Honor Thy Father

Good evening, my minions! How are you? Oh wait... no one ever comments to my blog so... I don't know why I'm asking that. Moving on!

Gaiaonline has kicked off their Halloween Event, which means I'm currently embroiled in a war between Vampires and Elves. I'm on the Vampire side, of course. If you're interested in joining in the fun, head over to Gaiaonline.com and choose a side.

On to the main event of this post: my initial reactions to Episode 2 of Arrow: "Honor Thy Father." There are SPOILERS from this point in. Enjoy.

Arrow - "Honor Thy Father" - Initial Reactions

• Roof Fight!
• This is such a Batman thing... making the criminals piss their pants to get them to do what he wants.
• Not sure I like Olly's friend...
• Ya know, I'm annoyed with the Press just from seeing it on TV.
• Why would you add the second one if only Olly came back, anyway?
• Geez, Laurel. Ice Queen much?
• Oh God. It's Loreo... I am pre-disposed to think he's a slimy git. (Points if you know what I'm talking about)
• Bye Olly.
• If he timed that a little better, he'd have a Stomp moment.
• Mamma Queen needs to back off, especially as she's the one sending people after him.
• How many people has he actually killed people with those arrows?
• That's totally like a box... I don't like the decor.
• Throw him into the lead position after five years on a deserted island... yeah, that's a brilliant idea, except not.
• Seagulls are soooo annoying.
• She's not gonna back down.
• Weird white-haired Asian woman...
• Lots of stuff, obviously. And I wanna know!
• Living people are harder to be close to than dead ones.
• Lol, of course that would be the thing... ice cream is yummy.
• Running companies sounds incredibly boring.
• At least he realises that.
• Hello Ninja lady.
• Bodyguards come in handy, it seems.
• It's not like it's his fault, Mr. Lance.
• Oh, let him in, Olly.
• There's a reason you don't get into things with gangs of any profile.
• That's not dirty, that's good parenting.
• Don't use machine guns in tight places, idiots. You'll end up killing yourselves with ricocheting bullets.
• Go Olly!
• And now the weirdly dressed people run away.
• Nice use of those "trick" arrows there, Olly.
• The people he hurt weren't good people.
• The book was blank when he found it?
• Oh, Mommy-dearest...
• Ouch... and also: I knew it wasn't deserted!

Arrow - "Honor Thy Father" - Review

     I really enjoyed this episode, even the "Previously On" part. It didn't feel choppy and it didn't drag. I feel like this is really rooted in a very solid world and not just flung up on the screen. The only part I had a problem with was Laurel and her father's argument about him wanting to protect her and her wanting to actually live her life. I guess, thinking about it, that plays into a point I want to talk about in a bit.

     Olly is probably one of my favorite characters on TV these days. He's got depth, even if he doesn't show it all the time. And I like how they explained that, too. He's got a point about having been alone for so long he forgot how to connect to people, they just don't seem to get it.

     And that brings me to an interesting point Thea brought up while telling Olly how she used to talk to him when he was dead. It's a hell of a lot easier to connect to dead people than it is to living ones. I think part of it has to do with dead people not being in the world anymore and essentially boiled down to whatever they're remembered by. Living people just have too many complications that get in the way. It's also hard to protect people when they don't want to be protected. Living isn't about being in a shiny rainbow bubble of safety all the time.

     But anyway... I'd really love it if Olly brought Diggle in on his secret. It looks like that might be where things are headed at the moment, but you can never really tell.

Housekeeping

Tomorrow: The Vampire Diaries. I'm also thinking about going ahead and watching this season of Supernatural... may or may not add it to my list of stuff to react to and review. Haven't decided yet. Let me know what you think and, providing you've decided to join in Gaiaonline's Halloween Event, look me up there. I'm Sorceress Digi and I promise I won't bite.

Love ya, Jessie.

PS: I'm a vampire for Halloween.

Nerd-tastic Halloween Stuff - 1

Okay so... after I went and published tonight's blog post, I looked around on Gaiaonline and found they'd taken down the Halloween Event forum... which I hadn't known about... And I thought to myself: I should go look in the shops, see what the NPCs are dressed as this year... and I did. And I had serious nerd-gasms. So... I'm going to share them with you, because I'm such a nerd.

Okay so first we have Agatha from Barton Jewelers dressed as Dowager Countess Violet Grantham from Downton Abbey (A pleasant surprise after I finished the first season!)

