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Animal Rights Groups - Domestic Terrorists, Nothing Less
Posted by Syera • Sunday, 2007-December-23
All right, children, what do you know about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) and other so-called 'animal rights' activist (ARA) groups such as Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Earth Liberation Front (ELF)?
If you're like the majority of people, the answer that probably sprung to mind was "Aren't they that group of people who try to stop animal abuse?"
Although your answer would technically be correct, it would be far from the whole story.
To give you a quick taste of what they're really about, I give you the following:
"The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being." -Ingrid Newkirk, president and founder of PeTA
"If the death of one rat cured all diseases, it wouldn't make any difference to me." -Chris De Rose
"Arson, property destruction, burglary and theft are "acceptable crimes" when used for the animals' cause." -Alex Pacheco (PeTA)
"Lastly, anyone who believes in the possibility of total animal liberation while billions of humans continue to inhabit and decimate the planet is delusional. Only when most humans have died off will there be a chance to returning to a society that values all beings for who they are." - Jerry Vlasak
Concerned yet?
PeTA and its ilk strive for what they call 'total animal liberation.' Although this includes stopping animal abuse, it goes far, far beyond.
'Total animal liberation' means mandatory vegetarianism. It means no pets - no playing in the park with your puppy and no purring pussycat on your lap. No seeing-eye dogs or 'K9 units.' These ARA groups liken our use of pets and service animals to human slavery.
Animal Rights Activists (ARAs) on Pets
"The cat, like the dog, must disappear.... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist." -John Bryant
"It is time we demand an end to the misguided and abusive concept of animal ownership. The first step on this long, but just, road would be ending the concept of pet ownership." -Elliot Katz
PeTA supposedly helps find new homes for adoptable pets. However, from 1998-2005, PETA euthanized 80.1% of the animals they were to find new homes for. That's a little over 8 out of every 10 animals. In 2005 alone, 90% were euthanized. Many were killed before PeTA's vans had even left the driveways of the people giving up the animals. Most were young and healthy. The bodies were shoved into plastic trashbags and tossed into Dumpsters.
ARAs are definitely ready to kill for their cause... but they're certainly not willing to die for it, or even experience some minor discomfort. ARAs claims to be against animal testing, yet they continue to benefit from medical products (insulins and painkillers, for example) that relied on animal testing for their development. Can we say hypocrites?
And speaking of animal testing, a favorite shtick of ARAs is to claim that few, if any important medical or scientific discoveries have been made using animal testing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hundreds of groundbreaking discoveries would not have been possible without it.
No matter how you slice it, PeTA, ELF, and ALF support terrorist tactics. Some of their games include handing out pamphlets with disturbing images to young children. Perhaps more frightening, PeTA has been known to fund convicted arsonists - such as Rod Coronado - a member of ELF who thinks that teaching kids to build simple bombs in the name of "animal liberation" is a good idea.
What do ARAs say about terrorism?
"I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down."-Ingrid Newkirk
"In a war you have to take up arms and people will get killed, and I can support that kind of action by petrol bombing and bombs under cars, and probably at a later stage, the shooting of vivisectors on their doorsteps. It's a war, and there's no other way you can stop vivisectors." -Tim Daley
"We have found that civil disobedience and direction action has been powerful in generating massive attention in our communities ... and has been very effective in traumatizing our targets." -J.P. Goodwin
"Get arrested. Destroy the property of those who torture animals. Liberate those animals interned in the hellholes our society tolerates." -Jerry Vlasak
ARAs value the life of an animal over that of a human.
When asked which he would save, a dog or a baby, if a boat capsized in the ocean: "If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog." -Tom Regan
"To those people who say, `My father is alive because of animal experimentation,’ I say `Yeah, well, good for you. This dog died so your father could live.’ Sorry, but I am just not behind that kind of trade off." - Bill Maher
"Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it." - Ingrid Newkirk
It would seem that PeTA's founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is about as crazy as they come. At eight years old, she confronted a man whom she saw abusing a bull. According to Newkirk, "he knows he was lucky I didn't kill him."
Sociopath much?
How ARA Groups Recruit New Blood
Most ARA groups have a one-two tactic they use to convince people to join their side.
Straw Men & Paper Angels
The first step is to appeal to peoples' sense of right and wrong. How can we justify eating Ferdinand or Thumper? (Easy: we're predators. We always have been. Deal with it, folks.)
They set themselves up as a paper angel by presenting their target with a question that they cannot disagree with. For example: "Wouldn't you agree that hurting the innocent is wrong?"
Of course, the target will have to answer yes. Who wouldn't? Everyone knows that hurting the innocent is wrong!
Once you agree to this, you're expected to agree with the rest of their diatribe: if you REALLY believed that, you would also be opposed to every form of perceived animal... ahem, "cruelty" they can dish up. Of course, you being the neonate, they'll only lay on the worst of the worst: poorly-run farms, abused doggies, and mistreated poultry.
