Tag Archives: fandom

What the nerd heart desires: Nerd Stores

Lies auf Deutsch

As sixth part of the Nerd-Week you get a special overview over a few nerdy stores here in Germany, that you enter with a laughing and a crying eye and leave with an empty wallet and filled bags. Find out what there is to discover!

Fantastische Welten – Fantastical Worlds

A potpourri of things awaits you in the Fantastischen Welten in Rostock, that’s not just something for Manga-friends, no, especially Card Gamer, Roleplayers and Table Tops Player get their money’s worth. Besides weekly Events for Magic the Gathering and Force of Will, tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh! and others are regularly fought out. A visit is worthwhile either way, even if you just use it to sit on one of the 32 playing seats and preventively intimidate your future opponents with your gaze. 😉

Gandalph

The Gandalph can be found in three different places: Flensburg, Kiel and Rendsburg [and Lübeck], where you can stock up on (Board) Games, Manga and Books from different genres, miniatures/figurines for Table Tops and even more. There is simply a huge range, that invides you the spent an evening in the store.

Grober Unfug – Monkey Business (?)

As we already are talking about more than one store, let’s continue with the Grober Unfug in Berlin that you can find twice there. The main store is in Mitte, a small branch in Kreuzberg. Both have a huge selection especially of Comics and Comic-Merchandise. Those who want to complete their DC or Marvel-collections or want to discoverer something smaller are at the right place. Especially great is that both stores participate in the Gratis Comic Tag (Free Comic Book Day) and simply are a great place to go (Note: On that day the branch is usually quite cramped if you want to check the shelves, but it is doable). And if you’re lucky – as I was on GTC two years ago – you might meet a Berlin celebrity (Bela B.) who is looking for new reading material as well. 😉

Otherland

Let’s stay in the vicinity of the Grober Unfug-branch in Kreuzberg and walk a bit further to the Otherland-book store. Specialized in Fantasy and Sci-Fi there is a lot to discover here, as besides new releases, you’ll also find (used) classics in the shelves (and boxes) and a nearly as large a selection of English literature (e.g. by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett). But still not everything. The Otherland hosts reading sessions and other events and the well informed team can certainly help you with your search for new reading material.

Neo Tokyo

Let’s change the specialization to Japanese Media. The Neo Tokyo – in Berlin, but also in Munich – have a large assortment of Manga and DVDs for popular/famous series from the different publishers, but also a few less known ones. Special in their range are the offers of Merchandise, clothing and (Japanese/Korean) Music, that you don’t find that much throughout Germany. Those who want to complete their series or want to take a closer look into Japanese Culture are at the right place. If I remember correctly you could even buy a Bento in the Berlin store.

J-Store

Fit for that as well is also the J-Store that you can’t only find in the Capital, but also in Hamburg. The variety is similar to Neo Tokyo, but you can always find something in one store that you can’t find in the other. Especially Artists can buy a few things here and fans of Youth Culture can take a picture in a traditional Photo Booth (purikura).

Comic Planet

With the Comic Planet another branch-store is added to the mix. You can find it in different cities: Osnabrück, Münster, Rheine and Duisburg. With different events (tournaments, theme days, …), a large range of (sometimes rare) Manga, Comics and Trading Card Games, as well as a lot of space to play the latter depending on the branch, it has a lot to offer.

Comic Galerie – Comic Gallery

The second proper Comic Book Store I ever visited is the Comic Galerie in Kassel. Many great things can be found here that will greatly improve your life, uhm, I mean: They have a wide range of Comic Books and Manga, but also a large assortment of Specialist Literature, Artbooks and Rulebooks for Pen&Paper– and Table Tops-Systems and additionally many interesting Events that go from game-demonstrations up to tournaments.

Pin-Up

My very first is Pin-Up Comic in Cologne that seems unimpressive from the outside, but hides actually worlds of wonders. With a complete range of German Graphic Novels, Frankobelgian Comics (Asterix & Co.), as well as a huge selection of US-Comics and an extensive Comic and Magazine antique shop everyone can find something here.

Nertaku

Specialized a bit differently is the Nertaku in Dresden that tries to combine the interests of both Nerds and Otakus and that not just in their name. Beside a large assortment of Game- (Super Mario, Minecraft, Final Fantasy, etc.) and Mangamerchandise (and volumes) they also offer stuff for Cosplayers, as the owners dabble in the Cosplaying scene as well. Additionally they also sell Alpaca plushies.

Zeitgeist

How does the saying go? Save the best for last, if the Zeitgeist in Koblenz is indeed that you’ll have to decide for yourself. DarkFairy, who showed me this store would certainly think so. 😉
Either way is there a wide range of different Comics, Manga, (Board- and Card) Games, Table Tops equiment and also various Merchandise (especially Manga/Anime figurines, but also stuff for Doctor Who and others), that you scarcely find anywhere.
But I do not want to keep one last, special goody that SaJaehwa and I discovered on our weekend trip to Stockholm (obviously that’s in Sweden not in Germany, but it still needed to be added to this list), from you:

Science Fiction Bokhandeln

As I mentioned here on Tuesday, did we more or less stumble upon the Science Fiction Bokhandeln by accident and when we went inside it was hard for us to leave again. The wide variety of English (non-fiction) Books, Comics and (Original-) Manga, as well as the huge selection of Merchandise you don’t get that easily in Germany, where simply too tempting (Mean info: You can order through the web shop via credit card…).

But enough now, don’t want you to go into a buying frenzy. 😉

Those someone else think that Comic Book Stores are as mean – if not meaner – as Book Stores, as you hardly can leave them without taking something with you?
Did I forget your favourite store?
Let me know!
Have fun checking them out!

PoiSonPaiNter

Disclaimer: I didn’t get paid for writing this, I simply wanted to share my experiences with different stores I’ve been at.

TimeLash 2015: Cosplay-Time

As I told you in my Review for the TimeLash do I want to expand on something I didn’t talk about, namely: The Cosplay competition.
What was supposed to be just us having fun turned into something I don’t even know how to call it, but read for yourself.

