The Guide to Sci-Fi Satires

For this week, I listened to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio recordings, which was incredibly fun to listen to. This popular british sci-fi comedy book series have been adapted into many different medias; for example radio shows, a live tv series, a typing PC game and film. This is a perfect example of a futuristic sci-fi adventure series that tends to deal with similar, everyday issues found on our present Earth. The Narrator has addressed the issues of events that have, is or will happen across the universe. Most of the issues mentioned in the story from time to time are referenced directly from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy guide book since it is the most famous, popular, and cheapest source of information for space traveling across the universe. Another interesting aspect that the characters encountered throughout the story are some of the items, tools, and technology used in this universe. The things encountered in the story are sometimes ironically convenient: like the translating Babel Fish, the helpful Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with the words “DON’T PANIC” at the front cover written in large friendly letters, and the Improbability Drive Generator that anything improbable could happen that has helped the main characters through the most intense situations. As for the other halve of the things found in the story, are ridiculously redundant. Many of the alien races found throughout the story tend to have a specific role to the world, for example, the Vogons. They are the literal representation of bureaucrats of the universe in the story.  They are described to be mean and cruel, but not necessarily evil race of aliens that would not take any action, even to safe their own grandmothers from a ravenous monster, unless it gets documented, filed, stamped, sent, stamped again, sent back, lost, found, lost again, and finally buried under dirt. They are also known to write the third worst poetry in the entire universe. One character that could also apply to issues in the present are the concepts behind Marvin the Paranoid Robot: an android built with a personality program that failed miserably (literary), though it has a brain the size of a planet it ended developing an extremely negative, depressive, pessimistic, and paranoid robot capable of destroying the mood with his complains. Overall, I really enjoyed listening to the audio show and the story has many interesting ideas and concepts that make the story more fun to read and listen.

Speculations before the origin of the universe

For this week, I read the short story All at One Point from the Cosmicomics collection by Italo Calvino. The story seems to focus on the origin of the universe before the big bang theory. The author focuses on a time before the big bang when everything was compressed all together into one tiny atom. Personally, I think that the author personifies the characters that, atomically together, form the universe. Throughout the story, the narrator seems to interact with other characters as if they were humans. Through their interaction it seems to me as if they were living in a neighborhood; the locals, a single house keeper and the new neighbors. The cleaning woman does not have anything to clean and spends her time gossiping, and the new neighbors that act like they own the place by doing what they like and are disliked by the locals. The author is emphasising on the fact that the universe is so small that it cannot even hold a single grain of dust.

I also noticed that in the story the author makes a slight reference to the relationship between different countries in our world. Throughout history, tension exists between many countries, similarly to the interactions between the characters. For example most of them tend to keep to themselves, and would only interact with each other after being well acquainted. Furthermore, they tend to argue with each other constantly over petty reasons. Also, how the newer group, referred to as “immigrants”, were being alienated and prejudiced against them for superficial reasons.

In my opinion, I found the content of this reading extremely unusual. Especially the names were weirdly spelled and found them unpronounceable. I found it hard to follow up with the different characters because of their complicated names.

Lit blog Questions: Bloodchild

A-1. I think that my first thoughts on the text that I just read to be awkwardly disturbing, but also interestingly unique.

A-2.

A-3. If I were to adapt the story into a different media, I think I would well suited as a comic book.

Multicultural Sci-fi

For this week, I read the short story Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler. This story is set on a planet of insectoid aliens where a colony of humans were allowed to settled in after escaping Earth. The story has an interestingly unique take on a mutual symbiotic relationship between the insect-like alien natives, called the Tlic, and humans. The symbiotic process between the two is that the Tlics will allow the humans to live peacefully with them under their protection, only if one of the humans become a host for incubating the Tlic’s eggs. Usually males are the ones to be selected. The Tlic aliens seem to be based on parasitic insects; they lay their eggs inside another bug or insect, and then the larva, after hatching, will start eating the insides of their host which lead to the host's death. This reminded me of another fictional alien creatures from the sci-fi horror movie, Aliens.

A noticeable difference between the examples that I just mentioned and the Tlics, is that the latter seems to have more value at keeping their host alive. When the eggs of a host human are about to hatch, the Tlics appear to handle the birthing of the offspring before they get a chance to start devouring their host. The Tlics also value their relationship with the humans by assigning a female Tlic to watch over each human family and connect with them. They decide which human get to host their eggs.

