Why the 4 Elements Show Up Everywhere in Fiction (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Have you ever noticed that the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) show up everywhere in fantasy fiction? Why are they so overused? Turns out... there might be a psychological factor at play.
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1. Introduction: 0:00 - 1:23
2. Origins in Ancient Greece: 1:24 - 3:19
3. Why "Four" Elements (Part 1): 3:20 - 4:54
4. Why "Four" Elements (Part 2): 4:55 - 6:27
5. Psychology of the Four Elements: 6:28 - 8:35
6. Applying this Knowledge to Media: 8:36 - 8:53
6a. Devil May Cry: 8:54 - 9:48
6b. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: 9:49 - 9:57
6c. The Legacy of Kain: 9:58 - 10:08
6d. Dark Souls 1 and 2: 10:09 - 11:05
6e. Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne: 11:06 - 12:04
6f. Pokemon: 12:05 - 12:37
6g. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: 12:38 - 15:03
7. What This All Tells Us: 15:04 - 16:03
8. Outro: 16:04
Other Media that Uses the Four Elements:
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Bionicle
- Captain Planet
- Culdcept
- Fantastic Four
- The Fifth Element
- Final Fantasy (particular 1 and 9)
- Fire Emblem
- Genshin Impact
- Golden Sun
- Harry Potter
- Haunting Ground
- Lego Ninjago
- Percy Jackson
- Tactics: Ogre
- Winx Club
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Xiaolin Showdown
(I'll add more when people suggest others) - Hry
Captain Planet sheds a single tear every time we forget about HEART
You could say that the Quintessence is Quintessential?
Damn get the poor propaganda character a box of tissues at this rate were only two minutes in.
And Musashi is disapointed when you forget about Void
Mati??? is that you???
@@derrickjohnson3574 oh no the terrible propaganda of *checks notes* not blowing up the planet we live on
I would add that each element represents a psychological aspect. Each element has it's own unique characteristics, which we can relate relate to. Someone who is more mysterious and deep may feel closer to water, while someone who is nuturing would be closer to earth, for example. The psychology of each element is a very broad and deep topic to explore. Also, some more media that explore the 4 elements: Fairy Tail, Black Clover and W.I.T.C.H.
My personal take on this:
Water = Heart
Air = Mind
Earth = Body
Fire = Soul
@@jacobweeks777 and here's mine:
Water = Sorrow/Guilt
Air = Dream/Ignorance
Earth = Reality/Arrogance
Fire = Denial/Injustice
Seem weird at first, but it is for my story. One villain in particular is Lucifer-inspired and is a moon rabbit with earth powers, he is ruby-colored, an opposite of jade (jade rabbit is another alias for moon rabbit) however the color red is more associated with fire, so that combined with earth will make the symbol, hellfire. His name is Lyneament and is a tragic villain who have done some thing(s) that made him guilty, but is too *arrogant* to accept his past mistakes and tries to impose on his creator, the Bell Judge, to spread his message of the *injustice* he believed the judge inflicted on him. One detail is that arrogance could also be seen as mutual to air because of "hot air" so in a way he also incorporates Air because he chooses to ignore his guilt to pursue his *dream* of overthrowing god.
The four elements in Greek philosophy were also used in their medicine under Humourism. It is believed that the elements are stored in our bodily fluids and having more of one over the other causes different moods and had different associations with different seasons. An organ overproducing a fluid was believed to cause things like depression and mania.
Earth = Autumn = Black Bile = Spleen = Melancholy = Sad
Water = Winter = Phlegm = Brain = Phlegmatic = Calm
Air = Spring = Blood = Heart = Sanguine = Joyous
Fire = Summer = Yellow Bile = Stomach = Choleric = Anger
Galen wrote bout that, the 4 temperaments: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic and melancholic
It’s cause it’s the 4 Elements we feel everyday of our life.
We live on the Earth, we consume Water to live, we breathe in Air to live and the Sun which gives life to us and everything gives heat like Fire.
There is no other element besides these 4 which come close to how apparent they’ve been throughout the course of not just Humanity but Life itself.
The closest is perhaps Electricity followed by Metal but even the both of them are nowhere near as occurring in Life.
