So... it's the Nowhere King?

I'm researching Celestial stags for the short story about the plum trees. "Celestial stag" seems to be a poor translation, as they are found in underground mines. And there doesn't seem to be much solid history for where this creature came from. It may just belong to a class of undead demons in Chinese folklore. But they're dangerous - they will do anything to escape the mines and get above ground. And bad things will happen if they do.

So, undead beasts named for stags, and trapped in a place they try to escape imprisonment..

It's the freaking Nowhere King! 

All the Same Snags

I've been writing a few short stories, so I can alternate writing them and editing Evva's story. 

I'm trying to start a new one. I know how it ends. And I think I even know the danger they're fighting. But I have no idea what causes the danger... 

Anyway, this short story explains why the Dayspring Mage Temple is surrounded by a thicket of plum trees, which are not native to the area. Or at least, this story will explain that. When I have all the pieces together.

Why Can't They be Entertaining?

I mention in my last reading update how painfully boring all of my Europe travel books are (the ones I bought about specific locations, such as Blarney Castle in Ireland). 

I know I've mentioned something similar a long time ago, but why can't these writers try to make their books interesting to read? It felt almost like a deliberate attempt to make them as dry and uninteresting as possible. Especially those books that talked about the art. I know there are better things to say about art and artists that what those museum books scratch out. 

And I know it can be done. I just finished John Green's new book about the history and current state of Tuberculosis. A kind of book I don't think I've ever read before. And it was good. It was entertaining, and touching. 

(And fitting - one of my characters had TB as a kid, which is an idea I had before John Green got invested in the topic. I finished the first draft of that story a few months before Everything is Tuberculosis was released. So now I can do it better justice in my own story). 

Why can't there be more educational books that are just good to read? It would make learning so much more fun to so many people.

Something Seen Mostly in Movies

Sometimes in movies, people will stop and stare at someone who's supposed to be beautiful. 

I kind of always assumed that was an exaggeration. Until I saw it happen in person. 

My cousin is literally registered as a model. He has shoulder-length curly hair. I've always thought my cousins are cool, but I never really thought beyond that. 

For Christmas, he came to visit with his son and fiance. We were walking down the street, past a target-shooting game/ride. It's pirate themed. So there was a lady dressed as a pirate on the street, drumming up business. Instead of holding a parrot on her arm, she had a plush octopus on her arm. As she was calling out to potential customers, she stopped and stared at my cousin as we walked by. Then I guess she snapped back to her senses because she said, "I got distracted by that mane. It's gorgeous." 

My aunt says that even when he was 15, people would stop and stare at him.

See, I told you I have cool cousins. They can get reactions out of people you usually only see in movies.

Reading Update

The Red Badge of Courage, by Crane

I think this is the most musing book I've ever read. Most of it happened in the protagonist's head. And most of it was lengthy discourses with himself about the nature of bravery. I think I'd need to read it again to get a better opinion.

 

Shaper, by Haas

This one was fascinating. It's the story of a boy who blames his family for the death of his dog. The new neighbors that move in are animal trainers. The good kind, who really know their stuff. I was impressed with how well the book worked that into the story, and it was a good story too.

Black Horses for the King, by McCaffrey

A different sort of King Arthur story. Because no one thinks about needing special horses to carry knights in their heavy, shining armor.

The Bald Eagle, by Davis

An amazing history of the US's national bird. 

 

The Last Monster, by Garrett

A story of a girl who becomes the guardian of the world's monsters. She has a sad history, but learns to be a good guardian. 

Trail to Heaven, by Ridington

The author spent a long time with the Dunne-za people (from an area known today as Canada). This book does a great job teaching about their culture, and special people like the Dreamers.

 

Ishi: Last of his Tribe, by Kroeber

The story of the last Yahi man, after the rest of his people were wiped out. Some of them managed to live in hiding for a while, but when Ishi was the last, he came down out of the mountains and ended up as more or less a living museum exhibit. I've heard some mixed things about how he was really treated by the museum. It was a good book though.

 

My Neighbor Totoro, by Kubo

I was amazed to discover that there was a novelization of the movie. Apparently it was only translated into English somewhat recently. Some of the book was quite different than the movie. Even the finale of finding Mei. It was cool to have some more pieces to the story. Like I never considered that the guy that helps them move in at the beginning is the uncle! And the girls go back to visit their family for a little while.

The Return of the Wolf, by Grooms

A great book about the history of wolves in the US. 

 

The Odyssey, by Homer

I read (at least most of) this book in school. But it was so long ago that I only remembered bits and pieces. I completely forgot that the actual journey is a small section of the book. Odysseus is telling people what happened to him during the ten years he was lost at sea. Much more of the book is about getting revenge on the suitors.

 

In Europe, I bought a bunch of books about the sites I visited. When I got home, I had plenty of time to read up on the locations and art I'd seen. I'll lump all of these together. And all of them are about as bland as you can get. It's like the authors were trying to take all of the excitement out of some amazing places and history. For example, for the museum books they'll have little blurbs about some of the artwork. And it will say the year it was made, who made it, what's it's made of, and the fact that it has an amazing use of light or color, etc. But it doesn't give the art any life. 

Exposition Overload

A little while ago, I had a random thought about Evva's story. Near the beginning, she and her teacher help solve a problem in a town that they're passing through. At one point, I wondered what would happen if someone from the town made a mistake, and the problem resurfaced. So I've been writing a short story about that. I've nearly finished.

It's more sad than I expected, but it has a nice ending. 

As usual, I don't often know much of what will happen when I start a story. I know I have to redo the whole beginning. And two pages in, there is suddenly an entire page of exposition. That will need to be streamlined and mixed in, of course. But that page of exposition really helped me figure out what I was actually doing XD

 

Red ruffed lemur

Marvel Assembled

I've been finally catching up on the Marvel (MCU) films. I'm mostly there. But I stumbled across a show that explains how some of the movies are made. It's called Assembled. It looks like there are more episodes that I haven't found yet, so I'll need to track them down. But for now, here are some highlights. 

Watch me be annoying, and refer to actors by their character names instead of their real names.

I liked Eternals, but after watching the Assembled episode about it, I like it even more. My favorite part was Phastos telling the story of how he got his suit. He wasn't impressed when he saw the finished product. But he tried it on, and then looked at himself in the mirror. That was all it took to trigger the excitement of, "look at me! I'm a superhero!" 

Man, I hope he got to keep the suit. 

 

Then shortly after, I stumbled across an interview of an actor who appears in both Marvel and Star Wars. In Star Wars, you would know him as Master Windu. He had wanted to be in a Star Wars movie, so for Episode 1 they brought him in and gave him a costume. As he's putting it on, he starts to realize, "I'm a freaking Jedi!" And they let him pick out a lightsaber, and he was so excited. 

