Once in Oz 1.3

Pan knelt where Felix and Toodles had fallen through, placing one hand on the ground.  He could barely feel any residual magic. 

“What was that?” one of the Lost Boys asked.

“A portal,” he answered, his eyes half closed.  “The question is, where did it take them.”

No, he thought, drawing back his hand.  Why not the Enchanted Forest, or even Wonderland?  Anywhere would be better than there. 

“Oz,” he answered, standing.  “Of all places-“ He stopped and kicked at a rock.

“Can’t you send the shadow to bring them back?”

“No, Oz is closed to me now,” Pan said.  He looked around at the other boys, his pensive expression replaced by a more optimistic one.  “Don’t worry, lads.  Felix can handle most anything; they’ll be fine.  I’ll think of some way to get them back.”

Some of them nodded, others continued to stare at the ground as if they expected another portal to appear and swallow them too. 

Pan picked his spear up off the ground.  “Come on boys, let’s get back to camp.”

They started back through the forest.

“Are they really going to be all right?” Jonathan asked in a low tone.

Pan nodded.  “They’ll be fine.  As long as they don’t go to Glinda.”

                                                  . . .

“I have an idea,” Toodles said.  “Let’s find Glinda.  She’s supposed to be good.  She should know a way to get us home.”

“The Good Witch of the North?” Natalie said, raising an eyebrow.

“South,” Toodles corrected.

“Either way,” she said, “that’s not where we are.  And I can’t even find the yellow brick road.  Of course, the monkeys don’t let me get very far.”

“So first we have to get the monkeys on our side.”

“Don’t they work for a wicked witch?”

“Only because she has the magic hat.  They have to obey whoever owns it,” Toodles said.

“How do you know that?” Natalie asked.

“It was in the book,” he said, looking at her incredulously.

“Oh, I forgot there were books.”

“How do you know about Oz then?”

“I’ve seen the movie a few times,” she answered.

Toodles eyes widened.  “They made a movie?”

Natalie nodded.

“With sound?”

“Mmhmm.”

“And color?”

“Yes.”

“Anyway, about the monkeys,” Felix interrupted.

“Right,” Toodles said.  “We’ll have to find the witch’s castle and steal her hat.  Once it’s ours, we can make the monkeys do whatever we want.”  He turned to Natalie.  “You haven’t happened to see a castle while you’ve been here have you?”

She shook her head.  “I haven’t seen any buildings at all.”

Toodles nodded, thought for a second, then shrugged.  “Then we’ll just have to start walking.  Eventually we’ll either find our way out of this part of the country or the witch’s castle.”

“Ok,” Natalie said.  “Just let me get another stick first.  The monkeys will probably come back.”

                                                      . . .

Natalie tested the weight of her new weapon.  She now carried a tree branch the size of a walking stick, which the boys had helped her pull off a tree.  Then, Felix had brought out a buck bone knife, which must have had at least an eight inch blade, and cut off all the smaller twigs growing out of it.  This would definitely be of more use than the branches and rocks she had been using to fend the creatures off.

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of her new companions.  Toodles, more than a head shorter than herself, with wavy brown hair and a smile she had yet to see disappear was friendly and seemed good natured enough.  Felix was quieter, or at least had been so far, and harder to read.  She tried to blame her uneasiness about him on the scar running across his face from the middle of his forehead nearly to his jaw.  It was just years of media stereotypes telling her men with scars were up to no good.  Still, she thought, I’ll keep my eyes on him.  She was also having trouble with the idea that they should both be dead.  But even with her misgivings, she was glad for their company.  This wasn’t the type of place she wanted to travel in alone. 

The monkeys at least were more wary now that there were three of them.  They had been walking most of the day and hadn’t run into any again. 

“Look.” Toodles pointed ahead.  “That’s got to be where the wicked witch lives.”

Just coming into view was a large house, surrounded by a high stone wall.  Natalie didn’t think it was quite a castle, but it was close. 

“What kind of witch are we dealing with?” Felix asked. 

“I don’t really know,” Toodles answered, pausing.  “The book never really said much about her powers. Oh well,” he shrugged and started walking again, “she can’t be as bad as the Dark One.”

