ORP verses 11-20

Continuing north, Bran followed on.
Then he noticed something was wrong.
Ffreinc soldiers were attacking
A young family, defenses lacking,
And throwing their things on the lawn.

The family Bran decided to defend.
An arrow through the air he did send.
Shot four of the Ffreincs,
Missed one by the flank
Who, calling for reinforcements, fled.

The reinforcements outnumbered Bran by a lot,
But with vigor Bran still fought.
He was cornered at a waterfall,
To the bottom he did sprawl
From the blow of a spear that was shot.

Everyone believed Bran was finally dead,
Including Mérian, feeling sorrow and dread.
She hid her remorse,
Remaining on course,
But continued to cry herself to bed.

Contrary to belief, Bran was still alive.
In search of the nearest town he did strive.
But with wounds galore,
And exhausted evermore,
He passed out by a pond to revive.

He was found at the pond by an old hag –
A wise and skilled woman named Angharad.
She brought him to Cynvar,
Closed up all of his scars,
And covered his wounds with hot rags.

Meanwhile, Falkes de Braose ruled Elfael –
Convincing his uncle he ruled well.
Uncle wanted three castles,
Thinking it would be no hassle,
But Falkes knew the project would be Hell.

It was only a month or so later
When Falkes’s uncle wanted something greater.
He asked for a town,
Built without a frown,
Before the summer was no longer a key player.

Simultaneously, Bran was still healing.
Every night, Angharad would be singing
Of different faces
And interesting places,
Making Bran feel like he was sightseeing.

After a while, Bran’s improvement showed.
He began planning where we would go.
Either he’d flee to the north
Or go and stand forth
To the evilness of Count Falkes de Braose.

Pan’s Labyrinth: A Clever Battle of Real Life and Fantasy

Pan’s Labyrinth is a film with all of the works: nearly perfect for all of the gore-craving, adventure-loving, fantasy fanatics out there. With a winding plot and convincing characters, this movie proves to be a very impressive tale of the contrast between the real and fantastical worlds.

The plot heats up right away, compelling the audience, beginning with a tale of a princess who ran away from home and died in the cold winter. But her father, the king, knew that one day her soul would return. The actual story, however, takes place in Spain, post Civil War. Francis Franco has won, but there are troops of men still fighting for their independence. Captain Vidal (Sergi López i Ayats) has the job getting rid of them. He is stationed in the Spanish Mountains, where Pedro (Roger Casamajor), the brother of Vidal’s maid, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), is fighting against him. Mercedes and Vidal’s doctor, Dr. Ferreiro (Alex Angulo), try to help Pedro’s men while continuing to work under the evil Captain Vidal. But at the beginning, young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), arrive at Captain Vidal’s army post due to Carmen’s pregnancy with Vidal’s son. But Vidal is a morally corrupt man, making Ofelia very uncomfortable in her new home. She seeks refuge in a magical quest presented to her by an ancient faun (Doug Jones) living in an archaic labyrinth, making it clear that Ofelia must have the soul of the princess. The faun sends her off to do three tasks before the full moon to find out if she actually is the princess he has been waiting for.

While very complicated, the plot is rather comprehensible and even quite realistic, despite the fantasticalness. The idea of a little girl finding solace in fairy tales and the realism of a cruel world around her is entirely convincing. Sergi Ayats’ performance as Captain Vidal is flawless, never showing even the slightest hint of compassion or decency. One would think that a completely coldhearted man would be hard to believe, but the fact that he is so unlikeable makes him respectable, and thusly believable (usually when you respect someone, you tend to believe them). As for direction, Guillermo del Toro might have put in a little too much gore for my taste, but the high level of intensity is completely enthralling. He brings in certain elements from his past movies, such as Hellboy, which is described as a movie with “veritinous action and a surprising depth of feeling” by the Wall Street Journal. These traits are clearly significant in Pan’s Labyrinth as well, with the violent battle scenes and the strikingly emotional plot twists. His directing style is definitely consistent, and it proves to be very effective in this film.

Del Toro does a fantastic job contrasting the real world setting with the setting of the fantasy world. The real world is full of earthy, dull colors, making for a very bleak background. But the fantasy world is full of rich, vibrant colors, making the scenery feel majestic and ostentatious. The music has a minor feel, making for an eerie vibe that is very suiting to the film. The fantasy creatures look rather fake, but the creativity put into their design diverts attention away from the phoniness. Overall, the movie looks and sounds terrifically spine-chilling.