Hey, I'm not saying that the meat industry doesn't need a makeover. But come on - you're talking to the representative of a group who likens guide dogs to human slaves. You've just met their straw man: by pointing out the worst of animal mistreatment, they're making the whole shindig look bad. If it were up to PeTA, you'd think that every farmer and rancher out there was a sick, twisted maniac who took sadistic pleasure in bludgeoning the brains out of creatures smaller than themselves.
Of course, anyone who's raised their own meat knows it simply isn't so.
If they've failed to intimidate the target with their straw man, they take out the big gun: fear.
Fear Tactic 1: Health Scares
Animal Rights activists will attempt to convince their prey that eating meat is responsible for virtually every health problem mankind experiences. They will quote every available study that links meat to health problems that they can find.
Should you believe this? Not necessarily. These geniuses can prove that water should be banned using the same tactics.
They will claim that humans are herbivores by nature, while nothing could be further from the truth. Critical studies into human physiology shows that we are indeed predatorial creatures and always have been.
Fear Tactic 2: Shock Factor AR people are fond of showing us videos of animals living in nightmarish living conditions. However, they have a habit of showing videos that were taken years ago, and they've also been known to actually stage some of these acts of animal cruelty just so they could have it on camera.
The authenticity of these videos is also questionable: many of them offer no proof whatsoever that the videos were taken where they were claimed to have been filmed.
They will terrorize young children with bloody illustrations, including exaggerated "comic book" illustrations. Unfortunately, today's youth is more accustomed to finding meat in a grocery store than on a hunting trip or from one's own farm, so these images can come as quite a shock to our naive children. AR people like to claim that this shock is further proof that we are natural herbivores; it only proves that our parents never taught us the raw facts of life. Even a mother cat has to teach her kittens how to hunt!
Fear Tactic 3: Harm of Property & Person
If they don't like it, they'll destroy it. In short, they will try to bully Farmer John into setting his animals free by means of vandalism, arson... and if that doesn't work, they may even threaten to kill his children. This is no exaggeration.
Real People Who Raise Meat
There are thousands of people who raise and kill their own meat. Are these people inhuman monsters? Hardly. A friend of the family once related a story about his experience with rabbits. Once, they failed to properly kill a rabbit before skinning it. It took several hours to finally catch it.
That was the first and last time a rabbit got skinned alive. After that, he changed his methods so he knew for [i]sure[/i] that the animal was dead - and swiftly, too.
Many people raise their own meat on open ground. They certainly don't go out and gloat over how they're going to kill their beef; when the time comes, they dispatch of the animal as quickly and painlessly as possible. A single beef will keep a family fed for a year. Also, animals can make use of land that would be impossible to put into crops.
Further Reading
PeTA Kills Animals - a site that keeps tabs on PeTA's dirty work.
PeTA Denies "Traumatizing" Kids - even though they were handing out pamphlets to do exactly that.
The True Agenda of the Animal Rights Movement - a pageful of quotes from these terrorists and bullies.
The Naive Vegetarian @ Second-Opinions.co.uk - why the human race is naturally predatorial and why the planet would be in shambles if we all adopted a vegetarian lifestyle.
If you're like the majority of people, the answer that probably sprung to mind was "Aren't they that group of people who try to stop animal abuse?"
Although your answer would technically be correct, it would be far from the whole story.
To give you a quick taste of what they're really about, I give you the following:
"The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being." -Ingrid Newkirk, president and founder of PeTA
"If the death of one rat cured all diseases, it wouldn't make any difference to me." -Chris De Rose
"Arson, property destruction, burglary and theft are "acceptable crimes" when used for the animals' cause." -Alex Pacheco (PeTA)
"Lastly, anyone who believes in the possibility of total animal liberation while billions of humans continue to inhabit and decimate the planet is delusional. Only when most humans have died off will there be a chance to returning to a society that values all beings for who they are." - Jerry Vlasak
Concerned yet?
PeTA and its ilk strive for what they call 'total animal liberation.' Although this includes stopping animal abuse, it goes far, far beyond.
'Total animal liberation' means mandatory vegetarianism. It means no pets - no playing in the park with your puppy and no purring pussycat on your lap. No seeing-eye dogs or 'K9 units.' These ARA groups liken our use of pets and service animals to human slavery.
Animal Rights Activists (ARAs) on Pets
"The cat, like the dog, must disappear.... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist." -John Bryant
"It is time we demand an end to the misguided and abusive concept of animal ownership. The first step on this long, but just, road would be ending the concept of pet ownership." -Elliot Katz
PeTA supposedly helps find new homes for adoptable pets. However, from 1998-2005, PETA euthanized 80.1% of the animals they were to find new homes for. That's a little over 8 out of every 10 animals. In 2005 alone, 90% were euthanized. Many were killed before PeTA's vans had even left the driveways of the people giving up the animals. Most were young and healthy. The bodies were shoved into plastic trashbags and tossed into Dumpsters.
