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The nature of Self in Centaurworld

Centaurworld is a Netflix animation about a Horse that is magically transported to the titular Centaurworld, in her journey not just to get back to her home but to fight the Nowhere King and save both her world and Centaurworld.

In the story, the audience see Horse change in a physical sense going from a sharp anime-inspired design to a softer, rounder more western cartoon inspired design but also in a sense of self as she identifies so much as the horse of her rider, that when the two come in to conflict it serves as one of the many emotion highpoint of the series finale. Horse, breaks the identity she had imposed on herself but at the same time embraces it.

The Nowhere King serves as excellent contrast, as the character is introduced as a malevolent spectre, one of no approximate time or origin, and with what seems like a clear goal of escape. As the series reveals though, The NWK shares an origin with another character and their lack of acceptance of self leads to endless suffering for the NWK. The inability of one to accept themselves becomes the inciting incident for the near destruction of two worlds in the show.

Points of analysis can be the Horse’s difficulty in accepting changes, their concern for the perception others, name their Rider may have for them, the various Centaurs and their own discoveries of self, the idea of ego death and how Horse is literally surround by light as she lets go of her previous identity of self, how it parallels the tragedy of the NWK.

  • The point regarding the names was crawling around the back of my mind when I happened to watch a few episodes--mainly, Horse is named Horse, Rider is named Rider. As if they were stock characters in a generic action movie, but obviously the series inverts this. Not sure where I am going with this thought, just was wondering how you were planning on addressing that aspect in your analysis. – alliegardenia 1 year ago
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