Fandom Friday: DOCTOR WHO!!!!!

Allons-y!

It is time to talk about one of my favorite fandoms ever in the history of all time and space: Doctor Who!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This fandom completes the trio of famous fandoms that have captured the hearts and souls of thousands of fangirls everywhere, including my own.  Together, the three combine to form the powerhouse of feels, the deadly combination of tragic and addicting storytelling and is known across the fandom world as...SUPERWHOLOCK!!!!!!!!!!



Opening Sequence 2005 - episode 1

Doctor Who was kind of like the gateway drug into my obsessions with fandoms.  Yes, I had been a huge fan of several books, movies, and TV shows for years, but the Doctor changed the game for me.  It is hard to remember what I was like before watching the show, it has changed my life so much and I am so grateful everyday for its existence everyday.  At the end of my freshman year of college, I had just acquired Netflix on my laptop and was looking for something to watch.  I had seen so many people gush about the show Doctor Who on Pinterest, so when I saw it on Netflix I decided to give it a shot.  It did not take very long to become addicted to the show.  In fact, I finished all 6 seasons that were on Netflix in less than 2 weeks.  The show made me laugh, made me cry, made me cheer, and made me think.  This whacky sci-fi British show managed to reach me in a way I was not used to and altered my life...for the better!

*********WARNING! SPOILERS SWEETIE!*********

A Madman with a Box
Here is what you need to know about Doctor Who. The main character, the Doctor, is a Time Lord from Gallifrey.  Currently, he is on his 12th regeneration, well technically 13, but he wasn't the Doctor for one regeneration; its complicated.  Any who, so the Doctor is an alien and he's old, like 1,200 years old.  Time Lords have this neat "get out of death" ability to regenerate all of his cells at once and completely regenerate into a new man.  This is why there have been 12 Doctors.  So, I will be sticking to the New Who storyline because it is the most current version of the show (10 years strong!) and since the Classic Who is not all on Netflix, I can't speak from experience about every Doctor, sadly.  So when we meet the Doctor, he is fresh from the Time War - a giant battle for all of reality and existence hanging in the balance between the Time Lords and the emotionless enemy the Daleks.  While the Time Lords fought and the Daleks exterminated, the war was ended by the Doctor and a terrible and unthinkable choice: destroying the all the Daleks and consequently wiping out his own planet and people as well.  
Now the Doctor travels through time and space, alone, the last of his kind.  Did I mention he could travel ANYWHERE in time and space?  When the Doctor fist set out, he stole a TARDIS - Time And Relative Dimension In Space - and ran off into the stars.  His TARDIS is permanently stuck on its chameleon circuit to look like an old blue British Police Phone Box.  It's bigger on the inside. Some quick facts about Time Lords: they have two hearts, they regenerate, they know everything that ever was, everything that is, and everything that could be, and they can speak every language.  Oh, and the Doctor is a genius - eccentric - but a genius all the same.  So the show is about the Doctor traveling through time and space, usually with a companion, helping people righting wrongs and going on adventures.

 
 







Fantastic 9

Characteristics: sassy, smart, PTSD, kind, selfless, and traumatized.  But he is healing and getting better.
Companions: Rose Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, and Mickey Smith (ish)
Memorable Moments: meeting Charles Dickens, WWII, Bad Wolf, the Doctor and Rose's relationship building, and Rose absorbing the Time Vortex in order to save the Doctor.
Regeneration: Absorbing the Time Vortex from Rose in order to save her.

 








Brilliant 10
Characteristics: sassy, smart, emotional, funny, a bit sexy, and self-important.  He can be scary when he wants to be.
Companions: Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith (ish), Sarah Jane Smith (ish), Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, and Wilfred (ish).
Memorable Moments: Alternate/parallel universe, Rose "leaving", meeting Shakespeare, human Doctor, the Master, the Face of Boe reveal, Pompeii, meeting Agatha Christie, River, Earth being stolen, the birth of the Doctor Donna and actual human copy of the Doctor, Time Lord Victorious, and Gallifrey trying to come back.
Regeneration: Absorbing an extreme amount of radiation to save Wilfred. 

 

Cool 11

Characteristics: funny, awkward, sad, kind, and old.  The Doctor is about 1,00 by his 11th regeneration.

Companions: Amy Pond/Williams & Rory Williams, River (ish), and Clara Oswald.

Memorable Moments: The crack in time and space, the TARDIS exploding, River, Amy and Rory and Melody, the Doctor's death, Weeping Angels in NY, "Run you clever boy and remember me.", Madame Vashtra, Jenny, and Strax, time within the TARDIS,  the Doctor's grave and time stream, and Gallifrey Falls No More.

Regerneration: Old age

Whovians Unite!

