September, Planning out the Year, and more Character Crushes

[xakara]

 Happy September!

I don't know about the rest of the world, but for me, September 1st begins the Halloween seasons, my favorite holiday season of all. Halloween begins September 1st and spills into the second week of November the way the Christmas season starts in November and spills into January. That makes the next ten weeks rather wonderous, magical, and lightly gothic for me. (Yes, one can be lightly gothic, trust me)

As I love new beginnings and this one in particular, I made alot of plans for the month, and in fact, planned out my entire year, leaving spaces for the unexpected as one must when planning out an entire year. First, let me assure you, my potty training went very well thank you, so this is not a case of being anal retentive (some of you didn't know the origin of the phrase, did you? Tsk). It's just a matter of being one who thrives on routine, even contrived routine that is merely suggestion, reinforced by the actual act of writing it down, and then placing it on the Taskmaster Calendar of Doom on the wall above my desk that keeps me on schedule. (Best $3 I ever spent)

Planning out my year has shown me, A) I'm insane, B) Insanity works for me, C) I really can fit everything that was crowding my head into a single year without pushing everything else to the way side. I combined the wordcounts of the many projects, figured out how many words a day I'd have to average, and then figured how many hours I would have each day to meet that goal if pushed to bare minimal writing time (day job and all). Turns out...I can actually do this. Counting no writing on Thursdays as promotion, networking, sanity rebuilding days. Hooray for my side. 

Having dealt with all of that today I require decompression (though admittedly there was something rather relaxing about the number cruching. See discovery A above). The best sort of decompression is that which comes with contemplating favorite characters. So onto character crushes. 

I limited myself to vampires last time around, and not just vampires, but the vampires in books specifically just so I wouldn't still be writing out all of the various characters that have moved me to tears or moved me to ovulation with their many wonderous attributes. 

For this entry, I considered going back to literary crushes and touching on the non-vampires that have moved me. Like David and Lewis from The Weather Warden Series by Rachel Caine, or Odd Thomas from the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz (I just want to take Odd home and take care of him). But I found that I was still in a vampire mood and decided to throw the doors open to movies and television. 

Before there was Angel in the Buffyverse, there was Nick Knight on Forever Knight. The first broody, I-want-to-be-more-than-I-am, oh-no-what-have-I-done, angsty vampire that caught my attention. Personally, I prefer the happy, I've-made-peace-with-my-existence, vampire protag, but I was young, and he was needy and so it sucked me right in. 

Nick prepared me for Angel and strangely enough, for Spike. Of course, I mean Chipped-Spike and then Soul-Enhanced-Spike, before that he pretty much annoyed me. I'm not big on blondes as is, and he just gave them a bad name. But seeing what it was like to be an easily dismissed human in a time where men were cruel or they were small, I understood how the loss of his soul led William to become Spike and I always appreciate a villian I can understand.

That's not to say I haven't fallen for the outright villianous bad boy before. David in The Lost Boys...well lets say Kiefer Sutherland played him in such a way that I began to rethink my non-blond policy. But I couldn't get away from my good guy thing in the film and Jason Patrick's Michael still held his own. 

As I consider all movies adapted from books to be fanfiction, I was one of the few people able to enjoy the portrayal of Lestat both by Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire and Stuart Townsend in Queen of the Damned. Wouldn't recommend the movies for those in love with the books, but as fanfiction, I've definitely seen worse.

As Lestat was rather unrepentant, if not entirely at peace, it still keeps us on the unapologetic vampire. As great as David was, off in Santa Cruz, I think the prize for Hot Villianous Vampire goes to Deacon Frost played by Stephen Dorff in Blade. Wesley Snipes did a great job as the good-does-not-mean-nice anti-hero of Blade, and I rooted for him in every scene, but I could see abandoning a few morals to become part of Deacon's crew if pressed into the right corner.  

Currently, I'm in love with the middle ground. The Vampire who is what he is, but doesn't go out of his way to be monstrous or villianous, he is merely unashamed to no longer be human. As of late, this is embodied by Henry Fitzroy played by Kyle Schmid on Blood Ties. Again, it's a series based on a book, so the show can only be fanfiction, but my, my, what lovely fanfiction it's turned out to be. 

Henry is powerful, playful, loyal, and royal. He still carries a bit of the aristocracy of his birth about him, but this bastard son of King Henry VIII has caught up to the modern world beautifully. Kyle lends both a vulnerability and formidable presence to Henry that I hadn't dared to hope for when I heard the series was coming out. 

I'm already past the limit I gave myself of how long I could ramble on the subject, but there is simply no Vampire In Film list that can call itself complete without acknowledgement of Gary Oldman's portrayal of The Count in the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula. Gary scares me a bit, I'm not afraid to admit, he's a very intense man. But whether he trips your trigger or not, he's did a hell of a job making Dracula, vulnerable, alluring, sympathetic, and monstrous all at once. 