Preparations, preparations…

As I told you did Schmusi, Anna and I participate in the Cosplay competition – and I still don’t know what lead me to agree to that. Still, we had a lot of fun preparing our performance.
Quite soon we decided that the sketch we wanted to portray would feature the Tenth Doctor (Schmusi), Donna Noble (me) and Rose Tyler (Anna), wearing a Gallifreyan Wedding gown based on this FanArt.
Thinking back and forth Schmusi then wrote a little sketch for us and I added a couple of thoughts to it, but most of it was slightly changed again when we recorded the whole thing. As explanation of why Rose was wearing that dress, we simply decided that Jack Harkness gave it to her.
We laughed a lot while recording and practising the acting part of the sketch and the more often we heard it and the more running gags (including but not limited to: noise effects, quotes and variations therefore) we created for ourselves, the latter didn’t always work out and we ended up laughing our way through a test-run.
When we arrived in Kassel on Friday, I tried my wig for the first time and Schmusi couldn’t stop laughing as I looked like an old hag to her, so we decided to get some hair tint for me. Well, that didn’t turn out too well, as it barely made my original hair colour a bit lighter, but nowhere near the red of Donna. So we had to use the wig after all and Schmusi styled it a bit, so she wouldn’t have to laugh about it.
Until the very last minute before our departure to the Con on Sunday Schmusi and Anna worked on the last tweaks on the costumes. Schmusi’s suit for the Tenth Doctor was already finished, but Anna’s Rose-gown still needed some work and my cerecloth/table cloth-coat (they couldn’t get their hands on fake leather in time, so they had to improvise using this) got its final touches on Saturday. Schmusi even sacrificed her Sherlock-Cosplay coat pockets, so I could put my hands into my table cloth, yay. 😀 When the coat was finished we practised our performance once again in Nazgul’s living room and to get a feeling for it, I put the coat on. We didn’t even make it through the first part of the sketch, as the coat creaked when I crossed my arms and thanks to that and the smell of the table cloth we just burst out laughing, unable to continue any further. The next try Anna made a pouty face during one of her lines and from that time onwards Schmusi always saw a Jigglypuff whenever she said that line.
As last minute addition I prepared a little sign saying „From Jack with Love“ – were I tried to imitate the characters hand writing as it was shown in the Torchwood book the others got at the Convention – that should indicate that Rose’s dress was a present by him – some people took it as Rose was the present, but we’re fine with that, too -, which Schmusi sew to the dress shortly before our performance.
You see, we had a lot of fun during this part. 😀

The Play

As we haven’t released it on YouTube (yet?) – and it’s in German anyway -, you’ll only get a Transcript for now (and maybe later I’ll add a link to the Channel).

<Intro>
Doctor: „Once more for you Donna, I am the Doctor and I am right. What I say will be done“
Donna: „Oh?“
Doctor: „Ye-hes. You are my Companion and I am the Tour Guide. Whom of us is automatically right?“ <points to self>
Donna: „Me“ <points to self>
Doctor: „Why?“ <in a whiny tone>
Donna: „Without ME, YOU’d still be running around with those three brats looking for the Philosopher’s Stone!“
Doctor: „That – that was Beginners Luck!“ <protests>
Donna: <nods sarcastically> „I am right and you listen to me now. Good thing we  cleared that up“
Doctor: „Of course Donna. You’re right Donna-“
Donna: „So, where to now?“ <interrupts>
Doctor: „But at least my Tardis still likes me and sees me as an honourable owner“ <touches Tardis>
<Fault noise>
Doctor: „What?“
Donna: „See, the Tardis is on my side. Women do stick together after all“ <touches Tardis>
<Fault noise>
Doctor: „She’s is on my side! I knew it!“ <jeers and touches Tardis>
<Fault noise>
<Tardis Alarm noise>
Donna: „What’s happening?“
Doctor: „You tell me! You’re the one who’s right!“ <starts shaking due to the turbulences>
Donna: <grabs suit lapels and shakes him> „Don’t get cocky with me! What’s happening?“
<They stumble about in the Tardis until the noise ceases and everything is silent>
Rose: „The Tardis! Finally a le-“ <opens Tardis door, steps inside and sees Donna and Doctor, steps back>
Donna: „And who are YOU now?“
Doctor: „Gallifrey“ <takes Donna’s hands away from him and walks over to inspect the gown>
Doctor: „That looks like…hmm…that looks…like…like the needlework of Lord Needles!“ <he realizes while poking and pulling at the dress>
Rose: „Doctor! It’s me, Rose!“
Doctor: „No. No. You’re just a hallucination! You can’t be here!  You’re in Norway. I left you at the beach…“ <recalls sadly>
Donna: „Ah, that’s how that happened. Was she right as well?“
Doctor: „Not now Donna“
Rose: „Yes, you left me behind, but I can’t be mad at you for that. But I made it. I’m here. I’m finally back!“ <tells him and strokes his cheek>
Doctor: „Ro-Rose…“ <steps back>
Donna: „You Dösbaddel*. The kids real!“ <smacks him over the head>
Doctor: „Ouch! What’s that for now?!“ <looks at Donna, who points at Rose>
Doctor: „You’re – still here…“
Rose: „I told you so!“**
Donna: „Don’t you want to tell her something? You know, from back then?“ <nudges him and has to point him back towards Rose while he talks>
Rose: „Doctor?“
Doctor: „Y-yes. Yes. Y-yes, it’s time. Rose Tyler, I -“
<Outro>***
*Northern German phrase for dim-wit/dumbo
** This is the Jigglypuff line
*** I listened to this often enough that I quoted most of it by heart before I checked the recording and corrected the few mistakes I made and that even though we didn’t say any of those words live on stage… >_<

Well, that’s it. Our little sketch. It’s nothing special and as far away from canon as you can probably get, but with Rose turning up before Stolen Earth, it’s kind of hard to stay there…
We considered it to be fun and it wasn’t supposed to fit in with canon anyway, it is just something to accompany the costumes…

The Competition

On Saturday we met up with the von Puchs – Kes and Frank, the couple that presented the competition – and were positively surprised how supportive and lovely they were and it eased the nervousness a bit. We talked with them about issues and negativity Schmusi had experienced at and especially after other competitions, as some reviewers tore her performance apart due to her physical appearance. Kes told us she had experienced similar things in her times as a Cosplayer and that we shouldn’t let stuff like that get to us.
After the Panels were done for the day we used the chance to see how less-large-than-we-thought the stage actually was and try how far we could/had to go to have the space we’d need for the movement during the sketch.
When it was time for the competition, everyone squeezed into the small space beside the stage and one after the other got called to their performance. Some were showing their incredible sewing skills, others had collected their Cosplay over the years. Some said a few lines, others just used the stage as a catwalk. It was a variety of people and Cosplays, fitting for the occasion.
And then there was us:
An unusual group of three stoutly build women playing a pre-recorded sketch, with Cosplays that could not match any of the high quality Cosplays, but were fitted for the person and created using the material available (*cough*table cloth*cough*).
We didn’t plan on winning anything anyway.
We just wanted to present our little sketch and make the people in the audience laugh, when we weren’t allowed to do it ourselves.
And they did.
They laughed when the Tardis didn’t want to work with The Doctor.
They laughed when Donna smacked The Doctor over the head.
And that was enough for us. It felt great.
We didn’t look perfect, but at least recognizable.
Neither of us fell or started laughing throughout the performance and that’s what matters to us.
It was a lot of fun to play our little sketch, even though all of us were awfully nervous.

