Aqueous Transmission

Witty title goes here

2013-03-31T22:19:48Z

Uuuuuuh, hey! How's it going?

Nothing much around here. It's freaking cold. My laptop overheats. I bought a second-hand iPod Touch to use iOS-only apps. I keep importing new Okami merchandising because I have a fucking collection. I continued with my German course. I'm also going to Madrid for a few days, in two weeks! Things I should be doing more of? Working on my final college project. Oops. Playing the games/apps I keep buying on Humble Bundle. Reading more stuff, watching more stuff. Obviously updating DW/LJ.

Okay, so, what should I talk about...

1) Gaming

I finished the following indie games and really enjoyed them:

Year Walk (iOS)
To the Moon (PC)
Bastion (PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/360)
Machinima (PC/Mac/PS3/iOS/Android)

Wish I had time/motivation again for console games. The most I play is the occasional handheld game. I found the Super Mario World remake for GBA on eBay, for nostalgia. I actually tried to get a cheap PS3 over there, but I never won any of the auctions and went for the iPod instead.

2) Books

I'm not doing so badly at reading on this first trimester, just slow. I finished Fellowship of the Ring (and later watched the extended film), and then I took a break from Tolkien to read Les Miserables (I admit, to understand the jokes and posts about the characters more than for culture). It was fine, didn't love it or hate it in particular. Now I'm halfway through The Two Towers.

3) Shows/anime/movies

Besides rewatching Princess Tutu and checking some stuff here and there, I can't say I'm following an anime series right now in a week-per-week way. Let's see if there's something that grabs me this season. Or can you guys rec me the better ones? I'm all for giving second chances to those I checked but couldn't get into, if you say they get better.

In Western TV, I keep getting behind the animated series. Our connection isn't so great, the torrent fucks with my brothers' raids/dungeon crawling/battles/whatever, and streaming overheats the laptop. I'm now up to date with Adventure Time and Ultimate Spider-man (shut up, I think it's cute), but behind on Gravity Falls and I can't remember what else right now. I also started watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but I'm going slow.

As per live action, still watching Doctor Who but not so excited, and my family will want to watch Game of Thrones together now that's starting again. The one series I'm adoring right now is Vikings. TOTALLY LOVING IT. ♥

As for the films and TV seasons I've watched this year, my list is here. AHS is another "watching with the family" series, actually.

4) Comics and manga

Man, I miss having a periodical manga to read! All the series I read have slow updates and I forget about them quickly. And all my friends read long shounen ones that I really don't want to commit to.

I guess I'm sort of substituting that with Western comics, especially Marvel, although it's a bit of a weird situation right now. I'm reading more superheroes series than ever, but I can't say I have one favorite one anymore like previous years. I *think* the ones I'm enjoying the most so far are Hawkeye and Fearless Defenders? I mean, the latter is full of cheesecakey "sexism is over!" poses, but it's hella fun (pfft) and has more Asgardians than other series about Asgardians. The others I'm reading... they're either okay, a disappointment I read for continuity and trainwreck, or sadly trying too hard. But then I go to boards and everyone adores those I'm meh about. So it's weird! But some issues of those are pretty great.

I think that's about all I'm up to. Yeah.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

But here's my ass so bite it maybe

2013-01-20T19:59:43Z

Excuse the Spanish for a sec. Quería decir hola a la gente del friending meme de masquefandom, hola! Me llamo Christel pero también pueden llamarme Kiri, espero que nos llevemos bien. También estoy por:

☆ taotrooper @ Dreamwidth
☆ taotrooper @ Plurk
☆ taotrooper @ Tumblr (principal) y subblogs:
→ celestialbrush (Okami)
→ journey-into-mystery (Thor comics y Journey into Mystery)

I'm trying to be more productive this year, with miscellaneous results. I can't say it's working but at least I'm routing myself towards it? I don't even know.

α. I started rereading Lord of the Rings today. ~~I'm getting ready to skip the forest descriptions.~~ I've only read every book and watched every movie like once, so my mini-failgoal this year is going through them in both mediums. I dunno, Tumblr has been reblogging a lot of Tolkien stuff and I feel like doing it.

β. I finished the original novel of Seirei no Moribito. It's not bad at all, but I actually like the anime's pacing and changes better. The race/culture meta in it was interesting, though. I have the second book which wasn't adapted, let's see if with unknown material I can have wiser expectations.

γ. It's not like Pokémon X/Y isn't shiny, but I haven't played Black/White 2 yet so my body is not ready. In a "lol okay" sort of way instead of excitement, I mean.

δ. I came around to play the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss. I haven't touched the damn console since I got Kid Icarus and sucked enormously at it. And I'm in the mood for RPG yet not for a new game, so it's cool.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Holidays are over

2013-01-06T14:47:00Z

soy sauce

Happy belated new year? Welp, there are still 360 days left counting today, so it's not like I'm too late. LJ wouldn't open to me on the 31st and 1st, and I didn't want to post without a crosspost.

Two things, then. I've seen people still doing yearly scrapbooks and lists to keep track of what they'll check on 2013. I always do that kind of post and I forget to edit them later, and then at end of year memes I'm like WAIT WHAT BUT I WATCHED MORE SHIT so I'll do a new approach this year. I'm keeping track of progress on shows and books and stuff with cloud apps. And since it's easier to make it look pretty there, I'm making a log of finished stuff in a sideblog :D

The other one is the yeeeeeeear in reviewwwwwww meeeeeeeeme.

Animanga!

I don't know if I'm pickier or the year just sucked ass or I'm getting lower tolerance to mainstream main characters, but I didn't follow anime that much. I thought this could be a chance to pick up my backlog or watch classics but I didn't have much internet connection to do so (my brothers are in the house more often, so it's been hell to download/watch stuff on stream.) So anyway, the best I watched not counting rewatches was hands down Tsuritama. If you haven't tried it yet, please do because the characters are so charming and colorful. Fate/Zero was horrible in a "what you did to me was horrible" kind of way, not in quality. I keep watching Polar Bear Café, but some of the cast's schtick got old already.

In manga... I wish I could've read more manga. I tried interesting series like Shingeki no Kyojin and Onepunch Man, but when I was halfway I stopped and thought, "do I really want to keep reading stuff like this?" The first was too mortifying and full of anxiety to my taste despite being a good horror concept (those titans are way creepy). The second was too silly to even be funny. In the end, I continued with Kuragehime and Saint Young Men (I'm behind in all the historical seinen), and for manga I started Piano no Mori and a little yuujinchou-ish jewel (that reminds me, I should finish the anime and start the manga of that one) that charmed my socks off called Youkai Apato no Yuuga na Nichijou. PnM is like a weird Hikaru no Go with classic music, but Youkai Apato is something you gotta read because it's so cute.

I'm almost done collecting Rurouni Kenshin. Four deluxe volumes to go.

Books!

Well, I read and bought few books this time and none impressed me enough to rec in particular. Maybe Robin Hobb's Assassin series if it wasn't so full of suffering (and I have one book left anyway). Even The Mark of Athena wasn't as enjoyable as I expected, but I'm not sure if it's my fault for expecting more nakama in it or the bad timing of the book. October hated me. All my fandoms were douchebags to me in October. I even called it Oktoberangstfest.

TV!

Doctor Who is okay, but lately it kinda feels like it's pushing a bit too hard. Hopefully with a new companion, shit will be fresh again. The other live-action shows I've been watching were the ones we watch in family (American Horror Story and Game of Thrones), but since I'm meh about them they don't get bold tag or commentary.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra was this year's disappointment. The hopes were high, man. It started so well! But then it's a chaos, they didn't know what to do with half of the teen cast anymore beyond love rectangle, I didn't like the way they did the main ship, and the ending was just so... anticlimatic? In the end I enjoyed it more for the adult and kid cast, but it was just an okay show when it could've been glorious.

Now other cartoons! I'm still watching Adventure Time but the episodes are hit or miss. It's weird that Marceline was my favorite girl in the show before, but now she's all drama and I've been digging Bubblegum's mad science plots better. However, this year's best cartoon might be Gravity Falls because it's so charming.

Games!

...I almost didn't touch consoles this year. I still have to play most of the games I bought last year. The few games that intrigued me this year were either PC stuff (my laptop can't even handle the first Portal, let along Steam stuff) or shit for consoles we don't own and plan to buy anyway. So there's not a lot to say here because I just played a casual thing on my phone when I was bored as I was going to be interrupted soon.

I did buy a Humble Bundle of Android games and I have a few indie stuff in my tablet that I should finish already: Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery, Waking Mars, Wind-up Knight, etc.

Oh, and I also got Kid Icarus for "actual" game, but I think it's cursed because every time I picked it I got sick of something. Plus I don't even know what table to use to play it, so I get too lazy to even get it from my closet.

Movies!

My two favorites when it comes to 2011-2012 movies were Hugo and The Avengers. I watched quite a few considering it's me, but they were mostly 80's-90's-2000's comedies and most of the Marvel superhero films I needed for Avengers context (haven't touched the Hulk ones though).

There were a lot of cool animated ones, but the ones I liked better were Wreck-it Ralph and Rise of the Guardians.

Comics!

I think this is where most of my fandom action lies this year. I can't exactly tell which I read this year and which the previous, so this will be messy.

→ Journey into Mystery (Loki) was my main fandom. Is it good? Yes. EVERYTHING HURTS? YES. Am I still buying the rest of the local edition? Fffuuu, yes.
→ The current run (Sif) is... not bad, but I'm disappointed she went nuts at the second issue. I wanted to get to know Sif, and I can't do that if change her D:
→ I also read random Thor comics and spinoffs here and there. The one I like better was Thor: The Mighty Avenger which of course was too cute to live.
→ Let's not even talk about the end of Everything Burns in Thor's side. Was that even an ending??? Thor: God of Thunder is boring me.
→ Hawkeye is awesome and probably the funnest thing published in Marvel now.
→ Incredible Hercules wasn't this year, but it was a total blast!
→ Immortal Iron Fist wasn't either, but it was fine.
→ I started Saga recently and got immediately hooked. Great decision.
→ I should just try more non-DC-Marvel stuff in general. And non-American too.
→ I have one volume left of Siegfried. This shit is seriously pretty.
→ I think the only thing from DC I read was volume one of Booster Gold? Fuck DC.