ARAs are definitely ready to kill for their cause... but they're certainly not willing to die for it, or even experience some minor discomfort. ARAs claims to be against animal testing, yet they continue to benefit from medical products (insulins and painkillers, for example) that relied on animal testing for their development. Can we say hypocrites?
And speaking of animal testing, a favorite shtick of ARAs is to claim that few, if any important medical or scientific discoveries have been made using animal testing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hundreds of groundbreaking discoveries would not have been possible without it.
No matter how you slice it, PeTA, ELF, and ALF support terrorist tactics. Some of their games include handing out pamphlets with disturbing images to young children. Perhaps more frightening, PeTA has been known to fund convicted arsonists - such as Rod Coronado - a member of ELF who thinks that teaching kids to build simple bombs in the name of "animal liberation" is a good idea.
What do ARAs say about terrorism?
"I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down."-Ingrid Newkirk
"In a war you have to take up arms and people will get killed, and I can support that kind of action by petrol bombing and bombs under cars, and probably at a later stage, the shooting of vivisectors on their doorsteps. It's a war, and there's no other way you can stop vivisectors." -Tim Daley
"We have found that civil disobedience and direction action has been powerful in generating massive attention in our communities ... and has been very effective in traumatizing our targets." -J.P. Goodwin
"Get arrested. Destroy the property of those who torture animals. Liberate those animals interned in the hellholes our society tolerates." -Jerry Vlasak
ARAs value the life of an animal over that of a human.
When asked which he would save, a dog or a baby, if a boat capsized in the ocean: "If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog." -Tom Regan
"To those people who say, `My father is alive because of animal experimentation,’ I say `Yeah, well, good for you. This dog died so your father could live.’ Sorry, but I am just not behind that kind of trade off." - Bill Maher
"Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it." - Ingrid Newkirk
It would seem that PeTA's founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is about as crazy as they come. At eight years old, she confronted a man whom she saw abusing a bull. According to Newkirk, "he knows he was lucky I didn't kill him."
Sociopath much?
How ARA Groups Recruit New Blood
Most ARA groups have a one-two tactic they use to convince people to join their side.
Straw Men & Paper Angels
The first step is to appeal to peoples' sense of right and wrong. How can we justify eating Ferdinand or Thumper? (Easy: we're predators. We always have been. Deal with it, folks.)
They set themselves up as a paper angel by presenting their target with a question that they cannot disagree with. For example: "Wouldn't you agree that hurting the innocent is wrong?"
Of course, the target will have to answer yes. Who wouldn't? Everyone knows that hurting the innocent is wrong!
Once you agree to this, you're expected to agree with the rest of their diatribe: if you REALLY believed that, you would also be opposed to every form of perceived animal... ahem, "cruelty" they can dish up. Of course, you being the neonate, they'll only lay on the worst of the worst: poorly-run farms, abused doggies, and mistreated poultry.
Hey, I'm not saying that the meat industry doesn't need a makeover. But come on - you're talking to the representative of a group who likens guide dogs to human slaves. You've just met their straw man: by pointing out the worst of animal mistreatment, they're making the whole shindig look bad. If it were up to PeTA, you'd think that every farmer and rancher out there was a sick, twisted maniac who took sadistic pleasure in bludgeoning the brains out of creatures smaller than themselves.
Of course, anyone who's raised their own meat knows it simply isn't so.
If they've failed to intimidate the target with their straw man, they take out the big gun: fear.
Fear Tactic 1: Health Scares
Animal Rights activists will attempt to convince their prey that eating meat is responsible for virtually every health problem mankind experiences. They will quote every available study that links meat to health problems that they can find.
Should you believe this? Not necessarily. These geniuses can prove that water should be banned using the same tactics.
They will claim that humans are herbivores by nature, while nothing could be further from the truth. Critical studies into human physiology shows that we are indeed predatorial creatures and always have been.
Fear Tactic 2: Shock Factor AR people are fond of showing us videos of animals living in nightmarish living conditions. However, they have a habit of showing videos that were taken years ago, and they've also been known to actually stage some of these acts of animal cruelty just so they could have it on camera.
The authenticity of these videos is also questionable: many of them offer no proof whatsoever that the videos were taken where they were claimed to have been filmed.
They will terrorize young children with bloody illustrations, including exaggerated "comic book" illustrations. Unfortunately, today's youth is more accustomed to finding meat in a grocery store than on a hunting trip or from one's own farm, so these images can come as quite a shock to our naive children. AR people like to claim that this shock is further proof that we are natural herbivores; it only proves that our parents never taught us the raw facts of life. Even a mother cat has to teach her kittens how to hunt!
Fear Tactic 3: Harm of Property & Person
If they don't like it, they'll destroy it. In short, they will try to bully Farmer John into setting his animals free by means of vandalism, arson... and if that doesn't work, they may even threaten to kill his children. This is no exaggeration.
