So You Want To / Write A Jungle Opera Extra Credit

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Extra Credit

The Greats

Anime

• DrStone: Though technically in the temperate forests of Japan still went out of its way to make its After the End setting feel like a jungle, including indigenous populations descended from zoo animals and battle ready native tribes. Where this series especially shines is its surprisingly educational aspect as the characters manage to recreate aspects of their long gone society after spending thousands of years as stone.
• PrincessMononoke: Is an excellent example of how to do this genre well. Rather than having good guys living in harmony with nature and villains setting out to destroy nature for mere greed, both the titular Nature Hero and Evil Colonialist have good virtues and vices. Princess Mononoke herself is a highly skilled and acrobatic Jungle Princess, who is not only not sexualized, but she is also an interesting character with a cold unforgiving side, and her outlook is in many ways flowed. The Evil Colonialist is a victim of other invaders and fights for protecting the weak and vulnerable through technology, though she is definitely in the wrong, preferring to ensure her place as a predator rather than pray. The Green Aesop focuses on both how technology can be used to protect and heal people, but also how nature is exploited. It realistically depicts how Nature Is Not Nice, and how people exploit nature for their own greed are really just playing into a more evolved form of the food chain, and how balance is a uniquely human thing that transcends the natural order all together. The layers of nuances and themes make it superior to most other Green Aesop stories.

Film

• Avatar (2009) is a perfect example of how versatile this genre is, set entirely in space as a Planetary Romance. It also has a lot of beautiful scenery. and fascinating concepts. Though some aspects of this film and it’s sequel were problematic and the Aesops were a little heavy handed, it’s still one of the highest grossing films of all time.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: This adventure story written in the classic style of a traditional Lost World discovery story, stands out for its mature tone, while still managing to be appropriate for the most part and be humorous without breaking plot or character. The Worldbuilding around the Atlantean culture and the nuanced portrayal of the Atlanteans themselves was well done. It also has an excellent threatening villain and the soundtrack is absolutely perfect.
• Dora and the Lost City of Gold is criminally better than it had any right to be. Dora, although more of a Bold Explorer, also handled many of the Jungle Princess aspects far better.
• TheEmperorsNewGroove (2000) uses classic tropes very well, but also uses some for excellent comedy. It's inevitable in a jungle opera to wind up Bound and Gagged, but accidentally tying yourself and a friend to a log during Vine Swing to save him, and then him yelling "Booyah!" as you both barrel over a waterfall with sharp rocks at the bottom, is something else entirely. Also the use of the Incan Empire where the citizens have their own personalities and motives without having to constantly engage in Human Sacrifice is pretty notable.
  "Oh Yeah. It's all coming together"
• TheLionKing1994 had animal factions and worldbuilding more Alvin to the original Jungle Book and arguably better than ‘’Disney’sTarzan’’.
• Indiana Jones, specifically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Everything about these films is a pulp enthusiast dream. Most every scene is thrilling and exciting, with a scruffy quick witted protagonist, an iconic score and good visual effects. Dr. Jones battles cultists, enemy archeologists and of course punches a lot of Nazis. In general, these films really positive impact on this genre.
• Jumanji (1995) dives deep into the terror of the jungle. Everything from the Egomaniac Hunter who lives up to the maniac part nicely, to the Man-Eating Plant, to the poisonous bugs and Big Creepy-Crawlies to the cursed game itself are all very terrifying.
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle:The remake with Dwayne Johnson is more Played for Laughs, but still lampshades many of the overused tropes in the genre.
• Jungle Cruise (2020) This film is an excellent example of how underappreciated this genre can be, with fun characters, good worldbuilding and interesting concepts.
• Jurassic Park (1992) does living dinosaurs very well even if scientifically innacurate.
• Moana while not a sent entity in the jungle, in general it depicted a tribal culture really well. The world building was really well done as well. The other factions and locations were interesting. Having the titular character avert the classic Fur Bikini was an excellent choice choice. Also, it managed to have Maui singing while wearing little more than a classic Tarzan Boy without making it stupid.
• ‘‘‘Jungle Book Adaptations’’’
  • Adventures of Mowgli is an extremely faithful adaptation of the original Mowgli stories that is more adult and in the spirit of the original text. Frequently the subjects of life and death, debt, feelings, the heroism of the soldier and human essence come into play. Additionally, animals are portrayed realistically,
  • TheJungleBook1967” This Adaptation Displacement, while probably inferior to the masterpiece Kipling wrote, definitely has plenty of good points. The songs, though some are misses, the other are pretty catchy, and the many of the characters, though different from the book, were pretty fun. The movie does provide plenty of fun, though at the cost of deviating from Kipling's work. It was even a Disowned Adaptation per Kipling's daughter (see Epic Fails folder below for more. Additional thoughts are also welcomed in the discussion page). Despite its flaws, it is still enjoyable and considered a Disney classic by many. It also gets redemption points for inspiring TaleSpin”, which played this genre in general far more straight, despite deviating far more from the original source material.
  • The Jungle Book (2016) is more faithful to the book that fixed many of the problems of the original animated adaptation. It managed to capture more of the worldbuilding and serious tone of the original book. Bonus points for Mowgli using Bamboo Technology.