Even in our modern understanding, electricity is how elements interact; it isn't really an element itself so much as a behaviour of elements. And unless you understand the division of Air and the mechanism of oxidation, metal is just a permutation of Earth, or perhaps vice versa - some metals are found natively in the ground, and we see base metals enter and leave mineral-like states as they are smelted into shiny metal with the addition of Fire, or corrode back into 'dirt' over time.
The four elements represent the different states of matter. Water is Liquid, Earth is Solid, Air is Gas, and Fire is Plasma. It was just an old way of making sense of a natural phenomena that they didn't fully grasp at the time.
7 classical planets mirrors the 7 sages in Zelda and Wuxing is what inspired BotW magic alchemy system. Its so cool. NGL im glad max made a video like this cuz i legit thought i was the only one seeing these patterns and thought i was going insane. Maybe i still am going insane lol
Been researching Metaphysics for past few months. Its super cool!
naw they grasped it better than solid liquid gas and plasma..
"...they didn't fully grasp at the time"? Not sure about that...
@@Perceval777 the idea that the anxientez were idiots is so inane lol
OMG Bionicle!
Btw, this 4 element system also has a eery connection to math: quaternions.
Hamilton wanted a 3D equivalent of complex numbers (2D, a+bi), since you can encode translations and rotations easily with them, but after many attempts he could not make anything consistent. It was when he was walking near a bridge that it came to his mind the idea of using 4D instead of 3D, that finally made sense:
1 Real Number + 3 Imaginary Units (diff. from each other)
i²=j²=k²=ijk=-1
(They were simplified later into the modern 3D vector notation)
This thing of *needing* greater dimensions for describing things of lower ones comes a lot it math jeje
Also note this: quantum mechanics tells us that The Void (space with no particles) does have *energy* :
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy
Let that sink in
Solid, liquid, gas, plasma.
Also, 10 cool points awarded for leveraging the PsT music in the background.
Fire should be counted as a reaction. You can induce the plasma state by gravity. Pressure also changes the state of molecules.
@@marwo4726Fire is a Plasma i.e Source of Energy.
Fire is chemical reaction not source of energy@@maylabrown4584
Thing, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch
So was Tesla right about a physical aether existing? Were the ancients describing physics through myth?
They always forget Heart, which is why we can never summon Captain Planet, the strongest of all summons.
Kingdom Hearts has heart, and the similiarties to that are nuts. just saw a kingdom hearts metaphysics livestream archived that explained some interesting stuff
Wouldn’t heart = ether??
My only criticism is that sometimes your videos aren't long enough. Your insights are often rather profound, and it's obvious you put a lot of thought and effort into your creations. It's also obvious that you have the ability and the material to do more in-depth videos, though I do understand that YT encourages shorter episodes so they can sell ads more easily.
I have to say, if the short episodes end up being more to your liking, I am quite fond of your multi-episode breakdowns. In any case, you have a real gift, and whatever the length, I look forward to more of your excellent content.
9:20 My mans just invented the roll 20 system.
DnD is a big occult metaphor all along! 🤣 Jokes aside, the reason the game uses these dice is because the creators of the game wanted something that felt "magical" to their fantasy game... And also to start selling this unusual dice to the people that would play the game. Regardless of that, I do agree that the dice helps the game's identity to feel special.
I been working on stuff like this and metaphysics and how it all ties into one another but mostly for Theories pertaining to Zelda and Kingdom Hearts. Glad to know im not the only one seeing this stuff. Im not crazy! Thank you for making this! Metaphysics is one fun rabbit hole and been researching it constantly for the past 5 months almost nonstop. The amount of stuff bout Feng Shui, Wuxing, and how everything seems connected, Macrocosm Microcosm, fabric of space time, etc i been finding and how it all seems connected is awesome. This stuff is super interesting!
Keep up the great work! And have a great day!