Then he said that just because Master Windu was blasted out of a window doesn't mean that he died (After all, Luke fell down a shaft). But even better, he said that his character in Jurassic Park wasn't dead either. Just because a velociraptor took off his arm doesn't mean that it got the rest of him. He says that his character is still out there in Jurassic Park, taming the velociraptors. Hell yeah, I want to see that. 

 

In Thor Love and Thunder, it turns out that the director also plays the big, tall rock guy. While he's acting, he has motion capture dots all over his face to capture speech and expressions. But there's also a mask hanging from a pole above his head, so that the actors know where the characters face would be. This meant that he would have to switch back and forth between acting and directing, and his directing was done with strange stuff all over his face. 

They got kids to draw things that frightened them. And then they turned those drawings into monsters for the movie. What a great idea.

In Dr. Strange, I find it far too fun that two of the main actors are named Benedict. What are the odds?

In the scene where Dr. Strange goes to visit Wanda, they were supposed to be in an apple orchard. But a late frost delayed the blooming of the trees. So they wired flowers onto the trees. Holy crud, that's dedication right there. 

There's also a person on set who's the "magic choreographer." What an awesome job title. I want a magic choreographer. 

 

Aah, the Wakanda Forever one was sad. So was the opening of the movie. I remember finding out what had happened to him. I was leading a summer camp, and one of the kids told me. 

 

I knew ahead of time that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 would be rough to watch. I'd accidentally watched a Youtube video (Cinema Therapy) with major spoilers about Rocket's past. That was probably a good thing, because I was prepared going in (I was not prepared with Isle of Dogs). But being prepared didn't stop me from crying a lot. And that poor, nice bat family. I guess they got wiped out too. They made tons of masks for all the animal people. Very impressive. But the poor animal people TT^TT

I stumbled across a newer Marvel movie called Werewolf by Night. I don't think I would have even noticed it, except that the main character is played by none other than Hector Rivera (my favorite character ever). So I watched that and had some good laughs. One of the characters is named Elsa. And at one point, she lets the monster escape, pretending as though it was an accident. One of the other characters shouts, "Elsa, you let it go!" 

I started laughing and going, "oh no! They went there!" Because of course every time someone hears the name Elsa now, they think of "Let it Go." 

I didn't realize at first that Werewolf by Night was directed by Michael Giacchino. Yes, the composer for my favorite movie, and many others. There was also a great documentary about him making Werewolf by Night. It talked about all the movies he made as a kid. So cool that he finally got to direct an actual movie.

I love how the MCU films all link together. Though the multiverse thing kinda annoys me. Don't they already have a whole universe to work with? (yeah yeah, I know I'm a hypocrite. I always throw Fern around the multiverse, but don't like when anyone else does it). 

 

In Spider-man No Way Home, they were talking about how all the spiders (spiders?) had to get in really good shape since their costumes don't hide anything. Even the Green Goblin got into fighting shape so he could kick some butt (and thoroughly terrify some of the staff with his laugh). Then Doc was talking about how everyone else was doing these elaborate fight scenes. But because his mechanical arms did all the fighting, he'd only be swinging his fists and elbows a little, hardly moving compared to the others. The end result looks great though.

 

Now switching to some pre-MCU Marvel films. 

As I was watching the bonus stuff for Spiderman 2, Stan Lee (one of the main Marvel comic writers) said that he really wanted to play the nasty newspaper owner. He really loved the character. But then he admitted that the actor that played him was better. I thought it was hilarious that the news guy is who Stan Lee wanted to play.

Spiderman saves Aunt May in this movie. They were going to have a stunt double swing around in the harness with Spiderman. But she wanted to do it herself. So there she was, 80 years old, swinging around and having a blast. You go, lady! (Also, I love that she got a good hit on Doc. Poor MJ doesn't even get that. I wish MJ weren't such a damsel in distress all the time). 

Doc's mechanical arms apparently weigh 100 pounds. Jeez, and I thought Gimli's 70 pounds of armor was impressive. I wonder if the puppet strings took any of that weight off his back. I love watching the puppeteers move the tentacles though. They're like some combination of snakes and velociraptors.

Marvel makes a lot of use of CG. It can be so amazing when it's used to build alien worlds. I tend to like things that are made for real, but that doesn't mean I don't fall in love with some CG stuff. Marvel does both CG and real. As I've said, Doc's tentacles are real in much of Spiderman 2. But in Spiderman No Way Home, I think they're all CG. Wait, that's a bad example... Spiderman 2 is an older movie before effects had developed so far. 

I'd love to make a pair of wings that move similar to the tentacles. I know it's not feasible, but it's cool to think of. I already have plans to make wings.

I also ran across an interview of the actor that does Nightcrawler in X-Men 2. I love Nightcrawler, and I was sad that he didn't come back in X-Men 3. It took hours to get his makeup done, and he said it was too miserable for him to want to do it again. Which I get. But it looks sooo good! XD 

He also played Floop in Spy Kids. He said he got to keep the strange couch, and he still has it. Yeah!

Ok, The Sorcerer's Apprentice isn't a Marvel movie, but too bad. Dave's actor says he falls over all the time, so he might as well get paid for it. And indeed, there was plenty of footage of him getting electrocuted and then falling over (his teacher is kinda of a jerk). 

Yeah, this movie could do better with pacing and exposition. And the villains could have more depth (though the stage magician guy is definitely entertaining). But I still love The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I always love a good nerd character. In fact, I think his role as Hiccup helped make nerds cool (they weren't cool when I was a kid. Where were you in my youth, Hiccup?) 

I love that they used so many real effects in the movie. Like multi-colored flames. One of the effects people said, "We had Alfred come in early so we could set his finger on fire." And indeed, they coated his fingers on something, which I guess meant they could safely light his hand on fire. He's watching his flaming hand with great interest (I've actually done something a little like that, though not quite as cool looking. But my palm was on fire, and I didn't get burnt). 

And there were plenty of people swinging around in harnesses for this movie too. Like the bad guy shooting up to the ceiling, and hanging there grinning. I imagine it's like a roller coaster ride. They go fast in those harnesses! I want to try.

Everyone is Secretly a Prince or Princess

I've probably said this many times, but I'm bad at trying to explain my stories. Last week, someone asked me what I was working on, and I did my best to explain Arith's story in a way they might find interesting. She said it was the best story idea I'd had. She was trying to be helpful, but I'm not sure how to take that since I gave her a rather poor explanation. Did she think the others were really that bad?

When I saw her this week, she said, "I thought how you could fix the ending of your story!"  I wasn't sure why she thought it was bad - I had said that it wasn't really the ending, but that it lead into more stories.