Usually women are the ones that are bearing children, however in this reading the author breaks the majoritarian culture by selecting men to get impregnated with parasitic eggs. I think the reason why male humans are chosen is because the Tlics that picks the human to be the host are female. This reminds me of how sea horses reproduce; the females lay their eggs inside of the males’ pouch which they then incubate and give birth. Another reason might be to demonstrate how a man would experience the same difficult and painful process of pregnancy and labor that a woman experiences when creating a new life.

Anubi's Time Portals

For this week, I read the book The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I found the story’s concept very interesting; it combined Egyptian mythology and time travel to create an adventure that could decide the future of the world. Most of the sci-fi stories that have time traveling mainly uses time machines, wormholes, or any other thing where the source come from science and space. However, in this book the author used the concept of myths and magic to create time portals. These were originally for summoning the Egyptian gods from the past when they were in their prime but failed. Even though the story mainly has fictional situations and events based on time traveling and Egyptian myth, it also seemed to have some connection with real historical events to give a more accurate feeling to the setting. The story has many interesting characters, each with their own goal. Though the main protagonist, Brendan Doyle, happened to join the expedition to the past in order to meet and study an enigmatic poet he has been interested in researching. However, he ended up getting on all sorts of problems. Out of the various antagonist, only three of the main ones stood out to me: Horrabin the evil clown, Dog-Face Joe, and Doctor Romanelli. Horrabin was a villainous clown on stilts that commanded over beggars and conducted experiments on people. When the experiments failed, the people would turn into monsters and be locked in the clown’s basement. I think that this enemy has inspired many of the evil clowns we know today. Another villain is Dog-Face Joe, the body swapping pseudo-werewolf, who also happened to be one of the magicians that participated in the activation of Anubis Gate to summon the gods. However, after failing he got cursed and was transformed into a furry canid human with the powers to swap bodies; he even managed to place Doyle’s soul in the body of the enigmatic poet he had been researching on, William Ashbless. Additionally, Dog-Face Joe’s character served as a personification of the Egyptian god Anubis, which fit the story. Finally the main antagonist, Doctor Romanelli was a powerful magician who had been trying to smite the English invaders from Egypt. At the beginning of the story, Doctor Romanelli had a doll with a very similar name to the original, acting as his double. The real one was not involved until later on in the story. It really interested me in the story when Doyle and Romanelli ended up in the Egyptian underworld. It was ironic how the antagonist wanted to call the Gods to smite the invaders, but ended up getting devoured by the demonic chaos serpent, Apophis, while the protagonist got to hitch a ride on Ra’s sunboat.

Space Traps, and Gomorrah...

For last week’s reading, I read the short story of Aye, and Gomorrah… by Samuel R. Delany. In the narrative, the author portrayed the idea of a world where astronauts, commonly referred throughout the story as Spacers, were prepared by being neutered before puberty as a precaution to the effects of radiation and other hazardous threats found in outer space. However, today with new technological advancements, male astronauts can enter the space without being neutered. Another effect of being neutered was that it prevented the astronauts from going through puberty. As a result, the astronauts turned into androgynous adults, making their sex difficult to identify. (Would they be allowed into the Hideyoshi gender baths?). In this world, there was also a subculture of people referred as “Frelks”, however I wasn’t able to confirm whether they were just men or women. The “Frelks” were the people that were aroused by the Spacer’s androgynous looks and naive unattraction to anyone. The story mainly depicts the daily life of the Spacers; talking about their troubles and share their desire to feel sexual attraction. The Spacers also traveled to places and took advantage of the Frelks’ attraction towards them through prostitution by sexually teasing them. This raises a moral issue today since prostitution is illegal in majority of the states. In addition, today, prostitution is seen as a forced practice mainly through human trafficking or a result of poverty.

Personally, I think that because it was a short story, it lacked explanations in some part of the story, which made it more complicated to understand. Also, I found the grammar structure to be a bit complex. When I first started reading the dialogue, I was under the impression that the Spacers were children. This essentially fits the plot since they are basically adults with childlike mindsets because they were never able to go through puberty.