Oh yeah forgot to mention bout the 5th element Aether, that is SUPER interesting that a lot of culutres have some form of Aether in the ancient past be it feng shui or something else entirley but learning that Isaac newton believed in it and that Gravity was once thought to be Aether or Celestial Spheres and the solar system, was in a "track" that was made of aether. Or the fact Aether could be light or darkness (or both), about Souls, Spirits and the body (matter)
its a rabbit hole alright and its making me question literally the universe itself not just in video games but yeah im seeing it EVERYWHERE
If the number four is self-evidently perfect for such a purpose, I'm curious about your thoughts of the 5 elements of Chinese cosmology: Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water
the four elements has always been a concept of high regard of mine. I feel like most of the media ive consummed had this reverence towards them. it has a dogmatic influence on my engagement with symbolism & imaginary
The Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation) has the same sort of combination of letters/symbols, then the elements and directions. ("He looked above to seal the Height with Yod He Vav", "From the Spirit He made Air and formed the twenty two letters for speech...")
Another awesome video and SMT keeps showing up all over the place, I guess I finally need to find a way to play it.
4 is also a symbol of stability (4 legs and sides of table, 4 walls, etc) it also alludes to 5 (void, aether) in the sense of a hidden middle, like a cross.
Maybe also represents the 4 directions of a 2d space
This, it's pretty much this. There's a huge numerology factor to the whole "4 [insert practically anything here]" trope
As for East Asia, 4 symbolises Death.
Berserk's God Hand was unique in having 4 leaders before Griffith joined as the 5th wild boy. They're an interesting take on evil demons. The creator may have thought 7 representatives (deadly sins) of evil was played out and twisted up something new!
In thief dark project game - there was interesting bit where in order to obtain an artifact called The Eye you have to travel to different locations in order to obtain the keys for the cathedral eye is stored in. Four keys are 4 elemental runes scattered across the city. Funny enough this eye turns out to be something else that you dont expect when playing the game.
The Fifth Element (1997) just got a whole lot deeper.
This video got me to watch more videos from your channel. You have unlocked so many parts of my brain within one day. Like a key to a lock I never knew existed. Thank you for broadening my horizons and hopefully sending me on a fuller path of life.
I love your videos bro. You always hit it out of the park
Max, your content on learning Alchemy from video games is so wonderful. Have you heard of a couple of research methods called "Alchemy by Inquiry" or "Applied Phenomenology"? I think you are hitting right on it. Video games let us experience philosophies and process them unconsciously before we have those Ah-ha epiphanies. Love your work ❤
Amazing research and presentation once again, Max. Thank you for your insight!
Saw a video recently talking bout this in Kingdom Hearts and Zelda and Metaphysics. Interesting stuff.
It's just kinda neat. Beyond the emotional parallels(like Fire either being positive passion or negative wrath), they are considered the fundamental concepts of the world(e. g. Fire not being limited to literal fire, but more akin to the concept of heat in general), so obviously they would get invoked a lot when talking about the essence of creation. It's for sure a lot more intuitive to the random audiencemember than just getting slapped with the periodic table. It's also not even always 4 because a lot of eastern and easter inspired works add wood as a representation of nature and life and more rarely metal as a representation of artificiality and the people(with it obviously being counted for still existing without serpiant intervention)
Also of note being the way they are not absolute and blend into each others' definitions. Fire can melt earth into what is considered a liquid(though real lava is much more dense, many fictional depictions have it behave similar to water), water exists in the air and water can reasonably combine with earth, air fuels fire, metal as a type of rock is an off-shoot of earth and nature and life cannot come into existance without the 4 "primordial" elements working together to begin with.
Informative as always.
When you talked about the four heavenly kings, i thought about the king of fighters and the orochi saga. In those games, there were 8 servants to orochi and 4 of them were called the heavenly kings, wielding powers of earth, fire, wind and lightning (flashier than water for a fighting game, I think).
This was an awesome video as always. Even if my suggested music on the community post was off topic for it, I hope to see it discussed at some point like TOOL was. Not to mention the other goodies I mentioned in the community post.
Also I had no idea we had a fourth state, was always taught there three. Small town school struggles I guess, though plasma being its own state does make a lot of sense.
This is also the literall basis of the twelve occidental astrological signs ( 4 elements x 3 modalities = 12 signs) also seen in a lot of media and of course of greek philosophical ideation, and also observed by Jung. Occidental or greek astrology is literally trying to understand personality ( as in, pre-psychology psique) through the four elements. This was originally described in Ptolemys Tetrabiblos (the founding book of occidental astrology).
The four elements are also the pre cientific understanding of the four states of matter: Fire (energy or plasma) earth (solid state) air (gaseous state ) and water (liquid state).