She continued, "Arith should be a prince that was secretly switched at birth. Then he could get married to the princess." 

 

I just started laughing. It was such a cliché idea, and so against everything I want my story to be about. Arith doesn't have to be a secret prince to be important. In fact, making him royalty would take away the power that he has. And whether or not he's a prince, he wouldn't get married to the princess. He may have started with a crush on her, but they end up as very good friends (even best friends after this story).

I guess my laughter didn't deter her. Because she continued explaining her idea for how the babies could have been switched, like how the nursemaid stepped outside for a moment, giving someone else the opportunity to swap them. 

Even after I explained that I know all of the members of the royal families because they all appear in other stories, she was still convinced of her idea. I kinda feel bad for how much I hate the idea, because she was so excited about it.

Making Middle-Earth

I've been watching more bonus features from my movies. I had already watched them for Lord of the Rings, but that was probably over 10 years ago. I thought I might as well watch them again. And I'm glad I did. I'm much more fascinated now about how things are made.

Like how the armor and weapons were made without modern techniques such as welding. And they had to make so much of it!

I do remember a few things. Like how poor Sam cut his foot open on a piece of glass. And how Aragorn almost drowned in the river. Oh, man.

It's always fun hearing the actors' stories too. Like how Gimli saw a team of people hauling all this heavy stuff to him, which turned out to be 70 pounds of armor. Which he then had to put on before running around on hills. Or how Gandalf, at age 61, was running up and down mountains. And how Eowyn said how easy it was going to be to fall in love with Aragorn. 

 

Filming the battle of Helm's Deep was a nightmare. Everyone was drenched and exhausted all the time. The people playing the orcs were trying to encourage each other, so you'd see the orcs in full costume patting each other on the back, or napping in corners. 

They built Treebeard's hands, so they could film Merry and Pippin being carried around. It was so tricky to get them in there that they'd just leave the two of them in the hands while they had snack breaks (elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper). I also had no idea that Treebeard and Gimli are the same person.

They built Hobbiton a year early, so they could grow all the beautiful Hobbit gardens. I'd love to visit Hobbiton (and New Zealand in general). 

But I think my favorite new thing I learned was about the great battle in front of Minas Tirith. They filmmakers sent out a call across New Zealand for all available riders to come with their horses. When you see Rohan's troops charging, you're seeing 500 horsemen. Wooow, no wonder that charge looks so amazing!

You're going to be getting more posts like this. It's so fun to learn about XD

More Fern Rambling

I've made some progress in Fern's timeline, and feel like talking about it. Even though I know full-well that I'm the only one who finds Fern's timeline of interest. (Which is why I'm talking about here, instead of with an actual person XD )

I keep going back to tweak Fern's timeline. Mostly because a lot of events need to be spaced out more. The order of her missions is loosely based on when I saw the movie or read the book that she visits. Certain stories have gotten mushed together, and they have to be broken into pieces and stretched over more time. They alternate with other stories too. And some things may get pushed back even farther as I find more stories for Fern to interfere with. There's one movie in particular that I think will shift farther into her future, for example.

I also went and made a separate timeline for when her team members joined. In my head, it was all muddled into an undefined span of time. But now I can actually see how the team builds. After Fern and Ben start living part-time at Avalon, the first other "person" they rescue isn't a human, but a monster from Star Wars. Which is fitting, since Fern loves animals and monsters. 

As a rule, Fern only brings animals and people to join her team if they have nowhere else to go, or if they would have died, etc. For a while, I kind of cheated on that and had her adopt some random monsters from other worlds, just because I loved their designs. But I've mostly cut those out. Fern doesn't need to "catch em all." She has plenty of creatures that she's responsible for as it is.

The reason I went on the long aside about Dr. Octavius is because I realized that he's the first human Fern recruits. Which is important! She has to figure out how to introduce someone to a new world. He's pretty much a stranger to her as well. And despite how strange and varied the rest of Fern's team grows to be, Dr. Octavius is possibly the outlier. Only because most of Fern's team revolves around magic, while Dr. Octavius is a nuclear physicist. That's an area that Fern doesn't know how to relate with, but they do find other things in common. Ben is a tech guy, so he'd get along well with Doc, especially because they're the only two people in town that know about technology. Fern's village is a pretty accepting place, luckily. Someone with mechanical arms would stick out in a high-tech world, let alone in a world that doesn't even have machines. Poor Dr. Octavius would get corralled into helping with a lot of mundane tasks. Ironic, considering those mechanical arms were meant to oversee a powerful source of energy, but then they end up doing stuff like shaking acorns out of trees. 

(People that look much stranger than Doc will eventually arrive, but it takes a while).

Up until now, I didn't actually have many ideas about Doc after Fern saved him from drowning. There were only a few characters on Fern's team that I ever really put on missions with her. Most of Fern's missions are solo, or with Fang (her wolf). I think her team goes on their own missions most of the time. Though some just stay in town - they only needed a safe new home. Sometimes I completely forget about certain members of Fern's team.  I didn't forget about Doc, but I also didn't quite know what to do with him until now.

I think long ago, when I first introduced Ben, I wrote that his parents had died. Assuming I keep that most predictable trope, Ben and Doc would end up kind of adopting each other. I already mentioned in that earlier post that Ben and Doc would be lab partners. And I think that Doc wouldn't end up doing many missions. He's a scientist. He may fight a lot in Spiderman 2, but that's not him. That's the AI that's taken control. I cringe watching those fights. Peter has super powers. Doc doesn't. So he must be taking a real beating whenever his mechanical arms don't block a hit. Anyway, Doc values intelligence. Peter manages to bring him back to his senses by appealing to his intelligence. So Doc would be helping build and invent things. Ben doesn't do too many missions with Fern, because she often goes to places without any technology. His power wouldn't be any use there. 

And there's another point that I realized. When Doc meets Peter, within the day he's telling Peter not to keep love a secret. How do I keep Doc from doing that to Fern and Ben? Because it won't be quite a while until anything goes in that direction. 

After Doc joins the team, there's about a year until anyone else joins. Discovering that surprised the heck out of me. Actually, two people do join in that time, but they don't help with missions since they're just kids. Maybe when they're older. One of those kids didn't have a name in the book she came from. I gave her the name Rose. But Doc's dead wife is named Rosie, and it would be kinda rough for the next person who comes to Fern's village to be named Rose. I could make it work, I guess. But I may just change her name.

And then, somehow, there are eventually three "doctors" of varying types that join Fern's team. (Including one doctor that happens to be a goat-he's a history professor, but he'd have to relearn the history of Fern's home. Actually, he may or may not stay on Avalon - it depends on what happens to him in the second movie. But for now, Fern's getting him out of Oz).

