London 2012 Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was very cool. I started watching it during the Shakspeare part. 

Unfortunately, I don't know what "age" that was--I started watching too late.*  But after this "age"* (I'm going to call it the Peasant Age) came the "Industrial Age."*

I couldn't help but think of the One Ring...y'know:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.**

Or something like that. It's not like I'm the only one to think that--there are plenty more Lord of the Rings fans out there, right? 

Erm...moving on.

Of course, one can't forget the little kids on the hospital beds!

And then there were nightmares. Whether all the kids supposed to be having them or just one little girl, I am unclear.  But there were nightmares. 

And then the ever-fantastic/fabulous/amazing Mary Poppins came!  No nightmare can stick around her for long!

Read the books.  Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers is the first one.

Anyway, somewhere along there the opening ceremony slipped into the Digital Age.*  There was a kid with a Nintendo:

And dancing.  There was dancing.  Alot of dancing.  It was rather strange.

Yup.  Dancing.  And it wasn't just during the Digital Age.*  The men in top hats danced...

Taking off their hats was apparently a favorite move. 

The children danced...

The nurses danced...

And I don't even know who these people are supposed to be, but look, they're dancing!

Moving on.  The music was very "thumpy."*

Now, I can't remember exactly where this stuff came in, but among the many epic things that happened in the opening ceremony, there was the enterence of the queen. 

Some enterence, huh?

And of course, Rowan Atkinson!!!

He's the actor of Mr. Bean, peoples.  He rocks. 

And then the lighting of the Olympic torch...wow.  I mean, just...wow. 

This post is getting pretty long, so I'm going to stop here. 

Peace. 

*The channel I was watching (NBC) narrated the ceremony. That's where I get the "ages" thing (and the names of the different ages) from.  They also referred to the music as "thumpy."
**The Lord of the Rings: Part I: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien



Loki and Thrawn are Related!

Loki is the antagonist in both Thor and The Avengers.  Both films are Marvel.  Currently, Thor is streaming on Netflix and The Avengers may or may not be still in theaters.  Loki is a Frost Giant who was adopted by the Asgardian king and queen, Odin and Frigga.  Loki is referred to as the god of mischief and lies.  Though normally he looks Asgardian (and the Asgardians look human) in certain circumstances (I believe it's touching something that came from the Frost Giant homeland of Jotunhiem) Loki returns to his Frost Giant coloring.

Thrawn, also known as Mitth'raw'nuruodo, is a character invented by Timothy Zahn.  He is of the Chiss species, and serves as the antagonist in many of Zahn's Star Wars works.  Thrawn is a brilliant military strategist and is rather eccentric (and very cool) in that he predicts his enemies moves through studying art: the art of their species and the art the opponent in question prefers. 

Now for some pictures of Thrawn: 

And now for some pictures of Loki:

And here is where you say: what's the big deal?  They're both antagonists, and they both have black hair. So?
The big deal is, Loki looks like an Asgardian in the pictures I've shown you so far.  Want to know what a Frost Giant looks like?

Blue skin.  Red eyes.  And black hair. 

And yes, Thrawn looks like a normal Chiss.  Here are some pictures of other Chiss if you don't believe me. 

So, let's recap.  Both Thrawn and Loki (in their normal forms) have blue skin, red eyes, black hair, and are antagonists.  Another thing to consider is that both could be deemed rather manipulative.

See, they're related!