As far as fantasy films go, Pan’s Labyrinth is awfully realistic. It shows a large distinction between those who believe in magic and those who don’t. As children’s author Roald Dahl once said, “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” It is solely the choice of oneself to believe or not. I grant this film 8 runaway princesses out of a possible 10 for a clever and believable plot, engaging action, and slightly bloodstained overkill.

The New Immortal

I came back from my study abroad program in Romania just a few days ago. I had the most fun in my life when I was there, excluding that one peculiar night when I was bitten by Dracula himself. It was a cool night and the lack of a heating system in the two-star hotel didn’t help very much. Rain was buffeting the window panes, streaming down to the ledge of the old, wooden frame. That type of weather had never really bothered me before, so I just flicked off the lights and tucked the covers over my head. The next moment, he was bowing over me, my neck in his blood-stained jaws.

I couldn’t get myself to scream, enabling him to continue on with his feast. My eyes rolled back into my head as I prayed for someone to save me just as Alex barged in with a plate of leftover garlic bread from dinner. He flipped up the light switch and exclaimed, “Hey, Raven! Look at what I snagged from the kitchen!”

When he saw the vampire grasping my blood-drained body, he shrieked, dropping the plate of garlic bread to the floor. The vampire halted his feast and hissed at the stench of the permeating garlic. In less than a second, the beast was gone and I was clutching my neck in shock. I had always imagined that a vampire’s bite would bring excruciating pain, but oddly enough, I felt nothing. All that was left was the imprint of two little holes on my neck.

Alex was scared to death, but I made him promise not to tell anyone. I could only imagine what people would do if we told them I was going to become a vampire. They’d probably laugh; thinking that being in Romania had probably gotten to my head. Nobody believes in vampires. I never did… until now.

It’s been a week or so since I’ve been bitten. Nothing drastic has happened until tonight. I lean over the toilet in my childhood bathroom and retch into the white basin. Flushing the toilet, I reach for a paper towel and wipe the puke off my face. I’ve been vomiting practically every fifteen minutes for the past three hours, and the time increments have been decreasing.

I sit and wait for the next ten minutes to pass by, rubbing my arms and curling up into a ball on the tiled floor. I try to occupy my mind with the possible benefits of being a vampire. Maybe I’ll have super speed. And maybe I’ll even be able to transform into a bat or some cool animal like that. Usually vampires are very talented at persuasion, too. That’s going to be a good tool when I want to ask a guy out, or when I want to convince one of my professors to give me a better grade on a paper. Being a vampire won’t be all that bad… other than the being-condemned-for-life part.

With one minute left to go of waiting, my dad knocks on the door. “Are you going to be in there much longer? There are other people in the house that need to go to the bathroom, too,” he says curtly.

Just as I open my mouth to reply, my stomach contracts and I hurl into the toilet yet again. My dad groans and walks away, not willing to listen to my explanation. I hear him trudge down the hall into the kitchen and mumble to my mom, “She’s throwing up in there – probably drunk or something, knowing college kids nowadays.” Mom giggles, but doesn’t reply.

I curl up into my ball once more and shiver, hoping I’ll eventually fall asleep. It feels as though I’m puking everything out of my body and there’s nothing left to throw up. Even my blood feels like it’s being drained from my skin. I retch constantly for a few more hours and finally pass out from hurling so much.



I wake up in the same fetal position as I had passed out in last night. I feel rejuvenated, but as though the life has been sucked out of my body and death has filled its place. It’s like I’ve chugged an entire bottle of mountain dew and the caffeine is surging through my body in place of the blood that used to flow there.

I jump up and look in the mirror. I gasp, only seeing the towel rack hanging against the light blue wall behind me. I have no reflection. So it must be true, I must really be a vampire. The corners of my lips rise into a smirk.

The next moment, I appear in the kitchen with stunning speed. My mom jumps as she pours a glob of pancake mix onto a hot pan, spilling some of it on the ground. “Oh! Raven! You surprised me!” she exclaims. I snicker as she grabs a napkin to wipe up the pancake mix. “Do you want some pancakes?” I shake my head as my dad lumbers into the room and plops down at the kitchen table with a newspaper covering his face.

“You feeling okay, Raven? You were in that bathroom for quite a while last night,” my dad comments tersely. I nod my head. Not like he even sees it, but I do it anyways.