So, calling Dr. Octavius "Doc" would be redundant. Which Doc are you talking to? I muddled around with that for a while before settling on the most obvious solution. His name is Otto. Plenty of people call him that in the movie. He should just be Otto. The only problem with that is that I've always called him "Doc" in my head, and I always confuse myself to no end when I start calling a character something different.

On the occasion that I do actually write one of Fern's stories, it's usually when she's away on a mission. I'm not sure that I ever wrote anything about her hometown, Avalon.

Thinking of introducing someone to Avalon makes me look at the most basic things about the place. Fern's parents' house and if she lives with them. Where she keeps her "pet monster" from Star Wars. Ben's house, and the rest of the town. I also realized that I had never really felt that Fern was in Magic-Earth, even though the town is supposed to be in Magic-Earth. So, I had to make the town fit the world. And what about the people that live in town? Fern's family is a different race than the majority of the inhabitants. I always imagined that the town would be mostly mages, but I'm rethinking that. I think it will be a little more mixed, but with a higher number of mages than usual. Like a Reshii community mixed in with a bunch of non-magic people. Along with some people with roots from other countries, like Fern's family. 

I kinda hope that no one bothered to read this. It's just me putting thoughts in order for a Fanfic that is mostly unwritten. Writing it out helps me get things straight. So I might as well stick it here.

Inevitable Writing Delays

I was all ready to start a new short story tonight. And when I finally had the document opened in front of me, I realized that none of the character had names. So, I had to pull out my name notes and pick out some names. I may end up changing some. But if I don't have something feasible to call the characters, then I won't be able to get into the feel of the story. 

So I didn't get too much of the actual story done. But I did get a start, at least. 

(Man, I have so many sloppy first drafts sitting around. I've been postponing editing most of them for... a long time).  

Reading Update: Book Comps

I always write about the interesting books I've read lately. Usually I do so a couple months after I've actually read them, when I've forgotten many details and my initial reactions. 

I thought for my book comp study, I'd try to write soon after reading the book. Though I'll also talk about how effective these compare to Evva's story.

I spent about five hours in the bookstore, reading book backs. Everything kinda blended together after a while, so I don't always remember why I chose these books. But I have now read (or listened to) all of my selection. Though there are a couple additional books from some of these authors that I may end up trying.

It turns out that some of these books are actually too old for effective comps. I didn't think to look at the publication date. I skipped books that I knew were older, and for some reason assumed that the  other books were new. Oops. 

 

Forestborn, by Becker

I think I chose this book because it had people that can turn into animals. Which actually is irrelevant to Evva's story, though it isn't uncommon in her world. Either way, this book ended up not being a helpful comparison. The world, magic systems, and characters were too different. I want to check out the second book in the series though. I need to know what happens!

Carry On, by Rowell

I picked this book in the hope that I could compare their magic school to my magic school. And I think I can use this one. It's only a little bit of a stretch.  Carry On very clearly makes fun of Harry Potter. It even uses direct references, like how the headmaster ignored him all year long. It's funny. This book references a lot of past events, which would usually be tedious. But because it echoes Harry Potter, it works. You can use your imagination to fill in the gaps, often with humorous results. A lot of people are pissed at the lack of diversity in Hogwarts - both in race and identity (I heard an author call Rowling "she-who-shall-not-be-named). So Carry On addresses that. 

I like the way spells work in Carry On. Words and phrases become magical when people use them a lot. The more popular a phrase is, the more powerful the magic. 

I liked Baz pretty much the moment he arrived. I guess because he's set up to be some villain, but it turns out that he was a victim (though he does admit to having done some nasty stuff). 

Imagine that Harry and Draco were roommates. And Draco was a vampire. And he was secretly in love with Harry. 

Heaven help me. I've stepped into a vampire romance. 

And I really enjoyed it. I almost never like "normal" romances, let along vampire romances. (as I'm doing the final edit of this post, I'm half-way through book 2)

I'm kinda heartbroken that Carry On is actually too old to really work as a book comp. I don't think you're supposed to use later books in a series, but I might try to do that anyway???

Elatsoe, by Little Badger. 

I wanted this to be one of the first books I read, because it seemed like the best option for a book comp. And indeed, their world and magic will be a good comp. 

It's a cool book. I do love the world, and the way it follows American Indian magic. My main complaint is that the character dialogue doesn't always seem to fit the mood? Like making silly jokes when they're in great peril. (It has something of a middle-grade feel, though it is listed as young adult). 

I also read A Snake Falls to Earth, by the same author. It doesn't fit quite as well as a comp, but I may need to use it because it's more recent. This one feels a little more middle-grade than Elatsoe. But it's sweet, and I am a sucker for animal people.

Graceling, by Cashore

This one didn't turn out to be a helpful book comp. It was interesting, though I'm not sure yet if I'll read the next book. 

I listened to the audio version of this one. It was really distracting because it was a "full cast" audio recording. Which meant that each character had their own voice actor. I did get used to that eventually, but the music always caught me off guard. The melodies could be super dramatic. And sometimes they didn't at all fit the tone. Like cutesy music when someone was thinking about attacking a little kid? 

The character goes through some really extreme struggles about deciding whether or not to enter into a relationship. After days of agonizing about it, I was kinda shocked to see that she didn't even start small. She went in about as far as she could, from the start. Which seemed pretty out of place to me. The villain seemed over-powered too.

Draw Down the Moon, by Cast and Cast

This one wasn't helpful either. From the beginning, it felt like the book was centered around a messed-up version of Hogwarts. The writing style was strange too. There are two POV characters. They mostly alternate chapters, written in first person. But their voices were so similar that I often had to stop and figure out which POV I was reading. The POV problem wouldn't have been a problem for me if it had been written in third person, but in first person there was no name to orient to. And first person should have more voice in it since you're in their heads. And some of the writing was blunt and clumsy, along the lines of, "you'll lose your cushy job if anything bad should happen to me. You don't want that, do you?" I'm not interested in reading more.

Every Heart a Doorway, by McGuire

Another one that isn't a helpful book comp. It was a fascinating concept. Kids sometimes fall into other worlds such as Alice in Wonderland, or the Greek underworld. Then sometimes those kids make it back to our world, but are desperate to return to the magic one. So this book takes place in a home for kids that are having trouble re-adjusting to the normal world. 

I liked the concept, though I wish it had focused more on the kids healing and moving on. Instead it turned into a series of murders. And it was strange to me that the main girl got back to her fantasy world. I expected this to be about finding your place in this world. Not escaping to another world, to literally be a statue in someone's garden. Oh well.

