work, but in Primal he has achieved an animated masterpiece with no dialog.

The unlikely but powerful bond between Spear and Fang is the beating heart of the series – unlikely in that it arises in very particular circumstances and endures beyond them, but of course in the context of our world where they are tens of million years apart. It soon becomes apparent that, while the creatures of Primal seem drawn (heh) from models in our own, that this is not our world as we knew it – as the waning age of dinosaurs seemingly overlaps much more with the rising age of mammals. And oh boy – how they are drawn, with lush beautiful animation particularly for its creatures and their landscapes, as well as evocative music or sound.

The world of Primal diverges even more from our own as it becomes an increasingly fantastic setting, dramatically so from episode 4 Terror Under the Blood Red Moon or episode 5 Rage of the Ape Men (with its heartbreaking cliffhanger climax).

In my opinion, this leads to the three episodes that are my personal highlights of the first season – with Spear and Fang facing off against, and typically having little choice but to flee from, their most dangerous and fantastic opponents in sequences of genuine horror or terror. A plague zombie dinosaur in episode 7 Plague of Madness, dark magic in episode 8 Coven of the Damned, and a mysterious invisible creature that seemingly kills for sport in episode 9 The Night Feeder.

However, the most dramatic change of all occurs in its final episode of the first season, when the world of Primal changes radically again to something very different from all preceding episodes – as we see in the second season.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

Scene from first episode Season 1

 

 

(4) HARLEY QUINN
(2019-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-5+)

 

“No way! It’s got comedy, action, incredibly gratuitous violence, and unlike that Deadpool cartoon, it’s actually coming out!”

Now this is how you do Harley Quinn! (Well that and The Suicide Squad film – the one by James Gunn in 2021, not the other one).

Harley Quinn has split off from the Joker and aspires to become the criminal queenpin of Gotham with best friend Poison Ivy and a motley crew of henchmen – Doctor Psycho, Clayface and King Shark. Of course, setting out to become queenpin isn’t going to be easy – but it does make for a fun f-bomb-dropping adult animated series that is by turns “crude, raunchy, violent and completely shameless about all of it”, not to mention a blackly comic parody of the DC comics and cinematic universes.

Add in a stellar voice cast (led by Kaley Cuoco, who voices Harley Quinn to perfection matched only by Margot Robbie in hot pants) and you’ve got a winning formula, particularly in its “grasp of what makes its titular antiheroine so beloved”. As per Caroline Framke of Variety – “Most importantly, Harley gets to be an entire person all her own, as heartbreakingly naive as she is wickedly strange and funny”. It also demonstrates that she’s more than just eye candy – although she plays that to her advantage – but also surprisingly effective in combat and crime with her gymnastic ability, as well as smart and indeed insightful into her own state of mind (when she chooses to be).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

 

 

Season 1 promotional art

 

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(PRIME 2021 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!”

Beware the Superman!

It often seems that the deconstruction of superheroes – particularly along the lines of the trope beware the superman – is more popular these days than the more straightforward narratives of them as heroic figures.

Certainly that seems to be the case for two of the most popular series on Amazon Prime – live-action series The Boys, and this animated series, each adapted from a comic of the same name. In the case of Invincible, it was adapted from a comic series that ran from 2003 to 2018, by none other than Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead fame – although I prefer Invincible, both for the comic and its adaptation. For that matter, I tend to prefer Invincible to The Boys for the breadth and depth of its superhero universe, which features a more DC or Marvel style universe with aliens, parallel dimensions and supernatural beings – although usually with a twist in the tropes.

We are introduced to the titular superhero as Mark Grayson, pretty much your typical high school student, except that he is the son of Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet – and just maturing into his own superhero powers, inherited from his father.

And that’s where things start to get complicated, as he quickly learns there is much more to this world than meets the eye – with some jaw-dropping twists and turns along the way, particularly concerning his own father – including a season finale montage which indicates things are just starting to heat up for Invincible.

The animated adaptation has an all-star voice cast, most notably with J.K. Simmons as its Superman character, Omni-Man (or Nolan Grayson as he is in his everyday suburban life).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

Season 2 promotional art

 

 

(2) RICK AND MORTY
(2013 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-8+)

 

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!! It’s fine! Everything is fine! There’s an infinite number of realities, Morty! And a few dozen of those, I got lucky and turned everything back to normal! I just had to find one of those realities in which we also happen to both die around this time. Now we can just slip into the place of our dead selves in this reality, and everything’ll be fine. We’re not skipping a beat, Morty. Now help me with these bodies”.

