TWILIGHT TEACHINGS

By Jason Pluscec.

When people talk about Twilight, and how much they love it etc, it’s usually girls, or young women. Which is fine, but if you know me, you know that I usually loath anything directed towards this teen audience, because it usually sucks.

I am not getting into Twilight bashing or anything, since I actually liked Eclipse, but I find it fascinating how young girls or women can love it so much.

It’s not the vampire thing, since I don’t see these same people running out and watching Near Dark, 30 Days of Night, or the black and white Dracula movies from Universal, so it must be the whole romance thing.

Ok, so that’s a duh, I knew it was for that. Bella must choose between two different hot guys, one is a werewolf and the other is a vampire – of course their bad-boy image has something to do with it, but they aren’t too bad. Jacob doesn’t writhe in agony when he transforms into a wolf, and Edward doesn’t produce grotesque fangs or experience flesh melting in the sun. So they are the “nice” bad-boys – which is a female fantasy I suppose.

I don’t much care about any of that – if they have that fantasy, then that’s fine. Let them have it. What I find interesting though is that Bella is in high school and no one in the films, including her useless father, ever talks about grades.

I mean these films are basically saying that girls are only complete if they have a boyfriend. Maybe Bella should drop both of those fags and concentrate on studying and getting into a good school so she can have a career. I thought that’s what the woman’s rights movement was all about – equality - not crying over a boy.

It’s funny that little girls take to the series also, which is teaching them that they must acquire a boyfriend in high school to be somebody. Maybe they should be taught that doing their school work is what is important and that leads to a good job and a future in society.

I am all for love, and as I said I am not trying to bash Twilight. A responsible parent will tell their child that this is just a movie and they shouldn’t even be watching it unless they have finished all their homework.

One good thing about Twilight is that fact that teens are actually reading the books. I encourage reading, since I myself find it hard to do (unless it’s comics) but if teens are going to read, then give them something better!

In any case, the movies also depict battered women in the form of the werewolf’s wives. The leader’s wife was once attacked by him and he almost tore her face off, yet she remains with him. Hmm, I thought if you are beaten by a man, you should leave? I guess not if you really love him though – great lesson guys.

I am not saying that this is focused on, but I cannot help but notice it and how it’s very glossed over.

Whatever, just getting some thoughts out of the way, and maybe it’s all explained in the books – something that I have been repeatedly told – well I don’t care about the books, I am reviewing what I saw in the film!

In any case, I don’t see anything that wrong with Twilight and as I said, it falls to the parents to deal with this kind of thing. I mean I watched horror films at a young age and I don’t think killing is right, so obviously young girls can watch Twilight and view it a simple love story, but I sometimes wonder if the parents are seeing what I see and if they were seeing what I see would they allow their kids to watch it?

J-Man.

I HAVE THE POWER!

Everything I know about life I learned from He-Man.

By Jason Pluscec (aka J-Man)

Introduction.

So everyone pretty much knows that I love Masters of the Universe. I collected the toys as a child and I am currently collecting them as a grown up child. My love of He-Man began when the toys first came out. I was the target age group and my mom worked at The Eatons Center which was the biggest store in Ontario – maybe Canada, at the time at least. So one day my mom brought home He-Man and Beastman, I immediately fell in love with the characters and just as luck would have it (or as Mattel had planned), a cartoon was also out at the same time so I could see these characters come to life on the small screen. My love of He-Man began there and it never ended.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

I am Adam. Prince of Eternia. Defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull. I won’t bore you with the rest of it, but everyone remembers that opening! Well the story of the show began with Mattel, the toy company. They wanted to produce some toys targeted towards boys that had science fiction, action and fantasy all mixed together. Rumours at the time suggested that He-Man was actually supposed to be Conan, but apparently Conan was too violent for kids (which he definitely is) so they retooled him into He-Man. This of course was never really confirmed, but Mattel at the time knew that they had to have a cartoon to go with the toy line to get kids pumped up!

Enter Filmation. They were willing to produce the show, but they wanted to make a kids show that was fun and entertaining, Mattel on the other hand, wanted the show to sell toys. This was a standard technique used by everyone (Silver Hawks, Thundercats, Transformers, GI Joe etc). But Filmations first priority was to tell stories.

Whatever the case, this mixture produced an amazing effect, because you could watch the cartoon and then go and buy the toys of your favourite characters, which in my case, turned out to be everyone.

Of course the brilliance was that with each new episode or season, they would introduce more guys and then you’d have to buy those toys. In a great marketing decision they decided produce She-Ra – targeted towards girls. He-Man’s twin sister fought against the evil Horde – led by Hordak – who was oddly enough, packaged with He-Man toyline, not She-Ra. That was even more brilliant because if girls wanted to have She-Ra fight Hordak, they would have to buy He-Man toys and boys who wanted Hordak to fight She-Ra had to buy her toys. So basically you had cross promotion all over the place and business was good!

This eventually led to more cartoons, The New Adventures of He-Man and more toys, then a 2001 Cartoon, which had more toys and then Staction figures (figures that don’t move – so they are basically statues in the size of a figure), then finally Mattel decided to introduce the Masters of the Universe Classics line directed to old school collectors like me and through all that I have never wavered. He-Man rocks.

Life Lessons.

Next I’d like to share a few life lessons that revolve around He-Man – and when I say He-Man I really mean the Masters of the Universe Figures, or MOTU Figures, not necessarily He-Man the character. From now on I will refer to the toy line as MOTU, and I am only going to discuss the vintage line – the one from the 80s that we all know.

