Class in Review: 11.14.11 & 11.16 & Immortals

On Friday I got to go see the movie ‘Immortal’ and I think Mr. Bahlmann has succeeded in getting me to think about superheroes with everything I watch or read. Throughout the movie I caught myself comparing what I was seeing to what we had read/discussed in class and even considering whether or not the main character could be considered a superhero or not. I must give a warning that I may spoil certain parts of the movie, if you haven’t seen it but want to, I’m sorry. Anyhow I thought it was interesting that I could find elements from some of the stories we read in class in the movie. There was a bow and arrow that had magical powers from the Greek Gods (Ramayana), Theseus (the main character) got his training or “powers” (Beowulf), the idea of immortality (Gilgamesh), and the Greek Gods played an important part in the story (Iliad). Throughout the movie you could see different elements of a superhero story, there was the

damsel in distress, development of a villain, a messed up supervillain, growth of a superhero, gaining of a sidekick/best friend/brother, and epic fight scenes.

Theseus was a bastard child and when asked by his trainer why he didn’t fight in the army he said it was because he only fought for what he loved. Him and his mother were seen and treated as outcasts of the village, if you’ve ever read The Scarlet Letter, they treated Theseus and his mother the same way people treated Hester and Pearl. The supervillain is King Hyperion, his hatred towards the world stems from his past, and wanting everyone else to feel his pain and prove to them that there was no purpose in being faithful to the Greek Gods. The bow is an important part of the story because it can release the Titans that had been locked in the middle of a mountain. Before all of this happened there was a battle in the sky between the Titans and the Greek Gods. Having lost, the Titans were placed

underground imprisoned and the Greek Gods ruled on Mt. Olympus. Releasing the Titans are like releasing all the evils in the world, but the Gods had made a promise that they would not interfere in mortals’ business, it’s only when the Titans are released will they come down and fight. I won’t explain everything that happened in the movie but the ending to me symbolizes that there will always be evil in the world, but becoming immortal isn’t only having a story that will be passed down from generation to generation but it’s also having/starting a family.

In class we had discussed how there were few superheroes that were women and even if there are the male superheroes would save them from danger. In the movie I could see Athena as a superhero in the movie, but the only thing that makes her a superhero is that she is a Goddess so she does have “powers” that mortals don’t have. That leads to another discussion that we had in class: If we can see Greek Gods/Goddesses as superheroes, than why not Jesus? (Or a form of that question). So I guess I could see Jesus/God as

a superhero, I mean why not? If I can see Greek Gods/Goddesses as superheroes than I’m willing to accept Jesus/God as a superhero as well. Overall I felt that the movie had summed up what we had been discussing in class and incorporated different elements of the stories we read. I must admit that I was feeling a little “nerdy” because I would think to myself, “Hey, that’s like this part in the Ramayana! Wow I wonder if they incorporated that on purpose” or “This is like the hero’s journey and, OH! is that the supervillain, I’m pretty sure it is! That guy seems pretty psychotic, kind of like The Joker.” I hope I’ve successfully related this movie to this class, while I was watching I was taking mental notes about all the different comparisons I could make!

Word Count: 686

And this picture popped up on my newsfeed a while ago and it's so true:

Class in Review: Superheroes in general

In class we didn’t have a real topic to talk about so we just listed our favorite superheroes and why they’re our favorite. I don’t have a favorite superhero, but I think the reason why certain heroes are our favorite is because we can see ourselves in them. Not necessarily like a mirror image, but they also hold values that we believe in. That could be a reason why a lot of people like Superman. I must admit that in class my mind started wandering off and I started to think about movies that I have seen where there was a superhero that wasn’t explicitly shown.

