Frozen is about argumentation theory!

Toys made me want to see the movie

Bad criticism ruined Frozen for me. Oddly enough, I became interested in watching the movie not because of commercials or controversies (of which I thankfully remained largely ignorant until after my first viewing), but because of toys. For those of you unfamiliar with videogames (or who don't have kids), Disney Infinity is a videogame where players buy Disney figures / toys, places them in a portal, and then use them in the Disney Infinity game (think Skylanders with Disney). Before I even heard of the movie, I saw the Frozen figures, and they looked really cool. I didn't know what movie they were from, but the Elsa and Anna figures were cool enough to get me interested in the movie. When the movie came out, I took my family to see it, and we had a great time.

Elsa and Anna, sisters.

The story is about two sisters, one of whom has the power to control ice (Elsa). Because of an accident, her parents ask her to keep her powers hidden. The two princesses grow up locked in a castle, with Elsa practicing how to keep her powers under control, until the day for Elsa's coronation (at age 21) comes. During the coronation ceremony, she loses control of her powers and flees to the remote cold of the mountains. There, in solitude, she discovers her true self and creates magnificent structures using her powers. The rest of the movie features Anna, the younger princess, trying to help her sister realize that to control her powers she needs to open up and that it's all about love. During the journey, Anna meets a prince, a commoner with a reindeer, a talking snowman who wants to live in summer, and a host of other memorable characters, both good and bad. At the end of the movie, Anna discovers that love for her family (sister) is far truer and more important than any kind of romantic love.

When it boils down to it, Frozen is all about love between siblings. The movie explores romantic love in the form of Anna and the prince (and later Anna and reindeer man), and judges it wanting when compared to the love shared between family. 

But not everyone saw the movie that way..

Awesome Final Fantasy Weapons

Mythic Weapons from Final Fantasy XI

   Not so long ago, Doctor Q did an article regarding stupid weapons in games. While I mainly agreed with him (I still think Final Fantasy VIII’s gunblades are beyond stupid), in this article I want to point out some deliberately awesome ones in the main installments of the Final Fantasy games. Here are some of the more memorable ones to me, whether because of how cool they look, their sheer destructive power or if they straight out broke the game. Let’s take a look at some Final Fantasy game weapons.

Outgrowing Heroes: Retro-Gaming Final Fantasy VII and VIII

    
As a teenage girl gamer during the Playstation one era, I was introduced to my favorite video game fandom, Final Fantasy. Though they were my first ones, I liked them so much that I played the older ones. Now an adult, I recently decided to retro play Final Fantasy VII and VIII after not playing them for about ten or so years. What a difference time makes.

Observations in Pop Culture - Let's Be Smart, Courteous Fans, Ok?

  

Every day people talk about pop culture, whether its movies, comics or more mundane stuff, like celebrities and music. Yet something I’ve noticed is how often people in general, regardless of how we classify them, tend to say “X thing sucks!” without ever having experienced it in full. 

   Sometimes my friends stumble into material in my search histories, physical and digital libraries that makes them question my taste. They rarely believe it’s for research purposes. Then again, I don’t tend to explain my research either, so it doesn’t help. Yet as a believer in the “I’ll respect your opinion on this if you tell me exactly why you hate it” philosophy, I feel it’s my duty to find out why something is popular or hated.