Red Oni, Blue Oni

I swear, TVtropes has ruined my life. I mean this in the most wonderful and appreciative way possible. I have been away from the blogging world for a few days because I have actually been taking some time to devote myself to my school work. I know, this is equally unbelievable and astounding. In reality, it's not, because I am a renowned nerdburger, who is constantly stressing about school and working hard to make sure that I do well on all my tests and ace my assignments. As much as I hate school, I'm probably one of the few people in my "oh-so-apathetic" grade that genuinely cares about getting an education, and is prepared to work hard, no matter what. I know I bitch and whinge about school in this blog a lot, and say that I'm neglacting my work, but I'm not really.

Anyway, back on track. I have an English oral that was due today, but I didn't get the chance to present. Darn schnitzel, I wish I'd been able to get it done! I shall be presenting to tomorrow though, so all is well! Then, I have a Maths exam on [next] Wednesday, and my Biology assignment due on Friday. Despite having a fair bit to do, I have mostly taken tonight off, for my own sanity. Hurrrm, I'm not sure if sanity is the correct word to use. Sane people don't generally spend two and a half hours on TVtropes, reading about anything and everything, buuuut... It is so addictive. Plus, I can't help but relate everything in my life to tropes these days.

I was re-re-re-re-re-watching (and seriously, for this particular episode, that's not even close to enough re's. Oh dears!) an episode of TDWT, and I noticed this:

Okay, so I'd never actually taken into account the colours of the train icon things before, because I can often fail at analysing mise en scene. However, last time I watched it, I was automatically like "ZOMGREDONIBLUEONI!" But then it occurred to me that Heather & Al were waay too similar to fit into that trope... aren't they? /creepy music/ Justification is just a hop, click and a paragraph of rambletastic goodness away, but for now, here's another picture.

Oooh, their representative colours have swapped... In the space of only one episode, too. How could this be? /dun dun dun!/ Okay, first let me explain what red oni and blue oni actually is:

Differing sets of personalities are attributed to red oni and blue oni, which have often come to be the personalities of many a protagonist/antagonist combination, or that of a pair of rivals. The two are almost always forced into close contact, either voluntarily or by some outside social or legal reason such as being members of the same family, school, dojo, soldiers together in The Squad, etc. Despite their wildly different personalities and philosophies the two often have either the same (or related) professions and/or skills. This of course gives them something to butt heads about, since they will also often have vastly different ways of going about whatever it is they're competing over and each will insist that his way is the best. [TVtropes]

For example, in real life, I am a blue oni and my sister is a red oni. She is the enthusiastic, zesty, more-emotion-than-intellect, better-people-connecting, positive one. I, however, am the more intellectual, proud, traditional, cultured, socially-strange, so-much-more-if-you-scratch-beneath-the-surface one. This picture pretty much says it all:

Poor Excalibur. I wouldn't want to be caught between the two of us either ;)

Aaaaaanyway, back to the anaylsis. Here is my hypothesis: In the sense that I'm alaylsing it, I think the visual symbolism used by the creators was purely unintentional. It does, however, highlight some of the key aspects of the two character's relations. On first glance, the two are quite similar, as they are both extremely manipulative and quite selfish. However, on deeper inspection, we can see that the two contrast eachother in many ways. Prior to the season finale [picture one], Alejandro was the blue oni of the pair. He was constantly thinking of tactics, and kept a level head and facade throughout kost of the competition. Heather, however, was very prone to letting her emotions and annoyances overpower her strategies. While it often payed off, her decisions and reactions were usually reckless and impulsive, whereas Alejandro's were extremely contrived and well thought out. Therefore, although both were antagonists that sought to win, their tactics and persoanlities, when analysed were very different. The role reversal occurs in the season finale [picture two], when Alejandro drops his calm facade, and decides that his relationship with Heather is what is most important to him. This married with his Beserk Button moment over being called Al, and his Freudian Excuse which came in the form of childhood bullying and abuse from his older brother, made him the more rash and emotional of the two. Heather, in contrast, used his newfound emotionality to her advantage, and strategically put on an act for the great majority of the episode, eventually winning the season. Yeah, this is what happens when you do too much English.