As its second place entry indicates, Rick & Morty is the best animated series bar one, ever since its premiere in 2013 – “If you haven’t watched Rick and Morty, a cartoon about the adventures of a mad scientist and his hapless grandson, teleport to the nearest screen and shove every episode into your eyes as soon as possible.”

Rick and Morty was inspired by Back to the Future, if Doc Brown was a caustic alcoholic sociopath and Marty his ever more progressively traumatized grandson – and instead of travelling through time, they hop dimensions throughout the multiverse. It plays with, parodies, satirizes, subverts and deconstructs tropes across the range of popular science fiction and fantasy.

The focus is of course on the titular characters (both of whom voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) and their bizarre misadventures – as mad scientist (and maternal grandfather) Rick Sanchez constantly pulls Morty Smith, a hapless high school student (whom Roiland voices with the perfect distressed wail), and increasingly, Morty’s older sister Summer, out of their normal lives to go on abstract trips across the multiverse for purposes that are never usually expressed. However, the rest of the Smith family is also comedy gold – particularly Morty’s harried and insecure father Jerry (perfectly voiced by Chris Parnell), who is also increasingly (and often unwillingly) dragged into the duo’s adventures. As such, the general formula consists of the juxtaposition of two conflicting scenarios – the intergalactic or interdimensional adventures of the eponymous duo, intercut with family drama. (Co-creator Dan Harmon has referred to it as a cross between The Simpsons and Futurama, balancing family life with heavy science fiction). At the center of it all is Rick, who drinks and behaves like a jerk most of the time – although he has saved the Earth at least once by getting schwifty.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

Promotional art referencing perhaps the titular protagonist’s most iconic phrase (ahem – phrasing!)

 

 

(1) ARCHER
(2009 – 2023: SEASONS 1-14)

 

“Every single noun and verb in that sentence totally arouses me!”

Indeed, as does every episode of my favorite animated TV series Archer, still running strong from its debut in 2009. Although perhaps a more descriptive tagline might be that used by TV Tropes from this exchange between the titular character, Sterling Mallory Archer (codenamed Duchess) and his mother:

“Most secret agents don’t tell every harlot from here to Hanoi that they are a secret agent!”

“Then why be one?”

Aptly described as James Bond meets Arrested Development, the series is about the title protagonist, a dysfunctional spy, working for a dysfunctional spy agency headed by his mother, in which virtually everyone and everything is dysfunctional. Even the time setting of the series is dysfunctional – it is “comically anachronistic, deliberately mixing technology, clothing styles and historical backdrops of different decades”, not to mention the Soviet Union. (“How are you a superpower?”):

“What year is this?”
“I know, right?”

Archer has a reputation, certainly in his own mind, as the world’s most dangerous spy – and he might well be, but for his negligence or incompetence fuelled by one of his many vices and his tendency to remain oblivious to everything but himself. “His primary interest in the job is the opportunity to enjoy a jet-setting lifestyle full of sex, alcohol, thrills, lacrosse, fast cars, designer clothing, and spy gadgets” – hence, my adoption of him as my spirit animal. (After all, who doesn’t want to go on a cobra whiskey bender in Thailand?)

However, he is proficient in field work or stereotypical spy skills – weapons (including an uncanny ability to keep track of every shot fired), combat and driving – although in large part this is driven by the complete lack of any sense of his own mortality or ability to take situations seriously (accompanied by a childlike or adolescent delight in them).

Archer is one of the few (or perhaps only) animated series I recommend to people who are not otherwise a fan of animated series, because in style (including its realistic art style) resembles a live action series – indeed, with a few cosmetic changes, it could be a live-action series. (Well, if only H. Jon Benjamin resembled the appearance of Archer as well as providing his voice – man, I love his voice!). It certainly is a series that improves with watching it (in sequence) over time – as TV Tropes notes, the series’ humor “relies heavily on call backs and running gags alongside a large ensemble cast”, many of whom are recurring and as much a source of character humor as Archer himself.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

 

TV – ANIMATION: TOP 10 (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

(1) ARCHER
(2) RICK & MORTY

If Archer is my Old Testament of TV animation, Rick and Morty is my New Testament.

And as an exception to the rule of the highly fluid nature of my TV top tens, Archer has good prospects of enduring in top spot (and my interest) beyond its peak quality and final Season 14, particularly as it’s a series I rewatch with pleasure. After all, Archer is my spirit animal!

