The Hobbit and the Five Armies

When I was in sixth grade we were given the Hobbit as assigned reading. Now, it is a simple law of nature that even if the book you have to read is something you would like to read in your own time, the fact that it is an assignment practically forces the reader to detest it. I was the only one that actually read the book all the way through instead of relying on spark notes or hoping the person sitting next to me knew the answers to the chapter quiz.

So I really liked the Hobbit and am in the midst of reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy since I got the box set for Christmas. I was apprehensive about seeing the Hobbit movies because although directors have good intensions when changing things to "make the story better" the fans of the book are there to see a movie about the book, not something vaguely based on it. I am still bitter about the Percy Jackson 'movies'. Anyways, I watched the first movie when I was sick and I do not remember much of it, but I felt like it stayed true to the story.

My copies of LOTR and the Hobbit

Besides the dwarf love and general orc shenanigans that went down in the second movie, it was also fairly in sync with the book throughout it. However, leaving three of the dwarves in lake town did not seem like something that the other questants would have done and it was not canonical, but I can live with that. The final movie showed more of the battle than the book, since it was from Bilbos perspective and he was knocked out pretty early in the fight. Then again just leaving out an epic battle for control of a mountain full of gold would have felt sort of cheap and removed the need for a third movie.

 I was sad when Kili and Fili died, but mostly because a twin or both of them always seem to get killed in movies (Avengers) and books(Sea of Shadows). As a twin, I take offense. Plus they seem like pretty good guys. Yes, Kili's romance was heartbreaking and sweet, but that was not all that big of a reason to why his character was appealing to me. Maybe it is a twin thing, but I feel really sad when a fictional twin dies.

It also felt overly heavy-handed when they referenced the Lord of the Rings. There were some scenes that someone would be really confused about if they did not have previous knowledge of the other movies or books. Overall it was one of the better movie adaptations tha
t I have seen, and to be fair I am being rather knit picky when it comes to this sort of thing. I would highly recommend this for anyone who wants a good fantasy movie to watch or story to read and any Tolkienies (that's probably wrong) that are apprehensive about the movies, they are not perfect but they are certainly worth watching.

Grey's Anatomy (or the unexpected virtue of fangirling)

One fateful day on Netflix, my sister and I were looking for something new to watch together, having just finished two animes and the sitcom How I met your Mother. We then stumbled across something that looked interesting on the recommended for you list called Grey's Anatomy. We decided that it would be okay to try it, and we were at season two before the end of the week. There are ten seasons up on Netflix, and the eleventh is currently airing. The rest of this blog post will contain spoilers, you have been warned.

Wow those are a lot of scrubs

This is a pretty great show, and coming from someone who is not a big fan of realistic fiction, I liked it. My knowledge of tumors and how to read a MRI has improved indefinitely. It starts with Meredith Grey and the four other interns assigned to Miranda Bailey as they start their year of internship and the subsequent four years as residents. Meredith's best friend is Cristina Yang a extremely competitive heart surgeon, and the other interns are Alex Kerev, the guy who has the worst human skills ever, Isobel (Izzy) Stevens, the girl who got through medical school by modeling, and George O'Malley, who was basically a human Bambi. In a later season Seattle Grace merges with Mercy West hospital and April Kepner and Jackson Avery are introduced to the group. George also dies in a bus crash after pushing a stranger out of the way and Izzy is diagnosed with cancer.

The Attendings that teach them are Derek Shepard, Meredith's boyfriend (later husband) and top neurologist in the country,  Preston Berek, Cristina's boyfriend, who leaves after Cristina freaks out at their wedding (heart), Addison Montgomery Derek's wife(ob/gyn),  Mark Sloan the reason Addison and Derek split up (plastics). After the first season we are also introduced to Arizona Robins (pediatrics), Callie Torrez who marries George, divorces him, and marries Arizona (orthopedics), Miranda Bailey who is like their mom (General), Owen Hunt an ex-military surgeon (trauma) and the chief of surgery Richard Webber who is like a grandpa (general). Teddy Altman is the heart surgeon that replaces Berek.

The first five seasons are sort of less intense, Meredith reconnects with her dad and his family, including her half sister Lexi a surgical student a year younger than her at Seattle Grace who has an identical memory and the average relationship drama you would expect from such a show. Then there are about five minutes where things are okay before the end of season 5 when things looked good, and then George was hit by a bus, Izzy's heart stopped, and all at once, every season finally got a little worse. There is a shooting and Derek, Lexi, and Richard are the targets, Derek's Alzheimer's research is ruined, and the doctors are in a plane crash that kills Lexi and Mark and causes terrible areophobia for most of the rest of the doctors. Basically every tragedy less than a meteor hitting the hospital has happened, but I am only on season eight, so the meteor strike might still happen.