Love the mention of dmc and pokemon!! I thought of this a lot of times ( maybe autistic convergence in our psychological pattern search? )
Thanks a lot for this profound filosofical video!! loving the content, also you inspired me to seek out for my diagnose. respect
Hey Max! Today i woke up thinking a lot about the four elements. I work with the Tarot, so i'm always talking about the four suits and their relation with reality. Your video, once more, was just waiting for me to find it. Great intuition for all.
Greetings, Vari ☀️
8:35 unrelated to the topic but i freaking LOVE how you included the Shadow of Destiny as a footage here.
Freaking love that game
in ATLA, to become the avatar, you must master all 4 elements-taking the good aspects of that nation's way of life and becoming aware of the negative aspects that come with it. also, when aang enters the avatar state, he is able to access the knowledge of all past incarnations of avatars. aka the collective unconscious :]
If you think it a bit deeply, you will realize that the whole world of avatar: the last airbender is based on greek and indian philoshopy. I think thats an amazing detail which separates avatar from any other fictional world
Huh first Zelda Alchemy now youtube is recommending me this channel next? Im subbing for sure!
Castelvania does too and this guy knows his stuff, hope he has some castlevania videos
Ancient China also had the classical elements, except there are five (5) instead of four (4). Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
In japan the number 4 is associated with unluckiness or death.
And the number 3 is associated with stableness in the physical sense, a 3 legged chair doesn't wobble, and in engineering we have vertical bracing which basically divide the beams into triangle shapes to make it more stable.
Awesome video! Was just thinking about this recently
I've seen chinese cultivation fiction use 5 elements which consists of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth. What do you think about that?
Metal is made by using the 4 other elements.
@@gozinta82 I can't quite agree with this statement. In wuxing, part of Taoism theory behind five elements, neither of elements is conceptualised as a mix of four others. It's the interaction between each pair of elements, or more specifically, cycles of balance and imbalance, that is described in this theory. However, when symbolism requires to impose the five elements onto quadruple plus extra (four cardinal directions + center, four seasons + change of seasons), it is usually Earth that's associated with extra.
I mentioned this on your community question in research for this video, but having watched your video, I can add a little more information.
The original series of Bakugan centered around 6 "elements", which you also mentioned as a part of the Legacy of Kain part; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Darkness, and Light. additionally, in the TV series, upon the conclusion of the first part, the main character's partner, Drago, combines the energies of positive and negative, in order to make what they call "The Perfect Core" inside of himself. This also causes a fusion in the world he comes from. The world of Vestroia, up to this point, had been split into the 6 parts, 6 planes representing each element used. however, upon the fusion of the Perfect core, Vestroia's seperated elements combine into a single, cohesive world not too different from our Earth. land and water exist, volcanoes and windswept valleys are formed.
Just a thought. I'll still note that the newer "reboot" series kind of ruined that by taking out the Earth element, for whatever reason.
A few cultures have some variation in number. or in elements, for example replacing wind and earth with metal and wood, but all have the same pattern and it's fascinating.
A tangentially related thought I had while watching; maybe I as well as others enjoy Sim racing as it entails a balancing of 4 different forces; acceleration vs. deceleration and turning left vs. turning right, with the balance of the four (and typically stability/balance) found in the center. Weird thought. Interestingly, drifting is sort of like a transcendence of this balance though. I should investigate this further.
I've been puzzled as to why I find it so fun, and this sort of provoked that idea. Thanks for the video and insight.
Most dragons are used to mix all four elements in a single representation: fire as dragon breath, wind as dragon wings, earth as dragon scales or dragon lair, water as dragon underwater breathing capability.
By defeating the dragon, it means the hero conquered over the four elements and reached ether/void state
Your videos often blow my mind but this one was even more mind blowing than usual.
I think you mean ice, fire, candy and slime
Oh my glob that tranch!
The first dungeon crawler I played was Light Crusader (1995) on the Sega Genesis. At the near start of the game, you can purchase contained magical energies of each element and use them alone or combine them with one or two other elements to cast an elemental spell. The more you combined, the more powerful the spell, but what I find most interesting is that combining all four resulted in a spell called “Judgement.” I have not taken much time to analyze this, but I think it is worth exploring.