 

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(4) HARLEY QUINN
(5) PRIMAL

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES
(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER – BEST OF 2025)

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (15) Questing Beast & Wild Hunt

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Arthur and the Questing Beast by Henry Justice Ford (1904) and Wodan’s Wild Hunt by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1885)

 

 

(15) QUESTING BEAST & WILD HUNT

 

I just can’t resist their evocative names, despite it being arguable whether they were actually villains. The Wild Hunt in particular seems more of a chaotic force.

Sadly, the questing beast is not so named because it was the subject of a quest but for the French word glatisant – hence its alternative name of the Beast Glatisant – related to or signifying barking or yelping, the noise the Beast made.

The Beast itself was a hybrid beast like a chimera – that is a single beast seemingly composed of different animal parts – albeit one often interpreted as a giraffe, from their medieval description as half camel and half leopard.

The Beast doesn’t feature in the main part of Arthurian legendary canon but pops up as cameo as it were, with the hunt for it as the subject of quests “futilely undertaken by King Pellinore and his family and finally achieved by Sir Palamedes and his companions”.

Of course, I also can’t resist matching the innuendo of questing beast with the adventurous bed. On that note, questing beast overlaps nicely with the innuendo of wild hunt.

“The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various northern, western and eastern European societies, appearing in the religions of the Germans, Celts, and Slaves” – typically involving “a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the dragon slayer Sigurd, the psychopomp of Welsh mythology Gwyn ap Nudd, Biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, Valkyries or elves”.

That list of Wild Hunt leaders is not exhaustive either – indeed, it could be the subject of its own top ten.

“Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom…According to scholar Susan Greenwood, the Wild Hunt “primarily concerns an initiation into the wild, untamed forces of nature in its dark and chthonic aspects.””

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (15) Quetzalcoatl & Papa Legba

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Quetzalcoatl – or Kukulkan – as depicted in the Smite video game. There’s not many depictions of Papa Legba.

 

 

 

(15) QUETZALCOATL & PAPA LEGBA

 

I felt that these pantheons needed some representation in the special mentions for my top mythological heroes – and these two deities seemed to me to be the most heroic of their respective pantheons, Aztec and voodoo, albeit there’s not many heroic choices in pantheons that often seem villainous or at least alien.

Also, how can you not have a soft spot for the name of Quetzalcoatl? It sounds cool – so much so that I like quipping my middle initial stands for it – and what’s more, it IS cool, meaning “feathered serpent”. Also, it absolutely rules at Scrabble.

“A major deity in Aztec and other Mesoamerican cultures, revered as the god of wind, wisdom, learning, the priesthood, and creation, often depicted as a serpent with feathers, symbolizing the connection between earth and sky, and representing life, death, and rebirth. He was associated with the planet Venus (as the morning/evening star), invented the calendar and books, and was a benevolent force, though his myths also involve exile and prophesied return, influencing early interactions with Spanish conquistadors.”

He can apparently be traced back to earlier Meso-American origins – among the Mayans under the less evocative (and Scrabble-winning) name of Kukulkan, or more controversially, even to a legendary Toltec ruler by the name of Ce Acatl Topiltzin. Even more controversially are those Spanish sources identifying Quetzalcoatl with St Thomas the apostle – or that the Aztecs identified Cortes with prophecies of the deity’s return.

I particularly like him because he is the least sacrificial of the Aztec gods, although sources vary as to whether he was opposed to human sacrifice or just had less of it.

Papa Legba is a loa or lwa in voodoo, “acting as the gatekeeper and intermediary between the human and spirit worlds, invoked first in ceremonies to open communication with other spirits. He is depicted as an old man with a cane, associated with crossroads, communication, and passage, symbolizing wisdom and the ability to remove obstacles, though sometimes appearing as a trickster.”

He scores bonus points for being commonly associated with dogs.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (14) Ahriman & Asmodeus

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There’s a shortage of visual representations of Ahriman so I went with the next best thing – Chaos Space Marine Ahriman from 40K, depicted as character feature image in the fan wiki (left). And on the right, Asmodeus as depicted as the supreme devil in Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition Monster Manual. Looking suave…

 

 

(14) AHRIMAN & ASMODEUS

 

Yes – it’s another alliterative pairing of mythological villains.

Ahriman is drawn from the Persian mythology and religion of Zoroastrianism – “also known as Angra Mainyu…the deity of evil, darkness, and destruction in Zoroastrianism, acting as the primary adversary of the creator god, Ahura Mazda”, although ironically the latter seems more phonetically the origin of the name Ahriman.

Ahriman is essentially the devil of Zoroastrianism, although an entity that was more evenly matched with God in that dualistic religion. His resemblance to the devil is not coincidental – “representing chaos and falsehood, Ahriman is believed to have inspired later concepts of the devil and plays a central role in cosmic dualism”.