 Next is Becky from the Prize and Joy shop as Saber from Fate/Stay Night

 Bildeau from the Faktori as Beemo from Adventure Time

 Brennivin from Dernier Cri as Castiel from Supernatural

 Carl from the Junk Shop as Chopper from One Piece

 Cresento from The Bifrost as Loki from The Avengers (Makes Cresento cool despite him being a jerk)

 Devin from Skin Tyte as Kurgan from The Highlander

 Ian from Barton Boutique as The Doctor (from Doctor Who). My reaction when I saw this was to shout "FUCKING SHIT!" at it. He looks brilliant.

 Josie from Global Imports as Kerrigan from Starcraft II

 Kanako from Dernier Cri as Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

 Liam from Jock Strap as Kise Ryouta from Kuroko no Basuke. Although I'm not sure this counts as a costume... he wears a red jersy all the time...

 Logan from The Ole Fishing Hole as Heihachi Mishima from Tekken. And yes, he's supposed to be a Wolverine reference in his normal form.

 Louie Von Helson from H&R Wesley as Sebastian from Black Butler (A vampire cosplaying a butler from Hell...)

 Mirai from Phin Phang as Princess Cadence from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (In her wedding dress, of course!) I was so confused by this until I found out who she was supposed to be. ^_^

 Moira from Durem Depot as Ranmaru from Binbougami ga

 Murasaki (above and below because she's got some alternate personality going on or something) from Mecha Neko as Chrome Dukoro from Hitman Reborn

 Natasha from Skin Tyte as Monk from Diablo 3

 Nicolae from both Back Alley Bargains and The Bifrost as Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit

 Peyo from Ruby's Rack as Elliot from E.T. (Also featuring his duck as E.T.)

 Radio Jack from Dernier Cri as Giroro from Sgt. Frog

 Ribateau from The Faktori as the Original Gameboy

 Rina from Buttercup Cafe sporting an outfit that needs no explanation... Sailor Moon! If you didn't know that I have a question: Have you been living under a rock?

 Ruby from Ruby's Rack as Powergirl from DC Comics

 Rufus from Barton Boutique as Madara/Nyanko-sensei from Natsume's Book of Friends

 Sam from Sam's Body and Parts as Gadget from Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers (I'm such a nerd for knowing the show before reading it elsewhere)

 Sasha from Gaian Outfitters as Korra from Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra

 Stein from CrosStitch as Vincent Van Gogh

 Mintaka and Rigel from La Victoire as Scully and Mulder from The X-Files (I had another nerd-gasm here)

 Victoria from Salon Durem as Catwoman from DC Comics (And it's the comic version!)

And last but not least, the Wing Scouts from the Treehouse as Children of the Damned

So there you have it, the entire list... and my random nerd-gasm moments.

Love ya, Jessie.

Halloween Hijinks

Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. A nineteen year old and two twenty-two years olds go out trick-or-treating. By themselves. No kids in sight. Do they: A) freak out little asian ladies, B) get lectured by an older gentleman, or C) get extra candy from the people across the street?

Answer: All of the above.

Yeah, that was me, my little sister, and my best friend. We had fun, though. And forgot flashlights, which made things slightly creepy. But hey, I stress again, we had fun. We also made Butterbeer -- it really didn't need to have butter in it -- and watched Sweeny Todd.

It's also my birthday today so we got to watch me squeal and cuddle a new stuffed tiger from TY at midnight. Yes, I still cuddle new stuffed animals.

I had an awesome birthday. Got to stay up late, watch Puss In Boots, and have my favorite chicken alfredo for dinner. I also got a purple pillow pet unicorn. ^_^ My collection is now missing the mini-purple unicorn pillow pet. The unicorn's name is Gabriel after a character in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' book Midnight Predator. I name my stuffed unicorns after vampires. I'll probably go post a list of the ones I have so far on the Lists page.

Love ya, Jessie.

This one made me cry

Despite the fact that Gaia's Halloween Event is still going strong and I should be hanging out in a Doctor Who related hang-out thread in the event... I've decided to take some time out to do a blog post and fanfiction review, just for you. I've also decided to leave off reviewing 500 Miles for now because it's sort of a bunch of story chunks all put together and it's super long... so I'm going to reread it and get back to you.