The Feedback

Obviously we didn’t win any of the prices, as those were given to the people that actually deserved them, but we did get a few gimmicks and some positive response by a few people we met afterwards.
E.g. a young girl came up to us and delightedly told us that we portrayed her favourite characters and that she really liked how cheeky our (my 😉 ) Donna was and that really lifted our spirits. Some of the winners and participants and a few other guests gave us their approval as well, which is really great, but can’t compete with the girl. 😀
Still, there was also negative Feedback, though I am not entirely sure if I actually want to call it that, I guess negative Opinions would be the better term.
In the official Facebook group one commenter announced that she was afraid for the on-stage Tardis at some point of our terrible performance. Another guy wrote in his review for Sunday that when he tries remembering our performance his nose starts bleeding and his ears start to buzz. When I asked him – I admit, I didn’t tell him, who I was, but it would have been easy for him to make the connection – he revealed that he considered the performance to be quite bad and that someone even showed him a similar sketch from an English convention and said we just copied it (If someone knows that video, feel free to send me a link, because we had no idea a thing like that existed), but instead of simply asking US, he spread the misinformation.
Though this could be the reason that so far you could barely see us on any of the competition shots…no one wants to include people that just steal their ideas…or wear awful Cosplays…
While I wrote the review for the Convention another German review, this time from the WhoView, was published that called our performance embarrassing and bad Fanfiction that turned Rose into a Time Lady and just wanted to see some naughty action between the Tenth Doctor and Rose, disregarding all female empowerment in 5 minutes and I don’t even want to go into more detail about the paragraph that talked about us in a very bad light and a quite polemic way, as I simply cannot understand how one could get THAT idea from our story… or does anyone feel the same after having read my explanation and the Transcript above? I mean, it’s a flipping Wedding gown/dress, by a Time Lord randomly called Lord Needles that was given to her by Jack to make her look pretty when she finally meets the Doctor again. o.O
Still, it created quite a discussion in the Facebook Group, when we spoke up about the fact that we didn’t agree with the way he talked about us…though we are not entirely sure how many people noticed the connection. We didn’t mean to start such an uproar from it, but it just felt wrong to stay silent. I admit, some of the phrases used in our statements weren’t thought out properly, but I do believe that was the initial rage at the way it was written. Yet, the author and his friends continued talking down on Anna and everyone that tried to defend us, repeating over and over again that it’s nothing bad and just the way the author talks/writes and no one should get agitated by it and it just spiralled upwards from there and all the sides got more and more frustrated by the whole thing.
From what I now learned about the author, I believe it was deliberately written in that way to cause a discussion or at least tuck at the strings of those jumping at the chance to discuss something like that, but I still don’t agree with the way it was written, as it – as a part of the group – felt insulting and degrading, even though he didn’t use any direct insults and wrapped everything in more or less harmless phrases. It still hurt and there would have been several different ways to portray such a dislike for something without stepping on the people involved in the process. The author chose this way of writing and all we can do is accept his decision. I feel like no one deserves a treatment like that, that’s why I will not return fire with fire by insulting the author. We accept your opinion, we do not agree with it and are disappointed that you resorted to such tones to describe us and not even considered talking to us in person, but we accept it and hope that this settles the matter once and for all.
At some point the organizers got involved into this – we had thought about informing them, but in the end didn’t do it -, which caused the Link to the article to be deleted from the group. The author and the boss had a talk and the author apologized to him about the fact that his article resulted in such an uproar and as punishment the author has to participate in next years Cosplay competition. So far he has not said a word to us on this matter nor did any of the officials contact us about it.
I don’t care if someone insults me, I’ve been a target to a lot of negativity before, but Schmusi and Anna are two of the most amazing people I had the fortune of meeting during the last couple of years. They give so much for their friends and work hard on different Cosplays using whatever material they can get their hands on, all the while juggling the organisation of a regular Fandom meeting and everyday madness. They don’t get much in return and then something like this happens to them – again – and this time in a community that for a brief moment felt different, felt more open minded, felt like family.
It is a really disappointing and sad turn of events that what we anticipated and feared to happen prior to entering the competition did indeed happen and that in a Fandom that is supposedly so inclusive and supportive, where individuals suddenly turn on you behind your back because you don’t fit in with the norm – at least that’s what we get out of this. With the encouragement from the Puchs and the overall atmosphere of the Convention we had really hoped that we’d get the respect every participant of a competition deserves and not become the butt end of a polemic joke.
Yes, our Doctor is not as thin as he is supposed to be and neither are Rose and Donna.
Yes, our Donna had a table cloth for a coat and the rest didn’t look nearly as good as some of the more expensive costumes, but we were still recognizable.
Yes, we aren’t the best Cosplayers, let alone actors in the world. (Heck, it was MY first time Cosplaying at all…)
But we had fun and the audience laughed and – I dare to say and some of the positive responses in the group agree with me here – had a good time and that was all we wanted. Obviously except those that fled the room or whose insides crumbled while witnessing our disaster of a performance, but that’s to be expected.
And if anyone has anything to say about us and/or our performance that person should at least have the decency to tell it to our faces – or through a message – and not start talking behind our backs, but that doesn’t mean we’re not open for constructive criticism, so we know how we can improve.
Regardless of that would we like to thank all those lovely people that stood up for us and/or send us encouraging words! After all the negativity this whole ordeal created your words helped us to find the strength again to look at this matter from a different angle. Thank you!

What I got from this experience is

  • As long as you have fun, you shouldn’t let others negative opinions bother you – which they still do and it will hurt, but you have to try to not let them get to you too much and overcome them.
  • As soon as you start playing, you don’t notice the audience any more.
  • Getting applause and laughter while on stage feels great.
  • Table cloth can be quite warm.
  • Anna is a yellow broccoli.
  • Schmusi wears children’s caskets instead of sand shoes.
  • With my wig not prepared properly I’m an old hag with a standing table cloth coat. 😀

Anyway, I know I’m repeating myself, but we still had a lot of fun with this and as we enjoyed the recording part of the preparations and really like the result, we decided to do more with that. So stay tuned. 😉
I/we don’t know if we will be at the next TimeLash as well, we would like to go, but aside from the planning, the whole negative behind our backs discussion regarding our performance really makes us want to stay away, but at the same time there is this urge to not back down, to show everyone that we ain’t bovvered by those remarks and we obviously will continue to create and learn and have fun doing what ever it is we want to do.
PoiSonPaiNter

Stephen Baxter: Doctor Who – The Wheel of Ice

Part two of this Book-Week is a book that our local library added when I asked them about it, back when I „hid“ my papers for the Back Wolf Day 2013. It’s one of many Doctor Who novels out there and the first I read so far.