Asmodeus on the other hand is a demon originating in Biblical mythology, indeed in the Bible itself – albeit the apocryphal Book of Tobit. He rises to prominence above his apocryphal origin due to embodying the sin of lust in folklore and I’m always here for anyone embodying the sin of lust. That gave him a prominence and name recognition in popular culture, not least in Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder – indeed as the supreme ruler of Hell (or the Nine Hells) or effectively the Devil of Dungeons and Dragons in game lore.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (14) Cu Chulainn & Finn McCool

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Collage of hook illustrations in the public domain – Cu Chulainn in Battle, illustration by J.C. Leyendecker in T.W. Rolleston’s Myths & Legends of the Celts 1911 (left) and Fionn Fighting Aillen, illustration by Beatrice Elvery in Violet Russell’s Heroes of the Dawn 1914 (right)

 

 

(14) CU CHULAINN & FINN MCCOOL

 

Cu Chulainn had me at warp spasm – and Finn McCool had me at the best name for a heroic protagonist outside of, well, Hiro Protagonist.

Mind you, Cu Chulainn also scores bonus points with me for being literally named for a dog – the hound of Culann (after “killing a fierce guard dog” as a child and “offering to take its place until a replacement could be reared”).

Cu Chulainn “is an Irish warrior hero and demigod in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore…believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh”. Like Achilles, whom he resembles to a substantial extent, “it was prophesied that his great deeds would give him everlasting fame, but that his life would be short”.

By warp spasm, I’m referring to the “terrifying battle frenzy” for which he is known – “in which he becomes an unrecognisable monster who knows neither friend nor foe”. Like all true warrior heroes, he died in battle – and on his feet, binding himself to a standing stone so that he would remain on his feet until the end.

I can’t help but think of Cu Chulainn as the Conan of Irish mythology – both figuratively and literally, the latter as inspiration for Robert E. Howard’s Conan. That’s my speculation, based on my understanding that Robert E. Howard based Conan’s Cimmerian ethnicity on Celtic models.

Pat Mills’ barbarian Irish hero Slaine was definitely based in part on Cu Chulainn, but also from other sources of Irish mythology.

Speaking of which, Finn McCool is an anglicization of the less distinctive Fionn mac Cumhaill or Finn mac Cumhaill, the latter surname also a potential target for contemporary adolescent humor. He was the central figure of the Fianna Cycle or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology – “the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet”.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (13) Grendel

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An illustration of Grendel by John Skelton from the 1908 “Stories of Beowulf”. Not sure why he has a handbag though – perhaps it belongs to his mother

 

 

(13) GRENDEL

 

Beowulf’s famous monstrous antagonist.

Yes, he’s one of the three epic antagonists for Beowulf, but let’s face it – Grendel is his first antagonist, not only in narrative sequence but in significance. Grendel’s mother doesn’t even have a name, being literally identified through Grendel as her son, and the dragon is similarly not named. It’s hard to think of a more iconic duo of a hero and their antagonist than Beowulf and Grendel.

Also, let’s face it – it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Grendel, even that he had some justice on his side. I mean, who hasn’t felt like this about their noisy neighbors at one time or another? It’s not like there was any residential zoning laws or that Grendel could make a noise complaint to the king.

The latter was particularly so as it was the king – King Hrothgar – who was the noisy neighbor, throwing wild drunken parties in his mead hall, Heorot. Of course, Grendel took his noise complaints too far, attacking the hall every night for years and killing its occupants, hence making it unusable.

As for Grendel’s monstrous nature, it remains a matter of argument as to what exactly he was. He is described as a descendant of the Biblical Cain, who like Lilith seems to have spent his time spawning monsters – with Grendel described as “a creature of darkness, exiled from happiness and accursed of God, the destroyer and devourer of our human kind” and a “shadow walker”. He is also referred to in the poem by words evoking the beings of Germanic mythology – that is, as a monster and giant, albeit his status as such is undermined by the absence of any clear description, apart from him being seemingly linked to water like other supernatural monsters.

Some even conjecture him to be a berserker or fierce warrior. Whatever the case, he met his match – and his death – with Beowulf.

 

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books (Special Mention)

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Mother Goose reading fairy tales by Gustav Dore in 1862

 

 

 

TOP 10 CHILDREN’S FANTASY BOOKS (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

But wait – there’s more!

I’ve ranked my Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books but given how prolific a sub-genre children’s fantasy is, as well as how significant it is both as a proportion of fantasy in general and of children’s literature, there’s more than enough entries for my usual twenty special mentions. .