What am I looking forward to for 2013? Fuck if I know. There's Marvel stuff I'm interested in (and fearing it, in Young Avengers' case). Maybe I'll finish a video game or get a console; I think my brother is eying the Vita and P4G. There's a lot of stuff to catch up in my HDD and DVD collection too. So I have more to bite that I can chew, so it's just a matter of what and when to jump into. I need new fandoms urgently because I miss having an OTP.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Happy 12/12/12!

2012-12-12T16:45:15Z

holiday love meme 2012
my thread here

I did take a screencap at 12:12, but I liked my 11/11/11 geekery better. I was out this morning so this was my best attempt.

Brrrr. it's getting so fucking cold. Speaking of which, I watched Rise of the Guardians and I wasn't expecting a deep plot so I enjoyed it a fucking lot. Too bad the books are expensive here and I can't find illegal copies, since they look pretty cool.

And so this doesn't look too empty and depressing, I'll take the chance to make a list of stuff I want/need to buy this holiday season or next year.

~~→ some boots so mom shuts up~~ DONE
→ OTG (microUSB) cable
→ HDMI (miniUSB) cable
→ a tablet case, that fits a 205x155x11 mm 8"
→ Siegfried #3
→ Saint Young Men #3-4
→ Rurouni Kenshin kanzenban #19-22
→ Pokémon White 2
→ I'm sure I had seen more games I wanted to play, but I can't recall now
→ The Avengers (although I can't afford a Bluray player and the extras are only in the BD version so it's not like it matters much to own it on regular DVD)
→ Journey into Mystery #2 (but that's out next January and I am a masochist)

I also should go to my uncle's place to get my LOTR books (I remember shit from The Hobbit) and my manga. I really wanted to reread/rewatch the Matantei Loki series... Incidentally, it's weird that my reaction to what's happening at the sequel is all "but I wanted the adult Loki for a but longer!!1" when in Marvel is the total opposite. The status quo in both fandoms with kid Lokis is always against what I want, LOL. Meanwhile, I'm rewatching Princess Tutu for a third time and I'll probably read the original short story of The Nutcracker around Christmas time. I planned that last year and then I forgot, so I have it ready.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Welp

2012-11-30T19:21:05Z

It's been a while... ahem.

I think I've been more active in Plurk and Tumblr than here in the journals out of laziness. Plus, this month was a total festival of spammers in almost every post in every LJ community I've ever made, so that really threw me off.

I'll try to be more active. However, I'm going to try to think of the DW mirror as the main one from now on. Because of how gross LJ is (and will be) right now, I'll still crosspost and read my flist because of the comms and few people who aren't on DW; other than that, it's really hard for me to keep thinking about Livejournal as something serious anymore.

Anyway, I'm also:
→ taotrooper @ Plurk (there are a lot of Spanish posts because most of my friends there are my RP buddies.)
→ taotrooper @ Tumblr. That's the main one. I also have two fandom-centric blogs:
→→ celestialbrush (Okami)
→→ journey-into-mystery (Thor comics but mostly -obviously- Journey into Mystery)

I got really into the JiM fandom this year, which hangs out mostly at Tumblr. Hell, even the writer got really into the Tumblr JiM fandom and makes our lives miserable out of the pages. It's curious that there are fandoms now where the main thing is happening over there, while there's little to no presence on LJ/DW or AO3/FFnet/dA/Pixiv. Ghost Trick fandom was also like that, a lot of anime series and games and cartoons too. It seems, for obscure stories or little fandoms/subfandoms, it's just easier to hang around the tags and find coherent people there. Meanwhile, the huge fandoms are usually stupider on Tumblr. Just to keep in-topic, the comic!Loki fans (in either reincarnation, although I mostly chilled with the Kid Loki peeps) are most times much cooler than the majority of Hiddleston!Loki fanbrats on Tumblr (which tend to be noisy and sometimes cray-cray.) And you can say that about most fandoms that are big on Tumblr. And then there's the Percy Jackson fandom who isn't that huge but it's just mostly repulsive. So yeah... I think Tumblr fandoms works better, weirdly, with little stuff. I wish this wasn't the case because it's almost impossible to befriend and talk to these people normally in that site.

Anyway, some short reviews of stuff I've read and watched this Autumn.

Doctor Who: I liked the finale, but there are a few things I'm expecting:
a) that this REALLY, REALLY is the ending for the Ponds, because God help me if Moffat keeps bringing them for cameos forever a la Rose
b) from the Christmas special trailer, I do hope than the I'M RETIRED!1 is just a phase he needs to be bitchslapped out of it, and not hints of him becoming a mop for this season because Amy isn't around and bullshit. There's a fucking reason why I skipped Ten's seasons FFS
c) I'm aaaaaall for meeting the new companion, and hope she really isn't 20th-21st Century Human Chick Stuck on Victorian England For Timey-Wimey. CLARA, TAKE THE (TARDIS?) WHEEL

The Mark of Athena: I don't know what to say because the book was pretty good and full of feels and the action scenes were amazing, but it's my least favorite Heroes of Olympus book so far. I feel like the character development and character interactions (that weren't Percy/Annabeth) were entirely on the sucky side. I wanted to see more nakama, so I was disappointed by the wasted bonding potential. Also, I want to hug Leo forever.

Brave: It was okay. I liked it and thought it was fine, but I didn't love it as much as...

Wreck-it Ralph: I watched it yesterday and sdfjsdgfj it's so amazing! It's kind of the unholy child of Toy Story and Megamind, and it was quite delightful.

Journey into Mystery: I've talked a lot about it and I still will over Tumblr, so I'll make this quick and unspoilerish. This is also stuff I don't say on Tumblr because Gillen is following my fandom blog there and I don't want to be rude to him.

I'm not over the ending yet. I got really involved in the story -it contains a lot of plot fetishes of mine and Kid Loki ended up my favorite character in Marvel- but I think it's not entirely my fault for dropping my guard. I actually DID expect this kind of downer ending from the beginning and I picked up a lot of the foreshadowing hints, but the fault lies on Marvel's publicity of other titles and Gillen's master troll skills. They gave me hope for the story to be different, and then it wasn't. So I think I'm less mad at Loki trolling us/himself in the story (that was 200% expected) and more at Gillen (and myself). For letting us believe Young Avengers would be something else. For taking the chance and cheapen a valid bad end to criticize the Marvel system with the meta bullshit. For expecting that every Tumblr!fan would be totally okay with this and still support his other comics. For being as cynical as I am about North American comics and getting me to agree with Kid Loki's words to Old Loki. I'm still really depressed about it, but annoyed that this is still my favorite comic run in anything ever despite the horrible finale. So I drown my sorrows in playing Kid Loki in panfandom RP, and try not to prejudge YA vol 2 or post-645!Loki but it's so hard rite nao.

The other comics I'm reading right now are the new JiM run and Hawkeye. I do follow God of Thunder but it's boring me so much that not even Aaron's Gary Stu villain being Flying Voldemort in a Thong can faze me. Next year I'll check YA (grumbling all the way tho), that all-girl comic with Valkyrie, and that Thor Year One thing.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Oops, been a month...

2012-08-08T19:07:58Z

Let's see, what did I have to tell? Not much, except for uncomfortable family stuff I don't really feel like mentioning. I've been just roleplaying on our cozy panfandom game in my free time, mostly, and involving our growing Marvel (I accidentally typed CLAMP, LOL subconscious) Cinematic Universe cast, with some 616 folks around.

Yesterday was the comic book fair in my city. This was the loot:
→ Rurouni Kenshin Kanzenban #17-18
→ Saint Young Men #2
→ Siegfrid #1-2
→ a Doctor Who mug

Other stuff I bought this past month:
→ Journey into Mystery (Spanish trade #1)
→ Rurouni Kenshin Kanzenban #15-16

Welp, time to start suffering over Everything Burns, the crossover mini-event that ends Journey into Mystery (or at least Gillen's run) and The Mighty Thor. I was reading Isaac's interview about Thor: God of Thunder and I felt so underwhelmed. It's not like it's bad, but he's putting aside everything I like about modern Thor series (supporting cast, Asgard as almost her own character, interactions of Asgardians with humans, etc.) So IDK, I should take this as a sign to maaaaybe read Simonson stuff and leave current Thor alone for the rest of this year after EB ends.

By The way, etrangere (can't remember your DW username right now), I have to eat my own hat because I read The Incredible Hercules and I really, really enjoyed it!

Oh, and I also found Gravity Falls so adorable and fun! It's like a mix of Eerie, Indiana with Courage the Cowardly Dog.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [006/100]

2012-07-02T20:20:10Z

So I was thinking about a post regarding a couple of Epic Mythology Romances~ where the man really pisses me off, but then I was talking to lepluvium and got a better idea.

Let's go Japanese today, and we're particularly going to talk about youkai. Yup, the folklore monsters on crack!

It means "the fuck am I looking at???" in Japanese

Youkai is a blanket term for everything and everyone supernatural. Spirits, ghosts, monsters, weird animals, sometimes even gods and demons, etc. Youkai is a more modern term for them, as before the 18th century they used mononoke and bakemono more.

But then, what's the difference between youkai, ayakashi, mononoke, bakemono...? Is there one that's eviler than the others?

Look, I don't even know anymore! Every source says something different, and in every manga and anime with them they take their own meaning, so fuck if I can tell. Let's see, I think it's something like this.

Ayakashi used to refer to ghosts from shipwrecks, but somehow evolved to mean the same as youkai. So, anything is ayakashi, apparently (?)

Mononoke seems to be more about grudging spirits, be it dead people or old objects who came to life.

Bakemono or bake (optional o- in front) seems to be more about creatures and monsters, usually shapeshifters included.

There are hundreds of youkai stories. I swear, the youkai lore is insane. Sometimes they're good to kind people, but most of the times they're mischievous or evil. They've inspired every possible kind of art and media, and it's pretty much certain that Pokémon has its origins here. And even in these modern times when a lot of people are too practical to believe in them, and with all the imported terror from Hollywood, they're still incredibly popular in Japan.

I'm sure they look scarier in real life...

My favorites? I love the complexity of kitsune and tengu the most. Also the kappa, yuki-onna, and most horror stories of humanoid ones killing/eating the shit out of people. Ah, and karakusa -the one who's an umbrella with an eye, a mouth, sometimes arms, and a leg.