“So you two have had experience with witches before then?” she asked.

“Sort of,” Toodles said.  “Besides, the Dark One is much worse than a witch.”

“It’ll be dark by the time we get there,” Felix said, mentally measuring the distance between them and the castle.  “I don’t much like the idea of going up against any kind of witch in the dark.”

“Maybe we’ll be lucky and she’ll be asleep,” Toodles said.  “Then we can take the hat and go before she knows we were there.”

It’s never that easy in the stories, Natalie thought, but kept it to herself.

Once Upon a Time in Oz 1.2

It really didn’t feel like he fell for very long.  Almost before he could register what had happened the wind and the noise stopped.  He was falling through midair, plummeting fast. 

This is going to hurt, he thought, praying he wouldn’t break anything.  He landed hard on his back, the impact driving all the air from his lungs.  He lay still for a moment, hoping that soon he’d be able to breathe, almost afraid to move anything.  When he didn’t experience any shooting pain, he sat up cautiously.

“Felix,” he choked out between gasps for air. 

“Right here,” the other boy grunted, off to Toodles’s right, pulling himself to his hands and knees.

Where are we? Toodles shook his head and looked around.  They’d fallen into some kind of hill country, dotted with clumps of trees.  He blinked and shook his head again.  No, it all still looked the same.  He rubbed his eyes.  Maybe he’d hit his head when he landed.

“Felix, is everything blue?”

Felix pushed his hair out of his eyes and sighed. “Yeah.”

“Oh.”  Everything, grass, leaves, the bark on the trees, were different shades of blue.   Even the sky seemed a bluer blue than the skies of Neverland and Earth.     

“Why…” Toodles started.

“Shh,” Felix said softly, holding up a hand to stop him.  “Hear that?”

Toodles listened and soon picked up the sound Felix meant.  Leaves rusting and some kind of shrieking animal cry.  It sounded like they were fighting. 

“What do you think those are?”  He glanced down at the crossbow in his hand,  nodding satisfaction when he saw it hadn’t been damaged in the fall.

“I don’t know.” Felix stood and shouldered his club.  “Let’s go see.  It might help us figure out where we are.”

Toodles scrambled to his feet, snatching up the arrows that had fallen from his quiver.

The boys made for the sound as quickly as they could while staying quiet enough to hopefully keep the creatures from hearing them.  When they got to the top of a nearby hill they saw the source of the racket. 

“Monkeys!” Toodles exclaimed, staring down at them.  “Monkeys with wings.”

More than half a dozen of the creatures hopped and flapped around something near a group of trees.  One screeched in pain and three of them fluttered back.  That gave Toodles a view of their prey.  A girl stood in the midst of them, franticly trying to beat the monkeys back with a tree branch.  But with so many, it didn’t look like she would be able to hold them off long. 

“She needs help,” Toodles said, fitting an arrow to his crossbow and starting down the hill. 

Once they reached the bottom, Toodles raised his crossbow.

“Careful what you hit,” Felix cautioned.

As tightly packed as the creatures were, Toodles felt certain he could hit one, even with all of their movement. 

He fired an arrow at the largest monkey.  The creature jumped, reaching for the tree branch so the arrow struck its leg instead of its back.  It screeched and redoubled its attack on the girl.  Toodles fired another arrow, catching another monkey’s wing.  By this time, Felix was close enough to bash them with his club. 

That was when the monkeys started to realize they were being attacked from another quarter.  Toodles put another arrow in the monkey with the injured wing, killing it.  Some of the monkeys flapped up into the trees while some of the bolder ones turned to face the new threat. 

Toodles shot at the monkey coming towards him, but in his haste, the arrow went wide.  The creature zoomed over his head, grabbing his hood.  Toodles shouted and tried to beat it off with his unloaded crossbow.  The monkey jerked hard on his hood, snapping his neck back and pulling him to the ground. 

With their initial fear of the newcomers abated, and, seeing that they still had superior numbers, the monkeys in the trees swooped down, attempting to overwhelm Felix and the girl. 