‘‘‘Tarzan Adaptations’’’

• Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: Written by actual fans of the books, this series has proved to be one of the most faithful of all screen adaptations, featuring both lost cities from the original books and ones created for the series, animation based on Burroughs' favourite Tarzan artist Burne Hogarth, a well-spoken Tarzan, Nkima rather than Cheetah, as well as the use of the Mangani language from the books and some adaptations of the original books. The animation, though repetitive, was well-done, the stories well-written, the voice acting superb, but suffered from censorship of the day preventing a bit more action.
• Tarzan: While it have taken some unfortunate inspiration from the Weissmuller films, and made one of the most decent characters from the novels an egomaniac criminal. That being said, this Adaptation Displacement still shines for its use of 2D Visuals, 3D Effects and Beautiful Scenery. Even the people who were disapointed that it wasn't a regular musical don't deny that Phil Collins did a good job in addition to the Background Music, which was also good. Several characters, Jane for example, also had a lot more personality than the books and previous films.
  • The Gordon Scott Tarzan films, had some decent movies like Tarzan and the Lost Safari or ‘’Tarzans Fight For Life’’, which both had a lot of good Scenery and exciting plots. Eventually, Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure released, which followed the books far more closely.
  • Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) Really braught the titular ape man back into the spotlight after the pulps died out.
  • The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Brings back many of the cool aspects of the books,. It had a very menacing villain, gave several characters more personality and it humanized the cannibal tribe from the novels.

Comic Books

• Dark Horse’s Tarzan series had many unusual and interesting subversions to the classic character including Crossovers, such as Frankenstein's Monster, the Phantom of the Opera, and Mr. Hyde fought in urban locations and concluded with a crossover where Tarzan traveled to the future to fight Burroughs' Moon Men.
  • In other series, he also shared pages with John Carter, Carson Napier, the Predator and Groo the Wanderer as well as crossovers with other companies allowing him to share pages with Superman, Batman and the cast of Planet of the Apes.
• We all agree that Sheena’s clones are very impressive and she must be very proud, but some of them are somewhat underrated. Princess Pantha had a unique backstory.
  • ‘’RulahJungleGoddess’’ started off dangerously close to being a clone of Sheena and was problematically viewed as a white goddess by natives, but she eventually really came into her own as a character, with a personality, some indigenous friends like a young boy named Tambi to go adventuring with her. Also, she didn’t even entirely like being worshipped, and she had no superpowers, unlike Sheena, allowing for adventures and perils more similar to Tarzan.

'Radio’

• Moon Over Africa (1937): The story of an Adventurer Archiologist searching for Atlantas through colonial Africa.
• Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle (1951) Writes several wrongs of the other adaptations. Tarzan actually speaks several languages fluently, rather than using Hulk Speak. (The natives still unfortunately suffer from it) He dislikes being worshiped, only accepting the title of Lord Of The Jungle out of respect, but he sees himself as equal to the natives, even mentoring a young boy named Torgo, Bound and Gagged is used properly for suspense only, the villains are truly evil, and the radio drama even has little character additions,, like Tarzan explicitly saying he Prefers Going Barefoot. Although the quality of the stories waned as the series continued. Also it’s free to listen to online.