Despite the occasional trama drama combo it is a engaging story that is fun to watch.

Soul eater

Recently my sister and I have started watching an anime called Soul Eater. It is about a school run by Death for misters (the ones wielding the weapons) and their weapons, who are people that can become scythes, swords, and other weapons. They fight evil humans and monsters, and to become a death scythe, they must kill and consume the souls of ninety-nine evil humans and one witch. The main characters are Maka and her weapon Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki, Death the Kid and Liz and Patty, and Crona.

Maka is the daughter of Death’s Scythe, and after her parents divorce, does not want anything to do with her dad, but has to deal with him regularly because he works at her school. She is very good at sensing other souls around her and creating strong soul bonds with teammates. Soul is from a family of musicians who he left to go to Death’s school, DWMA. He is also great at playing the piano, but hardly ever does because of his family.

Black Star is obsessed with always being the center of attention in every situation, and is dead set on being the one who transcends God. Tsubaki is really sweet and always looks after Black Star, even when he does something stupid. Kid is as the name implies, the son of Death. He chose to go to DWMA, even though being Death’s child he could have skipped school and immediately become an official meister, he did not. He also has a weird thing about symmetry, and can not fight or concentrate when things are asymmetrical. Liz and Patty are American sisters chosen by Kid as his weapons so he would not have to be asymmetrical while fighting. 

Crona is the demon blade, which means that Crona very powerful and his blood is black and can cause madness in other people. Crona was controlled by the witch Medusa and fought against the rest of the main characters, but they eventually become friends and Crona attends DWMA to learn to fight witches. He is also my sister’s favorite character in the show.

Left to right: Black Star and Tsubaki, Crona,
 Maka and Soul, Liz Patty and Kid

At the end of the second season, it is revealed that the reason Death started the school was that he had to use his soul to bind a powerful enemy in a prison underneath the school to prevent him from escaping. Even with him miles underground, drained of blood and trapped in a bag of his own skin, Medusa was able to revive the Kishin with Crona’s black blood, adding to his madness. It is not always that serious, and is actually incredibly funny, since many of the adversaries are not scary and Death is like an over enthusiastic teacher with really no idea what he is doing most of the time.

So if you are looking for a good anime to watch and have yet to see Soul Eater, I would defiantly recommend watching it because of the humor, amazing storyline, great lovely characters, that add up to an overall beautiful story.

Top 10 books of 2014

At the beginning of last year I made a resolution that I would read 50 or more books in 2014. I finally finished halfway through December. Anyways, I thought it would be a good idea to share the top ten books that I read in 2014 along with favorite characters and scenes of the books.

The Beginning of Everything—A tenis prodigy is injured in a car accident and over the course of his last year in high school gets in touch with his inner nerd. My sister recommended this book to me and after the events of the first few pages I was seriously doubting her. Trust me though, it’s actually an amazing book. Favorite scene was the debate tournament *cough* join debate *cough* and Toby was my favorite character.

Blood of Olympus—Since it is the last book, I don’t want to spoil it, so I will simply say it is about children of the greek and roman gods fighting monsters to save the world. The Percy Jackson books are some of my absolute favorite books, and I loved The Heroes of Olympus too, so it was really sad to see it come to an end but good that it ended on such a high note. My favorite character was Piper and the best scene was Leo fighting the medicine gods protecter.

Shadow and Bone—In a land torn in two by a mythical darkness full of monsters called the void, Alina and her best friend Mal are in the army passing through the void. Alina soon finds that she has magic no one else possesses that could save her country. Thanks to Aunt Barbara for buying me this book this summer. My favorite character for this series was the main character Alina and my favorite scene was the second time Alina travels through the fold.

Shadow and Bone Website

Legend—It follows June on her mission to find her brothers killer, Day, the other main character in dystopian western America. The street fight is my favorite scene and the character is Day.

Frozen—No, this is not about the movie. The world has frozen over and Natasha Kestal is desperatly searching for “the Blue” a mythical land of warmth and magic. She hires Ryan Wesson and his crew to take her to the Blue. My favorite character was Shakes and my favorite scene was when they rescue a stranded ship.

Milkweed—This was the second time I read this book,  and it still managed to make me cry and left me feeling more than a little shellshocked. I guess you don’t read World War two books unless you want to feel that way, but still. My favorite character was Misha, (coolest name) and my favorite scene was when he was being hit to get the lice off of him.

Squashed—The story is about Ellie, who is trying to grow an award winning giant pumpkin. I bought it at the library sale and it is the funniest and most original book that I bought that day.My favorite character was Roger and the best scene was the weighing contest.