I really just grazed the surface of this amazing show.  It is so complicated, fun, serious, funny, and terribly heartbreaking and I recommend it to anyone who has not seen it.  Thanks to the Doctor, I have a few new philosophies on life and this show produces some of my all time favorite quotes.  This show may be one full of aliens and space and time travel and craziness, but at its heart there are themes of humanity, compassion, duty, friendship, love, and freedom.  

 

 

 Cast of Doctor Who - 500 Miles

Have you seen Doctor Who? If not, EDUCATE YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY!! Just kidding, but really, watch it - it is amazing!  Which Doctor is your favorite or are you like me and love all of them equally but for different reasons?  Comment down below and grab your sonic screwdrivers and bow ties - the Doctor is waiting! 

    

Fandom Friday: SHERLOCK

I Don't Have Friends.  I Only Have One.

Get out your deerstalkers and magnifying glasses, it is time to make some deductions about the second piece of the ultimate fandom trilogy: Sherlock.  This is a BBC, modern adaption of the famous stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about the incredibly gifted Sherlock Holmes and his associate, Dr. John Watson.  The show follows some of the main points of the stories really well, but it is a modern adaptation so of course there are some changes.  Anyways, why don't I just get down to business and gush about one of my favorite TV shows EVER!!!

*********WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!*********

The Boys of 221b Baker Street
So the show is one of the most gorgeous things you will ever seen on the small screen.  Why?  Because each episode is like a movie.  The running time on each episode is about an hour and thirty minutes - which give sufficient time to include marvelous amounts of detail, story, and character motivation into every episode.  However, the downside of the long episodes is that there are only three episodes per series.  The production that goes into each episode is nothing like you will find on other TV series.  The caliber of the actors, acting, costumes, special effects, and story is so high - it puts so many other TV shows to shame.
How is a Victorian gentlemen who helps solve crimes for the police translated into the modern London world?  Sherlock is pretty...interesting.  He is a high-functioning sociopath - not a psychopath, he is socially inept, he is driven, he was/is a drug addict, he is a master of deducing the smallest details out of what he sees, a genius in his own right, and quite frankly a bit of a drama queen.  He thrives on crimes and murders, he loves to solve them.  To him, the things he sees in crime scenes are like puzzle pieces and he often doesn't factor in his own emotion.  This is where war veteran Dr. John Watson comes in.  When we first meet John, he is using a cane to help him walk, due to a leg wound from Afghanistan.  It was fairly circumstantial that they met, but John was immediately awed by Sherlock when Sherlock was able to deduce several things about him just from looking at him.  Sherlock was in need of a flatmate, as was John, so they ended moving in together.  John was then able to help humanize Sherlock.  Thus began their adventures together, I won't go into much detail here, but as each series airs, their freindship and bond grows stronger, making their relationship one of my favorites on the small screen.


The Hiatus(es)

The Sherlock fandom is a crazy one, I will give you that.  We have some rights to be crazy though.  First of all, we have to fangirl about the beautiful Benedict Cumberbatch - with his sharp cheekbones, dark curly hair, the purple shirt of sex, and seductive deep voice. 

SHIP

Johnlock!

John and Mary - wedding

Sherlock and Irene

Sherlock and Molly

 







To make matters worse, there are several powerful ships on this show and no one knows what to do with their feels.  Arguably, the biggest is Johnlock and I mean really, who are they fooling...NO ONE!  Then there are the cuter ones like John and Mary (so adorable since Martin and Amanda are husband and wife in real life), Sherlolly - Sherlock and  Molly (it could be cute too!), or even the hot and steamy Sherlock and Irene - we all know how Irene feels about Sherlock. 





Then there is the pure awesomeness that is the show.  The plot drives fans insane; especially The Reichenbach Fall.  Sherlock "DIES" and then the episode ends with a broken John leaving his grave and Sherlock standing back in the distance - still ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So many feels and cries of sobbing fangirls could be heard around the world - but how long did we have to wait until we knew what happened next??? YEARS!!!!!!!! YEARS as in MORE THAN 1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!! This kind of sick torture is what really give the fandom it's insane reputation because as we go on hiatus from our show for such a long time, the fans get stir crazy and start creating the most random fandom shit ever to grace the internet.  These breaks in the show have created the cannons that Sherlock is an otter and John is a hedgehog and we starts seeing the tiniest clues as we re-watch each episode several times because WHAT ELSE ARE WE TO DO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!  The fandom is crazy, smart, and not the most patient fandom ever - but an emotional one to say the least.

So have you seen Sherlock?  Are you familiar with the character or stories?  Comment down below any thoughts and next week will reveal the third component to the multifandom trilogy.

    

 

Fandom Friday: SUPERNATURAL

Saving People, Hunting Things - The Family Business

**********WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!**********

This week marks the beginning of a three week obsession-fueled, fangirl frenzy over three of the most popular fandoms in all of tumblr (and I am one of those crazy fangirls!).  Behold, part one of the triangle of feels: Supernatural.