Space Short Operas

For this subject, I decided to read the short stories by Arthur C. Clarke. In both The Star and The Nine Billion Names of God, the author seems to question the concept of a divine creator, as well as different ideas on the concept. In The Star, the story is told from the perspective of a crew member from a space expedition, elaborating on the thoughts of his wavering faith after witnessing the expansive universe. The story constantly keeps questioning if there is a creator or not, especially when they find the alien time capsule from a desolated planet, that the surface was destroyed by the near dying star. As for The Nine Billion Names of God, the story mainly focus on the concept that there is a secret within the many names for God. A monastery is using a machine borrowed from the protagonist to conduct this research. The author seems interested on the concept of a future where one wonders on the idea of a creator or higher power. I have a pretty open mind when it comes to different beliefs. For example, I was raised to believe in an All Powerful Creator as a Christian, however when I first started learning and understanding about the evolution theories and the expansive universe at school, it never wavered my beliefs. Both stories were short and had some unique ideas, however I found it a little hard to understand some of the narration and dialogues in both of them. When I started reading The Star, I was a little confused, however the more I read through the short story, the more I understood. As for The Nine Billion Names of God, I was not able to fully understand most of the dialogue because of their complex science vocabulary, which is common in Sci-Fi stories.

Modern Myths and Legends

I initially started reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, however I ended up enjoying and being more interested in his other book, American Gods. His book is filled with many interesting concepts and ideas of the fantasy world trying to adapt to the ever growing modern society. I love the main protagonist’s name, Shadow Moon, because personally I think it is one of the coolest names I have ever heard. This story has a very interesting fantasy-like setting set in a modern world where the original fantasy beings from myths and legends are trying to adapt. The old gods are losing their presence in the world because they are being forgotten by the people. Meanwhile, as trends and technology progress, more gods are born as a personification of modern culture. These includes the internet, media, and many other modern concepts. One thing I have noticed in many stories with the theme of fantasy in the modern world, is that the fantasy world tends to be hiding from humanity in order to be unnoticed. The human protagonist is the only one that knows about it either by accident, destiny, family legacy, or even by being halve part of that world. A few examples that also reflect this concept are: Hellboy, American Dragon, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, and Gravity Falls.

I found it really fascinating that on Shadow’s journey with Mr. Wednesday across the United States, they were looking to recruit Old Gods for Mr. Wednesday’s plan to start a war against the New Gods; they meet many different fantasy creatures along the way. It really caught me by surprise that Mr. Wednesday was an incarnation of the Norse god Odin, but what surprised me the most was the biggest irony in the story; which was the final boss who happens to be the leader of the new gods and the one pulling strings to create the war, the Norse god of trickery Loki. Though he is one of the old gods, it kind of make sense that he would easily adapt to the modern world, knowing his character, and try to start a war between the old and new gods. The only problem I have is his fake name, Low-Key, seriously too obvious. A part of the story that I really liked is how the author decided to bring back Shadow’s dead wife and make her a part of the story. The author did this by having Shadow visit his wife’s grave and give the magical gold coin he got from a Leprechaun as an offering, which caused her corpse to be reanimated. I also liked how the wife was never fully revived, except for her soul, and is only an undead spirit called a Revenant. I really enjoyed the moment when Low-Key’s men in black minions captured Shadow, and then his wife followed to rescue him. She went on a rampage with the minions and left a trail of dead bodies. This is a sign of how powerful a dead person can be when they do not have natural limiters activated in their bodies; since they are dead the powers of the fearsome corporeal ghost are enhanced.

Magic in the Night Circus

For this week I read the The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I found the story to be fascinating; the unique situations added intensity to the plot and the overall manner in which the story progressed was interesting. The story seems to follow a chain of events. For example, a famous magician, Prospero, receives a girl named Celia from his late mother and later finds that Celia has potential to become a magician in his magic show due to the fact that she has magic powers. Prospero decided to challenge Mr. AH, his former mentor, who was visiting. Both Prospero and Mr AH would raise a disciple to later compete against each other to the death, in order to determine who the stronger mentor was.

In my opinion, I think that Prospero’s actions were irresponsible. His pride and urge to overcome his master placed his own daughter to a betted death match. Personally, his actions raised extreme moral issues because basically the two disciples faced a complicated dilemma, placed in a situation without a choice. The two disciples were educated and trained with different methods; Celia was home schooled and trained by her father while Marco was adopted by Mr AH from an orphanage and received training like that of an Institution from Mr. AH. Another moral issue was presented when Mr. AH simply adopted Marco to use as a tool to prove his mentorship ability.