Real People Who Raise Meat
There are thousands of people who raise and kill their own meat. Are these people inhuman monsters? Hardly. A friend of the family once related a story about his experience with rabbits. Once, they failed to properly kill a rabbit before skinning it. It took several hours to finally catch it.
That was the first and last time a rabbit got skinned alive. After that, he changed his methods so he knew for [i]sure[/i] that the animal was dead - and swiftly, too.
Many people raise their own meat on open ground. They certainly don't go out and gloat over how they're going to kill their beef; when the time comes, they dispatch of the animal as quickly and painlessly as possible. A single beef will keep a family fed for a year. Also, animals can make use of land that would be impossible to put into crops.
Further Reading
PeTA Kills Animals - a site that keeps tabs on PeTA's dirty work.
PeTA Denies "Traumatizing" Kids - even though they were handing out pamphlets to do exactly that.
The True Agenda of the Animal Rights Movement - a pageful of quotes from these terrorists and bullies.
The Naive Vegetarian @ Second-Opinions.co.uk - why the human race is naturally predatorial and why the planet would be in shambles if we all adopted a vegetarian lifestyle.
"It's a one-wheeled what?"
Posted by Syera • Thursday, 2007-July-12
This is a mostly-fluffy post, seeing as how I need something to test my blog with now that I've got it re-installed.
Final Fantasy 7 is a work of art. Like most great works of art, it merits being parodied and having fun poked at it. And there are people who do this so well.
The one-wheeled angel.
Vincent-on-a-Stick.
I wouldn't want to meet this in the zoo.
More celphalapoidal madness.
A healthy breakfast. Maybe.
And in other news, it seems that Uri Gellar has been getting a little antsy in response to ordinary teenagers on YouTube illustrating that spoon bending isn't such an incredible feat after all. Claims it's "copyright infringement" or something. The article also mentions other ridiculous "copyright infringements" people will have a fuss over - like wedding videos in which the Electric Slide was used. I'm not one to encourage breaking the law, but yeeesh, I think some people need to loosen up.
Final Fantasy 7 is a work of art. Like most great works of art, it merits being parodied and having fun poked at it. And there are people who do this so well.
And in other news, it seems that Uri Gellar has been getting a little antsy in response to ordinary teenagers on YouTube illustrating that spoon bending isn't such an incredible feat after all. Claims it's "copyright infringement" or something. The article also mentions other ridiculous "copyright infringements" people will have a fuss over - like wedding videos in which the Electric Slide was used. I'm not one to encourage breaking the law, but yeeesh, I think some people need to loosen up.
Other fantasy characters and why we care about them.
Posted by Syera • Tuesday, 2007-April-17
What makes a fantasy character likable? What makes us care about them? I'm going to take a look at a few beloved fantasy characters.
Atreyu
(Neverending Story movie)
Mary-Sue Test Total: 1 (but only because he carried Auryn)
A warrior boy of the plains people (presumably a fantasy culture akin to native Americans of the plain). Since we are not given much insight into Atreyu's people, there is nothing to indicate that his status as a warrior is anything unusual for his age. There was a scene where Atreyu's status as a warrior was questioned because of his age, but his prowess as a warrior was never made clear. It's also indicated that the Childlike Empress summoned Atreyu because he was a boy; his purpose was to connect with Bastian, making Bastian care about him and by extension, Fantasia.
Atreyu does represent a young boy's wish-fulfillment. He's a warrior, he has a horse, and he goes on a fantastic journey. Yet we care about him because he's also very human. His journey is difficult and dangerous. He shows grief and fear. His grief doesn't magically go away after ten seconds of mourning, either - we later see him walking around in a funk, and near the end of the film he brings up his loss. Some who have seen the film mention being moved to tears by Atreyu's display of emotion.
Although Atreyu gets help now and then, he has to get through a lot of difficult obstacles on his own. He has no exceptional abilities to help him.
Peter Pan
(Peter Pan book)
Mary Sue Test Total: 20
The interesting thing about Peter Pan is that the world (at least Neverland) really does revolve around him. Yet this is the way it should be, as Neverland is the embodiment of a child's fantasy world, and Peter Pan is the literal representation of the child.
J.M. Barrie made it perfectly clear that Peter was very flawed - he's selfish, arrogant, impulsive, and naive. In short, he's childish. We're not expected to like Peter because he's a wonderful person. We're not expected to hold him in the same awe that the rest of Neverland does. Wendy, who originally held him in such high regard, eventually comes to realize that Peter and his way of life weren't all they were cracked up to be.
Why do we like Peter? Part of it is probably that we know he's a scoundrel. He's whimsical, unpredictable, and represents a part of ourselves we usually keep tucked away. In a way, he allows us to revisit our own childhoods and experience the wonder and imagination thereof.