The Kinder Poison, by Mae

I assume I chose this book because the main character can talk to animals. Though she doesn't make too much use of that gift - indeed it's seen as rather useless. She was kind of hard for me to get a good grasp on. At first she seemed like a reckless sort, willing to risk everything to go to a fancy party and try fancy food. Then she ended up kinda overly compassionate, even saying that it puts her own survival at risk. Compassion is important. Imperative, even. It's the basis for this whole book. But something about how they handled it felt strange. But maybe that's because this is just book one. I'm undecided if I'll read on.

The concept echoed that of A Song of Wraith and Ruin.

Goose Girl, by Hale

Once again, I think I chose this one because of the "talking to animals" magic. I was mostly hoping to find some magic systems I could compare to mine. This is a retelling of a fairy tale. I liked it. but it turns out it's far too old to be a comp anyway. I'll try some other books by this author and see if I have any luck.

Love and Other Wicked Things, by Harms

I think I picked this one because of the nature magic. Though it was too much of a romance to be helpful to me. It had a nice cozy feel to it (when things weren't dangerous).

 

Dreams Lie Beneath, by Ross

I forget why I might have chosen this one. It didn't end up being helpful. It did have a cool concept: Once a month, nightmares come to life. Damn, what an idea. The plot and characters could have been a little more gripping. I was kinda disappointed to find that it was a revenge story. I could immediately tell how it would unfold. And I think that turning your heart to stone should have actual consequences. It didn't seem to change her at all. And oddly enough, this is the second book on this list where the protagonist is stabbed through the chest, but is magically saved. 

Infinity Alchemist, by Callender

I think I chose this one to check out the magical school. But the school and world wasn't at all like mine, and it was too romance-heavy to be a good comparison. The ending was kind of confusing. So, Ash just went into early retirement or something? It feels so strange that after all of his aspirations he'd just want to go chill in a cabin.

The Luminaries, by Dennard

I'm not sure why I chose this one. But I do find it odd that two books on this list have to do with fighting nightmares that come to life (I liked the nightmare system in Dreams Lie Beneath better). Maybe the "fighting demons" part is what made me look into this? Well, I suppose the protagonist's eagerness to enter into a demon mission could compare. Especially since both of them don't really understand what they're getting into.

 

Man Made Monsters, by Rogers

I must have picked this one because of the American Indian characters. But I don't think a collection of short stories can be a comp for a novel. And these were more like horror stories, which probably doesn't help either.

Accents are Cool

Might as well continue talking about actors. Because I've been watching a lot of cool behind-the-scenes from movies lately, and I still have a couple posts I'm going to write about them XD 

I know I've talked about this in the past, but sometimes it's surprising to hear the actor's real voice compared to their character's voice. Recently I was surprised to discover that three actors have British accents. Finn, from Star Wars. Elphaba from Wicked. And And Spiderman (the newest one, from the Marcel Cinematic Universe). 

Also from the MCU, I laugh when I see two certain British actors sounding American. It still surprises me sometimes. 

Disney Villains

Recently I heard some discussions about people's favorite Disney villain. Which, of course, got me thinking. And I don't have a definite answer. Partly because there are so many different ways to judge a villain. For example, which is the scariest villain? Or has the best design? Or is just has that attitude. So I'll talk about villains in terms of categories. And I'm only focusing on proper villains in this posts - not merely antagonists.

Best surprise villain: Te Ka. I'm usually pretty good at spotting the surprise villain before they reveal themselves. But man, this one really got me. And wow, what a reveal. 

Villains that are just cool and full of attitude, of varying types: Scar (Lion King), McLeach (Rescuers Down Under), and Barbosa (Curse of the Black Pearl - his role becomes more confusing in the following movies, so for this post I'm just referring to the first film). I might also put Zira on this list (Lion King 2). Probably Mother Gothel too (Tangled). 

Scariest Villain: Apparently when this movie came out, it was voted to have the scariest film villain. Which is fascinating, because you never even see them. And this movie also gets made fun of for being so cutesy. But I think I'm going to agree and say "Man," in Bambi. Damn, that scene where Man is first introduces is pretty powerful.

Cool animation: Ursula. Man, all those tentacles. How long did she take to draw? They seem to avoid drawing the tentacles as much as possible by focusing on her top half. But it's still impressive.

I had written down a category for "most evil villain." But I've mostly been looking at the animations, and generally cartoons don't get too evil since they're aimed at kids. But as I thought about it, I think the most evil Disney villain (at least in the animated features) might be Frolo, from Hunchback of Notre Dame. I suppose some of the early Disney Villains could be considered pretty evil, like in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. But they're more or less stock characters.

Then there are a couple characters that start out as villains, but end up veering toward good. For those, I like Long John Silver (Treasure Planet-and I suppose Treasure Island too) and Vitani (Lion King 2).

 

And just a quick nod to my favorite villain, who is not actually from a Disney movie. He also falls in that last category. 

Fiddler from the Past

I bring you a thorough distraction from what I'm supposed to be writing, in order to tell you of a very long-winded coincidence. 

One year my middle school put on the play Fiddler on the Roof. I tried out for it. Probably the first and only time I did so. I would have been out of town for one of the performances. That's definitely why I didn't get picked - not because of my lack of acting talent. 

O__O

(I actually have no idea how good my audition was, or how good I was at singing back then). 

Anyway, I must have seen the Fiddler on the Roof film before my school announced the play. I definitely saw it a few times. And a long time ago, probably a few years after my failed tryout, I bought Tradition off of iTunes. I thought I was buying the version from the film. It wasn't from the film. That didn't stop me from listening to it many times. But somewhere along the way, the song vanished from my computer music collection. So I haven't listened to it in some years. Nor have I seen the movie in a long while. 

Fast forward to the last few days, when I got distracted by watching some freaking awesome videos about making the Wicked movie. And the scene from Spiderman No Way Home where Dr. Octavius attacks Peter. Youtube suggested a video about filming Spiderman 2. Dr. Octavius's actor is in his full villain outfit, including the arms. I was thrilled to discover that those arms are sometimes real - not only cg. And they're moved by puppeteers. Puppet robot arms! I love it (maybe because Dad and I have been watching some of the old Muppet Show episodes, which are a lot of fun). Man, that must be an awkward rig to be strapped to, but I love when things are real. Cg can do amazing things, but real is just so... real, you know? All this is to say, actor Alfred Molina is ready to film the next scene. But he pauses to sing "If I were a Rich Man," from Fiddler on the Roof. Complete with the mechanical arms clacking in time to the beat. 

About a week before, I had just seen a completely unrelated video featuring the exact same song. An interesting coincidence. I want to watch the movie again. But I also never knew that Alfred Molina sings. When I found out in high school that Hugh Jackman sings, I was blown out of the water. I listened to his version of Oklahoma so many times - that was long before The Greatest Showman existed. I wonder how I would have reacted back then if I realized that both Wolverine and Dr. Octavius sang.

