It's just another manic Monday.
So we found out that my dog's got some pigment in his eyes that means he'll eventually go blind, but apparently there's less of it than you usually see in dogs his age, so maybe it will take longer for full blindness to set in. Right now he's fine, though. He's five years old.
My dad, who keeps telling sad stories about pugs getting lost/stolen, says he can't even think about Kramer going blind. Dogs are adaptable - I don't want it to happen, but at least he's with us.
Well... now onto happier matters.
I went to a local Renaissance Faire with featherquil on Sunday! It was fun, but very small. Mostly shops. Plus, it was rainy. But we had a good time. The story theme was "winter vs. summer" and overall it was good - cheesy, but good. The one thing that bothered me was the women's roles, which were very cliche. The knights flirted and hit on them, hard, and then the girls would either flirt back, slap them (this happened a whole lot), or fight them in a fencing match. During those matches, the boys continued to crack sex jokes, and twirled the girls around and dipped them, like they were dancing. There was also a "May queen" or some such, who was the advocate of pacifism while Sir Winter and Sir Summer duked it out. It was overall a very unoriginal story, and the girls' parts were equally unoriginal and ridiculous. So were the guys' roles (they were all stupid, violent, power-hungry Casanova-wannabes), but at least the lines directed at the guys weren't solely treating them as sex objects.
I don't mean to say the storyline itself was sexist - they meant everything to be funny, and clearly thought slaps in the face and occasional wins in fencing matches equal women's lib. And also, considering it's a Renaissance-themed event, they may have felt some obligation to echo the values and politics of that period. But they didn't live up to that obligation anywhere else in the festival, so I don't see why they would start to worry about anachronisms in the drama segment.
Mostly, the storyline was just boring.
But there was a magician who was reasoably amusing, though not very magical, and there were apple cider donuts, and a really awesome blacksmith who humored us while we drilled him with questions like "how do you put the spiral shape in the spoon's neck" and "can you forge the One Ring?" He was quite awesome, so we both tipped him. He reminded me I want to take glass-blowing before I graduate.
There was also a booth full of instruments - mandolins, violins, tambourines, drum sets, doumbeks, ocarinas, cane flutes and recorders. I kept drifting back there every time we passed it, or I heard music. I even considered buying a doumbek... until I saw the price tag: $300! That's what I was expecting, but it's a shame - it was a beautiful drum. However, if and when I buy a hand drum, I have my heart set on a djembe. I suppose I'll start a "djembe fund" with my next paycheck. (But buying the instrument is only half the battle - upkeep gets expensive too. Plus, if you store a drum made of animal skin in a damp place, the skins will stretch and snap. I don't have adequate storage at the moment.)
Anyway, that inspired me to rediscover my ocarina, so I have plans to try out those "how to" youtube videos on ocarina-playing. It's a cheap $20 Ren Faire ocarina, but I have very few instruments of my own, so we must make do.
Let's see, what else was there? Good food, for one - except we chose to eat at the Thai booth, lol. Well, Thai food existed during the Renaissance, though probably not in Europe... but really, I'd take Pad Thai over turkey leg any day. It wasn't bad, either - a little carrot-y, but tasty.
There were also trained rats and a May Pole, which went unused for some reason (maybe because... it's not May), Human Chess (which would have been more interesting if they'd actually played chess), and a log for pillow fights... not sure what that was about. Also tarot reading (which I'd never spend money on), henna (which was tempting - next semester I ought to bring a henna set to campus and have a henna party to make friends with the other English majors - I remember RPing a henna party as Kitty once, with Jubilee and Lorna, without knowing a thing about how to do it), and some lovely shops.
Unfortunately, it started to rain about two hours in, but with my awesome powers of foresight I remembered to bring an umbrella. It didn't rain hard, but the mud and the gloom unfortunately made it harder to find the energy to do stuff. We mostly wandered and watched other people do things. There were horses, though, and Lani, being the equestrian she is, correctly predicted how and why one of the horses was spooked, and what to do about it, lol.