Ironically enough, Peter has the same character flaws as Eragon. The difference is, Peter is recognized as being flawed, both by the author and by characters in the story. We are allowed to dislike his negative aspects while in a way admiring what our inner child would like to be.
Frodo Baggins
(Lord of the Rings)
Mary Sue Test Total: 4
Frodo Baggins is a relatively normal hobbit. True, he lived with his rather eccentric uncle, but as far as hobbits go, there's really nothing very special about him - except that when the time comes, he rises to the occasion. In short, he's the hero any one of us could be, not the hero we want to be.
Frodo faces real peril on his quest, and quite frankly, he's a fish out of water for the most of it. He faces death - and fates worse than death. Yet he keeps plugging away, doing everything hobbitly possible to finish his task. He never becomes a master swordsman. He doesn't learn to defend himself with magic. It's only through perseverance and willpower that he eventually succeeds - but only barely, as even Frodo is finally seduced by the Ring's power.
The funny thing about hobbits is that they are in essence the everyday person. They have a relatively quiet and peaceful existence, although they have the capacity for negative behavior as well. It's been shown that, just like us, hobbits can also be petty and selfish. Yet we're also shown that these perfectly ordinary people can accomplish great things if they only put their minds to it.
Atreyu
(Neverending Story movie)
Mary-Sue Test Total: 1 (but only because he carried Auryn)
A warrior boy of the plains people (presumably a fantasy culture akin to native Americans of the plain). Since we are not given much insight into Atreyu's people, there is nothing to indicate that his status as a warrior is anything unusual for his age. There was a scene where Atreyu's status as a warrior was questioned because of his age, but his prowess as a warrior was never made clear. It's also indicated that the Childlike Empress summoned Atreyu because he was a boy; his purpose was to connect with Bastian, making Bastian care about him and by extension, Fantasia.
Atreyu does represent a young boy's wish-fulfillment. He's a warrior, he has a horse, and he goes on a fantastic journey. Yet we care about him because he's also very human. His journey is difficult and dangerous. He shows grief and fear. His grief doesn't magically go away after ten seconds of mourning, either - we later see him walking around in a funk, and near the end of the film he brings up his loss. Some who have seen the film mention being moved to tears by Atreyu's display of emotion.
Although Atreyu gets help now and then, he has to get through a lot of difficult obstacles on his own. He has no exceptional abilities to help him.
Peter Pan
(Peter Pan book)
Mary Sue Test Total: 20
The interesting thing about Peter Pan is that the world (at least Neverland) really does revolve around him. Yet this is the way it should be, as Neverland is the embodiment of a child's fantasy world, and Peter Pan is the literal representation of the child.
J.M. Barrie made it perfectly clear that Peter was very flawed - he's selfish, arrogant, impulsive, and naive. In short, he's childish. We're not expected to like Peter because he's a wonderful person. We're not expected to hold him in the same awe that the rest of Neverland does. Wendy, who originally held him in such high regard, eventually comes to realize that Peter and his way of life weren't all they were cracked up to be.
Why do we like Peter? Part of it is probably that we know he's a scoundrel. He's whimsical, unpredictable, and represents a part of ourselves we usually keep tucked away. In a way, he allows us to revisit our own childhoods and experience the wonder and imagination thereof.
Ironically enough, Peter has the same character flaws as Eragon. The difference is, Peter is recognized as being flawed, both by the author and by characters in the story. We are allowed to dislike his negative aspects while in a way admiring what our inner child would like to be.
Frodo Baggins
(Lord of the Rings)
Mary Sue Test Total: 4
Frodo Baggins is a relatively normal hobbit. True, he lived with his rather eccentric uncle, but as far as hobbits go, there's really nothing very special about him - except that when the time comes, he rises to the occasion. In short, he's the hero any one of us could be, not the hero we want to be.
Frodo faces real peril on his quest, and quite frankly, he's a fish out of water for the most of it. He faces death - and fates worse than death. Yet he keeps plugging away, doing everything hobbitly possible to finish his task. He never becomes a master swordsman. He doesn't learn to defend himself with magic. It's only through perseverance and willpower that he eventually succeeds - but only barely, as even Frodo is finally seduced by the Ring's power.
The funny thing about hobbits is that they are in essence the everyday person. They have a relatively quiet and peaceful existence, although they have the capacity for negative behavior as well. It's been shown that, just like us, hobbits can also be petty and selfish. Yet we're also shown that these perfectly ordinary people can accomplish great things if they only put their minds to it.
Eragon, thou hast no heart.
Posted by Syera • Monday, 2007-April-16
I was able to watch the Eragon movie, as a relative was kind enough to loan it to us. Knowing how different movies and books can be, I shall try to critique this as a movie and keep what I might or might not think of the book out.
This is a spoilery page. Thou art warned.