Last night, I found Alfred Molina's version of Fiddler on the Roof on Youtube. Not great video quality - so I guess it was sneakily taken by someone in the audience. The video was blurry, but it was fun to hear the songs again. I was amazed at how well I remembered some of them. 

Something about their version of Tradition caught my attention. I made a mental note to look into it.

Just now, I pulled out my stack of old CDs. I have a massive music collection. I've gone to great lengths to find some songs. And I continue to burn my music collections onto CDs, because I have had many close calls with the music on my computer. For example, when I've gotten a new computer, and a number of the songs wouldn't transfer over. For some reason, every now and then a song stops working. And some songs from iTunes that I've bought and show up on my purchase history will not load onto my computer, or laptop, or phone. Even an employee couldn't figure it out. Maybe that's how Tradition fell off of my computer. So yes, I keep CDs of all my music because I've had to rely on them many times to recover songs that have somehow self-destructed. I was confident that the Tradition song I'd bought as a teenager was still on one of those CDs. It was (thankfully on one of the first CDs I looked at - they're labeled pretty well XD )

I plugged in my disk reader and loaded the CD onto my computer. None of the songs were labeled, which is always annoying, but for some reason that often happens on burned CDs. It's like the computer remembers the names, but the CD itself doesn't remember them. I kept telling myself that of all the versions of Tradition available on iTunes, it was highly unlikely to be the same version I had just listened to. But for some reason at the last second, I decided that it must be the same version. I clicked play. And the version of Tradition I listened to all those times was the version that Alfred Molina sang. 

I guess I'll take this opportunity to put Tradition back on my computer. It's clearly a very determined song.

Takoyaki

I went back and tweaked something on the post I wrote a couple days ago. The one where I went on a random Spiderman tangent about Dr. Octavius: villain name Dr. Octopus. 

I have a pile of recipes I've printed out that I want to try making. After fixing the blog post, I picked up the recipe on the top of the pile. It was a recipe for Takoyaki. Fried octopus. 

Me going:

 

And just to make it stranger, a couple weeks ago I started a National Geographic series about octopuses. And I'll be finishing that soon.

Back to the Drawing Board

Sigh, once again I have rewritten my query letter. I kept a few phrases, but that's about it. I wonder how many times I've completely re-written it. 

Fern Finally has a Timeline. And Octopuses.

I've thrown Fern into all kinds of stories. Movies, books, anime, games. But I never really had a proper timeline. It was just a vague order of the places she visited. And it was mostly the order in which I thought saw the movie (or anime, etc). 

I haven't written out most of her stories - I just kept notes on them. But occasionally I do write them if I have a clear video in my head. Otherwise I'll lose some of the details over time.

Sometimes Fern goes back to a place over and over, sometimes to help across a span of time, and sometimes just to visit old friends. It was during some of these longer-term missions that I realized I needed a proper timeline. Otherwise I had no sense of what might be happening in her life that would affect her decisions and relationships. 

At long last, I started putting Fern's timeline into place. Even different plot points, if they're broken up into different parts. I had to be careful, because some of the missions do influence each other. And I also had to keep in mind how old she was - her timeline spans several years. Though the first couple years are with the X-Men, which is where she got her start (literally - it's the first time I created a character named Fern, though at first she was just a side character).

It's kinda cool. Now that the timeline is done, I can see how Fern and her friends grow over time.  And how her team builds.

 

I often get super attached to actors who play characters that become Fern's friends. There are a lot of them.

What seems like a random Spiderman digression will eventually work its way back in to the topic!  Mostly.

Sometimes when I revisit a movie/etc that I've stuck Fern into, I get a surge of motivation about it. I just watched a movie from very early in Fern's timeline: Spiderman 2 (from the Spiderman movies I grew up with, starring Tobey Maguire). I always loved the first two movies. My mom always thought that the villain in Spiderman 2 was a dumb design for a super-villain. But I always liked him (he seems to be pretty popular in this role). When I watched the movie this time, I figured out why I like him so much. 

Dr. Octavius only has a few minutes of screen time before the disaster. But he makes amazing use of those minutes. On his first appearance, he's a little aloof and annoyed at being bossed around by this rich kid. And who can blame him? (I mean, Harry is more concerned about revenge and money than Rosie's death and Doc ending up in the hospital). But he and Peter bond right away, and soon are at his house. You can see how much he and his wife love each other, and the way they talk and tease really draws you in. Just in that short scene, you can't help but grow to like them. I'd never noticed before how impressive it is that they accomplish it so quickly. (When Peter and Doc are bantering in that scene, I want to laugh and shout, "nerds!" I am a nerd, so I use that word with love). I can't think of other characters make a stupid joke, and then apologize for it.

Then comes the accident, leaving Dr. Octavius completely devastated. Not only was his life's work destroyed, but his wife was killed during the malfunction. He's completely vulnerable in that moment, and that's when he loses control to his own machines. Only when Peter reconnects with him does he manage to regain control of his mind and his machines. Dr. Octavius manages to save the city, but at the cost of his own life. 

It always pissed me off that he only had a couple minutes between breaking free and dying. So, enter Fern. I love using Fern to save people. She and Spiderman would be buds. They're both animal-themed nerds, after all.

As a matter of fact, the reason I pulled out these older Spiderman movies was because I just watched one of the newest Spiderman movies (I've been in the very slow process or catching up with the MCU films). I'd heard that Doctor Octavius would be in Spiderman No Way Home, but I didn't know how it would play out. To my astonishment, the MCU version of Peter Parker breaks the boundaries of space-time and saves Doctor Octavius and a number of others (Watch me going, "hey, that was my idea!" I love using Fern to interfere with other stories, but I get annoyed when other people do it XD Can you say "hypocrite?"). But I was also happy to see some "old friends." There's the scene Dr. Octavius finally regains control of himself. He says in wonder that his mind is his own again. No more sinister voices directing his actions. It gave a whole new perspective to what he must have been going through. 

And it was hilarious seeing Peter take over Dr. Octavius's arms and drag him around. I just found that scene on Youtube, and I was laughing my head off. Man, Doc is so pissed.

So, again, Spiderman No Way Home lead me to re-watch the first two Spiderman movies. I hadn't seen them in quite a while even though I own them. I had a new perspective on the mechanical arms this time. Octopuses are so freaking cool (spiders also, to be fair). Each octopus arm kinda has its own brain, which is exactly like the mechanical arms.

I also got a bunch of new ideas about Fern's role around this movie. For example, Ben and Doctor Octavius would definitely be lab partners, geeking out about all kinds of tech (saying that makes me think of Entrapta and Hordak). And it's cool to think that the mechanical arms - once so dangerous - could become a powerful asset wielded by an ally. 

