your "alternate charachter interpretations"

[hermes]

but the Romans were the biggest badass empire in history!

No, that would be the Mongol's.

They were both badasses in the same way the Nazis were during WWII yes they were competent fighters who conquered large ammounts of land, and they had the advantage that nothing was too immoral for them to do if it gave them a advantage, but they were also clear examples of horrible barbaity and evil.

Not to be defensive of Genghis Khan (he sure was barbaric), but Julius Cesar had nothing to envy him in terms of evil deeds.
And yes, the mongols where the biggest badasses of their time.

 

[Worgen]

For those that are into those 'Trollestia' or 'Molestia' interpretations, I will say I highly disagree with you on that, but I do have my views on how I see Princess Celestia from MLP:FiM.

You know these Friendship reports that you see in most of the show, right? I believe Celestia is actually having Twilight doing them primarily for Twilight's own sake. Things like the Elements of Harmony and defeating Nightmare Moon and Discord were really convenient by-products that Celestia knew she could take advantage of.

So while I utterly refuse to believe Celestia is a troll, I will agree with anyone that believes, as I do, that She plans alot more than she lets on, but even then her intentions are strictly benign.

They hint at greater plans for Twilight in the new episodes of the 3rd season.

 

[Psycomantis777]

Duke Nukem spends so much time talking about his love for women and making sure that everyone knows he loves women. He's gay...

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Gordon Freeman talks. Frequently. You just can't hear him. In half life 2 almost every character is immediately friendly towards him or warms up to him, and several even claim they go way back as if he were the life of the party, so obviously he has talked in the past. If Gordon honestly strolled around silently as he brutally murdered everything in his path with a crowbar, they would still think him an asset of course, but his allies would most likely find him intimidating rather than endearing. There never seems to be any sense of caution or uncertainty when someone demands the armored up bifocaled death machine do their bidding so I'm guessing he doesn't just coldly stare at them with his weapon raised to their throat like people assume.

I think that's the case with most, if not all, silent protagonists; including, but not limited to, Link from Legend of Zelda. In fact I noted a number of instances in both Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess where NPCs reacted as if Link had said something (and by 'something', I mean something other than "Yaaaah!")

 

[Psycomantis777]

Sonic the Hedgehog is hiding something... I can't quite put my finger on it, but he doesn't want anybody to know...
Besides, he spends too much time running away...

 

[TakerFoxx]

Snow White is a vampire. Just sayin'

You've read Snow, Glass, and Apples I take it?

 

[Lonewolfm16]

but the Romans were the biggest badass empire in history!

No, that would be the Mongol's.

They were both badasses in the same way the Nazis were during WWII yes they were competent fighters who conquered large ammounts of land, and they had the advantage that nothing was too immoral for them to do if it gave them a advantage, but they were also clear examples of horrible barbaity and evil.

Not to be defensive of Genghis Khan (he sure was barbaric), but Julius Cesar had nothing to envy him in terms of evil deeds.
And yes, the mongols where the biggest badasses of their time.

Indeed, the slave owning, tribe crushing, murderers were hardly innocent. At any rate I would hold that the Vikings, and Imperial British would give the mongols a run for their money.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Your take on Shiori is pretty much identical to what everyone in the anime club I went to had
when watching the show, so, yeah gotta agree.
You know what's really fun to do with Utena? Watch it with someone who's never seen it before
and watch the new viewer's expressions throughout--it's amazing fun.
Love your avatar, btw.

Yay! Someone who actually gets what I'm talking about! ^^

And yes, showing the series to someone and watching how they react to things is wonderful. Particularly the episode about delivering flowers to the amusement park. I love the "wait, did I just see what I think I saw?!" reaction.

Anyway, that's actually pretty awesome - I haven't talked to a lot of people who saw that deeply into Shiori. ^^

As for my avatar - thanks! Do you read "In Which Shadowjack Watches Sailor Moon" as well (which is where my avatar is from)? Speaking of alternative character interpretations, his are pretty awesome. I won't say more unless you've already read - don't want to spoil them for you.

Well my standing as an Ancient Anime Geek would be in jeopardy if I didn't have a
working knowledge of Utena...
Delivering flowers to the amusement park...the scene where Utena keeps talking as though
to someone off screen about what she can put in the next day's bento right? Yah....
Though we noticed that the girls in our club didn't react to that nearly as much as we
guys did.
Unfortunately I haven't had time to read any fanfiction in years...so no I'm not familiar
with that one. I just love Sailor Moon & Sailor Moon references make me happy, so--love
your avatar!