The hero of the story was a heartless, arrogant brat. I'm rather surprised no-one physically hurt him for saying things like "I'm the rider! I say where we go!" This would be fine if he were talking to a horse, but he was not talking to a horse. He was talking to Saphira, a dragon with the intelligence level of a human being. A woman, if you will. Put a human female in Saphira's place. "I'm your master! I say where we go!" Would you stand for the hero of a story doing that?
It's nauseating.
Eragon's arrogance could have been played well if the story acknowledged it and had it bring lasting repercussions. As it stands, the only character to suffer repercussions from Eragon's stupidity (death) instantly had his slot filled when the prerequisite Wicked-Kewl-Anti-Hero showed up. I'd have liked a scene where Eragon realizes that without his wise mentor, he's screwed. I'd have liked to see him humbled and ashamed by the consequences of his actions.
Eragon never gives us a reason to care about him or what happens to him - except that without him and his dragon, theVarmints Varden will be done for. Truly, this is the only reason they have for keeping Eragon around. Despite being reminded of the severity of the situation, the only person Eragon cares for is Eragon. Never in his pea-brain does it click that he simply does not have the ability to take on the Empire himself and that if he really wants revenge, then his best option is to align himself with the Varden.
And despite this, we're supposed to like this brat anyway.
Poor Saphira is treated and acts like a broken slave throughout the film, submissive to Eragon's self-centered whims. Perhaps as a young an inexperienced dragon she tends to trust her rider a bit too much, but I was given the impression that she was supposed to be smarter than that. Also, I would expect a young and inexperienced dragon to at least be somewhat afraid and hesitant to put her own life in danger. It takes conditioning and discipline to think like a soldier, overcoming basic survival instinct for the sake of the many. I do not believe dragons should be exempt from this rule; it's an instinct present in virtually every living creature.
The story has no heart and no soul. It's just an empty space of people doing stuff.
Further thoughts...
Write what you know. Learn what you don't know.
Self-starring fiction is like bubblegum. Don't share it after you're done with it.
This is a spoilery page. Thou art warned.
The hero of the story was a heartless, arrogant brat. I'm rather surprised no-one physically hurt him for saying things like "I'm the rider! I say where we go!" This would be fine if he were talking to a horse, but he was not talking to a horse. He was talking to Saphira, a dragon with the intelligence level of a human being. A woman, if you will. Put a human female in Saphira's place. "I'm your master! I say where we go!" Would you stand for the hero of a story doing that?
It's nauseating.
Eragon's arrogance could have been played well if the story acknowledged it and had it bring lasting repercussions. As it stands, the only character to suffer repercussions from Eragon's stupidity (death) instantly had his slot filled when the prerequisite Wicked-Kewl-Anti-Hero showed up. I'd have liked a scene where Eragon realizes that without his wise mentor, he's screwed. I'd have liked to see him humbled and ashamed by the consequences of his actions.
Eragon never gives us a reason to care about him or what happens to him - except that without him and his dragon, the
And despite this, we're supposed to like this brat anyway.
Poor Saphira is treated and acts like a broken slave throughout the film, submissive to Eragon's self-centered whims. Perhaps as a young an inexperienced dragon she tends to trust her rider a bit too much, but I was given the impression that she was supposed to be smarter than that. Also, I would expect a young and inexperienced dragon to at least be somewhat afraid and hesitant to put her own life in danger. It takes conditioning and discipline to think like a soldier, overcoming basic survival instinct for the sake of the many. I do not believe dragons should be exempt from this rule; it's an instinct present in virtually every living creature.
The story has no heart and no soul. It's just an empty space of people doing stuff.
Further thoughts...
Write what you know. Learn what you don't know.
Self-starring fiction is like bubblegum. Don't share it after you're done with it.
My rifle shot Eragon down.
Posted by Syera • Saturday, 2007-January-27
Every now and then, I take a quick look-see at WikiPedia's article on Mary-Sue. While taking one such trip there today, I checked the page's history to see what was new. One user had added a snippet of info on the flack Eragon had received for being a Sue, as well as a link to a page criticizing the Sue-osity of young Mr. Eragon.
Two tests were used - one of which was mine. Admittedly, this was done while an older version of the test was still in use, which still had a few kinks to be smoothed out. However, even with the kinks intact, I am fairly certain (as fairly certain as I can be for having never read the book) that Mr. Eragon's score was well-deserved.
His score on my test was one-hundred and twenty-three - on a scale advising a do-over at fifty points. Also stated within the article are Eragon's Sue qualities, which in my opinion, are more than any respectable character ought to be packing in his pockets.
Y'know, I'd kinda started out loosely interested in the possibility of reading Eragon. The idea that it was written by a fifteen-year-old 'genius' had some allure; at age fifteen, my sister was writing things that, as far as I was concerned, were brilliant. Could it be possible that she was not the only one of her kind?
Then I found out they were making it into a movie. Hey, cool - if they're making it into a movie so quickly, it must be good, right? Well, maybe not. My first impression upon seeing the trailer was, "I have so seen this before." For my eyes beheld tiny facets previously witnessed in real marvels such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Having seen these films multiple times, I feel no particular urge to watch them again in a mutant hybrid sandwich.