What is it about?

3 of 5 stars


The TARDIS catches a signal that is not supposed to come from the rings of Saturn. Stubborn as she is, she leaves The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe no choice but to investigate.
Strange sightings of Blue Dolls and sabotages meanwhile busy the inhabitants of the make-shift houses within the Wheel of Ice.
Unwelcome at first the time travellers have to team up with the locals to end this predicament.

The reading experience

As I said before was reading this book quite uncomfortable.
To quote myself:

What bugs me most about reading this book is, however, its layout. It’s a Hardcover version and therefore quite large as it is. Still, the pages have a lot of space around what is written in a rather large font, thus creating rather short pages.
So you have this giant book, with little content to actually read on one page.
This feels especially weird when you’re sitting in the bus and to everyone else it looks like you’re reading a children’s book…

It also had a quite interesting chapter outline.
Between the main chapters there were Intermezzo that told stories that had only been mentioned in the main story line. I’m not sure if I encountered something like this before, but it was quite interesting.

The characters

With each more adventure I share with this TARDIS trio I like them more.
The Second Doctor is more of a father/mentor figure towards them and the other characters. He leads them to make the discoveries on their own and follows new leads with a childlike enthusiasm, but is still serious if need be.
Zoe’s tendency to arrogance showed quite a bit in this story, but it is the understandable kind, someone of great intelligence has towards people who just don’t get them. It is toned down a bit when she opens herself to care for her friends and the people of the ring.
In contrast to her is Jamie quite, well, dumb. His knowledge and wisdom is nowhere near hers or The Doctors. Yet, he proves time and again that his compassion is the key to getting the people on their side. And even a simple mind can come to the right conclusions. 😉
The other characters were less defined. We barely know anything about the council members and their reasons for participating – other than this-and-this organisation send me. The most we know and learn about are the the Laws with the siblings Phee and Sam being quite essential to the plot.
In a way they are portrayed as normal teenager, yet, different. The reasoning why the children do what they do is still understandable. At some points I thought the language of the children to be too colloquial, then again, I read the German version and the original could have been different.
The main antagonist Florian Hart was something entirely different. I liked the nod they made to the serial The Seeds of Death with claiming that the company that built the T-Mats used, belonged to her father and the Doctors interference resulted in her life choices. On the other hand have I never before encountered a woman named Florian, so this had me highly confused every time I read it. She was all in all not a very likeable character and a bit over the top, but to some extent still believable.
Also interesting was the way Baxter described the semi-sentient/robot-like beings MMAC, Arkive and the Blue Doll First and their thinkings and actions in the Intermezzo.

General Opinion

Like most Doctor Who stories didn’t this get into too much details either and many things about the background’s and going ons are left untold. As someone used to read about the different worlds in Fantasy novels, was this one of the down points. I understand the lack of information in the TV series, but in a book there is a bit more time to spent on background information (Like how they came up with the ranks and so forth).
Still, it was a nice adventure with what might become one of my favourite TARDIS teams.

Stuff I’d like to add

I’m not sure if I’ll manage to get my hands on another Doctor Who novel, but I wouldn’t mind reading another one.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Bye, bye 2014

It’s already time for this year to end and I decided to take a look back with the help of WordPress.com’s annual report.

The Posts

From what I already saw in May did the Fandom posts indeed became the most read ones.
The one about the Doctor Who 2048 game gained 1839 views in total and the Elevator Meme reached 380. Surprisingly two posts from 2013 made it into the top list as well and seem to still be of interest to some Googlers. 🙂
Does this now mean for me that I should write more Fandom posts to please my readers?
Well, I certainly will continue to write about some of it, but I’ll pick the topics that interest me most.
Other than that did I manage to write an incredible amount of posts in these past twelve months, though that is mostly thanks to the Weekend Guesses and my Advent Calendar with together a total of 69 posts.
I nearly managed to write my 200th post in this year as well, but I’m short 17 posts.

The Readers

Most interesting for me in this statistic was the fact that I had readers from 82 countries all across the world.
That is quite impressive to me and to think they all read what I’ve written here is also a tad scary.
Though regardless of this I still only got a few comments, most of them from DarkFairy and fruehstuecksflocke and mostly for the Guesses.
Interestingly I showed up amongst the top commenters on two other Blogs, namewise Pop goes the Culture and Weltenschmiede, where I had some quite interesting conversations.
I’m grateful for all the comments I got, but I wouldn’t mind getting more, so feel free to leave me your thoughts in 2015. 😉

The Report

Now enough is said about it, just have a look at what the WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared as a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Year in general

2014 was a quite interesting year.
I finally got my Bachelor’s degree.
I attended several pretty great festivals (Out&Loud, Rockharz, Metalfest) and concerts (Schandmaul, Van Canto, Bela B., Eluveitie/Arkona).
I also travelled again and this time not just throughout Germany, but also to Ireland.
And I discovered some interesting new Blogs and started a new regular post and also successfully given you my Advent Calendar.
I caught up with a bunch of series (e.g. Merlin, Supernatural, Being Human, … ) and been in the cinema for a few times (like for X-Men) or watched movies on DVD. With a renewed enthusiasm I started to properly read again, resulting in a Book-Week in the week leading up to a visit to a Book Hotel and two reading challenges I participate in.
And if I manage to get some quiet time today, I’ll even manage to finish my twentieth book this year (only 50 pages left).
And probably many more things I can’t think of right now.
So you see, a lot has happened this year.
What will 2015 bring?
We’ll see about that tomorrow. 😉
That said I’d like to repeat my words from Sunday:

I wish you all a save journey into the new year or in short Guten Rutsch!

PoiSonPaiNter

How to recognize your fellow nerds

For a change you get something a bit different concerning Fandoms, but I hope it’s still interesting.
If you look at Conventions and the like it soon becomes clear that nerds and geeks are a quite sociable bunch. They enjoy spending time with each other and meeting new people that like the same things.
But what if you want to do that, when there is no nerd-gathering around or you don’t have access to any of those things near you?

How do you recognize a nerd/geek in Everyday Life?

Before I look into the actual topic let me define what I mean by Everyday Life.