I found it really fascinating how fate ended up leading both Marco and Celia to the Night Circus without being aware that they were each other’s fated opponent. During the performance they both spared with each other until they realized the true meaning behind their training and being at the circus. The storyline became increasingly complicated when Celia and Marco started having mutual feelings towards each other. This juxtaposes the intentions of Prospero and Mr AH. If the disciples were to fall in love with each other they would not be able to face and fight each other to death. Their lack of freedom to love and choose their fate poses extreme moral issues.

Marco undergoes a complex spiritual challenge towards the end when he had to choose between Celia’s love or his mentors expectation. However, his love for Celia was powerful enough to override the challenge. He stood against their fate and kissed Celia in front of everyone, which to most people would find it to be extremely embarrassing to actually do it out of a whim. Although the ending was a tragedy, Marco and Celia’s spirits remain together and their love continued.

A Hobbit's Journey

For this week, I read the “Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. There are many aspects in the Hobbit that reflect many elements of the classic hero’s journey. I found it interesting how some details in the book were not present in the movie adaptation.

The hero’s journey is introduced through the eyes of Bilbo Baggins, the story’s protagonist, in his homeland, The Shire. The journey begins by describing the hero’s lifestyle and his main flaws. Unlike most protagonists, Bilbo is portrayed as an antisocial and withdrawn hobbit where he prefers to be in his own comfort zone away from the other hobbits.

Bilbo was content with his current life until he received a visit from a very well-known wizard, Gandalf. This sudden visit altered his whole life; a group of Dwarves started to appear in Bilbo’s home. The intrusion of the dwarves placed Bilbo out off his comfort zone. Later on, he learned the reason for their visit; the dwarves wanted to recruit him as their “burglar” for their journey towards the Lonely Mountain. The purpose of this journey was for Bilbo to follow the dwarves to reclaim their land by sneaking into the mountain and taking back the dwarves’ sacred stone from the dragon. Bilbo rejected the mission multiple times, until he was finally convinced to join them. He decided to leave his comfort area in order to learn more from the outside world. Bilbo’s adventure follows the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he first had an ordinary life, but after the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves, he was called to an adventure.

As the story progressed, there are signs of Bilbo’s character development where he went through some behavior changes. He started to reform his bad habits in order to adapt to any conflict the party might encounter. He also used his wittiness to help the group from many sticky situations. Bilbo’s growths and acquired new skills emphasize on the element of a classic hero’s journey.

Throughout the journey, Bilbo also managed to acquire two magical items that had helped him throughout his adventure. The first item, Sting is an elven short sword that glows whenever any orcs are approaching. This sword had the ability to alert the group of danger. The second item is a magical ring that allows Bilbo to turn invisible whenever he puts it on. The presence of these two items helped Bilbo and the dwarves defeat and overcome challenges throughout the classic journey of a hero.

At the end, Bilbo was able to reclaim the dwarves land and return home. The entire journey had shaped and transformed Bilbo into a hero. Bilbo returns to the Shire, but with a different attitude than the one he had before his journey which made his life in the Shire more enjoyable. To conclude, the change in Bilbo’s character reflects the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he transformed from an antisocial, withdrawn hobbit into a heroic protagonist. He is no longer the same person he was before he left.

Hexing Witches in Literature

For this past week, I read the book Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the story disturbingly creepy but with a lot of personality coming from the characters’ actions which enriches the story. The character, Aunt Maria, may seem to appear as a rude bossy old lady, but in all actuality she happens to be a powerful manipulative witch; making her the main antagonist of the story. In my opinion, Aunt Maria’s rude, stubborn, bossy and cranky personality are just stereotypes of a grumpy old lady. Most of her behavior and outdated opinions mainly reflect the past experience of an old lady. Maria’s personality trait was influenced by her witch-like manipulative nature, where she kept using reverse psychology on the protagonist's mother to do all of the housework for her. Aunt Maria embodies the powerful stereotypical image of an old wicked witch. She uses her magic powers to influence and completely control the town she lives in.

I really find it interesting how the story revolves around a pair of siblings that must defeat the evil witch that threatens their family. This reminded me of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel with the content of two children having to confront a witch. In my opinion, I do not think that all witches are evil since it mainly depends on how they decide to use their power; either to help or get corrupted. A witch mainly refers to a female spellcaster, however a warlock is referred to as a male witch.

Our culture models women with power as independent, strong and intimidating. However, Aunt Maria is needy and dependent on the people around her. The only way she manages to get things done is by using her powers of magic without really questioning her actions and circumstances. This also plays around with the idea of hierarchy in our society today where people use or even abuse the power they have to manipulate or demand things from others in order to accomplish their goal.