My mom looks over and practically cringes at the sight of me. “Goodness gracious, Raven! You look so pale! Are you sick or something?” She strides over to me and is about to touch my forehead with her warm hand as I suddenly obtain a strong urge for her blood. I seize her wrist and clench it with my fangs, soothing my throat with her juice. Once I drain her, I throw her like a ragdoll onto the wooden floor. I just murdered my mother. A sneer crosses my face and I exchange stares with my dad, who’s motionless and shaking. Maybe I’ll save him for lunch.

Stanzas 1-10 Summarization of Stephen R. Lawhead's "Hood"

There once was a young prince named Bran.
Of his mother, he was a true fan.
He went to the Guarding Wood,
Shot a boar that was good,
And brought it to her as a man.

Many years later in Elfael,
Lord Brychan was trying to tell
Of the peace he wanted,
But his arrogance haunted
And the enemy did come to dwell.

Lord Brychan and his soldiers were killed
By the Ffreincs who were all of strong build.
Only Iwan survived,
Back home he arrived,
And the story to Bran he spilled.

Bran, Iwan, and Ffreol, their friar friend,
Warned the village and instantly fled.
To Lundein they went,
Despite their lament,
To seek peace and to make their amends.

While the young men travelled to Lundein,
Baron Neufmarché was trying to stay sane.
He had wanted Elfael,
But to the Normans the King did sell,
So the Baron requested for more gain.

Meanwhile, the three men continued on.
For a few days they had been gone.
Ffreol took them to Tuck,
A friar who cooked up some duck,
And told stories until it was dawn.

To Lundein they brought the new friar.
Waiting to speak with the King, they did tire.
At last they were brought,
Told that Elfael had been bought,
And that it would take much more money to acquire.

In a rage, the men returned home,
But they were stopped on the road where they roamed.
They were attacked by the Ffreincs,
Brother Ffreol they shanked,
And Bran was captured and brought home.

The Ffreincs want a ransom for Bran’s life,
So they send him to get money in strife.
But Bran gets a horse,
Sets off on his course
Going North, not to be stabbed by a knife.

Bran stops at Mérian’s on the way.
He declares his love, asking if she’ll stray.
She quickly says, “No,”
Gives him some arrows and a bow,
And tells him to leave. He obeys.

"Nothing in the Dark" as a Dark Fantasy

Lamont Johnson’s “Nothing in the Dark” from Rod Sterling’s television series The Twilight Zone is a story about an old woman who is hiding from “Mr. Death”, a man who is trying to take her life away. The entire plot is based on her fear of death, which is greatly stressed in the genre of Dark Fantasy. For example, the story begins with a man at the front door who is begging the old lady to open the door, claiming that he has been shot and needs help. She’s aware that it is very likely for this man to be “Mr. Death”, and she’s afraid that if she opens the door, she will die. Her fear for the unknown is a quality found in most Dark Fantasy stories. Likewise, “Mr. Death” is portrayed as the symbol of death, which is another common trait in Dark Fantasy. Simply the title of the Dark Fantasy genre implies that this type of fantasy is dark, which can be related back to the idea of the old lady living in the darkness of her old apartment, trying to hide from her certain death. There are many qualities in the episode such as these that make “Nothing in the Dark” a defined form of Dark Fantasy.

My Twelve Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy Movies

12. Van Helsing – This movie might have too many computer graphics, but the stunts are extremely awesome and Van Helsing is the one of the most mysteriously calm protagonists out there. The only time he loses his cool is when he’s forced into becoming a werewolf, which is an uncontrollable fate. The realistic ending also adds a twist that ties the movie together instead of a lame ending where everyone lives happily ever after.

11. The Dark Knight – When I went to see this movie in theatres, I was blown away. The character Bruce Wane is utterly intriguing and his nemesis, The Joker, is hilarious. There is a mixture of extreme seriousness with tremendous wit, making the story totally enthralling. Not to mention the action scenes, the anticipation, and the crazy twists and turns to the plot.

10. Spiderman – Peter Parker is a person I can completely relate with, making Spiderman number ten on my list. He’s smart and quirky, but always sticks to his morals. The fact that he has a very handsome best friend, Harry Osborne, is just a side note. Harry is another relatable character. In fact, many of the characters are relatable, which gives this movie a realistic quality that is hard to find in modern day Hollywood.

9. Star Trek (the movie) – This movie keeps me gripped with a vast amount of action and an added little love story on the side (I’m a sucker for a good love story). The casting director picked the perfect actors for each role. The iconic characters, such as Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Scotty were fabulously represented in this film and their well-known quirks from the television series were very noticeable. This also made the movie a bit funny to watch, seeing all of the old characters in a new light.