Toodles grabbed an arrow out of his quiver with his left hand and jabbed it behind him.  The first time he missed, but the second he stabbed the creature’s arm.  It snarled and leaned over him, baring its teeth.  Toodles brought his cross bow up over his head and slammed it down on the monkey’s back.  It yelped and loosened its hold on him.  Toodles kicked it off and started fitting the arrow in his hand to the string of his bow.  The monkey skipped off to the side and hopped into the air, one wing flapping oddly.

When it didn’t turn to face him again, Toodles shifted his attention to the rest.  Most of them were taking to the trees again, while the few brave, or stupid, ones kept the humans busy.  Toodles fired two shots up at the monkeys, killing one and wounding another.  One of the remaining creatures gave an undulating cry and they all began to take wing, flying away this time. 

The girl clubbed one of the slower ones with her tree branch and turned as if to strike another, nearly hitting Felix instead.  He brought his club up instinctively and the branch broke when the two collided.  She gave a little yelp of surprise, her eyes still wide with fear.

“Easy,” Felix said, holding up his free hand.  “It’s all right.”

She dropped what was left of her branch and the two stood, panting for a moment. 

Toodles looked the girl up and down.  She looked around Felix’s age- maybe eighteen-and was around a head shorted than the other boy.  She had dark hair, brown eyes and Toodles guessed she was reasonably pretty.  With the dirt smudging her face and the blood dripping from a busted lower lip, as well as two scratches under the corner of her right eyes, it was hard to tell.  She was dressed in a fashion similar to what most of the Lost Boys came in since the mid- 2000’s.  Blue jeans, a bright red shirt and a plaid button down shirt over it.  She carried a blue drawstring bag slung over her back.

“Thank you,” she said, taking a step back and wiping the blood off her chin with the back of her hand.  “Those things have been after me for days.”

“Do you live here?” Toodles asked, starting to pick up the arrows that were scattered over the ground.  

“No,” she said.  “ I just got here a few days ago.  A tornado picked me up and dropped me here.”

Toodles noticed she had a slight twang to her speech, similar to the way Felix spoke but not quite the same. 

“So you don’t know where we are then?” Felix asked.

The girl opened her mouth to answer but Toodles cut her off.  “I know where we are,” he said.  “Flying monkeys, tornados, it can only be one place- Oz.”

Felix flashed him a questioning glance but the girl nodded.  “That’s what I figured too,” she said.

“Were you from back in the real world?  Earth I mean?” Toodles asked.

She studied him with a puzzled expression for a few seconds, then nodded.  “Yes. Where are you from?”

“Earth originally.”  Toodles now had all his arrows and went to stand by Felix.  “Both of us.  But we’ve been living in Neverland.”

“No way,” she said.  “That’s not…I mean its…” She paused.  “Actually I guess if Oz is real then Neverland has every right to be too.  Wow.  You’re not… Lost Boys, are you?”

“We are,” Toodles said.  She wasn’t the first to be surprised.  Ever since Disney made Peter Pan in the 1950’s, boys had been coming with misconceptions.  “I’ve been told the movie was different than the way things really are.”

“Obviously,” she said, looking mainly at Felix. 

“I’m Toodles.” He held out his hand.

“Natalie,” she said, shaking it.  It was the way men shook hands, which struck Toodles as odd at first, but she was wearing trousers too, so maybe things were different now.  Mike had said something about women trying to liberate themselves.  He decided it didn’t really matter.

“Pleased to meet you, Natalie.”  Toodles gestured to the other boy standing behind him.  “This is Felix.”

The two exchanged nods of acknowledgement. 

She looked down at Toodles.  “You know, I half expected you to say his name was Slightly.”

Toodles giggled.  “That’s a funny name.  Why?”

She blushed a little.  “It’s just, in the movie, and I think in the book too, there was a Toodles and then the tall blonde one was Slightly.  Or the tallest one anyway.  They were all about eight.”  She tried to look at Felix, but couldn’t meet his eyes.  “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that.  Long couple of days I guess.”