Furthermore, it became painfully obvious just upon reading the cast list alone exactly who were the heroes and who weren't. The heroes had names that were nicely pleasing to Anglophone ears, whereas the villains had names that sounded Klingon, Slavic, or Comic-Bookian. And as someone fascinated by Klingons and the sound patterns of Slavic languages, I find this somewhat irritating. Never mind the fact that by this logic, people like Rachmaninoff and Dvorak should be maniacal villains, whereas people like Eric Wasa and Amalie of Orange-Nassau should be attractive, heroic people.
Ach, I should stop yappering now. Sometime, if I ever get the opportunity, I should see if I can pick it up at a thrift shop for under a dollar so I can find out for myself how painful it really is so I'll really know what I'm talking about. Then maybe I can grab my Mary Sue test and take a few potshots. Whee!
Two tests were used - one of which was mine. Admittedly, this was done while an older version of the test was still in use, which still had a few kinks to be smoothed out. However, even with the kinks intact, I am fairly certain (as fairly certain as I can be for having never read the book) that Mr. Eragon's score was well-deserved.
His score on my test was one-hundred and twenty-three - on a scale advising a do-over at fifty points. Also stated within the article are Eragon's Sue qualities, which in my opinion, are more than any respectable character ought to be packing in his pockets.
Y'know, I'd kinda started out loosely interested in the possibility of reading Eragon. The idea that it was written by a fifteen-year-old 'genius' had some allure; at age fifteen, my sister was writing things that, as far as I was concerned, were brilliant. Could it be possible that she was not the only one of her kind?
Then I found out they were making it into a movie. Hey, cool - if they're making it into a movie so quickly, it must be good, right? Well, maybe not. My first impression upon seeing the trailer was, "I have so seen this before." For my eyes beheld tiny facets previously witnessed in real marvels such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Having seen these films multiple times, I feel no particular urge to watch them again in a mutant hybrid sandwich.
Furthermore, it became painfully obvious just upon reading the cast list alone exactly who were the heroes and who weren't. The heroes had names that were nicely pleasing to Anglophone ears, whereas the villains had names that sounded Klingon, Slavic, or Comic-Bookian. And as someone fascinated by Klingons and the sound patterns of Slavic languages, I find this somewhat irritating. Never mind the fact that by this logic, people like Rachmaninoff and Dvorak should be maniacal villains, whereas people like Eric Wasa and Amalie of Orange-Nassau should be attractive, heroic people.
Ach, I should stop yappering now. Sometime, if I ever get the opportunity, I should see if I can pick it up at a thrift shop for under a dollar so I can find out for myself how painful it really is so I'll really know what I'm talking about. Then maybe I can grab my Mary Sue test and take a few potshots. Whee!
You Asked For It...
Posted by Syera • Tuesday, 2006-December-05
Like any bored responsible webmistress, I've been checking out the search strings that have lead many wandering souls here. Unfortunately, I'm quite afraid that many of them must have been left horribly disappointed. So today, I shall aim to rectify some of that.
cute flirty names to give your boyfriend
Yes, we all need cute, flirty names for our boyfriends. Let's see what I can come up with.
Bitsy Pookums - first mentioned in a Calvin and Hobbes strip; now the affectionate moniker my sister refers to the cute, 9-foot-tall waiter by. Unfortunately, he is married and we visit this restaurant rarely, so I cannot give you a prediction of any kind as to how your boyfriend will react.
Snergle-Pie - it has all the right acoustics. Of course, if you know what a snergle is, much less why anyone would want to make it into a pie, I'd be greatly interested.
Fuzzy-Buns - because things like 'honey-buns' and 'fuzzy-wuzzy' are already established nicknames; it only makes sense to combine them, right?
Splenda-Cakes - for the sugar-intolerant kind of guy.
Saccharine-Drop - because saccharine is way sweeter than sugar.
There you go. Please remember that SH.net nor anyone running it can be held responsible for any resultant break-ups that may occur from using these.
Okay, now that I'm (mostly) done with the sarcasm...
how many times do i have to kill you?
What? You've been trying? I wondered what was up with lava pit, shark pit, and gigantic arm pit on my lawn the other day.
Amanda Tapping (random body part)
Get lost.
create your own megaman character
Janette has a net-navi generator on her site Enjoy!
maxis dead
If by 'dead' you mean 'completely swallowed up by EA,' then yes, Maxis is dead. Sorry.
why did the phoenicians make the sound symbol alphabet?
So they would have something to read, I'd expect. But seriously, if you're looking for more information on alphabets than I have, this is a pretty sweet site.
radiation doesn t mutate things
It does - and said mutations are expressed in the form of cancer. Unfortunately, it doesn't cause cool things like wings and x-ray vision. If that were the case, my grandparents (RIP) would have been superheroes.
what does spitfire personality means?