Everyday Life is the part of Real Life that is spent in the presence of so-called normal people.
This includes: Being at work, going to the mall, using public transport, spending time outside, etc.
This excludes: Being at Conventions, going to the Cinema for nerd-themed movies, participating in other nerd-themed activities like LARPs, Pen&Paper or Card Game groups, etc.

Now let us have a look at a few things you can go by, to be relatively certain that the person you just met is one of your own.

A view at the chest allowed

It is considered quite rude to look at a persons’ (especially a woman’s) chest, but the easiest way to determine that persons’ nerdy-ness is by checking if they are wearing a nerd-shirt. Such shirts usually have a logo, person or catchphrase from a Fandom as front print that would justify the inappropriate glance.
While shirts, hoodies and other clothing can be a good indicator, they also can be misleading. The more popular a character or franchise gets, the more possible is it that normal people start wearing these shirts, just because they can.
This is especially the case with the logos of different DC heroes – namely Superman and Batman, as some of them are available in all kind of variations in stores that aren’t just for nerd things.
The more specific a shirt is the more you can be certain that the person knows a thing or two about what they’re wearing. I am fairly certain that the girl and the guy I saw last year know why they are SHERlocked or what the Baratheon-stag stands for. Just as I knew what the anatomy of the Serenity meant and the other person acknowledged the Cyberman on my shirt.
Still, the shirt could be just a hand-me-down or simple fashion statement instead of actual presentation of that persons’ Fandom.

Hidden in plain sight

Back in the day dark rimmed glasses were THE symbol for calling someone a nerd. Nowadays the Hipster-movement has taken them up and claimed them as cool. Therefore you have to look at other accessories to make your conclusion.
Similar to the shirts are there bags and tidbits from different franchises that made it into mainstream clothing. Additional to the two I’ve already mentioned we have The Nightmare before Christmas in this category as well, as Jack Skellington has a face you can sometimes see as part of Gothic fashion.
Bags, ear-rings, bracelets, necklaces, keyring pendants and so forth can be of a Fandom. Neither of it would be something you’d notice to be something special on first sight and it is a subtle way of adding what you like to what you have to do. It might take a while for you to notice these things though.
A little more eye-catching are tattoos, but they can be hidden quite well, maybe even by a nerd-shirt.

And then there is Batman

It isn’t really an everyday thing, but it still deserves a mention. While festivals aren’t officially nerd-gatherings they are still a place where you can come across people dressed up in all kind of ways. During about every metal festival I’ve been at so far was at least one person wearing the full Batman costume.
Batman is one of the most iconic characters out there and you recognize him quite soon. Still, the costume doesn’t necessarily mean the person has any reason behind wearing it besides having fun with it – or having lost a bet. When I see them I mostly assume the fun-reasoning, as the ones I encountered so far weren’t really prime examples for the crime-fighting hero. One Batman I’ve seen and heard of was, for example, rarely sober, yet caused a bit mayhem as Fairy on the Feuerschwanz‚ stage. Another one just walked into the Pub we’ve been at on Halloween last year and looked a bit out of place…
And then there was that one time at the Metalfest Loreley were I was called Batman…
I can see that a billowing black coat over black clothes including a shirt with bats (not THE Batman-logo, mind you, just some bats hanging from a tree) could give off the impression. Yet, I cannot see how someone would actually make that connection as my clothes differ greatly from anything he would ever wear. Besides do I not even like the character and therefore not see a reason why I should dress in a similar fashion. Plus, I could have presented that person two major arguments that I would indeed not be BatMAN…
Judging by my description above: Would you have seen me as a Batman impersonator?

What to do with what you saw?

After knowing and recognizing the signs a fellow nerd/geek can show its Fandom by, you still have to determine if your assessment is correct. Every variation of the above signs has the possibility that the person just wears it for fashion or other reasons and not every person wearing these symbols wants to talk about it.
The easiest way to ensure your first impression is correct is to use simple gestures like a smile or a nod at the object in question. If the other person acknowledges that in a positive way, you can see it as an invitation to start a conversation about the displayed topic.
Still, don’t be rude about figuring out if the person before you is what you think they are.
We’re all just people that occasionally don’t want to talk or interact with others.
Even if we are quite sociable when it comes to what we like/love, we still need our shells at times. 😉
PoiSonPaiNter

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 3

On my Tumblr page I participated in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the third ten answers, you can find the first ten here and the second ten here.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day twenty-one: Name a planet that you’d like to visit in the TARDIS. Maybe you’d like to go to the planet the planet of slightly over-inflated beach balls, let us know!

Just like I said it would be the room, I spent most time in the Tardis  on Day 18, would I definitely not mind visiting The Library before the Vashta Nerada invaded it. I’m not sure if I even want to go into Earth’s future, as that would also show me what will become of my planet after I have long passed and that would be kind of creepy…
Other than that, do I not have definite plans for any planets and would be grateful for every world I’d be visiting and curious to explore them.

Day twenty-two: What songs would appear on your Doctor Who playlist? Make us a mixtape!

The songs I associate most with the series are the theme songs, the title music and „500 Miles„.
From the music I usually listen to can I only think of one song that at least has anything to do with space: Rhapsody of Fire – I belong to the Stars.
Guess the mixtape would consist of those songs.

Day twenty-three: What would your Time Lord name be? The Magician? The Carpenter?

I’m not sure if I even want to be a Time Lord as that title brings a lot of responsibilities and stuff…
But to choose a name it would probably be something like The Thinker or The Creator/Writer/Storyteller as I like to think up stories, write them down or share them verbally with those, who want to listen to them.

Day twenty-four: Take a picture with something irl that you think could be from Doctor Who?

Again the picture „with something“ that I skipped.

Day twenty-five: What’s your favorite Doctor Who art? Make sure to give the artist credit if it’s not yours!

As I have no idea which of all those many brilliant things out there I skipped this one too…

Day twenty-six: Show us your best Doctor Who cosplay but you can only use things you can find in your closet.

I don’t (have a) cosplay to show, so I had to skip again…

Day twenty-seven: Who is your favorite Doctor Who-related tumblr that isn’t us?

And another skip as I don’t know that many Tumblr who fit the bill…

Day twenty-eight: Write an episode summary for Series 8! What do you think the Twelfth Doctor and Clara will have to face?

If I knew the character of the new Doctor better this probably wouldn’t be much of a problem, but an episode like this would be interesting:
The Doctor and Clara strand in a desert and stumble upon a group of researchers. Together they find the way into a buried ancient city. Setting out to explore it they find prove that other people have discovered this before them and that none of them had made it out again.