Toodles took up the conversation again before Felix could reply.  “The newer guys do usually say something about expecting us to be younger.  Pan doesn’t take little boys though.  They wouldn’t be as much fun.  I’m the youngest, and I’m twelve.”

“What year was it when you left?” he asked.

“2011,” she said.

“I’m from 1906,” Toodles said, grinning.

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded.  “That’s nothing.  George, he’s the only original Lost Boy still in Neverland, is around 300 years old.  Felix is the next oldest after him.  He’s from 186…2?”  He looked at Felix.

“’64,” the other boy muttered.

Natalie blinked twice, then nodded.  “How did you guys get here?”

“We fell through a portal,” Toodles said.  “One just  opened up under our feet.”

“Can you fly back?” she asked.

Toodles shook his head.  “The pixie flowers died a long time ago.”

“And of course, no ruby slippers.” She sighed.  “Looks like we’re stuck here.”

Once Upon a Time in Oz 1.1

Sorry it's taken so long to post again.  I promise I'll be back with more of Artemis soon, but I haven't had time to work on that.  Here's part of a Once Upon a Time fanfiction. (This is one of my favorite series of fanfics I've written) The main characters are Felix, from season three, Toodles, from the Peter Pan book, and Natalie, a girl from modern earth.

  

                                                  The Malevolent Land of Oz

            They said it was just going to rain. 

The thought played over and over again at the back of Natalie Wolf’s mind like a broken record in the other room.  She swerved around a large branch that had fallen into the road, gripping the steering wheel of her car with white knuckled fingers. 

They said it was just going to rain.

The rain pelted down from grey-green clouds, driven almost horizontally by the howling wind.  Natalie could barely keep her little car in her lane; the winds buffeted it one way then the other. 

Natalie started at a sudden noise from the seat beside her, her already pounding heart skipping along a little faster for three beats.  She tried to laugh at herself when she realized it was just her phone, but the sound died before it was fully formed.  She reached across and grabbed her drawstring bag from the passenger seat, fumbling to get it open with one hand.    She managed to get it open, and tangle her arm in the strap in the process.  She found her phone and looked down at the screen.

Text from Aunt Emily.

Natalie glanced back at the road, then looked at the phone again.

‘Where are you?’

I don’t know, she thought, biting her lip.  The last she knew, she was still a half an hour’s drive from her cousins’ house.  Then the storm started and she’d had to slow to a twenty-five miles per hour pace just to stay on the road. 

She started to reply.  ‘Still 20 ? min awa…’

Natalie stomped her brakes and skidded to a stop.  No, she thought.  She threw open the car door and scrambled out, staring in wide-eyed horror at the horizon.  The wind whipped her hair into her eyes, but that didn’t obscure her view of the spinning funnel of clouds dipping down to touch the ground a few hundred yards in front of her. 

The cyclone was tinted green and blue and the air started to crack with electricity.  Panic rose in Natalie’s chest and she turned and ran toward the side of the road.  She slid into a muddy ditch and flattened herself against the ground, covering her head with her arms. 

They said it was just going to rain.

                                                       . . .

“Catchin’ up to him,” Felix muttered as he crouched to study the tracks in the dirt. 

Toodles knelt beside the older boy, so he could look at the prints too.  “He’s big,” he said, holding his hand above the clearest track and spreading his fingers.  The beast’s foot must be three times the size of his hand. 

“Yes, and he’s going to make a lovely wall decoration.”  Peter Pan studied the track over their shoulders, then turned his gaze to the trees in from of them.  He grinned over his shoulder at the six Lost Boys that formed the hunting party.   “Get ready boys.  The fun’s about to begin.”

Toodles stood, gripping his cross bow tighter, and moved along with the others.  The group had started out after the lion early that morning, tracking it through the Dark Forest.  Toodles wasn’t sure how long they’d been hunting it, it was always black as night in these woods, but he guess by how hungry he was getting that it must be late afternoon. 

He’d hunted lions before, but this one was a monster.  Pan said it was possibly the biggest to ever be seen in Neverland.    Several of the other boys had seen it and they all attested to its size and ferocity.   He looked ahead at George and Felix, several yards in front of the group, doing most of the tracking.  Both carried a net, George held a loaded crossbow and Felix had his club resting at its usual place over his right shoulder.  The thought of facing any sized lion with nothing but a club and a buck bone knife made Toodles’ mouth go dry, but Felix never carried any other weapons. 