There was one movie that came to mind it’s the movie Wanted. It stars Angelina Jolie (Fox) and James McAvoy (Wesley). Wesley is a typical guy, but it seems as if the world is against him. His boss it a pushy woman who loves to humiliate him at work whenever she can and his best friend is nailing his girlfriend. He suffers from “panic attacks” which is the main reason why he doesn’t stand up to either his boss or his best friend. It isn’t until he meets Fox that she tells him his father was part of a group of assassins called The Faternity. He is brought to the groups headquarters where the leader Sloan tells Wesley that his panic attacks aren’t panic attacks but a superhuman ability. At the headquarters Wesley is trained to withstand torture and is introduced to the Loom of Fate. Sloan tells Wesley that the loom shows the names of people that could cause troubles in the future and need to be eliminated. Long story short, Wesley finds out that the loom was crafted by Sloan when he figured out he could make money off of it, and that Sloan started doing it because he was a target of the real Loom of Fate. When he confronts Sloan, Sloan doesn’t deny it and he tells the rest of the main assassins that their name had also shown up on the loom. The other assassins would rather live but Fox curves a bullet to kill all of them to follow the rules of the loom. If you want a more in depth plot summary you can go to the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_(2008_film)#Plot. Wesley didn’t know that Sloan’s Loom of Fate was fake, but he killed those people, so does that make him a bad guy? He thought that he was doing good, but it isn’t till the end of the movie is he truly a good guy. In my opinion I think he is a superhero, I mean he has more “superpowers” than Batman and if we can consider The Punisher as a superhero, than I think we can accept Wesley as a superhero and Sloan as the villain. The only problem is that at the end of the movie Sloan is eliminated, so I’m not too sure if Wesley still has a villain. I find it odd how I can accept Wesley as a superhero but I have a difficult time accepting Batman as one. The Joker makes Batman, but without the Joker there really would be no use for Batman. Even if Sloan was eliminated I still think that Wesley’s story will go on.

Thinking about Batman I went off on another tangent where I was thinking about how there has been sidekicks turned into superheroes. Cartoon Network had a cartoon where Robin was the main superhero and he had other superheroes to help him. I can’t remember what the name was, but I thought it was kind of interesting how it was showing that Robin could be a superhero on his own. The thing that bothered me though was that the few times I had watched it there was no reference to Batman, so I don’t think majority of the kids watching it would know that Robin was Batman’s sidekick, but if it was mentioned then I don’t think children could accept Robin as a superhero.

Word Count: 674

Class in Review: 10.17.11 & 10.19.11

Oh super villains, where would we be without them? We wouldn’t have any superheroes that’s for sure. We wouldn’t have a need for Sueprman or Spiderman (notice how I leave out Batman?) the smaller crimes that are committed by regular people are small enough for the police to handle themselves. I left out Batman because I don’t think he has any real powers that makes him super, in my opinion I think it’s The Joker that makes him a superhero. Superman wouldn’t be known as Superman, he’d be known as... I don’t know what his name is, but he wouldn’t be known as Superman. I think in order to have a memorable Superhero you need to have a memorable supervillain. I honestly don’t think that Batman would have been as successful without The Joker.

With Rama I don’t think it’s the 10-headed beast that makes Rama, it’s the hunchback lady that makes him. If Rama hadn’t been exiled than he could’ve encountered the 10-headed beast in his castle or maybe he wouldn’t have even met up with him. Rama is like the Hindu version of Superman, both are the ultimate boy scout willing to do anything to protect the women they both love and care about. In order to see their greatness we had to see the evilness of another person, they both need complements.

I think that that’s how everything in life works. In order to enjoy one thing, we need something that complements it. Like when we eat sweet and salty snacks, the saltiness complements the sugary sweetness of whatever we’re eating; that’s why all the dessert recipes require salt. I personally like when there are characters in stories that complement each other, they bring out the best or sometimes worse of one another and it brings a lot to a story. I think that’s why I like asian dramas more than the soap operas that we have here. In the dramas there are characters that bring out the best of other characters and in my opinion I feel like the characters are more complex than majority of the ones we have here. For example with the one I’m watching now, the secretary helps her boss become more “manly,” she teaches him how to stick up for himself and he teaches her how to open herself to others and that there are people in the world who want to help her succeed if she’d allow them into her world. Than there are more characters that bring out the best/worse of the rest of the characters in the drama and so on.

I kind of strayed from the superheroes and their villains and how they complement each other, but it’s similar to the two ideas up there and it doesn’t always have to be the relationship with the villains, it could also be their relationship between the super hero and their sidekick. I think sidekicks are often there to complement the superheroes to show a different side of them that a supervillain wouldn’t be able to show. Without Robin I wouldn’t be able to tell if Batman was capable of “loving” another person because he secludes himself from being able to love another person.

Word Count: 538

Class in Review: 10.03.11 & 10.05.11 + Presentation

On Monday we got into a pretty interesting conversation about superheroes and their costumes. I think the costumes are a very important part of a superhero it’s our way of distinguishing them and even becomes a part of their identity. Like what Mr. B said, even with color schemes or symbols we can identify the superhero and when there’s changes to their costumes some people aren’t too happy. In the first Spider-man movie they took the time to show him creating his costume, although it was for wrestling in, nonetheless I think it demonstrates how important it is for a superhero to have a costume.