Weirdness... of the Dead

For this blog post, I watched the movie Shaun of the Dead, a comedy based fantasy horror zombie apocalypse, that I found both funny and disturbing. Even though it is a parody of Dawn of the Dead, it did not hold back with visual violence and gore unlike other parodies that usually imply that something violent is happening. The movie is about a british man called Shaun, whose life was falling apart when his girlfriend broke up with him, and lost his present for his mother’s birthday. However, the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse allowed Shaun to take advantage of the situation by redeeming himself, using his wits to fight off the zombies with his childhood best friend to rescue his mother and girlfriend. I have noticed that Shaun’s action is similar to other zombie apocalypse films where either the main character or other secondary support always try to redeem themselves by using their wits and abilities towards the situation.

In this movie, the appearance of zombies happened at a slow pace; it started with people suddenly getting sick and progressively turned into zombies. The main character was unaware of the spreading sickness, and did not notice the zombies acting weird. He just casually passed by them. I found the main character’s unawareness very weird since usually in these types of movies, the main characters are aware and prepared to fight the zombies since they turn into zombies at such a quick pace.

There were some parts of the movie that I found it very weird and funny. For example, in the scene where the two main protagonists were attacking the zombies with record disks, their reactions were weird and unusual. Shaun was being picky on selecting which record disk he or his best friend should throw at the zombies approaching them rather than throwing anything and everything at the zombies. Another scene that I found weird was when the actors decided to cross through a hoard of zombies by acting like them and actually succeeding on the attempt for a while.

I also found that the movie was weird because I was not expecting to see such intense and serious scenes in a humorous comedy. For example, when Shaun’s step-father was bitten by a zombie, he explained to Shaun why he was hard on him all these years and told him that he loves him. This was a hard scene for Shaun after knowing the truth and having to leave him behind. Another example was when Shaun’s mother revealed that she was bitten by a zombie on their way to the bar. It was difficult for Shaun to decide whether he should kill his mother before she turns into a zombie and attacks them.

To conclude, the unusual reactions of the characters and the unexpected intense scenes in a humorous comedy emphasized the weirdness of the movie as a whole.

Japanese Folktales and Horror

This week I read the book “Kwaidan” by Lafcadio Hearn, a compilation of Japanese ghost stories that were translated from old Japanese text. The existence of the creatures in the Japanese legendary folktales reflect a difference than that expressed in western horror or the gothic. Japanese horror tends to focus more on curses, involving the themes of revenge and grudges. The stories often involve haunted houses and spirits of an Onryou (wrathful ghost). In exchange, western horror are more aggressive and violent with regards to killers and monsters.

I have always enjoyed learning about legendary, mythical, and supernatural creatures. I believe that these creatures are essential and are what make the story interesting. When someone first thinks about a fictional creature or monster, most people think of European legends since many people in the world are familiar with Norse, Celtic, Slavic, and the most popular, Greek legends. There are many interesting legends around the world, but in my opinion most of them are overshadowed by the ones from Europe.

There are many legends and folktales in Asia, but Japan seems to have the most unique types of supernatural folktales. When I first became interested in myths and legends of Japan, I was surprised to find out the amount of creatures, monsters, and phantoms that were created in legends. I found it exciting and refreshing how each tale had a different story to tell. All creatures were categorized under the term “Youkai”, which means “apparition”. These creatures came in a variety of forms and behaviors; they ranged from harmless pranksters to ferocious monsters. I was already familiar with some of the creatures that the book mentioned including the famous Yuki Onna (snow woman), the Rokuro Kubi (the long necked woman), Jikininki (tree with human-faced fruits), and Mujina (Badger). Being familiar with these creatures helped me relate to the stories in the book easier.

While reading the book, I felt that the author found inspiration from an ancient traditional ceremony performed in the old times of Japan where the locals would gather around in a large circle, each holding their lit candle and telling a ghost story. After a person tells his or her story, the person would blow out the candle and this process would continue until the last person’s turn. The room would progressively get darker as each person blew out their candle, leaving the room in complete darkness. Traditions like this reflect the difference between the Western and Japanese cultures.

Vampires: Love & Pain

This week I read “Interview With A Vampire” by Anne Rice, and watched “Nosferatu” directed by F.W Murnau and “Vampire Academy” directed by Mark Waters. I enjoyed all three of them. In the discussion below I will write about the important relationship in the story and movies.