After a few minutes more, George held up his hand and the others stopped.  Toodles thought he heard something moving ahead of them. 

“Here we go boys,” Pan whispered, an excited glint in his eyes.  “Ivan, you move in with Felix and George.  Jesse, you move in from behind it.  The rest of you,” he gestured with his spear, “try to circle around it.” 

Ivan, who carried a torch along with a spear, moved to stand by Felix and George while the others fanned out into the trees.  Toodles was sure he could hear something now; a low rumble, fading and coming back at regular intervals.

Attack the lion, fight with it for a few minutes, it runs off.

Pan cocked his head and stared in the direction the beast had run off in with a puzzled expression.  It wasn’t like Neverland lions to just run away.  Not before they’d drawn a fair amount of blood anyway. 

All of a sudden the air around them seemed to hold something threatening. Toodles shuddered.  It wasn’t them the lion was running from.  There was something else.  The other boys must have felt it too; they all started glancing around at the trees, holding their weapons ready.  Feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up, Toodles took an involuntary step or two toward Felix as he fitted another arrow to his crossbow. 

Then, the ground beneath their feet opened up into a green and black hole.  Toodles tried to scramble back, tried to grab hold of something but his free hand only met with the corner of Felix’s cloak.  That was no help; the other boy was falling too.  Dimly he heard the shouts of the rest of the hunting party before the whirling vortex swallowed him. 

When the Game Stands Tall- Movie Review

Today, I went to see "When the Game Stands Tall."  I'm not a big sports person; not when it comes to watching anyway.  I've been to a handful of high school football games, but I never really watch them on TV and I don't keep up with football in any way.  However, after watching a few of the TV previews for this movie, I thought it might be all right.   I enjoyed 'The Blind Side' and thought this might be similar, so I tried it. 

I very much enjoyed this movie.  If you couldn't tell from the previews, its not really about the game at all but  about the people, and about the coach who is teaching these young men not just to be good athletes, but to be good men, which in the long run is much more important.  I love the emphasis on being a team player, on behaving with integrity and giving whatever you do your best try because that's what you and the people around you deserve.  I think the lessons Coach Ladouceur  strove to teach to his players are lessons that are applicable to all of us no matter where we are in life or what we're doing.  
I think the adaptation from the true story was well done and the pacing of the movie was handled really well.  I was engaged by the story and drawn to the characters.  I found myself cringing during some of the game sequences, even though I knew that this was a movie and no one was really in danger of having a heat stroke, getting a concussion or breaking bone.
There was even a small amount of Bible stuff in the movie, which I wasn't expecting and I think that aspect was also handled really well.  It was presented without apology, but wasn't overly preachy.
There were some really touching moments; the whole movie just seemed very heart felt, like the people who worked on it really had a passion for it.

So, as I have said, I think 'When the Game Stands Tall' was very well done, is an entertaining movie- even for non-football fans- and has a great message that applies to everyone.  I would say it is definitely worth seeing. 

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Instead of another Artemis post like I planned, I'm posting about the ALS ice bucket challenge.  I think this was a really neat way to raise awareness for a disease that many people don't know about. 
ALS is a nuero-muscular disease that slowly destroys the body's neurons, eventually making it impossible for the brain to control a person's muscles.  Victims become paralyzed and the disease will eventually cause death.  ALS.org estimates that as many as 300,000 Americans may be affected by the disease at a given time.
I can't imagine what it must be like to slowly, day by day, become more and more trapped in your own body.  So as I said, I think this is a really neat way to raise awareness and money in hopes that someday soon scientists will be able to create a cure for ALS.

The Guardians of the Galaxy- Movie Review

When I first heard about this movie, I thought I might want to see it.  Then I saw the trailer and decided that I'd just wait until it came on TV and watch it for free.  But, I did end up going to see it yesterday.    