Day twenty-nine: Who is your favorite Time Lord other than the Doctor? The Rani? The Master?

The Master is quite fun in a strange kind of way, especially John Simms version. From what I saw of the old Master – the Roger Delgado version – does he seem even stranger than Simms, as they had the hypnosis part still in his character and the shots of that looked rather silly. Other than that have I not seen that much of other Time Lords like the Rani. The most I know about her and a couple of others is from the the story „The Ten Doctors“ by Comic artist Rich Morris.

Day thirty (20 July): Make a TARDIS out of things you find in your room!

I thought about doing this, but unfortunately I don’t have fitting materials nor the patients to actually build a TARDIS I’d be satisfied enough showing…
I had fun doing this challenge and I hope you at least enjoyed it a bit as well.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr.

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 2

On my Tumblr page I participate in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the second ten answers, you can find the first ten here and the last ten will be covered later.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day eleven: Name a who-ism you use irl! Do you like to run around saying allons-y? Do you tell people not to blink?

As the majority of people I’m around wouldn’t get who-ism’s as such, I rarely use any. Though there is the occasional „Allons-y“ or Cyberman/Dalek-quote around those that do get them. But the most quoted phrase is „Are you my Mummy?“ as the festivals I attend, usually have at least one booth selling gas masks…

Day twelve: Come up with a name for a Doctor Who recipe! Something like Davros donuts or Prisoner Zero pizza.

I barely cook/bake/etc. anything and you expect me to name a recipe? No, sorry, this task is too challenging for me…
Besides it probably wouldn’t be more creative than „Fishfingers and Custard“ anyway…

Day thirteen: Who would be your ideal Team TARDIS?

Puh…I liked the combination in Journeys End and it’d be interesting to see something like that happen with other companions, but I am of the belief that there is no such thing as an ideal Team TARDIS. If the combination fits, it doesn’t matter who is occupying the space ship, either as Doctor or as companion.

Day fourteen: Mods are asleep! Anything goes!

Well, if anything goes then I’ll be using this day to advertise a bit for the Doctor Who-posts on my Blog.
Instead of posting one for the series in general, my first post was about the Bad Wolf Day in 2013 and where I subsequently „hid“ the slices of paper I had prepared in a fit of nerdiness.
The next ones were then a couple of months later for the 50th anniversary and a review for The Day of the Doctor special.
Still the one that would become my most viewed post was still to come.
In the beginning of this year I wrote an analysing tale for the Elevator Meme that seemed to be interesting for quite some people and has a huge presence of the Eleventh Doctor, but when I posted my post about the 2048 Doctor Who Edition, the clicks came in like for no other post before that (by now more than 1500 have looked at it since April).  The fact that the latter post is higher than the Kasteborous version in the Google search for the topic, is still quite creepy…
Anyway, I am pretty sure there will be more Doctor Who related post (excluding the posts with the collected answers for this challenge).

Day fifteen: Which regeneration of the Doctor would you most like to meet and why?

From what I’ve seen so far I am pretty sure that each Doctor would be interesting to meet. They all have their own interesting stories to tell and their own unique way to share them. You’d have seriousness with the First, Second and Ninth (and War), lots of research and technical developments with the Third and Tenth, silliness with the Fourth and Eleventh, compassion with the Fifth and Eighth and more interesting character trades with the the Sixth and Seventh. Meeting either of them would be fascinating, but it would most likely also mean that I’m in big trouble. So, I’m not so sure if I even WANT to meet the Doctor. 😀

Day sixteen: Which episode or scene made you feel all the feels?

There were several episodes of the new era that made me go emotional, but most of all The End of Time Pt. 2 and again Journeys End, that I also mentioned as one of my favourite episodes with day five. Vincent and the Doctor also had a strong emotional grasp on me, but more for how they helped Van Gogh and not because of what happened in the episode like in the other ones.

Day seventeen: Name a crossover that you’d love to see.

Crossovers are something I really enjoy if they are made well and Doctor Who has the potential to be combined with many other series/movies/books/etc.. The one you most come across is probably (Super)WhoLock – the Tumblr-Trinity so to speak. While it sounds fun, I am not sure how that would actually work. I tried thinking up a setting regarding the semi-popular Elevator Meme where not just those two (three) meet up, but also several other Fandoms.

Day eighteen: The TARDIS has a near infinite number of rooms including a swimming pool, a library, and a swimming pool inside the library. Which room would you like to spend time in?

So many, many rooms to choose from… Aside from me wanting to explore every last one of them would I probably spent a lot of time in the library. Who wouldn’t want to have a look at all those different books?

Day nineteen: What’s your favorite Doctor Who-related youtube video?

I’m not that much of a Youtuber, but I enjoyed the 500 Miles cast video and its fan made answer. I also like the self-made trailers and crossovers, so many incredible people have created.

Day twenty: Think of the last movie you saw. Would the protagonist be a good companion? Or maybe they’d be the villain?

When I first read this question the last movie was X-Men: Days of Future Past and I doubt the mutants would make either good companions or villains, simply because there abilities are too different to what exists in the Who(ni)verse and the whole setting would be quite strange…it would be one of those Crossovers that wouldn’t really work without much thought put into it.
The actual last movie I’ve seen is „The Intouchables“ and I guess you could put Driss and Philippe in a setting with The Doctor as one time companions. It’d probably be one of their strange adventures, in a way like „Vincent and The Doctor„, and I can see that one happening better than the X-Men one.
In ten days you will get the last set of answers for the challenge. If you want to get them on time just follow my Tumblr page: Poisonpainter
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr. I also do not claim any rights for the song and video.

Doctor Who: 30 Days Challenge – Part 1

As one challenge isn’t enough I also participate in the Doctor Who Tumblrs 30 Days of Doctor Who Challenge on my Tumblr page and I thought I might as well give you the collected answers here as well. These are the first ten answers the other twenty will be covered separately.

The official Tumblr Gif

Day one (21 June): Who was your first Doctor?

For this one I’d like to simply quote my Post for the 50th anniversary of the show:

The first ever episode that, I think, I watched was “Tooth and Claws” with David Tennant as The Doctor. I decided to watch this episode because it had werwolves in it and as I am actually not that much into Sci-Fi and more into Fantasy stuff I just wanted to see how they did that. Needless to say I was pretty confused by it and didn’t watch more of it for quite a while.
But as I still also had enjoyed watching it and some other snippets from flipping through the TV channels and I later wanted to know what all these quotes and pictures on Tumblr pages were about, I gave it another try.
And what can I say? I’ve been hooked ever since.
Christopher Eccleston‘s Ninth Doctor with his grinning in the face of danger just made me keep watching. It’s a pity he’d only been with the show for one season, but it was a fantastic season.