When they’re not in their costumes, they’re the everyday Joe Schmo, going through the daily ups and downs of life. We relate to them on that level, especially when they form friendships/interests in other people. They can get in trouble with their boss, they can spill coffee on themselves, they can be having the worse day ever, and we know how it feels to have nothing go right. To see someone and feel like it’s love at first sight, but not have the courage to say anything or to realize that they’re with someone else. Then the city comes under attack and all of a sudden they change/transform into a superhero, goes out and saves the day. Transforming sets themselves a part from us and they become something extraordinary; they make us think of things we haven’t thought of before (I’m thinking from a kid’s first experience with a superhero) and they make us dream that maybe somewhere out there, they really do exist. I think that if we didn’t have this transformation it would’ve been a little difficult for people to really accept these superheroes because they wouldn’t have anything they could relate to.

Wonder woman is one of the superheroes that, I don’t believe, has that secret identity thing going on, but it works to her advantage. The reason why I think that is because women can embrace her and feel empowered because they see her out there kicking guys’ you know what and she looks good doing it. She stands up for herself and does what she believes is right. I think she stands for what women want to be, powerful yet feminine at the same time.

On Wednesday my group and I did our presentations and I must admit, it felt like I was in COM 101 again (mainly because it was the same room that class was in a couple of semesters ago) and I think my group and I did a good job. I really don’t have much complaints about our presentation, except I’m kind of mad at myself because I forgot to point out two important points, but other than that it went well. I loved Patrick’s rap! The final product was a complete surprise for me and the rest of the group because we hadn’t seen it until that day and he did an incredible job! It was extremely enjoyable, catchy, and informative. If I had to give the rest of the groups advice it’d be: It’s better to know more than what you think you need to know. There was so much research invested into the presentation that not all of it made it into the final product, but it did help when actually talking the class because you have the confidence that takes away any nervous feelings.

word count: 575

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztlh7FXmvuI

Class in Review: 09.26.11 & 09.28.11

This week has been pretty stressful and busy, which didn’t help when it came to class on Monday and Wednesday, and reading The Illiad didn’t help make my week any better, in fact it gave me a headache while I was reading it I needed to sparknotes it afterwards to ease my pain. When we were discussing the story in class we brought up other issues while also trying to solve the main problem we’ve had for I believe the past two weeks, which is how do we categorize humans, super humans, heroes, super heroes, superheroes, etc? I posed the topics and questions that we had discussed in class and asked my parents what they thought, it was my dad who kept pointing out that everything depends on one’s perspective. I tried to see if he would say anything close to what others had brought up in class, but he kept giving me one answer, “It’s all about perspective.” I even gave him the example of the nuclear bomb in the stadium and if that person could be considered a hero or a nuisance (ends vs. means) and again he said, “It’s all about perspective.”

So afterwards I described Achilles to him and asked him if he would consider Achilles as a hero, superhero, or neither; I’m sure we all know what his answer is, “It’s all about perspective.” When I ask myself the same question I don’t even have an answer, Achilles just doesn’t appeal to me. I think it’s because he was all about making sure he got what he wanted his way, but he did go through one of those “defining moments” because it took the death of his closest friend to really give him a cause for fighting. It’s difficult to keep writing this while working on the group presentation because a part of me wants to relate Achilles to Gilgamesh. I’ll save what I want to say for later.

I started to really think about superheroes during the weekend, and I started to think about the Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sailor Moon, Astroboy, and Kikaida. If you don’t know about Kikaida, he’s like the Japanese version of Iron Man, he’s a guitar playing motorcyclist that transforms into this half machine half man thing, but the focus is on protecting Japan from an evil organization. I’m pretty sure we’re all familiar with the other shows maybe not Sailor Moon, you can always google it, but how would you categorize them? Power Rangers are the ones that I’m not too sure about because with the power rangers they were specially chosen to become the rangers and they learn martial arts and stuff to beat the weird looking evil minions. Then when the main evil character grows like a 1,000 times bigger they use these remote control things to form a megazord thing and they’d win. They don’t really have any powers except for their megazords, so I guess I’d consider them super heroes, besides the fact that they destroy parts of the city and don’t do anything about it.

When I was in elementary school, I would spend the mornings watching Power Rangers and Sailor Moon and to me Sailor Moon seemed more of a superhero than the Power Rangers. Sailor Moon was my version of Wonder Woman, she became someone I wanted to be but knew that it could never happen because I’d never be able to have those “powers.” I got away from the main topic that I wanted this entry to be about (Achilles & The Illiad) but I couldn’t help if it got me thinking about Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Word Count: 611

<--- Kikaida

Sailor Moon --------->

Class in Review 09.12.11 & 09.14.11

On Monday we discussed whether or not we thought that Beowulf could be considered a superhero or a super hero. Throughout the discussion it was apparent that there are so many different definitions of a superhero and we all have our own opinions of what makes a superhero. I believe Beowulf can be considered a superhero by today's standards because he'd fit the criteria of what I believe a superhero is (as stated in my last post). He may not have gotten his powers from a radioactive spider or fell into a toxic vat of goo, but his "powers" (supposedly) came from God, his strength is unlike a regular man's, and the confidence he has is extraordinary.