Definitely wasn't as cool as the faires in Indiana and New York, or the one in Maryland for that matter (I haven't been there, but Lani and Alice both tell me it's amazing), but it was a good time. Since we were there together, we found plenty of amusement. ;) In a few weeks, there's an Obon festival in the county - I'm really hoping I can go to that, if only for the food!
Which reminds me - not only do I have to buy a Father's Day gift, I also have to order okonomiyaki ingredients before it's too late.
A conversation with Lani inspired me to make a list of all my favorite characters EVER who have in some way died. Some of these "favs" are very old - for example, I haven't thought about Yugioh since the middle of high school. But at the time, the series' end really got to me, so I'm counting those old fandoms too.
1. Nightcrawler - X-men (comicverse 616; Ultimate-verse) - This one, obviously, is really recent. I'm still kind of in shock over it. However, it was beautifully written. Even if the series starts to suck once Second Coming ends, at least I'll have a couple beautiful issues of Kurt's final moments to remember. There's a lot of controversy among his fans about whether or not his death was handled well. A lot of it hinges on why he teleported into Bastion's arm, rather than behind Hope to grab her and take them both out of harm's way. I understand why fans find that weird - Kurt would not just sacrifice himself when there were other options (and I fully believe he knew he would die when he 'ported). But I would be satisfied with any of the following explanations: his aim was thrown off either by Bastion's machinations (which doesn't seem far-fetched, since he was shown to be starting "counter-measures" when he noticed Kurt's port) or by Kurt's own very severe injuries; or that Kurt didn't think even teleporting would be quick enough to save Hope if he didn't intercept Bastion's attack. At the moment he materializes, we see Bastion's already got his fingers wrapped around Hope's throat. Personally, I favor the first explanation. What bothers me, actually, is that Bastion, for some reason, was so shocked or something by Kurt's move that he didn't attack. I don't know what to make of that. I really wouldn't expect Bastion to freeze up - but I don't expect the writers to build anything out of that either. The death of Ultimate-verse Nightcrawler wasn't half so interesting, since he wasn't an important character there.
2. Sirius Black - Harry Potter - I think I was 14 when it happened. I got the book the night of its US release, and read straight through it over the next day and a half. I remember it was exactly 10:22 pm when I turned the page to find out it was, indeed, Sirius who died. I'd suspected so all along, of course, but I couldn't stop crying, and the next weekend I just mourned him and mourned him.
3. Maes Hughes - Full Metal Alchemist - Doesn't matter which version of the show you follow, or the manga for that matter, Hughes's death was so full of impact. I loved him as a character (he's honestly most prominent in the first TV show, even moreso than in the manga, although he is never forgotten in any version) and his death was so shocking. He was a best friend, a father, a soldier, and an uncle-like figure to Ed and Al. He was, overall, the most stand-out "normal" guy in the entire series, and he managed to become so important to characters and fans in just a few chapters/episodes. That's really something.
4. Nuriko - Fushigi Yuugi - I did not read/watch Fushigi Yuugi, and I have no desire to either. Watase Yuu is one of my least favorite manga-ka. However, when I was 13 there was a time that I was subscribed to Animerica Extra, just in time to become attached to Nuriko and straight away watch him die. His sacrifice really touched me - between his personal hardships and his love for Miaka, he became a stand-out character. If I'd read the whole series, I might have felt differently, but I still remember his final moments very well.
5. Jonas - The Giver - This one is a little ambiguous. We don't know for certain that Jonas died at the end - and it's sort of vaguely hinted in Gathering Blue that he survived. I don't know if Lois Lowry made that official in any of her other books. Regardless, the end of The Giver remains one of the saddest and most touching endings to a book I've ever read. I really came to love Jonas and the Receiver, and Gabriel. In fact, it's amazing that I remember so much about that book, and all the characters' names, even though I haven't read it since I was 14.
6. Wash - Firefly/Serenity - I absolutely could not believe he died. I didn't see it coming and he was my favorite character. I don't even know whether I found it sad, disturbing, confusing, or what - it just sort of happened, and Wash was gone. I think part of the issue is that this leaves Zoe alone, and there's no sequel to show how she copes. After everything that happened in Firefly, it's very hard to accept that Wash was just gone.