... Excalibur is asleep. I apologise if you also are. Well, at least I found my Red Oni, Blue Oni rant fascinating. Then again, I'll use any excuse to talk about shipping, or ranting in general. As a side note, the Fakiru pairing is completely ROBO, so much so that I don't even need to bother arguing it. Hnnn, I really do seem to like the whole opposites thing. Which reminds me! I totally started watching Shugo Chara today. I fangirled over a character, and shipped two characters before I even watched the show. I fangirled further over said character just because they turned up in the opening credits. I got even more crazy with my shipping, just because the two character had all of one scene together in the first episode. That pretty much sums up how I was with Tutu. You should all pray that it doesn't go down that path, otherwise you'll be reading a looot more about it. Random fact: the word 'oni' roughly translates to 'demon' or 'ogre' in Japanese. Ah, I should be getting to bed. Seeing as it is the last day of May, I did feel compelled to make one more post before the month ended. I made a sketch of Excalibur on my English notes, because I wasn't learning them properly, and Paint'd it just then. On this image, I shall end the post. Goodnight and sweet dreams, munchkinies!

//A.N: My Blogs have been being just a little serious of late. I promise you all I'll do something exceedingly random again soon. Holidays are in just two and a half weeks, and you can be sure that my mind will be flowing with crazy thoughts then. Beunos noches! x

Ninja invasion of the head and stomach. Now with TD kinda rant!

Oooooh, what's the buzz? Hopefully it's not my phone going off... or my stomach churning. Well, right now I'm chilling at the state library. I just finished my English assignment, and I am rather proud of my productivity. Especially considering how terribly unproductive I was yesterday. I took the day off school, because my stomach decided to start churning like crazy, leaving me wanting to, ah, do the opposite of eating, to put it nicely. I kept thinking to myself that I was going to work on lots of school things. But instead, I did nothing. Well, I didn't do nothing. I seemed to get well fairly early in the day, so, I went out and rode my bike and spent time with my dog. And then I spent hours on TVtropes. Then I spent an hour watching the PT finale, and the commentary for it. I'm such an idiot. I assumed that because I didn't cry my eyes out like a little baby the first time, and get rather depressed, I wouldn't this time. Not true. I must have looked like pathetic incarnate: sitting on the floor crying like a kid while watching anime, wiping makeup all over my face, and stuffing my mouth with chocolate. Really smooth.

So, this post is now being continued several hours later. I really should be in bed, but, I'm a night dwelling person. I got some night driving hours tonight, which was awesome. Unlike most people, I actually find it easier to drive at night than during the day. I tell you people, it's the larger pupils. And I'm just naturally semi-nocturnal. I have been meaning to watch episode three of AnoHana, but for some reason, my internet is loading the video at a snail pace. As in five minutes of video loaded in half an hour slow. So, I've been lurking around the Total Drama fandom while it loads. Despite being an on-and-off mega-fanatic over the series, I'd never really looked into the fandom until yesterday. By on-and-off I mean, when I don't have anything to do with it, it's cool. I don't act like an addict or anything. But, when I watch it, I suddenly feel like I have to watch more. And more. And more. Espically with World Tour. Oh dear. Anyway, back to the fandom lurking. Eh, it's not a very active one. I mean, it is, but only on the Wikia page and Fanfiction. The LJ and Fanpop pages are pretty inactive. The shippers, though not exactly in-your-face bothersome, are quite annoying. I don't mind fanon, but, there is just waaaay too much crack shipping going on. I would go so far as to say there are more fanon shippers then canon. Some of the ships are alright. Some of them are just weird, and way too sexualised. Especially when they revolve around Noah, Cody or Heather. Especially when it's all of them at once.

