Memes!
Holy shit there's so many!!
From erisabesu:
Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.
Stephen King - King is definitely one of my favorite writers, even though I actually haven't read as many of his books as I feel like I ought to have. Of the ones I have read, my favorites are The Shining and The Dark Tower series, the latter of which is pretty much a masterpiece IMO. I love his writing style, even though it frequently results in long, rambly prose (and plots), and I especially love his characterizations. The man loves to dig thoroughly into the psyches of his characters and explore every inch of them, and I adore that. And lastly, I kind of adore the man himself--he's ridiculously awesome. I used to have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly and loved reading his columns. I should check them out online or something, because it's been too long. Anyway.
Hibari/Zombie!Kusakabe - This is talklikeazombie's fault sort of kind of mostly, and can be explained here. :P Basically, Kusakabe's loyalty to Hibari transcends life and death, and we all know Hibari having a zombie minion would be totally awesome.
The Chronicles of Narnia - MY FAVORIIIIITE. Okay, I read all seven books as a kid back when I was too young to understand any of the Christian allegory and I loved them, even though I do recall being somewhat traumatized by the ending of The Last Battle at the time. And my love for the books was rekindled when news of the 2005 TLtWatW adaptation came out and I reread the whole series and discovered to my delight that I still loved it, allegory and all. I thought the 2005 film was fantastic, and though I found Prince Caspian slightly disappointing as a followup (mostly due to the character assassination of Peter, who apparently managed to forget all of his character development from the first film so that the writers could give him a bizarre and pointless rivalry with Caspian), I still enjoyed it. I was crushed (CRUSHED!!!1) when Disney dropped the franchise, and pretty much had a field day when 20th Century Fox picked it up and saved it. \o/ I don't know if they'll actually end up making any more films after Dawn Treader, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because my two favorite books in the series (The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy) have yet to be adapted into films or miniseries by anyone (even the BBC spurned them, sob), and I would kill (not literally... or would I?) to see either one of those as a movie because THEY ARE AWESOME.
Also, Edmund is the man, man.
One Piece - It's One Piece! Who doesn't love One Piece? (Though, actually, I know a lot of people who don't, which makes me sad but oh well.) Though I admit I stopped following the manga sometime around the end of the Thriller Bark arc, and have yet to catch up again, not from lack of interest, but just because it's been like a hundred chapters and THAT'S A LOT OF MANGA. One of these days I'll just sit down and have an epic One Piece weekend of epic destiny.
NaruSasu - This was my OTP for ages and ages and still is, kind of, even though the manga frequently insists on ruthlessly crushing my hopes and dreams (SASUKE WHYYYY). But pre-timeskip, these two were the epitome of everything I love about shounen friendship and character development. And this is still probably the most heartwrenching panel I've ever read. That one image sums up close to everything I've ever loved about the series.
Theories - Deep down (or not so deep) inside of me is a little nerd who firmly believes there is no greater joy in life than analyzing and over-analyzing every last inch of a beloved book, comic, TV show or film until ridiculous theories are spilling out of my ears. Of course, this varies from series to series, because I'm weird and hypocritical and sometimes nothing pisses me off more than seeing someone pick something apart until the entire point is lost. But when it's done just for geeky fun and lulz, and taken with a grain of salt? It is the best thing ever.
Or at least, that's the story I'm sticking to to justify things like this, this, and this. :/
Manga - ...It's manga! Lol, but seriously, there's not much else to say. Even though these days my weekly fix is pretty much just limited to KHR and Naruto (NARUTO, I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOUUU), I really can't imagine a life without manga any more than I can imagine life without movies, music, books, television, or the Internet. I mean, at the end of the day it's just entertainment, just a bunch of made-up stories, but what's the point of life if you can't enjoy a good story? Which I realize sounds INCREDIBLY CHEESY but it's true! So yeah, I love manga in general and the shounen genre in particular; I love the heart and soul each mangaka puts into creating their different universes; I love the crazy plots and the over-the-top fights and the dramatic love triangles and the richly detailed (even more so thanks to the love of their fandoms) worlds and characters. I love the art and the wacky clichés and fandom culture that surrounds it all. I loves me some manga.
And then cleartempest gave me KHR, Naruto, and Phoenix Wright for the three fandom meme that probably all of you are familiar with by this point. :P
KHR!
1. The first character I fell in love with: Reborn. TINY ANGRY BABY WITH A GUN, WHAT IS THIS. You can't not love him.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Byakuran. >_> It started out as a "love to hate" thing and then I started loving to hate him so much that by this point I'm pretty sure he's in my top ten favorite characters. DAMN HIM.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: ?? ?????? Seriously, there was a time where maybe Mukuro or Fran would have gone here, but at this point, I'm not even kidding when I say that there isn't a character I don't love. IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: I'm going to say Kikyou. That side-switching, hydra-loving, conniving little bastard. I love you, Kikyou.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Again, I can't think of anyone; for me the situation is always the other way around.