In short: Even though Tennant was the first I actually saw, do I consider Eccleston to be my first Doctor, as he was the one that got me hooked on the show.

Day two: Who is your favorite companion, either full time or one off?

As I still haven’t seen that much of the classic series can I not include every companion in my consideration, but from the new series my favourite companion is definitely Donna. I not just like her comebacks and attitude, but also the fact that she is an everyday woman with a none-en-vogue stature (aka not skinny). It’s also quite nice to see someone disagree with The Doctor in such a fun way and so often. Of course the other companions argue with him as well, but so far none of them made it to the „Donna, Human, No“-Level she set. Her leaving was a horrible moment for me and I really like the fanmade ending where The Doctor one day returns her memories, when she is about to pass away.
Other great companions that I like include the highly underrated Martha and of course Sarah Jane, as beautiful bridge between the old and the re-newt series.
Recently I watched a couple of classic episodes and from them and some other stuff I am pretty certain that Ace will become a character I probably like nearly as much as Donna. Just like Jamie and Liz also seem to become some of my favourites and Zoe, whom I already admire for her skills.

Day three: Invent a new feature for the Sonic Screwdriver. We know it doesn’t do wood, but can it clean up spilled drinks?

As I’m not that inventive and far too logic driven, I guess the new feature would be one that actually had something to do with emitting sonic waves. It would be good for sending understandable messages to species that use those to communicate and not for destroying their ear drums. 😉

Day four: Who has been your favorite historical appearance? Was it Madame de Pompadour? Maybe Winston Churchill?

There were so many interesting ones already that I don’t really want to decide. Though the one that got me emotionally the most was Vincent Van Gogh. It was just such a brilliant moment when The Doctor and Amy brought him to the exhibition in the future and the curator said all those wonderful things about him.
My other favourite appearances would be William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens as I really enjoyed their episodes; especially the „Expelliarmus„.

Day five: What’s your favorite episode?

There are so many great episodes that I like to re-watch on occasion and that I always enjoy, but I think my most favourite episodes are „The Stolen Earth“ and „Journeys End“ due to all the companions participating and saving the day together with the Doctor. The feeling I get from those episodes is also present in the incredible anniversary special „Day of the Doctor„. I guess I just like it when different aspects of a story come together. Other episodes I like include „The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances„, „The End of Time„, „Midnight„, „The Eleventh Hour“ and „The Lodger„.

Day six: If you were the Doctor, what would your catch phrase be? Ahoy, mateys? To infinity and beyond?

As I don’t want to be the Doctor I can’t imagine having any kind of catch phrase, I don’t even have a phrase I regularly say in everyday conversation and even if I had one I’d probably be annoyed by it after using it a couple of times…
Surprisingly the Doctor’s catch phrases never bothered me while watching the series, it’s rather the overuse within the Fandom that’s bugging me.

Day seven: Take a selfie in front of a TARDIS! It could be a poster, a toy, a drawing, anything! Just make sure to tag it with #infrontofthetardis!

I skipped this one. Apart from the fact that I don’t have a Tardis nearby, do I generally not post pictures of myself online.

Day eight: What’s your favorite Doctor Who audio adventure? If you don’t listen to the audios, click here tell us which summary you think sounds exciting!

I’m not that much into audio books, but I guess the one that would interest me the most would be „The Light at the End“ as anniversary story.

Day nine: Which Doctor Who alumni would you like to bring back? This could be either a character or an actor, your choice!

I wouldn’t mind if The Doctor would meet some more of his old companions, like he did with Sarah Jane, Liz and the Brigadier. It is so very unfortunate that we will never see Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney reprise their roles as Sarah Jane and the Brigadier again…
It’d be interesting to see if they recognized each other and how they would interact. I’d also like if some of his newer companions would return again, like Martha and Jack for example. And of course Donna, as she is – like I wrote for Day Two – my favourite so far.

Day ten: What’s your favorite piece of music from the show? Did you like Vale Decem? Or perhaps Rose’s Theme?

The theme for Eleven (I am the Doctor) was fun and exciting, as it always started when the action was about to climax, but in general do I not really know the names of the themes and simply enjoy them. Though the song that stuck with me most beside that theme was „I can’t decide“ by the Scissor Sisters that was ordered to be played by the Master in „Last of the Time Lords„. It was just so fitting and fun to watch.
In ten days you will get the next set of answers for the challenge. If you want to get them on time just follow my Tumblr page: Poisonpainter
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the Gif lies with BBC America and the official Doctor Who Tumblr.

Bad Wolf Day 2014

As I just noticed – through increased clicks on the post – today is again Bad Wolf Day, so have a look at my post from last year.
I do not participate this year – as I just noticed it – and am not really sure if it even is today or now officially on the 11th as I haven’t read anything about it, but I thought a reblog could still be interesting to some.
If you’re interested: I haven’t had any replies from the papers I’ve „hidden“.

Thor: Movie vs. Myth

The topic of this post is an assignment I got from The Extremis Reviews to see if my work is good enough for me to become a guest author for their page. I’m curious how that will work out, but as usual I do not put too much hope into it.
Regardless of me getting „the job“ or not, I already had thought about writing about Norse Mythology a bit more than the few mentions I had so far. Therefore I also see this as possibility for me to start my work on it properly.

As I mentioned in my review for Thor: The Dark World was I sceptical about the Thor-film in regards to its adaptations of the myths. I already knew a few things about the myths when I first heard about the film/the characters and the more I learned about both the myths and the Marvel-version, the more I was reluctant to actually try it. The way they portray characters and their relationships with each other seemed so wrong to me that I had a hard time grasping my head around it.

So with this post I want to show you some of the major differences between the adaptations of the myths in Marvels Cinematic Universe’s „Thor“ (and its follow-up films) and Norse Mythology itself. Please do keep in mind that I am not an expert on this matter and most of this is recited by memory, so if you see any mistakes you are more than welcome to inform me about them.

What confused me the most when I started watching the first Thor film were the

Family relationships;

especially Loki being Thor’s brother.

Deep down in the back of my mind something practically ranted at me: „He is not the brother. He wasn’t the brother. Was he?“ until I took my Laptop and looked it up.
Needles to say my nagging mind was indeed correct: According to Norse Mythology Loki is NOT the brother of Thor, but instead the blood brother (meaning no blood relationship whatsoever) of Odin, as Loki otherwise would not have been allowed to stay in Asgard due to being a giant. Though he does share some rather funny adventures with the God of Thunder (including for example cross-dressing, but covering that would stray too far away from the topic).