PS: I’m surprised you didn’t mention Avatar: The Last Airbender, but that may warrant an entire video on its own.
I cannot stress enough how much I LOVE your channel
Cool video. Been thinking a lot about this before. Think about the seven chakras and how the upper three are associated with the head and higher faculties let’s say, while the lower four are associated with the body and are often assigned corresponding elements (solar plexus with fire for example). Four is essentially a number of the body and of the earth. Four bodily energy centers (chakras), cardinal directions, elements, seasons, etc.
I think the number three is more associated with the head and heaven, as there are three chakras of the head that are the sources of our higher faculties: authority (crown/father), word (throat/son), and intuition (third eye/holy spirit). I think this also reflects the hemispheric structure of our brains, and if you look at an icon of the trinity I think you could perfectly map that onto an image of the brain (the two hemispheres and the pineal gland). What I am saying here would probably make more sense if you have read The Master And His Emissary, and understand the differences between the hemispheres.
I think the number 7 is actually the most “complete” number if that could ever make sense. As it represents the union of the head and the body, and of heaven and earth (in biblical terms). Interesting then that Christ is heavily associated with the number 7, especially in Revelation where he returns to gather all to himself and create the world anew. Also recall how he in genesis created the world in six days, rested and completed creation on the seventh.
I'm curious: you mentioned in the video that The Legacy of Kain, and another comment mentioned Bakugan, features Dark and Light alongside the traditional Four Western Elements. Are there any sort of spiritual or metaphysical reason for Light and Darkness to be considered as additional elements?
A game that features the same(ish) elements is Fire Emblem Fates: the game uses Dawn and Dusk (simply called Light and Dark in Japanese), Wind, Earth, Flame, and... Ice. This is where things get fairly muddled. The elements are attributed to twelve deity figures, called the First Dragons, with weapons embued with the elements of Dawn, Dusk, Wind and Earth being united to awaken the main character's sword, unleashing its ultimate strength. There has also been confirmation elsewhere in the game of gods of Flame and Ice, a dragon associated with the rainbow(?), and possibly a dragon that embodies space, referred to as an Astral Dragon (or just Star Dragon in Japanese). Last of the known dragons is one of the game's main antagonists, addressed in the game as the Silent Dragon; he is shown manipulating minds and emotions, which made me think of Buddhism's sixth element of consciousness (note: the game is heavily influenced by various Buddhist concepts). But the Silent Dragon is also fairly directly stated to be a Water Dragon (and is named after the Lernean Hydra in Japanese). The ambiguity of what elements are meant to be associated with the First Dragons has driven me and many others that have gone far too deep into the game up the wall for the past near-decade. It doesn't help that this is regarding perhaps the most contentious game in a contentious series - not too many invest time and effort into understanding the scraps of a world provided... If anyone has feedback or anything regarding a 12-element concept, that would be a great boon and blessing!
Another movie that uses the four elements as the method to save the world would be The Fifth Element, it stars Bruce Willis and Millo Jovovich. I highly recommend that movie, it's so funny, but also really emotional in some parts. I was surprised you didn't include that movie in the video, but the video was still awesome though, I really did like it.
thanks max, had a stressful day but your video brightened it. coolest youtuber ever
My need to collect and sort some things based on elements (and my OCD and math) definitely got me interested in this video.
Been readin' a Botany book and it does point out that the 4 Elements weren't necessarily meaning literally just dirt for Earth or such, but Earth standing for Solid, Air for Gas, Water for Liquid and Fire for Energy.
Man your videos on alchemy are always top notch!
Man, I literally thought the title of this video these days. You're a god.
Very interesting video. Thank you.
I knew it, that Heraclitus, it's always him responsible for stuff like this. The menance
Very interesting... I would love to see a follow up delving into the Chinese elements that substitute air for wood and metal.
Wuxing which is what Zelda Breath of the Wild uses as inspiration! lol Saw Links arm in the trailer and made a joke and next thing i know im in a rabbit hole of research about alchemy that leads to metaphyics. This stuff is so interesting! Celestial Spheres are pretty cool too!
12:15 - I love Lorelei!