My first five special mention entries consist of three entries from my Top 10 Fantasy Books and of two entries from my special mentions, reflecting their significance not only as general fantasy but also as or for children’s fantasy.

At present, I have only nine special mentions as opposed to my usual twenty special mentions – because it’s a work in progress as I consider potential entries from classic children’s fantasy that I’ve neglected or overlooked.

 

 

Tolkien’s own art used on the cover of various editions, including the one I own

 

 

(1) J.R.R. TOLKIEN –

THE HOBBIT (1937)

 

While the top entry in my Top 10 Fantasy Books, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, was written for adult readers, it is also regularly read by children – as indeed it was by me, first reading and being enchanted by it as a child.

However, the book to which it was a sequel, The Hobbit, was very much a children’s fantasy book, evident from its opening line onwards. Hence, it has to be Tolkien’s entry among my special mentions for children’s fantasy books – and it has to be my first special mention, reflecting Tolkien’s top spot for fantasy books in general.

“The Hobbit is set in Middle-earth and follows home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit who joins the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves of Thorin’s Company on a quest to reclaim the dwarves’ home and treasure from the dragon Smaug…The story is told in the form of a picaresque or episodic quest, several chapters introduce a new type of monster or threat as Bilbo progresses through the landscape.”

It might be more accurate to describe The Lord of the Rings as successor to The Hobbit rather than sequel – “the story began as a sequel to Tolkien’s 1937 children’s book The Hobbit but eventually developed into a much larger work.” However, there’s still parts of The Lord of the Rings that evoke the sense of children’s fantasy, or at least the childlike sense of wonder, from The Hobbit – particularly in the opening birthday party for Bilbo through to Tom Bombadil, the latter very much a character of children’s fantasy whimsy who wandered into the main plot.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

Prince Caspian movie poster art

 

 

(2) C.S. LEWIS –
NARNIA CHRONICLES (1950-1956)

 

It’s a rare child in Anglophone culture that doesn’t know about Narnia, and the Narnia Chronicles are arguably more definitive as children’s fantasy than Tolkien, particularly when it comes to children’s fantasy involving secondary worlds. Hence the Narnia Chronicles are not only second top spot after Tolkien in my Top 10 Fantasy Books, but also second place special mention after Tolkien here.

It also features child protagonists, who find themselves drawn from our world (specifically England) to Narnia through magic portals – hence the description of the Narnia Chronicles in Wikipedia as portal fantasy.

However, if one character both embodies Narnia and rises above the others, albeit not so much as protagonist but as the moving force behind the world – from singing it into being in the beginning to literally closing the door on it in the end – it’s Aslan.

And Aslan embodies the spirit of Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, those seven fantasy books that continue to inspire readers and remain among the most popular fantasy books or series, strikingly so for children’s fantasy books and explicitly Christian ones at that, although many readers remain unaware of the Christian themes.

Narnia might lack the same grandeur as Middle-Earth but for me it will always have a charm and place close to my heart, with these books as something of a recurring source of familiar comfort even as an adult. And so enchanting that after reading its Chronicles, what young reader doesn’t search wardrobes for other worlds? (Or hot White Witches with Turkish delight? Except I’ll pass on the Turkish delight). I know I still do…

 

RATING: 5 STARS****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

 

Yes – it’s the ur-text of (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons, the iconic cover of the Player’s Handbook for the first edition of the game, featuring its classic art stealing the stones from the eyes of a demonic idol (by artist D.A. Trampier), as featured in the book profile in the Forgotten Realms Wiki

 

 

(3) DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (1974 – PRESENT)

 

Although I do have a special mention entry for an actual Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons remains the best de facto encyclopedic treatment of fantasy themes and tropes- which is not surprising for something that strives to systematically codify the genre of fantasy for obsessive-compulsive rules-lawyering geeks to play as a game.

Hence it was the third special mention entry for my Top 10 Fantasy Books, but what people may forget is its popularity as a game among children or teenagers – something of which the TV Series Stranger Things reminded us. Accordingly, it earns the third special mention entry here.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
(S-TIER: GOD TIER)

 

St Martin’s Press, hardcover 1997 edition – the edition I own

 

 

(4) JOHN CLUTE & JOHN GRANT –
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY (1997)

 

As children’s fantasy is such a substantial part of fantasy (and a substantial part of literature for children), it’s not surprising that my special mention for the Encyclopedia of Fantasy carries over from fantasy in general to children’s fantasy as well.