Literature

• ‘’Doc Savage’’ has several good jungle Adventurer Archaeologist stories.
• Green Mansions by H.G. Hudson. Is a good novel with good worldbuilding and introduced Rima technically before Tarzan.
• Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is an example of how to do this genre right. It is very well done in terms of world building animal cultures. It was very mature and took itself very seriously despite being intended for younger audiences. Small details like the songs of the animal cultures, master words and languages, their mythology and the like really make the world feel lived in. Even small details of realism pulp stories often leave out, like the cool mist in the morning really bring the jungle to life.
• ‘’The Island of Doctor Moreau’’ by H. G. Well. follows the adventures of an explorer stranded on an island jungle with a sadistic Evilutionary Biologist hellbent on using cruel experiments on humans and animals to combine them.
• The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, who also wrote Sherlock Holmes, is another defining novel in this genre, which would go on to influence the Tarzan novels. It also was one of the first to feature a Lost World and prehistoric creatures.
• Jules Verne wrote several novels in this genre. These include Eight Hundred Leagues into the Amazon, Journey to the Center of the Earth and some aspects of The Mysterious Island.
• Robertson Caruso by Daniel Defoe, though containing problematic elements is considered one of the first novels to feature Jungle Opera. It centers around a stranded explorer learning to survive on a deserted Hungry Jungle island with only Bamboo Technology.
• You cannot talk about this genre without mentioning the Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. They are very iconic and exciting, but is also risky in many ways to say the least. The books were excellent in presenting a far more mature story, and Tarzan being originally mortally grey was also interesting. He traveled through trees more realistically, without a whole lot of Vine Swing. The way he was Awesome by Analysis and had Super-Senses were also really interesting. The novels also really went outside the box. Also the Big Bad villains were personal threats, often out for vengeance, or they were simply ruthless, and the additional emotional weight made many of them far more interesting than more generic environmental villains, who often struggle to be ruthless enough or are often too abstract of a threat for many audiences to take seriously. The books were obviously extremely risky, with their outdated Social Darwinist and racially motivated ideas. Still, the much more interesting Unbuilt Trope or Tarzan, the sheer threat of the villains, the accidental Aesops and the Worldbuilding all make them worth a read.

Live-Action Television

• Tarzán (1991): An "Adventures of" series similar to the Ron Ely series of the 1960s. Although it leaves some things to be desired in addressing the direct effects of its villains' illegal activities would have on humans, it does have a surprising variety of villains as the series progresses, including non-environmental criminals and fantastic concepts rather than focusing solely on its environmental theme, something that most modern jungle operas struggle with. Special mention goes to how well the poachers are handled, with Cordell Winslow also participating in artifact theft, Bruno Valetti so obsessed with revenge on Tarzan that he commits no poaching outside of his backstory, and Jack Travers only dabbling in wildlife trafficking, with him having a different get rich quick scheme each time he appears. One episode also features Ron Ely, television's original Tarzan, as Egomaniac Hunter Gordon Shaw, who seeks to hunt the most dangerous game with Tarzan as his quarry, featuring a twist on the trope in this genre by portraying Shaw as a bow-hunter rather than being another in a long list of fire-arm wielding hunters, something that has rarely, if ever, been seen since.
• Relic Hunter: A series about Adventurer Archaologists hunting down stolen artifacts and returning them.
• The Lost World (2001): Deconstructed the original novel, while keeping the adventurous and exciting aspects.