It's so ridiculous it's awesome.

Want to learn more about Japanese folklore and youkai? This book is amazing, but right now it's really hard to find. So here are some links full of stories and references to the magnificent -and sometimes gross- creeps of Japan.

→ The Obakemono Project (as the name says, it's a bit of an illustrated index about monsters)

→ Gods of Japan (it's more oriented to religion and cult, but it's been a good source)

→ Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (it's a blog, with a lot of translated horror stories/legends)

→ Sarudama (a Japanese culture blog, but this is the tag for the folklore posts)

→ Mukashibanashi Library (a good compilation of folklore stories)

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Summer finales are here

2012-06-30T20:04:23Z

Some series have ended! So let's do this.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra

Everyone and their mom has already ranted about LoK, so I'll try to make it quick. I did enjoy some episodes, mostly the early ones. It had a really interesting setting and premise, including the contrast of Korra (or more like the idea of her) compared to Aang. But as a whole, it's been underwhelming. Most of the characters I started loving at the beginning aren't the same I still liked in the end, either struck by lack of screentime (Bolin) or just being written in a way that wasn't to me so good (Korra herself). Meanwhile, others I didn't give too much thought at first called my attention more and I was rooting for them (like Lin and Asami). The pacing was awful, Korra's character development kept backtracking, and all the important issues are either ignored or left for next season. So I don't know, I have mixed feelings about this and most aren't too positive. But I don't want to dwell much on this, as I don't know how much the essays I've read from other people have influenced my thoughts.

At this point, I'm mostly reblogging Amon jokes and photosets of cool adult characters.

Fate/Zero

Also known as the series that made me scream "THAT WAS SO DIRTY!" almost every weekend. I kept myself unspoiled, and yet I could call the winning team like a month ago, by just logic and knowing whose wishes couldn't be granted or the sequel(s) can't exist. That result killed some of my enthusiasm (I hate those two), and as a lot of my favorites died it got worse. I think I was just watching the ending for closure as I wasn't really looking forward to more awfulness. But I knew this would happen from the beginning, with a Battle Royale With Cheese canon with powerful magnificent bastards. I celebrate your evil genius, UFOTABLE, and Gen Urobuchi's writing of feels, but I'm still too raw and uncomfortable to remember it fondly.

Despite this, it was a pretty good series. And some of the remaining characters were left with some comfort and consolation, so it's not as horrible as I say it is.

Tsuritama

Dude. DUDE. This was so fucking cute! And let me tell you how strange it is when I tried to decide what character was my favorite and I couldn't. All the four main boys were so nice and had this growth, and I absolutely liked them all! I can't believe that this one was better written than Korra, but it was! An anime whose premise was FISHING WITH ALIENS LOL. Maybe the ending was too sweet, but after last Saturday I really needed one of those. The only thing that would've made it perfect would be if the female cast had a more prominent role. Grandma Kate was terrific, but Coco was just there and I'm not even sure she had much of a personality. Such a shame, because she was in a position where she could be active in the plot, unlike the other background ladies. Even "JFX" was more rounded than her, and he only talked like twice and we don't even get to know his motivations. Actually I was kinda expecting Urara to be a girl, for a complete gender reversal of the goddess legend. Hell, it wouldn't change a lot, considering his personality and character design being so moe.

I still liked everyone and everything a lot!

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

My "Loki feels", I guess

2012-06-15T16:26:34Z

In the end, I'm too much of a coward to post any of this on Tumblr. The Hiddleston fangirls would eat me alive! Plus it's awful etiquette to tag stuff that is not entirely positive/fannish.

So here we go.

I actually don't dislike Loki. But strangely enough, I digged his character much more on Avengers than in Thor, when it should be the opposite. He was throwing hissy fits and acting like a diva and manipulating the shit out of everyone without lifting a finger... and it was fun to watch! Villains and tricksters in general are fun when they're over the top. This was a big movie, so he had to act like he was a mean big ham. And really, almost all I reblog on Tumblr with Hiddloki are jokes and gag fanart, because it's even more fun to make fun of him. Hell, even Hiddleston mocks him almost as much as he fanboys him.

About his subplot in Thor... I do appreciate they give a large priority to his situation, because it gives this universe more humanity (so to speak). Usually Marvel!Lokis are evil petty jealous cretins, and Hiddloki is one, but unlike comics we see his side of his story and it's as relevant as Thor's time on Earth. Marvel writers usually save Loki's feels for spinoffs, one shots, and AUs. It's good that they thought it was important to make this Loki's story too. Just in that, they're building him up better than most incarnations of Marvel!Loki.

...He's just not my kind of character (or even villain), that's all. Too angsty, maybe. I think I watched Thor with high expectations, with everyone saying how awesome/adorable he was and spamming with gifs of his facial expressions. He's sympathetic, sure, but overly hyped for a broken brat. And the long dissertations I see around tend to confuse me more than shedding light on the universal love he gets. He might be more of a woobie than, say, Classic Loki, but he's still as much of a nutjob as the other leather pant-wearing villains people overdefend.

It's a bit strange to read most of the meta, because sometimes I'm not sure if people is extrapolating a lot from some scenes -because they relate it to their own lives or want to justify Loki's "innocence"-, or I just missed some big detail when I was watching, or what. All I agree is that Loki likely had huge self-esteem issues from way before, and this really affected the way he interpreted/did things when he found out the truth and onwards. I've never had good self-esteem, so I can see how he can think of himself as superior or equal to someone else, yet being repulsed by himself and believe no one really loves him.

[I do wonder how much he was actually disliked in Asgard (before the events in Thor). In the comics, most people looked down on Loki because he was a jealous creep and practiced magic. But the scenes in the movie where people point out that everyone wants him to shut up, I just didn't see it. They're moments when both Thor and Odin are really pissed off. We've seen (especially in the extended scenes) that despite being a spoiled jerk, Thor always loved Loki. And about Odin, a lot of fans keep going about how big of a douche parent he is, so mean or neglectful to Loki... we've just seen three scenes of Odin-Loki, and I didn't think they truly represent the kind of father he was. We know jack about Odin's normal behavior to Loki. I think it could be either way: maybe he was the "son I am disappoint" dick fandom sees, but maybe he was a good enough dad (despite an obvious favoritism to Thor, an overprotection of the truth, and TBH it would've been an impending scandal to make Loki his heir), and Loki's low self-esteem is talking here. As long as there's not enough data, I give Odin the benefit of the doubt -and mind you, he's nowhere near comic!Odin's epic douchebaggery to even Thor. In the extra scenes and the original script, all Asgardians tease each other, it's not only directed at Loki, so I didn't see them particularly mocking or hating him. They only started to suspect his actions after Jotunnheim.]

So I don't know. All these deep analysis can be interesting in occasion, but perhaps they're taking Tom Hiddleston's wishful thinking as a fact. The fandom turns me off Hiddloki, at least beyond the jokes. This movie and the relationships in it (especially after all they cut out) are very open-ended, and I don't buy that this is a 100% abusive family full of bullies a la Dursleys. My theory? I like to think it was both sides at fault: the House of Odin could've paid more attention and encouragement to Loki's good qualities so he knew for sure he was loved, but suspect that Loki still prefers to see things a lot more distorted than they were. And the sudden knowledge of being a monster was what turned him from a quiet and slightly creepy kid from issues, to a mad man who suddenly had a seat of power and just didn't give a fuck about moral or common sense anymore. You know it is okay to like someone with flaws, right? Particularly if his flaws tend to villainous deeds. It's okay to love bad guys, I promise.

You know what's funny, though? All this debate about evil asshole vs. misunderstood baby is eerily similar to academic analysis about the mythological Loki. Okay, you don't see MY POOR PRETTY WOOBIECAKES popping up in myth books, but you get my point XD

So there's that. I don't really want to argue about different points of view, just wanted to get this out of my system. Sadly, Hiddleston and Hiddloki won't get out of my dashboard. But that's another story.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Hey, hey

2012-06-03T13:36:16Z

First of all, saying hi to people from fandomsecrets! I hope you don't get bored. I tend to forget to check my DW flist, but I'll try my best to fix that.

α About the 100 post challenge and Marvelesque feels

I was gonna do a follow-up of last time's graphic by explaining myth!Thor, but it might be too advanced for my chronic laziness. It always happens when my Marvel/Marvel!movies feels get in the way. Maybe I should pour that shit on Tumblr and spam any Loki tag like the HiddLoki fanbrats spam the ones I follow.

Speaking of which, I watched the Captain America film and enjoyed it. I also rewatched Thor. Couldn't find the Iron Man ones on my stepdad's drives.

Anyway, will try to post something else soon.

β Welcome to the 21st century, idiot

We got ourselves a cheap tablet (when I say cheap, I mean "bought with newspaper coupons and will likely break and become paperweight soon" cheap) about a month ago. I could upgrade it to Android 4.0.ish when the maker released the update. So yeah, now I'm familiar with Ice Cream Sandwich! :D

I also bought a new cellphone, it's a white Samsung Galaxy Ace which is pretty much an iPhone cosplay. But it's neat to have a smartphone anyway, as the tablet is family's and I can't really customize it that much. This one is on Gingerbread IIRC. But for extensive reading and multimedia, yeah, let's go with Mrs. Tablet. I need a nickname for the phone...

γ Conventions and local nerds

Last weekend, there was an anime con in our city, probably the last one this year. My brothers went as Gintoki and Kondo from Gintama. It wasn't as fun and well organized as last year's, but there was a really kickass Star Wars area with adult people cosplaying stormtroopers and jedis and other stuff (it's an association from Santiago de Compostela). Same overload of Shounen Jump fandoms as usual, when it comes to merchandising, but I saw some elusive fandoms. Let me tell you how surreal it is to see plushies of Kyuubey next to Kero-chan! There were also these huge Nyanko-sensei plushies but I didn't even ask the price as they were likely not cheap.

Here is the booty:
→ Strap for said phone (turtle plushie ;A;)
→ Mandatory geeky pins (Doctor Who logo, Finn from Adventure Time, comic!Thor)
→ Manga (all of Ribon no Kishi, Saint Young Men #1)
→ T-shirt of Okami
→ Baseball cap of Pokémon
→ Plushie of Dragonite! ;3;
→ All of Twelve Kingdoms anime on DVD. It was really cheap.
→ Also won a poster of the golden saints from Saint Seiya drawn chibi in a lottery (...lol)

So yeah, this was my past two weeks.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [005/100]

2012-05-14T16:42:47Z

Oh man, my paid LJ account is expiring soon!