Indeed, its entry “Children’s Fantasy” alone pays the price of admission to special mention here – from the origins and establishment of children’s fantasy as a distinctive sub-genre of fantasy to the predominant modes of children’s fantasy as worlds in miniature, secret gardens, time fantasies, otherworlds, wish fulfilment, and animal stories.

Of course, it also has entries for individual creators and works of children’s fantasy, although sadly not updated from its online publication.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

*

 

 

(5) GARTH NIX –

OLD KINGDOM & THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM (1995 – 2021)

 

And now we come to a number of entries that I’ll call better than Potter – that is, children’s fantasy series that while reminiscent of or similar to Harry Potter, should have received the same or greater extent of readership, media adaptation, and popular acclaim.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t particularly dislike Harry Potter but I don’t particularly like it either, when there are better books or series of children’s fantasy out there in my opinion.

And foremost among them are those by this Australian writer, notably the cosmic fantasy of his Keys to the Kingdom series and the casual necromancy of his Old Kingdom series. I ranked the former in fourth place in my Top 10 Fantasy Books, but that should not obscure that it and the Old Kingdom series are written for younger and older readers alike – hence my fifth place special mention here.

 

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

And what else to represent this iconic book than this classic image of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka from the equally iconic 1971 film adaptation – used as a meme in popular culture

 

 

(6) ROALD DAHL –

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

(1964)

 

“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination”

Roald Dahl earns special mention in my top literature because of his short stories for adults, but his adult work is eclipsed in popularity by his books or stories for children and it probably isn’t even close – Dahl has been called “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”.

His short stories for adults excel in that archetypal ingredient of short stories, the twist in the tale at the end of the story. For Dahl, that was usually of a dark or macabre nature, something which carried over into his children’s literature only with fantasy, arguably bordering on horror.

Dahl’s children’s books are known “for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters” as well as championing “the kindhearted” and featuring “an underlying warm sentiment”.

And most of them are classics of children’s fantasy, so much so that they could be the subject of their own top ten – James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Witches just to name a few.

However, there could only be one candidate for Dahl’s most iconic book for children and that is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Of course, a large part of that is the cult classic film adaptation in 1971, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – elevating the eccentric chocolate factory owner to the title instead of Charlie. Director Mel Stuart and even more so Gene Wilder portraying the titular character made Dahl’s book their own, at least in memetic popular culture. In fairness, Dahl’s writing career also extended to screenplays and hence he wrote the screenplay for the film, ensuring its faithfulness to the book.

Sadly, fewer people know of the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in 1972, probably because it has never been adapted to film or television as far as I’m aware – and even more sadly, Dahl apparently planned a third book in the series but never finished it.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

Cover 2006 Disney-Hyperion paperback edition of the first book in the series

 

 

(7) RICK RIORDAN –

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS (2005 – PRESENT)

 

Yes – it’s another one of my entries that are better than Potter.

In my eyes, the Percy Jackson series has a similar core concept to that of Harry Potter – a magical world that exists in hidden masquerade within our own but I just like Percy Jackson better because it’s magical world is that of classical mythology.

I also prefer the ingenuity with which the Percy Jackson applies that core concept – such as that mythic geography moves with the human psyche, such that Mount Olympus has moved with the seat of western civilization to the United States or that the “Sea of Monsters” in the Odyssey has moved to the Caribbean (hence the Bermuda Triangle).

As for the series, it revolves around the titular protagonist Percy Jackson as a son of Poseidon and hence superpowered demigod facing a literal clash of the Titans in our contemporary world. It’s a nice personal touch that the idea for it started with Rick Riordan telling his son bedtime stories – and he adapted his son’s dyslexia and ADHD to traits of the protagonist (because the latter’s mind is hardwired for Greek rather than English).

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

Covers of the 2023-2025 Ferren trilogy published by IFWG Publishing International (and as featured on the author’s website)

 

 

(8) RICHARD HARLAND –

FERREN TRILOGY (2023-2025 – rewritten version of his Heaven and Earth trilogy 2000-2003)

 

Another of my better than Potter entries, this Australian post-apocalyptic fantasy trilogy combines two of my favorite fantasy tropes – a post-apocalyptic setting, particularly in its rarer fantasy version as opposed to the more common science fiction version, as well as the rage against the heavens or war on heaven trope. The latter is the source of the apocalypse.

The premise is straightforward. It turned out that space wasn’t the final frontier, but heaven was – as human technology turned to the exploration of the afterlife. So, like all frontiers, exploration led to invasion, as humanity’s celestial astronauts – psychonauts – trampled the sacred fields of Heaven.