Western Animation

• Jana of the Jungle depicts its titular Jungle Princess very well compared to Sheena. She has several ActionPets, but she has no actual control over them, allowing an element of peril to still exist. She has both native and Bold Explorer friends and she also is actually heroic compared to Sheena, willing to risk her own life to Save the Villain and generally avoids actual fighting preferring to think her way out of situations. She is also more compassionate rather than rude like Sheena.. She’s essentially everything Sheena failed to be.
• Jumanji: The Animated Series expanded on the lore of the film and book, putting Judy and Peter back into the roles of protagonists rather than secondary characters and vastly exploring the world of Jumanji. The inhabitants and locations were wonderfully varied, it was one of the few shows at the time with an actual ending and it managed to do some interesting variations in costuming with some archetypes such as making Alan a Tarzanesque, yet one whose attire included a tunic and boots in addition to a loincloth and traveled with a machete rather than a knife on his person as well as being bearded rather than clean-shaven, and the character of Von Richter, an Egomaniac Hunter rival to Van Pelt, averted the typical costuming for a character in the genre, by costuming him in a way reminiscent of one of Imperial Germany's European conflicts, itself justified by the fact that he is not native to Jumanji.

Webseries

• Any video on YouTube involving Bushcraft or Primitive Technology, even if a good amount of it is fake, is an excellent resource for survival techniques and Bamboo Technology.
• Also any videos from YouTube featuring "Primal Parkour."

The Epic Fails

Films - Animated

• The Jungle Book (1967) Despite its success, the film suffers from a number of problems in the Jungle Opera genre. Many of the characters are less serious or badass, the protagonist Mowgli is an Unintentionally Unsympathetic Bratty Half-Pint Pinball Protagonist, as well as being considered a Vanilla protagonist, Shere Khan was only present in the final act, and the story and characters only barely resemble their source material. Due to Walt Disney having made the mistake of telling his writers to not read the source material, it ended up being an In Name Only Adaptation, one of the few in the library of screen adaptations of the book, and as a result, was disowned by Rudyard Kipling's daughter. However, the film is still considered a classic by many and is enjoyable if you overlook the flaws it has as an adaptation. It can also be used as an example of how not to adapt a work, with Mowgli in particular being an example of how to not write a Jungle Opera protagonist.

Films - Live-Action

• The Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, set the president for many of the flaws and overused tropes that came to define the genre. Burroughs himself, though respecting the actor himself, hated how Tarzan was uneducated and depicted with Hulk Speak. Many of the villains were flat as well. These films in particular are a good example of how something being considered a classic does not make it a good example for potential writers.
• Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) is perhaps the greatest of epic failures for this genre. Unlike Disney's 1967 version of The Jungle Book, which merely got disowned by Kipling's daughter, the Burroughs estate was so appalled by the notion of its existence, they sued MGM twice to ensure it never saw the light of day. Unfortunately, they failed and so, upon the world was unleashed a Tarzan film that saw the title character in a supporting role with at least ten times the amount of gratuitous fanservice normally seen by the genre. Overall, it is considered one of the worst films ever made period, not just for the Jungle Opera genre.