Also, I promise I'll reply to your comments in other posts soon. I've been really lazy...

Not a lot to say, besides that I watched The Avengers the other day and had a blast! I'm not sure if I'll make a post about it, but it's really hard to move on with this movie because Tumblr won't shut up about it. And I don't even follow Avengers-centric blogs! This fandom is eating everything up, even the mythology tag. Which brings us to today's post, kinda.

Because I realized that if I start talking about Norse myths now, people who have no idea but watched Avengers and/or Thor will be confused as fuck. So I'm not going to make a long list of differences between mythology and Marvel movies, as you can google it if you want. But I'm bringing a graphic of relationship differences that will be useful.

This is the real deal, guys. We'll be working with this in the next Norse-related posts.

Quick note:
→ Obviously myth!Odin has a lot of sons, but it's debatable which of them besides Balder are Frigga's too.

Please compare with what's been in the movies:

Quick note:
→ This is obviously more based in the comicverse (see mess below) than in the actual myths. I think that whining because Loki is now Odin's son and not his former BFF is a bit pointless, as the original source wasn't the mythology. Same with hair colors, people! Keep whining about Sif's black hair, but shrug for Thor's golden locks. Comic book designs!
→ Balder hasn't appeared in movieverse, so he's not in that particular diagram. However, he's major enough in comicverse to get shown in the others.

Aaaaaand to be even more pedant and nerdy, here's a more confusing diagram for the soap opera that are the Marvel comics (you can ignore if you like) in case you want the real movie inspiration.

I have geek notes for that too, like the confusion with Freya and Frigga in recent comics, or how I skipped Odin's generation (LOL recently retconned brother) and his other sons -as I also skipped in the myth diagram- for clarity. But that's just too nerdy to annoy you guys...

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [004/100]

2012-05-04T20:31:35Z

Okay, okay, I swear that this time I'll make a post about something nicer. Here is a story that has a happy ending ~~or at least it's happy if you're not the random old guy who saw it all~~. This is one of my favorite myths because the main character not only is a trickster, he actually gets away with it without a scratch and gets his life made because of his trolling. If you've read tales with more traditional tricksters (Loki, Coyote, Anansi, etc.) you'll be aware that it's a rare occurrence. Even Bugs Bunny loses sometimes. This awesome dude only loses when he lets you win.

This is the only story where Hermes of the Greco-Roman pantheon gets the leading role. They probably were too scared to let him be main character again when he got older, so from now on he's only the best support character. But that's a topic for another day, how Hermes is such a strange trickster. For now, let's go on with the story.

Some backstory first. You've probably heard at one point of your life the names of Hermes (or his Roman counterpart Mercury) and Apollo (or his counterpart... uh, Apollo.) Both are sons of Zeus and Olympian gods, each with a long list of stuff they're gods of, and part of what I like to call the Baka Trio of Olympus with younger brother Dionysus -disclaimer: said group doesn't exist, I just like to lump gods into categories. But this story is way before Hermes was an Olympian and Apollo was a professional god of music.

Hermes is the son of Maia, eldest of the Pleiads. She's not important except for having sex with Zeus and having one of his gazillion children. Because Hera likes to annoy at her husband's pregnant lovers in horrible ways, Maia chose wisely to hide in a cave in Mt. Cyllene in Arcadia, until the possibility of shitstorm was over. There she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Hermes, and proceeded to take a nap right after childbirth. Oops.

The baby was, how to say it, really precocious. I mean, gods tend to be so or grow up fast or do amazing feats just hours or days after their birth, and Hermes was no exception. So this kid got up from his bed/cradle/something and decided to have fun while mom was asleep. And by fun, I mean child delinquency! He really tried at first to make the best of it, having clean-ish fun at the cave area.

Well, clean... He found a tortoise, played with it, then killed it :( and made this instrument out of its shell. Add some strings made with guts of sheep, and he invented something: the lyre.

That's one hell of a kindergarten handicraft! It took me 7 more years to make a pencil holder out of wooden pegs and a glass of baby compote.

Music and reptile murder was nice, but it wasn't edgy enough. So in a search of excitement, this divine Tommy Pickles came up with the heist of the century. Then again, there weren't many thieves by then and I'm not sure if that happened in the same century than the Prometheusgate. But anyway, Hermes ran away from home and when he saw a nice cattle, he decided to steal some of it. Just for the heck of it. He made up some sandals a few sizes larger, and off they go, a few cows whose hooves were turned 180º by Billy the Kid here, and a baby walking backwards. Enough to confuse any stupid god, he thinks.

But like I told you, there was an old guy who was eye witness. It would be hard to miss a baby and a bunch of cows, if you ask me. So Hermes asks him to please keep quiet. I'll tell you right away: later the man told the owner of the cattle exactly what he saw, and Hermes turned him into stone. Fucking creepy baby. Who was the owner of the cattle, you may ask? Dude, I already mentioned two gods and one hasn't appeared yet so do the math. It was no one other than Apollo, who was probably gone to have a noon nookie with someone. But we'll back to him in a minute.

So Hermes was in another cave with the cows, like hiding them in a garage or something. He's hungry and despite the gods don't really eat, he's like whatever. So he takes two of the cows and sacrifices them to the gods (just so we're clear on baby Hermes' badassery, he tossed them up and killed them by broking their necks with his bare hands), cuts the meat in twelve pieces, makes a fire with sticks and plants and shit, and he cooks the meat. He only saved one of the parts for himself. He couldn't really eat them because he's a god, and I'm not even sure he had his teeth out yet anyway.

Let's keep track now of what baby Hermes has invented until now.

Lyre
Shoes (probably)
Taking your big sibling's toys without permission
Fire the way a boy scout would do
Barbecue

THE DAY HE WAS BORN.

Then he went back home because it was evening already, and his worried mom caught him while he's trying to get back to his cradle. She's like "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Maia, understandably, is pissed that her newborn son has turned into a delinquent and will probably get killed by Apollo in a few minutes. Hermes ran out of fucks to give, and told his mom that he's aiming to get them out of their sad misery, and he's aiming high. He planned to become an important god himself. And if he can't, he'll become a prince of thieves and just steal Apollo's house next! Just what a mother wants to hear, kid.

The next morning, Apollo was back and discovered he's missing cow heads, and the footprints are a fucking mess to follow. But Hermes didn't count that his older half brother is a god of prophecy, so Apollo used his psychic powers and a lot of deductive logic to locate the criminal and follow him. Of course, the old man's testimony helped a lot too. So Apollo set to Maia's cave, angry as fuck and with murderous intent. He didn't give a shit if the thief is a baby. If you think baby Hermes' strength is scary, I'll tell you that Apollo in a bad mood is fucking terrifying. This isn't something they tell you straight up in myths, but it's a fact. Hermes was a baby in the woods, literally and figuratively, if he were to fight with Apollo.

Okay, so Apollo went to Maia's cave, and started to look everywhere -cupboards, chests, etc.- like he was a video game character barging into a person's house to get items. He was angry as fuck here. He confronted Hermes, who was pretending to be sleeping in his cradle and putting his cutest, most innocent baby face.

Not pictured: a lyre under his armpit, his complete lack of innocence

Apollo was not fooled, and he immediately demanded the baby brother to tell him where is his cattle, or he'd throw him into Tartarus forever. Hermes is all "Letoides, I don't understand your harsh words. You come for a cattle, but I don't even know what cows are! I'm just a little widdle baby, I only know milk and blankets and baths and sleeping. Or do you really think a newborn baby just trolled and shamed a god of Olympus?" Apollo laughed all "Awww, look at him talk all smooth and innocent! Who's the cutest motherfucking lying thief? Yes, you are." Because Paulie wasn't born yesterday... unlike Hermie, who literally was.

So Apollo took Hermes in his arms, Hermes burped and sneezed on his face, and Apollo dropped him. So they both walked, not taking that risk again. Apollo took him to Zeus' presence to solve this issue. Yup, court session!

"I hope this is good, Apollo. I had to cancel a booty call, and now you bring a pretty toddler here?!"

"Dad, your new son just stole my cows!!!"

...There are no babies in Ace Attorney :((((

Anyway, ~~Klavier Gavin~~ Apollo told the story and explained the evidence. Hermes was his own defense attorney, and he claimed that this guy just came to his house with no witness and threatened to toss him to Tartarus, and he was not guilty.

Hermes: *puppy eyes*
Zeus: LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Zeus: Just go you two and get your brother's cows from where you hid them.
Hermes: But I'm inn--
Zeus: *nods strongly*
Hermes: Sob.
Hermes: Oh man...

And you might think that this would be a case of the fastest SON I AM DISAPPOINT in the universe, but you know what? He actually caused a good first impression on his dad. Probably then Zeus decided that someone with such lip and ninja skills would be amazing to have as his errand boy. That's probably how Hermes would get his herald job when he grew up. But will Apollo even let him grow up? Let's find out.

Apollo forced Hermes to take him to the parking lot where he parked the cows. There he saw the skins of the dead cows just drying around, and he was disturbed that a baby with baby hands could flay the shit out of two cows. Obviously, we can't let the owner of such strength to keep growing up, if you ask Apollo. He tried to tie the boy up, but the bounds elude Hermes and go to the cows. This gave the latter a chance to save his neck, by reaching for the lyre under his security blanket and playing some strings.

Music calms the beasts. Apparently it also calms angry gods. Here's Apollo's reaction to this new way to make music.

He was so, so, so, so impressed that he completely forgave him for the cow theft, as the lyre's music was much sweeter than that. So they came to an arrangement and Hermes gladly gave it to Apollo as a gift. He got to keep the cows, a nice staff from Apollo, and became a god of shepherds for a while. Ever since, Apollo and Hermes have been tight bros in a literal and figurative sense. Hermes promised to never steal from his big brother again... but he did one more trade for divine freebies in exchange of new musical instruments. He invented the flute little time after that, and while Apollo couldn't teach him to be an oracle, he directed him to good divination teachers.