Of course you know, that meant war – and it didn’t go too well for us. Eurasia is still burning – the Burning Continents – from the portions of Heavenly ether that fell on it from the Great Collapse, while much of north America is frozen under an angelic ice sheet.

And we’re still fighting the war against Heaven – except that by we, I only loosely mean humanity. Most of actual humanity that has survived the war, at least in Australia, have been reduced to so-called Residuals living in tribes. The war is waged by the possibly posthuman and certainly inhuman Humen, led by the technocratic Doctors, although they seem to use that title in the same sense supervillains do – or Doctor Josef Mengele, who seems to be invoked by the name of two Doctors who led the war against Heaven from South America.

The Residuals are nominally allies with the Humen against Heaven and its angels but are used more as cannon fodder – in perhaps the most literal way possible. All this changes when the titular young male Residual happens across a stray angel left behind after being wounded in battle…

As I said, it’s Australian post-apocalyptic fantasy – both in its setting, and perhaps not surprisingly given that setting, fantasy written by an Australian author (albeit originally from Britain). Forget Harry Potter – with Garth Nix in my top ten and Richard Harland in my special mentions, it seems all the best young adult fantasy is from Australia.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

(9) J.K. ROWLING –

HARRY POTTER (1997-2007)

 

I suppose I have an obligation to mention Harry Potter somewhere in special mentions for children’s fantasy. I believe I’ve fulfilled that obligation.

But seriously, I’ve reserved Harry Potter for particularly special mention – my wild-tier special mention, ultimately destined for my final twentieth special mention, as my moving baseline above which I rank other, better children’s fantasy. In short, the criteria – or rather the criterion – for my children’s fantasy special mentions is that it is what I like to call better than Potter.

I couldn’t resist the running gag of using Harry Potter as my moving baseline but I’m joking and I’m serious. Look, I don’t dislike Harry Potter – wizard school is obviously a great premise with a natural appeal to children and I wish I’d thought of it – but I like it best as a baseline for other, better children’s fantasy to rank above it.

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

Tropes & Other – Top 10 Extinction Events

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Public domain NASA image (artist impression) of the impact event behind my top extinction event

 

 

TOP 10 EXTINCTION EVENTS

 

My Top 10 Geological Time Periods leads me naturally to my Top 10 Extinction Events – the latter being identified by the former

It always intrigues me how the evolution of life on Earth consistently seems to be dragging itself up by its bootstraps, or to mix metaphors, consistently a process of two steps forward and one step back. The steps back are of course extinction events.

These recurring extinction events are so striking as to make me ponder how complex life survived at all, particularly as the evolution of complex life is compressed into the last 10% or so of the planet’s history. If the history of the Earth was scaled to a single year, complex life only emerges in the last couple of months or so of the year (with the dinosaurs in about mid-December and us a few minutes or so before midnight on 31 December).

Sure, simple or microbial life emerged relatively early in the planet’s history, pretty much when the planet had cooled enough for it, but complex life really only took off in the Cambrian Period 541 to 485 million years ago although it had preceded that period. Thereafter however complex life seems to have been regularly hammered with extinction events in the periods after that – hence making one ponder how it survived at all. I suppose once life reached a certain threshold of diverse and complex life, it was a matter of bouncing back – particularly if you have millions of years to do it.

“An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms.”

When it comes to extinction events, the focus of attention is on the so-called Big Five, followed by a proposed sixth such event – so no prizes guessing as to six entries in my top ten. The Big Five originate from “a landmark paper published in 1982”, in which “Jack Sepkoski and David M. Raup identified five particular geological intervals with excessive diversity loss”.

So here are my Top 10 Extinction Events, as a shallow dip top ten.

 

(1) CRETACEOUS–PALEOGENE / K-PG

(66 MILLION YEARS AGO – 75% OF SPECIES)

This is the big one – not the deadliest but the most dramatic and famous of all extinction events, the one that killed the dinosaurs, brought about by the impact of a 10-20 km wide asteroid at Chicxulub in Mexico. Formerly known as the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event from the previous name for the Paleogene Period – I still prefer it as catchier.

 

(2) PERMIAN-TRIASSIC

(252 MILLION YEARS AGO – 90-95% SPECIES)

 

This is the real big one – the biggest as in deadliest extinction event in Earth’s history, as indicated by its colloquial name of the Great Dying – estimated to have wiped out 90-95% of all marine species, although land species (which included amphibians and reptiles) may have been luckier. Volcanic eruptions in Siberia are hypothesized as the primary cause, with widespread climate change including ocean acidification and acid rain. Alas, poor trilobites!