Comic Books

• '''Sheena, Queen of the Jungle’’’: She not only popularized the Jungle Princess trope, but she is often considered the Trope Codifier. Ironically, she an excellent example of how not to write a Jungle Princess. Her stories not only perpetuated many of the problematic aspects of this genre, but it also made them far worse. Not only is Sheena smarter and more powerful than the natives, but they treat her as a queen or even a goddess. I can’t see any possible way that can be problematic, but it gets worse. Not only do the natives worship her, of her own consent, but all of the most dangerous animals of the jungle obey her completely, so she entirely lacks the element of danger, or dynamic training, taming and befriending aspects that Tarzan had. Furthermore, she doesn’t consider the natives one of kind, even into the 1950s, she rarely has native friends like Tarzan did, so her friends are all white people and forgettable ones at that. Additionally, her non white friends (only animals) have kind of become her only real friends throughout her incarnations, and then it fell into a strong focus on them for the sake of a Green Aesop rather than fixing it. Speaking of Green Aesop, her animals obeying her slavishly really hurts the Aesop, as Real Life people who aren’t a Mary Sue with superpowers have significant challenges to overcome when caring for dangerous animals. Additionally, in modern comics, she is very impulsive and violent to the point of being a blatant Eco-Terrorist, and her constant swearing of vengeance on people does nothing to help the Aesop, nor does h how she’s a single note Aesop Enforcer. Sheena is also primarily depicted as stoic, void of real emotion. She is thought to be compassionate, but that usually only really applies to her animals, that she can control anyway. It doesn’t so much apply to the people of her tribe, but every one of them is a Noble Savage living In Harmony with Nature, so it wouldn’t matter much anyway. That’s not even mentioning all of the objectification this character has. Granted, a Fanservice character can be very interesting done well, but only if there is an excellent or interesting personality to fall back on, which Sheena of course lacks completely. There is no effort to make the audience care about her character apart from getting people to simp for her; no effort to make her personality interesting. To this day some copy cat white jungle queens seriously think being proud and ruling the jungle above the natives is somehow heroic, a far cry from Tarzan who didn’t like being worshipped. To this day, Sheena still perpetuates huge problems with this genre, even after the racism has died down.
  • Many of her clones followed suit, being seen as goddesses and queens, but many dropped the Friend to All Living Things aspect for a more tarzanesque Non-Powered Costumed Hero, which was definitely for the better.
• The Jungle Girl comic series from Dynamite Entertainment in 2007 is a little bit better than Sheena, the inclusion of native friends and how she has no superpowers, was far better much like Jana from Hanna Barbara, who obviously inspired her. The comics were still pretty bad though because there was more objectification than Sheena, who also debuted from Dynamite Entertainment that year. The comics focus on Author Appeal very heavily. Meanwhile, the titular heroine Jana, looks down on most characters in a way that hurts her character, unlike Jana from Hana Barbara who was compassionate and put her own life at risk to help or rescue people including villains. The rest of her actual character is rather shallow. She is often too strong to truly feel in danger, even though she is supposed to have no superhuman powers. It's essentually a great example of how Author Appeal can hurt a story. It is a lot better than Sheena considering Jana has no superhuman abilities, and he’s arrogant character isn’t being used for a Green Aesop, but she still left far too much to be desired. Additionally, the Worldbuilding around factions and tribes in her jungle is very shallow, so we only really get Hollywood Natives for the most part.
• Kaanga was a comic book character with another Tarzan clone, but he had the most useless and flat of all jungle opera love interests. As soon as someone touches her, she usually gives up and cries out for Kaanga. She is rather unintelligent and has no influence in the story to the point that her passivity is honestly hard to read.

Extra Genre Works

A lot of media has handled things from Jungle Opera in a much better way, but do not belong to the genre.

• The religious radio drama Adventures in Odyssey has multiple good Green Aesop episodes, focused on legal and honest individual action without beating up random corporate executives for pollution. Sometimes it’s merely mentioned in the background as a noble aspect of a character. I’m addition to this it has some good jungle opera episodes as well. One was the Lost Village arc, where the nerdy character Eugene Meisner, and his wife Catrina, go to a Lost Tribe in Africa to install a radio tower so they can call for things like medical attention if needed. At first, it appears the tribe are merely superstitious Hollywood Natives who believe they are trapped by an angry river. [spoiler:As it turns out, the angry river and other superstitions are elaborate machines created by a corrupt chief to keep his people in so they wouldn’t learn of the evils of the greed that has plagued their jungle for so long. They also reinstall the previously lost chief after the corrupt chief ruined his life after sacrificing him to the river] There was also a sequel to this episode involving and Jason Whitaker a secret agent character. stopping a former friend turned enemy of Eugene’s father and egomaniac archaeologist/ gold miner named Dalton Kern, who is guilty of slavery, smuggling and murder from destroying a village. [spoiler:They have to track him down and expose him back in the states]

• ‘’Doctor Who’’: This sci fi classic had several great jungle episodes, on and off world, including The Temple Of Evil, The Face of Evil and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Where this series really shines is it’s use of characters. For the Jungle Princess, you have Leela who left her jungle home to travel with The Doctor. The Doctor himself does a The Professor trope very well. For lovable rogues, you have Captain Jack Harkness and John Ridell, with the latter being a Great White Hunter with a character arc and both having excellent chemistry. There are also few fictional Evil Colonialists more terrifying than the Daleks.