Yay! So this one had a happy ending! I mean, except for that poor man... and let's not forget the poor tortoise... WELL, IT COULD BE MUCH WORSE.

4th of some month, nevah forget.

If you want to read the full story, here's the Homeric hymn:
English
Spanish

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Being Asgardian is suffering

2012-05-04T12:59:56Z

Actual mythology post later today. I just have a lot of feels that Tumblr and Plurk aren't good for.

Here's the thing. The only ongoing American comics I'm following right -thanks to DC- now are the Marvel Thorverse. I know, I know. I had this on-and-off fling with the current continuity that has nothing to do with the movieverse and more with me considering Asgard(ia) a character of her own. Plus mythology bitchery, you know how I am. The interesting thing about the Thor comics is them tending to be more fantasy action than superhero action most of the times, in later decades having more inner supernatural baddies and cosmic menaces than rich men with a lot of power -except when Doctor Doom comes to troll.

I started with the JMS run, and I'm still reading the two ongoing series (Journey Into Mystery is my favorite thing ever, adorbs baby trickster ♥) So I slowly want to read the old stuff, and I wanted to start from the very Silver Age beginning. It was... very different, a little hard to swallow too, and the original myth butchery by Stan Lee was very painful. So after a few issues (as in comic issues, not mental issues), I decided to jump into the Walterson run because it's universally accepted as the best. But then suddenly Balder had just recovered from ded and was white-haired, and I hadn't seen Sif becoming an actual character; I wanted more context here, so I guess I'll be back to it afterwards. So I haven't taken Simonson yet.

BUT I'M MISSING THE POINT WITH BACKSTORY HERE. Since the modern Thor comics mention the last Ragnarok a lot, I decided to read the Thor: Disassembled/Ragnarok arc to understand exactly how it happened.

OH GOD. JESUS CHRIST ON A ROLLER COASTER. IT WAS LIKE SOMEONE PUT THOR COMICS, A REAL BOOK OF NORSE MYTHOLOGY, AND A BUNCH OF MANGA VOLUMES BY CLAMP ON A BLENDER.

I mean. I know it is Ragnarok, and I knew that rocks fell and everyone died, and I knew it was really tragic. I just didn't expect it to be written by Nanase Ohkawa!! I don't know how to feel! Because the thing was well-written but it was so frustrating and CLAMPish it felt like a kick on the stomach.

Hnnnnnngggggg. When I said that Marvel is the CLAMP of superhero fandoms, I didn't mean it so literally :(((((( TWO LOST EYEBALLS.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [003/100]

2012-04-25T17:40:34Z

Nope, I haven't forgotten! I've just been sick lately and I wasn't feeling geeky enough to do it. I was going to make more graphics too, but in the end I thought it was too bleagh of an idea. So anyway, here's the disgusting conclusion to the Norse creation myth.

Warnings: bit of gore again, dwarf bashing, lack of cheerful LEGO

So like I was telling you, Odin and his brodins killed the ice giant Ymir, and his blood caused an Universal Flood where only two frost giants survived. And Odin and company decided to create the world with the body parts of Ymir because... recycling? Here is a handy table.

I totally can't get over the dwarves :'( Haters gonna hate.

So yeah, that's how shit got done, literally under the corpses of their ancestors. So next time you're looking at the photo of a beautiful Scandinavian fjord and marvel at the breathtaking beauty of nature...

For instance.

...just try not to think what the vikings who sailed on those waters believed they were made of.

No wonder they have reputation of hardcore, but. MAN.

Iiiiiiiiiiiinstant moodkiller! :(

The sun, moon, and stars are made of embers from the fire land I told you before. And thankfully, humanity wasn't made of Ymir directly. The Norse Adam and Eve, Ask and Embla, were carved out of an ash and an elm Odin found on a beach.

So yeah, we're made of wood in this mythology.

Odin was with two other gods when he created us, but the sources aren't very clear on that. Some say it was his two brothers. Others say it was two obscure gods called Hoenir and Lodurr. Either way, they were our three godly godfathers who, like in The Sleeping Beauty, gave a gift to us. In the non-brothers version, it was:

Odin: soul
Hoenir: sense
Lodurr: heat/blood/color

In the brothers version, it was:

First: Breath of life
Second: Movement and Intelligence
Third: Shape, speech, hearing and sight

And they put them in a world they had made for them called Midgard (meaning middle yard, not eyebrows). Which brings us to the Worlds!

There are more than one world in this cosmos, all attached to the branches and roots of a bigass ash tree called Yggdrasil.

Wrong Yggdrasil! Unrelated flashbacks to Tales of Symphonia in 3, 2, 1...

Yeah, that's the one.

Here are the worlds:

Asgard: The Penthouse of the worlds, belongs to Odin and his family. There are two kinds of gods in Norse myths, and here mostly the Aesir group lives (there are a few Vanir, but as a war exchange.) Also in this world we have Valhalla, the paradise for elite dead warriors.
Vanaheim: Where the other group of gods, the Vanir, lives.
Alfheim: Where the light elves live.
Midgard: Home! It's flat, and surrounded by an ocean of water which has a huge snake around it. It's connected to Asgard by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.
Jotunheim: Where the frost giants (Jotunn) live. Odin feels really generous for giving them lands, but then again his eldest son keeps going there to kick their asses. So yeah, IDK either.
Svartalfheim: Where the dwarves live. In some places they say it's where dark elves live, so I guess that's another way to say dwarf. RACISTS.
Muspellsheim: Remember it from last post? The world of fire! The king there is a dude called Surtur there who will burn the crap out of everything when during the apocalypse.
Niflheim: Remember it from last post? The world of ice!
Hel: The dull, cold underworld, ruled by the half-zombie lady of the same name. Unless you died in battle like a boss, prepare to go down here when you die.

Let's count them. It's nine worlds, ah, ah, ah!

Get used to that number if you're getting into Norse mythology. It pops up once in a while.

So anyway, welcome to anyone who came here to read this posts. I hope you enjoy them or learn something from this mess :D

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

More anime of this season: first impressions

2012-04-17T17:59:20Z

Don't get scared, I'll try not to only make that kind of posts!

So. I tried anime of genres I usually don't care for. Except zombies. Fuck overrated rotting zombies, especially with moe bishoujo plots.

→ Jormungand (1 episode)
Come on, with that title! So this is about a gun dealer lady who has a little army of bodyguards, and how she avoids getting killed off. The other main character is a former child-soldier boy from Africa (except he looks 100% like a Ishvalan from Fullmetal Alchemist...) who hates guns, just hired by said dealer. I'm not really into pew-pew-pew kind of mafia-like stories, but Coco -the dealer- is kinda delightful (half badass, half dork) so I'll try to give one or two more episodes a go. Even if it's just to add more cool females in my watch list like a boss.

→ Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna (2 episodes)
I've watched loose Lupin III episodes of a couple of series, and I like the fun cheese it is. So a prequel series about the only recurrent female character, having sexy thief adventures, should be fun, right? Yeaaaaah, I didn't took into count that she's the femme fatale type, and they play it a little heavier than I expected. I was hoping for a more empowering kind of seduction, but it all comes off a bit skeevy male gaze as she's half naked a la sexism is over!1! for most screentime. A real pity. Also, the entirety of the opening is so NSFW it's pretty much soft porn, so don't watch this anime on the bus or near anyone else.

→ Sakamichi no Apollon (1 episode)
This season's cool josei with the cool music. I liked the three characters and all (yes, including the sweet class rep, who gets ignored because girly bits), but I can never get into this particular kind of series and... I really should get into it because everyone loves it, but if I couldn't get attached to others in the genre (Nodame, Honey and Clover, etc) I doubt this one will do the trick. It is very cute, though. I'd also feel out of place because instead of seeing Teh Gay, I just see a goddamn threesome. Megane is clearly "doki doki" at both Class Rep and Jazzy Thug, and viceversa. And mind you, I normally don't get OT3, but this time... just share the pretty prissy transfer student, kids.

→ Uchuu Kyoudai (2 episodes)
Two brothers saw an UFO once and decided to become astronauts when they grew up. While the little brother makes it and is about to be on the moon, the big brother was fired from his successful job designing cars for punching his boss. Then Hirota reminds Muuta of their promise, so now big bro is studying to become an astronaut too. This one should be really boring and yet, I suddenly had the need to know if Muuta will pass his exams. I think it's because he's a well written character and it's easy to root for him. So far I'm following it although I'm still baffled.

→ Tsuritama (1 episode)
I watched on a whim because I couldn't make tails of the summary (is it high school slice of life? is it sports shounen? is it sci-fi action?) And you know what, I still can't. I have no idea what's gonna be. But the intro! They gave me a random legend in cute quirky art and that's something I ADORE seeing in my video games. So I had to keep watching after that. And then they gave me a spazzy sparkly blond alien boy. Well shit, my weakness. Plus the art is looking nice in a slightly Mamoru Hosoda-movie kind of way. So yeah, I'm intrigued as fucked and enjoying the visuals and the characters so far, so this might be my favorite "watched randomly" one this season.

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [002/100]

2012-04-15T19:56:15Z

Since you guys seemed more interested in learning Norse, we'll go focus on a bit of Norse too. So let's go with the beginning, literally the beginning. Creation myth!

Warnings and triggers: A bit of gore and gratuitous violence, sweaty armpits, and cows with a licking fetish.

In the beginning, there was only three places and they were boring and terrible as hell. Except hell still didn't exist, but there was no need because they were all unbearable to stand. We had the Southern lands, Muspelheim, which were made of fucking fire. Then we had the Northern lands, made of fucking ice, called ~~Siberia~~ Niflheim. In the middle like a very boring Ecuator, this was this abyss of nothingness called Ginnungagap (funniest word ever). But really, I'm kinda suspecting these people were actually describing Icelandic weather in real life.

Welp.

Of course, eventually some of that ice hit some of that fire, and it melted. Condensation happened, and this giant made of ice called Ymir was born in Ginnungagap. First being into existence. He didn't have a lot of things to do because everything was boring, so he took a nap. While he was sleeping, he was sweating as deodorant didn't exist either. The sweat on his armpits and feet became the frost giants.

Armpit sweat. It's like something out of Ren & Stimpy.