Hero—The story follows Saturday Woodcutter on her adventures trying to find her brother and freeing a trapped lord on the worlds tallest mountain. It was sort of a silly book, but I have that sort of humor so I laughed too much. My favorite character was Betwix, a shapeshifter animal. My favorite scene was the first visit to the gardens.

Fangirl—The main character Cath, is starting college with her twin sister who she feels abandoned by, while also trying to finish her massively popular fanfiction and pass her advanced writing class. Ok, I’m not in college and my fanfiction is not that popular, but otherwise Cath is me. Favorite character is of course, Cath and the fanfic reading was my favorite scene.

Rainbow Rowell's Website

The selection—The main character America reminds me of my friend Mazana, who recommended it to me, and sadly moved a few weeks ago. In the futuristic society of Illeà, thirty-five  girls are randomly selected to get the chance to marry the prince. The character is America and her maids taking care of her and vice versa.

End Game (Homestuck Spoilers)

The Homestuck gigapause has finally ended after an entire year without an update. It was published on my fellow homestuckian friend's birthday, but it was not a good present that's for sure. If you are starting Homestuck or do not want to spoilers, do not read any more. For those that do not know, Homestuck is a popular webcomic consisting of gifs, videos, interactive games, and pictures created by Andrew Hussie that is over 7,000 pages long.

Okay, here we go.

The cascade was what the first time the author, Andrew Hussie, killed many of the characters and it looks like End Game (one of the latest updates) will be "Cascade Two".  I have gotten attached to the remaining kids and trolls,  I am not ready for them to be gone. Complete denial over the entire thing. 

After Karkat was stabbed by Gamzee and thrown into the lava, Kanaya chainsawed Gamzee in half and was burnt to death by the Condolence. Aranea tried to kill Jane, but Jake jumped in the way and died a heroic death (Jane still died) and Dave tried to protect Jade... then was stabbed. Rose also died trying to avenge Kanaya but was stabbed (any one else pick up a bit of a pattern?) and died a few updates later. Just in case you were wondering, Homestuck is not supposed to be like this.

But seriously here, really Andrew Hussie? You're going to make your fans wait for an ENTIRE YEAR to the day just to bring Homestuck back with some sadstuck and ironic bad anime? That is not what anyone wanted or expected. Besides crying and hoping this resolves itself in the near future, I do not know that to do. 

My friend Alice theorized that John will make a deal with his denizen to trade his life for the lives of his friends. Since that sounds incredibly like something he would do, I am worried that it is actually going to happen and John will die. I refuse to deal with him dying...again. He has already died in the main timeline three times, and a fourth would not be any less awful and somewhat worse because I would have to wait for Hussie to update to see what would happen. The updates will get farther apart after Hussie gets through what he wrote during the gigapause so that will not be fun.

therefore, I can not bring myself to read the new updates, even though I want to know so badly and four of my good friends are also Homestuck fans and are getting really annoyed with my antics. It is getting bad, and one of them will probably spoil what has been happening so far, but I refuse to see anything else as hurtful as this.

 I just hope that eventually all the characters will live happily together and defeat Lord English. I would even be alright if all the characters were in the Dream Bubbles, Homestucks version of the afterlife. So yeah, this has been a good way to distract myself and forget that every character is dead and all of my ships have sunk. Alright, I am going to procrastinate on Homestucks Merch shop, What Pumpkin until I have enough courage to read more.

Trickster Roxy LaLonde from Andrew Hussie
(Link cannot be found on school computers)

Blood of Olympus (SPOILERS)

First of all, thank you Morrison for lending me The Blood of Olympus, and thank you William, for being too sick for Morrison to lend you the book first like she promised. Of course I only had the book for 2 days while William was still out sick, but I managed to finish the book in under 48 hours. Side note: reading for 8 1/2 hours straight is very likely to cause a bad headache.

 Even though I was really excited to finally read the book after waiting for a year after The House of Hades was published, it's sad to see the series end. I am content with the ending though, because everyone was able to find their place and where they would be happy. I also liked the fact that it had Nico and Reyna's POV. Although now that I'm thinking about it, the fact that neither Annabeth and nor Percy got a chapter from their POV, I find that sort of irritating.

The top five things that I liked were that Nico found his place at Camp Half-Blood, the giants were defeated in an epic battle, Octavian was the only person I knew by name who died (thank the gods), the Romans and the Greeks are finally getting along, and Charisse, the super hardcore daughter of Ares, became a godmother. I'm happy with how it ended, but also a little sad that Percy Jackson's quests with his friends are over. Thank you Rick Riordian for giving us Percy Jackson and his friends extraordinary adventures.