8. Back to the Future Part II – The hilarious duo of Doc Brown and Marty McFly will never get old, even though the movie was created in the dark ages. Doc Brown’s scattered, yet brilliant mind makes his personality very comical, and Marty completely contrasts with his slacker attitude, causing the pair to work very well together. My favorite scene is when Marty rocks out to “Johnny B. Goode” at The Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. The song ends with his guitar solo in which he manages to do the duck walk, jump off an amplifier, and slide across the floor on his back all in a matter of one minute. It doesn’t get much funnier than that.

7. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back – I think it’s pretty impossible to not like a movie when Harrison Ford stars in it. The terrible technology doesn’t take away from the interesting plot, the cool fight scenes, and the romantic love story between Han Solo and Princess Leia in this movie. The numerous amounts of different personalities in the story keeps things interesting and creates plenty of opportunities for more fighting, which is probably the best part. The epic battles between the Jedi are so fun to watch and I can’t help wanting to be a Jedi afterwards.

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Like wine, the Harry Potter movies have gotten better with age. The action is more exciting and the mood is eerier than ever before. Something one would expect from witches and wizards, no? Well, the fifth Harry Potter movie has got it going on. Not only are the characters more mature (and therefore more interesting), but they are more capable of standing up for themselves in battle, making the fight scenes more interesting. The music and the setting for this movie also add to the ambiance of the story, causing everything to appear gloomy and ominous. Hopefully, these films will continue to improve in the future.

5. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – While I watched this movie for the first time, I couldn’t help but imagine myself as being a part of the Fellowship. The characters are all very talented, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and anyone can relate to at least one of them. Frodo, the most important character, is very likable, making it easy to cheer him on; everybody’s rooting for Frodo. While being Frodo’s own personal support system, it feels as though we’re going on the quest with him, making it all the more enjoyable.

4. X-Men – This movie puts the supernatural in a new light. Mutants are viewed as odd and unwanted in society, putting a new spin on the idea of superheroes. This new view really caught my attention and made it more than just another superhero movie. The mutants have to fight against the struggle of rejection while also trying to protect the people that reject them, creating a very deep and compelling story.

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – Jack Sparrow alone makes this movie amazing. However, the music, the action, and the character development also add a hint of spice to this already very witty and bold production. The music is amazingly memorable, while fitting the mood of the film perfectly. The action is well-choreographed and thrilling; always with a new twist to each battle. The characters all have a combination of wit and sincerity, each with their own special quirks which we love them for.

2. King Arthur – King Arthur and his knights are the most insanely skilled mortal individuals ever to appear on the big screen. There is no doubt they are worthy of their title seeing as they made it through several years of battle without even being wounded nonetheless killed. The battle scenes are definitely the best part of the movie, especially when Tristan (a master bowman) shoots a man hiding in a tree from hundreds of feet away.

1. Robin Hood (Disney version) – As predictable as it is, Robin Hood is indeed my number one fantasy movie of all time. I remember first watching this movie (the Disney version) and instantly falling in love with the character of Robin Hood. His complete confidence in himself is so appealing, not to mention his selflessness. The bouts between him and the mentally insane Prince John bring laughter while the love story between Robin and Marian bring romance. Over all, this is a well-rounded and very enjoyable story.

Setting Exercise

The stench of week-old pizza and sour milk lurked in the cramped tour bus. Dirty socks were haphazardly strewn all over the place. Two beds were stacked on either side of the room, sheets spilling over on to the hard, cold floor. Crumpled up pieces of paper were overflowing out of the trashcan in the corner. I went to look at the bathroom, completely repulsed by the mold infesting the corners of the shower and the stained toilet bowl. This place hadn't been cleaned for weeks, if not months. Even the sound equipment was tossed in the closet as though it was dirty laundry. Dinky, little toys that might have been entertaining for a matter of a few minutes were scattered everywhere. The mini-fridge by the 8 inch television was stuffed with Pepsi, yogurt, and humus: an odd combination, but not surprising for the lack of care put into maintaining the place. While I was looking inside, I noticed the insistent whirring of the fridgerator's engine: the only noise in the entire bus while it was parked in the abandoned parking lot. I openned one of the yogurt containers and tasted the lumpy strawberry cream, only to find out that it was long expired and a little sour. The only thing that seemed to be protected, esteemed, and untouched was the Les Paul in a special glass guitar case. It was signed by the lead guitarist in shiny black ink, probably from the sharpie that had been thrown under the bed, forgotten forever.