A main theme that appeared in the book was companionship and it was first used when the vampire Lestat ask Louis if he wanted to become a vampire to keep him company. This implied that Lestat was feeling lonely. The theme of companionship was present again when Lestat decided to turn a young girl, who was named Claudia, into a vampire in order to keep Louis from leaving. Furthermore, this vampires seem to cherish companionship since they do not like the idea of being left alone. For example, when Claudia started suspecting that Louis would leave her for a vampire friend he made in Paris, she asked Louis to turn a doll maker she knew into a vampire in case Louis leaves her.

A vampire’s immortal life is the reason why this theme is continuously used throughout the story. Many people crave for the power of immortality in order to cheat death, however not many know the price that they will have to pay. When someone becomes immortal, it grants them an indestructible body, meaning that as time moves forward, people around them pass away one by one. As the cycle is repeated over and over again it leaves the person alone, desiring to have a companion. That is how a famous quote came to be used, “Immortality is not a gift… But a curse.” In the case involving vampires, they can create new companions with immortality to keep them company by turning them into one of their own. In the story, it is indicated that the vampires can decide which of their victims will revive as one of them or not, which differs from the most well-known believe if you die by the hands of a vampire you will automatically become one of them.

Towards the end of the story, the theme of companionship was twisted when Lestat’s arrived to get revenge on Louis and Claudia. Lestat trapped Louis in a locked coffin so he would starve to death and locked both Claudia and the doll maker outside so the sun would destroy them. After Louis was rescued by his friend Armand, he rushed to save the other two but it was too late. After the incident, Louis was able to escape from Lestat, however he was hunted by the thought of not being able to save Claudia.  He decided to return to New Orleans to live a life of solitude and vowed to not create another companion. This final moments from the book reveal the true darker side of immortality. Louis will never be able to forget this tragic past and will forever be dealing with the fear of encountering Lestat. I found it really annoying how the boy interviewing Louis, who after finishing his tragic tale, did not learn a thing about the truth of immortality and pestered Louis to turn him into a vampire.

With regards to the movies, I watched Nosferatu and Vampire Academy, which were very interesting to watch. I was really surprised to find out that Nosferatu was a silent movie, even though it was a spin-off of the original Dracula. The story was basically the same as Dracula, except there was an absence of a character with a role similar to Van Helsing and a completely different vampire whose name is Count Orlok.

The story is based in a main town located in Germany instead of England, which meant that the main character traveled directly to Transylvania by land. The story’s main characters ware a carefree man named Hutter and his loving wife; they could not get enough of each other and might as well have been glued together. The vampire Count Orlok was not like Dracula. He was careless at trying to hide his identity, and was not able to control his vampire instincts.

The film has many symbolisms including pain and love. Orlok is being represented as the symbol of the Black Death because people around him are either killed by illness or by the vampire himself. In addition, everywhere he goes there are rats following him which evokes the symbol of pain. The symbol of love is also represented during the movie. The couple seems to have a deep connection with each other to the point that when Orlok was about to attack the husband, the wife immediately responded to the threat from all the way home and protected him. In my opinion, I found that the method used to defeat Orlok at the end of the film was extremely ironic; Orlok was defeated by the rising sun after getting too distracted drinking the wife's blood until morning.

The movie Vampire Academy had a good storyline that I enjoyed watching. The story is set in a school academy where the entire faculty and student body are vampires. It was interesting to see the way they divided the vampire race into three kinds and the references they used to identify them. The three kinds are Moroi, Dhampirs and Strigoi. The Moroi vampires are friendly vampires. They reminded me of a variation of vampires called the Day Walkers. The Dhampirs are basically the offspring between a vampire and a human. Lastly, the Strigoi are the evil ones. I really liked the idea of identifying them by using the slavic name for vampires. In the movie the dhampirs protect the morois from the strigois and the main plot revolves around the lives of teenage vampires, which also includes supernatural mystery and action themes.

I found a connection between the two main protagonists, Rose, the trouble making Dhampir, and Lissa, the kind hearted Moroi. Together they have an enlightening relationship and companionship; even though they are very different, they depend on each other. Furthermore their bond is strong enough to the point that they can telekinetically share the same dream.

To conclude, the themes of companionship, love and pain are presented uniquely in each of the characters throughout the book and both films.