6. The character I would shag anytime: YAMAMOTO. Except he's UNDERAGE! so I'll say TYL!Yamamoto, or Adult Reborn because we'd all do Adult Reborn, admit it.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Yamamoto! Friendly, hardworking, and sees the best in everyone; he's totally my role model.
8. The character I'd slap: Byakuran. Or I would, if I didn't think he'd a) enjoy it, and b) kill me.
9. A pairing that I love: 8059. I wrote an essay on this already, so I'll leave it at that.
10. A pairing that I despise: Reborn/Lambo (I don't know the code for that, if there even is one). I can't conceive how this could possibly make sense in any circumstances, so I am forced to conclude that the main reason for its popularity is because it's hot. Which it admittedly is, but even if I were one to ship things just for the sexiness of it, there are still plenty of other options. It is KHR, after all.
11. Favorite character: Despite the fact that Yamamoto is both my role model and the guy I would totally do if he were ten years older (which, thank you, Future Arc!), Gokudera is my favorite, has always been my favorite, and always will be my favorite. He's my boy. <3
12. My five favorite characters: Gokudera, Yamamoto, Tsuna, Shouichi, and Squalo.
13. My five least favorite characters: M.M., Birds... ah... um... Bueller?
14. Which character I am most like: No idea. The character I usually get pegged as in memes is Yamamoto, so I guess I'll go with him?
15. My deep, dark fandom secret: I want the anime to be licensed and dubbed in the U.S. so bad. For reals. As long as, you know, it's not 4Kids. XD BUT SERIOUSLY, I'm sad this hasn't happened yet.
Naruto!
1. The first character I fell in love with: Naruto. Sasuke eventually became my favorite sometime around the end of the Wave Arc (and I say "sometime" like I don't know the exact moment it happened, lol), but Naruto was my initial reason for reading the series. He's still my second favorite. I love my shounen retards.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Itachi. For the longest time I HATED HIS GUTS, and I was pretty insistent on continuing to hate him no matter what BS redemption Kishimoto might eventually try to give him. And then said redemption finally came around, and I was weak. Weak. ;_; Bawww why couldn't things have been different damn you angsty Uchihas.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Anyone from Team 10 or Team 8, barring Shikamaru whom I have always been fond of...
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: ...even after the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, which apparently turned a lot of people off to Shika for reasons I've never really understood. Ah, well.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: I used to be a huge Sakura fan, and I still like her a lot, but certainly not as much as I used to. But that applies to most of the characters by this point, so it's not really her fault.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Hatake Kakashi*.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Kakashi again. For the most part, anyway.
8. The character I'd slap: SASUKE. JESUS. :|
9. A pairing that I love: NaruSasu; I've already paragraphed about this in the meme above.
10. A pairing that I despise: NaruSaku. For various reasons, but mostly for the extremely shallow reason that it takes the two most likely pairing options for my favorite character, and pairs them off with each other. HEY WHAT GIVES.
11. Favorite character: Sasuke, which. You can imagine how frustrating this has been of late. XDDDDD But I can't unlove him, so I'm stuck with him no matter what Kishimoto does to his character next.
12. My five favorite characters: Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, Suigetsu**. BOY I WONDER WHICH TEAM IS MY FAVORITE.
13. My five least favorite characters: DANZO!!!, MADARA!!!, Orochimaru, Pain, and Jiraiya.
14. Which character I am most like: I hate this question. XDD I dunno, you be the judge.
15. My deep, dark fandom secret: I have a huge, raging Team 7 bias and as a result have never had all that much interest in the rest of the cast. And this is a fandom that LOVES the supporting cast (which is extremely lovable; I'm not saying different), particularly the characters in Teams 8 and 10 (and Team Gai too) so it's not something I've admitted often. XD
*this is a lie, the answer is actually Yamashiro Aoba.
**this is also a lie; Aoba is my fifth favorite.
Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney!
1. The first character I fell in love with: EDGEWORTH. And I've never looked back.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Apollo. Back when Apollo Justice was announced, I was filled with sadness and horror that we were getting a reboot with new characters instead of a fourth sequel with the cast I'd grown to know and love, so it really took me by surprise when I ended up adoring the new game and all of the characters in it. Klavier ended up being my favorite, but Apollo is the one that surprised me the most with how much I do like him.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Diego, maybe? He's cool, but I don't love him to pieces or anything.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: I'm not sure; I think for the most part, fandom and I are in sync when it comes to hated characters. Larry, maybe? Is he even hated? And even if he is, it's not like I particularly adore him, either, but you know, he's cool.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: I loved Ema in the first game, but she really annoyed me in Apollo Justice. XD
6. The character I would shag anytime: Klavier Gavin, baby. I loves me a man that can play some decent air guitar.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Phoenix. He's awesome.
8. The character I'd slap: Apollo Justice!Phoenix--not because I dislike him, because if anything he's even more awesome, but because I REALLY HATE HIS HAT. Beanies are not for you, Phoenix.