7. Shepherd Book - Firefly/Serenity - Although Wash is my official favorite, I have a huge attraction to religious characters, and Book held some of the most interesting mysteries in the series. Basically all he gets to do in Serenity is die. But that death was very moving, and showed the progression of his relationship with Mal that we didn't get to see Firefly, so I appreciated it for that.
8. Cypher - New Mutants - Doug was hands down my favorite New Mutant, and beyond that, he was interesting in that he was one of the very few X-men whose powers are largely non-combative. I find those characters' stories most interesting of all. Doug's death was very sudden and not fulfilling at all, but that's part of why it was compelling - he's shot trying to save Rahne, who might have been fine if he hadn't, and then he dies alone while the fight goes on, and no one realizes that's what happened until quite a while later. When one of the main characters becomes canon fodder, without undergoing personality assassination, that's something.
9. Roger - His Dark Materials - He's a minor character, but the entirety of "The Golden Compass" ("The Northern Lights") was about Lyra's journey to rescue him, and his eventual fate was so stunning. Actually, I found the scenes with the "cut" children/daemons extremely disturbing, even as a child. Roger is not my favorite character in HDM, but he makes the list because he represents everything that chilled me about that series.
10. Neil - Dead Poet's Society - I still find his death, and its aftermath, utterly chilling.
11. Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop - Unfortunately, because I saw this series out of order, I found out about Spike's death pretty early on, and found it such an annoying end for the character that I stopped watching.
12. Kenshin - Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen (Spoilers!) - In the manga/anime, Kenshin doesn't die. The manga series has a very "upbeat" ending. "Seisouhen" (US: "Samurai X") takes place 10+ years after the end of the manga, so Kenshin would have been in his 40s. He's at war again, in China I believe, and manages to pick up an illness that kills him once he returns how to Kaoru and tells her his real name is "Shinta." (For the interested, the characters are 心太 - if that's not cheesy-adorable, I don't know what is!) Seisouhen is a beautiful sequel, but if it were canon I would have broken apart. It's a great story, but it doesn't fit the mood of the rest of the series. So I have to look at it as an alternate universe Kenshin.
13. Elphaba - Wicked: The Musical - I still have a few chapters left to go in the book, so I'm not sure what happens there. But in the musical, Elphaba dies - and then it turns out to have been fake, part of a plot for her and Fiyero to escape. But for a short while there, I really thought she was dead, and it really pissed me off.
14. Gavroche - Les Miserables - This one doesn't need explaining. And yes, Gavroche is my favorite character in Les Mis. I also love Valjean and Javert, but overall Gavroche wins.
15. Atemu - Yugioh - Technically, he's dead for the whole series, isn't he? Lol. But the ending, with Atemu finally entering the afterlife, made me tear up a little bit. We all expected it to happen, yet his final moments with Yuugi were just sad.
I can think of some others whose deaths struck me - Remus, Tonks, Snape, and Fred Weasley (Harry Potter), Philothei (Birds Without Wings), Ed (end of the first FMA anime), Kitty (Astonishing X-men) - but those either a.) aren't favorites of mine; b.) didn't stick; c.) weren't really dead and that was made obvious, either by the story itself or by author interviews online. I could also mention Jean Grey (X-men), but I don't care about her one whit. (Maybe Kitty should count - although we fans knew she wasn't dead, Piotr and Kurt certainly mourned her with everything in them, and that made it feel real. She is also my favorite female mutant. But, comic book deaths are tricky - I still didn't feel her death as strongly as I did with the characters listed above. Nightcrawler is an exception because, one, his death is very new; two, he's by far my favorite and his death scene was very dramatic; and three, he has yet to be resurrected.)
There's a serious lack of female in that last for some reason. I'm stretching my mind and aside from Philothei and various superheroines, I can't even think of any stand-out girls who have died in books/movies/series I've followed. Jenny in Forrest Gump, I guess, or Shelby in Steel Magnolias. Where are the awesome dead female characters?
There are, though, many other deaths which moved me, but if they were in movies, or especially books, I was too involved in the story to pick a favorite character. This is generally the case. With an ongoing series like a comic book or a cartoon, it's easier to get attached to one character - also, a lot of these characters became my favorites when I was in junior high and became emotionally attached to characters far more easily. Strange how that changes.