But he wasn't the only condensed being. There was suddenly also this cow called Audumla. Her milk made four delicious streams, and Ymir and one of his sweat-sons that had six heads drank for it. But what did Audumla eat herself? It was a fucking abyss full of ice, duh! Salty ice, probably because sweat. Ewww.

So Miss Cow licked the ice, and one day she finds hair under it. The next day, there was a full men's head. On the third one, she had licked a dude out of the ice stone. Meet Buri!

By N. A. Abilgaard (1790)
IMAGINE ALL THAT SUCKING GOING ON. GROSS.

Buri is important because he had a son called Bor (I have no idea how), who had three sons too (with a giantress). The three sons were Odin, Vili or Hoenir, and Ve. You might've heard of the first one, possibly?

So yeah, the three brothers didn't like Ymir. Maybe because he was gross. Maybe because he was cruel. Maybe because they were bored and wanted to kill something. Doesn't matter, because they went and slayed that motherfucker down. He bled so much, there was an universal flood and only two frost giants survived or something.

Let me soften the next post's descriptions by adding a LEGO reenactment

And now they had a gigantic corpse to dispatch. But that's okay, Odin saw the potential of recycling and decided to build the rest of the universe with his brothers with Ymir's body parts. Gross. In the next post, the gruesome details of how shit got made (because I want to make a spiffy visual guide.) Also, an explanation about the Nine Worlds and the Goddamn Huge Tree in the middle of it all.

Bonus: The LOL HOLY COW thing isn't a Scandinavian exclusive. It's part of the theory of a Proto-Indo-European religion, meaning there's a lot of mystical cows to be sucked around the world.

...Speaking of which, what the hell happened to that cow? They didn't mention her anymore.

To be continued...

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

100 things mythology [001/100]

2012-04-14T01:57:00Z

Okay, I thought I'd start off with something basic but this shit can be so complicated that "basic" doesn't exist. So I can't even make introductions of the major gods of the major mythologies because... who are the major ones?

Mmmm, let's go simpler. We've all heard of the Twelve Olympians, right? But can you name them? Of course you can, but who the fuck knows if you'll say the same names than someone else will. That's right, there are a lot of versions of who are the 12. Probably even each person had their own list of twelve back then. It makes terribly difficult to, say, make a canon Olympus in LEGO minifigures.

By Dunechaser @ Flickr

There are some set ones, certainly. For example, Zeus and Hera are always on the list (duh.) But not every important god or goddess is One Of Them, so logic flies through the window like a pegasus who doesn't know how to use the door.

Take Hades and Hestia. They're both Cronus' children, so you'd imagine they'd make it to the cut all the time. But nope! Hades is one of the Big Cheese Trio, but apparently he's not Olympian most times because he doesn't live IN Olympus. Dude, what? I don't think Artemis lives in there either, with all the hunting and camping slumber parties to be done in the forest. Just say you're scared shitless of him, you wusses.

Hestia is a more delicate case because she was a Usual one, but then she stepped aside to give her spot to Dionysus. Except some people still count her in, mostly because it's cooler to have 6 goddesses, so yeah.

So ideally, we might alllllll go with the Classic list: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus?

LOLNOPE! Because some dorks were all screw canon, and added whatever gods they liked to the Twelve if Wikipedia is to be believed. Asclepius, nevermind he died! Eros, no one gets in his shit list (amirite, Apollo?)! Hebe, because... wait, does Hebe do anything besides nectar mojito shots? Pan, because uh... needs more furry! Persephone, because... hold on, that's a douche move because her hubby isn't invited to the fucking party. Heracles, because... MAN, SERIOUSLY? Are you going to include Heracles?! Okay, let's go home, I give up. Fuck everything.

See? It's terrible. It's not like the Twelve Apostles, where you can look them up and they're always the same dudes. At this point, I just wonder if instead of the ideal of 12 because it's a nice number, if Zeus couldn't ask Hephaestus to make him some extra chairs for the meetings.

So, when I got into Norse and I heard there are 12 Aesir, I was ready to look for the nicest wall to hit my head against it. But... that wasn't true. To be precise, the list (which is thankfully a less polemic one) consists of 12 gods and 14 goddesses and it doesn't count Odin (aka, the main guy) or Loki (he's complicated ~~understatement of the millennium~~.) If you want to check it out it's here.

When I first checked the list I was baffled because... well, about half of the names or more are so obscure, only mythology hipsters have heard of them. Except for Hestia, and she still had a huge as balls cult, every Olympian has a very rich set of stories and attributes that make them memorable. Then you go looking for one of the lesser Aesir, and you get like a paragraph of info, max. It's even sadder with the goddess part of the list, because most are wives, handmaidens, or do things that sound kinda useful but you still never heard of them anyway. So you're like, who are these people?

The problem here is, if you expected the list to be Significant like the Twelve Olympians one, you're wrong. You get a list of all gods in Asgard, important or not, Aesir or (traded) Vanir. And there are important gods and goddesses who don't make it to the cut, a la Hades and Hestia. But then again, some dumbasses counted HERACLES as an Olympian, so fuck everything.

Man, these adventures with lists of gods made me think of how different monotheist religions are, with everyone well defined and counted for and--

--and then I looked up on the seven Archangels and angelologists can't even decide on four. No one is safe, fuck everything.

(Note: I know only two are canon, it's sarcasm)

Anyway, have something even nerdier than Greek gods in LEGO: fanart of Greek gods in JRPG.

I want this because of reasons

(Dreamwidth copy over there)

Let's see if I can do this

2012-04-13T23:38:06Z

Okay, since this is pretty much dead and I miss having something to say, I'll emulate lil_1337 and do this challenge.

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

My theme will be 100 curious things about mythology because I'm a nerd.

Next post will be the start.

Hey, I've been watching stuff from Japan!

2012-04-09T22:10:53Z

Yeah, so I still haven't a clue of what shows I'll even try this season except for a couple that are a MUST. Which ones? You'll see below, although this is mostly a GIF review of things from last season (or a previous season, period).

Inside:
- Oh right, Persona 4: The Animation ended... kinda.
- Polar bears, pandas, and penguins! Oh my!
- And a lot of baths were given that da-- I mean, century.
- My lesbian crush on King Arthur, in the middle of political magic duels.

Semi-final thoughts on P4A

See, there are a lot of stuff where the adaptation fails, including a rushed pacing, limited character development for some of them because of time, and the utter abomination that was Yu's homophobia when Kanji was a newcomer. Actually, what baffles me the most about the handwave lately, when Yu seems to be way more chill about subtext and queer behavior, and no one in the team seems to remember how hurtful he was in that one episode. Did he ever apologize? Is it a change of writers? Is it a consequence of increasing Understanding, etc.? Is it Teddie's childlike fabulousness? I have no clue.

But regardless of the flaws, I looked forward to every episode every week, and it's not too horrible for an adaptation if it wasn't for the homophobic episodes. Of course, this is YMMV as the problematic character is the protagonist, and I understand why many fans would drop it like it's hot. Then again, I kept watching because anime!Teddie was ridiculously cute and Paku Romi's voice on Naoto is unf.

Favorite character in the anime? Teddie's sparkles, who have a life on their own and get a bigger role. Teddie is the second, Nanako the third (her filler cosplaying a mahou shoujo detective is diabetes inducing!)

LOL, now to wait for August or something for the True End. Fucking trolls :'D

Shirakuma Cafe (Polar Bear Cafe)

IDK, someone showed me a lot of gifs of a NEET panda arguing with his mother, and I had to watch that because it was a very cracky premise. Turns out this anime just started now, and it's several kinds of KAWAII DESU and like it was made for me.

Like I said, there's a lazy fail panda who's also extremely cute despite being annoying and infuriating when you think about it. I love pandas but wait, there's more! The title character is a fantastic deadpan polar bear with a weird sense of humor, and there's an emperor (or is it king?) penguin in the main cast.

YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS. THREE OF MY FAVORITE ANIMALS DOING ANTHROPOMORPHIC SHIT. Also, the seiyuu are just. I can't, really. It's true what they say that the puns aren't really that funny because it's too Japanese, but I like the inherent surreal and illogical humor on this. I didn't find it slow at all for my taste. It also goes to show that the only way I can like a slice of life is if the situation is really original or cracktacular. Plus, the animation is really colorful and stuff.

Thermae Romae

Which might as well be called "A Splash of Cultural Clash" or "this is what happened when a mangaka was reading about public baths in Ancient Rome and noticed it sounded kinda like Japan's". It's a short one, just 6 short episodes, and it's very what the hell did I just watch. Lucius is a Roman architect specialized in baths who can kinda accidentally travel (a la Yuuri Shibuya) to modern Japan, and it's conveniently always when he's stuck in a project. Then he gets traumatized by how advanced this strange race of people are when it comes to bathing, and then tries to copy everything he saw in those few minutes -because he's from Rome, and that's their style.

It was enjoyable in its WTF. And while he can get a little racist sometimes -and assumed they were slaves in his first trip-, he still respects/envies the Japanese and can enjoy his time there. I have no idea how historically inaccurate this shit is, but it's just so weird I don't care.

Fate/Zero

I once tried the first two episodes of Stay Night. The characters didn't grab me. This was the opposite and I was sold before the first episode ended. And that was the "most boring" one! I marathoned the first season, and today I finished it and got updated with the second. So anyway, what is this about? Unlike F/SN which is eroge moe fodder, this anime is a nice seinen all about...

A bunch of mages from around the world enter this tournament to get the Holy Grail, which will grant them a wish and give glory to their clans. But the way they (mostly and very loosely) fight is through a ~~Persona~~ Servant, which is kind of the soul of a historical/mythical figure they invoked as a partner. The Servants also get their Grail wish, of course. This is a pretty neat anime to me, mostly because there's a lot of intrigue and politics and espionage and character introspection, which I like seeing in a fantasy action show. Swashbuckling and magic spells and guns and pretty faces are nice, and we have aplenty of those, but F/Z is more complex than that. It's not a lovely battle, there are all kinds of Master/Servant relations, and the most civil person is not going to win this Battle Royale with Cheese. The characters are really interesting too.

I'm totally Team Saber (sigh, stupid sexy Saber and my pings for noble monarchs... plus I also want Irisviel to be happy). On the other hand, I also love the dynamics of Rider and Waver; I'm always smiling at their parts.

