I Guess Mine are Pretty Tame

Sometimes I wonder if I get too exited about characters. Especially if I'm using them in fanfictions. Then I see what other people do, and I don't worry anymore. The strangest thing I do with characters is to throw them into a group of wacky friends, and come up with fun stories and interactions.

I just came across an artist whose gallery was full of (very good) drawings of Gollum. Calling him cute and everything. (Gollum may have the potential to be good, but he doesn't live up to that potential. I wouldn't call him cute - and I've called some pretty strange things cute. And, you know, Gollum has killed people, and tries to kill more people). 

Another artist just bought a bunch of Marvel figures (Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Venom). She's been posting a bunch of pictures of them being lovey dovey. 

A different artist has started a whole series of comics shipping a pair of Pokémon gym leaders, because they appeared together in Pokémon Masters. (To be fair, these ones are actually pretty cute)

 

But anyway. I just need to remind myself that what I do is comparatively tame. (And just because I don't like shipping characters doesn't mean that I can't make them be friends. It's up to you whether or not you think that's hypocritical XD )

Fictional Populations

It only recently occurred to me that I should figure out the country populations in my world. 

As usual, it ended up being more complicated than I expected. I thought I'd make the populations somewhat similar between countries, since they're similar sizes. Though of course some lands can support more people than others. There are some countries that are mostly desert or tundra. 

I decided to start with the country I'm working with most right now. I looked into the original populations of that area of the US before Europeans arrived. Which brought the first hurdle. No one actually knows the original populations. Europeans didn't bother to find out how many American Indians there were before they started killing them and spreading disease (and the disease sometimes arrived before the Europeans did). The estimated population for the area ranges between 100,000 and 700,000. So it's not too helpful. It's a very fertile area of America, so there were many more people living there than in some other areas. I decided to go with the higher population estimate, and maybe a bit higher. 

One of the main reasons I needed to know the population was to figure out the number of mages, and how many people might use the mage temple. 

Long ago, I decided that about 1% of the population has magic. But not all of those people would go to the temples to learn. I'm not sure if that number would include genetic magic - those people mostly learn magic from their communities, not from temples. Some mages would have magic that's so insubstantial that they wouldn't really need training at the temple. And some mages would get trained privately (for various reasons). 

So, I have a ball-park idea for the population, and the number of mages. But it still needs work. 

Interactive Museums

I recently visited an art museum that had some cool features. They encouraged you to go out in the museum and write a poem based on a piece of art. They had clipboards and paper you could bring along. There was even a table with a typewriter, if you wanted to type your poem and hang it on the wall. Cool!  

One of their exhibits was art of a certain area. They asked you to share your memories of that area, and put them on a bulletin board. 

 It's cool to find these interactive elements in art museums! 

The Old in the New

When I link something new to something old, I might suddenly like it much faster. For example, if I'm watching a movie and I hear a song I recognize, I'm more likely to find that song and listen to it more. 

Or during a series, when a character reappears after they've been away for a while. 

And when I realize that an actor has done other roles I loved. 

You can see an example of this in action during this post. See how irrationally excited I get about it? 

Hanging out with a Character

So, I started wondering which fictional character I would I get along with the best. And it ended up being a more complicated question than I expected. 

The easy answers are characters that are just nice people. Wade from Elemental, and Hiro, from Heroes. 

Connie, from Steven Universe, is the character I relate most to. So she would be a good possibility. 

There are some characters that I love, but I think they would freak me out in person. Like Tamaki, from Ouran High School Host Club. If he went "host mode" anywhere near me, I would get the hell out of there. Even my favorite character, Hector, would have been a little too annoying for me - at least during the beginning of the movie. By the end he would be less of a nuisance. 

Some characters I love aren't particularly sociable. For example, Garnet isn't big on meeting new people. Kenshin is nice, but (at least during most of the series) he resists really connecting with people. 

I may not have much in common with other characters I like, and thus little to talk about. 

If I cheat a bit, there are the characters that would be super awesome to hang out with. For example, if I hung out with Hiccup, I could meet Toothless! And maybe ride him. Connie too, who could introduce me to the gems XD 

So which character would I most get along with? I still don't know... I guess I'd take the easy answers and say Wade, Connie, and Hiro. 

Just because I like a character doesn't mean they'd like me. But I think a lot of it comes down to circumstances. Even if they're someone that I don't have much in common with, or they're kinda weird, if we did something fun together, we might get along great! 

The Research Road Trip

For years now, I've been wanting to do a road trip that follows the route in Evva's story. It should be in the late spring/early summer, so I could see what the plants and animals are like during that time of year. But I never seemed to have that time free.