Finally another Max Derrat video , i was getting the itch for another video haha
10:58 The Bearer of the Curse looks like Link here, and the treasure opening song is playing in my head now
finally getting into DMC ~ my plan to convert you is almost complete - you must join us max
I love when you make videos with Alchemical background, I want to be a accomplished alchemist too
I am Chinese, we belive five elements made the world, 金 (Gold), 木(Wood), 水(Water), 火(Fire), 土 (Earth), and their relationships are like rock paper scissors, meaning one beats another and can only be beaten by another, we did practice alchemy ( and it's how gunpowder was discovered, during a quest for making life-extending elixir ), but we dont have the concept of the united element (aether)
Gold really looks out of place....
@@lexnight8345it's commonly described as metal overall. But the direct translation is gold, and the Eastern 5 Elements do show up in pieces as well.
One area easily forgotten is astrology and the days of the week. Along with sun and moon, the gods we named the weekdays after are associated with these elements (Friday specifically being metal). The words for the weekdays in Eastern languages usually reflect the elements too. The show Sailor Moon showcased these same elements for the main squad, with Sailor Venus being associated with metal (attacks with a chain).
@@amandaslough125 got it
Oh i just have to tell you about a video game series i played lasr year which instead of having only 4 elements it has 7 (and it heavily inspired me to add a 7 elements system in my own story).
Theyre as follows: the first four are the standard fire, wind/air, water and earth.
Now the other 3 are speculated to represent the three primes, or well what the three primes themselves represent: mind, body, and soul.
Anyway, those elements are as following: Time, representing soul for soul is timeless; Space, representing body for body resides in space; Mirage, representing mind for only mind can see mirages. Well at least that's my personal interpretation.
What's interesting is that the final 3 elements i just listed are considered to be elements from higher planes and they're usually not present in the material plane (except for beinf present in mysterious crystal called septium, and other elements can he found in septium too) unlike the 4 basic elements.
From that we can surmise that the material world is composed of the 4 basic elements while the higher planes are composed of the 3 higher elements, and togheter they form the world. And i think that its so cool, and that's not even everything there is to know about the elements. and there's more than just elements, there's many aspects from real-life mythology, religions, and much more, and it all is masterfully woven into the world.
I would love to see you get into this amazing series and make a video or five on it. I haven't seen many videos about it which tackles the topics yiu do, and i know how you only make videos when you can talk about what nobody talked about, so you'll be able to do just that.
The game series is called Trails and i love it. However if you will consider tackling it, i must warn you that you must invest a lot of time for it has 10 translated games (the 11th is coming to the west this year) and they're fairly long. They're also not like persona or final fantasy which have their games for the most part self contained. No, all games are connected snd they all form a interconnected story.
Anyway thanks for readinf my long comments and keep up the good work.
Very beautiful video. Very good research.
There are tree points i want to add, not for completion but for inspiration. First is that in ancient greek, so far as i know it was porhibited to talk about the fifth element in public. So it is possible that the concept and notion of ether was already there but a few greek bravers thought it would be great if more peoble knew about it.
Second: It was approximately a hundred years ago when the term of ether left the discussions of modern science as a state of matter beyond plasma (fire element), mainly because of the dicoveries of Albert Einstein, who years later claimed that excluding the ether term was a mistake. What we got was a lot of dark matter in return but that is not the same as ether. And last but not least the One Stone found in many mythologies is something that many heroes attempt to conquer*. Till the discovery that it can not be possessed. So it is, in my opinion a searching for the Stone, rather than a conquering it. It is the heart of the earth balancing the elements delicatly to make life possible.
* this heroic idea goes back to Gilgamesh but he was only tricked by the gods and his heroes journey was not heroic in the end.
So, I thought of something when you briefly mentioned one of the methodologies involved the culmination of 6 base elements. That being how one goes about obtaining "Light Eco" at the end of a video game called "Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy". Although obtaining Light Eco technically requires 4 other types of Eco converging (5 if you count the silo of Dark Eco that's present, and happens to be residing below said convergence) with each other, making it TOTAL to 6, rather than beginning AT 6. Regardless, I just thought I'd bring it up.
I'm also now VERY much curious as to what your thoughts of that game series would entail, regarding its reflection of "The Hero's Journey" and how it uses a more esoteric means for displaying an alternate "Four Elements" system by way of essence, rather than literal elements.