Now, can we please move on with the Lovecraftian Horror Boss Fight? It's been like two episodes and it's getting boring! D:

Rite, I need icons of these things

2012-03-25T14:23:35Z

SO, LEGEND OF KORRA! I'll get this one first so you can skip the spoilers and read the other nonsense if you want.

The feeling is quite different to ATLA, but I'm digging it. Probably not in the same way than the first series, but the scenery porn and the characters and the gorgeous animation are all amazing. I like almost everyone so far.

I really like Korra. Even if she's Brash Action Grrl with an attitude, she has a lot of heart and even naivety. And it's interesting that her sheltered life and her own nature brought her a privileged mentality that's criticized by revolutionary characters. There's a lot of stupid whining about it (including people saying she sounds white, WTF there are more ways to be privileged than skin colors -especially in a Magical POC Land!-), but I liked that she was giving this character flaw. I'm looking forward to see how this will play out, if she will check her privilege, and if Amon has a more extreme approach than the street protesters. But enough about the unfunny business! She's fun, she's dorky sometimes, she's passionately stubborn... you know, in pure Water Tribe fashion.

Besides Korra, I can't decide who I like better, if Tenzin or Bolin. They're both awesome and an infinite supply of amazing faces. It's funny because in the rpevious show, my favorites were also a brash prodigy girl (Toph), a comedy lady's men bro (Sokka), and a mentor figure adult man (Iroh). But of course, they're also very different, I just mean the role. I understand why people want to see Zuko and Sokka reflected in the brothers, but after we met them I'm not seeing it at all. Sokka was goofier and more analytical, while Zuko had A Lot of Feelings and can't keep a poker face for five minutes. So all the fangirls going "OMG MAKO IS MY FAVORITE JUST LIKE ZUKO OMG I LOVE BROODING FIREBENDER HOTTIES" are really confusing me. The funnier part is how I see more of Toph (in spirit) in Korra than Katara, so I wonder if Zutarians who shipped Makorra before this episode will notice that. Hell, if someone has some of Katara's personality, that's Tenzin! But let's not bring his mother into this, LOL.

In compulsive buying news, I have acquired Kid Icarus: Uprising. I've only played the first level a few times because I think my consoles give me the flu as soon as I touch them :[ I watched the anime clips and dude, they're really amping the Palutena-is-moe and it's not just SHAFT. So as annoying as the VAs are, I like her and Pit so far. They're big dorks. About the gameplay, it's confusing at first but maybe I'll get the hang of it. I'm feeling some anxiety over weapon fusion like I always have when I have to fuse shit up in games (I didn't dare to screw with Personas for half of my first P4 playthrough)

I don't really get why the OMG MUST GET THEM ALL around the AR cards. Is it a collector TCG thing or do they actually affect the game experience in a relevant way? Honest question here.

I also bought Percy Jackson: The Demigod Files which isn't that interesting besides the short stories. I already had html versions of them, but it's Festus' intro and I have a lot of feelings over a bronze mecha dragon. Shuddup.

I couldn't find the Moribito books in Spanish and I've been looking for them for months. In the end I bought them off Amazon.es. Last copy they had. Dammit, I'm in no economical shape to spend all this money.

A meme I got tagged like a month ago

2012-02-24T23:48:58Z

Rules:
→ You must post these rules.
→ Each person must post 11 things about themselves in their journal.
→ Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, ~~and create eleven new questions for the people you tag to answer.~~
~~→ You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.~~

① I technically was at a Queen concert when I was a fetus
② My pinky fingers are a little twisted
③ I always got straight A's (well, the local equivalent) on English at high school, yet on my first ~srs~ English class on 1st grade at 8 years old, I cried because I didn't understand
④ I have the memory of riding a hippo at a circus, but I'm not sure if it was a dream combined in my mind with an actual circus evening, or it actually happened
⑤ I learned how to read when I was three, just by watching Wheel of Fortune on TV
⑥ I have myopia and astigmatism
⑦ I only got drunk once in my life. I was one, and it was at my baptism party
⑧ I was in the closet about my love for anime and fantasy until college. Thankfully I was also into celebrities and music and American TV shows in my teen years, so I had something to geek about in public back then?
⑨ I had serious phobias to alien abductions and the apocalypse during my childhood and early puberty
⑩ I know some Disney lyrics better in English than in Spanish, because my mom would bring me Sing Along Songs VHSs from her trips to Atlanta (she was a flight attendant)
⑪ I hate winters

Now the questions from hamsterfactor:

o1. What color are your eyes?
Boring brown. I think they look greenish when I cry or under some lights.

o2. What is your favorite animated movie?
ARGH! I hate these questions because I have too many animated movies and too little real-action movies to decide.
I honestly don't know what to say. Should I go with cartoons or anime? 2D or 3D? Old nostalgia or recent ones?
I hate these questions. I can't even write a top ten.

o3. Umbrella, raincoat or both?
Raincoats suck balls. Then again, umbrellas get broken all the time here because strong winds, but at least I can fold the portable cheap ones into a backpack.

o4. Have you ever collected anything?
Who hasn't? Pencils, stickers, tazos, stationary paper, magazines, books, pictures of teen crushes, pictures of fandoms (official and fanart), manga, DVDs, etc. Now for something more specific, there's the tiny collection of Okami crap. I can live without the Okamiden merch, but I hope one day I can be rich enough to buy the soundtrack, as in legit CDs and all.

o5. Which book have you re-read the most?
The Little Prince, I think.

o6. What's your earliest childhood memory?
My tiny ass sitting on the floor and watching cartoons on TV when I was 2-3. So pretty much the same thing I'm doing as an adult but on an armchair.

o7. Favorite ice-cream flavor?
Chocolate with chocolate chips. I also like one scoop of chocolate and one of vanilla.

o8. Which city would you like to visit the most?
Rome or London. Well, and Tokyo, but it intimidates me.

o9. What is your favorite animal?
Too many! Turtles, bears, ducks, dolphins, penguins, red pandas...

1o. What's your favorite food to eat for breakfast?
Croissants filled with chocolate. IT HURTS SO BAD.

11. Have you ever broken any bone?
Nope, but I had a cast on my leg once.

Everything is Ace Attorney and not sure if hurts

2012-02-01T19:52:26Z

So, Ace Attorney 5. About fucking time, CAPCOM.

Seriously, not sure if want. Because they just said "yeah, okay, we're making the game" and that's it. So my level of enthusiast or dread will vary depending on the following factors:

a) Main characters: is it Phoenix-tachi or Apollo-tachi?
b) Producer: is it Takumi or Eshiro?

For a, I think it's not a surprise that I'll be "meh" if it's yet another Phoenix story. I'm horribly attached to the AJ cast and their cuteness, and I want to play with them again in a game that's not a hot mess and/or hijacked by hobo Nick. I wouldn't mind if they mention or show the old characters who were M.I.A. in AJ:AA, as long as they have tiny cameos or small roles. Like, if they have Apollo facing Franziska or a thirty-something Miles, I will choke a bitch because they already have their spinoff ~~and I'm sick of their faces by now~~. I really want more Klavier, but since changing main prosecutors is a tradition, I'll just be glad if he appears at all.

For b... I have a history of RAEG with Eshiro. I'll cry and mourn for the franchise if Takumi doesn't come back, because I'm sure that guy will screw it up again. I have my Disapproval Stephen Colbert gif ready.

Honestly, I think I'm more squee about the new anniversary illustrations because EEEEEEEEH THEY'RE DRAWING MY PEEPS AGAIN AND IT'S ADORABLEEEEE ♥♥♥ The last one is perfect.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T15:18:06Z

It's 2012 everywhere, so yay first year post!

Let's see, I could make the regular fandom meme for the year, but instead of that because no gaming in that thing, I'm going to do a manual year in review.

Animanga!

I didn't watch too much anime, which is odd because my LJfriends are so into series from this year and the past one? I wouldn't say I'm getting old, just that I want happier shit that's not too long or annoying, and there's this trend of make angst and cliffhangers of suffering right now.

But eh, it's okay. There are still seasons of cute or silly anime that I always forget to watch (Natsume Yuujinchou's third and manga, Arakawa Under the Bridge's second, Sengoku Basara's second). Maybe this year?

Anyway! My favorite manga has been Kuragehime (now that the anime is over and stuff) although it's been a little slow recently. I still read my Historical Bullshit Seinen Duo (Historie and Vinland Saga) which are getting interesting again, but you have to wait a lot and I usually forget they exist.

To be completely honest, the new anime that I enjoyed the most this year? Level E.

I'm serious. I'm not trolling. Only anime I didn't drop in annoyance, only anime I watched whole that I checked episodes as soon as they were out because I did want more. I can't say the same about the trendy series I still watched out of habit. It doesn't even have a plot beyond "trolls gonna troll", but considering how plots annoyed me this year... maybe it's because of that or something.

I've tried other crackier anime like Nichijou (didn't like it), Yondemasu yo Azazel-san (didn't hook me), and Sket Dance (only watched one episode yet). But none were the same.

But yeah, let's go back to srs anime with srs plot. Time for unpopular opinions!

I... dropped Tiger and Bunny some episodes before the end of season, and I'm not sure I'm returning. I liked the characters and the premise, but I thought the plot was a fucking yo-yo, it couldn't decide the priorities of the subplots/antagonists straight, and the two main characters were looking several kinds of stupid thanks to the writers. It was unfortunate because I adored Kotetsu, but they made me dislike him a bit, and I couldn't make up my mind about Barnaby since he and his development kept changing back and forth. Watching something that I didn't enjoy with protagonists I no longer liked seemed tiresome at the time. I have read spoilers to know what happened, and meh. Can't I have a spinoff with the heroes that aren't in the title?

(Incidentally, I still say that Sky High is the AU reincarnation of Tamaki Suoh)

I don't know what to say about Mawaru Penguindrum without incurring people going tl;dr agreeing/disagreeing with me (I did read your chapter-long explanation with four editions, Kim, I just had no idea what to reply to that), or a lot of "you didn't get it!" (which, granted, I admit I didn't). I watched it whole because I wanted Ikuhara to troll me symbolically. And penguins. But in the end, I thought it was kind of a mess, I felt more confused than mindfucked, and I can't think of one character I ever got attached (in the beginning it was Shouma for being the most normal, and I wanted to see more of Momoka, but wasn't enough). Moreover, I never liked Kanba. Maybe I'm an anomaly for coming out of this one feeling entirely empty beyond "I want a penguin!" and "LOLTERRORISM"? Then again, I also didn't get attached to anyone in Utena when I watched last year, but that one was lots more entertaining and I did enjoy its madness for some reason.