My dad, who keeps telling sad stories about pugs getting lost/stolen, says he can't even think about Kramer going blind. Dogs are adaptable - I don't want it to happen, but at least he's with us.
Well... now onto happier matters.
I went to a local Renaissance Faire with featherquil on Sunday! It was fun, but very small. Mostly shops. Plus, it was rainy. But we had a good time. The story theme was "winter vs. summer" and overall it was good - cheesy, but good. The one thing that bothered me was the women's roles, which were very cliche. The knights flirted and hit on them, hard, and then the girls would either flirt back, slap them (this happened a whole lot), or fight them in a fencing match. During those matches, the boys continued to crack sex jokes, and twirled the girls around and dipped them, like they were dancing. There was also a "May queen" or some such, who was the advocate of pacifism while Sir Winter and Sir Summer duked it out. It was overall a very unoriginal story, and the girls' parts were equally unoriginal and ridiculous. So were the guys' roles (they were all stupid, violent, power-hungry Casanova-wannabes), but at least the lines directed at the guys weren't solely treating them as sex objects.
I don't mean to say the storyline itself was sexist - they meant everything to be funny, and clearly thought slaps in the face and occasional wins in fencing matches equal women's lib. And also, considering it's a Renaissance-themed event, they may have felt some obligation to echo the values and politics of that period. But they didn't live up to that obligation anywhere else in the festival, so I don't see why they would start to worry about anachronisms in the drama segment.
Mostly, the storyline was just boring.
But there was a magician who was reasoably amusing, though not very magical, and there were apple cider donuts, and a really awesome blacksmith who humored us while we drilled him with questions like "how do you put the spiral shape in the spoon's neck" and "can you forge the One Ring?" He was quite awesome, so we both tipped him. He reminded me I want to take glass-blowing before I graduate.
There was also a booth full of instruments - mandolins, violins, tambourines, drum sets, doumbeks, ocarinas, cane flutes and recorders. I kept drifting back there every time we passed it, or I heard music. I even considered buying a doumbek... until I saw the price tag: $300! That's what I was expecting, but it's a shame - it was a beautiful drum. However, if and when I buy a hand drum, I have my heart set on a djembe. I suppose I'll start a "djembe fund" with my next paycheck. (But buying the instrument is only half the battle - upkeep gets expensive too. Plus, if you store a drum made of animal skin in a damp place, the skins will stretch and snap. I don't have adequate storage at the moment.)
Anyway, that inspired me to rediscover my ocarina, so I have plans to try out those "how to" youtube videos on ocarina-playing. It's a cheap $20 Ren Faire ocarina, but I have very few instruments of my own, so we must make do.
Let's see, what else was there? Good food, for one - except we chose to eat at the Thai booth, lol. Well, Thai food existed during the Renaissance, though probably not in Europe... but really, I'd take Pad Thai over turkey leg any day. It wasn't bad, either - a little carrot-y, but tasty.
There were also trained rats and a May Pole, which went unused for some reason (maybe because... it's not May), Human Chess (which would have been more interesting if they'd actually played chess), and a log for pillow fights... not sure what that was about. Also tarot reading (which I'd never spend money on), henna (which was tempting - next semester I ought to bring a henna set to campus and have a henna party to make friends with the other English majors - I remember RPing a henna party as Kitty once, with Jubilee and Lorna, without knowing a thing about how to do it), and some lovely shops.
Unfortunately, it started to rain about two hours in, but with my awesome powers of foresight I remembered to bring an umbrella. It didn't rain hard, but the mud and the gloom unfortunately made it harder to find the energy to do stuff. We mostly wandered and watched other people do things. There were horses, though, and Lani, being the equestrian she is, correctly predicted how and why one of the horses was spooked, and what to do about it, lol.
Definitely wasn't as cool as the faires in Indiana and New York, or the one in Maryland for that matter (I haven't been there, but Lani and Alice both tell me it's amazing), but it was a good time. Since we were there together, we found plenty of amusement. ;) In a few weeks, there's an Obon festival in the county - I'm really hoping I can go to that, if only for the food!
