momijizukamori: (Default)
Sollux ([staff profile] momijizukamori) wrote2003-08-10 04:45 pm

Symbolism and Subaru

Ahh, the work this costume is putting me through. So, I go to sketch out the design on the back of Subaru's overrobe, so I can start embroidering it onto mine. The basic part of it is a simple five-pointed star, but there's one shot of it (TB3, Pg 75 of the first edition) that clearly shows another symbol inside the star. The screentones make it a bit hard to see what the symbol is, but as far as I can tell, it's the same symbol as on TB Subaru's ofuda (there's a clear shot of them on pg 32 of TB1) . I was fairly certain it was the sanskrit symbol for 'om', the seed-syllable of the universe, the symbol of the absolute, all that good junk. This was further reinforced by the fact that on the next page in TB1, Subaru yells out that symbol, which is there accompanied by the katakana for 'on', on being the transliteration of om into Japanese, as 'm' can't stand by itself like that in Japanese. However, searching online for representations of 'om', it in fact looks like this: \. Subaru's symbol does infact look like a stylized version of of 'om', only missing the bit on the left side. Which means it could be 'om', or it could be something else entirely. And while I know what I need to embroider, now I'm wondering what exactly that symbol is, if not 'om'. Unfortunately, the one person I knew who even might have known is not on the greatest terms with me or my friends. He's kind of Grace's ex, I didn't like him before that, and she and him didn't part on the greatest terms. So, anyone else with Sanskrit knowledge care to weigh in their opinion?