I also came out almost empty out of Madoka last year except for lulz and memes, incidentally. In case you wanted more reasons to defriend me! :D

Ah! There's also P4A, but I'll touch that one under games.

Television!

I have a like a gazillion shows to finish watching. But the ones I watch as soon as they came out were Doctor Who, My Little Pony, and Adventure Time.

About Who, it's no secret I like Moffat's approach more than Rusty's. I'm in the ride for Eleven. But this season was strange. Some episodes were amazing, some were head-scratching, some were great until I rewatched them, some were awful until I rewatched them. So, it's weird and I don't know what to thing about all the season overall. I still think River is cool, but I miss the older days when she had more agency and individually. And as much as I like the Ponds (Rory grew on me so much this year), I want their arc to be over for good and get new companions by next season. I still have to watch the Christmas Special.

Ponies are crack cocaine in pastel colors. I started watching it because seriously, breaking 4chan and making nerd men get into it? Hilarious. My inner child devours it, and I'm jealous that the MLP ponies when I was little didn't have a more remarkable personality like these six girls. Also, the fanart for this fandom is so high quality, what the hell. My favorite is Rarity, for the record.

Adventure Time is just fun and games until someone gets-- wait, it's still fun and games even when it gets dark and sad. I don't know, it's the best discovery I made this year. It's genuinely funny and by all the crap under the radar, it's not only for children either. This show has a lot of heart and charisma and pure craziness and little details with its fans (not as many as MLP, but those are kinda weird and these aren't). It reminds me of the amazing episodic 90's cartoons, but with even more thought put into it.

Also, in both series, catchy songs are waaaaay to catchy. EARWORM NIGHTMARE.

I also finished Sym-bionic Titan. Whyyyyy were you canceled, whyyyyyy ;A; This show was very high quality. I liked it even more than Samurai Jack, the other plot-y cartoon from Genndy. The three main characters are so damn cute. Ilana is one of the kind of princesses I love in my fandoms (noble, strong-willed, feminine but still badass), and I like how in our world no one looks at her twice because she's a complete sappy dork. I wanted more episodes centered just in her, because Lance got way too many. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy those! I thought I wouldn't like Lance because he looked like this angsty douchy rebelious bishounen, and in the end he's not that, he's such an amazing, well done character! So yeah, he won me over too. And Octus is the most adorable thing ever and he's the glue that keeps them together.

I also started the new Thundercats, but I haven't watched half the season. DON'T YOU DARE CANCEL IT, CN. It's also very high quality, and I recommend it because it has a lot of heart and coolness. Just shut your mind about the original if you remember it, and you're in for a great ride.

And also, all the Legend of Korra trailers and leaked art! OMG, I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE.

Ahem, back to real action shows. My family wanted to watch something together like we did with The Tudors on 2010. So we went for Game of Thrones. I was kinda indifferent to the first book when I read it, which is why I haven't continued the series. Still, I joined them and watched it with them, not spoiling anything (I didn't remember half of it anyway). It was fun to watch it together, if only because their Tyrion was perfect and we were all amused by his bullshit. My brother Alejandro got hooked to the books, by the way.

The other series we watched was American Horror Story. That was... man, that was weird. It's like this pastiche of horror movie clichés, and there's a lot of killing and some rape going on, but we were still hooked for some reason. Admittedly, it's more fun to have someone to point out stuff and theorize who will be/become a ghost next.

Comics!

I'm not as huge fan of comics as some of my friends, but I still read more than last year.

So DC reboot sucks balls. Before it, I was just reading Booster Gold, and they killed that one series into existence. I'm still mourning that Ted Kord and Rip Hunter don't exist anymore (does Michelle still exist in this verse? we heard Skeeter does, at least). And we never got to see who was Rip's mom! Boo! I also miss the old Booster and his funny lines. Speaking of which, the new Blue Beetle series is just not the same although Jaime didn't change much (oh, but the circumstances! and the support characters!) I also read Power Girl after the reboot, and now I'm pissed because I love that lady and I wanted more of her awesome.

So I ran back to Marvel, except I decided not to touch Children's Crusade until it was over. And my friends spoiled me about something and you know, I'm not fucking reading it. Uuuuuugh, I knew it was going to end bad for someone, I have no faith in Marvel and teenage heroes mixing well. But let's skip that. I picked up Thor again, with being fashionable these days with the movie and all. I had stopped around Siege. And of course, they immediately throw an Asgardian-centric crossover event at me! Ewwwwww. But you know what, this mess gave Kid!Loki his own series (more like he hijacked the old Journey into Mystery). And that one is fucking awesome and I love it to pieces and I love him to pieces. You know me, I'm all over Baby Tricksters.

Ah, and in the non-American front I found scanlations of 8 volumes of Valhalla. They were nice! Except for the second volume, which was too uncomfortable to read because all male characters were sexist assholes, and maybe ruined a little one of my favorite Norse myths. Plus, they made a Marvel!Thor reference by giving the Warriors Three a cameo (sort of), and that was a great nerd moment. (Y no u exist in real myths, Volstagg?)

Also, I discovered there's a comic adaptation of The Last Unicorn, and it's one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen.

Games!

This year was an excellent year... for handheld consoles and me. NDS/3DS/Kiri love triangle! With some one night stands with the PSP! Shock!

→ The year started by playing the first ending of 999 on an emulator. I got lazy to do the rest. Gorey and messed up in a Japanese "and then there were none" way, but really intriguing.

→ Then I bought Ghost Trick. FAVORITE GAME OF THE YEAR, HANDS DOWN. It's witty, funny, sad, full of heart. You can tell it's Takuma at his finest. The puzzles are great -except for the Metal Gear Solid level in jail, which I hated. The music is nice and catchy. The characters are so fucking good and lovable. PUPPIES AND KITTIES, ENOUGH SAID. You even feel bad for Yomiel (can't say who that is without spoiling) and start liking him all of a sudden. I love that the ending is bittersweet yet dramaless. GHOSTS AND TIMEY WIMEY.

→ Then Pokémon Black happened and I was obsessed with it for half a year! Tied with SoulSilver as my favorite of the franchise, and probably the only one I managed to finish (okay, I still have to catch legendaries, whatever)

→ Oh, Okamiden. Geez. I really gave it a chance because I thought I was being pessimistic. I liked 2/3 of the game, as a matter of fact. Gameplay was fun, and the butchery was not that horrible by then. I liked the expanded myth references on Momotarou and Benkei. Didn't care much for Chibiterasu, even less for Kuni, but Kagura and Kurow both stole my heart and Nanami was really cute. I was even trying to figure out a way to add the Moon Tribe stuff and characters to my headcanon. Then the last part happened! Everything was terrible and everything hurts. Ugh, I just get angry thinking about it.

→ I bought Last Window and Birth by Sleep in a sales bin, but I forgot to finish them. Oops. I'll be on it.

→ Then I got the 3DS, Zelda special edition, with Ocarina of Time 3D. I finished the regular replay, now I have to try Master Quest. I'm also almost done with Four Swords. My brother bought Skyward Sword but I haven't had the time to play yet (and I'm lazy to go to the room with the Wii). I thought I could kidnap the Wii when he got Skyrim, but then my other brother went ahead of me and set it in his room. Fuck. Either way, great anniversary year for Zelda ♥

→ Also got Tales of the Abyss 3D. FINALLY OWN IT LEGALLY, HAHA!

Worth mentioning Persona 4 becoming ATLUS' new cash cow. We have the anime going on, which I still watch despite of the main character fail because Teddie's sparkles. We have the remake for Vita. We have the fighting spinoff game that I'll probably won't try anyway. We have the remix CD which is amazing. And a lot of merchandising in Japan, too. Not sure if excited or scared that P4 is the new P3 (...oh, wait)

Books!

Crap, I forgot to talk about books. Since I have an ereader, I thought I'd... read more, you know.

Let's see. I was in a Norse myth butchery frenzy this year, in case the comics part didn't give you a hint. I read "Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman, and despite being a short story for children, I think it's his best attempt at mythology he's ever done. There was "Runemarks" by Joanne Harris, which started slow but then shit got real and I was devouring it, and it was an amazing and fun read with a girl protagonist with no love interest (so far) to boot. I have to pick up the sequel, by the way. I also read "Eight Days of Luke" by Diana Wynne Jones (RIP), also a fun read although less intense than the previous one. I still have to read "The Sea of Trolls" series by Nancy Farmer.

In the Greek-Roman front, new Heroes of Olympus book! "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan was great. Good to have Percy Jackson back, and I didn't even have to miss Leo Valdez from the previous book. Looking forward for the two books coming out this year (Mark of Athena and a demigod files equivalent for HoO). Thank you for the badassery and author trolling, Riordan.

Also, shit ton of mythology textbooks are in my to-read list. Plus one about youkai/ayakashi that's really neat.

This is also the year I tried to read more of "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher, but I find I have to be on a certain mood to read one of those. It sucks because they're good, but they have a weird effect on me.

I have almost all "Suzumiya Haruhi" novels in Spanish, but I haven't touched them yet. I also should buy the "Moribito" novels that came out here but I haven't gone to a bookstore yet. Not a lot of Japanese light novels get translated in here...

That was long! But considering I barely posted this year, I had a lot of feelings.

Decorate my homies!

2011-12-25T21:44:33Z

Just saying hi, and I hope that yesterday didn't suck for you guys, no matter what you celebrate or not.

Kill it with fire!

2011-12-21T10:11:11Z

THIS IS SO UGLY AND SLOW AND UGLY. Not to mention the real issues: in only one night, someone was triggered like whoa because no subject lines.

I just. You know the jokes about LJ wanting to become FB? Every time less funnier and more true. Ewwwwwwww. Do I really have to set custom pages now if I want to stay here? Uuuuuugh. I can't even see my own posts without wanting to scream.

ETA: People are trying to recreate old comments with CSS. Meanwhile, I changed to the least ugh Minimalist layout for the moment since it's the least intrusive for my taste, IDK.