A Pocket-full of Clawful.

Clawful was a cool toy. He was red and had a big claw arm! He was basically a lobster – most MOTU figures were animals or something. And as a child I would carry him around in my back pocket.

So one day my grandfather and I went to visit one of his friends, and I took Clawful around as usual. And on the way back I put him in my back pocket as I always did. When I got back home I checked my back pocket and he was gone. I had lost one of my favourite toys! I was very upset and that day I learned that if you care about something, you don’t carry it around with you all over the place and you make sure you take care of your possessions.

The next day I actually ended up finding a Tygra Figure (from Thundercats) and since there wasn’t any lost and found (in a parking lot where there was no one around) I kept him and learned that when something is lost, something new can always be found.

Battle-Armor Birthday.

So my friend was having a birthday party. He was a good friend but I had never been to his house before, so I was excited to go over. I had gotten him Battle-Armor He-Man for his birthday. And when I say “I” I mean my mom of course, and I was excited to give it to him as his gift. See I never even had BA He-Man myself, so this was a real treat for my buddy, because I wasn’t feeling envious of him getting something I didn’t have.

So I get there and he isn’t home. That’s right; the kid who invited me to his birthday wasn’t home! He was at some other guy’s house and was hanging out. His mother said I could go there and visit, but I wasn’t going to some random kid’s house. And my mom wasn’t about to let me! So we went back home and I was pretty upset. My mom ended up giving me BA He-Man to try and cheer me up, which it did of course, but I learned how people aren’t reliable all the time and that sometimes you’ll get let down.

Sadly this happens more today than back then.

I know by now you all think I was some spoiled brat kid who got whatever he wanted and it’s mostly true – hahaha - but you’re just jealous!

But honestly, I wasn’t. I never got any of the big stuff, like Nintendo, sports equipment or even a kick ass bike – I had a bike of course but it wasn’t amazing or anything. I actually only cared about He-Man. Remember, think of all the different stuff you wanted as a kid – or now even, clothes, bikes, sports, toys etc. I was never into sports, which costs parents thousands of dollars, so He-Man was definitely not that expensive. I mean what’s a $5.00 figure when you’re kid plays hockey and skates cost hundreds and hockey leagues cost even more! I mean I never cared about anything else but He-Man, superheroes and Star Wars! I was a cheap kid to please!

Stealing Skeletor.

Here’s one I am not proud of. My “friend” I use that term as loosely as possible, since he is responsible for stealing and destroying most of me He-Man figures, stole Battle Armor Skeletor from this other kid. He ended up hiding the stolen goods at my place, and me being stupid agreed to it. So this kid and his mom came to my door and asked me if I had Skeletor. I told them I didn’t, in my mind I was holding it for my “friend” so I felt ok saying I didn’t have it. It was a lie and I knew it.

I’m not gonna say that I thought I was in the right, I was wrong and I knew it back then. And this “friend” of mine had been stealing stuff from kids before, and this time he decided to including me in his scheme, which I didn’t like. I was stupid to go along with it, but he was my “friend”. That being said when my “friend” came back for the stolen Skeletor I told him I didn’t have it and that I gave it back.

He called me a loser for giving the toy back to the kid he stole it from, but I was much smarter than that. I had kept it for myself. I guess in a way I thought I was teaching my “friend” a lesson and I got a free Battle Armor Skeletor! Which I still have to this day! And yes I did go back later and tell that friend that I had his Skeletor and offered to give it back, which amounted to nothing, since he didn’t even like He-Man figures, he just wanted to catch my “friend” in the act of stealing, and he ended up letting me keep the Skeletor anyway! So even though I wasn’t honest at first, I still made right by that kid and he ended up letting me keep Skeletor anyway!

But I did feel really bad about the initial lie and I have never done anything like that again!

The Stratos Affair.

Stratos was always one of my favourite characters in the MOTU line. I always wanted him but never got him as a kid. So my other friend, who will remain nameless, decided to trade me his Stratos for some of my other non MOTU toys. I ended up giving him Green Lantern (Super Powers toyline) and Hulk (the smaller Mego toy version). So I got Stratos and was very happy. Right away I started playing with Stratos and I was always very careful when playing with my toys. But the next day during play Stratos’ leg suddenly broke off!

MOTU figures have small rubber bands connecting the legs, and they could be broken if not handled properly, and this friend knew this figure was about to break so he traded it to me in order to pawn off a figure – a con artist at 10 years old!!! I wasn’t gonna stand for it. So I go back to his place the next day and found that he wasn’t there.

He and his family had MOVED! He traded me the day before he moved, knowing Stratos would break and I would lose 2 of my other toys. Well that just sucked and I learned about how shitty some people are, and they are willing to take advantage of you. Let the buyer beware – that was that days lesson.

However, I also learned about friendship. That same day my real friend, Victor, ended up giving me his Stratos because he felt bad for me. I still have that Stratos to this day, and I subsequently replaced the Hulk and Green Lantern in my older age, so there!

There are actually more stories, but I figure you’ve all had enough. This is one of the few posts I have done that tell you about myself, which I think was the initial point of blogging but somehow got lost.

In any case I just wanted to share some stories about He-man and my love for it to maybe give some understanding of myself and why I sometimes view these simple toys, as more than just that, they are memories, and they really serve as a souvenir of memories, rather than just junk that others would throw away. I can still remember how I got each and every He-Man figure I own and they all hold a special place in my heart.

Until next time.