Check out the Four Celtic Hallows, the Sword, the Stone, the Cauldron, and the Spear
Those must be where the suits of tarot cards come from. They're the same set up except the spear is a wand.
@@amandaslough125 You are absolutely right
Hey Max, can do you a video on The Talos Principle 2?
Very interesting video and concise explanation of the concept of the four elements. There are some scholars who suggest a contact of sorts between the ancient Indian and Greek thinkers. The similarities of these concepts and the archaeological record seem to point in this direction.
Ah this is so interesting! The Four Heavenly Kings are the Shittenou in Sailor Moon. They are Prince Endymions friends/generals/protectors (who eventually get corrupted by evil forces). Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask/Endymion is the weilder of the Golden Crystal or Earth. So....I'm wondering if thats intending that he's a god? I never thought about it until this video.
This video got me thinking on the states of matter.
Solid = earth
Liquid = water
Gas = air
Plasma = fire
I’m wondering if there might be a fifth state of matter we have yet to discover.
Antimatter/dark matter?
In the Roman Empire you saw this but applied to gods and people.
For example, Mars is represented by Fire ( Soldiers in Red)
If you were worshipping Mars then you follow that path. Being a Soldier. And you do what Mars would do. Your behavior and class was dictated by the deity of your class.
Golden Sun is a particularly cool game. Djinn are used in it. Alot of elements and alchemy
The 4 elements can be found in many religious and philosophy traditions that represents physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of a person, an era, or the universe. There are many analogies you can find out there.
If you'd like to explore symbolism with games, I highly recommend "of Mana" series, especially Legend of Mana. There are so many aspects explored in there
interesting stuff! Castlevania has this and Alchemy related stuff in it too
I have been into esotericism - And I mostly think of the elements as phenomenological and internal.
Earth is the fixed element, it's your bodys structure and your fixed brain patterns.
Water is the regressive element. Thus your regressive impulses.
Fire is the progressive element, it's your impulses directed towards outer things.
Air is when the impulses are free and not constrained by past patterns of thought and behaviour.
Void/Ether is the background space.
And you cannot see space/ether as long as you sre stressed, pulled/pushed by your impulses.
So if you become fully calm and collect your impulses, the elements will merge into the void/ether.
Water and Fire can be seen as parasymphatic and symphatic nervous system basically.. So uniting the elements is what happens when you are good at meditating.
I am INSULTED that you didn’t do a deep dive into Final Fantasy in this vide about THE FOUR ELEMENTS!
I demand a sequel! ❤
Holy cow I was not expecting a nod to Bionicle in this video but that just made my day.
Max derrat finally covering bionicle it is a good birthday today
I just keep it simple, because I don't have the time to say it all the time in details. So...
I love your videos. Please, never stop.
I'm surprised avatar the last airbender wasn't mentioned in this video (despite it being in the thumbnail), it's the most literal example of the hero's journey involving mastery of the four elements and having all these philosophical and alchemical concepts used in the development of all main characters. If you haven't watched it yet, watch it, you'll definitely want to make a video about it.
Idk if it should count, but in Beyblade you have 4 Legendary Bladers who represents the 4 seasons. And they're all pretty important as combined, they're needed to create "Zeus' Barrier" in order to defeat the God of Destruction, Nemesis, in Beyblade: Metal Fury.
Thought I should mentioned it cause I think parallels with what you said about the 4 elements, the number 4 in general, Greek Philosophy, etc.
I personally love elemental magic and I prefer when it's the classical elements with Light and Dark like how it is in Yugioh
I noticed that as well but I didn't know how / where to get an answer to that question... How come or why those 4 elements are so commonplace? Thanks for your inquiry.
I'm genuinely surprised that you didn't mention the 8 trigrams of Taoism. To that and broadly speaking, Taoism loves alchemical language. =)
For some reason, when you said "four heavenly kings" I first thought "four heavenly knights" from a certain R rated game I refuse to say the name of, but the theme of the four elements is in this game too.
Curious question: Which of the elements would you associate lightning and electricity?
Strangely enough I was one who picked up on the elements from the original Final Fantasy. Even at my young age I was fascinated with the idea of the elemental powers. This of course started a life long study of such things in ancient history as well as modern culture
7:48
- Max: "Through the union of the four elements one could obtain the fith element..."