I always thought that Spiderman 2 was the first movie I'd seen his actor in: Alfred Molina. But every now and then I look up the actors that appear in a specific film. And sometimes I discover, to my astonishment, that they appear in other movies that I know very well. Which was the case with him. Alfred Molina's first film role was in Indiana Jones. He was covered with live tarantulas. There's a documentary about making Indiana Jones, where he talks about the experience. He's standing there during filming, with giant spiders all over his back, and they're telling him to look scared. And he's going, "I'm scared! I'm sacred!" (Does anyone else find it fitting that he went on to fight a certain spider in a later film?) He also had a role in Ladyhawk. A slightly hokey older movie, which I nevertheless love. 

Okay, final digression. My high school principal looked exactly like the villain from Spiderman (the first film). I wasn't the only one who thought so. They mentioned it in the yearbook. To my nerdy delight, Alfred Molina also bears a slight resemblance to the band director I had in high school. I loved to make fun of the fact that Spiderman villains were taking over my school.

Greatful

I have a confession

I always spell "greatful" wrong. 

It's really spelled "grateful." "Great" doesn't actually appear in the word. Except, grate-fully, I'm finally starting to get it write instead of having to re-right it each time the red underline appears on a word document. 

 Red-fronted brown lemur

Moana 2

I was undecided about whether or not I wanted to see Moana 2 in theaters. I knew it would be visually fun to watch. But Dad wanted to go. He likes the original Moana, as do I. And he loves the fact that Maui's tattoos move. My dad, believe it or not, is half covered in tattoos. And Maui's tattoos are more entertaining than the ones in The Illustrated Man (another tale of moving tattoos, but more dangerous than Maui's).

It was fun to revisit old friends. And get to know some of the Motunui people better. I kinda wish it had a more interesting name than just "Moana 2" though. 

Spoilers. I need to create some kind of icon to put with my "spoiler warnings."

I didn't like Maui in the first movie. I've complained about it so much to other people, but I don't think I ever explained it here. Basically, I really love most of the first Moana. But the whole middle section annoyed the heck out of me. Mostly because of Maui. He literally tries to kill Moana, and never even apologizes, or acknowledges it. He locks her in a cave with no food or water, and it's mostly by dumb luck that she gets out. All I can say is that I eventually became accustomed to Maui.

Then the Jungle Cruise movie came out. I wasn't super excited about it, though it grew on me more after I went to the Amazon myself. Maui's actor plays the main guy in Jungle Cruise. I liked him in it. And because actors can make me like characters more, I think that may have gotten me to warm up to Maui slightly.

Moana 2 made me like Maui more. I wrote about this a really really long time ago, but there's a topic in film (and other media) that always hits me hard in the gut. It's when the tough, unflappable characters are brought low. That happened in Moana 2, when the crew rescued the drowning Maui. To be fair,  Maui got his @$$ handed to him in the first Moana, clobbered by a giant crab. And while it is hard to watch, I didn't like Maui in the first movie, so didn't really feel it. 

 

Funny story interlude. Some people at Fanime have awesome character costumes. A few years ago, I saw a guy dressed as Maui. I asked to take a picture of him, so I could show my dad. Maui posed and let me take the shot. 

"Thank you," I said. 

"You're welcome." 

Oh man, I'd stepped right into that one. I was kinda infuriated, but also very impressed. He got me good.

 

It's nice that they gave the coconuts (kakamora) more depth. 

The music didn't sound same like the same song-writer from the first movie. And indeed it wasn't the same person. It sounds like Lin Manual Miranda just had too much on his plate. Though the songs were pretty good. I won't be able to judge until I get to know the new ones better though.

It was pretty to watch. But it left me asking "why" over and over.  

Why did Maui lose his tattoos? Was it supposed to represent that he lost his powers, or something? It seemed like the only reason to do that. But it also didn't really mean anything. He was only without his powers for a couple minutes, and I don't think they would have been any help during that two minutes. He'd already lost his hook.

What's with the thunder god and bat goddess? We don't really hear anything about how they got to where they are, and what happened to them. Are they trying to imply that a Moana 3 is on the way? And why were they going so far out of their way to make the bat lady seem evil? She would have been really cool if she made more sense. 

I think this is unfair, but I almost feel like Moana's sister was just put there for motivation factors. 

Also, something about the way the animate the faces is different. It's strange, which my just be because I'm used to the first movie. 

Did they really need to pull the "On no, Moana's dead!" card? They already did that with Elsa and Olaf. I didn't buy it then either. We know you're not going to kill off the princess, Disney. (Moana says she's not a princess, but she's a "Disney Princess"). The only thing I liked about that scene is that it was good seeing Maui's vulnerable side. All the rest of it, I was just going, "really?"

And what were they trying to imply with her tattoos? Is she supposed to be a demigod now, like Maui? 

Ah well. As far as sequels go, this one was pretty good.

Wicked

Wicked! Finally, finally, finally, they made a movie of it! 

When I first saw the trailer, immediately sent Nick a message about it. He's the one that taught me about the stage play. I was both excited and terrified. Excited for the potential of an amazing film, and terrified in case they messed it up. In the message to Nick I said, "I'm gonna cry if they don't do it justice." 

The two of us went to see it together. And when the movie started, it took us flying up over Oz, and to Munchkinland. Everyone there is celebrating Elphaba's death. And Glinda is celebrating with them, but you can just see the heartbreak she's trying to hide. And I started crying. So, Wicked did make me cry. But only because they did an awesome job. 

I loved it. They really captured heart of the stage play. In fact, I only had one complaint, but I'll get to that later. 

Spoilers, as well as some vague references to part 2. 

The movie is long. Considering this is only the first half of the story, I expected they had added a ton of filler. But they didn't. I couldn't identify any random stuff they threw in. All they did was fill out the existing parts. And maybe some scenes were a little long. Like the dance. That was supposed to be super awkward, but they could have shortened it a bit. 

I love the original Elphaba and Glinda so much that I thought it would be hard to like new versions of them. But both of the new ladies were awesome too. And I love that the two original stars got a cameo. A pretty hilarious one too. And it was so sweet to see them greet the new versions of their characters. 

I love that the whole school is smitten with Fiyero. He looks too old to be in school, but the play does cover many years. So he'll fit the part when the next movie rolls around. (Fiyero's actor is actually one year younger than Elphaba's).

Madame Morrible is a nasty piece of work (especially in part 2). But damn, she has style. 

Doctor Dillamund really got me this time. Maybe because I've gotten to be good friends with some goats. But his fate hit me a lot harder this time than it did during the play. Poor guy. TT^TT. I hope they include something in movie 2 about him getting help. 