Finally this year I made myself go. No one wanted to come along, so I planned alone. And because Evva usually camps out, I figured I would do the same. Plus, it's cheaper XD

Booking the campsites ended up being a nightmare on its own. The maps were confusing. A lot of them seemed unavailable for no real reason. Other places wouldn't let you camp for one night - it had to be at least two. And when I finally got all my campsites booked, one contacted me to say that the reservations was cancelled, so I had to go through everything again. 

It's a long drive to Portland. I've done it all in one day. Correction, I've been in the car while my uncle drove all day. But I hate driving. Plus this whole trip was for research. So I broke the trip up into three days each way. 

Apple Maps was a lifesaver. I hate listening to that robot voice, but because of it, I was able to drive places without having to stress about whether or not I missed my turn or anything. And I could randomly decide to go somewhere new, and not worry about plotting the course (unlike in Europe, where my phone was mostly out of service). 

I sat in cold rivers on hot days, taught a little girl about pipevine caterpillars, explored amazing caverns, and woke up with the top of my tent covered in dozens of earwings. 

(there was a cool light show in the cave, hence the colors)

Some of the plants are delicious too! My cousin told me about native edible species that aren't from my area. And I rescued a mole that got stuck above ground. It was so silky soft! We found a dog along the road and helped him get home too (the enighbors said that the little dog gets out all the time, right next to a busy, dangerous road. I encouraged the neighbors to report it to the SPCA). Found out that my cousin's kid is now taller than me. Damn. 

It really helped my story research - parts of the route were much different than I expected. I learned a lot about the species of the area. After I reached Portland, I even went camping along the Columbia River with a couple of my cousins. The cottonwood fluff was falling like snow, and gathering in drifts. I've never seen so much of it, and even my cousins were amazed at the amount of it. I gathered some of it and tested it as tinder. It burned like gun powder. I gathered a little nest of it, setting it on a protective wrapper. I got to show off starting a fire with a bow-drill kit. But that took longer than expected, because I had to fix a few of the parts. One of my cousins got bored and left, so she didn't even see the fire start. But that cottonwood fluff worked amazingly (with the proper precautions to not burn your hands off). Astrid had brought some eggs to cook for breakfast, but we cooked about half of them on my pan, right on the coals. So good! (Make sure you have the correct pan for it)

And because I can never really take home plants when I'm in Portland, I got a ton of plants to drive home with! 

I came home during the first days of summer. I visited an antique carousel museum, drove through a safari in southern Oregon, and watched a pair of tiny spotted fawns. 

My last night camping, I got snowed on. Luckily I had a warm sleeping bag! (On the drive up, I had to park in the sun. The car thermometer read 118. Granted, that was a hot hunk of metal sitting under a hot sun, but what a contrast). 

For Good

I finally saw Wicked For Good! 

Spoilers. 

It was good! Though not as good as part one. I knew it wouldn't be as fun, just because of the nature of act two. 

They added quite a bit to the new movie. Part one was longer too, but this time they added several new scenes and songs. I get why they did it. They wanted to make certain things clearer, and answer important questions that weren't addressed in the stage play. But they could have cut some of those extra scenes out. I don't think the animals leaving Oz was really necessary, for example. And they showed giraffes walking toward that little hole, as though they were going to go through it? 

I didn't get hooked on the new songs, but I've only heard them once, so that may change. 

But thank goodness that they freed all the animals! That was one thing that I was desperate for the movie to resolve. Particularly Doctor Dillamond, who never had any resolution before. And they showed through Chistery that the animals can learn to speak again! They also showed Glinda really taking charge in the best way possible. All things that I imagined in my head, but were never confirmed. Until now. 

There was actually one thing I hoped they would change, but they didn't. Boq. His behavior as the Tin Man never made any sense. I always thought that was a great thing about the Wizard of Oz's Scarecrow and Tin Man - they thought they needed a heart and a brain. But the Tin Man was extremely caring, and the Scarecrow had smart ideas (the lion doesn't display much courage though). But the Tin Man in Wicked is only ever showed as hateful. I was also a bit disappointed in Scarecrow's design. 

There was a weird thing was at the end, with Dorothy and the bucket of water. In The Wizard of Oz movie, Dorothy didn't want to hurt anyone. She was shocked when she saw the witch melt. But in this movie, it looked like she threw that bucket of water deliberately. Which really changes Dorothy's character. 

(My cousin told me that some of the actors were shockingly thin after this movie. And I can definitely see that. The dress Glinda wore during the entire finale made her look almost skeletal. Which is concerning...) 

Elphie and Glinda were fabulous. One thing I love about Elphie is that despite being the oldest actor of the main three, she has this amazing youthful air. She's the only one I could believe was a student in part one. (At least during part one. Elphaba mostly loses that during part 2 TT^TT )

 

Considering I teared up just seeing the trailers for this movie, I'm not surprised that For Good had me crying.