 

[Little Woodsman]

Snow White is a vampire. Just sayin'

Aha! A fellow Tanith Lee reader!
I had to severely *ahem* ..chastise.. a friend of mine in high school when he threw
my copy of "Red as Blood" in a trash can.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Well my standing as an Ancient Anime Geek would be in jeopardy if I didn't have a
working knowledge of Utena...

Ancient...? I remember when Utena was the newest thing out there. Cutting edge.

I remember when Inu Yasha was first announced.

I was running a college anime club in 1998... **grumble grumble**

Delivering flowers to the amusement park...the scene where Utena keeps talking as though
to someone off screen about what she can put in the next day's bento right? Yah....
Though we noticed that the girls in our club didn't react to that nearly as much as we
guys did.

Yup, that's the one. And the girls probably figured it out sooner. There are several hints before the semi-reveal.

It could be worse - I know someone who watched the entire scene and had no idea that anything special had just occurred. Very much a face-palm moment.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to read any fanfiction in years...so no I'm not familiar
with that one. I just love Sailor Moon & Sailor Moon references make me happy, so--love
your avatar!

I'm... I wouldn't really call IWIW fan-fiction. It has elements of that, I suppose, but it's more listening to some guy blog his reactions to his first full viewing of Sailor Moon. He's a serious English major type (which, being one myself, I appreciate) so he does a lot of critical analysis of the show while he's at it.

One example - early on, he talks about how Sailor Moon is an excellent example of feminist writing because all of her magical tools are symbols of female power rather than male power. A sword is 'male power' - a broach, jewelry, is a symbol of female power.

Anyway, every so often he draws comics to summarize the events of a season (or half of a season, really) which is where my avatar comes from. The recap comics got more and more elaborate as the thing has gone on.

Things are most interesting early on when he's picking up on stuff Ikuhara slipped in without it actually going anywhere - Ikuhara's attempt to ship Usagi and Rei, for instance, which sort of vanishes part way through season 1.

Anyway, since I also love SMA (Sailor Moon Abridged), I've become a big fan of IWIW Sailor Moon.

Here's a link to the index - if you have a few minutes to kill sometime, check out episode 1.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2133352/shadowjack.html

 

[Little Woodsman]

Well my standing as an Ancient Anime Geek would be in jeopardy if I didn't have a
working knowledge of Utena...

Ancient...? I remember when Utena was the newest thing out there. Cutting edge.

I remember when Inu Yasha was first announced.

I was running a college anime club in 1998... **grumble grumble**

Delivering flowers to the amusement park...the scene where Utena keeps talking as though
to someone off screen about what she can put in the next day's bento right? Yah....
Though we noticed that the girls in our club didn't react to that nearly as much as we
guys did.

Yup, that's the one. And the girls probably figured it out sooner. There are several hints before the semi-reveal.

It could be worse - I know someone who watched the entire scene and had no idea that anything special had just occurred. Very much a face-palm moment.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to read any fanfiction in years...so no I'm not familiar
with that one. I just love Sailor Moon & Sailor Moon references make me happy, so--love
your avatar!

I'm... I wouldn't really call IWIW fan-fiction. It has elements of that, I suppose, but it's more listening to some guy blog his reactions to his first full viewing of Sailor Moon. He's a serious English major type (which, being one myself, I appreciate) so he does a lot of critical analysis of the show while he's at it.

One example - early on, he talks about how Sailor Moon is an excellent example of feminist writing because all of her magical tools are symbols of female power rather than male power. A sword is 'male power' - a broach, jewelry, is a symbol of female power.

Anyway, every so often he draws comics to summarize the events of a season (or half of a season, really) which is where my avatar comes from. The recap comics got more and more elaborate as the thing has gone on.

Things are most interesting early on when he's picking up on stuff Ikuhara slipped in without it actually going anywhere - Ikuhara's attempt to ship Usagi and Rei, for instance, which sort of vanishes part way through season 1.

Anyway, since I also love SMA (Sailor Moon Abridged), I've become a big fan of IWIW Sailor Moon.

Here's a link to the index - if you have a few minutes to kill sometime, check out episode 1.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2133352/shadowjack.html

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that Utena was ancient--just that I am.
I remember the days of HK dubs and going through every VHS tape in every new video store
that opened hoping to find *any* anime and being thrilled to find an ancient dub copy of
Unico or Taro the Dragon Boy-and not knowing whether to be thrilled or appalled at finding
what I realized was a "kiddie-fied" version of The Dagger of Kamui.....Good Times!
And a short while ago while lurking on the escapist, being slightly miffed that someone
referred to Escaflowne as classic anime--it's not old enough dangit!
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine about Sailor Moon being a bridge
between the supposed little girl fantasy of being a princess and the supposed little boy
fantasy of being a superhero.
I'll check out that link if I get a chance, Thanks!