Why are Noah and Cody the most popular male characters? More the point, why do most girls these days seem to like men that are a) not masculine b) look incredibly young/ like women. I read an article by Francis Whiting that suggested this was the case becase effeminate looking men were not confronting or scary; they are approachable heroes/obsessions. Once again reaffirming how much I deviate from the norm, because I'm just like "GROW A P*NIS AND MAN UP!" But anyway, I was really shocked when I discovered that Sierra was a really accurate parody of a TD fangirl, with her Cody-obsession, because he actually was the most popular male character in the show. To be honest, I thought Duncan would have been the favourite. Apparently not. It always shocks me as to just how unpopular Alejandro is with the fans. According to a poll on Fanpop, Sierra was chosen as the better new character. I mean, she's hilarious and all, but, like, what? What is wrong with you all? His stereotype pretty much defines that he's meant to swooned over. But no, apparently girls these days want weenie boys. ** /grabs paper bag and hyperventilates/

Phew! Now that that's done, I can finish ranting. Yes, I'm aware that no one really has much of a clue what I'm on about, but hey, Kira, what you're doing is purple. /waits forty seconds, with cheesy elevator music playing/ Yaywhoot death! Becuase, making an even more abstract reference was toootally going to save this post. Mkay, I promise y'all that when I've finished my ranting, I'll have a super-hyper-crazeballs time to make up for the boredom you've endure. Because I'm just that lovely, word. Gah, I feel like having a high-high-high-ho randomific posting time now. No. must finish ranting. Don't want any unresolved ranting tension. I mean, it's worse than unresolved sexual tension. And that's really annoying.

Moving forward! Yes, I just made a Julia Gillard reference. How diabolically terrible of me. Moving even more forward! I'd been getting so into the Fakiru pairing, that I'd forgotten that AleHeather was my OTP beforehand. What's the deal with OTPs anyway? I got the impression that it meant one true pairing, but people seem to have more than one OTP. Or is there one per show? Anyway, I love many ships, and I'm quick to ship. Like, I did a [ClearlyUnfocused] and shipped Yukiatsu with Menma before they'd even met on AnoHana. Actually, I kinda like the idea of that being a one-sided-ship more, because that makes it tragic. I think this is the case anyway. I wouldn't know, because my dang internet is still loading at a snail pace. awkdgahsnddjia. And, I totally have character dibs on Yukiatsu. C'mon, like, messed up, good looking, not-protagonist, voiced by Takahiro freakin' Sakurai /drools/. Guys, the timbre of his voice is just so lush. I could talk about it all day. But, I won't, because I'm already getting way off topic.

 So yeppo, shipping is awesome and fun. And I just naturally do it. There are a few of us who even ship teachers at school, though it's usually crack and just for lolz. Despite this, there are very few ships that I really, really get into. I'm pretty sure AleHeather was my first proper ship. D'aww. It really doesn't have the following it deserves, but most fans of it seem to be quite intelligent. As opposed to NoahxHeather shippers who are sick little schoolboys that want to play out their nerd-gets-popular-bitch fantasies through their crack pairing. Anyways, it's still one of my favourite pairings ever, even if the creators did completely ruin it, just seconds after making it canon in the show. Huurr grr. Hopefully they'll patch things up in season five. I'm kind of scared for season five. Season four most likely going to be lameballs, because they're using all new contestants, as opposed to the old ones. But, I hope it's mildly successful, so the creators have enough funding for season five, which is rumoured to be the final season, and have all the characters which have ever been on the show. I've got my fingers crossed that they'll fix Aleheather, Duncney and Gwent, because those are easily my favourite pairings in the show. And all of them were completely ruined. Speaking of Duncney, I've been catching some of the Total Drama Action episodes of ABC3 lately. That ship is like, one of the few things season two was good for.