Well, Virginia (or Bob or Jane or Bill or whoever you may be), a 'spitfire personality' is the type of personality who always has the perfect retort, comeback, witticisim, insult, or whathaveyou in a given situation. The kind of personality that instantly comes off with the remarks we wish we'd thought of thirty minutes after it's too late.
cute flirty names to give your boyfriend
Yes, we all need cute, flirty names for our boyfriends. Let's see what I can come up with.
There you go. Please remember that SH.net nor anyone running it can be held responsible for any resultant break-ups that may occur from using these.
Okay, now that I'm (mostly) done with the sarcasm...
how many times do i have to kill you?
What? You've been trying? I wondered what was up with lava pit, shark pit, and gigantic arm pit on my lawn the other day.
Amanda Tapping (random body part)
Get lost.
create your own megaman character
Janette has a net-navi generator on her site Enjoy!
maxis dead
If by 'dead' you mean 'completely swallowed up by EA,' then yes, Maxis is dead. Sorry.
why did the phoenicians make the sound symbol alphabet?
So they would have something to read, I'd expect. But seriously, if you're looking for more information on alphabets than I have, this is a pretty sweet site.
radiation doesn t mutate things
It does - and said mutations are expressed in the form of cancer. Unfortunately, it doesn't cause cool things like wings and x-ray vision. If that were the case, my grandparents (RIP) would have been superheroes.
what does spitfire personality means?
Well, Virginia (or Bob or Jane or Bill or whoever you may be), a 'spitfire personality' is the type of personality who always has the perfect retort, comeback, witticisim, insult, or whathaveyou in a given situation. The kind of personality that instantly comes off with the remarks we wish we'd thought of thirty minutes after it's too late.
Ostentatious!
Posted by Syera • Saturday, 2006-November-25
Whilst out in the world of Shopping and Commerce, I've noticed a rather disturbing trend. Many new products are given names that sound cool, even if they decidedly have nothing to do with the function of the product itself.
Admittedly, they've been doing this with cars for years... but lately, it's not just cars.
Amongst these ridiculosities are:
An electric razor called Fusion. To 'fuse' is, in a nutshell, to join something together. Fusion is when two or more somethings fuse together to become one - you know, like when your many strings of Christmas lights you carefully wound up into neat, separate coils last year have mysteriously unwound themselves, wriggled around in the box, and have become a single, sentient, writhing mass that cannot be separated except by a nuclear bomb.
Somehow, I would not want to shave myself with something called 'Fusion.' What if it took a shine to fuse to my skin? Ouch!
And then there's the use of words like Matrix and -atrix. I think it may have had something to do with those super-special-effecty movies* awhile back, but lately, you can't have a product without putting -atrix in the title somewhere. It used to be that you couldn't have a product without putting an X in the title; now you have to have the whole -atrix
This is also really weird because a matrix is usually a material that holds other small objects. If you've ever pulled out your fridge and found a thick layer of dust held together with everything from spilled drinks to jam containing refrigerator magnets, small pieces of food, toys, jewelry, safety pins, and other small items, then you've seen a matrix. (The dust, jam, and soft drink plaster, that is.)
*Yes, I've seen them.
Also lurking around lately is an electrical toothbrush under the name Sonicare - clearly a fusion of the words sonic and care. The second one isn't so perplexing, but sonic? This comes from the Latin word sonus, meaning sound. Somehow, a noisy toothbrush does not appeal to me.
Admittedly, they've been doing this with cars for years... but lately, it's not just cars.
Amongst these ridiculosities are:
An electric razor called Fusion. To 'fuse' is, in a nutshell, to join something together. Fusion is when two or more somethings fuse together to become one - you know, like when your many strings of Christmas lights you carefully wound up into neat, separate coils last year have mysteriously unwound themselves, wriggled around in the box, and have become a single, sentient, writhing mass that cannot be separated except by a nuclear bomb.
Somehow, I would not want to shave myself with something called 'Fusion.' What if it took a shine to fuse to my skin? Ouch!
And then there's the use of words like Matrix and -atrix. I think it may have had something to do with those super-special-effecty movies* awhile back, but lately, you can't have a product without putting -atrix in the title somewhere. It used to be that you couldn't have a product without putting an X in the title; now you have to have the whole -atrix
This is also really weird because a matrix is usually a material that holds other small objects. If you've ever pulled out your fridge and found a thick layer of dust held together with everything from spilled drinks to jam containing refrigerator magnets, small pieces of food, toys, jewelry, safety pins, and other small items, then you've seen a matrix. (The dust, jam, and soft drink plaster, that is.)
*Yes, I've seen them.
Also lurking around lately is an electrical toothbrush under the name Sonicare - clearly a fusion of the words sonic and care. The second one isn't so perplexing, but sonic? This comes from the Latin word sonus, meaning sound. Somehow, a noisy toothbrush does not appeal to me.
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