Tag: books

Revisiting Battle Royale

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Over the holidays, mythical girlfriend got me a copy of the Battle Royale novel.  Like most instances, I’ve heard time and time again about how the book was better, and since I was a huge fan of the BR film that was released in 2000, I was curious to see how the book stacked up against a film that I’d seen numerous times over.

I recently finished the book, and I’m having a difficult time in determining which was the superior, or if it’s even possible to compare.  Due to my familiarity with the film, I had a general mental picture of all the players of the game, which kind of led to ease in reading story where the imagination is already filled in for most of it, leading to where I’m basically reading words.

I guess the book was a little bit better, in the idea that they simply fleshed out and gave just about every student a modicum of spotlight to display a little bit of depth and character, before they were inevitably killed off, and there were some things that the book had that were omitted from the movie, or altered for ease of filming.  Frankly, I understand why the film did what they did in some of these cases, and in comparison to the book, there are some blatant scenarios where particular characters were used or displayed, solely for the fact that they had actor obligations to grant screen time, or something along those lines.

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It’s not that simple

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TL;DR – Time columnist implores Game of Thrones fans to stop comparing the books to the television series

Easier said than done.

The one thing about this article that stands out the most to me is the hypothesis that despite how gracious the book snobs have been throughout the gradual progression of the show, there’s probably no way in hell that the show snobs will be as considerate when season 6 of GoT airs, especially in the age of social media and hashtagging everything.

Basically, the fate of Jon Snow, albeit fairly predictable, will be likely absolutely unavoidable to find out once the show begins airing.

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I don’t know what to do with myself anymore

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I started reading Game of Thrones in mid-October, and have been reading the series exclusively since then.  I recently finished A Dance With Dragons, thus making official, catching-up to the series as a whole.

I don’t really know what to do next now.

I’ve been carefully watching the television series, not to binge too hard, as to surpass storylines that might’ve spoiled books, but now that I’m caught up to the books, I suppose the rest of the TV series is fair game, although there’s lots of allegation that some events of season five are supposedly spoilers to things that would theoretically be in the unreleased sixth book.  So I guess I might avoid season five, although I have gotten to a point in season three where I’ve begun to notice some dramatic turns in the plot that deviate from the books.

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J.K. Rowling ripped off Castlevania II

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MomoCon related: to all like two new visitors I may have of people looking for pictures of themselves, I’m currently in the midst of editing photos when I’m not writing about nonsensical stuff like this.  I didn’t take that many pictures at the convention, so check back later on this week, and they’ll all likely be up no later than week’s end.

Anyway, over the weekend, I found myself watching the tail end of Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince on television, and I had this amazing revelation, when Dumbledore was telling Harry the general idea of how Voldemort had immortalized himself by use of horcruxes.  And how all seven of them had to be located (and destroyed) so that Voldemort could be made mortal again, so that he could be vanquished once and for all.

Granted, I’ve seen the film before long before this past weekend, but I never thought about it until recently; but the revelation was that I had heard this exact plot before, and it was literally almost two full decades before Half-Blood Prince had even been released.  It’s basically the exact same concept as Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest.

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Is it really that important to always know what’s “trending?”

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Since I’m such a man of the times, I’m currently on book five of Game of Thrones: Song of Ice and Fire.  Unlike a lot of epic literary series, I’ve actually enjoyed GoT in written form a great deal, and I look forward to completing book five, and subsequently be like all other GoT novella fans, and (im)patiently await the sixth.

On that note, it goes without saying that I am very much behind in the television series, as it moves at light speed on screen in comparison to the pace of the novels.  I’ve just finished watching the second season of the show, and upon hearing news not too far ago about how things in season five of the television series will spoil plot points for what lies ahead in the not-yet-released book six, I can say that I will probably not watch any of season five, if I can help it.

Yes, I am one of those snobs, who always plays the game of comparisons between book and screen.  This should not be one iota of surprise to anyone.

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Too bad I’m quite fond of my iPad

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Because this is where I’d say that if I read another book with what becomes an obvious Mary Sue, I’d throw it out the window.

The definition of a Mary Sue is oft-debated and up to the reader’s interpretation, but for the most part, I personally see Mary Sues as characters in stories that are interpretations of female authors themselves, but melded into these idealistic forms that core characters of the story ultimately fall for.

Over the span of the last year, I’ve read far too many novels where one of the main characters are obviously Mary Sues.  I’m not entirely sure why this keeps happening to me, but I have a tendency to gravitate towards novels involving people with mental illness, are spiritually broken, or are simply socially distant from the rest of the world.  This type of blueprint appears to be the primary breeding ground of Mary Sue characters, because I simply cannot stop running into them.  It’s probably because I’m a romantic at heart, and I like the idea of people down on their luck stumbling across the chance romance, but it’s becoming apparent that the chance romantic interest stands a high probability of becoming a Mary Sue.

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D*C 2014: Actually partaking in programming

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Picture progress notice: I’m going to be spending the better part of the weekend processing images.  If all goes well, then next week will be a series of gallery posts, from each day of the convention.

I know I’ve “bragged” about how very little advertised as convention programming genuinely appeals to me to a point where I really wish to participate in a panel or a show, or anything that requires waiting in a long and time-sucking line.  The fact is, I still glance at guest lists and panels regardless, it’s just that I ultimately don’t bother with them once the convention begins.  I’d rather wander around and take pictures and chance into running into friends and acquaintances as opposed to waiting in lines.  It’s not to say that I’m not interested in them, it’s more the fact that the reward of seeing or meeting doesn’t outweigh my love for flexibility.

I broke this trend this year, ironically, in spite of my most recent manifesto about how convention programming doesn’t appeal to me, when I went to go meet an author whose works I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years, Jonathan Maberry.

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