Another strange change are Thor and Sif, which in the original are married, while in the Marvel universe they are but friends. They fight alongside each other with Sif having a crush on him and Thor simply ignoring it and swooning over the „mortal“ Jane Foster. In the comics I believe Sif even becomes a Valkyrie, which would make any proper relationship quite impossible (in the myths they are the ones picking up the fallen warriors that are granted access to Valhalla, their „heaven“).

Not mentioned at all in the films, so far, are other family members of Thor and Loki.

As far as I know Thor has at least two brother’s (Baldr and Hodur) that play a major role on the way to Ragnarök (the Twilight of the Gods, the end of everything that is known). From a bit of research I know that Baldr has an appearance in the comics, but I believe the films will shelve Ragnarök for quite some time to cover other stories before that.

On Loki’s side there are the other pieces missing that are to bring about the end: The monster babies. 🙂
Jörmungandr (a gigantic serpent, large enough to circle the world entirely – and Thor’s arch enemy), Fenrir (an enormous wolf and the one said to kill Odin) and Hel(a – half young and beautiful woman, half rotten corpse and mistress of Helheim/Niflheim, the realm of the deceased that were not allowed to enter Valhalla, whose inhabitants she will lead into the fight against the Aesir at her fathers‘ side) the children of Loki and the giantess Angrboda that are very badly treated in the myths and do not appear in the films or stories of Marvel. Though Hel(a) is mentioned and shown in some of the cartoon versions and even called Loki’s daughter, though no mentioning of her mother or her brothers at all (there also are a wolf called Fenrir and a serpent, but it is not clear if they are in any way related to Loki and/or Marvels versions of them).
And let’s not forget his other two children with his Aesir-wife Sigyn (who is actually depicted in some of the comics and cartoons) that are used for his punishment shortly before Ragnarök (and I better not get into details about this right now, as it is quite nasty).

Origins:

As we already are talking about Loki’s children: Did you know that the eight-legged horse Odin is riding into battle (you can see it when he arrives in Jotunheim to rescue Thor and the others in the first film) is supposed to be Loki’s offspring? And did you also know that he is the mother?
Regardless if you answered these questions with yes or no, it is indeed the case that there is a story in the Norse Mythology about how the wall of Asgard was build and how Loki was forced to trick the horse of the builder into running off so that the builder (who was a giant in disguise) could not finish his work in time. As he had disguised himself as a white mare the God of Mischief returned several months after the ordeal with a foal, Sleipnir, that he then gave to Odin. Speaking of disguises: You think Loki’s illusions are fun? In the real stories he occasionally turns himself into all kind of things including a fish and several different women. 😉

If you think Sleipnir’s heritage is strange then let me tell you what is „wrong“ about Loki’s: In the myths Loki is not just depicted as the God of Mischief, but also as the God of Fire, due to him being a Fire Giant (Loki or Locke even means something like flame if I’m not mistaken) and yes, Marvel turned this around and made him a Frost Giant. Though they turned around something way more hilarious as well.
You remember the king of the Frost Giants, Laufey, who is said to be Loki’s father? Well, in the myths „Laufey“ is the name of Loki’s mother …

Though not a person the origin of Thor’s hammer Mjolnir differs in the stories as well. In Marvel it is said that the hammer was forged in a dying dwarf star from one of the strongest metals in the universe – incidentally the same as Captain America‘s shield, explaining the blast they emit when they collide in The Avengers. The only thing that coincides with the myths, however, is the word „dwarf“.
Mjolnir was forged by a dwarf – or dwarve, as the fantasy version is referred to – that got himself into a bet with Loki when the god had badmouthed the dwarves abilities to forge proper weaponry. While the dwarve worked on the hammer another one was trying to keep the flames steady. As he, however, was distracted by a fly (*cough*Loki*cough*) he failed at his task and the handle of the hammer ended up being rather short. Due to this Loki saw himself the victor, but the Aesir still preferred the dwarves work over the work Loki had presented them.  As the dwarve could not get Loki’s head as he had demanded (cutting off the head without doing the same with the neck proofed difficulty) he instead stitched up the lips of the lying god. Though none of this is portrayed in the Marvel universe, which is rather unfortunate.

What is however portrayed in Marvel and not in the myths are the Warriors Three. I don’t remember something like them existing in the stories as the most frequent companion Thor had on his adventures was Loki.

Appearance

It is normal to change the appearance of characters to fit a different audience, but some decision might be true to the Marvel version, but are still quite different from the Norse one.

So even though Jamie Alexander is a beautiful woman it is indeed unfortunate that she is not depicted with Norse-Sif’s golden hair that resulted from one of Loki’s many mischiefs (and is made of real gold). Other changed hair colours include Thor (red) and Loki (occasionally blond) themselves.

The strangest change however is Heimdal and a former fellow student of mine even declared that she stopped watching the first film as soon as she saw him. It is highly unlikely that someone of Idris Elbas skin-colour would have found his way into Norse Mythology; as Loki’s arch enemy nonetheless. (This is in no way meant offensive and I think Elba does a pretty good job as Asgards gate keeper. It just doesn’t really fit with what the myths tell us.)

But as she so nicely put it: At least Odin has only one eye.

The Nine realms

As I wrote in the review: I do like how they described Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and its connection to the other realms. A nice scientific explanation.
In the myths it is an actual tree that connects the different realms with his roots, trunk and branches. Deep down underneath the World Tree lie the dark realms, like Helheim. Where the trunk stands Midgard stretches on and high above the branches lies Asgard, home of the Aesir. The other realms lie somewhere as well, but I can’t really remember where exactly, sorry.
The difference in this is simply put: No science, actual tree and rainbow.

As you might have noticed I referred to the (main, as there are others too) inhabitants of Asgard as Aesir instead of Asgardians as Marvel calls them. The latter sounds more like simply referring to the alien-species that lives in Asgard than for what it is used to describe in the myths (alien super-human vs. actual god) and it just feels better to use it when talking about them.

Characters Reasoning

In the myths it is quite understandable why Loki turns against the Aesir (you only have to look at how they treat him and his children). In Marvel he is depicted more as a jealous, greedy prat than actually having reason to  behave the way he does.

This however is not really a difference like the others, but I felt like it was worth mentioning.

The few things above are probably only barely scratching the surface of all the differences between Marvel’s version and the original, but I hope I could give you at least a small overview of them. I am also sorry that I didn’t get into too much detail with some of them, as that would have been too Off Topic.

Anyway, I am off to Berlin again for a long weekend and a Van Canto concert and am already curious what kind of replies will await me on my return.

PoiSonPaiNter