Hello, Darling, Welcome Home by Blackbirdox
     Yet another in a long line of Remus Lupin/Sirius Black stories I've been reviewing. So that's the first thing: if you don't like either the pairing or the homosexuality of it, go away. Second thing: Bring tissues because if you're anything like me (ie. really, really attached to the characters), you're going to need them. Third thing: I friggin love this fic and I wrote the most sappy review for it on fanfiction.net that is not going to be posted elsewhere... at least not by me...
     "Hello, Darling, Welcome Home" is a post Deathly Hallows fanfic focused on an afterlife of sorts. Expect spoilers for the rest of the Harry Potter books in which there's a mention of Remus and Sirius. I really enjoyed the stairs metaphor and I think it's widely underused as a method of "life flashing before your eyes" thing... if that makes any sense. I swear it did in my head. So Remus suddenly ends up in this afterlife place after he dies in the battle for Hogwarts and has to take a journey through his life. He feels a kind of tug toward something and so sets off up these stairs. The stairs lead to landings with doors that have pieces of his life/memories behind them.
     Throughout the story, Remus is, undoubtably, Remus. The characterization is dead on and I even bought the explanation for why he married Tonks... well part of why he married Tonks... and I never really liked that happening in the books, but I digress. The memories of Sirius we get made me smile and as Remus continues up the stairs, I started to dread what was coming. The scene where he remembers his time at Grimmauld Place with Sirius during Order of the Phoenix made me cry because of what came next.
     And finally, because the story must have an end, there's a bit of Sirius that turned the tears into a grin... but I won't say exactly what happens here. You really ought to go read it.

Random Updates

• A Conspiracy of Cartographers: Year Two has a new chapter out. I'm also taking a ten chapter break from reviewing that because I think I'll get bored reviewing it chapter-by-chapter.
• Against the Moon also has a few new chapters out, still on break from reviewing that.
• I find it quite interesting to "jump universes" while reading these... I went from reading ACoC to AtM today and, well, they're pretty much at the same place so... that was interesting.
• Here's a link to the Masquerade's Doctor Who thread: LINK Come join us!
• As always, links to the fanfiction reviewed and the author's page are in the section title.

Love ya, Jessie.

Gaia's Halloween 2

Gaia has been invaded by werewolves. Or... technically they're genetic experiments released or escaped from the infamous G-corp (makers of Grunnys, Gruckens, Gramsters, and Zombies)... but who cares? They've invaded Louie's mansion and we have a chance to join them or fight them... or both! Doing either/or apparently gets you alchemy ingredients! For yay! Except... Alchemy on Gaia kinda sucks.

Mostly, the problem with Alchemy is that the items are really expensive just to make. And the actual Marketplace value of the things conjured... kinda not worth it. That, and the items needed for Alchemy have apparently not been released in any way that you can get them properly... So, I don't do it unless they give you all the stuff for free.

But anyway... that's where we are for the Gaia Halloween Event so far. It's gone from fun to confusing... and I haven't been on since 4:30 so... they may have fixed it. I'm off to find out.

Love ya, Jessie.

Gaia's Halloween 1

Okay so, the next thing on my list to review is the "Not Myself" sequel of sorts "500 Miles." This is not happening tonight and it's not going to happen until at least after Halloween. You can thank Gaiaonline and their Halloween Event... which is also to blame for me not posting an entry yesterday.

This year, Gaians are apparently fearing for the worst because we've had zombies, aliens, dark elves, vampires, demi-gods, and ghosts for the past few years. So instead of an outright battle for something or over something, we're having a Masquerade Ball! This Ball is hosted by the vampire NPC Louie Von Helson at the Von Helson manor. What that means for users is: a Flash Space and a dedicated Masquerade Forum.

The Flash space is the foyer of the Von Helson Manor in which you as your avatar can walk around and/or hang out with your friends. After you "talk" to Louie some mask options appear at the bottom of the screen. You put on each mask in turn and find a little item. After collecting all the items, you go back to Louie and he gives you an Alchemy recipie. After using this recipie via the Bifrost, you get a little masquerade-y mask brooch. I think this would have been better if we could also use it as an actual mask, but since I'm not wearing it anyway... Also related to the Von Helson mansion, on the World Map, there is a little "Beast" sprite.  The Beast shows up randomly in the Flash Space as a shadow on the window when it thunders. It's also getting closer to the mansion.

The dedicated forum is basically a forum with a background. This means that the forum and related topics take a tad longer to load, but it's worth it to be in the running to get gifts from Anons and have fun conversations and speculations.

Also, there's trick-or-treating in the shops and Towns, as usual. The NPC shop keepers are each dressed up for the occasion. This year's favorites of mine are Agatha, Brennivin, Josie, and Old Man Logan. They're dressed up as Professor Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter; Sherlock Holmes from BBC's Sherlock; Storm from the X-Men; and Mole from Atlantis.

So that's what I've been doing the last couple of days. Hope you guys drop by Gaia and join in the fun. Link to my profile and therefore the site on the Links page.

Love ya, Jessie.