- Me: "Milla Jovovich!"
- Max: "...the philosopher stone"
-Me: "Oh...".
Yes you are right I'm preparing a Zelda Theory series and honestly you need all this to define the series as a whole. Do Skyward Sword and Zeldas Creation Epic and a lot of the things in the series that can't be understood can be decoding them
Alright, but where can I learn about these 24 whatevers? SMT 3 represents them as Magatama, Majora's Mask as Masks, but what's the original form?
Fundamentally the four elements are spiritual versions of the four states of matter and there is some overlap conceptually.
Where is the video image/thumbnail from? Like, I know the concepts therein, but someone MADE that! Where is it?
I have a question what about all the extra elements proposed by many systems what can be said of them?
Devil may cry?! Yesss! Also KH has interesting power and magic systems like Heart, Will, Soul, Nothingness, Light, Darkness, Time, Dream, Memory ect. Plus the Final Dantasy magics too
Genius level analysis, solid research
*It’s a bong… it’s a bong if the cannabis is considered ‘Earth’. You add ‘Fire’, and ‘Air’, through ‘Water’. It’s produces the element of ‘Smoke’ which symbolizes knowledge, and the willingness to except it.*
The four elements are like the five senses. We know and talk about them, but there's actually more than what we're usually taught about. There's more than five senses, and there's more than four (or even five) elements.
Awesome take!
I am starting to be a bit skeptical and realistic about origins of this stuff though.
I notice that I have been imagining similar patterns, geometries, elements etc. so part of me thinks that since so many people discovered and rediscovered the same roots on their own - then it may be an emergent quality of the way our minds are wired.
This leads me to believe that the collective consciousness is very real - everyone has their own copy of it, in their DNA perhaps? Nature probably made it efficient for sure.
But does it make it super magical in some way? Other than nature being so fractal and self similar across different scales and resolutions.
I think alchemy is similar to art in this way, it communicates something primaly common, so does music, image. Perhaps alchemy is proto-religion ingrained in any social species?
Tl;Dr Either way - that would be my guess why Alchemy pops up everywhere - it's just intuitive and universal and needs no teaching to be passed down the generations.
i made a meme involving the four elements and famous figures in history and fiction. namely that they explored a area representing the four elements it goes like this.
Earth - Daniel Boone
Air - Charles Linburgh
Water - Christopher Columbus
Fire - The Doomslayer
Golden Sun is kind of low hanging fruit as they literally use something they call alchemy, but in that game, the union of the four elements creates the Golden Sun.
I mean, I think it's not that deep in the sense that it has to have some religious/philosophical origin, but just that it's easy to assign important meanings to small numbers, mainly 1-5.
1 is for oneness and wholeness. Everything, but also the "one" thing, like God.
2 is for opposites and symmetry: good/bad, up/down, light/dark, heaven/hell, male/female, etc.
3 is for trinities like the holy trinity. Also we have to remember that the 2nd dimension is very important for humanity because it's the dimension where we can draw (walls, paper, etc.), and a TRIangle is the simplest 2D figure that can be drawn. It is also the smallest group of people that can be considered a "group", so not just a back-and-forth conversation between 2 people.
4 is for double symmetry like up/down + left/right. Despite the triangle being the simplest 2D figure, the square is the most intuitive 2D figure for humans. The square has 4 sides and is symmetrical on both the X and Y axes, same with the cross shape or "plus" sign. So arranging things in a square or cross formation just looks aesthetically pleasing to the human eye (and I think this is the reason to try to explain the universe with 4 elements)
5 allows you to put an important central element in the middle of a 4-element formation, such as aether between the 4 elements. Also 5 is the number of fingers in each hand, so it is another important number for humanity.
As we increase to numbers higher than 5, it becomes harder to assign important meanings to numbers. But as I said, every number up to 5 can be assigned important meanings, simply _because_ they are small numbers.
Do the four elements also represent the four states of matter? I don't know what fire is, is it plasma or gas or what?
It is quite obvious. There are some that have "expanded" this, like "The 4th element" and "The Legend of Korra". Not much to say other than is like talking about the moon, the sky, the sun , the star, and so on. Everlasting things from the beginning of humankind.