• The Lord of the Rings is a must read/watch for any aspiring authors. The use of languages rather than ooga booga Hulk Speak for its various cultures. Having the barefooters not only appropriate and giving them no mystical connection to the earth, but also making them the least magical creatures in the setting. The environmental aspects were also based on Tolkien's own experience of industrialization rather than a politically motivated ideal, and fighting against an actually evil faction rather than simple loggers.

• The religious radio drama readio/PatchThePirate has a couple Jungle Episodes, but an episode called Kilimanjaro, it has Barefoot ( later renamed to Bootstrap) Ben, who is a unique take on the Tarzanesque survivalist (Though mixed with an Adventurer Archaeologist and The Missionary)), who handles the basic ideas far better than the traditional trope. No loincloths, but this character is an orphan of missionaries, who lives out in the jungle. "Everyday I get to work under the sun. Every night I get to sleep under the stars. Who wants to live in a house when you can enjoy the beauty of God's creation?" He is fluent in at least two languages, no Hulk Speak, and he is knowledgeable enough of the African wilderness to navigate it completely barefoot like his name suggests,, like Tarzan and Sheena before him, but it's depicted in a cool way as part of his personality, letting the audience know of his prowess in navigating the African rainforests. They even played it for laughs. Additionally he is depicted as intelligent, spiritual, wise, and courageous with knowledge of things like Zoology, Theology and Archeology rather than a simple ape man.
  "Barefoot Ben, Barefoot Ben,
  The humble man that has the strength of ten.
  Big and Bold, Heart of gold,
  And they called him Barefoot Ben"

• Spaghetti Westerns as mentioned before can be an excellent inspiration. Post colonial Africa and many other places with vas sparsely populated wilderness can be breeding grounds for lawlessness, and hives of scum and with its villainy similar in many ways to the American old west with it’s Hired Guns and Outlaws.

• Star Wars: has a lot to pull from. Looking for a Religion of Evil, the Sith and the Witches of Dathamere have you covered. Han Solo is the textbook example of how to write a good Lovable Rogue.

• White Hunter, Black Heart: The film depicts a twist on the Egomaniac Hunter and Evil Colonialist tropes in the fact that the lead character John Wilson, based on John Huston, is a film director. While he is in Africa to shoot a movie, his primary goal is to shoot an elephant, to the point of it becoming an obsession. He is not there to colonize, but by shooting his film and wanting to shoot an elephant, he is exploiting both land and people, though he does intend to leave once everything is finished. On one final note, John is not a professional hunter, but an amateur who wants to be viewed as a Great White Hunter, but ultimately realizes that as bad as he is, he cannot essentially commit murder.

• The Woman King: Though it is horribly inaccurate and disrespectful of real events, it did make great use of African traditions. Black Panther (2018) also utilized African inspirations very well, even if the afro-futurism is a bit too much.

History and Mythology

This is for aspects of history, mythology and legends, urban legends folk tails, and even conspiracy theories, that would be helpful for writers in this genre to explore. (Please keep these examples relatively specific)

• The murder of Dian Fossey (1985), is often considered an example of how poachers can kill people, but this story is rife with misconceptions. Although the poachers did appear to threaten her, most do not take into account other industries like mining for gold and tourism in her area, as well as the fact that the prime suspect of her murder was her research assistant. Far from a greedy poacher Hunting the Most Dangerous Game.

  • This might be an interesting inspiration for a twist villain. The real murderer was the seemingly innocent self proclaimed conservationist.