 Team Free Will

You are, Dean! <3

So our two main characters are Sam and Dean Winchester.  They were both thrown into the world of hunting down demons and witches and pagan gods by their father after their mother was killed by a demon.  To say their childhood was normal in anyway would be a far cry - always on the road, learning how to kill any kind of monster they encounter - not exactly the typical upbringing.  But the boys made the best of it; Sam went off to college and tried to escape hunting while Dean (the eldest) stayed with their dad to continue their family business.  When their dad goes missing, the brothers reunite to try and find him and hunt down some badies along the way.  This is the basis of the show -  two brothers, traveling across the country in a black 1967 Chevy Impala, hunting monsters, and trying to find their dad. 

Team Free Will: Dean, Sam, Cas

The boys know how to deal with possession, ghosts, windegos, and all kinds of scary things and as the show grows, their world and lives become more dangerous and more complicated.  There are demons, Lucifer (aka the devil), the apocalypse, DEATH, angels, and even God.  The dynamic duo that is Sam and Dean eventually team up with long time survivor, and heavenly friend; the angle of the Lord Castiel.  Now the show has been on for 10 seasons and the Winchesters have died so many times, I personally could count them.  Anyway, enough about the actual show, lets learn all about the crazy fandom!

The Impala: Baby

Grab Some Plaid and Let's Go Hunting!

So members of the SPN fandom have a unique plethora of information and are pretty emotional.  Thanks to the show, fans can tell you how to trap a demon/possessed person using a devil's trap, how banish an angel from his or her vessel, and how to kill countless number of creatures including vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and even pagan gods.  The fandom is also very sympathetic towards Lucifer because he isn't really such a bad guy, just misunderstood and pretty much every angel is a dick  The fandom also is very much in love with not only the characters, but the actors of the show as well.  Sam - Jared Padalecki is a moose and Dean - Jensen Ackles is squirrel and everyone knows it.  The biggest ship on the show, hands down (my biggest ship too) is Destiel. I mean Dean and Cas have been through so much together; Cas gripped Dean tight and raised him from perdition!  Even the cast ships it!  Then the show has a total meta factor thanks to a phrophet chronically Sam and Dean's life and turning it into books that have been read by a large number of people.  Some of my favorite episodes are the ones where Sam and Dean are at a convention for the book series based on their lives - so funny!  

With such great characters and such an interesting story, there have been some really comedic moments on the show including one where Gabriel sucks Sam and Dean into a TV and they are forced onto stereotypical shows or "The French Mistake" which is about Sam and Dean being sent to an alternate universe where they are actors named Jared and Jensen on a show called Supernatural. 

 And with all the funny, comes the bragging rights SPN has on tumblr for having a gif for EVERYTHING.  Seriously, we do.  A show with so much death means there are a lot of tears shed watching this show.  I know I have shed my fair share.  Also, becasue of this show, certain songs trigger specific reactions from me. "Carry on My Wayward Son" is at the beginning of every season finale and I start tearing up just thinking about the words!  "Eye of the Tiger" makes me want to start dancing and rocking out in a ridiculous fashion like Dean.  Ah, what great memories!  This fandom is very passionate and is not afraid of anything, so be careful if you every come across one in the wild.  They may or may not be sporting some plaid.  

 Eye of the Tiger 

So have you seen Supernatural?  Are you this obsessed with any fandom?  Are you curious about the fandom's reputaion on tumblr?  Comment down below and I will see you for part two next week!

 

Fandom Friday: Game of Thrones

"When You Play the Game of Thrones, You WIN or You DIE." - A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin

 I am so ready to let my feels explode as I talk about the absolutely stunning TV show Game of Thrones and the incredibly detailed and fantastic book series it is based on - A Song of Ice and Fire!  What seems like forever ago, I started hearing about this great HBO show and as some of its fans tried to tell me what it was about, I thought I would never watch it.  But as most things seem to go in my life, my curiosity and desire to understand the fandom won out and I started watching the series as the fourth season was being released.  It only took a few minutes into the first episode for me to decide that I was an idiot for not thinking I would love the show.  I tore through the entire series as fast as possible and was forever changed.  Of course the next natural thought for me was that if the show was this awesome, the books must be mind blowing, so I delved into the long and detailed books and fell even more in love with the fantasy world George R.R. Martin created.  So without further ado, here are my favorite parts about both the show and the books! 

The Best TV Show Title Sequence EVER! 