It was better than the trailer made it out to be.  It was different than most of the other Marvel movies; a little less serious and more funny (and with more language/crude humor).        

The heroes were different than most super heroes too, which was interesting.  I kind of like that Peter Quill isn't the typical hero who always knows exactly what he's doing and has everything under control.  He was an interesting character- with a penchant for 80's music as is seen throughout.   The group dynamic of the guardians was interesting and fun to watch.

Overall the story was good, though I think Gamora could have been written better.  Some of her earlier lines just didn't work for me.  Actually, there were a couple of places where something didn’t quite ring right with the dialogue, but that may not bother everyone.  I wasn't too sure about Rocket going in, but I did enjoy him.  He was funny and had a lot of attitude packed into such a small body. I also thought Drax was pretty interesting.

The end was, in my opinion, done well.  I particularly like the last part of the battle, and the final scene made me smile. 

As a side note, I liked the way the alien worlds looked. The movie gave us a neat hint as to how this mixed human/alien culture is set up.  It felt like a real society, not just a sci-fi backdrop. 

So, it was a pretty good movie.  Not my favorite super hero movie, but not the worst I've ever seen either.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book and Movie Review

Last summer, I discovered this series quite by accident.  The Lightning Thief movie happened to come on after something else I was watching and, since I've always liked mythology, I thought I'd give it a try.  Usually, I get bored watching movies in real time on TV, but I waited through the commercials to get to the end of this one. 

I enjoyed the movie, and since the books are always better, I checked out the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series the next time I went to the library.  I absolutely loved them; I read all five books in something like ten days and will definitely be reading them again. 

I think this a fantastic series.  I love the way traditional mythological creatures and characters- well known and otherwise-  are woven into the story and I really enjoy the way all the different gods are portrayed.  I like the way the demigod/god/monster society is set up and portrayed.  And I think the story is really interesting and very well written.

I love Percy's narration, he just has such a way of saying things (as evidenced by the chapter titles). And the characters are, I think, part of what makes the books so good.   All of the characters feel real, all with their own personalities, strengths, and shortcomings.  Percy of course, is one of my favorites and I love Grover.   And who can help but love Tyson?  Contemporary female characters tend to annoy me, but Annabeth doesn't.  I think she's a really nice balance of toughness and feminity.  I like how she's there for Percy and can still hold her own, and I think her complex relationship with Luke is an interesting addition to the story.
The other girls, Thalia and Zoe, both did annoy me at the start of Titan's Curse (which I think is my favorite book, but it's so hard to pick a favorite of this series) but they grew on me, and, as we got to know them more, I started to like both of them.
However, I think Luke is my favorite character.  I actually didn't want to admit that for quite a while but I think he is.  I think one of the reasons he’s my favorite is because he’s one of the most complex characters in the series.  Minor Lightening Thief spoiler I really like that, unlike most turncoats, his motivation for working for Kronos wasn’t money or power. He went because he wanted to hurt the Olympians, a desire that ultimately stemmed from understandable, though not justifying, feelings of abandonment as a child.  I like that he was a good guy, who genuinely thought he was doing what was right.  End spoiler  Luke went through a lot as a result of the way Olympians deal with their kids, and he saw plenty of other kids who also suffered and even died.  The way he went about it wasn’t the best, but he thought he was making things better.  I also like how, even when they were on opposite sides, he still at least tried to look out for Annabeth. 

SPOILER I actually guessed that Luke would turn back, just in time to die to save the others when I was reading Sea of Monsters.  I didn’t want that to be the way it happened, partly because I’d guessed it and I wanted to be wrong, so I would be surprised by the ending.  I wanted Luke to turn back, and then have to live with it; to pick up the pieces of the life and relationships he left and have to deal with it while everyone learned how to move on.  I thought that would be more interesting and I even had plans for a fanfiction with my sister that had that element.  But once I actually read Luke’s death, I couldn’t take that from him.  It was too perfect, all things considered, too sadly beautiful.  So, I kind of miss his character, but he died well and in the end, I think that was the best way to end it.  END SPOILER

While on the subject, here’s a link to one of my favorite YouTube videos.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8BTzYdO5Y

I just love it.  It is so sweetly sad, and I think perfectly sums up the things Luke would have wanted to say to Annabeth- the little sister he let down. 