So, that was my very long way of telling everyone that I'm in a Total Drama-erific mood. Urgh. I just remembered that I still have to practice and learn my English oral. Superdooperlametimes. I had a careers discussion with my parents again this afternoon. They're not happy with my preferences for Uni. At all. And they're totally bummed that I don't have a specific career I want to do. The only thing that's ever really interested me it theatre management, and like hell that'll ever happen. Maybe I should try and work towards it anyway. I don't know. Maybe I should just do Journalism at uni. What do you all think? Am I decent enough at writing to do something like that?

It's nearly midnight, so I should be off to bed now. My AnoHana episode hasn't even loaded halfway yet. Fffff! My parents have another rugby game booked for tomorrow night. Apparently there's going to be a crowd over over fifty thousand, which breaks the record crowd in the stadium for that type of game. This is all coolbeans, but I really need the time for studiez. Ah well, it'll be good for me to get out of the house again.

SO LUCKAY! Yer, I haz that stuck in my head. Oh dear, LOLcat infestation of the brain. Actually, it's because I found a heap of Fakir crack macros that someone on LJ had made. They made me laugh so hard. I'd put one on here as a picture, but that would require asking the creator for sharing rights, and like, that requires social contact with peoples I've never talked to before. Just click on the link and chck them out, even if heaps of the humour is fandom specific. Anyways, continuing with the random. Here's some random life facts:

Last night I dreamt that I was a beepboxer.
Today a gay guy told me that he liked my boots.
Today my own mother hit on me in jest.
At an eisteddfod on Thursday, I almost fell backwards when I stood up on stage.
I often think everything smells like pancakes.
Today a Tomtom said I drove across the water. Ridin' Jesus style, brah.
I also confessed to loving my ninja today. Lucky he was too busy pimpin' this blog to notice :#3
Wraps are too expensive.
Life is a hard and painful game. In short, yo mama so fat.
I can haz zzzzs?
Don't read Dracula on the bus if you're travel sick. It will only end in nausea.
I now read most things from a postcolonial perspective.
Chuck Norris found me.
Seeing weird sparkles before your eyes is usually an indication that you should go to bed.
Therefore, I'm off to the land of slumber

Farewell, my little blog following wonderkids! Remember: Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die. I think I just stuffed up that ITR. Did I? Eh, who really cares. Take care, chickens. And, as [Gojo] so nicely told me in what I'm guessing is a reference: If your sex is on fire, it's probably chlamidya.

** Disclaimer: I apologise to those of you who are manboy inclined. Everyone is very entitled to their preferences. Different strokes for different folks? /luminescent blush/ ⁰#⁰ Erm, I mean, there's someone for everyone? It's a good thing that not all people are attracted to the same thing, or poligomy would become massive? Okay, now I'm just making a fool out of myself. Imma shut my piehole now.

It's Hip to be Hispanic

Really, it is. I can't explain it, but ever since around September last year, I've had an obsession with Spain. And Spanish people. And Spanish culture. And Spanish music. And Spanish cities. And Spanish food. And Spanish language. And Spanish men. And, by extension, South America and Latin America.
I'll admit, I've even watched a bucketload of Spanish news broadcasts, even though I don't speak a word of the language, and therefore didn't know what was being talked about most of the time. They mentioned my city once, and even though it was because of a natural disaster we were experiencing, I was still like "ZOMG! Spain gives their love and news time to [demisemiquavergirl'scity]!"
To prove that I'm crazily obsessed, I'm thinking of studying Spanish as a major at university, despite having no prior knowledge of the language. I keep saying that I'll teach it to myself, but as we all know, I can be very lazy and forgetful. Anyways, luckily, there is actually a beginner's strand for the major I'm looking at (where the only prerequisite is that you haven't studied the language before. Whoot.) which is extremely lucky.
So, why Spain? Okay, this is a little bit of an awkward thing to answer. Like most things, it started with a guy. Let me rephrase this, it started with a cartoon character. Before your brain goes into overload with judgement and scorn, you must note that I am referring to this cartoon character:

"I mean, who would give away their shirt, in the Arctic?"