"...A Mind Needs Books as a Sword Needs A Whetstone, if it is to Keep its Edge."- Tyrion Lanister, A Game of Thrones
OK, in case anyone was wondering just how detailed the books could be, the smallest book was over 800 pages long.  But they are well worth the read!  Since I had already watched the show, I thought I had a pretty acurate picture of what happens in the books...boy was I wrong.  A Game of Thrones, book #1, was almost religiously kept accurate for season 1 of the show.  By book #2, A Clash of Kings, started to veer off track as far as book to show adaptation, and by book #3, the lines between book and show became very blurry.  I had thought each season equaled a book, but it was more like book #1-season 1, book #2-season 2, book #3-season 3 & 4.  To say that I was shocked would be an understatement.  

Houses and Sayings

The books delve deeper into more of the fantasy and religious undertones than the show has, which is why I love the books so much.  Since the books are told in different perspectives each chapter, you get to really understated the character whose point of view you are reading.  In the later books, there are chapters told from the perspectives from characters who are not the "main" characters, but their chapters serve as a peek into how the rest of the world is reacting to what the typical characters have been doing.  The books are full of fantastic quotes and cover super deep themes.  From family to destiny, this series really transports you into this high fantasy take on the Medieval period.
My final say on the books; the show is the simple, basic, PG version of the books.

Game of Thrones: The Show

All Men Must Die

I give the show a pretty hard time in comparison to the books, but the show has become almost its own separate entity so I still love and appreciate it for what it is.  The show does such an AMAZING job with the costumes and the casting choices and the set design.  Since I read the books after watching the show, I already had some idea of what everything would look like, and the show really did a fantastic job bringing this epic fantasy to life.  There are some pretty big differences between the show and the books, but I can understand the decisions behind why those changes were made.  There are some things that would have been too confusing or boring to explain in a TV show format, but the decisions the show made, did make sense so I can't be too mad.  
Combining the show and the books together to make one super awesome fandom is really great and I love being super knowledgeable about the Game of Thrones world.  For the main characters, the show managed to portray them almost perfectly, like 99.9% accurate, and it makes my heart sing.  My favorite characters from both the show and the books are Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Sansa Stark, Tryion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryan.  Also, I would totally be in House Stark and my direwolf would be named Shadow, and I would probably be both an  excellent archer and an experienced sword fighter.  I wonder how long I would last before Martin killed me?  

So, have you seen the show or read the books?  If yes, which house would you be in and who is your favorite character? Comment down below, and I will see you all next week!  

 

Fandom Friday: ANIME

Anime is Awesome, Neat, Interesting, Magnificent, and Exciting!




 For those of you who may not know, or fully appreciate the Japanese cultural phenomena that is anime; here are five reasons why you should be watching it.



1. AWESOME STORYTELLING!
Every anime that I have seen or heard about tell the most interesting, action packed, romantic, or crazy stories.  The story lines are so well written, that people are always begging for more.  No matter how outrageous or just plain weird an anime is, the story is compelling enough to keep you invested.






2. NEAT CULTURE EXPOSURE!
When watching an anime, you not only get invested in some pretty epic stories, but you also get a sense of the Japanese culture through their storytelling, character design, dialogue, and animation.  I am not an anime "purist," I watch anime that is dubbed in English, not the ones with the original Japanese dialogue and English subtitles.  No matter how you watch it, you pick up on the Japanese language and culture in a very fun and unique way.



3. INTERESTING CHARACTERS!
 I can't tell you how much I absolutely love several anime characters!  Every character is complex and complicated, but in the best way possible.  Also, anime loves to play with gender and stereotypes.  Don't be surprised if your watching an anime and you come across a character that is transgender or agender.  And since anime characters are written so well and so realistically, it is easy to become very attached to them...so if anything happens to those characters, you feel it too.  I have cried so hard, so many times over the trials and deaths of my favorite characters.  So many feels! 


4. MAGNIFICENT WORLDS!
The imagination and the clear dedication that goes into making a whole new world for each anime to take place is absolutely astounding!  No two anime worlds are the same.  Each one is unique, no matter if the anime is fantasy based, action/adventure based, or  romantic based.  From all the anime that I have seen or heard about, each one takes place in a special, remarkable world and it is so much fun learning all about those worlds and how they work.


 

 5. EXCITING ANIMATION!
Alright, let's talk about the animation for a minute.  Each anime has its own unique animation style, but what makes anime fun is that the animators are not afraid to break from that style for the sake of humor.  There are definitely some animation stereotypes like line blushing and glasses flashing white when the character moves, it's all fun.  Even the more serious anime will have moments of absolute absurdity and it will be intensified by a slightly more cartoon-like animation style. 

 So the anime/manga fandom: or otaku is one that is dedicated, loyal, obsessive, weird, and hilarious and being a part of it is just so much fun.  It is like being a member of a secret club, especiall ywhen you make specific anime references...but it is like that with every fandom.  Anyways, have you watched any anime?  If so, which one(s) or if not WHAT ARE YOU DOING, GO WATCH SOME ANIME!  Keep an eye out for my next post and I will see ya when I see ya!