While I love the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, I've had a falling out with the Heroes of Olympus series.  It became more about the characters demigod abilities, rather than the characters themselves.  I also don’t like how everyone is paired off in Heroes of Olympus.  I was trying to continue with the series for Percy and Annabeth, but I ended up leaving off in the middle of House of Hades.  While I definitely recommend the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, it’s my opinion that if you didn’t read Heroes of Olympus, you wouldn’t miss a whole lot. 

Now for the movies.

When I first read The Lightning Thief, I was upset by how different they'd made the movie.  (I like strong book to movie accuracy.  I don't rewatch Prince Caspian because I was so disappointed in how that book was translated into a movie.)  But I started to realize why they changed what they did.  This doesn’t make it ok, but maybe it makes it at least a little less annoying.   Of course, it's always going to be shorter, that is the difficulty with turning several hundred pages of print into two hours of a movie.  As far as I can guess, they must have taken Kronos out because they weren't sure of they'd get a sequel, so they left out most of what set up the rest of the series.  However, they put it all back into Sea of Monsters, so that helps.   I think the actors were older just to make it easier (able to work adult hours etc.)  It took me a while to come up with a reason for the difference with the pearls, but I think I've figured that out too.  They made the pearls part of the quest to help the movie along. Traveling from one end of the country to the other, just to get somewhere for a large portion of time works fine in a book, but it doesn't work as well in a movie. 

So, those are the somewhat “excusable" discrepancies.  However, there are some things that aren't.  How long would it have taken to paint on a scar for Luke?  I suppose not knowing if they'd have a sequel could explain not wanting to add Clairese, but I didn't really like making Annabeth the bully at the start.  And, one of my biggest issues: Percy: Luke, why do you want a war of the gods? Luke: Control.   Me: No! That's not it! 

And the whole, “Zeus decreed that no one could have contact with their demigod children thing.”  Was anyone else thinking that was Olympian propaganda?

Also, while I do enjoy Brandon T. Jackson’s character, it’s not Grover.  Grover was supposed to be sweet and shy and socially awkward. So while movie Grover is funny and likeable, he’s not the Grover we love from the books and that’s a little disappointing.  

So yes, I know Lightning Thief wasn't a very good book interpretation, and as always the book is sooo much better, but I still wish that people wouldn't hate on the movies so much.  The Lightening Thief is still a good movie and Sea of Monsters is much better as far as book accuracy, though it also had a few flaws.  They put in a lot of what they originally took out, including Mr. D, and Clairese, who are, in my opinion, played perfectly, as well as Luke's actual motivation, Thalia's Tree and the Kronos story line. 

Given the improvements to Sea of Monsters, I think there is still hope for this series as movies and I would very much like to see them continue with Titan’s Curse.   (Though with writers and a director who have actually read the books and want to preserve them as much as possible would be nice.  I’d even be ok if they had to change some of the actors as long as they keep Jake Abel, as well as Stanley Tucci and Tyson (sorry, can’t remember his real name) because I think they are all perfect.)   

Short Introduction

Hello, as you can see, my name is Micaela Sparrow and this is just a short post to tell you a little bit about me and what kinds of things to expect in this blog. 

I’m a writer, and I love good stories whether they come from books, movies or television.  So I expect to be posting  book and movie reviews.  I may occasionally post snippets of my writing, but I may not.   I’m also a geek/nerd/fangirl whatever you want to call it.   I love the Middle-Earth stories, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Percy Jackson, Marvel movies, The Hunger Games etc.  Along with my own writing I also do a fair amount of fan fiction, which I might post parts of sometimes.  I’m probably more likely to post that than my original writing. 

 Personality wise, I’m an INTJ, and according to Divergent standards I’m Dauntless, with Erudite leanings.  (I took half a dozen different faction quizzes before I read the books so that I wouldn’t be biased toward any faction.  Most of them gave me Dauntless, but I think two gave me Erudite.) 

I suppose that’s all for now.  I hope to have some things posted soon. J