 

(3) ORDOVICIAN-SILURIAN

(444 MILLION YEARS AGO – 85% SPECIES)

 

Once I got the most famous extinction event out of the way, I’m ranking the Big Five by order of deadliness in terms of extinction rates. Life had crawled or swam its way up with the Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event – perhaps even with the first arthropods on land – only for the planet to punch it in the guts again, with this extinction event of climate change and glaciation.

 

 

(4) TRIASSIC-JURASSIC

(200-201 MILLION YEARS AGO – 80% OF SPECIES)

 

Well, the dinosaurs can’t complain too much since although they were around beforehand, they got their big break from this extinction event – from climate change (probably volcanic in origin).

 

 

(5) DEVONIAN

(360-375 MILLION YEARS AGO – 75% OF SPECIES)

 

The least deadly of the Big Five extinction events, from global cooling. The Devonian has been dubbed the Age of Fishes, although amphibians were getting started on land, so the saying that there’s more fish in the sea was much less so after this event. It also took aim at the trilobites but they made it through, only to be snagged by the Permian.

 

 

(6) HOLOCENE

(PRESENT – ? OF SPECIES)

 

Yes – it’s our present epoch with its ongoing Holocene extinction, the ranked as the sixth big extinction event to add to the Big Five, because of – ahem – us. Hence the proposed Anthropocene Epoch for us screwing the planet.

 

 

(7) GREAT OXIDATION EVENT

(SIDERIAN – RHYACIAN PERIODS 2.60-2.46 BILLION YEARS AGO

 

“The “Big Five” of the Phanerozoic Eon were anciently preceded by the presumed far more extensive mass extinction of microbial life during the Great Oxidation Event (also known as the Oxygen Catastrophe) early in the Proterozoic Eon”. It’s strange to think of more oxygen in the atmosphere – from microbial life that had evolved photosynthesis – as toxic to the life that preceded it even at much lower levels than our own atmosphere but there you are.

As extinction events are measured by the fossil record of complex life, that precludes identifying extinction events prior to the Phanerozoic Era, as by its nature simple or microbial life tends not to leave a fossil record.

 

 

(8) END EDIACARAN

(539 MILLION YEARS AGO)

 

 

“At the end of the Ediacaran and just before the Cambrian Explosion, yet another Proterozoic extinction event (of unknown magnitude) is speculated to have ushered in the Phanerozoic” – that is, our own eon of diverse complex life.

 

 

(9) CAMBRIAN & CAMBRIAN-ORDOVICIAN

(513-509, 501-497 & 486 MILLION YEARS AGO)

 

“Several events in the Cambrian and early Ordovician meet or exceed the “Big Five” in proportional severity.”

There’s the End-Botomian extinctions in the Cambrian 513 to 509 million years ago, the Dresabachian extinction event in the Late or Upper Cambrian 501-497 million years ago, and the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction event 485 million years ago – that last imploding the Cambrian Explosion back a bit and gunning for the trilobites, although they made it through.

 

 

(10) LATE PLEISTOCENE

(129,000 – 11,700 YEARS AGO)

 

Not quite up there with the big extinction events but notable none the less for the extinction of the majority of megafauna, again probably due to, ahem, us. The Late Pleistocene also saw the extinction of all other human species but our own – as well as the spread of modern humans beyond Africa, including to the Americas and Australasia, mapping closely to megafauna extinction.

 

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (13) Lao Tzu / Laozi

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Lao Tzu as depicted in Judge Dredd (prog 577, “The Sage”). Spoiler alert – the Tao doesn’t do too well against the Law

 

 

(13) LAO TZU / LAOZI

 

The legendary founder of Taoism and the author of its foundational text, the Tao Te Ching.

What I particularly like is that he just jotted down as a literal afterthought or postscript, at the request of a city sentry to record his wisdom for the good of the kingdom before being permitted to pass – before literally riding off into the sunset on a mystical water buffalo because he was that awesome.

Of course, that is probably pure legend in every respect, including the historicity of Laozi himself, but who cares when it’s that cool? And it’s apt enough for the source of Taoism, with its emphases on living in balance, naturalness, spontaneity, simplicity and detachment from desire – particularly living in the moment and wu wei, or the art of doing nothing effectively.

If only there had been some law requiring any foundational religious text be written by its founder like a university exam – within a prescribed time limit of an hour, or two at most.

Surely that would eliminate much of the source of religious conflict, which at heart often seems to be wars of literary interpretation. My book is better than your book. All those long rambling religious texts – really, less is more. Of course, that would also eliminate most, if not almost all religious books.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)