So there we have it, a small sample of the Gorgeous Nocturnous who run through my nightly thoughts. Whether I wanted to take care of them and make it all better, run amok with them and turn the city red, or hope the dhampir myth was true and bear their young(Henry would make pretty babies), they drew me in and made a mythos live for a time.  And for that, I'm grateful. 

Vampiric Ramble Done...

~X

Comments

[moon-chylde.livejournal.com]

I loved Gary Oldman as Vlad too. In fact that movie was what turned my love of vamps into an obsession, what lead me to the vampire chronicles. I had heard of the VC before, but didn't really know what they were. I bought a book about Bram Stoker's Dracula which was written by the guy who wrote the movie's screenplay. He talked about Interview with the Vampire as part of his inspiration into his version of Vlad. So I had to go out and buy that book of course. And fell in love. And the rest as they say, is history.

And yes, for this I *had* to use my slayer doll icon.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Glad I could supply a reason to use the slayer doll icon. :)

Gary...what can I say. I saw it in the theatre alone with the chance to wander about and just soak in the intensity of the performance without anyone talking and spoiling it. It was great. But it wasn't until two years later when Interview came out, again, seeing it all alone in the theatre, that I solidified in my adult vampire obsession.

In the time between The Lost Boys (1987) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), I didn't have anyone else that shared my fanged obsession so it went dormant, torpid if you will. Gary let me know it was still alive. Seeing Lestat take form on screen let me know it wanted out.

It's been thriving ever since.

~X

[moon-chylde.livejournal.com]

((And hey... I asked gairid to friend you. I thought you'd enjoy getting to know each other. And she also friended you via 1127rueroyal which is where she keeps her writing, so you can read it after hearing me go on about it.))

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Thank you, it was such a nice surprise to see the comment and I immediately friended her after replying. I'll go friend the other one too.

Which brings to mind the idea I've been toying with on another lj for writing. I'll have to think more about it before fully deciding, but I's tempted. *grin*

~X

[gairid.livejournal.com]

Just stopping in to say hello and to marvel at the lovely vampire ramble--I am rarely so well-thought out when it comes to those topics that interest me the most. For some reason writing essays eludes me unless I begin them without actually thinking that I am going to do it. (As if that makes any sense at all!)

I would also like to say that we have also begun the Autumnal/Hallowe'en decorating here :)

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Someone else that gets the true start of Halloween and Autumn. Thank you for coming by. (http://photobucket.com)

I also appreciate the description of "lovely" for my vampire ramble. It's a topic I can go on about for days. They were my first love and the first to return when I was all grown up and supposed to know better.

8 Halloweens in a row saw fangs firmly in place and a secret longing that somewhere, something close to what I dressed as, existed. I was lucky enough to be a 6 yr old who asked if vampires existed and was told by my mother "I can't prove they don't". So the world never lost that magic for me.

The later event of paranormal romance, and the vampire as love interest, meant that I never have to be alone in my love of them. From those who like them sweet to those who like them monstrous, there's always someone, somewhere out there, reading or watching and feeling some part of what I feel.

That's the blessing of film, books and television, the shared vision of what moves us.

~X

[sroit.livejournal.com]

Love Lost boys, love DEACON FROST oh my yes, definitely would have been tempting to be in his crew, you know how I feel about 'Stat, and Gary Oldman, great call!

I remember Rick Springfield in the pilot movie of Forever Knight, and as I had a Rick crush anyway, that he was a vampire just doubled the odds of me loving it.

I never knew why he didn't do the series later.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

I wondered why he wasn't part of the series at the time too, but in retrospect, it was a smaller Canadian production, they likely couldn't afford him.

~X

[sroit.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. He was a fairly big star by then, specially with the music thing going as well.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Yeah, considering where his career was, I don't think there could have been a compromise in salary. Not to mention it was shot in Canada and he was still doing recurring shots on...um...whichever soap opera refusing to come to mind just now. LOL

[sroit.livejournal.com]

General Hospital. It wasn't the channel my Mom watched soaps on, but when I found out about "Blackie" I managed to see it a handful of times, when she wasn't watching Guiding Light.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

General Hospital! That was going to be my guess. It or One Life to Live. Thank you, now that won't be bugging me tonight. :)

[sroit.livejournal.com]

Looking down at the rest of this conversation, we'll have to do some more character crushes. Video game and maybe comics.

Right now my newest (yet in a way old, too) obsession is "The Darkness."

I must have the Graphic Novels, the artwork book, the novel..and you get the idea.

I love Darkness/Jackie.

So wickedly drawn, so kewl.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

::loves them all!::
but then, I have always been a fan of Vampires....they bite!

Lestat both by Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire and Stuart Townsend in Queen of the Damned....
I loved them both as Lestat too! and I thought I'd hate Tom Cruise, but he was pretty damn good. (not a Cruise fan at all)

I have a fave bad guy Vampire from a comic by J.Michael Linsner that was originally run in Cry For Dawn in 1992....