Which reminds me - not only do I have to buy a Father's Day gift, I also have to order okonomiyaki ingredients before it's too late.
A conversation with Lani inspired me to make a list of all my favorite characters EVER who have in some way died. Some of these "favs" are very old - for example, I haven't thought about Yugioh since the middle of high school. But at the time, the series' end really got to me, so I'm counting those old fandoms too.
1. Nightcrawler - X-men (comicverse 616; Ultimate-verse) - This one, obviously, is really recent. I'm still kind of in shock over it. However, it was beautifully written. Even if the series starts to suck once Second Coming ends, at least I'll have a couple beautiful issues of Kurt's final moments to remember. There's a lot of controversy among his fans about whether or not his death was handled well. A lot of it hinges on why he teleported into Bastion's arm, rather than behind Hope to grab her and take them both out of harm's way. I understand why fans find that weird - Kurt would not just sacrifice himself when there were other options (and I fully believe he knew he would die when he 'ported). But I would be satisfied with any of the following explanations: his aim was thrown off either by Bastion's machinations (which doesn't seem far-fetched, since he was shown to be starting "counter-measures" when he noticed Kurt's port) or by Kurt's own very severe injuries; or that Kurt didn't think even teleporting would be quick enough to save Hope if he didn't intercept Bastion's attack. At the moment he materializes, we see Bastion's already got his fingers wrapped around Hope's throat. Personally, I favor the first explanation. What bothers me, actually, is that Bastion, for some reason, was so shocked or something by Kurt's move that he didn't attack. I don't know what to make of that. I really wouldn't expect Bastion to freeze up - but I don't expect the writers to build anything out of that either. The death of Ultimate-verse Nightcrawler wasn't half so interesting, since he wasn't an important character there.
2. Sirius Black - Harry Potter - I think I was 14 when it happened. I got the book the night of its US release, and read straight through it over the next day and a half. I remember it was exactly 10:22 pm when I turned the page to find out it was, indeed, Sirius who died. I'd suspected so all along, of course, but I couldn't stop crying, and the next weekend I just mourned him and mourned him.
3. Maes Hughes - Full Metal Alchemist - Doesn't matter which version of the show you follow, or the manga for that matter, Hughes's death was so full of impact. I loved him as a character (he's honestly most prominent in the first TV show, even moreso than in the manga, although he is never forgotten in any version) and his death was so shocking. He was a best friend, a father, a soldier, and an uncle-like figure to Ed and Al. He was, overall, the most stand-out "normal" guy in the entire series, and he managed to become so important to characters and fans in just a few chapters/episodes. That's really something.
4. Nuriko - Fushigi Yuugi - I did not read/watch Fushigi Yuugi, and I have no desire to either. Watase Yuu is one of my least favorite manga-ka. However, when I was 13 there was a time that I was subscribed to Animerica Extra, just in time to become attached to Nuriko and straight away watch him die. His sacrifice really touched me - between his personal hardships and his love for Miaka, he became a stand-out character. If I'd read the whole series, I might have felt differently, but I still remember his final moments very well.
5. Jonas - The Giver - This one is a little ambiguous. We don't know for certain that Jonas died at the end - and it's sort of vaguely hinted in Gathering Blue that he survived. I don't know if Lois Lowry made that official in any of her other books. Regardless, the end of The Giver remains one of the saddest and most touching endings to a book I've ever read. I really came to love Jonas and the Receiver, and Gabriel. In fact, it's amazing that I remember so much about that book, and all the characters' names, even though I haven't read it since I was 14.
6. Wash - Firefly/Serenity - I absolutely could not believe he died. I didn't see it coming and he was my favorite character. I don't even know whether I found it sad, disturbing, confusing, or what - it just sort of happened, and Wash was gone. I think part of the issue is that this leaves Zoe alone, and there's no sequel to show how she copes. After everything that happened in Firefly, it's very hard to accept that Wash was just gone.
