It's Arbor Day

...Whatever that means.

arbor, n. A leafy, shady recess formed by tree branches, shrubs, etc. 

       ~Dictionary.com     

So... what are we celebrating on Arbor Day again? Tree branches? Shrubs? I mean, we already had Earth Day. Three days ago, in fact. Now we have Arbor Day. What's next? Fire Day? Water Day? Venus Day, maybe. I don't know. 

But once again, Dictionary.com is my friend.

Arbor Day, n. A day, varying in date but always in the spring, observed in certain states of the U.S. by the planting of trees. 

So, as far as I can tell... it's basically like a second Earth Day. Except with more trees. 

I still think it's redundant. 

All hail Tree Day! Which is right after Earth Day!

Am I the only one who doesn't think this was thought through well enough?

I Have a Problem with Characters Getting Killed Off

*Warning: May contain spoilers.*

Okay, well, this blog post may or may not have been influenced by the third-to-last episode of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But really, it's a problem I have with stories where characters die in general. So basically, everything except My Little Pony.

But anyway. I have a serious problem with characters dying in stories. Especially if it's a tearful, melodramatic death scene. As I like to say, you should've seen me during Crookedstar's Promise. It was one giant tearfest.

I don't know exactly why I don't like character death scenes. Maybe it's because I'm a (mostly) normal human being. Actually, it's probably because I'm a mostly normal human being. It might also be because I've seriously scared myself by imagining what I would do if it was me and my sister in the place of those two characters. If my sister got hurt? If, God forbid this should ever happen, she died and I couldn't stop it? If I hurt her? (*coughFrozencoughcough*)

Scary, as I said. So maybe that's the elusive reason.

But my adverse reaction to touching character death scenes is also rather odd. Why? Well, you see, if I'm totally honest, I can be rather sadistic to my fictional characters.

Seriously. It sucks to be one of my characters. If you are one, well, first of all, stop reading this blog. I know where you live. [See? See?] And secondly, run for the hills and don't look back. And hope you don't get captured by elves or eaten by a dragon.

All that to say, a lot of the time I can watch/read/write a character death with something pretty similar to indifference. Other times (*coughcoughWarriorscough*) I melt.

And sometimes I just stare at the screen in shock and horror as one of the characters--one of the heroes--melts before my very eyes.

GOSH DARN YOU EMH SCRIPTWRITERS IF BLACK PANTHER DOESN'T COME BACK SO HELP ME--

Ahem. Please excuse the caps rage, that death scene was rather traumatic for the cynic living in my head.

So yeah, all that to say, I don't like character death. The more I like the character, the less I like the death.
We will always remember the Black Panther.

Ah, not really. He's back now. See? No one ever stays dead in these kinds of shows. 

He is Risen

Today is Resurrection Sunday. Easter Sunday, if you'd prefer that. It's not a holiday (holy-day) that I can ignore. It's not one that any of us can or should ignore.

Matt Walsh said it much better than I can, but I'm a writer, so I'll give it my own shot as well. (Though I hope you'll follow that link. It's a very good, fairly succinct post.)

Jesus Christ came to Earth as both man and God incarnate. He walked the land, he gave irrefutable proof that he was the Son of God.

Then, he died a painful, lonely, humiliating death.

After three days, he rose from the dead and appeared to a lot of people--seriously, a lot. At one point he appeared to over five hundred people at one time, but that's kind of beside the point.

After a time, Jesus ascended into heaven. Now I believe he's waiting. At the end of time, he'll come back for his followers.

That's what I believe. Today we Christians celebrate the day when Jesus rose from the dead.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

On Snow [Review for Disney's Frozen]

*Warning: Unmarked spoilers for the second half of the movie may follow. If you haven't seen Frozen yet but still want to in the near future, I don't advise reading this blog post.*

Dear White Witch (née Jadis),

Elsa is way better than you. 

Sincerely, 
A Concerned Fan

***

So I finally saw Frozen recently, after it was ordered from Amazon and shipped to my family's house because we never saw it in theaters and we were too lazy to drive five minutes to the nearest BX/Target and get it on DVD.

Also, because Amazon is usually cheaper.

Anyway, I finally saw Frozen. I am now sick of it because all the songs have been in my head ever since. But I saw it, so now I'm going to review it.

Onward we go, I guess.

Good/Favorite Bits:

• The songs. Dear StarClan, the songs. They're amazing (except for Love is an Open Door, which kind of annoyed me--but more on that later), and once they get in your head, they won't quit. But they're nonetheless amazing. 
• Anna. Just... Anna. She is so cute, especially as a kid. Really, it's like the animators looked at Rapunzel from Tangled, said, "We can do cuter", and then did.
• Disney seemed to have a blast upending its own stereotypes in this movie, which I always enjoy. The first love doesn't win the girl, the concept of True Love isn't all about your boyfriend kissing you (boy, did I enjoy that one), and the overall theme is love--real love, not just love of the romantic sort. 
• Olaf. I tend to despise kiddy comic relief characters (seriously, don't even get me started on Jar Jar Binks) but Olaf is really just too funny for me to hate. And that's a good thing. 
• Kristoff. Just... Kristoff. 
• Also, I kinda hate to admit this, but Hans really is gorgeous. (Anna's words, not mine.)

Bad/Least Favorite Bits:

• The very end of Hans's Villain Monologue. I was loving it right up until he said (in response to Anna's "You won't get away with this") "Oh, but I already have."
  ARGH.
  I really can't express how much I despise that line. In my opinion it sent all of Hans's characterization up to that point straight through the window as he became yet another Cliché Disney Villain™. Some of that characterization was recovered when we got to admire his acting skills in the next scene, but still...
• As stated above, I really didn't like Love is an Open Door... which is odd, because I really was enjoying the music up to that point. It's probably because it was yet another Cliché Falling-in-Love-Sequence Song™, which are pretty common in Disney movies. It might also be because it was almost immediately preceded by two other songs, both of which were more original and more moving. It got to the point where Love is an Open Door started and I thought Really? More singing? 
• And... that's really all I've got. 

Conclusion:

Frozen is probably the best Disney movie you'll see for a long while. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend buying or renting it. It's fresh and original, but not so much as to be unrecognizable as a Disney film, and it's got a great moral and a heartwarming ending. 

All in all, I give it four and a half out of five stars:

***

And so, another blog post ends. Next review will probably be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (don't laugh), unless I come up with something else or think of another good topic. 

See you next time, and have a Happy April!