Also Dahlia. She's such a bitch. And Matt Engarde, who is possibly my least favorite character in all of the games.
9. A pairing that I love: Phoenix/Edgeworth. They are gay.
10. A pairing that I despise: There aren't any I hate or even dislike, but I'm not nearly as into Diego/Mia as a lot of the fandom seems to be. I'm not sure why; it just never really clicked for me.
11. Favorite character: EDGEWORTH, though Klavier is a suspiciously close second.
12. My five favorite characters: Edgeworth, Klavier, Apollo, Phoenix, Maya.
13. My five least favorite characters: Wendy Oldbag, Lotta Hart, Jake Marshall, Matt Engarde, and Dahlia.
14. Which character I am most like: Probably Phoenix; I frequently find my thoughts traveling in the same directions as his when I'm playing the games. XD
15. My deep, dark fandom secret: I haven't gotten the new Edgeworth game yet. D:
And cleartempest gave me this one too because I asked her because I am addicted to rambly memes:
Leave a comment saying, "I'M ON A HORSE" and I will give you five words I associate with you. Then post about what they mean to you, along with this, at your journal.
She gave me Radiohead, REBORN, black belt-ery, general geekery, and books you like, so I will type about those things.
Radiohead - Probably my favorite band of all time (or tied up there with U2 and Nine Inch Nails, at the very least). I don't think I've ever heard a Radiohead song I didn't like, though there are plenty I don't love. But there are also plenty that I do; Fake Plastic Trees, Reckoner, Go to Sleep, My Iron Lung, and Optimistic are among my favorites, and it's a sign of how much I love this band that I actually had to force myself to stop there because it occurred to me that I could just as easily list a dozen favorites, or two dozen, or fifty. Just... I love this band, I love the music, I love Thom Yorke's voice, I love Jonny Greenwood's guitar, I love the way their songs never sound alike but nonetheless always sound like them, I love the way I can listen to any given song countless times and never get tired of it, and I love that when they dropped their label and released In Rainbows independently, they let people download it and pay whatever they wanted to pay, because that kicks so much ass. <3 I can't wait for their next release.
REBORN - Reborn! My fandom. <3 I have mentioned in other memes that I'm the type of person who can pretty much only handle one fandom at a time, and currently KHR is that fandom, for however long it lasts (I hope it's a while yet because it's so much fun |D). Which means it is always on my mind in one way or another, whether I'm thinking of fic ideas, or being reminded of the series by license plates and the weather and all sorts of other random things, or theorizing/fangirling over the latest chapter, or what-have-you, because that's how I do fandom. I do it obsessively. And KHR is my fandom, and thus my one-track mind is always coming back to it. It's kind of pathetic in a way, lol, but who cares, really.
Black belt-ery - Well, as I've mentioned before, I've been training for over a decade in Okinawan karate, and it really is a huge part of my life. I love it, though it's certainly given me my share of grief and frustration over the years (mostly through my sensei, who is the Type A-iest Type A personality you'll ever meet, and insanely strict, though he's mellowed out a bit over the years), and I've learned so much and made so many lasting connections through the dojo that I can't imagine my life without it. Over the years I've become one of the senior instructors at my dojo, so I teach a lot, which I also love. There are a lot of kids in my dojo and I know most of them very well, and it's so much fun to hang out with them before and after class and joke around, because kids are awesome. And I know they're actually learning something too (I've seen firsthand how much the confidence and focus of most of them has improved over the years), and that is also awesome. I just really can't describe how much happiness I get from training. And also people are always scared of me when I tell them I'm a third degree black belt, which is lulz because I really don't think I could actually kick anyone's ass. XD
Man I went off on so many tangents there, I don't even know. Anyway.
General geekery - I've been a geek my whole life, haha. I love my fandoms, and I love to talk and write about them, and I read fanfiction and play video games and essay about favorite characters and write long fangirly posts whenever new chapters of my favorite manga come out. Geeking is just what I do. Except I'm pretty sure that's not actually a verb, but it should be, you guys. IT SHOULD BE. Anyway, basically I consider myself a geek because I like nerdy things and never shut up about them.
Books you like - I don't read books often enough anymore. :( But I read all the time when I was younger, and I still do, just not nearly as frequently. I love young adult fiction the best--I specify the "young adult" part because I don't know if it's the 12-year-old in me or what, but I find YA fiction much more appealing in general than most adult fiction (though there are plenty of exceptions, like King, Pratchett, and Gaiman). Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings (well, that's not really YA I suppose, but most kids read it in middle school/high school, don't they?), The Chronicles of Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Bartimaeus Trilogy, to name a few of my favorite series. I don't know if I actually have a single favorite book, but you can get a sense of my general tastes, anyway.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
anon meme
Oh my god that took hours. XD Let me know if you want to do any of the memes. o/
ETA: OH WAIT I FORGOT TO WISH AN EXTREMELY BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHUU AND A NOT-SO-BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VAULTEDTHEWALL. I APOLOGIZE FOR MY FAIL.