7. Shepherd Book - Firefly/Serenity - Although Wash is my official favorite, I have a huge attraction to religious characters, and Book held some of the most interesting mysteries in the series. Basically all he gets to do in Serenity is die. But that death was very moving, and showed the progression of his relationship with Mal that we didn't get to see Firefly, so I appreciated it for that.
8. Cypher - New Mutants - Doug was hands down my favorite New Mutant, and beyond that, he was interesting in that he was one of the very few X-men whose powers are largely non-combative. I find those characters' stories most interesting of all. Doug's death was very sudden and not fulfilling at all, but that's part of why it was compelling - he's shot trying to save Rahne, who might have been fine if he hadn't, and then he dies alone while the fight goes on, and no one realizes that's what happened until quite a while later. When one of the main characters becomes canon fodder, without undergoing personality assassination, that's something.
9. Roger - His Dark Materials - He's a minor character, but the entirety of "The Golden Compass" ("The Northern Lights") was about Lyra's journey to rescue him, and his eventual fate was so stunning. Actually, I found the scenes with the "cut" children/daemons extremely disturbing, even as a child. Roger is not my favorite character in HDM, but he makes the list because he represents everything that chilled me about that series.
10. Neil - Dead Poet's Society - I still find his death, and its aftermath, utterly chilling.
11. Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop - Unfortunately, because I saw this series out of order, I found out about Spike's death pretty early on, and found it such an annoying end for the character that I stopped watching.
12. Kenshin - Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen (Spoilers!) - In the manga/anime, Kenshin doesn't die. The manga series has a very "upbeat" ending. "Seisouhen" (US: "Samurai X") takes place 10+ years after the end of the manga, so Kenshin would have been in his 40s. He's at war again, in China I believe, and manages to pick up an illness that kills him once he returns how to Kaoru and tells her his real name is "Shinta." (For the interested, the characters are 心太 - if that's not cheesy-adorable, I don't know what is!) Seisouhen is a beautiful sequel, but if it were canon I would have broken apart. It's a great story, but it doesn't fit the mood of the rest of the series. So I have to look at it as an alternate universe Kenshin.
13. Elphaba - Wicked: The Musical - I still have a few chapters left to go in the book, so I'm not sure what happens there. But in the musical, Elphaba dies - and then it turns out to have been fake, part of a plot for her and Fiyero to escape. But for a short while there, I really thought she was dead, and it really pissed me off.
14. Gavroche - Les Miserables - This one doesn't need explaining. And yes, Gavroche is my favorite character in Les Mis. I also love Valjean and Javert, but overall Gavroche wins.
15. Atemu - Yugioh - Technically, he's dead for the whole series, isn't he? Lol. But the ending, with Atemu finally entering the afterlife, made me tear up a little bit. We all expected it to happen, yet his final moments with Yuugi were just sad.
I can think of some others whose deaths struck me - Remus, Tonks, Snape, and Fred Weasley (Harry Potter), Philothei (Birds Without Wings), Ed (end of the first FMA anime), Kitty (Astonishing X-men) - but those either a.) aren't favorites of mine; b.) didn't stick; c.) weren't really dead and that was made obvious, either by the story itself or by author interviews online. I could also mention Jean Grey (X-men), but I don't care about her one whit. (Maybe Kitty should count - although we fans knew she wasn't dead, Piotr and Kurt certainly mourned her with everything in them, and that made it feel real. She is also my favorite female mutant. But, comic book deaths are tricky - I still didn't feel her death as strongly as I did with the characters listed above. Nightcrawler is an exception because, one, his death is very new; two, he's by far my favorite and his death scene was very dramatic; and three, he has yet to be resurrected.)
There's a serious lack of female in that last for some reason. I'm stretching my mind and aside from Philothei and various superheroines, I can't even think of any stand-out girls who have died in books/movies/series I've followed. Jenny in Forrest Gump, I guess, or Shelby in Steel Magnolias. Where are the awesome dead female characters?
There are, though, many other deaths which moved me, but if they were in movies, or especially books, I was too involved in the story to pick a favorite character. This is generally the case. With an ongoing series like a comic book or a cartoon, it's easier to get attached to one character - also, a lot of these characters became my favorites when I was in junior high and became emotionally attached to characters far more easily. Strange how that changes.