[xakara.livejournal.com]

I'm only now getting into vampire comics. Someone turned me on to 30 Days of Night and I've been trying to get into the graphic novels but haven't had the time or budget to do it properly yet.

I wasn't a Cruise fan either and had series reservations, so I was greatly surprised when it was done. There is a part of me that will forever see Lestat that way. There was something in the performance that justified my love of him in a way I have yet to place into to words.

So no matter how much of a nutter Tom turns out to be, my character crush on him as Lestat cannot be marred. :)

~X

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

yeah...that is the way I see it exactly!

[xakara.livejournal.com]

See, you get me.

I list my character crushes separately because they aren't the same as crushes on an actor. Actor crushes come and go based on many things, but once a character has my heart unless that character does something to turn me off, the char-crush is untouched.

I've developed crushes on characters played by people I didn't like going into it, just because they played it so well and the character was so real.

Where crushes on people let us know we appreciate beauty or humor or grace, it's the crushes on characters that let us know what we're made of.

Do we like them dominant? Submissive? Switchable? Do they make us feel maternal? Child-like? Do they bring out our inner villian? Or nuture our inner hero? Do they do all these things at once?

Reality if wonderful, but Fiction brings out the Truth. :)

~X

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

yes indeed!
I think I enjoy the character crushes more....

I have one that might make a good example...I have a crush on Fox Mulder. I haven't really cared for any of david Duchovny's cees since, but I love Mulder for many more reasons than I'd ever like Duchovny as an actor! lol

[xakara.livejournal.com]

I'm completely with you.

I loved Mulder but could take or leave Duchovny in a heartbeat. He just doesn't do it for me.

And where I love seeing a fine actor and experiencing whatever thrill s/he brings. I'll take a character crush over a celebrity crush every time. I don't Know the celebrity, so there's only so far that crush can go, meaning it only brings so much out of me.

But the character, I watch the character unfold, maturing, growing, angsting, celebrating, now that's something to touch emotion.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

yes indeed!
Snape...both book and movie...
(although I've pretty much loved every character that Alan Rickman has done...so it bleeds over...

[xakara.livejournal.com]

It was strange for me with Snape.

I didn't find myself drawn to the adult Snape, but the very first time you learn of his past and you see his memories of school, I felt for the boy he was. Enough, that I would say I crushed on his Inner Adolescent.

It wasn't until book six that my heart lurched for him and what he had to step up and do. It was just such a rough time and it showed such strength for him to endure to the end. I couldn't help then but have a broader empathy for him.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

I crushed on him from the movie first...then some absolutely lovely fanfic by copperbadge then the real books! lol...

[xakara.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are some beautiful things out there but I admit to avoiding HP fanfic like the plague. I had one traumatizing experience and I was done. Can't go back. Just not in me.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

lol...I would have never gone in if I hadn't realized that one of my favorite authors EVER wrote HP fanfic......I started with her stuff and got a rec for Copperbadge.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, some day, when my trauma is a distant memory, I'll brave the HP fanfic front for what you describe. It'll take some time to heal first though. *grin*

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

LOL!
was it Sirius/Remus slash that did you in?

[xakara.livejournal.com]

Nope, I would have been fine with that. I see the world through Slash Lens most of the time anyway.

I was done in by Harry/Severus slash.

I have a very high bar when it comes to hitting my squick factor, I can take a great deal. But once you touch on children in any way you've hit it. I was done.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

yeah, I don't do children or non-con at all...::shudders::
slash is good and yummy though. (especially Sirius/Remus!)

[xakara.livejournal.com]

If it involves consenting adults, I'm fine with with everything I've run into save graphic sadism and bodily waste. Those are my immediate "don't want to know".

But I don't care how it's justified, I cannot read anything with children or that rape. It's just not in me and I find no artistic merit in it whatsoever. I think it taints fanfic to have it there and have folks trying to rabidly defend it.

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

graphic sadism and bodily waste
::shudders::

[xakara.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm sayin'.

It's fine if it trips someone elses trigger, but I just don't want to know about it.

Leave me in my blissful ignorance on that road...

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

exactly!

[xakara.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I don't get why other people want to push their agendas on the world is because I don't need my agenda followed by the world.

I just need those with different agends to not include me in the stuff I don't want to know about. LOL

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

lol...they can put it behind a cut!

[xakara.livejournal.com]

The Global Cut movement.

"We can all just get along if you put your stuff behind a cut."

Great campaign slogan. LOL

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

lol..it's perfect! Xakara for prezzie! ::grins::

[i-amsherlocked.livejournal.com]

and I did read the cannon first, I just didn't develope my crush until later.

[xakara.livejournal.com]

*Nod* I can see that. I've had some things turn around for me due to fanfiction. A different point of view that made a series become "something else" and so I related to the characters differently. I completely get it.