I also hope that movie 2 does a better job with Boq. I could never accept that the play version was anything like the corresponding character in The Wizard of Oz. 

I like they way they framed "I'm Not That Girl." With the green plants and pink flowers in the background. Green and pink, representing Elphie and Glinda.

And Defying Gravity. Such a freaking awesome song. The new Elphie is an amazing singer. But this is where I had my only complaint about the movie. They broke up "Defying Gravity" into too many pieces. It kinda took some of the power out of it. It was broken up some in the original version, but not as much. I'm going to find the soundtrack and see if there's a version that's a little more fluid. 

I managed to drag my parents to see it with me. Mom saw it in theaters with me and Nick (I kinda bullied her into coming, so she could drive XD It was a long time ago). Dad was familiar with many of the songs, after hearing me sing them dozens of times over the years. I was glad to find that Dad was getting hooked into the movie. At one point, Mom leaned over and whispered to me about Glinda, "what a little shit!" I laughed. She really is at first. Mom had forgotten that from the play. I had not.

And while Glinda may be a little shit to Elphie at first, I so love both characters. 

The only question is, when they release part 2, will there be a special edition DVD set? And can I wait that long to get it?

Hitting the Library

A lot of the librarians know me because I frequently check out big stacks of books. 

There are the usual. I'll get a movie and manga about once a week. Sometimes a novel, if I don't have a giant stack of books I'm in the middle of. 

But mostly they're reference books. I don't read most of them. I've been getting a research list for future stories. I scan them to see if they look helpful. Some books I'm marking for a later date. Others I want to buy for current research projects. 

 Sometimes they ask me what I do with so many books, and it's strange trying to explain it.

Sifaka lemur

Ghibli on the Big Screen

Ghibli movies made the rounds through our theater again this year!  I sought out as many as could that I had never seen on the big screen. Or in Ponyo's case, that I hadn't seen it since it's release. Now that I know Ponyo so well, I can spot little details that I had never seen before. 

For example when they're on the boat, Ponyo runs across the water to see the baby. She knocks the backpack into the water. And when the boat shrinks back down, there's a split second where you can see that the thermos shrank (along with the hat and binoculars). 

I always loved the opening of Ponyo. It's so beautiful and mysterious. I didn't quite get what was happening, until I got the art book, and read the information in it. Fujimoto is making jellyfish! And for a while I was convinced that he was somehow taking the glow from the squid. But not so - he's using his light to communicate with the squid. Which is nicer than stealing its glow. 

(He's so strange - I love it)

Bit by bit, Ponyo and Sosuke leave everything behind, until only the bucket is left (though Fujimoto returns the boat at the end, which I assume still holds the other things that shrank with it). 

The same thing happened in Princess Mononoke. One by one, all of Ashitaka's things are lost, right down to the shirt on his back. They face the finale with only their strengths, and bonds. It happens in Castle in the Sky too. 

There's a couple things about Princess Mononoke which took me a while to notice (though they're not recent discoveries). At the very end, you see the survivors of Iron Town floating on the raft. There's a moment where you can see that the people with leprosy have been cured. One lady is looking at her hand in amazement, the bandages fallen away. And there's a point where San slams her fist into Ashitaka's chest. She's holding her dagger. I thought she had the blade inside her fist enough that it wouldn't actually stab him. But not so. That dagger stabbed Ashitaka. But the curse has progressed so far that it doesn't seem to damage him at all.

 

I caught Nausicaa too. It was awesome to see the ohmu looking full-sized. I noticed for the first time that some of the kids are feeding Kai and Kui in the background. 

Dad wanted to come see Whisper of the Heart with me. I think he just wanted to go to the movies in general, but he had fun. I just spotted a small detail, where Shizuku's looking at the bunk bed above hers. You can see the slats creaking. Man, what detail. 

I didn't notice anything specific in The Tale of Princess Kaguya. But I was glad to finally see that one on the big screen.

Now I just need to see Arrietty on the big screen. And I haven't seen The Wind Rises since it came out, so I'd like to see that too. And probably The Boy and the Heron as well.

Miyazaki's birds

The Boy and the Heron is probably Miyazaki's strangest movie. Which is saying a lot. I think it was common for people to walk out of the theater, wondering what the heck had just happened. I was one of those people. 

But as I learned more about the film, I grew to appreciate it more. 

Through all the strangeness, at it's core is a boy who's hurting from the loss of his mother, and is growing up during a terrible war.

The movie's not as random as it seems. Many of the events in the film are based off of things that happened in Mikazaki's life. And the characters represent family, and people he's worked with. (I want to know so much more about how the heron represents Suzuki-san).

The heron, even in his normal bird form, is a bit unsettling to look at. It's largely because of his initial behavior, but the eyes aren't normal bird eyes either. Though he can be pretty. Especially when his beak is newly repaired, and he's thrilled to be back in his bird form. 

I saw gray herons in Japan, and had some beautiful views of them. Stalking the ponds in front of the Gold Pavilion Temple. And standing in the river at night, street lights reflecting off of the water. One eye glows (which is very Miyazaki-esque).

We have blue herons where I live. I once saw one swallow a big rat, though it wasn't as big as the fish the heron eats.

I also want to know what the other birds represent. It feels like Miyazaki really wanted to draw birds. Huge packs of them. The pelicans can be quite pretty (considering what an oddly shaped bird they are). I've handled pelicans before, at the rescue center. I've held them while they were fed, and it's like holding a dinosaur. It was awesome. But one of the staff there got nailed by a pelican. That hook on their beak left a red gash down his face. So, don't mess with pelicans. 

The parakeets aren't particularly pretty. They're also the most dangerous birds in the movie. 

I saw the movie first in Japanese. When I saw the English version, I was thrilled to recognize some of my favorite characters. Kipo is Himi. Wade is one of the Parakeets. Scarlemagne is another parakeet, but that guy is good at disguising his voice, so I need to listen again and see if I can figure out who he plays. 

And that first scene with the fire is stunning, and haunting. 

There's a scene where Mahito has to cut open a giant fish, and all the guts spill out. I thought that was nasty the first time I saw the movie. Then I went to the class in New Jersey, and gutted a fish for the first time. And I did such a horrible job, I felt just like Mahito must have. Experts make it look easy to gut a fish. I think they must be cheating somehow. Because I could not get the insides out of that poor fish. I had organs bursting in my hands, until there was blood up to my wrists and my hands were too slippery to grip. Some parts just wouldn't come out, and I ended up having to saw them loose. No one else was having the trouble I was having, so I don't know what the heck I was doing wrong. But the next time I saw The Boy and the Heron, I was laughing at the fish scene because I could relate.