There was a point brought up in class that Beowulf is too cocky which takes away from him being a superhero because superheroes are supposed to be humble with their powers, I guess that's why most superheroes have a secret identity, right? Their secret identities are supposed to allow them to blend in and show that they're just like everyone else, even though they're not, right? Well, I was re-reading the first part of Beowulf and I realized that there's a small part that shows his humility. It was before he was to face Grendel and he says, 'So I shall bear no blade in the night if he sees fit to fight without weapons. May God in His wisdom grant whom He wills blessing in battle." (Pg. 1579, 611-614) For Beowulf to abandon all his armor and depend on his strengths and abilities, and to also make it a fair battle, shows that he's cocky but to an extent. He's only interested in a fair battle to prove himself and show that he can talk the talk and walk the walk.

Personally I actually started to like where the discussion was going and I was actually interested in it (to my surprise). The more we discussed whether or not Beowulf could be considered a superhero, during his time, the more I was convinced that he was just super human. Maybe it’s because I kind of think about him and Batman on the same level. Both don’t really have “super powers” they’re human beings that have worked to develop themselves to become stronger and superior than average people. It actually reminds me of what body builders and weightlifters do; they train themselves to become stronger and superior than everyone else. They try to take the human body to the extreme and make us watch in awe as they lift ridiculous amounts of weights.

Back to the story as a whole, I honestly had a difficult time reading the story. The names of most of the characters confused me and I could only understand maybe 25% of what was really going on in the story. I think I understood the important parts, but I think it’d be a better idea for me to sparknotes it and re-read the entire thing. I should be honest, if their names weren’t so difficult to pronounce and actually sounded like real names than I swear it would’ve been so much easier for me to read it. I couldn’t keep up with who was who.

Word Count: 539

Intro + Components of a Superhero

I guess I should introduce myself first before getting down to business. My name is Janelle Takahata, I'm from Honolulu, Hi (lucky, I know), this is my second year here, and I'm currently majoring in business. The question I get asked a lot is, "Why did you leave Hawaii in the first place?" To that there are two reasons:

1. To live there costs a lot of money.

2. I took my teacher's advice to get off the rock and experience something different.

Since I grew up in Hawaii, the way I talk can be very different from the way other people talk. See, back home there's this unofficial/official language of the islands called Pidgin (not named after the type of bird), we even have a dictionary for it. It's difficult to really explain what Pidgin is, it's a combination of words from different languages and cutting long sentences into shorter ones... forget I can't explain what Pidgin is, if you want to hear what it sounds like than just let me know I guess.

Anyhow, on to business:

In class we discussed the traits/components of a superhero and throughout the discussion I couldn't help but keep thinking that there are many of those traits that individuals in today's society have. The only difference being they can't fly, they don't have invisible jets, a secret lair that has dozens of t.v. screens displaying everything that's going on in the city, they don't run around in tights with their goods getting suffocated, etc. To me the big difference between a superhero and a hero is the fact that superheroes have certain traits or physical abilities that as real people we may never have.

Isn't that what makes them super? Let's take Superman for example. I learned about Superman when I was around five or six years old and to be honest, I had no clue what he looked like. All I knew was that he could fly because of that phrase people said, "Look... Up in the sky... It's a bird... It's a plane... It's Superman!" I mean honestly the fact that a guy good fly without using a rocket or anything of the sorts makes him special in my book, and on top of that he fights crime and saves the world on a daily (well maybe not daily) basis, he is super.

In my opinion superheroes are people who make us want to push "normal" human boundaries, to believe the unbelievable, and they use the "gifts" they were given for good rather than selfish reasons.

To me heroes are people we look up to that have certain traits that we wish we had, and sometimes we can have. Example, my cousin told me he wanted to become a firefighter and I asked him why, he said, "Because they save people who need help, they aren't afraid to go into a burning building, and they're strong." The traits that he described are traits that he can obtain over the years, they're not completely out of reach.

I hope this made sense, it was difficult for me to really illustrate my point without feeling like it'd take people 5+ minutes to read. Anyhow, what's your take one a superhero and/or a hero?

Image from: http://ohmyshoot.blogspot.com/2010/11/hello-kitty-superheroes-version.html