  • Veerappan is more noteworthy Evil Poacher, bandit and terrorist; having killed 184 people, half of them being police and forest officials, 2000 elephants, smuggled ivory worth $2.6 million American and 65 tons of sandalwood worth $22 million American and kidnapping major politicians for ransom. He was ultimately killed in Operation Cocoon and his death, described as "the death of a demon", celebrated with firecrackers.
  • If you want a more direct example how an Egomaniac Hunter will commit murder, the Genocide of the native Tazmainian Aborigines 1803-1847 is a perfect topic to study.
  • There are few more notable real life egomaniac hunters than Theodore Roosevelt himself. His home had an animal head on every wall, he once stepped down from his presidency to go on safari and lived at a time where the concept of conservation meant that killing wildlife to display them in museums was the best way to preserve them and Roosevelt was a strong believer in this ideology and was awarded by environmental groups in his "collecting" of animals for museums. Some of his conservation would even qualify as Pragmatic Villainy so he would not run out of animals to hunt, but in 1901, he came to see the error of his ways and on the subject of the wanton destruction of animals, he voiced his concern with this quote: "More and more, as it becomes necessary to preserve the game, let us hope that the camera will largely supplant the rifle." Unfortunately, he was still a product of his time and continued to kill excessively for the rest of his life, but he at least acknowledged that something had to change. In the end, he is probably closer to a Great White Hunter, especially seeing how he wasn't exactly sadistic like how egomaniac hunters are usually portrayed.

• If you are interested in the The Shangri-La, working on a manga or inclined towards oriental things in general, look into the Khmer Empire of Cambodia (802-1431). They even had Katana like swords called Dhas.

• The American Old West (1850-1920), as mentioned previously, is a great study for Worldbuilding a lawless environment.

• David Livingstone is a textbook example of a missionary character.
  • The Real Life Circuit Rider, a common kind of character in the American Old West, is basically The Missionary trope as well, but they were more like The Drifter, as they traveled from tribe to tribe and town to town preaching and providing humanitarian aid. They were often independently funded or worked on their own money rather than being financed like a colonial missionary. They also had to adapt to situations quickly hence, they were skilled with weapons, making them an excellent character for an adventure story.

• Dina Sanichar (1861-1865) was the inspiration for Mowgli.

• Colonial and post-colonial Africa (1800-1950) are pretty obvious. The continent does have a long history of slave trades and smuggling.
  • A more authentic portrayal of cannibalism beyond Hollywood Natives can be very interesting, such as the marketplaces where human meat was bought and sold. The Lepard Society cult is also worth looking into.
  • Agojie women are a great source of inspiration for a tribe of female warriors, especially if they are Villains.
  • Zulu Warriors were very likely a large inspiration for Tarzan.

• Some Gorillas have been taught sign language.

• Hollow Earth theory often includes prehistoric creatures like Dinosaurs.
  • Many theorize that dinosaurs didn't go extinct 65 million years ago, and some even claim to have seen it.

• The Female warriors of the Amazon rainforest is a great thing to study for your Jungle Princess. Why do you think it's called the Amazon?
  • Amazons of Greek Mythology are a good topic of study as well.

• If you're writing a Jungle Princess, there are a suprising number of examples to study.
  • Tippi Degré (1990-present) grew up a child of wild life photographers in Africa, and didn't fear wild animals.
  • The Vietnamese woman known as the Cambodian Jungle Girl is a textbook definition of a Jungle Princess. Little is known about her.
  • Marina Chapman claims to have been raised by monkeys after kidnappers dropped her off as a child in the Cambodian Jungle.
  • The Biblical figure of Eve could be considered something of a prototype to a prototype of a prototype for a Jungle Princess.

• When it comes to real life examples of the Great White Hunter that actually qualified as heroic, you cannot do any better than John Henry Patterson, who hunted and killed the Tsavo Man-Eaters, a pair of man-eating lions responsible for the deaths many construction worker's in Kenya's Tsavo region and were said to have at least killed twenty-eight people. At least four films have been made based on the story, the most recent, and only one to not change Patterson's name, The Ghost and the Darkness, which is a fictionalized account.

• An unfortunate reality being a danger of rebel and insurgent militias, be sure to read up on the tragedy that was the Rwandan Genocide, perpetrated by the Hutu-led government, a Hutu paramilitary, multiple Hutu militias and gangs and Hutu extremists against the Tutsi population and moderate Hutus.

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