Yeah, okay, so it's still pathetic that I turned into a Spanish fangirl because of a cartoon, but hear me out.
Every year, I seem to go through a period of a few weeks (sometimes multiple times in the year), when I get really sick and have to take half-a whole week off school. One of these times was late August last year. I was stuck at home, with nothing to do, but study for exams, which, let's face it, is the last thing you want to do when you feel like squashed crudbiscuits. So, instead, I lay on the couch and watched TV. On this particular day, there was absolutely nothing to my liking on, so I had a look at the programs that my sister had recorded on our DVD recorder. I swear, there were about 4 pages (with around 4-6 videos per page) of clips that just said "Total Drama, Total Drama, Total Drama, Total Drama". Bored and sick, I thought to myself "What's the harm in watching this? If she's recorded that many episodes of this show, it can't be that bad." A few days later, I was a bigger fan of the show than her.
In case you're wondering, Total Drama Island is a Canadian cartoon, that is a spoof of Survivor. The premise of the show is that a bunch of teenage stereotypes are thrown together in a crappy summercamp, and are forced to do whacky challenges. When you write about it, it sounds so lame, but really, it is the funniest thing ever. Now, usually sequels are in no way as good as the original (for example, Love Never Dies- Andrew Lloyd Webber's atrocious sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. I fully intend to rant about how full of fail this is later), and, I guess, Total Drama Action, the second season was. But, the third season, Total Drama World Tour was utter AMAZEBALLS. This was the season that I sat watching on one of my sick days last August. Despite coming in halfway through the season, I found it so incredibly hilarious, and found myself laughing until it hurt on so many occasions.
I'm going to say this up front: I am a HUGE shipper. So, as soon as I saw the belligerent sexual tension between fellow series antagonists Heather and Alejandro, I told myself that I wanted them to be together forever. What I didn't realise, until a few days later, was that in fact, I was a complete and utter Alejandro fangirl. Up until that moment in my life, I'd never really gone fangirl over a character before. I guess you could say that opened up the floodgates, because I have been soo fangirl over many characters ever since.
It also made me realise something: I am really attracted to Hispanic/Latin men. As I said, all the characters in TD are stereotypes e.g. dumb blonde, queen bee, delinquent. Alejandro's specific stereotype was the Latin Lover, and man, does he fulfil it. So, he uses his charms to manipulate everyone, who cares? After all, evil is sexy.
Now, I'm veering off track. Anyway, my fangirlness made me come to a realisation of what I was attracted to. Prior to this, I'd never really been attracted to guys (I most certainly was not attracted to women, if that's what you were thinking). It's not that I'd never seen any hot guys in my life, I just hadn't ever been 'wowed' completely by anyone, or had a specific type of male that I found myself attracted to.
At a good friend's birthday party, I started talking to fellow Al-fangirl [clearlyunfocused] about going to Spain to "see the sights", and by sights, we meant men.It was at that moment that I realised something: I really didn't know much about Spain. So, I went researching. Turns out, the country is more than just a whole heap of pretty faces. Spanish/Latin culture is AMAZING, and I fully intend to immerse myself in it someday. There is something about it that is so thrillingly different from my own. Slightly dangerous, yet beautiful and comforting.
Here's hoping that at some stage in the future, [demisemiquavergirl] will be blogging to you with a hot Hispanic lover on her arm and a nice ruby (greater than diamonds since billions of years ago) ring on my finger...
Oh! I was going to end my post just there, but I remembered two things:
1. I need to marry a Latin/Hispanic guy, because I really want to give my [sons] cool names like Ricardo, or Jose, or Roberto or Fernando. If I have little white boys, I will look like a complete bogan giving them such culturally inaccurate names.
2. I have become so much of a Latin fangirl, that I even go crazy over Fez from That 70s Show. Really, I'm not sure if I think he's hot because he's the funniest character on the show, or I think he's the funniest character on the show because he's hot. And his actor is from Venezuela. Yummo.
Okay, I'm finished now. Excuse me while I just have a fangirl moment to myself.
Me encanta España, por lo tanto!